The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-10-25 00:00:00

4) or TaltbDlT 6orresponbtnt.

(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
klenti4 ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

One dark October day, nearly half a generation ago,
the bells in many a parish church throughout England
Were set tolling because of the death of the Prime

Minister. It Was a most unusual occurrence for a

statesman holding that high and distinguished office
to die in harness; and thus it came to pass that the
removal of Lord Palmerston from the scene of his long
and active labours caused a profound impression.
The noble lord was staying at the time at Brockett
Hall, in Hertfordshire three months before there had
been a general election; and the country had confirmed
him in office by a very considerable majority. On the
20th October, 1865, he would have completed his 81st
year, and a few friends were gathered at Brockett
Hall to celebrate the birthday. But on the morn-
ing of the 16th there appeared in some of the
London papers an ominously•worded paragraph re-
specting the health of the veteran Premier, which
created uneasiness that speedily deepened into alarm.
And yet, upon reflection, people could scarcely realise
the fact of Lord Palmerston being taken from amongst
them. For nearly sixty years he had been a member
of the House of Commons; and his official career as
Secretary at War began in the early days of the pre-
sent century. He seemed to have become a per.

manent institution of the state; while a genial and
kindly old age had made him universally popular
amongst the masses of his countrymen. However,

here was the news of his illness; on the 17th the
tidings were worse; on the 18th hope had vanished;
and on the afternoon of that day—a day of drenching
rain and funereal gloom—the words "Lord Palmerston
is dead!" appeared to fall like a knell as they
passed rapidly from one to another throughout
the metropolis. He did not live to see his 81st
birthday after all. And Bo the body was brought to
the noble lord's town residence at Cambridge House,
Piccadilty ; and on the 27th of the same month was
laid to its rest in Westminster Abbey, close to that
Palace of the Legislature where he had so often
wrestled in the political arena. His marble mann-
ment now looks down upon his grave; and hard by
the venerable minster, in Parliament-square, his
statue stands with those of other statesmen whose
political struggles marked the progress of an age that
has long since passed away.

The hives of the teeming industry of Lancashire
have suddenly assumed a political importance in anti-
cipation of the approaching general election. That
event may be postponed for even another fifteen
months; but come it must at last; for there can be
nothing terrestrial which is not overtaken by Time
In the end. And as the great and absorbing conflict
at the polls looms in the distance, the two great
parties in the State are gathering together their forces
to battle. Lancashire is, for the time, the chief centre
of interest. The echoes of the voices of three Secre-
taries of State at Manchester have scarcely died away
before, in the same city, Lord Hartington, and Mr.
Bright take up the word on behalf of what Edmund
Burke was accustomed to call "Her Majesty's Opposi-
tion." Certainly Lancashire is well worth fighting for.
It returns 33 members to the House of Commons, and
there is only one county in England which sends more.
That is Yorkshire, which has 38. Both counties
claim to represent publie opinion in a more than ordi-
nary degree. Lancashire declares that what it thinks
to-day England will think to-morrow. Of its
vopulous neighbour it is said that when the West
Riding speaks, Yorkshire speaks; and when Yorkshire
speaks, England speaks. However, between them
they return more than seventy representatives of the
people; and without giving an opinion as to which
is the more important of the two shires, there is not an
Englishman who would not be inclined to point with
pride to their industrial activity, their commercial
enterprise, their indomitable energy, and the pictures
which they severally present of the life that has done
so much to develope the qualities of a great and
prosperous people.

While in these, islands the month of October has
been almost rainless, thus strongly contrasting with
the experience of the past few months, or rather of
the first three quarters of the year, terrible floods have
visited some parts of Spain; and under the sunshine
of our autumnal skies it is startling to read of whole
villages being in ruins, of people being drowned by the
hundred, and of thousands of peasants being utterly
destitute. The King has proceeded to the scene of
the (Master, and subscriptions to relieve the dis-
tress (~f the suffering survivors have been opened
throughout the Spanish Peninsula. These cala-
mitous inundations are certainly most capricious in
their character. Four years ago it was France
which was the scene of the visitation. Next came
the turn of Italy; then Hungary, as illustrated by the
destruction of S±egedin ; and now the blow has fallen
upon Spain, which can ill afford to bear it. The cut-
ting down of vast forests upon the mountain sides is
frequently the cause of such catastrophes. When the
forests are in existence the rainfall is to a great extent
absorbed into the earth, which is necessarily loosened
by the roots of the trees; but when these trees have
been removed, there is absolutely no check to the
violence of the torrent, which pours down the sides of
the mountains into the valleys, bearing death and
devastation to the peaceful inhabitants. So convinced
is the Italian Government of the value of trees as tend-
ing to prevent destructive floods that they are now
seeking to atone for past errors in the wholesale re-
moval of forests by planting trees in the districts which
have been subjected to these periodical inundations,
more especially in the basins of the Po and the Arno.

