The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-01 00:00:00

flyyntton entrespnknt.

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

The first week of the New Year, so far as the metro-
polis is concerned, promises to be more animated than
any which has been experienced for a long time.
Generally its opening days are very guiet and unevent-
ful in their character. Often as it is declared in the
autumn that there is no one in town, it is equally true
of the first fortnight okthree weeks after Christmas.
Our legislators are then enjoying the festivjties of the
season represented by the passing away of the Old Year
and the arrival of its successor. The Christmas and New
Year's parties are generally held in country seats far
away from the great town, where the air is free from the
cloud of smoke so constantly hanging over the capital,
and where the manifold comforts within doors are all
the more appreciated, because of the leafless trees and
the bare an uninviting landscape without. Often
enough, on a wintry night, the whistling of the wind
over the roof of a villa on the country side adds to the
feeling of comfort on the part of those who are within.
As very few of the Lords and Commons live in
London, their countw houses are at this time of the
year the scenes of seasonable festivity; and so long as
Parliament did not meet until Yebruary, there was no
occasion to come up to the grey and gloomy capital.
Now, however, in consequence of the early meeting of
the Legislature, the west end of London will be un-
usually animated. Lords and Commons number
between them more than twelve hundred families, and
the influx of all these households makes a difference
even in such a populated immensity as London, when
eonfined, as they are, chiefly to one quarter of the
town.

No sooner has Parliament got into working order,
as it will be by Monday, the nth of January, than
en the following day the Hilary sittings of the Law
Courts will be opened at Westminster and Lincoln's
[nn; and lawyers as well as legislators will all be in
town together. When the Courts are eitbing the old
Hall at Westminster presents a very lively appear-
ance. Our judicial tribunals are all gathered there
under the famous roof which has witnessed so many
stirring scenes in English history. Some of these are
pourtrayed upon the frescoes in the passages leading
to the Houses of Parliament. The acquittal of the
Seven Bishops, the Trial of Lord William Russell
and Algernon Sidney, stirring scenes in the struggle
between Charles I. and his Parliament, stand
upon the walls to remind the spectator of some
of the most memorable conflicts during the march
of the people towards liberty. Westminster Hall,
as having been built in the reign of William
Rufus, has looked down upon a series of striking
episodes in the annals of our country. For cen-
turies it has been the seat and centre of law and
of justice. The laws have been made on one side
ef the Hall—in the Houses of Parliament—and
administered on the other. The tribunals faced
the Palace of the Legislature, and had the accommo-
dation in the courts been adequate, nothing could
have been more appropriate than the arrangement.
But all who have found it necessary to go to West-
minster Hall on business will have seen that the
courts were constructed at a time when the ideas of
somfort and convenience were very different from
those which prevail to-day.
Gradually and almost imperceptibly the Royal
Courts of Justice have been rising on the north side ef
the Strand; and internally they are in such a forward
state that there are anticipations of tome of the
Courts being ready for occupation in the course of a
few months. The structure already assumes an im-
posing appearance; and if it occupied a more open
.site, would present really Titanic proportions.
Placed where it is, however, the effect is marred by
its being enclosed by houses and shops. On the
Thames Embankment, and facing the river, the facade
would have been a grand one. It is not the only public
building in London which is lost in this way. The
British Museum is buried in the heart of Bloomsbury;
and no one thinks of looking down King-street, Cheap-
side, to find the Guirdhall. If the south side of the
Strand, opposite the Law Courts, were to be cleared
as far as the Embankment, full justice would be
done to the merits of Mr. Street's noble edifice. With
their occupation the Chancery Judges in Lincoln's
Inn, and the Common Law Judges in Westminster
Hall, will leave the familiar scenes of ages, so far as
English lawyers have been concerned. There will no
longerbe any nec-!ssitv for the Lord Mayor's Show to go
all the way to Westminster for the presentation of the
new chief magistrate to the Barons of the Exchequer;
and consequently the route traversed by the pageant
will be materially shortened. From Guildhall to
Temple Bar and back again—that will be all.
• While politicians of all ihs,ift, or aortic..
speculating as to the Legislative programme to be
laid before Parliament in the session which is now so
rapidly approaching, a favoured few on each side are
always admitted to the secrets on the night before
they are divulged to the rest of the wcrld. The eve
of the opening of .Parliament is invariably charac-
terized by a series of dinners by the leaders of the
Ministry and the Opposition in both Houses; and a
copy of the Queen's speech to be delivered next day
is forwarded by the Premier to the Opposition chiefs,
who read it to the assembled guests on the understand.
ing of course that none of it gets into print before ir is
delivered either by the Queen herself, or by her Royal
Commissioners. The speech is supplied to the news-
papers in tie morning of the day of delivery on
condition that it is not to be published before two
o'clock in theufternobn, the hour of delivery. It is
thus set into type and printed in thousands, only
awaiting the striking of the hour to be furnished to the
crowds of eager people in the streets who are waiting
for it.

