The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-10 00:00:00

Xilisullantous Initingtatt.
ROAR, FOREIGN, AND COLOAUL.

Tun ZOOLOGICAL SOCIRTY.—The additions to 12:lo
Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week In'
dude an Indian civet from India, presented by Mr. IV-
Getty ; a Bengalese cat from India, presented by Mr. G.
T. Egan; a grey parrot from West Africa, presented by
Mrs. Whitelow ; a kestrel and a sparrow hawk, British,
presented by Mr. T. E. Gunn; a broad fronted crozo-
dile and a Nilotic crocodile from West Africa, presented
by Mr. J. M. Harris; an undulated grass parakeet from
Australia, deposited; two golden-winged woodpeckers
and a blue jay from North America a black-tailed haw-
finch from Japan, two red-headed' finches from SoSouthAfrica, and two banded parakeets from India, received

n exchange.
ACCIDENT TO A FEMALE ACROBAT.—A woman .....lreoWn
as Mdlle. Onri, who performs various feats of strength,
such as swinging heavy weights hooked to plaits of her
hair, met with what might have been a dreadful acCl
dent at Ginnett's Circus, Derby. In the course of the
performance she descends suspended by her hair along
a wire reaching from the high?,st part of the building
.to_
the ring. While making her lightning descent treicit e
wire broke, and Mdlle. Onri was suddenly preeiPile
to the ground, falling on her face. After she had been
removed from the ring it was announced that her or
juries were not serious.
THE BISHOP OF LICHFIELD AND DEACONS' SertmeNte:
—The Bishop of Lichfield, in a New Year's pastoral u,
his clergy, justifies his recent restrictions on deacons
sermons. He says he believes he is acting on true
Church principles, as indicated iii the very words of the
Ordination Service. The step was almost forced uPtl;
him on finding that young men just entering
ministry had sometimes to preach three or four P,er,
moos a week. He at last felt bound to interfere, ne!.'
only on behalf of the deacons, but in the interests o:
the Church. The original sermons which deacons ar
now allowed to preach are returned to them with rarlre
or less full remarks upon both the matter and the
style; and inaccurate statements of doctrine, defective,
treatment of texts, and involved or obscure sente,n„c,o
are pointed out. The deacons, the Bishop says, if's
shown themselves wiser than some newspaper criue.
as they have expressed their grateful sense of the heiP
thus afforded.
MR. H. M. STANL2Y.—Mr. H. M.Stanley has addressed
the following leti,ez to Mr. Charles H. Allen, secretati
of the Anti-Slavery Society, acknowledging reeeiPt
a resolution of the committee, thanking him for Ing
address at their jubilee meeting in October last:
mod welcome New Year's greeting is the receipt
your kindly letter and the accompanying
engross
copy of the resolution of the committee of your society,
thanking me so cordially for my lecture at the Free
Trade-hall, Manchester: Please to extend to the. CO'
mittee and to each of the gentlemen who have sigue,_.
the engrossed copy, my sincere appreciation of theu
act, and assure them that, whether in Africa or else;
where, the noble oh;ects of your society shall alwaYt
have my best wishes, aud whatever aid and influence.;
can ccannand.—l am, dear Mr. Allen, very_ sincerel,
yours, HENRY M. STANLEY.—London, Jan. 1. '
FIRE AT BRETTON HALL—Shortly after midnight on
Saturday a report was received at the Wakefield statiou
that Bretton Hall, the Yorkshire seat of Mr. Virentworth
Blackett Beaumont, M.P., and Lady Margaret Bear
roont, was on fire. Upon the arrival of the fire bripee,
however, it was discovered that the fire Was in one b-n.
room, to which it was confined, and soon extinguish_q
without further mischief occurring. The damage
not. fortunately. exceed £2OO.
.ftECKS IN DECEMBER.—The British vessels respect;
ing whose loss reports were received at the Board
Trade during the month of December numbered 8r
sailing and 11 steam, with an aggregate tonnage 0'
21,930, and involving the loss of 144 lives. This, hew
-
ever, is a record of" reports received" in the
OO
and not of weeks which occurred during that meer
po b.
Many of the reports received in December relate te
casualties which occurred in previous months. Casual:
ties not resulting in total loss of vessels, and the lives
lost by such casualties, are not included.
CANON GILBERT,—A strong and influential CO
mittee of the Roman Catholic body has been formed,
