The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-24 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Damage to the amount of £6OO has been done at a
fire at Brayton-hill, the seat of Sir Wilfred Lawson, M.P.
On Monday the House of Commons' Select Com-
mittee appointed to inquire into the operation of the banks
of issue met for toe first time, and elected the Chancellor of
the Exchequer as their chairman.

During the first quarter of the present year the
imports into France amounted to 851,369,0001. against
925,129,000 f. in 1874, and the exports to 976,803,0001.,
against 856,000,0001. in 1874.
Ever since the funeral of Dr. Livingstone, some kind
hand has, once a week, placed a fresh wreath of beautiful
flowers upon his tomb In Westminster Abbey.
Mr. Robert Crawshay, of Cyfarthfa, in conjunction
with the Dowlais Iron Company, having been appealed to
to throw open their iron mines, have agreed to do so, the men
agreeing to accept the rates of 1870. Accordingly about
500 workmen went to work.

Princess Louise has laid the first stone of anew memo-
rial chapel which is about to be erected in the grounds of Ken-
sington Workhouse, London, for the use of the inmates, at
the expense of Mr. J. A. France. The proceedings were
private, but they were witnessed by a large number of personl.
A Berlin telegram states that the Government has
ordered a reduction in the wages paid to miners in all the
mines belonging to the Crown. The hours of labour are at
the same time to be prolonged.

The Hamburg and American steamer Westphalia,
which arrived at Plymouth on Tuesday, had on board thirty
young ladies, who form a class at a New York Academy,
who are on a European tour under the care of a learned pro-
fessor.

A newspaper correspondent at Rome reports that a
gang of robbers have been pursued in the Campagna, and
that one has been killed and another taken prisoner. They
are supposed to be the same gang that recently attacked four
English ladies in the Via Appia.

Apples are now grown in which two or more varieties
are blended into one—that is, apples having one section
sweet and the other sour. It is exceedingly interesting to
examine the crop, as one apple differs widely from another,
and there is difficulty in finding two precisely alike. The
line of demarcation on the skin is distinctly defined, the sour
portion having a reddish colour, while the sweet is of a pale
green.

In reply to the denial published at Brussels of a
report that Russia and Austria had endorsed the German
note to Belgium, the National Gazette now announces the
comilrniation of the report. On the part of Austria a distinct
declaration was, it is said, made by her envoy at Brussels
that the Austrian Government regarded tho representations
of the German note as well founded, and the Belgian
Government was advised to comply with its request.
The Russian endorsement is alleged to have been still more
pressing
-

In London last week, according to the return of the
Registrar-General, 2,691 births and 1,675 deaths were regis-
tered. The births exceeded by 201, and the deaths by 96,
declined
weeks had2s .been equal
,e6q7us al
deathsto2B included and 27
oneper
the average numbers in the corresponding week of the last
ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes, which in
tiii.oeoot
, wfourpt
rehevr di°iescl
from small-pox, 18 from measles, 28 •twigl seariet sever,.. 1.9
from diphtheria,. 76 fidni Whedping-Cotigh, 29 fiona different
forms
,of feycr, aild 2,2 Sum liiarrhcea, • , 4,
"
It is staled by an Arntw.CrP4 tkikt,. fp the fresh
• &stretch sent by-thb Gentian to the Belgian Governccent,
• tise. cwinioula expresselittbat the old- rules Of 'lnVeinational
Lhvr are ff6Tonger sufficient, and „that ;iy.ta • desirahle .to lay
'doWn•-new,regulationivin (*der %hitt ribverninents may. more
.effeetuatly..prott4 eackotheri -.According to afßelglairtifiiiig.
teals' organ the Germrin Cabinet, in their-la* riciPak nrge
fresh grievautie, but 'sugg.dst '11.• generid aleeratfoit in inter-
national laws, in,whieb, ilarnaany herself.w.fruld Join, for the
purpose of-protecting foreign' governiiseilts in allcountries..
• 'the-en rhig ee w '
inquirmg Ipta, the. •form
enkttuction; and hingnage of Wets of ragianiQn, r"'"'""'"?
bled- on Monthly; • WalPole in the p air. • Mr. Joseph.
Brown, Q.C., stated that there-had been's considerable im-
provement in the construction of statutes -during the past
few years. He attributed this in a great measure to the in-
terpretation clauses. It would be desirable to have a public
officer to advise Parliament respecting the language of
before the Legislature, but he did not think a Committee
would do, as 1,0 lawyer would have faith in any one not
accustomed to drafting. It appeared to him that there was
a sort of injustice to suitors in passing Acts of Parliament
which were obscure, because It necessarily threw heavy costs
upon them. An eminent judge had stated, and he (witness)-
was of opinion that he was under rather than over the mark,
that it had cost £lOO,OOO to interpret the Statute of Fraud.
The Committee again adioUrnect

