The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-27 00:00:00

NEW ISSUE OF

CA$BOll TECHNICAL [MATO;
In WEEKLY NUMBRUS, lid., and
NIONTSILY PARTS, 7d.
COMPLETE IN 0 4 PARTS
••• M. 1 and PART!. now ready el .11 Boosellers
sad Bookstalls.

. THE TALBOT HOIEL COMPANY LIMITED-

111 14; TALBOT FAMILY AND COMMERCIAL

ROTEL
ST 0 URBRIDGE.

rrlllti Extensive Establishment being now
tinder the Supervision of a Retired Military
Captsist and his wife Of experietice,ladies and gentlemen
will he comfortably received and their wants anticipated.
The Hotel contains a large number of Comfortable Bed
Meanifictnt deli Room, Several Private Sitting
hsclit,a ‘V..,ioig Rooms, Superb Billiard Tai
Stnok:nr, !twin, Bath Boom with Hot and Cold
Witty. Commercial Room, Coffee Room for Ladies and
tiestlernen. and several Bed Rooms particularly adapted
toe Families.
21" 13 AR, with its Reception Room has been remodall. d
ant tkoroughly renovated, and is exceedingly "al'rt'ible•
The POSTING Dh:PARTMENT will in future be tin-
ier tke immediate Superintendence of the manager, to
*hose, it Is rs.quested, all communications am o to be ad-
4ressesi, when they shall receive prompt attention.
Tint Company has a MagLifleent ESTABLISHMKNT
at RNYILLZ, 'which is also under the Supervision of
*sir Manager.
the attention of the Nobility, Gentry, Tourists and
Families is respectfully invited to the Tariff now in ope-
ras :—Cetree loom,. Bed, 2s. ; Breakfast, 2s. ; Lun-
-0410..0. 10 ; Dir.n.r. from 3,. Commercial Rcenn, lie.;,
1.. 6d. ; treaktast, ls. 0.1. ; Lancheon, is. 9A.; Dinner:4,
tta., gd• Ladies, G(ntlem,n. and Families ocrupyini:
Prof .te Arertments -cent-dingtn nquirerneota.
TA );Ii r. cio v. on FRI DaY:i. Terms, with Wines,
dic , ss:
It is reqested that r.ll Outstanding Accounts be gent
in at ones to the Varager.
'the Leading London nr.d ?roviaeini Jt,,urLa's Taktn

Ji:FIN M. caoLy.
Mitnager.

NTONEY to be lent in Town or Conntry, to
‘l"."revreninrothere, from
Fifty Tr.,,irds ,„t itrrAriis, tlpon 1. ;f1..! recur's.). ln•
tt us! fiVe per cent per au' nt:i, l'Orn r tt, utv,
nilbruire:on nr chit, gP• ro3"• Jan.., from Out-
The,uster.il ['nubile on Mi,rlrse'• if auti i"di Per
t", fret hold or ietl,Ctl,ld rrnrsrty, for any term riot
etrerw,j,t,gten.)r,r, __Apply to Mr. IiZNLY
il"/"[Lb. k I.:,%inFeir Anti inrVeYOT, iAte Girdlestone
rime try, IL t• :w.ou•equero, Lnod"n•

Box of. CLARK.E'S B 41 Pills in
kj,7 ti• c,,rc 4.iiechitites from the UrinKry
iu eat:: r sex. acquired or 4onsuiutional, Gravt/
juaii Ploti ID bapk.--zold in boxia, 4b 6J eacl"
9:1 Cl,ctuista a:,41 I'ateut litadiemr, Vendors; or se', t to
cr;A, for 4:4+ Ht.,. j•. },y the mik,,r.F. J GLAt.st ,
Coneulttng C1aw...d8% high-street, Lincolu.—Whol&abie
Agents, BARCLAY & Solis, Loudon, and &litho Wholesale
4U:ts
lox litoadotio ; 11.4 j, 1114k4nt•St'

