The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-08-06 00:00:00

HOME. FOREIGN, AND COLONIAI,

--
" To:preterit" IN .Axtxxice..—The New York
Herald remarka

Within Ma weeks of their publicatiOn of Lothar the Mtwara
Appleton sold 52,000 copies of that novel. The sale in Eng-
land in the MI6 period wax 6,000 copies. Here the different
editions were sold at one dollar and two dollars per copy,
while in England the price was 74 dollars. On either side of
the Atla,tic, therefore, the reading nulilic laid down nearly
the same sum for the gratitication of Its intellectual tastes.
His likely, h..wever, that the distinguished statesman store
history involves so mufti that we peculiarly reg frd as the
American idea," had more readers here titan in his owl.
country It in a measure of his great p-pularity that Uncle
Tom's Cabin, w Alin the came period after publican., had
hot sold Sc largely as Lothair.

Tit eel; sl2f3. —The En,.. lish Cetstu of 1871
is to show "the name, sex, age, rank, profession, or
occupation, condition, relation to head of family, and
hirdiplace of every living person who abode in every
house on the night of Sunday, the 2nd day of April,
1871; and also whether any are blind or deaf and
dumb" Measures will also be taken for ascertaining
the number of persons travelling, or, for any other
reason, not abiding in any house. An sec lint of
houses will ,tlso be t :ken, occupied or uninhabited, or
buildinz. There will be ap. nalty for making a false
return or refu-in; to make any.
THE FAILV ILES AT 711 E STOCK EXtIl
On these The Brillioniet remarks :
"There in the 11 immer again! Mr. So-strol B, ancrlineee not 'he hi irt.th',. to !nest his engagements.'" This rept ated
Anna eight and thirty tinter during the last atot.th is enough
to turn the head of the soundest or grayed t 'lV,ra of the
Stock Eschat go. It is feared we have scarcely let paned
safely thrtugh the Ordeal of failure', aid the stoutest and
strongest quail b -fore the awful fal I of the hammer, and the
consequent pain( ill disclosure. " The Home," os it termed,
has suffered greatly Indeed, not only through depreciation of
prices by the war, but also is consequence of the rascAlly
conduct of in incipals who have hesitated to pay their
"differences," leaving those bearing the brunt of their engage-
ments in such pet Pons times finally in the lurch.

Mit Car oi IntOiStATloN. The press atid
people of NOW Brunswick are discussing some chat ges
in their public account s which they think objectionable.
There is "the toilet account of the Si maker if the As-
sembly," amounting to nearly 100 dollars. Fifty dol-
lars are charged for gloves and neckties for Mr.
Speaker; and there are charges for collies, scene,
lavender, bat, and other articles. The Legiel, ive
Council have also run up a heavy bill for " stationery"
imported from Eogland, and the bill is found to include
such items as the following —On- g sow—Aunt Silly—
with figures. sticks, &it. complete, El 10s. ; three boxes
puzzles, in polished mahogany boxes, 25..; four dozen
packs gentlemen'e and ladies' visiting cards, 2 6s. ;one
pair electro-plated candlesticks £1 45.; one lady's travel-
ling and dreasii ig hag, fitted com plete. IA 15s ;a bagatelle
table, with balls, mace, cue, Szia, £2; one dozen pair
ladies' kid gloves, 61, in dresing bag, kl 16..; one
case a scissors for a 'lady, El ls." The Speaker's little
ac-coot might have been passed, but the people may
well wonder what the Legislative Council can have been
doing.
RIO. SIDNEY SMITH ON three men
were to have their legs and arms broken, and were to
remain all night exposed to the inclemehcy of the
weather, the whole country would be in a state of the
most dreadful agitation. Look at the wholesale deaths
of a field of battle, ten acres covered with dead, and
half dead, and dying; and the shrieks and agonies of
many thousand human beings. There is more of misery
inflicted on mankind, by one year of war, than hy all
the civil pecialations and egressions of a century. Yet
it is a state into which the mead of mankind rush with
the greatest avidity, hailing official murderers in
scarlet, gold and cock's feathers, as the greatest and
most glorious of human creatures. It is the business
of every wise and good man to net himself against this
passion for military glory, which really seems the most
fruitful source of human misery.

