The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-08 00:00:00

our fogon Corrtspatnt.
• [We deem it right to state that we do not at sll tiMel
4antll7 ourselves with our Correspondent's opinioca]

" Listen ! what is that ?" An exclamation of this
;rind may often be heard in the Central Hall of the
Efouses of Parliament, from which branch off right
and left the corridors leading to the House of Lords
upon the one hand, and to the House of Commons on
the other. You listen, as directed, and you hear the
tingling of innumerable little bells in every part of
the vast building. They have all given tongue at the
same instant, the sounds are precisely alike everywhere,
and there is no variation in the melody whatever. In
ibrary, smoking-room, and lobby; in the dining-hall,
in the refreshment department, and in comnaittee-room,
the music of the bells breaks forth, and summons
honourable members from all those different places in
the structure which tend to make up the incidents of
Parliamentary existence. The jangle goes on for three
minutes, and then ceases simultaneously, and as sud-
denly as it began. What does it mean, you ask? Well,
the interpretation is that the Commons of England
In Parliament assembled, are. preparing for a divi-
sion, and these hells are set to work to warn
the members to be ready for the approaching
Wel of strength. Sorue of them, you may easily see,
are not best pleased at the interruption. They are in
the middle, perhaps, of a capital cigar, or are obliged
to run away from the whitebait and roast lamb which
has just been served up with such excellent taste in
the dining-hall. The party whips are, however, in.
exorable, and care very little whether fish or joints
grow cold so long as they can gather their men together
to battle. If Committees are sitting when the division
bells ring, it all depends upon the subject whether
they suspend their sittings and go down into the House
to vote. If it be only a Turnpike Acts Continuance
Bill, they take no notice of it; but let it be an eccle-
siastical ar a political question, and they scent the
sound of the conflict afar off. They rise from their
seats and hurry down the staircase, joining their re-
spective parties in the Chamber. The bells, which
are both set in motion and stopped by electricity,
having ceased, and all the members being assembled
in the House, the 'doors are locked, and the question upon
which the division takes place is put by the Speaker.
"Ayes to the right; noes to the left ! " exclaims the
right hon. gentleman, naming at the same time the
tellers upon either side. The tellers are two gentle-
men named by each party to count the votes; and as
honourable members are passing through the lobby,
you can hear the voices of the tellers, standing one on
each side of the doorway, numbering their supporters,
"one, two, three," and so on. The tellers in the
Lower House are not included in the number of the
recorded votes. For instance, if the supporters of a
• motion, as counted, are 108, they are really comprising
the tellers, 110. In the Lords, however, the practice
Is. different. There the tellers add their own names
Vs the others, and are officially reckoned accordingly.
It is difficult to say which of the two customs is the
more preferable, but practically it makes little dif-
ference in the result. I merely mention it to show
one of the contrasts between the modes of procedure
In two august assemblies.
The Alexandra Palace opening ceremonial on Satur-
day was sadly marred by the weather. True, moisture
was much wanted after the parching winds of the
present spring, but I srspect that the directors of this
undertaking, greatly as they appreciated the addi-
tional verdure of their grounds, consequent upon the
rain, would rather it had stayed away just then, and
come on another day. In such a downpour, the Lord
Mayor and Sheriffs, in their splendid State carriages.
the trumpeters and the City Marshal, in their gorgeous
liveries, scarcely looked their best. It is not often
that these high functionaries appear officially so far
beyond the boundaries of the City, and had the
weather been favourable, the impressive nature of the
spectacle would have been materially enhanced. The
gathering was a brilliant and representative one, but I
fear that only a comparatively small proportion were
philosophers enough to argue that although the rain
robbed the day of its cheerfulness, it was doing an im-
mouse amount of good. The Alexandra Palace has
thus far been followed by misfortunes, but it has the
best wishes of all who believe in supplying the people
with healthful and innocent recreation.
The late fatal balloon ascent has resulted in a host
of suggestions for preserving life miles above the
earth; and in France as well as in Belgium men of
science are announcing apparatus of various kinds for
enabling men to breathe at high altitudes. On the
other hand there is now exhibiting in this country a
respirator destined to fulfil the far more important
duty of saving life at great depths beneath the sea.
