The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-07-04 00:00:00

Out Fogg!' Contspoithatt.

[We df em It right to state that we do not at all must
(dentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The new Ministry is practically complete, and
when the re-elections are over the House of
-Commons will be once more in working order,
after the interreginun of a month in mid-session.
None but absolutely indispensable business vs-ill
be transacted. Of course a Budget of some sort
must be passed, in order to provide for tile
financial exigencies of the year, and the income-
tax payers have the satisfaction of knowing
that the Conservative Government will .accept
the suggestion of their predecessors, and make
next year's rate eightpeace in the pound. The
income-tax screw is such an easy one to move
that every Chancellor of the Exchequer, of what-
ever poli tied eomple3don, never hwitates to resort
to it in times of emergency. Those who pay eight-
pence next year may well sigh over the days
when it was only twopence. That was in 1874,
when Sir Stafford Northcote cv.rne into office;
and found a surplus of six millions in the
Treasury left there by Mr. Gladstone, whose
offer to abolish the income-tax the country lith
rejected at the polls. It will not soon 'come
round again.

The delay caused in the resumption of public
business through the necessity of the new
Ministers being re-elected has produced the usual
anrunt of adverse criticism upon the operation
of The Act of Queen Anne, which provides that a
member of the House of Commons, on accepting
an office of profit under the Crown, shall vacate
his seat. The object of the statute was to pre-
vent the Sovereign from exercising an undue in-
fluence over the representatives of the people.
But it is.arguea that the times are very different
now from what they were 170 years ago, and
there is no doubt the operation of the Act
hampers the choice of a Minister in the selection
of his colleagues. Has he a safe seat is a much
more serious question than a member's capacity
for any particular office. It is extremely incon-
venient for a new Minister to present himself to
his old constituents to be defeated. This was
the experience of Sir W. Harcourt at Oxford on
his appointment as Home Secretary. Then Mr.
Plimsoll, with that self-sacrificing devotion which
is one of his characteristics threw up his seat at
Derby, which he had just ?ought for, to accom-
modate the disconsolate Minister.

Not many of the witnesses of the spectacle of
her Majesty's coronation in Westminster Abbey
forty-seven years ago survive to the reminder
of the latest celebration. The child of that day
is now half a century old, and the young man of
twenty has now the snows of nearly seventy
winters upon his head. The ceremony in the
Abbey was very long, extending over five or six
hours, and on a June day must have become
tedious towards the end. As the young Queen
seemed to bend beneath the weight of her Royal
robes, an historian of the time tells us that a
prayer seemed to go up from the spectators,
that the burden which she then bore would be
the heaviest she would ever have to bear. The
first quarter of a century of her Majesty's reign
was one of uninterrupted sunshine, but since
then the illustrious lady has faced sorrows and
misfortunes which fall to the humblest of her
subjects and have saddened the memories of her
maturer years.
The Prince and Princess of Wales live a very
exacting life during the height of the London
season. We will take one day as an illustration
of the experiences of their Royal Highnesses.
After luncheon at Marlborough House, they
drove to Albert Gate, Knightsbridge, and
opened a bazaar in aid of the Female School of
Art, Queen-square, Bloomsbury. Next they pro-
ceeded to the Agricultural Hall, Islington, and
witnessed some of the incidents of the military,
tounaments. Then home to dinner, a most im-
portant engagement in the higher circles of
society, and one which extends over some hours.
At night the Prince and Princess attended the
State Ball given by her Majesty's command at
Buckingham Palace. This is a very fair speci-
men of the life led by the Heir Apparent and his
amiable consort who seem never better pleased
than when endeavouring to fulfil the numerous
engagements which they are asked to perform.
No wonder they enjoy the quiet of Abergeldie in
the autumn.

The Military Tournament at the Agricultural
Hall has been largely patronised by Royalty,
and there can be no doubt that during the week
of its continuance it competed successfully with
the other attractions of London for the favour
of the public. Unquestionably military spec-
tacles have a strong fascination for most people,
and the English, though a maritime nation, are
not free from this infirmity. It is very few who
can witness without excitement such a stirring
scene as the charge of the Guards as representing
the closing incident of the Battle of Waterloo,
especially when the advance has been sounded by
the same trumpet which sent out its notes upon
the field of carnage on that occasion. The
country visitors who were up for the Handel
Festival and made a few hours to see the mili-
tary tournament will not soon forget it.
The presentation of the freedom of the city of
London to Prince Albert Victor was an event in
which the Corporation did not fail to show the
splendour of their hospitality and to maintain
the reputation of their historic name. The
Prince was entitled to the freedom by patrimony,
and took it up as a matter of course. His name
is now added to a long list of interesting
autographs on the roll of the freemen of the city,
a large proportion of whom have passed to their
rest, but representing in their respective spheres
all that has made England great and properous,
and free. The men of peace and war are alike in
that distinguished scroll, for the curious may
find in it the signatures of two men so widely
differing in views as the Duke of Wellington and
Richard Cobden.

The ranks of the peerage, through the change
of Government, have been recruited by both
parties, the retiring Prime Minister having the
privilege of thus rewarding some of his old sup-
porters, while the incoming Premier finds it a
convenient medium for placing on the shell some
former colleagues whom it is not expedient to
include in his Administration. The House of
Lords, although continually being added to,
seems never to be outnumbered in proportion.
Peerages become extinct or merged in other
titles; many of their lordships are in the diplo-
matic service all over the world; other peers
habitually live abroad; and these with other
causes keep th number on the crimson benches
at about the same, notwithstanding the new
creations of rival political parties. G. R.