The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-11 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

Viscount Cranbrook has written to the Vice-
Chancellor of Oxford University, taking a grateful farewell
of that constituency, and expressing the deep sense which he
shall ever entertain of the generous appreciation accorded to
his services.

A Chinese play is to be performed at one of the
Berlin theatres, under the direction of the Celestial Em-
bassy to Germany. The interpreter belonging to the Embassy
has translated the piece into German, and the drama will be
brought out with correct costumes and native scenery.
Since the let inst. the internal postage of all letters
In France, including the colony of Algeria, has been reduced
from five to three sous and a letter from France to this
country is ;low charged the same as from England to
France—namely, five sous instead of six sous at hereto-
fore.

The Political Correspondence says that the Pope is
a hard worker; be rises at three or four in the morning, a
fact which shows his health is not so delicate as some of the
papers have implied.
It appears from intelligence received at Lloyd's
from the United States, that the German barque, Jupiter,
Captain Jachens, which left Bremerhaven for New York in
January last, had not arrived at her destination up to the
date of the last mail advice% and it is feared she has been
lost in the Atlantic with all her crew. She was a large
vessel, with a carrying capacity of about 1,200 tons.
We have been told by a friend that he sends news
by telegrams concerning the state of affairs in the East to a
gentleman living in Constantinople. It indeed appears
strange that a man residing in the very centre of the present
hotbed of affairs should look to distant England for his
news. By having the news by telegram, he is enabled to be
an fait with passing events about a week before the news-
papers arrive at Constantinople. —Pictorial World.
Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., who lately sustained a
fracture of the leg in a carriage accident in the South of
France, is going on favourably, and has already been out.
He hcpes to return to Eaglaudduring the present week.
The continued popularity of the telephone was evi-
denced on Tuesday night by the assembling of a good audi-
ence at the Perry-hill Lecture Hall, Catford Bridge, to hear
a lecture by Mr. A. B. Harding, F.P S The lecturer re-
tained the attention of the audience unflaggingly for two
hours, illustrating every point by very striking and success.
ful experiments. Conversation was carried on through 23
miles of wire, and several songs, duets, &c., sung at the
other end of the circuit, were heard .with perfect distinct-
ness in the hall, even when the bodies of several persons
were interposed.
The flockmasters of Surrey have commenced shear-
ing sheep, and the shepherds and shearers have revived old
times by stipulating for a "sheep shearing" dinner at the
close of their respective work, and which has become general
by the adoption of farmers, ecc., a custom which prevailed
in olden times. _ _

_
It is thought that on the silver wedding day of the
King and Queen of Saxony the Emperors of Austria and
Germany will meet at Dresden; the date is about the middle
of June.
Appalling accounts continue to arrive respecting the
suffering from famine in the no.,•thern provinces of China.
The worst distress is in Shansi. There is a dearth of fuel as
well as of food, and houses are pulled down to supply the
want.
On Tuesday Colonel Lyons inspected at Ashton the
recruits of the 6th Lancashire Militia. After the review, the
men were drawn up in square and addressed by the ColoneL
He told them that the country was on tin brink of war, and
he had received orders from the Horse Guards to enlist men
from the militia for service in the regular army. The orders,
which were dated May Ist, offered special inducements to
militiamen joining the army at the present time. They were
given five minutes to consider. The adjutant, Captain
Wvnter, was the first to volunteer, and his example was
followed by about 70 men. The number on parade was about
300.