AN M .P. ON ENGLAND'S POSITION.—After a
volunteer inipe2tion at Hanley the other night, Col.
Roden, M.P., said:—

" In my opinion we shall have to show, sooner than many
of us expect, that our drilling is not sham, hut reality ; this
matter is becoming serious, and many tesoles myself are of
opinion that it is only a question of time when this country
will be at war, and we volunteers will have ta show that we
can do our duty as well as our drilL"
The remarks were received with cheers.
TEM LATE SIR R. Hatevar.- —Toe Stock Ex-
change claivar against the private estate of the late Sir
R. Harvey have increased from £51,000, at which total
they stood on the day of his death, to upwards of
£200,000 at the present time. The unfortunate de-
ceased seems to have engaged in speculative transac-
tions to a much greater extent than had been sup-
posed, and at least one firm with which he was not
known to have any business relations have sent in a
considerable claim. The private estate of Sir Robert
has been estimated at £2OO 009, but should the
Courts admit the Stock Exchange claims it is
feared that the whole of this sum will be en-
gulphed. In this Cave the dividend paid to the
creditors of the Crown Bank will be diminished to the
extent of 24. 6.1. in the pound, but even then it will be
120. or 13s. in the pound. A bill in Chancery has been
filed with a view to the administration of the private
estate of Sir Robert by that high tribunal. Lady
Henrietta Harvey, the widow of the dee and baronet,
has signed a deed renouncing in favour of the creditors
of the Crowi. Bank her interest in her late bus.
band's private esta'e. Sir Robert had bequeathed her
ladyship an annuity of £3,000 pr annum, but this ehe
abandons. Her ladyship retains her marriage nettle-
meat of £5,000, and may po.eihly, also, benefit from
, fife ineurame policies to the extent of £9,000 more.

PASFEORTS FoR FSANCE. —The following com-
munication has been received by Lord Granviiie from
the French Amba.sador at thin Court
"London, Amulet 1, 1570.
"My Lord,—The Emperor's Government hat decided, in
consequence of existing eircuinstances, that the formality of
the passport should be universally re-estahlished during the
war, as regards every foreign trendier desiring to leave or to
enter French territory I Mime the ii-tour to notify to your
Excellency this decision, which is justified in the intereit of
Briti-h subjects themselves, as well as by considerations of
public safety. The Emperor's G.,,riiment, as your Excel-
lency Is aw.re, although it consented, at the request of a
certain number of foreign States, mutually' to suppress the
formality of the passport, expressly reserved the right of re-
establishing it when ciriumatancea required ttc.,
" LavnLarre."

A WORD FROM THE WISE.—" Music first, and
dancing afterwards," said a diner-cut, "is simply
ganort and pia aidge."—Puneh.

SMALLPDX IN IRELAND.—OnIy eighteen deaths
from smallpox were registered in Ireland in the year
1860. Smallpox ls scarcely any longer to be regarded
as indigenous in Ireland. It exists occasionally, but
only by introduction from beyond sea. The modes of
introduction most to he apprehended are sailors ar-
riving from Great Britain or the Continent, soldiers
returned from furlough, tramps and vagrants crossing
the Channel to change the field of their operations,
and poor persons compulsorily removed to Ireland from
British towns, such as London, Liverpool Glasgow,
and others, where smallpox is always present. When
thus introduced into Ireland smallpox stdl finds fuel
provided for it, for the number of cases of successful
vaccination in Ireland declines. The population in the
middle of last year was estimated at moro than
5,500,000. On the assumption of one birth for 31 of
the population, there would be 178,507 births in the
year; making a deduction for deaths of infants under
six months ol 1, and for infants vaccinated by private
practitioners, the number of vaccinations by dis-
pensary medical officers ought to have been about
150.000 ; but the returns show less than 118 000 chil-
dren vaccinated. No leas than eight of the deaths from
smallpox last year occurred in the union of Castletiar,
in regard to which the Poor Law Commissioners re-
ported in the previous year an outbreak of smallpox,
which they describe as clearly traceable to very culpa-
ble negligence in not adopting the measures provided by
the Legislature for enforcing the Compulsory Vaccinm
tien Act, and to the operations of an inoculator.
PRUSSIAN ARMY TAILORS.—The term tailor-
ing," in the language of pigeomshooters, means, we
suppose, effectually shooting the pigeon. It is a piece
of slang by which the Prussians might aptly describe
the work of their needle-gun.--Punch.

