The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-11-10 00:00:00

TIIk IUUIiIiWJWi OB6Elt V Eit.

are interested in the iron trade. If coal was at an
unnatural low level there is a saffiAent nuarib,s:. of
coal owners who have no direct interest in the iron
trade to take independent action in raising prices,
but their business experience and prudence teaches
them that coal is relatively higher than iron, and
that further inflation would prove disastrous to both
industries. On Change this afternoon there was
not much animation merchants and consumers
holding aloof from sellers in the hopes of obtaining
abatments. Manufacturers however did not yield
except in isolated instances, to the pressure of
customers and they were made more cautious by
the state of the coal trade and the possibility of an
advance of wages and prices or a strike of colliers.
Galv,mised sheets were ia lair request though the,o
was less b iskness than was the case before quo-
tations were enhanced. The demand for hoops ens
a little beJer but nail rods. boiler plates, and wire
iron were oaly disposed of in r.3tad lots. Tile sales
of pig iron were ratarr ly.dow the average,
but the rate!: were firmly maintained on last weeks
basis.

had a. summonse against Win. Hayes, junr., for as-
saulting her on the same day by striking her in the
face. Witnesses were called on boa' sides and the
Bench fined Hayes 2s 6d and costs. In the other
case they fined Knowles 28 61 and costs.
STEALING GAS.—Charles Nicholls, George Foster,
and Richmd Dangerfield were charged with steal-
ing a quantity of gas on the 26th lilt, the property
of Mr. Bland, chemist., High-street, Stourbridge.—
Mr. Wall was for the prosecutiou.—Prisoners
pleaded not guilty.—Mr. Wall in opening the case
said the prosectituf had a stable which was in a
yard known as "Barlow's Yard." On the day in
question the defendants were singeing a horse
with gas which belongel to Mr. Bland.—George
Lawley said he went with Mr. Bland down to the
stable on the day in question. Mr. Bland unlocked
the duor and he saw the prisoners come out. He
did not see any light but he could smell something
like a 10ar.3.0 being singed. The case wis adjourned
for a fortnight in order that Mr. Bland, who had
met with an accident, might appear.
G'u yr 0 NDER. ACCIDENT.—On Monday evening a
girl living at A.mblecote was severely burnt by
the accideatal explosion of some gunpowder which
she was carrying in her apron.
A recent writer in our local papers has wisely
observed that "one of the follies of the age is to
buy dear Wines and Spirits." Another folly is to
suppose that buying from those who make the
largest return of duty is buying them in the
cheapest ma,rkes-, The Merchant who pays duty
upon thousands of gallons, pays in exact propor-
tion to the retailer clearing a single cask. A great
profit must be gained to cover enormous expenses
of large business premises, cost of advertising, aad
an allowance of profit to the Agent, greater in
many instances than taken by them in the respec-
able Merchant. To buy cheap is to buy were but
one profit is made, and we cannot better illustrate
our argument than by pointing out the way in
which our townsmen, Messrs. J. Rutland and Son, o
63, Iligh-st, have opened up the trade. We have
no hesitation in saying that 25 per cent, is note
saved by their bringing the producer and the con-
sutner together, over the prices paid a few years
ago, and a trial will fully bear out our. ass3rtions
Dudley Herald, December 24th, 1881.
"ROUGH ON RATS."—The Thing desired found at
last. Ask chein,sts, grocers or oilmen, for Rough
on Rats It clears out rats, mice, beetles, roaches
flies, bedbugs, insects, ground moles, &c. 71d. and
is lid boxes.
" BucnuPartia."—A new, quick, complete cure
for all urinary affections, (smarting ,frequent diffi-
cult) and kidney diseases, 4s. At Druggist, London
agency No 1. King Edward" Srteet.
BOARD OF GUARDIANS.—MT. J. Raybould pre-
sided at the weekly meeting of this Board yester-
day. Admitted 16, discharged 31, born 1, remain-
ing 538 against 508 in the corresponding week last
year. Out-door relief, Kingswinford district, £.ll
Is .11 ; Stourbridge, £3O 16] 2,1J1 ; Halesotven, £27
17s 6d ; non-resident paupers, Li 4s• 2d; total, <296
is sid; against ~£92 15s las year. At a meet•
ing of the Sanitary Committee it was reported that
the death-rate for Staffordshire was 22 per thousand
and 18 per thousand per annum for Wercester-
shire. It was decided by the casting vote of the
chairman to re-appoitt the medical officer of health
and two nuisance officers for another year, the
foimer at a salary of £llO and the latter at £lOO.

CATHOLIC RE-UNION AT DUDLEY.

CANON D4VIE3 ON TIIEIPOGR-LW IN ITS

RELIGIOUS ASPEC P.

