The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-17 00:00:00

Ijl)ur Ifllllloll gorrtspoOent.
[We deem it right to state that we do not at all tiMel
tdentify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.

The rifle contest at Wimbledon brings a large num-
ber of visitors from the country to London; and the
time of its duration is selected for fulfilling many
engagements that may be said to mark the expiring
glories of the season. The Goodwood Races, following
swiftly Apon the Wimbledon meeting, convey another
ndication of its waning brilliancy. From all accounts
the London season, although short, has been a very
successful one. It was materially curtailed through
the time occupied over the general election, when
Lords and Commons were scattered all over the
kingdom ; but since Parliament was opened, on the
20th May, ample amends have been made for any loss
of time. In no recent year has there been anything
like so successful a season as that which is now drawing
to a close. Garden parties by day, and balls at night
"at homes" and concerts, receptions, and entertain-
ments have combined to make bright and cheerful the
existence of the upper classes of society. The
weather, too, has been a great improvement on that of
twelve months ago; for by common consent there had
been no such a wet summer as that of 1879 for twenty
years before. It has been far different now; for the
sunshine, while it has rejoiced the town and given
that impetus to trade which is so sorely needed, has
also gladdened the land in the far-off rural districts,
an,y has told the patiently-toiling agriculturist that
the long period of depression from which he has suf-
fered is at length at an end.
With respect to the Wimbledon competition, which
will not be brought to a formal close until the 24th,
there is an additionalialement of interest in this year's
gathering, inasmuch its the Volunteer movement has
completed the twenty-first year of its age. The pro-
position to celebrate the attainment of its majority by
a review in Hyde-park was found to be impracticable
of execution because of the injury which the asse m
bling of vast masses of men would inflict upon that
which is really an enormous pleasure-garden for the
people of the metropolis. It was found equally im-
practicable to hold it elsewhere, and the idea was there-
fore abandoned. Consequently an endeavour has been
made to invest with an even greater interest than usual
the twenty-first annual competition at Wimbledon, and
one way of securing this has been the promise of the
Princess of Wales to distribute the prizes to the
winning men. This has always been done by one of
the ladies of the reigning House; but there is none
who exceeds in popularity the Princess of Wales, who,
whether distributing prizes to successful essayists on
the best way of preventing cruelty to animals, or to
the Volunteers encamped upon the common at
Wimbledon, is sure to be received with the most
hearty cordiality by those classes of the people amongst
whom she moves.

