The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-09-26 00:00:00

Petrov°titan 6ossip.
BY OUR OWN CORRIRPORDINT.

I

Mit reins-As under this head are to be regarded tie the so.
of independent opinion, fronithe pen of 'gentleman
,• wh,m we have the greatest confidence. but for which we
“fifertheiese do not hold ourselves responsible ;

Is it war or peace? is a queetion that is being every-
where asked. The chances of war are eagerly discussed,
with apparently no dread of its horrors. It is sad to
see several of the foreign journals, and some of our
own coolly discussing the probabilities of a war between
France and Prussia, and, as it were, preparing the way
for it. The Press has a mighty power, but in this
matter it scarcely appears to be using that power
wisely. To deprecate war, to smooth existing diffi-
culties, and to cultivate gissi feeling between nations
—that is the mission which the Press should seek to
accomplish; but, instead of this, some of the French
papers and some of the Paris correspondents of our
daily papers are exaggerating the difficulties and mis-
understandings which unhappily exist, anti urging that
these can only be suet, sooner or later, by war. All
this naturally tends to create an uneasy feeling in the
public mind.
- • •

The revision of the Registration List is proceeding
apace, and the entire result bids fair to be as strange
a jumble of contradictions and anomalies as can well
be imagined. The curiosities of this revision are in-
numerable, and there have been sonic sharp arguments
as to the meaning of words which, previous to these
discussions we thought we understood pretty well.
The words rental, man, person, and lodger and apart-
ments have severally afforded scope for clever argu-
mentation, but I am not aware that anything has been
actually decided. In several places there have been
arguments as to the right if women to be placed on
the register, as was expected from the first, but up to
the present time all is uncertainty. In most cases
the names of the ladies have been indignantly struck
out, and in one case—that of a Quaker lady—a fine of
10s. was inflicted for making a frivolous claim. But
in other cases the names of women have been actually
passed and verified, so that under existing circum-
stances these "persona" will have votes for Members
of Parliament. There is, however, many a slip, &c.,
and it is iliffirllt to believe that the returning officer
will readily acknowledge these claims to vote, though
he is bound to admit all names certified by the revising
barrister. When the registrations are all complete, a
collection of the conflicting decisions would be curious.
The revising barristers have no doubt conscientiously
exercised their duties, but their ideas of what is right
have strangely differed.
The election address of Mr. William Ray Since is a
great curiosity in its way. Appealing to any "borough
that desires to change its representative," he expresses
his readiness to go to the poll for no matter what
borough, provided there is a probability of success. As
might be expected from such a general appeal, Mr.
Since does not express any very decided political
opinions, and, in fact, on the Irish Church question he
does not appear to know what to think. But he goes
in for a further reduction of the wine duty and the
repeal of the malt tax, while he advocates sclera.'
financial reforms. On one point, I think, Mr. Since
claims a credit which is scarcely his due. He says
that he is the author of two schemes of national im-
portance—the abolition of the shuttings of the
National Debt and of the Post-office Savings' Banks.
I daresay he is quite right with regard to the former,
but with regard to Post-office savings' banks, the
credit of their establishment must be given to Mr.
likes, of the Huddersfield Banking Company. Mr.
lines, no doubt, did much to work out the plan, but ,
he was not its originator. But he would make a very I
good member of Parliament, and any constituency '
actually in want of a representative, if there be such I
a one, might do worse than apply to this universal I
candidate.

