The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-12 00:00:00

EIRITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGU.

The Czar has presented Prince Milan with a corn.
piste battery of Krupp gums of large calibre, worth 120,000
ducats. Tne Czarina sent at the same time the Order of the
Red Cross to Princess Nathalie of Beryls.
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A telegram from Australia says that the Govern-
ment has issued orders to prevent the employment of Chinese
labourers on GJvernment contracts.

The Queen, Princess Beatrice, Sir Augustus Paget,
and' the members of the Royal Household attended divine
service on Sunday in the Villa Clara, at Baveno. The
Queen afterwards drove to Streets.
The Scottish Naturaliat states ninny gamekeepers say
that owing to the severity of the recent weather there is but
little chance of partridge shooting for next season at least:
and on some estates they already speak of giving the birds a
season or two'g rest.

A Daily News telegram from Jellalabad says that
the body of Lieutenant Llarford, who was, with the squadron
of the 10th Hussars, drowned in craning the Cabul river,
was found on Friday, three miles lower don Ow stream.
The burial took place at night.
On Saturday afternoon (sth), the Mayor of 134-
mingham (Alderman Collins) opened the new park at Small-
heath, which has been presented to the town by Miss
Ryland, and towards the laying otit at which she has con-
tributed £.4,000. The park is about 41 acres hi extent, and
Is the eighth park which has been opened in Birmingham.
The Electrician says that oh the gth ult., between
eleven o'clock and noon, no fewer ttnsn 215 messages,
averaging thirty words each, were disposed of on a rintrle
wire—London and Birmingham—by means oi the qtladruplel.
The number is unprecedented in the history of telegraphy,
- -

A telegram from New York announces that Mr.
Edison has exhibited the working of his incandescent light
with excellent results. Mr. tdisou states that he can now
supply light for practical domestic use at hwlf the cost of
gas.
The rabbit nuisance in South Australia has been to
some extent abated by the South Australian Government.
A movement has been made to secure united and simultaneous
action by landholders and the Government to destroy the
pests, and the Government has promised to commence
a stringent enforcement of the Rabbit Act.

The new convention which came into operation on
the let Inst., restricts the size of packets of patterns or
samples sent to countries belonging to the Postal Union to
the following dimensions—viz., eight inches in length, four
inches in breadth, two inches in depth, as announced in a
notice recently issued. The public are cautioned not to put
into the post pattern-packets of larger size, as they would
certainly not be delivered, but be returned to this
country.

Sir M. Hicks-Beach, M.P., in reply to a deputation
which drew his attention to the nature of the new Canadian
tariff, said he was disposed to believe that Canada was far
from desiring to injure the mother country, and would
prefer favouring it than otherwise. He would carefully
consider what had been placed before hint

The Philadelphia correspondent of The Times says:
—" Mr. William 11. Vanderbilt has bought in Ennand 12,000
tons of steel rails at the price reported as equalling 55 doll.
per ton. They have been landed in New York, and are
guaranteed for 15 years. As American rails can be bought
lower, this purchase caused some remark; but Mr. Vander-
bilt says that they are of better quality, and with the advan-
tages given him in the bargain makes the purchase in Eng-
land cheaper."

The twenty-sixth anniversary of the birth of Prince
Leopold was celebrated at Windsor on Monday, with the
usual honours paid to members of the Royal Family. The
bells of St. George's Chapel and the parish church rang
merrily, and salutes were fired from the Long Walk and at
Virginia Water.
The Copernican Society at Thorn has resolved to
begin an international collection of funds for the erection of
an observatory in that town, as a lasting monument to the
great reformer of astronomy, Copernicus.
The German Government estimates the revenue to
be derived from the new protective duties—supposing them
to be approved by the Imperial Parliament—at about
£5,000,000.
- - -

It Was stated at the Quarter Sessions held at Shrews.
bury on Monday that under the new Highways Act about
650 miles of road came under the jurisdiction of the Court
they having been declared main roads; and as their anntiai
cost would be from £l5 to £l6 per mile for repairs, or abut
£lO,OOO, a rate of 2d. in the pound on the present assessmeot
of the county would about amount to the sum required. It
would therefore be necessary to make a rate of 911. in the
pound for the ensuing quarter, instead of a fanning rate,
which had hitherto been sufficient.
Mr. S. C. Hall is about to publish "A Memory of
Thomas Moore," with whom he was acquainted so long ago
as 1821. The centenary of the poet will be commemorated in
Dublin on the 28th of May.

