The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-10-18 00:00:00

On Iroubon garrespankut.

rIVID Moat II tight to atato that we do not at all thaw
Identify otraolvas with our Correapondoer a °Odom)

It is now generally seemed that there will be no
dirsolation of Parliament until the spring of next year.
We have now got so far into the autumn that this, in-
deed, may be taken for granted. Parllament is never
doseolved in the rapidly shortening days unless there is
come urgent necessity for taking such a comae. True,
the general election of 1868, took place in November,
tett then there was a combination of circumstances
rendered such a late period of the year inevitable.
It will be remembered that the new Reform Act then
came into operation for the first time, with lowered
qualification@ in counties and boroughs, with • lodger
franzhise, and with the botuolariee of a large number
of constituencies materially altered. Of course, after
Parliament rose for the session, much time was occu-
pied in oompleting the registrations under the extended
suffrage, in the definition of what was really • "lodger,"
and in the re-adjastment of county and borough
boundaries. Although every effort was made to
expedite this work, weeks and even months elapsed
before it was completed, and this is how it came to pass
that the polls were taken in the later weeks of Novem-
ber. That was the only occasion on which there had been
• dissolution in the winter for • very long time. In
1865 the general election was in July ; in 159 in May!;
In 1857 in April; in 1852 in July ; in 1847 in July; in
1841 in August; in 1837 in July ; in 1935 in April.
The dissolution following the passage of the float Reform
Act, hi 1832, like that sulceeding the second Reform
Act in 1868, took place in the winter, and it is remark.
able to note that these are the only occasions in forty
years in which this has been the case. In each instance
the autumn was coneumed over the new registers, and
the Ministry of the day had no power to fix the time
of the dissolution, seeing that the former House of
COMMICOS, by enlarging the bank of the franchise, had
condemned the old constituencies, and could not meet
again. One objection to a general election in the
winter must be °beim to all. In boroughs the
poll is kept open until four o'clock, and in counties
It is not doled until five. Now, at the hour
bet...mentioned, it is certainly dark all over
the country, and more particularly in the eastern
counties four o'clock does not give a very brit.
Wet light. In • matter of so much importance as that
of recording the results of an election, it is highly de-
sirable that the clerks in the pelting booths should have
daylight to work by ; for, more especially in some of
the rural districts, the artificial lights which are pro-
curable are of the poorest possible description. Resides,
under cover of the darkness, it might be comparatively
easy for an excited crowd to overturn • booth, extin•
snit& the light, and by thus interrupting the proceed-
hip, vitiate the election. The dates which I have
above quoted show that no minister, if he has the power
to prevent it, dissolves in the winter, and the only two
exceptions the Government of the day could not help
lltemeelves. I may add that during the five years
detime of the present Parliament more than 200 bye.
elections have taken place from various causes—ap-
iointinent to office, deaths, resignation., acoemions to
he peerage, etc. The House of Commons has come.
gamily been renewed to the extent ef nearly one-third
of its entire number of members.

