The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-05-15 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

ERITISII AND FOREIGN.

A correspondent of a Glasgow paper estimates that
2,603.000 falsehoods are told in Glasgow every year In the
evasion of the Forbes Mackenzie Act.

Sehamyl, the famous exiled Circassian. chief, has
been permitted by the Emperor Alexander to make the
pilgrimage to Mecca. It is expected that he will not return
to his former residence at Kiew, but will end his days in
" the region of the falthiul."

The London publishers complain that this is one of
the very worst seasons ever known. Consequently they are
holding over their books, and very few works are announced.
Agricultural gatherings in France are becoming as
common as they are on this side of the Channel. Last week
witnessed a great meeting near the of] cathedral town of
Chartres, where a most important trial 31 ploughs came off.
Upwards of fifty competitors appeared von the field. The
first prize, a gold medal and 2001., was carried off by a man
sent from England by Messrs. Howard, of Bedford.
. . .

A numbe; of artificial nests have been placed in the
Bois de Boulogne and the Tuileries Gardens, with a view of
preserving and protecting the birds.

-
The Epoea of Madrid states that the candidature of
the Duke de Montpensier for the crown of Spain is gaining
ground in the Corks, even among the Progreabiat party.

- -
During the past week 36 wrecks have been reported,
making for the present year 1,015.

The Viceroy of Ezypt's son arrived at Windsor. by
Great Western Railway, at five o'clock, on Monday after-
noon, on a visit to her Majesty the Queen. His Highness
was met at the railway station by Lord Alfred Paget. equerry
In waiting to her Majesty, who conducted his Highness to
Windsor Castle.
The researches which for five years have been
carrried on in Yorkshire. chiefly on the Wolds, by the Rev.
Canon Greenwell, of Durham, and other archeologists, are
to be resumed this month. This summer the operations will
be carried on on the Howardian range and on the moors, on
estates of Major Stapylton, Mr Fairfax, and Earl Feversham.
The re-assembling of the scientific diggers is looked to with
much interest.

"W. S. herehar give you notice that I expel you
from our partnership concern, under Clause 25 of the Part-
nership Deed.-51 R."—Advertisement in The Times.
On the let of June a considerable reduction is to
take place in the price of messages by the Atlantic Cable.
A AI ississippi editor and justice of the peace married a
couple in 185 S, divorced them in 1860, married the man to
another woman in 1861, ditto the woman to another man in
1862, and abaut a month ago, again married the original
couple.
'

During the recent freshet in America an emigrant
trait, was delayed thirty hours on the road, and two infanta
divd from exposure and want of food.
The Scotsman, in reporting from the moors, gives a
curious instance of a swimming pheasant seen in Selkirkshire.
A cock pheasant deliberately walked into the mill lade
which runs through part of the estate of Sir John Murray, of
Philliphaugh. With its tail completely under water, the
bird swam half-way across the lade, without the slightest
motion of its wings; indeed, it moved with as much ap-
parent ease as would a waterfowl, and with equal ease did it
rise from the water and take to flight on being disturbed
from its bath.

