The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-12-27 00:00:00

2ETROSPEOT or 1884.

The closing year has been in many ways a remark-
one in the political history of this country. A
:Jett domestic question has stirred the people at
home, and the foreign complications which hung
heavily over the land at the beginning of the year,
seemed to have thickened rather than cleared
towards its termination. The hot, dry summer, so
exceptional in its nature, brought the farmers an
abundant harvest; yet there seems to be no percep-
tible diminution in the agricultural depression which
has so long paralysed an important branch of our
national industry. The silent shipyards along the
banks of our northern rivers tell a story of commercial
inactivity, which conveys anything but an indication
of that revival of trade so often promised as the dawn
of a brighter and more prosperous day. An autumn
session of Parliament, summoned to deal with the
representation of the people, was marked during its
brief existence by an increase of taxation—a most
unwelcome addition to the burdens of the people at a
time of lessened income. On the other hand, there
have been no such startling catastrophes, either on
sea or land, as those which have marked out many a
previous year as being chronicled in deep bars of
mourning. Before the year takes its departure a
brief review of its chief incidents will not be unwelcome
to many of our readers, whom we invite to-day to
accompany us in a retrospective glance before the
closing of another page in our national annals.
The year has cast a long, deep shadow over the
domestic records of the reigning House. The
Queen, in the sixty-sixth year of her age, and the
forty-eighth of her reign, still wields the sceptre over
an Empire whose flag waves in every clime, and
whose folds are flung out upon the restless surface of
every sea. The Prince and Princess of Wales,
whose eldest son, Prince Albert Victor, attains his
majority on the Bth January, are still the leaders in
the ranks of wealth and society in London, and
retain all the popularity which during past
years they have so deservedly won. The other
members of the Royal Family have been dis-
charging those duties in different positions in
Ho which opportunity has been given them
to fulfil. The Duke of Edinburgh, as the
Admiral in charge of one of our great naval squadrons,
the Duke of Connaught in a military command in
India, Princess Christian and Louise, in a host of good
t.vorks, inseparable from the benevolence and philan-
thropy which mark the London season, while Prin-
cess Beatrice remains at home with her Majesty;
albeit her Royal Highness is older than any of her
sisters when they were led to the marriage altar. But
there is one vacant place occupied twelve months
ago amongst the children of the Sovereign. During
a short life, extending over a little more than thirty
years, the Duke of Albany had never enjoyed the
health which had been granted to his illustrious rela-
tives. Intellectually, too, he was of a different stamp
from either of his brothers. Artistic and literary
work had been his delight; he cared nothing for the
sports of the field, or for the martial music of the
military camp. He was thoroughly at home in his
study, and his earnest philosophical addresses always
gave evidence of thoughtful research, not invariably
the accompaniment of the speeches of our public men.
The Duke of Albany, early in the spring, had gone to
Cannes for the benefit of the softer air of the Medi-
terranean coast; and on the afternoon of Friday, the
28th March, the country was startled by a telegram an-
nouncing his death before it was even known that
he had been ill. There was no staying power
in such a weakly frame, which succumbed to
an attack that many an older man would have suc-
cessfully beaten off. The Prince of Wales went to
Cannes, and accompanied his brother's remains to
England, and in a vault in St. George's Chapel,
Windsor, the interment took place on Saturday, the
sth of April, two days before the lamented Prince
would, had he lived, completed his 31st year.
The death of the Duke of Albany took all tbe
life out of the London season. Forty days of
Court mourning were ordered, during which time
all the members of the Royal family could take
no part in public engagements. The Queen has
not been in London since the death of her son,
and even after the expiration of the prescribed time
of mourning, the incongruity of princes and prin-
cesses attending balls, concerts, and evening parties
dressed in black was too painfully apparent for
realisation. A son was born to the Duchess of Albany,
but the rejoicings over the birth of the little prince
were but feeble as compared with the regrets which
had followed the prematurely-deceased parent to the
tomb. The spirit of energy usually so characteristic
of the season had gone, and when it began to show
signs of revival the season itself was at an end,
to be followed, let us sincerely trust, by one whose
history will be free from like bereavement and
calamity. Ten days after the Duke of Albany's
funeral her Majesty left England for Damstadt, and
on the 30th April was present at the marriage of
Prince Louis of Battenberg with Princess Victoria of
Hesse, eldest daughter of the late lamented Princess
Alice.

