The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-24 00:00:00

reforming Mote to tie applied. Thus ds-termined to bent The deceased lei-ayes a wife and several children.
thpms just as they were, we were ohlimd to °fir great From further f .cts which have been ascertained there
mot 'mune last Session, to contend PO much with them; and
seems to be no doubt that snore than one person was
nose the, are lu , Vt. they call themselves Her Msjesty's
Concerned inche csimrnission of the crime. The body
in-manta hut they have not ystriarea to proclaim themselves
‘he accepted legvantil of the people (Cheers ) 0,. Monday, was most probably placed upon the railway in the ex.
tee 3rd 14 Dsmtpher, it Is Said that, following the otamp!e pectation that the 810 p.m. train from Nottingham
of Birmingham, the West Ridlog, of Glasgow, Am, Man- and Carlton would pasts over it, and thus lead to an
Chester, and Dublin, the men connected with the
L. tr"ade.—that of :
inference that the deceased had been accidentally nd 011 will make what they call a •' demonstration
killed. The wife of the supposed miirderer has been
is, on hehalf of tMs question of R form they will aseemb'e,
Mid peacefully walk through some of the main streets of the arrested on mumicion of being i. nplicated.
. West-end of London, f. I. Ole purpose ot showing that they tido, On Cuesday morning an inquest was opened. The
an ieterestin this great question (enters ) I know nothing of inquiry took place at Carlton, arid great excitement
' the arrangements except what Isms loth° newspapen ; but It prevailed in the village ; neither of the prisoners were
• 3f1a14 that more than 1,000,000 have arranged to walk present. Several witnesses were examined, but no
I n that procsesion. I hear from no mewl authority that
resh light WWI thrown upon the affair, and the in-
certain persons st the Weitt-etni &Benders at the club., and f
ppeO O. quay was acjourned. soon, are getting up a little alarm at what may ha . ,
th ant of December. What will happen we all know , If the
--
police do not interrupt tothe peace (cheek, the
INVITATION TO PAPA.
peace will not be broken, and probably what happeped on
the hurt occartion may be of some use in teaching the Home
Searetary his dilly on this ocoadon. ,ebeers.) . . • • l flan-
ppse that there are many here present who have read the
couplet by our witty friend -Hosea Biglow, en pointing out
the character of some politicians in America, who, lite said,
art we may say of Lord Darby and his party,
"A merciful Proviience fashioned them hollow, •
On purpose that thm might their principle. swallow."
(Laughter! lint notwithstanding that provision—that mar-
olful proydßen—as stitemmeWl confess that I do notAteli.ve
that the C ivernment have oetermined to bring in • Re-
form Bill, or that they ean by, any possibility bring in a
Reform Bill which the Reformers of this country can ac-
cept ,cheerC ; they have done everything during the last
'session by fraudulent statements, by Menne to the people,
by the most evident baseness of part, actions ta olestr•y the
Imaeat attempt lit Earl Rusted' to improve the represent..
ton of the pn. plc. 11, not holier,' that within one short
year they can turn mond, capriricautzm may be the cavity
of the Try Government—l think tnyy cannot within one
kluirt year swallow all their Conservative principles.
(Cheer.) If it man were to tell me he hail a broth composed
of half a dozen of the most poisonous ingredients, and could
Make • wholesome dish, I could not believe hint ;—(laugh-
ter)—eind if be told me that Lord Derby. and Mr Disraeli
and Lord Stanley and Lord eranborne and General Teel and
, Si'. rest of them are about to produce a wholesome and
salutary and liberal Reform Bill I mist ask him not
to impose for a Mtotnent on My understanding. (Cheers.)
The enemies of the Bill of 1056 cannot become the
friends of tho Bill of 1867, and complrators of the Session
Just past cannot become honourable statesmen in the Session
which is &pont to commence,. (Cheers.; My opinion may
be no bettEr than that of other men.. Tait, however, may ,
he good' advice. MI Reformers should* be on the watch.
Cheers.) There are enemiew enough and false friends enough
to convince us that our Cana' Shy so means out of danger.
But the next Bill, what most it bat I wish I could hope
that it would be as good as the molt but one thing I think
we have • right to insist upon, that tire next Bill which
is introduced by a Reform Government should be in regard
to its suffrage based on the ancient franchise of the
country. (Hear, hear) Household or rating franchise has
existed for centuries in our parishes ; it has existed for
many year. in onr municipal corporations, it has never
been found in our parishes or corporations to be destructive
to the interests of those districts. I say, therefore, we
ought to stand upon our ancient institution. Earl Russell
was in favour of extending the borough franchise down to the
municipal franchise, and Mr. Gladstone approved such •
measure. We know that the late Attorney General, one of
the most eminent members of the House of Commons,
openly expremed himself in favour of that change. I believe
the liberal porti..nof the middle clam would haze no objection
to see the franchise extended to all householders in the
boroughs / nelteve if it were so extended we should arrive

