The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-16 00:00:00

eux Sou* am"Ott,

,We deem it lIZIrG to state that WO 00 aoy 4.oilvirae,
i(santily ourselves with our Correspondent's opiniens.i

Twice a year two portions of the metropolis—the
City proper and the West End—are lit up by
illuminations, and the two occasions are when the
birthdays of the Queen and the Prince of Wales are
3elebrated. Her Majesty's birthday is always com-
memorated late in May, or the beginning of June
when the days are.at their dongest, and when, if the moon
s at her full, the stars and devices are certainly not
seen at their best, But the 9th of November, when
the Heir to the Crown marks his entry upon another
year of his age, is clearly not open to the objection
that the days are too long. The late Thomas Hood
immortalised the month as being one of proverbial
gloom; and this year there was no full moon to inter-
fere with the.effect of the lighting up which had been
prepared by the loyal subjects of the Queen to keep
bp a date which is also associated in London with the
Lord Mayor's Show. And so, after the civic caval-
cade had returned from Westminster, the vast multi-
tude
,in the streets dispersed east and west to see
the illumirations. Of the two, perhaps the west was
the more favoured by popular attention. The City
authorities do not carry out•much in this way unless
on exceptional occasions—such as, for instance, when
the Queen went to St. Paul's on Thanksgiving Day,
in 1872. Then the great Cathedral itself, after the
shades of evening began to prevail, shone forth in all
brilliancy of the electric light; the Mansion-house, the
Guildhall, and. the Royal Exchange, no longer stood
- out-,in shadow, but were conspicuous in the face of
therm-finds of gas jets, and poor old 'Temple Bar was
gay for-the last time in its history. On the 9th of
November, however, the City devotes itself principally
to the reception of her Majesty's Ministers, who come
,to cline with the new Lord Mayor; and the great
crowd mainly surges westward, through Pall Mall, up
the Haymarket; and talong Piccadilly critical and

good.humoured—noting the various ways in which the
.reski.ents celebrate the birthday of the Queen's eldest

SOIL
•.• -.The Prince of Wake is now in his 38th year, And
&More than twice the ago of Her, Majesty when she
came to the throne forty-one years ago. Yet his Royal
Highneis is a long way removed from the age of his
'predecessor in. that title, for George IV. remained
Pripet) of. Wales until he was nearly fifty, and for
another ten years' was • Regent of the kingdom.
Practically, however, he was the sovereign during the
mental incapacity of the old king, for he gave the
Royal assent to all acts of Parliament, and opened and
prorogued the Sessions of the Legislature with all the
attribwtes, of monarchical power. King George 111.
never knew much after his Jubilee in 1810, and during
the most stirring time in English history—the final
wrestle With Napoleon and his complete overthrow—
the mind of the aged king was a blank. The
Queen's predecessor on the throne, William IV., was
never Prince of Wales, a title which is given only to
the heir to the Crown in the direct line. A remarkable
illustration of.the uneven way in which earthly pomp
and grandeur are often distributed was seen in the last
century, Frederick George, Prince of Wales, the
eldest sonof George IL, when 45 years of age, was
struck down by pleurisy, whilst taking a midnight
walk in his garden at Kew, and consequently never
came,to the Throne at all. His son, a boy of 12, at
once became Prince of Wales, and afterwards, as
George 111., had the longest reign in our history.
Even if our Prince of Wales of to-day were to come to
the,Throne at once, he could not expect to see the
jubilee of his reign ; but that her Majesty will
celebrate the fiftieth year of her rule over the British
dominions seems not at all improbable. A little over
eight years more will witness its accomplishment.
. How . many Ministers and Parliaments will have
passed away in half a century? Even now the sur-
vivors of the House of Commons which was in
existence when her
.Majesty ascended the throne in
1837 may be counted on the fingers of two hands.
The outgoing Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Sir
Thomas Scambler Owden, retired from office with the
honour ef knighthood in recognition of the sums dis-
pensed at the Mansion-house in charity during his
mayoralty. There are two precedents for this course,
both within recent years. In 1866, at the recommenda-
tion of the,late Lord Derby, Sir Benjamin Phillips
was knighted because of the response which had been

made to the appeals made in aid of the sufferers by one
of the periodical Indian famines; and in 1871 a similar

, distinction was given to Sir Thomas Dakin in re-
*cognitioft of the fact that in the twelve months
about £200,000 had come into the Mansion-house,
first to relieve the starvation of besieged Paris,
and then to show our sympathy with the burnt-
out population of Chicago. When a reigning
sovereign enters the qty of London in state, the Lord
Mayor becomes a baronet and each of the Sheriffs

receives a knighthood. Three years in succession did
these.hoiaours descend upon the city—in 1872, when the
Queen went to St. Paul's; in 1873, when the Shah of
Persia was over here; and in 174, on the visit of the
.Czar.. Three baronetcies and six knighthoods made
glad the hearts of loyal citizens at the reception of such
favours frord the crown. Since 1874 there have, how-

