The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-09 00:00:00

1E,12e ,Stourbrikge Obsetter

SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1887.

COLONISTS IN COUNCIL.

As Jubilee day draws near, and the air grows
thicker with Jubilee plans and proposals, her
Majesty's subjects are becoming more and
more jubilant, as well beseems SO auspicious a
commemoration as that to which we are
now looking forward. It happens, however,
that when there is much and increasing
unanimity and enthusiasm there is a good
deal of friendly difference as to the relative
importance and appropriateness of tins or
that method of marking the Jubilee of our
Sovereign Lady. Some incline to think that
a general gala time, in which all sorts and
conditions of men, women, and children
might mingle in unrestrained mirth and
pleasure, with all appliances and means to
boot, would be such a departure from the
regular routine of our national life as would
make the Victorian Jubilee be best remem-
bered in the time to come. Some consider
that the wishes of the gracious Queen, whose
sympathy has ever been with the afflicted,
would be more fittingly followed if memorial
buildings for the perennial comforting of the
sick and indigent were erected everywhere
as jubilee offerings. Others are for shaping
stately Imperial Institutes and Church
Houses, and a variety of places for the better
promotion of the education of the people, or
in which they may hope to find mental,
moral, and physical recreation and enjoy-
ment. All these and many other benevolent
schemes which are springing from the
Jubilee celebration are good and pleasing in
every way, and doubtless much fruit will
will follow this festal sowing of the favoured
people who are close upon the attainment of
"fifty years of ever-widening Empire"
under the benign sway of one "Queen, as
true to womanhood as queenhood," fruit
which will show pleasantly through "all
the centuries after us." We shall not lack,
either, the spectacular element, without
which no holiday no holiday occasion would
be accounted as having been fully and duly
observed. There will be illuminations and
decking of houses, the ringing of bells, the
pomp and panoply of State services at the
Cathedrals' ' massings and movements of
troor s, and all that goes to make a great and
grand festival. But it is doubtful whether
among all the long programmes of Jubilee
gatherings, ceremonials, and inaugurations,
there will be any that possess greater signi-
ficance or have higher import than attaches
to a quiet assemblage of representatives of
almost every ramification of the vast yet
seattered Empire in which it is our privilege
to dwell—an assemblage in Imperial Council
within the confines of the capital city which
has taken place this Passion-week of the
Jubilee year. With "hearts in harmony"
and "voices in unison," the delegates of
lands as far asunder as the poles, yet owning
allegiance to a common Sovereign, met on
Monday at the Foreign Office in Louden,
were welcomed " home " by the First Min-
ister of the Crown, and hailed the "glorious,
golden year of her tbilee " who sways the
sceptre over them all. ,There there were no
jarring notes of party feeliog, for the recep-
tion of the representatives of the varioas
Colonies was as hearty oe the part of nneora-
proinisieg Liberals like lind Granvitbt ai
was m irked in I corsili a in the case of .sii•
Henry fi )11.vait art 1 010:1(3 who ae with lii:n
in the present Government. The Colonists
in Council are c_irtainly a motley agseinlily-
as far as versatility of thought and variety
of conviction go, but they are bound together
by one all-encircling cord of sentiment—the
desire for keeping the British Empire in the
forefront of die nations. There was mueh
divergence among the Englishmen of the
motherland and those whose habitations are
in more or less remote parts of Greater
England beyond the seas as to the best
methods of maintaining their country in its
place at the head of the world. Bat those
who interpret the voices of the various
Colonies are deliberating together with the
greatest good faith and in the happiest frame
of fellow-feeling, leaving the ways and
means of places differently circumstanced to
be dealt with far away from the Imperial
Council at which they are now assembled.
Politics are but local after all, and the pat-
riot can easily shake off the shackles of party
wizen he is away from those narrowing in-
fluence& of service to circumstances which
local questions often impose upon him. Here
in Loudon the Colonists are catching up the
silken bond of sympathy which B..itain hulds
all Britons together, looking at ugly and
contentions matters only with the earnest
desire to reduce them to the loveliness of
perfect agreement. There arc those who
thought that such a great congregation of
Cfilonista in the metropolis during the
Jubilee year could not but help to bring;
about a great advancemeet tosseirls what
they had fondly hoped for, a Ma. nifieent
s,inenie of Imperial Federati:yi. Aml so it
will, bat not in this sense. IL will b n • in-
substantial pipe:. con3l itut.(m, tihi I
by the optimist awl thoeien i •al vieie iery ,
and graedly styled by souis s ntuding nam3 ;
but a real unity foe the gcuoral good,. "iJ oad
based upon the pc.,ople's s•oul ly
block above block by a common interest, an I
safely cemented with the strong ties which
come of kinship and mutual consideratien.
In this sprit we find. Conservatives and
Liberals, Protectionists and Freetraders, all
s ,rts and kinds of statesmen discUssing
Imperial queaions at their Council in Lon-
don.. The individual colony's special in-
tetest is not pleaded to the detriment of the

