The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-08-27 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS

The announcement that Government had
come to the resolution to apply the powers
v_sted in them by the recent Irish Criminal
Law Amendment Act, and pr)claim the
National League as "a dangerous associa,
tion," brought the ever-present Irish cinestio
once more •,o an acute and critical stage
No sooner was it known that a vivrou
stb:mpt to suppress the league was to bed
made than all Mr. Parnell's followers an
their supporters, as well as not a few in
sympathy with them in England, Wales,
and Scotland, raised an outcry that the step
was unjustifiable and unnecessary, claiming
that crime in Ireland is comparatively slight
now. Ministerialists, however, hold that the
league in its underworking exercises a potent
opposition to the machinery of the law, while
professedly it is engaging only in legitimate
political agitation. Dublin Castle decreed,
therefore that the Nationalists should, where
local circtur stances rendered the step neces-
sary, be under their thumb, a pronounce-
ment which the Irish leaders naturally re-
sented to the uttermost. Hence we have
had, and are having, a great deal of expres-
sion of heated party feeling, both at demon-
strations in Dublin and in London, and
within the walls of Parliament itself, not to
speak of meetings all over the three king-
doms, and columns of wordy argument in
the public press. Ireland is certainly very
much in evidence again, whatever may be
the merits of the particular point now upper-
most; and there is little prospect of a sur-
cease,in political wrangling. Men are taking
sides on the subject more and more strongly.
It is erasing the old dividing line of Liberal
and Tory. What will the end be? Can
Liberal or Tory say?

England and America are at one in their
desire for international peace, and it is,
therefore, pleasing to note the sincere and
earnest efforts which are being pat forth on
both sides of the Atlantic to provide for the
constitution beforehand of an arbitration
court for the se ctlement of any dispute which
circumstances may bring about. Our Peace
Association people here in Britain have got
up a gigantic memorial, signed by over two
hundred members of Parliament, to the Pre-
sident and Congress of the United States,
in favour of the adoption of a permanent
Treaty whose objects shall be to make
hostilities impossible. All success to those
who are thus working to bring about the
good time when the "nations of the earth
shall make war no more." If an arbitration
court were establi.hed as between Britain
and America, other States would ere long
take upon themselves the bond of peace.

The end of the Langworthy case has been
reached, and another cause celebre will soon
rank among forgotten sensations. The lady
who has been known as Mrs. Langworthy
is now free from the burden which her trust
in a man beyond her station placed her, and
she has received amends—so far as wealth
is able to heal heart sores—for all her
suffering. Mr. Langworthy has tardily, and
when further resistance became inconveni-
ent —and let us hope, also, distasteful— set
himself right by paying a heavy solatium to
the lady he deceived and cruelly dealt with.
He has purged himself in the eyes of tl,e
law, and stands again legally without
reproach in the world. But would he have
done what right demanded had not the great
weight of public opinion, against which even
plutocrats are powerless, been brought to
bear in behalf of the helpless and neglected
lady? We fear not. However, no matter
what the agency, the amende is now made,
and we will not reproach Mr Langworthy
by adverse comment, nor add another pang
by expatiating at further length on the case
to those already endured by the lady who
and whose child are now handsomely pro
vided for.

WHEN it is stated that a single " next-of-
kin " agency has been known to spend
hundreds of pounds in one week's advertis-
ing, it will be seen that the business is not
an unprofitable one. But there is only a
million of unclaimed money altogether in
Chancery, the highest ownerless estate being
worth but £15,000. So said Mr. Robertson
in the House of Commons the other night,
when he spoke of the specious promises made
by unprincipled persons to those heeding
their ensnaring announcements of fortunes
to be had for the application—and payment
of preliminary fees. Of some of the men
engaged in collecting "enquiry fees" from
fortune hunters, one hears from time to time
in the police reports, but many dupes pay
and resignedly bear their loss where one has
the hardihood to drag the rascals who have
swindled him to justice. Mr. Jackson—and
the member of Leeds is in full sympathy
with all matters affecting the working classes
—spoke very severely of these "frauds per-
petrated upon poor people," and promised,
on behalf of the Government, to see if some-
thing could not be done to checkmate them.
This is well, for there are swarms of ignorant
folk who will always adventure a shilling or
a half-sovereign when plausibly approached
by a professional cheat with a book-full of
"names of persons who have been advertised
for." These books generally contain such a
variety of surnames that it would be a hard
matter for any one to fail to find his own
name or that of some friend therein. There
is the opening for the next-of. kin rogue, who
exacts further payments—continuing as long
as the simple applicant will consent to be
bled on pretence of searching and other
preliminary steps to the securing of the
longed-for property, alleged to be only
awaiting claim. It is a safe general rule to
lie down that those who respond to tempt-
ingly-worded next-of-kin agency advertise-
ments are much more likely to be poorer
than richer by reason of any dealings they
may have with the advertisers. But so long
as there are plenty of gudgeons about there
will always also be anglers, skilled in the
use of bait of the most deceptive sort.

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