The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-18 00:00:00

Our 3fonbon Corrtsponbtnt.
l'lVe 'teen it right to ntate that we de not at an um.
I lontify oursellai with our Cerroepondent's opiditelaj

Few parts of London have undergone greater im-
provements than Parliament square and its immediate
neighbourh. a. The square itself, which was the scene
of an insoienratinn ef a statue to Lord Derby at the
hands of the Prime Minister on Saturday last, is •
tastefully laid-out enclosure, immediately to the north
sd the Palace of the Legislature. It is a veritable
oasis in a desert, for there is no such green spot within
a considerable distance, the nearest being St. James's'
lark, The place was previously adorned with statues
of some of our eminent statesmen, that of Canning
being especially conspicuous. There, struck into stone,
stand the figures of men who, in days gone by, either
ewayed the fierce democracy, or electrified the senate.
The teeming brain may have long since been laid at
a yet, but the fame of their reputation remains as if
• to be a bright exatnple to those who bell engage
in political conflict within the walls of Parlia-
ment, only a few yards off. The late Lori Derby was
as noble • specimen of the fine old English gentleman
64 ever lived. His commanding presence, his aristo-
cratic bearing, and his eagle countenance, would have
instantly marked him out amongst a crowd of •
thousand. His princely munificence during the
cotton famine twelve years ago, will never be forgotten
in the lifetime of the present generation. As the
leader of a great political party in the State, he was
mita mere ornamental figure-head, and his eloquence
has been compared to a rushing torrent of invectives
made rechhot with passion. For eight-and-forty years
he had a seat in Parliament, either in the Lords or in
the Commons. Those who in his lifetime could never
agree with his political views, still admired the fine
old man, who was so long a stately figure in public life,
and now sleeps far away from the strife of parties in
the vaults of the palatial home of the Stanley' at
Knowsley.
The mention of Lord Derby's name naturally
suggests that of hie political rival for so many years—
Earl Russell. Now, Lord Russell has had more
parliamentary experience than any man living. There
are older members of the Home of Peers, but none
who have been in Parliament wa long. The venerable
earl has been a maker of our laws for the amazing
em mof sixty-one years ! lie was first returned to the
Howie of Commons for the borough of Tavistock in
1813. What changes he has witnessed I Sixty-five
years ago he was travelling on the Continent of
Europe, and observed some of the most remarkable
incidents of the Peninsular War. He has told us how
in 1809 he was struck with astonishment at the extra-
ordinary skill with which the Duke of Wellington
baffled the French Marshal, Massena, before the
lines of Torres Vedrae. The military genius of
the duke created such an impression upon the
noble lord that even in the tierce polit'cal con-
flicts of twenty years afterwards he always spoke
of that great man with admiration. Lord
Russell talked with the great Napoleon at Elba; yet
more than half a eentury has pained since Napoleon
was buried at St. Helena. He was a member of the
House of Commons when the battle of Waterloo was
fought, and that is nearly sixty years ago. What
would an enterprising publisher give for the auto-
biography of such a man ? His public life has extended
over four reigns, and as one of them reigns is now in
its thirty-eighth year, we may judge of the immense
scope over which his memory could range. How
many Ministries have been defeated, and how many
Parliamente dissolved since he first .took the oath id
allegiance to the Sovereign ? And what giant strides
in the march of intellect have been compressed into
the history of a mingle life! No wonder that when he
comes to the House of Lords the peers crowd around
him without distinction of party, congratulate him on
his good health, and express the heartiest wishes that
he may yet live many years to be a connecting link
between the history of the present, and the shadowy
memories of the past.
The fortnight of the Wimbledon Rifle Competition
is a time of interest to the volunteers in those parts of
the kingdom which have sent up representatives to the
national gathering. Many of these go home disap-
pointed, but perhaps upon the whole all the better for
the association with the best riflemen of the country.
The Wimbledon meeting has been carried on in all
weather!, and with varying degrees of temperature.
Sometimes, as in 1860, the camp is nearly swept away
by floods; in other years, an in 18613, the volunteers
are nearly broiled by the fierce heat. This year
there has certainly been no complaint of bail weather.
On sonic days, notably on that of the match be-
tween the Lords and the Commons, the heat
was intense, leading to a very extensive consump-
tion of iced drinks. These should, however, always be
used with caution during a high temperature. The
excemive mortality amongst the people of New York
during the summer months hoe been attributed to the
enornieue consumption of ice as an article of food. The
too euilden cooling of the blood leads to paralysis and
to congestion of the brain.
While upon military matters, I niay say a word or
two concerning the review which the Queen has just
held at Aldershott, or, to speak more correctly, at
Choblaam. Thenanie of Chobham revives the memories
of the encampment on the Common there one-and-
twenty years ago. It was on the 14th of June, 1853,
that four regiments of cavalry, three battalions of
Guarde, two brigades of infantry (each comprising
three regiments), one troop of Royal Horse Artillery,
three batteries of Home Artillery, a company of sappers,
and e pontoon train took up their temporary residence
upon the o Rumen. A variety of military displays took
place, in the presence of large gatherings, between the
nit of June, when operations in the field commenced,
and the 20th of Angust, when the camp broke up. It
seems a long time since we were accustomed to read of
the eamp of Chobharn and its doings; yet many of us
remember with what interest the manceuvres were
watched. Fifteen months later, and a number of the
troops who then delighted the people by their mimic
warfare, were engaged in a conflict of a sterner and
far more serious kind. They were storming the heights
of the Alma, and driving the Russian armies back upon
Sebastopel.
Our people have often been described as about the
most conservation amongst civilised nation's. Ido not
use the term politically, and in the sense in which it is
ordinarily understood, but so far as it refers to our social
customs. There was a time when to some extent white
tromers were fashionable in the hot daysof summer, but
these garments are seldom seen now, and there is not
that variety in the apparel for each revolving season
which one might reasonably expect to witness in a
climate which undergoes such extraordinary flectu-
atiens of temeetature. In our severe winters it is not
uncommon for the thermometer to register 20 degrees
of frost; while even in the present month 89 degrees in
the shade have been reeorded at Wimbledon. Here is
a range affording a wide scope for variety of dress, and
adaptation to the changing condition of the atmosphere.
But whether it be January or July very little differenee
is made in gentlemen's attire. A white hat is
orthodox, no doubt, but how many would venture
through the steets of London wearing a white
coat ! There is little besides the inevitable broad-
cloth, or the everlasting Scotch tweed, both
doing duty in hot and cold weather. Again,
whatever be the circumstances, we are cempelled to
wear, all the year round, the tight linen or paper
collar, and the elaborate nectie, equally tightly fitting.
Both are bound to allow you no freedom about the
neck, became if they did, your appearance would
serge upon the slovenly. Large numbers of it,, on
these pressing hot days, are longing to discard both
collar and nectie, but society objects, and conven-
tionalism forbids. So comfort is sacrificed te appear-
ance and prejudice, and life is rendered less endurable
than occasion demands because people are afraid of
nffeniling the susceptibilities of others. At present,
ericketere, and those who are engaged in aquatic con-
tests, are almost the only classes who adapt the number
and weight of their garments to the conditions of
their avocations and their lives.
The Board of Trade returns always possess features
of interest to a people so largely engaged in com-
mercial intercourse with other nations. It is satis-
factory to note that the figures for June present more
favourable signs than them if any previous month of
the year. There was, for one thing, a more active
trade in coal than in the corresponding period of last
year, and although the iron manufacture is not so
flourishing as we should wish it to be, there is much
greater activity in the markets for textile fabrics. The
cotton and silk industries are employing more handle
The value of the imports for June was four millions
sterling in excess of June 1873, and most of this was
paid for breadstuff& That is at the rate of nearly
fifty millions a year—rather a large sum to send out of
the country for food wherewith to supply our popu-
lotion. When I say food, I mean wheat and
flour. Add the value of the imports of cattle,
preserved meat, eggs, and other articles of daily con-
sumption, and we shall have sonic idea of what an
omnivorous people we are. The development of trade,
and the relaxation of fiscal restrictions, render us no
longer so dependent upon the yield of our own soil a,
we formerly were. Time was when a bad harveet
meant a partial famine, but that has long since passed
away; and if we get an unpropitioes season whieh
intarf sres with the produce of the soil, the markets of
the world are epen to in so long as we have the money
in our pockets'.
Great interest has been felt by astronomers in the
program of the oomet which for several nights has
been so conspicuous" a spectacle in the northern heavens.
The appearance of these erratic tray ellers has often

