The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-05-12 00:00:00

Our IZonbon Corrtzpoubent.

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

When the Royal Academy week, as is the case this
year, precedes the week of Whitsuntide, a consider-
able amount of life is crowded into the London season.
The inclusion of a Drawing Room in the fashionable
engagements adds to the gaiety of the big town at its
aristocratic end. The throwing open of the rooms of
Burlington House is a very important event, not only
to the world of art itself but to those who wish it to
be understood that art has been their study for a life-
time. On the first Monday in May, when the doors
of the vast building at the top of Piccadilly are thrown
open to the public on the payment of the modest and
convenient shilling, such is the crowd that the making
of one's way through the rooms is a work of the
greatest difficulty; and at dinner in the evening the
works of the most eminent painters of the day are dis-
cussed with a freedom of criticism which would
astonish the subjects thereof if they could only hear it.
As to the two Drawing-rooms fixed some time ago
for the 10th and the 21st instant, there will be general
regzet that Her Majesty is unable to preside, for she
has always discharged this duty herself when her
health permitted. At times these Drawing-rooms
have been very heavy, as,many as 400 ladies having
paid their respects to the Sovereign on a single after.
noon. The Queen will, however, be very well and
efficiently represented by the Princess of Wales, whose
popularity, whether she is driving in Hyde-park, or
making a sympathetic visit to a hospital at the east
end of the town, is always sufficiently manifest.
Whether her Royal Highness appears amongst the
ranks of the Upper Ten, or passes through a crowd of
people composed of the humbler ranks of life, the
result is the same. She is universally b eloved, as
indeed, she might well be, from the ready way in
which she is ever anxious to give the support of her
name to those good works which are so constantly in
operation in the midst of a great city.

Some remarkable instances of liberality in the
cause of charity and in the way of relieving unavoid-
able distress and suffering are furnished in the metro-
polis during the season. Lord Palmerston was accus-
tomed to say that nothing was to be got out of an
Englishman until he had had a good dinner, and the
anniversary festival dinner of an institution is the
popular way of rallying its friends to its support.
One single instance will furnish an illustration of the
enormous amount of money which is raised in the
British capital by voluntary contributions in the
cause of charity. At the festival dinner of the
German Hospital, at Dalston, Count Munster, the
German Ambassador, in the chair, the subscription
list exceeded £4,200.

It must be a considerable disappointment to Her
Majesty not to be able to carry out her intention of
opening the International Fisheries Exhibition. Every
preparation had been made for making the ceremonial
one worthy of the presence of the Sovereign, who being
unfortunately detained at Osborne from the effects of
the recent accident, her place will be taken by the
Prince of Wales. The buildings, with the recent ad-
ditions, now cover about twelve acres, and in the
remaining eleven acres of the Royal Horticultural
Gardens, there have been formed a number of ponds,
in which there will soon be placed large collections
of aquatic birds, including the bright flamingo, as
well as seals and fishes. This exhibition is one of
the most interesting which has ever been opened
in London, and no country visitor to the capital
should return home without seeing it. Formerly
South Kensington was a distant suburb, and the ride
to it from the City by omnibus was a long one. Of
course to those who like that mode of travelling it
was agreeable enough; but time was very often of
importance. Now the District Railway does the dis-
tance from the City to Kensington in about a quarter
of an hour, a very great convenience.
The adjournment of the Lords for a fortnight at
Whitsuntide will release the patrician assembly from
Westminster at about the most pleasant time of the
year. They will leave London for their baronial
castles and their country seats when the vegetation in
the country is at its greenest and its freshest. Those
of their lordships who have an eye to the picturesque
must almost rcgret having to leave the beautiful spring
verdure at the fortnight's end, to come back to the
great town. Into that part of the season, between
the re-assembling of the peers and the Ascot races,
will be crowded more gaiety than into any other, The
aristocracy then lead a busy life. The acceptance of
engagements becomes a mere matter of selection, and
many invitations have to pass unheeded simply
because of the utter inability of their recipients to
find time to accept them. After Ascot the climax
has been reached, the days slowly but surely begin to
• shorten, Goodwood once more rolls round, people get
away to the seaside and the Continent, and by the
time the commencement of August dawns upon the
capital, people are told that London is empty,
although so far as its business part is concerned, there
is no diminution in the animated streams of pedes-
trians, or in the full tide of the vehicular traffic.

So far as the House of Commons is concerned,
the Whitsuntide vacation is shorter than that
taken by the peers, although longer than the
Lower House generally takes at this time.
Formerly the custom was to take a week at
Whitsuntide after a fortnight had been enjoyed at
Easter—three weeks in all. Now the holiday has been
equally divided into two parts of ten days each. Her
Majesty's faithful Commons will no doubt make the
best of this time, which is the last they will have before
the prorogation. There will be the usual quantity of
public speaking in the provinces, and in this respect it
is difficult for some minds to conceive how a jaded
member of Parliament, released from his duties for a
season, can find recreation in fighting his battles over
again on a provincial platform. Many would prefer
rest and quietude as a preparation for the arduous tasks
which yet lie before them.
So little progress has been made with public business
that a demand is made that the session shall be pro.
longed until the whole of the measures mentioned in
the Queen's Speech have been disposed of. This is

one which is more easily put forward than complied
with. The physical endurance of Ministers has to be
considered; and after half-a-year in their departments
by day and in the House of Commons at night, they
begin to think that rest is not only desirable but
essential. Mr. Gladstone himself is seventy-four
years of age, and after fifty years of parliamentary
life feels himself unequal to the physical strain Which
he could stand very well ten or even five years ago.
The toils of the autumn sitting were followed by the
necessity for rest early in the present year, and any
undue prolongation of his parliamentary duties might
again be succeeded by a similar experience.
It is not often that the House of Commons becomes

so excited as aver the division on the Affirmation
Bill. In former Parliaments close divisions very
often took place, and on a memorable occasion,
42 years ago, a vote of no confidence in the Whig

Administration was carried by a majority of a single
vote, the numbers having been 312 to 311. But in the
Parliaments elected since the establishment of house-
hold suffrage in the boroughs in 1868, the Ministerial
majorities have generally been three figures, so that
when a division has taken place the result has been

_
what is generally described as a foregone conclusion.
To have the announcement of the numbers an uncer-
tainty was an uncomman experience in modern Parlia-
mentary life; hence the excitement.
The Begistrar-General's Quarterly Return contains
some interesting statistics, more especially with refer-
ence
,to the constantly-augmenting number of the
ptople. It appears that the natural increase of the
population of England and Wales, or the excess of
births over deaths, was, in the first three months of the
present year, no fewer than 85,230. At the same time
51,095 emigrants embarked from the various ports of
the United Kingdom at which emigration officers are
stationed. Excluding foreigners in this reckoning, this
number comprised 29,209 English, 4,292 Scotch, and
9,510 Irish. The proportion of emigrants last quarter
to a million of the population in the three divisions of
the United Kingdom were 1,091 from England, 1,279

from Scotland, and 1,886 from Ireland. The average
price of wheat during the three months ending March
last was 41s. 3d. per quarter, and was 4s. 21 below that
which prevailed in the preceding three months, It was
lower than the mean price in the first quarter of
any year since 1879, when it was only 39a. The
mean temperature throughout the three months was
40 degrees, and was about one degree above the
average for the corresponding period of 112 years.
Mild weather prevailed during January and February,
whereas during the greater part of March the tempera-
ture ras unseasonably low, and snow fell frequently.
The amount of rain measured at Greenwich was
between five and six inches, and was slightly above
the average amount in the corresponding periods of
sixty-seven years.