The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-31 00:00:00

o)ur onban CorrupoAent.

[We deem It right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

It is with very general regret that Her Majesty's
subjects have heard of the enfeebled health of Princess
Louise, whose nervous condition seems to have been
shaken by the unfortunate sleigh accident at Ottawa,
some months ago. Previously to that her Royal
Highness had not been well, and, as will be remem-
bered, spent last winter in England. This, therefore,
will be the second time that the Princess will have
been compelled to come home, although, until next
November, two years will not have elapsed since she
first set foot on Canadian soil. Her absence from the
Dominion will now be more prolonged than on the
previous occasion; for, in addition to spending some
time in England, a sojourn at some of the German
watering-places is recommended. Meanwhile, it is
satisfactory to know that the Queen herself is in the
enjoyment of her usual good health ; and in the hot
sultry days of July hailie en able to find relief from
the cares of State aminhe quietude of her marine
residence, the windows of which look out upon the
foam-flecked waves of the Solent. Another month
and her Majesty will be at Balmoral, a palatial abode
surrounded by pure mountain air to which, as she has
told us in her Diary, she is particularly partial. There
the Sovereign will remain until the close of Ncvember,
as her custom has been for many years past.

The Volunteers did not get their review, to celebrate
the twenty-first anniversary of their movement, but
taking the Wimbledon meeting as a whole, it was un-
dolbtedly a great success, and it was wound
up amid every favourable surrounding. The
presence of the Princess of Wales is always
attractive, no matter in what company her
Royal Highness may be, and the fact that
she distributed the prizes on Saturday was well ap-
preciated by those of our citizen army who had stayed
out the meeting. Large numbers of them often leave
at the end of the first week, on finding that they have
no chance of being included in the Aixty marksmen
who contend for the Queen's Prize; but there are
many other very valuable competitions; and besides,
with anything like. favourable weather, life in camp
affords an opportunity for a fortnight's pleasant
outing, which to many a volunteer is the only one
he gets in the course of the twelve months. A
peculiar feature of this year's shooting has been the
success of the American marksmen, who have received
the hearty congratulatiens of the council upon their
proficiency in so valuable an attainment as good
rifle practice. America is a country in which, in
years gone by, the rifle has been more frequently
used than in our own land, more especially in the
western states, where the settlers have had to pro-
tect themselves alike from the incursions of beasts of
prey and the attacks of savages. Rifle practice across
the Atlantic has indeed been a necessity alike to the
existence of the people and to the progress of civiliza-
tion.

Of all the ways of attaining notoriety, perhaps one
of the most extraordinary, at all events in recent
times, has been that resorted to by Dr. Tanner, a
New York physician, when he resolved to do without
solid food forty days and forty nights. There is one
end secured by this marvellous abstention, and that
is, it not only attracts a great deal of notice upon the
American Continent, but upon this side of the ocean
as well. It is the theme of conversation in every
city from New York to San Francisco; and in this
country, when people opened their papers in the
morning, a great many more perused the physiological
descriptions of Dr. Tanner's fast than the Parlia-
mentary debates. The lesson derived from this is
that anything sensational or abnormal takes with
the newspaper-reading public far better than the
prosaic or the common-place, however startling in its
incidents the common-Place may be. A striking
instance of this is afforded in the prominence given to
the Tanner fast, as contrasted with the speed with
which the metropolitan journals dismissed the
Risen colliery explosion after the first day or two.
Here was a calamity involving the loss of one hun-
dred and twenty lives, and the depopulation of an
entire community in a thriving Welsh valley. A
column is given to it on the first day, after which the
subject is dismissed daily in a paragraph. The reason
is clear. In the working of the vast area of our coal
beds, colliery explosions are unhappily not unfrequent ;
indeed they have come to be regarded as almost a
natural accompaniment of a perilous occupation.
But if, instead of so many explosions in our col-
lieries, an earthquake were occasionally to sweep away
only a twentieth part of the lives annually lost in our
coal mines, what a sensation would be created! No
relegating the topic to a small type paragraph,
but the übiquitous special correspondent would
be upon the spot, eagerly hunting for every
scrap of information, and givjng us full historical
accounts of the terrible earthquake at Lisbon
in 1755, to say nothing of more recent catastrophes in
Lima and Peru. Unfortunately, to the English people,
a colliery explosion or a shipwreck, however exten-
sively fatal, commands but a passing notice simply
because such events occur so often.

Kensington House, in the High-street, and near one
of the stations of the Metropolitan District Railw
has lately come into prominent notice as the
scene of several distinguished gatherings in aid
of the cause of charity and benevolence. Not
long ago the Prince and Princess of Wales, their
children, the King of Greece, Princess Christian,
and the Duchess of Teck attended a bazaar there
in aid of a Servants' Home, and the result was
a very considerable acquisition to the funds.
More recently, under Royal patronage, is a perform-
ance in aid of the sufferers through the loss of
the Atalanta, a sister ship to the equally ill-fated
Eurydice. Kensington House is one of the most
magnificent mansions in London. It is veritably a
marble palace; and being quite new, combines every
modern improvement. With its grounds it occupies
seven acres; and with its capacious lawns, spreading
gardens, extensive lakes,' and tastefully-laid out
walks, is a most attractive place in promoting the pur-
poses to which it has lately been devoted. It seems
to be too capacious for the residence of any one, how-
ever exalted in rank, and is likely to be converted into
a club, after the style of the Orleans Club at Twick-
enham.

