The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-04-06 00:00:00

Our fenban Contspodnit.

-
[We &OM it right to state thnt we tin not at ell timn.
identity nurselN re with •Jur o,reeehontlent nyinions.i

"-a Majesty kaa done a kindly. and 4”vioua
!uquiries at th% boepitais ae to any
dente ui-
thg hav, occurred on The: I:Agi% ing Day.
The reault tends to siv,w wh"t I accottrua
ailezed casualties were given at the time. Only one

case of diltitsa bas thus l bcen diacoverod—that-of a

poor woman who hp..l liq2t i lietio school, which hod
been broken up by her long absence in hospital, and to

this woman the Queen hae-sent SM. I hear, however,
that other Catirs of direct or linlirect suffering will be

brought under the notice of her Majesty—cases which
could not be discovered by visits to hospitals. Such
eases will of course be rigidly inquired into, and
relief doubtless afforded if found to be required. But

let me, while on this subject, point to two things
which ought to be strictly enforced the next time that
we expect enormous crowds in our streets. No vehicles
but those necessary to the pageant, whatever it may
be, should be allowed in the main streets, runt the
streams of people should be compelled to flow in one
direction on one side of the street, and in the other
direction on the other. These simpit regulations would

prevent accidents ; and we know,:by the way,
.that at

at least one firmest arose out of the crush on the occa-
sion, of which the queen now so kindly reminds us.
Whatever may be thought of the arrangements for
the great Volunteer Review, or of the criticism as to
the way las which these arrangements were carried out,
or nut strictly carried out, as the case may be, Volun-
tee..s and public are alike tube congratulated that the

difficoltica and ohaacles which at one time threat-
ened the abandonment of the review were con-

quered. We may now fairly consider that a Volunteer
Review on Easter -Monday 111:18 become an institution,

and one that will be more and more honoured eaol;

succeeding year. Our Volunteers, it most be confessed,
have been pretty considerably snubbed by Governments
and Regulars of late years, bu they have risen superior
to all snubbing and opposition, and may now be re-
_ ... .

waded as more firmly established, as a reserve force,
than ever. And it must moreover be admitted—and

many Volunteers themselves most readily admit it—

that the high behests of the War Office have
not been wholly unreasonal.le, and have even done the
Volunteers no little good, though income cases in spite

of themselves. I fully expect that from this time our
citizen seldiers will command greater consideration
from the powers that be than they have ever done,
and that severe, though not unfriendly, criticism will,
on the whole, produce a salutary effect.
Closely following on the Budget, which has on the
whole given satisfaction to the country, we now have the
quarterly revenue returns, which are also highly satis-
factory. On the whole financial year—what a bother
this "financial year," as contrasted with the ordinary
year, causes I—we have the pretty little revenue of
£74,708,311, being more by £4,763,094 than that of the
previous fluancial year. What can prove more
decisively how prosperous are the trade and com-
merce of the country
It is not my purpose to maintain the right or the
wrong of the strikes and the formation of unions
among the agricultural labourers, but the relations be-
tween farmers and labourers constitute rue of the
topics of the time, and suggest comment, I have, in
fact, long looked for some such a movement as this,
and I think it can hardly be said to surprise any one.
Considering to what an extent the movement amongst
mechanics for a reduction of hours and an increase of
pay has been carried, it cannot be wonderful that our
bucolic labourers should begin to demand one of these
objects, an increase of wages. They seem very little
to care about less working-time, but a good deal about
more pay, and when the low rates of wages, and the
consequent bitterness of the struggle to live, are taken
into account, the attitude of the peasantry in some
parts of the country can scarcely be wondered at
Many persons with whom I have conversed on this

subject- appear to be alarmed at the attitude of the
labourers, and talk about an agrarian revolution.
Agrarian fiddlesticks The men do not demand any-
thing alarming, and I, for one, believe that it will
really by for the interest of the farmers, as well as for
that of the men, that the requests of the latter should
be granted, for thus the former will get more work out
of the latter than at present.
With sad and deep interest is that terrible colliery
explosion at Atherton, near Bolton, still talked of.
About thirty men and boys killed, and about a dozen
frightfully burned—that indeed is a sad tale to incor-
porate in our annals. The old song reminds us how
little the gentlemen of England, who sit at home at I
ease, think of the dangers of the seas. The same may
be said of the dangers of our coal mines. But such
an awful calamity as this brings home to ns the
frightful risks that are run by those who so laboriously
win for us coal for our homes and for its thousand
other uses. This sad explosion is of none the less
interest because it appears to have occurred without
blame to any one. And of deep interest, too, are the
tales of heroism on the part of those who endeavoured
—in many cases successfully—to save the lives of the
injawed, and who in other cases could, alas I bring up
only the dead. Our coal-fields, as well as our battle-
fields, have their heroes; anti, indeed, the daily life of
a miner calls forth, though it never displays, a species
of heroism which is not very highly valued, solely
because it is so common.

Comfort and consolation for the ladies, in reference
to political matters, come from an unexpected quarter
—a solemn lecture on diseases of the heart delivered by
Dr. Quoin, at the Royal College of Physicians. He
tells them that enlargement of the heart is more than
twice as frequent among men as among women, and
this he thinks, is unquestioablr due to the greater
amountsof work and anxiety, which the former have, as
compared with the latter. Therefore, ladies, beware.
There may be good arguments why you should have
votes—nay, even why you should be members of Pars
liament, to say nothing of doctors ; but remember that
if you should obtain these honours, which some of you
covet, you must take with them the increased chance
of enlarging your pretty little hearts ! Now I think
your hearts are very well as they are—as a rule, and
arein the right place—as arule again. The only heart
disease from which you ought to suffer is that of an
claire du cam-; you have not the slightest occasion to
enlarge your hearts in a medical sense.
From a report presented at the co-operative Con-
gress just held, it appears that there is from 1,200 to
1,500 co-operative stores now in operation in the
United Kingdom, with 400,000 members, and that
the movement is extending. A very good thing no
doubt for the members of these societies, but what
about that important section of our population, the
retail shopkeepers? Mr. Hughes. M.P., in deliver-
ing the inaugural address, spoke of the anxiety
and distress of the struggling retail trader
who sees the co-operative system carrying off his
custom. Aye, there's the rub! There are two sides to
the question, and although the working class has, to
some extent, profited by co-operative stores, another
Important class has been seriously injured. 'Phis can-
not be disputed, and it suggests to how, wholesome is
the principle of "live and let live."
When there are so many places of objectionable
entertainment in London, the opening of a new one
which the most severe moralist cannot condemn,
while the audience are nevertheless kept interested and
amused the whole time, is matter of general congratu-
lation. Professor Pepper and Mr. Tobin having
seceded from the Polytechnic Institution, have taken
at the Egyptian Ilall that room which is so pleasantly
and yet KO sadly associated with memories of poor
Albert Smith. The new Theatre of Popular Science
and Entertainment bids fair to be very attractive.
Here science is popularised, and valuable information
conveyed, while the audience fancy they are being
merely amused. In one respect the new entertain-
ment is of great importance. I look upon the exposure
of the trickeries of so-called spiritualism as of special
value in counteracting the spread of a most dangerous
delusion which undoubtedly tends—indeed, this is a
proved fact—to increase insanity. It is said there are
in the United Kingdom a million believers in
" spiritualism," and nearly ten millions in America.
If it be so, the fact is astounding, and anything which
counteracts that which never did any good, and has
done incalculable harm, may be hailed as a boon to
society.