The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-24 00:00:00

1111 u r fog= taraspatilt.

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

The earldom which has been conferred on ;.Lord
Lytton, on his retirement from the office of Governor-
General of India, is a distinction which it has been
customary to bestow upon those who have complete
their term of the Viceroyalty of that splendid de-
pendency. When the Governor-General is a baron,
as in the cases of Lords Northbrook and Lytton, he is
advanced two degrees in tue peerale, passing over the
viscounty to an earldom. When. lie is a viscount, as
in the case of Viscount Canning, he also gets an
earldom. When he is an earl; as in the case of the
Earl of Dalhohsie, he is advanced to a marquisate. So
that, whatever Government is in power, the fulfilment
of the duties of this distinguished post is always
marked out for special honour at the hands of the
Prime Minister. It is:a very rare exception for a man
to fill it who is not already a peer, but such a case
was that of Sir John Lawrence, who was created a
baron when he returned hone early in the year 1869.
The work of riling two hundred millions of Hindoos
for four or five years is regarded as being a very trying.
one, and deserving of a handsome recognition at the
hands of the authorities at home.

In strong contrast with the brilliant skies and the
sunlit cities of India, where the people may truly
enough be said to live, but not to progress, is the
Dominion of Canada, with its four million square
miles of territory, and one inhabitant for each of these
square miles. Canada promises to be one of the most im-
portant of all Britain's distant possessions. Scattered
over the different sections of that vast Continent, there
are to be found at this day some of the most in-
dustrious and most enterprising men that ever fought
the battle of self-energy. Canada possesses re-
sources which are all but illimitable. The farmers
there have made rapid progress within the last five-
and-twenty years; and in the art of raising high-bred
stock they bid fair at some not distant day to
equal if not to rival their brethren in the old land.
Enormous powers of producing meat are now y)ossessed
by the people who live on the Canadian side of the
frontier which divides the -United States from the
British settlements. Hitherto a large proportion of
the cattle and other stock sent across the Atlantic-was
shipped from different harbours of the Western Re-
public. But now that the greater facility of transport
between the interior and the sea offers such induce-
ments to stockowners, we may look to them for in-
creased supplies. A new era of prosperity has now set
in, trade and commerce have once more become very
active, and a season may confidently be ecpected in
which the people have such augmented means of pur-
chasing as will fully absorb the additional imports of
food from Canada.

Electro-horticulture is one of the latest subjects
which is occupying the attentiou of scientific men. Of
the three essentials to the growth of plants—heat,
moisture, and light—the horticulturist has the means
at his command for supplying artificially any de-
ficiency that may arise in the natural supply of the
two former. For light, however, he has hitherto been
solely dependent on the sun,
.with the result that dur-
ing comparatively sunless seasons, such as that of
1879, his best efforts have met with but scanty success.
Dr. Siemens has succeeded in demonstrating that the
electric light can do the work of sunlight, and that,
could the former be produced cheaply enoligh, it would
probably be to the advantage of the horticulturist to
subject his plants to the influence of continuous light.
The effects of uninterrupted sunlight on plants in
the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, and Fin-
land, where during the two months of summer the
sun scarcely ever sets, are to intensify their colour.
There is also a marked increase in the aroma of all
wild as well as cultivated fruits, and in the vege-
tables so grown the flavour is much more pronounced.
The contention of Dr. Siemens is that with the aid of
stoves and electric light, fruit excelling both in sweet-
ness and aroma, as *ell as flowers of great brightness,
may be grown without solar aid.
The dinginess of the exterior walls of London'
houses, and the monotonous appearance of many of
the streets which is thus caused, must have been more
apparent to viitors from a distance than obvious to
those to whom these conditions are always. in view.
It is true that in the smoky atmosphere of the capital,
there cannot be the brilliance of old Italian work,
but there seems no reason why something should not
be done to relieve the grey stone colour of our streets.
It has been suggested that marble panels would form
the best and most appropriate means of outside sur-
face decoration; but majolica ware, terracotta,
mosaic, and even iron enamelling are described as
being well adapted to give colour and beauty to the
streets of a large town. There seems no valid reason
why the skill and thought of the decorator should not be
employed in street jwork, and the money spent on a
piece of bric-a-brac &. an ordinary water-colour would
provide for the decoration of an entrance door. The
only argument to be advanced against the general
adoption of this system of street adornment, is that
the decorations would form an easy temptation to
become the prey of the midnight marauder without
the danger of attempting a burglary.

