The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-27 00:00:00

THE WIDOW OF A MILLIONAIRE.

In the First Division of the Court of Session, Edinburgh,
oil Friday, in last week, decision was given ou a petition at
the instance of Mrs. Baird, widow of the into Mr. George
Baird, of Strichen and Michell, craving the Court to fix an
allowance of .0,500 per annum for the maintenance and edu-
cation of herson, George Alikander Baird, who was born
In 1881.
---- - - .

---
At his death in August, 1870, Mr. George Baird
was possessed of landed property yielding a
rental of about £15,000 per annum, and he
left other property of the value of about £1,000,000,
which at present yields an income of about £40,000
per annum. By trust-disposition and settlement
Mr. Baird conveyedto trustees his whole estates, with
directions to pay to his widow an annuity of £2,600 in
addition to the sum of £1,500 per annum securedto her
by their contract of marriage, and a further sum of
£l5O yearly towards the cost of keeping up the garden
at Stitchell in the event of her occupying the mansion
house. Besides these provisions Mrs. Baird enjoys the
income of £lO,OOO settled upon her in trust by her
father at the time of her marriage. Mr. Baird left no
issue except his son, the said George Alexander 'laird,
who is at present being educated in England, prepara
tory to his going to Eton, and his personal expenses,
which during the past year amounted to about 1:500,
will, it was said, considerably increase.
The trustevs opposed the application on the ground
that it was their intention to pay such sums as, in their
opinion, might be suitable when it became necessary
to provide him with RD establishment ; and they had
already paid to Mn. Baird, for her son's education
and maintenance, £l,OOO for the first year after his
father's death, £1,500 for the current year, and were
prepated to pay £2,000 yearly hereafter.
The Court (Lord Dens dissenting) held that the
petitioner was entitled to an allowance of 0,000 per
annum in addition to her present income.

THE QUEEN'S VISIT TO ST. PAUL'S
The following, interesting historical sketch, from
The Ti meg, is opportunely given, and we have pleasure
in reprinting it
it may be interesting at this time, in anticipation f the
Queen going in State to St. Paul's Cathedral toreturn thanks
for the restoration to health of the Prince of Wales, to
recount sonic of the more remarkable occasions iii the
national history on which Kings and Queens of England have
made similar visits to the Cathedral for like purposes.

Going back as far as the end of the 14th century, it may
be remembered that Hemy IV. went to St. Paul's in 1399,
and offered prayers on his accession to the throne, as did
also Henry VI. on his accession. Henry VII , after his
victory over Lambert Sinimel, it on two successive dale
in solemn procession. On the first day, we are told, a Ti'
De ore was sung, and on the second there Was a serm in at
Panis Cross. On gunday, May 21, 1514, Henry VIII. went
thither in marvel'. ms State to receive the sword and cap of
maintenance sent by the lope to him. On that occasion,
the whole immediate neighbourhood was crowded with
spectators, estimated at 20,600. Malcolm, in his Lend/Mum
ftedirieu in, says the defeat of the Spanish Armada oc-
maimed many veremonies in St. Paula. On Sunday, Sep-
tember 0, 1550, a solemn thanksgiving was held, when 11
flags taken from the enemy were displayed front the
lower battlements. The people bad previously listened to
several sermons preached from the old Cross In relation
to the event. The 24th of November was a grand recaaion.
On that day, he says, Queen Elizabeth went in great splen-
dour to the church, seated in a kind of triumphal chariot,
re ith fair pillars supporting a canopy and an Imperial
crown. Two others supported a lion and dragon in front of
the carriage, with the arms of England. This vehicle, he
adds, was drawn by two white horses. The Queen was re-
ceived at the church door by the Bishop of London, the Dean,
and 50 other clergymen, habited in superb copes. At the CIF
trance lier Majesty kneeled and pronounced a prayer, and
then proceeded to her seat, under a canopy in the choir,
when the Litany was chanted. After that the Queen west
to a closet, prepared for the occasion, in the north wall of
the church, and—" shame to our effeminacy," says the nar-
rator, parenthetically—there she remained "exposed to the
wintry blasts of November during the apace of tinie which
Pierce, Ilishop of Salisbury, occupied in delivering a
sermon.'

