The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-09 00:00:00

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Our Tolibon tontsponbant

deem S rla,l .4 stale that we de sot id al( Nam
Mewl* oarselv.: ,oat wu eorrespeaddat's optalowal

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An imix.rtt, if not decisive episode in the great I
parliamentary battle of the Session has been fought
mit, and Ministers have found themselven M a
minority of GA That they would be in 11 rotripprity of
n me sort was pretty generally believed7bat as the
I iberals had gained a majority of GO only on Mr.
Claphtone's previous resolution, it was scarcely ex.
pected that they would secure on this occasion a still
more decisive victory. Very great interest had been
felt in the result. As usual on the nights of great
debates, the " strangers" had made considerable
effort to obtain places in the foolishly small gallery
allotted to them. In Palace Yard and Westminster
Hall, knots of people had been congregated during the
day. and many of then, walked away grmubling, with
their flambe& orders in their pockets. If ever the
house of Commons is enlarged, as it probably will be,
it is to be hoped that this gallery may be enlarged ;
for at }Present it 14 not only unfair to the public
generally, but unfair to the members, each of whom has
the right to give one order per day. To show how deeply
interested some people were in the result of the division,
it may be mentioned that several persons waited about
for hours, till past two in the morning, to learn what the
division was; and it need scarcely be added that a few
hours later, when the morning papers announced the
fact, the prosp.2cts of Ministers and the Opposition
became the topic of the day. Since that time it has
been an eagerly-discussed subject, but any speculations
of mine would be idle in face of the facts that your
be lets will have at command.

The 13th of the present month will be a grand day
for London, for on that day the Queen has consented
to lay the first stone of St. Thomas's Hoepital. This
Imilding, if carried out according to the architect's
plans, ssill be one of the finest in the Metropdis, and a
worthy opposite neighbour of the Thanes of Parlia-
ment. The institution is immensely rich and can not
only well afford the immense sum that the new
building will, riot, but could also afford to keep up the
hospital which now exists on the site if the Surrey
Zoological Gardens (the building in which that fright-
ful eabodrophe happened one Sunday evening when
Mr. Spurgeon was preaching.) The latter "tem-
porary " hospital might well be made permanent. It
stands in a crowded neighbourhood, and it is worth
noting that this and Guy's Hospital are the only two
public institutions of the kind for the whole of South
leondisi, though, perhaps, three accidents happen on
the south of the Thames to one on the north. The
ceremony alluded to will be one of some importance,
as it will be the first of the kind since the death of
the Prince Consort. May we have Queen's weather!
We shall ere long, probably, hear the truth as to thu
cirounstancea under which Mr. D'Arcy M‘Gee was
essassinatcsl, but meanwhile, a report comes on which
it u ill be well not to place too much reliance. It is
said that forty Fenlans conspired to bring about his
deeth ; that lots were cast, and that the lot fell on the
assassin who accomplished this horrible murder. A
very similar story is told about the attempted assegai-
natii it d the Duke of Edinburgh. Neither, however,
is very probable, inasmuch as the Fenians evidently
cannot trust each other. In every little clique and
coterie there seems to be, at least, one traitor—a con-
!piracy within a conspiracy.
Mr. Charles Dickens, our most successful and most
brilliant novelist, is once more among WI, after a long
abeence, during which time he has been reaping not
only golden opinions from all sorts of people in America,
but a golden harvest in a literal sense. Almost fabn-
roils sums are mentioned, but little reliance can be
placed on these statements. What is of far more im-
portance to the public, however, is that he haa done
much—and throughout his journey in America this
has been his especial object—towards promoting good
feeling between America and old England. Mr.
Dickens testifies to immense changes in the country
during the twenty-fire years since his first visit, and
on these changes—mainly for the better—he intends to
comment in AU the Year Round. Meanwhile, it is
worth while to quote a passage from his farewell
address, given at such a meeting of literati, journalists,
pnblisheni, and printers, as never before was assembled
in New York. "It would be better [or this globe,"
he said, "to be riven by an earthquake, fired by a
comet, overrun by an iceberg, and abandoned to the
Arctic fox and bear, than that it should present the spec-
tacle of these tee, great nations, each of whom has, in
its on-n way and hour striven so hard and so success-
fully for freedom, ever again being arrayed the one
against the other." This is very strong language, but
the fact of its being received with " tumultuous ap-
plause, the whole company standing up and cheering
again and again," is significant, especially as that
areembly n presentedthe mind and intellect of America.
Mr. Dickens is essentially a popular author, and the
people of two great countries have severally done him
nil rumour ; but would a little State honour be out of
place ? Just before his departure for America he drew
a significant distinction between the honour he had
received "front his countrymen, but not from his
country." State honours are rarely bestowed on literary
men, however otherwise eminent. Permit me then to
add that Sir Charles Dickens, Bart., would sound very
well, and that the honour of a baronetcy can never
have beim better deserved.

