The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-24 00:00:00

Ora gonbon Corrtspototnt.

(We deem it rh;ht to state that we do not at all VOA
identify ourselves with our Correspondeut's ophdons.

Those visitors to the Co-lonia' and Indian Ex.-
hi hition, who had come from Canada or Australia,
from India or New Zealand, and who had heard
and read much about the variableness of our
English weather, have had abundant o2nortunity
during their stay of verifying their preconceived
opinions. For scarcely any summer of recent
years has furnished a greater variety of weather
-than the one through which we are passing. A
week will sometimes be ushered in by winds
which, in point of chill, would not yield to those
of Kamschatka, and it will go out with a breath
of hot air which recalls memories of the sirocco.
It needs a hardened constitution to bear with
these frequent and violent changes, and, if it be
hard for those of British birth to escape ill,
how much harder must it be for those who
come from shadier and balmier climes ? The
worst feature of the weather in the estimation
of our visitors is that it can never be
reckoned upon for a couple of hours together.
A few nights since a conversazione was given
at the Exhibition, to which a large number of
our Colonial friends were invited. It had been
a fine, warm day, and they assumed that they
could fairly come clad in ordinary evening attire.
But with the evening a nipping and an eager air
set in, with the result that those unprovided
with such articles sighed for wraps, and a plenti-
ful crop of coughs and colds was reaped as a con-
sequence of the night's amusement. It is no
wonder, therefore, that our visitors, like our-
selves, should find much to grumble at in the
English weather.
The project for turning the present exhibition
into the nucleus for a permanent Colonial
Museum, thou?li much talked about, has not yet
come to a head, for there are difficulties in the
way, of which the outside public know nothing,
and the strength of which only the initiated can
fully judge. Everybody who has any acquaint-
ance with the subject appears to agree upon the
desirability of establishing such a museum as
that contemplated ; but immediately details
are attempted to be arranged difficulties
begin. The first of these, and one which
so far has proved the most serious, is
the question of site. As all the world knows,
the present exhibition is being held at South
Kensington, and, as every visitor to London is
aware, that district is very decidedly in the West
End of the town. An influential section among
those who have its management desire to have
. the museum in about the same spot, but a great
number of the Colonial Commissioners are
strongly of opinion that a better site would be
on the Thames Embankment, or some such
central place, so that business men could visit it
without being compelled to take a comparatively
long railway journey for the purpose. And even
if this point be settled, there are several others
to be got out of the way before the scheme can
las placed on a satisfactory basis. It would be a
pity if, amid conflicting interests and perhaps
conflicting jealousies, such ail excellent project
should come to naught, for all who have visited
the Exhibition agree that no better method
could be devised of impressing upon the British
public the extent and resources of our colonies
than a permanent institution embodying all the
essentials of the present collection.
During the first week of the Wimbledon meet-
ing our citizen soldiers there assembled had
much discomfort to meet in the matter of
weather, and this was the more annoying because
it is during that week that most of the shooting
• ta'ses place. Of the two thousand and more
volunteers who enter for the various competi-
tions, a very large proportion leave the camp on
the Saturday following the opening, these having
failed to secure a place in any of the lists which
would justify them in staying the remaining
week. But though rain was frequent there was
the consolation to be extracted that there have
been "worse Wimbledons," and the camp did
not present the same appearance of a swamp as
it has done on some former occasions. To judge
by what one could hear from veterans who had
taken part in many a Wimbledon meeting,
the changes which have been introduced into
• the programme this year have, on the
whole, given satisfaction. Grumblers there
will always be, whatever is done or left un-
done, but the desire of the Council of the
National Rifle Association so to profit by
the experience of past years as to make regu-
lations which would prevent prizes being won by
luck rather than steady shooting is acknowledged
on all hands. The moststriking change in the pro-
gramme, as far as the outside public is con-
cerned, was the omission of the customary match
between representatives of tho House of Lords
• and those of the House of Commons. Various
causes are believed to have operated in effecting
the extinction—for, although spoken of as tem-
porary, it is likely to be permanent—of this com-
petition. The semi-official explanation is,
that the general election stood in the way of
getting good teams together, and doubtless that
had something to do with the disappearance of
a match which years ago used to create much
interest.