been the cause of the greatest astonishment and alarm
to pagan nations. Many a us remember this mag-
nificent comet which visited our latitudes in the
autumn of 1658. Its tail was computed to be forty
millions of miles in length, and night after night it

stretched across the heavens like a prodigious luminous
arch. So long as it remained visible to us, people
seemed never ti weary of watching it. Where the tail
branded away from the nucleus or main body, it was
computed to be at least a million miles in thickness,
yet the' bright star Arcturus was plainly seen through
it. I well remember the reflections of wonderment to
which this extraordinary fact gave rise. Twenty feet
of London fog are sufficient to shut out the view of
such a splendid luminary as the sun; yet the light of
a star could be seen through a million miles of
comet tail. The word comet is derived from
the Greek word come, signifying a hair, and this
showed that the astronomers of ohl accurately enough
calculated the specific gravity of these singular bodies.
Our visitor of 1858 had not been seen in our skies since
1556, and previous to that in 1261. Judging from ex-
perience, therefore, it will again burst upon the gaze
of the people of these islands about the year 2,158.
What kind of a world will it look down upon then?
The continents, the islands, and the glittering seas—
will any of these have then changed their relative
positions? Will the inhabitants of the civilised globe
still be content 40 travel by railway, or will they soar
aloft in balloons, and will enterprising tourists be
enabled to make pleasant little excursions to the
moon? Will steamers be superseded, and a bridge be
thrown across the Atlantic? Will it then pass as
near to us as on the 18th of October, 1858, it was
to Venus—for it was then within an ace of coming
into collision with that brilliant planet? The tail
would not hurt us. for there is little doubt that on the
30th June, 1861, the earth passed through the tail of
the comet which was visible in that year, for the day
was fiercely hot, and there was a phosphorescent
auroral glare altogether foreign to our atmosphere.
Truly a wide field of speculation is suggested by the
visits of these wandering bodies, and if they answer
no better purpose than to set us thinking over the
fact that a lifetime upon this earth is but a speck
in the passage of a comet's single journey round
the sun, they will not have appeared in vain.
I looked in at Lord's Ciicket Ground during the
match between the Harrow and Eton schools, and
could not but commiserate the players. With a sky
above like molten brass, with a breeze which so far
from being the cool zeyphr written of in poetry,
was more like the hot breath of the sandy desert, the
batting and the fielding seemed very hot work indeed
for the sweltering team. The interest manifested in
such contests as these can be estimated but faintly by
those who are not accustomed to witness them. Last
year this very cricket match of the public schools at-
tracted 40,000 spectators in the two days. Long lines
of carriages, numbers of brilliantly.dressed ladies,
crowds of eager partisans of either side—now cheering
joyously, and now listening moodily to the triumphant
shouts of the other side--all teetify to the popular
enthusiasm for a manly game, and one whose practice
leads to a quickness ,if eye and a development of
muscular power which cannot fail to be valuable in
after life.