The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-06-25 00:00:00

4:1,7s aeeni it right to state that we do not at all i:inie,„s
ourselves with our Correspcudent's opinions

The piloting of a great and complicated measure like
the Irish Land Bill through Committee of the House
of Commons is a task of giant magnitude. When the
Committee stage was entered upon there were a thou-
sand amendments to the various clauses, and the
Minister in charge of the bill was of course supposed
to understand the meaning and•the bearing of every
one of them. The work of getting the bill through
Committee has devolved upon the Premier himself,
after his half century of Parliamentary life, and now
within a few months of completing hie 72nd year.
The strain of the labeur for all who take part
in it is amply iilustrated by the numerous
counts-out which have lately taken place, not
e in Committee itself, but- &I-ter—the- adjournment
two hours, when the House reassembles to dispose of
the.motions of private members. In this way. On
Tuesdays and Fridays the House meets at two in the
afternoon, and sits until seven in the evening, to push
forward the Government business. The Ministerial
whips take care that forty members are always present,
that number being sufficient to keep a House. From
seven to nine there is a recess for dinner; but when
the Speaker again takes the chair at nine o'clock it
very often happens that a quorum is not in attend-
ance, and a collapse is the result. Five hours of close
attention in committee on a hot June afternoon
prove an exhaustive process, and thus it comes to pass
that counts have of late become more and more
frequent.
When a Bill is under consideration in Committee,
there is practically no House in existence. The
Speaker is not in the chair, and the Mace—the
emblem of his power and authority—has been care-
fully stowed away by the Serjeant-at-Arms under
the table. The Chairman of Committees takes his
place alongside the Clerks of the House; and as
the Speaker's chair is vacant, the ordinary rules
of debate in which a member can address the
House only once except in explanation, ceases
to apply. In Committee practically a member
can speak as oft ri as he likes; and when, as in the
case of the Irish Land Bill, a thousand amendments
have to be disposed of, on each of which a debate could
be raised and a division taken, it is easy to see that
an enormous space of time could be taken up if the
whole were pressed. But as the work has gone on, the
winnowing process has been freely applied; and
- although amendments to the clauses as yet uncon-
sidered can of course be handed in up to the end,
the process of disposal goes- on much faster than
that of multiplication, and a careful estimate has
been made that the middle of July the measure
will be out of the Commons and ready to run the
gauntlet of the criticism which awaits it in the Lords.
The Ascot Race week marks what may be called
the zenith of the gaieties which accompany the flight
of the London season. Both Ascot and Epsom are
within an easy distance of the capital, and while
sporting London is found in excelsis at Epsom,
aristocratic London certainly preponderates at Ascot.
But not only is the aristocracy there. It is the
custom of Royalty to attend Ascot in state, and
this year the gathering of the members of the
reigning House was a very numerous one—the
Prince and Princess of Wales, the Duke and
Duchess of Connaught, Prince and Princess Christian,
the Duke of Albany, Princess Louise, and the Duke
and Duchess of Teck—al were there. It is a tradition
of Ascot, just as it is of the Eton and Harrow Cricket
Match and of the Henley Regatta, that humanly
speaking, it is next to impossible for it to pass off
without rain, and this year, so far as Ascot is con-
cerned, it was true enough. The race for the Gold
Cup, the great event of the four days' meeting
was run amid a drenching downpour which neces-
sitated the. speedy production of wraps and
waterproofs, and marred in great degree the brilliancy
of a scene where colour and beauty unite to make up
one of the most effective pictures which ever effered
for the pencil of the artist or the brush of the painter.
A characteristic of the present season in London is
the large number of Americans who, having come
over on a visit to this country, are spending some time
in the metropolis. The Langham Hotel, hard by
St. George's Church; in Portland-place, has for years
been the resting-place of sojourners from the United
States ; and no better locality could have been selected
to give thern an idea of what London is like in
the vast extent of its traffic and in the im-
• mensity of its wealth. Within a walk of five minutes
is the great thoroughfare of Oxford-street, with its
'four streams of vehicles ever flowing eastward and
westward; there is the splendid thoroughfare of
Regent-street; there i 3 Piccadilly, with the Green
Park upon the one side and the mansions of the rich
upon the other, leading down to Knightsbridge and to
