The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-01 00:00:00

RETROSPECT

YEAR 1880.

Once more the earih has performed its annual
journey round the, sun, and without pausing for a
moment, it stP;rts anew upon another. But so far as
its vast n:amber of human occupants are concerned,
they large proportion take the opportunity of look-
in `;6" hack upon what they have accomplished during
the twelve months, and of glancing into the dim vista
yet before them. The year 1880 will well repay a
few minutes of reflection from a retrospective point of
view. It has witnessed a mighty political change in
the direction of the internal affairs of Great Britain
which effected the whole current of her policy, foreign
and domestic. But while this has been experienced,
the stable institutions of the country, upon which the
ashadows of centuries look down, remain undisturbed
either by the passing waves of political feeling, or
by the measured march of Time. Another year has
been added to the long reign of the Queen, who,
in the sixty-second year of her age, and the forty-
fourth of her possession of the crown and the sceptre,
atill rules over a busy and contented people. The dis-
tress which was so prominent a feature of our social
history only two years ago, no longer exists in the
depths of its intensity, and, all around there is the
claw' of a brighter and more prosperous time. The
ye-has been singularly uneventful in the annals of
the Royal House ; there is no death to record, as that
of the Princess Alice, in 1878; and no marriage, as
that of the Duke of Connaught, in 1879. Princess
Beatrice, the youngest child of Her Majesty, and now
ba her twenty-fourth year, remains at home, the
bonstant companion of her Royal mother. But,
although life in the Palace has been passed without
incident, events of great moment have happened else-
where ; and these have been of such a nature that,
without further prelude, we make no apology for
asking our readers to accompany us over the path of
retrospect, and to recall those things which bear the
brief review.

The Parliamentary year opened without any indi-
cations of the political change which was impending
On the sth February the sittings of the Legislature
were inaugurated by her Majesty in person, and the
House of Commons very soon settled down to the
work of an ordinary session. On the 24th February,
Mr. John Holms brought forward a motion in favour
of Quinquennial Parliaments, but this was rejected
by 110 to 60. Four days afterwards Sir Stafford
Northcote, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, carried a
resolution with the view of preventing obstruction to
public business. On the sth March, Sir Wilfrid
Lawson's proposal in favour of Local Option was re-
jected by 248 to 134. On this day the Parliament was
six years old, having assembled at Westminster on the
ilth March, 1874.

On the morning of Saturday the 6th of March, the
Cabinet Ministers met in council in the town house
of the Marquis of Salisbury, in Arlington-street,
Piccadilly, and there came to the momentous deci-
sion to dissolve the Parliament. The announcement
was made on the evening of the following Monday,
in the House of Lords by the Earl of Beaconsfield,
and in the Commons by the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer. Only the necessary public business could
now be attended to, and included in this was the
Budget, explained by Sir Stafford Northcote on the
11th March. The estimated expenditure was
£81,486,473, while the revenue wa9 expected to
produce I.;81,560,000. The financial propositions of
the Government were accepted without much debate,
Me routine work was rapidly got through, and on
the 24th March a Royal Proclamation was issued
dissolving the Parliament, and summoning its suc-
cessor for the 29th April.

The two great political parties were now ranged face
to face for battle. The nominations for a large
number of boroughs took place on the 30th
March, and the polls in the towns opened
on the following day. The first of the county elec-
tions was contested on Saturday, April 3rd, but it was
not until the end of the month that the new House of
Commons was complete, the member for Orkney and
Shetland being the last to be chosen. The result was
adverse to the Conservative party; and on the 23rd
April Mr. Gladstone was summoned to Windsor,
and accepted office as Prime Minister and Chancellor
of the Exchequer. On the 29th the tenth Parlia-
ment of Queen Victoria met, and the Right
Hon. Henry Brand was unanimously re-elected
Speaker. The members were sworn in, and new writs
Were issued for the re-election of Ministers who, by
the acceptance of office under the Crown, had vacated
their seats as the representatives of the people. The '
only member of the Cabinet who did not succeed in
aecuring re-election was Sir William Harcourt, the.
