The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-03-25 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIG'N.

;

child ten months old has died, in New York, from
bite ori the finger inflicted by an elder brother.
is proposed in Ohio to make one year's drunken-
lissaa plinse of divorce.
home people who go to church are puzzled to find
the "collect for the day." There is no difficulty about it;
it begins when the plate goes round—Court Journal.

Ferdinand Freilgrath, the German poet, died at
Cannstadt, in Wurtemburg, on the 18th inst., at the age of
sixty-five, from disease of the heart.

The New York Daily Graphic proposes to assist the
centenniA exhibition by opening. a "pretty girls fund."
Last month ti,re were 1,133,740 tons of coal ex-
ported at the declared '1 alne of £670 930, against 781 047
tons in the corresponding month of last year, when the value
was £78,939.

Hifi Royal Highnees the Duke of Cambridge enter-
tained a distinguished party of noblemen, the Speaker of
the Howse of Commons, cicc., at dinner on Saturday at
Glonce,ter Howie Covers were laid for t weniyikix.

-
'The iron and steel trade of Sheffield is stated to be
so depressed that many of the principal firms have decided
to reduce the wages of the ironworkers and steelworkers in
their employ, in some cases to the extent of 7i per cent., and
in others to 10 per cent.

The twenty-eighth birthday of the Princess Louise
was celebrated at Windsor on Saturday (18th) with the usual
rejoicings.
In 1874 the number of criminals committed, as
shown by a return just issued, was, in England and Wales,
146,726, and the expense £582,883.
In pursuance of the Agricultural Holdings (England)
Act, 1875. the Duke of Manchester and Lord Sandwich, Lord-
Lieutenant of Huntingdon, have given notice to their
tenants that it is their desire that the contracts of tenancy
now existing shall remain unaffected by the Act.

1 Mr. C. S. Reads M. P., in speaking on the Govern-
ment Valuation Bill, at the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture
lon Saturday, condemned the measure as being the worst of
the four Bills which had been introduced lattly. He con-
:Landed that both in Irerand and Scotland the system of
'valuation was fairer than in England. The chamber generally_
.adopted the views of Mr. Read, and resolutions in opposition
to the Bill were passed.
Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son, the excursion
agents,' have received a telegram from Mr. John Cook,
announcing that, after successiully completing a tour up the
Nile to the Second Cataract (Wadi Haifa), the party under
his charge numbering thirty, safely landed at Jaffa on
Sunday morning. Mail Gazette.
A Royal decree has been issued at Madrid, estab-
lishing a relief fund for the wounded soldiers, orphans, and
families of those who fell during the civil war. There is to
be no conscription throughout the country during the present
year, a year's service of the men is to be remitted, and the
extraordinary levy of 1874 will be dismissed to their homes.
Her Majesty the Queen, in commemoration of her
recent visit to the East-end, has graciously intimated her in-
tention of conferring the honour of knighthood on Mr. E
H. Currie, the chairman of the house committee of the
Louden Hospital and vice-chairman of the London School
Board.
It is' shown by a Parliamentary paper recently
Issued, that nt 1874 there were 4,636 youthful offenders in
Reformatories ; the cost was £69.910, and toe amount re-
covered from 'parents £3,958, mating the net charge on the •
Imperial funds X-45,08?. In Industrial Schools there were
7.754 ; the cost "e 137,215 and the amount from parents
£5,140, leaving the cost of A1a1,655.
The Empress of Austria, the ex King and Queen of
Naples and suite were present at the meet of the Bicester
houndi_ on Tuesday, at Astrop-house, near Banbury, the
residence. of Sir W. Richmond Brown. There was a large
attendance. A fox was soon found, but after an excellent
run it was lost, a snowstorm of great severity setting in.
The Cerrespondance Universelle sates that the
"private and confflential" correspondence of Count Cavour,
which was said to have disappeared after his death, has jubt .
been discovered by the Italian police, and that it contains
documents of the highest importance, including eleven
letters from Napoleon ILL, eight-from Prince Bismarck, and
three from Prince Gortschakoff.
A Pastoral Letter from Cardinal Manning was read
n the churches of his diocese on Sunday, calling upon the
congregations to give all they can to aid the Catholic clergy
of Prussia in their distress. The Cardinal, after reviewing
the position of the Prussian clergy since the passing of the
Falk laws, and declaring that the sum withdrawn from the
Prussian Catholic Church was an allowance made in consider-
ation of sequestrated ecclesiastical property, says they are
entitled to the respect, compassion, and active sympathy of
all Catholics throughout the world.

