The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-04-18 00:00:00

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Miii%/WithiSeari ianiesitt In .Iterse and e members
• seattered, and with no public men icing us from the
platform their opinions on public events, there is little
animation in the political world. Among our states-
men and leading politician., victors and vanquished
are alike renting from the fatigues of battle, ki t are
looking forward to re-commencirfg the war. ; hen
the House meets we shall have this battle' re wind
with energy on both sides. Opinions may differ as Ph
the probable course and result of this battle, but judg.
' lug from the events just before the adjournment of
Parliament, and the position of political parties, there
can be no doubt that Mr. Gladstune's rssolutiens will
. be pressed one by one, and that They %%ill be, in ac-
cordance with Mr. Dieraeli's frank avowal, strennouely
opposed by the Government. Whether they will be
sanded is also matter of eleabt, but supposing, they are,
then it is probable that an address to the Queen will
be the result. Ministers, of course, cannot consistently
recommend her Majesty to give an affirmative answer
to this address, for that would be inconsistent indeed ;
nor can they on the other hand advise the Queen to
reject it, for this would be to fly in the face of the
Reese I,f Commons, as represented by the'majority ;
" but Ministers would sot probably claim their right
ti appeal to the country, at the same time proposing
that that appeal should he made to the new consti-
tuencies. This would defer the dissolution a few
months, but it would be the most satisfactory course
to adopt, so far as the country generally is concerned.
The news of the safety of Dr. Livingstone has been
joyfully received, and his return to England is now
hopefully and anxiously looked for. Come when he
may he will be most heartily welcomed, and among
the signs of welcome will be a banquet, as a matter
rf course. It is expected that the enterprising
Doctor will have important discoveries to narrate,
but if so he will have but little to tell, for he is not the
man to speak of his hardships and perils. With the
courage of a lion, the endurance of a Spartan, and a
epirit of enterprise unsurpassed by any previous ex-
plorer, Dr. Livingetone possesses an unassuming
mielesty which is frequently the accompaniment of
true greatness. May he safely return to add to our
lit:ellen knowledge of Africa, for there is no need to
add another name to the African martyrology. The
names of Mimgo Park and Richard Lauder are fami-
liar in our mouths as household words in connection
with the martyrdom of African exploration, but the
list of those who have fallen a sacrifice to the heroic
plait of the pioneer and the missionary is a long oue.
„Expedition after expedition has failed or been
' abandoned, life and treasure having been expended in
the hazardous work of opening up an unknown and
untravelled country ; but still the labour of explora-
tion has gone on, and among these who have engaged
in it no name is more celebrated than that of David
Livingetone. As a missionary he may scarcely have
come up to the religious idea, but he has done much
ti.. open up previously unexplored territories and thus
to prepare the way for the introduction of Christianity,
with all its civilising influences.
The railway companies, as a matter of course, ar
opposing the proposition to legalise and guarantee the
carriage of small parcels inclosed in one, the whole
brine considered as one package, and being charged
for by weight The avarioe of the railway companies
in this respect is characteristic, let it is to be hoped it
will not be aided by the Legislature. A railway com-
pany has no right to know the contents of a package
sinless it is of an explosive character or of great value.
A parcel of newspapers, for instance, ought to be
reckoned as a parcel weighing so much, and the des-
tination or fate of the component parts of that package,
after it is once delivered, is no affair of the company's.
The want of technical education has become seriously
felt in this country, and it is no longer possible to deny 1
that the superior education of the foreigner has an .
injurious effect on the position of the English work- l
man when the two are brought into competition here 1
or abroad. For years our public men have been I
talking about schemes of technical education, and our
working men have gradually taken an increasing in-
terest in the subject; but something beyond talk has
now been done. The Manchester and Salford branch
of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters has opened ,
a school at Ilulme, where the students will be taught '
geometry, mensuration, drawing, mechanics, &c., the :
very kind of instruction which they need in their I
trade. We have heard a great deal lately against trades 1
unions, and not without cause, but this great
trades union has now taken a step which will cover a
multitude of trades' union sins. They have thrown
open their technical school to students whether they
belong to the trades' union or not. It is not easy to
exaggerate the importance of this movement. It is a
small beginning, but it will have great results. If the
technical education of the foreigner is to he supple-
mented by that of some of our English workmen, we
may depend upon it that technical education still soon
become a necessity.
It is a common thins, as we all know, to place copies
of current newspapers in bottles under or in the foun-
dation stone of new buntings. Supposing a copy of
the last Saturday Eerier were thus deposited for the
behoof of posterity, the said posterity would in due tinny
have a very bad opinion of the state of female socie.y
in this year of grace 1868, for it has of late been trying
its hardest to decry the worsen of to-day, the "Girl of
the Period," and now it says some very harsh and litter
things of them. It tells us that "to the unmarried
girl life is a sheer bondage, and there is no sacrifice too
great to be left untried if it only promises a chance of
deliverance. She has to sell herself to purchase her
freedom, and she will take very strong measures to
secure a purchase." This is severe ; but is it severely
just? Again r "By the sacrifice of womanliness, by
the imerifice of modesty, by the flattering her wooer's
preference before marriage, by encouraging his baser
selfishness afterwards, by hunting her husband to the
dub, and restricting her maternal energies to a couple
cf infants, woman limn at last bought her freedom
and the whole of the reviewer's estimate of woman is
summed up in the assertion, bold as it is untruthful, I
that she is "stripped of all that is womanly." It is I
said that this series of articles is written by a lady. I
hor nut; but whoever may have written them they
are a libel on the women of the present time. Clever
they are, undoubtedly, as all that appears in this
journal is as a rule, but the mini of the intelligent
reader revelts at many of the startling assert 1,113 that
are made. A man or a woman may be known by the
company he or she keeps, and the writirgs of an
essayist are frequently tinged by the assoeiatione of
his every day life. The severe and sarcastic, but
evidently too clever essayist of the Saturday has
perhaps fallen into ban company.
It is a very commonly expressed opinion asnringst
English workmen that they work much harder than
their foreign brethren, and strong statements as to the
comparatively easy life that foreign workmen have are
frequent enough. A little fact which in recorded
among the foreign news is therefere worth special note
—that the strike of workmen at Geneva has resulted
in their hours being reduced to eleven per day. That
is significant and enggeetive. Another fact is of public
importance. Their wages are increase i ten per cent.
The star of the Geneveee workmen is evidently in the
ascendant.

