The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-02 00:00:00

Car Pan Corrtsponbtnt,

• illre deem it right to state that we do not at all time
ideutity ourselves with our Correspondent's opialons.J

The embers of the dying London season, which had
cast their lengthening shadows over the pathway of
a busy community, flickered up again towards the md
of last week as a preliminary to the inevitable diE.so-
lution. The Prince and Princess of Wales had issued
invitations for a garden party at Marlborough House,
always one of the most enjoyable engagements of the
summer. The town residence of their Royal High-
nesses, which is entered by way of Pall-mall, over-
looks St. James's-park, and the garzlens are sufficiently
extensive to accommodate several hundred guests.
It is not uncommon to meet there Car-
dinal Manning, the Archbishop of Canter-
by, and the Chief Rabbi, the leaders of our
great political parties, the representatives of law,
medicine, art, literature, and philosophy. The Heir-
Apparent is eminently catholic in his views, using the
word in its literal and not in its generally-accepted
sense as descriptive of a powerful religious community.
At this time of day it is recognised in the palace as
elsewhere that a great nation does not consist of any
especial party or sect, but that its life is made up of all
classes and creeds, of people holding opinions of all
descriptions, and indeed of those who have no opinions
at all.

The arrival of the Crown Prince and Princess of
'Germany, with their three daughters, in London, is
another sign that the season is not quite at an end.
Their Imperial Highnesses, whose visit has been very
quiet and unostentatious, took up their residence at
Buckingham Palace, which for both must possess in-
teresting memories. The Princess Royal was the
only one of the Queen's children who was married
from Buckingham Palace, in the olden time, when
the Court was kept there. This was more than
a quarter of a century ago, and before the
wedding of her Majesty's second daughter the
Queen had been rendered a widow, and except
for Drawing Rooms and Court ceremonials, Bucking-
ham Palace has scarcely known her Majesty's
presence since. Ordinarily this building puts on a
woebegone and desolate appearance, with its long
rows of white blinds closely drawn, so that it is a
relief to the eye of the spectator when the place is
temporarily occupied. When a reigning sovereign is
there, such as the Queen herself, the Shah, the Czar,
or the Sultan, the Royal Standard throws out its
folds upon the breeze, and Londoners would like to
see it flying oftener than it has been observed there in
recent years.
As to the season itself, the London tradesmen tell
their customers that they have never known a worse.
The forty days of Court mourning killed the best and
most brilliant part of it, and the tradesman does not
fail to point out that whatever his receipts may be,
his rent, rates, and taxes go on just as though he
were doing a most flourishing business. A good
season enables him to keep his household a longer
time at the seaside, and to have many luxuries which
a diminished income render impossible of attain-
ment. But it is not only the shopkeeper who
feels the effects of a bad London season. Its
results extend through more than one class,
and reach even the patient cabman, waiting on the
rank in all weathers for a fare. If you ask him how
he is going along, he generally tells you very badly;
nobody seems to have any money to spend in cabs,
and he has the greatest difficulty to live, after paying
his master for the hire of the horse and vehicle,
which, in the case of a Hansom, is about fifteen
shillings a day.
That the public can discuss only one great question
at a time has been proved by the experience of
the past few weeks. For months Egypt had
it all its own way; and from the destruc-
tion of Hicks Pasha's army in November
to the end of June, when the House of Commons
declined to...discuss Mr. Bruce's resolution, very little
besides Egypt was talked about in the Houses of
Parliament. Then, however, a change came over the
spirit of the scene. The Franchise Bill emerged
from the representative Chamber, and went before the
House of Lords, which has placed it for the time
upon a shelf. The peol.7'en seemed to welcome this as
a relief from the apparontly interminable discussions
about the sand of the Pharaohs, and for the time
there can be no don't that Egypt is as dead as
a door-nail in the public interest. For the first
time during more than half a century there is an agi-
tation against the House of Lords; and it is not sur-
prising that such an occasion should be eagerly seized
by all to whom the subject is thoroughly new, for the
survivors of the commotion of 1831 are comparatively
few now. Egypt, like the poor, we have always with
us; but a tilt with the House of Lords is a recreation
which to most does not occur once in a lifetime sc
many a political aspirant flings his hat; into the
ringavith all the ardour and energy of youth in the
prospect of the months of agitation which is now
before us.
It is probable that if Mr. Gladstone consulted
his. own wishes and his own ease, he would
rather have had this matter quietly adjusted than
reraiti4-tO the arbitrament of the platform. No one
can look down -from the gallery of the House of
Commons upon the Treasury Bench without painfully
noting the fact that-physically the Prime Minister is
not. what:he was. How, indeed, can he expect to be
so after 'having lived in the world three-quarters of
a century? The effects of fatigue upon him are more
especially observable on a Friday night,. at the close
of the Parliamentary week. He drags his wearied
frame to the table when he has to answe
a question or to make a statement with
the. _air of a man who seems to long for rest. -It
is noted that on Saturday the Prime Minister betakes
himself a few miles into the country, either north or
south,: returning on Monday morning. In the brief
recess, instead' of having an unbroken holiday from
the prgrogation to the opening of the autumn session,
he will have to go down to Midlothian and make
political speeches, a trial a physical strength for which
he is by. no means so well equipped as when he con-
ducted the famous electoral campaign which marked
the winter of 1879.
The condition of the Thames during the past few '
weeks of dry hot weather has been such as to cause
grave apprehension. When the main drainage
systeiu was completed by the. Metropolitan Board of
Works, it was looked upon as a triumph of engineer-
ing skill. But meanwhile the population of London
has enormously increased, and this acts in two ways,
so far asthe river is concerned. The intakes of fresh
water from the stream of the companies are of
course proportionately greater, and tO is the volume
of sewage poured into the. Thamee at Barking
and Crossness. The dry' weather has further
dinalnitslaed the level of fresh water, so that altogether
the state. of the fathous stream ithinertalised by Pope
has . bocci most unsatisfactory. The Metropolitan
Board of Works declares that it has done all it
possibly can for the purifitztioh of the great London
river, while Sir Charles Dilka assures the House of
Commons that the TAIG'II Government Board cannot
legislate during the present session. ,
, .
The Health Exhibition isFrctiteing some marvel-
lously successful fetes, and the msnagers of some of
the Loudon theatres have thereby found all the differ-
ence in their receipts. There am be no surprise that
cct such hot sultry nights as those which have lately
been experienced in the metropolis those wif`...,eei. hour
oaetwo to spare should prefer to spend the time amid
the illuminations and other attractions of the Horti-
cultural Gardens, with any number of military bands,
than in the close atmosphere of a Strand theatre.
There are some, like the Lyceum, the Adelphi, the
Princess's, and the Savoy, which hold their own in
the face of this formidable competition; but in the
majority of cases the metropolitan temples of Thespis
have no cause to wish success to the eveningfea of
the Health Exhibition.