The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-04-13 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BI3ITISH AND FOREIGN.

Hereditary peerages are to be abolished in Portugal.
The Turkish Government contemplates establishin
railway communication between Jaffa and Jerwalem.
The German Parliament *was opened on Monday by
Prince Bismarck in the name of the Emperor William.
An association has been formed in Spain for the
purpose of obtalubig the reititutiou of Gibraltar to that

country.
By a large majority the Swedish Parliament has
abo oshed the ayetem of exemption from military service by

money payment.
The Earl od Ducie has raised the wages of his work-
men upon the Tortworth estate 2s. a week, and allows them
to leave work an hour earlier im Saturdays.
An angler whose indolence is quite pronounced, ties
his tisli line to Ids leg, and a hen there is a bite, the only
exertion he is required to make is to kick his dog.
Gradually, ear by year. Good Friday is becoming
better observed to Scotl Ind. This yi or the number of public
Maces and shops that were closed indicated [nit in Edinburgh
and other large cities that day is commanding greatly-in-

-4:Teased respect.
Leicester has resolved to oppose Mr. Cardwell's
scheme for making that city • military centre, giving as the
reason, the demoralising effects & barrack would probably in-
troduce in the locality.
We (Times) are authorised to state that the report
published iu some English and French Journals, that the
Emperor Napoleon has borrowed in Loudon 15,0e0,000f. is
entirely destitute of foundation.
"Immense progress of humanity! It will be with
profound gratification and much heart-fluttering that many
of our Radical contemporaries will read that a shoe-blacking
manufactory, the first in Turkey, has been established at Con-
stantinople."—Courf Journal.
'At Fairybouse Races, near Dublin, a curious acci-
dent occurred. Two gentlemen were galloping in opposite
directions, when the heads of their hones struck full tilt
together, and both horses were killed, the riders bring
thrown into the air. One of the gentlemen had all his front
teeth knocked out."
• At a recent meeting of the Commissioners of Sewers
It was reported that within the past fortnight 4,0011b5.
of
meat has been seized in the markets and slaughter-hotuies of
the City of Loudon as unfit for human food.
The latest phase of the "Labour Movement" has
been on the part of the of of Liege, who have Mat
struck, demanding not only an advance in wages, but to be
allowed Li do their work whenever they please, at any hour
of the day or night.
A collection of personal jewellery belonging to the
Empress of the French, consisting of twine beautiful brooches,
bracelet, necklaces, and fans, is at present offered for sale in
Amsterdam.
On Saturday a man named Wallace, a surfacednan,
employed on the Caledonian Railway, WILS accidentally run
over II a train near Dundee, awl killed on the spot.
A Liverpool policeman asked a sailor, an inmate of
a cell, whoni he could scarcely see in the dim light, "Are
you a coloured man ?" " Coloured, ; I was born so,'' was
the Innocent reply.
We have no statistics to show the extent to which
Motu exiats in this country;'' but," says the Globe, the
records of its prevalence across the Atlantic are fearfully
suggestive. It is estimated that there are upwards of eight
thousand idiots in the State of New York alone."
A Parisian firm last week ordered 40,000 bouquets of
violets Irons Nice to distribute among its customer. A grace-
ful attention, which the English cooperative sterns will be
some time we they imitate.
A numerous deputation on Monday presented a
memorial to Mr. Shensi chi, praying for an alteration in
some of the details of the Public Health Bill, and suggesting
the appointment of one central authority, which !should
have the control of sanitary matters. The right lion. gen-
tleniau promised to consider the points brought before him.
The eruptive period of Vesuvius, says the Official
Gazette of Italy, which began in the first days of the year,
is now manifested with more intensity. The noises are more
frequent, and the lava bursts out with greater force.
The remains of the late Mr. N. M'Kenna, editor
of the Northern Star, were interred oil Saturday in a ceme-
tery near Belfast. The funeral cortege was one of the largest
ever witnessed in the town, and all creeds, classes, and pro-
fessions were represented in it
The sentence of death passed on Rachael Busby, who
was convicted at the Oxfordshire Assizes of the murder of
her child at Adderbury, has been connuitted to penal
servitude for life. The prisoner has during her incarcera-
tion given birth to a !stillborn child.
