The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-11-15 00:00:00

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The thoroughfare in London known as the St
*lteuding from the site of Temple Bar to Charint,
Crose, is in many respects a remarkable one. Right
in the middle of this busy street, and constantly sur-
rounded by the tide of traffic flowing east and west,
are two churches—those of St. Clement Danes and of
St. Mary. The chimes of the former, in the lull of
the hustle which is a characteristic of this part of the
metropolis, may often enough be heard ringing out
upon the troubled London air, "My lodging is on the
cold ground," following closely upon the "Blue Bells
of Scotland," and h Home, Sweet Home V' The name
of this church, it will be observed, is a peculiar one
and the tradition is that the original structure. dedi-
cated to St. Clement, was destroyed by the Danes,
when, a very long time ago, these hardy Norsemen
from over the sea came up the Thames, landed on
that part of the Strand, carried destruction wherever
their banners waved, and massacred the inhabitants.
Hence the description of St. Clement Danes even to
this day. From the top windows of the houses on the
north side of the Strand you can see the river—a very
different looking stream to-day from what it was in
the time oi these fierce marauders who faced the
perils of the North Sea in their descent upon our
shores—a stream whose banks are now adorned with
gardens and with public buildings, and which cuts in
twain a city with a population unequalled in the
world.

One of the most conspicuous buildings in this great
thoroughfare of the Strand is Somerset House, with
its southern front running right down to the Thames
Embankment. The head-quarters of the Inland
Revenue, the depository of wills, the central establish-
ment for the distribution of stamps, and the chief
place of the Excise, Somerset House is also the office
of the Registrar-General, whose information respecting
the progress jof the people is always of an interesting
character. This important functionary has lately been
giving us some statistics about the marriage•rate
which are well worthy of passing attention. In
the latest quarter whereto his returns refer, the
marriages of 92,976 persons were registered hi
England and Wales, and the annual marriage•rato
was only 14 per 1,000. This was very low; in.!
deed; it had not gone down so for forty years,
The nearest approach to it was in 1842, whe
the depression in trade and agriculture was almost a

great as it has lately been. It is noteworthy that tin
declension in the marriage rate is now very slight ii
the rural districts, but more apparent in the northers
counties, where the population live by mining. Tin
Registrar-General tells us that there can be no bettel
Indication of the absence of prosperity than thal
which is furnished by a low marriage rate.
According to some returns issued from the Board o
Trade, nearly 70,000 emigrants embarked during

last

quarter from the various ports of the 'United Xthgd

at which emigration officers are stationed, shotv.
ing a further considerable increase upon the
numbers in the two preceding quarters. The
proportion of emigration which had steadily declined
from 1873 to 1877, has again gone up since the
last mentioned year. Perhaps the country has neve
witnessed such a time of prosperity as that in the fly
years during which the emigrati,n rate went down
Then came a turn in the tide; and as one consequence
of this between the months of June and Septembei
last, 56,000 English, 6,700 Scotch, and 12,000 Irish
emigrants left the land of their fathers for a distant
home beyond the seas. The proportions ot emigrants
to a million of the population were 1,435 from Eng-
land, 1,854 from Scotland, and 2,271 from Ireland.
Fifty-eight per cent, of the emigrants went to the
United States, 24 per cent, to the Australian Colonies;
31 per cent. to British North America, and 7 per cent,
to other places. The proportion of emigrants to the
United States showed an increase, while that to
Australia declined.
The first week in November was so low in tempera.
ture as to suggest the possibility of another very cold
winter being in store for the people of these latitudes:
Whether this be so or not, there can be no doubt that
the year is keeping up its reputation for an abnormally
low temperature. Whether of January, July, or
November, it is the same story that has to be told.
July, according, to Mr. Glaisher, was very cold and
sunless, and rain was measured on 19 days out of
the 31. With the exception of a few days isd
the middle of August, and oE the first week in
beptember, the weather continued cold, wet, and
sunless during the last quarter. September was
the eleventh successive month of a low tempertf-
ture; and the rainfall of the quarter was remarkable
both for its frequency and its amount. Yet therft
was one redeeming feature in a picture of so, much
gloom. Low temperature, with frequent and abundant
rain, were the characteristic meteorological features
of the summer quarter of the year, as they had been
of its predecessors. These conditions which, judged
by mortality statistics, are detrimental to the public
health during winter and spring, invariably exercise n
favourable effect upon the public health during the
summer. It thus came to pass that the summer was
the healthiest on record since the commencement of
civil registration in 1837. On the other hand, the
rainy weather led to an increase in the price of wheat,
the average price of which was 475. 2d. per qr., or an
advance of 6s. upon previous quotations.

