The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-30 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

" Protection is not !mining the United States at
least, for it has enabled the Government to reduce the debt
by ieso,oeo,ooo.--X•to York Herald.
The fashionable lap-dog in Paris at the present
moment is a dwarf spaniel called " Spanish-dog toy."

Parasols made to resemble a large sunflower haye
broken out into fashion in Paris.

"The word ' reciprocity ' is more heard to-day than
it has been since the perioa when protection was frustrated.
Reciprocity is now-a-days spoken of with increasing favour
in the midland counties of England."—Engineer.

A considerable number of members of Parliament
have already signed the letter to Mr. Gladstone asking for
the liberation of Cetewayo.
News of the Greenland seal and whaling fleet has
been received at Shetland. The steamship Eslips. has 52
whales, including 14 large ones, and 3,000 seals. The other
vessels have not been quite so successful.
A number of Bristol gentlemen have received per.
mission from the War Office to form a corps of Volunteer
Lancers.

An Alexandria correspondent writes :—" The Nile
is rising steadily, but not gaining in the required propor-
tion to make a good Nile; neither will it be a really bad
Nile. Owing to extended and improved irrigation, much
more can be done with a moderate Nile now than formerly."

The Volunteer Servioe Gazette understands that the
number of volunteers present at the Windsor review was
about ii,too, more than a thousand above the original esti.
mate.

The Balmoral Household" have sent a further
sum of money of £2 as. ed. towards the National memorial
to the late Earl of Beaconsfield. A previous subscription
from the household amounted to £lO 13s. ed.

Upon it becoming known in America that Davitt
would be allowed to pursue literary work during his incar-
ceration, he speetily received orders from some enterprising
journals in the States to supply them with weekly letters.—
Court Jerurnai.

Lord Manson, the principal Ministerial Whip in
the House of Lords, has notified his intention of moving for
returns of the number and nam,!s of county and borough
constituencies, and of the number of electors in each, in the
years 1831, 1842, and 1872. It is suggested that the figures
in question are to be produced in view of a contemplated
Government measure for the redistribution of seats.—Daily
Telegraph.
M. Boulanger, vice-president of the Civil Tribunal
at Paris, aged only fifty, had a sunstroke last week at a
wedding of a niece at Avallon, and died of the resulting
apoplexy.
Replying to a communication from the Coventry
Working lien's Confederation, condemning the proposed
French treaty, Mr. Gladstbne states that the treaty is still
under consideration, and that the Government have arrived
at no definite decision respecting it.

The latest census of the German Empire gaYe a
total of 45,194,000 inhabitants, showing an increase since
1825 of 2,466 000 souls, and since 1871 of 4,135,000, or an
annual augmentation in the first five years of 459,000, and
in the second of 493,000, or 11,200 for every million people.
It this rate the population of the Empire in 200 years would
amount to 420,000,000.

The Inverness Courier says :—" By agricultural de-
pression, 50,000,000 acres of British land is annually lessened
In value, as between landlord and tenant, to at least £.l per
acre. This equals £50,000,000 less spent annually upon British
commodities. Besides this, great areas of British soil are
going out of cultivation, and, moreover, equally great or far
greater areas are being miserably cultivated for want of
cash. '

Advice's from St. Johns, Newfoundland, dated July
10, state that a destructive gale swept the Straits of Belle
Isle on July 1. It extended along the coast, and destroyed
nearly all the small craft in the various harbours. At the
Isle of Bois the brigs Aurora and Guide, owned at Car-
bonear, and a schooner, owned by Sir. Snel!grove, of Catalina,
were totally wrecked.

