The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-06-05 00:00:00

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Metropolitan ossip.

PT OCR OWN CORRESPORDINT.

(The remarks under this head are to be regarded as the ex-
prawn of independent opinion, from the pen of a gentleman
in whom no have the greatest confidence, but fur which 110
uevertheless du not hold ourselves responsible.]

With Parliament re-assembled after an unusually
long Whitsuntide recess, owing to the Derby day, the
question which had been shelved for a time has been
revived—what will the Lords do with the Irish Church
Bill? The probable action of such men as Lords
Shaftesbury, Grey, Salisbury, Cairns, and Carnarvon
has beeen much speculated upon, as well as the proba-
ble attitude of the Conservative party generally. Now
one of these influential noblemen has spoken on the
sulject in reply to a deputation of Irish Protestants.
"Should the House of Lords," says his Lordship,
"decide upon entertaining the details of the measure,
_ .

some at leaet of the evils likely to flow from it in its pre-
- - -

sent shape will probably be guarded against." But
what the deputation would have liked to have been told
is whether the House will "decide on entertaining the
details of the measure." This the noble lord did not

_
say, and perhaps he did not know, nor do the public,
at the moment of writing, know from any other
source. There is reason, however, to believe that the
House of Lords will accept the second reading, and
try to modify the measure in committee, but that no
very important alterations will be accepted by the
House of Commons ;and a hope is apparently enter-
. .

. . _ ,
tallied, by those who have been studying the political
aspects of the time, that this session will gee set at
rest the most vexatious question we have had for many
a long year, save and except the Reform question.
A question, which is of considerable importance to
us Londoners, will shortly be tried through an action
for damage and trespass in breaking down a fence on
Wandsworth Common. The right of the public to this
so.called "common' is involved in the dispute, though
the fact does not appear on the surface. It is very
strange that while efforts are being made to form new
parks, and numbers of people are up in arms at the
slightest encroachment on Finsbury Park or Victoria
Park —and very properly—several ,4 our commons are
being stolen away from us bit by bit, by railway com-
panies and speculating builders. I should not be sur-
prised if this trial to which I allude were to lead to
parliamentary action in respect to our very unsatisfac-
tory law as to commons and open spaces. Meanwhile,
there is a bill before the House of Commons which
would do something towards the simplification of this
law. It extends the application of the word "com-
mon" in the Act of 18G6 to 'any open space which
has been enjoyed or frequented by the public for not
less than twenty-five years," and makes the Act appli-
cable to a radius of twenty-five miles from Charing
Cross; both of which enactments would, to say the
least, render encroachment more difficult. The worst
of it is that while Parliament is considering these
alterations, our commons are being eaten away.

Between the two great race days at Epsom there was
a capital lot of races at the Crystal Palace, on veloci-
pedes, in which it was pretty clearly shown that the
French are at present rather superior to um both in
manufacturing and riding these new toy-vehicles; but
it was also agreeably proved that Englishmen can make
and manage them. During the races ten miles an hour
was a pace that was frequently reached, though it was
not kept up. The attention drawn to velocipede,
through this Velocipede Derby is likely to bring them
more into vogue, and they are already gradually coming
into use, though still very slowly.
'A mantle-maker" puts a new law in a new light.
She complains of the injustice of the law which com-
pels her to leave work every night at eight o'clock and
at four on Saturday. At present, she says, the half.
day on Saturday is deducted, making only five days
and a half (when in full work) at Is. fid. or 2s. a day,
and this only for about eight months in the year. She
frequently has to take home a garment she cannot
finish at the shop, and complete it at home, finding
light and fire, which she would save were it not for the
law. And no doubt the mantle-maker is partly right
so far as her individual case is concerned, though she
takes no note of the benefit that the Act of Parliament
is to her in preventing unnecessarily long days while at
the same time it does not lessen her work in the long
run. I find, on inquiry, that the new law works admir-
ably in London, and has been a great boon on the
whole to the persons whom it affects. The sail evils
from which "mantle-makers," and all women who get
their living (or dying) by the needle, suffer are beyond
the reach of any Act of Parliament. They are the
evils of pitiful pay, over-competition, and grinding
avarice on the part of the employers.
Mr. George Peabody, the benevolent millionaire
who tried so nobly to benefit the poor of Loudon, and
did not succeed because he confided the carrying out of
his scheme to trustees, is about to leave us, it is said,
for his native land, never to return. All who hear it
will be sorry that he is going, though all may wish
him health and happiness in his declining age. If he
,I,,es leave us, I should much like him, before going, to
insist on those "Peabody Buildings "being overhauled,
so that the really "poor of London" might get the
benefit of his munificence.

