The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-04-19 00:00:00

A HEALTHY POLITICAL CONVENTION

--
Dr. True, of Oxford county, Me., was once on a
visit into Aroostook county, and he chanced to be
present at a political convention. The doctor was
known as one of the best agriculturists in the State,
and his contributions to the agricultural papers, on all
sorts of common-sense and scientific matters appertain-
ing to the farming interests, had been for years widely
read and discussed. On the present occa,sion the doctor
occupied a seat on the platform, for the purpose of
reporting the proceedings of the convention for pub-
lication in his own country paper.
By and by a committee was appointed to .prepare
and present a series of appropriate resolutions, and
as soon as said committee had retired to attend to
their duty, a hard-fisted old farmer arose and addressed
will the chair:
"Mr. President!"
"Mr. Sweet. The meeting
listen to Mr
Sweet.
"Mr. President, I ain't a goin' ter say noth'n only
to ask, while th' kermittee's aout, why Doctor True
can't tell us sunth'n 'baout the Airly Rose portaters.
Aye—the idea was a good one, and—" Doctor True!
Doctor True !" was sounded upon all hands.
What could the good, genial doctor do but comply?
So he arose and stepped forward, and entered at once
upon a grand, lucid and practical discourse on the
subject of potato culture. The speaker was neal.oaa
and animated, and his hearers were deeply interutissel
—so interested that the committee on resolutions re-
entered without being heeded, and even the committee
became interested, and sat quietly down to listen.
When Dr. True had concluded his remarks, it was
time to adjourn; and the convention arose without
calling upon its committee to report the resolutions—
an oversight, perhaps, but evidently no great loss to the
members of the convention or to the country.—New
York. Ledger.
TRAD

ING ffoßsEsWlJenAbrahLm Lincoln was a
lawyer in Illinois, he rand the judge once got to
bantering one another about trading horses, and it was
agreed that the next morning at nine o'clock they
should make a trade, the horses to be unseen up to
that hour, and no backing out under a forfeiture of
5 dols. At the hour appointed the judge came up,
leading the sorriest-looking specimen of a horse over
seen in those parts. In a few minutes Mr. Lincoln
was seen approaching with a wooden sawhorse upon
his shoulders. Great were the shouts and the laughter
of the crowd, and both were greatly increased when
Mr. Lincoln, on surveying the judge's animal, set down
his sawhorse and exclaimed, "Well, judge, this is the
first time I ever eot the vrorst of it in a horse trade."

THE EARL OP ROSEBERY ON OUR
COLONIES.

On Tuesday the Earl of Rosebery was presented
with the freedom of Dundee, the ceremony takixg
place in the Albert Hall, in the presence of a large
assemblage. His lordship, in acknowledging the gift,
said that if a nation was to be saved by its youth lie
ventured to predict a great future for Scotland, for on
both sides of the House where he had a seat he saw
young members from Scotland eagerly entering into
the public service of the country. He seemed to have
great difficulty in speaking =political questions, because
he had been so long absent from Great Britain, that
he hardly remembered party politics. In fact, he was
hardly aware whether he was in Scotland or Australia.
The main impression he had brought back from Australia
was the anxiety one felt that nothing should ever be
Allowed to separate Great Britain and Australia. He
was sorry to say the impression he received on his
return was one of surprise at the indifference with
which this country regards her giant possessions all
over the world, and he asked them to contrast thdis
apathetic feeling with the conduct of France. He slid
not say the example of France was to be followed, or
that her actions were judicious but they could not
help seeing how France was endeavouring:all overthe
world to create that colonial empire of which this
country made so light. The circumstances of France
and Great Britain were very different, and diffe-
rent in a way which made one think that Great
Britain should set the greatest possible store by
her colonies instead of looking at them with a
languid interest. France had 180 inhabitants to
every square mile, while England had 443. That
fact showed that the density of population in this
country must make the colonies of almost vital im-
portance to Great Britain, and yet Great Britain did
not seem to recognise the fact. As they were aware,
we sent a nation every year to colonise the worla, and
it was a matter of importance where that nation
should go. He knew there was a school of philo-
sophers who did not care how limited the empire
might become. Indeed, they would limit our
dominions to the three islands forming the United
Kingdom, of which one by no stretch of imagination
could be called very loyal or very attached to the
other two. This sect of economists did not think
it mattered much where our emigrants went, but
he thought it mattered enormously, for two
very important reasons. The first of these reasons
was that trade followed the flag, and the second that
the emigrants remained under our flag. He knew
it was denied that trade followed the flag, but he
drew attention to the fact that though America was
much nearer Australasia than Britain, her trade with
Australasia was insignificant, while the trade of
Britain and Australasia amounted to £48,000,000 a
year. This was a proof that if it were not for the
flag the trade of Australasia would naturally flow to
America and the trade of America to Australasia.
But in addition there was something else which fol-
lowed the flag besides trade—something more im.
portant than trade—viz., the community of ideas and
sentiments which binds people together. If Canada
and Australia ceased to belong to us we should lose
that influx of ideas into us, and we should at the
same time lose the impression we make on a large
portion of the world. He believed that when
countries separated there was a feeling in the old
country that the daughter country was too free in
her ideas, and did not show sufficient respect; and in
the daughter country that the mother country was
too slow and her regulations impossible to be
obeyed; the result being that a soreness, a jealousy,
and a rivalry grew up which would never have
existed had they remained under the same system and
the same flag. If we separated from our colonies it
would take at least fifty years before we could look
for a friendly feeling on either side. He would regard
separation from our colonies very much as he would
regard building over the parks of the metropolis or
the open spaces in large towns. Our colonies were
the breathing spaces our empire had to depend on.
Crowded as we are in these islands, we need some
open spaces to which we can send our surplus
population, and it was a matter of the health, the
welfare, and the strength of the nation that we should
have these spaces in connection with oar own homes.
It naturally occurred to ask how our colonies were to
be kept. He was not going to attempt to answer that
question, even if he could. Many schemes had been
put forth, but he was not sure that any definite scheme
had been proposed which would satisfy every require-
ment. There were two things they must look to if
they were to keep the Empire together. One of these
was the extensio of the system of local self-govern-
ment. Parliament had no time to consider vital and
pressing questions of public concern, and how could
they hope to take up colonial questions that could
only be facilitated by relegating a great mass of the
business of Parliament back to the localities interested,
and which were most competent to deal with it.
Another important factor in dealing with our vast
dominions was for the imperial Legislature to hold
out the hand of sympathy a little more to our vast
dependencies. In conclusion, ItiS lordship paid a com-
pliment to the enterprise shown by Dundee in its
fleets and its manufaetws all over the world.
At the close of the meeting three cheers were given
for Lard Rosebery. Later in the afternoon his lord-
ship visited the Mars training ship and saw the boys
in sehool and afterwards at drill exercise.