The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-10 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

Y Prcm,d—from S—unday to Sunday with doll
...-...........
Voracity of the official oormorante. " !twig Secenil
, -..y service bidden
In the pressure of the Governor of the Soite that the appoint-
mer ttotl e office of Cm porat ion Attortny was sold to one yet neglected ; and whilst there were the still infre-
incumbent for the sum cf l 000 doh' B, ow 55 all ‘,.. Ottent celebrations of the Holy Comninnion—infre-
o .
testicles are even more ril.gracefuL Sworn testimony from q uent even when it was plainly otherwise ordered -
thirty-six situ-cares has established the fact that appoint- they ought to be careful how they painted mordant
wants to place. In the public schools are systematically sold comments on others who might exceed the stanclar,L
of
He would have them endeavour, with all heartinheartinessin some the warns.' "One young
buried her fatter and had a helpless mother lady, who hail lust
to support, sgt.
plied lota situation as told, that
and l loyalty, to carry out the principles and practice of
" teacher, and wise as usual,
she most pay for It Sic, replied that she could Mot raise the Church, and then God might grant to their
the sum demanded , the f unoral expenses having exhausted the example a power of persuasiveness which He might
family store. She was then Informed that she could pay the deny to their words.
tax in inistalmente Another poor girl came to the witness-
stand on crutches, and testified that she had paid 75 dole, fore
situation of 30 dol. • year Another lady went to a
member of the Ring, and told him with tears that she saw
no wey of procuring tie stun reitittred, nor even of saving
it from the slender salary of the place. The man was
moved by her anguish, ant Buhl he would remit lits
share of' 'the tax,'" .. . "We learn from the report of
the Committee that the • Ring 'in this ward was originally
formed for the retirees purpose of giving the situations in
S new and handsome school 'to the highest bidder,' and,
as the opening of the rew school Inv..lved the discharge of
a small 'Lumber of teschers employed in the old schools,
the ' Ring' had both the fear and he ambition of the
teachers to work upon, ' f he•e was a perfect reign of terror
in the ward,' says t're report of the Investigating Com-
mittee. 'Pm agent performed Ms duty with alacrity mid
with a heartlessness worthy of the employers. It appears
that he rot only summoned the teachers to conie to him,
hut that he called on their parents anti friends as to the
annoent they should pay for their appolotmenta—the eimis
varying from 50 dela to 600 dots., according to the posittin
sought.'"
Briar how the contract system works. The legislature, Iti
°Ni,i. to stop plunderbig, had enacled that contracts shield
be alearded tin the lowest bidder. "We have before us a
successful tit.' for supplying the city offices with stationery,
in which we find tne bidder offeriog to supply 'bins folio
Poet' at one cent per ream ; 'napalm bonum pem' at one
cent per unite; 'lead pencils' at Olie cent per deem :
• English sealing wax' at one cent per po ttttt I, and eighty
three other articles of stationery at the uniform price of
one bent for the usual parcel. This was ' the lowest bid,'
and .it was, of course, accepted le appeared, however,
when the bill was presented for payment that the particular
kind of paper styled 'thin. 'olio poet' bad never bees called
for, nor any considerable quantity of the other articles pro-
posed to be supplied for one cent. No one, strange to say,
hail ever wanted, • magnum bonum pens' at one cent a
grosh, but in all the offices the cry had been for ' l'erry's
extra fine,' at 3 dors Scarcely any one had flied
'envelopes letter size' at one cent • hundred, but there
had been countless calls Vt. • envelopes note size' one
cent each. Between the paper called 'blue folio post'
at Cele cent pie ream and the paper called • foolscap . Vim
ruled,' at 51‘1,11., the difference was too slight to Se perceived;
but 'every one had used the foolscap. Of what avail are con-
trocis when the officials who award them and thp other
officials who pay the hill are in league with the contractor to
steal the piinlia money f " "We cannot," it ls said in another
Moos. "give detain of the manner In which mean men steal
from the price of the school-children's copy-nook, and slate
pencils, nor open up the enormous and complicated cheat
whibb Is covered by the word • stationery : ' how the hard-
Canted claims of poor labourers are 'shared.' under pre-
tents, that there is no money to pay them in the treasury ;
by What means a clerk of • market enjoys an income equal
to that of the President of the United States, how the
funerals of eminent men, the celebratiou of natiomi festivals,
an the return of scarred veterans front the seat of war
ha been made the occasion, first of drunken revelry, and
af &rd. of wholesale plunder; how the delicate wines
I.
pr.:gilded for the sick in the public Institutions are poured
Moen the filthy toilets of men whose natural drink is oistilled
molasses; how the most valuable ferry lease., wharf privi-
leges, and railroad charters are given away, or sold fir a
tenth of their value, to ' dummies' who represent the yery
men who grant them."
We now come to the causes which the writer gives for this
!venal corruption under which the expenolture of the
of New York has risen to if ,0 0,000 dole. yearly—that is,
doh. for every man, woman, omi child within its limbs.
, tire are still quotleg from The Tow's:. The chief cause is
distinctly stated to lie the abiilition of the household restric-
tion arid the &Manion to the poll of all eitirmns, native and
foreign, except criminals mai madmen—a change which
Marten Van Buren opposed on the ground that it would
drive from the pods all soher-minded people, 1.114
take away one powerful motive to virtue by abolishing
the distinction between voters and non-voters The
only safety, accordbig to the North American Reriele.
is •Is Imposing some quall9c,thui for the exercise 4
the sliffrage. There Is, Indeed, in the case of the city of
New York another expedient which has been recommended
—the transfer of the City 6,overionent to the Slate Legis-
lature. But to this, which would heist beet a make3hift,
there is one unanswerable objection. The State Legislature
lea. corrupt no the Cstu Government. This seems to us the
lutist important part el the icicle which we are considering.
Is might be said that there was something exceptional
in' the state of the city through toe congregation In it of
thousands of Ignorant foreigners ate' of the worst class of
natives. But the writer tells us that the same thing has
begun in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, San
Francisco, Chicago, Aloany, Rochester, Buffalo, St. Louts,
and mane other either.
The Tillie, concludes Its articles by saying ,—" In these
revelations made, let it be remembered, by as, America/land
p-..tliatied in an American periodical of the highest authority,
there is surely a lemon for ourselves. The people of New
York State are as a body beVer mincoted and more prmpe•
rout than the people of any district In these islands: aim yet
under the suffrage 01 the multitude, the city Is at the mercy
of ' the great grog.shop Interest, which can send to the poll
75,000 votes . while the State Legislature wallow. in corrup-
tion, 'no meaaure, however, meritorious, escapes the atten-
tiou of 'suitors "—that is, of members who will vote
against it unless they are paid to vote for it; and even the
public charities have to pay black snail in order to obtain
Om requisite grants for their support. Is the science of
politic. inductive, and to he built up by experiments on
human nature and Mimeo society? Or is it to he based on
assumptions and a priori theories? If the latter, we may
give the suffrage indiscrimately to every one who crime for it ;
11, on the other hand, experience is to avail us, we may well
ask what ills doing 11l other countries among men of our
own race?"
A MODERN "JEANIE DEANS."

HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC, '
AND LOSS OF LIFE.
The storm which lately swept across the Atlantic
and the American seaboard appears to have been of the
most disastrous character, and the list of shipping
casualties will, no doubt, be one of the longest, and
most deplorable on record. The island of New Provi•
deuce has been swept by the centre of the cyclone, and
the devastation done is fearful in the extreme. More
than half of the town of Nriosan is in ruins. Most of
the houses have been unroofed, many blown to pieces,
and some moved bodily from their foundations into
the streets. Churchee, warehnusen, and buildings of
solid stone are shattered, as if by a bombardment,
The trees are destroyed leaf and branch as if by a
couflagration. Nearly every vessel and boat has been
sunk or washed up high and dry, On the outer
islands the destruction of property and the consequent
suffering are said to be dreadful. The ship Southamp-
ton, which reached New York on the 23rd ult.. from
Liverpool, eueounteredfrightful weather in the Atlan-
tic. From the time she left Liverpool she experienced
a succession of head winds, and was forty days in
Making the Banks. .Oa the 2nd of October she
encountered a hurricane, when she lost and split
sails, and had maintopsailyard carried away; sprung
jitiboom, and stove the forward and midship houses,
bulwarks, &c. One of the seamen, named Con-
ner, was killed; another had his thigh broken;
and two others were washed overboard, but were fortia-
nately steamer Theodore I). Wagner of
Boston, bound to Charleston, was completely de,troyed
by fire on the 20th ult. The crew and passengers were
saved by two vessels who Were passing by at the time.
—The brig Bearer, which arrived at New York on the
22nd ult, experienced a hurricane aff the Tort:wait, and
had her decks completely swept. The steward, James
Seam, was washed overboard and drowned. Several
other ships were . seen by the &aver disabled,
but no assistance couM te rendered.—The Hastings,
from Boston to New Orleans, has foundered at sea,
but the crew, with the exception of one seaman, were
saved. —The ship Samuel Tarbox.bound from Baltimore
to Aspinwall, has also foundered at sea, and five men
have perished. The captain and nine of the crew had
been landed at Newport, —The,Lord Elgin, bound from
Pensacola to Greenock, was 'Sassed on the 10th ult.,
ashore, and abandoned, on the Matanilla Reef, in the
Bahamas.—The ship Emerald Tale, From New York for
Liverpool, and the Chatsworth, front Antwerp, have
both put back to New York in a very disabled con- !
dition, both ships having been severely handled by the !
hurricane.—The Lizzie Fox, from Algoa Bay to Boston,
was also in the storm, and had 'her bulwarks,
etanchione, &c., swept away.

