The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-12 00:00:00

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Cabinet Councils have been resumed at a very early
period of the present recess. As a rule they do not
begin until November, when Ministers, after three
months of respite from attendance in Downing-street,
once again came up to London, to deliberate in the
greyest and gloomiest of cities. But on Saturday, when
the Cabinet ream mbled after its holidays, the day was
one of the brightest and most cheerful of the present
autumn. One of our poets has beautifully described
a brilliantly sunlit day as the "uniting of sea and
sky, the meeting of heaven and earth," and each of
these five autumnal days is especially welcome, as re-
minding us of the longer ones which in the summer
lit up the land with a flood of light and glory. Strange
enough is the appearance of the trembling and faded
leaves as they cling tenderly to the trees in the autumn
sunshine, reluctant to leave the short and transitory
life which since the springtime they have enjoyed.
A midnight storm sweeps over the land, and scatters
them in thousands upon the ground, leaving the bare
gaunt branches to wring their skeleton arms in the
cheerless wind during the long and dreary winter.
Whilst the Cabinet is considering the grave aspect
of the political situation, and troops are being con-
centrated upon the north-western frontier of India,
the question has arisen respecting the summoning of
Parliament for an autumn Session. Will the Empress of
India carry on an Imperial war in Afghanistan without
the consent:of the Imperial Parliament? Technically
there is no doubt as to the right and prerogative of the
Crown tc declare war without consultation with the
Legislature; but war cannot be carried on without
supplies, and these supplies must be voted by the
House of Commons. When the chastisement of
Theodore, King of Abyssinia, was resolved upon in the
autumn of 1867, Parliament was called together to
grant the supplies, and the sitting lasted about three
weeks. At present the two Houses of the Legislature
stand prorogued until the 30th November, so that, if
war with the Ameer become inevitable, there would
be ample time to summon them and to get the neces-
sary money before Christmas, a period of the year
when noble lords and honourable gentlemen prefer
enjoying their country mansions to attendance at
Westminster.

All who have had the access to London society
during the past season will regret to hear that the
Chinese minister must shortly, though not imme-
diately, return to the Celestial Land. He and his
servants and his suite have been for some time one of
the sights of the metropolis. During his brief stay
he has studied English literature; he has gone to the
Royal Institution, and there acquainted himself with
the wonders of science. The telephone and microphone
no longer surprise him. Just as he becomes known to
us and we to him, he goes home again. It appears
that it is not right to say he has been recalled; he was
sent to represent the Emperor of China for a specified
term, and goes back when that term is over. It is
anticipated that as soon as he lands in his native
country he will be appointed to high office. He
was sent abroad partly to learn, and has proved
himself a very apt scholar. Returning to China
he will make geod use of the knowledge he has
gained. It rosy be added that it is not correct to speak
of the Chinese "Ambassador," a functionary ac-
credited only by the greatest Powers to each other.
It is the Chinese "Minister." An ambassador is the
head of an embassy, and has the right of personal
audience of the Sovereign at whose Court he is; a
minister is the chief of a Legation, and can communi-
cate with the Sovereign only through the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. Your readers will remem-
ber an illustration of the privilege of personal audience
possessed by an ambassador from what took place
upon the promenade at Ems, on the 14th of July,
1870, when Count Benedetti, the Ambassador of
France, accosted the King of Prussia, and an angry
scene ensued, leading to war. A minister would not
have had this right, and much irritatien, and perhaps
war, would have been thus avoided.

