The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-01-16 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

•
In September next a great international exhibition
of horticulture will take place at Hamburg. 1 committee
has been already formed.

The Great Rl...ltem Railway Comnany will cease on
and fra, February 1 to carry mineral oils, such as petro-
leum. The carriage of these dangerous oils will be abso-
lutely refused.

The Times "is not without hope that this time the
Greeks have become convinced that their recent ',Hey ha,
NO also.* A ingress. '

In Ohio, a citizen, who pretended to make astonish-
ing cures by •• animal magnetism," has been arrested, and six
electric batteries found on his person, with which be kept up
the neeesuary supply.

In 1868 the import of aherry from Spain wad 67,810
butts, against 63,397 butts In' 857.

The Alaska girls of the period are said to begin din-
ner with a bottle of aldsky, and close the repast with a
copious draught of whale-oil.

The Lancet, and other metropolitan papers, have
commenced a crusade against hair-dyes, w WI are, it la Men-
tioned, exceedingly injurious to health.

On a New York railway, recently, a lnnatic jumped
on to a locomotive, and turning on the steam, it ran off with
hint. The engine ran over two persons, and smashed a wag-
gon, before a well-aimed billet of wood knocked the lunatic
away from the steam-valve.

An inquest Wan held at the Suffolk General Hos-
pital on the body of Henry Fakes. On Thursday, 31st Dec.,
deceased was found lying Is the road at BardweU. lie said
"i no shot in the thigh. The gun fell out of my pocket,
with the cap on, on to the road." The stock of the gun was
lyin, close to the deceased in the road, and the barrel of the
gun about two ',anti from him. Verdict, accidental death.
-

The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon has received an intima-
tion from a person who desires to remain incognito, that he
In anxious to build a chapel, some schools, and a number of
almshouses in COMleCtiOti with the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
—South London Press.

As an evidence of the mildness of the season, it is
reeordei that a thrush's nest with two eggs had been taken
at Fordhani, near Cowbridge.

" General Grant's father, Mr. Jesse Root Grant,
was brought up by the mother 14 the late Governor Tod.
She wanted the two boys both to learn trades. Grant com-
plied with her wishes, and learned the trade of a tanner.
She lesited her son to become a blacksmith 'rids fact was
playfully alluded to by him in a speech a short time before
his death hut, he added, he was too lazy to acquire the
trade."—New York paper.

The weekly charge for the maintenance, lmlging,
clothing, and other expenses connected with the Innaties
confined at the County Lunatic Asylum at Colony hatch, has
been reduced from 10s. 2d. to N. lid. per head, and for the
patients at the Ilanwell County Lunatic Asylum from 10s.
90. to 10s. 20. per head for lunatics chargeable to any
parish ill the county but for others the charge remains at
I.4s.yer head per week.

The rector of Morpeth, a brother of Lord Grey, was
somewhat roughly interrupted on Sunday while acting up to
the spirit of Ime f the resolutions f the London meeting of
Ritualists. The hon. and rev, gentleman apok• of the judg-
ment of the Privy Council as an "unrighteous judgment,"
and avowed his intention of preaching the doctrine of the
Real Presence 'more strongly than ever' I pun this there
was a cry of "Treason, treason !" and several persons left
the church.

Hitherto Jews were not admitted in Prussia to the
functions of judges, but at present ii. Joel, a gentleman of
that persuasion, hda Wen raised to a seat on the hunch at
Stralsund.

It is announced that the Rev. Father Mingeacd. of
the In uninicians, one of the most eloquent of modern French
preachers, has been struck with mental alienation. It is
said that it was in a sernom at the Church of Si. Rosh that
the.tlrst symptoms were perceived.

•
A Ma=clrfol paper says that horrible stories are cir-
culating in 31abigs of the cruelties committed by the troops
in the houses they stormed occupied by the insurgents, and
it thinks that an inquiry ought to be instituted. From 1111
°tibial statement published in the Madrid Gazette, it appeals
that 40 soldiers were killed, and 211 more or less wounded,
during the riots.

_
The Viceroy of Egypt bits deputed Colonel Muchir
and ',Mimi Bey to visit- France, England, Holland, Belgium.
and l'russia in order to study the systems and implements of
agriculture in the schools of husbandry in those countries,
and present reports on the subject.