A second notice has appeared in the Dublin Gazette,
ordering all persons residing in the borough of Londonderry
to deposit before the 10th inst., at the nearest police station, 1
the firearms, swords, bayonets or gunpowder in theh pos-
session. The applications for licences have been chiefly by
persons in a respectable position in life.
The Inde,pendance Bilge says it has received in-
formation from London that the British Government, by way
of ieply to Mr. Sumner's speech, has communicated to the
Washington Cabinet, without waiting for the arrival of Mr.
Motley, that it maintains the principle of arbitration for all
claims of the citizens of the two cotwtries arising out of the
late civil war.
The death is announced of the Rev. Dr. J. W.
Massie, a well-known Congregationalist minister, lie was
In his seventieth year.
A clerk of old standing in a leading London
banking-house has absconded. The reports as to the mnonnt
of his defalcations vary from £5,000 to £20,000.
A deputation of Scotch post-horse proprietors has
waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to urge a modifi-
cation of the stage-coach duty. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, in his reply, said he could not hold out any hope of
a remission of taxation in their favour. There was no excep-
tional burden, and it would break down the primiple of his
measure if he were to grant their request. Although the taxes
might hear somewhat hardly upon them, he did not think
their case would excite much sympathy, for they were evi-
dently well able to bear it.
An unusual dispute has lately arisen between Dr.
Evans, the Rector of St. Mary-le-Strand, London, and his
parishioners, and as the parties could not settle it among
themselves it was carrried into the Consistory Court. Dr.
Evans is anxious to remove the pews, which are old and
inconvenient, and to rave the chancel, and is willing to
undertake the cost himself. Tile congregation on the other
hand, are of opinion that the alterations are not needed. The
Court decided that the parishioners are the best judges of
what is necessary for their own comfort, and sir Travers
Twist gave judgment in their favour.
"Mr. O'Sullivan has shown that an Irishman's bark
is OCCa.slollftliy WOlBO than his bite. Ile had it in his power
to cause the Government, and still more, perhaps, the
liouse of Commons, considerable embarrassmeut."— Pall
Mall Gazette.
Mr. William Allen has given notice in the House of
Commons, that 011 the 4th of June he will move as an amend-
ment to Mr. Gregory's motbm, "that this House is of opinion
all possible factlaies should be afforded to the public for the
inspection of Museums and Galleries supported by the State
in England and Ireland on week-days and week-day even-
ings," hut comideis it undesirable any change should be
made in the existing arrangements for closing them on
Sundays.
The match has been found at Liverpool of the ab-
sent-minded man who, after having been out in a soaking
rain, deposited his clothes carefolly In bed, and hung him-
self over a chair to dry. On Saturday, at the Police Court of
the above-mentioned town, a man named Griffiths was
charged with attempting to commit suicide—a police-con-
stable having arrested him in the act s.f suspending himself
trom abeam. The excuse of the culprit was that he had got
wet, and was "hanging himself up to dry." The magistrates
good naturedly accepted the explanation, and dismissed the
prisoner, although hot without extorting a promise from him
that he would moot a less suspicious mode of drying himself
next time he got caught in a shower.
A young lady, an adopted daughter of Mr. Hilton,
of North Oxford, Massachusetts, came to a melancholy and
remarkable end a few days ago. Her clothing caught fire as
she was proceeding to her bedroom, the flames communi-
cated to the house, and both It and the barn adjoining were
destroyed. The young lady was burnt to death.
At Nottingham, on Saturday, Samuel blorson and
Joseph Bryan, the latter a boy nine years old, were charged
with placing two "chairs," each weighing about 301 h., on the
railway at Sutton Bromington, for the purpose of upsetting
a train. They were remanded.
Queen Isabella has addressed to the Pope a letter to
express her regret for the outrages committed on religion by
certain Spaniards in a moment of excitement, and in opposi-
tion to the general sentiments of the nation.
The foundation stone has been laid of two Episcopal
churches in Belfast, the funds for the erection of which
have been mainly supplied by the Ecclesiastical Commis-
sioners for Ireland. 'they are to cost £3,500 each. A local
endowaneat of £lOO per annum for each has been subscribed.
" At the Tinahely petty sessions, the other day, a
little girl was prosecuted for taking up, when passing
through a bog, two wild ducks' eggs. The bench imposed a
fine with costs, or imprisonment, on this famishing lath:
child of a poor labourer."—Freemaies Jounutl.
On Saturday, a petition was sent from the borough
of Halifax, to the House of Commons, in favour of Sir W.
Lawson's Permissive Bill, signed by upwards of nine
thousand persons.
Commander the Hon. John Brabazon Vivian, RN.,
second son of Lord Vivian, has sustained a painful bereave-
ment by the premature death of his wife, on the sth inst., of
consumption. The maiden name of this lady was Miss Alice
Mary Disney Roebuck, and she had been married just a year.
By order of the French Government all workmen,
without distinction of nationality, who present themselves
at Marseilles as ready to take part in the work of the
Algerian harvest during this and next month, will receive a
free passage to the colony.
- - - -

•
The wines of Prince Metternich were sold on the
26th ult. at the chateau of Johannisberg. Among the highest
prices Wolff, of Frankfort, paid £l6O for a single barrel, and
the Duke of Nassau £240 for one half-cask.

