The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-15 00:00:00

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The two pieces of legal patronage which fell to .
disposal of the Government within • few dere have
been the !abject of much gowdp and speculation in the
law courts 3illCe their re-opening on Monday the 3rd
instant. The poet of Lord Chief Justice of the Coal-
man Pleas hi one of the great prizes which belongs to
the profession of law, and has been filled by some of the
molt wninent men who ever adorned the Bench. First,
el mouse, comes On Chaneellorthip, with its blooms
p 0.0.30 ii yeaWrith a peeragurind a sea in the
et. Of the Os which I haleUentione 000
tied foLperfAtiphig tbe duty, an Eroilty ge,
e 4,000 for Sr g as Speaker of the Hoe
Lords. The latter is not a bad rate of pay, considering
that, exclusive of the Easter and Whitsuntide recesses,
the House sits only five months in the year,
and often meets of An evening only to adjourn..
The prize next to the Chancellorship is the dis-
tinguished position of Lord Chief Justice of Eng-
land, with a salary of £B,OOO a year. Then rums the
Common Pleas and the Exchequer, each of the chiefs
of these courts receiving 1.7,000. The oeditary--or as
they are technically termed Puisne—Judges 01 the
three common law courts each get £5.000, and so do
the V ice-Chancellors. The Lords Justices of Appeal
and the Master of the Rolls each receive £6,000. The
salary of the Attorney-General, as fixed by a recent
order in Council, is £7,000, with fees in addition when
he appears in what are called " contenti " C 3333 ;
the allowance of the Solicitor-General is £O,OOO, with
similar fees. The salary MAI the fees combined gene-
rally make £1.0,000 or £12,000 • year, and even this is
• materiel reduction from the income of the law officers
of the Crown as compared with what it was formerly.
Up to the date of the order in Council of which I
have just spoken the attorney and Solleitor•General
received no salary, but divided between them the fees
meriting from the registration of patents. In the
year of the International Exhibition, 1862, these
amounted to the enormous sum of 2.50,000—a pretty
little plum of £25,000 each for the fortunate law offi-
ces, of that time—the late Sir William Athertonland
the present Lord Chancellor, then Sir Roundel]
Pahner. But even in ordinary years the Attorney-
General never made lees than £20,000, and the Soil-
dice-General from £15,000 to £lB,OOO out of the
patent office fees; so when Mr. Lowe was Chancellor
of the Exchequer he turned the fees into the national
Mowery, and made the arrangement as to salary to
which I have already referred. Future legal advisers
of the Crown will, therefore, not be in so good • position,
as farm income is concerned, as were their predecessors,
Still, even at the allowance se fixed by Mr. Lowe, there
are • plenty of able men ready to enter the service of
the Crown, for a law offioer generally finds his way to
the Bench in one wacky or another. It is true that
the Wary of a judge is not equal to the income of the
Attorney or the Solicitor-General, but while the latter
may be out of office to-morrow through • change of
Government, the judge is beyond the reach of such
vicimitudes, and after having served upon the Bench
15 years, Is entitled to • retiring pension equal to
two-thirds of his salary. The Lord Chancellor, how-
ever, receives • pension of £5,000 a year, no matter how
long or how short a term he might have held his high
office. Thus, the venerable Lord St. Leopards, now in
his 93rd year, occupied the woolsack only ten months
In 1852, and has had £5,000 a year ever since, • total
which, it will be sesu, amounts to more than £lOO,OOO.
A few nights ago a crowded audience assembled in
Oh. hall of the Society of Biblical Arohieology to hear
Mr. George Smith, who hi about to return to Assyria
on behalf of the trustees of the British Museum, read
a paper "On the Results of his Researches Amongst
the Ruins of Babylon." It was curious to note how
him &wormers confirmed, in several important points,
the reoords of the Old Testament So close is the
agreement between the Assyrian history and the Bibli-
cal chronology from the reign of Ahaz downwards,
that all the dates are able to be fixed with • fair
amount of certainty, only one of the numbers in the
Bible, according to Mr. Smith, requiring rectification,
and that Is the date of the expedition of Sennacherib
against Hezeldish, King of Judah, where Mr. Smith
proposes to read "twenty-fourth year" instead of
" fourteenth year." Generally speaking, however, the
Assyrian history agrees with. the Bible, and one very
remarkable parallel was pointed out between it and
the first thirty-seven chapters of Isaiah.
The Wtrkieg Men's City, at Clapham, 3 portion of
which was opened be Lord Shaftesbury last week, is
an Interesting part of London. It is under the aus-
pices of the Artirens' and Labourers' Dwellings
Amocia. tion, .thd of 1,250 houses to be built, 350 are
completed. The habitations are of different classes,
have met from £l5O to It3oo each in construction, and
let at a weekly rental of from ss. 6d. to ss. The ven-
tilation is carried out by means of air-shafts in the
external walls; there are spacious yards in the rear
of the buildings, with forecourt. and ornamental
railings. The streets are to be planted with trees,
thirsts to be • miniature park In the centre of the
town, a gymnasium, schools, library, baths, co-
operative storm, and lecture ball. A distinctive
feature of this new town is to be the absence of public-
houses.

sajotim.

