The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-07-15 00:00:00

SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1876.

IMPROVEMENTS I/DRILL. —Everythin g is b ein g
done by clock-work now-a-days. The latest method of
"marking time" is by means of a chronograph. It is
expected that the next thing will be the performance
of the goose-step by steam machinery.—Judy.
A GooD OLD SHIP.—The barque True Love,
which recently discharged a cargo of toe from Norway
at Kineston, Dock, Edinburgh, is one of the oldest
craft afloat. She was built at Philactelphia, North
America, in 1764, and is thus 113 years old, and has
braved "the battle and the breeze" ever since. Her
registered tonnage is 284, and her lenith from stem to
stern is 96 feet 8 inchf9. Captain Joseph Velsey, the
master, warrants her strong, staunch, and entire, not-
withstanding her great antiquity. The builders of
this remarkable barque are unknown, their names
having been lost in the intervening period. During the
earlier career of the True Lore she was one of the most
succest_f al Hull whalers afloat..
IMPORTED BEEP.—There has been am increase
in the importation of beef in the last six month g; This
year the value was £289,392 salted and £121,915 fresh
or slightly s alted, against the respective sums of
£231,467 and £69,676 last year.

RTIS!UA. P.REPARING.—We are able to state
that an eminent enzineering firm in London has re-
ceived letters from its representatives in Russia which
announce that the Russian Squadron in the North
Pacific is to be at once reduced to two small vessels the
others being ordered home, vid the Suez Canal, as
soon as possible. It is added that the Black Sea.
Squadron is to be at—once reinforced by three iron-
clads from the Baltic, which are to sail for the South
as soon as they can be got ready; but not in company,
so as to avoid anything like a demonstration. Some
hands have actually been taken from the private
Russian shipyards in order to push on the refitting of
these ironclads in the briefest practicable period.—
Whitehall-Review.
- -

-
QUERY FOR GEOGRAPHICAL BEES.— Should
the women of Montenegro be spoken of as Monte.
n egreeses ?—Punch.
RAILWAY SERVANTS. Mr. James Murray
writes to The Times :—" I have just read the remarks
of the coroner in your issue of Friday respecting the
frequency of fatal accidents to men employed coupling
and uncoupling waggons on railways, and I am sur-
prised that attention has not been called by these
frequent accidents to the verrsimple invention now
exhibiting in the Brussels Exhibition, and which the
inventor was kind enough to illustrate to me there a
few days ago. By it the very dangerous practice of
passing between the waggons, necessary with the pre-
sent system, is entirely done away with; and consider-
ing that the men daily sacrificed on our railways in
this operation of shunting represent a class young,
healthy, and strong, surely some steps ought to be
taken when the means lies ready to put a stop to
the deplorable mutilation and loss of life daily occur-
ring."
PULPIT LANGUAGE.—At the time of the Irish
f amine, no clergyman could bring himself to say the
word "potato" in the pulpit. Preachers called it
that "root, upon which so many thousands of God's
creatures depended for support, and which in His wise
purposes had for a time ceased to flourish ;" or spoke
of "that esculent succulent, the loss of which has de-
prived so many hungry sinners of their daily sus-
tenance ;" but no one said "potato." But why should
It be more irrevent to use the word "potato ' in the
pulpit than to speak of corn, wine, oil, or sparrows?
In simplicity of expression may often be found the
secret of true dignity and real eloquence; good plain
words, Saxon ones if possible, monosyllables if to the
point, are the best and surest way of gaining the ears
of a congregation. Compare the soporific phrases of
the ordinary sermon with any chapter of the English
Bible; mark how pleasant is the change when a verse
of Scripture occurs amid the dry, meaningless verbiage
of the preacher, like an oasis in the desert. But who
shall paint the awful sufferings inflicted by an ex-
tempore preacher unequal to the effort, whose one
talent seems to be the talent of going on? will no one
dare to expostulate, and if so, would he stop? He
reminds one of the deaf old woman who screamed
away to help the church choir close to her; when re-
proved (unable to understand the rebuff) she answered,
'Not to me be the praise, it is a gift ; ' and moreover
the sermon is generally the same, only with a different
text —Macmillan.
THE SORT OF RAIN VIVISECTIONISTS WANT.---
Cats and Dogs.—Punch.

