The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-11-13 00:00:00

The Citizen states that the Baroness Burdett-Coutts,
in ameliorating the condition of the poor and deserving
fishermen of the United Kingdom, has expended over
4100,000.
Colonel Mure, M.P. for Renfrewshire, died on
Tuesday, after a lingering illness, at his town house,
Hamilton-place, Hyde-park, London.
The station in Paris of the Eastern of France Rail-
way has been lit up by the electric light on the Lontin
system, which, after trials in the goods station, has
been adopted in the passenger station of the Lyons OA
Mediterranean Company.
The Berlin Correspondent of the Daily TelegraP4
says that in no year has the emigration from Bremen
attained such proportions as in the present. 74,000 emi-
grants have already left Bremerhaven on board the steamers
of the North German Lloyd in the course of this year—four
times as many as in 1879.
Scotland has succeeded in securing a good potato
harvest, and but for local prevalence of disease, the croP
would not improbably have been the largest of the centurY•
In Berwickshire the Victorias have been grievously affected,
and Champions have likewise suffered. In Fifeshire Vic'
torias, Regents, and Red Bogs have all shown traces of
disease, while Champions, although not equally affected,
have not escaped blight. In the Highlands proper but little -
disease has been found.
Lord Wenlock died from heart disease at his resi-
dence, Escrick Park, near York, on Saturday morning, NOV.
6, in his 63rd year. The deceased peer, who was Lord Lieu-
tenant of the East Riding, is succeeded in the title by his •
son, the Hon. Beilby Lawley.
It is stated that arrangements are in progress for
the issue of the Afghan War Medals to mark the services of
officers and men who have done duty with the several
columns employed on service in Afghanistan, and it has
been decided to grant the decoration to all those who have
actually crossed the Indian frontier. •
"A correspondent, 'one of the numerous grand:
children 'of the deceased, informs us (says The Times cx
Wednesday) that Mrs. Johnson died on the Ist inst. at
Bilton, near Harrogate, at the age of 101 years. 'She was
born at Goldsborough, near Knaresborough, in September,
1779, and has enjoyed good health, besides retaining all her
faculties to the last."

Foot-and-mouth disease has been discovered on a
farm near Preston. It is sappoeed to have been imported
Trom Scotland, and the most stringent measures are being
taken by the police to prevent it spreading.
An Essex clergyman writes to the Chelmsford
Chronicle to advise the cultivation of flax in the wheat
growing districts of Essex.
Elias Laycock, the Australian, and James Riley,
the American, sculled from Putney to Mortlake on Saturday
last, for a stake of four hundred pounds. Riley led over a
considerable portion of the course, but towards the close of
the race the Australian went to the front with ease and vion
by three clear lengths.
A fire has occurred in a mine at Bodie, California,
in which five men perished.

The defenceless condition of the principal mercantile
ports of the United Kingdom is, according to the Standard,
to be made the subject of inquiry by a committee of naval
and military officers, who will report to her Majesty's Go-
vernment the best means to be adopted for adding to the
security of these important places.
The weekly return of metropolitan pauperism shows
that the total ntunber of paupers on the last day of the fifth
week in October was 87,450, of whom 49,632 were in work-
houses, and 37,818 received outdoor relief. Compared with
the corresponding weeks in the years 1879, 1878, and 1877,
these figures show an increase of 2,795, 9,385, and 8.352 res-
pectively. The number of vagrants relieved on the last
day of the week was 921, of whom 675 were men, 206 women,
and 40 children under sixteen.
The total exports from Melbourne, Adelaide, and
Sydney, to Great Britain for the past month have been :
Wool, 160,C00 bales; tallow, 3,200 casks; copper' 800 tons;
copper ore, 1,300 tons; wheat, 44,000 qrs. ; flour, 6,100 tons;
tin, 25,000 ingots.
The Queen and Princess Beatrice, attended by the
lords and ladies of the Court, are, aceording to present
arrangements, expected to leave 13almoral on the 19th, and
arrive at Windsor Castle on the 20th instant. Her Majesty
will travel from Balloter to Windsor by special London and
North Western train, arriving at the Castle early on the
morning of the day following her departure from Scotland.

