The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-15 00:00:00

good humour are especially appreciated by our nearest
neighbours. Although the initiation of great indus-
exhibitions has not been followed by the results
which were predicted in 1851, namely, the setting in
of an era of universal peace amongst the nations, of
one thing there can be no doubt, and that is that the
march of intellectual progress during the past half
century has been acompanied by the gradual disap-
pearance of those feelings of jealous rivalry which
for 540 years previously had kept England and France
so much at war. On neither side a the Channel is
there now any suspicion or fear of the other; and
civilization and humanity alike rejoice that the old
and apparently chronic feuds between two great
nations have passed away.

It is just about five years ago that the sensation of
the season was caused by the arrival of the Shah of
Persia into this country. On the 18th June, 1873,
his Majesty, who is the ruler of a country famous
even in Biblical history, left Ostend after completing
his visit to Belgium, and having been met in the Eng-
lish Channel by four ironclads, was escorted in this
way to Dover. Enormous crowds accompanied the
Shah wherever he went in London, and the curiosity
to see him was, if possible, greater in one or
two large provincial towns which he visited, notably
at Manchester, where one might have walked
upon the heads of the people. The Shah left here in
the beginning of July, and took Paris and Vienna on
his way home. He is now again making a brief stay
in the more important European capitals, but this
time comes in an unofficial way, and so far as his
sojourn in England is concerned, it will be a very
quiet one, the Shah's attention being mainly devoted
to our manufactories. Those who are acquainted
with Holy Writ will remember how when the
engineers of King Cyrus had diverted the great
river Euphrates from its bed, the Persian army
surprised and captured Babylon. The readers Of
what in contradistinction to the Bible is called pro-
fane history, will recall the military prowess of the
Persians as they issued forth by millions under Xerxes
to conquer Greece. Yet to-day after the lapse of un-
told centuries, the people are without those aids to civili-
zation which lands roamed over by the rudest barba-
rians at the time of Persia's highest glory have possessed
for ages. Truly enough, westward the course of
empire has taken its way in every sense of the word.
The gorgeous east has been standing still, while the
practical west has been moving on; and an Oriental
sovereign new journeys from the rising to the setting
sun, to learn from the far-off western world some of
the means by which a flourishing and prosperous nation
is made.

The week of the Epsom Summer meeting, which
includes the Derby and the Oaks, is always appro-
priately supplemented by the opening of the great
National Horse Show at the Agricultural Hall,
Islington, a building whose associations have for
years been those of exhibitors illustrative of the
progress of agriculture, and hence its name. As
the early days of December find the vast building
crowded with horned cattle, sheep, and pigs, so the
beginning of June sees it devoted to an inspection of
the best horses that can be brought together from
all parts of the kingdom. This year the entries in all
the classes are considerably less than they were twelve
months ago; but the excellence of the collection is un-
doubted ; and as the English people are great ad-
mirers of the horse, as shown by the interest which
they take in his successes, the Islington Show is one of
the most popular of the season, and is sure to be visited
by the representatives of the Royal family who happen
to be in London at the time when it is held.