The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-24 00:00:00

ur edon Correspoithui,
rwo deem it right to state that we do not at 01 Lb=
Identity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The action of the House of Commons, in proposing
to call to the Bar the printers of The Times and Daily
News to answer for a breach of privilege, recalls the
struggles of earlier days between the Parliament and the
Press, in which the latter eventually won the victory. A
hundred years ago printers were often amninoned to
the Bar for the publication of the debates. On one of
these occasions Edmund Burke found himself the
leader
of an intrepid minority, and by using
u • the forms
of the House to the utmost, laid the foundation of the
freedom of the Press which is enjoyed in our own times.
They divided, one night, on the name of each offending
printera• and moved after every division the adjourn-
ment of the House. They kept at their posts from
sunset to sunrise, and after the battle had been prac-
ticall7 mewl, and the bright morning light was stream-
ing in through the windows of the House of Commons,
Burke exclaimed,- in a tone of triumph, "Posterity
will bless the pertinacity of this day !" It
is recorded of Dr. Johnson that he took
notes of the debates on his thumb-nail, after-
wards filling up the outline of the spee4s from his
, astonishing memory.. A heavy ban was then placed
upon note taking ;and everatertirbeday;if an occupant
of the Strangers' Gallery produces pencil or paper, or
refers_to the little book known as the Parliamentary
Companion, or indeed to any work at all, he is pounced
upon by the door-keeper, and told that he is
Is strictly out of order." Considering that the
strangers who occupy those hard and uncomfortable
seats represent the sovereign people of England, who
have had to pay the piper for the construction of the
Legislative Palace, to the tune of three millions
sterling, these are rather hard lines. They must be
content either with that or with nothing. Privileged
persons are accommodated in the Speaker's Genii-Fe-
peers and foreign ambassadors in the gallery above the
clock, the beet place in the House. But the people
themselves are in the worst and most inconvenient
position of all; they can hear little and see lees,. a 4
are not permitted to get - any-inforration. 'they
want to leave. the Gallery; thSyleie their,places slid
another steips -In the other pllezies, on the con-
trary, duririg the' aPeaker's absence for his chop, or
indeed at any time, a hint to the doorkeePer will
secure your spat While-yoF è awls) i(or refreshment.
Tn return for seenottiestr however, tcaythe Preece._ It
. , is to this day.contrary• tcr the "Staridirxigprdeis of both
. Housceethat an 'strangers should be. present during
the dehatee, and' The eanblication-of the proceedinesis
• held t 6 hel. theoretically a. breach 'of privilege. Yet in
'sect Hue pe the mcnst ample aoCcimatqation is- 'pro-ea
• .vided for the Press;- anti the First -doinmissielaer of -
•- Works, as veal as tlie Sergeant.at-Artasi, are
-es -• mail of exialiiog comfortable the. newspaper writers.
ace, • 7', Within this month -of Ayrir two' bythdaye hive
been- celebrated. tit -ihe 'Roy& family,. which arehe-
ree s. ie.a terestinris Showing the 'Changes, that, time has gra-
- e -dualty-fvtduifhtin gie highest ahousehold in the land...
• ' 'Tlie'birthciapc were those of the. two yetmgest children
- • of Wer hlajesty, Prince Leopold- being,iiiiw in his 23rd
t •
•-• , yestre•tual Princess • Beatrice iri ber 19t1. Upon the
walls of many a cottage in this kingdom there are still
large engravinga represeniin the Queen and the-
g
'- mce Pen*t searroturded 1:W their youthfhl family of
Nt ienty Years ago. The boys witliltheli: tops and their
rocking-horses; the little girbewith their dolls—there
was the &Imes*, circle, com'plete and unbroken. It
4:ol42Tieti.not"Seeneso' long' ago since the great bell of St.
• Paul's sounded Out mournfully over the capital on. a
• bleak December night; yet at that time only one of
the Royal children had left home, while now only one,
remains at home. Prince Leopold, who, like his
elder brothers, has a separate establishment, is
' older than the Prince of Wales was when he was
married; Princess Beatrice is older than was the
Princess Royal when her Royal Highness became the
- • • wife cf the Crown Prince Of Germany. When the
Prince Consort died, one marriage had taken place;
now there have been six. The picture& in those cottage
• homes are now like so many shadows of the past.
• Unalterable laws have been at work, and in the con.
• - frast presented in the realities of to-day, we are told
-, that the silent agency of Time is all-pervading, never.'
resting ; and that its action is as certain as the rising
of the sun or the ebb and flow of the tides. Its on-
' ward march is inappreciable for the moment; but its
changes, though wrought so slowly, are as sure as that
. seed-time and harvest, day and night, cold and heat,
. summer and winter, shall never cease.
