The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-20 00:00:00

Our fonbon (ortcsponbtnt,

Ove deem it right to state that we do not at all times
stride.' ourselves with, our oresspondent's opinions I
-
I'he Agricultural Hall at Islington is a building
known by repute to a large number of provincial
readers. The farmers who come to town in December
associate the name of the place with the Annual
Cattle Show; the juvenile mindlaiembers it in
connection with rare feats of horsemanship and scenes
in the circle; the politician carries his memory back
~few years, and thinks upon the great Reform demon-
stration which took place within it. walls ; while the
admirer of the horse recollects it only for those exhibi-
tiTes of what we have always been taught to consider
truly no 1e animaL Well, the Homes Show has just
been held, and it has, as usual, been very successful.
It received &large amount of R..yal patronage ; one day
the Prince an.l Prince,. of Wales and the Duke and
Duchear of Edinburgh were there; the next afternoon
the Duke of Connaught was a visitor ; on the following
day there were the Princess Louise and the Marquis of
larrne, with the Duke and Duchess of Teck. The result
oh each day was an immense attendance of the public,
mawithstanding that 011 some of the llays the weather
was considerably hotter than we are accustomed to
have it in dime. The Hall is covered with a vast roof
of gleas, and the heat in the building, added to the
dust raised by the trampling of thousands of feet, was
at times well-nigh instep; :table. The people of
London, however, care little for heat or for cold, for
summer or for winter, if they can only enjoy them-
selves. I fancy there are not many of them who are
inclined to agree with the late Sir George Cornewall
Lewis, who once exclaimed "111,w tolerable would life
be but for its pleasures !"

Seven-and-thirty years have ps.ssed away since the
accession of Queen Victotia to the throne f Great
Britain. It war:alma two o'clock in the morning of
the 20th of June, 1837, that the Archbishop of Can-
terbury and the Lord Chancellor left Windsor Castle
for Kensington Palace, where the Princess Victoria
was residing with her mother, to inform her Royal
Highumw of the death of her uncle, the King. Miss
Wynn, in her Diary of a Ludyuf Quality, has told us how
these great functionaries reached Kensington Palace
abouttive ;they knocked, they rang, they thumped for a
considerable time before they could rouse the porter
at the gate; they were again kept waiting in the court-
yard, and then turned into one of the lower rooms,
where they seemed forgotten by everybody. They
rang the bell, and desired that the attendant of
the Princess Victoria would inform her Royal
Highness that they requested an audience lon
business of importance. After another delay,
and anther ringing to enquire the cause, the
attendant ststed that the Princess was in such
a sweet sleep she could not venture to disturb
her. "But," nrged the Lord Chancellor, "we have
come on business of State, and even sleep must give
way to that." It did ; and in a few minutes her
Majesty entered the room, with team in her eyes, but
perfectly collected and ilhmified. Lord Melbourne was
immediately sent for, and a Privy Council was sum-
moned to assemble at Kensington at eleven o'clock in
the forenoon, At that hour the Queen, with the
Duchess of Kent, entered the Council Chamber, at-
tended by her officers of State, and took her seat on a
throne erected for the micaition. The Lord Chancellor
administered the usual oaths, binding the new
Sovereign to govern the kingdom a.'cording
to its laws and customs. She first received the
homage id her uncles, the Dukes of Cumberland and
Sussex, the Queen, with admirable grace, standing
up and preventing the latter from kneeling. The
Cabinet Ministers and other Privy Councillors present
took the oath if allegiance and supremacy, kneeling
before the throne. A declaration was drawn up and
signed by all present, acknowledging faith and con-
stant allegiance to "our only lawful and rightful liege
Lady Victoria, by the grace of God Queen of the
United Kingdom id Great Britain and Ireland,
Defender of the If aith." Where is now that group
of Ministers who on that bright June morning
surrounded the youthful Queen? Be it remembered
that more than a generation has waned away, and
this means that since that day a number of polite
equal to the entire population has passed "to where,
beyond those voices, there is peace." The strong
men of that time are now white with age; many
of the children are prematurely grey. Of all the
Ministers who then assembled, two only survive. We
have lost Melbourne, Cottenham, Lansdowne, Dun-
cannon, Spring, Rice, Barinr, Normanby, Palmerston,
Glenelg,, Macaulay, Holihouse, Poulett, Thompson,
Labouchere, 111 dland, Minto, Morpeth, Campbell,
Rolfe, and Shied We have only with us Lord Russell,
now 82 years of age, and Earl Grey, then Visconnt
Howick, who is 72. All the others have disappeared
from the spene like shadows from the plain ; they have
faded away as the mist melts in the valley when it is
stricken with the sunbeam.

There is a mania just now for rare china, and the
prices given for uncommon specimens are truly fabu-
lous. At a recent sale Lord Dudley gave the extra-
ordinary sum of 1:6,825 for a pair .4 moderate sized
vases, so that each of these precious articles is valued
at more than £3,100. On Friday, the 12th instant,
Messrs. Christie and Manson aid at their rooms three
rich old vases of Slvres china for the remarkable gum
of ten thousand guineas. I have often wondered in
whose custody such articles as these are kept.. Of
course they are guarded by glass cases, but when they
require to be dusted, to whom is the responsibility
delegated? Does the la ly of the house undertake the
duty herself, or does she fear that like an ordinary
mental, Ale may become nervous while handling such
a treasure, let it fall, and shiver it into a thou-
sand fragments? Dusting time niust really be a
period 44 terror to every person in the mansion.
The ordinary waldvervant, knowing her weakness
for smash:llc china, glass, and earthenware, would
certandy not to permitted to touch a piece of work.
manshis for which more has been given than many a
hardworking man easels in a lifetime; the higher
climes of servants are but human; the duchess is
perhaps fklgetty ; so it is possible that my lord duke
himself in despair, actually dusts his two vases.
Dusted they must surely be, for what is the use of
having t.uch pearls of great price in the house if they
are not kept clean?

