The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-23 00:00:00

EP/TOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

General Butler was intended by Ms parents for a
brapnan.—Philadelphia Ledger.

." .
Th.. number of baths in London last week was
2,443, and of deaths 1,475. the former having been 45 above,
and the latter 209 below the average.

-
A third edition of Sir Ifenry Holland's book will
appear shortly. The publisher of an amerkan reprint
advertises the work as " Recollections of Feat Life."

A work on the late war has been published by the
Due de Gramont. The Duke tlnows the whole blame of the
war upon Prince Bismarck.
The fields of corn and rye in Normandy have the
most flourishing appearan^e, owing to the early spring tem-
perature. The meadows promise also the most abundant
grass crops.
Sir Travers TWiFS has, it is announced, resigned his
appointments under the Archbishop of Canterbur) and the
Bishop of London, and other ecclesiastical appointments, as
also the office of Queen's Advocate.
At a meeting held at the Society of Arts in Loudon,
on Tuesday, Dr. W. Smith in the chair, it was unanimously
resolved to form an association for the protection of copy
right property.
At Dundee, on Sunday night, a disturbance took
place. To o constables, who had arrested a boy for malicious
mischief, were attacked by a large crowd, supposed to be
Irish, and very severely Mused.
Conferences have a peculiar charm for the Old
Catholics. They had been holding another at Bonn, hut it
was only preparatory for a Grand Congress which will take
place at Cologne in the autumn.
Le of -Monday says that the Government have
granted Lady Mayo a pension 4,1' £20,000, and a sum of
£0.0,000 for her children, while Le Temp; puts the pension at
48,000.
Eight waggons of an empty coal train were precipi•
tated down an embankment near Birmingham, early on
Saturday morning, hut beyond smashing in the front of a
house, no material damage was done.
The Cologne Oa:ettc's Paris correspondent writes
" Many ladies of the great world wear now at the balls a
mourning toilet, composed of a black silk dress, ornamented
with white lace an red roses, and diamond tears in the
hair. Such an expression of grief costs only 14,000 francs."
A telegram from Malta announces that her Majesty's
iron-plated screw steamer Lord Clyde. of 18 guns, while at-
tempting to assist a ship stranded at Pantellaria, an Italian
island in the MeditoTanean, was carried on shore by the
current. Assistance had been sent from Malta.

shorter

The premises at Norwich used by Brother Ignatius
for the purposes of a monastery will be sold by auction
next month. The sale will comprise the cimpel partly
erected by brother Ignatius, but left unfinished by him
from lack of funds.
- - - • -

In London, on Sunday afternoon, a meeting of me-
tropolitan shopkeepers assistants was held in Trafalgar-
square, at which it was resolved to form a trading association,
and to appeal to Parliament loran application of the Factory
Act to the case of the petitioners.
. .

Appointments in the Supply and Transport Depart.
meet of the War Office are hereafter to be made by open
competition to be conducted by the Civil Service Com-
missiouers, to whom applications may be made for parti-
culars of the examination about to be held.
One hundred razor grinders have struck work at
Sheffield. They have been earning £3 lea per week, work-
ing six hours for five and a half days. and the masters think
their demand for an increase, ranging from 6 to 15 per cent.,
very unjustifiable.
Lord Elcho presided over a special meeting of volun-
teer commanding officers on Tuesday, when the difficulties
which have arisen in connection with the proposed volunteer
gathering at Brighton on Easter Monday were considered,
and it was resolved that the anticipated field-day be aban-
doned.
- - ' • ^ •

A meeting of Protestant Ministers was held in Paris
on Saturday in the Evangelical chapel near the Place de la
Bitaille. A unanimous decision se as come to that a work-
room for young girls of that religion should be at once
erected, the site selected being a piece of vacant ground in
the Avenue des Amandiers between the Boulevard du Temple
and the canal.
• •• •

In the course of some observations at a public meet-
ing, held in the Commercial-road, London, Lord Shaftesbury,
in speaking of the Alabama claims, advised this country to
maintain a manly and dignified hearing, which would pre-
vent mischief, and eventually weld the relations between the
two countries into a more solid friendship than had hereto-