Kensington, to Tyburnia and to Belgravia, where acre
after acre is covered by the stately residences of
England's old nobility; or if the visitor from New
York wishes to see London feom another aspect, he
has only to mount an omnibus. at, the eastern corner of
Regent Circus, ride down thrOuili the busy ways of
Holborn, across the massive viaduct, along by New-
gate-street and Cheapside, past the Mansion House,
the Bank of England, and the Royal Exchange, out
through Leadenhall-street and Aldrate, and still on,
intersecting the Tower Hamlets, until he arrives at
Blackwell, and views the docks crowded with the ships
that fly the flags of all nations. Miles and miles of
houses, multitudes of people, it is all the same wherever
he goes, for Hammersmith and Wapping tell the same
story. America can boast of her boundless territories,
of her mighty rivers, and of the illimitable oceans
which wash her shores; but nowhere upon her vast
continent -can she show her visitors a city with the
varied interests and the colossal size of London.
This variety of interests receives an ample illustra-
tion in the amount which is generally collected in the
metropolis on what is known as Hospital Sunday.
This has never been such a success in London
as in some large provincial towns ; for instance,
- while in the capital a net sum of £30,000 is seldom
exceeded, the amount of £40,000 has been reached
for a similar purpose in Birmingham, with
about one-tenth of the population. Why is this?
Well, the General Hospital in the hardware capital is
a magnificient building occupying a prominent position
in the town and known to every inhabitant. All are
acquainted with the nature of its beneficent work.
But when London is considered, what does the resident
at Mile End know of the Charing Cross Hospital;
what does the owner of a Belgravian Palace know of
the work done by the London Hospital in the White- ,
chapel - road? There can be no community of
interest in a place of such immensity; the
people in Bethnal-green are .no more acquainted
with Mayfair than with the suburbs of Manchester;
hence the difficulty of raising a general fund for the
whole of the metropolis which should adequately
represent its wealth, its magnitude, and its charity.
Of course there are many hospitals with rich founda-
tions which do not share in this fund. For example,
institutions such as St. Bartholomew's and Guy's are
amply provided for.
On Monday the Royal Standard was hoisted on all
the public buildings in the metropolis, the ships in the
Thames were dressed, the bells in hundreds of church
towers sent forth merry peals during the day, and,
with the usual military observances at the Tower, St.
James's-park, and at. er parts of London, announced
once more the anniversary of Her Majesty's Acces-
sion ; nnd her loyal subjects may be reminded
that the sovereign has now entered upon the
forty-fifth year of her reign. Another half a
decade, and the Queen will be on the threshold
of her jubilee—an event which has thus far been
celebrated by only three EnO.sh monarchs during
a period ranging over more than eight centuries.
Naturally such commemorations are extremely rare.
Taking it for granted that her majesty will witness a
jubilee—for she will be then only sixty-eight—it is not
within the range of possibility that her immediate suc-
cessor could de so, seeing that the Prince of Wales is now
forty years of age. Or take again the case of his eldest
son, Prince Albert Victor, who in January next will
have arrived at the age of her present Majesty at the
time of her Accession—eighteen. Seeing that there are
now two lives between Prince Albert Victor and the
Throne, a jubilee in his case does not seem probable.
The extreme rarity of a fifty years' reign accounts for
the warmth of the rejoicings on such seldom occasion's.
The few surviving officers of the Battle of Waterloo
dined together on Saturday evening, each succeeding
year making the dwindling number less. Seeing that
that great struggle which secured the peace of Europe
for forty years was fought sixty-six years ago, the
marvel is that any now live to talk over the deeds of
that sanguinary day. In he evening, when the
Prussians were in pursuit of Napoleon, and the
British army, after nine hours' of fighting, had
bivouacked on the field which had become sodden by
incessant rain, the usually stern and impassive
Duke of Wellington, as he listened to the groans
of the wounded, and witnessed the teeking carnage,
wept like a child. The struggle at Waterloo
has held its Vace in history because it was
one of the decisive battles of the world. and even
to-day a splendid Phnorama pourtraying its awful
scenes, is being exhibited in London. But in our own
time there have been battles with a far greater loss of
life. Such an one was that at Grave:otte between the
French and the Germans on the 18th August, 1870,
when the more deadly arms of precision accounted for
a far more fearful harvest-field of death.

