The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-08-15 00:00:00

Our yonbon Qorrtsponbtut.
(w. deem It right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinimaci

My Parliamentary notes, which generally form
.the

opening paragraph of my letter during the Session,
have now come to an end. The voice of the Gres*
Councike the nation is ; thastleliberatMns ai
the Session of 1874 are over. For good or ill, for weal
or woe, the Acts palsied by the Legislature have been '
registered in the statute books of the land. The mem-
bers who have been accustomed nightly to crowd the
benches are scattered throughout the three kingitiman
her Majesty's ministers have left town, one Secretary
of State remaining so as to leave Downing street not

altogether tenantless. The Speaker's mace lane
been nicely wrapped in green baize until February
next, and the right hon. gentleman himself has bidden
goodbye to his softly.padded chair for some months to
come. Except by country visitors, the great Palace
of Westminster is deserted, and its echoes resound
only to the deep-toned melody of Big Ben, or to the
softer music of St. Margaret's chimes, just over the
way, awl hard by the venerable abbey.
Now that Parliament is up, London is on the wing
without a doubt. The dead walls and the railway
stations are placarded with all kinds of announce-
ments, the object and design whereof is to tempt the
jaded metropolitan to the resort whose attractions are
duly set forth. The art of advertising has been so
developed during the last few years that some of these
announcements are really admirable specimens of pic-
torial representation. Views of the watering-places
upon the coast, beautifully coloured, framed, and
glazed, may be studied from the various railway plat-
forms; while, close by, there are numerons rivals whir
compete for public patronage in the most spirited way.
You may read glowing descriptions of Highland
scenery, compare the cost of the respective routes to
Paris, contemplate the pleasures to be derived from a
short sojourn in Brussels, ponder over the delights of a
peonage up the Rhine, gaze in imagination up-in the
mountain scenery of Switzerland, or be lost in wonder
over a graphic picture of the heaven-jsdnted arches of
Cologne. Certainly, to those who have means there is

wide and diversified field for recreation. The holiday

seems to become more and more an institution, for such
bodies as the School Board and the Metropolitan Board
of Works now suspend their sittings for several weeks,
most of the members being out f town until the end
of September.

The question of promoting scientific instruction in
schools has of late years commanded more and more
of the public attention, and in this respect we have
taken a leaf out of the book of the Germans. They
admit the value of the classics, but at the same time
they recognise the fact that scientific training is better
adapted to a certain order of minds. The Germans
act upon the principle that, although the development
of the mental powers should be the first object of every
teacher, boys and girls ought to learn something which
will be of direct me to them in later life. Very often
the results are uotoo satisfactory as might be expected.
Where the knoviledge of the pupils is vague and
shallow, it fails to stimulate either the reason or the
imagination, and this is sometimes owing to the de-
ficient information of the teachers. I see that the
Prussian Ministere Education has just arranged, for
the especial benefit of teachers, a course of instruction
in chemistry and physics. The Minister does not be-
lieve in mere "book knowledge ; " he sees that in
order to convey to others an adequate conception of a
natural law, a man must clearly recognise the facts,
and understand the grounds on which that law is sup-
posed to rest. In experimental science this can be done
only by a thorough practical training. It is but
lately that the value of chemistry has been placed in
its true light in our public schools. It is now seen
that a knowledge of the constituents of the food we
eat or the clothes we wear is at least of equal import-
ance as the accomplishment of turning Shakespeare into
Greek ; and no classes are better attended, or listen to
more interesting expositions than those devoted to the
teaching and study of chemistry.
A return has come into my hands showing in a
striking manner the immense extent of London as
Illustrated by the force of police which wages a per-
petual war against the predatory classes. The metro-
politan police is quite a little army, and the sum
necessary for its maintenance would swallow up the
Income of many a German principality. I find that
during the past twelve months the expenditure
upon the police has exceeded a million sterling, and
that the total available force is 11,134 of all ranks.
In case of emergency this number might be aug-
mented by calling in the services of pensioners ,
and annuitants still capable of performing light
police duties. Of these there are 2,700. Here,
then, we have nearly fourteen thousand guardians
of the peace in a single town. Fortunately no occa-
sion arises to call in the services of the pensioners, the
ordinary force being quite adequate for the preserva-
tion of order in London. Our police is a very different
body from that of many a continental city. In Paris,
for instance, they are known as aergens de vale, and in-
variably patrol the streets in couples. They are,
moreover, armed with swords, so as the better to strike
terror into the dangerous classes of the French capital.
Every one of them carries a compact little guide to
the city, so as to give directions to strangers who may
inquire their way to any particular direction. As to
our own police, I have often noticed with regret the
unmerciful way in which the London papers come
down upon them if one out of the thousands in the
force happens to make a mistake, or turns out to be a
black sheep. My own idea is that the police, instead
of being pelted with abuse by great and influential
journals, ought to be encouraged in an arduous and
thankless task. They are not over paid, are exposed
to all weathers, pursue freebooters into dangerous
courts and alleys at the risk of their lives,
and travel weary distances in the performance
of a harassing and monotonous duty. Yet, let
one of them make a blunder, and arrest a person
without adequate reason, and the whole of the metro-
politan press rings with indignation. This is a woeful
mistake. I was in the crowd last Lord Mayor's (lay,
when one .4 these police panics was raging in the
papers, and was never so convinced of the impolicy
of these attacks. The roughs] openly " chaffed " the
force, triumphantly referring them to the language of
the journals for their general character.

