The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-16 00:00:00

Our rodon Corrtspattnit.

(We deem it right to stste that we do not at all time(
jdentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opiniGnaj

The circumstances attending the close of the session
'correspond in some degree with those of two years
ago. In 1882 Parliament adjourned on the 16th of
August, and reassembled on the 24th of October. The
prorogation this year is the 14th of August, and at
present it is understood :that the two Houses will
reassemble on the 20th of October or thereabouts.
The difference is that the session was not in
1882 brought to an end; there was merely a sus-
pension of the sittings in order that in the
autumn the House of Commons might continue
and complete the revision of its own rules of proce_
dure. Now,. however, there will be an end of one
session, and. an. entirely new one in October, when
instead of rules of procedure affecting one assembly,
the momentous question of Parliamentary Reform
will have a very strong interest for both. The car-
toon in Punch which then represented Mr. Gladstone
and Sir Stafford IsTorthcote as purchasing a return
ticket available for two months would be equally
applicable now; but neither will have such a quiet
time in the interval as was enjoyed then. Rules of
procedure affected not the constituencies; Parliamen-
tary Reform does.

Mr. Gladstone, who will deliver two addresses to
his constituents in the early part of the recess, has not
found an opportunity of going to Midlothian since
the spring of 1880, before he became for the second
time Prime Minister of England. He was to have
gone in January, 1883, but this was too close upon
the autumn sitting of Parliament, which did not
terminate until the first week of December, 1882.
The Prime Minister had entered the 74th year of his
age, and time and labour had begun to tell upon him.
Instead of going to Midlothian, he had to proceedfor
some 'weeks to Cannes. In the present case not a
fortnight will have elapsed since the rising of the
House to the time when the veteran statesman will
be addressing a Midlothian audience. This is trying
work for a man who has lived in the world three
quarters of a century, more than fifty years of which
have been passed amid the excitement inseparable
from a political career.
I: The worst of
.a county constituency for a leading
statesman is that its multiplicity of interests, its
large area, and its considerable population,
render its local claims irksomely pressing
upon the time and attention of a public
man. For thirty years before his death
in 1865, Lord Palmerston was quite content to sit for
the borough of Tiverton. It was a safe seat, and
gave him very little trouble. Some of the most im-
portant State papers of that generation were con-
tained in Lord Palmerston's addresses headed "To
the electors of Tiverton," while an army of reporters
attended his expositions of policy, when he delivered
speeches to his constituents. But Mr. Disraeli
represented the county of Bucks, Mr. Glad-
stone is the member of the shire of Edin-
burgh, and Sir Stafford Northcote is one
of the knights sent to Parliament for North
Devon. Some members of Parliament estimate their
consequence in the House of Commons by "the
breadth of the base," but clearly this was never the
view taken by Lord Palmerston, who during the time
he was the choice of Tiverton was thrice Premier of
England.

Mr. Herbert Spencer has ridiculed the idea that
the legislation of a great empire should be so timed
in its concluding stages as to be synonymous with
the condition of a bird which is just then ready to be
shot, cooked, and eaten. But members of Parlia,-
reent do not take the same severe view
as that of this distinguished philosopher. The
twelfth of August is an historic date with
them, and it is very difficult to keep hon. gentle-
men together after that day. They have pur-
chased the right of shooting over sundry moors, so
that every hour spent at Westminster in such circum-
stances is a most irritating time. _

I The weather during the present summer has no
doubt done much to retrieve the reputation of the
English climate. Taking it altogether, more
especially of late, it has been brilliant to a degree to
which for many years we have been entirely unaccus-
tomed. The mean temperature during the quarter
ending the 30th of June was 52 degrees; yet on some
Of these August nights, and after the sun has set
several hours, the thermometer in the street has in
London registered 70 degrees. The rainfall of last
quarter was below the average amount in the corre-
sponding periods of 68 years; but while we were
suffering from drought in England an immense
amount of property was being destroyed in the eastern
part of Europe by floods.

It was a bold experiment on the part of the British
Association to hold this year's meeting at Montreal.
Many who have been accustomed to attend these
scientific gatherings in any town of the United King-
dom have been unable to afford the expense of a trip
across the Atlantic, for, of course, one would not care
to return without seeing sOmething of the United
States, and this costs money. Whilst at Montreal it
would be an eminently practical result of the visit if
our men of science could contribute anything to
the solution of the emigration question. Private
letters received from Canada express surprise
that while there are thousands of idle hands already
in the Dominion, every ship which arrives from the
mother country brings out hundreds to add to the
number. The people principally required in Canada
are farmers with a small capital and servants, either
farm or domestic. It is true that in recent months
the tide of emigration to Canada has not been so
strong as heretofore; it might be turned towards the
Australian colonies were these not separated from us
by such an enormous distance; but even now em-
ployment cannot be found for those who are in
Canada, and to whose numbers in certain classes no
addition is required.

The Registrar-General often estimates the pros-
perity of the country from its marriage-rate. When
young people are in good employment and making
money, they do not hesitate to take upon themselves
those increased responsibilities which marriage in-
volves; but when there is little or no work going it
is a very different matter. lii the latest return of the
Registrar-General he points out that the marriage-
rate is stil,l below the mer-n in the corresponding
periods of the last ten years. It was lowest in Rut-
landshire, then came Hertford, next, singularly
enough, the extra-metropolitan portion of Middlesex,
while the highest rates were in Monmouthshire, the
East Riding of Yorkshire, and Northumberland.
As G-oodwood is to snort, so is the Canterbury week
to cricket. It is the wind-up of the big things of the
sewn. As the waves continue to roll after the storm
which caused them has ceased; so subsequent to
Goodwood and Canterbury respectively there are race
meetines and cricket matches. But, as a rule, the
glory of the summer and autumn sport and recreation
has departed. Truly there is the St. Leger for the
racing man; but Doncaster is a long way from
London, and, so far as the
.metropolis is concerned,
the great events both on the turf and with the willow
may now be said practically to have come to an end
for the season.