The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-01-16 00:00:00

Thrpnlifan 6ossip.

Dr oia owl,

^rhefeinarks under this head are to be regarded as the ex-
C.411= of independent opinion, from the pen 4•1 gent 1,11411
• .rh.im no have the nreateat confidence. but f..r uhtdk n•
ortisekisa uo rot hold ounnolvea reaponsible 1

There is still a seasonable calm in the political world,
and it cannot be said that at the present moment
there is any purely political question that excites much ,
public interest. Most of the members of the Govern-
ment are away from town, but it is thought that in
about a fortnight they will have returned, and on the
25th or 2fith it is expected there will be a Cabinet
Council. Public expectation will then be on the qui
vim as to what Parliament will be likely to do. Many
persons are saturnine that, whatever else happens, we
shall have considerable reductions in the expenditure
of the nation, and that Ministers will have a very
favourable Budget to produce. It is to be feared,
however, that facts scarcely support this flattering
tale. That the present Ministry will aim at financial
economy there is little doubt, and, indeed, they have
already done something in this direction by reducing
the number of clerks in some departments of the Civil
Service; but facts are stubborn things, and one dis-
agreeable fact is that the revenue of the country is not
exactly in a condition to admit of much reduction.
Perhaps for this very reason, however, the Govern-
ment will be all the more eager to effect reductions.
One very important rumour in this direction is men-
tioned by a leading naval and military journal, which
tells us that the royal dockyards of Woolwich and
Deptford are to be closed, with as little delay as will
be compatible with the exigencies of the service.
This must be had news for thousands, and is all the
more serious inasmuch as the working-classes in the
dockyards have already suffered considerably by large
reductions of bands which have been made. Another
fact which shows the tendency of the present Govern-
ment is that the office of Master-Attendant and Har-
bour-Master at Chatham, vacant by a retirement, is
not to be filled op; and, in fact, that the office is to be
abolished. Sweeping reforms, too, are contemplated
in the War Office, and these reforms will include the
discharge of a number of clerks! Whether such steps
as these will render the Government more popular re-
mains to be seen, but one thing is clear, that only a
Government which thinks itself very strung would
dare to enter on such a course. These "piping times
of peace," moreover, are by no means favourable to
that increase of the Government allowance which has
so long been talked of. Mr. Cardwell is very decided
on the point. He plainly tells the Volunteers that he
thinks the present grant is sufficient, and he holds out
no hope of an increase. We shall now find many
Volunteers retiring.

The public mind has for some time past been
disquieted by fears of war between Turkey and Greece,
but it has also been one of the most hopeful signs of
the times that no sooner was there any probability of
such a calamity—and it would have been a European
calamity—than the great Powers laid their diplomatic
heads together, to see if anything could be done to
sw•ure peace. A conference was proposed, and some
preliminary objections (m the part of Turkey to the
bases of conference having been surmounted, this
pacific gathering of the representatives (4 the
European powers has now taken place, and we may
confidently look forward to peace being the result.
Tin is a weight has been taken from the public mind.
TM deliberations may be long and intricate, but the
obje.:t is peace, and when the representatives meet
with this end in view we may be tolerably certain
that that end will be gained.

It is now several months since Parliament gave the
Government the power to take the Telegraph Com-
panies in their hands, but very little pro ;res+ towards
the tr ansfer appears to have been made. No doubt
the uniformity of management will be advantageous to
the public, but if so, why is the transfer not hastened
on? There will, it is presumed, be a new department
created, the Telegraph Department, and Mr. Scud-
more will in all probability be its superintendent
A still more important department is talked of,
and it is said we are to have a Railway
Department, quite distinct from the Beard of
Trade, and the Marquis of Salisbury is spoken of
as its probable chief. Railways are daily becoming
more important, and sound legislation for them is more
and more needed; but after all the chief reform re-
quired is that the shareholders in the several concerns
should take more interest in their management than
they now do. Railway companies, like all other com-
panies as a rule, leave tio much for the directors to
determine instead of the shareholders themselves
taking part in the ,ettlement of important matters.

It is stated that the cost of prosecuting election
petitions will be treater under the present system than
they were under the committee system, owing to the
enormous fee, .I...nanded I.y counsel. One Q.C., it is
said, ha. Icdued to ,ippear in any election cause for
less than a retainer of 500 glineas with daily refreshers
of i4l guineas; that several other counsel have received
retainers of 1200 guineas, awl that the services of a
learned verjeant, who is great in examining bribers and
bribed, cost 150 guineas a day. All this is monstrous,
but there is no help for it. Legal gentlemen, like other
people, like filthy lucre, and will get as much of it as
they can. But the public are not so much concerned
in this as in the fact that the tribunal for deciding
these election petition 3 is far better taan a House of
Commons committee. Nor indeed is it at all clear
that conned would not have insisted on quite as high
terms for their seta ices in connection with such a com-
mittee.

