The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-12-02 00:00:00

ROWLEY.

SCIIOOI. BOARD ELECTION.—On Monday evening a
public meeting was held in the National School, Rowley
Village, Mr. Beasley presiding, in support of the candi-
dature of Messrs. W. Bassano, J. P. Hunt, W. Bradley,
B. Hingley, and H. R. Ker, at the School Board elec-
tion. There was a large number of persons present.—
Mr. W. Basilan°, who was warmly received, spoke at
some length. He said the opposite party had raided the
cry of " Liberal against Tory " and "Church against
Dissent," but there were never falser cries raised than
these, and they had only been raised because their
opponents knew that they had not a peg to stand upon,
and it was only raising men's passions on the political or
religious questions that they could.hope to do anything
at all. These questions, he said moat distinctly and
emphatically, were not at all involved in the matter
—(cheers.) The question at issue was how their chil-
dren were to be educated—(applause.) It had also been
said that the fees charged in the schools should be
reduced, but they could easily see how impracticable it
would be to carry out such a thing. The average cost
per year of a child's schooling was 30s, and towards this
the fees contributed about lie, and the Government,
if the child passed the examination about 15. The re-
maining four shillings were paid out of the rates, and,
therefore, any reduction in the fees must mean a cor-
responding additior to the rates. Besides this, the
effect would be to close voluntary schools carried on in
' the parish, which accommodated 1,906 out of the 4,000
children requiring it, and the School Board would have
to build other schools to replace them.—Mr. J. P. Hunt
said he had watched with a great deal of interest and
approved the way in which the last Board did Its work, i
and he shonld do all he could to prevent a change n the
spirit which had actuated it. In regard to the question
of fees, he said that if the Board schools were made
free he should not feel justified in recommending the
company which he represented to carry on
in
Corn-
greaves School. He also expressed himself n favour of
the Bible being read in the schools:—Mr: Hugh B. Kir
also addressed the meeting, maintaining that if the
Opposing party were elected they would follow the tactics
of the Birmingham School Board to the cost of the
ratepayers.—A motion that the five gentlemen named
were proper persons to represent the electors, and that
the meeting pledged itself to endeavour to secure their
election, wits moved by Mr. Fletcher, seconded by the
Rev. J. Ormiston, and supported by the Bey. F. liesteh
aim of Bleokhoth). wsi curled, oily Ale ming

against it.—The meeting terminated with a vote of
thanks to the Chairman.

MR. H. B. SHERIDAN, M.P., AT BRIERLEY
HILL.