Ksr—e Jted

The world can boast of at least one man who wan
Insensible to political amhitien. An old serjeant-major
named Leroy died lately at Lyons after refusing to avail him-
self of an opportunity to become a legislator. Leroy was
elected for Lyons in 1019, but would not accept the mandate,
preferring the less dangerous but more tranquil occupation
of a gardener, which he fulfilled to his aeath.
Monday was the twenty-fourth anniversary of the
birth of her Royal Highness Princess Louise, who was staying
at Windsor Castle with the Marquis of Lorne. The hand of
the lst Life Guards, by command of her Majesty, played •
serenade at seven o'clock in the morning beneath the
windows of the Princess's apartments at the Castle. The
bells of St. George's Chapel and of the parish church were
also rung, and a Royal salute was fired in honour of the
occasion.
Fifty out of the fifty-two weeks of the financial
year had been accounted for when the 'treasury receipts were
made up on the 16th instant. At that time the revenue
amounted to 71,775,015, and this was within X 640,000 of
the whole yosfs estimate. Excise and stamps had already
exceeded the anticipated returns of the foil twelve months.
The total receipts are tour millions and a half in excess of
those lathe corresponding period of laid year. The expendi.
tame has been £87,000,942. On Saturday last the balance in
the Lank of England was £9,210,200.
A Scotch clergyman of Board views, Dr. Wallace,
of Edinburgh, speaking the other night at an education
meeting at Dundee, denied that the reading of the Bible in
the national schools was a " vague" system of instruction.
The Bible was to be treated in snob sway that all possible
information of its contents would be given in such a way as
not to trench upon the teaehing of any sectarian formulary.
Reading or teaching the Bible was very much like reading a
newspaper ; you read it Intelligently so that you can form
your oWn uptilion. It was held in the House of Commons
that the reading of the Liole without note or comment was a
me kery. If that was an, Protestantism must have been •
mockery and a vanity, because he had been taught the fact
tha Protestantism was based from the beginning upon the
reading of the Pable without note or comment If any
one were to tell him that the mere reading of the Bible would
give no idea., Ike would say that that person had never
been an Intelligent child himself.
A really wonderful escape from being cut to pieces
occurred on Saturday evening near the West Ilartlepool
station. John Haswell, a young man employed by the com-
pany as coke tiller, was returning home when he juisipedupon
the step of a pasaing goods engine, to ride to the liridge•street
crossing. Its the darkness he was unobserved by the driver,
who, therefore, did not slacken for bite to gat down, and
thus, owing to the impetus of the engine, he was not able to
bring up, when he leaped e, until he had run into the fonr.
foot of the next line of rails. Scarcely bad his feet touched
the ground when the 7.5 down train from Stockton came up
at a speed of fully 12 miles an hour, and before be could es-
cape he was struck by the front of the engine and thrown
face downwards between the rails, where he lay until the
entire train—in which there were nearly a score pair of
wheels—passed over his postrate body without touching it.
Beyond a few alight bruises and scratches, he found hlraself
little the worse tor his hairbreadth escape.

