The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-04 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

When withlnsabout fifty yard. ophe Itoyal carriage the men
-e halted, and the arms are ordered ,'learly we can hear Sir
'sat, turning la the right and the left to see that all is
calling Olt tree cheers for4QUOML He waves his
•I hat 111 Ow elle, and tad to end of the
with the precinion of a f do joie, the eheehe ring
,y are peat hack again Irons the growl, and are
l con-
y. sin in the till the away - strains of the
‘ ut o we kn then that all is over and

lINDAY AT ST. ALBAN'S
HOLBORN.
(Fr,. the Pull M&1 Gazatte )

" The Roman ceremonial associated with Film
- is new adopted at several prominent Anglican
_ante in London, where it is the custom to present
to the congregation pieces of pelm, and practically to
add a new ceremony to the tuned order of service.
This was the cam on Sunday at St. Alban's, Holborn.
Morning war.r having been eung by the Rev. A. H.
3fackonochie, the vicar, and the church having
gradually filled while the office was being chanted the
Mg bell was tolled, and the usual preparations were
made for the commencement of high mane.' The
altar, in addition to the nix candle, tn the ledge,
was decorated with palm branches, the hang-
ings of the sacraritun being dark violet, with
an enormous white cross above the altar. The pro-
cessional mom and the banner of the crucifixion were
veiled in crape, and the picture on the south side of
the chancel wan completely obscured by a black cloth
cover. Shortly after eleven, while the procaseion was
being formed, acolytes fetched from the side of the
altar large trayn—of the ordinary tea-board shape—
laden with palm branches, which they brought down
the Church, stopping at the end of each row of seats,
where the boy held the tray while the men distri-
buted the palm. This part of the proceedings hav-
ing been accomplished, and each of the clergy and
choir being furnished with a large palm varying from
four to six feet in length, the precession commenced
int march singing the hymn, "Glory, laud, and
honour," from the " Hymnal Noted." First came
the incense-bearer, renting the people an he passed ;
next the veiled crucifix, carried by a man who was
attembel on either nide by a boy with scarlet cassock
and scarlet skull cap, bearing a large lighted candle,
and following came the choristers and clergy, those who
were to officiate at the mass wearing ventments of
purple and gold with biretta& Mr. Stanton, Mr.
-Mackonochie, and the celebrant, whose cope wan held
up by two acolytes, clottedthe procession. The effectwas
most strange, an bearded men, close-shaven priests, and
liitle chorister boys all came marching past, some
shouldering their palm musketwise, others holding
them aloft, while others again seemed to be almost
, alive to the ridiculous appearance they presented. The
service then proceeded in the usual way,"

aympathy. I do not even depreciate the importance
in the eyes of India of the Dio,ooo which the Lord
Mayor hie sent out from the Relief Committee at the
Diaatioa House to the Relief Committee at Calcutta,
k.
•
and, one cannot but ask .neself the reasonable
what can kW do! 'My opinion has 4-
'that natio a nation ha, an oblige,-
. ba. a - mil,. to indum oblige-
4-that the
n as trqtr wait iii the
power given to the Indian Government to borrow
£10,000,000! I sak you to listen to what Mr. M'Cul-
lagh Torrens said in the House of Commons on Friday
night. He says:—
- - - .

" The country has fallen into the mistakes of supposing
that er ibis Bill we wen linnnoially helping Led:. The
truth was. we were isn helping India in thstsligliteet degree
This was uot a Vainale BBL but • Finance ItU Its object
was to ',wade the di.tressed ootinta, enheron' in one market
cheaper than it cold hi another. This, no doubt, wag •
pnitseworthy net, butt ought not be clas.sed in the category
of philanthropic proceedings.''

