The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-07-17 00:00:00

DEATH OF LORD TAUNTON.

It is with much regret we announce the sudden
death of Lord Taunton. He died between two and 1
three o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, after an illness of '
only a few hours. On the Tuesday previous he spoke in
the debate upon the Irish Church with even more than '
his accustomrd imprrisaiverieas and authority ;he spoke '
stain shortly Olt Ft iday. ABM ugh he did not attend the .
House of Lords on Monday, he drove out in an open
carriage, and it w.os only on Tuesday that the fatal
symptoms appeared.
L ,rd 'Taunton's career had been throughout one of
high distinction. Born in 1798 he took a first clam in
classics at Oxford'in 1820, and was early initiated into
official life. He was a Lord of the Admiralty from 1832
to 1834. Vice-President of the Bard if Trade from 1835
to 1839. then for a short time Under-Secretary of the
Coloniew and then, returning to his former office, but
with augmented rank. President of the Board of Trade
from 1839 to 1841. He was, an he reminded the House in
his last conti 'erable speech, Chief Secretary for Ireland
from July, 1846, to July, 1847, including, therefore, a
lrne portion of the famine period, and on leaving
ind he resumed once more his old place at the
Board of Trade, which he filled from 1847 until 1852,
during which time he took a leacing part in the repeal
of the Navigation Laws. In 1855 he became Secretary
of State for the colonies, which office he held until
1858 and in the following year he was raised to the
Peerage as Lord Taunton. a title which he assumed in
compliment to the borough he had represented for
nearly thirty years.
Although he sat ten years in the House of Lords,
Lord Taunton will be beat known WI Mr. Labouchere,
under which name the longer as well as the more active
portion of his political life was spent, but in both
Hollers of Parliament be was Leper ally and highly
respectsd. Before entering Parliament he travelled
in the United States and in Canada with Lord Derby
and the present Speaker of the House of Commons,
and bath by material interests and by sympathy he was
largely connected with America.
By his first wife, a daughter of Sir Thomas Baring,
and sisterof Mr. Thomas; Baring, M.P., who also died
suddenly in 1850, he had several daughters, one of
. whom is married to Captain Ellis, Equerry of the
Prince of Wales. Lord Taunton subsequently married
in 1852. Lady Mary Howard, daughter of the sixth
• Earl of Carlisle, who surrives
l Lord Taunton's last public employment was as
' Chairman of the Endowed Schools Commiasion ; but
i in whatever capacity he appeared he ineremed the re-
putation he had early gained as a scholar, as a gentle-
man, and as a zealous and able servant of the public.

THE LADIES IN THE HOUSE
OF COMMONS.
Althouzli woman is generally regarded as the "weaker
sex," she can make her presence felt a-believer she likes, as
many of our readers can perhaps testify and lest at any
time she should be alike demonstrative in the Engliah senate-
house, It Is still deemed expedient to retain a precauttin
against such an evasieri—a precaution in which it seems she
encore, and of which she approves. In a leader, en Mr.
Herbert's chlvalious attempt to remove the giating before
the L idles' Hallery, The Times remarks;—
Although Mr. Herbert has failed in his attack upon
the grating of the Ladies' Gallery in the House of
Commons, ho may console himself by the reflection
that hi+ efforts have secured for his fair clients all that
most of them really wish or require: He has succeeded
in obtaining the attention of the House to the discom-
fort to which its lady visitors have been needlessly ex-
posed, and the First Commissioner of Works will now
feel that he has its sanction for doing all that can be
done in the way of providing them better accommoda-
tion. We fear this will not be very much no long as
the House itself i+ allowed to retain its present in-
adequate dimensions; but whenever the members at
last resolve to make a little more room for themselves,
the ladies will doubtless not be forgotten. Better vela+
tilatien and a more comfortable arrangement of seats
are all they really care about, and the "grate question,"
as Mr. Lowe christened it, derived its importance
simply from being mixed up, very unnecessarily,
with the perfectly distinct question of improved ac-
commodation.
If the speakers who wished the grating removed bad
been able to assert that it interfered with the personal
comfort of their clients, they would have had, at any
rate, one argument worth advancing, though not, we
think, sufficient to counterbalance those to be urged
against the removal of the grating. But, as it was.
such few arguments as they could muster cut the
wrong way, and disposed fratricidally of each other.
In order to sustain the assertion that the visible
presence of ladies in the house would make no sort of
impression upon the speakers, that no member " could
lay his hand upon his heart and declare that when he
r+ se to speak he ever gave a thought to them," it was
scarcely wise to dwell upon the influence they actually
bad or might have exercised in putting down senatorial
intoxication and garrulity. We rather agree with the
sentiments expressed in the clever and amusing
letter of Mr. Layard's correspondent, and hold that
the ladies would interfere with the comfort of the
members, not only in their standing up but in their
sitting down, and that they "Could not come
and stretch and sleep as they now do, if they
saw that the ladies saw them." We also quite agree
with the statement that "a good many ill-natured re-
marks and objections are made impossible by the inter-
position of this objectionable grating ;" that no one
can now say that "Mr. --- said steand-so because
Lady --- was in the gallery, or that Sir ---
always stammers and breaks down when MISS
is present." Indeed, when we consider the influence
which the visible presence of woman usually exercises
upon man in most of the affairs of life, we require some