The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-03-06 00:00:00

Our youbou Lorxtspnent
(We deem it right to state thAt we da not at all UMW
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.)

On Thursday, the sth of March, 1874, the Parlia-
ment now sitting at Westminster met there for the
6rst time; for on that day the writ' which had been
isslied on the 26th of the previous January were made
returnable, The House of Commons is therefore six
years old, an age which Parliaments do not often
attain. The changes which time has wrought in its
versonnel are very numerous, and more new members
'lava leen returned than are sometimes the result
of a general election. For instance, the dissoln.

tioll of .1.859 Refit to Pi,rllament 131 new members,

not a large proportioil out of 658; while the
number of new representatives returnea to the
present House up to this time is 143. By far
the largest proportion of the vacancies has been
caused by death, which has carried off more than sixty
of those who gathered together six years ago. Next
to death, withdrawal from• Parliamentary life accounts
for a long list, many hon, gentlemen finding the late
hours of the House of Commons tell seriously upon
their health. Then comes elevation to the Peerage,
either by succession or by creation, and amongst the
latter is the Prime Minister himself, who in August

18176, after sitting in the House of Commons nearly
forty years as the Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli,
passed to the House of Lords as the Earl of Beacons-
field. Many years did Mr. Disraeli sit opposite to
Lord Palmerston in the House of Commons as the
leader of a rival political party ; and now, next after
Lord Palmerston, it falls to his lot to guide the deliber-
ations of a six year old Parliament.
Looking beak at the period which has elapsed since
the first assembling of the present House of Commons,
it will be seen that an important epoch has rolled
away. A week after the Parliament met, Her Majesty
introduced a new daughter to her people. It was on
Thursday, the 12th of March, that the Duchess of
Edinburgh, amid a fierce snowstorm, rode with the
Queen from the Great Western terminus at
Paddington to Buckingham Palace; and loud were
the acclamations of the multitude. In the fol-
lowing May the Czar paid a visit to London,
and was entertained with great magnificence by the
City of London at Guildhall. At that time there
was no dream'of the revival of the Eastern Question,
which has since commanded so much attention, and

has led to a great war upon the continents of Europe

and Asia. It was not until September, 1875, that a
aloud arose upon the horizon of Oriental politics,
which although at first was only "as big as a man's
hand," was destined to burst into a storm. Twelve months
Later occurred those terrible events in Bulgaria which
led to the .Constantinople Conference of December,
1876; and then in April, 1877, Russia declared war
against Turkey, The crcssing of the Danube, the
months of fighting around Plevna, the advance of
the Russian armies almost to Constantinople itself,
the Treaty of San Stefano, the C 'agrees at Berlin, the
acquisition of Cyprus, the expedition into Afghanis-
tan, and the war in Zululand, have all followed in
rapid succession, Lord Palmeraton, in announcing
the dissolution of 1857, told the Legislature that it
had seen as much as it had fallen to the lot of most
Parliaments to witness. The present Parliament has,
however, witnessed a great deal more.
Thrift and intemperance have been the theme of
many a sermon; but no more practical discourse than
that of Lord Derby at the Society of Arta was ever

delivered. Coffee Palaces or Taverns, as they are
variously described, have increased rapidly in London
of late; and it is no uncommon occurrence for the
Lord Chanoellor to open one of these places, and then
have to leave immediately in order to attend a Cabinet
Council. Lord Derby has now given the full weight
of his great authority to the advancing move-
ment ; and asks the working man whether he is
aware that every time he swallows threepenny worth
of beer or spirits he consumes the price of a square
yard of good agricultural land. In farther point-
ing out that out of every sixpence so spent,
fivepence goes to the Chancellor of the ExchecMer
Lord Derby must have reminded many of the famon: '
rear.rk made by a friend of his after we had paid the
award of R 3,200,000 on account of the depredations of
the Alabama. It was a time of great national pros-
perity, and this sum Fait exactly represented the
increase in the receipts from the excise. "You have
drank yourself out of the Alabama difficulty," was
the observation—the meaning of which was that such

