The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-18 00:00:00

OUfl2lCorrtsponbtnt.
y
two deem It right to state that we do not at all times
'entity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

No one who knows anything of Paris will begrudge
that fair city the run of prosperity whiel she expects
to enjoy through the opening of the Exhibition. She
has passed through her time of tribulation, and now
has her day of sunshine and of success. Just seven
years ago, after having undergone a four months'
siege by the victorious German army, in which thou-
sands of her citizens perished through cold and
hunger, Paris was in the hands of the Com-
munists. Seizing the city on the 18th March,
1871, they instituted a veritable reign of terror in
the French capital, which„ after hating been invested
Eso long by the Germans, had now to undergo a second
siege and bombardment by the troops of the French
Government. By the middle of May, Marshal
Maatahon, now President of the Republic, had
dra*ia his cordon of soldiers so tightly round the
city that the Communists, unable to escape, set fire
t the .publie buildings, and the night of the 24th
of that month will never be forgotten by those who
witnessed the awful scene. From the Ministry
of Finance, where the windows overlook the Place
de la Cancorde; from the splendid palace of the
Tuileries, flanked by its shady gardens; from the
handsome facade of the Hotel de Vile; and from the
Palace,of Justice, on the other side of the Seine, bright
flames and dense volumes of lurid smoke rose high
over the banic-stricken city. Unlike London, where
all the public buildings are on one side of the river,
in Paris they are on both. The Tuileries, the
Louvre, the Palais Royal, and the Madeleine,
are on one bank ; and the Hotel de Ville, the Palace
of Justice. the Corps Legislatiff and the Invalides on
the other. Therefore, when on that night the reflection
of the blazing piles on both shores of the 'Seine
was cast upon the surface of the stream, the river
seemed alive with liquid fire. There was fire every-
where, in the heavens above, in the earth beneath,
.and in the water which is under the earth. Then on
the 28ch.came that terrible fight in the streets, when
Marshal AlacMahon's army forced their way in, foot by
foot, and the streets of Paris once more ran with the
blood of her citizens. How different are these May-
days to those of 1871 for the people of the capital of
6., France ! Instead of a victorious army thundering at
...z,the gates, they have been invaded by a vast number of
t: the peaceful representatives of industry; and in place
s, of the Crotvit Prince of Germany at the head of a
trimiaPhant legion, they have been delighted with the
Prince of Wales, and have gone into ecstacies over the
kindly words- of friendship which he has spoken in
a. their midst. The animosities of centuries have been
swept away; Crecy and Agincourt, Trafalgar and
Waterloo, are succeeded by an era in which nothing
se •
but the most friendly sentiments prevail between the
two countries.
Last week the Queen held two Drawing Rooms in
London, and the time was a gay and busy one.
During the stay of Her Majesty in the metropolis an
incident took place at Buckingham Palace which is
well worth a passing notice. The Empress Eugenie
came from Chislehurst on a visit to our sovereign, aud
she was received at the entrance of the Palace by Queen
Victoria and her two daughters, the Crown Princess
of Germany and Princess Beatrice. Thus, while the
Prince of Wales was assuring the French people of our
cordi Al goodwill towards them, the Crown Princess of
‘i Germany did her best to remove any unpleasant feel-
ing which may have remained in the mind of the
ste Empress Eugene after the tremendous events of the
- last war. It will be remembered that it was the
Crown Prince who on the 6th of August, 1870, sud-
denly fell upon Marshal MacMahon at Woerth, and
inflicted the first great disaster upon the French arms,
and that he commanded the German army at the
battle of Sedan which dissolved the fabric of the
I' French empire into ruin. Well, here is his wife
A -
now, in the home of her childhood, extending her
•
hand to the wife of the sovereign whom
; her adopted countrymen overthrew, and drove into
exile. It was a circumstance upon which the
lover of peace and goodwill would fondly dwell.
Many .of us remember well a previous occasion on
. which the Queen, her husband, and her eldest daughter
received in the same building the Emperor and
Empress of the French. It was three-and-twenty
years ago, a few months before the capture of
• Sebastopol, when the alliance between the two
western rowers was closest in its ties, and Napoleon
was at the height of his power and his prosperity.
The rrincess xwy al W ea.....
than the Princess Beatrice is now; and the Queen
of England, with her husband by her side, and
• surrounded by her little children, may well have been
described as the happiest in the land. Prince Consort
t, and Emperor are gone; the children of that time are
st,now men and women with the cares and responsibili-
' ties of life; and if the- visit of the Crown Princess to her
mother marks the beginning of a more kindly feeling
between France and Germany, all the better for the
two great nations which were so lately engaged in one
of the most gigantic wars of the present century.