The Grand Duke Nicholas arrived at St. Peters
burg last Saturday afternoon, and was received at the rail
way station by the Emperor, the Czarewitch, and the other
members of the Imperial Family. An enthusiastic welcome
was given him by a large crowd of people.
There were 2,702 births and 1,545 deaths registered
In London last week. Allowing for increase of population,
the births exceeded by 193, and the deaths by 37, the average
numbers in the corresponding weeks of the last ten years.
The animal death-rate from ail causes, whiCh in the three
previous weeks had been equal to 27.6, 25.9, and 24.2 per
1,000, further declined last week to 22.5. The deaths in-
cluded GO from small-pox, 29 from measles, 27 from scarlet
fever. 10 from diphtheria, 117 from whooping-cough, 29
from different forms of fever, and 23 from diarrhoea.
The Prince Imperial, Midhat Pasha, and Lord
Napier of alagdala have accepted invitations to attend the
annual dinner of the Newspaper Press Fund on the 18th inst.,
at which the Marquis of Salisbury will preside.
On Saturday evening Hobart Pasha, Admiral of
the Turkish fleet, left Louuou on a visit to her Majesty the
Queen, at Windsor Castle, accompanied by the Right Hon.
It. A. Cross, Home Secretary. Sir John Cowell, on behalf of
her Majesty, was -in attendance at the station. Hobart
Pasha dined at the Palace as the guest of the Queen.
The London Gazette of Friday contains a notice that
the Home Secretary has, in pursuance of Section 26 and
Schedule 3 of the Explosives Act, 1875, fixed a fee of ss. as
payable in respect of licences for factories for toy fireworks.
The fee, under the Public Offices Fees Act, 1866, is to be paid
In stamps.
In London, on Monday night, the space in front of
the Bank of England, the Mansion House, and the Stock
Exehange, was experimentally illuminated by electric light.
The general effect was very s.itisfactory, and the gas lights
that were used for comparison were virtually extinguished
by the superior brilliancy of the electric burners.
The Prince of Wales is doing his work at Paris right
well. He is the only Royal personage who has been heartily
cheered and well received. When he drove out from the
1.16 tel Bristol with the Crown Prince of Denmark on the
Ist May to go to the opening ceremony, one might have
walked on the people's heads in the Place Vendome, and he
was repeatedly cheered.—. The World.

A French paper reports that a lobster, which had
apparently fallen from a market cart, was seen wandering
about the Faris streets, seemingly on his way to the nearest
coast. As he evidently belonged to somebody, the police
authorities felt bound to.pick him up for registration in the
missing property department. One of theta seized the fish
and was in turned seized, the pair arriving attached at the
station-home. The captor was severely wounded in the ad-
venture, and the question is as to whether the proprietor is
liable to damages for losing a ferocious lobster, his claws
not being tied.
Il'kit whiskey distilling in the United States is now
carried on to so large an extent as to defraud the Govern-
ment revenue of some £500,000 annually. The evil has
grown up since the war, and the stills (over 4,000 in num-
ber), are mainly situated in the moantain range known as
the Blue Ridge, which branches of from the Alleghanies
In Virginia, and extends through Carolina and Georgia to
Aiatima.

At a meeting of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, held
In Eóirhurgh ou Monday night, a res.olution Nvas adopted
expresang_proforind regret at the step taken by the Grand
Orient of France in removing from its constitution those
paragraphs which assert a belief in the existence of God.
The Grand Lodge, while it was always anxious to receive in
the most fraternal spirit, the brethren (,f any foreign Grand
Lodge whose proceedings were conducted according to the
ancient landmarks of the order, of which a belief in Godwin
the first and most important, stated that it could not recog-
nize as true and genuine brethren any who hod been in-
itiated in lodges which either deuicd or ignored that
belief.

It is stated that Mr. E. 3. Reed, the member for
Pembroke, has received an invitation from the Mikado of
Japan to visit that country. A palace will be placed at his

disposal.
Some of the Texan steers are so lean that their chief
value has ironically been stated to consist in the facility
with which the whole of the meat on the carcase of
an animal can be "packed" in his horns—Mark Lane

Express.
The Russian province of Kazan has been compelled
to contract a debt of 1,600,000 roubles to assist the peasantry
who have been ruined by a succession of bad harvests. ía
Kazan itself bands of peasants parade the streets clamour-
ing for bread. The agricultural districts present a melan-
choly spectatle, whole villages having been deserted by the
famished Tartars.—Whitehall Review.
Her Majesty's ship Assistance reached the Liver-
pool landing-stage on Saturday forenoon with a detachment
of the sth Dragoons. Just at this time the wife of a Naval
Reserve man, about to be taken on board, accidentally
dropped her child into the water. As there was a strong
current running rescue seemed hopeless, but a policeman
and a marine plunged into the water, and the former brought
_ _ _ .

