The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-22 00:00:00

STOURBRIDGE OBSERVES

—The magistrate said that the beet thing he could d i
w.s to remand her for a week, in order that she mitht
receive the benefit of the religious ministrations of the
chaplain.

After the prisoner bad been removed, a person,
who said that his flume was Walker, and that he
' was a gentleman living upon his property, applied
th it the prisoner micht be admitted to bail,
live magistrate asked upon what grounds.
Toe applicant replied that the circumstances under
which this affair happened were of a very pilaf ul na-
ture. The prisoner was jam, on the point of marriage
with him (api burnt), and the banns had been pub-
lished. Last week, however, she wrote to an old
sweetheart of hers, and he unfortunately got hold of
the letter. She thinking that in consequence of that
he was about to break off with her, purchased the
poison and took it.
The magistrate thought that she was very much to
bo pitied. With regard to the application fur bail,
however, he could not entertain it for a moment, be-
usuve were he to allow her to go free, that would be
undoing all the good he sought to do for her by bring-
ing her to a sense of the great crime she had com-
mitted. He could at once, if he pleas, rt. send her to
take her trial, when in all probability she would be
severely punished.

THE ENE MX.
•. How goes the enemy ?" we c:),
Before we test the warning tinkles
of our chronometer Ind I
Would say how comes the enemy ?"
Then must we answer, with a sigh,
"Advancing parallels of Wrinkles—Punch.

and more dangerous in proportios as they are more im-
poverished ; at a continually increasing expense, which
It will be Impossible to recoup; and—worst of all—by
the Instrumentality ole stern pone'', which must necessarily
prove as formidable to the liberties Si to the euarntom of
every country that adopts it. ills, tattled, an anxious omen
for the future that already even friendly warnings against
such a calamity cannot be tolerated from the mouth of •
German scholar, or In the columns of a German newspar. Sr,
but must flat espresston through the free Press of E.,gland,
and the feeble pen of A HERTFORDSHIRE INCUMBENT.
Oct. 17.

wish to this prohibition ought to think out carefully
before they carry their principles Into action. Is it possible
on any principle which will bear examination to confine the
proposed prohibition to arms or gunpowder? An army re.
unfree other tbinga fr Its, Moloney beetles guns, gunpowder,
and idiot Food, clothing, horse., the means of transit, medical
stores, dm., are all necessaries of warfare Can it reasonably be
male unlawful to trade In some of these things. and remain
basin' to trade in the others? On what principle, it may be
asked, could tho execution of an order by the French or
German Governmenta for any one of the things above
named, directly and avowedly for the use of their armies, be
permitted by our Government if the trade in arms or gun-
powder had been stopped?
I will give a practical Instance of my meaning. I copy
the following statement from The Times of the 8:b of
Oztoher

'stabUsh

Preparations for the whiter.
An immense order has been received In the North of
England for a supply of blankets for the Prussian troops.'
I do not stop to inquire whether this loft rotation is correct.
It is enough for the purpose in band that in the nature of
thing, It might to, so. And I venture to tub whether any
principle of abidract justic3 or of impartial neutrality would
eanction the supply of blankets to succour the Prussians be-
fore Paris if the supply of arms to the French in Perla had
been previously prohibited and stopped?
It Is probable, therefore, that both parties may be in-
terested in the continuance of trade with neutrals on the
name term. as before the war began. If the French want
arms the Lerman, may want other goods of us for their
armies, and, if not of 01, of other neutral nations.
" Nor is there anything in the Intrinsic natare of arms or
gunpowder to impress niyin the trade in them the character
of especial assistance to the belligerents.
" If neutrality is cunprornieed by trade at all, the degree
of its compromise roust depend, not on the abstract nature
of the goods supplied, hut on the amount 01 assistance ac-
corded to the enemy.
'Now, It by no means follows because the busitieem of
fighting is directly done with arms that a eupply of arms
will help • belligerent more at • given moment of the con-
test than that of many other things more innocent in their
nature Food to Paris beleaguered may he more precious
than cannon. lloreee In certain conjuncturer may be more
urgently needed than either. When maritime operations
are in question, coal may decide the fate of an entire fieet.
"The category of prohibitions, therefore, cannot be con-
fined to arms alone—it most be co extensive with the prin-
ciple on which the prohibition is founded Ajad that prin.
dole surely con be no other than this—that Uhl the duty of
neutral State to prohibit its eubjects from directly trading
with either belligerent in anything which he requires for
porpoise of war.
" A very little reflection will show how broad • sweep such
a category would make. Not only the manufactured cannon,
but the bras. or steel Intended for It, manufacture: not only
gunpowder, but the sulphur or nitre destined to make It ;
not only the made-up military clothing, but the cloth or
other material ordered by the foreign Government for the
avowed object of clothing its army—all these would fall
within the prohibition ; and so of all the trades and manu-
factures that go directly or Indirectly to maintain an entire
army In the field-

"Such an Inroad upon neutral trade may well startle us,
and for this reason it behoves us to ponder well the prla-
tkpoit which we propose to act in prohibiting the trade
In arms. .

