The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-11-10 00:00:00

our You* CorrtspoOtnt.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The municipal electiona have come and eone, and
frora their results politicians have sought to obtain
some forecast as to the future. The Conservatives de-
clare that they are gaining ground in the constituen-
des year by year. Since the general election, the
Liberals reply that the issues before the municipal voters
are purely local in character, and that were the ques-
tion whether Mr. Gladstone or Lord Salisbury should
be Prime Minister, the basis of consideration would be
a much wider one, and the answer altogether of a dif•
ferent character. It is difficult for the non-political
on-looker to decide between these two contentions; at
the same time attention might well be drawn to one
or two varying conditions of municipal and parlia-
mentary life, which are worth a thought just now.
A House of Commons once elected may, if the
Prime Minister of the day pleases, run to nearly seven
years. This is a long time and many things happen
within such a period. Let us for instance cast a re-
trospective glance seven years back, to the autumn
of 1876, and it will be found that the subject
which then occupied the public mind is dead
and forgotten. What was it? Why the Turkish
misdeeds in Bulgaria, which preceded the outbreak
of the war between the Ottomans and the Mus-
covites. This would all read to us now like ancient
history ; yet seven years is the legal existence of
the British Parliament. Without discussing how
far a House of Commons elected in 1876 would reflect
the public opinion of to-day, it may be pointed out
that the fleeting and uncertain bye-elections are the
only sources of ascertaining the moving currents of
popular opinion. This is not so with our municipal
institutions. The Municipal Reform Act which called
them into existence provided that one-third of the
members of the Town Councils should retire every
year, so that with each returning twelve months the
constituency has the power of expressing an opinion
upon the course which has been pursued in the local
Parliament. The School Boards, on the other hand,
are entirely dissolved every three years.
The Guildhall banquet given by the Lord Mayor of
London, is always an event of great political import-
ance. When Parliament is sitting ministers can of
course be questioned in either Houses of the Legisla-
ture respecting any part of their policy; but by
the 9th November Parliament has been prorogued
more than two months, and there are points on which
the public would perhaps like some explanations.
Then the Lord Mayor's feast comes opportunely
enough just in mid-recess, to enable ministere to place
themselves right before the country on any point on
which there has been, or why be likely to be,
any misunderstanding. No matter as to the politics
of the new Chief Magistrate, or of the ministers
of the day, there the ministers are, with the
telegraph wires waiting to convey their words to the
uttermost ends of the esrtb. Thus it comes to pass
that owing to the difference in time between London
and New York, the speech of the Premier is printed
in the Empire City before it is actually delivered.
Our clocks are five hours faster, so that nine o'clock
in the evening in London means four o'clock in the
afternoon in New York. On the same principle tele-
grams fi om India often reach the London papers at a
time anterior to that at which they are dated.
The historic market of ,Covent Garden has been
offered by the Duke of Bedford to the Corporation of
London for sale, and the Corporation after full and care-
ful inquiry has declined to buy it. The difficulty of
approach and the crowded neighbourhood are two,
strong reasons which influenced the judgment of
the committee of investigation. The market is
notoriously inadequate to the wants of a densely.
peopled neighbourhood, and it is not less incon-
venient than inadequate. The idea of enlarging
It is impracticable, and contrasting it with the
vast markets in the City, its accommodation is ,
but poor. But it is not only Covent Garden which
stands in need of reform in that part of London. The
want of better access between the Strand and Oxford.
street has long been felt; indeed only a very small
proportion of Londoners would be able to find their
way from one to the other unless after an abnormal
expenditure of time and trouble.
The legal year having been opened in customary
form, the tribunals are again in full work after the
Long Vacation. This was the first time that the
judicial procession came from the residence of the
Lord Chanct llor to Mr. Street's new structure in the
Strand. Formerly the judges were welcomed in
Westminster Hall ; but all things terrestrial have an
end ; the roof of the historic edifice built in the eeign
of William Ruins no longer covers the courts of
justice, which during the past twelve months have
been cleared away, leaving the west side of the hall
with a dilapidated appearance which suggests to the
casual observer the idea that the sooner this is
attended to the better for one of the architectural
ornaments of London.

Before the Princess Louise had made her way over
the Atlantic on her return home from Canada, the
Duke of Connaught bad taken his departure for
another dependency of the British Crown, but one of
A very different character. Both in climate, soil, pro.
ductions, and habits of the people, India is the
antithesis of the Canadian Dominion, The long
summer days and the sunlit cities of Hindostan are
in strong contrast to the protracted winters and the
snow.clad boundaries of Canadian towns, where, as in
the country settlements, the self.reliance and untiring
industry of the people favourabiy compare with the
abject demeanour of the dependent Hindoo.
London is not altogether without flowers, even
although we are now in tbe darkest of its days, and
have to look forward to a very dreary and dismal
time. There in always lonsiderable emulation betieen
.he gardens of the Inner and Middle Temple as to
which can produce the best show of chrysanthemums,
sad the finest are objects of great admiration. A
remarkable place is the Temple, standing as it does
between one of the most crowded cf London thorough-
fares said the river. A wayfarer passing along Fleet-
street with its host of newspaper offices and its
network of telegraphic wires overhead, could not
imagine that within
.9." minute's walk southward was a
retreat carrying the mind back to the Middles Ages,
and far enough in time removed from the turmoil of
to-day.

The Lord Mayor's Show dies hard. When the Law
Courts were removed from Westminster Hall to the
Strand it was hastily assumed that as the civic
cavalcade would now have to proceed merely to the
boundary of the City near old Temple Bar, it would
be materially shorn of its former glories and in time
altogether disappear. Lord Mayor Fowler has been
considerate enough to continue the show in all its
ancient grandeur, and in order not to disappoint the
sight-seers west of the Royal Courts of Justice pro.
longs the pageant right down to Charing Cross on the
principle that it is the only out-door spectacle pre-
sented to the gaze of Londoners in the whole twelve
months, and it would be hard to deprive them of it.
In the days before the telegraphs were transferred
to the State, the public were generally satisfied with
the delivery of public speeches in Parliament, and it
yras only p)liticians of considerable importance who
twere repoited in the recess. But the cheapening of
elegraphy now makes the newspaper reader daily
,Nquainted with the utterances of members of Paths-
men., in various part i of the kingdom, many of which
are of liWe or no interest outside the constituencies of
those hon. gentlemen. It really seems as though this
department of journalism were a trifle overdone, and
that the managers cf the London newspapers might
find something a little more interesting to place before
the public. A speech from the political leaders on
either side is always read; but the rank and file have
more than enough to say in Parliament during the
session, without occupying public attention also in the
recess. Like the power of the Crown a century ago
the flood of talk "has increased, is increasing, and
ought to be diminished."