The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-02-24 00:00:00

1:31.ur odon Corrtsioubm,',

W. deem it right to state that we d iiot at all lima
t entity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

It Is only of late years that the Debate on the Ai.
dress in the House of Commons in answer to the
speech from the Throne has been extended over one
night. a was formerly the custom in the Commons,
as it still is in the Lords, to dispose of the Address
In one night, except when an amendment of serious
import was moved involving a great party struggle.
Then two or three nights were consumed; but now
the debate as a rule extends over a week, and two
years ago ran into eleven nights. Parliament thus
year by year becomes more of a talking machine and
leo of a legislature power. This year's opening was
A very dull affair, the Royal Commission bringing
nobody to town in stich dismal weather; while the
absence of Mr. Gladstone from the Treasury Bench
certainly did not add to the animation of that
assembly.
One provision In the new Rules of Procedure will be
watched in its working with considerable interest.
That is the scheme of Grand Committees, It is quite
a new experiment in English legislature. Bills deal-
ing with jurisprudence will be referred to members of
the legal profession, financial measures to merchants
and men of business, and bills dealing with military
and naval matters to officers in these respective de-
partments of the puhlic service. It has been questioned
whether experts are the best possible persons to deal
with subjects in which they are most intimately con-
cerned; but at all events the House has decided on
making the experiment, limiting it, however, only to
the present session.
The appointment of a new Chairman of Com-
mittees in the middle of a Parliament is not of frequent
occurrence ; but no one who knows anything of the
labours devolving on the occupant of the post would
be surprised at his health giving way. The work of
both the Speaker and the Chairman of Committees
has been enormously increased in recent years by the
general development of obstructive tactics often in-
volving all-night sittings. The emolument of the
Chairman is but half that of the Speaker, who has
in addition a furnished official residence within the
precincts of the Palace of Westminster. The Speaker,
too, gets a peerage on his retirement, with a pension
of £4,000 a year for himself and his successor to the
title.

The London season has begun early. The holding
of a Lev& by the Prince of Wales so soon after the
meeting of Parliament ought to be of good omen;
and her Majesty is to follow with a Drawing Room
at Buckingham Palace at the end of this month
or the beginning of next, with another before Easter.
Things in the metropolis should now begin to move
after the long and moist winter. The accounts from
the agricultural districts do not, unfortunately, give
much promise as yet of that revival of trade for which
the country has so long waited. Where land has been
under water for weeks and even months together,
tillage is Impossible; and the gradually lengthening
days tell us that the Spring is approaching, and that
precious time is thus passing away. The floods seem
to have been general this winter, instead of, as is some-
times the oase, being confined to a particular locality.
The devastation caused by the bursting of the banks
of the Rhine and the Danube has not yet been re-
paired ; and now the mighty rivers of America are no
longer able to carry off the vast quantity of water
poured into them. A stream four thousand miles
in length would, under any circumstances, present
the appearance of an inland sea at its mouth;
but its volume must be immensely increased by
the contributions of its swollen tributaries thiough-
ent its course. For instance, we can form but
little idea of what life can be like in the city of
Cincinnati, with a turbid stream of yellow water five
miles wide immediately near it, and 50,000 of its
citisens homeless through the floods. Our own troubles
are sufficiently conspicuous; but they are scarcely to
be compared with such as these.
Not much has been heard of the Channel Tunnel
since the works on the English side were stopped last
yaw by the Board of Trade; and it is understood
that the whole question as to the expediency of
making a railway under the Straits of Dover will
occupy the attention of Parliament very seriously this
fiession. Sometimes, in a work of international im-
portance like this, the project is deferred to a joint
Committee of both Howes, Lords and Commons
sitting together. In the meantime, and while we are
deliberating on what should be done, it appears that
the fitat mile of heading on the French side is now
nearly completed, and a new contract is contewp7,ated
between Colonel Beaumont and the French Govern-
ment for continuing the work, which will, however, be
useless unless it is met by a corresponding shaft on
this side of the Channel. Obviously this, under the
most favourable circumstances, will be impos.ible for
some time to come. The project is very strongly
opposed, and such are the conditions under which the
scheme comes before Parliament that the matter is
likely to receive very careful and matured considera-
tion.

