The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-05 00:00:00

enr Folthen Corrtsponkiti.

rW deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify oursalos with our Correspondent's opinions.)

On the south side of Pall Mall, not far from the
equestrian statue of George 111., and very near the
Haymarket Theatre, stands an institution which in
any case of national emergency is certain to leave its
mark upon the page of English history. In an open
space immediately in front is the statue of a beloved
statesman, and the simple inscription upon the
pedestal consists of the works "Sidney Herbert."
'The building referred to is the War Office, and the.
statue of Sidney Herbert recalls the _memory
of the Minister who carried on tile war against
the Russian Empire in 1855.- At that time Mr.
Sidney Herbert was a member of the Administration
of Lord Aberdeen, known as the Cabinet of all the
Talents; aLd although when subsequently holding
office as War Minister, he was raised to the peerage
as Lord Herbert of Lea, it is by his name as a
commoner that he will be the better known. The War
Office, although a comparatively humble-looking
building., is really one of the most important depart-
ments of the State. When, a few months ago, there
was a fear of our being involved in hostilities with
Russia, the War Office divided with the Ad-
miralty the full amount of an absorbing public
interest. That war-cloud, however, rolled away;
but no sooner has the country time to gather
itself together, and to look forward to a period
of peace as a restorer of the waning national
prosperity than another trouble appears on the horizon
in the shape of a possible quarrel with the Ameer of
Cabul. Those who remember the difficulties with
Dost Mohammed more than a generation ago, look
forward to the prospect now opened up to them
with uneasiness and alarm. The Afghans are
very far from being contemptible enemies, and
the memories of the catastrophe of the Kyber
Pass render the War Office just now a scene of
business activity, which renders it clear enough
that if we are to fight the Ameer every human pre-
caution will be taken to ensure the success of the
British arm:. No difference of opinion respecting this
or that current of Indian policy would for a moment
stand in tly way of a national determination to uphold
the honour of the British name. And as it would not
be wise to drain India of any considerable number of
troops for Kghanistan, or if there is such a drain the
requisite number must be made 1113 from this country,
the War Office is just now, and must remain for some
weeks to come, one of the busiest departments of the
State.

From west to east of London is a transition which
is made by tens of thousands every day of their lives,
for the eastcrn part of London contains the city,
which is the neart and centre of the wealth of the
metropolis. Let us in imagination turn from Pall
Mall to the top of Ludgate-hill—from an institution
of the State representative of war to an institution of
the church embodying all the associations which are
suggestive of religion and of peace. Crowning Ludgate-
hill is an edifice which possesses as noble a facade as
that of any sacred structure in Europe. St. Paul's
Cathedral is the building of which I speak, and
although in age it falls short by six centuries
of Westminster Abbey, its situation is more command-
ing, and its proportions more striking than those of
the venerable pile of which Dean Stanley is so proud.
The carillon of chimes which is to be placed in St.
Paul's in the course of a week or so, will add very
much to the interest which in these later times has

