The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-08-06 00:00:00

ear l'a.nbon 6craspanbz.it,

7re deem it right to state that we do not at
identify ourselves with our Correspondents opinuur,,.

The Mansion House of London, besigles being the
centre of municipal government, is also the fountain
of civic hospitality, and this is dispensed in various
directions. The first Saturday in August, for instande,
is generally selected by the Loid Mayor for he time
being as the occasion for the entertainment of Her
Majesty's Ministers. No matter of what political
predilection the Chief Magistrate may be, or what
might be the politics of the Ministers, the dinner is
given, and everything passes off well. This year
Lord Mayor and Ministers happen to sit on the same
side of the House of Commons, but times have arisen
when the civic king and the Premier have been
strongly opposed. Englishmen, however do not carry
the bitterness of political asperity into the banqueting
hall, where rivalries are forgotten, and party strife is
hushed. The splendid hospitality of the City of
London, to use Lord Palmerston's happy phrase,
knows no politics whatever, and for magnificence, as
well as for bounty, is unsurpassed wherever it is
known, and that is throughout the civilized world.
As to the Ministerial dinner of early August, it is
welcome enough to those who assemble in the civic
palace, for it tells• them of the approaching termina-
tion of their labours for the legislative year, and of
the coming time when they may enjoy that rest which
they have earned so well.
A gathering, more interesting from a local than from
a national point of view, was that at which the Lord
Mayor entertained ths chief magistrates of the pro-
eincial towns, and the warmest testimony was borne
to the growth, the development, and the importance
of municipal institutions. Our system of local self-
government, although not perfect, is perhaps the best
of any country in the world. There is nothing like it
in France even to this day, and we have been told by
historians that it was thelack of the power of the people
in some degree to rule themselves which led to the
outbreak of revolutionary violence in France at the
close of the last century. All power was gathered into
the hands of the central government, which was hope-
lessly oppressive, and at last goaded the people to acts
which for sanguinary vengeance will ever stand out for
reprobation. A corporate town in England practically
rules itself. It elects its own local parliament'in the
ehlpe of the Town Council, and this body in its turn
selects the chief magistrate. The local body imposes
the local rates; and it was one of the greatest of the
grievances of the people of France that the maire was
a State official who levied State exactions without any
power of appeal, and thus rendered the executive
government odious in the eyes of those who were
incapable of resistance.
The International Fisheries Exhibition which is to
be held at Edinburgh in April next, following the
example of that held at Berlin last year, is intended
to include objects illustrative of or connected with
the fisheries of the world, and communications have
been opened with various foreign Governments with a
.view of obtaining contributions from every quarter.
- The Berlin Exhibition proved a decided success, and
was the means of bringing together a larger number
of objects connected with the fishing industry than
had ever before been gathered in one place. The
United States' Government sent an extensive and valu-
able collection from their National Museum; and with
the exception of the United Kingdom and Franoe, which
were represented only by individuals, nearly every
nation in Europe, as well as China, Japan, and
Brazil, sent contributions remarkable for their variety
and excellence. The catalogue included nearly six-
teen hundred exhibits, many of which comprised
hundreds of distinct objects. The Edinburgh Exhi-
bition, following on the lines of its predecessors,
will include models of boats used in fishing,
and of steam-engines suitable for fishing-boats,
models of harbours and of fishermen's houses, nets,
lines and tackle of all kinds, piscicultural appa-
ratus, live fish in tanks, collections ef stuffed
fish and aquatic birds, and paintings, photographs,
and models of all descriptions pertaining to the peril-
ous calling of the toilers of the sea. Such a gathering
can scarcely fail to be useful in disseminating a wider
knowledge of subjects of which we have much to
learn. In the artificial cultivation of fish we are far
behind the United States. Canada also has out-
stripped us in this direction, while the French are
unquestionably our superiors in oyster culture. On
these points and a hundred others we might take a
lesson from our neighbours.
Mr. George M. Pullman, the inventor of the palace
car which has so immensely added to the comforts of
railway travelling, is now on a visit to Great Britain.
Some time ago Mr. Pullman founded a city on the
shores of Lake Calumet, near Chicago, which he pro-
poses should be a model manufacturing town, con-
atructed in accordance with the most scientific
principles, and conducted in a manner equally enlight-
ened. This town, which already boasts a population
numbering several thousands, is called after the name
of its founder, who has embarked no less a sum than
' £450,000 in the enterprise. The enormous territories
of the United States afford ample room for experiments
of this kind. Another has been described by Mr.
, Thomas Hughes in an interesting account of the found-
ing of the new town of Rugby, in Tennessee..
A proposal is under consideration to mark the ter-
centenary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the
3rection of a monument to Sir Francis Drake. The
site at present fixed upon is the Hoe, the public pro-
menade of Plymouth, in full view of the Sound, where
the English fleet assembled before issuing forth to give
battle to the Spaniards. A considerable fund, which
has received the support of the Prince of Wales and
ether distinguished persons, has been raised; and,
with the objeot of giving the movement a national
turn, a deputation from the committee has waited
upon the Lord Mayor, and solicited his support to
the movement. His lordship willingly gave it his
personal support, but pointed out that it was too
late in the London season now to make an appeal for
funds. When the recess arrived, however, and people
would be coming back to town, the matter could be
reconsidered. It may be stated that there is ample
time to make, the preparations, seeing that the defeat
of the Armada was in 1588.

