The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-04-17 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

SRITISII AND FOREIGN.

Four women are returned as" shipbuilders" in the
In the Vermont census.
Prince Leopold was Fla ill on Saturday as to be
ensile to travel by train with the (learn. The Prince left
Buckingham Palsce in the morning in advance of her
Majesty, and travelled in a carriage by road to Windsor.
In Oregon " bibul tion" ia said to be a prerentive
against smallpox: ant. t 'se modern style of drinking invita-
tion ix" Let's disinfect.
In New York, fashion has just decreed that bride's
shall reside one year with their parents.
The shutter of a New York gore hears this unique
placard Closed on account of the Sheriff."
A New York paper says, "Dr. Hayes wishes to go
North again. No Arctic explorer is really happy uutil he
has failed to come back."
The Political Barometer is the title of a publica-
tion commenced this month, which records the vote or
the altseece of every member at each divieion, to be core
rected monthly.
The sawyers of Stockport have struck for an ad-
vance ott wages, equivalent to 17a per emit., tatting the work
"all Tomei " They have declined to accept the Mauchester
rates of payment.
The accounts from California continue to hold out
the prospect of good grain crops. Wheat and barley, It is
said, promise better than in any previons year. At the end
iif last month there were 66 vessels en route to Great Britain
front San Fraeciseo, with cargoes comprising 1,700,000 sacks
of wheat, besides eight vessels for United States ports In
the Atlantic, with 166U00 sacks of wheat, acid ten vowels
for Rio de Janeiro, with 51,010 barrels of flour. The Cali-
fornian floor and wheat now afloat for China and other
countries reaches a total equivalent to 2,390,000 sacks of
wheat, valued at £OOO,OOO.
General Grant has been so beseiged by office-seekere,
who refuse to take " " for an answer that a Lick and
chain has been fixed to each of the main doors of the White
liouee, in order that the doorkeepers may hold in safety a
. parley with such visitors.
,14w little those who prate of what working men
should be, reflect on the conditions umler which a working
I mat, must live, whatever he is Ile prebehly live. in a
wretched house where five or six families are crowded to-
gether without distinctions of age or sex ! "Who would
I venture to say," mks one, " what even alt educated gentle-
man and his family might become, if doomed to live for a
twelvemonth In one of the back streets of Bethnal Green?"
I We (John Bail) understand that an arrangement has
been come to between the Episcopal Ben h anti the Earl of
Shaftesbury, by which his Mil arid that of the Primate on
I the Reform of the Ecclesiastical Gaols shall be read a
• second time, and then referred tit a select committee.— rhe
recommended the oteiesion of the present lees°o for evening
I saute journal believes that the Ritual Conimissioners have
prayer on the thirst Sunday in Lent, containing the story of
Dinah.
During the Nabob'e stay in Paris he was besieged
• with beg ing letters. Here is a specimen :—"Serenissime
Synd Shoisoor illustrious Highness is rich ; he then
should be generous. Will he deign to create happiness in
Frame by sentlieg 100 list-es geeing to Ins obliged, " Xetaac
Francoie, Poste re-tante I Auch (Gees)."
A provision dealer in London purchased twenty
casks of butter last week at 25 per cent. below the trade
price. On piercing the mate:jai, he found that a though the
outsides of each were pure butter, the interiors were fit for
nothing hut cart-grease !
The following odd thought is from a Paris paper
Do you wish to know how to make a eensation in the
world? It is to have the smallpox twice; the met time you
will be marked, and the :second you will he remarked."
General Grant has received from Connecticut a
cigar eft long, weighing 16Ib It is supposed these tigers
will become the fashion at bachelors' at terdinners, anti new
cigar-cases to hold a dozen are being built; they will be
driven by bicycles.
New York is Rending over cielerns-f all of live frogs
to supply the Paris market., and replenish the native stock.
The Emperor Napoleon has written a letter to M.
Rouher on the subject of the hundredth anniversary of the
birthday of Napoleon the Firt, %%Inch occurs on the 15th of
cent merest. The Emperor thinks that the hest mode of
celebrating the day will be to grant a pemion of £lO a year
to every old soldier who served wider the first Napoleon.
His Majesty expresses a hope that the Legislative Chamber
will welcome Oda prop 'seem with the pet rioter fe. ling by
which the Auteinlily is anitrated far "to awalsen great
historical recoil, ctio ~" he says, is to strengthen faith in
the fir lire; and to reed, homage to wrest men is to re-
enter i.e one of the most strikiug manifestations of the Divine
will.
The result of a, "Lifeboat Fancy Fair" and fetes,
held at Exeter, has been the ad lithou of a sum of £2,100 to
the funds of the Lifeboat Institution.
The seasons of 1868 and '69 will be memorable in the
huntinz world, more fatal accidents having oecurred In the
field than during aily two previous years. The old axiom,
" 'Hs to lice that kills," has been sadly verified. lien
now go out to ride, not to hunt.
The Board of Trade have awarded a telescope to
Captain Von Schantz, of the Russian barque GrOn, for his
humanity in receiving a portion of the shipwrecked crew of
the barque Althonllnch, of eunderlami, on hoard his venal,
on the tlet if January, 1861. The A tiiivolloch was from
Bieirges to Falmouth, with a carm of barley. On the 15th
she sprmg a leak, anti on the 19th the crew abandoned her
in a Milking condition. 'rhe master and crew were received
Ott board the Mengis Armstrong, and five of them were sub
sequmitly tran•ferred to the barque Were, which remained
eighteen hours by the Mrggis Arrnst,ong to effect their
transfer.
