The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-11 00:00:00

ir flitbon Corresponttni.

• (Wit deem It right to state that we. do not at all tilmea
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The ninth of November in London is a date which
Is always looked forward to with interest by a vast
number of the popolation. For seven centuries Lord
Mayor's Day has been associated in the minds of the
people with a display of civic millinery, mock chivalry,
and knight errantry, which has stood the test of many
a satire, and has weathered many a pointed sarcasm.
There is no mtmic'pal potentate in the United King-
dom who enters upon his year of office amid such a
flourish of trumpets as the Lord Mayor of London.
First he has to be presented to the Lord Chancellor,
for the purpose of receiving, through that high
functionary, her Majesty's gracious approval of the
choice of a chief magistrate which has been made by
the citizens. But the proportions of this ceremonial
are nothing as compared with the display made on Lord
Mayor's Day, when he-gtreatts state from Guildhall to
Westminster, there to receive the congratulations of the
Barons of the Court of Exchequer. The streets of the
mightiest city in the world, or at all events those
through which the cavalcade passes, close their places
of business, and the thoroughfares are taken possession
of by an enormous multitude certainly numbering
hundreds of thousands. The Show has for long years
been gibbeted in the comic prints, denounced by city
stagers, contemned by the philosopher, growled at b,y
the morose, marvelled at by the virtuosi, scorned by
those who have gazed upon grander exhibitions; but
then the crowd which pours' out into the streets of the
capital on the 9th of November does not find its con-
stituent parts made up of any the daises I mention.
It is for the most part compesed of tame who look for-
ward to Lord Mayor's Show as the one outdoor
spectacle which they witness-during the entire year.
The chief magistrate is popular in proportion as he
makes his pageant attraciive, and if he but studies
to please the public taste in this direction, he
Is greeted with a continuous roar of cheers
from the densely - packed ._ throng. Temple Bar
may pass away, hub not thi Lord Mayor's Show.
By the way,- Sir Thomas White is likely to be the last
Mayor who will drive in state beneath that ancient
gateway, for in all probability-it will have been carted
away before another twelvemonths have elapsed. But
there is another aspect of the day which counter-
balances any inconvenience caused by a few hours'
suspension of business. The banquet at Guildhall in
the evening is attended by most of Her Majesty's
Ministers; and as the time Is precisely midway be-
tween the closing of the old session and the opening of
the new, advantage is often taken to put forth Minis-
terial declarations upon points of policy upon which
anxiety has been manifested by the country, For
instance, a great deal hats hitibened since Parliament
was prorogued on the 14;of August last, and the
Lord Mayor's banquet afford e an excellent opportunity
for such explanations as, the halls of the Legislature
excepted, can be better given there than anywhere.
This is the month in which the schemes of private
enterprise which are to...edine before Parliament
next session must be comweeted, and the plans de-
posited with the Board of T_iide. The number always
varies with the state of the country's commercial
prosperity, and this year is likely to be small.
Perhaps the most prolific session of modern times, so
far as private bills were concerned, was that of 1865,
when there where 600 of these to be disposed of, and
the committees were reduced from five to four members
each in order to deal with such a mass of legislation.
That year marked the culminating point of national
speculation, and the disastrous panic of 1866 was the
; mmediate result. It is doubtful if the number of private'
bills in Parliament neit session will be a third of those
in 1865. The stagnation which has prevailed during
the past twelve months, and must continue to prevail
so long as that everlasting Eastern question remains
unsettled, strangles all enterprise, and none but
works of necessity are now undertaken. Bills for the
abandonment of project e heretofore sanctioned by the
legislature are indeed likely to be more numerous next
year than for some time past.
It is somewhat remarkable to find that the dates of
the battles. in our last war with Russia made so little
Imprtssion upon the public mind. We have still our
Fifth of November celebrations; but very few think
of associating the day with the battle of Inkerman, in
1854,. when 14,000 English" and French successfully
repelled an attack of 60,000 Russians as, led by General
Liprandi, they sullenly issued forth from Sebastopol
amid the cold drizzle of a wintry morning with the
determination of driving the allies into the sea. What
notice is now taken of the victory of the Alma, or how
many people could tell you offhand the date of the
fall of Sebastopol ? The only commemoration is that
nf the Tlalaklava charsre. and Itais was only thought of
last year for the first time. Yet the anniversaries ot
Trafalgar and Waterloo, one over sixty, and the other
more than seventy years old, are made the themes
of leading articles and of bazeuets as regu-
larly as they come round. This is the more sin-
gular, inasmuch as we are now so friendly with the
French, and seem to be on anything but amicable
terms with the Russians. In fact, while the French-
man is held up as the most chivalrous ef the human
race, the Muscovite seems to be eternally surrounded
with suspicion, and to be suspected of the darkest and
most deeply-laid designs upon the lands of his nearest
neighbour.

