The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-04-03 00:00:00

BY OUR OW S OORR/SPONDE!,T.

retie remarks unaer this head :re to 1,, regarded us the ex-
in moron id independent opinion, ;COM the pen of &gentleman
V i 1.11111,. have the greatest C:1:11tIellve, 1 ut for which WB
•IcnertlSs do not hold ourselves responaible.l

With very general satisfaction has the announce-
ment been received that her Majesty intends to hold
two more Drawing-rooms—on the Bth of April and
the 11th of May and that on the 3rd of April, Prince
Arthur is to hold a ley& on behalf of the Queen.
These state asserublit 3 have a very cheering efloct on
the Loudon season, and indirectly must be pleasing to
all who regret her Majesty's partial seclusion for so
long a time.
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- - -
In the interest of the contmereial community, as
well as of society generally, it is to be hoped that the
Attorney General's Bill for the Abolition of Imprison-
ment for Debt may become law. When debt is
fraudulently contracted, without either the means or
the intention to pay, the matter is something more
than mere debt: it is fraud ; and a man deserves to be
imprisoned for it. But to imprison a man for an
ordinary trade debt is generally cruel and foolish; it
punishes the debtor for what may be no fault of his,
prevents him earning money to pay his debt, and c. at-
fens no benefit on the creditor. It is well known that
the threat of imprisonment for debt is an instrument
of torture that is frequently used by attorneys with
great advantage to themselves. A man for instance
owes we will say, £3O, and gives a bill for it; he can't
take it up, and in due time a writ is issued; then
there is a compromise, and execution is held in terrorem
over the poor fellow's head; and by some means or
other the attorney manages to make a good thing of it.
If ever we have imprisonment for debt abolished, one
result will be to promote ready money payments; and
a good Bankruptcy law ought to have a tendency in
the same direction.
The Easter holidays preclude anything like political
activity, hut the ti,rce struggle that took place in the
House of Commons just before the recess is still talked
of with interest. That struggle was, of course, but
one episode in a parliamentary campaign, and the
battle xi ill ere long be renewed. Looking back on this
episode it has convincingly proved the greatly superior
strength of the Ministry on the great question of the day.
In a house which has only been once equalled and once
more surpassed in numerical force, the Ministry have
gained such a triumph that we may naturally con-
clude that further victories are to follow. Whether
the Opposition will gain any important victories in
matters of detail in committee of the Commons, or
whether the House of Lords will venture to reject the
niecumre, or, again, whether their lordships will make
such alterations in it as the Commons will not agree
to—all these and many other questions are agitating
the vortex of politics. I offer no opinion on the rela-
tive merits of the great subj-ct that has so long occu-
pied public attention, but will merely' add that the
balance of opinion as to the probable result is un-
doubtedly in favour of tile hill being carried, with un-
important modifications, through both Houses and
receiving the royal assent.
It is good for so influential a journal as the Daily
Telegraph to draw attention to the need of a reform in
is very important matter—postage, but it is a pity that
it should make such a blunder as to tell us that the
present minimum rate of postage to the United States
is fid. for a quarter of an ounce. It is lid. for half an
ounce, and people writing to America ought not to be
misled. The same writer speaks of ocean penny post-
age BA a halcyon dream of Ebhu Burritt's. But the
dream of one age becomes the practical fact of the
next, and is even sometimes realised by the dreamer
himself. It may be true, as stated in this article, that
if we could suppose the Crown surrendering its ex.
elusive privilege to carry letters, or to permit private
persons to carry them, as in the case of ships,
Lumbers of companies would start up offering to carry
letters from John o' Groat's to the Land's End for a ,
farthing, or from London to San Francisco for a penny;
and a beautiful amount of confusion would be the re-
sult. This stay be true, but as there is no danger of
the Crown, or rather the Government, losing its
monopoly—the most popular monopoly that ever ex-
isted—there is no e cession to fear any such awful re-
sult. Nobody grumbles at the Pest Office generally,
and ever 3 body admits that on the whole it is a splen-
didly managed in-titution. partly owing no doubt to
the tight hold upon it possessed by the public ; but
what the world wants—for it is a universal question. -
is chr aper international postsge. Why should we
have to pay fit. for a r td Australia or America,
and 4d. for a letter under a quarter of an ounce to
France Why should a letter to Jamaica cost la,
and the cheapest letter to India be Pd? Why, if we
want to write to our boy at school in Switzerland, must
we bare to pay sd. for the tiniest letter, and 10d. if it
weigh more than a quarter of an ounce? The answer
is that other nations, or at least their respective Go-
vernments, are not so liberal and enlightened in this
matter as we are; and that, though national self.
praise, is the simple fact. If America and France, for
example, would be generous and large-hearted in this
matter, the three nations could easily arrange for a
penny postage, and in a year or two it would pay as
well as the present high rates. But, even if the re-
duction resulted in a direct loss, the indirect gain, in
the promotion of commerce and lidernational good.

