The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-17 00:00:00

ur 3ronbon Corrtspulunt.
(We deem it right to state that we do not at U tinieS
tdentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinious.)

The announcement of the intentions of the Govern-
ment with respect to the Judicature Act of 1873, was
awaited with much interest by the legal profession, a
powerful body which although not accustomed to
demonstrate in our parks and in our streets, is suffi-
ciently strong to make its opinion respected in the
legislature, even though it goes but quietly and
unostentatiously to work. And when the matter is
examined more closely it is seen that it commands &
greater amount of Parliamentary influence than most
of the other professions. The Church, it is true, is
• very well represented in the House of Lords, where
twenty-six of her prelates have seats. But the Church
is completly excluded from the House of Commons,
where no beneficed clergyman has a right to sit. If
we contrast this witti_the."
what an ad;iantage lies with the gentlemen of the long
robe. In the first place the Lord Chancellprkil.l3llll
is essentially a lawyer and is aresaysastut
man of his party. TECii amongst the peers there are
invariably -seyeral• of his predecessors in office; ana at
present the-House contains in addition Lord Penzance,
late Judge of the Diverice_Const,; Lord O'Hagan, late 1
- Lord Chancellor of Ireland ; old-Lord Manc:reif, Lord
Justice-Clerk of Scotland. Etere then the law com-
mands a body of men who may to a great extent be
called representatives, filling at one time or another
the highest legal posts in the three kingdoms. And,
unlike the Church, the law is not excluded from the
People's House. Eminent Queen's Counsel often sit
for large and 'important Constituencies. Thus, the
late Sir Cresswell Cresswell, first Judge of
the Divorce Court, was at one time member for
Liverpool ; Lord Westbury, as Sir Richard Bethell,
for Wolverhampton; Lord Chief Justice Cockburn,
for Southampton; Lord Coleridge for Exeter; Lord
Hatherly for Oxford; Lord Cairns for Belfast; the
Lord Chief Baron for East Suffolk; Mr. Justice
Huddleston for Norwich; Sir Robert Collier for Ply-
mouth ; and so on. The late Master of the
Rolls, Lord Romilly, once sat for Devon-
port; the present holder of that high office, Sir
George Jessel, represented Dover. So much for some
of the ornaments of the legal profession who have gone
from the House of Commons to the Bench; and those
who remain in the popular assembly have been sentrl
by counties and boroughs, little, if anything, inflator
in importance to those which I have enumerated. ThP
law, I may add, is one of the most ancient of our
honourable professions. Inns of Court were estab-
lished at different periods in London in some degree as
colleges for teaching the law. The Temple was
founded and its beautiful church built by Knights
Templars in 1185, two years before William Rufus
came to the throne of these realms. From that time
until the tenth year of the reign of Henry VIII., in
1519, the following inns were established with a similar
purpose: Barnard's, Clement's, Clifford's, Furnivars,
Gray's, Lincoln's, Lyon's, New, Serjeant's, Staples',
and Thavies'. The whole of these are in the imme-
diate neighbourhood of Fleet-street and Holborn, and
very curiously-antiquated places they seem, contrasted
with the architectural improvements to be seen on
every hand. :". 1',,-. :n II ,- ,triet A. .
The prices realised at some of the art sales in the
west-end of London seem really wonderful. For ia-A
stance, Messrs. Christie and Manson, at their place Of
business at Willis's Rooms, have just disposed of what
is known as the Quilter collection of water-colour
drawings, which during two days realized £55,000.
The appreciation of ancient china has within the past
few years developed to a marvellous extent, and the
better to elicit all due admiration for it, the fortunate
possessors of the coveted ware now introduce tea at an
afternoon garden party much more often than the
custom was. We cannot drink tea out of pewter, nor
does the continental practice of imbibing it from a glass
tumbler find favour in our eyes. A silver tankard is
a capital receptacle for bitter ale, but it would never
do for tea. Consequently the popularity of the latter
exhilarating beverage in the upper ranks of society
has increased with a love for old china; and so it
comes to pass that china ware and Chinese tea gois
very well together, and are great favourites with the
upper classes. •
The interest which attached to ()apt. Boyton's venl.
ture across the Channel in the life-saving apparatusi
the principles of which he explained to Her Majesty 4
few days previously, may be accounted for in more
than one way. In the first place such an exploit upol
the sea could not but rouse the enthusiasm of
maritime people, for against the rocks upon. ou;
musts the ocean wages perpetual war. Again, an
exhibition of skill in either athletics or aquatics--an
1
extraordinary test of human endurance—its Sure to b
interesting, even if it do not elicit admiration. See how'
the details of a bicycle contest, a foot race, or a boa
race are studied! As for Captain Boyton, many a.
marine traveller would rather face the Atlantic, with