Should Rome become too cold to hold you,
The It )mans won't make It too hot)
Let the arms of lirMania enfold you;
Come to or, Holy Nether. Why not?
The faithful their Peterlarence giving
The Shepherd, beloved of hie flock,
Would yield him so ample a living,
That he'd live like a game fighting-cock.
•
And thpen, as f d glorification,
If your Holiness cared about that,
You would meet with profound adulation,
Upon' all side., as fulsome as fat.
Whervver you went, I will but, you
Would be lustily cheered by the mob,
And aosninous crowds would bea.4 you,
With the taste of the true Brltish Snob.
If von preached, admiration would urge on
(de der numlars to no and hear you,
Tim have e'Ver yet-sot under Spar!d?a,

. ,
Or. been APAWII I,r Ake Rev, rend lielhw.
Expositors hostile endeavour
To make ont that it .nits;a Pontiff's the Dead,
Thus much we may grant them. howeser,
You would here be a Lion, at least.
Lords and Dukes would compete for the favour
Of your tasting their dishes and wine ;
And of codrse—to Lent turtle would savour—

The Lord Mayor wont,' invite you to dine.
Than, over the Loving Cup, rubbing
His gown with pontifical robe
Your blessing you, Atter the grubbing,
Could Impart to the City and Globe.
Inrrelieala, Bulls, Allocutions,
At Rulers and States sou could situ;
If yoo only abused institutions,
And inveighed against no one by name.
Forweeatil were that-limitation

Of libel to keep a frwe course;
And our Alien Act give Prince or nation
No OCCa9iOll to bid us enforce.
Observirg this easy condition,
You would live more completely at home;
And hold a much Rehr position,
Holy Father, in London than Rome.
And should you, the Vatican quitting,
To Ergland be pleased to repair ;
You would find here a mansion as fitting,
The Alhambra, to wit, Leicester Square. —Pune",

at a point at which, so lorg at any rate as any of us are
Permitted to meddle in the policy of our country, no further
change would be demanded. (Cheers.) I, therefore, am en-
tirely in favor of it, becauNe I believe it to he wise in Itself,
and because it Is the ancient borough franchise of the king-
dom lam in favour of the Constitution. I would stand by
it whenever it offered guarantees for freedom I would
march in it. track. That track is so plain 'that the way-
faring man, though fool, need not err therein." I would be
guided by its lights; they have been kept burning by great
men among our forefathers from generation to gent ration.
Our only safety in this warfare is in aohering to the ancient
and noble Constitution of , or country, and when we have
restored It to Its ancient power and invited the great holy
of the people to take part In political power. then the [louse
Of Commons will he the servant of the nation and not Its
master, and it will do the bidding, not of a small and
limited—often an ignorant, necessarily a seillsh—claas, but
the bidding of a great and noble people. (Loud and pro-
tracted cheering, amid which the hon gentleman resumed
his seat, having spoken for upwards of an hour!

