The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-17 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The etatrpe tined hi the laet financial year at the
Register Ilome, ,eotlaud, amounted to £36699 169.

An Odessa paper announces that the rinderpest is
raging in Sebastopol and the neighbourhood, and that
cattle are falling down dead in the streets.

Stonewall Jackson's widow ie not yet thirty. Report
says she •. is of medium height awl pleasing." She reside,s in
Charlotte, North Carolina.

A:cording to statements in the France newspaper
the recent elections for the French Councils-General re.
suited in the Republicans gaining 83 seats and losing 48
The balance in their favour was than IT.

The amount received in the year ended the 31st of
March as commission on money orders was £212,002 Is lid.
At the Social Science Congress now being held at
Eisenach, resolutions have been passed in favour or a general
income tax throughout the German Empire, on the ground
that every inhabitant, according to his means, should eon.
trinnte to the expenses of the Government

The colliers on strike in the St. Helen's district de-
termined at a mass meeting on Tuesday to withdraw from
the Amalgamated Association of Miners.

Several of the small West-Riding coal ()inters
have, according to the York 11.-raid, withdrawn their
notices of a reduction of 20 per cent., and the men will
resume work. About 12,000 colliers in the district are now
idle, and 3,500 more are under notice.

From & return in the London Gazette of Tuesday
night it appears that during the month of September last 15
cattle affected with foot and mouth disease, brought from
Oporto, were landed in London. They were all slaughtered
at the place of landing.

The following is a list of the ships and number of
emigrants forwarded to New Zealand by the agent general
for that colony, during the month of September last ;
A xxaye, for Auckland, with 449 souls ; Cospatriek, Auckland,
423 ; Geraldine Pagel, Canterbury, 399; Clarence, llawkes'
Bay, 348 ; Carnalie, Marlborough, 207; Crusader, Canter-
-374.—T0tal 2,262.

•
On Monday a deputation of licensed victuallers of
Scotland stated to the Home Secretary In Glasgow that
private Bills affecting the liquor traffic injured toe trade.
They considered that Government should undertake
legislation when the subject was ripe for it, and asked the
Government not to permit private Liquor Bills to go beyond
the first reading, because the second reading caused ea.
Pensive trade deputations togondon. Mr. Cross requested
the deputation to submit their views in writing, Ile next
received a deputation which urged the abolition of
tolls, but be declined to state what course the Ministry
would pursue on the subject.
The Duke of Leinster died at noon laat Saturday.
The late Duke was born in 1791, and was consequently
eighty-three years of age. lie succeeded to the dukodom in
1304. The heir to the title and estates is Charles William
Marquis of Kildare, born March 40, 1819, and marrieti
October 13, 1347, to Lady Caroline, third daughter of the
second Duke of Sutherland, The late Duke was the premier
Duke, Marquis, and Earl of Ireland.

"The ground cultivated by market gardeners in and
around Paris amounts in all to more than 1000 acres, and the
business gives employment to 9,000 persons and 1,700 horses.
It is stated that 300,000 glazed frames and more thi,n 9,004.000
cloches are employed in the production of iegetahles alone.
The annual amount expended far manure is said to be
£72,400, and the total r, oelpts.from the sale of vegetables
and other productions of the Market gardens to exceed half
a million sterling."—The Gorden.

The stamp duty on the registration of companies
as' year yielded £24,591
Ac,ording to the "incidental expenses " of the
Umted states Congress, each member uses S4lb. of toilet soap
per session.
Last year the fines paid to the Home Office under
the Factory and Workshop Act were £1.104 91. 4d
A cremation society has been started at the Anti-
podes.
A deputation of ladies presented a memorial to the
Recorder of Dublin on Saturday, praying that the facilities
for drinking in Dublin might lie reduced The Recorder
pointed out that within the last forty years the number of
licensed houses had been reduced from 1,404 to 000, and ex-
pressed sympathy with the object of the deputation.
"C. Q.—Many many thanks, My own. It can never
be taken from you. Rest assured lam unalterably your own,
and were I not happily convinced that you know it, the
separation would be even more untearable. True and con-
stant always." —Advertisement in The Tinges.
------ • • • • • •

The women employed in the bookbinding trade in
London have formed a trade union, and (with some male as-
sistance) have adopted a code of rules. Some hundreds of
female operatives attended the meeting on Saturday, and
some of them took part in the discussion.
A boy named John Green, 14 years of age, died in
Liverpool on Sunday night of hydrophobia. lie was bitten
by a clog in July, and the wounds were apparently healed,
but symptoms of the disease appeared on Sunday. Ile died
nine hours afterwards.
Within six years, on the coast of Canada, 98 new
lighthouses have been built, four new lightships established,
and 10 new steam fog-alarms ; 40 more lighthouses, Slog.
alarms, and 2 lightships are in process of construction.
- - - - •