Mr. Collier, Deputy Coroner for East Middlesex,
held an inquest at Hackney on the body of Mrs. Hannah
Cohen, age 44, a Jewess. The deceased, it appeared, lowered
and then attempted to blow out the light from a paraffin
lamp burning the ordinary oil. The lamp exploded; the
dress of the deceased caught fire, and she was fearfully burnt
all over the body. Her daughter tried to extinguish the
flames, and was also set on fire. They were taken to the
German Hospital, where the deceased died soon afterwards.
Verdict, "Accidental death."
The extreme heat across the Channel has even
affected the fishes, and the Temps states that the piscine in-
habitants of the Nieurthe have been dying in large quan-
Meg, being thrown lifeless on the banks. A circular has
been sent to the authorities and the various villages through-
out the course of the river Listructing them to bury the
Bah, to prevent the stench causing an epidemic.
A General Election took place on Tuesday in Den-
mark, and it is reported that in some towns a system of
" Boycotting " tradespeople was resorted to by the Radical
peasants.
A carrier-pigeon match is shortly to come off at
Strassburg. The town is assumed to be besieged and cut off
from all outside communication ekcept by means of carrier
pigeons, the birds to be thrown up are not allowed to have
made any trial trips, and will be kept locked up in the city
for a month. The French Government has offered high
prizes, and will buy all the pigeons arriving at Paris en the
first day.

English wheat of last year's growth has now become
extremely scarce, and farmers hold it with firmness. Its
condition is superior, its quality fair, and its value may be
said to range from 445. to 545. per qr.

The Mayor of Liverpool has received a communica-
tion from the Earl of Sefton, Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire,
that the Prince and Princess of Wales will visit the city on
Sept. 6, when his 3Loyal Highness will open the new North
Docks.

An earthquake, which was felt early on Friday
morning at Aix lee 13ains, was also felt at Lyons and Grenoble.
At Lyons a local paper says that two shocks were felt at 2.35
a.m., and they seemed to be from north to south. The same
time is given from Chalon, in Saone-et-Loire, where it was also
felt.—lntelligence from Havannah reports the occurrence of
earthquake shocks at Hayti on the sth and 7th inst., at St.
Vincent on the 24th and 24t1i of June, and Trinidad on the
49th of June.

The technical education of farmers is, it seems, be-
coming a question of the near future (says the Globe).
Already Mr. Buckmaster, of the Science and Art Department,
has visibed a number of towns in Scotland, with a view to
the formation of classes for teaching the science of agricul-
ture. This is undoubtedly a subject of importance, and as it
will probably soon come before Parliament in the Estimates,
it is well hon. members representing agricultural con-
stituencies should be acquainted with it.

A telegram from Gibraltar says that a duel was
fought on Sunday night within the Spanish lines between a
Spanish captain and a lieutenant. The captain was killed
and the lieutenant dangerously wounded.

The latest American discovery is a new hat for
ladies. It is called the "obelisk" (says the Court Journal).
It may be characterized as a peaked sugar loaf. The height
varies. Sometimes it reaches no higher than six inches.
But this appears the minimum.. It is hardly a hat to encou-
rage. It might suit an organ-grinder.
Last week's receipts of Cotten at all United States
ports have been 19,000 bales, and since Ist September
3,690,80 u bales. Shipments to Great Britain, 20,000 bales,
and to the Continent and Channel, 12,000 bales ; total since
Ist September, 4,371,600 bales. Stock at all ports 287,000
bales.

Mr. Knight, the Chairman of the London, Brighton,
and South Coast Railway, was one of the witnesses examined
on Monday by the City of London Committee on the Fish
Supply. He thought that a new market could be constructed
somewhere in the vicinity of Smithfield, which would be of
great service t• West-end tradesmen. His own Company had
had before them the question of constructing a market for
themselves a few miles out of London. This was contem-
plated in consequence of the difficulty of getting to Billings-
gate.

Lord Redesdale' who occupied the woolsack in the
House of Peers on Monday night, has now completed his
thirtieth year of office as Deputy-Speaker and Chairman of
Committees. The Lord Chancellor was absent on account of
Dean Stanley's funeral.

