The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-14 00:00:00

Rittropolitan 6ossip.

BY 01:" R OWN CORBBSPONI,BNT.

(The remarke under thia head are to he regarded as the ex.
oresaion of Indepemient opilligni, from the pinl of a gentlentar
....honn we have the greatest oonlidence, hut for which wa
n;vertheler.nl ehot hold ouraelvea rtepouailde.)

Electioneering is now becoming fast and furious,
and the skirmishing preparatory to the grand battle
is quite exciting. Your readers, however, are doubt-
less sufficiently occupied with that contest which most
immediately concerns themselves, without being bored
with comments on the metropolitan elections. l'he
question as to what will be the relative strength of
parties is continually being asked here, but the diffi-
culty of answering it may be even from the widely
different estimates that are put forward by journals of
opposite politics. In spite of these contradictory
vaticinations however. I venture to say that those who
anticipate a large Liberal majority appear to have the
greater amount of reason on their side. That this is
" looming in the future" through the November fog
can scarcely be denied, but the foggy month must be
considerably advanced before we can be certain as to
its proportions. Whatever may be the result, one
thing is certain that the sooner that result is arrived
at the better will the public generally like it. A
little political excitement is rather agreeable, but we
have now had quite enough of it to be pleasant, and
in one northern town there has been decidedly too
much. Some people think this is but a foretaste of
what we may expect during the general election, and
that the magisterial authorities in the various town
ought to prepare to meet similar displays of party
hostility, but there is reason to think that the dis-
graceful scenes which have been presented at Black-
burn will prove quite exceptional.
Perhaps next to the declarations of the Emperor of
the French, and perhaps of equal importance, are those
of the King of Prussia, and it is highly satisfactory,
therefore, to observe that the recent speech of the
latter monarch has everywhere been regarded as highly
pacific. All the leading organs of opinion in France
have commented on it in this sense, and the general effect
has been most beneficiaL It would be far more satis-
factory, however, could we have deeds instead of
words. A reduction of the enormous standing armies
of the Continent would speak louder than the most
pacific utterances by word of mouth, or through official
journals. Will England take the lead? It is rumoured
that she will.

Amongst the measures for social improvement which
the ensuing Parliament will, in all probability, be called
OD to entertain, will be one to regulate the employment
of women and children in agriculture. That there is
great need of reform cannot well be denied, but it will
he rather a ticklish subject to deal with. It is likely
that some such regulations will be proposed as those
which have been legalised under the Factory Regula-
tions Act. It is to be hoped, at all events, that the
employment of children of tender years will lie so dealt
with that they may be freed from the iniquities of the
ganging system.
Several of our leading journals are calling attention
- and not a hit too soon--to the increase of crimes of
violence and of robberies in our streets. It is a
tempting subject for moralising and philosophising,
but the public have to do with stern facts, and the
main fact is, undeniably, that robberies and assaults are
frightfully frequent. One gentleman, in calling atten-
tion to the subject at the Marylebone vestry—a gentle-
man, by the bye, who is well-known for his devotion
to the cause of social reform —says that with regard to
crimes of violence in the streets, we Londoners are now
as badly off as were our forefathers a century or two
ago. This assertion would not bear the test of rigid
examination into history, for not only robbery, but
even murder was then common in the dark streets and
narrow passages of London ; but we certainly have
not improved as we ought in our attempts to -tope
with the progress of rascality. There are two remedies
that ought speedily to be tried; the suburbs especiallly
should be better lighted, and the police force should be
increased, and if we could have a better class of men as
police so much the better. it has been proposed that
we should have a volunteer police! A pretty idea
truly ! The policeman's life is on the whole sufficiently
miserable to make "the force" a refuge for the desti-
tute, and to believe that any respectable mechanics,
artisans, and labourers would leave their homes to go
on a beat, with all its certainties of discomfort, and
all its chances of broken heads, involves a deficiency of
common sense, that is anything but common.
It is sad to observe that the cry of distress is begin-
ning to be raised in various parts of London-districts
where poverty is chronic, but wlvtre hard, biting,
pinching distress always sets in with the winter.
That this suffering will be met, as it always has been
met, to a greater or less extent, by private and public
subscriptions, is certain enough, but it is a sorrowful
fact that we never hit upon any scheme for
permanently dealing with the want and privations
that the poor suffer during the winter. Why do not
our philanthropists aim at helping the poor mechanics,
who are over-weighted by too fierce a competition, to
emigrate? And could we not have the Public Works
Act applied to London? There are many valuable
improvements draining, road-making, etc., that
could thus be effected, at the same time relieving the
poor in the time of their severest distress. In the
course of an eloquent speech at Edinburgh the other
day, Mr. Bright spoke touchingly on the vast amount
of distress in the country, specially alluding to the
Metropolis. "It is a long way," he said, "from Bel
grave-square to Bethnal-green. We cannot measure
the distance from the palatial mansions of the rich to
the dismal hovels of the poor, from the profuse and
costly luxuries of the wealthy to the squalid and hope-
less misery of some millions who are below them ;
but I ask you, as I ask myself a thousand times, is it
not possible that this mass of poverty and suffering
should be touched, and should be reached?" Pending
the great remetiies which he speaks of, might it not be
well to aim at the two partial remedies to which
reference has been made? Besides which, at least

