The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-03-28 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

last Sunday the members of the Sunday Society
visited the Gainsborough Exhibition at the Grosvenor
Gallery. The exhibition was open for three hours,
during which time 923 visitors passed through the gal-
leries.
Dr. Wordsworth, late Bishop of Lincoln, died on
Friday night at Harewood, near Leeds.
Mr. Justice Hawkins has fined eleven special jurors
who did not answer to their names when called £lO
each.
It is stated from Paris that M. Ferry desires to con-
cluee peace with China before the general election.
The Samoan Parliament has passed an Act for the
annexation of the Samoan Islands to New Zealand.
The New Zealand Government has received a copy of
the Act. _ _ . .

Charles Hodson, at Liverpool, has been committed to
the Assizes, for throwing vitriol over his wife, an
actress known as Dora Keen, terribly injuring her face.
A woman, aged about 55, has committed suicide by
jumping from Highgate Archway.
The Norwegian barque Atlantic, Captain Anderson,
with ice from Rison to Belfast, went ashore at Scock-
ness, Orkney, at nine a.m. on Saturday morning during
a fierce snowstorm. She became a total wreck. The
crew of twelve persons were saved.
The bedstead, fender, and fireiron manufactory of
Messrs. Turner, at Dudley, caught fire on Saturday
morning, and the whole of the centre was destroyed.
The offices were burnt, but the books, papers, and cash
were saved. Damages, £BOOO.
Whilst a young man named Lanfear, in the employ of
Messrs. Brown and Terry, brewers, Burnham, near
Maidenhead, was engaged in clearing out a barrel by
means of a steam apparatus, the tub burst, blowing off
the man's legs.
Mr. Alderman and Sheriff Whitehead has appointed
Mr. Clarence Richard Halse (of the firm of Raise,
Trustram, and Co.), as his Under-Sheriff for the re-
mainder of his year of office, in succession to Mr.
Henry Homewood Crawford, who has been elected City
Solicitor.

About nine o'clock on Saturday morning Frank Whit-
lock, 38 years, a carman, of 268, Portobello-road,
Notting hill, London, was suddenly taken ill at the
Goods Department, Great Western Railway, Padding-
ton. He was conveyed to St. Mary's Hospital, but on
admission was found to be dead.

In presence of the King and Queen of Italy and the
great dignitaries of State the foundation stone of a
monument to be erected on the Capitol at Rome to the
late King Victor Emmanuel was laid on Sunday.
His Majesty the King of Denmark has refused to
desert his Ministry, and he calls upon the Chambers to
endeavour to arrive at an understanding. The deputies
refuse to pass the votes for the financial year which
ends on March 31.

All chance of a conflict of the two Houses of the
French Legislature on financial questions is at an end,
the Senate having on Saturday voted the Budget as
sent up by the Chamber of Deputies.
Great enthusiasm has been displayed by the Monte-
negrins on the arrival at Cettinje of the Crown Prince
and Princess of Austria on a visit to Prince Nicholas.
Two small towns on the coast of Dahomey have been
burned and several others bombarded by the men of
the gunboat Frolic and a body of Houssas, in retalia-
tion for the recent attack on Captain Campbell's
party. The natives thereupon intimated their sub-
mission.
On the whole, the French press comments favourably
on the Egyptian Financial Convention, the extent of
the concessions made by England being fully recog-
nised.
An order for five million cans of tinned meat for the
British troops in Egypt is said to have been placed with
a Chicago firm.
Having been appealed to on the subject, Lord Salis-
bury and Sir Stafford Ncirtlicote have expieised the
opinion that there is no reason why Conservative work-
ing men, if thoroughly qualified, should not be selected
as Parliamentary candidates.
Snow to the depth of several inches fell in the metro-
politan district on Sunday morning, and wintry weather
also prevailed over a great part of England-

A complimentary banquet was given on Mon,lag
evening at the Holborn Restaurant to Sir F. Napier
Browne, the Governor of Western Australia. Viscount
Enfield presided.

At the meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on
Monday evening. Lord Aberdare presiding, a paper by
Major T. H. Holditch, of the Boundary Commission, on
the subject of "Herat and the Valleys of the Heni-rud
and Murghab " was read by General Walker. Among
those present was M. Lessar, who, in the course of a.
discussion which followed, protested against the sup-
position that maps could be implicitly accepted as evi-
dence in questions of frontier demarcation, and said
the real official maps were the annexes of treaties.
The new buildings erected by the London School'
Board to replace the old Upton House Industrial
School were on Monday evening informally opened,
and inspected by several members of the Board and
their friends.
Strangers in the Gallery of the House of Commons
on Monday night were witnesses of a scene unknown to-
the House of Commons for the last generation. Mr.
Gladstone, having occasion for conversation with Lord
Richard Grosvenor, and anxious not to interrupt pro-
gress with the Seats Bill, took up a position below the
gangway, occupying the seat usually filled by Ur,
Bright. The Premier was much amused at the good-
humoured attention attracted by his position. A
little later he was joined by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer; and whilst Sir Charles Mite, on the Trea-
sury Bench, was struggling with the Seats Bill, three
members of the Ministry were seated below the gang-