of I

Exactly forty years after the Battle of Waterloo, a
conflict was witnessed in a ,different arena and under
different circumstances. The bitter enemies of the 18th

June, 1815, were the firm friends of the 18th June, 18:55,
and they had joined in fighting what they believed to be
a common foe. Sebastopol, the stately mistress of the
Euxine, which so long dominated over the navigation
of the Black Sea, had been invested more than eight
months, and on the anniversary of Waterloo it was
resolved to make an assault upon two of the
principal outworks of the city. In the grey ot the
dawn the English attacked the Redan, and the French
stormed the Malakhoff, but both were repulsed.
The prestige was of course soon regained, for
Sebastopol was captured less than three months
afterwards. Meanwhile the temporary check had
such an effect upon Lord Raglan that in ten
days he was dead. The gallant British commander,
who had lost an arm at Waterloo, was unable
to bear up against the disappointment of failure; and
although a few•short tve4ks would have given him the
laurel crown of victory, his heart was broken; and
when the rejoicings over. the fall of Sebastopol were
general throughout the kingdom, he was sleeping his
eternal Sabbath of repose beneath the shadows of
the palatial towers of Badmigton, his ancestral
home. .

THE OUTRAGE AT THE LIVERPOOL
TOWN- HALL.
At Liverpool, on Saturday, the 18th, the men, James
M'Grath and James M'Kevitt, char,-;ed with firing a dan-
gerous explosive at the Liverpool Town Hall on the morning
of the 10th inst., were brought up on remand before the
stipendiary.
The chairman of the Watch Committee and other magis-
trates occupied seats on the bench, and the Court was
crowded Mr. Marks again conducted the prosecution; and
Dr. o'leely, barrister, defended.—We take the following
report of the case from The Times of Monday :
Mr. Marks said that that day he should base his
case on the 9th and 10th sections of thd 24th and
25th Victoria. He then reviewed the circumstances
out of which the charge arose, and concluded by
saying that he did not purpose giving evidence
with regard to Fenianism beyond calling a postman
to prove that for a considerable time he had been
delivering to M'Kevitt copies of the United Irishman,
which came from America with M'Kevitt's name
printed on them, as though he was a regular agent.
John Ross, the cabman who saw the prisoners with
the sack on the Town-hall steps, was the first witness.
Constable 712 (Reade) gave evidence as to seeing a e
prisoners standing in front of the side-door of the
Town-hall with a bag from which smoke was issuing.
He ran towards them. They both made off, and he
followed them, blowing his whistle.
Cross-examined: Directly I saw M'Kevitt in
custody, I said, "That is the man."
Police-constable 553 (Casey), repeated his evidence
about the capture of M'Kevitt. He charged them
both. They then gave the names of Barton and
M'Kevitt, and in answer both prisoners said, "It was
not with intent to murder," and M'Kevitt afterwards
said, "You had sufficient proof to know I had no
intent to murder."
In reply to the magistrate, the witness, who has
been in the army, said the explosion sounded like the
report of a 32-pounder..
Police, constable 884 (Creighton), who was sent to
the Town-hall by Reade, said he found the bag lying
on the tcp step of the west door of the builsling.
Smoke was issuing from its mouth. He thought it
was something dangerous, and dragged it down the
steps on to the footpath. Constable 898 then caught
hold of it, and threw it into the middle of the street.
They stepped back about five yards, when the explo-
sion took place. On the first report occurring, he
saw two feet of fire, and the noise was like the dis-
charge of a cannon or field-gun. He could not dis-
tinctly describe the second report, it was so loud—it
was something tremendous. There was then a great
noise of falling glass, and he thought the Town-
hall was coining down. He ran up Hall-street
into Leeds-street, and on seeing M'Kevitt in the
custody of Casey, witness said, "That is one
of them I saw running away. Casey handed him
over to witness, and told him to take M'Kevitt to
the detective office, adding, "I know where the other
man has gone." M'Kevitt asked witness whether any
one had been hurt, and on being told "No," remarked,
"I am glad." At the detective office he asked, "Was
there any one in the building?" Witness told him the
keepers were there, and he then said, "If I had knc wn
that I would not have placed the bag on the doorstep.
When I turned round and saw the young constable
following me I could have shot him: but I did not
want to have murder on my head, and I threw the
revolver over the wall." Witness said to him, "It
was not powder that was in that." He replied, " No,
it was dynamite." Witness asked him what quantity,
and he said he did not know.
Cross-examined: He had known M'Kevitt a good
while by sight. He had known nothing about him.
Constable 898 (M'Burney) gave similar evidence.
He threw the bag into the middle of the street because
he thought there was something dangerous in it, and
wished to save the buildieg.
Constable 924 (Sinclair) corroborated the evidence of
the two previous witnesses.
Mr. F. T. Turton, deputy-surveyor to the Corpora-
tion, gave evidence of the damage done to the Town-
hall and neighbouring buildings, stating that one piece
of stonework had been knocked away at a height of
60 feet.
Samuel Page, night watchman at the Town-hall,
said he heard a noise at twelve minutes past four like
a sniall rumbling. After that he heard a very loud
report indeed, which shook the building. Considerable
damage was done. „Ii; se; i
