The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-04-29 00:00:00

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

Sir Bartle Frere arrived in London on Saturday
afternoon on his return from India.

Upwards of 500 colliers have come out on strike in
the Bolton district against the proposed redaction of 7/ages.

The prospects of the Scotch farmers are said to be at
present very gloomy.
The declared value of dried yeast imported into
England this year was 4.100,544, against £9B 838 in the first
three months of 1875.

There has been an increase in the importation of
potatoes into Eugland. In the first three months of last
year the value was £234,003 and this year £36505.

The value of guano Imported into I; rest Britain
the last three months lucre:used to £461,682, against £192,690
In the previous year.

At a mass meeting of miuers at Sheffield on Saturday
It was resolved to refer the question of wages to arbitration,
the men meanwhile to contiLue working.

In the year ended the 31st of March, 1g75, there was
an advance of £923 is. ed. from the Civil Contingencies Fluid
as "equipage money" to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
The declared value of beer and ale exported this
year was £.568 173 ; last year, in the same period, £655,295.
This year to India, £177,703.
At a meeting of the Sheffield Church Conference it
has been decided to raise £50,000 for the purpose of building
a number of churches in the poorer parts of the town.
Baron Bunsen's widow died last Sunday after a few
days' illness at Carlsruhe. The deceased Baroness WS3
eighty-five years of age.

The thirty-third anniversary of the birth of Princes)
Louis of Reese (Pritices,, Alice i,f Great Britain and Ireland
was celebrated on Tuesday (25:h) in the customary manner.
There was a large increase in the importation of flax
from Russia in the last three months compared with the
same period in 1875. This year the value was £152,786 against
£42,918 The declared value of flu imported this year from
all countries was £675,602; last ear, A 711,105.

_
"Died, on the 18th inst., at 15, Kensington-gate,
Robert Joseph Debnam, Major, late of 11. M.'s 13th Light
Infantry, In the 95th year oi his age, revered and lamented.
He lived to see his children's children to the fourth genera-
tion."—Obituary of The Times, Wednesday, April 26.

Jn Paris the last vagary in evening Costumes for
ladies is a return to the to called classic styles. The dresses
are worn attached to a clasp at the shoulder, leaving the arms
bare and the neck unnecessarily &collet& to be strictly
4 ' clinic. "—Court Journal.

A notice has been issued from the General Poet
Office to the effect that on and after Monday, the Ist of May
Leal, no postage stamps other than those embossed on the
telegraph message forms still on hand, will be received in
payment of telegrams.

- -
The house painters of Sheffield have given their em-
ployers notice th.t they want their working hours changed
from fifty-six to fifty-four hours per week. At the same time
they want an increase of wages at the rateot one penny per
hour. -

"Thanks for your kind letter. Should have been
delighted to see you, if only for a few minutes as I cannot
say here vo hat I should like to Am quite well and happy.
Nothing freah ; everything the same as when we last met.
Be sure every wish ot yours is strictly attended to. —I remain
ever yours lai thtally."—A dverth ement in The Times.
'1 he work of acclimatization is advancing very success-
fully in New Zealand. 'Skylarks." says an Otago news-
paper, " are frequently heard singing at Maheno and near
T 'taro, while partridges are becoming very numerous near
the Kakanui, on the Island Block, and elsewhere."

An addresss to the Q.ieen in favour of her adopting
the title of "Emprem of India " was 1) big on Monday for
signature at Sc. Stephen's Chambers, oppos.te the C.ock
Tower of the House of Commons, and during the day upwards
of 1,600 persons appended their s guatures.
- - -

_ - -
"Mary Resting at the Well while seeking for
Jesus," will be the subject of the. Art Union of London's
engraving for the ensuing year. The report of the Union was
red ~n l'nead ay at the annual meeting, and it contained the
gratifying announcement that the amount to be expt nded on
I.riz .5 Vitl.6 LttAV so great there would be a difficulty in finding,
in toe galleries open to the prissholders' choice, works of
adequate merit for selection.

An oyster opener of Toulouse, while o ',ening half a
dozen raws for a customer, found a flue pearl worth
thousands of dollars, and pocketed it. The customer insisted
that it belonged to him, asserting that the shells, oysters,
juice, and everything else in the shells of the oysters he
otdered were his property. The law will decide the
question.

During the year 1875, 595;530 cattle, 918,C87 sheep,
and 463,618 swine were shipped from the various pots in
Ireland. Only four aniinals were seized or detained on
account of pleuro-pneumouia; 74 cattle, 54 sheep, and 147
swine on account of foot-and-mouth di-ease ; and 100 sheep
on account of scab. The greater part of these stoppages took
place at Dublin.
At a meeting of the Chichester Conservative Associa-
tion it was unanimously resolved to present through Lord
Henry Lennox an address to the Queen, congratulating her
Majesty on the reception given to the Prince of Wales in
India. and expressing the satisfaction of the meeting at the
measures introduced into Parliament by the present Govern-
ment particularly that which empowers her Majesty to
assume the title of Empress of India.

