The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-10 00:00:00

our foOon Corrtsponent,
me deem it right to state that we do not at all times
ttlentify ourselves with our Cot-respondent's opinlons.l

Often as the charity of the British public has been ,
appealed to in alleviation of suffering and distress, it has
never been invoked in a more worthy cause than that
for which the Lord Mayor has just opened a sub-
scription list at the Mansion House. People in this
country, whose ideas of floods are based upon an
occasional overflow in the upper course of the Thames,
the Humber, and the Severn, can form but slight con-
ception of the impetuosity with which the swollen
streams of southern France, fed by the melting snows
of the Pyrenees, and by heavy and incessant rains,
rush down from the mountain slopes, and sweep like
inland seas through the valleys, their train m arked every
where by death and devastation. The calamity which
has fallen upon the beautiful, fertile, and historically-
interesting region of Languedoc, is far more terrible
than the vine disease, against which the people have
been so manfully wrestling for years. Indeed, this
appears to have been one of the most disastrous
inundations in the history of even that land of
tempest and flood. Towns and villages swept away,
myriads of acres of precious vineyards and olive
groves destroyed, thousands of lives lost, hundreds of
miles of country covered with water, and the
whole surface of the soil converted into a
very abomination of desolation, from Foix on
the south to Bordeaux on the north-west, and from
the Gulf of Lyons on the east almost to the Gascony
• coast of the Bay of Biscay—such a tale as this cannot
but excite the substantial sympathy of the people of
these islands, and there is no one who will not hope
that the Mansion House subscriptions may reach the
sum attained in 1856, when the Lord Mayor of that
time was enabled to forward £43,000 towards mitigat-
ing the misery produced by a much less serious visita-
tion than that which has just passed over so fair a por-
tion of France.
The rain which has proved so fatal to the lives and
propel ty of our neighbours, has effected a wonderful
improvt ment in the appearance of the London parks
and squares. The trees are in their full foliage, the grass
is green, the annuals show nicely in the flower beds,
and the dust and smoke have not yet had sufficient
time much to soil the freshness of the vegation. There
is a clear urigub LOOK ALMUL tile squares in particular
which for a few weeks suggests that a little bit of
pleasant country has been mixed up in the confusion
of the metropolis. They stand out like the veritable
oases in the desert of a great city. The fee-simple of
the soil usually belongs to the proprietiors of the sites
upon which the adjacent houses stand; and an Act of
Parliament empowers the inhabitants to form a coaa-
mittee to keep the grounds in order, and through the paro-
chial authorities to levy an ornamental garden rate on
the householders in the square. In return for this they
have the exclusive right of entry, and the general
public are, consequently, never found inside the
enclosure. Where all the houses in the square are the
property of one and the same landlord, such as, for
instance, Bedford, Portman, and Grosvenor, and an
anxiety is manifested to improve the estate for
residential purposes, these spots of turf and garden
are cultivated with much taste, and attended to with
every care.
The National Training School for Music, which in
its home at South Kensington is under the especial
patronage of Royalty, supplies a want which has long
been felt and expressed. Of all arts there is perhaps
none which necessitates so long a period of unremune-
rative study as music. In many other professions a
man acquainted with the mere rudiments of his work
can turn it to a little account, and soon obtain some
solid return, however small, for his labour. In the
case of music, however, years of study are necessary,
and considerable expense must be incurred before any.
thing like adequate remuneration can be expected. It
is therefore a matter for congratulation that the
Prince of Wales, as President of the Society of Arts,
should give his influence towards the promotion of so
worthy an object. There is a suitable building at
Kensington, the admission to which is to be by means
of free scholarships, obtainable by public competition.
Enthusiastic admirers of the art declare that it opens
up a new era in the history of English music; and
even if it should not succeed in producing modern
Beethovens and Mozarts, it will at least tend towards
helping to the front many artists whom force of circum-
stances at present obliges to remain in the background.
Some fresh occupation is continually being invented
foi‘the amusement of London society, and not the least
attractive just now is the diversion of summer skating.
On Prince's Ground on any of these warm afternoons
you may see it to perfection. The scene is a singular
and an interesting one. The smooth dark ground,
flanked by a row of leafy trees that separates it from
a numerous body of active cricketers ; the little tables
from which the aristocratic on-lookers sip their after-
noon tea; the various costumes of the players at cricket
and racquet as they pass to and fro; the active interest
which is taken in the recreation by the gaily-dressed
ladies; the way in which the courtly conduct of the
ball-room is preserved in the open-air dance—all these
prominent features of summer skating at Prince's
combine to give the spectacle a most picturesque air.
Clearly these afternoons on skates are in high favour;
and all whc join the moving throng show themselves
perfectly at ease upon the eight little wheels which do
duty for the blades of the real skates. The amuse-
ment is not, however, confined to this particular place,
for there are now rinks at Clapham and Brixton, West
Brompton and Belgravia.
The National Rifle Meeting at Wimbledon is always
looked forward to with great interest by the various
Volunteer Rifle Corps throughout the kingdom, for it
give, hundreds of our citizen soldiers a change, to say
nothing of the advantage of competing with marksmen
of different degrees of efficiency. It is often difficult
to define where the civilian side of the volunteer ends,
and the military side begins. For example, the Metro-
politan Volunteer commanding officers, on ;the part of
their men, have declined an invitation to visit Amiens
on the ground that it was inexpedient that the force
should appear at an international contest as a military
body, or be present on any such occasion, in the uni-
form of their respective corps. To. this, however, it
has been objected that it is impossible to regard the
Volunteers from a purely military stand point; and
that it is essential to the welfare of the corps that some
inducements besides mere drill and a uniform should
be offered to obtain recruits for the citizen army. The
time has gone by when men became Volunteers with
the sole idea of fighting, and unless something beyond
hard work is provided, it is not improbable that the
force may decrease in numerical strength. The Easter
Monday Review may not have been of much practical
value as a means of instruction, but it was a popular
outing, and helped to keep the force together. In the
same way these continental trips furnished an attrac-
tion which induced many civilians to go through the
routine of Volunteering, in which there is little change

