The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-08-21 00:00:00

VISCOUNT STRATFORD de REDCLIFFE.

We have to announce the death of Viscount Stratford de
Redcliffe, K.G. which took place on Saturday the 14th
inst., at his seat, Frant Court, Tunbridge-wells. In him
there has passed away a very remarkable man—one who
in his time has exerted a very remarable influence on the
fate and fortunes of Eastern Europe—as will be seen from
the following brief sketch of his career,—which we take
from The 2 imes of Monday :

Stratford Canning was born of a family distin-
guished for talents of a high order, and of these he
inherited a fair share to say the least. It is not
every Irish or every 'English family that can start
out of the middle rank of merchants in a conntry
town and in less than a century see three of its
members raised to the Peerage, and one of its sons
Prime Minister. Yet it was so with the Cannings,
who less than a century since were plain, honest
"merchants" at Garta.gb, in the county of London-
derry. Stratford CaiMing of that place had by his
wife, a lady from the county of Cavan three sons,
of whom the eldest,
_Cleorge, of the Middle Temple,
was the father of Georp'Canning, afterwards Premier;
the second, who remained in Ireland, had a son who
was raised to the Irish Peerage as Lord Garvagh ;
while the third and youngest, also named Stratford,
settled in London and became a merchant in the city.
His business was not as large as his credit and his
heart ; he lived in one of the small streets that lead, or
led, out of Lombard-street towards the Thames • and
there, having married an Irish lady, Miss Mehetabel
Patrick, of Summerhill, Dublin, he had born to him a
daughter, and also four sons, of whom one, Henry,
was for some years Consul-General at Hamburg;
another, William, rose to be Canon of Windsor; the
third, Charles, fell at Waterloo while acting as aide-
de-camp to the Duke of Wellington; and the fourth
and youngest was the subject of our present notice,
who was born on the 6th of January, 1788.

