The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-30 00:00:00

POLITICS, PRESENT AND FUTURE.

TEM cessation of active hostilities between
political parties, so far as important platform
speaking is concerned, which for a week or
two past has brought a refreshing change in
the appearance of the newspapers, has now
come to an end, and "Parliament out of
Session" is again in full swing. The biggest
thing of the last few days has of course been
the Conservative Conference at Bradford, at
which a large number of members of Parlia-
ment sitting on the Ministerial side of the
House of Commons exerted their eloquence
to the end of furthering the cause of their
party. There was also a Liberal rallying,
in a small way, at Birmingham, coincidently
with the Constitutional gathering further
North, the occasion being the removal of Mr.
Schnadhorst, familiarly hut somewhat irre-
verently styled the "King of the Caucus,"
from the midland. metropolis, and we are to
have a great _National Liberal Congress in
Leeds next week. Besides these assemblages
of party speechmakers, there have already
been quite a number of isolated addresses
from political leaders of more or less import-
ance in widely scattered local centres, and
we may now consider ourselves fairly em-
barked upon the inter-sessional political
campaign. One who rose to the pinnacle of
success in the profession of politics once well
described the "vagrant rhetoric which dis-
tinguishes the Recess," Speaking some 14
or 15 years back the late Lord Beaconsfield
sagely said : " After Parliament is prorogued
we have several months not idle in respect
of rhetoric. It is about that time that we
have schemes brought forward by which the
country is promised that every man shall be
a landed proprietor without paying for it;
schemes to settle the great question of local
taxation which generally end in the novelty
of the expense being defrayed in Downing
Street; schemes for relieving the House of
Lords of its judicial functions, retaining,
however their political ones, but upon these
conditions—that they do not exercise them;
schemes for the Government taking all the
railways, and, I suppose, if it be necessary,
all the collieries. I look upon the Recess as a
safety-valve. In a free country with the
right of petition and the right of holding
public meetings, with even a halfnene, ._ •
vtilier messings ot that kind, when evcry
town has a debating club, and every village
has its agitator, I cannot conceive how it is
possible to prevent a certain degree of non-
sense from being uttered during the Recess.
But I have always considered these projects
very much as I would the autumnal foliage,
and believed that as time advanced and we
came to real business, and entered into a
more vigorous and healthy atmosphere, we
should give our attention to subjects which
have atlea,st the recommendation of the neces-
sities of the country, and which might be
brought about by sober and prudent legisla-
ture.' The word picture is as perfect to day
as when presented to the House of Commons
a decade and a half ago. We are hearing
now, and shall hear for a month to come,
much political tall-talk, to employ an expres-
sive if inelegant term. But out of the
ceaseless flood of verbiage poured forth re-
specting all sorts of subjects by orators of
every rack representing the various schools
of political thought, there will ultimately be
shaped measures which will be submitted to
Parliament for grave discussion. And re-
presentatives ot the people careful of their
own reputation and with an eye to advance-
ment in the profession of statecraft will take
their initiative in every momentous matter
from a cautious reading of the will of their
cons'Atuents, far now-a-days Parliament is
not what it once was, a director and fash-
ioner of public opinion, but a gigantic insti-
tution whose work is the embodiment in con-
stitutional form of the matured and aggre-
gated ideas of the people " masses " and
" classes " combined as to each phase of
legislation rendered necessary by the current
of changing events. We have praetically,
in Britain at any rate, now arrived at the
age of "government by the people of the
people for the people." Thus it is that the
public mind, whether Parliament be in or
out of Session, is ever occupied by the con-
sideration of a variety of political questions
concerning home, colonial, and foreign
affairs; and it is the business of statesmen to
interpret and carry into effect the decisions
of the nation with regard to each point as it
arises. Just now we have no lack of prob-
lems of domestic and international import-
ance which press for solution. The very
procedure of Parliament itself, its control
and its own legislative machinery, urgently
requires reform. This certainly ought to be
settled on an entirely independent and non-
party basis, with a view
legis-
lation in every pessible way. Then there is
the Irish crux, which seems to stand across
the path of all else. A serious effort should
be made, without further delay, to grapple
with this great difficulty; and we are con-
vinced that it is not beyond the power of
Parliament to do so if they act unitedly, with
fairness, and without fear. There must be
no more bidding for the vote of an influen-
tial faction, but the case must be considered
and dealt with on its merits, thoroughly,
statesmanly, and in strict justice. For such
a rightful work, our British Parliament, if
it be worthy of the State—and who shall say
it is not ?—sliould be able to furnish a solid
majority capable of rising high above party
and class considerations. Here is the only
possible, proper, and permanent method of
clearing away the Irish stumbling-block
from the English political path. The land
laws, the incidence of taxation, the condition
ot the poor and unemployed, and many other
kindred domestic questions call for thought- IN these days of discussion anent land
ful discussion and ameliorative legislation; reform, it is as well that we should pay some
and here again, if real progress is to be careful attention to the historical aspect of
iegistered, party must be subordinated I ) the land question. The Doomsday Survey
piktriotiom. 411 branches of the State servico - of England, a fundamental point in the con-

