The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-20 00:00:00

eur if:onbon or-rtespn/nitt.

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

The secret sitting of the House of Commons, which
took place a few days before the rising of that assembly
for the Easter Recess, reminded the public of the fact
that they obtain reports of the procceedings of Parlia-
ment as a matter of favour and not necessarily as one
of right. It is still in the power of the Legislature to
exclude the Press from the deliberative chamber.
Daring the early and middle part of the reign of
George 111. the struggle between the House of
Commons and the newspapers was long and animated,
the House resenting any attempt on the part of the
public to ascertain what passed within its walls.
Even in those days, however, the moving forces of
enlightenment were too strong for the influence of
exclusiveness, and although no notes were allowed to
be taken, prodigies of memory, like Dr. Johnson, gained
admission to the Strangers' Gallery, and supplied full
reports of the debates to the journals. The House at last
gave up the struggle, and when the new Houses of
Parliament were built, not only was a gallery set
apart for the Press, but ante-rooms were also supplied
in which they write out their copy, and a refreshment
bar was fitted up into the bargain for their own accom-
modation. Yet it was deemed necessary to keep up
the old fiction, so the reporters' gallery was planed
directly over the Speakers' chair, where, of course, the
right hon. gentleman cannot see them. If he saw any
one taking notes, he would be bound to declare it a
breach of order, and so rigidly is this carried out that
in the Strangers' Gallery, which is opposite the Speaker,
if one of its occupants only refers to a book or makes
an entry, he is peunced upon by the doorkeeper, who
says in the usual formula, " Sir, that is strictly out
of order." You must not read; you must not
write; and that is the way in which Parliament
at this time of day treats the sovereign people of Eng-
land, who have had the pleasure of paying for the
splendid pile upon the banks of the Thames. Up to
two or three years ago the whole of the galleries could
be cleared on a single member calling attention to
the fact that strangers were present, but the obvious
absurdity of this regulation had only to be de-
monstrated in order to be altered, and it was then
agreed that strangers should be turned out only after
a division showtng a majority of votes in favour of
that course. This, it was thought, would protect the
public against the arbitrary clearance of the galleries,
yet we now see that an instance has actually occurred
in which the House of Commons felt itself justified
in shutting out the public from one of its debates. It
is a matter for congratulation that such a course is
not followed very often.
The people of the metropolis have expended several
millions of money over a system of main drainage
which is theoretically perfect and complete. The
Thames has been purified, and London is now as
healthy a city as any in the world. The drainage
works, like the Thames Embankment and other
colossal undertakings, were constructed from the de-
signs of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, one of the most
eminent engineers of the day; indeed, they are a
wonder of the world. Yet circumstances sometimes
arise showing how the forces of Nature are strong
enough to overpower and render temporarily useless
the noblest works of man. A rainstorm of tropical
violence sweeps down upon the metropolis, and in a
single night sufficient rain falls to form an average
for six weeks. In twenty-two hours a ninth part
of the whole year's quantity of rain descends upon
the million-peopled city; the main drainage works;
capacious as they are, prove unequal to this sudden
and exceptional demand upon their powers; culverts
burst, pavements are forced up, streets are converted
into sluices, and the basements of thousands of houses
are filled with water. The damage was enormous, as
may be estimated from the fact that a single trades-
man had £6,000 worth of goods in his cellars utterly
destroyed. What between the periodical overflowing
of the Thames and the occasional bursting of the
drains, life in the south of London has to many per-
sons become anything but pleasant. The angry
tradesmen complain to the Board of Works, and con-
tend that something ought to be done; but it is clear
that this body cannot be prepared for a contingency
wherein twenty-six million tons of water fall in one
night in the metropolitan area. Whilst the
drains were discharging their contents into the
river, a strong tide was sweeping up from the
German Ocean, thus forcing the water back again;
and as a large part of the South of London is below
the level of the Thames, it is easy to account for the
terrible destruction which was wrought.
"Sweet April !" exclaims Longfellow, "many a
thought is wedded into thee as hearts are wed! "
The idea is a beautiful one, and there is no doubt
that the associations of this month are of a more agree-
able character than—say those of November, when,
according to Thomas Hood, there is no sun, no moon,
no morn, no noon. The name of the month derived
from the Latin word aperio, to open, bears with it the
full truth of its appellation as clearly now as it did in
centuries gone by. While May has somewhat fallen off
from its ancient reputation as being the perfection of
bright and balmy Spring-time, font is now frequently ac-
companied with parching east winds, April has scarcely
ever failed to bring us soft breezes from the south,
telling of the extinction of winter, and breathing upon
an arid land the breath of life. No longer has the
invalid to leave the British islands for the shores of
the Mediterranean, and to seek upon the sands of that
tideless sea, glittering in the rays of an eternal sun-
light that health which is denied to him in his own
less genial climate. The warm winds of April are like
a new existence; energy and hope are borne upon
tleeir wings. Vegetation bursts forth into a vigorous
life; the forest trees are no longer gaunt and leafless;
the merry song of birds echoes from their multitudi-
nous branches, and all the handiwork of Nature
seems to rejoice in the possession of that new and
active life inseparable from the return of Spring.
The Corporation of London possesses some rare and
valued privileges, and not one of the least highly-prized
of these is the power of electing their own judges.
True, the Lord Mayor has to submit himself for Her
Majesty's approval—a custom which WAS established
centuries ago, and which has not been disturbed.
When Queen Elizabeth occupied the throne of this
realm, it occurred to Her Majesty that if she Ni as
called upon to, signify her approbation of the choice of
Lord Mayor, she might as well also have a veto on the
appointment of Recorder; so, when a vacancy in this
office fell in, the Queen sent a message to the Corpora-
tion signifying her wish that her own nominee should
be elected. The Corporation, • however, did not see
matters quite in this light ; they selected their own man,
setting aside the royal choice altogether, and from that
day to this no attempt has been made by the Crown to
interfere in such matters. The Court of Aldermen
have lately chosen a Recorder, and the Common
Council have elected a Common Serjeant; both
valuable appointments and high legal prizes that
were eagerly contended for. This is a power pos-
sessed by no other municipal bode; in the kingdom.
If the recordership of Liverpool or Manchester, Bir-
mingham or Leeds falls vacant, the supplying of the
place does not rest with the Town Council, but with
the Crown, through the Home Secretary. But no
Government, however powerful, cares to touch the
City of London. It was left out of the Municipal
Corporations Reform Act of 1835 because the Mel-
bourne Administration did not venture to imperil the
existence of the entire measure by entering into a
contest with the city. Its Parliamentary influence
is immense, and the way in which it resisted Lord
Palmerston's attempt to anallgamate its police with
that of the metropolis in 1863 showed how it will
contend for its privileges.
The arrival of the Easter Holidays will be par-
ticularly welcome not only to Parliament, but to the
people. When it was ordained by the Council of Nice
that Easter should be observed on the same day
throughout the whole Christian world, the assembled
divines could have scarcely anticipated the time when
the observance uf Easter would be so universal in a
land whose ships convey civilization and the gospel
throughout the earth. Easter-day, according to the
ancient caltridar, "is the Sunday following that
fourteenth day of the moon which happens upon or
next after the 21st March; so that, if the said
fourteenth day be a Sunday, Easter-day is not that
Sunday, but the next." Here, then, is room for a
somewhat wide variation in the date; and so it comes
to pass that Easter Sunday may be as early as the
2nd of 3laroh, or as late as the 25th of April. This
ear it is three weeks later than it was twelve months
Yago. One mode of celebrating Easter in this country
may not perhaps altogether accord with the ideas of
the fathers who gathered at Nice more than fifteen
ago but there is
certainly
dathstartonog
COll f
hundred years ;
contrast in the Spring Bank Holiday an
Boxing-day, which in the present case coreave been
separate by about four months. The cheerful
weather brings the multitude into OPth arks, the
while
squares, the open spaces, and the fields,
gloomy and inclement December sends them in-ci oors,
oft-times to seek recreation of a not entirely innocuous
character,

