The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-08 00:00:00

ulhir Nodon Otourspoutant.

Me deem it right to state ,that we do not at all tiMES
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's optnions.

Visitors to London from the provinces, who have
a high admiration for sculpture and paintings, have
an ample opportunity of gratifying their tastes just
now. The opening of the Royal Academy Exhibition
on Monday, the 3rd instant, has already been noted.
Those who wish to study the best and choicest works
of modern English art, cannot do better than pay
Burlington House a visit. The National Gallery,
open three days a week all the year round, con-
tains all the rarest specimens of the productions
of the Old Masters—works priceless in their value.
But these are not the only attractions of the kind
which are accessible just now in the metropolis.
The summer exhibitions of the Society of Painters in
Water Colours, and of its younger rival the Institute,
are also now open; and both are rather above than
below the level of recent years. The collection of the
older society is particularly good. It is true that
several of its best-known members fail to contribute,
but their absence is amply compensated for by the
successful efforts of younger men. The Grosvenor
Gallery, too, is a place containing much that is
beautiful in art and costly in material.

Those who were present at the opening of the Tenth
Parliament of Queen Victoria might have mentally
remarked that although the proceedings were of a very
formal character, they had even for this reason no in-
considerable amount of interest. The oldest repre-
sentative body in the world met in the old
manner, and began a renewal of our Parliamen-
tary life. The carefulness to adhere to ancient
forms is one of the 'host significant characteristics
of our Legislature as it meets after every appeal
to the constituencies. It appears thus ever old and
ever young, like that England which Milton saw
"moving her mighty youth." An old era had closed;
a new one had opened. All that the constituencies
had been doing for some weeks, all the appeals to the
popular judgment, all the speeches, all the party
organization, all the voting, all the large expendi-
ture of money, had been with the object of
getting together the House of Commons which then
met in so quiet and unpretentious a fashion
according to the forms handed down from the Tudors
and the Plantagenets. No politician, and no lover of
freedom and of civilisation, could affect to be indiffer-
ent to the simple spectacle presented in both Chambers.
The election of Speaker was carried out in the same
way as it had been conducted for generations; and no
one, to look at the House cof Commons, could have
imagined that the return of these gentlemen had been
the cause of so much excitement from one end of the
kingdom to the other.

The Speaker of the House of Commons elected and
the choice of Parliament ratified by the Crown, the
new Legislature has now to wait for the re-elections of
Ministers before it can be known what measures her
Majesty's advisers intend to introduce during what
remains of the session. Nothing can now be done be-
fore the Whitsuntide recess; but there will then be a
straight run of ten or eleven weeks, without any in-
tervening holidays, before the usual period of proro-
gation arrives. With such little time for consultation
it can scarcely be expected that the new Ministry
can prepare this session any great measure of
paramount importance; and that if the purely
routine business can be got through, nothing need
detain members in town beyond the day when
grouse-shooting begins, the 12tly of August. This has
given rise to a suggestion often thrown out before,
that Parliament might very well begin its sittings in
November, when tlie legal year commences, and when,
as also, does that of the church. The lawyers and the
judges come to London in November, for the opening
of the MichEelmas sittings; and from the 2nd of that
month to about the 20th December, all the work of
the law courts is in full operation. It has been urged
that with a session commencing in November next,
when legal tribunals re-open, the more important mea-
sures of the Government, prepared during the recess,
might be submitted to Parliament, and the general
discussion on them closed before Christmas; finance
and the estimates could then be taken before Easter;
and by the end of June or beginning of July Parlia-
ment might be prorogued, so that long hours of sun-
shine could he had for the holidays instead of the
shorter days of autumn. It is only in comparatively
recent years that Parliament has habitually met in
February, and adjourned in August; and under the
exceptional circumstances of the present year no one
would be surprised at the summoning of the Legis-
lature for an autumnal session.
The summoning of Parliament just now is fortu-
nately concurrent with the manifestation of many
signs of reawakened life and energy in London. For
instance the Royal Academy banquet on Saturday
evening was the preliminary to the opening of the
exhibition itself on the first Monday in May. At
this dinner the President gathers round him princes
of the blood royal, prelates and nobles, poets and
politicians, philosophers and statesmen, painters and
authors, all indeed whose names stand out in contem-
porary annals as being famous in the history of the
time. Her Majesty's ministers are always there;
but in such an illustrious and representative assembly
the toasts are non-political, literature, art, science,
and the drama being the principal topics dwelt upon.
Then i the opening day it is considered the proper
thing to "do " the Academy, as it is called. The conse-
quence is a very great crush in all the rooms at Burling-
ton House, an impossibility of getting near the pictures
on the part of nine-tenths of the visitors, and a resolve
by most of them that if they want to see anything
they must come on a quieter day. Still, there they have
been; and, on being asked if they have " done " the
Academy, can safely answer affirmatively.
The Bricklayer's Arms has not long survived the
fate of the Tabard. Both for centuries were famous
inns in the borough of Southwark, on the Surrey side
of the river—one of those comfortable hostelries so
well appreciated in the old coaching days, when,
as the vehicle drove into the courtyard, the travel-
lers could almost step from the roof on to a
gallery running round the four sides of the interior,
and at once into a snug bedroom. The Tabard,
after having been in existence 600 years, disappeared
in 1873; and now the "Bricklayers' Arms," with a
history even more celebrated, is doomed to pass away
after giving its name to a bustling railway station on
one of the suburban lines. It was a great hotel as far
back as the reign of Edward 111., and there the
French Knights put up when they came.to challenge
the English at the tournament held on the first five
days of May 1362, in the then plain of Smithfield.
Here Anne of Cleves, one of the wives of Henry
VIII., was lodged pending the decision of the
king whether from a study of her likeness
he should wed her or not. Admiral Blake
made it his quarters when having defeated the
Dutch fleet he returned to London in triumph.
Lord Hood, after his victory over the French, and
Nelson after the Battle of the Nile, made the Brick-
layers' Arms their first resting place upon their
arrival in England. With all its memories it will now
however pass away, like so many other historic bits of
Old London—another sacrifice to the inevitable,
another victim to the utilitarian tendencies of a pro-
gressive age:

