The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-08 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

A collection at the Madeleine in Paris for the Irish
distress, after a sermon by Father Monsabre, hasy ielded the
handsome sum of 22,0001.
A smart shock of earthquake was felt on April 26
at Hanz, in the Grisons, accompanied by subterranean
rumbling; a similar phenomenon occurred on April 12.
A satisfactory report has been issued by the Leicester
Working Men's College, showing that about 600 students
joined the institution this season.
The stream of,emigration from Germany continues
In undiminished volume. It is estimated that during the
last thirty years that two and a half millions of people have
left the country.
A committee has been formed at Milan for erecting
statues of Bellini and Verdi in the Scala Theatre, alongside
those of Rossini and Donizetti.
There were twenty-five British and foreign wrecks
reported during the past week, making a total of 644 for the
present year, or a decrease of eighty-one as compared with
the corresponding period of last year. The approximate
value of property lost was £535,000, including British £425,000.
The dispute between the operative joiners and the
master builders in Liverpool has been settled by arbitration.
The award of the arbitrator, Mr. J. F. Collier, the county
court judge, is that the men be paid 74d. an hour for fifty-five
hours a week as heretofore
Forty-six thousand one hundred and eighteen
emigrants arrived at New York during the month of April,
being the largest monthly total that has ever arrived
there.
At a representative meeting of South Staffordshire
miners' delegates and agents held on Monday night, it was
decided by a large majority to give notice on the Ist of June
to terminate the Birmingham agreement, which regulate
wages. The object is to secure a higher rate of wages with
the advance in the prices of coal.
A Lloyd's telegram states that the Mary Driver,
British steamer, from Malta for Gibraltar, laden with wheat,
is reported from Tunis to have foundered near Point Seche,
Bizerta. The captain and steward were drowned, but the
crew were saved by coral fishers and landed at Tunis. The
Mary Driver was an iron screw steamer of 870 tons, built at
Stockton in 1871, and owned by Messrs. Briggs, Sons, and

