The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-16 00:00:00

Nistetiantous !nttiligente,
ROME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

POST OFFICE TELEORAPHS.—TIIO accounts for
the year 1870 show that the receipts from the 29th of
January to the 31st of December, after deducting MIMS ,
collected for and paid to submarine telegraph companies,
and also post-masters' allowances for special delivery of
messages, amounted to £609,734. The expenditure for
salaries, rent, maintenance of telegraphs, dm., amounted
to £344,365 leaving a surplus of £265,369. F rom this
surplus was paid interest on Consols created in respect
of money raised for the purchase of the telegraphs—
viz., £210,000 on 1:7,000,000 for one year, and £3,500 on
£300,000 for half a year, leaving 1:50,869 to be applied
as a sinking fund in reduction of the debt thus created.
NEW LICENCES.—The Act of last Session,
suspending for one year the grant of new licences for
the sale of intoxicating liquors by retail, provided that
if it should appear to the justices that the refusal
to grant a new licence would cause inconvenience to
the locality or to the public, or injury to any person,
a licence might be granted provisionally by the jus-
tices, to be valid if confirmed by the Secretary of State.
It has been found expedient to grant such new licences.
A return shows that 195 have been provisionally
granted, and the order was confirmed si 141 cases.
. Two of these licences were granted to brewers, 70 ta
1 innkeepers, 11 to beershop keepers, 20 to keepers of
refreshment houses, 38 to shopkeepers, &c. Of the 141 ,
icences granted, 90 were for excinable liquors and 51
lor the sale of wine, beer, or cider, 29 of these being
for consumption off the premises.
FORTY YEARS OF PLOTTING !—ln a leader
noticing the career of Mazzini, the Daily Telegraph
remarks
"At rest at last ! Some such thought as this most surely
come unl,Adeu to the minds of all to whom Mar.ffini was
known otherwise than by name, when they read the news
that the gnat agitator's life is ended. For many a year past
It has been a source of wonder to every one who saw the
world-famed conspirator for the first time how he contrived
to hold fast to life so grimly. The keen restless mind had
long ago exhausted the frail puny frame, the sword hart
worn out the scabbard ; and the vital forces seemed to be
only kept together by the mastery of a dauntless will. Three-
smire jeers have not long gone by since Mourn( was born,
and yet years ago he bore the aspect of advanced old age.
So far as the number of his days went, he had little more
than passed the full prime and vigour of existence, and even
' to the last his intellect was as active, if not as pcwerful min
his early manhood. It was the body only which was old
before its time. Still, if life is to be counted not by the tffie
of years, but by the events with which it has been filled,
klazzini had mtlived the span of common men. Forty years
of ol.Ating would be no unfit title for a record of the career
i which has just been ended."
CRICKETING NEWS. —The Tick borne Eleven
against the Australian Squad. —This long protracted
match has been decided, all the Squad being bowled
out. Curiously, their champion player has been trying
(vainly) to find his bail—Foods.
A FF.W EXTRA I FENS !---A supplementary
estimate for civil services to the amount of £180,624
has just been issued. Among the items are—National
Gallery enlargement, £B,OOO ; St. Paul's Cathe-
dral, National I hanksgiving, £10,000; the pur-
chase of the C'astellaai Collection of Ancient Gems
for the British Museum, £20,000; expenses con
nected with the negotiation of the Treaty of
Washington, 138.000 ; the purchase of the crown
and chalice of the Abuna of Abyssinia, £9,100; and pre-
[ nuts to Prince Kassai of Tigre, £l,OOO. Another sup-
-1 plementary estimate of £20,000 is to defray salaries
I and expenses in the Customs departments. Sums are
I also asked for to make good excesses to the amount
1 of Y.:64,047 15e. 114. on certain grants for civil services,
, and £44,427 7s. 4d. to make good excesses on ceitain
grants for revenue departments for the year ended
March 31, 1871. The items of which this latter snm
is made up are £9,550 Is. Id. for the Post Office service,
to meet expenditure rendered necessary by the intro-
duction of post-cards and the reduced rates of postage
on newspapers, and 1;34,477 38. 3,1. for the telegraph
service, owing to the amount of working expenses
having been under-estimated.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS IN FEBRUARY.—It
appears from the Board of Trade returns recently
inued, that the declared value of our exportations
during February was £18.329,816, showing an increase
of £3.431,040, or about 23 per cent. over the corre-
sponding month of last year, and of 25 per cent. over
1 ebruary, 1870. In the shipments of cotton yarn
there has been an increase of 44 per cent. in value and
35 per cent, in quantity, and in those of cotton menu-
factures 22 per cent, in value and 11 per cent. in
quantity. In the shipments of other articles the in-
crease in value has been :—Beer, 16 per cent. ; coals.