At an early age young Stratford Canning was sent
to Eton, at the instanee certainly, and possibly by the
help, of his cousiii, George Canning, who had just
entered Parliament and achieved his first success as
an orator—a success which he attributed in no small
degree to his Eton and Oxford education. George
Canning was anxious that similar advantages should
be afforded to his bright and clever young cousin, who
was left fatherless at five years old; so he called one
morning at Mrs. Canning's house in the city, put
yonng Stratford in his carriage, drove him off to
Windsor, and deposited him at Eton. Here he ob-
tained a nomination as a "Colleger " or King's
Scholar, and went through the entire school course,
passing in due time from the "Sixth Form" there to
a Scholarship at Kiiig'foCollege, Cambridge. Here
also he was followed by the good offices of his cousin,
who took him abroad with him during the Long
Vacation, and gave him, or procured for him through
a friend, an early insight into the mysteries of diplo-
macy.
Although the comfortable and certain provision of a
Fellowship at King's was before him at Cambridge,
young Stratford Canning resolved that political or
diplomatic life should be his line, not law or divinity;
so, through his cousin's influence, he obtained admis-
sion into the diplomatic service ; and, after a year
spent as a précis writer in the Foreign Office, we find
him sent, in 1808, on a special mission to Constanti-
nople, under Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Adair, on
whose appointment as 'permanent British Ambassador
at that Court a year or two afterwards he was made
Secretary of the Embassy. On returning to England
he took advantage of the opportunity of a few months'
absence from his professional duties to complete his
studies at Cambridge, where he took his Master's
degree. In the year 1814, promoted to the rank of
Minister Plenipotentiary in Switzerland, he took part
in framing the treaty by which the Swiss Cantons
were united into the Helvetic Confederation. He was
present at the Congress of Vienna in the following
year.
In 1820 we find him sent on a special mission to
Washington for the purpose of adjusting some
differences that had arisen ; but on his return he was
not fortunate enough to find the terms of his negotia-
tions ratified by the Government at home. In Novem-
ber, 1823, he was made Plenipotentiary in London for
negotiating certain important matters with the United
States, and in the following year was sent on a special
mission to St. Petersburg, in order to ascertain the
designs of the Czar towards Greece, whose cause the
chief Powers of Europe were then anxious to main-
tain against the Turks. In 1825 he went as Ambas-
sador to Constantinople, with instructions to use his
influence with the then Sultan Mahmand in favour of
the Greek nation ; but, not meeting with success, he
came to England on leave, in order to be present at
and take part in the Conference held in London,
before it was formally resolved to adopt these measures
which led to the battle of Navarino. After that
"untoward event," as it has been called, diplomatic
relations were of course broken off between England
and the Ottoman Porte; and Mr. Canning, on his
return to England not long after the death of his
illustrious cousin, was rewarded for his diplomatic
services by the bestowal of the Grand Ctoss of the
Order of the Bath. He had already—namely, in
1828—been returned -,to Parliament as one of the
members for Old Saturn; he sat too, for one or two
Sessions as member for the since disfranchised
borough of Stockbridge, Hants (the same which
was once represented by the late Lord Derby),
supporting, on the whole, Tory measures. On the
renewal of diplomatic relations with the Porte, Sir
Robert Gordon, brother of Lord Aberdeein, was ap-
pointed Ambassador, But in 1831 Stratford Can-
ning was intrusted, as Special Ambassador, with
the settlement of the questions pending between
the Porte and Greece. He first visited Nauplia,
where he attempted, with some success, to compose
the disputes of the Greek factions. Arriving in Con-
stantinople in .1 a.nuary, 1832, he carried
conjunction with the French and Russian A
dors, the negotiations on Greek affairs, the result
being the definite treaty of July, 21, 1832. This work
being over, Sir Stratford Canning returned to London,
and in 1833 was appointed by Earl Grey to be Am-
bassador at St. Petersburg in the place of Lord
Heytesbury, The Emperor Nicholas, who had no
good will for him, declined, under one pretext or an-
other, to receive him, and after some months of delay
he resigned his post. In January, 1835, he was
chosen in the Conservative interest as one of the mem-
bers for King's Lynn, which constituency he continued
to represent as a supporter of Sir Robert Peel in three
Parliaments, down to the winter of 1841-42, when
he was appointed to succeed the late Lord Ponsonby
as Ambassador at Constantinople.
It is in this capacity that the name of Sir Stratford
Canning will be most widely and permanently re-
membered, both at home and abroad. He held the
post under several different Ministries of opposite
politics; and each succeeding Cabinet, in dealing
with questions of our foreign policy in the East of
Europe, was largely guided by the information and
advice which from his vast experience he was able to
tender, His ability and authority were chiefly ex-
hibited at the momentous period of the Crimean War.
It cannot be doubted that he firmly believed the ag-
gressive disposition of Russia to be the greatest of the
evils that threatened the European Continent, and
especially the Turkish and Austrian Empires. He
would, moreover, hardly have denied that he cherished
a feeling of resentment against the Emperor Nicholas. It
was to be regretted that he should have left Constanti-
nople for a time in 1852, and returned to England
under a belief that the claims of France. Russia, and
Austria respecting the Holy Places were amicably
adjusted, and that his post should have been occupied
by a subordinate, although able and vigilant, officer,
when Prince Menschikoff was actually menacing the
Sultan in his own palace. But it may be urged that
England had no locus standi in the dispute until a
territorial aggression became imminent, and that the
instructions sent out by the Foreign Secretaries of
both political parties directed that the representative
of England should not officially interfere in the matter.
Against all her wishes and interests Turkey was
dragged into a most dangerous and difficult dispute
between the Great Powers, who founded their respec-
tive claims on contradictory documents. Turkey, a
Mahomedan Power, was called on to decide a quarrel
which involved ostensibly Christian religious feeling,
but which, in reality, was a vital struggle between
France and Russia for political influence in the
Turkish dominions. The Sultan was required
to be a judge and to decide this dispute; but, so far
from having judicial independence and immunity, he
was coerced and humiliated before his subjects by
menaces;he was compelled to give contradictory and
dishonouring decisions, and was then accused of
perfidy by the very persons who had forced him to
adopt them. When, by means of the adhesion of the
Emperor Napoleon, the co-operation of England and
France for the preservation of Turkey became a pos-
sibility, our Ambassador repaired to his post. The
British fleet had been called up to Besika Bay by Sir
Hugh Rose, and the famous war followed after no
long period. All through it the influence of Lord
Stratford was felt, encouraging Turkey, advising his
own Government, acting quietly but exergetically on
• the neutral Powers.- To him in an eniinent degree is
due the act of Austria in occupying the Danubian
Principalities, which decided the main military ques-
tion, checked the Russian advance on the Balkans,
allowed the Allies to turn their arms against the
Russian stronghold of Sebastopol, and, last not least,
set a rivalry, if not an enmity, between the St. Peters-
burgh and Vienna Governments which may still pro-
duce momentous consequences.
Whatever may have been the faults of Lord Strat-
ford, however self-willed and dictatorial a servant he
may have shown himself to his employers, there can
be no doubt that he exerted, and for the most part
exerted for good, an unparalleled influence in the
councils of the Porte, chiefly through the confidence
placed in him by the Sultan Abdul Meoljid. Probably
no Englishman will ever again attain to a like pin-
nacle of power in Turkey, or find his name to the
same extent an object of respect and of fear. If the
name of Palmerston commanded respect through the
-length arid breadth of Europe, that of Sir Stratford
Canning was equally foi midable throughout the region
of the East, and especially in that Empire whose
destinies he so largely swayed for nearly 20 years.

