The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-12-17 00:00:00

SHALL JOHN BRIGHT BE OUR
_ MEDIATOR ?

The Daily New remarks :---

A speculation has been Interchanged between soria bight&
and American journals and orators which is more creditable
to the feelings than to the judgment of its prtlososeso.
Bright, it has been suggested, would be a very proper
person to send upon a special mission to Wisehlngton, for the
purpose of settling the 4,abanas claims and the fisheries
dispute. Thls well-meant proposal lean exceedingly unwise
one. Mr. Bright is justly honoured in the United States;
and no doubt his reception in that country would be cordial
and even enthusiastic. Ile had earned theadmiration, and in
Nome degree the gratitude of the American people. But busi-
ness Is one thing, and sentiment is another; and neither the
American Government nor the English Government is
likely to let them exchange places. Mr. Bright himself is
the last man in the world to do an As Lord Granville said
some time sinoe in the House of Lords, there lane public man
Who has more of the true John Bull temper In him than the
President of the Board of Trade. It le a mistake to suppose
that Mr BHglat takes a more American view of the American,
Claim, and pretensions than the rest of his colleagua, lie
Wes formerly in advance of them; but they have come up
So his original position, which the Clarendon-JohnsonTreaty
embodied. and he has not gone beyond it. Mr. Bright has,
we hope, many years of public eeMce before him, but he will
be more useful as a politician in England than he amid be
as a diplomatist in the United States.

The proposal that Mr. Bright should be sent to
America to negotiate the Alabama question has at-
tracted some attention in the States. The New York
Tribune highly approves the suggestion. In an article
on the subject it says :
If Mr. Bright is well disposed to listen to our olds of Ike
story, we are squally ready to hear his. The American people have the fullest confidence in hi, just and kindly dis-
position, and would pay more regard to reasoning trout him
than from any other man in England. We do not know that
there is any particular ground to believe that the British
Government will act upon the suggestion of the London
newspaper, but we should rejoice In such an appointment,
and we are confident that good would result from it Stilt
however the question may be reopened, we trust the Engtish
people will understand that we have no disposition to take
advantage of their foreign embarrassments to force • settle-
went. Genersl Grent's policy has the cordial approval of
the country, and that policy looks to • settlement of the eon-
troversy on such terms and in such • manner that the ties ot
friendship which ought to unit* the two countries will be
permanently strengthened.

STRANGE CASE OF BIGAMY.
At the Central Criminal Court, In London, Fanny Reeve.
26, a goodfooking woman, has been tried on charge of
bigamy.
This case was a very remarkable one. It appearedl
that the prisoner was married in 186.3 to a gentleman
named Charles Julien Reeve, and in 1867 she con•
tracted another marriage with a gentleman named
Blechmere. For contracting this second marriage she
wee tried at the Central Criminal Court in June, 1868,
for bigamy, and wan convicted before the Recorder
and sentenced to one month's imprisonment. She was
again married. in June of the present year, to a gentle-
man named Wood, at Wandsworth Church, and she
then represented her name to be Fanny Armstrong,
and that she wag the widow of Captain Armstrong of
the 16th Illiment.
The prisoner, in her defence, declared that at the
time she married hfr. Wood she believed her lint
husband, Mr. Reeve, was dead.
The Jury returned a verdict! of Guilty.
Mr. Wood, the gentleman who contracted the last
marriage with the prisoner, said that she had deceived
him In every respect. Before they were married she
said that she had never known either her father or her
mother, but he ascertained that her father and mother
were both living within a very short distance of the
place where be lived at Wandsworth. After the
marriage, the prisoner had obtained money from
several of his Mende by various frauds and pretences.
The prisoner again asserted that at the time she
married Mr. Wood she believed her first husband was
dead.
The Common Serjeant told her it was idle for her
to say that, because when she was tried in this court
in 1868 she rural have heard it sworn that Mr. Reeve
was alive. Ile considered it a bad case, and he sen-
tenced her to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour
for twelve months.
It was state I in oonrt that the prisoner had cod.
tracted a fourth marriage in January, 1864, with,.
person named Robert

It fa reported that some one has left or gives to the
Indetatirable lather Igoattna a atun oI £4,000 tor saw
Dieting Ids monssiery.