The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-06-23 00:00:00

SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1888.

A MOURNING EMPIRE.

THREE months only have passed since
Germany laid to his last rest her aged
warrior monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm, amid
national manifestations of grief. Kaiser
Fritz, the hand of death already upon him,
stepped bravely and boldly to the helm o.
Empire at duty's call, and ruled just ion!.
enough to show his people and the wor:d
how kingly a man, how manly a king h
would have been had his life been lenge
spared to the Fatherland. But th malig-
nant disease which had smitten him was o.
such a deadly dEscription that medica
science could only retard its progress for
time, the august patient purchasing his few
weeks of prolenged earthly existence at di/
-...05t of much weary suffering. At lengtb,
sian's skill could no further stand agains:
,he Conqueror of all humanity; and the
gentlehearted Emperor, whose thrdne has
been the bed of sickness, passed peaceful].)
ini,o the He eafter. They buried him, at.
his own desire, quietly and simply, a fitting
end to a noble life. Germany mourns him
with a depth of sympathetic sorrow such as
she could not feel when his time-worn sire
was called home amid the snows of March;
for the Empire now loses one who 1,.t well
approved himself to be of the sterling 'stuff
of which mighty monarchs are made, and he
leaves the sceptre to a Prince who is as yet

untried in the high responsibilities of State,
and whose future will be regarded with

anxious watchfulness. Tha7t the new
Emperor is emhued with the deep patriotism
of the Hohenzollern House we have aließdy
had ample showing; but we have yet to see
how he can hold t.ie reins of Imperial power,
and whether he can govern and. direct with
the moderation, shrewdness, and firmness
indispensible to the head of so mighty a
nation as Germany is. William ll.'s hon-
_ _

cured and deeply-lamented father was all
that his country could desire in each and
every respect; and the Fatherland mourns
his all-too early death with a poignancy of
grief relieved only by tha reflection that the
land's loss is the much-loved Emperor's gain
for his affliction was inexpressibly sad and
his pain heavy indeed to bear. His family
relations were touchingly affectionate and
beautiful to behold. Well were it if every
wife, w hatever her sphere, could speak so
highly .of her dead consort as does our
widowed Crown Princess of the dear partner
she has lost! He was all that a good, pure,
high-minded wife would wiAli her spouse to
be, and what loftier praise can be given to a
man, be his dwelling a palace or a cottage.
Queen Victoria has used language o+ extreme
regard, born of knowledge of his great worth,
in writing of the husband of her eldest born;
but the tribute to he valued beyond all others
is that of the weeping widow in her first
message to the bereaved mother. On Kaiser
Fritz's death-day the Empress Victoria wrote
thns to the aged Empress Augusta: "For
your only son, she who was so proud and
happy to be his wife, weeps in common with
you, dear Mother. No Mother ever had
such a son. Be strong and proud in your
grief. He sent his love to you this morn-
-,
ing." How intensely human are these
pathetic words of the smitten Empress ?
How they show anew that one touch of
nature makes the whole world kin." May
we not truly say of him whose heroic spirit
lately inhabited the pain-worn te-iement of
clay which was deposited in the Frieden-
skirche at Potsdam on Monday, that if ever
man did he "bore the white flower of a
blameless life amid the fierce light which
beats upon a throne." With such an example
before his eyes, his son and successor should
find no difficulty in governir Germnv
wisely and well. Bat will he His first
acts on coming to the Throne, though received
with acceptation in the Fatherland, are not
without elements of warning. He first
addresses the army and the navy; not his
people. He is soldier first, an Emperor
afterwards; eryo, he sets more store on might
than right. This overrating of the impor-
tance of militaryism may be but the exuber-
ant enthusiasm of one ehiefly tutored by
soldiers, a mistaken patriotism streaming
nut anstintedly at the first flush of authority.
We trust it is, and that older and wiser
Lea Is than that of the new Elmporor will
modify his fighting spirit, for Europe's peace
and, o(ferrn--! ,
Rat we cannot bat

read as ominous such a sentiment as this in
William ll.'s initial proclamation: "I
swear ever to remember that the eyes of ily
ancestor; look down upon me from the other
world, and that I shall one day have to
render an account to them of the glory and
honour of the army." He who wrote those
words will hay 3 to alter his views of the
Hereafter very considerably ere they are in
consonance Nith our estimate, of those of the
hulk of the people who are now mourning
the loss of Kaiser Fritz.

