The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-03 00:00:00

ur Fanhn Cortespoubcat,

:We deem it right to state that we do not at a 1 times
tAentify ourselves with our Corresponaent's opinions.

With the prorogation of Parliament the 'sumptuous

pile of buildings On the banks of the Thames, erected
for the accommodation of. the Legislature, lapses into
silence, and reverts once more to the care of the paper-
hanger and the decorator. The ordinary householder
often enough finds that his habitation requires the atten-
tion of the painter and the artificer; and it is easy
therefore to conjecture how much more is the presence
of the artisans of various descriptions wanted in a struc-
ture, containing two elabora.tOy. -6nished legislative
chambers, and residences for the officials of different
grades, numbering about 300 persons. Like the Cathe-
dral_at Cologne, St. Peter's at Rome, or even our own
St: Panl's, generation. alter "generation passes away,
and the Palace of Westminster remains unfinished.
Repairs and alteration go a long way towards absorb-
ing the time which would otherwise be devoted to the
completion of the Palace according to the original
design.

A session of nearly eight months in duration found
the majority 'of the members weary of Parliamentary
contention, and glad enough to get away from London
for a time. The climatic changes which the session
had witnessed had been without a parallel in living
memory. So bitter was the weather in the middle
of January that the older members of Parliament
could not venture forth into the Arctic atmosphere,
and the terrible snowstorm kept within doors the
Prime Minister himself, who NV39 thus unable to
vote in the division which took place on the amend-
ment to the Address. Six months passed away; and
found Parliament still at work, and the heat in mid-
July was so intense as to be well-nigh demoralising to
those who were studying the details of the Irish Land
Bill in Committee of the House of Commons. , The
labour became wearisome at last, as it is almost cer-
tain to do when there is what is called a One-bill
Session. The summons of Black Rod was grateful,
and the silence which now pervades those stately halls
is in remarkable contrast to the life and vivacity con-
centrated there when Parliament is sitting. No more
is heard the triumphant shout of the Ministeralists,
or the ringing cheer of the Opposition ; no longer
resounds the question of the Serjeant-at-Arms nightly
through the lobby—" Who goes home?" This is
an inquiry which is always put in a loud voice at the
hour of aujoumment, and when in the early morning
the corridors are empty, the echoes have a singularly
weird effect.

Death has not laid his hand BD heavily upon
members of the Legislature this year as in some
former sessions. Seven meinbers of the House of
Commons have been thus removed in eight months,
the proportion being rather under the average.
From carefully calculated statistics it has been shown
that twelve or thirteen members of the Lower House
die every year; so that in a six-year old Parliament,
such as that which lasted from 1859 to 1865, and
again from 1874 to 1880, between 70 and 80 members
would be placed upon the death-roll. It has also been
remarked that the mortality amongst the Lords is much
higher than that in the Commons, although the Lords
are fewer in number by about 150 men. As a rule,
however, the peers are older than the members of the
House of Commons, which contains some very young
legislators just now, a few of whom have not long
attained their majority.
The land question, which occupied nearly the whole
session of Parliament, so far as one portion of the
kingdom is concerned, is one which can scarcely be
exceeded in importance in a country where the tenure
depends in a large degree upon the manners and the
customs of centuries ago. It must be borne in mind, too,
that the population of these islands increases while the
quantity of land available for their accommodation
remains at a standstill. Land cannot be created by
the utmost skill and ingenuity of man. It is
however, often reclaimed from the margin of the sea
and from the banks:of "rivers; and curiously enough
this year has furnished an illustration of the hard
work which falls to the lot of man after such reclama-
tion. At the mouth of the Thames a great struggle
has been going on in this way. It appears that the
whole of the 5,500 acres which make up the Island of
Canvey have been reclaimed from the sea, 3,000 through
the energy of a Dutchman in the reign of Charles 1.,
and 2,500 at more recent dates. The tempestuous
weather during theipresent year,has made a huge gap
in the wall shutting out the waters, and about
1,500 acres of the:dry land have been recovered by the
ocean, and if the necessary repairs are not completed
before the return oßwinter, the labours of two
centuries and a half will have been in vain.

