The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-22 00:00:00

IJ-1) ur Yonhon gorrtsponbtut.
We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

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It is just four-and-twenty years ago—a mere speck
in the history of a State, but a very material portion
of the life of man—that a speech was delivered in the
House of Commons which has since been quoted many
times as a masterpiece of weighty eloquence. On the
22nd February, 1855, immediately after the resigna-
tion of Lord Aberdeen's Ministry, Sir James Graham,
Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert explained
their reasons for declining to join the newly-formed
Government of Lord Palmerston. We were then at
war with Russia, were besieging Sebastopol, and had
fought the battles of Alma, Balaklava, and Inkerman.
In the course of the debate that night, Mr. Bright
wade an earnest appeal to Lord Palmerston to stop
the war. "The Angel of Death," he said, "has
been abroad throughout the land; you may almost
hear the very beating of his wings. 'There is no one
to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the side-posts
of our aoors, that he may spare and pass on; but he
calls at the castle of the noble and the mansion of
the wealthy, equally as at the cottage of the humble,
and it is on behalf of all these classes that I make this
solemn appeal." We all know the result. The war
went on, and on the Bth of September following the
redoubtable fortress of Sebastopol was in possession
of the allies. This crowning success was not achieved
without a heavy sacrifice of life, and many a bulky list
of killed and wounded issued by the War Office was
studied by anxious crowds in the market-places of our
towns.

Nearly a quarter of a century has passed away, many
things have happened, and a new generation has taken
its place on the great stage of human life. But the
Angel of Death is once more abroad; and, in the
graphic language of the then member for Manchester,
has called alike at the castle of the noble anct at the
mansion of the wealthy, as well as at the cottage of the
humble. This time our gallant soldiers have not
fallen fighting with the armies of a great European
Power; they have been the victims of an unsuspected
attack by an overwhelming force of shrieking savages.
The news of the disaster to our arms in the land of
the Zulus, which in interest and importance has over-
shadowed every other public topic since its receipt,
would have been incredible but for the circumstantial
and authentic details with which it was accompanied.
The peril to the white settlers in Cape Colony, which
was the natural result of the Zulu triumph, was im-
mediately recognised by the Government, and night
and day since have the necessary preparations been
pushed forward for sending out the requisite reinforce-
ments. The Cape of Good Hope, although not so
densely populated as some of our possessions in other
parts of the world, is one of the most essential to the
maintenance of our maritime supremacy in that
quarter of the globe. In centuries gone by the
Portuguese were accustomed to call it Cabo Tor-
mentos°, or the stormy Cape, from the ceaseless agita-
tion of the seas by which its shores are washed. It
is also described as the Head of Africa, and the
Lion of the Sea, but received its present name from
King John IL of Portugal, who saw in it the germs of
advancement and prosperity. The monarch must
have been wise in his day, for the South African
colonies are now amongst the most flourishing of all
that are attached to the British crown. Recurring
troubles with the Kaffirs and the Zulus have not
Prevented the extension of our territories in South
Africa; and it was only the year before last that we
took over the Transvaal, a country of the size of
France. Some boundaries in dispute between the
Transvaal and the country of King Cetewayo, formed
one of the causes of the present lamentable war, which
at the calamitous engagement at Rorke's Drift repre-
sented quite as many killed as the loss of the allies at
the Battle of the Alma, and far exceeded the English
loss at the engagement at Balaklava.
Parliament slid into work immediately upon its re-
assembling, no Queen's Speech being necessary, as the
session had been already opened in December. The
formality of a Royal message is required only when
there has been a prorogation, and not after a mere
adjournment. A subject of great national interest
early occupied the attention of the House of Lords—
namely, the constitution and organisation of the
volunteer force. A committee appointed by the War
Office to inquire into this matter have recommended
—and in this the Government concurs—a change in
the colour of the Volunteer uniform—namely, that it
shall be assimilated to the dress of the national forces.
It is also proposed that the Volunteers shall be brigaded
with the regular army at the different centres at the
name time that they are supplied with the correspond-
ing uniforms of the regular regiments. This closer con-
tact with the discipline of the regular army is expected
not only to be good for the rank and file, but to raise the
social value of a volunteer officer's commission, and
so increase his military zeal. It is also suggested by
the Committee that a volunteer, upon entering the
ranks, should engage to serve therein for three or
four years, and if he retire before the end of his term,
should allow such a compensation as would cover the
cost of his clothes. As the Committee have pro-
nounced strongly against the idea of sending a
volunteer contingent for service abroad, should we at
any time be unfortunate enough to be engaged in a
foreign war, probably no more will be heard of that
scheme. The motto of the force is "Defence, not
Defiance; "and when it was formed, it never was the
intention of its founders that it should be moved
beyond the United Kingdom. The idea was that
Englishmen ought to be taught to defend their
homes from the foe while they welcomed the friend.
It is somewhat rem irkable that in the very week ef
celebrating the centenary of Sir Humphry Davy's
birth, a Royal Commission should have been ap-
pointed to inquire into the best means of preventing
fatal accidents ire mines. It seams almost impossible
for us who live at this time of day, with the signs of
the marvellous growth of scientific knowledge all
around us, to realise the very imperfect state of its
development a century ago. Yet the son of the
Cornish carver probably did more than any one
Englishman to lay the foundations of that astonishing
practical progress which it has fallen to our lot to
witness. There can be no question that while Sir
Humphry Davy paved the way for great general
results whose consequences will be enjoyed by future
generations, he did not neglect their immediate ap-
plication to the wants of human life in his own time;
and the invention of the safety lamp, by which
his name is best known to the general public, was one
of the indirects offshoots of his researches into the
nature of heat. There appears to be little room for
doubt that if an invariable use were made of Davy's
safety lamps, fewer disastrous colliery explosions
would be recorded. It is, however, to be hoped that
the recently-appointed commission, which ia a very
strong one, will be enabled to show that sciencss might
as easily warn colliers when not to go to work, as to
warn seamen when not to put to sea. The colliery
owners, the workmen, general and special science, are
all represented in the Commission just appointed.
Whatever may be the effect produced by political
complications in Europe, and general commercial and
manufacturing depression at home, there is one
department in which the spending power of the com-
munity shows but small signs of curtailment, and that
is in the matter of alcoholic spirits. The report of
the Commissioners of Inland Revenue shows that the
quantity of spirits assessed for duty in the past year
in the United Kingdom reached the huge total of
:31,000,000 gallons. Of this more than 9,000,000
gallons were produced in Scotland, and over 8,000,000
in Ireland. This was an increase of 481,000 gallons on
the previous year. The Commissioners quote this fact
as a proof of the elasticity of the revenue at a time of
industrial paralysis; but the social reformer would
point out that these figures practically mean a gallon
of spirits for every man, woman, and child in these
islands in the course of twelve months. This is a
somewhat startling fact, coming as it does immediately
before the debate which Sir Wilfrid Lawson is to
initiate in the House of Commons upon his resolution
for giving local option to the ratepayers in the issue
of licenses.