Home Secretary; but Mr. Plimsoll, by resigning his
seat, made way for the right hon. gentleman at Derby,
Where he obtained a seat without opposition. On the .
20th May the new Ministers took their seats, and a
Message from the Crown, formally opening the Parlia-
ment, was delivered in the House of Lords by the
Lord Chancellor.
It was not long before both Chambers were at work
Upon the measures foreshadowed in the Royal Speech.
On the 3rd June the Burials' Bill was read a second
time in the Upper House by 126 to 101. The Em-
ployers' Liability Bill was read a second time in the
Commons on the same day. A week afterwards Mr.
Gladstone introduced the revised Budget, the pro-
visions of which included the raising of the -income
tax from sd. to 6d., a revision of the wine duties' the
abolition of the malt tax and the imposition of a duty
on beer. On the 18th Sir Wilfrid Lawson's resolution,
the rejection of which, by a large majority, in the
previous Parliament has already been alluded to, was
carried by 229 to 203. On the 24th the Burials' Bill
was read a third time in the Lords; but on the follow-
ing day the Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister's
Bill was rejected in that assembly by a majority of
11. The long series of debates on the admission
of Mr. Bradlaugh was brought to an end on the
28th by the adoption of a standing order uron
the motion of Mr. Gladstone on behalf of the
Government enabling members, at their own risk,
to affirm, instead of taking the oath, on entering the
House of Commons. The work of the new Adminis-
tration went on without much of exciting incident
Until the morning of the 2nd August, Bank Holiday,
When the country was startled at the announcement
that the Prime Minister was seriously ill. The bul-
letins were anxiously waited for, and in the universal
expression of sympathy, political opponents as well as
supporters joined. With care, however, Mr. Glad-
stone recovered sufficiently to be able to embark on a
eea-trip in the Grantully Castle on the 26th of the same
month, and reappeared in his place in the House of
Commons on the 4th September. Meanwhile the
business of the House had gone on under the leader-
ship of the Marquis of Ilartington ; and although the
Compensation for Disturbance Bill was rejected in the
Lords by 282 to 51, the other ministerial measures
Passed their lordships with more or less of amendment,
and on the 7th September, Parliament was prorogued,
again to meet for the despatch of business, in accord-
ance with a recently-issued Royal proclamation, on
the 6th January. The recess will thus have been
only four months in duration, instead of six as usual.
The year has witnessed satisfactory progress towards
the settlement of affairs in Afghanistan. On the 13th
January Ghuani was seized and pillaged by Mahom-
taed Jan ; and on the 16th Wali Mahomined Khan
Was appointed to administer the Government of Cabul.
Soon afterwards Abdurrahman was formally recog-
nized as Ameer of Afghanistan by the representatives
of the English Government at Cabul ' • but within a
few days of this having been done, Ayooki Khan, at
the head of a vastly numerical forze, inflicted a serious
defeat upon a British detachment commanded by
General Burrows. At that time General Roberts was
St Cabul, and he at once set out to relieve the British
garrison at Candahar, which had been beleagured by
the Afghan troops. On the 16th August our sur-
rounded forces made a sortie; and in the engagement
Which ensued, Brigadier-General Brooke was killed.
The victorious march of General Roberts from the
Afghan capital to the relief of Candahar will always
be regarded as one of the most brilliant military
achievements in the annals of the British army; and
on the return of that gallant officer to England in
November, her Majesty conferred upon him the
Grand Cross of the Bath, the Corporation of London
following this up by the freedom of the City and a
eword of honour.