the child to tlie stage.
Two Parisians have completed in forty days one of
the longest bicycle journeys on record—they covered between
the 16th of March and the 21st of April the distance of 900

leagues.
The reports of the recruiting officers for the past
month show a remarkable increase in the number of enlist-
ments for the Army, and the increase is still advancing at a
steady rate. The character of the recruits is also reported
to be satisfactory, not only with reference to age, height, and
stamina, but also as to the classes of society from which they
are drawn. Gunners for the Ro3 al Artillery of 51t. 7in. are
still in request, but drivers are not at present taken. The
infantry standard is at present sft. 6in., and there is no diffl-
cillty fn obtaining men above that height for the regiments

which require filling up
The Temps learns that the troops from India are
not being brought to Europe to be followed by large addi-
tional contingents, but rather that by calling in their aid a
current of feeling against Russia may be induced among the
people and the soldiers in Hindustan.
Twelve thousand Martini-Henry rifles are ordered
to be withdrawn from the Armoury at the 'lower of London
and shipped immediately for Malta, where they will pro-
bably_bl.served out to the native teoops now on passage

from India.
The ship Samuel Plimsoll, 1,444 tons, Captain
Boaden, chartered by the Agent-General for New South
Wales, sailed from Plymouth for Sydney on the 3rd Inst.,
with 458 emigrants, under the supervision of Mr. James
Smith, as surgeon-superintendent, wlth Mrs. Kent in charge

of single women. -
The Paris Temps of May 5, publishes an article in
which it says :—" We do not think a war necessary in order
that England may uphold her prestige in India. Her
prestige would be greater if, maintaining an unshakable
attitude after completing her armaments, she obtain the
triumph of European public law without firing a shot.
India would then see that it suffices for England to take a
single step for her enemies to flinch before her."
Mr. W. Menzies, the Deputy-Surveyor of Windsor
Park, died at his residence near Virginia Water on the 3rd
inst. A. paragraph which has been communicated to the
papers states that " the Queen, who visited Mr. Menzies
during his long and painful illness, has lost in him a valu-
able servant, whose constant endeavour was to do his duty
and to serve her Majesty faithfully."
-

• -
There recently died at Chalvey, near Slough Bucks,
at the age of 91, a man named Edward Le Hope, a naval pen-
sioner, who was present at the bombardment of Copen-
hagen in 1801 and the capture of the Danish fleet.
It is estimated by one who certainly ought to be an
authority that in case of war at least 20,000 men could be
depended upon to at once volunteer for active service from
the ranks of the Militia, which number would suffice to fill
all gaps in the regiments included in the Second Army
Corps, and help to prepare a third for service.—R hitchall
Review.
The quantity of American meat landed at Liverpool
last week was very large, consisting of 6,973 quarters of fresh
beef and 1,905 carcases of sheep. Live cattle also came to
hand in large numbers, the three steamers which arrived
bringing 633 head of oxen and 695 sheep. Twenty-one
horses were also landed, and 14 boxes and one barrel of fresh
eggs.
The Patric, after investigation, sums up the total
expenditure, private and public, for the decoration and
illumination of Paris on the Ist May (the opening of the Ex-
hibition) at nearly £70,000.
American advices report great devastation and loss
of life to have been caused by a tornado, which swept over
portions of Georgia. Tennessee, Virginia, and Ohio. Dwell-
ings, churches, barns, and whole forests were laid low by
the force of the wind. Trees 3f t. in diameter were twisted
off like straws, and carried hundreds of yards. Numbers of
persons were buried in the falling ruins, and so injured that
several of them died. The tornado was said to be about 300
yards wide, passing from south-west to north-east.
It was a delightful idea of the proprietor of a
Parisian hotel, who wished ta make everything as attractive
as possible to his English visitors. On the carte was a
thoroughly English entree. It was marked. " Bifteks it la
Mouton-chop."—" The Tatler " in Pictorial World.
Twenty volunteers have been selected at Ports-
mouth for a number of shipwrights to go out to Bermuda
for the purpose of repairing the floating dock there. Eight
shillings a day, a free passage to and from the island, and
half-pay in case of accident were offered.
Last year, pianos to the amount of 11,380,850 f.
were sold in France. Stringed -instruments figured for
329,0 f Of., and brass for 3,189,620 f. Lastly, 1,284,703 f. were
expended on accordeons, and 881,7301. on clarionets—for the
blind.
.Until further orders, all enlistments for the Army
Hospital Corps —in which corps long service has hitherto
been retained —will be for short service only—namely, six
years' army service and six years' Reserve service.
In London, on Saturday, in Whitefriars, as some
Workmen were digging, one of them heard his spade ring,
and on digging a little further he found a square coffin and
the skeleton of a man in a sitting position ; also a broken
sword and some gold ornaments. It is supposed to be a chief
of the ancient Britons.

