The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-02-12 00:00:00

SATURDAY, FEB. 12, 1881.

documents I shall be very happy to let him have copies of
them. The ticket-of-leave is made out in the form pre-
scribed by the statute of 1864, and the other documents
alluded to are drawn up in ordinary form, there being no
special circumstances ab_out them. With reference to the
second part of the question, I have to say that it is the un-
questionable right of the Crownoto revoke the licence of a
convict if there should seem to be good reason for so doing.
That right ought not to be exercised arbitrarily or without
graveand sufficient cause. In the opinion of the Government
there was and is most grave and sufficient cause for revok-
ing the licenee of Michael Davitt, but I do not think it
would be for the public interest that I should at present
be called upon to state in detail the reasons which have
led 'Her Majesty's Government to the decision that it was
not right that Michael Davitt should any longer remain at
large.

_
Mr. Gray asked the right hon. gentleman whether any
political prisoners liberated under the same conditions under
which Michael Devitt was liberated and at the same tune
were still at large; and, if so, whether it was the intention
of the right hon. gentleman to deprive them of their
tickets also.

Sir W. Harcourt asked the hon. member to give him
notice of the question.

" VALENTIN.E's " DAY.—Lady (visiting Studio)
"What did ycu say the subject was? Valentine and
Orson? Oh, to be sure! Now—which is tits
Valentine ?"—Fun.
DEATH OF MR. DERN= Cot u.—The death
is announced at Sydney, New South Wales, in hie
52nd year, of Mr. Derwent Moultrie Coleridge, grand-
son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet. He was
the only son of the Rev. Derwent Coleridge, M.A.,
prebendary of St. Paul's Cathedral, and late rector
of Hanwell, Middlesex (a distinguished writer and
divine, author of a work on the "Scriptural Charac-
ter of the English Church "), by his marriage, in 1827,
with Mary Simpson, eldest daughter of Mr. John
Drake Pridliam, of Plymouth. The late Mr. Derwent
Coleridge, who was born in 1828, was descended from
a common ancestor with Lord Coleridge, the present
Lord Chief Justice of England, and was nephew of thq
late Mr. Hartley Coleridge.
A CURIOUS PIGEON Room—ln Scott County,
Ind., a most interesting and remark3ble pigeon roost
is to be seen. It covers hundreds of acres of forest,
and during the autumn millions of pigeons roost there
nightly. From five o'clock until midnight the birds
come in flocks, and they remain there uritill the morn-
ing, when they fly away. This opportunity for whole-
sale slaughter, attracts sportsmen, who, armed with
guns, poles, torches, and sacks wherein to put their
spoil, assemble nightly and destroy the birds whole-
; sale.

INTERESTING DISCOVERY OF _ ANTIQUITIES.—A dis.

covery of Russo-Byzantine antiquities was made near
Kiew some weeks ago, when a canal for the water-
works of the city was being excavated. They consist
principally of 20 gold and enamelled lockets, three
buttons of the same materials with heads of saints upon
them, gold rings, agraffes and studs, all dating from
the fifteenth or sixteenth century ; they doubtless
served as ornamente upon the costumes of the grand
princes. Besides these, some 34 silver coins were
found, also a highly original bronze vessel in the shape
of a fabulous quadruped. The metal value of all the
antiquities is estimated at 1,000 roubles (2150). The
Archological Commission has taken possession of

them.—Nature.

THE CHURCH IN _ THE MERCHANT NAVY. - The

Bishop of London held a service in the small chapel in
London House last Saturday afternoon for the admis-
sion of the first merchant captain admitted by a
bishop to the unpaid office of lay reader. It is the
first occasion, at least in modern times, in which a
bishop has officially recognised the services to religiou
rendered by captains of merchants ships, who conduct
divine services, hold Bible classes' manage adult
schools, visit the sick and dying, and bury the dead at
sea. The clerical Board of Examiners had duly ex-
amined into the character, the faith, and the know-
ledge of the candidates who were duly instituted by a
religious service into the unpaid office of lay reader,
"to read prayers and Holy Scripture, and to explain
the. same, in such places as the Bishop's commission
. . .

shall define," a Nev Testament being
.at the stitane

time presented. The Bishop subsequently handed to
each newly-admitted lay reader his lordship's commis-
sion, authorising him to act in the name of the Church
of England in the office described. There are 150

gentle-men so commissioned in the diocese of London,
some of whom are retired officers of the land and sea
forces, but this is the first occasion in which the captain
of a London ship has been admitted to a lay readership
in respect of services to be rendered to the Church of
England when actually on the high seas. Seeing that
it was the ancient custom of the seas for every captain
to conduat divine worship, not only on Sundays but
daily, the national Church of a great maritime country,
with 38,000 ships traversing the ocean, cannot be said
to have been unduly hasty in only just now affording
official recognition to work done for her by her sailor
sons:

GERMAN EMIGRATION.— S ome instructive figures
have just been issued from official sources, according
to which the total number of German emigrants from
German harbours and from Antwerp in the course of
the year 1880 was 106,191, of whom 63,778 were males.
The greater part took ship from Bremen and Hamburg
to the United States and British North America. In
the preceding year the total number of emigrants from
the Empire was only 32,237, so that the figures have
been more than tripled in a twelvemonth.

GAVE IN INDIA.-It is an anomalous circumstance,
certainly, that while in no country in the world are
the wealthier classes more fond of sport than in Eng-
land, very few ever find their way to that paradise of
sportsmen, Hindostan. To show the sort of game they
would find there, take the bag made by a petty Rajah in
the Madras Presidency inn few excursions last year. This
comprised 74 wild boars, 69 deer, 20 stags, 15 elks, 6
bears, 4 chamois, 3 cheetahs, 2 hyenas, and 1 wolf.
Out of the lot, the Rajah brought down 43 head—a
very satisfactory performance for an Indian sports-
man. So excited has the ex-Ameer Yakoob Khan
become by the quantities of game he sees around him,
that he, too, has turned his thoughts on sporting
enterprises. Having obtained the loan of six elephants
from Government, he is now out in the eDehra
Doon, where, no doubt, he will make a capital bag.