The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-03-16 00:00:00

Our 71Conboit Co.rttspnbeittt

[We (kern it right to state that we do not at all times
Ideutify ourselves with our Correspondents opinions.]

The forthcoming meeting of the European Congress,
or Conference, or whatever the assembly may be ulti-
mately described at Berlin, marks the mighty political
change which has come over the Continent since the
close of the last war between Russia and Turkey.
Just two-and-twenty years have now elapsed, for it
was in March 1856, from the time that the Plenipo-
tentiaries of the various Powers met in Paris for the
discussion of terms of peace after the Crimean war.
Paris had been selected because it was regarded
as the political centre of Europe, and also out
of compliment to the Emperor Napoleon, as the
ruler of a people which had made great
sacrifices in the struggle with Russia. And
France deserved this recognition, for at the Alma, at
Inkermann, and at the capture of Sebastopol, her
troops had played a glorious part in that momentous
conflict. Prussia was taken little head of at that time;
indeed, it was doubtful whether she would be admitted
to the Conference at all, so great had been her vacilla-
tion, as the readers of Mr. Theodore Martin's Life of the
Prince Consort well know. It was the Imperial eagle of
France which was in the ascendant then, and to all
appearance the future was as bright as the clear sunlit
sky of Paris itself. A fortnight- after the birth of
the Prince Imperial, the Treaty of Peace was signed,
the pen wherewith the signatures were attached
to the famous document being Enometed in gold and
presented to the Empress. Two-and-twenty years
wane away. The Palace of the Tuileries, then the
scene of gorgeous receptions, congratulations, and re-
jcicings upon the birth of a prince and the ret-arn of
peace, is now, and has for years been, a mass of ruins:
The havoc wrought by the Communists has never
been repaired, and the grand facade now resounds
enly to the echo of the footfall of a solitary sentinel
who paces to and fro between the tottering walls and
the once gay gardens opening out an the Place de la
Concorde. Upon the side of the Palace whioh
overlooks the Seine you may detect the in-
scription placed there during the Reign of Terror
in the spring of 1871—" Vive in Republique," as
noting the death-knell of the departed Empire. The
master of legions of that day, at whose frown the
nations- of Europe trembled, now sleeps his long
Sabbath of repose in a eequestered [Tot in the county
of Kent, after having been dethroned and exiled.
The Prussia of that time, spoken and thought of so
contemptuously, is now the leading military Power
upon the Continent, controlling the vast Fatherland
of Germany, from the banks of the Danube to
the shores of the Baltic. Austria is a bundle of
sticks which would tumble to pieces if she at-
tempted to move. The Sardinia of 1856 is now
the kingdom of Italy, and a first-class Power.
Russia, then beaten down and humiliated, has now
her foe trampled under foot. Turkey, of whom there
were at that Ulm hopes of regeneration, has almost
ceased to exist as an independent State. And so,
amid all these wondrous changes, we find Great
Britain still ruling the waves, her battle ships
traversing every sea, and her flag floating in every
clime.

The proper meaning of the word Congress is an as-
sembly of Princes or Ministers for the settlement of
the affairs of nations or of a people. At a Congress
those who are gathered at the table have full powers
to decide for themselves without sending home for in-
structions, while at a Conference this is not the case,
and the points which come before the plenipotentiaries
have to be submitted to the authorities for their
opinion. Thus the assembly at Berlin will differ
materially from that at Constantinople fourteen months
ago. Lord Lyons, the representative of Great Britain,
will, like all the others, have authority to act upon his
own responsibility, having been made thoroughly ac-
quainted with the views of the Cabinet, with whom he
has been in consultation. His lordship has for many
years been the British ambassador at Paris, and his
father, Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons, commanded the
Black Sea fleet during the last Russian war.

The London School Beard have taken up the
question of spelling reform, believing that if this were
carried out the English language would be more easily
acquired by the•young. At the same time it should
not be forgotten that between the north and the south
of England there is a sensible variety of pro-
nunciation, and a still greater difference exists
between England and Ireland in this respect. The
problem of converting the two languages—the spoken
and the written—into a harmonious pair is compli-
cated by the vastness of our literature and its diffusion
in foreign countries. A sudden alteration which
would break the continuity of development—the sub-
stitution of a written language based upon popular
pronunciation—would place before the child and the
foreigner two languages instead of one. The rising
generation would be cut adrift from our literary past,
with its mighty stores of all that is grand and beauti-
ful in the English tongue. Many et our modern alter,
ations can scarcely be said to have seen improvements.
For instance, the clear vibration of the letter " r " has
almost dropped out of fashionable English speech. It
is more especially regarded as a weakness of Londoners
who would render " brother " into " bwother," and
" merry " into " mewy." The national utterance,
however, ought to be rescued irom such degradation
as this. Our written English may doubtless to some
extent be improved, but we cannot have it super-
seded or destroyed, or placed in jeopardy by constant
changes, which it is the function of literature to
arrest.

