The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-03 00:00:00

Our -foul= Correspoukilt.

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

The constituencies of the United Kingdom have by
Royal proclamation been called upon to perform a
&sty, the exercise of which has, in times of political
excitement, been attended with peril to life sr danger
to limb. There are always disorderly political meet-
ings at the time of a general election; but the clamour
of to-day is as the sighing of a breeze compared with
the mighty rushing wind when looked at by the light
of the scenes which accompanied the electoral contests
of our forefathers. The strong men of half a century
ago who are now white with age, can tell of the
stirring times of the first Reform Bill, and of the
riots which attended that great struggle. Then there
was the great tght over the repeal of the Corn Laws,
ene which was attended with many, scenes of violence.
In recent years popular disturbances have not
been so numerous ; there is no hourly " state
of the poll" published now, to the exasperation of
the one side and the jubilation of the other.
There is now no knowing how the poll has gone until
the actual result has:been declared. The general elec-
tion of 1374 was, it will be remembered, the first taken
under the Ballot, and this is the second. When the
Ast was passed in 1872, the House of Lords inserted a
provision limiting its operation to the end of 1880.
Consequently, the expediency of continuing the Ballot
will form one of the earliest subjects of discussion in
the new Parliament, whatever may be its political

complexion.
Thursday, the 29th of April, having been fixed for the
meeting of the Tenth Parliament of Her Majesty, thirty-
six days will have elapsed from the date of the Royal
proclamation; but it has been estimated that the writs
will all have been:filled in by the 19th or 20th. Even
in the far-off Orkney and Shetland, where the ballot
boxes have to be conveyed from the different islands
ever the trembling surges of the sea to one central
spot, the returning officer will have by that time ells-
elprged his duties, and one more Parliament of. the
Queen will be complete. The first duty of the new House
of Commons will be to elect its Speaker, who, in pre-
senting himself at thelbar of the House of Lords for
the Royal approval, conveyed through the Lord
Chancellor, will claim all the ancient rights and privi-
leges of the assembly over which he presides, includ-
ing liberty from arrest and freedom of debate. The
Speaker chosen, the members will be sworn in, and as
there are 652, this ceremony takes some days. This
having been accomplished, the Queen's Speech will be
delivered, probably on Thursday the sth of May, for a
week is generally allowed to elapse between the
formal assembling of the House and the commencement
of business. It may be added that there has been no
• dissolution in the month of March for three-and-