Miss Fanny Graham, seventeen years of age, was
burned to death, at Dublin, on her return from a hall, at one
o'clock an Saturday morning. Her dress was ignited by a
match, and her sister was also so dreadfully burned that her
life is despaired of.
Hon. J. T. Uptiegraff. in a speech recently delivered
in the Ohio Senate, uttered the following epigram :—" The
profoundest scholar Call always find plain English in which
to clothe plain some, but I never knew a quack who wasn't
well up in Latin names for catnip tea or mustard plaster."
A deputation from the Associated Chambers of
Commerce has been appointed to wait upon the Eight Hon.
C. Forteseue, President of the Board of Trade, for the pur-
pose of laying before him the views of the commercial com-
munity upon the question of railway amalgamation,
Mr. 'l'hountis Walker, one of the principal mission-
aries of the Isnelou City Mission, died suddenly on Sunday
morning, lust after being brought home, at Clayton, from
ettendieg Divine service at church, where he had been taken

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The Prince and Princess of Wales has left Rime for
Fforence. where they will remain for ton days, feel then pro-
ceed to Milan. Their Royal Ifichnessil were both in excellent
health. On the night before their dekarture they witnessed
the illumination of the Colosseum, an enormous crowd being
present.
In the 'United States House of Representatives, a
bill has been passed allotting a sum of Wave° dollars to the
officers and crew of the Krareiige for the destruction of the
labama. The engagement bete een the two vessels took
place, it will be recollected, in the Eitelish Channel near
Chet bourg as far back as the 19111 June, 1561.
The French Assembly has just passed a decree which
will doubtless suffice for the thriller paymeut of the war
Indemnity. Not content with raising a tax on dogs, the
Versailles legislators have extended it to cats; and hence-
forward every portithe will be compelled to hand three
francs every year to the Government for each head of the
feline roce in her possession. "
At the Leeds Assizes, on Saturday, a young lady
named Gill, 23 yeats of age, sought to recover compensation
for breach of promise of marriage, the defendant being a
farmer six years older than herself. The peculiarity of the
case was that two promises to marry had been made, neither
of which had been fulfilled. The jury gave the plaintiff
A:500 damages.
The eronstadt Messenger states that the fleet in the
Black Sea will be compost d this year of 18 men-of-war and 3
floating beacons, with 140 officer. and 1,478 sailors. The
flotilla of the Cycepiau Sea will comprise '24 v•asels, with 65
tulcers and 1 030 sailors. The fleet et the Pada; will have
hi vessels, with 131 officers and 1,35 e sailors. The total
number of vessels taking part in the evolutions in the home
waters and cruiting ahroad will be 16 irenclads and 104
steamers, with 1,315 officers and 12,7:4 tailors.
An action has been tried at the Bristol Assizes, in
which the Mayor of Exeter claimed damages from the pub-
lisher of The ri..11 for libel. It consisted of a letter, in
which "a West C.ountrynian," referring to a riot at a Per-
inis" ive Bill meeting at Exetgr, charged the plaintiff with con-
duct unbecoming the po" if ion of chief magi's' rate of the city.
It was contended for the defence that the statements com-
plained of were true, anti that no imputation upon the Mayor
was intended. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff
—damages, ten guineas.
Natal papers state that, on the 24th of December,
the Bishop of Maritzburg ordained three deacons, two of
whom were natives carefully trained tinier the Rev Dr.
Callaway. They tire described as the first native ministers
ordained in the Church of South Africa, with the exception
of one, who was ordained by the late Bishop if Grahams.
town, hilt who died about nix mouths after Ids ordination.
In Edinburgh, says the Courant, the demand for
halfpenny post cards was sonnet on Saturday lost that many
would-ha purchasers had to leave the post-offlee without pro-
curing the quantities they inquired, the answer being, "Sold
out." The cause of this unusual crowd of purchasers was the
ennouncement that on and after Apia 1 ; Monday, the charge
for these cards would be increased one halfpenny per dozes.
