The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-09-20 00:00:00

Our Iran Corrtsponbtut.

!We deem It right to date Met we do net at all times
dent.* ourselves with our Correependeute ettinlool.l

The point raised respecting the payments of the
salary of the Chancellor of the Exchequer possesses
much public interest. At present the Prime Minister
receives no more than many other principal members
of the Cabinet, namely £5,000 a year. It has been
more than once proposed in Parliament that as the
imad oi the!Administration, the Praeger is entitled to
larger allowance than either of his colleagues, es well
cy virtue a his position as by the necemity of well
remunerating the statesman who devoted the whole of
his time to the see vies of his country. But it beano, er
aseumed a practical shape, one reason bring found in
the inexpediency of dealing piecemeal with a question
which, were it once reopened, would demand a wore
thorough examination. The best paid member of the
Government is the Lord Chancellor, why emotive.
£lO,OOO a year, namely, £6,000 for presiding as • judge
in the Supreme Court of Appeal, and £4,000 for of-
ficiating as Speaker of the House of Lords. IN ext come
the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and the live Secretaries of State, each with
£5,000. The First Lord of the Admiralty receives
£4,500, but he has a furnished residence, and this
brings his allowance to an equality with those of his
colleagues. The Chief Secretary for Ireland gets
£4,000 and the Postmaster-General £2,500. The Lord
President of the Council, the Lord Privy Seal, the
Presidents of the Board of Trade and the Local
Governmeat Board, the Vice-President of the Council,
the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Pint
Commissioner of Works, the Secretaries to the The-
ma", and Admiralty each receive £2,000. The salary
of an Under-Secretary of State is ,C 1,500 arid of •
Juni ,r Lord of the Treasury £l,OOO. A very
dignified position, and one which has been filled by
many eminent men, is that of Speaker of the House of
Commons. This distinguished fnectioaary has a salary
of £5,000, with a furnished residence in the Palace of
Westminster; he is raised to the peerage on his retire.
ment from the chair, and is likewise granted a pension
of £4,000 for himself and his immediate successor to
the title. The late Speaker, Viscount Ossington, who
presided over the deliberations of the House of Corn.
mons for fifteen years, declined to take the pension on
the ground that he had so children, and that his means
were amply sufficient for himself during the remainder
of hie days. This was looked at in different lights at
the time. It was applauded by the economists, but
there were some who pointed out that it was likely to
place future occupants of the Chair in an invidious
position unless they followed Lord Ominston's ex.
ample, and declined the pension while accepting the
honours of the peerage.

Numerous as are the ramifications of London Rail-
ways, new projects are constantly being brought out to
increase the accommodation of the people of the metro-
polis in this respect. The City and West End Railway
wants £2,666,000 for its line; the East and West Me-
tropolitan and Cannon-street railway £1,000,000, and
the London Central Railway £1,333,300. Metropolitan
improvements are • great public convenience, but their
execution entails an immense amount of desolation,
and this remains, in many instances, an eyesore for
years. PAM over the link connecting the London,
Chatham, and Dover system with the Metropolitan,
between Ludgate-hill and Farringdonstreet, and con-
template the vacant spaces, the dreary mounds, and
the shored-up buildings, and there will be compara-
tively few to desire a repetition of the spectacle in
other parts of the city. Qeeen Victorla.street is
another specimen of the devastation which cannot but
follow in the train of a public improvement.
Very few persons come to London without paying a
visit to the British lidtisetim. So great have been the
changes wrought by the railways in the metropolis that
Is now almost the only institution which is not acces-
sible by train. The museum is in the heart of Blooms-
bury, and there is no line which runs sufficiently near
to be of much servios. The building limit is open to
the public only three days in the week, and as the
visitor often makes • journey to Bloomsbury on the
wrong dar, and finds the gates closed, this arrangement
produces some inconvenience. The Reading Room,
however, is open daily to those who have the privilege
of admission, and this is obtained only on the recom-
mendation of • householder, who certifier that the
applicant requires a ticket for library purposes. A
look into this room is a sight well worth seeing, and
one which should not be mimed by those who
have occasion to go to the Museum. It
I. a vent circular apartment filled with books
of all descriptions from floor to ceiling.
Hundreds of persons resort to it every day, and
as • rule the strictest silence is preserved. The
hours of admission vary with the seasons, and in this
respect the arrangements contrast favourably with
those at the reading room of the Patent Office, which
1.1 closed it four o'clock in summer as well as in winter.
Practically this excludes from its benefits large num-
ber" of those whose occupation, are carried on in the
day, and who have only an hour or two of an evening
for studying and recreation.
With respect to the exhibition of ancient neeale-
work at South Kensington, I merely notice it for
for the purpose of pointing out how the memory
of customs long since passed away can be revived
by the objects shown there. Take for instance
the pointed cap of a running footman.. In forme
days, when railways had not been thought of,
when there were no maoadamised roads, and
washes were obliged to travel at a very slow
pace, footmen were compelled to run before the
equipages of their masters; hence the origin of the
term. They acted in the capacity of pioneers, paid
the turnpikes, helped the carriage out of ruts, and bore
torches when darkness came on, The running footman
generally carried in his hand a pole several feet in
length, and with the aid of this he was accustomed to
leap the ditches, and get over unpleasant parts of the
wayside. Their powers of endurance were great, and
we have been told that it was not unusual for then to
travel sixty miles a day. A trace of the custom,
which died out early in the present century, yet lingers
amongst us in the attendance of gaudily-dressed grooms
who walk alongside state carriages on pubilc occasions.
We also see it in the presence of mutes, who Invariably
precede the horses at funerals.
It is long since such a painful eensation was created
In London as by the circumstances attending the dis-
covery of the mutilated remains of • woman in the
Maine& Day after day, as the different portion' of
the body were slowly gathered together, the public in-
tenet seemed to increase, and when the ihtelligence of
the Identification was made known, there was a general
feeling of relief, and of hope that the perpetrator of
such a crime would be speedily brought to justice.
The conviction of the murderer waled do something to
re-establish confidence in the detective powers of the
police, which the Eltham, Hoxton, and Great Coram
street reminiscences had in some degree shaken. I
may add that although a tragedy of exceptional
horror may occasionally startle the community, the
judicial statistics of the United Kingdom show
that the aggregate of crime committed in this
country steadily diminishes. During the Met ten
years the numerical strength of the criminal claws has
been decreased by 20,000, although during the same
time the population of England and Wales has In-
creased by about two millions and • half.
A remarkable feature of the cricket season which
has just come to a close is the high scoring of which it
has been characterised. The superiority of the batsmen
over the bowlers hers become mom and more marked,
so much so that two or three of the more distinguished of
the latter have renounced their own department of the
game, and have taken to batting. It has often been
Impossible to get through a first-class match in three
days ; consequently • game which cannot be
brought to • termMation within reasonable limits
moot Boon cease to be an amusement, unless
the' wickets are widened so as to give the bowler
a better chance of success. The expediency of adopt-
ing g`plan which would give the ball more opportunity
of successfully competing with the bat has already
been discussed, had by the time the next season begin
It may be expected that something will have been door
to render more equal the prospects of the bawler, and
to make leo monotonous the high scores with which
we have all been an familiar during the part few
months.

