The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-29 00:00:00

Our Inubon Corrtspoubfit

agees in it tight to state that we do not at all times ldentlfa
with our correspondent's opintous.3
ll'aince Napoleon is said to have given an oracular
utterance about ayear since to the eff thatthe English
Government would find a great difficulty with Ireland
before the end of isofi. That was by no means an
unsafe prophecy, had it might have been made with
modifications, almost any time with the memory of
living men. English statesmen always do find a ditffi
culty with Ireland, because, cry Irishmen. England
does not understand the disposition and the wants
...01 her impassioned, impetuous but generous and
light-hearted sister. The present Government un-
doubtedly has found Ireland a difficulty, and
•is doing its best, perhaps, to cope with it.
13nt in trying to put down Fenianism some
extraordinary blunders have teen made by the
subordinates of the Executive. Just to recall a
few only. A supposed Fenian warship was seized,
and It turned out to be a Bolivian man-of-war;
some Greek fire was captured, and it was found
Cot to be Greek fire at all; and then again some
presumed Fenian stores were seized at Cardiff, which
proved not to be Fenian stores at all. The police, too,
thave sometimes acted like the policeman whom Dickens
deeeribes. The guardian of the public order imme-
aiately seized on the quietest man in the crowd, and
bore him off in triumph to the station-house. Over
and over again, too, we have been hearing that the
police "have a clue" to the whereabouts of Stephens,
the Head Centre, and more than once he has been
captured—by telegraph and on paper. but he remains
at large still, notwithstanding the reward of 2,0001.
:won his head. There are, in fact, great doubts
whether he has ever left America, and the Arlo York
TiIIVS of the hth inst., asserts that they have good
authority to say that he was at that date on that
side of the Atlantic. But all these blunders are
!a/4unil enough. Fenianism is a deep-laid and
an artful conspiracy, and where there is so
much effort to deceive, it is not surprising that decep-
tion should be accomplished. And, amidst all the
mistakes, there have been many successes. Numerous
persons, who are undoubted Fenians, have been cap-
tured, and successive blows have been thus inflicted
ea this cruel and wicked organisation. Surely
titephens and his myrmidons must now be convinced
that their schemes for conquering England, and cap.
tiring Canada are wild dreams which can never be
Maimed.
- -

"'lust at the present moment, business here is rather
dull, as indeed it seems to be everywhere ; but there
in reason to believe that, at the turn of the year, there
will be a renewed activity. The Bank rate of discount
is now only 3 per cent., and good paper can be die.
c.ounted elsewhere at even a lower rate. The money
is, in fact, easy, capital is abundant,
attd speculation will soon be active, the only fear
biking that. ere long, •it will be too active. With
the Nev Year it is to be hoped that some working
men— I to not lump them indiscriminately—will turn
over a new leaf in the matter of trade disputes.
Wjthont going very deeply into this question, I think
it must be admitted that trade quarrels and strikes

have been daring the past year pnahed to an extreme.

. .
enntalists and masters have been put to their wits'
eali, and workmen have, by their continued demands,
brought foreign competition upon themselves to an omi-
nous extent. Whist is wanted is more harmony between
masters and men at home. Their interests are really
identical, though sometimes apparently antagonistic,

_ .
and a unity of action will now be required if English
working men would maintain the superiority over
ortigners of which the former are never tired of
boasting. There is plenty of capital and plenty of
wtok at home, but masters and men must agree better
thati they have done, or the foreigner will step in
between them.
r.
London, which in the matter of bridges has long been
foamed at by foreigners, has now the honour of
possessing the widest bridge in the world. There has
_ . _

just been. opened
.a railway bridge from Batterees to

Piriahco, over which will pass from four to five hundred
trains a day. Like everything that the London,
• Chatham, and Dover engineers and builders havedone,
it is on a large and magnificent scale, and though the
railway Itself in rather at low water just now, this
bridge will some day be, it is to be hoped, part of a
great trunk line which shall be financially a splendid
nieces& The opening of this bridge was marked by an
incident which evidences the adaptation of the railway
eystem to the wants of the working claesee, and it may
be added that no company hie done m• re in this
respect for the wi•rking man than has the London,
Chatham, and Dover. At four o'clock in the
rooming when nearly all the rest of London was in bed,
two irorkmera`e trains etarted to crme the new extl.
way bridge, from Victoria to Ludgate Bill, and rice
versa, and the event was celebrated in a rough and
ready way by bin flee ail along the line from Batter-
sea to Victoi u lrj rp ntions and the cqns,ruction
of this bridge are grand, though no one can c all the
bridge itself elegant, for we have yet to learn how to
combjzie beauty with a railway bridge. It is 930 feet
10ng,,,110 feet broad, allowins eight lines of rails. The
weigkt of iron in superstructure and cylinders is about
3,000' tens; there are 100,000 cubic feet of stone,
300,010 cubic feet of timber. al ci 16,000 cubic feet of
brick work. Such a bridge is a work to be proud of,
and is some net off against our reproach for only
having eight bridges to accommodate our three
millions of people, out of which bridges four are told
bridges.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Aniinisle has done the country good nervice, though
it was sneered at and ridiculed in so-called comic songs
on its first appearance. lam glad to notice that a
prosecution which it bae instituted against two horse.
slaughterer', for cruelty in the conveyance of two
hones from Cambridge to London, has resulted in a
conviction ands fine. The S-viety might well turn its
attention to the conveyance of cattle by steamer and
railway generally. Tle cruelty on board ship and in
landing cattle at the wharves is horrible, and the
whole of it is mineceesary. being simply the result of
bad arrangements and the abeence of proper super-
vision:

As far m my own observation extends Christmas is

being heartily enjoyed by rich and poor, the former,
with seatemable benevolence, having done much
towards the happiness of the latter. There is of course
a great deal of distress amongst the poor of our gigantic
metropolis, as there always is at this season ; but the
working classes have been PO generally employed
during the past year that I feel assured, great as that
distress may be, it i ; less than we have had during
former Christrr so-tides. The bounty of ti!" rich and of
the mitlihv ; s throughout England at Christmas
must be vastly greater in our own country than in any.
other
_country of the globe. The philanthropic
institutions have been appealing, and still appeal
for aid, and not in vain. The money thus
raised must he enormous, and though much !
of it is wasted by our habit of indepen-
dent action, instead of concentrated effort, still
an immense amount of good must thus be done; even
the workhouse pauper rejoices once a year at leant; the
widow's heart leaps for joy; and orphaned children
clap their hands with delight. As each successive
Christmas comes and passes away, I notice one
cheerinKfact—that drunkenness decreases. I take no
note of- the statistics of the matter, and should havd
o faith in statistics on this subject if they were put !
orward. I judge only by what I see, and by the
conobor, iv., observations of others; and I feel certain !
that in ..!,p!, tan t respect we are progressing.
I cannot help calling attention to a rev, floe
specimen of "red•tapeison” which arose out of a legal
discussion in the came of Mr. Leonard Edmunds, late
of the Patent Office. He brought in a printed
account going over thirty-one yearn, ar-1 it was
gravely argued whether being printed it could he
receive!. The usual rule of the Court of Chancery is
to require accounts in writing. With due solemnity
the Court decided that in this case a printed account
might be accepted. Bet what a monstrous mode of
keeping accounts; is that which permits them to be
unsettleij for thirty-one years, which leaves—no one
knows hi* much—loose public money all that time,
and the. a•Talres the consequent figures PO bulky that
common v I,gin unfit to set them forth.