The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-31 00:00:00

Lord Derby, Lord Sefton, Lord Egerton, and Lord
Winmarleigh, amongst other governors, were present at
a meeting at Manchester on Tuesday, in connection
with the Cotton Districts Convalescent Fund. The
Earl of Derby was re-elected chairman. On the motion
of Lord Sefton, seconded by Lord Egerton, it was
resolved "That the extravagant cost of the mainten-
ance of patients at the Devonshire Hospital dues not
fairly carry cut the agreement upon which the grant by
the governors of the Cotton Districts Fund to that
hospital was made, and will necessitate a diminution in
the number of cases sent, and that the attention of the
Hospitals Committee be called to this resolution."
At the inquest held on Tuesday on the body of
Captain Vauehan Phillipps, of Ystradvvrallt, Carmar-
thenshire, the medical evidence showed that for some
time he was in e, very excited condition through drink.
The attendants in charge of the deceased when he
jumped from the bed-room window were exonerated
from blame. Being exhausted, they laid down for a
short time, Captain Phillipps being apparently asleep,
and when they awoke in a quarter of an hour he was
gone. The fall induced concussion of the brain and
apoplexy. The jury found that the deceased came by
his death by jumping through his bed-room window
while in a state of temporary insanity.
In the Italian Chamber, Signor Mancini, the Minister
for Foreign Affairs, in reply to various questions, said
the Government was not averse to Colonial expansion,
if kept within due limits and justified by the political
and economical interests of the country. All the world
was at present organising the occupation of territories
which civilisation had not reached. Were Italy to re-
main an idle and indifferent spectator of this she would
not be fulfilling her mission.
From April Ist to the 24th instant the Exchequer
rece:pts amounted to £65,913,339 as compared with
£67,902,429 in the corresponding period of the previous
financial year. The expenditure has been £69,293,279.
On Saturday last the balance in the Bank of England
was £1,712,261, and in the Bank of Ireland £968,068.
At Manchester Assizes a youth, named Fisher, has
been sentenced to five years penal servitude for an
offence known as " scuttling." The prisoner and a gang
of young men, out of pure wantonness, attacked a man
named Crossland, who was walking along the street.
They knocked him down, kicked him, jumped on him,
and the prisoner stabbed him. Crossland was
dangerously injured, and was in the infirmary for some
weeks.
The Wilts Chamber of Agriculture at Salisbury have
adopted a strong resolution against the attempt by the
leading railway companies to bring forward bills to alter
the existing rate of carriage, and expressed the opinion
that any advance in the rates would be fraught with
serious consequences to the country. Lord H. Thynne,
M.P., claimed that this was a matter affecting trade as
agriculturists.
Some workmen who were employed in digging the
foundations for a new store at Messrs. Hornsby's
Works, Spittlegate, Granthem, have found, about six
feet from the surface, a large stone coffin, together with
two skulls and a number of bones. A local antiquary
is of opinion the coffin dates from the thirteenth cen-
tury. In one of the skulls was a double tooth in
good state of preservation.
Henry Kimberley, a screw tool maker, was, at the
Birmingham Police-court on Tuesday, committed for
trial at the assizes for the wilful murder of Emily
Palmer, wife of Thomas Palmer, proprietor of the White
Hart, Paradise-street, and several other public-houses in
the town. A former mistress of the prisoner, named
Mrs. Steward, who refused to renew the intimacy with
the prisoner,was with the deceased at the public-house
belonging to the husband of the latter when the pri-
soner entered. Prisoner talked to Mrs. Palmer about
a quarrel he had had with Mrs. Steward, and afterwards
followed the women to the White Hart, when he fired
a pistol at them, killing Mrs. Palmer, and dangerously
wounding Mrs. Steward. The prisoner had lived with
Mrs. Steward for several years.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the Richmond
District Liberal Association, Mr. E. L. Stanley, M P.,
urged that peace, retrenchment, reform, and civil and
religious liberty must more than in the past be the
Liberal policy. Some newspapers, including . even
Liberal ones, and espec'ally in London, were full of
Jingo language because the Germans or French, Or some
other nation, had picked up a little corner of Africa or
Polynesia. He trusted that his hearers did not sympa-
thise with such language. Foreign acquisitions had
often gained us nothing but a war with the natives.
Native feeling in the Cameraons is very bitter against
the Germans for commencing hostilities without the
slightest notice. There is great complaint among the
English on the coast at being left without a more im-
posing naval force just now.
Considerable excitement prevailed at Maidenhead on
Monday night consequent upon a case of shocking
cruelty to a child by its mother. The latter, whose
name is Martha Judge, took the child, who is only nine
months old, and held it over a copper of boiling water
and afterwards doubled its head between its legs and
placed it on the fire. Some neighbours attracted by
screams, ran into the house and prevented the infant
being killed. Medical evidence showed that the mother
is not right in her mind.
A strange proceeding is reported from Limerick. A
labourer named Ryan' who appears to have had some
grudge against John O'Shaughnessy, rushed into the
house of the latter, and made a desperate attack on his
wife with an open razor. Mrs. O'Shaugnnessy was cut
about the face, but she defended herself as best she
could. .o'Shaughnessy came to the rescue of his wife,
and after a struggle Ryan broke away, and was chased
some distance by a crowd. Eventually he was arrested,
having thrown away the razor during flight.
An extraordinary scene was witnessed on the fish
pontoon at Grimsby on Tuesday morning, where a
crowd assembled and threatened to lynch -James
Gloody, skipper of the smack Friends, who it was re-
ported had ill-treated a boy who jumped overboard and
was drowned. A rope had been fixed to a smack in
readiness to hang Gloody, who was with difficulty pro-
tected by the police. The skipper declared that the
boy threatened to kill all the crew with a knife before
he jumped overboard. An investigation is to be made.