The weekly statistics of births and deaths in OAT
large towns, issued by the Registrar-General, show
clearly enough that there is no greater fallacy than
the opinion of many, more especially the young and
strong, that a severe winter is the most healthy season
of the year. It is not every one who realises the fact
that cold is the condition of collapse and dissolution,
and that in all climates it is man's unconscious effort
to maintain his bodily heat at 98 degrees that wears
him out. To this temperature, called blood-heat,
every cubic inch of oxygen that serves to vitalize our
blood must be raised by our own bodily heat, or life

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ceaes. Since, in cold weather, the maintenance of a

sufficiently elevated physical temperature becnnes
very often a difficulty too great for the strength of the
aged and infirm, the arrival of the hard winter is by
them as much to be dreaded as the visitation of a
pestilence. According to the law of average it ought
to be many years before we again have such severe
weather as that of the past winter.
There is an important point in the Fresh Water
Fishery Act of last year to which it might be well to
draw attention just now. It is that which prohibits
the sale of fresh water fish during the fence season,
between the 15th March and the 13th June. It
appears that the practice of selling jack, roach, perch,
dace, and other white fish after the season is over has
in previous years been of common occurrence.
During the three prohibited months jack and perch
have been exposed for sale in the fishmongers' shops,
and in the vicinity of rivers most kinds have been
actually hawked about the streets. But the Act as at
present upon the statute book is a very stringen( one,

and whether the fish have been caught in public or
private water does not signify. 'there is no saving
clause, and no escape for the delinquents. Nothing
should therefore discourage snaring or poaching more
than the interdict now placed upon it during the
three months here mentioned. It is the common law
of the land, and will therefore be dealt with as such,
in the case of all offenders who violate its provisions.

While London is preparing for the great agricul-
tural show which is to be gathered together at Kensal
New Town in the summer, the commissioners for pro-
moting the Australian International Exhibition at
Sydney have been actively employed in getting ready
for that event. The Admiralty will send out a collec-
tion of scientific instruments connected with sound-
ings, hydrography, and meteorology. Six thousand
metres of space will be required for France, and
a transport will take out the exhibits to the
colony. Measures are also being taken to secure
a representation of Japanese industry, and the
energy and enterprise of the United States will
also be adequately pourtrayed. The exhibition will
be opened in August; and, from what is already
known, the combination of attractions will be such as
to reflect the greatest credit upon the progress of one
of England's most distant colonies.
Count Schouvaloff, the Russian ambassador in this
country, is a man of whom the outside world had
heard but little previously to the great diplomatic
struggle in which he bore so conspicuous a part.
There can, however, be no doubt that, next to Prince
Gortschakoff, he was considered the most influential
man in the Muscovite empire previously to his appoint-
ment to the English mission in 1873. He gained his
fame and influence as Chief of the Third Division, or
secret police, having been appointed to that position
soon after the attempt upon the life of the Czar in
1866. Peter Andrejevitsch Schouvaloff —for that is
his name—was then only thirty-eight years of age.
He had manifested conspicuous ability in the duties
which had been entrusted to him; and having mar-
ried a Court favourite, the widow of Count Orloff, by
this alliance he became a man of rank. He had ac-
quired a reputation for blameless conduct and a high
sense of honour; and being possessed of remarkalale
elegance of manner and address, and been brought up
at Court in intimate association with the Imperial
family, was early marked out as the first favourite for
a high diplomatic appointment. The London embassy
is one of the most coveted of these posts, the society
in which an ambassador moves being of the very.
highest.