In the absence of more absorbing topics some of
the newspapers have opened their columns to the
discussion of the interesting scientific question whether
the Tbames ever reaches the sea at all. All rivers,
as matter of natural physics, make their way
towards the sea; but there is a wide difference in
the velocity with which_ they travel, and in the
force which they possess. Great rivers, like the La
Plata and the Amazon, are enabled to penetrate into
the sea with such strength that for miles at their
mouth the fresh water is easily distinguishable
from the salt. The Rhone flows through the
Lake of Geneva with such impetuosity as to
preserve its individuality intact, and is the
same when it leaves the lake as when
it entered it. But the Thames is not a rapid stream.
Look out upon it from any of the gardens in the
beautiful neighbourhood of Kingston or of Twicken-
ham, immediately before it meets the tideway, and it
presents the appearance more of a calm lake than of a
river which could push its , way through the vast
column of salt water which twice a day comes up from
the German Ocean. Dr. Benjamin Franklin held that
the Thames water never could reach the sea, seeing
that the tideway is twenty times its volume sent up
from the sea with irresistible force. The same philo-
sopher maintained that the fresh water, being lighter,
kept to the surface of the salt; but that by the time
the ebbing tide was four ',hours down, it was met by
the approach of the incoming stream, which, gra-
dually absorbing the fresh water making its way
out, very effectually'prevented it from finding its way
to its destination, the sea. -
The facts stated at many of the half-yearly meet-
ings of.the railway companies„ which have just been
bronght to an end, would appear to point to the con-
clusion that the proportion of our middle and upper
class tsaffic on the various lines, is declining. The
ncreased facilities for travelling third-class, the more
comfortable accommodation,' and possibly the pressure
of the recent trading depression, have all accelerated
the momentum of that gravitation towards the lowest
class which began some years ago. The result is
that at present, on some ;of our great lines there
are fewer first and second-class travellers than there
xere a. dozen years 'since, although the length of line
is greAer; .and the volume of traffic much larger.
Competent authorities now declare that the best pros
pects of the railway comt anies are in the development
of the third-class 'passenger traffic, which is said to
bring in a net profit of 75 per cent, while the net
profit derived from first and second-class traffic is only
20 per cent. The tendency of the traffic in the di-
rection of the third-class would appear therefore to point
to an improvement in the prospects of the railway
companies. A marked revival of trade might Sweli

the numben of the ;short first !and second-class jour-
neys; but it seems impossible to doubt that the result
of an appeal. by the railway companies to the people
would be -not only a largely-increased traffic, but a
considerably augmented profit.
The brief sojourn of the Queen at the Palace of
_ _

Holyrood must have brought to many a mind the
associations surrounding that historic building. For-
merly an abbey, and for several centuries the resi-
denCe of the monarchs of Scotland, it from time to
time received within its walls the remains of riany of
the kings, who as occaeion required did battle for their

country's" independence against the attacks of the
Sovereigns of England. Her Majesty has occasionally
held a Court there, and the latest ministerial act trans-
acted within it walls was the signing by the Queen
of the Royal Proclamation for the prorogation of Par-
liament. Perhaps the most impressionable of the
memories which linger round about the Palace of
Holy rocid are those which tell of the sojourn there of
the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, and of the
tragic fate that befel her favourite, David Rizzi°, in
15* when the enraged Scotsmen dragged the unhappy
-Italian from his cabinet near the Queen's chamber
anersig‘v

The appointment of Dr. Bradley, Head Master of
University College, Oxford, to-the Deanery of West-
minster, makes the capitular body of that collegiate
church once more complete. It has sometimes been
asked icily Westminster is described as a city,
inasmuch as it is not the see of a bishop. At
one time, however, in the reign of Henry VIII.,
Westminster was a bishopric, but the holder of the see
so wasted the patrimony that on his translation to
the diocese of Norwich, no successor was appointed,
and he was thus the first and last of his order. The
county of Middlesex, which had belonged to West-
minster, was transferred to London, in which diocese,
for episcopal purposes, it still continues. When Mary
came to the throne, she restored the office of Abbot of
Westminster ; but this was set aside by Queen
Elizabeth, who erected the abbey into a collegiate.
church, with a dean and twelve prebendaries, and this
ecclesiastical staff it still possesses. • The Dean of
Westminster for the time being is invariably Dean of
the Order of the Bath. . .
When the Electrical Exhibition at Paris Is in full
working order, it will form one of the most valuable and
interesting collections which modern times have wit-
nessed. There will be abundant food for reflection for
witl Dina) tilt wifliitinThlati invintiOn

I may be expected from it. There have been thirty
steam-engines and fifteen gas-engines to be fitted
and put into working order to supply the motive
power necessary to set the lights in motion. The
Brush Company, whose lamps are now on Blackfriars
Bridge, show a light equal to 150,000 candles, the
carbons producing it being each two inches in thick-
ness, while Mr. Swan will show a thousand of his
incandescent lamps. Machines slowing a light equal
to 2,000 candles are scattered over the building, and
300 dynamo-electric machines are arranged here
and there over the place. Specimens of all the
known lamps. are shown, ranged in order from the
earliest invention.