The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-08-18 00:00:00

Our Fonban 6orttspadtnt.

r'X'e deem it right to state tlr_t we do not at all VmeP
;4ntify ou-selves with our t'orrespomient's vinions.j

It has taken the House of Cmrnons a very lone
time to settle the basi, of the tax reat;og to Corrupt
Practices at elections. The Ministerial measure deal-
ing with this -uhjsct oc,mpied twenty sittings in com-
mittee, and through the shoals surrounding its progress
in t iis stage it was piloted by the Atterney•G-neral.
A vast number of amendments were disposed of, and
•
the Bill as amended was ordered to be reported to the
House. But on the repott stage another long list of
amendments came up for consideration, and the con-
sequence is that the session will be protracted some-
what beyond the date originally mentioned by the
Prime Minister, namely, the 25th instant. For it must
be remembered that, although there are some measures
which at the last the House might discover are not
urgent and can he abandoned, there are others which
must indubitably be passed if the routine business of
the State is to go on.
The first of these which naturally suggests itself to
those Vic} hAve 7as:accbulntvace with parli&reent&rx
history fsire'aprOpriarton Silt This Is a rhseistire
of momentous comequence to the interests of the
country. It applies the sums voted by Parliament to
the military, naval, and civil services respectively, and
very strictly the Legislature defines the appropriation of
there ayunts. For instante,if after paying all denim&
on account of the army there should remain a surph
and there is not quite enough to meet the requirements
of the navy, the money cannot be transferred from one
department to another. The service to which remains
& surplus pays this into the Treasury, and a supple-
mental
.vote is laid ,before Parliament for that which
sis'lwanteti elsewhere. Again, the Appropriation Bill
is of euch importance that it cannot be rushed through
its stages. wime must be given, and on the motion for
the second reading it is com,:etent for a member to
rai,e any given subject upon it, or, to quote a hack-
neyed expression, "to survey the world from China
4:• to Peru."

Meanwhile the Lords have work to do, and are
doing 'it. The Bills are now rapidly coming up from
the Commons, sent before the Lords' Committees, and
expeditiously dealt with. As the number of peers
avai;ahle for 'business purposes is so much smaller
than the numbers of the House of Commons, who are
presumblY all men of business, the Bsrl of Redesdale
is often at his wit's end to keep the requisite com-
mittee work going at this point of the session, and
venturesome young peers who stray promiscuously
into the House are at once caught by the venerable
Chairman of Committees and impressed into the ser-
vice of this august branch of the Legislature.
The work of Dr. Moffat, the venerable African
missionary, whcse death has been announced, seems
more like a dream than a remembrance. Those with
grey heads today can recollect reading of it in the
far-off times when they were Sunday school children,
when Dr. Moffat's interesting labours at the Kuruman
station- and at Erromanga formed the subject of
perusal of many a youthful mind. It seems difficult
to believe that the man who was with us only last
week was coming on his missionsry duties in the
land of the Bschuanas soon after the news of the
battle of Waterloo reached Capetown. After more
than hslf a century of AU-an labour Dr. Moffat
ietnrned to Ws country in 1870, being compelled to
surrender his work through an attack of chronic sleep-
lessness, which, however, to a great extent was over.
come by rest. He was one of the most remarkable
figures at the funeral of Dr. Livingstone, his son-in-
law, in Westminster Abbey, ten years ago; and a
suggestion has already been made that he also should
lest in that Walhalla.

The death of Dr. Moffatt recalls an incident which
shows the interest her Majceity takes in men of "light
and leadixtg." During the long residence of the deceased
miesiorary among the Bechuanas, it was always a
matter for surprise among the natives that the Doubt
not only was not on intimate terms with his Sovereign,
but that he ha.d never seen the Queen, as he was
obliged to admit in reply to their questionings was the
case. In fact, they were for a long time inclined to
think that such being the case the "white man "could
not be of much account. It happened, however,
that on an occasion when the Queen was on the
way to the Isle of Wight, where her Majesty is at
present residing, the venerable missionary was stay-
ing at Gosport, and an intimation of the incident
related above was conveyed to her Majesty. On
hearing of the circumstance, with characteristic
kindness she at once sent for Dr. Moffett, and had an
Interview with him at the railway station, Through-
out the remainder of his life Dr. Moffatt had a lively
remembrance of the event, and of the intere4t which
his Sovereign thus showed in his labours beneath the
Southern CI 038. As a supplement to this it may be
mend, ned that during her present visit to Osborne her
Majesty has had an interview with the Poet-Laureate,
but in this instance it was by no means the first. In
the beautiful verses in which Tennyson dedicated a
volume of his poems to the Queen, the sentiment
that—°A thousand claims to rev'rence closed in
Her as mother, wife, and Queen," was not the stereo-
typed adulation of a Curt hard, but the faithful
expression of a true poet. The late Dean Stanley,
at her Majesty's desire, was the medium of an
interview between the Queen and Carlyle, and
in connection with this a characteridic anecdote of
the "Chelsea sage "is told. Recognizing the rule
that subjects should remain standing before their
Sovereign, Carlyle observed that, as the Queen would
see, he was an old man, and would be glad of the
privilege of being allowed to be seated in her pre.
settee. It is nsedless to say that her Mejeety readily
and cordially granted the request.

