The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-30 00:00:00

Misrellanemis (itt

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

4 SYNONYME SEPTENNAIRE."—The Parisian
Correspondent of The Times maintains that the Due de
Broglie, and not Marshal Macmahon, is virtually
ruler. No wonder the Septennate is rapidly becom-
ing an Im-Broglie-o.—Punch.
A PAINFUL RECOGNITION.—A painful scene
occurred the other day on the occasion of au execution
at Sinope (remarks the Pall Mall Gazette). The
culprit was a brigand about twenty-six years of age,
who had robbed and murdered his victim. He was a
native of the country, and has been upwards of three
years in prison. His father, who had been in the
habit of visiting him occasionally, had only arrived in
town the very day of the receipt of the firman order-
ing the execution. He had no notion of what was to
take place, but on the morning of the execution heard
like the rest of the world at Sinope, that a man had
been decapitated in the moat outside the gate. He
flew to the spot, and the spectators who were gazing on
the headless corpse were horrified to see the old man
fling himself upon it in all the agony of despair,
kissing it, and all the while uttering the most heart-
rending shrieks. He was with difficulty removed from
the spot, but the body lay there for days exposed to
view, and was then carried away and buried.

PONTIFICAL BLESSING.— On Sunday morning
there was a very large congregation at the Pro-
Cathedral, Kensington, in consequence of the an-
nouncernent that Archbishop Manning would pontifi-
cate at the High Mass, preach the sermon, and at the
conclusion of the Mass would give to his hearers the
special benediction whichi he had been commissioned
by the Pope to impart in his name. At about eleven
o'clock a procession of priests, cross-bearers, and
acolytes came down the church from the sanctuary
and awaited the arrival of Dr. Maw:Ling, who entered
shortly afterwards attired in a purple cassock and
cap, a surplice, and wearing his cross and biretta. He
then proceeded to the throne, where he remained
during a portion of the celebration of the Mass. The
Archbishop next ascended the pulpit to preach the
sermon, selecting his text from the 33rd chapter ( f
Isaiah "His eyes have seen the King in his beauty."
On the conclusion of the sermon High Mass was pro-
ceeded with, and the Archbishop subsequently pro-
nounced the special pontifical blessing and granted
the plenary indulgence, which he said the Pope had
spontaneously and without asking empowered him to
do.

A FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.— SOrile days ago
Drs, Johnson and Morison were out shooting on the
estate of the former, near Montrose. They sat down
to luncheon, and one of the guns was laid muzzle up-
wards across a game bag. The movements of a ferret
caused the netting of the bag to catch the trigger of
the gun, which went off, and the contents lodged in
the calf of Dr. Morison's leg. The limb was after-
wards amputated, and Dr. Morison seemed going on
well until Saturday, when mortification set in and he
died. Dr. Morison was in his twenty-seventh year,
was a graduate of Aberdeen University, and a practi-
tioner of great promise.
ANCIENT ENGLISH WEIGHTS. —The Warden of
the Standards, in his report on the financial year
1872-3, stated that an ancient pound weight, probably
of the time of Henry 111. or Edward L, was found in
1842 in the old pyx chamber in the cloister of West-
minster Abbey, adding :—"This old weight and some
others were delivered into the custody of the late
Superintendent of Weights and Measures at the
Exchequer, but unfortunately no trace of any of them
can now be found." The Warden now reports that one
of these curious oli weights has since been found at
the late Superintendent's private residence and has
been delivered into the custody of the Warden. It is
a small, flat, circular weight of copper, marked with
two dots as if of the weight of two grains, and is en-
closed in an ancient box of elegant shape, in the form
of an urn turned in boxwood. The box is inscribed
with ink, in handwriting of the time from Henry 111.
to Edward 1., Grana pro auro." The weight is in
excellent preservation, and evidently of very nearly
its original weight. It now weighs 1.069 imperial
avoirdupois or troy grain, showing the single grain to
be equal to 0'935 imperial grain. It would seem that
either the troy grain when first introduced into this
country was of somewhat less weight than at a later
period, or that this old two-grain weight twat have
been deficient in true Tivight#lll,tiVil.graiu