The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-22 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

There are now sixty.three bills before the House of
Commons, of which eleven are Government measures.

Another terrible calamity i reported from America.
The steamer Henry Junes has peen harried. Twenty lives
wore lost and 442 bales of cotton destroyed.

A Zanzihar letter mays the hod report concerning
Livhotteue in to the effect that he left Ujiil hi good health
for the fountains of the Nile in August last.

Her Majesty the Qneen, accompanied by Princess
Beatrice, al.' attended by the ladies awl gentlemen of the
Royal butte, felt Osborne on ruesday for Windsor Castle.
The Belfast Chamber of Commerce has expressed sts
regret that there was no allusion in her blAjesty's Speech to
• matter I such nations' interest Is Ireland as the purchase
of the railways by the State.

In the obituary of It Monday's' 7'in/cif were re-
corded the deaths of 17 perwols whose united ages amounted
to 1,451, making an average of morn than 85 years:

a
Between April Ist and the 15th inst. the Exchequer
receipts amounted to £54,523 235, as compared with
£5344 368 in the correspondimt parted of hot Yuan 'lnc
erpre.lituro boa been £6l 435 243 On Saturday last the
balance in the Beek of England was £8,711 005.
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The city of olf. rano uot only celebrated a funeral
commemoration of Napoleon 111., but as a tuark of gratitude
to the joint liberators of Italy have commissioned the
Venetian artist, Carlini, to paint life size .y 1.5111811 portrait
of Victor Emmanuel and Napoleon ill, for the grand salon
of the mu,eum of that city.
" •

An fhcial return oriered in June stetee the number
of or lour pauper children in the metropolis between Or.
and 13 years of age. and the number of such children attend-
ing day *rho An The return shows the boys to he 9,260 In
number 7,200 of them attondlng day azhools ; the 6irls 9,915,
2,286 of them attending day thonls
• •

Among the specimens of examination papers min
-
bailed In the appendix to the Export of the • Iva Service
C.mmisdon lint primed Is a schedule of questiona put to
cancidatea for the oflLe of assistant in Kew Herbarium.
One of the Wks set the candidate was to define the terms
lanceolate, ovato-lanceolate, ovate, obovate, cordate,
arnpl,xicaul, lyrate, ruminate, aa applied to leaves. The
candidate was farther reduired ta say what in his own
opinion were the essential qualificatiofli for the office he
desired. .

An attempt at murder was committed on Friday
eeentog in the Rue du Faubourg du Temple, Faris. A man
named li,.ch, who was jealous of his wit, after a violent
quarrel, pulled out a revolver and declared that he would
UR her. She instinctively raised her hands to defend her.
self, and he fired three shots. The milse of the reports
alarmed the neighhonrs, who ruslmd in and dfsarmed him
The wife was taken to the hospital in a dangerous condition,
her hisnd and wrist being frigntfully injured. The husband
IS in custody

A lamentable ambient is reported from the vicinity of
Dumfries it appearsthat nine boys and girls left their homes
on Sdnday afternoon and as they did not return at the tune
eXpe,tefi. their parents INNAIIIC alarmed, and sent a lad
named fanld to the loch to bripg them home. Before he
got to the loch, James Campbell • boy, one of the Mrs, rent
the lou to. sllde. Osing to the thaw It o
.wete,.

11 was rotten. and 1
s 'dater lurd Ware*

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°tam. ran to Ida rea..tio, and alio fell In Fauld, oonong imp
at the moment, tried to save theta. but Katt a abrular tate.
All ill were drowned.

An order staying the proceedingi against Stokes
who lies under sentence of death for the murder of Air
Fisk st New York, has been granted.

