The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-19 00:00:00

PP'

our yrrnbon 6ortezpoitlnnt.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspoadent's opinion..)

During the Queen's stay in Italy her Majesty has
been welcomed by all classes, and by the representa-
tivEs of very differ-nt principles. Italy, though no
longer a geographical expression, nor the phantom of
an united kingdom which she was described not so many
years ago, coßtains, within her frontiers, some exceed-
ingly conflicting interests. It is just twenty years
ago that the movement began in earnest which con-
verted Italy into a great Power from a series of scattered
and disunited duchies. In the summer of 1859, as a
result of the war between France and Austria, Lom-
bardy was taken from the latter and transferred to
Sardinia. In the next year Parma, Modena, Umbria,
and the Marches with the two Sicilies followed suit.
In 1866 Italy obtained possession of Venetia, and
in 1870, the troops of Victor Emmanuel occu-
pied Rome. All these changes could not have been
brought about without dissatisfying some classes and
interests. Yet, however much they may differ amongst
themselves, they have all joined in a welcome to Eng-
land's Queen. Freed for a season from many of the cares
of State, her Majesty has been reposing at Baveno, on
the Lago Maggiore, 13oking out upon the Borromean
Islands, and enjoying the beautiful scenes presented to
her view at this point of the picturesque Italian lake.
The Pope, the King of Italy, and General Garibaldi,
have all been ready to congratulate the Royal lady,
who rules over the British Empire, and who has ful-
filled her constitutional duties in so exemplary a man-
ner. The principles upon which she has acted during
the forty-two years of her reign have materially con-
tributed to the stability of her Throne, while nearly
every Continental State, and well nigh every
European dynasty, have suffered from the shock of
great revolutions.

It might have been expected that the severity of the
winter would have been expended before we had got
half way into April, but the people of Italy do not
seem to have fared much better than ourselves. Her
Majesty left England amid a blinding snowstorm
on the 25th of March, and during a considerable
proportion of the Royal stay upon the banks of the
Lago Maggiore the weather has been unpropitious,
broken, however, by intervals of peculiar contrast in
the way of magnificent vistas of noble glimpses of
scenery seen through the grey storm-clouds that
fasten them in. The Queen has, however, borne
the trying weather with exemplary patience,
and has shown a remarkable tenacity of pur-
pose in venturing out whenever the atmospheric
conditions permitted. Were it not for the two
first magnificent days of the Sovereign's sojourn
at Baveno, her faith in the Italian climate
might have been sorely shaken. The day that the
Princess Beatrice went to Milan was rather a
tempestuous one; but in the evening the sunset
was one of rare splendour, one of those exception-
ally fine spectacles that sometimes succeeds a
day that has been blurred and broken by a
storm. Clouds that only a little before appeared
to threaten were suddenly transformed into crimson
reflectors of the declining sun, casting on the distant
snow ranges a hue of the most delicate pink, and on
the nearer lower hills a purple of deepest hue. The
Queen watched with much interestthis beautiful picture
of Nature's painting, this bathing of the landscape in
delicious colour, which enveloped the lake and its islands
In a delightful transformation scene too soon to pass
away.

Tithe, however, is inexorable, as well as in the

case of powerful Sovereigns as in that of the hum-
blest of their subjects. The enjoyment of the de-
lightful scenery of Baveno will soon exist only in
memory ; for official notice has been given by the
Lord Chamberlain that her Majesty will hold Draw-
ing Rooms at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday the
6th, and Thursday the Bth of May. These will be the
first held by the Queen since last year ; for hitherto,
during the present season, in consequence of the
death of Princess Alice, the Princess of Wales has
presided over these gatherings. When the Lord
Chamberlain announces that a Drawing Room will be
held by the Princess of Wales, he always adds an ex-
pression of the Queen's wish that presentations to her
Royal Highness shall be considerLd as equivalent to
presentations to her Majesty. So far well. At the
same time itia undeniable that to be presented to the
Sovereign in person is an honour much more highly
coveted than a presentation to a Princess, whether
the wife of the Heir Apparent or one of the Queen's
daughters. The consequence is that when her Majesty
does hold a Drawing Room an enormous numsber of
names is sent into the Lord Chamberlain's office fcr
the approval of that exalted functionary. As an
illustration of the truth of what is here advanced, it
may be stated that a season or two ago, there were
400 ladies for presentation at one of the Queen's
Drawing Rooms, while at a Drawing Room presided
over by one of the princesses there were only sixteen.
Before one-half of the 400 fair ones could pay their
respects to the S'overeign, she was so fatigued as to be
compelled to retire, and to depute her ditties to one
of her daughters; whilst in the latter case the pro-
ceedings lasted only a few minutes, and would scarcely
have been missed had they not taken place at all
These are, of course, extreme instances, which may
never occur again; but it is abundantly clear that
whatever official etiquette may order as to presenta-
tions being considered eqrivalent, to be presented to
the Queen is looked upon as the highest possible
honour by those who are enabled to obtain it.
These Drawing Rooms, with the levee to be held by
the Prince of Wales at St. James's Palace 043
Saturday, May 3rd, remind us that the best time of
the London Season is now at hand. There are many
noble and aristocratic families who do not leave their
country seats at all for the metropolis until after the
Easter recess. Then they come up to the capital in
the most interes Ging part of the spring ; their mansions,
which form a fringe of palaces round the Parks, look
down upon a scene of daily developing. beauty. The
vegetation, which has remained dormant throughout a
long and dreary winter, bursts forth into a new and
active life ; the trees are once more clothed in hues of
varied shades of greenery; their branches, rich with
foliage, once more echo to the song of birds;
and the floricultural adornments of the great open
spaces carry the imagination of the spectator far away
from the crowded town. From Easter to Whitsuntide,
London is at its freshest and its brightest. To those
who have spent the winter at a long distance
"from populous city pent," the roar of life
which surrounds the homes of a vast community
is a grateful relief from months of silence in mansions
looking out upon leafless woods; the lengthening days
are not accompanied by those terrible heats so often
characteristic of July; and parks and squares possess a
verdure refreshing to the eye which is accustomed to
the contemplation of the mighty province of houses
which makes up the great world of London. By-and-
bye, when the sun is seventeen hours above the horizon,
the leaves of the trees will become brown and parched,
the flowers will wither and decay; those who are able
to do so will take wing to fresh fields and pastures new;
London will be empty, so far as the residences of the
upper ten thousand are concerned ; and the business of
the capital will be left to the three millions and a
quarter who ordinarily constitute its vast population.
The intelligence from Egypt, the later news from
the Cape, the progress of events in Afghanistan, the
anxiety respecting our relations with Burmah, and the
suspense surrounding the condition of affairs in Eastern
Roumelia, have united to make the holiday of Her