A BRIGADE OF REPORTERS.—There are said
to have been no less than six hundred reporters at the
opening of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia.
It took a brigade of soldiers to clear the seats appro.
printed to them, which had been occupied by other
persons. The six hundred should have charged them-
selves, like " l'he Light Brigade" at Balaklava, and
captured the seats by their own valour. We are also
told there were 20 car loads of "dead heads" from
Washington, and they made up a special train to carry
this profitable load. In American parlance "dead
heads" are persons carried free of cost, or admitted to
plays and exhibitions without payment.
THE STORING OF EGGS.—This is an import-
ant matter now, because the hens will want a rest, and
eggs will come in less plentifully. It is of course desir-
able to delay storing to as late a date as possible, both
to tide over the hot weather and carry on the supply
as far towards winter as possible. No general rule can be
given, because upon the time poultry begins to lay de-
pends the time when they will leave off, and thero is no
breed that will lay the whole year round without a
reast, not even the hermits, which begin usually at the
end of November. A cool place, not thoroughly dry,
will keep eggs better than a place dust dry, therefore
the bottom of the house is better than the top for egg
preserving. In packing, it is a decided advantage to
place them large er.d upwards, as hundreds of observa-
tions and experiments have proved long since. As to
the various dressings adopted, they are not of much use,
some people smear the eggs with oil or butter, some
brush them over with a solution of gum arabic, and
others dip them in thick limewater. The object in
each case is to close up the pores of the shell, for
atmospheric air is the father of decomposition. We
have found eggs keep as well without any of these
preparations as with them, and we know of no better
way to keep them than to pack them large end upwards
in tine charcoal, covering each layer completely, and a
small tea•chest or any old box not very large will come
'in.useful for a lot. Several small boxes filled will prove
'more useful than one large one, and, of course, the date
!when filled should be chalked on each, so as to ensure
:the using of the stalest first.--Fictorial World.

THE SPIRITUALISTS' MOTTO.—" Est Modtts
Rebus"—"There is a Medium in everything.—Punch.

DOMESDAY BOOK. —With a view to correct or
expose certain fallacies which were said to exist in the
new Domesday Book, Mr. Bright two months ago
moved for a further return bearing upon the distribu-
tion of land. This document has just been published,
and from its elaborate details, the following facts may'.
be gathered. Out of 972,836 owners of land registered
in the Domesday Book, it appears that 703,289 have
only plots of ground of less than an acre in extent.
;They have amongst them 151,171 acres of ground. So
that the 32,013,514 acres, exclusive of the metropolis,
that remain, are divided amongst 269,547 landlords;
and of these 49,085 persons divide between them in
estates of 100 acres and upwards 28,841,909 acres, or
about seven-eighths of the whole, whilst something
like one-twentieth of the country is held by 703,289
owners of plots less than one acre.

