The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-03 00:00:00

Cur Pan Corresputent.

[We de= it right to eats that we do not at all times
blentii) ourselves with OUT orrespondeot'o opinions 1

For a great commercial community like the City of
London to suspend business for four days in suce-a-
sion is an event which does not happen often, ~ad
could be submitted to only at a time when the is-o-
verbial good cheer of Christmas relaxes the mental
fibre, and accounts for a general indisposition to allow
business cares to interfere with the enjoyment of that
which is always described as the festive season.
Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Saturday, and Sunday
gave such an opportunity for a break in the run of
every-day work such as few years present, and which
will not recur in 1885. No one could complain of a
holiday which extended from the evening of the 24th
to the morning of the 29th, when the busy
world of London was once more awakened
from its condition of suspended animation.
Those who witnessed the aspect of the civic
thoroughfares on Christmas Day could not help
strongly contrasting it with the spectacle of rushing
traffic so familiar to those who know the streets
botween London Bridge and the site of old Temple
Bar. But for the lively greetings of the merry
roysterers who had been keeping Christmas there was
little to be heard; but that which was perhaps the
most remarkable for its absence was the
stream of omnibuses so constantly moving east and
west on ordinary days. There was one here and there
which seemed to move like a phantom through the
ghostly silence that prevailed on the celebration of the
universal festival of Christendom.

The closing days of the year, however, suffleN-1 to
re-awaken the life of the capital. Tile Curs,
too, will soon ae•ain be sitting, for Hilary Term
begins on the 11th, and judges, counsel. litiTints,
jurymen, and witnesses will once nmre assemble i
Mr. Street's much-criticised structure in the
Strand. Upon a building of great arAitectural
pretentions raised in our own time by architects of
our own generation, there is naturally more difference
of opinion and freedom in expression than over those
upon which the shadows of centuries look down.
Time has, for instance, settled all controversy, sup-
posing there to have been any about the time of the
Norman Conquest, as to the merits of Westminster
Abbey. Sir Christopher Wren's City churches are not
all equally admired, and his Temple Bar was neither
"a thing of beauty nor a joy for ever," seeing that it
has disappeared within the past seven years, and few
coulci tell whither its remains have been carted. But
the architectural merits of his vast Cathedral in the
very heart of the crowded City of London, and with
its dome rising proudly over the highest towers and
the loftiest warehouses, are not disputed to-day, how-
ever they might have been questioned in the time of
Queen Anne or George I.
Mr. Street did not live to see the completion of the
Royal Courts of Justice, as Sir Christopher Wren did
to witness the finishing of St. Paul's and Sir Charles
Barry that of the Houses of Parliament. The last-
mentioned were described by the Emperor Nicholas
in 1844 as "a dream in stone," but the architect was
spared to admire the reality. But Mr. Street was not
permitted to place the top stone on the great fabric
which his brain had created. He has no survived
to hear some critics defend his style of architecture
and others denounce the structure as the most hideous
deformity in London. But whatever may be the
difference of view with regard to the exterior of the
Royal Courts of Justice, there seems to be none as to
the inconvenience of the internal arrangements.
Bench and Bar constantly denounce them, and
every vacation a host of workmen are em-
ployed on the removal of the grievances.
The light, the ventilation, the accommodation for
those who are engaged in the effort to administer
justice in the metropolis have thus far failed to give
satisfaction, and during the Christmas recess exer-
tions have been made as hitherto to carry out internal
reforms. It is now stated that the engines for supply-
ing the electric light have, by their throbbing, shaken
some of the walls and disturbed the symmetry of the
tesselated pavement.

The political-lull which always settles down upon
the land at Christmas time has this year been grateful
enough to those who had too much of agitation in the
recess. But as the date now gradually approaches for
the meeting of Parliament, interest in the details of
the Redistribution Bill is likely to reawaken. The
t)wns which have been placed in the first schedule
do not for the most part object to an arrangement
which, while depriving them as boroughs of an inde-
pendent political existence, enables them where it is
possible to give their names to the county districts of
which form the centres, and in which the suffrage
qualification will in future be the same as in the towns
now. But some of the communities now returning
two members from which it is proposed to take one,
have eadeavoured to retain both representatives by
suggesting an extension of the boundaries so as to
bring them within the prescribed limit of population.
This, however, according to Mr. Gladstone, will not
do. The scheme has been very carefully consideted.
and although a slight augumentation has been made
to the number of members of the House of Commons,
that increase cannot be permitted indefinitely to
go on.

• The chronicle of the Nile expedition has thin far
not been enlivened with many startling incidents. The
news of its progress is fitful, and the absorbing public
interest in it will be greater when it is nearer Khar-
toum than it is just now. As illustrating the celerity
of the movements of General Gordon, whom it is now
proposed to relieve, it may be mentioned that from
the day he left London to the date of his arrival at
Khartoum just one calendar month elapsed. He was
in the metropolis of Great Britain on the 18th
January, and reached the famed Oriental city on the
18th February. Of course travelling by himself, or
rather with very few attendants, and overland, with
no impedimenta, was a very different matter from
taking an army up the Nile cataracts as Lord Wolseley
has had to do. Lord Wolseley left in September, and
it may be February before he comes within sight of
Khartoum. The cost of the expedition it is not pos-
sible at present to contemplate. That to Abyssinia
in 1867 cost nine millions sterling, and if the British
taxpayer escapes with that now he will probably be
thankful. The sum thus far voted by the House of
Commons is obviously a mere drop in the ocean as
compared with the total which will have to be
asked for, The expedition to Ashantee twelve years
ago was completed for less than a million, but there
were no cataracts of the Nile to be confronted, and
the force sent out was not to be compared with that
now under the command of Lord Wolseley, who, as
Sir Garnet, was then sent to chastise King Koffee
Calcalli.

Christmas cards have been commended as tending
to spread through the country an educated and sym.
pathetic appreciation for art. That they give em.
ployment to a large industry is without question.

_
This year they have been sent through the post
literally by millions. The splendid organization of
that great department of the State fairly broke down
under the enormous load which it was expected to
deliver, and the consequence was delay in the trans-
mission not only of these_ cards but also of ordinary

letters. That the post-office made every effort to
cope with the tremendous task suddenly thrust upon
it cannot be doubted, many of the officials having
been on duty twenty-six hours at a stretch. To those
who kept Christmas in the usual way this seems
rather an incongruous manner of celebrating the
festival. To those who grumble over the delay in the
delivery of letters in Christmas week it may be
pointed out that the post-office is a department ruled,
or rather superintended, by men of like fashion with
ourselves, and not by beings comprising a compound
of clockwork and steam. Even in an overstocked
labour market it is not practicable at a few moments'
notice to issue forth into the streets and to set at
work an additional trained army of sorters and letter-
carriers.

The question of over-pressure in Board Schools has
lately commanded considerable attention, and as usual
there have been widely-divergent views as to the
extent of the grievance, supposing any to exist. A
sub-committee of London Board School managers has
inquired into the matter, and from their report it is
clear that they consider there is some ground for
complaint, not only on the part of some of the more
'weakly children, but of the teachers as well. There
is little doubt that the amount of clerical labour
thrown upon the teachers, both male and female, is
very considerable. A School Board register is in
Its.elf a curiosity, being filled with columns of figures
in minute in themselves and requiring the greatest care
nn
entry. The su'a-cornmittee referred to recommend
that the amount of this class of work. such as keeptipg

accounts and returns, and attending to correspondence,
should be minimised as far as possible; and if this
be so very many teachers would be profoundly
grateful.