The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-05-17 00:00:00

Our frenm Otorrestionkit

We deem it right to state that we do not at all tililaeS
identify ourselyes with our Correspondent's ephiione.]

Members of Parliament breathe more freely since
the declaration of the Chancellor of the Exchequer re-
lative to the filling up of six seats which have remained
vacant for the past nine years. The Leader of the
House of Commons has assured that assembly that be-
fore Parliament is dissolved the Government will
introduce a bill assigning those vacant seats, but he
sees no probability of such a measure being introduced
during the present session. No wonder that members
cheered this announcement, for it told them in effect
that there would be no dissolution this year, and that
another session of Parliamentary life was before them.
At least such is the construction which has generally
been put upon Sir Stafford Northcote's statement.
Another session will make this Parliament the longest of
the eentury. There have been two which have each
run six years and two months,namely from April, 1820,
to June, 1826, in the Premiership of Lord Liverpool;
and from May, 1859, to July, 1865, in the Premiership
of Lord Palmerston, Now, the present Parliament
will be six years old on the sth March next; and as,
if summoned at all for next session, it would certainly

sit longer than May, and would most probably run into
July or August, it would then have had an existence
of nearly six years and a half, supposing it to be dis-
solved at the end of that session. But the spirit of the
Septennial Act would be adhered to if the dissolution
took place before the sth March, 1881. There is thus
yet nearly one year and ten months of virtual life in
the existing House of Commons, should necessity arise
for displaying it.

In discussing this question there is one consideration
which ought not to be lost sight of. The ranks of the
House of Commons are continually being recruited
by new members; so that, although the entire body
was elected more than five years ago, the latest addi-
tions, in filling up vacancies which are continually
arising, represent the passing thoughts and the moving
life of the nation as they are witnessed to-day. It is
not many who know that since this Parliament
first assembled at Westminster, as many new men
have been returned as are sometimes the result of
a general election. For instance, the dissolu-
tion of 1859 gave the country 131 new members of
Parliament; while up to this time 135 new M.P.'s have
been elected while this House has been sitting.
Of course the fresh and vigorous life of a Legislature
is more perceptible immediately after a general
election than when it is filtered over half a decade;
still there stands the fact that some new men are
always to be found amongst the 650 members at St.
Stephen's. Last year alone 38 vacancies arose from
various causes, or on an average one in about every
ten days. Fifty-five members of the present House
have been removed by death, a large number have
resigned their seat, many have become peers, others
have withdrawn from legislative life through appoint-
ments to naval, military, and civil offices.
Whenever the promised Appropriation of Seats
Bill is introduced, it is certain to lead to lively debates
and repeated divisions. In the year 1861. a similar
measure was brought forward, assigning four
seats which had long remained empty, and which after
many contentions were allotted—one to Birkenheai,
one to South Lancashire, and two to the West Riding
of Yorkshire. The Reform Act of 1867 redressed
many inequalities in the distribution of seats, but it is
evident from the hosts of claimants now, that many
large and populous places claim the privilege of
enfranchisement. There are at least a score of great
towns scrambling for the four English seats, for of
course the two Irish seats now vacant will be assigned
to Irish constituencies. When this bill CDMeli on, the
struggle over it will be one of the most animated
witnessed in the closing years of this Parliament.
The fluctuations in the marriage rate are declared
by competent authorities adequately and faithfully to
reflect the prosperity or adversity of a country. We
must now learn that last year the marriage-rate was
equal to 17 per thousand of the estimated population
during the December quarter. This showed a further
decline from the rates prevailing in the three preced-
ing quarters, and was lower than in any corresponding
period of any year since civil registration was esta-
blished, with only one exception, and that was as far
back as 1843. The returns show a marked and general
depression in the marriage-rate throughout the
kingdom, but it was exceptionally observable amongst
the mining population of Durham and Northumber-
land. In the December quarter the rate ranged in
England from 11 per thousand in Hereford and
Salop to 20 and 21 in Suffolk and Norfolk. In
London the marriage-rate was equal to 21. per
thousand; but taking the whole of England and
Wales it did not exceed 15, sho wing a further decrease
from the rates which had declined steadily from 17 in
1873, and 16 in 1877.

It appears from returns issued from the Board of
Trade that 23,864 emigrants embarked during the
first quarter of this year from the • various ports
of the United Kingdom at which emigration
offices are stationed, showing an increase of 4,983, or

26 per cent. upon the number returned in the corre-
sponding period of 1878. The proportion of emigration
which was unusually small in the beginning of 1877,
has since steadily increased. Distributing propor-
tionally 518 whose nationality was undistinguished,
and excluding foreigners, the emigrants of British
origin during the last quarter were 19,835, including
13,691 English, 1,794 Scotch, and 4,350 Irish. The
proporticn of emigrants to a million of the population
were; 1544 from England, 495 from Scotland, and 811
from Ireland. Compared with the corresponding
period of the previous year, the increase was equal to
25 per cent, among the English, 33 per cent. among
the Scotcn, and 28 per cent, among the Irish emi-
grants Of the total number, 38 per cent. left for the
United States, 37 for the Australian colonies, 9-for
British North America, and 16 for all other places;
the largest proportional increase oecurred among the
emigrants to the Australian colonies. This is not
surprising. Australia is a splendid country yet in
its infancy; and when we are told by witnesses
before th Wine Duties' Committee that so luxurians
is the vin e in that island that it is almost treated at
a weed, no one can wonder that it is a favourite field
for those who seek a new home amid the distant
meas.

Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the engineer to the Metro-
politan Board of Works, and architect of the Thames
Embankment, has been giving to a Committee of the
House of Commons some very interesting information.
Two or three times in recent years the river has burst
its banks along miles of populated country, commit-
ting enormous damage to property. This result has
generally followed the concurrence of a high tide with
An immense rainfall, so that a vast body of land-water
coming down the stream has been met by a far more
powerful body sweeping up from the German
Ocean, driven back, and then out over the
banks upon the streets and squares nearest the
water's edge. It has been a tradition that
by the construction of the granite embankments, thus
narrowing the width of the channel, sufficient room is
not left for the flood water which comes down in the
winter; hence the overflow. This idea is based upon
the presumption that the same quantity of tide comes
up the river now as before the reclamation of 52 acres
of land now covered by the embankments. Sir Joseph
Bazalgette, however, says that this is not so. The
water which formerly flowed over these 52 acres comes
no longer, now that there is no room for it in the river.
That is to say, it does not come to beat itself against
the hard and inexorable walls of the embankments,
but prefers to enjoy its bath of free liberty in the open
sea.
Sir William Walworth, who was Lord Mayor of
London in the days of Wat Tyler's insurrection, and
who struck dcrwn that insolent rebel in the presence of
the King, has given his name to a densely-populated-
district of the metropolis, on the south side of the river.
Walworth is a part of the parliamentary borough of
Lambeth, and in its farthest boundaries, is about three
miles from the Royal Exchange. Within living
memory, and in the pre-railway times, a hackney
coach from Walworth to London cost 45. 6d., or
eighteenpenoe a mile. You can now book at the Wal-
worth-road Station for Ludgate-hill by the Chatham
and Dover line for a couple of pence. When we look at
the higher value of money half a century ago, and its
diminished worth now, the difference between 4s. 6cl•
then and 2d. now is incalculably greater than is repre-
sented by these figures. Wealth is more abundant,
and tgavelling is cheaper, and not only travelling, btit
textile manufactures of all descriptions, And not
withstanding all that has been said about the increased
cost of living, it is certain that the charges for food
are on the decline. The average price of wheat during
the three months ending in March was 395. per
quarter, a reduction by is. 2d. from the steadily de-
Greasing prices in the five preceding quarters. Wheat
was, at the same time cheaper than in any quarter
since 1865. The mean wholesale prices of beef and
mutton also showed a further decline from those which
had previously prevailed. The average price of
the best sea-borne coal in the London market, put
in barge from the colli.r in the Thames, was likewise
less than in the preceding three months. Facts such
as these show that, although the country is not so
prosperous as it was four or five years ago, it doe* not
cost the people so much to live as it then did.
The events in Afghanistan have been dwarfed in
Interest lately by the more exciting news from the
Cape, but there is little doubt that the arrival of
Yakoob Khan in the English camp at Gandamak
marks a new departure one way or the other
In our relations with his country. The position
ef the new Ameer is unquestionably one of
great difficulty ; and that peace will be welcome

even to people so accustomed to distractions as
the conflicting tribes of Afghanistan. There seems
however, to be one indispensable condition to the con-
clusion of a permanent understanding with Oriental
countries. The inhabitants thereof are accustomed to
use grand and figurative language, often sacrificing
hard and practical facts to the perfection of an alle-
gory or the turning of a period. It is on record that at,
Umballa, some years ago, when every effort was made
to avoid the slightest misunderstanding, Lord Mayo
regretted that Shore All had been allowed to go away
with a false impression on a most important point.
Circumstances are now far more complicated
than they were even then; and we may fairly hope
that there will be no ambiguity in the terms of the
treaty, if one should fortunately be concluded, or in
the verbal communications which are made to Yakoob
Khan.

Astronomers have speculated upon the quantity of
heat experienced in the planets further removed from
the sun than we are; and certainly in some of them,
Neptune for instance, the number of sunless days
must be very considerable. Mr. Richard A. Proctor
has told us how the heat of the sun, instead of
being concentrated upon the created worlds, and
so utilised in them, is scattered, and thus wasted
amid the vast infinities of space lying between
them, and that this waste of light and heat
will in far distant ages tell a tale upon the value
of the great luminary as the centre of the life
of the planetary system. Do we already see the dawn
of that terrible time? This question is asked not alto-
gether because of the forests of leafless trees in the
middle of May, but in the face of a startling fact
which has just been communicated to the public by the
Registrar-General. He says of the month of January
last that it was unusually sunless, only fourteen
hours of bright sunshine being recorded at Green-
wich during the whole time. Imagine fourteen
hours of bright sunshine in thirty•one days! Still, in
that gloomy dreary time there was one consolation—
Spring was coming. That was four months ago; but
Is it here even yet? An American, whom one would
fain hope to be a wag, has predicted that there will be
skating on the Serpentine in July. Correct as many
of the New York weather forecasts have aforetime
proved, it is sincerely to be trusted that the premises
upon which this is based will prove to be without
foundation.