The Eastern Question has not so completely mono-
polised the attention of Parliament as too divert
the minds of our legislators from important ques-
tions affecting the supply of food to the people.
The Bill explained to the Peers by the Lord President
of the Council is intended to prevent the spreading
of pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease
amongst our cattle. There can be no question that
these plagues have committed terrible ravages, and that
they are the terror of the agriculturist. In the spring
of last year there was a great scare in London in con-
sequence of an outbreak at the east end of the town,
which was effectually dealt with by the process of
"stamping out," which had it been adopted in 1866,
would have averted the ruinous loss which fell upon
many a farmer. The proposed establishment of a
central authority so as to give uniformity to a system
of prevention is likely to be effectual in carrying out
the objects of the measure. Meanwhile the traffic
in dead meat from America is increasing,
and every year we may expect new facilities for
conveying cattle, either dead or alive, over the widest
seas.

Time works great changes, and in no case has this
been more remarkably apparent than in the disap-
pearance of French sensitiveness over the idea of an
English possession of Egypt. Its conquest by France
formed one of the schemes of Napoleon Bonaparte,
which was frustrated by Lord Nelson's great naval
victory of the Nile ; and thirty-seven years ago M.
Thiers and Lord Palmerston came to an open quarrel
upon the subject. Indeed, the two countries very
nearly went to war over it. Mehemet Ali, the aspiring
ruler of Egypt at that time, who was anxious to
throw off his allegiance to the Sultan, regarded himself
as being under the especial protection of France ;
and to this Lord Palmerston, as the Foreign Secretary
of Great Britain, objected. Now, however, it seems to
be generally acknowledged in France that, although
the people would not approve of our acquisition of
Egypt they would not lift a finger to prevent it. The
Paris correspondent of The Times says that Frenchmen
admit England must do something to keep open her
highway to India through the Suez nal, and that,
by occupying Egypt she would run no great risk, and
net compromise butt rather reassure other interests.
Prince Bismark, too, sees no reason why this should
not be done. But the adverse critics of the great
German Chancellor avow that if England were to
seize Egypt to prevent it falling into the hands of any
other Power, Bismarck would carry out a design with
which he has been long credited—the annexation of
Holland and the establishment of a German seaboard
right opposite our own coasts.

The cnmpletion of the Wellington monument in St.
Paul's Cathedral shows that, although honour to the
brave departed may be long delayed, it is bound to
come at last. On the 18th Of last November, a
quarter of a century had rolled away since the Duke
was laid to his rest alongside the remains of Nelson
in St. Paul's, amid a funeral ceremonial such as
had not been witnessed in London since the hero of
Trafalgar was borne to his long home under the roof
of the Metropolitan Cathedral, round which surges
the ceaseless traffic of the City. The one had fallen
on the quarter-deck of the Victory, (sttll lying at
ancho; in Portsmouth Harbour,) on the 21st October,
1805, and was buried on the 9th January, 1806; the
other died at Apsley House on the 14th September,
1852, and was interred nine weeks afterwards. In each
case there was a splendid funeral car, a long proces
sion, encrmous multitudes in the streets, and thou-
sands of troops to keep the way. The place by the
aide of Nelson was kept for Wellington nearly half a
century after the obsequies of the great naval corn-
• mander, but it was filled at last. There they lie, the

two men who stood forth conspicuously in a time of
their country's peril, and defeated—the one upon the
sea, and the other on the land —the ambitions
schemes of
_a would-be invader. Monuments to
both, raised by a grateful people, are found in
many parts of London—in the cathedral, in the
streets and squares, in the Guildhall, and in the
places where merchants most do congregate. The

last days of the aged Duke of Wellington more espe-
cially bring to mind the words of Longfellow :
" 0 what a glory doth this world put on
For him who with a fervent heart goes forth
Under the bright and glorious sky, and looks
On duties well performed and days well spent."

elson had no time for such reflections, for in the
language of Warburton the accomplishment of his
mission was contemporaneous with the termination of
his life.