The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-12 00:00:00

Our fonbon torrtspenbent.
(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

The maritime disaster in the Bay of Biscay haegiven
additional gloom to the darkening days, and the hes of
the La -Plata Comet to us at about the same time as last
year we .received the intelligence of the collision in
Mid-Atlantic between the Yale du Havre and the
Lachearn. Many more lives were then sacrificed, but
the later calamity came upon the people with much
more melancholy force. In the first place the disaster
occurred very near home—in the dreaded Bay of
Biscay, where the London was engulphed nine yeare
e:o this Christmas ; and ia the next place most of the
;tinks were scientific men, well known in the circle..
of London euciety. They went out to assist in the
development of mk of the most wonderful inventions
of human skill—the electric telegraph—but the ship
which be them was torn to pieces like aratchwood by
tins° forces of nature which have existed since the
world began. Within sixty, hours of their dropping
dewy qe;rtignef lee paa ty of 91,ectidsians found them-
series flub to race With in ibevifible &our. How many
of these unf.irtunate gentlemen, as they gathered upon
c:.c. deck cf the fast sinking vassal-- waves to the right,
waves to the left, waves all around--must have thought
if home that Sunday f orenoon, when allover the land the
chimes of ten thomand steeples were inviting crowds of
worshippers toassemble for prayer and praise! But few

indeed of thosegathered in the churches, as they chanted
the passage in the Venite extelieynits "The sea is Ills, and
He made it," could have had an idea of what WWI

passing on board the telegraph ship, part after part of
which was at that very moment being carried away by.
lie kW: 01 She hut-rims-ie. About half-past twelve in
the day, BA the populations .1 our towns and villages
; were issuing forth in thousands from their places of
worship, the weakened vessel succumbed to the
vii leers of the storm, and went down stern foremost
in the midst of the boiling, wrathful sea. Life is made
.p of contrasts truly, for in this case those on board
were enjoying comfortable homes one Sunday, and
upon the next found their graves in the bed of the
ocean. It is another chapter added to the long list of
dangers of the deep; another chronicle which testi.
Lento the perils of the life led by " those who go down
to the sea in ships," and do business in the great
aters.
'Elie distribution by the Queen of the medals for con-
spicuous gallantry to the men who Nerved in A.shantee
was a graceful act, and the kind words spoken by the
Sovereign to those who, twelve months ago, were
braving the dangers which beset them in the territories
f King Koffee, will never be forgotten by them.
In succeeding years they will have to tell of the
'melons reception of her Majesty in the grand
corridor of Windsor Castle, of the interest shown
in the ceremony by the Princess Beatrice, of the
kindness of those attendants who showed them over
the Palace, and of the very excellent dinner which
was provided for them under the roof of our
Sovereign's home. A ceremonial of international
interest, immediately preceding the presentation of
the medals, testified to the good feeling of the French
nation towards the English people for the enormous
sum of money raised in this country for the relief of
the sick and wounded during the war. There were, I
know, some cynical spirits who declared that if Farnce
and Prussia liked to go to war they must take the
..onsequences, one of these being the untended suffer-
ings of the wounded, but the majority of our people,
ever anxious to relieve suffering and misery in any
form, nobly responded to the appeal which was made.
Of course the money so raised was applied to the relief
of the wounded of both nations, but in addition to
this special funds were subscribed for Prance, as for
instance that initiated by the Daily News for allevia-
ting the distress in the north-eastern districts,
which reached the respectable sum of £20,000, and
the Mansion House Fund upon the capitulation (I
Psris. That represented a sum of about £120,000,
and the French people now tell us how grateful they
are for our remembrance of them in the•ltuur of
adversity. The Queen's gracious acceptance of the
address, if thanks will give satisfaction across the
Channel, and the terms in which her Majesty ox-
pressed her serum of the good feeling now existing
between the two nations, All meet with a general and
hearty endorsement.

