The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-05 00:00:00

,ug eirrespoubtni

fling a few hundred miles and visiting a score of
towns. Their steed costs nothing in food,
though it requires a certain amount of grooming,
and although it has to be somewhat igno-
miniously pushed up hill, it gets over the ground
a glorious pace when the roads are good and
Politicians are once more in the thick of the
a
fight, and the debate on the Address, with which atrl level. An objection to cycling used to be
that it was an unsociable amusement in that
the session always opens, has been pursued with ladies could not join in it; but since the intro-
vigour. The Government has promised that the duction of an improved form of tricycle, and
first business to which the House of Commons more especially of the tandem tricycle, that
shall be asked to devote its attention will be that ' objection can no longer be urged. Many ladies
of reforming its rules of procedure; and there is can now be met careering along our country
a very general consensus of opinion in favour of roads these on . ese vehicles; and in cases where it is
some such reform. Politicians i
are mot agreed inconvenient to keep a pony a tricycle fills its
i
upon the methods—that is too much to expect place n a fashion which is decidedly useful.
in this quarrelsome world—but they are agreed
upon the principle, and that is a great deal. Mr. ' An announcement has appeared that most of
Gladstone has spoken as strongly as Lord Ran-
the saloon tickets for the summer trips of the
dolph Churchill, and Lord Hartington, in this great American " liners " running from the
United States to England have already been
matter, is at one with Sir William Harcourt;
and out of the materials four such prominent taken, and it is believed that the stream of
leaders of public opinion have provided, some visitors from the new to the old country will
good result should surely flow. There is certain flow as freely as ever. Americans think much
to be keen discussion upon every line of the pro- less of a trip to Europe than Englishmen do of
posals, and it is only right that this should be so, one to the United States. With us it would
for the rules which govern the House of Commons seem a real adventure, and one of a lifetime, to
may have a more important bearing than most , be looked forward to for a long period, and
, with a dash of trepidation, and to be looked
people at first sight can imagine upon future
legislation. But there is one point upon which back upon with comfortable reflection not un-
there is agreement among our leading politicians, mixed with relief. Americans are differently
and that is, that means must be taken, and taken constituted, for with a large number of them the
without delay, so to reconstruct the regulations trip to Europe is a mere incident, and, with
of the House that the legislative machine shall with some, a frequently repeated incident of
run more smoothly and with greater effect than their lives. They "do " England, and they
it lately has done. This is not a party matter, "do " Paris, and they "do " Rome with a con-
but one which vitally affects all parties; and it scientiousness which is somewhat astounding;
Will be well if, now that it has been resolutely and they skurry through Europe at such a pace
taken in hand, it is carried to some effective as to imbibe very strange notions of it to take
conclusion. I back to their homes beyond the sea. To some
of them the mere sight of England is a revela-
One of the points in the proposed new rules
which is certain to create much discussion, and I Lion. They have so frequently heard references
to it as an old and effete country, that they
yet one upon which the leaders of all parties are
agreed, is that which provides for the House of I expect to find it in a decayed and somewhat
mouldy condition; and they are astonished to
Commons meeting earlier in the afternoon than discover that it is very far from anything of the
-at present. Most people will know that four kind. The ceaseless evidences of industry
o'clock is the hour which now obtains, but corn-
surround them from their landing at Liverpool
paratively few are aware that this is a nominal ' to their departure from the same Dort; and
rather than an actual time. The first half-hour when they reach home they have reason to
is devoted to private business and the presenta- reflect upon the abuse of language that describes
tion of petitions, and even when half-past four England as a worn-out country which is on its
arrives the House is far off from the commence-
ment of legislative work. For questions have last legs. A. F. R.
then to be asked and answered, and as this
process absorbs in these days from an hour
to an hour and a half, and sometimes well on
to two hours, it will be seen that a good
portion of each evening is exhausted in prelimi-
naries before the actual work of law-making
begins. It is now proposed that the House
shall meet at two instead of four, a proposition
which is certain to find little favour with such
members as are barristers or are otherwise
engaged in business pursuits whose avocation
would be interfered with by the change. The
answer which is likely to be made to their objec-
tions is not merely that the first duty of Parlia-
ment is to make itself effective rather than to
minister to the comfort of its members, but that
in other countries—the United States, France,
and Germany, for instance—where professional
men sit in Parliament as they do here, the hour
of meeting is always early, and that the system
appears to work well. Further, our ancestors
used to meet much earlier than we of these
degenerate times are ever likely "even to dream
of, eight in the morning having been the hour
fixed in the days of the Great Rebellion. There
is a long difference between eight in the morn-
ing and four in the afternoon, and perhaps two
o'clock may be accepted as a fair compromise,
suited to the differing circumstances of the present