During the ten days ending April 3,21,916,4801 b.
of tea were cleared for home consumption at the London
Custom House. Upon this enormous quantity of tea the
sum of £.512,912 has been assessed and the duty paid.

The King and Queen of the Belgians, the day after
returning from Loudon, paid a visit to the Empress Char-
lotte, WiJO is at Laeken, but will shortly remove to the
Château de Bouchout.

A General Order has been issued giving free pas-
Sage home from South Africa to the widows and children of
the officers and men killed in action.

Tho poet Longfellow received a fanciful birthday
gift, on recently keeping his seventy-second birthday. The
children of his. acquaintance brought him an arm-chair
made out of the cnestnut immortalized in his "Village
Blacksmith." A group of horse chestnuts, leaves and
blossoms, is carved at the back of the chair, and leaves and
burrs appear in relief at various other places, while around
the seat is engraved in old English letters a verse of the
poem.

A declaration signed at Belgrade on March 5, 1879,
for regulating provisionally the commercial relations
between Great Britain and Servia, has been published in a
Parliamentary paper. The agreement gives to British
products imported into Servia, and to Servian products im-
ported into Great Britain or the British colonies, the
same treatment as to products of the most favoured
nation. Ibis provided that this arrangement shall "remain
in force until the conclusion of a dennitive treaty of com-
merce • but in any case it shall cease to have effect on the
Ist (13j11) of May, 1830.
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- - . .
A telegram from Adelaide says that intense heat
prevails there, which has caused several destructive bush
tires, accompanied by loss of Lite. There is ssvere drought
In the interior.

Writing from Rome, the Correspondent of The
Times says :—" The Osservatore Romano publishes the
Latin text of a brief issued by Leo XIII. on the 10th of Sep•
tember last, granting 300 days indulgence to all those who,
to the customary ejaculation, • Blessed be the holy immacu-
late Conception of the blessed Virgin,' add the words
Mother of God.' This brief was issued because of the pro•
pagation of opinions antagonistic to the belief expressed by
the ejaculation, and has now, at the request of one of the
monks of Are Cizeli, been published in consequence of their
public repetition."
The late Elihu Burritt left about 8,000 dollars worth
of property, to be divided among relatives, the American
Peace Society of Boston, the New Britain Agricultural
Society, and Burritt Chapel. The last section of his will is
as follows :—"Having thus diposed of the property which a
kind Providence has put in my possession in a way which I
hope may testify my gratitude for such a gift, I bequeath to this,
my native town (New Britain), the undying affection of a son
who held its esteem and special token of consideration above
all the honour which he received elsewhere."

The Neut Freie Prase says that the cattle plague is
becoming more and more formidable in Bohemia. Several
hundred places have been attacked by the disease. They
are surrounded by a military cordon, and as far as possible
prevented from carryieg on intercourse beyond its boun-
daries. The loss to the inhabitants of the districts is
reported to be very considerable, and is not totally repre•
sented by that of the cattle slaughtered. Agriculture is in
many places at a standstill, the cattle which serve as general
beasts of burden being locked up wherever the disease
appears.

The Hungarian Lieutenant Zubovitch, whose ride
from Vienna to Paris and exploits on horzeback in the
Themes may be remembered, has been dangerously injured
at Szegedin in his efforts to save life, a beam having !Mien
upon him as he was endeavouring to rescue a man.
Under the head of "Conscience Money," the
Chancellor of the Exchequer acknowledges (in The Times)
the reeeipt of the first halves of £2O and LIO notes from
"it. W." on account of income-tax.

