The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-08-31 00:00:00

Our fonboit Contsponbrid.

(we dq,ett tt eight to state that we do not at all times
denttty ourselves with eta Correspondent's opinion& I

For want of other political topics, the speech of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer at Wick is mach com-
mented upon andcriticeed, according to the party epec.
tacks through which it is read; but I think it must
generally be admitted that Mr. Lowe well deserves the
honour, such as it is, of the freedom :f the tows being
presented to him.
lite new Limners, Act appal% on the whole to be
working well. The regulations for closing impale no
actual hardship on the publicans or the owners of the
house., while they certainly tend te the discouragement
of drunk. nneas and Hie promotion of order and quiet;
while the heavy flues for intoxication In the etreeta are
haviag tne best possible effect. The former fine of
Is. was in hundreds of caeca a mere faros, but Ina-
prisonment without the option of a fine in already
beginning to work in • very different way. Ii this
Act continues to have the effect it Appears now to be
having it will prove an inestimable boon to society. It
certainly will not be the fault of the teetotallers if the
Act does not thus w rk. In various districts they
have mtablishel vigilance committees, to watch out
for infringements of the new law. This volunteer
army of detective. is naturally looked upon with great
dislike by the publicans, but the Home Secretary has
decided that so long he there is no "molestation or
obstruction" on its part, its action is perfectly legal.
Altogether we have good cause for congratulation on
the passing and the operation of the new Act.
" Friends at e Sistance have been so persistently
told of late that there is "nobody in London," that they
must he rather surprised, on eoming no to the great
eity, to find bow many headed this " nobody " ie. It is ,
true that very many of the upper dames have left us,
but She middle end the working class remain. The
holidays of the latter are very short, and if our mechanics
snd artisans get a week's change they think themselves
fortunate; and shop-assistants of both sexes, clerks,
&c., are much in the same case; while professional
men, merchants, tradesmen, &c., cannot neglect their
business foe long together. In fact there is • great
deal of nonsense written and talked about everybody
being out of rows. It is, however, the truth, as far as
I can judge, that there is more holiday-making this
autumn than ever, which may simply be accounted
for by the general prosperity of the country and by
the largely increased facilities for travelling and excur-
aiord,ing. But them facts cut both ways. It is as
mach • holiday for some people to leave country for
town as for others to quit town for the seaside or the
country, and I 4loubt whether during any preceding
autumn We ever had more provincial visitors amongst
as.