The Eton and Harrow Cricket Match, the most
aristocratic of all the competitions which during the
season take lace at Lord's Ground, has this time
been more fortunate in respect of weather than in
some preceding years. Yet, up to noon on the day
when a start was made, the outlook was dreary
enough. On the drags and vehicles drawn up on every
available space, there were, perhaps, not altogether
300 people; while the grand and temporary stands
and reserved spaces were almost deserted. Heavy
clouds drifted slowly and gloomily across the sky,
the results of a recent thunderstorm, and the wind
was in a rainy quarter. Yet the clouds floated
high, the breeze was strong, and as it gradually veered
to the north, the clouds rolled away, and the sun shone
out, and the carriages and grand stand filled up with
spectators. There was a marked contrast between
the opening of this and the 1879 match, for although
the attendance at the beginning was very much
smaller, there was altogether more spirit about the
play and more enthusiasm amongst the onlookers,
who consisted almost entirely of members past and
present of the schools. The weather during the two
days could scarcely have been better; and the
cricketers were fortunate in being able to get through
their engagements without such a rainstorm as that
which on the previous Saturday had accompanied the
closing day of the Sunday school Centenary celebra-
tion, or a week before had marred the ceremony of
freeing the metropolitan bridges.
The new Parliament has as yet scarcely got into
working order. It does not get along with the task
which the Prime Minister set it in the Queen's
Speech; and an intimation has been gently conveyed
that it will not be released from duty until its labours
are completed. Ordinarily that which is known in
legislative parlance as the massacre of the innocents
has taken place about this stage of the session; that
is to say, a considerable number of Bills, arrived at
various stages, and ever which much valuable time
has been spent, are sacrificed in order that the
prorogation may take place about the 12th of
August. That is the day on which grouse
shooting begins, and readers of the works of Mr.
Herbert Spencer will remember how satirically he
speaks of an arrangement by which the sittings of
the legislature of the greatest country in the world
are regulated by the habits and the degree of physio-
logical development possessed by a little bird. Many,
however, contend, and not without reason, that when
Parliament meets in early February, the 12th of
August is not an unreasonable date for the conclusion of
its work, especially when it is considered how labor-
ious are its duties in the last few weeks of the session.
But when, as in the present case, the House has not
hefted the Queen's Speech read until the 20th May, the
case is different, and in all probability there would be
general complaint throughout the country if a new
Parliament seat to Westminster, and apparently full
of life and vigour, were to separate at the end of its
first Session without showing something as the results
of the time which it had spent.
The Fourteenth of July is this year celebrated in
Paris by a series of grand fetes as the anniversary of
the destruction of the Bastille ninety-one years ago.
Lord St. Leonards, who died in 1875, at the advanced
age of ninety-four could well remember the sensation
caused in this country by the storming of the huge
State prison which, standing in the very heart of the
French capital, was the embodiment of tyranny and
despotism struck into stone. The system which it
pourtrayed was one of the most odious that ever
existed in a civilised land; for any man might be
imprisoned without public accusation or trial, under
what was called a lettre de cachet—a sealed letter—
issued by the king or his ministers, and which was
sufficient authority to the Governor of Bastille to keep
the unhappy victim in prison for life without either
accusation or trial. So one fine summer afternoon in
1789, while King Louis XVI. in a little room in his
splendid Palace at Versailles, was watching through a
telescope the ever-shifting panorama presented in the
streets of Paris, a vast assembled multitude sur-
rounded the Bastille and destroyed it utterly. There
was not one stone left standing upon another. The
few unhappy inmates were liberated; salt was sown
over its site, which to-day is a large open space near
the Vincennes railway station, known as the Place
de la Bastille, with a column in its centre to mark an
event which was the beginning of a Revolution
unparalleled for horrors in the history of the world.
July includes other anniversaries which will be long
memorable in the history of France. There were the
famous "three days of July" the 27th, 28th, and
29th in 1830, when the people of the excitable
capital rose in insurrection against Charles X.,
and for ever drove the Bourbons from the Throne
of France. This event is commemorated by the
Column Juillet, or the Column of July, which
in the civil strife in the time of the Commune, was
torn and riddled with shot by the opposing forces.
But a July anniverisary of more recent years was that
even now fresh in the memory, for it is but ten years
old. It was on the 15th of July, 1870, that Europe
was convulsed by the news that France had declared
war against Prussia. No one who witnessed the ex-
citement in the streets of London that afternoon can
ever forget it. But what, after all, was that com-
pared with the commotion at Berlin? The King of
Prussia had been staying at EH" his favourite summer
watering-place, where the news of the fatal step taken
by France reached him. He at once set off for Berlin,
arriving there about eight in the evening. A crowd,
which numbered a hundred thousand, received their
Sovereign at the railway station with indescribable
enthusiasm, and accompanied him to the Palace with
shouts of "To the Rhino!" To the Rhine poured
forth at once the mighty hosts of the German armies;
and within three weeks the shock of battle was the
most stupendous which Europe has ever witnessed.
Woerth, Spicheren, Courcelles, Viunville, Gravelotte,
Sedan, Metz, and lastly, Paris itself, all contributed
their quota to the awful harvest-field of death.
Opposite the Law Courts, on the south side of
Fleet-street and the Strand, and hard by the site of
old Temple Bar, Childs's Bank is now beginning to
show its proportions, and enough of it can be seen to
prove that it will be one of the most magnificent
banks in London. It is built of granite, in the
classical style, and it is quite worthy of being a near
neighbour to the Law Courts. There was many an
historical association connected with the old house,
with its small dark rooms and its dusty windows.
There was an ancient look about it which re
minded those who had studied history and harkened
to the voice of tradition, that Childs's, foundeti
in 1628, had survived a civil war, a common-
wealth, a revolution, and a change of dynasty.
But in its new form the. banking house will still be.
symbolic of the best side of an historic institution.
The architect has been enabled to. give to it an air
of elegance, while at the same tune it is as substantial
in appearance, a; it has actually proved during its
exi6tence of more than two Ltulkired DZILI afty years.