The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-30 00:00:00

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Poets have _so clearly and so often of the
balmy nature of the English spring, while the
actual atmospheric conditions of that season had
been so utterly different from anything which that
epithet conveyed, that it has been difficult to
believe that this year we have had glimpses of a
realisation of the poetie idea. The Easter
holidays were favoured with such fine weather as
they had-not been foiseVeral-years, and some of
the April days have been as genial and as full of
sunshine as if they had been days of June. But
even this condition of things has had its draw-
backs. The rapid changes in the direction of the
wind, -and the consequent alterations in the
temperature, have made this April a more than
usually trying time for the invalid and the
weakly, As those who have had to watch by
sick beds are well aware each change in the wind
is as clearly registered in the condition of
their patient as if the bed had been in
the open. When a celebrated statesman was
ly,ing at death's door in this very month a
few years ago, it was noted by some who
closely followed the bulletins that their tone
could always be guessed beforehand if one had '
looked at the nearest weather-vane and seen the
direction of the wind. Yet, despite these draw-
backs, we ought to be well content that we at
last have once more seen an April which was not
a mere alternation of east winds and heavy
showers. ,
Hardly had the wreck of the steamer Victoria,
on her passage from Newhaven to Dieppe, passed
out of the public mind before the perils of those
who go down to the sea in ships were again
forcibly brought home to all of us by the disaster
to the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
steamer Tasmania on the coast of Corsica. In
the latter case, unlike the former, all the pas-
sengers, who were on their way from India to
England, were saved; but there was a lament-
able loss of life among the crew, about five-and-
twenty Lascars, who form such a large propor-
tion of the crew of all our Anglo-Indian
steamboats, being drowned. In these cases, how-
ever, it is not alone the loss of life that has to be
deplored; it is not only in addition to that, the
loss of bullion and specie so often carried by such 1
ships; it is the loss of the personal belongings
of the passengers, and this is sometimes irre-
parable. The consequences of the wreck of the
Tasmania furnish a case in point. Captain
Yates, a well-known member of the Afghan
Frontier Commission, had left the ship at Suez,
designing to travel to London by way of Alex-
andria, but he had left, with the exception :If a
portmanteau, all his luggage on board. Now
that this is at the bottom of the sea, we are
enabled to tell how much of value has been lost,
for the boxes contained not only many speci-
mens of Central Asian antiquities and natural
history, but also the whole of Captain Yates's
papers and the manuscript of a work on Central
Asia, on which he had been engaged since his
return from Afghanistan, and which was shortly
to be published. By the side of this, even the
40,000 worth of jewellery belonging to the
Maharajah Pertab Singh, who was coming to
this country to participate in the Jubilee cere-
monies, and which was likewise sunk, does not i
seem to the philosophic mind to be so great a
loss.
Quite a flutter of excitement has been caused
in many newspaper offices by the rumour that
the Postal authorities were about to take mea-
sures to prevent the carrying of parcels of news
by train, on the ground that this old custom was
an infringement of the monopoly which the law
has conferred upon the Post Office. The rumour
in its naked form was promptly contradicted;
but a somewhat uneasy feeling has been left by
the hint that the opinion of certain legal per-
sonages was being taken as to whether it was
not possible to take some such step as the
rumour had stated was in immediate contem-
plation. The general public, who depend for so
much of their amusement as well as instruction
upon the continued efficiency of the newspaper
press, can little imagine the grave incon-
venience that would result if such a
change were made. The great London
dailies would have little to complain of,
for in these days it is only a com-
paratively small amount of news which is
brought to them by parcel. But the provincial
daily papers would be heavily hit. Not only do
they now receive a large portion of their London
intelligence by this means, but nearly all their
'local news comes to them in the same way; and
as nevys is cf no use unless it is new, awl as the -
.postal service cannot compete in proeiptitude
with the railway service now in operation, jour-
nalists are hoping that the present system which
has worked very well, will be left alosse.
