The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-04-09 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

In the London fish markets no len than 6 tons 10
cwt. of diseased fish has been sallied within the put month.
Forty families are reported to have been massacred
by the Comanche Indians.

A fishing boat capsized at Treport, a few evenings
since, twenty miles from land, and eight men were drowned.
Westminster Abbey is now opened to the public
free ou Idonda)B, and the guide nuisance Into be done away
with.

The Italy, aairl to he the largest merchant screw
steamer In the world—the Great Ea,aern excepted—was
launched at Glasgow on Saturday.

A Nerie4 of prayer meeting have been "inaugurated"
by a •' lady of lexhion " in a New York church, and are at-
tended in "demi-toilette."

A fine marble statue of Hercules ham just been found
In the Rowan entering discovered at Constantine, Algeria. It
has been deposited in the niustum of that town.
A scandal ha. been raised in Paris—a very fashion-
able youog man of te,enty.two having abducted a laoy.
Greater sudidal—she fortyonx years old !

- -
It Ilea been officially announced by the governmen
of the United States that the tin mints of California are the
richest m the world.

It is stated that the Rev. T. E. Wilkinson, vicar
of It.ctabghell is to he the Bishop ot the Central Ahican
Mlslon, for which lilac SI dcketate, sister of the late Bishop,
has succeKlect in ralalng the endowment.

Miss Louisa Pyne' - who has for so many years occu-
pied such a prominent position as one of the meet accom-
plished English singers, has announced her intention to re-
tire from public life.
Apropos of the recent frequent murders in the trains
on French railroads at ulzht, the proposal has come seriously
under consukration of having a sort of watchman, whose
duty it is to go from carriage to carriage all night long.
At Wolso rhampton earls on Tuesday morning, a
mut, named Ton E awards, while walking in his sleep, fell
I run a three-story window into the Street, &MI was wriou.ly
injured. It I. believed that he sum osed he was getting out
et the kite nen window into the yard of the house.

Mr. Juhan Courtauli, a member of the firm of
Cmrtauld sad Co., crape manufacturers, in Eases, 121
pomoilett binitelf accidentally whale lab Airing under slight
indisposition. The unfortunate gentleman was only twenty.
six years of age.

The Massachusetts Legislature. by a vote of 121 to
91, has pasted on Act to t peu the public libraries of Boston
on Sunday. Such is the outcome of legislation in a COIIII2III.
Idly which 29) years ago adopted the Mosaic code in the
Pentateuch as the conaitutim of the S:ate.
The death is announced of Mr. Edmund Phelps, son
of the eminent tragedian, which took place on Saturday at
Edinburgh. The cm•e of death was disease of the heart.
Mr. Phelps had been playing for some days previously at the
Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, with Miss Marriott.

•
On Friday, a labouring men leaped out of a third.
clan carriage of the Caledonian Railway, about a mile from
Port I.:mug., lie sustained severe injuries, and was re-
moved to the Greenock Infirmary. It is stated that he had
no ticket and wanted to eicape payment of the fare.

The Pays states that the 'verdict at Tours was ren-
dered by twenty-seven votes to nine, and that amongst these
last was one blank paper. As the courts of France always
reckon such bulletins in favour of the accused, the real
numbers, that jouimal observes, were twenty-eight to eight.
It is nuderateod that the emigration commissioners
are making arrangements for the solection of emigrants who
are to proceed, this spring, in the thfvernme it troopships to
Canada. These men will consist of men cischarged from the
dockyards and War (Mice establishments. The Lords of the
Admiralty have appropriated two troopships to the service,
the grit of which is expected to tall from Portsmouth about
the middle of next month.

Toe consumption of horse-fle,h has been constantly
increasing In Paris. In 1668. 2,421 animals were Brut to the
butche, e Including a few eases and moles, the whole pro.
&mg 454 201 kllogrammre of meat. In 1009 the number of
hor ea eiaughtered was 272, which gave over 550,000 kilo-
grammes meat.

he parhamentary, committee of the Society of Arts
for procuring a reduclon ot the charge for postage to one
halioenny for four 01.111 Ce• Of printed matter has been Joined
by Id 2 members of Parliament. In France, the agitation for
a reduction of the stamp duty on newspapers Is assuming a
definite shape.
• -- • -

Indian papere report a case of suttee (aelf-immolation
of a aldose) which has occurred lately at Jounnore. The
relative, of ihe deceased, who encouraged her to commit the
hind rite, have been sentenced to seven 3eara Imprison-
ment ; and the villagers who looked on, to three 3erne im-
prisonment.
- - - - - - -

A rather severe shock of earthquake was felt at
cowrie, In Perthshire, about midnight on Thursday In last
week. A sound like the rumble of distant thunder was heard
by numerous people beyond Cowie. Slight shocks have of
late years been frequent. and they generally occur in pecu-
liar states of the atmosphere.

