The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-06-14 00:00:00

Our fonbon gorrtsgonlant.

[wt. deem it right to state that we do not at all Um*
id,t.t!4 ou: sel yes with our Correspondent's op4nlons-3

The two Houses of Parliament have returned to
their duties with the knowledge that there are no
more vacations until the final break-up preparatory
to the lengthened holiday of the recess. This time
the Lords had only a little longer leave of absence
than the Commons, the, latter reassembling on the
Thursday in Whiteun week and the former on the
Monday following. The time must soon be coming
now when the Lords should meet to do something,
and not merely adjourn after a little conversation
over the affairs of Egypt. That is to say, bills ought
now to be getting through the Commons at a pace
sufficient to keep the peers at work. It is not the
fault of the Lords that they have nothing to do, for
this is the direct and immediate result of the slow
I
progress of business in the Commons.
A glance at the congested order book of the People's
House of Parliament shows that the knights, citizens,
and burgesses will have all their work to do if they
are to wind up the business as usual by the middle of
August. First in order of Ministerial measures, the
Franchise Bill has to be got through committee, read
a third time, and sent to the peers. Next stands the
4 Loth:ion Government Bill of the Home Secretary,
against which such strong opposition has been brought
by the existing bodies. That bill has merely been
heroduced, and awaits second reading, a stage at
which many speeches may be expected. Then there
is this Merchant Shipping Bill, also vehemently opposed,
• and his has likewise to be read a second time.- Sir C.
Dills has in the pigeon holes of his office a
scheme for the entire reconstruction of the present
- system of local administration in the counties, but has
as yet found no opportunity of even explaining its pro-
visions. A bill is before Parliament, and has been
during the past four years, for making the Ballot
Act, which expired in 1880, perpetual. But this has
had to be tarried along year by year as one of the
expiring laws renewed for a temporary purpose,
because there has been no time to discuss it. Another
bill seeks to extend the hours of polling from four
to eight o'clock in great towns, as in London. Then
'there are other bills dealing with the National Debt,
the Gold Coinage, the Re-constitution of the Railway
Commission, the Purchase Clauses of the Irish Land
Act, the Law of Evidence in Criminal Cases—all
Ministerial measures. And all to be got through the
Commons, sent to the Lords, amended, considered,
finally approved, and passed in two months.
, The proposed memorial to Sir Bartle Frere, which
receives the support of a public meeting convened by
the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, will elicit a
response hearty enough from those who five years
ago defended his policy from the strictures levelled
against it. The campaign in Afghanistan was based
upon a fameas memorandum drawn up by the pro-
consul when in India; and at the same time that
we were engaged in fighting the Ameer Sir
Bartle had gone to war with the Zulus without
the full permission of the Government at home.
There are few who can forget the fierceness of the
controversy which raged round about the acts of
this distinguished public servant. He had spent a
long life in the service of the State, and such was the
high opinion of him entertained by the Queen that he
was specially selected to accompany the Prince of
Wales in the Indian tour made by the Heir-Apparent,
to explain the principles of a Christian and humane
Indian policy. The historian has yet to arise who
will write a full and impartial narrative of that
stirring time, free from the passions and the preju-
dices which tiken tairrounded the discussion. Her
Majesty, while concurring for State reasons in the
recall of Sir Bartle Frere on a change of Government
in this country, retained her confidence in him as one
ever anxious to secure the advance of Imperial
interests, and a beautiful wreath from Balmoral was
added to the many placed upon the pro-consul's bi* r
on the Ay of his funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral.
The decision clf the Dean of Westminster in the
matter of the funeral of Sir Bartle Frere, has revived
• - -I`. the question where we shall bury our illustrious dead
when there is no more room left in the venerable
Abbey. For centuries have the interments of dis-
tinguished men gone on in the structure, "where long-
drawn aisles protect the coffined sleep of philosophers
and statesmen ;" but as the resources of the Abbey
itre not illimitable, a Walhalla must ultimately be
round elsewhere. While the feeling is now un-
iloubtedly stronger than it was against the burial of
he dead in edifices used for religious worship by the
living, it is also recognised that we cannot altogether
dispense with the sentiment which would rather think
of their remains beneath a holy fane than under the
starry arch of Heaven. Well,here is St. Paul's,all ready
to our hands. Comparatively few great men lie at
rest beneath its golden cross. A funeral in St. Paul's
is quite an exceptional event. Such men as Wel-
lington and Nelson lie there, truly, but these were men
of ages if not of centuries, and we cannot expect often
to looloupon their like again. St. Paul's is also the
long-abiding place of Sir Edwin Landseer, the most
eminent animal painter that the British islands have
produced in modern times. It will take a long time
to fill St. Paul's with our mighty departed; but there
is little doubt that in the end, when no more bodies
can be received into the abbey, St. Paul's will have to
do that duty which has so long been discharged at the
shrine of Edward the Confessor.
There are few visitors to London from the country
who have never been into the gardens of the Temple,
butting on the Thames Embankment. As these
beautiful grounds are always under the care of a pro-
t'essional gardener, their aspect, more especially in
the summer, is very inviting, and a stroll there in
the afterncion suggests anything but that proximity
o crowded Fleet-street, which is in reality the ease.
Every year, from the Ist of June to the 31st of
'august, the Benchers of the Inner Temple have been
itccustamed to throw open their grounds to the public,
the hundreds of children who gather on these occa-
aions is a spectacle in itself. This year, however,
ail extraordinary restriction has been imposed.
If a lady or a gentleman wishes to enter, the
police at the gate mildly observes: "Children
only." Remonstrance is vain—such axe the man's
irders, and by these he must abide. You go to the
"kardeners' lodge, and explain that there never has
been any difficulty in getting in before, and are cour-
eously informed that if you produce an order from a
bencher all will be well. The chances are that your
tirele of acquaintance does not include a bencher of the
inner Temple, and even if it did you might not know
where to find him at that particular moment. So,
afthough you merely wished to look over -your
evening paper on one of the seats, you have to go
disappointed away, feeling that in a matter of this
sort the tatterdemalion from the Seven Dials has
a very considerable advantage. It is incomprelien-
ible.

