The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-11-19 00:00:00

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(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

It scarcely seems three years since the then newly-
appointed Governor-General of Canada and the
Princess Louise left England in the Sarmatian for
their new home in British North America ; yet it is
within a few days of that time. In was on the 17th
November, 1878, and the steamer arrived at Halifax
on the- 25th. The Marquis of tome's brief presence
amongst us now for a few days is a reminder that
- more than half of his term of office has expired.

A Governor-General of India or of Canada is
• alipointed for five years ; the allowance to the former
is £30,000 per annum, and to the latter £20,000.
Between the sunlit cities of Hindosta,n and the
frozen plains of the Canadian Dominion there is
all the difference, and one which exhibits the extent
and; variety, of the British empire. There is a distinc-
tion, too, between the titles of the rulers that is well
worth noting. The Governor-General of India styles
himself and is styled in the East, the Viceroy. But
there is no ViCeroy of Canada, partly perhaps out of
deference to the susceptibilities of the American 3, who
according to the doctrine of President Monroe, recog-
rise.the exitence of no Royalty upon the American
Continent. A Vice-king in Canada, upon the very
bor4ers-of the United States, might not be agreeable
to Republican ideas, and therefore no such dignitary
is known. Ireland is the only other portion of the
British dominions which approaches Canada in the
emolument allotted to the representative of the Crown.
The Lord-Lieutenant receives £20,000; and, like the
Governor-General of Canada, he is not termed a
Viceroy. His official title is Lord-Lieutenant General
and General Governor of Ireland.

The three men who control the destinies of three
great Empires—Mr. Gladstone, Prince Bismarck, and
M. Gambetta, 121.v0 rac.”-Aly p;orl very nrominent
r,..itions—the two latter more especially, in connection
with the results of the general elections in Germany
and France respectively. The fluctuations which
attend the popularity of statesmen have here been
amply illustrated. Ten years ago, immediately after the
close of the war, Bismarck possessed a power which
migtit be described as practically uncontrolled; and in
the memories of the French people was the failure of
Gambetta to stem the tide of German invasion. Now
Bismarck is beset with foes on eYery hand in his own
country, and Gambetta has been called to power by
an immense majority of the French nation. His is an
early age for the Premiership, for he has only just
completed his 43rd year, having been born at Cahors
on the 30th October, 1838. There are many reasons
for his success, and one is of a remarkable character.
He has always endeavoured to cultivate amicable
relations with that numerous and influential class, the
commercial travellers, and invariably presides at their
annual dinner in Paris. The c mimercial traveller is
constantly moving about, and coming into association
with many minds under various circumstances in
widely-separated districts. He is, as a rule, a man of
good education and address, is continually acquiring
new ideas, and gaining fresh information. His in-
fluence with the people amongst whom he moves is
not inconsiderable, and Gambetta has shown great
tact and skill in making friends with so powerful an
auxiliary.
From the declarations of several Cabinet Ministers
during the recess, including the Premier himself, it is
clear that almost the first business of the House of
Commons next session will be to reform its rules so
as, to allow of the transaction of the ever-growing
business of the empire. Many of these rules, framed
centuries ago, are manifestly inapplicable to the con-
ditions of to-day. They have snapped under the strain
which has been placed upon them. They are, in
many respects, cumbrous in the last degree ; and look-
ing at the opportunities which they give for talk
and for obstruction the wonder is that so many
bills get through as are actually passed. At present a
debate may arise on the motion that a bill be read a
first time, that it be read a second time, that it be con-
sidered in Committee, that it be reported to the House,
that it be read a third time, and- that it do pass.
Here are half-a-dozen stages, each as good as another
far opposition, and all often made use of in order to
defeat a measure. So many opportunities for discus-
sion cannot be required, and might be curtailed with
advantage to the House and to the considerable benefit
of the public interest.
Concurrently with the news of the success of Dr.
Siemens's electric railway near Berlin is the intel-
ligence of the trial of a novel motive power on one of
the New York street railways. Although described
as novel it is really but the revival of an old principle
—that of compressed air, which in the early days
of English railways was applied, but without success,
to the propulsion of locomotives. But that was nearly
forty years ago, and the results of the recent experi-
ment on the New York railway are of an encouraging
character. In a journey which generally occupies
twenty minutes by steam, the "air motor" engine
accomplished the distance in fifteen. This motive
power produces neither noise, smoke, nor odour, and
promises to compete with electricity for the control
of the railways of the future, steam being, according to
confident predictions, likely to be distanced by both.
There can be little doubt that in London the tele-
phone has already supplied a want which no other
means of communication has been able to furnish.
Before the telegraphs were transferred to the State
there was a sixpenny rate in operation throughout the
metropolis, that is to say, sixpence for ten words from
one part of the capital to any other; and ten words
are often amply sufficient for a telegram, whereas
when a shilling rate is compulsory the sender uses
twenty on the principle that he may as well have
his money's worth. With the uniform shilling charge
for the whole kingdom, the sixpenny one disappeared
in London; but now another and a cheaper source of
eomanunication is coming in for adoption. At the
Central Offices of the Telephone Company " tele-
logues" are now being used by subscribers at the rate of
one penny each, in numbers warranting the expecta,
that before twelve months have elapsed the average
price of messages will be reduced one-half. Twenty
thousand messages a day are despatched; and in-
dependently of the cheapness a great advantage to the
City merchant, whose time is worth all its money, is
the fact that an immediate reply is received, which is
much more than can be said in the case of the despatch
of a telegram.

