The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-06-27 00:00:00

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queen Victoria on Saturday entered the forty-
ninth year of her reign, and the anniversary of
the Sovereign's accession was celebrated in the
usual way by the firing of the Park and Tower
guns and the ringing of joy-bells both in London
and at Windsor. It seems difficult to believe
that three members of Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet,
and confidential advisers of the Crown, were
born after her Majesty assumed the crown and
the sceptre. These are Mr. Trevelyan, born in
1838; Sir Charles Dilke, in 1843; and the Earl
of Rosebery, in 1847. The wort is a different
one from that of 1837, when, at two o'clock in
the morning of the 20th June, the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain set out
from Windsor Castle by coach with the news
of King William's death, and occupied three
hours in reaching London. They reached
Kensington Palace at five o'clock in the morning,
where the Princess Victoria was residing with
her mother, the Duchess of Kent, knocked up
the Princess, and saluted her as Queen of
England.
Many a year has come and gone since that
bright June morning; Administrations have been
formed and defeated; Parliaments have been sum-
moned and dissolved. For the first quarter of a
century the Queen's life was one of uninter-
rupted sunshine. But in the year 1861 she lost
first her mother and then her husband, in 1878
her second daughter Princess Alice, and in 1884
her youngest son the Duke of Albany. The
occupants of the palace have the same bereave-
ments to meet as the dwellers in the humblest
.cottage, and the Queen has never recovered the
Aelasticity of her early life. Meanwhile next year
-will bo the jubilee year. On the 20th June,
1.886, her Majesty will enter the fiftieth year of
her reign. If there is the slightest doubt whether
1886 or 1887 is the jubilee year. it can be settled
by a reference to the case of George 111. That
monarch ascended the Throne on the 25th
October, 1760, and the jubilee celebration took
-place on the 25th October, 1800, when his
Majesty entered the fiftieth year of his reign.
The precedent is therefore clear and distinct for
next year, so that if any elaborate preparations
are to be made ample notice is now given of the
time. _ _

The Parliamentary interregnum has been full
of singular incidents in connection with the
formation of a new Ministry. Lord Salisbury
seems to have felt that although the Government
had been placed in a minority on the Budget ho
could not take office without adequate assurances
that the Liberal majority in the House of Com-
mons would give him what is described as fair
play. For it must be remembered that while
Mr. Parnell and his followers combined with the
Conservatives to defeat Mr. Gladstone, they
would ho quite as likely to combine with the
Liberals to overthrow Lord Salisbury. They are
opposed to any Saxon Government of whatever
political complexion. Mr. Gladstone seems to
have hesitated to give the pledges asked for, and
looking at the condition of the party in that
portion of the House described as below the
gangway perhaps this is not altogether to be
surprised at. His promise of the publication of
the correspondence gave great satisfaction to all
who have followed the fragmentary details of
the story as published in the newspapers.
Aristocratic Ascot was shorn of its glories on
the Cup day. There was no State procession as
usual to the course, because of the funeral of
Prince Frederick Charles, father of the Duchess
of Connaught. The Red Prince, as he was
called, had long dropped out of remembrance,
his military career having terminated with the
signing of the Treaty of Peace with- France in
1871. He was the commander of the army that
invested Metz, which surrendered to him on the
27th October, 1870, with three marshals, 60
generals, 3000 cannon, and 173,000 men.
Never was such a capitulation known in history.
The Duchess of Connaught, who arrived in
London from India only on Sunday night with
her husband, amidst the happiest of greetings,
heard on the very next day of the sudden illness
and death of her father, and forty-eight hours
afterwards was on her way to Germany to attend
his funeral. Never was there a better illustra-
tion of the truth of the saying of Edmund
.Burke—" What shadows we are and what
shadows we pursue !"
The attractions of the Inventions Exhibition
naturally take away a great number of people from
the theatres, but still most of them seem to be
able to hold their own. It is true that the
Adelphi has been closed, but only for repairs and
alterations, as Mr. Sims's play, the "Last
Chance," was paying splendidly there. It will be
re-opened in September. Mr. Augustus Harris
has gone in for a big enterprise, and has thrown
open Drury-lane for a summer season, with "A
True Story Told in Two Cities," by Elliot Galer.
This was first produced last year at Galer's Theatre
in Leicester. The play itself is nothing out of the
common; one of the usual style of melodramas.
The mounting and scenery though are very
good, and quite up to former productions at the
national theatre. The Lyceum is filled every
night by admirers of Mr. Irving in "Olivia."
The last nights of the "Lights of London" are
announced at the Princess's. The season of
French plays at the Gaiety, under the manage-
ment of Mr. M. L. Mayer, is proving very profit-
able. Mdlle. Sarah Bernhardt will appear there
as Theodora on July 11th. "The Private Secre-
tary" at the Globe has now been played 470
tunes, and still its withdrawal is not yet
announced. The efforts of the proprietor of the
Empire seem to be more successful than they
were at first, as the "Lady of the Locket" is
Still running at the handsome theatre in
Leicester-square. Mrs. Langtry continues to
appear in "Peril" at the Prince's, but it will
shortly be withdrawn, as the close of her season
at that theatre is approaching.
The Handel Festival at the Crystal Palace
has come round one year earlier than usual. The
last triennial festival was in 1883, but if these
were held annually there would be no difference
in the numbers of persons which would flock to
the Crystal Palace to hear tho best selections
from the greatest works of the composer. The
Handel orchestra with its vast audience presents
a spectacle which can be Witnessed nowhere else
in the world.

The present seems a poor time to throw
enormous collections of works of art upon the
market. Messrs. Christie and Manson have in
hand a sale extending over 22 days of the art
collection of the late Mr. Beckett-Denison, a
gentleman of great wealth, who devoted himself
to gathering together all that was beautiful in
art and costly in material. Some of the articles
did not however reach a third or a fourth of
what Mr. Denison had given for them. The
general depression of trade probably accounts
for a great deal of this, while on the other hand
-there is little doubt that Mr. Denison gave too
3much for the riches in his collection. G. R.