The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-03-12 00:00:00

.•:1 ur To6on torrtspouttnt.

We deem it right to state that we do not at all time'
loenAify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

It is so seldom that an English Minister has
to resign office because of a breaking-down in
health that the retirement of Sir Michael Hicks-
Beach from the Chief-Secretaryship for Ireland
anon that ground is the more noteworthy, and
has been the more generally regretted. One of
the best features of English political life—andit
is one which in some countries is remarkably
absent—is that political opponents are not per-
sonal enemies; and the sturdiest antagonists of
s _Sir Michael Hicks-Beach in the Parliamentary
eita have agreed with his staunchest friends
in deploring that failing eyesight-has temporarily
deprived the State of an honourable servant. Of
allthe -calamities which_ impress the popular
imagination that of blindness actual or impend-
ing, is the most striking. The sightless Milton,
labouring as Latin secretary to the Protectorate,
his always been a marked figure, in our political
history- and no modern statesman's career has
sunk more deeply into tlin hearts of the people
than that of the late Mr. Fawcett, who fought
against the disabilities entailed by his blindness
with a pluck and determination which affected
all who watched his progress through life. It
will be hoped by all men who value the presence
of honourable men in public affairs, whatever
their opinions upon the questions of the hour,
that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach will be spared the
extremity of affliation which befel Milton
and Fawcett; and that a timely rest from
active work, with the judicious treatment which
is at our command to-day—and
_which, could
Milton have commanded it, would in all human
probability have saved his sight —will bring
about such an improvement as will enable him
to once more take the place in public life he has
earned by long and honourable endeavours.
Those whose duty it is to study blue books
and parliamentary papers have often declared
that. there is far more of interest to be extracted
-.ram them than the traditional belief in their
essential dryness would lead men to think. The
interest of some of them is of a distinctly painful
kind, and this can certainly be said of one—or
rather of two on the same subject—issued a few
days since. It appears that last summer a special
committee was appointed by the Home Office to
report on the accommodation in court-houses
and other places for prisoners awaiting trial- at
assizes and sessions ; and it is the report of that
committee and the blue book which contains the
main facts upon which it is based that have
caused a sensation in the public mind not often
created by a couple of parliamentary papers. For
the report, signed by a judge, an ex-Lord Mayor,
the Chairman of the Prison Commissioners, and
a convict prison visitor sets forth reasons for con-
sidering that "many court-houses are as bad as
they well can be. It is not too much to say of
some that in them nearly every requisite of
humanity, and even of common decency, is
wanting; and scenes may still take place which
it might reasonably have been hoped belonged
to 50 or 100 years ago." This is a very severe
condemnation of the existing system, the more
especially as it comes from those who have given
their lives to the study and practice of the law;
and country and town are alike affected by it.
London, as well as some of our smallest boroughs,
come in for censure. The accommodation pro-
vided for untried prisoners at the Central
Criminal Court, though net as scandalously
inadequate as in some places, is far from what
ought to be expected in the chief court of the
kingdom; and the details as to some of the local
courts are too shocking for quotation. The
worst feature of all is that these details apply to
persons who in the eye of the law are free from
stain, for it is our boast that in England all men
are held to be innocent until they are proved to
be guilty. And it may be taken for granted that
now public attention has been called so strik-
inely to the present condition of things it will
Dot long remain unaltered.
Another parliamentary paper of the last few
days, issued annually, but which is so voluminous
as to find few purchasers, and fewer readers, is
that which contains the Civil Service Estimates;
and this also includes many more points of
interest than would be generally thought; for
it covers every department of our English official
life which is not connected with either army or
navy, and in the multitude of details are some
which are very striking. One page, for instance,
contains a vote for the maintenance of or attend-
ance upon certain cemeteries in foreign parts in
which are buried some of England's illustrious
dead. The consolidated cemetery on Cathcart's
Hill, in the Crimea; ;_s one of these; and the
mere mentisn of the name will bring to many a
- memory painful recollections of the stubborn
fights of now. more.than thirty years ago. To
conie to nearer, times, the sanguinary field. of
'lsardhlwana, where by a surprise the Zulus
slaughtered hundreds of brave Englishmen, is re-
called by the entry of a small amount as wages
for the care-:taker there; and so on, line by line
through the vote; Every ent:y recalls some
'glorious or painful passage in recent history, and
he must be unemotional indeed who does not
'feel touched as he reads the page. And yet this
ja only one page out of many which the diligent
- etudent of bile-books could name as full of
, interest to us all.
•:* Fatal accidents with revolvers are-becoming so
•
common, that it is little wonder that a demand
is again being raised for some legal intervention
as to their sale and use. These deadly weapons
are now so cheap, that they are the common toys
of many- lads, who do not appear to be aware of
the danger which the carrying of them involves;
and as a youth is always desirous of showing off
a new possession, whether it be the harmless
necessary watch or the deadly pistol, this latter
is often exhibited to the peril of the bystanders.
is only natural, mere possession does not
satisfy: there must be practice as well. And as
in London and other large towns, there is no
opportani ty for pra,ctice in the open, as there might
,be in the country, back gardens are often
wade scenes of peril by the endeavours of lads
• who do not always succeed in hitting the mark
they have set up against the wall. It is not long
since a lady sitting at the window of herdrawing-
room in suburban Lonclon,.was shot through the
head by the stray discharge of a youth's revolver
in an adjoining garden; and if the total of such
fatalities could be obtained, it would be a strik-
ing testimony in favour of further legislation.
But, pending parliamentary action, parents have
. a duty in this matter which they ought not to
ignore; and that is to prohibit their sons from
makins_a plaything of a deadly weapon. A revolver
can of no poisibi e use to any English lad, while it
is a source of peril to all around him, and there-
fore, lie ought to be deprived of it without
delay:
,Thickingham.Palace was the scene of an un-
usually crowded and brilliant gathering on the
occasion of the first Drawing-Room of the
season. This was not only because the Queen
herself was to receive, but in consequence
of many. 'tidies being loyally anxious to be
among those_ present at the earliest' Drawing
. Room of _ the Jubilee year. The Court
officials Could not recollect any such throng •in
ifccpt.tinieS, and-the'number of debutantes was
unusually, lasge. The scene from the gates of
the Pa:ace right .down the 'Mall was very
striking. Despite the rawness of the afternoon,
a large crowd had assembled to see the occupants
of the long line of carriages. Many of those in
the crowd were present' for purely professional
sea:ions. 'Dickens, in "Our Mutual Friend,"
showed how even a doll's dressmaker courd learn
something from the spectacle of the finely-
dressed ladies who are about to pass before their
Quoin; and it is well known that many dress-
makers cstio rnini,ter to living folk make a point
of being in the Mall 6n Drawing-Room day to
'study those pilots which affect their calling.
There is also a considerable sprinkling of those
who have nothing particular wherewith to wile
away their time, and of these the number in
London is something astonishing. Altogether,
the crowd outside the gates of Buckingham
Pal.sce upon such an.occasion is a study in itself,
and repass the attention of the observer of
human life almost as much as the dresses of the
ladies who, all lappets and feathers, are about to
enter the charmed circle which has for its centre
the monarch of thee realms. •
Londoners are continually being promised an
improved form of cab, but -threatened men live
long, and the old " growlers " and hansoms con-
tinue to; hold their own. Hansoms are certainly
the most 6xpeditious method of getting about
London;' hut one cannot help being sorry at the
gradual- disappearance of the four-wheeler. It
is not a lovely vehicle at its best, but it has its
uses, and for some of these even the best-
appointed hansom provides no substitute. There
is a. substantial family flavour about it which
almost -overcomes the mustiness of the straw
with ,which it is often strewn, and the fustiness
of Vito cushions with which it is always fur-
nished, *.. It conveys three or four, or even five
persons, with their luggage thrown in, and that
ifs wore thann, hansom can do. That is a point
in its favour which has not always been recogs
pied as fully as it should have been. Th... 5
fortunate thing about it is that tl:e arlatia4b
cabmen and the most broken-kneed home always
teem attached to the fout.wheal cab, The pace
et /Nob Isi 114torned to trsovel might suit to