In the early part of the year 1852, during Lord
Derby's first tenure of the Premiership, Sir Stratford
Canning was raised to the dignity of the Peerage by
the "name, style, and title" of Viscount Stratford
de Redcliffe. This title he chose, somewhat fancifully
as many will think, in order to assert his hereditary
relationship to William Canning, or Canynges, the
pious and munificent merchant and Mayor of Bristol,
of the reign of Edward IV., who late hi life becoming
a priest founded with his wealth the " College " at
Westbury-on-Trim, in Gloucestershire, and also either
founded or completed the foundation of the noble
church of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol.
Lord Stratford was twice married—firstly, in 1816,
to Harriet, daughter of the late Mr. Thomas Raikes,
who died in the following year; and, secondly, in
1827, to Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Mr. James
Alexander, of •Somerhill, near Tunbridge, Kent, a
cousin of the late Earl of Caledon. By his latter mar-
riage his lordship had four children—three daughters
and an only son, who died in the early part of 1878, so
that the title has become extinct. One of the ribands
of the Order of the Garter becomes vacant by Lord
Stratford's death.
Quite late in life his lordship published, besides a
volume of poetry, two small works of a religious
character, entitled, "Why I am a Christian" and
"The Greatest of all Miracles," and also a drama on
the subject of King Alfred in the Isle of Athelney.
He also contributed three or four essays on political
and other questions to periodical literature when he

4., '
t's

„

8103.

MIN

~.,, . .
..f'::11...',.1.N....:',".V..:..,--::.!:v.

w

A CURIOUS DECISION.—The Massachusetts Supterne
Court has just affirmed the principle found in the old
State decisions, that a man travelling on Sunday, ex'
cept to and from church, cannot recover damages for
injuries received on the highway owing to defective
bridges and roads.

A NEW ENEMY TO WHEAT. -A new wheat pest has
been discovered in Ontario. From descriptions re-
ceived of the insect from different quarters it is be-
lieved that it is the "wheat-stem maggot,"Merozynits
Americana of Fitch. In the mature form this insect
is a fly, shaped like the common house fly, but much
smaller and rather more slender in proportion to
breadth. The larva lives in the stem of wheat, and
destroys the plant by devouring the substance of the
stalk. Of course, when the stalk is nearly dissevered,
the head of wheat dies off prematurely. The insect
will attack oats, barley, or rye, but prefers wheat.
The same insect is complained of in New York State.
"CHE7.I, llNG."—Spinster Landlady :—"Then you and
your mamma want the same rooms you had lot
year ? " Young Lady :—"Yes, Miss Spriggins, ordY
it isn't mamma who is with me, but my husband; I've
got married since last year." S. L. :—" Lor, now, hoe
you? I'm glad to hear it. Yet, after all, I doff t
know why I should be glad; you never did me ang
harm, poor dear ! "—Fun.

POST OFFICE MONEY ORDERS. —Th e Eanoraiit
says :—"ln Committee on the Post Office Money
Orders Bill, on Friday morning, the Government
opposed an amendment limiting the currency of the
orders to one month, and the period during which
the notes may circulate has been fixed at three
months. This, it appears to us, is a mistake. For
the avowed purposes of the new orders thislengthened
currency is not required. The orders, it is stated,
are intended to facilitate the remittance of amid
sums of money by poor people. But a poor man
does not wish to purchase a book of orders, which he
may keep beside him and use from time to time.
What he wants is to be able to buy cheaply an order
for the prompt remittance of any small sum he maY
have saved, and a note with a month's currency iS
amply sufficient to meet his requirements. For
such a purpose an extended term of circulation /0
altogether unnecessary, while the more the period of
currency is enlarged the more opportunities are
afforded for fraud."

A HEN SIX WEEKS WITHOUT FOOD.—The follow-
ing case has just come under my notice :—" A Dorkh?g
hen went amusing from a collection of poultry sa
weeks ago, and was, after a diligent search, given up
for lost, but on using some hay that hacl, at the time
referred to, been stored in a loft the fowl, was dis- ,
covered sitting in a recess in the wall. It was quite
emaciated, weak, and blind. Whether it will recover
remains to be seen, Some food was put down its
throat; it can't feed itself, nor of course, see to take
food placed before it. When found four eggs were
beside it ; they must have been laid during the days of
its confinement, for the recess had been occupied with
articles up to the day of the hay being stored."—OE,N4
in Land and Water.

