The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-12 00:00:00

spectacle of t:n avowed atheie and the promulgator
of a filthy and immoral book trying to force his way
into the flou 5
of Commons, and receiviu the sup-
port of Messrs. Gladst-me and Night. In Ireland
fir more than twelve months law and order have

been fiet aid, and murder' burnings,
and lierzie.ntions of alt Icintls have taken their pla,ce
and been allowed to go on under our present
forcible-feeble Government. If we turn to their
. .

Foreign Policy, what do we see? Austria insulted
and afterwards apelogised to. England sending
her ironelads to coerce a fishing village. Germany,
Austria, end Italy visiting and forming alliances,
and England shut out of their councils. The
national fortresses and safeguards of our vast In-
dian Empire (taken at the sacrifice of British bloo
and British treasure) give-a up in the face of the
encroaching power of Rustle f and, lastly, in the
Transvaal, that flag, which has hitherto been our
glory and pride, besmeared and trodden under foot
at the bidding of the "Caucus mongers" of Bir-
mingham. The indictment mieht be carried much
further, but eeough has been said to show the
necessity for every loyal subject in the realm to
stand boldly forward in defence of that flag and
constitution, which has raised Old England to her
present pitch of greatness and made her the pride
and admiration of the world. Our best thanks are
due and hereby tendered to Sir Richard Temple for
his lecture on " Our Indian Empire." and to Messrs.
Brindley and Stokes, Birmingham, for address on
the Foreign Policy of the Government and the
Fallacies of Liberalism. The whole of tbe above
were well attended. The Committee have made
arrangements for several addresses to be delivered
during the winter months, of which due notice will
be given. We have, in conjunction with the local
agents, gone carefully through the reaister, and we
believe the results will prove highly beneficial to
our cause. The questkai of foreign tariffs which
has now attained such importance was considered by
the Committee several years ago, and delegates were
sent to the Nottingham Conference of the National
Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associa-
tions in 1878, for the perpose of ventilating the
question. We are still affiliated to the National
Union. Tito Finance Committee would earnestly
impress upon those members who have not yet paid
their subscriptions for the current year, the necss-
sity of doing so at once, and also to respectfully
request that members will give the collector as little
trouble as possible, consistent with own convenience.
They begged to tender their best thanks to the pro-
prietors of those papers that were gratuitously sup-
plied. They also took the opportunity of tendering
their best thanks to M, P. Grazebrook, Esq , for a
donation of 100 books, and to Charles Webb, Esq.
for promised donation of books, and hoped that
other members would follow the example. Th
rooms are well supplied with a good library, daily
and weekly newspapers and periodicals, billiards and
bagatelle tables, chess, draughts, dominoes, &c.
Presents of books, periodicals, end newspapers will
be thankfully receivedlby the Librarian or Secretaries
at the rooms.
The balance sheet was read which showed that
the income amounted to £94 is 71, and the expendi-
ture to £72 8s 20, leaving a balance in hand of
£2l 19s sd.
Mr. A. Freer, referring to the report, said it
seemed on the whole very satisfactory and they had
a balance on the right side. He trusted that they
would all be zealous in the Conservative cause, as
he thought the times were getting very serious.
What did the Liberals do when they came into
power? When the Liberal Government came into
power they came resolved to undo measures that the
Conservative Government had passed, whether it
was for the benefit of this country or not. Refer-
ring to Mr. Gladstone he said he had been weighed
in the balance and found wanting. They had seen
18 menths of his legislation; they had seen society
in Ireland placed in such a condition as never was
known before. A report for October showed that
in Ireland 420 or 450 outrages of the most detestable
character had been committed in that country. That
state of things was brewing in that country twelve
months ago when Mr. Gladstone said "No Peace
Preservation Act for Ireland." During the rule of
the Conservatives, five out of the six years were
seasons of peace, People knew then when they
went to bed that there were no fellows with masks
surrouading their houses. It was in the power of
the present government to put their feet upon that
foul spirit and to stop it. The conduct of the I
Government had altogether been wrong with re-
spect to the government of Ireland. He did net
know what was t) become of her, unless a firmer
hand and a truer heart for England's beet interests,
was in her descendants. Ho referred to the gather-
ing together of persons on the Sabbath day, holding
demonstrations, and promulgating their evil and
s,ditious schemes, and were not interfered with by
Government. It was breaking the Sabbath and a
disgra,e to us as christian men. Look at our con-
dition in respect to other countries. After some
fluther remarks the speaker moved the adoption of
the report, which was seconded by Mr. Hale and
carried.
On the motion of Mr. B. Wooldridge votes of'
thanks wsre passed to the president. vice-preeideatt
and officers of the association, The Earl of Stara-
izsrd was re-elected president.