The Carlsruht Gazette relates that an accident the
other day befell the celebrated chemist, M. nunsen. He had
prepared a quantity of a composition recently discovered and
had dipped his fingers in the vessel to see if the composition
was dry, when that slight pressure sufficed to ignite the
whole mass, and a flame arose which scorched the experi-
mentalist rattler severely in the hands and face. He is
eel ected, however, to recover in the course of ten days or a
fortnight.
The Stockholders of the Homburg gar- bling
made Si per cent, dividend, besides 12 per cent. interest, in

cues. -
A cable telegram from New York states that a
solemn Te Dram was performed in that city at Trinity
Church on Monday, to celebrate the completion of the
Pacific Railway.
The Recorder of Manchester (Mr. West, M.P.
made a very serious statement in his charge to the grand
jury at the city sessions, on Monday. "It was a fact," he
said. " that whilst the rest of the country was improving in
sobriety, and in general obedience to the law, Lancashire was
going backwards." Ile appears to have based this statement
upon "the general statistics of the country."
The Times, with no desire to wound the dignity or to
disparage the power of the House of Lords, holds that there
is only one way In which the Irish Church Bill can be re-
ceived by them. The most resolute members of the House
repeatedly declared last year, when opposing the Suspensory
Bill, that the deliberate will of the people, deliberately re-
corded in the House of Commons must prevail. The cot,
dition is now fulfilled, and The Times has the most assured
confidence that the Peers will maintain their self-respect by
Lowing to an authority the rightful supremacy of which they
have already confessed.
A foreign professor will shortly introduce to a
London audience a troupe of educated and performing
insects.—[The Edinburgh Quarterly in its last number stoutly
maintains the advanced condition of the education of the
foreigner. It seems corroborated even in his fleas
The Irish Church Bill as amended in committee, has
been printed. It contains (8 clauses.
The Massachusetts Senate had by a vote of 17 to 6,
decided to exempt Lager beer from the provisions of the.
liquor law.
The Irish Court of Queen's Bench on Saturday ad-
mitted to bail the prisoner Patrick Nelligan confined in
Tralee gaol on the charge of attempting to seduce soldiers
from their allegiance.
On the morning of April 21 the steamer Uselota,
while coming down the Missouri river, struck a snag near
Sioux City, and began to sink. As she was gradually sinking
the water arose round the boilers, and they suddenly ex-
ploded, shattering the boat to pieces, and killing and wound-
ing a large number of passengers. Fifty have been burnt to
death or drowned, and as many more injured. There was a
large munber of United States' soldiers on board, who were
coming down from the various military posts among the
Indian tribes from the Upper Missouri. Aid for the wounded
and dying was at once sent from Sioux City.
"The Premier was driving out recently with his wife
and family, when his carriage narrowly escaped a collision,
which might have been fatal, and Mrs. Gladstone, des,frib-
ing her feelings at the moment, is represented as reporting
them thus —'l: diUnt think of William ; I did'nt think of
myself; I didn't even think of the children ; I only thought '
what will become of the Irish Church Bill r se non 1 vero e
ben trotato."—Court Journal.
It appears that various novel and ingenious arrange-
ments are to be Introduced at the new French opera for the
accommodation of the uublic. Those uncomfortable petits
banes which the ouvreuses insist on furnishing to all lady
visitors are to be abolished and the ouvreuses with them.
Mechanical petits banes are to spring up, soil by magic, from
the bottom of each box, and the ouvreuses are to be replaced
by gentlemen in black who will be called huiesiers, and will
not be allowed to take fees. An office for carriages is to be
opened, where on ordering a vehicle they will be of various
kinds) you will receive a ticket bearing a number, which
number will l,e c illed out at the end of the performance as
soon as yvie carriage "stops the way.

Mr. Reese Hughes' of Fredonia, New York, has a
horse 46 years old, which is still doing daily duty iu harniss.
Nearly six thousand visitors paid their shilling at
the exhibition of the Royal Academy on the opening day, and
catalogues were sold to the amount of about £l3O.

