The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-08-20 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT AND THE LAND BILL.

The Pall lifet'l Gazette says :—" The scene in the
lobbies of the House of Commons between one and
two o'clock on Sattirday was lively and animated.
Outside in the outer lobby and in the House of Lords
was the huge crowd of country cousins and foreign
visitors who employ the Saturday in studying the
inside of Westminster; while inside there was quite a
small multitude of legislators discussing the situation,
and journalists on the look-out for information. It
was most amusing to watch the varying expressions of
the different grouns. There was a sharp look-out for
the arrival of the first Cabinet Minister, and as three
o'clock came anticipation grew feverish. The Marquis
of Hartington was the first to appear; but the Secre-
tary for India is not the man who could be fairly said
to invite genial confidences, and he was allowed to pass
into the House without a word of interrogation from
members or special correspondents. Mr. Forster soon
after came in ; but there was nothing to be got from
him—though rumour was prevalent as to what he had
said to Mr. Shaw. Indeed, one of the most remark
able features of the day was the number of rumours
that were repeated as declarations on " the highest
authority." For instance, some one was able to assure
all comers that Mr. Gladstone had declared that he
would not abate "one iota" of the Bill, while with
equal confidence another person retailed an announce-
ment by Lord Salisbury that he had put his foot down;
and so on.

Mr. Gladstone was warmly cheered as he passed
through the Palace-yard to the House of Commons on
Monday afternoon; and when he took his seat on the
Treasury bench, at a quarter to five o'clock, his sup-
porters indulged in enthusiastic and prolonged ap-
plause.
Great interest was also manifested by the Peers in
the proceedings of the Lower House in connection with
the Land Bill on Monday. Among the noblemen who
occupied seats in the Lords' Gallery (many others
being unable to obtain admission) were the Duke of
Teck, the Duke of Norfolk, the Marquises of Lans-
downe and Waterford, the Lord Chancellor of
Ireland, Earls Spencer, Donoughmore, Camperdown,
Rosse, Kenmare, Pembroke and Ellen-
borough, Lords Carlingford, Brabourne, Lamington,
Inchiquin, and Rowton. The Marquis of Salisbury
attended the sitting of the House of Lords.

DEATH OF A FRIEND OF SHELLEY
AND BYRON.

The Pall Mall Gazette says :—" Mr. Edward John
Trelawny died on the 13th of this month. Sixty-one
years ago he was stopping at Ouchy, when a book-
seller of the village recommended Shelley's 'Queen
Mab 'to his notice. From that time Shelley was his
deity. In the winter of the following year he made
the personal acquaintance of Shelley and Byron at
Pisa. Before this year the adventurous Tre
had travelled the wide world over. Swimming he
had learnt from the natives of the South Seas, and both
in swimming and shooting he equalled, if he did not
excel, Byron himself. It was Trelawny that directed
the burning of Shelley's remains on the seashore ; it
was Trelawny that bought a resting-place for the
poet's ashes in the Protestant burying-ground at
Rome. After these events Trelawny went with Byron
to Greece, and some of the most stirring scenes in the
"Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author" relate
to his life in the cave on Mount Parnassus and his
escapes from the attacks of friend and foe. He was
the friend of England's chief poets when in his youth,
and in his old age in 1880 another of her poetic chil-
dren dedicated to him his "songs of the Springtide."

The Times of Wednesday, in its Obituary, says
We announced yesterday the death of one of the
:
very last of that band which fought for Greek inde-
pendence under Lord Byron just 60 years ago, Mr.
Edward John Trelawny, who has just passed away
at Sompting, near Shoreham, Sussex, in the 89th year
of his age. A member of an old Cornish family, the
Trelawnies of Trelawne, he was born in 1792. But little
is known to the public of his early years. We
read in Count Gamba's "Narrative of Byron's last
Journey to Greece " that in the summer of 1823
Mr. Trelawny joined him at his invitation from
Florence, and became one of about a dozen
persons who formed his lordship's bodyguard. He
embarked with him at Genoa, and reached Cephalonia
early in August, and crossed with him to Ithaca.
Along with Mr. Hamilton Browne he acted the part
of a diplomatic envoy from Lord Byron to the Greek
Government, communicating to them his own inten-
tions and those of the London Committee with respect
to the liberation of Greece 4; but he had the mortifica-
tion to find that his intended efforts were long
thwarted by the jealousies of rival chiefs and parties.
It was not 'till the first week in the new year that, a
loan having been arranged through friends in England,
Lord Byron and his party arrived at Missolonghi. The
story of the events which followed has been told by many
writers. During the last month or two of Byron's life
Mr. Trelawny was not with him, being engaged as
aide-de-camp to one of the Greek chiefs named
"Ulysses," and dividing his time between Athens and
Epirus. He was sent for when Lord Byron's illness
threatened to prove fatal ; but he did not reach Mis-
solonghi in time to see him, except in his coffin. Mr.
Trelawny contributed largely out of his own means, and
from his stock of Hellenic experience, to the abortive
campaign which ended thus sadly. He bore testi-
mony, however, to the magic influence of Lord
Byron's name in raising the loan in England to pay
the cost of the effort, adding that the poet's death
crushed alike the hopes of its contributors and their
interest in the cause.
Mr. Trelawny lived for many years in London,
where hi A tall figure and handsome face were well
known. He was the author of "Recollections ef
Shelley and Byron," published in 1858, and of
"Records of Shelley, Byron, &c." (2 vols.), published
in 1878.