The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-11-10 00:00:00

NATIONAL CELEBRATIONS.

The Fifth of November has come and gone
and with it customary celebrations in English
towns ot the escape of Kings, Lords, and Com- ,
mons from destruction in the early winter of
1605. That is a very long ti ne ago, and yet in
this country the frustration of the attempt of
Guy Fawkes is commemorated with a heartiness
by the rising generation as though we still-lived
in the times of the Stu irts, and the House of
Hanover knew nothing of the British Crown.
More especially in cathedral ci'ics, where the
pervading ecclesiastical spirit is still powerful,
though not E 0 strong as of yore, Bonfire Night
is looked forw,ra to wi..hkeen relish and cnjoyed
an animated saturnalia. In c ithedral closes
and on beacon heights the dark sky is il u uined
by the lurid glare of leaping flames and the air
resounds with the detonations of crackers. Thus,
is perpetuated, decade by decade, generation by
generation, and century by century, the deliver-
ance from death of the Most High and Mighty
Prince James, King of Great Brit tin, France,
and Ireland, the lords spiritual and temporal
and knights, citizens, and burgesses in Parlia-
ment assembled.

The history of Ireland shows, as does this
annual Fifth of November celebration, that re-
ligious differencegare, of all which agitate the hu-
min mind, the most difficult to eradicate. The
Battle of tee Boyne aui the seige of .Derry are
comm2morated now in quite as lively a manner
as when these were first set up as an institution.
So with Guy Fawkes Day. Had the atrocious
designs of the conspiriators not been associated
with religious animosi.y, they would long ago
have been forgotten. But when FawkeE, Catesby
Percy, and Winter resolved to terminate the ex-
istence of the sovereign and his parliament, re-
iiious feeling uudoubtly ran very high. The
long reign of a Protestant Queen who had hu-
mediately suceeded a Catholic Queen had but just
come to an end and the accesion of the Scottish
King to the English Throne was the only means
of securing the Protestant succession. If the
monarch could be destroyed what cared desperate
and reckless men ? The warning letter to Lord
Monteagle happily averted the commission of a
wupendous crime, aid it is not surprising that
the safety of the thriu estates of the realm was
was at the time a source of great national rejoic-
ing. But it may be pointed out that great events
have happened since of mementons interest to
the British people which find no placa in the
public recollection. Two hundred years after the
discovery of the Gunpowder Piot—on the 21st
October, 1805—a great naval victory was gained
which in its consequences were quite as impor-
tant as the finding of thirtysix barrels of gun-
powder under the vaults of the Houses of Parlia-
ment. It crowned a series of triumphs on the
sea whish put an end to Napoleon's menace of
invasion which could it have bean str:cessf ully
accomplished would have had far more serious
results than any contemplated by Guy Fawkes.
But who thinks of the 21st October when it an-
nually comes round albeit the victory is not yet
eighty years old? It passes with a brief news-
paper paragraph, and dressing of Nelson's old
ship with laurels in Portsmouth Harbour. Take
again the Battle of Waterloo which completely
overthrew Napoleon, freed the continent of
Europe from a public enemy and gave the nation
peace for forty years. It passes with as little
interest for the people as Trafalgar and no one
seems to care to notice it.
It is true that the Fifth of November is mem-
orable for more reasons than one in British his-
tory. It was on that day in 1854 that the Battle
of Inkerman was fought. That is a conflict
within the memory of many in early middle life
who recollect very well that during the eleven
months' siege of Sebastopol incredible hardships
were undergone by the investing forces. On
the sth of November, 1854, whilst the bleak plat-
eau of the Crimea was enshrouded in a watery
mist driven in irom the tempestuous Black Sea
60,000 Russians issued from The beleaguered
fortress, and fell upon 14,000 of the allies, who
held their own through a long and dreary day
and the Russians at nightfall withdraw to the
city discomfited. The great sortie had failed,
and no further efforts were made in the same
direction. But it is doubtful whether those
who so cheerfully celebrate the sLli of November
have many thoughts for the struggle of 1854,
when Prince Gortschakoff made such a determined
effort to drive the allied armies into the Euxine,
In like manner it may be asked who remembers the
Bth September, the date of the capture of Se-
bastopol? Scarcely any one in the present gen-
eration, although at the time the news was re
ceived with demonstrations of the utmost rejoic-
ing. It put an end to a great European war, and
this country has not since been engaged in a
similar struggle. But it lacked the spice of re-
ligious difference which makes the meniory of
the Fifth of November green, and is thus fol.
gotten.