no cheese-paring grudginc, of -sup- plies, but
at the samo time we must be insured against
waste and extravagance, and the improper
use of the national dockyard and other
materials.

SOMEONE, specially informed in dockyard
affairs, wrote to a London evening journal
the other day, narrating some incidents of
official dishonesty which should call for
fuller and more specific exposure. We fear
there are similar cccurrences going on from
day to day undetected in more than one of
our dockyards. We are told that at one

yard as many as five hundredweight of tin
tacks were ordered a year or two back by a
careless clerk in mistake for as many pounds.
The excess quantity was hidden away under
new gravel on a footwalk, and the cost
charged to another head. At this same yard
an official had a vely handsomely carved
bedstead constructed at the public expense,
out of Government material, and only a few
- weeks ago a shipwright was discovered on
an officer's. orivato la-mt. Such irregularities
as these are, we a at times found out:
rc.iprimand is con-
siderrfd sufficient punishment for those who
thus abuse their positions. Drasting dealing
is highly desirable in such cases ; and in-
quiry commissions ought without wasting
time to purge the dockyards from all im-
proper proceedings_ of this
_kind. The work

should be done well, and that in no unne-
cessarily lengthy time ; indeed, the yards
ought to be managed on sound commercial
principles. If any man—designer, engineer,
superintendent, surveyor, foreman, mechanic,
or labourer—is not earning his salary or
wages by good and honest work, which will
answer its intention and need no after un-
doing, then he should be immediately dis-
charged, and his place filled by a competent
• and industrious man.

THE Italian doctor who says that Social-
ism spells insanity, and that Socialist leaders
are nothing more nor less than dangerous
lunatics, has hit upon a very convenient
theory indeed. It would be easy to deal
with all sorts of objectionable people if we
could regard them as crazy, and treat them
accordingly. We .fear, however, that the
worthy medical gentleman is beside the
mark. We shall find, here in Britain, as has
already been found on the Continent, that
the Socialistic fraternity are sufficiently sane
to preclude us from meeting them as.mad-
men. The police will have to snppress any
disorder they occasion, not the asylum
warders.
41'

WE are finding that there is something in
Lord Derby's recent contention that money
is not, after all, such a scarce commodity
as some would have us believe, and that
there are really signs of returning activity
in commerce. The, way in which railway
traffic has improved on a South British line
of late is remarkable. But the biggest in-
dication of how the money lies comes from
the great Guinness "boom" of this week, in
which considerably over a hundred millions
might have been embarked had there been
room for so much public money. Of course
the Dublin brewery concern has an immense
reputation as a paying concern—and by the
way when Lord Ardiraun retired from the
house some years back, he is said to have
taken out 21 millions—but, deducting a
liberal percentage for "stagging,"the appli-
cations to Barings gave proof positive of an
immense capital being at hand readyfor
Placin,,
in a good thing. It is a pity that
• n
11111C11 more of the money that is being
thoughtlessly speculated with should not be
put into productive industrial concerns,
which, while earning a profit, would at the
same time find employment for the labour-

()um Patent Office is very hard upon the
poor inventors. Here, roundly, a patentee
pays £l5O for the "right to go to law," and
if he 1)2 short of means he will have always
a hard battle to fight with vested interests
before he can float an improvement which
aims at making them obsolete. In America
a:patent can be protected for seventeen
years for the simple cost of £7 lOs and this,
note, is three years' longer insurance of the
fruit of man's ingenuity than we give here
for the much larger amount already men-
tioned. There is certainly room for reform
in the matter of feet.; in the British patent
laws.