One California fruit grower this year sells about
one hundred and fifty tons of a single variety of pear for
shipment to Chicago. He will sell about the same number .
of tons of a single variety of grape for shipment, and say
half that quantity of another sort. His fruit crop will bring
him not less than 30,000 dollars.
A leader in the Daily News the other day about
wheat-meal bread had an immediate effect which singularly
illustrates the power of the modern Press. Upon the evening
of the very day, the shops of bakers selling the new form of
the staff of life were literally besieged, as though London
were in atstate of famine.
It was announced on Monday that the amount con-
tributed this year to the Hospital Sunday Fund in Man-
chester was £6,557, and to the Hospital Saturday Fund
£1,696.
Mr. George Hales, aged 54, a carrier, met his death
the other day on the South-Eastern Railway, under veil •
distressing circumstances. He alighted at Headcorn
Station, near Ashford, before the train had stopped, and
slipped and fell between the train and the platform, his
legs being fearfully crushed aud all but severed. Death re- ,
suited shortly afterwards.
The Queen is once more a godmother. At the ;
baptism of the third son of Count Esbach-Schonberg, which
took place at lidnig, her Majesty was represented by the
Grand Duke of Hesse. The godfathers were the Grand Duke
Sergius of Russia, Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Prince of
Ysenburg-Budingen, and Count von Gronsfi ld ; and the
little Count received the names of Victor tigius HenrY
Bruno Charles.

The Emperor of Russia has been advised by his
physicians to leave Livadia for St. Petersburg as soon as
possible, as very had and cold weather has set in at Livadie
and the Russian South Coast.
In the Chancery Division, on Monday, the Court
was asked to decide i'vhether under the will of Lord Londes-
borough, who died in 1860, his widow was entitled absolutely
to certain paintings, valued at about £15,000, his lordshlP
having left to her "all objects of vertu and taste," or
whether she was merely entitled to them for life under the
clairs'e giving her ladyship the leasehold house in Carlton-
ipuse-terrace, with "the statuary, furniture, and other
Wlffects." .Vice-Chancellor Malins decided that Lord Londes-
borough intended that the pictures should pass with the
furniture of his residence in Carlton-house-terrace, and that
his wife (now Lady Fitzgerald) was not entitled to them
absolutely, but only during her lifetime.
The Hon. A. Egerton, speaking at Worsley on the
question of the assimilation of the borough and countrfSan"
chise, said he did not think it would do much harm ill
Lancashire, where the people were educated for theirsevera!
callings, but he feared that the agricultural labourers woul4
be worked upon by agitators, and therefore he urged thav -
the matter should be postponed for a few years until the
labourers had improved their education.
A meeting of the Manchester School Board was
held on Monday to consider tLe report of the special Com-
mittee with reference to Sir William Harcourt's letter, Which
invited an expression of opinion as to the way in which the
law concerning the treatment and punishment of juvenile
offenders ought to amended, especially with a view to the -.-
prevention of the imprisonment of young children. The
recommendations of the committee to abolish the power to
imprison children in common gaols were adopted unani- •
mously.
The Constantinople correspondent of the Manchester .
Guardian, in a telegram, says :—" The Turkish Govern- •-•'
ment is making tremendous efforts to be in a position to
close the Dardanelles at a short notice. A large number of
torpedoes, with all the necessary stores, was shipped oft
last Tuesday, and will remain in the magazine at the Dar-
danelles ready for placing without delay—Whitehead bat-
teries in the Narrows and torpedo-boats at the mouth of the
Straits. The purchase-money will be furnished from tile
war-chest, which has been quietly forming for some Lew
past." •
•
Mr. W. S. Caine, M.P., speaking at Middles' *A,
brough, said that the conversion of the majority of 114
against Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Motion in the last House of
Commons into a majority of nearly 30 for the motion la
the present Parliament, was due to the work of the tem-
perance men during the previous six years, and it was ob-
tained despite the keeping of social questions in the back-
ground at the last election. He believed that when Mr.
Gladstone's Bill was brought in it would contain the prin-
ciple of Sir Wilfrid Lawson's motion, if the constituencies
pres2ed ftir it. He
if
temperence reformers to accept .
any Bill, if even a licensing measure, fit contained a veto. .
A gnat mistake was made in refusing Mi. Bruce's Bill tee -
years ago, for had it passed it would have by this tinie
lessened the number of public-houses, and done awaY
entirely with vested interests in the liquor traffic.