The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-12 00:00:00

:Elle 3toarlaribie 04scrier.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1879.

THE EASTER HOLIDAYS.

THE two Houses of the Legislative have
adjourned for the Easter Recess, which, with-
out doubt, comes as a welcome relief to
thousands who have looked forward to a
temporary respite from the incessant and
continuous toil of the autumn and winter.
Noble lords and honourable gentlemen will
in many a provincial town during the short
holiday enlighten numerous audiences on the
events of the pre-Easter session, and will
throw much light upon that which the
printed reports of the debates may have left
comparatively obscure. In the pre-Christmas
sitting there was the Afghan question, upon
which both Lords and Commons divided;
and between the 17th December, when the
two Houses rose, and the 13th February,
when they reassembled, the various phases
of the dispute with the Ameer were laid be-
fore numerous assemblages of our fellow-
subjects, many honourable members, who
had not had an opportunity of laying their
views before the House of Commons, seizing
the occasion of enlightening the British
public on many a provincial platform. The
rapid crowding of one event upon another
was never more forcibly illustrated than in
the contrast between the circumstances sur-
rounding the adjournments for the Christ-
mas and Easter iii(xesses. Less than four
months ago, it was the unfortunate Shore
Ali, who having provoked a war with the
British Government, for which he was totally
unprepared, upon whom public attention was
concentrated. The unhappy man, then a
fugitive from his capital and his dominions,
is now "where the wicked cease from
troubling, and the weary are at rest." Now
the recipient of our ienanciation is not the
ruler of Afghanistan, but a savage monarch
upon an adjoining continent. Since Christ-
mas we have gone to war with the Kik; of
the Zulus, who has inflicted upon our arms
a disaster without parallel in recent years.
Tie South African policy of the Government
has taken the place of its Afghan policy in
the consideration of the Great Council of
the People, and both Lords and Commons
have taken divisions upon it. In the recess
we shall hear but little of Afghanistan, which
like all things terrestrial, seems to have had
its day; but a great deal is likely to be said
about South Africa. What topic will the
Whitsuntide Recess have for our public men?
Possibly a war with Burmah, or the compli-
cations likely to ensue from the joint
occapation of Eastern Ronmelia. Thus one
subject after another comes to the front, is
discussed, and makes way for the next. The
WM'. CI'S ranging scenes are like the ever-
shifting slides of a kaleidescope ; each turn
presents a different view, and commands
the notice which has been directed towards
its predecessor.
So much for the altered circumstances,
from a political standpoint, of the Christmas
and the Easter recess. In other ways the
contrast between them is even more strik-
ing. The House of C.)mmons adjourned on
the 17th December in the midst of a winter
which had witnessed no pa. allel for severity
during a quarter of a century. The naviga.
tion upon our tidal rivers was stopped owiitg
to the presence of vast masses of floating ice
which had been bought down upon the sur-
face of the streams from the numerous
counties which they drained, and which the
constantly returning tide prevented from
being carried out to sea, The intensity of
the bitter frost still further paralysed the
.1 ingnishing industries of the country; and
on the eve of the adjournment one of the
members for the City of London deer:axed
in the House of Commons that [the county
was on the eve of a period of distress such
ias t had not witnessed for thirty yeqrs.
The commercial depreSsion, of which we Irld
been so sehliblefol.• years, was t',eu.p,nirrs
at , worst. were witain a week "ei