The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-07 00:00:00

ur onon Corrtsponkill.
We d9ern q, right to state that we do not b; au times
Aentify ourselves with our Correspondent's Widow.)

Those who have followed the customs observed at
the opening of each Parliamentary session will have
noticed that, so far as the House of Commons is con-
cerned, the mover of the Address in answer to the
Royal speech_ is invariably a county member, and the
seconder is a representative of an important city or
borough. It does not signify which political party
may be in power; this rule is always followed without
exception. The Address is merely an echo of the
Itoyal Speech; but it opens up an opportunity for
--a debate upon the policy of the Government. Sup-
pose,- for instance, the Queen's Speech to say: "My
relations 'with foreign Powers continue to be satisfac-
• tory,". the Address , would contain a passage
iduiething like this : "We humbly thank your
Majesty for communicating the assurance that
your Majesty's relations with foreign Powers
, continue to be satisfactory." And so on, subject
bi subject, and paragraph by paragraph, the ad-
dress contains the humble thanks of the Legislature
for the information which has been imparted in the
message of the Sovereign." On rare occasions, when
the Opposition fetid strong enough to oust the
GoverMient from power, a paragraph of three lines is
• added to the address, in these words :—" And we fur-
ther humbly beg to assure your Majesty that we have
, no confidence in your Majesty's present advisers." It
closes the document, and momentous are its issues.
Such a motion was carried in 1841 and in 1859. but it
is not often that such an extreme measure is resorted
• • to. Much more frequently does a Ministerial-defeat
take place upon one of those side issues which are so
• constantly arising in political life.
How much longer is the present Parliament to last?
This question is exciting much attention in London
just now. This is its sixth session, and on the day of
• Its meeting, the sth inst., it is four years and nine
months old, having assembled at Westminster on the
sth March, 1874. There is ncelimit to its number of
,seseions, provided they do not exceed the term
" allotted, by the Septennial Act for the duration of
Parliament. Thai is seven Years from its date of
meeting, so that nominally it might run until the sth
garch, 1881. Practically, however,' no f'arliament
lasts seyen years. The longest in modern times ran
six years and two months, from May 1859 to July
1265, and in its final session its sole business
was confined to administrative routine, for no
treat measures could be discussed in an expiring
'douse of Commons. It is not generally known
that the Septennial Act was passed in a panic. For
centuries the Parliaments had been either annual,
biennial, or triennial, with rare exceptions. In 1716,
the second year of the reign of George 1., the Pre-
tender's rebellion having been crushed a few months
previously, an alarm spread throughout the kingdom
o another plot, with possibly a repetition of insur-
rectionary troubles, and it was therefore enacted that
Parliament should continue for seven years. Such was
the origin of the Septennial Act, which has never been
repealed, although various sets have been made
against it. Its opponents contend, end not altogether
without reason, that it is impossible for a Parlia-
ment to represent the feeling of the nation seven
yea -s after its election. Let us, for instance, go
back seven years, and where do we find ourselves?
e., •-• In the month of December, 1871, when the Prince
of Wales in the. grasp. of typhoid fever, lay battling
for life at Sandringham. What an age ago seems that
dark time! France, bleeding and prostrate, had but
just begun to recover from the beating down which
▪ rhe had received from Germany; America was worry-
- Jag UB over the Alabama claims, over which we had
77 not gone. into arbitration; the future Ashantee war
was far in the distance; and further still the war
between Russia and Turkey, or between England and
Afghanistan. Who would declare that a Parliament
chosen seven years since could possibly reflect the moving
public opinion of to-day? Political vicissitudes, how-
- ever, send the House of Commons to the constituencies
• -oftener than this, and the average duration of the nine
Parliameeets of the present reign has been a little over
four years and a half each, or just the age of that now
in existence. Long as seven years may seem, we
•;'' ••• should nat -care, upon the other hand, to have general
electioneaco frequently. There was one in October,
1830, another in June, 1831, and a third in December,
18-32—.three dis.lolutions in a little over two years.
It is easy to see what a vast number of momentous
• • events must be crowded into seven years, when we
think over what has happened only in twelve months.
This time last year the Russians were still investing
Plevna. It was on Sunday the 9th December that
e Osman Pasha made a last desperate attempt to cut his
„way through the band of iron which the beleaguering
forces had drawn around him; and failing in his
gallant attempt, surrendered his army and the fortress