It has lately been tried with much success in many
cases of wreck raising, and the directors of the
Alexandra Palace have thought so highly of the in-
vention as to construct for its special exhibition a
house in the most accessible part of their extensive
grounds. Here a tank is fitted up with glass windows,
through which spectators can see how long and at
what little inconvenience a diver can actively work
under water. The diving dress is arranged on very
much the same plan as that adopted in protecting
men against the effects of fire; and one of the pecu-
liarities of the apparatus is that by means of it a con.
versation can be carried on between the submarine
worker and those who are above the sea.
The dominions of the Queen have been described as
so extensive that the sun never sets upon them, and it
Is certain that taking area and population together,
the British empire far exceeds that of any other on
the face of the earth. While in population we are
exceeded by China, the area of that busy land is
thirteen hundred thousand square miles, while the
extent of Queen Victoria's possessions is represented by
eight millions and a half. Russia is smaller by 750,000
aquare miles, Our Indian territory, with an area not
much larger than that of China, is peopled by
240,000,000 human beings; while North America,
which is as big again, contains not many more inhabi-
tants than London. Australia has a human being to
every square mile—two millions. That is to say, it is
at least twelve times the size of Great Britain and Ire-
land, and has. not yet two-thirds of the population of
the British capital.
Gray's Elegy has been read and committed to me-
mory by most of us ; and we all know how, in speaking
of the occupants of a country churchyard, he described
them as having lived plain and simple lives—
" Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way,"
The churchyard, however, is an institution which is
becoming more and more confined to the rural dee.
tricts ; every town of any importance now having its
cemetery just away from its boundaries. These are in
many cases the pride and ornament of the place. The
sombre yew is not so often planted there as bright
and cheerful-looking flowers, which are attended
to by the survivors, who have no other means of
expressing their love and respect for the silent ones
who have gone before them. Complaints are often
made that the flowers in our cemeteries are carried off
by visitors, who by no means belong to the genus
"rough," but are respectable people. The removal of
these flowers is not unfreqnently an act of thoughtless-
ness; but it is scarcely creditable that what has been
tended by such affectionate care should be ruthlessly
removed by strangers. Foreigners often declare that
we are a hard and unsympathetic race; and they point
to their own cemeteries to show that if we possess
manliness and freedom, they have at all events, a
little real sentiment in them. The cemeteries of Pere
Is Chaise and Mont Parnasse, a few miles from Paris,
are always open, and the tombs and monuments are
much more elaborate than anything in this country of
the same kind. The mmortelles hang in festoons from
the tops of the broken columns, and the handsome
Maltese crosses lie upon the tombstones until they
actually fall to pieces from the operation of the
weather. In Mont Parna.sse, some years ago, I saw
a little girl's doll laid upon her grave, and no one
would dream of taking it away. That would hardly
have been the case in any cemeteries on this side of the
Channel
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, which alway
opens on the first Monday in May, is productive of
sensations other than that of pleasure to those who
have come to criticise the paintings. Every year at
least two thousand pictures which have been sent in
have to be taken away again, either from want of
room,lor from other causes. There are many who de-
clare that, there is room for another row of pictures
above those which are now hung,land if this'be so hope
and fortune would came to some hundreds of artistr
who are now sent empty away. The exhibition takes
place in Burlington House, Piccadilly, hard by the
University of London, an institution which, consider-
ing that it is not yet half a century old, is in an exceed-
ingly flourishing condition. With Earl Granville for
its Chancellor, and Mr. Lowe for its representative in
Parliament, the London University has attained a
position which many an older competitor might envy.
Now that we are into May, it is fairly open to
observation that the month of flowers has, perhaps,
more associations than most months of the year. It is
laid to have received its name from Romulus, the
founder of Rome, and there is no doubt that the
ancient Romans used to go in procession to the Grotto
of Egeria on May-day. But May-day has not always
been a felicitous time. On the First of May, 1517,
the London apprentices, in celebrating the anniver-
sary, manifested extreme -violence against foreigners—
more especially the French. "The rioters were
headed," according to an ancient chronicler, "by one
Lincoln, who, with fifteen others, was hanged; and
400 more in their shirts, and bound with ropes, with
halters about their necks, were carried to West-
minster ; but they, crying ' Mercy 1 mercy!' were all