The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-02-07 00:00:00

ur Yogon aorrespoubtut.
We deem It right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

After another long and dreary winter, which at
times has seemed so dismal as almost to preclude the
hope of amendment or reform, the metropolis is once
more gradually re-awakening into political life. The
annotincenatnt that tne Qucee w s to open Parliament
in person, at once had an i..vizora,in4 influence upon
the capital, an.-i in this way :—When the sittings of the
Legislattue are opened by R )yal Commission, by far
the larger proportion of the aristocracy defer coming
to London until after the Easter recess, when the
days are longer, and they are likely to escape
the troublesome fogs which so persistently de
scend upon the populations in the Thames Valley.
But when ha: Majesty comes to London to open
Parliament, the members of the nobility come also;
and once in town they remain. The presence of
several hundred noble families in the western and
southern suburbs for many weeks has a considerable
influence upon the trade of those districts. When the
Sovereign inaugurates the session, it is held to be only
paying the Head of the State proper respect for the
lords piritual and temporal, as well as for the mem-
bers of the House of Commons to be present; and it
is satisfactory to know that the Queen never addresses
empty benches. The painted chamber is crowded to
its utmost capacity by the representatives of the highest
families in tho land.

The Royal opening of Parliament is not, however,
the only sign of the revival of active life. Two wel-
come announcements have appeared in the London

Gazette, showing that society is already standing upon
the brink of the season. On Tuesday, the 17th instant,
the Prince of Wales will hold a Levee at St. James's'
Palace; and three days later the Qaeen herself will
held a Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. This
intelligence is most gratifying, more especially as
it affects Her Majesty. When a Drawing Room
is held, a lady would rather be presented to the
Sovereign herself than to anyone delegated to per.
form that duty; hence when the Qneen presides
there is a large number of presentations, sometimes
extending to four hundred. This, however, is an
exceptional figure; but 250 presentations are quite an
average when Queen Victoria is at Buckingham
Palace. The Princess of Wales, or one of Her
Majesty's daughters, is always there to assist, in
came the fatigue of receiving so many should be too
much for the Qneen. Her Majesty's lieges are almost
as much gratified at seeing that she is about to hold
a Drawing-room as at the notification over the
opening of Parliament; for it shows that the Queen's
health is good, and that the Sovereign is able to dia.

charge the duties assigned to her by the Constitution.
When a good many persons read the intelligence
that Princess Henry of the Netherlands had strived
in London on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of
Connaught, it set them thinking of the curious
country from which the Princess had come, and of
which, although it is but so short a distance from our
shores, we know so very little. British tourists go
into Belgium, wander upon the banks of the Rhine,
climb the Alps, enjoy the breezes of the Italian lakes,
explore the most interesting parts of the German
Fatherland, "do " the sights of Vienna, winter in

Rome, and enjoy the delights of Paris. But compara-
tively few holiday-keepers take that little voyage across
the North Sea which would bring them to the shores of
Holland and ta the homes )t a frugal, honest, and indus-
trious people whose ancestors, centuries ago, competed
with Gr..at Britain for the sovereignity of the seas.
Times are altered since Admiral Van Tromp sailed
up the Thames with a broom fixed at the masthead
of his ship to signify that he would sweep the British
navy from the surface of the ocean. The com-
mercial marine and the warlike fleets of Great
Britain cover every sea; while Holland confines
her influence to the low-lying countries accurately

enough described as the Netherlands. Still Holland

is a sufficiently interesting country for a visit;
e it is about the least-known kingdom in
Elrope. W 3 are far better acquainted with the
mann€73 and customs or the people of the United
State 4 ,And wiJi thr publi‘.l men, than with those of
the Netherland?, al'L ,u;:i the former are aeparAted
from ua by to thousand milcs of ocean, and the latter
is a comparatively nt.ar neighbour.
In connection with the approaching diaaolution of
Parliament, a curious fact has lately attracted atten-
_

tion, and that h the singular -freedom o! the
past decade from a recurrence of these events.
That is to say, between the end of 1869 and the and of
1879, there was but one appeal to the people, namely,
In 1874. We should have to go back a long way into our
national history to find a parallel to this. But, taking
the past sixty years, it is seen that from 1820 to 1830
there were two dfs3olations ; from 1330 to 1840, five;
from 1840 to 1850, two ; from 1850 to 1860, three;
and from 1860 to 1870, two, To escape with only ono
dissolution of Parliament in ten years is therefore a
very exceptional experience. It has been estimated
that every general election costa two millions star.
ling, and probably this is rather under than over the'
actual amount.

Professor Piazzi Smith, one of the beat known of our
naturalists, has hazarded a prediction which will be
good news to the farmer. He believes that we are
likely to have a hot summer extending far into the
autumn, It is not long since Professor Stanley
jevon, gmwed, by an array of carefully-prepared
statistics, that there has hitherto been a connection
between sun-spots and Indian famines. Professor
Piazzi Smith now demonstrates that waves of heat
come to this country in cycles which are known to
be associated with the absence of sun-spots. These
waves of heat arrived in 1826, in 1834, in 1846,
in 18t:6, and in 1868, These are not uniform
periods, but the sun spots are shown to be equally
Irregular; for the smallest proportion of these sun-
spots, or their entire absence, has occurred in each
case one or two years before the hot wave. The
learned professor gives it a his well-weighed bpinion
that this year will bring us one of those hot waves
which will quite revolutionise our seasons, though it is
uncertain how long it will last. It is thought, that, as
the cold spell has lasted thirteen months, the heat spell
will have a proportionally long duration, Science has
brought us many blessings, and scientific observation
has with a marvellous precision prepared us for greater
blessings to come; but after the straits, and distresses,
and discomforts of a year perhaps the most miserable in
the reeollection of this generation, it is consoling to
think that there is a real prospect of a change of
seasons that will bring us back our old and happy ex-
periences of summer and autumn.

