The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-11 00:00:00

. . ,

THE STOUPERIDGE .OBSEBVPSIL.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1888.

THE RESUMED SESSION.

THE Recess has at length come to a close
and Parliament is once again in session.'
Irresponsible platform speeches of the purely
party order, of which we have surely had
enough to satisfy the hungriest political
appetite daring the few mouths past, must
now give place to debate under the dignified
presidency of Mr. Speaker. It is too much,
alas, to hope in these days that all will be
amity and order during the legislative dis-
cussions which will arise upon controversial
matters; but within the walls of St. Stephen's
it will be incumbent upon the representatives
of the people to express themselves at least
in Parliamentary language, though the
dread of being "named " will not prevent
some hononrable members from indulging
in provoking personalities and pungent
speech at the expense of political opponents.
The Government will be -" heckled" by its
critics, without doubt; a whole host a the
Opposition will prefer an indictment against
Ministers, and in addition take the sense of
the House in the Commons on Irish matters.
The action of the metropolitan police
authorities, too, with regard to Trafalgar-
square, and all the incidents which have
arisen therefrom, will be certain to furnish
another lively debate in the people's chamber;
and if the latter subject is scarcely likely to
trouble the peers at great length, the former
will furnish their lordships with opportuni-
ties for brilliant oratorical contest that are
not likely to be neglected by the titled
leaders of the various partieb. The first
matter for discussion in a resumed session is
always the Address from the Throne, on
' which it has of late become customary to
raise almost every matter of burning public
interest, and thrash it out thoroughly.
Ostensibly the Queen's Speech is a brief and
pithy resume' of the outlook at home and
abroad, a formal appeal for "ways and
means," and a foreshadowing of the chief
bills to be brought forward during the ses-
sion ; but it is now the fashion for every
member who represents a clique, a party, or
an interest antagonistic to her Majesty's
Ministers for the time being to move an
amendment, and so secure an emphasis or an
eclipse of his own position as fate may will.
Though the usage seems at first sight one
which would be more honoured in the
breach than the observance, it is not with
its points of recommendation. The
Address debate may thereby be drawn out
and extended over weeks, but it has the
effect Of clearing the air, and making way
for a straightforward and earnest handling
of legislative details as they arise later on;
doing away with excuses for digression in
fact, which otherwise might be urged. It is
true that rarely daring the long succession
of harangues which are delivered from
Ministerial and Opposition benches before
the Queen's Speech is finally disposed of is
anything which is at once novel and of high
importance heard; bat the word-warriors
then try conclusions in an autlsorative at-
mosphere. The stump speeches on plat-
forms up and down the country have been
but trial runs, so to speak, to get up the
pace for the Parliamentary race on the
recognised course at Westminster. The
results declared by the tellers when the
divisions have been taken practically settle
the matters at issue for the time being, and
seeing that until a contest has taken place
neither party will give way, it is quite as
well that contentious questions should be
decisively voted upon as early as possible
during the session. It is convenient, we
contend, that whatever Government is in
power should se:ze the first available occasion
for showing that it possesses a working
majority, or else of meeting the fate of a
Ministry which has lost the confidence of
Parliament. On the present occasion both
the Salisbury Administration and its oppon-
ents are pretty well sure that, so long as
Lord Hartington and Mr. Chamberlain and
their followers continuo to snpport Govern-
ment, Mr. Gladstone and his adherents will
be unable to oust them from office. There
are, therefore, no exciting anticipations of
critical divisions in the immediate future.
We trust, such being the case, that time of
Parliament will not be wasted over factions
struggles between the "ins,, and "outs."
No reasonable or unprejudiced person will
object to a full and exhaustive discussion of
all matters of imperial importance which
have cropped up since Pat liament was pro-
rogued. It is all in the best interest of the
community that the views of able statesmen
of every shade of opinion should be given on
vital subjects in the legislative Chambers, in
well weighed words, which shall thencefor-
ward be prerved for all who will to refer to.
Bei there need not be perpetual and fruit.
less trials of stren:,th between Government
and Opposition, degrading Imperial Parlia-
ment into a mammoth election hustings. To
secute that eoncordwhich.would be pleasing
to all well-wishers of the State, there mast
be a " iv and take spirit of self•abnega-
. tan; 'liSpiayed,a sinkin(!: of partisanship ia
patriotism, both by those who are in power
and those who are not. The Opposition
must not be eternally moving or coniving
at the moviiig. of amendments to Govern-
ment 'notions ou the one hand, nor seeking
to put forward votes of censure on the other.
solely for securing political capitol. vltlO-
must the majority, to wl:om the country
entrusted authority, ta,1..; undue advant::
of the strength which i• Inbers affords, ..
give way to applying t cloture with

