The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-25 00:00:00

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The Queen's anxious inquiries respecting the pro-
gress of the mournful work at the Dines colliery is
another illustration of the solicitude shown by her
Majesty in the success of labours which are watched
with interest by large numbers of her subjects. Times
and circumstances change; but there is no alteration
in one very material respect, and that is in the feeling
of the Sovereign for the prosperity and welfare of her
people. How_ things have changed in many ways one
is often reminded by the recurrence of a date carrying
the mind far bank into the chronicles of the past. For
bstance, on the-23th of January, 1838, the wedding of
the Queen's eldest daughter took place ;and less than
twelve months avo the eldest daughter of the Princess
Rove! was married. It seems difficult to believe that

twenty-one years hare roiled away since that wintry'
morning when in the Chapel Royal at St. James's

the firs-t
breach was made in the household of Her
Majesty, which has since been so reduced by death
and marriage. The Queen's mother and husband were
both there ; so was the lamented Princess Alice;
whilst, upon Her Majesty's right hand, Lord Palmer-
ston, who was then Prime Minister, wielded the sword
of State with a most martial air, as though nothing
like seventy-four years had passed over his venerable
head. The Sovereign's age has in the meantime
mounted from 39 to 60; and she now leads a very
quiet although a busy life. Few great ladies indeed
find time to compress so many occupations into
the day as does Her Majesty. She breakfasts
at nine, lunches at two, and dines at eight. From
three to five her Majesty generally drives or walks
;dant, but the remainder of her hours is devoted to State
bwainess, study, or correspondence with the members
of her widespread family. The passing away of
Christmas has reminded many of us of those happy

domestic reunions which are so common at that season
of the year, when relatives from far and near once
more meet together. The plea are thus enjoyed by
_ _ _

the humblest househola in the land has for more than

twenty years been unknown to the Queen, for the
Christmas of 1857 was the last upon which she, her
husband, all her children, and her mother, spent under
the same roof. Princess Beatrice was then only a few
months old; she is now nearly 22 years of age, and the
only child remaining to the Queen without a separate
establishment.

The severe frost and other unforeseen causes have
materially retarded the progress of the new Law
Courts ; still it is satisfactory to know that the eastern
wing has bc en completed, and that the contractors are
pushing forward the western portion as rapidly as
circumstances will permit. The eastern part is
not to be allowed to remain untenanted until the
remainder is finished, for the law offices now scattered
In Chancery Lane are to be concentrated in the
new building. The hoarding in front of the new
structure in tee' Strand, between Bell-yard and the
western boundary of the east wing has been removed,
and the spectator is thus enabled to gain a better
dea of whan our new Palace of Justice will be
like, when the ma+ons and the carpenters, the
decorators and tne upholsterers have gone out of it.
The time originally fixed for the occupation of this
°spacious edifice was 1880, but at least a year beyond
that period must elapse before the whole of the law
and equity judges are enabled to administer justice
in this palatial pile. Whatever its proportions may be
it will be without one great advantage possessed by St.
Paul's and the Royal Exchange—that of a good ap-
proach and of standing out alone, separate and dis-
tinct from the mass of surrounding houses. In order
to give such a frontage to the Palace of Justice it
would have bern necessary to destroy half the north
side of Fleet-street and the Strand, and the whole of
the Temple from the Thames to the Bar. This, how-
ever, was too great a sacrifice, so we must be content
to have the Law Courts more as a contribution to the
utility than to the ornamentation of the metropolis—or
at least such an ornament as they might have been
made had they been raised in some less crowded neigh.
bourhood.

Sir Edward Watkin, M.P., chairman of the Metro-
politan Railway Company, had a more favourable
account to give to the shareholders at the half
yearly meeting than has been furnished at some
other public undertakings. During the past six
months they ha l earned £3,500 more, and spent
900 less than in the corresponding period of
the previous year, and had carried 1,120,000 more
passengers. The.. total number conveyed over
the line in 1878 wAs 53,807,000. At the same
meeting Sir Edward Watkin made a statement which
gave Rowe hope of the speedy completion of what is
known as the Inner Circle line lf railway—that is to
say, the link connecting the Metropolitan and the
District-systems at their City ends. At present there
is .a cost!), gap between the Mansion House and
Aldgate, which the two railway companies, the City
Corporation, and the Board of Works are anxious to
supply. The two last-mentioned bodies have planned
the construction of a new thoroughfare as an east-
ward continuation of Cannon-street, and as railway
and street would for some distance pass over the same
ground, the Corporation and the Board of Works will
contribute towards the cutting of the line if the rail-
way companies will make the new street over it. The
matter is now under consideration, and will occupy
the attention of Parliament during the present session.

