The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-15 00:00:00

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It is with some sense of relief that most people, it
is to be presumed, cogitate on the fact that the Irish
Church Bill has, after a protracted struggle, passed
through the committee of the House of Commons.
Looking back on the long string of amendments with
which the measure was threatened en its entrance into
committee, it is rather strange how steady has been its
progress, and how successful have been its supporters.
After all the battling there is really no great amount
of alteration in the bill. But those who have set their
hearts on the bill being passed must not halloo till they
are out of the wood. It has a very severe ordeal to pass
through yet, sal many persons believe the House of
Lords will reject it. Without expressing any opinion
on the merits; of the measure, I may add that the
balance of opinion among those whose opinion is most
worth having appears to be, however, that their
lordships will not reject it. Meanwhile the public
generally seems to take far more interest in the
Mayor of Cork. He is for the moment decidedly the
most prominent figure on the public stage, and what.
ever be the result of the action which Parliament is
taking against him, be has undoubtedly acquired a
degree of notoriety beyond his most sanguine expecta-
tions.

The Prince and Princess of Wales return home—for
the Princess must by this time look upon England as
her home,—after a long protracted tour in the East,
and are heartily welcomed. The royal couple have, by
all accounts, had a most pleasant time of it; they
have been received in right royal fashion by Eastern
potentates; have been stared at as marvels by Turks,
Egyptians, and Arabi= ; and have been saluted by
many a hearty British cheer, all the more pleasant to
royal ears, no doubt, because they were raised in a
foreign laud. It is well that the heir to the throne
should thus gain that knowledge of the world that
s only to be acquired by travel; but the Prince will
have had almost enough of travel now perhaps. At
all events, it seems generally to be felt that he is
wanted in England, where there will be plenty of
work for him to do, occupying as he does a more pro-
minent position than any previous Prince of Wales
ever did. Among other little matters which are looked
forward to with the Prince as the central figure, are
the levees on the first of June, the inauguration of the
Palmerston statue at Southampton in the same month,
and the opening of the Holborn Viaduct in July.—
Apropos of royal travels, a continental journal says
that her Majesty intends to visit Switzerland this year,
and also make a trip to Sicily and Greece—which is
certainly possible, and may be probable.
We may look for a most interesting book—Dr.
Russell's forthcoming narrative of his tour in the
last, in the suite of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
It has been, perhaps, generally thought that the letters
in The Times, recording the sayings and doings in con.
nection with this tour, were from his pen. His
former contributions to the still leading journal, and
his known presence with the distinguished tourists,
have naturally led to this impression, but it is not a
true one. The picturesque and powerful traveller
will, however, doubtless give us incidentally some
episodes of the journey, that will have all the more
interest as being connected with the young royal
couple. Independently of this, Dr. Russell will have
much to tell us about the East, which we formerly
looked upon as marvellous for its unchanging social
aspects throughout the "roll of the ages," but which,
during the last few years, has undergone many striking
mutations, political and sociaL
It will be a mercy to England and America if that !
unhappy affair of the Alabama claims can be arranged !
satisfactorily to both countries. Mr. Sumner's speech
is creating some uneasiness here, but the enormous
sum which America, or rather a party of that country,
demands—no less than 40e millions sterling—see= to
pass the narrow boundary line between the sublime
and the ridiculous. Besides graver considerations, the
dispute is just now very unfortunate, because the
ill-
feeling that exists towards us on the part of a section
of the Americans will do much to check emigration
from this country, which is acting so beneficially on the
interests of the working classes. Professor Goldwin
Smith, who is now in America, writing to one of our
newspapers, says that the promoters of emigration can-
not now reasonably turn their thoughts towards America.
"I should say there would be no rupture," he writes;
"but I hold myself prepared for a turn of affairs which
would oblige English residents to leave this country."
This is far from pleasant, but it is to be hoped that the
Professor is an alarmist without due cause. There is
nothing, however, in the political horizon to prevent
emigration to Canada, and in fact the more the
thoroughly British element in the Dominion is
strengthened the better.
Mr. J. R. Planche, the "Somerset Herald," whatever
that may be, has been commissioned by the Govern-
ment to arrange the armour in the Tower of London.
The armoury of this marvellous fortress contains un-
doubtedly the finest collection of armour, ,kc , in the
world. The present arrangement is just the same as
it was made by Dr. Meyrick in 1825, before which
time the mass of arms and accoutrements was all con-
fusion. Figures representing celebrities of the eleventh
and twelfth centuries, for instance, had on armour
which only dated from the fifteenth and sixteenth cen-
turies. Since 1825, a good deal of accurate information
may have been added to what was then known, and
Mr. Plancla4, is perhaps the best authority, we have on
the subject. Visitors to London usually make a point
of going over those parts of the Tower which are shown
to the public, and these portions, by the way, are not
so extensive as they ought to be; and no more inter-
esting sight exists than the armoury, with its figures
representing men at arms, pikemen, bowmen, and its
marvellous collection of arms and armour. I expect
Mr. Planche will make considerable changes, for it is
known that many of the suits of armour were made
up by Dr. Meyrick from his knowledge or supposition
of what the armour must have been, or ought to have
been in such and such an age; just as Professor Owen
built up, as it were, an antediluvian animal from a thigh
bone.

