The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-12-11 00:00:00

concluded at the Central Criminal Court, was the
longest engaging the attention of that tribunal since
May, 1856, when William Palmer was placed at the
bar to answer for the wilful murder by poison of John
Parsons Cook, at Rugeley. The presiding judges
were Lord Campbell, then Chief Ju,tice of the
Queen's Bench, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr.
Justice Cresswell. Within eight months of that
time Baron Alderson himself was dead, but Lord
Campbell lived to become Lord Chancellor, and
,'ied five years afterwards, at the age of 81, while
Justice Cresswell was appointed the first Judge of the
Divorce Court. The Attorney-General of that day
the Lord Chief Justice of this, and one of his junior
counsel, then kncwn as Mr. Grove, Q.C., is now a
of the Common Pleas. The Tichborne trial, it
will be remembered, took place in the Court of Queen's
Bench at Westminster.

Although Spain does not supply us with many mate-
rials for the pointing of examples of political or com-
mercial venality, nothing can be pithier or racier than
its proverbs. They are as crisp and sweet as macca-
none. Cervantes long ago drew attention to them,
but out of many a bushel he took but a handful. It is
supposed by many that it is the Moorish element which
has so enriched Spanish proverbs, but it is rather the
shrewd sense of the true Spaniard, and the thrift,
caution, and frugality which poverty and had rule
have compelled him to observe. It is not climate or
culture, for at Seville or Toledo.) Madrid, or Bilbao, it
is pretty much the same. The,. peculiarity of the
Spanish proverb is that it has not been disinterred
from a book; it is a piece of practical warning or
advice for current use, and it has worn much like an
old coin in passing from hand to hand—worn smooth,
but with ro decrease in its value. Many of these
proverbs now repeat truths that have become truisms
through the repetition of books; but there are some
90 neatly turned, so full of humour, and put in
so droll a way, that no book, however wise,
can supersede them. They often, too, suggest advice
which is well worth taking, even now, and abound
with a homely wisdom beneath the dignity of many a
writer reported wise. Some of these sayings are aimed
at small and familiar faults, and when a man is told
that "to lather an ass's head is wasting soap," he is
reminded in an indirect way of any lack of intelligence
which he may possess. An excuse for an economical
dinner party is found when you are told that "seven
is company, and nine confusion." It is undoubtedly a
fact that "a wedding feast requires something besides
mushrooms;" and we are told (on what authority is
not stated) that "the good things of Paradise are for
the married man who does not repent." To inform a
man that he is "as useless as monkey's fat," is cer-
tainly not to compliment him. "Have a bill to
pay at Easter, and you'll find Lent very short," is pro-
bably as true with us as in the Peninsula. "In think-
ing of love you begin when you like and leave off
when you can," is very happily put; while " Pros-
perity forgets even father and mother," is a saying
very often proved to be true.