The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-10-10 00:00:00

Oar yonbon cartsponbtnt.

li'Ve Joon. it right to date that we do not at o tine".
Identify ourselves with our correspondent's uuluioss I

The discussion of political questions has taken a new
impetus from the manifesto of Mr. Disraeli. I', pie
have long been wondering why it was that the Premier
,Was so long hesitating about his address. Was he. like
Ir.Micawber, waiting to see what would turn up, or
was he considering what would be the best cry to
raise ? Other eminent politicians had issued tHeir
election addresses, and had orally addressed their con-
stituents, but still the oracle was silent, and people
indulged in wondering what would be the tomer
address. At last he has spoken, and his utterances
will of course be taken as a party manifesto. I shall
not comment on it from a party point of view, last just
point out its leading features as indices to the policy of
the government ,f which Mr. Disraeli is the hem I. On
the great question of the day he offers war to ti e knife
with the Liberals. lie tells us that the leader of the
°pi...Rhin proposed "a change of the fumlamental
laws .4 the realm and a dissolution of the union between
Church and State," and to this her Majesty's ( iovern-
mesa " offered, and will offer, an nu,..n.promising
resistance." And he proceeds to argue this great
question, urging that if the "numerical test" i to be
accepted. its application cannot be limited to Ireland,
and plainly hinting that if the Established Church is
to be disendowed we may expect " the supremacy of a
foreign prince " (the Pope) to be substituted for that
of the Inseciu. Whatever may be said of the whole
address in opposition to its policy, no one can .leny its
ability. It puts forward the Conservative side .4 the
questions of the day with consummate skill. The
address will give a tone to the speeches of Comerva-
tines throughout the country, and will naturally call
forth the argumentative power 14 the opposite piety.

The Tinlti gives currency to a rumour which it is to
be hoped may prove true that at the commence-
ment of net year there will be a c.msiderable
reduction in the army ; that nmst of the ilepAt
battalions will be abolished ; that there vi i I be
a considerable reduction in the number of tool's
eerving MI the North American and Australian
stations; ad that Malta shall be garrisoned by loyal
:Marines, some of the regiments serving in that ldand
Imlmt released. Such reductions BM these will be very
fay.otably received by the public, and will, therefore,
tend ti popularise the Government ; and the revenue
retnens rather painfully show that economy is required
in tle• national expenditure.

Eagerly and attentively are we watching for and
reading the news from Spain. There is only one revo-
lution within the memory of most living persons—there
are some living persons, I suppose, who can remember
the leading incidents of the French revolution, as
making a deep impression on them at the time of their
occurrence—that was of such importance as this revo-
lit in Spain bids fair to be, and that was the French
revolution of 1848, which gave such an impetus to
popular movements elsewhere. The Spanish revolts.
ion of 1:468 has up to the present time been remarkable
for its a'most tl,sslless working-out, and fm the calm-
ness of despair with which the Queen—the ex-Queen
•••-has accepted the situation. llnt Spain is now in a
trans,tion state, and we are anxiously watching the
turn of events. With constitutions, As with structures,
it is easier to destroy than to build. Political parties
have united to pull down ; will they unite to build up?
Comparisons are odious, and I will ni it make them;
but without comparing Lord Shaftesbury with other
noblemen, no one will dispute that the noble lord has
slur much for the benefit of the working classes. He
has, I should say, been universally regarded SS their
friend. When he speaks, therefore, in strong lam
rustic in condemnation—not indeed of the entire class,
but of smne if them—his words naturally produce con-
siderable sensation. Writing to Colonel Maude, the
lon. Secretary of the Free Labour Society, Lord
Shaftesbury says, "(0d grant that the work-people
nosy he emancipated from the tightest thraldrom they
have ever yet endured. All the single despots, and all
sle• Aristocracies that ever were, or ever will be, ate as
mutts d wind compared with these tornadoes of Trades'
Cnions, But I have small hope. It was observed long
21 I.y great practitioners in democracy, Populus colt
ilreipiatur: (The people like to be deceived ;
let them be deceived). So it will be now. The masses
seem to me to have less common sense than they had
Ox-sr ago," 'this iharti language—very hard. That
it is Amax° cannot be doubted, last it may be sincere
and mistaken. To say that the masses have less
common sense now than they had a year ago is what
few, if any, of these masses will admit, and I shall be
prepared to hear that, spite of all the noble lord's
benevolent efforts, this harsh utterance will bring him
many enemies.