By War Office returns 270 men deserted from the
Britlark army, including marine, at home during the mouth
ot January last
_

A telegram from Brel Bays that lonoector
General Bronne. of the P.,st 01110,4, has cited suddenly in his
caniage after having reoeived an audience of the King. lie
was a great promoter of our penny postage.
'

- - -
Two diverg have taken advantage of the calm
weather to go aown to the Northfleet. After cutting away
the rtmaii Aer of the rigging, aud some of the shrouds. they
reached the main deck. It Is expcted soon to unship the
ru.iurnast and get at the cargo.
• •

_
It is reported that the Queen has ordered from a
granite works at Aberdeen a sarcophagus snd pedestal of
Peterhead granite, in which the remains of the late Emperor
Napo:eon may be placed until their ultimate destination b
determined. •
It is announced in the Paris papers that M. Henri
Rochefort has written • novel ee titled Lea Depraves during
hie imprisonment. The Midis or of the Interior has, how-
ever, forbidden the publication of the work in France.
•

.. _
On Saturday afternoon a sbockion accident happened
to a woman, who was employed as cook at an hot,l to
Charles street, London. She was attending to the cooking( n
the kitchen, and suddenly fell down in a fit—to which She Is
subject—on to the floor, and burnt herself in such a frightful
manner that her life is despaired of.
- "

The Education Department has approved the abro-
gation of a rule of the Liverpool School Board, in virtue of
which the hoard hal hitherto given fourteen days' notice
be. TO taking proceedings against parents for not sending
their children to school.

A Parisian gnnmaker has the following notice out-
side his window :—To Those Disappointed in Love. A
Great Clods° of Patent Revolvers. N IS.—in the case is all
the apparatus necessary for extracting the ball and dressing
the wound.

General Changaruier narrowly escaped death the
other evening In returning from Versailles to Paris. Oa tits
arrival the aeneral stepped out f Ms carriage while the
train was still in motion. He fell ou the rails, and was only
saved by the promptitude of a railway servant. The General
woe unhurt.

They triell tl kill a hook-agent in Omaha (Nebraa.)
last week. He was robbed, thrown into the river, knocked
off the cars, tossed from a high brulge 1t the liver again,
and in two hours he was round with the Illustrated Bible,
trying to get a subscription from the head of the attacking
party.
• - •

The Cobden Club purpose to entertain at their
dinner this year Mr 1). A. Wells and other eminent Ameri-
can Freetraders, who are expected to visit Europe on the
occasion of the Vienna Extiibitiou, and some nb-mbers of the
club have been deputed to attend the annual meeting of
German economists which Is to be held in Vienna.

Toe Hon. R. B. Cranston. of Newport, Rhode
Inland, formerly member of the House of ltepreasntutives,
Washington, and postmaster of New York. who dled on the
27th ult., age Si, has ml i by will 75,G00 doll, to those poor
persons of the city of Newport "who are too honest to steal,
and too proud to beg." Ws executors will doubtless have
some difliculty in distributmg this singular bequest.

An inventory has been male of the losses sustained
by the manufactory of the Gohrtins during the Commune. It
comprises seventy-three pieces of tapestry, amongst which
were reproductions of the works of to Bruo, Coypel, Boucher,
ilignard, dm. None of these, report says, can
possibly be replaced The parts of the building which were
burnt down have been reconstructed.
"A young curate, lately arrived in a very long cas
sock and a very short surplice, as he went up the steps to
that which he would have called the altar, prostrated
himself flat upon the monastic tile. in the chmoel. An old
woman—a workmau's wife—taking it for granted that he
had been suddenly seised with faintness, rushed up to the
rescue, and in the kindness of her heart lilted him up,
much to her own satisfaction, though equally to his dia.
comflture."—Courf Journal.

Five soldiers of the 72nd liighlanders have (says an
Indian paper) been sentenced by a general court-martial, of
which Colonel Brown, it.A Ii . was president, to punishments
varying from 565 days hard labour to penal servitude for six
years. Three of them were charged with insubordination ac-
companied by personal violence, and the other two with
assisting them in effecting their escape from the guard-room.
The five of them, after escaping from the guard, we have
heard, departed from llugshal, where the occurrence took
place, and after a wrles of romantic adventures among the
hills, arrived in Umbella, where they were again placed in
confinement, and ultimately brought to trial.

_
On Tuesday morning a shocking accident occurred
on the keel crossb.g at the Leyland Railway Station, near
Preston. A factory operative named Malin, was on his way
to work, In company with his son, at 530, but on crossing
the line an engine, which they did not see until it was close
upon them, owing to the darkness, c .me up from the loco-
motive shed. The father tried to clear the line, but was too
late. He was knocked down uuderthe fire-box, and instantly
killed in the presence of his son, who was a yard or two
behind. . . . . . . .