Under date July 25, the Correspondent of the
Standard says :—"The question as to what will be done with
the State prisoners is now set at rest. Accordieg to my in-
formation, derived from a trustworthy source, his Majesty
the Sultan has decided to commute the sentence of death
passed on '0 What Pacha and his companions into simple
exile. An Imperial Irate to that effect is hourly expected."
The road locomotive for war purposes, constructed
by Bolls, was recently tried in presence of Count Moltke
and several other authorities. The machine drew five guns
with their carriages completely equipped, the load amount-
ing to 800 cwt. The journey lasted about three hours and a
half, with one halt. The locomotive itself weighed 575 cwt.,
and it is capable of drawing 3,000 cwt. The expense is
about two marks an hour. The velocity was equal to that of
a troop of infantry, but might be much increased. There
was no accident of any kind, and a good impression was pro-
duced,

On the Princess of Wales and her children reaching
the seal pond at the Brighton Aquarium the other day, they
stayed several minutes to see them fed, and one of the older
seals, a well-trained brute named Charley, was induced to
come forward and offer one of its flappers for the Princess to
shake. This the Princess did, but the honour seemed to be
too great for the usually very docile brute to bear with calm-
ness, for after the /Loyal party had quitted the conservatory
where the seal pond is a great splashing was heard, and
Charley was found sprawling in the corridor, making great
efforts to follow the Princess and the children in their walk
through the building. It was speedily secured and placed
in the pond.
Several children were seriously and perhaps fatally
injured on Monday evening by the fall of a building in South-
street, Southwark-bridge-road, London. About thirty children
were playing in front of an unoccupied house, when sud-
denly a large portion of the building fell with a crash. A
number of the children escaped with slight wounds, but
there were three brought out of the debris whose injuries
were of a serious nature. The excitement in the neighbour-
hood Vas gre..t. One of the children died in Guy's hospital
on the following day.
The Duke of Sutherland and his party had the
greatest difficulty in getting home. They had meant to be
in England a week earlier, and it was only by the foresight of
an American friend, who secured berths for them a month
4n advance, that they were able to cross when they did.. ' The
rush for places on American steamers going to Europe is this
year far beyond anything known in the history of the
country. It was pretty well in the year of the Trench
Exhibition, but that was nothing compared with the exodus
now going on. When the duke's party left New York there
was not a single berth to be had on any steamer till the end
of Julyll

Twenty-seven students of St. Cyr have been sent by
the French Minister of War as privates to different infantry
regiments, for taking part in the Legitimist demonstration
at St. Germain des Pres which led to the recent expulsion oi
Don Carlos.
The Merchant Taylors' Company (London) have
made a grant of -thirty guineas in aid of the funds of the St..
John Ambulance Association.

Two thousand adherents of the Comte de Chambord
membled at a banquet at Nantes on Sunday. General
de Charette, in proposing the health of the Comte de Cham-
bord, said, "When La Vendee cries, Vive le Rot' a
Charette cannot remain silent. This will be our cry next
year, and always until our latest breath." Another banquet
was held at Lyons, at which 1,500 persons were present.
There are considerably over six millions of Jews in
the world. Nearly four millions dwell in European Russia
and Austro-Hungary, while only thirty-four are to be found
in Norway. In this country there are 63,000—oddly enough
exactly the same number as in Holland. Should the Jews
therefore ever be restored to the Holy Land, it is obvious
they will form a goodly community in numbers as well as
intelligence.—Globe.
A report which has just been issued at Melbourne
states that in 1879 no fewer than 2,700,000 sovereigns were
coined at the Melbourne Mint, while during the same
period only 37,000 were coined in this country.
According to advices received at Paris, the Em-
peror of Russia will shortly be crowned at Moscow.
Every one is astonished at the good style displayed
by his Majesty of the Sandwich Islands. He is reftned in
manners and even eloquent of speech, and plays the regal
part to the life, and quite to the manner born.—Court
Journal. _ .

