The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-11 00:00:00

THE FORCES OF RUSSIA,

The Cologne Gazette estimates the army which Russia
can place in the field at present at 600,000 men. This
strength may be maintained, but cannot be increased.
The Russian forces now in European Turkey and
Roumania amount to twelve and a half army corps-
-31'2,000 men. About 100,000 men must be employel
for the occupation of Asiatic Turkey; so that only
seven and a half army corps-187,F,00 men—remain
still disposable. In case of war with England the
Russian troops could not be withdrawn from
Turkey and Roumania. The disposable seven and
a half army corps would then be employed for
occupying the coasts of the Black Sea and the
Baltic. _Poland and St. Petersburg and Moscow,
where recent events have shown the presence of very
dangerous elements, would also require strong.garri-
sons. Russia could therefore, in case of war with Eng-
land, maintain her present position, but would have
no forces—not to speak of an Indian campaign—for
taking precautionary measures against Austria, at
whose mercy she would be, if Austria resolved on war-
like measures.—Pall Mall Gazette.

LORD CARNARVON AT NEWBURY.

The Earl of Carnarvon, whose picturesque estate, Highs
clere-park, is situated about four miles from Newbury,
visited that town on Tuesday, and opened the Municipal
Buildings which the Corporation have just erected in the
market-place at a cost of za,ooo or £l,OOO. An Address
was presented to his lordship, which expressed attach-
ment to his lordship personally, and to his family, and a
grateful appreciation of the interest invariably shown by
his lordship in all that concerned the welfare of the loyal
and ancient borough. The Address concluded by expressing
a sincere hope that his lordship might be granted many
years of health and happiness, and that the day 'night come
when he would again be able to lend to the administration
of public affairs the assistance of his high talent and great
experience.
In acknowledging the Address, his lordship made a
brief reference to his resignation of the Secretaryship of
State for the Colonies. Ile said :
• It would be idle to say that lam ignorant that many of my
friends—some of those whom I value most—have,felt pained
at the course which I thought it my duty to take a few
months since. Well, I can only say that as time goes on I
think they will see that, situated as I was, and with my
convictions, I had no other alternative as an hoLourable
man. (Cheers.) To be on the losing side in politics is a
very small matter. It happens, and it must happen,
to all those who take an active and conscientious part
in politics some time in their lives. Within my own
experience, I have so often seen the wheel of public opinion
revolve that personally I have no great misgiving; but in a
public point of view—and in this I think every man in this
room will agree with me—l am quite sure of this that where
a Minister of the Crown has to deal with that which is con-
fessed to be not a question of (Jae*, but a vital, essential,
and cardinal question, he has no right to subordinate his
opinions to his desires ; and it is better for him, better
for the Crown that he serves, better for the party to which
he belongs, and better for the country generally, that he
should make a sacrifice of place and position, however dis-
agreeable that sacrifice may be. The service which a
Minister is called upon to render where he is free to
carry out his opinion is a very high and honourable service;
but pray remember this: that public service is not confined
to the precincts of Downing-street. Opportunities for it
exist in all parts Of the country, and I can say, from my own
experience, that there is just as good, conscientious, high,
and, I will say, useful work done out of London, in our
counties, and in county towns like Newbury, as can be done
in any Cabinet Council of the Queen. . . .
In speaking of the House of Lords, Earl Carnarvon re-
marked :—What shall I say of it without preaching a homily
with which you are just as familiar as I am? It is one of the
oldest institutions in the country, and it recommends itself,
I believe, by many, titles to the respect and the goodwill of
all classes of our gllow-subjects. It is, as you know, pri-
marily and mainly connected with the landed proprietary
of this country; but, on the other hand, it has the great
advantage of being recruited from every single class of dis-
tinction within the realm. Lawyers have furnished a very
large proportion; soldiers, sailors, diplomatists, men of com-
merce, of literature, and of art—all in turn have contributed;
and I believe I may say without exaggeration there is hardly
a single department of thought or of action in the country
which may not find worthy representatives in the House of
Lords. Of late another class has been added to our numbers
—I mean members of the House of Commons; and whether
I look on the side where I sit or on the opposite side, I see
constantly the faces of men who have played high and dis-
tinguished parts in the House of Commons. I might indeed
almost anticipate the speech of the hon. member who is to
follow me, and return thanks for the House of Commons as
well as the House of Lords ; for at this moment one-half of
those who take a prominent part in the debates of the House
of Lords are late members of the House of Commons.
There is another great qualitx which the House of Lords
possesses. For many years past it has shown a singu-
lar power of adapting itself to the chafiging ten-
dencies of the times. Sometimes it has been a little
ahead; sometimes it has been a little in the rear; some-
times it has been more liberal in its political tendencies than
the House of Commons, sometimes less so; but, taking it
all in all, the action of the House of Lords has been singu-
larly in conformity with the spirit of the time in which it
lived. In this respect it seems to me to be really almost
unlike any other similar political body I can call to mind.
It has been my duty very often to watch closely the action
of the Chambers in our Colonies. They have sometimes suc-
ceeded; sometimes their action has been attended with
partial failure; and it can be no offence to them to say
they are very far short indeed of the pattern the House of
Lords and the House of Commons have set them. Once
only in the history of the House of Lords has it been
in danger from within, and that was at the time of the
passing of the Reform Bill. Once only has it been in
danger from without, and that was by legislation at the tifhe
of Sir R. Walpole. A Peerage Bill was proposed by which it
was designed to limit the number of the House of Lords, and
had that limitation been carried out there can be no reason-
able doubt in the mind of any one who knows the history of
this country that the House of Lords would have degenera-
ted into a close and probably a selfish monopoly; and that
if it had lasted unto our own time, it would not have
achieved what it has with more or less success accomplished.