Vaccination is going on at a rapid rate—so fast that
the doctors are compelled to vaccinate until a late hour of
the night. It smuts as if a veritable plague Infested Paris—
such an epidemic has not been known for year., awl it be-
hoves those who have charge of sanitary matters In England
to loot well to all precautionary means, or they will have to
rue it. . .

•
The cartoon of the Dublin Flag last week re-
presented an "en-Irish Chieftain" applying "at the door of
Minister Gladstone for his reward." The Weekly Ntsrs is
still more angry. The "Chieftain is represented striking
down Erin," his vestment bearing the figures £S,OOO a year,)
and the inscription beneath—" Et to Brute !" or, free trans-
lation, "Von, too, O'Donoghuel''

A travelling pedlar. named Burke, stied the Man-
chester, Sht Meld, and Lincolnshire Railway Company, at the
Leeds Anises on Monday, for compensation for injuries which
he sustained through the sudden stoppage of a train at New
Holland Statirti. The jury gore a vt.rillet for the plaintiff,
and assessed the damages at £l2O. Ile claimed £1,500.

•
"On Monday night the criticism which the Irish
Land Bill received in the House oi Commons was at Once
abler and more exhaustive than any scrutiny to which It has
hitherto been subjected. Indeed, Monday witnessed the
first real light respecting the bill—all the previous onsets
having been little else than feints or skirruhhes."—Dasly
Telegasph.
Mr. Spurgeon has given his views on compulsory
education. Although he had alwa3e obj,•cted to Government
Interfering in religion and education, he is willing to forego
his sentiment. In favour of every child being educated,
seeing the lamentable ignorance of London children. Be
truce the Bible will be need and insisted upon, and that
the doctrinal matter will be left to the care of Sunday
school.. _

A marriage ceremony was being performed in the
Church of I.nt tart., Hungary, the other day, when a num-
ber of peasants, armed with guns, entered the lintlO lug and
.44o:target% their weapons. Two of the bttiegroom's friends
were shot In the face, and others were more or less
seriously injured. 'the outrage seems to have bad Its origin
in the anger of the Roman Catholic pungently, owing to the
presence of several Protestants.
Diverts have been engaged to raise the Channel
I.larata Ineil pocket Normandy Tin-y bane been down and
eiSiltistd bee position, which in beliorsd to in favourable to
her being ratted. .The only obstacle will be the wrong
cOatinel tzde. The divers will Int ~earc,. for any Ito lies that
rtn-y be lathe vessel, then fir tee bullion arid otter valuables,
and lastly an attempt will be made to raise her.
At a dinner given by a Calcutta jatge, several gentle-
men of position were neatly pole med ; a servant handed
round chloride of sing In place of liqueur. Mr. Graham,
Government Standing Onneel at Calcutta, drank off a glass
anti immediately fell. Remedial measures were adopted,
and the unfortunate gentleman is out of danger; but It is
WA it will be years before he Is fully restored.

Lest month the Governor of the Cape asked the cap-
tain of an American man-of-war Jost arrived from China to
dine with the bishops of Smith Africa, then aseembled in
Synod. 'Sir" ea) the Yankee to his next neighbour, "air
yi-u a enhimotte or a friend of the other chap?* The reply
was, "1 ant the other chop" for the tielahnoar happened to
be Bishop klacrorie, of Natal.

M. 0. I,i,hrich has (Aar. the Medital firror)pointed
out in the Paris Academy of Sciences that strychnine le an
antidote to chloral. To each of two rabbits two grammes of
Chloral were given—one was injt cted with 11 intilegrammes
of strychnine. Four hours later the animal which had been
thus treated was quite well; the other oled. Another
rabbit which had no chloral received by 10 action the same
quantify of strychnine and died.

The Glaeow police have tonnd a barrel containing
36 revolvers and 14 packages of cirtridres in the house of a
man named Monomer., in that city. His wife stated that
strange man had brought the barrel to the house, end
Mecnomara himself denies all knowledge of the matter. The
street in whi,h the anus %tete found is one of the lowest in
Glasgow, one ' inhouited it lrieh forniF ea

The number of wrecks reported dur:tm the past week
Is twenty-six, making for the present year 547.

