The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-16 00:00:00

our yonbon CorrtsgoOtnt,
• rws deem right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Those who are
.old enough to carry their recollec.

tions back a little more than twenty years will re-
member the enthusiasm with which the people of this
country determined to prosecute the war with Russia.
The feeling against the Czar Nicholas in 1854 was
quite as strong as any which could have existed against
the first Napoleon during the long war with France
early in the present century. We declared in 1854
that the Muscovite should not come down from his
frozen home and from his mountains of perpetual
snow, to a land of brilliant skies and of long summer
days; should not move his capital from the ice-bound
Neva, to the sunny shores of the Bosphorus, nor plant
the double-headed eagle amid the mosques and
minarets of oonBtantin3ple. The enormous; increase
of taxation necessary to carry on the war
was willingly and cheerfully paid. After the
overthrow of the Aberdeen Administration and the
call of Lord Palmerston to the helm of state,
the utmost confidence was felt in the noble Viscount
as a war minister. Lord Palmerston was then seventy-
one years of age, just as Lord Beaconsfield Is now;
and those who remember the events of that time know
full well how the conflict was carried to a successful

issue. A protest might here and there have been
raised against the war, but it was as the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. To-day, however, there is
not that universal distrust of Russia, nor the same
general desire to befriend the Turk. Twenty years'
experience of broken promises cannot aU at once be
obliterated from the mind; and is it not written—
"Byzantine's boast that on the clod
Whereon their Sultan's house has trod
Grows neither grass, nor shrub, nor tree."

It has thus come to pass Oast now, instead of the
national voice calling for a war to stem the
tide of Russian ambition, a considerable body of
public opinion is opposed to our rendering any further
assistanCe in continuing the rule of the Turk over some
of the fairest lands in Burope. The National Confer-
ence at St. James's Hall, over which the Duke of
Westminster presided, received the adhesion of men of
all sorts of opinions in politics and in religion. Literary

and scientific men, who seldom issue forth fr-o.m their

studies to face the strife and turmoil of the rough
world outside, upon this occasion appeared on the
platform, and declared their uncompromising hostility
to the idea of England sacrificing blood and treasure
in support of a people of whom we now know a great
deal more than we did a couple of decades ago. St.
James's Hall, where this great representative gather-
ing took place, is one of the finest buildings in London.
It has entrances both in Regent-street and in
Piccadilly; and within its capacious walls some of the
moat remarkable demonstrations of public opinion
have taken place ever witnessed in the metropolis.
seldom have the disastrous effects of panic upon a
sudden alarm of fire been more terribly illustrated than
in the fearful calamity at Brooklyn, where 300 persons
perished in endeavouring to escape from a burning
theatre. Such a lamentable catastrophe in the closing
month in the year, and the sudden appearance of death
arid the glare and glitter of the brilliant footlights, is
a sad commentary upon the truth of a famous saying
of Edmund Burke, after the loss of his son, "What
shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue!"
Ever since the trampling to death of several persons at
the Surrey Music Hall, twenty years ago, upon
a false alarm of fire during one of Mr. Spurgeon's
sermons, the perils of giving way to terror in a panic
have been pointed out again and again; but clearly
every consideration except that of saving life is lust
upon a fear-stricken multitude. Fortunately for the
theatre-goers of London, the fire at Covent Gerdes in

1856, that at the Surrey in 1866, and that at Her
Majesty's in December, 1867, in each instance hap-
pened when no performance was in progress; and
happily the mourners were not seen going about the
streets as in the city of Brooklyn, where the shadow of
a great calamity will darken so many a home at a
season which has so often been celebrated with songs
of gladness.

From many parts of the country complaints have
come respecting the condition in which the heavy
rains of the last few weeks have left the fields in the
low.lying districts. Floods have abounded, and
nowhere have these visitations been more destructive
than in the moorland tracts whose beauties in the
summer time have attracted the attention of the
tourist and employed the pencil of the artist. Outdoor
labour has been to a great extent at a standstill, as
even in the upland farms it was impossible to get work
done. Ploughing is, consequently, in many cases far
behind, owing to the continued downpour of rain. It
is, however, satisfactory to know that in the greater
part of October, owing to the absence of rain, cm-
sidevable progress was made, and that pre-
viously to that time the corn lands had been
cleared of their produce, and the grain safely
which has been made during the past few years in the

