The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-09-25 00:00:00

'.'Ltetropolit-An 0505 sip,
NT OUR OWN CO:IYINSPONDENT.

Mho remarks under this head ere to be regarded as the ex.
',mg.., of independent opinion, :rent the pen of &gentleman
;3, who., e have the greatest cev:titlenee but for whigb We
leverthutcss do not hold stuefteives responsible.'
-

There is reason to hope that we shall now be
mercifully spared from any further speculations and
rumours an to the health of the Emperor of the
French. The physicians have left him, and his Majesty
doss his business as before. A la bonne heure I And
yet at the very moment when we are congratulatine
ourselves on the absence of these disquieting rumours!,
there comes one more disquieting still. Through
the Central Preen agency it is "reported on good
authority" that the Emperor intends to abdicate, in a
few weeks at latest; that the Prince Imperial will be
proclaimed Emperor, with the title of Napoleon the
Fourth; and that the Emperor, who is said to deem
his life precarious, will hold office as President of the
Council. Of course this rumour created some sensa-
tion, but people soon asked themselves who WWI the
"mender of Parliament " who started this rumour,
and bow was' it that "officials in confidential corn-
munication with the Emperor" would so far forget
honour as to make any statement of the kind. The
rumour arrived, as so many rumoure suspiciously do,
on Satmilay night, just in time for the Smalay papers,
but, as might have been expected, was soon followed
by contradictions that have for the time set the public
mind at rest again. It is to be remarked, however,
that armour of this kind, once fairly started, may
revive at any moment.
The flying visit of the Prince of Wales to the Em-
peror of the French is said to have ben unexpected on
both sides, the Prince having suddenly come to the de-
termination to take a trip t ! Paris en route for Wild-
bad, and having popped in upon Lord Clarendon
quite unawares. Be this as it may, it shows that his
Royal Ilighnees is on very friendly terms with the
Imperial family. The Prince and Princess, on die,
will pay a rather longer visit to the Emperor and Em-
press on their return from Wildbad. These royal and
imperial meetings in a friendly way, without fuss and
ceremony, are much pleasanter to read of, and do
more good perhaparthan formal interviews.
After an immense amount of worry and anxiety, the
policy-holders and the shareholders of the unfortunate
Albert Life Assurance Company see their way clear
to the end of their troubles, though that end may not
be what they could have wished. The company is to
be compulsorily wound-up; costs are to be allowed to
two petitioners only, severally representing these
bodies, and the Vice-Chancellor, in making this order,
says that a public company is "not a carcase to be
preyed upon." The remaik is not without its signifi-
cance. The sutlers who hover about a camp, and rob
the dying and the dead, or the wreckers who rush upon
the storm-beaten ship as she is dashed upon the shore,
are not more rapacious than the harpies and vultures
who hover round the carcase of a defunct company.
In another respect this winding-up of the Albert is
matter of congratulation. It will bring out the whole
truth—where the money has gone and who has had it,
which the reconstruction of the company would have
hidden.
The Court of Common Council have been discussing
the delay that has taken place in the epenir g of the
Holborn Viaduct and the new Blackfriars Bridge.
The most definite statement that we can still pet is
that there is every reasonable prospect that the bridge
will be ready for traffic on the 13th of October, and
that the viaduct will be opened "the second week in
October." Why nott,then open them the same day?
If her Majesty could, be induced to preside at the
inaugural ceremony, it would delight not only the
Londoners but the country at large. There is some
negative hope of this, inasmuch as the Prince and
Priacess of Wales are not likely to inaugurate the
opening of these great works, seeing that their Royal
Highnesses are due in Chester on the evening of the
13th, and will stay there till the 15th. Of course this
does not render it impossible that the London inaugu-
ral ceremony should be under their auspices, but it
makes it very improbable.
A good deal has recently been said about the diffi-
culty of ascertaining the name of a railway station when
you arrive at it, and a great deal more will probably
have to be said before any improvement is effected,
although reform is easy enough. During the correspond-
ence on this subject it has been mentioned that some four
years a;oa machine was invented called Leigh's railway
station indicator, which on the arrival of the train at
each station, indicated, by self-action, in each carriage,
the name of that station. It is stated that the inven-
tion left nothing to lie desired, that it was tried on one
of the railways and was not found wanting, but that
the inventor, being neither a promoter, director,
banker, great engineer, nor general traffic manager,
nor baying either money or influence," he was