The following lines, by an eminent modern poet, we
quite as descriptive of the recent atmospherical changes:—
"First it rained. and then it blew,
And then it friz, and then it snow,
And then it hailed, and then it thew,
And then it biz again anew."
For distinguishing benzole, which is made of coal
tar, from beez.ne, which is made from petroleum, Brandherg
recommends us to place a small piece of pitch in a test tube,
and pour over It some of the substance to be exaniined.
Benzole will immediately dissolve the pitch to a tar-like
mass, while benzine will scarcely be coloured,
The "Republican ('lob" of Sheffield has issued a
manifesto appealing to their townsmen to join their cause,
and to substitute the "virtues of the Republ.c " for the
"vloes, fopperies, and corruptions of Monarchy." Thth it
Ii thought by mane, should be read the reverse way—
stonily, the vices, fopperies, and corruptions of the Republic,
for the virtues of Monarchy.
At a crowded meeting held in Manchester on Monday,
and presided ov, r by the Meyer, resolutions were passed in
favour of the speedy introduction by Government of a com-
prehensive measure of lieensing reform, mating permanent
the Liceasing Suspeesion Act, reducing the number of
licensed houses further restricting the hours, especially to
the whole of Sunday, forbidding the Went drink to children,
withholding thence. Cfrliquor to meth All Et dmiciog saloon.,
and providing generally mole lenient police regulations. Un-
successful attempts were made to obtain an adjournment of
the meeting.
Viscount de M—bought at Tattersall's the other
day, a splendid horse, which originally cost 25,000 francs,
and belonged to an Englishman. The hone had repaid the
choice by diselocatieg the collar-bone of the Englishman,
who declared he had had enough of hie company The
Vieceunt, nothing fearing, bought, mounted, 811 i rode off.
Everything went well for a brief space, when, all at once,
the horse showed his rider the quickest way to mother earth,
left him there with two broken ribs, aud fled into the
country. It is now ten days since the wild hone hid farewell
to the capital; he has not been heard of since. Perhaps he
has gone to [artery whence he came.
The Bishop of Manchester presided on Saturday at
the annual meeting of the Manchester Diocesan Church
Building Society, Ills Lordship endorsed the statement of
Sir. Disraeli that if the Church of England is to be saved it
must be oy resting upon the affectioue of the muses of the
people —upon the twenty millions of poor and not ripen the
ten thousand rich. The 'bebop pointed out that if the
Church appealed to the maimes it must be prepared to
receive them when they answered the appeal, and he urged
that better aceomodation should be at once provided for the
poor. Ile declared that pew rents were an " abomination,"
and he only accepted then as a necessity.
Harper's Weekly states that tiriah F. Boyden, of
Roston, U.S., has depeeita d wilh the Franklin institute of
Philadelphia, one thoesand dollars, to be awarded as a
premium to any resident of Noah America who shall
determine by experiment whether all rays of light and other
physical rays are or are not transmitted with the same
velocity. The conditions of the premien, limit the appli-
cants to those north of the southern boundary of Mexico,
and including the West India Islande. Applications must
be made before the Ist of January, 1873, it which time the
judges appoiuted by the Franklin Institute shall examine
the memoirs and decide whether any one in entitled to the
premium.
Mr. Justice Mellor (who is one of the presiding
judges at the Liverpool assizes) stated on slonday that be
had received a post-card complaining of the " lenient
sen-
tences" which he had passed upon tw • persons for what the
writer called crimes of "hellish atrocity." This was a fair
sample (Ids lordship said) of the kind of communication with
' which judges were inundated. It happened, however, that
in these particular eases be had eh en the very utmost Ben-
, tenets allowed by the law. Thus people, before making
complaints of this kind, should acquaint themselves with
, the circumstances; and if they had any serinus representa-
tions to mate should make them to the Legislature, and not
' to the judges.