to the enemy. ..That act virtually terminated the war.
Onward marched the Russians first to Adrianople.
and. then pushed their way towards Constantinople
itielf. Then ensued that strong excitement in this
• .
country amid wbirh wA r h •••iferp etialr cue-
•'" ecOnelueion of the San Stefano Treaty, and the Con-
• grass at Berlin. We are now ourselves at war with
the Ameer of Cabul. Within the twelve months
••• •
Tarliament has been twice summoned to the Councils
of the Sovereign, and the Ministry has been twice re-
constructed through the secession of two Secretaries of
State. If such a multitude of issues, most important
. in their bearing, has been compressed into one year,
. it would be scarcely possible for the national recollec-
• tion to contain the incidents of seven.
. _
The Smithfield Club Cattle Show, which opens at
• the Agricultural Hall ;on Monday the 9th instant, is
• azt event of more than local interest. Her Majesty
: will, as usual, be a large exhibitor in the Devon and
.Shorth.)in classes from the Home and Norfolk farms
at Windsor, as well as amongst the pigs; whilst the
Prince of Wales will compete with the Queen in the
• same cattle classes, and with the Duke of Richmond
• and Gordon and Lord Walsingham in the sheep classes.
There will be a larger show of machinery than on any
. previ ns occasion, and the exhibition of live stock is
. expecteri to be very fine, and numerically superior to
• • that of last year. More than £3,000 is to be awarded
in prizes and cups. At no time in the year is the
• High•street of Islington so crowded as in the week of
. the cattle show. It does the heart of the smoke-
•• dried Lendoner good to look upon the ruddy faces
and th beaming eyes of the farmers, who, however,
• • if th w,ek be one of fog, as in 1873, are glad enough
- to get away again from the metropolis to their own
sequ- stered homesteads, where, if they have not the
pl asiue—if pleasure it be—of gazing there upon
han Is me shops and crowded streets, they do enjoy
pure air and the fresh breezes of heaven.
If ynn look at a map showing the subterranean
facilities for railway communication in London, it will
be seen that the lines at present in existence, con-
*Ftructed respectively by the Metropolitan and the
•. Distziet Companies, cover seven-eights of a circle. The
Metrcpolitari comes up to, Aldgate,;and the District to
e• the Mansion House, and there each stops. A little
.piece of line would connect them both and make the
circle complete, giving at the same time railway ac
commedation to the vast population living in the
neighbourhood of the Docks, the Tower, and Billings-
gate Market. Short as it would be, however, this
piece LI line must inevitably prove so enormously costly
that h.therto no single company has ventured to run
the risk of constructing it. But at length the rival
undertakings—the Metropolitan and the District have
combs led, and have given notice of a bill in this Session
•• '• of Pe iliament for making a joint line to Trinity-square,
near Tower Hill, and this would effect the object
which has so long been rimed at. Another metropoli.
' an improvement of which notice has been given is the
very desirable one of keeping the Thames in its bed in
tioaes of flood. Within the last two or three years it
' has happened on more than one occasion that an
enormous body of land water coming down the river,
liaks been met by a huge spring tide coming up from
the German Ocean, with the result that miles and
miles of a densely-populated district have been over-
flowed. • Not only has immense material loss thus
...been caused, but the foundations of disease have been
laid in poor and crowded districts where every pre-
," caution ought to be taken against the assaults of such
enemies.
The night of the 30th November is the last for
depositing at the Board of Trade notices of private
in the
bills such as that referred to preceding para-
graph; but for a long time we have seen nothn
like
that which characterised the 30th November,
elB4:hieha
day which closed OD of the most hurried and desperate
weeks in the annals of railway history. Plans were
on that day lodged at the Board of Trad
- bre,ught up the total number of railway schemes to 788.
A large establishment of clerks was in attendance to
register the deposits; but towards midnight the
deliveries became so rapid that the officials were
unable to keep pace with the work. The entrance
hall became inconveniently crowded, and a general
fear prevailed that the necessary formalities would
not be got through before twelve o'clock ; this, how-
ever, was allayed by an assurance that admission
into, the hall before that hour would be sufficient to
grapt the reception of the documents. Arrivals
eale ee Fee..
,In•hot haste from various parts of the country took
44.6' Place all the last moment, and even after the door was
- 45. • ' abut. two or three parties sought to project their
r4r.; plans into the building, but had them thrown back
into the street. Well that might have been called a
railway mania, with plans for nearly 800 new linesbefore
Parliament for a single session! It was such a time
as we have Ilevit witnesaed since; but the excitment

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