The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-03-11 00:00:00

TIM S.TOURBRMGE OBSERVER

turned on from behind a cloud. At the base of
the Taj, some 100 yards away, as it looked, was a
great crowd, which was not homogeneous, anti on the
gallery of one of the four minarets appeared in black
coat and white tie a model European, who was, I am
glad to say, taken
•by most people whose eyes were
unaided by glasses to be a doorway. Then trooping
into the illuminated square came a band, and forth.
with the soft tender notes of " Vedrai carino " floated
through the night air; but it ma:, be doubted if
Moomtaz-i-Mahul, or "the Exalted One of the Palace,"
would at all have approved of the music could she have
heard it. However, Mozart was better than the
maestro whose compositions; net challenged the ears
of the company. But the eye mastered every other
sense, and the loveliness of the Taj stole through
the soul.

Moonataz-i-Mahul was a loving wife and died in
childbirth of her eighth child. People have taken
lately to abusing her husband and his times; but it
may be recollected that about that period England was
not quite a Paradise; that we were busy perzecuting
people we did not like, had a Star Chamber and other
comforts for the conscience,, were preparing for a civil
War and for the execution: ;af our Xing, and were by
no means in a condition tc? Istify us in throwing stones
at the builders of the Taj. Since then we have done
better, and if there is no Taj or Secundra to be put to
our account in India, we can Bay, in the words of De
Quincey, that our rule has conferred on India "gifts
higher by far than Mogul gifts of palace or semi, roads
or tanks—the gifts of security, order, law, and peace.
_ _ _

_
From the darkness of the arch the Prince descended
the marble esplanade, and mounted to the terrace
round the Taj. Then all entered the Tomb itself—the
culminating glory. They stood and gazed, almost
trembling with admiration. The interior has been
carefully restored; no longer are Vandal subalterns
allowed to pick out the flowers which wander through
the marble in exquisite abandon of tracery, and pre-
sent them to their lady-loves at picnics; all is swept,
garnished, cleaned, and, as far as can be, restored.
If Shah Jehan would come back to earth it is not too
much to suppose he would thank Sir John Strachey for
the labour of love which has stayed the hand of the
spoiler. It was, indeed, only. a few hours ago that a
gentleman was found busy with knife-blade at a mosaic
here. "If any magistrate orders that man three dozen,
be he black or white, I will take the responsibility of it,"
exclaimed the Lieutenant-Governor, "on my own
shoulders." After a time appeared a bugler of the
Rifles, to whom the Prince gave orders. Presently a
clear sustained note rose up into the Tomb and found its
counterpart, and the two commingled, swept upwards,
and soared away, "till naught remained 'twixt them
and silence." Again and agikiri the notes soared, and
the auditors stood breathless.--,Then came a few sweet
chords in unison from four or five singers but the effect
was not so impressive to my ear as that of an old
Moulvie's voice reading prayers when last I was
there, some eighteen years ago. It sounded like the
responses of some vast congregation. At last the
Prince left, and the shaouded figures of the four
natives up in the arches aloft, which might be taken
for shades of holy Sheiks looking down on the strange
company, faded away out of sight.
After such a sensation as that, the Holy Jumna,
with its placid bosom gemmed with star-like lamps,
could offer attle attraction. There were, thank good-
ness no fireworks for this occasion only. It was quite
sufficient to look down from the terrace and watch the
tiny boats of earthenware, each large as a coffee cup,
bearing their cargoes of oil or cottonwick, on the placid
stream which multiplied their fires; to look across at
the wide expanse of gardens and kiosks, minarets,
cupola; and domes writing occult characters on the
blackness of the night, and then to let the eye turn
slowly on the Taj. . . .

'- selves, theirs was beyond all question a kindly and, in
the best sense, a loyal interest. It had gathered
volume and vehemence, as was natural, from the re-
straints imposed on it by circumstances, and when
the Queen appeared beyond the City boundaries it
found a voice in cheering loud and honest enough
to convince the most sceptical foreign critic that if
Republican fanaticism have any root in England it
is not among the working men and women of the
East-End. Yet Whltecbapel and Mile-end are the
Belleville and Montmartre of London. There we have
all the elements of what in Continental capitals they
call the social danger, ever present poverty, a keen.
witted artisan population, the absence of the higher
classes, the unchecked predominance of "working-class
ideas." Yet there is not a sign of the spirit of Belleville
among the people of Whitechapel. There is, indeed, a
more honest ring in their loyalty than in that of other
people in higher social circles. They are supremely
indifferent to the benefits which a visible Court may
bestow, as the West-End shopkeepers argue, upon
" Society " and "Trade." Society and Trade east of
Aldgate have to do without Royal patronage, whether
the Queen be in London, in Scotland, or in the Isle of
Wight; and it is only just, therefore, to point out that
the cheers given to the Queen were purely disinterested.
They were, in fact, the expression of a feeling
which may be described as unreasoning, not because
it cannot be vindicated by• sound and sagacious rea-
sons, but because it has Its root in no reasoning
process. English "loyalty," as the word signifies,
is founded on the claim of the Sovereign to rule by
law. The issue of the great struggle of the Seven-
teenth Century removed the only serious strain
to which the loyalty of Englishmen was exposed.
From that time the sentiraent slowly ripened into
its present energetic vitality. The Queen's office is
identified in the popular mind at once with liberties
secured by English institutions and the glories en-
shrined in English history; but it is not altogether to
the associations, powerful as they are, that the strength
of the feeling is to be attributed. The personality of
the Sovereign is a potent influence for good or evil,
and during the present reign it has been consistently
exerted for good. The Queen is beloved by her
people, not as a benevolent despot might be for
past or future benefits, but simply as a pure, womanly
mistress of the national household. Over and over
again we have been told that this sentiment was dying
out, that it was doomed to perish under the analytical
scalpel of modern logic; that critieism, public dis-
cussion, the example of other countries would
demonstrate the absurdity of cherishing affection
for a Constitutional Sovereign. Yet once more,
as so often already, the instant the trial has been
made these speculations and predictions have
been refuted by patent facts. Loyalty of the truest and
purest kind is found to be unquenched in the hearts
of the English masses, and the test by which we
judge of this fact is a crucial one. While the poorest
and the least favoured quarters of London are ready to
give English Royalty such a reception as the Queen
had yesterday on her way to the London Hospital no
one need be apprehensive of a "Red Spectre" in
England.