The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-23 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

A sportsman in Delaware recently shot 138 part-
ridges, 33 snipe, and 51 ducks in a three-days' hunt.
The Duke of Montrose, has, it is said, left all
his estates that were not entailed to his wife absolutely.
For some time past there has been considerable curiosity on
this subject —Court Journal. _ -

On the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the
Queen has been pleased to grant a pension of £5O a year to
the widow of Giovanni Battista Falcieri, the faithful servant
of Lord Byron.
The Essex Agricultural Society will hold its annual
meeting this year at Brentwood. Lord Carlingford has been
elected president for the year.
A gas explosiox took place on Monday in a house in
Edinburgh, severely injuring two adults and two children.
The cause was an escape from the main under the kitchen
floor.

At a meeting held in Glasgow it has been resolved
to form a mission at Lake Nyanza, in Central Africa, to be
called Livingstonia, in honour of the late Dr. Livingstone.
Subscriptions were intimated at the meeting amounting to
£4,200. Mr. James Young, of Kelly, and Mr. James Steven-
son, of Glasgow, each subscribed £l,OOO.
In the Lower House of Danish Parliament on Tues-
day, the debate was commenced on the proposals of the War
Minister to spend about £2,000,000 in extending the fortifia-
tions of Copenhagen so as to render the city safe against
bombardment at sea.

If Brigham should happen to die, the amount of
tears shed by his loving family, according to the latest ac-
counts, will probably reach 3421 gallons.
It is noted in the weekly return of the Registrar.
General that the mean temperature during the fifteen
days ending last Saturday averaged 44 degrees, and
exceeded the mean for the corresponding period in
the 60 years 1814-73 by 7 degrees ; in the preceding twenty-
four days of cold weather the mean had been so low as 31
degrees, and was 7 below the same average.
- -

An elderly clergyman, who is a bachelor, and rather
good-looking, on being asked why he had never married, re-
plied that he had been looking all his life for a woman who
would refrain from working him a pair of slippers, and had
not yet been able to find her.

Mr. Mundella, M.P., speaking at a meeting at
Sheffield, on Monday evening, on the subject of the ex-
tension of university education, said that the great recom-
mendation of the scheme was its extreme practica-
bility. It was calculated to do good to persons of all
classes who might choose to go through the course of
lectures. It bid fair, in fact, to realise Mr. Forster's hope
that we might have a ladder from the gutter to the university.

The German Chancellor has issued a notice from
the embassy at Paris, warning those emigrants who hope to
find employment in Franco, which, under the present cir-
cumstances and feeling of the country, it is doubly impossible
to obtain. The ambassador reminds the new comers that
there is no adequate provision for them either at the
embassy a the German charity societies at Parts.

Earl Fortescue, speaking at Barnstaple, said he
thought it would 'se a matter for deep regret if Chambers of
Agriculture, embracing landlords, cultivators of their own
Boil and tenant farmers, were allowed to die out, for they
had open. to them a great field of usefulness in forming
public opinion, and ultimately, he hoped, public practice in
their several counties in regard to agricultural matters.
In the German Federal Council a bill has been pre-
sented for the enlargement of Strasburg by the reconstruc-
tion of the fortifications at a greater distance from the
centre of the town. The municipality will defray the 17
million marks which the works and the purchase of land will
nvolve.

--
Upon the Trades Congress reassembling at Liver-
pool on Tuesday, Mr. Fitzpatrick, the President, delivered
the opening address, in the course of which he alluded to
the necessity f9r amending the labour laws, and spoke
strongly of the delay which had taken place in redressing
grievances deeply felt by the working classes.
Early preparations are stated to be made for cele-
brating the forthcoming Centenary of American Indepen-
dence. The chief ceremonies of the jubilee will take place
at Philadelphia and Boston All the prominent leaders and
exponents of democratic thought are to be solicited to take
part in the proceedings. According to a Northe,n paper,
"France. 11 18 hoped, will be represented by Victor Hugo,
Louis Blanc, and Leon Gambetta. Senor Castelar has already
accepted the invitation on behalf of Spain General Gari-
baldi will be asked to participate in the celebration on the
part of Italy."
China-mania has takm a new turn in Paris. Hitherto
the clumsy have not known where to deposit their biscuit or
sandwich when sipping tea, but some inventive Frenchman
has been to London and carried back the useful secret that
saucers may be made with spaces in them for putting one's
bread and butter without getting wet. This useful innova-
tion will be a blessing in a small way—almost as great a
revolution as the discovery of the two-pronged fork.

