The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-06-19 00:00:00

Our Faabgn Carrtspaubtnt.

(We detanft ricr?lt to state that we do not at all tlt:%
id,eutify oitraelves wltii our Correspondeut's opinions.

Those among us who last December congratu-
lated ourselves that for some years we were likely
to be free from the turmoil and excitement of
another general election have been proved by
the rapid march of events to have been deceived.
A dissolution is once more upon us, though all
present appearances indicate that the number of
contests will not be anything like as great as at
the last general election—when every county and
borough seat in England except two were fought
by champions of the contending parties—there
will be a sufficient number to provide all the
materials for a v.ery stirring situation. Apart
from the purely Ilitical aspects of the present
dissolution, there is a feature of interest that
deserves noting in the fact that it will terminate
the shortest Parliament within recent memory.
We have to go back to the days previous to the
first Reform Act to find a parallel in point of
brevity, and only two Houses of Commons
within this century have had anything like
so short a span of existence. In olden
days, Parliaments of exceeding brevity were
the rule, but for the last two centuries
they have been the exception, and when they
occur they are always noted as marking an
abnormal state of public affairs. But against
the many worries which a sudden dissolution
brings to both candidates and constituencies is
to be set the fact that in such a case the agony
is soon over, and it will be only a little more than
a month, all things proceeding as smoothly as
they now promise to do, before the last poll will
have been taken and the roll of the new Parlia-
ment be complete.

Some amount of sympathy may legitimately
be felt for those members, to whatever party
they belong, who, having long wooed certain
constituencies, won them after much stru :gle
last November, and who are now threatened with
their loss. They have scarcely become used to
the ways of the House, scarcely mastered its
forms or understood its ceremonie3, before the
fatal shears are about to be plied which may
cut the thread of their parliamentary existence.
Many a joke was retailed in the lobbies
by "old hands" at the expense of the mul-
titude of new members who thronged the
corridors, and tried to look as if they had been
accustomed all their lives to tread the pavement
of St. Stephens. The industry with which they
attended to business, the assiduity with which
they sought seats at the very beginning of each
sitting, and the pertinacity with which they
occupied them to the very end, were so many
topics for goodhumoured banter among those who
told the new members that, before the Parlia-
ment was a twelvemonth old, they would have
grown somewhat weary in well-doing. But the
rulfilment of the prophecy will now never be
seen, for the Parliament will not reach half-a-year
of life, much less a whole one; and the same
jokes will have to be made about different men
within a very short period. It is no laughing
matter to the members themselves, as any
acquainted with politics can guess. They will
once more have to face constituencies, and once
more to fee returning officers, and the prospect is
not to most of them a pleasant one. But a.
Parliamentary life has its advantages and its dis-
advantages, and the philosophic member roust
comfort himself in this moment of trouble by
balancing the one against the other.

There is something alluring in the very soand
"treasure trove," and many a book of
thrilling interest has been written on the subject,
but when romantic ideas get into the law courts
it is surprising how commonplace they may be
made to look. The latest instance isafforded by
a curious dispute which is still before the High
Court of Justice, and which is not unlikely to
remain before it for some time to come. It will
be in the memory of most readers of newspapers
that not long since, while some excavations
were being made for the purpose of extending
the works of the Brigg Gas Company, on the
banks of the Ancholme, in North Lincolnshire,
a prehistoric boat was found embedded in the
soil. The relic was of great interest to both
anthropologists and antiquarians; but before it
could be absolutely secured to any body or in-
stitution for future preservation, the ques-
tion was raised as to its rightful pos-
session. Was it the owner or the
tenant of the land to whom it be-
longed? and to settle this question the lawyers
were called in. The legal point turned on the
rule, quid quid plaiztatur in sok, and the difficulty
in the case was that the boat was neither of
treasure trot() nor mineral; and a question of
some profundity may, therefore, arise as to
whether it falls within the legal definitions of
what belongs to the owner of the soil. The main
point of interest to the public, of course, is the
boat itself; and it will be generally hoped that
in the legal struggle the relic will not be allowed
to fall to pieces.