Science has shown us how seemingly worthless
materials can be turned to profit, how nauseous sub-
stances may be changed into the choicest perfumes,
how beautiful colours may be obtained from hideous
refuse, and has taught us to avoid waste in various
ways. Our people are proverbially slow to move in
the way of social and economical reforms; and.in
large proportion they adhere to a method of preparing
bread which authorities tell us is the reverse of econo-
mical. Under the present system the most nutritious
rortion of the wheat is lost, for the purpose of retain-
ing its more palatable elements. Professor Liebig
pointed out long ago the mistake of using fine flour
ourselves, and giving the coarse and more nutritive
parts of the grain to our cattle; sacrificing for the
sake of a white loaf the valuable flesh .and bone form-
ing qualities of wheatmeal bread. To those who
can afford such a sacrifice and can, supply the lost
phosphates and nitrogenous substances from eggs
milk, and other things, it may be of little consequence;
but it is another affair for the poor, many of whom
subsist mainly on a bread diet. • Medical men and
chemists have for a long time dwelt upon the virtues
of brown bread; and one of the principal objects of a
new organization known as the Bread Reform League
is to teach the public how wheatmeal bread may be
prepared so as to give the greatest portion of nourish-
ment at the smallest rate of cost. It is pointed
out that all indigestible materials shall be removed
from the wheat before it is ground; and as to the ad-
vantage of using whole-meal bread there is scientific
proof that in the preparation of fine flour 75 per cent, of
the bone-forming elements of the wheat are rejected.
The price of a quartern loaf would be reduced a penny
ay the use of wheatmeal, and this of itself would be a
consideration in supplying a poor and numerous
family.

Before the Law Courts rose for the Christmas
recess, a decision was given by the judges of the
Exchequer, that the Telephone was a telegraph within
the meaning of the Act of Parliament, and that the
Legislature had intended to confer on the postal
authorities the monopoly and exclusive privilege of
the electric transmission of messages by wire whether
by signs or by sound, then or hereafter to be dis-
covered. An appeal against this decision is to be
made to the House of Lords; but in the meantime
the Post-office authorities are prepared to meet the
convenience of the public by establishing in any town
a system of intercommunication by existing private
companies. The Post-office recognizes the fact that,
as the servant of the public, it is not for a great state
organization to discourage inventions which, though
now in their infancy, will very probably be developed
into agencies of the highest possible value. Should,
therefore, the decision of the Court of Exchequer be
affirmed by the House of Lords, it will not stop the
progress of the telephonic system of communication.
Either the Post-office will itself work the invention,
or arrangements will be made by which private com-
panies will pay a royalty to the Government by way
of recognizing its right as defined by the Act of. Par-
liament. ,

Many an excellent institution has lost a benefactress

In the late Duchess of Westminster, whose death has
darkened the Christmas of some of the noblest houses
in the land. The sister of the Duke of Sutherland

and of the Duchess of Leinster ; the sister-in-law of
the Duke of Argyll and Lord Blantrye ; with a son
married to a daughter of the Earl of Scarborough, and
daughters who are the wives of the Marquis of
Ormonde and the eldest son of Lord Chesbam, it is
seen at a glance what a number of aristocratic families

are placed in mourning by this mournful event.
Grosvenor House, Park-lane, is in the London season,
often thrown open for the advancement of charitable
objects. it is the town residence of the Duke of
Westminster, and possesses every attribute which
wealth can command or a refined taste suggest. Its

Picture galleries contain some priceless ti-easures by
, Rubeniwhich our national collections might envy. Its
colonnades are beautified by rare objeote of art and

vertu which are the admiration of every connoisseur.
Its gardens, laid out with scrupulous care, contain the
richest exotics; its walls and corridors are decorated
with singular taste and skill. The thought which
occurs to the spectator is that if happiness is to be
found on earth, surely it must be here. Those who
have been privileged to receive an invitation to
Grosvenor House on the occasion of a meeting to help
any of the numerous societies for the relief of the halt,
the blind, and the deaf, have never failed to note the
material assistance rendered on those occasions by the
Duke, who generally presides, and by the Duchess 4
who as a rule gave the gatherings the benefit of her
sympathetic. presence. Thus there is mourning be-
yond the boundaries of that palatial mansion and far
away from Eaton Hail and Clivedon at the premature
loss of 14 estimable lady who with great powers of
doing good, used them for the benefit of many a
representative of suffering humanity who never ap-
pealed for her aid in vain.
The trials of the huge ironclad Inflexible have com-
manded much interest amongst scientific men. When
people hear of the foundering of a vast ship-of-war of
this kind, such as the capsizing of the Captain ten
years ago, little thought is perhaps given to the enor-
mous amount of preparation which such a vessel re-
quires before she is able to go to sea. The Inftexible
was launched four years ago, and it has taken all this
time to provide her with her internal fittings with a
view of sending her to sea. The question has been
raised as to the policy of building such vast ships. It
is of course gratifying to the national feeling to know
that we possess a floating monster which has cost well
on to a million sterling, and which could beat any
two navies of the world sent against her. But there
can be little doubt that these costly constructions
materially increase the feelings of responsibility on
the part of the bravest men. To have the charge of
a structure worth nearly a million sterling is a very
serious thought. When ships were numerous, com-
paratively inexkensive, and quickly built, the risk of
losing one, when called upon to perform a difficult
service, was but little thought of; but it is not so
now. The naval tactics of our admirals, weighted
with the charge of expensive armour-clads, may well
be without dash or enterprise, so crushing is the
weight of responsibility felt by those to whose charge
is committed an immense sum of national money and
a preponderating force of the national strength.