The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-05-02 00:00:00

orrrspolibtnt.

'LUAU it right to Ptate that we do hot at all times
esiiier ourselive with me Correspoudent's ollakto2.l

i .11 pabhcity not be given to the fact that
. Internati Exhibon is ar the most
of the • • since their ' meta in
, WAS opened .out any ' ' 3. on Kilter
and as Sout nsington i co easillitijo•
the libliihiti
,slit to secu forge
. 'nri was 'ot always so; or I remember
that in. 1,862, if a person •wished to get from liaington
...,I,i th), world's show then open at Kensington, the
%mirk& journey occupiltd, at least two hours. A
s'inilar time to reach home took away half *relay from
the linlited period at the disposal :,f the visitor. Now
the Metropolitan lines of railway make very alert
-.Pork of the distance, and whether or not this year's
, lithibition bg 11, bllet*lii in point of attendance, want ofl
' - ra c ill tie s of Me,ro to it will not be oue of the causes of
,he failure of a scheme which deserves well of the
i Alic.

The fourth report of the Royal Commission on scien-
tific instruction has attracted considerable attention
smongst the ranks of the learned. In particular,
' .i.otice is skarn to the museum of the Royal College
If Surgeons of England, of which the Commissioners
4 peak in the highest terms. If at any time, from
hangers in medical legislation or other causes, the fund
t the disposal of the college became* inadequate for
the support of the museum, it is- urged 'that the State
• hould aid an institution in' imately connected with the
:•rogress of biological science in this country. In
treating of the South Kensington Museum, the com-
missioners point out the used for a national collection
,1 instruments used in the investigation of mechanical,
chemical, and physical laws. Such collections exist on
:he Continent, and when combined with lectures
• atended by workmen are found most useful. The
' hnporisiaice of scientific culture to instrument makers
has been insisted upon by no less practical a man than
' .'lord Salisbury, the present Secretary of State for
, 'lnd& :They would certainly receive immense aid
, from the formation of such an institution as that pro-
' posed by the Commissioners, more especially if suoces-
...rive improvements in construction were placed under
the guidance of competent teachers. It is also sug-
, cested that local museums should be enconraged as a
powerful means of instructing and elevating large
las,esa the people.

The early wanderer through the streets of London
oan at all timee find ample materials for note and com-
ment. Let him drop into Fleet-street at four o'clock
in the morning, and he will see that thoroughfare
fiord with light spring carte, waiting outside the offices
of the daily papers, ready to convey huge bundles of
the journals to the numerous railway-stations. Go into
that part of the city which lies along the margin of the
Thames, and although the morning light may be
barely discernible in the eastern sky, the neighbourhood
of Billingsgate-market is active with busy life. Or,
if thote' narrow ways and tortuous streets possess
110 interesl, awl the obserter prefers in genteel vicinity,
let him travel westward, and cast his eye over the vale
of Piccadilly. The last cab with a drowsy occupant
Mao hardly driven from a nocturnal gathering towards
Hylle Park-corner, when waggona laden with vege-
tables for. Covent Garden slowly file into the vale
from Fulham and from Hammersmith. On they come
in a slow procession, and if you glance at the top of
the tuml.ril, you will see that the driver is sound
.:aalhep, evidently trusting to his horses to find their
way into ;London. As the spring sunlight increases,
and the blooming of the gardens is Imre perceptible,
the spectacle becomes a highly picturesque one, espe-
cially just now, when the foliage of the trees is no
vivid and so beautiful.

•
• •
A popular, but an erroneous idea of London is that
comparatively kw of its inhthitants see any greenery
stall, but that the place is so many acres of bricks awl
mortar, and nothing more. There could, however, be
no greater mistake. In the very heart of thv.city there
are more trees than is generally supposed evert by the
people of the metropolis themselves. In Wood strurt,

Che-apaide, one of our busiest thoroughfares, we have a
tall Oriental plane, 1% ith a rook's nest in it. There is
a sister tree in Stationer's Hall court. Two good ones,
forming a leafy home for a large number of sparrows,
spread their branches in Doctor's Commons. Look
into the courts of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and

