The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-12-13 00:00:00

youbon orrtspottbritt.

(We dorm It tight to at 6
Identify oursolve• utth our

that aro 110 MA at all Fn.,
urrespondeut'a oyintoaa.

The terrible disaster in taldsAtlantic, by which the
Prene}head steamer flue rim Havre was cut in two,
and 226 souls perished, has created a sleep and painful
sensation. The interest in the calamity, no far from
being confined to maritime eirclee, hoe pervaded all
class.. and thee' can hays been Cc- sreely a bonceb•dsl
In the klngsloin in which the awful scene in the midst
of the ocean has not become a topic of conversation.
To the unprofessional mind it does seem most ex.
traordinary that a steamer of 5,000 tons, and eeeonsl
only to the Great Eastern in merourement, ehould be
out &we by so dling fillip and sink like a rtone in los 5
thall a spierLer of an hour. This is the third grest
maritime catastrophe of the e xpirizsg year, and
it to a remarkable fact that In neither Metopes)
was it procluoed by storm or tempest. It is
no case like that of the steamship London,
which in the early part of 1866, after bravely
battling day after day with the winds and the waves,
was obliged to confess., herself beaten at last and went
down with more than two hundre 1 lives in the bois-
terous Bay. f Biscay. Nor is either case such as that
of the Royal Charter, which, in 0 teber, 1832, after
safely travensiug twelve thssustand miles of ocean, Was
beaten to pieces upon the cruel rock. of cur own Welch
wank and sank with four hundred and fifty of her
human cargo. The three great shipping caeualties ef ,
1873, in which not less than a Bummed lives have
eacriticed, wsll hereafter be remembered as havino been
produced by preventible canoes. When the Marl/to
ran into the Nortkried on the night f the TAO of
January last, the sky was clear, the tlea was calm,
there was a total absence of wind, and the lights
of the doomed vessel were plainly exhibited
noon her masts. Again, when on the Mght of the
31st of March the steamer At/watt ran upon a
desolate island off the coast of Nova Scotia, a fog pre.
nailed truly, but there was neither wind nor sea. A
fog is a visitation which has often to be encountered by
ocean steamers, and tkere is no ordinary reason why
the precautions adopted should not be successful in
bringing the vessel through in safety. The calamity of
the 22nd November is too fresh in the public mind to
require more than a bare mention here. In the very
midst of the vast Atlantic's broad expanse, with die
stare shining overhead, no fog, no wind, no stormy
wavee, one ship dashes into another, and sends more
than 200 souls into eternity! Well might the survivors
say that no pen can describe the horrors of the situa-
tion --nothing to be seen but the boundless ocean-
nothing to be heard but the rush of the seething waters
which were waiting to engulph them.
The sale of the delinquent steamer, Murillo, at
"Lloyd's," a few slays ago, leads me to nays few words
concerning an institution which is so intimately 155,110 Ci•
ated with the shipping c immerce of this country.
"Lloyd'e," at which an immense system of marine
reentrance is carried on, is situate at the east end of
the north side of theft. syal Exchange, and in the very
busiest part of the City of London. On one niche is
the Bank of England; on the other the Mansion
House ; and it is Honked by such crowded thorough-
fares es Cornhill, Lombard-street, rhrearineedlesstreet,
and Gracechurchotreet. The subscribers' rcom is 100
feet long by 48 feet wide, and has a noble library. There
is also s gallery or maps and charts., and in front of
these many an anxious ehipowner may he seen, study-
ing the truckles, pathways of the ocean. The captain's
room, the ,board room, and the clerk's offices occupy
the: eastern end, and along the north front is the great
_ .

commercial room, eighty feet in length. Here strangers
and foreign merchants visiting London assemble in
considerable numbers. Right and left of the entrance
to the subscribers' room are two enormous volumes,
giving the principal arrival, of shim; at our ports, and
containing remrd, of losses by wreck, tire, or other
accident, at st a. 'l he latter are generally the first
read by the eubicribers, who !mike for these books
immediately on the opening of the doors, at ten o'clock
in the morning. After a nocturnal gale haa swept the
English and St. George's Channels, the attendance of
shipowners in the accident department is always very
materially increased. Lloyd's, however, is not a mere

