The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-06-26 00:00:00

COMMESTS ON CURRENT TOPICS.

THE Parliament just ended is, as far as
results go, almost a wasted one. The only
measure of any great importance passed is
the Shop Hours Bill, and that falls short of
the wishes of its promoters. The Railway
Rates Bill was withdrawn, and all the land
reforms promised by candidates at the last
election are either abandoned or held in
abeyance. The session has been consumed
over Supply, Sessional Order Bills, and in-
terminable talk about Irish Government.
Meantime, legislation stands still that parties
and political cliques may decide the issues
between them. The people have now to
speak-. Let them speak clearly for the ex-
tinction of belligerent party prejudice, and
demand an honest combination of all mem-
bers of Parliament for the good government
of the Kingdom. If Liberal and Tory,
Parnellite and Unionist, would lay their
heads together to that end, sinking personal
ambition and private aim in patriotism and
desire for the commonweal, it would be easy
to decide both the Irish and all other crucial
questions of State. And this is what the
, voter has a right to expect of his representa-
tive in Parliament. 11I.P.'s ought to re-
member that they are factors of the Corn-
in MIS first and party-men afterwards. Wl,eil
will the brave days of old Rome, of which
Macaulay sang, come to England?

`‘ Thou n,:•,ne were for a party.
Then all were f r the State."
Englishmen ought not to despair of their
Senators reaching this high ideal, but we
(I,)ubt the "time is not yet."

HMI Majesty has entered upon the jubilee
year of her gracious reign. Twelve months
hence she will, if spared to us, have been
fifty years our Sovereign, and all the time in
the enjoyment of her subjects' true love.
Big preparations are progressing to celebrate
the auspicious occasion. Such an ebullition
of loyal enthusiasm as will be seen through
the length and breadth of Queen Victoria's
vast domain may well excite anticipation.
Beyond "the divinity which cloth hedge a
king" there is the universal recognition of
our Queen's blameless life under the fierce
light which beats upon a throne to endear
her to her people.. Of her, indeed, it may
be said, as her country's greatest bard sang
of another sovereign, that she is " a pattern
to all princes under her. and all that shall
succeed." May she be spared to us, not
only through her jubilee year, but for many
a year beyond, in health and smiling
strength.

THE appointment of a Special Commission
to enquire into army manufactures, composed
as it is of eminently practical men of all
shades of political opinion, and no shade at
all, some of them, will be welcomed with
satisfaction by the country. The bursting
of big guns, the jamming of rifle cartridges,
the twisting of bayonets, and the bending of
swords, of which we are so often unpleas-
antly reminded, all need a searching enquiry.
Then there are ugly reports of jobbery in
army contracts, and of the corruption of
rings "in connection with the supply of
stores of all kinds. There are foul corners,
we fear, in the army stables which yet need
a thorough cleansing. We trust the new
brooms may be found effective.

THE bill to allow jurors to separate at a
judge's direction, which one would think
was a most reasonable measure, has been
rejected by the House of Lords. Any at-
tempt to make a juryman's life the happier
is worthy of all commendation. The con-
Sideration he receives for his services is small
indeed, and he has to console himself that
serving upon a panel is one of the pains and
penalties of god citizenship. He is locked
up in stuffy rooms for many hours; he is
kept waiting his turn for days and days, and
sometimes never called after all; and if, by
long abstinence from the consumption of
oxygen, he is reduced to a state of asphyxia,
he is driven out by favour, always in close
compary with his fellow victims, in a wagon-
ette, after the manner of a Sunday-school
feast party. But he Must be isolated from
touch with the world so long as his functions
as juryman continue, The system is absurd
—if a man cannot be trusted with his liberty
he is unfit to maintain the majesty of the
law.

FRANCE, seemingly confirmed in her re-
publicanism, is now shaking herself free
from the last lingering remnants of the
monarchical system. The Orleauists Princes
are, by the Senate's vote, outlawed and ex-
pelled the country. Who shall say, looking
back on the chequered past of the people
across the silver streak, that this anti-ragal
feeling will be perm-- flt ? Another
Napoleon may arise and —und a dynasty;
some new Grand Monarque may in years to
come spring up from the scattered ashes of
the once-worshipped House of Orleans. The
French are fond of fascinating heroes, ever
restless and given to change. The °Heal':
ists must recognise the national humour of
the hour, and bide their time. This Pre-
sident is popular to-day, to-morrow his rival
may be in the ascendancy; a little time
hence the ebbing tide of Royalty may flow
again. Meantime England, in whose bosom
rests the bones of France's latest Emperor,
will doubtless offer an asylum to those scions
of the old French Royal family who are now
driven from their native land.

ErauT days in an open boat without food
or water is a sadly awful experience, alto-
gether beyond the power of pen to tell.
harrowing tales of the sea have in the past
reached this maritime land from time to
time, but scarcely one of such prolonged
misery and angering as that told of tho moue

of the chief officer of the British barque
Arklow by the American ship Frank Pendle-
ton. The poor fellow was picked up insen-
sible and without clothing, hoving been for
the weary time above mentioned alone and
without sustenance. When restored to
speaking point the hapless mariner told his
saviours that the Arklow had been in col-
lision and cut down to the water's edge.
The captain, his wife, and child, and ten of
the crew, took to the Xifeboat, while the poor
mate, on his own showing was left
to the provisionless punt from which be was
rescued. Ile was landed at Queenstown on
Monday, bat he disappeared suddenly from
that place on Monday evening, leaving a
letter addressed to the captain of the Ameri-
can ship, stating that the statement of the
Arklow being in collision is false. He says
he left the vessel in the dead of night
through private reasons, which will be ex-
plained later on.