The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-03 00:00:00

diurOon torrtspanbtut.

Me deem it right to state that we do not at all times
tdentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Special and exceptional circumstances have this
year combined to make the celebration of her
Majesty's birthday in London of a somewhat more
general charactee than has been the case for some years
past. The real date is the 24th of May; but the rule
is to appoint an early Saturday after that day for the
ezinmemoration, because then great numbers of the
population take holiday, and come out in thousands in
the evening to witness the illuminations. The time
also fixed with reference to the course of the moon, for
bright clear moonlight would mar the effect of the
most elaborate devices and the most brilliant trans-
parencies. On the present occasion there was no
moonlight to speak of; and both in the City and at the
Wee-end the scene was a very effective one. More
particularly was this the case in the city, and in the
neighbourhood of the Mansion House and the Guild-
hall, for the Lord Mayor had asked tho citizens not to
Illuminate on the Prince of Wales's Civic visit, when
comparatively few people would be about, but to do
so on the Queen's birthday, when, by combining the
two events the demonstration could be made much
more successful and complete. A Saturday night of
this kind in the West-end is one of much interest
and animation. Her Majesty's principal Ministers
and the great officers of State give grand full
dress banquets, the Government Offices are lighted
In, the fronts of the clubs in Pall Mall are
all ablaze, and the tradesmen who have the honour of
mounting the Royal arms over their doorways illumi-
nate freely. The streets are crowded, for the queen's
birthday and that of the Prince of Wales on the 9th
of November are ordinarily the only times in the year
when displays of this kind are made in the metropolis.
When exceptional events arise, such as the marriage ef
the Prince of Wales on the 10th March, 1863, and the
Thanksgiving for his recovery from a dangerous illness
on the 27th February, 1872, the crush at the illumina-
tions is at some points terrific and even dangerous,
more especially in the narrow thoroughfares of the
City. The irresistible pressure of a human wave is
then felt with a force which can only be realised by
those who have experienced it.
Whitsuntide is close upon us, and so far as Parlia-
ment is concerned, noble lords and honourable gentle-
men are preparing for the brief vacation which the
season brings. It is not a long one this time—ten days
or so for the Lords and a week for the Commons, for
the Easter Recess was not so very long ago, when the
Upper House had three weeks and the lower a fort-
night. On reassembling after Whitsuntide there are no
more holidays of any sort or kind until the final
break-up and prorogation, which generally comes
about the second week in August, From the second
week in June therefore until that time, nothing
but work is before our legislators, and more labour is
performed in Parliament during those two months
than in all the rest of the session. What are called
morning eittings will now very soon begin—that is to
say, the Government besides being in possession of
their own two nights a week—Monday and Thursday—
will encroach upon the hours of private members on
Tuesday and Friday, and as the session advances
Wednesday also is annexed by Ministers. Then, as
time goes on, you will at last find the House sitting
on a Saturday afternoon, so that all the live-long week
Is thus devoted to the public business. E verything
must then give way to the work of the Administration,
for it is deemed more important to pass the Appropri-
ation Act embodying the votes in supply for the Army,
the Navy, and the Civil Service than to discuss any
grievance which may be brought forward by private
members.

