The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-07-01 00:00:00

squar,
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ranee lias 43,314. less than half as zunoh as Great Britain.

At a meeting of the West Yorkshire Coalrnasters'
Association and reprerentatives of the miners in Leeds, it
was agreed that a reduction of 12i per cent, on the present
rate of wages should be made, and not be altered before the
29th of September next.

The will of the late Mr. Langton, chairman of the
Mersey Dc k and Harbour Board, says the Ltverpooi Post,
was proved at the Liverpool Probate Office on Tuesday. no
personalty was sworn under £200,000. With tne exception
of a legacy of £lOO to tire liluecoat Hospital, the whole of the
personal estate is divided among iMx. Langton's relatives.
Mr. Charles Langton succeeds to the freehold estate.

A Cabinet Council was held on Monday in Downing.
street. The Ministers present were the right Hon. B. Dis-
raeli, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Richmond and
Gordon, Mr. Secretary Cross, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of
Carnarvon, Mr. Secretary Hardy, the Marquis of Salisbury,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Hon. G. Ward
Hunt, and Lord John Manners

Captain Tyler, reporting to the Board of Trade on
the accident that occurred to the Great Western express
known as the Flying Dutchman on May 24, through the
wheels leaving the rails, points out that it is incumbent on
the Great Western Company, in undertaking to run these
fast trains, to take care that their permanent way is in
proper condition for the weight of the engines and the
speed at which they are employed. The train was running
at the rate of CO miles an hoar.

A correspondent of The Times warns Parliament
that the " humanitarians " will not rest content with the
present measure. "We happen to know," he says, "from
one of the humanitarians that the moment the Government
pass a measure for the oppression of physiological research,
they mean to begin an oppression against sporting and
other practices with such arguraents as these—You agreed
to what we said about the expediency of preventing animal
suffering when the object was scientific, you cannot now
refuse to join us in preventing such suffering when the object
Is merely your own amusement. What will the Government
do then ? "

At the Liverpool police-court the manager of the
United Tramways and Omnibus Company has beau sum-
moned, under Acts of Charles L and IL for desecrating the
Sabbath, by permitting omnibus traffic. The proceedings
were taken by the Omnibus Union to ascertain if the com-
pany, wllich had refused to allow the men occasional rest on
that day, was legally justified in requiring their services. It
was decided by the magistrate that an omnibus was a stage
coach, which the law exempted, and the summons was,
therefore, dismissed.
Her Majesty has presented Mr. Ross, her piper, with
the medal for faithful service. Mr. Ross has been thirty-
seven years in Her Majesty's service, so that the Queen has
had ample knowledge of his deserts. He served fourteen
years in the' Black Watch," and has been twenty-two years
in her Majesty's personal service. This "order," as we may
call it, has only been lately instituted by Her Majesty; and
we know that thousands of Highlanders will join in congratu-
lations with Mr. Ross and in the conviction that the honour
has been well merited.— Court Journal. "oar

A fire occurred at New Hampton on Sunday morn-
ing, by which an elderly woman, named Sarah Shares, lost
her late. A man named Coe, on passing her c &age, noticed
smoke issuing from the windows. He gave the alarm and a
crowd speedily assembled. It then became known that the
deceased was In the house, and a scene of painful excitement
ensued. One or two of the neighbours bravely attempted to
enter the house, but were driven back by the smoke and heat.
The Hampton Fire Brigade—which has only a small manual
engine, and does not povess a fire escape—arrived, and
began to play upon the flames, and at 8 a.m. the tire was so
far sab hied that two persons were able to go into the house.
They then found the body of the deceased in the back bed-
room.

