The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-03-26 00:00:00

our yonbon Contspoubtni,

We deem it right to state that we do not at all times
latelfy ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

The opening days of April will see the
assembling in London of a gathering unique in
the history of the British Empire. April 4 is
the date fixed for the opening of the Colonial
Conference—or, as it is officially called, the Con-
ference of Delegates and Representatives from
the principal Colonies—and the Conference Room
of the Foreign Office where so many weighty
transactions have taken place, will witness the
first meeting. At that meeting,, as if to emphati-
cally mark the importance of the gathering, the
Prime Minister and other members of the
Government will be present, as well as a certain
number of peers, members of Parliament, and
other distinguished personages connected with
the Colonies; and it is hoped that much good
will flow from the discussions which will follow
upon the opening meeting, which will be officially
represented, and several of these will send their
Premier or some other leading Minister to assist
their Agent-General in England in the various
deliberations. Those Colonies which as yet have
no responsible government will not, however, be
left out in the cold, for gentlemen specially con-
versant with their affairs will be invited to
attend not only the opening meeting but any
subsequent dismission where their local know-
ledge might be useful. In this way it is
hoped that a bodyof Colonial opinion
will be evoked which it would be otherwise im-
possible to obtain. And something more
precious even than this is hoped to be secured by
the Conference—a warmer feeling, because based
on more perfect knowledge, between England
and those great countries which the industry of
her sons has called into being.
On Saturday last there was commenced in the
,metropolis a Government inquiryinto the employ-
ment, earnings, and other particulars of the work-
ing classes in four typical districts, St. George's-in-
the-East, Battersea, Deptford, and Hackney.
This was done by means of house-to-house in-
quiries, conducted by enumerators, acting under
the direction of the local registrars of births and
deaths; and it is intended that the information
obtained shall be tabulated at the General
Register Office, and in due course submitted to
Parliament. If the means taken were sufficient
—and it must be confessed that the information
sought is of so extensive and delicate a character
that, to be worth anything, it must have involved
much more labour than the collection of census-
papers—the result should be to bring before us an
amount of knowledge concerning the condition
of the working population which has not previ-
ously been obtainable. "More light" is what
Goethe asked for with his last breath, and more
light is what is wanted regarding the actual
state of the workers among us. There is a
great deal more talk about it than knowledge of
.it,'and some of those who talk the most glibly
actually know the least. If the Government,
therefore by this inquiry, can supply facts which
will enable us to judge of the true condition of
the metropolitan working classes at this
moment, it will be of advantage all round.
One thing may be taken as certain to be the
outcome of the inquiry—that the general con-
dition of the working population of London will
be found to be batter than it was a twelvemonth
since. That may not be saying very much, for a
twelvemonth ago there was an amount of dis
tress which was happily abnormal, but it is say-
ing something; and however small that some-
thing may be, there it is to be thankful for.
The winter of 1885 was a long and dreary one;
the depression in trade had shown no sign of
being dispelled; and as the weary months rolled
on many an honest workman, who had never
known what it was to feel the pinch of
hunger, began to be acquainted with what want
really is. It is easy enough for those who earn
good salaries, or who are otherwise in comfort-
able circumstances, to say that in the days of
good trade such men as these should have saved.
Many of them had done so, but any who know
the necessarily hard struggle the ordinary work-
man always has in a labour market so crowded
as that of the metropolis, are aware that saving
to such an extent as shall provide against being
out of work for months together is impossible.
The winter which is now, it may be hoped, rapidly
coming to an end, though severe enough, did not
begin to be severe as early as that of 1885; and
it has been brightened by an appreciable improve-
ment in trade. The consequence naturally is
that though poverty is as painfully prominent in
the labouring districts of London as it always has
been, and -is', unhappily, always likely to be, there
is nothing like the exceptional distress which a
year ago wrung the heart of every person who
was brpught into personal contact with it.
Remark has been made that the winter now
appears to :be rapidly nearing its end, but it only
shows how. short is the popular memory that any
surprise should be felt at such severe snowstorms
coming so late as those which, beginning in the
north and gradually spreading to the south, have
within the last fortnight swept over England.
FBr, 'when we have anything that.can be called a
wihtisr, there is usually a good burst of snow in
Meirbh to finish up with. There was one last year
as there, has been one this, aid one of the most
appalling railway accidents in recent times was
caused by a March snowstorm just eleven years
ago. There are many to-day who have reason to
remember with sadness the heavy snow which fell
on an early night in the March of 1876; Signal-
wires were broken, and-the signals themselves
obscured:. and just by the Abbot's Ripton signal-
box on the Great Northern Railway a train left
the rails. Comparatively little damage was done,
and the passengers hurried out of the carriages to
secure their own safety, and to attend to such of
their fellows as had been injured. But the worst
effects of the accident were yet to come, for as
the passengers were standing in groups by the
side of the wrecked train, another express--the
signals being useless—dashed into their' mi3st
and became itself a ruin. The result was ter-
rible. marking out this catastrophe from the
majority of its fellows by the peculiar horror of
the circumstances, and showing how severe may
be the effects of the far from uncommon spectacle
ot a snowstorm in March.
Among the many measures which have this
year been laid by private members upon the table
of the House of Commons is one that will attract
much sympathy from those who have occasion to
go down to the sea in ships. It deals with the
provision of boats and life-belts, and it seeks to
make it compulsory on every English vessel ex-
ceedinga certain limited burthen to be provided,
not only with such numbers but also with such
kinds of boats, life-belts, floats, and rafts as the
Board of Trade may fix' so as best to secure
the 'safety, in case of disaster, of all who
may be on board. In addition to this, every
vessel licensed to carry passengers would
be required to be provided at all times
with a serviceable life-buoy, or belt, for
each passenger allowed to be carried, as well
as for every member of the crew: and
these life-preservers would have to be kept in
good order and in convenient and accessible
places in readiness for immediate use in case of
accident. These would be very drastic regula-
tions in the eyes of those who have to do with
ships, and perhaps they ask more than owners of
vessels are prepared to concede. But it will be
generally thoughtthat some alteration is required
in the present haphazard system of supplying
life-preserving apparatus to our ships. We all
know. that sometimes accidents occurs which
cause a vessel to founder so suddenly that the
best and most complete apparatus in the world
welzia, not suffice to save those on board, but
these are exceptional. As a rule, sufficient time
is given to allow every one on the ship to be
equipped
.with a life-belt, or got into a lifeboat,
if either is provided; and there is not much
doubt that many lives now annually lost could
be saved if only suitable provision had been
made before the vessel left the shore.
But, however praiseworthy may be the object
of this particular measure, it is likely to surfer
the fate of the hundred or two other private
members' bills which have already seen the light
this session. It is to be feared that constituents
do not always appreciate at the full the sacrifices
of time and patience which their representatives
make. The industry with which members "get
up" a subject to which their attention has been
turned,.the pains with which they draft a bill
which shall remedy their pet grievance, and the
patience with which they await ifs passage
through Parliament, what tongue can tell, or
what pen perfectly relate, except the tongue or
pen of those who have gone through the ex-
perience. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,
and the heart of many a member of the House of
Commons must often havebeen made faint within
him by the continual delays interposed between
his measure and success. In some cases the result
is more serious than mere disappointment. A
few years ago, a member introduced a bill
upon a subject which he had closely at
heart, and night after night, through a long
session he attended the House, striving to push
his measure through the successive stages which
have to be passed by every Bill. After a display
0* Pa tience which was little short of marvellous.
'he.an4eeeded in securing the third reading . -it
skrent through the House of Lords with little
ter uhls and it speedily received the Royal