Probably the largest roost of wild pigeons in the
world is in Grayson county, Texas. It is said to be eighteen
miles wide and forty miles long.
It is stated in some of the papers that all the neces.
'airy preliminaries for establishing a complete line of sub-
marine telegraphic communication with the Cape Colony has
been finally settled between the Government and the Tele-
graph Construction and 51 aistanance Company. There is
some reason to hope that the autire work may be finished
by the later autumn months
They tell yon in New York of an Englishman who,
being shown into a front room at tiee leading hotel in Broad-
way, inspected that noble thorouOti through his c3eglass,
and exclaimed " Aw, W.'itaWo le, ma have a fwont woom
an
don't want a look-out on the beck Yar& don't you know! "
Such is the traditional Englisk " sweh in the eyes of the
traditional New 'Yorker. A great deat of swagger, an eye-
glass, and many 'don't you knows." Well, there are faults
on both sides. —Whitehall Review.
A Parliamentary paper which has been issued con-
tains an agreement between Great Brittou and Belgium,
signed at London, becember 31, 187 a, and to take effect from
January 1, 1879, for facilitating the application of a word
tariff for telegraphic correspondence exchanged, by way of
Belgium, between Great Britain and Germany. Under this
agreement telegrams so transmitted "shall be subject to a
transit charge of live centimes per word to be plsced to the
credit of the latter country."

This is the 'Frisco style of putting it. A c9clone of
fashionable festivity is alleged to prevail in New Yosk.
It is said that the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean
Railway Company, with the view ef affording facilities to
passengers travelling long distances, recently issued a regu-
lation enabling them to break their journey at any point nsore
than three hundred miles beyond the starting-place without
having to take a fresh ticket. This regulation has been to
generally appreciated by passengers travelling between
Paris and the Mediterranean watering-places that the com-
pany intends to offer further facilities of a similar kind, par-
ticulars of which will shortly be made public.

It is stated that the Admiralty have issued regula•
tions that all candidates for the naval service, whether
officers, men, boys, or marines, must produce a certificate
that they are able to swim, or they will be ineligible.
The Cologne Gazette makes the following statement
with respect to the negotiations now proceeding between
the Queen Dowager of Hanover and the Prussian Crown.
The Queen Dowager is by her marriage settlement entitled
to an income of 60,000 marks (£3,000) a year out of the pro-
ceeds of Hanoverian Crown lands, and her children are in
, the same way entitled to an allowance frem the same source.
The Prussian Government has hitherto refused to make
thcse payments, having been advised by the Crown lawyers
that while the property of the 1-toyal House of Hanover re-
mains under sequestration it would not be Idwful. to mite
them. The present negotiations between .the two auzint
Tpartlo4 turn upon this Point.

