The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-11-24 00:00:00

fly Trinhn (forrtspoubut.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The question whether London is to wait for a better
system of local government, as suggested at the Leeds
Confetence in the middle of October, ought to be
effectually set at rest after the great meeting at the
Cannon-street Hotel. The pillared hall of that builki.
bag is one of the noblest in London, and it was crowded
with delegates from metropolitan Liberal Associa-
tions, -,;nd they pressed upon the Government the
impa czaLza and necessity of taking up the cause of
L0r.d.342 local rule in the ensuing session. Independ-
ently of the right of the Metropolis of the Empire to
those municipal institutions which are the enjoyment
of the most obscure borough in England and Wales,
the social question, so far as the capital is concerned,
has come to the front with startling rapidity. How to
house the London peer has indeed become one of the
most pressing tepies of the day. - =
London is is vast that it is extremely difficult to
organise concerted action upon any given subject.
What, for instance, does Whitechapel know of the
squares of Tyburnia, or Bethnal Green of the cha-
racteristics of Nutting Hill, or Cambridge Heath of
Westbourne Park? It is the magnitude of the place
which militates against united schemes on most sub-
jects, seeing that there is so little community of
interest amongst the various sections of so va-it a

population. But in the present instance London
seems to have been distinctly challenged by one of the
speakers at the Leeds Conference, who laid down the
dictum that the capital could wait for its municipal
reform until a ter the agricultural labourer had been
granted the county vote. This proposition seems to
have considerably quickened the animation of some of
the London municipal reformers, and the result is an
expression of opinion on the part of the metropolis
which it will be impossible fer her Majesty's Govern-
ment to disregard.
Mr. Bright has just seen his seventyoeecond birth-
day, having been born on the 16th November, 1811.
It is very often the Case with our prominent states-
men and politicians that, hearing their names year
after year, and decade after decade, we lose sight of
the fact that time deals with them inexorably as with
the rest of maakind, and harries them on just as it
does ourselves to the inevitable snowy steep of old age
For instance, when the late Lord Beaconsfield, as Mr.
Disraeli, came int* 'sewer in 1874, how many of his
admirers knew that the versatile Premier was seventy
years of age l Yet for at least a generation and a half
he had been before the public of this country, time
gliding past with him In a way unnoticed by the
people. Lord Palmerston was always represented by
the comic papers with a sprig of evergreen in his
month, and only when he died did it become generally
known that he was 81 years old. Mr. Gladstone wil
be 74 next month; yet how few there are who ass°.
elate the busy Prime Minister with an age past that
allotted by the Psalmist to the years of man.
The November cabinets often last into December.

when they are suspended until the middle of January.
Then they begin again for serious business which
lasts until the Easter recess, when there is a short
suspension, and Ministers take a brief repose. An
important part of the duty of a Cabinet Minister,
suite as important as his advice in council or his
assistance in debate, is the reception of deputations.
_tte are very often highly representative bodies, and
some from many parts of the country, and considerable
tact is required in dealing with them. A high-handed
manner, or an affectation of superiority on the part of
the Minister, creates wane enemies for the Government
than they can possibly be aware of; but there can be
no doubt that there has been a considerable improve-
ment in this respect within modern times. The tern
"insolence of otice" is seldom heard now in connen-
tion with the reception of deputations.
The visit of the Crown Prince of Germany to Spain
is clearly a political demonstration as a set off to the
reception with which King Alfonso met when he
drove through the streets of Paris a few weeks ago.
There are those, who, looking at the volcanic condition
of France would not be surprised at an explosion
before very long, It seems unfortunately true that
Franca cannot long remain at rest. For a few
years after the great war in which Germany was
victoriors, France was compelled to be quiet;
but of late, as we have seen, troubles in Tunis,
Tonquin, and ether places have been created, while
at Madagascar, through the acts of a sick admiral
the same amount of friction on our side might have
involved the two countries in war. Indeed it is
obvious now that whether France is an empire or a
republic, or a naonarchy of Legitimist or Orleanist
Kings, it is pretty much the same thing. No on
criticised the empire more fiercely than Gambetta
when he was alive, yet It is in a great degree owing t
Gambetta's teaching that France displays the restless
nem which she does to.day.