• - - --
Another fatal gun accident is reportel. At
Roborough, Devon, three men were returning from a day's
shooting, when one of them named Lethbridge asked a
labourer to throw up a stone for him to have a shot at. The
request was complied with, but when Lethbridge fired the
gun burst and a portion of the barrel struck a boy named
Turner, seven years of age, and killed him
A letter from the naval commander-in-chief on the
China station has been received at the Admiralty, from which
It appears that the reported loss of her Majesty's gunboat
Gnat cannot be true. The letter is dated Penang, Dee. 6,
and states that the Gnat, having visited Labuan to complete
her coaling, proceeded to Hong Kong on the oth November.
The official report of the French Minister of Finance,
which was published on Monday, states that the floating debt
has been reduced frons 902 millions to 727 millions of francs
and that the supplementary credits required for 1869 will be
met by the increased receipts from taxation. For 1870 the
revenue is estimated at 1,736 millions of francs, and the
expenditure at 1,650 millions. The surplus is to be devoted
to the sinking fund.
Mr. Cox in his interesting "Recollections of Oxford,"
mentions a tradition that the portrait of Dervorgilla, the co-
founder of Balliol College, which hangs in the Bodleian
Gallery, is a portrait not of that lady, but of an Oxford
tradesman's wife, who sat for it in the last century.
Mr. Bewicke, of Threepwood Hall, appeared in
person in the Court of Queen's Bench on Tuesday. and made
two singular applications. tie first applied for a sole calling
upon Mr Justice Keating to show cause why a criminal
information should not be filed against him for libel but
before entering into the facts the Lord Chief Justice info, med
Mr. Bewicke that such a motion could only be made by
tunnel. Mr. liewieke then moved for a ruli• calling upon
Sir J. P. Wilde, the Judge ordinary of the Divorce Court, to
stay proceedings in that court with reference to decreeing per-
madent alimony in the case of Bewicke a Bewicke, until the
action which lie loot brought against his lordship for malver-
Baton of justice an', tried. The L,,rni Chief Justice said the
court had no power over the Divorce Court, and the appli-
cation was refused.

A large fire occurred in the shoe manufacturing town
of Lynn,-Nlassachusetts, 011 December 28th, destroying nv
of the principal build it,gs, and causing a loss variously esti-
mated fin 300,000 dols. to 500,000 dohs.
Lynching is apparently becoming epidemic in the
south-west of America. Two pickpockets entered a train on
the Memphis and Ohio Railway, a few days since, and suc-
ceeded in robbing nearly &lithe passengers hi one car. Among
their Vieth,: ,34 an aged German, from whona they
000 dols.—all his fortune. They were at last detected by the
passengers, who, as soon as the train stopped at an obscure
station, seized them and hanged them to a convenient tree.
A Inasried woman named Ann Waddington, of
Barnsley, was very seriously injured by Ipenzoline oil, the
other night. It appeared that she was trimming a lamp,
when some of the oil fell on her otree., ignited, and set lire
to her clothes. Before the Hawes were extinguished, she
was ninth burnt on the lower part of the body.
The iron works at Cntesot, in France, are constantly
presenting some new feature of interest. The other day a
new theatre was opened there, capable of containing from
700 to 800 persons. with pit, two roßerto., awl orchestra
stalls, painted in white picked out with gold, and illuminated
by means of a transparent ceiling.
It is said that a new action is to be forthwith com-
menced to try the legality of the vestments introduced by
the Ritualists in the adniinistration of the Holy Communion,
The question was not in any way raised in the recent case
of "Martin v. Mackonochie."
The working men of Liverpool have subacribed
tween CAW and £OOO towards the proposed Gladstone testi-
monial. To their great satisfaction Mr. Gladstone has, in
reply tea communication forwarded to hint stated that it
will afford him great pleasure to accept an expression of the
confidence and esteem of the working men of South Lanca-
shire,
An American letter says that the roughs of St.
Louis amused themselves on Ulu itstnias-day by miscellaneous
battles in the streets and public har-roorns. Twelve of the
combatants received, in nearly as many fights, severe gunshot
or knife wounds.

