The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-22 00:00:00

THE STOTTA3IIDGE OBSERVEA.
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THE EMPRESS CHARLOTTE OF
MEXICO.
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A Brussels paper gives a painful account of the b-
!Empress Charlotte of Mexico. Her physical health is
good, but her mental condition is hopeless. She lives
in constant communication with imaginary, beings, a,nd
dislikes the presence of any living person. She speaks
only when obliged to do so, and gives orders to her at-
tendants in writing. She dresses herself without suf-
fering assistance, takes a fixed walk in the park every
morning when fine, frequently plays on the piano-
forte, and sometimes draws and paints with decided
taste. She recognises no visitors, not even her brother,
King Leopold, or the Queen. The latter always ac-
companies the physician on his monthly visit, -.
in reply to his inquiries as to her health, the Empress
coldly says she is well, and immediately retires. She
has become stouter and shows a tendency to corpu-
lency, but at present it is stated that this has only in-
creased her beauty, which is now truly striking.
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ne and efforts to the performance of its duties, and
so counsel and advise that the clergymen might find
theruanlves very muctLassisted-in the work they, had
to perform. He had one word more to say, which was
not s.cially addressed either to clergymen or church-
wardens; but to the whole body of the English people
practically had ta aid clergymen in their work.
reoplelsaid, "Why won't you make laws for the re-
pression of vice and for the furtherance of virtue?"
We might make laws, but we could do little in
that direction by that means. We could not
make laws much in advance at any time of
public opinion, and it was the laity of the Church
of ,England and-of all other Churches who had to help
to form that public opinion which eventually found
-expression in the laws of the land. And they had
to do more than that. If the clergyman by his example
had to live the pattern ora Coriat_iliffi as tfig parssra_
of the parish, no 16ss htid-every single pariihioner tr-a-
help, him by the. example of his life. There ,was not
one of -those to Whom he was speaking who had not
the power by his example and influence of doing' singly '
an enormous good and of beating down a vast amount,
of vice and evil. (Hear hear.) Referring to one par-
ticular instance, he would take the crime of drunken-
ness. How much when they went away from that
place would many of them see of drunkenness vice, im-
morality, and wretchedness, even throughout that
town of Garston? How much of that did they think by
their example they could help to put down? A nation
was merely made up of families and neighbours. They
might take the husband and wife, the parent and the
child, or the workman and his fellow-workman, and
think how much each individual could do to show the
drunkard shame of drunkenness, and to make him hate
it (bear hear)—show him that, at all events, if he did
not hate it they hated it, and that so long as he
continued in that evil course they. -would not hold
out to hhn the right hand of fellowship that he
should otherwise have. (Hear, hear.) 'Well, he said,
they must remember when talking of the responsibili-
ties of the clergy that there were responsibilities of the
laity—that they all, however humble their position,
might have enormous influence for evil, far more than
they had for good. He would appeal to the wives and
mothers of England whether they did not think that
by their example and influence they could do much to
mitigate the vice, misery, and drunkenness which we
at the present moment saw all around us. (Applause.)
He would not say one word there which could hurt
the feelings of a single person, whether he was a
member of the National Church or not. There were
other bodies of Christians -around -them who in their
own way were doing a vast amount of good and a
great deal to put down evil. (Hear, hear.) When,
they had to talk of them, they should ask them-
selves in the first instance whether they might
not lay some blame to themselves for not
having already done the work which they were
doing. (Hear, hear.) The property which was given
to the National Church, as for instance the money
that was subscribed to the very church whose founda-
tion stone they had now laid, was secured by precisely
the same laws as, and by no other laws than, those
which secured the property and money given towards
churches belonging to other denominations. They
claimed, and justly claimed, to be the National Church
of England, and if they claimed to be the National
Church they must show it by their works. (Hear, hear.)
This was an age of scrutiny and of the deepest inquiry,
but they need not fear howevermuch people scrutinized
them and however much they inquired into what they
did. All they had to do was to see that the doctrines
of the Church of England were preached, the pure and
reformed doctrines of the Established Church of this
country which they all so much valued. They should
see, too, that these doctrines were preached to the
poor; that was the greatest test of all Christian
Churches. (Hear, hear.) While willing to allow
Others to do their work as they chose, they should be
determined, at all events for themselves, that they
would do theirs. (Applause.) They knew that a
law was passed not very long ago which said that
every person in England should have educa-
tion. He did not entirely agree with one part of
that law, because he thought education had been
divorced from religion, which ought to accom-
pany it. (Hear, hear.) But if that was so, it ought
to make us the more earnest, the more zealous, the
more determined, and the more absolutely resolute to
supply that want to the class of people who were at
the present moment being educated. They should say
that throughout the length and breadth of the land, as
the law says there should be schools, so they, aemem-
hers of the National Church of England said, there
should be no place where the poorest and humblest,
he did not care what his condition might be, should
not, if he liked, have the same free power to avail
himself of the ministrations of the Church of Eng.
land as the richest and wealthiest in the land. His
earnest wish and hope was that the Church of England
should go on flourishing, and continue to flourish
as it had done, and that in spite of all the storms with
which we were threatened we might hand it down as
what he believed it was, the purest and most cherished
institution of this country, and one which would add
to the blessings of future generations. He trusted
further that we might hand it down as full of power
and influence, as energetic, and as perfectly full of life
as any institution which ever had been handed down
to us. (Loud applause.)

