The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-03-26 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 1887.

:NIGHT-WORK IN THE COMMONS.

HEZ Majesty's faithful Commons assembled
on Monday as usual at four &clock in the
afternoon. Routine business was got through
with celerity, and by half-past five Supply
was reached. From the moment of the
House thus going into committee until the
adjournment shortly after one in the after-
noon of the next day, members were discus-
sing Navy and Civil Service Estimates
both of them important matters. There were
some interesting details concerning equip
rnents to consider, and members were well
within their right in wishing to have the
votes asked for fully explained. Thus when
''-•r+ hours had run on until the Government
been able to get a safficient num-
Whips -,orters out of bed to make
her of their anpr_ - for comnpathirroqi=
_
Cloture—half-past four 1 and the
ing—the discussion was stoppe,.., elivil
navy grant made. Next came the
Service Estimates, a vote on account of over
three and a half millions sterling being
required by Ministers. Item by item the
various component parts of this aggregate
were challenged by the Radical economists
who have affinity of thought with Mr
Labouchere, and by the Nationalist mem-
bers. Government intended having its
Totes, so that they might be included in the
Appropriation Bill, which has to receive
Parliamentary assent before the financial
year closes, that is before the Ist of April.
The Opposition refused to allow so large a
sum to be hurriedly and generally granted—.
just because it was asked for as a protest
that money votes should always be subject
to adequate discussion. The principal was a
very sound one, and nobody could possibly
condemn it as such. It is certainly very
advisable that no precedent should be
established of giving big cheques to Minis-
ters from the Treasury without havinz
reserved to rarnament trie rignt -=--nay the
duty—of seeing what they are wanted for,
and whether the expenditure cannot wisely
be decreased in any case. Unfortunately an
unprejudiced person will hardly be able to
come to the conclusion that all those who

joined hands to bring about the "all-night
sitting" were actuated by pure patriotism
and public spirit. We fear that among both
the advanced Liberals and Irish Nationalists

who took part in the contest of endurance
at St. Stephen's some were actuated by a
factious spirit, and had no hope,",and not
mach real desire, to effect practieal reform
in the Estimates. Such expressions as were
said to have been made use of—oce member
accusing another of being drunk, one an-
nouncing to his neighbour that had he been
outside the House he would have blacked his
eye, another declaring that the popularity of
royalty was on the wane are scarcely
specimens of utterances that constituents
would expect from their nembers when
gathered together in the first assembly of
gentlemen in Europe with the earnest desire
to expedite business. Then the snores of
those stretched out on the benches in slumber,
ready to be roused in time for a division,
the sight of a somewhat audacious Irish
M.P. perched in the Speaker's chair, the
desultory talk which went on irrespective of
order or decorum all seemed calculated to
bring the proceedings of the Legislature in-
to disrepute, if not contempt. There was
first Mr. Leonard Courtney in the chair,
then the Postmaster-General, and afterwards
until Mr. Courtney's return, Sir John Gorst.
All these experienced statesmen were
badgered and baited by members below the
gangway, and almost worn out with the
efforts they had put forth to sustain the
dignity of the Chair, and at length persis-
tence was wearied out, and gave up the
game of obstructicn befor the longer staying
powers of reinforcement and big battalions,
as represented by the influx of supporters
of the Ministry refreshed by a night's rest.
What is the real lesson of this 21 hours'
continuous sitting of the Commons? It is
not the first all-night sitting within recent
memory. Members stayed at Stephen's for
22 hours once in January, 1881, over Mr.
Gladstone's motion for urgency for an Irish
Coercion Bill, and, eighteen months later,
raw during a thirty hours' sitting June out
and July in while wrangling ancifit the Pre-
vention of Crime in Ireland. This was the
memorable occasion on which ..11r. Parnell
and some two dozen of his supporters were
suspended. Of course, in these two cases
the obstruction was systematic., ard arose
purely out of the differences betw can the
Imperial Parliament. and the Irish Nation-
alist contingent. It was part of their "Plan
of Campaign," entered info with a view to
foreing tho grant of autonomy. On Monday
and Tue,al Ly last, when the lervi.thy
.sitting
was in progress, Irish members were again
well ill evidence, but the matter in hand was
not one affecting their constituencies more
than the rest of the United Kingdom. Their
opposition was factious, doubtless, and de-
liberately adopted again, as yet a further
part of the Parliamentary Plan of Garnpaign.
But we prefer to judge it apart from Irish
action for a moment here, and recognising
that Scotch and English Members unmis-
takeably stood out for adequate discussion
of money votes before the grant be made,
would point out that the remedy—the only
real remedy for.night-work and untimely
hours at St. Stephen's, lies in a thorough
reft.rns of procedure. That, we take it, is
tile lesson of the lung all-night sitting, with
tfi UUdiglaified 11C411.1 "4 13164.4". The

C.

