The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-17 00:00:00

Our it fidalt earrtspenb.tut,

(We deem it right to state that we do not at an ttnell
'lontify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinion

Members of Parliament are beginning to dicuss
with some anxiety the chances of the Prorogation.
The Government of the day, whether Liberal or Con-
servative, generally manages to wind up the work
about the Bth or 10th of August, for grouse shooting
begins 11 or the 12th, and both peers and commoners
would much rather be shooting upon the Scotch
moors than doing the business of legislation at West-
minister. There is the greatest difficulty in keeping
a House after the twelfth; and if perchance Parlia-
ment does sit ae few days subsequently to that date,
those who remain are barely sufficient to keep a House
so as to enable the Government to get through what
is left of the work. There is neither life nor anima-
tion, and what is done consists merely of necessary
routine. This year, however, from various reasons,
the public business, that is to say, the mini:Aerial
measures, does not assume that forward position which
is generally the case in the middle of July. " Supply "
is in arrear, in other words the estimates for the mili-
tary, naval, and civil services have not have voted,
nor anything like it. Until the last vote in supply
has been taken, the Appropriation Bill cannot be
introduced, and the passing of this measure
through its various stages in both Houses usually
occupies nine or ten days. Therefore, the sooner the
supplies are granted, the earlier will members get
away for their holidays. But it is a constitutional
principle that when the Crown, through its Ministers,
asks for a grant of public money, the people, through
their representatives, may bring forward any grievance,
and demand explanations. The widest latitude is given,
and when Supply is on the paper, discussions on all
kinds of conceivable subjects take place. While the
Ministry is burningewith anxiety to get the money, so
as to push forward its measures, honourable members
avail themselves of the opportunity to call attention
to topics so diverse as the East African Slave Trade,
Russian Progress in Central Asia, the Irish Borough
Franchise, the altered conditions of naval warfare,
the Prospects of Turkish finance, irrigation in India,
the navigation of the Suez canal, the re-distribution of
political power, and a score of other questions. These
debates take up so many hours that when at last they
have all been cleared away, and the votes are actually
reached, it is midnight. A member then rises and
says in effect to the Chancellor of the Exclequer,
"surely you are not going to vote away two
or three millions of money now when the House has
been sitting eight hours, and is exhausted." The
Chancellor of the Exchequer courteously replies:
"Really it is no fault of mine; honourable gentlemen
have had all the night to themselves, and all that I
can say is that unless one or two votes are taken now,
there will be no money at the Treasury to-morrow."
This awful contingency is enough. Members vote the
money wanted, and the fearful calamity of an empty
Treasury chest is averted. At the same time it is then
impossible to give the estimates that close examina-
tion which ought to be exercised by the guardians of
the public purse; for we spend a million and a half
sterling every week, and this expenditure must go on,
talk or work in the House of Commons as the case
may be.
The discussions respecting the visit of the Prince of
Wales to India remind people of a land which seems
almost like another world. Brilliant skies and un-
clouded sunshine there take the place of gloom and
rain with us. The meteorologists who predicted a hot
and dry summer have not proved right this time. It
has not been hot yet, with the exception of a day
here and there, and although in the spring months
there was an absence of moisture, the same cannot
be said of the past six or seven weeks. The old
law of average is again forcing itself to our
notice, and the shortness of the rainfall in one quarter
of the year will be counterbalanced by its excess in
another. A little time ago we were spec dating how
hest to store our surplus water, so as to make it useful
in times of drought; now the agriculturists would like to
be shown the best mode of drying hay by artificial
means ! Meanwhile, although the rain spoils garden
parties and all kinds of outdoor recreations now, the
Prince of Wales and his suite may anticipate the time
when with pomp and circumstance they will be tra-
versing the streets of far-off Oriental cities, their
path illuminated by bright and cheerful sunlight, and
their progress watched by a people well pleased at spec-
tacles of demonstrative splendour, in which the heir to
the British Throne takes so prominent a part.
A writer who had the time to devote the subject,
might make an interesting book out of the history of
umbrellas, from the days of Queen Semiramis to those
of King Koffe, whose protector from the weather is
now in the South Kensington Museum. Amongst the
ancient Greeks only the gods and goddesses, such as
Ceres, Bacchus, and Mercury, were deemed worthy
of the honour of being protected by parasols. These
were held over them on festal occaiions as a mark of
respect, although it is probable that the origin
of the compliment was simply a desire to
shield the painted idols from sun and rain.
Later on the Athenian ladies, as well as those of Rome,
were followed by a servant carrying a sunshade. It
was not until the Roman Empire began to decline
that men adopted a similar fashion. Catherine de
Medicis enjoys the distinction of having introduced
it into France, where it was speedily adopted by the
ladies of the Court. When Louis Phillippe was King,
he seldom ventured out into the streets of Paris with-
out his umbrella, and in our own country .the carrying
of this useful article is associated with the name of
more than one political personage of celebrity.
The opening of the Charing-cross Swimming Bath
upon the Thames will give an impetus to the desire
for education in a social art which is rapidly making
way amongst our people. In the way of business as
well as in the pursuit of enjoyment, a large proportion
of the lives of the inhabitants of these islands in spent
upon the water. This is especially the case in the
holiday season. The jaded landsman looks forward to
the seaside or to a fishing excursion on one of our con-
siderable riven with all the ardour arising from long
separation. He escapes from the town, where he has
had to swallow any quantity of smoke and dust, and
does not care to remain in the fields, to be
scorched by the heat of the sun. He has not
sufficient muscular exertion to climb a rugged
mountain, or 'to explore the recesses of a stalactite
cavern. The shining of the sun upon the waves,
and the music of their murmur, seem to beckon
him to their broad expanse. Hoisting a sail he glides
easily over the rippling surface and finds ?, fascination,
as the boat dips into the water, which is never
experienced either upon the hot sands or on the lofty
hills. As cool as under the shade of the leafy arches
of the forest, there is infinitely more variety. The
outspreading sea, the gambols of the creatures which
move about in its depths, the distant shore, the
beetling cliffs, the overhanging' crags, the woods in
their different shades of greenery, the hills clothed
with dark foliage, and the sky flecked with clouds,
throwing shadows of fantastic shape upon the land, all
combine to make up a scene upon which the imagina-
tion delights to dwell. Suddenly the breeze freshens
into a squall, the boat is capsized, and the waves,
which a moment before were a source of pleasure, now
wrap themselves round the tourist like a shroud. If,
as the chances are, he is no swimmer, he sinks like a
log of wood in the waters which have marked him for
their prey. The constant recurrence of fatal boat
accidents in tile summer and autunan causes one to
look with the greatest interest upon. the increased
attention which is now given to the art of swimming.
The visit of the Queen of the Netherlands to
London was one of the most unostentatious that could
be conceived in connection with the movements of a
reigning Sovereign. As the quiet ruler of a peaceable
people, her Majesty came and went with as little show
as was consistent with the dignity of Royalty. Many
a European nation must often envy Holland its free-
dom from political strife, and its entire immunity
from political convulsion. In the last great Conti-
nental war, when the German armies were overrun-
ning France, when Russia and Austria stood watching
the conflict with their hands upon the hilt of the
sword, when Italy took possession of Rome almost
with fear and trembling lest a day of future reckoning
might be in store, when Great Britain was worried
alike over the Alabama claims and the tearing up of
the Treaty of 1856, and when the Independence, or at
all events the neutrality of Belgium, seemed to be in
danger, Belgium's near neighbour, the Netherlands,
seemed to be removed an immeasurable distance from
all these fierce contentions. Yet the Lowlands are
only a few hours from our own shores: and you can get
across to Rotterdam in much less time and at a far
smaller cost than you can reach many a place in our
own islands. Canning, when Secretary of State for
Foreign fF
--airs, in the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool,
once declared that—
"ln commercial affairs the fault of the Dutch
Is giving too little and asking too much."
But that was more than half a century ago, and in our
own time we know the people of Holland as a steady-
going, order-loving race, who do not interfere in the
concerns of their neighbours, and only desire to be let
alone. The tourist who wishes to cot-alpine change with
economy would find a visit to the Netherlands fully
answer his purpose. The quaint old city of Amsterdam,
with water-ways for its streets, the vast village of the
Hague, the enormous dykes constructed to keep back
the sea from overflowing the land' the manners and
customs of Mynheer von Klan and Grattall Pfeil
with a host of other curiosities so different from any.
thing to be seen at home, would make a journey into
Holland worth remembering_one recommendation
being that the trip could be Carried out so very reason
ably.