body of merchauts, but also an establishment which
from time to time in our national limitory has distin-
giddied itself by acts of the moat princely muniti-
cenoe. In 1815 this institution gave £lO,OOO to the
Waterloo subscription; some years ago it contributed
£5,000 to the London Hospital, and more recently
£2,000 towards the lifeboat cause. It has its agents
in every part of the ebbe, and its office lea network
of telegraphic wires connecting it with the maritime
civilisation of all habitable lands. Its collection of
chartli and maps le the most correct and comprehensive
i the world, and =dere of all ships, and of whatever
ration, frequenting the port of London, have woese
to it. I may add that amongst the technical phraseo-
logy to he heard in the subscriber.' room at Lloyd's
is "a good book" and "a bad book." The one
indicates the premiums to be received upon ships
which have been insured; the other speaks of the
loesee to be paid on account of the vessels known to
have foundered. The country visitor to London, more
especially if he should happen to be connected with a
seaport, will fiad "Lloyd's" well worth a call.
At the western end of the Holborn Viaduct a statue
of the late Prince Consort has lately been erected, and
it has awaited the ceremony of unveiling for some time
past. Application warn first made to the Queen to
perform the ceremony of inauguration, but her
Majsety declined the invitation. Tne Prince of Wares
has, however, commented to undertake the task, and it
Is understood that he will be accompanied by the Duke
of Edinburgh. A canvas tent has been raised hard by
for the accommodation of the two Royal brothers,
should the weather on the day selected prove unfavour-
able. The statue (an equestrian one) will correspond
with those of two other illustrious men which have
been rained in the City—viz., the Doke of Wellington
In front of the Royal Exchange, and Sir Robert Peel
at the western end of Cheapoide.
The crowded state of Westminster 11111 hse given

rise toe very general desire on the partof the legal-pro-
fession, that more progress were made with the con-
struotion of:the new law courts. Not a fiftieth part of
those who daily assemble round the doors of the Court
of Queen's Bench can gain admittance for the purpose
of hearing the proceedings in connection with the Tich-
borne trial; so the denee mass of humanity gradually
breaks up, and swarm' into the other courts. Barrts.
tees, attorneys, and witnesses engaged in the Er.
chequer, the Common Pleas, or the Divorce Court
have either to he in attendance before the business
begins, although they know that their ...mill cannot
possibly come on for three or four hours. or stand the
charms of remaining outside altogether, f.yr many tied
themselves physically incapable of fighting their way
through such a compact throng. But this Is only one
of the penalties which have to be paid for having so
long on band a case of such enormous public interest.
Some experiments have just been made in London,
with • view of testing the efficiency of a steam tram-
way car, and certainly the spectacle would pommel all
the charms of novelty if it could be practically ap-
plied. At present there is a network of tramways all
over the suburbs of the metropolis. They stretch
away on every hand, and their promoters have often
cast longing eyes arm the City, from which, how-

ever the Corporation has hitherto excluded them; for
- the streets are narrow, and the traffic very greet. Nor
Is there any connecting link between the systems, for
the Legislature, so far, has steadily refused per oission
to crow any of the metropolitan bridges, fearing that
the laying of the raile might tend to weaken the.e
structures. Consequently the tramway-car is weighted
in its competition with the railway. Suppose, for in-
stance, • city clerk living at Brixton wishes to reach
the scene of his daily avocation : the tramway leaves
him to perform on foot the journey over Blackfriars•
bridge, while the rail carries him over the broad stream
of the Thames and deposits him in the heart of the
city.

Now that London has had its yettm of drainage
thoroughly attended to, the local authorities are pro.
needing with the work of repaving the streets. By
this time it seems to be pretty well admitted that of all
descriptions of paving, granite pitching is the worst.
It requires to be constantly strewed with nand in order
to enable horse, to keep a footing upon it. But in the
chref thoroughfares PO great is the traffic that the sand
thrown upon them in the early morning is speedily
pulverised into a tine impalpable dust, and if the pond
cart appears too frequently in the course of the day it
is voted a bore. The spectacle of fallen horses is very
common indeed in Fleet-street and on Blackfriars-
bridge on a frosty morning, and as the work of
raising the wretched animals is sometimes one
of difficulty, a block in the vehicular traffic takes
piece which extends on either hand to a con.
siderable distance. The ohjection to granite
pitching also applies to esphalte In frosty weather,
although the latter has as advantage in being noiseless.
Meanwhile wood is being tried very exteneively, ; it is
not ro slippery and Is. costly when compared with
asphalts, while it Is equally durable. A little while
ago the great artery of Ludgate-hill was closed kr
several days for the purpose of laying it with wood,
anc' if this answers, it will probably be extended
through Fleet-street and the Strand to Charing crow
It is also likely enough to take the place of granite be-
tween Holborn and Regent-circus. At present there
Is alargaisolated patch of the last-mentioned route laid
with asplaalte, and as the omnibuses glide over this,
the contrast between it and the roar which arises from
Ike ("MU roadway stretching away east and west id
It, OM be appreciated -only by those who have had ex-
perience of it