The stories of maritime disaster which so often crowd
the columns of the newspapers, suggest the question
whether there are any means at our disposal for bring-
ing about a more satisfactory state of things than exists
at present. Tnat this might be done seems to be clear
from the fact that the Cunard Company's steamers
have for thirty-five years constantly traversed the
Atlantic without the loss. of the life of a pas-
senger, or of a letter entrusted to their care. For
more than a generation their splendid vessels have
been traversing the stormiest of oceans with
regularity; and neither shipwreck, collision, fire,
or any of the too frequent causes of disaster has be-
fallen them. This may be attributed by many to
what is called good luck; but, after all, this is an ex-
pression which is better applied to games of chance,
where no skill, genius, industry, or prudence are re-
quired. In all other matters success would appear to
depend upon the means employed to attain it; and in
Transatlantic navigation wisdom and foresight must
essentially be elements that acc4unt for such results as i
those above noted.

The artillerists seem determined not to be beaten
by those who devote themselves to the manufacture of
ship's armour. The experiments with the 100-ton gun
which have lately taken place at Spezzia have been
read with the deepest interest by all who study the
best means for the defence of their country. A compo-
site target was constructed, made of two 11-inch iron
plates, with a foot of wood between them, supported
behind by a powerful backing of wood and iron
gixders. The 10 and 11-inch guns failed to do much
damage against these plates; but the 100-ton
gun smashed the target completely, making
a tremendous wreck of the first plate, break-
ing the wood behind it, and forcing a large piece
of the second plate right through the wood at the back.
The initial velocity of the enormous shot fired was
1,500 feet per second. Great Britain, however, is not
to be beaten by the Italian Government in the posses-
sion of the heaviest ordnance; for a gun is to be con-
structed at Woolwich double the size of the famous 81-
ton monster. Napoleon would never cross the Alps to-
day with a park of artillery like this.
It will have been noticed that the new Lord Mayor of
London, Sir Thomas White, enters office with a title, a
somewhat unusual occurrence—for, although the chief
magistrate often goes out with a title, he seldom comes
in with one. The reason, in the present case, is this.
Whenever a reigning sovereign enters the city of
London in state, whether the monarch of our own
realms or of any other, the Lord Mayor gets a
baronetcy, and each of the sheriffs a knighthood.
During this year no reigning sovereign has entered the
city, although on the 19th of May there was a
magnificent entertainment at Guildhall in celebration
of the safe return of the Prince of Wales
from India. Three years ago Mr. Alderman White
was serving the office of sheriff during the visit of the
Shah of Persia to this country, in the mayoralty of
Sir Sydney Waterlow, and as the Shah was grandly
received at Guildhall there was the usual baronetcy for
the chief magistrate, and knighthoods for the sheriffs
the first honour being hereditary and the other expiring
with the life of its possessor.

Commander Cameron's lectures upon the resources
of Africa come opportunely with the return of the
Aro c expedition, bsfiled as it has been in its effort to
penetrate a mystery which has exercised the thoughts
of geographers and of scientific men for ages. The
gallant explorer who supplies such interesting deserip.
tions of the African Continent has a diffdrent tale to
tell from the narrative furnished by the crews of the
Alert and the Discovery. Instead of cold, so intense
that no living thingcould have breathed in the openair
at times, months of utter and unrelieved darkness,
a silence so oppressive as to be absolutely pain-
ful, mountains of ice towering to the heavens,
and the whole aspect one of the most fear-
ful desolation, Commander Cameron has to speak
of brilliant skies and long-continued sunlight, of the
song of birds filling the soft genial air, of great rivers
capable of bearing upon their bosoms the commercial
marine of busy nations, of valleys clothed with ver-
dure, and of immense natural resources r,quiring
capital only for their development. Let us imagine
for one moment that the money spent upon Arctic ,
expeiitions from first to last had been devoted to a
more productive purpose—such an one, for instance,
as Commander Cameron has taken in hand. Accord
lug to the 1'444 intelligence from the Arctic) regions
brought baek by Ositaln Ilaree and him intrepid fel-

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low-workers, there is no More chance of getting to the
North Pole than of reaching the moon. That part of
the map of the earth, thousand,' of splare miles in
extent, is still a blank, and seems llkAy long to remain
so. Extremes of heat and of cold seem equally to

produce savages of a very low type of intellect;
for according to our most recent information the
Dquimaux is quite as degraded a being as the Hottentot
or the Th+eman. But the circumstances under which
each thrives are widely different, and many will be of
opinion that if the people have money to spare, it would
be better appropriated in opening up the resources of a
fertile continent, and thus adding to the productive
power of the world, than in attempting to conquer the
stormy desolation of the frozen sea.