LONGEVITY IN ENGLAND.—The mortality returns
for England in the year 1878 which have recently been
completed record the deaths of 230 men and 510
women registered as 95 years old and upwards when
they died. Twenty-four of the men and 64 of the
women had reached 100 years and upwards, viz. :
Twelve males and 27 females 100 • five males and 13
females, 101 ; two males and eighefemales, 102 • three
males and seven females, 103; one male and four
females, 104; one male and four females, 105; and
one female, who died in the Luton district, 106.
Eight of these centenarians, one male and seven
females, died in London districts.
COTTON OlL.—The manufacture of cotton oil from
the cotton seed is becoming of importance in the United
States, there being at the present time upwards of 41
oil mills, of which nine are in Mississippi, nine in
Louisiana, eight in Tennessee, six in Texas, four in
Arkansas, two in Missouri, two in Alabama, and one
in Georgia. Tie annual quantity of seed converted
into oil now amounts to about 410,000 tons, the yield
being at the rate of some 35 gallons of oil to the ton of
cotton material. Moreover, each ton leaves 7501 b. of
oil cake of admirable fattening qualities. A great]
deal of the cotton oil is imported to Italy and other
l
countries where the olive oil is a staple; and, in point I
of fact, cotton oil is there superseding the olive oil, not I
only for utilitarian purposes, but also as an article of
food. It is said, too, that the use of cotton oil in this
way is gaining ground in some parts of the States.

I

THE SOLDIER'S YEAR.—A general order states that,
"to complete a year's service, a soldier must serve n
calendar year. Feb. 29, in leap year, is not counted
as an extra day. Thus, a soldier would have to serve
from May 21, 1874, to May 27, 1880, to complete six
years' service; but if Feb. 29 is included in anY
broken period of days in a soldier's service it should
be credited to the man. Thus, a soldier enlisted on
Jan. 28, 1874, and discharged on May 27, 1880, would
reckon six years and 121 days, Feb. 29 being here
credited."

UNCULTIVATED LANDS IN CHINA.—It is stated in
recent proclamation of the Governor of Che-kianK
that there are enormous areas of land left uncultivated
in his district, and that, although seventeen years
have elapsed since the last war which so terriblY
ravaged the country, a large extent of land has never
been able to pay the taxes, and has consequently heem
left untilled. This is particularly observable in the
departments of Chin-houa, Chuchow, and Yen-show,
in which upwards of 1,600,000 acres are idle ; while id
those of Hang-show, Ka-shing, and Hu-chow, there
are 6,000,000 in the same predicament. Some of the
land is too poor even to retura much for labour and
capital bestowed upon it, but there are at least
5,500,000 acres of really rich and fertile soil at present
' completely neglected. This arise,. partly f.,-00,
fear lest any cultivator of the land in question shonls
be called upon to pay up the arrears of taxes, but the
Governor's proclamation specially mentions this f 0"
emption.
THE (TOO) LONG PARLIAMENT.—The Session.
• of
1880.—Punch.