A coufereuce on the Endowed Schools Act has been
held at Willts's Rooms, London, under Mr. J it talownray,
M. P. It was originally designed for a puhlic protest against
the administration ~f the set but Sir. k'orster's application
for a select committee haviog removed all occasion for a
hostile action, the meeting resolved itself ii to a private de-
Ilberatiun on the best means of maintaining the rights of the
Church before the committee. 14 was resolved that the En-
dowed Schools Act as now administered attack, the moat
sacred interests of the Church of ktigland communion ; that
the treatment by to Commissioners of school endowments
vested in the Church as if they were secular endowments
calls for daermined opposition ; and that the safeguards
provided for denominational schools are not only illusory,
but convertible into instruments of direct oppression to such
schools. A committee sea, appointed to take necessary
action on the resolutions.

. _ .
On Saturday night an accident of a shocking nature
occurred at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. lmm«,tiately
an, the Haug of the curtain in the melodrama The Old Toil
Bonne, a lad was clambering down the gallery in order Co
obtain a front seat, when he lost his balance and fell forward.
The gallery is a very high one, and is ale., very steep, and the
unfortunate boy rolled right over into the pit, falling a she.
tance of forty or fifty feet. He partly alighted on a young
woolen whi was seated hi the pit, but not sufficiently to
break his fall to any remediable extent. He wee frightfully
injured, and had to be taken to the Queen's Hospital, where
he expired at twelve o'clock the same night. The woman on
whom he fell was only slightly bruised. The affair created
great excitement in the theatre, the audience being a very
large one.
A new dock, 33 acres in extent, was opened at Bar-
row-ln-Yorness on Friday by the Duke of Devonshire, Sir
James Ramsden, and other gentlemen. The dock, which
takes its name from the Duke of Buccleuch, a nobleman,
very greatly interested in the prosperity of the town atm
pert, has been constructed to meet the requirements of •
fast Increasing timber trade, and there is sufficient wharage
senimodation to allow upwards of 100 vessels to discharge
at one time. There are also spacious qua) s and yards abut-
ting on the dock Another d. cit. 200 acres in extent, to be
named the Ramsdell Dock." and to accomodate o.:ean-
going steamers, is being constructed When completed the
sick will lie the largest ou the west coast, awl will be of
sufficient depth to admit vessels at all times, irrespective of
tides.
' '

A curious discovery has just been made by a savant
In Paris, though there is some doubt as to the benefit which
either humanity or the crustaceous fish operated upon will
derive from it. M. Chentrau has long been engaged In study.
big the natural history and physiology of the crawfish, and
from a paper just read out before the Academy of Sciences
it seems that this careful observer has found out that when
younz crawfish are deprived of their eyes new ones will
grew In the Interval between the shedding of two shells,
and this twa peifectly normal fashion But when adults are
operated upon the regeneration of the eye Is slower aud more
irregular, and not only la the organ generally deformed but
two eyes often take the place 0( 000.
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- -
Victor Emmanuel keeps up the old family traditiora
and frugal habits of the house of Savo)—getting up, eating
and drinking, and going to bed, as his ancestors did. Every
Sunday morning his Majesty attends an early mass at the
Villa Ludovici Chapel. At four o'clock in summer and eve
o'clock in winter the king rises. A visit to the Royal
stables Is one of his earliest and favourite occupations, if
disposed for a day's shooting he is out by daybreak ; hut if
business requires his presence at home he breakfasts at seen,
and is ready for his Ministers by eight, so as to finish
councils and audiences by noon, when his Majesty din s,
allowing himself an hoes repose after the mid-day meal.
A drive in the afternoon and an occasional Malt to the opera
Sr Chaisella's Circus conclude the day. The king usually
sups at ten, and retires for the night at eleven.
. . . _

