The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-10 00:00:00

Our funbtn Corrtspedent.
[We deem it right to state that we do not at all titnee
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

The Elections in the counties and boroughs of Eng-
land and Wales have proceeded with greater rapidity
than in either 1868 or 1874, and the returns will con-
sequently be completed much earlier than was at first
anticipated. Even in the most distant and remote
constituencies—whether_in the extreme north of Scot-
land, or in the far west of Ireland—all will be over
before the 20th instant, nine days before the date
fixed for the opening of the new Parliament. The
Lords spiritual and temporal, the knights, citizens,
and burgesses, and the commissioners for shires and
burghs in the House of Commons, constituting the tenth
Parliament of the present reign, will then assemble at
Westminster under circumstances marking the opening
of a new era in English political history. There is
always a great deal of interest attached to the meeting
of a new Parliament. After its predecessor has lasted
a long time, as in the case of the House dissolved on
the 24th ult., there is certain to be a large number of
changes in personnel, and these sometimes amount to
quite a third of the entire-body. The Parliament now
above to be constituted will probably include more than
200 new members. But after a short Parliament, such as
that which lasted only from 1837 to 1859, the changes
are not so many, and then they numbered only 131.
Now, however, with so many new men, there will
naturally be a very considerable degree of publio in-
terest in the constitution of an assembly fresh from
contact with the constituencies, and representing the
latest political emotions of the country.
It may have been noticed that, as a rule, when a
new Parliament meets, it re-elects the Speaker who
presided over the deliberations of the previous House.
Having had experience of the important and respon-
sible duties devolving upon the occupant of the chair,
it is considered best that the man who has already
filled that high position should fill it again as being
better qualified to deal with the unknown elements
in the new assembly than one who is perfectly new to
the post. The Speaker is chosen for the entire length
of the Parliament, and should he have occasion to
retire from the chair, he generally does so at the
beginning or in the middle of the session, and not
when the Parliament has come to a close. He
never again takes his place as a 'member of
the House 2f Commons, but is raised to a vis-
countcy, with a pension of £4,000 a year for
the life of himself, and his eldest son. When
a general election has left parties evenly balanced,
it is sometimes deemed to be convenient to
try the strength of each upon the election of
Speaker, both sides proposing a candidate. And
here a very singular etiquette is observed, each candi-
date so put forward for the chair voting for his oppo-
nent, and consequently against his own party. It is
an old Parliamentary custom which has come down
from tradition, and would on no account be deviated
from. To the uninitiated it seems rather a strange
practice; but there it is, and at this time of day no
one would dream of departing from it.

The promoters of private Bills representing works
of public utility, who had succeeded in getting their
measures up to various stages in the late House of
Commons, will not lose the results of their labours ty
the dissolution and the consequent interregnum of five
weeks, as the House passed a standing order enabling
the new Parliament to take up the different Bills at
the stages at which they had arrived. But for this
provision, a large proportion of them must have been
dropped, for by the time the new House gets into
proper working order, it will be the 'middle of May,
and half the ordinary session will have expired. The
railway and other Bills will now, however, be pro-
ceeded with, just as though nothing had happened,
the delay of a. few weeks having little or no appre-
ciable effect on the prospects of their becoming law.

The quarterly Revenue Returns are a satisfactory
indication of that revival in trade of which numerous
signs have been given dning the past few months.
When the Chancellor of the E;chequer introduced
his Budget on the 11th of March, he estimated the
revenue for the financial year at £80,800,000, but the
results exceeded his anticipations by more than
£400,000. The national receipts are increasing at a
much greater rate• than had been supposed, and the
published figures justify the assumption that the tide
has at last turned, that the period of dull trade is at
an end, and that a time or prosperity is again before
the country. The contraction of the revenue, which
has materially increased the financial difficulties of the
last few years, has solely arisen from the diminished
yield of the Customs and Excise, which are once more
expanding. Other branches of the revenue are also
augmenting, and it is a fair inference that with a re-
vival of trade the recovery in the revenue will be even
more apparent in the next three months than in the
quarter for which the returns have just been presented
to the public.

