The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-10-11 00:00:00


although imported by the Government It tailed to
pant; but it is to be hoped that it will have better sue-
cots sect year. The necessity for some stedagent regu-
lations In the country districts deer; kr a vhitor
going through many parts of England must be Rim&
with wonder that the cholera and other infectioae
diseases do sot ravage the laud, seeing the amount
of beedlessnem as to ventilation, quality of drinking
water, and disposal of sewage which abound in
them.

In Dr. Frankland's report to the Registrar-General
upon the 'metropolitan water supply during the month
of September, there is a passage of much interest. Ifs
points out that with a vinitation of cholera threatening
us, It is of the utmost consequence that the rivet waters
should be most carefully filtered before their delivery.
This is the only defence which we possess against the
diffusion of zymotic matter from the towns draining into
the Thames and Lea above the intakes of the water
isompanies. The Royal Commission on water supply
lately stated in their report that the prom= of filters-
tion presented no difficulties. 'This Is probably true ;
still to the very p ‘or, the class to be most consinlered
In this matter, the constant uce of even the cimpleet
process demands more trouble and attention than we
ought to expect from them. It is in every way better to
arrange for the systematic filteration of the water
before it reaches the consumers, and if this were
done, much illness would be prevented.
Serious damage was done the other day by • fire at
the Manchester Athenaeum, about 20,000 volumed in
the library having been destroyed, and other depart-
ments of the institution seriously iejured, the
amount of the damage being estimated to be £12.000.
The fire was clearly traceable to the sunlight in the
news room, and it only gives another instance of what
• vast amount of injury a little careleseness is capable
of doing. The greatest caution ought always to be
exercised in an institution containing such valuable
library property, some of which once destroyed can
never be replaced. Ifs catasttophe of this kind were
to occur in the British Museum the nation would feel
it as a great calamity, and rightly so, for in that
building are some of the greatest literary treasures in
the world. The attendants at such places should feel
A grave sense of the great responsibility which rests
upon them, and should be so careful that a repetition
of the Manchester catastrophe would be well nigh im•
passible.

A few days ago a service of an interesting character
was gone through in one of those City churches which
the tide of population to the suburb, has left congre-
gationiess. It was the edifice erected to perpetuate the
virtues of St Antholin, or, to speak more correctly, St.
Anthony, and it is situate in Watling-street. Tradition
has it that a number of worshippers was assunbled
within its walls when William the Conqueror entered
London in triumph after the battle of Hastings; but
whether this was so or not, there is a record of • visit
paid by Richard It. to the church to return thaoks for
the suppression of Wat Tyler's rebellion. For many
years, however, the congregation assembling within
the walls of St. Antholin's hao barely averaged five
persons, so the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have taken
the matter is hand, and have amalgamated the bene•
fice who those of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, and St.
Thomas, the Apostle, just across the street, where, on
an average, eight persons answer the summons of the
church bells on each returning Sabbath! A portion of
the revenues of St. Antholin's are to be devoted to the
building of a church at Nunhood, a large and increasing
neighbourhood, where such accommodation is much
needed; while the remainder be to be applied to
the preservation of St. Antholin's graceful spire, which
is still to be permitted to look down upon the buoy
city. The service of which I speak was a farewell one,
and the list which will ever be held in the structure.
It is hard to part from many of these historic city
churches, but when, as in the present instance, it is
obvious that their day has gone, and that their income
s expended upon pr.aching to empty pews, it is obvious
that the better plan is to transfer the living to a part
of London boasting not, indeed, of venerable sesocia-
dons, but possuaiog an active and energetic population
embodying the characteristics of life aa it is now pre-
sented to the residents of the capital.

By the death of Sir Edwin Landseer, England
lows an artist of great merit and of distingukhed fame.
, There is scarcely a print-shop in London, or in any
considerable provincial town, which does not contain
some of Lanilseeee pictures. He could never pass •
b ckseller's wind .w in any of our chief metropolVan
thorring`l ere+ wiitiont seeirg Force of the prodir,ts of
hia pencil, some of which had been execute I many
years befor,. If, did not shine so much as a portrait
or a landecspe p direr, as a delineator of animal life;
and hie ti Tins and dogs especially h we been regarded as
the perfection of human pourtrayal in that branch of
art. Landseer diet more to inculcate the duty or 1.1.017
treating dumb animal., than any painter of his day.
One afternoon he was paesing down Regent-street, and
came upon • group, in which • British workman was
expostulating with a coetermonger for beating and kick-
ing his donkey. "Don't you know," sail the mechanic
to the water, "what Mr. Land/leer tells ne ?" " No,"
replied the proprietor of the donkey. "Well,
then," said the workman, "what Mr. Landeeer
says is that we cught to be god to poor aaimala who
can't speak for themselves" This testimony to his
wide-spread knurl:ice, tittered unconsciously in the
hearing of the artist himmelf, gave him more gratitication
than a hundred complimentary and formal speeches
could have done, Never was the honour of knighthood
better bestowed than upon this amiable and excellent
'nun. An official paragraph appeared in the papers a
day or two after hie death, expressing the deep sense
of her Majesty at hie loss, and there le little doubt that
it was dictated, if not actually written, by the Queen
herself. Bat the reputation of Landseer is not confined
to the palace of the Sovereign, or to the halls of the
nobility. His works have found their way into the
cottage homes of England ; they are appreciated upon
the oontinent ; they are known in the distant settle-
ments of our vest colonial pasesions ; and general
will be the regret that no more seed. of kindness coin
be scattered by one who ever laboured to secure good
treatment for the brute creation.

There are many good wishes to the project for sup-
plying a magical chime of bells to St. Paul's, now that
the completion of the Great Metropolitan Cathedial
Is proceeding in earnest. London is singularly deficient
in this respect, and thine which we have are not heard
far from the tower which contains the bells. For in-
stance, there are those in the steeple of St. Clement
Danes in the Strand. They sound prettily enough,
but their melody is drowned in the noise of the street
traffic. A set of chimes for St. Paul's would naturally
be of large size, and at eventide their music would be
heard far beyond the :precincts of the city. There is
something exquisitely touching in the distant sound of
evening belle. It invariably affected to tears the Great
Napoleon even in the midst of his most sanguinary
campaigns, for the bells seemed suddenly to 11121111110 D
back the Anions of the past and the memories of ohild-
hood's happy days. The musical chimes are heard
from the belfries of continental cathedrals; why, then
should St. Paul's be without them