Thi STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

•
proselytising clergy in the pay of the State. Ou
other hand, if we refuse to redress the wrongs of e'en
-
twine_ we may not to Ireland; but we may do more
than lose her—we may have to Ipa-p her down by a
constant expenditure of military forae equal to at
least thirty thousand men. We shall align offer abun-
dant opportunities to those American politicians who
are ready to hate us; and equally ready to do anything
to catch the Irish vote.
In saying the we do not allude to Mr. Sewaa-d's
recent letter. F.ir tair part, we can hardly understand
the hyeterical indignation into which it has throw n some
of our contemporaries. Mr. Seward requests us very
politely,. although with a well-managed sneer at the
end, to anal...n(l the execution of the sentence on
the Feniaue whom we have captured in Canada. Are
journalists so very ignorant of the history of our own
Foreign Office as not to remember that we have done
much worse things of the same kind, and with much
greater rudeness of manner? We bullied the King of
Naples into surrendering the engineers of the Cagliari.
But a case directly in point was that of Colonel 'Burr.
During the Hungarian war of 1819 he deserted from
his regiment and fought against the Emperor of
Austria. Tit IBM he was, we believe, employed by
the British Government to buy horses, and in the
course of his businese he went into the Danubian
Principalities, then occupied by an Austrian corps
d'armee. He there met with his old regiment, and the
Colonel arrested Him at once. He was tried and
sentenced to he shot. Of his military crime there
could be no doubt, and the right of the Emperor of
Austria to shoot him was clear; yet the English Go-
vertiment interceded on his behalf with great urgency,
and the English press attacked Austria with vehe-
mence for daring to arrest a British employe. The
Emperor Francis Joseph wisely and humanely released
the prisoner "out of deference to his illustrious ally
Queen Victoria." We see nothing in Mr. Seward's
letter worse than our intervention for Colonel Turr,
and in probability our Government will imitate that
of Austria in making a wine concession to the dictates
of humanity. It is argued that these Fenians might
be pardonable if they had invaded Ireland, but not
when they attacked Canada; yet we really cannot
discern the distinction. We do not see why the
murder by rebels of British subjects in Ireland should
be more readily forgiven than the murders by rebels
of British subjects in Canada. If the Feniaos have
any muss bells at all, it stands as good in one part of
the empire as anather. As to the strict letter of the
law, we know that their lives are forfeit; but policy
is often as important as law. To hang these men
would be to give new life and strength to Fenianiem in
the States, while the fact that one of them is a priest
would tend to inflame against us the Roman Catholic
clergy of Ireland and the States, hitherto our friends—
not that they dislike England less, but that they dis-
like secret societies and Red Republicanism more.

Ashtoduunder-Lyne, Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax,
Bradford, Stockport, have all been snore ot less sub.
merged, and their busy manufactories stopped. In
Egypt such a sight is ; the flood.cornes, the
land is turned into a sea, with islets of palm t.-ives and
little continents of towns and villages, and the very
donkeys take the flood as a matter of course, and prac-
tise swimming with asinine patience. But to hear
of our own countles presenting the cause appearance
after three or four days' down pour, is enough to
startle those who live in the busiest and most populcoa
parts of the kingdom, and let them know that, for
anything they could do to grapple with the elements,
South London itself might be turned by rain into a
Rotterdam.

