The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-11-26 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS.

Winiour entering in any party consider -
ati.ms which may be involved, or inquiring
too aeeply with regard to the political con-
vietions of Earl Sydney on the one hand,
or his fellow farmers, erst associated in the
M.Lidstene Club, on the other, the broad-
minded observer will, we think, heartily
endorse the dictum of his lordship that
Chambers of Agriculture have become too !
mach in the nature of debating societies.
Tile- noble ex-President of the Maidstone
Farmers Club, in quitting office in disgust,
emphatically set forth his antagonism to in-
coesequential talk, and stoutly deprecated
the, discussion of such high and mighty
theines as "the national needs and dangers
"by a bucolic assembly." In our local
farmers' associations all over the country the
epidemic of chatter on things Imperial is
growing more and more malignant, to the
stifling of the useful consideration of matters
likely to better agriculture. Violent politi-
cians never tire of fighting over again the
old battle of Free Trade and Protection, or
of getting up a wrangle about tithes, Church
rates, or some other subject upon which
neighbours hive sharply divergent opinions.
The American Minister to Britain was
shrewdly right when, a week or ,two back, he
told Englishmen that the need of the hour
in this nation was a professorship of silence.
If Earl Sydney's exemplary action lead the
tillers of the soil resolve that they for their
part will do something to stem the torrent
of mischievous political word-wasting which
fLods, the land, he will have .rendered in,
estimable service to the State. Let agri-
culturists keep their attention to field and
farm . work, and leave idle "orating" to those
who have nothing more usefal to do.
*._

THE "disclosures" which have this week
been made anent the alleged dynamite_ con-

spii acy in our midst are -sufficiently alarm-
ing. If the "sworn information" of the
police put in evidence in the case have found-
atiwi in fact, one cannot wonder that the
Irish Secretary should be surrounded by a
strong bodyguard in all his movements. One
of his foregoers in office died a dreadful
death at the hand of an assassin, another but
escaped by almost a miracle, and now we are
assured that Mr. Balfour has carried his life
in his hand, so to speak, for months past.
Without wishing to prejudice a case which
is sub judicc us eat, the commentator can
not be ill-timed in recording the obvious re-
flection tbat if ever a Minister of the Crown
required courage, that statesman does to
whose lot falls in these latter and dangerous
days the anything but light or aveeable
duties of Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieu-
tenant of Ireland.

The principal proprietor of the "greatest
show ou earth" delights in big things, and
now he can add to all the other sensations
associated in time past with his name and
enterprise the bold advertisement—in this
ease without the initiative of hie own re-
sourceful brain—of an immense fire. The
sight of the savage occupants of Barnum's
monster menagerie careeiug about panic-
stricken before- the devouring flames must
have been a terrible one. The emperor of all
the showmen is not a man to be bealen, but
it may be asked, in humanity's name,
whether civilisation should again sanction
the aggregation of thousands of wild beasts
ander such, conditions as those in which
many caravan loads of carnivora and other
interesting animals met an awful death the
other day in Connecticut.

"Less femmes peuvent tout," says an
antique Galic proverb, and so it seems from
the turrn:-)il which France is at present pass-
ing through. It was the band of woman
that bron7hi, about the political panic.
Female love of plotting and power com-
passed the dealings in decorations and poli-
tical intriguing which have involved the
disgrace of not a few who hitherto stood
high in public esteem, and the ignominious
hurling from office of the statesmen who per-
mitted the scandals to occur. What a pity
it is, as women eau do everything, to trans-
late the proverbial "saw," that her power is
not alwaya swayed for good and right.

HISTORY repeats itself. We all of us
can remember the rhyming threats as to
what dreadful things a countless army of
Cornishmen would have done had Trelaw-
ney died, And now the Scottish miners
have solemnly registered their determination
that there shall be a great strike of the work-
ing classes, should Mr. Cuuinghame Graham
IA: imprisoned. This would be protest with
a vengeance, and it is well for the cause of
justiee that the venue of the trial of the
Lenarkshire M.P. is at a safe distance from
where there is such a strong feeling in his
favour that he would be adjudged innocent
no matter how strong the evidence of illeg-
ality might hn against him. Apropos, the
repeated adjournment of the police case
against -Mr. Graham and his comrade in ac-
cusation, John Burns, is greatly abating
public concern as to the issue. We live in
an age in which events succeed each other so
swiftly that a man must do a great thing in-
deed to be the observed of all observers for
any lengthened period.

Jr it were not that the defiance of the
decrees of law and the regulations of its ad-
minstrators are hardly fitting subjects for
mirth, the incidents of Mr. William O'Brien's
imprisonment at Tullamore would be ludic-
VOUS in the extreme. He stubbornly re-
fused to wear the gaol garb, and was
punished with bread and water dietary.
Then he was transferred to the prison in-
firmary, but would not put on the hospital
dress. For a whole week, we are told, he
remained in 1 ,3d, his own clothes having
been taken f! !I him. Just when the battle
between end and authority was be-
gining to 13, in a sense, interesting, the re-
calcitrant convict M P. got the laugh of his
custodians, and suddenly appearing one
morning attired in a "beautifully fitting"
suit of his own ordering and selection. There
must be something wrong in a system which
has thus permitted itself to be turned into
ridicule. Resolute government, as regards
this little matter, i 3 certainl3 conspicuous
by its allsence. If Lir. 31;iirien is wort E.- of
his bonds, surely the law should see ti,
close round him according to ordinance ; if
he is not, why F:horild a burlesque of prison
treatment bl/4.! practised or permitted in his
case ?