The Fourteenth of December is a date which in each
succeeding year is remembered in this country as the
anniversary of the death of the Prince Consort.
Thirteen years have rolled away since that fatal Satur-
day, when the great bell of St. Paul's sent forth its
solemn tones at midnight, telling the citizens of the
departure from this world of one who had left such a
mark upon the history of this country. Boom ! boom!
its loud reverberations struck out mournfully upon the
silent air, and was heard for miles over the sleeping
capitaL Hundreds of thousands then heard its deep-
toned notes for the first time, for the great bell of
St. Paul's is never tolled except upon the death of a
member of the Royal Family. The fact of its sounding
at at midnight only invests the knell with an extra-
ordinary degree of solemnity, and those who once hear
it never forget the impression which it makes. But
the 14th of December is not altogether a day of sad
memories. Three years ago, as this date was slowly
approached, and the Prince of Wales lay battling for
life with typhoid fever at Sandringham, and when
every word in the official bulletins was scanned with
the deepest anxiety, there was a popular belief that if
the l'rince paseed safely over that day he would recover.
Theday came, and found the Heir Apparent better; and
As we all know, he is with us now in all the bloom
and vigour of manhood. No one who was in London
oa that time will ever efface from the memory the
all-absorbing excitement of "those painful, terrible
days" of Is Lich the Queen afterwards spoke in her
message of Thanksgiving. The bulletins were regu-
larly telegraphed from the Home Office to every
police station in the metropolis, and the instant
they were placarded, eager crowds surrounded them.
I well recollect having to go to Marlborough House,
the Prince's town residence about nine o'clock in the
evening of Sunday, the 10th December. Snow lay
thickly upon the ground, and there was a bitter
piercing wind, but the people were waiting outside in
thousands for the posting of the eight o'clock
bulletin, and scores of cabs were drawn up whose
loccupants, chiefly members of the metropolitan,
foreign, and provincial press, were no sooner ac-
quainteol with the terms of the medical report, than
they rattled off to the telegraph offices at a speed
which is not often ventured upon in the streets of
London. It was such a scene as one witnesses only
once or twice in a life time ; and when after the 14th
the tremendous tension which had strained the
public mind was removed, there was such a feeling
of relief as is experienced only upon being brought
fare to face with an impending and apparently in-
evitable calamity that upon being steadily confronted
slowly and reluctantly disappears.
The telegram from the British Political Agent at
Zanzibar, which has just been published at the Royal
kographical Society, is cf much interest not only to
scientific men, but to the public generally. We now learn
that Dr. Livingatone's journals have survived the
perils of African transit, and have actually reached
Zanzibar. To those who remember how long the great
traveller was lOC to the world, this intelligence will
be o xtremely welcome, and nc one can doubt that the
diaries will foe full of information. There is, indeed,
an inexhaustible fund of the romantic in all that con-
cerns the Entrain and the counsel of the Nile. The
periodical rising of the river in its progresa through
the land oof Egypt, and the relation of that land to
the stirring events recorded in the earlier books of
noses, account for the general desire on the part of
intelligent men to know something ef the origin of
that mystic stream. It had been flowing for thousands
of years before the discovery of America, yet America
has become a colossal nation and still are the sources
of the Nile questions for controversy. We can put a
belt of electric wire round the globe, but as yet neither
ancient nor modern explorer has been able satisfactorily
to determine whence rises one of the grandest rivers
whieh ever made its fertilising agency felt upon the
eiiith. No wonder that the rooms of the Royal
Geographical Society are always crowded when this
subject comes on for discussion.
Several of the European Parliaments are sitting
tow; notably those of France, Germany, and Italy,
and the Legislature of the United States always meets
on the first Monday in December. Ido not think that
our own two Houses will speedily adopt the course
which has been so often recommended, and hold a pre-
Christmas sitting. The force of custom is very power-
ful in this country, and it has so long been customary
to meet in February and separate in August, that our
Legislature will not hear of assembling in November
and sitting until May. No other public body in the
world sits year after year through the scorching days
of July and August, yet this is regularly done at
Westminster, to the damage of the health of members,
am! often to the injury of public business, for the
tremendous heat often prevents members from giving
to their work that attention which its great importance
demands. Changes are not at all times made except in
deference to public opinion, and in this case public
opinion declares that it is more a matter of arrange-
ment affecting the members themselves, and this con-
tention is in the main true.

