The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-12-20 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The bodies of the four men killed on Saturday in the
Treharris Navigation Pit have been discovered._ _

A plan is on Yoot for sending Dutch milk to London
daily.
Tne quarantine restrictions at Odessa on arrivals
from France, Italy, and Spain have been removed.
There is no truth in the report of a Ministerial
crisis at Cairo, or that Nubar Pasha has expressed a
wish to resign.
On Saturday the third and concluding prat was
issued of the German White Book. It is entitled
"German Interests in the Pacific," and contains various
documents, most of which are consular reports.
The appointment of Mr. Henry H. Fowler, M.P., as
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department,
has been made.
The return of the expenses of the agents of the can-
didates at the recent election for South Warwickshire
shows that Mr. Sampson Lloyd's outlay was £984, and
that of Lord W. Compton £923.
An unknown man, aged about 65, was found in a
ditch by the side of the road at East Knoyle, near
Salisbury, evidently in the last throes of death. A
cutler who was travelling on the road, hearing his
groans, went to the spot. He at once procured assist-
ance, and had him removed to a neighbouring dairy,
where he expired, after suffering terrible agony, with-
out giving the slightest clue to his identity. The man,
however, had been seen in tilt neighbourhood for some
little time past.
On Saturday morning a fire broke out in the premises
belonging to the Albion Mill Company, Batley Carr,
the damage amounting to about £5OOO. The premises
contained a quantity of valuable machinery, weaving
looms, and wool belonging to Mr.W. J. Richardson and
Messrs. A. Day and Son. The loss is covered by in-
surance.

On 6aturday evening, at the Kennels, Fethard, Tip-
perary, ten of the Tipperary foxhounds, of which
Captain Langley is master, were tound dead from the
effects of poison, maliciously administered.
M. Eugene Pelletan, who was a man of considerable
isfluence as a Senator and a writer during the Second
Empire, died on Saturday in his seventy first year.
The fifteenth annual dinner of the Commercial
Travellers' Cricket Club was held on Satul day evening
at the Holborn ReAsurant, London, Mr. H. A. Coates
presiding. Since its formation the club has contributed
to the Commercial Travellers' Schools and Benevolent
Institutions about £B9O.
The magistrates of North Shields on Saturday fined
William Purvis, a pilot, £2O and costs for not stopping
the vessel Angenoria, entering Shields harbour from a
foreign port, at the boarding station, when requested to
do so by the Customs officers for the purpose of board-
ing and searching her. The prosecution was ordered by
the Board of Trade.
. .