way.
The Midland Railway from Woodlesford, near Leeds,
to Barrow-in-Fumess was obstructed throughout Sun-
day, causing the greatest inconvenience to the pas-
senger traffic. Messrs: Cammell and Co., of Sheffield,
recently completed an immense steam propeller for a
steamship, which is being constructed at Belfast. The
blades of the propeller—one of the largest yet made—
were so wide that they overlapped the opposite line of
rails to that on which the propeller was being trans-
ported. On Sunday arrangements were made for the
conveyance of the propeller from Woodlesford to
Skipton, and in order to effect this the passenger trains
along the route were shunted and blocked to allow the
special train to pass. At the stations and junctions
the propeller excited great interest. The train journeyed
to Skipton safely, where it was intended that it should
remain until next Sunday, but it afterwards proceeded
to Carnforth, and subsequently to Barrow, where it
arrived on Sunday night.
In some parts of the grazing districts of Kent flock-
owners are suffering rather severe losses among their
ewes from an obscure disease, which attacks them in a
strange manner. The prominent symptoms are listless-
ness and an aversion to food, and after a few days the
ewe throws herself down and dies. Several animals,
which have been found dead under these circumstances,
have been opened and examined by veterinary sur-
geons, who it is stated, have failed to find any trace of
disease; on the contrary, the ewes appear to be perfectly
healthy. It is suggested that the safest plan is to have
the animals killed as soon as the symptoms are recog-
nised. Farmers state that this fatality among sheep
frequently follows a mild winter.

At a meeting of the council of the Church Parochial
Mission Society, it was unanimously resolved that the
connection between the society and the Church Army
should be severed on the 31st inst.
John Lee, the Babbacombe murderer, was on Monday
removed from Exeter to Pentonville Prison, the sen-
tence of death having been commuted to one of penal
servitude for life.

Mr. Richard Benyon of En,glefield House, near
Reading, has given £lOOO to the funds of the Royal
Berkshire Hospital, of which he is president.
According to a statement evidently emanating from
the Chinese Embassy at Berlin, important 'peace
negotiations are now going on at Peliin between France
and China, and that decisive news may be expected
shortly. A Yellow Book on Chinese affairs has been
issued in Paris.

The Building Committee of the Gordon Memorial
Fund met at the Mansion House on Tuesday, and Lord
Napier of Magdala, who presided, stated that the War
Office authorities had acceded to his request to allow
one of the Engineer officers now in Egypt to report
upon the appropriateness of the proposed site for a hos-
pital at Port Said.
A most lamentable misadventure occurred at Chatham
on Tuesday. The son of Dr. Holroyd was taken un-
well, and Mrs. Holroyd went to the dispensary, in the
absence of her husband, to get some medicine, but acci-
dentally took a wrong bottle. She gave her son some
of the contents, which proved to be poison, from the
effects of which he died.

The receipts into the Exchequer to March 21 were
£85,235,033, against £85,186,631 in the corresponding
period of the last financial year. The expenditure was
£81,961,452, against £80,413,116. The balance in the
Bank of England last Saturday was £7,930,686; in the
Bank of Ireland, £1,375,456.
At the Westminster Police-court on Tuesday William
G. Burney was brought up on remand, charged with
having annoyed his sister, Lady Scott, by knocking and
ringing at her door. The prisoner, who was stated to
have subjected the prosecutrix to systematic persecu-
tion for twenty years, was ordered to find two sureties
in £5O each, besides his own recog-nisance in £lOO,
to keep the peace and be of good behaviour for six
months.

A great Salvation Army demonstration was held at
Plymouth on Tuesday, when the foundation-stone of a
large temple was laid. Mr. Macliver M.P., who took
part in the proceedings, remarked dial the magnitude
of this enterprise showed that the people had been
touched, their sympathies moved, and their confidence
acquired by their own class. It was remarkable to
notice that when all else had failed the masses had suc-
ceeded in reaching themselves.
A shocking death befell a bricklayer named Pope on
Tuesday morning while engaged in repairing the top of
a lime-kiln at Oliffe, near Rochester. As he was descend-
ing the outside of the cupola the whole of the upper
portion of the structure collapsed, precipitating the un-
fortunate man into the burning lime. A. number of
workmen immediately rushed to the scene; but,
although they could see the poor fellow, it was impos-
sible to approach within several yards of him. The
body has not been recovered, nor is it expected that any
traces of it will be left when the burning mass cools.
The Princess Louise has accepted the presidency of a
society which is being formed under influential auspices
for the purpose of increasing the interest and the
efficiency of home teaching. It is explained that the
Home Education Society, as it is called, does not in any
Way contemplate providing a substitute for training
colleges, but hopes to supply, so far as may be possible
in a short course instruction in the art of giving simple
and interesting lessons to children for those who have
not been able to go through a regular course of train-
ing in the science and art of teaching. With this view
classes will be provided for governesses and mothers.
The Marchioness of Queensberry and Lady Kensington
have joined the Executive Committee.
On Tuesday morning Baron F. de Rothschild gave a
breakfast to 300 unemployed dock labourers in the
Borough. Among those present were the Princess
Louise, Mrs. Gladstone, Lady Harcourt, LordTarington,
and Mr. George Russell, M.P. Letters were read from
Mr. Gladstone, Sir Stafford Northcote, and Lord Rose-
bery, expressing sympathy with the unemployed. Sir
Stafford wrote suggesting a judicious scheme of emi-
gration as a remedy for the distress existing among the.
working classes, but urged the necessity of selecting
suitable classes of men for sending abroad. Lord Rose-
bery's letter contained a suggestion for combining
numerous emigration agencies now working in London.
The Prime Minister expressed regret that pressure of
engagements had prevented him from studying the
subject as to give a definite opinion. Mrs. Gladstone,
as a substantial token of sympathy, promised a break-
fast.