will would be immerse.
Having been at the Crystal Palace on Good Friday,
I am not surprised to find that there were more than
53,000 persons present. The day was too cold and the
weather too uncertain for out-door recreation, and un-
favourable weather always tells in favour of the
Crystal Palace, for obvious reasons; but if the object
of the majority was to hear the sacred concert, they
most have been grievously disappointed. In the re-
served seats you can hear pretty well—at least in the
half-crown places; belt the great mass of the visitors
certainly could not hear. A very unfair notion of the
day's enjoyment can be got from the newspapers:
their representatives were safely ensconced where they
could see and hear well, and they naturally write front
their own impressions. But not so the surging, strug-
gling crowd. I read, for example, that "a mass of
people listened to the solemn strains with a silence
that more resembled that of the listeners to an oratorio
at Exeter Hall than the chance meeting of a vast
crowd on a public honlay." Very inipreasive, no
doubt, if it were only true. The fact was that very few
indeed of those who had no reserved seats could hear or
see, and there was a constant moving about and push-
ing to get better places. I read, too, that "when the
great mass rose up, joining with one accord in the
Hundredth Psalm, it was both a eight and a sound
that cannot be described, though never forgotten."
But I saw other sights which could easily be described
were it worth while, and which are not likely to be
forgotten by those who may be asked to go to the
Crystal Palace next Good Friday. I alsoread that "the
attraction of the sacred music seemed tube quite enough
for the great mass of visitors. Yes, quite enough, and a
great deal too much, for beyond the boundaries if an
immense crowd, who could hear and FP'e more or leas,
there was a larger crowd who could neither see nor
hear, and who soon gave over the attempt and
wandered about the Palace and the grounds. And
here there were, as there always are, so much that is
beautiful to gaze upon, that no one could come away
and say the day was wasted. The crush to see the
Siamese Twins, the Nova Scotian giantess, and the
beautiful Circassian lady, though there was an extra
shilling to pay, was immense. Intensely melancholy
did those unhappy Siamese twins look, as though their
life were a burden to them, but in private life they are
conversational, awl positively jolly. A friend of mine,
who has lived many years in Siam,' and who is one of
the very few people in our own country who can speak
Siamese, found they had almost wholly forgotten their
native language. Almost equally wonderful is that
immensely tall woman who is fitly called a giantess!
It is a pity that her actual height is not stated. She
is advertised as eight feet high, and the voluble
American who introduces her to the company says she
is "nearly eight feet," As she walked among the
visitors she was a head taller than the crown if the
hats of men six feet high. The Siamese regard their
visitors with a stolid apathy which is natural enough
after having witnessed so many thousands of spectators
gazing at them, but the monstrous Nova Scotian lady
appears to feel keenly the unhappy lot which compels
her to be gazed at for a livelihood. As to "the
beautiful Circassian lady," she rather likes tube looked
at, knowing that she is a curiosity for her hair only,
which a clever coiffeur could reduce to elegant priipir-
thins and a beautiful appearance in an hour or two.
She is certainly handsome, and has a charming classic
cast of features, but most of 1.1 have seen even more
beautiful women. She is said to be highly acetone-
plished, and to be able to speak five or six languages.
I can vouch for her speaking English and French with
equal facility.

The playground of Charterbouse School, it is stated,
has been let on a building lease, and will probably
soon be covered over. Itiore's the pity. What a tine
recreation ground these two acres would make. But
we must submit to bricks and mortar, instead of grass,
shrubbery, and flowers. We cannot expect owners of
City land to be more generous than other people.
But what a pity it is that there is no power of com-
pulsory purchase, and no funds available for making
this plot f ground a breathing place for the dwellers
in that locality. The Charterhouse, however, like
Dulwich College, is making money by letting land for
building purposes, and though nobody is to be blamed
for it, the fact is to be regretted. As to Dulwich
College, its immense revenues are being largely in-
creased every day, as new houses are being let, and