The fact that a daughter has been born to the
Duchess of Cumberlatd, although little noticed by
the English journals, is well worth a passing observa-
tion. The Duchess of Cumberland was the Princess
Thyra, the youngest daughter of the King of Denmark,
a sister of the Princess of Wales, of the King of
Greece, and of the Czarevna of Russia. The Duke is
titular King of Hanover, son of the sovereign who was
reigning over that country in 1866, when upon the out-
break of the war between Austria and Prussia he took
the side of the former, and was deposed when the
Prussian armies became victorious. That monarch,
who died last year, and was buried at Windsor, was
the consTn of the Queen; and to the day of his death
he was always described in the Court Circular as
"King George of Hanover." But no such descrip-
tion has ever been officially applied to his successor.
Although he still maintains his claims to the
Hanoverian throne, he has never been anything but
the Duke of Cumberland in our court chronicles.
Thus it was that the London Gazette contained the
official intimation that the Duchess of Cumberland—
not the Queen of Hanover—had been safely delivered
of a daughter on Austrian soil. The Duke is a peer
of the blood royal in like manner as the Duke of
Cambridge.
If the best way to keep the peace is to be prepared

for war, the peace maintained by England ought to
be a long one. Upon our army and navy we spend
nearly thirty millions annually; and a considerable
proportion of the population devotes its sole time to
those works of defensive preparation which our naval
and military authorities hold to be necessary. Sham.

fights upon the land are common enough; and
at such places as Aldershot and Shorndiffe the
advance of military science may be witnessed in various
stages of its development. But one of the most interesting
Incidents which the newspapers have lately had to record
was the attack by torpedo boats on Fort Monckton at
Portsmouth, which the umpires declared to be in
favour of the landsmen. The mimic fight lasted an
hour, at the close of which all the torpedo launches
were held to have been beaten—a decision eminently
satisfactory to the defenders of English soil from the
assault of a supposed invader, and one which may
possibly lead to a higher degree of tactical skill hi the
construction and handling of those swift and deadly
little vessels from whose attack, effectually delivered,
the most powerful ironclad afloat might founder and
go down.
The e lilt of Prince Leopold to Sheffield is an event
of public interest beyond the district which has more
immediate'y combined to do honour to the youngest
eon of the Queen. When Lord Beaconsfield proposed
a separate allowance of £15,000 a year to Prince
Leopold, in accordance with the precedent esta
blished in the cases of the Dukes of Edinburgh and
Connaught, he spoke of the studious habits of his
Royal Highness, and of the way in which he had devoted
himself to literature and art. The immediate purpose
of his now going to Sheffield was to open the Firth
College, a noble institution erected at the sole cost of
Mr. Mark Firth, one of the merchant princes of that
busy town. Mr. Firth has expended £20,000 in order
to carry on the University extension schools in
Sheffield, and Prince Leopold travelled from Balmoral
to open the college. Mr. Firth was Mayor of Sheffield
in 1875, on the occasion of the visit of the Prince and
Princess of Wales to that town, which cheerfully
raised more than £lOO,OOO to defray the expenses of
the reception of their Royal Highnesses. That was
before hard times fell upon Sheffield and upon the
nation ;but the magnificent hospitality of the Sheffield
people was not forgotten at Marlborough House, as
was shown clearly enough last winter,when the Princess
of Wales, in sending a subscription to alleviate the
distress in the town of paralysed industry, made
especial reference to the way in which she and the
Prince had been received there three years before.
Whether the move lately made by trade is as some
avow the result of unsound speculation, or the pre-
cursor of a return of that national prosperity which it
was once our fortune to enjoy, there can be no doubt
that we stand upon the threshold of the winter on
terms very different from those of this time twelve
months, It was in October, 1878, that diattlrbing

influence' arose in commercial circles, which added
to the gloom and depression of a winter of
exceptional severity. Those disturbing influences
exist no longer; confidence seems to be reviv-
ing, and owing to the receipt of foreign orders,
some of our branches of industry are displaying an
activity to which they have been strangers for years.
It is true that meteorologists tell us of another winter
being in store for us which will resemble its prede-
cessor; and the cold wave which has lately passed over
these islands would appear to lend some degree of
P treng th to that prediction. A severe frost is reported
from Bordeaux, which threatens the already compro-
mised claret vintage of that district, Still, the winter
if hard, will not abound with such stories of destitu-
tion as did that of last year.

Hitherto the riches of the British Museum have
been inaccessible to those who, with evenings only at
their disposal, have found the great national collection
cicsed at that time, six o'clock in the summer being
the latest period at which it is kept open, while in the
winter it is shut up at four. A strong objection has
always been felt on the part of the trustees to the use
of gas, which might possibly endanger the safety of
some portions of the building. The electric light
is, however, to be brought into requisition; and if it
proves as successful as in illuminating the streets and
squares,—where it is now one of the sights of the
metropolis,—a material addition will be made to the
usefulness of the British Museum as one of the
great national institutions to which all classes contri.
butes