We are hearing a good deal of the new coinage
which is to celebrate the jubilee year of the
Queen and before we see the coins themselves
• we are likely to hear a great deal more. All that
.13 at present known is that her Majesty has
• 'determined that a likeness much more re-
sembling herself than the one which
has so long been used shall be placed
upon the coins, and that Mr. Boehm has been to
Windsor to model a special portrait for the die-
sinkers at the Mint. But the very fact that a
new coinage has been promised has sufficed to
call into the field of newspaper correspondence a
whole host of letter-writers with suggestions.
Some ask that certain of the new coins shall be
• regarded as memorial medals, while others, and
• these are a very large number, demand that the
opportunity shall be taken for introducing the
decimal monetary system. These latter, while
-- abounding in suggestions for the easy change of
the present system to a decimal one—no two of
which, however, appear to agree—forget the
cardinal fact that the establishment of a decimal
coinage is not a matter for the Mint authorities
to settlo, but is peculiarly one for Parliament to
decide. It may be that this august body would
afsrm in favour of the decimal system, but there
is no present reason for believing that it would;
and it is very probable that the new coins will
exactly resemble the old ones in all except tho
ness of the Queen.
The new coins, however, will have a distinct
I:l.,:torical as well as artistic value as compared
with the old, in that the Royal face will be a
likeness and not a conventionalised abstraction.
It dues not require one to be a professed numis-
matist to know how much knowledge we havo
•
gained of past history from the coins which have
been left to us. The faces of Roman Emperors
• and of early English Kings have become known
to men of to-day because of the coins upon which
they were stamped, and, although the likeness
may not have been peifect, we are bound to
believe it was sufficiently close to be recognisable.
And in these times it is not only coins which are
preserved because of their artistic or historical
significance, but postage stamps are being
• collected for the same reason. It is, therefore,
• Loped by many that the introduction of a new
face to the coinage may be accompanied by the
introduction of a new face to the postage stamps.
In some Continental countries the desire that an
exact likeness of the Sovereign shall appear
on the stamps is so great that the
dies, are altered with each change in the
- Royal face. Every growth of beard or accretion
of whisker is marked as the years go on, and a
collection of Spanish stamps, for instance, issued
• during the reign of Alfonso, will show the
development of the sovereign from a lad to a
young man' and then to a man of riper years.
• We do not expect, or ask, for such frequent
• changes in English stamps; but now that the
Queen has resolved upon having a likeness of
herself on the coins, it may be considered a con-
venient opportunity for a similar likeness to be
placed on the postage labels.
Duelling has gone so completely out of fashion
iii England that it is with a sense of astonish-
ment tiiat we read of the frequent duels which
occur in France. That between the Minister of
, War (General Boulanger) and Baron Lareintv,
fought within the last few days, has created
more attention on this side the English Channel
. than any French duel since the late M. Gam-
oetta contended with M. do Fourtou. Of that
• encounter Mark Twain wrote an excellent bur-
lesque account in "A Tramp Abroad," and to
• the English mind, it would seem to require
•- another humourist of equal powers to
- rightly report the Boulanger - Lareinty in-
. • r'-identa - . It shows the essential difference
• between the temperaments of the t aTo
peoples that what to the French appears abso-
lutely sublime, seems to us to be utterly ridicu-
lous. One pistol hiving missed Era and the
other having done no damage, the combatants,
we are told, shook hands, the one saying to the
other "I have never doubted your loyalty or
your chivalrous courage," and the other saying
to the one "And I never thought that you had
personally accused me of cowardice, but I was
anxious to face your fire." This reconciliation.

it is atla.cd, "uas rnaiked by great courtesy
and the contrast between it and the exchange of
insults in the Senate which led to the duel, is
cert4nly striking. But when we recollect that
within the present century, several duels have
been fought by English statesmen, we must not
abandon hope that the French may yet see how
absurd the whole system is. It is difficult for
us to realise in these days that Canning, Castle-
reagh, Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wel-
lington all fought duels, or that Mr. Roebuck,
who died not seven years ago, had a similar en-
counter. But history tells us that they all did,
and history adds that, as in the case of the
Boulanger-Lareinty affair, very little damage
was done.

This is the time of year for agricultural shows,
and though dwellers in London can have little
direct concern in them, we cannot help noticing
in our newspapers how they progress. The
Royal, which this summer has been held at
Norwich, is, of course, the one which has
attracted most attention, and, though it was.
hardly up to the average, it was full of interest
for all concerned in agriculture. But beyond
the Royal and the Bath and West of England—
which are the greatest shows of all—there are
county exhibitions in almost every shire, which
are always deserving of consideration. The last
occasion upon which the metropolis had the
opportunity of seeing a thoroughly good show of
this kind will long be remembered by Londoners.
It was in 1879 that the Royal held their show
at Kilburn, one of our north-western suburbs,
and the largest display which had ever been
got together was provided for our amuse-
ment and instruction. But the rain, it rained
every day; torrents fell from the beginning of the
week even unto the end thereof; and the show-
ground was a swamp into which one scarcely
dared penetrate. The result was failure, and
this through no fault of the promoters; and
Londoners thus lost an opportunity which had
not occurred for a long time previously, and
which will not occur for a long time again, of
seeing a thoroughly representative agricultural
show. A. F. R.