The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-10 00:00:00

Fenbort Corresponba

(We dcem it right to state thst we do not at all tlOl2l
Identify Que.:elves with our Correspondent's opinlons.3

With the interment of all that is mortal of
the Earl of Shaftesbury is terminated a career
which will long live in the memories of English-
men. Although he had been seriously ill for
several weeks, and for months had been showing
signs of physical decay, the news of his dead')
came as a shock upon all who had known and
valued his work, and their name was legion.
His was one of the most familiar figures which
London held, Even had his face not been so
welrknown, his form would always have coin-
taanded attention, for, like Saul, the son of Kish,
he stood a head above his follows; and though
somewhat bowed with age in later years, his
height was always striking. At how many hurt-
dreds of meetings for religious and philanthropit
objects he had -taken the chair could scarcely
have been reckoned, even by himself. Sometimes
he was called upon two or three times in a •day to
preside over such cratherings, and he had to hasten
from one to another with an alacrity which
would have been surprising even in a much
younger man. And it must have astonished
many an attendant at such meetings to observe
how readily he grasped the facts which concerned
each, and with what lucidity ho could place them
before his audience. He combined in an eminent
degree two qualities which by superficial observers
are sometimes held to be incompatible, that di
being a thorough business man with that of
being a sound philanthropist.
It is not only, however, at Exeter Hall that
Lord Shaftesbury will be missed; his form will
be sought in the dwellings and the meeting-places
of the poor, and it will be sought in vain. Those
of the present generation can scarcely realise
what a change in the social conditions Of English
manufacturing life has been wrought by
the labours of Lord Shaftesbury. ft
almost seems Its if one is looking at
a picture of the Middle Ages when one reads of
the state of things which existed in -seine parts
of England at the time the then Lord Ashley
commenced his labours. The harrowing tale has
been told so often that it does not need again
relating now, but it is one that ought not to be
forgotten by any who would wish to realise how
much, even in this world of difficulties and
dangers, can be done in the direction of good by one
determined man. The improvementin the regula-
tion of our factory legislation was the first great
work of Lord Shaftesbury's public life, but he did
not allow his beneficent efforts tie end there. He
went on from strength to strength; he estab-
lished ragged schools; ho encouraged the coster.
mongers to treat their animals with greater kind-
ness, and to raise themselves in the social scale;
and he never weariedin the endeavour to elevate the
masses. What wonder was it under such cir-
cumstances, that, until this dying wishes were
known, there was an universel demand from high
and low' from men of all parties and of all sects,
that his body should bo laid to rest among the
most illustrious .of :our -.dead in Westminster
Abbey?
Another nobleman who has just passed away
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

had not achieved the distinction- of the Earl of
Shaftesbury, but a -fact is related of the late
Lord Teignmouth which is sufficiently curious to
be worthy of note. Dying in his ninetieth year,
he cmuld remember seeing Perceval, Canning,
and Sheridan all in the House of Commons
together. What a span of time, what an infinite
variety of events, is included within this recol-
lection may be gathered from the fact that it
was in 1811, or seventy-four years since., that
PercEval, then Prime Minister of England, was
assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons.
Napoleon Bonaparte was still the master of
Europe; Moscow had not been burned;
Waterleo was net to be fought for another
four years.; and it would not be until another
four years after that that our present Queen
would be born. It is almost like thinking of
ancient history to talk of a time when Perceval,
Canning„ :and Sheridan were all alive. He woud
be an old man who in these days could recollect
seeing Cannin,c.,r, and that statesman died sixteen
years after Perceval had been hurried into
eternity by an assassin's hand.
The question of how to worthily celebrate the
entrance of the Queen upon her year of jubilee
next June is already beginning to be discussed
in official quarters, and it has been announced
that the City of London is even now preparing
to take a fitting share in the rejoicings which
will attend upon the event. It is sometimes
thought that the jubilee is to be celebrated at
the end and net at the beginning of the fiftieth
year of the reign, but this was not the ease in
1809, when George 111. had been forty-pine years
on the throne ; and in this there is direct teach-
ing to be found in the very institution of the
jubilee itself by the Mosaic Law. "Thou shalt
remei&ber," says Moses, "seven sabbaths of years
unto thee, seven times seven years; and the
sps,ee of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be
unto theeforty and nine years. Then shalt thou
cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound .
throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow
the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof; it
shall be a jubilee unto you." There is, there-
fore, no doubt that 1886 is the year in which the
jubilee of Queen Victoria should be celebrated,
and the rejoicings which will then take place will
be as spontaneous and as heartfelt as those most
devoted to the theory of the Crown or the person
.of the Monarch could desire. •

