The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-11-26 00:00:00

Oatatto

Total, 378 SOO anni and carblnis, 45,000 000 and 11,000
boxes eartrolges, 55 cannon, 6 Gatling botterlea, and 2000
pistols. There have probably been other shipments wt,loo
hers not been reportvd.

To P1P.90103 ABOUT TO MARB.T.--.A writer in
once a-Tver kat., that, under peaceful conditions,
from a mingle pair of human beings the whole w
might be peopled am it is now peopled in thirty. tLs
generation., or kis titan a tbowiand years,

71,ronbon Corresponbmt. I forum." And yet there was no denying the importance
of the subject diaconstil. Yes, education is a very
important, but a very dull subject, and few, very few
people possess the art of making it interesting. Ou
the whole I shall be rather glad when these Education
Board elections are over, and sin rather anxious to
know what work will be done when the talk id finished.

ikWe °cent it ieht to state that we do not at all times
Codify oursel with our correspondent's opinioLa I

Awful as is the war still raging on the Continent,
the intereet in that "war of giants," has for the
moment cedid to that felt in the threatening
language and attitude of RIIIIBI3. The situation
is undeniably. a grave one for the European
Powers, and the probaLility of sear is eagerly di.
Th it Itossia has repudiated certain stipulas
Cone in the P.trle treaties of In:ei is an important fact
not only in itself, but owing to the arraneemi lit that
the signatory Powers had come to in case it any party
to those treaties repudiating thetu or any part of them.
Py roe tattle it was 'specially AU ref.! that should there
crisP any misunderetsodieg between Turkey and any
other contracting Power, "the Sublime Porte and each
of 'inch Fewer'', before neving reecourse to the rue of
force, shall fforil to the ether contracting part:es the
opportunity of preventing such an extremity by means
of their mediatii.n." That ht so far consolatory ; but
there is a clause in a convention agreed to between
France, England, and Austria, in connection with the ,
principal treaty of lane of lt:gi, which, on the other '
Land is far from reassuring. These three great Powers
then agreed "that any infraction of the stipulations of
the nail treaty will be considered by the Powers sign.
tog the present treaty as a rogue UM, and they will
without delay determine among themselves as to the
employment of their military and naval tome."
England is certainly in no hurry to rush into war, nor
is she desirous of taking an unfair or unfavourable
view of the Russian demands; tut still Lord Gran.
vine's firm, energet,c, ant dignified reply shows that
she will not be cowed and browbeaten into becoming a
party to the infraction of &treaty to which she solemnly
agreed, and this reply of our Foreign Minister has cer-
tainly met with the approval of the vast majority of
the country. Ministers have a frightfully difficult
put to piny, but, in this matter at least, I think the
nation has till confidence in them. As to the Frsuco-
Prunian war, its spasmodic movements row excite
general pity and sorrow. No longer is a lively and
excited interest batten in the probable turn of events,
for it has long been felt that all hope of France gaining
the ultimate victory most be atandoned ; lint, instead
of this, the public mind is tortured by telegrams and
cerresr.nilence, referring to the ruthless attack of the
Pruseians here, or the desperate movement of the
French there ; but all without any important effect on
the general progrees of the war, "which, like a
wounded snake, drags its slow length along." That
no interest is felt in this war I do not say—far from
It—but, I repeat, it is not a " lively and excited," but
a sad and sorrowful interest.

