The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-07-17 00:00:00

Uttroonlitan Cinssip.

UT QUA OWN OORNWSPONIWINT.

rennulte ender this head are to be regarded as the el-
preasion of independent opinion, from the pen of a gentleman
whom we have the greatest confidence, but for which we
-vortheleas do not hold ourselves responsible.)

I pregame your readers must by this time be
thoroughly weary of the debates, and the written and
spoken comments on the Irish Church Bill; the cha
raster of the measure when it was sent up to the Lords,
and the alterations which their lordships have made in

it, together with the impending conflict of the two
Houses, and the possible or probable result. I will not
further weary them by my own comments on this im-
... .

portent measure—commenta which would be ef all the
I. value since the aspect
_of. affairs changes alalost

every hour. The political kaleidoscope keeps turning
and • different view is presented at every turn. It is
earnestly to be hoped, however, that this troublous
question may be settled before the session is over.
The massacre of the innocents - to adopt a joke (I
suppose it is a joke) that always crops up at this time
of the year—is the Life I'eerages Bill, which, strange
to say, the Lords allowed to come on for third reading,
and then gave it the happy dispatch. I think it is
much to be regretted that the bill has been bet. It
was a mild and cautious one; it merely gave power to
the Sovereign to create two life peers each year, with-
out any stipulation as to the classes from which these
peers were to be taken. So far as the Bill would have
gone it would have gradually tended to make the
House of Peers somewhat more of a representative
*amiably than it now is, and would have modified and
tempered the rigour of the hereditary system, besides
opening up the prospect of high honours to men of
eminence in science, art, and literature.
Whether the new Palace of Justice shall be built
on the Carey-street (Lincoln's Inn) site or on the
Thames Embankment site may seem at the first glance
. .

of no great importance to any out of London. But it is
a national question, inasmuch as to a great extent it is
• question of taxation. It has been said that the total
coat of the land and building on the former site will be
.

k 1,770,000, and on the latter site 0,266,000. This
calculation has been controverted as smatter of course,
for everything connected with this vexed question
appears to give rise to argument; but in any case it is a
marvellous thing that after years of arguing Mil
quarrelling we appear as far off a settlement as ever.
Baron Hausmann would have arranged such a little
matter without any argument, and would have built a
Palace of Justice before this.

