The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-08-12 00:00:00

Our ICorchn CDtrtspnbmt.

Ms deem it right to state that we do not at all ti=CS
tdeutify ourselves with our Correspondent'a opinions.]

From the middle of August to the end of September
you may constantly see ia the newspapers emphatic
and repeated assurances that "London is empty,'
To the uninitiated these might convey the idea that
the British capital bad become a desert; that, like
fallen Babylon, it was a wilderness and a solitary
place; or that the banks of the historic metropolitan
stream resembled those of the beleaguered city of
Prague, when it Was invested by an army of phantoms,

And with a Errowfal deep sound
The river rolled between."

The emptiness of London is, however, a mere figure of
speech. Granted that the squares of Belgravia and
Tyburnia are left to themselves, that the parks are
thin with people, and that there is not such a crowded
pavement in Pell Mall, the throbbing of the giant
city's heart is as audible as ever. There is no cessation
in the full tide of its enormous traffic through Cheap-
side and King William-street; no pause in the ani-
mated stream pouring over Lcndon Bridge no sus-
pension of business in the great banking establish-
ments of Lombard-street and Lothbury ; no apparent
diminution in the attendance at the Exchange; no
falling-off in the vast quantity of shipping that inces-
santly crowds the docks. The Registrar-General still
continues to issue his returns, showing a weekly
average of 2,300 births and 1,400 deaths in this great
province of houses—statistics which go a long way to.
wards proving that London is anything hut empty.
Supposing that every member of the upper Ten Thou-
sand leaves us, a re3pectable margin is left, amounting
certainly to three millions and a quarter. But the
absences are counterbalanced by the influx from the
cimitry, for in August and September such places as
the Tower, the British Museum, and the Naticnal
Gallery tell g.f the presence of a large number of ex-
cursionists whom railway facilities have attracted to
the big town.
Tue Augnet Bank Holiday was thrown in by a con-
siderate Legislature as a pleasant break in the long
space between Wnitsuntide and Christma... It is
gene?. id'y the most agreeable of the four; for Easter
and Whit Mondays have often been marked by broken
wea•her, and Boxing D.hy is not a time which ore
wou'd be likely to select for out-door recreation. These
holidays seem more and more to be recognised as
national institutions. When they were first es-
tablished, provincial towns did not take to them so
readily as the metropolis, but their popularity is ex-
tending, and for once London has led the way in a
general movement. It is not always that this has been
done, for its immense extent renders anything like con-
certed action often difficult and sometimes impossible.

Old politicians, who love to fight over again the
battles of the past, frequently tell of the exciting times
of 1830 and 1831, when durin g the Reform agitation, the
House of Commons was accustomed to sit all night
long to get through the clauses of the Bill for
"amending the laws relating to the representation of
the people in England and Wales." So fierce was
party strife that these sittings were occasionally
prolonged until past seven o'clock in the morning, and
our legislators left the scene of their labours just when
millions of the people were beginning. Altheugh we
have witnessed nothing like this in our own times, the
House of Commons does nc,w and then sit to what
would be known in Scotland as an " uneanny hour."
Last year a sitting was prolonged until a quarter past
five o'clock in the morning, and a few days ago there
was a sitting until half-past four. The House had met
at four on the previous afternoon, so that the business
had gone on with out interruption during twelve hour
and a half. Adjourning at half-past four, the House met
again at two in the afternoon, an interval of only nine
hours and a half. No wonder that at the fag
end of the senion members grow tired of their
legislative duties under such a strain upon their
physi( al powers, and that they long for the
day of prcrogation as the time of their release. The
Ministerial whitebait dinner precedes the close of the
session by a few days ; and to the jaded Ministers, who
have not only to be in the House of Commons by night,
but at the head of their departments by day as well,
the run down the Thames to Greenwich, where the
dinner is provided, must be like the approach of storm-
tcsaed mariners to land after a chequered and
tempestocus voyage.

