The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-11-13 00:00:00

THE LORD NAYOR OF LONDON'S
SHOW.

EXTRAORDINARY PRECAUTIONS AGAINST
DISTURBANCE.

The Lord Mayor's Show on Tuesday was marred
both by unpropitious weather and by apprehensions
of disturbances. The crowd which assembled to wit-
ness the Civic pageant was not so large as usual, and
it was composed in great part of the rough element,
who would have taken advantage of any opportunity
for a riot. The elaborate police arrangements, sup-
ported as they were by the military, sufficed to main-
tain complete order along the line of route of the
Lord Mayor's Procession through the City to the Law
Courts—where the Lord Chief Justice made a some-
what remarkable address to the Civic party—and
thence through the Strand and Northumberland-
avenue, returning by the Thames Embankment to the
City.
Trafalgar-square, where the Socialists declared
their intention of holding a meeting, was the centre
of interest and of possible danger. Here the police
were assembled in large force, and although there
were many exciting incidents with the mob, no serious
collision occurred. After the Lord Mayor's proces-
sion had passed, the Socialists held a meeting at the
base of Nelson's Column. They were speaking for
nearly half an hour before the police interfered, and,
with the aid of troops, cleared the square. A part
of the mob then rushed along Pall-Mall, St. James's-
street, and Piccadilly, to the park; but no damage
was done on the way.
As to the civic procession itself, but for the livery
banners the numerous military bands and detach-
ments of regiments with which some of the chief
personages in the procession are or were connected,
its interest would have been confined to the allegorical
features that on this, as on many previous occasions,
have added to the attractions of the show. In this
section, however, it is perhaps scarcely fair to include
the steel model of a steam launch, fully rigged,
manned with the band of the Royal Navy Hospital
School, and with all the semblance of being
thoroughly ready for business, which was followed
by a lifeboat (the fifth presented to the National
Lifeboat Institution by members of the Civil Service)
manned by the Walmer crew. These items in the
programme were part and parcel of the Shipwrights'
Company's procession, and were heartily cheered at
all points of the route. Following immediately
after the banners of aldermen who had passed
the civic chair, a car representing Australasia
showed, grouped upon the platform. gold diggers
apparently pursuing their vocations, and surrounded
by the fruits and other productions of that quarter of
the globe. Next followed a well-arranged group
typical of the British possessions in West India and
South Africa, the soldiers and sailors, Boers and
Zulus, drawing forth a mingled salute of cheers and
humorous comments. Then came the emblem of
Canada, a white castellated edifice, supposed to repre-
sent the ice palace at Montreal, but which was evi-
dently not so readily appreciated by the dense crowds
through which it passed. The device emblematic of
India spoke, however, for itself, representing, as it
did, a tiger hunt in a miniature jungle, and being fol-
lowed by a couple of well-trained elephants, waiving
their trunks hither and thither from time to time in
search of buns and cakes. More elaborate than its
predecessors, and drawn by eight horses, was the sym-
bolical picture setting forth the extent mid greatness
of the United Kingdom, and dominated the figure of
Britannia grasping her trident; but, sooth to say, the
feature that mainly divided the public interest on this
car was the model of a lighthouse with lights burn-
ing, which was repeatedly hailed by the spectators as
the " Harbour Lights." All the usual municipal
features of the annual show served to complete the
processsion.

