The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-28 00:00:00

ur loam Corttsponbtni.

Ma deem it right to state that we do Aot at an tlnie3
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The money-markets of the world are governed from
London, and a panic upon our own Stock Exchange
vibrates with a million chords not only throughout
Enrope, but is felt also in far-off America, although be-
tween the two hemispheres rolls the stormy volume of
the Atlantic. Panics, whether political or financial, are
essentially unreasoning, or rather perhaps the term
would be better applied to the crowds which make
them. Thirty years ago, or nearly so, have passed
since a political panic was witnessed in this country,
anclthat was in April 1848, when according to the late
Sir James Graham, all constituted authorities it.
Europe trembled, and even in London the troops wire
called out, and cannon were planted so as to command
the bridges over the Thames. But of monetary panics
there have been more than one during that time. Thera
was one in 1857, when the Bank Charter Act had to be
suspended, and the Government of the day were com-
pelled to go to Parliament for a Bill of Indemnity for
having taken such a F tep without having first obtained
the sanction of the Legislature. In 1866, as many
have occasion to remember, cccurred the severest panic
of modern years. It was on Friday the 11th of May,
a day of drenching rain. For hours together an
excited crowd surged through Lombard-Street, stocks
of all descriptions were totally unsaleable, the crash of
falling joint-stcck institutions filled the air, and again
there was a suspension of the Bank Charter Act. That
was the last time suth a step was necessary; for al-
though we have had seasons of pressure since, notably
in July, 1870, and again in the present ',month, the
financial world has been spared the strain of 1857 and
1866. But as sure as ever there is a panic in London,
It ,is felt upon all the Bourses in Europe, and as the
prices of stocks here are telegraphed three times a day
to New York, the fluctuations materially affect the
value of securities in Wall-street. But in our own
hemisphere, the Bourses of Paris and Berlin, Vienna
and St. Petersburg, are the most sensibly affected by
financial gloom when it prevails in London.
Those who are advancing into middle age cannot help
sometimes comparing the events of the present autumn
with those of the fall of 1853. It was on the 2nd of
July in that year that the Ranieri troops crossed the
Pruth, and this was considered as a virtual declaration
of war by Russia against Turkey. It was not, how-
ever, until three months afterwards—the sth October
—that Turkey, relying on the support of England and
France declared war against that great Northern
Power whose vast dominions in Europe and Asia
seemed to bestride the two continents like
a Colossus. The Turks, upon the land, success-
fully coped with the armies of Russia for months ; but
on the 30th November the Muscovite squadron fell
upon the Ottoman fleet at Sinope, and totally
annihilated it. On the 31st of January the British
Parliament was opened by the Queen in person,
and it was not until the 27th of March
that war was declared by England. Then nearly six
months elapsed before one expedition could be got to
the Crimea, landing at Eupatoria on the 14th Septem-
ber. After the battle of the Alma, on the 20th,
an extraordinary canard was circulated throughout
Europe, was implicitly believed, and created
tremendous excitement. It was to the effect that
the allied armies had carried the great fortress of
Sebastopol by a fierce and sudden assault; and that
Prince Menschikoff, the Commander-in-chief of the
Russian armies, after having fled first to Fort
Nicholas, and thence to Fort Alexandra, had been
compelled to surrender. Of course it had been floated
for stock-jobbing purposes, and the people of England
and France found afterwards that they had to wait
a whole twelvemonth before the powerful Russian
stronghold in the Black Sea was finally subdued.
The last act of the war was the capitulation
of Kars, on the 28th November, 1856, and this was a
Russian advantage which secured for that Power
more favourable terms of peace than might other-
wise have been granted. The preliminaries of peace
were signed in Paris on the 31st March, 1856, just two
years after the declaration of war.

