The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-12 00:00:00

ur foulln torruspOtst.

pie deem it right to state that Pr '3 de not at all times
tz.entify ourselves with eta Correspondent's opinions.]

The night which precedes the opening of Parliament
is always one of animation in the neighbourhood of
the political clubs. Tha recognized leaders of the
Government and of the Opposition in both Houses
entertain their principal supporters at dinner; and,
according to etiquette, the chiefs of the Opposition
have been supplied by the Prime Minister with a copy
of the Royal speech which is to be delivered at the
Inauguration of the sittings of the Legislature on the
following day. This is read to the assembled guests,
and the contents are regarded as strictly confidential.

The London papers would very much like to be in
_possession of even the purport of the document; but
as a rule nothing is allowed to leak out, for obviously

it would be treating the sovereign with disrespect to
have her u,tterances_ anticipated-in—the—newspapers,
-onductors-of the journals are furnished with

a copy of the speech on conditioiAliat it shall not be
sold in the streets until the clock has struck two—the
hour at which Parliament is opened. Directly the
sounds die away from the bells of the city steeples
the speech is selling by thousands in the thorough-
fares, many innocent readers wondering how it
could have been got up from Westminster and
put into print in the time._ When Parliament was
prorogued in August 18735-singular incident happened.
The Royal message had been communicated to the
papers on the usual condition, but it so happened that
the steamboat conveying one of the Queen's mes-
sengers broke down in the Solent, and instead of being
prorogued at two o'clock as usual, the
_ceremony did

not take place until half-past four. Meanwhile, the
newspapers knowing nothing of this delay, had issued
the Speech at two, and it had been telegraphed half
over the civilized world before It was actually
delivered.
The Gardens of Parliament-square, which lie directly
opposite Old Palace Yard, have received an addition
to the number of statues previously there, and one
which will be regarded with =eh interest by the mass

of the English people. It is a little more than eighteen
months ago that the'present Premier unveiled a statue of
• Lord Derby in those gardens, and now Lord Palmerston
has been added to the list. Lord Palmerston when
Prime Minister, and more especially during the carry-
ing on of the war with Russia, was universally popular.
No figure was better known in the lobbies of the House
of Commons, and those who were best acquainted with
the features of the deceased statesman declare that
Mr. Woolner's statue fa a most faithful delineation.
For nearly sixty years was Lord Palmerston a mem-
ber of the House of Commons, and he held office
under four Sovereigns—George 111., Geozge IV.,
William IV., and Victoria. Beginning his official
career in 1809, as Secretary-at-War, and terminating
it in 1865, as Prime Minister, it will be seen that for
mere than half a century his name was prominently
before the public. Struck into marble in Parliamerit-
square, his commanding figure new overlooks the
scene of his long and active political life, and is within
sight of Westminster Abbey, the place of his rest.
The beneficial operation of the Salmon,Fisheriee' Act
in 1861 becomes more apparent every year. The laws
relating to the times and seasons in which it should be
lawful to angle for the king of fish were then consoli-
dated and amended, upon the report of a Royal Com-
mission. During the "fence time," which continues
from the 14th September to the Ist February, it is
illegal to catch fish of the salmon kind, and heavy
penalties await offenders against this salutary provi-
sion. The encouragement given to the revival of the
Salmon Fisheries by the statute passed fifteen years
ago, is seen by the annually-increasing supplies upon
the fishmongers' stalls, and it is not too much to hope
that another fifteen ears will witness a still more
augmentationmauifst in the quantities of a valuable
article of food which was rescued by the interposition
of tie I egi-dature from what threatened at one time
to 1-e ,Itoost entire destruction.
It 1.2 act generally known, nor have I seen the fact
referred to, that Leap Year alwa;s produces an in-
crease in the national expenditure. It.comes to pass
in this wise. Our military force is paid so much per
day, and as this year will be twenty-four hours longer
than its predecessor, an extra day's pay will be re-
quired for the army. To those who are paid by the
week, the month, or the quarter, it will make no
difference, but the soldier gets the benefit of the
arrangement; and I remember this being pointed out
by Mr. Lowe, when explaining the prov Lions of his

Budget in 1872. When the astronomers in the time
of Julius CEeAar fixed the solar year at 365 days, 6
hours, comprising the period from one vernal equinox
to another, the six hours were set aside, as causing in-
convenience, on the understanding that every four
years they were to be added together, thus making the
extra day which is so familar in our own age. The
day thus added was called intercalary, and was placed
before the 24th February, the sixth of the Roman
Kalends. It was thus reckoned twice; hence called
Bissextile, or twice sixth. Although we have taken it
away from the 24th, and made it the 29th every four

years, we still retain Bissextile, the name which the
Romans gave it. Before the 29th instant, the dates of
the days this year fall the same as in 1864 and 1870;
after the 29th they will fall the same as in 1865 and
1871.

