The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-05-07 00:00:00

'tarlnnnCortespoubent.

riVe deem it right to state that we do not at all times
lrientify ouiselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

The first week of May rinds the metropolis in the
full tide of active social and political life. The Royal
Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery have both been
opened, and the spacious galleries of both are crowded.
. ... .

These great Art Exhibitions are situated at the west
end of the town, and in the aristocratic and fashionable
quarter which represents the wealth and influence of
London. The Academy, which was formerly located
at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, where it
was inconveniently crowded in. a few years ago
was established at Burlington House, Piccadilly, a
new and splendid range of buildings accom-
modating not only the Academy, but the Univer-
sity of London, the Royal Geographical, Chemical,
and Geological Societies, and other kindred insti-
tutions. The structure forms a vast quadrangle,
not far westward from Piccadilly-circus; and occupy-
ing as it does a conspicuous position on the north side
of one of the best thoroughfares in London, the visitor
who journeys there has time to form a very fair idea
of the affluence of that end of the capital.
There is this difference between the National Gallery
and the Royal Academy—the former contains the
pictures of what are called the Old Masters and the
best specimens of the art of the Middle Ages ; the latter
brings together every year the choicest works of our own
painters—those who are still amongst Us, and who are
always endeavouring to improve upon their previous
productions. Portrait and landscape, coast scene and
mountain side, each has its respective admirers.
In this year's Academy exhibition, the painting
which will, perhaps, attract the most attention
is Mr. Millais' portrait of Lord Beaconsfield, whose
last illness, while depriving the artist of the
requisite number of sittings, has not prevented the
completion of the picture. The annual opening of the
Academy is _rightly looked upon as a matter of
national importance. The President and Council
always inaugurate it by a grand banquet, at which
the foremost figures in the world of statesmanship
and of politics, of science and of art, of philosophy
and of literature are invited. Ministers and Opposi-
tion, leaving the acerbities of public life in the
Parliament House, there partake of the splendid
hospitality of the Royal Academicians, glad to
escape for a short time from the contentions which
seem to be the inevitable concomitants of a political
career.

It is not, however, merely from a political and
social point of view that May finds London in the
full stream of activity. There are the "May.

Meetings," often held at the rate of half a dozen
a day, and representative of every description of
effort in the direction of religion and charity,
benevolence and philanthropy. Exeter Hall, at the
west end of the Strand, is the head-quarters of these
gatherings; and this historic building has lately been
acquired by the Young Men's Christian Association
at an enormous cost. As there is a smaller hall as
well as a larger one under the same roof, it is seldom
during this month of May that one of them is not occu-
pied; and so constant is the succession of meetings that
a stream coming out from one is met by a stream
going in at another. For these various reasons
therefore, London is full in May ; and as the
vegetation in the Parks, bursting the bonds in

which it has been held during the long winter, now
shows all the fresh richness of its delicate greenery,
London is seen at its best, and before the heats of
_summer have turned the verdure brown. The im-
piession of it which is taken away into the country is
a pleasant one, with its bright sunshine, its busy
earnest crowds, its capacious parks, and its general
air of .00ncentrated energy and life.
Than Lord Shaftesbury there has been no more
prominent figure at these May meetings ever since
their establishment. He is sometimes present at
several in the course of the same day; and it
was a happy thought which suggested the presen-
tation of his portrait to the venerable peer on
his eightieth • birthday. Appropriately enough his
lordship completed fourscore years on the eve
of the May meetings; and the gathering which
on that day took place at the Guildhall under the
presidency of the Lord Mayor was a just tribute and
an ample testimony to the good work which has
characterised a long, honourable, and useful career.
The future prospects of Electric Lighting and the
_ _ _ _

part which compressed air may be destined to play as
a motive power, are the great questions of the day
amongst scientists of all nations. The new light has
not yet taken the position of coal gas, as gas in its
time had done with the oil lamps and candles of past

generations. But, as a means of public lighting, elec.
•tricity is on its trial; and so far as the City of London
is concerned, that trial will certainly be a fair one,
extending over twelve months, so that the light will
have been tested in all weathers. As regards compressed
air, it appears that the propulsion of lccomotives is not
its sole field of applicability. It has been lately
applied in the French capital to the distribution of the
correct time from a central station to a system of
clock dials spread over the city. The clocks are
constructed on the pneumatic principle, Ind their

mechanism, which is described as being extremely
simple, is kept in motion by the despatch of
compressed air through a system of tubes radiat-
ing from the central station. The system is as
novel as it is important; for the pneumatic clocks,
unlike our accustomed recorder of the flight of time,
require neither winding up, regulating, nor cleaning.
There is now a project to introduce compressed air
clocks into London, and power to this end is sought in
a Bill befote Parliament.

