The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-21 00:00:00

Our l'aoan 6,Grrtspolibtrit

rriTe deem It ti-ght to state that we ei,-) tfa, at all time
4eentify ourselves with our Correspou4eat's opinions.

The marriage of the Crown Prince of Austria to the
Princess Stephanie, daughter of the King and Queen
of :the Belgians, has been a subject of considerable
interest in this country, both from the frequent visits
of the Austrian Empress to us and from the connec-
tion of our own Royal family with that of Belgium.
Prince Rudolph seems to have been, like his mother,
a univvu-sal favourite whilst sojourning with us; for
his love of field sports made him more like a native
than a foreigner; and with a wife from a constitu-
tionally-governed kingdom like Belgium, ho May do
much to retrieve and to build up the fortunes of a
dynasty which, a few years ago, appeared to be in some
peril, although the days when one family could rule
over half Europe are gone; but the future Emperor of
Austria may do much to render less discordant the
heterogeneous aections of peoples that form what is
called the Empire of Austria-Hungary. That empire
is the last remnant of the old dynastic Europe. There
are under the doubh-headed eagle Teutons, Czechs,
Croats, Magyars, Poles, Italians, and others, but not
an Austrian, for Austria is a country and not a rac73.
Only three years ago, under the Treaty of Berlin, it
added to its dominions two provinces of Turkey-Bosnia
and Herzegovina, thus increasing the number of
nationalities under its rube.

Astronomy is a noble and sublime science, and in
all ages the sun has been an object of interest to the
human race. The Parsees worship the sun, and the
disciples of Zoroa,ter are not the only people who
have turned towards the East in their acts of devotion
because the bright ruler of the day made his first
aPPearance each morning from that point of the com-
pass. The progress of science has no doubt somewhat
detracted from the superlative estimate in which the
sun was once held. We have had to be taught for
instance that there is iron in the sun—hard, common-
place iron. It is true that sonce of our most eminent
astronomers have found reason to question this, and
by a persistent use of the spectroscope h?...-e discovered
that there is no iron in the nucleux of the sun itself,
but only in its constituents, I3ut Professor Helm-
holtz, a well-known German scientist, now tells us
that our sun is a body which slowly gives out
its store of heat, and will become as extinct
as other central stars which have previously disappeared
from human gaze. A long lime is, however, to
elapse before this dire consummation. The
professor gives the sun seventeen million years more
of life; so that although we may admit with
reluctance the idea of the sun's inevitable extinc-
tion at some future period. we have the satisfaction of
reflecting that the inhabitants of this earth have a very
long time to come and go before the great and final
catastrophe.

The quarrel between the French Republic and the
Bey of Tunis is one in which the English people have
taken but little interest ; but it has excited very
great commotion in Italy. The Italians see in
imagination another Carthage spring up on the ruins
of the old, once more to threaten Rome. The sand-
covered remnants of the proud and stately mistress
of the Mediterranean are only three miles from the
Tunis of to-day, and a French occupation of that
place is an idea most distasteful to the Italian mind.
Calthage, as every reader of history knows, com-
peted with Rome for the mastery of the world; and
the battles of Hannibal and Scipio were veritable
wars of giants. In tne end the Carthaginians were
utterly defeated, and the city was demolished by the
victorious foe about 180 years before the Christian
era. Her ships, her colonies, and her commerce
cea.eed to enliven the coasts of that Great Sea of the
ancients, the Mediterranean of our own times, and
for two thousand years the place where Carthage
stood has been a desert. The notion of the French
planting a Republic at Tunis, which shall rival Rome
like Carthage of old, is a dream which has been con-
jured up by Italian journalists, and explains a good
deal of the bitterness which has been imported into
this controversy.
Football, whether or not according to the rules of
Rugby, has long been a favourite pastime with the
youth of this country. But the idea of the game
being a recreation for ladies is one which is new in
the annals of out-door amusement. Football every-
where is pre-eminently an amusement for the mascu-
line gender, and those who join in it require many
qualities, of which indifference to being knocked
about is not the least important. It is not therefore
surprising that in a match between twenty-two young
ladies which has just been played at Edinburgh, up-
wards of 2,000 persons should have assembled to wit-
ness the noNelty. All the performers being en costume,
additional interest was given to the scene. This
mode of spending an agreeable hour will probably be
witnessed in other parts of the country.
The announcement that the Marquis of Lorne con-
templated resigning the Viceroyalty of Canada has
been contradicted. Such an event was not probable,
seeing that having gone out in November, 1878, his
lordship had completed only two years and a half
of the term of five years for which a Governor-
General of that dependency is appointed. Next
to the viceroyalty of India, that of Canada is
the most important position of its kind under the
Crown. Bordering a.s the Dominion does upon the
frontiers of the greatest and most successful Republic
of the day, extreme care and skill are required in the
administration of its affairs so as to prevent offence
to the susceptibilities of a sensitive people. The
salary of the Governor-General of India is £30,000
a year; and that of the ruler of the Canadian
Dominion is £20,000. There is a wonderful difference
between the sunlit cities of the gorgeous East and the
log-built towns of the primitive West ; between the
arid plains of India and the ocean-washed shores of
Canada; but perhaps there could be no better illustra
tion of the wide-spreading might and power of
England than is presented in such a contrast.
It has long been a reproach against Great Britain
that in the matter of attention to the technical
education of her artisan classes she has held a posi-
tion below that of Continental nations. Germany
and Switzerland each enter into close competition
with us in manufactured articles, the chief

