The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-12-12 00:00:00

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EPiTOME OF

L:17.21611 AVD

The Emperor of Austria has conferred upon Baron
Brunt the hereditary rank of count, in recognition of his
services, and as a token of good-will.
There are now 1,113 miles of telegraph and 1412
miles of wires in South Australia. The tio if there is vcry
low, and In consequence the average of telegrauut is one to
every 18 letters, against one to 121 in Eogland.
A collision occurred between the steamers Unit 02
States and America, on the Otto river. OD Fl Way litgbt the
4th inst The United State. caught are, and eighty livcs
were lost.
• •

A municipal disruption has occurred at Ayr. Sit
members if the town council resigned and left the meeting,
in a body, in consequence of a gentleman named Rae having
been elected junior haillie.
A fortunate member, known not to speak particu-
larly well, was asked, " liow slid y 4 get in with your
speeches?" •• 'cry will," he answered. " NVlns I got ti a
hitch, I said • Mr. Gladstone,' and then everyone rose and
cheered, and I thought what I should say the while."
Mr. Hartwell, who was for a time the working men's
candidate for Stoke, has issued a very long statement in
vindication of himself. Mr. Hartwell avers that he Was the
victim of intrigue in the part of his oppoi e,ts. spd if ta,,,
treachery on the part of soine of his pr,cessi,g Meads.
The Italian Government haa intrOueed a bill abo-
lishing the privilege hitherto enjoyed by the clergy at exemp-
tion (mu the conscription.
A "Honeymoon tar" is to be placed on the Peril',
Railway, when completed. for the benefit, of bridal parties.
There is to be a c 11111 l nubleation with the cu.ird in case of a
quarrel, and a desire to get out tuid he divorced American
fashion.
The Alabama Legislature has been considering a
bill which declares it to be no crime ti kill ft menil.er on the
0 it-Klux-Klan Society. or other person INN:aI dig a mask efts r
dark.
The New York papers say that it large band of
desperadoes attacked heir City, Nebra•ka, 011 Sataralty,
illtaatiala to pluader tlis town, but they were repulsed i.y
the citizens.
ln Connecticut, a boy of twenty has just marriwl
widow of fifty, who has seven children. The eldest is
ilk
years older than his new pap&
be year I.BIIS, according to the statistics of Cupid
and the beadles. luta been the most pro Mc on record for
marriages in bin life. The pew-openers gravely account

for this by its being leap year.
Miss Carpenter has arrived kt Bombay, and the
Bombay Gazette states that a committee of influential native
gentlemen has been appointed by government to assist her
in establishing female normal schools.
A singular scene occurred at a meeting of the Wipn
watch committee on Saturday. The COMM ttee met to
vestigate the charges brought against the police ill m
nection wills the late election and the Rev. Mr. Haiti,.
up. n whose testimony chiefly the charces rested, was present
hy invitation. After an excited discussion, it was ac-
knowledged by Mr. Haines that a statement he had made
that twenty-five of the police force were nrangemen was a
mistAke. The investigation of the other charges was post-
mmed.
Major Palliser, "chilled shot" celebrity, has been
made a G.B. .

—.—
On Monday, two conntry WWI. ra were convicted
for having sent putrid meat for sale in l o London market.
One was fined 1,20, with £5 ss. costs, and the other was sent',
to prison for a moon, without having had the option of pay-
ing a money penalty.
A distingunghea honour has been te,id by the govern-
ment of India to the Mot Royal Bengal Fusiliers. That
regiment is about to go home, and in a lengthy general
order the supreme government has recapitulated all the
services it has rendered—services, it is nmarkiai, which can
hardly he surpassed by those of any other regiment. It I,s
existed in the Bengal Presidency, "lii some shats, or another
for .note than two hundred years," 111111 110 w leaves the
country, "fall of honour," to take its first turn of home

service.
" A Youug lan (20) wishes to marry a Young Lady
Widoss.—Addr,s, Z , Post-office, Llackburn."—Adver-
tistment in Manchester Examiner.
It has been computed that 2,000 divorces bre
annually granted In the State of Indiana alone—a State
hay.og a population of about 1,0u0,000 of people—and wet-
informed residents of that State assert that the number i
even gmater. Localities differ in the alannlancy of dlvorc,-.
In counties awl towns having a large Catholic populate:
divorces are much lees frequent than in Protestant con,
tuunities.

