The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-06 00:00:00

Q2itfonboa -ort-cspurtnll:.

itleftn itrs•ht to hisite ths; s, 40 sot at all Ulm/
"Anal • PtieZetV,is tb or COM •pi RAE VAILII.I,
Fhe politi.,Lworhl is not particularlAndmated• just
It is r: thic &dieting frum the repletion fniurxics
• citement, mil if we C3lllll it say that dulness reigns
supreme, wu ,an, at kast, assert that a degree of
lassitude parently affected the house of Commons
as a body. Nor is it difficult to account for this. The
• lenient of feverish speculation is wanting—the alnwst,.
certain course of Parliamentary events in their inlin
features being known. Ministers, it is 'njw *seer-
Mined, have not the flout remote intention of resign-
ing. -To use the well-known phrase, they know a
=trick worth two of that. No ; they will carry

on' the business of the firm, with the more or
kin willing assistance of their rivals, till all the
absolutely - necessary work has been done, and then
they will appeal to the new constituencies. Arrange-
ments are now under consideration by which this
appeal will be facilitated ; and there is nothing in the
state of Parliamentary business to prevent a general
election on the new "lines of the constitution " at a
much earlier period than was not long ago thought
quite impracticable, The Scotch Reform Bill is
safe ; the Irish Reform Bill will, in all probability,
• present no insuperable difficulty; the Irish Church
Suspensory Bill is accepted; and there is nothing else
that will present any serious difficulty. Whatever
may be the feeling of rival statesmen at this state of
things, the public rejoice at it. Generally speaking,
they could neither have desired the resignation of the
• Ministry nor what was called a final dissolution; but
the accomplishment of the necosary work of the
Session and a speedy appeal to the new constituencies'
is just what suits the country at large.
At last it has been divided to erect, near the Royal
' Exchange, a statue of Mr. Peabody, the subject
having long been talked of. I am sorry for it. No
one can more heartily admire him than I do, though I
, regret that his splendid munificence was marred by
one great mistake. He should have carried out his
wishes himself, instead of trusting to trustees, and
then "the poor of London" would have had the
benefit that they have now missed. But this, by the
bye. Let me ask, however, whether, instead of adding
another failure to our numerous blunders in the statue
department, it would not he better to erect a memo-
rialdo Mr. Peabody which should at the same time be
a boon to the poor of London in the way that he in-
tended, but which has never yet been carried out?
The money need only be advanced and invested, not
given ; for dwellings for the poor can be made to yip.
We have been having some pleasing performances by
Australian Aborigines, as they are called. Their
teats are a refreshing change from the dangerous
tricks of scrub its and trapezists, of which so much
has lately been said. The wielding of the boomerang
is really wonderful ; and still more wonderful is the
way in which these clever men can ward off showers
of cricket-balls which are directed against them. At
resent these men are performing at the Oval Cricket.
ground at Kennington, but I hear they will soon make
heir appearance at the Crystal Palace. They excite
genuine interest, without that feverish sensationalism
and that sense of impending danger which characterise
tun many other entertainments.

A rather curious result of the legislation in con-
nection with the county courts appears to have escaped
attention. It is difficult to believe, but it is neverthe-
less true, that by the County Courts Admiralty Act,
as it now stands, the Queen in council can give Ad-
miralty jurisdiction to any county court in England,
except the court of the City of London. It would
seem that the Bill must have passed through cons-
matee under the influence of gentlemen practising in
the Court of Admiralty; for this court, with all its
cumbrous and antiquated machinery :Lust its exorbitant
costs, remains unreformed as ever, 60 far as the metro-
polis is concernesk
Whether King Edgar ever did demand the heads of
w elves as a tribute, as is asserted he slid in the year
now be doubted, as everything else, it seems, re-
lating to our Saxon forefathers may be doubted ; but
if so, it was a very sensible thing to dm and in modern
times we might take a leaf out of King Edgar's book.
The French are just now not only getting rid if some
their pests, but are making money of their little car-
cases. I read that this year the May-lugs or cook-
slaters have swarmed in various parts of France more
than ever, and that whole armies of labourers have
I een empliiyed in collecting them, and that thousands
of bushels have been used as manure. But after they
Weis thus got nil of, a chemist disci ivereil that a new
. °homing matter can be made of their Is sties, and these
pests will, therefore, probably bemene a valuable article ,
mnimereg Another proof this that nothing,
ltivrever vile or noxious, but has its beneficent
vses, llirould that some chemist could discover
that certain other pests have valuable uses—rats
Is wit. If they hail a high commercial value we
might hope soon to thin their !limbers. And there
is a certain 111.111,6 e insect, whose name is unlit
forearm polite, but it is not a very long, ime, common
ring with B, and ending with li, on that perhaps since
10011 e can guess it. What a blessing if some chemist
would discover sonic valuable purpose to which these
sould be put. There are, to put it very mildly, a
great many more of these gentry than are wanted--
ospecially in 1.011.1.11 louses, Swift, you know, 4iti4
that he who makes two blades of grass grow where
only one grew before, is a benefactor to mankind.
Certainly, whoever can make one of these insects
oxist where two existed before, is a benefactor to man-
kind, and it is a great pity that the benefit is not oftener
conferred. And touching the blackbeetles, with which
many London houses swarm in the summer. Will
any kind chemist be good enough to make fluids com-
mercially valuable?