Politically the most prominent question before the
people has been that of Parliamentary Reform. The
two Houses of Legislature assembled on the 4th
February, and the customary long debate on the
Address to the Crown having been disposed of, Sir
Henry Brand, who had filled the high office of Speaker
twelve years, and who had now arrived at the age of
70, tendered his resignation, being createi Viscount
Hampden, with a life pension of £4OOO. Mr.
Arthur Wellesley Peel, youngest son of the
late Sir Robert Peel, was unanimously elected
as Sir Henry Brand's successor. The work
of the session being now fairly under way, Mr.
Gladstone early intioduced a bill for extending
the household borough franchise to the counties, and
for creating a uniform suffrage throughout the three
kingdoms. It was described as the most sweeping
measure of enfranchisement which had ever been laid
before Parliament by any Minister in any reign. The
Premier explained that on the passing of the Fran-
chise Bill a measure for the redistribution of seats
would follow in 1885, so that the whole scheme of
reform would come into practical operation in 1886, by
which time the present Parliament would nearly have
run its natural course. The separation of the seats
from the Ministerial plan of enfranchisement was
strongly objected to by the Conservative party, and an
amendment to the second reading of the Suffrage Bill
was formulated to that effect by Lord John Manners.
The division took place on the night of the 7th April,
when the second reading of the bill was carried by
340 to 210, a Ministerial majority of 130. It passed
through Committee without material modification, the
largest division taking place on an amendment moved
by Mr. Brodrick, excluding Ireland from the operation
of the measure. This was rejected by 334 to 139, and
on the 26th June the bill was read a third time,
in the Commons without a division. It came before
the Lords for second reading on the Bth July, when
by 205 to 146 the peers refused to proceed further
with it unless it were accompanied by a redistribution
bill. On the 17th the Earl of Wemyss moved that
their lordships proceed with the Franchise Bill on
condition that Parliament should be summoned in the
autumn to consider the Ministerial scheme of redis-
tribution. This, however, was rejected by 182 to 132.
So far as the fifth session of the tenth Parliament
of Queen Victoria was concerned, the contest was now
at an end. It was announced that a special session
would be summoned in October, when the Franchise
Bill would be again introduced, passed through its
stages, and sent up to the Lords. Meanwhile pre-
parations were made on both sides for an out-of-door
campaign, and for three months the struggle was
carried on with extraordinary energy. It opened
with a great reform demonstration in Hyde-park on
the 21st July, at which speeches were made from ten
platforms. Mr. Gladstone, for the first time since
his election for Midlothian, made a political tour
of that shire, and extended his visit to other
parts of Scotland. He was followed by Sir
Stafford Northcote and the Marquis of Salisbury
on a similar errand. Lord Hartington took up the
cudgels for the Government in Lancashire • Mr.
Chamberlain was active in t'ae Potteries and in Wales,
while the stormy scene at Birmingham on the 13th
October, when Sir Stafford Northcote and Lord Ran-
dolph Churchill were refused a hearing, has since
been the subject of debate in the House of Commons
and of police-court prosecutions. The autumn cam-
paign came to a close on the 23rd October,
when Parliament again met. A long, drawn-
out debate on the Address brought the House
of Commons to the beginning of November before
it could deal with the subject for which it had been
specially summoned. On the 7th of that month the
Franchise Bill was read a second time by 372 to 232
—a Ministerial majority of 140, or ten more than on
a similar stage seven months previous. On the 11th
it was read a third time without a division, and once
more sent to the House of Lords. On the 17th Earl
Granville in the Upper Chamber and Mr. Gladstone
in the Commons made identical statements with a
view to effecting a settlement of the dispute between
the two Houses, and the subsequent history of the
negotiations with this object, and their result, are too
recent now to require either comment or recapitula-
tion
The affairs of Egypt have unhappily occupied much
of the attention of Parliament and the country from
the beginning of the year to its end. On the 18th
January General Gordon, in response to a general
demand on the part of the people, left England for
Egypt, the disastrous fate which had befallen Hicks
Pasha and his forces early in-November, 1883, having
excited considerable uneasiness. The Khedive ap-
pointed General Gordon Governor of the Soudan, and
on the 18th February he arrived at Khartoum.
nefore that date, however, news of fresh catastrophes
had reached this country. On the 4th of that month
1 Baker Pasha's army was totally defeated near
Trinkitat by the l!efandi's Arab troops, which
four day-s later entered Sinkat and destroyed
the garrison. The tide of battle turned, however,
before the end of the month, for on the 29th there
was a sanguinary encounter at El Teb, in which Osman
Digna and his followers were defeated by General
Graham. This was succeeded on the 13th March by
a great slaughter of the Arabs at Tamai, where the
• Arabswere completely vanquished by the British forces
under General Graham, who, on the 27th, telegraphed
• from the Soudan that the campaign was at an end.
In the meantime the Arabs had closed round General
Gordon at Khartoum; but it was not until August
that a final decision was arrived at last an .expedition
should he despatched to the relief of that itillant officer.