Every Friday, for some weeks past, there has been a i
disgraceful scene in Lombard-street, on the occasion 1
of Father Ignatius preaching in the church of St.
Edmund ; but last Friday the conduct of the "gentle-
men " who waited outifille the church to testify their
opinion of the rev, gentleman, was beyond anything
that has yet occurred. And not only was he roughly
received, but several attendants at the Church were
pelted with apples as they came out. One old gentle-
man, a clergyman, had his hat knocked off into the I
mud, and kicked about by the crowd; while his um-
ladle was torn to pieces, and thrown about from one
to another. A Russian priest was also disgracefully
mobbed, though he happened to be merely passing at
the time. A "gentleman" took the old priest's hat
from his head, and threw it among the crowd. Several
ladies also—especially those who wore crosses—were
grossly ill-treated and pelted. And when Father
Ignatius came out and rapidly got into a cab, he was
pioblied and pelted in a most frantic way. It is to be
hoped that the police will see that such a scene as this
does not occur again. People may entertain what
opinion they think proper of the Rev. Joseph Leyeester
Lynn, otherwise Father Ignatius; but mobbing and
pelting in the cause f religion cannot be tolerated.
I particularly noticed this disgraceful riot. There !
were no roughs there, but the persons who engaged in
it, lissl the appearance of being merchants, clerks, Ace.
In fact it was a particularly well-dressed mob, but they
acted just like the ordinary London roughs.
Anything which will tend to lesson the chances of
railway accidents is of permanent and universal interest,
and it is with pleasure, therefore, that I refer to an
atnpispheric break which has been tried on the London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway. It acts as a simulta-
neous and instantaneous break on all the wh, els of
the train; driver and guard have it equally under
command; and it includes a means of communication
between these two officials on whom so much depends,
and the means of communication can also be accessible
to passengers. Some experiments with this new break
have had highly satisfactory results. The first time
that the break was put on during this trip, and this by
a driver who tried the invention for the first time, he
brought the train to is stand at 323 yards, the speed
having been thirty-five miles an hour. This was so
far satisfactory, but it was little better than could be
done with an ordinary break. The second experiment,
however, was a greater success, the train being stopped
ot re 9 yards, the pace having been forty miles an
hour; but the third ..xperiment was a triumph beyond
anything yet achieved with any kind of break, the
train being stopped at a pace of fifty-five miles an
hour. within 200 yards, and this on an incline one in
100. The scientific and railway men who witnessed
these experiments were well satisfied with them, hut
it is to be loped that the matter will not end here.
:It is common enough for such trials to be made, a
;seem-0y satisfactory result to be arrived at, and then
for the Public to hear nothing more about it. It has
been No w:th regard to several systems of communica-
tion between Passenger and guard, or driver and
guard, but we are still" as we were."
The boarding.schiol education of middle-claaa Eng-
lish girls is an old topic of complaint, and not without
reason. An effort on a lasses scale is now about to be
made to supplement this inadequate education. A
site for a College for Women has been selected in
Hertfordshire, and as soon as £lO,OOO can be collected
it is intended to commence the building, though it is
,estimatesl that five times this sum will be required to
,carry out the scheme in it; entirety. "The inetruc-
tion and discipline will be expressly adapted to
advanced students, and the results tested by examina-
tions of recognised authority." This is specially
important in respect to obtaining the necessary
guarantee for the qualifications of teachers, and the
College for Women will, perhaps, virtually become for
adies what the Universities are for men. A lady who
has obtained her certificate from this college will
ipso facto be regarded as duly qualified as a teacher.
This will be in itself is great reform. At present any
lady, who may have failed elsewl. set up a

,
school for which she is entirely unti•... sisi thus help

;to metuate the evils of the boarding-school system.
There is every reason to believe that the proposed
college will be successful. At all events, a number of
eminent men and of ladies of high social position have
given their sanction to it.
Mr. Frank Bockland must find that his scientific
knowledge and his devotion to natural history have
their penalties. Does any one capture a shark he
immediately semis it to this gentleman. During a few
days only he has received the offer of a monster tunny
upwards of eight feet long, a thrasher shark, a
monster sword fish, a shark big enough to be exhibited
for money, is blue shark, and a 1. ol.srkiizg shark!

