The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-15 00:00:00

Our yonbon 6ortispubmt.

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

The Viceroyalty of India, which will be vacant in a
few weeks, when Lord Northbrook will be succeeded
by Lord Lt ton, is the most splendid post at the dis-
posal of the Crown. The appointment is held for five
years, with an allowance of £30,0G0 per annum. The
Governor-General of India it ay indeed be called the
Almost al) &lite ruler of two hundred millions of
human beings. The policy of the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland is shaped by the Cabinet ; the Governor-
General of Canada is re spor si tile to the Colonial Parlia-
meets, and like the Severeigu it home relies upon the
adyice of Lis_aliniaters ; but the Viceroy of India 14
inairly dependent upon his own judgment. There is
it is true, an Indian Legislative Council ; bnt there are
rieithPl Parliarnejits rer_Afi7llAti
--mstkir-77Wirreg tliee terms. There is also a Secre-
-047 of Ski.te..-icir_ln. in:lthe.Gebitiet it home; but
unkeetti
_VICe„TC4 takes anegregionely-wrong-nnurse,
it is but rektorin that he is interfered with. He movis
• atioilit, from p.Likce.ta.place amid-all the pomp and drama-
sfatice with whieh the gorgeous East can surround him.
Natives and Thiropeans 'tecl 11 each oth in paying
him homage, arid his flfeat Oalcutta is one long scene
of magnificence. It is someti(ne alsO an sxistgnce
marked by perreriA* df teiTiblerinxiet-y. tamp, _for
instanceS,tef.6sitlon "of lordSlatmliigija,,4l4y,--1867,
-*Ted ti mutiny suddenly broke out, when the whole
of the native army_yvart.liirebellio.ild the small
proportetn Inre'peanz_ was totally at its mercy.

_
What_ that meant, narratives such as that which came
from CawnporeLamply showed. -In sthose days. nearly
twenty years ago, India was not connected by tele
graph •with. England, and it was at least a month

• befora the Ittisiligence of the outbreak 'reached this
-trounfry. tin,' Viceroy, sitting in his little room
-- • -
,at Calculta,... conk!, apprise us.of srvit an event within

an hour,- and-ouch is the difference in time between
.the two -latitudes, -that the DiePaig6 .lionid seem to
reach us before it was. !Actually, dispatched.. That
month's delifin'-the arrrival of the
.news gave the
mutineers a very co/fill-der:lWe adiantage, and of course
added to—th? tzepaendqus mental_ strah upon the
Governor-General. Again, during the Viceroyalty of
Lord Northbrook occurred that devastating famine in
Bengal which cost-thelthabitatitlidearrfenough as it
was, and but_ for- the energetic measures of the
Governor-General and_ _his advisers, might have
ended in the sacrifice of a million lives. It is
difficult to imagine the feelings of a Man upon whom
such a responsibility weighs. Seeing the approach of
the famine, he endeavoured to provide against it by lay-
ing up vast stores of rice in the towns, and organising
machinery for its distribution in the rural districts.
If these precautions answered their intended pur-
pose, all was well. Success is virtue and misfortune
blank Britif the famine happened to be more pro-
tracted than bad been anticipated, and the accumu-
lated provisions fell- short, a host of critics. would he
down upon the arrangements, and there would have
been a great deal of wisdom after the event. As a
matter of fact the Bengal famirte was satisfactorily
coped with; and if it were but a recognition of that
alorie, Lord Northbrook well deserves the earldom
which he is to receive on his return. Lord Canning
also was made an earl, the Earl of Dalhousie a marquis,
and Sir John Lawrence, who ruled India for five years
as a plain baronet, was raised to the peerage. India
Is a great fisld for the most expanded intellect, and
one which enables a man, however distinguished, the
better to leave his impress upon the page of history.

To the minds of those who are able to carry their
recollections back five-and-twenty or thirty years,
there is someing in the very name of California
suggestive of wealth and riches. It was a word which
took hold of the popular imagination because the gold
which came from California was, unlike the fabled
wealth of Ophir; solid and substantial. When the
Australian discoveries were made, the fame cf Cali-
fornia was ioniewbat eclipsed; and, although that
State has lately been suffering from a commercial
collapse, it undoubtedly possei,ses within itself all the
elements of permanent prosperity. With immense
deposits of minerals, a wondrou-ly fertile soil, and a
climate tempered by the breezes of the Pacific Ocean,
it needs only to exercise patience to become the most
prosperous State in the American Union. No country
in the world offers a finer field for persevering industry.
In fact, if all tbe mines forthwith disappeared, and
the capital now expended upon them were devoted to
developing the other indigenous resources of the
State, there can be little question that her pros-
perity would be secured. Already a good deal
has been accomplished in this direction, the cultivation
of cereals being so largely extended as to make Cali-
fornia one of the granaries of the world. The production
of fruit is also so enormous that it promises to super-
sede the West Indies as supplies of the New York
markets. in addition, wine is largely manufactured,
from eight to ten million gallons being annually made
in the State. The labouring classes are represented to
be better off in California than in any other State in
the American Union, wages being very high while the
cost of provisions remains low. The savings' banks
and other provident institutions of San Franci,co,
which are chieey patronised by working people, now
have on deposit no lest than four millions sterling in
gold. A& the entire population barely exceeds 560,000,
this fact speaks well for the general prosperity of the
State.