Within the next fortnight, t'F'.4) volunteer
corps which desire to attend the Jubilee review
at Aldershot on July 9, will have to. notify their
wishes to the Horse Guards. It Is officially in-
timated that artillery and engineer corps can
attend only as infantry, that! attalions may be
made up of different corps, T2rovided that the
colours of uniform and shar e of headdress are
similar, and that an allowance of two
shillings per head will be made in aid of
expenses for corps wEiose head-quarters
are over fifty miles froesa Aldershot, and of
half that amount for those under that distance.
As regards the volunteer s of the metropolitan
and "home district," it is stated that as the
number of their corps, at Aldershot must be
. limited the Queen will witness at Buckinaham
Palace a week previously a march past of the
home district volunteers. This branch of the
auxiliary forces will c ertainly have no reason to
complain of neglect at the hands of Royalty this
year, as these arrane4ements show. It has always
been considered, Ii A those who know its history,
that the voluntessr movement reeeived a great
impetus because 4 of the public note taken of it by
the Queen in thss first year of its existence; and
it may fairly be expected that the Jubilee
review and march past will do something to
further strengthen and extend a movement, the
existence of which during the past 28 years has
morethan , anything else prevented in England
the raising of a cry for a conscription.
The volunteers, in .common with other
branches sa our defensive service, have, however,
a griever ,ce in connection with the arms with
which fthey are sup Plied. During the Easter
reviews sioine interesting and highly-instructive
experimOsnts were made with their bayonets, and
the resull.tiwatY as disastrous as in the case of the
naval 'ciittlasefa tested a short time before. But
it is not ;Drils;‘ in the direction of the weapons
that a sfsrong feeling has lately been aroused that
all is metes it should be in connection, with our
forces. ' The recent revelations regarding the
ease ,e;idi which the choicest secrets of our
arsensds-sand ;our dockyards can be sold to
foreisgn 'figenta,',with the liability of the traitor-
ous- servant to. no punishment beyond summary
dissfaissal, has- deeply disturbed the public mind.
It is only a few weeks ago that an official em-
plcived- at Chatham Dockyard was discovered
to have been in correspondence with
a ppssible enemy of his country; and,
mg_ Sent 'about his business, has gone
Ise a foreign dockyard, there to fill a
inceative position with the skill learnt at our
:expense: "Row we are told that an official at
WPolwiW.A.isenal has been got rid of in the
B,ame fashion, and for a similar offence, to meet,
4oubtles'with an equivalent reward. All this
very serious, and the public will demand that
a- stricter account shall be kept of our public
departrisents, and a sharper punishment meted
out t7.okoSe•who traitorously abuse their trust.
Is 7 another proof of the abiding hold pos-
sedseat,fiy Shakespeare upon English hearts that
a movement should, now be on foot for pro-
viding his native town with a library devoted to
works relative to the great dramatist and all
he wrote. There is a splendid Shakesperian
.collection at the British Museum, and another
at the Birmingham Free Library (which almost
- replace that which was destroyed by fire nine
"yeara ago) ; but it is felt by many admirers of
the poet that his own old town of Stratford-on-
Avon ought to have one to itself. In the case of
many a smalttown which has been the birthplace
of a genius,. the genius has gone away to the
outer world, and has had no special connection
with his birthplace after once he had left it.
But it was otherwise with Shakespeare. Even
in the height of his success in London, and in
days when travelling wet attended by many
difficulties, he made a point of visiting-Stratford
onus every year;. and it was to Stratford that
he retired fram the busy scenes that had so long
surrounded him, resolving to lay himself to rest
in his own old town. It is not, therefore, simply
because Stratferd was the scene of the poet's
birth that it has such a strong charm for the
myriads of travellers who have visited it; it is
because 'it" was so great a favourite of his
throughout life that it is always held in liking.
And this feeling should do much to assist the
movement for establishing there a Shakespeare
Memorial Library, of which the town may be
proud.
The East end of London will shortly put on
its most festal array, the Queen having con-
sented to open the People's Palace at Mile. End,
while the Prince and Princess of Wales will also
be present at the ceremony. The object of the ,

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