The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-05-02 00:00:00

•

Cur l'onbon 6oritsponka

fleem It Tight to state that we do not at alt t /MOE
klentify uurselvcs with our conespontent's orituumat

f

There is perhaps no one subject that is more talked
about just now than the cliabolicalattempt to asaaasinate
the Duke of Edinburgh. :It has created as much ex-
citement as the exploelion at Clerkenwell. Horror at
the deed is expressed by every one Who talks n the
galeject, and "cursed not loud but deep," are muttered
against Fenianiern and the Fenian.% The insane and
Satanic hatred that could have prompted such an act, is
beyond the poweri of ordinary language to expreee, and
this one act has perhaps done more than all the rest to
incense the public against the Fenians. "The assassin
who avowed himself to boa Fenian, was arrested on the
spot." And this t errible news reached us at the very
time when people were talking of the Royal clemency
being shown towards the condemned Fenians in Ireland!
Universal sympathy is expressed for Prince Alfred,
for the Queen, and the rent of the Royal family, and
a fear seems generally to be entertained that this
horrid crime will have the effect of preventing any
members of the Royal house being seen NO much in
public as they have recently been. Royalty is neces-
sarily very far removed from the public. We see little
of it, and we cannot place very much dependence on
what we read about the Royal family, except those
dry outlines which Mr. Beard, the Court newsman,
officially communicates. But all that we have ever
heard about Prince Alfred endeared him to Us. Ile
haa appeared to us as a frank, honest, lighthearted,
mai amiable sailor—a thorough gentleman, and every
inch a prince. And the news that he has been badly
wounded by the murderous hand of an assassin has
spread a gloom over society—a gloom which will not
soon be cleared away. The Prince, though not yet
'twenty-four years of age, has seen a good deal of life
In various parts of the world. lie is said to be a
young man of brilliant abilities. He has, at all events,
required a good knowledge of the classics, and of at
least three modern languages. Ten years ago he
entered the naval sem ice, after preparatory study and
training, and, after passing such a strict and searching
examination as in former days would never have been
dreamed of for royalty. Since that time he has seen
active service, and has travelled in many foreign
countries, as well as America, Australia, and the West
Indies. All the accounts that have reached the public
during his career have induced the country to like him,
and this only hies-ewe the detestation and burros that
are felt on receipt of this painful intelligence.
We are now beginning to feel the Abyeainian war in
our tenderest point—our pockets. The increase of 2.1.
in the pound on our income.tax is a heavy blow to us,
and there is very little consolation to be got out of the
reflection that it can't be helped. An Eastern
executioner, on the point of putting • man to
death, endeavoured to console him by the common re-
mark that he could but die once ; to which the unhappy
man replied, "That's what distresses me. If I could
die twice I might have a chance." In the same way,
commonplace people—and we are most of us very
commonplace people—are in the habit of saying,
"Never mind ;it can't be helped." Which is the very
thing that makes us "mind." The additional two-
pence on the income tax can't be helped, and that's just
where we feel it. But this reflection is at all events a
good excuse for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The
Budget, however disagreeable, is felt to be honest
and true, and it is better than disturbing two or three
branches of trade, and imposing indirect taxation, which
before long, it might have been hoped, would soon have
to be removed. But without reference to this particular
Budget, it is high time that our national expenditure
were cut down a little. We are paying enormous
gums for army, navy, the volunteers, the militia,
the Civil Service, and for every department of the
public ser:ice. Such items as £137,524 for royal
palaces and parks, and .£50,000 for land to increase the
National Gallery, in addition to £59,000 already
e.xpended, are not pleasant to read of, especially
when we know that somehow or other such SUMS as
these must be raised by taxation. There is also no
little grumbling at what is strictly local expenhture.
We, in London, for instance, do not see why we should
pay £B,OOO for diverting the sewage of Windsor from
the Thames; and, on the other hand, the people of
Windsor, no doubt, cannot see why they should help
to pay £8,450 to reduce the depth of the water in the
Regent's Park; while the people of Inverness or
Dublin will not be able to see why they should pay for
either. Reverting to the drainage of the royal town,
may we Londoners remind them, that we have for
some years been paying a main-drainage rate of 4,1, in
the pound? Are not the Ca&OS parallel in all but the
local payment and non-payment.
The "Queen's Journal" is to be translated into
Welsh by the Rev. J. Jones, vicar of Llandysailio-
Gogo, near Lampeter, who is, no doubt, thoroughly
competent for the task. The Welah may consider
themselves honoured by the translation, considering
how few Welsh people there now are, who do not read
English. But, ought not the book to be translated
Into Gaelic, considering how much it deals with the
scenery and historic aesociations of a part ..f the
Queen's dominions, in which Gaelic is spoken?
NearlY a theusand horses have been beught at
•Lincoln great fair for the Emperor of the French, and
have been shipped fa- France. Where such facts as
these are read, it is strange how easily people jump to
the conclusion that France is contemplating war; and
some of the Paris correspondents take especial delight
In continually pointing out and exaggerating the im-
portance of such facts. But there is one little fact
which is significant. A French newspaper is to be
published at Luxembourg, to be supported by French
capital, and to be "French all over, from the editor to
the smallest printer's deviL" If, as is amerted, the
object of this journal is to be to advocate the speedy
annexation of Luxembourg to France, it would be well
to know by whom the paper is to be inspired.
The country generally may be congratulated that we
are to have no more public executions. Whatever may
be said for or against capital punishment, public
opinion is now pretty well agreed that, at all events,
the office of the hangman should not be carried out in
public. Delilah,s,, these awful spectacles may here
and there have had a good effect, but the good is very
difficult to trace ; while the evil effects are apparent
and beyond al denial. The alteration of the law that
has now been made will he for the benefit of the commu-
nity generally; it will tend to raise the tone of society ;
and above all it may be regarded as depriving what
ought to be a solemn act 14 all its Numundinge of
ribaldry, buffoonery, and excitement. The carrying
out of executions in private will abolish one great
argument against capital punishment, but it leaves all
the rest untouched, and if the Society for the Abolition
of Capital Punishment had not practically become a
dead letter, the advocates (4 that abolition would still
have ground for hope that death by the law would ere
long be altogether abrogated.
Building has gone on at such a pace for the laid few
years in the suburbs and on the outskirts of London,
that the middle clam and upper section of the working
class are now pretty well supplied with lodgings;
but the working classes are still very inadequately
accommodated. Builders will not voluntarily furnish