The National Rifle Association meeting at Wimble-

don, as a public spectacle and holiday, is more attractive
than it has ever yet been, owing to the glorious weather
which has favoured it, as well as to the more judicious
arrangements than hitherto. The Londoners Hock to
Wimbledon intone of thousands, and themselves help to
make a splendid, or, at least, a pretty and picturesque
sight. It would be well if the whole of Wimbledon
Common could be preserved fur such gatherings 'for
ever," but the builders have marked for their own
pleasant bits of ground that might well be preserved to
the use of the publics.
Cricket seems to be even a more favourite paatirne
than ever. The two great cricket-grounds of London
—Lord's and the Oval —day after day present a more
or less animated scene, and the activity of the cricket
world—l suppose there is a cricket world—bids fair to
continue far into the autumn. The Eton v. Harrow
match at Lord's was the occasion of the most brilliant
gathering that any cricket match has called forth this
season. The space allotted for vehicles within the
incloeure was filled long before the match began, and
outside it there was an immense assemblage of vehicles,
reminding you of the Derby day. Many carriage
(without any occupants, it is true, and in charge only
of a coachman) had waited all night, it is said, and
could not get admission after all. And inside the
incloinire, on the greensward of the celebrated Lord's,
there were thousands of— I was about to say spectators,
but only the "reserved" few could see, and the chief
pleasure, in default of seeing the great cricket match,
was to see those who came to see it. Our two great
public schools, on the whole, nobly maintained their
reputation for prowess in the field—of cricket.
Hardly a day now passeswithout considerable quantie
ties of something or other "unfit for food" being seized.
This is matter of regret and matter for congratulation
I attribute the frequent seizures to the activity of the
police thr ugh the orders of the Chief Commissioner,
but at the came time neither the organisation for de-
tecting these evils, nor the machinery for prosecuting
the offenders, is adequate to the effectual repression of
the supply of unwholesome food. Were there to be an
increase of power in this respect, the public would be
startled at the number of prosecutions. I fear it may
be said with truth that for one case where the vendor
of unwholesome food is prosecuted, perhaps a dozen
escape.
Many people will remember the funeral of Tom
Sayers in London, a striking feature of which was the
dog following his maeter to the grave. The crowds
who followed the deceased pugilist have been outnum-
bered, it is said, by those who followed the remains of
Tom Sayer's antagonist, Heenan, the "Benicia boy,"
at Sacramento. And now that these two once cele.
brated pugilists have gone to their long home, it into be
hoped that we shall hear no more of the heroism of the
prize-ring. The press is not altogether blameless, for it
has given s fictitious halo of glory to the prize-ring,
which it otherwise would not have had. This, how-
ever, has faded away, never, it is to be hoped to be re-
vived. Thanks to the energetic action of the Govern.
anent and the local authorities the prize-ring may hap-
pily be now regarded as hopelessly defunct, and the
country may rejoice accordingly.
On the 21st of this month the Thames Tunnel will
be finally closed for ordinary traffic, being required for
the East London Railway. Poor Thames Tunnel
It ought not thus to suffer change, which befalls sublu.
mary and subaqueous things, without a word of note
or comment. When it was opened for traffic more than
a quarter of a century ago it was one of the wonders of
the world, but of late it has been treated with com-
parative neglect, other wonders perhaps—there have
been a great many wonders since 1843—having put its
nose out of joint. Mr. Brunel gained great fame for
this marvellous piece of engineering, but we have much
progressed since his time, and if we required another
tunnel under the Thames there are living engineers
who doubtless would contract to complete it say in five
years from the date of the contract. I find, on refer.
once to a storehouse of facts, that "the shaft was begun
in 1825 ; the first brick was laid by Mr. Smith, March
2; the excavation commenced April 1 ; and the first
horizontal excavation in December 1825." The first
brick laid by Mr. Smith! If his name goes down to
posterity! fear it will be confounded with those of other
members of his numerous family. Was the lit of
April intentionally chosen! We are still very slow in
our engineering works—witness for instance, Black-
friars Bridge, which for years has always been about to
be opened "in a short time "—but no engineer now.a-
days would dream of devoting eighteen years to the
construction of a tunnel under the Thames. We can
well spare the Thames Tunnel. It was only a damp,
oozy thoroughfare for a very few people and a show-
place for county visitors and foreigners. 'Vainly did
the sad-looking dealers in this cavernous subway try to
give to it a festive appearance by mechanical music,
glass-spinning and views of the tunnel; the place
always looked sad and sorrowful and was always moist
with tears. Given a railway through this now deso-
late thoroughfare, and where there was one passenger
there will be a thousand.
As a nation we certainly do not rank the lowest in
the respect that we pay to the dead. Our cemeteries
and churchyards will bear comparison with those of any
Continental country, and even our "pauper funerals"
are generally conducted with decency. But the
arrangements of hospitals and workhouses, in connection
with those of cheap undertakers, will not always bear
examination. Here is a case which either the law ,
ought to prevent, or which demands that law be
modified to meet it. At midnight a drunken man is
found shouldering a coffin containing the body of a
young girl; the burden was too heavy for him, and
now and again the man bumped the coffin down on the
pavement, and, staggering from drink and fatigue,
rested himself by sitting on it. On inquiry, it was
found that the body of the poor young girl had been
taken from the German Hospital, and was being
carrot as best the man could, to the shop of a "cheap"
undertaker. It is a pity that our hospitals, doing work
which is beautiful in its spirit of Christian charity,
should, so to speak, be desecrated by such scenes as
this.

It is to be hoped that the condition of dressmakers
and milliners generally is now such that Hood's "SonV,
of the Shirt" could only apply to rare and exceptional
cases of poor needlewomen ; but at any rate the "As.
sociation for the Aid and Benefit of Dressmakers ad
Milliners" does well to establish a home for them.
Recent legislation has, in some respects, improved the
position of needlewomen, but it has bad one result
which is not wholly beneficial. Thy used to be kept
late at their woricroome, and the rule was to board and
lodge them in the establishment; but the Workshops
Regulation Act limits the hours of work, and, conse-
quently, the girls have to walk home for miles, perhaps
at an hour at night when temptations are rife. The
benefit of the new "home," therefore, need. no expla-
nation. How much better would many of these dress-
makers and milliners be off would they emigrate to
Canada as doinestic servants. But then that would
not be so genteel.
The Pall Mall had • very smart, very severe, but
not verytrue article the other day about school children's
treats. "It too often happens," says our cynical
censor, "that the unhappy children are packed like

herrings in vans and taken on a pouring wet day to
some suburb, where they wander about without any
protection from the weather for long dreary hours, '
only enlivened by singing hymns or choruses ex-
pressive of love to their teachers, and are then
repacked in the vans, drenched to the skin, wearied,
worn out, and half dead," drc., and so forth.
Many who have read this have probably laughed in
sympathy with the writer and the children ; but as far
as I have observed the school treats this summer, the
critic's remarks are grossly exaggerated. Now and
then, perhaps, something approaching to this painful
state of things may exist 118 an exception, but it is an
exception that proves the rule. The self-denial of
the teachers, who give up time and subscribe money to
these treats is beyond dispute, and as to the enjoyment
of the children, this is clearly proved by those who
have been " last year" being always anxious to go
"this year." Heartily is it to be wished that these
children had play-grounds and fields IA ithin enaierreach,
and then these outings would not be so exciting; but
we must take things as they are, and rejoice that
there is so much desire to make children happy.