London has not got far into November before its
people begin to ask for the head-quarters of the
Smoke Abatement Society and of the organisation for
the suppreseion of fogs. With a high barometer and a
still atmosphere, the sir of London becomes at times
to many conetitutiens insupportable. The death-rate
Is always sent up in foggy weather. The damp air a
it sweeps up from the Essex marshes, becomes charged
with the smoke which ascends from the homes of four
millions of people, and as there is no breeze to carry it
off, the stagnant atmosphere becomes to weak chests
as so much poison inhaled into the lungs. The wild
south-west wind, as we fully know, creates devasta-
tion along our coasts, but it is a great blessing to smoky
London. It roots out the fog and smoke from the most
obscure ally in the great city, bearing life where there
was none before, and scattering the forces of disease
before the advancing strength of the irresistible blast.
Sir James M'Garel Hogg, M.P., has again been
elected Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works
at a salary of 0,900, and lest it should be supposed
that the post is a sinecure the hon. baronet, in
returning thanks, incidentally mentioned that within
the past twelve menthe 390 committee meetings had
been held, of which a record was kept, besides others
of which no account had been taken. The chairman,
in presiding over the deliberations of the Board, is
supposed to be acquainted with every detail of the
work of these eonsmittees, so that he has quite enough
to attend to in the discharge of his official duties on
the supposition that he attends to these properly. In
contrast with the chairman of the Board of Works, it
is worthy of note that the chairmanship of the School
Board is an honorary °lice, although the labour can.
not be much less. Probably the time will coma when
the presiding °filar of the School Board, like he of the
Board of Works, will be a paid official.
We are now appteaceing fast the end of the legiti-
mate racing mason of 1883, which will be brought to
an end en Saturday week, when the last race is decided
at Manchester. And yet it does not seem lush a long
time back since the first reacting last March, vie., the
one decided on the Carlisle's* at Lincoln ; but now we are
in November, and during the months that have slipped
by have witnessed &rather exciting rassing season. When
the City and Suburban, one of the great handicaps wa.
run for in April, a great surprise came, as the winner
was found in Lord Rosebery's Roysterer starting at
50 to 1. The Two Thousand Guineas, run for over
the Rowley mile, was won by Gaillard, who was, of
course, made favourite for the Derby, but was not
found equal tc the task of winning the Blue Riband,
in spite of the fact of Archer being his pilot, the
result being—St. Blaise first, Highland Chief second,
and Galliard third. For the Oaks Mr. Leigh's Rookery
was made favourite, but bad to succumb to Lord Rose-
bery's Bonny Jean. Undoubtedly the moat sensational
race has been the Doncaster/ St, Leger, run on September
12 last, the fluctuations in the betting market, due
from reports as to one horse or the other being lame,
so that backers hardly knew what they were about.
The favourites were Gaillard and Highland Chief,
two of the placed horses in the Darby, the first-
named being scratched about three weeks before the
race, which, of course, was considered a good thing
for Highland Chief, but the winner turned up in the
Duke of Hamilton's Oesian, a 10 to 1 chance. The
Newmarket Houghton meeting includes two great
autumn handicaps, viz., the Casarewitch and the
Cambridgeshire, which were run respectively on the
9th and 23rd of last "month, the long distance race
being won by the favourite, Mr. Lambert's Don Juan,
and the short race by Mr. Barclay's Bendigo, an out-
eider staring at 50 to 1, who had only three days
before the race been blistered for an attack of
influenza. The Shrewsbury Cup, run last Wednesday,
was won by Donald, an outsider, beating Sir F.
Johnstone's Corrie Roy, so that, taken alt)gether,
the season of 1833 has been a very interesting one.