ClBay.erg

On and after the Ist of April third-clatie
ill be conveyed by all trains upon the Midland -
The Emperor William intends to create renew decora-
on of the German Empire for civil worth.
The Birmingham gardeners have resolved to demand
ihorter hours and 03d, per day extra.
Dr. Pusey is recovering from his recent indisposition,
although he is still unable to see friends or leave his room.
The evidence taken by the Meonra Commission Nene
published on Tuesday. It fills a folio volume of 706 pages.
Consumption was the disease which caumsd the death
of Mania
There were 6,893 Excise prosecutions for the year
Mated March, 1871, for the nolatiou of the licence laws.
It is said that the Pope has sent a magnificent cameo
to the lottery now being got up by the Duchene! Madrid.for
the poor Carlisle of :Spain.
The New York papers of the 2fith ult. publish three
columns of matter relative to the State Thanksgiving trans-
mitted by cable. The !herald gives a map of the route of
the procession from Puekingham Palace to St. Paul's, and
from St. l'aul's to the Palace.
The John Bur publishes a letter from Mr. Disraeli
to the Archdeacon of Buckingham, in which he says, -•
hlp
name is entirely at the service of the Church Defence !nett-
talon, and all the aid that I Can ever afford to the best and
most sacred of causes."
On Monday morning a return was published of the
number of cetoictions tinder the Game Laws in England and
Wales from the year 1871. The total convictions were 8,918,
and the diacharges 1,858. For being out armed, taking game,
aid assaulting gamekeepers, the convictions numbered 63,
and acquitals 10.
Le Nord says that the collar of the Order of the
Golden Fleece which was sent try King Amadeus of Spain to
the Comte de Flendre is the identical collar which was worn
by Christopher Columbus, and with which he wee invested,
with the order, by Ferdinand and Isabella, in honour of the
discovery of America.
At Dublin, on Sunday, the usual crowd assembled,
and proceeded to Olanievin Cemetery, to the monument
erected to the memory of Allen, Larkin, and Gould, who
were executed at Manchester in 1867. The graves of
several nationalists were visited. Everything pealed off
quietly.
The latest speculation as to Marshal Bazaine is, that
if a court-martial, consisting of twelve officers of his own
rank weld be convened, he wotild certainly be brought:,
trial for the capitulation of Metz. As this seems to be im-
possible, the only other alternative iet Ills removal from the
list of Marshals, which the Government will be obliged; o
concede to public opinion unless the Assembly should
authorise the coutitutiou of an exceptional court.
By direction of the Lords of the Admiralty the
usual notice has been issued at Chatham, stating that all
hired workmen will be discharged on the Met March, sad
those required re-entered on the Ist April; but this dis-
charge is not in any way to affect the gratuities to which the
men may have become entitled through long service. This
discharge n merely of a formal character, as the Men are al-
ways reentered.
"A curious strike--not of ' hands' but of feet—was
threatened in Vienna last week. It was whispered In the
pit that the ballet had refused to go 'on.' Luckily, at the
last moment, the masters came to a compronthe with their
feet, and only one, la Salvioni, has really struck. She had
certalely no more than £1,240 a year—a miserable pittance,
though genius has starved on leas before now."—Orchastra.
The Dorset system of relieving vagrants by means of
bread tickets supplied in various town, throughout the
county has worked remarkably well in the supprenion of
mendicancy. The number of vagranta relieved at the aimless
%bows a reduction of 50 per cent, as compared with 1889, the
yea." previous to the formation of the Dorset Menden,
SocietY. The coiumittals for offences (specially applying to
vagrants aed tramps) under the Vagrant Act also show •
reduction of ../0 per cent. The society, carried on at a cost
of £lOO per annwe. h effected a great saving in both poor
and county rates.
It has been notified from the War Office theta sum
of £2,000, given by ieevereeeene for the gold crown and
chalice taken at Magda's, will In distributed among the
troops, aa in the case of the proceeds isalised by the sale of
other property captured at that place. .Discharged soldiers
who participated in the previous distribution should at
one,e apply for a share to their regiments, but no claim will
be entertained which does not reach the regiment concerned
on or before the Ist of August, 1572. The next of kin of
deewaserl soldiers are not entitled to participate in this dis-
tribution.
"Victoria Hospital" waa the somewhat vague term
under which a legacy of £l,OOO was bequeathed by the late
member for Went Surrey. Two institutions—the Victoria
Hospital for Sick Children, Queen's-road, Chelsea, and the
London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, in Victoria Pink—
put in their claim ; the latter, on the proved fact that the
testator, Mr. Briecue, had, for twenty years, taken a warm
interest in the hospital, of which he was a life governor. On
those grounds Vice-Chancellor Maims ordered the legacy to
be paid to that hospital, and the other institution has ap-
pealed to the Lords Justices.
" Admirers of the noble art of self-defence '—if any
such &matures are still in existence—will have little cause to
congratulate themselves on the result of the fight which took
place at Long Reaeh, on Thursday and Friday lan, between
Johnny Connor, of Flilham-fielels, cowherd, and Thomas
Callis. In the first place, the brutal contest, although It con•
tinned for the better part of two days, a-as interrupted by
the police before it had reached a 'scientific' termination.
in the next place, the ropes and stakes, and all the para-
phernalia of the ring, have been confiscated by the author-
ities, and most oi the parties concerned have been locked up
without bail. In the third and last place, one of the com-
batants, otitis, is dead. "—Daily Telegraph.
Mr. John Bright has addressed the following letter,
In repiy to an invitation to attest' a meeting at Birmingham.
in aid of the sufferers from the recent outrages upon the
Jews in RolllllaDia. "Rochdale, Meech 15. Dear Sir,—l
cannot attend the proposed meeting in the Town Hall. The
outrages on the Jews, . repotted in the newsPePere. are
very shocking. How slow the world is to leer: what is just
and right in regard to differences of religious belief ! I
thank you for your note of invitation, and am, very truly
yours, June iIIUGHT."
From a return which has been puldiehed by the
, Registrareleneral, it appears that during the b 2 weeks of
lest year, among the rather more than seven millions of
people living in London and the la other large cities of the
United Kingdom furnishing weekly returns, the birth-rate
was equal to 30 per 1,000, and the death-rate to 17. The
birth-rate differed but slightly from that in the previous
0 year, while the death-rate eh wed all increase of 2 per 1,000. In
• Dublin the rate was kt, in Edinburgh el, while in Glasgow it
; was so high as 33, which among the English towns was only
exceeded by the rates in Liverpool and Sunderland. The
, Census enumeration in April last showed that the popula-
, ties of Edinburgh had been considerably under-estimated
; in recent years, while it had been overstated in Dublin. In
' Dublin the population was all but stationary during the past
ten years.
Mazzini's funeral took place on Sunday at Genoa,
when the car on which the coffin was placed was fol-
lowed by at least 50.000 persons. Around It were the intimate
friends of the deceased, and In the procession were the mem-
bers of the municipality, and deputations from Pisa, Naples,
Venice, Ac. Deputations from the working men's societies,
0 and from the lodges of the Freemasons' were also present.
The theatres and cafes were all closed.—A demonstra-
tion in honour of the deceased patriot also took place
. in Rome. About fifteen thousand persons marched in
procession from the Piazza del Popolo to the Capitol, and
on a large ear was a calluses' figure of Italy crowning the
bust of Wetzel'. All shades of political opinion were repre-
0, rented in the procession. Along the line of route mourning
0 flags were hung from the windows. At the Capitol several
0 speeches were delivered. Perfect tranquility prevailed, and
not a policeman was to be seen in the streete.