The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-16 00:00:00


Our foubou Corrtsgoatnt,

We deem it right to state tLzt we do not at an timed,
tient* ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The weather is a perennial subject of interest
and it is little wonder that it should be so, seeing
its rapid changes and the unexpected develOp-
ments it so often shows. The opening of the
present month, for instance, has afforded
opportunity for much conversation, the early
days of October having been the hottest that
have been known in England at such a season for
40 years. And following hard upon them came
what to Londoners always is a significant event,
and that was the first fog of the season. It was
by no means a local fog, for a similar visitation
• was simultaneously reported from the coast of
Northumberland and Durham, where the move-
ments of shipping were stopped and various
,casualties caused by it. But dwellers in the
metropolis have a theory, of whatever value it
may be, that their fog is one of its own kind, and
that what Mr. Guppy, in "Bleak House," de-
dominated a "London particular" is not to be
met in all its fulness elsewhere. The grievance—
for that it is a grievance, none that know Lon-
don will deny—is far from a sentimental one. A
heavy fog of the kind with which the capital is
too familiar is not only a hindrance to traffic, but
an injury to health; it damages business and
causes many an accident; and altogether it is an
item in our London life which we could very well
do without. Theorists have speculated over its
origin. Projectors have put forward plans by
which its rigour may be mitigated, but the evil
remains. And it seems as if, as long as winters
shall last, they will be always accompanied by a
London_fog.
It might have been hoped that with the spread
of education and an increase of facilities for see-
ing that the inhabitants of other nations are
very like ourselves, the old distrust and dislike of
the foreigner had died away. But such occur-
rences as the recent affray between French and
English fishermen at Ramsgate show that traces
of it remain, and it does not need any special
penetration to see that they may have awkward
consequences. One Paris newspaper, in its
endeavour to explain everything on logical
grounds, has expressed the opinion that the whole
trouble arose because the English have never for-
gotten Joan of Are; but those who know the Rams-
gate fishermen will think that this explanation is
more than a little far-fetched. Trade considera-
tions have had a greater influence in stimulating
the differences between the two sets of rivals in
business than any recollections of historical
characters of tow centuries since: and these are
matters which ought to be settled in the law
courts, and about which an appeal to physical
force is as futile and as much to be deprecated as
any similar appeal in ordinary Me. Perhaps
one should say it is mcre to be deprecated,
' because physical force as applied to foreigners
may bring about international complication, the
end of which cannot easily be foreseen. Fortu-
. • nately our relations with France are at the pre-
sent time so generally friendly in their character
that such an "untoward event," to use a his-
torical -expression, will have no ill effect upon
• them. But, without entering at all into the
charges and the counter charges which form the
basis of the dispute, it may be hoped that we
have heard the last of any physical force being
used in the matter.
One aspect of this dispute between Englishmen
and foreigners is important as affecting a larger
field. No one can move much among commer-
cial men in London without hearing complaints
of the ever-increasing foreign competition in
their business, and one cannot talk much with
their clerks without hearing even louder com-
plaints of the ever-increasing competition of
foreigners for their situations. German clerks,
especially, are multiplying in London in a fashion
which causes their English brethren much tribu-
lation of spirit. The point of view of the
employer is clear; if he can obtain a German
clerk who speaks two and perhaps three lan-
guages at a lower rate than he can an English
clerk, who speaks only his own, he is not likely,
from any theory of patriotism, to hesitate as to
his choice. The point of view of the English
employed is equally definite; he deems it a hard-
ship that a foreigner should step in and offer to
do the work for a less sum than that on which
an Englishman considers he can comfort-
ably live. From a business aspect there
can be no doubt that the employer is within his
right; and though it is hard to say that an
English clerk can be expected to live on less than
- the present average earnings of his class, there is
certainly this to be urged—that heshould endea-
vour to cope with the German in his posses-
sion of languages. Other things being equal,
there is little doubt that an English commercial
