The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-06-30 00:00:00

LONDON CORRESPONDENCE,

Predawn it right to state that we do not at all tins identify
etusolves with our Correspondent's °pinioned

The very curious and much-marked changes of
weather which characterised a great portion of
the month of June, had their natural effect upon
the health of the population. Doctors found
that, owing to the alternations of the
atmospheric conditions, colds were prevalent, and
that there was consequently as large a demand
for cough mixture as if the date had been
December. The aged were struck down in all
directions by the north-easterly winds as if it
had been mid-winter, and what made the weather
all the more trying was that a single day would
make almost as much difference in the tempera-
ture as if we had suddenly changed from the
equator to the land of the Esquimaux. As there
had been fears of a drought—fears which are by '
no means yet dispelled in various parts of the
country—not much complaint could reason-
ably be made of the rain, though some
among us could not avoid reflecting with a little
irony upon the fact that June very often
proves to be one of the driest of months, and that
last year, for instance, only three days out of the
thirty showed a sign of rain. Yet there was corn- 1
pensation even for this, seeing that the extreme
dryness of the spring was such that there was a
demand for water on the part of the farmers
whieh sadly needed satisfying; and so, after all,
people may find that on the whole June, with
ite many changes of weather, was not, so bad a
Month as they had been inclined to think.
In connection with the Royal Commission or
Market Rights and Tolls, Assistant-Commis-
sioners are now travelling from town to town
and inquiring into the management of the
markets, and investigating any complaints as to
the tolls, charges, and control of the same, ex
the accommodation by them provided. We in
London are not specially concerned in this
matter of the markets, because the arrangements
for ours are so occult that no one, except a very
few clever lawyers, seems able to understand
them; but there is hardly a town in the
country, however small, which is not affected
by such an inquiry as is now being
held. For the right of buying and sell-
ing in the open market is one of those
which, having come down to us from the
eenturies, is a most cherished and certainly e
most valuable right of our urban populations
The date at which the earliest such privileges
were granted is, as the old law-books say, a
time to which the memory of man runneth not;
but we know that, as far back as the Conquest;
the deprivation of market rights; by the Norman
invader was considered to be almost the greatest
injustice that could be perpetrated upon the
resident population. And as age after age
went on, the privilege became the more valu-
able, until in these days it is one which
no town would be inclined lightly to
sacrifice. But abuses and anomalies have
naturally crept in with the centuries, and
the present inquiry may do something to
diminish these by showing precisely what they
are and how they can best be met.
The enormous attendances at the customary
triennial Handel Festival, which has this
week been held at the Crystal Palace,
prove, if proof were needed, that the
sacred music which Handel wrote has
as great a hold upon the affections of English-
men as ever. It is no light tribute to the powers
of a composer who has now lain in his grave. for
over a century, that his works should be received
to-day with a volume of enthusiasm which the
greatest of living men might envy. Every
three years the lovers of sacred music pour
in their thousands—aye, and it may even ,
literally be said, in their tens of thousands•
—to Sydenham to hear once more the strains of
the great inspired composer. The programme, I
in its main items, is always the same. First
there is the great rehearsal, which is practically,
a perfect performance in itself ; then always fol-
lows "The Messiah," that marvellous oratorio,
which will never lose its charm as long as English
is spoken or musical notation has a tongue; next '
comes the Selection Day, when excerpts from
lesser known works are provided for the popular
delight; and the conclusion of all is "Israel in '
Egypt," with its magnificent contrapuntal
choruses, which thrill even when sung by a vil-
lage choir, and which, when rendered by a choir
of three thousand voices, is well nigh overpower-
ing. It is no wonder when all is considered that
the Handel festival should continue so popular,
but it is gratifying nevertheless.
Two " commemorations " are just being
organised, which, vastly different in importance i
as they are, still are of much interest to all the I
English-speaking world. The first is the second
centenary of the birth of Alexander Pope,
and the second is the fourth centenary of the
discovery of America. As to Pope, his fame
as a poet—or, as the cesthetic critic might r
say, the framer of moral maxims in verse—is so I
firmly established that it scarcely needs any
formal ceremony to further spread it; but the I
