The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-03-02 00:00:00

Our Youbon QTArraponbtnt.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The holding of Courts and Drawing-rooms by Her
Majesty at Buckingham Palace, and of levees by the
Prince of Wales at the Palace of St. James's, are indi-
cations that life in the metropolis is gradually awaken-
ing from the torpor which naturally settles down upon
it during the winter. It may be explained that a
Court can be held only by the Queen herself, when
both ladies and gentlemen can be presented; that
a Drawing-room may, at the discretion of the Sove-
reign, be presided over by one of the Princesses,
who receive ladies only; and that, equally in Her
Majesty's discretion, a levee for the presentation of gentle-
men, may be conducted by either of the Royal Princes.
Formerly the Queen delegated none of these duties to
others, but for several years past the Prince of Wales
has undertaken the levees, and thus relieved the reign-
ing monarch of a great deal of routine work. It may
readily be understood that these ceremonials are to a
great extent monotonous and fatiguing. At a Court
or Drawing Room the Sovereign stands to receive
the presentees; and as the name of each is called
out by the Lord Chamberlain she advances
and makes a profound bow to the Queen, who
returns it. Now, imagine this to be gone through
four hundred times in an afternoon, and I have known
occasions when there have been quite this number of
presentations, and people will easily see that after a
reign of more than forty years, State duties once po
novel may with constant reiteration, at length become
somewhat wearisome. These receptions by the Queen
and the Princess of Wales are looked upon with much
interest, not only by those who have been fortunate
enough to have their names stamped with the Lord
Chamberlain's approval, but by the tradesmen,
whose costly shops in West-end thoroughfares are
so attractive to the gcneral public. Four hundred
presentations at Court mean a lot of business—the
making of as many trains and ladies' dresses,
oftentimes new liveries for the servants, newly-capari-
soned trappings for the horses, and in some cases even
new equipages. Multitudes assemble and line the
road to the Palace, and criticisms are freely enough
passed upon the " turn-out " of each presentee as it
makes its way towards the residence of the Sovereign,
there to pay due respect and homage to the Head of
the State, the embodiment of law, and the representa-
tive of order,

It is no wonder that the preparations for the Euro-
pean Congress or Conference at Baden-Baden are
watched with much interest by the respective Powers.
A meeting of the various Plenipotentiaries generally
takes place after a great war, although the last war
between France and Germany was an exception. The
two Powers who had engaged in that life and death
struggle were left alone to settle by themselves the
Treaty of Peace, and hard enough for France the
terms were made. But the war which was brought to
a close in 1815 was followed by the Congress at
Vienna, and the war against Russia in 1855 was
succeeded by the Congress at Paris. At both
these all the Powers were represented, for they
were all more or less interested. And in the
present case, although the fight has been merely one
between Russia and Turkey, the material interests of
other Powers are deeply affected by the proposed
changes. Great Britain wishes to retain her naval
supremacy in the Mediterranean, and Austria and
Germany are anxious that the most important mouths
of the Danube shall not have their navigation con-

trolled by Russia. The questions at stake are very

different from the cession of Alsace and a part of Lor-
raine to Germany by France, which was a matter
simply for those two countries alone. But it is a
peculiarity of this Eastern Question that any dis-
turbance of it affects the greater part of the Continent
of Europe.
The election of a new Pope is a matter of great inte-
rest to two hundred millions of human beings, and
never in the history of the Papacy has such an in-
terval elapsed as that between the election of Pius the
Ninth in 1846 and that of Leo the Thirteenth in 1878.
The traditional Pontificate of St. Peter himself was
twenty-five years, but in this case there were thirty-
two, and the Cardinals who made the choice of Pope
Pius had long since passed away before the mantle of
the apostle fell upon the new Pontiff. The last Pope
with the title of Leo was the Twelfth, who did what
he could to encourage literature—like Leo the Tenth,
of the great family of the Medici, in the sixteenth
century. Leo the Eleventh was far advanced in
years when he was selected as Pope, and died one
month after his election. The new Pope, who had for
some months filled the office of grand Chamberlain at
the Vatican, will be 68 on the 2nd of March, fourteen
years older than Pius the Ninth when he was called to
the Papal Chair, so that he can scarcely expect a
Pnritifionta iii,j in lenzth to that of his predecessor.
which represented the passing away of a generation of
men.

