The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-26 00:00:00

Soolln aorrtspatnt.

rWe deers It Bight to state that we de not at all times
Montl/Y oaraelves with our Correspondent's opinions.

The completion by Her Majesty of the forty-third
year of her reign causes many to look forward to the
celebration of her jubilee seven years hence. Seven
years is not a long time in days like the present; and,
by looking back to 1873, it is easy to see how they can
fly. It is satisfactory to know that the Queen is in
excellent health, and that within the last few years
her spirits have considerably improved. It is worth
recalling that the only survivor of the Ministry which
took the oath of allegiance on the day when the Queen
held her first council is the present Earl Grey, who was
then Lord Howick and Secretary-at-War, an office
since abolished. Only four members of the present,
the tenth Parliament of Her Majesty, were in the House
which receimed the news of the death of King William
IV. These are Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Charles Pelham
Villiers, Sir Philip de Moping Grey Egerton, and Mr.
Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot. Mr. Gladstone is
the youngest of the quartette; he is seventy-one. As
he has been in Parliament forty-eight years, and as on
an average eleven mellbers die every year, nearly 500
legislators have passed away since his first election.
Death is, however, but one cause of the numerous
changes which take place in the personnel of the Hquse
of Commons; and, adding all the others, it would be
a curious study to ascertain how many times the
crowded benches have been filled and refilled with
fresh faces in the course of one Parliamentary life.

Society has been really enjoying itself during the
short season that dates really from the opening of the
new Parliament. The Prince and Princess of Wales
have been at the disposal of many a good and charitable
work, besides performing duties of a more public and
general character. For instance, one day, accom-
panied by the King of the Hellenes, their Royal
Highnesses went to a review at Aldershot; then
with their children they attended a Bazaar at
Kensington House in aid of the funds of an Industrial
School for Girls; and in the evening the Prince took
the chair at the annual festival of the Society of
Friends of Foreigners in distress. On the following day
the Prince and Princess went to Guildhall at the pre-
sentation of an address to the King of Greece; they
were at the French plays in the evening,—the Prince
lepving the Euston-square terminus of the North-
Western Railway at midnight for Holyh cad, there to
open the new Harbour Works.
Although there is little chance of a new chamber for
the House of Commons, there is some hope that some
better accommodation will soon be afforded in the
People's House for the representatives of the press; the
existing Press Gallery was constructed long before the
journals in the provinces had developed anything like
their present enterprise; for now it is no uncommon oc-
curence for a country daily to have eight or ten columns
of a Parliamentary report by telegraph. This is fur-
nished to the readers at great cost ; yet the Reporters
Gallery is entirely monopolised by the London papers,
and not a single journal in the provinces has the right
of admission there. Thus the papers which spend
nothing over their Parliamentary reports have the ex-
elusive run of the gallery, while those who spend thou-
sands a year in telegraphing these reports have to depend
upon one of the news associations, and cannot employ
their own men. Naturally the provincial press remon-
strates against such an arrangement; and two years ago a
Committee of the House ot Commons made an inquiry,
and recommended the addition of twelve seats to the
Press Gallery by taking six on each side from the gal-
leries now devoted to the accommodation of members.
Nothing has, however, yeti been done to carry this
out, and the provincial papers are still out in the cold.
This is not likely to last much longer, for there is a
very considerable .body of newspaper proprietors in
the present Parliament who will not always be dis-
posed to acquiesce in the exclusive arrangement which
was made long before telegraphy had made the Press
the mighty power which it has now become.
A committee of the House of Lords is now sitting
to inquire what improvement can be made in the
facilities for reporting the debates in their Lordships'
House, where room for great improvement has long
existed. The Lords' Chambers is larger than the
Commons, its acoustic properties are far worse, there
is a smaller attendance, so that what really is said is
lost in empty space, and the reporters are placed
where they cannot possibly hear. The Chairman of
the Lords' Committee is Earl Beauchamp; and a few
evenings ago, in order to test the reality of the com-
plaints as to the difficulty of hearing, he took a seat
in the Press gallery, whilst Earl Granville was speak-
ing, and could not hear a single word of what was
being said by her Majesty's Principal Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs. This of course ought not
to be. It is important that ministerial statements
made in Parliament should be known not only in
Great Britain, but throughout the world; but accurate
versions of these statements cannot always be rendered
under existing conditions.