Thomas rye, a carter, spok e to having seen the pri-
soner endeavour to get over a gate in Sim_depeg-lane.
M'Kevitt failed to do so, and hid behind a wagon.
Constable Casey came running down the lane and got
hold of M'Kevitt, whom he took away. Then Casey
returned, and witness went with him in search of the
other man, helped by Nelson.
Anthony Nelson, yardman to Messrs. Rawcliffe, de-
scribed the capture of M'Grath.
Inspector Jackson stated that at the Detective.
office M'Kevitt said, "I have been a fool to be per-
suaded to do this by other people." He said this
voluntarily. Witness found a piece of iron•piping in
Dale-street, near Exchange-street East. It was quite
warm at the time.
Edwin Sperrin, the acting clerk at the Detective-
office, who searched the prisoners, said that on
M'Grath he found a detonating cap and a quantity of
cartridges, similar to those in the revolver found on
M'Grath, and some matches. In the possession of
M'Kevitt he found a revolver cap and two medals of
the "Irish Republic."
Mrs. Mary Donkins, 15, Cottenham-street, Kensing-
ton, said,—l know the prisoners—M'Grath by the
name of Barton, and "M'Kevitt by the name of Lynch.
M'Grath took lodgings of me" five weeks last Saturday.
He told me he was a cattle dealer, or working for
cattle dealers. At seven o'clock on the morning of
Friday, the 9th inst. he came with a sailor's bag and
a brown-paper parcel strapped. The Saturday after
he first came I noticed a new piece of gas or sewering
pipe similar to that produced. On the same day
M'Grath took it into the house, and I first saw it in-
side in the kitchen. It was on the knee of another
man, named "Tom," who came to visit them, and I
saw M'Grath tying it up as though he was going to
take it away. In a week after, while cleaning
M'Grath's bedroom, I saw a long brown-paper parcel
under his bed. M'Kevitt called on Saturday, the 28th
of May, aboutnine o'clock in the evening, and asked
for Mr. Barton (M'Grath). I said he was not in, but
that I expei4.-_sd him shortly. Subsequently M'Kevitt,
M'Grath, and the man Tom came in. I heard a report
like a pistol-shot, and I went into the room where they
were. M'Grath told me not to be alarmed, as there was
no harm. There was a small hole in the door, which
M'Grath said he would mend. I saw across Tom's
knee a similar parcel to that which contained the pipe.
On Monday, the 6th inst., M'Grath asked if M'Kevitt
could stop a few nights with him and I consented.
On the morning of Wednesday, !the Bth, M'Kevitt
brought a piece of wood (produced) into the house. He
sawed a piece off and took it upstairs, and I then
heard a good deal of knocking in the bedroom. As
soon as M'Grath had finished he brought down some
chips (produced), which he said would do to light the
fire with. About half-past twelve on the morning of
the 9th someone entered and went to M'Grath's room
very quietly. I heard the person go down again in a
few seconds. I entered the bedroom of M'Grath and
saw that the long parcel was not there. In half an
hour after someone came in and went to bed. On the
following morning I knocked at the bedroom door,
and M'Kevitt answered. When he came to breakfast
I asked him, "What is the pipe you bring in and
out ? " He made no answer. M'Grath arrived at
half-past ten in the morning, and they ordered dinner,
which they had at half-past one. After the meal they
went out and never returned afterwards.
Mrs. Rose Kearney, who lately lived in Ashton-
street, said: I know M'Grath as Mr. Barton. I first
saw him on Good Friday last, April 15. He came to
my house to take apartments, and the day after he
came to lodge. He brought a small trunk covered with
hide. He said at first that he went to sea, and after-
wards that he was a cattle dealer. He did not go out
to business like other young men, and had no particular
business that I could see. With the exception of three
or four nights, he stayed in my house up to the 9th
inst. I remember the last day he was at my house.
He came in at night about half-past eleven. He called
for soene coffee. In the afternoon, about five o'clock,
M'Grath and another man had come up, and the other
had something on his shoulder. He was not M'Kevitt.
It was a black bag, a dull black. It seemed heavy
from the way the man carried it. I did not see
M'Grath again till he was in custody. I gave a pipe
to the police which I found in a small sideboard in the
parlour on Friday evening. I threw the pipe into the
ashpit just as I found it. There was also a small
packet, about 11b. weight, in brown paper. I did not
open it, and did not see what was in it. We were
leaving the house, and I threw that away also.
Hugh M'Laughlin, letter-carrier, said he had been
in the habit of delivering newspapers for James
M'Kevitt at 11, Naylor-street, for nearly twelve
months. They bore the New York postmark. The
packets produced are exactly similar to those I de-
livered, and addressed the same way,
By Dr. O'Feely : I never saw the prisoner M'Kevitt
to my knowledge before this day.
Dr. J. Campbell Brown, the public analyst, said he
had examined the fragments of iron pipes and was of
opinion that the explosive used was not gunpowder,
but one of the compounds of the nitro-glycerine class,
the most common of whioh was dynamite. The deto-
nating caps produced contained fulminating mercury,
a very powerful explosive. These detonators were
used for exploding dynamite and the like. There was
no direct proof of the character of the explosive. There
was nothing left for analysis.
After some discussion with the magistrate, ,11.1. r.
Marks asked for committal under the 12th section as
well as the 9th and 10th, and the prisoners were com-
mitted for trial.

