The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-08 00:00:00

Our turban flAirrtspoubnit.

tWo Gs= II fight la Mae Ott In d• ad al al Wm
delft mashes with we Ooemposelawat splaluaLl

erMotion London ii io.k.a to:-
e with a vast a of the porde.
4 4, andmere'L bori,PlebaZill:
of r oretrith cm that le to
1 ail a journey In town and see the Lord Mayor's
procession. Al it may not be morally know what the
bject of the display is, I will briefly explain It. The
Lord Mayer is elected by the citizens of London, as-
Malbled in Guildhall, on the 29th of Septeether in every
year ; on the 2nd of November he le presented to the
Lord Chancellor, with an abeam of State caremony ;
and on the 9th he proceeds to the Court of Exchequer
at Weetroinater, there to receive In a formal and official
manner, the approval of the Boversignor onivity•d
by the Lord Chief Baron end hie learned colleagues.
It is this promotion from the City to Westrobsater
which is known ea the Lord Mayor's Show. and for
seven centuries the custom has been observed.
Many, in these utilitarian days, have objected to
several miles of the principal !streets of the metropolis
being closed to vehicular traffic simply in order to allow
this gorgeous prooethon to pass by. If the Chief M'
teat. must be presented to the Barons of the Etchequez,
why not gobn an unostentatious and quiet way. without
interfering with the business of a whole community,
for the shops along the the of route have to be closed
In consequence of the pressure of the enormous
multitude in the streets I are bound to say that these
segumects have, sofa,, made but little way with the
people of London. They look upon Lord Mayor's day
as the only spectacular out-door display which they
witness during the sags year, and are consequently
reluctant to part with it. They like to see the old
State Coach brought out, to listen to the military
band; to admire the =cart of Leasers, to out jokes
upon the appearance*/ the banner beams, to gaze
upon the splendid trappinp of the Sheriffs' carrisges,
end to other the new Chief Magietrate, irrespective of
political oonziderations. And so the procession remains
popular institutioa, and the 9th of November in
London hawked upon an an annual holiday. It ath
halve= to be the birthday ef the Prince of Wales, and
In the evening the thoroughfares, more especially
In the West-end, are thronged by those who
have turned out to witneme the illuminations in
honour of the day. Large numbers also congregate
In the neighbourhood of Guildhall, for the purpose
of noting the arrival of the dieting Welted guests
who have been invited to the Lord Mayor's banquet.
. .

.....,
I. always a magnificent gathering, and is the
great civic event of the year. There are usually about
A NO goers, the invitations having been Wood by the
Lord layor and the Sheriffs, who divide the expenses
of the de) between them. Including the procession
and the banquet, the expenditure averages 22,500.
The annual allowance of the Corporation to its chief
magistrate for maintaining the reputation of the City
for hospitality is £B,OOO, but no Lord Mayor comes out
of office without having spent an additional £3,000 or
£4,000 out of hk own priest. The Mansion-hoar
entertainments throughout the year are governed
strictly by precedent, and entries are duly made of the
dated when it is customary to give banquets to the
bishops, the Judges, her Majesty's ministers, the alder-
men, the nommen councilmen, the city compardes, do,
the Lord Mayor, as a rule, following the beaten track
of his prodeoneors. [The 9th of November falling this
year on Sunday, the common, will be held on Mon.
day the 10th.]
The mode by which children are elected to the
charitable Institutions which abound in London has
lately attracted conaiderable attention, and one or two
meetings have been held at the Menden Howie with a
view to effect a reform. Those who object to the present
germ contend that while ties most deserving recipients
of aid are those in straitened circumstances and the
extremeit need, there only can obtain adminion who
can raise most money, or who have the richest friends.
The poor applicant, if ever so downing, ha. no hope
of snores, If he can exert no interest to secure the votes
of the subsceiben, while the one who does not so much
stand in need of the institution's advantages, succeeds
imply became he has numeroue friends &tumor the
clan who are enabled to contribute largely to the funds
This, however, la a view which meets with by no means
universal assent. The managing authorities of many
a home and many an amittm urge that although the
present plan of election may be defective, it works
well mon the whole, and is the means of inducing
anbecribers to take a greater interest in the society's
administration than they otherwise would do.
Sir Henry Holland, whose death was announced a
few days ago, was one of the most distinguished
physicians which the age has produced. And he
powered not only an immense knowledge of medical
pianos, but his experienoe of the troll was a long
and varied one. He was in Paris when the allied
monks entered that city in 1814, and only three days
before his death he wei at Versailles witnessing the
trial of • Marshal of Frogs for high treason, alleged
to bare been committed half • century after the First
Napoleon had been laid in his grave at St. Helena. He
was an indefatigable traveller, and his " Recolleo-
ions," published about two years ago, forms • work
full of anecdote and information. Eilr Henry Holland
was an of the physicians in attendance on the late
Primo Consort during his last Mum, and him name
appeared in the bulletin which announced the Prince's
death, and was posted upon the walls of our pub&
buildings on one of the darkest December days
ever experienced in London. Born on the 27th
of October; 1788, at liourford, in Cheshire, he
attained the advanced age of 85 years, for he died
on the 27th of Ostober, 1873, in London, after a
long life under an unclouded sky. At the early age of
assay-seven he wee appointed travelling physician to
the Pinner of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, and
in the coarse of hi, lengthened meet had the honour
of acting as physician to ix Prime Miriam of Eng-
land, vis, Mr. Canning, Viscount Melbourne, the Earl
el Aberdeen, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Rural, and
the Earl of Derby. Upon the Queen's 11001461011 in
1837, he was appointed one of her Majesty'. Physi-
cians Extraordinary, and for a long number of years
his was a families ,figure at Windsor Carle, Crags%
rid BedmoraL In April, 1853, on the birth of Primes
Liopold, he wall crested a baronet, a dkelaction
swords& to but few members of the medical prairies,
and thole of the vary higher eminence in It. His
remains have been deposited in the quiet old church at
Willesden—a fit resting plain for one whom years had
been angularly free keen care, and whose voyage in
life seemed to lie OVer 1111 atonally calm and as
-
raid an