- .
It is of interest to note that only three
Sovereigns in the whole course of our history
have seen up to now the opening of a jubilee
year, and all, singular to say, were the third of
their name Henry 111., Edward 111., and
George 111. 'Without going into the details of
the reigns of each, it can fairly be averred that
the jubilee of our present Monarch will be cele-
brated under happier auspices than has been the
case in either of those mentioned. It does not
require a memory of unusual length to recall
how many great things for the national comfort
and the national wealth have come to pass
within the compass of the present reign.. Let
any one give 2, glance around and he will see
innumerable evidences in his daily life of
the blessings of a reign which has,
-upon the whole, been as full of peace
as it has been of plenty. A wise
Sovereign, deferring in all things to
the deliberate decisions of the people, has become
the ideal of an English constitutional monarch;
and whatever the future historian may have to

say of the period during which the Throne was
held by Queen Victoria, this at least will have
to be conceded—that never was a, time in the

rango of English chronicle more fraught with
mighty changes, moral, social, and political, and
never one in which the Sovereign did as much
to contrib, te to the happiness and well-being of
the whole people.
The Post Office authorities, as well as the
:public generally, have reason for congratulation
'in the smooth manner in which the cheap tele-
gram system fizz come into operation. It waa
often said, during the discussions upon the mea-
sure establishing it, that it was a misnomer to
call the new order of things "sixpenny telegrams,"
because, seeing that the addresses had to be
paid for, it would be practically impossible
-for any to be sent for the sum named.

But the experience of a very few hours was
sufficient to dissipate this idea, and it may be
conjectured that after a few months the propor-
tion of sixpenny messages will largely increase.
People will be forced by the stern logic of facts
to compresssnot only the telegrams themselves
but the addresses attached to them. "Mr." and
" Esq." will be the first items to be dropped, the
initials of a name will speedily follow, and -all
superfluous words will disappear in their train.
Whether in this increase of brevity there will not
be an increase of uncertainty as to the meaning
of the message is a question which time alone can
answer. The small words of a telegram are rob
always the superfluities which some people
seem to think. The presence or absence of an
article may make all the asserence as to the
meaning of a message, and great as may be the
popular loie to save a halfpenny, the extra
„suture will be amply justified if it succeed
sn making the telegram more clear.
Before the cheaper telegraph system had got
fairly into operation suggestions were abundant
for its reform, these affecting almost every
branch of the business. One of them may be
instanced as showing that there are some people
who think that it will simplify matters to make
more complicated a system already complicated
to a high degree. It is urged that it would be
for the public advantage that there should be
three sorts of telegrams. The first should be an
open message, which could. be read by servants
or by anyone attached to the establishment to
which it was addressed. The second should be
so marked that it could be opened by the wife,
or son, or daughter of the person to whom it
was sent. The third should bear upon it the
word "Private," so that it might be opened only
by the one for whom it was intended. It is not
clear what advantages would accrue to the
public from the introduction of such a remark-
able classification, though, of course, it is easy
to see that there are some telegrams which
stand in the same relationshin to othsrs

.

as postcards do to sealed letter-a.. But it
is just as feasy to perceive how many complica-
tions might arise if telegrams wtre dealt with in
this way. The liability to which they would be
exposed. of being wrongly -classified would in it-
self be a difficulty not easily overcome; and it is
not hard to imagine how much strife might be
caused in a household if the messages became
mixed, or their directions misunderstood, after
they had once been delivered. It appears on the
whole that, for the time at least, the Postal
authorities would be better employed in perfect-
leg the system they have in hand than in
attempting to introduce other novelties. which
would be of dubious advantage, and which, in all
probability, would cause much confusion.
Very seldom does it happen• that aaLondon
railway-station has to be shut against Passenger
traffic, and the recent closing of- the Blackfriari
Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover
Company, necessitated by the extensive opera-
tions now going on in connection with the. new
bridge across the Thames, has, therefore attracted
the more notice. The station must be familiar
to a very large number who do not dwell in
London, because it is situated upon one of the
leading routes to the Crystal Palace; but it is
doubtful whether it will ever be opened again,
as it is wanted for goods traffic. It has been
for a similar reason that two other London rail-
way stations, which were once the termini of
their respective lines, have been shut to
passengers. The Bricklayers' Arms Station of
the South-Eastern Railway, best remembered
now because it was that at which the Princess of
Wales arrived three days before her marriage,
aTO long been given up to goods; and the
Bishopsgato terminus of• the Great Eastern
system has been similarly dealt with since the
line has been extended to Liverpool-street.
Such changes as these affect the country as well
as the town, and whenever they" take place they
ought, if only for convenience sake, to be noted.
G. R,