The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-06-05 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Bacon's Essays have been translated into Bengali
by Dharmadas Adhikari.
During a terrific storm which occurred at Val-
paraiso on the morning of the 24th ult., no fewer than fifty
persons lost their lives, and four ships were totally lost.
A terrible accident has occurred in a Roman Catholic
church at Holyoke, in Massachusetts. A fire broke out, and
in the panic which ensued sixty persons were burnt or
trampled to death.
In a letter to the Chairman of the Pennsylvania
Republic Convention, President Grant says he is not and
never has been a candidate for re-nomination, nor would he
accept it were it tendered to him.
During the first two months of the financial year the
Treasury receipts amounted to £12,039,717, as compared with
£11,166,305 in the corresponding period of last year. The
expenditure has been 13,242,262.

The Prince of Wales held a Levee on Monday, at
St. James's Palace, on behalf of the Queen.fillis Royal High-
ness was accompanied by several members of the Royal
family and attended by nearly all the Court officials. The
presentations were about 400 in number.
We (Athenceuin) are glad to see that a sum of £5OO
has been included in the Estimates as a salary for an assis-
tant director of Kew Gardens. The appointment will be
filled up almost immediately.
The very reasonable idea of connecting lighthouse
with the shore by means of the telegraph has at last been
proposed, owing to the circumstances connected with t n
loss of the Schiller.
A discussion is going on in Rome at the present time
concerning a fine portrait of Raphael now in the possession
of Cardinal Mossarenti. Several good judges consider this
portrait to have been painted by Raphael himself; while
others, equally sagacious, controvert this opinion. It re
presents the artist at the age of 25 or 26.
In London, on Saturday, Dr. Hardwicke held an
Inquest on thebody of Alfred Groves, aged 33, a brakesman
in the employ of the London and North-Western Railway
Company. The evidence showed that the deceased was in
the brake of a train going to Willesden. On its arrival at
Chalk Farm he got off for the purpose of signalling. Soon
after a goods train came along, and the driver sounded his
whistle. The deceased was struck by the buffer of the engine,
and was so severely injured that he died shortly afterwards.
A verdict of "Accidental death" was returned.

The Queen, accompanied by the Princesses Beatrice
and Victoria and Ella of Hesse, visited Braemar on Monday,
driving from the Palace by the south side of the Dee. Her
Majesty and party returned to Braemar at a quarter-past
seven o'clock in the evening, and drove back to Balmoral by
the north side of the river.

It is officially announced from Berlin that although
some uneasiness was caused there by the increase of the
French Cadres the German Government at no time thought
of requesting the French Government to reduce its military
forces, or even to discontinue the reorganization of the
army.

One of the best generals of the Second Empire,
Marshal Randon, left a series of memoirs, the first volume
of which has just been published in Paris. They are value-
less from a political point of view, but throw great light on
the history of Algeria from 1852 to 1857.

There is now a long and stately fringe of the Royal
fern pushing vigorously up beside the water under the trees
near the lower end of the Serpentine. This addition is one
of the happiest that has been made to the permanent attrac-
tions of the public garden of London.—The Garden.
In the presence of a vast concourse of visitors the
twelfth anniversary of the Metropolitan Horse Show opened
at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, on Saturday. The en-
tries were numerous, and the show, generally, was con-
sidered to be a good one, some of the classes being better
than usual.
At Nugaty, in Japan, the latest rage is one for
breeding a kind of gold fish, callen kol, which has a white
body and a red light head. A fish a foot long sells for 40
dollars. The cause of the fancy is that a rumour prevails
that gold ran be extracted from the scales. Some people
have turned their fields into fishponds by way of specula-
tion.
Instances of peculiar cases of familiarity between the
great and the small of strength having been lately given, it
may be curious to mention that in a large thick-foliaged tree
in one of the forests near Constantinople, is a nest of a couple
of eagles, surrounded by over a hundred nests of the Spanish
sparrow. They not only live on friendly terms, but the
eagles protect the sparrows from the attacks of hawks and
falcons, which are very numerous in Turkey.

At a conversazione held on Tuesday evening, at the
offices of the School Board for London a portrait of Lord
Lawrence, the former chairman, was presented to the Board
by the officials. Lord Lawrence, Sir Charles Reed, and
Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., were present, and delivered ad-
dresses.

The Mayor and Corporation of Durban entertained
Sir Garnet Mawr
at a banquet on his arrival in Natal.
Sir Garnet, in responding to the toast of his health, said that
the time had not yet arrived for the formation of a responsible
Government in Natal, and his advice to his hearers was that
they should give over agitation on this head, which was
fraught with danger to the peace of the colony.
The Liverpool Courier understands arrangements
Are about to he made for the public testing of ropes made
of English, Russian, and other yarns also of the manufac-
ture of rope by male and female labour. Great interest is
manifested as to the result by the Liverpool ropespinners,
and as the preservation of life by sea and land often depends
on good cordage, the result is also a matter of public
Interest.