One afternoon last week the people of High Holborn
and Bloomsbury wers alarmed at the report that a
fire had broken out at the British Museum. The
news sprea I with great rapidity, and the truth f the
rumour appeared to receive confirmation from the
rapidity with which one fire engine after another
rattled through the streets, and took up their positions
outside the building. Then the firemen were seen
running along the roof, and conveying hoses here,
there, aral everywhere over the vast structure. The
relief of the misembled multitude was very great when
they were told that this was but an experiment in
order to test the efficiency of the Fire Brigade should
conflagration really break out. A telegraphie signal
was sent round to every station, " Send all help to the
British Museum," and in an incredibly short time
fourteen steam engines anti four hand engines were
tearing through the thoroughfares, scattering terror
amongst the people, and frightening many very inns.
neat persons. It is however, understmsl that the ex-
periment WWI a successful .ine.
There is a peculiar air of earnestness about the
appeals which are now appearing in the columns of
some iif the London papers, asking for contributions
towards giving poor children a day in the country.
Those who themselves lire amid the fields and far
away from town, anti perhaps have never seen London
In their lives, find it impossible to understand the
anxiety which is manifested to get away from the
place even for a few hours. All that they have heard
of the test human hive conveys no idea but that of
grandeur and immensity. "To see London' is one
of the highest ambitions of the young and tender pro-
vincial mind : to gaze upon the mighty streams of
traffic ever flowing through the main arteries of
the colossal town ; to look upon its public build-
ings; awl to wateh the rapid tide of the Thames,
as its broad and ample stream trashes the abutments
of splendid bridges, bears upon its bosom a fleet of
nnumerable shipa and dances in the sunlight under
the win lows if magnificent palases. These appeals in
the papers present, however, quite another view of
metropolitan life. Branching away from many if the
main streets are crowded courts and stifling alleys,
where the air is habitually stagnant except when it is
purified by a fierce storm; where the sun, except when
his rays are vertical, rarely dissipates the unwholesome
atmosphere; and where scores of men and sickly
-
looking children are invariably at play. Large num-
bers of these never saw a field or a hedgerow, and
their only sight of the country is on that solitary day
out of the whole year when by the kindness of the
benevolent public they get a breath of pure air a few
miles away from their squalid homes.
A great deal has been written respecting the decline
In our trade, but the most recently issued Board of
Trade returns present indications that in some
branches our commerce is beginning to recover from
the depression which has lately prevailed. In the
month of May our exports showed an increase of about
half a million sterling as compared with 1872, which
upon the whole was a good year for business. There
does not seem to be much anxiety, however, concern-
-, our immediate prospects. Some industries, such
hose devote,' to the manufacture of iron and steel,
mitvi a. tbey were, but the cereal
gmerally are limking well, ant it is not likely
, to any great extent, we shall be compelled t.
time perchasers of foreign grain. The coin wit.
Into the pocicets; ad our own Wows instead oi

thne

going into those of France or of Southern Russia.
It must not, however, be supposed that in the
matter of food we are a self supplying people. In
those same Board of Trade returns to which I have
alluded, I and that in May our imports of salt beef
amounted to nearly 180,000 cwts., and of pre-
served meats 23,500 cwts. Of butter the importations
were 131,000 cwts., and of cheese 32,000. During the
same month we also received from other countries
15,000 cwt.& ~f hams, and 12,000 cwts. —of lard. In
many of these items there is a falling off as compares'
wit -s the corresponding period of 1873—a fact which
may be in some degrve attributable to lessened trade
and lower wages.

The I lospital Sunday movement in London appears
t have been taken up with more heartinsss than it
no last year, when however it was quite a new
4, m haunt. The Oct result of the collections then
made was only 4:26,000, a sum which, it must be ad-
mitted, hardly came up to expoetations. Within the
boundaries of the metropolis are 3,400,000 pert Ms, and
the districts include Hampstead and Clapton on the
north; Norwood, Sydenham, Wandsworth, and Putney
on the south ; Bow, Bromley, Plumstead, and Green-
wich on the east ; and Hammersmith and Fulham on
the west Inside this immense radius there are 8
hospitals, containing accommodation for 8,400 in-
patients. thus giving an average tf 100 to each. But
while Guy's and Bartholomew's each contain more than
700 beds, some of the unpretending institutions have
only three or four. The number of in-patients
who pass through the London Hospitals in the
course of a year is nearly 00,000, and on an
average 1,000 deaths are annually recorded in
these institutions. I may say that those which are
blessed with wealthy endowments have no share in
this fund because they do not leant it. But for this
reason Guy's, one of the noblest of these charities,
would last year have received nearly 1;1,000;
Bartholomew's nearly the same, and these two sums
would have made the balance look very small indeed.
The Committee of Distribution rightly held that those
institutions which were richly endowed were very well
able to take care of themselves, and required no ex-
traneous assistance.