Queen Dowager of Sweden, whoee death was
the other day, was e daughter of Eugdae,
nth°elt; the a of Josephine and adopted son of the great
Napolnon. She was born in the splendour of im-
pellet days, and became the bride of Bernadotte's son.
Two of her sons became kings. One of them is now on the
throne. It is strange, as showing how time avenges every-
thing, that wine the blood of Napoleon is on no throne in
Europe the blood of Josephine, who was divorced because
she could not bear Napoleon children, has become a royal
strain and will probably continue. It was the dream of the
great conqueror's life to found a royal line. Ills descendants
are outside of the royal circle, while the descendants of his
discarded wife reign still and bid fair to reign for genera-
tions.
The Sussex News states that General Alexander de
has visited
London,
Military
sAf tntra cob
et
purposeto t h the R Russian
Inspectingthe sy in
burying.
place of the Russian prisoners captured during the Crimean
tMedilLiteawr
War who died during their confinement in gaol, now the
naval prison, with a view to the erection of a substantial
memento to their memory. Ile attended at the invitation of
the rector and churchwardens of St! John's, in the church.
yard of which parish the bodies were interred. An ordinary
memorial stone was erected at the time by the survivors, but
an this requires restoration it was thought beat to ask the
assistance of the B,ussian authorities in erecting something of
a more substantial character. General Garloff said he should
report most favourably on the project, and thanked them for
the great attention which the parish authorities had evidently
paid to the graves during the last 20 years.
An acci,lent, which created great alarm, occurred on
Friday afternoon at the Royal Gun Factories, Woolwich,
Colonel Younghusband, R. k, was escorting a p trty of sixty
visitore, most of whom were from the South Staffordshire
iron distriAs, through the establishment, and while they
were ic the new roiling mills there was suddenly a loud crash
and th; machinery broke up into fragments which flaw in all
-
directiuns. Colonel Younghusband and two or three others
g
were thrown down, but the rollers were fortunately working
1 iyhaml f
mills speedha
have
et thebee
nmnotmwsionrtk for more than a year, and
, and no one was seriously
were supposed to be unsurpassed
n strength and durability,
ed to a heavy
Jost before the accideil they had been subject
strain in rolling a large bar of iron, d
hurt.at(
.te
an tis supposed that
the breatdown originated in a defective pin or bolt some
three inches thick, which appears to have been imperfectly

The Corre,pr n lent of the Daily News at Constanti-
nople sends adoitiunal information respecting the assassina-
tion of the Turkish Ministers. The assassin was, it seems,
the brother of one of the ex Sultan's wives, and aide-de-camp
of Prince Youssouf. He appears to have regarded his
fortune as altogether loi.t when Abdul-Az z was deposed, and
he became almort mad upon being ordered to Bazdad by
Hussein Avni. Against that Minister he had expressed a
strong feeling of hatred All the accounts agree in stating
tliat he had been drinking hard before he committed the
crime. It was with some difficulty that the police 7po
apprehended him were restrained from killing himfturinctbe
ay
spot. Ile was hastily tried on Friday, and on s
morning was hanged in the courtyard of the Seraskeriat
The body remained suspended in sight of the crowds which
flocked to see it until the following Tuesday morning.
the assaults was actuated by p
moms! vengeance (the Corre
That
ispotidelat Of the Daily NEWS •
thinks) then oan bo, no doubt.
-

1. Ka I'M

• ' ,;

Three boys were drowned in Lock Leven on
Saturday.

In removing a portion of the building in one o'f tt e
leading thoroughfares in Dundee, the workmen came upon
two complete skeletons, in an excellent state of preserva-
tion.

On Saturday the fast train to Holyhead ran into an
empty passenger train at Abergele. There was pa
injured, but the line was blocked for several hours." -
At the Cambridge Midsummer horse fair, on Satur-
day, the 24th, there was one of the largest collections of
animals that has been there for many years, including some -
superior carthorses, fit for London work. Hunters were, at
usual at this fair, scarce.

New York papers report that a boy about e/ght
years old, while crossing Harlem Bridge, the drawbridge
being open, was caught between the draw and the railing,
and mutilated in a horrible manner. Ile was instantly
killed, his head being severed from his body and his left leg
cut off.

A number of convicts are now employed at Chatham
dockyard in thole duties which are of the most laborious
character, such as stacking timber and the like, in conse-
quence of the great pressure of other work in the yard, on
which all the available workmen are now employed. -
The town of Banbury has been recently canvassed
to ascertain the feeling with respect to stopping the sale of
intoxicating liquors on Sundays. The following is the result:
—For Sunday closing, 1,017 ; against, 102 ; neutral, 67. Of
the 1.017 in favour, 331 were retired persons,. professional
men, and tradesmen, whilst 680 were householders of the
bond Ade working classes.

Mr. J. P. Thomaason, of Alderley Edge, near Man.
chester, has offered to the Bolton School Board to establish
103 exhibitions, of the value of £25 a year each, to be tenable
for three years, for such of the advanced pupils of the public
tlementary schools as propose to devote themselves to the
profession of teaching. The offer was accep,ed at a meeting
of the School Boatd.

