The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-06-08 00:00:00

lir fonbon
(We deem It right to state tha we do not at all tlmi,
,ientliy ourselves with our Corresnondent's opinions.]

The announcement that the Prince of Wales will boll
a laves on the 22nd Mat, will have been received with

-
ery general pleasure, even by thoe who cannot go and
. . . .

who know no one who is going. The will be the firq

levee that the Prince hasktalsince the serious Hine,.
of December last. The announcement has given all

the greater satisfaction Inasmuch as it has been stated,
apparently en unimpeachable anthority, that her
Majesty's health will not allow her to come as much
among her people as was anticipateit The London
season, now at its height, is perhaps the most brilliant
we have had for years, and London certainly is DOW a•
gay as London can be. The business of pleasure soil
amusement was never more thriving. We have those
ridiculoudy-named affairs, Morning Comerts, which
begin in the afternoon an.! end in the evening, just in
time for the airway brilliantly dressed people who
attend them to dress for dinner ; and we have
concerts for the masses in the evening, sit which
the best music can be heard for the regulation
shilling. The Crystal Palace keeps up its attractions,
and there is perhaps not a prettier sight in London
than that which was presented last Saturday, for
example, when the transept was thronged with an
elegantly dressed assembly, listening to the dulcet
strains of some of the first singers of the day, while
the shrubbery, the flowers, the fountains, and the
banners charmed the eye. The International Exhibi-
tion, too, is becoming more attractive than heretofore.
And then the Horse Show seems likely to attract greater
crowds than ever, and deservedly so, for the arrange-
ments are better than they were wont to be. As to
the exhibitions of pictures, from the Royal Academy
downwards, they are unusually numerous; and recent !
picture sales lead to the conclusion that the lovers of
paintings are increasing in number, and that higher
prices can be obtained fir modern works of art than the
artists of the previous generation could have dreamed
of. As to our stock exhibitions—the perennial
St. Paul's, Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the Monu-
ment, " Madame" Tassaud's, and a score of others—
they appear to be all " doing good business." Our
country cousins are gool enough to take us to see these
places—for that is what it comes to. But fcr them
we could go any time—and so should not go at all.
Attendance at theatres and music-halls is falling off ;
the weather is becoming too warm for them, and many
people prefer those suburban gardens which are now
putting forth special attractions. Altogether London
is certainly very lively, and there are ample indications
of unwonted prosperity.
• • •

- -
It is satisfactory to see that our Railways, on which
so much depends, and which may be regarded as an
index to the condition of the country, are decidedly
prosperous. For the week ending May 31 the traffic
receipts on the rail way“ of the United Kingdom
amounted to £1,209,684, while for the corresponding
week of the previous year they amounted only to
£924,607. Yes, but there are now more miles open than
then, it may be objected. Well, reckoning even that,
the income per mile is larger now than it was this time
last year-274 per mile as against £6B. Now there is
one respect in which this is of considerable importance
—"third chase by all trains," a principle which has only
lately come into vogue. So that this eyetem.pays the
Railway Companies, it seems, and it certainly smite the
public. The result, so far as it has occurreii, will no
doubt act as an incentive to the extension of the system
of attaching thirdolase carriages to all trains. This
plan, in my humble opinion, ought to be universal,
and the Railway Companies would find their account
in it.
I can think of only one newspaper proprietor in the
world—whom I need not name—whose death would
excite such universal interest as that of Mr.
James Gordon Bennett, the founder, proprietor, and
editor of the New York Herald. He was eminently
a self marksman. He was born of a poor family in Scot-
land. The reading of Benjamin Franklin's memoirs
at the ago of 17 made him desirous of emigrating,
and he landed at Halifax, Nova Seatia, with five
pounds and no friends. He bad in honk struggling,
unsuccessful life for years after this, and at one time
he was reduced to deetitittion, and found himself "set
up" by a shilling which he picked up on Boston
Common. After several abortive attempts to establish
a newspaper, in 1835 be made his grand hit in
starting the journal with which his name has
always teen associated. In the early days of this
journal it was published in a cellar; its founder was
its editor, publisher, correspondent, and fac-totum
but the Herald grew to be the greatest paper—in
a mercantile point of view—in America.
Whatever may be the result of the dispute in the
Bnliding trade, it is certainly serious as it stands, as an
illustration of the extent to which these labour move-
ments are being carried, and at also indicating the
aggressive attitude which masters as well as men may
assume if they ehoose. This particular struggle wil
be watched with special interest by thousands quite
unconnected with the trade. At present no trade dis-
pute ever proved more clearly the value of some good
system of arbitration. A strike ~n the part of so power-
ful a society as the Amalgamates! Sosiety of Carpenters
and joiners on the one hand, and the organitiation of
their forces by the masters on the other, is regarded as
serious, and many people think that this dispute will
have the effect of producing a combination amongst
masters, which it is thought will be necessitated by the
aggressive attitude of the employed.
The "bankrupt declarations of dividends" contain
some curious items. I find in the last list these strange
items :—First, a final dividend of 2.1 d. ; first dividend
of Bd. ; first dividend of 2,1. ; and first dividend of I,ld.
The dividends after the first are not necessarily curious,
whatever the amounts, for we do not know what the first
may have been; but there are some which nevertheless
read very strangely—for example, second dividend of
; second dividend of Oid. ; and fourth dividend of
Otd. Readers who are not personally interested in
these declarations can afford to smile at them, but to
others it is no smiling matter. There are, of course,
special reasons in each individual case why miserably
small first dividends should be declared, but, I main-
tain, there is one reason why dividends generally are
not nearly so large ZS they otherwise would be, and
that is the unneaessary expensiveness of the proceed-
ings in the Court of Bankruptcy. The bankruptcy
system has been much improved of late years, in my
opinion, though there are not wanting those who will
deny this; but undoubtedly there is room for further
reform. Apropos of bankruptcy, can any of my
readers, not being a lawyer, state what is the present
state of the law with regard to imprisonment for debt
The common idea is that such imprisonment has been
abolished. But that this is not the case is shown by
the fact that a movement has now been set on foot?
"to abolish imprisonment for debt." rerhaps one
cannot be imprisoned, but one is!
Visitors to London who have passed through
Leicester-square of late, must have been at once
amused and disgusted at the condition of this anomalous I
place. The pitiable statue has been sold far its old
lead, and may have been carted away within the last
day or two for all I know; the railings have partly
been pulled down, and the open space is the resort of
persons who certainly are not the flits of society.
And yet nobody knows what to do with the squase.
The Metropolitan Board of Works has had a long dis-
cussion on the subject, and decides that it can do
nothing! Oh, for a Baron Hanesmann 4 What must
the foreigners in that foreign quarter think of us?
Here is a very curious fact, suppoming it to be a fact
—that fir the first time since 1812 the retorts of the
City Gas Works at Whitefrians are cold, the gas being
now rcanufaetured at Barking. The retorts hot for 60
years! Be this as it may, it is consolatory to think
that the gas is to be manufactured elsewhere, though
the Barking folk may not like it. Such terribly
hazardous processes of manufacture ought not to be
carried on in tiopulous towns, and private rights should
be made to ruccumb to public rights—of course with
couipensation.