A proposal is on foot among Liberal members of
the House of Commons to make an appeal to the Prime
Minister to consider the propriety of advising her Majesty
to discharge the prisoners detained on suspicion on the
occasion for the Royal assent being given to the Land Bill.
Fresh persecutions of the Jews are reported from
Russia. In several villages in the government of Pultava
their property has been pillaged and destroyed.

A further decline in the number of cases in the
small-pox hospitals of the metropolis was reported at the
meeting of the Asylums Board on Saturday.
Rome is to have its Derby. King Humbert, who is
a good judge of horses, has founded a cup of 24,000 francs at
his own expense, for horses born and trained in Italy. The
first race will take place in 1884.
Barley in the opinion of not a few will be the crop of
1881 in England. A spring cereal, it has no severe winter to
stand. It was sown under favourable circumstances, came
up well in May, got welcome moisture in June, and now has
had maturing heat in July.

it is announced that on the occasion of the Minis-
terial whitebait dinner at Greenwich Mr. Gladstone's late
constituents will present him with a handsome carved oak
chair, to indicate "their determination of always finding
him a seat, if required."
The officers of the corps of Royal Engineers hays
just offered a reward of £5OO, in addition to the Government
reward of £lOO, for the discovery of the murderer of Lieu-
tenant Roper, RE., who was found shot at his Quarters at
Chatham on the night of February 11th.
Mr. Gladstone has declined a proposed banquet at
the Crystal Palace on the ground that he is advised to avoid
as far as possible public dinners, and he fears that he should
not be justified in availing himself of this invitation.

The London Gazette of Tuesday night states that the
Queen has been graciously pleased to give directions for the
appointment of his Majesty King Kalakaus of the Hawaiian
Islands to be. an Honorary Member of the First Class or
Knights Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of
St. Michael and St. George.
Sir Bartle Frere occupied a seat under the gallery
in the House of Commons on Monday night during the
Transvaal debate.

A telegram from Geneva says that the earthquake
on the 21st was the sharpest known in the district since 1854.
It extended over the whole of Savoy, and was felt at Lyons,
Grenoble, and Basle. The same day various parts of the
country were visited with destructive storms. Lapraz, a
village in the Vaud, was set on fire by lightning, and all but
destroyed. In Thurgau a whole district was devastated by
hailstorms, the crops ruined, the trees stripped of their
foliage, and buildings injured. In the Valais there were
disastrous floods.

The arrivals of live stock and fresh meat at Liver-
pool last week from the United States and Canada show a
slight decrease in live stock; and as regards fresh meat,
there was a marked increase, in comparison with the pre-
ceding week. The totals were-1,052 cattle, 1,056 sheep,
6,432 quarters of beef, and 931 carcases of mutton.
The fatal cases of small-pox in London, which has
been 73 and 49 in the two preceding weeks, furt.her declined
last week to 43, but exceeded the corrected average weekly
number by 17 ; 27 were recorded in the Metropolitan Asylum
Hospitals at Fulham, Homerton, Stockwell, and Deptford, 3
in the Highgate Small-pox Hospital, and 13 in private
dwelling-houses.

The German Admiralty has decided upon the con-
struction of a number of gun-vessels of an improved type.
They will be armour•plated, and armed with one large gun
and six machine guns, and two ports for discharging fish
torpedoes. The tonnage is to be 950, with indicated horse-
power of 1,400 horses, which, it is calculated, will give a
speed of over 14 knots.

The Winnipeg City Council have voted fifteen hun-
dred dollars, and the Local Government five hundred
dollars, for the expenses in connection with the reception
of the Marquis of Lorne on Ms approaching visit to
Manitoba.
Many French sculptors are now interested in the
competition for the execution of a statue of Carnot, which
Is to be erected in his native town of Noisy. Four prizes
are to be given, the winner of the first of which will receive
the bronze required for his work and the commission to
carry it cut for 30,000 francs.

