The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-19 00:00:00

Our Pnan Carrespautent.

rIVe deem It light to state that we do not at all times
',,flentify ourselves with oar ~..-orrQspondent's opinions.]

The atta'nment of his twentieth year by Prince
klbert Victor, the eldest son of the Heir Apparent,
tesides setting an interesting controversy going, has
qminded her Majesty's lieges a the irreeistib!e march
,f time—a march vrts.7olt we all hope will be towards
lie celebra'ion of the Sovereign's j bilee. The Queen,
who was h3rn when the century was in its teens, is
ow in the 65th year of her age, and in the 47th of her
tarn. Th 4 Price of Wedes is in his 43rd year, and
his eldest son is in his 21st. When the Prince of

Walee CAM of age, Paeliarnent settled upon biou an
allowance f £i,(030 a year, this being in addition to
the revenue of the °achy of Cornwall, which is about
£60,000. Eh of the yonnger sons of the Queen has had
£15,000 a year on coming of age, and another £10,00)
on marriage, malting £25,000 annually in all. But here
is Prince Albert Victor, who will be 21 next January,
and what is te be done for him? There is said to be
to precedent for a Parliamentary grant to the eldest
son of a Prince of Wales, simply because no such case
as the present has ever existed in the history of this
country. Bat what said Mr. Erskine to Lord Mans-
field, when the judge tald the counsel that there was
tan preeedent for the course he was pursuing? "Then,"
said Erekine, "my lord, I wal make a precedent!"
The longevity of the sovereigns of the House of

Hanover has often been a 4 bjet of remark, and at
this moment Queen Victoria, although she has great
grandthildren, is the yoringe3t of the Brunswick
mmarchs to occnpy Oa Throne. George 1., at the
time of his death, wag 67; George 11, was 77; George

111. was g 2; George IV. was 63; and William IV.
was 72. And in looking over the children of George
IIL one Is 6truA by the extraordinary fact that
between the bifth of the oldest and the death of the
youngest nearly e Jentury el4psed. George IV., the
Erst child, Wa3 ham in .A.,riust, 1762, and the Duchess
cf Gloucester, the fifteenth, died in April, 1857,
within a day or two of Parliament voting a dowry of
4210,000 and 28,000 a year to her Majesty's eldest
tl.4ughter, the Princem Royal, on her approaching
i,larriage with the present Crown Prince of Germany.
The children of the old King were therefore before
the country for the amazing term of ninety-five years,
period in which some of the most momentous events
occurred which were ever recorded in our national
annals.

The forthcoming International Health Exhreition
at South Kensington should be one of very deep in-
terest, judging from the efforts of the various sub-
committees to make it a seecc,sv. At this time of day
when education is commaading so much attention, it
Is well to note that the improvements in the sanitary
construction of school?, the ventilation, the pracau•
tions for preventing the spread of infectious diseases,
the apparatus for physical training, dm., will receive
particular notice. The Ksheries Exhibition of la3t
year was one of the grea;est successes of modern
years, thanks, perhaps. Daftly to Royal patronage
and to.good advertising, but probably quite as much to
Its own intrinsic merits. Of tnese it had many, and it
will be for the promoters of the Health Exhibition to
rival it.

The numerous admirers of Sir Arthur Sullivan's
compositions have heard of his illness with deep
regret. Like Mr. Frederick Clay, who was attacked
with paralysis immediately after he had witnessed the
success of one of his pieces at the Alhambra, Sir
Arthur broke down immediately after receiving the
plaudits of the crowd at the first performance of
Princess Ida at the Savoy. His numerous and varied
works are, perhaps, better known than those of any
other living composer in this country. To those who
would never dream of going to the Savoy to witness
Patience, lolanthe, or any other piece to which he has
stt mud° at the instance of Mr. Gilbert, there are
inch productions of Sir Arthur as "Onward, Christian
Soldiers," beautifully simple and touching; and these,
no leasthan theatre•goera, must wish for the preserva-
tion of such a life.