BANQUET TO HER MAJESTY'S MINISTERS.
The Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall was
attended by Lord Salisbury, the Lord Chancellor,
Lord and Lady Iddesleigh, Mr. W. H. Smith, Lord
Cranbrook, the Speaker, Mr. A. J. Balfour, Baron H.
de Worms, Lord John Manners, Mr. E. Stanhope,
Mr. Ritchie, Mr. S. Wortley, Lord George and Lady
Hamilton, Sir E. Clarke, M.P., Sir Charles Russell,
M.P., Lord Mount-Edgcurabe, the Greek Minister,
the Chinese Minister, Lord Charles Beresford, Lord
Waldegrave, Sir R. Webster, Mr. Matthew, Q.C.,
M.P., Sir James Ferguson, MX.' and Viscount Cross.
Lord George Hamilton, the Earl of Iddesleigh.
Lord Esher, the Attorney-feneral, the Speaker, and
others addressed the distinguished assembly, but the
chief speech delivelsd was that by the Premier, in
response to the toast of "Her Majesty's Ministers."
The Marquis of Salisbury regretted to say that the
parliamentary machine was working slowly, but still
that work ought to be judged not by quantity or
rapidity but by the caution wherewith it was guided.
He regretted that the Irish Question was still the one
which was most prominent before the country, but he
asserted that it was the duty of the Government to
obey the mandate of the constituencies at the election,
and to maintain law and order. He was glad to say
that order was better preserved now than was the
case some time ago, and the relations of landlord and
tenant were better kept up than had been the case
for a long period. It was not to legislation but
to a steady course of honest government that he
looked for the restoration of order in Ireland,
although he did not exclude legislation from considera-
tion. As to Egypt, he was afraid that the limit of our '
stay in that country would be a question not of time but
of what had to be done there. The reign of law and
order had to a large extent been assured, as well as a
great improvement in the financial condition. But it
is not, continued the noble marquis, to Egypt that the
thoughts are turned to those who consider our foreign
policy at the present time. It is the eternal Eastern
Question that is on us again. Again and again have
you heard in this hall references made by successive
Ministers to the difficulties which have baffled suc-
cessive generations of politicians in the south-east of
Europe. At the present day there is something
novel in the difficulty with which we have to deal.
The Balkan Peninsula is occupying all our attention.
It is not the Turkish Empire that is in question.
The territory which is governed by Turkey is not
in question at this moment. The territory is a Chris-
tian State inhabited by a free population, whose
troubles and whose dangers have deeply affected the
feelings and sympathy of the people of this couotry.
(Cheers.) The people of Bulgaria, as you know,
ten years ago excited the sympathy of the inhabit-
ants of this country to an extraordinary degree, and
since that time when they were liberated from the
dominion to which they objected, and were placed in
a position of independence. Europe has founded great
hopes upon them. It was hoped that their progress in
freedom and civilisation would furnish an impassable
barrier—a barrier that Turkish regiments never could
have furnished against any perilous aggression from
outside. (Cheers.) But. their progress has not belied
the hopes that Europe fixed upon them. It is but a
few weeks ago, if I remember right—it was the time
that we were invited by your predecessor, who sits
beside me, to meet him in the Mansion House—that
those hopes seemed to be brightest, and that the pros-
pects of Bulgaria seemed to be unclouded. Then a
great catastrophe occurred. A midnight conspiracy
which I need not qualify. (Cheers.) A midnight
conspiracy of the officers in whom the gallant and
able Prince that then ruled over Bulgaria—
(cheers)—in whom he had placed his special trust,
and whom he had led to victory—they, debauched
by foreign gold—(cheers)—turned against the
Prince who had led them and hurled
him from the throne. The event was received with
deep consternation by the conscience and the senti-
ment of Europe—(cheers)—and with scarcely less
consternation did they hear that the resources of
foreign diplomacy had been employed in order to save
those men from the doom that they justly merited.
(Cheers.) The spectacle that followed excited similar
feelings. Encroachment after encroachment upon the
rights of an independent people, encroachments for-
tunately hitherto limited within the points of diplo-
matic menace, was witnessed by Europe with the
deepest regret and the most earnest reprobation—
(hear, hear) --and it was felt that such events too
naturally gave rise to sinister rumours, which we
have every ground to believe are unfounded, and too
naturally gave to the Christian races of the Peninsula
a gloomy presentiment of the fate that lay before
them. But if the prospect in one respect has been
most lamentable, in other respects it has been a pro-
spect upon which European opinion has looked with
pleasure and with admiration. These people of the
Bulgarias have had no long apprenticeship in freedom.
They are but recently released from the enervating in-
fluences and the subjection under which they have been
placed, and yet they had exhibited a courage, a resolu-
tion, a tenacity, a determination to secure their
national and individual freedom which would have
done credit to races which had enjoyed freedom for
centuries, and will lend a happy augury to the begin-
ning of that which I believe will be a brilliant history.
(Loud cheers.) My Lord Mayor, in these things the
nations el Europe have an interest. The rights of
Bulgaria %re assured by the Berlin treaty---(cheers)------
a treaty upon which the present peace of South-Eastern
Europe rests. Much speculation has been used as to
the attitude which this country would observe with
respect to the Berlin Treaty and to the violations
which, in the opinion of some, it has been received.
This country has an interest, but it is not an isolated
interest. (Hear, hear.) It is a corporate interest.
In combination with the other Powers of Europe,
we have signed that treaty, but there rests upon
us no isolated duty to vindicate that treaty
if it should be broken, if the Powers of Europe,
or any considerable portion of the Powers of
Europe, recognise the duty of vidicating the
treaty under any contingencies that may arise,
I am sure that the English people will not be back-
ward to recognise their duty. (Loud and prolonged
cheers.) But for those who wish to know what the
policy of England will be, I will ask them to look at
the past. I believe that in spite of occasional and
transitory aberrations the foreign policy of England
has been and will be continuous, and I would ask
those who wish to know the policy of England not to
to waste their time in considering the proclivities of
this or that Minister of the day. (A. laugh.) Let
them ask what the English people have done in the
past and they will know what the English people will
do in the future. (Loud cheers.) Three times since
this century has begun the Balkan Peninsula has been
invaded by the hosts of the North. The first took
place under the Ministry of the Duke of Wellington—
uot an unwarlike man—(hear, hear)—but when the
invasion took place England was alone; she had no
allies; and under the guidance of the Duke of Wel-

