The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-11-09 00:00:00

vernment, and such a feeling was manifested against
him that the police authorities had warned him to be
careful in walking out at night, and frequently he felt
compelled to seek the protection of the police. Hew as not
there to say that the Government had committed no
mistakes, but considering what they had done their
blunders were few and trivial, and the discoveries of
their opponents had proved mares' sects. (Laughter
and applause.) Alluding to the discontent prcvailing
in Ireland, he said it was his opinion that it was due to
disappointed political agitators, who, in consequence of
the passing ot beneficent measures for the sister country,
found themselves in the position of Othello— their oc-
cupation was gone. (Applause.) At the close, a vote
of confidence was passed in Mr. Baxter.

In the evening the hon. gentleman met the electors
of Forfar in the Reid Hall. Provost Whyte presided,
and there was again a large attendance. Mr. Baxter
commenced by referring to the memorial of the city of
Glasgow to have the management of their post-office
freed altogether from the control of the General Post
Office in Edinburgh. He thought such a request was
exceedingly reasonable, and, more ver, it gave the
Government the opportunity of saving from £5,000 to
£lO,OOO a year, being the salaries of a number of
officials kept at the General Post Office in Edinburgh.
He had been much abused for what he had done
in this respect ; but it was his feeling that if
the Glasgow Post Office authorities were em-
powered in telegraphic matters to communicate
direct with the General Post Office in London, they
should also have the same privilege in regard to postal
communicstion. Rival deputations had waited on the
Treasury representatives; but the case of Glasgow was
unanswerable, and now the application had been sanc-
tioned. Mr. Baxter then went on to refer to the de-
sirability of having tolls abolished generally, although
this should not be done at the expense of either
counties or burghs. He had been asked, regarding
the game laws, whether he had inserted clauses in the
leases of his tenants binding them to preserve game.
He was fond of hooting;s but he thought game preser-
vation was carried to an absurd extent, and would
, bring shooting into disrepute. He could say, however,
that there was no such clauses in the leases of his
tenants. (Applause.) He agreed with Lord Derby,
that the question could not be settled but by
an agreement between landlord and tenant, by
bringing public opinion to bear on the question
of preservation of enormous quantities of game
for battues, which was not the sport of their fore-
fathers. (Loud applause.) There was a great outcry
against the public being shut out from fishing for trout
on many of the streams of Scotland, and it appeared to
him monstrous that this should be the case, and he
hoped public opinion would be btought distinctly to
bear against those who had been so injudicious as to
pass restrictions tf the kind. (Loud applause.) Mr.
Baxter afterwards adverted to the difficulties which
had attended the Admiralty reforms. He said the
firm of Baxter, Brothers, and Co. had been fined heavily
for non-delivery of duck, and would, in all probability,
have applied for a remission of the fine, but his
uncle felt that, being related to a member of- the
Government, it was better that be should lose
the money. (Applause.) It was his purpose to tell
them the real cluck story (laughter), as he had re-
frained from mentioning it in the House of Commons
out of compassion for Sir John Hay who was so much
in the mire. (Applause.) When he went to the Ad-
niiralty he found that officers in receipt of £2, £3, or
£4 a week had the absolute power of receiving or
rejecting goods as they thought proper, and on re-
presenting to Mr. Childers that it would be impossible
for him to carry on the business without an alteration
of this system, a change resulted. An order was issued
stating that any contractor who felt himself aggrieved
could apply to the Financial Secretary, and that a
competent person in the trade would decide the
matter. (Applause.) The first to appeal under
this new rule was a firm in Dundee, not Baxter,
Brothers, and Co., but their rivals in the dusk trade.
They complained of their duck being improperly re-
jected, and that they had been fined a large sum with-
out reason. The superintendent sail, "Whom shall we
employ OA arbiter?" I raid, " I will it; I am as
good a judge of duck as any man in London." (Laugh-
ter and applause.) He went to Deptford. examined the
goods, found them excellent, accepted them, and re-
mitted the fine. (Applause.) Baxter, Brothers, and
Co, a pretty wide-awake firm, heard of the rejection.
and got goods made twer again, and the consequence of
his decision was that the rivals of Baxter, Brothers,
' and Co„ had their goods accepted, while Baxter,
Brothers, and Co. had a large quantity of goods thrown
on their bands. (Loud applause.) The hon. member
' then touched shortly upon the condition of the
' Gibraltar biscuits. The naval officers signed a report
. .

to the effect that 120,0001 b. of biscuits w b ere ecorning
unfit for food, and were full of maggots and moths.
Hal the advice of these gentlemen been followed, the
biscuits would have been sold for dogs' meat. They
satisfied themselves on the evidence of Mr. Preen
that the arrangements at Deptford, where the navy
bread is made, were excellent, and that no portion of the
breadin store presented the symptoms reported from
Gibraltar. One of the heads of one of the Admiralty de-
partments was sent to Gibraltar, and he, with the as
restance of practical men, had the biscuits examined.
The result was that while moths and maggots were
found on the outside of some of the casks, the biscuits
themselves seer, good. The breast was accordingly is-
sued, and when the vessels in which it was eaten came
home four months afterwards, a fresh inspection was
made, and it was found to be perfectly good and fit for
' use. (Applause.) Then, the question was, where the
maggots and moths fiction? No. The officers who
had gone to Gibraltar found them in the store-house
and in the receptacles for the bread, and perhaps it
would be difficult to believe the statement, but it was
quite true that these repositories had never been I
properly cleansed for four years. They were literally
alive with the destroyers of bread. The energetic
acts of his successor and of the First Lord prevented
a great scandal; but what could they have done
had this careless and improper survey been re-
ported from Hongkong or Valparaiso. (Applause.)
Mr. Baxter, in conclu-ion, said that he hoped before
he met his constituents again they would be able to
see further progress in the advancement of those great
measures which tended to peace, retrenchment, and
reform. (Loud applause., Before the meeting separated
a vote of confidence in Mr. Baxter was cordially passed.
In the evening Mr. Baxter met his constituents at For-
far, when he said he hoped Government would see its
way to bring in a Bill for the abolition of tolls through.
out Scotland. He also deprecated the night sittings
of Parliament, remarking that these could only be
considered beneficial in BO far as the House formed a
lounge for lawyers and merchants after the labours of
the day. Mr. Baxter's other remarks on public ques-
tions were similar to those delivered by him elsewhere.