The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-29 00:00:00

Qur gado Cortespodent.

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

The dread disaster in Spitalfields, where seven-
teen unfortunate persons, stricken by panic,
rushed headlong from an entertainment into
death, has aroused very general sympathy. It
has aflorded another • ustration of how utterly
unmanageable is a crowd which is filled with
fear; and, seeing the number of cro ;yds that
assemble nightly in some building or other, the
wonder is that such panics are not more
numerous. One single person foolish enough, or
wicked enough, to raise an alarm of fire, suffices
so to stir the pulses of fear as to cause a rush to
the doors. What the consequences of that rush
must be are too well known. It seams useless to
repeat that, even if the alarm of fire were well
founded, greater safety would consist in quietly
leaving the building than in flying pell-mell to
the stairs and blocking all the ways of exit. Pre-
sence of mind is a virtue it is easy to preach, but
difficult to practice. Everybody knows what
ought to be done at such times, and most people
forget what ought to be done when such times
arrive; and the consequence is panic after panic,
attended by injury to life and limb, and, when
each is past, a general regret that people learn
no better, however much they may be taught.
The hope may be indulged that this latest warn-
ing may have good effect, but so many have
occurred without appearing to teach the neces-
sary lesson that the hope is only a faint one.

It must have been noted by all who read
accounts of the disaster that every one of those
killed bore a Hebrew or German-Jewish name.
The district, in fact, is inhabited almost entirely
by German Jews, who carry on a very extensive
industry in the manufacture and disposal of boots
and clothes. Time was when Spitalfields was the
home of the English silkindustry ; it having been
settled upon by those Huguenots who were
driven out of France a couple of centuries ago by
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, a stroke of
state policy which did lasting injury to the
manufacturing power of France, and gave
England a new and prosperous industry. But,
in process of time, Spitalfields weaving
became practically extinct; and the place
of the descendants of the Huguenots was taken
by the German Jews who now fill the district.
This is one of the curious instances of the migra-
tions of trade, of which London can furnish several;
and it is an instance alsorof how certain districts
of our metropolis are almost wholly given over
to foreigners. At the trial last spring of an
election petition affecting the representation of
one of the metropolitan constituencies, vote
after vote was struck off the roll of the qualified
because of its possessor not having become a
naturalised Englishman. In that case, the
foreigners were mainly Hanoverian; and a very
interesting question of law was raised by the
fact that some of them, although never having
been naturalised, claimed to be English citizens
because they were born in Hanover before 1837,
the year when the crowns of England and
Hanover were disunited, owing to the Salle Law
preventing a woman from wearing the latter.
In the East-end of London, in fact, could be
found with very little investigation a number of
foreign settlements, in which, though our laws
have to be respected, our language is but little
known.