GENERAL NEAL DOW AT
MANCHESTER.
General Neal Dow, the Americ an advocate of tota
abstinence, was entertained at bneakfast on Tuesday
at the Trevelyan Temperance Hotel, Manchester, b
a large number of friends, chiefly members of th
United Kingdom Alliance. The entertainment was
given to him on the occasion of his leaving England
on his return to the United States. Sir W. Lawson,
Bart., M. P. , presided.
The Rev. S. A. Steinthal said the Executive-Council
of the United Kingdom Alliance had drafted an address
to General Neal Dow. Mr. Steinthal read the address,
which recapitulated the labours of the General in the
cause of temperance and the services he had rendered
to it; and he proposed it for the adoption of the meet-
ing.
Mr. J. Fildes seconded the adoption of the address,
which was supported by the Rev. Mr. Heyworth,
rector of St. Catherine's.
• The Chairman supported the adoption of the address,
and in the course of his remarks he said Mr. Fildes, in
seconding the motion, had talked about Republicanism
—a dangerous 'topic—(hear, and laughter)—but what
did it matter whether people were Republicans or
Constitutional Monarchists? It was of very little
consequence, if the people were made right, what their
Government was. He was not going to allow the
General to go away and say that he alone was a
Republican. This country was a republic, and had
at its head the best monarch that any republic
ever had. Ihe distinguishing excellency of the
General was That he saw that in politics there was a
higher law to be obeyed than any that was set up
by any form of Government. He saw that no form
of Government could produce permanent peace and
prosperity in a nation unless that nation and its rulers
conformed to the great law of national morality laid
down by Him through whom alone kings reigned, and
princes decreed justice. He had witnessed in his own
country things going on not according to that law. He
had seen people growing rich and prosperous through,
as John Bright had expressed it, carrying on a trade
which produced crime, disorder, and madness. They
all knew the struggles that he had endured, and
the difficulties he had encountered in supporting
the principle he advocated, and in carrying out
the policy which embodied it, and they had read as
often as he (the Chairman) had, and believed it a little,
that the policy had been a failure. (Applause and
laughter.) What a curious failure was that policy,
1 which was now on the statute books of all the New
England states; for in all those states the principle of
prohibition was recognised onthe statue books in one
form or another, very often in the form of local option
whieh we were now struggling for in this country. The
law of prohibition might very often have been a
failure when enacted in places where public opinion
was not ripe for it, but wherever public opinion had
been strong enough to enforce it, it had been a great
and glorious success. They had learned from the ex-
perience of their friend, the General, that it was not
wise to go ahead of public opinion, and their object was
to get the law which they sought in a form in which it
might be endorsed and sanctioned by public opinion. He
presumed every one understood the Permissive Bill as
well, or as ill, as he did himself. (Hear, and laughter.)
To sum up its object in a few sentences, it
was a Bill to enable certain districts, where the
people wished to do so, to protect themselves from
the crime, disorder, and madness that Mr. Bright said
arose from the liquor traffic. (Applause.) That was
a very simple Bill, and there were two ways of meeting
it. He was told over and over again, "Your Bill will,
do no good ;it Is a wretched little thing thoro two
very few places indeed which will adopt it." On the
other hand, he took up some leading article, in which he
saw a notice of "Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Revolutionary
measure." (Applause, and laughter.) That confirmed
him in thinking he was right; that he had hit the
right nail on the head, and that his Bill was, in reality,
a mild and moderate one. He was hopeful of success,
but while he was hopeful he did not know what
account the General would give of England
when he went back to America. He was certain the
General would speak the truth—(hear, hear)—as
far as he knew it—(laughter)—and that was the most
that any one could do. (Hear, and laughter.) If he did
speak the truth, one side of his story concerning the
position of England would not be a very gloomy one.
What were some of the facts he would have to tell? The
temperance movement had been in active operation in
this country for more than forty years. The argu-
ment had been on the side of the temperance re-
formers; their energy had been great, as well as their
expenditure of time and money, and their devotion
had been sincere. One would have thought that great
progress would have been made, but take one fact.
Last year, in England and Wales, no lees than 180,000
people had been arrested for drunkenness; and accord-
ing to the statistics of Mr. Hoyle, in the last year for
which these statistics had been made up, £120,000,000
had been spent by the people of this country in that
which caused the evils to which he had already alluded.
Look at Liverpool, one of our largest cities. There
they were in such a state through the power of the
drink traffickers and their operations there, that the
degradation, crime, and misery of the town was appal-
ling, and the people were at their wits' ends. Last
week they positively had to resort to one of those
American expedients which were sometimes looked
upon with contempt or pity in this country. They
had positively to appoint a vigilance com-
mittee, and this vigilance committee was to
look after the Home Secretary, magistrates, publicans,
police, town council, and the watch committee.-
(Laughter.) They had a very serious job on hand.
(Hear, and laughter.) But was it not melancholy that
we should have to resort to such expedients—absolutelY
to appoint a committee to watch the authorities,
&cause—there was use in mincing matters there at
any rate—the authorities were under the thumb of the
liquor traffickers. That was a melancholy report for
the General to take across the waters with him.
The General could also tell his countrymen that
Parliament was at present sitting, and that as
its members could not shut their eyes to all the crime
and brutal outrages that were going on, they were
at their wits' end, and the Government had brought in
a Flogging Bill as the only way of getting out of their
difficulties, and by a sort of retributive justice that
Bill was brought in by the Home Secretary, who last

hand.

