The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-10-09 00:00:00

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[We deem it right to state that we do not at all tirICS
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

VAThe wprks in progress for the Royal Aquarium and
Summer and Winter Garden at Westminster are
watched with much interest, The fame of the
Brighton Aquarium has excited so much attentiOn,
the institution seems to have been established on such
a solid foundation, and it has been conducted in such a
spirited manner, that Londoners have the best
hopes of such an undertaking in their midst. The
marine animals will enjoy themselves in genuine sea-
water, and everything will be done not only in the
way of solid instruction, but of recreation, for the
entertainment of visitors. The venture is so thoroughly
a novel one, that it would seem bound to succeed. We
have theatres, music halls, promenades, reading-rooms
and a host of other agencies both to amuse and to
instruct; but hitherto we have been deemed too far
from the sea for an aquarium—an omission, which
thanks to the energy of the promoters of this West-
minster Garden is now about to be supplied.
Many a time, in ycnr passage through the little
strip of territory which is ruled by the Lord Mayor,
and is known as the City of London, you:may come
upon a spectacle which forms a curious contrast to the
bustle and activity which is going on around you. It
may be some civic procession on its way from the
Mansion House to the church of St. Lawrence Jewry,
or taking the road to Guildhall, for the purpose of
going through a quaint ceremony which has come
down to us from ancient times. One Lord Mayor or
set of sheriffs, wishing to be in accordance with the
utilitarian spirit of the age, drops some of this ancient
pageantry; but others re-introduce it, and this has
just been the case with the installation of the sheriffs
at Guildhall, which was carried out with a pomp and
circumstance that has not been witnessed for twenty
years. The costumes of the norporation officials are
of the quaintest character, and most people are dis-
posed to forgive the temporary interruption of the
traffic, for the sake of the singular sight which is thus
presented to them. _

One of the best autumnal exhibitions in London is
that of the Photographic Society in Pall Mall. Here
the art of the photographer may be seen to perfection;
and you may see here the best work of the season and
the latest improvements in manipulation. some very
fine copies of pictures are shewn; but the great body
of exhibits may be divided into two classes—portraits and
landscapes. The prominent artists of Lendon and the
provinces are here represented, and those who wish to
see cabinet likenesses with delicate shading and per-
fect management of tone, decidedly have them here.
The exhibition is, however, strongest in landscapes,
and is well worth a visit from all who are interested in
photography, or who care to see what the most
assiduous students of the art have been able to pro-
duce by dint of the most careful and painstaking
study. In what is so often called the dull season this
collection is a welcome addition to the comparatively
few places of entertainment which are now open in the
metropolis.
The publication of the Wreck Register and Chart
reveals the fact that in twenty years there have been
more than 31,000 wrecks on and near the coasts of the
United Kingdom, representing at least the destruction
of forty millions sterling, and, what is still more
lamentable, the loss of 14,457 lives. This seems an
extraordinary total, and is equal to the population of
many a flourishing town which now sends two mem-
bers to Parliament. That much of this loss of life
was preventable, no one who reads the Wreck Register
can doubt, and it is satibfactory to know that one of
the last Acts of the late session of Parliament had for
its objects the preservation of life at sea. The work
of the sailor is before us every day, and at almost
every meal. Certainly our breakfast tables, with their
supplies of tea, coffee, and sugar, would but make a
sorry figure without the labours of "Poor Jack," who
has not always met with the share of attention from
the hands of the public which the hp.zarlaus nature of
his calling deserves.
The celebration of the railway jubilee has been made
at a time when the capital invested in the iron roads
of this country exceeds the total amount of the National
Debt. Even Mr. Stephenson, sanguine as he was,
could not have anticipated such an extraordinary develop-
ment of railway enterprise as we have witnessed. The
locomotive is indeed, here, there, and everywhere. It
has penetrated the inmost recesses of the mountains,
as those who have passed through the Mont Cenistunnel
can abundantly testify. It threads its way far beneath
the streets of our busy capital, as millions who have
travelled between Bishop's-road and Moorgate-street
know full well. It has been carried over vast
expanses of water by Robert Stephenson, at the
Menai Straits, and by Isambard Brunel over the
Tamar, in Cornwall and Devonshire. Sir John
Hawkshaw, one of the meet eminent of living
engineers, has declared that it is practicable to carry it
along the bed of the English channel. It leaps the
gorges in unfrequented parts of our island where the
whistle of toe locomotive, as it is borne upon the wings
of the wind, is the only sign of the existence of civiliza-
tion. It spans the valleys upon light and airy-look.
ing structures which at a distance seem so many thin
threads of gossamer- The train which leaves London
in the morning, with its miles of chimney stacks, runs
through the wildest scenery before it reaches its desti-
nation—rushing over torrents, through lonely moor-
land, past miles of desolate heather, along the steep
away by the romantic glen, where the
thatched roof of the rural cottager is a conspicuous
feature in the landscape. After the experience of
even the last quarter of a century, there would seem to
be nothing impossible to our engineers—nothing im-
practicable in their propositions.

- -
Whitechapel, which has been brought into such un-
enviable notoriety of late, is generally regarded as
being the least interesting part of London. Stretching
away from the City proper, and looking towards the
rising sun, is a population of nearly a million souls, of
whose habits and customs the rest of London is almost
as ignorant as though they lived in New York. That
part of the town is known as the "East-end." It
comprises the Parliamentary boroughs of Hackney and
the Tower Hamlets; and includes such well-known
places as Bethnal Green, l‘lile-end, Shadwell, Spital-
fields, Wapping, and Whitechapel. Further out you
will find Bow, Bromley, and Stratford. The people
at the East-end are a hardworking race, and it is there
that vast numbers of matches are prepared. Some
years ago, when the proposed match-tax Was intro-
duced, these poor people rose almost in insurrec-
tion, and organised a procession to the Houses of
Parliament. They were quite at home before they
reached the western boundary of Aldgate, looked
rather strangely at some of the City streets, just as an
Englishman might do upon entering Paris, and were
positively amazed at the sight of the Thames Embank.
ment. The only water they had ever seen was the
black and slimy stream which washes in and out of the
docks with every tide; their notions of public buildings
were founded upon the bonded stores and warehouses
which are so numerous along the line of the river below
London Bridge. Their sudden appearance out of their
own neighbourhood was a thorough surprise to the in-
habitants of the rest of London. Vast numbers heard
for the first time that life in the eastern end of the
capital is with many of its people a continual struggle
with death, that in hundreds of squalid homes even the
hands of little children two years old are taught
to contribute to the family's maintenance by
performing the most simple parts in connection with
the making of the matches, and that a day's work of
14 or 16 hours is necessary in order to be able to exist.
The incident brought the residents of the City and
Westminster face to face with the fact that a great
industry existed in the very midst of the metropolis,
of which those on the western boundaries of Bethnal-
green knew nothing; and although the demonstration
of the poor match-makers was treated rather cavalierly
at the time, it answered its purpose, the suggested im-
post was withdrawn, and the poverty-stricken multi-
tude upon whom the sun first rises in London was
allowed to pursue its work without the interference of
the taxgatherer, whose station at the receipt of custom
would have meant ruin to many.