The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-10-15 00:00:00

IDur on Dun Contsponbent.

pre deem it ti_t • M state that we do not al all titaal
ftlentify ouri th our ettnesrtmthov, oittnittos 1

With deep interest the public mind continues to
well upon that sad theme which, to the exclusion of
almost every other, is ever with us. An earthquake
n Calabria, destroying five villages and human life to
a great extent, would at other tiniia he an absorbing
topic ; the destruction I life and property by the
terrific hurricane in Nova Scotia would ordinarily
much occupy public attention; but even such calami-
ties as these are dwarfed by the war. We read eagerly
and with sad interest every item that reaches us rela-
tive to the nieye of Paris- of the transport of heavy
artillery for the attack of the apparently doomed city, i
and of the obstinate preparations for defence ; we I
peruse with almost equal eagerness and sadness the
news fmni Metz where the inhabitants and the garrison
must now be considering whether surrender will not be I
better then starvation; and with sad interest too we
read of the probabilltiee of an attack upon Havre, of
the sufferings of the inhabitants of various parts of I
France, and of the other incidents and events
which go to make up that aggregation of horrors which
we call war. Hopes of an armistice are talked of as I
write, hut these hopes rest on an unstable foundation. ;
The faint silvery light of "the star of peace" can in- I
deed be scarcely discovered through the heavy, darle
thunderous cloud ef war.

The new seal which the French Governme.
adopted, is, no doubt, very appropriate in ma.
specie. The figure of liberty, and the inscription
the name of the French people," for example, are fairly
emblematic of the situation ; but the wreath of
and olive, and the sheaf of corn are painfully sugg
tive of the opposition of hard, ineitorable facts
poetic theory. Strength, peace, and plenty are thus
typified; but can unhappy France be said to possess
them?

The working men who take part in the demonstra-
tions, that have been so frequent of late, in favour of
the French republic and against our own Government
for their alleged apathy in respect to the war, are not
to be hastily blamed for doing so, but a little considera-
tion will, I think, lead to the conclusion that such de-
monstrations are of no practical value. At one of the
tenet recent of these affair, the assembly passed a long
end strong resolution to the effect that it was the duty
of Government to " recognise and welcome the French
Reim bl ic,"but the meeting appeared to forget that Francs
herself has not yet officially recognised her republic
to say nothing about welcoming it The assembly also
called on the Government to use their utmost efforts to
Preventthe dismemberment of France, and to insist on
the abolition of standing armies ; they threatened na-
tional action if the Government maintained their pre-
sent alleged course of inaction, and urged that Parlia-
ment should be at once called together. Now, without
endeavouring to combat these principles in the ab-
stract, it does not need ranch thought to show that
these demonstrations, however good may be their
motives, are simply calling on Government to do ina-
prseibilities in the present condition of European affairs.
What an absurdity, for example, to call on a few gen-
tlemen sitting round a table in Downing-street to insist
on the abolition of standing armies.
" By balloon mail" will perhaps at .me future day
re ad just as much as a matter of course as 'by
telegraph" now doe.; but it is rather too good a joke
t head the letters of correspondents in this style at
present. That a balloon can be sent up from Paris
with letters in it, as from anywhere else, Is feasible
enough, but we all know that balloons are now just as
much at the mercy of the wind. as ever they were, and
it would be well if those enterprising journals, whose
editors give this airy news in such a matter-of-fact
style, would inform us when the balloon was sent up
and when and where the "balloon mail" arrived.
Knowing this, we should read the correspondence with
more confidence. With regard to the private letters
that are now confided to balloons their contents must
on the whole be very sad, and indeed we may well
say, with Longfellow,

The sir hi fell of tarewe.lle to the dying,

And mourning for the deul.