A project hall been mooted for constrnctir g a new
trunk line from London to the North, to be more
especlally fcr the convenience of the immense quantity
of mineral traffic which the North is constantly sending
up to the capital. If it comes to maturity the line
would run between the Great Northern and the
Midland. It may be stated that four main lines already
occupy the, ground—viz., the London and North
Western, the Midland, the Great Northern, at d, to some
extent, the Great Western. The two first-named are
making strenuous efforts for accommodation for the
conveyance of goods and minerals, and on some parts
of the North Western a fourth line is now in process of
construction. The Midland is doing the same, and
upon specified sections of that system the work of
laying two additional lines, to be devoted solely to goods
traffic, is now steadily prog, easing. The new line
would be called the Central Northern.
The annual Volunteer Review on Easter Monday has
given place to a system of military instruction such as
cannot fail to be useful to our citizen army, and the
attendance of volunteers at the Aldershot summer
matceuvres must be of great benefit. It has been well
said that
Englishmen ought to be taught to defend . _

Their homes fron-a the foe while they welcome the friend;"
and although the services of the Volunteers have not
been required to aid in the defence of their country in
repelliiig an invasion, such a contiegency as war is, to
say the least, possible. During the c:uarter of a century
a.t has elae sei since the Great Exhibition, which it
was fondly hoped was to inaugurate a period of per-
petual peace, Europe has been converted into one vast
camp, and its arsenals have resounded with the
clamour of huge armaments. During the past twenty-
five ye.re we have witnessed wars between the
We tern Posers and Russia in 1854, between France
as.d AuAria in 1859, between Austria, Pru-sia, and
Denmark i a 1864; between Austria ano PruEsia in 1866,
and between Germany and France in 1870, to say
nothing of the conflict between Moslem and &lave-
nian which is now going on. Therefore it
Is clear that the volunteer force ought to be thoroughly
trained for action for a time of need. For many years
after it was called into existence it seemed to be thought
enoueh to go through the mere routine of company
with an occasional muster of the battalion or
brigade, coalleined with some target practice. This,
however, while making the men technically "efficient,"
wculd fail to fit them for a campaign, and this very
necessary part of a soldier's training is now being sup-
plied by the camps that have been established in various
parts of the country during the past few years in which
the volunteers go through a course of drill not to be
obtained at home.
nue is a theory in existence which declares that
the thunderstorms over London have of late years
Lt.00a..8 less and leB4 frequent and violent, and that
this is attributable to the purification of the Thames
and an improved system of drainage. It is asserted
that the course of a thunderstorm will be found over
the localities of polluted rivers, stagnant ponds,
swampy grounds, and badly drained towns, which
yield large quantities of nitrous and eulphurons
exhalations, with other unwholesome vapours. But,
as I pointed out just now mach depends
upon the meaning attached to the word
Loudon, which admits of a very wide interpretation.
For instance, last week the dwellers in the central and
southern districts were surprised to see in the papers a
letter from Sir Charles Reed, Chairman of the School
Board, describing the distress which had been wrought
In the north-eastern suburbs 17 a thunderstorm of
unparalleled violence, accompanied by a terrific shower
of ice-bells. It is computed that within a quarter of
an hour 400,000 panes of glass were destrosed ; a fact
which, however interesting it may be to the glaziers,
means sad havoc Amongst vineries, greemhoutes, and
cucumber frames, end destruction to an untold
quantity of fruit. Yet while this was going on at one
end of the town, the residents in the other parts were
pursuing their ordinary avocations in total ,ignorance
of such a visitation.
The conversion of railway stations into picture
galleries of really respectable proportions goes on
apace. The attractions of places of holiday resort
are set forth with a delicacy of colour, an accuracy
of perspective, and a completeness of finish
which serve to beguile much of the time of the
waiting traveller that would otherwise be heavy
and wearisome. The glories of Brighton," the
Queen of English watering-placEs," the delights of
Margate and Ramsgate, the quieter enjoyment
of Herne Bay, the situation of Sheerness on-Sea, the
pleasant scenery of Llandudno, the wild beauty of the
Highland mountains, the grandeur of Connemara, the
Arcadian quiet of 'Windermere and Ullswater, the
pictm %Nue hills and valleys of Devonshire, the
bracing qualities of Scarborough and Filey, the advan-
tages which would follow a visit to Southport, and the
extraordinary power of the Atlantic waves, as their
thundei log surges beat upon the Land's End—these
and many others are very cleverly depicted. This
system of advertising pleases the eye, and the very
sight of a good repreeentation of the sea on a warm day
Las done many a perspiring traveller good. By and
bye we shall have views, no doubt, of the more acces-
sible plae,es amongst the far-off Orkneys, remote Shetr
land, ad the lonely Hebrides, where the tourist
makes his way in and out amongst innumerable
Islands, and is soothed to rest at night and awakened
111 the early morn by the everlasting diapason 0 the
eas