It seems now a "far cry" back to December, 1872,
but the return of the Challenger from her leng voyage
round the world reminds us that, starting within a few
days of Christmas :n that year, the ships has been
just three years and five months in exploring the dif-
ferent seas upon the surface of the globe. The ques-
tion is not so much where she has been as where
she has not been. She has sailed over the
stormy crests of the Atlantic, has been a
mere speck amid the boundless solitudes of
the Pacific, has ploughed the way over the tideles4
waves of the Mediterranean, and haslbrought us home
information of the marine life to be found in mighty
depths amid the glowing waters which wash the shores
at the equator. The explorers can tell us what kind
of crustacea may be expected to exist in those parts of
the vast Pacific where the ocean is five miles deep
Three years and a half of this life must have im-
pressed them with such an idea of the grandeur,
the immensity, and the power of the sea as,
probably, no body of scientific men ever gathered
before. There is no more graphic or expressive
description of the passing away of created
things than the single sentence of the Apostle
John, when he wrote in the Isle of Patmos : "And
there was no more sea !" It contains a great deal in a
very little compass ; for the destruction of the watery
mantle by which the earth is enfolded conveys an
infinitely greater meaning than the fall of mountains
and of hills, or the dissolution of cloud-capped towers
and gorgeous palaces.
The plucky little Pandora starts for the north
with the best wishes of all, that her voyage may be
attended with every success. She goes as the bearer
of thousands of kindly messages and affectionate
greetings for the gallant band of arcti 3 navigators who
left our shores just twelve months ago. A well-
selected store of periodicals and a considerable
number of the newspapers of the day will also be
borne to the frozen seas in order that the explorers
may see what is passing in the busy world which they
left behind them. It will be remembered that the
Pandora brought despatches from the Arctic expedi-
tion last August, and in the place where these had
been deposited, left letters and newspapers for the
sturdy band of Britons on board the Alert and the
Discovery. Since that time, nearly ten months ago,
the doings upon the animated globe have been a
thorough blank to them, and only those who have
undergone such a divorce from all terrestrial affairs
can estimate the joy with which the "good news from
home" will be received by the wanderers in those
Illimitable solitudes of the North. August is very
likely to be upon us again before the officers and crews
of the two Arctic ships get the packets which are to be
carried up by the Pandora, and then another year
must elapse before they can hear again. It is, of
course, understood that the men in the relief ship will
see nothing of the Arctic navigators. What the latter
have to send to England will be carefully deposited
on a spot previeusly agreed upon, and about which
there can be no mistake, the Pandora acting upon the
same principle. Each knows were to find what the
other has left. The despatches from the Arctic
ships will be as interesting as anything we have read
In our times. The matter will be a strong contrast to
the surroundings that accompanied the Prince of
Wales's tour through India, but will be none the less
welcome on that account.
The favourable change in the weather which fol-
lowed the disappearance of the east wind, has hada most
beneficial effect upon the agricultural prospects of the
country. Piercing blasts by day and keen frosts by
night had nipped the tender shoots, and the rays of
the sun had literally baked the thirsty ground. The
land was hard and cracked; and not only in our own
country but in France, Belgium, and the South of
Russia, frosts and east winds were doing almost irre-
parable damage amongst the young crops. Suddenly
the wind went round to the south and the south-west
and the surface of the soil, within a few hours, seemed
to have passed under the wand of a magician.
The drooping crops revived under the influence of
genial showers and balmy air, the fissures in the
earth closed up, and the clouds of hot dust, stifling
and oppressive as they were, disappeared. Trees and
shrubs lost their injurious coating of dust, the young
leaves pecarce green and healthy, and even the cattle
had thiir shaggy coats cleansed from the unhealthy
particles of blinding dust whirled over the fields
by the easterly wind. The alteration, though
long delayed, has not come too late. An old proverb
tells u.s that a late spring bringeth a good harvest.
Let us hope so in the present instance. Gro ming
showers and June sunshine will remove all spore.
hensions caused by the long prevalence of unfavourable
winds. At all events the reports from the Continent
are now encouraging; all the crops have improved
tender the agreeable change in the weather, and the
prospects of the agriculturists, at no time during the
present year, have never been so bright as they are
now. The effect of the opportune veering round of the
Wind has been already apparent in the home and
foreign markets. The wind, we are told in Holy Writ,
bloweth where it listeth," but to mortal and erring
instincts it seems strange that while a breeze from one
cardinal point should pass over the land like a wither-
ing blight, a mere shifting from east to south should
revive the face of Nature, and be a source of
culable wealth to the cultivators of the soil.
The expedition to Lake Nyassa, which has sailed
within the last few days in the good ship Windsor
Castle, has the sympathies of all who believe in the
soundness of the doctrine taught by Livingstone—
that in Africa commerce must march side by
side with Christianity. He believed that the
great cause of the slave trade could never be
got rid of unless another was introduced in its stead.
The two primary wants of the negro are cotton cloth
and beads, and in order to obtain these he is prepared
to sell his own wife and children, or to kidnap those of
othrs. He has no other way of procuring the luxuries
for which he craves, and possessing no facilities for
dispoiing of the produce of his fields and forests, natu-
rally resorts te —key, safe, and lucrative process of
a 'very numerous population in

easy

kidnapping. There in

meal.