The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-05 00:00:00

lJg ur rem gorrtsponbest
deem it right to state that we do not at all UM
Meat* euraalirsus with our earreapeadeht's opinions.'

It certainly cannot be said that the public interest
n the affairs of South Africa is at all diminishing.
The news brought by each sueoessive mail is anxiously
anticipated and eagerly perused; and as time goes on
the interest in the question will increase rather than
diminish. The first of the reinforcementis which left
England on the 19th February—eight days after the
receipt of the intelligence of the disaster at Isandula—
would have arrived at the Cape long before now.
They included the Yighlanders and the 80th Rifles.
and both regiments have made their names famous in
our military history. It has been a misfortune at such
a crisis that a space of two months must necessarily
Intervene between the sending of a despatch from
the Colonial Office in London to Sir Bartle Frere
and the receipt of his reply. South Africa was the only
Important British possession not connected with the
mother-land by telegraph, which long ago brought India
and Australia into such close communication with
us; and as ill-luck would have it, a war with a fierce
tribe of rude barbarians broke out there. It is how-
ever, satisfactory to know that the Eastern Telegraph
Company, have concluded arrangements with the
Government for laying the cables to the Cape which
shall place it on a level with our other important
dependencies so far as telegraphic facilities are con-
cerned. The first ship will sail right away to Natal,
and will commence to lay the cable towards Mozam-
bique. Other vessels will join her, and, taking their
several sections of wire, will make a complete line to
Aden, where it will join the Eastern Telegraph system,
which communicates directly with India, China,
Australia, &c. Time and distance will then be practi-
cally annihilated so far as the sending or receiving of a
message is concerned, which vitally effects the interests
of the colonists in South Africa.

The debates in both Lord and Commons have
testified to the attention which has been bestowed upon
this important subject. The peers never take so long
to dispose of anything as is occupied by the representa-
tives of the people ; and with them a debate of one

night is generally sufficient to deal with a topic • over
, which the lower chamber spends three or four. One
reason for this is the considerably smaller attendance
in the Upper House; another unqestionably is the
absence in the Lords of that direct responsibility to the
nation which is felt in the House of Commons. The
difference is just this, the members of the one assembly
are the creations of the Crown,-.and those belonging to
the other owe their seats to the rfople. Practically there
is nolimit to the power of the SoTereign over the number
of peers that may be added, to the Upper House.
For instance, it is a matter of history that, on the 7th
of May, 1832, William IV. at Windsor Castle,
"granted to Earl Grey and to his Chancellor, Lord
Brougham, power to create a sufficient number of
peers to ensure the passing of the Reform Bill, first
calling up peers' eldest sons." The fact is mentioned
in Mr. Roebuck's History of the Whig Ministry, and
in Mr. Molesworth's History of the Reform Bill.
The occasion did not arise for the exercise of a power
so great, but there it was if necessary. But neither
King, nor Lords, nor any estate of the realm, except
the Commons itself, could have increased the number
of members in that assembly. Additions are often
made to the House of Lords by the fact that the Queen
has been pleased to direct letters patent to pass under
the Great Seal, granting the dignity of a peerage to
some gentleman who did not previously possess it. But
no writ for the election of a member to the House of
Commons would be attended to unless issued by that
House itself, upon its own resolution, and signed by
the Speaker. Therefore, while the Lords have no
power over their own numbers, the Commons exercise
• the most rigid. control. This differenee is very remark.
able, and should never be lost sight of.
Other points of variance between the practices and
customs of the two Houses must have often struck the
observant in Parliamentary affairs. To begin with,
the Speaker of the Upper House, the Lord Chancellor,
is one of the Ministers of the day; he comes in and
goes out with a
_change of Government: he has no
more power than any other peer to call a noble lord to

order, and when two or more peers claim to speak, the
selection is left to the Hods°, and not to the Lord Chan-
cellor. In the Commons, on the contrary, the Speaker is
entirely independent of Ministerial existence or dura-
tion; his authority is supreme in matters of order, and
his voice decides who shall address the House. He has a
furnished residence within the Palace of Westminster,
which the Lord Chancellor does not possess. When
the Commons are sitting, no one can enter the body
of the Chamber who has not been elected a member;
and, if a Cabinet Minister wants to send a message
elsewhere, he has to come out into the lobby to
do so. TTI th a ITrpar Ann on th rnmtr arv.
messengers walk freely about, delivering notes,
or receiving them for delivery. At the opening of
Parliament the peers' benches are crowded by
ladies; in the Commons the Ladies' Gallery is not
even considered to be within the precincts of tile House.
The Commons print the dates of their votes and pro-
ceedings in English, thus—Friday, March 23, Henry
Brtnci, Speaker. The Lords print theirs In Latin--
J.OIAB, 28 dii Martii, W. H. Rose, Cler. Parliamentor.
Other curious divergences in practice might be noted,
such for example in the way of taking divisions. The
Lord Chancellor always votes; the Speaker never does,
. except to give his casting vote in case of a tie. In
the Lords the tellers are counted in the votes; in the
Commons they are not. The tellers in the Lords
solemnly tap the peers as they pass them with
a white wand on the right shoulder; in the Com-
mons they simply call out the numbers filing before
them, one, two, three, and so on, the names ,
being at the same time ticked off on a printed .
list by one of the clerks. Such differences of
procedure are singular and interesting in two legis•
lative assemblies which have flourished under the
same roof for more than 600 years. Neither
House wishes to assimilate its practice to that of the
other, indeed in some respects it would not be possible
to do so. The distinctions do not affect vital points;
the customs are simply matters which each assembly
regards as being the most convenient for the conduct
of its own business. It would be perfectly impossible,
for instance, for the Commons to have as its Speaker
a member of the Government of the day, making
speeches and recording votes upon any and every
subject; it would be equally unpalatable for the
. Lords, after the usages of centuries, to be presided
over by so rigid a disciplinarian as the Speaker of the
House of Commons,
When 1878 went out, amid memories of gloom and
disaster, there were high hopes that there would be no
repetition of the experiences of a year which had been
exceptionally calamitous. So far as the weather is
concerned, it can scarcely be said that these expecta-
tions have been realised. During the first three
months of this year, storms have occurred with unusual
frequency. The winter has been marked by a severity
unknown for a generation. Frosts have been prolonged
and keen, with an intensity of Oold at times that
reminded many visitors to the Canadian Dominion of
the rigour's of the winter there. Falls of snow have been
numerous and heavy, causing in many districts
great loss to farmers, often occasioning a total sus-
pension of outdoor labour, and consequent suffering to
the working classes. In addition a succession of strong