THE GREAT ACTS OF HisTOßY.—American
tradition has clung to the phrases assigned to the dif-
ferent participants in the signing of the Declaration ;
John Hancock's commentary on his own bold hand-
writing, "There, John Bull may read my name with.-
out spectacles "; Franklin's, "We must hang together,
or else, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately " ;
and the heavy Harrison's remark to the slender 51
bridge Gerry that, in that event, Gerry would be kick-
ing in the air long after his own fate would be settled.
These things may or may not have been said ; but it
gives a more human interest to the event when we
know that they were even attributed. What we long
to know is that the great acts of history were done bY
men like ourselves, and not by dignified machines.—
Scribner for for July.
"ON HOSPITABLE THOUGHTS INTENT."—Mr.
—. "Don't you think, Love, that you'd better give
Ahem a longer invitation than a week ?" Mrs.
I" My Lyse ! They'd all come !"—Punch.
PAINTING THE LILY.—If Some women could
but see themselves as close observers see them,
especially when their toilet of pigment has been per-
chanced hurried, they would be horrified. At Ascot
we noticed two sisters, neither of them, we should say,
three seasons out, painfully powdered—that is too
common; hundreds were the same—but also display-
ing high arched and long drooping eyebrows, which,
on close inspection, showed the plain trail of the brush
upon the naked skin, half an inch beyond the limit of
the real eyebrow. The effect, a dozen yards off,
was striking; at close quarters ludicrously pain-
ful. Sundry golden-haired young ladies exhibited
dark brown eyebrows. Nature surely never invented
such incongruity. A certain dowager had touched
up her forelocks after they had been arranged and
braided over her ears and, in thus concealing the in-
roads of iron grey, had carelessly allowed the paint-
brush to leave its black streaks upon the edge of tho
ear itself. A silver-haired dame is often a beauty 111
her old age, but nothing looks more painful than bright
brown or black locks contrasting with an incongruously
'withered skin. How often do we see a tell-tale white
upon the shoulder of a dress-coat after a waltz, and at
the end of a ball observe a beauty with a right cheek
showing its natural sallowness, the butterfly colouring
rubbed off, while the left still bears the uninjured
handiwork of the toilet? The ostrich that hides its
head in the sand Is not more self-deceived than the
woman who thinks that she deludes her admirers by
painting the
FANCY VERSUS TABLE POULTRY.—Let us take
a few of the varieties as they are now shown, and ask
ourselves what have been the results of breeding them
for show purposes only. Old fanciers remember when
a Spanish without red in its face was never seen, and
when the earlobes of the prize birds were not a quarter
the extent they now are. Call anybody who is not an
eligible candidate for Earlswood Asylum imagine
that the new leggy, large faced birds are as good egg
producers or useful as table fowl? If so, let them
send a consignment to the markets, and see what theY
will realize. The old breed were shorter on the leg,
larger in the body, and much more prolific as layers
than those in which everything has been sacrificed to
face and earlobe. Even the useful red-faced Minorca
has come under the influence of exhibitors, who have
bred them with monstrous useless combs, and tried to
degrade them into fancy fowls. The old Dorkingshmt-legged, square-bodied, and small boned, with
every aptitude to lay on white fat under a thin, fine,
white rkin—ha4 hePl changed into a long-legged,
heavy, big-boned bird, that shows in every point bie
descent from the coarse Indian cock, from which be ill
descended. Ilamburghs have been bred for feather
only; Polish for crest, and the white-crested have been
PO inter-bred that roupiness and humped backs appear
to be the normal characteristics. The Old Surrey and
Sussex fowls, that still supply our best poultry for the
London markets are never seen at shows. Almost the
only breed that has been improved by the high-class
poultry fancy is that of Aylesbury ducks, which have
certainly increased greatly in weight. Show geese have
also had their size greatly augmented; but what about
the fertility of the overgrown monsters ?—/Pitlct,

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
In the-HOUSE OF LORDS, July 10, Lord Granville asked
Lord Derby whether he had received any official information
respecting the alleged atrocities on the part of the irregular
troops of the Porte in Bulgaria.
Lord Derby replied that ho had communicated with Sir
Henry Elliot on the subject, but there had not yet been time
to receive an answer. Yesterday morning he again tele.
graphed to that Ambassador, desiring the tram:illusion of
information with the least possible delay.
The Local Light Dues (Reduction) Bill and the Wild Fowl
Preservation Bill passed through Committee. -
The Friendly Societies Act (1876) Amendment Bill was re-
ported with amendment.

The other business vas dispozed of, and their Lordabips ad-
journed.

