The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-01-03 00:00:00

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
tdentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

"Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest" is
the prevailing sentiment at the beginning of another
year. Turning from the past, with many a die.
agreeable association., it is natural enough that the
hprown mind should look forward to the future with
hope, if not with expectation, that the new year will
be a brighter one than that by which it has been pre-
ceded. Certainly in one respect 1880 opens far more
favourably for Great Britain than 1679. Twelve
months ago we were on the eve of the contest in
South Africa, which has since commanded so much
attention, for it was early in January that the British
forces entered the territory of the Zulu king. To-day
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not only is a long•standing menace to the safety of
Natal removed; 'nut the capture of the last of the
recalcitrant chiefs, Secocoeni, dispanses with the
necessity of Sir Garnet Wolseley's presence as the
Chief Military and Civil Administrator in those dis-
tant possessions of the British Crown, and he will at
once return home. In Afghanistan, whatever may
have been the perils and the hardships to which our
gallant soldiers have lately been exposed, there has
never been any doubt of the result of the conflict. In
Europe, so far as Great Britain is concerned, there
are very few clouds upon the political horizon. With
France, our nearest neighbour, we are on terms of

_
cordial friendship; and taking the various European
capitals—Berlin, Vienna, Constantinople, Rome, and
(wen Bt. Petersburg—there is nothing in the present
aspect of affairs to cause apprehension of coming
danger to the general peace. With a revival of trade
an early spring, and a favourable summer, commerce
and agriculture would recover from the depression
which has weighed upon them. It is with anticipa-
tions such as these that many will begin the work of
another year; leaving the contemplation of that which
is gone and therefore irrecoverable. the fotrire ia now
looked forward to as an unfilled page which needs
only the vision of trust to see occupied with the records
of good resolutions kept, fair promises fulfilled, and
the buoyant hopes of expectancy so common to the I
New Year realised to their fullest extent.
Those who are acquainted with Ladyi Sale's narra-
tive of the retreat from Cabul in 1842, will remember
her description of the severities of the Afghan winter,
and will recollect also her exposure of the treachery
of the tribes. Time seems to have made no difference
either in the one or in the other. The cold is as intense
now as it was then amid the mountains and the gorges
of that vast Asiatic desert; nor are the tribes who
now profess friendship more to be relied upon to-day
than they were then. It was on the 6th January,
1842, that the British forces, numbering 4,500 fighting
men, and 12,000 camp followers, commenced their re-
treat from the Afghan capital. The day was clear
and frosty, the snow a foot deep, and the thermo-
meter many degrees below freezing point. The
roads were covered with men, women, and chil-
dren, lying down in the snow to die. Our troops
fought their way inch by inch amongst a people
wild with hatred and fanaticism; and every point
in the lines of the lofty hills seemed alive with
fierce and treacherous Ghilzees. Time after time
Mahomed Akbar promised a cessation of hostilities if
additional hostages were given up to him; but not-
withstanding Akbar's pretended attempt to restrain
the Ghilzees, the attacks of these barbarians were as
frequent and cruel as ever. The conflict with the
Afghans lasted until only one officer of the entire
Cabal force reached the garrison of Jellalabad in
safety. It is winter in Afghanistan now just as it was
then, the weather being such as to terrify the Hindoos
who are employed in the expedition. Accustomed to
_ . _ .

a land of sunlit skies and tropical heat, one of these
exclaimed when be beheld the snow-clad mountains
of Afghanistan, "Call this a country! Why it
is nothing but a wilderness !" The hills seem
to have been piled upon each other in the most
extraordinary fashion; it is literally Pelion upon
Osaa. At a period when the minds of the pe9ple
In this country have been occupied in Christ.
mas and New Year's festivities, it is well to
know that our brave soldiers, who are fight.
ng the battles of their country in a sterile and in-
hospitable region, have had the warmest sympathies
of all at home who have followed with unflagging
Interest the details of the fighting in and near the
Afghan capital.
The winter Bask Holiday, coming after the longest
Interval which separates any two of these days, is
perhaps for that reason all the better appreciated and
the more thoroughly observed. Although it is not
devoted to out-door amusements, the weather in
London was highly favourable tor Mat IA the popma-
tion as preferred this means of passing the day. In-
deed, the few short hours of the December holiday
were about the most favourable of those which had
made up the other three. Easter Monday was cold
and wet; Whit-Monday was not so cold, bat there
was a far more persistent fall of rain; and the first
Monday in August also witnessed broken weather.
Therefore when, after nearly five months, Bank Holi-
day came, the first time for a long while, with a corn-
paratively clear sky, and a bracing atmosphere, enor-
mous numbers issued forth in quest of recreation and
amusement. The indoor sources of these were of
course the favourites ; and, as usual at Christmas time,
there were same hilarious modes of celebrating the
festive season; but some allowance is always made on
occasions like these. The distance to the next Bank
Holiday is much less than that between the last two,
Easter Monday falling on the 29th of March.
The working of the law of average has been illus.