So far as the Cape is concerned, looking at the
recent troubles in Basutoland, the progress has
riot bean so gratifying. in the direction of pacifica-
tion as on the Asiatic Continent. On the 26th May,
orithin a day or so of twelvemonths from the
time of his leaving this country, Sir Garnet Wolseley
arrived in England from his mission to our South
arican possessions, where, in the later stages of
e Zulu war, he had taken the chief civil as well
ts military command. The Confederation Scheme
"ing been rejected by the Cape Parliament, Sir
Joartle Prere was recalled, an annpuncement to this
effect having been made in both Houses pf Legislature
011 the 3rd of August ; and a few weeks afterwards the
illustrious pro-consul returned to England, having upon
is landing at Southampton been presented with a
emalphrnentary address. To add to the anxiety which
has been felt with regard to the position of affairs in
Ple Transvaal, we have been startled within the last
Lew days by the arrival of telegrams stating that new
roubles have arisen there, the Boers having evinced
fresh opposition to Imperial rule, and again attempted
to raise the Republican flag.
The carrying into execution of the Treaty of Berlin
Luta, during the second half of this year, occupied the
tention of the diplomatists of Europe. On the new
kirovernment coming into power, Mr. Goschen was
NVointed Special Ambassador to the Porte; and on
'ne 12th June a Collective Note of the great Powers
aa presented to the Sultan. This led to the as-
eznialing of a Conference in the German capital of the
threpresentatives of the Powers, the principal object of
e gathering being to consider the recommendations
the Congress of Berlin in 1878, with reference to
rectification of the frontiers of Greece by the in-
of Thessaly and Epirus. On the 15th July a
grea ctive Note was signed by the Ambassadors of the
calletdP°wers, in which the Ottoman Government wal
Tnrki2,llP,n to accept the boundary between the
bY the 1 'pire and the Greek kingdom as laid down
the porit3t Conference. On the 12th October
Dulcign e,' Note to the Powers, agreed to cede
fr
to Mont:lit' ferring that town om Albania
Con of JO .iome aela,y took place in the execu-
brought 4,1118 pledge, and the pressure which was
been the— bear upon Turkey bv.the other Powers has
subject of nauch criticism in this country.
ear ' ur
Prance
nearest neighbour,
Y, witn e°ltsed our, has, during the
both politic a considerable amount of excitement,
al and religious. On the 14th January
!srentbetta
Wait re-elected President of the Senate, and
but 111 the President of the Chamber of Deputies
°face M. M. •
liret-naateci :
succeeded by Martel has since beer:
M. Lon
Lkon Say. Religious questions very
sPetdilY Occupied the attention of the French Legisla.

ture, and there were acrimonious debates upon an
Education Bill brought in by M. Jules Ferry, the
seventh clause of which prohibited any member of an
unauthorised religious congregation from being the
head of an educational establishment throughout that
country. On the 9th March a division upon this
clause took place in the Senate, which rejected it by
148 to 127 votes. A fortnight afterwards, however,
the Government determined upon a revival of the
decrees expelling unauthorised religious bodies from
France. On the 29th March a decree sanctioning the
expulsion of the Jesuits was officially published, and
its carrying out has led to much bitterness. Mean-
while the Cabinet of M. Freycinet, after passing in
June a bill through the Chambers for the amnesty of
the Communists who were sent into exile in 1871,
found itself, a few weeks subsequently, compelled to
retire from office. To this responsible heritage M.
Jules Ferry succeeded ; but he, too, in turn has since
tendered his resignation to the President of the Re-
public. The difficulty which had been raised was, how-
ever, dealt with, and a second Ministerial crisis
within two months avoided. .