Lord W olseley was appointed to its command, and left
England on the 31st of that month, together with
Lord Northbrook, who was sent on a special mission
of inquiry into the intricate mysteries of Egyptian
finance. His lordship's report has been a subject of
recent consideration by the Cabinet, the Legislature,
and the European Powers.
Naturally enough many of these events have come
before Parliament for debate and division. On the

11th February, a week after the opening of the session,
the House of Lords passed a vote of censure on the
Government for its Egyptian policy, by 181 to 81;
but on the 20th a similar motion was rejected in the
Connnons by 311 to 262. The question was subse-
quently raised in another form by Sir Michael Hicks-
Beach,Sir Stafford Northcote having led the attack in
the first instance. The resolution of the ex-Colonial
Secretary was negatived by 303 to 275 on the 13th
Hay. The Ministerial majority was thus only 28, and
this was accounted for by the fact that the Parnellites
voted in a body with the Opposition. A few weeks
later an ineffectual attempt was made to revive the
controversy in the House of Commons by Mr. Thomas
Bruce, one of the Conservative members for Ports-
mouth, who gave notice to move the third vote of
censure of the session on the Egyptian policy of the
Government. It seems, however, to have been thought
by the House that after the rejection of two of these
motions brcught forward by leading members of the
Opposit;m2, further d;scussion at the instance of an
independent member was inexpedient and inoppor-
tune; and on a division it refused to permit con-
tinued debate on the matter.