DYING TO LIVE.—The mortality of soldiers in bar'
racks, notwithstanding the skill and care of their
superiors, is not nearly so much under that of men
engaged in actual warfare as might be supposed. Rust,
sometimes consumes faster than labour wears, aria
thus the probability of long life is comparatively'
small among the adults of that class of the population
in which there is no impulse to active labour, owing
probably to the diminution in these classes of vital in-
tensity. The sudden withdrawal, too, of a successful
manufacturer or merchant is often the precursor of
sudden death. But there are classes of workers who
find labour more fatal than the idleness of the idle. The
average term of existence of the Sheffield fork
grinders is only twenty-nine years, although drY
grinders of sickles live on! an average thirty-eight.
Next to the grinders in the scale are the English
miners, of whom 10,000 are annually injured bY
accidents, and 850 die. The English miners are, how'
ever, the most fortunate of their class ; for the con-
paraive mortality in this department of labour is
much greater in other countries, most of all in Prussia;
where a life is sacrificed for every 70,451 tons of ceei
raised, while in England the proportion is only one
life for every 89,419 tons.—lron.
A GRAIN .OF WHEAT.—In an article entitled
"Practice with Science" in the Mark Lane Express,
the writer thus explains the component parts of *
grain of wheat :—" A grain of wheat has five coat".
Passing from without inwards these are respectivtlY
named-1, epicarp ; 2, mesocarp ; 3, endocarp; 41
testa,; 5, endopleura. 1,2, and 3 belong to the fruity
4 and 5 are the coverings of the seed. Within- the
endopleura is a very small embryo, situated basal
and laterally, and a very large mealy endosperfn•
occupying most of the space. The wheat-grin is,
therefore, a dry, indehiscent, one-seeded fruit, with
membraneous pericarp closely adherent to the en-
closed seed. Such a fruit is termed a earyopris
botanists. The same kind of fruit is produced by sa
grasses and cereals, grains of rye and maize being pre'
cisely similar to those of wheat, whereas in oats,
barley, and canary-seed some of the glumes of the
floret adhere to the fruit. In milling processes the"
pericarp and seed-coats of the wheat go to form the
bran, the embryo tumbles out and is called ' chit ' br '
the miller, and the mealy endosperm forms the
flour."
THE LIFE OF THE PARISIAN BALLET GIRL.—Tbe
Parisian ballet-girl has a hard life of it. She must get
up before daybreak on the cold, raw mornings of mid-
winter to take her dancing lesson, and again at mid-
night, when the opera is over, she has to find her waY
on foot through snow and rain to her humble lodging
at Montmartre or Batignolles (says the Court Journal).
The idea of riding in an omnibus must not enter her
head, for while in the lowest rank of her calling she
has but a franc a night, even when grown up
and promoted to the "second quadrille," she earn*
only seven hundred francs a year. Advancemen‘
comes very slowly. It is considered a great thing to '
move up from the second to the "first quadrille,''
for then the salary is raised to 1,000 francs yearly,
being just enoukh with frugal management to keep •
body and soul together. From the first quadrille to
the second " coryphees " is a still more vigorous steP
forward, and is rewarded with 1,300 francs a year, or,
say, just twenty-five francs a week. The next step
upward is to the envied position of "premier cory-
phee," possessing the superb emolument of 1,500 francs
a year. Finally, after years and years of patient study,. "
the dancing girl attains the summit of her ambitiosi,
and rises into a "petit sujet," which gives her an in-
dividuality before the footlights. This giddy height '
of glory and pay, amounting to 1,600 francs ox in ex- .
ceptional cases to 2,000 francs a year, is the largest
reward that dancing genius can expect under ordinary
circumstances, for the Elsslers and Taglionis form ~
class apart. Here and no further can a good dancing
girl go, after a blameless youth passed in diligent
capers at rehearsals and on the public stage.


A RUNAWAY CROCODILE CAPTURED.--The crocodile 1
which about six weeks ago escaped from a travelling
menagerie visiting some villages and towns of Hun-
gary has been at length recaptured, accidentally,
after all search had been abandoned as useless (says
the Ecening Standard). This formidable visitor froniz
the banks of the Nile had contrived during '
to break the bars of its cage and regain
not a little to the alarm of the rural populat
locality, who spared no efforts to discover
abouts. The owner of the missing
signed himself to his loss, and the villagers
getting their fears, when a blacksmith bell
Salnau came unexpectedly across the fugil
was returning home after dark, and passi
a pool of water he remarked something
in the middle which he took at first
drunken man. Accordingly he shouted tc
get up, but failing to obtain an answer, wez
him out of the water by his arm. He then
with some inward alarm that it was the
crocodile of Kuschwarda with whom he ryas.
Having neither firearm nor knife about 'hilt;
mined to turn to the best account a piece of
he had in his pocket, which, having made a
he passed round his companion's neck,
dragged him along in the direction of the r
the road he was overtaken by a carter, who ,
to give the crocodile and its finder a lift, rem
task of reaching home lighter. Ultimately,
away, who offered no opposition to its ca./
restored to its owner, who found with satisfa4
although it had been exposed during several
the inclemency of the weather and want of
health and general condition were in no way '

the night-

ts libeitY, 1
on of the ,
;s where"
le had re-
were for- ,
mging to,,
ive. 114
beside
iiretch
to be
3 him t
at to dm:4' '
Perceivers
missing

it
crocodil

copging

passing
;h:

he del

stou,

ou
)nsentinK
idered the ,
the run-
-c,
-.Lon that
weeks to
food, ite
impure*

village.

Lptor,

I,tisfaCtion

..-,i4>:-;.',..1:,
.g'

'
i
!
;
1
,
i
• ~I
,
,
,
_ .
tete-a-ate-
:der"'
,at roPit...;
i p knoti-
xd thug
,
~,,
-r • ----,‘