The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-10-06 00:00:00

PP'

1, 0.

h'utt :/fnitbcrn Cartspcnanti.

/Olt intata that we do not at at
. o our corrrapoudentarpritioth. I

The leader* of the Reform mnbement do finb.'ll:pp.,
to lop,. the It deeire tdlthelsix their einferlionsW,
to meeting's and dem.Satratione /dr gfrerat
country, and we shall probably have a wilt
1110.10 of them before Parliament meet& It appeare to
me that on the one hand too much is made of thew
meetings, and on the other too little. It is not very
enefroong that with good organisation, and plenty of
wivcrtteirg. a large number of men should he got
together to hear a celebrated orator, itinfl one or twb.
otter cowl epeakern ; hut when all who come together
are Po set down as earrieet, arilhut eeformen‘,
aiding if, bringing about the ncoompliehment of ideas
expressed in the resolution., I think that is going too
far. rhindredn of the very same men would probably
meet, were the Cfainervativee to inaugurate a meeting,
and thoneande if it were known that Lord Derby and
, Mr. Disraei would speak. lint still a great open-
air meeting is always a great fact; and a number 0.1
them in ...ces.ion cannot be without their igillterice
remilicance. Judging from the tone of Mr.
Belem'. remarks about Lord Derby and Beform, and
tne'Mromentri f‘f several journals upon them, i would
...in to be a common opinion that the Ministry will
not bring forward a Reform MIL. I cannot see that
. • 'the -nprech of the hon. member for Birmingham will
faiey bear this interpretation; and at all even*,
inehne to the opinion that in the royal !womb at the
•• . opening of Parliament next Selldoll, the subjnct of
mpreeretative reform will be alluded to, and that this
will 'lle followed up by the introduction of a measure
• .
•'on the ilubject. Now, withoeit speculating at length.
on the probable result, it appears to me that Ministers
' will MO* to steer betty/nen-our eld Tries& Scylla and
the farther being, we will say, a stronger
measure than its authors really desire to carry,
and which Parliament Is not likely to pain, and, on
the other hand, so weak a measure that the Liberals
wedindoraantly reject it. Suppoeing that .Ministers
&offer defeat on this subject, it will be perfectly
legttimate for them to appeal to the Country'.

