The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-17 00:00:00

Our fonbon aorrupoOent,

(We deeth it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Corrtspondent's opinions.

The Lord Chamberlain's official announcement that
the State Apartments at Windsor Castle are closed,
and the speedy return of Her Majesty from Baden—
more speedy it is understood than was at first intended
show that Windsor will once more be the
scene of events of great political significance. The
mutability of all earthly things is shown in
the number of Ministries whose members have
rendered up to the Sovereign the seals of their offices
in the stately
Sir Robert Peel, Earl Russell, Viscount Palmerston,
the Earl of Derby, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield,
all one after the other have experienced the fleeting and
uncertain character of popular acclaim. Minithean,
French statesman, who lived in the stormy times of
the Revolution, was once congratulated on his popu-
larity with the multitude. "Bah !" he replied,
"they would equally rejoice if I were led to exe-
cution." And upon the principle of "Welcome
the coming, speed the parting guest," the outgoing set
of Minieters are generally received in solemn silence,
while the incoming servants of the Crown are greeted
with loud aoclamations. Lord Lyndhurst used to tell
a very good story showing the difference between
the attention paid to those who are in and
those who are out. 'Upon a change of Government, he-
went to Windsor with his colleagues to place his resig-
nation in Her Majesty's hands. Heralds and tabards
preceded him through corridor and hall, with the
stately proclamation: "Make way for the Lord High
Chancellor of England ! " Having surrendered the
custody of the Great Seal, which was at once handed
to his successor, he ceased to be Chancellor, and passed
out of the audience chamber. On his way to his
carriage the only salutation he received was from one
of the Court attendants, who said, "Lord Lyndhurst,
can Ido anything for you ? " His lordship narrated
this incident, with very great enjoyment, many years
ago in the House of Peers.
One of the first duties of the New Parliament will
be to consider the expediency of continuing the litallot
Act, whioh will otherwise expire on the 31st December
next. The members, fresh from the constituencies,
will be able to point out some respects in which this
statute appears capable of improvement. Leaving
other and minor points out of the question, there
seems at almost every election to be far too many
spoiled votes. The slightest blunder on the part of an
elector is sufficient to vitiate his vote ; and although
his intention may have been perfectly clear and dis-
tinct, any informality may deprive the ballot-paper, of
all value. By the very excess of care taken by a voter
to fill up his paper properly, he may disfranchise him
self. For instance, if the cross to be placed opposite
the candidate's name is not placed exactly in the
compartment especially designed for it, the vote is
likely to be lost, although there cannot be the
slighest shadow of a doubt for whom it was intended.
There are other details which, immediately after a
general election, and within a few months of the ex-
piration of the Aet, will now receive due attention.

The monthly Board of Trade returns confirm the
view which has been gathering strength of late, that
the revival in commercial affairs is real and substan-
tial, that the wave of adversity which has been pass-'
ing over the land has spent itself, and that a prosperous
tideway is now before the country. The Trade and
Navigation returns for the first three months of the
present year, are more favourable than at any time
since the beginning of 1877; and there is every reason
to. hope and believe that this is no mere evanescent or
passing gleam of light, but that it is a practical augury
of thoTe brighter times for which people have waited
so long and so anxiously. The dry spring, too,
has all been in favour of agriculture; so that both
town and country may at last rejoice in the promise of
a better period than either of them has known for a
very long time.

One of the judges is at length installed in the Law
Courts on the north side of the Strand, for the con-
struction of which an Act was passed as far back as
the Premiership of Lord Palmerston. Fifteen years
ago Parliament voted the necessary sum for the build-
ing of a new Palace of Justice, and now the structure
is sufficiently advanced to allow a Judge to sit in
chambers there. The Courts themselves, for the ac-
commodation of the various legal tribunals, will not be
ready for some time ;so that common law and equity
are still administered at Westminster Hall, Lincoln's-
inn, and in the duildhall of the City Of London. As
to the Courts noiv existing, the Queen's Bench is so
blocked with cases that many of them have to be trans-
ferred to the Common Pleas and 't xchequer in order
to dispose of them if possible before the termination of
the legal year, in August. The judges who have had
to go on circuit have found it impossible to be in
London and the country at the same time; and un-
fortunately, whilst at many of the assize towns they
found very little to do, arrears were accumulating in
London to a very great extent, which it will tax all
the energies of our judicial staff to clear away within
the next four months.

