The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-10-13 00:00:00

Our iCoabon aorrespubent.
Me deem it right to state thlt we do not at all time'
adeatif y ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

So far as public engagements in the country were
concerned, the first week of the present month was
the most active which has been witnessed since the
beginning of the recess. The Church Congress, the
Associated Chambers of Commerce, the Social Science
Congress, and the Baptist Union, all testify to the re.
awnv-ning of interest in religious, commercial, and
soda' matters. Not that the people are ever supposed
to allm their interest in these, and more, especially
the fizEc mentioned, to slumber or to sleep ; but less is
heard cf any of them in that month of general quietude,
September, when all who can seize the opportuni y
to go out of town. The waves of every.day life have,
however, rolled back upon the land again, and with
the termination of the holiday season men And things
return to the normal codition hi which they may be
found in eleven months out of the twelve, when the
various occupations which combine-to make up the
existence of a community are in full swing.

Politi3ally the month opened with a great-dial of
entr,a, mostly on the side of the Opposition. In
Birmingham, in Glaagowvanditi Belhask the gm,
servative leaders were busily engaged in organizing
and in speaking, Sir Stafford.Northcote spending a
whole week in the north of Ireland amid scenes which
appeal so much to the hearta.of those who have read
of the stirring times of i6BB and 1690. After a week
of comparative calm, it will be the turn of the Liberals
to take up the word, which they will do at the Reform
Conference at Leeds, 41t1CMI: Bright hi,.the chair.
Mr. Wig*rememhers very well The stirring incidents
of the fit Reform agitation, for he Attained his ma-
jority-in the year which witnesad the:passing of the
famous measure of the Grey Ministry. He was pro-
minent in the demand for Parliamentary reform amid
the #7,erats which precesbylAtha passing of the Act of
iBkikvands-no,wr.at .the age Of 72, joins in another
al3ma.nd fi3i the amendment of the laws relating to the
spresentation of the people.

The, demand for electoral reform is made from many
platforms during the present recess; and it is held that
Ministers ought to taks.np tha.question next session.
But those who see no such urgent need for imme-
diate action point rout that the passing of rAittic)%
measure, let it be adopted when it may, will ken:-
tably result in the dissolution of Parliament. Why,
It is asked, should The existence of the House of
(locomen, be terminated 411184 when it might legally
run until 1886? Why not keep the work of reform
until the last, and clear off ,some of the outstanding
arrears in the next session and its successor? There is
no doubt that comparatively little of the work which
the present Parliament was elected to do has yet been
done, and if parliamentary reform is to occupy next
session it cannot be done. Many of tie remember the
fierce opposition which was offered to the Franchise
Bill introduced by Mr. Gladstone in 11E6. Much of it
was directed not against the principle of the Bill
itself, but as a protest against the bringing forward, in
the first session of a new Puliament, of a subject in-
evitably bound up with dissolution. It was argued
that the matter could wait and be taken in the last
session of the Parliament instead of in the first.

What is the difference between a Conference and a
Congress? For instance we have the sittings of the
Wesleyan Conference and of the Church Congress, each
body dealing with the internal affairs of the great tell-
eons body represented at the respective gatherings.
There was the Conference at Constantinople, in Decem-
ber,lB76, before the outbreak of the war between Russia
and Turkey, and the Congress at Berlin to settle the
terms of peace. Of the two terms Congress is cer-
tainly the more imposing; it was applied to the gather-
ing of plenipotentiaries at Vienna after the great
European war which I,a.sted three-and•twenty years,
from 1792 to 1815, and also to a similar assembly after
the Crimean war in 1856. Both phrases have lately
been applied to a unique gathering which has taken
place at Chiswick. This has been called an apple
Congress and an apple Conference; but seeing that
It is held merely to settle the nomenclature of the fruit
so dear to the juvenile portion of the population, per-
haps the term Conference would be sufficiently indica-
tive of its value and importance.
The London School Board has resumed its sittings,

and as the custom is on the first day after the reassem-
bling for the recess, the chairman, Mr. Edward North
Buxton, supplied a statement showing the progress
which was being made in the elementary instruction
of the young throughout the metropolis. Nobody
should grudge the cost of educating the children of the
poor, and thus preparing them to take their pieces
upon the great stage of human life. But in this as in less
imp lrtant matters the actual expenditure often exceeds
the original estimate, When the Education Bill was
behre Parliament in 1870, Mr. Forster, who had
charge of the measure, surmised that the rates would
not in consequence be increased by more than three.
pence in the pound, In London it is now a trifle over
sixperce ; but the friends of educational progress point
out that this is but very small in proportion to the im-
mensity of good which is being done.
In another way the local taxation of the metropolis
has increased of late years; and Mr. Courtney,