We are by the Government measure, I believe, ena-
bling the Governmeot 'Of India to save £75.000 a.. Year,
and that is no doubt cheap philanthropy enough. I
should like to hear our queen speak to her Indian sub-
- -jests Meier spoke to them lime Were at the era-tie-5f
the Indian mutiny in those gracious words which she
knows so well how to use, and tell them that her people
here at home do really sympathise with those who are
suffering from famine in India, and that the nation will
discard its schemes of free breakfast tables and remission
of taxation, at ally rate for this moment, till this crisis is
overpast. Surely, as panchester men, we are not to
think that the £5,500 allich on Thursday night your
committee had gathered at the Town-hall is to repre-
sent to India the sympathy of Manchester and of Lan-
cashire. The late Governor of Bombay, Sir Seymour
Fitzgerald., said in the debate in the House of Com-
mons on I. riday night, "Of One thing he was certain,
that anything which manifested, not merely, as in the
arse of a subscription, the kindness and goodwill of
certain classes, but by some official act, the warm and
generous sympathy of Parliament towards the masses
of India, would sonic day or other when an enier
gency arises be worth morelthan fifty regiments to
this country." And when the nation has done its
utmost them will be, as I have always said, abun-
dant scope for private charity, and here there in
a cloud of witnesses all of one mind. In the Town
Hall the other day I said there were two objects to
which private charity might be legitimately devoted—
one, the replacement of the tools and implements and
so forth of the distressed ryots and tenants of the land
at the end of the famine, to enable them to cultivate
their lands again, and the other to take up, train,
maintain, and educate the orphans and widows whom
the famine in its wrecks might leave behind. I saw, the
other day, a statement, copied from- a Isiodon news-
parr, that at a famous auction of old Sevres china, two
WWI, eleven inches and a half high—note the dimen-
sions—beautifully painted with birds and flowers, lately
the property of her Grace the Duchess of Cleveland,
were sold for 6,500 guineas—one-tenth Tart of
the whole sum thst England is pouring into the lap of
India as a token of its sympathy. If we pnifens to be
touched with the sorrows and the sufferings of these
poor peasants of Bengal, let us deny ourselves some.
thing of our superfluities to help them. Do outlet it
be said of us again, as it was once said, that we are a
mere nation of shopkeepers. Let us encourage, nay,
let us urge our Government while they are discriminat-
ing at the name time not to be niggardly. It is a great
crisis, and it demands help with a large and liberal
hand. No doubt where the carcase is,
_now as ever,
'the vu N vultures will gather together." o doubt con-
tractors and rice merchants and the like will make
their godless gains out of the people's sufferings.
But that cannot be helped; it must only be restrained,
and we must trust to the energy and wisdom of the
Government to see that the nation's money finds its
way to the proper objects, and is as little wasted as
may be in its distribution and in its transit. I feel that
what I have been Raying to you are not, perhaps, the
things you expected to hear, and are not the ordinary
topics of an ordinary sermon, still lese of a sermon on Palm
Sunday. Yet there was one incident on thia day in the
earthly life of Jesus not out of harmony with the
thoughts which I have been laying before you. It is
the day on which those tears were shed over the rich
and gay and prosperous, and nominally religious, city
which knew sot the time of its visitation. Surely we
must trace in this famine a visitation of God—a yoke
tion of England. IN there a handwriting, "Mess,
Nene, Tekrl, Peers" on our Palace walls I Are the
ruins of empire to rdip from our feeble and unworthy
hand, or shall we brace our energies and renew .air
strength, and rim, God helping us, to a higher con-
ception of our duties an one of the sovereign peoples of
the w,0.1d

your fellow countrymen, and has bequeathed to us that
feelingof friendehip which, as you know, your political
trials did not shake. I hope that the portrait will reach
yensafely."

CANON KINGSLEY AT WASEINGTV.
ThetaGenive announcement, in the Dolly National
Republican on March 9, gave an unwonted animation
to the 'Bill Day" of the Howie
Canon Kingsley, of the Church of England, author of
Alton Locke and 11 ypatia, will perform the services of
Chaplain to the Home of Represeutatiyes at twelve Dela*
today 't
The 411 W-owes short. nit ifillemand floor prevent an =-
Visually IlieWaspect for Ilionfty inerniug. Canon angslOY
=m
udsthe with Spanker Blase. and proceeds oPtii
Congress. e prayers consisted simply of two collect. from
the Episcopal Church Service and of the Lord's Prayer rendered
with deep solemnity of manner. Than Cameo Kliagaley it
put through a proceas of hand-shaking. which Mitlates hint
In the most exhaustive custom of the country, which will
point mate than one paragraph, doubtless, in his future notes
Upon Mongolia and their manners. It is made as easy as
possible "tinder the circumstances." A chair is given him
at the right DLO* Speah.r, and While the inowl Monday
morning shower of Bills begins to descend, Canon Kingsley
holds a levee all to himself. As he bends over to take the
hand of each "honourable gentleman 'who ascends the white
marble steps, his profile, with its meek side whlakers, looks
strangely like that of George William Curtis. He seems a
clerk:el Bowed* who has outlived his man-of-the-world
look. The shining black broadcloth, the riestly collar, the
Immaculate white muslin tie, are surety mhrt canonical But
when his face is turned fairly towards the gallery, where his
daughter site, whom he does not forget in the flow of homage
pouring in upon himself. one sees in that face—strong, clear,
and ruddy--the visible result of a lifetime of luscious heel,
good cheer, good digestion, of which the finest intellectual
thoughts, the purest poetry, are ever begotten. And here is
.. the father of Alton Locks. Anginta Leigh, Hypatia, The Three
Fialters, and that moat vielodlotut most pathetic of all Eng-
lish ballads, 0, Mary, go and call the cattle home "To all
lovers of the highest and purest, as well as the sweetest mid
tritest in literate and thought, to all lovers of humanity, for
. humanity's sake, the man who w rote Alton Locke and Thepatia
I Is infinitely nearer and dearer than the Canon of Westminster,
I honoured though he is, con ever be.

name,
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Wilma
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PALM Si