The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-09-04 00:00:00

Our Fintban Coutsponbtnt.

(We deem It right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

It is a long time since any social question attracted
so much attention as the high price of meat. Like
the power of the Crown in the reign of George 111. it
has m creased, is increasing, and ought tdthe diminished.
A little over ten years have now elapsed since the
cattle plague appeared at a dairy at BarnsburY, a
north central district of London, and it spread rapidly.
It was first detected on the 24th of June, 1865, and
made such alarming progress that by the 21st of
October following, over 27,000 beasts had been at-
tacked, 12,000 -of- whom had died, and 9,000 were
slaughtered. Such an enormous loss of animal food
made a deep ina-preeeioi upon the country ; and Lord
Palmerston who was then Prime Minister, ase
a Royal commission to inquire into the causes of the
cattle plague and to suggest remedies. The cheery old
man was laid in his grave in Westminster Abbey be-
fore the Commissioners could report; his funeral took
place on the 27th of October, and on the 31st a majority
reported that i n their opinion the disease had been brought
into the kingdom from abroad, recommending the
slaughter of animals at the port of landing, and the
stringent prohibition of the passage of cattle across public
roads. Parliament, however, was not sitting; and the
Administration, to the head of which Lord Russell
had succeeded, hesitated to adopt the extreme course
of interdicting all land transport of cattle, without
the concurrence of the Legislature. Meanwhile the
distemper continued to rage; and by the Ist of
February, when Parliament assembled, 120,740 beasts
had been attacked, 16,740 killed. 73,750 had died,
14,160 Lad recovered, and 16,086 were unaccounted
for. Then arose a strong public demand that the
scourge should be stamped out, extremely repressive
measures were adopted, and by the middle of April,
the mortality began sensibly to abate. On the 20th of
June, 1866, nearly twelve months from the date of the
first appearance of the pest in Barnshury, the Privy
Council issued a return showing that 80,5974 had been
slaughtered, and that 124,187 had died. The plague had
thus eost us more than 200,000 beasts, and giving the ave-
rage value of each at only £10; here was a loss of £2,000,000
sterling. At length all traces of the outbreak died
away, but no one would tell you that the price of
animal food has again come down to the figures which
prevailed before June, 1865. For this the cattle
plague is not, however, strictly or solely responsible.
Tere is another cause of which I will now speak.
In Smithfield there is an immense building known
as the Metropolitan Dead Meat Market, and if you
were to pay a visit to it after five o'clock on a Satur-
day afternoon, you would see it thronged by working
men and their wives. In every department of indus-
try wages are now considerably better that they were
ten years ago, one immediate consequence of which is
a vastly increased consumption of animal food. So
that, at the same time that the cattle plague dimi-
.
mailed our supplies, the higher wages have augmented
the demand, and with two such agencies acting
together, who can marvel that the price of meat keeps
UP? At this central meat market animal food may be
bought at a penny or twopence per lb. cheaper than in
other parts of London. There the working men and
their life partners most do congregate; but during the
past week or two, since the Privy Council restrictions
nave so cut off the London supplies, a large proportion
of the gathering has not put on a cheerful aspect.
Legs of mutton at 11d, per lb., loins at 9id.
and 10d., shoulders of lamb at 10d.—what would our
forefathers have said to such rates as these?
You may have a scrap of a rib of beef at 10d.
per lb. if you like, but you won't find much suet about
It, nor will you discover the usual portion of the upper
. fetter pieces. Smaller•pieces of low-class beef—very
poor specimens indeed—fetched Bd. per lb., but not
Len ago these would scarcely be looked at. It is not
a pleasant sight on such occasions to see the poor
women wandering from stall to stall, and trying to
beat down the tariff of the butchers. In most cases
this is of no avail; the tradesman seta his price upon
his goods, and if you don't like itryou are at perfect
liberty to leave it. There is now a demand by con-
sumers upon the Government for relaxing, the regula-
tions applicable to the slaughtering of cattle and sheep
before they reach the London market. Naturally
enough, wholesale importers decline to do business un-
less they can make a profit, and they declare that they
can only make that profit by bringing the live cattle
and sheep direct to the markets of first-claea descrip-
tions. On the other hand the Government is urged by
the medical profession to make no relaxation what-
ever. Better, they say, submit to the high price of
meat than run the risk of another introduction of the
cattle plague.
The art of letter-writing is an acccmplishment to
which a considerable degree of attention has been
directed in recent years. Strictly speaking, letter.