The New York pa-pers announce the death of Bishop
Lee, of the Protestant F.piscopal diocese of low. The
Bishop's death was caused by malignant erysipelas resulting
from an injury to one of his hands, received in falling down
stairs. Ile was in his sixtieth year.
• • •

It is stated that the dispute between the munici-
pality and the canton of Geneva as to the succession duty on
the Duke of Brunswick's bequest was finally settled on
Fyi-
day. The municipality agreed to hand over 2,400,1001. to
the canton, the latter waiving the legal que_s_t.io.n. as to the
liability of muncipalities to succession duty.

The expenses of the candidates at the Kidderminster
election on July 31 have been published. Those of Sir W. A.
Fraser, the successful candidate, were £9C..2 2s. 4d., of which
ed. was for agents, clerks, messengers, and professional
chargeL Mr. G. 11. Lea's expenses were £1.65 On. 64. his
principal items being for printing, advertising, and law
stationery.
Great dissatisfaction has been caused among the
Kidderminster carpet weavers bbthe engagement of female
weavers on tapestry looms, and the attempted introduction
of apprentices. At a meeting of weavers on Friday night it
was decided to ask the weavers in the town to turn out altar
six days' notice unlesisthe women are discharged.

Captain Lee's mission to Ashantee for the purpose
of securing peace between King Koffee and the two revolted
chiefs is said to have been successful, though he refused the
King's request that he should endeavour to induce the
chiefs to return to their allegiance.

At a great Republican meeting which has been held
at Paterson in the United States the Secretary of the Navy
declared that President Grant had no Intention of allowing
himself to be put forward as a candidate for a third term of
office.
Mr. Stanton, the well.known bicyclist, engaged to
ride fifty miles against Mr. Markham at Cremorne Gardens
on Saturday, and allowed his opponent fifteen minutes start.
Stanton caught Markham in the 43rd round, and at the 35th
mile the latter gave up Stanton, however, kept up his speed,
and completed the distance in three hours thirteen minutes
thirty seconds,
••• •

"Authorities on finance state that there will be no
surplus to deal with next year, though it is by no means clear,
as some of the papers say, that there will be an actual deficit.
The result In any ease must be to prevent any reduction of
taxation."—Court Jussrnal.

---
A meeting of the delegates representing the various
collieries in the Wigan and St. Helens district wee held on
Monday at Wigan. Nearly 120 delegates werepresent, and
It was again unanimously resolved not to accept any reduc-
tion except through a board of arbitration. The meeting also
resolved to withdraw their delegates from the conference
now sitting at Birmingham, and a telegram was despatched
Instructing them to return home immediately.
galignani says that the Vendome column is now
completed, as a steam-engine raised on Saturday in twelve
minutes to the top, a height of forty-seven yards, the bronze
cap which covers the lantern, and is to support the statue.
The operation was a difficult one, in consequence of the
weight, but succeeded perfectly. Nothing now remains but
to fit it on, to finish the bronzing, already half executed,
and to take down the scaffolding Towards the end of the
month the Place VendOme will have resumed its former
expect.
•- - - - - - .

."11te reptiles of the French Museum have been re-
moved to their new home. The boas had been previously
overfed, so that they were as easy to handle by the keepers
seas many cables. The crocodiles were most unmanageable,
and it was necessary to use nets in order to catch them.
Some of the venomous snakes were tempted by food offered
to them into small cages, In which they were shut up
hurriedly and removed."—Katu re.

M. Hippolyte Cochery has discovered a curion
document, being a certificate of baptism in which the poet
Mobere appears as godfather. It wan found In the archives
of the Hotel de Ville of Faris, and runs thus :-- "This thir-
tieth day of the month of March, 1671, was baptised Jean-
Baptiste-Claude Jennequin, son of Messire Claude Jennequin,
officer of the King, and Mademoiselle Desjallea. His god-
father is Messire Jean Baptiste Yoquelin MoliZre, valet-de-
chambre of the King, having no tined domicile, and the god-
mother, Genevieve Jennequiu. B. POW:ELM MOLTERE, (i.
JENNEtzria." This document was extracted from the civil
register of the parish of Auteuil, where Molitre often went
to see his friend Boileau.