Mr. Gladstone, having re3elved a newspaper Con- •
tattling a report of a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Sharman,
Unitarian minister, on his recent article on "Phases of
Religious Thought," has written to the preacher expressing
a hope that in dealing with difficult and controverted matters
he (lir. Gladstone) has not been thought regardless of the
feeiings of others or forgetful of the respect always due to
conscientious conviction.

--- --
Intelligence has been received in Liverpool of the
safety of the crew of the Ironstdes, a large vessel which was
wrecked on her voyage from that port to St. John's. .The
vessel was lost on Sable Island on June 7; but the crew,
consisting of 26 men, were rescued by a schooner. The Iron•
aides, with her cargo, was valued at £120,000.
On Monday afternoon a steam fire engine was taken
down to Canterbury from London for the purpose of testing
its powers in dealing with a fire at the cathedral. The trial
commenced at two o'clock in front of the south-west tower.
The result of the trials seemed to be that, with proper
arrangements as to hose and water supply, with a steam
fire engine, a copious stream of water might be brought to
bear on any part of the towers or roof of the CathedraL
The Financur points out that the coin and bullion
in the Bank of France have nowreached the colossal sum of
£81,932,644. It is, it says, an unprecedented thing for the
Bank of England to hold £29,480,613 In specie and bullion;
and it seems therefore almost beyond the grasp of one's
mind to reckon the probable effects of the diffusion of the
infinitely superior mass of the precious metals stored up in
the great Bank on the other side of the ChanneL
A boat which was being rowed on the Tyne on
Saturday evening, by Mr. Henry Newbiggin, aged twenty-two
years, a member of the Newcastle Amateur Rowing Club,
was capsized by a sudden gust of wind. Mr. Newbiggin, who
was a good swimmer, struck out for the shore, from which
he was distant only twenty yards, when, probably being
seized with cramp, he sank, and did not rise again.
Monaco, as a gambling haunt, may be said to be
doomed. A letter has been addressed by the inhabitants of
Nice, Cannes, and Menton, to the French senators and depu,
tie. "on the moral and maternal prejudice caused by the
pulilic gambling establishment at Monte Carlo." This pet'.
tion is signed by about 250 persons of various nations, English
and French, however, predominating, with the Mayot of
Nice at their head. It concludes with a ghastly array of
suicides, caused by losses at the tables, and it gives some
sensational particulars as to the manner of these deaths.—.-
Court Journal.
A deputation from the Manchester Steam Users'
Association have had a conversation with Mr. Secretary
Cross on the means of preventing boiler explosions. Sir
Joseph Whitworth said the simple remedy against the danger
now existing was inspection by three competent persons. It
the Government could compromise that, then everything
else would follow. The Home Secretary said he could not
move in the direction of legislation without consulting the
Board of Trade, but he promised to send down an inspector
to ensure a thorough investigation of all accidents that were
brought to his notice.
In London last week, 2,296 births and 1,304
deaths were registered, the former having been 53 above,
and the latter 42 below, the average numbers The deaths
included 2 from small pox, 31 fr, m measles, 46 from scarlet-
fever, 7 from diphtheria, 36 from whooping-cough, it from
difftrent forms of fever, and 30 from diarrhon ; thus to the
seven principal diseases of the zymotic class 166 deaths were
referred, against 197, 177, and 160 in the three preceding
weeks. These 166 deaths were 87 below the corrected
average number from the same diseases in the corresponding
week of the last ten years, and were equal to an annual rate
of 2•5 per 1,000.

. _
The Scotsman publishes the following letter from
Shetland :—I observe a letter from a correspondent stating
that his retriever had 15 pups in '74, the same number last
year, and that this year she gave birth to 17—in all, 47 pups
in three seasons; and that he doubts if any of your readers
ever heard of a case to beat that. I had a collie that gave
birth to 48 pups in two years, a term somewhat less than
three seasons, and that one of her cffspring gave birth to U.
pups before she was nine months old. I may also mention
that my master had a blackf aced ewe this season that gave
birth to four crossbred lambs, and a native Shetland ewe in
this neighbourhood had as many as five lambs at one birth.
Such are a few instances of the prolificacy of Shetland.—l
am, &c., John ll'Leod, shepherd, Laxfirth, near Lerwick.