housing of farm stock has been been found- of especial

value in such a season as that through which we have
just passed. Time was, not very long ago, when little
care was taken of cattle; and when, if they were what
was called "dry overhead," it was thought that all
had been done for them which was required. But
since the introduction of higher class stock great im-
provements have been effected in grazing lands, the

pasturage is richer, and in the winter months, cattle in
process of fattening, as well as dairy cows, are lodged
with a care unknown in days not very far distant.
Nothing could be more gratifying to the man who
delights to look upon the progress of agriAilture, than
the sigkt of the handsome farm houses, with the long
ranges of stables and cattle sheds which, during the
last few years, have been erected in different parts of
the country.
While the agriculturists and their friends came up
to London to see the Cattle Show in one of the most
dismal weeks we have had for a long time, art critics
at the other end of the town, namely, in Pall Mall,
were busily engaged in estimating the worth of the
Exhibition set out by the Society of Painters in
Water Colona. There is no Royal Academy opened
in the winter; there is, of course;always the National
Gallery, three days a week, all the year round, but the

works of art in that inhtitution are of a very different

character from those of the Water Colour Society.
The collection made by this organiz%tion is therefore a
very welcome one in December; and, drear as the
most wintry day may be, there is in London
at all events one means of escape from it.
A picture gallery, especially one in which there
Is any number of fresh and simple transcripts of
nature, is easily accessible from most parts of the
metropolis, and the entrance fee is so low as to place an
Inspection of the art treasures inside within the reach
of all who take an interest in them.

Cricket is generally acknowledged to be a genuine
and healthy recreation, free from the vices which beset
the turf, and cohtributing to the development of a quick-
ness of eye which cannot but be vaktable in the practical
work of life. The interest in the game is seen by the
fact that although the cricket season has not long been
over a meeting of gentlemen has been held at Kenning-
ton Oval within a fortnight of Christmas, to arrange
the county matches for next year. They represented
the shires of Surrey, Nottingham, York, Sussex, Kent,
Rants, Gloucester, Middlesex, Derby, and Lancaster.
It was decided that bu the old matehes should be
played, and in addition Rent meets Notts, as of old, and
Derby plays Yorkshire. A notable feature of the year
will be the sontest between Gloucestershire and the
rest of England. The first of these is on the 7th of May
at Lora, and the last will be played on the 3rd of
September at Sheffield between Yorkshire and Not-
tingham.

Nearly six years ago, at the conclusion of the war
between France and Germany, one of the conditions of
peaoe was such as to startle the whole civilized world,

It was that the vanquished should pay to the victor an
Indemnity of two hundred millions sterling. The
enormous magnitude of the sum fell upon the ears of
thinking people with the utmost astonishment, setting
aside the novelty of the demand; for when Russia was
beaten by the allies in 1855 no indemnity was asked
for. We all know the wonderful way in which France
relieved herself of the extraordinary burthen leaposed
upon her, and remember how other nations were in-
clined to envy Germany her sudden influx of wealth.
Yet our financiers tellrus to-day that, so far from prov-
ing an unmixed benefit, this transfer of capital, not hav-
ing been derived from honest and laborious industry, or
from any ordinary legitimate resources, begat a spirit
of gambling, and impede rather than encourage re-
munerative trade. What good did Spain derive from
Au the gold mines of Mexico and Peru? And without
much exaggeration may be said that Germany has
found her war indemnity anything but a blessing.
France, which had to pay it, was compelled to make
great efforts, and her latent resources have in con-
sequence been wonderfully developed. Commercially
France is now the successful rival of Germany, though
a little while ago the odds were so much against her.
" &est thou a man diligent in business, and he shall
stand before kings." Many a time in the history of
human enterprise has the truth of this Biblical quota.
tion been verified; and how, within a month of his
death, Charles Dickens was summoned to Windsor
Castle, and had the honour of a private audience of
the Queen, has not yet been forgotten. The latest
illustration of the firmness of the basis upon which the
Scriptural saying is founded has been traced in the re-
ception accorded to Captain Nares and his gallant co-
workers in his attempt to explore the mysteries of the
Arctic regions. Captain Nares has had an interview
with her Majesty ; the officers and crews of the two
'hips hays been feasted both at Portsmouth

-"'W1111•1•111MiiM