The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-03 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS

IRELAND is to be sincerely oDnzratulated
upon an undoubted decrease in agrarian
c-ime ; but whether the hippy result be due
to rOS 'lnt, government or a better disposi-
tion of the people in the direction of respect
for• the law is a question upon which sup-
porters of tha nfinistry and advocates of
Home Rule cannot at all agree.

TUE great "dames" quo-4tion has been
answerediby the principal railway companies
who say that accommodation Ints been set
apart for lady travellers on their respective
lines, but has been generally and systematic-
ally i'4-nored by the fair ones, who prefer the
society of masculine companions to being
exclusively confined with passengers of their
own sex. On the Continent the' provision of
c minx—create for f.iniales rnly is the rule,
and so it stionld he here. Then l'adies with-
out escort who have to go lengthy journies
miht, if they chose, be safe from the terrors
incident to being shut in alone with unknown
male p)rsonA ; while such as eke d to
minL indi,crimiaately with any passengers
chance thtew them into contact with might.
still do s). Such -usual.° is fonnd expedient
and practica,Ole elsewhere ; our. great trunk
lines should therdfore find it as workable as
it would undoubtedly be welcome official
protestations to the contrary, notwithstand-
ing—to many nervous ones of the softer se-.

WIMBLEDON is finally doomed. The ulti-
matum has gone forth from the Duke of
Carn'oridge; His Boyal Highness has decided
that the ranges can only continue in use for
a limited period. The National Rifle Asso-
ciation =let therefore find a new ground for
its "pot-hunting" meetings. Opinion is
sharply divided as to what will b 3 the con-
sequence of this corning change. Some say
thegreat gathering of marksmen will cal lap.se
c-naipletely ; others expect that it will re-
main vigorously alive for many years to come
in some new locality. Wimbledon has been
convenient for the Volunteers ; but the
whizzin,4 bullets have net always proved an
unmixed blessing to others. The Rißrnen
who have annualy congregated on the Com-
mon for the p Ist 28 years have not killed
an body, as Sir Henry Halford claimed on
Tia;srlay, it is true ; but few persons will be
found in agreement with that enthusiast of
the target as regards his contention that two
or three fatalities in a year would not be too
dear a price to pay for the good accritin_::
to the canntry front the effiiency of the
Ride Association. Toe shooting displar of
the cracks, even if its practical value were
beyond all criticism, should certainly take
place where life and limb are not imperilled.
•

Tas comin; summer is to see a series of
careftillv-planned naval mancenvres in home
waters, in wnich the resources and cap:-
bilities of Mil flJet will have a thorough
tentinc.r. Tli, naval reserves as well as regu-
lars will be 0n..1-t.40-1 in the operations, the
aim of tho anthoeities being to ascertain by
cornorehensive mobilisation the .strength and
rashness for service of the forces at the
Admiraltry's command. Strict secrecy is
obs'erved. at Wnitehall as to practical partic-
ulars, buil it is anticip tel that the result of
the extnisive work which hss hen mApp.:.l
out will have an important bearing on our
future naval policy.

JUSTICS DSNicks sttrs.,.:te I11(>11113
tion at Ipswich Assist)s by his emarks anent
a case of assault by poachers on a game-
keeper. His lordship held that keepers
were not justified in taking poachers into
custody when the latt.-3r wera deOctm.t red-
handed in private preserves. The misde-
meanants, continued the judge, had a right
t-A resist, there and then, if attacked. In
his pr >mut:moment, Justice Denman ex-
hibited same feeling, deprecating, in his ad-
drest to the jury, the attacking of poach3rs
by keepers "as if they were will animals."
13 it, however righteons these utterances from
the benvh ruay h.i.ve 5mn,1.3,1, his lordsliio
was wrong in his realing of the law re-
gArding the matter, as he ha:. since acknow-
ls.ol. I),,a4:har ara kNyiir mast omtinue
;he natural enemies of eazh other, but the
inaLlety of justice ontltws the freebooter,
and throws its protection over, the guardian
of the game.

M PA3TKUR, of hydrophobia inoculating
no;orioty. is making a bald bid for till hand-
tio-na sinonnt ott,..rod to anyone who will
dflivrr an Australian colony of its plague of
ritbbit.s. He s,mtis out agants with potent
supplies of chicken cholera microbes iNith
which to afflict, even unto death, the swarms
of troublesome little animal immigrants.
But ths for of cholera being conveyed
by bunny to more valuable four-footad
ereatur-s will probably cause the antipodeans
,to prnveut the French. chemist's etniii.iaries
, from introducing their terrible poison into
the bush.

T4ANDLORD3 have long enjoyed adrant
over other creditor in the matter- of le ~
ability to recover their debt 3 -howl ten-Ants,
but the privilege is threatened by Lord Her-
s Law of Distress Amendment Bill.
no A. ths attention of the lious, of
sti it should be; the law of
the lAnd 0u.4'0,-, to afford all asiistance com-
patible with I.lnity to every 'person in the
recovery of atlything justly oszin.?: to him ;
but why 4110111 d the proper.y- proprietor have
preo-denem over the purvoyor of the necee.
i of life. Your strutTglin shopkeeper
often able :afford to Iso by the
customer he low trusted in kindnees, if not
in wi-=dom, than is the well-to.do hoasa-
OWllfilT.

It ham oost the country over seven thou-
Nand pounds to get rid of the forcigr, bronze
coins, which were always more or less
troublesome to their possessors fol• 'le time
being. But ev Tyone is glad the 'much:

men" aro g a from currency, we musq.-
not grumble. :be pries paid for stamping
out unisank •