_
The Queen has been pleased to approve the appoint-
ment of Lord Reay as Governor of Bombay, in succes-
sion to Sir James Fergusson, Baronet, K.C.M.G., C.1.E.,
whose term of office will expire next April.
Lord Morley, Under-Secretary for War, speaking at
Plymouth on Saturday night, referred to the hostile
spirit still manifested by Irish conspirators, and de-
clared that it wonld undoubtedly be necessary to renew
the Coercion Bill next year.
The Queen, accompt.nied by the Prince and Princess
of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the
Duchess of Albany, Princess Louise, Princess Beatrice,
and many other members of the Royal family, attended
at the mausoleum at Frogmore on Sr nday, it being the
anniversary of the deaths of the Prince Consort and
Princess Alice. A special service was performed by the
Dean of Windsor, and the Choir of St. George's Chapel
sang several hymns and anthems.
On Saturday the Under-Sheriff of Derbyshire and a
jury sat at Derby to assess the damages claimed in a
breach of promise case. The plaintiff, Annie Wallis,
a domestic servant, said she was in the employment of
the defendant, John Dawes, the proprietor of a hydro-
pathic establishment at Matlock Bath. She claimed
£.500 damages. The defendant admitted the breach of
promise, and a verdict for £135, with costs, was even-
tually arrived at by consent.
Mr. Theodore Fry, M.P., has received the following
letter from the Premier's private secretary: "Mr.
Gladstone desires me to acknowledge the receipt of
the resolution which you sent to him from Darlington
in favour of women's suffrage, and to say that individ-
ually he will be glad if this subject receives a full and
dispassionate consideration."
The mail train which left Plymouth for London at
8.23 p.m. on Sunday night met with an accident at
Hemerden Poiat, between Cornwood and Ivy-bridge,
about ten miles from Plymouth. The pilot engine ran
off the rails, blocking both the up and down lines.
Traffic was interrupted for several hours, but at last
advices the line was being cleared by a breakdown gang
from Plymouth. No passenger was reported hurt, and
little damage wan done to the permanent way.
The Brighton Corporation are considering two im-
portant legal points. The Board of Trade has chal-
lenged the, right of the council to carry out works on
the sea front which would have the effect of trapping
shingle to the prejudice of places east of Brighton;
while the gas company has called upon the town
authorities to discontinue the use of a heavy steam
roller, which it is alleged seriously damages the gas
maim and exposes the inhabitants to the risk of explo-
sion. On the first point a deputation is to have an in-
terview with the Board of Trade.
The adjourned public examination of Mr. E. J. Cole-
man, of stoke-park, near Slough, Buckinghamshire,
and 32, Grosvenor-square, was held before Mr. H.
Darvill, registrar of the County Court at the Windsor
Guildhall, on Saturday. glr. Mercer, the official re-
ceiver, said that as the cash account and colliery re-
turns had, in compliance with the order of the court
made at its first sitting, been furnished by the debtor,
the examination as far as he was concerned might close.
The registrar assented to this, and the proceedings,
after some legal formalities, terminated.
On Saturday, at Birmingham police-court, a man and
woman, named respectively Cureton and Mucklow. were
charged with being possessed of appliances for the
manufacture of base coin. The woman rented a house
in an outlying district, where the man plied his illicit
pursuit. The police made a raid on Friday, and arrested
Cureton with a mould for florins in his band. There
were found on the premises a number of other moulds,
about two pounds of white metal, plaster of Paris,
an electro-plating battery, bottles of acid, and an im-
plement far milling coin. The prisoners were remanded
for a week.

While some beaters attending a shooting party were
passing through a wood near Popham Beacon at
Overton, Hants on Friday, they discovered the lifeless
body of a well-dressed man, apparently about 35. years
of age. The deceased was lying with his face down-
wards. His linen was marked "B. W.," and on the
lining of his hat was writtea " wal," or "wall," but so
indistinct that the letters could scarcely be deciphered.
In his pocket was found a bottle of poison, and it is
therefore supposed he had committed suicide.
The Lords of the Admiralty intimate that the
standard height and chest measurement for boys enter-
ing the training ships has been reduced, and will be
as under: For boys 15 to 14 years of age, height sft.,
chest measurement 30in.; 14 to 16 years of age, height
sft. lin., 301,in. chest measurement. For be) s over 10
the standard remains without alteration.
Some thieves entered the premises of Mr. Shurley,
baker, High-street, Eton, early on Sunday morning, and
stole a safe containing £lO and some bonds The
robbery is supposed to have been committed by three
men, with the assistance of a pony and cart.
At the Croydon Petty Sessions, on Saturday, Frank
Mann, about 13 years old, son of a farmer at Mitcham,
was charged on remand with assaulting Clara Lewis,
aged 12, by shooting one of her fingers off with a cata-
pult. Mr. Dennis prosecuted, and Mr. Horace Avery,
barrister, defended. The child Lewis was, it was said,
pointing at a notice board in Mr. Mann's land, when
the defendant discharged a stone from his catapult, and
took off the child's ring finger. The finger was after-
wards picked up and carried to the girl's mother. After
a long hearing the magistrates recommended a settle-
ment, and the defendant's father having agreed to pay
£5 compensation, the case was thus disposed of.
The French Minister of Marine, Admiral Peyron, on
Saturday submitted to the Chamber the Budget for the
French Navy. He said it was with reluctance that he
had accepted the retrenchments that had been made by
the Budget Committee. He defended the present class
of ships of war, and said for some time to come it
would be necessary to keep to the ironclads already laid
down, after which their efforts should be concentrated
upon the construction of swift cruisers and torpedo
vessels. The Budget was adopted.
A Berlin correspondeit writes that Mr. Stuart
Cumberland performed an extraordinary thought read-
ing experiment with Mr. H. M. Stanley, at his hotel in
that city. The task appointed was to mark out on a
map of Africa, and under the usual thought reading
conditions, the route which Mr. Stanley had determined
in his own mind to follow on his next visit to the Dark
Centinent. Mr. Stuart Cumbei land was entirely success-
ful—firstly, in fixing on Mr. Stanley's intended point
of departure and in following stage by stage the route
to be follqweid,

