The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-06-09 00:00:00

Onr finun turtspOent.

(We deem it right to siaes that we do net at all times
Identify onrselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

It has often been said that it is a long lane which has
no turning, and after a lengthened succession of bad
seasons, a good time seems at last to have come for
the British agriculturist. There have been seven years
not precisely of famine, but certainly of scarcity, not
so pronounced as that described as having prevailed
in the land of Egypt in days of old, but of great
diecouragement to the tiller of the soil. He has toiled
and sown for harvest the seed upon the land, but has
reaped nothing like the reward of his labours to
which he had a right to look forward. The pro-
tracted and wet winter appeared to come as a
climax to his troubles. The proverbially merry month
of May opened dull and sold; but before it had closed
there was a magnificent burst of summer which
extended into June. Many of us had almost forgotten
what fine weather was site: so many months of rain
and tempest. Added to the bright sunshine is the
effort being made by Parliament, through the medium
of the Agricultural Holdings Bill, to ameliorate the
position of the tenant-farmers in England, so that
altogther the farming interest:wears a more encourag-
ing aspect than it has done for some years past.
The Ascot race week may truly enough be said to
mark the climax of the London season. Between
Epsom and Ascot comes in the Horse Show at
Islington, which is very popular, especially on the
days when it is visited by the members of the Royal
family. Ascot is the most fashionable of all the
gatherings of this kind which take place in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of London. The Derby is at-
tended by a vast crowd of all sorts and conditions of
people ; but Ascot is more select and aristocratic.
The Prince and Princess of Wales drive on to
the course in what is called semi-state, the
Master of the Horse gorgeously mounted, heading the
Royal procession. it may not be generally known
that the chief magistrate at Bow-street always attends
the Ascot races and sits in an improvised court close
to the grand stand for the purpose of dealing at once
with offenders there and then who are detected in
delinquencies.

After Ascot, if the weather be hot continuously, as
in 1868, when there were weeks of scorching sunshine
without a drop of rain, the numerous engagements of
the long summer days begin to tell upon those who
have to discharge them, and the mind turns irre-
sistibly towards a desire for rest and change.
People begin to long for the breezes from the sea and
for the pure mountain air, for the relief from the noise
and bustle of the town which is found in the calm
quietude of rural scenery, the silence of the lofty hills,
and the murmur of the waters through the peaceful
valleys. London on such hot days as those ex-
periencea- on the 6th and 15th July, 1881, when the
thermometer stood at 92 and 9.degrees in the shade
respectively, may be likened unto an enormous furnace.
True the vast place is cut in two by the river,
which sends a current of air right and left of its
ample stream ; but let the breeze be what
it may, there is no getting over the idea that one is in
a big town, and would like to be in the fields far away
enough from it. Therefore it is that when the time
arrives for the meeting at "Glorious Goodwood "—the
description given of the Duke of Richmond's beautiful
park in Sussex—which generally comes about the third
week in July, the metropolis visibly thins, and the
toilers in the great city betake themselves away from
it for a temporary rest.
The office of a stipendiary magistrate in London is
one of considerable dignity andimportance. A vacancy
has lately arisen in consequence of the death of
Mr. Ellison, of the Lambeth Police-court. There
are two magistrates for each court, with the excep-
tion of Bow-street, where there are three. They
each sit three days a week, so that the duties
are not of a very laborious character. The salary of
the chief magistrate, who invariably receives the
honour of knighthood, is £1,800; that of the others is
£1,500. For the post which lately fell in the Home
Secretary reoeived more than a thousand applications.
The Prime Minister has asked Parliament to push
along with its work if the session is not to be alto-
gether a barren one; and one thing may have been
noticed of late—the greater activity of the House .of
Lords. In the earlier months ot the session the peers
have nothing to do; because no-'bills have come
up from the Commons; and althoq&h to a great
extent this is still the ,ease, their 16Coiships do good
service by initiating debates on pressing questions of
national urgency, The Upper Chamber contains
some of the best debaters of the day—statesmen who
have served an apprenticeship in the Commons and
have held office whilst having seats in that assembly.
There is, for instance, the Lord Chancellor, who was
Attorney-General more than half a generation ago;
Earl Cairns, who succeeded him in that office ; the
Marquis of Salisbury, who as Viscount Cranborne was
Secretary of State for India; Viscount Cranbrook,
who as Mr. Gathorne Hardy, held one Cabinet office
after another in the Lower House; Lord Aberdare,
who as Mr. Bruce was Home Secretary; Viscount
Sherbrooke, who as Mr. Lowe was Chancellor of the
Exchequer; Viscount Cardwell, who had held more
than one Secretaryship of State; Lord Carlingford,
who was ehief Secretary for Ireland. The list might
be indefinitely extended; but in addition to the peers
who have passed through the Commons there are
many very able men in the House of Lords who never
held seats in the People's Chamber.
With respect to the time of release from legislative
duty, which is trying enough in such hot days as
those 'which have lately passed over London, there
seems no reason why, with due diligence, the session
should not close at the usual time, and that is about
the middle of August. As Parliament assembled on
the 15th February, this would make the customary
six menthe, omitting the two recesses at Easter and
Whitsuntide. Of course in theory Parliament can sit
as long and as late as it pleases; but as a matter of
fact it is very difficult indeed to keep a House
together after the 12th of August. Members who
have for months rented moors in Scotland and in
Yorkshire do not at all see the force of remaining in
the sultry atmosphere of Westminster, while others
are gleefully despatching grouse in the north.

The mention of Lord Lansdowne's name in con-
nection with the governor-generalship of Canada has
brought prominently before the public attention the
contrast between two great dependencies of the British
Crown in climate, in population, and in the character
of the people. Canada has been described as a great
lone land; and lonely enough it is in its ina:cessible
regions. Its vast forests, its ice-bound rivers, its
wiske-spreading solitudes, its rigorous climate during
a 4rge portion of the year, and its sparse population
et-Tingly contrast with the two hundred and forty
millions of crowded Hindostan, its clear skies, its
brilliantsunshine, its busy cities, its rushing rivers,
and, it may be added, its superstitions. The Vica-
r )yalty of India is the most splendid appointment in
the gift of the Crown, and attached to it is a salary of
£30,000 a-year. This distinguished post has always
!)een held by a prominent statesman of either of the
two political parties ; and at times, besides the ever.
weighing responsibility, the discharge of its duties
has involved extraordinary anxiety, such as that which
weighed upon Lord Canning, at the time of the Indian
Mutiny, whilst in the case of Lord Mayo his life actually
fell a sacrifice to the dagger of the assassin. The
V:e 'royalty of Canada is obviously not of such import-
act.3 as that of India; but the close vicinity of that
dependency to the United States has often rendered
the aloe one exceedingly difficult to fill. Attached to it
lean alloy/arm of £20,000 a year, the same as the
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; but the post it much
more laborious, looking at the amount of travelling
which falls to the lot of the Canadian Viceroy. Each
appointment is held for five years—that is, so far as
India and Canada are coneerned ; but in the case of
the Earl of Dufferin, one ef the most successful of
modern Canadian Governor-Generals, the term was
extended to six, at the special request of the colonists
themselves.