I. -
IFrom the 1,-t to the 17th inst. the t xchequer re-
ceipts amounted to £4,187,773, as compared with £3,567,380
in the corresponding period of last year.
t Part of the new landing-stage at'Llieittool, 350 feet
I long, was opened for traffic on Monday.
At the opening of the season of the Racing Grounds
at Shawfield, Glasgow, on Saturday, a stand, crowded with
hundreds of spectators, gave way, and about a dozen persons
sere more or less seriously hurt.
rninounced from Paris that Captain Boyton will
visit that city in the early part'ef next month and display
his invention on the Stipa. • •
r,
A poet has got to fiii.'73434thf writing at
_hymn in
honour-of Bismarck.' It begins, a_.-"ttod site hce,"
kparaphrase on 'God save theVitien."
The Municipality of Xeres has passed a resolution
praying for a reduction of the duties on Spanish wines in
Great Britain.
Our leading artistic manufacturers are being invited
to send contributions to a permanent International EThibl-
tion, which is to be held next year at Geneva.
Paris is resuming another of the attributes of spring.
The open air concerts, which are amongst the great iostitu-
tions of the Champa-Elyges, are reopening one by one.
' The Queen has sent a donatiop of 250 to the Syriant
~Patriarchate Educational Fund: The' Object of this fund in
to enable the Patriarch, who has Plat left England, to open
schools In Mesopotamia, for the education of the poor Syrian
Christians, who ixe und.shis spiritual jurisdiction.
SiverPool is less:this year than it
was last. I The quarterly,returns ihow a decrease of 567 upon
the month ef March, asscompared with March, 1874, and of
2,460 upon thQ quarter ending March, 50th, as compared with
the same quarter of last year.
A watch-ctain is worn by a ci-devant French gen-
darme, now a Government official in Paris The chain is of
iron, and is made of the handcuffs, Which the gendarme
placed on the wrists of the murderer Troppmann, when he
arrested the perpetrator of the Pantin butcheries six years
ago at Havre.
. • •••
It cannot be too widely or ioo generally known to
persons who have property, real or personal, to leave behind
them, that they can make a will-Ind deposit it in the Will
Office, at Somerset House, to which all the "last dying
.testaments" of all persons who have died in London for the
last three or four centuries are stored, tin..., On. depositing a
will, there is a small—but only a soni&R..-iee to pay, and
there is not the least necessity for the !maker of the will to
die immediately. —Court Journal.
A Bill has been introduced into „the 4fouse of
Commons by Sir John Lubbock to amend thl lanf 'with refer-
ence to the falsification of accounts. It proposes to enact
that if any clerk, officer, or servant shall wilfully, and with
intent to defraud, falsify the accounts of his employer, he
shall be liable to be kept in penal servitude for a term not
exceeding seven years, or to be imprisoned with or without
hard labour for any term not exceeding two years.
An international exhibition is to be held in Paris
from the 10th of next July to the 15th of November, It will
comprise the machinery, apparatus, and implements of &II
kinds used on board ship in fisheries and all other sea and
river industries.
In London, on Tuesday evening, the Lord Mayor
presided at the festival on behalf of the Tallow Chandlers'
Benevolent Society, which only comes before then:o3lJc once
in three years. He remarked that, although most of the
houses of the citizens were now supplied with gas, there
were still times when they could not do without tallow
oandles.
Among the recent fashionable arrivals at their marine
villa, the Brighton Aquarium, may be mentioned a boar fish,
a porpoise, an octopus, a sterlet from Russia, king crabs,
eledone, toper, and young pipe fish. Among the births in
the Aquarium is a young dog fish.
Sir William Rose, K.C.8., has been appointed Clerk
of the Parliament in the room of Sir John Shaw Lefevre. Sir
William is the second surviving son of the late Right Hon. Sir
George Henry Rose, formerly Minister at the Courts of Russia
and Prussia, and M.P. for Christchurch. Ile has filled the
post of Deputy Clerk of the Parliament for upwards of a
quarter of a century.
Tuesday night's Gazette contains a translation of the
recent decree of the King of the Belgians instituting an
annual prize of 25,000 francs (£1,000), to encourage works of
intelligence. The competition comprises a period of four
years, and is so regulated that for three consecutive years
Belgians alone will enter it. The fourth year foreigners will
be admitted. In 1878 the prize will be assigned to the best
work on Belgian history; in 1879, to the best work on archi-
tecture ; in 1880 to the best work on the development of the
commercial relations of Belgium, and inlBBl to the beat work
on the means of improving harbours established on low and
sandy coasts like that of Belgium. The last-named competi-
tion will be open to•foreigners.
The Court of Queen's Bench has ruled that it is in
the discretion of poor law guardians whether they will pay
the school fees for pauper children direct to the school
managers in one sum or send the separate pence through the
parents. A complaint having been made of the former
course, the Lord Chief Justice regarded the grievance as a
sentimental one,' and refused to order the accounts to be
brought up.
mbponnlsoa
An inquest was held at the "Surrey Arms" Tavern,
Old Kent-road, in London, on Saturday, on the body of a
boy, aged eleven years, named Thomas Grace. Deceased
viiasatttei
a-rroaabdid odnogMonTdbaeyf
ollaslatwib
, when yhe
fiwamas_
died on Wednesday. A verdict was returned of "Death
Yinsnetthg inei,lnean:dblin; a
after considerable suffering the poor lad
from hydrophobia."
'Upwards of thirty large open.air meetings in pro-
motion of the total abstinence and Templar movement were
conducted on Sunday in various parts of the metropolis,
under the auspices of the Open-air Mission, and addressed by
well-known advocates. Special sermons were preached in
upwards of ninety churches and chapels, and the attention
of the congregations was specially directed to the subject of
temperance.