SATURDAY, Ditu 20, 1884

Iwo workmen, engaged on tne outn-vv estern nne,,
near Lyndhurst, has been run over by a passenger treks
and killed.
_ .

Philip Dunne has been convicted at Munster winter'
assizes at Cork of the manslaughter of Mary Walsh, of
Penrose-lane, county Cork, on October 18 hot. Ho was
sentenced to Jive years' penal servitude.
A fatal cullision occurred in the Channel early on
Tuesday morning off the North Foreland, A schooner
was run down by the Ansttian barque Ilenus, which put
into Dover in the afternoon very much damaged, Two
of the crew of the schooner were Jost.
Mr. John Collett, the director of contract's for the
navy, attended Drulley Clamber of Commerce on Tuts—
day morning in search of information as to the.manu—
facture of cables, aseliors, nails, and other good's, and
intimated that the Admiralty had determined ow ex—
tending the contract- more widely. Muck gratifiCa.,
tion was expressed bythe members at-the natureof thee
eharige._ _ _

The Norwich Town COuncil on Tuesday directed thy
City Treasurer to with-bold payments to the freemen:
of what is known as "freemen's money," and which it
has been the custom to pny for the last 150 years. TheA
money is derived from the Town Close Estate.
number of the citizens contend that this is city pro—
perty and not the property of the freemen. The issue.
Will be fought out in a e ourr of law.

Messrs. Brown and Marshall's railway carriage works,.
Saltley, near Birmingham, have commenced the con-
struction of pianoforte railway carriage saloons, some-
what after the fashion of those already adopted. in.
Germany. Ingenious appliances hav9 been provided for
deadening the noise of the wheels so as to preserve the.
harmony of the music. The saloons are aboutas-lOng as;
a double carriage, measuring 52ft.
At a meeting in Edinburgh on Tuesday, attended by'
prominent volunteers and delegates from the. principal,
Scottish rifle associations, it was agreed to form a,
Scottish Rifle Association' and to ask the Queen to be
patron and the Prince of Wales to be vice-patron. It
was stated by Colonel Wilson, of Bannockburn, who.
presided, that it was intended to have a yearly rifle.
meeting and camp of instructiou similar to Aldershot.
From the number of cases in which Liberal Associa-
tions are approving the division of large boroughs into
single-member constituencies there appears to be a
growing feeling in support of the Government plan..
The Liverpool Liberal Nine Hundred on Tuesday sup-
ported, b‘ a large majority, the scheme embodied. in the
Seats Bill.

Admiral Courbet informs the Ministry of Marine in
Paris that Captain Lacroix has driven the Chinese from,
their new works in the neighbourhood of Kelung, in-
flicting upon them a loss of more than 200 men. The
French had only one soldier killed. With the view of
Carrying on more energetic operations in Formosa and
Tonquin next year it is reported that several ironclad&
and torpedo boats are to be sent out, and that an ex.
traordinary call for seamen is likely to be made by the
Admiralty of France.

A raeoting of the central committee of the North.
and North-East Lancashire Cotton Spinners'Associa-
tion was held in Manchester on Tuesday afternoon to
consider several matters affecting the welfare of the
trade, and, among other things, a resolution was passed
to seek the co-operation of the operatives in securing a
development of the railways and public works in India,
B) as to relieve the present stagnant condition of the
cotton trade.

