The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-09 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE ON THE
ARMY.

On Friday evening in last week the Prime Warden
and Wardens of the Fishmongers' Company, gave a
banquet at their hall, London-bridge, the occasion
being the anniversary of the accession of the House
of Brunswick to the throne of Great Britain. Among
a large company present were the Duke of Cam-
bridge, the Marquis of Normanby, G.C.M.G., Field-
Marshal Sir Patrick Grant, General Lord Alfred
Paget, General Sir Frederick Chapman, and Lient.-
General Sir General Graham.

The Duke of Cambridge returned thanks for the
army. He said he begged to acknowledge the toast
which had been so kindly and so generously offered
from the chair on that interesting occasion—an occa-
sion which marked, as he understood, the 170th
anniversary upon which the members of his family
first came to this country. On looking round him he
saw several distinguished officers who had recently
returned from active service, and he believed that
if they were asked they would assure them that
there was not a man in the service who was
not ready to lay down his life for his
Queen and country under the most painful circum-
stances. Therefore, they had no reason to be dis-
satisfied with the Army. But he heard complaints.
Now, it was always very easy to find fault, but a
remedy it was not quite so easy to find. However,
there was a remedy, and the citizens of that great
metropolis had it entirely and absolutely in their own
hands. If they said it was too expensive to keep up
an army, very well, let them do away with it. But if
they wanted to keep it efficient they must not mind
paying for it. If they did not pay for it they would
not have an army such as they required, and would
not continue to live in that comfort, that security,
that content, and that greatness which, as everyone
present knew, as members of this great community
they were able to live in. If they wanted to go on
being a great nation, if they wanted to see their in-
terests defended in every part of the world, they
could not get that for nothing. It was inconsistent
with reason, and when he heard people complain of
expenditure the question was, whether it was
legitimate expenditure. If it was expenditure it was
legitimate expenditure. The English people were a
peaceful nation, but they were very pugnacious about
their interests. The moment there was a question
about their interests they became very pug-
nacious. Let them look round to the far East,
to India, Africa, and Egypt, and they would see that
things did not look quite so peaceful and happy as
they might desire. They must accept the condition
of things as they were, and not as they might wish
them to be. He was speaking his mind plainly and
without regard for politics; for they had no politics
there—at least he had done. The Army had no
poEtics, and it was one of the greatest blessings to
the country that it had not. He spoke of the Army
as a profession, and not as a political body. In other
countries people might ask which side would the
Army take, but in England that was not the case.
The Army would do its duty to its Queen and
country everywhere, and that could only be done by
strict discipline and entire absence of political feeling.
The moment an army became political it became use-
less. The meaning of all he had said was that he
did not think they had half Army and Navy enough.
It was unpleasant to say that, because it was not
always a popular thing to have to tell the truth, but
he-was not sure that to say what you mean was not
best after all. We must look at the vast interests which
had to be defended and the immense distances which
had to be traversed. Australia, Canada, and the
other colonies were all members of our great country
whose interests had all to be defended, and to defend
those vast interests they ought to have an army in a
very advanced state of efficiency, as well as a navy.
The army could do nothing without the navy, and he
always thanked the navy for the admirable manner in
which, on all occasions, it backed up the army. He
contended that unless they had a very considerable
army and a very considerable navy they could not
defend the interests of the country as they ought to
be defended. If they were not defended as they
ought to be they might find to their cost on some
future occasion (God grant the time might never
come) that their power and their extended influence
would gradually and gradually go down. As that was
what neither he nor they desired they must forgive
him for telling them at all events that in order to
protect their own interests and the interests of this
vast empire it was essential that they should keep up
the army. He had said that not out of any political
feeling, but solely in this great city and this great
empire.

"This way, captain r shouted an English soldier at
Inkerman. "I have a prisoner." "Well, bring him
here." "I should like to, but the scoundrel won't let
me go."
"What object do rousse?" asked the doctor. The
young man hesitatedfor a few moments, and then re-
plied, "-It appears like a jackass, doctor, but I rather
think -it, is your shadow."
Mrs. Grundy says the new hand painted bonnets
go very„well with the old hand painted faces.
A good constitution is like a money-box; its value
is never known till it is brokep,
"Look here, Jem, there is zthole knocked out of
this bottle you gave me." Jan: "Why, here's the
hole in it now. If it was knocked out, how could it
.be there !"
James, who was trying to sew Grew button on his
.coat, murmured: "They say therec a new yacht that
makes fifteen miles an hour, but this thread makes
twenty knots a minute."
The speaker who has too many heads to his dis-
course will find it dilfflcult to secure attentive ears to
all of them.
One striking peculiarity about dwarfs 18 that, how-
ever old they may become, they never live long.
STAR:a:RING AND ITS :CI:MIL—The annual -‘4 speech-
day" at the residence of.fir. B. Beasley, Green Bank
Hall,given, near Birmingham, which took
place on the 343 th ult., was in every sense a .success.
To the parents and friends of Mr. Beasley's pupils,
and stkill more to the pupils -themselves, it must hare
been highly gratifying. When it is taken into con-
sideration that the majority of the speakers had
entered the establishment only a short time ago as
Painful and inveterate stammerers, it is marvelously
surPrising that such results in sozhort a time could
be attained. Stammerers who had been afflicted for
years were
articulation
quite up to, if not above, f.iie average of
heezd to speak with a fluency and an
most people who have no impediment. The pupils
-were from -all-eladasex-r-the Church, the army, the
navy, the middle class, and the working man, and all
testified alike to the sound and perfectly natural
system adopted by Mr. Beasley, who was himself for
many years terribly afflicted with this most diArtasinz
drawback to success in lir