The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1872-01-06 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

AMERICANS AND THE PROPOSED MONUMENT TO COWPER.—The admirers of the author of "The Task," says the New York Post, are late in their expression of the honour in whichthey hold one of England's gentlest and purest poets. It is only this year that they have proposed to erect at his native place, North Berichamstead, Hertfordshire a memorial monument. Cowper died in April, 1800, and nearly three-quarters of a century have elapsed before the idea of a monument has been broached. To the American reader of the present day Cowper is known irk three widely different lines of poetical authorship. To the bor at school his "John Gilpin" earlybecomes familiar. rhe inn known as "the Bell at Edmonton" is still called by that name, though it is not the same building which existed in the days of Cowper; and the American tourist of 1871 may, without much difficulty, travel in the track of Calvin's imaginary ride. When boyhood is past, the lover of poetry will find delight in certain portions of " The Ta4c," and in other of Cowper's maturer works. Higher than these, however, we place the hymns he wrote in his later days--few in number, but unsurpassed in their tender and eloquent expression of Christian sentiment. The stanzas to be found in every hymn-book, beginning, '  . _ God Moves in a mysterious way His WOndeis to perform ; Ile plants his footsteps in the sea And rides upon the storm, are Cowper's, and they form a hymn which will ever ring nut grandly in the literature of Christanity. Another well-known hymn of Cowper's is that beginning, Hear, uhat Gad the Lord has spoken: oh, my people, faint and few, Comfortless, afflicted, broken, Fair abodes I build for you.  A GREAT CRIMINAL iNTERVIEWED.—A French correspondent, writing in reference to this murder, says that the coolness of Lemettre during his trial was throughout 8. marked that he was anxious to observe his demeanour after his condemnation. The result of an interview in his cell, which, by special permiseion, he says, I obtained with him, may Interest your readers. His politeness on my entrance ens excessive. In spite of the chains which bound his hands and feet, he managed by bending his head to take off his cap and bid me we In answer to my questions he assured me, he was as unmoved upon hearing his sentence delivered, as he was with the remarks of the crowd who followed him to gaol, with tierce and threatening cries for his death. Ile had resigned himself also to the irons with winch it is customary in France to encumber those condemned to death, though they were so heavy for him—he Is • slightly built man—that he had to be half assisted and half carried from place to place. He was slightly grieved for his parents' anxiety on his behalf, but being fully absorbed in his own fate, he said he had very little time to think of such matters. Still, for their sake, he would prefer to he executed at St. Omer rather than at Marquise, where they lived, as the remembrance might be doubly painful to them. He confessed to the robberies, but persisted in affirming his innocence of the murders. Throughout the interview, his manner was as Imperturbable as his ' appearance was simple and inoffensive. If the evidence against him had HE been overwhelming and conclus, his look and behaviour might well mislead one as to Ws ,