The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-14 00:00:00

111) ur ygOon Carrtspoulnitt.
[We deem it right to state that we do not at all ttMe3
bientity ourselves with our Correspondent's opinior.s.l

In the earlier years of Her Majesty's reign, when
Parliament was not only opened but prorogued by the
Sovereign in person, the ceremonial which closed the
session was anything but a formal one. The glories of
the Royal procession from Buckingham Palace to
Westminster made the flickering embers of the
London season shine for the hour with a brilliant
light. The splendid escort of Life Guards, the
gorgeously-dressed trumpeters, the Sate chariot with
its eight cream coloured horses, the firing of the I'ark
and the Tower guns, and the ringing cif the church
bells, all combined to make an impression upon the
great multitudes in the streets which was not easily
forgotten. Far different is the prorogation of Parlia-
ment in the present day. The summoning of the
Legislature by Royal commission is sufficiently dull;
but after all there are attendant circemstances which
give a little interest to the occasion. Parliamentary
life is egain new after a recess which has continued
six months, and all are eager to know what the
Queen's Ministers propose to do in the session then
commenced. At the prorogation, however, hon.
members have gone through half a year of hard legis-
lative toil, and the very sight of the green-leather
benches recalls the nsemories of heated debates, of
fierce party struggles, and of warm personalities ;
while the floor of the House is strewn with the
remnants of abandoned mea.sures. There lie the
sacrifices, like so many spectres, staring reproach-
fully at hon. gentlemen, who long to get away from
the place. The glow of health with which both
ministers and private members began to work six
months before has long since faded away under the
united influence of assiduous attention to duty, and
prolonged nocturnal sittings under the gas-lit ceiling.
The few who are present look wearied and fatigued,
and will be glad enough to see the Yeoman Usher of
the Black Rod bringing the order of release. On pro-
rogation days the House meets at a quarter to two,
but beyond putting a question or so to the occupants
of the Treasury }Mach, no business is done. Members
sit and speak to each other in whispers, watching the
progress of the minute band of the clock towards the
hour of two. At length the doorkeeper shouts
"Black Rod!" the deor is slammed in the face of
that stately official, in order that he may give the
customary three taps and ask for admittance; the
Speaker and the House are summoned to the bar of
the Lords to hear the Commission read, and when
they return to their own Chamber the mace has been
carried away by the Sergeant-at-Arms, for Parliament
is really no longer in existence as a legislative body.
There is nothing now but for the Speaker to shake hands
with the members who remain, and this the right hon.
gentleman does. One by one they leave, and he is
alone, like a host who has seen his last guest depart,
and may get him to his own rest.

London empties when Parliament rises, and it is
literally true that many a West-end square is a
wilderness and a solitary place whieh will not again be
g4ad for some time to come. Take your stand hard by
the magazine in Hyde Park on an afternoon in August
or September, watch the withered foliage as it is borne
away upon the wings of an autumnal breeze, note the
quietude which reigns now, and contrast it with the
animation that prevailed three months ago daring
one of the meets of the Four-in-Hand or the Coaching
Club. Fer there are two such organisations, the Coaching
being a lively and vigorous offshoot of the Four-in-
Hand. It is certain that no other capital in Europe
coulT turn out such a number of perfe3tly-appointed
drags as London sees where the Four-in-hand musters
In Hyde Park. Of numbers it makes little account.
Indeed, in that respect, the Coaching Club generally
bears away the palm, its meetings often showing as
many as thirty vehicles all of a row, while the older in.
stitution rarely turns out more than a score. But
then, such a score I Each coach in itself is as near
perfection as assiduous care, indefatigable energy, and
lavish expenditure can make it. Drags on which every
resource of the coachmaker's art has been brought to
bear, horses picked from the best blood in England,
and drivers possessing a high degree of skill, all tell
you that when the Four-in-Hand turns out for parade
purposes, each member is as much on his mettle as
army officers when the Queen is expected‘at a review.
Not a thing must be out of place; not a buckle
fastened a hole too short or too long. Keen eyes are
on the alert to notice the slightest shortcoming, and
there is no doubt that a very high ideal of perfection
has been gradually established. But where are they
now? Dispersed in all directions, like forest leaves in
autumn, to re-appear, it is hoped, with all their old
splendour and vivacity in the early days of the coming
spring.

