The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-19 00:00:00

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

With the gradual passing away of "chill October,"
so graphically depicted in the tamous picture of Mr.
Millais, the members of the legal profession, who have
been enjoying their vacation, return to London, in
preparation for the opening of Michaelmas Term on
the 2nd November. That date is the beginning of the
legal year, just as Advent begins the year of the
Church of England. Term after term the loungers in
Westminster Hall, who assemble to witness the pro-
cession of the judges as they enter into their respective
courts, have been accustomed to see the same faces;
for, to take but one example, the present Lord Chief
Justice of England has been upon the Bench two and
twenty years. Yet those who can carry their re-
collections back during a period not so very long,
are enabled to recall many a face and figure which has
passed away and will now be seen no more. There
was, for irstance, Lord Chelmsford, who twice filled
the high and distinguished office of Lord High Chan-
rellor of Englar.d, and who received his guests on the
first day of Term with a stately dignity surpassed by
no one who has held the Great Seal in modern times.
Lord Chelmsford lived to pass his eighty-fourth year
—an age far beyond the time allotted to man by the
Psalmist—yet within a fortnight of his death he en-
joyed his walks in the Isle of Wight, under the bright
autnmnal sunshine which lit up the quiet calmness of
his declining days. Longfellow has exclaimed:
" Oh ! what a glory does this world put on,
To him who with a fervent heart goes forth
Under the bright and burnished sky, and looks
On duties well performed, and days well spent."

Lord Chelmaford, a midshipman present at the born
bardment of Copenhagen seventy-one years ago,
might well have repeated those lines. His long
struggle at the Bar against formidable competitors,
and his incessant intellectual wrestling in the Parlia-
mentary arena were rewarded with the highest place
which a lay subject of the Sovereign can occupy.
Then his last days were spent in looking out upon
the sea—a sea of mirrored calm, and a type of the rest
which was awaiting him. It has often been asked what
there is in the practice and study of the law which
conduces so much to the longevity of those who fol-
low it, and it has been suggested that the constant
change of scene in which the work lies, has a great
deal to do with it. Going on circuit is, for example,
an incessant round of change, which cannot but be
beneficial to the health, and must have a considerable
effect in neutralising the results of long hours of labour
in close and 111-ventilated r...s.ize courts.
Although the equinoctial gales were a little late,
they did not fail to pay the usual visit to our latitudes,
one in particular bursting upon our coasts on the
day which had been predicted from across the
Atlantic. The splendid Michaelmas summer with
which October opened, and which, according to
the old and new calendars, has been christened
after St. Luke and St. Martin, lingered with
us to the last as a reminder of the bright and
happy days, when it was ruthlessly broken up
by the storm, and one of its most remark-
able incidents was that relating to the Eddystone
Lighthouse. There, for a century, has stood the
tower upon the rock upon which Smeaton rivetted it
with such admirable skill and success. Miles around
it on every aide rolls the tempestuous sea, eternally
lapping it with its angry surges as if in resentment
that man should dare to invade the sanctity of its
domain, and in boisterous times making a clean sweep
over the structure. Amid the fiercest storms which
have agitated the Channel, the lighthouse has stood
for generation after generation, defying the winds and
waves, and at night flinging out its warning rays over
the troubled sea. Therefore the statement that the
light of the Eddystone could not be seen was calcu-
lated to excite considerable alarm, which, however,
proved happily to be without foundation. Of course
no ship ever constructed by the ingenuity of man
could approach the rock in such weather, for the pur-
pose of communicating with the light keepers; but
that the light was in existence was sufficient for all
practical purposes. A singular life is that of an
Eddystone light-keeper. For three months at a time,
miles away from land, and with nothing to be seen
but sea and sky, if his march is not o'er the mountain
wave, his home is certainly upon the deep. The waves
never weary of thundering at his residence in order to
destroy it, and his slumbers are often enough broken
by the giant billows leaping completely over the
lantern. His month's rerief on shore, after a quarter
of a year of such a life as this, must be such a relief
from a monotonous maritime solitude to civilized life,
that it can be appreciated only by those who have
undergone such an existence.
Of the many exhibitions—and their name is legion
—which have been opened to the people of London,
tha Dairy Snow Is one of the most iuterestlug. We
have the Cattle Show in December, the Horse Show
in June, poultry, dog, cat, and pigeon shows; and
now comes this collection of dairy produce in October,
to remind the town of what the country is always
doing for it, in the way of attending to its temporal
wants and necessities. The British Dairy Farmers'
Association is one of the youngest of the societies
which have been formed Elwin: the present century
for the purpose of enoourag,ing the various branches of
agricultural industry, but none has more completely
justified its title in so short a time; and the show,
held appropriately enough at the Agricultural Hall,
is one of the best which has yet been brought together.
When it is considered how rprominent a place dairy
articles hold in the consumption of the country, the
importance of giving every encouragement to the best
possible specimens of agricultural produce will be seen
at a glance. Let us imagine, for one moment, the
immense amount of land and labour daily brought
into requisition to feed the vast population of London.
Here are three and a half millions of people con-
tinually drawing for their animal and vegetable food
not only upon the counties which lie around them,
but upon places a hundred miles away or more. The
produce from the home counties rolls into London in
the early morning, and a visit to Covent Garden long
before the usual hour for breakfast, furnishes some of
the most interesting experiences which can be gathered
from a brief stay in the metropolis.
The special correspondents for the various London
journals have started for Afghanistan on the assump-
tion that the Ameer will make no concession, and that
war must be the inevitable result of the untoward inci-
dent of the 21st of September. The profession of a
newspaper special correspondent in time of war has