When the year opened, the internal condition of
Russia was such as to inspire a degree of apprehension
which to a great extent has since passed away. On
the Ist December, 1879, "an. attempt was made to
assassinate the Czar by exploding a charge of dynamite
under the Imperial brain as it, was passing over the
railway near Moscow. The IN ew Year was not six
weeks old before an even more daring though equally
unsuccessful endeavour was made to terminate the life
of the Russian Emperor. On the evening of the 10th
February, as the Imperial family were about to enter
the dining-hall of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg,
an explosion of dynamite shattered the apartment, but
without inflicting personal injury either upon the Czar
himself or upon those who were with him. Within a few
days General Loris Melikoff was proclaimed head of
the Executive Administration of the whole Russian
Empire, and since that time the social condition of its
widely-spreading territories has ceased to come's° pro-
minently before the rest of Europe. Of her hereditary
foe, Turkey, we have already spoken ; and of other
European countries there is but little to say. Short
and simple have been their annals, without political
convulsion or serious disturbance. Austria, Germany,
and Italy, amongst the Great Powers, and Spain and
Portugal, as included in the lesser, have given no cause
for anxiety, so far as their attitude towards other
nations has been concerned. The people who have
attracted most attention are the Greeks. In the
summer King Geage made a tour of the various
European capitals, with a view to ascertain what
amount of support the Hellenic Kingdom was likely
to receive in its efforts to secure a rectified frontier by
the addition of Thessaly and Epirus. Whilst in
London His Majesty was presented with the freedom
ef the city. This took place on the 23rd June; and at
a luncheon which succeeded the ceremony the Prince
of Wales and the Prime Minister were amongst the
guests. On that occasion, as well as upon
.others
which characterised the sojourn of the King in this
country, the most cordial good wishes were expressed
for the consolidation of his kingdom and the pros-
perity of his people.
Across the Atlantic, a great part of the year, so far as
the United States are concerned, has been taken up over
the Presidential election. For months that great con-
tinent, from Maine to California, from the Atlantic
seaboard to the coasts of the Pacific, and from the
Gulf of St. Lawrence to the mouth of the Mississippi,
was excited over the respective claims of Republicans
and Democrats to rule the Union during the next four
years. The Republicans selected General Garfield as
their candidate, and the Democrats fixed upon
General Hancock, both these gallant officers having
rendered essential service to the cause of the Union
during the great Civil War. As the Republicans had
enjoyed a long lease of power, and moreover, as Mr.
Hayes was elected in 1876 by a majority of ohe vote
in the Electoral College; the most strenuous efforts
were made by the Democrats to return General
Hancock; but after six months of political warfare,
the ballotting, which took place at the beginning of
November, showed the Republican party to have very.'
materially increased its strength, General Garfield
being selected for the highest office by a largely
augmented majority. Across the borders, in the
Canadian Dominion, the year has wound its course
along without much of incident to record. The Mar-
quis of Lorne remains the Governor-General of a pro-
gressive and contented nation. Another great de-
pendency of England—Australia—has followed the
example set long ago by the mother country, and
organized an International Exhibition. This was
opened at Melbourne on the let October', and is
described as a., most comprehensive representation
of the energy, industry, and enterprise of that rising
colony.

Coming nearer home, unquestionably the condition
of Ireland, more especially in the later months
of the year, has furnished grounds for serious thought
for statesmen without distinction of party. As far
back as the 2nd of January Mr. Parnell, M.P.
arrived in New York and opened a campaign in the
United States, in which he set forth the grievances
of his country to large audiences in the chief
cities of the Union. The prominent position occu-
pied by Irish affairs in the consideration of our rulers
was illustrated by the fact that Lord Beaconsfield's
manifesto, announcing the dissolution of Parliament,
was addressed to the Duke of Marlborough, then
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and dealt almost exclu-
sively with the state of that island. Upon the sum-
moning of the new Parliament Mr. Parnell was
elected leader of the Horne Rule party ; and the short
session was characterised by some stormy scenes, one
sitting, for the taking of the Irish Constabulary votes,
being prolonged for twenty-one hours. The Peace
Preservation Act, passed in 187'6, expired in June,
and it was not renewed. Mr. Gladstone'e Govern-
ment, by introducing the Compensation for Disturb-
ance Bill, sought to suspend, in some scheduled
distil-jets in the south and west, eviction for
non-payment of rent during the space of eighteen
months. This measure, after frequent and long de-
bates, was passed by the Commons; but the Lords
rejected it by a majority of five to one. This
was in August, and immediately upon the close
of the session the work of the Land League
was so vigorously carried on. that on the 27th October
Mr. Healy, private secretary to Mr. Parnell, was
held to bail for the part which he had taken in
the agitation. He was subsequently returned as a
member of Parliament for the borough of Wex-
ford. At the trial which took place on the 15th
December Mr. Healy was acquitted. On the 2nd
November a government prosecution was instituted
against the leaders of the league, including five
members of the House of Commons—Mr. Biggar,
Mr. Dillon, Mr. Parnell, Mr. Sexton, and Mr. T.