At Hereford County-court on Tuesday an action was
brought by Joseph Scott, journeyman painter, under the
Employers' Liability Act, to recover damages for in-
juries sustained by falling from a ladder whilst at work
at Hereford Lunatic Asylum, which is under the joint
management of a committee of justices of the county
and city. For the defence it was contended that the
plaintiff himself moved the ladder after it had been
fixed. The jury awarded £6O damages.
A young man named Thomas Woodman, 19, living at
Nailsworth,was found in a wood near Stroud on Tuesday
morning shot through the head, and having a pistol in
his hand. On the previous night he was turned out of
doors by his uncle. He then procured a pistol, and
returning to the house in a quarter of an hour fired
three shots at his uncle, two of which took effect,
through not dangerously, in the arm and side. The
next event was the disnovery of the body as described.
At Belfast winter assizes, on Tuesday, John Lowther,
Jane Lowther, his wife, and Jane Ill'Oracken, his
mother-in-law, were charged with conspiracy to kill an
infant by burying it alive, near Belfast. The grave-
digger refused to inter the body, hearing moans pro•
ceeding from the coffin, and Lowther then placed the
coffin in the grave. Some hours afterwards the coffin
was taken out of the ground, but the child, although
then alive, died soon afterwards. The prisoners were
sentenced each to eight years' penal servitude.
A notice has been issued by the chief constable of
Lincolnshire, calling attention to the improper manner
in which the police-constables of the county are asked
to do the duties of private detectives. The policemen
are constantly receiving letters from private inquiry
offices seeking information as to the character, respect-
ability, and money value of persons residing in the
towns and villages, generally of small traders, but
sometimes of clergr and professional men. Companies
are formed for the professed object of conducting these
inquiries, and the system of spying is becoming pre-
valent. "Strictly confidential " communications are
constantly passing concerning tradesmen and others,
which might be of serious injury to their prospects and
cause their names to be inscribed at these offices in the
"register of persons deemed unworthy of credit." The
police of the counties and boroughs are largely applied
to by these offices, and in many instances that had cope
under his (the chief constable's) notice the information
had been furnished and remi),,,-rrt,i,‘,l:'-eceived.

A fire, involving the destruction ot Weltord-on-Avon
parish church, five miles from Stratford-on-Avon,
occurred on Saturday morning. The tower in which the
fire originated is completely burnt out, nothing being
left but four bare walls open to the sky. A fine peal of
six bells, the tenor bell weighing over half a ton, has
been destroyed, their fall from a great height on to the
stone floor beneath having smashed them to pieces.
The interesting old turret clock, presented in 1860 by
the former vicar of the parish, is also destroyed. Large
holes were burnt in the roof, and some of the rafters
ignited, bit fortunately the firemen were able to con-
fine the destruction to the tower. The fire is supposed
to have been caused by a party of bellringers who were
practising for Christmas, and who, it is thought,
dropped alighted match on the floor matting. The
building is fully insured.
PROJECTED CONGRESS IN HUNGARY.—During the
Hungarian National Exhibition to be held next year,an
international congress of agriculturists will meet at
Pest for the purpose of discussing the means of alleviat-
ing the European agrarian crisis, and examining exist-
ing agrarian laws and the agricultural credit system.
A PENINSULAR VETERAN.—Mr. Charles Cawley has
just died at Crossfiats, near Binley, at the age of 101
years. The deceased was an army pensioner, and had
served in the 45th Regiment of Foot. He went
through the Peninsular campaign, and was present at
the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz and was twit":
wounded on the field of battle.

