The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-11-07 00:00:00

Tre STOURBRIDOE OBSEUVER.

commatrs ON CURRENT TOPICS.
THE much talked of London School
Board Election, whichpassed off very quietly
indeed, has resulted in a majority of mem-
bers in favour of the traditional policy of the
Board, notwithstanding the hot opposition
of a strong economical party headed by Mr.
John Lobb of the Christian Age, who was
himself successful in the Hackney division,
being placed at the head of the poll, and
closely followed by three of his supporters.
Sir John Bennett is the most prominent of
the new members. Mr. E. N. Buxton
headed the poll in the Tower Hamlets; the
School Management Chairman, Mr. Mark
Wilks, and Mr. Spicer, who presided over
the Industrial Schools Committee have been
chosen again. The highest number of votes
were received by Mr. Barnes, in St. Pancras,
he being a staunch opponent of the free edn-
catian proposal. Canon Barker, Mr. Lucraft,
the Rev. G. Murphy, and other old mem-
bers again take their seats; while the chief
amoug the old educationists missing when a
month hence the new Board begins opera-
tions will be Sir Edmund Currie, the Rev.
T. C. D. Morse, and Mr. Freeman. Mr.
George Mitchell (who delights to describe
himself as " Ono from the Plough"), Mr.
Lyulph Stanley, Miss Muller, Miss Hastings
Mr. White, and Mr. Gudgeon will also be
conspiciuous by their absence. The new
Board will be less feminine than any of its
predecessors. In addition to the defeated
lady candidates, Miss Helen Taylor has vol-
untarily retired. We trust the Board will
address itself to an earnest efficient admin-
istration of the powers conferred upon it,
not leaning, on the one hand, to extravagant
expenditure, and not, on the other, adopting
a cheese-parinepolicy to the detriment of
education.

IN tho Registration Appeal Court the
shop assistants have fared far better than
the stock-brokers and the undergraduates,
and there is every likelihood of the letter of
the Registration Act being amended at an
early date into coincidence with its spirit, so
that the responsible indoor-dwelling shop-
man, with three or four hundred pounds a
year, it may be, shall be no longer excluded
by a draughtsman's technical blunder from
the enjoyment of the franchise, while the
warehouse porter who lives in a cottage out-
side the establishment exercises the right to
vote. The Appeal Judges have decided that
the existing Act is sufficient to assure the
the Parliamentary suffrage to the assistant
exclusively occupying a bedroom on his
master's premises; and the strong combina-
tion of shopmen which has been formed
will, doubtless, succeed in bringing about
the necessary revision in the terms of the
new statute, so that every shopman of a
certain status will be able to make his voice
heard in the choice of members of Parlia-
ment.

IT is hard to understand why imperial
politics should be obtruded into matters
municipal in the prominent manner that
they are in some of our large towns. The
man of business ability, sagacity, and large
local knowledge, actuated by zealous public
spirit, is the man to make the best town
councillor, whether he be a Liberal or a
Conservative as regards the larger question
of the State. Yet we find that the contests
in many' municipalities have been conducted
upon fierce party fines, and that all the
forces of the local political organisations
have been brought to bear in the struggle.
Merely as Ia means of feeling the political
pulse of the people between the times of
Parliamentary elections this method of mix-
ing irrelevant issues may, perhaps, commend
itself to the local heads of either party ; but
it is scarcely of much service even to that
end, seeing that the Parliamentary and
municipal franchise are dissimilar andthat a
majority of ratepayers are not so likely to
vote for a man soley because of his political
views as to shape their attitude towards him
in accordance with their estimation of the
local opinions he seeks to represent.

WHAT with the columns of electioneering
speeches that are daily being delivered by
greater or lesser lights of the political world,
and manifestoes which each morning sees
increase in number from combinations and
associations of every character, the poor
burgess may well be almost bewildered as to
how, when the eventful election day arrives,
he shall bestow his vote. Religious and
philanthropic societies, heads of the Church
as by law established, bishops of the Roman
Catholic faith, leaiing ministers of various
Nonconformist bodies, and associations of
every sort having the slightest claim to
national consideration, have all inun-
dated.the elector with advice, and sought to
influence him to make common cause with
them in the objects they have chiefly at
heart. Then commercial interests have
been placed to the front of the battle by
other bodies, and even this does not exhaust
the long catalogue of enthusiastic politicians
who seek to have the issue decided on ques-
tions which they have come to regard as of
paramount importance, for we have not yet
alluded to the army of erotcheteers and
political hobbyhorsemen. But from the
thick of the war of words there comes new
and again a sound which almost all earnest
men:are agreed to echo. It is the cry of
some band of public men, as wide apart as
the poles in their thought on many themes,
but at one with regard to a single crucial
question. Such an utterance is the address
of the newly-founded Irish Loyal and Patri-
otic Union, to all who have Ireland's true
welfare at heart. Loyalists on either side
of the Irish Sea are adopting the propaganda
of the union, and Liberal and Conservative
statesmen stand side by side as its friends
and supporter,. The new league will furnish
an antidote to the evil effects of a solidified
so-called Nationalist party, which might
easily, as it has done before, work much
mischief in following an obstructive policy
at St. Stephen's, and seeking to play the
coquette with Government aiid Opposition,
always throwing in its vote to the highest
bidder on the occasion of a critical division.
If the new Loyal and Patriotic Union will
only- act up to the principles it professes, it
cannot fail to become a great and wholesome
power in Irish poltics.

vieti m of youthful u
REMEDY FREE!dence causing Premature De-
ca), N ery ud Debility, Lost ME auhood, etc., having tri,d
TAill every known remedy has discovered a simple
tue‘rhicli Le will scud FREE to his feiloi
sti,orers. Address J. H, REEVES, E5Q.,43 CliLittidm
et, New York City, U.S.A.

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