The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-03-05 00:00:00

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

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The Royal Marriage at Berlin has been the subject
of some interest in this country, looking at the rela-
tionship of the bridegroom to our own reigning House.
Prince Wilhelm, the eldest son of the Crown Prince
and Princess of Germany, was the first grandchild of
Her Majesty Queen Victoria; and having been born
on the 27th January, 1859, is now in the twenty-third
year of his age. The bride, Princess Augusta Victoria,
of Schleswig-Holstein, is within a few months of the
age of the bridegroom, and is a niece of Prince
and Princess Christian, who with the Prince of
Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh were present
at the wedding. It is a singular illustration
of the etiquette which prevails at the Ger-
man Court that, although the Emperar is styled
his Imperial Majesty, and the Crown Prince his
Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince's eldest son—
the bridegroom of this week—is a Royal Highness.
He will not be Imperial until his father is Emperor—
an event which, seeing that the Kaiser is 84 years of
age, cannot within the chanees of human probability
Le far distant.

The Royal Standard waving over Buckingham
Palace is an indication to the people of London
that the Queen is there, and many a resident
of the metropolis is glad to see its folds thrown
out upon the murky atmosphere. Murky it is
of a truth on a raw February day, with a damp
chill fog hanging over the million-peopled city,
and with the sky like a vast heavy sheet of lead, ex-
cluding the sunbeams, and enveloping the capital in a
sombre gloom! Yet if the Queen is in London for two
or three days only, her presence does good in a way.
Only a few days before her Majesty held the first
Drawing Room of the season at Buckingham Palace,
the Prince of Wales held the first levee at the
Palace of St. James's. These two events meant
some hundreds of presentations, and the cir-
culation of money in different channels—court
suits, dresses, equipages, and so forth. The life
of the classes which so largely depends upon the
expenditure of London society, seemed to revive
again, and welcome enough was the revival after a
winter which has caused such a paralysis in many
departments of industry.
While the Empress of Austria has been enjoying
some splendid hunting across the plains of Cheshire,
the Queen of Sweden and Norway has been endea-
vouring to obtain a rehabilitation of her health at
Bournemouth, varying the time by an occasional run
up to London. On one of her visits to the British capital
her Majesty encountered weather which must have re-
minded her of Scandinavia in its most wintry mood.
A combination of wet snow, sleet, and cold rain pro-
duced the greatest possible discomfort. The pave-
ments were dangerous for pedestrians, and the streets
were covered with an icy mixture which was bound to
penetrate the best leather ever made in Bermondsey.
The Queen of Sweden was not, however, deterred
by those unfortunate atmospheric conditions from
carrying out her programme, which included a visit
to Westminster Abbey. Next day, after taking
luncheon with the Prince and Princess of Wales, her
Majesty was received by the Queen at Buckingham
Palace, and at the grand entrance thereof, as befitted
her rank as a reigning Sovereign.
It was on an evening such as that referred to when
the Prime Minister, whilst returning from dinner
with the Prince and Princess of Wales, fell in the
melting snow upon the back of his head, and narrowly
escaped serious injury. Fortunately for himself in
this instance Mr. Gladstone is not a stout man, for a
stone or two in falling makes all the difference. It is
at such a time that the peculiar quality of English
political life becomes apparent, and shows itself to the
best possible advantage. In the case either of illness
or of acciden, party feeling, so active in the concerns
of ordinary life, knows sic existence. The antagonism of
contending factions dies away ; the hostility of life-long
opponents ceases to be. During those few days in
1850, when Sir Robert Peel lay at the point of death
in Whitehall Gardens, there was no difference in the
stream of visitors who poured in to leave cards of
inquiry. With widely varying political complexions,
for some had consistently opposed, while others had
supported him throughout his long public life, all
vied in anxiety for the condition of the statesman
whose life was ebbing away, and whose panegyric was
pronounced in the House of Commons, after the
funeral, by Mr. Gladstone himself. A generation
has passed away since that time, and many things
have happened, but amid all the mutations there has
been no change in the generous feeling which comes
over English political Tile when illness or misfortune
seizes an antagonist.
The House of Commons has found it necessary to get
