The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-01-29 00:00:00

COAMENTS ON CURRENT NEWS.

IT is to be fervently hoped that the intel-
ligence, pat forth with some show of
authority from Vienna, to the effect that art
naderstanding has been arrivei at between
Bulgaria and the Powers, is well foun led.
The crisis has now dragged on anxiously for
months, and has at times been perilously
near to creatinc, a rupture among some of
the nations of &op. It is stated that the
basi3 of tho understanding is that all the
Great Powers, except Britain, would coincide
with such an arrangement as would be likely
to tend to the re-constriction of the consti-
tution of the troubled Balkan State. If the
Regency were peaceably removed, Russia's
chief objection to
.a settlement would be
gone ; and it is hinted that the Czar, on his
part, would drop the Prince of Mingrelia and
withdraw his insistaelce upon the dissolution
of the Sobranje. With a little give and-take
diplomacy the whole question may still be
solved. . Prince Alexander of Battenberg
has not yet, we believe, abandoned the hope
of once again ruling in Bulgaria, and there
are those in high places in England who
would gladly see him back again in authority.
But to this St. Petersburg says emphatically
No, and the weake4 will have, after the old,
old fashion, to go to the wall.

WE are told that the Lords of the
Admiralty have come to the conclusion that
the creation of a Statistical Bureau in con-
nection with their department is now ex-
pedient. Doubtless an office of this descrip-
tion, well worked, would be of inmem
advanLage, both to the service and to tle
taxpayer The projected bureau might
well take the form of a general intelligence
office, with an efficient practical and clerical
staff always at work treasuring up and. re-
cording information as to the statistics of
everything connected with naval matters.
We are told that other important changes
are. contemplated in connection with the
Admiralty, and rumour says that this stir-
ring up of the dust which has accumulated
in naval officialdom is not altogether uncon-
nected with the holding of a Naval Lordship
by thatpopular sailor and restless thinker
and worker, Lord Charlea Beresford.
AP

ENGLAND 15 a happier land than Germany,
at least for the newspaper editor. Every
British news-sheet bus contained an account
of the alleged attack of the Emperor of
Russia upon the German military attach 6 at
St. Petersburg. The story was given for
what it was worth, and was accepted as such
After a time came an indignant offieiall., -
inspired denial, and that, too, was given in
the British Press, also for what it was worth.
No one was injured by the publication of
the report, whether it was accurate, exag-
gerated, or a pure invention. The poor
Tuetonic journalist who did precisely the
same has been sentenced by the law of his
fatherland to six NY e e s' experience of dur-
ance vile. Royalty is not so securely in-
stalled in the hearts of the people in some
continental countries as here, hence aught
savouring of calumny on a er,)wned head has
speedy punishment. in Britain, the Throne
happily fears no hostile attack fro al the
er.vious and ill-conditioned, hencc utterance
is freer here than under other rulers.

THE poor demented German who Las been
challenging Lord Rothschild to cross the
" silve: streak " and fight a duel to the
death, has yet to take his trial, so we may
not say much about the merits of the case.
His modest demand for a little matter of
sixty-odd thousand pounds was scarcely
likely to suggest itself as agretable to such
a reputedly keen financier as Lord Roths-
child. But his lordship certainly behaved
magnanimously to the wrong•-hea.ded and
apparently dangerously-deluded fellow, and
would have assisted him privately had he
been allowed to do so. Failing that, Lord
Rothschild's solicitor has done the right
thing in taking steps to have the would-be
sanguinary duellist placed out of harm's
way.

THE cremation of a respectable Surrey
magistrate at Woking, the other day, draws
attention to those sanitary questions which
are connected with the disposal of the dead.
Mr. Whiteley's remains were incinerated by
his own request by way of example; and
though the few instances we have had of
late of such testamentary directions are but
as a drop in the ceaseless sea of Jmortality,
they eserve the thought of the philosophic.
"Ashes to ashes" was the plan adopted for
r .solving into their relative element the
m)rtal part of those who had been dwellers
in an era of antique civilisation as polished
as our own, and there can be but little doubt
that the plan was less loathsome than the
one which obtains here to-day, comparatively
considered. But philosophy and. science will
have a hard fight with sentiment and preju-
dice and misplaced affection before the sub-
urban cemetery is abolished. "Earth to
earth " burial, i.e., interment in a slight
casket, so that the remains of the dead may
quickly assimilate with kindred dust, has its
advocates among the thoughtful; but there
is, we regret to say, an overpowering pre-
ponderance of opinion in favour of a costly
funeral and a substantial metal-mounted
coffin, The Hebrews dwelling among us set
an example of simplicity and sanitation in
this respect from which we might learn a
lesson. Their dead are committed to the
grave in a plain deal shell, which affords DO
obstacle to rapid de,r•omposition ; and, again,
the sun never sets thrice on a Jewish corpse.
How many more deaths have been caused
among the lowlier ranks of society by the
unwise detention of poor corrupting relics of
life for a week, and even more, in small
rooms? None can say, and yet all must
respect the love for the departed which urges
the friends who are left to undergo risks so
great. A wholesome spread of sanitary
knowledge on this subject is much needed.