A restaurant keeper in Paris has hit upon a very
happy expedient, which enables him at once to participate in
the extra advantages of an increased influx of strangers to
Paris, and yet do justice to his regular clientele. He has
delivered to all the habitual frequenters of his restaurant a
card of abonnernent. The possessors of these cards pay the
old prices, while the casual visitors and strangers are put
upon the advanced scale of dietary.
The visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales to
Norwich to help the movement for enlarging the County
Hospital has resulted In the determination of the hospital
governors to build a new hospital at a cost of £86,000.
"As foreign correspondents of English newspapers
say I am not able to state the source of my information, but
unless some unforeseen incident arises, peace is assured.—
Truth."

- - - -
The New Testament Company of Revisers assem-
bled on Tuesday in the Jerusalem Chamber for their eightieth
session. The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol presided. The
company proceeded with their second revision of the Epistles
to the Corinthians.

A representative conference of miners' delegates
was held in Manchester on Tuesday, at which it was resolved
to form an atnalg-imated union for the county, with the view
of maintaining the present rate of wages, and to recover the
same rate of wages where it had been lost.

Mr. H. C. Barkley, who during the construction of
the railway from Rustchuk to Varna, resided in Northern
Bulgaria for a period of seven years, has just published an
account of his personal observations and experiences. As
the result of his practical acquaintance with the Balgars, he
says, "Personally I have no belief in the view that Tunis
and Bulgara cannot live together in peace, even after recent
events. Give them a good and just Government, and equal
rights, and the natural docility of the two races will very
soon cause them to submit to law and to settle down quietly.
I have seen Turks and Bulgars live in harmony for ten years
In the same village; and, if for ten years, why not for
twenty, or for always 1"
Three centenarian tortoises from the Seychelles
Islands have been sent to the Paris Jardin d'Acclimatation,
one of the creatures being the largest of its kind ever seen
In Europe.
At the meeting of the Nottingham Town Council the
Town Clerk read a letter from the Duke of St. Albans, stating
that the Prince of Wales had consented, at great personal
Inconvenience, to open the Midland Counties Art Museum
at Nottingham Castle in July next. The ceremony will take
place during the first week in that month.
An inquiry was held in London on Monday at St.
Thomas's Hospital into the circumstances attending the
death of Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid, Bart., M.P., who ex-
pired in the hospital on Thurso:ley night in last week from
injuries received the same evening at the Waterloo-station
of the London and South-Western Railway Company, by fall-
ing between the platform and the carriage from which he
was alighting. A verdict of "Accidental death" was re-
turned—On Wednesday the remains of Sir Frederick were
interred at the Ball's-pond (Jewish) Cemetery by the side of
1 his father, the late baronet. The funeral procession con-
sisted of a hearse and forty mourning carriages. A large
number of relations and friends assembled at the cemetery,
and after the ordinary service the Rev. Professor Marks
delivered an oration over the grave.
The Chancellor, of the Exchequer acknowledges in
The Times, as "Conscience Money," the receipt of a £5
note for unpaid taxes, and of 12s. in stamps on account of
Dog-tax.
Some children who, a few days ago, were playing
on a site near the "Old Commodore " Tavern, Poplar,
London, which was formerly occupied by two houses, dis-
turbed part of an old shed which had been left standing,
and on doing so brought to light a number of packages.
These contained what appeared to be dirty metal discs, and
the children scattered them about on the ground, A boy,
however, soon discovered that they were gold, and filled his
pockets with them. The news got abroad, and quite a
crowd of persons assembled to collect as much of the
treasure as remained. It is said that several hundred pieces
of gold, corresponding in size to sixpences, shillings, and
half-crowns, were taken away. They are believed to be
coins of various reigns, and the dates upon them are stated
to range from 1060 to 1680.
Scientific interest has been excited in Russia by the
