The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-12-18 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Press Association understands that Sir Edward
Thornton will retire from the diplomatic service at the
end of this year.
A box containing 2001 h. of dynamite was erploded
near the 6ummer residence of Xing Charles of
Roumania, with the design, it was believed, of destroy-
ing it.
On Sunday the first portion of the new Lancashire
and Yorkshire station at Liverpool was opened for
traffic. It is intended to demolish the old station,
which has long been unsuited for the company's re-
quirements, and when reduced to the low level of the
new portim opened the whole will form one large
station, which will provide for all requirements for
many years to come.
An unusual and disgraceful scene was witnessed at
Neath on Saturday at a football match between that club
and the well-known Newport team. A dispute arising as
to a "try," the referee (Mr. It. Adams) was appealed
to, and he gave his decision in favour cf Newport,
whereupon the partisans of Neath attacked him with
mud and stones. Mr. Adams had to seek the aid of a
medical man, being escorted off the field by the con.
stabulary.
' The Swiss National Council have passed the Spirit
Monopol3 Bill,
The Queen, accompanied by members ot the Royal
family, went to the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore on
Tuesday, it being the anniversary of the death of the
Prince onsort and of the Princess A lice. A special
service was conducted by the Dean of Windsor.
Mr. Justice Denman and Mr. Justice Hawkins,
sitting in Divisioval Court, heard an appeal on Tuesday
brought by the Corporation against the rating of the
City of London School. and after a long argument the
Court decided that the school was a public school and
exempt from tax.
At the Bow-street Police-court, London, on Tuesday,
Arthur Foster, a shorthand writer, was sent for trial
charged with obtaining I:5200 by means of a forged
authority, and with forging an endorsement to a cheque
for this amount.

Replying to a deputation on Tuesday from the Off.
Licence Holders' Association, who urged the desira-
bility of amending next session the law upon off-
licenses, Mr. Ritchie, President of the Local Govern-
ment Board, deniei that the Government proposed to
introduce any Licensing Bill, as the Government con-
teniplated the introduction of a Local Government
Bill, and a well founded belief prevailed that they
would have to consider what local body should have,
instead of the justices, the administration of the
licensing laws. But it was an entire misapprehension
to suppose that the Government would attempt to deal
with the licensing laws.
A meeting was held on Tuesday afternoon at St.
Jude's, South Kensington, to consider the cl iims of
the blind to such education as should fit them for the
universities, and the advisability of opening a public
college for this purpose. It was resolved, after con-
siderable discussion in which several blind speakers
took part, to appoint a provisional committee to
further the work now going on at Worcester College,
and to collect further funds to render it a permanent
institution.
At the Guildhall Police-court on Tuesday, Jamos
King was sentenced to three months, and W. White
to six months' hard labour for having stolen a gold
watch, value £l5, from the pocket of Mr. Alexander
Young. White had been followed and captured in an
omnibus with the watch in the lining of his coat by
Francis Quinn, a stationer's assistant, whom Mr.
Alderman Whitehead highly commended; and as this
had not been the first time he had afforded assistance
in furthering the ends of justice, it was ordered that
he should be paid 7s. 6d. to cover his loss of time.
The revenue received from April 1 to the 11th inst:
amounts to £54,911,864, or £907,174 more than the
£54,004,690 received in the corresponding period ending
December 12, 1885. The expenditure up to the 11, h
inst. was £58,535,740, being £2,114,520 less than the
expenditure for the similar period of 1885.6. The
balances on the 11th inst. amounted to £1,721,376, and
on December 12, 1885, to £2,194,629.
The Leeds corn millers on Tuesday afternoon decided
to advance the price of flour is. 6d. per sack, making
an advance of 35. a sack in three weeks.

At a meeting of the Macclesfield Guardians on Tues-
day it was reported that since the tramps had been
supplied with hot soup night and morning vagrancy
had increased 50 per cent.
The Cleveland ironmasters, in reply to a request from
the Cleveland blast furnacemen to advance their wages
by 5 per cent., decided to refuse the application, on the
ground of the uncertainty of the prices of pig-iron in
the near future.

An inquest was hold at Shaftesbury on Tuesday on
the body of George Staiser, who met his death through
a quantity of earth falling upon him when digging. A.
verdict of "Accidental death" was returned, and the
jury added a rider that proper precautions should have
been taken to shore up the sides of the pit. Another
man had an arm injured through the same accident
and three others narrowly escaped injury.
At the Glasgow Western Police-court on Tuesday
two young men named Hugh Leslie and William Paton
were fined three guineas in default to thirty days' im-
prisonment, for representing themselves as constables
in plain clothes, and entering a dwelling-house early in
the morning, where they charged the inmate, with
keeping an improper house. It was stated that they
Cfragged the landlady out of bed, and were apprehend-
ing a young woman, when the police appeared and ar-
rested the supposed constables.
A large and powerful steel cruiser, built to order for
the Chinese Government, was leanched on Tuesday
afternoon from a shipyard at Elswick, Newcastle.
rhe new vessel ie Named the Ching Yuan, which in
English means " tranquiliser and peacemaker of distant
regions." Her length is 250 ft. between perpendiculars.
he is 28ft. broad, and has a displacement of 2300 tons.
rhe ceremony of naming was performed by his
Excellency the Chinese Ambassador. The Ching Yuan
is sister ship to a cruiser launched horn the same yard
three months ago. At a luncheon held after the launch
Daptain Noble said the Ching Yuan would probably be,
when complete, one of the most formidable vessels of
tier class and displacement afloat.