The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-29 00:00:00

THE LAW OF LANDOWNER AND
TENANT.

In the Lord Mayor of London's Court, on Satur-
day, before the Common Serjeant and a jury, the
case of Morrice v. Donnison was heard. In this case
an important question was raised as to the liability of
tenants to pay for the repair of pavements and road-
ways. Mr. Black was counsel for the plaintiff, and
pepark estate,
Mr. T. T. Milan for the defendant. In opening the
case, Mr. Black said the plaintiff was the
Morrie°, of Salisbury, who was the freeholder of a
Radreekvi.eCnHdaiangnohtn:
bqmuu
rra.yn,At iatideodwf
hbDou
oislnodnui ngi
sgho
tnl,taona dr
le
ecasotsve
eAel:befernrodmet
he
tneh-
the sum of £2 is. Bd., being his proportion of the
cost of repairing the roads.. Though the sum claimed
was small, the principle involved was of consider-
htnnhedtgaehnratdettr
rateable
aeschti
rtbhe
able importance. Formerly the rate for road
repairstdmhifrae
made
eprer different
in
nwt
Fli
houses,oac
roespemrnwoldsepabosuratadybi
lr:uteneathrsci
etcatatdoetot:retddat
ea value,ydormanaged
Hart-
street,
at t
_e
legality of which the defendant disputed. Mr.
Astr.eeAt,. lhaieorf fgretohnwet aa
slge es
ns
eo oewsf
the estate of the Rev. Canon Morrice for many years.
There was a special covenant in the leases that the
charge for repair of the roads was to be levied
according to the rateable value of the houses. All the
lessees with the exception of the defendant had paid
their proportion without objection. In cross-exami-
nation the witness said there was a church called St.
Saviour's on the estate. It was built and endowed by
the plaintiff, who gave the rectory to the incumbent.
There was no charge for road repairs levied on the
thurch or the rectory, or on an adjoining nursery be-
longing to the plaintiff. For the defence, Mr. Fillan
said his contention was that the rate in question could
be levied only according to the frontages of the
houses. The frontage of defendant's residence was
55ft., and he was charged £2 is. Bd., whereas the
rectory, with a frontage of 350 ft., the church, with a
frontage of 105 ft., and the nursery, with a frontage
of 794 ft., got off scot free. The jury eventually
found for the defendant, with a rider to the effect
that the amount paid into Court was more than suffi-
cient. Leave was given to the plaintiff to move on
the legal construction of the lease.

SIR THEODORE MARTIN ON MUSIC.
The Llangollen Musical Festival was held on Tues-
day in a spacious marquee erected on the banks of
the River Dee, and was attended by about 3000
people. The principal choirs of North Wales entered
into the contests, the prize of £3O for the chief choral
competition being won by the Oswestry Philhar-
monic Choir. Major Cornwallis West, Lord-Lieu-
tenant of Denbighshire and Major S. R. Mainwaring,
presided at the morning meeting.
At the evening meeting Sir Theodore Martin,
K.C.8., who occupied the chair, alluded at the outset
of his address to the great increase in the diffusion of
musical culture in Britain since the days of Handel,
and to the keen interest now taken in everything re-
lai ing to the advancement of the art. Sir Theodore
continued as follows: I would wish that all who have
any facility for music should learn its rudiments with
their AB C. What a world of enjoyment would this
not bring into our hard, struggling life? What a
resource in the hours of leisure! Still more precious
in moments of weariness and despondency would be
the power and delight of pouring the heart out in
those immortal melodies wedded to immortal words,
in which their creators found ease and joy for their
hearts, or of enriching our own and others' ears with
the harmonies of the great soul-masters, as I believe
it is now the fashion to call great musical composers.
You remember, I doubt not, a verse which has clung
to my memory since boyhood:
" Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound,
She feels no biting pang the while she sings,
Nor, while she turns the giddy wheel around,
Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things."
How true these simple lines are a long experience has
taught me. The maiden singing at her work, the
ploughman crooning some old song at his plough, the
slate makers sitting, as I have seen them after their
noonday meals, by their cabins or on the hillslopes
siuging part-songs before they resumed their task,
find life, we may be sure, all the sweeter for these
simple pleasui es. (Cheers.) Music, moreover, like
sleep, is to many "the healer of hurt minds, tired
Nature's sweet restorer." It is a balm which; once
within your grasp, you need never be without. It
costs but little; it can never hurt. Truly followed,
its purpose and tendency are to refine and elevate.
It will ascend with you into the regions of your
highest aspirations, even into that sphere of waking
dream in which the soul can sometimes shake ott a
little of its earthy vesture and incambrance. It lifts
us out of ourselves; it makes us, as the nightingale's
song made Keats, forget for a time the weariness, the
fever, and the fret Here, where men sit and hear
each other groan." Nothing again can so truly
minister to social pleasure as good music or bring
people closer together upon a common ground of
genuine feeling. But then it must be true music,
and music with a meaning in it, and not used for the
mere display of voice, or the dexterous manipulation
of the piano or other instruments. Expression is
what gives to music its paramount charm. Let
vocalist and performer—but vocalist especially, and
the remark extends to choral singing as well—consider,
first, what is the central idea or feeling of what he
is going to sing or play; let him try to throw him-
self into the mental attitude of the author of the
words or music, or of both, as it may happen. Having
once mastered that, let him then study the in-
dividualities or phrases by which that idea or feeling
has been expressed, and if he is to sing, let lihn read
and re-read the words till he is able to give them
their due articulation and balance. All this done,
then let him take up the music and see how he may
best clothe the dominant thoughts and varying shades
of suggestion with sound, keeping at the same time
sound ever subservient to the sense. (Cheers.) Thus,
and thus only, will the practice of music, especially of
song, be profitable to the performer himself or bring
home to the hearer's heart and mind what the author
intended. It was this power, which in recent times
placed Mario and Grisi in the foremost rank of singers,
and which in our own days is conspicuous in Sims
Reeves, Santley, Albani, and others who will present
themselves readily to your minds. (Cheers.) It is
thk power, in short, which leaves.a store of images
affd precious thoughts which shall not die, and can-
not be destroyed, impressed upon the minds of those
whc have had the good fortune to hear the greatest
singers and musicians or such choruses as are illus-
trating during the present week the works of great
composers, ancient and modern. To attain some
measure of this power is within the reach of all who
will steadfastly and earnestly keep in view as their
guiding light that the highest aim and crowning
charm of music is expression. (Laud cheers.)