Bons of the metropolitan vestry" have adopted •
compromise on the Sunday trading question which, it
I. hoped, may bas the edsc* of putting an end to •
difficulty which the Legislature has endeavoured to
settle in vain. Hitherto, in many districts, streets
have been blocked by the este of ocetermongere or by
crowds weembling add& the shops of tradesmen,
while weldreneed persons were hurrying to their re-
spective places of woeship„ and that this should be the
mere has been felt to be nothing les than a scandal. It
was incongruous to frO to church and repeat the Fourth
(Jommandment while shops were in full basins',
and open-air markets thronged with ontomen It is
11)W suggested, and hi many parishes noted upon, that
there shell be no Sunday trading alter half-part ten in
the morning. People can, therefore, go to cherch and
chapel without witnemeieg scenes and hearing cries
which are so thoroughly opposed to our notions of the
neared nature of the day.
The miseries of life In a London fog have often been
desedbed, but it ie doubtful whether the most graphic
pan ever eye an adequate idea of their reality. It is
sustain that no phis in Regleed is visited with much
Inge as theme which descend upon the metropolis at in.
temls during the autumn and winter months. Various
explanations have been given of the origin of these
visitations. That which Is met generally accepted Is
that as the exlimiatime from the Faith misrules are
Lose towards Loudon, they become, In a wain state
Gi the allowighere, Impregnated with the smoke ever
swift from die habitations of nearly four million
people. Thee is seated that horrible, black yellow,
stifling vapour, whiskpettlieg down upon the big town,
fills not only parks and squares, but street; shops, sad
apartments, attacks the eyes, Irritates the hinge, and
generally makes every one wretched and tmcomf stable.
The fogs have come on earlier this year than usual,
and with more than ordinary density. Sometimes they
have their comic ride, as when a link-boy, annei with his
biasing torch, offers to take a nervous old gentleman
over • crossing for • penny, and manages to come into
collision with • blotted, out lamp-poet, to the chagrin
of the nervous one, and to the audible delight of the
youthful proprietor of the burning flambeau. Through
these fogs terrestrial obists, ouly a few yards off,
nem to become at owe airy and unsubstantial, while
nasuming at the wane time ooloseal proportions. Inno-
cent erb hens become, to the Stagination, some of
those extinct antediluvian animals at which people
we In awe when they go to the Crystal Palace. Omni-
bus'ss weer to have been treardormed into moving
sedan end so thoroughly dose the fog deaden mound
that the noise of wheels is obliterated, and the polar
wan has to =arch* the greatest osre to said being
run down, Often the atmosphere berecnee so deer
that traffic oars In the streets and on the river, and
can be carried on upon the railways only by means of
detenattes signals which fill the sir with the @made of
Incamet explosions. A. heavy tog Is always ea un-
welcome Adler, sad net camas* is gives is, to
esth heel seeklesteas that in which morsel ram and
Ms wow rem* downed lush. Thames.

Irani a Idol sehadis uselsila yid& Ms lately
been published, it woidd appear that the advance of
this description of knowledge in Great Britain and Ire-
land la of a highly satisfactory character. The in-
fluence of the mailed of these organisations aesnst
bat be in the direction of bonefish'. By'