Another undertaking of • different character has
just been commenced. It is the building of the
National Safe Deposit Company, destined for the safe
housing of valuables in the heart of the city. The
site is near the Mansion House, and the corner done
wee laid one day last week by the Lord Mayor. This
erection, which its projectors promise shall be proof
alike against fire and thieves, is • veritable fortress.
The chambers are far beneath the surface of the ground,
ec
far that in the excavations • remarkable collection
of Boman antiquities has been discovered. The lowest '
floor is 50 feet down. The walls are a yard thick,
with an Inner shell of 3-inch steel, and there is a patrol
chamber, where faithful sentinels will guard theide.
posited treasure. Indeed every precaution has been
taken to frustrate the designs of enteqrktng robbers;
and geeing that the 'buildings thus commenced are
bounded on one side by the west front of the Mansion
House, on another by Bucklerebury, and on • third by
Queen Victoria-street, there is little doubt that they
will make a very material addition to the few architec-
tural beauties ot the city.
The munificent WA of the late Mr. Peabody to the
poor of London have long been a Abject of remark
The trusted under his will have of late rapidly enlarged
their sphere of usefulness. When they boned their
met report they had under their find trust—the out-
growth of the original gift of £lso,ooo—groupe of
buildings in Elpitalfields, Islington, Shadwell, West-
minster, and Chelsea. Belonging to the second trust,
which repreeented at that time • total of £228,000,
there was a large group of homes in the Blackfriars-
road, and plots of ground at Chelsea, Stamford street,
Southwarkeibeet, and Stockwell. The average weekly
rental per mom mounted to is. 10d, and the annual
rata of the whole of the buildings was nearly £9,000.
Since the Ann of that report the trustees have com-
pleted the erection of six block, of houses in Bermondsey
sad these accommodate seventy-two families. The site
at Stockwell has been let on long building leases.
Another block has been added to the already extensive
range of buildings in Blackfriareroad, and the erection
of two mere has been decided on. Each of these con-
tain forty-two rooms, and there can be little doubt
that in all the houses the majority of the occupants
really are the respectable poor.
The proposal to erect • monument to the memory of
Oliver lit•iiimmith fincle much favour. The projectors
of the =hems consider that Goldsmith is not diffidently
honoured by the simple slab bearing his profile which
was plead in Westminster Abbey, nor by laying a
stone on the spot in the Temple which is 'opposed to
be big prey& The 4th of April next will be the cen.
tenary of his death, and It id suggested that a corn-
mgeneeedea meeting should be held on that day at the
Crystal Palace. Dr. Johnson has said of him—
Whatever he composed, he did better than any other
man Auld ; and, whether we consider him as a poet,
as a csimi• writer, or as an historian (so far as regards
his powers of composition), he was one of the first
mikes A his time, and will ever stand in the foremost
clam." Such is the testimony of the grid lexi-
cographer respecting an author who. hod he never
written anything but "The Deserted Village," would
have Immortalised his name.
London presents in • host of phases illustratione of
the draggle for existence which is constantly going on ,
In so Immense a place. A few days ago an ad ,ertige-
ment appeared In some of the papers, stating that a few
temporary boy writers In the Government departments
would be selected at once on application at the Civil
Service Commission, Cannon-row, Westminster. The
were to be from 14 to 18, and an examination fee
of 2e. Bd. wee to be paid. A very large number Of
youths accordingly presented themselves. Some had
quit* the look of childhood; others wore a cemparatively
staid appearance, which in the metropolis Is generally
associated with early troubles and anxieties. When it
Is considered that only a few were required, that the
employment was but temporary, that the scale of ro-
man/ratite is a low one, and that • led is liable to die-
ml at • moment's notice, It may sully be conceived
that the Resembled boys represented • respectable but
struggling motion of the community; and that, it cor-
rect impremions of London life are to be formed, a
gamely superfiethl view of our parks, our squares, and
oar handsome shops will not be sufficient for that
Pullman

splendid home for the Haleness which is being
sued to the buildings cd the Royal Academy at Bar-
%WWI Hoeft is now wady finished. The extenabee
Unite of ignsinsents in which the Royal Society wlfl