The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-02 00:00:00

our Noitbon (forrtsiinnltiq.
[We deem it right to state that we do not a.; all times
Identify oureelves with our Correspondent's opinions.

Lord Chancellor of England is a perr_onage of
Z'rtlt. dignity and importance both in the counzels of
tltc, Crown and as the otrni!‘,. head of a system of
jnrispruclence. He is at one and the sarno: time a
Crnct7,Linister, the Speaker of the Howe of Lords
as a levislative assembly, the President of that House
when it sits as a court pf justice, and the President
also of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Equity. At
the sam.,,timi.it he is the dispenser of the church patron-
age of the Crown —a combination of multifarious and
somewhat incongruous duties which falls to the lot of
but few other Servants of the State. Time was when

the ..BSIV-13rx0"--iiiiiiiiiws;is likewise a Cabinet
Minister, but the,:prectice ceased in the time •of
Lord Ellenboroug —all being both inconvenient
and tie ineani of withdrawing a great legal
funct.kinaley from the performance of his judicial
duties. The Lord Chancellor now remains the
sole legal adviser of the Cabinet, and at the
Council generally takes his seat next to that of the
Prime Minister. On the 2nd November in every year
the Chancellor opens Michaelmas Term with some
pomp and ceremony, first receiving
.the judges and
Queen's Counsel at breakfast in his private residence.
The whole Of the distinguished party, headed by the
holder of the Great Seal himself, then go in proces-
sion to Westminster Hall, where a large crowd
invariably. assembles to witness the opening of the
respective courts of justice, which hays remained
closed to the public during three months. The Long
Vacatipi is called, and long enough it is for the
struggling persons far down upon the rungs of the
legal ladder, who have to live by the law. But
as all ,things terrestrial must have a termination,
so this three months of enforced suspension from
business.,ceases at least; and with the beginning
of the ilionth of proverbial fog and gloom, Queen s
Bench and Common Pleas, Exchequer and Probate,
Divorce and Admiralty, once more take up their work
and begin again to clear off the accumulated arrears of
businels so constantly accruing from the transaction
of the vast trading col, cerns of a great mercantile
community.

