The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-01 00:00:00

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AT.7RDA.Y, JANUARY 1,1887.

THE YEAR 1886.

18PG will go down to history as a com-
monplace year, commercially considered, so
imr-as,Gre,a,t Britain is concerned. Its dawn
f. d industry aud trade dull and depressed,
aai j; departure was marked by no material
improvement. The depression, has, however,
been far from stagnation, and capital and
labour are both comparatively well, if not

actively employed, so that there is an absence
of that acute and widespread distress which
we have had in some years gone by to de-
plore There are not wanting, too, it is
pleasing to note, some signs of steady im-
provement, in which those of hopeful mind
are reposing trust for a return of allround
prosperity. The harvest of 18E0, if it did
not flood the markets with abundance of

new corn, was about up to average, and such
as to maintain values and prove remunerative
to Ow grower, -unless he was more unfortun-
ate than his fellows. We had no appalling
calarnity. of an overwhelming character to
mrutTir:ng the year, and no great war in
our gallant troops were engaged.
Ho: :tinlBB6 was commonplace, and in

this :r.:ltapc., happily so. In one respect,
h wevcr, year has been sufficiently re-
an.l that- is its political aspect,
v.-11ir;i4ig of party and power has re,
7f! r • i 11 Ving 1886 with remarkable rapidity-
' .• - - Year found Lord Salisbury's First
-•
tion with no very firm hold on
office, by reason of Irish feeling
dolitical complications. Ere the

ra;:- o I

.1

PC

f.

LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, by his start-
ling action in detaching himself from a
Ministry to which he of all others had been
thought indispensable, and that without any-
thing of public preliminary, furnished
Christmas-keepers with an exciting subject
of conversation. He has, throughout his
career in statesmanship, managed always to
keep well in the public eye; but never be-
fore has even Lord Randolph been such a
theme for everybody's remarks to every-
body else. The news came like a thunder-
bolt on the country; but that is ancient
history by this time, so rapidly do we live
now-a-days. Suffice it, the Times, inspired,
gave it currency; by night the intelligence,
was confirmed everywhere. Now men are
speculating as to the future. A struggle
for a closer alliance of Alinisterialists and
Liberal Unionist leaders is the general
burden of gossip as we write, but no one can
say how the crisis will end ultimately. All ,
seems dark and doubtful without Lord
Randolph's following, and wanting the
earnest support of the Hartingtonians and
the backing-rtp of the Chamberlainites,
Lord Salisbury would be at the head of a
party which would be unable to withstand a
strong combined onslaught of Gladstonians
and Parnellites. Without an "understanding"
of some sort with the Liberal Dissentients,
the Premier would thus be in a peril of a
fall at the first important division. He is a
high-spirited, chivalrous Prime Minister,
and would be likely to resign or appeal to
the country immediately on receiving a
rebuff, so none can now say how long Lord
Salisbury is destined to stand at the head of
her Majesty's Government. These oft-re-
curring crises in the political world are pro•
ductive of much mischief. To see the
wheels of the car of legislation continually
being blocked to allow of the adjustment of
party differences does not at all incline an
unprejudiced and independent mind to fall
in love with faction and the now recognised
system of parties in power or in oppositiOn.
Patriotism ought to have a larger, and
paity a lesser share in the mentni
of our statesinPi-

ME beginning of last week was charac-
terised by winter weather'of almost Icelandic
intensity, then came a milder spell, then it
cleared up for Christmas My, and in the
greater part of Britain the Yuletide anni-
venary was celebrated under clear skies, in
crisp, bracing, frosty air, and over hardened
roads. The day following came a complete
change, or rather series of changes. A thaw
set in at first, following the hard frost of the
night, then came a downpour of rain, of al-
most all day's duration, succeeded by sleet
and snow. The snowfall, beaten down by a
cyclonic depression, and accompanied by a
tremendous gale, was the heaviest one can
remember tor many a year. Taking the
average of .the area covered—from say six
o'clock on snnday evening, to again strike
a mean between localities —there was an
experience of a depth of 12 inches of snow
on the open, and the drifts were in places so
deep as to make road and railway traffic
difficult in the extreme, and at times impos-
sible. Cominunications of every kind were
seriously interrupted, and great damage was
dope. A few lives have been lost, too, in
the inclement land visitation, and much
bodily injury sustained; while the havoc
wrought upon the coasts was appallina,
Lloyd's list of disasters being shockink
low,. But the most apparent of all the
destruction in the large centres was the
demolition of overlu ad telegraph and tele-
phone wires, scarcely a line of communica-
tion being left intact in many places. The
railway signalling telegraph apparatus broke
-down on many lines round about London
between every station, and often enough the
trains had to be guided by tedious hand sig-
nalling, involving much delay, loss, and
. vexation. The Post Office have suffered
heavily, so have all the private wire com-
panies. The telegraphs between the metro-
polis and the Continent all gave way before
the force of -wind and weight of snow, and
London was for hours cut off from communi-
cation with south, south-east, south-west,
and western England, as well as partiall.
dissevered from Wales, Ireland, and Scot-
land. The lesson of the storm should be
the speedy organisation of a plan of placing
every wire out of the wind's way and beyond
the depressing power of collected snow.

THE Bulgarian delegates do not seem to
have met with anything like a recognition
which will tend to render their efforts to re-
store order at home other than futile. At
almost every capital they have visited they
have met with a humiliating and unmistake-
able snub in the shape of a private or semi-
official reception. Their Christmas in Paris
was not at all enlivening or encouraging,
and here in England Lord Iddesleigh has
been able to help them little. Evidently
the poor Bulgarians are not at the end of
thei: troubles yet, for no Power except
Russia seems disposed to be interested in
Balkan affairs, and Russian interference is
scarcely looked upon as advantageous by. the
ex-subjects of Alexander of Battenburg.
Meantime, a startling rumour - has gone
abroad in oiae or two Continental capitals
that the Great White Czar is suffering from
a serious mental affection, which is creating
grave concern in the minds of all akin to
him, and everyone interested in Russia's
welfare. Of course, the report may be
nothing more than a mere canard, bat it is
persistently put forth as an explanation of
tie Emperor Alexander's recent strange at-
t•tntle towards Bulgaria. The myriad
t ,ngue of rumour bus given yet another pre-
t tided elucidation of the Balkan crisis,
ig gest in 2- that the whole movement is an
0 .4-lA4§ticiti cnfo:llfutoc.l fuld frirthored by
tho devotpof ilas Orotic.Churolt.