During the week ending Saturday last, 5,618 births
and 4,007 deaths were re.lstered in London sod twenty other
large cities and towns of the U Red Kingtinn6 The mortality
from all causes In these towns was at the rate of 28 deaths
annually to every I,eoo persons estimated to be living. In
the metropolis 2 481 births and 1,620 deaths were registered,
both nearly correspen with the average numbers. 1 hue
persons died from small-pox, 12 from measles, 8 front scarlet
fever, 7 from diphtheria, 01 fn. whooping-cough. 27 from
different forms of fever, and 12 from dlarrlice 4. The deaths
referred to eiseases of the respiratory organs and phthisis,
which in the ten weeks ending 2ith January averaged 411,
have in the three past weeks increased to 46d, 615, and 6ff
respectively. The fatal cases of bronchitis, which in the
week ending 25th January were but 132, rose to 307, the In-
crease being equal to 133 per cent. ; among children under
five yeas of age the increase in the fatality Irons this diiease
was 00 per cent., between 20 and 40 years 75 per c, Cr., be-
tween 40 and 60y ears 176 per cent., turd at 60 years of go and
upwards 153 per seat.
The iollo.viog may not be uninteresting :--'' Nit a
month before his death the Emperor Napoleon, whilst In
the chu•chyard at St. Story's, Critselhur4, smoking his
cigarette and waiting for the Empress to finish her devotion
after the nest, which they had, as usual. a!tended, was ob-
Served to be looking attentively at four or five graves by the
Bide of the narrow pathway, lie seemed lost in th.ught.
sire, what are you looking at I' asked his A.D.C., the Count
ivillbrs. With a tad smile the Emperor replied. 'My dear
Writhe.. fans only looking for the spot where you will
soon place me.' lie had a great presentiment of his death.
A few days after the first operation he insisted upoit driving
to Woolwich to see his son. On his return, the Empress,
being much struck by the alteration in his looks, asked if he
were worse. replied, 'I do suffer a little,' which was al-
ready much for Min to admit as, from first to ISA, believer
uttered a single complaint, awl his thought for others and
gentleness were even more displayed in exile thin whilst at
the 'Tuileries."
"A gentleman (he has much leisure) has been
making calculations as to the period when the three ' ex-
pan diug Empires '— Bri tarn, Russia, and America—will at
their present rate .1 progress, absorb the whole world The
estinm e must hove Oren difficult, for the voracity of these
three ter, itory.eaters varies very trawl,. S mirettines only a
few thousand square nines arc taken within a year; in other
"-are of appetite whole emntrus are disp •lied of at a bolt
owvter, the gentit man thinks that everything will he
settled by about the year 1931. This caleulation is based
upon the average of the last ten years, during width time
it appears that Rivera has annexed sows 700,000 square
adios? A doubt. however, is expressed. and very prudently,
as to whether Germ.) can he comfortably got down by
1930. Likewise there is another point that seems to have
been left out of the calcalati•m. To all appearance sane
of the three Empire. will, at no distant date, be at work
upon thtmasessious of each ether."—Court /Owen&
An inquest has been bald at Duvet respecting the
death of ilenry Ray, a private to the Ist Bei Wien Rifle
Brigade. The deceased did n I bear a very good character,
having been frequently fined for getting drunk. Oir Sundt!,
afternoon he had a quarrel with a comrade. The result was
a fight iti the barrack field. After fighting for three quarters
of an hour the deceased gave in, saying that his opponent
was the best nu.. He became very iii. and died early next
morning.—an inquest has been held, when the Jury returned
a verdict of manslaughter, adding to their verdLt the fol.
lowing remark; "We desire to append an expression of
regret that fighting should he allowed to last a full half-
hour on a Sunday afternoon, in the presencesof about 150
soldiers stud military pollee, without any attempt on their
part to put a stop to it Evidence having been given that
such scenes are not at all infrequent, we feel ourselves e.,11:0-
palled to ask that stringent regulations may be made to pro-
sent a recurrence of such scenes."
The dispute relative to the religious training of a
little girl, named Mary Ellen Andrews, which was lately
before the Collet of Queen's Bench, has since occupied the
attention of Vice-Chancellor Melina, the child having been
made a ward in chancery. She was born in May, 1862, and
was the daughter of Thomas Andrews, formerly of Liver-
pool, and of Ellen, his wife. Andrews was a Roman
Crithell.% and his wife was a Protestant; and they entered
into a cunpact that the issue of the union shots d he brought
up in the religion of the parents according to see. An
drewis bro'her, however, claimed the custody of the child
onthe strength of a document executed by the father two days
befere his death, in which he directed that his children
should be brought up as Roman Cathohes, and appointed
that brother their guardian. 1 his, it was considered, nulli-
fied the agreement entered Into by the husband and wife,
that the daughter should be trained as a Protestant. The
Vuse-CnaLcebor, however, said he was satisfied that his duty,
both upon principle and suthority, was to take such course
as he considered most Loleineive to the iuterest and welfare
of the infant, and he thought that to take her away from the
care of those with whom she nad and I.y whom she had
men educated, woukl be so harsh and unjust that he Moretti
reffiee .to allow her WKS ee early out els ini4l/iLI44D, lie
suonid grant WO intrunetbin to restrarn the defendant from
interfering with the education of the infant without leave
of the Court.

