The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-02-26 00:00:00

&LLYouhrt Torrtsponbrat,

..4ev.; it right to state that we to not at all times
.r.;:zel.es with our correopoudeuti opildninLl

So fa as the session has yet gone the public can
av no reason to erumble at the inactivity of Par-
lament, nor can Ministers find fault with the recep-
on o their measures. The leading bill of the session,
dealing with the Irish Land Question, hum at present
been very fairly received by the Conservatives, while
the country generally appears favourable to it. The
second readimt, on the ith of next month, will be
looked forward to with intense interest, as we shall be
certain to have a stirring debate, albeit the subject is
rather a dry one to ordinary Englishmen. The pro-
bability is that the bill, with some modifications, will
pass; and probably, too, the Education Bill of the
Government will also be carried, though there will be
a good deal of oppoiition to some of the clauses in the
latter. More doubtful is the result of Mr. Goschen's
Pour Law Rating Bill, which is good so far as it goes
in the direction of equalising the poor rates, but which
does not go far enough. Whatever may be the fate of
these measures, the session bids fair to be a busy and
important one, and the Commons at least have begun
well, and even the Lords, though at first they seemed
to have nothing to do, have been initiating lejslation
id the Judges' .1 uristliction Bill, the object of which is to
simplify the administration of the law, and a very good
object it is.
The great goose dlibre of the day, the Mordannt
divorce case, is a matter on which it would not be fair
to comment, as it is still sub judiee as I write, but it is
difficult to refrain from all allusion to it. Nothing like
the sensation that this trial creates has previously been
known in the annals of the Divorce Court, which has
been packed full every day that the case has been on,
while the intense interest created has been further
manifested by crowds hanging about the precincts of
the court, eager to know how the case has gone on;
and our daily newspapers, morning and evening, have
all found their circulation increased. Aluch of this
interest is of course traceable to the name of a member
of the royal family having been freely mentioned in
connection with the came, and POWs letters from him
to Lady Mordaunt having been published, but it is
only fair to add that not a word in these letters is
suspicious. The whole affair is a most painful one,

and ita reetilt is looked forward to with anxiety, more
eopecially as on the immediate result depends another

