The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-22 00:00:00

Ijl ur foOon gorrtspoubent.

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

The Queen's Ministers have issued the usual invita-
tions to the banquets in celebration of Her Majesty's
birthday, which 'is to be officially commemorated on
the 29th instant. Whatever may be the particular
party in power, the birthday festivities are carried out
witheut the slightest variation; and whether Liberals
or Conservatives rule in Downing-street, reviews of
troops, illuminations of public buildings, and banquets
at official reeidences are the order of the day. The
Queen herself is generally in Scotland on the day
when the people of London issue forth in great num-
bers to look upon the stars and the devices lit up with
gas in the west-end streets; and this year will form

no exception to the rule, for the Sovereign has
told her subjects, in the " Leayes from the Diary
of our Life in the Highlands," how welcome is the
pure mountain air in the days of early summer.
This year her Majesty's youngest son, who has been
as regularly by his mother's side as Princess Beatrice,

whether at Windsor, Osborne, or Balmoral, will corn-

memorate the Queen's birthday across the Atlantic.
His Royal Highness has gone out to Canada, on a

visit to his sister, the Princess Louise, who, it will

be remembered, was thrown out of a sleigh some

months, ago, and has not yet fully recovered from the
effects of the accident. Her Majesty has been

naturally anxious to know the full extent of her
daughter's injuries; so her only unmarried son has
undertaken to go out to the Dominion, and ascertain
for himself the real state of his sister's health. He

has selected a mere favourable time of the year for
crossing the Atlantic than that when the Princess

Louise herself first went out in November, 1878, for

the weather was then described_as tempestuous in the

extreme.

Prince Leopold started for Canada on the same day
that the Marquis of Ripon left for Calcutta, the one
sailing to the west and the other to the east, and both
to most important parts ot her Majesty's possessions.
Canada and India may be said to represent the two
extremes of the British dominions, both as to climate

and in the character of the people. What a contrast

are the icy wastes And the frozen rivers of North
America to the sunlit skies and the rushing streams of
Hindostan What a difference, too, between the
hardy settlers of the backwoods and the slothful
fatalism of the Hindoos ! Canada as well as India
has a Governor-General appointed by the Crown,
the former at a salary of £20,000, and the latter at
one of £30,000. The Viceroyalty of India is indeed
the most splendid office in the gift of the Sovereign.
It carries with it the rule over two hundred
millions of human beings, and the keeping up of
a magnificent Oriental State utterly unknown else-

where. Ordinarily the Viceroy of India does not, like
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, change with the
Government; but Lord Lytton having resigned con-

temporaneously with the Ministers at home, a suc-
cessor was at one appointed. Usually the term of

office of the Governor of any of our great dependencies
is five years, irrespective of political vicissitudes at
home; and this applies to our Australian Colonies as
well as to India and Canada. In the case of the
Governor-General of India, the paramount importance
of his position is almost invariably recognised by his
being raised one or two degrees in the ranks of the

peerage in recognition of the services which he has

rendered to his country. Thus Lords Northbrook and

Lytton were elevated from baronies to earldoms, each
passing over the intermediate_ title of Vis_count.
_ _ _ _

-Should the rule apply to the Marquis of Ripon, he
would receive a dukedom—a very rare distinction in-
deed.

When the Queen holds a Drawing Room, the
particulars are fully recorded in the next morning's
papers, and one of the most interesting parts of the
description—at all events to lady readers—is that of
the dresses worn by her Majesty and the Princesses
who happen to be present on the occasion. There is
a great deal of French in many of these descriptions;
and the question haslately arisen, not for the first

time, why in the matter of female attire England
should follow the fashions as prescribed by France.
Some of these are not pleasing to every person's eye,
although disguised-by French finish and French clever-
ness. Yet these have governed the appearance of all the
richer classes throughout Europe and America for very
many years past. Have other countries no taste of their
own, that they should thus be governed by the
tastes of Paris. The feet are tilted down with high
pointed heels, and the figure is cramped with tight
lacing, thus often seriously impairing the health. In
dress, as in all other matters, there is a distinct interest
in maintaining the characteristic individualities of
national taste, and this applies to dress as well as to
the development of literature, or to the production of
all that is beautiful in art and costly in material.

Many a reader of the newspapers will pass over
the heading "Money Market and City Intelligence,"
as being of no interest to him. To others the topics
with which it deals are of the highest possible conse-
quence. There are two periods of the year in which,
to use the language of bankers, "money is dearer
than usual," that is to say, at which the rates charged
in the short loan market for the use of capital are
higher than at other times. This phenomenon is not
confined to our own country; it is observed in every
commercial community; and these periods are May
and November. In May spring agricultural opera-
tion are in their most active stage; there are addi-
tional labourers to be paid; the sheep and stall-fed
cattle fattened during the winter are to be disposed of,
and the young stock is to be bought in for the pastures.
As a consequence, in May, there is always a consider-
able increase in the country note circulation, and
this involves the withdrawal of an equivalent amount
of gold from London, where the ultimate reserve of
the whole United Kingdom is kept After a while the
money thus paid away comes back again, but in the
meanwhile Lombard-street is the poorer, and those
who have to borrow or to discount bills find the rates
of accommodation raised. The present month has
been no exception to the general rule. In November
the harvests have been got in, and farmers are anxious
to sell the proceeds as soon as possible. Buyers pro-
vide themselves with coin or notes in unusual quan-
tities, and in doing so they naturally diminish the
stock of cash at the great trade centres. It returns
after a time, but during its absence the money
market is tight, and in the phraseology of Lombard.
street, "rates are hardened."