The donation left by the late Mr. George Peabody
for supplying a better class of dwellings to the indus-
trial classes of the metropolis has had some very sub-
Stantial results. Last year the net gain from rents
and interest was more than £24,000, and the expendi-
ture on land and buildings in the twelve months
mounted to nearly a million sterling. In the year
thirteen new blocks of buildings had been opened
In Drury-lane and fifteen in Westminster. Thirty-
three blocks are now in course of erection, and up to
the end of last year the trustees had provided for the
artioan and labouring poor of London nearly 8,000
rooms exclusive of bath•rloms, laundries, and wash-
houses. These rooms are occupied by nearly 15,060
persons.
-

The unsettled political condition of France is re-
garded with anxiety and regret by all who wish well
to a near neighbour, and to an industrious and enter-
prising people inhabiting a beautiful and fertile land.
Since the beginning of the year there have been two
ministerial crises, and President Grevy has been
called upon to accept the resignation of two Govern-
ments. The death of M. Gambetta seemed to throw
everything into confusion; political affairs were
unsettled enough before, but they seem to have
•-•-•".. become worse. Happily for England the stability
of her institutions does not depend upon the
Lst.„.„, life of one man, howeeer eminent he may be.
14}43 When Lord Palmerston died he . was actually
Av."ta',' Prime Minister, and had held that office without a
break more than six years; but there were no convul•
we**
goes or excitement. The Premiership passed to Earl
Russell in the most natural way. No subsequent
administration has lasted so long as that of Lord
• Palmerston; but that of Lord Beaooesfield came very
near it. Here then were two statesmen, each at the
. head of a great party, who formed Administrations
lasting more than six years at a time. Two Govern-
ments in twelve years and two in six weeks, are all the
differenee ; and such contrasts illustrate to a grea
. extent the varying characteristie's of the two nations.
-• •
=•-es• eit A conference is now sitting in London which is of
hiimenee importance to the commerce of Europe: It
relates to the joint control of the navigation of the
Dsseube, which is the great commercial highway of
Europe. Although the Danube is not the longest of
Continental streams, it is certainly the most im-
portant, for although the Volga exceeds it in length,
it is never heard of in connection with the trading
Interests of Europe. It makes its way through a
• barren land whose course is strewn with vast solitudes
andawlde•reaching steppes, while the Danube passes
through some of the fairest countries, and more parti-
cularly through what is called the granary of Europe.
e Hence the very general interest hown in the control
- • of its navigation, and the fact that the Ambassadors of
't all the Powers are assembled shows the international
.mportance of the question.
-"-^ When the Manchester Ship -.Y./anal Bill comes
before Parliament, it will have a very formidable
opposition to encounter born the London and North-
▪ - Western Railway. The chairman of this powerful
• eeeperation has himself announced this at the half-
' yeaely: meeting of the Company. At first the
Om* selteme seems to have been. regarded as
, being more in the character of a vision or a
- . dream; but the perseverance with which the
• enterprise has been pushed forward conveys the
idea that in the minds of its eromoters at all ayente it
is regarded as being within the sphere of being made
a suhetantial reality. The projectors have ample
- . means at their disposal; and as the Loudon and
e North-Western is sufficiently rich to pay a dividend
at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum, Parliament is
likely to witness in thisone of the most interesting
private bill contests of the session.

= . A SAID ACCIDENT. Mr. Hamilton Whiteford,
•• solicitor, and son of the late town clerk of Plymouth,
has met with his death while practising with a pistol.
- • He was in the habit of practising pistol.firing in hia
garden with his sons, and for this purpose he, a few
days pirice, purchaxed a new Belgutn revolver.
The other morning he went Into the garden
with his pistol, and shortly afterwards was found
-by his wife and son lying dead on the ground
with a bullet wound in his forehead, It Wa9
at first suspected that he had committed suicide. At
the inquest the evidence wen 4 to chow that his death
SIM the result of an aooident, as an exploded cartridge
was found a few yards of! and a large stone -opposite
bore the mark of a bullet which the deoeaeed had
evidently just previously fired. It is believed that
while continuing the practice he tripped and fell, and
that the revolver went off, thus causing is death. The
Ary returned a verdict of Accidental detth,