composer of so many lines which, by the usage of
time, have become "familiar in our mouths as
household words," deserves the honour that is i
proposed to be paid to his memory, not only by
the people of Twickenham, where he spent the
happiest portion of a not particularly happy life,
but by lovers of English literature in all parts.
The discovery of America, which is proposed to
be celebrated by some kind of distinctive cere-
mony, is a very much larger matter, and it is
not unlikely that before 1892, when it
is to take place, we shall hear a great ,
deal from the United States about it. I
Nobody seems precisely to know when I
a European first set foot upon the American I
continent, or what the name of that European
was; but, as it is always Christopher Columbus
who is identified in the popular mind with the
great discovery, and as undoubtedly it was that
undaunted navigator who, for all practical pur-
poses, was the first in the field, we can safely
hold him still in honour, and commemorate the
striking event without much fear of being
thought in the wrong.
The vacancy in the position of Principal
Librarian at the British Museum, owing
to the resignation of Mr. Edward Bond,
called public attention in a striking manner to
the important and most useful collection
of books which, to the joy of every student, is
stored up for his use at Bloomsbury. In point
of the number of its volumes, the British Museum
library is not equal to the Bibliotheque Nationale
in Paris; but for all the practical purposes of a
lover of literature or a man of research it is as
good. For in the great round room—the largest
of its kind in the world, except the Vatican
Library—even the poorest scholar feels on a level
with the richest. Upon every side, and on a
multitude of shelves, are ranged thousands of
works of all kinds and in all languages, which he
can consult without delay, while, if he want
books which are not so commonly in use.
he has only to indicate his wishes, to be
provided with any one of the tens of thousands,
cven the hundreds of thousands, which are close-
ranged in the corridors beyond. It is a wide
world of :nformation that is thus opened to the
at:lt:alit for, owing to the courtesy and kindli-
ness which generally characterise the attendants,
he feels free of the place, and has the whole of
the groat Museum Library as open to him as if
its vast possessions were his own.
A strong effort is being made by various
members of Parliament to secure that a perma-
nent building shall be erected for the purposes of
the National Portrait Gallery. For several years
the priceless pictures which compose this
collection were hung in a sort of wooden shed
at South Kensington, which a carelessly-dropped
match might have set in a blaze and caused the
loss of portraits, some of which, as being per-
fectly unique, could not be replaced. Those in
whose charge they were frequently pointed out
this danger, and at length with such effect that
they were taken from their precarious home at
South Kensington to the branch of the British
Museum established at Bethnal Green; and
at the time it was understood that this
was merely a temporary measure which
would be abandoned when a permanent
and more suitable place was found in
which to deposit them. But no such place has
yet been provided, and the consequence is the
movement which has been referred to in favour of
inducing Parliament to grant the requisite funds
for the purpose. The Treasury, which naturally
does not wish to spend more money than it is
forced to do by the Houses of the Legislature,
hesitates to give any encouragement to the plan,
but a little moral pressure goes a long way with
the Treasury, especially when it is exercised by
influential members of Parliament; and the
result, therefore, of the present agitation is not
unlikely to be favourable.
It is now nearly four years since Professor
Fawcett died, but the great work that this dis-
tinguished blind man accomplished for his fellow-
citizens is very far from being forgotten. A
Fawcett Memorial was formally inaugurated a
few days ago at the Royal Normal College and
A cademy of Music for the Blind at Norwood,
which is a tangible evidence ol the admiration
felt for Mr. Fawcett's career, and will give great
edditional facilities for the worlg of an institu-

Hon in whieh he took a deep interest. The :girl's
gymnasium has been enlarged, skating-rinks have
ee laid, and the grounds have been
planted out, with the consequence, that
the usefulness of the College is distinctly
enhanced. One of the marks of the more
benevolent civilisation which has characterised
later ages is the greater care
.which is taken of
the incurably afflicted, and in the case of the
blind this is especially. marked. Nothing more
helpless can be imagined than one who has been
born blind and has received no training, and it
is for such who are thus calamitously circum-
stanced that the institution which has now been
benefited by the Fawcett memorial is intended.
A better way of commemorating the former
Postmas+er - General could not have been
imagined, or one which would more have pleased
him in whose honour it has been done.

A. F. R