The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-17 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT TOPICS.

PROTESTANTS of the old sturdy type will
have heard with alarm of the pilgrimage of
500 professors of the Romish faith to the
shrine of Edward the Confessor within the
walls of Westminster Abbey. Scarcely in
any other age or in any other country could
such a st..ange scene have occurred; and it
speaks volumes for our religious tolerance
that serious consequences have not ensued.
In the past this zealous 500 would certainly
have been sent with short shrift to the stakes
for their boldness ; and then from their ashes
we should have seen rise persecutions un-
numbered, and religions wars without end.
Happily, blind bigotry has had its hey-dey in
England, and martyrs for conscience sake
will never more win deathless renown by a
' horrible execution. Nevertheless, we can
have no word of commendation for the con-
gregation who, taking advantage of tolerant
regulations, invaded without warning the
sanctuary of a religious sect whose creed is
antagonistic in many main points to tleeir own.
Such hasty and unauthorised action cannot
by any means be justified. W 3 discern there-
in a lingering remnant of the spirit which
erst kindled the fires of Smithfield. It is
hard to believe that any in authority in the
Roman Catholic Church would sanction such
a departure from the attitude of recent years.
To say nothing of good taste or propriety,
reverence and religion should have made the
extraordinary occurrence impossible. How
would the Westminster Catholics relish the
idea of five hundred Protestants entering
their pro-eatherdral 'uninvited, and going
through a number of anti-Roman ceremonies
This impromptu prostration of adoring five
hundred of an alien faith before a historic
tomb in the chief of all our State churches
will by many be regarded as desecration of
a heinous description ; and, all our toleration
notwithstanding, we shall te surprised if
the matter be permitted to end as it
stands. England allows liberty to the holders
of every creed, but she would have the de-
votees of each belief confine themselves to
the housing-places of their own faith, and
refrain from trespassing in th 9 sanctuaries
of others.

IN a case of the "death by misadventure"
of a child at Plumstead to other day, the
poor child had swallowed by mistake
sufficient strychnine to have poisoned twenty
of her age. And yet this deadly poison was
contained in a bottle on which was no poison
label, that, according to the medical testi-
mony, being contrary to the practice of
physicians and surgeons, and the medicine
not being a poison if taken by the person for
whom it was sent, and in accordance with
the instructions on the bottle. Many medi-
cines, it was held by the doctor, might be
injurious if taken by the wrong person.
Quite so, and this poisoned child is sad evi-
dence of the truth of the remark. Just be-
cause poison is poison, a druggist must so
label it, to prevent its being mistaken for a
harmless liquid, and so used, with perhaps
fatal results. And "the practice of physi-
cians and surgeons" should be so reformed
as to rendei it an indictable offence to allow
any poison to be dispensed by them, in what-
ever form, unless it be legibly labelled as
such. A bottle of medicine for a patient ;
though harmless to him it is deadly to others
not of his age or condition. Very little of
it is used, it -is placed aside and forgotten,
Months after, at some periodical "cleaning,"
the bottle and its death-dealing contents are
brought to light, and left accessible to al
the household. The drug, harmless-lookin
likely enough, is swallowed ignorantly
heedlessly by some child, and "death by
misadventure" is the result. This is pre-
cisely what happened at Plumstead. Had
it been the "practice of physicians and sur-
geons" to affix poison labels to bottles con-
taining poison, the little girl immediately
referred to would have now been alive and
well, in all probability, for no person in the
house seems to have been at all aware of the
nature of the medicine. Surely the domain
of the law of poison-selling should be en-
larged sufficiently to include even the "prac-
tice of physicians and surgeons."

AMONG other incidents of the electoral
campaign, we have a little band of political
free-lances, who have sounded their war-cry,
and are going about skirmishing as "Indian
delegates." They first proclaimed them-
selves as deputed spokesmen of the "people
of India" ; but before they are accepted as
men entitled to stand as representing our
great Eastern dependency, a judicious exa
mination of their credentials would be well.
We have all heard of three tradesmen of a
Southwark street who dubbed themselves
"the people of England." These men who
are now making themselves heard in the
roar of the electoral struggle may be able
exponents of Indian affairs," though we con-
fess we mistrust the sounding phrases they
employ. On the other hand they may be
but successors of the self-important trinity
of Tooley-street tailors ; or, even worse, mere
employees for electoral purposes of candi-
dates for Parliamentary honours. Before
we heed the "Appeal from India," and ac-
cept its bearers, we should enquire who
delegated them, and by what right they
come to speak for the "people of India."

THE doubts as to whether, after all, the
general election would be postponed until
the early days of next year have now been
finally removed by a pronouncement of the
Premier, and we shall in all probability have
the pollings at the end of next month and
the beginning of December. The last linger-
ing appeal against the revising barristers'
decisions may possibly not have been beard
at the commencement of the election fix-
tures, bat that will not be permitted to
hinder matters. Local politicians are busy
closing up the ranks for the conflict, and in
a few days now all will be ready for the re-
turning officers to decide the issue.

THE creeds of our soldiers is the subject
of a table in the General Annual Return re-
cently published. We find Tommy Atkins
credited with being constituted of (36 per
cent. Churchman ; 21 per cent. Roman
Catholic ; 7 per cent. Presbyterian ; 4 per
cent. Wesleyan ; and the small remainder
composed of flithersion to varion minor sects,
t.nts gives an overwhelming balance in
favour of the Church, as by law established,
and the dominant Irish faith. We are afraid
that in both instances a good deal of dis-
counting for unfaithfulness and backsliding
would have to be done to arrive at an ac-
curate estimate chow much real Church-
man and true Catholic there is in these pre-
ponderating portions of the religious make-
up of a representative century of soldiers.

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