The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-07-02 00:00:00

Our Paha Correspottni.

[We deem it right to state that we do not at ail times identify
ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

No sooner was the 'central Jubilee celebration
over than London, as far as its working popula-
tion was concerned, began to empty. In conse-
quence of the yea majority of people remaining
in town in anticipation of the great event, the
holiday season had been postponed to a later
date than usual this year. The keepers of hotels
and lodging-houses at the seaside had com-
plained for weeks that the Jubilee sadly inter-
fered with the customary flow of visitors, and as
the season is almost definitely limited they had
reason, from their point of view, for their com-
plaint. By this time, however, they must have
become somewhat more satisfied with the con-
dition of things as they are, for immediately the
Jubilee was over thousands flocked out of town
to their favourite pleasure resorts. The first
symptom of such a movement to an ordinary
business man is the purely negative one that
the morning trains from the suburbs into
the commercial portion of the metropolis
are less laden than usual. These are
the trains which mainly convey those who are
about to commence their day's work, and when they
become less crowded than is their wont, it does
not require a very keen observer to perceive that
the holiday-time has begun. Of course, the
places of a good many of those who are absent
may be said to be taken by the thousands of
visitors from the country who flock to town in
the summer and autumn, but these do not get
up as early when they are on a holiday as the
average business man, and the morning train
test is thus the simplest and most effective of all
in judging the period when the holidays for
Londoners have commenced.
It is unfortunate that one of the accompani-
ments of the Jubilee which was intended to be
a permanent memorial of such a historical occa-
lion has proved so generally disappointing as
has the now coinage. It was issued only the
day before the Jubilee, and no sooner bad it
passed into the hands of the public than its
daciencies were perceived. And not only its
deficiencies, but its opportunities; for it was
apeedily seen that the sixpences were so exactly
like the half-sovereigns in size and design that,
by a process of electro-gilding, they could be
passed to the unwary for the more valuable
coin. Such a chance was not to be lost by
these too-industrious persons who are ever
ready to turn a dishonest -penny, and the
coneequence was that, within four days of
the new sixpences being given to the world, the
Bank of England refused to issue any more.
That institution will also endeavour to get back
again as many as possible of those it originally
handed out, and the Jubilee sixpence will soon
be a rarity beloved of collectors. It is, however,
not only this coin which has come under the ban
of popular condemnation. The House of
Commons has been the scene of complaints with
regard both to the design and the make of
certain of the larger coins, and the complaints
have practically been admitted to be well-founded.
It will, therefore, be no matter for great surprise
if a new coinage is devised to take the place of
that which has existed so short a time. There
are difficulties in the way, of course, but anything
is better than that the Jubilee of Queen Victoria
should be handed down to all time as linked in
an artistic sense with so tasteless a design and
such poor workmanship as are presented by the
new coins.
Before leaving the Jubilee altogether—and it
is strange how difficult it is to cease talking of a
subject which has engrossed popular attention
BO long—reference may be permitted to one who
proved himself the most popular of all the
foreign visitors for the occasion. The Crown
Prince of Germany, as the husband of the
Princess Royal of England, is no stranger to the
people of these islands; but it is doubtful
whether, even when nearly thirty years ago he
came hither to claim his young bride, he was as
heartily cheered as he was when he rode in
front of the Queen's carriage on Jubilee
Day. This arose not only from the
general admiration for a distinguished soldier of
fine presence, dressed in a striking uniform, but
from sympathy with the gallant Prince in the ill-
ness with which he has recently been afflicted. It
is pleasant to know that, through the exertions
of an English doctor, the growth in the throat
which threatened danger to the Crown Prince
has been partially removed; but much painful-
tres.s remains, and it was noticed by those near
him during the celebrations that his voice did
not rise above a, hvarae whiepar, and
that, when spoken to by a friend, he was
accustomed to point to his throat as an indi-
cation of the reason he could not sustain a
conversation. It will be hoped by all that his
indisposition will prove only temporary, and that
the operations which have still to be performed
will restore as nearly as possiblq to his normal
condition so illustrious a patient, and one upon
whose word in the early future so much of the
destiny of Europe will deperd.
To persons possessed of an unsympathetic
temperament all enthusiasms are more or less
madness, and it certainly requires to be one of
the initiate to properly sympathise with the
passion for old violins, which leads ardent
fiddlers to give for them prices of ex-
ceeding length. Within the past few
days the collections of violins of two
well-known amateurs were brought to the
hammer in London, and the products of Stradi-
varius and Guarnerms fetched fancy prices, while
those of Nicholas Amati and Carlo Bergonzi
obteined sums by no means low. But to the
. initiated all these is easily to be understood, for
the secret of the old violin-makers has been lost,
and no modern instrument can vie with one of
the great Cremona artists. Almost every amateur
has his own theory to account for this, and they
• argue their respective ideas with a warmth and
pertinacity which none but the born enthusiast
. can appreciate. But it is the hobbies of life
e which make existence agreeable to many of our
fellow-mortals, and though excessive pursia of
them is for many reasons to be deprecated, it is
-
a somewhat sad fate for an intellectual man to
- have no hobby of any kind. None of us should
forget that it has been men with a hobby who
have made most of our discoveries, and who
have rendered very solid service to science, to
literature, and to art; and although the develop-
ments of such may sometimes strike US as
'eccentric, it is well always to remember the solid
. work which may lie beneath.
. The Board of Trade Returns of Navigation
and Shipping for the twelve months ending last
• December 31, is one of those blue-books which
_repel the average reader because of being so full
of figures as to bewilder rather than enlighten.
Yet it is a work which deserves study at the
hands of all who are interested in the development
of our commerce—as who among us is not
—and a summary of it is effective as telling
• us much that is of value upon this point. The
first thing which naturally strikes every inquirer
• is that the total number of vessels which entered
. Pritish ports, as well as that of those which
cleared, during 1886 was slightly smaller than in
. the previous year. This will not surprise any
• : , •who have watched our commercial prospects
.duriqg the periods thus indicated, but it will
•."certainly surprise one if there be not a batter
record to show for 1887. Not that trade is
-recovering to quite such an extent as appeared
to be promisee' a few months ago, but that it is
-gradually getting sufficiently better to exceed
that of 1886, and probably that of 1885.
. • There is, in fact, no reason for thinkine that our
progress is likely to be speedily again deserving
the description that it is advancing in leaps and
bounds. But "slow and sure" is a a'e•ed old
- maxim, and if our present progress &tee' con-
. • tinues there will be the less reaper' to complain
of it being slow if only the soreness remains.
Duelling is now so utterly dead in England
• that we are apt to fcrget what a strong hokl it
once, had in this country, and what a
strong hold it continues to have in some others.
An instance has .just been supplied by Germany
to bring this to our recollection, an ex-military
officer having been deprived
.of his title and the
. right to wear his uniform because he success-
fully prosecuted a slanderer in a court of law
• instead of challenging him to a duel. It availed
him nothing to plead that he had kept tho
statute law of the Empire, which prohibits
duelling, though infringing the unwritten rules
of military custom, which enjoins it, for
the Court of Honour, whose verdict has been
• confirmed by the Emperor, has decided that
he acted wrongly in thinking that he was or
titled to demand satisfaction from a slanderer
by regular process of law, instead of by the
, illegal meth4of mortal combat. Such a case
must bring home to all of us the great work
• which the Duke of Wellington and Prince Albert
accomplished when they abolished duelling in the
British army. That was done more than forty
years ago, and no one would contend that an
English officer is less brave now than lie was
then. It was vehemently contended by de-
fenders of the system that, if it were done away
with, society would become a bear-garden, in
which it would be impossible for decent people
to live. Who would contend that now? What
the abolition of duelling did was to get rid of an
organised system of bullying and swaggering