Letters have been received at Gotha from the
German discoverer, Carl Mauch, who is making au exploring
expedition In Southern Africa. The letter. are dated Nov.
29, 1868, and announce that he has acemplished a very im-
portant journey. althoogh he hail encomit ered great dangers.
its started northwards on the Bth of May from the Potachefs
river, and arrived at Inyati on the 18th of October, having
explored countries which had never been traversed by Euro-
peans. From this point he Intends this April to endeavour
to penetrate northwards as farm the Equator.
An Illinois Sheriff has supplied himself and all his
deputies with velocipedes.
A Louisiana paper says, " A mother and her child
were accidentally ground up in Hogg's sugar-cane mill last
week We regret the accident, but the quality of sugar
furnished at this place since the accident has been very
good."
A correspondent of the Leeds Mercury says that
some of the Ulster Ormgemen have forwarded to Mr. Glad
stone letters of a type with which Sheffield alone, amongst
English towns, has hitherto had much acquaintance.
James Taylor, the London comic vocalist, now in
America, has issued a Kemal challenge to all the American
vocapts, in which he offers to compete with any one fcr
superiority in hinging. for 1,040 dollars.
The University Court of Edinburgh have resolved
on the coneiderati, n of a report by the Senates Academicits
to authorize the expenditure of e 4,590, to be applied to the
purchase of an official residence for the Principal.
It was stated the other day that the Duke of Aosta,
who is still mentioned as a candidate for the crown of
Spain, had arrived in Berlin. This news is, however, con-
tradicted. The Duke is at Spezzia, anti Is to remain there •
month.
A jury was empanelled at the Sheriff's Gnirk in
LOll,lOll, on Tuesday, to atiess the damages in a breach of
promise case sent front the Court of Queen's Bench, in
which judgment had been allowed to go by default. The
only question wits an to the loss which the plaintiff, a young
lady in her 214 year, had sustained through the breach of
the engagement rho jurY gave her 01,000.
The Scotsman, speaking on the subject of Mr.
Lowe's propose s with regard to the income-tax, says
:
Mr Lowe is ativbed to allow the income tax to he paid in
instalments, as hitherto, In Eugland. It is pretty clear that
in London the papers are hardly aware that the Chancellor
of the Excheteler is simply proposieg to assimilate the law in
England, as to the collection of taxee, to that of Sentland—
trying in fact to get the people of England to adopt the
system devised for us here by Mr. Fletcher, of Danans, to his
great credit, and our great comfort.
One day last week, while service was being held in
the Friary Chapel, Lady latie. Waterford, some of the con-
gregation notired a bag lyieg on the floor, and seeing that it
contaitied something, was given In charge of the care-taker,
who, on examining it, found therein the dead body of a
•
Mr. Ayrton's Newspapers Bill, published on
Monday, sweeps away a number of antiquated and vexatious
restrictions on the liberty of the press in the shape of regis-
tration, regognizances, sureties, tte. In future it is proptued
that the printer if Rey politic paper shall keep a copy of each
issue, with a record of the person for whom he prints it, and
shall he bound to produce it to any justice of the neater who
may require to see it, under a penalty of £2O. The printer
shall also he bound to appeed his name and address to any
publication printed in his office.
It was stated at an impteet held in London, the
other day, that the deceased, the wife ef a sailer butcher,
had hiectm seldom sober for the last twenty years.
The corporation of Mancheeter have been defen-
dants in aim action for damages, in which a nienufacturer
having a mill on the bank of the river rberow seed for
damagea sustained through the failure of the defendants to
semi titian the river the supply of water contracted for by
Act of Parliament. After the ease had been partly opened,
it was a' reed, upon the IlliggeSt On of the judge, to take •
verdict for the plaintiff, subject to a reference.
Lord Mayo, as a move against linseien influence,
has paid the monarch of the Afighans £120,000. This is a
pretty good sum to dispose of for the services of A-meer
A Ily I—Tomahntok.
A sad scene occurred at a concert in Bergen, Norway,
• few days ago. Ernst lialierbirr, of Konigsberg, a pianist
of great talent and celein ity, was playing a sot° at his own
concert at Beret., when he was attacked with paralyale. Us
fell forward over the keys of the instrumeet, and was taken
up dead.
The Dona Atmore, an Its. ian echooner, from Genoa
for Panama, was boarded on the 18th of February In lat.
270.. long. 72 W , anti carried Into Callers. The crew found
In her were four in nniml.r, and were unahle to navigate her.
They stated Diet the pilot hart killed the captab,, and after-
wards committed suicide with a revolver They were im-
prisoned to await an itivesthration of their stetement.
Advice', from Rome state that the festival to role-
brafe the anniversary of ths Pope's entry into the priestho..d
took place tin Sun ay M tee wain said by His lb:dines', In St
Pete: 'n, at ltalf-p ,st Bevelm in them beforean immense
congregation. At the conclusioe of the l'eligiden ceremony
Pitts IX., the membei•of the Papal court, and the diplomatic
corps were eliterleiliell at break test by the Chapter of St.
Pete ea. An amnesty, in whyh tee post mete are in-
cluded. hes been granted. Route Is reported to be very full
of strangers.
"As to the Irish Church, the impression that the
Lords will pees Ii grows stronger each day I done exsotty
know why this swede be so ;but 1 record it ea a fact I meet
with very few persons who do tot think that It will pees
the Lents. but there is s.aocd deal of doubt sato the amount
of chamm it sill undergo in committee before it leaves the
commons. I ant disposed to think that the alterations in
It will not he at all extensive, formidable though some of
the imtice. of anietelmeto s are I,e heir hostile wording."—
London correspondent of Liserpoo A 1111015.