twenty years. The last time was in 1857. The dis-
solution of 1859 was in April, of 1865 in July, of 1868
in November, and of 1874 in January.
On the day of Her Majesty's departure for the Con-
tinent, the ancient charities, designated the Royal
Maundy, were distributed in Whitehall Chapel, during
Divine service, to sixty-one aged men and an equal
ntunber of women, such number corresponding with
the age ofithe Queen. It is a curious illustration of
the numerous engagements which fall to the lot of a
Royal Prince to fulfil, to find Her Majesty's youngest
son so assiduous in meeting the calls imposed upon
his time by his high position. If a Privy Council
is held by the Queen, or an investiture takes place
of any of the Orders of Knighthood, such as the
Garter, the Bath, St. Michael and St. George, or the
Star of India, Prince Leopold is always there. If
the chair has to Ise taken at a charity dinner, or the
foundation stone of a new hospital has to be laid, or
prizes distributed to deserving scholars, Prince
Leopold, (who will be seven-and-twenty on the 7th
April,) does his best to forward the good cause. The
Queen's visit to Germany may be described .as a
pilgrimage to the spot consecrated to the memory of a
beloved child whom she has lost. Gone to visit the
tomb of the Princess Alice, who died in the quiet
discharge of her domestic duty, the heroine and martyr
of those devoted family affections which we are apt to
consider specially English, her Majesty is followed by
the sympathies of all mothers who, whatever their
age, nation, or opinions, can feel for a sorrow not their
own.
Mailing over the seas to far distant South Africa,
the Empress Eugenie has undertaken a journey not
dissimilar in purpose, though diverse in its surround-
ings. The Queen of England has lost only one child;
the Empress has lost one, too, and that her only one.
She travels nearly eight thousand miles merely to see
the spot wheire her son died. Just this time twelve
months till Prince Imperial arrived at Natal with the
object of taking part in that struggle between civiliza-
tion and barbarism in which he declared his wish to
fight upon the side of the former. By the end of
April his widowed and bereaved mother will have
reached our South African colonies; and Zululand
being now at peace, she will have ample time to reach
that territory before the anniversary of her son's
death, the Ist of June. It is only a year ago, but it
seems longer, that the Zulus made their determined
attack upon the British forces at the Zlobane moun-
tain, and that Lord Chelmsford relieved Colonel
Pearson at Ekowe.
Curious and quaint are some of the old remnants of
the City of London, a place with peculiar rights and
privileges, as is shown by the fact of its returning four
members to Parliament, while other places in the
metropolis, with five or six times the population, have
only two. The City on any fine moonlight night is
almost as quiet as a village; for the merchants and
traders, who throng its busy thoroughfares by day,
now take up their residences in the different suburbs,
and sleep far away from the scene of their daily avoca-
tions. Time, was, however, when.men of eminence in
all walks of life lived within the clear ringing sound of
Bow Bells. Sir Astley Cooper, the celebrated sur-
geon, resided in Broad-street, in a house at the corner
of the paved court leading to St. Botolph's Church,
Bishopsgate, where in some years he made the enormous
sum of £20,000 in fees. The Abbot of St. Albans also
had his town house opposite St. Augustine s Gate.
There can be no doubt that in former ages
the city was inhabited by the aristocratic section of
the community, from the tesselated floors which are
often discovered, and which must have belonged to
large and high-class houses. In the time of Charles I.
Old Broad-street was one of the most handsome
thoroughfares in London, and the residence, amongst
ethers, of the Earls of Shrewsbury, Dover, and Port-
land. The most imposing mansion was Winchester
House, which, with its gardens, occupied the site of
• Great and Little Winchester Streets. It was built by
the Marquis of Winchester, one of the foremost men
of the times in which he lived, and in many respects a
remarkable man. He was the builder of Basing
House, so well known to readers of history for the
siege it sustained during the Civil War between
Charles I. and the Parliament.
There is still work for our soldiers in Afghanistan;
mid it seems that the city of Ghuznee, on which
sur troops are about to advance, is situated 233
miles from Candahar, and 85 from Cabul. The
Afghan capital, it may be explained by the way,
is pronounced by Indian scholars not " Cabool," but
Catebul. The route from the former city to Cabal
will no longer, as in the bitter winter weather, be
through masses of ice and snow; but lying along the
valley of the Tarnak, where there is considerable
cultivation, a sufficiency of supplies is found. These
have, througlat careful foresight been collected at
various stations along the route; and being thoroughly
well guarded, there is no danger of their being appro-
priated by the wandering hordes of marauders so
numerous in Afghanistan. After several months of
preparation the authorities at Calcutta have now
every confidence that they will be enabled to bring the
troubles in Afghanistan to an end.
Although there is some stagnation in the stock
markets, the increase in railway traffic receipts is
satisfactory. This is accounted for in a great degree
by the splendid spring weather—a most agreeable con-
trast to that which we experienced this time twelve
months. In one week the North Western show3"-ea an
increase of £16,500; the Great Western £7,000; the
Great Northern £5,000; the Sheffield, £3,300; and
the South Western £2,000. Of the Scotch lines the
Caledonian had the large augmention of £5,500, and
the North British £1,300. The half-yearly report of
the last-mentioned Company has, however, one
eaddening passage, relating to the destruction of the
Tay Bridge on the night of the 28th December, which
besides the awful sacrifice of human life, has eat
a loss of £120,000. As to the spring weather, if the
old proverb be true that a bushel of March dust is
worth a king's ransom, agricultural prospects ought
to be exceedingly good. Seldom has so dry and clear
a March gladdened the hearts of the people of
these islands. The wind has been mostly from the
east, it is true, but it has not been a black
sunless wind, for the am has shone brightly, Sand
when, as has often happened, the easterly breeze has
gone a point or two to the south, the leng winter
seemed to be forgotten in the prospeet of better times,
b•th for country and for town, than any which the
people of the land have known for some years past.
Amongst
.the workers who have been enabled to
hasten on with their engagements in consequence of
the fine weather are the artists, whose labours were
very materially retarded by the heavy fogs of the
winter. The bright sunshine of the spring has brought,
10 many golden hours to the painters, who have lately
made all speed to get their Academy pictures ready
for delivery. All the leading Academicians will con-
tribute; and frora all that can be gathered, the exhibi-
tion at Burlington House is likely to be an excellent
ono. It does not open until the first week in May;