- Any effort to increase the productiveness of the soil,
to add to the wealth of the State, or to promote the
- growth of the peoples' food, deserves success, though
It cannot command it. A very interesting experi-
ment is about to be tried this season in the
- South of Italy. It has been discovered that the soil
and the climate of Sicily very much resemble that of
Japan; and a suggestion has, therefore, been made
oe, that there should be an effort to acclimatise the tea
e , plant to Italian ground. The Japanese consul has
,i
forwarded to the Italian authorities packets of seeds
taken from the qifferent kinds of tea plants, with the
fullest directions how they are to be treated. The ex-
periment, will be made not only in Sicily, but on the
mainland ; an-d- the promoters of the scheme declare that
-0 . - Spain and 'Greece are also admirably adapted by their '
. •
- eei climate to the growth of the tea plant. Europe may
• • not be able to produce tea equal to that of Japan, but
even a partial success, would be attended with the
most important results. When we remember that the
:= Maderia vine was transportedato Sicily, and yielded a
•• ' vintage which although not quite Madeira, made a very
...good common wine, we may look forward with hope to
the result of this trial and anticipate the creation Of
a new and valuable commodity in the market.
While upon this point—the augmentation of food
for human consumption—l may refer to Mr. Frank
Buckland's plan for increasing the productive powers
of the Thames fisheries. If the riyer above the tide-
way be kept clean and pure, there ought not to be
much difficulty about it.
Opposite the entrance to the Horzeguards
,is the
Royal United Service Institution, where, in the sum-
mer as well as in the winter, subjects of great national
importance are discussed. One of these relates to the
quantity of animal food supplied to our soldiers, the
regulation allowance being one pound of meat to a
man daily. This sounds right enough, but in practice
the soldier does not get anything like it After taking
into consideration bone, sinew, excess of fat, and the
. loss consequent upon cooking, scarcely more than half
a pound of nutritious matter remains. This, however,
' might be sufficient for troops in quarters, were they
• composed entirely of full-grown men whose
constitutions were thoroughly established. But
the short enlistment system causes an uninter-
rupted flow of growing lads into the service, who re-
require a much larger quantity of animal food than
4' old soldiers. There is abundant evidence of the ft
that the regulation pound of meat per diem is inade-
quate to keep the men in-good physical condition. No
sooner are regiments subjected to an excepti(
strain, such as a long march, or heavy gnerd work,
than numbers break down. When conveyed to hos-
pital they are discovered ta be suffering from nothing
but physical debility. The splendid fellows who com-
prise the Household Cavalry certainly have not the
appearance of men who are kept short of meat, or
indeed of anything. But these men are very great
favourites, and there is little doubt that they obtain
seasonable additions to their otherwise limited enjoy-
ments at table, which do not fall to the lot of their less
favoured comrades.
The same work of preservation whigh has suggested
to our countrymen the gathering together of Shake.
sperian relics, has been carried out by the Italians with
regard to the home of Raffaelle. Urbino, the birth-
place of this great artist, is now almeat in ruins; but
a society has been formed who have bought the house
where the famous painter was born. Raffaelle's grand-
father, it seems, purchased the building for 240 ducats,
and here set up the trade of a general huckster and
etoredealer. His son, the father of the artist, was a
tolerable painter, but an indifferent poet. In the room
where young Raffaelle was born there is now exhibited
a fresco of a "Madonna and Child," which was not
the work of the renowned painter himself, but of his
father. There is little doubt that the picture was in-
tended to represent the painter's own wife and son—
that son whose masterpieces upon the walls of our own
National Gallery never fail to elicit admiration.
The opening of the Alexandra Palace on the let of
May will attract a large number of persons to Muswell-
hill who will remember the building inaugurated two
years ago on the 24th of that month, and which was so
ruthlessly destroyed by fire in little more than a forte
night afterwards. The same day will be a time of
considerable interest also at Burlington House, for that
is the date for the opening of the Royal Academy. It
is invariably accompanied by a magnificent banquet,
which is attended by the lea,dingrepresentatives of art
and literature, the Ministers of State, the Judges, and
the most eminent members in both Houses of Parlia-
ment. It was at the Royal Academy banquet of May
1870, that Mr. Charles Dickens atie his last speech in
public. He then spoke of the loss which had been sus-
tained by the death of Maclise, the celebrated
painter, those whom he addressed little dreaming
that within five weeks of that time, the elo-
quent speaker and the powerful writer himself would
be no more. At this Academy Exhibition are the works
which our most eminent artists and sculptors have suc-
ceeded in completing within the previous twelvemonths.
• some, perhaps, have occupied years of patient labour;
In other cases three or four works have been finished in
the year. Often enough the rejected Pictures are three
times as numerous as those which have been accepted.
The exhibition itself is a highly attractive and interes-
ting one; and when the select days are over nd the
public are admitted at the shilling entrance fee, the
n=laws which Sock to Burlington oyttot

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