The destru,' i n of two training ships in the Thames
within a fortnight of each other has disclosed a danger
to which all similar vessels are equally exposed. There
is no doubt that the fire on boasd the Goliath was acci-
dental, and there is equally little doubt that the
Warspite was destroyed by an incentlisay. The
fate of these old three-decker frigates may
indeed at any time be that of any of the training
ships moored in our large rivers, and it is almost
impossible to guard against such a peril. The boys are
not, like felons in a, convict ship, manacled and
guarded. They are, and very properly too, allowed
ranch freedom on board, although discipline is always
well maintained, and it is the aim of the officers of our
floating industrial schools to make the boys good sailors
rather than to punish them for any trifling offence
they may have committed. If a really bad or cunning
boy therefore harbours such a startling deign as that
of burning what he might regard as his prison, it is
difficult to see how the attempt can be frustrated.
There is one reason Vaich makes these ca'astrophes
much to be regretted. The training ship has many
opponents, but it has also many friends, and the result
has been that controversy has at times been very bitter
regarding the merits and demerits of the system. Of
late it has slumbered awhile, but it might, not impro-
bably, break out afresh at the alarming prospect of
the total destruction of all our training ships by in-
cendiaries.

In the gloomy days of a hard winter, when vast
masses of leaden cloud overspread the sky, and the
snow-flakes drift thickly and rapidly through the air,
the consumptive invalid turns his longing eyes to the
More genial climes upon whose beauties poets and
descriptive writers love to dwell. He does not require
to go so far as " Afric's sunny fountains," or to
"India's coral strand" for the dearer and warmer at-
mosphere which he desires. He may find it upon the
coasts of our nearest neighbour—not indeed along the
shores of Normandy and Brittany, so familiar to many
a British tourist, but upon the sands which are washed
by the waves of the tideless Mediteraanean. Who has
not beard of Nice, that portion of Italy which the late
Emperor Napoleon annexed to France sixteen years
ego, at the time that Savoy shared the same fate. It
is difficult to believe that at the hour when people
shiver and freeze in our own latitudes in the face of a
lalinding snow-storm or of a biting frost, the inhabi-
tants of one part of a land, from whieh we are separated
by only twenty miles of water, move aboet under
the brilliant rays of a warm sun, and when in-doors,
have to throw open their windows in order to temper'
the heat. Here we see nothing but leafless trees;
there the olive and the myrtle flourish in mid-winter
to perfection. Yet there is one thing which must make
a sojourn at any of those Mediterranean watering
places less interesting than it would be if the tides
ebbed and flowed as in any other sea. One of the

greatest delights of the seaside is to watch the rise and
fall of the tides, to stand upon a point which is being
gradually surrounded by the gathering waters and to
walk upon a beach which only a few hours before has
been covered with masses of foaming billows. The mind
),,,,omes impressed with the magnitude of the vast
ocean, and is awed by, the mysterious and unseen
agency which controls the moving to and fro of the
waters. There is nothing of this in the Mediterranean;
and neither new nor full moon makes any impression
upon the monotonous roll of its waves.
The selection of the mover and seoonder of the
Address to the Crown, in answer to the Royal Mes-
sage to be delivered at the opening of Parliament, is
in strict accordance with precedent—a county member
for the mover, and a borough representative for the
seconder. The former is generally a deputy-lieutenant,
and the latter is usually an officer in a volunteer regi.
naent. If neither occupies such an official position,
he appears in what is called a Windsor uniform. The
Adckess is one of formal thanks to the Sovereign for
the information which hag been communicated in the
Speech from the Throne. For instance, suppesing the
Royal Message to say, "I am glad to have the satis-
faction of being enabled to state that my relations
with foreign Powers give every prospect of the con-
tinuance of peace." The Address replies: "We
humbly thank your Majesty for the assurance that
the relations of this country with foreign Powers are
of such a character as to promise a continuance
of the blessings of Peace." And so on, paragraph by
Paragraph until the whole of the subjects are ex-
uded. When a vote of no confidence in Ministers

is to be proposed, this expression of tie opinion of the
House is embodied in a little paragrayh of three or
four lines at the end of the address, but this is a course
which is not often followed—only twice indeed during
the past generation, viz., in 1841 and in 1859.

Although very little has yet been heard of any
ofganisVd _excursions to the United States, there is
little doubt that trips upon an extensive scale will be
planned and,carried out so as to,enable.they:olle and.
if poo3ible`eir"th-n- moyking crias)mes 10/cios>m.hi
Atlantic, and see the Exhibition at Philadelphia:
It is to be " great " in the strictest sense of the
term, and will he doable the size- of that which-
attracted such an. immense number of visitors in
Hyde Park a cniarter of a century ago. We cannot,
of course, say what offers from the steNmship ccm-
panies may be in s-tore for us, but according to oaf
-
present light a visit to the United States would
be thus. made up—ten days out, ten days there,
and home.. _ and this would aecount_Lier2just_
exactly a month. Then as to the cost. Ac-
cording to our present information, it could not
amount to much less than £3O, but machinery may be
called into existence which could materially reduce.
it. Undoubtedly there are large numbers in: this
country who would undertake the voyage to America
had -tharitime and money. We have.have had inany
differences with our transatlantic cousins; but these
have been clearcd away, and they would hospitably,
eatertain to the bast of their power those of the
British public who could make up their minds-to
brave the dangers of the ocean which separates
two lands.

i-tive--1-