What very inadequate machinery we have for pre-
venting the sale of meat unfit for food, has just been
shown incidentally at one of our police-courts. A poor
woman bought some pork which she found to be very
bad—in fact putrid. She took it to an inspector of
nuisances, and he "proceeded "(in police reports people
always proceed; they never go) to the shop, and there
he found about 50 pounds of equally bad pork exposed
for sale. On being shown to the medical officer of
health he said that the consumption of such pork would
most likely produce very serious results. Now here the
bad meat was exposed for sale, and yet the inspector
of nuisances knew nothing about it till he was told of
it ; and the medical officer of health ditto. That this
putrid pork has produced very "serious results" else-
where is likely enough, but had not one determined
woman put the paltry law in motion, nothing would
have been Isearil of it; and even now the man who
sold this pernicious stuff, and who says he told the
woman "it was bad," goes away unpunished. On the
Continent he would have been severely fined, and
would have had to post up in his shop a notification of
the fact.

One of the strangest advertisements I have ever
noticed catches my eye in the leading journal : "If
he young lady who one Saturday morning in August,
1867, lost a considerable sum by reckless play at the
Spa gaming•table, and who afterwards learnt that a
work was about to be published that would effectually
stop gaming, will forward her address to, &c., a pros.
pectus will be forwarded to her." I am curious to
know what sort of a work must that be which will
effectually stop gaming. Such a work would be of
priceless value. The concoctor of the work appears
to have devoted a considerable time to it, for though
it was about to be published in August, 1667, it is not
yet published. And, sup cubs; that the work would
have the effect attributed to it, what a pity it has not
yet appeared! How much misery and ruin, how much
passion and loss of temper and money would have
been prevented had gaming during all this time been
effectually stopped; instead of which the love of
gaming appears to have been on the increase during all
this time. The author of this marvellous work should
get it out at once and send a copy to the Lords of the
Treasury, who are trying hard to put down sporting
lotteries and "specs," but whose success is at present
doubtful.

Facts are stubborn things, and figures are stubborn
facts. The figures in the report of the Religious Tract
Society are certainly startling. During the past year
200 new books and tracts published; an issue of 830
millions of pages; 40 million copies of publications;
and 1,280 millions of copies of publications since the
establishment of the society—these are facts and
figures! Who shall estimate the moral effect of all
this machinery' Undoubtedly it is a powerful cor-
rective to the pernicious literature which is also so
abundant. Lord Shaftesbury, alluding to this, spoke
of the pestilential character of much of the literature
of the present day as more insiduous and dangerous
than that of their youth, since half a century ago the
literature of vice was repulsive in all its forms. This
is true enough, but his lordship did not allude to the
vast improvement of the newspaperpress of the present
day, as compared to that of ten, twenty, or thirty
years ago. The newspaper after all is the most power-
ful popular educator, and the People's Press of Eng-
land is now an honour to it, instead of being a dis-
grace, an were such papers as the Aoc, gAirott, and
others that could be named. Middle-aged men who
well remember what these scurrilous and scandalous

journals were, and who compare the memories of their
youth with the facts of the present day, will readily
almit how vastly we have improved. And we have
marvellously advanced also in two other respects
especially—in enterprise and talent in connection with
the Press. Everybody will at once acknowledge the
enterprise, but the talent perhaps is not so much
appreciated, because it is so common. But there is an
immense amount of really high-class writing in nearly
every paper you may now casually take up.
Here are two little paragraphs about King Victor
Emmanuel, separate and distinct, which I will bring
together. One states that he was lately obliged to
confess that be did not know who Pliny was, and
thought that it was but four or five centuries since
Herculaneum and Pompeii were buried. The other
says that he is in such a state of health that he cannot
sit down for fear of apoplexy. Supposing both to be
true —the latter is especially strange—why on earth
should the King bother himself who Pliny was? And
why should he worry his brains as to how long the
buried cities have been underground?