The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-12-17 00:00:00

V

1 ._

OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

(Wa deem it right to state that we do not at all times identify
ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The nearer we get to the end of the year, the
nearec we approach to the season not only of
good cheer, but of good resolutions. For hard
upon the heels of Christmas follows the New
Year, and we have no sooner done enjoying
ourselves than we begin framing plans for the
future. Many of these are doubtless still-horn,
others only have a brief existence, but those
which live and have effect are worth making. It
is easy enough to ridicule New Year resolves as
being lightly made and lightly broken, but just
as no farmer expects every grain he sows to
fructify to harvest and yet goes on sowing in the
hope that many will come to maturity, so it is
with our resolves. But to the heads of families
Christmas means more than either good cheer
or excellent resolutions. There are such things
as "Christmas bills," which, in many a home,
sadly detract from the festivity of that which by
common accord is "the festive season." Here
again it is easy to say that people should not get in
debt, and that the necessity for receiving the
Christmas bills could thus be avoided. But the
eredit system dies hard and humanity is frail.
If the practice of "running bills" could be
abolished, the sum of man's happiness might be
increased; but nothing but the resolution of
individuals themselves can secure that end.
There are some things which are beyond the
power of Parliament, puissant as Parliament is,
and so "Christmas bills" are likely to flourish so
long as there are goods to be sold and people to
buy them. -
And, just as tradesmen and householders
balance their accounts when Christmas comes,
and see whether the year has been to them
profitable or the reverse, so does the nation. It
is not until the last day of the year that this
can properly be done, for in national as in per-
sonal affairs, no one can tell what a day or an
hour may bring forth; but we know enough
already to be able to roughly judge of the net
result as far as one important department con-
cerning us can be taken into consideration. The
increase of trade, and consequently of
national prosperity, prophesied by careful
Observers at the beginning of the year
has been accomplished; and although it
has not been as large as all of us
would have wished to see it, it has been sure
even if slow. The volume of our exports as well
as of our imports has steadily grown, and there
seems no reason to doubt that the long lane of
depression which this country, in common with
most nations of the earth, has for years been
traversing, has at last found a turning. It may be
that the lessons which our merchants and manu-
facturers have learned in the hours of adversity
will serve, if acted upon, to make renewed
prosperity more sure; and, just as in daily life, we
at times profit by what at first sight seems a
knockdown blow, so, may it be hoped, will it be
the case with the country generally. No man is
too old to learn, no nation is too wise to neglect
the lessons of experience; and looking at the
immediate past, there is every reason to be of
good cheer as regards the immediate future.