MR. GLADSTONE AS A WAR MINISTER.—The
Saturday lb view admits that "the extremely painful
question has suggested itself whether Mr. Gladstone
at this orient dues realise his duties and responsibilities.
Just now the country is not philosophical, and would
be even content were our Premier less philosophical.
Mr. Gladstone is a thought too sublime for human
natures daily food. Very likely he might consider
that he Was Xl3 ibiting even a more exaltetz and tuperb
self-possession were he to go down to Harwardeu next
week, and, in despite of the season, take to felling of
trees. But we are too hard, too commonplace, too dull
to appreciate this grandeur of character. Pitt dying
of Austerlitz is a picture which recommends itself to
our love and admiration; Gladstone diecoursing on the
Ballot toy on the eve of Emperor and King, with half
a million soldiers at their hacks, in deadly confl,et is
a picture of quite another sort, and addresses itsi-lf to
very different feelings. We do not charge Mr. Glad-
stone with indifference or want of feeling. but we do
say he has a strange way of chewing it. We do not
say that Mr. Gladstone is not equal to the duties of
his station—awful duties just now; hut the cool mad
impassive way in which he chews his sense of the calls
which his country has upon him is at least very
remarkable," . _

RILCFLUITING IN LONDON.—Since the time of the 1
Crimean War the recruiting officers in London have I
not displayed so much activity as at present, nor have
so large a number of lads and men crowded round them
for the purpose of joining the army. All branches of
the military service are represented in King-street, and
on Tuesday there were at work sergeants of the Royal
Artillery, 4th Dragoon Guards, sth Dragoons, sth
Royal Irish Lancers, 7th Hussars, :srd (Buffs) 4th, sth
17th, 52nd, 59th infantry. Some of the recruits had
a des Bute look, but among them were some fine young
moo, evidently farm labourers, bearing no trace
of having been hangers-on in the streets of
London. Besides, the corps mentioned the 111fle Bri-
gade, the Royal Engineers, and the Royal Marines
were represented in the recruiting field. The sergeants
of the Enrolled Pensioners were engaged in negotiating
enlistments for any regiment the applicants pref. reed.
A special notice has been issued on behalf of the
Royal Regiment lArtillery, stating that, in addition
to the rates of pay for various grades, the amounts of
which are given, 86 commissions are given to the ranks,
not to speok of many situations of trust and 'teepee-
'tability. I'he anoitencement was read wi' is evident
avidity by the intending recruits ; but, as a superior
degree of intelligence and education is required in the
artillery soldier, the number of accepted recruits is
necessarily circumscribrd. Good as the supply of men
now is, the recruiting sergeants expect it to largely
increase when the harvest operations are completed
throughout the country.

„.
A STORY II KITTEN IN BLOOD ! - Partings
are at all times painful, but it would be ditlicul: to con.
ceive any farewell more tinged with sadness than that
of the Emperor and Empress on his departure from
Paris. There are no two people in Europe who have
played so prominent a part in history during the last
twenty years as the royal couple whose fate
hangs upon the result of the present war. When
they meet again, if, indeed, they ever do meet,
what an eventful story will have been told, and

each line written in letters of blood ! To France,
though the issues are great, the war is but ore
chapter in Ler hietory ; but to the Emperor and
the Empress it may be the last chapter in the record of
their caret r. For him at least there is no future but
in eucceen ; in drawing the sword he has thrown away
the scabbard, he has burned his ships. That gay and
glorious city which as with an enchanter's wand he has
remodelled and rebuilt will either close her gates to the
fugitive or welcome the r-tuin of a victorious leader.
Bold as the Emperor may be to heard Bismarck in his
power, it wid require nit re boldness still to reappear
at home without nis Mall t.7az,tte.
THE WAR OFFICE AND TOE OLIPIMAKt.R£I.—The
London Correspondent of the Birmingham Gazette
ear:—