The fear that Great Britain might be involved in war
makes the issue of the report prepared by the Inspector.
General of Recruiting a peculiarly opportune document.
In this we are told that last year the supply of recruits
was in excess of the demand, so that the military
authorities were enabled to satisfy themselves as to
the quality of the men offering themselves for the
army while getting the requisite quantity at the same
Lime. When the supply falls short we must take
what we can get for the raw material of our armies,
but this has certainly not been the case during the
past twelve months. It was found possible to raise
the height required in recruits by one inch, and to
expand the chest measurement in the like proportion.
The physique of the men who joined the army in
1877 is regarded as excellent, and the actual number
of recruits enlisted in the twelve months was 28,728.
Amongst the causes assigned for the flocking of this
large number of young men to the standard of the
Queen is the revival of a martial spirit on the part of
the people, and the increasing probabilities of active
service for those who joined the army.
From the military to the naval strength of Great
Britian is perhaps a natural transition at a time like
this; for the Mutiny Act, which is passed every year,
tells us that it is upon the Navy that the power,
wealth, and influence of this country mainly depend.
The slightest reflection would be sufficient to convince
any one that an army could be got together and
equipped much more quickly than a navy. Napoleon
Bonaparte no sooner had one army destroyed than he
raised another, but if we look at the naval contests
of his reign, we find a very different experience.
Lord Nelson dealt out destruction to the French fleet
at what is known as the Battle of the Nile on the
let of August, 1798, and more than seven years
elapsed before Napoleon got another navy together
fit t 4 cope with that of England. No sooner was
it organized than it perished utterly at Trafalgar
on the 21st of October, 1805, and Napoleon never
recovered from it. Nelson's death was a great
national calamity, but his work was done. His life

had ended when his mission was accomplished! To
build such a fleet as that which, by his extraordinary
skill as a tactician, he then swept out of existence,
would take half a generation, and long before that time
Napoleon was an exile at St. Helena. And in our
own days the construction of an ironclad, from the
period when her lines are first laid down to that when

she is finally completed and ready for sea, may be
fairly measured by years. Therefore, when Parlia-
ment is voting money by millions should war be
necessary, the welcome presence of two or three un-
finished Turkish ironclads in the shipbuilding yards of
the Thames enabled the Government by purchase to
make an immediate and most material addition to the
British Navy, and one which no taxpayer will grudge.
While the question of the prevention of famine in
India occupies the attention of the authorities, with
a view to the application of some effective measure,
some facts which were sto.ted at a public meeting in
London with respect to a mighty famine in another
Oriental empire, must have calmed considerable sur-
prise. Upon the testimony of Sir Thomas Wade,
our Minister in China, and of Sir Rutherford
Alcock, who formerly held the same post, it ap-
pears that there are districts in the Chinese empire
with a population of seventy-five millions, in
which little or no rain has fallen for three
years, so that this vast number of human beings
is literally starving. The districts are remote and
mountainous, and as there are no railways as in
India, there is no means of conveying food to the
people except upon the backs of mules and donkeys.
The very magnitude of the calamity, and the impossi-
bility of adequately coping with it, seems to paralyse
any effort which might have been made to deal with it
had it been on a smaller scale. Meanwhile the Chinese,
finding no food at home, are pouring in enormous num-
bers into the State of California, and are settling in
swarms upon the fertile slopes which are washed by
the waves of the Pacific Ocean. It is worth remember
ing that the period marked by the absence of rain in.
China is that which in Europe has been characterised
by the prevalence of devastating floods. It was in the
summer of 1875 that these began, and France, Italy,
and Great Britain especially suffered. The year 1876
WU also in these latitudes an abnormally wet one, and
last year was by no means one of drought. What
would the unfortunate Chinese have given for the
millions of tons of surplus water which have fallen in
Europe and have caused so much loss and devastation?
Although it is rather early in the Session for Select
Committees tobe at work, a few of these have already
commenced their labours. The visitor to the Houses
of Parliament who enters the Central Hall from the
Gallary of Statues, ad will= to bring himself
mwbiatel wt il vontioal a WI CODUIA10"

passes straight on and mounts the flight of steps in
front of him. At the top there is a long corridor,
with the committee-rooms on the left, the subject of
inquiry within being indicated by a label on the door.
There are two entrances, one for members of Parlia-
ment and the other for the public, and the latter are
prevented from invading the domain of the former by
the interposition of a wide, substantial table, at which
the members constituting the committee sit. The
sovereign people of England, who have had to pay so
much for this vast and splendid pile of buildings, are
not provided with seats in these committee rooms, but
as many of them as care to crowd in have to stand ; and
if they are lovers of the picturesque, they can look down
upon the broad tideway of the Thames immediately
without, and upon the long sweep of houses upon the
Surrey shore. One of these Committees, nominated
by the House of Lords, and composed of some of the
most eminent members of that assembly, is inquiring
into a subject of immense importance to the people—
one which seems to baffle the skill of our legislators
and statesmen—the prevalence of intemperance in this
country. The committee is presided over by the Duke
of Westminster, whose town house in Park Lane is so
often thrown open during the season for the advance-
ment of works whose tendency is to ameliorate the
condition of the people.