general good of the Empire; self is sunk for
the common weal. Hence we consider the
Colonial Conference one of tll3 most import-
ant—if not the most importan. events of
the Jubilee year. Its spiril i.; its strength.
Ilre in the fiftieth year of Queen Victoria's
reign, for the first time in the nation's his-
tory, its vast Colonial extent is adequately
represented in the capital city, and the one-
ness of heart which characterises every dele-
gate is an evidence of real power which
Britain may well see with joy and gratifica-
tion. May the Jubilee Imperial Council be
but the forerunner of many more, in which
no discordant note shall ever be heard !

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS.

EASTER-TIDE is here, and yet no one can
promise himself winter is one. Mai oh
went out much more like a roaring lion than
a gentle lamb, thus setting at naught the
sayings of the weather-wise. Here and
there the cuckoo's call has been heard by the
glad listener for the first note of Spring's
harbinger, and the early butterflies have
basked in the fitful sunshine, but there has
been much more of the storm and rain than
that pleasanter weather which one looks for
after the vernal exquinox has been reached.
In consequence of the severity of the winter
Past vegetation is generally speaking de-
plorably backward; but given a due share
of cloudless skies and warm breezes, altern-
ated by gentle showers, we may soon change
all that. Weather is a factor which is
perhaps of more consideration at Eastertide
than any other season, for without kindly
treatment by the meterological powers that
be, the pleasure-seeker is, at the first oat-
cl.or holiday of the year, in a deplorable
plight. The multitudes who throng into the
open away from town confines at Eastertide
have been for days past consulting tho
weather prognostications with mingled hope
and fear. We trust the Easter time of this
year will be signalised by such brilliant
sunny days as will amply compensate for
the winter rigour we have of late experi-
enced.

THE illness of Speaker Peel has evoked a
general expression of the high esteem in which
the first commoner of England is held by
every party in the House. Occurring as it
did immediately after an unpleasant incident
in which the Speaker had expressed his feel-
ings with regard to an unfortunate extra
Parliamentary utterance on the part of Mr,
Conybeare, the illness of the Speaker was all
the more painful. Mr. Conybea,re withdrew
fully and unreservedly the imputations
which his references to the conduct of the
Chair had been interpreted to convey, and
the leader of the House of Commons as well
as Mr. J. Morley, speaking for the Opposi-
tior, handsomely vindicated Mr. Peel, and
spoke in praise of his fairness and impar-
tiality. The unthinking words of the mem-
ber for the Ca,mborne division of Cornwall
have had, therefore, quite a contrary effect
from that which their publication was con-
sidered by Mr. Chaplin and others to aim at.
Spoaker Peel is meanwhile, resting, in the
hope of finding:a care for the painful ail.
men; which his close devotion to an arduous
and onerous duty has brought upon him.
The public as well as honourable members
unite in wishing Mr. Peel a speedy recovery.
In the enforced absence of the Speaker, Mr.
Leonard Courtney, who is a most excellent
and experienced "understudy" for the part
—to use a stage phrase— presides over the
deliberations at St. Stephen's.