At List there is a prospect of arriving at the truth
of the Pierre Bonaparte and Victor Noir affair. The
High Court of Justice, though it had the power to put
the Prince on his trial for misdemeanour only, or
might even have dismissed the charge on the ground of
provocation (either of which courses, however, would
have created great public dissatisfaction), has brought
in a true bill against him for homicide volontaire, which
tallies to our true bill for wilful murder, and he is also
charged with "attempt at murder, failing its effects
from Causes independent of the will of its author.,
Seeing that poor Victor Noir was shot dead, it is
rather dull jolt to understand this; but the great fact
is that the Prince is to be fairly tried. It is high
time that this were done, as a feeling was spreading in
France, that his relationship to the Emperor would
come between the crime and the trial. The position
in which the ruler of France has found himself placed has
been a painful one, but throughout this affair he
has acted justly and fearlessly, by simply having
the courage to do nothing to prevent justice taking
its course. The trial, which is bliortly to take place,
will be watched with eager curiosity throughout
Europe. What if the Court condemns the Prince on
the firet grave charge? Apropos of French affairs, I
see that on the let of March the new 25 franc pieces
will be issued. International currency is a difficult
matter, and I do not pretend to understand it, but
everybody knows that 25 francs are not worth a
sovereign. The difference depends on that mysterious
thing, the rate of exchange, and at the present moment
this difference is only about 7A centimes, or three far-
things. But it is more often twice that amount. The
new coins will, no doubt, be popular with French money
changers, hotelkeepers, shopkeepers, km, in their deal-
in a with us English, for in taking our English gold they
will now have a greater tendency than ever to reckon
our sovereigns at 25 francs, and we shall be considered
shabbier than ever if we stipulate for the odd
centime. Fancy an English holiday-maker going
into a money-changer's at Boulogne to change
a single sovereign when the rate of exchange is
as now 7) centimes in favour of the Englishman,
and stipulating for his exact change. Of course
no sane French money changer would give you 10 cen-
times (two sous) when he only had to give you 7),
and as of course he would not have 2) centimes in his
till, the only alternatives would be either to give the
Englishman a eon or nothing over the sovereign, and
as no Eoglidaman would like to hagule about a half-
penny, the Frenchman would get the best of the bar-
gain. Altogether the new coin is rather a clever
thought on the part of the French Government.
The new arrangement under which the Post-office
takes charge of the telegraphic business of the country,
appears to work well, if we may judge by the official
statement just issued by Mr. Scudrsmore, the head of
the department. During the six days from the 14th
to the 19th inclusive, the total number of telegraphic
messages sent out from the four chief London offices
shows a steady increase, from 2,122 on the Monday to
e 29 on the Saturday. But London is not the United
Kingdom, and the public will want to know some-
what more than that. It would be desirable if the
new department were to issue a weekly return of the
whole number of telegraphic messages throughout the
country, on the plan adopted by the railways with re. ,
gird to their traffic returns. These latter returns are
extremely useful to the general public, inasmuch, as
increasing or decreasing railway traffic enables us to
judge of the state of trade; it is an indirect, if not a
direct criterion, and so would be the telegraphic re- ,
turns. So far as the returns just jailed go, however,
they are encouraging ; they indicate steady progress,
and this notwithstanding two important drawbacks,—
electrical disturbance owing to the weather, and
electrical disturbance of another kind owing to the
operators and maxagers being in many cases new to
the work. There has been no little grumbling at the
defective working of the new system, hut, taking all
things into account, there is now little doubt that the
system will work well.
A curious and a sad illustration of how the Peabody
buildings fail to meet the requirements of that class
whom the benefactor wished to befriend has been pre
eented by the narrative of the death of Emma Davis,
who has just died of starvation. She could only earn
Se. a week, and yet out of this miserable pittance she
paid the enormous proportion of 3). 93. for one room
in Peabody-buildings. Really I cannot see that this
lodging was any boon at sit For 3s. GI a week the
poor woman might have got a very fair room elsewhere,
and it in strange that she should have paid so much as
she did for the dubious benefit—in her case—of a room
in these buildings. The plain truth is that, so far as
improved dwellings are concerned, the Peabody trustees
have done no more than Sir S. Waterlow and the com-
pany at which he is the head have done; while in the
one case there is the element of charity, and in the
other there is not. As these trustees have yet £350,000
to dispose of, it is to be hoped that they will erect dwel-
nes for the really "poor of London," and give them
rooms at Is, ficl. and 21., which could be done. That
would be genuine charity.
At last we have in London what we have for years
wanted, another fish market. Miss Burdett Coutts
has done once again a very benevolent action in caus-
ing Columbia Market to be built. There is very little
doubt of its success, and thus two grand things will be
at once effected—the fish trade of the eastern counties
will be developed, and the poor of London will have
fish cheaper than before.

Some little time ago there was a discussion in the
louse of Commons about the " forestal " rights of the
(drawn and the customary rights and wrongs of the
people in relation to Epping Forest, and the discussion
ended, at the suggestion of Mr. Gladstone, in moving
an address to the Queen that she would take such
steps as she thought proper. In other words, the
Government has taken the matter into its own hands,
nominally at least. lint will anything be done in it?
Rather doubtful. Perhaps the next we shall hear in
relation to the forest will be that a little encroach-
ment has been made here, or a bit of ground enclosed
here. What is wanted is that the law should be
simplified, to that the public may understand their
rights.
"Mitchell's Newspaper Directory," just published,
bows that the British press continues to be developed
'1 here are now no less than 1,390 newspapers published
in the United Kingdom and the British Isles. It is
rather curious that while there are 266 in London there
are only 793 in the provinces. Does not this show that
provincial journals have yet scarcely assumed the
numerical importance that they ought to have attained?
Another curious fact in the comparison between the
1,390 newspapers that exist in 1870 and the 551 which is
all that newspapers numbered in 1846. Of course this is
owing to the press having been relieved of the hardens
and restrictions that past Governments clung to with
such tenacity. Looking at the press as a whole, as it
now exists, it is an honour to the country, and certainly
a great benefit to it. What would England, Ireland,
or Scotland now be without newspapers? The question
is easy to ask, but difficult to answer. We cannot
even conceive the Kingdom without a press, and there
fore can form no ides of what it would be under such
circumstances, But there is room for further develop.
nient. May the press grow and flourish "fair and
ree," whatever may be its fate among "nations nol
so blest sa we."