The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-12-28 00:00:00

,Aur yontion aorrtspridatt
(We em right to state that we do net az all than
an tif y our;elves with our Correspondent's oplatog&I

The winter session of Parliament was not a long
one. Beginning on the bth and ending on the 17th
Deeember, it lasted less than a fortnight, and its
practical business wee confined to one subject—the
payment of the expenses of the Afghan war. A
resolution was carried in each House of the legieaure,
in which assent was expressed that the money should
be found by the people of India. Votes of censure
on the Afghan policy of the Government having been
rejected in both Houses, and the decision affecting
the Indian Exchequer having been agreed to, Lords
and Commons agreed to a vote of condolence with the
Queen on the death of Princess Alice, and adjourned
until the 13th February. This is later than Parlia-
ment is wont ordinarily to assemble; it is four weeks
after the time at which it met last January. Adding,
however, the twelve days of the winter session to it,
would make about the ordinary length of a sitting.
However, so far as the business of December was con-
cerned, the peers and representatives of the people
were not sorry to get away from Westminster to their
respective counties, where, as many a Royal speech
has reminded them at the prorogation, they have im-
portant duties to perform. After having kept Christmas
in the orthodox fashion, they will find ample food for
speeneatien in the antioipated events of the coming
Parliamentary year, the prospects of the Ministry,
and the hopes of the Opposition.
It is a long time since such genuine and heartfelt
sorrow has been manifested by all classes of the people
as over the death of the Princess Alice, for that is
how she has been spoken of, and not by her new title,
the Grand Duchess of Hesse Darmstadt. There was
something intensely pathetic in the statement of the
Prime Minister in the House of Lords as to the
way in which she received the kiss of death; nor were
Earl Granville's reminiscenzes of her of leas interest.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer pointed out in the
House of Commons that there were members in that
assembly who were there when the address of con-
gratulation upon her birth was voted nearly thirty-six
years ago, and also when she was married in July,
1862. Never was there a clearer case Of self-sacrificing
devotion than in the case of the beloved Princess whose
loss two peoples have so sincerely mourned. Those
who, in looking at the splendid equipages and the
gorgeous trappings which are the appurtenances of a
Royal position—and taking a superficial view of things,
may perhaps have thought that all earthly happiness
must be concentrated there—might learn a useful lesson
from this sad bereavement. A second time has the
Queen of England been called upon to pass amid the
deepest mourning a season welcomed throughout all
Christendom with joy and gladness. There is the
. Grand Duke of Hesse, too, deprived within a few
weeks first of his youngest child, and then of his wife.
The people of this country have always acoepted the
statement cf Lord Palmerston in announcing the mar.
nags, that it was one not of expediency, but a union
founded on mutual affection; and in such a case the
memories of the past only render the grief of the rela-
tives all the more poignant. Many years ago Edmund
Burke gave expression to a sentiment which is as true
now as it was then, and will remain unshaken in future
generations. Lamenting the loss of his son, he ex-
claimed, "What shadows we are, and what shadows
we pursue I" Day by day, and year by year, this is
realized, sometimes in the startling way with which
we have just unhappily been brought acquainted,
The season of Christmastide is one to which due
honour has been paid century after century, amid the
vicissitudes of nations and the rise and fall of empires.
It receives recognition in all Christian lands, and
under whatever circumstances the nations may be
placed. When we were at war with Russia in 1834,
there was no suspension of Christmas festivities, and
it was the same in Germany eight years ago, when
their armies were besieging the French capital. In
our minds it is associated with frost and snow, and
biting winds ; but in some of our colonies, notably in
Australia, Christmas is celebrated in the hottest time
of the whole year, With U 9 the saying, "Cold as
Christmas," has passed into a proverb, for there is
little power in the December sunlight in our latitudes,
although astronomers tell us. that we are actually
- nearer to the sun now than we are at Midsummer.
