The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-04-23 00:00:00

Contspoubtnt.

, - to state that we do not at all timed
,Teswith our Correspondent's opinions.]

Now that we are within two months of the
date officially fixed for the Jubilee celebrations,
the sound of preparation from every part of the
Kingdom for what is destined to.-be a historical
event is heard. As in 1809, upon the occasion,
• of the Jubilee- of tire Queen's grandfather,
George 111., so in, 1887,.up0n that of the Jubilee
of her Majesty herself; not only the *metropcilis
; ofthe _.ceniateyeemeeyen..titose large-. centres -of
commerce and industry which are the pride of
the land, but each small town or even village,
wishes to do its best to worthily celebrate the
occasion. The methods of such celebration must,
of necessity be various, and some of them will
doubtless be open to criticism, on the ground
that they have no obvious appropriateness to
the circumstance they will be supposed to corn-
memmorate. But it is the spirit ,underlying
the celebrations which will be of far more im-
portance than the letter of the celebrations
themselves. Aught that is done in a loyal spirit
of honour to the Queen, and of congratulation
upon her completion of half a century of reign,
will deserve recognition; and although, as in all
such cases, there will be much that is pretentious
and something that is spurious, it is a good rule
to look at the best side of a matter, and not to
be eagerly seeking for the worst. Whatever else
may be said concerning it, this much is certain—
that the jubilee celebration will be the most
spontaneous and most general outurst of loyal
enthusiasm that England for many a long year
has seen.
As for the celebration in the metropolis,
Londoners will be furnished with a display
which will be calculated to make a very deep im-
pression at the time, and to leave a lasting
memory behind. As it is only fitting, from it;
position as the capital and centre of this great
empire, that London should fittingly do honour
to the Sovereign; and from the tirae.that the
Queen arrives in the metropolis in "jubilee
week to the time she leaves, there will be one
continual round of rejoicing. In the opinion of
a very large number, and probably the majority,
of business people, it is a thousand pities that
the date officially fixed for the main celebration
was not Monday, the 20th, instead of Tues-
day, the 21st of June. The former would not
only have been more historically correct, but
more practically convenient. It was on the
early morning of June 20, 1837, that it was
announced to the Princess Victoria that, by the
death of her uncle, William IV., she had become
Queen of these realms; and, therefore, at the
corresponding time of June 20, 1887, she will
have reigned fifty years. So much for the his-
torical point, as to that of practical convenience,
there can scarcely be two opinions. Parliament
by the Bank Holidays Act has recognised that
Monday is the best day for a popular holiday;
• and this example might well have been followed
by the Court officials responsible for fixing the
coming celebration for a Tuesday. On the oc-
'casion•of a Monday holiday, tens of thousands
of hardworkers can leave off work on the Satur-
day afternoon and remain clear away until the
next Tuesday morning. If the holiday be a
Tuesday, a large proportion of these will have
simply the one day off, while those who take the
Monday as well will lose their wages to that ex-
tent. Waste of money and waste of time, as
well as unnecessary interruption to business,
thus accompany a Tuesday holiday; and this is
the more to be regretted because the jubilee
celebration should be in every sense a " popular '
holiday.
The wreck of the Channel steamer Victoria on
the rocks near Dieppe has created a very painful
sentiment in the public breast. The route to
the Continent by way of Newhaven and Dieppe
is very popular, especially in the summer, not
only by reason of its comparative cheapness, but
because of the scenery on the French side as the
train glides through Normandy andthe valley of
the Seine towards Paris. The circumstances of
the wreck, therefore, the morepeculiarly appealed
to a large section of the public, and the interest
aroused was greater than in the case of most
such disasters with so comparatively small a
loss of life. If there is one lesson to be derived
from the catastrophe, further than that fog-horns
are worse than useless, because absolutely mis-
leading if they are not sounded when there is
a fog, it is that to panic alone the lamentable
loss of life in this case was due. As the circum-
stances now abundantly show, there would have
been ample time, had coolness by all been shown,
to have saved every person on board.. But the
complete loss of preset, -" 1- '
the passengers dir
confusion after t.
countable for ti
occurred. It is a pectueei„.,_
of that comedy which is interwoven
strangely with the tragedy of life, that it was the I
• catching of a lady's shawl in the nulleysby which
the first boat was to be lowered that it was over-
turned and several precious lives were lost.
So great a .difiester from so small a cause
has seldom been recorded, and it assists
to mark the wreck of the Victoria as one of the
saddest which has lately been reported.
Autobiographical reminiscences of successful
men are always interesting and sometimes
instructive:• arid although it is not every young
• artist who can, in his wildest moments, indulge
' the hope, that he will be able to rival Sir John
4' Millais, yet the sketch that eminent painter has
just given of the early portion of his career
cannot but stimulate all who wish to follow in
his footsteps to do something better than they
otherwise might have done. Even to those who
have no leanings in an artistic direction, it is of
• interest to know that when Mrs. Millais,
Sir John's mother, went with her little
son • to Sir Martin Shee, then President of
°
the Royal Academy, to show him some f
the boy's drawings, the first exclamation of
that worthy knight was, "Madam, you had
better bring up your boy to be a chimney-
sweeper." Sir Martin changed his mind how-
ever, when he had seen the drawings, and en-
couraged the lad to persevere. What the result
of that perseverance has been all the world now
knows, for the fame of Sir John Millais is not
bounded by the waters which encircle Great
. Britain, but has spread to every part of the civi-
s lised globe. From the time when he was one of
the original members of the much -decried and
- little-understood Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood to
the present Sir John has gone on steadily increas-
ing.his popularity; and although some of his sin-
cerest admirers wish that he were less in demand
as a portrait-painter, and could devote more time
to such pictures as those which made his name
we must be satisfied with what we have, and be,
proud of what he has already achieved.
Talking of a painter naturally suggests men-
tion of pictures, and it will be of interest to a
great number of people—not only those who
dwell iia , the metropolis, but also of those who
are comMonly designated " country cousins "
to, know, that the extension of the National
Gallery, which is now in progress, is so far
advanced that the new buildings may probably
be opened in June. The present arrangements
• of the edifice will be very materially altered, a
. .
new block of buildings having been constructed I
at the back of the Dome, this being intended to
eventually form the centre of the National
Glatery...; Room will thus be made for a large
additional number of pictures; and visitors who
do not aeqoire a headache by looking at every
One 'which is now on the walls, will have a fur-
:they opportunity of seeing some more of the
finest pictures in the world. It is not only the
....general public who have, however, to be con-
' .sidered in this matter; there are the students
Who go to the Gallery for copying purposes, and
• 'whose opportunities for study will be increased
- by the enrargerhent of the building. A groat
•
deal More work is done in this direction than
casual visitors to the institution which looks
• down on Trafalgar-square would imagine; and
as the taste for art and for artistic pursuits is
. ; growing, there is no likelihood that the students'
stools at the National Gallery will cease to be
filled even if their number be considerably in-
creased by the extensions now being made.
The antipathy of the British farmer towards
the common sparrow is certainly not on the de-
crease, and in some parts of the country it grows
rather than diminishes. This may be judged by
the annual report of the secretary of the Strat-
fori-on-Avon Sparrow Club, which states that
during 1886 more than 19,000 birds were killed.
The club,it is added, pays threepence a dozen
• for the beads of all sparrows destroyed. and over
£23 was paid in this way during the year; and
it is calculated that about 20,000 a-year is the
average number killed in the neighbourhood of
Stratford-on-Avon. This might almost be called
an appalling total, and lovers of the feathered
Portion of creation will ask whether all the
charges made against the sparrow have been
proved up to the hilt before they will assent to
the idea that this huge slaughter wes necessary.
It is charged that the sparrow is destructive to
the farmers' crops, and that the good this
bird is alleged to do in the way of
picking up worms and insects cannot be weighed
in the scale against the grain it eats and
destroys. If this be capable of exact proof, and
farmers generally are evidently of opinion that