man would prefer to employ one of his com-
patriots, but the things must be equal and it is
this point which every English clerk should bear
in mind.
We are threatened with the loss of one of the
best-known corps in the volunteer service, and
unless its numbers can be strengthened by the
Ist of December the Inns of Court Rifle Volun-
teers will cease to exist. The regiment has been
recruited from its birth entirely from members
of the Bar and students of the different Inns of
Court, and its chiefs have all through de-
dined to allow it to be added to from any
other branch of the legal profession. Colonel
Russell, the present commander, has issued
a circular headed "urgent," stating that the
number of all ranks on the roll is now under 300,
and that consequently the regiment has become
too small to be worked as a separate command.
He points out that, though the barristers and
students in 1859 and 1860 were much fewer
• than they are now, yet at the end of the first
year of the existence of the corps there were 664
men on the roll, while in 1860 the regiment
marched past the Queen between five and six
hundred strong. "Next year," he adds, "we
hope to celebrate her Majesty's jubilee. She
will doubtless then review the volunteers. What
would be said of us if our regiment should be
absent, or, if present, present in such insignifi-
cant strength as to make it better that it were
absent ? " Those who are interested in the con-
tinued prosperity of the volunteer force will hope
that the appeal of Colonel Russell will have its
full effect, and that so celebrated a corps will not
be allowed to disappear from the roll.
Even those who are most opposed to exten-
sive emigration will scarcely object to the crea-
tion of the Emigration Office just started under
the auspices of the Government. All will allow
that information is above everything desirable
for those about to leave their native land for the
purpose of seeking fortune, or, at the least,
livelihood, on another shore. And it is just this
which has previously been largely wanting. All
the intelligence about a field for emigration that
the intending emigrant could glean was furnished
him by interested parties. Everything they said
might have been true, but the fact that they
.were interested parties necessarily cast some
• slight air of suspicion around the more
"glowing of their statements; and it
.`*., was with the view of providing, as far as possible,
that the information should be as unbiassed as
it was full, that the Government determined
- upon starting the present office. The intelligence
it will circulate will be mainly obtained from the
various Colonial Governments and their repre-
sentatives in this country, checked, even then, it
may be presumed, by some disinterested au-
thority; and the institution will supply this in-
formation, at once useful and trustworthy, re-
specting emigration to the British Colonies to all
who are thinking of trying their fortunes in one
of them. The earliest circular gives an idea of
what the office will do and it promises well.
There will still be a great number of Englishmen
who will prefer to go to the United States; but
for those who would wish to continue British
citizens, the existence of such an institution can-
not but prove a boon.
Winter is eminently the season for burglaries,
the long nights affording persons of a predatory
habit opportunities which the summer will not
allow. In view of this fact, the police in certain
metropolitan districts haveissued a caution which
should be taken to heart by householders, not
only in London, but in all parts of the country.
The warning is that servants should not allow
hawkers or tramps to stand at the open door
- while they go to their mistresses to inquire if
anything is wanted. Opportunity is often taken,
if this be allowed, of examining and even of
tampering with the fastenings of the door, and
what this may result in, it does not require a
• lively imagination to perceive. Of course, the
police do not mean to say that every street-
hawker is a thief, or an accomplice of thieves, but
the class certainly includes some that are dis-
honest, and to guard against the mischief that
these may do, precautions of the sort named have
to be taken. There is a further reason why
servants should be cautisned on this head, and
that is that thieves who have an especial weakness
for great-coats andumbrella,s often make a call at
' the door, and the servant's consequent absence
therefrom, the means by which the booty is
secured from off the pegs and out of the hall-
stand and made away with. In fact the caution
cannot be too often given that, in large towns
at least, the only way to secure safety is to shut
your doors. If they have to be opened to a

hawker or a tramp, either someone should stand
at them as long as they are unclosed, or they
should be shut until the servant can come back.
By taking this simple precaution many a pro-
posed robbery may be nipped in the bud.