The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-21 00:00:00

ll'Actropoilta IT 6essip.

0,7 r. OWN CoRI:IN'4.ONOLIN:.

Crt.: tool,r this le.l are to be regarded as the
exweei,n of in,wr,dent fret tile pen of a gentle.
wLn!r.l.-e_lom Lava Vio gr,atcst contidene,, but tot whir),
~ut.elrn rLoIIOtLbIC

To say that we are most of us up to our eyes in
election business; might be too strong. perhaps, but
some of us are over head and ears in this sea
of
troubles. And when the storm has passed over, when
the battle's lost and won, when the hurly-burly's
;lone, we shall be reckoning our losses and gains pre-
paratory to renewed fighting in "another place."
The first result—the upshot of the first great prelimi-
nary battle will soon be known, and speculation wills
be resolved into certainty. Meanwhile, those who are
standing on one side while skin:Malang is going on, or
who have a few moments of calm amidst the excite-
ment, may amuse themselves by an account of the I
strangely antique style in which election business is I
carried on by those who are kind enough to govern us. I
It has been remarked that it is doubtful whether any
material change has been made, with regard to the
L4BllO of election writs, since the 12i1 of December,
1264, when the Earl of Leicester first called together an
English Parliament. We still use, as then, parchment,
the particular seals, the set phrases, as employed six
centuries - ago. It seems that special messengers
carried the writs from the Crown-office at the Treasury
ti the Post-office at St. Martin's-le-Grantl. The
officer of the circulation department attended to m-
onis e them, and personally deposited them in the bags,
affixing thereto with his own trusty hand the impress
of the official seal. Strange, too, that proclamation is
still made at the Market Cross of Edinburgh, and in
the county towns throughout Scotland. So that it is
not the Bourbons alone who "have learned nothing,
and forgotten nothing." Governments, it would
appear, will not recognise railways, and the only
wonder is that they acknowledge the Post-office. It is
a pity that there should be any unnecessary delay, for
the prevailing feeling now appears to be weariness of
the long-continued strife. Everybody will be glad
when it is over, except that largsi proportion of
averylaaly " who will lose.
Without offering any comment on the following fact
permit me to quote it, merely adding that the church
referred to is part and parcel of the Church of Eng-
land "St. Clement's Cambridge. On Tuesday a
requiem mass was sung at this church for the repose
of the soul of the late Archbishop of Canterbury.
Both then and at the ordinary daily mass a large num-
ber of the faithful were present to pray for the deceased
prelate." This is from the Church New; a Church of
England paper.
As everybody's mind is more or km occupied by the
elections in our own country, it may be a momentary
relief to tigrn to an incident connected with the Presi-
dential election in America. The New York Tribune,
of October 29, says :—" Mr. Cyrus Field came from
Switzerland to London last week, and next week is
going home to vote for General Grant. How many
Americans are there who would travel 3,000 miles,
and cross the Atlantic in October, to vote? Indeed,
his journey is more than 0,000 miles, and he makes two
voyages, for he leaves his family in Switzerland, and
will rejoin them when he has put his ballot into the
box." nig is not a bail tale for the Marines, and the
remarks by which the above is followed up may be
taken with several grains of salt. Very probably one
object of Mr. Field's trip across the Atlantic was to
vote for General Grant, but to believe that this was
the object requires more faith than most of us possess.
Mr. Cyrus Field no doubt had another little matter in
view—the laying of a second Atlantic cable—and it
was very well of him to kill two birds with one stone.
So many things are expected from the new Parlia-
ment that the relative disproportion of disappointment
will probably be very great; but whatever we get, or
do not get, it is to be hoped that we shall have some
measure which will indirectly, if not directly, prevent
the frequent eases of death by starvation which now
disgrace our current history. Several such deaths
have, within the last few weeks, occurred here, and
sow case—simply because it is the last—is just I
now attracting special attention. Unhappily, there is
nothing remarkable about the case. A man is merely
starved to death—that is all ! His wife and himself,
with three children, had but about Is. a week to live
upon, out of which they had to pay 2s. for a wretched
room. For three days this poor man hail nothing to
eat but the half of a halfpenny loaf, and nothing to
drink but a little cold water. The relieving (?) officer
admitted that relief had been refused ; the man died ;
the doctor certified that he had died from starvation ;
and the jury decided that he had died "from effusion
of serum to the brain, caused by want and privation ;"
or, in plain English, that he was starved to death!
That this was in Bethnal Green will surprise no one!
Starvation there is a common malady; death by
starvation a frequent end. And this occurs in a
Christian country, boundless in its benevolence—a
country which raises mountains of money for the
relief of distress, no matter when. There must be
something radically wrong when our Poor Law allows
such sad events as this to be continually occurring.
As there is always a disagreeable proportion of
mouths to feed and food to give them, an item of news
we get from Buenos Ayres is very welcome. It seems
that the attempts to dry and export meat having
failed, a company is now to be formed for the purpose
of exporting live cattle to Europe. Seven steamers,
specially adapted for the trade, are to be built in
England. These ships will each carry 1,200 head of
cattle, and will carry apparatus for distilling 8,000
gallons of sea-water into fresh water per day. The
voyage from the River Plate to England will only
occupy about twenty-five days. But that so many
projects are put forward in brilliant CI 'lours which now
fade, and that the word of promise held to the ear is
so often broken to the hope, people might rejoice
heartily at this news. We may as; well be calm, there-
to, e, and await its fulfilment; but the promise at all
events is good, and it is to be hoped that South
America will do for us what Australia has long been
promising, but has never yet performed—materially
increase our food supply.
As a letter in The Times, signed "A. H. L.," giving a
most interesting account of the progress of Venice and
this oondition of Italy since the cessation of Austrian
rule, has been very much admired, your readers may
like to know that it is from the pen of that eminent
scholar and explorer, Mr. Layard.
The Daily Telegraph is very funny over an announce-
ment- -the writer, by-the-way, has been a long time
discovering it—that an edition of " %Vaverley" has
been published in phonetic shorthand. "Some twenty
years ago," he says, "a newspaper was published in
London, known, so far as it was known at all, by the
name of the Fondic Nib:. It was 'a gruesome sight'
to see, for a casual glance of its columns suggested the
horrible idea that the alphabet had gone demented."
Now with all due deference to this writer, permit me
to say that no publication of this name was ever issued
at aIL The Telegraph has not the type to print the
two words properly, and as I presume you have it not
also, I cannot give the right mode of spelling; but to
give due credit to the inventors of phonetic spelling
and shorthand, it is only right to state that the
alphabet, containing, if my memory serves me, forty
letters, Was partly composed of peculiar signs, repro-
genting the exact sound, and the triumphs of children
taaining to read by this alphabet (and then learning
the pisaolt no-system) were really marvellous, and are
fos seight I know. With all its faults, how-
ever, raw pre*.r.t mode of spelling is such that no
better system can poaribly replace it, as the phonetic
enthusiasts have found to their cost.

