The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-08 00:00:00

th lit Fonbott Corrtspoubent.

• [We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

When Parliament is opened by Royal Commission
the ceremony is the strongest possible contrast to, the
gorgeous ceremonial which is witnessed when her
Majesty inaugurates the sittings of the legislature in
person. In the earlier part of her reign the Quet-n
almost invariably opened her Parliament and read her
own Speech. But the Sovereign has now been upon
the throne nearly five-and-forty years, and not un-
naturally, in the eventide of life, cares not so much
for State trappings and display as when she assumed
the Crown and the Sceptre in 1837. During that time
a generation and a half have passed away. Children
have grown into manhood and have become grey, and
the occupant of every other throne in Europe has been
changed. It is now twenty years since, at the
opening of the Session of 1861, that the Queen readher
speech for the last time; for, from the death of the
Prince Consort, in the December following, it has
always been read by the Lord Chancellor, even when
Her Majesty has been esent. Still, the very fact of
the Sovereign being theie invests the proceedings with
every surrounding of splendour and of dignity. In
the gloom of a winter morning a great multitude lines
the way from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of
Parliament; the eight cream-coloured horses are once
more brought out for the admiration of the assembled
thousands—and admired they are, as they are led with
a groom at the head of each at a walking pace through
the throng; the bells of the west-end churches fling out
many a merry peal upon the leaden air; and the
booming of the Royal salutes is heard far and wide
ever the metropolis. The vehicular traffic is diverted
into the western by-ways of the capital; the crowds
sheer, both on the monarch going and returning; and
a vast proportion of them, having seen the Queen, go
away with the impression that the day is one well
worthy of remembrance.
Far othezwise is it when Parliament is opened by
Royal Oommission. There are then no gA.;nrf
no bells, no State procession, no gorgeous equipages,
no firing of cannon, and no cheering to make the
street echoes ring. There is no rush to the bar of the
House of Lords on the part of members of the House
of Commons, as invariably happens when her Majesty
is present. At two o'clock the Royal Commissioners
take their seats upon the bench in front of the Throne,
dressed in a costume which carries the mind back to
the middle ages. They are generally five in number
—two on either side of the Lord Chancellor. The
first business is the reading of the commission appoint-
ing the peers ranged on the bench, the representatives
of the Sovereign cn this august occasion, and as the
name of each is mentioned by the clerk, the peer so
named lifts his hat in token of recognition. Then the
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod is despatched to
summon the Commons to hear her Majesty's message
read; and herewith is connected an interesting story
showing the punctilio which is associated with the pro-
ceedings of our public assemblies. Not long ago it
was the custom of Black Rod to deliver his message in
Vnese words :—" Mr. Speaker, the Lords Commissioners
appointed by her Majesty require the immediate
attendance of this honourable House in the House of
Peers." Attention was called in the Commons to the
Aua of the word "require" as one which should not be
addressed to the representatives of the sovereign people
of England; and ever since the word "desire" has
been substituted.

The speech is read by the Lord Chancellor in the
presence of not more than a score of peers, a few
ladies, and not many members of the House of Com-
mons. The Lords adjourn to meet again at five o'clock,
and the Commons at four. In the last mentioned as-
sembly the Royal speech is again read bythe Speaker
when he takes the chair. The usual custom has
been followed on the present occasion of
selecting a county member to move the Address to
the Crown in answer to the Royal speech, and the
representative of a city or borou; hto second it. This
is but an echo of the Royal speech; and paragraph
by raragraph paraphrases it, humbly thanking her
11ajesty for the information which it contains. An
amendment to the address signifies, to a greater or
less extent, a want of confidence in the Administra-
tion. Sometimes this is moved by way of originating a
debate on some important question of public policy;
and although occasionally pressed to a division, this
mode of proceeding has not now, for more than
twenty years, resulted in the break-up of one Govern-
jnt the formation of another.

The Revenue Returns for the quarter of the year
ending on the 31st December showed that the old
year left us with far better financial prospects than it
found us. There WAS an increase in the receipts upon
the twelve months and also upon the quarter, as com-
pared with the corresponding r eriods of 179; while
for the first nine months of the financial year the im-
provement was even more marked. The cloud which
so long hung over the commerce and industry of the
country is passing away; and the monthly trade re-
turns speak of an expansion of activity most welcome
after the paralysis of the past few years. A
gratifying fact is also the decrease of pauperism in
England and Wales which was witnessed in 1880.
Cheap bread materially lightens the lot of the humbler
classes, and keeps those who are on the verge of desti-
tution from slidiug into an abyss from which such
numbers find it se difficult to return.

