The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-02-16 00:00:00

Ogr 'fintbon enrusponbtnt,

(We deem It right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Those who take an interest in the political life of the
people cannot have been but deeply impressed with
_ _ _ _ _

the fart that with the widening of the basis of the C,m-
stitution, the days of small parliamentary majorities
disappeared. When the .f.;10 householder ruled in the
boroughs, it was common enough for the Government

of the day to live as it were from hand to mouth,
that is to say, its existence depended upon the
will of a very few members, who, whenever they

pleased to cross the floor and vote against it in

a critical division, could drive it from power. In a
great division upon the first Reform Bill, the numbers
were 322 to 321, and the division which caused the

(liez,olution of Parliament in 1841 was marked by a
similarly narrow majority-312 to 311. Lord Pal-
meroton came into power a second time in 1859 with
a majority of 13, the numbers then voting having been

323 against 310, and often during his six years' Premier-
ship the cheery old statesman was well content
with majorities of less than a dozen. In a memor-
able division in 1866, when Mr. Gladstone was Leader
of the House of Commons, the Liberal Gvernment ob-

tained a majority of 5, namely, 318 to 313. But the
two general elections which have taken place since
the passing of the Reform Act of 1867 have shown

sweeping majorities—in 1868 the balance being
largely on the side of the Liberals, and in 1874
__ _

on -the side of the Conservati-es. The days when

a few independent members could control
the Government of the country have passed away;
and during the past few years, whenever a great party
difision has taken place, the question has not been
whether or not the Government would be defeated, but

how near a hundred votes tlzeir majority would be.

Lord Palmerston would have rubbed his hands with

delight at twenty; now it is common enough to talk
with confidence of five or six times that number.

Mr. Henry Stanley's reception by the Royal Geo-
graphical Society shows our men of soience can
appreciate the work of ono who a few years ago

tot fly unknown has made for himself a name for
inchmitab/e perseverance in the work of geographical
research. Busy as the English people have lately
been in the line of political controversy, they have

found sufficient time to follow the course of Mr.

Stanley's discoveries in Africa, and the special

numbers of the illustrated newspapers which have

been devoted to this subject have conveyed a

good idea of the vicissitudes and the perils through
which he passed. How many of the brilliant

audience in St. James's Hall, where the Geo-
graphical Society's reception took place, would have
cared to run even one of these risks—the encamp-

went in Cannibal Land? It must have caused a

shudder to many to reflect that there are still cannibals

in existertce, and that, too, upon the same continent

which contains the land of Egypt—a land that three
thousand years ago was the cradle of civiliza-
tion, of arts, and of learning. Upon the

same continent a thousand years later stood the
Republic of Carthage, which endeavoured, though
unsuccessfully, to contest the empire of the world with
Rome itself. But the wave of progress rolled west-
ward towards Europe; and so far as the savage parts

of Aflica are concerned, they are just as wild and
barbarous as they were at the creation.
The hotel proprietors of Paris, in anticipation of
the forthcoming exhibition, have met to consider
their scal of charges, and have resolved to increase
them for lodging only with respect to travellers who

' do not take their meals in the house. This deter-
mination would appear to be dictated by common
sense. A city with a population of two million
souls can find ample accommodation for any
reasonable proportion of visitors, and there are

