The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-01-10 00:00:00

ur Todon 6orrespoOtut.
(We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The New Year's Day announcement of the suspen-
sion of diplomatic relations between Great Britain and
the Porte has since been modified, and there is every
reason to hope for a satisfactory termination of a tem-
porary difficulty. But in its original form it reminded
the newspaper reader of what New Year's Day used
to be twenty years or more ago. It was on the let of
January, 1859, that, in the presence of the diplomatic
body who had waited upon the late Emperor of the
French, according to custom at the beginning of the
year, he significantly and severely remarked to the
representative of Austria that the relations between
the two countries were not such as he could desire.
This intimation fall like a thunderbolt upon the assem-
bled Ambassadors, and was at once telegraphed to all
the capitals of Europe as a sign of impending war. It
was noticed in the evening that the Emperor spoke to
the Austrian minister in hisinsual friendly manner, and
it was hoped that the incident of the morning had
originated in a fit of passing temper. But there could
be no question that the Emperor had resolved to come
to a direct issue with Austria on the Italian question.
And so it was that the war between the two Great
Powers which had long struggled for supremacy in the
Peninsula, broke out. In April the preparations
could not be concealed. On the "29th of that month
thcAustrian army crossed into Sardinian territory-
and a few days afterwards the Empercr Napoleon left
Paris to place himself at the head of his army. In the
case of England and the Porte there is happily no
occasion to fear the outbreak of hostilities.

In the war of 1859, above referred to, King Victor
Emmanuel and the French Emperor rode in triumph
though some of the principal cities of Lombardy
which had been evacuated by the Austrians—their
entry into Milan, so justly proud of its marble
cathedral dedicated to St. Ambrose, being an especially
striking scene. At that time Victor Emmanuel was
King of Sardinia merely, the two Sicilies being under
the rule of the King of Naples. It was somewhat
remarkable that the two Sovereigns who thus made a
triumphal progress through the sunlit Italian cities in
that fine summer of 1839, should have died on the
same day of the month, with an interval of five
years between them. On the 9th January, 1873,
the Emperor Napoleon, no longer the most
powerful monarch in Europe, as in 1859, died in
exile at Chiselhurst ; and on the 9th of Janu-
ary, 1878, Victor Emmanuel, who had in the
meantime become King of Italy and the ruler
of a first-elass European Power, died in Rome, the
historic capital of that kingdom. He had removed his
seat of government successively from Turin to
Florence, and from Florence to Rome—the last of
these removals being when his former ally was en-
gaged in war with Germany in September, 1870, and
compelled to withdraw the French troops from Rome.
In the deaths of these two men, under such widely
dissimilar circumstances, the history of some of the
most momentous events of the last quarter of a century
Is strikingly embodied.

- -
The annual report of the Royal National Lifeboat
Institution is a most interesting document for the
study of a maritine people. It shows that those who
"man the lifeboat" on all parts of our coasts are ever
ready on the call of duty to face any danger; and that
the appearance of a storm seldom, if ever, finds them
unprepared for prompt action. The report supplies
general results only, and does not furnish information
as to the localities in which, during last year the
greater proportion of work was done. It is, therefore,
impossible to point to which station of the Institution
credit is due for having accomplished in 1879 the
largest amount of useful service. There does not
appear, however, to be any necessity for a com-
parison of this nature, The honours must be
equally distributed. A lifeboat crew who in one
year earned the distinction of having saved the greatest
number of lives might in the following Ramon have
had but few opportunities of displaying their courage.
It must be remembered also that the services which
involve the most serious danger, and are the most
worthy of being applauded, are not always those to
which the most prominent place can be allotted a
statistical return. Assistance is eheerfully given to
every vessel in distress, irrespective of its size; and aid ,
Is as willingly rendered to a fishing boat with a crew
of two or three men as to a large passenger steamer
with several hundred human beings on board. The
fact that since its establishment the Society has con-
tributed to rescue from shipwreck nearly 27,000
persons, and that during last year alone 637 lives were
saved by means of its boats should sufficiently show
the nature and extent of its work, and its strong claims
to public support.

With the New Year there came into operation the
new code of international river signalling, the object of
which is to prevent collisions between-ifeamers ril
rivers. The signals described in the new code will be
employed not only in the navigable rivers of the
United Kingdom, but in those of France, Germany,
Russia, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal,
Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, the Nether-
lands, Greece, the United States, and Chili. The im-
portance of an arrangement thus come to by so many
nations with respect to the navigation of rivers is very
great, for in uniformity of rules there is the probability
of freedom from those errors and accidents inseparable
from the use of different methods of signalling in the
various rivers. According to the new agreement, the
signals will be made by a steam-whistle or fog-horn, the
steamer carrying her usual coloured lights. Upon a
steamer discerning another vessel in sight, she is to
sound a short blast whilst proceeding on the starboard
tack, two short blasts to signify that she is directing
her course to port, or three to indicate that she is
going at full speed astern. There are many elaborate
and apparently complete regulations applicable to fog,
rest, or falling snow, as well as to the cases of vessels
coming to anchor; and properly worked these should
be sufficient to prevent collisions under ordinary cir-
cumstances.