uoiveiial

Cal t.
49.1°11.

At the recent trial of Peter Luke, at the Dundee
Circuit Court, some of the jury. as was alleged, in-
stead of being locked up, were allowed to go here and
there and everywhere, and in consequence a petitri in
to Mr. Walpole. the present Home Secretary, was
presented on behalf of the accused, whose agent. Mr.
Paul, informs tia that the Secretary of State his cc.
nutted the application to the Lord justice Clerk, and
that, under the application and remit, the rtficiale in
Dundee are now leading precognitions, so that the
facts may be truly ascertained (we are quoting from
the Dundee Advertiser). There Las been in this case a
somewhat similar romance to that of "Jeanie Deans."
Mrs. Luke, the widowed mother of bar eon now under-
going sentence, not satisfied with the written petition on
her son's behalf, and no doubt thinking that a widow's
tears and weeds might gain her Queen's sympathy,
proceeded to Balmoral in the hope of getting an inter-
view with her Majesty. For days the widow followed
her Majesty from place to place; but, unlike "Jeanie
Desna," she failed to get an interview with royalty.
Driven to extremities, and before leaving Balmoral,
she addressed a letter to the Queen; and in am, s er to
that letter she has received a reply from her Majesty's
secretary, which shows that, however homble the
party from whom an application proceeds, the Queen
and her advisers will not overlook it. We give below
her Majeiity's secretary's letter, and, without com-
menting on the case, we have no doubt that justice
will he tally done by the Lord Justice Clerk, to whom
it is remitted. It occurs to us that either Peter Luke
mast be liberated, or that the locking up of juries
should be done away with. It lien, however, with the
Secretary of Stite now to say whether the prisoner
should be set at I betty. The communication from her
Majelity's private secretary to Mrs. Luke ia as follows :

_
Grnend Grey has renewed and sMonitted Mn. Luke's
letter to th• Queen, and, by her MaJwty's command, has
transmitted it f.Fr the comdderation of the Home Mtcretery,
by whose recomineu anon, in all such cases, her M.jesty
Ls necessarily guided.—Balmoral Oct 13, 1866

