The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-20 00:00:00

REMARKS ON PASSING EVENT&

The Hon. Elijah Ward, for many years a representative in
Congress of the city of New York, has arrived in England
after a long tour through Europe and the East, and return.
to the United States in August. Mr. M'aixEs speeches
Congress on commercial and financial questions, and
especially on the reciprocity treaty with Canada, are well
known to all attentive observers of American politics. Ile
has always been a friend to England, and the more distin-
guished of English travellers in the States bear witness to his
ample and generous hospitality.

The Neir York Herald says :—"lt is manifest, from the
extreme length of the letter of the Emperor ,d China to the
President of the United States, that the Chinese carefully
graduate the size of their correspondence to the grandeur of
its subject and circumstances. The imperial letter from the
Brother of the Sun, which was formally presented on Tuesday
to the Secretary of State, extended over twenty-live feet of
parchment. No wonder that Mr. Seward could not restrain
his delight at the prospect of being called upon by the
President to prepare a reply of cormponding length."

The International Telegraph Conference was opened on
the 12th hut. in Vienna, with a speech in French from Baron
Beast, He said the object of the conference was to extend
an organisation which had been “tablishell by diplomatic
convention in Paris in lins, and expressed the pleasure he
felt in seeing a representative of the British Government
present. Propositions had been receised for the entrance of
the wire uniting India with Europe into the international
system, which he hoped would meet with the approval of
the assembly. Baron Beust said he felt peculiar satisfaction
in opening the conference, because it was essentially a work
of peace. It had been said that with the increased develop-
ment of telegraphs and railways there had been a succession
of sanguinary wars and a civil war unexampled in history.
But it was not right to impute such calamities to increased
facilities ,d communication. Those facilities, on the
contrary, enabled an to remove international misunderstand-
ings at once, and to restore confidence in "as many
minutes as it formerly took days, and even weeks, to
accomplish."

Mr. A. M. Sullivan's first public act after his release has
been to delivers lecture on Hofer and the Patriot Leaders
of the Trot." He described it as a contribution to the
"training-up of young Irishmen in the way they should go
as citizens and Irishmen." "Hider," he said, "was for a con-
siderable time concealed but at length a Judas, a Corydon,
was found to clutch the Bavarian blood money." Mr. Sul-
livan would cuy to his audience, in Hofer's words, "Oh,
friends, pray—pray always that God may preserve to us the
old religion and brotherly love throughout the land. They
had heard of late that the clergy of the Catholic Church, the
teaching, authority, and influence of that Church, had been
adverse to liberty, tending to national abasement, sub-
mission, and slavery. All, my countrymen, they who say
these things blaspheme the truth of history, and culminate
the best friends, the most heroic martyrs, of liberty.-

News was received in Leeds, on Tuesday, that Mr Henry
Dufton, of the Intelligence Department of the Abyssinian
expedition, was shot dead by Shoho brigands at 1-ndall
Wells, near Zulla, on the 28th of May Mr Dutton was the
son of Mr Henry Dutton, cloth merchant, and one of the
SIM seassilloss of Leeds. The aafortuaata geatlemaa was

a few years ego in the serried, of King Theodore, in
Abysainis, as his Majesty's English secretary, and he was the
author of a book about the deceased moitareh. and the
country over which he ruled. lir Dutton was about t wenty-
eight or thirty years of age, and has left a wife and one
child.

The impression is general that when the Session 'loses
Parliament will be immediately dissolved. That is a mis-
take. There will be, first of all, an adjournment or prom-
gallon, which is expected to take {Mice in the third week of
uly, or about five weeks hence. In six or seven weeks after
that, or about the middle of November. the dissolution will
take place. In the House of Commons the talk still is that
there will be a fortniahrs Session of the new Parliament
before christmas, but it is thought by many that the new
Parliament will not meet until the beginning of February.

A despatch, dated May yy, from the Duke of Buckingham
to the governor of the Cape of Good Hope has been pub-
lished. Ills lordship gates that, finding the Bishop of Cape-
town does not wish to interfere with the title or legal rights
of the Bishop of Natal, but merely to consecrate a bishop for
such of the clergy and laity in Natal as may be willing volun-
tarily to submit to him. her Majesty's Goveniment does not
think it necessary to Interpose any obstacle to such proceed-
ing. In a previous despatch of 30th January, the Duke of
Buckingham, in consequence of a report that some of the
colonial bishops Intended to act as though Dr. Colenso had
been legally deposed, issued instructions, it will be remem-
bered, to exactly the opposite effect.

In the House of Lords, on Monday evening. Lord Stanhope
raised a discussion in reference to the public schools His
object WAS to have an inquiry into the course of education
at these institutions. The bill now before Parliament he
approves of ; but it only deals with the government of the
schools Bela anxious to have leas Greek and Latin in the
course of study, and more of matheinatica and other subjects
Lord Clarendon and several other peers opposed any further
inquiry at present, and the matter dropped.