An interesting Conference has been held in London
to discuss the value of various means of promoting
thrift among the working classes. One speaker suggested
the establishment of a national system of insurance
being enforced upon every member of the community;
but perhaps one of the most important contributions to
the discussion came from Mr. Thomas Hughes, Q.C„
who pointed out the best means of diminishing pauper
ism. He mentioned that a Society had been in existence
eight years with an original capital of £lBO, which
upon the co-operative principle had been enabled
to supply its members at current prices with nearly
all the necessaries of life, to pay 5 per cent, on
ts capital, to place £290 to a reserve fund, and
to give each member a bonus of li. 4d. in the
pound at Christmas, There were hundreds of
similar societies. he said, throughout the country
which manifested like signs of stability and
prosperity. There can be little doubt that taatitntiona
of this sort encourage thrift, and the wider prevalence
of thrift would make a poor-law unnecessary. It has
often been remarked as a real anomaly that in Eng-
land, the wealthiest country in the world, in which
all claw from the middle upwards advance so
rapidly in all that belongs to the highest civilization,
there should be so large a body of people dependent
on public charity. Temperance and providence are
powerful factors in promoting the comforts of the
humbler classes, It was owing ,to the thrift practised
by the people of France that they were enabled so
speedily to pay off the German war indemnity of two
hundred millions sterling, and that France is now one
of the most prosperous nations in Europe.
The first Cabinet Council of the present year was
held on Saturday at the official residence of the First
Lord of the Treasury in Downing-street. It has some-
times been said that Ministers suspend their holiday.
to cc,me up and deliberate in the greyest and
gloomiest of cities; but such a description was cer-
tainly not applicable to this particular meeting. After
the severe winter weather of early December, the
dank and suffocating fog of Christmas week, and the
violent south-westaily gale which blew during the
last houre of the expiring year, the warm, cheerful
sunshine of Saturday was at once a reminder of
bright days that had passed, and a forerunner of
better times to come, It was more like an April than
a January day—a few hours most welcome after such
a prolonged time of frost, fog, and tempest. The
Prime Minister occupies hie official residence at
Whitehall, and his colleagues come to join him from
their country seats, where they had been spending
Christmas. The Lord Chancellor came to town from
Lindisfarne, Bournemouth; the Duke of Richmond
and Gordon from Goodwood; the Doke of Northum-
berland from Alnwick Castle; the Home Secretary
from Eccle Riggs, Lancashire; Viscount Sandon from
Osborne, where he had been on a visit to the Queen;
Lord John Manners from Belvoir Castle; Col. Stanley
from Witherslack Hall, Lancashire; the Marquis of
Salisbury from Hatfield House; Viscount Craebrook
from Hempsted Park; the First Lord of the
Admiralty, from Henley-on-Thames; Sir Michael
Hicks-Beach from Ireland; and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer from Pynes, near Exeter. The
Premier, it may be added, entered the 75th year of
his age, on the last day of the old year, having been
born on the 31st December 180. It was at the age of
75 that Lord Palmerston, who so long sat opposite to
him in the House of Commons, became for a second
time Prime Minister of England.

When Archimedes declared that he would move the
world could he but have a fulcrum on which to place
his lever, it was clear that he anticipated no difficulty
in carrying out any scheme of engineering skill what-
ever. But it is more especiAJly in modern days that
our engineers have shown that obstacles apparently

insurmountable may be overcome, given the time and
the money for the execution of their work. For in-
stance, we have been assured that to carry a sub-
marine tunnel under the Straits of Dover is perfectly

practicable ; it is only a matter of expense and
of time. Tubular and suspension bridges in this
country are common enough, and the two great
engineers of our own age—Brunel and Stephen-
son—have each left behind a masterpiece of
creative genius in this way. Brunel's most con-
spicuous work of this kind is the Royal Albert Bridge
across the Tamar at Saltaah, where that broad stream
divides the two oountlee of Devon and Cornwall. It
carries the Cornwall Railway over the river, and is a
structure of surpassing strength and beauty. Its
designer lived just long enough to see it opened
by the late Prince Consort, nearly twenty-one
years ago. In like manner, Stephenson's Tubular
Bridge across the Menai Straits is a marvellous
triumph over the difficulties thrown in his way by
Nature. Strange that both these extraordinary men,
the champions respectively of the broad and the
narrow gauge, and who have left behind them monu-
ments of intellect which will last for centuries, should
have been struck down within a few weeks of each
other in the autumn of 1859, in the fall maturity of
their powers The awful disaster to the Tay Bridge,
which was a terrible legacy of the old year, has
directed public attention to the stability of colossal
engineering works; and so far as this particular struc-
ture is conoerned, the directors ot the North British
Railway, by their resolution to rebuild it, show that
they have every confidence in its engineer and in the
principles on which the lines of this vast work rested.
Whatever else might have been laid to the charge
of the old year, it was very merciful towards the members
of the House of Commons so far as the mortality in
the ranks of that assembly was concerned. On the sth
of next month it will meet for its seventh and final
session. Summoned early in 1874, it has seen as much
as it has fallen to the lot of many Parliaments to
witness. It has seen two continental nations enter
upon a great war both in Europe and Asia; and it
has seen a return to a condition of peace. Like
its predecessor, which was sitting at the time of
the Franco• German war, it has looked upon a re-
markable displacement of the balance of European
power. Nearly sixty of its members have been re-
moved by death; others have been called to the
peerage ; others again have retired from Parliamentary
life, or have been appointed to civil, naval, or military
offices. Its long existence is now coming to an end;
and by the close of the year, having rendered up its
trust, a successor will in all human probability have
been elected, and the surmises and anticipations of
political parties will at length have been brought to an
end.