Our Colonial cousins have little to complain of
in the way of the hospitality that is being ex-
hibited towards them in England this summer.
In addition to the many public dinners and
private attentions that have been shown them
to celebrate their visit to London for the pur-
pose of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, a
reception is to be given them at the Guildhall
next week, which will be one of the
most striking entertainments of -the kind
that recent years have seen. The invita-
tions exceed 4500, and these will bring
together an assembly which in numbers, station,
and influence will do honour to England as well
as to her children from beyond the sea. It will
be an additional means of binding these latter to
the Mother Country, and, as all statesmen will
testify, this is no light fact. The feeling of kin-
ship between England and her Colonies is one
which is being strengthened in these days in a
hundred different fashions. The connection may
be an elastic one, but its cords are of steel; and
nothing is better calculated to prevent friction
than a sentiment of good-fellowship actively
promoted between the various sections which
form the Empire. To the severe critic, dinners,
entertainments, and receptions may appear as
vanities, but all who know human nature are
well aware that the springs upon which the
wheel of life rests run all the easier when there
is administered to them the lubricant of
sympathy.
Acting on the principle that an ounce of fact
is worth a ton of theory, a large number of
members of Parliament have visited Portsmouth
to see for themselves such men-of-war and tor-
pedo boats as are there gathered, and to judge,
as far as their capacity would allow' whether the
British Navy is in a satisfactory state. Perhaps
a hurried excursion of this kind is not the best
calculated to tell members all they ought to
know, but even a chance visit to one of our great
dockyards cannot fail to teach a valuable lesson.
When brought face to face with such facts as
are there presented, it is surprising how much
can be learned. A walk through such a place is
a revelation to the landsman, and when to this
would be added a visit to various men-of-war,
and an examination of sundry torpedo-boats—all
of which are included in the Portsmouth pro-
gramme—it is not necessary to demonstrate that
those of our representatives whaehared in the trip
not only saw much that was of interest, but much
that would instruct. Theknowledgetheybrought
back will do a deal towards rendering the
discussions on the Navy Estimates more intelli-
gible to them, and it really seems a pity that
cscurstons could not be organised not
merely to dockyards but to military stations,
so that our legislators might be taught some-
thing of the practical side of that which they
are called upon to discuss. This may be only a
dream as yet, but, if it could be turned int )
reality some good should surely result.
Every now and again the public is informed
that the fabric of Westminster Abbey—" the
Abbey," as it is affectionately called by Lon-
doners, as if no other such edifice existed—is in
an unsound condition, but it has lasted so lon:;
that a deaf ear is turned to the statement, and
the thought seems to be rooted in the popular
mind that it will last for over. But, if the
verdict of experts is to be accepted, the build-
ing, externally at least, is indeed in a pase:!oea
state. It has stood the wind and the rain,
tho frost and the snow of many centuries,
but these influences, combined with the
smoke which permeatea and poisons the
London air, are at length threatening
to prove too much for it. Should anything
happen to seriously damage the fabric, the cry
of regret would be loud and general. The Tearer
and the Abbey are at once the most veneeable
and the most interesting of all our metropolitan
nossessions, and an injury to either would be felt
as a blow. "The temple of silence and reconci-
liation," as Macaulay so happily termed the
latter, is a sight which no visitor to London can
count his trip complete unless he sees. The abode
of the, mighty dead—poet and Genera!, prieat
and King, author and statesman—is an awe-
inspiring Place, the associations of which are
calculated th impress even the li,ghtest of wind
or heart. It is not too late for it to be placed
externally in such a condition as may withstand
the wear and tear of further centuries and it
=ay be trusted that. when I pima() opinion is

aroused to the danger, the feeling will not be
allayed until the Abbey is once more rendered
safe.

The deposition of the King of Bavaria was
an incident in foreign affairs" to arrest atten-
tion in England, even at a moment when we
have so many troublous concerns of our own
on hand; but when that event was followed
by the tragic suicide of his Majesty,
much excitement was aroused. "The divinity
that cloth hedge a King" preserved King
Louis for a very long period from the fate
which his many extravagances and eccentricities
seemed to invite; but loth as they are in Ger-
many to do anvthing which may seem to conflict
with the sacredness of the monalehical principle,
steps had to be taken at last to relieve Bavaria
from the costly vagaries of her ruler. It 4inust
be some consolation even to hia late subjects to
know that these went no further than indulging
in the luxury of building more palaces than tho
King could afford to pay for. Love of bricks and
mortar has ruined many a man in an humbler
position in the world than that occupied by King
Louis, and a little sympathy can be extended to
him by those who know what a temptation it is
to many men to go on adding house
to house. But a better claim on
general sympathy was established by the King's
long and generous help to Wagner. That great
musical genius would, doubtless, have done im-
mortal work had King Louis never breathed, but
the encouragement of the Bavarian monarch,
culminating in the establishment of the magnifi-
cent opera-house at Bayreuth, undoubtedly
strengthened his capacity for 'showing his genius
to the full. Much may be forgiven to a
monarch, however extravagant, who aided the
development of such a career as that of the
inauguration of the "music of the future."
A. F. R.