Majesty's ministers one less complete than they had a
alright to expect. The head of a great Department
of the State has by no means a sinecure to flit. He
is at his office at Whitehall by ten in the forenoon,
and shortly after four in the afternoon, when many
a city clerk is going home for the day, Ministers go
down to the House of Commons for another eight or
ten hours of attendance there. When it is remembered
that most of our Cabinet ministers are men of
mature years, it will be seen how exacting are the
duties which fall upon them, and that would un-
doubtedly be try ing to many a younger man. This year's
Easter Recess, even at its best, would have been
less than ten days to those members of the Cabinet
who have seats in the House of Commons; but that
brief per'od was abridged by the necessity of holding
protracted Cabinet consultations after the adjourn
ment of both Houses of Parliament for their spring
vacation. This is one of the penalties which must be
paid by the rulers ox an empire whose dominion
stretches over every sea, and whose interests have to
be attended to in all parts of the world.
Sixty years ago Mr. Canning thought it prudent to
call into existence the life of the new world to re-
dress the balance of the old. By the establish-
ment of numerous little republics in South America,
that eminent statesman deemed that he had accom-
plished the purpose at which he aimed. There are
a good many of these, but we seldom hear of them
unless they happen to go to war with each other. This
is just the case now with Chili and Bolivia, which
have begun hostilities. They lie beside each other on
the western side of the South American continent, and
ought to have room enough to develop their prosperity
without one interfering with the progress of the other.
Yet they have gone to war, although at this distance
we can scarcely form an idea of what it is about. We
have been told by Shakspeare that "war is a game
which were subjects wise kings would not play at." It
has certainly been usual to regard kings as the authors
of wars, and their peoples as the helpless victims of
Royal ambition; but the history of the Spanish re-
publics shows a military aggressiveness for which it
would be hard to find a parallel amongst the
monarchies of the world- There are Republics
and Eepublice ; and industry is not an interest
of the Southern continent of America, as it is

of the northern. It was a suggestion of Sir
Charles Lyell, the eminent geologist—Had the Puritan
Fathers landed on the banks of the Plata, how
many hundreds of large steamers would era this have
been plying the Parana and Uruguay—how many
railway trains would have been flying over the Pampas
—how many large schools and universities would
have been flourishing in Paraguay But the
Pilgrim Fathers turned towards the northern shores
of Massachusetts instead of to the glowing waters
of the Plata ; they pitched their tents in an
atmosphere frigid with the breezes wafted from the
frozen St. Lawrence, rather than upon the warm sands
of the coasts washed by the blue waves of the southern
main. And thus we see, in the history of those far-
off Republics, that political institutions and laws can
do but little for the peace or prosperity of a people
who have not learned to control themselves, or to
respect the rights of their neighbours. Far different it
is with the wide-spreading Republic on the North
American continent, washed upon the one side by the
tempestuous billows of the Atlantic, and upon the
other by the calmer waters of the Pacific ocean !
The attendance at the funeral of Sir Anthony
Panizzi at Kensal Green Cemetery on Saturday,
testified to the high esteem in which he was held by
those who were best able to appreciate his worth.
For five-and-thirty years he held high office at the
British Museum, and during a conbiderable part of
that time was Principal Librarian. When he retired
from the active sphere of his duty in June, 1866,
he left the great National Institution at Bloomsbury
with the finest library in the world, comprising more
than half a million volumes. He had also cata-
logued the whole of this vast number of books, so that
they were rendered easy of reference to the library
student. What the Government thought of Mr.
Panizzi's services was shown by their recommending
the House of Commons to vote him his full salary as a
retiring pension, and by conferring upon him the dis-
tinction of a Knight Commander of the Bath. He
lived to a good old age in Bloomsbury-square, hard by
the scene of his earlier exertions, nearly half a genera-
tion after his retirement from the public service.