Mr. Bright was the only Cabinet Minister absent
from the Council on Saturday.

The well.known biographer of Count Biemarcir,
Herr Rosetta le shout to appear before the world In • new
chmeter—u joint author, with hts daughter, of • German
cookery-book. From Bismarck to cookery!

Patrick Jennings, the man who was eentencPd to be
hanged for the murder of his wife, near Wolverhampton, has
been respited by the Home Secretary. The exemtion was to
have taken place on klanday morning.
-

The plumes which have been worn by Fusilier and
light In.antry regiments In the chaco are to be dlicon-
tinned, and all line regtments will in future wear the usual
worsted ball tuft

William and Sarah Skeplehorne, who were recently
convicted, in London, of baying conspired to palm off as
illegitimate child upon • gentleman named Ironshie, have
been sentenced to three mouths' imprisonment each.
Captain Harvey, of floating torpedo celebrity, has
been appointed to her Majesty's ship Excellent, for the in-
struction of naval onicers in the use of those formidable
weapons.
Dining an attempt to raise the ateamehip Brother
Jonathan, which waa sunk several days since in the Mersey,
near the Prince's landing stage, a large lighter which was
attached to the sunken steamer, suddenly capsized, and
want down in deep water, rho workmen escaped.
The Orchestra facetiously answers the following
anery Who is the neat beat tenor after Mr. Sims
Reeves!" Oar contemporary says—" We cannot tell; any
tenor singer, however, will answer the question without
hesitation."

The Austrian Government has just lowered the
charges for telegrams in the empire. In future the charge
for a telegram of twenty words Is to be forty kreutzers
9.1 ) for a distance of forty-eight English miles, and sixty
kreutzers 1.21 ) for greater distances.
A great sensatien was created at the sitting of the
Spanish Cortes on Saturday by the appearance of a Republi-
can deputy, who had recently been condemned to death.
After much resistance he was persuaded by his friends to
leave the Chamber.

The lady principal of a school, in her advertisement,
recently mentioned her lady sediment, and the "reputation
Mr teething which she bears;" but the printer left out the
word" which ; " so the advertisement went forth commend-
ing the lady's "reputation for teaching she bears."

The Itril River settlers are said to be kept in a etude
of terror by the insurtent Mel and hie armed followers.
Accord'. g to the Toronto Globe, the only charge against the
man Scott. who was executed a month ago M Ries orders,
was that he had escaped from priann and had joined the
movement against ltlel's assumed authority. •
Certainly the cases of breach of promise damages
lately recorded are very absurd, on which a contemporary
has written. We verily believe if a man promised to mairy
Ma grandmother on condition that she was rot related to
him, and did not marry her, • British jury would give her
Leery damages."
• - - • - - -

A series of proposals respecting the Irish Land
question, have, according to the Freeman's Journal, been
signed by a number of Irish members, and embodied in a
memorial to the Premier. The subscribers ask that any
Irish landowner may have the power of removing his estate
from the operation of Mr. Glatistone's Land hill, on condi-
tion that he observes certain stated provisions, which would
secure chat la called a system of ••Parltamentary Tanen
Right."
A serious fire occurred early on Sunday morning at
Nottingham. An extensive block of buildings, occupied
principally by lace and silk manufacturers, was gutted, sod
the stock destroyed. The damage is estimated as £30,000,
but the losses are covered by insurance in several
large number of workpeople will be thrown out of employ-
ment by the disaster.
- -

The Bedfordshire Court of Quarter Sessions have
resolved to memorialize the Privy Counsel to relax the
stringency of the present orders of the Contagious Doseases
(Animals) Act, which are considered to be the source of
great and unnecessary expense to the county. The covet
desire that the inspection of animals in infected districts
shall take place only once a month instead of once a week.
On Monday evening Mr. Richards, livirg near
Aberystwith, was returning in, carriage with his wife and a
gentleman from a fishing party, when the horse bolted about
a mile Iron Aberystwith, and the occupant. of the carriage
were thrown violently to the ground. Mr. Richards died of
his injuries next day, Mrs. Richards is in a precarious state,
and his friend Is much injured.
Cambridge was visited on Monday by Syed Ahmed
Inoir Bahadoor, Judge of 8e13.811, together with his son
Syed 51ahmood, who was entered as a student of Christ'.
Coliege. Sped Ahmed has been decorated with the Star of
India in recognition of his service, to the British Govern-
ment both in peace and war. The object of his visit to this
country is to give his three sons the benefit of an English
education.