Ono of our daily papern—akikl some others have
.iik irk kkomkswhat similar term A—says :—" Now
hilt railway directors are obliged to find carriages for
their uakilking, passengers, it is, we believe, their inten-

. .
t ion t. ve that none but those caniag,es provided are
tr,sl f ••• the purpose. This is nothing but fair; the
miff, ring that some persons were compelled to endure
mulct- the old system—or, rather, no system —in which
smel;ing was tacitly sanctioned in any part of the
ft:dim' 3nd trains, was infinitely greater than the in-
convenience of which the smokers so loudly complained."
On which side was the balance of discomfort I shall
not setk to decide, and could not decide if I attempted
it ; but if railway companies intend, as is here stated,
to insist that there shall be no smoking except in
carriages set apart for that purpose, the directors must
put • •rt more smoking carriages than they have hitherto
done, or the complaints of the smokers will now become
louder than ever. The new Railway Regulation
Act is curiously uncertain in its provisions on this
matter, and up to the present time the Act has certainly
not worked well. The smokers are treated as if they
were a pitiful minority, whereas they are, rightly or
wrongly, a very large majority. How would it do—
I merely throw it out SA a rough suggestion—to have
about a third of the train for smokers, a third where
smoking is strictly prohibited, and a third optional?
At all events, the great smoking difficulty has not yet
his-n completely met; and some people say the ar-
rangements are worse than before. There is another
great railway difficulty which still remains unsettled
—shall the carriages be locked or unlocked! The
Sontit-Eastern Company has set ehe example of
running their trains with unlocked doors. The
experiment is at least worth carefully being made,
and the probability is that it will prove successful.
l'hree grand works are approaching completion.
The Holborn Valley Viaduct, which will be a splendid
improvement, will be open for traffic at the commence'
ment of next year; the Smithfield Meat and Poultry
Market will be completed in the course of some six
weeks, and it is believed that the Prince of \Vales will
open this fine commodious market; and Blackfriars-
bridge, with which there has been both accountable
and unaccountable delay, will be opened in about
twelve months. A proposition is now under con.
sideration for the widening of Newgate-street, and if
this is effected, there will be a splendid thoroughfare
from the heart of the city, through Holborn and
Oxford-street, to the western outskirts of the great
Metropolis. Add to these, the Thames Embankment
and numerous other minor improvements, and it must
Is- confessed that London at last is gradually becoming
a handsome city.

It is much to be regretted that so generally well I
managed an institution as the General Post-office— 1
an institution which moreover brings in about a
lion a year surplus profit—should be so frequently
dbargeable with attempting either to decrease the pay
ef their hard-working servants, to increase their duties,
or both. The CM., of the auxiliary sorters in London I
is now attracting attention. This class of workmen
was established about eight years ago, on the terms of
being employed from four till eight p.m., for 10s. a
neck. The time is now altered from five till eight, ,
and the wages reduced to a. Id. per week. This may
Is fair at the first glance, hut it does not bear
examination. The injustice of the change can be seen
in a moment by supposing that instead of a reduction
of one-forth the work and one-fourth the wages, the
reduction of both were by one half. Would it not be
paltry and cruel to employ men for two hours each
night in the week for 58.1—twelve journeys to and fro
included ! For such work as these men base to do it
would be had enough to pay them is. lid. for eighteen
home,* supposing that these eighteen hours were two
working days of nine hours each; but to spread these
hours all over the week makes it worse. No wonder
that the men are complaining of the new arrangement.
French novelists, as well as journalists, make funny
ern ,rs in describing English manners and customs.
The author of the last French novel now describes a
British peer as having his town mansion in Golden-
RI mare, and as giving a sumptuous banquet to his friends
at the 'Elephant and Castle !" Why the nobleman
should not give his friends the sumptuous banquet at
his own residence is not easy to see, till we remember
that the houses in Golden-square are scarcely adapted
for such an entertainment. This old-fashioned, worn.
out, shabby-genteel square, I need not remind anyone
who knows anything of London, is not the place for a
British peer to reside; nor is the "Elephant and
Castle " a place for a peer to give a sumptuous banquet
to his friends. It is a great public-house—to the south
of London just what the "Angel" at Islington is to
the north.

The commencement of the winter 11k.06011 in London
tphatically marked by the first of the aeries of
.y concerts, and afternoon promenades at the
Palace. Owing to the wretched weather the
concert last Saturday was poorly attended,

!r.%:fttal

;ugural

but charming concerts these are for the "winter of our
discontent." No doubt there are a few people who go
really to hear and enjoy first-class music, but I sin
sufficiently cynical to believe that they are a very
small minority. People go to these Saturday pro
xnenades to see and be seen, to study the fashions, and
enjoy the sweet pleasure of criticising each other's dress
and appearance. Ladies slowly sweep up that splen-
did nave—and they do literally sweep it—apparently
with only two objects, to see and to be seen, and
perhaps rather the latter than the former. And
nowhere can you see lovelier women or more charming,
oidre, or expensive toilettes, as the case may be. To
go to the C.P. Saturday promenades, is the thin ; to
do—positively the correct thing, and everybody who is
anybody does it accordingly.