The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-08-26 00:00:00

A BISHOP ON RELIGIOUS TEACHING.

The Bishop of Manchester, in preaching at Wake-
field, saidthat while Sunday schools might be regarded
as standing witnesses to parental incompetency and
neglect, yet that neglect was a standing fact amongst
them, and their organisation and machinery must be
adapted to meet it. It :was frequently said that it was
best for parents to provide in their own way for reli-
gious teaching of their children, and so get rid of the
religious element in their day schools, but the present
condition of things did not give an encouraging pros-
pect in this direction. To his mind the Church of
Englaed was of all religious bodies in the world at
the present day the least sectarian. No doubt it
had a creed but it was the ancient creed of an
ancient church, catholic. throughout the world. In
()cave of the recent discussions in the House of
Cammons on the education question, the Church cats-
thism was spoken of as the quintessence of sec-
t )rianism, and it was said, what a monstrous injustice
that the child of Baptist parents should be required to
attend Church schools and use the words relating to
godfathers and godmothers, while the child was never
baptised at all. But there was the protection of the
conscience clause, and the parent had only to signify
that he objected to the religious teaching. It was
said that the conscience clause was utterly worthless.
All he said in reply was, that Lord Sandon stated that
only one or two cases of infringement of the clatve had
been brought to the knowledge of the Education De-
partment, and had been dealt with; but that, speaking
generally, the clause was duly observed. There were
other eubjecte on which Baptist parents would not
doubt be willing that their children should be taught
in Church schools, and did they think that the Church
of England clergyman or school teacher was such
a fool as to aidc a little child which he knew
had not been baptised, what name its godfather and
godmother gave it in baptism. There was no harm in
teaching the child what the Church of England held
baptism to he, and what the parent himself held it to
be, because though he said that he would not have the
child baptised until he was able to judge for himself,
yet when he is baptised the parent believed what he
(the Bishop) believed in regard to the baptism of the
child, that he was thereby made a member of Christ's
Church, a child of God, and an inheritor of the king-
dom of heaven, and surely there was no harm in
teaching what the Church of England believed in re-
gard to baptism in the presence of Baptist children, so
long as it did not require that the child should say
that things had happened to him which never had
occurred. With the exercise of common sense and
jidgment all such difficulties melted into thinnest

The colliers in the Wrexham, Ruabon, and other
districts in North Wales struck work on Monday against the
reduction in their wages of 10 per cent
A philosopher in Paris has learned that people who
bays an extraordinary long first joint on their thumbs are
born with homicidal instincts.
"Some time ago," says the Journal de Geneve, "the
news spread that an escaped bear haunted the forest of
Butzberg. The consternation was great, but the matter was
gractniuy forgotten. A. few days back a baker was crossing'
the wood with a sack of hot bread on his back, when
suddenly Master Bruin appeared before him. The man I
dropped his burden, and fled at the top of his speed, while
the animal seated himself tranquilly and enjoyed the newest
bread he had ever eaten. The poor baker ran for a long time,
and then climbed a tree, where be passed the night, and de-
scended In the morning halt dead with fear. Some hunters I
have gone to the allot to kook the bear."

THE DEPRESSION IN MADE.
(From The Tones of Monday.)
As our Railway Reperts have lately indicated, the
depressed state of trade continues its unfavourable
effect upon the half-year's railway dividends. It seems
that shareholders must almost all of them make up
their minds that they will not escape the general in-
fortune of their countrymen. A year ago, six per cent,
was thought very little for the Lancashire tied York-
shire Railway to be paying. It seems now that even
this reduced rate cannot be maintained, and five and a
half per cent. is the Directors' recommendation for the
past lialf•year. The Maryport and Carlisle Railway has
been more fortunate. The dividend at the rate of eleven
per cent., which we reported last Fiiday, seems to leave
even the most exacting shareholder no fair reason for corn-
Buteventhissplendid return must be compared
with that of former half-years, and must be judged
accordingly. What is eleven per cent, now was twelve
per cent. a year ago and if we look a little further back
was as high as thirteen per cent. It is the same story,
after all, as that which the Lancashire and Yorkshire
returns disclose. The directors hope it will not be
thought that there has been any falling off in their
traffic, except, indeed, as far as has been due to the
dulness of trade; and the exception, we must admit,
is quite large enough to cover the facts. The chair.
man of the line, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, tells us he is no
prophet, at least not in mercantile matters, but he has-
ventured to give it as his opinion that the bad season'
is not yet ended, and that we must expect it to con-
tinue for some little time to come. .As a set-off, how-
-ever, to the terrors of this somewhat vague prediction,
he asserts that every nation has a wonderful power of
rallying under adversity. When the rallying time
arrives, as it certainly will sooner or later, railways
will be sure to share the prosperity of the rest of the
country, just as they have been sharing lately in its
distress. An analysis of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
figures leads to more interesting, because more precise,
—results. The falling-off of passenger traffic has been
only in the first class, and even there it has been not in
the numbers, but in the receipts. The second class
traffic has increased by about four and one•eighth per
cent, in numbers and about six per cent, in money.
All this, as the chairman remarks, seems to show
that the public is learning to economise on long
journeys. Where the distance is short and the fare,
consequently, small, the first-class carriages are just
as well filled as before. The Report of the North
London Railway tells the same tale, but it tells it after
a somewhat different manner. On the North London

