The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-04-04 00:00:00

EPITAPH ON A BARRACK CAT.
(By COLONgt, NnATIT, MY.)
This Cat of nine tails,
That net up nine wales,
Though a cat f nine llves
,No longer survives.
But Iles here with North's wail
For each separate tail (—Punch.

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.
During the past week SS wreelta have been reported,
making for tho present year 5'30.
The "Znlla and North-Western Railway" is the
name of the line constructed by our troops in Abyssinia.
Jibe Dristo/ trinei report that ths cuckoo was heard
on Sunday in the neighbourhood of that city.

hie stated that Prince Napoleon on the morning after
his return from Berlin went to the Tuileries w nine o'clock,
and remained in conference with the Emperor for not less
than three hours.

The Pope Is maid *0 have need the following ex-
prewion :—'There are at this moment ttio men who fill my
heart with bitterness—one is a cardinal, the other wishes to
become one" It is thought the Holy Father alludes to
Cardinal d Andrea and the Archhieh la of Faris.

It has been arranged that hie -Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales shall proceed to Ireland in her Majesty's
yacht Enchantem Commander Pettey, which has been
taken into basin at Woolwich Dockyard, where she Is under-
going repair and embellishment for the purpose.

- - -
"Forney likens President Johnson to a triqonooe-
pluolao in a glass of alcohol. At first we thought
that Forney was pursuing his usual practice of using words
of the meaning cf which he knew nothing ; hut learning from
the context that he means a snake, we defer to his exhans,
tine knowledge of glasses of alcohol, and the snakes which
may lurk therein'--.Veto York Paper.

A petition in favour of female suffrage has just
been in circulation in Aberdeen, and was numerously
and influentially signed. The petition sets forth, " That
women are competent, by law and in fact, to carry on a
hilliness, to administer an estate," ?sc., and "that the
admission of inch persons to the privilege of the franchise
would ne a measure in harmony with the principles of our
representative system, while its beneficial effects would not
be attended by any possibility of dangerous political con-
sequences."

i'be trial of the four poachers concerned in the
murder of Lord Wharnclitte's gamekeper was commenced on
Friday, and ternunated on Saturday. The prisoners English
and Cut's were found guilty of manslaughter, and were Eel).
teneen, Engli.ll to ten years', and Cutts to five years' penal
servitude. Beard:haw and Gregory were found guilty of
poaching. Reardshaw was sentenced to eighteen months'
and Gregory to lilteen months' imprisonment.
The French imilice have deprived the lovers of the
sensational of a rare treat. It had been advertised that a
funnily of wolves would be exhibited in the arena at the
Cirque, licking the hands of a child of three years old,
standing alone amidst the animals, and that subsequently
the father of the child would enter open the scene with
pieces of raw meat datQling from his neck, which the
wolves would tear away ravenously without injuring the
man. But the police minister hlii,torbidden the exhibition
and d isappointed the public.
-

v
Tu judge from the prices fetched by articles of luxe
and virtu at auctions, there never wan more money afloat
than at the present moment At Mr Hibbert's sale of china
on Friday last, in London, a very small collection of Fa?vres,
Dresden, and Chelsea fetched nom anis o,f £d,000; and viz
the following day Slesars. Christie, Manson, and Woods
disposed of Mr. John Leigh Clare's collection f water.
colour drawings for a;19,350 Mr. Addington, of St. Martin's-
lane, gave 955 guineas for a drawing of Nuremberg, by
SMllllesi !lout.

The Commission to inquire into our system of
courts-martial has not been appointed (alb( ur leo BOOt,. We
learn by the last mail from India that Captain Cunningham,
paymaster of the bstli, who was convicted of appropriating
public moneys to a large extent, has been released irom the
pent servitude to is hich he woe sentenced. Ile was'ap-
parently duly convicted, the proceedings were approved and
confirmed by Sir William Mansfield, and now the Judge Ad-
vocate prononwis the trial to have loon illegal, for the
simple reason that the prisoner was not allowed to cross.
examine the witnesses_