quality of which is high artistic finish, and
those countries have been persistently held up as
models of imitation. However, the advancement
of technical instruction has Leen taken in hand by
some of the London Companies. Most of the guilds
are possessed of enormous wealth and unlimited
powers as to its disposal. Largely owing to the efforts
and donations of the Drapers' and Goldsmiths' Com-
panies, supported by several others, and aided by
the City, there has been formed the City and
Guilds of London Institute for the advancement
of technical education. It has been in existence
about three years, but it is of comparative recent
date that it has extended its benefits to the
country at large. At its annual examinations
three years ago there were only 202 candidates ; last
year 316 sat, but this year no fewer than 2,401
entries have been received. These annual examina-
tions are held at eighty-five different places, and
embrace thirty-two separate industries. Part of the

scheme of the institute is the erection of a central
college near the South Kensington Museum. The
requirements of the City of London will be met by a

college at Finsbury, the foundation stone of which has
been laid by Prince Leopold, in the presence of Lord
Chancellor Selborne and a distinguished and learned
assembly. The cost of the structure will be between
£20,000 and £25,000. The subjects chiefly relate to
applied physics and chemistry, and the students now
in attendance, and mainly composed of artisans,
number 450.

real.

The power of a person to read the thoughts of
another by forming a mental image corresponding to
the idea in the mind of the indvidual operated on, has
often been admitted and disputed. An American
gentleman at present in this country claims the faculty
or intuition for reading the thoughts of his fellow-men.
He maintains that the mental processes of any person
may be revealed to another by physical contact, and
has succeeded in establishing his contention to the
satisfaction of a party of scientific men whose names
are a sufficient guarantee for their good faith. Whether
the new psychological phenomenon is the outcome of
natural laws or otherwise, the subject seems worthy
of consideration. Should the new science become ex-
tensively developed, it might be a little disagreeable to
have "windows in our bosoms ; " and if we were
enabled to see into each other's hearts, like the genii
in the fairy tales, it would be inconvenient in the
extreme. The development of the new force will be
watched with much interest.

Her Majesty Queen Victoria will complete the 62nd
year of her age on the 24th instant; and though she has
occupied the throne 44 years, will then be twenty years
younger than her grandfather, George 111., at the time
of his death. An official announcement appeared
in the London Gazette some time ago to the effect
that the event was to be commemorated generally
on the day of its occurrence, except in London, where
the commemoration will take place on the following
Saturday. That indeed is the day invariably ap-
pointed for the observance of the Queen's birthday in
the metropolis, for in the evening the Ministers of the
Crown and the Great Officers of State 'receive their
numerous and distinguished guests without any inter-
ference with Parliamentary duties. The Prince of
Wales dines with the Prime Minister, irrespective of
politics. The West-end streets are a blaze of light,
devices in gas being displayed in front of the clubs and
public buildings. The most conspicuous thoroughfare,
next to Regent-street, on these occasions, is St.
James's-street, running from Piccadilly to Pall Mall,

tits'xi*iftire between the two giving the illuminations
a very pretty effect, and helping the spectator to
Ilse the description applied to it by Charles James
Fox as the Campus Martins of London,