Christmas puddings on the 24th of June woald, in
England, look incongruous and out of place; yet it is
quite as warm in some parts of Australia now as we
had it here in the closing days of June last. The
colonists, however, make no difficulty in the comme-
moration of this universal festival. Whether amid
the snows of Canada, or the heats of the largest island
in the world, amid the British territories in Africa, or
through its vast-spreading doruinions upon the great
Asiatic continent, or in the ships manned by Anglo-
Saxons which sail the stormy Atlantic, the calmer
-watere of the Pacific main, or the bright blue
waves of the Indian Oceen, testimony is borne
to the strength of a Christian sentiment which
for ages has influenced civilized peoples, and has
realised the truth of the quotation that "a touch of
nature makes the whole world kin,"
When the telegraphs were transferred to the State
by an Act of Parliament passed in the year 180, the
cheapening of this means of communication was re-
garded on all hands as a boon of great and almost
Inestimable value. Be fore that measure was placed
upon the statute book, a newspaper, unless it poi.
messed consideraisee capital, could scarcely afford the
luxury of much telegraphic news. Say an eminent
public man made a speech the present Prime
Minister for instance, or Mr. Gladstone, or Mr.
Bright, out of the session of Parliament, and the
charge for supplying it to the newspapers was three
guineas per column. The present tariff, after six
o'clock in the evening, is a shilling for every hundred
words. But it was not the Press alone which reaped
the benefit of this piece of legislation. The privilege
of being able to send twenty words for a shilling to
any part of the -United Kingdom was justly appreci-
ated by the public, and there has been an immense
development of telegraphy in cons squence. Still,
noehuman system reaches perfection all at once; and
ttiire are ne iny who justly believe that the system of
Post-office telegraphs is open to some improvement. At
present a man who wants to send only half-a-dozen
words pays the same as he who sends a score. You
can place more than three times the quantity of matter
upon the wires, and pay no more for doing so.
It is not necessary to advocate a sliding scale
of charges varying in accordanc3 with the actual
number of words used under twenty; but a six-
penny rate for, say, ten Words or under, would
certainly be a great advantage to the public. The
man of few words will say in a telegram, "Come at
once." Another, resolved to have his shilling's worth
, out of the State, will spin out his message in this
wise : "I must request you to be particulerly careful
that you meet me at the time and place as previously
arranged." Here are twenty words one-half of which
certainly is surplusage; but there are many men who
being col:lapelled to pay a ehilling as a minimum, are
determined to have their money's worth by sending a
fully expanded message. A sixpenny rate for half a
score or even half a dozen words would be a great
public benefit. It was long thought that the penny
postage stamp was a final halting-place as a charge
for the conveyance of inland commtmicatians, yet the
halfpenny poet-card has been found a very great
convenience. The penny postage stamp was halved;
and we look forward with confidence to the time when
the same fate shall await the shilling telegraphic fee.
As the New Year casts its shadows before it, and as
we take a last glance over the memories of the old,
there is room for consolation in the fact that whereas
twelve mouths ago war prevailed in Europe, it now no
longer exists upon the Continent with which we are so
-closely associated. On the morning of Boxing-day, 1877,
the London papers contained terrible descriptions of
the condition of Plevna, which had been surrendered by
the Turks to the Russians three weeks previously. Since
the Visigoths had devastated Europe in the dark ages
of Continental story, there had been no such suffering
as that war had caused, and this picture of what a few
months before had been a peaceful town was a strange
comment upon the bommemoration of a season indica-
tive of peace and goodwill to men. But now, although
there is DO war between two European nations, there
is much distress amens many peoples; and it would
not be too much to say that country after country, and
land after land, has its hand upon the hilt of the
Po also
in
sword ready to grasp it at a moment's notice. The
closing year, which witnessed the end of e
p a a
r atWar,Preparation
saw a greater amount of warlike
England than for well nigh a quarter of a century.
How long will it take the nations to find out that the
vast armaments which seem- inseparable from a
'Modern condition of existence, are weighing like a
deadly incubus upon the industry of States, retarding
- • their prosperity, eating up their hardly-earned re.
'e, eurees,-and turning the pride and flower of their man-
hood into unproductive channels. Gigantic arma-
ments signify distrust, and distrust means an im-
possibility of the return of that confidence which we
should all like to see just now. It will not be practi-
cable to effect any material diminution of the burthens
now pressing so sorely upon the peoples so long as the
development of the military spirit necessitates the
existence of huge standing armies.
Amid the news from Afghanistan, the debates in
Parliament, and the numerous other exciting items of
intelligence which have lately appeared in the London
papers, they have found room for the insertion of
appeals to the benevolent, asking those who represent
the vaeious degrees of the well-to-do classes to come
fozward and assist in lightening the lot of those who