The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-12-04 00:00:00

Bletrop o titan 6ossip.

Frf OUR ORS CORItr.SPOSDE-n.

:its, "maths under this head are to oe regarded as the eill•
Iste.fa .r o Ildependeut pillion. from the polo( a gentleleNS
flt,• • 'S. have the we:A.4 confidence, but for which WO
het hold ourselves respousiblh]

The Government are really to be pitied in reference
to Ireland. That Mi nisters desire to bring in a good Land
Bill can searcely be doubt,l, and only extreme political
opponent* will perhaps deny it. Whether a satisfac-
tory measure will be produced remains to be seen, but
be this se it may, it is to be feared that, if the lonians
go on as now, something will have to be done for the
security of life and property in the sister island. The
return of O'Donovan Rows for Tipperary may be in
some Teepees laughable, but it is in other respects
lamentable, and at the moment of writing it is ques-
tionable whether the farce will not haves tragic ending.
Lord Lytton, it is said, Into have the grand cross of
the order of St. Michael and St. George, vacated by
the death of Lord Derby. The distinction is an
honourable one, inaatuuch as there are but 17 knights
of the grand cross, while the knights commanders of
the same order number only 19. The honour is usually
eonferred on men eminent for their literary, scientific,
and artistic attainments, and Lord Lytton is one of
our most distinguished living literati. Its has sue-
ceeded as n novelist,. a port, aid a dramatist, a rather