A Texas paper says that The Southern Enterprise
comes to its office wrapped in 30 dollar coupons attached to
1,000 dollar Confederate bonds due in 1867.
• •

Mr. Charles Francis Adams is quoted as having
said that the treaty latep submitted about the A tabs ma
claims was a good treaty, creditable both to Lord Clarendon
and Mr. Johnson, and that it ought to have been adopted
with some slight changes. Moreover, he thinks that
Sumner's speech on the subject did more harm than good.
A Down-East newspaper, describing a recent fire,
soya—" About this instant of time the rear wall of the back
edifice came down dash, with a stunning crash, which shook
' all Neter ' in the neighbourhood, and the lire fiend grinning
with malignant glee kicked his heels about the rear portion
of the stores and clerks' offices adjoining the dellagrating
structures."
- - -

The Book of Mormon has been translated into the
Deseret alphabet. Professor Orson Pratt is engaged ill 001"
rooting it, and will then bring it east to have it printed.
In literary circles in Brussels it is believed that
Victor Hugo has at least a dozen novels ready for the press,
but that he publishes them only at long intervals, in order to
obtain as large cops rights for them as possible.
Mr. Erasmus Wilson has given the munificent sam
of £5.000 for the endowment of a professorship of dermato-
logy diseases of the skin', in connection with the Royal Col-
lege of Surgeons. The donation is accompanied with a fine
collection of drawings and models. ,It is stated that the first
course of lectures in connection with the chair will be deli-
vered by Mr. Wilson himself.

The NOV York Sun says that since the slave traae
has been abolished, the tribes in Africa eat their prisoners,
an they cannot sell them.

The Marquis of Bute has left Jerusalem to visit
Lebanon. Ills lordship is expected to prolong his tour in the
East for the next few weeks, and will not return to Cardiff
Castle until the middle of July.
Count Bismarck made a translation of the first six
books of the .Eoeid twenty-six years ago. It is to be pub-
lished this autumn.

A New England paper says :—" Erratum: In our
paragraph, yesterday, concerning thirteen ministers who had
been spanked in Mimic", for xpanked read wrinkled.
_

- • -
Scotch venison must be rather a dear -dish if Captain
Horatio Ross's calculations are correct. He estimates that
the value of every foil-grown nine-year-old stag killed in
the deer forest anti on sheep farms frequented by deer is
about £5O; that represents the profit derived by a Highland
landowner in letting his shootings.

••
It is recorded of a Roman Catholic lady, one of the
ailvertops of Northumberland, in the last century, that she
married thrice, her first husband being a Quaker, her second
a Church of England man, and her third a Roman Catholic,
and what is more curious still, that on each occasion she
married a man twice her own age at sixteen a man of
thirty-two; at thirty, a man of bixty ; and at forty-two a
man of eighty-four.
How is it that the :fudges anti Chancellon; succeed
in attaining a patriarchal age, when this privilege is not
generally permitted to ordinary mortals? Chief Justice
Lefroy, who died this week, was ninety-six ; Lord St.
Leonards, who is alive and vigorous. is ninety years alit;
Lords Brougham and Lyndhurst were ninety; Lord Bathurst
eighty-sin; Lord Camden eighty-one, Lord Campbell eighty,
Lord Cranworth eighty, Lind Eiden eighty-seven, lord
Truro seventy-three, Lord Erskine seventy-three, and Lord
Thurloe seventy-four.

Her Majesty the Queen has subscribed RIO towards
the expenses of the meeting of the Bath and West of England
Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture, at Southamp-
ton, on the 31st inst.
- - - - - -

In the Spanish Cortes the Minister of Foreizn
Affairs, has stated, in reply to a question, that before any
negotiations for the cession of Gibra'. .r were commenced
Spain ought to be strongly con: ~.etd and financially re-
organised, so as to take her place as one of the Great Powers.
La Presse (a Paris paper) informs its readers that
'at the races which took place yesterday at London •le
Prix de Chester Cup ' was won by Knight-Gager, who arrived
first!"

Mr. Lowe reports that the thunderstorm at Nottin?.
ham on Monday afternoon was accompanied by heavy ram
and a great hailstorm. The halls Ones were hard, large,
and of a conical form ; some of the atones (which were
circular a ere as large as marbles; they cut off many leaves
and small brunches from the trees, and broke upwards of

100 panes of glass in Mr. Lowe's hothouses.
The universal belief is that a man does not weigh
more after dinner than before. The assertion has been
accepted till it is even received by physicians and nulled by
them as a singular fact which no fellow—of the Ro) al College
of Physicians—can understand. A wager decided the matter
last week to the satisfaction of a large party of .• sportive"
philosophers. The issue was 3i lbs. in advance of a prior
state of existence ; and the experiment, twice after repeated,
gave nearly similar results on other bodies."