had been the augmented col.sumption of intoxicating
drinks, that no increased taxation was necessary to
meet this heavy and exceptional claim.
anything that tends to simplify the administration
of the law without offering a premium on litigation is
a distinct advantage. The new County Courts' Bill,
which has had such a favourable reception in the
House of Commons, is regarded as a step in the
right direction. A thousand years ago King Alfred,
by dividing the country into circuits, endeavoured to
carry out the idea of bringing justice to-the people,
instead of their having to go to a distance to seek
for it. The County Courts Bill proposes ta raise the
Bum for which a suit can be instituted from £5O to
£200; at present amounts above £5O have to go either
to the assizes or to London for triiL The accumula-
tions in the Superior Courts hare long been a subject of
comment from the judicial bench, and these courts
have long been regarded as tribunals for the rich only.
Law, however, should act be a luxury of one class
only; it is sufficient that It should be a stern necessity;
and the County Courts Bill now before Parliament
seems well calculated to secure the equal diffusion of
justice over the whole community.
Travellers in Belgium never fail to pay a visit to
the field of Waterloo, nine miles from the capital of
that rich and compact little kingdom, where the
bronze representation of a huge lion stands upon a
mound and marks the spot of the great battle which
decided the fate of Europe, and gave peace to the

continent for nearly forty years. There are many
ways of commemorating a sanguinary conflict, and
those who visited Paris after the last war, and
went a few miles outside the city as far as Champigny,
will remember seeing a very rude cross struck loosely
into a mound containing the remains of the unfor•
tunate men who fell in the sortie made from the French
capital on the 2nd December, 1870, when the German
army had drawn a belt of iron around the beleagnred
city. After the war was over Champigny was visited
by many a tourist, more especially in the autumn of
1871. Standing upon the mound and looking towards

t•le setting sun, the spectator could see in the distance
the city of Paris itself, with its miles of streets, its
splendid boulevards, and its gay and rem tlessipopulatiOn.
Contrasting the magnificence of the place with the
rude cross near at hand, the thought seldom failed to
occur to the gazer that those who had sacrificed their
lives in the defence of Paris deserved a somewhat
better recognition of their services. The memories of
those who fell at Isandula are to be kept green in a
different way. An appeal is now being made for
funds wherewith to erect a Memorial Chapel under the
shadow of that lonely crsg, whsre a gallant band of
British soldiers, attacked by a savage enemy in over-
whelming numbers, valiantly sustAined the reputation
of •their flag. There, amid the dead calm of nature,
the Memorial Chapel, in ages yet to come, will tell a
silent, but at the same time an eloquent story of
British bravery and fortitude under circumstances as
trying as any which have ever been confronted in the
whole course of our long national history.

The high rate of mortality which prevailed in
London during the deadly fogs that settled down upon
the capital a month ago, have given the to some curious
discussions. There are some who have not hesitated to
contend that the climate of England, and more ape-
cially of its capital will, In course of time, become un-
endurable. The people of London, however, cannot
remove the metropolis to another site, and the practical
thing to he done is to endeavour if possible to purify
zhz atmosphere in which nearly four maligns of people
live and move and have thcir being. A London fog
has often had its humorous side, but it has a very
dark one as well, as was seen when it ran up the rate
• of mortality to ode as high as the cholera itself.
Science has dealt with the cholera; now let it en-
deavour to make the fogs leas injurious to life. No
human power, it is true, can prevent these from
coming up from the Essex marshes; but in this form
they would not hurt anyone. It is when they become
impregnated with smoke that they become so deadly,
and it is now suggested that the laws making compul-
sory the consumption of smoke in certain circumstances
should be rendered more stringent, and that their
operations should be extended in directions to which
they do not now apply.
In analysing the growth of capital it is singular to
note how the craving to have something laid by against
the unknown future differs in various races of men.
As a rule the strong races used to prosperity have much
less of this than Lo weak ones familiar with adversity.
Different occupations dispose those engaged in them to
saving in very different degrees. Men undoubtedly pro-
vide against the f Muse in proportion to the vividness with
which the future Is brought before them. The actor, the
artisan, the man in whatever degree who lives simply by
his labour, does not occupy in this respect the same posi-
tion as a man of business. The latter has his accept-
ances to be met, his deposits to be paid, his balance.
sheet to be looked to. Upon the profit that a com-
parison of all these will ultimately show depends his
ability to live to morrow, as he is living to-day. The
advocates of thrift cantend that money saved means
money invested, and this in its turn means money
• lent to industrial undertakings of all kinds, BO that
In the end money saved is really equivalent to its
being spent in paying wages to workmen. Political
economists never fail to impress the lesson that from

every point of view it is desirable that the wisdom
embodied by our forefathers in a familiar proverb
should be adhered to, and provision made for a "rainy
dar,"