THE BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER ON
RITUALISM.
On Sunday the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol
preached a sermon on the ritualistic movement in the
cathedral at Bristol. After some few introductory
words, in which he spoke of the meaning of the words '
of his text, " Whose is this image and superscription?"
as they were originally uttered, he proceeded to Pay
that he intended to use the same words as the express
sion of the anxieties which many true hearts are at
present experiencing. He asked if the Church of
England was still asserting the truths for which her
eons had Plied their blood, or if she was —at any rate
in the teachings of some who were within her pale—
passing gradwilly into new combinations, and prepar-
ing to exchange her ancient fixity of principles for
change and compromise. Long disused ceremonies
and practices were being deliberately introduced. the
simple service of the Church was constantly receiving
novel and startling additions; and it was plainly
avowed that throe usages were intended to be ex-
pressions of enhancements and developments of
doctrine, if not of distinct changes. Whilst noticing
thin, he could not but observe that there were to some
extent countervailing consideration.. In the first
place the movement was by no means restricted to
the Spiritual teachers ; it urns shared in by the
Christian laity. Secondly, the men who were looked
to as the leaders were men of eminently pure and holy
lives, and, in hours of deep need and trial, had elitism
that they possessed true Christian courage and a deep
love for the souls which Christ gave them to save. 'Co
these two conoiderations he would add that the Church
was indebted to the men of the new movement for
giving a new tone to preaching—for making the
sermon what it ought to he. not the mere doctrinal
ePoay, not the mere outpouring of illoonnectod
thoughts or of merely impassioned word., but home
truths set forth and enforced in soul-searching
language, and confirmed alike by the witness of Scrip-
ture and the inward experiences of the tinickeued
spirit. Looking, on the one hand, to the growing
disloyalty to the Prayer-book and the scarcely con-
cealed dissatisfaction with the principles on which
it is based, and on the other hand, to the coons
tervailing considerations which he had specified,
he asked what jugdment ought to be formed
on the movement generally? Before forming any
' judgment at all, it was necessary to consider the
origin and general tendency of the movement. He
thought that in it might be seen a reaction from the
coldness and neglect of the past, and a plainly
defined antagonism to the still partially lingering
influences of the oelf.patinfied Calvinism of a former
day. There was also • righteous repugnancy to that
disbelief in the supernatural which was ouch a serious
and, he feared, a prevailing characteris•ic of the present
tidies H noticed, too—and this with sympathy—that
there was in the movement a loyal antagonism to the
secretly pervasive Sociniantom of these sal days. But
what seems to him the chief feature of this movement
was due to the mysteriously increasing desire for nutty
throughout Christendom. There was much in this desire
for union which was noble and holy, but in the form in
which it now appeared it involved and carried with it
many serious and melancholy cons quenceil. Exactly in
proportion as the desire for union increased, averoion
to what was improperly considered an act of disunion
—the English Reformation—would deepen and in.
crease, until clear disloyalty to the protesting Church,
long unconsciously felt, would become at last avowed
and justified. In expressing his judgment upon the
movement, he thought he might say, among other
things, that there was • dear desire to supplement
the Prayer-book, to rehabilitate the principles of the
Reformation, and to mottlfy to some extent that ever-
recurrent reference to the personal and subjective faith
of the individual Christian which was the prin-
ciple which our forefathers in Christ solemnly Yiii.
divided for us, which they illustrated by their lives
and their teaching, and which they seated with
their blood. In advieing him hearers, as their bishop,
as to what attitude they tanned assume amid the
perplexities which this movement was caused, he would
have them take care and not offend by falling short of
the plain teaching of the Church and the godly dis-
c.illitonof the
modification,
they
7hilsout
gig.totesnottintsoagerraintsyt
way of defect. Whilst they had their churshee closed

For each obtaining a good "beau blanc," Mr.
Lash, of the 2nd, and Ensign Walker, of the 4th
Tower Hamlets, will each have six couvertt d'aryene a
Pets, and the following will receive a leaser number
of couverts—Lientenant Pixley. of the Victoria; Mr.
Hooper, of the Queen's; Mr. Page, of Aylesbury; Mr.
Alfield, of Sussex Mr. Haigh, of the let East
York; and Mr. Cortis, of Worthing (the winner of
the King's Prize). In the rale a rolonte, in which the
competitor MIR IA enter as often m he liked, Lieutenant
Pixley, Mr. Hsigh, of Hull; and Lieutenant Marriner,
of the West Middlesex, each made 22 points.
. The English who made " Llano;" and will receive
small prizes, are Mr. Field, of Arundel ; Mr. Woolley.
of Chester; Mr. Self, of Aylesbury; Mr. Gibbii, of
Bristol ; Mr. Cooper, of Liverpool ; and Ensign
Walker, of the 4th Tower Hamlets. Them prizes are
to be ',resented in a few weeks' time at the church of
St. Augustine at Brussels. ,

_
' servant promised to marry her. A few days later, how-
ever, her body, bearing marks of death by strangula-
tion, was found on • road at some distance from the
farm, and had to all appearance been placed there
during the night, as a medical examination showed
that death had occurred three or four days before, and
some children who had been playing at the spot on
the tirevMus afternoon had seen nothing of the corpse.
Simon on being questioned at first said that the girl
had quitted his service; and on traces of the blood
which had issued from her nose and mouth being dis-
covered in a loft, the accused said that she had com-
mitted suicide after a quarrel with his father. Those
statements were, however, proved to be false, and a
verdict of guilty having teen returned, the man was
sentenced to twenty years' hard labour. ' •