The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-03 00:00:00

On the same subject the Daily News, in a leader, says :

On Saturday an exceptionally long and laborious
session was formally brought to a close by the delivery
of the Queen's Speech, and Parliament was at last
prorogued. For some time there had been considerable
difficulty in making and keeping a House, the cessation
of interest in the business which remained to be
despatched having anticipated the legal and cere-
monial conclusion of the proceedings in the two
Houses. Several Bills of more or less importance, en
which we have already commented, have been passed
within the last fortnight through their remaining
stages, but with the virtual surrender of the Lords on
the amendments to the Land Act public interest in the
work of the Parliamentary year may be said to have
almost ceased. The phrases in which the Legis-
lature is dismissed from its duties never command
the attention which is always bestowed upon those
which announce the programme of the Government
for the Session which is commencing. Though the
latter are seldom destined to be completely fulfilled,
yet they have the charm of novelty and the interest
of anticipation. The mere repetition of what every-
body knows already is appropriate and perhaps neces-
sary, but it is not stimulatin,, food either to the ima-
gination or the intellect. In some cases a Queen's
Speech at the end of a Session does indeed con-
tain what is new o many, if not to most.
When Parliament has been occupied in passing a
number of small measures which nobody particularly
wanted, which do nobody any particular good, and
which have no perceptible effect upon anything but
the bulk of the annual volume of statutes, a recapitu-
lation of past achievements may assist the memory if
it does not impress the mind. The Bills introduced
by Sir Stafford Northcote, by Sir Richard Cross, and
Mr. Sclater-Booth deserved, if not a small niche in
the temple of fame, at least a brief epitaph in the
Speech from the Throne. It is scarcely necessary to
say that the work of the Session of 1881 has been
of a very different order. There is no difficulty
in remembering that the Land Act has been passed,
and its foes are at one with its friends in recognising
its supreme importance. As soon indeed as the form
in wl&h it would receive the Royal Assent became
known the general interest began to turn from West-
minster to Ireland, from the Legislature which sane
timed to the Court and the executive which are to
carry it out. Both the Liberal and the Conservative
candidates for the vacant seat in the county of Tyrone
unite in extolling its provisions, and the keenest of
Tories who is also a patriot will be ready to join in
the language of the Speech, and hope that the "new
law may be productive of "benefits commensurate
with the care "bestowed upon its enactment." . . .

MR. BEACJI, M.P., ON AGRICULTURE.
Mr. Beach, M.P. for North Hants, presided at the
luncheon given in connection with the Horticultural
Show held at Pamber, near Basingstoke, on Monday,
and, in responding for the House of Commons, alluded
to the great loss that would be sustained by agricul•
turists and the country at large in consequence of the
vast amount of damage done by the heavy rains.
Referring to the duties charged by foreign countries on
English produce, while the produce of those countries
was admitted almost free into England, he said it was
quite time serious attention was given to the matter.
rrhey had had free trade, let them try fair trade for
the future. The past Session of Parliament, he said,
had been a very laborious or.e. There had been a
great deal of talk, but he hoped next Session there
would be less talk and more work.

THE FRENCH VINTAGE.—From careful estimates
which have been made at the French vineyards it ap-
pears that no extraordinarily large output of wine is
expected for the present comet year. The total antici-
pated yield fcrr the 75 departments where the grape is
cultivated is 32,004,816 hectolitres. It remains to be
seen whether the quality of this wine will justify the
popular belief in the influence yf comets upon the
A,
vintage.

TELEPHONES ANii MICROPHONES AT

THE ELECTRICAL EXHIBITION.

The Paris Correspondent of The Times, in an article de-
scriptive of the telephones and microphones at the Paris
Electrical Exhibition, after alluding to the instruments of
various inventors, proceeds to say :

I must now describe the very interesting application
of these instruments, to which I have alluded in the
commencement of this letter. It is none other than
giving to numbers of people in the exhibition the
pleasure of listening night after night to the splendid
companies at the Opera and at the Theatre Francais.
Rooms have been fitted up in the galleries, each with a
number of pairs of telephones. Two rooms are devoted
to the Opera and two to the Theatre. The former is the
more interesting; for there the actions and features of
the performers are of less importance. You enter the
room in groups of, perhaps, ten at a time. Each one
advances to a wall and seizes a pair of telephones,
which he places to his two ears. Each of these is con-
nected with a microphone on the stage of the Opera,
one to the right, the other to the left of the prompter
and inclined towards the singers. The microphone to
the right of the prompter is connected with the tele-
phone at our right ear, the one to his left is connected
with that at our left ear. Thus, while the singer moves
to right or left, the sounds increase or diminish in the
right or left ear; when they advance or recede the
sounds increase or diminish in both, and thus we areable
to appreciate their movements, and it becomes diffi-
cult to believe that the performers on the stage are
not directly behind the wall which we are facing. So
soon as the telephones are applied to the ears the
glorious voices of the finest singers in Paris are heard
by us undiminished in purity, beauty, or force by the
strange means which have carried them to us over a
distance of a mile. The orchestra accompaniment is
somewhat weak, owing to the arrangement of the
microphones. We can almost see the singer move
about, putting expression into the music by movement
and action; and in no part of the opera-house can
you hear with greater (I might almost say with so
great) clearness and power as in this tapestried room
in the Palais d'lndustrie.
It is somewhat curious to watch the different
listeners, if we have not a telephone in hand our-
selves. Perfect silence reigns; ten people stand
round, with their hands holding to their heads things
which look like large ears. You see an expression
of satisfaction, of sadness, of rapture, on their faces;
they look at each other and express approval with
their eyes; and when the end of the solo has been
reached and they hear the clapping of hands and
bravos of the audience they lay down their telephones
and frequently join their applause unheard to that of
the audience at the Opera, unable to restrain them-
helves from the expregeion of their delight.
There are a few defects, but these are of minor im-
portance. The orchestra is a little too much subdued;
a crackling noise is sometimes heard (but very rarely),
which comes from the microphone; and there are
specialnotes which seem to be reinforced by the instru-
ments and to be heard with undue loudness. These
defects are however scarcely noticeable, and, as a
rule, the deepest bass and the highest soprano can be
listened to and heard through all their most delicate
changes as accurately and almost with as great pleasure
as at the Opera itself.
Having now described the performance at the Opera
in some detail, I need only say that likewise the
Theatre F rancais is extremely interesting to listen to.
Every word can be distinctly heard, and the double
arrangement of microphones allows us, to a great
extent, to hear, if not to see, the movements of the
actors.