Every one who comes to London from the country
is certain to .find out Fleet-street, which is a
different place now from what it was in the days of
Dr. Johnson, for there were no penny newspapers
then, and the offices of these journals now form
some of the most conspicuous features of this
important thoroughfare. The imposing pile of the
• Law Courts is slowly rising at the head of Fleet-
street, hard by the spot where Old Temple Bar
formerly stood, but it is somewhat remarkable
that amid the many improvements which are con-
stantly going on, the numerous courts on the northern
side still have a local habitation and a name. For in-
stance Gough-square still exists, where Dr. Johnson
resided from 1748 to 1758, in which his wife died, and
where he wrote the greater part of his Dictionary. In the
narrow blackened Johnson's-court he dwelt from 1765
to 1776, after which he lived at No. 8, Bolt-court, till
in December, 1784, he lay upon his death-bed. The
mules of Oliver Goldsmith, Dryden, and Milton are
also intimately associated with the history of Fleet-
street; and there can be no question that the author
of Paradise Lost lived for some time in a house over-
looking the church of St. Bride, with its graceful spire
and its noble peal of bells, whose chimes so often fling
out their pleasant melody over the troubled air of the
city.

It is frequently the case that in the speech of a great
orator a quotation is made, the source of which is not
indicated at the time, and although it is perfectly
familiar to both the speaker and his audience, com-
paratively few can at the moment trace it to its origin.
It happened that towards the close of the Easter
recess, two of the members for Birmingham, Mr.
Bright and Mr. Chamberlain, addressing audiences on
the same evening in different parts of the kingdom,
quoted the same passage—" War is a game which,
• were their subjects wise, kings would not play at ;"
but neither gave the name of the author. The pas-
sage is, however, found in Cowper's "Task"—" The
Winter's Morning Walk," and is as follows :
"But war's a gamo which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at. Nations would do well
T' extort their truncheons from the puny hands
Of heroes, whose Infirm and baby minds,
Are gratified with mischief; and who spoil,
Because men suffer it, their toy, the world."

Both in and out of Parliament, Mr. Bright often
Lnakes it manifest how close is his acquaintance with
the poets. Not long ago, whilst speaking in the House
of Commons on the policy of Russia, a Conservative
member interrupted him with a cry of "Poland !"
He at :once made it clear that he did not justify the
treatment of that unhappy country, by quoting with
dramatic effect four lines of Thomas Campbell, which
he had read thirty or forty years ago :
"And Poland sees her gallant sons,
Her first, her best, her bravest ones,
On the cold ground all gory ie,
For Polaud breathe a prayer and die."
•
Mr. Bright's disapproval of war has been known to
two generations; and it will be remembered how,
nearly twenty years ago, when hostilities were about
to break out between France and Austria, in ad-
dressing a great meeting of his coustituents at
Birmingham he electrified his audience by giving
them Byron'a description of the war-fiend in Caflde
Harold :

-
! where the giant on the mountain stands,
His blood-red tresses deepening in the sun,
The death-shot glowing in his fiery hands,
And eye that scorches all it glares upon."
At this time of the year, when vegetation has burst
forth into a new and vigorous life, and the gardens in
town and country are bright with flowers, the way in
which some of our best known poets have added flori-
culture to their tastes, is irresistibly brought to the
mind. The daffodil invariably recalls the ver.es of
Hetrick aid of Wordsworth; the holly tree is
fitly linked with Sonthey's name; the daisy,
so honoured by many, is the favourite chiefly of
Chaucer, Burns, Mcntgomery, and Wordsworth; but
the latter is the sole poet of the celandine, and the
"long, yellow broom" has been appropriated by
.33,131119.;Pplaking of vegetation is a reminder of the
ine-reasedattention paid within the last few years by
our public bodies to the beauty of trees. When the
Thames Embankment was made the Board of Works
planted a double row of planes throughout the
length of that splendid thoroughfare; and even
within the put few months miles upon miles
of trees have been planted in the streets of
London, principally in the suburbs, but even
adorning such a busy place as the Blackfriars-
road. These are, of course, young, and will require
care and attenti, a; but from the rapid way Li which