We have not heard anything lately cf the scheme to
smite England and France by a submarine tunnel; but
a little fact transpires, which tends to show that we
must not look very hopefully for French capital to
carry out the project, supposing it is actually started.
It seems that Calais has been made almost inaccessible
by a great bank of sand which has risen at the entrance
of the harbour. This is an old complaint, to a greater
or less extent, and the French have often talked about
improving, the harbour, but have never done anything.
A l'aris correspondent now writes: "I hear that
English speculators are ready to meet France half
way, and give £lOO,OOO to make a harbour into which
big steamers might come, bringing with them passengers
who have not been sick and shaken to death, but that no
French people, public or private, will join them."
There Li smile little exaggeration here, but there is, no
doubt, much truth. Especially at this time of the year
it is important that we should have improved Channel
steamers. People going across that narrow strait at
this season suffer awfully, and this is partly owing to
the small, incommodious steamers that are necessarily
kmployed. It is a pity the French have not a little
moruenterprise.

The Spanish Provisional Government are effecting
many reforms, some of which may serve m hints
to oulvelves. For instance, the censorship on dramatic
works hem been abolished, while directors and managers
are made responsible for any offence against morality
in the pieces they produce. That is just what we
want in England. Our divided censorship over
theatres and music-halls might well be abolished, while
Hovision might be made for prosecuting managers in
ease of any fragrant breach of public morality. This
I. all the censorship we require, and it would be in-
Cnitely better than the present system, which strains
at gnats and swallows camels.

People were rather startled the other day on realing
that no less than 201 divorce ream were coming heft,' e
the Court this term, but I expect that if we had the

statistics of applications for divorce in America they
would be fowl(' to outnumber ours in proportion to
' population. The obtaining divorce is a regular pro-
fession there, and one professor of the art of untying
the Gordian knot thus advertises : " Absolute
divorces legally obtaintA in any State, without publi-
city or exposure, good everywhere. Desertion, non-
support, drunkenness, &c.„sufficient cause. No charge
till divorce übtaineffi Cot sultation free." No house-
agent could advertise in a more business-like way.
It would seem from this that our American cousins
can obtain divorces much more readily than we can.
The "&c." is especially suggestive, and the promises to
obtain divorce without publicity or exposure is one
which certainly could not be kept in our own country.
We may now, however, look for more divorce cases
here than ever, as by the new Act, where there is no
appeal, divorced parties are at liberty to marry again
a. soon as the decree absolute is pronounced. By the
way, there has been a monster meeting in Paris, to
agitate for the intro,ffiction of divorce into France.