The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-08-09 00:00:00

THE CLOSING SESSION.

THE parliamentary session now closing has
been the longest since 1867, when the two
Houses met to vote the necessary supplies
for the Abyssinian war. It has witnessed
events which have moved so rapidly that
the cause for which the legislature was ori-
ginally summoned, has almost passed out of
memory. It has had an existence of more
than eight months, the average duration of
a session being six. By Royal proclamation
the Lords' Spiritual and Temporal, and the
knights, citizens, and burgesses assembled
at Westminster on the sth December last,
in order to make the requisite arrangements
for the prosecution of the war with Afghan-
istan, which had been entered upon during
the recess. There was a general expectation
that the cost of that war, waged for the se-
curity of our Indian empire, would have been
borne by the Imperial Exchequer; but in-
stead of this the two Houses were asked to
agree to resolntions of assent to the charge
being defrayed out of the revenues of Inda.
These resolutions were affirmed in both
Houses by very large majorities; and, as a
comment upon the policy represented by the
war, Major Cavagnari, who was refused ad-
mission to Cabul last year, has just entered
the Afghan capital in triumph. During the
brief pre-Christmas sitting, which lasted
from the sth to the 17th December, a be-
reavement sad in its nature and surround-
ings, fell upon the Queen and the Royal
Family. On the 14th December, the seven-
teenth anniversary of her father's death,
the Princess Alice, her Majesty's second
daughter, who had tenderly nursed her
father during his last illness, fell a victim to
an attack of diphtheria caught whilst in at-
tendance at the grand ducal palace at Darm-
stadt upon her husband and children, who
had. been seriously ill from the same disease.
Coming at midwinter, and under such pain-
ful circumstances, the loss of the beloved
Princess was much felt by the people; and
the panegyrics passed upon her memory in
the House of Lords by the Prime Minister
and in the House of Commons by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, endorsed in each
chamber by the Leader of the Opposition,
received the assent of all classes of the com-
munity.
When Parliament adjourned for the
Christmas recess, the country was passing
through the severest crisis of distress which
it had been called upon to face for a gener-
ation. It was intensified by the terrible
weather, for an old-fashioned winter was
passing over the land. All kinds of indus-
trial occupations were stopped by the frost,
and our navigable rivers were full of vast
blocks of ice, which floated up and down
with every tide. Week after week rolled
on without any perceptible abatement in the
pressure of the intense cold. If it lessened
for a day or two, it seemed to return again
with renewed vigour, and it was not until
May that the snow and frost cea'Sed. The
winter had not had many parallels for length
during the century, for it lasted six months.
It has been folloWed by results little short
of disastrous. .The enormous quantity of ice
which has come down from the Polar regions
into the Atlantic has had its effect upon
both sea and air. The summer months have
passed with scarcely any sunshine ; the sea-
son has been cold and cheerless, the agri-
cultural interest has greatly suffered; and
commercial enterprise has not revived. The
country enters upon the autumn with pro-
spects, which, to use a mild word, can
scarcely be called bright. Trade and agri-
culture are alike depressed; and no one
se ems to be able to explain the cause of the
long-continued stagnation. It is not as
though we were or the eve of a war with a
great European Power, when capitalists
might well be excused for launching out in-
to new ventures. We are at peace in Europe,
and have been so for a quarter of a century.
We have no cause of a quarrel with a single
continental nation, nor are we likely to have
one. The one unpleasant fact remains that
our natiGnal prosperity has declined; and
although many reasons have been put for-
ward to account for it, a practical remedy
for the existing evil has yet to be found.
But the great subject which has over-
shadowed all others during the session has
undoubtedly been the Zulu war. When
Parliament assembled in December there
was little idea that the Afghan war was but
a mere trifle as compared with that u hich
was in store for us on the adjoining contin-
ent. On the 12th of January the British
forces crossed the Tugela, the boundary
stream between the Colony and Natal and
the land_ of the Zulus, who ten days after-
wards swept down in thousands upon our
unprotected camp at Isandula, and slew
several hundreds of our gallant soldier.F.
Reinforcements were at once sent out from
England; battles folio wed at Kambnla and
Ginghilovo ; but it was not until the 4th of
July that a decisive .victory was gained onf.
side Ulundi, the Zulu capital. The death
of the Prince Imperial of France on the Ist
of June in a nameless skirmish with our
savage foes, and in a quarrel not his own,
was an unfortunate incident in a campaign
from which not much martial renown was to
be expected ; but nevertheless the prestige
of the British soldier has been well sustained,
and m anylinstanees of individual bravery have
been recorded. The victory of Ulundi has
brought a prospect of the cessation of war-
fare, and it will be a relief to the British
public when Sir Garnet Wolseley has been
enabled to conclude peace with the Zulus.
it is earnestly to be hoped that in future
thistesraenmdata he
h,
eir no d
neighbours
obr
swu-cethenatchheacioalcotner-
•ed h
nation enceforth
a
3f,obrrtebhai tuor
m :
as to necessitate a ru:ilnur3elanttioonfstie s
Ni‘'itirtrirlecl;
Z
as shall conduce to thespread of Christianity
and civilization.

THE IRON TRADE.
WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday.
There was if anything a slight improve-
ment this afternoon in some denartments,
com-equent on inquiries beinAirnade for
:•_:- anantir;ei... of i,10) fn be cor.snrm in
_ is. Olt espor;;
account there was a general complaint of

difficulty in obtaining orders, even at the
low level to which prices have come down.
Tao marked bar, hoop, and nail rod makers
are doing tolerably well just now, the works
of most of them being kept going about five
days a week. In other branches, however,
the works are running but half-time. Girder
plates though ordered in small quantities,
were in somewhat steady inquiry from con-
structive ironwork manufacturers who have
secured some large contracts for railway
bridges. Wire rod, common sheet, and rivet
iron makers are in great need of orders, the
depressed state of trade being aggravated by
the underselling which goes on in these de-
partments. Boiler plates are also in exceed-
ingly limited demand. High-class pigs are
being bought in small quantities, but for
quick delivery, which helps to sustain the
prices. Middlesborough foundry iron was
much noticeable this afternoon, but of the
commoner sorts of South Staffordshire make
sarcely anything was touched. The coal
trade remains in a terribly stagnant condi-
tion, and. prices of domestic fuel have a
weakening tendency. Some of the coal
dealers have begun to give way to the de-
mand of the Cannock Chase coalowners, who
are being supplied with the registered ton-
nage of the boats sent to their wharves for
coal. The Bimingham Canal Company, who
do the bulk of the carrying for the South Staf-
fordshire district have given notice of their
intention to put a maximum tonnage on coal
conveyed over their canal of is 3d per ton,
exclusive of tunnel and bar tolls. At present
they charge from 3d to 5-12-d, but the com-
pany have not intimated whether they are
going to charge their maximum rate in the
future, and it is to be hoped they will not,
the district already being too heavily handi-
capped against other places. Manufacturers,
as may well be expected, are loud in their
expressions of complaint as to this increased
burden which they will apparently have to
bear.
At the next meeting of the Mines Drain-
age Commissioners it is proposed to give
effect to the provisions of the recent award
of the arbitrators by levying a mines drain-
age rate in the Bilston district of 44d per
ton on ironstone, 3d on coal and slack, and
11-d, on fireclay arid limestone. The Com-
missioners also propose to levy within their
area a general drainage or surface rate upon
all occupiers of mines of Id per ton upon all
mines and minerals raised during the half-
year ending the 30th of June last, the rate
to be payable on the Ist October next.