o
rare combination of intellectual powers.
Tramways seem to be the legitimate successors and
somplemeut of railwae a and we are promised a large
development of the tramway system in England,
where it bas lotherto been attempted only on a very
email scale. The Tram-Railway Company of Great
Britain have betweeu thirty and forty applications for
tramways from various parts of the country, and it is
pretty tartan that wherever a tramway is fairly tried
it will emceed, and give encouragement to similar
attempts elsewhere. Application is to be made to
farlialueut for power to construct no lees than 35
tramways in London and its suburbs, mid I hope the
appplioation will be auceassful. The improvements
which they effect in vehicular traffie are inconteetible.
There is less wear and tear of vehic!es; the labour of
the horses in rendered much easier; the difficulties of
drivirg are leatiened ; the liability te accidents is
diminished, owing to the direst line of traffic; jolting
and shaking are obviated ; and the comfort of passen-
gers, drivera, and horses as assured. It is strange that
there should ever have been any opposition to this
great reform, except that all reforme, no matter with
what object are maiased by interestnd parties.
The judges who have been condueting certain rice-
tin ireetiries are now themselves beirg judged, sill
not in the most pleasant way. It seems that they,
like minor mortal* love to send in their hilts before
payment can be obtained. There judges have the
'treasury for their paymaster, and a very good pay-
vacates the Treasury is under ordinary circumstances ;
bat these are days of ectetemv, and not even judges of
li,. land wales criticism and dispute. One of the
judges' charges is tits. 4,1. paid to railway servants for
carrying luggage, but this the Treasury objects to, and
no wontbr, seeieg that gratuities to railway servants
are not (suppcsal to be) permissible. Another judge
was asked for vouchers for the money he bad raid for
raaway fares This is a remarkably good joke to play
11p011 a judge. Railway ticket-clerks are not sap-
posed to give a receipt for money paid there as fares.
It has transpired too that the Treasury has disallowed
a charge by Mr. Justine Wales of 3i. Id. "for dishes."
What a droll item ! Were they dishes in the crockery
or the cal :nary *aloe of the term? And a charge of
2s. for repairing the mace was also disallowed. But
surely it is right to keep "that bauble," as Oliver
Cromwell called the mace, in good repair. Why it is
part of our Constltuaon, like the black rod and the
Speeker's wig. The Treasury, I think, is rather hard I
upon the judges.
I see that the Liverpool magistrates have decided
that a bicycle is a carriage, and hams fined a young
man for driving me on the pavement. Very proper
too. If we may have a bicycle on the pavement, why
not a three-wheeler, and if this, why not a four-
wheeler. ?It IMO long ago decided here that veloci
pedal most keep to the road. They are now becoming
in numerous by the way that something else should be
decided—that they should curry lamps. The way-
farer in our eimly lighted suburl s suddenly finds
some stealthy velocipedist coming down upon him, to
the danger of a collision and two people floundering in
the mud, to coy nothing of broken bones.
The police, I melerstand, are prefacing more
prosecutions agaiest betting men and publicans who
allow betting in their holism In themselves these
pzesecutions are undoubtedly in the public interest,
for betting is a national evil and does incalculable
injury; but, considering that betting is allowed at the
glebe, it is rather hard that prosecutions should be got
up against publicans by police spies, who enter a house
in plain clothes, offer to bct, axed then inform against
the offenders ; and it Is rather surprising that magis-
trates receive such testimony.
A correspondent of one of our papers puts a rather
unpleasant truth an delicately as may be. Referrirg
tothe present agitation for working men's penny trains,
be says, "I shall not be understood to mean anything
offensive if I say that men of moderate income,
returning from the City in the regulation broadcloth,
object to sit between two plasterers with a bricklayer's
labourer in front of them, the compartment containing
six men beyond the number the carriage is constructed
to wary," and he suggests that if the working mall is
to he carried by "any" train, it will be necessary
to put on fourth-class carriages for the evening
trains. With the exception that there is a
little exaggeration about six extra people in
one compartment (though one or two over the
complement is common enough) these remarks are
disagreeably true, howev, r unpalatable they may be to
the plasterers' and bricklayers labourers. The "regu
lation broadcloth" class do not perhaps like to say in
print what moat of there must think and say an private,
mid it is well to be seladenying, and bear with those
whose work makes their clothes objectionable to others;
but no one can have noticed the crowds of labouring
seen who throng the third-class trains of en evening
without admitting that " regulation broadcloth" has
wane juntice on his side. I, for one, candidly confess
that 1 agree with him about fourth-class carriages if
we are to have penny railway journeys by any train.
Such a class already exists on the Scotch lines. But
the attempt to establish a fourth class in England
would perhaps lead to a good deal of ill-feeling. It is
altogether a difficult and dslicate subject to broach,
and much more difficult to deal with.
The afernoriet Dipromatique tells us that the English
and French Government have come to an agreement to
reduce the postage on letters to and from France.
Jetters weighing 10 gramme% which is about a
tffirtl of as, ounce, will be 3d. only, whereas now 41. has
to be paid for letters weighing 74 grammes. This is a
plight reform, and, perhaps, will lead to farther re-
forms in the same direction, but the reduction is not
much after aIL Postage is one of the things they do
not manage better in France than we do here. Our
Gallic neighbours have much to learn in this respect.
It is said that we are also to have a reduction in the
postage to and from America—from 6 I. to 33.; and
there is reason to believe also that the postage on
printed matter will, ere long, be reduced to a half-
penny per 1 ox, or that the rates will remain as now
except that there will be added a halfpenny rate for
2 tea. Either plan would be a great boon to the public
and especially to newspaper proprietors.
A rather curious case of compensation for compul-
sory removal has jest been decided by a special jury
at 'Westminster. Mies Birch, a teacher of dancing, in
London, has a four years' lease of her house, and is
forced to remove to effect some local improvements.
She claimed £4,000 as compensation for loss of busi-
ness., inconvenience, and extra rent, stating that her
net profits were about £1,300 a year. The lady obtained
1:1,550, and may think herself fortunate. Bet what on
aristocratic chattels she had! Her counsel said that she
numbered amongst her pupils duchesses, ce,untemes,
viscountesses, both English and Irish, and even Arch-
bishops ',atomised her establishment! How many
areht ishops ? Fancy an archbishop learning the
polka, or being taught how to accomplish a pas *tut I