The 21st annual Pe-union in conre -lion with the
Dudley Roman Catholic Church and Schools was
held on Tuesday at the Publie Hall of the Mechanics'
Institute. At the te t party, with which the pro-
ceedings commeaced, there was a large a.ttendanc?,
and at the aft r proceedinv the audience well
filled to hall. The Very Rev. Canon Davies
( Wolverhampton) presided, and supporting him on
the platfJrua were the Revs, J. Bond and J. F.
Phis (Dudley), Geo. Duckett (Wolverhampton), M.
Power (Bilston), J. Burke (Sedgley), T. Whelan
(Brierley Hill), Mess-s. 'l'. Reynolds, J. Noonan
and—Kelly.
The Chairman, after a few preliminary remarks,
said their pastor (Father Bond) hal as'red him to
address them on the Poor Law question, he (t le
ehairmau) supposed because, he having had some
little experience as a Guardian of the Wolver-
hampton Union, it might be thought he would say
a fov conventional words perhaps on a not vary
uninteresting matter (applause). It was, as they
were aware, one of the greatest queations of the
present day. Ti.e Very Rev. Chairman then pro•
ceedt d to give a brief historical narrative, showing
how Paganism had held poverty-in contempt and
dishonour, and how Christianity had ennobled it.
anti raised it to the dignity of a virtue. Speaking
of the tender care which the Church had every-
where manifested for the poor, who were the repre-
sentatives of Christ, he referred to the "Middle
Ages," commonly slandered as "The Dark Ages,"
when almshouses were scattered in profusion over
England, in which provision was made by endow-
ment not only for the support of the bodies of the
poor, but also for the welfare of their souls. They
were not called 'paupers," but "brethren ;" not
"kept alive," writes a modern author, with water
eruel, but fed with meat and tile, and bre ad and
milk. They were not assigned a narrow bench in a
distant corner of those grand Collegiate Churches,
built ia many instances for their us', but often bad
stalls, like so many Canons, in their own church.
The monasteries, too, the stat&y ruins of which
still rise nobly in their melancholy grandeur, from
many a fertile vale, on many a woo Jed hillside, as
testimonies mute but magnificent of a charity that
now lies entombed within their time-honoured
and moss grown walls. These monasteries that
studded the land were the voluntary feeders of
the poor; and it must be confes.,el that the rite
supported, prison-like piles of bricks in which
pauperism's food is meted out by measure, its
raiment cut according to regulation pattern, and
its very coffins of four deal boards fuiniehed by
contract; in which husba,n 1 is separated from wife,
and parent from child, in which there is but ()Ad
comfort, scant sympathy, and little religion; are
but sorry substitutes for their grand old charitable
predecessors. The speaker then went on to say
that he had dilated on the spiritual aspect of the
subject, to remind his hearers that all Boards of
Guardians, as he thought, had more sacred. du i
more solmen responsibilities to fulfil, than simply t )
feed and clothe the pauper, or merely to attend to
the monetary interests of the ratepayer. The law of
the land supposes that religion must come as a solace
and a supp in to the poor inmates of the Union, and
hence it demands the appointment of a chaplain,
whose duties it assigns ; and it authorises such
salary to be paid as shall be adequate to his position
as a gentleman of education and commensurate
with his dignity and calling as a clergyman. But
he must of necessity be a clergyman of the Estab-
lished Church. Now, in every Union the inmates
are composed for the most part of members of the
Church of England, Nonconformist, and Catholics.
Dissenters not only can, but do, avail themselves of
the ministrations of the clergyman of the Church
by law established ; but Catholics concientiously
cannot, and practically do not, take p irt in such
religious exercises, for to do so would be a denial of
thsir faith. They consider, then, that th y had a
grievance, and they were seeking a remedy. They
were of opinion that the some consider 'non should
be shown to their conscientious convict one and re-
ligious requitemen's as was evinced towards their
more fortunate and favoured Protes•ant friends in
the Workhouse. Tney asked for this privilege in
the name of civil and religious liberty, which was
the watchword of our rights as Englishmen ; and
they further asked for it on the ground that as
Catholic ratepayers contributed their taxes, often-
times numerous in quantity and heavy in quality,
to the maintenance of the Unice', as they should be
entitled to their fair and equitable share in the
distribation of the rates to r ligioue purposes. It
is repli el that their spiritual wants can be attend° 1
to by their own pastor in the Workhouse, or they
can go to their own church on the Sunday. True,
this concession is granted, but no remuneration is
oil -red to such pastor for duties Oat are roost
arduous anl constant ; that withdraw him from
other obligations to which he is appointed in the
Ire Ii y ia which ho resides; that involve him in
responsibilties which he thinks belong to the ad-
niiist iti in of the Guardians, and which he does
no fe 1 inclined to re.nove from their shoulders to
his owe. It is a mockery and an injustice to ad-
v,ic :to the voluntary system as long as the State
recoge-Cees the Scripture principle that "the leord
lia It 0 ..lained that they who preach the Gospel
shall live by the Gospel," and consequently pays
the P. otestant chaplain, lint refuses remuneration
to the Dissenting Minister or the Catholic Pries le
Only the other day he was reading that in Ire and,
in one Union—Abbeyleix—a Catholic chaplain ie.
eeives £6O per annum for ministering ti ISB
Catholic pelt :era, and the amount paid for the
spirli ail care of 4 Protestant inmates of the same
Jose 5 Another Union—Ard ee —pays
Cetholie c laptie £6O for his care 01210 paupers,
and a Protestant chaplain .220 for ministering to 6.
At AtSly, agaiu, a Protestant chaplain gets .230 for
the du ice he performs on behalf of 6 Protestant
iamates, and t e Catholic priest is paid wily :C.lO,
though the n amber of Catholics is 312. In Balm-
robe £l2 12 is paid to a Peutestant eh Thin, though
the number or. Protestant is only one. Why then
should there b one law fir England and an ither
for Irelan I ? Surely what was just a.nd right in
one country was just and right in another. Again,
with the exc pin of the able-bodied iam its, no
consideration is shown for the irifirsei!y of age, the
delicac s of yeuth, or the prossrei ion of sle'auess, if
such exceptienal cases—soil they are many—ca
only enj y the privilege of gettieg out to their
church on Sunday at the cruel expense of fasting,
fatigve, and fainting. It is sometimes alleged that
Catholic pauperism is in mug of its due propor-

