The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-23 00:00:00

BBIERLEY HILL.

Trim DISTRUS AT BRIERLEY HILL,—The reli f
committee woich was formed about a month ago for
the relief of the prevalent distress in Brierley Hill,
nas received, through kir. M. It .11insan, treasurer,
the sum of AM 5s Gd, this latter amount including
a promise from Mr. Broke Robinson of The
committee,: at the time of its formation, had a
°Moon of £l2 8s remaining from an old relief fund,
and this formed the nucleus of the present fund.
elle quantity of bread distributed during the past
three weeks has been 877 loaves of Ms each, and
a further distribut on of 400 loaves took place at
the Town Hall on Saturday. Several of the bakers
of the town have made gifts of bread to the fond,
and others la,ve subscribed money. Miss S. Becklyy
~onree,rioner, of Brierley Hill, ad Mr. J. E.,cle4n
and Mr. D Dawes, of Brockmoor, have given a
larize quantity of soup away weekly during tse past
three weeks.

COMMENTS ON CURRENT TOPICS.
THE opening of the tunnel under the
Mersey, connecting Liverpool with Birken-
head, is an event worthy of comment. The
subaqueous passage from Lancashire to
Cheshire, formally opened on Wednesday by
the Prince of Wales, is truly a triumph of
engineering skill, and will prove a great
boon to the million inhabitants of the now
united places, as also to the millions more of
passengers who are ever journeying to and
Cro at this busy point of communication.
It will scarcely be credited, now that the
tunnel is a great and accomplished fact, that
the idea of its construction was widely con-
demned as altogether impracticable, when,
years ago, the matter was first mooted. Yet
60 it was, and the tunnel scheme long hung
among things improbable; but enterprise
and engineering confidence happily at length
overcame opposition. Those old antitunnel-
i-sts who maintained that the boring would
inevitably be swamped by the percolating
tidal waters, and not unlikey be destroyed
bo oomu couriequent suaaeu subsidence,- may
take comfort in the engineers's assurance,
that were the whole of the elaborate pump-
ing machinery to give way at once, it would
be many hours ere the infiltrating water
reached the level of the rails.

THE case for the authorities in the bad
bayonet business is weak enough, It is all
very well to speak slightingly of the
•'bayonet scares," and to assert that little
credit was given to the "exagerated revela-
tions" of newspaper correspondents ; but the
wholesale condemnation of what on the ap-
plication of adequate tests prove to be use-
less weapons shows that, as at Balaclava
"someone has blundered." Those in high
places have for a full year scouted the very
idea of unreliabb, bayonets being in use, and
for that space of time put their trust in the
'generally favourable reports of command-
ing officers." Why not now admit the, truth,
and bring up those responsible for judgment?
Is some
,false economist, who has -bought
cheap and nasty supplies, at the bottom of
the business ; or is it a case of carelessness
or incompetent examination on delivery ?
Or, worse, is it a matter of corrupt collu-
iion ? The public have a right to know.
When the Army Estimates are discussed
in Parliament, the subject should occupy
the attention of members. If the British
bayonet cannot be relied upon when it is
called into action, much of the terror of our
infantry will have vanished. But if the
revelations and the testings which are now
attracting public attention end in our
soldiers having once again a supply of
weapons in which they can confidently trust
the resistless bayonet will still strike dread
into the hearts of the Queen's enemies.
"Exaggerating" newspaper correspondents,
in that case, will have the thanks of the
country and of the rank and file of the army
—a reward which will more than compen-
sate for the sneers and odium of officialdom.

LONDON dogs will for sixty days longer, as
appears from a new order issued by Sir E.
Henderson, continue to occupy much of the
time and attention of the members of the
metropolitan police force. There is some-
thing undignified in the sight of stalwart
constables on the alert for the arrest of stray
dogs. Such 'eccentric 'vigilance may well
make the onlooker smile. Burglaries are
taking place right and left, and other crimes
occur under the nose of the police ; yet Bill
Sykes and his companions in wrongdoing
are sadly too often suffered to escape scot
free, It is perhaps unkindly, assumed by
some that the preservers of order are so oc-
cupied by the concentration of their efforts
upon the reduction of the canine race, and
to stamp out the serious offence of ob-
struction in the streets by flower sellers and
other vendors of trifling infractions of the
law as housebreaking, shop-robbery or mur.
der. Such an assertion is libel upon the
pollee, but the fact remains that the house-
holders of many parts of London and the
suberbs go to bed nightly in fear and trem-
bling, and scarcely a day passes without
some new exploits of the burglarious gang
being reported, and still experts in the use
of the "villainous centre-bit" follow their
nefarious profession without interference.
Perhaps, sixty days hence, all the unmuz-
zled dogs will have died an "easeful death"
in the lethal-chamber at Battersea ; and then
the police will be able to address themselves
to the suppression of burglary, unless the
onerous task of "moving on" ragged street
hucksters should preclude the possibility of
engaging in further duty. Ratepayers, who
are called on to contribute heavily to the
maintenance of the police, grumble sorely
and not unnaturally when they find such an
expensive body of men proves insufficient to
protect their belonging,' from pitman.

SATURDAY JANUARY 23, 1886.

ri 0 THE WEARY-

N° person need despair of a speedy restora nto
health and strength if he or she will ea efully
peruse the following, and learn that the great

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TRUTH Do Read this ! TRUTH