The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-04-29 00:00:00

Car foOen aorrtspoithent.

We deeni it right to state that we do not at all times
wally ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The first night of a House of Commons' sitting after
recess of several days' duration, such as that at
:3aster or Whitsuntide, is seldom an animated one.
Vn this it differs materially from the first night of the
•ession, when after six months of wanderings "o'er
srth's green fields," and of musings by "ocean's
esve-beat shore," honourable members find it rather
agreeable change to get back to Westminster, and
watch the tilt between Ministers and Opposition.
Asa a year is a long spell, and usually a great deal
appens in that time. There is ample scope for
,titicism on the part of the Chief of the Opposition,
..nd plenty of room for repartee by the Prime Minister.
_llB bill of fare set before the Legislature is an
•ntirely new one, and the business of the previous ees-
kin is now sufficiently remote as to fade to a great ex-
__:bentinto indistinctness, the whole attention of members
^ing directed to that which is to come. But the re-
e.ssembling after a ten days' or a fortnight's holiday is
a very different matter. There is, to begin
with, no debate on any big subject, for it is well
'mown that, comparatively, few members will
e‘e in attendance, so the Government places
committee of Supply upon the paper, and there being
. tut little criticism, the Totes are rapidly passed. I
eemember occasions of this kind on which as many as
• eighty-five or ninety separate votes of money have
iseen secured in a single night. Then, again, there is
..ot the novelty of an entirely new programme being
elaced before you, as at the beginning of the session;
eeembers have already had several weeks of work;
.hey have not been away long enough to make a return
eo that work a pleasant relief; in fact, they come
7,ack to pick up the broken threads of a host of mea-
• 'urea, many of those being pretty certain not to pass,
and upon which much time and labeur will have been
expended in vain. The House itself is sparsely occu-
pied; the galleries are well-nigh deserted; and it
takes several nights before the place resumes its old
familiar air of interest and bustle.
Some of the principal house agents in London, in
sending out their lists of residences to let, announce
that rents are greatly reduced. Nevertheless, long
prices are occasionally asked. A furnished house in
one of the best parts of the town for the season
cannot be had under £5OO, and most of the rents
range between that figure and £l,OOO. It should
be explained that "the season" is rather an
elastic term, and that if it suits the convenience
of the tenant to remain through the autumn, there
is, as a rule, no objection on the part of land-
lord. Meanwhile a season of another kind—that of
• the Picture Exhibitions—is close at hand. There are
.. the Society of Painters in Water Colours, the Dudley
Gallery, the Society of Female Artists, and best of all
e the Royal Academy, which throws open its doors on
the first Monday in May. On the Saturday evening
previous, there is always a splendid banquet at Bur-
lington House—the President of the Academy in the
chair—at which the most prominent names in states-
: manship and politics, science and art, law and litera-
; tare, are to be found. Cabinet Ministers are there,
mingling cheerily with their predecessors in office,
famous engineers, judges, and authors whose works
will be read in ages yet to come. The last time ever
Mr. Charles Dickens spoke- at a public gathering was
• at the Royal Academy banquet at the end of April,
1870, about six weeks before his death. He then ac-
knowledge the toast of "Literature," and in doing so
mourned the loss of Maclise, the eminent painter, who
had just died, little thinking that he was so soon to
• follow his lamented friend to the land where "the
wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at

As we gradually leave winter behind us, :lien) is, to
the genuine lover of nature, nothing more refreshing
than the early spring fiJwers of our woods and gardens.
They are ein3ple and unimpoz,ing in their form, and are
-,vanting in the gorgeous colout ing which characteribes

the later flowers. They cannot for a moment coin-

'Nue with the nurslings of the greenhouse; but the
.ba .atter, beautiful though they may be, belong to no
particular season of the year. They are in themselves
evidences of care and resource, while the snowdrop and
the daffodil, the primrose and the violet are free to us
all. Just when winter evenings begin to grow dull,
and the weariness of the landscape depressing, they
come like cheery smiles, full if hope and energy, and
sweet with the fresh pure breath of spring. Pull aside
the hazel boughs and find an early cluster of primroses
with their bright green leaves, or detect the scent of
riolets in a corner of your garden, and the real lover of

