The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-18 00:00:00

Our yonbon 6rrtsponbent.

IWe deent It right to state that we do not at all times
1140atify o Ives with our wwwdentli opinions-1
. ith close of the r Parliamentary
the 'ng of the th legal teem ..of the year,
. i f Landon ' . ill POOll ililieeern into
ft
' ,time and the 'MI of Jun
t e metropolis will be looked Upon as fashionably full.
The business of legislation will now be pushed forward;
and barriesters, both at Chancery and common law,
will be hilly employed. Balls, receptions, and evening
parties will be very numerous indeed at the West-End
of the town; the parks will put on a spring-like ap-
pearance ; and Rotten-Row will be crowded, more
especially between the hours of four and six o'clock in
the afternoon. It has often proved an insoluble
problem to many that, in the spring, when the beauty
of Nature shines forth with such splendour in the
country, the well-to-do claws should leave the
opening verdure and the sweetly-scented air, and
betake themselves to the great province of houses
known WI Louden. There they plunge into what
is called " Society," spend long days in a heavy
smoke - laden atmosphere, and long nights in
hot and gifting apartments, crammed to the door
with company. When the London season breaks up,
the glory of the spring has departed alike from the
landscape and from the wood. The lovely shades of
' greenery in the foliage of the trees, which were so per-
ceptible in the few weeks of its early life, gradually
disappear unnoticed and unappreciated, and when the
family returns to its mansion from the fatiguing
sojourn in the metropolis, the freshness of the country
has gone, the flowers slowly disappear, the foliage
gradually assumes that brown autumnal tint which
tells of the not distant time of the falling leaf and the
shortening day. Why select the most pleasant period
in the year to desert the fields, the garden., and the
woods, for the great town whose external appearance
changes but little with the passing away of each re-
volving season? Why, the most highly-prized of our
London Parks would make but a poor figure,
even at its best, when compared with the mag-
nificent scenery to be viewed from any commanding
point in either of our southern or western
counties. What is one of those patches of which we
are so proud, when contrasted with a sweep of country
in which the spectator is enabled to command villages,
and hamlets, and parish churches with their spires ever
pointing to the skies; where the glade and the dell, the
plantation and the meadow, the undulating knoll and
the abrupt hillside, present themselves with a variety
of colour wherever the eye may rest? What have we to
set over against the lowing of the cattle on the hills, the
voices of the rivers in the valleys, mingled with the
sounds of the church-bells ringing out at eventide and
telling the rustic population of another world? It has
often been suggested that if Parliament met in
November and eat until May, indeed of assembling in
February and working up to August, many advan-
tages would arise. There is no legislative body in the
world which adopts the plan now followed in this
country; hut we are so intensely Conservative a
people, that, however great or desirable an improve-
ment may be in itself, it takes a very long time to
triumph over the dominion of prejudice and custom.
Amongst the lawyers the force of habit has hitherto
been quite as strong as amongst the legislators. Em-
piree rise and fall, princes develop into kings, newly-
discovered lands are colonised, and ancient peoples
pass away; yet the divisions of the legal year still
remain. How many of us know that our Long Vaca-
tion, which extends from the 3rd of August to the 2nd
of November, was originally fixed by William the
Conqueror, as far back as 1079, to suit the time of the
vintage in France? Yet this is the fact, and it does
seem extraordinary that up tothe time of the passing
of the Judicature Act of last session, the busy mercan-
tile community, which so constantly invokes the aid of
the law to settle its disputes, should have been content
that for a whole quarter of a year there was not a
single superior court of justice open in the the kingdom
to which they could appeal.
By a recent order of the Local Government Board,
the central authorities at Whitehall are to be kept
constantly informed of the dangers to the sanitary
condition of the country. The medical officers of
health are to make an annual report of the sickness
and mortality in their respective districts, and to this
end they are to be supplied by the registrars with the
causes of the various deaths which they record. By this
means the Local Government Board hope to be able to
deal with and suppress contagious diseases more
effectually than this important work has been hitherto
done.

The Institution of Civil Engineers has been discus-
sing the best system of fixed railway signals, and it
was shown that by an expenditure of half per cent, on
the whole cost of the lines, three times as many trains
could be run under the block system as without it.
It was also stated that its probable annual cost of
maintenance was about 2 per cent. on the traffic re-
ceipts. In the course of the debate competent authori-
ties declared that one-half of the average number of
accidents would be avoided by the thorough adop-
tion of the block system, which is now in use on most
of the principal railways in the Kingdom.

One of the fust acts of the Parliament which was
lately dissolvk was to enfranchise many classes of the
civil servants of the Crown, who hail been excluded
from the right of exercising the suffrage for at least 150
years. The measure, however, was not so thoroughly
a comprehensive one as might have been desired, for
ome descriptions of inland revenue officers found them_
selves, at the recent elections, still unable to vote for
members of Parliament. A bill is now before the
House of Commons, backed by the Recorder of Lon-
don, for the removal of these disabilities, and it is not
anticipated that any difficulty will be found in passing
it, and thus conferring electoral rights upon a numerous
and deserving class of public servants.
One great difficulty with the authorities of London
has been how to procure the best possible kind of
pavement. At one time pitched granite was brought
into extensive requisition, but this, in addition t.i being
costly, was liable to become smooth and polished,
owing to the incessant traffic; and in a damp atmos-
phere, grew so slippery that travelling over it with
any description of vehicle was hazardous unless the
street WAS plentifully strewn with sand. Thenoise made
in passiag over it was so great as in thoroughfares like
the Strand to be well nigh deafening; and partly for
this reason a cry arose for a system of paving which
would be durable, economical, and spare Londoners
the awful clatter which arose from the passage of
carriage traffic over the granite roadways. So as-
phalt° was tried in Cheapside, but it has not given
unmixed satisfaction. It was noiseless, certainly;
inconveniently as if a pedestrian, crossing the street,
suddenly found himself in unpleasant proximity
with the shafts of a Hansom cab, the ap-
proach of which could not have been de-
tected by the quickest of ears. It was, again,
held to be dangerous in frosty weather, and dur-
ing rain was very disagreeable indeed. It is new
held by those who are interested that the wood pave-
ment as being tested at Ludgate Hill, is the hest which
has yet been tried. It is seldom slippery, easy to drive
over, and bide fair to possess durability. There is a
demand for its extension to Pall Mall, the home of the
clubs, where comparative quietness would be highly
appreciated by those who are accustomed to frequent
such institutions.