The prospect of the harvests on the Continent is seriously
watched by Sovereigns awl politicians chiefly—by financial
people in a secondary degree—and, lastly, by those most con -
corned, the husbandmen The official report of what may be
expected is most glowing. It says—" Without some extra-
ordinary blight or other chastisement from Heaven, the
whole of the continental countries will reap this year ter
more than the average of their agricultural wealth So
wonderful a promise of plenty; fields more closely packed
with every variety of profitable produce ; anything more
beautiful and luxuriant cannot he imagined."

In the House of Commons, on Tuesday evening, 81rC
Jervoise asked the Government if its attention had been
called to the increase in vaccinated cases in the Small Pox
hospital from 661 per cent. in 1861.7, to 84-1 per cent. In 1867,
and whether there was any explanation of that increase. lie
also asked when the report of the medical officer of the Privy
Council would be delivered.—Lord R 31ontagu replied that
the report had been delayed in conseonence of the number
of chromolithographs it contained. The only explanation
of the increase in vaccinated eases was, that the vaccination
in the first instance had been inefficiently performed.

The Law Journal, speaking of the recent difference of
opinion between the Chief Justice and Justice Blackburn,
observes that it is idle to disguise the fact that where his-
torical and political theories, mixed up with the whole course
of English history, are necessarily brought into play, the
minds of judges work under tre same advantages and dis-
advantages as do the minds of all other intelligent men. If
the day ever comes on whidi it is necessary to define what
in" martial law" in England, the opinions of the Lord Chief
Justice and of Mr. Justice Blackburn will no doubt be cited ;
but it would not be rash to assert that the problem will be
solved by more powerful and less peaceable means than
those provided in Westminster Ilall. When nations approach
"martial law," battalions, not judges, decide its nature and
Its legality.

A Bill was recently introduced into the Congress of the
United States for the purpose of assimilating the gold cur-
rency of the American Union to that of the French system,
In pursuar.ce of the resolutions arrived at by the diplomatic
monetary conference held last year hi Paris, but the measure
met with considerable opposition, principally from the com-
mercial community in the United States, insomuch aa it
involved a depreciation of the value of the gold coinage by
about S per cent., without providing any compensation for
creditors whose interests would be effected by the change.
It appears from a telegram just received from New York
that this difficulty Ims been removed, and that the bill has
been amended so as to secure the adoption by the United
States of the international system of coinage which is already
ill force over so large a portion of the European Continent,
without, at the same time, inflicting any injury on the publlis
faith.

From the statistical returns of the Society of Friends, who
have just concluded their annual meetings, it appears that
there are nearly 17,000 members in Crest Britain and
Ireland. At one of the series of meetings recently held. Sir
John Bright, M.P., joined in a conversation on the subject .4
peace or war. Some of the speakers, he thought, had taken
too desponding a view. The present agitated state •4
Europe arose solely from France. The French had not yet
learnt that no nation has a right to seek supremacy by war
He did not expect much from the efforts of peace societies
or their own. Progress could be the result of gradua
experience.

A Vienna letter in a Paris paper favours the supposition
that the assassination of Prince Michael was due to •
political cause. This was shown Icy the assassins killing
Madame Alike as well as the Prince, and thus cutting off the
two heads of Kerrie, for, says the writer, Madame Anka was
the real sovereign. The same letter gives some details of the
Painter. The three assassins pounced on the Prince, Madame
Mika, and her daughter, as they approached the turn of a
dense thicket in the pleasure grounds adjoining the villa o
Topchislere, in which they were taking a walk. Two of them
attacked the Prince; the thirst lired at the ladies ; their
bullets struck five persons in all. When they retreated it
was found that one shot had gone through the Prince's neck,
and another had shattered his skull. He was smite stead.
Madame Mika still lived, and wee able to give the names et

A gentleman who has recently travelled through Spain
sends a a deplorable account of the prospeers of the harvest
in that country, consequent ninon the long drought which
has prevailed there. Ile computes that the cereal crops
will be at least two-thirsts below the average. The South of
France is also suffering from a similar mune. In the
environs of Nismes no rain has fallen for many months. In
the town itself the wells are drying up, and at the few that
continue to yield water there are every day crowds of people
waiting for their turn to obtain their day's supply. The
country people seem to imagine that it is in the power of
the Government to remove this cause of suffering, and are
signing petitions to the Prefect praying that sufficient water
may be provided for them by the executive !

The festival of St. Alban was duly observed in London, on
Wednesday, at the well-known church in Holborn, which
bears his name. it was profusely decorated, and the
services have been well attended, and have been sufficiently
numerous to accommodate large masses of persons. There
was Holy Communion at six o'clock, again at seven, again at
eight, ;wain at nine, and again at 11'15. At 1030 there were
the usual morning prayers The "high celebration "w. at
1115, the preacher being the Rev Seymour E. Major, M.A.,
curate of St. Paul's, Walworth. There were evening prayers
at eight, the preacher being the Bishop of Honolulu. The
offertories of the day were devoted to the parochial ex-
penses. which in the course of the past year have amounted
to £2,093,