The platform oratory of the recess, which had been
suspended during the Christmas festivities, has again
beret forth into activity, this week being an especially
busy one in that respect. The:time fcr this recreation
is now drawing to an end, as Parliament meets on the
sth February; but there is no doubt that each recess
now witnesses the delivery of an increasing number of
speeches out of Parliament. Political demonstrations
are far more common than was once the case; a Con-
servative gathering in one place is speedily followed by
a great Liberal assemblage in another. Those who
have been in some of the London Courts of Justice,
such as the Guildhall, the Mansion House, and the
Old Bailey have seen over the judicial seat the words,
audi alteram parka. (" Hear the other side.") This
is just what the public are doing politically through
the whole of the Parliamentary recess.
Considerable interest attaches to the opening of the
approaching session in consequence of the chenge
which is to take place in the tenure of the offin3 of
Speaker. It is one which does not often fall vacant,
the present being only the fourth Speaker who hes
been elected since the passing of the Reform Act. In
the first Parliament'which succeeded that statute, Mr.
Manners Sutton, who had occupied the chair for some
years previonely,wae continued in it by general assent,
and the subsequent Speakers have been Mr. Aber-
cromby (Baron Dunfermline), Mr. Shaw-Lefevre (Vis-
count Eversley), Mr. Evelyn Denison (Viscount Os.
eington), and Sir Henry Brand. Of these Lord
Eversley still survive*, albeit he is now 90 years of
age, and discharged the laborious duties of the
Speakership longer than any of his illustrious corn-
peers. Lord Ossington did not live long after his
withdrawal from the Howie of' Commons and his ac-
ceptance of a peerage. It will be remembered that he
declined the usual pension of £4OOO a year on the
ground that he had enough to keep him during the
brief period of earthly pilgrimage which was still left
to him. The ordinary rule is to grant this pensioz for
two lives.

The Royal Courts of &Esti°, re-opened on the 11th
instant for the Hilary sittings without much hope of
judges, counsel, witnesses, suitors, and juries obtain-
ing the comfort in that splendid structure which they
were entitled to expect after so many years had bee n
spent in building it. Those who have had occasion to
attend Divine service in Westminster Abbey have
never failed to notice the draughts which seem in-
separable from such edifices; but it must be remembered
that the abbey was built many centuries ago, and that
it was a conspicuous figure in the architecture of
Westminster before William the Conqueror stepped
ashore on the Sussex coast at Pevensey. Those who
were responsible for the arrangement of the Law
Courts had every modern appliance and improvement
to work by; yet no term passes in which complaints
are not made on the ground of draughts and bad venti-
lation. A story of the late Baron A'clerson irnsistThly
occurs to the mind in this connection. A jury box
had been arranged in a country assize court in a wee
to merit his special objurgation. "If," said his lord-
ship, "I had a telescope, I might be able to see the
jury ; if I had a speaking trumpet they might, per-
haps, hear what I have to say." In the New Lew
Courts it is not the jury who have especial cause of
pora9l-fnt, but the preen; and in some cases, during
the C'+-istmais recess, attempts have been made to pro-
vide a remedy for what was usdoubtedly a serious
oversight on the part of the designers of the internal
arrangements.
Thus fav during this winter not much has been
seen of that severe weather which we were
formeely aecudomed to associate with the months
of e knees. Those who have lived longest
amongst us often say that the winters are
milder and the summers more broken than those
were accustomed to be. It is now three years
since, on the 18th of January, 1881, a snow-storm of
extrwrdinary violence swept across these islands, the
reculiee?ty of the visitation being its widespread
enrecter. From the Land's End to the Shetlands
the seectecle was the cams; and the helplessness of
great cities, so far as locomotion was concerned, will
lor z eert borne in mind. It appears that a frigid wave
bee Jew, paced over the Unibed States, bearing snow
enci croet with it. The Philadelphia papers have been
t-etie Leal over the ineffectual efforts of the local authori-
ties to clear away the snow from the streets, one
journal playful ly euggesting that probably the task may
co r pitted by the 4th of (Tray. But it is easier to be
sercestic at the expense of the looal rulers than to
LLe-st how to expedite the work. The harmless.
leeking little snowflakes represent tn a fe,w hours a
ri,.posit of millions of tons; and 14 Is not arways easy
nt a few hours' notice to collect ap army sufficiently
l-rze to c'ear the streets. Locomcition in London was
s :ply paralysed by the snow-storm of 1881 ; the
08:t in the City thoroughfares near the Thames
,eee ceet into the river, but, so far as the suburbs were
~.ncerned, nothing could be done but to pile it in
i locks by the margins of the pavements, where it had
Wa' until dissolved by a change of temperature.

W2a His LONG-LOST DAM:MM.—As Mr.
Dewitt C. Pessr, of New York, stepped from a
Michigan Central train In Chicago, Sunday, a hand.
!erne young lady skipped to him, threw her arms
raptnroufly about his neck, and kissed him many
timer, saying: "Oh, papa I'm so glad you have
roTar." Mr. Pease threw both arms around her and
he!ci her firmly to his breast. Soon she looked up into
Ms facie, and horror stood ,in her eye. "Oh, my 1
you're not my papa," she said, trying to free herself
from his embrace. "Yet, lam," insisted Mr. Pease,
holding her tightly; "you are my long•lost daughter,
and I am going to keep you right in my arms till I feet
I,o3.icemaa," When the officer came and found Mr.
Pe4se's dipamord pin in the girl's hand he said :
That's a new rick here." "II it?" said Mr. Pa ,se ;
I, 4Ve several weeks old in New York."—Dctroit
fret Pros