Colonel Knox, who (according to the Daily News
correspondent at Alexandria) has returned from a shooting
excursion in the Soudan, confirms the news of the death of
Mr. Russel, who, when out shooting in company with Mrl
1/4wney, was trodden to death by buffaloes on the hanks of
the river Sallite.

The Bishop of Hereford, in the course of the charge
delivered at his triennial visitation, adverted to the difficulty
experienced throughout the country in obtaining curates.
His lordship attributtd this partly to the influence of scepti-
cism, and to the inducements held out by the Civil Service
and other branches of secular employment to the educated
classes from which the supply of curates was mainly
recruited.

A return has been issued of diseased animals seized
or detained at the various ports in Ireland. In 1875 the ship-
ments were—Cattle, 195,530 ; sheep, 918,032 ; and swine,
463,618. The number of animals seized or detained was—
Cattle, 4 for pleuro-pneumonia, for foot-and-mouth disease of
cattle, 74 ; sheep, 54; and swine, 147. There were 100 sheep
affected with scab.
Particulars are given by the Liverpool Post oE an
Important arbitration conducted in London last week as to
the value of 107,571 square yards of land acquired by the
Dock Board from the Liverpool Corporation. The sum
agreed upon by the arbitrators was £310,000, being at tl,e
rate of 4,2 17s. 7d. per yard. The land consists of what is
known a. tie River Craft Dock Estate, the Wapping Estate,
anti the Tobacco Warehouses.

About five thousand persons sasembled on Tuesday
at Wynnstay to welcome Sir Watkin and Lady Williams
'Wynn and their family on their return to England, after
five months' absence for the benefit of Sir Watkins
he lii. Three addresses of welcome were presented and
suitably acknowledged. Upwards of A thousand school chil-
dren were preen, wearing medals struck in commemoration
of the event. The day was kept as a general holiday.

The Bishop of Manchester, speaking at the annual
conference of clergy and icy representatives of the rural
deanery of Lancaster, referred to disestablishment. It was
certain, his lordship said, that the advocates of disestablish-
ment were very active, but whether their success would
correspond with their activity he thought was a doubtful
clues ion. Disestablishment might be urged on the ground
of expediency, but he held that nothing was expedient which
was not honourable, and nothing was honourable unless it
was also expedient.
In a visitation charge delivered at Cambridge the
Archdeacon of Ely advocated the granting facilities for
acquiring fresh burial grounds, to be opened to all. As to
services, he saw no objection, at the request of the friends of
the deceased, to allow silent burial in cw.secrated giounds,
or to Jae use, by like request, of some other servize, pre-
pared by competent authority.