Happily it was preserved from the fate which threatened
it; let me do the House of Commons the justice to say, not
by the wisdom of the House of Lords, but by the wisdom of
the House of Commons. It was Sir R. Walpole and some
statesmen of his day who interfered to arrest the hasty and
!mai legislation to which the House of Lords had been
suicidally disposed to assent. . . .
In speaking of the improvements and changes that had
taken place in recent years, the noble lord said—
If any of our grandfathers could return to life and see this
country so different from that which they knew in their time,
they would acknowledge the vast change for the better in
many ways, that has occurred. They would see on all shies of
them churches they knew in ruins restored aud raised up
in stateliness; they would see new and fine houses rising
through the length and breadth of the land—the whole
country growing, as it were, into a garden; and, above
all things, they would be struck. by the vast growth
and expansion of our towns, and, first and fore-
most, by the great public buildings that adorn those towns.
Time was, indeed, when all through Europe the great
towns travellers sometimes visit were full of stately build-
ings, and upen the face of these buildings, and in their
architecture the public thoughts, feelings, religion, and
life of the time were impressed. That has all passed away
with the spirit that created that state of thiugs ; it has
passed away for better or for worse; but there has been
from a different point of view a partial revival as regards
the erection of great buildings. Far and wide we see,
both in England and in Europe, the spirit spread which
delights in the creation of these municipal buildings.
London twenty-five years ago was the first, perhape, t.o at
the example. No man can now pass through the city without
being struck with the grand and stately collection of
streets and buildings which adorn it. The great provincial
towns have followed the example of London—Liverpool,
with its great quays and docks, and Manchester, Birming-
ham, Leeds, and other towns with their public edifices.
Formerly our only great buildings were in the south of
England ; within the last 25 years the north has obtained
almost a monopoly of them, and has stolen a march on the
"sleepy south." By degrees the south is once more putting
forth claims to public consideration ; and even here in
Newbury we are able to produce a building which may
fairly challenge comparison with any other similar building
of the kind. This is not merely a question of the beauty and
usefulness of a particular building; it is in a certain sense
a step towards what may be called the higher political life
of the country, I believe you will find in all time the life
of States in a great degree identified with their public build-
ings, and their history has been written upon the face of
their monuments, whether of atone or of marble, quite as
much as in the records and annals of their historians. Our
modern life of course is in these things very unlike the life
of the ancient world. It is hardly possible, in thinking on
melt a subject, not to reflect on that which has been the
model of all time, and which, as it was the earliest, was also
the greatest and stateliest of all. There was a city more
than 2,000 years ago the free population of which was, after
all, not much greater than the population of the en-
larged Newbury, and that city not only was the greatest
among the cities of its own day, but it has never been
approached by a city that has since existed in
the majesty of its buildings, with which the citizens
of Athens felt themselves more or less ident,fled.
Strangers flocked to their great city; they bowed
down, and, as it were, worshipped before it. The
life of each citizen of Athena seemed to be bound
up as it were in the grandeur of his own time. What
the Mayor has said to-day about the economy of these
buildings recalled to my mind an anecdote mentioned by
Plutarch. The fancy of a great sculptor proposed to the
people of Athens that a particular work should be wrought
in marble; but the people, indifferent to the expense, an-
nounced it as their determination that it should be wrought
in ivory instead. Ido not know whether you will succeed
in inducing your flexible ratepayers to indulge you with as
free an order as that in money matters, but what we see to-
day proves that whatever money is given will be well and
handsomely expended. There is a class of towns which,
perhaps, comes nearer to us In their public w,orks than any-
thing so remote as Athens; some of us paining through
their streets have gazed with wonder and admiration on
the towns of Northern Italy—matchless and almost un-
approachable models of 'town architecture. It may be
well remarked that among these towns there were many—
Lucca, Pisa, Sienna, Perugia, and others—that played
great parts in the history of their country, whose public
buildings now excite our wonder and admiration, and whose
populations certainly were not so great as the population
of our enlarged town, and they teach us many lessons
that we may lay to heart at the present moment—
first, that the mere smallness of a community does
not in any degree prevent its cultivation of the fine
arts; and, secondly, the cultivation developes in the minds
of citizens first of all familiarity with art itself, and, second-
ly that which is much better, local patriotism and the love
of municipal freedom. It was that which conferred the
highest title upon the Italian cities. It is that which has
distinguished English towns in all time; and in the adorn-
ment of our provincial towns, in the creation of these
public buildings, in their embellishment, in the raising of
the standard of taste in art, I see distinctly the fostering
of local patriotism and a distinct step towards higher
political life. There were some disadvantages, no doubt,
in the Italian towns. I am afraid, in spite of their
smallness, they were exceedingly dirty; and when a
bell rang at the order of the mayor, as the bells are
ringing outside now, IC was not a sign of peace and harmony,
but a signal for armed men to descend into the street and de-
cide a quarrel by the sword. There was great separation be-
tween those towns and the country. The great landed
proprietor lived away from them, and it wassanly at a oom-
paratively late date in Italian history that the country came
into the towns and a complete reconciliation was effected.
I am bound to admit it was the towns that attracted the
country. When I look round this table and see how com-
pletely the country has been attracted by your hospitality
I feel that Italian history is reproducing *self in one of its
most pleasant and conciliatory forms. I rejoice to see this
building added to this old town, with its lung history and
venerable traditions reaching back to the time of the Romans.
There are many great names living In history that live in
the annals of Newbury, and there are many buildings that
haste escaped the wear and tear of time to which this building
will be a worthy addition. . . .