traffic both first and second class has fallen off, but the
third class traffic has so risen as more than to make up
for the deficiency in both the others. The saving to
the public has here been on short journeys often re-
peated; while to the Railway Company the whole
result has been a dividend at the good old rate of a full
six per cent. The Great Northern, meanwhile, has
been less fortunate. Its burden of unproductive
capital has been growing larger and its ordinary and
special expenses have been greater, while at the
same time its goods traffic and first and second
class long traffic have fallen off. There has been
some set-off in the development of the third class
traffic, but not enough to compensate for the other
unfavourable changes. The whole result sums itself
up in a reduced half-year's balance, and the Great
Northern proprietors are to be put off, accordingly,
with a dividend at the rate of 41 per cent. The Lon-
don and North-Western Company, of which, as well
as of the Great Northern, we report the half-yearly
meeting to-day, is so vast a system that what it loses
in one way it is always likely to regain in another.
Yet it, too, shows its practical sympathy with the
difficulties of the time, attributable, the Chairman,
like other Railway Chairman, tells his shareholders,
"to the state of the labour market and the action of
trades unions." The dividend does not fall far behind
that of the corresponding half-year in 18n—being £3
per cent. instead of £3 2s. 64. But still here also there
us a decrease. _ _

There can. be no doubt that we are passing through
a very severe crisis, and at the same time there are no
signs that the process is very distressing. The ap-
parent paradox will be explained by extending the
lesson which the Lancashire and Yorkshire traffic
returns have been used to inculcate. Incomes are,
in a great many cases, less than they were a
few years ago, and this must have produced
a certain amount of privation. The suffering,
however, has not gone beyond the point that can
easily be endured. We were getting so rich, and
consequently so luxurious, that we can very well
afford now to cut off a few of our surplus expenses,
and we find ourselves, after all, not much worse off
than we were before. If some of us who used to travel
first-class have been driven now to the second or third-
class, the change has hardly been intolerable; if, in.
of going abroad, we have made up our minds
that there are places at home very well worth visiting,
we have probably been in every sense gainers. If
wines are drunk of a somewhat less choice quality,if tables
are somewhat less profusely spread, or even if old coats
and hats have to do a little more than their fair duty,
there is not much reason for grumbling. Professional
and trade incomes must always be prepared for the
reduction which has made all this necessary. What
we may rejoice to observe is that the corresponding
reduction of expense can be made so easily, and that it
brings with it very little diminution of real comfort.
Philosophers may descant as they please on the
duty of Jiving at all times on the very least that will
maintain life. There is abundant room. we may admit,
for satire on the follies and extravagances of the
rich. Great wealth in the hands of those who have
not been accustomed to great wealth is found productive
of a thousand absurdities, and often does not add much
to the substantial enjoyment of its possessors. The
advantage is that in such cases, and in others of the
I same kind beneath them, there is no fear that a little
pinch will do much real mischief. Corduroy will
make good warm clothing; potatoes and butter-milk
may be quite sufficient to support people in peifect
these approaches iM;;;;.-ne'ar-rlY--iiian-En"glan.."duldnAZ's
to the philosophical ideal of life, but it does so only
at great danger to itself. When broadcloth fails,
Englishmen can take to some less expensive form
of dress. When beef and all its many table
accompaniments are beyond our means, we may be
pleased to think that we need not even so starve. But
where the bare necessaries of life represent also the
greatest degree of luxury that can be enjoyed, the
prospect of a reduction signifies destitution. It may
be urged, of course, that what we ought to do is to
work for the high standard of living and to content
ourselves practically with the lower one. There are
many who do this, and there are very many indeed
who do something approaching to it These, no doubt,
are on the safest ground, but until so high a standard
of prudence has become more common we may look
with a kind eye upon the convenient growth of luxury.
It is not the best or the cheapest form of national in-
surance against want, but it is, perhaps, quite as effec-
tual as any other.

As for the near prospects of trade, there is some
temptation to imitate Sir Wilfred Lawson's prudence
—to deal in safe generalities, and to make our con-
clusions probabilities rather than certainties. There
are, however, one or two aspects of the case on which
we may venture to be less reserved. We quite agree
with Sir Wilfred Lawson that nations have a wonder-
ful rallying power, or, as we should prefer to put it, a
wonderful power Of adapting themselves to changed cir-
cumstances. That depression of trade should go on
perpetually Is, on the very face of things, impo6sible.
Trade will improve, no doubt; the demand for labour
and for capital will become more urgent, and
wages and profits will both benefit by the re-
vival. What is not so certain is that trade will return
precisely to its former channels, and will bestow
wealth on the same condition as before. That our sur-
plus capital will be employed somehow we may
conclude without much hesitation ; that it will
be employed just as it was five years ago
is a point on which we must be less confident. If
old industries fail us in any direction, we shall be
able, sooner or later, to create new ones; but, if so,
we must expect to find our industrial machinery a
little out of gear, and not so well adapted to the
present as it has been, certainly, to the
past. That good times are to come again is a
formula which it is always pleasant to listen to, but
It would be more valuable if Sir Wilfrid Lawson
would supply the interpretation as well as the text.
It is most likely that when that much expected and
much longed for season does really return to us, the
Maryport and Carlisle Railway, and the other
sufferers of the same class, will find themselves
engaged as busily as ever in the conveyance of coal
and iron. But if we suppose that our great
national industries may possibly vary their form—and
we have no assurance that they will not—the pro-
spect is somewhat lees encouraging. It is clear at
present that we cannot obtain a market anywhere for
our established staples at anything like old prices.
It remains to be seen whether the reduction is to be
permanent, and whether it will continue beyond the
point where production ceases to be remunerative to