The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-12 00:00:00

Itt (i4.icrithzu evrrespuOtni.

~ „Me deem it right to state that we do not at all rdneB
qaentify ou,sclves with cmc Correspondent's opinion&

Notwithstanding the break in the London season,
which was caused by the general election, and the
political interregnum which ensued at the time of the
change of Goliernment, that season is going off with
even more than its usual brilliancy. Whatever might
have beva the effect of the continuance of bright and
warm, weather on agricultural operations, there is no
doul•A that it is thoroughly appreciated in town. The
Ps Ark, the Row, and Regent-street were never fuller
'than they are now. At the fashionable hours it is
well nigh impossible to obtain even a glance at
aalf the pictures in the Academy; and the
same might almost be said of the other galleries,
including the Dorki and the Grosvenor. The
theatres enjoy their full share of the renewed pros-
verity; and the revival of what is called the
legitimate drama seems well to suit the public
f •
taste. The musical drama is well represented by
Madame Christine Nilsson at Her Majesty's, and by
Madame Patti at Covent Garden. The days are
just now at their longest, so that there is ample time
for out-deeir recreation and enjoyment. Of late, how-
ever, it cannot be said that they are at their hottest.
Alth'ough, as on the Derby Day, an occasional wave of
heat passes over the land, it seems but a brief and
temporary check to that cold atmospheric current
which these islands have experienced during the last
eighteen months. In former years we have had frost
and snow in May; now the frost has extended even
into June—that genial and leafy month when the sun
attains the meridian of his power.
The death of the Empress of Russia will have the
effect of withdrawing her only daughter, the Duchess
of Edinburgh, from the salons of London society for
a time; but the Duchess of Connaught is doing her
best to meet the numerous engagements which, at this
busy period, fall to the lot of the Royal family to dis-
charge. Nearly six years ago the Empress was over
here at the christening of the eldest child of the
Duchess of Edinburgh—a ceremony at which Queen
Victoria was also present. It was in November 1874,
and her Imperial Majesty saw London under its
most uninviting aspect. Just six months previously
her husband the Czar had spent a short time in the
British capital. It was May ; and as has been
the custom with that month in recent years, it
was cold and cheerless, reminding the Russian Em-
peror of his own bleak northern home. 'When he
ventured forth into the streets of the metropolis, he
was wrapped in an ample cloak, as though he were in
St. Petersburg. The Empress had been an invalid for
some time before her death ; and sought in summer
lands and under brighter skies the health which was
denied to her amid the vast-spreading territories of
the great Colossus of the North.
The Grand Duke of Hesse has returned to his
principality; but as the Prince and Princess of Wales,
as the heads of London society, take a pride and
pleasure in dispensing their hospitality, they were
not long without a visitor in the person of the King
of the Hellenes, a brother of the Princess. Accom-
panied by the Prince of Wales, the King attended a
funeral service at the Russian church in Welbeck-
street, in memory of the departed Empress. As the
Duke of Edinburgh had started for St. Petersburg, to
attend the interment of his mother-in-law, he was
represented at the funeral service by his elder brother,
whose wife, the Princess of Wales, is a sister of the
future Empress of Russia. The presence of the
Hellenic sovereign is explained by the fact that his
wife is a daughter of the Grand Duke Constantine,
a younger brother of the Czar. Thus does the mar-
riage tie unite if it does not bring together the Royal
families of England, Russia, Denmark, and Greece:
while the unions between the Houses of Hanover
and Hohenzollern are still more numerous when we
recall the marriages of our Princess Royal with the
Crown Prince of Germany, and of the Duke of
Connaught with the daughter of Prince Frederick
Charles; and, in a more distant way, the matrimonial
alliances of the late Princess Alice with the Grand
Duke of Hesse, and of Princess Helena with Prince
Christian.

Seldom has there been a more representative funeral
gathering than at the obsequies of the late Mr. J. R.
Planchd, who for many years had held the office of
Somerset Herald. This vetetan dramatist was the
first to make a stand for the correct historical
style in costume and scenery, at a time when
an extravaganza or a Christmas pantomime was
the only thing thought worth expending money on.
Readers of his recently-published "Recollections and
Reflections" will remember with what a mixture of
pathos and humour he describes the difficulties he had
to undergo in his first great attempt to bring out
"King John" at Drury Lane; how manager and
actors protested against it, and in some cases refused
to wear the dresses which he had, at great expense
(and which fell entirely on his own shoulders) dis-
covered from old manuscripts and carvings, and de-
signed for Kemble and his company. In the
enormous success of this same "King John" he had
his reward. His first piece was brought out in
1818; and in less than fifteen years from that time
he had produced no less than seventy-six plays,
long and short. It seems difficult to realise
that one who began to write plays sixty-two years ago
has only now passed from the living; but the long
and honourable career of Mr. Ililanch6 was attri-
butable no less to his possession of a good constitution
than to the remarkable way in which he preserved his
health by a careful, prudent, and abstemious life.

