The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-05-17 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, MAY . 17th, ISB4.

........ ,

NATIONAL CARES.

IT 13 remarkable to note that, as with indi..

yiduals, so with nations, their existence is
marked by the ebb and flow of the tide of
responsibility and care. A wave--and some-
times more than one—sweeps past, leaving
behind it mournful impressions. A number
of years often elapses without any experience
of such vicissitudes; but it has been re-
marked that When trouble once finds out
man, or a whole people, no long time glides
away before it pays another visit. The life
of man has been described in the language
of hyperbole as a continual struggle with
death. This however is not literally true.
There are many flowers and much sunshine
to be witnessed in the course of even a brief
existence ; and upon the principle that each
should try to leave the. world better than he
found it, and many actually succeed in doing
so, it is seen at once that for a life to be
occupied in a continuous straggle with the
last enemy whose destruction is•to
,be com-
passed, would leave but little opportunity
for contributing to that general improve-
ment, in which the assistance of all willing
workers in all civilised lands is so urgently
required
Those who have arrived only at middle
age can name few nations, whether great or
small, which within their own recollection
have not had to face their billows of corn:
motion, or their waves .of sorrow. When
after the battle of Waterloo decade upon
decade waned away without any indicatiwi
r being involved in war, the con-
ela6io:l ai'rv, at that the time had
come of which meilie.n. is -made in Holy
Writ, when the sword s .ould be turned into
a plough-share and the spear into a pruning
hook, and the nations should learn war no
more. The Palace of Glass which rose as
though by magic in Hyde-park in 1851 was
hailed as a Temple of Universal ',;Peace.
The new patterns of cannon and rifles which
it contained were regarded with gaze of
curiosity, as belonging to a pre-historic
period and an antediluvian era. These in-
struments of war were all very well when
nation was accustomed to use against
nation ; when beaten Kings followed in the
train of defeated armies, and when the
tramp of mighty hosts left behind it such
incidents o! battle as rained villages and
devasted plains. But the exhibits of material
of war in the crystal structure in Hyde-park
were fondly believed to be oat of date. They
had had their day. and a long one it had
been. Cannon and rifles would, for the
time to come be regarded more from an
ornamental than from a practical point of
view. The aged Duke of Wellington, then
82 years of age, took part in the proeession
at the opening of the great exhibition, the
pacific surroundings of the close of his long
career contrasting strongly with the twenty
years of war through which he passed in his
early manhood. As was appropriately said
at the time, war's chaplet
sof palm had en-
twined round the altar of peace.
That was thirty-three years ago, a serious
slice out of a man's existence, but a mere
speck in the history of a state like England,
"whose flag has braved a thousand years
the battle and the breeze." The exhibition
materials had scarcely been cleared away
before a cloud arose in the political horizon,
at first no bigger than a man's hand, but ,it
gradually gathered and burst into a storm.
A quarrel over the Holy Places at Jerusalena
set• five European Powers by the ears.
Russia measured swords against England,
IFrance, Turkey, and Sardinia. The conflict
Itud waged inru years, when the great
Colossus of the North was beaten. But the
old game of war, so very familiar from the
earliest ages, had to be played again. The
more that could be killed upon the other
side the greater the. chance of success for
that which possessed the best arms of
precision. The dogs of war, once unloosed,
were not easily gathered back into the leash
again. Our next heavy, trouble was the sup-
pression of the Indian mutiny the year after.
the conclusion of peace with Russia; two
years 'elapsed, and France went to war with
Austria; two years more—only a decade
after the rising of the Universal Temple of
Peace—a civil war broke out in the United
States, which lasted from 1861 to 1865; in
the next year Prussia fell upon Austria;
and four years later came the veritable
Armageddon, when the mightest struggle
in the world's history, took place upon the
fair fields of France. Without pursuing the
record by a systematic coarse of .dates, it
cannot be said that the world has been long
at peace since the time when it witnessed
that awful harvest-field of death. The
South American Republics are periodically
fighting each other; but we need not go so
far away as that to show the frequency of
national cares. In our own instance there
have been Afghan, Zulu, and Transvaal
troubles—all accompahied by bloodshed.
The Egyptian difficulties, which seem to in-
crease in size the older they grow, illustrate
anew the fact that cares and responsibilities
are inseparable from great nations no less
than from' the obscurest of individuals.

THE IRON TRADE.

Wolverhampton Wedaesday,

A-quiet tone pervaded the market to-clay, thouzili
order were slightly more numeroui thin they
have been for tee past few weeks. The, desire to
given than out arises in some measure from the rip.
Droaching reduction in wages, as manufacturen are
compelled to give way to ,tho ev,riures of sae; -
chants and sell at less money. It is, however,
chic-fly with regard to the co:no-loner kind of irkin
that lo .ver rate i are rtcorclnd, the jfrj of the
better ;.!.t.t ilities continuing to maintain their Etc
quotati,,us. The list houses have more work in
nd thi3 tr:::ek, and advioes point to improved
orders being received until the close of the quarter.
Manufacturers of common unmarked bars are fairly.
well engaged, while the sheet makers ate prinei-
pa ty employed on deseliptions required for galvanic-
iug and w0r!,,1.,; up purposes. Hoops tnd strips
are in at-earlier dmmand and a • few 'girder plate
orders were on offer, thou gi the 'prices proffered
were too low to induce manufacturers to close any
bargains. In pigs, the - sales to-day were of. the
rrios:t meagre character, still some 'good bargains
are beim; negotiated for iron for foundry purposes.
People in want of forge metal are, however, only
buying to meet early requirements. The Baiber's
Field -Iron Company ara about to blow out one of
their furna,:es, as they have it large stock of pigs tm
hald. In respect to fuel, the sales continua to bc
very irregular at p:iees thlt barely ever the cos
of production.

BIRMINGHAM, Thurs day.

The mills and forges in the South Staffordshire
district keep in toler,bly regular operation, the
list establishments being the worst off, though
more favourablt adviees have just been received
- from the Colonies and South America. A fair
quantity of iron is being. consumed in the district
by the enginaer, ILA.vy and light iron founders,
tha c!.alam:ilsers,. nail. manuranturers, Apollo::
makers. u:..1 the galvanii, 7 ; ; . but the: o is an in
i
1 eretsing i nportation (.1 nl-ttes. angles. iars,and steel
1 shtwts from th!l Norther., district at ic.v.-1-,r prices
tima 11i,..y eau b..) produ:..i I here, At tl.e market
this af,emoon negotiations were rath,..r, more ani-
f
t in.: ~:d. bat tne manufacturers did not su2n,e4 'in
rea.iAng any ht-ti:trr prices. Common bars ranged
in pukes /rola £5 15s to ..t6 2s 6.d, the bulk of the
isales being rather below £6. Hoops and nail rods
were in somewhat better request, and sheets were
sin moierata inquiry at unchanged quotations. 1
, Galvanised sheets were in poor inquiry, and prices
I were weak and irregular, Several tolerably large