tailed

but the task of examining so many hundreds of speci-
mens of the artists' work is a long and responsible one,
and the pictures intended for competition have therefore
to be in some weeks before the opening day. At present
there is no " season " in London, in the absence of the
,and with the Lords and Commons scattered
over the three kingdoms. By the time the Academy
throws open its doors, early in May, peers and com-
moners will be again in town, the new Parliament
will have begun its first session, her Majesty will be
again amongst her people, and a short and it may be
hoped a brilliant London season will have been in-
augurated. It is scarcely • probable that the Parlia-
ment will extend its sittings beyond the usual time—
the second week in August, so that the customary
round of engagements will be concentrated into about
three months. Garden parties by day, and balls,
concerts, receptions, and "at homes" by nightywill then
make up the happy round of life in many a west-end
mansion; and the quadruple line of carriages of an
afternoon in Regent-street and Piccadilly tell an
eloquent tale of the wealth which is concentrated in
the British capital.

Queen,

The fine weather which prevailed on Monday had
the result of attracting a large number of those who,
"in populous city pent," were set at liberty from their
usual avocations by the recurrence of the Easter Bank.
holiday to out-door and out-of-town resorts. The
evidence of a desire to seize the advantage of bright
sunshine was everywhere apparent. While a largely-
increased number of excursionists left the London
termini for country stations, the metropolitan holiday-
resorts were visited by crowds of pleasure-seekers. In
London, the museums and similar places showed a
decreased attendance compared with last year, when
the miserable weather was almost prohibitive of out-
door enjoyment. On Monday 9,753 visitors passed
the turnstiles of the British Museum, while last year
the number was 14,376. The National Gallery
showed a greater reduction. At South Kensington
the number of visitors was 19,437, or 300 less than last
year. The Horticultural Gardens, as an open-air
resort, showed a great increase. The number of
visitors during the day was 10,000. Last Easter
only 3,700 were admitted. The Royal Botanical
Gardens at Kew had 32,653 visitors, and the Zoo-
logical Gardens, Regent's-park, 30,680. The Crystal
Palace had more than 54,000 patrons; while its
northern rival, the Alexandra Palace, was visited by
about 40,000 persons. In spite of a slight fog which
hung over the metropolis in the morning, the day
proved thoroughly enjoyable, and appears to have
been thoroughly enjoyed by the toiling masses of this
great city.