- -
The ceremony of opening the magnificent chapel of
Keble College. Oxford, took place on Tuesday in the presence
of a large gathering of distinguished persons. Early in the
morning the Holy Communion was administered by the
Arehliishop of Canterbury. At the morning service the
Eecond lesson was real by Mr. Gathorne Hardy, and the
preacher was Dr. Posey. A luncheon followed, at which the
Archbishop pointed to the evidence whiele that college had
given that a university education could be procured at a
moderate cost. The foundation stone of the new hall was
laid by the Marquis of Salisbury.
The New York correspondent of the Daily Telegraph
writerethat hardly a night passes in that city without rob-
beriee which startle by their daring. Masked men force an
entrance into apartments where only women are found, and
with pistol in hand coolly ransack drawers and cupboards in
search of Valuables. One such case occurred in a respectable
and thickly-populated neighbourhood in broad daylight, and
another before ten at night—the husband in the letter case
having barely left his dwelling before the thief made his ap-
pearance. lit another instance, a lady was bound hand and
foot and compelled to give information for the guidance of
the thieves.
A paper on "The Right of the State to obtain
Eerly Information of the Appearance of Epidemic or In-
fectious Diseases in a given district, and ought the medical
attendant to be the informer," was read in London, on lion.
day night at a meeting of members of the Social Science
Association by Dr. Alfred Carpenter, of Croydon. In the
course of a discussion which the paper elicited, entire con-
currence was expressed as to the necessity of information of
the nature to which it referred being communicated to the
authorities without delay ; but there were differences of view
as to whether that should be done by the medical man, by
the householder, or by both combined.
After a good deal of discussion it has at last been
decided that the Exhibitiou of 1878 shall be held in the
Champ de Mars and the slope on the other aide of the river
known as the Trocadero—a spot where the First Napoleon
had letended to build a palace for the King of Rome. There
were two strong objections against the Champ de Mars; it
was urged that it would not be advisable to deprive the
army of its parade ground, and that the coming Exhieition,
if held on the same ground as that of 1867, would have
none of the attraction of novelty, and would seem like a
repetition of its predecessor.—Peris Correspondent of Fall
Mall Gazette.
In London last week 2,557 births and 1,631 deaths
were registered, the former having exceeded by 147. and the
latter by 65, the average numbers in the corri-spoeding week
of the last ten years. The excess in these numbers was in a
great measure due to the arrears of registration, caused by
the Easter holidays, at the close of the previous week. The
rate of mortality was 24 per 1,000 in the West, 24 in the
North, 23 in the Central, 25 in the East, and 25 in the South
groups of districts. The deaths included 0 from measles,
4i from scerlet fever, 9 from diphtheria, 98 from whooping.
cough, 18 from different forms of fever, 17 from diarrhces,
and not one from small-pox; thus to the seven principal
diseases of the zymotic class 247 deaths were referred,
against 225 and 200 in the two preceding weeks.
Mr. Peters Arbroath, second mate of the Strath-
more, has published a diary he kept from day to day during
his captivity on the Crozet Islands. It contains many inter-
esting particulars not yet given, For the first two months
the e:,tries are monotonoas, and relate to hopes raised by
passing ships, and to the killing of wild fowL He says a
Bible Wab saved from the wreck, and a sort of service held
bout
sehvie en
pry
yeenvnginrgh,ceirlixd
hove
eyeirn oartigeirae,dthfinirsurvevscivuoer.s
hWahae
an the
gallons of fat preserved in bladders., At the
111%0.00, penguins skies stowed away for winter firing, teesides
biotn'te(tlieles htergainngnein
thatol tahne yinenetr,
yM .
€pne.ot peters
ahva thisdare
cruisingenry—
world, and that none of them eheuld look at Crozet
Islands."
Tile National Republkan of Washington publishes
paid by Wile. Titiees to
tahnel'N'tt'euritsetHiti.g.,usace,l)wdareo,f 4 v
as this puts it, "the great
Norma sang hymns for the President's family." On going
Leto details, however, the writer ese vothing about hymns,
but tells how 3ldlle. Titiens isere eeverel aire while the Pre-
sident's daughter-tr.-law, the vit(e of Colonel Grant, accom-
panied on the piano. Ildile. Titiens wits vt,ry eordicy re-
ceived, and, after dwelling on the fact, the National .Republi-
eau mentions that Mdlle 'Miens had, in her adopted country,
been "the recipient of special henours from Queen Victoria
(Empress of India)." By at least one American] fleWßpapg,
ream, net. Majesty is already described by the title she has
not yet seism:nod.— Pall Mall Gazette.
An inquest has been held in
oLowfonne2ddso,Onn,ctoiainireetnohete:rbgnarlyennoo,ft,
RtFh7C en6rlyt ht'llt-iepna:t• , a Igiledrl)4llt3l,etinwer7thilweeasarsbc..aym
22 that of his wife rae
hiessvctuecetrilteinii tanheddvve
al
telabthotie
of the two IJetversity crews at Paine;
'cite:roe:
wentet laceei I
outcten es
withhporwaeedttiwet
eh)
theta what the 36-stroke of the Oxforelemeene
While returnine doe n stream Watson suddenly put •
wt
was capsized and the three oceut.ants were in
shnhoa
spurt t t e
an instant struggling for life in the water. Sergeant a ' vett
of the 'l' Division, came up, and althou-h he could no swim
plunged into the water and wadea up e r to his chi until he
rea .thed Mr. Click, whom h e broughtsafely ashoruen: The
deceit-aid and Mr. Watson, however, were swept away by the
tide and drowned. The jury, in returning a verdict of
"Accidental Death," spoke in high terms ofthe
bravery of
pressed a hope that the Roy
Sergeant Biewitt, and ex h al
Humane Society would reward him well for saving Mr.
Crick's life.

titoimaiumoq iieLt4 07,14 vaiit Dews/ to,

The discovery of another planet is announced, the
161st member of that group of planetoids between Mars and
Jupiter.
Rhin,

A fresh landslip is apprehended at Caub, on the
sihtne. The police have ordered the threatened part of the
town to be cleared.

The Moody and Sankey meetings at New York have
been brought to a close. The collections haNe produced a
net sum 01 125,000 dolls.