But the procession to the great Hall of Westminster
on the 2nd of November is not the only ceremonial in
which the Lord High Chancellor takes part on that
day. If you were in the neighbourhood of Kin-
street, Gnilineal', in the morning of that day, you
would see several splendid equipages start from the
civic licAel de Ville, containing the Lord Mayor
present and expectant, the Sheriffs of London, the
Recorder, the Common Serjeant, the City Marshal,
the Chamberlain, the Remembrancer, the Town
Clerk, and all the other corporate officials, wearing
their robes of office. Watch the carriages as they
emerge from King-street into crowded Cheapside,
and you will see that ti..e heads of the horses are
turned towards the west, for that is always the
direction, in which the Lord Chancellor of the day
resides, whatever may be his politics. Arrived at his
house the civic party is received by the keeper of the
Queen's Conscience, himself in full-bottomed wig and
robes, and the object of the visit is the presentation of
the Lord Mayor elect to the Chancellor, who signifies
Her Majesty's gracious approval of the choice of a
chief magistrate which has been made by the citizens
of London. The loving cup—a huge golden bowl
filled with the choicest wine, and gaily decorated with
flowers—is then passed round to the company, the Lord
Chancellor beginning with the health of the new Lord
Mayor, and the whole of the guests drinking to the
Chancellor. The City of London possesses some
privileges common to no other municipality in the
kingdom, such for instance as choosing its aldermen
for life, and electing its own judges and sheriffs—
functionaries like these being elsewhere appointed by
the Crown. But, in return, it is seen that the City has
to presentsits ruler, for the approval of the reigning
sovereign, and this is done nowhere else. Year by
year, century after century, has this practice pre-
vailed, through long lines of kings, chancellors, and
mayors; and even in our own hard, matter-of-fact
utilitarian age it is still kept up. What would happen
if the Sovereign were to refuse to assent to the
selection of the citizenseis more than can with safety
be predicted. 'Whether the citizens would resent it
as an interference with the right of freedom of election,
or whether the Crown would insist upon the exercise of
an obsolete privilege is a matter of fact upon which there
need be no speculation until the contingency arises. Suffi-
cient to the day is the provision thereof. The carrying-
out of these ancient customs is, however, well worthy
of observation in a time when old institutions, which
have stood,the test of ages are called upon to justify
their existence, and failing to give sufficient reasons,
have to listen-to the sentence which was passed upon
the withere i tree, for it was cut down and permitted
no longer to cumber the ground.
Twelve months ago, when France was In such a
politically unsettled condition, ere were great fears
for the prospects of the vast industrial collection then
e.,t lag gathered together in the Champ de Mars. For-
tunately for our -neighbours, the clouds which then
seemed to lour upon the horizon soon cleared away, and
the Exhibition has proved a marvellous success. One of
the most intexesting of its closing scenes was the inter-
view between the Prince of Wales and the Commis-
sioners representing the British colonies. Those who
have been taris this year have been impressed with
the material esidence given not only of the immense ex
tent of the British Empire, and with the varied pro-
ducts and artistic skill of people hailing from its re-
motest provinces. The colonies represented in Paris
are spread through usest of the climates of the globe;
they have been peopled at various times and under
widely-differing constitutions, but are united together
by the tie of hearty loyalty and affection for the mother
country. This found expression in an address which
appropriately characterised the service of the Prince of
Wales has rendered as superintendent of the British
department in Paris. No better occupation could have
been pursued -by the Heir Apparent to the Throne than
in the encouragement of these arts of peaceful industry
-which have made Great Britain what she is amongst the
natiens. In some countries the Princes of the Blood Royal
are men of war from their youth up. Take for instance
the House of Hohenzollern, when war was declared by
France against Prussia in July, 1870, the King, his
son, and his nephew is swirl forth from Berlin at the
head of three respective armies to repel the invader.
They were all military men, trained in the camp, ac-
customed to the sound of trumpet and the beat of
drum. Fitly enough the royal family took part in the
perils and dangers of war, for Prussia had made her
position an a great Power by the sternness and rigi-
dity of her military system. England has followed
out a different course; has successfully struggled in
the domain of peaceful industry, and in that field in
which she has made such conquests her future King
has been a conspicuous figure, supporting that fame
and that reputation which have- been worthily earned.
Between London and Paris there are not many
points of resemblance, and one in which the two
capitals present a strong contrast. Paris looks to its
beat advantage in the city itself, and its suburbs are
uninteresting; the suburbs of London are, on the
other hand, by far the most pleasant part of the
British metropolis. The heart and centre of London
is a bustling place such as has no equal in the world;
but no one would go into it for ideas of picturesque
beauty. For this you must go a long way out. Take
a steamboat from one of the numerous piers which
have been can structeci on the northern and southern
banks of the river, and turn your face towards the
source of the great metropolitan water-way. You
pass the towers of 'Westminster, by the densely-
popu-lated districts of Lambeth, the quieter region of
Ba-tersea, and still up the silent highway until you
reach Kew. A delightful place is Kew, for the tide-
way from the German Ocean does not much trouble
the Thames here,; and Kew-bridge, a venerable-
looking structure, spans a stream not much wider
than the Seine in Paris. Kew, with its lovely
gardens, and its atmosphere free from the smoke which
perpetually overhangs London, was a favourite Royal
,residence in the reign of George 111., who with Queen
Charlotte was accuetomed to pay the place a visit
every Tuesday. It .was at Kew that Frederick, Prince
of leee!,.a, the son of George li. was living when at the
sze of 45 he was struck down by pleurisy whilst walk-
ing in his garden at midnight, and his son, afterwards
George 111., beciteae heir to the Crown when only
Thus, whilst the father never
twelve yelee of age.
came t. t throne at all, the son had the longest
reign of any sovereign in English history. For more
than half a century, however, Kew has not been the
residence of the crowned head of ,England, although
the Duchess of Tech has a house there, and is much
beloved by the people. A day at Kew, hard by which
are also Hampton Court and Richmond, can be spent
'eery agreeably indeed; and is so spent not only by
visitors from the country, but by Londoners as well,
who enjoy such a relaxation a few miles distant from
the crowded bustling city. .

_
Those who followed the incidents of the war between
France and Germany will remember the circumstances
associated with the surrender of Metz. On the 27th
October, 1870, the King of Prussia, who had not then
been proclaimed Emperor of Germany in the Palace
of Versailles, telegraphed to Queen Augusta, announ-
cing the capitulation of the gre'it fortress on the
Moselle, with 3 marshals, 66 gener&l%, 3,000 cannon, •
and 173,000 men. The king quaintly alded to his
telegram, "this is no of the most important events of
the month." As a matter of fact it was the most
stupendous capitulation in the history of the world.
The army which. was then sent into captivity was
almost equal in number to that of which we read in