The London scans., has now reached its climax ;
and as seasons and events never stand still, it may be
said to have commenced to wane, though the decline
or descent is very gradual. The Prince of Wales, on
behalf of the Queen, held a levohi on Saturday ; and
although this is not announced as the lest, the proba-
bility is that it is so. Aristocratic families have,
otowever, scarcely commenced to quit London for
oouieter resorts, and the fineness of the weather tends to
wake our parks awl leading promenades lively and
brilliant. The West-end tradesmen, who may regard
themselves fortunate, inasmuch as their wants and
bielings are so much taken into considerntien, are ol
• ounte grumbling that the season has nit hitherto been
i•o brilliant as they expected, and that it will he shorter
than usual ; but it cannot he denied that it has been
lie gayest awl most busy season we have had for the
distsin or seven years. And the holidays this year ap-
Icar to have been more generally participated in than
ever. There were more voile at the _Derby and the
(Oaks than ever there were before; and as far as
present appearances afford an indication, there will
Lave been more holiday makers during Whitsuntide
than ever Whitsuntide yet presented. In the metro-
polis Whit-Meroday is the greatest holiday of the year.
At Easter the weather is usually too cold, and always
too uncertain, for general holiday making ; hint at
Whitsuntide Nature appears in her loveliest form--
the weather is generally mild and genial and such
'numerous temptations are held out to the middle and
working classes that the amount of holiday making is
something woonolerfel. We have heard a good deal of
late about the badness of trade, but the enormous
o.urns of money that have been slant iluring the last
week or ten days in mere pleasure-taking would
lead to a very different conclusion. I have seen
a good deal of this pleitsure-pur,ning this year,
tul with vivid memoilies of what it used to
lo "in my hot youth,- hOt exactly "when desire
tine Third was Kiu4.,- but wlien a certain fair Princess
Intl colitis to the Throne, I cannot but pleasurably feel
that the manners anti customs of our working classes
have considerably improved. They are dressed in
letter taste, are more gentle and considerate in their
i.eneral Iwhaviour, more decorous in their language,
unmistakieatily temps...ate, compared tit ten, fifteen,
twenty, or thirty yx am s ago. Emerson says, "Society
lever aolvanosa" With all due deferenve I, the dicta-
torial American philosopher, society o'er advances ;
and sociity now here in the svmrhl can have more
mivanceil than bits that great ma, of society which is
formed of all I sodow the decidedly middle chi,ss of Eng-
land. I venture to wake tilt-se remarks as 4me
4.1 thecla-os w Wine hr-grins and improvement I briefly
allude to : awl I think their justice v.ill lw borne
it by the elsservation of uny who o have peid
close attention to the subject. Society, it appears
ICI me, ban eVCII much improved in respect to
a matter which is just now attracting much attention.
k popular writer has been directing the 'addle mind
Vt what he calls "the boy's guide to the hulks"
!stints out the character, extent, and influence of what
ray be called highwarman literature. No lanToage
can be too strong by which to deprecate such villaimus
and poisonous ''literary'' garbage ; mitt we must also
take into account how largely the Ixti or Ilia hin has M-
aud tilos:daily how much the number of
is inereaseol IT the spread of education. We
. I•Na'4,ft•rate the ietillete, Of present
sets, and to underrate the extent and surroundings of
oast fact bineve that, taking the whole of the
'titular literature and journalism of the present day,
ial tole rariel, it With that of vitt., twenty or
I irty years ago, the improvement is immense, and
beyond all calculation. The very same class of
literature that is now complained of, existed then,
though, perhaps, to a smaller extent, even allowing
for the increase of population ; but there then
I,ststed to a larger extent than 110 W a somewhat
s!iteretit class of literature, at least equally pernicious,
, J not more se, to which I will not further allude.
!hit the greatest fact of all is that the healthy in-
t!tnatee of good popular literature never existed in such
tree as at the present time, and in this I include the
•spies press of to-day, which is lotoosming more and
boore literary, and more and more the "guide,
pluiseopher, alai Mood" of the people.

rea.et],

),• h.r: ha.

FACTORY INSPECTORS' REPORTS.
The reports of the facthry inspectors, Mr. Bedgrave
and Mr. Bak., for the half,year ending with October,
1867, have just been issued. Much of the time of the
inspectors has been occupied in prepring for the ad-
ministration of the Factories Acts Extension Act of
1867, and in contortion with the Workshops Regula-
tb in Act f ON same year.. The inspectors consider I
thaf this extension of the factory system of education
to all kinds of manual lalour exercised by way of
trade is the nearest approach to a compulsory system
of education ; and, looking to the encrust which has
attended the factory half-time system for
.so many
years,: they believe these Ante will, wken fully in ope.;
ratio*, he accepted as a nationt fik. sub-inspector,
M'
r. plellerson, rej*rts that acipl there
urn are,
more than 11;000 children attending (lay or evening
school, 4,000 of them half-timers, and that the success of I
the half-time system is very remarkable ; but teachers
complain that the halbtinaers are withdrawn from
school too SI on for them to retain and profit by the in-
struction they have received. Another sub-inspector,
Mr. Whymper, representing a Midland counties dis-
trict of a mixed character, with comparatively few
half-timers, states that in one factory taken at random ;
he has found that among 210 workers of all ages 80
could neither read nor write, and 40 could read but not
write ; and in three other factories employing 538 per- ,
sons, 115 could neither read nor write, and 184 were
able to read but not to write. In New Radford, a ,
suburb of Nottingham, in a population of 5,145 souls, ,
236 children between four and twelve years of age
have been found to go to no school whatever. In re-
gard to the ordinary work of the factory inspectors,
they have to state that 1,394 accidents were reported
to them in the half-year, 43 causing death, and 308
amputation of the whole or part of a limb. There
were 213 comietions for breaches of the Factory Acts,
the fines amounting to I:317.

In some remarks on
_schools. not
_examined by her