As regularly as Eastern Monday approaches,
the question whether a Volunteer Review shall
or shall not be held, is certain to arise. For
many years Brighton, Dover, a.teil Portsmouth
comp- eted for the honour of receiving England's
civilian army, the choice in most cases falling
upon the former. Raster Monday WJS =as-
tomod to se about 20,000 volunteers conveyed
by rail to their destination, where tney w,,nt
through a general muster and march past, fin-
ishing up with the protracted evolutions of a
shani-light. From the time the men left their
homes one morning until they returned the next,
a period of about twenty-two hours had generally
elapsed, still there was little or no grninbling at
the hardships or the fatigues of the day, for it
was assumed that the (muse was a good one,
being no other than that of their country. Be-
sides this annual holiday, short as it may have
been, was a change from the monotony of every-
day life, and this was a consideration to men
engaged in the performance of sedentary duties,
as most of our Volunteers undoubtedly are.
Daring the past two or three years, however,
a difficulty which could not have been antici-
pated when the movement first sprang into life,
has interfered with the holding of the Easter
Monday Review, and threatens to cause its final
abandonment. The Volunteers are as ready as
ever to go through a long and fatiguing day,
often in the midst of driving wind and rain; the
people are as anxious to crowd to the spot
selected for the pageant, the competing seaports
are as eager to secure the presence of both
Volunteers and sight-seers. But the railway
companies can no longer be induced to come to
terms. They decline, under any circumstances,
to undertake the conveyance of our gallant de-
fenders frotu London to Brighton, Dover,
Portsmouth, or else where, on Easter Monday.
The reason is clear- Eastertide is one of the
great harvests of the spring to which railway
managers look for an accession of holiday traffic.
They advertise all kinds of excursions for the
purpose of attracting the public to their lines on
that day; and it must be perfectly obvious to
any unprejudiced observer that, if the rolling
stock of a railway company is monopolised for
the conveyance of two score thousand volun-
teers, it cannot be available for ordinary traffic
to any considerable extent, and for an increased
excurson traffic not at all. Therefore, to put it
plainly the Board of Directors severally find that
the transport of our Volunteers, even for the
laudable purpose of a review and a sham fight
does not pay. They find it more remunerative
to cultivate excursion traffic, and this they in-
tend in future to do. Old army officers assembled
in their comfortable clubs in Pall Mall, and very
few of whom probably are holders of railway
stock of any kind, shake their heads over the
deeeneracy of the railway boards, and declare
that the country must he going to the :logs. Has
it cone to this, thy ask that instead of !uaiiieg
fin offering to the shrine of patriotism, the land
is to be governed upon bread-and-cheese prin-
ciples? They invoke a little wholesome despotism,
and declare that the interference of the State
with the railway companies will du a world of
good. This, however, is only one side of the
question. What has the railway shareholder to
say to it? He would tell you, perhaps, that
after some difficulty he has managed to put a
few hundred pounds in seine railway stock,
which he expects to produce a return. He
places confidence in the directors of his line its
men who do their best to manage the commercial
umiertaking of which they ere the head. He
expected them to lose no opportunity of turning
their line to the best account, and this they oan-
not do if they deliberately sacrifice the excursion
trail.° of an Eastern Monday. He affirms that
he is as good a patriot as anybody else. He has
put his spare coin into a concern which, while
its dividends benefit him individually, its work-
ing indirectly confers an advantage upon the
entire community. It develops the resources
of the land, adds to the general store of infor-
mation by encouraging travel, and indeed, is a
great humanising agency whose Influence it is
impossible to over-estimate. And when people
talk of patriotism, he is bound to say that were
our shores really invaded, and occasion arose for
the exclusive employment of the railways for
conveyance of troops, he would be as patriotic
as any of his critics. But he does not see why
his Directors should fail to make the most of
their line and decline to sacrifice Easter Mon-
day for a spectacle, about the utility of which
competent authorities are unable to agree, and
which many officers have unhesitatingly
condemned as contributing nothing whatever
to the efficiency of our Volunteer army.
There, is, however, no reason why our citizen
soldiers should be discouraged by the
abandonment of the Easter Review. It is not
indispensable to the success of the movement,
and there is little doubt that a brigade field day
is by far a more practical and useful way of
teaching the men their duties. The Volunteers
are an institution who have shown that they are
neither cast down by discouragement nor daunted
by adverse criticsne. They have now survived
the vicisitudes of half a generation and more.
The movement sprang into being in the spring
of 1859, when France had beaten Austria in the
Loather ly ear.:paiT_tn. ' When the torch of waris
ow%) nehteJ,iio.rc is no knosiaq ware the
flames may spreed, and at that time a very gene-
ral feeling of distrust was abroad. Europe
seemed to have been convested into a vast en-
campment, in which, in the process of adding to
its armaments, each State endeavoured to outvie
its neighbour. The waves of the Channel did
nut prevent the uueley feeliug le.en reachine
our country. "Riflemen form 1" w.s tt COfr•Litl
of a poem by Mr, Tennyson, who in describing
the inscrutable desiges and menacing eLitude of
the Emperor Napoleon, declared t'iat " only the
devil knew what he meant." Stroag language,
certainly; but the Emperor was not then trusted
by oar people, and even Lord Palmerston, who
was then Prime Minister, spoke of his Imperial
Majesty in the Hous:, of Cerutuons as offering to
us one hand in friendship, and with the other
grasping the hilt of his sword. Men of all ranks
flew to arms as though an enemy were actually
preparing a descent upon our coasts, and, al-
though after a time the invasion panic died
away, the moving influence remains, and the
Government came forward to assist out of the
national exchequer men who gave up their time
to the service of their country. Time is now
more precious tiban over it was; yet the sacrifice
is willingly made. Therefore, when we see
these sacrifices and remember that their history
is interspersed with many tliscouragements and
some ridicule, we need not her that the Volun-
teers will be disheartened even at the loss of the
time-honoured review on Easter Monday.