Various have been the centenary celebrations of
the past twenty or five-and-twenty years. A very
remarkable one was that to the memory of Handel
in 1859, at the Crystal Palace, and which was so
successful that every third year since there
has been a grand musical festival in the great
glass building at Sydenham, at which the best
vocal and instrumental talent in the kingdom is
represented. Then there was the Shakespeare Ter-
centenary irt April, 1864, and others since in the
way of centenary celebrations of varied interest
and importance. But one of very great interest in-
deed will be commemorated this year—namely, the
hundredth anniversary of the establishment of
Sunday Schools. By common consent the name of
,Robert Raikes is associated with this great and
beneficent movement, the extent of which may be
estimated from the fact that this year the Sunday School
Union alone have the names of more than a million
children upon their books. Upon the principle, "Cast
thy bread upon the waters, and it shall be found after
many days," it is obviously impossible; to estimate at
the time the incalculable amount of good which arises
from!the teaching in our,Sunday Schools. But those
who have experienced it and have gone out into the
world often amid the buoy scenes of life have their
memories carried far back to the days when amid the
sounds of the sabbatb chimes they listened to the
instructions of those who without fee or reward, and
in the face of discouragementsand disappointments,
sought to inculcate those lessons so calculated to
make the recipients lead honourable, true, and useful
lives.

Calamities at sea are a penalty to be paid by
Great Britain for her tharitiini: suriremacy. For
three weeks. has thd anxibty. rlNspecting the fate
of the training ship Atlanta been an absorbing
national topic; and contemporaneously with it
the Board of Trade has ,presented, to Parliament a
return of casua,kies at sea. The ,tsle which it tells
for tvrelve months is of a startling charaeter, and
fully enables the reader to construct a vivid picture
of this aspect of the calamities of commerce. The
Yearly sacrifice- to the sea is the largest that we are
caned upon to make to any kind of. accident. The
win*er of gves lost& cs, near the
.Tuats of the
total
United Kingdom lasi year was 2,64; and of these '
1,905 belonged to the crews, and only, 159 were pair
sengers on the 343 wrecked vessels. Large as this
number is, it contrasts favourably with the rosses

of former years, showing indeed a diminution of
one-third as compared with the figures of 1877.
The chief source of loss to British shipping is the
British coast itself. The line of wrecks lies thick and
close all round our islands. The German Ocean, the
English Channel, and the Irish Sea, are marked upon
the wreck chart with many an indication showing the
disappearance of a gallant ship before the combined
action of the winds and the waves.

In a climate where f`:e weather is of so much con-
sequence, and the topic of such constant conversation,
it would be a matter of some interest to know thel
reason of the cold wave of temperature which always
passes over the land at the end of April and the be-
ginning of May. It cannot be a mere accident, for it
has been noticed year after year; and twelve months
ago the opening of May was so cold that on the Bth
there was a very substantial fall of snow. The middle
of April is usually warm, showery, and genial; vege-
tation suddenly springs forth into new life; but as
the month wanes away, and May approaches, the
wind veers to the east, and although the sun may
be shining brightly, the sky has a steel-cold look
about it suggestive of the low temperature which
prevails during the frosty nights and plays
havoc with the buds and blossoms. Cannot
the meteorologists enlighten the people upon this
point? As to May-day in London, it was bright and
cheerful; and there was a warmth in the atmosphere
agreeably contrasting with the cold weather which
had seen out the end of April. Taking the spring as
far as it has gone, there can be no question that it has
a more inviting look than it has possessed for some
years. Even in gardens close to London the dense
snow of plum and cherry blossoms is a thing of light
and beauty; and the mingled red and white of the
apple bloom holds out a promise of a crop of some of
the kindly fruits of the earth such as has not been
fulfilled for a long time.