The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-11 00:00:00

Our Yonbon o:ortrcponbrilt.

(We deem it right to state that tee do not nt all tim,
Identify ouraelves with our Corr,poudout4 opatiou-.

Were any of your readers ever presfOnt at a mornin4
witting of the House of Commons? Those who can
reply in the affirmative are scarcely likely to add that
they "have been there and still would go." It is a very
dreary business, I tan assure you. Probably the House
has adjourned at two o'clock in the morning, and at
twelve at noon the wearied Speaker is again moved
into his chair. But the mere fact of his taking the
chair does not necessarily mean a beginning of business.
The standing orders require that forty members shall
be present, and at some of these sittings it is a matter
of considerable difficulty to get this number together.
Several members of the Government are upon the
Treasury Bench, for although they reached their homes
between two and three in the morning, when the pale
light of the dawn is gradually travelling over the
eastern sky, they have to be in their departments at
Lei, and having transacted business for a couple of
hours there, here they are again upon the green
benches of the Lower House of Parliament.
They either sit silently or converse in whispers,
for when the Speaker is in his place, although nothing
can be done until the required forty are in attendance,
the House is aa btaitl and sober as a well-conducted
schoolroom. A quarter of an hour haa lapsed, and
only five and thirty members have put ~ an appear.
ance. The right hon. gentleman in the chair glances
uneasily at the clock in the front of the gallery imme-
diately opposite to him, 9.8 though to suggest that
precious time was being wasted. A footfall is heard.
The little party who are so anxious to go to work
direct their observation towards the door, and in walks
a leading member of the Opposition, all summery in
light attire. This addition to the ranks, small though
it be, is welcome, and is received with a cheer.
Patience, gentlemen! only four more wanted now.
he ministerial whip goes out metaphorically into the
.ighwaym and the hedges to compel them to come
tn. Listen ! there are voices in the lobby. Three
more recruits, laughing and talking merrily together,
pass the glass door, and enter the sacred Ire-
ins-to of the House. Thirty-nine, all told?
But wait a moment. Has the Speaker counted
hismtelf ? A survey is taken, and it is found that
he has. One more representative of the people
is necessary before the business of the Legislature can
proceed. Who will make the valuable unit? It does
not signify in the leant who he may be. For this pur-
pose one man is as good as another, no matter whether
be be the emoodiment of genius or the personification
of eccentricity. Keep up your spirits, ye faithful
Commons; rejoice and be glad, for two members are
at this moment sauntering through the Central Hall,
and sure enough, here they come, down between the
double line of frescoes, totally tinconncioutt ttf the im-
portance of their presence. The cheering is now
hearty enough, and the impatient assembly goes to
wccak in earnest. When I speak of cheering, do not I
interpret the term in its ordinary acceptation the I
clapping of hands or tho rattle of feet. That perhaps
might Ite better called applause, a word which never I
finds its way into the reports of our Parliamentary
debates. The cheer in the House of Commons is
merely the sharp quick repetition 14 the WON'S
"Hear, hear." The pronunciation, of course, varies,
some gentlemen giving it a twist into "He-aw,
he.aw !" others preferring a monosyllable in the form
of a good hearty " Yah, yah !"
When the days of July close in upon London, the
glories of its gay anti animated season begin to wane.
The trees in the parks have lost the freshness and the
bloom of two months ago, and the leaves thereof gra-
dually assume a dusty anti faded tinge, which becomes
snore visible every week of lengthening nights and
shortening clays. Still, there have lately been some
very brilliant entertainments--of an indoor character,
such as the Trinity House banquet, awl of an outdoor
nature like unto the garden party given by the Prince
and Princess of Wales at Chiswick, which was at- ,
tended by the Queen and several members of the I
Royal Family. litel the Duke of Edinburgh been in
England, his Royal Highness, as the Master of the I

Trinity House Corporation, would have taken the
chair at the bar. 'net to which I have alluded ;
but in his ale•ence the duty was diseleirged
by the Heir-apparent. Politics are excluded, so
that the speeches have not that significance which