The extent to which thrift has been carried out
amongst the working classes was shown a few days
ago by a return to an order of the House of Commons.
Up to the date covered by these accounts the liabili-
ties of the Government to the trustees of savings hanks
and friendly societies exceeded £112,000,000 sterling.
If we put the national annual expenditure, as de-
manded from the taxpayers of the Chancellor of she
Exchequer, at £72,000,000, it will be easy to estimate
the magnitude of the sum which has been placed in
savings' banks and in the hands of friendly societies
chiefly, if not solely, by the industrial classes.
The trustees of the British Museum have manifested
another instance of their desire to popularise the con-
tents of our great national treasury of curiosities, and
to render it attractive as Well as instructive to the
comparatively uninformed masses of the community.
rhey do not yet see their way clear to a daily opening
of the institution—for it is accessible to the public
only three days a week—and only those who have
tkkets of admission to the library 'swim the right of
&lir& to the building every day. But the trustees are
doing their best to diffuse information respecting the
objects in the classified departments, and with this
view have caused to be distributed several volumes of
photographs, arranged under different headings, and
forming a comprehensive guide to the principal
features in the collection. Appended to the photo-
graphs are concise descriptions of the objects
represented, and the book is conveniently placed near
the articles of which the pictures are copies. The
latest time at which the museum is kept open is six
o'clock in the summer months, five in the autumn, and
four in the winter; and although an occasional sug-
gestion is made that these hours shall be extended so
LS to give the working classes the benefit of access to
the place, the idea has never been generally endorsed,
Principally upon the ground of the danger attending
the use of artificial lights in a building, the antiquities
in which, once destroyed by fire, could never be re-
placed.

The rapidity with which the importance of roaming
a knowledge of chemistry hao been recognized, is be-
comin3 more and more marked. None of our public
schools are now °moldered to be complete without a
chi.nical department; indeed It Beams to hownie
LinLincreasingly telt that we ohcnild no longer be
to burn paraffin =idles, to array

ourselves in raiment dyed with coal-tar, to Jacob Wainwright (the Black Boy), Rev. M. Price,
wash our clothes with soda, and ourselves with soap, Mr. H. M. Stanley, Mr. Arthur Laing, Sir William
without knowing something about the source of thee ran, Sir
I. Frederick
thhePerekintsiie and (i;Ltain
laßlact.‘
products. The Society of Arts has lately taken the pun
ire aching the
moved off to the strains of itbe Dead
matter in hand, conceiving it to be a worthy task to Ma 'n Sou!, the occasional firing cd minute
filluse laiowleilge respecting ilw origin and the con guns. he pro n was solsann in the extreme, and
titue ' of those ordiaatr materials of *Hy tile, ti .es it,
prep Pep. nat iskh hithigi thereasliei tle *ugh
,
sed al the multithde respectfully raised
eir,
s. Th dup Itigiestree twthieh utas
the station on its way to LPrc'condeo"iii:
,i,„4
drOth It entrance
ar inn odthe part ji those woo had occasion of thil •South-We;aternan Railway. Here r. Dyson,
to resort to them. Professor Odling, a well-known the courteous station-master, hid made ery neces-
chemist of high scientific attainments, has delivered an airy arrangement. A special titian was in attendance,
and, after a brief time, the train quietly moved out of
inaugural addrees to a crowded meeting assembled to
_get on foot a chemical section of the society, which
should provide lectures and promote discussions on dense cthremtirnerthSeasattrheaetemptton w
lig which thee
r
e
closed; and
prominent topics of chemical industry. The Professor passed. The church bells rang muffled peals during
was followed by a gentleman who furnished his hearers the progress of the procession, and minute guns were
with an interesting account of the various processes I fired from the platform battery.
brought to bear on the manufacture of paraffin. In the 1
next few months papers on kindred subjects are pro-
mised at fixed dates, and that there is an ample field
for a great deal of work of real value cannot be
doubted.

From the Society of Arts to the Social Science Asso-
ciation is not a lung way, and here I may be permitted
to introduce a question which has been brought before
the fest mentioned body, of equal if not more import-
ance than a knowledge of chemistry. It is that of the
posture which should be adopted at schools. A
sedentary occupation, as is well known, producee even
upon grown personae disturbance of the respiratory or
digestive organs. Upon children the stooping posture
to which they are subjected whilst at school, often
results, we are now told, in more disastrous effects.
Dr. Liebreich, in addressing the Social Scientists, has
plainly told them that amongst these are shortsighted-
ness and a lateral curvature of the spine, and he argued
in proof of his assumption that these were more fre-
quent amongst the educated than in the ranks of the
ignorant. This may be well worthy of consideration at a
time when the operation of the Education Act is
sweeping into the schools the whole of our youthful
population.