The more unexpected such visitations are, the mcee
grotesque and curious are the accidents which they
cause and the scenes to which they give rise, because
everybody is caught unawares. One account tells us
that the water rushed into the cellars of a brewer, and
turned his strong ale into very small beer; while it
washed scores of barrels down the stream. Then at
Burnley some houses were caught in the torrent upon
their front, and the windows being opened behind,
muddy cascades were seen to fall from the sills of the
top storey. Dead sags, sheep, and horses everywhere
whirled away with the turbid torrents, which picked
up all that was floatable -furniture, timber, cattle.
troughs, hurdles, railway sleepers, wheel-barrows, and
waggons. At Brightside, near Sheffield, there was a
spectacle which reproduced the original Deluge itself;
a whole street of cottages 'ant of by the flood, and
the husbands staggering across the current to safer
ground with a cargo .4 wives and children clinging
about their necks. Railway lines wera, submerged
and passenger trains had in some places to plough
through three feet of water. In one instance, near
Leeds, a goods train, groping for a bridge, found it
was gone, and splashed nut of sight after it.
The Woolley Tunnel. near Barnsley, was turned '
info an aqueduct, and another tunnel WAS for the
time more like s canal than a subway for locomotives.
At Wigan the extraordinary descent of water
threatened the Ince Hall coal mines, and it was felt
necessary to call the miners out from the pits, lest the
river Douglas should burst in upon them, and drown
allhands. Some few colliers were actually imprisoned,
at Skelmersiale by the irruption of the river 'Powd
into the workings, and nothing but the gallant enter-
prise of their comrades saved them: tor, without their
knowledge, the stream was; entering and cutting off
their retreat. From Huddersfield we heard of a mill
full of cloth-workers so hemmed in by the flood, that
they had to make the best of it where they were for
the night; and in a score of the Lancashire and
Yorkshire towns the streets were turned to streams,
and passengers were obliged to wade up to the waist
or he ferried over the paving-stones. In Leeds, on
Friday night, broad, dark sheets of water lay in spots
where squares and gardens had been, and spectators
NIT that the Aire, as it rushed through Leeds Bridge,
looked for the nonce more like a highland river in a
spate, than the dirty and sluggish stream which usually
supplies the fulling mills. Elsewhere we heard of
police-constable passing the night in the branches of a
cherry-tree, of boys sitting like a row of disconsolate
sparrows upon a garden wall, of people driven to the
top storey of their houses, and rescued only when the
police broke through the slates. We are told, in short,
of all manner of singular and half-amusing adventures,
such as could not fail to to cur when the waters come
suddenly down upon a district teeming with life and
business, in which they are no more expected than a
monsoon, s cyclone, or a sirocco.

• .
Those incidents, unhappily, form only the grotesque
featurrs of the calamity; it has also a melancholy, a
very melancholy, side, in regard to the destruction of
property, and, worse still, the loss of life. Fortu-
nately the first of the flood did not come in the night
time there were signs of it at early dawn, which
enabled people to make some kind of preparation, and
to remove themselves out of danger's way. In most
of the submerged places, therefore, we have but few
ca.sualties to deplore--a man drowned here in trying to
fish in some wreckage, another lost there in essaying
ts, wade the currents; accidents that were to be
expected, and that seem wonderfully few for the
extent of the inundation. At Leeds, however, there
has been a wholesale disaster, which has cost more life
than all the rest of the deluge together. It seems
that a number of persons had assembled on a terrace
by Leeds Bridge to watch the current roar and rave
over the wreck of a coal-barge, jammed against the
arches, when, undermined by the sweep of the river,
the terrace itself gave away, and thirty people fell
into the torrent. Twenty at least are said to have
been drowned at once' but the furious stream whirled
the victims away, and they will be found scattered
about among the other wrecks when the waters sub-
side. The incident is most distressing, and calls for
the deepest compassion. Nor can we forget the hun-
dreds of poor people who have been left in the
greatest misery at just the worst season of the year.
Doubtless the great towns will know how to give the
most tangible proofs of their sympathy with the vie.
time of so utterly unforeseen a misfortune ; indeed we
hear already of prompt measures to that effect at
Manchester, Leeds, and elsewhere. Many hundreds
of prior pens no have, on the eve of winter, lost all
they had. There has also been a destruction—doubt.
less more tolerable, but very severe—of costly pro-
perty • mills have been deleged and works put quite
slit of gear; and here, again, the poor suffer too.
Various estimates, but all of them high, are given
of the damage which has been done; and it must be
heavy indeed, since the extent of the visitation was
esi grew. After such deluges, too, along the lines
of rail, road, and canal there is always reason to dread
accidents to the permanent way, damage to bridges,
bursting of banks, and similar calamities ' and we must
hear a great many sad particulars before We have
ceased to hear about the catastrophe altogether.