writers may be divided into three classes: the man
who feels a pleasure in writing, the man who writes
because it is his duty to do so, and the man to whom
writing is a positive nuisance. To what extent, and
on what grounds one man can fairly expect to engage
another in correspondence is a question which has not
received the consideration it deserves. The opinion
generally prevails that not to answer a letter is an
offence against good manners; but in our busy age
such a dictum as this ought not to be without quali-
fication. The man who could frame a rational code of
laws on letter-writing would be a public benefactor.
Correspondence should be a matter of mutual agree-
ment, and not be made to depend upon the will of
one party; or at least no offence should be taken if
disinclination is manifested by the other. Nobody
would think of asking a Prime Minister or a Poet
Laureate to take a walk with him without first dis-
covering whether it would be agreeable ; but with
some prevailing notions of letter-writing few would
think it out of place to endeavour to engage either in
a correspondence by post. It is a fact that in the
Parliamentary Session the most eminent members of
the House of Commons receive innumerable applica-
tions for admissions to the Strangers' Gallery, the
sole purpose of the applicants being to procure the
autographs of distinguished men. There is. no intention
whatever of using the order; but the signature "B.
Disraeli," or "W. E. Gladstone" is quietly cut out,
and added to the list which already adorns the pages
of an autographic album.
There is little doubt that the mere fact of a man
having been enabled to swim across toe English
Channel will give a great impetus to the rapidly-
extending movement for teaching the art of swimming
in our schools. At the very last meeting of the London
School Board before rising for the vacation, a resolu
tion was passed unanimously, referring to one of the
committees of the main body the question how far in-
struction in swimming could be carried out inthe
schools under the control of the board. The facilities
for learning it have certainly increased during the past
few years, and in the summer months the swimming
baths upon the Thames have been patronised to a
degree which their promoters never anticipated when
they started the project. The success of the
intrepid
Englishman who braved the terrors of the sea for
twenty-two hours, will stimulate numbers of muscular
young men to the acquirement of a useful and health-
giving accomplishment.
Commodore Goodenough, whose loss is deeply felt
by the naval profession, was a victim, there is very
little doubt, to the exasperation of the savage islanders
whom he was endeavouring to conciliate, at the kid-
napping which is so continually going on in the South
Seas. The murder of Bishop Patteeon, two or three
years ago, may be attributed to the same cause,
Bishop Heber's description of Ceylon
" Where every prospectVeases
And only man is vile,"
might well be applied to those far-off Polynesian
islands which dot the surface of the mighty Pacific.
It is there that the kidnapper plies his traffic with
daring, and often with impunity. To the rude bar-
barians of these lands, the appearance of a white man
is suggestive of ruined and desolated homes, and we
see the result in the assassination of a bishop of the
church, and a valued officer in the navy. Thus far,
neither the Colonial Office nor the work of Christian
effort in the operations of the Aborigines Protection
Society has been effectual in putting a stop to a traffic
which is a scandal to our civilization, and cught to
stamp with eternal disgrace all who either take part in
it, or in any way connive at it.
Those of the Volunteers who have been encamped
with the regulars at Aldershott have, according to an
official memorandum issued from the War Office,
gone through their work in soldierly style. The
weather, in the first place, was in every way a contrast
to that which prevailed at Wimbledon during the
rifle contest, and amid those July rains which had such
fatal and disastrous results. At the same time, when
i
it s remembered that many of the men gave up their
annual holiday in order to undergo this training and
that all of them sacrificed comforts and luxuries for
the time they were in camp, it will be seen that they
have had anything but a picnic No Volunteer was
permitted to join the camp unless he bound him-
self to remain under canvas for a week at least and
e e
during that time he had to submit t the regulations
which governed the behaviour of the regular troops.
lle was, in fact, treated in every respect as a soldier of
the line, receiving like him is
pound of meat and his pound of breadreeudathree-quarters of a
, are not so accustomedi y The
Volunteers, in their close tunics
to the glaring heat and blinding dust of
gone
ott as
through
are the regular forces, and those who d
thirty shillings with which efficients are credited at
earned he tn
the ordeal will certainly have ee
the end of the year.
When the Municipal Corporations' Reform Act of
1835 was passed, it took no account of the City of
London, whose form of local government is materially

pointza._