The Swedish Parliament, by a large majority in the
Upper and a majority of one in the Lower Rome, has refused
to reduce by one-half the electoral qualification—viz., the
payment of income tax on f.,45. It has also rejected woman
suffrage.
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-- -
Experiments have been made 'at Berlin with the
underground telegraph wires, which extend to Strasburg and
cologne. These wires have been placed in communicatio
with the lines to Paris and Brusgeee, the result showing the
seperiority of the underground se,stem even for long
, distances.
The Agent-General for New South Viikles has been
informed by telegram of the arrival in Sydney of the ship
dyde, which sailed from Plymouth with erote-rants in
December.
The Committee of the Royal British Fercale
Orphan /leylum at Devonport, which is especially intended
for the support of the female orphans of sailors, soldiere,
and marines losing their lives in the public service, haa
unanimously voted eve nominations to the orphans of the
met rho died so heroically at Isandula.
The usitski ceremonial of blessing palms and distri-
buting them leesk place in all the metropolitan Roman
Catholic and Rittldtbst ceurches on Sunday morning.
It was reoorted, a The meeting of the Managers for
the Metropolitan AaylneCe District cm Saturday, that the
t
number of smallpox patients remaining under treatment in
the various hospitals at the end PI the last fortnight had
decreased by 35.
The tramway company begun to nin their trams on
Saturday last at Reading. The novelty de he scene caused
crowds to watch and follow them. The cart Were crowded
t
every journey. The whole of the line is not pet completed
owing to the laying down of certain gas mains.
Mr. W. Logsdail, of Lincoln, has carried off the
first prize in the School of Fine Arta at Antwerp, the lead-
ing Academy for painters in Europe The school is ire-
quented by many English students, but the prize, Hi/stated,,
has never before been carried off by an Englishman.—The
Times.
There were 30 British and foreign wrecks reported
daring the pant week, making the total for the present year
645, or an increase of 145 as compared with the corre-
eponding period of last year. The approximate value of
prOpirfty lost was £450,000, including British £310,000.
Speakim at the Liverpool Reform Club on Monday
night, Mr. 'William Rathbone, 31. P., said that the greatest
object to be dealt with in the present day was to attack that
great vested inteeetit in intemperance, which was the curse of
this country, and when it came to dealing with it practically
the friends of tempeance would be found shoulder to
shoulder in one lobby.
Judgment was given by tie House of Lords on
Monday in an appeal from a decisWil of the Scottish Court
of Session, holding that trustees were oersonally liable to the
full extent of their means as contribuOries of the City of
Glasgow Bank as if they had been holder e Of stock in their
own right, although they had only accepted the transfer as
trustees of a deceased proprietor. The trusttees contended
that they were only liable to the extent of the t`rinit estate
which they had to administer, and were not, fla ordi-
nary shareholders would be, Heine to the full extent of their
joint personal estate. Their lordships, however, unaniivously
dismissed the appeal with costs, thus affirming the judonent
of the Court of Session which had held the trustees to be ,ner-
smelly liable.
The Bishop of Lichfield, who is at Nice, has ad-
dressed a tong pastoral letter to the clergy of the diocese,
announcing that he will hold his primary visitation in
October, and stating that, having lost the assistance of
Bishop flobhouse, he has been compelled somewhat to
curtail the confirmations, but he doubts whether very small
confirmations are advisable' and he regrets that he has been
obliged to decline many invitations to preach, in order to
secure time for quiet meditation—a great requisite in a
bustling age.
A Royal Commission, of which the Prince of Wales
is President, has been gazetted, generally to promote the
success of the forthcoming International Exhibitions in
New South Wales and Victoria. It is said that a proposal
has been made by the Commissioners to invite the Prince
seri Princess of Wales to the Melbourne International Ex-
hibition.
The fimes Calcutta Correspondent says that a hail-
storm of extraordinary severity passed over the Tipperah
district in Feistern Bengal on the 13terof March. The magis-
trate's offinial report is as follows :—" Some hailstones fell
as large as &ONO balls. The storm lasted only about
fifteen minutes, geed its track was apparently not more than
300 yards wide. Lego trees were uprooted' bamboo clumps
swept down like grass, geld houses levelled with the ground.
Twenty-nine persons were killed and 114 wounded, mostly
by the falling trees and hou:ea. A considerable number of
cattle were killed, and among hevictims was a tiger."
On Sunday night a fire brOke out in a block of
, buildings between Crown and Fond:: streets, Philadelphia,
causing a loss estimated at 750,000 dols.
1 Mr. Gerald Raoul Perry, her Majeety's Consul at
Cadiz, writes to the Standard stating that set ten minutes
past two o'clock am. on April 3 a severe shoek of earth-
quake was felt in that city. It lasted from twelve to fifteen