The Earl of Shaftesbury is seventy-seven years of
age—four years older than Lord Beaconsfield, and
eight years older than Mr. Gladstone. His name is
ever prominent in connection more especially with the
religious and philanthropic work of the May meetings.
Lord Shaftesbury does not, however, confine his atten-
tion to the condition of the Arahs at home; and there
is something refreshing in his declaration that he will
next Session endeavour to secure for India the same
factory laws which have already done so much for the
operative classes in England. The absence of a factory
law in India is one of the greatest grievances of Man-
chester. It places our manufacturers at a distinct
disadvantage, for it enables longer hours to be kept in
India than can be worked at home. It cheapens
labour, which is already cheaper than that of Lanca-
shire. Lord Shaftesbury's latest work w, .to bring
the brickmakers under the control of regulation.
Hardly did he take up the subject before his cause was
gained. Supported as he will be by the Government,
his name will have a powerful influence in extending
to our Oriental possessions the beneficent laws which
the efforts of a long and honourable life have placed
upon the statute books of the land.
Congress is a word which is used in various senses.
When the Americans established their Republic, a
little more than a century ago, they dropped the word
Parliament as representing the two Houses of the
Legislature, and called them unitedly Congress. Whine
there is a meeting of high plenipotentiaries for settling
disputes between nations, as at Berlin a few weeks
ago, it was termed a Congress. Autumnal experiences
make us acquainted with the Social Science Congress,
the Church Congress, the Trades' Cangresa, and many
others, including the Homceopathic Congress, which is
about to hold a Convention at Philadelphia next
year, Then there is the Sanitary Congress, which has
been doing good service in the discussion of questions
affecting the health and the moral condition of the
people. Approval of the principle of these congresses
has made rapid way of late years; indeed discussion
and debate are the foundations upon which the very
supports of our constitution rests. The old Saxon
Wittanagemote embodied the idea of a great Council
of the Nation, where its affairs might be talked over,
defects pointed out, and grievances redressed. After
centuries of Parliamentary life, we find at all times
plenty to be done in the way of pointing out defects
and redressing grievances. As with a nation, so with
a political, a religious, a scientific, or a business
organization. There is always an abundance of ma-
terial for debate and for improvement in the existing
state of things.
Although several weeks have now elapsed since the
disaster in the Thames, which carried desolation into
so many homes, the interest in the proceedings
before the coroner's court seems to undergo but little
abatement. People appear unable to forget one huge
appalling fact, that at the close of a splendid summer
day, with the growing moon shining brightly upon a
calm river, within the sight of the homes of a vast
population, hundreds of persons who had gone out to
spend a happy day found themselves consigned to a
doom from which there was no escape. Those who are
in any way acquainted with London life can picture
to themselves the lightness of heart on board a Thames
steamer upon a sunlit day. Those who are gathered
there, upon deck, and in saloon, have for the time
thrown off worldly cares. "What went ye out to
see ?" could not be asked of them in vain. They go
down the stream alongside miles of docks containing
forests of masts which have traversed the sea in
every clime; they pass miles of warehouses filled
with the produce of the uttermost parts of the
earth; and as the handsome steamer snakes her way
further and further towards the sea, the river
slowly widens to meet the great German Ocean,
flowing between fair and well-cultivated lands. On
they go, past Gravesend down to Sheerness, some-
times as far as Southend itself, where the Thames loses
its individuadity, and finally mingles with the inter-
minable waste of waters. Then for the return—
refreshments on board, band playing, sun shining, and
after the sun has sunk in the west, the moon lights
up the scene, and sheds her rays upon the joyful
party. Suddenly there is a crash, and the river which
has been such a source of pleasure becomes the
instrument of destruction to those who have trusted
themselves upon its treacherous surface. The sounds
of mirthful life are exchanged for the death shrieks of
a struggling mass of humanity, which are soon stifled
by the inexorable river. Old and young, husband and
wife, brother and sister, parent and child are at once
swept into eternity by a mysterious and irrevocable fate.
The crowd which has gathered upon the pier-to meet
them on their return wait in vain; and the moon, which
shone so brightly upon that living freight only a few
hours before, still shines upon the stream 'which en.
gulphed them, amid the sounds of lamentation,
mourning, and woe! For many a year to Come will
this sad chapter in our domestic history form one
of the saddest traditions of the Thames; no wonder
that now, with the newly•made graves so fresh in
remembrance, the interest attaching to the calamity
should remain unabated.

This subject is a reminder of the maritime
catastrophes with which the memories of this
year will be associated. First was the loss of
the Eurydice in the English Channel, then the
running down of the Great Elector, also in the
Channel, next the crowning catastrophe of all,
the sinking of the Princess Alice in the Thames.
Not much short of fourteen hundred lives are here
represented. Those who have regarded the Channel
and the great London river as comparatively safe,
while they have been terrified to cross the broad
Atlantic or the mighty Pacific, are thus supplied with
ginguku. Quitclaims of the bifida deigm' ot WI

deep. The steamers of our great ocean lines cross the
Atlantic in perfect safety, making their way over its
stormy surface by day and by night, with but little
mishap and without loss. What a remarkable spec-
tacle must that be of an ocean steamer ploughing her
path over the stormy main at night! She is lighted up
from stem to stern, the embodiment of activity and
life amid a watery wilderness, and surrounded on
every hand by thousands of miles of an element that
seeks every opportunity of destroying the works of
that venturesome human agency which seeks to curb
the restless power of its irresistible domain.
On the 13th of July—less than three months ago—
the Treaty of Berlin was signed with all pomp and
circumstance, the Plenipotentiaries being in full
uniform; and on the IGth, when the Earl of
Beaconsfield and the Marquis of Salisbury re-
turned from the German capital, they were
received with acclamation by a vast multitude
at Charing Cross, "Peace with Honour" being in-
scribed upon their escutcheons. A quarter of a year
wanes away, the late summer has barely time to
advance to meet the early autumn before the news
comes to us from our possessions in the East of the
enthusiasm of the Indian army for war. This time it
is war with the Ameer of Afghanistan, the barbarian
ruler of a savage people, enclosed within their
territory by chains of mountain fastnesses terrible in
their grandeur, and reeking with sanguinary memories.
As to this enthusiasm, itrmay well be asked, when did
not an army welcome a war? The ordinary routine of
barrack life is monotonous in the extreme, and in a
time of peace promotion is necessarily slow. War
brings with it not only excitement and adventure, but
a prospect of advancement which is always agreeable.
The officers of the Indian army, when eager for
hostilities, all hope individually to come scatheless
out of the battle, although knowing that many of them
must expect to fall.