At length the War Office 113 at work in enmest. The gun-
makers have, as I predicted, been recalled by Mr. Cardwell,
and both Birmin,tham and L anion factories have received
orders to put on all the force at their command to manufac-
ture breech loaders and convert E..fields into breech.lotVers.
No time is to be lost; the army most be supplied to a wan,
and then crone the militia and volunteers. There Is some
talk of serving out brerch-loaders to these two arms of the
service. The v.,lnnieers of I. )odon are in ecdasies at the
proFm.ct of throwing away the old "POP gun," as they call
it, and picking up the :balder or the Martini-Henry in its
stead.

HARD WORK ON it TURF. Betting cannot
but lo a inn4t fatiguing pursuit. For instance, the
pecVe who "stand to win," how tired they =IA feel!
—Punch.

Ton WAN AND Tun WoLIC[No CrANND3.—In
Lr.n ion, im Mond night, a crowded meeting of the
Workmen's Peac Committee was held at the Arundel
Hall, ti c assilee the address prepared by the sub.
committee to the v.nirkieg ~ea of arope, and other
nileet ins in relation to the war bttween France and
Pru.eio. Mr. Edmond Beaks, M.A., took the chair.
The meeting proceeded to consider the sd.3rt ss to the
working men of Great Britain and Ireland, brought
up by the se-committee, and after a goo I deal of dis-
mission, an address was agreed to, protesting against
the war between France and Prussia as a "great and
horrible crime on the port of Christian notions at this
period of the worlde hidory, and a wanton infliction of
trisery and rum. without any adequate cause or the pos•
sibility of any beneficial result." It Was resolved that
the address be minted for circulation in the United
Kingdom, and translated into French and German for
circulation on the Continent.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.
A New Flanipshire patriot gave 3 men and boys the
measly, by hie attending a town meeting lately.

A New York girl is happy when she wears a fifty
dollar flash.

Not content with adding to the dictknary the word
"Interviewed,' the A mericarA now speak of those who have
received a testimonial as having I, en " testimonialised."

A Georgien editor hag had hie pistol etolen. He ad-
yentae4 to give he thief the contents, and no questions tented,
If he will return it.

Why use three words when one will express the
lame thine. Say " quoteipsichoreanoclogopedalitysioo,"not
"double clog dancing."
A Yankee adventurer having heard that a new
speck had Inen discovered on the sun's disc, seket if it
was a safe spec, as he was jut wanting is melting in that
way.

A centemporary editor, noticing the prerent of a cup
to a rival, vars:—" He Deeds no cup. He can drink iron any
vessel that contains liquor, whether the utck of a bottle, the
mouth of a pl.raledvr, the spike of a keg, or the bung of a
barrel."

--iii;.elorynent orator proposes to "grasp at a ray of
Pght from the gre t orh of d iy, spin it Into threads of
gold, and with them weave a shroud in which to wrap the
whirlwird which dies upon the bosom of our Western
prairies" We fear the m:caluery will break before the fabric
Is through the loom.

A graphic writer gives the following enumeration
eta female eye Wa-e, the stare, the enter, the in—
vitation, the dalanee, toe denial, the consent, the glance of
love, the it oh of rage, the ,pirkling nt hope, the languish-
ment of soPnecs, the squint of suspicion, the fire of jealousy,
the lustre of pleasure"

A Chicago children'a paper carries the publication rf
Commendatory Inlets of itself too far, some think. in a late
111103114 ris a letter from a lady in lowa, who writes —"Our
little Anna oied last Mght after reading the last number of
your valuable paper. People who have more children than
they want should 'subscribe for that periodical."

While Thehard Cohden Was in the United States he
visited an Illinois tamer who owned twerr y thousand acres,
who told the eminent English statesman, while ,ntertaining
him with some fine peach bra, dy, that he had laid away two
hundred barrels of It for old age. "Certainly," as the great
adiNn de of free trade remarked, "• most extraordinary pro-
vision for his cleaning year,.