funeral, but is sadly too slow for these go-ahead
f-imes. And the consequence of the poorness of the
'ehicle and the slowness of its pace is that the '
growler" ,is gradually disappearing from the
I,ondon strets. The worst of it is that as yet
uotEinghas been provided viiiichcompletely fills
ts place ; and unless the coming.cab makes haste
-.o come, parties of three or four Will have an in-
_superable difficulty in finding a cheap and sta-
r ‘iently commodious vehicle to take them about
the town.

Since the Education Act has been generally
put in force there has not appeared the same
necessity for ragged schools in our great towns
,o there did in the days before the wastrels were
iooked after by Parliament. Many people, there-
fore, have somewhat rashly come to the conclusion,
;hat these meritorious institutions have disap-
peared; and a recent action of the Queen regard-
tug them will be to such persons a surprise. It
seems that, on behalf of the Ragged School
Union, it was suggested to her Majesty that a
.ard bearing her lithographed signature would be
agreeable prize to those successful in the ragged
schools; and the Queen, at once assenting, signed
the rough copy of the card that had been sub-
mitted to her and asked for the names of the schools,
with the number of prizes awarded in each. It is
now thought that her Majesty would regard it
as a pleasing recognition of her kind considera-
tion, if as many as possible of the fifty thousand
children involved with the teachers of the local
schools, signed an address of congratulation on
the occasion of the Jubilee, the sheets of signa-
tures to be bound in a volume, suitably inscribed,
for presentation to the Queen. There can be
little doubt that her Majesty will look upon such
a testimony of respect and regard with as much
pleasure as upon many a more costly gift. It
will link the highest with the lowest in a simple
and appropriate fashion, and the gift will be
none the less agreeable to her Majesty because
it is certain to stimulate public interest in the
ragged schools, a work in which the Queen has
long shown her interest by consenting to be its
patron. A. F. R.