The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-01-18 00:00:00

era Pan Corrtsportbatt.

tWo deem It rf gr.; io state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

Those who in the late severe frost looked down I
upon the surface of "royal-towered Thames" from
any of the metropolitan bridges, witnessed a scene
which is most unusual in this country. The tides in
the Thames are of great strength and volume; they
often come up from the German Ocean with the rush
of a torrent; a casual glance at the ever-heaving water
would not suggest the idea that cold in these latitudes
could at any time be so intense as to permit ice to be
formed on such a current. The appearance of the
river during the present winter has effectually dis-
pelled such a notion. It had not the aspect of
the firmly-frozen Neva, but it bore a singular
resemblance to the description of the Ohio given by

Mrs. Beecher Stowe, when she tells us how the
fugitive slave Eliza, when sorely pressed by her
pursuers, committed her life to the chance of an escaoe
over the waters of that gleaming river by leaping from I
block to block of ice floating in the stream. Anything
like the masses of ice which have now been seen in the
Thames is without parallel foivery many years. It
has been called the silent highway, but the frost made
it a highway no longer. The enormous traffic of the
steamboats between Chelsea and Woolwich was
altogether stopped on account of the presence of these
moving ice-fields upon the water; the piers were de-
serted, both by passengers and officials; and so long as
the frost lasted, there was a suspension of a great
representative industry. The river was silent without
answering to the name of a highway; the ice, extend-
ing some distance out from the Middlesex and Surrey
shores, locked within its grasp innumrable boats and
barges, which were thus fixed and immovable; and
only a comparatively small space in the centre was
left open. St. Paul's in the east, and the towers of
St. Stephen's in the west, flung out their chimes upon
a picture of quietude not often experienced in the
capital of Great Britain. With the streets dumb with
snow, and the river in the firm embrace of bands of
ice, the spectators was enabled to gain some impres-
sion of what a good old-fashioned English winter is
like, and how it interferes with the avocations of many
of her Majesty's lieges. The steamboat people cannot
work; those engaged in building operations cannot
work; large numbers of dock labourers cannot work;
and so we might go on multiplying or rather enu-
taerating the industries which the frost brings to a
standstill. It is grand for the skaters, but it is bad
for business,

The severity of the weather has induced some his-
torians to look into the chronicles of the past, so as to

compare the present winter with a few of its pre-
decessors; and it is curious to note that the same
complaint as to unseasonable mildness which we so
frequently hear has been made over and over again by
our forefathers. For instance, anyone turning to
the Annual Register of 1793 will find the compiler
referring to the fact that the mild winters of that
time were in great contrast to the severe seasons of
their ancestors; and that warm winters and wet
summers were becoming quite the order of each re-
volving year. How often have we heard the same ob-
servation from those who assured us that the climate
of :the British Isles was undergoing a change; and
that the seed-time and the harvest, the summer and
the winter, were not the same as they used to be 30 or 40
years ago. Yet if we go back nearly 90 years, the
chronological records of that time show that a hard
winter like the present was the exception and a mild
one the rule. It stands to reason that this must be so
while our islands remain within the limits of the
temperate zone. The lapse of centuries makes no
difference in the geographical position of Great
Britain, or in the laws which regulate the movements of
the winds that pass over us, or the waters washing
our shores. We are not being slowly but perceptibly
drifted into the frigid zone. While so much of our
seaboard is open to the breezes of the Atlantic, which
have passed for thousands of miles over an ocean that
receives the warmth of the Gulf Stream, it is inevitable
that our winters will be generally mil 4. Occasionally
there is an exception, as there is just now, when the
north-east wind conquers the south-west, and gives us
a taste of the desolation which it is enabled to bring
from its frozen home. It is anything but the welcome
guest pourtrayed by the late lam ented Canon Kingsley,
and as a rule it is soon driv en back again. We are
all thankful that, unlike the vastpastes of the Russian
empire, the frost and snow do not settle down upon us
for months together without a break.
The piercing cry of distress which has gone up from
many parts of the country has re-called the oft-quoted

"111 fares the land—to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay."