-
4, nice little It this," ho ,ays, 'for on; week's
ignivi.,„mble aril f 1,711 the Court of King Neptune."
What is j;.., tOOO With them? It is Into he has a
museum of coon. unic fish culture at the Horticultural
Gardens, but thrasher sharks and barking sharks are
pot exactly the fish theis.me would wish to "cultivate,"
A. correspondent of the Cad Peru calls attention to
the necessity .4 a larger staff of policemen on night
duty on Ludgate Hil and about St. Paul's. "I fre-
quently have occasion to return late through kit.
Paul's, when I am sure to get molested, and never I
can find a policeman round the dark portion of that
thoroughfare." And this in the centre of the City of
London I fear the complaint, however, is equally
applicable to many other places, and certainly to the
suburbs, where we want more gas and more police.
Robberies and assaults in the streets, now that the
days are drawing in, are becoming painfully frequent.
Any one who CAWS sew our papers must obtain some
idea of the insecurity of property on the persona of be-
nighted pedestrians, but very many cases of assault
and robbery occur that are never recorde.l. If the
would-be robber escapes the affair is very seldom re-
ported. A few days ago, for instance, a gentleman was

suddenly seised by two men, at three o'clock in the
afternoon, and his watch was taken from him, the
thieves snaking off in a twinkling. And this oocurred
in a street in which there was a police-station.

THE EARTHQUAKE AT CALLAO.
The following letters give a harrowing description of the
first shocks of the earthquake at Callao :
CALLAO, Thursday, August 13.11145.
This evening, just as I was about mailing this
letter for the steamer of to-morrow morning, at about
five o'clock, the three most terrible and alarming shock*
of an earthquake which have visited Callao in seven
years were made manifest. For full five minutes,
the heavy rolling, rumbling shuck continued rock-
ing the furniture, and even the houses themselves,
with such violence that persons could hardly keep
their feet, anti an instantaneous rush was made for the
street. Here the sight beggared description. All the
affrighted people kneeling and praying in the open
street, crossing themselves, and i falling n deep swoons
full length on the pavement; old women kneeling with
both arms upraised, screaming and crying ; the great
ell of Santa Rosa Church tolling and tolling, while
the terrified people fled in crowds within the sa 'red
enclosure, and the great steeple swayed :tad cracked
as if every moment it would fall upow and crush
the affrighted manses. As far its the eye could see
down the I nig, narrow street, the very street itself
rose and fell in long billowy undulations, while
out in the bay, the ships tossed up and down under
the violence oi the tremendous internal jar. 'While I
write thousands of the poor ignorant natives, Cholos,
&c. are on foot and walkieg, with all speed to Lima,
and the cars are so packed with human beings that a
special train has been put on to wool-m.l/4U: those
fleeing to Lima. The reason of this is the absurd
rumour that the sea is coming in, and hundreds of
people stand upon the mole, watching the ebb
and flow of the tide, :mil insisting in their
fear that the sea is rit.ing anti coming in. As
Callao of old was destroyed, not by the ground
opening, but by the sea uprising like a mighty
mountain and overwhelming the place and people, so
the horror and fright among the people is the second
engulphing of the *ea. Had the shock been as severe
as it was protracted and incessant, every building in
Callao must have been toppled down. The weather has
been very cloudy the pant few days, and the earthquake
that has just shaken the solid earth (and the nerves as
well) of Callao, is the most terrible one that has visited
the place in seven years, and never one of such con-
tinuance. .

CALLA°, Friday, Sam, August 14, 1868.
Last night was the most fearful inght of horrors
that Peru has ever known. The sea was rising until
midnight, and actually came in 50 feat over the mole,
and submerged all the lower floors of the stores and
buildings on the streets nearest the water. Ships
lying at anchor brotie their moorings and drifted
into each other. The American man-of-war Pole.
fustian, lyiig here, was run into by a ship, breaking
the iron jib-boom of the Pulthallan, and the Pow-
hattan, as well as all the Peruvian men-of-war lying
here, steamed up and went away out to sea. There
seemed to be a regular under-current of whirlpool, so
that ships went whirling round and round ! Thousands
of people walked the streets all night, and this morn-
ing the stores are closed, and Callao seems deserted.
A feeling of terror prevails that this may be a second
St. Thomas affair; and if there should be another
earthquake to-day, affairs would look dangerous. Ships
are torn and battered, and the sea at the present
writing boils and bubbles like a great whirlpool. flings
look doubtful.
. . .

write this as the mail el.e:es, and have en y a mos
ment.