_
gales has blown over land and sea, thus increasing
• the discomforts of life upon the former, and the
dangers of our sailors upon the latter. The return of
British and foreign wrecks up to the end of last week
. gives a total for the present year of 473, the excess in
the numbeeof casualties over the corresponding period
of 1878 being no lees than 111. The value of the
property lost by shipwreck in less than three months
Is estimated at half a million sterling. As to the
number of lives sacrificed, no return has been made;
but as nearly 500 vessels went to the bottom, many
men must have been drowned, The time will arrive,
as Spring advances, when a clear sky and a genial
atmosphere will take the place of biting cold and
tempestuous winds; but for years to come the people
of these islands will have cause to remember the severe
winter through which we have passed.
Berlin and London have lately been celled upon to
rejoice over two different events—the birthday of the
venerable Emperor William, and the marriage of the
Doke of Connaught. The Crown Prince and Princess
of Germany, who came over to England to be present
_
at the latter, returned to Berlin ,to witnese
day feag. The marriage- hadintf-bali
countries, looking at the nationality respectively of
the bride and the bridegroom, and at the fact that
half the dowry of the bride was the personal gift of
the Emperor William. Scarcely had the Crown Prince
and Princess returned to ti2e Prussian capital and
settled down again at home, than a bereavement more
sadden and unexpected even than that which visited
' the grand Ducal palace of Hesse some months ago
fell upon the Palace at Berlin, through the death of
little Prince Waldemar, only eleven years old, after
a fowl hours' illness. The news reached the Queen
in Paris, just as her Majesty WAS preparing to set
out for Italy; and arrived in London only two
or three hours before the time announced for the hold.
Lug of a Drawing-room at Buckingham Palace by the
Princess of Wales. It was therefore practically im-
possible to postpone it, although the one which had
been fixed for a date a few days subsequently was at
once put off. So the Court has once more to go into
mourning—a process which unhappily has of late told
the people of sorrow in high places. One day the
Palace is a house of mirth over the celebration of a
birthday, or through the festivities consequent upon a
wedding; a few hours roll away, and it is converted
into a house of mourning, for Death has seized
Ono of Its occupant", to whcarn !ha world's glory

hae thus vanished as though it were a phantom of the
night.

The Queen's present visit to Italy is the first which
her Majesty has paid to that historic land. Como and

Garda and Maggiore, over the pleasant waters of
which last-mentioned lake the temporary Royal resi-
dence now looks, have hitherto been only names to the
Sovereign of the greatest empire on the globe. This
appears remarkable when it is remembered how exten-
sively travels abroad have entered into the spirit of
modern life. Vast numbers of her Majesty's subjects,
many of them in a comparatively humble station,, long
ago looked down upon the wavelets of Maggiore, or
wandered along the banks of Como, or gazed into the
depths of the Lake di Garda, probably the finest sheet
of translueent water in the world. But when,
year after year, the members of the upper classes
have been wandering over both hemispheres, roam-
ing through the vast prairies of the United States,
seeking the silent groves of the far-off Australia, in-
specting the treasures of Indian bazaars, contempla-
ting the pagodas of Chinese cities, and even penetrating
Into the interior of Japan, it has been a necessity of
the monarch's position to remain within her own
dominions in Great Britain for the transaction of such
business of State as require attention. It would be
impossible, for instance, for the Queen to pay a visit
to her growing possessions in the Antipodes, however
much she might wish to de so. She could not be
absent from England for the time required to accom-
plish such a journey. As a matter of fact her
Majesty's days of foreign travel have been exceedingly
few; and she has the best wishes of her subjects that
those few may be spent in such a way as to leave lut-
ing memories of pleasure behind them.

April is a month in which the Queen's children have
been accustomed to celebrate more birthdays than in
any other of the twelve. On the 7th, Prince L^opold
will be twenty-six; on the 14th, Princess Beatrice will
be twenty-two; and on the 25th of April last the late
Princess Alice completed her thirty-fifth year—her
final birthday oelebration. If we take next month,
it will be seen that the Queen and two of her children
commemorate these interesting feBtival3. On the Ist
of May, the Duke of Connaught will be twenty-nine;
on the 24th her Majesty will be sixty; and on the
25th Princess Christian will be thirty-three. The
next time that two Royal birthdays occur in a
month is November. On the 9th the Prince of
Wales will be thirty-eight; and on the 21st
the Princess Royal will be thirty-nine. Princess
Louise and the Duke of Edinburgh find their natal
days recorded in March and in August respectively.
Official notice has been given that the Queen's birth-
day will this year be commemorated on' the precise
date—the 24th—which happens to fall on a Saturday,
when Ministers are enabled to receive their guests at
-dinner without interference with their Parliamentary
duties. Saturday is always selected for this main
reason, and in the evening the west-end thoroughfares
are filled with large crowds who have gone out to wit-
ness the illuminations.