discovery, during some excavations at St. Petersburg, of an
almost perfect skeleton of a irammoth. Frozen remains of
this antediluvian animal are, as is well known, constantly
found in Arctic Siberia—in many instances with the flesh and
skin in a good state of preservation—but this is the first
Instance of a complete mammoth having been found in
European Russia.—.Manfair.
- A moving town is reported from across the Atlantic,
where Virginia City, in Nevada, is stated to be slowly mov-
ing down hill. One hotel in the town has moved five inches
since it was built, whilst a crack in the ground on the west
of the city is some three feet lower on one side than on the
other. This movement is attributed to the settling of the
ground over the Bonanza mines.
He is a good young fellow, the Prince Imperial, full
of esprit de corps. Ot three Artillery officers who were
selected last week to proceed on special service to the Cape,
two were comrades of his own standing and his own par-
ticular friends. The Empress sent one of these a presenof
field-glasses for the campaign, and the Prince himself went
down to Southampton to see them embark. There is much
just now to induce soldiers to stay within reach of European
fighting; but these young subaltenis who have gone to the
Cape have a fine chance before them. They are to organise
ano command battery detachments of two guns each, horsed
and manned by local levies. Artillery has yet to play so
great a part in this Kaffir war that these young officers will
have every opportunity of earning distinction.—The World.
The prospect of a war between England and Russia
has caused such universal excitement among the natives of
Southern India, according to the Tunes of Indict, that no
other subject whatever is discussed. If you enter a court '
of justice, magistrates and clerks are absorbed in war news;
at a police
larly occupied; in a bazaar street, bazaar-man and pur-
chaser are conversing on the same subject; while the letter
peons of the post office sather round one of their rannber,
who reads and explairs to them the lato.st telegrams con-
cerning the Eastern Questien.
The number of entries recorded on the day of the
opening of the Paris Exhibition was 120,000, including ex-
hibitors, workmen provided with tickets, persons invited,
and those who paid for admittance. The computation is that
the crowds round the Champ de Mars and at the Trocadero
numbered 500,000 persons. The official returns show that,
from eleven to one o'clock, 19,083 carriages drove up to the
Exhibition.
An interesting series of experiments are about to be
carried out at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, to test the
efficiency of a special kind of locomotive engine which has
been constructed for the new trench railway. This railway
is designed to be laid upon the surface of the ground
wherever it nay be fourd nectsaai y to coustinet eartoweriss
or to transport material, the ordinary methods of reducing
irregularities hy cuttings and embankments being oat of the
question in field operations. The engine is, therefore,
designed to ascend atm descend sharp gradients, and is also
fitted with an apparatus for haulieg up and lowering loaded
trucks. A hill too steep to be ascended with a load behind
may be sorrueunted by the engine nlone, and it may then
wind up the load after it. An experimental railway running
up rust down hill in irregular fashion is being formed near
the butts in the Government Marches adjoining the Royal
Arsenal, Woolwich, for the purpose of the trial.

We are glad to be able to announce Mr. Ruskin's
restoration to health. So complete is it that he is again at
work revising and adding to the notes by which he has
illustrated the exhibition of his Turner drawings.—Tuesday's

Times.
The journeymen sinters in Dundee, who bad been
locked out for two months hi consequence of their refusal to
accept a rednetion of wages from Sld. to 81. per hour, on
Monday last intimated their willingnv,s to resume their em-
ployment at the reduced rate of pay.
A Liverpool music publisher has issued an anti-war
song, entitled "By Jingo' (the words by Mr. J. E lEArdle),
the object ofovhich is to enlist the popular voice and ear in
the interest of peace. Mr. Gladstone having becn asked to
accept the dedication of the song, writes as follows: " Sir,—
lam flattered by your request. As to the dedication, pray
use your own discretion; hut as to the words, I must say
that they seem to me to have real merit, both in sound and
sense, and to strike the nail on the head.—Yours faithfully,
W. E. GLADSTONE."