A quarter of a century ago there was not a greater
man than Mr. George Hudson, the Railway King, and
now there "is none so poor as to do him reverence."
The monarch of the iron age was many years since
deposed, and has suffered terrible reverses of fortune.
In 1845 members of Parliament courted his favour;
solicitors, barristers, and parliamentary agents hung
upon his decisions; he made and marred railway
schemes by merely giving them his sanction, or with-
holding from them his support. But now he is in
destitution and in exile in France; and it is pleasing
to hear that several, who knew him in the day of his
prosperity, are endeavouring to raise a sum adequate
to give him an annuity of £4OO for the rest of his life.
The railway mania of 1845 ruined many people, no
doubt, but it trade the fortunes of many. Mr. Hudson
played a very active part in the excitement of those
times. Perhaps some whom he helped to make so
much money will now come forward with a subscrip-
tion for the "monarch retired from business."
There is a great deal of Sunday trading in London
more's the pity—but nothing to be compared with that
In Paris, and the sympathy between the anti•Sunday-
trade party in the English and French capital.; is re-
markable. A number of shopmen in the linendrapery
trade in Paris are on strike against Sunday work, and
a committee of London shopmen has sent them the
large sum of £4,000 to aid the movement. Whatever we
may think of strikes generally, we cannot but admire
this devotion to a principle, and certainly a good
principle.
. . . .

. .
Beggars are a perennial pest, and it is to be feared
that the great majority of them are as much profes-
sional people as are lawyers or doctors. They make
a trade of it. It has been proved that they have their
professional marks as well as medical men their signs.
The professional beggar will make a certain chalk-mark
on a gate or door-post, and it signifies "won't give any-
thing—know too much ;" or another mark which
means "Will give something if yon pitch it strong,'
and so on. I have heard that some householders in the
outskirts of London have learned these cabalistic signs,
and that they keep beggars away by making appro-
priate signs. I scarcely believe it, but it may be a
fact, for anything I know. One gentleman it seems
frightens beggars away by a couple of long words. He
has a nice bit of rock-work planted with ferns, and
near it he has posted up this notice :—" Beggars
beware! Scolopendriums and polypodiums are set
here." The beggars, perhaps, fancy that these are fine
words for man-traps and spring-guns; at all events it
is said the notice warns off the beggars. Far better
than such little ruses as these would be the uniform
adoption of the principle of refusing money, and giving
tickets for inquiry, and relief if necessary. But
people, in London at least, will not act on any uni-
form principle.
A great number of persons who came up to spend a
day or two in London at Whitsuntide stopped to go
and see the Derby, and then what so natural as that
they should go and see the Horse Show? It is in-
deed a horse show, and something more, and many of
the articles exhibited have no connection whatever
with horses. Velocipedes are quite a feature of this
year's exhibition, but there is not much to look at in a
velocipede without its rider, or driver, whichever be
the correct term. So far as the exhibition bears out
its name it really is a very interesting sight, some of
the horses on view being really splendid animals. The
whole show is, of course, used as an advertisement by
many of the exhibitors, but I don't know that it is
any the worse for that, for it is by such means that
competition is fostered, and consequently cheapness
and excellence effected. I dare say the judges are
thoroughly competent men o decide the merits of the
animals, and detur digniori was doubtless their prin-
ciple of action, but they evidently had a very difficult
task, so nearly equal, in several classes, were several
of the unconscious rivals for the honours of the day.
For the time being the Horse Show is the greatest at-
traction in London, and the Agricultural HQ is daily
crowded.

STATISTICS OF Sift PWRECKIA—LIOyd'S Statisti-
cal Committee have just issued their annual statement
of the number of shipwrecks and casualties reported
during the year 1868, together with the average and
comparative percentage of the two previous years.
From these it is satisfactory to observe the practical
benefit now resulting from the operation of the Act
of 1865, establishing compulsory pr. of of cables and
anchors. It appears the average casualties arising
from default of anchors and cables in 1866 and 1867
numbered 748, as against 417 only in 1868. In 1866
an 1 1867 the average annual loss of life is stated at
1,995, while in 1868 the total was reduced to 1,118, a
saving of 8.7; and this notwithstanding the unusually
severe and tempestuous character of the weather, as
evidenced by the greatly increased number of ships cliaw
masted in 1868 over former years.