The London Hospital in the Whitechapel-road is an
institution in which the members of the reigning
House take every opportunity of manifesting an in-
terest. Situated in the centre of the eastern part of
the metropolis, it is the only hospital which supplies
the wants LI a population numbering little short of a
million persons. Well nigh a third of the inhabitants
of the capital are clustered there—the teeming myriads
of Aldgate and the Tower Hamlets, a large proportionof
whose homes lie alongside the docks. Contrasted with
the hospital accommodation at the west end of the town,
where St. Thomas's, Westminster, Charing Cross, and
St. George's are all within a comparatively short dis-
tance from each other, the supply of these institutions
in the districts of the east is a poor one; and even the
London Hospital, old-established as it is, sometimes
find a difficulty in providing sufficient beds for appli-
cants, and this solely through lack of funds. It was
not long ago that the Prince and Princess of Wales
paid the place a visit, and made the tour of the
wards, the perambulation occupying them at least
an hour; and now the Princess Louise, within a
few days of her return from Canada, has gone over
it, and expressed her great pleasure at what she saw.
A Royal visit to the east end is an event highly
appreciated in that portion of the metropolis, and
the people are always warm in their welcome. It
at the same time draws attention to the existence
of tbe Hospital, and to the good which it effects in
the alleviation of suffering amongst a densely-crowded
population.
In the far-off coaching days when there was no
travelling by rail, the Old Tabard, in the Borough,
High-street, was a typical representation of a London
inn. You drove under an ancient gateway into a
quadrangle, round the four sides of which ran a
spacious gallery, enclosing the quiet and comfortable
apartments of the place. You might almost step on to
the top of the coach from the verandah; and travellers,
upon their arrival, even before they descended
from the vehicle, might select the room for which
they had a preference. For centuries inns such as the
"Old Tabard" represented the best of what was
known of hotel life in England; but with the gradual
development of the railway system and the increase in
the number of travellers, there came a demand for
additional accommodation, which was met by the con-
struction of hotels at our railway termini. The
Midland Hotel at St. Pancras, the Great Northern at
King'a-cross, the Great-Western at Paddington, the
City Terminus, and the Charing-cross, are all
excellent specimens of the size, style and architec-
tural proportions of such buildings, Just now
wayfarers in the neighbourhood of Trafalgar-square
pause to gaze upon the vast extent of the "Grand
Hotel," at the top of Northumberland-avenue, the
new thoroughfare made by the Metropolitan Board of
Works from Charing-cross to the Thames Embank-
ment at a cost of three-quarters of a million sterling.
It has been planted with trees, and the colossal and
splendid structures which are gradually arising on
either aide will ultimately make it one of the finest
streets in the capital. The Grand Hotel, noble in its
proportions, and standing at the north-eastern corner
of the Avenue, occupies the site of Northumberland
House, once the town residence of the head of the
House of Percy, and which it cost the ratepayers of
London half a million sterling to remove.

It may not be generally known that the cost of the
Lord Mayor's Show, which is annually witnessed by
an immense number of the people of London, and that
of the banquet at Guildhall in the evening of the same
day, is borne proportionally by the new chief magistrate
and the uheriffe, the average expenditure upon the
day's proes:6.4lga being about £2,500. The November
banquet is the only one during the whole twelve
months which is held at Guildhall, when about 800
privileged persons partake of the splemlid hospi-
tality of the City of London. All the other feasts
of the mayoralty take place at the Mansion
House, the Lord Mayor's official residence, where
there are better facilities for placing a dinner
upon the table than exist at Guildhall. But no
room at tne Mansion House would accommodate
anything like 800 guests; hence the necessity of
dining in the larger building on the first night of
the new mayoralty. The municipality of London
allows the Lord Mayor £B,OOO a year for the main-
tena.nce of the dignity of the City; but he often

I exceeds this by 2,3,000 or 24,000 out of his own poet.
' The expenses of the Shrievalty are about £3,000 for
each of the holders of the office. When, however,
the Lord Mayor gets a baronetcy, and each of the
Sheriffs receives a knighthood as a recognition of the
visit of a reigning sovereign, such honours go a long
way towards making up for the very heavy outlay
entailed by the efficient discharge of these duties.
The National Memorial to Sir Rowland Hill is now
fairly under way. The President of the Executive
Committee is the Postmaster. General, and upon the
committee are Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Mr. Alderman
M'Arthur, M.P., Mr. Alderman Ellis, Sir Benjamin
Phillips, Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild, M.P„ Sir John
Bennett, Mr. Edward Baring, Sir Francis Lycett, Sir
H. W. Peek, M.P., Sir Sydney Waterlow, M.P., and
other names of eminence in the City of London. A
most encouraging list of subscriptions has already
come in; and it is hoped by the committee that the
amount raised will be not only sufficient to
erect a statue to the great postal reformer, but
also to found a benevolent institution for Post-office
employes. When we consider the enormous develop-
ment which has been witnessed in our commercial
enterprise since the introduction of the penny post, it
is difficult to believe that in the present reign the
charge for carrying a letter by mail fifteen miles has
been fourpence, with an increasing tariff according to
distance, until thirteen-pence was reaehed for convey-
ing a letter four hundred miles. Expansion of
commerce with a restricted means of intercourse
would have been impossible; and, as every year
testifies to the beneficent nature of the social revolu-
tion wrought by Sir Rowland Hill, so will succeeding
generations recognize in him one of the greatest bene-
factors who ever helped forward the progress of a
nation. It was only a few weeks before his death
that Sir Rowland was presented with the freedom of
the City of London—a recognition of his eminent
public serviees which came rather late in life, for he
was then in his eighty-fourth year; but that same
city—the commercial capital of the world—is now
acting nobly in doing honour to the memory of a man
who in the face of much opposition and a great ridi-
cule carried into effect one of the greatest social
revolutions of the present century.