The Earl of Aberdeen has had a meeting at his town
house in Grosvenor-square in aid of an institution
which, although established only two years ago, is
making much progress. It has been estimated that
there are in London forty thousand working girls,
who, desirous of earning an honest livelihood, yet
are unabla to obtain wages sufficient to meet the
ordinary requirements of life. Most of these have
come from the country; for upon the principle that
the larger body always attracts thelesser, the metropolis
is every year drawing towards it a considerable propor-
tion of the population of smaller communities. These
working girls, therefore, when they lose a situation in
London, are without a home until they can obtain
another; and in 1878 a movement was made forsupply-
ing temporary resting places for them. Totally unsec-
tarian in its inception, as will be seen from the fact that
Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P.,
re two of its most prominent supporters, the Home
for Working Girls has now three houses open, and its
promoters speak with confidence of the great service
which it has been. The drawing-room meeting at
Lord Aberdeen's was very fully attended; the gather-
ing was influential and representative; and a prestige
was given to the effort which ought to be of valuable
aid to it in so good and worthy a cause.
The Lord Mayor has issued invitations for a ban-
quet at the Mansion House, which is to be given to
Her Majesty's Ministers on the 7th of August, and
Mr. Gladstone and most of his colleagues have pro-
mised to attend. The civic August banquet is
usually on a Wedn2sday, an off-night in both Houses,
but this year it is on a Saturday. In ordinary sessions
when the 7th of August has arrived, the work is very
nearly done, and members are looking forward to the
12th when they can "away to the woods, away."
Not so this year, however. The session began very
late, and the new House of Commons has not shown
that capacity for getting through the business which
might have been expected from a young and vigorous
assembly, fresh from contact with the constituencies,
and with many years of life and energy before it. The

Prime Minister is of opinion that the country would
be disappointed if the Parliament, after weeks of talk
were to separate without something to show for its
labours, and has sketched out a programme which he
declares must be carried through before the House
adjourns. Lord Palmerston once, under similar circum-
stances, said he knew of no reason why Parliament
should rise in August if work remained to be done;
September was yet before them, and it was possible
that even Christmas might arrive and find them at
their post. As a matter of fact, however, the busi-
ness was all cleared off by the end of August in that
year; and notwithstanding the forebodings that the
House will now sit into September, there is very little
doubt that before that pleasant month arrives, the
bills will have been dicposed of, and the halls of St.
Stephens will have become deserted.
As the Ascot week is the zenith, so the Good-
wood week marks the closing flicker of the London
season. The races in the Duke of Richmond's
pleasant park in Sussex are attended by such of
the aristocracy who have received invitations to
spend a few days at his Grace's house, and this
engagement is regarded as the final one of . anY
' pressing interest. August is then in sight, and
few remain in London during that trying month who
can possibly get out of it. By that time the earth
begins to retain the heat which the sun has poured into
it during the longer days; the nights are hot; and

people go about the streets with an air of lassitude
which seems to say that they would be very glad in-
deed to get away to the seaside or to the moors amid
the wild convolvulus and the creeping heather.
Those who are unable to make a regular set
holiday—and their name is legion in London
run off on Friday evening and return on Monday
morning, consoled with the reflection that two days by
the seaside are better than none at all. Well, when
one can go to Brighton and back for four shillings, no
wonder that this famed watering-place upon the coast
of Sussex is so popular in the metropolis; while other
favourite trips are from London Bridge to Margate or
Ramsgate l many venturing across the Channel to
Boulogne, and spending the Sunday there.
The altered relations between England and France,
strongly contrasting with the enmity which for cen-
turies exited between the two countries, received
a remarkable illustration in an incident during
the journey home of the Empress Eugenie from South
Africa. She had gone to visit a spot where her son
had been killed practically while serving as an
officer in the English army which was fighting against
a barbarian foe. Whilst on her passage home the
steamer touched at St. Helena, where the First
Napoleon ended his days. Visiting his tomb, the
Empress plucked a sprig of willow from one of the
overhanging trees as a memento, and another for
Queen Victoria. Yet what a chapter of history is
that in which, during nearly twenty years, when
Queen Victoria's gitandfather wai upon the Throne,
his generals and admirals contended against
Napoleon by land and sea! At length, after a
tremendous effort, the lion was caged, and banished
to a rock in the southern ocean, where a British
man-of-war constantly cruising off the coast, effec-
tually prevented his escape, and so saved Europe
from any further results of his disturbing influence.
Although Napoleon's tomb is still kept up at Nt.
Helena, it is well known that his remains lie under
the gilded dome of the Invalides in Paris, and that
their removal ,thither was the moving cause of re-
viving that Napoleonic legend which ultimately led to
the downfall of the Orleanist monarchy and the
establishment of the Second Empire.