the Secretary of the Treasury, has been reading the
Board of Works a lecture upon the neceEsity of
caution in the way of augmenting the burthens
of the people. The Board went to the Trea-
sury some months ago to ask for assistance in
raising £13,000,090 for London improvements, and
of this vast sum more than five millions were put
down for improving the communications across the
Thames below London Bridge, by building a bridge
and two *tunnels. Mr. Courtney has received the
instructions of the Lords of the Treasury to say that
there is no longer that ignorant Patienze of taxation
among=t metropolitan ratepayers which was formerly

supposed to exist, and practically asks the Board to
revie its extensive schemes of improvement. It will
have been noticed for many years past that every step
in the march of progress coats money. Education,
paving, lighting, police, water supply, drainage, all
these essentials are successively demanded by an ad-
vancing civilization—but they have to be paid for,
whether the trade cf the country be good or bad, and
if the latter grumbling is liable to ensue.
The ward of Cornhill, which is represented by the
new Lord Mayor in the Court of Aldermen, is one of
the richest of all the twenty-six Into whlzh the
City of London is divided, Banks, jewellers' shops,

and ornate churches make up the wealthy thorough-
fare known by this name. It is the custom of
the Lori Mayor's Show to traverse the streets of
the ward represented by his lordship in the Court
of Aldermen, and these in Cornhill are not very
numerous. This year, so far as the route is concerned,
it will be materially shortened. In the olden time
the cavalcade made its way to Westminster through
the Strand, and returned along the Embankment.
Now it will proceed merely to the new Law Courts
hard by the site of old Temple Bar, where the Lord
Mayor having been presented to the Judges, the pro-
cession will return to Guildhall. It may be added
that the old law courts adjaining Westminster Hall, in
which justice was administered for so many years,
have been pulled down, leaving that side of the hall
with anything but an ornamental appearance.
The outbreak of spleen on the part of the Parisian
populace upon the visit of the King of Spain did
little credit to the unruly multitudes who gathered in
the streets of the city on that occasion, and has
already led to a Ministerial crisis. The boobyiem and
childishness of a considerable seetion of the Paris
nopulation is incredible when we consider the
greatness of the nation and the splendour of its
renown in bygone centuries. On the evening of the
15th July, 1870, when France had declared war
against Prussia, an unruly mob paraded the streete of
the capital, shouting "Long live the wag 1" and
"To Berlin 1 " The war was very soon brought to
their very gates by a victorious enemy; ancrhi a lour
months' siege they were made to .realise some 61 the
horrors they had so lightly intended • for - Others..
When the enormous armies of the Germans were
marching upon Paris with a view to invest it, a
portion of .its inhabitants was busily engaged in
painting the:Creeds, "Liberty, equality, fraternity "
over the &lore of public buildings, Including Notre
Dame and the • tadeleine. Now when: a foreign
Sovereign accepts an invitation from the President
of the Republic, he is hissed and hooted out of the
place. If the Parisians would only give themselves
time to think of the ridiculous figure which they pre.
sent by such exhibition!, they would Ouse to make
themselves a laughing-stock in titneyea of Yampa and
of the world. .
• - r
Lord Coleridge has hacia A.plendid reception on the
other side of the Atlantic, dne in every—way befitting
the successor to the chair of Holt and Mansfield.
Even stern Republicanism 41.- honeylito,the accents of
a lord," When we wee engaged in wir.with flings
in 1856, a dispute arose 'between "Great Britain and
the United States, which. ended .in the temporary
withdrawal of our Miniater,, Mg. jcrampton, ;from
Washington. -The' Premier -Of. that day, ,Vii9olint
Palmerston, .not knowing exiatly- how to Pleaae,the
Arne ricitn •people in thl choice of a representative,
suggested to the Foreign Secretary that he shonY
"send them out a lord." Accordingly Lord Lyens
was accredited, and the Americans were delighted.
His lordship is now accredited to anotheißepublic as
British Ambassador, namely, to the Bepublic of
France.

Tvro POOR PARIZiTS AT A Canisnuinis.—Clergy-
man (in astonishment) : •‘ What name I "—Mother :
" Clementina Sophonisba Rosalie Celestine Sarah
Jane."—Clergyman: "Why on earth give the child
all these names ? "—Father : "If you please, air,
we've got nothing else to give _her I "—Moonshine,