THE "SPITAL" SERMONS AT THE
LONDON BLUE-COAT SCHOOL.
Easter Monday was observed in the City of London with
all the customary formalities and usages which for
centuries past have found place within its walls at this sea-
son of the year. The Times of Tuesday gave the following
account of one of the interesting observances
The " Spital " or hospital sermons, the first of
which was delivered on Monday,- were formerly
preached at the pulpit cross, called the Spital Cross,
where the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty,
with all the insignia of office, were diligent attendants.
Alderman Rawson, in the 16th year of the reign of
Edward IV. erected a house adjoining the cross so
that the Corporation and their wives might from
its balconies hear the sermons. Sums were
bequeathed for, and are still handed to, the preachers,
and on the spoliation, in Queen Mary's reign,
of the Hospital and the discontinuance of the ser-
mons, which, we are told, "then breathed afresh
the purest spirit of unadulterated truth," the corpora-
tion rented the house of the Crown's grantee at a great
rent. It was afterwards used as a residence for the
Rhamberlain, but has long since been pulled down.
The privilege of annually nominating the Spital
preachers has been jealously guarded by the Corpora-
tion for we find that in 1616 a dispute arose on the
.point between the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and the
Bishop of London. The Bishop asserted his right to
appoint the preachers, though neither he nor his
predecessors had ever exercised it, and to test the
matter he formally forbade one of the divines nominated
by the Corporation preaching at Paul's Cross. The ques-
tion was referred to the Lords of the Council, who decided
in favour of the Corporation who from that day to this
have maintained their rig, ht to nominate as preachers men
"notable for their sincerity, learning, and credit." In
1582 a noteworthy incident occurred. The Lords of
the Council wrote to the Lord Mayor informing him
that Lucas Argviteus, a Grecian born, being spoiled
of all that he had, and his wife and children carried
away captives by certain of the Turks' galleys had
come into this realm with good testimonials, and de-
sired some Christian relief for the payment of their
ransom. The Queen (Elizabeth), moved with compas-
sion for his miserable state, helped him liberally, and
recommended that the Spital collections in the City
should be devoted to his aid. The Corporation replied
that the collections made at Easter had been for many
years devoted to the relief of Her Majesty's natural
subjects, who were captives in Turkey and Barbary,
and there still remained many to redeem. They there-
fore demurred, in these circumstances, to devoting
their Spital offerings to a stranger, though they helped
him in another way.
Of late years the Spital sermons have been preached
at Christ Church, Newgate-street, adjoining Christ's
Hospital, in the presence of the Blue-coat boys and
the Governors of the Royal Hospitals—Christ's, St.
Bartholomew's Bridewell, and Bethlehem. On Mon-
day, shortly before three o'clock, the Lord Mayor
(Alderman Sir Francis Wyatt Truscott), the Sheriffs
and Under-Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, several
of the Aldermen the Town Clerk, the Controller, and
other representatives of the Corporation, left the
Mansion House in full state, with the usual cere-
monial officers and their chaplains, and went, pre-
ceded by mounted police and trumpeters, to attend
the annual service. In olden times the Governors of
the Royal Hospitals assembled at the Royal Exchange
together with the boys, masters, matrons, and beadles
of Christ's Hospital, and escorted the civic authorities
to the Church; but this custom has been abandoned. In
like manner, in ancient times, the processionused, on its
return, to stop at Newgate Gaol and take wine with the
Governor; but this usage also was discontinued long
before even the prison passed, as it has recently done,
from the hands of the Corporation of London to the
Crown. On arriving at Christ Church, Nawgate-
street, the Lord Mayor and the Corporation authorities
were received by the Governors of Christ's Hospital
and the churchwardens, and escorted to their official
seats, the Lady Mayoress, her daughters, and other
ladies being seated in another pew opposite. The
Bluecoat boys, 700 in number, thronged the galleries
of the church, and took part in the service with that
freshness and spirit for which they are conspicuous.
There was a fairly large congregation. The Spital
Sermon was preached by the Lord Bishop of Chichester
(Dr. Durnford) from the 24th verse of the 118th Psalm
--" This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will
rejoice and be glad in it." At the conclusion of the
sermon the Easter hymn, "Jesus lives! no longer
now," was sung, and the service closed with the
Benediction. The civic dignitaries then returned to
the Mansion-house.
In the evening, according to ancient custom, the
Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress gave a full-dress
State banquet in the Egyptian-hall of the Mansion-
house, which was served with much splendour. The
guests were 300 in number.

In accordance with a very ancient usage annually
celebrated on Easter Tuesday, the scholars of Christ's
Hospital, to the number of over seven hundred,
marched in procession from their School in Newgate.
street to the Mansion House to receive from the Lord
Mayor their customary Easter gifts. They were
accompanied by their nurses, beadles, and other
offieers, and their quaint garb attracted much atten-
tion as they passed through the crowded streets of the
City. On arriving at the Mansion House they were
formed in single file in the Egyptian Hall. Each
Bluecoat boy wore on his breast. a linen badge
with the Easter motto, "He is risen." As each lad
passed the Lady Mayoress he was presented to her by
the Warden of Christ's Hospital, and received from
her ladyship a new coin or coins of gold or silver fresh
that day from the Mint, according to his standing in
the school. To the thirteen Grecians a guinea each
was handed; to the six junior Grecians, or proba-
tioners, 10s. 6d.; to the thirty-eight monitors, half a
crown, and to the 648 boys of the rank and file a shil-
ling each. In accordance with custom each boy re-
ceived a couple of hot cross buns and a glass of sherry.
In all 705 boys attended, and the gifts of money
amounted to between £5O and £6O. After the
ceremony the Bluecoat boys went in proeession
to attend Divine service at Christ Church, fol-
lowed by the Lord Mayor' Sheriffs, and other
civic dignitaries in state. The procession was pre-
ceded by mounted police and trumpeters. On their
arrival the Corporation authorities were escorted to their
official seats, and the boys filled the spacions galleries
of the church. The second " 'Spital," or Hospital
Sermon was preached by the Rev. John Russell
Stock, M.A., Rector of Allhallows the Great, and
Chaplain to the Lord Mayor, from the text 17th and
18th verses of St. John's Gospel, "I lay down my life
that I might take it again. IN o man taketh it from
me, but I lay- it down of myself. I have power to lay
it down and I have power to take it again. This com-
mandment have I received of my Father." At the
conclusion of the service the civic dignitaries returned
to the Mansion House.