"A lady, residing in a very healthy spot in the !
country, wishes to meet with a pretty intelligent child
who would he given up entirely. Would not object to
an infant." Nothing too strong can well be said
against "baby farming," but nineh that is too harsh
may readily be said against such an offer as this. At
first sight, and as a general rule, "adoption" is a
heartless and unnatural bargain on both elks; but
may not circumstances arise where it is even desirable?
The mind revolts at a mother selling her child, but
that is a thing which, perhaps, never OCCIII,I in this
country. A mother who, from various motives,
desires to rid herself of the burden of a child, may pay
money to some one to W.F. care of it nominally, and
virtually, to neglect it ; but to receive money in return
for a child wholly given up, most be rare ind-tal.
But there moat lie many cases where a ebildli,s
manic i woman desires to adopt a child, and who will
bestow on it almost the care and aff, etion of 3 motlu r,
and more than the love and kitalueM of some mothms,
and there mu,t he al., many poor mothers, with large
families of small ehildrn, who, ground down Ly
poveity, may Lel she is n ally din, a kindness to hid
infant in placing it where it can Live better food,
more care, and greater advantages altogether than it
could have in its wretched home. Let 1111 tot I,'
harsh, then, when oureye falls ~nth word "adopt ,o„,-
heading an advertisement. You and I, court. -In
reader, would, perhaps, not lilt with me• of our
children in this wey for ill the woad ; but tlaT, may
be cases where self,: wrifiee is the truest love, mid
where the yearning to have a little sunbeam in an
otherwise cheerless house may be worthily gratified.
The public owe a debt of gratitude to the medical ,
journals for their effortii to expose the adulteration of
food and drink ; and yet, though for many years ex.
posure after exposure has been made, no alteration fur
the better has been made. The British Medical
Aortal( has now a rep at as to the eoniliti.in if London
milk. Sixteen samples of milk were purchased in
three districts, two ti which were fashionable
and out 1,1 these sixteen samples may one was found
to be unadulterated. One sample wag nearly half

water; another, we are told, "had loot more than half
its cream, besides being diluted with water." To me
this sounds ery mdd, considering that any cream at
all is a rarity in connection with London milk.

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