The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-02 00:00:00

.tfala6ribge (9115erfar,

SATIJRDIY, JANUIRY

EIGHTEEN -HUNDRED A.ND EIGHTY-
FIVE.

"A HAPPY Nrw YEkti, to you. I wish you a
Happy New Year." Such is the seasonable
salutation one receives now from friends and
acquaintances on every hand. We are all
looking ahead to the unknown future, full
of plans for the time to come. Bat though
the hopes of the days on before are properly
our chief concern, it is
,well that now, while
paming from year to year, we should pause
to look back on the twelve months gone, and
gather from the retrospect some lessons for
our guiblance in the future. The story of
Eighteen Hundred and Eighty-five ranks
henceforth as "a tale that is told." We may
sot unprofitably glance briefly now at some
of the chief incidents of this latest chapter
of recorded time. Many who ."balked large
in the forefront of humanity" who were with
us last New Year's Day are now no more
than a memory. Oar metropolis lost its
Bishop and its Lord Mayor—both dying in
harness —and also its Solicitor and Marshall
Dr. Jackson was followed into the "hereafter"
by his brother bishops of Salisbury, Man-
choster, Ely, and the Primate of Ireland;
while Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, who
had lain down the prelatorial staff of Lin-
coln two months ealier, died in March. The
Roman Catholic Church was deprived by
death of Cardinal M'Cabe, and the Congre-
gational Union suffered a severe bereave-
ment in the demise of the president, Dr.
Rase. Lard iShafsbary, the Christian phil
anthropiet, wliko came to be familiarly spoken
of as the "Earl of Exeter Hall"; Earl Cairns
equally eminent on the bench, the woolsack,
and the platform of religion and morality;
Sir Moses Montefiore, the benevolent Jewish
millionaire; Ireland's Lord Chancellor and
ex-Lord Chancellor; Blanchard Jerrold,
the journalist ; ;Lord Honghton, man of
letters, statesman, and pillar of society;
Lora Halifax, earstwhile a leader in politics;
Sir Julius Benedict, of musical celebrity ;
Ir. W. B. Carpenter, the erudite expositer
of medical science ; and Lord Ranelagh,
identified in his younger manhood with the
volunteer movement, were all called away-
daring the year; while the Duke of Aber-
reries name heads the long obituary list of
the British aristocracy. Among the many
distinguished foreigners whose deaths were
recorded in 1885 were Victor Hugo, the
Trench octogenarian poet and dramatist;
Edmond About, the novelist ; the "Red
Prince" of Prussia; Field Marshall Man-
tenfel ; Prince Augustus of Wurtenberg ;
King Alfonso of Spain; the :Queen Dowager
of Hawaii; and Marshall Serrano. America
mourned the deaths of General Grant and

the wisely-genial "Josh Billings;„" and the
Destroyer also laid his relentless hand upon
Mr. W. H Vanderbilt, the forty-millionaire
stock manipulator and railway magnate of
New York. Though =any of these were
veterans whose life-work was done, there
were among them those who had not ex-

pected the summons hence for a long time
to come. The year now :opening will yield
ti Death his victims also. - -Who among us
can say we shall not be of the nnmber ? Let
us be found at duty's post in the ranks of
Eight whenever the call comes. We can-
not all be Gordons or Burnabys, doing deeds
which will ring through all the ages; but
each in our own spheres we may acquit our-
selves, if we will, with a nobility akin to
the self-sacrifice of the martyr of Kartoum
or the dannfiess daring of the gallant guards-
man who fell at Abou Men,. Mention of
their names recalls the campaign which
robbed Britain of their lives, and those of

many others of her soldier sons in 1885.
The year opened with Egypt and the
Soudan dotted with our troops, who had
gone out to put down cruelty, and compel
the lawless Arab hordes to recognise the
rights of their civilised neighbours. Janu-
ary comes again, and finds fourteen thousand
Britisk soldiers still in Nileland, having iac-
eomplished little more than giving splendid
exhibitions of endurance and military
prowess to the Soudanese fanatics The
natives, though they have learned again and
again at the bayonet point how hopeless it
is to pit themselves against the British, are,
we fear, as littie inclined as evcr to listen to
- tile demands of these their action goaded
into war. Who shall solve the perplexing
questions of Egypt and the Soudan? The
The opening of 1886 sees us looking for the
answer. Our trouble with Russia respect-
ing the bounds of the neutral land which
strebehes between the realms of the Czar and