which had become intolerable. The only possi.
ble justification for duelling would be that it
secured the punishment of the offender; but
that is just what it Tailed to do, and the
melancholy case from Germany shows how much
that is sheer barbarism continues to lurk under
the civilisation of an exceptionally cultured
state.

Small investors must often be frightened by
the panics which occasionally sweep across the
Exchanges; but those of them who dwell in
England have not lately had so many opportuni-
ties for trepidation as their brethren in the
United States. The New York Stock Market
has, within the past few months, been more than
once the scene of a panic which has ruined many
and ci;ppled more, and the end is evidently not
yet. When a market is once in a " panicky "
state, it is surprising what small things will
affect it. A rumour, the baselessness of which
could be shown, upon an inquiry which would
hardly occupy five minutes to take, will be
eagerly passed from mouth to moth, and be
the means of depressing stock to the value
of millions. It is little wonder that men
should go mad when their whole fortune is so
dependent upon chance. Without fault of
their own and because of the operations of
some man or syndicate over whom they can
have possibly no control, the hardly-acquired
wealth of years may be swept into an abyss
within the compass of half-an-hour. Only men
of strong nerve should dabble in such matters;
those possessed of but ordinary courage should
stand outside. Speculating in stocks is like
gambling—a passion which grows until it is all
absorbent, and which ruins more than it makes
rich. A. F. IL