The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-02-25 00:00:00

ol4t ctourllribge Oserbcr.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1871

THE TOWN'S MEETING ON
MONDAY LAST.

Why is it that the simple question of catering
iu the three Ws for neglected children seems to
stir up so much acrimony in our quiet prishes ?
NVhy should it be like the disturbing a nest of
wild bees, we might even say wasps or hornets,
when worthy people express a desire to admin-
ister the very sensible provisions of 31r. For,-
ter's Act? That Act is not a miracle in
legislation. But it is a very good thing in its
way, and for a time ; and as every one knows, it
has been well attempered in its passage through
Parliament, to the peculiarities of our ecclesias-
tical atmosphere, and specially to the interests
of the Church of England. We should have
thought the medicine administered, together
with so large an allowance of soothing mixture,
could have been taken without wry faces, even
by the most alienated, and that they would find I
it good for them.
Human nature, however, hardly likes to con- I
fess that it really needs any moral medicine at I
all. And that is the reason, we apprehend, why I
the confessions that we are taught to make in
Church are perhaps somewhat overloaded in that
direction. We do not of course allude to the
Roman Church ; where sinners have been used
to state their symptoms with a degree of detail
which must be, in many cases, as wearisome to
the officiating priest, as it is, no doubt, interest-
ing to the abased culprit. Rat even in the Pro-
testaut services, often as we have listened to
that solemn introductory, in which the voices of
the faithful more especially participate, it is sel-
dom, if ever, that we have been able to detect
that tone of thorough spiritual prostration and
heart-misery, which the words imply. Most
likely it is not congenial to this age. And cer
tainly it is not re-echoed upon week-days. Nor
was Stourbridge to be found confessing its sins,
on blonday last, in the matter of education;
except in the most distant, perfunctory, 111C01/1-
plete, snit casual manner.

Yet there was a fair attendance, lay anti
clerical, commercial and professional ; and a
good sprinkling of zealous educationists, each
carrying his little pocket-copy of the Act, no
doubt with marginal annotations. Others more
zealous might be presumed to know it by heart.
But we allude, particularly, to those about whose
brows the mental eye might discern the rem-
nants of the scarcely-Wed aureole, which they
derived from participation in that select and
semi-sacred conference, which, as there was no
cricket upon the hearth of the commissioners
(the animal having been suppressed by that
highly rtspeetable body on account of the ex-
penses of its keep), went and conducted its
business to the genial chirping of Mr. Sher-
rards cricket. Little should we have known
about it, had not this tiny specimen of zoology
chirped audibly in the direction of the local
reporter. It is thus the public became aware
that a great step, iu the direction of what is
called Church re-union, had taken place in this
neighbourhood. The ministers of the Church
and of Dissent, thoroughly penetrated with the
merits of Mr. Forster's Act, wished to use it as
a coign of vantage, whereon to suspend the de-
claration of their fraternity. In consequence of
this remarkable step, and solemn resolution of
pacification, it was thought that the spirit of
discord, if •it existed in the neighbourhood,
would be overawed • especially when reverend
gentlemen announced themselves as ready to
promote the election of a School Board, and
earnestly deprecated any contest. Infect, there
was some ground for this hope. For if Dissent,
it may be argued, has really ceased to be pugna-
cious and contentious, where then is the place
of pugnacity:' And may we not hope that it
has vanished entirely from the English charac-
ter ? The more so, as everybody knows that all
the questions upon which we mortals differ, or
are apt to differ, are se evidently wrapt up in the
one question between Church and Dissent. To
obtain complete harmony, it is only necessary,
as it seems, that those two rival powers should,
in the persons of their accredited representa-
tives, adjust and harmonise their pretensions.
Then we may he certain that all public interests,
all really legitimate views and aspirations will
have been consulted; and the machinery which
the Act provides for giving scope and effect to
the free choice of all the ratepayers, may be laid
aside as practically superfluous. Indeed, who
can vellum) to doubt that a coterie might select ?
And is it possible that the singular unanimity
which seems to prevail among the inner circle
of our spiritual guides, should pass away fits it
soon may pass away) without having borne prac-
tical fruit ? To take steps leading towards a
contest would, in such a state ot things, be
something like a wanton disturbance of peace
and order in the neighbourhood. What more
philosophical than all these assumptions ? What
more unsectarian ?