into the garden of :Mercer's Hall, and you will see
some excellent specimens. Or take a journey to the
Lank of England, and you will find within its massive
walls a capitally kept garden. Or, again, traverse the
stony area of Somerset House, and you will not fail
to see that three or four hawthorns manage to live close
to thathome of the Excise. Gray's Inn boasts of a shady
elm avenue, and in Great Ormond-street there is a fig
tree of unusual size. In other unlikely places, such
for instances as amongst the houses at the back of the
Lrithh Mmemn, and in the crooked lanes which
liranch away from Westminster Abbey, trees continue
to flourish under difficulties which one would think
would be enough to strangle them a hundred times
over. There is a peculiar interest and beauty attach-
ing to the presence of an isolated tree dotted here and
there amid the homes of a vast population, Lord
Verulam (whose name distinguishes a row of buildings
in Gray's Inn), writing three centuries ago, clothed his
sentiments in the following chaste language :—" God
Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed it is the
purest of human pleasures. It is the greatest refresh-
ment to the spirit of man, without which buildings
and palaces are but gross handiworkii." Any tired
Londoner who betakes himself to such a place as the
Temple Gardens in the cool of the day will cordially
re-echo this feeling.

Various attempts have been made from time to
time to bring sea-water to the metropolis from the
south wait, but hitherto. none of. these have preyed
successful, chiefly because the storing of the water in
tanks would by no means tend to improve its conditien.
Another effort is about to be made in this direction,
and it appears that the hopes of starting a new com-
pany to carry eta the new acheme are ef a favourable
character. Dim proposed to erect at Brighton a large
pumping apparatus in order to send the water through
pipes two feet in diameter to London, there to be
•o
insect for bathe. The project is described as a com-
paratively inexpensive one, and it is confidently
asserted that there would be no engineering difficulty
connected with laying the pipes.
Visitors coming to London from any considerable
pnwincial town have often expressed their surprise at
the inferiority of the cabs upon our street-stands,
and at the railway termini. In fact, this has become
one of our traditional grievances for year; past,
and some time ago the Society of Arts determined to
attack it. They awarded a prize for the best and most
practical improvement upon our existing "Hansom,"
and when the vehicle was shown in the International
Exhibition the Prince of Wales was so struck with its
lightness and symmetry, that lie ordered one for his
own private use. The matter hss now been taken up
in earliest by the railway companies, and it having
been ascertained that the new cabs can be supplied at
a trifle over the rates ruling for the old-fashioned
vehicles, the cab proprietors have been given to under-
stand that they must at once introduce a certain pro-
portion of the new nabs; with a view to the gradual
disestablisionent and ultimate extinction of the ancient
rattletraps which have done duty so long. At present
the four-wheelers are familiarly known as "growlers,"
chiefly because of the horrid noise which they make as
they slowly nimble along the paved thoroughfares
which so abound in London.
One evening last week the Grocers' C.eupany gave a
dinner in honour of Sir Bartle Frere, the President of
the li, yal Geographical Society ; and Sir Samuel
Baker, whowas aLso, guest, gave expreesion to some
j . sentiments respecting the future of Africa which did
not'tifeet with universal assent. Sir Samuel agreed in
favour of the swerd as against the sermon if we desire
to make any real impression upon the dense MASS of
igndstance and barbarism to be found upon that widely
stretching continent. England, contended this well-
inown traveller, must show her superi way in other
ways than preaching. We must discard all ideas of
the African millennium, and the probability of the lion
lying s doe& with the lamb, for unless at present the
uaissionary was supported by force, the lamb would lie
down inside the lion instead This was smart as a
pieta' of after-dinner oratory, but the venerable Dr.
Moffat; who sat at the same table, wholly dissented
from such views. He laboured in Africa as a
unetapnery for half a century, and neither he
nor his illustrious nni-in-law, Livingstone, ever
found it necessary to be backed up by a military
• force. The fact is that explorers look upon the home
ef tbe bleak man in very different lights. Sir Samuel
Baker; who has certainly done his best to put down
, the Slave trade, does not believe in what he calla 'the
omance of the missionary." He rather regards Africa
, as ". a grand field ft tl. speculative adventure, where
splendid commercial enterprises may be carried it,
provided the inhabitants are no cowed by an exhibition
?.1 arms dr to be unable to offer any resistance to the
white strangers, who conic to their land for the pur.
pose of making fortunes. But this style of argument
aend no favour with either Moffat or Livingstone.
They never wanted an tinny to aid the spread of
▪ .ely.ilizatiOn and the gospel; and the best proof of the
'we joenefisxnt effecte of their humanising work was the
•"' ietuitt of Moffat after fifty yearn of missionary labour

.., „
.. 4014300g4 savage triben,and the fact that Livingstone;
aftvv,Peming a charted life in their midst, at last died
....peacefully in a hut constructed by native hands.
. A;billie now before Parliament. which pmppees to
mak* wane useful alterations in the composition of a
,ery maelent Britt inveltution--trial by jury. It
s
,
auldatna the number at twelve for the hearing ..rf all

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