The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-02 00:00:00

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR MEDALS.

It is announced that the South African War Medals
are now ready for issue to members of most of the
corps belonging to Natal and the Transvaal who served
in the military operations in 1877-8-9, and to the next
of kin of deceased members. The medals will be trans-
mitted to South Africa for distribution; but as it is
understood that some members of the above•men-
tioned corps or the relations of deceased members are
resident in the United Kingdom, it is desired that
applications from such persons, accompanied by docu-
ments supporting claims, may be addressed at once to
the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies,
Downing-street, S.W.
The lists of the Cape Mounted Rifles and other
Cape corps have not been received from the Colony,
so the medals for these cannot yet be issued.

A telegram from Alexandria states that the King
Kalakaua, of the Sandwich Islands has embarked there for
Naples.
From Braemar it is reported that sporting prospects
Improve. The nesting and hatching seasons were favour-
ably passed, the result being a healthy and full crop of
young birds. The coveys are more thin usually plentiful,
and contain from four to nine birds each. Of the earlier
hatchings many are already so strong that when a covert
is broken into or disturbed the birds are able to take wing
far short distances. In the forests of Mar, Ivercanld, and
neighbouring properties, the prospects are invariably
eueLlent.

BANQUET to thi REPRESENTATIVES of

LITERATURiI and JOURNALISM.

On Saturday eveningthe Lord Mayor of London gave at
the Mansion House a lanquet to about 230 representatives
of literature. Among thee present were the Earl of Lytton,
Viscount Sherbrooke, A. Gustave Dore, Mr. R. D. Black.
more, Mr Justice Gro'e, the Earl of Rosslyn, Dr. Lyon
Playfair, M.P., Mr. W Black, Mr. W. S. Gilbert, Mr.
G. A. Sala, Sir T. r.rskine May, the Rev. Canon
Farrar, the Earl of Deurt, Mr. A. Forbes, Lord Laming-
ton, the Rev. Canal Barry, Sir Jules Benedict,
Mr. W. Besant, Sir lichael Costa, Mr. Jas. Knowles,
Mr. Hamilton Aide, Mr. Frederick Harrison, Mr.
J. Hollingshead, Mr. W. M. Rosetti, Dr. Richard-
son, Mr. C. Pellegrin, Sir F. Pollock, Mr. J. R.
Robinson, Mr. R. H. Ildton, Mr. F. Greenwood, Mr. H.
31erivale, Lord Braye, Sir 11. Thompson, Mr H. Torrens,
M.P., Mr. J. McCarthy, M.P., Mr. T. Rogers, 31. P., Mr. Moy
Thomas, Mr. Burnand, Mr. B. H. Becker, Lieutenant-Colonel
Butler, C. 8., Mr. Giffen, Mr. Dasent, Mr. Julian Hawthorne,
Mr. Kegan Paul, Colonel Malleson, Mr. P. Merritt, Mr.
Farjeon, Mr. Karl Blind, Mr. A. Macmillan, Mr. G.
Routledge, the Rev. J. G. Wood, the Rev. E. Paxton Hood,
Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. 31. Tapper, Mr. D. Cook, Mr. Warren
de la Rue, Professor Monier Williams, Mr. Bryce, M.P., Mr.
E. Pigott, Mr. W. J. Soulsby, c.tc.
After the usual loyal toasts had been given and re-
sponded to, the Lord Mayor, in giving "The Repre-
sentatives of Literature," said that it afforded him very
great satisfaction to have the honour of entertaining
so large a representative assembly of men whose intel-
lectual powers redeemed the age from the cause of
sordid materialism. H 3 called upon Lord Houghton
and the Earl of Lytton to respond for Poetry, Mr.
Blackmore and Mr. Black for Fiction, Mr. Justin
McCarthy, M.P., and Mons. L. Ulbach for History,
Dr. W. Smith for Biography and Classical Litera-
ture, and Viscount Sherbrooke, Mr. E. Yates, and
Mr. A. Forbes for Journalism. (Cheers.)
The toastmaster reading the following Berlin tele-
gram from John Nordman, chairman of the Con-
cordia :—"To the Lord Mayor, Mansion House,
London,—The German loves and honours Shakespeare;
he equally honours and loves the British nation which
has produced such a genius. The veneration which
the English have for intellectual progress in every
sphere forms her greatness. The Mansion House
banquet is a new proof of it. God save the British
nation. God protect the Lord Mayor." (Laughter
and loud cheers).

