The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-16 00:00:00

etir Ifonbon Oli.orrespoubcett.

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

Amongst the distinguished spectators who gazed
upon Saturday's Volunteer Review at Windsor was
one who has looked not only on mimic fields of battle,
but has been accustomed to the pomp and circum-
stance of war. This was the Crown Prince of Ger-
many. It is now just eleven years since the events
occurred which led to those mighty political convul-
sions upon the Continent that resulted in the destruc-
tion of the Empire of France and the revival of the
Empire of Germany. On Friday, the 15th of July,
1870, France declared war against Prussia, and as the
momentous tidings were flashed over the world men
stood awestruck at their import. That evening the
King of Prussia arrived in Berlin from Ems, fresh
from his disagreenient on the promenade with Count
Benedetti, the French Ambassador. His Majesty
VIM received at the railway station with indes-
cribable enthusiasm, and was accompanied to the
Palace by a multitude of a hundred thousand persons
who filled the air with shouts of "To the Rhine !"
Arrived at the Palace the people demanded to know
what news the King had brought from Ems, and the
Crown Prince announced the latest intelligence in two
brief words full of terrible meaning. Stepping out
on the balcony, where his Majesty acknowledged the
salutations of his subjects, his Royal Highness said
(" War—mobilization "). That night,
long after the excited crowd had retired to rest, there
was one building in the Prussian capital which w-as
lighted up in every window, as though hard stern
work was going on within. It was the Ministry of
War, where Moltke and Von Roon were putting the
finishing touches on the plans which were to shatter to
pieces the military power of France.
The Crown Prince of Germany took a very promi-
nent part in that sanguinary conflict. He was at the
head of the army which, on the 6th of August, burst
upon Marshal MacMahon at Woerth, and caused the
French to fall back towards Metz. It was after that
first reverse that the Emperor Napoleon telegraphed
to the Empress in Paris, "All may yet be regained."
But as was remarked at the time by one of the
English newspapers, all may not be regained; and
it was found that the " not " very soon came in.
Less than a month afterwards the Crown Prince was

a witness of the Emperor's surrender at Sedan; he
then moved on with the besieging army to Paris, and
was present in the Palace at Versailles when the King
of Prussia, his father, was crowned German Emperor.
There was something historically dramatic in such
a ceremony taking place in the splendid home of the
old French monarchs, and in the Palace of Louis
Quatorze. The Prince, too, entered Paris on the 2nd
of March, 1871, after the capitulation of the city to
German armies. Previously he was in command in the
war between Prussia and Austria in July, 1866, when
his forces suddenly appeared in the passes of Bohemia,
and overthrew the Austrian power at Sadowa. His
Imperial Highness, who is now more than fifty years
of age, has therefore seen much active service, and was
perfectly well able to form a judgment upon the
physique of the tens of thousands of volunteers who
passed before the Queen on Saturday.
As to the Review itself, it is satisfactory to know
that it was held on a day free from the tropical heat
which has lately passed like a wave over these islands.
As much as was possible the men were protected by
the shade of the magnifi ent trees in the Great Park
at Windsor, and vast quantities of water and ice were
immediately at the rear of the divisions. Military
evolutions on a July afternoon are very trying to
unseasoned troops, and a large proportion of the
Volunteers had dri Saturday come from long distances.
As t'.) the objection that the review of fifty or sixty
thousand Volunteers, being a national event, might
better have taken place in Hyde Park, it may be
pointed out that so vast would have been the assembled
• multitude in that place that no possible police line could
have kept it back. The sheer weight of such a mass
of humanity must have been overwhelming, and no
cordon would have preserved order. Besides, none of
us Would have cared to see the tastefully-arranged
flower-beds and shrubs in Hyde Park trampled under
• the feet of some hundreds of thousands Of people.
There is not much to spoil in the Great Park at
Windsor, but an enormous amount of damage could
be committed in Hyde Park.
The weather is proverbially the topic of conversation
in these islands, and a never-failing source of interest.
Within half a year it has twice been the subject of
wonder and astonishment at the extremes which people
have been called upon to bear. In the middle of
January several persons were frozen to death in the
excessive cold ; in the first week of July strong men
lost their lives by the fatal-agency of sunstroke. We
passed from Siberia in January into India in July,
from-blinding snow-storms and intense frost -into a
temperature considerably higher than that of Ceylon
or of Barbadoes. The earth was two millions of miles
nearer to the sun in January than in July; but in
January ma rays were lateral; and falling side-
ways were nearly powerless, and in July they
were vertical, for the sun was 46 degrees higher in the
heavens than he had been six months before.
Hence the amazing difference. Still, in the temperate
zone we do not expect to pass from Lapland to Bom-
bay in less than half a year. The Laps know what to
expect, and construct their habitations and prepare
their clothing accordingly; so do the residents of
Bombay. But in England our houses, and to a great
extent our apparel, are the same whether the thermo-
meter beat zero or 90 in the shade. Hence the mani-
fold discomforts either of a blast of bitter cold, or of a
fiery wave of equatorial heat.
The possibilities of the redistribution of political ,1
power in the Mediterranean continue to afford topics I
for speculation which come home to the mind of the
average Englishman. It is no mere question now of
the annexation of a few square miles of bandit-haunted
mountains in remote and well-nigh inaccessible regions
in Asia, or the rectification of a frontier hundreds of
miles distant from the nearest British outpost. The
changes which appear to be in progress are being
worked out nearer home. For good or for evil they
will profoundly affect the position of our nearest

