The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-21 00:00:00

MIIMMIIMIMI

one seemed to be able to settle down properly to
work, knowing that the business for which Parliament
was called together would not occupy more than a fort-
night. However, when the two Houses again meet in
February, there will be a clear run of legislative duty
before them. By that time we shall know a little
more of the prospects of a dissolution than can be
ascertained now. Every one has his own opinion on
the matter, some authorities assuring you that there
be an appeal to the country in January; others
asserting that there will be none for the next two
years.

I will

The birds which shape their flight towards our lati-
tudes from Norway and Sweden, on account of the
severe cold, did not gain much by their motion. Those
who, for several winters past, have complained that
the times were no longer those of old-fashioned
weather, have not lately been able to grumble on this
account. It is remarkable how often a severe winter
is an accompaniment of great national suffering and
calamity. We need not go back to 1814, when we
were at war with France, and the Thames was frozen
over for thirteen weeks; but there are many of us who
can remember 1854, when we were at war with Russia,
and the winter was one of exceptional severity. In
'December 1870, during the siege of Paris, the cold was
so terrible in its intensity that sentries were frozen to
death by scores at their posts. Now, putting our
lbeing at war with Afghanistan out of thil
question, and turning our attention to the aspect of
things in our own midst, it is seen that at a season when
business is more dull, work more scarce, and distress j
greater than for years past, a hard winter sweeps
down upon the land to aggravate the already existing
misery. In a large community like that of London,
the observant on-looker in such weather gets a sight
of two worlds. In the vast spreading districts of the
east, with its population equal to that of Liverpoo
and Glasgow united, the people are to a great
extent those of the working class, and a hard
frost throws large numbers out of employment,
thus depriving them of their means of sub-
sistence. Leave that part of the metropolis
which catches the first rays of the rising sun,
and turn towards the west—that to which proverbially
the course of empire takes its way. The occupauts of
the mansions there hail the advent of King Frost as
providing a healthy and exhilarating means of recrea-
tion much too rarely experienced in the temperate
zone. The skates, which have been unused for years,
are brought forth from their retirement, and the lakes
and ornamental waters in the parks are alive with
human figures whose enjoyment of the exercise is so
great that they are ready to risk their lives in order to
attain it. The brief midwinter day is not long enough
for the pursuit, but long after darkness has settled
down upon the scene, it is carried on by torchlight,
and as the skaters move rapidly over the ice,
innumerable flambeaux, borne in their hands, pass
swiftly to and fro, the whole making up a weird
and startling picture. Thus it is that within the
radius of that vast aggregate of people which make up
London, that which is regarded as a calamitous visita-
tion in one part, as adding to privations already
existent, is looked upon in another in the light of a
Heaven-sent blessing, and contributing to sources of
pleasure which make up the sum of human life
amongst the wealthy and the well-to-do.