The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-10-25 00:00:00

ear 191thirt

,We deem iS. right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspmrdent's epinions4

The session of Parliament of the present autumn
will in time correspond in its commencement within a
day to the sitting of two years ago, when on the 24th

October the House of Commons met to revise the rules
of procedure which had so long regulated the debates
in that assembly. That, however, was not a session in
itself as this is, opened by a Queen's Speech and
followed by a debate on the Address. The House,
meeting by adjournment, got to work at once on its
specific business, and even then did not complete it
until early in December. It is quite possible that
now, what with the Address, the sullen humour of
the Irish members, and the eager thirst for informa-
tion respecting the expedition to the Soudan, the
session will last well on towards Christmas. Although
Parliament is summoned for a special object, as the
Parliament of the empire and not of a kingdom, it is
bound to consider any subject that may be brought
before it, whether affecting India, Africa, Australia,
or any other part of our widely- stretching do-
minions.

The centenary of Lord Palmerston's birth, the 20th
October, 1784 is an event which might well be
remembered by Englishmen of all parties. This
statesman, who died Prime Minister less than
twenty years ago, is well within the recollection
of those who have not yet reached middle life. He
entered Parliament as far back as 1807, and was in
office in 1809 as Secretary-at-War, vigorously
carrying on hostilities against the First
Napoleon. Nineteen years in the Govern-
ment of Lord Liverpool, one of the
straitest of Tories, he became successively Foreign
Minister, Home Secretary, and twice First Lord of
the Treasury in Liberal Administrations. Dying in
186,5, he had been in Parliament nearly a tenth part
of its entire existence since it was first summoned by
Simon de Mortfort, Earl of Leicester. His genial

presence and his kindly old age made him universally
popular amongst the masses of his countrymen, and
from the way in which he upheld the honour of Eng-
land in all parts of the globe his name will ever be
held in reverence wherever the British flag is flung
oat upon the breeze and the shores of our depen-
chilli:la are washed by the waters of distant oceans.

October vritnesses aim the annivnrsary of an event
of which there can be but fe-w survivors now. Every
schoolboy knows that on the 21st of this month in

1805 Nelson met the combined Spanish and French

fleets off Cape Trafalgar and totally annihilated
them. The destruction of a fleet is not like the
defeat of an army. The latter may soon be made
up by the levy of new men, but many a long year does
it take to build a navy. We have all heard how Pitt,
the Prime Minister of that day, sat up all night to
read Admiral Collingwood's despatches, for he knew
what that great victory meant. The mighty power of
France upon the sea was at an end. Nelson's work was
done. As Southey has remarked, his life ended when
his mission was accomplished. There cannot be many
survivors of that sanguinary day. The powder-monkey
of ten is 89 now, if such there be, which is doubtful.
Seventy-one ships of war were engaged in deadly
combat; but of the thousands who took part in it, we
may ask as the well-known hymn asks of our fathers
—where are they?

The release of the Tichborne claimant this month
recalls a curious chapter in our social history. lie
has been in prison more than ten years, and has by
good conduct materially reduced the sentence of
fourteen years' penal servitude to which he was
relegated on the 28th February, 1874. That was after
a trial which had lasted the extraordinary time
of ten months. Of the three judges who presided,
Sir Alexander Cockburn and Lord Justice Lush are
dead, and Sir John Mellor has retired from the bench
on a pension. Of the counsel engaged at the trial,
Mr. Hawkins is now a judge, while Sergeant Parry
and Dr. Kenealy are dead. Nearly eighteen years
have elapsed since the claimant arrived in this
country from Australia for the purpose of endeavour-
ing to recover possession of the Tichborne estates.
That was in December, 1866. The vicissitudes of hi s
existence since that time will form the subject of many
a romance yet to be written.

-
The benchers of the Inner Temple, bearing in mind
the lack of open spaces in the heart of London, throw
open their gardens to the public during the summer
evenings, and the privilege is highly appreciated. In
these dull, autumn days, too, when we seldom see the
oblique rays of the sun, owing to the murky atmosphere
of London, the show of chrysanthemums in the
Temple-gardens is open to the public inspection, and
it is one of the best in the metropolis. The
Temp:ars are very proud of their chrysanthemums,
as Cray may well be of their beautiful gardens, as these
overlook the busy surface of the river. The crowds
which assemble in the gardens in the summer must
bear ample testimony to the popularity of these
grounds. The example of the benchers of the Inner
Temple might well be followed by those of Lincoln's
Inn. The " Fields " there constitute a large open
space in west-central London, and all around is a
crowded population which has ogo a very long way
before it can reach such a place of recreation as that
which is now kept under lock and key. Open spaces
have been described as the lungs of great cities ; but
so far as London is concerned, they spread away
north, south, and east, but are little met with in the
centre of the capital.

The opening of the Michaelmas sittings on the
24th October is a new departure in the history of our
legal jurisprudence. Formerly the sittings began on
the 2nd November, but last year the judges resolved
to curtail the Long Vacation by nine days. Con-
sidering that even now it will last eleven or twelve
weeks this is a very decent holiday. However, even
nine days devoted to the despatch of business of
the entire judicial staff will represent dealing
with a great many cases, and in the crowded
condition of the cause lists and trial papers
this will be an advantage. But the law's delay of our
own time is as nothing compared with what it used to
be. Dickens did good work in exposing it in his
satire of " Jarndyce v. Jarndyce ;" but before that
time the scandals which are recorded are so intolerable
as to be almost apocryphal. These were at their height
during the Chancellorship of Lord Eldon, who held
the Great Seal twenty-six years, and from his inces-
sant habit of procrastination was called by one of his
critics" the everlasting doubter."

It is becoming increasingly evident that, in the
opinion of many regular travellers by the Metro-
politan Underground Railways, the Inner Circle is
very far from being "a boon and a blessing to men."
Residents in West Kensington (that delightful
district which rivals a party in the church in its

possession of t‘ breadth without boundary "), are espe-
cial sufferers from the new system, which endeavours
to make two trains run where only or train ran
before. Unpunctnality on certain of, the London
lines has passed into an accepted fact; but it is pos-
sible to have too much even of such a good thing as
this, and protests against the Underground irregu-
larity will continue until something is done. But the
ingenuous traveller who suggests as a remedy that
the Inner Cirle, opened last Monday week, should at
once be closed, is only a trifle less venturesome than
the guileless Glaswegian who demanded in the Time;
when the cholera first visited Toulon, that that city
should be burnt to the ground.