Swcial thanksgiving services were frequent in the reign
of Queen Anne. Year after year she went in solemn pro
cession to the Cathedral to commemorate glorious victories.
The 12th of November, 1702, when she proceeded in State
to return thanks for Marlborough's successes in the Low
Countries, and for the destruction of the Spanish fleet in
the port of Vigo by the Duke of Ormond and Sir George
Rooke, was an august cereMony of the kind. The Council,
according to lbati Miriam in his z'unets of St. Paters
deelared that the Cathednd being for that Ilay the Queen's
Chapel Royal, the seats were to he disposed of and all
the arrangements made by the Lord Chamberlain.
The Queen's throne, as in the then Rouse of Lords, was
about three feet higher, than the floor of the choir, covered
with a Persian carpet and surmounted by a canopy 15
feet high. There was, according to the Proclamation, an wir-
ehair on the throne, with a "(alit stool" before it, and a
desk for tile Queen's book, covered with crimson velvet,
richly enffiroblered aud fringed with gold, with a enslaion of
the same. Some distance behind were stinils for the Countess
of Marlborough, 0/0011 of the Stole ; the Countess of
Funded:m.l, Lady a the Itedcbronber is tVaiting and
further behind stool the Vice-Chamberlain, with other
officers of State. The two Menses of Parliament assisted at
the ceremony. The Lords eat in the area or body of the
choir; the Speaker of the House of Commons in a seat next
to the Lord Bishop of London in the middle of the south
.side of the choir, with the Sergeant-at-Arms and other
officers .just under him, and the members in the stalls and
galleries on each si-10. The Lonl Mayor, Aldermen, and
Sheriffs ant in the furthermost lower galleries towards the
altar, and their ladies had seats assigned them. The foreign
Ministers arid their ladies occupied the middle gallery on
the north side. The Bishop of London, Compton, sat on his
throne in the aouth-east end of the choir, and the Dean and
Prebendaries on chairs within the rails of the altar.

In the Procession to the Cathedral, says the Dean, the
House of Commons led the way. At eight o'clock they went
to St. James's Palace, then along Pall-Mall, and SO to the
Cathedral, where they took their places. The Lords met at
ten, and formed into procession, preceded by the officers of
the House, Masters in Chancery. Judges, Peers antler age
then Barons, Bishops, Viscomds, Eat Is, Dukes, the great
officers of State, the Archbishops, and the Keeper of the Great
Seal. 1 hey, too, in that order, went to the Cathedral and
took their seats. All the while till the arrival of the Queen
the organ continued playing voluntaries. At eleven o'clock,
the Queen took coach at St. James's ; at Temple-bar she was
received by the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen on
horseback. There the Lord Mayor surrendered the sword,
prefacing the action with a short speech. The Queen re-
turned it, and the Lord Mayor bore it before her to the
church. On her arrival at the west door the Queen was met
by the Peers and principal officers of State, and conducted
siting the olive to her throne. She knelt at her fahl-stool,
and after a short " ejaculation " rose and seated herself.
The music ceased. Dr. Stanley, a residentiary, read the
first service, after which the To D,104 was sung, with vocal
and instrumental mask. " The old Whig Bishop of Exeter,
Sir Jonathan Trelawney," adds Dean Milman, preached an
excellent sermon from Joshua, viii.. F,'' But / I.s for you, no
man bath been able to stand before you this slay." It lasted
about half an hoar, and was followed by the anthem,
prayers, and benediction. The Queen led the way hack.
The Tower guns, those on the river, and those in St. James's
Park were firol three times ; once as the Queen left St.
James's, the second time when the Te Demii was chanted,
the last on the Queen's return to the/Palace.