October is a month which is often a connecting link,
and an extremely pleasant one, between the waning
autumn and the approaching winter. An old and
familiar saying is then reversed, and people certainly do
not "welcome the coming, speed the parting guest."
They would rather keep the departing guest a little
while longer. The month which will now so soon
leave us, will be remembered for some time to come
for the splendid days which were scattered here and
there amongst its chronology. Many of these were
snore pleasant than in May, for instead of the east
wind which then accompanied the bright sunshine, the
breeze was soft and genial, blowing gently from the
south, and reminding the dwellers in these nortnern
climes of the shores washed sby the tideless sea
of the Mediterranean, where orange blossoms
and myrtle groves, and the soft grey olive
flourish in profusion when we are suffering
from depression of spirits under gloomy skies and in
the face of what is often called the bleak east wind.
Those calm and cheerful October days were indeed
appreciated by thousands much as they would look
upon the last rose of summer, for it will not be given
to all who witnessed them again to listen to the sing-
ing of the birds in the welcome which the feathered
songsters give to the season of Spring.
The First of November is a date which, however full
of interest in the corporate towns of the provinces-
passes off without any notice whatever in London.
The City, the only part of the metropolis—and that a
merely fractional one—possessing municipal institu
Cons, holds its annual elections for Common Council-
men on the 21st of December; and the other vast Par-
liamentary boroughs which make up the capital are
governed by vestries. When the election of these bodies
takes place, or what manner of men compose them, not
one householder in a thousand knows. The same ob-
servation applies to the composition of the Boards of
Guardians, and yet in the hands of these two bodies
lies the enormous power of levying the whole of the
rates required for local purposes. Exactly a century
ago, the United States Republic had been founded
upon the cry, "Taxation without representation is
tyranny." The metropolitan ratepayer takes things
much more easily than did the American colonist. He
Is taxed, certainly; but it can scarcely be said that he
Is represented. The absence of complaint upon this
matter can only be accounted for by the fact that time
is money in London, perhaps, to a greater extent than
elsewhere, and a householder does not care to sacrifice
his time in attempts to reduce the local rates which can
end but in failure.

When the law courts meet for the opening of the
legal year on the 2nd of November, some remarkable
changes in the personnel of the Bench will be wit-
nessed. In the first place, the senior puisne judge
in each court will have been removed by promotion—
Mr. Justice Blackburn, upon the Queen's Bench to the
House et Lords, and Mr. Justice Brett and Mr.
Baron Bramwell, from the Common Pleas and the
Exchequer respectively, to a new Court of Appeal
created by the Act of last session. Then, Mr. Justice
Quain, of the Queen's Bench, and Mr. Justice
Archibald, of the Common Pleas, have died within a
few weeks of each other. Ruth were actively engaged
at the nisi prius sittings at Westminster and Guildhall,
as well as at chambers, during the summer circuits;
both had been raised to the Bench solely through their
merits as lawyers, for neither ever bad a Beat in the
House of Commons, and could therefore render no
political support to the Government of the day. Three
judges removed, and two dead, makes rather a startling
difference in less than three months; and the loss of
all this judicial experience from tribunals requiring all
their strength to deal with the accumulating business
of the courts, cannot but be seriously felt when we
remember the value of what are called leading cases,
the judgments in which may be quoted as authorities
by our lawyers for years to come.
The issue of the Wreck Register for last year is
opportune enough at a season when gales of tropical
violence have been known to sweep our shores. It
was on the 26th of October, 1859, that the Royal
Charter perished upon the rocks at Anglesey; and
those who had braved the perils of ten thousand miles
of ocean in safety, and had merrily made the voyage
from Australia were destroyed by the remorseless
waves when they were actually in sight of their native
land. In the present wreck register the story told is
startling in respect of the number of sad incidents of
which it is composed. The casualties recorded are
more numerous than have been published of any
previous year. The wreck chart of the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution is a picture of grave import, for
the coast lines are all clearly defined by the en-
circling crowd of blots that indicate the scenes of
death or disaster. It is satisfactory to observe ,
that the efforts made by lifeboats and other means to
rescue the distressed crews were so successful that only
about one out of every twenty-three of the total
number of casualties resulted in loss of life. The im-
mense benefits rendered by the National Lifeboat Insti-
tution need no setting forth. It has now a fleet of
nearly 300 boats for the purpose of saving life at sea,
and these keep constant watch and ward on all our
coasts, ever ready to do gal/ant work in the cause of
humanity. One of these lifeboats placed alongside the
giant war ship Devastation would, materially speaking,
make but a poor figure. Yet, as they ploughed the
stormy main together, the motto of the lifeboat might
well be founded upon one of the brightest sayings of
our Saviour, "I come not to destroy life, but to save."

Amid the rumours of war which have lately haunted
the capitals of Europe, much has been said respecting
the ability of the Russian Empire to sustain a pro-
longed conflict. There is little doubt thit Russia
La a very poor country, and, like Turkey,
has been contitmally borrowing, And it must be re.