neighbour, the one Power which by its position can
threaten us with invasion, or by its fleet can seriously
menace our interests abroad. They are taking place
along a coast which skirts the highway of our commerce
with the East, and they point to an eventual extension
of French influence over regions the neutrality of which
is indispensable for the interests alike of England
and of India. The irritation produced by the possi-
bility of the failure of the negotiotions for the renewal
of the Treaty of Commerce does not predispose the
public to look with indifference upon the extension of
French authority, even although the general convic-
tion is that the extension of the area of her influence
occasions a diminution in the extent of her power.
With respect to Germany, which of late has been as
quiet as France has been restless, it is well known
that the German navy is in many respects a copy of
the British. The system of educating boys for sailors
before the mast was directly taken from us, and the
training ships of Germany had at one time a place
on our own navy list. Though imitators, however, of
our training system, the naval officers of Germany have
been by no means mere copyists. Boys are trained
in the Imperial navy in order that they may become
not only able or ordinary seamen, but petty officers,
warrant officers, office writers, and artificers. The
ordinary " fore-mast " ranks are recruited, as are
those of the army, by compulsory enrolment and the
entry of some few volunteers. The difficulty of
Germany has been to get and to keep men who are
good enough to be made petty officers and command
others. The training period lasts three years, general
education is well attended to, and the possession by
Germany of a wide-spread school system allows of an
early introduction to actual sea life, much of the
scholastic instruction being given in winter, when the
cruising season is over.
The Trade and Navigation Returns for June give
similar indications to those of preceding months.
Imports have fallen off very much as compared with
June last year, but that month showed an abnormal
increase, and the tendency has for some time been
towards lower impott figures. For the last half-year
the value Of the imports is less than that of 1880 by
about 6 per cent., but it is more an apparent than a
real falling off. That is to say, quantities have kept
up better than values in most instances, so that in
bulk the import trade of the country shows probably
no reduction. This is even more strikingly the case
in regard to the exports, which again show a slight 1n
crease on those of June in last year. But for the
seV-sie fall which has taken place in the price of some
commodities, and the general tendency of the markets
to go lower, the export figures for both the month and
the half-year would contrast with those of 1880 much
more favourably than they actually do.
Not long ago the King of Sweden and Norway was
in London; now the metropolis has a visitor from a
very different latitude—King Kalakua, from the
Sandwich Islands. His sable Majesty has been busily
engaged in seeing the principal objects of interest in
the capital, and enjoyed the performance at the Royal
ita.lian.Opera quite as; much as the Eton and Harrow
Oriakst Match at Lord's Ground. Perhaps there is
no English recreation more difficult for a foreigner to
understand than that'of cricket. During the Crimean
War, and when our wounded soldiers who had been in
thehospital at Scutari were recovering convalescence,
they enjoyed many an hour of cricket; and there can
be no doubt that the Turks who were looking on lost
themselves in their mental efforts to comprehend the
game.

Spotted umbrellas are now carried by French
dandies.