nature will experience more pleasure than in comtem-
- Orating the choicest display of hothouse varieties. It
is not AO much that these early flowers are beautiful
C...triaaioally, as that they come to us a., the very
-nabodiment of that spring time which chases
sway the shadows Of long nights and dreary days,
.nd clothes the landscape with a vegetation which,
Although a 9 fleeting and transitory as life itself, is
t-njoyed because it is so transient and so soon passeth
way. The trees would be shorn of half their beauty
were they alway s green ; And it is because the lilies of the
field are so liable to be cut off by the wind's unkindly
blast, or parched by tne sun's direct ray, that we love
+them better than the holly and the laurel—for, like
the poor, the latter we have always with us.
The deep sea soundings of the Challenger have
brought some marvellous facts to light respecting the
depth of the ocean in several parts of the Pacific
plateau, and all this has been accomplished with the
lme, the only instrument employed for this purpose up
to a short time ago. But the wonderful agency in-
vented by Dr. W. C. Siemens for ascertaining the
:epth of the sea appears likely enough to supersede the
sounding line altogether. It is known as the batho-
meter, and suspended in a ship's cabin it tells the
ocean's depth as clearly as the thermometer indicates
the condition of the atmosphere. It consists of a small
column of mercury enclosed in a steel tube, and as the
power of gravitation exerted upon any body is just in
• proportion to the density of the greater body which at-
tracts it, so the quicksilver column in the tube varies in
proportion as the sea becomes deep. The captain who
watches it is enabled to estimate the number of fathoms
which lie between him and the bottom—clearly a great
-axing of time and labour upon the plan which was
to long in use of casting out enormous lengths of line.
In glancing through the Parliamentary debates, one
cannot but be struck with the fact that many an in-
different speaker is a valuable member of the Legis-
lature. The prejudice in the popular mind is naturally
in favour of the good speaker, but there are times when
a plain, practical, common-sense worker, has a mani-
fest advantage over a fluent and persuasive talker. A
member who is an excellent man of business in com-
mittee, may be quite out of his depth in a great debate.
Edward Gibbon, the author of the "Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire," was for six years the repre-
sentative of Liskeard, but never made a speech.
Addison, who sat for Malmesbury, rose once only, but
eould not overcome his diffidence, and ever after re-
mained silent. When Steele rose to speak on one
occasion he was assailed by cries of " Tatler Tatler I"
and as the great essayist passed out of the House,
members remarked that it was easier to be a
oribhlcr than to addresa a deliberative assembly.
ft is recorded of Sheridan that, after his first
attempt at a speech in Parliament, an ac-
tivaintancs of the famous dramatist told him that
oratory was not in his line, and that he had much
better have stuck to his fonder pursuits. Canuing's
liden address to the House of Commons was more or
'es of a failure, as also was that of Lord Erskine, after-
wards one of the greatest lawyers of his day. It is thus
-•een how unwise it is to prognosticate the future of a
oarliamentary orator from the character of his first
utterances in an assembly where critics are so abun-
s :aft as in the House of Commons.
One resn't of the recent pedestrian feats of Mr.
Weston, the American, is undoubtedly that public atten-
ion has been directed to the walking powers of our army.
t is no secret whatever in military circles that a twenty-
mile march will knock up half the men out of
any regiment of the line. This is scarcely a satis-
factory subject for reflection when we see that a
man has been able to walk seventy-five miles in every
wenty-four hours for six days in succession. There
s.re professional walkers, and probably several amateurs
,4110 would undertake to accomplish their twenty miles
in three hours and a half; and undergraduates of
Oxford have often walked from that city to London,
a distance of fifty-four miles, in less than twenty-
:our hours,. Yet a soldier, one of whose prin-
cipal qualifications is to be able to walk quickly,
Is frequently unable to accomplish twenty miles
day at 3 moderate and easy pace. If it were
necessary to prove how important are walking powers
.;.n the modern soldier, it would be only to refer
.o the last great war upon the Continent, when
h German armies, proceeding by forced marches in
Jursuit of Mac Mahon on his attempt to relieve
Bazaine, fairly outmarched the French troops, and
onterposA that check to their progress which led to the
battle of Sedan. Twenty miles a day would not have
' achieved that result, nor anything like it.
When Lord Clive conquered India one hundred and
twenty years ago, it was appropriately described as tho
brightest star in the constellation of Great Britain.
Nineteen years have elapsed since ‘the Mutiny, and
probably t'uo people of this country have not from that
- time read so much about India as during the past few
months, in consequence of the visit of the Prince of
Wales to our Eastern possessions. They had learnt
eomething about India whilst at school, but the busy
scenes of life had obliterated many of the imprestions
• of the information thus obtained. But prominent,
attention having been drawn to that distant empire
, to set people thinking of the wonderful land' which
lies towards the rising sun. The population there