from one year to the'other.
Of the many measures before Parliament which it
will be necessary to dispose of, for it can be neither
shelved nor withdrawn, is the Bill which provides for
the coming into force of the Judicature Act in Novem-
ber next The legal term which has just closed is the
last which will be held under the old system, which by
general consent has become cumbrous, inconvenient,
and unsuited to the spirit of the times. By the new
one the distinction between law and equity is abolished;
and both Lord Selborne in the late Administration
and Lord Cairns in the present have sought to pave the
way for the fusion by appointing Chancery lawyers to
vacancies upon the common law bench. Meanwhile,
the law courts, which long struggled for an existence
between the rival sites upon the Thames Embankment
and in Carey-street, are gradually rising above the
hoarding which surrounds the latter. For eight or ten
years past this hoarding has enclosed a howling
wileerness—a vast open space upon the north side of
the Strand, close to Temple Bar, and right opposite
the church of St. Clement Danes. Hundreds of
dwelling-houses had been swept away; and here was
the place—a desert in the midst of a busy community.
Others besides the members of the legal profession will
rejoioe that a new and splendid building is slowly
making its way from the foundations upwards. It will
be an immense improvement to that part of the town,
and 3 great convenience, not only to the bar, but also to
those who, either from choice or moat unwillingly,
indulge in the expensive luxury of litigation.
The palatial-looking buildings which dot the out,
skirts of many of our large towns, such as schools,
orphan asylums, hospitals, and homes, are often justly
the pride of the guild or trade to which they belong.
They are supported by Toluntary contributions which
are raised in different ways. One of these is by a ser-
mon of some popular preacher, another is by a bazaar,
but the favourite medium of all is the public dinner.
Willis's Rooms in the west, the "London Tavern" in
the east, the Crystal Palace in the south, and the
Alexandra in the north, are the scenes of these festive
gatherings. After the chairman has proposed the toast
of the day:, the secretary reads out the list of subscrip-
"ions, which sometimes amount to £4,000 or £5,000.
The announcements of some of the larger donations are
very warmly cheered, and in such a dining hall as that
of the new Alexandra Palace which comfortably seats
2,000 people, the jingling of that number of glasses
upon the tables is of the most lively character.
A lieutenant in the Russian navy has invented a
system of shipbuilding which, if applied to our colliers
snd coasting traders, would send them bounding along
the briny billows of the Channel
p a manner quite un-
precedented. The form of vessel a present ea
t inns h s been
maintained for centuries, with but slight modifica-
tions, but the craft in questiun circular
• shape,
and its admirers claim for it the great advantage m
ta',e
were it generally adopted, henceforth the frequent