it is, it must be held to be a good excuse for the
frequent attack which is made upon this parti-
cular bird. At the same time one cannot help
regretting that any such organised slaughter
should be necessary to keep down the number
and thus minimise the destructiVeness of a bird
which to those who are not farmers does not
convey any particular idea of mischief.

A sign o-f
-approaching summons the announce-.
ment of the list of road-coaches likely to run out
of London during the ensuing season. Present
appeafances indicate that the number will not
.be as large as in some recent years, and whether
this is to be accounted for by the continued de-
pression of..the -landed- interest* or-bythe fact
that people are getting a little tired of this
particular fashion of enjoying themselves, is not
quite obvious. As regards the first reason, it
must be borne in mind that practically none of
these coathes are self-supporting, and that the
cost of keeping them on the road for a full
season is very heavy. Gentlemen who drive
them have to pay for the luxury, and, animating
as is the pleasure, it may be that some among
them are beginning to feel that it is rather too
dearly bought. As for those members of the
public who avail themselves of the coaches to
travel to pleasant spots around London, it is
certain that they need not begrudge the fares.
Of course, if people are in a hurry they will
travel by rail, but if they want to enjoy them-
selves with a good look at the scenery, they will
go by coach. There is a fine exhilaration of feel-
ing to be obtained from the top of a coach drawn
by four splendid horses, which under no circum-
stances could be drawn from a train, even if it
be the fastest express and one is seated in the
most luxuriously appointed Pullman car. For
this reason it may be expected that when the
summer weather fairly sets in there will still be a
good many well-pleased patrons of such coaches
as continue to run out of London. A. F. R.