The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-11-06 00:00:00

The Swiss Federal Cou.ncll
,has de!9.ided_that twenty

franc pieces to the amount of five million francs shall be
struck by the Mint.
The agricultnral condition of Russia is becoming
very serious. Owing to a failure of the crops, she is obliged
this year to import corn from America to feed her people;
and now she is beginning to import wool from South Africa.
The cost of sending a bushel of wheat from Mil-

waukee to Liverpool, including freight, commission, and
storage, is about 7d.
The followii2g.. cable message was. received at the

London office of-the New York- Herald from the Herald
Weather Bureau, New York :—"A dangerous storm is cross-
ing, will arrive on the British and Norwegian, affecting the
French coasts, between the 4th and 6th, attended by east,
backing north-west gales, rain, possibly snow in the north."
Lord Braybrooke has presented to the Public Re-
cord Office his entire collection of American and East Indian
papers of Charles, first Marquis Cornwallis.
In consequence of the outbreak of hydrophobia
amongst cows in the district of Church Stretton, which is
attributed to a rabid dog having bitten a number of cattle,
the magistrates have ordered that all dogs should be under
proper control and securely muzzled up till Nov. 30.

Nothing had been received at the Russian Embassy
up to Sunday night respecting the health of the Czar, and it
is concluded that the rumours recently published are devoid
of foundation.
Germany has suffered severely from floods. Storms
occurred during last week all over the country, but
especially on the Baltic and Danish coasts. The South
German rivers have been greatly swollen, and there have
been serious floods in Wuramburg.
The Duke of St. Albans, in speaking at an agricul-
tural dinner at Bestwood, near Nottingham, expressed his
opinion that agriculturists should strive to assist each other
in the way suggested by the Farmers Alliance, endeavour-
ing to make the interests of landlord and tenant mutual.
A society has been established in Paris for the cre-
mation instead of the burial of the dead. The idea seems•
likely to find favour from the Parisians, and the Municipal
Council has. given its consent to the formation of the
society.
Dr. Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine, in Ox,
ford University, in addressing atmeeting of the supporters
of the Sarah Acland Home for Nurses, strongly advised cul-
tivated Englishwomen to take to the nursing rather than to
the medical profession. He had no objection whatever per-
sonally to their adopting medicine and surgery as a profes-
sion ; and he did not wish to deter them from It; but if they
asked his advice, Me would say they went into a department
where their presence was not necessary, and they left one
which no other persons could fill—they went into over-
crowded department, where there were already too many,
and they left one where thousands were wanting.
The North British Agriculturist says that potato
disease has not spread much since the inclement weather set
in. There is a probability that the full extent et the loss by
disease has already been ascertained. Considerable as the
amount of disease is, there is a likelihood of about a fair
'rep being after all marketable. The extra yield of this
season has been reduced by disease to rather under an
,average marketable crop.
At Cowes, Isle of Wight, an inquest has been held
on the body of a seaman, Charles_Bennest, who during the
recent rough weather accidently fell off the yardarm of the
Orange (km barque, and was killed. Another man, who
was thrown across the wheel, sustained the fracture of three
of his ribs.
On Monday, at Marlborough House, his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales presented to Lieutenant
Graham, R.N., of the Royal yacht Osborne, the medal of the
Royal Humane Society, for his reliant conduct in saving life
from drowning in Portsmouth Harbour on the night of Sep- „
tember 14 last.

Falconry is to be revived widely in France this
autumn, one ardent sportsman having taken over trout
Ireland a falconer and several well-trained birds, while Arabs
and hawks have also been imported from Algeria. fishing
with cormorants is already a favourite Gallic pastime.
A Renter's telegram from New York says that
General Garfield and Mr. Chester A. Arthur have been
elected President and Vice President of the United States
respectively.

