The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-29 00:00:00

Oar foulton orresponbtnt.

rWo deem it right to state that we do not at all times
ientify 01111 lees with our correspondent's opinions.

The off-season, the Parliamentary recess, or what-
ever else the reader may choose to tall it, is now cha-
racterized by unmistakeable political activity. Election
addresses and party movements are the order of the
day, and Conservatives and Liberals are alike entering
on the contest with vigour. It has been officially
stated by the Home Secretary, that the writs will pro-
bably be issued early in November, and the work of
canvassing will follow that of registration with
earnestness and ardour. But where are the new men
that the enlarged constituencies were to bring for-
ward? Looking at the names of the candidates
throughout the country, it is remarkable bow few
there are, that are unfamiliar to our ears. As a rule
the same men as formerly are coming forward for re-
election. Here and there, there are fresh men of
course, as there always are daring every general elec-
tion; but it may well be doubted whether a larger
number of new members will be returned to the next
House of Commons than is usually the case—say
MO or 200 new men at the most. Turning from
candidates to electors, we find two notable facts—one
totally unexpected, and the other not at all surprising.
The first is the fact, that in many places the names of
women have been placed on the registers as claiming
to vote. The question whether women have, or have
not, a right to vote will no doubt be legally tried.
The ground on which they claim to vote is this—that
the Hamm Act of last year speaks of "every man,"
and that a previous Act of Parliament says, "In all
Acts, words importing the masculine gender,
shall be deemed and taken to include females,"
and it is worth noting that a legal journal
of high authority says that it is by no means impos-
sible that arguments founded on these two facts may
for a time prevail. But in any ease woman's triumph
can be but short-lived, for there is no disputing the
intention of Parliament, whatever may be the strict
terms of their language. The other fact is, that a
very large proportion of those who might have obtained
votes, by taking the trouble to do so, have not obtained
them ; and from this fact I leave the reader to draw
his own conclusions.

The terrible disaster which has happened to the Irish
limited snail, and the frightful death of so many
passengers is, of course, a fertile topic of conversation.
Among the considerations that this sad accident
suggests, there is one on which everybody seems to
agree, that the calamity would not have been so awful
lost for that old, old grievance—locked doors. That
the locking of the doors has some advantages cannot
be denie(l, but they are far more than counterbalanced
by the disadvantages. Such a catastrophe as this
surely ought to decide, once and for ever, that
passengers should henceforth be free to escape from an
impending calamity. In the present case it cannot he
denied that many might have escaped from a horrible
death but that the doors of the carriages were locked
on both sides. Dr. Johnson, who hated the sea,
savagely called a ship "a prison, with a chance of
being drowned." Are we to call a railway carriage a
prison, with a chance of being burned to death or
smashed? And while reading of this saddening
disaster, with what additional horror comes a paragraph
is the very same papers, "Attempt to upset a train."
the Midland Company are now offering £2OO for the
discovery of the perpetrator of a recent diabolical
attempt to upset the Dublin mail-train, by placing a
sleeper across the rails; and it is painful to read that
"this is one of a series of outrages of the same kind."
It in difficult to contain oneself while reading of such
an awful crime, for which penal servitude for life
would be by no means too great a punishment.
A College for Women has for some time past been
proposed. It is intended that the resident authorities
shall be ladies, or, as the projectors say, "women,
their teaching being supplemented by that of non-
resident profecsors," but whether the latter are to be
ladies or gentlemen is not stated. The institution, it
is believed, will be self.cupporting, but subscriptions
for the building and for preliminary expenses are now
asked for. There does not appear to be much doubt
that sufficient monies will be forthcoming, for one lady
—Mrs. Bodichon—has subscribed £l,OOO, and eleven
other subscribers have given £lOO each. The idea ap-
pears to be, to do for women what our universities do
for men. The movement is a remarkable one, and per
se it would be difficult to find arguments against it.
But it lately transpired that there is a lamentable lack
of reformatory institutions to which Protestant girls
can be sent. Could not this £2,100 be better employed
in this latter direction? The question may appear a
somewhat ungracious one, but I venture to say that
nine people out of ten are of an opinion that reforma-
tories and training institutions for women are more
required than the proposed "College for Women."