_
Campanology, or the art of bell-ringing, to judge
from the frequency of the matches, seems to be on the
increase in public favour. There is no doubt that the
ringing of bells, in changes of regular peals, is almost
peculiar to this country, and that the English pride
themselves upon having brought the practice to a
regular art. On the Continent the merry peals which
are so often sent forth upon the troubled air of our
crowded cities, are well-nigh unknown, for you get
either the monotonous clangour of a single bell, or the
carillon of chimes inch as that immortalised by Long-
fellow in the "Belfry of Bruges," and which is set in
moticn by machinery. Ringers, as such, are very
scarce there. Perhaps the people who most per-
sistently aim at bells of vast size are the Russians, for
there is one in the cathedralat Moscow weighing 250 tons

Fancy a single bell outweighing three of our enormous

81-ton guns! What the sound can be like we can scarcely
imagine, especially when it is remembered that Big
Ben of Westminster, which can be heard for miles, is
under fifteen tons and a half. The great bell of St.
Paul's, which is tolled only on the death of a member
of the Royal Family, weighs 5 tons 4 cwt. The
ancients were accustomed to ring bells as a defence
against thunder and lightning. In later times they
were baptised in churches; indeed, in many countries
the people christen bells as we do ships, and accompany
this with a religious ceremony.
The Challenger, which was sent out three years ago
on a voyage of scientific exploration round the world,
is expected home shortly, and the results of her re-
searches will be awaited with much interest. In the
course of her wanderings she has taken the deepest sea
sounding on record—one of 4,600 fathoms to the north
of New Guinea, where the ocean is more than five
miles in depth. This is a very exceptional measure-
ment, the average depth of the Pacific being 3,500
fathoms, and that of the Atlantic, 2,500. Compared
with these vast immensities, the seas which so often
lash themselves into fury upon onr own coasts would
be deemed shallow indeed. There is no doubt what-
ever that if our corner of Europe were raised only 100
fathoms—half as high again as St. Paul's—the beds of
the English and Irish Channels and very nearly the
whole of the North Sea would be dry, the British
islands would be united and joined to the Continent,
and a large expanse of land would be added west of
Scotland and Ireland. The real basin of the Atlantic
begins outside this 100-fathom line, with a very sudden
declivity ; and compared with the Atlantic, the basin
of the Pacific declines in an equally sudden manner. It
has been ascertained by those on board the Challenger
that the water at the deepest parts of the ocean was
scarcely at all denser than at the surface, and that a
mass of iron or lead thrown into the water would
descend with a constantly-increasing velocity until it
reached the bottom. So far as the Atlantic basin is
concerned, the bottom is tolerably uniform; but lines
of volcanoes dot some portions of the Pacific depths.
The temperature of the sea varies considerably. The
North Atlantic averages 35 degrees' the Medi-
terranean 55; and the Red Sea in some parts exceeds
100. Curiously enough, the water at the bottom of
the line marked by the equator stands at 32 degrees;
and this is explained by the fact that the cold waves
of the Polar Seas, by their superior gravity, descend
and proceed along the bottom towards the equator,
then rising gradually to take the place of that which
Is constantly moving from the equinoctial line in the
direction oPthe Arctic regions. By this system of cir-
culation, life is kept up in those great ocean depths,
and the oppressive temperature at the equator is
reduced by several degrees below that at which it
would otherwise stand. As to the creatures which
sustain animal life under the enormous pressure of five
miles of water, little can be known.
Visitors to the British Museum must have noticed
as one of its interesting features the beautifully illu-
minated written volumes showing the great skill in
penmanship exhibited by the professional writers of
centuries ago. In their way these are as remarkable
as the hieroglyphic process of the Egyptians, the
cunieform style of the Assyrian inscriptions, and
the unique syriabols of the Chinese. Yet there
can be no doubt that, in the plenitude of
our zeal for higher education, we have to a
great extent overlooked the humble merits of so ele-
mentary an accomplishment as writing. The writers
of old knew nothing of the haste E 0 familiar to us con-
sequent upon endeavours to save the penny post; and
so the characters of our caligraphy are not so carefully
formed as were those of the scribes whose elaborately.
finished work we can study to-day. There is, never-

theless, honour in some trades or professions for a neat
and good as well as for a merely legible style, while
shorthand is becoming a lucrative and almost common
acquirement. Thus, though the previously-existing
race of writers has been well-nigh extinguished in
Europe, their place is now filled by a different order
of beings more suited to this hustling age.
Perhaps the French proverb which is most often
quoted in this country is "Noblesse oblige."‘tit is
from fius, -vsiao as : The
_onWpac4 icsem)biltty
thsit pOiefAligtitiodwim thostewho'are'torn nbl
not tOdegenerate from the virtue of their forefathers."
When a man attempts an obviously impossible task,
the French would say of him: "He wantsto dry snow
in the oven, and then sell it for white salt." Willing
to warn you of the intensity of a woman's hatred,
they say : "Shun the rage of a dove." A great
expenditure of energy for a very small purpose would
be described by a French proverb as having been
"all for the plums." This is as old as the Crusades,
when the French made an unsuccessful attack upon
Damascus for the sake of the rich ripe plums growing
within the walls of the city. In French proverbs, in-
deed, we find all the wit, gaiety, and quickness of the
nation. They are even fuller of allusions to old times
than our own; and many are unintelligible without
a knowledge of the medieval story on which they
are based. They contain Many allusions to re-
ligion ; and, while some are contradictory, like
those of every other race, for the most part theyi
uphold honesty and virtue. The majority of French
proverbs seem to have been written in the vineyards,
the merchant's office, the camp, and the court'; Tet a
few are so full of Christianity that they, npat have
been framed either in .the convent or the pastor's
house. One of thee is " The hand of the poor is God's
purse," the meaning conveyed being that assistance in.
their poverty really cahae from Heaven to those who,
according to the language of Holy Writ, "shall never
cease out of the land."