The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-03 00:00:00

Intelligence has reached Melbourne of the escape o
twenty more Communists from New Caledonia.
In receiving a deputation of Italians and foreipers
at the Vatican this week, the Pope exhorted v to
churches to go thither not merely as sightseers, but as earnest
worshippers.
There has been some discussion as to the amount of
money spent in drink in Port Glasgow; the lowest estimate
puts the sum at £40.000 annually, and the highest at £90,000.
Most of the French papers, in announcing the
death of John Mitchell, describe him as " tho great Fenian
chief."
Blonde hair jewellery is becoming quite common in
Paris, the fashion having been started by a popular actress.
It is very peculiar looking and not remarkably elegant.
Cou rt Journal.

_
The miners of Fife and Clackmannan have accepted
the fifteen per cent, reduction in their wages, so that for the
present a strike has been averted.
Arrests have been made at Metz of a number of men
found selling bones, which they had collected from the battle-
fields in the neighbourhood of that town.
The last legible entries in Macready's diary, written
with a trembling hand, are :—" God be merciful to me a
sinner ; " and "Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief."
Reply to a young writer who wishes to know "which
magazine will give him the highest position." A powder
magazine.—Court Journal.
The Session of Parliament commenced on the sth
of February, and up to the Easter adjournment only six
public Acts received the Royal Assent.
A Reuter's telegram from Paris says that an official
decree is published to-day prohibiting the importation into
and the transit through France of potatoes from the United
States or Canada. Dead leaves, as well as sacks and barrels
or other articles which have been used for the packing of
potatoes, are included in this prohibition.
In the year 1821 a cutler of Sheffield presented
Queen Caroline, the wife of George IV., with a pocket-knife
Which contained one thousand eight hundred and twenty-
one blades.
The Mikado of Japan has ordered from the painter
Ugalini We-size portraits of all the sovereigns of Europe,
for the adornment of his residence at Takio. The Mikado
intends, it is stated, to found a school of Italian painting in
Japan.
The Bank of France owns a brick for which 1,000
francs in specie were paid. It was taken from the ruins of a
burnt house, and the image and figures of a note for 1,900
francs are burned on the surface, transferred by the heat
from a real note. This brick the bank redeemed on pre-
sentation, as if it were the note itself.—Pictorial World.
Easter Sunday was celebrated in the London
churches in a manner more advanced than in any previous
year, some being gorgeously decorated with flowers. In one
case there were in a procession groups of girls with dreamt
of white and ornamented with various colours. The cele-
bration of the Holy Communion took place at all hours, be-
ginning in many cases very early in the morning.
It is announced that the Duke of Edinburgh will visit
Leeds in the second week in May, and that the opening of
the Yorkshire Exhibition will be postponed until his Royal
Highness's arrival.
A Royal Commission, of which Sir James Fergnsson
is chairman, has been appointed to inquire into the opera-
tion of the Factory and Workshops Acts, with a view to their
consolidation and amendment
Mr. Leatham, M.P., speaking at Huddersfield on
Tuesday, on the occasion of -laying the foundation-stone of
a new Baptist Chapel, said that within ten years, and pre-
ba bly within five, every politician would be compelled to de-
clare whether he was on the side of a bond Church or a tree.
The London Bluecoat Boys, numbering in all 654,
paid their annual visit to the Mansion House, on Tuesday,
when the Lord Mayor distributed to them the customary
Easter gifts ranging from a shilling to a guinea, according
to the position of the boys in the school Before leaving
they were regaled with sherry and buns.
In retribution for the massacre of Lieutenant
Holcombe and a number of men who belonged to the Naga
Hills expedition, five Naga villages have been stormed and
destroyed. Detachments are in pursuit of those who were
more particularly implicated.
The Rev. Dr. Brewer, the pastor of the Shacklewell-
lane Baptist Church, died on Saturday. The rev, gentleman,
after preaching the anniversary sermon on the previous
Sunday evening, was taken ill in the pulpit, and was carried
home, where he gradually got worse, and finally succumbed
to rheumatism of the heart.
It is estimated that Chicago will handle a hundred
million bushels of grain this year. Last year, the quantity
handled was nearly ninety-six millions.
A Nationalist funeral procession in memory of the
late John Mitchel took place on Monday at Carrick-on-Snir,
and 3,000 persons, chiefly of the trades and working classes,
participated in the demonstration. The National band,
with muffled drums, playing the "Dead March," headed the
processsion. Many of those present wore green and black
rosettes and sashes. The proceedings were conducted in an
orderly manner.
A Madrid telegram tates that the Duc de
Montpensier recently asked afpassport to enable him to
return to Spain. The Marquis de Molina, Spanish Ambassador
in Paris, to whom he applied, refused the request. He said
that if a passport were granted to the Duke, Queen Isabella
might also claim one, and the Government did not think it
opportune for her to go back to Spain just now.
Millionaires are called "rich men" in New York,
and no others may expect this telicitious title. A half
millionaire is said to be "well off and independent" A
250,000 dollars man is "very comfortable." Place that figure
at 100,000 dollars and the owner is a " small man; " under
50,000 dollars he is "poor," while a 25,000 man is such a poor
devil as to be unworthy of mention.
