The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-07-03 00:00:00

Cut. Fanban Corrtspoubmt.

• (We deem It rht to state that me do not at all VreS
tieutity ourieictis with our Conespondent's opinions.

We are now once more in the midst of a
general election, and it requires the oldest o;. us
to remember a parallel instance in which a Par-
liament only six months old was diss-)lved. For
another reason this recent dissolution will be
long remembered in political history, and that is
because it has furnished the first occasion upon
which two general elections have been taken on
the same regist-x of voters. It will be remem-
bered that last year, in order to enable the
ilewly•enfranchised electors to cast their votes
in November—that being considered the most
convenient month for the dissolution—an Act
was passed bringing the register into force in
that month instead of, as usual, on New Year's
Day. All those, therefore, who were qualified
to record a vote last November are qualified to
recotd-s•-vote- now, whether they have moved

since the register was compiled from one house
to another in the same constituency or even out
of Ole:constituency altogether. The mere fact
of being on the register, whether the qualifica-
tion which enabled a place to be secured on it
has been lost or not, is sufficient to entitle a
Irian to give his vote. There are only two
questions which the poll clerk can legally
ask. The first is, "Are you the John Thompson
named on the register :;" which is intended to
prevent personation, and the second is, " Have
you voted before at this election F." which is
-designed to make difficult the old practice of
"voting early and voting often." And, as in
these days, the exercise of the suffrage is regarded
as one of the most valued rights of citizenship,
it is desirable that all should know how far
that 'right extends, and to what degree it may
have been affected by the changes which have
come with time.
Mention of the fact that the present dissolu-
tion enables the first instance to be furnished
of two general elections being fought upon the
same register, is a reminder that the register
itself is a very modern institution. For close
upon five centuries and a half after the assembling
of the first English Parliament, resembling in all
essentials that which continues to be called
together, no such thing as a register of voters ex-
isted. The qualifications for exercising the suffrage
in the boroughs were as mysterious as they were
many, and they had to be proved, if necessary,
by each individual voter at every individual
contest. In the counties the qualification was
that a being a freeholder, but, simple as this
sounds when compared with the borough qualifi-
cation derived from burgage tenures, scot and
lot, or the taking up of the freedom, it entailed
immense difficulties and enormous expense.

