The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-03-07 00:00:00

NO IDEAL CASE.

A correspondent, signing himself "A Man above
Forty," has sent the following letter to the London
Times for publication :
A number of carpenters refuse 355. per week, and here
am I, a tolerably well-educated man, of unimpeachable cha-
racter, who now and at any time these three years would
have been glad to take half that sum, and who, when my
most pressing wants were somewhat relieved, though perhaps
wishing fir more, liy tie Ineane disposed tie seek it lips strike
and a return to idleness and want, doomed day by day to
make Ineffectual applications for employment, until the old
complaint of heart sickness has become ckronic.
When I look back I wonder at not being in either the union
or the grave, and when I look forward I see—owing princi-
pally to the, alas ! inevitable increase of what has often and
often been sip tole difficulty, age—l see even less hope of
avoiding one or the other in the future.
However, if you would kindly publish this, the carpenters'
folly might be my succour, and I hereby register a vow that,
should I obtain employment thereby, I will devote ten per
cent, of my earnings, whatever they may be, to my present
equals—the poor.
Mine is no ideal case, and though I cannot, from having
long since dispensed with such es idences of gentility, enclose
my card, I beg to add my name and address as an available
guarantee to you, and a means of finding mete any one dis-
posed to take the hint.

A SKETCH of the NEW CHANCELLOR
OF THE EXCHEQUER.
It was formally announced in the House of Com-
mons on Friday evening that Mr. George Ward Hunt
had been offered and had accepted the important office of
Chancellor 14 the Exchequer. So rapid a rise of so
comparatively young a man, without "family in-
fluence," is, we believe. unprecedented (says the
Birmingham Daily Poet, from whom we are quoting.)
Mr. Ward Hunt is about forty-three years of age, and
has only been ten years in Parliament. The son of a
Berkshire clergyman by the daughter of an Oxford.
shire squire of easy means, but no political influence,
Mr. Ward Hunt was educated at Eton and Christ
Church, Oxford, at which latter place he achieved a
second class in classics in 1848, and graduated M.A. in
1851. On leaving college he ate his terms, and waa
called to the Bar in 1851, going the Oxford Circuit for
a time, but not practising much. In 1852, and again
in 1857, he unsuccessfully contested Northampton
borough; and in 1858 he stood for the northern
division of the county, where he had property, and
was elected. He has held his seat there unintermit-
tently until now. A steady adherent of the Conserva-
tive party during his whole career, and an uncompro-
mising supporter of the Disraeli tactics during the
debates on the Russell Gladstone Reform Bill, he was
on the accession of Lord Derby to power, in 1806, ap-
pointed to the office of Financial Secretary to the
Treasury, with a salary of £2,000. Having supported
Mr. Disraeli when out of office, he faithfully stuck to
him during the whole of his shifting policy in office,
and has now reaped his reward in an appointment to
an office which is generally given to men of greater
age and more experience. Mr. Hunt has some of the
qualities requisite for such an appointment—a clear-
! headedness and a talent for figures; but there can be
! little sloubt that his Budgets will be Disraelian, and
he is merely for the present the delegate of his more
! able chief.

The London correspondent of a Liverpool contem-
porary gives the following pen-and-ink sketch of the
new Chancellor of the Exchequer:—
Mr. Hunt's personal appearance Is remarkable. Indeed,
no one can help remarking it. He Is considerably over six
feet In Imiuht, awl of more than proportionate bulk. I
should say that he is far away the heaviest man in the flume.
'then, to add X. his formidable appearance, he wears a black
beard and moustache, and as he walks swiftly but solidly
across the lobby, "making the pavement groan as he doth
tread thereon," he looks a man monster.
- •

•
The same writer also describes Mr. Hunt as an in-
domitable worker.

The address of Mr. Ward Hunt to the electers of
North Northamptonshire, on presenting himself for
re-election, is of the briefest possible character. Mr.
Hunt says:—
Her Majesty having been graciously pleased to confer
upon me the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, my seat
in parliament is now vacant, and fence more seek re-election
at your hands. I trust that I retain, as a Minister of the
Crown, the confidence which you have reposed in me as an
independent representative.
There is at present no opposition to Mr. Hunt's
return.