The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-11-19 00:00:00

OUR LONDON CORRE3PONDENT.

[We deem It right to state that we do riot :A all times identify
ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Not since the dreadful days of Fergus-O'Connor
and Henry Hunt has London beheld such an
exciting scene as was witnessed in the murky
afternoon of Sunday, when 5000 policemen and
a detachment of the let Life Guards, sup-
plemented by a contingent of Grenadiers, des-
perately held Trafalgar-square against demon-
strating processions of Radicals. Many thou-
sands of men were in the processions coming
from every quarter of London; and thou-
sands more of idling sightseers swelled the
crowd which the authorities cleared away,
with many hard knocks, and not a few
serious wounds. Some 400 of those who got in
the way of the police were temporarily transferred
to the lock-up, among them being the member
for Lanark, Mr. Cunningham Graham and John
Burns the Socialist leader, while one hundred
and fifty had to be treated at the hospitals
for injuries. Police-court proceedings followed,
and there is strong talk of fighting out the
question of the right to assemble in the Square
over the bead of Sir Chas. Warren in the highest
tribunal in the land. Meanwhile- the greatest
excitement prevails in London. _

The anxiety with which people of all classes in
this country have watched the progress of the
illness of the Crown Prince of Germany is a
tribute of interest not often paid to a foreign
Prince. But for many reasons the Heir to the
Throne of the great continental empire has not
seemed to Englishmen generally to be foreign in
the usual sense. It is now within a few months
of thirty years since the then Prince Frederick
William of Prussia married the Princess Royal
of England, and from the date of that union the
inhabitants of this isle have of necessity felt a
keen interest in his march through life. As a
general his exploits in the field were remarked
with eager atteneon, and when he came to Eng-
land to participate in the Jubilee festivities no
Prince in the whole procession which streamed
from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey
was more warmly cheered by the assembled mul-
titudes. It seemed strange then to any obser-
vant on-looker to remember that the stalwart
Prince, who looked almost like a Lohengrin
on horseback, was threatened with a deadly
disease, arising out of a swelling in the
throat, which at that time was no larger
than a pea. And when people saw how little
care he took to prevent•exposing himself in the
open air, they imagined that more trouble had
been made of the ailment than was by circum-
stances justified. But later events told a different
tale, and after the distinguished sufferer had gone
to San Remo for further rest and change, it was
seen that the disorder had not disappeared, but
was rather upon the inbrease. And the lesson
which all.can derive from the circumstances is that
no one, however 'strong and hearty they may
appear, can afford to neglect any ailment, how-
ever trifling it may at the first glance seem.
A very general feeling of alarm will be caused
by the notification which has just been made
authoritatively to the public that leprosy is on
the increase. To most people this drat:l disease
will only suggest a recollection ot certain
passages in the Scriptures or perhaps of the
Middle Ages; but even the most careless cannot
fail to be struck with the fact now announced
that so far from the disorder having disappeared,
as most Englishmen may have thought, it is
decidedly increasing in the area it affects.

Except among antiquarians it is hardly remem-
bered that after the Crusades leprosy was so
common in England that lazar-houses, as they
were called, were provided in almost every town of '
size for the accommodation of the wretched
sufferers. Even now there are to be found
among the possessions of certain ancient
boroughs the properties which belonged to these
houses; and one of the most curious instances of
historical continuity which can be afforded is
given in the case of a west-country town
where the revenues of lands dedicated more than
six hundred years ago to the care of the lepers
are to-day appropriated to the maintenance of a
hospital for other sick persons. It is strange to
reflect that the pious individual who gave this
land for the relief of poor sufferers passed away
while leprosy overspread the kingdom, and that
at this day, so far distant from his own,
other unfortunate persons are reaping advan-
tage from his bounty at the very time that
the great scourge is once more threatening
us. There is no necessity to take an alarmist
view of the situation, but even those of the
most cheerful mind cannot contemplate without
something of dismay the fact that there are at
this moment to be found in the hospitals of our
greatest towns authenticated cases of the disease
which is at once the most dreadful and the most
dreaded in the world.