1,000 men might be employed in the Metropolis in the

ordinary cleansing operations of the streets. In Paris,
.which lo but two thirds of the size, 1,500 men are thus
employed during the winter and 1,000 in the summer.
As poverty and sickness are perennial, good nursing

should always be within the reach of the sick poor.
Ibis may sound very Utopian, but the idea is suscep-
tible of the most practical development to a very con-
siderable extent. The Daily News, alluding to this
subject, says The horrors brought to light by the
Workhouse Infirmary Association gained their deepest
intensity from the barbarities practised by ignorant
and cruel nurses; and those most conversant with the
time sufferings of the sick poor unite in saying that
the terrible lack of trained nurses is the worst evil
against which they have to contend. It is interesting
to know that efforts are being made in various parts of
England ti meet this difficulty, and that training
establishments for nurses have been set up in places in
which nursing as a profession has only been heard of
within the last few years. But, as Dr. Sieveking has
recently shown, "the matter has not yet met with the
public attention its importance demands." The
snore's the pity. Could we have an organised system
of trained nurses kr the prow it would materially re-
duce the cost of their maintenance, while the system
w,.uld he a great boon also to that class which is not
absolutely poor, but where sickness soon brings
poverty. Several of the London hospitals have
ndopted the plan of educating (for it is really that) and
training nurses, but the system is as yet but in its in-
fancy. Scott's well.known lines--
When pain end anguish 'wring the hrow,
A ministering angel thou,
are still as true as ever ; hut in sober truth it must be
. . . . .

:Omitted that the ministering angel is often sadly
ignorant, lie her heart over so kindly.
The taste for low and cruel sports still exists to a
rather serious extent muting our population. Were it
twit for the repreenve measurer; of the police, under the
poivisiorie of certain Acts of Parliament, we cannot
doubt that these sports would be indulged in to a far
greater extent than at present. I notice that the
eirkenheail police have made a raid upon a certain
umber of persons who were engaged in the intel-
leeteal pastime of rat-hunting and badger-drawing.
The keeper of the house was fined i.!5, and the othe
defendants kl each, as well as the costs in all cases.
Thie is as it should lie, except that the fines are not
heavy enough. We often speak with disgust of the
bull-baiting in Spain, but can any one doubt
that were it legal here it would be largely
patronised ? Truth to say that a great number of
Englishmen are naturally rather fond of such
sort as can be obtained from killing animals—fox-
hunting to wit. Bear-baiting and bull-baiting were
once fashionable amusements, and Queen Elizabeth hail
her bear-garden at Banksicle. So late as 1802, a bill
to abolish bull-baiting was thrown out by the House
of Commons, and it was not till several years after-
wards that this cruel sport was made illegal. Of late
years we have much improved in this respect, and the
determined antagonism if magistracy aud police to
I's-ire-fighting is matter of congratulation. The "ring,'
however, dies hard, and if the authorities once relax,
it will soon revive.
Patronage is so dear to the hearts of those who
~..111 it that when it is voluntarily given up the fact
• biserves notice. The governors of King Edward's
echool at Birmingham have resolved to divest them-
selves of their patronage in respect to the upper
achirol, and throw open all future admissions to com-
petitive examination. Would that a similar step
ought be taken in respect to other schools—Christ's
Hiepital for example. We, too, have a King

Edward's School here, but who over heard anything I
about it? No doubt it is rich enough, but what does
it ever do to aid the education of the poor?
A curious, but by no means unexpected, fact came
out in evidence in a recent police case. Sir Richard
Mayne's edict, which has led to the destruction of so
many dogs, has also had the effect of almost destroy.
ing the trade in "canine provisions." A tradesman
who came forward as bail, and who said he supplied
numerous dealers in canine provisions, English and
foreign, stated that, owing to the destruction of the
dogs his trade had fallen off more than £2O a week!
What is of more importance, is that is number of retail
dealers will have to go to the workhouse if Sir Richard
Mayne's edict is enforced throughout the winter. It
is to be hoped, therefore, that Sir Richard will
have mercy on the dogs as well as the men. We have
now not a dog more than we want, and there is rot
the least occasion for the remainder to be either
muzzled or destroyed to satisfy a whim of the Chief
Commissioner of Police.

It appears that the sensational accounts of the
Siamese twins having quarrelled, and having refused
to speak to each other for sonie time—their visit to
Paris to be separated by M. NFlaton, and all the sur-
mises founded upon the report are all untrue. So
at least says the Lancet. " The twins," says this
journal, "are two beings, possessing as separate and
complete organisations as ally other two individuals,
the only connection being a short cartilaginous and
integumental band common to both, the severance of
which would, in all probability, be perfectly harmless."
The question naturally arises, if this be the case, why
do they not undergo the operation? Probably they do
not desire it, and they may be of a different opinion
to that given above. They may possibly apply the
motto, "United we stand, divided we fall," in another
than the ordinary sense.