------•
During the long controversy over the Eastern Que
C s-
on in
the little has been heard of the Russian Fleet n
the Baltic, partly because it has been frozen in and
therefore incapable of action. Yet it consists of
twenty-seven ironclads, the greater portion of which
are adapted for coast defence only. The largest ghip
in the bquadron is the Peter the Great, of 9,665 tons,
and slightly larger than our Devastation and Thun-
derer. She has fourteen inches of armour, her engines
are capable of working up to 8,700 horse-power, and
of driving the ship through the water at the rate of
thirteen knots an hour. She carrier four 40-tou guns,

each throwing a projectile of 6501b5, with an initial
velocity of 1,400 feet per second. Any of the guns
carried by the more powerful English battle-ships
would send a projectile through the most strongly-
protected parts of the Russian vessel at a distance of
500 yards. The German squadron of evolution which
is to be commissioned on the 6th of May for the
Mediterranean, will consist of four ships powerfully
armed and equipped, and having an average speed of
fourteen knots an hour. One of these, the King
William, was built upon the Thames, from whose
shipyards most of the ironclads of foreign nations are
sent out. H-!' --

The momentous events which have occupied the
attention of Europe have drawn away the notice of
the Bzitish public from the incidents of the war in
South Africa, and when Sir Bartle Frere's despatches
appear in the London Gazette, the newspapers very
often sum them up in three or four lines to the effect
that they contain a record of the progress of warlike
operations at the Cape. If there was no threatened
war nearer home, we might be interested in knowing
that Tini Macomo has joined the rebel chiefs,
and had taken up his position in the fastnesses of
the waterkloof ; that Sandilli had been attacked
at;the junction of the Black Kei and St. Thomas rivers;
that it was believed the Gaika chief was making a last
desperate effort; that Kreli, the ruler of the Galekas,
had sent messengers to the officers in command of our
forces in the Transkei ; that Khiva, a prominent
leader, and four minor chiefs had been killed ; that
Secocovni was again in arms in the Transvaal, and had
surrounded Fort Weiber and Fort Burghers; that
there had been a reverse at Doline Bush, with a party
of Bowker's Rovers; that trouble is expected at
Kokstadt and reinforcements have been requested
for West Griqualand. Just now South Africa
does not obtain that share in the public anxiety
which would be the case if there had not been a long-
settled cloud in the South•east of Europe. Some time
ago the Cape papers were accustomed gravely to
record the vicissitudes in warfare of two rival chiefs
named respectively Oko Jumbo and Ja Ja ; and not
long since the important announcement was made in
the House of Commons that the Jowhackees had made
their submission. Who were the Jowhackees, what
quarter of the globe they were to be found, and what
cause of offence they had with British rule, very few
knew. But our troubles with such savages must con-
stantly occur whilst we have such vast colonial pos.
sessions.