ArGrath alone was then charged with having caused
the recent explosion at the police barracks.
William Theakstoue, storekeeper at the police office,
and having charge of the Section-house, or police,
barracks in Hatton-garden, said hi went ,from the

Section-house to the detective-office at ten minutes
past eleven on the night of the 16th of May last, and
at ten minutes to twelve he heard an explosion like a
blast of rock going off. He ran round to the Section-
house and found the doorway full of smoke, and a
strong smeilupf gunpowder. Up three steps of the
entrance, between the outer door and the swing-doors
on the left hand side, he found the piece of piping
produced with a piece of lighted fuse around it. The
gas was extinguished, and on getting it lighted again
he found the floor covered with broken glass and
several pieces of broken piping about. Forty persons
slept in the house that night.
Detective Collingwood gave corroborative evidence.
Constable 310 (Woodward) said he entered the house
at 20 minutes to 12. The pipe was not there then and
the hall lamp was lighted.
John Nathan, joiner, said M'Grath came to wit-
ness's employer's shop in the second week of May to
get two wooden plugs made, saying he wanted to mend
his water pipe, and that he had been accustomed to
work on water pipes in America. Witness found a
piece of wood, cut two pieces off, and chopped off the
corners for him. When the plugs were made the pri-
soner asked witness to bore a hole down the centre of
one of them, and he did so. The plug produced by
Theakstone was of the same wood. It was yellow
pine. He had no doubt that it was the plug in which
he had drilled the hole. Witness asked M'Grath what
he wanted the hole for and he replied that it was in
order that he might not be without water while he
repaired the pipes.

Mr. Turton gave evidence of the damage done to
the Section-house.

Mrs. Mary Donkin was recalled and testified to the
prisoner bringing a pipe to her house, but she said she
saw piping wrapped up under the bed after the explo-
sion of the 16th of May. She could not say whether it
was the same as she had seen before.
Dr. O'lfeely submitted that there was no case.

The magistrate said that he could not say that there
was a strong case, but he could not say there was none
after the evidence of the joiner. It must go before the
jury.
The prisoner was then committed for trial on this
charge also.
Immediately after their committal M'Kevitt and
M'Grath were conveyed back to the gaol at Walton,
with an escort, but without any parade of force.