A Circular has been forwarded to the Fellows of the
R,yal Horticultural Soc'ety stating that the Council, being
desdious ,1 extending a knowledge of practical ht Jima
contemplate the foundation of lectures and demoostr4 us
on the subject. Their intention is tu have lecturea'deltfe
by properly, qualified instructors, in the Society's HAli at
South Kensington, and to give practical instruct•on in th,
garden at Chiswick.
According to the Allgemeine Zeieung (9aye a Times'
telegram), 1:4,1E01.1 Victoria is expected to reach Baden on the
list of April, travelling under the title of the Countess (if
Itosenau, the name of a favourite residence of the Prince
Consort Her Majesty will remain about ten days, and will
then proceed to Coburg, meeting her daughters, the Crown
Princess of Germany and Princess Alice of Hesse, at one of
the two places.

According to a return of the last Census procured
by Mr. Macdonald, the number of children in Engl,ind and
Wales of schnol age, from three and under 13, vim;
5,374,801, or 23 per cent of the population. The number
of cAsos where attendance had been enforced coull not be
given. The amount expended upon Primary Educ Awn from
Parliamentary votes during the last ten years in England and
Wales and Sootland, was £9,918,277.

The Registrar-General reports that the births regis-
tered in Scotland in the year 1875 were 123,693, or 35.4 per
thousand of the estimated population ; the deaths were
81,785, or 234 per thousand ; and the marriages were 25,921,
or 7 4 per thousand. Ali three ratios are above the average
of the preceding ten years, but the excess is greatest in the
deaNs their average being only 22/ per thousand. The birth-
rate is almo,t identical with that which the )ear's returns
for Englandshow, but the death-rate is 0 6 per thousand
higher than that of England.

The prize of 3,000 marks (2150), offered some time
since by a committee at Dortmund for the best "Bismarck
Hymn," has been awarded to Carl Reinthaler, of Bremen,
from among 143 competitors. The same composer's opera
"Edda," produced at Bremen about a year ago, is in pre-
paration for the theatre at Hanover—Academy.
The death of Mr. John Kane, of Darlington, the
Secretary of the British Ironworkers' Association, of which
he was also the founder, took place at Birmingham on
Tuesday afternoon, somewhat suddenly. Mr. Kane was
Operative Secretary of the Northern Iron Trade Arbitration
Board, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the
Trades' Congress He also conducted and edited the Iron-
workers' Journal, and had for a long period been an active
promoter of polttical and so d4l moyements in the interests
of the working classes. Mr. Kane contested Middlesborough
unsuccessfully at the last general els ction as a working
man's CAll,lldate
Au unnaual scene took place at Banbury on Satur
day, when a stag and the hounds in full cry passed throuli
several of the streets. ihe stag ran spa narrow lane, and
n e Its appearance in one of the most frequented thorough-
f efollowed by the hounds and the horsemen. One 1.!
t . o"thildren were knocked down, and some of the horses
f d
came down at the crossings. After running through the
town the, st'agwas ultimately captured at Broughton CastP,
the scat of Lord Saye and Seal, about three miles from the
town. It jumped into the mos.: which surrounds the castle,
aiiid was with some diflicnity secured.
i The Commission appointed by the Russian Govern-
*ent to consider the question of laying down a line of ',U-
we), through Central Asia Is busily engaged in • taking the
preliminary inquiries as to - &c. -
arrr strikin;