An occaatoisal tine day, and now and than a little

• NM, have revived the hope that the Harvest after all,
4'. a • will not be so had as was ex ; lately, but it is too
late to look for • sucdàsful housing of the golden
treasures of the 'earth, without veryserious losses; and
the rise in the grain. markets is far from encouraging
to thee:woe. From some of the northern' and midland
,Mteicte come very sad accounts of the damage done
by water, and added to this we have the newel from
• isev sral districts that the potstoe disease is oommitting
serious ravages. From some foreign countries, too, the
sec:mute are very unfavourable. In France it Is said
that the harvest is much below the average in quantity
and posfity, and prices are rising in all the markets,
while the recent floods have done an Immense deal of
damage. All this is far from cheering; but as a set-
off, are have some pleamant news from Canada, where,
• it a said, the harvest will be above the average. The
experience of the present autumn, one would think,
would lead to the adoption of some each plan as is
• adopted in Normandy and Brittany, which is worth all
tlie publicity that can be given to it. "The plan is to
. MOW round a large, bunch of 'Craw, or a dotibled up
sheaf, the nine sheaves of the shock in • pyramid, then
mit, the pyramid with a large inverted sheaf bound as
near the straw end as possible. Thus the centre ears
are kept dry, and those of the cap falling all round
shoot off the wet from the grain. The shock thus
managed a called a ' viotte,' and will stand weeks of
rain; and the miller will give more for grain which
hae been in eiottes' than for other; because, front
• standing out several days, as it always does (though
ever FA line), the sample is better. Sometime. the
'is made of twelve shearea." Another plan
which has been proposed is to dry the ripened grain as
•-•.on as it is homed, when it cannot be done in the
erdinary way, by blasts of hot air, at 100 or 120 degrees.
• • lii, very commonly said that farmers are very slow to
'mural's- that they tenaciously adhere to old beaten
tr wits, he. I don't think so. I think that on the
whole they show as much enterprise and se much
wiltingnew to adopt improvements as any other class.
it is not even yet too late to try the above plans in
Nome localities. Next harvest time perhaps the sugges-
tb ,ns will be forgotten.
Ile history of inventors would be • sad history, an
• "miler true tale," a history of genius struggling with
cold official formality and red tape, and bitter disap-
pointment and too often of cruel neglect, while others
. have feaped the reward. It is to be hoped that the
case of Mr. Snider is not to be another chapter added I
to this hist,ry, but at present it would seem so, He
said to be ill and paralysed, and that he has not ,
received anything of the reward to which he is justly
entitled. Seeing that he is the inventor of a system of
nth) which is said to be superior to the needle-gun-
and at all eventa a system which our government haa
adojned, and to which they are adapting the Enfield
raise as fast as they can, this is not creditable to our
Government. The reward, however, will, it be to be
Loped, come, though it is long delayed.
I have great faith in the personal honour of the
I rooters of that munificent gift which some years ago
lii r. Peabody bestowed on the poor of London, but 1
have not much faith in their rapidity of action. Seeing
that the erection and maintenance of homes on what
nosy be called the many-floor system pays, .1 that
theiefore a large portion of the funds ought
to be continually available, may I ask why more
of these houses are not erected? There are many dia.
trifte it the Metropolis which sorely need this reform,
andel only wonder that cholera has not raged in these
places far worse than it hes. A correspondent of one
of the Papers has drawn attention to the state of
Smith. Lambeth. and VanxbalL "Where once the
. garden smiled"' e., Vauxhall Gardens, with its troops
, of dandies and fashionable ladles, and later in the day,
with us fast and furious visitors-this locality a in •
cniiy dilapidated state, with here and there a few new
Meows eon o,p with all the old faults., but afflicted with
• notemmes of the most noxious and dangerous character.
4...001 which I hesitate to describe have to 14 en.
viewed by • large working popuMtion, powerials to
remedy the evil. Now if in such a locality • sie this
the Peabody trustees would pull down ea number of
old eitlatedated homes and build one of those Splendid
locks of houses they would be carrying but Mr. Pea-
body's ideas to the letter, and would confer an inesti-
mable boon on society.
A stage coach, called "Old nines," has for Some
tine past been running between London and Brighton,
down one day and up the next-three journeys • week
in about eix hours each way. I have seen it spinning
along the road at • good pace, and have generally
nomad that it has been well patronized, the fare being
• .I.(ta outside and 12a. inside. I believe, however, that
it does not pay at this price, but that it is a matter
w ii h the proprietors concern themselves 1.1.4t1e about,
it 1 song started more for the pleasure of thething than
fir the profit. Now and then some well-known mem-
ber of the aristocracy takes a fancy to " eool" it along
• the road, and as it passes along people talk of "old
tones" and promise themselves that one of them days
they will take a trip in this old fashion. Hitherto this
c. each has run to and fro without any accident, but a
day or two ago, toed as it was nearing Brighton, the
, Is "lens went:frightened by a boy dashing wrong the road
• frit before the horses' heads; they reared and plunged
• and the coach was run againat the bank. The remit
was that about a dozen of the passengers were seriously
hart. This fact is suggestive. We have now and again
an accident on the railway, and sometimee a calamity
on the iron road la merlons indeed ; but I think that
compared with the number who travel the immunity
from accident is something wOnderiol. It hae Mien
prieed that there are more de•tha and Injuries Sea'
piuned by the traffic in the streets of the metro/lola
alone than on all the railways in the United Kingdom
ion together, and a remarkahle fact this is. In the old
coaching days the number of accidents, many of them
fatal, occurring on the road were far more to priportion
-to • the nblribeil who travelled, than! rer* occur on
the railwats. Were we to revive "old times" (quite
; an impossibility by the bye) accidents on the road
would not now be so nomeroue as they were in the days
of our grandfathers, because the roads are better kept
and lglited, but there is little doubt that the per-
centage of accidents by coach and omnibus is higher
than that on the railways. There I. still a charm
al-out the old stage-coach, and, as s pleasant mode of
travelling for hall.welozen hours, there will alweyie be
found some who now and then may like to indulge Mit ;
but taken as a whole, even with unproved roada, coabh.
travelling for a long distance Is aamassurably laft4or
to the railway,

.

THE OLD WOMAN'S INTERVIEW!
WITH ROYALTY!
At the games at Dunrobin on Friday (says the
Bane Aire Journal), one of the spectators was an pld
spparently between seventy and eighty years
of age, who had come from Donioch in order to see the
Priuoe and Prinaiss of Weise. She went to the garden,
hut found it difficult to get a eight of the Royal party,
as the general public were prevented by the police from
petting &drawee= to the enclosure. She was determined,
however, on gaining the object for which she had
r 111 l end she continued her entreaties perseveringly
tili at length Mr. Loch, the Duke's commissioner, ilb-
perved her, end admitted her within the circle. Here
Phe put into conversation with Mr. Campbell, of hility,
who -poke with her in Gaelic, and pointed out to her
the i rice and Princess. She would ecarcedy,belle,,,,
the. fireii Royal Highawnes could possibly be ee like
pelipfe, and she had evidently formed some Pecu-
liar,, LUMP as to the appearance the Royal family Re.
eente , She has lived all her days on the estates of the
111,11 e of Sutherland, and was known to the Duch*.
Diruutess, to the grandfather of the present Duke, sag