One of the last of the discussions which took
place in the II ouseof Commons before the Prorogation
raised a question as to the prevailing reputation of the
men comprising the rank and file of the British Army.
Home of the critics were rather hard upon the soldier,
It must be confessed. At the same time there are cir-
cumstances which ought to be remembered. A
drunken or brawling civilian attracts but little atten-
tion, whereas if a man clothed in a red or a blue
uniform, gets into a street disturbance, the spectacle
at once catches the eye of the crowd. The number of
military as compared with civil offenders has sometimes
been compared, greatly to the disadvantage of the former,
but the only accurate method of comparison would be
to ascertain the number f breaches of order or law
committed respectively by 1,000 soldiers and civilians
of corresponding ages in the course of a year. It
should also be borne in mind that not only are many
offences and irregularities severely punished in the
army which involve either no penalty in civil life, or
one of the very slightest, but the whole tendency of
the military system is to induce habits of good order
and self-respect. Taking likewise the fact that mili-
tary is added to civil means of detention, preventi
and repression, it is evident that a man's evil pro-
pensities are kept in greater check in the army than in
civil life.

'The Board of Trade returns again show a falling-off
in the amount of business done by the nation. In the
month f July the imports were thirty-two millions
and throe-quarters sterling, as against thirty-five
millions, in the corresponding period of last year.
At the same time it was .hree millions in excess of
the imports of July, 1872. The exports represented
a total s aloe of twenty-two millions, and this was
below both last year and its predecessor. The
principal Atom of decrease amongst the imports
were ooffee, wheat, raw cotton, eggs, hemp,
hides, unwrougbt iron, jute, raw silk, sugar,
molasses, and wine. On the other hand, there was an
increase in the imports of copper, meal_and!flour, silk
manufactures, and tea. The exports of cotton manu,
factures fell off, as also did hardware, iron and steel,
telegraph wires and apparatus, and woollen and
worsted manufactures. There was, however, an in-
crease in the exports of opper, linen, steam engines,
and refined sugar.

The freedom of the new Parliament from a high rate
of mortality is rather remarkable. When the pro-
rogation took place the session was more than five
months old, and in that time death had not laid its
hand upon a single member of the House of Commons.
It is true that at the general election many of the
oldest members of the late House, such as Mr.
Barrow and Mr. Hadfield, did not again coffer them-
selves. Still, there are some tolerably old gentlemen
who now write M.P. after their names, or at least, are
entitled to do so, Mr. Henley being„ I believe, the
senior member in point of age. He is 81. The
father of the House—the representative who has
eat longest for any constituency, is General Forester,
who has been a legiebilator since 1830. His entrance
into Parliamentary life preceded that of Mr. Glad-
stone and Mr. Roebuck by about two years. The
Lords always show a higher rate of mortality than the
Commons, although they do not number so many by
at least 200. Still, thus far, only six peers have dicd,
a number decidedly below the nominal proportion.
In parsing through some parts of London. one 8
often struck with the distinctive way in which the

territorial possessions of great landed proprietors may
be recognized. Take a walk through Bloomsbury, for
instance, and note the names of the squares in the
immediate neighbourhood. You will see Bedford
square, Russell-square, Tavistock-square, Bedford-row,
Woburn-row, all indicating that the ground beloniel
the Duke of Bedford. There is a hoot of other street,
in the vicinity bearing more general names which form
part of the Bedford estate, and there ate various we
of indicatlng that it is private property. In some of
the squires gates are erected, while on one day in
every year Gower-street is closed to the public
in order that the ducal right may be main-
tained. I was coming in that direction some
time ago, and on 'fakirs,- for goyerltreet
.wapi
surprised to find teat usually bus); thiproughfarh
flanked at either end by an immense barricade fully
twenty feet high, which was a most effectual preven-
tive against auy traffic going that way. I wasinfurnaed
that unless this barricade was thrown up once in
twelve months the duke's right would lapse. Con-
tinue your walk in the borough of Marylebone, and
you will come across Portman-square, Dorset-street,
Portland-place, and Weymouth-terrace, all suggestive
of the fact that the property. is owned by Lord Ports
man. In the Strand you see Cecil-street, Burleigh-
[ street, Exeter-street, and other places showing that
the noble proprietor is the Marquis of Exeter. Most
of your readers have heard of Exeter Hall, a building
which takes its name not from the capital of Devon-
shire, but from the title of the nobleman upon whose
land it is constructed. Then there are streets and
squares named after the Marquis of Salisbury, the
Duke of Northumberland, Earl Craven, and other
members of the aristocracy, who with long lines of
ancestors, have been renowned in our national annals
no less for their gallant deeds than for their illustrious
, lineage and for their profuse and splendid hospitality.
The Improved Industrial Dwelling's Company, of
which Sir Sydney Waterlow is chairman, is carrying
out a very quiet, though useful, work in London.
The twenty-second half-yearly meeting has just been
held at the Mansion House, and a highly satisfactorily
report was presented. The whole of the capital which
the company was authorised to subscribe—£.2oo,oo0—
has now been taken up, the last increase of £125,000
having been raised at a cost ofronly 1.18 for advertising
and stationery. This would be mainly appropriated
to the construction of dwellings upon a site in Clerken-
well, which had been leased by the Marquis of North-
ampton. There are several other such organizations
in London, but, work as they may, they find it im-
possible to keep pace with the demand for better
homes in which to accommodate the humbler classes
of the people. More hands must be called into the
service, and the necessity for increasing the means of
usefulness is so apparent that the Home Secretary has
undertaken, on the part of the Government, to deal
with the matter in a comprehensive form next session.
Social reforms of this kind commend themselves to all,
without distinction of party.