day,
During the coming spring those who have
dealings on the Stock Exchange are likely to be
affected by more than one alarm of war. The
aspect of affairs on the Continent is so lowering
that this will not be wondered at, and the first
specimen of such panics as these alarms cause has
been experienced within the past fortnight. A
more than usually positive statement that war
between France and Germany was immediately
imminent sent down the stock markets all over
Europe; and although it was promptly con-
tradicted by the Governments intimately con-
cerned, it was several days before the various
bourses reccvered from the shock. In the
interval several speculators had been ruined, and
many innocent persons found their property
seriously depreciated in value. It is to be feared
that this experience will be more than once
repeated within a comparatively short time,
for there is an abundance of electricity in
the political atmosphere, and a very little
disturbance may serve to bring out the
lightning. There is little use in advo-
cating prudence and caution to speculators
under such circumstances. When stocks are
tumbling down in every capital, it is difficult to
keep cool, and the efforts of one man to stein
the tide can be of little avail. But it is almost
appalling to think of the extent of suffering and
loss entailed by a single false alarm. The
amount of depreciation by a solitary panic may
be reckoned in millions, and many a home is
wrecked by the process. This is an additional
reason why men should be particularly careful
in the circulation of alarmist rumours at such a
time as the present.

Periodically we hear that the War Office is
about to develope a scheme for the better
organisation of the volunteers, and as each new
year has come around those interested in the
success of that branch of our auxiliary forces
have had their hopes kindled in this direction.
Once again we have the old story, and this time
details are appended which may indicate that
something is at last to be done. It is stated
that the new scheme will be based on the prin-
ciple of tactical centres, a certain number of
rallying points, all easily accessible, being first'
fixed upon. A plan of mobilization will then be
drawn up, giving to each district a certain number
of men of the different arms—artillery, engineers,
and infantry—and an establishment will be laid
down for each branch. The scheme at present is
admittedly undeveloped, and much of its detail
must depend upon the willingness of the
volunteers themselves to assist. But that
willingness may almost be taken for granted,
seeing that it is the volunteers who have con-
tinually been calling upon the War Office to give
them something definite to do. They are grow-
ing tired, and verynaturally so, of the anomalous
position they have so long been allowed to hold;
and they ask nothing better than a definite place
in the defensive arrangements of the country.
No such force exists in any nation, and England
should not only be proud of it—and of its pride
there can be no doubt—but it should put it to
the best advantage. Official diflculties and, per-
haps, official, prejudices have long stood in the
way of this latter point; but the time for these
to be put out of sight has surely by this date
arrived.

The annual challenge for the inter-university
boat-race has now been given and accepted, and
the date for this interesting struggle has been
fixed. The interest is rather in the nature of
the race than in the race itself, for, as could only
be expected, this latter, being rowed simply
by sixteen amateurs gathered for the occa-
sion, is not a very striking perform-
ance when looked at from a purely pro-
fessional point of view. But what the general
public -se-e in it 1 an honest competition between
two eights of representative Englishmen for the
honour of their respective universities. It would
be a sign of the physical degeneracy of the race
if our young men'no longer exhibited an interest
in boating, football, cricket, and other outdoor
spoits: The hardy spirit which has made the
Epglishman the best coloniser of modern times
has been mainly ministered to by such games as
these; and the country would be a loser if they
no longer attracted attention, or were not
thought worthy of praise. It may be,
and certainly sometimes is, that more
attention than is necessary is given by our
young men to mere pastime; but this is simply,
another illustration of the old truththat it is pos-
sible to have too much of a good thing. The
abuse of an institution does not •prove that its
use iS- harmful ; and the University Boat 'lace,
though offering some points for criticism, may be
considered on the whole a good institution.
One form of outdoor amusement which appears
to grow in popularity among our young men—
and even in some fashion among our young
women—is that of cycling. Locomotion on
wheels, whether two wheels or three, is evidently
not the passing fashion which-many at its intro-
duction believed it to be; and the votaries of
bicycling and • tricycling grow in -krumber
as the years 1:611' on: An exhibition of the
machines. they use which has been held in
LondianwAin,the past few days, has attracted
deviitees frpn all parts. Young men flocked to
it with ead-ferriess, and the keen and careful
fashion in which they inspected the various
machines, and the manner in which they dis-
cussed those which professed to be improvements
upon older patterns, furnished amusement to the
non-enthusiast. But to lovers of the pastime all
this we's very real, and they would resent anything
in the-m:ature of a smile at those, who love
ao with • There is this to be said of the
pu ,
tit htesionng men to make the
.. , 4 • •
- ffon y-steing more of their
rao • -
0 country than ever they-c Old before. They
think nothing at Easter or Whitsuntide of run-