The Painters and decorators are putting the last

touches to Clarence House, the London residence of
the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, while their
Royal Highnesses are in Russia. It has of late been
considerably enlarged, and is furnished with much
taste. In one corridor the walls are covered with a
long array of hunting trophies brought home by the
Duke from distant lands. One of these is an immense
elephant, shot by his Royal Highness in Ceylon. In
the dining•room are portraits of the Queen and the
Prince Consort, Louis Phillippe and Queen Amelie,
together with the.late King of the Belgians. The
reception room, with its painted china panels, is richly
decorated, olive green being the prevailing tint. The
passages and rooms abound with paintings showing
the scenes of
.the Duke's travels; whilst amongst the
ornaments of the boudoir are the caskets in which he
has received the freedom of various companies and
corporations, and the silver trowels with which he has
laid the foundation stones of numerous public institu-
tions. In the room containing the mahogany cot of
the infant Prince is an illuminated copy of the Thanks-
Ovine: Prayer which was offered up seven years ago on
the miraculous escape of the Duke of Edinburgh from
he bullet of an Australian assassin.

The Byron Memorial Committee have resolved Ito
erect a statue in London to the memory of the poet,
and to spend £2OO in placing a slab over his grave in
the church at Hucknal-lurkard. The resolution to
have a statue has not been taken at all too soon, see-
ing that Byron has been dead more than half a century.
Poor Byron had a passionate fondness for Greece, and
we all know how he has apostrophised—

"Those isles of Greece! those isles of Greece,
Where burning Sappho loved and sung."
It may be said truly enough that he died in the cause
of that country, which he would scarcely care to look
upon to-day. Brigandage instead of civilization, chaos
in the place of good government—such is the picture
presented by the Greece of our own time—a mournful
contrast to the days of Socrates and Plato, of Aris-
tides, and of Phidias. Philosophy, learning, and archi-
tecture are as inanimate as the ruins of the Parthenon
itself, and the name of a once classic land is now
synonymous only with anarchy and decay.