The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-04-11 00:00:00

ur Fodor( Cartsgonlant

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

A C2binet Council in the first half of a recess
Which lasts only eight days would be held only
on a question of pressing urgency; and it is
understood that the gathering of last Saturday
was held especially to consider the reply of the
Russian Government to Earl Granville's recent
dispatch on the question of the disputed Afghan
frontier. The House of Commons had separated
only on the Tuesday night to resume business on
the Thursday week following, and if members
required the brief vacation, much more
did Ministers, who have not only to
be in attendance at the House at night,
but have also to transact business in their depart-
ments as early as ten o'clock in the morning. It
will have been noticed that Mr. Gladstone, when
he left London, did not go to Hawarden for this
very short recess. It is a long way from the
capital, and at the age at which the Prime
Minister has arrived the journey becomes fatigu-
ing. The Premier had to come merely from
Brighton to attend the Council, a very short
distance from the metropolis now, so far as time
is reckoned.
Brighton, with Dover, has again been the
scene of the Easter-Monday volunteer manceuvres,
and much more elaborate descriptions of the
military assembly there have been written than
has been the case in previous years. ;„ march
past used to be the principal part of tL day's
proceedings; now a review and sham fight
add materially to the interest of the spectacle.
There can be little doubt that a consider-

able impetus has been given to the martial
spirit of the people by the revived indica-
tions of military activity on the Continent,
and by the hostilities in which we ourselves
have been engaged, to say nothing of
the clouds which have hung over the
political horizon during the past few weeks.
It is felt that with our wide - spread
responsibilities, stretching to the climes of the
most distant seas, we must be prepared to stand
by them, and not only send firmly-worded
despatches where we believe ourselves to be in
the right, but be prepared to follow these up by
such measures as have lately been taken.

That there should have been so many volun-
teers utterly prostrated from fatigue during;
Saturday's march to Brighton is cause for con-
siderable regret. Mr. Archibald Forbes estimated
that the men had walkei twenty miles that day,
and this with all their heavy accoutrements,
the excitement and exertion of a sham-
fight, winding up with an informal
march-past before the Duke of Cambridge,
proved too much for a good many of those oi
weak physique. It is doubtful whether an even
larger proportion of our volunteers who
habitually lead sedentary lives in our great
towns are prepared all at once to leave their
counting-houses and their desks for the exacting
labour which the Easter manceuvres now impose
on them.
The revenue returns were more favourable
than had been anticipated, there having been a
net increase of nearly a million sterling in the
receipts as compared with the previous
financial year. This, however, should not raise
delusive hopes respecting the statement which
the Chancellor of the Exchequer will submit to
the House of Commons on the 16th instant.
The days when deputations were accustomed to
assemble in Downing-street to ask the Finance
Minister for the remission of this or that par-
ticular impost, have long since passed away. We
are now only too well pleased to escape without
the imposition of an additional burthen, which,
however, we cannot expect now. The enormous
cost of the Nile Expedition must be met
in some way; and Mr. Gladstone has con-
tended before now that the expenses of a
-war should be met by the people who
make it. For instance, when Chancellor of the
.Exchequer in 1854, at the time of the Russian
-war, Mr. Gladstone doubled the income-tax, only
lor one year, however. It is hoped Mr. Childers
--will adopt some less drastic means of meeting
this expenditure. Many find it hard enough to
Tay sixpence in the pound more especially just
mow, and Mr. Lowe, when he was at the
:Exchequer, was able to tell us how bitterly this
_impost "pinched the lower middle classes."
The lamented death of Earl Cairns is a serious
loss to his party and to the cause of religion
and philanthrophy. He was one of the youngest
lawyers who ever fought his way to the House
of Lords, for he had secured a coronet at the
early age of 48, and was soon afterwards made
tthe leader of his party in that patrician assembly.
His tall figure and his thin, wan, though highly
intellectual face, always suggested a delicate
physique. Accustomed to practise in the little
dens in Lincoln's-inn, which served as Chancery
courts before the opening of the present
structure, long years of work in such
a vitiated atmosphere coulei not but tell in-
juriously on a man with chronically weak lungs.
Comparing his years with some. of. his prede-
cessors on the woolsack even within the past
generation, he has died young. Lord St.
Leonards was removed at the age of 94, Lord
-Lyndhurst at 93, Lord Brougham at 89, Lord
Campbell at 82, Lord Hatherley at 82, Lord
Chelmsford at 84. Lords Cranworth, Denman,
and Westbury were all several years older than
_ Lord Cairns at the time of their death, while the
-present occupier of the woolsack is 73.
The captain of the Notts County Eleven,
Alfred Shaw, has just returned from Australia,
and thus was here in time for the commence-
inent of the cricket season, which certainly will
not prove as exciting as its predecessor. Last
year, not only were the Australians and the
Philadelphians here, but the weather was
all that could be desired as well. It would
have been wiser had the Americans post-
poned their visit for a year; for there
is no doubt that the Australians last season
were the great attraction. With these dis-
tinguiihed visitors away, we shall have to be
content with inter-county matches, the
universities, the two great public schools, and the
Gentlemen and Players, &c. It is difficult to
tiay who will gain the position of premier county
this year; but Nottingham, which stood at the
top of the tree last season, has all its best men
-eligible, and will be rather a hard nut to crack.
Yorkshire and Lancashire are both well known as

very strong shires. Kent and Middlesex, too, are
always up to the average. A few years ago the
star of Surrey cricket seemed to be setting, but
- during the last two or three years they have im-
proved wonderfully, and seem likely to go on in
the same way, and this remark will apply to
Sussex. A very unlucky team last year was
Derbyshire; out of the ten matches played by
them not one resulted in a victory, which
lormed a striking contrast to the splendid
ecord of Nottingham, which were en-
gaged in ten contests, and won every one
of them. It will now easily be seen that the
. representatives of Derby must do better this year
if they wish to stand very high on the list.
'The match between the Gentlemen and Players
always causes a good deal of excitement, as the
best amateur and professional talent are always
brought together. But the two fashionable
.events are the contests between Oxford and
Cambridge, and Eton and Harrow, which are
played at Lord's generally in June or July.
General Graham's despatch to the War Office
from. Souakim on Saturday morning is a very
concis. e account of the military operations of the
previous day, which effectually disposed of the
anticipated great battle. General Graham's
warm tribute to the troops for the way in which
-they had borne the fatigues of the march will be
thoroughly appreciated when it is remembered
-that although it has been bitterly cold in these
latitudes, it is intensely hot in the Soudan. Sir
Gerald added what the colonists will be very
lad to read, that the Australian Contingent
have cheerfully borne their share of the priva-
tions and shown themselves worthy c,omrades in
arms. This testimony to the worth of the
colonists will be very welcome on the other side
of the globe.