The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-16 00:00:00

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COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS.
IN the .natter of weather Eastertide was
all that heart could wish for. The sun shone
his best and brightest, and, taking the
country generally, :there was just enough of
north-east wind to keep one reminded that
spring is still young, with never a hint of
rain to render holiday-keepers anxious as to
their home-going. All the out-door pleasure
resorts of London and our great towns were
thronged with pleasure-seekers, who entered
with merry zest into the entertainment pro-
vided for their delectation on the first Bank
Holiday of the year. The volunteer
manceuvres, now a recognised . Eastertide
fixture, went off extremely well, and were
witnessed • by admiring crowds, in which
were many sisters, cousins, aunts, and other
lady friends of the citizen soldiers. The
battle of the green and grey against the
scarlet was fought with all the circumstance
of actual hostility in the country behind the
well-guarded heights of Dover; and the
military exercises gone through in Kent, as
also those at Eastbourne, Aldershot, and
elsewhere, seem to have given great satis-
faction to the Commander-in-Chief and the
War-office authorities, there being but a
little unsteadiness of firing to find fault with
in one direction. The employment of cycles
in the operations near Dover was a novel
experiment, but proved of very considerable
value. The swift steed of steel is much
used in connection with some of the con-
tinental armies already, and there is little
doubt that cyclist corps will in the near
future be established here, to the manifest
saving of the public purse, for the wheel-
man's mount is much less costly to maintain
than that of the cavalary trooper. Of course,
not even the most enthusiastic cyclist will
expect the vehicle he loves to entirely
supersede the horse for army purposes, any
more than it has done in civil life; but
bicycle and tricycle may yet do the State
much service, both in connection with the
vol inteer and regular forces.
Tua London Radical clubs and other
political associations whose members do not
agree with Government as to the best way
of conducting the affairs of Ireland, took
part in a big field-day in Hyde-Park on
Easter Monday, and, favoured by the mag-
nificent weather, had an enormous audience
for their "anti-coercion" oratory. Resolu-
tions condemning her Majesty's Minister's
and all their works were: passed with unan-
imity, and good order prevailed, th,.:ugh some
were there to whom disorder would have
been preferable. Any unprejudiced person
who was within sight of the Reformer's
Tree on Monday, surveying the great gather-
ing of holiday idlers and demonstrators with
"an eye impartial," would hardly have been
inclined to reckon the whole affair of much
moment, or expect it—the ex-Prime Minis-
ter's opinion notwithstanding —to have
material influence upon statesmen in their
endeavours tolg-apple with the question of
the hour. There was—and we state it as a
bare fact, and without prejudice—dttle
earnestness, not to say enthusiasm, save of a
forced charactar, and a smart shower woul.l
soon have moved the hulk of the people awa
in seach of something that woulfl have in-
terested them more. It would apptar, and
we judge from other things as wt II as this
London demonstration of Monday la 4, that
tie "masses" are very apathetic as regards
Irish affairs, and heartily tired of agitation
thereanent. They are content to leave the
discussion of the matter to members of Par-
liament, journalists, and professional politi-
cians; and would be glad—if they have any
feeling at all left as to the issues involved—
to hear the last of the whole business, so
that other subjects of Imoerill moment
might come to the fore.
e
3HEFFIELD is to have a chance-to prove its
right to pre-eminence in the matter of manu-
facturing steel war wuus. The
nye tenders um the smoky
zouth Yorkshire town for the supply of
sword-bayonets and other artieles, and it is
to he hoped that some of the great firms
whose works are situated in what has been
regarded as the metropolis of steel will be
able to strike an agreement as to terms and
conditions, so that the necessity of giving
orders for arms abroad will be henceforth ob-
viated. The taxpayer has had enough of
German bayonet of worthless quality, paid
for at the price of good ones. By the way,
France is having costly machinery, capable
of making two thousand new rifles a day,
constructed on foreign soil. But Britain's
own sons are fully able to forge and fashion
her arms so that they will stand against the
world. Some impropta Eastertide experi-
ments at Portsmouth with volunteers demon-
strated what utter rubbish is served out in
the way of arms. Well may Mr. Burdett,
who describes the corkscrew bayonets he
saw at Portsmouth, ask indignantly with the
furious Jack Tar in the Punch cartoon, "Ain't
somebody to be whopped for this P"
A GOOD old Yorkshire clergyman, recently
deceased, has left the bulk of his wealth, the
substantial sum of a hundred and fifty thou-
sand pounds, to the town of Hull, for the
founding and endowment of a grammar
school on the lines of those at Birmingham
and Dulwich. iThis is a munificent bequest
and, wisely worked out in the years to come,
may be of incalculable value to many a
young man in the Third Port and thereabout.
'rhere are, we believe, some six hundred free
scholars in the great Birmingham academic
institution, and if Hull can, through the
means provided by the big-hearted gentle
man lately laid to his rest, give a soae7l edu,
cation gratis to anything like the number,
the boon will be one difficult to appra;se too
highly. There is a good grammar school in
Hull already—one of the best middle-class
public establishments in the north—at which
there are a number of foundation scholar-
ships, so there is a splendid outlook for
coming generations in the Humberside town.