KAISER WILLIAM'S ninetieth birthday 174aa
the occasion of a gathering of a galaxy of
Royal stars in the city of Berlin. Sovereigns
and Princes from almost every civilised city
under the sun gathered to do honour to the
nonagenarian Soldier-King, who may in
truth be said to be the most popular man in
all the broad Rhineland country to-day.
Time was when William of Hohenzollern
was considered as but a poor father-in-law
for the daughter of England's Queen; but
genius and a good heart helped him to find
sphere, fitting spere, and he who ruled Prussia
is now the honoured head of the vast Teu-
tonic Empire, and even his old vanquished
enemy, Austria, joins in the enthusiasm of
fiiciidiyaua .pproriative laudation which
has centred this week in Berlin on the head
of the veteran of camp and court. Ere long
Frederick William, Crown Prince, must
ascend the German throne, and thus Victoria,
Princess Royal, will sit beside him, and the
most cultured and most powerful of Euro-
pean States will be close linked to Britain
rulers by the bond of blood. But while he
lives, Kaiser William will be the name
wherewith to conjure in Germany. He is
the oldest of crowned heads, and there is no
king more loved than he because of his per-
sonal achievements and his desires to frater-
nise with his subjects.

"HAPPY ANNIE," How the name came
to be bestowed upon the poor unfortunate
who passed to her death so unhappily under
the starlit sky of London the other night it
does not transpire. Her's was the old story.
Well educated, respectably connected she
—from inherent evil or weakness—swerved
from virtue's path. She sacrificed her claim
to respectability, lost the friendship and
protection of rblation and acquaintance, and
sank-to the lowest depths of degradation.
Scantily clad, with but the last lingeriag
trace of the old refinement and comeliness,
she was found dead in an area in the glim-
mering dawn of a frosty March morning.
Drink, her curse and her only respite,
rendered her incapable. She was ieeling,
with benumbed senses, to the shelter she had
often since her fall sought, the dustbin at-
tached to a humble North Landon house.
The slippery steps were too dangerous for
her cloudy sight and unsteady tread, and she
fell to the bottom. There, in the bitter cold,
surrounded by the thin crimson stream of
her life-blood, the victim died alone in the
bitter night, forsaken by kinsfolk and
betrayer. Her's was a sad history, but it is
only one of many such. There are other
"happy Annies ' whose spirits pass hence
from squ.alour and misery in London and
other great cities, almost every night. And
practical Christian charity, as rare under the
sun as when poor laughing, suffering, Tom
Hood wrote the "Bridge of Sighs," might
save them often enough, if properly exerted,
from such a tragic taking off.

FOR a time English lakeland is spared
from the invasion of the rail, and Ambleside
the sequestered will not hear the shriek of
the railway whistle. It is not the poetic,
however, which has triumphed over the
material; but the Select Committee have
found the promoters with no good financial
case to support them. Other promoters with
heavier purses may come, and cleave a pas-
sage for the iron-horse through the wild
Westmoreland mountain passes, and lie the
glittering, steel rails on the margins of the
placid lakes. It will be a pity if Such primi-
tive loveliness be thus marred by man's
luxu.riauce for such would be the motive
power—if the scenes Southey and Words-
worth so loved were converted into mere
places for moneymaking; gathering-grounds
for the excursionist; eligible sites for sta.
tions and the dwelling-houses of retired
north-couLtry shopkeepers. The want of
the money which "makes the mare to go"
has stopped for a time the march of the soul-
less speculator into England's brightest
beauty-spot. Let us hope that the lovers of
art and of picturesque scenery will be able
to keep the train away from closer proximity
to our home Switzerland.

A.GE ICCLTURISI S are taking heart of gra( e
from the Chancellor of isthe Exchequer's ru-