Last week the aggregate mortality in London and 20
' other large towns of the United Kingdom was at the rate of
•20 deaths annually to every 1,000 persons estimated to he
living. In the metropolis 2,3511 births and 1,559 deaths were
registered, the former having been F. 7 and the latter Si, below
r the average ember. Sixty-five persons died from small-pox,
68 from measles, 23 from searlet-fever, 3 from diphtheria.
• ug from whooping-cough, It from different forms officer
, (of which tnree were certified as typo', 13 as seterfc or
- typhoid, and two as simple continued fever), and 7 from
r diarrhcrt The deaths referred to diseases of the reararatory
organ., Including phthifge, which in the two previous weeks
j had bees 5 1 and 5:r7, declitted
_again to 505, ant' were 52
below the coin fled average number in the eorresponding
week of the last ten years. There urge 123 deaths registered
I upon the information of the metropolitan coroners. The
E mean temperature during the week was 44 degrees, and this
was bat very slightly below the average.

rrince Bismarck completed his . year on the lit
of ApriL
Tarte was a dietrilmtion of twigs of palm (so-called,
to the congregation attending St. Alban's, Holborn, London
on Pole Stratiny.
"

58th

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Ibis said that Government are likely to make Lady
Mayo a peeress in her oxn right, and to settle on her lin
English WI well as an Indian ;elision.
The Hampshire magistrates, on Monday, itc.mpted
tender for £27,700 for the construction of new assize courts
and ollieee at Windiester. The money is to be raised by
loan, repayable in 30 years.
It is reported that a certain explanation index
accompanied the American "case," nxlng the exact value id
the direct claims made by the ijnited States at something
Ike fifty millions sterling.
A contemporary says the exact expression used by
the Kln4 if Spain inn refei ewe to the rumour teat be would
abdicate aimeare to have been " Not otherwise then em-
balmed will I quit Madrid."
A meeting has been held at the Sussex Hotel,
London, to cuiteider the steps taken by the agricuituret
labourers on strike, and after several speeches had been
mode, it was reatlved to support the movemeut.
So brisk is the demand on the iron trade that, accord-
ing to the market report, the Cleveland district has not, at
the present moment, a single week's stock oh hand. The e,.
mend fie- some descriptieus—nutable rails—is described as
en noons
New Orleans has an ardent sportsman. He is some-
what different from the other sportsmen, however. They
neglect their business to go to the race ; he neglects the ritus
to go to his busivars.
I William Chester Minor, an American surgeon, has
been tried at the Kingston :Unitizes for the murder of George
Merrittn, stoker, kr February last, at Lambeth, and acquitted
ou the ground of insaeity.
Sunday last being the nineteenth anniversary of the
birthday of tins it.iyel Memoir, Prince Leopold, the bele of
St. George's Chapel and the parish church of St. John,
Windsor, were rung in honour of the occasion. TI a firing
of the usual Royal salute was, however, deferred until
Monday.
A Parisian, who by his last will and testament be-
queathed his ems to Erussie, hiclosed himself in a wardrobe,
after first lighting • stove with charcoal, and conveying the
chintney-pipe into the wardrobe. when eonifortmly seated
therein, be took apparehtly the stopper out of the pipe, and
to laid on the carbonic acid.
On Saturday morning the 2nd Battalion Coldstream
Guards, under the conmeind of Colonel Lilnckett. left
Wieclaq for Dublin to relieve the end Battalion Grenadier
Guards now etationed at that city. The last named corps
will take up their quartile at the Tower of London, while
the lot Battalion Scow Fusilier Guards are under orders to
,„o„,, to 55 indeor.
A labourer named William Kettle and his second
wife, to whom he bin lately been warned, have bean
arrested at Great Bromley, in Essex, on a charge of murder-
ing by poison the male prisouer's trot wife. The woman's
death took pi ice lii October, and the body has been exhumed
by eider ot the lionnoiSecretary. On Saturday the pH:toners
were lrought before a county meg:spate, mid remanded for
a Week.