The legend was intended as a warning against a re-
lapse into the luxuries which caused the ruin of
Imperial Rome, and so enervated the inhabitants
of the city of Sybaris, that the cocks were expelled
lest their shrill crowing should arouse the peaceful
slumbers of the people. For a man to be called
a Sybarite is to this day to convey the meaning
that he is given to luxury and indolence. Un-
happily, just now there is no fear of men decay-
ing through the accumulation of wealth and the
consequent destruction of their physical energies.
Time was when the increase of population and the
growth of prosperity went together, and when France
was held up to be a declining land because its people
did not increase in the same ratio as our own. But
at this moment France is the most prosperous country
in Europe; and it is notorious that the French pea-
sant, with his family of three or four, has not to face
the same straits of poverty as the English labourer
with his proverbial eight or nine. It is impossible to
regard the mere increase of the numbers of a people as
a sign of progress apart from the means of occupation
i) provided for the new comers. .Employment does not
augment in like proportion, and at this moment
tens of thousands of men in England are standing
idle in the market-place of life, while in France, which
has not added to its population to anything like the
same extent, there is no overstocked labour market,
In its present condition emigration is freely recom-
mended, but that is a virtual confession that the land
which has given birth to so many people is unable to
find employment for the whole of them, and they have
to go forth and seek that livelihood across the ocean
which is not forthcoming at home. Facts like these
are well worthy of consideration when it is remem-
bered that France has no colonies in the sense that we
have—no distant_ fields of enterprise to which she
could draft off a surplus population even if she pos.
sensed any—and fortunately for her, she does not.
The opening of Hilary Term on the llth inst. was
marked by the appointment of a new Judge in the
Court of Exchequer, consequent upon the resignation
of Baron Oleasby. The new baron, Sir James Fitz.
James Stephen, Knight Commander of the Star of
India, is one of the most eminent jurists of the day.
For two years and a half he was the legal member of
the Council of the Viceroy of India, and reformed the
criminal code of that dependency. On his return,
rendered necessary by the state of his health, he set
about codifying our own code and drew up
a measure embodying the results of his labours,
which was introduced during the last session
of Parliament. The attention of the Legislature and
the country was, however, so absorbed over foreign
affairs that the requisite time could not be devoted
to this subject, and it was therefore allowed to stand
over until such time as a question of such great domestic
importance can be taken in hand. Never has a new
occupant of the judicial bench received more general
and well-deserved congratulations. Sir J. F. Stephen,
as a man of culture, experience, and enlightenment,
will not be content to follow the beaten tracks of
musty precedents, but will administer the law in a
liberal, humane, and just spirit, with a fair introduc-
tion of that quality of mercy which blesseth him
that gives and him that takes. The Exchequer
Division of the High Court of Justice receives a
great accession of strangth by this appointment.
The House of Lords will begin its duties on the 13th
February with a number of peers upon its roll which
ought to secure a good attendance. That (assembly
now consists of 580 members, namely, 5 royal dukes,
28 dukes, 33 marquises, 250 earls, 57 viscounts, and
2,52 barons. The creations of the dukes vary from
Norfolk in 1483 to Westminster in 1874; and the mar-
quises, from Winchester in 1551 to A.bergavenny in
1876; of the earls, from Crawford in 1398 to Cairns in
188; of the viscounts, from Hereford in 1549 to
Cranbrook in 1878 ;. and of the barons, from Le
Deepencer in 1264 to Norton in 1878. It may
be noted that the barony of Mowbray claims to be the
premier barony of England, and that inasmuch as
peers of Scotland, although they have precedence of
peers of Great Britain, Ireland, and the United
Kingdom, rank after peers of England, the Earl of
Shrewsbury, and not the Earl of Crawford, has place
in the peerage as premier earl. Of the baronetage,
there are 862 members, of whose titles 33 were created
by James 1., 81 by Charles 1., 101 by Charles 11., 16
by James IL, 19 by Queen Anne, 10 by George L, 26
by George 11., 406 by George lIL, 40 by George IV.,
47 by William IV., and 153 by Queen Victoria, With
respect to the House of Lords it may be pointed out
that practically there is no limit to its numbers. The
Sovereign can create any number of peers, and the
actual number so created during the reign of George
111., was 388. But beyond the limits of the House of
Peers this power does not exist. The Crown, of its
own will, cannot add a single member to the House of
Commons, which thus differs from the Upper House in
being able to regulate its own numbers.
Questions of adminiatrative reform attract but little
notice when tradi is &premed, and ftirsign awn of

overwhelming importance. Yet there are many
things in every-day life which could be pointed
act as being well open to reform, and which can.
not always be kept in the background. The State
has taken over the telegraphs, and conveys our letters;
and it has sometimes been asked why we might not
have a State Parcel post for the transmission of
packages larger than those which are permitted in
ordinary correspondence. The present rate of is. 4d.
per lb. is a prohibitory tariff, and so it happens that
the public has to depend upon railway companies and
carriers to do their work. The tariffs of the railway
companies are plainly set forth in their tables, but
they are arranged upon no logical system. To
send a parcel by train is to subject one's self,
and perhaps one's friends, to charges which are
hard to understand. What is wanted is a uniform
system which will enable a private person of no more
than ordinary intelligence to send away a package with
as little trouble as he sends away a letter. The
existing restriction and uncertainty are a positive
bar to trade, and stand in the way of rapid inter-
communication. Few care to despatch a parcel
unless it is an absolute necessity; and shopkeepers
would do a business with country customers of which
they have now little idea; interchange of commodities
would be mere frequent; books would be sent out
by lending libraries as they cannot be sent out now,
by the creation of additional facilities for the despatch
of parcels by post.

The visit of the Home Secretary to Edinburgh, not
for the purpose of making speeches at public meetings,
but in order to consult various bodies in that city
with a view to legislation, is a sign that the time is
approaching when the business of the empire will once
more be under the consideration of its great council.
The Cabinet Ministers will soon again be sitting, and
in that double-doored and windowed room of theirs
in Downing-street will be putting the finishing touches
on the measures of the session. Last year the
Cabinet Councils began on the 2nd of January,
consequent upon the early meeting of Parliament on
the 17th of that month, and so urgent was the
business on one occasion that the Ministers as-
sembled on a Sunday. For some time after
the passing of the Reform Act of 1832, the
advisers of the Sovereign kept up the traditions of
previous ages, and never met in Cabinet Council ex-
cept in Court dress, but this formality has now been
dispensed with on those occasions, although it is still
preserved for State ceremonials and official banquets.
It is indispensable for the guests at the Speaker's
full-dress Parliamentary dinners to appear in Court
costume that is to say, a dress-coat, knee-
breeches, buckled shoes, and a sword ; and
some years ago Mr. Bright expressed his regret, in
the House of Commons, that he had never been able
to accept the hospitality of the Speaker on such condi-
tions. He was a man of peace, and he could not con-
scientiously appear amongst his fellow-men wearing a
weapon of War. Great store seems still to be set upon
the wisdom of those of our forefathers who devised
such a remarkable costume. It has survived many a
more apparently stable institution, and so long as it is
not objected to by those who would have to wear it,
there can be little doubt that it will yet hold its own,
notwithstanding the palpable incongruities which are
associated with it.