The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-02 00:00:00

EXPRESS TRAINS.

The Times, in a leader, commenting upon the _
at which exprees trains are driven and the persistency
of the public in travelling as fast as they can, asks,
What is she need of this? What is the good of it?
Why should a man peril his life for the sake of one
balf-horsr earlier in town? It is by no means rare to
find a man corning up at this perilous pace just to save
half an hour, which he spends in walking to save cab
hire, or perhaps 'bus hire. Few men's time is so pre-
cious that half an hour of it is worth the risk of Wet
and limb. Nor is there any such need that fathers and
mothers of families, children and men of business,
should stake their existence on the tenacity of a bolt,
on the toughness of a sleeper, on the soundness of a
rail, or on the hardness of the ground. There is
no honour gained in such reckleesnese. A certain
amount of danger there must always be, and that itself
is a reason why we should add to it as little as possible,
that we be not ourselves answerable for misadventure.
Not the least danger of railway travelling is that its
worst catastrophes come entirely without warning.
One instant the carriage is gliding as rapidly and as
smoothly as a driven cloud; the next it and its
occupants are shattered to pieces, crushed and buried
under& heap of wreck, in steam or in fire. The paasen-
gera may have been ch atting, or reading, or sleeping. They
are now in another world, or passing to it in unspeak-
able agonies. On the sea there are hours, perhaps days,
of warning, and the peril is seen. But railway travel- I
lers pass wholly unconscious over broken bolts, twisted
rails, rotten sleepers, and swampy ground, as danger-
oua to their pregress as racks, shoals, and quicksands
are to shipping. They little know bow many narrow
escapes they had; how nearly the train had left the
rail here, how by a "fluke" it jumped back on to the
rail there. .

spec

LORD BEACON SFIELD.7- i -
(From The Times, Tuesday, Aug. 29.) q ; -
An address of congratulation to the Premier'mpon
his elevation to an earldom is in course cf signature in
Maidstone, The signatures are those of the Chairman
of the local Conservative Party, and of the 60 or 70
snrwiving electors who voted for Mr. Disraeli in 1837.
Writing to Colonel Stanley, one of the Conservative
candidates at the last General Election, Mr. Disraeli
wished him success, and added,—"l shall always feel
grateful to Maidstone as the borough which gave me
my first seat in Parliament."
It was in the middle of the year 1837 that Mr.
Disraeli came to Maidstcne as a candidate, in company
with Mr. Wyndham Lewis, who had already repre-
sented the borough. The death of William IV. had
rendered a dissolution necessary, and Mr. Disraeli was
Induced by a deputation which waited upon him in
London, to renew in Maidstone the attempt to enter
Parliament which had proved unsuccessful six years
earlier at High Wycombe. At this time he was in his
thirty-second year, and known as the author of
"Vivian Grey" and other novels. The address which
he issued to the electors of Maidstone will be read with
interest by the side of the recently published address
to his late constituency in Buckinghamshire. In it
he says:—

"I solicit your suffrages as an uncompromising adherent of
that ancient Constitution which once was the boast of our
fatherr, and Is still the blessing of their children. I wish to
see the Crown enjoy its prerogatives, both Houses of Parlia-
ment their equal privileges, and the great body of the nation
that unrivalled and herlditary freedom which has been the
noble consequence of our finely-balanced scheme of legisla-
tive power. Convinced that the reformed religion as by law
established in this country is at the same time the best
guarantee for its duration and orthodox purity, I feel it my
duty to uphold the rights of our national Church—that illus.
trim; institution to which we are not less indebted for our
civil than for our spiritual liberties. Resident in an agricul-
tural county, and deep'', interested in the land, I will on all
occasions watch with vigilant solicitude over the fortunes of
the British farmer, because I sincerely believe that his wel-
fare is the surest and most permanent basis of general pros-
perity."

The address is signed "B. D'lsraeli," spelt in the old-
fashioned style. The number of the local Conservative
paper, dated July 4, 1837, which contains the address,
remarks :

"Mr. Disraeli is recommended by the highest qualifica-
tions an English gentleman can bast. To respectability of
family and the possession of large property he adds the
elaims of business like habits, of exemplary service of his
country at a magistrate, and the possession of talent which
has already contributed a valuable addition to English litera-
ture, and which eminently Ins him for a seat in the Legis-
lature."

In its news columns the same paper states
"Mr. Wyndham Lewis has arrived in Maidstone, acorn.
panted by Mr. B. Disraeli, a gentleman well known in the
literary world as the author of several talented works."
The two candidates eubse4uently issued a joint I
address, and attended a public meeting of their sup-
porters, at which Mr. Disraeli said :
" Appearing for the first time before an assembly of the
men of Kent, I know full well the disadvantages under
which I hbour. Eight-and-forty years ago &stranger, except
for a youthful and fleeting reputation, I should lastly have
been chargeable with arrogance if I could have contemplated
that a meeting of so large and so independent a body would
listen to any words which fell from my lips. if, then, you
a3k me what induces me to come forward • if you ask use
what powerful, what sublime and exalted feeling supports
and animates me, I answer it is the proud conscious-
ness of being a champion of a great cause. And
If you ask me what that Cause is I will tell you
In a sentence: It is the cause of the English Con-
stitution; the cause of British liberty. Here am I, gentle-
men, following the same politics, preaching the same doc-
trine, supporting the same institutions as I did at Wycombe.
I remain the same, but with this difference At Wycombe
I stood alone. Now I am not an altogether unknown
member of the most powerful Party in the Empire. This
reminds me that I have to thank you for the kindness with
which you have received me. I hope the time will come
when you will greet me as a stranger no Longer. I cer-
tainly would not have appeared before you if I had not
been animated with the happy convicti.n that I
should soon be member for Maidstone. My nerves
are not so fine as to shrink from a personal
canvass. lam happy to enter your houses, to :hake your
honest hands, to feel your hearty grasp. I feel full of
hope, certain of victory; and I assure you, 11 I have the
hapViness to be elected, you shall never have reason to be
ashamed of your representatire. I speak with confidence
only because of my conflietc° in our principles—principles
which I am convinced are the only solid bafils of national
prosperity and the social welfare—principles which insure
the freedom of the subject, the Jost prerogatives of the
Sovereign, the integrity of the realm, the safety of the Con-
stitution, and the happitfess of the people."

TUB speech was received, according to the report, with
immense enthusiasm, almost every sentence evoking
cheers. The number of the paper which contains the
account of the meeting says :
"Mr. Disraeli never attached himself to any Party until he
saw that the salvation of the Party depended upon the
hearty union of all who were anxious to oppose the revolu-
tionary views of the destructives Then he joined the Con-
servatives."
The nomination was held cn Wednesday, July 2, and
Mr. Disraeli made a sun3rt hustings speech, in which
his power of repartee frequently bole a prominent
part. A Liberal elector having shouted "Come to the
point," Mr. Disraeli retorted, "Let me hint to my
friend, that I am a better judge of my position than
an enemy, and that I never take advice from a man
who wears a hostile colour." The show of hands was
decided, amid protest, in favour of Mr. Wyndham
Lewis and Colonel Thompson, a Liberal candidate;
but on the following day Mr. Lewis and Mr. Disraeli
were returned at the head of the poll. A week later
Mr. Disraeli made his famous maiden speech in the
House of Commons.