There is always something melancholy in the
spectacle of the breaking-up of a favourite insti-
tution ; and many visitors to the series of exhibi-
tions held during the last four summers at South
Kensington must have felt a little sadness at
reading of the sale of some of the pleasantest
portions of the buildings which had there de-
lighted them. No one who witnessed either of
the three last exhibitions is likely to have for-
gotten the "old London street ;" and it will be
almost with a pang that they will learn that it
has been "knocked down" by the auctioneer's
hammer to some speculative purchaser at some-
thing like one-hundredth of its original cost.
When one wandered through that counterfeit ,
presentment of a medimval thoroughfare, it '
looked so solid and so real that it will be a
surprise to many to learn that it was fixed
together from a number of blocks, which
could be taken to pieces "for the convenience
of purchasers." As for the relics of the
Colonial and Indian Exhibition it is gratifying
to note that most of them were secured for
provincial exhibitions, which are to be held in
the immediate future, some going to Manchester
and some to Glasgow. The dismantling process
has been so thorough, that those who best re-
member the exhibition as it looked when it
closed, would scarcely recognise in the deserted
sheds which now surround the Horticultural
Gardens, the brilliant place in which so many
thousands spent such pleasant hours so short a
time ago.
It would have seemed almost an impossibility
to improve upon the locomotives which carry our
express trains from London up and down the
country; but engineering science is far from at
a standstill, and alterations in the direction of
accelerating the speed continue to be made. The
finest engine of its kind yet constructed appears
to be that which has just been put on the North-
Eastern system for the purpose of running the
Scotch express between Newcastle and York; _
and when it is mentioned that on the first regular
trip a speed of sixty-nine miles an hour was
easily, obtained with the ordinary train,
it will be seen what a marvellous piece
of workmanship has here been perfected.
Astounding as this rate of steam will seem, a
higher has sometimes been obtained over a short
distance and under favourable conditions; but a
sustained speed of 69 miles an hour over such a
distance as that between Newcastle and York is
probably unprecedented. The old and some-
what natural prejudice against very fast trains is
dying away, for it is now recognised that there
is no more danger in an express than in a slow
train; and our remarkable immunity from rail-
way accidents, despite the ever-growing speed
and the ever-growing number of our trains, is
proof positive that the danger of disaster from
either is but a remote one. Figures will prove
that there is more danger in crossing a crowded
thoroughfare than in travelling from London to
Scotland by the fastest express; and as long as
this shall continue to be the case the public will
watch all improvements in our locomotive
engines, not with fear, but with approbation.
A strong interest is always felt in what are
known as "personal details," and the success
which has attended such works as the Greville,
or Malmesbury Memoirs on the Hayward corres-
pondence, is largely due to this cause. "No man
is a hero to his valet," is an old and not alto-
gether true saying, for the public likes to see the
great man in deshabille, and they do not love him
the less because of it. This kind of interest ex-
tends in various directions, and such a bundle of
facts as has recently been compiled with regard
to the ages of our most noteworthy men, in one
fashion of ministering to it. It is interesting
to the politician, for instance, to know that
whereas the oldest member of the Privy Council
is Lord Eversley (formerly, as Mr. Shaw-Leferve,
Speaker of the House of Commons), who is 99,
the youngest is the Duke of Portland, whose age,
29, presents those figures exactly reversed. The
range of age in the Cabinet also is indicated by
the fact that the oldest member is Lord Cranbrook,
who is 72, and the youngest,Mr. Arthur Balfour,
who is 38. If we go right through the list of
our greatest men in Church and State, we shall
find a similar lapse of age from oldest to
youngest; and the details thus afforded, while
comforting the older among us by indicating that
staid wisdom is far from at a discount in the
councils of the State, encourage the younger by
showing that cultivated and intelligent youth
has a fair field open for its exertions.
Although, owing to the Ministerial crisis, the
opening of Parliament was postponed a fortnight
beyond the time originally fixed, the date was
still several days earlier than that of the average
commencement of the session. Confirmed
politicians will rejoice that the doors of St.
Stephen's are once more thrown wide apart, and
they will find great comfort in the perusal of the
many columns of debate which will now
be appearing- in the newspapers. The eager
avidity with which these are read at the
commencement of the seasionscontrasts, however,
very strongly with the almost indifference with
which they are treated at the end. Even the
most hardened partisan becomes surfeited with
good things—that is if reports of Parliamentary
debates can be called by such a pleasant title--
and what will excite them at period when they
have been deprived of their political food for
some months, will have the most languid effect
when they have had debate after debate piled
upon them for half a year. But the fact that so
ninny among us should continue to exhibit such
kee:n interest in public affairs year after year is
a good thing for the State. The enthusiastic
may often be a bore to the more quiet-going
among his friends, but if it were not for his ex-
istence, national affairs would be in danger of
falling into the hands of a bureaucrany, which
wonld be essentially opposed to the root idea of
a free people. And, therefore, although many
may be satisfied to peruse the summaries rather
than the full reports of the Parliamentary debates,
theF ought not to be too hard upon those who
find in the latter their choicest mental pabulum.

Statements continue to COMA from all parts of
Europe of preparations for war. In this country
the army is being furnished with a new rifle, in
that a more destructive shell than previously
known is being made; in this the army is being
thoroughly overhauled and re-organised, in that
the fortifications are being put in complete order
to provide against any surprise. It is little
wonder when such reports are being telegraphed
to us daily from nearly every European capital,
that the hearts of those among us who are lovers
of peace should be ready to sink. Wars and
rumours of war will, we know, continue, but we
may be permitted the wish to avoid either as
long as we can. With Europe presenting the
appearance of a vast armed camp, and with the
rumblings of coming strife resounding daily, it
is natural that there should be many who pro-
phesy that when spring has come the peace will
be broken. Prophets of evil are no more to be
trusted—unless the evidence in their favour is
very strong—than prophets of smooth things;
but the former just now, it must be admitted,
have matters very much their own way. The
present critical condition of affairs may all end
in smoke, but that may be battle smoke. It is,
therefore, with apprehension that every peace-
lover looks forward to the spring. The peace
may be kept, but the prospect never seemed
more alarming than. it does to-day. A. F. R.