THE Irish Coercion Bill is occupying the
Commons, and is robbing them of • a big
slice of their accustomed Eastertide vacation,
and what is more will, notwithstanding the
Cloture, continue to do so for a long time to
come. The Budget had to be pit back, and
many othai- important matters are in arrear ;
yet there is no reasonable prospect of a
clearance from the block in the Parliament-
ary way. The Land Laws Bill which the
Lords are first dealing with will be fought
just a fiercely as its predecessor has been
received in the Lower Chamber. When will
the deadlock be removed? Who can answer.

NEWS come from Russia of internal affairs
.there being in a seething state of unrest.
Political and anarchial agitators are warring
one against another by every effort which
the cunning of men's minds can devise, and
one day, unless a more liberal rule is set up,
such a revolution threatens to break out as
will shake Imperialism to irrecoverable ruin.
Industry has been depressed, commerce al-
together in a bad way, and a people already
groaning in poverty, ground down to the
last penny to support a huge militaryism
which has for thanks, tyrannised over those
whose life-blood and sustenance it has sucked
away. There will, save one who thinks he
knows, ere long be a wild dash for freedom
made simultaneously by the crushed sub-
jects of the great white Czar all over his
vast domain. . The rising will be a terrible
one when it comes, and many of the main-
tainers of despotism will bite the (lust while
slaying those who have been dri...eet t 9 des-
perate theas tinier the head of ion. llt
poor Emperor, win would give a vile Con-
stitutionzdism to his subjects had he hii
own will, is powerless in the hauls of his
qitary masters. It is sad to i hink that he,
fated to minister a rule which he does not
love and cannot leave, may be the first to fall
before the v enrreful revolutionist's arm. His
father met a horrible death, and within a
short space two of the many attempLs to slay
the present Czar have come within measur-
able distance of fah). success.

THE City Fathers of London have stood
their trial on the charge of raalvarsation of
funds before a Royal Commission, and
mueli has been made of the matt!r in the
newspapers ; but, though the report of the
Commissioners .is not ye.; made public, the
whole thing seems not unlikely to subside.
The evidence would seem to show that no
inconsiderable amount of public mine), has
been apportioned to the manufacture and
uttering of a counterfeit public opinion, to
the end of protecting the Corporation from
the hands of those who would destroy it.
This, it appears, is, wherever admitted,
claieied by the municipal magnates to be
justifiable, on the principle that self-preserv.
ation is the first law of nature. And while,
in the main acquitting the official guardians
of London city of any studied or understood
corruption, we cannot well see that they
have acted wisely to allow their agents, with-
out explaining, to do all sorts of dirty work
in the name of the chief municipality of the
Kin4dom. If they are afraid of public
opi lions, it was certainly most immoral t
stoop to attempt to cheat the public by the
pronulgation of grossly bolstered-up and
bogus expressions, palmed off as the bona
ji,173 utterances of citizens in public meeting
ass mbled. The defenders of the City at-
tack.A the other side and alleged that Mr.
Firili and his Municipal Reform. League
frieuds had "packe 1 meetings." then-I.s Ives,
and set forth as go .aine the sa) ings e. aired
speakers to listenc... through the ag :icy of
corrupted reporte7-. :or the-press was
an illustration of te Old Itailey adage, "No
case, abuse the other side," for tit) proof of
fault in others is no excuse for wring doing
on ore's own part. And Mr. Bottomley
Firth's peopl ! were not dealing with rates
and taxes, but with their own money, which
made all the difference. Let us hope that

henceforth we shall have no more allegations
of proceedings of a; questionable character
against a body that occupies such a proud
position of honour as the Corporation of the
City of London.