One of the sanitary inspectors tinder the Corporation
of London him successfully prosecuted • man for ex-
porting for sale a barrow load of melons unfit for food,
and the said melons have been indignantly destroyed.
Well and good. But I wonder whether the Inland
Revenue department and the police will, under the new
Licensing Act, exercise the same rigour towards those
publicans and sinners who are guilty of adulteration.
The penalties are very heavy, and there is no doubt
that in hundreds of cases people will render themeelves
liable to them —if they are found out. But there's the
rub. lam very anxious to see how the Act will work
In this respect, but I 'very much doubt, whatever it
may do in other respects, whether it will be effective
against adulteration. AB to the Act for amending the
Adulteration Act of 1860, I take lesve to opine that
the amended Act will moon become what the unamendisd
Act was, a dead letter, and I sincerely hope I may
prove wrong. If the inspectors of nuiaances will do
their duty, the Act will prove a great boon to the public
as well as to honest tradesmen ; but who is to see that
they do their duty?
A paragraph catches my eye, commencing, "Not-
withstanding the badness of the times, pleasure-seekers
in the Isle of Wight," &c. Who rays the times are
bad? Where are the signs of it? There are of course
always grumblers, and people are always apt to make
the safe remark that the times might be better. Un-
doubtedly they might, but they might be much worse.
The only thing that can be said in proof of the alleged
badness of the times he that prices are high, but then
wages are also high and employment is general. In
plain truth I venture to assert that if these are bad
times it would n .t be well for us to have much better.
We should become too lazy and luxurious.. But that
the present are not bad or bard times is opportunely
proved by the qattrterly returns of the Re debar-
General. He sheave that marriages have increased and
pauperism hag decreased. It seems that there is no
eurer indication of prosperity than an increase of
marriages, which by the way is an indirect proof of
the prudence and good sense of the inhabitants of the
Milted Kingdom As to pauperism we ought to have
very little of it among those who are able to work, for
never was work more plentiful.
Whether the old adage, that when things come to
the worst they begin to mend, is to be verified with
repel el to the price of coal remains to be seen, but at
preeent the question is whether things hare come
to the worst. People who may be unable to
answer this query may at all event; be gratified by
the fact that coal is now being imported—though not
In vere large quantities in proportion to our
waete fres Belgium. "Coal can be delivered
from Ghent, at Grimsby, at 4s. per ton below the Eng-
lish pelt e. So much the better, and the fuel in at any
rate Jaren, Inasmuch an this shows that a decided
cheek will be plead on our export of coat Another
cheering feet is that patent fuel—a mixture, I believe,
of coal duct, turf, and some resinous material—is also
being imported by us from Belgium. Every little
helps ire case of great need. While efforts are thus
being made to increase our supply by imports, a signifi-
cant remark by the chairman of the North Western
Railway may be commended to the consideration of
those who have done so much to increase the cost of
coal and iron. He was shocked to see, he said, that
the hen and steel now in use at the works at Crewe
me foreign. "These strikes," he added, have opened
up new sources and supply by ,ompetition which
otherwise might have remained lung unexplored, but
which, once opened, will never again be closed." There
in here matter for deep thought. English workmen
may depend upon it that Germany, France, and Bel-
gium aae eagerly watching our labour dieputee, and are
keenly alive to every opportunity of pushing their own
interests. It is much easier to get rid of foreign work-
men than of foreign work.
A scheme is about to be commenced which, in the
interest"; of Great Britain and France, it in to be hoped
may be successfully carried out. In default of carrying
railway trains bodily across the Channel, of erecting a
bridge over it, or constructing a tunnel under it, we
are as due time to have a line of larger and superior
steamers running between Newhaven and Dieppe.
Both these harbours are to be enlarged and deepened,
and the new vessels will be specially constructed so am
to reduce the miseries of searickness. This is just
what has been proposed with regard to Dover and
Calais, and Folkeetone and Boulogne. Up to the
present time, however, there has been little more than
talk with respect to these ports, but the Newhaven and
Ifieppe scheme is actually in progress, and I hope it
may succeed. If so, one result will inevitably be the
improvement of other Channel ports, from the mere
Lull uenee of competition. The marvel in that, with such
a Large traffic across the Channel the various petes have
so long remained utterly inadequate for the demands
made upon them.
•

The authorities et the Poet Office, it appears, have

deeided on introducing female clerks iota the depart-
ment, and 40 of them are to be at once employed in
the Savings Bank branch. It is said that the con-
troller of this department, as well as the entire staff,
"feel the grievous dangers, moral and official, which
are likely to fellow the adoption of so extraordinary a
(nurse." This ii putting the matter very strongly,
and the alarm is not warranted by experience hitherto.
Numbers of female clerks &reemployed in the telegraphic
del 'anent, and Mr. Scudamore, who recently re-
prtei on the working of this department, said nothing
whatever detrimental to its effect in a moral point of
view, !bough he did say something in respect to mar-
riages haying been arranged between the male and
*male officials in "the deoartment," which is really
sornerlii gin its favour. It may be shrewdly suspected
that what the " entire etaff " feels, is not any ill effects
mor-I'v, but pecuniarily considered as affects them.
isnree. but we men must be prepared for this sort of
thing. Women in e much more extensively employed
in offices on the Continent than among oureels es, but
we ere slowly adopting the Continental eystem. It
has its betietits as well as its evils, and we must make
/she bent slit.

'frtr INT enstarrom at.— Great preparations are
now being made by the General Council and various
branehee of the International Association for the ap-
proaching asnual congress of the International Work-
ing Met. s Awociation, which is announced to be held
at he Magee. In consequence of the fall of the Com-
mune and the hostile attitude anointed by the various
European Governments towards the International, the
emigrese was not held last year, but a confe,enoe of
delegate. from different Darts of Europe and America
was held in London, when it was decided that the
appointment of the time and place of the congress of
1872 should be left to the General CounciL Since that
time serious charges have been made against the
General Council by some expelled French members of
the aco cation, who have formed a small Republican
Club io opposition. The time of meeting hex, there-
fore, been appointed for an early date—the 2nd of
September; and it is stated that great changes will be
made in the organisation of the association and that
it will become more secret and more revolutionary on
the Continent than hitherto. Delegates are expected
to attend from America. Auetralia, India, Ireland,
England, and all parts of the Continent. In I
a moot active spites of pcopepaia will be adopted