In a third edition of the Yorkshire Post we find the fol-
lowing particulars of the sad calamity at Leeds on Saturday
morning:—

About seven o'clock in the morning a party of mill
operatives, consisting mostly of girls, with a few men,
about thirty in number, incautiously ventured upon
the balcony of a quay wall on the north side of the
bridge in order to obtain a better view of the vast
quantity of ruins which had collected together and
become wedged under the arches of the bridge. The
quay wall, which sppears to have been undermined by
the flood, suddenly gave way, and, without a moment's
warnin ; the whole party were precipitated into the
rushing stream below. The current was flowing with
fearful velocity, and they were at Once swept under the
bridge into the main current of the river. Two water.
men—henry Stones, captain of the Vaper, from Louth,
and Thomas Harrison, captain of the Clara, from
liawchlfe— were approaching the bridge at the time,
and heard a shout of "Look oat !" Immediately
afterwards they saw about six or eight persons floating
down the stream, all apparently girls, who :dung to
each other's dresses. Harrison immediately jumped
on board a vessel which was moored against the bridge,
snatched hold of a boathook, and with its aid succeeded
in rescuing six of the girls from the water; but two or
three, who were unable to retain their hold of their

companions, were swept away by the current, and
were seen no more. After the rescue of these girls a
cry was heard that some one was under the
Leeds London jetty, whereupon Harrison pro.
cured a crowbar from his vessel, and he and
Stonea with it prized open the boards of the jetty,
and there discovered two men, whom they succeeded
in getting out alive. One of these men was Henry
Lee, a wherryman residing in South Brook-street,
Hunslet, and, as showing the unexpected nature of
the catastrophe, the Leeds paper gives the statement
of Lee himself, who was occupied at the quay wali at
the time it gave way. He states that he was standing
at that spot about half.past seven o'olock in company
with between twenty and thirty other persons, when
without a moment's warning he felt the flags beneath
his feet give way, and the whole party, with few ex.
ceptions, were instantly precipitated into the water.
He was carried swiftly beneath the bridge, together
with several others, who shared in the calamity, and
was held for some time under water by a woman who
clung tenacicusly to his legs. He succeeded in freeing
himself from her grasp, and just at the time the eddy-
ing waters carried a cask within his reach, which
buoyed him up and floated him to a platform at the
bottom of Warehouse-lane. His situation was observed
by the persons on the platform, but they were tumble
to reach him until a hole had been made in t, through
which he was drawn to land. On examining further
another man was found under the jetty, with
his head jammed between two piles, and quite
dead. A man was then lowered with a rope.
which he fastened round the dead mail's arm, and
he was thus dragged to shore. About 200 yards
below the badge a waterman named Mark Brooke,
captain of the barge John Malcolm, just after the
occurrence ob.wrved a man floating down the river,
apparently very uAtILIL ent,austed sad on the point of
sinking, whereupon he snatched up a boathook wall
endeavoured to lay hold of him with it. He sac.
cceded in fixing the hook into the neckerchief of the
drowning man, hut the neckerchief unfortunately
became tofastened from the neck, and the poor
fellow floated past beyond all hopea of recovery.
The Lecdc Mercury of Monday, which devotes about
a page and a half of close type to recording the
damage done in various parts of Yorkshire and Lan-
cashire, says it is hoped that not more than five persons
were drowned. Only one body had been recovered up
to last night. Large districts of Laricaehire, the West
Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire are still
under water. At Dewsbury and in the neighbourhood
no leas than seven lives have been lost, and many
persons had hairbreadth escapes. From other places
also come stories almost as sad. Several shipping
disasters are reported from the north-eastern coasts.