The Sanitary Protection Association of London has
now been in existence about ten months. It was
formed at the Society of Arts as the outcome of a
movement begun by Professor Fleming Jenkins, the
well-known hygeist of Edinburgh. With a multitude
of sanitary authorities in the metropolis there was no
security against unhealthy dwellings. The Sanitary
Association assists its members to a condition of things
in which they may be sure of pure water, and well-
drained premises. It has an eminent engineer and
an able Counsel at its back, and is gradually becoming
known. Firms as well as individuals become members,
at a ccst of only one or two guineas yearly, for
premises of any value up to £4OO per annum
Professor Huxley is the President, and amongst the
executive body are some of the best known physicians
in the metropolis. The association has been enrolled
under a Board of Trade license and the Companies'
Act as a Society not formed for purposes of profit,
and branches are being formed in many provincial
towns.

The reconstruction of the United States navy is
attracting considerable attention in this country.
The leading idea is to have a number of swift
cruisers, and to defer for the present the building
of ironclads. The ships whose construction is
now recommended are to be of steel, cased with
wood, and coppered ; they are to be larger, stouter,
faster, and to carry guns heavier than the correspond-
;lig ships of other nations. To give full effect to an
aggregate of superiority all rcund seems to be the
policy of the United States' Navy Board. They con-
sider that they have now not more than twenty-one
ships efficient; their recommendation is therefore to
begin at once the building of forty-one ships, twenty
of which are to be wooden gunboats, with a speed of
ten knots, for home defence and river service. The
other twenty-one are to be ocean cruisers, steel-cased,
with a speed of thirteen to fifteen knots, and capable
of carrying six days' coal at full speed. The project
of reconstruction now to be submitted to Congress
will, it is estimated, entail a cost of thirty-one million
dollars, which it is proposed to spread over a period
of eight years. Such an enormous increase to the
navy i
of a nation which takes no part in European
politics s remarkable, and, according to the present
view, scarcely accountable.
The memorial to Thomas Clarkson, the philan-
thropist, which has been unveiled at Wishech by the
Speaker of the lim!se of Commons, is a just tribute
to the life's work of a man who early in the century
devoted the whole of his time and strength to the
abolition of a stain upon the national escutcheon
which had been there much too long. The
evidences of Clarkson's exertions as resultittg in
the manumission of the slave bore fruit nearly half a
century ago, when in the first Reformed Parliament
an Act was passed which put an end to slavery
throughout the British dominions ; and as that was
beyond the.ken of the present generation, the idea of
a commemorative memorial was as timely as it was
just. There are some great men, on the other hand,
who require no monument simply because their work
is ever present to the human eye. Who, for instance,
would think of raising a statlie to Sir Christopher
Wren in London, where, in the very heart and centre
of the City the dome of his cathedral rises high above
the man of surrounding buildings. True enough it is