The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-13 00:00:00

Our fonbon aorrtsponbtut.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

Parliament is gradually settling down to work again
after its long holiday. The vacation enjoyed by the
legal profession is three months, that of the Legisla-
ture is six. It takes some days to be broken into har-
ness after half a year of rest and recreation d if the
House of Commons has not as yet had many late
sittings, it should be no matter for surprise. By-and-
bye, when the assembly gets into the swing of its work,
hon. members will be at Westminster long past
mid-
night; and the splendidly lighted roof of the people's
chamber will shine down upon three or four hundrek
of the nation's representatives busy over their lesisla
tive duties. The impression generally appears to be
the session will, upon the whole, be free from
political excitement. No measure calculated to pro-
duce it was shadowed forth in the Royal Message to
Parliament on the sth inst., and the circumstances
under which the session opened seemed to forbid any-
thing like a stirring time. One of the great party
leaders has retired from the field of strife, and the
place which has so often resounded with the eloquence
of Mr. Gladstone will be filled with his voice but
rarely in the future. But it is urged by some that
Mr. Bright is back again with recovered health to
take part once more in the debates. Certainly the right
hon. member for Birmingham is to a great extent
restored, but it is very doubtful whether the questions
before the House will be of such a charaeter as to
bring him into much prominence. Not but what poli-
ticians on both sides are always glad to hear a speech
from one of our great men. It is an intellectual treat,
and the silence which reigns throughout the chamber
is prsfound, broken only by the ringing cheer or the
ironical "Oh! Oh!" Mr. Bright was never a fre-
quent speaker, and for that reason his orations were
all the more highly valued. It was always known
when he meant to take part in a debate, for he held
between the first and second fingers of his left hand
one or two slips of paper on which were jotted a few
rough notes. No sooner was this seen than the word
ran round to library and smoking-room, to the dining_
hall and to the lobby. "Bright is going to speak!
The almost empty House fills with marvellous ra-
pidity; the gallery opposite the right hon. gentleman
becomes densely crowded with members, who prefer to
face the oratorthan to sib behind him; hon. gentlemen,
now closely packed, settle into their seats, as though
the slightest motion afterwards might destroy the
effect of what they are to hear. The member now
before the House is listened to with impatience,
and when he sits down, the massive frame of
Birmingham's representative slowly rises. He
knows that every eye is fixed upon him, but
there is not the slightest trace of nervousness or em-
barrassment in his voice, which falls upon the ears of
the attentive listeners like the sounds of a silver flute.
He speaks for an hour, and glances at his notes but
once or twice; sometimes not at all. There is very
little gesture, but the perfect construction of his
sentences and the elegance of his diction fill with
wonder the most bitter of his opponents. The
reporters in the gallery' do not miss a word; and when
he sits down he has spoken from three to four columns
of small type. Unless Mr. Disraeli replies at once, the
House empties again as rapidly as it filled. The picture
which I have drawn is one which would have been a
faithful one up to the end of the session of 1869, since
which time Mr. Bright has not been able to take
part in the debates.
Have any of your readers ever had the curiosity to
look at London in the early morning? I do not mean
the London of the West-end, or of the North, or of
the South, for at the time I mention, Bayswater,
Highgate, and Brixton are generally fast asleep.
But I speak of the City, bounded on the one hand by
London Bridge, and upon the other by Temple Bar.
Move away from Covent Garden market if you have
got up in time to look in there upon the great stores of
vegetables which the country has poured in for the
benefit of the metropolis. Come through Temple
Bar, and go down Fleet-street, where most of the
offices of the daily newspapers are situate. Outside
these you will see long lines of spring-carts, waiting to
take huge bundles'of the journals to the various railway
termini. The Great Western is the most distant, and
that is provided for first. The offices are a blaze of
light; the sounds of many voices rise upon the morn-
ing air; and although all are busy there is no con-
fusion. Sometimes a nervous driver may exclaim to
the publisher, "I say, Mr. Green, look alive please;
you know that six o'clock train from Paddington
always starts punctually." The publisher quietly re-
quests his friend not to throw himself into a perspira-
tion, and assures him that all be well. All is well, no
doubt, and as one after another of the railways is
served, continue your walk eastward. Pass up Ludgate
Rill, leave the gloomy purlieus of the Old Bailey
behind you, and in a minute or 80 you are standing
under the giant shadow of St. Paul's. Nothing but
the striking of the quarters breaks the quietude here,
but if you push forward through Cheapside and King
William-street, you very speedily come to the river.
Ilere there is life enough aria to spare. Steamers are
getting ready to start for the Continent, and for the
numerous ports upon our own coast. The sound of
the plashing of the tide upon their bows mingles with
the rattle of cabs bringing passengers and baggage,
the hoarse voices of command upon the decks,
the blowing of steam whistles, and the ring-
ing of bells. If you remain here a little while
you will hear from the land a low subdued
roar which tells of the gradual awakening of the city,
and the increase in the volume of its traffic. Its heart
is once more beating with a throb which is sending
the pulsations of active life miles away into the most
distant suburb. The smoke begins to ascend from
thousands of chimneys; slowly but surely the clear
atmosphere becomes heavy and murky; and although
the s-in may be shining brightly upon the gilded towers
of Westminster, the effulgence of his rays is not known
here. As the hours wear on, the streets, so silent when
you first saw them in the morning, become crammed
with people, who have poured into them by every
means of conveyance, and never was a contrast greater
than you are now enabled to draw between the city
before the dawn and that at noonday, in the full tide
of its enormous traffic.
It has been determined to form an association for
the improvement of the condition of the London
needlewomen. An address is to be drawn up appeal-
ing for assistance from the kingdom generally in be-
half of this numerous and hardworking class. The
immediate objects of the association, which is sup-
ported by many benevolent ladies, are to increase the
pay of the needleworoen, to curtail their hours of work,
and to introduce greater regularity in their times of
labour. The promotion of these purposes is peculiarly
well suited for ladies, who may know some of the
mysterious influences which have so long battled
against enlightened philanthropy in its endeavours to
improve the position of the distressed needlewomen.
Thirty years ago the "Song of the Shirt" made the
subject familiar to everybody ; and the picture drawn
by Hood of the unremitting and unremunerative toil
carried on "from weary chime to chime," is one which
has not yet been erased from the memory. Still it
can hardly be said that it has accomplished the purpose
for which it was written. There is yet a great deal of
"poverty, hunger, and dirt" amongst the class whom
Hood sought to benefit by his noble composition, or
there would be no necessity for the establishment of
such an association as that to which I have referred.
The attendance at the funeral of Sir W. Sterndale
Bennett showed the great respect in which the late
President of the Royal Academy of Music was held,
and the sense which was felt as to the loss sustained
through his death. He was one of th 3 foremost of our
English composers, and he set to music the opening
ode for the International Exhibition of 1862. Not
many days before his fatal illness he was walking
about London apparently in his usual health, but
when once attacked by paralysis, that deadly foe of
men who live by their intellectual toil, the work of
destruction was swift and certain. He lingered for
some days unconscious, and then—
"ills spirit left the darkened room,
And soared above the toiling folk;
Above the cross upon St. Paul's,
And high above the noise and smoke."
His remains were laid in that receptacle for the dust
of all cur eminent deputed—Westminster Abbey—
"where long -drawn aisles" protect the coffmed sleep
of philosophers and statesmen. The weather was
thoroughly in accordance with the associations of the
day. The venerable Abbey was shrouded in the
deepest gloom, for the sky was covered with dense
masses of cloud, which did not move along in vast
banks, as is the case when they are driven forward by
a strong west wind, but they seemed suspended in the
firmament like a leaden pall, and utterly motionless.
Very dismal looks the million-peopled city on a day
like that, but the feeling of depression is immeasurably
increased when a group of mourners is assembled in such
a building as Westminster Abbey, where the "dim
religious light," scarcely perceptible in the recesses of
the groined arch and the fretted roof, barely brings out
into relief the ancient monuments, telling a silent but
an eloquent story of the greatness which has enriched
the history of centuries, and now laid to that rest which
upon earth knows no
,awakening.
With the commencement of the season, and the
return of our public men to town, their engagements—
religious, social, and philanthropic—will soon be suffi-
ciently numerous. On the very day after Parliament
opened, the Earl of Shaftesbury was presiding at the
distribution of prizes at the Birkbeck Literary Institu-
tion, and Mr. Arthur Kiunaird, M. P., was inaugurating
a Cab • helter in St. John's Wood. The last-men-
tiaked is what has long been wanted, and more
opee4ll7 during the bitter cold of the present winter/

