The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-08-21 00:00:00

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

It is now clear that Parliament will sit into Septem-
ber—an occurrence which does not happen once in a
generation. On the long-looked-for Twelfth, honour-
able members, instead of being upon the moors, were
debating the second reading of one of the measures
promised in the Royal message on the 20th May; and
the division showed that more than half the House
remained to take part in it. The discussion of some
of the estimates has been fixed for the last week in
the present month; and until all these are got through,
there can be no Appropriation Bill. When time does
not press, this measure generally occupies ten days to
get through both Houses of Parliament, as it is
competent for any question to be raised on the
second reading of a bill granting supplies to
the Crown ; but where no subjects of im-
portance remain to be discussed, it is quite
within the province of either House to suspend
its standing orders, so as to . get it through with all
possible speed. In the lobby the impression prevails
that the first week of September will see the close of
the first session of this Parliament, and this will make
the time of rising abput three weeks later than usual.
When the Legislature has not time fully to re-
consider an Act which has been placed upon the
statute-book for only a limited period, and looks
forward to having a better opportunity of doing so in
the ensuing session, it is scheduled in an Expiring
Laws Continuance Bill, which carries it on for another
twelve months. This is the position of the Ballot
Act at the present moment. It was passed in the
Session of 1872, and by a provision which was inserted
in the House of Lords, is to expire on the 31st December,
1880, unless Parliament shall otherwise direct. Since
it became law there have been two general elections,
and the experience of its working which has thus been
gained has led to some suggested improvements, but
these there is no time to consider in this short session.
So the expiring Laws Continuance Bill carries it on
until the 31st December, 1881, so as to give oppor-
tunity for its consideration next session. If no provi-
sion of this kind were made, the elections, after the
close of the year, would be upon the old principle of
public nomination and open voting. With the Ballot
Act twenty other laws are to be continued for twelve
months, in order to be dealt with next year. These
laws were passed at different dates, and for various
purposes, some going as far back as 1835, and others
coming down to a date so recent as 1878.

Of the numerous ways of spending a holiday, a very
favourite one with well-infosmed men is to make the
round of the Scientific Associations, which, adopting
the peripatetic principle of visiting the important towns
of the kingdom in succession, have done so much to
make science popular during the last half century.
The French Association, established a few years ago
on the model of our own Parliament of science, has
just held its annual gathering at Rheims, under the
presidency of M. Krantz, of Exhibition fame. The
British Association will this year meet under the chair-
manship of Professor Ramsay, the chief of the geo-
logical survey. The Jubilee gathering of this organisa-
tion will take place at York next year, and it will be
one of very great interest. Few of the ardent spirits
who assembled in that old cathedral city in 1831 will
be present at the celebration ; but the list of those
who have filled the presidential chair during those
fifty years is a noble and a distinguished one. The
American Association meets at Boston this year just
about the same time as our own; and there is the German
Association of Naturalists and Physicians, which meets
at Dantzic in the middle of September. This body in-
cludes twenty-three section, more than three times
as many as our own. The Germans are very good at
combining recreation with science; and every day some
entertainment or excursion is arranged (or the whole
concluding with one of those great social gatherings so
dear to the hearts of German students). A meeting
of much interest will be that of the International
Meteorological Committee appointed by the Con-
gress of Rome last year, and which is to open its first
meeting at Berne, on the 9th proximo.
Hitherto meteorological forecasts have been prepared
chiefly for the use of the maritime population; and I
although opinions have sometimes differed as to their
value, it is admitted by all that this science, which is
now in its infancy, will thoroughly repay development.
But there is another great body of the people to whom
those forecasts, could they be fully depended upon,
would be of much importance. These are the agricultur-
ists. The success or failure of a whole year of anxiety
and labour depends upon the weather ; and although
c paid not control the forces of nature, it
igLt enable the farmer to prepare for them. As the
,rro warning hoisted at a seaport indicates the
.L.nger of proceeding to sea, so might scientific infor-
mation, properly diffused, be of great use in the
agricultural districts. Therefore, one of the questions
to be discussed at Berne next month is, can at the pre-
sent moment meteorological central offices issue
weather forecasts for the use of agriculture with rea-
spnable prospects of utility; and if this question is
Aswered in the affirmative, how can the service be
organised as fully as possible? If forecasts are of any
value, there ought to be no difficultly in diffusing in-
formation which would be appreciated by such an
important section of the population as that repre-
sented by the British farmer.
Although the Royal Academy of Music is not so
well known as the Royal Aeademy of Art., it has
clone good service in encouraging a taste for a recrea-
tion which has been described in the most glowing
terms by our greatest poets, and whose value and im-
portance was recognised by the Legislature when the
Education Bill was before Parliament ten years ago.
Music was then, without hesitation, added to the list
(-,1 subjects taught in our Board Schools, with emin-
ently satisfactory results. A school is now about to
be established, under the patronage of the Corpora-
tion of London, and the control and management of
the Court of Common Council, for the purpose of
supplying musical education of a high class in the
city itself, which as is generally known, corn-
the area between London Bridge and
Temple Bar. It is to be called the Guildhall School
of Music, and its principal will he Mr. Weist
Hill. The way in which music is enjoyed be
all classes is seen upon every hand; even a
collection of strolling minstrels never fails to attract
a crowd; while the open-air ccncerts in our places of
public resort which are often given by performers bf
superior excellence, testify to the delight which is
universally experienced in the presence of so innocent
and ennobling an amusement.

