The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-24 00:00:00

PP-

11) Ut Trinbna Carrtspearnt,

[we deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opin.ions.]

Only a few days before her Majesty attaining the
60th year of her age, the Court Circular—the record
of the movements of the Queen and the Royal family—
announced that the Queen had received the gratifying
intelligence of the birth of her first great grandchild,
the happy mother being the eldest daughter of our
Princess Royal. Considering that many now living
can remember her Majesty's coronation, forty-one
years ago, when with the weight of her State robes in
the Abbey, her loyal people earnestly hoped that these
would be the heaviest load she would ever have to bear
—the announcement already referred to set many
thinking over the changes wrought by Time and by
the operation of unalterable laws. If there are many
who can recollect the Coronation, a much larger pro-
portion can carry their minds back to the month of
January, 1853, when the wedding of the Princess
Royal, then only seventeen years and two
months old, took place. In Mr. Theodore
Martin's interesting biography of the Prince
Consort; his eldest daughter is familiarly called
"Vicky," a corruption of Victoria, the first Christi:4l
name of her Royal Highness. The Princess was only
thirty-eight last November; and those who still think
of her as she drove through the streets of London in
the midst of a snowstorm on the 3rd of February,
1858, when ehe left her old home for her new one, can
scarcely fancy the young and tearful girl of that day
the grandmother of this. It is only one-and-twenty
years ago; yet wfiat changes have happened in a space
of time which is but a mere speck in the history of a
State!

Preparations for celebrating Her Majesty's birth.

day have this year been made on an unusually ex-
tensive scale. In London, the principal event is
the time-honoured parade of detachments of the
Horse Guards in St. James's Park, that is—so far as the
daylight is concerned. Although the English people
are not so fond of military display as the French or the
Germans, such a ceremony as that of "trooping the
colours" en the Queen's birthday is always certain to
attract a large number of spectators, more especially
when it is known that the Prince and Princess of
Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the

Duke and Duchess of Teck, and other members of

the Royal Family are to be present. The Park and
- the Tower guns are each to boom forth over the
metropolis, the number of years of her Majesty's age,
each gun being supplied with sixty rounds of blank
cartridge. There will be numerous gatherings of
volunteers in and around the metropolis, grand
banquets will in the evening be given by her Majesty's
ministers and the great officers of State, and
the west-end is to be brilliantly illuminated. For-
tunately on this occasion there will be little or
no moonlight to interfere with the illuminations,
aa -there was some years ago. A. day is always
set apart by the Privy Council for the official
observance of the Queen's birthday, and although
this year the day happens to• be the exact
date, this is a very exceptional experience, and some-
times, as in 1877, the celebration runs into the first
Saturday in June. But in 1874 it was on the 30th of
May, when the moon was at its full, and as it happened
to be a fine night, the nocturnal luminary shone full
upon the crowded streets, blotting out the effect of
many elaborate devices. Astronomers tells us that
the moon is -nothing but a burnt-out cinder flying
through space, shining upon this world with a
borrowed light, as evidenced by the cold and spiritless
nature of her rays. But on the occasion referred to,
• of whatever quality the moonbeams might be, they
were certainly effectual in eclipsing what would other-
wise have been very bright illuminations.. These
require darkness to show them off to the best advan-
tage, and this advantage they will now have.
The work of benevdience and charity is assisted in
may ways, and in one very efficient manner by
noblemen with large town mansions, throwing them
open in the London season for the holding of meetings
to further the progress of this or that particular cause.
The lord of the mansion issues cards of invitation to as

many persons as his drawing room will accommodate,
the visitors generally having the privilege ot going
over the house at the close of the business. Such a
place, for instance, as GrGavenor House, the residence
of the Duke of Westminster ; or Dudley House, the
mansion cf Lord Dudley, both of which are in Park.
lane, are really well worth seeing, if -only for what
they contain in things beautiful in art and costly in
material. Only a few days ago a numerous and dis-
tinguished company assembled at Grosvenor House at
the invitation of the Duke of Westminster, on the
occasion of the annual meeting of the Royal Associa-
tion in aid of the Deaf and Dumb. The chair was taken
by Prince Leopold, and here it may be remarked
that his Royal Highness has presided at several gather-
ings of this kind of late, always taking care to make
himself thoroughly and Practically acquainted with the
merits of the institution whose cause he has undertaken

0 advocate. An interesting feature of the meeting
• was the translation of the proceedings to the deaf and
dumb inmates of the asylum, many of whom were
present, by the chaplain. The presence of the Queen's
youngest sm at this assembly was another instance of
the readiness shown by the members of the Royal
family to assist in works with a charitable end in
view. Only on the previous day the Princess of

Wales, accompanied by her brother the Crown Prince
of Denmark, journeyed in the midst of cold wind and
driving rain to the Riding School at Knightsbridge,
for the purpose of opening a bazaar in aid of the
Welbeck-street Hospital for Paralysis. The name of
the Duchess of Teck, the Princess Mary Adelaide of
Cambridge, is associated with more than one praise-
worthy organization; and when the Princess Louise
was in England, she was ever ready to lend her help
to the prosecution of similar enterprises.
Meanwhile a work is in progress in the West of
England which will be assisted, or, at least, its in. __ _