It has often been asked, with a triumphant air as
though the question could not be answered, "Why
should not the working man have clubs like those of the
upper classes?" The plain answer is that clubs like those
of the upper classes are too costly for working men, and
that anything approaching to what may fairly be called
a good club is necessarily rather dear. All the working
men's -lobs that I have seen or heard of, are unworthy
of the name dub as it is usually applied, however
admirable such institutions may be. What may be
really called a club is now, however, to be instituted
for the working classes, and shortly will be opened, the
London Artisans' Central Club and Institute, near
Oxford-street. There are to be an extensive kitchen
and refreshment-room, billiards, bagatelle, and smoking
rooms, a library, reading-room, Ac. This sounds like
a veritable club. Many of course, would object to the
billiards and bagatelle. How far these games are
intrinsically injurious morally, or whether it is only in
the abuse of them that the injury lies, I will not dis-
cuss; but there is this to be said, that many of the
smaller clubs in London would not pay were it not for
the billiard-room. The promoters of this Artisans
Club perhaps take this practical view of it, or possibly
they recognise the fact that young men trill have
amusement, and that it is better for them, for instance
to play a game at billiards at their club than at a
public-house. Perhaps so. I venture to say, though I
hope I may be wrong, that the promoters of this club
will find billiards and bagatelle more attractive than
the classes for the presumably studious.

The police-court at Guildhall ha been laily
crowded, for the most part by idlers seeking to get
110111 e little amusement out of the proceedings against
the directors of the defunct company of Overend,
Gurney, and Co. (limited), but amongst the crowd
there must have been many who can find no amuse-
ment amid the ruins of a concern in which
perhaps they have lost their all. It is strange
how our law-courts and police-cnuts, but especially
the latter, are made mere lounging resorts by idlers
who find cause for laughter in the merest trifles,
and perhaps even in the most common-place
remarks. This important trial has been no exception
to the rule. Silly people burst out laughing to often
in fact that at last one of the counsel was obliged to
complain of it. Ile severely remarked that these
indecent interruptions were most embarrassing to
counsel, and that the defendants had had "quite
enough popular prejudice against them without being
• dto bear idiotic laughter." Severs, that, very;
and it must have struck home, for some people
thereupon hissed, and the Lord Mayor threatened
to clear the court. It is a pity that people
so far forget themselves as to burst out laugh-
ing ia a court of justice, especially when there is
no excuse for it. The affairs of the unhappy Company
whkl, is now once again brought prominently before
the public are anything but a laughing matter.

A curl, us and suggestive advertisement catches my
eye : " Lost, a rosary of black beads, with silver
crucifix, between St. George's-road, Southwark, and
St. Paul's-road, Lerrienore-square." In the former
place is situated the well-known Catholic cathedral;
in the latter the extreme ritualistic church of "S.
Paul's." Is it too nmcb to presume that the fair wearer
of this rosary attends both churches? She was on her
way from one to the other perhaps when her rosary
war lost!

I see that the "Socidti3do Progris, de la Coiffure
will hold a mire* of hair-dressing at the Cambridge
kc. What on earth will be dime at that strange
noir& ? Surely the Coiffure has made very startling
progress already, and if it is to progress much more
the thought of what ladies' hairdressing may come to
is horrible. It is almost impossible to imagine any-
thing more extravagant, more ridiculous, (Jr more ugly
than the head-dress if mime I d our modern ladies. I
should rather like to assist at this competitive soirile,
just to see the operation, •.f the artists and to note
what kind of ladies they may be who are willing to
give themselves up, Jr rather their heads, to aspirant
and competitive hairdressers,

Mr. Spurgeon ix not only personally and directly the
means of doing much good, but he is made the medium
of communicating the good done by others. £20,000
some time ago was given him for almshouses; then he
has received numerous supplementary gifts in aid of
the same institution, and a week or two ago he re-
ceived 1'.1,000 from some anonymous donor, to complete
the building of a portion of these houses (the main 811 TO
being invested as an endowment). Now he has had an
intimation from some person who desires to remain
incog. that he desires to build a chapel, some schools
and a number of almshouses in connection with the
Metropolitan Tabernacle. This will be an affair of
many thousand pounds. Mr. Spurgeon was at one time
one of the best-abused men in London, and satirical,
malicious, or would-be funny writers all directed their
pens at him ; but he has held on the even tenour of his
way, and appears none the worse for it. His popu-
larity appears as great as ever, and certainly his
ordinary congregations are.