In the cortege of Mr. Hammond's evidence before
the Diplomatic and Consular Services Committee, the right
hon. gentleman expreued a decided opinion that the
Foreign-office could not dispense with one of its clerks. The
mnplmment of other people would be simply throwing away
money on mere copying machines, who could not become
familiar with the other work of the department.
The Chaplain of the Home of Commons, preachin
at the Chapel Raul in the Savoy on the parable id the vine-
yard, said that a German commentator hail calculated that
there had been between seventy and eighty elaborate inter-
pretations of it, and that it had given rise to the formation
of seven or eight distinct Christian sects. Some of these in-
terpretations he explained, and many of them were of an
extremely curious and interesting character.
Poor Mr. Payne—Judge Payne, as he was commonly
called—has been called to his long account. Albeit some-
what eccentric, he was a kindhearted, humane man, and the
humbler classes in London will feel his lam severely. In
society he was a delightful companion, and some of his
poetical impromptus were very clever. 01 him, as a boon
Companion, It may truly be said—
"He never knew pleasure
Who never knew Payne."
There were 10.315 convictions under the Game Acta
In England and Wales in the year ni39. Eighty-three were
upon indictment for being out armed, taking game, and
armulting gamekeepers; and 10262 were summary convic-
tions—as many as 8,004 for treapassing in the clay time in
pursuit of genie, En for night poaching and destroy log game;
only forty-one for illegally selling or buying game, 806 under
the Poaching Act of 1862.
A general order has been issued directing that imme-
rihtely on the death of a soldier the commanding officer will
cause a report of the circumstances ..f the case to lie made
(on a specitiel form) to the males next of kin, ea shown in his
pocket ledger. The address of a soldier's next of kin is in.
variably to be ascertained and inserted in the ledger, and
duly corrected awn niter January lie each year, as directed
by paragraph 316 of the "Explanatory Directious to Pay-
Ox Sunday night a woman, with A child in her :trine,
attempted to enter e railway carriage in motion at ConrchLli
station, near Kidderminster. The step of the carriage
clught her dress, and, seeing her danger, the woin
threw the child on the platform She was dragged 2.-rne
distance before the train could he stopped, and it was with
d she was extricated. Her injuries were serious, but
are not likely to result fatally.

The telepraph between Yokohama and Yeddo has
been thrown rpeu to the public, at a charge of one its i
ahout is. 311., for inn characters or words. The Japan NMI
remarks that nothing could show more clesily the contras
between Japan ana China than the readiness with which he
Government of the former has adopted this greatest inven-
tion of modern science, and the ease with winch the people
have grasped the notions of its an vantages.
On Sunday night a gentleman named Ch,mbevlayne
was riding a bicycle along the New Cross-road, London, when
a horse, which was being driven in strap, seeing the light of
the bicycle lamp, swerved towards the kerb. Mr. Chambe,
lards came b to contact with the off wheel of the trap. aid
was dashed to the nivement. At his own request he was
conveyed to his residence, where he now lies in a serious
c, 'minion, having sustained coucusidou of the brain and in-
juries to the spinal column.
A melancholy death by drowning occurred on the
Avon at Warwick late on Monday night. Mr. Ashby, an
engineer of London, who had gone to Leamington to super-
intend the erection of machinery at the Fulsome works, was
boating on the river shout half a mile above Warwick Castle;
his boat capsized, and he and a companion were thrown into
the water Mr. Ashby could not swim; his friend could,
out endeavoured to save him, but failed, and swam to shore
alone, The deceased leaves a win and three children.

On Monday, in London, the Prince of Wales pre.
sided at a committee appointed by the Society of Arta to
organise the educatbmal dieter ins of the pr pwed annual
international Exhibitions ormmencli g next year. Ills Royal
Highness, sho expressed his sense of the great importance
which attaches to the education question, briefly explained
the oiled sought to be attained ny the committee over
which lie tresidtd. which was that of obtaining the best posit-
Lie representation of the various materials and apparatus
used In teaching, and of exhibiting the results of the systems
of instruction practised in different c-wntries. Tne Prince
expressed a sanguine hope that the labours of the committee
would lead to an improvement In the qualHy of primary
education, and to the extension of that secondary instruction
In science and art which is so much needed for the advance-
ment of our industrial pi ogress. The Exhibition is to be held
in the covered ways on each side of the Ilorticanural
Gardens.