the necessary accommodation. and we cannot be
surprised at it, while Mr. Peabody's gift and all tie
ether means that have been adopted have failed to

supply the still great want of London dwellings for the
working classes. In Paris, they are as brolly off.
Mr. Hanssmann has made splendid boulevards, noble
streets and towering houses, but he has not studied the
accommodation of the poor. The French say, Pour
lee pourres, Paris n'exixte plus. In this state of things
a French architect comes forward, and proposes,
enormous houses of ten floors, in which he says
the poor could be well accommodated. The
ripper ten thousand scored, it is to be presumed, have
to resort to lifts, such as exist in our monster hotels;
and if these could be securely constructed and used, it
I. difficult to see what objection could be raised to such
dwellings. The higher the rooms the more healthy
they would be. If houses on this plan could be built
for the poor, so cc to lessen the cost ,if rent, they would
be an immense boon no to the poor only, but to society.
How sorely sons* reform is needed may be Reams by the
report of a case which has just occurred. A. little
girl has died in a court in St. Luke's, and the jury
decide that her death was caused by exhaustion "from
fever caused by low diet, from poverty, Anil by over.
crowding and want of 'super sanitary accommodation
In the room in which she lived "—and died. Poor
little thing! She has died after four years of priva-
tion in a world of which she could have known little
beyond the four walls of this wretched room. A man,
his wife, anal six children lived in this one apartment.
The surgeon who was called in said that this room was
sot more than ten feet square, and the father iisol it as
a workshop besides, and lie alded, "'fliers are
scores of such homes in the district ; one half
my patients are poisoned by want of ventilation tutors
they come into my hands." The word " home," it has
been said, "is one of the sweetest words in our lan.
guage," and the good old familiar song in which this
word so often occurs is one of our national treaenres.
But what a mockery is the word "home" when used
iII cow:Leedom with such a pitiful narrative an thin!
The anneal visit of the charity children to St.
Peol'e Cathedral is a right without which the London
aaaaon would not be what it is, and it is to be regretted
therefore. that the Society for promoting Christian
Knowledo has this year withdrawn its annual dona-
tion of LW. This resolution will not of course pre-
vent the anniversary being held, but it is a pity that a
riah corporation like the society alluded to should
withhold its support from the parochial charity schools.
Nu env gat has am this ezliibition coo readily forget

it, and the memory of the clear, fresh young voices
singing the Old Hundredth Psalm in unison, clings to
us year after year, whatever other grand sights we may
see, or whatever concourse of trained musicians we
may hear. Spohr, the eminent composer, said that
this affecting muaical treat was worth coming all the
way from Germany to !oar.

Mlwiamm“