Yet may it he furiously questioned whether it is
wive anti reasonable in a small body of gentleineu
moving for a School Board, to put it forth at the
outset, and as if it were the very gist of what
they have to say on the viz bject, that in their
opinion there should be ho Lonk.st. Ihe as-
sumption in every such ease ought to he, that

the number of c ottlitates will ex-cced the Dino- •
tier of vacancies. The resulting contest may be •
inconvenient to the candidates, cud may involte ,
a little expemie (though on this point some gross
exaggerations have been put forwaid in the local ,
press) but it is often highly ior the public good.
If we may make a remark of rather aide appli-
cation, we should say that it was a defect of the
English mind, at present, that through over-
fondness for tranquillity, it shrinks even front
those coutesta which are necessary to obtain a
true, solid, and lasting solution of the problems
which it has to solve. Yet nature and political
arrangements love stability. Well, a certain
amount of dissension, at the outset, is perhaps
the price we have to pay for it.
But political parties, it may be said, often
effect compromises, and avoid contests with suc-
cess. lee ; but their organisation is old, they
have been practising the art for centuries. They
are two opposite camps; they know their
ground, they know their leaders, and they know
their chances. But on this other matter grest
uncertainty prevails. The ordinary ',ethical
divisions are beside the mark; end the religion,
communities are not an organisation to/ be-.
The diversities of opinion are not obvious, nei-
ther are they simple; on the contrary they are
manifold, and they are yet in process of forma-
Lou. And the machinery of the Education Act
is new; new in south of its parts even to the
point of stupefaction ; as for instance the much-
dreaded, or much coveted cumulative vote ; which
may lead to many an awkward surprise, as it
has done in Birmingham ; even though there,
everything is in the hands of experts. But it is
proverbially difficult to work new machinery.
Sailors do not reef the topsails, or take in the
mainsail of a brand-new Australian clipper, On
the occasion of her first meeting the gale out-
side the port of embareation, with the celerity
and sureness they will acquire when she has
walked the waters for a number of years. They
are pretty sure to flail, at such a time, that thee-4,
are joints that creak, weights and frictions that
embarrass, ropes that won't run in pulleys that
are new and theatige and stiff, cordage to which
the hands are unaccustomed. In vain, in such
a case, too often, is the shouting of the captain ;
yet three is no great olatter with ti steady crew.
T te facts we here figuratively indicate are evi-
dsneo, at any rate, of uncertainty. But uncer-
tainty opens a field for diverse interests, and is
havoniahlc to competitittu ; and it is not favonr.
able to a prom's:tire, oim..ided compromise. We
entitlel adfait, for instance, tnat the seats on the
Sallool Board ongitt to be parcelled out between
the- religious rotagrep:Aim.,,, or their ininisten,
ste:t thou,l. lr. SOU: cnckqt seems to say
so. It may Le 1:-tdith.1-ettliservative-
clerico-disseatio:.! d a a broogl7t out, which
aid (-alma:nal tmiv• sie.4 oval. Hut the verb
ins hWar.lll,-AS Ot h,. t.., a hid, we are &dig 4. I
to coin, in order to sles,ribe slush a list, suggest,
a doubt whether it ever will be. Meantime, the
hasty, unnecessary deprecation of a contest has
the air of au effort to deprive the ratepayers 01
a legitimate TOIL Nor mild it ever come with

r,
ii good grace from those who thihk they way be
called upon, in due time, to oiler themselves as
candidates. Such persons, instead of deprecat-
ing e contest, would find it more becoming to
stand prepared against all comers, and to
open the arena widely. We do not impute to
our clerical frieuds the wish to be dictatorial.