The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-29 00:00:00

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,Wo deem it right to state that we do not at all WM
identity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The crowd of illustrious guests who, a short time
ago, occupied the stately towers of Windsor Castle,
has now dispersed. Many a brilliant gathering has
assembled in that Royal palace, which, although
begun by William the Conqueror, and enlarged by
Henry 1., did not assume its present grand propor-
tions until the reign of Edward III.; but certainly
not for a long time past has there been such a throng
of distinguished guests equal to those who so lately
met under its ample roof. First, there was the Queen
of England herself, the representative of a long line
of sovereigns who have sat upon the throne of this
realm for more than 800 years. There were the King
and Queen of the Belgians, who rule over one of the
youngest monarchies in Europe; the Crown Prince
and Princess of Germany, who in the course of nature
will be the head of the most powerful military nation
upon the Continent; Prince and Princess Frederick
Charles, the former of whom wan his greatest renown
nine years ago upon the battle-fields of France; the
Prince and Princess of Wales, who at some time in the
future will be King and Queen of England; the Duke
of Edinburgh and his wife, the daughter of the Czar of
Russia ; not to mention the bride and bridegroom, and
many members of German grand ducal reigning
houses. All are now gone, and her Majesty, having
seen her last guest depart, takes herself to her own
rest. It is not often that the Queen is a Continental
traveller, a privilege which is enjoyed by an enormous
proportion of her subjects. In 1865 her Majesty spent
a few weeks at Rosenau, in Saxe-Coburg; in 1868
a month in Switzerland; three years ago there was a
Royal visit to Germany; and now the Queen goes
tc Italy, as the newspapers explain in an official com-
munication, for met and change after her recent trials.
During a portion of the Sovereign's absence, Parlia-
ment will not be sitting, for the Easter recess will be
very speedily here, and due provision has been made
for the transaction of the necessary State duties.
About this time the life of the London season,
which has lain dormant for so many months, shows
signs of reawakening animation. The Prince of
Wales has already held two levees at St. James's Palace
on behalf of the Queen; the Princess is to follow with
Drawing Rooms at Buckingham Palace; official notice
braing given that presentations in each case are to be
tionsidered as equivalent to presentations to her Majesty.
There are three descriptions of these receptions, either
by the Sovereign, or by those whom she may depute to
discharge the duty. The first is a Court, at which
both ladies and gentlemen are presented, and which
Is generally held by the Queen herself at Buckingham
Palace. The next is a Drawing Room for the reception
of ladies only, and which are, as a rule, presided over
by one of the Royal Princesses. The third is a
Levee, held, on most °scallions, by the Prince of
Wales at the Palace of St. James's, and at this
gentlemen only are received. Whether, however, it
be a court, a drawing room, or a levee, the result is
an expenditure of money amongst the classes who
can afford it, and a corresponding impetus to trade.
A year or two ago, when the Queen held a Drawing
Room, there were as many as 400 presentations,
and great ,was the activity amongst the fashionable
milliners in Regent-street in preparing for it. There
Is nothing like a good bustling London season, With
plenty of courts, drawing zooms, and levees, for
making the metropolis look at its best. The addi-
tional amount of money circulated does not affect
the class alone amongst whom it is directly spent ;
t must have a beneficial result upon many other
sections of that vast community which make up the
great world of London.
As regularly as the dawn of Easter comes round,
public interest, which has for some time previously
followed the practice of the University crews, becomes
concentrated upon the results of that aquatic contest.
It must have often appeared strange to many a mind
that from the Mendip hills to the high ranges of the
Cheviots, and from the Irish Channel on the west
to the shores washed by the German Ocean in the
east, busy multitudes should day after day and week
after week study the weights of sixteen young
men whom they have never seen in their lives,
and should discount the chances of light or dark blue
upon the great metropolitan river on the day of the
race. The result of a spin between Cambridge and a
scratch crew at Kingston, or between Oxford and the
London Boat Club at Putney is eagerly perused as
showing the hopes or indicating the prospects of the
representatives of the respective Universities when
the final trial of strength comes on. The banks of the
Thames between Putney and Mortlake, being easier
of access to the people of London than even the downs
of Epsom, there is a considerably greater crowd at
the boat-race than at the Derby. A quarter of a
million of spectators is the average estimate for the
latter; but the four miles of river over which the
University boats pass, are lined with an infinitely
greater throng, one which may well he described as a
multitude that no man can number.