D. Sullivan. The fixing of the trial for the 28th
December, and the meeting of Parliament for the 6th
January, induced the defendants to apply to the Irish
Court of Queen's Bench, for a postponemeht of the
former to such a date as would not interfere with their
legislative duties, but this application was refused.
So far as the trade of the country is concerned,
although there has been an improvement, it is not of
that extent that all had hoped for and anticipated.
There was a better harvest, both in Great Britain and
in Ireland, than had been experienced for s&ne years
past; but the Revenue Returns fail to show that elasti-
city which is inseparable from advancing prosperity.
The financial year began on the let of April, and up
to the present time the receipts have been but little
over a million in excess of those in the corresponding
period of 1879. There is one circumstance showing at
once the stability of the national credit and the large
amount of unemployed capital in the money
market. Within the past few weeks Consols have
been more than once quoted above par an
cccurrence which had not happened since 1853,
the year before the outbreak of the war with Russia.
Though, however, trade has revived but slowly, less
has been heard of want of employment amongst the
industrial classes than in previous years. There is
not so much distress amongst the poorer classes snore
cheerfulness in the towns, more comfort in the agri-
cultural districts. It takes a long time to move
away the grey and sombre cloud which has obscured
the sunshine of prosperity; but the process, although
, a slow, is a sure one, and the glow of plenty will yet
again gladden the land.
' Of great disasters there have been none during the
year standing out with sufficient prominence to mark
them as catastrophes exceptional in the gloomy cate-
gory of calamity. The closing hours of 1879 were
darkened by the fall of the Tay Bridge and the entire
destruction of a passenger train, which was engulphed
in the storm-tossed waters of that river in the dark-
ness of a December night. A casualty such as this,
where not a single human being escapee to tell the
tale, and associated with an universal mode of tra-
velling, impresses itself indelibly upon the mind ; but
happily 1860 has no date to be marked with such a
black stone as this. Colliery explosions are, unfortu-
nately, too frequently a concomitant in the pursuit of
a great industry to create more than a transitory feel-
ing of sadness that so many precious lives should be
lost in such a way. The explosion at Seahaua, how-
ever, on the Bth September, besides being very de-
structive to human life, was more than usually melan-
choly in its surroundings, and the visit of the Home
Secretary to the scene of the sacrifice was a sufficient
, indication of the public attention which had been
directed to it. At Pen-y-Graig, in the Rhondda Valley,
on the 10th December an explosion took place, in
which more than 100 lives were unfortunately
lost. There have been no railway collisions of
more than ordinary magnitude, no appalling ship-
wrecks to stamp upon the memory bitter realizations
of the dangers of the seas.
The general election and its results so completely
overshadowed the ordinary political calculations which
are made at the end of every twelve months, that it is
unneceseary to refer in detail to the changes in the
personnel of Parliament which have taken place since
the two Houses came together. It may be mentioned,
however, that four members who were chosen to the
Commons in April have since died—one of these, Mr.