The London Hospital Sunday Fund ibis 1880 exceeds
by £474 7s. 46. the largest previous collection in the metro-
polis, the total amount being £30,411 ss. 2d.
A protest against the armed coercion of Turkey has
been issued by the Patriotic Association, and has received
the signatures of the Duke of Beaufort, the Duke of Welling-
ton, and many other noblemen and gentlemen. Should the
British Cabinet undertake any measure of armed coercion
against Turkey, it is intended by the Association to hold a
great demonstration in London against such a policy.
The Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, the second
daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse, by his marriage with
the Princess Alice of Great pritain, attained her 16th year
on Monday, having been botn on November Ist, 1864.
The Paris Correspondent of The Times says :
"Another railway accident was on Saturday added to the
list of those that have occurred with rather startling fre-
quency of late in Germany. This time an extra train,
loaded with gunpowder, in travelling from Wittenberg to
Breslau, ran into a passenger train at Horka, smashing
several wagons and throwing the engine off the line. Ima-
gine the consequences had the powder ignited 1"
Perhaps one of the most encouraging features in the
trade of the country at present is the well-sustained
activity in the principal iron ship-building districts. The
returns of the amount of work done in the yards on the
Clyde during October compared with the figures relating to
the corresponding months of the last three years show very
favourable results.
During a Republican meeting at St. Louis on Satur-
day night, a brick was thrown into a crowd of negroes, who
immediately turned upon their assailanta. On the police
interfering shots were fired. One negro was killed, one
policeman badly wounded, and several others injured.;--
Great political excitement has prevailed !at Denver City,
Colorado. A mob attacked the Chinese quarter of the town,
destroyed several houses, and killed two Chiiamen, besides
Injuring several others. Many negroes were also assaulted.
Three hundred extra police were sworn in, and the mob dis-
persed at midnight.

An inquest has been held on the body of the Rev.
A. H. Carey, rector of Abington, Northamptonshire, who
was found dead at his residence. Medical evidence showed
that death had been caused by suffocation, a piece of meat
having lodged in the windpipe. A verdict to that effect was
returned. The deceased leaves a large family.
- -

Mr. Coxwell's balloon, that ascended from Ashford,
Kent At 12.90, a0a0..24.1 41...
; all well.
- -

The death is announced of Sir Thomas Bouch, the
engineer of the Tay Bridge. He was born near Carlisle in
1822, and had been in delicate health for the last three
years. It is said, however, that grief and anxiety in
connection with the Tay Bridge disaster had materially
hastened the end.

The Bishop of Manchester has written a letter to a
resident cf Oldham on the subject of funeral reform, saying
that a more irrational way of showing respect to the dead
than that of foolish and wasteful extravagance at their
burial could not be devised, and that he does not doubt that
an improvement in this matter will come as soon as people
bring their common sense to bear upon the consideration of

The arrivals at Liverpool last week of live stock and
fresh meat were greatly below those of the previous week,
and were the smallest recorded to have arrived this year.
This, however, is explained by the heavy gales which pre-
vailed with great severity in the Atlantic during last week,
the few vessels which arrived being delayed some few days.

The flood in the neighbourhood of Nottingham has
been attended with loss of life. A gamekeeper named
Stuart, while walking on a read which the water had
covered at Wilfrid, a village on the banks of the Trent, was
carried off his feet by the current and washed into a field
.on a lower level than the road, and where the water was
consequently much deeper, and was drowned. A man who
was with him escaped with difficulty.
The Mark Lane Expt ess of Monday night says the
heavy rains of the past week have once more hindered wheat
sowing on retentive clays, while floods in some districts have
done great mischief; but on well-drained soils good progress
has already been made. Thrashing operations for the past
fortnight have been on a much smaller sale than they would
have been had the weather been fine, and the percentage of
samples out of condition has been increased.

On Tuesday the hull of the fishing smack Foam,
belonging to Messrs. Brown, of Great Yarmouth, was brought
into that port, three of the crew-.-the master, Robert Green,
of Yarmouth; the mate, W. Diboll, of Winterton ; and a boy
having been washed overboard and drowned. The smack
encountered the gale on Friday morning in last week, and
almost the first heavy sea which passed over her washed
away the mast. In falling it severely injured several of the
crew, and another tremendous wave following it up three
of the hands were washed overboard. The remainder of the
crew were assisted by the smacks Lothair and Pioneer,
which succeeded in bringing what remained of the vessel
Into port on Tuesday. The disaster occurred
.about eighty
miles north-east of Yarmouth_