Charles Wooden, quartermaßter of the 104th Regi-
ment, died suddenly on Aionday morning at his quarters in
the barracks at Dover. 1?e wore the Victoria Cross, and was
in the charge at Balaclava.
Same of the railway companies are discharging large
numbers of their men on account of the stagnation caused in
the coal trade by the extensive strike of miners in Yorkshire,
Derbyshire, and Notts.
Mr. Alexander Macdonald, M.P., addressing, in
Glasgow, a gathering of the miners of Scotland, advised
them to submit to the present reduction in wages. They
should keep together, and would not have long to wait for a
rise.

• The Prince of Wales proposes to arrive at Ports-
mouth on board the Serapis on Thursday, the 11th of May,
when his Royal Highness will be met off the Isle of Wlgnt
by the Princess of Wales and the Royal children.
The Princess Isabella of Portugal, aunt to the King,
died at Lisbon on Saturday. Her Royal Highness was Regent
of Portugal from 1826 to 1828. The Court meuruing has been
suspended during the festivities in honour of the visit of the
Prince of Wales.
" -

••
Dr. Brown courted a lady unsuccessfully for many
years, during which time he every day drank her health
but, beivg observed at last to omit the custom, a gentleman
said, "Come, doctor, your old toast." "Excuse me," said
he, as I cannot make her Brown, I'll toast her no longer.
There was an increase in the importation of live
animals, with the exception of swine, in the last three
months compared with the same period in the preceding
year. This year the number of oxen and bulls imported was
29,855, and the value £833,530 ; of cows 8,746, at £165,838;
of calves 3,891, at £18,545; of sheep and lambs 202,380, at
£418,841; and of swine, 5;001. at £17,393
A statistical work comparing France with other
.European countries, has the following information about
'public libraries :—Great Britain has in its public libraries six
,volumes per 100 of population; Italy, 11 7 volumes per 100;
'France, 111 volumes per 100; Austria, 6 9 volumes per 100;
.Prussia, 11 per 100; and Rog& only 11 volumes per 100.
The rapid growth of school libraries in France withln the
last few years is shown by the following figures :--In 1865
there were 4,833 school libraries in France, containing
180,854 volumes ; in 1870-71 there were 13,633 libraries, con-
taining 1,158.742 volumes.
A new point in the law affecting railway accidents
has been raised (the Liverpool Mercury says) at the Court o
Passage. A woman was frightened by an accident which
occurred to a train in which she was travelling ; the fright
made her ill, she became subject to fits, and had in con-
sequence not been able to attend to her business. It was
held, however, that, as she sustained no bodily injury by the
accident, and was merely frightened, the case was one in
which she could not recover.

Lord Napier's gold medal for the best shot in the
native Indian army has been won by a sepoy of the 4th
Goorkhas. This result is no doubt due in a large degree to
the careful training the men have received from Captain
Rogers. the musketry instructor of the 4th Goorkhas Cap-
tain 113gers is known as a rising shot in the N.LR.A.
matches.

The floods in the Mississippi, says the Yew York
Herald of the 15th inst., have caused a backwater in the
Aikansas and Wiaite rivers, which is inundating a large
area of country along their b +rile I. The Arkansas bottom
suffers for seventy miles up from the river mouth, and the
low lands along the White River for one hundred and
thirty miles up. Op ,osite Memphis the country is flooded
as for as Madison, forty miles distant, and all the smaller
creek bottoms are overflowed in proportion.
Mr. Disraeli has sent a letter to the Secretary of the
Tra•ies Union Congress Parliamentary Committee, inti-
mating that the amount of bipines, requiring the immediate
attention of the Prime Minuter on the re-assembling of
Parliament is so great that it is not in his power to receive a
deputation on the subject of the Merchant Shipping Bill,
but that he would be happy to receive in writing any
observations on the measure which the delegates may wiab
to lay before him.
At a conference of women held at Newcastle on the
Temperance question, in response to an invitation from the,
National Temperance Association of America, it was re-
solved to send the following delegates to the Women's Con-
vention on the Temperance Question, which is to be held in
Philadelphia on June 10 next; Mrs. Lucas, sister of Mr.
John Bright, &P.; Mrs. Parker, of Dundee; and Mother
Stewart,

Kirkwall Bay was alive with whales on Saturday
afternoon A great many boats put off in pursuit, and the
chase was continued for several hours, and the result was
that sixty whales were driven on the shore. Nine were cap-
tured by two boat's crews, but in consequence of the flood
tide and the steepness of the beach the others escaped. The
scene was one of great excitement., and was witnessed by a
vast crowd of spectators.
On Saturday the report of the Select Committee of
the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the working
of the Ballot Act was issued. Immediate le&lation is re-
commended in order to render clear the construction to be
placed cn the directions given to the voter for the markinc, of
his paper. Amongst the other suggestions are that the special
provisions for the assistance of toe illiterate voter should be
abolished, and that in any future general amendment 1-,f the
law provision should be made for payment of the charges in-
curred by the local authority in making or altering polling
distric