In the HOUSE OF COMMONS, replying to Mr. Bruce, Mr.
Disraeli stated that it would be surely possible to fix a day
for discussing the hon. member's motion on the affairs of
Bosnia and Herzegovina in a manner satisfactory to the
/louse until the papers were laid on the table. The right
hon. gentleman added, in answer to Mr. E. Jenkins, thdt
every effort was being made at the Foreign Office to proclwe
the papers, though it was impossible to say definitely when,
as it did not depend on her Majesty's Government; but just
before coming down to the House he was infirmed by Lord
Derby that they might count upon their presentation at the
beginning of next week.
In answer to Mr. W. E. Forster, Mr Disraeli said that no
answer had yet been receivea to the inquiries which Lord
Derby had instituted with regard to the alleged atrocities in
Bulgaria, in fact, no answer could yet have been received.
All the communications which had been received from our
Ambassadors and Consuls would be found in the Papers about
to be laid before Parliament. With regard to the terrible
atrocities mentioned by Mr. Forster on a former occasion, he
Still hoped that when lull information was received the state-
silents would be found to be scarcely warranted. The Govern-
ment had been in constant communication with Sir 11. Elliot,
Who was a stern assertor of humanity, and who would
have interfered energetically if he had heard of such
events; and we had also Consuls of eminent ability at
Belgrade, Ragusa, and Cetigne ; but from none of them
had the Government received any intelligence of such atro-
cities. Undoubtedly, a war which was waged, not by regular,
tam even by irregular troops, but by a sort of posse comitatus,
mint be accompanied by atrocities. But witu regard to the
ricular atrocities alleged the sale of girls a t
stantinople, the.imprisoement of 10,000 Bulgarians, and
the infliction of torture, which was not usual among Easterns,
Who usually terminated their connexion with criminals in a
More expeditious manner—the Government had received.no
information of them from their agents, and he still hoped
that they would turn out to have less foundation in fact
than many supposed. Every effort had already been made to
• Urge the Turkish Government to do all in its power to soften
and mitigate the terrible scenes which were inevitable in
Such a war; and if any further information arrived, he
Would lay it before the House.
Mr. Forster urged that inquiries should be made by tele-
graph, and was proceeding to make some general remark.,
When he was called to order by the Speaker. On this he said
he would move the adjournment of the House, and this gave
him the opportunity of pointing out that, side by side with
these terrible stories, which appeared still to him to have
great foundation, there was a growing belief in Europe that
moral support was being given by Great Britain to Turkey.
It Was humiliating and revolting to the conscience of the
nation that it should be supposed to be supporting a Govern-
ment which could be capable of these atrocities.
Mr. Ashley asked whether the Government had any reports
from our Consuls at Adrianopole and Philippopolis, which
Were nearer to the scene of these events than Belgrade or
Ragusa. Mr. Anderson thought that the Prime Minister
Ought to have assumed that there was more truth in these
rnmours, and Mr. ?duodena declared that private accounts
are much worse—too shocking, indeed, to be published.
Mr. Disraeli reiterated that he had not denied the possi-
bility of atrocities being committed in such a war. All that
he had said was that the Government had received no In-
formation of the particular details which were put to him
from any of its diplomatic agents, including our Consuls, at
the places named by Mr. Ashley. All the information the
Government had received would be found in the Papers ; and
the Government had not waited for the question to be mooted
In the Douse to urge on our Ambassador and Consuls to use
their efforts to prevent atrocities.
In answer to Mr. Childers, Mr. Ward Hunt said it would
be six months, or perhaps more, before the results of the
observations of the Transit of Venus were made public.
On the motion for going into Committee on the Compulsory
Education Bill,
Mr. Richard moved as an amendment, seconded by Mr.
Z. Jenkins, a Re °lotion declaring that the principle of
universal compulsion in Education cannot be applied with-
_out great injustice, unless provision be made for placing
tlementary Schools under public management. In support
Of it Mr. Richard descanted on the intolerance of the clergy
and the extravagances of the Ritualists, and set forth at
ietigth the grievances, social persecutions, dsc., of the Non-
Fonformists. The effect of this Bill, he said, would largely
Increase the number of denominational schools.
Mr. Hubbard argued that no education was of value with-
out religion and complained of the intolerance which would
refuse public assistance to denominational schools. Mr.
Greene, who also spoke in favour of religious education,
deprecated too frequent reference to topics which only em-
bittered the controversy, although he sympathized entirely
With the Nonconformists' objection to Intrust their children
to the teaching of Ritualistic clergymen.
Mr- A. Jid'Arthur anti Mr. Morley supported, and Mr.
Greene opposed, the motion.
Mr. Halsey, speaking as the chairman of a School Board in
21rural district, though he admitted that School Boards would
furnish.. a satisfactory solution of many difficulties, preferred
,fle machinery of the Bill to the compulsory establishment
of these bodies all over the country.
Mr. Cowper-Temple condemned the intolerance of Mr.
Richard, which for the extravagance of a few Ritualists,
would punish the 12,000 voluntary schools of the country. Ile
defended the operation of the Conscience Clause, which,
While it secured secular education for all the children of the
district, at the same time provided rel'gious education for
those of the denomination to which the school belonged. HO
ridiculed the idea of proselytism, and denied that the Dis-
senters had Made out any grievance. Oa the contrary, by
seeking to drive the country into secularism and to curtail
the freedom of religious teaching, Mr. Richard would
establish a grievance in the opposite direction.
The debate was continued by Mr. Paget and Mr. Hall
against, and Mr. Mundella in favour of the resolution.
The Marquis of Hartington remarked that the amendments
Which had been laid on the table by Lord Sandon very much
strengthened the principle of direct compulsion, and to that
extent had rendered the Bill more acceptable from the edu-
cational point of view. As to the amendment, he could
not understand it without the aid of the speech by
Which it was introduced ; but the system of public local
management of the voluntary sclosols which Mr. Richard
seemed to wish for would be extremely distasteful to the
managers. Moreover, the amendment did not provide for
the grievance cf Roman Catholics and others who were
onDosed to any instruction without religion. The Marquis
was of opinion that the strict enforcement of the
Conscience Clause would meet all the difficulties of
,the case especially after it bad been strengthened
by Mr. Forster's amendment, that every neglect to enforce
it should be brought before the Education Department. On
the whole, it was a great gain to have it acknowleged for the
first time that the public authorities were invested with a
share in the educational system of the country.
_Lord Sandon, in the course of a general reply, argued that
the voluntary schools were well managed, and that there
Was no evidence that the Conscience Clause had failed. The
gligious difficulty was not in any way aggravated by this
ilk and the real meaning of the amendment was the estab-
shment of universal School Boards.
Mr. Waddy warmly condemned the measure as one of the
Vsran,' grievances which the Nonconformists had suffered at
.e hands of the Church, and warned its supporters that the
dare would come when this policy would be reversed.
0/2 a division, Mr. Richard's Amendment was negatived by
a Majority of 218-317 to 99.
The House went into Committee, but it was immediately
ad loomed.