seconds, and caused much alarm, as it is said to be the first
shock of earthquake that for many years has visited that
part of Andalusia.
Professor Andrea Crestadoro, Turin University
and chief librarian of the Manchester Free Libraries, died
on Monday in his 71st year. He was the author of various
works on indexing and cataloguing, in which he introduced
many valuable improvements.
Store cattle, kept through the late long and incle-
ment winter, and et a higher cost than usual, are reckoned
at leas value than they were in October
Under the head of "Conscience Money," the Charz.
cellor of the Exchequer acknewledges (In The fimer,) the re-
ceipt of a cheque for LI 13s. from "B. aud E."; also the
first halt of a £5-note from "E. B. F." for " unexpected
salary."
It was announced on Sunday morning from the
Metropolitan Tabernacle pulpit that the Rev. Mr. Spurgeon
would be present and address his congregation on Easter
Sunday morning.
Mr. Marten, Q.C., has introduced a Bill, providing
that where an allowance or deduction has been or chair
hereafter be made, purporting to be under the Poor Rate
Assessment and Collection Act of 1869, no qualification or
franchise depending upon rating or upon the payment of
ratee shall be defeated by reason of the allowance or deduc-
tion not ha-sing been made in pursuance of a written agree-
ment, a written order, or a written notice, or by reason of
the want or insufficiency of any agreement, order, notice, cc
proceeding necessary ender the Act of 1869 for its validity_
The Bat, however, does net propose to relieve overseers from
any liability they may Incur by making an allowance or
dednction not in accordance with the Act of 1869, nor does
It affect any remedy for the recovery of such allowances or
deductiona
The Duke of Cambridge on Saturday distributed the
prizes gained by the successful competitors at the Easter
examination of the tor.' Military Academy, Woolvrich..
Afterwards, in the course of an, address to the gentlemen
cadets, his Royal Highness clpressed his pleasure at learning
that a marked improvement had taken place in the general
conduct of the cadets. He Shen reterred to the career before
the gentlemen who were about to be. recommended for com-
mission in the Artillery and Engineer& mentioning in terms
of praise the officers in those branches who have fallen
recently In Afghanistan and South Africa.
Some hope was lately felt that the ex-Empress
Charlotte (widow of the Emperor's favourite brother, who
was assasinated in Mexico), would recover the use of her
reason, which the tragic loss of her husband shattered
(says the correspondent of the Globe). Latest accounts prove
these hopes to have been groundless. Her apartments in
the new residence at Senehorst, which her brother, the King
of the Belgians, has bought for her, are to be exactly like her
former rooms in the castle which was burned down. Her
Majesty is quite unaware that she is no longer in her former
abode. She never speaks, and can with difficult! be
persuaded to take food.
A double postal card has been introduced into
America The clause in the Post Office Appropriation Bill
which provides for the double postal card also provides for a
letter sheet envelope, which is to be stamped as envelopes
are now stamped, and a double letter envelope. The double
postal card is in size similar to the present one cent card..
The writer of the card uses the right hand side, and the
receiver uses the left hand side for his reply. The double
letter envelope is stamped twice, and the sender uses the
right and the receiver the left hand side in writing the
address. At the back of this envelope is a double gummed
flap divided by a perforated line. The lower one is used for
sealing by the sender, and the receiver uses his knife along
the perforated line and has a new gummed flap ready for use,.
The letter sheet envelope Is designed to do away with outer
envelopes.
The strike which, about a fortnight ago, occurred
amongst the operative cotton-weavers employed at several of
the Preston cotton-mills, against a 5 per cent, reduction, and
the adoption of the Blackburn standard list, is now at an
end, the operatives having finally resumed, or consented to
resume, work on the masters' terms. About 1,300 hands in
this particular department of the trade have been out of em-
ploy.
"Some of the keys of this pianowon't sound at all,"
said an Aberdeen lady to her domestic. with suspicion in
her eye. "If you please, mam, master Tom put his terrier
in to hunt out a monse, and they went down together
among the wire things and jack-in-the-boxes. I told him ot
it, but he said it would do the piano good "
That the emigration from Europe to America is
again on the increase—after having reached its lowest point
In the year 1877—is evident from the report on Emigration
Itsh3e,t2too7t—alanof
inerreigarsane tosf satoboodutatl7l3poe,rce;
nitu
in 1878 issued by the Statistical Bureau of the United
1878 it rolsnelBt7o7
So far as regards the sexes, 91,651 were males, and 54,556
females. Germany supplied by far the largest contingent
—31,958. England and Wales came next with 19,893; Ire-
land was third, with 17,113. Sweden sent 6,176 • Norway,
5,216; Italy, 5,168' Austria, 4,881: France, 4,668' Russia.
4,216; Scotland, 3,700 • and last of all, Denmark, 2,635
Canada sent no less 24,5'33 emigrants into the States.