One of Mr. Gladstone's Budget proposals in the
present year was to cancel sixty millions of the
National Debt in the next quarter of a century.
Twenty millions of this sum are to come from the
Commissioners of the National Debt, and forty from
the Chancery Suitors' Fund. The Court of Chancery
Is bound by law to put its funds, the money belonging
to suitors, into public stock, and it is directly under
the control of the Legislature. With the consent of
Parliament the Suitors' Fund will be taken over
by the Government for a great imperial purpose,
while making the Consolidated Fund liable for
the moneys which suitors may legally recover. So
• soon as the State has paid the annuities to the
Chancery Paymaster, he is bound to re-invest
them in the same funds, and so soon as they
are re-invested they will again be available for
the further extinction of more public debt. In this
way the conversion of perpetual stock into terminable
annuities may go on until the markets yield no more
Consols for Chancery to buy. The Draft Bill has
received the assent of the authorities of the Court of
Chancery; and, like many another measure, had to
wait until the Irish Land Bill had got through the
House of Commons before its provisions could be ex-
plained to the Legislature.
- As the meeting at Ascot is the height or zenith of
the London season, so the gathering at Goodwood
marks its decline, and fixes the period when it borders
upon extinction. People, however, do not go to Good-
wood so much to witness the racing as to admire the
beautiful scenery which is t 6 be commanded from the
course, including a wide sweep of the English Channel
and 'the Isle of Wight. The Dnke of Richmond's
park, where the course is, possesses in.strinsic
beauties of its own which would be appreciated
without the beautiful view of the sea there to be ob-
tained ; but that this adds immensely to its attrac-
tions there can be no doubt whatever. Another
lridfaition of the passing away of the season is to
be, seen in the number of prize distributions in
London nit now. The object is to secure the presence
of some person of distinction at these presentations,
the Royal Princesses and the Baroness Burdett-Coutts
being especially active in these works. The sound
praatical addresses which are now delivered to the
children on the eve of breaking up for the holidays,
ought to be of great service to them in shaping their
future career.

Should the Prime Minister be in the House of
Commons next session, he will have completed half
a century of Parliamentary life, He was first
elected in the autumn of 1832, immediately after
the passing of ,the Reform Bill. Such a long
term of service in the House of Commons is ex-
tremely rare. Lord John Russell had been in the
Lower Chamber 48 years when he accepted a peerage;
but Lord Palmerston remained there throughout the
whole of his political career, from 1806 to 1865, or
sixty years. Lord Beaconsfield was 39 years in the
'Comaions when he was created an earl. The death
of a veteran Pa, liamentery reporter, who had been
fifty years in the Gallery, has jo.t kixe, te,l a co-n..
siderale deal of interest; t there reiriaio in
the gallery gentlemen of even longer experience,
dating from the gen.sral • election of 146, or five
Years ever half • a century. They can recal
the days of Canning and Brougham in that assembly,
the times of Tests and close corporations, the ex-
eiting scenes over O'Connell's election for Clare, and
the granting of Catholic emancipation, and the struggle
ti quetion of Parliamentary Reform, Of the