The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-04-18 00:00:00

Fonbon C.cfrrapoltheut.
[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
!dentity ourselves with Our Correspondent's opinions.]

The death of a Lord Mayor of London in
office is an event whicla has not happened for 115
years. It was in 1770, in the days when
George 111. was king, that the chief magistrate
of the City, last lay dead at the Mansion House,
and that the great bell of St. Paul's was tolled
for the departure of the civic king. The truth
is that the Lord Mayor is only one of the victims
of the extraordinary weather which has charac-
terised the present spring. For weeks London,
at this time of the year, lies in the very teeth of
the Siberian east wind. It sweeps over the
metropolis undoubtedly charged with malaria of
every description; for the returns of the
Registrar-General invariably indicate an increase
of mortality when these winds prevail. The
Lord Mayor takes cold, and pleurisy at once
seizes the weakened frame. At the other end of
the town, in Portland-place, the Countess of
Selborne, wife of the Lord Chancellor, also takes
cold, and congestion of the lungs at once finds
out the crevices of mortality. The Lord Mayor
was sixty-two years of age and Lady Selborne
sixty-four, and are mentioned merely because
they were two prominent victims of the cold and
depressing weather of Easter week. There was
scarcely a gleam of sunshine after Monday, and
the bleak and bitter winds gave no chance to
those who were battling for life on a bed of sick-
ness.

Lord Mayor Nottage has been at the Mansion
House just five months. His show, of Monday
the 10th November last, was one of the most
attractive which had been placed before the
public for many years. The cavalcade drew into
the streets of the City and Westminster one of
the most enormous multitudes that ever
gathered in the thoroughfares of a great capital.
The saying of Burke, What shadows we are,
and what shadows we pursue !" comes forcibly to
the mind in contrasting " the cheering of the
miles of people through which the Lord Mayor
passed and the brilliant scene at the evening
banquet with the announcement posted on the
walls of the Mansion House on the 11th April,
that his lordship had passed quietly away. For
the Lady Mayoress much sympathy is felt. Two
Lord Mayors in recent years—Sir Thomas "White
and Sir Henry Knight, have had daughters
married from the Mansion House at St. Paul's
now the metropolitan cathedral has rung out
its notes of mourning for the death of the chief
magistrate of the City. _ _ _

Financial men who 'transact their business in
the City of London have often looked back with
terror on a mysterious date known as Black
Friday, the 11th May, 1866, when Overend and
Gurney came down with a crash, a commercial
panic ensued, and the Bank Charter Act had to
be suspended. The disastrous effects of that day
were long-standing, and the industrial paralysis
arising from its consequences did not disappear
for years. But for loss in the value of stocks
Black Friday was nothing as compared with
that of Thursday, the 9th instant, when the
news of General Komaroff's attack upon the
Afghan outposts reached London. It was at
once assumed that there would be war with
Russia, and people hurried to sell out stocks of
all desCriptions. When Consols fall 2,1, matters may
well be regarded as looking serious; but Russian
bonds dropped 10 per cent,and were practically un-
saleable. The estimate of one of the morning
papers was that the depreciation in the value of
stocks in the London Markets that day reached
not far short of a hundredmillions sterling. _

The atmospheric conditions are thoroughly in
accord with the gloom in the popular mind.
There was the same sunless sky as that with
which they had become so familiar, and the
same relentless wind. it was the day of the
reassembling of the House of Commons after
the Easter recess, and crowds poured down to
Palace-yard to see Ministers pass in. When
Mr. Gladstone rose to make a statement, it must
have been with a feeling that in all the 53 years
of his Parliamentary life, and his long, and varied
official career, never before had it fallen to his
lot to announce that possibly we were on the
brink of war with a colossal military European
and Asiatic Power. He has always been a man
of peace, and any such duty as this would be
most distasteful to him. His voice was thick
and husky, and at times he could scarcely be,
heard, although it was important to secure every
word of what he was saying. His declarations
seem to give little hope of the maintenance Of
peace, but it was somewhat qualified some hours
later; but there seems to be a growing feeling in
London that Russian assurances of good faith
are not to be trusted, and that ultimate war with
that Power must come. It is clearly time that
Russian menaces of India were put an end to
once and for ever.

Miss ,Mary Anderson, at the Lyceum Theatre,
is giving her farewell performance prior to her
departure for America. Her place there will
then be taken by Mr. Henry Irving and Miss
Ellen Terry; this will be their first appearance
in London for some months. • A play likely to
run for a long time is the "Last Chance "at the
Adolph. No trouble or expense has been spared
in mounting this piece, thus the scenery is some
of the most beautiful ever painted, and the
mechanical changes are simply marvellous. At
the Savoy the success of "The Mikado" seems
to be assured; this is another proof of the popu-
larity of Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan's operas.
One of Mrs. Langtry's best impersonations is that
of Lady Ormond in "Peril," which she is now
appearing in nightly at the Prince's. "The
Private Secretary" still draws large audiences to
the. Globe, yet when this comedy was first pro-
duced at the Prince's it was thought it would
be a failure. The Princess's, the theatre that has
produced such magnificent things as " Claudian,"
"Hamlet," and " Junius," is once again occupied
by "The Silver King," a stirring melodrama.
"]:n His Power" will •shortly be withdrawn from
the Olympic and then will be given a new play,
entitled "Heartless," which is adapted from
"Puck," one of Ouida's novels. Mr. David
James is trying hard to make the Opera Comique
pay, and appears there in "The Excursion
Train." During Mr. Toole's absence from London
his theatre has been entirely re-decorated, and
the attraction there now is "The Upper Crust."
At the Criterion "The Candidate" is still as
popular as ever. The Carl Rosa Opera Company
are now giving performances at Drury-lane; and
the Grand International Cirque, that has drawn
the public for over three months to Covent
Garden is to be withdrawn, and Mr. William
Holland will take his benefit. The only theatre
worthy of mention on the other side of the
river is the Surrey, and crowds of eager playgoers
are attracted there by the great drama "Drink."
The accounts of the reception of the Prince and
Princess of Wales in Ireland have been followed
with much interest in London, partly because of
the historic occasion and to some extent through
the outburst of adverse criticism which in some
quarters has not ceased to be launched against
their Royal Highnesses. With their eldest son
the Heir Apparent and his consort will now see
more of Ireland than they ever saw before or
will again. With their engagements in this
country it must be a very long time before they
can again devote a fortnight to Ireland. But in
their travels through the different scenery of the
four provinces, for they will see the growing
towns of -Ulster as well as contemplate the wild
desolation of Connaught, they will judge of the
dues of the Irish people as those of animpulsive
yet generous race, like others takino• offence no
doubt at a slight real or imaginary, ba thoroughly
genuine at heart where they are treated with
consideration and attention.
The postponement of the Budget until the
23rd has increased the speculation respecting its
especially in the present
probable provisions,
strained condition of our relations with Russia.
time enough between now
There is unhappily
and the 23rd for a declaration of war, and in.
that case the original Budget must undergo con-
siderable modification. The date fixed by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer is late, for this im-
portant business is generally cleared off within a
few days of the close of the financial year as is
:practicable.