It is not only Londoners who will be interested
in the resolution just arrived at by the govern-
ing authorities of the City of London to widen
Ludgate-hill throughout its length. There are
few streets better known to every visitor to our
great metropolis. Many years have elapsed
since the widening of this thoroughfare
first began. It was commenced on the south
side, and as lease after lease fell in, house
after house was demolished. But then there
came a lull in the operations. Trade declined in
the City, and the Commissioners of Sewers, in
whose hands the matter lay, hesitated about
spending the very large amount required for
setting back the remaining houses. The conse-
quence is that to-day part of Ludgate-hill
remains in its old narrow state, and this juts
out in a fashion which renders nugatory most of
the widening, and aadly disfigures the whole
street. At last, and after many applications, the
Commissioners of Sewers have resolved to move
In the matter, and at their most recent meeting
they decided to serve the necessary notices
upon those concerned, in order to secure
the widening of the remainder of the
thoroughfare. At length, therefore, the chance
will be given of escaping the block which in the
middle of the day always afflicts Ludgate-hill,
and the lop-sided appearance of 'what ought to
he a striking highway will be taken away. A
street which has its summit crowned by the
metropolitan cathedral of St. Paul ought to be
as distinguished in look as in situation.
That the English are commercial people we
have all the best reason to know, and that they
are a speculative people few of us have cense to
deny. But how speculative they are can be
judged from a Parliamentary return of the
number of joint-stock companies formed during
last year, and the extent of their willingness
to invest, or perhaps rather their supposed
willingness to invest4may be gathered from the
figures therein given. It appears from these that
a total of 1701 new limited companies were
registered in the United Kingdom during 1836,
this being the largest number ever recorded in a
single year since the passing of the Companies
Act of 1862, and that the grand total which have
been registered in that period of a quarter of a
century was 25,042. The total nominal share
capital asked for last year was over 145 millions,
but there is no means of ascertaining how much
of this was subscribed. But the difference
between what is asked for and what is got may
be judged from a very curious note which is
appended to the return: "In 1869 a company
was registered with a nominal capital of
£100,000,000, but its paid-up capital appears
never to have exceeded £2OO. This is doubtless
a very exceptional case, but those who know any-
thing of the ways of company promoters are
aware that fabulous sums are often demanded in
the prospectus, and that only a small proportion
ever comes out of the public's pocket. The
limited liability system is a very excellent one,
but in some of its ramifications it has had curious
ups and downs.
Those who remember the strange excitement
which pervaded the English people four-
teen years ago when the Shah of Persia
visited these shcses, will feel some amount of
wonder as to sfsiether a similar fuss will be
made over this semi-barbarous monarch when
he fulfils his promise to come and see us again
next year. But those who are inclined to be as
cynical as Shakespeare was over the propensity
of the Englishman who would not give a doit to
a blind beggar, and yet would pay heavily to see
a dead Indian, and to ridicule the courtesies
lavished upon such a curious specimen of a
monarch as Nasr-ed-din, but there is a question
of State policy to be considered in connection
with such a'matter which cannot be lightly dis-
missed with a wave of the hand. The Shah rules
a territory which is so near India that we have
to pay special attention to his wishes, and Russia
has made so much of him of late that if England
does not treat him in the kindest and most coins
teous fashion, he may throw himself into the arms
of the Czar. Where we have to deal with rulers
of men we ;have to dismiss many a personal
prejudice, and have to put aside many a predi-
lection we may have held dear. And so, when
people are inclined, as some may be, to scoff at
the attentions which next year will be paid to
the Shah, they will do well to remember that it
is not a matter of liking the roan, but of bene-
fitting the State which is at the bottom of the
whole affair.
Manchester has just closed an exhibition
which has been one of the most successful ever
;ield in a provincial town. Its interior arrange..
paents were as e.xcellent as those in the grounds,