Travellers up and down the Thames in the penny
steamboats which ply between London Bridge and
Chelsea, seldom fail to cast a glance at the "Needle,"
as the famous Egyptian monolith is familiarly called.
There, upon the Middlesex bank of the river, with bhe
busy hum of civilised life all around it the obelisk,
which lay buried for centuries in the sands at Alexan-
dria, looks down upon a stream presenting a marked
contrast to that irrigating the land from which it was
brought less than three years ago. Important as the
Thames is, the revenue, and indeed the very exist-
ence of England, are not dependent upon it, as the
revenue and existence of Egypt are certainly de.
pendent upon the Nile. The Thames passes be-
tween miles of buildings which make up the
mightiest city in the world; the Nile flows through
solitudes whose quiet is as unbroken now as it WU
thousands of years ago. The height of the Thames
can always be estimated by the rise and fall of the
tides; while according to Sir Samuel Baker the Nile
has been known, in his own experience, to rise fifty
feet in a single night. If we can imagine a similar
rise of the Thames, it would mean the laying of the

greater part of London under water. A high Thames
would indicate destruction to millions of people;
but without a high Nile the Egyptians are
encompassed by that gaunt spectre Famine. Ac-
cording to a measurement taken for the Institu-
tion of Civil Engineers, the average annual flow
of the Nile amounts to more than ninety millions
of metric tons of water. The volume of the flow,
however, is less important to ascertain than the
quantity of solid material brought down by the river.
It has been estimated that something like 240 millions
of cubic yards of mud are )brought down annually by
the Nile to increase the surface of Egypt, to extend
the limits of the Delta, and to threaten the entrance
to the Suez Canal. In fact, the manner in which a
considerable portion of the sediment, carried by the
current of the Mediterranean to the east, silts up the
entrance to that great international water way, causes
na adTance of tha
.shore-line near Fort Said at the
rate of fifty-two yards per annum, and requires
constant attention in the way of dredging to pro.ont
a complete block.
The proposal to hold a Volunteer Review in Lon-
don, to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of
the initiation of that important movement, is one
which will generally commend itself to the approval
of the public. Twenty-one years is a long time in the
history of any institution; and the Volunteer force, as
it appears:to-day, is a remarkable commentary upon
the predictions of its shadowy nature which were so

numerous when it started into existence in the summer
of 1859. Many a ohange has come over the Continent
since that time, when Lord Palmerston described tie
political horizon as covered with clouds, and charged
with all the elements of future darkness and tempest.
The people have since been told, in Sir Theodore
Dfartin's "Life of the Prince Consort," how much
the Court and the Govcranaent of that day dis-
trusted the Into French Emperor; and it is no secret
that the Volunteer movement had its origin in that
diatrust. The first review of the citizen soldiers was
heldby Lord Clyde on Easter Monday, 1860; and in the
summsr of that year the Volunteers, to the number of
20,000, paszad before the Queen and the Prince
Consort in Nyde Park, )lany a day has corn, ezd

gone, and many a summer scene has been witnessed
since that bright sunny afternoon; but the force then
assembled, so far from melting away like the baseless
fabric of a vision, has increased and strengthened, until,
like the dry bones mentioned in the book of the prophet
Ezekiel, it stands upon its feet, "an exceeding great
army." There is a general hope that the proposed
review will be all the suceess that is desired for it, and
that her Majesty will accede to the respectful request
which has been made that the Volunteers may be per-
mitted to pass before her as they did twenty years
ago.

The second Bank Holiday of the year has been
favoured with the finest of weather, as far, at least,
as the metropolis is concerned, and on Whit Monday
it was only a comparative few that remained within
doors. Seaside, park, and river each found myriads
of admirers, and train, tramcar, and omnibus were
crowded to the utmost limits. It is only nine years
ago that Sir John Lubbock's Act, fixing the four
annual Bank holidays, came into operation; and
with each succeeding year the original Bank
holiday has been changed more and more into a
general holiday. First the merchants set the example,
then the large tradesmen, and now it seems almost a
point of honour with all shopkeepers who do not deal
in comestibles to make the day a joyous one. Com-
pared with the nations of the Continent, England
takes very few holidays, and, therefore, it was not
altogether surprising, when a fair excuse arose for
slightly extending the number, that it was eagerly
availed of. Against the few who will sternly con-
demn what they consider to be a waste of time and
money are to be set the millions who, at Easter and
at Whitsun, in August, and at Christmas, seek fresh
woods and pastures new, and make up in a day's en-
joyment for months' of hard work.