In comparing the rates'of travelling upon our various
lines of railway, it is seen that there is a very material
difference both as regards the speed of the trains
end the time in which a journey is accomplished. Take
for instance a ten-shilling first-class ticket, and go with
I as far as you possibly can, and at the best pace.
flie Greet Northern will carry you 56 miles in 66i
minutes; the Great Western, 57 Idles in 77 minutes;
the North Western, 53 miles in 74 minutes; the Mid-
land, 54 milers in 84 minutes ; the South Western, 53i
miles in 73 minutes; the Brighton, 60 miles in 75
minutes; the Great Eastern, 48i miles in 73 minutes
the South Eastern, 38 mike in 50 minute,; and the
Chatham and Dover, 39 miles in 52 minutes. Thus
the Great Northern system conveys • ten-shilling first-
elms passenger 17 miles further than he can be carried
ever the system of the Chatham and Dover. Then let
us apply the same rule to mime of the Continental
lines. The express from St. Petersburg to Moscow, for
the same money, runs 80 miles in 180 minutes; the
railway from Prague to Vienna, 75 miles in 157
ninnies; the express from Venice to BoulogLe, 66
miles in 138 minutes; the express from Paris to
&miens. 63 miles in 102 minute,; and the express
'rots Cologne to Brussels, 74 miles in 187 minute's.
:mixing for • moment to second class fares, I find that
while upon the Great Western a traveller can be
isrried 75ti miles for hall • sovereign, on the Brighton
Totem he will be conveyed only 50 miles for the same
nosey. The Russian can go no lees than 117 mites
or this amount, but he is nearly four hours and a half
apon the road. The Great Western express takes the
zaveller half the distance in about quarter of the time.
['bird-class fares In Eogland are comparatively regular
o point of distance, but the speed varies considerably.
Chose who advocate the purchase and acquisition of
wir railways by the State contend that with uniformity
roanagement inequalities of fares and speed, such as
hose which I have quoted above would no longer
stint; but whether this would counterbalance the
lessee of competition is perhaps open to question.
Amid all the hurry and the bustle inseparable from
nodern life, one occasionally comes across in London •
la°, or • site connected with some remarkable event.
?erhaps the oldeet and most interesting of existing mono-
mials is the stone which Jack Cade struckwithhlsstailln
he Insurrection of which he was the leader, exclaiming
'Now is Mortimer King of England.' It ie let into
he outer wall of the church of St. Switbin, Cannon. '
beet, and has been polished by the touch of innumer-
ble passers-by for centuries. There are few churches
rhich can equal St. Swithin on the score of &nth:laity.
ndeed there is scarcely • street in the city of London
which has not some event to record peculiar to itself,
ditch would have had some interest for the rest of the
meld. Antiquarians have often regretted that distin•
abased persons hays not been kepUn remembrance by
he insertion of a marble slab in front of the places of
heir birth or death. Of these memorials in London
here are very few. A wanderer in the Temple may
m a slab close to the handsome old church, inscribed,
' Here Iles Oliver Goldsmith !" but the experience
• • solitary one, and bad the idea thus worked out
Ste more generally followed, Fleet.street and Cheap'
de would possess a goodly number of monuments to
ell of the residence of illustrious men. Keats lived in
!bestride, Sir Thomas More was born in Milk-street,
illton in Bread street, Locke lived in Dorset-court,
ad Dr. Johnson died in Bolt-court Going into the
and, we find that Peter the Great lived in Bucking-
. nutreet when he was in this country working as a
'mon shipwright; Ben Jonson first saw the light in
artshorne.lasse. Horace Walpole was born in Ar-
:Son-street, Piccadilly; Byron in
_Hones street,

Av-endish-square. Dryden died in Gerrardutreet,
; Edmund Burke lived in the same thoroughfare;

' wne died in Oil Bond-street. Gibbon lived in Ilan-
ater-street, and Sir Isaac Newton in St. Martin-
et, Lek:ester-square. In the square itself lived Sir
hue Reynolds and Hogarth. The list might be
laplied to an indeinite extent; but as • rule the

aumenta which tell of departed greatness are not at
numerous. The age k far too utilitarian to spend
mob thus over the past. _ _

Of the institutions for the relief of unavoidable
ifferbig and misfortune which have from time to time
sea established in London, the most recent is the
'eisperance Hospital in Gowee.street, a thoroughfare
ant by the Euston.equare Terrainae of the London
Ott NorthNfestern Railway. It wax opened for the
sception of patient. only a few days ago, and so far
he admissions have presented no difficult features.
be principal object of the founders has long been
dvociated in theory, and an endeavour in now made lb
at it into practice, It is to tart the effi mcy of non-
leoholio treatment. Whatever may be the ailment
nder which a patient is suffering—whether he be
dmitted into the hospital or apply for aesistance in the
spadty of an out-patient--nothing which partakes in
ay degree of the nature of a stimulant will be ad-
Anistered. Wine is to be unknown, and beer is to
e banished. Every one will be welmme to participate
a the advantages of the Institution who is willing to
amp% them upon the condition laid down in the rale.
hat no alcoholic stimulant shall enter into the oompo-
ition of the medicine whi3h is to be administered, no
latter what the patient's previous habits may have