In the brerman Reichstag on Monday Prince Bismarck
spoke at some length strongly in favour of a measure
to create a second directorship in the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs, but the proposal was rejected by 141
against 119 votes.
Dr. Steinmetz, secretary to the Bedford Musical
Society, has been publicly presented with a testimonial
in recognition of services rendered. The presentation
was made by Mr. Joshua Hawkins, the mayor, on behalf
of the Literary and Scientific Institute and the Musical
Society. The testimonial consisted of an illuminated
address and a cheque for £lBB.
At Eastbourne, Henry Williams, a member of the Ist
Sussex Artillery Volunteers, has been summoned, at
the instance of the drill instructor, on a dirge of
neglecting to attend the :usual battery drills of the
corps. The defendant, who had been legally enrolled,
said he did not think that such attendance was coin-
pulsory on volunteers. He was fined £2, including
costs' or in default seven days' imprisonment.
A heavy westerly gale sprung up on Sunday night,
and continued to rage in the Orkney Islands through-
out Monday, accompanied by extreme high tides.
At Munster Assizes on Monday Michael Murphy was
tried for the murder of Corporal tiamuel Ashworth,
Lancashire Regiment, at Rmgabella. Corporal Ash-
worth, with Private Jordan, were on Sunday evening
badly beaten by some labourers, Jordan saving his life
by swimming the ferry. Ashworth tried to follow, but
was kicked to death and then thrown into the sea. The
prisoner was found guilty of manslaughter, and sen-
tenced to ten years' penal servitude. Daniel Casey,
found guilty of grievous assault on Private Jordan, was
sent to gaol for twelve months.
The ship Princess of Wales, of Portmadoc, bound
from Frederickstadt to Newry with a cargo of timber,
has been totally wrecked in the North sea.
An attempt to destroy a train on the London and
North-Western Railway was made early on Sunday
morning between Pinner and Bushey. The driver of a
goods train felt a suddei jerk, and on examining the
line found seven or eight fish-plates had been laid upon
the rails. The engine had swept some of these plates
off, and it was also evident that another locomotive on
another set of rails had pushed aside others that had
been similsrly placed.
A new dock, which has been constructed at Boston,
at a cost of £120,000, was opened on Monday. The
entrance of the first vessel, the Myrtle, of Sunderland,.
a screw steamer of 1800 tons, was watched by many
thousands of people, including the Mayor and several
members of the Corporation. It is expected that a
large coal trade will take place from Boston, which is-
now by far the nearest port of the collieries a Notting-
ham and South Yorkshire, and also the nearest port-
for the great commercial centres of the midland
counties.

Admiral Mends, an old naval officer, has died sud-
denly at his residence in Liverpool-street, Dover. The
deceased was a brother-in-law of Lord Nelson.
A fire occurred at a tobacconist's shop in Green.
street, 13ethuai-green, London, on Monday morning.
My. Turner, the occupaut, succeeded in rescuing his
wife and four children, but a fifth writs unfortunately
burnt to death. The house and silo; were totally de-
stroyed,and Mr Turner was so severely injured in his:
efforts to save his family that he had to be conveyed to:
an adjacent hospital.
Considerable disturbance was occashmed at the
annual meeting of the subscriters of the Charity ;Or-
ganisation Society, held on Monday at Willis's Rooms,.
owing to several persons, with and without tickets being
refused admission. On order being restored, General
Sir Orfeur Oavenagh, the chairman, proceeded to review
the work of the year, in the course of which he said that,
the society bad no desire whatever te.interfer9 with tho
flow of charity, but simply wished that all relief should
be extended to the most worthy objects. A motion to.
the effect that the organsation deserved the approval
of the public was carried after some opposition.
A photographer of Aldershot, named Jacklett, met
with his death at Guildford on Monday under singular
circumstances. A night or two since he picked up a
packet which was lying in the: passage of an Aldershot;
hotel, and on applying a portion of the contents to thin
gas it exploded, blowing part of his hand off, On
undergoing an operation be expired.
At the Central Criminal Court, London, on Monday,
a post-office letter carrier, pleaded guilty to stealing
letters, and was sentenced to five years' penal servi-
tude.
At the Middlesex Sessions on Monday, Sidney Smith
pleaded guilty to a burglary, and was sentenced to five -
years' penal servitude. James Begby pleaded guilty tr
stealing bacon, and begged to be tent to penal seri!,
tude, but was sentenced to twelve montiu3' X.
tutult end two yea:: • 'WI.