where the poor cabmen have had to shiver and freeze
in the open air, blowing to !their blue-cold fingers,
would such an institution as that now open, have been
gladly welcomed. In these shelters the drivers, while
waiting for their fares, are not only protected from the
inclemency of the weather, but supplied with light
and *arm refreshment at a moderate cost, an advan-
tage which only those who are-accustomed to long and
trying exposures can properly estimate. The number
of these shelters is to be increased, and cabmen
generally will rejoice at the popularising of an institu-
tion which enables them to stretch their limbs in cold
and wet weather, without their being compelled to
seek refuge in their close and stuffy vehicles.
The first report of the Civil Service Inquiry Com- I
r mission, of which Dr. Lyon Playfo.ir, M.P., was the
chairman, has been read with much interest by those
r- whom it proposes to affect by the changes suggested.
Should the recommendations be followed, both re-
muneration and promotion in the Civil Service of the
future will depend upon merit, and upon the nature of
the work done. There will be "service pay" and,
"duty pay," the former to begin in the officer class at
£lOO a year, and to rise by triennial increments to a
maximum of £4OO. This maximum will be reached in
twenty-four years from the clerk's first entrance into the
service. No clerk will lave a right to count upon
more than £4OO a year, unless he shows special aptitude,
and has special work entrusted to him. If he should
manifest such aptitude, and have such work entrusted
to him, be will then be entitled to duty pay in addition
to his service pay, and this will vary from £5O to £2OO
per annum. The sum of £6OO a year will thus be the
utmost that a Civil Service clerk, not holding a staff
appointment, will be able to obtain, and £3OO per
annum will be the maximum in the inferior grade.