The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-03-01 00:00:00

EXPLOSION AT A LONDON THEATRE.

SHOCKING ASSAULT ON A WOMAN

On Tuesday a man named Robert Black was
arrested by the Liverpool police on a charge of per-
petrating a dreadful outrage on a woman who is not
expected to recover. The woman, named Mary Jane
M'Namara, 25 years of age, occupied a room in a house
in Mann-street, Toxteth-park, and appeared to have
been quarrelling with Black, who lived with. her.
In the quarrel Black, who was intoxicated, kicked
the woman severely. About one o'clock in the
morning his conduct became more violent, and he
threw a paraffin oil lamp at the head of the un-
fortunate woman, declaring that he would swing for her.
The lamp broke, and, the oil running over her hair
and clothing, she instantaneously became enveloped in
flames. Without attempting to render assistance,
Black left her on the floor insensible and quitted the
house, locking the door behind him. A constable
attracted by the glare of the flames broke the window
and entered the house. He extinguished the flames
and had the poor woman conveyed to the Royal
Southern Hospital. Her injuries are of a shocking
character. The police, about noon, captured Black
in Brassey-street. Since the outrage he had hid on
the roof of the house in Mann-street.

The Hou-s.e of Ref)resentatives at Washington has
requested President Arthur to lay on the table the
correspondence between the United States and Russia
regarding the condition and treatment of Hebrews in
that country.
A committee has been formed in England for the
purpose of promoting the erection of a monument to
Admiral Coligny, near the Louvre, on the spot where
he was killed. _ _ . _

The Grand Duke Michael, with the Russian depu-
tation appointed to congratulate the Emperor
William on reaching the seventieth anniversary of
his investiture with the Russian Ord of St. George,
arrived at Berlin on Tuesday morning.
The Government of the Canton of Glaris has
decided by a large majority to reintroduce the death
penalty, which was abolished some years ago.
While a steel shaft weighing 24 tons, one of the
largest castings ever made in Scotland, was being cast
in the Parkhead Forge, Glasgow, on Tuesday, the
molten metal exploded and eight persons were in-
jured. A foreman boilermaker named John Downe
is not expected to recover.

The roll of the Lords -Temporal and Spiritual has
just been issued, as is usual at the beginning of a new
session of Parliament. It contains the names of 522,
or rather of 517, peers, five of the members of the
Government being mentioned both in the places to
which the offices entitle them, and according to the
dates of the creation of their titles. The youngest
peers are Lords Bramwell, Fitzgerald, Alcester,
Wolseley, Selborne (earldom), and Tennyson.
On Monday a mass meeting of unemployed people
was held at Manchester, when it was estimated that
from 5000 to 6000 persons assembled. Letters were
read from the Bishops of Manchester and Salford
expressing their sympathy with the meeting; and a
resolution was carried appointing a committee to wait
on merchants in Manchester to ask for subscriptions
and for work to relieve the poor and deserving cases.
Advices received at Panama from Ecuador state
that General Caamano has been formally installed as
President of Ecuador.

Further fighting between the Albanians and Turks
is reported from Nrastreit, near Scutari, the chiefs of
two Albanian tribes having been treacherously shot.
Troops have been sent from Scutari to quell the dis-
turbance.

A train on the Hannibal St. Joseph Railway has
been wrecked near New Cambria, Missouri, whereby
twenty-five persons were injured, five seriously.

The New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer
British King arrived at Plymouth on Sunday night,
having on board 7500 frozen carcases of mutton.

In consequence of some informality in registering
the district church of Stopsley, in the parish of Luton,
Bedfordshire, as a place for the solemnisation of
matrimony under the Act of William IV., a doubt
has arisen as to the legality of the marriages which
have hitherto been celebrated in that building. The
Bishop of Ely has therefore presented a bill in the
House of Lords for the purpose of remedying the
defect and legalising the doubtful unions.