- giiiiiaTeviesmiZahetio—ope of Paris and Verlaine
Is to be held by Marshal MacMahon on the 13th inst. in the
Bois de Boulogne.
doctor's wife attfiniPteglt InXiv 1 r tears.
beg_
•—Afi fie, 4' tears are use is. t'have analysai them.
They contain a little-Diesphate of lime, some chloride of
sodium, and water. • -
The gold, meda.c4if..4llo Cobden Club. has been
awarded. to. chevalier, ‘' in-recognition of his eminent
servicei in the cause ;6t.free trite," and wilthe presented to
him at the dinner of timi club,- over whieltlhe will preside,
early. t4Afeuite, / • - .
The Italip.ri_pttpwl.afe,thAt.two of .the men who
last year a tout Alnglish l&M lour miles out on the
Appian Way have been arrested, and tlytt.,all Ihe.,..ppaperty
:41,4*(44•FetX)Vesett• . *.:4A,r,rlt4f=
- . .
- A dreadful -oonflagiatiqt itteliorted by the Tiemix)
of Madrid to: traVe- 'taken place at Cabanel neargoncia.
Two --hundred houserlTkave dbein Aestroikle. • three
huncliett familins‘endered homeless • ' _
The trial oethe persons recently arrested for Attack-
ing a Roman Cath'elie-06EislIciticat Brhasels ivere. Weil on
fioturday, when four of 4her riagiattlerA_VorttrstMtenced to
terms' of imfnisohment_yar_ying from fifteen weeks to a
month. %. • • •+ • "
From a Parliamentary:return; pOlished on Monday
morning, it appears that last year 35452,232 galii4sirePproof
spirits were distilled in the United -Ringdom,, of which
29,875,401 gallons were consumed in the same area
-- - .

dOettE

;--
The Indian game of tent-pegging, which consusts in
the lance point extraction of tent;pega-fieftu the giotibd by
horsemen at faU gallop, was introduced Into-this country on
Saturday at Hurlingham, the officers of the-sth Itoy-al Irish
Lancers being the successful exhibitors.
In the House of Lords on the 14th instant._Lord
Lyttelton will submit a resolution, to the effect that it is
expedient in the administration of the poor law to revert
more nearly to the principles laid down in the report of the
Commissioners of Inquiry (1853), with a view to the ultimate
discontinuance of out-door relief."
The first fashion journal was published in France in.
1608, and the first coloured plate was entitled "The Sea-
sons." The figure represented a beautiful woman, who was
either Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter. She was dressed
in Court attire, and nothing was forgotten from her head-
dress down to her boots or shoes. Now, however, things go
a little faster (remarks the Pictorial World). Paris fashions
change every month, and there are sixty-two journals
devoted to their interests, and all these papers ate thriving
in arduous competition. _ _ _

According to the return of the Registrar• General,
2,453 births and 1,294 deaths were registered in London last
week, the former having been 272 above, and the latter 63
below the average. The annual death-rate from all causes,
which in the eight preceding weeks had steadily declined
from 28 to 20 per 1,000, further fell to 196. The last five
weeks of the June quarter are usually the healthiest period
of the year in English towns. The 1,294 deaths included 2
from small-pox, 32 from measles, 42 from scarlet fever, 7
from diphtheria, 75 from whooping-cough, 20 from different
forms of fever, and 23 from diarrhcea ; thus to the seven
principal diseases of the zymotic class 201 deaths were re-
ferred, against 220 and 201 in the two preceding weeks.
An experiment of -much interest has just .been made
at the Leblanc Hospital, Paris. M. Lebeau, the veterinary
surgeon, who professes to have discovered a cure for canine
madness, inoculated with the rabic virus 16 dogs purchased
for the purpose. A large number of professional men were
present, and a minute report of the proceedings was drawn
up. Eight of the animals were removed by the operator, to
be treated in accordance with this system,,and the rest left
to their fate. If -within a month, or 90 days at the butside,
those taken away remain healthy and sound and the others
are dead of the malady, as M. Lebeau affirms will be the
case, a problem which has long caused great anxiety will be
solved.
Sir Robert Phillimore gave judgment in the Court
of Admiralty on Tuesday upon the application en behalf of
several distinguished officers for an order upon the Secretary
of State for India to show cause why the undistributed fund
of the Banda and Kir wee booty should not be brought into
court to be distributed among those who were entitled to
the same. Sir Robert Phillimore held that he had no juris-
diction, and he therefore declined to ordgi• an appearance to
be entered to call upon the Secretary of State.
The fifty-sixth anniversary of her Majesty's birth
was celebrated on Saturday, with the customary rejoicings.
There was the usual inspection of the Household cavalry in
St. James's Park, London, and a parade of all the troops at
Aldershot took place in the Long Valley In the evening ban-
quets were given by the great officers of State and the leading
members of the Administration, and many of the public
buildings and the houses of the Royal tradesmen were illu-
minated.
No nation has ever displayed greater readiness than
Japan to adopt the habits of foreign countries. The natives
abandon, without regret, customs which have stood the test
of centuries, and adopt institutions hopefully of which they
have had no practical experience. Even the tall hat seems
to have suddenly become popular among this lively race As
might be expected, tbey have given great attention to the
development of journalism. A few years ago such a thing as
a newspaper was unknown in Japan; now it boasts of no
fewer than thirty-four newspapers- Last year, it seems,
2,564,900 copies of journals passed through the Japanese
Post-office.
Mr. Gladstone presided at the annual meeting of the
London Library on -Monday, at which a report was presented
showing that the institution continued to make satisfactory
progress. The right hon. gentleman congratulated the
members on the condition of the library; and, from the way
In which its off airs were conducted, he anticipated that not
only for years, but for generations yet to come, it would in-
creasingly assert its position as one amongst the most use-
ful institutions that benefited the society of the metropolis.
A grand review took place in Berlin on Saturday in
honour of the King and Queen of Sweden. There were about
12,000 men on the ground. The King of Sweden was accom-
panied by the Emperor William, the Crown Prince, Prince
Frederick Charles, eze. The Queen of Sweden arrived on the
ground with the Crown Prineess in an open carriage drawn
by six horses.