In high life in Madrid this 'lemon the fashion haa
been " carriages drawn by tone and .in white asses "

A reporter describing the dresees at a fashionable aso
aembly tu Boston, remarks : " the largest part ot the dreams
were literally on the floor."

The death is announced of Sir R. Henegan, K IC.,
at the advanced age ef en years. A. Chief COMIIIIiIMI,7 of the
gield Train of Horse Artillery he served with distinction
during the Peninadiar war and at Waterloo.
The creditors of Vi count Parker, eldest son of the
E.ri of Macclesfield, having parted a resolution to accept
£l3 000 in pa)ment of his debts, the decision has been con-
-- .
finned by the Court of Baulituptty.

The other day a gentleman called at St. Peter's
Hospital for Stone, Berner's street, London, and left with the
secretary an anonymeus donation of the sum of ten thouaand
puahas ia ten notes of one thousand pounds each.

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" Mr. Lowe ha, left the country with nothing but
florins Change is always given in two-shilling pieces as
far as posainl& shillings. sixpences, and half-crowns are
curimilti.."—Court Jou; ,al.
h ii, tail that. owing to the high price of fuel, the
Great Northern Medway Company haa resolved to supply all
their married servants with coal at pit prices. It is also
stated that the Midland Company will shortly follow the
example.

A bottle has been picked up off Jersey harbour eon.
lathing a slip of paper with the following words—" De-
cember 29. 1872. Just foundering. Brig Sandhurst, of
London. &nod to owner."

- .
The Rey. William Yate, secretary of the Dover
National Sailors' Home, has received from the owners of the
Northrtset a piece of plate, as a mask of respect and grati-
tude for his benevolent care of Mrs Knowles and the other
survivors."

The Paris papers announce that General Ulrich,
who commanded at Strasburg during the late war, has
asked permission to retire from the service, and Ma pension
has been fixed at 9,000 franca per auburn. The gallant
general is 71 bears of age, has been 63 years in the service,
and taken part in 16 campaigns.

King Atussieus has received from the Romans an
ovation by proxy—the proxy being no less than his father,
Victor Emmanuel, who, on Sunday evening, was received in
the theatre in the most cordial manner, with shouts for
kimtelf, fur Italy, and for" Amadeus." It would seem that
all misapprehension or difference of opinion between father
nod sou as to the abdication has completely passed away.

. .
The German Emperor reviewed on the 7th inst. the
cadets who are to join the army as officers on next Easter
Day. Delivering to them a speech on their vocation, the
Emperor pointed out that In the present time, with Its chase
after merely external goods and riches, the officer must
cons' lee honour as his highest good. Ile recommended to
them for imitation the example of their comrades who fell in
the late war.

The Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce has me-
merialised the Postmaster-General in favour of a reduction
of tweuty-word telegrams to eel., and, with a view to the re-
duction t.,lpng place as early as ponaible, they suggest that
additional means of trananilulon 'could be got ready with-
out delay. They nif ntion April Ist, 1874, as the time at which
the change might be made.
• - --•- - - • • •

At an-Elgin meeting of bakers an enthusiast for
good remuneration of that hard worked clam of individuals
themselves, wooed up with the following:—