The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-05-07 00:00:00

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the Church, the Commander-in-Thief of the
Army, the First Lord of the Ad niralty, the
leading lights of literature and art, were
among the speechmakers, and each gave a
graceful contribution to the feast of reason
and flow of soul which followed the more
matet il enjoyment of the President of the
Acadc-ny's sumptuous board. The picture
show is pronounced as on the whole equal
to those of preceding years; and as it is quite
necessary for anybody who is anybody to have
seen the canvasses, doubtless Burlington
House will be as thronged with the fashion-
able folk of London and their country
cousins for some time henceforward as it
has been in the springs of seasons past. ,

TEE "May Meetings" are on, and Exeter
Hall is now in fall session. That. great
London arterial thoroughfare, the Strand,
is thronged from morning till night with
people of earnestly benevolent or gravely
religious aspect, and the white necktie and
flowing frock coat affected by the majority
of those who have embraced the sacred
calling, are as common objects in the metro.
polis to-day as daisies are in a June meadow.
All sorts of mission work, home and foreign,
are having their claims eloquently pleaded
for; the gospel of morality and prudent liv-
ing is being preached in trumpet tones, as
is also that greater and higher gospel which
sets its gaze upon the things belonging to
our state after we have done with this world.
The Drink Fiend is exercised now-a-bout
with a redoubled hostility; and all the great
and benign institutions and combinations
which seek to set straight the crooked paths
of mankind are reporting progress. This
May annual meeting of such bodies has now
become quite an institution of London life;
and though there are those ill-conditioned
folk who slightingly speak of Exeter Hall
as a place of greater fuss than work, the
bulk of the people wish the philanthropists
well who flock into London town to take
counsel together as the leaves are unfolding.
There can be no manner of doubt that these
associations of sectarians and unsectarians
for the bettering of men's mental condition
and conduct towards their fellows have
wrought an incalculable amount of good,
and that those who engage in the work
should have the approval and encourage-
ment of every right-minded man and
, woman.

THE whole of the South of England is at
this present suffering from a dearth of
coppers. It is in Many cases quite difficult to
get change for a shilling either in London
or at any of the coast towns of Sussex and
Kent. This arises from the withdrawal of
the French bronze coins from circulation.
The ten centime pieces are rapidly becoming
a rarity, everyone seems to have got rid of as
many as he had. If there were latterly 30
or per cent. of foreign bronze coins in use
—as seems to have been the case—how is it
that the Mint authorities, ere causing the
Royal mandate to go forth and stop their
circulation in England, did not take steps
to fill up the vacancy in the currency which
must necessarily arise ? This provision should
certainly havb been made.

IRELAND still blocks the way. One of the
London dailies which favours much of the
action of the Irish Nationalist party in
Parliament announced on Wednesday that
they anticipated the Crimes Bill Committee
stage would occupy six weeks of the time of
,0 House? Then all sorts of side issues
•;mnorted, such as the questions of
are being —it of attacks by news-
privilege arising 'l-- House. He
papers upon members of zu, 1 d
would be a bold man indeed who
prophesy with confidence as to the date
when Irish matters will cease to absorb the
chief portion of the time of Parliameni:
These impeachments of Parnellite members
by writers in the Times and elsewhere have
attracted a good deal of public attention,
and there are many who would like to see
the charges either fully refuted or else amply
proved, so that prominent politicians should
not be resting under allegations of a nature
which honest thinkers and advocates woulo
scorn. The "Black Pamphlet" ease, tried
this week in the High Gourt, shows that an
English jury, if they consider a 1111,11 has
been foully libelled will, notwithstanding
his or their own political leanings, not
hesitate to vindicate him from the stain
under which he has suffered. Will not Mr.
Parnell and Mr. Dillon take up the parable?
If aspersions put upon them are not sustain-
able, then, for the sake of the cause they
champion, if not for their own sakes, they
ought to go to Court to give direct denial
thereto, and proper punishment should be
meted out to the wrongers. If, on the other
hand, however, the hands of the Irish leaders
are not.clean, their demonstration of the
facts should be made to the great public
who watch their career, so that henceforth
we may know how to appraise the men who
claim to speak for Ireland. This matter is
one which requires calm and serious con-
sideration, if we would have British politics
free from the suspicion of corruption.

* * -
ONCE again Osman Digna is reported de-
feated and captured. This stormy petrel of
the Soudan desert has so often been declared
by rumour to have been vanquished or taken
prisoner, that one is inclined to wait for
further confirmation of the message before
accepting it as a statement of fact. This
time the news comes direct from our General
to the War Office, but who can say that the
couriers who carried to the English officer
the intelligence were speaking the simple
truth? Osman Digma has been a thorn in
our sido in Egypt, and his downfall would
certainly smooth the way to pacification. It
is doubtful whether the savage and fanatical
warrior will ever be subjugated, except by
death.

MANCHESTER has now its big "Jubilee"
Exhibition, opened with eclat by Royalty on
Tuesday. It is a gigantic affair, and em-
bodies within its walls a splendid aggrega-
tion of representative. art and industrial
products of the Viotorian era. It will form,
without doubt, the premier attraction of the
County Palatine during the season to come.

The Schnabele incident is happily over
without a Franco-German rupture; though
no one could have said with certainty—only
a few days back—that this would be. How
terribly thin-skinned Germans and French
are over these little frontier matters. For-
tunately the responsible persons, those in
power in Paris and Berlin, are clear-headed
and less excitable than the masses, or this
miserable wrangle over the arrest of an
alleged treasonable commissary would un-
doubtedly have led to an awful war.

THE Czar of Russia is to be moving across
his domain ere long, and all along the line of
railway rotate there will be a compact nl li-
tary guard to preserve this mighty momach
and his famity from the danger of assas iva-
tion. To bring to the British mind the
magnitude of this IT C-ter, one must imagine
a parallel, in which all the permanent way
of the various companies connecting the
capital with the Queen's northern castle,
Balmoral, should be lined with troops. This
would require all our soldiers, and this is
just what is to be done in Russia. The
available cavalry sproad as far as their num-
bers will allow, while infantry occupy the
reautiniag apace, Poor Aussian.Emperorat

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