The dispute between the Joiners' Society in Man-
chester and the employers, which has extended over more
than twelve months, has been brought to a termination by
the submission of the men. They demanded 101. per hour,
but have agreed to apply for work at Sid. A large number
of places which were vacated by the strikers have been
filled whilst they were "out."
A telegram was posted at Lloyd's the other morning
from New York, which stated thata report had reached New
York from San Francisco that the Oregon Steamship Com-
pany's steamer Ajax had been sold at San Francisco to
parties unknown, but who are presumed to have been agents
acting on behalf of the Russian Government. The Ajax is a
wooden propeller of 1,354 tons burden, 440 horse power,
constructed of white oak timber, with iron strapping, on
frame. She is 11 years old, having been built at .1N ev 'York
U 1864.
A wages dispute has arisen between the manufac-
turers in the district of Huddersfield of middle-class cloths
and their hands. The masters have given notice of a reduc-
tion in wages of 10 per cent., and the men have resolved to
strike. Between 6,000 and 7,000 persons will be affected by
the disagreement.
"Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress "has just been trans-
lated into the Russian language. The price of the work is
cheap, in order that it may circulate among the Russian
peasants.—Mayfair.
For the illuminations in Paris at the opening of the
Exhibition, one house alone sold 50,000 Venetian lanterns.
In a late number of the Detroit Medical Journal,
the strange history of a lady of seventy-five suffering from
unaccountable lumbar disease is narrated. The doctors were
in sore perplexity, until it transpired one day that the cause
of the malady was a knitting-needle the patient had swal-
lowed forty-two years before.
The Russian Ambassador had a conference of nearly
two hours' duration with the Marquis of Salisbury at the
Foreign Office on Monday afternoon.
The latest addition to the collection at the Brighton
Aquarium is a consignment of sixty fine Chinese telescope
fish, which have just arrived from Shanghai. There rare fish
have been safely deposited in table tank No. 4, and are in
splendid condition, considering the long journey. The
gigantic salamander is thriving immensely, and is an object
of great curiosity to the holiday visitors.
At the annual meeting of the members of the Bir-
mingham Gun Trade on Tuesday, it was stated that during
the past year there had been a falling off of 8,000 in the
number of barrels proved, whereas, at Liege, in Belgium.
during the same period, there had been an increase of
800,000.
The first arrival of new season's tea from the Canton
district was placed on the Londonmarket on Tuesday after-
noon, and sold at is. 7d. per lb.
The Tuilleries Commission has resolved to recom-
mend the restoration of the ruined palace at a cost of about
4,000,000 fr., and the apprapriationof it to a museum of modern
art. The Chamber will be asked to sanction this scheme.
The Regents' Park Zoological Gardens were visited
in 1877 by 781,377 persons, a larger number than in any pre-
ceding year except 1076. The additions to the collection
during the year numbered 1,260, of which 506 were presented,
324 bought, 181 bred in the Gardens, and the remainder ob-
tained by deposit or exchange.
" Ah, Austria is always behindhand !" Such was
the exclamation of the Prince of Wales on passing through
the Austrian section of the exhibition at Paris.—The World.
The Portuguese Government propose to send to the
Paris Exhibition 50 artizans from their arsenals. manu-
factories, itc., and the Lisbon and other municipalities in-
tend to despatch industrial delegates.
The Rev. W. Tranter, of West Harnham, near
Salisbury, has just completed his 100th year. He is under-
stood to be the oldest Wesleyan minister in England, and
although he retired from full ministerial duties some years
ago, he has since frequently preached in the Wesleyan
Chapel, Salisbury.
An extraordinary case of preserving meat for a long
period is that of the cargo of the Paraguay, a vessel R hich
left the River Plate freighted with meat and fish at the end
of October. She put in at St. Vincent, and, on leaving that