ever, been no State entries within the civic boundaries;
, arld,the strained relations between Great Britain and
Russia make the fact that the Emperor was here
appear even more distant than it really was. In connec-
tion with this it may be mentioned that the Empress of
Russia was here just four years ago,—the eldest child
of the Duchess of Edinburgh having been born on the
15th November, 1874.
The Quarterly Returns of the Registrar-General are
always full of interesting facts respecting the progress
and condition of the population. We are now told
that the depression in the marriage-rate is on the
increase, a sure indieation of lessened business and of
declining prosperity. Amongst the lower middle class
more especially, the most serious step which can be
taken,in life is postponed until times are better and
the revenue is more elastic. It would be difficult to
conceive a more safe indication of the state of the
social barometer than the fluctuations of the marriage-
rate as showing the flow of national prosperity or its
ebb in time of adversity. In the quarter ending on
The 30th September there was an increase of emigre-
ion to the extent of 33 per cent, over the corresponding
period of the previous year. Here again was another
sign that trade and commerce are not as good as they
used to be; for if people are doing well at home, they
have no occasion to seek their fortunes in a new and
distant land. During the same three months the
average price of wheat was 445. 6d. per qr., showing
a farther fall of ss. &I. from the steadily declining
quotations in the five preceding quarters. Wheat was
indeed lower than since March, 1876. Animal food
had but slightly fallen in value, but coals more appre-
ciably,*and were cheaper than they had been since
March, 1871. Consols averaged 97 during the three
months ; while the Bank of England rate of discount
,which, on the 18th June, ,was 2 per cent., has since
1309.ndiaise.d to 6. There was an increase of both in-
door and out-door paupers in the third quarter of the
present year, and this was by no means a satisfactory
sign. • - .
The Court of Common Council is the Parliament of
the City of London. It is composed of 225 members,
rettlrited in proportionate numbers by the 25 wards
into which the city is divided. It has entire control
of the civic local government and the expenditure of
the Corporation funds. For many years it has dis-
cussed the beet means of dealing with the ever aug-
menting traffic of the city, and one of its chief diffi-
cultiei has been in the way of bridge accommodation.
When the matter first came up, the problem , was
deemed by some to be very easy of solution. The
-t• principal block was upon London Bridge--therefore
4*. - Jet;it be .widened. The Common Council had actually
• • resolved:to •do so when obstacles of various kinds
Presented themselves. In the first place, how would
..thet foundations of the structure bear the addi-
' tonal weight which would thus be cast upon it?
Again, any such alteration must utterly disfigure
, tie, Bridge; and It was also discovered that the
change could 'not be effected by a mere resolution
.•. . .
of tile Corporate body, for an Act of Parliament
would„be necessary. London Bridge is not a local
erection.; it is a national undertaking;- and the idea
of sp9iling its appearance and lessening its strength
by widening it, would certainly have been strenuously
•'resisted. A committee of the Council was then
appointed, which recommended the building of a low-
level or " bascule " bridge near the Tower—that is to
ray, a structure capable of being opened in the centre
iv:. as not to interfere with the navigation. This
Scheme has, however, been rejected by the full Court.
Meanwhile the Metropolitan Board of Works has given
notice that irc the next session of Parliament it will
apply, for power to construct a high level bridge,
between Tooley-street and the Tower, one sufficiently
. elevated shove the level of the river S 3 to allow the
iallest masts of the largest vessels to pass beneath
the roadway with ease. This structure, with its
approaches, will cost a million and a half sterling.

The Meteorological Department of the Board of
-Trade-is one of the most nseilii.liafi well as one of the
meet recent additions to thttyggch of our local
government. The Board of Vadk ercises its powers
over the vast network of our railway system, over our
means of internal navigation, takes note of the
oxPausion or contraction of our commerce, and now
compiles weather statistics which are of great value
and interest to all classes, The numerous varia-
tions in the meteorological currents are recorded
with great exactitude, and it is curious to note
the fluctuations in the weather during brief periods
a time. For instance, in the month of September the
rainfall In the United Kingdom was less than one inch,

while in August it was more than five inches, Indeed,
the rainfAll of last Al:iv:lst, as many an unhappy tourist
has occasion to remember, was unixrecedentedly large,
for the nearest approach to it was four inches in the
same month of 1237, We expect abnormal quantities
of rain in the winter; but are not quite prepared for it
n the harvest month. The summer was, however, ex-
ceptional in many ways. Tropical heat and tropical
storms—periods of drought and of excessive rainfall—
brought us acquainted with some of the eccentricities
of the climate incidental to the temperate zone. It
is often the subject of denunciation by unthinking per-
sons, who do not reflect that they might go much
farther and fare a great deal worse.
London is proverbially a dismal place in the winter.
Day by day, week by week, almost month by month,
the sky is covered with vast banks of cloud, and very
often there are not half-a-dozen hours of sunshine in a
week. The gloom seems chronic and abiding; and
the sun, which is lighting up hill and dale in the quiet
rural landscape, finds it impossible to penetrate the
dense masses of smoke which hang like a pall over
the homes of three millions of people. Of late years
winter exhibitions of works of art have in some degree
enlivened the monotony of this dreary season—galleries
of paintings, mostly at the West-end of the town—which
are well patronised. Of winter gardens there are very
few in the metropolis, this branch of recreation being
one capable of very considerable development in our
midst. But there is one place, in the gradually
darkening days, where the flowers of midwinter are
seen to perfection. That is in the gardens of the
Temple, where the November show of chrysanthe-
mums is always one of the vast attractive sights in
the City. A rich and prosperous body are the
Templarg, and a pleasant place enough they chose for
their location when they selected the northern bank of
the Thames on which to pitch their tent. In the long
summer days they are enabled to look out upon one
of the best attended gardens in the capital; and even
in the few‘short hours of daylight which now prevail
they are not without their service of flowers.