a vast number of private individuals ready
enough to turn their places into lodging-houees
if the public are driven away from the hotels by the
scale of charges. Paris possesses a great advantage
over Vienna in this respect. The Vienna Exhibition
of 1873 was not a success, because the smallness of the
place, as compared with London, Paris, or Con-
stantinople, enabled the hotel proprietors to
charge practically what they pleased, so the goose
with the golden egg was very eflectually killed.
Besides Vienna was a very long journey from England,
while Paris, in point of time, is nearer London than
many parts of our own island. It is nearer to the
carpital than either Penzance or Aberdeen. With a
revival of trade many a working man will in the
approaching summer be enabled, by the organization
of cheap trips, to spend a few days in the fair city
upon the banks of the See, and to note the contrasts
between the manners and cuatoms of two great peoples
which are such close and friendly neighbours.
The reconstitution of the Cabinet finds the Privy
Seal again in the hands of a separate Minister, the
Duke of Northumberland. When the Premier was
elevated to the peerage in August 1876, he combined
with his office that of the Privy Seal, which had been
resigned by Lord Malmesbury. When a Minister
discharges the,daties of two Affices, it is customary to
take the full salary of the old one, and half the salary
of the new, and this precedent was followed in
the case now under notice. The Privy Seal
is usually given to a man of great political
experience, and whose advice and counsel are
held to be of value to his younger colleagues in
the Cabinet. The duties of the office have been de-
scribed by various authorities as remarkably light;
indeed the Privy Seal in England seems to answer to
the definition of Minister without Portfolio in France
—one who is able to give the Administaation generally
the benefit of his ripe sagacious wisdom without
being absorbed in the work of a heavy de-
partment. The holder of the Privy Seal is neces-
sarily a peer and a member of the Cabinet, and the
salary attached to the office is £2,000 a year. The
Privy Seal must not be confounded with the Great
Seal of England, which is confided to the custody of
the Lord Chancellor. The former is changed only at
the accession of a new Sovereign, whereas, whenever a
change of 'Ministry takes place, and a new Lord
Chancellor comes in, another Great Seal has to be
made. This is essentially so, seeing that it bears the
Chancellor's name upon it.
So far as the year 1878 has gone, its course has been
marked with great events. It was only nine days old
when the death of the King of Italy, who in apparently
good health had received the ambassadors as usual on
New Year's Day, fell like a thunderclap upon Europe.
Eight days later the British Parliament assembled
under graver circumstances than any which had been
witnessed for a quarter of a century. The Legislature
had not been sitting a week before there was a dis-
ruption in the Cabinet, and the Secretary of
State for the Colonies resigned office because he
disapproved of the Fleet being sent to the Dardanelles
as being likely to lead to an act of war. Next came
the proposal of the Ministers for a Vote of Credit
amounting to six millions sterling, and the prolonged
and excited debates thereon. These were actually in
progress when the news arrived that the Russians
were advancing on Constantinople, notwithstand-
ing the armistice and the signature of the pre-
liminary terms of peace. On the very same
night came the intell gence of the death of the
Pope, who within a month had thus followed
Victor Emmanuel to the silent land. The longest
Pontificate on record has come to an end at last, and
at the great age of 86, the spiritual ruler of two
hundred millions of human beings has been gathered
to his rest. It was in June, 1816, that Pius IX. was
chosen by the Conclave of Cardinals to succeed
Gregory XVI., and three years afterwards Victor
Emmanuel ascended the throne of Sardinia; so that
for nearly thirty years Pope and King reigned over
their respective pessessione, dying at last within
thirty days of each other in palaces in the same
elty separated by the stream of the Tiber. The elec-
tion ef a new Pope Hee with a body known as the
Sacred College, composed of the Cardinals, who are
otlicially known as Prins es of the Holy Roman
Church, The proce's of selection is one of a very
solemn and deliberate character.
London is a place of such immensity, whose diverse
populations have so little interest in common, that it
takes an event of transcendent national importance
to galvanise public opinion into anything like
active life. As a rule Bethnal Green knows no
mere of what is passing in Belgravia than Manchester
or Birmingham; and Holloway is in entire ignoranoe
of anything which may be causing an agitation at
Sydenham. But there are times when momentous occur-
rences cast into the shade anything of purely local in and an effect is seen upon an entire people.
One of these was the arrival of the news of the
assassination of President Lincoln on the 26th of
April, 1865. Another was the intelligence that
France had declared war against Prussia on the 15th
July, 1870; Dead a great sensation was caused by the
news of the surrender of the French Emperor and
the entire French army at Sedan, which reached
London on Saturday the 3rd of September in the
same year. Quite as great an excitement was created
when it was reported last, week that the Russians were
advancing on Constantinople, the armistice not.
withatanding. There eves a war panic on the
Stock Exchange, Consols at one time falling
and when the time came for the Houses of Parliament
to meet, a vast crowd assembled outside the building,
to glean, if possible any information which the Fo.
Secretary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer might
have communicated within. Little else was talked of
in London that day—a fact which shows how strongly
rooted in the minds of English people is the impression
that the possession of ths Turkish capital by Russia

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