By recently-issued agricultural statistics it appears
that market gardeners cultivate 3,000 acres of land in and
around Paris, and use in the production of their vegetables
360,000 glazed frames and 2,000,000 bell glasses.
A crowded meeting was held on Monday night at
the Town Hall, Scarborough, in connection with the 'United
Kingdom Alliance,—Sir Harcourt Johnstone, Bart., M.P., in
the chair. Sir Wilfrid Lawson, MP., attended, and advocated
his Permissive Bill. The pressure was so great that the.
meeting had to be divided, the overflow filling another room.
Sir Wilfrid was enthusiastically cheered when he announced
his intention of bringing forward his bill in the next session
of Parliament. The meeting unanimously passed resolutions
In favour of the measure.

On Monday afternoon another daring robbery was
committed at the Paddington terminus of the Great Western
Railway. The Duke of Edinburgh, who was about to pro-
ceed on a visit to Lord and Lady Dudley by the 2.15 p.m.
down Great Western train, had arrived in due course at the
station, where a saloon had been prepared for his use.
While the luggage was being got ready for labelling a vaht-
able dressing-case belonging to the Duke was missed. Searck
was at once made for the case, but it could not be found, and
the Duke had to proceed on his journey without it.

- -
A telegram from Berlin announces that the Carlists
wll not only have to pay the full value of the German brig,
the Gustav, which recently stranded through being fired
Upon by them, but also a fine to Germany the amount of
which has Dot yet been fixed. Should the indemnity not be
paid by a given time, the Spanish ships will open tire on the
public buildings and Ca.rlist positions along the coast. King
Alfonso has left Madrid for Saragossa.
A. Sheffield correspondent says that the services of
Messrs. Moody and Sankey at Sheffield have resulted in the
conversion of 604 persons, according to the tickets sent in
by those professing to be converted, and of this number
there are two Quakers, one Roman Catholic, two Plymouth
Brethren, one Presbyterian, and 80 not associated with any
church. A conference of clergy and ministers was held
on Saturday morning, when it was decided to build a
memorial hall in which to hold prayer meetings and
special religious services in continuation of the revival work.

The Sussex Daily News announces that the com-
laittee to whose hands the Sub-Wealden Exploration is
entrusted have resolved to abandon the present boring after
six ineffectual efforts to recover tools which have dropped
down and obstructed the whole. The Diamond Boring
Company having made a very favourable offer to commence
again, a contract for the completion of 1,000 feet for £6OO,
has been agreed to, with a conditional promise to execute
the second thousand feet for about £3,000 additionaL Mr.
Willett, hon. sec., has guaranteed £OOO, and appeals for funds
to carry on the enterprise.
During last week 5,796 births and 4,789 deaths were
registered in London and twenty other large towns of the
United Kingdom. The natural inczease of population was
1,007. The mortality from all causes was at the average rate
of 32 deaths annually in every 1,000 persons living. The
annual death-rate was 34 per 1,000 in Edinburgh, 44 in Glas-
gow, and 42 in Dublin. In London 2,481 births and 1,911
deaths were registered. Allowing for increase of popula-
tion the births exceeded by 45, and the deaths by 191, the
average numbers in the corresponding week of the last ten
years. The annual death-rate from all causes, which in the
six preceding weeks had averaged 32 per 1,000, declined
under the influence of the higher temperature to 29.