The exodus from the Knuth of Ireland is proceeding
at an alarmingly rapid rate. Upwards of 1.4150 strangers
were in olieelerown on Thursday and Friday in led week—
stalwart youths and buxom lasses from the riouthem, mid-
land, and even the northern counties—all bound to the Far
West. Mau) of them had to sleep in the streets, through
want of accommodation in the loilging-housee. Mitre than
one-half the passages of these people had been prepaid by
friends In America.
Mr. Bernal Osborne has placed a notice on the paper
of the House of Commons to the effect that he will more
' that the House on Monday next, do resolve itself into a Com-
ndttee to consider of ab address to her Majesty, praying her
Majesty that,she will be graciously pleased to bestow some
further marks of favour upon the widow and children of tbe
late Earl of Mayo.
The strike amongst the agricultural labourers in
Warwickshire continuea to command much attention. Mr.
Joseph Areh has juet addressed a numerous meeting in the
village of llarbury, and in the course of a forcible speech he
defended the principle of combination, and while advising
the farmers to grant the just demands of their men, coun-
selled the latter to be respectful and induntrioure Some of
the best men in the district have been drafted off for the
North of England and New Zealand,
The Society of Biblical Arch mology has lately received
a rich present for its library, in the shape of an ancient
SephenTorah, dating from the tenth century. This MO5. is
the only copy of the Pt ntateuch as used by the Aden Jews,
descendants of the pre-Niathenetan Inhattitauts, which has
yet reached this country, end the society is indebted to the
liberality of Captain F. Prideaux, Assistant Political Resi-
dent at Aden, for the valuable denial ou. The collect' of the
society hope Soon to exhibit the roll to the puld,c, with a de-
tailed exanaination of its philological and archreological pe-
culiarities.
On Monday night a crowded audience at the Albert
Ball, Plymouth, were alai inert by an accident to a boy about
eight years of age, one of the _ecroltatic Troupe,
who are nightly glying a aeries of daring trapeze and high
rope performances. The little fellow twice misted the
trapeze and felFon the padded floor. At the third attempt
he sprang just far enough to catch one loop of the trapeze
with one band only, and twisting rapidly round, became
giddy, and fell with great violence head downwid-da from a
considerable height, on to au unpadded portion of the floor
beneath. It wee afterwards discovered that the boy's collar-
bone Was broken, but fortunately his injuries are not of a
dangerous description.
The Journal de Liege relates that the inhabitants of
that town were startled on Saturday by a loud detonation
proceeding from the iron-foundry of MM. Joan and Delheld
in the Rue Gretry. A terrible explosion had been caused by
the imprudence of a workman, who, perceiving in the midst
of some old iron utensils a shell which seemed to have some
powder in it, applied a rod hot iron to ascertsin the fact,
when it burst and scattered its fragments in all directiona
One workman was killed ens the spot, and three °there
severely wouriderl.
• Persons who go in for the curious in arivertisementa
will do well be notice the following, which appeared a day or
two ago in The Times I—" A person of gentlemanly manners
wanted, to show an elderly clergyman the eights of Legion
and its surrouudiege the will oe required to Speak eery
plainly, as the geld:email is rather deaf —Apply. stating
what he would propene to show, the mode of travellieg to
the several places, the probable expenae end. claes railway,
inalde omit us, and occasionally by cab, and what remunera-
, thin he would expect."
A Paris correspondent nays that the reception held
by NI. Thiers at the Palace icf the Elynee em Nlonday night,
, was of exceptional Interest, as being the first which has
, taken place in Palle since the removal of the seat et Govern-
ment. But little formality was observed, and no one wee
annoUncrd The viniters handed is their cants, or wrote
their mimes in a register, and e ere then free to pass as they
pleased, among the saloons thrown open. M. Mier. seemed
I in excellent apirits, and showed in symptom of fatigue,
. though he was very Mt-Indite to his runts. None of the
Orleans Princes were present, nor did any of their prominent
supporters appear. But few members of the Assembly were
to be seen, and none of the leading RatliCals. About fifty
ladies were among the guests. M. Titters had made arrange-
made to return to Vernaluu at five minutes past eleven ;
but at twelve he was atilt at the Elyi,(e.