Those who, when the volunteer movement was
started, now nearly thirty years ago, croaked
forebodings of evil, and told us that, when the
novelty had worn away, the force would crumble
to pieces, have so often had occasion to consider
themselves false prophets, that it may seem almost
like cruelty to show them once more how far they
were wrong. But the official returns of the 44 corps
of the metropolis for the volunteer year just con-
cluded, afford such satisfactory results that they
must be quoted. They show that numerically
the corps are in a better condition than they were
a twelvemonth since. The number of efficients
earning the capitation grant in 1887 is 31,141,
and of non-efficients 2148, making the total en-
rolled strength 33,289; while last year the
efficients were :30,875, the non-effieients 1529,
and the total enrolled 32,404. It is, of course,
a drawback that the number of non-efficients
should have so increased, but now that the
attention of the commanding officers has
so strikingly been called to the fact, it may bs
taken for granted that prompt and effectual
means will be taken for decreasing the total
during 1888. When it is remembered that in
three of the metropolitan corps—the Queen's
Westminster, the 2nd V.B. Royal Fusiliers, and
the Ist V.B. West Surrey—there is not a single
non-efficient, while in a fourth, the 22nd Mid-
dlesex, there is only one, the task ought not to
seem insuperable or even full of extraordinary
difficulty.
Our judges have sometimes very curious duties
to perform, and in no one of the Law Courts is
this more to be noted than in the Chancery
Division, where cases affecting patents have to be
decided. A few days ago, for instance, a singular
spectacle was to be seen in the court presided
over by Mr. Justice Kay. His lordship had to
try an action relating to a patent in dancing
dolls. Various specimens of these annisirAg
articles, including soldiers in uniform and ladies
in various costumes, were produced in court;
and, in order to let the judge see the practical
working of the mechanical contrivance, a doll
representing a ballet-girl was chosen for special
exhibition. It was accordingly wound up, and,
the table devoted to solicitors having been
cleared of papers, it was made to dance
upon it to the amusement of a crowded court.
It is gravely recorded that when this singular
performance was concluded, his lordship adjured
the usher to take particular care of the doll
which had so entertained himself as well as the
other on-lookers: and no party to the case could
say that he had not taken pains to see what the
decision of it really involved.
If we believed all that we read in the medical
journals, life would become to us a perfect
torment. The air we breathe, the food we oat,
and the water we drink, to say nothing
of the tobacco we smoke, are alike
from time to time held up to public
reprobation as hurtful in a high degree,
or even positively poisonous. The latest
discovery is that carpets are dangerous,
and we are solemnly assured that one of the most
prolific sources of the propagation of infectious
diseases is the house carpet,whichis.warranted on
high medical authority to retain the germs of
these dread ills. This is the more sad because
none of us who can afford it are likely to return
to bare floors. Our comparatively uncivihsed
ancestors, to whom the comforts and the luxuries
of Brussels, and Axminster, and Kidderminster
were unknown, yet felt constrained to cover their
floors with straw or rushes; and, if all we have
heard concerning the state of their dwellings be
true, we have made an excellent change by
adopting carpets. That these should be beaten
at proper intervals and in fitting fashion is
right enough; but if every time we walk across
a carpet we are to be troubled by thoughts of
germs and organisms, bacilli and microbes, life
will hardly be worth living.
It is very comforting to be assured on the
authority of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
that wealth in England is being distributed over
a larger area. Mr. Goschen has brought before
the Royal Statistical Society a host of figures
to show that there has been a noticeable
increase during the last ten years in the
number of moderato fortunes, coupled with
an equally noticeable decrease in the number of
large fortunes; and he argued that what might
be called the smaller middle-class is becoming
the great central body of the community, and is
continually being increased from above and
below. The political philosopher will probably
concern himself most with those below, and here
there is to be noted Mr. Goschen's confident hope
that that the process of greater distribution of
wealth will continue, and ultimately affect the vast
mass of the labouring population, whom he ad-
mitted it had not yet reached, but whose
position, though not as yet benefited by obtaining
a share of accumulated wealth, had, nevertheless,
he contended, been improved by the cheapness
of what they bought with their wages. Fiffures,
according to. common belief, may be male to
prove anything; but there seems to be no
reasonable doubt as to what may be learnt from
those adduced by Mr. G. oschen. There are some
people who are continually telling us that
!England is going to the dogs because her rich
are growing richer, and her poor poorer; but the
authority of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is
higher by far than that of any who have put
forward this contention, and upon it most of us,
at the least, will be content to rely.
Life, says a character in the most popular
comedy of modern days, is too short for chess,
but that belief is evidently not shared by a largo
number of people. A visit to the Masters'
Tournament, while it has been in progress at the
London home of the British Chess Club, would
have convinced the most sceptical that "the
king of games" has as many and as devoted
adherents as ever. It is a game which only those
of deep thought can play to good advan.tag?,
and the number of its eminent votaries 13
legion. And the history of the tournament
referred to is an encouragement to all
amateurs possessed of a love for the game,
since it was one who was but lately almost a
beginner who created the greatest suprises of the
match. The ramifications of the same appear as
practically infinite as the number of hands which
could be dealt at whist or the total changes
which could be rung on eight bells. And in this