witness- e-d
a Marvellous development during the past

few years. The outbreak of the conflict with Russia
n 1855 found the journals totally unprepared with the
class of men necessary to undertake the perilous and
important duties of correspondents at the seat of war;
at least, with the exception of The Times' descriptions,
furnished by Dr. W. H. Russell, few of the accounts
live as standard works in history. Since then.
however, a succession of events has arisen calling
for the exercise of energy and intellect on the
part of the "special." There were the Indian Mutiny
and the China War, both in 1857; the Italian
War in 1859, another China War in 1860, the Civil
War in America from 1861 to 1865, the Danish War in
1861, the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866, the
great struggle between France and Germany in 1870,
the fight between Turkey and Servia in 1876, the war
of last year, and now again the difficulty in Afghan-
istan. In connection with the subject last-mentioned,
it may be' pointed out how large a proportion of the
revenues of India are already expended for military
purposes. The Indian army charges for the current
year are estimated at £15,800,000, while the whole
revenue derived from excise customs, salt duties,
stamps, &c., is rather less than thirty-five millions
sterling. Thus in India nearly one-half of the taxes
are spent for military purposes; while in England,
which is as rich as India is poor, the army expenses for
the current year are estimated at £15,595,800 or less
than one-fourth of the revenue. Two-thirds of the
Indian army is composed of native forces, and the
whole amounts to about 188,000 men.
Recent events in the commercial world have com-
bined to produce a very unfavourable impression in
the City. Mr. Satnuel Weller once descried Consols
as " those things that keep going up and down in the
City;" but lately it is not so much Consols that have
been going up: and down as securities of other kinds.
Consols are right enough, as most people know who
have followed Mr. Fitt's advice, and invested in the
sweet simplicity of the Three Per Cents;" but
most people like to get more than three per cent, for
their money. If a man has £l,OOO to play with, whilst
he knows that the £3O a year which it retuins is per-
fectly safe as long as the Government of the country
lasts, he would rather make a little more of it. And so
it comes to pass that investors purchase shares iaall
sorts of securities, home, foreign, and colonial, returning
in some cases 12 or 15 per cent. Some of these. have
suffered much during the late depression, which r felt
all the more keenly, coming as it does after a period of
unchecked prosperity. Numerous speculations have
been made respecting the cause of that commercial
decline which we have witnessed sinca 1873, when the
coal and iron trades more especially throve wonder-
fully, and the prica of best Wallsend was at one time
545. per ton in London. Such prices, of course, could
not last, and now it does not fetch half that figure.
Some declare that the decline is permanent, others
hold that it is but temporary; over-trading, foreign
competition, and poverty abroad have been variously
assigned as the reasons why we are not so well off
as we formerly were. It may here be noted that,
after the financial panic of 1857, commercial matters
were not long in again righting themselves; and
although this process was not so speedily effected

after the panic of 1966, they did come right
before many years had passed. But now, with.
out any such collapse or crash as that of 1857
or of 1866, trade has steadily grown worse, and
no stronger testimony can be borne to this fact
than the monthly returns of exports and imports
issued by the Board of Trade. That this result should
have been produced without any financial panic,
which always shakes credit and paralyses industry, is
remarkable; but of the fact of its existence there can
be no possible doubt; and it is palpable enough upon
the anxious faces of the merchants who crowd the
marts of men in the City of London.
The year 1866 was long remembered not only for
the era of industrial paralysis which it inaugurated,
but for the number of disastrous events that were
crowded into it, out of all proportion for one twelve
months, The commercial panic at home, together with
a bad harvest, and the Austrian and Prussian war,
stamped it with the character of an annus mirabilis,
and in its very last hours, a calamitous fire attacked
the Palace of our Pride at Sydenba,m, and did
damage to the extent of about £200,000. When
the last stroke of mi might rang out on the
314 December, 1466, there were few regrets at
the departure of that year. What will the chronicles
say of 1878, and what reputation will it leave behind?
Certainly for maritime catastrophes it stands out with-
out parallel in modern history, and one of its latest
additions to the roll of calamity will not tend to re-
trieve its character. The trampling of nearly forty
persons to death in a Liverpool theatre, at the raising of
a groundless alaim of fire, is a sad commentary upon
the text which has been preached sk3 often, that the
only way of being safe under such circumstances is to
keep perfectly still. It was the same twenty years ago,
when Mr. Spurgeon was preaching in the Surrey Music
Hall, and on a false alarm of fire having been raised,
a rush was made to the doors and half a score of per-
sons were taken up d3ad. Human beings, at such
times, seem to be utterly bereft of reasoning powers,
and to give way to panic like a flock of sheep. Like
the other misfortunes of the year, this at Liverpool
was on a gigantic scale, and vies with the disasters of
the past few months in the devastation which it
scatters around it,