A. very differ-nt man was Captain Matthew Wet!),
to whom a memorial is to be raised, or at least an
effort is to be made to do so. A meeting has been
held at Anderton's Hot-1 in Fleet-street with this
object in view, at which a very enthusiastic letter
was read from Sir John Astley, a member of the
late Parliament, in praisa of Webb's daring ven-
ture. It remains, of course, to be seen what kind
of a response will be made to the appeal. Many
are of opinion that Captain Webb had no right
to risk his life in a venture which he was clearly told
must end in certain death. It has been truly said of
Lord Nelson that he courted danger as a bride, but
that was in the service of his country, which he saved
Iron invasion, obviously a far higher aim than an
RUE. ropt to swim the Niagara rapids and whirlpool,
whkh has term,nated in the destruction of an un-
doubtedly brave man.

Ti.:3 Twelfth of August is a date sacred to the
beginning of grouse shooting on the moors of Scotland
and Yorkshire; this year it was the Thirteenth,
through the intervention of Sunday. Those who are
not members of the Lqiilature have the advantage
this time in being able to breathe the fresh moorland
air in pursuit of birds while noble lords and hon.
gentlemen are breathing the sultry atmosphere of
Westminster. Those ho have taken the trouble to
glance at the plulterers' shops in the main thorough
fares of Loridt.n on the afternoon of the first day of
shooting must have been surprised at the marvellous
rapidity with which slaughtered grouse have been de-
spatched to the metropolis, ticketed, and exposed for
sale at a moderate price. The expedition thus dis-
played is truly amazing and suggestive.
The returns of the Registrar General may often
look dry and uninteresting, but they are frequently
full of interest and contain facts of national import.
ance which :night well he pondered ,over. For in-
stance, in the lateet of these records, this high func-
tionary tells us that the mirriage rate now shows a
marked increase over that registered in recent corre-
sponding quarters, and was above the mean rate in
the same quarters of the ten years 1873.82. From
1873 to 3879 the rate steadily declined, but it has since
recovered, and that now recorded exceeds the rate in
the corresponding period of any year since 1876. It
as lowest in HerefozdThire and highest in the county
of Nottingham. _ _

_
If Australia were as rear to the mother country as
Canada or the United States, there is no doubt it would
be a far more favonred field for emigrants than it is
at present. Its vast distance from England, however,
militates against its stlection, and only a small pro-
portion of those leaving their homes to settle in a land
of promise choose the Australian colonies. The climate
Is delightful, but the birds of brilliant plumage are
often songlers, and the flowers have no perfume. The
abserce of great rivers must always be a drawback to
the progress of Austraia. Thus it comes to pass that
through the rigorous climate of Canada and the
mmense distance of Australia the United States
receive the largest proportion of emigrants from
our ports. It may be mentioned that last quarter the
average of emigrants as 2,249 from England, 3.679
from Scotland, and 12,440 from Ireland Compared
with the corresponding p-riod of 1882, there was a
large increase in Ireland, whereas the English and
Scotch proportions differed but slightly.

Meteorology is a science to which more attention
will be paid in the future than it has received in the
past, more especially by the people of an Wand fixed
our own in the midst of the glittering seas
Va,i.ble as our climate is, statistics show -that it
aUES not vary so much when the records are
spread over a stated time. The mean temperature
last quarter at Greenwich was i3degrees, and this
was only 07 above the average or the correspooding
period of 112 years. The monthly mean t,n-iperature
was rather below the average in April, whereas it
showed a slight excess both in May and Jut e. The
amount oh -rain meAenred at Greenwich in the three
months was 4 75 inches, or 108 below the average
anicnint in the torresporiding quarter 'of 67 years. The
hours of bright sunshine numbered 474, or four above
the record in the six preceding spring quarters.