43 per cent.; earthenware, 43 per cent. ; haberdashery,
13 per cent. ; hardware, 46 per cent. ; iron and steel,
63 per cent.; linen manufactures, 32 per cent. ; ma-
chinery, 115 per cent. ; silk manufactures, 43 per
per cent. ; woollen yarn, 87 per cent.; and woollen
cwt. o,f,a,c.,uheedat,at N•allujed6B,a6tl7l:li,.lBBo
manufactures, 55 per cent. On the other hand. the
importations of the month have comprised 2,034,903
£1,158,380, against
letTiaroimndtinig,9m:.'so,n9tt6h
of la 4 year; while of other grain the total value taken
has been £1,322,422, against £492,738. Of cotton the
arrivals have been 1,642,484 cwt., valued at L 7,216,475,
against 1,733,156 cwt., valued at £6,327,727.
MADE AN EXAMPLE OF.—At the Lincoln
Assizes, Edward Watson has been indicted with
having threatened to accuse William Martin of having
committed an infamous crime with intent to extort
V. 50. The prosecutor stated that there was no truth
in the charge, and the facts of the threatening
having been proved, the jury found the prisoner
Guilty. His lordship, in passing sentence, said
The jury have convicted you of a crime than which very
few worse ever come before a court of justice. There can be
nothing more abominable than for a man to accuse another
of an ,infamons crime in the hope that, sooner than be
charged with such an offence, his victim will yield. It is
very sad to see a person in your position, a tenant-fanner
farming 40 acres, found guilty of so horrible an offence. This
man offence as to which the Judges always make an example
of the offender. The accusation is so easily made and so
difficult to refute, and there are so many weak-minded
persons who may be induced to pay money to get rid of such
• charge, however false it may se, that ills necessary to treat
your offence with great severity. His lordship then sen-
tenced him to five years' penal servitude.
MONEY GIVEN TO FoREIGN MISSIONS.—Inie
Rev. W. A. Scott Robertson, MA., rector of Elmley,
Sittingbourne, has compiled an analysis and summary
of the money subscribed in Great Britain for foreign
minions in 1870. The Church of England has twenty'
one such missions, and the amount subscribed for their
maintenance in Is7o WM £327,695. The Noncon-
formists had seventeen, and realized £259,951; the
I joint societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists were
1 seven, with an income of £100,654; the Scottish
I societies numbered thil teen, and received £96,034; and
the three Irish Presbyterian, £12,502; making a
grand total of £797,256 obtained during the year for
the support of foreign missions. This amount consistsentirely of subscriptions, donations, and legacies re-
ceived in 1870, and does not include balances in hand
at the end of 1869, nor income derived from invested
, capital. Mr. Robertson estimates the amount oh-
tamed from additional sources at rather more than
l£B,ooo, which would raise the total contributions from
, the United Kingdom to £806,000. "This sum of
British money," says Mr. Robertson, "is not nearly
so much on the cost of two ironclad ships, and it is not
very much more than went to the bottom of the sea
when the ship Captain foundered."
THE WORKING OF THZ IRISH LAND ACT.--
A Belfast correspondent says:—
A very satisfactory exemplification of the working of the
Land Act has just taken place near the village of Ross-
trevor, county Doren, on the estate of Mr. Thomas SlcCartan.
A widow named NlcGivcran was tenant of a small farm of
eight acres, held at will at 275. Bd. per acre, under Mr.
McCartan. She was in a declining state of health, said made
a will directing her executors to sell her interest in her hold-
ing by auction or otherwise for the benefit of her children.
After her interment the landlord intimated his wish to take
the land into Isis own hands, and offered to leave the value
lof the tenant-right to abitration. This the executors at once
' agreed to, and two farmers, one chosen fly the landlord and
one by the executors, with the assistance of an umpire,
awarded on Saturday week last the sum of £2l per acre. I
may add that the whole affair was concluded to the entire
satisfaction of all parties concerned without the expendittuo
of ene shilling in law expenses.
TAXATION OF ToBACCO IN FRANCE.—OH the
29th ult. the National Assembly at Versailles passed,
by an overwhelming majority of 561 to 54 votes, a new
law for again raising the price of their monopoly,
tobacco, 25 per cent., smokers and snufftakers being
treated on the same footing (says the Tolacca Trade
Review). A pound of so-called " Caporal" smoking
tobacco which was hitherto sold at 5f., is in future to
cost 6i i. and it is only that nauseous amalgamation of
leaves, straw, and other vegetable matter, made ex-
pressly for the consumption and use of the army and
navy, and sold exclusively to members of those two
professions, the price of which remains unchanged.
`eVhen the Bill was introduced, very few remarks were
made, and it only elicited • mild criticism on the part
of M. Haentjens and M. Bocher. The Minieter of
Finance, M. PouyecQuertier, said be asked nothin4
more than was right and just, as everybody should
contribute his quota towards liberating the soil of
France from the oppression of the foreign array of
occupation, and this new tax was estimated to produce
30,000,000 f. It was only when the supplies were voted
that negotiations for the above purposecould be entered
into with Germany. He very unwillingly had recouree
to this tax, but the National Assembly had thought
proper to reject his original proposals. He promised,
however, that the tax should be remitted Mown as ch,
oumstauces would allow him to do eo.