The first part of the bill deals with proposed altera-
tions in the law; the second with the procedure for
detaining unseaworthy ships and inquiries into casual-
ties, and the third with the system of tonnage mea-
surement. The proposed alterations in the law are
designed to prevent any loss or casualty being a
source of gain to the owners of ships; and, secondly,
that the owners should be liable in cases of negli-
gence. In the second part the design is to diminish
as far as possible official interference in detention
cases, and to cast the responsibility for seaworthiness
on the owners, and to give representation to ship-
owners and certificated officers on tribunals
for official inquiries. It is proposed to
alter the law of insurance so that in no case
can any one obtain more than an indemnity for actual
loss, and to prevent a shipowner from recovering any-
thing if the loss is due to unseaworthiness which
might have been prevented. The bill provides that
in policies by time there shall be a warrant that the
ship shall leave her port of departure in a seaworthy
condition. This is in accordance with the laws of
most foreign countries. The bill extends the
Employers' Liability Act to seamen, and contains
provisions for abolishing compulsory pilotage. With
regard to the detention of vessels, the power of the
Board of Trade to detain is abolished, as well as the
Court of Survey. The Board of Trade surveyor
can serve a notice on the owner or the master,
and if his requirements are not complied with,
he or the owner or master may apply to
the shipowners' representative, and the superior
detaining officer to hear and determine the case.
From their decision an appeal lies to the Admiralty
Court, which can detain or release, and can award
damages for wrong detention. A local marine court
for inquiring into casualties is to be established, con-
sisting of the shipowner's representative, the officers'
representative, and the superior Board of Trade
officer. Important cases will go before the Wreck
Commissioner, and from either court an appeal
will lie to the Admiralty Court. The provisions con-
cerning tonnage measurement are intended to carry
out the recommendations of the Royal Commission
which reported in 1881. Advance notes for not more
than one month's wages are proposed to be made valid.
Clauses 5 to 20, inclusive, deal with the question of
insurance.

The ninth clause enacts that when freight is insured,
the insurance of cost, of wages, provisions, &c., if
effected shall be deemed a double insurance of freight,
and the 12th clause provides that where the subject
matter of insurance is insured by more than one in-
surance, and that any of these have been effected
beyond the limits of the United Kingdom, it shall be
void; but it is also provided that it shall be taken into
account in estimating over insurances and the person
insured will be only entitled to a proportion of his
loss accordingly, from the valid insurance or in-
surances. An insurer having, through ignorance or
inadvertence, paid more than he was liable to pay can
recover the surplus. "Whore there is an insurance
on ship freight or expenses for a voyage, the insured
shall not be entitled to recover in respect of any loss
which would not have occurred but for the un-
seaworthiness of the ship, if that unseaworthiness
arose after the commencement of the voyage, and
could have been prevented by the exercise of reason-
able care on the part of the owner or master of the
ship, or of any agent of the owner of the ship charged
as such with the loading of the ship, or with the send-
ing of her to sea on her voyage."
Clause 20 provides that every action on a marine
insurance shall be tried without a jury; and a sub-
clause directs that it shall be tried in the Admiralty
Court, and the judge may direct a reference to the
Admiralty Registrar, assisted by merchants, of any
question arisini. Clauses 21 to 26 apply the pro-
visions of the Employers' Liability Act to merchant
seamen, and one similar to the provisions of that Act.
Clauses 27 to 30 treat of contracts for carriage of
goods or persons. Clauses 27 states that in all such
contracts it shall be implied that all reasonable means
shall be used by the owner to keep the ship seaworthy
during the voyage. Clause 28 declares any portion of
a contract purporting to exempt a shipowner from lia-
bility or to limit his liability for loss or injury arising
from the unseaworthiness of the ship shall be void to
all interests, and Clause 29 declares void any in-
surance against loss or damage arising from unsea-
worthiness. Clause 30 declares freight paid in advance
shall be recoverable if the goods have not reached
their destination.

Clause 34 states: "The owner of any British ship
which leaves any port in the United Kingdom in such
unseaworthy state that the life of any person would
be likely to be thereby endangered shall be guilty of
misd'emeanour unless he proves that he used all
reasonable means to ensure her being sent to sea in a
seaworthy state; and for the purpose of giving such
proof he may give evidence in the same manner as any
other witness.'

Clauses 37 to 72 treat of the courts of detention and
inquiry, and the proceedings under them. Clauses
73 to 77 form Part iv., treating of the measurement
of tonnage; and the remaining clauses from the,
miscellaneous part treating of log-books, examina-
tions, proceedings, and orders of the Board of
Trade, &c.