No review of a year would be complete, at all
events since 1879, without a reference to the relations
between Mr. Bradlaugh and the House of Commons.
On the 11th February the junior meinb:z for North-
ampton presented himself at the bar; and, instead ot
withdrawing, as commanded by the Speaker. advanced
to the table and went through the form of adminis-
tering the oath to himself. The customary resolution
to exclude him from the precincts of the House until
he gave a pledge not to disturb the proceedings was
carried by a majority of 228 to 120. Meanwhile
Mr. Bradlaugh accepted the Chiltern Hundreds,
once more appealed to his constituents at North-
ampton, and was re - elected. The Attorney -
General instituted proceedings against Mr. Brad-
laugh, to test the legality of the oath which he had
taken, and the case was argued in the Queen's
Bench. Judgment was delivered on the 30th June,
when the Lord Chief Justice having summed up, the
jury found a verdict that Mr. Bradlaugh had not
taken the oath in proper Parliamentary form, and
that when he pretended to take it he had no belief in
a Supreme Being.
The chronicles of a Parliament should be the
mirror and reflex of the life of a great nation. Going
back again, then, to the beginning of the session, we
find that the Legislature has been occupied with sub-
jects other than representative reform and the condition
of Egypt. In the autumn or 1883 the condition of the
poor in London and other large towns commanded
much attention, notwithstanding the absorbing notice
exacted by party politics; and on the 22nd February,
upon the motion of the Marquis of Salisbury, the
House of Lords adopted an address to the Crown,
praying for the appointment of a Royal Com-
mission of Inquiry into the Housing of the Work-
ing Classes. Amongst the members of the Com-
mission so appointed was the Prince of Wales.
On the 21st March debates took place in
both Houses on topics on which considerable interest
is felt. Lord Thurlow brought before the peers a
resolution in favour of the Sunday opening of museums,
but it was rejected by 46 to 38 votes. Mr. Willis
introduced into the House of Commons a motion to
exclude prelates from the House of Lords, but it was
negatived by 148 to 137. The perennial subject of
local taxation came before the Commons a week later,
when a resolution by Mr. Pell, calling upon the
Government to deal with the question, was carried
against the Ministry by 208 to 197. The long-pro-
mised measure for reforming the local administratio
of London was explained by the Home Secretary on
the Bth April, but Parliamentary Reform stopped the
way in the direction of further progress, and the bill
shared the fate of many others in being ultimately
withdrawn. On the 24th April the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer brought forward his Budget, which proposed to
effect very few fiscal changes. The supplementary
estimates rendered necessary by the Nile expedition
and that to Bechuanaland, involved the making of a
statement by the right hon. gentleman in the autumn
session, with the result that a penny was added to the
income tax, he bill sanctioning this increase passing
the House of Lords on the 25th November. On the
9th May the peers, Ly a majority of 48 to 30, threw
out a bill for the suppression of pigeon shooting. Mr.
Mundella explained the education estimates on the
16th June, the vote on this occasion amounting to
more than £3,000,000 sterling. Two days later the
Irish Sunday Closing Bill, which proposed to extend
the measure to the whole of Ireland, instead of re-
stricting its operation to the larger towns, as hitherto,
was talked out in the Commons. Early in the session
the Commons adopted a resolution of Mr. Broadhurst
affirming the principle of marriage with a deceased wife's
sister, and based upon this Lord Houghton intro-
duced a bill into the House of Peers; but this was
withdrawn immediately upon the rejection of the
Franchise Bill, on the ground that the session was to
be wound up with all possible despatch. Parliampnt
dealing with nothing but absolutely necessary legis-
lation. This was accordingly done, and the proroga-
tion took place on the 14th August.
. . _

Commercially, the retrospea of the year is by no
means satisfactory. The people are no longer
"weary of fastidious prorerity," which Mr. Glad-
stone, in one of his Budget speeches twenty years
ago, described as "increasing by leaps and bounds."
They would very much like to hear that sentence
over again from the lips of a Chancellor of the
Exchequer, whose latest appearance in the House of
Commons was unfortunately associated not with
a remission, but an augmentation of the national
burthens. On the 7th February the directors
of the Bank of England raised their rate of
discount from 3 to 3 per cent., but on the
13th March this process was reversed, and on the 3rd
April the rate was reduced from 3 to 2i per cent.,
being still further lowered on the 19th June from 11
to 2 per sent. At this it remained until the 9th
October, when it was again raised from 2 to 3 per
cent., on the 30th to 4 per cent., and on the 6th
November to 5 per cent.