tion in the Union, and that it has no right to cry
out for additional burdens on the ratepayer. The
objection is a discreditable one for it implies that
poverty is a crime and deserves punishment. It is
in fact, the same kind of reasoning that, in
vindication of injured discipline, would withdraw
from the offender the permission to attend church
for two or three months (this is done), and so re-
move hitn from that influence which could have
control over him, viz., that of religion. But I
would remind all such intolerant objectors that if
Catholic pauperism is in excess of its due proportion
in our Unions, it is because it has been created by
the civil and religious disabilities which Catholics
have suffered in the past; by the persecution and
the penal laws that have oppressed them ; and by
the spoliation and destruction of almonries that
were founded by our Catholic ancestors, and en-
dowed by Catholic wealth. I would remind them
that the "Poor Laws" were unknown to Catholic
Eegland, and only followed in the wake of the so.
called Reformation. I would remind them of the
testimony of the honest Protestant, William Cob-
bett, asho writes that "it is an undeniable fact that
the Reformation deprived the poor of their patri-
mony." I would remind shem that history tell us
"that the state of the lower orders in Elizabeth's
was one of deplorabl.! destitution. By the seizure
of the greater part of the tithes and Church lauds,
the enormous revenues out of which they had been
relieved had passed from the heads of the Church
to those of the nobles, whom no inducement could
persuade to devote any part of their wealth so ob
tam/led to the maintenance of the poor. Hence,
during the splendid Royal progress of this Reign,
the miserable appearance of the peasantry in the
districts she passed through was con,tantly noticed
by Elizabeth, who complained that England had
become a nation of beggars. The old laws of whip-
ping and branding with a hot iron were first re-
sorted to then martial law, hanging, and towards the
close of her reign, these measures railing to rid the
land of its new disease:of pauperism, a law was
passed for levying a tax for the support of pauper-
ism by compulsory assesment—and this was the
first English Poor-law." Listen to the contrast of
Fortescue. Lord Chief Justice in the reign of Henry
VI., when England was Catholic: "The inhabitants
are rich in gold, silver, and in all the necessaru
and conveniences of life. They drink no water, un-
less t certain times upon a religious score, and by
way o' doing penance, They are fed in great abund-
ance with all sorts of flesh and fish, or which they
have plenty everywhere. They are clot'ie I thr-u,gh-
cut in good woollens, their bedding and other fur-
niture in their houses are of wool, and that in great
store, They are als ) well provided with all other
' sort 4 of household goods and necessary implements
for husbandry. Everyone, according to his rank
has all things which conduce to make life easy
and happy." I think ladies and gentlemen I have
s lid enough and quoted enough to vindicate our
Catholic position and if I have thrown any light
upon a prJblein which is ever increasing in its diffi-
culty of solution, I can only thank you for th 3
patient attention you have given to my imperfect
etteraeces.

Votes of thantrs to the ladies who presided at the
tea tables, to the visitor 3, and to the chairman
were then accorded, after which there was a concert,
fol!owed by a comic operetta, the entertainment
winding up with a representation of the farce, " rurn
him out."