lington she recognised that no isolated duty fell liprrl
her, that her interests were not engaged, and she con-
tented herself with a protest. The next time was under
the Earl of Aberdeen, well known for what may be
called his pacific fanaticism. But that time England
had allies. France, Austria, and later on Italy as
well as Turkey, ranged themselves on our side in the
European conflict, and under the guidance of the
pacific Minister, Lord Aberdeen, England performed
her duty as a member of the European concert. The
third time Lord Beaconsfield was Minister. (Cheers.)
He was not entirely averse to exertion or blind to
the duties imposed upon England by her glorious
past. But again England was without allies. H,3
recognised that an invasion of the interior of the
Balkan Peninsula was not an interest of England,
that she was not bound to take any isolated action,
and Lord Beaconsfield inspired and guided a policy
of peace. • (Cheers.) It was a policy of precaution,
too, for he took measures in case the cloud of war
had turned towards these straits where our interests
unquestionably lie, that there the power of England
should be felt and the interests of England defended.
But the point which these precedents establibh
—and I hold that in foreign policy precedents are
especially valuable—is the duties which fall upon
England, not on account of her own interests, but as
a member of the European confederacy, which she
will perform in concert with other members of the
European confederacy. but she will 'Lot accept the
duty of maintaining those obligations on behalf of
others who do not think it necessary to maintain them
for themselves. But you must carefully di,tinguish
the case when her own interests are affected. If
British interests are affected, England will ask for no
counsel, and seek for no assistance. (Cheers.) Her
own right arm will be strong enough to defend her
interests wherever they are attacked. (Cheers.) But
in the present case not only the precedents which I
have recited to you will show you that her immediate
interests are not engaged, but there is the fact that
the two great empires of Austria and Turkey, who
themselves hold territories in the Balkan Peninsula--
these events taking place at their doors—look upon
. them apparently with equanimity and without appre-
hension, and we should be unduly fastidious and ap-
prehensive if we thought our interests were threatened
when, in their judgments, interests which are so near
them are untouched. (Cheers.) In this matter
Austria is on the look out. The opinion and judg-
ment of Austria must have an enormous weight in the
councils of her Majesty's Government, and the policy
hich Austria pursues will contribute very largely
to shape the policy which England also will pursue.
(Cheers.) But at present, whatever the future may
have in store for us, I see no cause for apprehension
that the great blessing of European tranquillity will
be disturbed. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)