At Liverpool, two able seamen have been charzed
by Captain Murrell, of the steamship Boxphortes, with wilfully
disobeying his lawful commands. On the morning of Sunday,
the 26th ult., after taking sulphur on board the previous day,
the captain ordered the men to wash decks, and the de-
fendants refused, saying that they did not sign articles to
work on Sundays. The magistrates considered the charge
proved, and sentenced them each to a week's imprisonment.
The Dean of Winchester (theltev. Thomas Gamier)
has resigned the Rectory of liishopstoke, after holding it for
a period of sixty-two years, in consequence of his age and
increasing infirmities. The Dean is in his ninety-fourth
year.
- •

- ---
Eightv-one persons have taken ont licences from the
Duke of Sutherland to dig for gold at Kiblonan during the
month of May. but this number is expected to be considera-
bly increased.
- - - -

Fire hundred and fifty emigrants for America sailed
from Queenstown last week, and above three hundred who
could not be accommoiated in the steamers remained behind
waiting for the next sailings.

The Marquis of Bute bag been invested at Jerusa-
lem with the spurs and sword of the celebrated Godfrey
de Bouillon, making him knight of the Holy Sepulchre. The
ceremony was performed in the Latin Chapel of the Holy
Sepulchre, called the Chapel of the Apparition.

The law which has just been introduced into the
Italian Senate by General Alenahrea for the suppression of
the traffic in organ boys contains some very stringent provi-
sions. It will henceforth be illegal to send children unwind
under sixteen years of age, even with the permission of the
parents. The punishment for violating this condition a ill
be from three to twelve months' imprisonment, with a tine of
from £2O to £4O. Even if a bargain lie made ant not carried
out, a fine varying from £4 to £l2 will be imposed.
In the schedules of stamp duties applicable to
Scotland there are a great number of petty exemptions,
which very much confuses a simple searcher after proper
duties payable. It is expected now that the Inland Revenue
Commissioners are preparing a consolidated catalogue of
stamp duties that exemptions generally will be abolished.
The Maharajah Duleep Singh is a very ardent
sportsman, and especially a lover of falconry. Ile has now
ten very beautiful young falcons under training at his seat in
Norfolk. Amongst them are Greenland, Iceland, and Egyptian
birds of rare species. Ms Highneis's aviaries are well
tilled with forelen birds of the richest and most varied
plumage, and they are now nesting in all parts of the exten-
sive inclosure.

An attempt is being made to organise an exhibition
of the works of the artists who have not been hung" in the
Royal Academy. This year, it seems, their name is le ion.
and the' committee of invangenn.nt," who have taken the
matter in hand, are confident that an attractive display can
be made out of the rejected pictures.
A Cork telegram save that Mr. O'Sullivan's sub-
mission has given great offence to his friends—that class of
his friends, at least, who took part in the Sunday "demon-
stration."
The Limerick Chronicle is informed upon the most
reliable authority that the assassination of Mr. Bradshaw, of
Philipstown louse, county Tipperary, was one of an egret ion,
and not of any other character, and that one of the leading
solicitors of that city has received instructions to take legal
proceedings against several English and trials journals for
libel contained in inuendos in leading articles and corres-
pondence in those newspapers having reference to members
of Mr. Bradshaw's family, and that the necessary briefs to
counsel are in preparation.

- -
Four seamen belonging to H.M.S. gunboat Earnest
were drowned in Portland loads on Sunday night. Five men
left Castleton beach ln a small boat, about midnight, to go on
board the gunboat. One of the number was drunk, and a
coastguard officer, who helped to launch the boat, advised
that he should not be taken. The warning was unheeded,
and shortly after the boat started it was upset. Cries having
been heard, a boat put off from a vessel in the roads, aid a
man named Wood was saved, though in a very exhauded
condition. In the morning the boat in which the sailors had
started was found halt full of water, and a man named Bart-
lett in it quite dead. it is supposed that Bartlett, who was
a strong swimmer, struggled violently to get into the boat
again, that in doing so he became completely exhaustei, and
that when at last he succeeded, befell into the boat, and not
having strength to rise, was drowned.