The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-04-10 00:00:00

'4lldrapplitan 6assip..

In OUR OWN 09111MilONNIINI.

he restarts under this head are to h. regarded as the ex-
pression of ludeeendeut opinion, trio the pen of ageiitlemlfl
in whom we have the greatest confideove, but Sc alga& aa
nevertheless do yet hold ourselves reopen:salt]
Prince Arthur is rapidly taking an important position
as a member of the royal family, and doubtless pre-
sides at a lends as though he were—as indeed it is
scarcely too much to say he is—to the manner born.
His Royal Highness had no reason to complain of the
levde being scantily attended on Saturday. The pub-
lic, too, must be pleased that he is doing what in him
lies to gratify our Irish fellow-subjecte. The visit of
the Prince (who on the eve of his departure was gazetted
a Knight of St. Patrick) to Ireland cannot but be pro-
ductive of beneficial results. It will, of course, not
please Hibernia so much as if the Prince of Wales
were to go, still less can such a visit be compared with
one from her Majesty ; but still the royal !sojourn will
be gratifying to the Emerald Islanders. Apropos of
royalty, we have of late years acquired rather a loose
way of writing and speaking of the bestowment of
honours, forgetting the old constitutional maxim that
"the Queen is the fountain of honour." Thus I read,
for instance, a rumour that "Mr. Gladstone intends to
raise Lord Chancellor °Hagan to the peerage, and
that the matter will be accomplished in a few weeks."
Whether the rumour be true or not, does not much
matter to anybody but Lora Chancellor O'llagan, but
undoubtedly Mr. Gladstone has no intention of raising
anybody to the peerage, simply because he knows he
has no power to do so.
The House of Commons, again hard at work after the
Eaater recess, will for some little time to come have to
deal with those important branches of legislative busi-
ness --supply and ways and means; the one thing refer-
ring to the money that the Government requires; and the
other to the way in which it is to be obtained. Votes
far the army, the navy, and the Government depart-
ments will be taken in marvellously small " homes "
houses in fact which might at any moment, generally
speaking, be counted out, and which frequently would
be counted out perhaps were it not that two minutes'
grace is allowed for loungers and stragglers to come in,
and that the Government whip always takes care to
have scattered forces of this kind to fall back upon.
At the time of writing the forthcoming Budget of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer is talked of with gloomy
forebodings. Mr. Lowe, it will be remembered, has
already had a grant of £3,600,000, for the expenses of
the Abyssinian war, in addition to the money pre-
viously voted, and this fact, added to the revenue
having fallen considerably below the estimate, would
produce an awkward deficiency of wane four millions
and a half. But then there is a saving on army and
navy expenditure of about two millions and a quarter,
and even if there are other savings, we can scarcely
expect a deficiency of leas than a million soda half; so
that we may make up our minds to another penny on
the income tax at least. Our only consolation is, that
the circumstances are quite exceptional, and that
England could do no otherwise than undertake the
Abyssinitui expedition.
Who would have thought that an Education Bill
would take away from the Londoners sonic of
their few open spaces? So it would be, however,
were Mr. Forster's Endowed Schools Bill allowed to
peas in its present form; but an amendment is to be
moved in Committee, which, if passed, will have the
effect of preventing so disagreeable a result. More-
over, we are to have a Select Committee to consider
the proposed enclosure of Wisley Common. I don't
suppose that one Londoner out of a thousand knows
where Wisley Common is, but that is a detail, as the
French say. We want all our Commons preserved,
wherever they are, within an hour's ride of the Great
City; and the more our population increaseo, and the
MOTO our fields, lanes, aria waste spaces are built upon,
the more necessity there is to secure such open breath-
ing places as still nominally belong to the people.
Emigration from this country to Canada has latterly
been on the increase, and there is no doubt that the
ratio of emigrants will still further increase. This, in
itself, renders of more importance than ever a subject
which the working classes of Great Britain do not
thoroughly appreciate. I allude to the negotiations
between our country and the Hudson's Bay Company.
Briefly stated, these negotiations are for the surrender
to the British Government by the Company of their
territorial rights, on certain conditions which are
perhaps more favourable than this corporation has a
right to expect. The Company rest their right to
exclusive trade over the greater portion of North
America partly on a chatter granted by Charles the
Second, partly in their amalgamation with the Western
Fur Company some thirty-five years ago, and partly
on their unopposed occupation of territory, on the old
principle that possession is nine points of the law.
The validity of the Company's charter, taken in con
necti in with their immense possessions, has been
questioned for years, and has never been established;
and the Company will act wisely if they sing small
and take the offer of the British Government. The
Canadians look upon the negotiations with intense
interest. They see that the Company's monopoly is a
violation of the commercial policy of our own country,
and that either directlyor indirectly it closes the greater
portion of British North America against the enterprise
of British subjects. It is earnestly to be hoped that this
monopoly will not last long. Canada wants more
population, and the Canadian Government is trying
to promote immigration ; and it need not be insisted
upon that we have too large a population, and that emi-
gration from our country to Canada would be a blessing
to both countries. It is, therefore, very consolatory to
find that Government has decided to send out, free of
expense, some of the &esteemed dockyard men from
Portsmouth.
A recent came of "baby farmieig" has set me thinking
on our national crime of infanticide. Referring to
facts, I find that out of 1,104 inquests held on infants
under two years of age there were no less than 66 ver-
dicts of wilful murder, five of manslaughter, and 141
of "found dead" (a most suggestive verdict) while 131
infants were decided to have died of suffocation, how
eamsed there was no evidence ; 147 died from accidental
suffocation; and 614 from neglect, want, exposure, or
disease. And here is another painful fact stated by
Mr. Acton, a medical man who has devoted much at-
tention to the subject. He tells us that out of 877 ille-
gitimate children born in London, 392 died soon after
birth. I will not dwell upon such facts, but the death.
cry of these little martyrs ought to ring in our ears till
the country and the Legislature is roused to action.
For ray part, I cannot read such facts without thinking
of Mrs. Browning's scathing words :
The child's soh curseth deeper In the silence
Than the strong man in his wrath.
We are to have a section of tramway, on the new
principle, tried here, from Westruister to Kennington.
Give it but a fair trial, and there is no doubt of its
success; and when one section of the tramway has
turned out a success, opposition to further reform in
the same direction will be futile.
When Mr. Charles Dickens, some time ago, stated
that his then announced series of readings would be
positively the lent he would ever give in London, hopes
were generally entertained that something might arise
to induce him to alter his determination, though it was
well known that it must be something important that
would effect such a desirable result. Several actors
and actresses having urged him to give some morning
readings, he has consented, and will give a series of
three. The Thespians who will now hear him may
learn something from these readings. Mr. Dickens
is incomparably the finest reader of the age. I
am half inclined to think that he could make the list
of bankrupts interesting to an audience if he were to
real them; but, seriously, his wonderful dramatic
power when reading one of his own stories eurpasses
that of all the celebrated readers 1 have heard. It is a
great pity that he retires so early from the platform,
for his powers appear to be fresh as ever.
The Marquise de Came (Adelina Patti) has, I
believe, gained a larger amount of remuneration than
any other ginger or actress ever did in the game time;
and her pecuniary good fortune appears likely to last.
It is said that on the eve of her departure from St.
Petersburg she signed an engagement to return there
from the 15th of November to the 15th of March, for
200,000 francs (28,1:00), that is at the rate of about
I.:500 a week for perhaps two or three nights onlyla
week. This is changing notes for gold with a ven-
geance ! Managers, however, no doubt find their
account in these ens, mous payments. Speaking of
this charming eanta trier, I hope the rumour is not true,
that she has withdrawn her name from the united
opera. If ea, we shall feel inzlined to say, with Mer-
cutio, "A plague on both your houses!"

