The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-22 00:00:00

literapotitan 03ossip.

lei CCU OWN CORRESPOZWINT.

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rine remarks under this head are to be regarded as the ex.
prcmsloo of inclepondeut opinion, from the pen of a gentliiman
whom we have the greatest confidence, but for which
wo
aetartheleas do net hold ourselvee responsible.]

Perhaps both great political parties' in the two
houses of Parliament are glad that the heat and strife
of debate have for a time ceased, and that the flag of
truce has been raised to stop the battle over the Irish
Church. But the outside public are doubtless glad
that the contest has for a time ceased, and that the
war has arrived at such a stage when rest can be cons
veniently taken. Ere long the struggle will be renewed
or a different part of the same battle plain, and as far
as can be judged by the relative numbers of the con-
tending forces, victory will declare itself on the same
side as before. The first Natoleon remarked that
Providence was always on the ride of the !pus Gala illons
(a remark, by the way, that history has not always
verified.) and 'this is generally true of political battles.
It is said that the House of Lords will have a severe
struggle over the second reading of the bill, but it
is also said that they will not, and that they will
accept the second reading without a division, trusting
to the committee for any modifications o the measure
that the Conservative party may be able to obtain.
For the moment, however, the public do not appear to
take much interest in the question, and calmly await
the renewal of the contest when it shall be transferred
to the luxurious upper chamber. •
The recent news from Paris has created considerable
interest here. Everything connected with the French
elections is so orderly, compared with what it is in our
own country, that the news of an electoral disturbance
in Paris comes upon us by surprise. M. Offivier
appears to have been the innocent cause of the tumult,
but it is difficult to understand how his remarks should
cause such intense excitement. The spark which pro-
duced the explosion was this—his saying that the
empire was based, not on the coup d'etat, but on
universal suffrage; a remark which the majority of
his auditors seem to have considered just the reverse of
the truth. Then came disorder and confusion, seditious
cries and wild revolutionary speeches to an excited
crowd, shouts of " Vice fa republique ! " and. most
ominous of all, the singing of the forbidden Marseil-
laise I And it is quite right that this bloodthirsty
song should be forbidden. It is full of rant and fury,
and is more adapted to a tribe of wild Indians than to
is nation of civilised people. " Egorgez vos enfants !"
There is philosophy for you! Why all the tyranny in
tho world does not warrant such hideous advice.
The ex-May or of Cork, who so kindly relieved the
it ish Government from a difficulty by municipally
disestablishing himself, was being rapidly forgotten
when his name crops up again as having "left his
country for his country's good." He has, it seems,
gene to Germany, "intending to stay at a curative
watering place for some weeks." Of what then is he
tt be cured? Was he bodily or mentally afflicted
Was it monomania or brain-fever, or jaundice (he took
a jsuudiced view of English Government), or hypochon?
'sin? Seriously, I wish him no harm, though Icon-
fees to a malicious chuckle at the thought that his care
will occupy some weeks; nor should I have been sorry
had his medical attendants advised him to go not to
G simany, but to Jericho !
No improvement in our coinage has perhaps ever
bmn more popular than that which lessened our copper
money in size, and gave us pretty handy coins instead
of the clumsy money we had previously had. All the
old copper is now called in to be re-coined, and after
the last day of the present year the former coinage
will not be a legal tender. But the royal proclamation
which announces this fact, does not tell us what to do
with our old copper money in case we get any. Even
Londoners canot be expected to run to the Mint with
eixpeuny-worth of old coppers, to get new ones in
exchange. Somehow or another, no doubt, the object
will be effected, or nearly so, but I confess not to be
able to see how it will be done. All the old coin taken
at the Government establishments will, of course, be
stepped and forwarded to the Mint; but vihat is a
pair old woman, for instance, to do with an old penny
she may now happen to take? People have already
liceonie very chary of taking this old copper, and even
'came toil° so.

believe it is the correct thing to say of trial by jury
tire.' it is the palladium of British liberties, and
twelve men in a box" are supposed to be a guarantee
for justice individually, relatively, and collectively.
Alia trial by jury no doubt is a very grand thing—for
the prisoner, but it is not quite so glorious an institu-
tv ii for the juryman themselves, who for the time
being are prisoners also. One British juryman writes
to complain that he served on a jury for six weeks,
and that he received for this service the munificent
sum of ISs. I cannot but think that abuses of this
kind might easily be remedied. Jurymen might be
taken more from the unoccupied dames than they now
are, and when a tradesman, a professional man, or a
working man is taken from his employment he ought
certainly to be paid a reasonable remuneration. And
perhaps we might abolish the grand jury system alto-
or at all events reduce their number by one
hart. I have had the misfortune to be on the so-called
grand jury several times, and on no one ocuasion could
I discover that either my fellow-jurymen or myself
were of the slightest use.
The Poet Laureate has a new poem nearly ready,
but has not quite settled about the title, it is said.
These great poets are marvellously particular about
every word, and it is related of Rogers that he came up
by train from Sydenham, and posted in a cab to
Messrs. Bradbury and Evans's, to alter the word that
to which, in a sheet of his poems that was just going to
press. We are to have yet another monthly magazine,
lost then it is to absorb two existing magazines—
IVontan's 'World and Kettledrum. I suppose there are
persons extant who have seen the last-named, but I
am not of the number. It may have had a good
reputation for aught I know, but it had a bad name;
and give a magazine a bad name and hang it ! A
forthcoming Low Church periodical is announced under
a very strange name, "The Latter Rain." The words
are very beautifully used in the Bible, but they seem out
place as the title of a publication. A new daily paper
in the interests of the advocates of the Permissive Bill
is to be started in Newcastle. Nothing like the Press
for the advocacy of any views whatsoever. The
defeat of this bill in the House of Commons the other
day, by a large majority, only spurs on its supporters to
further efforts. Even those who object to the measure
propcsed must admire the spirit of enterprise to be thus
displayed in support of it.