On the motion of Sir William Thomson, seconded
by Professor Nichol, a resolution has been passed by the
Glasgow Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, that
a petition be presented to Parliament in favour of a Bill for
imposing proper restrictions on the practice of vivisee-
tion.
A skating rink for the City of Bath was opened at ri
St. Margaret's Hall on Monday. The band of the Coldstream
cdts that
a bt all.
i f he were asked to describe the
thAeresays re
was
a traveller fany
Guards performed a selection of popular music, and there 3
---'
was a large and fashionable attendance. In the evening
first sensations of a camel ride he would say, "Take a music-
stool, and having wound it up as high as it would go, put it
into a cart without springs, get on top, and next drive the n
cart transversely across a ploughed field, and you will then
form some notion of the terror and uncertainty you would -F
experience the first time you mounted a camel."
several thousand persons marched in procession —:s
with banners and music to Hyde Park on Monday for the
purpose of making a demonstration in favour of the Tich-
borne claimant. When they had arrived there speeches
were delivered by Dr. Kenealy, Mr. Guildford Onslow, Mr. .;
Whalley, and others, and resolutions werepassed, expressive
of the sentiments of the meeting.
"It is understood that the preface to the volume of
Mr. Brewer's 'Calendar of State Papers of the Reign Of
Henry V111.,' which is now in the press, will contain an ex-
haustive review of the evidence on the divorce of Catherine
of Aragon, based to a great extent upon documents which
have been hitherto unknowAcademy.
Dean Stanley was the preacher at the morning ser- •
vice at Westminster Abbey on Sunday. He selected as his
text the words, "The blood of Christ," and the whole tenor
.d
of his discourse went to show that the words "body " and "
blood "in the Sacramental service were not and could not „
be meant to be taken in their literal sense. 1
On Saturday the Fylla arrived at Liverpool with the
captain and crew (10 in number) of the French barque Theo-
phile and Marie, of Nantes, who were picked up in mid-
Atlantic. They state that their ship was on a voyage from
St. Mark (Florida) to Ham, and experienced such bad
weather that she became leaky and dangerous. She was
theeefore abandoned when the Fylla came in sight, and
foundered before the captain and crew had reached the lat-
ter vesseL
Strawberries were exhibited for sale in Covent-garden
Market for the first time this year on Monday in last week.
They were the product of the hot-house, or forced in a tripe,
and were remarkably fine eoneidesing the period of the year.
They were sold at frcm 25. 6d. to Is. for small baskets con-
taining from six to nine.
A negro barber committed suicide in Atlanta
(Georgia) lately by shooting himself through the heart with
a pistol He was one of a party who, upon the passage of
the Civil Rights Bill, visited the bar-rooms in the city and
demanded the same rights as white men. This conduct re-
suited in the loss of patronage. He bitterly regretted his
conduct, and the depression produced by the loss of business
is the only cause known for the suicide.
In consequence of the refusal of the London railway
companies to convey the Volunteers this year to any of the
coast towns there was no general Volunteer Review on
Monday, but various independent manoeuvres were carried
out by several of the Metropolitan corps. The chief muster
was made at Barnes where Lord Ranelagh and Lord Trim,
with two opposing 'forces, disputed the possession of the
Common. Lord Ranelagh's force, for the defence; number-
ing about 1,100 men, assembled on Walham Green about
half-past nine o'clock, and marched over Putney Bridge by
the straight road to Barnes Conunon to endeavour to check
the advance of the invader, about 800 strong, under Lord
Truro. So secret ire the arrangements that even the
police had no knowledge of them. The enemy was met on
the edge of the Common, and were at once attacked and
driven back towards Roehampton and Wimbledon. Prince
Edward of Saxe-Weimar and Colonel Clive watched the pro.
ceedings.
The French Aerial Navigation Society have re-
solved to organize a series of night ascents for the purpose of
spectroscopic and electrical observations, and a balloon
called the Zenith, containing five 'passengers, accordingly
started from Paris about six o'clock on Tuesday evening in
last week (says the Paris • Corresponeent of The Times).
Wednesday passed without any tidings of them, and some
uneasiness began to be entertained ; but on Thursday morn-
lug a telegram arrived from liordeaux announcing that,
after a 23 hours' journey, the balloon alighted on the desert „
tracts near Arcachon. The minimum temperature they en- „mg
countered was four degrees centigrade below zero. A
splendid lunar halo was seen in the form of a cross, the pos-
sibility of which has been questioned by some physicists, and
there was a splendid daybreak with the sea on the horizon.
The balloon skirted the coast for 11 hours and passed along
the Gironde. There was afterwards a calm and a brilliant •
sun, two cross currents, one above the other, driving the
balloon by turns over land and sea. Between 9 and 11 ~-41
some interesting sketches were taken. Four pigeons were
sent off, but do not appear to have found theie ,way to Paris • *lli
This trip is said to he the longest over made by a balloon. _it