port on the 11th of December, she came into collision with
another ship and had to put back for repairs. As work-
men had to be brought from Europe to do the job, the
Paraguay only left Si. Vincent for France on the 11th of
April, and arrived at Havre on Wednesday last with her
cargo in flrst-rate condition—six months after it was loaded.
—Mark Lane Express.
Last month the officers of the Fishmongers' Cona•
pany seized at Billingsgate, London, asunflt for human food,
and destroyed, the exceptionally large quantity of 68 tons
14 cwt. of fish, which had been consigned there for sale. Of
that, 66 tons came by rail and the remainder by water. The
fish included 510 cod, 300 crabs, 6,400 gurnets, 1,456
haddocks, 2,550 herrings, 1,143 lobsters, 598 plaice, 9 skate,
51,500 smelts, 174 thornbacks, and 5,500 whiting; and in
addition, 21 barrels of oysters, 8 tons 18 cwt. of dried cod,
1 kit of cod roes, 2 bushels of cockles, 905 bushels of peri-
winkles, 44 buskels of whelks, and 770 gallons of shrimps.
From April Ist to to the 4th instant the Exchequer
receipts were £8,836,010, as compared with ZS 524,473 in
the corresponding period of last year. The expenditure has
been £9,900,350.
One of the congers, weighing twenty-eight pounds,
died lately at the Brighton Aquarium. On • making an
anatomical examination to ascertain the cause of its death it
was found that a large fish-hook, the bend of which was
embedded in a calculus nearly as large as a walnut, was
fixed in the fish, and had caused inflammation and death.
This conger was placed in the tank four years ago, and the
hook must have been in its body all that time.
The North German Gazette confirms the statement
that the Emperor William had conferred upon the Czar the
Order "Pour Is Merite," together with -a portrait of
Frederick the Great. The Hereditary Grand Duke of
Mecklenburg was the bearer of the Order, and also of an
autograph letter from the Emperor William in which the
following words occurred :—" My army will feel proud to
see this Order on the breast of your Majesty."
A meeting was held in Sheffield on Saturday for
the purpose of making arrangements for holding "a united
religious peace meeting" in Sheffield next Sunday. Several
ministers of dissenting denominations were present, and it
was agreed that prayers of a non political character should
be offered, supplicating Divine guidance in the present
crisis.
Clergymen's wives across the Atlantic appear to do
a fair share of their husbands' Ministerial work. Thus, when
the minister of a certain Michigan church was recently un-
able to preach, his wife occupied the pulpit, and read one of
Mr. Moody's sermons, while at a Methodist church in Con-
necticut another lady similarly filled her husband's place
when he was absent at a Conference. The legality of femi-
nine preaching is to be formally brought before the General
Conference-which meets at Cincinnati in 1880.
"''he Queen will probably go to Balmoral the first
week in June, but only for a comparatively short period.—
Truth."
The Queen held a Drawing Room at Buckingham
Palace on Tuesday afternoon. Her Majesty wore a dress
and train of black silk, trimmed with black and white silk
embroidery, and a long white tulle veil, surmounted by a
coronet of diamonds. The Queen also wore a necklace,
brooch, and ear-rings of diamonds and amethysts, the
Riband and Star of the Order of the Garter, the Orders of
Victoria and Albert, the crown of India, Louise of Prussia,
and the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Family Order.
"I doubt whether war, unless it were followed by
great and immediate successes, would help the Conserva-
tives. If without war they could achieve a diplomatic
triumph, this would tell far more in their favour."—Truth.
The Empress of Austria has sent, from Vienna, a
donation of £2O to the Dreadnought Hospital, Greenwich, as
a recognition of the kindnesees shown to upwards et 300
sick Austrian seamen. "The Empress wishes it to be ex-
pressly understood that this donation is given in connexion
with Her Majesty's late stay in this country."
Consequent upon the bad times, the Crown strip of
bark in the Forest of Dean will be restricted to two thirds
the annual cut.