J. S. Wright, M.P. for Nottingham, being retrieved
before'Parliament assembled, and when he had not
even enjoyed an opportunity of taking his seat in the
assembly to which he had been chosen. Mr. Wright
was 58 years of age. The other deceased representa-
tives of the people are Mr. W. A. Redmond (Wexford-
borough), 55; Colonel Mure (Renfrewshire), 50; and
Mr. Whitwell (Kendal), .69. Already three members
of the newly-elected House of Commons have resigned
their seats—Mr. Plimsoll (Derby), Captain Bernard
(Bandon), and Sir Harcourt Johnstone (Scarborough).
Two members have been created peers—the Right
Hon. Robert Lowe having become Viscount Sher
brooke, and the Right Hon. E. H. Knatchbull-
Hugessen having been gaaetted Baron Brabourne.
Three members have succeeded to the peerage by
hereditary right, the Hon. Henry Strutt havincr be-
come Baron Belper, Lord Ramsay having 'been
called to the House of Lords in succession to his
father, the Earl of Dalhousie, and Lord Lindsay has
become Earl of Crawford. Two members have been ap-
pointed to offices rendering necessary the resignation
of their seats in Parliament, the Right Hon. W. P.
Adam as Governor of Madras, and Mr. Watldn
Williams as a Judge in the Queen's Bench. .
The death-roll for the year is remarkable for the
absence of any considerable number of distinguished
names in the list of those who have been gathered to
their fathers. The judicial bench has indeed lost four
of its most prominent members' namely Lord Chief
Justice Cockburn, Lord Chief Baron Kelly, Lord
Justice Thesiger, and Sir James Colvile, one of the
judges of the Privy Council. The Chief Baron was
called to his rest at the patriarchal age of 84, while
Lord Justice Thesiger had attained only half that

number of year, and his death prematurely termi-
nated a most promising career. In the list of deceased
judges may be included Sir William Erie, a former
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who died on the
28th January at the ripe age of 86. The most con.-
spicuous members of the peerage who have died, are
Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, British Amoassador
at Constantinople for seventeen years, a period includ-
ing the stirring times covered by the war with Russia,
at the age of 94; the Earl of Kllmorey, only one year
younger; and Lord Hampton, better known as Sir
John Pakington, at 81. Of the members of the other
House of Parliament prior to the general election
there died Mr. Torr, M.P., for Liverpool, Mr. Locke,
M.P., for Southwark, and Dr. Kenealy, M.P., for
Stoke-on-Trent, Art and Science have lost Mr.
Edward William Cooke, R.A., Dr. Williarni,Budd,
F.R.S., Mr. Thomas Landseer, A.R.A., Mr. E. M.
Barry, R.A., Mr. Henry O'Neil, R.A., Mr. Thomas
Bell, F.R.S., Dr. William Sharpey, F.R.S., Dr.
Christian Peters, Professor William n Miller, Professor
Alfred Swaine Taylor, Mr. Thomas Henry Wyatt, and
Mr. Elijah Walton. The early days of the year
witnessed the funeral of Mr. Hepworth Dixon, who
had died on the 27th December, 1879; but happily
the twelve months have been singularly free from
prominent losses from the ranks of literature. No
serious gaps in the number of literary men have to be
recorded which make the survivors feel that these
cannot be tilled up. Mr. J. R. Planche, who died at
Chelsea on the 29th May, at the age of eighty-four,
had long enjoyed in the evening of his days, the re-
flections of one who could look back over "duties
well performed, and days well spent." 'Then there
was Mr. Tom Taylor, anotller author and dramatist,
and editor of Punch, the best of whose works had
long been before the present generation. Mr.
Kingston, whose books for boys have had a deserved
run of popularity, and Mr. W. H. Wills, for some
years a coadjutor of Charles Dickens, must be
added to those whose names are inscribed upon the
scroll of mortality. The army has lost Sir Charles
Yorke, Constable of tile Tower, while from the list of
naval officers has disappeared the name of Admiral SirJ.