There are some parte of London into which the
residents in other portions never penetrate by any
chance. To contrast the occupant of the mansions in
Belgravia and Mayfair with the poor emaciated people
In Shoreditch and Spitalfields, one can scarcely imagine
that they inhabit the same place, and were all
Included in the census of the British capital.
There are Dome porta of the East-end in which
the dwellings are of the most dilapidated character,
where all kinds of devices are resorted to in order to
repair broken windows—where the atmeephere is close
and unwholesome—where high garrets have to be
reached by meani of ricketty staircases—the inha-
bitants generally wearing the appearance of bard
work, poor living, and small remuneration. In these
parts the people are mostly unable to invest in sewing
machines, and so it conies to peas that we hear of
their working button. holes in coats at the rate of three
for. penny; binding a dozen pairs of slippers for seven.
pence, each pair having to pass through the hands of
the workwoman four times she finding her own
thread, wax, and needles, and twelve to fifteen hours
the average duration of a working day. The East-end
Ii also the seat of the matob and match-box menu.
actory, and children of a very early age are employed
In It—come, It has been stated, from two years old.

Gm* efforts hays bac mad* of lato ye•ri in con.

nation with the improvement of the dwellings
occupied by the working clam. Dotted here and
there about London are Immense blocks of building'
which have been raked as model lodging-houses! Cm the
mechanic and his family, and upon the whole the
efforts of those who have sought to make better the
sanitary condition of the workmana home have been
attended with success. The public health was never
so good as at the present time, thanks to the prevalence
of baths cud waahhousee and to the willingness shown
by the owners of property to carry out those reforms
In the construction of houses which are intended for
the accommodation of the indintri.l sectios of the
comomnity. There are, however, exceptions to the
veadiaese with which the uO, king people bare gene-
rally availed ibeniede es of the advantageß flared to
therm' In one part of suburban London an imposing
-
looking pile was raised some time 00, denigned
to be let out iu Mate. Each floor is fitted with kitchen,
sink, shaft for dust, a supply of water, cud folding
iron beds liked to the walls in the sleeping rooms. Yet
this residence, containing, as it does, every convenience,
hoe proved, so far, a failure. It remsins almost un-
tenanted, while in its immediate neighbourhood are
places of doubtful salubrity which are crowded. In
one important respect these model dwelling-houses are
: superior to many a middle-clan cottage or villa, for
the cistern is covered, so that both for washing and
drinking purposes the water is vastly superior to that
which in exposed to the influence of the atmormheric
, gamer; end liable to the reception of all kinds of In-
congruous subatanoes.
Whatever may be the proposalm in the Budget of
next year, there can be no doubt of the existence of a
general expectation that Mr. Gladstone intend" to do
something in the direction of mitigating the pressure o
the Income-tax. Nearly a generation has passed away
since the impost was revived by Sir Robert Peel, in
order that he might be enabled to make those splendid
onslaughts upon t e excise which did so much to an.
pared the trade of the country. The Income-tax is
now at a lower figure than at any previous time, but
there ran be little question that the nation would hail
with pleasure any proposition for relieving those of its
features which have so often been the subject of re-
monstrance with several successive Chancellors of the
Exchequer.