_
Wayfarers through the suburbs of the metropolis
aye often noticed the neatly-kept squares which re-
eve the monotony of long linen of thoroughfares. In
any oases a district church stands in the centre of
he enclosure, the remainder of the space being laid
at in flower-beds and grilse plots. As a rule, only the
labttants of the square have the right of entree, ea oh
=pier in it paying a stipulated sum towards the
nployment of • gardener, and in consideration of
ik payment the householder is furnished with • key,
itio which he is enabled to enter the enclosure at
Leasure. Thus the place is kept select in the fullest
'Depletion of the term. It has lately been suggested
oat these squares, being really so many lungs of a
trip town, should be put to a more widely-extended
woes than has hitherto been the case. Diverging
rono every one of them in all directions are crowded
Asets and stilling alleys, and to the inhabitants of
hese, old and young, the neighbouring enclosure is
is only reminder of the existence of green fields
es away beyond the boundaries of the bustling capital.
'I one of our West-end squares only two families
allowed to walk, they having purchased the exclusive
roprietery right to do so, and the place is !shut against
1 others. All around there Is a barge population, but
sly must not enjoy the flowers, the grass, not the
welted walks. Whim% gob* 90 1m ra to sai that

These places should at all times be open, a suggestion
might reasonably be made that the general public should
be admitted at stMed times, and under 0/eta's conditions.
That Is the plan adopted in the Temple Gardens during
the bummer months. From May to August the gates are
opened at six o'clock in the evening, and the children
from • wide circuit congregate in hundreds at that
hour. They know that any damage to the sowers or
shrubs involves a sentence of exclusion from the
garden.; but iso highly is the privilege of admission
appreciated, that the forfeiture of the right of entry
on this ground is very rare. I have often thought that
If • similar plan wen adopted in Lincan's-inn.fields,
It would prove a great boon to the large number of
poor residents in the lanes branching away from
Holborn. North, south, west, and even east of
London there are parks open to all class alike, but
in the central districts the open spaces are lamentably
few. So much the snore reason why those we now
possess should be made the most of, and allowed to
contribute to the homilies of the many as well as to
the comfort of the few.
The trial of Marshal Bassine in the Grand Trianon
at Versailles calls back to our minds the stirring events
of three years since, Until the foil of Metz, in October,
1870, hopes were entertained by many whose inclina-
tions favoured France that Basaine would break through
the strong Prussian cordon which surrounded that city,
and would come to the relief of Paris, and in the end
drive the Germans from the "sacred soil." The hopes,
however, were vain; for after about two months of in-
activity, Barons surrendered with 180,000 men, and
the arms and munitions of war. For this ace, and for
his share in the events which led to it, Bassin° is now
being tried ; the acts &accusation, or indictment against
him, being founded on the report of General Riviere's
committee, which was presented some fifteen months
since. The witnesses; summoned are truly a varied
group, including such opposites as the Count de Panto
and Leon Gambette, General Chansoarnier and Jules
Fevre, the latter's expression, while belonging to the
Government of National Defence, that he would not
yield "one stone of the fortresses nor oae inch of terri-
tory," being brought to remembrance by his appearance.
It is very probable that the trial will last till Christmas,
the reading of the indictment alone having occupied •
week. The court-martial, before whom Pozaine is tried,
consists of seven members, with three extra ones, who
take no part in the deliberations, but are plaued there
in the event of any accident befalling one of the others,
and has the Doc d'Aumale as its president. who is said,
considering that this is the first time he has sat on •
court-martial, to act with great deliberation sad care.
The court sits five days in the week, Thursdays and
Sundays being holidays ; each day's sitting Sating four
hours. Basine himself illustrates the truth of the
First Napoleon's oft-repeated adage that, "every
French soldier carries • marshal's baton in his knap-
sack," he having joined the French army as a
drummer.