Ministers have suspended their holidays once more
to come up and deliberate in the greatest and
gloomiest of cities. Cabinet councils have recom-
menced, and the time which precedes the opening
of the session is likely to be fully occupied in the
drafting of the Government measures which are
to be laid before Parliament. The session begins
late—a month, indeed, later than last year; but
there were twelve days of the sitting before
Christmas, and these deducted from the 13th
of February would really make the assembling
of the Legislature equal to the time of its
meeting on the let of that month. Although trade is
bad, and our coarmercial prospects are anything but
bright, there is one satisfactory feature of the present
political situation which did not exist twelve months
ago. It is just a year since, on the 25th January,
1878, the Earl of Carnarvon announced his resigna-
tion of his offiee as Colonial Secretary because he
was unable to agree with his colleagues in their
Eastern policy—a secession which was soon followed
by that of
_Lord Derby. For weeks the country was
believed to be on the verge of war, and that, after all,
Is a contingency which we have not now to fits°.
Foreign affairs look much less depressing than they
did a year ago; the Russians were then thundering at
the gates of Constantinople; the British Fleet
movE-d up under the very guns of the Turkish capital,
lin that it should not fall into the hands of the armies
of the CzAr, and an accidental collision between a few
Muscovite soldiers and English sailors might have
acted as a spark upon a gunpowder magazine, and
involved two great nations in deadly hostilities. Now,
however, there is no danger of any such complioations
arising. We are not likely to be drawn into war,
and every Cabinet Minister who speaks in public
aFsures us that the Treaty of Berlin is being carried
out as rapidly as circumstances will permit, and that
there is no danger of the peace of Europe being broken.
For some years after the clearing away of the build.
lug which was erected to receive the treasures con.
tributed to the International Exhibition of 1882, its
site remained unappropriated—a huge waste stir.
rounded by mansions, palaces, and stately dwellings.
Hard by is the Royal Albert Hall, the resort of the
beauty, rank, and fashion of the capital during the
London season, and a distance of a few minutes' walk
brings the pedestrian int ) Hyde Park. As the South
Kensington station, affording access to all parts of
London, was very near the site, it might have been ex-
pected to be taken up by an enterprising contractor, but
this was not the case, and at length a purpose was found
for it in the erection thereupon of a Museum' of Natural
History, the scaffolding -:rom which is now noarly all
removed. This building is a decided improvement
upon a dreary waste of Lund. Another matter which
may be mentioned in c nnection with the rogress of
Kensington is the erection of a superb tower and spire
as an addition to the parish church of St. Mary
Abbott's, of which the Bishop of Lichfield was Nicar
before his elevation to the episcopal bench. It 'is not
only one of the finest in the country, but one of the
very few specimens of true Gothic architecture in
England. Its altitude, 273 feet, is exceeded only
by Salisbury, Lincoln, Norwich, and St. Michael's
Coventry-,
,tind is rivalled only by the churches of
Grantham: Louth, and Boston. The District Railway
having brought Kensington to within a quarter of an
hour's ride of the City, it has become one of the most
popular, as it is certainly ens of the mast healthy, of
metropolitan suburbs.

It has often been noticed how long it takes to get
through-a bye election when Parliament is not sitting,
for not less than a month is usually occupied between
the occurrence of the vacancy and its being actually
filled. In the session a writ is moved for by the whip
, sof either political party when the House resets in the
• afteinoon ;it is despatched by the same night's post,
and is received by the sheriff of a county, or the
mayor of a borough en, the following morning. In the
recess the procedure is of a mush more Protracted
and cumbrous character. If a member of the Mouse
a Commons then dies, the fast has to be Refitted to
the SFaker under the hand of two other members ;
and the right hon. gentleman then causes a notice to be
Inserted In the London Gam**, stating that at the end
of biX days from that date he will bums his warrant to
te issue a suit
the clerk of the Cr, hlm

accordingly. The procedure varies but little in the
case of a member who during the recess has been
summoned to the Peerage, but a vacancy °aimed by
the retirement of a member from Parliamentary
life cannot be filled until Parliament meets,
Therefore if an ALP., unacquainted with this
rule, announced his resignation in September his
constituents must be kept in all the hot water of
electioneering excitement until February, before
his place could be supplied. A gentleman who
has once been elected to the House of Commons can
withdraw from that assembly only by taking office
under the Crown, and this is done by accepting the
nominal post of steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, or
hailiff of the manor of Northstead, to which neither
s-lary nor duty is attached.
Edward Payson Weston, wbo.c,e performances at the
Agricultural Hall drew the,publio attention to the
possibility of extraordinary pedestrian feats, has now
started on a journey very different from that r• pre-
sented by walking round and round one building for
an entire week. Last Saturday morning was only a
few minutes old—indeed St. Paul's had only just pro.
claimed the hour of midnight over the sleeping city—
when a small and singular party might have been seen
at the Royal Exchange, from which Weston set out
on a walk of 2,000 miles through the high roads of
England, to be accomplished in 1,000 hpurs, the
pedestrian to deliver fifty lectures in various towns
by the way. As Sundays are excluded froth the
calculation, Weston will have seven weeks of six days
each in which to accomplish his marvellous feat, with
eight hours over, and he must do on an average rather
more than forty-seven miles a-day. There will be
much interest in this test of human endurance,
outside the influence of sporting circles. Medical
men, for instance, will be glad to know if the
physical constitution of man is capable of sup.
porting' such a heavy strain upon its powers.
Weston has been in training for this business for some
weeks past, and would not have started on his arduous
journey if he had not some expectation of accomplish-
ing a successful result. At the same time there can
be no doubt that fifty miles a day, or something very
near it, for seven successive days, is an abnormal tax
upon any man's strength. The walk of a thousand
miles in a thousand hours used to be considered a good
performance; now the distance is attempted to be
doubled in the same time. There are some very
heavy wagers both for and against the intrepid
pedestrian.