At the recent trial for wholesale poisoning at Genera
the following naive statement Wan made by the analytical
chemists employed Fifteen ceutige of morphine are
sufficient to cause death to any one who is not accustomed
to it!
After the lapse of more than eight years the memory
of the Stepney murder is re% ice-i. The Master of the Rolls
is now called upon to decide who was the heir-at-law and
next-of-kin of tire unfortunate Mrs Entsley, who left no
win. The question is whether the intestate wao the daughter
of a roan named Spencer, or of one Samuel Williams.
Another death has resulted from the explosion at
llindky Green, and so raised the total number of dead to
six,y•two 'lll4, last victim was named John Gerard. fovv •
four years of age Ile was one of those employed in Site
dip workings on the day of the accident ; he was severely
, burnt, and was tine of the first batch of sufferers brou,ht
out after the explosion. Ile was at once taken home, where
he died on Tuesday evening.
A new phrase was adopted in the Divorce Court the
other day by a clergyt»an who was separated from his wile
Mr cruelty Ile stigmatised a statement of hers as aa
" unqualified figment of her fertile imagination."
The Smith family has had something more than it-i
fair share of success at the recent elections. Nine of their,
were candidates unit seven of them have obtained seats, the
two rejected ones 'Mug Jervoise Smith ,Liberal candidate ,
at Penult, and Mr. John Abel Smith, the autltor of thi:
famous Permissive Bill, who has been defeated by Lori
Henry Lennox in a tight for the single seat at Chichester.
- Greensboro' (North Carolina) has a weekly paper,
the Patriot, and a religious publication, which is owned uni
edited by shady, the compositors being females, and Site
press-outs a stout coloured Woman.
The Railway News remarks that not a single
parliamentary not lee of any new scheme has been given fir
W ales, which indicate, that In the next session of parliameet
there will be a greater dearth of railway bills than hi
last. This, says the journal referred to, is a favourable si,a
for railway investors, f ;r there is a prospect that for years 1..
come raison, competition will not be brought to bear 1,.
injure established tmlertakings awl prevent them earui.r:
a fair profit on the vast outlay involved in their constr.,
non
! The Italia of Naples says:—The brigands who
assassinated the shepherd Finanzio Ferrara have released t
SOB Joseph. lie relates that he Was constantly imaged and
I frequently threatened with death. The impossibility of
5 extracting a ransun from kb relatives was the sole cause of
his release.
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Jr. the new House of Commons there are twelve
Independents. live Baptists, five Quak•rs, two Wesb•yam
Methodsts, one calvinistie Methodist, seventeen Unita-
rians, ten Presbyterians, (non-conforming Presbyterians is
probably meant,, six Jews, and twenty-six Roman Cuticle-
of whom one only, Sir John Simeon, represents an
constituency.
The Duke of Norfolk comes of age on the twenty-
sixth of the present nionth, when there will be great rejei
ings at Arundel Castle and in the neighbourhood. T!
Weekly IfrgiAter hears that one of the Duke's first acts upe.l
attaining his ne4,rity will lie to lay the foundation stone • S
a large Roman Catholic church at Arundel, which into cot
£50,000, and Is to lie built at Ins grace's expense.
Though the matter has been kept very quiet it la
quite true that there have been lately disturbances tune,
the students at St. Cyr, to which some persons attribute r.
god deal of importance. The Einamor had invited a
certain number of the young men to the rDutions at Con,
Pigne ; tins attention was nut well received and a few
days ago, as the Governor of St. Cyr, General Gouilrecoin'..
was returning to his residence, a very cowardly assault tel.,
committed on him by some of the students, who left him. it
is said, Louth injured and almost unconscious. It is ma..
stated whether the General has been able to identify hie
assailants; but whatever the motives of the demonstratioa
no one can justify the mat trot carrying it oat.
It is believed that owing to the reduction of ti
squadron on the ward of Africa, the Island of Ascenskm is io
he in future increly retained as a medical establishment,
anti that the expense which is considerable. of maint
a aaval ellicer of rout wills his retinue will be saved to
country.
The acconchement of her Royal Highnealthe rrie-
cess Christian is exp eted (stake place in March.
The Attorney-General has granted Ins fiat for 110
writ ird error in the case of Madame Rachel. The poim
relied on in stipport of the writ mainly consisted of obj, -