Money has been what is technically termed "mailer"
In the City since the recent reduction in the Bank rate
or discount. I nice explain that the Bank of togland
si ruloil by governor, a .leputy governor, and twenty-
four director., who meet every Thursday In a spacious
apartment known as the Bank Parlour, arid there
decide-6w a majority all matters of Importance. They
can and do meet oftener if onvamion req Ares, but
Thursday is the regular day, and in exciting thee
great is the crowd which rimembles in the pa/Peon%
envione to know what. the ,overnore have done with
the rate of discount ; or, in other words, the figure
which this vast establishment has decided to charge
smaller bowies for accommodation when they apply
for aseistance. When there is a preesare upon the
Money Market the more urgent are the demands upon
the Bank for help, and ihe higher the rate is likely to go.
No one, with a fuperti let look at the great square
building, mull have an idea f the immense amount
of husinem transacte.l within its intuitive wads. There
are a thousand clerks employed in it, their salaries
amounting to £200,000 per annum. Forty engravers
and printers of mom me omtantly at work them. It
may not be generally known that the Bank of England
never re-issues its uoteP, but destroje every one of
them on their return. You may, in strolling through
the Courts see little heaps of whew in some of the well-
guarded vaults, the reuiaire ef notes which have been
reoently burnt. There are, fr m time to time, gathered
togPther, and placed in t..e library, which now contains
ninety million nine thA have been cancelled during
the last eeven years. In the album you may ate notes
of £l,OOO e ieh bearing the s goarimes of various
trims persons who have riled the Bank ; the
latest of these has the autograph of the Shah
of Persia. rite curious wanderer passes fr,m one
department to another without molestation, and the
sharp rattling sound which so frequently meets the ear
Is the clangour made by the priming of heaps of
eoveleigne into scales of different sizes. How some
people stand and gaza with astonishment at the cool-
ness el the officials as they scoop up the golden coins
in scores and hundreds at a time from the polished
counters ! The clerks pour them into the scales with
no more ceremony than a grocer's sesietant would
weigh up • pound of tea or sugar. In the largo room
of the bank • quarter of a million of sovereign, will
sometime,' change hands in the course of the day, and
the entire amount id money turned over in the building
on • daily average, ranges from £'2,000,000 to
l £2,500,000. Every night a numerous guard of soldiers
patrols the corridors, bathe protection of the enormous
mime of treasure whide Li stored in the vaults, and
I locked away in the strong coffers of the bank.

This is the wet k of the Smithfield Club Cattle
Show, which is always a reminder to on that Christ-
mas is close at hand. During those few days there
are gathered at the Agricultural Ilan, in Islingtm,
the choicest specimens of stock from all parts of the
kingdom, and it seldom happene but that bdh the
Queen and the Prince of Wales are exhibitors. Cattle
Show week is, indeed, one of the seasons to which
Londoners look forward. On the chilling days they
crowd to the Ilan in large numbers, and on a tine
evert ng PO great is the throng upon the pavement In
the High-street of Islington, that the progress of
pedestrians there is remarkably slow. Passing along
the same thorough`are, at all hours of the day, are a
class of people which is not often seen in the streets of
the metropolis, but with each returning December there
is a rtgular inva-ion of them. You can tell by a glance
at their ruddy faces, their substantially-built frames,
and the general character of their attire, that they are
neiMer city clerks, loungers ab nt town, nor residents
in the pleasant suburb of Ilighbury. They are the
farmers wild for a brief period have left their broad
acres in the depth of winter, and have run up to Lon-
don to witness the wonders of the show. As Islington,
es far as refreshment houses are concerned, is not well
prepared for such a demand upon the resources as is
now necessarily occiwiwird, the bulk of the agri-
culturists troop down into the city, and if die ordinary
customer, who looks for his chop or his stews all the
year round, row linde himself disappointed, the pr,
prietor ex loains the disappearance of the viands by the
courteous assurance that "it is Cattle Show week"
However, we are all glad to see the farmers, and long
may they live to pay us their annual visit.