Prince Bismarck is such a commanding figure in
European politics that the news of his proffered resig-
nation could not but create attention in this country,
absorbed as it was over the results of its own elections.
It seems scarcely ten years ago that in July, 1870, he
set out with the present Emperor of Germany from
Berlin for the invasion of France; and it was a
striking illustration of the military spirit of Germany
that not only the Sovereign and his son, but the Chan-
cellor of the Empire, an office representing a combina-
tion of our own Prime Minister and Foreign Secre-
tary, took part in the campaign. At Gravelotte the
tall figure of Prince Bismarck, in his uniform as a
cuirassier, towered above all his neighbours, and
so ttoroughly did France recognise in him the man who
had been the main cause of her defeat that at the
close of the war the printseller' windows in Paris were
filled with caricatures of him, labelled ".Revanche I
A decade has waned away, and has somewhat toned
down the enmity 'between the two great nations
which then engaged in a death grapple; and that
decade has brought Prince Bismarck near the
seventieth year of his age. Yet he seems as indis-
pensable now as he was then in the • Councils of the
state; for the venerabTe Sovereign, long past his
fourscore years, has refused to accept his able
Minister's resignation, and bidden him continue in the
service of that Skate which he has raised to be one of
the most powerful amongst military monarchies.
A German physician, Dr. Treichler, has been pub-
lishing some results of his investigations into the
effects of overwork at school. In his opinion great
injuries are inflicted upon children by ill-directed or
excessive brain work; and he holds that it is neces-
sary to secure if possible that wha4is called work shall
be really fruitful for the purposes for which it is de-
signed. There is no doubt that of late years physiolo-
gists have begun to approach something like an exact
analysis of the mental faculties, and to understand
the physical or brain basis of the mental operations.
Dr. Treichler declares that overwork is destructive of
the power of healthy functional activity, whether the
function concerned be movement or thought, or
memory, or the simple growth or repair of tissues.
The physical health of children should, he thinks, be
the first consideration of the schoolmaster; and it
may reasonably be hoped, as tho true principles of
eclucation bec6me better understood, that " cramming "

will be gradually abandoned; and that if intellectual
competitions are still to favour the chances afforded to
boys at their entrance upon a career, these competi-
tions will become less exhausting and more real than
experience has often proved them to be.
The dissolution of Parliament and the .absence of
Lords and Commons from London on election business
must hay.e something to do withlthe emptine‘s of the
West-end oi,' the town, for that it is singularly empty
there is not the slightest doubt. The first half of
April, in an ordinary year, is rather a lively time in
the metropolis, for if it i not the height of the season,

it marks a considerable advance towards that period.
One could not walk through a 64 iline or a street in the
fashionable quarters of the capital without observing
the signs of this. It has been equally impossibie?. to take
the same walk lately without observing the absence of
these sig. House after house either has its shutters
up, or ks in the hands of the painter and decorator;
at all events the ordinary occuPr•nts of the
establishments are not there. The adjacent thops,
which deal in what are termed "varieties,"
such as flowers, are full of pleasing produce which
apparently very few buy. However, London loss
just now is gain to many a country town. scores
'of places in the provinces, usually very quiet from one
market day to another; have been full of bustle and
movement owing to the 4itletions. Soon the scene
will be changed. Parliament 11ia4,4 on the 29th, and
then, just as the beauties of the counwy are bursting
into all the glory of springtide life, the ruiiio.,-; classes
who have pleasant rural seats, will leave them to coma
up and dwell in the dusty and crowded town.
The Tay Bridge disaster has almost passed from
public notice during the political excitement of the
last few weeks. But it has not been forgotten by
the Board of Trade or the North British Railway
Company. The official inquiry was adjourned until
the lost train and the broken girders of the bridge
could be recovered, in order that they might be
examined, in the hope of their giving some indica-
tion of the cause of the catastrophe. The work of
raising and bringing ashore the wreck of the train and
the fallen portions of the structure has been steadily
carried on, and all the carriages and the engine which
conveyed BO wany persons to death on the last Sun-
day in the ola'year, having been recovered, have been
photographed for the continuance a the Board of

Trade investigation. bridge, engine, and carriages
have been raised as nearly as possible in the position
in which they were discovered; and the remains of the
train present ample evidence of the terrible force of the
shock caused by the fall, it is to be hoped that the
recovered wreck will afford some explanation of the
cause of this terrible disaster. It cannot lessen the
magnitude of the past ca.la,mitF, but it may at least
point to the precautions to be taken against. the re-
currence of future catastrophes.

Among the deposits which it is customary to place
in the foundation on memorial stones of public build-
ings, there could scarcely be anything more interesting
to posterity thau such specimens of the telephone as have
at present reached any stage of development amongst
us. The instrument repeats accurately the words spoken
into it, in the voice of the speaker himself, though in
a lower tone, so that it is necessary to speak to it as to
a deaf person. It is said that the instrument would
repeat these words after many years. It seems quite
credible, if the machine were placed in a leaden box,
and hermetically sealed, that the materials would not
corrode; probably, too, some of the air contained in
the box could be exhausted. This does not appear
impossible when we consider the good state of pre-
servation in which have been found rare relics of
antiquity in Thebes, Troy, Pompeii, and Herculaneum.
How greatly should we be interested now to hear the
voice of Moses reading out the law to the Israelites, or
Paul preaching at Athens! And in a thousand years
to come, when such a relic of this present age should
be disentombed, an oration in the voice of one of our
foremost statesmen of to-day, or a song by an eminent
hying cantatrice, might give those succeeding ages a
better idea of civilisation as it is with us to-day than
any number of historical volumes!