CoNvziouos ur Roms.—A communication
from Rome in the Gazette du Midi Bays :

A very touching ceremony took place in this city .m St.
Joseph's day The Prince and Princess of Schauenhurg-
Lippe abpired Protestantism in preses Ace of tbe Cardinal de
Halbach. They had both formed separately the project of
conversion to the catholic faith, but had a • t ventured to re-
pose confidence in eaA, thee thus theT surprise was
great whets the same avowal issued from their lips. Rumour
says that the mother of the Princess arrived in Rome to dies
sum le her slaughter from accomplishing the conversion in
question, and is about to make an abjuration in her turn.

GrATI:4I3 RID OF AN OPPONENT !—An anecdote
of Lord Aberdeen and M. Guizot, apropos of the sub-
ject of elections, has just turned up : -

M. flnirot was walking in the park of Hielllo Rouse with
Lord Aberdeen. All at once the English statesman stopped
him before a cottage of very modest appearance. "There."
said he, "in a small house, which recalls to my mind a great
shame of my political life" "An net of violence? "—asked
M. Gilizot. "Judge you—l hid there a cottager, a floe
fellow. but horribly annoying, who in every election cnnflict
never lost the opp rtunity of opposing me." "Did you turn
him out?" " N..; but 1 re bleed his rent by one rlitlea "
Thin. diminished. the mall farmer WU no longer an elector,
aud could no more annoy tho noble turd.