• Such, says Dean Milman, was the " model and precedent'.
for Royal processions at St. Paul's. In the reign of Queen
Anne they were repeated with glorious frequency. Toe
second was to celebrate the vlitory of Blenheim, September 7,
1704. Parliament was not sitting, but the Peers, Privy
Councillors, and great officers of State were In attendance.
There was a full service with the pre-communion. The
sermon was preached by Dean Sherlock from the text,
" Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the Earth."
After the recovery of George 111., in April, 1709, from a
very dangerous illness, a day of general thanksgiving to
Almighty God was appointed by Royal proclamation, and
for the greater solemnity of the slay, says the A anneal
&Oder, his Majesty was pleased to go to the Cathedral
Church of St. l'aul, accompairied by the Queen, their Royal
Highnesses the Prince of Weles, the Duke of York, the
Priucess Royal, the Princess Augusta, the Princess Eliza-
beth, the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Cumberland, and
his Highness Prince William, attended by both Houses of
Parliament, the Judges, and other public officers, to return
thanks to God for his great mercies and blessings. The
procession was begun at eight g.'clock in the morning by
the House of Commons in their coaches, followed by the
Speaker in Ills state Coach. Next came the Masters in
Chancery, the Judges, and after them the Peers in the otter
of precedency, the Lord Chancellor in his state coach closing
this part of the procession. Afterwards came the Royal
Family with their attendants, escorted by the Horse Guards,
The Kidg and Queen set out from St. James's Palace soma
after ten o'clock in a coach drawn by eight cream-coloured
horses, followed by their Royal Highnesses the Princesses,
and proceeded through the gate at the stable yard along
Pall-mall and through the Strand, "amid the loyal imams-
tions of a prodigious concourse of people." The iffreets
wore lined as far as Temple-bar by the brigade of Foot
Guards, the Grenadier companies of which were posted in
the Cathedral, and patrolled by parties of Horse Guards.
Fermi Temple-bar to St. Paul's the streets were lined by the
Artillery Company and Militia of the city. At Temple-bar
the King was met by the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, ant a deputa-
tion from the Aldermen and Common Council, all being on
horseback, when the Lord Niver surrendered the city sword
to Ills Majesty, who, having returned it to him, he carried
It bareheaded before the King to St. Paul's. At the
Cathedral His Majeaty was filet at the west door by the
Peers, the Bishop of London, the Dean and Canons of St.
Paul's, the band of Gentlenien Pensioners, and the Yeomen
of the Guard attengling. The King and Queen sat angler a
canopy of State near the west end of the choir, and opposite
the altar. After the special service the Royal procession
returned to St. James's, guns wore tired la the Parks, and the
day was wound up with illuminations in all parts of the
. metropolis of great splendour and magnificence. Again, on
the 19115 of December, 1757, the K big (George III.) and the
Queen, with the whole of the Royal Family, the great
°nieces of State, and the members of tooth Houses ot Parlia-
ment, went in grand proceasion to St. Paul's to Poke part in
the genteel thanksgiving for the great nr.vai victories
obtaimgl_by his Majesty's fleet under the command of
Lords Howe, St Vincent. and Dellelta. On that Ocea-
alell a large Mealier of men of the Royal Navy rind Marines
joined in the pageant, bearing the captured Frefieh, Spanish
anti Dutch flags. At Teniplebar their Majesties were re-
ceived by the Lord Mayor mounted 1111 horseback and
carrying the sword of the city. The Sheriff's foul the mem.
bers at the Corporation were Is attendance at the Cathedral
where the King and Queen were met on their arrival
by tile Bishop of London and tire Dean and Chapter,
sviro conducted them to their thermos. Detach-
ments of Foot Guards formed a double lino from
the west door to the dome. During the service the flags
were placed with niuch ceremony upon the altar. The
sermon on the occasion was preached by the Dean (Dr.
Pretyman) The Royal party returned to the Palace with
the same State amid the enthusiasm of the populace. Ills
stated, as an Incident of the day, that Mr. Pitt was very
grossly insulted on his way to the Cathedral, in consequence
of which he did not return in Iris own carriage, hut stopped
to dine with the Speaker and some other gentlemen in
Doetors'-commons. He was escorted home to the evening
by a party of the London Light Horse.

DESTRUCTION OF ELEPHANTS IN INDIA.—Ord
Napier has entered a protest against the wanton and
indiscriminate destruction of elephants in India. In
an official minute, he says that the enactment of a law
fur the preservation of an animal so useful for the
purposes of labour and so indispensable to military
operations can be justified on grounds altogether
different from those which may be urged in favour of
a law for the preservation of flying game or the beasts
of the chase, and he recommends such an enactment as
smatter of public policy. The Local Government of
Madras has, it appears, resolved to gi re effect to his
lordship's suggestion.