Lord Houghton having replied,
The Earl of Lytton, who was received with cheers,
remarked that had it been his task to represent any
of those prosaic departments of active life in which the
greater part of his own life had been employed he
should certainly not have been without confidence in
the benevolent sympathy of the many distinguished
men of letters around him merely because a genius
had associated with the literature of England the
name he inherited. (Cheers.) He felt no such con-
fidence in responding to that toast. On the contrary,
to tali about p'oet'ry .witA'atir co-n-fide-ricet. Ad
sence of poets was liable to that rebuke which was ad-
ministered by one of the great ladies of the Bourbon
Court to her family physician, when she told him that
he had takeh an unwarrantable liberty and committed
a most unpardonable impertinence in presuming to
bleed her in her own presence. (Laughter.) It was
one thing to have a corner of one's own in poetry, and
now and then to return to it with a joyful feeling; but
it was quite another thing to return thanks for poets'
corner. (Laughter.) As, like Hogarth's distressed
poet, he was imperatively called upon not only to
acknowledge an obligation but discharge it on the
spot, he was tempted to take a hint from a story
once told him by M. Thiers about two gentlemen
of his acquaintance. One owed the other a sum of
money. It was a debt of honour. The debtor
had shown so marked a disinclination to discharge
it that at last his friend reproached him with
having forgotten his debt. "No," was the reply, "4
have not forgotten it. I acknowledge it, and what
is more, I am perfectly willing to go on acknow-
ledging it all my life." (Laughter.) Fortunately for
the Lord Mayor and his guests, he could not go on
acknowledging the toast all the evening. (Laughter.)
Art was long, but speeches about art ought to be
short when made after dinner. (Laughter.) Stand-
ing in that famous hall, it was impossible for any
man to forget or underrate the immense obligation
which was owed by poetry, and especially by living
poets, to the genius of commerce, which was there the
genius of the place. (Cheers.) The spirit of com-
mercial enterprise had everywhere been the great
solvent of feudal bondage, which remained longer in
literature than in any other department of productive
labour. (Cheers.) To a very late period of imaginative
literature of this country was mainly sustained by the
relations between the poet and the patron. Now they
were entirely maintained upon those nobler and
happier relations which subsisted between the poet and
the public. (Cheers.) He trusted the genius of English
poetry would repay its great obligations to the genius
of English commerce by strengthening and beautify-
ing in the imagination of the English people all those
sobrieties of society and those domestic sanctities
which must in the long run constitute the national
safeguards of any great commercial community such
as our own. (Cheers.)
Mr. Blackinore, Mr. W. Black, Mr. J. McCarthy,
M.P. M. Ulba ch, and Dr. W. Smith briefly re-
sponded.
Viscount Sherbrooke, who was loudly cheered, said
he would endeavour to say a few words on the subject
of journalism without inquiring too narrowly why
the duty had fallen upon him. (Laughter.) Scientific,
mathematical, and other improvements had to a cer-
tain degree overpowered and overshadowed the purely
intellectual part of education. The cause was the enor-
mous increase of physical resources which enabled the
newspapers every morning to crowd upon our table
information which in former years might have supplied
the wants nearly of twelve months. In order that this
abundant information might be digested by people
who were busy and employed, manlcind had invented
journalism. Journalism, quite different from what it.
was years ago, now took upon itself the duty of making
up peoples minds for those who had not time
o.nm „p n terl—and to
give them a choice beforehand in what sense they
wish them to be made up. (Laughter.) He called that
a noble and glorious institution. (Loud laughter.)
People said, "Here is Mr. A. who holds a certain set
of opinions, and will certainly arrive at ona conclu-
sion ; while there is Mr. 8., who will certainly arrive
at another conclusion." One person said, "I like to
read the conclusion of Mr. A.", and another "I like
that of Mr. B." "So let us pay our money to
the man we like best, and be sure of having
what we want." (Laughter.) That was a splendid
improvement on the old jog-trot procedure when
people proposed after months or even years of
careful consideration to work out the exact truth of
the problems of history. (Laughter.) "Nous avons
chang6 tout cela." (Laughter.) It is all done in half-
an-hour. (Laughter.) Almost before the ink is dry
it is whisked off in the train, and all the world knows
what to think on every subject. (Laughter.) Though
nature had poured upon us in extraordinary abundance
the gifts of obtaining an immense quantity of know-
ledge, we had shown ourselves perfectly equal to cope
With nature. There were gentlemen who could go as
fast as she could, and if there was anything to be got
by it he had no doubt they would go a great deal
faster. (Laughter.) He thought he had performed
everything that could reasonably be expected of him
as an advocate of the gentlemen of the Press. (Loud
laughter, and cheers.)
Mr. E. Yates and Mr. A. Forbes likewise replied.
Mr. Walter, M.P., proposed "The Health of the
Lord Mayor," which was heartily honoured, and with
the acknowledgments of the Lord Mayor the proceed-
ings terminated.