lions to the jurisdiction of the court by which the prism.,
was tried, as to its eeeditatiell, and to the competency of
Mr. Commissioner Kerr to sit as a judge at the Central
Criminal Count since the reconstruction of the City of Lon-
don Court. The ease will be argued before the Court ot
Queen's Bench in the course of next term.
It is stated that the Government will bestow some
substantial honour on Major Pithier, the inventor of chill,
shot.
A metropolitan ratepayers' association has been
formal, con-iting t;elegstes from various parochial alss.
ciatios anti boards of guardians, " for the purpese
oppos ng the sysautdeal and oppressive me.nres of ti
Poor Law Etcard in the administration of Gathorne Belay's
Act of -667.7
It is stated that the question whether the Cab,.
guarding. weic .ight in apprenticing a girl who belonged to
the Church of England to a Baptist dressmaker, with the ini•
derstanding that she should attend her mistress's chapel, id 1.0
be referred to the Poor Law Board.
'The verdict of the Sligo airtiner's jury on the Lamle
of caistain Ring, DL, negatives the charge of wilful murder
against the townsneople. They have felled that the slr.t
proceeded from the pistol of NI r. Webber, Captain King's
einnpanion, which went off accidentally in a struggle be-
tween Mr. Webber anti some person unknown. The jury
blame the pollee for nnt having furnished Captain King wits
an escort.
On Monday a special meeting of the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge was held at the Freemasons'
Hall, London, to consider a resolution come to by the liel.-
emntitittee on the 0:11 of August last for granting a Sere o:
£7.0550 for promoting Christian knowledge in Natal. lloul
had arisen as to the legality of the grant ; counsels' opiniel
was adverse to it, and the committee now appealed to tic'
general hotly of members to decide on the course w hich slam
be taken. the Archbishop of York presided, and the pr ,-
ceedings were throughout of a very animated charactei.
The action of the committee, after a lengthened discussn Si,
was endorsed by a large majority.
The conciliatory policy pursued by Mr. Rever)•
Johnson in England seems to have created much dissati -
faction in the United States. At the meeting of Congress en
December 7, this feeling was publicly expressed. In the
Braise of Representatives, there being shill attendance a
members, a joint resolution was inlroduced, asking the Pre-
sident to recall Mr. Reverdy Johnson. The matter was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The Fenian "Captain" P. K. O'Brien, arrested two
months ago for attacking houses and carrying oft firearms,
hilt who datingly escaped from Mallow Brides-ell after cone
one
ti.
Mh .
flatlet for trial, was recaptured on Monday evening the
neighbourhood of Kanturk.
A letter from Jerusalem, in the Journal de Far'.',
announces that a great illumination lately took place in that
eity on the lice:talon td an ettiet of the Sultan, liberating the
Holy City for ever from military service and front all Ny-
waits oh taxes connected with the same.
31r. Farr, a well-known Herefordshire farmer and
cattle-breeder, di.ppeared in a most ailigular manner some
few months amh Ills hotly has jest licen timed in the
give. Wye, at a place near Ross called " the Hole in tl:c
Wall."
The funeral of M. Berryer took place on Monday
at A neerriile. The Temps says that as early as seven o'clos't
In the morning an immense crowd had asseinnled at tar rail
way atoll. di in Paris, and that at hal' -past eb. ht a special
train o w I,! tenty• four earriag, s Wll9 despatched. Another
foll.dved at half-past nine, and it is es.simated that 2.500 ai -
130119 were conveyed by them to tee place of Mobil. NI.
GrOry spoke at the grave as tie representative if the Paris
bar, and several other speakers were also heard. The com-
mon; lasted about two hours.
On Friday evenino Master Norman Muschamp, 14
years of age, son of William Museharnp, Kso , Gatesilea,
was playing v ith a schoolfedow in the arcade,
'' tile sins
-.
the evening when he stumbled anti fell
e o
achine, which had unfortunately just hien Meetdont of its
,
place by some tom and left with the iron handles plotec
outwards. 111 the violence of the fall. n
Dom the effects of which he sat k and expired au
piercsd he groin, and caused • terrible effusion of
bet
°clock.l;
ost
The United United State: Government is taking
ViThee're are
ains
01,1
the occupants of 175,7ei have been identine ,
wMa4re.careNo lessoh el'
e re
that,m 7':ft
rolls of honour
100,000 mote which may he identified. fiticen
The expenditure ou this work already e -ce ds
ts:.: who fel Irni n t bee,
.e
Ctrhaev%lthl
doi,aut.
have alreadY been puhlished, and e'er? itiortehiweiellinfoilllloiewn.