The other Orders of the Day, 59 in number, were disposed
of, and the House adjourned at half-past two o'clock.

In the MUSE OF LORDS. July 11. Lord Granville postponed
tits statement on the subject of Extradition until Tuesday
next

The second reading of the Poor-law Amendment Bill was
Moved by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who, in giving
an outline of its provisions, explained that one of the main
objects of the Bill was to make provision for divided
Parishes, and for constituting more convenient areas without
interfering with Ecclesiastical or School Board districts in a
"taPrillsory manner. Another object of the Bill was to
enable the Local Government Board to dissolve existing
Unions, under certain circumstances, and also to consolidate
*Mall Unions, whereby a saving of expense might be affected.
A third point to which the measure related was connected
With the Law of Settlement, the Bill containing a clause
"'doh provided that a continuous residence of three years in
a Parish should confer a right of settlement—a provision
Which the Duke of Richmond and Gordon thought would be
Of great advantage to the labouring classes.
The Duke of Somerset thought it objectionable that the
Bill should deal with so many miscellaneous subjects, and
!aid that it gave enormous power for altering parishes and
unions. If existing Unions were to be altered, it would be
Ilaiiirable that a Union should not be divided by being
Placed in separate Counties.
Lord Egerton of Tatton said that it would be impossible,
the case of a large town which extended from one
—4°l4' into another, to make the Union co-terminons with
the County.
Lord Henniker regarded the measure as being a great
e in the right direction; and Lord Fowls suggested the
'roportance of giving, when the existing condition of any
,Patish was proposed to be altered, due notice to the persons
usterested, in which suggestion Lord Aberdare concurred;
While Lord Cottesloe expressed his belief that it would be
hopeless to attempt to make all Unions conterminous with
Comities.
Lord Redesdale concurred in thinking that it would have
been impracticable to make Unions conterminons with
Counties, and with regard to the question respecting settle
-
'tent he thought the provision in the Bill a very great
itaprovement.
The Duke of Richmond and Gordon expressed his gratifica-
tion at finding the general feeling to be in favour of the main
Pl'inciples of the measure, and the Bill was then read a second
time.

The Union of Benefices Bill was read a third time and
Passed, and, the other business on the paper having been
Posed of,
Their Lordships adjourned.
he HOUSE OF COMMONS, at the morning sitting, went
Into committee on the Elementary Education Bill, when the
!notion for postponing the preamble was made the ocoasion
I,or a short renewal of the debate on the question of un-
,!itinininational teaching Subsequently consideration of
i4,clauses was proceeded with, and on reaching the third,
e ten fixes the date for the commencement of the act, Lord
‘Jandon stated that the Government were engaged in pre-
-3 amendments for the formation of day industrial
Which he hoped to be able to lay before the ccm-
lttee in a few days. He appealed, therefore, to Mr. Serjeant
roPil„, /,,,s, who had given notice of an amendment to the clauses
""g to the school attendance of "wastrels," non to press
Proposal until the subject was ready for discussion.
this Serjeant Spinks assented, and the clause was post-
Dnned•
On the 4th clause, regulating the employment of chih
rider ten years of age, Mr. Hardcartle moved the insert.
tt a proviso to allow the employment of a child certiii,
2 the local authority to have attained the age of nine
Z.hnse employment was on grounds which the local an,
veatigated and found sufficient, and the occup
°Uch that the child while employed attended school
time.

ildien
Isertion I