The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-27 00:00:00

EPITOME OF -JNEWR,

BRITISH AND FORE.

Barnum has secured a specimen of the gnu for his
show. It 1 described by. New York journalist as a remark-
able Instance of loss of memory.

At the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society,
held on Monday, in Hanover-equate, Sir Walsh, Williams
Wynn, Mg, was elected President for the year 1,72., when
the grand annual chow will be held at Cardiff

On Saturday the first great flower show of the sea-
son took place at the Crystal Palace, and some of the aped.
mens, notwithstanding the cold and backward spring are de..
scribed as having been of a high order of excellence.

From April Ist to the 20th Inst. the total receipts
into the Era( quer were £7 902 1)70, while the expenditure
had amounted to !:0 (A 7,714. The halftime In the Bank of
England on Saturday hat wax 0,740 355.

A. RAterdain correspondent bas " unquestionable
authority " for stating that the betrothal of the youngest
daughter of the Emperor of Raul& with the Crown Prince of
llolland, who has Just returned from a Ilan to I. Peters-
burg, will shortly be made public.

The Church Timms underetanda that Dr. Liddon and
Mr. Gregory, both canons of St. Paul's Cathedral, have
asked the bishop to make them to be the nrst victims, If he
should be constrained to allow any prosecutions In reepect to
Ritualism.

Very few of the lady promenaders of the day, says
a New York contemporary, take Dr. Dio Lewis' advice to
carry their arms down by their sides. They prefer to carry
tin m in front and in • manner similar to a chicken's foot on
• roost.

A poet, after taking a general view of life, hay come
to the following rhyming conclusion
I wouldn't live for ever.
I wouldn't if I Could :
But I needn't fret about it,
For (couldn't if I would."
In a late speech on Woman's nights, the lady orator,
led away by enthusimm, exclidmed, "It is %ell known that
Solomon owed his wisdom to the number of his wives ,"
Another lecturer, going further still, moved that women
should be entrusted with COMMI.IIIOIIII in the navy, to which
• deep, groff nautical voice amongst the audience responded
with the observation that "Lot's wife was an old salt, you
know.'

-- •
In cutting through a solid block of Aberdeen granite,
about five feet Num°, in the yard of Mr. James, at Newport,
the other day, the workmen discovered in the interior s
small nest containing four or five small living gruba They
died shortly after their exposure. There appeared to be no
interstice in the granite which ciflorded .y means of com-
munication with the exterior, and the question will naturally
mice with the curious how they got there, and how long they
had been there.

The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical
Society wan held lo London, on Monday, Sir Bartle Frey. in
the °hair. A letter Iva. read from the retiring president,
Sir Roderick Murchison, in which he stated that In accord-
ance with the strict injunction of his medical ad , he
was compelled to absent himself, although he had intended
to be carried into the room, personally to take • farewell of
the tenetne ol the society. The chairman delivered • very
high eulogium on Sir Roderick, and announced that the
committee had decided to present to hint the founder's gold
medal.

The Rev. Canon Kingsley, speaking at a ragged
school meeting in Cheater on Tuesday night, addressed him•
self to those to whom It seemed a small matter that num-
bers of boys or girls should be growing up to what be called
barbarians In the midst of civilisation. Ile had seen the
barbarians of other countries, and did not Ike them, and
therefore it was that he wished to save the children here
from bee -ming such In civilised countries the barbarous
classes, the dangerous classes, were certain to Increase and
drag down with them others from higher strata, If not in-
terfered with by some such process as these institutions tn -
ploy ed.

Lord Vernon presided on Tuesday over a meeting of
the French Fearant- Farmers' deed Fund, at which • repert
of the Executive Committee was presented. From this it
appeared that the subscriptions received up to the 18:h
instant anvmnted to £41,955, of which £13,000 had been
voted by the Ilan.lon-house French Relief Fund. To what
extent the Committee had distributed seed-eons and potatoes
may be ridged from the fact that from the northern deptt
at Amiens about 20 0(0 occupiers had been relieved, and from
the rou'lern depot at Tours nearly 30,0(0 The returns from
the centrvl and western depots had not been received. A
balance of £2 000 and the Swedish Fund Of nearly £4,000 are
held over until One autumn.

The subecriptlone for the Straabnrg Library are,
moor/111-g to the Antic/so) Zeitung, progressing so favourably
se to promise to leave the Institution rich not only In the
number but equally so In the literary value of its volume.
The efforts made towards this object In England are highly
appreciated abroad. Moreover, the Grand Duke of Baden has
contributed two thousand volames from his library at earls-
rube, and the Universities of Heldelburg, Basle, Erlangen,
Greitswaid, and Jena, and the 8.9yal library at Btuttgardt
have made liberal promises Switzerland la doing its -best,
and the Austrian capital, though disclaimed as • German
clty, propose, to add some specimens of peculiar value.
Same appreciable presents oome from private men, for In-
stance from the Whrtemberg Minister, Hen von Wachter.
In addition to these gifts Government has resolved to enrich
the new lnstitution by purchases from Government funds.
Professor Booking's famom oollection is to be Incorporated,
end that of Protemor von Vangerow. In Heldelburg, has
already been purchased. Both are doh In valuable law
books and millusalpls, the letter numbering no rower Sem
3,630 volumes,