On Monday night, Mr. H. B. Sheridan, M.P.,
addressed his constituents in the Public Hall, Brierley
Hill. There was a crowded attendance. Mr. Charles
Cochrane occupied the chair, and was supported by the
Rey. D. Maginnia and Messrs. D. Cole, 0. Wright, W,
J. Clnlow, J. B. Shepherd, I. Rollinson, T. Wood,
Higgs, Beckley, &c.
In opening the meeting the Chairman said the last
time they met in that hall was to fight for the repre-
sentation of the borough, and he was sure they did not
regret the selectio a witch Dudley had made. (Hear,
hear.) The special question which had brought them
together that night was the one which hail convulsed
the sshde of the country; but he trusted that the force
of Liberal policy would still be felt in the country, and
Us', the caution of Lord Derby would prevent any more
blunders. (Hear, hear.) The possession of Turkey
would be a source of weakness to this country, but yet
Lord Beaconsfield had thrown down two challenges to
Russia—first in creating an Empress, and then in saying
that no other than England could enter into a second
campaign without feeling the cost. Already the feeling
of the country had changed, and Frome had sent a
Liberal. Although one swallow did not, as the Daily
Post said, make a summer, yet straws showed how the
wind blew, and he trusted that the Conservative Govern-
ment wouldtake warning. (Applause.)
Mr. Sheridan, who was very heartily received, said he
proposed to leave the discussion of matters and topics
of local interest, and the explanations of his votes upon
them, to another occasion, and to confine himself on the
present occasion to that question which was now so
much occupying the minds of men. They would agree
with him when he said there were times in the history
of a country when local questions, no matter how
interesting, became of secondary importance by the side
of some one all-abserbiag topic of national policy.
Such was the mos at the present moment with regard
to the Eastern question, which was agitating not Eng-
land alone but Europe and half the globe. Events had
changed with great rapidity with reference to that ques-
tion since it was first presented to them, but to his
mind there never was a time when it was more expedient
or desirable that the people of England should
speak out with clearness what their opinions
were: The question now preaen'el itself as one
of peace or war. (Hear, hear.) The newspapers
had that day told them that Lord Salisbury, when he
left Berlin and Vienna eu route to the various courts of
the great Powers of Europe, took with him the convic-
tion that although there was some hope of peace yet
that the threatening and menacing aspect of things had
not changed. As he had said, the question presented
itself at this moment as a question of peace and war.
War was a serious matter to any nation—(bear, hear)—
but to a commercial and industrial people it was more
than serious. War, when it was necessary and justifi-
able, brought with it a disastrous and ghastly train.
War, to the people meant bad times, bad trade, low
wages, dear food, and perhaps little of it, high taxes,
depression, gloom, and much misery. (Applause.) In-
deed, those who were the first—besauee they were
taught to do so—to throw their caps into the air, and to
cry, as the poor French did, "To Berlin! to Berlin! "
were generally the first to awake from their enthusiasm,
and feel the biting and grinding effects of the stagnation
which followed war. (Hear. hear.) Glory might be an
excellent sentiment, but it was a bad substitute for
home comforts—(hear, hear)—of which, after all, the
poor had but a small portion. The rich, to whose
high-flown sentiment and sometimes mistaken policy
war might be too often attributed, felt very little of the
ill effects of war. They certainly did not feel its crush
ing weight, and although they might be ready to share
with the people the glory of the war, which was but a
shade, were they willing to share their substance when
misery inevitably followed? (Applause.) That being
so, it was him and them, who might be said to represent
the industrial classes of that district at least, to lift up
their voice, and see if they could influence public
opinion upon a question so fraught, as it seemed to be,
with their best and dearest interests. The great master
of the English language, Mr. Bright—(cheers)—hai
recently told them in vigorous words which seemed to
burn themselves into their convictions, so readily did
they acquiesce in them, what war was, and what he
thought about it. Although they might not all of them
be prepared to go so far as Mr. Bright upon that sub-
ject, still there was much in what he said which was
worthy of their gravest consideration. (Applause.) Mr.
Bright told them that it often, nay, almost invariably.
happened that after great expenditure and much
slaughter—which meant much agony, and sorrow, and
poverty for the masses—they found that a war in which
they had embarked was altogether useless and un-
necessary. (Applause.) There never was a better
illustration of that than the last war on that very
Eastern question—the Crimean war. After immense
sacrifice of men:and money, they signed a treaty which
about two years ago they tore up as out of date, useless,
and unnecessary. These things presented themselves
to them in the gravest possible aspect, and it was for
the people of the country to decide upon the great ques-
tion of peace or war, for although it might be the pre-
rogative of the Sovereign to make peace and to declare
war, yet all the writers upon constitutional law declared