On Monday evening all elderly man named Wright,
a town traveller In tiMfliehl, was garrotted and rolibed if
upwards of 4:1110 by three men. The telb.ws were distorhed
while riding their victim's pockets, clot 11:0 ti run before
they had finished their work, or their booty would hove been
larger. Mr. Wright is suffering front severe hoarseness in
consequence of the violence used towards him, but it Is
hoped that he has sustained no further injury.
A strike has just taken place at a large cotton mill
at Itondinomt, near Vervims, in Belgium, belonging to M
Garot Brothers. The cause of the n11131,018i011 W.a displltO
bet Ween the trade society and the !models of that trot
respecting some oral trio of detail. Order was nmintained
lii the str, eta by gendarmes. The working dyers sit Bale have
also struck

A youth, named Smith, was on Friday afternoon on
the Thames, near Windsor with his father in a punt, at the
bottom of %latch was a loaded gun at full cock. The boy
stumbled against the gun, which went off, and the charge
penetrated the calf of his leg Ile was taken to the Windsor
Infirmary, where Dr. Fairbank amputated the wounded
limb below the knee, and it is hoped he will recover.

Efforts are being made by the corporation of Oxford
to get the Royal Agricultural Society of England to hold
their annual gathering there in The society held its
first meeting at Oxford in 1839, when a grand banquet took
place in the Quadrangle of Queens College, which is still
available for the same purpose.

- -
The London correspondent of the Aberdeen Fre e
Prex says that on the occasion of Mr. Bright's recent visit to
Osborne, the Quern presented him with her "life in the
Hiehlands," inscribed with her own hand, and that Mr.
Night, at the Queen's express desire, presented her Majesty
with the recently-published volume of his speeches.
• • - - - - -

It is said that the relatives of the deceasel director
of the Royal Bank of Liverpool have paid off his indebtedness
to that unlucky institutoo.

Brigham Young fixes the proper length of ladies'
dresses to be to the top of their shoes. Mr Brigham
Young has, it is said, grown highly proper in all his notions,
and has forbidden ladies wearing low dresses as well as
carrying dresses to any length.

It appears that no less than 139 new journals were
started in Paris In the course of the past year—that is, since
the law on previous authorisation WU abolished. Of thew,
104 were literary and art Journals; 14 treated of political
matters, six of them appearing daily, 12 on art applied to
Industry and science ; one on the rural police, or garde,
chavelpetre, ; one on cafes-concerts ; one on aerial navigai loll;
one on rail-mad stations and one on house porters, or the
139 only two continue to appear
- _

- •
The following is a list of Peers who are now minors
and the dates on which they will come of age :—The present
year, Earl of Don malumire and Lord ilesmuout ; 1,70,
Marquis of Ely, Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Ea,'
Easterly, Lord Monteagle, and Lord Rivers ; 1871, the
Earl of Pembroke ; 1872, Earl of Catilh.rd, Earl Waldeil.ave.
and Lord Rossrnore • 1873, Lord Manners; 1875, lord
MnaKarrY 1878, Lord Rodney ; and 11584, 51500881
Clifden/

The girl Elizabeth Scales, who was recently com-
mitted for trial on a charge of having mixed some poisonous
horse medicine with sugar, with the object of doing harm to
the boys of the family in which she was employed, was
indicted for the offence at the North Riding sessions. The
jury took the merciful view of the case that she had no
felonious intention, but simply intended to annoy the boys,
and found her guilty of misdemeanour only. She was 11.-
tenced to one day's imprisonment, and, as this dated from
the commencemext of the sessions, she was at (no,
liberated.

The Weekly Register professes to give priAtty nearly
the enact number of persona who duriog last 3Wr left the
Church of England for the Church of Rome They number,
we are told, between 2,100 and 2,200 ; and the concerto, it
added, include two peers, nineteen English slergymen, and
seven or eight University graduates.
The happiest postmaster in the world is said to he at
Petropaulovsk, In Kamachateks But one mall arrives there
a year, he gets 300 dollars in gold salary, and there is ne
'rotation in oltlee.

The vicious taste for indecent costume on the stage
which at present exists in London is no less apparent in
Paris. With regard to certain Loudon theatres the hatiy
News remarks very truly, "The power of a manager to draw
crowded houses is in exact proportion to the number of parts
he allots to females, the period of the piece being usually so
selected that aa Toocli an possil•le of their forms may be pre-
sented in told relief to the gaze of the spectators. Admisaam
to the show, half-a-crown." The titanic does riot, in our
opinion, lie with these unfortunate young girls says the let'
Aloft Gautte . The men and w,ornen who pay their money
to We those exhibitions are the most degraded and unworthy
of the two