The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-24 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER

consist of two or at most of three hundred words.
One would imagine, from the little variety which they
displayed, that the repertory of epithets at the com-
mand of many in a much higher station was similarly
deficient in copiousness. Metaphors were not intended
to lower but to raise a subject. If selected from types
low in the social a .ale they necessarily lowered it.
And they did something worse; they lowered the tone
of the employers of them, even though they were men,
and so acquainted, perhaps by inevitable intercourse,
with the scenes and persons from which they were de-
rived. If they were women, especially if they were
'young women, they not merely jarred upon the ear as
indicating lack of good taste, but raised a surmise that
they had been adopted in order to please men of an in-
different stamp and of very limited reading or under-
standing. It might be supposed that their age was so
refined that any remonstrances on higher or moral
grounds on the subject of conversation tending 0 im-
purity were superfluous. He wished that it were so.
But had licentious talk utterly disappeared.fro,na the
converse of young men. Was an anecdote at brine dis-
countenanced even by older men if it was flavoured or
tinged with an impure allusion? Were the nauseoudde-
tails of the Divorce Court passed over in silence at every
table? Were the conduct and equipages of what was
palliatingly, and almost encouragingly, called the
demi-monde no matters for discussion and curiosity?
He just threw out these hints for their careful con-
sideration. Profane swearing in common talk was,
happily, banished for the most part in the,present e
among the higher classes. The time had passed avi7a,
when men practised it so habitually as to think it law-
ful among themselves' and merely a solecism in
politeness, to be atoned for by "I beg ynur pardon for
' swearing,' if indulged in before a lady ov a clergyman.
They might trust that something deeper than taitel
was at the root of the modern amendment. Af t-
mentioning sneering at sacred things as a fault fre-
quently committed ; observing that the faculties
employed in colloquial conversation were clearly gifts
of God,' imd, like His other gifts, talents of trust and
means of probation; quoting a passage from Johnson's'
"Rambler" presenting a portrait of one who in his con-
versation showed proper consideration for others, and a
delicacy of feeling for which, the preacher observed, we
lock in -vain. in the celebrated "Conversation Sets"
with which recent literary and other memoirs have.
made us familiar; and citing the testimony of Sir
Arthur Helps to the absence from the Prince Consort's
conversation of the fault to which he was alluding, the
reverend" gentlemm concluded by defending himself
for having in treating his 'subject used language not
often heard in the pulpit and drawn illustrations from
authors-of topics' not' often mentioned there. It was,,
he:pa,i4; his strong -impressien that a mistake was
often made ‘ by, 4 too'eaclusive adoption in ser ,•4‘ll of
scriptural tends-and phrases. Had he pursue. uch -
a course .they might have dismissed the matter much
in the tone of Tennyson's old-fashioned Northern
Farmer. That man sat fol. yearanpderthe teaching of
4iiitcountry:parsou':. bneffiongli he gave him credit for
having something to say, and for saying what he
ought to h'aee said, he came away, Sunday after Sun-
day, without a glimmering of what he meant. That
could not be so with them.. • ! -'
• .

day
-I,y_i

for a speech, and said that he came from Pottsville, m
the interior of Pennsylvania, and, "although from
the country, could spell with any man in the State."
At a late hour the audience dispersed, there being
much gratification expressed at the amusement
afforded and much criticism at the way the affair was
managed. The "Spelling Bee," however, brought in
a large sum, and was a success in this, if not as a
"spell."

DEPARTURE OF MR. SERJEANT
BALLANTINE FROM INDIA.

The 2 imes of India gives the following account of the
departure of Mr. Serjeant Ballantine
"The learned serjeant received quite an ovation, on
his arrival at the Apollo Bunder in Bombay on
Monday evening, March.22thl. A number of persons
began to congregate at the bunder soon after four
o'clock, and before five a large crowd had collected,
principally Parsees and Hindoos, lining the road
for some distance. Allowing for the numerous indivi-
duahi-who were present froni habit or mere curiosity,
it was evident that a large body had come with
the set purpose of paying their respects to the able
defender of the unhappy Mulharac. Accordingly,
as the carriage drove up in which the serjeant
rode it was immediately surrounded. The ser-
jeant, with the ladies who accompanied him, was
overpowered with flowers and deafening cheers,
and a complimentary address, to which some hundreds
of signatures were appended, was read to him. The
enthusiasm or bad manners of the cro.wd prevented its
being heard by more than two or three, but its purport
was an expression of thanks by_a wan" of tiiir
abitants city to-the serjeatit-for ..the labw
_ had -liestowed--in encleavourinf," to secure justice
to his Highness. Mr. Serjeant Ballantine replied in
a few words, thanking the citizens who thus addressed
him for their kindness, saying that he had tried to do
his duty to his Highness, whom he thought hardly
•Aped, and he trusted:justice would be done in the
end. With some difficulty the serjeant found his' way
to the steam launch which was)n,waiting, and sal,
barked. His laiit-' view 61 Bombay was the -pier
crowded from end to end with natives, cheering and
waving adieu to him. Several gentlefilen were on
board the steamer to see him off."

' •- - • ..,
It) iP NOMLEANDER:

• • '

tuted a republication. Fortunately there happened
to be two other witnesses, and her own
attestation was treated as surplusage. We have known
another instance in which the devotion of a life-time
reliant upon posthumous benefaction was all but de-
feated by the act of an amateur drawer of a codicil, by
no means relating to the original disposition of a pro-
mised legacy, who inadvertently called in the legatee
to attest. liere, again, good fortune intervened, as
the lawyer to whom the codicil was afterwards shown,
happening to know of the will and its contents, at once
had another prepared, properly executed and attested,
add enjoyed the satisfaction of saving a friend's little
fortune, by burning the dangerous codicil in the pres-
ence of the moribund testator by his express direction.
—" Law and Crime," in Pictorial World.