Westminster Abbey, in which it is proposed to place
a monument to Lord Beaconsfield, is the great Walhalla
to receive the remains of those of the illustrious who
have not left specific instructions that they shall repose
elsewhere, and by statues in marble to commemorate
their names. The dust of warriors and statesmen has
for centuries been borne there; and there also in the
earlier ages of our history were interred the sovereigns
of England. The Abbey is indeed the most venerable
as well as the most interesting of the ecclesiastical
edifices of London. There is no public building to
approach it in age by centuries; for the St. Paul's of
our own time was not built for 600 years after the
towers of Westminster Abbey were pointing to the
skies. Its groined arches, its traceried windows, its
elaborate roof, and faultless perspective, all suggest
the thought with respect to its architect that there
must have been giants in those days in designing
public buildings a 2 well as in the art of war. The
Abbey was in exisfence before the Norman conquest,
and numbered its worshippers two hundred years
prior to the assembling of the very first Parliament
of England, whose successors now meet in the
sumptuous pile of buildings hard by its crumbling
walls, and overlooking that river whose tideway is
ever represeptative of the extent and the wealth of
London.

A recent discussion in the House of Commons once
more brought to the front the long-standing contro-
versy between ships and guns—one which has been

going on ever since circumstances compelled us to
abandon wooden walls for ironclads. Year after year the '
contest went on ; the heavier the calibre of the gun
the thicker was made the armour of the ship; and the
thicker the iron plating was made, the heavier the
shot and the bigger the gun. For some time past
the guns have clearly gained on the plates; and
this is seen in the continued reduction in the
space covered by armour in ships of new design. The
plates have to be thickened, and the covered area pro-
portionately diminished. It seems generally to she
recognized that the day for small ironclads has gone;
and the alternative pressing upon us is either to have
monster ships with massive and concentrated armour,
or ships with no armour at all, but relying for victory
or safety on the power of their guns and the speed
derived from their engines. Our naval architects
have now to consider whether they are not compelled
to sacrifice certain elements of strength which are of
more consequence than a heavy shield, because pos-
sessing more practical value.
In addition to the continued high price of Consols,
a noticeable feature of the money market at present
is the rapid rise which has taken place in the
value of English railway stocks. The trade of the
country has not improved to such an extent as
materially to benefit their revenues this year ;
yet, quotations have gone up day after day, the
market obeying the impulse of cheap money and the
more hopeful spirit which prospects of peace inspire.
The hope of a peaceful settlement of the Greek diffi-
culty has of late given an additional stimulus to the
stock markets, with the result that home securities
have oonsiderably augmented in value.

Parliament has just completed the first year of its
age, the Speaker having been elected on the 29th of
April, 18.:50. An ex-Premier has already been removed
from the ranks of its members. The last Parliament
also lost a statesman who, like Lord Beaconsfield, had
tivice filled the office of Prime Minister of England,
and that was Lord Russell. The previous Parliament
was deprived of Lord Derby, who had been three
times' First Lord of the TtrsurY ; the rarliament
before that again lost Lord Pa merston, twice Premier;
and its predecessor was deprived of Lord Aberdeen,
who held the office onoe. - Thus five successive Par-
liaments have witnessed the removal by death of as
many Prime Ministers. The other statesmen who
have filled this high position during her Majesty's
reign are Viscount Melbourne and Sir Robert Peel,
both of whom died a generation ago, and Mr. Glad-
stone, who still retains it. Of Queen Victoria's eight
Prime Ministers, extending over a reign of 44 years,
only one survives; and the present bolder of that ?dis-
tinguished office has seen every one of his prede-
cessors called to his eternal rest.