Those appeals to the benevolent which appear
In the London papers at this season of the year
are very suggestive reading, and show us something
of the gloomy aide of London life. The splendid
displays in the shop windows would be a cruel
mockery to many of the poorer classes, but for
those appeals which are made to the generosity (,f the
kind-hearted, and the responses made t them. The
managers of the journals insert these announcements
grattritenely: at any other period of the year they

would be charged fcr A. 3 advertisements, but at
Christmas time & kindly :3pirit is abroad, and the great
metropolitan papers, to whom space is of so much im-
portance, willingly surrender some of it to aid • good
cause. How valuable their spun is may be gathered
. . .

from the fact that the advertinements in a single issue
of no of the firat-claas penny dailies are often worth
£7OO or I:800.

The Admiralty have decided upon a bold experi-
ment with respect to the Devastation. The movements
of ,this ship have always been regarded with the keenest
interest, and the authorities have taken care not to
hide her light under a bushel. She W3B one of the
squadron of h,,nclads which escorted the Shah of
Persia across' the channel on the 18th June, 1873,
and full accounts of her trial trips have from time to
time been puldished. B.,.erything whi,ch, science can
suggest hms been done to test her stability, and only
lately 300 men from the Duke of Wellington were sent
on board, and running across the upper deck from
side to side, succeeded in ascertaining that she was
subject to a roll ~f ti.dit degrees either ways. She is
DOW to make an experimental cruise to Gibraltar, and
such is the reputation of the Bay of Biscay for gales,
that accaunti of her behaviour in those restless waters
will be watched with the keenest interest.

The report of • committee of inquiry reoently ap-
pointed by the Society of Arta does not give a very
hopeful view of our water-supply in case London
should have the misfortune to be attacked, like
Boston or Chicago, by a fire of colossal proportions.
While a third part of the metropolis is actually in
want of water, the existing arrangements are no defec-
tive that one-third of the water turned on is wasted.
While the intermittent system of supply here runs
away with thirty-three gallons per head daily, the
constant service at Manchester requires twenty-one
gallons, Berlin eighteen, and Liverpool only thirteen.
This waste of water naturally means a loss of power
in case .4 a fire. The Committee of which I have
spoken recommend not only that the metropolitan
system shall be assimilated to that in force in the pro-
vincial centres of industry, but that the whole water
supply should be placed under one head, the mains of
the several companies connected, hydrants substituted
for fireplugs, and the police yartially instructed in
firemen's duties. It has been calculated that the in-
termittent plan causes a daily loss in London of
thirty three million gallons. Yet long lines of
wharves upon the river bank, upon which thickly
stand warehouses containing merchandise of incal-
culable value are absolutely without water, and when
a fire does break out, as in Tooley-street, in June,
1861, the most desperate efforts of the Fire Brigade
have to be called into requisition in order to keep it
under. The arrangements for suppressing fires, how-
ever, form a part of that scheme of metropolitan local
government, which is just now commanding such atten-
tion.
Lord Mayor Stone promises to sustain the repu-
tation of his high office for that splendid hospitality
which is inseparably associated with the City of
London. On Christmas Eve his lordship and the
Lady Mayoress will entertain a large party of friends
at the Mansion House in the old English style. None
of the a la Busse business then—a plain joint of
roast beef, with plum pudding, will be the order of
the evening I An extraordinary contrast does the
City present on Christmas Eve to its usual busy and
crowded appearance; the streets are deserted, and
the .hadows upon many a window blind tell of bright
firm -well-lit rooms, and cheerful company. But the
even') which will create a flutter of excitement in
hung ds of homes is the Lord Mayor's grand juvenile
ball on New Year's Eve. Fifteen hundred invitations
are to be sent out, and great will be the joy amongst
the young people who are the favoured recipients.