trated in the meteorological returns of 1879, and in a

very remarkable way, Up to the end of September
the rainfall registered the unprecedented quantity of
29 inches, yet hi consequence of the comparative
absence of wet during the last three months the total
return will not much exceed the average. The
summer will long be remembered as a very extra-
ordinary one; snow was recorded in July; August
furnished very little sunshine; and the greater part of
September was cloudy and gloomy. The third quarter
of the year, which ought to have been its best and
most genial, was cold, wet, ana sunless, being a
continuation of the bad weather which had been pre-
valent during the preceding months. There are only
two instances in a century when the summer tempera-
ture so closely approximated to that of the summer of
1879. The nearest approach to the heavy fall of rain
was in 1828. Facts like these show the old year to
have been a very exceptional one so far as its atmos-
pheric conditions were concerned; and there is ample
justification for the hope that a similar experience
will not be witnessed by this generation. The lowness
of temperature which has lately prevailed is quite
accounted for by the heavy rainfall. A wet summer
Is naturally followed by a cold winter, in consequence
of the chilling effect of water upon the ground. There
has seldom been a year in which Europe was so
thoroughly drenched as in the last summer and
autumn ; hence the raw and humid atmosphere which,
more especially during December, prevailed in many
parts. _ _

_
A remarkable piece of enterprise forms the subject
of a private Bill which is to come before Parliament in
the ensuing session. A company seeks to be incorpo-
rated for the purpose of supplying the private baths of
London residents with sea-water direct from the English

Channel, and the annual rent to be paid for such
II urfrilAge would be only 30e, on a howl° L0a&.,1 at .cso.
Like the inhabitants of all large towns situated several
miles from the sea, the people of London have a keen
appreciation of the pleasures and the benefits to be
derived from it; and sea-side tripe in the summer are
amongst the most popular of those which the railway
companies run. You may travel a hunired miles for
a few shillings; and such are the crowds which more
particularly go down to Brighton, that years ago it
was known as London-on-the-Sea. For some years
there have been swimming-baths upon the Thames;
but it need scarcely be pointed out that the water in
the river at Charing-cross is a long way removed, in
more senses than one, from the fresh and pure sea
water which it is proposed to bring to the metro-
polis from the English Channel. For the suburban
Londoner to enjoy a sea-bath in his own house before
breakfast would be a luxury indeed, to be enjoyed all
the more completely because of the thorough and
general belief in the invigorating powers of the sea.
The Mansion House in London is once more the
centre of charitable effort. Since his installation in
office on the 9th November, the Lord Mayor has
applied himself assiduously to the encouragement of
the Rowland Hill Memorial Fund; and in the last
few days of the expiring year subscriptions were
opened at the civic palace for relieving the distress
in Ireland. Arising out of a suggestion from the
Duchess of Marlborough, It was taken up by the Lord
Mayor, and as the chief magistrate ef Dublin has
also started a fund, there is every reason to believe
that the emergency will be promptly and fully met.
Her Majesty's sense of it may be gathered from her
subscription of £5OO towards the Duchess of Marl-
borough's Fund. The London Mansion House
occupies a site within a few yards of which are
buildings representative of more wealth than any
radius of similar size in the world. Directly opposite
is the Bank of England, nightly guarded by a detach-
ment of soldiers; close at hand are the banks of Lom-
bard-street and the jewellers' shops of Cornhill ; while
most prominent in the direction of Bishopsgate is the
Royal Exchange, and the merchants gathering there
are constantly reminded, by the timely and appro-
priate motto on its grand facade that they may well
give of their substance towards the relief of unavoid-
able suffering and distress; inasmuch, as "The Earth
la the Lord's and the fulness thereof.