The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-12-20 00:00:00

Our plan arrtspatnt.

We deem it right to !ate that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Regularly as the 14th of December rolls round in
each year, a religious service is held in the Royal
Mausoleum at Frogmore, where the remains of the
late Prince Consort were laid to their long rest so
many years ago. Unhappily this is a doubly-
mournful anniversary in the history of the Queen's
household. Seventeen years passed between the
death of the Prince and the loving daughter who
nursed him through his last illness, and six years have
now gone since that gloomy Saturday in December
1878, when the telegraph announced from Darmstadt
that the lamented Princess Alice had fallen a victim
to the devotion which as a tender mother she had
shown to her sick children. Nearly a quarter of a
century has elapsed since the Queen was left a widow,
a space of time which works changes in the house..
hold as well as in the destinies of nations; and the
most exalted fireside in the land exemplifies the truth
of this saying. When the Queen's husband died, only
one of her children had left home —the Princess Royal,
to settle in Berlin. Now only one remains at home
Princess Beatrice, who was then a child of less than
five years old. Two of her Majesty's children have
died after marriage—Princess Alice and the Duke of
Albany. The Prince of Wales, who then lived at
home with his parents, has now a son twenty-one
years of age, and therefore old enough to come to the
throne should circumstances arise which might be
favourable to his accession.

These circumstances do not seem likely to arise just
at present. There are two lives and very good ones
too, between Prince Albert -Victor and the Crown.
Queen Victoria, at 65 years of age, shows no indica-
tions of failing health; indeed the Sovereigns of the
House of Hanover have been remarkable for their
longevity. The youngest of these at the time of his
death was aeorge 1., and he was ea. George 11. was
77, George 111. was 82, George IV. was 68, and Wil-
liam IV. was 72. So, taking an average of the years
of her predecessors, her Majesty has many more yet
to live. Her uncle, William IV. was her present
age when he assumed the sceptre; while her
Majesty has already reigned 47 years. Another
instance of the fickleness of fortune in the
allotment of the terms of supreme power was found
in the case of George 111. His father, the then
Prince of Wales, lived to the age of 51, and never
came to the throne at all; while George himself
began to reign at 22, and continued to do so for the
amazing term of siicy years.
The present lull in political excitement is grateful
enough to all who passed through so much commo-
tion in the autumn. The division of opinion re-
specting the one-membered districts will not lead to
demonstrations in Hyde-park or elsewhere, and
although these may be serious enough in the House
of Commons itself, they are scarcely likely
to form the subject of blast and counter-
blast at public meetings. Although the plan
has the high support of Mr. Cobden, the
Liberal party is anything but united in its sup-
port; but as it has been virtually agreed upon by Mr.
Gladstone and the Marquis of Salisbury, there seems
at present little doubt of its substantially becoming
law. Clearly it is no question of party. The multi-
plication of polls under it will be extraordinary, and
the Press Association has issued a printed table show-
ing the changes in each county of the United Kingdom
which will be effected by the Redistribution Bill in its
existing form as well as how, by the extension of the
single-member system the scheme will very largely
affect the number of separate elections to
be held. Two illustrations be suffi-
cient. There are now twenty-two members
for London, with 10 polls; there will in future be
60 members with 59 polls. Lancashire now returns
33 members with 19 polls; in future it will have 58
members with 54 polls. However any newspaper can
attempt to publish the polls of the next general
election it seems impossible to conceive. Take
Lambeth and Liverpool as examples. Hitherto one
Poll has sufficed for each; in future each will have
nine polls, so that instead of two results being enough
there will be eighteen. Those who are placed in charge
of the political departments of the daily papers may
well be dismayed at such a prospect as this.

Visitors to the Law Courts are familiar with the
church of St. Clement Danes in the Strand, with its
carillon of pretty chimes and. its unique position in
the centre of a great higfiiia-y- between the City of
London and tho City of Westmingter. History and
tradition both tell us that in the olden days the
Danes, making their way in their primeval barques
over the troubled waters of the German Ocean,
actually came up the Thames as far as the Strand,
and pillaged and burnt the portion of London now
represented by St. Clement's Church. There Dr.
Johnson, who lived in Gouc,h-square, Fleet-street, was
accustomed to worship, and his pew is duly marked
to this day. As the lexicographer died on the
13th December, 1784, the centenary of his death
has been commemorated by a special service in the
church which, more than a hundred years ago, he was
wont to attend. His house in Gough-square still
stands, its appearance and its locality showing by con-
trast the change which has come over the social life
of England during the past century. The literary
men who now live in the City of London can be counted
on the fingers of one hand; their residences are mostly
found in pretty suburban villas miles away north,
south, and west.

King William-street, London-bridge, has been col%
rectly described as the busiest thoroughfare in the
busiest city in the world. No spectacle like it can be
witnessed elsewhere on the surface of the planet. The
reason is clear. London-bridge is the first structure
over the Thames from the sea, so that a vast quantity
of traffic has to come up miles on either bank before
it _can cross the crowded stream. It is then poured
over the river in a mighty volume which forms one of
the sights of London for country visitors. It is there-
fore easy to judge of the indignation which was experi-
enced in the metropolis on Saturday evening when it
became known that an attempt had been made to
blow up London-bridge by dynamite. It seems to
have been equally reckless, equally insensate, with
the outrages at the great termini in February, and
in Pall-mall and Trafalgar-square on the 30th May.
Of one thing the conspirators may be perfectly assured,
that although most of them have hitherto escaped
the just penalty of their atrocious crimes, should these
be brought home to them, they will feel severely the
effects of the avenging arm of the law. The cowardly
nature of the plots, and the utter indifference to the
sacrifice of human life which might be involved, adds
to the infamy with which such offences are regarded
in all ,3ivilised lands.

The 9entenee of six months' imprisonment without
hard labour, to which the capital penalty has been
commuted in the Mignonette case, however it may ,
satisfy public opinion, is more than the men expected,
if any estimate can be formed by their demeanour
while the matter was being argued in the Royal
Courts of Justice. Both Dudley and Stephens
apparently failed to realise the gravity of tjae offence
for which the law provides sentence of death. Im-
prisonment without hard labour was at one time a
much easier affair than it is now. Since the passing
of the Prisons' Act of the late Home Secretary the
punishment under this description of discipline has
been materially increased in severity. Of course this
sentence of six months will have to be served out to
the full, and no reduction can 131 expected after the
consideration which the Home Office has already
given to the case.
However much the heavy rains of this month may
have given rise to the criticism that the warm south-
west wind and high temperature were unseasonable,
here can be no doubt that they have proved a great
blessing to London. This has been one of the driest and
hottes years of modern record, and the report of the
Royal Commissioners appointed to inquire into the
condition of the Thames, proved the state of the
river to be a disgrace to civilisation. Very little
water came down from the country, and the drainage
of four millions of people poured into the stream at
a point where it was hoped it would be carried out to
sea, was instead distributed over the whole of the
tidewa. , and up as far as Teddington. Therefore
althougt the heavy rains of December might have
proved personally inconvenient to many, they have
been grateful enough as a sanitary instrument in the
midst of a vast population, which cannot be too
thankful that it has escaped the scourge C cholera,
which has fallen upon the towns upon the shores of
the Mediterranean.

--
A fortune-hunter, in advertising for a wife, deli-
cately said: "It would be well if the lady were pos-
sessednf a competency sufficient to secure her spinst
excessive grief, in case of a fatal accident occurring to
her companion.