attaches to similar assemblages at such places
as Merchant Taylors' or Fishmongers' Hall. Judging
from the list of those who were present, the Prince's
garden party at Chiswick was a very splendid affair,
and those charming grounds upon the banks of the
Thames were crowded by hundreds of the representa-
tives if rank and fashion now in the metropolis.
I am glad to see that the movement for establishing
an association which shall train nurses to attend upon
the sick poor at their own homes, is securing much
powerful support. The Duke of Westminster has
taken much interest in the question, and has kindly
thrown open his splendid mansion, Grosvenor-house,
for a concert in aid of the funds of the society. I was
at is meeting at Willis's Rooms a few days ago, and
heard Lord Shaftesbury deliver one of his most
earnest speeches in advocacy of this scheme. As the
noble earl truly pointed out, when a poor woman,
the mother of a family, is prostrated by illness, she
must either go into a hospital, or run the certain risk
of being neglected. A trained and efficient nurse who
could attend upon hor in her own home, being with
her night and day, wi odd be a most beneficent institn-
tution. There is sine gentleman who takes a prominent
part in charitable and philanthropic movements whose
face is not familiar to the majority of those whom he
addresses. I speak of Sir Rutherford Alcock, for
many yearn Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary to Japan.
He has spent the greater part of his life amongst those
singular people, and is now vieing with such men
as the Duke of Westminster and Lord Shaftesbury in
the work of doing good.
Columbia Market is a kind of white elephant struck
into stone. Nobody seems exactly to know what to
do with it. The Baroness Burdett Coutts expended
a quarter of a million sterling in its construction, her
benevolent design being to supply the poor people of
Bethnal-green with cheap fish. Her ladyship pre-
sented the market to the Corporation of London, who
find that the fish dealers cannot be induced to assemble
and meet together there. Historic Billingsgate, ap-
proached as it is by narrow streets and tortuous ways,
still monopolises the fish trade, R. that the object of
the Baroness has been to a great extent frustrated.
Under these circumstances the Corporation asked her
to resume possession of the building, and this the
kind-hearted lady has consented to do, still looking
forward to the accomplishment of her purpose. The
failure of the market hitherto only shows how diffi-
cult it is to move a trade from its accustomed channels
when once it has been concentrated in a particular
Notwithstanding this, however, the Court
of Common Council, after a full discussion of the ques-
tion, has resolved to remove Farringdon Market to
Smithfield.
The long continuance of dry weather has called the
attention of the Local Government Board to the
diminution of the ordinary water supply, and a cir-
cular has been issued from Whitehall, pointing out to
the limitary authorities throughout the country the
important,- if making a thorough examination of the
sources of the water supply. It is suggested that
every available precaution for the storage of whole-
some water should be taken. The fact is that we are
paying the penalty of not having properly stored the
enormous rainfall of the autumn of 1872. Fir fifteen
weeks there was not a dry day sir night; and the
quantity id water which then fell and was allowed to
run to waste has been estimated by scientific men not
at millions of tons, but at thousands of millions.
What would our farmers have given for some of it in
thirsty May, and still more thirsty ,June? Yet any
thinking mind must then have been convinced that the
law of average was unalterable, and that an excess of I
moist. ire in sine year would certainly be followed by a de- I
ticieney one.- two years afterwards. Yet no systematic I

. . - -
storage .if water w w
as attempted. Instead of being 1 The 'lambi? was called, and she gave evidence
which plaintiff
the statements in the opening speech,
utilised for the parched lands of the future, it ran away ! and she:late° proved the handwriting of man yletters
into the rivers, and was absorbed into the sea, where, which had been written to her by the defendant.
vast as its quantity seemed upon the land, it became a Lord oleridge said he observed that all these
mere drop. The superfluous water which was drained letters seemed to have been written in a hurry.
from the fields was simply wasted. Had it been taken (Laughter).
Witness added that the defendant gave her expensive
of, these need have been fewer anxious glances at
the western sky during the past two months for that Yeesean ivait:;essandt:iiled ehiemeeettliasiteashwebesThloluielii;alLethelLeraeny
cloud "as big as a man's hand," which was the pre- money at all when she married, and he said that he
cursor of welcome rain. A people which sees no ditfi- never thought of money. She never had any disagree.
culty in tunnelling under the English Channel surely !tient of any kind with him.
Mrs Webster gave evidence also as to the engage-
ought to be able to look after its surplus rain water. - •
ment, and as to the terms upon which the young people
How many of us, when noting with admiration the were.
contents of a jeweller's shop window, pause to think of Doctunentary evidence was likewise given to the
the origin of that richly-pink production known as effect that the defendant had a life interest in
eloo,ooo, secured in the public funds. Bank Stock,
coral? What proportion of the spectators stay to give
a thought to the distant islands in the Pacific fromlan
laildeira that an aTis
dolutediniteintilthe was twenty-five, and
which it isl ,rought° Vet the most cursory reflection must Lord Coleridge : Very solid, that.
suggest how exceedingly peculiar life must be on The jury : Very solid indeed. (A laugh.)
those isolated spots of land, removed far away from Mr. Day called no witnesses, but addressed the jury
the busy haunts of men. There the giant waves of the for the defendant upon the question of damages. He
said that his instructions were to make no imputation
vast ocean seem to be waging perpcti:ld is as' upon
of any kind upon the a
plaintiff, or indeed to oar: single
those little fragments which have risen up in their word that could in p any way hurt her feelings.
midst, threatening—but always in vain, to sweep over Damages in cases of this kind must take a wide range
the surface, and to submerge the islands in the depths from great to Mall to meet the justice of the various
of the sea. What is the social condition of these small cases, and looking at all the circumstances of this cane,
societies; how often does one island communicate with he e
rfeorhhaipspoiewr-nliicatrt
fosifitolilldenhgave tinheonuthLtlti;otrtilg partiesa,ing
another; do the people fall upon their knees in terror been broken off. In conclusion, he called upon the
when a storm sweeps the surface of the mighty Pacific; jury to be temperate in awarding damages for the
how often do they hear news from the world which breach of this slight and hasty engagement to marry.
their great water boundary places at such a distance Lord Coleridge, in summing no. said that the con-
tract had been made and broken, but that the case was
Irons them ? But the moat suggestive part of the :
reflection is at once directed to the apparently frail : not
st of
not 'aellZigozari:eaaiVl tehlearterilasmtleaceleZpereeentl
foundations upon which rests those portions of in. :1
by any outrageous circumstances. The defendant
habited land. Their verY existence in due to the in. was lucky in his counsel, who, with the true feelings