year extended the hours of drinking ,to make those
brutal men still more brutal. Having referred to other
evils arisbig from degnkeurtess, the Chairmaift? said
there was also a cheerful side to the picture, and that
the prospects of the Alliance movement were becoming
more hopeful,
General Neal Dow addressed the nitre tino; *id the
proceedings terminated with a vote of thaekii to the
Chairman.

THE -WRECK OF THE STEAMER
"GOTHENBURG."
The Victoria Correspondent of The Times, writing from
3ilelbounae, Marcb-25, gives the following particulars of the
wreck of a Melbourne steamer :

-The greatest disaster which has yet occurred in inter-
-colonial navigation befell the steamship Gothenburg, of
Melbourne, which was wrecked on the Barrier Reef,
'Toff the north-weet coast Of Queensland, on the 24th of
February, with the.loss'of 103 lives. A telegram from

I—Brisbane:received in Melbourne on the 3rdinst., an•
winced that four men had been picked up in one of
the Gothenburg's boats, who, had been washed away
from the ship after she had grounded, and
_that.the
vessel which picked up the men found the wreck
abandoned and the boats gone. As nothing was known
, of the circumstances under which the boat had been
washed away it was hoped that those left on board
i had escaped in the remaining boats, and this hope was
kept alive by the interruption of telegraphic com-
munication with probable landing places, but in a
few .days 18 more men were brought into Brisbane
. from
_the wreck, and it was known that only
22 had been saved out of 125 on board. The
vessel was on her way to Newcastle from the
Northern Territory, and at about six o'clock in the
evening, steaming at full speed in moderate weather,
she suddenly drove upon a reef. The shock did not
seem to be severe, The engines were reversed/and
weight was brought aft to ease the ship off, but she
was immovable. No one on board seems to have been
alive to the extremity of the danger, for the rising of
the tide at twelve o'clock was calmly waited for
' though the wind and sea were getting up. Passengers
followed their usual occupations, and some went below
for the night. It began to blow after dark. and by
daybreak it was blowing a gale, and the vessel had
been driven broadside on to the reef. Up till to this
time no orders had been given to take to the boats,
though all had been got ready for a start. Two were
' then -lowered, and waited alongside, but one broke
adrift, and the four men in her could not regain the
ship. Before another could be lowered the vessel
heeled over on her side, and the sea began to break
over her. The lifeboat, full of women and children,
was torn from the davits and upset. Men were swept
overboard from the deck, and the captain was carried
away from his post on the bridge. A tremendous sea
buried the vessel and drove her off the reef into deep
water' and in a few minutes the only people left alive
were those clinging to the rigging and to the over-
turned lifeboat. The survivors managed to right this
boat and another which was made fast to the wreck,
and found their way to Holborn Island. Most of the
passengers were South Australians, and a relief fund
has been collected in Adelaide and Melbourne, which
has already reached a large amount.

LONDON THE LARGEST CITY' IN THE
WORLD.
The following, on London, is from a recent number
of the Leisure Hour :—The- metropolis of the British
Empire, the largest city the world ever saw, covers,
within 15 miles radius of Charing cross, nearly 700
square miles, and numbers wain these boundaries
4,000,000 of inhabitants. It comprises 100,000
foreigners, from every region of the globe. It contains
more Jews than the whole of Palestine, more Roman
Catholics than Rome itself, more Irish than Dublin,
more Scotchman than Edinburgh. The port of
London has every day on its waters 1,000 ships and
9,000 sailors. Upwards of 120 persons are added to
the population daily, or 40,000 yearly, a birth taking
place every five minutes, and a death every eight
minutes. On an average' 28 miles of streets are
opened, and 9,000 new houses built every year.
In its postal districts there is a yearly delivery of 238
millions of letters. On the police register there are
the names of 120,000 habitual criminals, increasing by
many thousands every year. More than one-third of
all the crime of the country is committed in London,
or at least brought to light there. There are as many
beershops and gin-palacesas would, if their fronts were
placed side by side, reach from Charing cross to Ports-
mouth, a distance of 73 miles, and 36,000 drunkards
are annually brought before its magistrates. The
shops open on Sundays would form streets 60 miles
long. It is estimated that there are above a million of
the people who are practically heathen, wholly
neglecting the ordinances of religion. At least 900
additional churches and chapels would be required for
the wants of the people.

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