its three thousand miles of giant waves, than -tie
twenty-one miles of choppy water between Dover and
Calais. Those who are acquainted with the naviga-
tion of that narrow sea will tell you that the difficulties
are enormous. Even under the most favourable cir-
cumstances of wind and weather, the violent and!
erratic currents which lash into foam the
restless surface of the Channel make a voyage
acress it many miles longer than it would be in
their absence. And these obstacles, which so much
interfere with the course of the Dover and Calais
steamers, must of necessity be more adverse in their
effects as the bark exposed to their influence is more
frail and less speedy. If a steamship is tossed upon
the waves like a cockle-shell, what havoc must be
played with a single human being, with a tiny sail
and a single paddle! The movements and cross
courses of three tides had to be studied, the possibility
of an unfavourable wind, the chance of a fall in the
thermometer making the water so cold that he would
be unable to remain in the midst of the waves suffi-
ciently long to complete the journey, the risk that
the attendant tug-boat might lose sight of him amid
the unrelieved darkness of the night—these and other
contingencies which cannot be known to a landsman
had to be carefully weighed and considered. There
is no one who would net wish success to an effort
which, so far from being a foolhardy enterprise, de-
served to win as a plucky attempt to rob the deep of
some of its most gloomy terrors. . , 1 - . ~.. I
" Would'st thou "—so the helmsman answered.
"Learn the secrets of the sea?
Only those who brave Its dangers 'O. 1•1..
. V • ---. • i
Comprehend its mystery.
-
Close in towards the land green and hungry ; far out in
its illimitable depths cruel and remorseless, the
grandeur, the immensity, and the power of the ocean
have never failed to beget a feeling of awe in the minds
of those who have been borne upon the tops of its
seething hills, battled with its tumbling surges, and
carried in a straining ship far down amongst its never-
resting valleys. Changeless and unchangeable, the
billows which at noon have engnlphed a noble vessel
dance and sparkle in the summer sunlight at eventide,
as though their strength, when the wind is low,
could be measured by a little child. Yet when
lashed into fury by the mighty rushing tempest
they have often proved an irresistible force,
tearing to pieces the best work of human inge-
nuity, and mocking the most strenuous endeavours of
man to preserve his life against their attacks. There
was something heroic in the enterprise of a single man
in grappling with the sea, and that is why success was
so heartily wished to Captain Boyton.
The time has gone by when a man, or rather a gen-
tleman, who drives a coach is looked upon as eccentric,
and when this is brought forward as a reason why he
should be declared insane. The Four-in-Hand Club,
is one of the most aristocratic organisations of its kindi
in the metropolis, and when the coaches turn out in
Hyde-park on a summer afternoon, the spectacle tel
witnessed with interest by thousands. The coaching
season begins on the Ist of May, Brighton, Dorking,
Tunbridge Wells, and a host of other places being now
reached from London by this means of conveyance,
which, when the railway system was generally intro-
duced into this 'country, was believed to have been
finally and for ever extinguished.
Indian affairs have, during the past year and a half,
attracted a considerable share of the public attention.
What with the terrible famine, the more recent trial
of the Guicowar of Baroda, and the forthcoming visit
of the Prince of Wales, our interest in that depen-
dencc has not been allowed long to flag. I see that
complaints have been made regarding the quality of
the recruits sent out to India from this country. Not
only are they stated to be of very inferior physique,
but it is hinted that their constitutions, being in many
cases unformed, they speedily succumb to the exhaus-
tion consequent upon service in a semi-tropical climate.
Some years ago a committee was appointed to deter-
mine the age at which recruits should be sent out
there, for hitherto a custom had prevailed of sending
them out on completing their twentieth year. Many,
however, desiring to proceed to India without delay,
added a year or two to their true age; and the com-
mittee, therefore, decided that twelve months
service at home after enlistment would form the
best way of estimating a recruit's fitness for
the public service in that distant land. This is now
decided by the commanding officer and the surgeon of
the dep6 t to which the men are attached, for these have
the best opportunities of judging whether a soldier's
constitution is sufficiently established, to admit of
his serving in a trying climate without danger to
health. In spite of every sass, however, it seems that
the class of men lately sent out to garrison our Indian
cities, have not the substantial physique which recruits
drafted from England to that country ought to possess.
There is a bewitching glamour about Indian life which
is exceedingly attractive to those who have just left
agricultural pursuits or imi'letrial occupations for

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