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

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The Observer says that the Governmen.
a Bill next Session for the appointment of a Public Prose-
cutor.
Great excitement is being caused throughout th
Isle of Man in consequence of the proposition to amalgamate
the see of Sodor and Man into a bishopric of Liverpool and
Manchester.
The Magnet continues to receive favourable advices
from all parts respecting the growing crops. Agricultural
affairs are well forward for the season, and so far the
prospects of the coming crops are about all that can be
desired.

The director of the prison of Ostrow°, where Arch-
bishop Ledochowski is confined, remits to him regularly the
addresses of congratulation on his voluntary martyrdom as
they arrive. He has received up to the present time 850
addresses, with 10,000 signatures.
Soap is not made by the Chinese, nor generally used
by them. A natural alkali called "keen," which is found in
abundance near Pekin, serves as a substitute for cleaning
clothing. Possessing a limited taste for personal ablutions,
soap is not in special request, perfumes and cosmetics being
greatly preferred by the Celestials.
The other day a young lady met a gentleman whose
offer of marriage she had some months previously rejected. .
She had repented her decision, and informed him of the fact
in this naive and innocent style :—" You have no tact in
matters of love. You should have asked me again."
The practice of opium-eating is said to be so rapidly
increasing in Australia, especially amongst the women, that
it has been found necessary to call the attention of the Legis-
lative Assembly to the subject.
France, land of small economies, of course saves
what we waste. The Paris sewers are provided with
gratings, and the corks thus caught axe recut and used
again. •
Mr. Adam has issued a circular to the members o
the Liberal party summoning a meeting for the purpose of
considering the "future conduct of public business in the
House of Commons on the retirement of Mr. Gladstone."
The meeting is to be held at the Reform Club on Wednesday
February 3rd, at three o'clock.
The Hour is informed that a letter has been written
by the Premier to Mr. Gladstone, expressing the great regret
he feels at the resignation by the latter of the leadership of
the Liberal party. The letter (the Hour understands) is
couched in the most cordial and sympathetic terms, as befits
the relations of the leaders of the two great parties in the,
state.
The Paris committee for a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land are organising a caravan to Jerusalem for the Easter
festival It will leave Marseilles by steamer on Thursday,
the 25th of February. The charge is 1,300 f. by first-class
and 1,165 f. by the second.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has sanctioned a
"Special Service of Intercession for those at sea," ho h pas-
sengers and seamen, in accordance with the Acts of Uni-
formity Amendment Act, 1872, to be used in churches in
stormy weather, after the customary services.
Herr Stephen, the German Postmaster-General, has 4:,1,
come forward in the character of a purifier of the German 1,11
language. By his order all foreign expressions, such as ail
" recommandirt, franco," &c.' are banished from the postal
official language, and replaced by German words.
A singular and amusing incident occurred at a house 114
In Angmenng the other day. A mouse, being hungry, ven- =
tured on the kitchen table, Seeing some oysters with their
shells apart, he made up his mind to a quiet repast. He
accordingly inserted his head between the shells of one, but
the bivalve, being still alive, objected to this intrusion, and
closed its shell, killing the mouse upon the spot.
• '
The following. telegram was sent to a contem-
porary :—" With nsing north deans late Government for ''•
sequester priority bading baderg will be mitigated actuated. •=.
cabinet serious grounds for supposing endeareaourg abroad
& among baderg of rising successful some disagreements
among Ministers will be pacified until King returns from
north this completes previous message."—Court Journal.
In London, on Tuesday evening, Mr. Henry Viii-.
cent lectured before a large audience at the Metropolitan .
tabernacle on the question of disestablishing and disendowing
the Church of England, saying that it must be settled, but •
not until it had been well discussed.
A large number of peers, members of Parliament, -.
barristers and others, have formed a committee, and a me-
morial has been drawn up, with the object of preserving the
jurisdiction of the House of Lords as a Court of final appeal
for thearnited Kingdom.
A subscription has been opened at Portsmouth, the .
object of which is to raise a memorial to the officers and
men who were killed during the Ashantee campaign, or who •
died from the effects of the deadly climate. The nature of ,
the memorial, which will depend in a great measure on the • „tiv
amount of subscriptions raised, will be decided at a future
date by the committee of management, which is under the 4,1,
presidency of Sir Garnet Wolseley.
Twenty-six different kinds of breech-loaders are
now in use in the various European armies. Many of these,
though belonging to the same system, are made in different rt.
patterns, such as the Remington rifle in Sweden, Denmark,--.
and Greece ; the Vetterli rifle in Switzerland and Italy • •
* .
the Snider in England, Turkey and Holland ; and the Dreyse, 0
in Germany, Roumania, and 3fontenegro. 51111 k
By an alteration in one of the rules of the Stock if!'•
Exchange relating to special settlements and official quota-
Lions of public companies, it is required that the documents
to be furnished to the Committee shall be accompanied by
the statutory declaration of the chairman and the secretary,,,u,
stating the number of shares applied for and unconditionally 7e,
allotted to the public, the amount of deposits paid, and that
such deposits are absolutely free from any lien. Jeal
According to a calculation made as to the increase 1-I!tt
of prices of provisions, Scc., in France, the expense of living iit -
under the third Empire was 117 per cent. greater than under t
the Bourbon rule, and is now, under the Republic, 10 per I"
cent. higher still. What cost 85 to 90 francs under the )1i;
Bourbons, cost 195 francs in the time of Napoleon lIL, and mos
now costs 215 francs. _
A few days ago, as Sir George Kinloch and family 44
were at luncheon in the dining-room of Kinloch Howie rit•
Perthshire, they were startled by the breaking of a window IA
pane, a splinter from which cut Miss Kinloch on the hand.
On examination a large pheasant was found lying dead on a
sofa. A mirror stands opposite the window, and the bird 4140 •
had, it is supposed, been misled by the reflection therein of
trees and grounds. The glass was four feet square and 5-16th.
thick, and the pheasant flew against it almost with the -
velocity of a bullet.

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