The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-01 00:00:00

Our foribau Currtspoubtnt.

[We deem it ri4ht to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

The assembling of the new Parliament is only one
of many signs of the return of active life to the metro-
polis. The scattering of the legions of the two political
armies is at an end; and now they gather together at
Westminster once more to take up the broken thread
of legislation. With the lords spiritual and temporal,
and the knights, citizens, and burgesses once more in
town—between eleven and twelve hundred men, with
their retinues and their households— the suspended
animation of Society will be rekindled, and the bright
summer days will once more bring round the London
season, which so far as the spring was concerned, was
rendered a void and a blank by the dissolution. One'
of the indications of returning life is the holding of a
levee by the Prince of Wales at St. James's Palace on
Friday, May 7th ; another is an announcement that
Her Majesty will hold Drawing Rooms at Buckingham
Palace on Tuesday, May 11th, and Thursday, the 13th,
so there is joy in Regent-street, and animation in
Piccadilly; for the Court tradesmen will be busy
enough when both her Majesty and the Prince of
Wales are discharging duties like these. Then, be-
sides the fact that there is a new 'Ministry, there is
the all-important one that a great number of new
members have been returned to the House of Commons
—hon. gentlemen, who with their wives and daughter;
come to London to make the most of the brief season
which is now before them, and who take the places of
many to whom probably London life had become a
thing of weariness. Then another consideration is the
fine spring weather promising not only cheerfulness
in the town, but plenty and prosperity, where last
year there was nothing but sodden fields and flooded
lands.

Nearly twelve months have elapsed since in May
last year Sir GarnEt Wolseley left England for the
Capp, and now his return may be regarded as a new
point of departure in the affairs of our South African
possessions. All accounts now represent Zululand
and its rulers as in a more satisfactory condition than
had ever been known by those best acquainted with
the previous state of the country. In the Transvaal,
too, Sir Garnet Wolseley's work has undoubtedly been
well done. The work of progress ought now to
advance with rapidity. The Cape Parliament meets
early in May, and the question of Federation will be
once more brought to the front. There may be some
difference of opinion as to the details under which a
Confederation may be established, but there seems to
be such a general feeling in favour of it, that it would
appear to be a mere matter of time as to when it shall
be carried out. Notwithstanding all that has hap-
pened in South Africa within the past three or four
years, the condition of the colony is highly satis-
factory. Trade is good, immigration is being en-
couraged, railways are being pushed on, and there
is every indication of a great and permanent pros-
perity.

A New York paper calls attention to the unpre-
cedented stream of immigration to the United States
from the whole world. It was estimated that the
arrivals in the month of April would reach 50,000.
There is a good demand for labour across the Atlan-
tic, and it was expected that employment would
speedily be found for this large number of persons.
The young, the robust, the energetic, and the trust-
worthy leave their native shores, and leave behind
the necessitous classes from which our domestic ser-
vices have hitherto been recruited. It is a fine national
characteristic that there should be so much courage
and enterprise in the very humblest sort of
Britons ; but there are those who begin to look
upon this exodus of our cooks and housemaids with
anything but equanimity. There is a certain amount
of menial work to be done, and an increasing difficulty
in procuring the services of those qualified to do it.
The world seems becoming too much disposed to insist
oil equality as the common birthright of all men and
women, for any one class to resign itself to being
looked down upon by another.

Trial of two new machine guns with very singular
names has just been made by the Admiralty. These
are called the Nordenfelt and the Hotchkiss, and one
might have thought that some rather more
euphonious-sounding appellations might have been
found. There is no mystery about these weapoxs,
which are the outcome of the employment of steel
plates in the construction of torpedo launches.
These swift little craft, which are destined to
play such an important part in future naval warfare,
are built almost entirely of steel, with stout shields of
the same metal; and, as they are bullet-proof, and
do not suffer from the fire of an ordinary Gatling gun,
the Admiralty have been trying to find out what
bullets harder and bigger would do. It was then
found that a sharp conical bullet of steel, weighing
fourteen or sixteen ounces, at once penetrated steel
plates of the thickness usually employed in torpedo
launches, and it is this description of projectile
that is fired by the Nordenfelt. There are four barrels,
and these are in a position to fire off twelve shots
per ,second. The superiority of steel over iron shot is
very marked; indeed,- at the School of Gunnery at
Shoeburyness there was shown some time ago a
compressed steel shot which had been sent through a
target of twelve inches of solid iron no less than three
times. The Admiralty appear to be so convinced of
the efficacy of weapons of the Nordenfelt character,
that several have been purchased, and more ordered.
Ironclads and all unarmoured frigates and corvettes
will be fitted with the guns as a defence against torpedo
attack.