The opening of the Grand Hotfl at Charing Cross is
a striking testimony to the wealth and ''enterprise
which find employment in Loaden. It well answers
to its name. The site alone cost -2200,000, and
the building with the fittings £lOO,OOO more. It
stands upon a part of the ground so long
occupied by Northumberland House, the town
residence of the dukes of that title, one of the
noblest of our families, as is attested by the fact that
they possess a family vault in Westminster Abbey.
The house, with its adjacent gardens, occupied a site
of:immense value, and when the Metropolitan Board
of works wanted to make a roadway from the Thames
Embankment into Trafalgar-square, and it was found
that the only direct route was through Northumberland
House and grounds, the present duke surrendered his
interest in it for half a million sterling. The
making of the road and the destruction of some other
property consequent upon it cost another quarter
of a million, so that this new thoroughfare, North-
umberland-avenue by name, is the most expensive
in all London. The Board of Works, as representing
the ratepayers, look to be repaid by the sale of the land
on either side of the street for building purposes, and
there can be no doubt that in the course of a few
years the avenue will be a very handsome one. The
Grand Hotel stands out at the North-eastern corner,
with one side facing Trafalgar-square and the other
looking loftily down over the City of Westminster.
It is fully equal to anything of the sort which has
ever been constructed, in the splendour and complete-
ness of its arrangements. The fitting up of the
dining and drawing rooms is superb, the gilding and
the mirrors, the tapestry and the hangings of silk and
velvet equalling anything to be witnessed in Paris.
Following the French style the table cllGte
will be open to any who may care to sit down
to it, whether sojourning in the hotel or not.

Visitors to the Strangers' Gallery in the House of
Lords cannot have failed to notice what a very serious
business a division is in their lordship's house, as com-
pared with the nonchalant and leisurely way in which
the Commons file off into opposite lobbies. One
reason for this is the scarcity of divisions in the
chamber of the peers; another is the sedate cha-
racter of that illustrious assembly. In the reports of
speeches in the Commons you often see "loud cheers ;"
in the Lords, as a rule, a quiet "hear, hear" is all
that is uttered. But a division is quite an event
there. Four white wads are deliberately brought
out by the attendants, and one is handed to each
of the four tellers, that is, the peers selected to
count the •votes. As each peer passes the tellers,
the latter solemnly taps him on the shoulder
with the wand uttering the number in a voice suffi-
ciently loud to be hears all over the chamber.
"Twenty-three, twenty-four," and so on until one
side has polled its strength, while the majority is still
in process of being counted at the other end. A
dissimilarity between the procedure of both Houses so
far as the tellers are concerned is worth noting. In
the Lords they are reckoned as having voted, while in
the Commons this is not the case. There the tellers
are never included in the numbers announced to the
House.

The trial of the election petitions, now going on in
various towns, claims a passing notice. Previously to
the year 1770 these petitions were tried before a Com-
mittee of the whole House of Commons; then they
were relegated to Select Committees chosen by lot ;
and in liGB the House surrendered its privileges in
this matter to Her Majesty's judges. After the
General Election of that year, and again in 1874,
each petition was tried by one judge; but in the last
Parliament an act was passed, providing that in future
every petition should be heard before two judges.
Formerly, when these hearings took place at West-
minster, the expense was very great, as large numbers
of witnesses had to come to London from the most
remote parts ; now the judges proceed to the towns
from which the complaints come ; and as many of these
are not assize towns, accustomed to witness the
opening of the Royal Commission three or four times
3 year, the arrival of the judges is naturally an event
of great interest. At the same time the taking away
of six judges from Westminster at about the busiest
iinle of the year greatly impairs the available judicial

strength in London, and interferes with the disposal
of the mass of cases standing on the lists for trial.
The Ascot Race week is generally regarded as
the climax of the gaieties of London society
during the season. First come the week of the
Derby and the Oaks ; a fortnight afterwards, we have
"aristocratic Ascot;" then a month later "glorious
Goodwood," in the Duke of Richmond's Park, an event
which indicates the beginning of the end of London
fashionable life during its brief but enjoyable existence.
Of the three gatherings, however, Ascot is unquestion-
ably the gayest. Royalty may be present at Epsom
and at Goodwood, but unofficially; while, at Ascot,
there is a State procession, with the Ala,ster of Her
Majesty's Buckhounds, magnificently mounted, at its
head. Time was when the Queen and the Prince
Consort were the principal personages in this proces-
sion ; but that is a long while ago now, and for many
years past the Prince and Princess of Wales have dis-
charged that with the other duties devolving upon
them with the affability and grace which distinguishes
the fulfilment of the various engagements which it
falls to their lot to undertake.