surrounded the masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren.
The bell tower, as designed by that illustrious man,
has been described by competent authorities as not
to be excelled by that of any continental cathedral,
and all who have wandered through the quaint
cities of Flanders can recall the mellifluous sounds
of the chimes as they have floated away at eventide
from the belfry towers. Until now, however, the
citizens of London have been too busily engaged in
other directions to fill their belfry turret, so that for
more than 200 years an important and impressive
part of the cathedral has remained unused and silent.
That the Corporation and the City Companies should
, have at length united to fill up a blank more con-
spicuous to all who had had experießce of Continental
travel than to those who had never moved away from
the shadow of the Cathedral, must be a source of
satisfaction to all classes in the City. With the in-
auguration of the new Lord Mayor, the carillon of
chimes belonging to St. Paul's will ring out over that
crowded and bustling community, reminding them, as
the sound of bells always does, of a world more endur-
ing than the hills—" a city out of sight."
Years will come and years will go before the
memories of the unparalleled calamity upon the
Thames will fade from the recoUetions of the people
either of this country or of those of any civilized land.
The vast quantity of space devoted to it by the
journals both of London and the provinces has at-
tested the absorbing interest felt by every grade of
humanity in a cat Istrophe which in its gigantic dimen-
sions overshadowed every predecessor, at all events so
far as the Tha mes was concerned. Londoners and visitors
to the capital have always regarded the deck of a river
steamboat to be as safe as a rural turnpike road—far more
safe indeed than Fleet-street or the Strand, for it is a
tradition with the Registrar-General that more people
are killed annually in the thorouebfares of London
than upon the railways of the United Kingdom. If from
the evidence taken at the Coroner's Court and at the sub-
sequent Board of Trade inquiry there should result the
framing of regulations which shall render such terrible
holocausts of life impossible for the future, Parliament
when it meets will but discharge a pressing and mani-
fest duty to the public. Within the space of a very
few days dcath in his most hideous shape made his
appearance in an excursion train, upon a pleasure
steamer, and in the darksome depths of a great colliery,
rendering it clear to man that, amid all the advances
of science, he has quite enough to do to hold his own
against the assaults of what St. Paul has described as
"the last enemy," one ever ready to take advantage
of any laches which may be incidental to the imperfect
construction of the human intellect.
Speaking of the Thames is a reminder of other as-
sociations connected with the history of that famous
highway. Prominent amongst these are the training
ships for the merchant service which are moored at
specified stations eff the shores of Kent and Essex.
These, with the National Refuges for Homeless and
Destitute Children, provide lodging, clothing, educa-
tion, and trade instruction for more thafl a thousand
boys, drawn from the ranks of the destitatexserd home-
less. The School Boards in our great citieiihave done
an enormous amount of good work in swee,pingtle waifs
and strays of the streets into the rate-aided schools;
but when industrial and reformatory establishments
have not been available, the beneficial effect of school
instruction has been neutralised by the bad examples.
witnessed in the children's homes. The teabling.ktrips,
however, and similar institutions, wholly dependent
as they are upon voluntary contributions; make a
provision for a homeless .boy for the BUM of a
year, an amount which for feeding, clothing, and
education, seems remarkably small when compared
with items of expenditure for various other purposes
many of which will at once occur to all who have had
any experience of the world. Those whahave journeyed
by omnibus through Oxford-street and Holbena,
or indeed along any broad thoroughfare of Lon-
don, have observed contingents of what are known
as street arabs turning summersaults as they run
alongside the vehicle, and soliciting coppers from the
passengers in recognition of their dexterity. Having
to live by the keenness of their wits, and with
intellects sharpened to an abnormal extent by their
peculiar mode of life, these little wastrels have often
conveyed to the occupants of the knifeboard the
impression that if they could only be placed in good
schools, the result might be advantageous to them-
selves as well as to the community. The more brain-
power is brought to* bear upon the intellectual and
material wants of the people, the better for all.
The Parliamentary recesss is, both proverbially and
historically, the .chosen time for the airing of what
may not inaptly be described as crotchets, seeing that
the liew=PaPers, without being filled with long reports
of legislative debates, have then an abundance of
space for the discussion of social subjects, A great
deal of controversy is just now going on about English
Art—whether it is advancing, stationary, or declining.
Some pictures exhibited by a well-known champion of
Pre-Raphaelism in London, combined with a general
disposition to conserve the old bright style of painting,
have led some critics to declare that our life is becorn.
ine effeminate, and that we are losing those distinctive
characteristics of robustness which marked the careers
of our forefathers. Such a conclusion is, however based
upon very slight premises. We can see around us on
every hand indications that the heart of the nation
beats with an unabated vigour, and that any signs of
effeminacy in this or that particular branch of art tell
no tale whatever of the decadence of a people. So
long as there remains no diminution in the number of
our ships, the exteht of our cellonieft; and the ramifica-
tions of our commerce, we need be under no appre-
hension that either our power or our influence is 91,
the decline. . .
A great and 14g-n.eeded reform
,le4t length on the
point of being carried out: Ever since its constrnce
tion, more than half a century ago, -Waterloo Bridge
has been crossed only on the payment of a toll, two.
pence for a vehicle, and a halfpenny for a foot
passenger. The structure is one of the best in London,
level as a plane, and without those gradients which are
so perceptible at Southwark and Blackfriare. Cro,sing
the river at a point where there is a large .popula-
tion on either bank, the bridge, by reason • of• the
toll demanded, has not so effectually relieved the

I traffic of the capital, as those east and west of it,
where the passage is free. After an arbitration of
some length, the Metropolitan Board of Works has
secured possession of Waterloo Bridge, and the poor
residents in Lambeth and St. Giles's, who have
hitherto had to make a long detour by Blackfriars or
Westminster in order to cross the river, because they
could not afford to pay the toll, will now be enabled to
reach their homes from their places of work without
being subjected to a vexatious impost. Speaking of
Waterloo Bridge is a reminder of the publid intereA
which has surrounded the raising of Cleopatra's Needle
on the Adelphi Steps of the Embankment just above
the northern abutments. That there is a very con-
siderable amount of interest, not perhaps unmixed with
curiosity, surrounding the appearance of this famous
monolith in London, there can be no doubt whatever.
It is very nearly twelve months since the storm of the
14th of October in the Bay of Biscay, when the
Needle, which was a work of art in the City of
Heliopolis before Moses gave to- rthe children of
Israel the Ten Commandments, was adrift on the
surface of a stormy sea. Fortunately for the associa-
tions of antiquarian art, this monument of vast age
was recovered, and now points heavenward in the
midst of a great people, a silent sentinel watching
Over the progress of a new civilisation.