to business, other than the consideration of the affairs of
Ireland. The exigencies of the empire have to be met
and dealt with, under whatever circumstances. One
of these is the need of money for the payment of the army
and the navy. The civil service, too, which absorbs
more than either the naval or the military estimates, has
to be provided for. The three absorb about 45 millions
sterling annually. This vast sum is made up of
several hundred, 'Or it may more truly be said, several
thousand votes, upon each of which a debate may
arise and a division take place. Sometimes, when
other pressing business drives the estimates into a
corner, as it were, and leaves the House scant time
for their discussion, it has been found necessary to
take a vote on account. This, however, is considered
by high Parliamentary authorities as an unconstitu-
tional practice. When the vote comes on for con-
sideration the money has been spent; and although
the House may criticise, it cannot then control. Con-
sequently its poweras exercising a check on depart-
mental expenditure no longer exists.
The annual report has just been issued by the Chief
Registrar of Friendly Societies, and it shows that
last year 12,300 returns were received, shewing the
transactions of thee organizations. The number of
members was 4,692,175, being an increase of 83,371
upon the figures of the previous twelve months.
The funds in hand amounted to £12,148,600, or
more than a million sterling over the sum re-
turned in the preceding year. In the course of the
twelve months, Mr. Ludlow remarks that £1,600,857
was dispensed by 10,161 registered societies alone, and
from this he grounds his conviction that the common
opinion that through the operation of the friendly
societies two millions sterling is annually saved to
the poor rates is by no mews overstated. Summing
up the returns the Chief Registrar sayi :—"The in-
ference to be derived from the increase in the forma-
tion of bodies of a purely provident character, accom-
panied by a decrease in those which demand an
outlay of capital, appears obviously to be that
the continuance of the commercial distress has
seriously impaired the resources of the working
class, but without affecting their providence. One of
the main points of the Act passed a few years ago
was that every registered society should submit to a
quinquennial examination of its assets and liabilities;
and this, it is expected, will be furnished in the next
annual report.
The sanitary improvement of honse property is one
of the questions which is always with us. At present
there is no town in England where persons desirous
of having their houses inspected can, by paying
a small annual subscription, obtain the services
of a paid inspector for that object, although it
Ls possible, after a recent discussion at the Society
of Arts, that an institution of this kind will be
formed in London. Whether a householder will
avail himself of the privileges of such a Society, is a
matter entirely in his own discretion in the present
state of the lava; but meanwhile there is a bill now
before Parliament for making sanitary inspection
obligatory. From bad drainage and other causes
capable of being remedied, thousands die annually;
and when weighty imperial questions cease to press so
heavily upon upon the Legislature as they have lately
done, sanitary legislation will receive more attention
than in exciting times it can possibly obtain.
The news from Athens and Constantinople has of
late again p ented in the direction of war. While
the diplomatists have discussed compensations for
Epirus, the Turks have been hurrying on preparations
for hostilities ; and failing the certainty of European
concert, it appears only too probable that the Porte
will fight rather than submit to the Greek demands.
Seeing that less than four years have elapsed since
Russia declared war against Turkey, it will be
held by many that the time for another conflict
over the Eastern Question has scarcely yet arrived.
Between 1854 and 1877, there were three and
twenty years; and although wars occurred in
Europe in the interval, they did not affect
the question of the East. There was one in 1859 be-
tween France and Austria; one in 1864 between
Germany and Denmark; one in 1866, between Austria
and Prussia; one in 1870, between France and
Prussia; and one in 1876, between Turkey and Servia.
This is a very large proportion of wars in less than
thirty years, seeing that during the forty years which
preoeded the struggle with Russia in 1854, there
had been but one war—that in 1827, resulting in
the untoward event of Navarino. Nor has this
confined to our own continent.
in the United States between 1861
accompanied by an enormous de-
human life; there are periodical
one or • other of the numerous
in Republics, the latest of which has
the capture of Lima ; these is never-
itween Russia and some of the tribes in
; while of wars in East and South
is no necessity to speak as they are so

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