tating frev -y, and cutting short debates,
which, if pr i 'clod with, would be likely to
lead to valuzi, reform. If every individual
member of t Commons would bear in
mind that he is there not as a Liberal or a
Conservative primarily, not as the repre-
sentative of those only whose votes returned
him, but as an mpartial mouthpiece of the
constituency for which he sits, we should
have no friction, no obstruction, no all-night
sittings, no discreditable "scenes " in the
house. We say every member of the Com-
mons, because in the serener Upper Cham-
ber there is never such stress of work or
such violent divergence of feeling tus to
endanger the progress of Parliamentary
business. We would not have a party-less
Parliament, for our system of Government
and Constitutional Opposition is of inestim-
able value ; but we should rejoice to see an
end of the ceaseless contest for place which
at present occupies so large a proportion of
, the time that should be devoted to the affairs
of the nation. A thoroughly representative
Parliament, the chief aim of every member
of which is to give his wisdom and energy
: to solid work for the State, is what we would
fain have in Britain. .

COMYIENTS ON CURRENT NEWS

TEIE chief events of the few days last past
abroad have been the publication of the
Anstro-German Treaty, which has long
secretly existed, and Prince Bismarck's
great speech on the European situation. It
is generally accepted that peace prospects
are considerably strengthened by reason of
the new phase of the Continental problem,
though the effect upon Russia's position is
far from pleasing to the Czar and his ad-
visers. It is satisfactory to hear the
mighty German Chancellor state emphati-
cally that the little bit of country between
the Balkans and the Danube is not of
sufficient magnitude to plunge Europe into
war ; for if non-intervention in Bulgaria is
stoutly championed in Berlin and Vienna, a
great danger will be materially diminished,
Germany with her natural ally, Austria,
seems to be going on the plan of preventing
war by being prepared for it. Let as hope
that they will maintain that position to-
gether ; and that France will become less
restless, Russia shows less menace, and we
ourselves, with Italy, observe a pacific
neutrality. There is no reason why each a
happy state of things should not permanently
obtain.

SOME of the metropolitan magistrates have
been pouring out righteous wrath upon the
wretches who drag little children of tender
years about the streets in all sorts of severe
weather for begging purposes. It is time
these heartless men and women received
stern reprobation and heavy punishment for
their outrages upon the helpless. Those
whose generosity is nearer the mental sur-
face than is their prudence are the uninten-
tional accomplices of the cruel tramps who
prey on the misery of the babies they ex-
pose to the elements. So long as passers-
by will be foolish enough to imagine they
are doing a kindly charitable act by bestow-
ing alms on the slouching mendicants
accompanied by poor, half-naked, boys and
starving girls, our streets will never lack
the heartrending spectacle of worthless
beggars, the tools of whose trade are pity.
compelling children, hired for the purpose
of attracting copper.. Their abandoned
parents lend them out at so much a day,
their ensEodians indulge in low and brutal
revels with the ill-gotton gain they bring.

THIS has been a week abounding in
tragedies, but nothing of so sensational a
character as the murder of a whole family
discovered at Salford on Friday of last week,
has occurred for years past. Poor Derby
must, of coarse, have been, as the coroner's
jury found, demented ; bat it is said, indeed,
that his madness took so homicidal a turn
as to compass the deaths of his wife and six
children as well as his own. What an
appalling scene that mast have been which
presented itself to those who broke into the
house of the murdered family : the wife
and the children in their bola asleep in the
sleep which knows no earthly waking ; the
fond husband and father on his couch "with
death so like a slumber on hi_Li" also. He
had prepared a notion which gave no pain,
bat stilled the heart's pulsation for ever.
No wonder that the occarrence caused a
profoundly painful feeling in and around
Salford.

LITTLE of sympathy will be extended
towards the foolish woman who went near
to meeting a horrible death in Dublin the
other day whilst taking a perilous liberty
with a lioness. Fortunately for her she
eacapod by chance from her dangerous ad-
venture without serious harm. foo much
condemnation cannot be passed upon those
so-called entertainments, the attractions of
which consist solely in the feeling that the
audience has that the performer is every
moment exposed to the hazard of a fearful
fatalit,. Surely,. if ever a woman tempted
Providence, to employ a homely phrase, she
did who placed her head within the jaws of
a savage animal, and kept it there while a
dazzling magnesium light was directed
straight to the beast's mouth, in order that
the photographer might perpetuate the
thrilling if altogether useless scene. The
persons responsible for such sickening
exhibitions, which can but pander to the
most morbid tastes, should be mulcted in
heavy penalties, until "exciting entertain-
ments" at which men, women, or children
are liable aly minute to be brutally
butchered to :lake a modern holiday are put
a stop to alto. then

.0•11•=..r..41Me••

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