When folks in these days read that, at the
beginning of this century, a contest for the
county of York cost the combatants something
like a quarter of a million of money, they
wonder in whatever manner such an amount of
wealth could have been spent, and think they
have accounted for it by the theory that it was
all disposed of in bribery and treating. But
this is to do an injustice to the memory of the
doughty politicians of both parties who fought
that Yorkshire battle and rendered it historical.
A very large proportion of the amount was dis-
bursed in the lodging and keep of the thousands
of claimants to a vote who had to wait, many of
them for weeks, in the city of York in order, as
the saying then ran, to "prove their freehold."
It may be imagined what a harvest this
furnished to the hotel-keepers, and even more to
the lawyers, who quibbled over every deed and
cr ad every freeholder. But the Reform
Act of 1832 dispensed with the necessity for all
this waste of time, energy, and money; and a
register of voters was provided, which answered
the purpose far more effectively.
It is as difficult to avoid referring to the
general election at such a time as this as it was
"Mr. Dick" in Dickens's "David Copper-
field" to keep from mentioning King Charles's
head in his "memorial." A dissolution has its
effect not only upon politicians of every kind
and in every part of the country, but it seriously
touches that mysterious entity known as
"Society." The London season, which was in
full swing when the division was taken that
tolled the knell of the late Parliament, was
practically put an end to by the dissolution.
Heads of families had other wbrk to do than
the giving of balls or the providing of dinners;
and, greatly to the grief of the younger
portion of society population, they ceased
entertaining their personal friends in order
that they might enlighten their political
neighbours. Men of influence in their re-
spective districts in the country hastened from
London to their homes in order that they might
secure the support of their friends to the party
they deemed the best; and the consequence was
a somewhat abrupt closing of many well-known
houses, which entailed a severe disappointment
upon those who, caring nothing about politics.
are fond of being entertained. The West-end
tradesmen, to whom a flourishing and prolonged
season is a very distinct advantage, have suffered
in pocket from the present dissolution, owing to
their best customers having left town so soon;
and altogether it may safely be asserted that a
general election in July finds few friends among
that vast population which has Hyde-park as at
once its centre and its recreation ground.
When the ordinary reader, who is never likely
to attend a Royal Drawing-room or levee, sees in
his newspaper that the Court is going into
mourning for a certain period because some
relative of our Royal Family has passed away,
he is not apt to realise all that this means to
those who in various fashions have to attend
upon the Court. It is not often, however, that
those who are accustomed to the etiquette which
prevails in palaces forget the obligations imposed
by Court mourning as completely as did a great
number of officers who attended the last levee of
the season, held a few afternoons since at St.
James's Palace by the Prince of Wales. The
suicide of King Louis of Bavaria had necessitated
the English Court assuming mourning, and the
period during which it was to be worn had not
expired when the levee was held. This had been
forgotten by about a hundred officers who had
presented themselves at the palace in order to
pass before the Prince, and it was only when
some official, deeply concerned at the omission,
pointed out that it could not be tolerated, that
the unwritten offenders saw the error of their
ways. A rush was at once made to the nearest
drapery establishment, where all available hands
were set hurriedly to work to make up crape
bands for the arms of those who had thus for-
gotten that some sign of -erning was neces-
sary. By this means the difficulty was over-
come, and the officers proceeded to the palace in
peace.
No one can pass through Piccadilly in the
summer, either morning or evening, without
seeing some evidences of the fashionable liking
for coaching. For this thoroughfare is the head-
quarters of the coaches which ply between L on don
and certain places at no very great distance from
us; and the teams may be seen morning or
evening, going or coming, bearing their merry
freight, joyous with the expectation of an agree-
able day or pleased with the fact of having spent
one. As a commercial speculation, coaching in
these times is very decidedly a failure, but it is
not as a commercial speculation that it is
pursued. There are some men of fortune to
whom the handling of a four-horse team is one
of the sweetest of delights, and such persons do
not object to paying heavily for their amuse-
ment. To the general public, however, the
question is not as to what amount of money it
costs the driver, but as to what amount of
pleasure it brings them; and anyone who has
taken a coach ride from Piccadilly to some of
the destinations „wound London, of which choice
can be ma e, will be able to avouch that the
pleasure is very great. A drive along country
roads and leafy lanes, amid some of the sweetest
scenery the home counties can show, is ae
pleasant a mode of spending a lazy day E 3 eau
well be suggested; and fashion may for ome be
-thanked that in this enstance it has provided a
pastime which not only -pleases those who
originally contrive it, but every outsider who
cares to participate.
A very large stream of visitors is setting in jest
now for the Continent, the eholera scare, which
has had such an effect during the past two yeare,
having disappeared. There is, of course, no say-
ing at what moment it maybe revived, fercholera
lingers for a long while in districts it has once
made its own, and cases may occur at any time
in the towns which, during the past two years,
have been so sorely inflicted with its ravages.
Should this turn out to be the ca.ee, the present
stream of visitors to the Continent would be
very largely diminished, for there is something
so terrible in the very name of cholera that the
bravest may be excused for not volun-
tarily going to those P laces where it
is known to exist. But, strangely as things in
this world act and re-act one upon the other, the
fact of such a scare prevailing would mean the
placing of a considerable sum of money in the
pockets of British hotel-keepers lodging-letters,
and railway companies. If people are prevented
by any cause, whether arising out of war or pes-
tilence, from having their holidays abroad, it
simply means that they will have them af, home

!AEI -

and instead of spending their money in foreign
hotels and at Continental shops. they will spend
it in England. The Briton whose business is
likely to be increased by such a process is apt to
wish that scares of one sort or another would
;annually prevail, but he is not so hard-hearted
as to wish that there should be any real ground
for them. As long as people could be kept to
their own country, and be practically compelled
to spend their surplus money within the borders
of their own shores, he would not wish a painful
reason for the process.
Mountain climbing is one of the relaxations
which a good many Englishmen allow them-
selves in the autumn, but it is a relaxation
which to many persons appears to be distinct
hard work, and to every one must present itself
as possessing more than a spice of danger. Yet
this very adventurous spirit which often leads
men into hazardous enterprises is one of the
proudest possessions of Englishmen as a body.
It is certainly needed by those who would take
Switzerland as their holiday resort, and who
would wish to " do " that country thoroughly.
The true beauty of the mountains cannot be seen
by those who, to use Mark Twain's phrase, only
"climb them through a telescope." Old Alpine
climbers will laugh at the idea of danger from
attempting to reach the comparatively modest
heights which the ordinary tourist aims at ; but
there is a very real danger nevertheless for those
who do not possess pluck, nerve, and above all,
presence of mind. Crevasses abound and glaciers
furnish many an awkward position, and thougn
to those who are perfectly cool of head, the
danger may be practically non-existent. It is a
different case with those who, if the bull may be
pardoned, find their presence of mind absent
when it is most required. Cool people, who are
strong in body and untroubled with nerves, can
secure very much to delight them in a trip to
Switzerland; but those, who like Raleigh, would
say,
Fain would I climb,
But that I fear to fall,

had best act upon the traditional reply of Queen
Elizabeth,
If thy heart fail thee,
Do cot climb at all.