Dwellers in country towne, the monotony of whose
exist-nce has often been enlivened by a visit from a ,
travelling menagerie, will learn with regret that one of
these institutions has ceased to be. The collections
made by Wombwell, Edwards, and Menders, were
all "Royal," and during their long journeys in the
provinces the animals must have been gazed at by
tens of thousands of admiring rustics. Hodge
and Giles would willingly make a long tramp into the
nearest town for the purpose of " seeing the show,"
and have listened wonderingly to the marvellous
stories of the keepers as they have gone round to the dens
and expatiated on the characteristics of the unhappy
brutes who were in the cages. All earthly institutions
however, have their day, and Manders's collection has
just been dispersed by the ruthless hammer of the
anctioneer, at the Agricultural Hall, Islington. To
what base purpose must animated beings come! The
largest of the camels, so often described by the keeper
to his country audiences as "the ship of the desert,'
was now put up for sale in the face of a jeering crowd'
and the bidding commenced at two shillings. Mr.
Frank Buckland, who has vivaciously sketched the
scene, state.s that it was a long time before the
quadruped got over four and sixpence, was very nearly
knocked down for fifteen shillings, and after a great
deal of chaff, realised £7 10s. Scarcly any of the
animals fetched good prices, for winter is not far off,
and wild beasts are very apt to die in cold weather.
Ours has aomet mes been described as the greatest
country in the world with the worst climate. The
weather is, indeed, at all times a topic of national con-
versation. You meet an acquaintance in the street,
and frequently the only observation that passes is
"Fine morning !" or "Cooler to-day!" This is said
not for the purpose of conveying any great amount
of information, but merely for the sake of saying some-
thing which shall savour of ordinary courtesy.
Certainly the weather this year has supplied material
for any quantity of conversation and casual remark.
We have had little or no summer ; indeed, our sunshine
seems to have been stolen from us. A drY, chilly spring
was followed by torrents of cold autumnal rain in July.
Frost in the beginning of June, cold nights and morn-
ings since January, foggy daybreaks and cheerless
noons, chilling north-east winds in August—such has
been our experience this year. 111eteorologists declare
that the Gulf Stream is in a state of transition; that
the Polar icebergs are bearing down upon our seas with
a steady and relentless persisteney which will destroy
the small modicum of good weather we now receive;
that our springs will continue to get Folder, and our
summers shorter. Competent authorities would, how-
ever, tell you that there was no occasion for alarm over
such prophecies of evil. It is impossible to account for
the fluctuations in the qualities of our seasons. No one
could trace the cause of the incessant rain of 1860, or
the extraordinary drought and heat of 1868. There
they were, and we had to make the best of them; and
there is no doubt that in both of them much good might
have been found. /Co visitation such as we are accus-
tomed to in these islands is ever found to be an unmiti-
gated evil.
Publishers seem to make greater efforts every year
to provide the British tourist with literature which
will enable him to spend his holiday in a profitable as
well as in a pleasant way. Visitors to the lakes are
offered extracts from Wordsworth, containing beau-
tifully descriptive touches of the clouds floating over
the Cumberland valleys, or the noontide heat beating
with weary constancy upon the barren rocks. One can
doubly enjoy beautiful scenery because of the associa-
tions called up by what he reads. Some of it, per-
haps, he has perused during his school-boy or college
days, and as he wandfrs by the lonely seashore, or
ascends the steep mountain side, old times:come back
again, bringing with them potent music of half-
forgotten memories. In the wear and tex of life,
with its myriad occupations, one after anOTlrer of the
companions of his early days has disappeared. Some
have gone down to the deep in ships, and at that very
moment are doing business in the great waters.
Others have left the home of their childhood, and set-
ting out from the rooftree of their fathers, have settled
In far distant lands. Others again have been victims
to an early death, and have long since joined the ma-
jority which stands upon the distant shores of
eternity. A few have never moved from the old
home, where to V: e dwellers at a distance, face to face
with the strife and turmoil of a giant city, the lives of
such people apparently glide away in a calm and
peaceful existence. But when once such memories are
Teethed, twenty or thirty years seem to have
vanished like a phantom of the night. You can
see again the old class-room and the cricket field,
where you were constantly being bowled out by
a companion who is now a bearded colonist thousands
of miles acray ; you can bring back the little tuesels in
the playground, the stern discipline of the tutor, how
you looked forward to the good time coming when you
would be a man, and your own master, and how you
all used to speculate upon your future careers. Some
have turned out very differently from expectation. The
sharp, !shrewd, clever fellow, who knew that he was
clover, has rested upon his oars, and allowed others t

pass him in the race of life; while the dull, =interest-
ing youth of a score of years ago has buckled on his
armour, and bravely done battle with the multitude,
made the most of his intellect, and won a position and
a name. But for the moment there they all are once
more, just as they were in the days of their youth;
and as the waves of active life again roll back upon the
tourist, some good, let us hope, has been done by his
reflections over the days "when we were boys, merry
merry boys, when we were boys together."

No time has been lost in taking steps for putting in
force the Artisans' Dwellings Act—one of the most use-
ful social measures of the Session. There are few who
have not heard of Gray's Inn-lane, a thoroughfare
always crammed with the traffic flowing between
Holborn and King's-cross. Right and left of this im-
portant way are what he Home Secretary would de-
scribe as "rookeries," acres upon acres in extent. The
Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works has
gone through these, and has come to the conclusion
that some of them at all events ought to be
cleared away. Then there would ba an opportunity
for making a splendid new street between Liigh Hol-
born and the terminus of the Great Northern Railway.
Some parts of Whitecbapel, too, have been officially
inspected and masked out for salutary improvement.
There is no doubt that the abolition of tenemented
property will make a sensible reduction in the rate of
mortality. Even after all the gigantic works which
during the last few years have been executed in the
City proper, there is many an abode of squalor within
the civic limits which would surprise the merchants
who daily come in from their residences in Bayswater
and Kensington. By the way I may here remark
that the practice of transacting business in town and
going into the country to sleep is older than some of
us had imagined. Mr. George Morris, F. R. S. , writing
as far back as 1730, says that "great numbers who
have business to transact in London come for this pur-
pose during a few hours only of the day, and return
into the country in the evening. This has become a
general practice,fand much conduces to health."
A deputation has waited upon Lord Carnarvon, at
the Colonial Office, and asked for the assistance of the
Government in establishing a
.trading station at the
mouth of the Belta River, which would mean, to a
great extent, the letting in of the waters of the
Atlantic over a part of Central Africa. The meteoro-
logists, however, have pointed out that Africa has no
inconsiderable share in keeping temperate the Euro-
pean climate. Ho i winds are generated in that
great desert of Sahara upon which it is proposed
to turn the ocean; and before these, as they approach
us in the spring time, the snow-line upon the Pyrenees
retreats and the glaciers melt away. If the Sahara
were a sea, there would be no hot winds from Africa,
and the climate of Europe would be rendered much
lees temperate that it is at present. In fact, we should
stand in danger of drifting into the frigid zone—a
result which for many reasons would be objectionable.