The improvement in the weather which marked the
second week in August has wonderfully brightened the
prospects of the crops, and enable the agricultural
interest to look forward with much more cheerfulness
to the approach of harvest time. A month more of fine
weather wouldbe worth millions of money to the people
of this country. Of late years, singularly enough,
August, the harvest month, has been very broken in
its character, and that of 1879 seemed to reach a climax
of unfortunate seasons. But those who study the
Revenue Returns, as they are published week by week
in the London Gazette, will have noticed within the
past few months that as compared with the corre-
flponding period twelve months ago, there is now in.
ariably an increase, and it wants only a good harvest
to make that increase more perceptible. If the
farmer sees but a poor return for twelve months of
labour and anxiety, he has less money to spend with
the tradesmen of the town; and the tradesmen have
less to contribute to the income-tax and less to the
excise in the way of articles of luxury. It is true
that the failure of our harvest does not so materially
affect the interests of the entire community as it did
I efore the repeal of the Corn Laws; for any falling-
off in our own yield had to be supplemented by
foreign-grown grain, upon which a heavy import
duty was paid. Bat now the importation of foreign
corn is absolutely free, even the registration fee of
a shilling per quarter having been swept away eleven
years ago, so that a deficient harvest at home can at
once he counterbalanced by a good one in France or
the South of Russia without that corresponding;
increase in the price of bread which used to be wit-
nessed. At the same time all classes of the com-
munity are ever ready heartily to rejoice when a good
hafvest crowns the work of the farmer, and enables
him to earn the reward of his long and patient
industry.

The French files which have just been brought to a
elov at Cherbourg suggest some curious reflections.
Time was, twenty years ago, when the very name of
Cherbourg brought to the minds of the English people
visions of impending invasion and of war with a

professedly friendly Power. It was the Queen's visit
to Cherbourg in the autumn of 1858 which was really
the origin of the Volunteer movement, for less than
a year afterwards it was in the full tide of its activity.
Sir Theodore Martin has told us, in his Life of the
Prince Consort, how her Majesty and the Prince,
whilst at Cherbourg, noted the elaborate fortifications
of the place, which could have no other object than a
menace to this country; they observed also a colder
and more reserved manner on the part of the Emperor
_Napoleon than had been the case when they were in
'Faris three years previously. It was decided at once
gfrongly to fortify the island of Alderney, the nearest
,-31 the channel isles to the coast of France, and within
6ght of Cherbourg itself. The volunteers formed in
companies, in regiments, and in battalions; and
whether artillery, riflemen, or engineers, have ever
since formed a valuable auxiliary to the defensive
forces of the land. The scare has passed away—but
its valuable results remain; and the mention of the

name of Cherbourg now raises no more unpleasant
memories than the name of Paris itself.

Guy's Hospital, in the borough of Southwark, DS
one of the most richly-endowed institutions of this
kind in the metropolis. There are five royal hos-
pitals in the capital, "under the pious care of the
Lord Mayor of London," namely, St. Bartholomew's,
St. Thomas's, Bridewell, Bethlehem, and Christ's, all
enormously wealthy. But Guy's, although not
reckoned amongst these, possesses a noble history
and honourable traditions. It owed its origin to the
munificence of a wealthy stockbroker well known in
the City of London during the reign of, Queen Anne,
Thomas Guy by name. Guy was a bachelor and a
very penurious man. It is recorded, as illustrating
his mode of life, that one winter evening a friend
called upon him at his house, .and Guy was sitting
alone looking into the fire. He lighted a farthing
candle, when his visitor entered the room ;
but on ascertaining the subject of conversation which
had brought about the call, remarked: "Oh then we
can talk that matter over in the dark." The candle
was extinguished accordingly. By carrying out this
principle of carefulness through a long life, and by
tact in business, Guy amassed a lsrge fortune, which
he devoted to works of charity. After bestowing
considerable sums upon St. Thomas's, he determined to
be the sole founder of another hospital, and at the age
of 76, he began the erection of the present building.
It cost nearly £20,000,—a very much larger sum a
century and three quarters ago than it is now. Guy
lived to see his hospital almost completed, and endowed
it with £220,000. There it has stood ever since in the
midst of a dense population. It would have been
difficult for the rich stockbroker to have devised a
better way of perpetuating his name.
The west-end of London, which is the world of
fashion and society, gets remarkably empty as the
month of August advances; but in other parts it can
scarcely be said that the holiday season makes much
difference in the appearance of the streets. If a con-
siderable number of persons go out of town, a con-
siderable number also come in. Excursions to London
are advertised all over the kingdom and at a price
which renders the trip within the reach of well-nigh
the poorest. The railway companies have, in this
respect, and also in the way of ordinary traffic, made
a great advance of late years in the direction of attract-
ing the humbler classes to their lines. Times have
indeed altered for the better for third-class passengers,
with their cushioned carriages and express trains,
instead of their having, as formerly, to put up with
the maximum of inconvenience for the minimum of
fare.