•
Co., of Cardiff.
The average price of corn last week was 455. 9d.
per quarter, against 485. during the preceding week. The
price of barley last week was 335. 6d. per quarter, and the
price of oats was 235. ad. per quarter
In accordance with the decision of the meeting of
cotton spinners and manufacturers held at Manchester on
Tuesday afternoon, circulars were posted to all employers
engaged in the cotton trade in North-East Lancashire,
enclosing a copy of the notice to be posted announcing the
suspension of the rules as to notices on and after May 19.
It is understood that when the weavers' strike at Blackburn
the spinners and card-room hands will have to suspend work.
This will bring the number of the operatives affected up to
30,000.
The Robert Raikes Centenary is to be commemo-
rated in Blackpool, by holding a great musical demonstration
of Sunday-school teachers and scholars. The end of June,
or the beginning of July, is announced as the probable time
of the commemoration.
On Tuesday morning a shocking accident occurred
at the Camberwell station of the London, Chatham, and
Dover Railway. As a Great Northern goods train was pro-
ceeding on the up main line, a platelayer was knocked down,
and his head completely decapitated. The unfortunate man
leaves a wife and nine children.
During the stay of her Majesty's ship Bacchante
at the Bermudas their Royal Hignesses Prince Edward and
Prince George of Wales laid the foundation-stone of a new
club for sailors and marines. The building itself is to cost
£1,040, and is to be finished in eight months' time. About
£2,000 will be needed to furnish it in a suitable manner.
In 23 of the largest towns of the 'United Kingdom,
last week, the mortality was at the average rate of 22 deaths
annually in every thousand persons living. In Brighton and
Wolverhampton the rate was as low as 14, while at Ply-
mouth it was as high as 36. In London the annual death-
rate, which in the four preceding weeks had steadily de-
clined from 24*7 to 202, further fell last week to 19-8, a lower
rate than has prevailed in any week since last October.
The troops at Aldershot, numbering about 6,000,
were exercised on Tuesday morning in outpost duty on the
Fox Hills, about five miles from camp, under the direction,
of General Steele. The troops were in their allotted posi-
tions by nine o'clock. Each brigade pushed forward outposts
against an enemy supposed to be advancing in force from the
east upon the camp, and with the object of securing the de-
fensive position of the hills. The defending cavalry recon-
noitred three miles in advance, and succeeded in retarding
the march of the enemy until the reserves were brought for-
ward. The battle lasted about two hours, resulting in a
victory for the defending force.
Among those who have given in their adhesion to
the spelling reform movement in the United States are the
following :—President Chamberlain, of Bowdoin ; President
Chadbourne, of Williams; Professors Child and Goodwin, of
Harvard ; Whitney. of Yale; Harkness, of Brown; North, of
Hamilton-; and professors in Dartmouth, Cornell, the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, Prince-
town, Johns Hopkins University, the University of New York,
and many other leading colleges.
The Geneva Correspondent of The Times says that
the Landerg,emeinde of Appenzel, at their annual open-air
meeting, have voted by a large majority the restoration of
capital punishment for murder and incendiarism resulting in
death. None of the other cantons show as yet any disposi-
tion to follow the example.
A Philadelphia manager has hit upon the device of
Introducing a live lion into a play. A big and ferocious beast•
was borrowed from a menagerie. His appearance in a wild
scene, apparently loose, though he was really confined by
ropes around his legs, was a great hit. But he spoiled the
rest of the play by roaring in his cage at the back of the
stage' he crunched and killed the ventursome pet dog of the
leading actress; and, finally, he scared all the performers
out of the theatre by breaking a bar of his cage in an effort
to get out.
Another of the chain of forts for the protection of
Chatham Dockyard and Garrison, and of the approaches to
London, will shortly be commenced on the road to Maid-
stone, about midway between Chatham and Maidstone. The
fort which is being built at Borstal by convicts will be a most
massive structure, and is approaching completion. Several
other forts will be erected before the chain is complete, which
will make the road to London thoroughly protected.
A letter from Mr. Chamberlain on the subject of
the Workmen's Compensation Bill was read on Saturday
night at a meeting of the Birmingham local trade council.
Mr. Chamberlain says he does not think legislation on the
subject is likely to be attempted in this broken session.
Mr. Humphreys, coroner for East Middlesex, has
held an inquiry at the London Hospital as to the death of
Thomas John Messenger, 23, a dock labourer. On the 2nd of
February last he was playing with a large retriever dog, when
it bit him in the hand. He felt little or no effect from the
injury until three weeks later, when he complained of pains
in his wrist. He was removed to the hospital, where he
died on Thursday last from hydrophobia. A verdict in ac-
cordance with the medical evidence was returned.
The other day, a labouring man employed on a
building job at Hampstead, dug up in the neighbourhood of
the Addison-road, at Kensington, a little cross, which he at
first thought was only of pewter, and appeared to have be-
longed to a common rosary of beads. On closer inspection,
however, it turned out to be a pectoral cross of silver, bear-
ing on one side the legend, "Caritas Christi uxbget nos," and
on the other a well-executed figure of the Virgin Mary with
the Divine child in her arms. As there is no record of any
Roman Catholic burial-ground having been in or near
Addison road, it is probably that it belonged to one of the
priests and chaplains of the old Benedictine convent there.
The cross, it may be added, is clearly of German design and
workmanship, and the characters engraved on it correspond
In form.
James Cruickshank, who fought in the ranks of the
92nd Highlanders at Quatre Bras and Waterloo has died at
Glasgow at the age of eighty-six. The eldest brother of the
deceased, Alexander Cruickshank, late of the 79th High-
landers, was not only present at these engagements, but
went through the Peninsular War. The two brothers, when
the battle of Waterloo was over, started in quest of each
other, and to their joy ultimately met, both being un-
harmed.
The Paris Correspondent of The Times says that
Prince Henry of Prussia and his suite, who are making a
voyage round the world, have been insulted by some
Japanese functionaries. While they were out for a day's
hunting, near Suita, their coolies were assaulted by farmers,
on the pretence that their presence frightened away the
game. The police refused to allow the Prince and his suite
to go back by train to Kobe, and on their driving to Taman
they were ordered to alight, and remained under a kind of
semi-arrest till a high official arrived. The Government has
apologised, suspended the Governor of Osaka, and dismissed
eight policemen.
The Eighty-first Anniversary Meetingof the Church
Missionary Society, held on Tuesday at Exeter Hall, London,
was largely and influentially attended. The report stated
that £221,723 had been received during the year, while the
expenditure had been £200,307.
The receipts on account of Revenue from the let
April 1880, when there was a balance of £3,273,428, to May
1, 1880, were £7,382,547, againht £7,943,755, in the corre-
sponding period of the preceding financial year, which begun
with a balance of £6 915.759. The net expenditure wa,

£8,892,724, against £9;657,436 to the same pate in the
previous year. The Treasury balances on May 1 amounted
to £4,397,068, and at the same date in 1879 to £4,435,746.
In reference to the Lord 'Lieutenancy of Irel9,
• Times remarks :—" There is interesting fact CO°