obliged to %band.n it, after taking cut a patent for it.
Strange that such an invent ion should be Flo snubbed.
But in default of this, surely our railway authorities
could at least manage that the name of each station
should be very conspicuously pouted asp in three or four
places on either side of the line, and that these names
should either be " transparenciee" illuminated at night
or else that they should be placed where they could be
read by the light of the ordinary lamps.
Man's most faithful friend, the dog, may be a very
useful and agreeable companion individually, but
when there is a congress of dogs, and when these dogs
delight to bark and bite, the ravine council becomes a
bit of a nuisance. There is such a permanent congress
at the Bow-street police station, at which represerda
Byers from all parts of the metropolis assist, and a
complainant says that unless the court can realise the
sufferings of a family deprived of their rest after the
day's toil, it would be hopeless to convey any notion of
the real extent of the nuisance. The police, it seems,
fully admit the nuisance, but then they are bound to
keep them three days somewhere, awl the question is
what is to be done with them? It is suggested that
they might lie kept in a barge moored in the middle of
the river. But might it not be well to advertise the
dogs for sale? The canine slaughter has been so great
within the hust few years that the number of dogs is
now by no means too great, and many a dog might
find a good master in this way. As to the rest, a pre-
mature grave must be the fate of poor doggy, "unwept,
unhonowed, and unsung."
A ramble about Penge rind Beckenham the other day
gave me an opportunity of particularly noticing a
cluster if pretty cottages which have been erected by
the Metropolitan Association for Improving the
Dwellings of the Industrious Classes. I say a cluster,
but it is a respectable village of some 150 clean, bright-
looking cottages, and there are a few snore in progress
of building. It is verily an industrial settlement,
• numbering upwards of 400 persons, all respectable
working-class families, the head of each family being,
I believe, in all cases employed in the metropolis. For
. one of these cottages, with five rooms, the rent is
Be. 6d. a week, with six rooms it is 7s. fit.; and to this
has to be added a workman's railway ticket at 2s.
a week, so that it is only the more prosperous of
the working class that can occupy these Alexandra
Cottages, lint still this is a great boon. Many of these
workmen have no doubt previously paid quite as much
rent for two or at least three unwholesome rooms in
London, and if they now pay more altogether, includ-
ing the railway, their children have fresh air, the sight
of trees and fields, and pleasant walks, and the !lector's
bills are thus lessened. The village, too, is not without
its religious and educational advantages, and eutli-
ciently removed from the deleterious influences of
a crowded city, its moral as well as its physical
health flourishes. Tile same Association, I find
has provided in various parts of the metropolis
improved dwellings for no less than 800 families, and
an important point is that it pays its shareholders
4 per cent. The owners of wretched tenements in
',adieu get more than this, and the more filthy the
"houses" the greater is the landlord's profit; but the
pecuniary success of this Association at least proves
that there need be no charity in providing decent
dwellings for the working daises in our monster town.
'For £10," advertises an enterprising individual,
dating from some plaza in Switzerland, " will
be sent fell instructions how to make from a
worthless article a very valuable prodact, which
Lie a market everywhere. Can he made in the
largest quantities in every room, with little out." The
question naturally arises why does not this individiud
himself effect this new kind of alchemy, and so make
hiss fortune ? But perhaps a rapid succession of letters
each inclosing £lO is even a more rapid way of making
money. As Mr. Bright saps, there are always knaves
and simpletons in the world and one elms preys upon
the other.

The large number of persons who have beer drowned
this bathing season, most of them because they were
linable to swim, gives general interest to the fact that
• floating swimming bath on a large scale, the water
being upwards of an acre in extent, is to be formed at
the Crystal Palace. Here there are to be facilities not
only hut swimming, hut for learning to swim under the
advice of experienced teachers. If the idea be fully
carried out it will remove the reproach that has so long
attached to London, that facilities for teaching and
practising swimming have not existed in anything like
proportion to the population. Besides being a new
attraction added to an already very attractive place,
the impetus thus given to the acquirement of the art
of natation will be a public benefit.
A favourite eantatrice changing her notes for gild
is rather a hackneyed pleasantry, but it will occur to
most people on learning the terms which La Patti,
-ihse de Canx, has made for her American tour,
let of September, 1871, to the let of Septem•

liarq;Ase

from the