auguration will be graced by the presence of a member
of the Royal family who has not of late been much
amongst us. A new Eddystone lighthouse is to be
conitrueted, and the Duchess of Edinburgh, as the
wife of the Master of the Trinity House, will lay the
foundation stone, weather permitting. Not that
Smeaton's famous work, which has raised its head
above the storm•tossed waters for nearly a century,
shows any signs of insecurity; it is as firmly braced in
the rocks now as upon the first night when its gleam.
big flame was first flung out upon the troubled waves,.
But the truth is that the rock upon which it stands
Inas been undermined by the action of the sea; and
thus, while the lighthouse is as safe as ever it was, the
rock is, in the opinion of competent authorities, no
longer so. The shipmasters and those who do busi-
• ness in great waters• do not wish this warning light
in the great highway. of the Channel to disappear

amid the angry surgea of the sea, nor are they anxious
for the fulfilment of that which is written in the
scriptures, where in the parable we are told thAt "the
rains descended, and the winds blew, and the floods
came, the house fell, and the ruin of that house was
great." Anew lighthouse is therefore to be constructed on
an adjacent rock forming a part of the same terrible
reef, and it has been estimated that the tides will suit
On the 21st of June for laying the first stone. An
unusually high tide will be followed by an Unusually
low one, leaving the dreaded reef several feet clear of
water, and with fine weather every circumstance will
be favourable for the performance of the ceremony by
the Duchess of Edinburgh. As the Eddystone rocks
are about fourteen miles south of Plymouth, and in
the very midst of the troubled waters of the English

Channel, the surroundings of this ceremonial will be
of no common character or interest.

One of her Majesty's recent visitors has been the

Empress of Germany, cr as the court newsman describes
her;. the Empress-Queen. It is not often that the

Empress Augusta comes to this country. The
mention of her name recalls the series of historical

events in wh:ch the chief personages of the German

Empire took part nine years ago, the Empress
being always the first recipient of the intel-
ligence of those mighty political changes which then
took place upon the Continent. This was one of
them :—" King William to Queen Augusta.—Metz
has capitulated, with three marshals, 66 generals,
173,000 men, and 3,000 guns. This is one of the
most important eyents of the month." One would
think so! Such a capitulation was never heard of in
the world's history before, and the quiet way in which
the Prussian monarch treated an occurrence so stu-
pendous, gave an air of quaintness to the telegram
which was the subject of much comment at the time.
Less than a month afterwards the King of Prussia,
who had taken up his quarters in the Palace of Ver-
sailles, the luxurious residence of the old French
kings., was proclaimed Emperor of Germany. The
empire of France had passed away and that of the
Teutonic power had risen upon its ashes. A single
decade has Incieed wrought extraordinary changes upon
the Continent Of Europe. Less than ten years ago—it
was in the winter of 1869—the Empress Eugenie
made a triumphal progress through the East, when
she went to open the Suez Canal. At that time
France was not shut out from a glimpse of the
coveted Rhine, nor had her boundaries been pushed
back to the Moselle.
The recollections of Easter are scarcely out of our
minds before Whitsuntide is close upon us, and both
Lords and Commons have already arranged for their
holidays, As the Lords are never much pressed with
business until the closing weeks of the session, they
can take lengthened vacations without any injury to
the progress of public affairs, but the Commons are
not in this position, for in some sense they keep the
Lords going by keeping them supplied with bills. Thus
At comes to path that the recesses at Easter and
ttAf.SII3EiLAZiI LtatOtht.) u4A. :

Whitsuntide are, no far as the Lower House is con- •
cerned, briefer than those in the Upper—ten days at
Easter, and eleven at Whitsuntide. Thereafter there
will be .rto more until the prorogation, which
will bring the sixth session of the ninth Parliament of
Queen Victoria to a close.
Mighty changes have come over the relations be-
tween Parliament and the Press since the days when
the breach of privilege involved in publishing the
debates was punished by heavy penalties in money, or
perhaps in extreme cases visited with imprisonment.
Long and chequered was the conflict, but in the end
the Press prevailed, as was plainly enough perceptible
when in the new Houses of Parliament a special gallery
was provided for the accommodation of the reporters.
Even now, however, though being placed over the
Speaker's chair, where the right hon. gentlemen can-
not see them—for no stranger is allowed to take a note
in the full view of the Speaker's eye—there is still a Par-
liamentary fiction that there is no publication A f the de-
bates. When newspapers wereexpensive, and there were
not the same facilities for obtaining intelligence which
now exist, the debates in both Houses wero accus-
tomed to be reported at very great length; but the
Penny Press has revolutionised the clam of journal now
offered to the public, and it Is now no uncommon
occurrence for five or six hours of Parliamentary
debate to be put into half a column. The House of
Commons, seeing the diminished length at which its
proceedings are chronicled, last year appointed a
committee to decide whether, amongst other things, it
was expedient to have an official report of the debates,
and, after a full and careful inquiry, a decision in the
negative has been arrived at.
The meets of the Coaching Cliib and the Four-in-
Hand Club are incidents of the London season which
attract to Hyde Park enormous numbers of spectators.
Sometimes, on a fine day, five-and-twenty or thirty
coaches will assemble at the Powder Magazine, and as
each is drawn by four horses the spectacle is a very
animated one. Occasionally the Prince of Wales is
seen on the box of the leading coach, and as the
cavalcade files slowly away to Twickenham or to
Richmond, to Sydenham or to the Alexandra Palace,
hearty are the cheers of the multitude. The
'opening meet of the Coaching Club was marred
by the inclement weather. It (lid seem hard,
after a six months' winter, that in the middle
of May the elements should have been so unpro-
pitious over the only meet of.this sort which had taken
place in Hyde Park since last July, but all that could
be done was to hope for better fortune next time. As
snow fell from the Bth of November, at intervals which
were not unfrequent, until the 7th of May, half the
year was represented by the winter, and thus the
old and time-honoured division of the year into four
quarters, of three months each is, BO far as this
season is concerned, open to considerable amendment.