_ m, ,
. int, cost, _ islnd it hie. already
.rived at some , lg results. The length of the proposed
railway, according to the plans of General Beshnossikoff, is
about 3 300 vents, and its cost is estimated at upwards of
£40,000,000. , It would proceed frem Ekaterinburg through
the towne of Tcheljaba and Troitzk, and then tlnyugh
Turkestan to Peshawur. Within Russian territory the., cost
would be 30,000 roubles a verst, and beyond. it 80.000.-narot-
withstan4ing the enormous capital required, m iny Rtitisikd
merchants are so strongly_in. favour of the plan that they
offer to subscribe the amount ismintag.theinselv,s.
c •
On Tuesday, the diversgot to worli 'al the §trathcl,
for the first time, then lightiffilp placed by the Tri."—
tit the scene of the wreck having drifted:away in t
gale; the wreck was searched for and buoyed o unday.
The divers are taken out in the)Palmerston tog, and have
some lighters to aid jhem to their operations. The sea was
remarkably smooth mild they got' tkirirol•k with little difficulty.
They found the mainmast gone, carried away, probably, by a
collision witq.tne wreck. No Doilies were discovered,ihnt.atc
quantitx of. passengers'- luggage was secured and haa;beekt,,
brought on shore. The work -of ' salving-the -eargq-it is be
lieved :will, now speedily proceed, eVery.arrabgement erecter
sary• for; the- purpose having been made by klessrs..frathstria,
and Forster, whdasre acting for theowners: 'ii .11 ,h!,.9 ii,i4.:la,
Mrls:'MilleiT.'stee Lydia Fraser, Widi4w,O.f'iti.A
gulshed geoloitit'and• literary man, High' litleiP.'ffled'iff
Atisynt, Sutbae;laxidahlret.on, the -11th4AU;"'Itidultitligit
I
She had auHealf Oar 'aevetal • years Sr
1‘ fitroniWiuttllbee shAlo"caltbacvePticblvsiohneethdelifyhheerrl3utislbean2taiev-fsesturld"ientette.k7tlattabie- ISt•I
' ,TessepsitLeudidti.itoistary,
of ittahleenstsoofttille-talents orbwdere.:,;t. ?tto.s.thertimiabirlagriedpidi
nevel, entitled " Pass ages in- the Life of an English. Heiress/Plc
lain whichtthe..views of :the ." non Intrusion ","party'WerrtPlitain,
thustastically advocated. A. book for young penplcit with vii,
graphic title "Cats and Dogs," was Snead suiseeteistll and has
ibeon ft equeidarlepublisthed within the last twenty years.
ii
he took' s chief Part in editing her husband's works after
tis death, and liar prefaces and additierialltitplay extraordi-
nary •i•asity and no small imeginsii-v ower.
. _. „ ..
I'' Willirthl:GciMyear; a foreman, Porter 4C the' aivi%
Ssiwesrern Hallwag Station at -Readinuwali •walkier up the
' line near the station between the up and down. rails about
Itfour fcrefock -oil Saturday 'morning, When' the Up rdistrilistin
casino-am:4lg. He stepped out of the way Of the' maill.tiltin 'eft 1
,a stdituoind was knocked down Imo killed by itimettnekit.
hat were being shunted—Late on the previous evening a -
orter named Copper, employed on the South -Western line,
ao
at .Reading, was knookied down by an engine nearthe statbri,•
*Sind seriously iniured. He was not discovered until nearly
anihOur after the accident. He was taken to the Royal
Berkshire Hospltal, but died on Saturday morning. The
borough coroner held an inquest upon both bodies on Satur-
day, and in each case a vertteet of "Accidental death" was
retrned.
wing Alfonso made his triumphal entry into Madrid
on' ond,y morning at the head of 25,00 troops amid the
en usiastic cheering of an immense crowd of people—y
via toti ts.v4gropryin by
IF
railway trent all parts. lialcotitanl
housed,' Atli t . their roofs, were one masts of hulliati beings,
l'he scene was magn ficerit. In the streets there were tri-
umphal arches and trophies and the balconies and p.la,•es
were gaily draped The people crowned the soldiers with
wreaths as they pease& The King bowed repeatedly. look-
ing very well in a captain-general's uniform. General
Qiiesada, passing with the army corps and tie Basque Liberi4
Volunteers, created great interest The people ceeered and
threw wreaths and flowers. The troops, in heavy marching
order, with mounted batteries, and several regiments of
cavalry, under General Campos, with the Army of Navarre,
followed. Twenty-five thousand men of all arms entered,
and were four hours and a half marching through the
Puerta del Sol. The men looked bronzed and war-worn, but
healthy

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