The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-05-29 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Emperor and Empress of Russia attended the
launch of the new war vessel Catharine 11. at Nice-
laieff on Saturday. After being present at a dinner to
which the principal authorities and deputations were
Invited, their Majesties left Nicolaieff.
An extension of time has bee-n granted to the ap-
pellant in the case of Bradlaugh v. the Atrerney-
General for lcdging his printed case and settiug down
the cause for hearing, the date now fixed being the 31st
July.
The damage done to the roads, bridges, &c., in the
county of Salop by the recent floods, will cost the rate-
payers at least £lO,OOO, it is estimated; while the addi-
tional damage done to private occupiers and owners of
farms is also something immense.
On Saturday a labourer, in the employ of Messrs.
Hutton and Sons, Bilston, whilst following his occupa-
tion at the works, fell backwards into a vitriol pit, and
was so shockingly burned all over his body that slight
hopes are entertained of his recovery.
More than a hundred members of the Cobden Club
and foreign and colonial guests have accepted the invi-
tation to attend the club dinner at Greenwich on the
3rd July. Mr. Gold win Smith, M. de Lesseps, and M.
de Laveleye will be among the company.
During the storm on Saturday morning the Wesleyan
Methodist Chapel in Lind-road, Sutton, Surrey, was
struck by lightning, and partially destroyed.
The Duke of Westminster presided on Saturday at
the annual meeting of the Church of England Funeral
and Mourning Retorm Association, at which a resolu-
tion was passed calling upon the rich to set an example
of simplicity and economy in all the details of funerals
and mourning ceremonial.
The Hove (Brighton) magistrates on Saturday com-
mitted for trial a girl named Sherlock, on a charge of
forgery She obtained a blank cheque from her
master's book, it is alleged, filled it in tor the amount
of 15s. in the name of a wellsknown farmer of the
district, but the forgery war; detected by the person
upon whom she attempted to pa=s it.
On Saturday afternoon Lord Northbrook laid the
foundation-stone of Sr. Augustine'a Church, Grove-
park, Kent, the site of which, as well as t5OO, his
lordship had himself given. Only a portion of the
church will at present be erected, to meet existing re-
quirements.
James Kelly, formerly a warder in an Irish prison,
was, at the Liverpool Assizes on Saturday, sentenced to
five years' penal servitude for forging requests for the
payment of money. It appears that the prisoner went
to the wife of a man under remand for embezzlement,
and produced a letter, purporting to come from the
chief warder of Kirkdale Gaol, stating that if she sent
money he would make her husband more comfortable.
By this means he obtained 12e., but on making a
second application he was arrested.
A miner named Therms Hopkinson, of Ryhope,
attempted to commit suicide at Sunderland on Satur-
day morning by jumping over the Wearmouth Bridge, a
heighth of close upon 100 feet above high water mark.
Three men who were passing in a boat at the time
picked him up, and he appeared to be no worse for his
immersion. A letter was found in his pocket asking
his wife to forgive him for what ho was about to do.
The London-road Car Company sought on Saturday
to obtain a new trial of an action in which a Richmond
tailor named Staveley had recovered k!,150 compensa-
tion for injuries in being knocked down by one of the
company's cars in Helywell-street at the time the
Strand was under repair. The application was refused.
At the Leeds Assizes on Saturday a barber, named
Robert Kenworthy Cliff, was found guilty cf having
committed a criminal assault on his daughter, aged 10
years. Mr. Justice Wills said he must pass a sentence
almost invariably passed under such circumstances
because an outrage of such a kind had features which
scarcely any crime of the same nature possessed He
sentenced the prisoner to 15 3 ears' peral servitude.
The Deputy Master of the Royal Mint reports that
£8,999,942 worth of silver has been coined in England
since 1873.

Mrs. Turner, of Liverpool, has given £20,000 to estab-
lish a fund for the benefit of invalid clergymen in the
diocese of Liverpool.
The French Cabinet Council was occupied on Monday
with the consideration of a measure for the expulsion of
the French Princes from France.
The British Ambassadors in Paris and Berlin gave
grand banquets in honour of her Majesty's birthday.
On arriving at Killarney on Monday evening the
Lord-Lieutenant and the Countess of Aberdeen were
received with enthusiastic cheers by a large crowd.
Cheers were also given for Mr. Gladstone and Mr.
Parnell. His Excellency was presented with an address
assuring him of the affection of the people for the
representative of a Government which had set itself to
the task of "healing the rankling wounds of seven
centuries."
It ;s stated that Dr. Walsh, the Roman Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, has recently been conferring
with Mr. Parnell with the object of inducing him and
his party t 3 assent to the retention of the Irish re-
presentation at Westminster ; and that this has been
dor° at the instance of the College of the Propaganda,
upon whom Cardidal Manning had urged that Catholic
interests in England would suffer from the absence of
Catholic Nationalist members in the British Parlia-
ment.
A meeting of the members of an association for the
voluntary extension of the allotments system was held
at the Duke of Westminster's town residence on
Monday, his Grace presiding; and a resolution was
adopted in favour of forming local committees in rural
districts with the object of obtaining for labourers
such plots of land as they may reasonably require.
Presiding over the annual meeting of the Royal
Geographical Society on Monday, the Marquis of
Lorne presented Mr. Phelps, the American Minister in
London, with the Founder's medal, which had been
awarded to Major Greely, of the United States, in
recognition of his services as an Arctic explorer.
On Monday the boat-race for the Championship of
England, a stake of £4OO, and the " Sportsman's "
Challenge Cup, between Neil Matterson. of Sydney,
New South Wales, and George Perkins, of Rotherhithe,
was decided over the Thames Championship Course,
the Australian being defeated after a gallant struggle.
Extra money to the amount of tearly £lOOO will be
added to the prizes to be competed for at Wimbledon
this year.
Frederick Rees, the fireman who was absent from
his post on the occasion of the fatal fire in Beak-street,
has been committed for trial on the charge of causing
the death of George Hill, the notnian.
In order to provide work for the unemployed in
Dublin pressure has been put upon those who had con-
tracts pending and improvements in contemplation to
expedite them and set the work going at once. One of
the largest contracts was that for the erection of the
Museum of Science and Art in Kildare-street, for which
Messrs. Beckett are to receive t 70,000. The work was
begun a few weeks ago, and 70 stonecutters were em-
ployed. On Friday they all struck work, and marched
out in a body amid the cheers of the crowd. The men
complained that the wages-30s. a week—ivete too
low, the Dublin scale being 355.
As a result of a petty local difference the members
of the Killavullen National League have been divided
into two factions. The seceders from the original
branch have formed a league of their own in the dis-
trict. In consequence a bitter spirit of rivalry has pre-
vailed between both sides, which culminated on Satur-
day in a desperate fight between the two parties. One
side collected, and provided with sticks, bottles, and
other weapons, attacked a public-house where their
opponents were congregated A fierce fight continued
for about half an hour, when the police arrived and
quelled the disturbance. Several persons were severely
injured.