People have not been so absorbed in the election ex-
citement but what they have been able to devote some
attention to a description of the Queen's visit to Ger-
many and of the ceremonial whiclT attended the con-
firmation of the Princesses Victoria and Elizabeth of
Hesse. The Castle of Hohenlohet where Her Majesty
and Princess Beatrice have been taying, is a charming
property belonging to the Duchess of Mecklenburg.
It is beautifully situated in a pleasant locality in one
of those lovely wooded dells near Baden, close to the
Black Forest. The chateau itself is small; but the
rides, walks, and drives leave nothing to be desired in
the way of delightful scenery. The Queen is expected
home in time for the opening of the new Parliament;
and, whether its sittings are inaugurated by Her
Majesty in person or not, the Sovereign will be at
Windsor in time to give her assent to the form of the
Royal Message by which her tenth Parliament will be
opened for the despatch of business.
If the Royal Academy has its attractions, so also has
the Grosvenor Gallery, the name of which is so in-
separably associated with that of Sir Coutts Lindsay.
Since his retirement from the Guards, and his subse-
quent period of service in the Indian Legion, he has;
passed his life surrounded by an atmosphere of art
and on great field-nights the owner of the Grosvenor
Gallery has a suite of apartments such as are un-
rivalled in London. He there welcomes a large
circle of celebrities, princes of the blood royal,
peers of the realm, famous artists, poets, politi-
cians, and men of letters. The talk is cheerful,
bright, and various; and invitations to these
assemblies are very highly prized. The studios of the
various eminent artists are just now full of interest,
preparatory to the opening of the Academy Exhibi-
tion, and the prices which are just now being given
for pictures are another indication of that reviving of
prosperity of which there are so many other signs
around us.

The reception accorded to Professor Nordenskjold,
the distinguished Swede who has brought to us fresh
tales of exploration from the Polar seas, is a proof
that political excitement does not extinguish the
interest felt in the recitals of Arctic
.voyage and
discovery. Although the Professor arrived here in
the full swing of the elections, and when the Easter
holidays had taken many out of town, he was very
heartily greeted by many of our best known scientific
men who admired the skill and enterprise which he had
displayed. The Prince of Wales would have presided at
a complimentary banquet which has been arranged to
be given to the intrepid voyager, but the delays in.the
arrival of the Vega compelled his Royal Highness to
leave for Darmstadt to be present at the confirmation
of his nieces. The welcome extended to Professor
Is.Tordenskjold in Paris, where the people were not
passing through the turmoil of a General Election,
was very cordial indeed; and his announcement of an
intention to go out again was accepted as an assurance
that the pluck and enterprise which has successfully
carried him through so many perils in the Northern
Seas will again be brought to bear when he once more
sets out upon his adventurous journey.

A project which is just now finding some favour-in
France is that for constructing a great ship canal
between the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay.
The Vice-President of the Senate has taken
the matter in hand, and has distributed to all
the members of both Houses of the French Parlia-
ment a circular descriptive of a scheme for mak-
ing a water-way between Bordeaux and Narbonne.
There can be no doubt at the suggested
plan is one of immense importance to France. If
carried out it would save six or seven days of steam
between Bordeaux and Marseilles, Genoa, or Leghorn,
and three or four to ports more to the south. It would
be of immense value in case of a war, for it would
enable France to use at once her whole maritime force
either in the Mediterranean or in the Atlantic. It
would become a question whether the canal could be
used by England as a direct line to Alexandria or
India, but this must necessarily depend upon its size
and the rate at which vessels could pass through. The
project is described by competent judges as a feasible
one, and no difficulties exist in the way of unequal
levels or of elevation of the ground. The question is
simply one of expense; and the point for the French
Government to decide is in the first place how much
it will cost; and in the second, whether the financial
and national advantages to be gained from the con-
struction of such a canal are sufficiently great to justify
the nation in carrying it out.

Travellers in Italy who have had the good fortune to
ascend Mount Vesuvius will remember that nothing
could be more delightful in the spring time than the
ride through vineyards and fields green with the
i3prouting maize. In the distance might be seen the
lovely shore of Naples, in squares of varying colour,
dotted with white towns, backed by the azure of the
lent sea. Those who struggled] up the mound of

ashes to the ascent were rewarded by a view extending
from the Apennines to tre Pontine Marshes, the crater
itself showing a faarvellous wealth of colour—beautiful
shades of yellow, green, and red mottling its steaming
sides. The tourist had ample opportunity of en-
gaging his meditations, for seldom were two parties
on the mountain together. But the locomotive, so
familiar in the great centres of civilisation, has
at last penetrated to the sides of this dreaded
burning mountain. It undertakes to convey any
number of travellers from the bottom to the top of the
volcano in ten minutes; a station has been built, with
a café restaurant, where one hundred people oan be
accommodated. The railway is of the latest American
system, with a double iron rope, and every modern
improvement. One carriage going down draws
another up, and every precaution has been taken to
avoid accidents. Thus are the world's great spectacles
popularised and brought within the reach of those
who, with time and money in their favour, have
ample opportunity of bringing themselves acquainted
with the elements of interest which they possess.