Amid the horror' of actual war and threats of pos.
sible war, it is very satisfactory to find that Spain, after
more than two years interregnum, has at last chosen a
sovereign -en 1 a Q seen, for the Duc d'Aosta is married,
Spain, it may now be hoped, will progress and prosper.
She is too monarchical a country to have been satisfied
with a Republic, and now, with an elected King and •
representative Parliament, with new-born libertine,
accl thorough freedom from the Bourbon yoke, there is
nothing to prevent her rising in the scale ef nations.
Whet a etrarge thing it is, and how sadly does it
speak of the state of affairs in Paris, that the Poet-
master•General should notify that sarangemente have
been made with the Government at Tours for "a
epeeist dein:ate', by means of carrier pigeons, of cor-
respondence addressed to Perils!" Each letter must be
cps n, with neither cover, envelope, nor seal, and must
consist of not more than 20 words, at rid, a word, and
6,1. postage. The Directer• General of the French Poet
Office, however, will not guarantee the safe delivery of
this correspondence, or be inasty way responsible for it.
Of entree not. And yet no doubt many people will
ran the risk, hoping thus to be able to send some few
loving words to some relative or friend in Leah ged and
half-starving Paris.
It is early yet perhaps to speculate OD probable
!biking features in the legislative work of next session,
but hints have been dropped here and there in official
quarters which render speculation not perticularly
hazardone. There will in all probability be introduced
by the G wernment a measure to establish the system
of ballot in parliamentary and municipal elections. It
has been definitely stated that Minister& too, will bring
In a till to alteeandamend the present licensing system
In connection with public-honaes. These two bills
will infallibly create no little excitement and much
animated discussini. The rumour runs also that
Government will introduce a bill to effect further
railway reform, and if this be true we may of course
look for vigorous debate on the subject, there being so
many railway directors, to say nothing of shareholders
In Parliament. To another subject much of the time
of Parliament will certainly be devoted—to the state of
our army and navy,and we may look for a bill, or bill.,
brought in by Mr. Cardwell to deal with the militia
and possibly the volunteers.
The Duke of Cambridge, supported by Lord Shaftes-
bury, the Lord Mayor, Lord Ebury, and other well-
known gentlemen who take an interest in the welfare
of the working classes, has just formally opened a
handsome block of " industrial huildirgs." They are
erected by a e in,pany, of which Alderman Waterlow
Is the chairman, and this fact is specially worth attest-
tin. There is no charity about the affair, as is the
ease with the Peabody buildings. The company COCO.
Vines philanthropy ant business, and pays about five
percent. Thies is very 'suggestive in coons tien with
the enormous funds which the Peabody truetees have
at their disposal. To revert to the former building.,
the block just opens el contains 175 separate sets of
apartments, in which the occupants can be as private
and exclusive as they like, while there is one grand
entrance ccmrsion to the whole block of buildings; the
only other thing in common being a drying and
recreation ground. Such movements as these are
highly beneficial to t.l e artisans, mechanics, &c., who
have to so large an extent been turned out of
house and h-me by railway., the widening of
streets, Am It would be a waste of time to descant
on the bens his of eecent and healthy helms,
as everybody admits tle-ei, but it le a great pity that,
with all our knowledge and all our talk, so
little has hitherto been done in this way. There are ,
many house snow in certain quarte's in which the poor
are huddled together in a disgraceful way. One's
own home in the hest home, though never so small,"
says Bishop Percy; and "light be the hand a ruin
laid upon the home I love," sings Keble ; but it would
be hard to apply either sentiment to the "homes which
are no homes" in which so many of our poor have to
pass so much of their lives.
It is said that a photographer in Glasgow has re-
ceived an order from a London house for GO 000 copies
of the likeneas of the Marquis of ',erne. By tiomeara
improbable. The approaching marriage will be an ex-
tremely popular one, and this omit make numbers cf
people deeircus of Laving the "counterfeit present-
ment" of the fortunate young nobleman. Ills portrait
must already have been very extensively soil, and so
has that of the Princess Louise. The great interest
that is felt in the portraits of public characters is evi-
denced by the knots of people who gather round the
photographers' windows, here as elsewhere. Arnie: the
many sett atst ions of London shops I doubt whether any
Is so powerful as that of the dealer in photographs.

The anconalien of our marriage laws, in relation to
various parts of tie name 'United Kingdom, are actions,
and time out of mind society Fax exclaimed against
these anomalies, which it is earnestly to Ire hoped
will sooner or later, and the sooner the better,
be altered. But, merinwhile, recent (sets have thrown
a strut g light uj on a Riming evil, the anomaly of
marriage the army not being subject to civil law.
In so important a scatter as marriage, surely there
should cot be one law for the soldier, and another
for the civilian ; hut so it is, "A soldier," it is said,
" who marries without the consent of his Colonel—a
onrient, which we may say is never given till be hem
been at least seven 3 ears in the service- is not, ale
cording to military rules, married at all. Ile remains,
to all intents and purposes, a single mar. Ilia wife
cannot force him to give !lir a penny out of his Fay for
her own support, or that of their children, and he may
go on with perfect in pnnity spending his money on
drink and vice while l,is family are absolutely•starve
bag." And cases are cited which, unhappily, too
clearly prose tics truth of this. It is high time that
the military and Civil law on this subject should be
aasimilated. But there are many important considera-
tions connected with this subirct, and not the least
evil of a large standing army is that the soldiers are,
as a rule, too poor to marry. This is tro large a sub-
ject to enter upon now, but no one can have paid any
attention to the compulsory celibacy of soldiers with-
out seeing that this is fraught with enormous evil.
/lave you ever noticed, courterns readex, that there
Is very little interest now felt in public meetings corn.
pared with what was manifested, we will say, when 3on
were a Loy- or a girl ? Perhaps it is because we have
not no many exciting public questions unsettled as our
fathers had, or perhaps—and I think this more likely—
because the poople'a prow has to a great extent taken
the place of the plat form. Be this as it may, however,
public meetings are rather the rage just now in con-
fl. otion selth the electim to the Education Board. I
attended one the other evening, and a very dry, dull,
prosy affair it was. There was not one good speaker,
even including the P.! P. in the chair. Speaker after
speaker kept droning on in the sante hackne3ed
with the same well-worn platitudes and the same un-
deniable common-places. The resolutions, too, that
were passed were not only forgone conclusions, but
were made up of truisms that called forth no opposi.
tie% I would have mach rather gone to a " dimmest=