All honour to Miss Rye for her arduous and self-
denying efforts for the benefit of otherwise friendless !
girls. It is now several years since she took
charge of orphan cr deserted girls, took them I
to Canada, placed them in a temporary es- ,
ablishment there, and then had them apprenticed as ,
It were to domestic service. Unostentatiously and with I
quite inadequate encouragement has Miss Rye for
years continued this good work, with great success and I
with inestimable advantage to her young proUgirs.
She is now in England, seeking for aid on a larger scale,
and doubtless she will obtain it. The demand for ouch
girls, she tells us, is increasing, and there are fields for
their employment not only in Canada but in the
United States. One letter from the Mississippi district,
states that for every girl Mies Rye sends, there will be
To applications. The public ought to aid this benevo-
lent work. We have in the old country a surplus of
unemployed girls, and if employment can be found for
them in Canada and America it wPI be a great benefit
to them and to no. It may be asked why should girls
be sent across the Atlantic to be employed in domestic
service when there is always at home a greater demand
than supply of domestic servants. The answer is
that in America and Canada they enjoy more
consideration and liberty than they do here, as a rule,
though the exceptions may be numerous. We need
not, however, too curiously inquire into this part of
the matter. Sutfi.e it to say that if Miss Rye can
emphy our orphan and deserted girls and will do so if
we help her, that help ought to be forthcoming, and
from other considerations besides those alluded to.
A walk about the West End of the metropolis just
now—about Piccadilly, Regent-street, Leicester'
square, &c.— cannot fail to produce the impression,
oppoeing one did not have the impression before,
what a number of foreigners there are now in London!
Moat of us know that this is the fact, but it is brought
home clearly to no during a promenade, or, in more sen.
giblet English, a walk about the West End. In Regent'
street during a fine afternoon, and we have had many
such lately, you might fancy that you were walking
on the Boulevard des Italiens as it was before the war,
but inhale the trees and the kiesques. The number of
promenaders—the French promenade, you know they do
not walk—speaking French is marvellous; positively
I heard the other afternoon as much French as
English ; and what heightened the illusion more than
anything Was to hear real French boys calling out in
real French their real French newspapers. " Vuibt
rlnternational ice do-nitro dip•!,hes I" calla out a boy
standing on the kerb, and M. and Madame Chose,
with les demo,sella who are sauntxring pleasantly along
our finest street, attracted by the familiar language,
stop and buys paper. " Arancez, mc,3ieurs ! 17wk-
pendance ! (a Sduatin 1" cries • man not far off.
Poor fellow, he looks like a penniless refugee, and I
magnaminously buy one of his papers, though there is
nothing in it as a matter of course. About this neigh.
bourhood it was always common enough to have some
one behind the counter who could speak French, but
now this seems to be almost imperotive. As a matter
of Connie we haves large number of poor Germans and
French here, but all our refugees ars by no means
poor. On the contrary there are hundreds who are
evidently very well-to-do, and who are bled pretty
freely by the hotel-keepers, tradesmen, &c. An to the
cal/n, restaurants, dining-rooms, ittc., they are now
largely patronised by foreigners, and if London has in
some respeezts suffered by the war we have in other
respects gained by it.
Most people perhaps were under the impression that
one result of the recent revo,ution in Spain was that
slavery was abolished throughout her dominions;
but a Havannah j,urnal contains several advertise-
ments offering slaves for sale ; amongst them two
healthy and robust negro boys; a negress of six years,
good and serviceable ; and • negress, 26 years of age,
alone or with her child of three years. Such announce-
ments remind us of the dark days of the past, and of
atrocities which most of us had thought were never to
be revived.

The Liverpool merchants and tradesmen have done
well to establish a depot where metric weights may be
seen and purchased; and they have done well also to
urge that Parliament ought, after due notice, to make
the metric system compulsory. The metric system of
weights and measures is incontestibly superior to our
present complicated collection of systems, just as the
decimal money system is incontrovertibly better than
our present system; but there is far more difficulty in
introducing the decimal ccinage system than there
would be in carrying out the metric system. If we
ever adopt either of these methods, compulsion
should be the order of the day, otherwise we should
have confusion worse confounded. By the way are we
ever to have the report of the royal commission on
standard weights and measures?
"Drop • memorandum of your name, address, busi-
new, and specialities," suggests an advertiser, who
forgets not to give his own address, "and receive iii
return • dozen stanzas of genuine and original versifi-
cation, which you can print. Unless satisfaction," he
adds, "advertiser will accept no payment." This
versatile genius must have great faith in himself and
n the ',alio. At anybody's bidding he will set to
work and compete a dt zen starzas f something or
other on he chance of his patron tc:i g pleased ai' h
It. It is to be hoped his poetry is better than his
prose, though, by the way, he does not promise poetry
but "versification," which, it needs not to be said, is
not synonymous with poetry. The phrase "unless
satisfaction," is very droll prose, but perhaps the ad.
vertiser considers it "genuine and original."