A great deal of interest has been excited over the
appointment of M. Challemel-Lacour as the French
Ambassador to this country, more especially after
what lately took place in the House of Commons.
M. Challemel-Lacour is the personal friend of M.
Gambetta, who is understood to have taken a strong
interest in the present appointment. The Am-
bassador has represented France in several coun-
tries, and with great distinction and ability. He
played a conspicuous past in the stormy scenes of
1870 and 1871; and his courage, judgment, and tact in
the arduous duty he had of restoring order at Lyons
have been highly praised by those who had no political
connection with him. In England he has many
friends among our public men. He is an accomplished
man of letters, and has published a series of brilliant
studies upon things in this country. He is every-
where spoken of as a really able man who will do
csedit to the country whose representative he is.
The Triennial Handel Festival at the Crystal
Palace is an event of much interest not only in our
own country, but in all lands which contribute
their quota to that great volume of music and
of song. As far back as the 15th, 17th, and 19th
of June, 1857, the first of these gatherings took
place at Sydenham, preparatory to the commemoration
of his death in 1859. On the 20th of June, in the
year last mentioned, the Centenary of the great com-
poser's death was celebrated at the Crystal Palace,
when the central transept was converted into one
vast music hall, 360 ft. long by 216 ft. wide, contain-
ing an area of 77,000 square ft., exclusive of the in-
creased auditorial space gained by the several tiers of
galleries. The choir numbered 2,765, and the band
393 performers. The fifst day was devoted to the
"Messiah," the second to sacred selections, and the
third to "Israel in Egypt." On the first day
there were present 17,109 hearers; on the second,
18,000; and on the third 26,816. The receipts of the
three days were upwards of £33,000, and the expenses
were £lB,OOO. In 1862, the year of the International
Exhibition at Kensington, and of the Royal Agricul-
tural Show at Battersea, the festival took place on the
23rd, 25th, and 27th of June, and it was on a much
larger scale than in 1859. About 4,000 vocal and
instnumental performers gave due effect to the works
of the great master. About a fortnight before the
festival in 1865, the gifted architect of the splendid
building in which it was held was gathered to his rest,
Sir Joseph Paxton having expired at his pleasant
residence, Rockhills, near Sydenham, in the sixty-first
year of his age.
In the London season a very happy way of helping
a charitable cause is to hold its annual meeting in the
drawing-room of a nobleman's mansion. This is a
benefit in its way—it lends prestige to the institution,
and saves it the by no means inconsiderable expense
involved in the hire of a public room. The plan is
for the proprietor of the house to is3ue invitations to
as many as his drawing-room will comfortably seat,
and these are given up at the door, as therefore he
knows who are in his house, and that everything is
perfectly safe in their hands, the la: ivilege of going
over it is generally accorded to the meeting after the
business is over. One of the most obliging noblemen
in this waif is the Duke of Westminster. Very
often about this time of the year it may be noted in
the London papers that, at his grace's invitation a
gathering has taken place at Grosvenor House for
some of the numerous good purposes to which the

philanthropic and the charitable devote themselves.
Situated in Upper Grosvenor-street, running out of
Park-lane, there is not much in the exterior of
Grosvenor 'House to suggest the magnificence of its
internal fittings. It can have few rivals even in
rich and wealthy London. The drawing-room,
with some of the best works of Rubens upon
the walls, is decorated with the most exquisite
taste; while the windows, extending from floor
to ceiling, look out upon the gardens, now at their
best. It was only a few days ago that the Duke
presided at a meeting held in this gorgeous apartment
to aid Miss Leigh's Homes for Friendless English
Girls in Paris, and when the permission to go over the
house was, as usual. accorded. That it was highly
appreciated may be estimated from the fact that, to
sa,y nothing
.of the statuary and the sculpture, the
picture galleries are, according to their size, equal to
any in our national institutions. Should any of your
readers ever receive an invitation to visit Grosvenor
House, let it by all means be accepted.
The head of the House of Grosvenor is not alone
in seeking to do good in the way already alluded to.
On the same day the Bishop of London did a
graceful act in throwing his town house in St. James's
square open to a society established for the purpose of
imparting knowledge to those whom nature has
doomed to an eternal silence, but whom art has
e tabled to converse with their fellows. It is not long

since the proposal to teach the dumb to talk would
have been regarded as either absurd or impossiblm.
Recent discoveries have, however, demonstrated how
to render the deaf and dumb as useful members of
society as others who enter the world in the full enjoy-
ment of their senses. The results of practical
experience were amply shown at London House on
this occasion. Children whose ears had always been
sealed against any sound were able to speak as they
pleased, and understood all the remarks addressed to
them. "To attend to the neglected and remember
the forgotten" was a dictum laid down by Edmund
Burke as constituting the highest form of benevolence,
and it is satisfactory to know that there is many an
asssociation in existence which answers to such a
description.