The year has unhappily not been free from those
dynamite outrages which are planned and executed
by lurking miscreants with a total disregard of the
sacrifice of human life which may be involved in the
destruction of our public buildings. On the night of
the 27th February an infernal machine exploded at
the Victoria station of the London, Brighton, and.
South Coast Railway, which wrecked much pro-
perty, but destroyed no life. Subsequent dis-
coveries at the Charing-cross terminus of the South-
Eastern, tb e Paddington terminus of the Great Western,
and the Ludgate-hill station of the London, Chatham,
and Dover, incontestably proved that infernal
machine had been left at each place at the same
time as at Victoria; but by great good fortune the
mechanism failed to work, so that three-fourths of the
diabolical plot was of no effect. The conspirators,
however, tried again, and on the next occasion
managed to'create considerable alarm. On the night
of the 30th May, simultaneous explosions took place
in Scotland-yard, the headquarters of the Metropo-
litan Police, and in St. James's-square, very great
damage to property being agaiß the result.
At the same time a package containing a large
quantity of dynamite was discovered at the base of
the Nelson column in Trafalgar-square, placed
there with the evident intention of shattering that
national memorial. A mournful reflection
connected with these outrages in the metro-
polis is that since the conviction of Gallagher
and his associates it has been found impossible to
bring the perpetrators to justice. By a happy con-
bination of circumstances, accidents seem hitherto to
have baffled designs which, if carried out in all their
enormity, must inevitably be accompanied by an
appalling loss of life in a crowded community.

_ _
Amongst the social events of the year, unquestion-
ably the International Health Exhibition at South
Kensington occupies a prominent place. It was
opened on the Bth of May by the Duke of Cam-
bridge as representing her Majesty, who had
officiated at a similar ceremony in connection
with the Fisheries Exhibition in the previous year,
but was now absent in consequence of the
recent death of her youngest son. The marvellous
success of that so familiarly known as the Jealtheries,
is now a matter of history. It remained open until
the 30th of October, and during that timc, was visited
by a number of persons equal to the entir( population
of London. Its evening fetes achieved a wonderful
popularity, and will long be rememberei as amongst
the most agreeable reunions of the kind uver held in
London, where, as well as in the country, the exhibi-
tion of inventions promised for 1885 is already looked
forward to with considerable interest.

Politically, and apart from the Reform agitation,
the year has been one of much activity. The bye-
elections have been unusually numerous, vacancies
having arisen in the representation of the followirg
constituencies and in the order as given: London-
derry county, Paisley, West Somerset, Northampton,
Cork, Meath, West Norfolk, Brighton, South Lincoln-
shire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdon, Poole, Mid-Kent,
Athlone, Lincoln, South Hants, Mid-Surrey, Leicester,
North Warwickshire,'South Devon, Ross and Comarty,
Waterford County: South Warwickshire, Radnor
Boroughs, Stirling Burghs, Scarborough (twice),
County Down, Greenock, Hackney, and %flares-
borough. The net result of all these
changes is a gain of three seats to the
Opposition Brighton, Cambridgeshire, and South
Warwickshire. The members who during the year
have withdrawn from Parliamentary life are
Mr. William Holms, Mr. John Daly Mr. George
Bentinck, Sir W. E. Welby-Gregory, Sir Edmund
Filmer, Lord Henry Scott, Sir H. W. Peek, Mr. P.
A. Taylor, Mr. Carpenter-Garnier, Sir Alexander
Mattheson, Mr. J. A. Blake, Mr. Evans Williams,
and Mr. James Stewart. Two members have gone
to the Lords by right of succession—Viscount Hun-
chinhrooke having become Earl of Sandwich, and
Viscount Castlereagh Marquis of Londonderry.
Two members have been created peers—
Sir Henry Brand as iscount Hampden—
and Mr. Dodson as Lord Monk Bretton. The fol-
lowing members have died during the year: Mr. C.
Schreiber, 58; Sir John Ennis, 42; Mr. Hinde
Palmer. 76; Mr. Bromley-Davenport. 63; Hon.