Intimately associated with this stkbje ct is the extra.-
ordinary height of the barometer ever since the end of
September. The result has been a remarkable absence
of rain in a climate where variable winds prevail, in
the fora summer months, June to September inclusive,
the barometer was very low, and there WAS
vast quantity ot rain which so deluged the land that
it utterly ruined the harvest, and materially contd.
buted to increase the depression in trade. Had the
baromttir during those four months stood where it
Las since, we should have had a splendid summer and
a bountiful harvest. The change came just a third of
a year too late to do any good; indeed, coming
when it did, it became positively injurious. A
high barometer means a still calm, atmosphere, an
absence of wind, and little or no rain. In the
winter also it means very severe frost. Now, a
stagnant unmoving atmosphere, hanging for weeks and
months over the densely-populated regions of our towns,
cannot but most prejudicially affect the public health.
In London, Liverpool, and other vast centres where
people have congregated, this condition of affairs pro-
duces dense and stifling fogs, which the gentlest of
bretxls would clear away, but even that is often
a long time in coming. Add to this the almost total ab-
sence of any rainfall, the stoppage of out-door industries
by the s-ma cause, and the consequent addition to the
at of previously existing misery, and there is ample
evidenk e o: the in:pportuoe cfreota of the barometer
standing at an abnormal height during the four winter
months, The captains of Atlantic steamers arriving
in our ports arc tnabled to tell of the terrible storms
through which they have made their way; but the
fury of the winds seems to be exhausted in their
struggles with each other in the midst of that tem.
pestuous ocean, for very little of it reaches the land.
Considering the number of members returned by
Metropolitan constituencies to the House of Com-
mons, it is a noteworthy fact that only one death
amongst them had occurred during the six years' life
of the present Parliament. More than sixty repre-
sentatives of the people have died in that time, and
the latest addition to the roll of mortality is the name
of Mr. John. Locke, M.P. for Southwark. Mr.
Locke had represented that waterside constituency
nearly three-and-twenty years. When ha entered
Parliament Lord Palmerston was Prime Minister, at
the age of seventy-three, and he died eight years after-
wards, holding the same post. Next to Greenwich,
Southwark is the smallest of the metropolitan boroughs.
It runs for a considerable distance by the banks of the
Thames; and at its back, stretching far away into the

south of London, is the vast constituency of Lambeth,
During the last quarter of a century Southwark has
had the honour of being represented in Parliament by
more than one distinguished man. Admiral Sir
Charles Napier sat for it several years previous to his
death; and another of its members more recently has
been Sir Henry Layard, now the British Ambassador
at Constantinople.

How rapidly the Triennial Handel Feativabi at the
erptal Palace team to come round! It does not
appeal AD ythiag Like three years duos the last wonder.

ful gathering t)gether of the best vocalists in the king-
dom, and of the most accomplished performers on the
cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, paltry, dulcimer, and all
kinds of music. Yet the last festival was in June,
1877, and the mention of that date will show that
another four months will witness one more cele-
bration of the best works of that gifted composer.
It is probable that the spectacle presented in the
great orchestra at the Crystal Palace is not to be
paralleled on any othEr cwital in Europe. Those who
talcs p.rt in that splenlid commemorative festivAl are
generally 4,000 in number, equal to the population of
'rimy an English town. The extraordinary precision
of the performers is noted by an immense number of
amateur critics, who, coming from all parts of the
kingdom, take up their positions in the lofty galleries
opposite the orchestra, and perseveringly follow the
execution of every bar throughout the three hours
covered by the programme. And what strikes the
unprofessional listener is the rigid observance of
punctuality in commencing these huge concerts,
Immediately the hand of the clock points to two, and
not a second later, the conductor assumes the baton,
it being taken for granted that every one of the four
thousand is in his or her place, and ready to begin at
that hour.

Greenland is a place from which we do not often
receive intelligence, so that some particulars which
have lately come to hand respecting that land of icy
mountains, are not without novel and interesting
features. It appears that the population of this
singular country is less than 10,000, scattered over a
considerable extent of territory, and divided into
North and South Greenland. In North Greenland
last year the births were 155, and the deaths 78;
In the Southern portion the births were 211,
and the deaths 162. A curious freak of Nature
is recorded. In the centre of one of the inland ice
fields is a mountain, the top of which is covered with
flowers, while in its immediate neighbourhood are
several kinds of small animals. Such a remarkable
contrast to the surrounding desolation, explained by
no apparent cause, may well strengthen the belief of
those who contend that beyond the frightful regions
lying between the Arctic Sea and the Pole, there is a
warm and sunlit water way which once reached
would amply repay the long and fruitless efforts which
have been hitherto made to obtain access to it.