—'7lsut, again, if all this were conceded, is it quite certa'n
that the demand. of belligerents upon neutral, would stop
there Is it quite visionary to suppose that the doctrines
thus established would be capable of further development/
Experience shows that belligerent countries are not slow to
c 'twelve new grounds of complaint. Let us see, then, bow
far this night be carried, If • neutral State, by merely per-
mitting it. subjects to trade as they did before the war in
any goods which either belligerent may happen to want for
the cat Tying on of hostilities Is Aunty of aiding and a...ling
the one side or the other, what is to be said of any trade
with belligerents at all Trade, it might be argued, is a means
of wealth. Money is 'the sinews of war.' the first
thing a belligerent does, if • maritime Power, is to try
to cripple the trade of his antagonist. Whoever
trades with a belligerent adds to his power and resources.
/101 it may be as helpful to buy goods of him as to sell them
to hint. For instance, If the Confederate ports in the late
American war had not been blocleaded, and the cotton
stored there could have been sold freely to this country, the
Confederates would hare been supplied with means from
which their forces la the field would have tecelved a direct
and powerful impulse. That this impalse woold have come
from England could not have been denied. Indirectly, but
very decidedly, we should have assisted the Confederate
cause. Would our duty as a neutral Power have required
us to ref u e this cotton then, which we so sorely needed ?
Assuredly not. And yet, if we aoquiesce now In the con-
demnation if an otherwise legitimate trade, on the sole
ground that it helps a bellicrent to early on the war, we
shall lay the ground on some futute day for a possible de-
mand upon neutral. that they should give up all trade to
which the same effect can be justly attributed.
" Practically, then, we have for the preservation of our
neutrality to choose between these two rival courses—
firer, that our Legislature should forbid all trade with either
belligerent In any goods required for the purposes of
the war or, second, that we should refuse to interfere
with the ordinary course of trade in favour of either
party. Whichever course we follow It will not operate
es tally on the interests of the two belligerents. Whether
we trade or refuse to trade, It is scarcely possible
in the nature ot things that the two belligerents
should be rectally rffecied If, who wants arms or
other goods of us will suffer If we ref tie them his antago-
nist will suffer If we supply them. Nothing that a neutral
nation can it in reference to trade will render it. conduct
equally favourable to the 'Merest.. of two belligerents, who
have different wants and requirements, different pecuniary
means, and different resources of their own. A refusal to
trade would ilo nothing towards achieving • real neutrality;
it we tild favour one side to the detriment of the other, and
It moat set out upon a principle capable of being pushed
to the point of destroying trade with beillgerei is altogether
" rut , ifect of trading as usual in arms as well as other
things would in like manner be probably more beneficial to
one of the contending parties than to the other. In many
instal ces the trade watt other neutral nations would restore
the b lance. But whether It did so or not there would be
this rardinal advantage obtained —that the benefit to be
reaped by the one side or the other would be due to no act
or intervention of the neutral Legislature or Government,
but would arise only in the natural course of trade lett to

i venture, therefore, to question the Propriety of Potting
any check on the free course of trade, wht Vier in arms or
auythii g else, on She score of neutrality. Our attempts at
spec id le.islation for the preeervatiou of eurneutrality have
not hitherto been crowned with complete success. The
Voreign Eulistment Acts, framed to prevent hostile espedl.
U.., whether military or naval, from lining organised in
this country have brought almost as many troubles upon tut
ati they were designed to avoid. I do not mean to affirm that
all such legislation could be a voided, but experience hush, wn
that it. limit, should be carefully watched. To extend such
provisions to mere buyitig and selling lutheordinary course
of trade would be to antsr upon new ground, and ,men a field
dangerously 1. ides lam not unaware of the difficulty created
be three acts of succeuf•illy draehig the line between the
fitting out of an oval expedition and the mere sale • f • ship
designed f, war, Init the existence of these difficulties
',Medd make us rather chary than otherwise of tatirg
another step forward ana obliteratit g the brie altogether
Moreover, it is the epeeist evil of all such laws that belli-
gerents are Apt to give a wide range to our obligati.e under
them, net to take a very limited view of our efforts to put
them nt Toe. If applied to any considerable branches el
trade, these restrictive laws would lead to endless evasion
by our subjects and complaint. ati excliens by foreign
floveniments, If such legielation, therefore, is not colic I
for by our duty as a neutral Power, the policy of acceptiug it
on any lower groubil is very qnestionable.
" These reflections are conceive I in no spirit hostile to
the German cause We may learn from our own sensitive-
ness when at war how pr.•mpt a belligerent is to complain
Meanwhile, genuine neutrality is cold, and is likely to mini
little favour In the eyes of those heated by contest. 1101 11
we cannot satisfy others we ought at least BO to act as to
satisfy our.ef.e, 11.1 whichever side English sympathy rosy
range Itself there is, I believe, a string desire on all site.
that our neutrality anould be real and our conduct impartial
Ills the honest wish to ac: up to our duties io this matter
winch has found expression In a call for prohibiting the
trade in arms. But before we take measures to enforce neu-
trality, ill, well to di-cuss and determine In what or utrality
really consists. The considerations which I have endea-
voured to lay open have • proper place in such a discussion,
and to this end I have ventured to submit them to the public
through your columns."