that, whatever might be the prerogative of the
Sovereign, it lay with the people alone to say how that
prerogative should be exercised. In the " Life of
Prince Albert," revised by the Queen herself, there was
a passage which he should like to read to them. Writing
in a letter on the Crimean war, and the chances which
presented themselves to his mind of a war between
England and Russia, he said, "It may be brought on
any day by the fleets coming into collision ; and if that
be so, God be merciful to the world if it come to this."
They saw that no matter bow elevated the position of a
thinker on the subject, it did not follow that he could
influence a Government; the only thing which could
Influence a Government was the vox populi—the voice of
the people. (Cheers.) That which he desired them to do
on this occasion was to declare, by the resolution which
would be submitted to them, that a war to restore to the
cruel misgovernment of Turkey the revolted Christian
provinces was revolting to the English people.
(Applause.) If by any mistake the present Government
could succeed in such a policy what would be the
result ? When the Government were congratulating
themselves upon the success of their measures Turkey
would be horribly busy, as she was before, in tormenting
and outraging and slaughtering those miserable people
who had been foolish enough to consider that Govern-
ments had humanity, and that there was a public
opinion in Europe. The fear of the Liberal party, and
a fear which had been expressed by many thoughtful
Conservatives was that they might under the present
Government drift into war, as in the case of the Crimean
war, without really knowing or understanding why they
went to war; and that while Parliament was not
sitting, and, therefore, while the people of the country
had no opportunity whatever of expressing their
opinions on the subject. He did not wish to convey to
them that the present Government, which was essentially
a Conservative Government, was any less honourable
and high-minded or less anxious for the best interests of
the country than any Liberal Government. He was not
a partisan in the strictest sense:of the word. He was
sent to Parliament by the borough of Dudley to repre-
sent that borough as a whole, and, although he voted on
the Liberal side, he took whatever legislation benefited
the people, whether it was proposed by Tories or
Liberals. He had never carried on a guerilla. war
against the Tories, and he thought he might be said to
speak impartially on the matter before them. He
believed the Tory Government to be possessed of all the
essentials to which be had referred, but there were ques-
tions affecting the hearts of men on which they feared
their judgment. They feared the head work part of the
performance; they feared that clinging to the old-
fashioned Conservative notions and doctrines, such as
the chimera of the balance of power, the present
Government might think it necessary to maintain the
integrity of Turkey to the utmost, and embark England
in a ruinous war to support that policy. It was, there-
fore, that they were called together to .exercise their
undoubted right of saying whether they preferred that
policy or the policy whieh the Liberal party pronounced
at the close of last session—that it was not the wish of
the English people to go to war to maintain Turkey in
her present position. (Applause) Mr. Sheridan went
on to trace the stages by which the Eastern question
had arrived at its present position, and asked. now
that an armistice had been grante I, and a conference
decided upon, would that conference agree ? Must per-
sons thought that it would not, but that Turkey would
stand upon her dignity and say, surely you will not tear
my loving subjects from my protecting arms—(hear,
hear)—and that England, ton bed by that instance of
pate rnal affection, would stand by her to the last. The
fear was that England would not so much be moved by
her feelings as by her policy, however much that policy
might be mistaken .That which seemed to underlie the
Ministerial mind was that Russia wanted io have the
Christian provinces for herself. The Emperor of
Russia, however, had pledged his kingly word, in the
presence of Europe, that in interfering in this qua Von
he desired no personal aggrandisement, and he (Mr.
Sheridan) believed him—not merely because he had
said so, but from a consideration of all the circum-
stances of the case. He believed that the erection of
the Christian provinces into independent States would
not only be the best bulwark against supposed Russian
ambition, but that the resources of those provinces
would be so developed that they would repay a large
i
part of the Turkish debt. He trusted that n protesting
against a war to hand back those provinces to Thkey,
Government would be taught that the generous display
of feeling which the country showed
.with reference to
the Bulgarian outrages had not. died out, but that
humanity was a lasting sentiment in the English heart.
(Cheers.)
Mr. Drinkwater Cole then moved the following resolu•
tion:—" That this meeting, having heard the opinions
of H. B. Sheridan. Esq.. on the Eastern question, ex-
presses its unabated confidence in him as member for
the borough of Dudley—(applause)—and at the same
time declares its conviction that a war in support of
Ottoman rule is not demanded either by the honour
or the interests of the British Empire." (Hear, hear.)
Mr. John Addison seconded the resolution, which
was supported by Mr. J. Shepherd, and carried unani-
mously.
A vote of thanks to the Chairman concluded the pro-
ceedings.