That human tribunals are fallible, that the innocent
are occasionally condemned, and the guilty sometimes
acquitted, needs no proof; but is there any occasion
for legal tribunals to place themselves in a position in :
which it is impossible to remedy a decision that turns
out to be erroneous? It is a maxim of our law that
no man can be tried twice for the same offence, and if
he be put on his trial a second time, the plea anise-lola
acquit is irresistible. But would it not be an improve-
ment to have a choice, not of two verdicts, but of
three—guilty, not proven, and not guilty The jury,
man would then find the value of another maxim, In
medic tutissimus ibis (the middle path is safest) ; and
the verdict "not provost" would alone give our tri-
bunals the right to try a man a second time. But
what if a man is found guilty, suffers imprisonment,
and then is discovered to be innocent Such a case is
now attracting attention. James Bell, a man accused
of sheep stealing, was found guilty on the 27th of last
March, and was sentenced to five years' penal servi-
tude. Subsequently it has been incontestibly proved
that he was innocent, and that anothes man was the
thief; and James Bell has received, at the Lands of
the Home Secretary, "an unconditional free pardon,'
—pat don for an offence that the man never committed!
No blame in this case can be attached to prosecutor or
to the jury, though so much cannot be said for the
three policzlnen on whose evidence the unfortunate
man was condets'med ; but is it not a mockery to grant
Oman a "free pardon," after he has unjustly suffered
five months' imprisonment for an offence he did not
commit? True, in the present state of the law, the
Secretary of State can do no more tn he has done;
but such a case as this suggests more fitting compen.
cation.

Had not the Duke of Bedford for years steadily
opposed the extension of Covent Garden market,
it is scarcely likely that what may be called
the market movement would have progressed 36
it lately has done. The King's Cross market is
gradually -thieving success, and, perhaps owing to
this, there now a proposition to establish a South
London m .ket, on the limited liability principle
financially, and on the co-operative principle com-
mercially. It is proposed to erect the market at
Kennington, arrangements being made for seventy.
live shops with tovered glass roof, &c. Something of the
kin.l is much wanted in this part of London ; and, if the
w home be properly carried out, it will be a great boon
to a large population. But the expectation that the
market, shops, &c., can be built and opened in four
months is, I was about to say, absurd; but, at all
events, whoever expects it will be egregiously mis-
taken. Builders are not so rapid as this.
Time was when many of the proudest nobles in the
land had their ducal and lordly mansions on the banks
of the once silvery Thames, and among them none is of
greater historical note than the town mansion of the
rercies, Dukes of Northumberland. Everybody will,
therefore, read with pleasure that the damage done
by the fire at Northumberland House is not near so
great as was at first reported. The mansion is known
to contain vast treasures of art-paintings by Titian,
Rubens, Snyders, Stc., splendid specimens of carving
by Roubillac, and a glorious H-ares vase, presented by
Charles the Tenth of France to Hugh, Duke of
I%m-thumbed:old, on the occasion of the coronation of
the sovereign. This tine work of art has been seriously
injured, and several paintings have been destroyed,
but happily not one of the masterpieces. The fire,
however, has been sufficiently destructive to raise the
question why our wealthy noblemen do not take pre-
cautions to auppress fire that may break out at any
moment? Many of these mansions contain treasures
of art which no money could replace, and yet it would
seem that they are left almost entirely to the mercy
of the necessarily inadequate arrangements of the
Metropolitan Fire Brigade. That they are inadequate,
though they are better now than ever they have been,
we have daily proof; and that their extension is impera-
tively demanded is shown—for instance, in the following
brief matter-of-fact statement relative to a fire that
took Owe subsequently to that at Northumberland
House : "a third fire broke out about five o'clock at
Mitcham ; but this being beyond the metropolitan
distrkt the brigade did not go to it, though it turned
out disastrous, burning do wn some valuable Hour mills,"
OM Of course it would be of little use for fire-engines
from any of the metropolitan stations to start off for a
fire at :Mitcham ; but surely some plan might be carried
out for extending the operations—that is the stations—
over a larger surface.
An ordinary news paragraph informs us that all the
arrangements for the fight for the champion's belt and
£2OO a-side have been completed, and the last deposit
is to be made on Friday, the 28th; and, it is added,
'The fight will take place on the following Tuesday,
Sept. 1, at some place to be fixed upon within what is
called the Home Circuit." Here is a direct challenge,