The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-11-08 00:00:00

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The guarantee fund for the next season of the
London Philarmonic Society reaches over £l6OO.
A firm of music publishers have paid £40,000 for
Gounod's new oratorio " Mors et Vita."

-.„... .
"Lea Yule de John Dull" (Max 0' Rell) has reached
a circulation of So,l'oo copies.
The Cobden Club about to issue an edition of
Sir Thomas Brassey's book "Work and Wages."
The Industrial and Archmological Exhibition at
Wolverhampton, which was opened on May 30, and has
just closed, has been visited by about 3-60,000 persons,
and the total receipts amount to £12,000.
Professor Baron Nordensjold is about to vary his
Arctic experiences by an attempt to reach the South
Pole.
What is Prince Bismarck's favourite beverage—beer
or wine? was lately the subject of a wager between two
Prussians living at Warsaw, who actually applied to the
Chancellor himself to settle the bet. The Prince's ver-
dict left them as wise as they were before, for his secre.
tary replied, "His Highness directs me to inform you
that you are both in the right, inasmuch as he is equally
fond of good wine and good beer, and, with the excep-
tion of his sick days, partakes of one as well as the
other."

_
Notices have been served on a number of the Mar-
quis of Waterford's tenantry at Ballyknockan, Bally-
nastockan, Lug,naskae, and Kyle to leave the premises
they now occupy on Nov. 1,1885. The notices, which
were served on the 30th ult., will affect about 500
persons. There is considerable excitement in the
locality. Only a.few of the tenants are in arrear.
In the Senate House, Cambridge, on Saturday, the
Rev. Dr. Ferrers, Master of Caius, the present Vice-
Chancellor, was re-elected without opposition to serve
the office for the year commencing in January next.
The Le Bas prize, given for the best English essay on
a subject of general literature connected with India,
has been adjudged to Arthur Llewelyn Davis, Trinity,
subject, " Usuary in India; with special reference to
the Rvots of the Deccan."
The River Dee Company propose, in the next session
of Parliament, to promote a bill severing their estate
from their obligations respecting the navigation of the
river from which they received their lands. They intend
to hand over the Dee to a Conservancy Board, with
powers to deepen the river so as to give an available
depth of 201 t., with a dock at Chester where vessels
will be able to float at all conditions of the tide.
A Parliamentary return issued on Saturday shows
that since the commencement of the Merchant Shipping
Act of 563 ships reported as defective nine were found
safe and 544 unsafe, while in three cases the survey is
pending, and in six the vessel was improperly detained.
Of 341 reported as overladen, only five were found
safe, and 336 unsafe.
The gains of the Conservative party at the recent
I German elections prove to be even larger than was at
first reported. There are ninety-seven second ballots
to be held.
Six persons have been killed and several wounde d at
a palitical riot in the State of Louisiana.
The Earl of Dufferin was entertained on Saturday
evening to a banquet by the Northbrook Indian Club,
given in the Westminster Town Hall, where Sir Barrow
Ellis presided. The earl leaves on the 13th to assume
the Viceroyalty of India.

The higher education of Hindoo women is steadily
gaining ground in India, notwithstanding native pre-
judices. Thus a high school for girls has been opened 1
at Poona, and already claims some sixty pupils, several
of whom are young wives, while the native community
show great interest in the movement. The Bombay
Presidency, indeed, is decidedly ahead of the other
Provinces in this respect, but matters are greatly im-
proving in Madras, where a much larger percentage of
girls now attend school than, in previous years. A
great increase is also noticeable arAong the Mahometan
female pupils.
The Gloucestershire Chamber of Agriculture on
Saturday passed a resolution urging the Central
Chamber to press the Legislature to grant a Royal
Commission to inquire into the agricultural and com-
mercial depression, especially as regards foreigQ restric-
tive tariffs.

The death is announced at New York of Mr. Fau
formerly United States Minister to France.
The death was announced in New York on Sunday of
the widow of Admiral Farragut.
M. Vaucorbeil, director of the Theatre National de
l'Opera, died in Paris on Sunday morning.
Mr. Charles E. H. Bowen, Scots Guards, was found
dead in his bed at his lodgings in St. James's-street,
London, early on Saturday morning. The 44
gentleman had evidently committed suicide. He
entered the regiment in July, 1881. fortunate
The Orkney white fishing was fairly successful last.
week. The trawlers from Kirkwall were out twice, and
landed catches of from 4cwt. to 18cwt. of plaice on
both occasions. Owing to the stormy weather the
haddock fishing at Seapa has been irregularly prose-
scouted, but on Sunday the boats landed from 2owt. to
3cwt. each. The price of white fish has ranged from 7s.
to 10s. per cwt. The lobster fishing at Stronsay has
made a good commencement.
The steamer Roseville, which was beached at CloCh,
on the Clyde, on the 12th ult., after colliding with and
sinking the steamer Europa, was successfully floated
late on Saturday night and taken to Greenock.
At Hull, on Saturday, Richard Pexton, corporation
2oal inspector, Christopher Firby, retired, and James
Oliver, accountant, were committed to the assizes on
the charge of conspiring to defraud depositors of their
savings in the Hull Rechabite Loan Society, which
became insolvent in 1881. The deficiency amounts to
about £12.000.

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