At the meeting of the Derby Board of Guardians on
Tuesday, Mr. Roe, M.P., called attention to the number
of working men in the borough who were out of em-
ployment consequeat upon the employers of labour dis-
charging large numbers of their servants. It was stated
that there were 700 men out of employment, chiefly in
the building trade. The question was referred to a
committee, that they might co-operate with the Town
Council to consider what means should be adopted for
providing employment.
A crowded meeting of gentlemen connected with the
Old Berkeley Foxhounds has been held at Watford,
Lord Clarendon presiding, at which the resignation of
Major Longman, who had held the post of master far
the last ten years, and that of Mr. Mackenzie, who
hunted the second pack of hounds, were accepted; and
each was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for hia
liberality in the past. It was determined to invite the
Hon. Rupert Carrington, of Nigh Wycombe, Bucks, to,
become the master.
The Under Sheriff of Derbyshire and a jury at at
Derby on Tuesday to assess the damages in a libel, case
brought by the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company
against William Bailey, formerly one of their sereents.
It seems that a strike occurred at the Company's Nor.
wood Colliery, and the defendant published a handbill
charging the company. with fraudulent practices. The
defendant offered no justification, and the jury gave i
verdict for the plaintiff—damages £225.
Mr. Barran and Mr. Herbert Gladstone addressed T.k.
their constituents at Leeds on Tuesday night. Mr.
Gladstone said it could not be denied that we *ere on
the eve of a great crisis, and that the polities of the
day were of vital interest. Referring to the franchise,
he said he had no doubt or misgiving as to the future„
but he expected that it would have great effect Upon
the composition of political parties. He anticipated'
the renewal of the Crimes Act in Ireland, and said many
of the provisions of that Act would strengthen the laws
governing England.
Mr. Deasy, M.P., colleague of Mr. Parnell in the re-
presentation of Cork, speaking at a Nationalist demon-
stration in Miltown Malbay, county Clare, on the ~..,4246
policy of the Government, and in the presence of his
chief said that the effects of English misrule, had been a*
to send Irishmen to all civilised nations anti .
Irishmen were found ready to fight against Eiagland in
all foreign armies. In fact, he learnt in London that
the Mandi—(lond cheers for the Mandi) —was ,a, Cork •
man' named Sullivan.
It has been recently suggested in Scottish Volunteer
circles that a review of volunteers should be held in 'e
Scotland on the same lines as the Easter I.londay
Review in England. The time proposed is a Saturday
towards the end of March. The officers in command of .
volunteer companies have been invited to intimate '
whether *their companies would take part in the -
proposed- review, and, in the event of an affirrpative
answer, how many volunteers might be expected to
muster.

Three strangers called on Tuesday at the houses of
several persons in the village of Armagh, County West-
..,
meath, and presenting revolvers, threatened them with
terrible consequences should they continue in the •
employment of Messrs. Dillon, who recently evicted. a -
defaulting tenant. Thirty-six persons were charged ap
the Ballylaton Petty Sessions with hooting a farm2r
named Brennad, who was boycotted twelve months '
ago, and (with the exception of two) they were ordered •
to find bail for good behaviour, and, on refusal, were
committed for a month.
The total value of German exports to Africa amounts.
to some 32,000,000 marks, or more than £1,500.000 ••
sterling. Of this total no less than 12,000,000 marks,.
or nearly £600,000 sterling, represents the traffic in
"nigger brandy "and "nigger rum" alone.- Nete-ib ....-
importance to intoxicating drink among the German •
exports is the scarcely more pleasing commodity of
guns and gunpowder.
The brother of the man arrested at Hockenheim he.'
confessed that the prisoner is the real murderer of -
Police Councillor Rumpfi at Frankfort. His name is
Julius Lieske, and he is a native of Zossen, in the pro-
vince of Brandenburg. He is a shoemaker by trade, •tv.st
and he has been three years in Switzerland, and bad • •
intended to return there after the murder. .
The Mahometans in Russia have just lost the head of
their church, the Mufti of Orenburg, and are preparing s..
to elect his successor. The deceased Mufti,. Jefkileff,
was a noble of hereditary rank, and in his younger days ,
served in the Hussars against the Polish rebels. He
was much liked by his Russian co-religionists fOr his '
- • •
efforts to improve the Mussulman clergy, 4-ad hisl-Scue-•.
voleat disposition towards the poorer Mussulman
population.
A miner, named Arthur Skiverton, aged 4.5. years,and ' ' ••••
his wife, were on Sunday morning for.nd lying dead on - •
'thole CSaal
the Caledonian Railway near 2tlonnt Vernon Station.
Skiverton and his wife had left Doghill, near Broom-
house,teuVanolasgo where
terraevtehileiyngli\b•eyd Saturday teziowoanyt.o.
.They
erto
returned by the last train, and on arriving it Mount
Vernon it is supposed that they got on the line, as the.
man was heard saying that he intended to take a short,. tz„•
cut home.
Two women who were passing along the Archway-'•
road, Highgate, London, on Tuesday morning found the
dead body of a man lying on the road, and it was evi-
dent that the man had either fallen or thrown himself
over Highgate Archway. In an envelope found in the
purse of the deceased was the following: "In a fit of
despondency I took yesterday a dose of cyanide of
Potassium. It did not kill me, as I thought it would,
but loosened aRy palate and compelled me to this. God
forgive me, and help Ty poor mother and father."
A railway season-ticket found on the body bore the
name of "Mr. T. Hill." Another ticket gave an
address in New Southgate.