Dusty Derby is always speedily followed by aristo-
cratic Ascot; and, by way of keeping up the allitera-
tion, glorious Goodwood brings to an end the great
iporting events which run at the same time as the
London season. Ascot has for once been shorn of its
brilliancy. It was, or rather for many years has been,
ihe custom of the Prince and Princess of Wales to
rive to the course on the first day in semi-State, the
Master of the Horse heading the Royal procession.
.but this year, in consequence of the death of the
Duke of Albany, Ascot was deprived of those attrac-
ions which have always given it such a charm even in
he eyes of those who care not so much for racing as
or a day's recreation. It is not generally known that
the chief magistrate of the Bow-street Police-cou•rt
i(lwais attends the Ascot meeting, where a court of
• justice is improvised on the course, and prisoners
brought in by the police are at once tried and sentenced
for the offences which they have committed only a
few minutes previously.

4, The latest dynamite scare has died away in Lon.
on; not se the indignation against the perpetrators
'of such senseless atrocities. The American news-
papers have more than once drawn attention to what
they call the fierce denunciations of the metropolitan
'press; but it must be remembered that great provoca-
tion has been given. The Scotland-yard authorities are
s'lo apprehensive that reprisals are likely to be taken
that more than ordinary precautions are now

- e'er-
• •
'Cised with respect to the safety of the London news-
•-
paper offices. A iaoliceman in uniform as well as a
• • detective in plain clothes is generally on the look-out
see that nothing is dropped into the area of the
skuildings with a view to their destruction and the
• =aiming of their occupants.

WAT A FALL= !-Mr. Gladstone has been cuttingi
dawn another oak, and the spectators were so
delighted, they carried away chips as mementoes.
Really, what with Eis "masher " costume and his
tree-fellinkk G.O.AL Quite the " chippy chappie."