The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-23 00:00:00

MUNIFICENT BEQUESTS BY A
SOLICITOR.

Recently there died at Preston, Mr. E. H. Harris,
one of the Prothonotaries of Lancashire. He left a
sum of over £200,000 to be applied to charitable
purposes. He left his trustees to use their discretion
as to the institutions to which they granted money,
but he generally named certain objects as having his
special regard and favour. The trustees have had
many applications for grants to various Lancashire
institutions. Certain points in the will had to be
settled by Chancery proceedings, and it was only
within the past few weeks that the trustees were able
to do anything definite.
It has been resolved to build and endow an orphan
home, and this will take a large sum. A site is being
selected by the joint committees of the orphan orga-
nizations of Preston, one condition of the will being
that in cases where it is resolved to make grants
the site shall be found. Last week the trustees
received a deputation, which solicited an endow-
ment of the Harris Wards in connexion with the
Preston and County of Lancaster Royal Infirmary.
It was set forth that the Harris Infectious
Hospital was built by the munificence of Mr.
Harris, but that he did not endow the institution,
which had been a drain upon the general income of
the infirmary, which had recently diminished. Inas-
much as the infirmary was the institution which most
evidently attracted his interest and sympathy in his
lifetime, and having regard to its great value as a
public institution, it was urged that at least a part
of the unappropriated residue should be devoted to
the infirmary. The trustees promised to consider and
reply.
The Preston Town Council next submitted the
draft scheme for a free public library. It was ap-
proved and ordered to be at once presented to the
Master of the Rolls for confirmation. It grants
£60,000 for the purposes of the building; £7,500 for
the reference library; £7,500 for works of art ; £15,000
for endowment, or a total of £90,000. In acquiring
the site for this building, the Preston Corporation
have purchased large blocks of the most valuable pro-
perty in the town—that in the Market-place. The
total cost cannot be less than £150,000.
In addition to this, it is an "open secret " that the
trustees intend endowing a technologic,l school in con-
nexion with the Institution for the Diffusion of Use-
ful Knowledge, and this will absorb not less than
£25,000 or £30,000.

The Earl of Cork met his tenants at Charleville on
Tuesday, and allowed them permanent reductions varying
from 25 to 35 per cent., which will bring their rents down to
Griffith's valuation.

Herr Max. Maria von Weber, eldest surviving son
of the author of "Der Freischiltz," and one of the first rail-
way authorities of Germany, perhaps of, Eur.ope, died on
Tuesday in Berlin. Born in 1822, at Dresden, he successively
served the Governments of Saxony and Austria—tile latter
under Count Beust—as scientific telegraphist and railway
expert, and in 1878 accepted a high post in the Prussian
Ministry of Commerce. He created for Germany an entirely
new species of novel, dealing exclusively with life on the
railroad, beside writing poems and a life of his father.

THE NEW ACT TO ABOLISH FLOGGING
IN THE ARMY.

By the new Army Discipline and Regulation Act,
which has just been printed, flogging is abolished for
a year. The new law will take effect from the 30th
inst. in the United Kingdom, in the Channel Islands
and Isle of Man, elsewhere in Europe, inclusive of
Malta, also in the West Indies and America on
the 31st July next, and elsewhere, whether
within or without her Majesty's dominions, on
December 31. It is declared by the 6th section that
"on and after the commencement of this Act there
shall be repealed so much of the Army Discipline and
Regulation Act, 1879, as prescribes corporal punish-
ment for offences committed by persons subject to
military law and convicted of such offences by court-
martial; also, so much of Section 72 as relates to
field general court•martial, without prejudice to any-
thing done or suffered in pursuance of the said sectisn
and the finding and sentence of any such court held
before the commencement of this Act may be con-
firmed and carried into effect after such commence-
ment."