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The annual meeting of the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution, which was held in London a few days ago,
was presided over by the Duke of Northumberland, a
Cabinet Minister; and the contents of the report testi-
fied to the great value of this organization in a maritime
country. It so happened that last year we were
brought face to face, on three mournful occasions, with
a terrible loss of life through nautical casualties. On
Sunday, the 24th March, the Eurydice was capsized
in a sudden gale off the Isle of Wight; on the 31st
May the Grosser Kurftirst was run into by her sister
ship the Konig Wilhelm, in the Channel; and on the
3rd September the excursion steamer Princess Alice
sank in the Thames, after having been in collision. On
neither of these occasions was the unfortunate ship
beaten to pieces by the waves, or upon the rocks of our
iron-bound coast; and it is peculiarly in such
times as these that the services of our lifeboat
crews are called into requisition. In neither of the
cases mentioned was the use of a lifeboat practicable;
but it is something to know that in a host of instances
the services of lifeboat crews were instrumental in
rescuing 497 lives from sinking ships. Since its
establishment the Lifeboat Institntion has saved more
than twenty thousand lives, which but for such timely
aid must have been lost to the community. One
valuable life—a single acute and penetrating intellect
—has sometimes saved a State, or changed the course
of history. All honour, then, to those who by their
activity and energy have brought into working order
an organization which embodies the highest form of
a Divine mission—not to destroy life, but to save.
Before the House of Commens rises for the Easter
recess, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will lay before
it his annual statement of the national receipts and
expenditure, popularly known as the Budget. The
origin of the term is, however, not so familiar. It is
believed to have been derived from the French
word bougette, a small bag, from its formerly having
been the custom to present the necessary documents
in a bag constructed of leather. Budget night is one
of the great ones of the year. The remissions of
taxation, or, unhappily sometimes, additions to our
already heavy burdens, are certain to affect large
classes of the people, and formerly, when admittance
to the Strangers' Gallery was on the principle of first
come first serve, the holders of orders were in waiting
as early as eight o'clock in the morning, and there
were some hundreds of competitors for the seventy or
eighty seats allotted to the sovereign people.
Now, however, nothing is gained by coming early. The
strangers assemble about a quarter of an hour before
the meeting of the House, and draw lots for the avail-
able seats. One has often wondered why there should
be such competition to get into a place where so little
can be seen or heard, where the seats are hard and un-
comfortable, where a single note cannot be taken, and
even a reference to a book, or a piece of print is inter-
dicted by the door-keeper as strictly out of order.
It is a standing rule of the House of Commons that
no notes of the debates shall be taken in presence of
the Speaker, and the Strangers' Gallery directly faces
that high functionary. The Reporters' Gallery is imme-
diately over his canopied chair; and, as he cannot see
them, the fiction is sustained that no reports of
the debates are permitted in the Speaker's presence.
Returning for a moment to the accommodation pro-
vided for the people, or in Parliamentary phrase
" strangers," who have had the pleasure of paying for
the Houses of Parliament, it may be added that the
present arrangement was resolved upon after long and
anxious consultation when the building was erected.
It was held to be inadvisable to make provision for a.
large number of auditors, and thus to encourage the
continental plan of encouraging applause or dissent
in the course of the debates.

One result of the disastrous floods at Szeaedin has
been to call back the Empress of Austria from Irelands
sooner than her Imperial Majesty had intended to
leave the happy hunting grounds of the sister island
The Empress is passionately fond of horses and of
following the hounds; and more than once before
has left the splendours of the Court at Vienna to
come over to this country, where sometimes in
Norfolk, and at others in the Isle of Wight she has
spent a few weeks incognito in her favourite pastime.
This was the first occasion on which her Majesty had
come to Ireland, where she received a thoroughly
genuine Celtic welcome, The Emperor of Austria,
before paying a visit to the submerged town of Szegedin,
requested that the money which was being raised
in Pesth to celebrate his silver wedding, might be de-
voted to the relief of the multitude Gf homeless and
honElelese sufferers resulting from the disastrous inun-
dations in Hungaly ; and the Emprese, in the five-and-
twenty years during
E
which she has jointly filled the
throne of the apsbur
ga, has ever given tha greatest
encouragement to movements fer the alleviation of thee

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