The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-07-23 00:00:00

Our ~.13110.011 UnrrsponVent.
(We deolll it !lght to state that we de rut at at, timal
ddentify ouraohes with our correspondent; ”pioh,te.

It is a sonece of consolation, amid the troubles of
"those presents," that the Education Bill has at last
been got through committee. Another formal step,
and the measure passes from the Lower House pr..
-Eiaratory to the Lords dealing with it. Durieg the
cession perhaps no bill that is more important has been
introduced, and certainly no measore that haa been
more productive of difference oh pinion, and we may
therefore congratulate ourselves that progresa has thus
far been made. halted it is almost a wonder that the
Education Bill oculd be pushed as far as it tins been,
Ito intensely have various members felt en the subject,
and with widely differing views. There is now good
reason to hope that the Lords will see fit either to
Accept the measure as the Commons send it up to their
lordships, or else that the latter will make only such
.alterations as the Government can accept. Its either
case the public will be greatly the gainer, and the re-
proaeh of Eugland being behind other nations in educa-
tion will be lessened, if not wholly swept away. And there
is consolation als to be drawn from the position of the
other great measure 0/Abe Seasion, thelrish Land Bill.
Pule Lords have amended, and re-amended, and re-
re-amended, and now at last the bill so stands that the
CWIIIIIOOII cac. accept the alterations, and thus the
measure cw be carried through Parliament. Great
fears have been entertained at various tinier relative
to these two bills—the most prominent measures of the
Seniior ; but now there is little doubt that they will be
passe I, and with their passing there will be a great
dim inution in the intere it felt by the punlic in home
It' tics.

There is, of conree, no public tonic which excites any-
thing like no much interest as ' • the war," as the Franco-
Prussian difficulty is cal led in brief. The re i.e wide differ-
ence of opinion as to the blame to be attached to the two
great Powers chiefly concerned. On the ore hand it is
wiaintained that the French Emperor and Government
really care little about the nomination of the Prince of
lioherz ollern in itself, bat that they have throughout
the whole affair sought an excuse for war; that •
•the "French people have been for four or five years
part extremely jealous of the Frmaians ; that Franc-
how been reeolved to quarrel with Prussia; that the
King of Prussia has throughout the affair acted with
conciliation and yet with dignity; and that in fact
Fritsch' has hot war thrust upon her. On the other
aide it is maintained that the Emperor of the French
how done all in his power to endeavour to avert this
-was•.o,, knowing how eager for war was a large
part of the population of France, the Emperor has
•oeverthelees exhausted all the means within his reach
oto preserve peace, and that he has been pushed for-
ward by the force of events—by what he once spoke of
as the inexorable logic of facts. Possibly the truth
lice bstween these two views. Of one thing there can
be no doubt—of the intense excitement that the declara-
tion of war has caused incur own c wintry and on the
°continent. I can well believe what I have read
of the excited crowd. in Paris, and the mice of the
vs:palace. I happened to be in Lille when the de-
...tharation of war was made known. But before
arriving there there were ample evidences of the
excitement that the topic of the day was caus-
ing. People in the train could talk of nothing
but is pawn, and the excitement was intensified
when Ird were told, on approaching the Franco-
'Belgian frontier that the railway had been cut on the
frontier to meintain Belgian neutrality, and that we
should have to walk to Dile ! But on reaching a little
station on the frontier we learnt the actual facts—that
the lion had really been ulewu pie. but that it was reuse.
In the busy. working town oof Lille, where there were
then some 5 000 soldiers, all was excitement. Posted
-up in the masket.place were the latest telegrams and
declaration of war. Eagerly were these read, and
more eazsrly was the news discuosed ; and, judging
from thss prevailing tone of the convsreation, tido de-
claration of war was certainly favourably received. In
our own country the news CAWes general regret, and
whether we consider Prussia or France to be in the
wrong, or both, we must deeply lament the probability
of a serious struggle.

What to do with or boys it a constantly recurring
problem Apply to any friend in any trade or pro-
feasicsi. and your good-natured friend will almost
kwareclly tell you that that particular trade or
,;on it is overstocked, and you had bett,r look on:
ePsewhere for an opening for your boy, The Pest-
Office does well, therefore, to isms regulations an
boy lerkships in the saving, bank, telegraph, an cir-
culation departments of that vast estahlibhntent
Boys between thirteen and sixteen, with to
vary high mental or physical qual tications, are '
to he eligible for appointments ranging frtm
Ohs not partictilwly extravagant pay of is, a
week, as telegraph meteengers, up to ESC, a year in the
kaircnlation department, the latter figure being tea 'het
AS in other departments, by an annual increase if
Of courte boy labour, hks womaata work, away s raise,
the question what it to become f the men; but in thin
case there will be plenty et occu2ation for men and
boys too, and if Ott lads thus employed find that on
reachimc their maximum in the G. P. 0. the salary ice
bad look-out for the future, why they must seek snot.
thing better, and their training will not prove to have
been a 'oad one.