MESSRS WEBB AND SONS, WORDSLEY, STOUR-
BRIDGE.—The extensive seed farms at Kinver, and
the spacious warehouses at Wordsley, belong-
ing to Messrs. Webb and Sons, have on more than
one occesion been referred to in these pages, and
our readers are by no means unacquainted with the
vast extent of the operations of this enterprising
and well-known firm. But it is hardly possible
that those who have not had an opportunity for
personally inspecting the premises at Wordsley,
and for walking or driving over the farms which
nestle at the foot of Kinver Edge, should have any •
thing like an adequate idea of the immense develop-
ment which the Wordsley seed business has under-
gone. Unlike some others it was not commenced
in a "small way.'' for Messrs. Webb have long
been engaged on the most extensive scale as hop,
corn, flour, and wool factors, glass and manure
manufacturers, merchants, and practical agri-
culturists, and in adding the growth and sale of
garden and farm seeds to the other matters that
engaged their attention they had the comm end of
' resources which enabled them to begin in such a
way as to command at once a large and successful
trade. The latest additions to the piles of buildings
at Wordsley are an extensive range of new offices
and a new seed warehouse. The former are large
enough to afford accommodation for a large staff of
clerks, and the warehouse has five stories, one
hundred and eighty feet in length by sixty feet in
width, and each floor not less remarkable for
loftiness than for its length and breadth. In the
fitting up of the warehouses scientific appliances
have been laid under contribution, and steam lifts
and cranes have been provided for the expeditious
removal of the seeds from one floor to another,
and, speaking tubes and telephones fixed to facilitate
communication between the respective warehouses
and the offices. The provisions made for the corn-
fort of the little army of clerks and warehousemen
are well worthy of note, for they show that the firm
whilst alive to their own interests, are not un-
mindful of the happiness of their employers ; and
special mention must be made of the spacious and
well-filled library and reading room. The potato
store, which is of immense extent, is particularly
worthy of mention, for it is so constructed that the
tubers are not readily affected by change of tem-
perazure during the winter. It is fitted up in
such a way that each kind can be kept seperate
without any difficulty, and be examined or sorted
with the greatest facility, it is indeed only by
havi ig the arrangements of .this, as of other de-
partments, of the most complete character that the
vast number of orders which pour in from the
beginning of the year until the end of the seed-
owing season can be made up and despatched
with the required degree of promptness. The
warehouses are, as a matter of course, now well
stored with vast quantities of seeds of all kinds—
flower, vegetable, and agricultural; and the more
important subjects, such as peas, beans, onions,
grasses, mangels, and turnips, are represented by
quantities that may be well described as enormous.
The work of preparation for next season's trade is
of course being rapidly pushed on, for when the
time comes for making up and despatching orders
the staff, large as it is, has to give its undivided
attention to these two important details.—The
Gardener' s
_Magazine.

CrlLLA.no's 15ANomutA.—T11is highly interesting
panorama, will be exhibited in the Corn Exchange
each evening during next week.

_
SHREWSBURY RACES.—On Thursday and Friday
next th-i Great Western Rail way Company will run
cheap excursion trains to the above races,- leaving
Stourbridge Junction erxli day at 7.56 a.m., and
returning from Shrewsbury each day at 6.25 p.m.
DRUNKENNESS. —At the Police Court yesterday,
before Col. Fletcher and Messrs. R. L. Freer and
J. B. Cochrane, Henry Littlewood, chainmaker, of
the Lye, for being drunk and disorderly on the
30th ult.. was fined 5s and costs.—Patrick Carragan
was fined 2s 6d and costs for a similar offence.—
Enoch Pardoe, of the Lye, was fined lOs and costs,
with the alternative of 14 days' imprisonment, for
being drunk and refusing to quit the Talbot Inn,
Lye, on the Ist inst.—On the evidence of Police-
constable Moore a man named James Edwards was
fined 55 and costs for being drunk and disorderly,
on the sth ihst.—Benjamin Hambrey, of the Lye,
for being drunk and incapable, was fined is and
costs.—Tbomas Bartle was also fined is and costs,
for alike offence.
HOUSE BREAKING AT BELLBROUGHTON.—CharIes
Mitchell (15) and Edward Mitchell (14) ware
charged with breaking into the house of Elizabeth
Smith, at Wildmore, Bellbroughton, and stealing
; a bag containing Ss 7d, and a lock and key,—
Whilst prosecutrix was away from home on the
sth inst., the prisoners got through the window
and took away the articles named in the charge,....

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