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS.

ALL those public functions in which
Royalty had intended to take part in the
immediate future are now either set aside
altogether or indefinitely postponed because
of the demise of the German Emperor; and
the effect upon the remainder of the London
season cannot but be a gloomy one. It is
anderstood that her Majesty has despatched
by Sir Henry Ponsonby a very pressing in-
vitation to the widowed Empress to visit her
for some time, and so in quietude pass the
first months of her sad bereavement, but
nothing is known yet with certainty as to
what will be the future plans of our Princess
Royal of England and her unmarried child-
ren. They would receive here a most warm
and sympathetic welcome, of that there can
be no doubt; but it is rather thought that
the Empress Dowager Victoria will ulti-
mately settle down in Germany to a life of
simple charitable works o! the descriptio'n
with which her name is identified.

THERE is talk of forming a Volunteer
Reserve in England and Scotland. As many
as 40,000 men left the ranks of our citizen
soldiers for good last year alone; and it is
stated that there are quite half a million of
ex-volunteers physically fit for duty. Arrange
ments are being made by the War Office
people for instructing public-spirited gentle-
men connected with the volunteer service to
enquire into the efficiency of local transport
and equipment for volunteers under - the
mobilisation scheme. Those willing to
accept this duty will be asked also to collect
particulars as to the possibility of organising
all those whn have lapsed from the ranks of
the Volunteers for various reasons. It is a
pity that so much good drilling and Volun-
teer ardour should be wasted by resignations
and other causes as is n3w the case. The
"old hands" should be required tc parade
once or twice a year to keep themselves from
0-etting quite out of touch with their former
comrades.

THERE is difference between place and
place as regards the law of debt collection,
Ind the pains and penalties of omitting to
dis,harge one's liabilities. Legally, imprison-
ment for debt is now no longer existent ; but
as a matter of fact it is, if the County Court
judge so wills it. It seems that since the
beginningof this year fifty small debtors have
been sent to prison at Luton alone for not
paying amounts of five shillings and upwards,
or which judgement has been obtained
tgainst ; and there are other dikricts where
4imilar practices, to a smaller extent, are
aot unknown. The prosecutors at e chiefly
tallymen and such like itinerant dealers,
vhose goods are not always the best value
for money, and who are not over scrupulous
n effecting sales Purchases are forced
tpon unwilling cottagers and the like under
he promise of unlimited time for payment;
tut once they enter the tallyman's trap the
oor folk find him a hard customer to con
.end with. Be takes thorn without corn-
Junction to court, gets an order against them,
iroceeds to judgment an:: execution; and i,
siceeution fails to satisfy his demand, wite
ts accompanying costs, gets the miserable
tebtors committed to prison for contempt
in disobeying the order of the Court. fhen
hey are kept in gaol at the cost of the county-
md their families go to the workhouse, to
he increase of the rates also! This, of
-ourse, if the judge or regiscrar will permit
himself to be led by the nose by Mr. Tallyman,
which happily, he will not always do. There
is need for County Court reform in the
lirection of never allowing a man to put
mother in prison because he cannot pay for
nint which ought never to have been sold to
him.

So far the summery month of June has
had sadly too large a proportion of dull, cold
lays in the greater part of these isles to be
pleasant; and agriculturists are now begin-
ning to complain very mach about the cold
winds andiwant uf sunshine, and prophesy
all sorts of evil results in consequence.
From the first day to the last of spring
nortb-easters have been chiefly prevalent.

IT is to be sincerely hoped that the report
received in Frame—of which it should be
noted the Belgian Sovereign has no con-
firmation—that Stanley has been dead for
some time—a victim to the treachery of
Tippoo Tib, is without foundation, though
the statement is made with much circum-
stantiality; and it seems that the families of
the porters who accompanied the expedition
have gone into mourning. Stanley, of
course, interferred with Tippoo Tip's slave
trafficking projects; but we trust he has
proved too wary to fall a victim to the
jehlous revenge of the savage chief, and that
%ve shall shortly be hearing authentic news
of the safety of the man who found Living-
stone.