The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-06-28 00:00:00

MUTATIONS OF FORTUNE.

No country in Europe has witnessed such
extraordinary vicissitudes of fortune in its
rulers as it has fallen to the lot of the people
of France to behold on the part of those who
have governed them. It is now within a
week or two of ninety years ago that the
people of Paris rose in insurrection against
the intolerable tyranny under which French-
men had groaned for centuries, and destroyed
the Bastille, a great state prison in the heart
and centre of the city. There it stood, the
embodiment of despotism struck into stone.
A man might offend his neighbour, and if
that neighbour had sufficient money to pay
for a lettre de cachet, his innocent victim
might find himself immured in the I3astille fDr
the remainder of his life, without trial, and
no formal charge ever being brought against
him. When the place was destroyed by the
infuriated populace on the 15th July, 1789,
a piece of paper was found in one of the cells,
in which one of the unfortunate incarcerated
ones had begged as a favour from the king,
that he Nv oul d. allow the prisoner to have a
sight of his wife's name written upon a card.
If only this could be done, wrote the un-
happy captive, "I should for ever bless the
greatness of your Majesty." That it was not
done was clear from the fact that the request
was never delivered. Such was a specimen
of the system which goaded the people of
France at last into frenzy, and caused them,
under he greatest provocation, to commit
excesses which cannot be palliated._

The vicissitudes of French sovereigns may
be said to have begun with the Revolution,
Louis XVI., finding his splendid palace of
Versailles untenable, attempted to escape
from France, and whilst making for the
frontier, had got as far as Varennes, when,
incautiously putting his head out of the
window, Le was recognised by the local post-
master, from his resemblance to the profile
on Co 'stamps and coins then in circulation.
The horses' heads were at once turned round,
and the stricken King and Queen were taken
back to Paris, were they where guillotined.
Their son, the nominal Louis XVII, died a
mere youth after cruel treatment in prison,
and never came to the throne. Louis XVIII,
after having been placed upon the throne by
the allied sovereigns in 1814, fled in the fol-
lowing spring, at the approach of Napoleon,
but was reinitated after the downfall of the
defeated conqueror. He was the last Sov-
ereign of France who died in the Tuileries,
and that was nearly sixty years ago. Charles
X., his successor, died in exile. Then came
Louis Phillippe, the Citizen King ; and he,
like his predecessor, at length had to fly for
his life. Compelled to disguise himself in
order to ensure his safety, he crossed the
channel in a little fishing-boat, landed at
Newhaven as Mr. John Smith, died in
England, and was buried quietly and un-
ostentatiously at Weybridge.
Turning from the kings of France to the
NiToleons, it is found that there have been
marvellous fluctuations in the waxing and
waning of their fortunes. It is just 110
years ago that Napoleon Bonaparte, a child
of humble parentage, was borne at Ajaccio,
in Corsica, and he arrived at man's estate
jnst as the revolutionary storm was sweeping
over France. The chaos created by the
results of this tempest enabled a man of
transceudant genius to push to the front;
and how, step by step, by ministering to the
French passion for millitary glory, he at last
ascended to the Imperial purple, history
records. But as the tides of the ocean,
after reaching to a certain height, begin to
recede, so Napoleon's flow of prosperity com-
menced to ebb when he returned from Russia
in 1812 with the loss of nearly half a million
of men. In the following year his power was
further broken at the battle of Leipsic, and
he was compelled to abdicate and assume the
sovereignty of the little island of Elba.
From here he escaped, once more went up
the grand staircase of the Tuileries as
Emperor of France, left to take the com-
mand of the army, was defeated at Waterloo,
surrendered to the Isritish Government, and
was exiled to St. Helena, where he died. His
son, the titular Napoleon 11, like the son of
Louis XVI, died young, and never came to
the Throne. Then coming down to our own
times, Napoleon 111, after having unsuccess-
fully endeavoured to raise the flag of insur-
rection, was sentenced to perpetual imprison-
ment in the fortress of Ham; from which he
escaped in the dress of a workman. The
wheel of fortune made him President of the
Second
_Republic—then he made himself
Emperor, and for eighteen years—just the
time that Louis Phillips had worn the crown
—he was one of the most powerful sov-
ereigns in Europe. Then came the war with
Germany, the collapse of the empire amid
unparalleled ruin and disaster, the surrender
of the Dmperor to the Prussian king, his
detention in the castle of Wilhelmshohe, his
landing in England, and his death and burial
at Chisleht:rst. The fate of his only son,
the hope of a great nation, is even more
tragic and more terrible. For the bearer of
an illustrious name to be stabbed to death in
a Zulu mealie field by a ruthless savage, and
for a young life at one time looked upon as
the certain successor to an Imperial throne,
thus to be instantly extinguished, is one of
the strangest comments upon the fickleness
of fortune which history has recorded—an
awful instance of the mutations inseparable
from earthly affairs.

THE IRON TRADE.
WOLVERHAMPTON, Wednesday.
The market this afternoon was rather
quiet. Merchants were not inclined to buy,
neither were consumers disposed to do much
before quarter day, which takes place on the
10th of July, a fortnight hence, and in Bir-
mingham on the following day. Marked
bar makers were reported to be more in want
of orders than they have been for some weeks
past; but the unbranded iron firms have re-
ceived some good inquiries which will in all
probability end in business at the quarterly
meeting. Tank and girder plates during
the last fortnight have gone off more readily,
and sheets for working up, strips, and
coopers' hoops have been freely inquired
after; indeed several large lots of strips have
changed hands since the last meeting. Prices
however, are not what makers could desire,
and some of the larger houses are taking
contracts at rates that must leave an absolute
loss on each transaction. The plates keep
in brisk demand; most of the mills are run-
ning regularly, and some of the houses have
been refusing orders at 16s per box of coke
quality. Stamping sheets have also a fair
sale, but roofing sheets are offered with
freedom at £7 for singles; doubles and bat-
tens being offered at a proportionate rate.
Boiler sheets are in dull inquiry. 41 the pig
metal branch the higher class bra;lds have
grow, firmer in price during the
.a.st fort-
night owing to the further restrict '3d make
in the district through the blowing out of
the Wednesbnry Oak furnaces of M.,,sssrs. P.
Williams and Sons. The makers f part-
mine iron are doing very little, al Id their
figures are irregular, iron of this class being
in almost every instance bought 0 buyers
own terms, ranging from £2 7 (id to £3.
Cinder iron is worth about £2. With Mid-
d:esborough, Derbyshire, and hema cite quali-
t4i" 141 114 Aagil cicow. gl =opt in

foundry sorts. All kinds of minerals are ".
sluggish sale, and coal is, if anything, easi
in price, domestic sorts having fallen off
very much during the past week. Although
denial has been given to the rumour, it is
again stated on good authority that some of
the miners on the Bloxwich side of Walsall
have received notice to work under the nine
hours' system.