with the Duke of Norfolk at its head, and suPported by
Lord Denbigh, Lord Arundell of Hardour, Mr. Cherie!
Russell, M.P., and others, for the purpose of present,i.,ne
a suitable testimonial to Canon Gilbert, of Moorfiewe'
on the occacion of his being made one of the" Domestic
Prelates" of Pope Leo, an honour which gives him the,
W,
rank and style of Monsignor." Canon Gilbert has bac'
for many years the pastoral charge of St. Mary's Moor-
fields, where he has organised a most useful and vele.
able "night refuge" for the poor, and has acted I°al
nearly twenty years as Vicar-General to Cardin
Manning at Westminster.
AIR. GLADSTONE AND THE COBDEN CLUB.—Mr. roofr
has received the following letter from Mr. Gladstone,
reference to the work of the Cobden Club: "10, Doge-
ing-street, Whitehall, Dec. 11.—My dear Mr. Potter,
Pray accept by best thanks for your letter. I can assure
you I appreciate your kind expressions, and am likevr.°
most sensible of the excellence of the labours of the
Cobden Club. I never thought more highly than wpw
of the admirable man whose fame you have clonal°
much to uphold.—l remain, very faithfully yours, r"
E. GLADSTONE. T. B. Potter, Esq., 31, Courtfield-
gardens S.W."
THE 'GOOD TEMMARS.—The long pending action
brought by Dr. Frederick R. Lees, of Leeds, a well.
known temperance advocate, against Mr. Joseph Maling,
of Birmingham, the founder in this country of the In-
dependent Order of Good Templars, is expected shortly
to come on for final hearing. The case arises out a
the dispute which occurred in the Good Templar Order
some nine years ago, in consequence of the inteL
national court refusing to insist upon a strict e"';
servance of the principles of the order on the Part c'
the Grand Lodges of the Southern States of At:aeries'
which were persistently excluding coloured people. TY
it the plaintiff seeks to recover from the defendant the
Charter of the Grand Lodge of England and the title
of Grand Worthy Chief Templar, contending that be
has superseded defendant in that capacity. The matter
has been before the courts in a variety of forms Oil
several occasions since 1878, and was finally set down
for hearing at the Leeds Assizes in 1880; but gr•
Justice Lush refused to hear it, and it was remitted !!
to Mr. (now Justice) Wills as referee. Befere hiustt_t'„"
plaintiff's case was partly heard three years ago,
an endeavour was made to effect an amicable settle-
ment. This, however, failed, and the hearing was fixed
for Dec. 27. Mr. Justice Wills, however, having el,- •
pressed his willingness to take it aaa judge in coury
instead of as referee, the defendant has consented t°
that arrangement, and should the plaintiff also conseni
an early hearing is anticipated. Mr. Barker,
Mr. Strachan are for the defenee, and Messrs. Dif,
Seymour, Q.C., and Gainsford Bruce for the plaintin.
THE SILK TRADE.—Messrs. Henry W. Elation et
Sons in their annual circular state that during tr.
year just closed the silk trade has not escaped tl
troubles which have almost universally prevailed, el].
to the exceptional position of all commercial afre'r"
some of the depression can no doubt be attributed,
sidering the severe losses that have had to be austral:le
from the heavy decline in the value of silk, less err
.barrassment has been experienced than might base
been looked for. The first few months were very dreg:
gin, heavy arrivals from Shanghai caused so rapid
increase of of stock that consumers were deterred fruret
buying beyond actual wants, while holders were Ives
difficult owing to persistent accounts from China Ild"
porting that a disease of the silk-worms' eggs lveu'e
cause a serious diminution of the crop. Towards th
end of May estimates were received from shangh4
announcing a full supply with low opening prices, t'A
market at once gave way, and when later it was 1003'
that the crop in Europe would be almost—if not Oei_itei
-'-equal to that of the preceding season, a decided fo'd""
ensued, from that time prices gradually declined, Stir
in in November the quotations for itlees were. lowe'
than at any time since 1848. During the last week
two, however, there has been an improved demon r
while at the same time prices from Shanghai have heel
telegraphed as decidedly higher, this has had a nsarke,a
influence upon the market, and it may be safely 61.,
that the lowest prices recently current are not like',
to be repeated during the remainder of the se,ason.