The inaugural ceremony at the Workmen's Inter-
national Exhibition on Saturday was not at all a bril
affair, and the arrangements for the grand con-
vit were in some respects ridiculously defective. The
Eilibition has been opened at a rather unfortunate
time; is very late in the season, and then the newe
of the War has, without exaggeration, thrown a shadow
over the Agricultural Hall. I am sorry to see that in
many places the workmen's names are conspicuous by
their absence, and that the names of firms have been
attbstituted. It vas understood that the name of the
real maker or inventor, and not the name of a firm
-was to be appended to the "exhibits," and this was to
'as a distinguishing feature of the Exhibition. 112.
hat been done to some extent, but in justice to the
working classes whose exhibition this te, it ought to
have been uniformly adopted wherever practicable.
Looking at the Exhibition generally, however, it is a
most interesting and attractive one, and thousanan of
people will daily flock to it. The vast building where
it is held is admirably adapted to the purpose and
there ig ample room to circulate freely and examine
the obj eta exhibited, while the facilities of communi-
cation to and from the Hall have been largely increased
semen the laat exhibition in the Name building.
Mr. Spurgeon still maintains his remarkable, but
rot marvellous, popularity. Last Sunday morning
the vast Tabernacle was crowded, as it generally is on
Sunday mornings, and a noticeable feature was the
attendance of a large number of casual visitors from
the provinces and from abroad. I do not pretend to
be able to tell either a "countryman," as we Cr ckneys
fay, or a foreigner at a glance, for Pou3pey is very
much like C. sax, are., but having been several times
asked, in the neighbourhood, "the way to Mr.
Spurgeon's," and having heard, en sortant, two or
three knots of people talking French, I nista ally put
this and that together, and arrive at a not very pro-
found Cr sagacious conclusion. It is noticeable that
ene French and the FrenchiSwiss are particularly
icareful to pay Mr. Spurgeon a visit when they come
Locdon. They are very fond of good oratory,
although the former have not much opportunity of
practising it, and Mr. Spurgeon's claims to be ranked
as a fine orator are undeniable.
The se•ualled "monster demonstration" in Hyde
Park last Sunday, aasinst the Sunday Traiing Bill,
cannot be said to represent the opinions of the majority
of the population of the metropolis. I see it stated
that "at least 30,000 persons visited the park aa sym-
pathisers with the object of the meeting." But what
guarantee have we that the reporter who wrote this
!knew how to reckon the number? And how on earth
exmld he tell that all these were sympathisers with the
Ajeet of the meeting? But, even supposing these ex-
travagant statements true, it would be easy to get up
meetings (though not in the open air) at which, in the
aggregate, ten times 30,000 would support the Monday
Trading Bill. The strongest arguments used by the
speakers at this meeting were that the bill was oneisided
--in favour of the rich and against the poor, and One
ranker alluded to thou.in ds of the poorof the metropolis
not being able to get their scanty Sunday dinnerati II they
;bad sold tneir wares on Saluda}, morning. Now there
is nothing more captivating with a certain class than
W.roxiglaoguage, about one law for the rich and another
for the poor ; but this language will not always bear
examination. Without entering deeply into the pro.
visions of this bill, which I have nevertheless carefully
studied, and possessing a tolerable knowledge of what
may be called "peer London," I unhesitatingly assert
that this bill would in the end be highly beneficial to
the poor. To talk of it as being "subversive of all the
social liberty of the subject, tyrannical in the ex-
treme, and oppised to morality, justice, and the per-
sorsa eigifte Ot a free people," Is simply nOlteente.. This
bill wonlii tend far noire to promote real liberty than
it would tend to repress it. Sunday trading Is very
tyrannical as it now exists, and thoweinds of small
trulesmen, linprr en, &a, know this full well. One
man in a street will force twenty other people, masters
and men, to do camday trade when they othervabie
would not do it, and indirectly these twenty people is-
finence others in the same direction. As to the
"social liberty of the subject" we must not be led
away by so cspisvating a phrase. All our laws are
noon- nave or lean against individnai liberty ;or the
on moo good, an I with soon% ef things it moot be so
On the religious part of the question I say nothing, bit
am persuaded that should this bill be pearled that part
of the working classes who are now opposed to it would
soon find that it waereally ior their benefit. Heartily,
however, do I agree edlt one res4ilution paesedthst
Charles' the Secoud's Act mould his aboli‘hed. It
ism au anachickisra mild an mom*.