W. Tarleton. The Church haslost Dr. Duncombe, Dean
of YOrk ; Dr. A. J. Stephens, Q.C., Chancellor of the
Diocese of St. David's; Dr. Hamilton, Dean of Salis-
bury; and Canon Miller. The profession of Music
has to mourn the removal of Sir John Goss, for many
years organist of St. Paul's Cathedral; the Rev. John
Curwen, Founder of the Tonic Sol-Fa College; and
M. Offenbach. Mrs. Charles Kean and Miss Neilson,
both well-known actresses to two successive genera-
tions, died within a few days of each other. Of dis-
tinguished foreigners, the names which most readily
occur in the preparation of an obituary notice are
those of the Empress of Russia; Baron Ricasoli, the
eminent Italian statesman; and the Duc de Gramont
and M Jules Favre, two of the most prominent poli-
ticians of France in connection with the incidents of
the war with Germany.
There can be no question that of all the periods into
which our lives are divided, there is none so interesting
or so full of reflections as that marked by the termina-
tion of one year and the beginning of another. There
is no other division of time which is so much the
' measure of age. The end of a day, a month, or a
quarter suggest no such serious thoughts as the close
of a year. Yet the feeling of hopefulness which is
inherent in the moral constitution of man makes him
turn instinctively from the past to the future. "Welcome
the coming speed the parting guest." In all ages and
in every clime men have seemed to trample joyfully on
the grave'of the Old Year, and to hail with acclama-
tions the advent of the New. In many a village and
hamlet the last stroke of midnight is accompanied by
a mournful toll which sounds like a wail of sorrow for
the departed; and no sooner have its echoes died
away than a merry peal ushers in the old year's
successor as with a song of joy. The year which has
gone is to many one of painful recollections, hf disap •
pointed hopes, of lost loves, of broken friendships, of
death bereavements. On the other hand the new
year is a blank which we fill up with sanguine
hopes and bright visions. We greet it with song
and feasting ; its arrival is the time of good
resolutions and of steadfast determination that
the stage of life's travel of which the threshold is then
only just presented, shall at its conclusion have
brighter memories than its immediate predecessors.
The. season is ene devoted to charity and to good
wishes. The reflective mind seems to stand upon a
boundary-line, to linger upon a border-land, to
halt upon a resting place. The great globe itself,
has, without the hesitation of an instant, plunged
upon the new path, but its people prefer, for
a short space, to stand still in order to reflect, to
remember, to moralise, and to dream. At such a time
the petty demarcations by which we have divided our
life disappear, and we see as from a tower the whole
region we have traversed. With the benefit of ex-
perience hope grows out of disappointment, and a
steady resolute heart is turnal towards the future.
There is at this period the great advantage of not.
being troubled with the small details which seem to be
the daily association of life's voyage. The fears and
the apprehensions, the varying feelings and the bitter-
ness which have been called into existence over the
ceaselessly recurring incidents of the twelve months,
fade away; and looking down upon them the little
eddies disappear, and the eye sees only the flow of a calm
majestic stream. The season of retrospect does not
long continue. In some cases a sad last look
is cast upon the things that were, and then the mind
is turned towards the rising sun. The New Year
is hailed as a joyous and happy time and as
one which will be fruitful of better things than its
immediate predecessor. It is well, therefore, to pause
at such an hour, and, while recalling the lost oppor-
tunities, the ruined chances, the blighted hopes, and
the visionary expectations of the past, mentally to de-
termine that the New Year shall leave the moraliser
better than it found him. That the coming twelve
months may be in all respects as agreeable in its re-
membrances as the most sanguine could anticipate;
that its sorrows may be as unenduring as the sand,
and its joys as lasting as marble; that its disappoint-
ments may float away as the fleeting echoes die amid the
realms of boundless space, and that its agreeable asso-
ciatiens may have a permanent place upon the tablets
of the memory, is our earnest trust. In this spirit,
taking leave of one cycle of time, and looking forward
to another, we heartily wish all our readers.
"A HAPPY NEW YEAR."