An institution which suffers a great deal from the
grime and sootflake of the smokiest capital in the
world is the National Gallery. Standing on the
eastern side of Trafalgar Square, it looks down upon
an ever-rushing stream of traffic; and situated in the
midst of a dense population, it seems inevitable but
that the smoke must in the end tell on the delicate
surfaces of the pictures, many of which passed.ftom
the hands of the painters more than three hundred
years ago. Some of the best paintings of Sir Joshua
Reynolds are said to be showing signs of decay, and
the Director of the Gallery has lately taken the pre-
caution to have thewframes of all his recent purchases
supplied with glass fronts, and this has also been done
to most of the very valuable Cabinet pictures.
Next te the name of Prince Bismarck, perhaps
that of Prince Gortschakoff has been most prominently
before the attention of Europe during the past fifteen
or twenty years. He should not be confounded with
the general of that name who commanded the Russian
army during the siege of Sebastopol, and who, on the
repulse at Redan on the 18th June, 1855, issued a
spirit-stirring proclamation to his soldiers declaring
that in a few weeks:the allies would be driven into the
sea as chaff is blown away by the wind. Less than
three months afterwards, when the stately Queen
vf the Euxine was compelled to succumb to the
forces brought against her, the Prince reported to his
Imlerial master that the "infernal fire" poured in
by the allies upon the city, rendered it impossible for
him any longer to hold the devoted town. The present
Prince Gortschakoff, Chancellor of the Russian Em-
pire, whose serious illnw is now creating great anxiety
in Russia, has for more than twenty years had the
reputation of being one of the shrewdest men with
whom the statesmen of other countries have had to
contend. At eighty years of age he represented
Russia at the Congress of Berlin in the summer of
1878, when there was a most remarkable gathering in
the Prussian capital, combining the most
_eminent
men in the Councils of European States—Gortscha-
koff, Bismarck, Andrassy, Waddington, and Lords
Beaconsfield mid Salisbury—an assembly of intellect,
in fact, which it would take a very long time to get
together again, in the face of the mutations of political
change so constantly witnessed.

M. Lion Say, the new French Ambassador to
London, is what M. Michel Chevalier called the late
Mr. dobden, "an international man." Under the
Empire not much was heard of him, as his views were
not in accord with those of the ruling Powers in
France; but since the Empire passed away he has
held more than one importa4t position, and in the
earlier days of the Republic filled the office of Prefect
of the Seine. His appointment to the French Embassy
in London is likely to strengthen the hopes of good
commercial relations between England and 'Prance,
and to promote greater freedom of trade. Popular in
society, he is pleasant and courteous in a reinarkable
degree. A lover of good fellowship, he can entertain
company to perfection. But he is also a philosopher,
and will in all probability make the French Embassy
at Albert Gate the centre of a cultivated circle repre
sentative of those "men of light and leading" whose
presence is always so welcome in the salons of the
aristocracy.

The excitement consequent upon the general elec-
tion—now happily subsided—has riot entirely drawn
away public attention from the state of affairs in
Afghanistan, where the prospects of an early settle-
ment with the princes and sirdars of Cabul are said to
be improving. The force under General Roberts is
believed to be sufficiently strong to bear down all
opposition, and there can be no doubt that a powerful
army is always a valuable adjunct at the back of a
diplomatist. Off and on, the Afghan difficulty has
lasted a very long time; but it was not until
September, 1878, that the turning back of Sir Neville
Chamberlain's armed embassy led to the war with the
late Ameer, which, terminating with the treaty of
crandemak, had to be resumed upon the murder of Sir
Louis Cavagnari at Cabul seven months ag6
The approach of the month of May marks the be-
ginning of the London Coaching season, although since
Easter Monday there have been five coaches upon the
road. There is one between London and Brighton,
and another between London and Dorking. The
Brighton coach is the same that ran last year between
Oxford and Cambridge, and this waathelongestjourney
ever done in these modern days; for the distance by
way of London is about 120 miles, and the
" Defiance " (lid this every slay during last season.
The route which the tame yehiele. takel ACY

not quite so long, though from London to Brighton, by
way of Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells, is not far
short of eighty miles. The eight hours' drive is a most
charming one in fine weather, the coach i traversing
some very beautiful scenery in Kent and Sussex.
Another coach runs between London and St. Albans,'
one between London and Virginia Water, and a fifth
to Thames Ditton, all through most pleasant neigh-
bourhoods, and affording an agreeable change from
that rapid mode of travelling by rail which, although
it superseded the coaching days half a century ago,
affords much less opportunity for enjoying a journey
when enjoyment enters as a factor into the calculation.

One of the most attractive studies of mankind is
undoubtedly fish. The success of the Brighton
Aquarium is sufficient to attest the truth of this pro-
position. Another proof of it is the great interest which
is taken in the International Piscicultural Exhibition
at Berlin, to be held this summer. Japan, China,
and Eastern Asia, Russia, Germany, and Austria,
Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, North America,
South America, and England, Switzesland, Holland,
and Italy, will all be represented at this mammoth
gathering, which, were it held at Paris or at Brussels,
instead of at Berlin, which is rather too far away from
England, would b, visited by an immense number of
people, from this country.