oar Indian Empire BOOM'S in a fair way for
amicable settlement; the Burmese difficulty
thanks to rigorous action, is practically over
The war which has disturbed. the Balkan
Peninsula—we trust it is not too much to
hope—will not again be renewed, but from
the conflict will spring a permanent and
well-founded peace. So may it be. France's
Colonial troubles are less irksome than they
have been. Germany and Russia are intern-
ally, comparatively speaking, all quiet.
Spain, after losing her King's firm hand,
stands in danger of internecine strife; but
the rest of the Continental Powers are more
peaceful and prosperous than they have been
through the year past. The terrible visit-
ation of cholera tn Spain, h&j'', and South-
ern -France, which saddened the summer,
leaves its lessons, there and elsewhere, of the
need of ooiumon-sense attention to sanitary
requirements. In the far East no disturbing
elements of a serious chars Aer are now to be
seen; and it is hoped that the floods and
typhoons which wrought such devastation
in parts of India last autumn will not be
repeated. 1885 saw the restoration of order
in Bechuanaland hy . Sir Charles Warren,

and the completion -of the founding of the
Congo Free State by ,tanley ; two events
Triii3h sugar well for the future of Africa.
Oar col„aies in Au.itralasia and elsewhere
have progressed, if not by leaps and bounds.
rtt is fa,ctoril y*A to &tat:: s and property ; and
their ready. offers of military service
at a eritieal time tightened the bond be-
tween the m)therlan.l and her stal- wart
effshoot.m. Canath had its trouble with
&its Riel rebeliitn ; but the Dominion Gov-
oremrint, having suppressed the insurrection
is addreening itself to the removal of every
legitiramte grievAuce of the half-breeds ; and

we trust the outcome will be the eradication
of all illfeelingy To turn to home affairs,
we find the country looking anxiously to
Irish matters, which are assuming a critical
aspeet. Since the early months of the year
peat, there have been no notorious outrages
perpetrated by the dastardly dynamite gang
'identified in the public mind with the Fenian
tonspirscy, and it may reasonably be as-
that the information gained by the
tIL Sea
rc If Lug for the material
police .
witiel4 securect ...11° conviction of Burton and
o,drrikiinharrli /mg goilletiiiffg to do with
Wt. The- ritw Pi.wliament, whose election
has so atcorbe4 public attention for many
weeks, wil have 14' tfdttd with the demandef tome eighty °ell of its memb3rs. that
Ireland 'hall be permitted to its own local
Oaks. It is to be earnestly hoped that
tome otisfactory scheme will be formulated
sui4 prgFee4 W, Last January found Mr.
'illadstone at thp load of the Government;
)114by a comb4tation of oircumstances his
ian}iaistfa4ou Ouffered ciefeat, rlmigne
. 1-;,;;.4 AnlisburY. ThWii

course, the present Government came out of
the battle of the polling boo Vis in a minority
of over nighty as compared with the Liberals
fv) that the Parliamentary history of the year
to come givts promise of wealth of incident
That its deliberations may not be disturbed
by discord, but that all parties may so sub-
ordinate their prtisauship to the nation's
good. as to make practical legislative progress
possible will be the desire of all influenced by
patriotism. Our corn harvest of 1885 was a
good one; but agriculture, and, we regret-
fully add, commerce generally, has been
somewhat under a cloud. May the youn,
year bring us brighter and better things
in this respect. • If we except the calamity
whose shadow now hangs over the Rhondda
Valley; the similar sad affair at Usworth,
near Newcastle, in March ; the late terrible
fatal fire at Plymouth ; and the fearful fuse
explosion at Shoeburyness, we have not
been appalled during the year past by dis-
astrous occurrences in Britain involving the
loss of many lives, which is a matter for
much thankfulness. May 1886% when it
closes, leaves us less to deplore than "the
year that's awa',' and even more to remem-
ber with gratitude and satisfaction.