We have good news from Australia, in the matter of
low ssl supply. It seems that a process of freezing
freili mat, so that it will keep good for a twelvemonth,
has been discovered. A public meeting has been held,
at which £3,000 has been subscribed towards sending
gek tons of fresh meat to England, and that a ship
load will be dispatched about July. If this statement
Is true, it is not easy to exaggerate its importance.
For thirty or forty yearn sheep in Australia have, to a
greater or less extent, been boiled down for tallow, and
good mutton has been more or less a dreg in the
market. During all this time meat in our own country,
though it hits fluctuated in price, has always been so
dear that many poor people could not often afford to
have it, and during the last few years many persong
have not tasted meat fir months together. If
Australia can send us good preserved meat it will be
an immense boon for our poor, and there need be no
fear iif the various existing trades connected with the
tmpilv of meat in our own country being seriously injured.
Fresh English beef and mutton will always command
a higher price than any other, although we must look
for siime reduction in price, which, perhaps, even now
°mild well be made.

A case has just been brought before one of our police.
courts which illustrates a long-standing and glaring
injustice. A poor woman came before the magistrates
and stat“l that her goods had been seized for rent—not
her rent, but her landlord's. She had paid her own rent
rogulsrly, but the occupier of the house in which she
lived bad failed to pay his, and the superior landlord
theresspoa put in the broker, and seized the poor
woman's furniture. The magistrate told her that her
remedy was. the County Court; but a very sorry remedy
this so uncertain and expensive. Strange that such
proved abuses as this should last so long. The law on
the subject might easily be amended, and in the in-
terest of the poor it ought certainly to be altered.
Perhaps of all the months of the year May is ,the
most charming--when the weather is fine. The proviso
is necessary, for grumblers say that May is well-named,
for it is no uncertain a month. At present we are
having all that the poets have pictured or sung about,
in respect to this delightful month. We are rejoicing
and revelling in—
The flowery May, who from her green lap throws
The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose,
11a11, hountinns May ! . .
NVinals and groves are of thy dressing
11111 111.1 dale sloth bout thy blessing "
This is as true now as when Milton wrote it, for,
scientific theories notwithstanding, the seasons change
not year after year ; and scientific theories notwith-
standing, the gracious promise given by the Creator of
the changing seasons holds good, "While the earth
remaineth seed-time and harvest, andcoldand heat, and
summer and winter, and slay and night shall not cease."
But at these presents the weather is exceptionally and
gloriously fine. How different, though, is May in the
vousstry and in London. In the country it is the
month of buds, blossoms, hints, butterflies, buttercups
and bluebells ("apt alliteration's artful ski" is natu-
rally suggested); it is the time when Nature assumes
her lovely Spring verdure, and appears in her most
joyous moods. But in London we see lost little of
Nature's charms, and the upper ten take a small re-
venge by pushing artificial life and the charms of the
London season to their extreme during the merry
month of clay. It is the month of art, of music, and
of pleasure. The Royal Academy Exhibition, to say
nothin,,.. of other artistic displays, is a characteristic of
the month. This year is its hundredth exhibition, no
that it has become a very venerable institution. I was
sum of the crowd who gathered at what is facetiously
called the private view. Almost everybody who was
anylssly, and a good many nobodies were there; and
the crusdimg and the heat were as little adapted to
criticism as can well be imagined. But then, many
people seemed to have conic to see who else •WilS there,
and just to say they had beau there, and not to
the picture.. Take the exhibitis .0 as 11 whole,
it is one of the best for many years past, ansl the only
drawback is that perennial nuisance, the catalogue,
Muni:. the sister of Painting, is hiss, in "full fig" just
now. I have not the least islea what "full fig" is, but
that matters not. Concerts are the order of the
shy and osight musitales, soirees musicales,
benefit concert., annual concerts, amatuer concerts, ex-
cruciatingly aristocratic concerts, iind concerts of every
imagumble character arc Om rage, mid any one with a

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