From the annual report of the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution, which from its inauguration has
been so admirably managed, it is seen that the organi-
zation is now almost if not altogether perfect. There
are very few places on the coasts of either Great
Britain or Ireland where the services of lifeboats
would be useful, or where their employment would
be practicable, at which. stations of the Institution
have not been established. Probably even yet addi-
tions may be made ; but upon this point the committee
are to some extent relieved from anxiety; and they
milli be able in future to direct their attention to the
improving of establishments already in existence, to
the replacing of old and inferior boats by others of the
newest and best construction, and to the genewa
adoption of every appliance which may best promote
the object in view—the saving of life from shipwreck.
The fact that there are now distributed round our
coasts 369 lifeboats, and that last year alone £30,000
was spent upon the various stations, powerfully
testifies to the strength and usefulness of an organiza-
tion which, supported by voluntary contributions,
alls upon the scriptural principle that it is better to
save life than to destroy.

The marriage of the Princess Frederica of Hanover
to the Baron von Powell-Rammingen, which took
place in the private chapel of Windsor Castle on
Saturday, was one to Which the Queen gave her assent
some time ago, by the advice of her Privy Council.
One hundred 1d eight years ago an Act was passed
by which every prince or princess, being a descendant
of George 11. was prohibited from marrying without
the consent of the Sovereign before attaining the age
of 25; but after that age they are free to marry
whom they please, provided they obtain the consent
of the Privy Council and of Parliament. But the
Itrivy Council would not be likely to accord such
assent without the concurrence of the Sovereign,
who of course would have the right of veto over
any Bill which Parliament might pass for such a purpose.
Virtually, therefore, no descendant of George 11. can
at any age contract a legal marriage without the approval
of the Queen. Even the late King George of Hanover,
when Prince Royal, sought and obtained her Majesty's
permission before marrying the Princess Mary of
Saxe-Altenburg. The Duke of Cumberland, a brother
of the bride of last Saturday, is a brother-in-law of
the Princess of Wales, having been married on the
21st December, 1878, to Princess Thyra., youngest
daughter of the King of Denmark, brother-in-law
also of the Czarevna of Russia (another of the Danish
king's daughters), and likewise of the King of Greece,
King. Christian's second son.

Upon the formation of every new Ministry ensues
the issue of numerous writs for the re-election of
its principal ntembers ; and in the case of the new
Cabinet formed by Mr. Gladstone, although the
gentlemen composing it have come fresh from the con-
stituencies, they have to go back again, so that the
people may ratify the choice of advisers made by the
Crown. It thus follows that the nation always pos-
sesses a veto upon the selection of ministers by the
Sovereign; and if these Ministers are disapproved
and lose their seats in Parliament, the monarch has
then to choose others who may be more acceptable.
This constitutional principle was embodied in a
statute passed in the reign of Queen Anne, which
enacted that whenever a member of the House of
Commons took office under the Crown, the act
necessarily vacated his seat in that assembly. He
has then to present himself to his constituents for
re-election ; and if they hold that by the acceptance
cf office he has sacrificed his independence, or if
they have other grounds for disapproving of the choice
made by the Crown, it is quite open to them to reject
him. Without a seat in the Huse of Commons of
course a minister is powerless; and the passing of
such a measure sheows how jealous were our fore-
fathers of the influence of the Crown, and illustrates
the stringency of the precaution which they called
i
into existence in order to make t certain that the
advisers of the Sovereign should he in accord with
the wishes of the people. It is not usual to oppose
a Minister who has placed his services at the disposal
of his country, and it is only in exceptional cases that
an attemPt i made to displace from his seat in Parlia-

meat one who has 'thus been honoured by the con-
fidence of his Sovereign.
This is the time at which the May meetings begin,
and these are continued until about the 20th or
24th of the month. Some take place at the

Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor finds ample
occupation in presiding over them and in attending to
his numerous other official duties; but most of these
gatherings are held at the west end of the town,
either at Exeter Hall, Willis's Rooms, or St. James's
Hall. Exeter Hall, of the three, is perhaps the
favourite place for holding the principal meetings. It
may not be generally known that this famous building,
not long ago, narrowly escaped being made into a
Co-operative store; it was thought of for a post-office;
then there was a proposal to turn it into a theatre
for the performance of sacred dramas. It has, however,
now been most appropriately preserved by the Young
Men's Christian Association. The central rooms
of this increasing body have hitherto been in
Aldersgate-street ; and rooms have more recently been
taken in King William-street, London Bridge,
but Exeter Hall will now be the centre of the organi-
zation. The roof which once rang with the echoes of
Brougham's eloquence, as he launched his thunders
against the institution of slavery, and which has so
often resounded with the earnest appeals of Lord
Shaftesbury, will now look down upon the working
focus of an Association which ever seeks to instil a
religious feeling into the emotions of man's heart and
into the spirit of his life.