Mr. Macdonald, M.P., presided at the annual picnic
and demonstration of the Northumberland miners at New-
castle on Saturday, and urged that the working-men ought
to he represented on the Commission about to inquire into
technical education abroad. A resolution was passed
protesting against the exclusion of Mr. Bradlaugh from the
House of Commons.
A pigeon race from Spain to Belgium has recently
taken place, 330 birds being liberated at Bilbao at five o'clock
In the morning. The winner of the first prize arrived at
10 30 on the tollowing morning, and the last prize-taker -
(38th) was registered at 5.43 p.m. Thirteen more birds
returned later in the day.
A New York telegram states that the visible supply
of wheat on July 22 was 14,800,000 bushels; ditto, Indian
corn, 16,000,000 bushels. Export clearances of wheat for
Europe during the past week, 1,690,000 bushels; export
clearances of Indian corn for Europe during the past week,
2,530,000 bushels.

A destructive fire has occurred in a wine warehouse
at Bordeaux. The flames broke out in a loft containing
packing-cases, and spread to a warehouse in which from
7,000 to 8,000 casks of rin ordinaire were stored. All of
these, except some five-and-twenty, were destroyed. The
losses are estimated at two or three millions of francs.
Bou-Amema, the Arab chief who has been defying
the French power in Algeria, is reported to be a skillful
conjuror. Be can swallow swords, charm snakes, take an
unlimited quantity of sheaves of corn out of his turban,
and can cure diseases by simply touching the patient. His
followers believe that he is a miracle worker, and an emis-
sary of Mahomet sent to work out the deliverance of the
Faithful from the Christian yoke.

Phonetic spelling seems to make more progress in
the United States than in this country. The report of the
Index Society makes very lauditory mention of the indices
compiled by an American gentleman, who styles himself
" QP.," and of whom we read that he has prepared "An
Index to Articles on History, Biography, Travel, Filosofy,
Literature, and Politics."—Globe.
A New York correspondent telegraphs that the
emigration officials say they could find employment for 500
servants every day if they had as many, as the demand for
labourers of all kinds is increasing.
The Court Journal says :—" The father of the late
Lord Chancellor Hatherley began life when a boy of elevea
as one of the small hands in the factory of his father, the
serge manufacturer at Tiverton, in Devonshire. Apprenticed
at fourteen to a chemist and druggist of Exeter, he was
engaged for a while at the end of his seven years' probation
as a traveller in the drug trade. Coming up to London he
there established himself, first of all as a chemist, and after-
wards as a hop merchant. Acquiring a considerable fortune
he rose to be successively Alderman, Sheriff, and Lord
Mayor of London. Twice indeed, he occupied the chic
chair as Chief Magistrate."
The news respecting the condition of the Ger-
man Empress is leas satisfactory than for some time past.
The operation from the effects of which her Majesty ap
peared.to be recovering as rapidly as, perhaps, might be ex-
pected in the case of a patient seventy years of age, has been
succeeded by a state of exhaustion and weakness of a nature
to inspire renewed apprehension and anxiety. The malady
which necessitated the operation is said to have been occa-
sioned by over-exertion at a religious service which took
place in the chapel at Ems on June 3, in memory of the late
Empress of Russia. During the ceremony the German •
Empress not only held a heavy taper, but underwent an
unusual strain in the painfully prolonged act of kneeling in
prayers. Soon after the service her Majesty began to feel

There were 2,451 births and 1,943 deaths registered
In London last week. Allowing for increase of population,
the births were 79 below, whereas the deaths exceeded by
3043, the average numbers in the corresponding weeks of the
last ten years. The annual death-r4e from all causes,
which had steadily increased in the fdur preceding weeks
from 19 1 to 241, further rose to 26•5.
. Lord Shaftesbury, in laying the foundation stone of
a new General Baptist chapel to be erected at a cost of
£9,000 in Bethnal-green London, spoke in encouraging
terms upon the progress in religion amongst the masser of
London during the last forty years.—ln connection with the
same movement Mr. Spurgeon afterwards preached in the
Shoreditch Tabernacle to a crowded congregation, and at
subsequent meeting several addresses were delivered by pro-
minent ministers.