Every student of political history must have noted
the change which New Year's Day now presents from
that of twenty years ago. The date when so many
good wishes are exchanged was looked forward to with
dread by sovereigns and statesmen all over Europe.
That was in the days of the French Empire, and in
the time of its meridian of splendour and prosperity.
A word, a nod, a frown, from the master of legions,
sant down the stocks in every capital of Europe, and
at one time, in a single day the extent of the depre-
ciation was estimated at a hundred millions sterling.
That was the memorable day in January, 1859, when
a few words to the Austrian ambassador presaged the
war of the following summer, in which the first steps
were taken towards the unification of Italy. Singularly
enough, the two sovereigns who, in June, 1859, rode
in triumph through the streets of Milan, died upon
the same day within five years of each other—the
Emperor Napoleon on the 9th of January, 1873, and
King Victor Emmanuel on the 9th of January, 1878.
The monarch whose defeated armies were the moving
cause of that triumphal progress—the Emperor of
Austria—is still upon the throne of his ancestors.

Opportunely enough, a summary of the work of the
Royal Lifeboat Institution for 1880 appeared at the
end of the year, and a very eloquent though unpretend-
ing record it is of the labours of this valuable, abeit
unostentatious -organization. Here is a case in which,
with no Government assistance, and depending entirely
on voluntary contributions, a society with its head-
quarters in a bye-street off the Strand, has during its
existence contributed to the saving of 27,000 lives—
equal to the population of many a flourishing city send-
ing two members to the House of Commons. Its lifeboats
are now upon every coast of the United Kingdom,
ready at the signals of distress sent in from the
stormy sea to go out into the deep, and to rescue from
destruction those whose lot compels them to do
business in the great waters. The British nation
looks with pride upon the latest addition to its navy—
the Inflexible, which could fight a whole foreign
navy were the circumstance necessary. But none the
less essential is the beneficent work of the Lifeboat
Institution, which may truly be described as one of
the noblest of our organisations on a voluntary basis.
It acts upon the principle that it is better to save life
than to destroy.
The works of what are called the Old Masters in the
National Gallery have their admirers in those who
love to gaze on the products of the genius which shone
through the gloom of centuries ago. Yet when we
look at the results of the work of our own artiste, who
live in our time, and whom we know to be men
fashioned like unto ourselves, it is doubtful whether
the critics of succeeding ages will not hold the works
of our painters, in estimation similar to that in which
we regard the efforts of those Old Masters which adorn
the. galleries of the national colleetion in Trafalgar.
square. Additions are constantly loeing made to our
storehouses of modern art. One of the most prominent
of these is the Grosvenor Gallery, which has rapidly
risen in the public favour. The winter exhibition, which
has opened with the arrival of the new year, has two
main features—the purely decorative designs of modern
English artists, and the water-colours of the French
school. These exhibitions help to pass the dreary
months in London pleasantly away for those with
artistic tastes. Four months later, under the bright
sunshine of May, the Royal Academy will again open,
anal will reveal the newest treasures of English art to
an especton
,public.
The men changes in the psrsonne/ of the govern-
ment sugg-st a word or two en the mode of appoint-
ment, ehcwing the distinction between s Crown Mies
and one whioh is outside that description. By an
Act of Pa iiament passed in the reign of Queen Anne,
when a me nber of the House of Commons takes
a post un ter the Crown, he vacates his seat in that
assembly. If his constituem.s choose to re-elect him,
well gr,t,d ; if not, his office goes to a member who
can retain his seq.!: --Parliamentary support being an
indispensabla condition its being held. But there
are a laige number of posts in every Government
which are n-,t conferred technically by the Crown, but
by the hea 's of the respective departments; and two
illustxations of this have very recently occurred. The
Secretary to the Admiralty in the present Administra-
tion is the spokesman and representative of that great
department in the People's Chamber, inasmuch as the
Firet Lord ill s ; he ham to uplain and to defend

the naval estimates, and generally to answer for her
Majesty's Navy in the assembly which votes the sup-
plies for it. Yet this important post is not a Crown
office; nor are the Parliamentary and Financial
Secretaries to the Treasury, nor the Under-Secretaries
of the Home, Foreign, Colonial, War, and Indian de-
partments. Like the Secretary to the Admiralty, the
Under-Secretaries for Foreign Affairs and the Colonies
represent these vast interests in the House of Com-
mons, the Secretaries of State being in the Lords.
Still, the theory is that an Under-Secretaryship is not
a Crown office, and that nominally it is filled up by
the Secretary of State.
This is the season of Pantomime, and an enormous
outlay upon its production is represented in most of
the London theatres—Drury Lane and Covent Garden
more particularly. If it cannot he affirmed that panto-
mimes have increased in mirthfulness and vivacity since
the days when, as it is said, the very sight of Grimaldi
was prescribed as a specific against the spleen,
it is certainly more elaborate and proportionately
more costly. Clown and Pantaloon, Harlequin and
Columbine, with the ever active sprites, retain all
their old popularity at Christmas time, and delight
the vision of the young more especially, no less than
they were accustomed to do ages ago. The growth
of a partiality for the spectacular in association with
the usual amount of fun and jollity is a characteristic
of modern pantomine, which is well worthy of atten-
tion. Thoroughly English, too, are the sports of the
hippodrome, which form no inconsiderable proportion
of this year's entertainments.