The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-30 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Government intend to grant the House of Com-
mons twenty-one days holiday at Easter and Whitsuntide.
M. Prudhombne, in the decline of life, Vi 11,9 talking
with his nephew, to whom he related stories of his youth.
" But, uncle," suddenly exclaimed the young man, "what
struck you most during your lifer "My dear boy, it was
your aunt r
A Chicago journal considers the destruction of about
a cartload of "original poetry" in its office as the must
gratify iug feature of the lire.
Victor Hugo is to receive a franc and a-half a line
for his new romance, Peuple Souverain.
'

, -
A beautiful inscription, it is said, may he found in
an Italian churchyard Here lies Estella, who traw,ported
a large fortune to heaven In acts of charity, and has gone
thither to enjoy it." . _

"You are very handsome," said a gentleman to a
lady.—' !" said the lady, "so you would any it you did
not think so."—" And so you would think," answered he,
" though I did not say so." .

The 'Marquis of Lorne km kindly consented to be-
come one of the patrons of the National Society for the Pro-
tection of Young Girls, established in 1835.

A strike for higher wages is imminent amongst the
artisans and labourers in the Channel Islands.

A monument to the Into Lord Mayo is to be erected
In Calcutta, and £20,000 has already been subscribed for the
purpose.
News has been received in Paris from Madrid that
the King has not only no intention of abdicating, but that he
is prepared to defend his crown to the uttermost If thrum-
tastes should require it.
The Ruston Globe eayu that a well-known sporting
man of New York was so slated at reading that the Grand
Duke Alexis isssisted at a cock-light in Havana that he is
rearing a young cockerel of the purest blood, to be Bent,
wheu mature, ass present to Alexis at St., Petersburg.
-

The Soir says that the Paris municipal authorities
have at length accepted Sir Richard Vl'allace s offer to erect
drinking fountaibs in the streets at his own expense, and
orders have been given for their construction before the hot
weather sets in.

_
At a "lea-year party" in Chattanooga, recently,
the young ladies who formed the committee ot management
had posted up iu conspicuous parts of the hall such mottoes
as the following: 'We mean busbies.," "NotDe of your
poverty dodges,' " Wading is tedious," de.
American papers state that Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe has met with a easy serious accident at her residence
in Mandarin. She was standing on a high table arranging
the drapety of her window, and. stepping backward, her
feet caught in her hoop skirt, and she fell to the for,
striking the base of her head on the sharp edge of a bed.
stead. while her back fell on a site bath tub which wan
standing near the table. Mrs. Dewy Ward Beeelier, Dr.
Stowe, and a daughter of Mr. Stowe, ran to her aid. She
was picked up Insensible. A later account minutia...a a
great improvement In her condition.
The treasures of Notre Dame, which already com-
prise a number of precious objects, are about to he increased
by the addition of a veritable historical relic in the shape of
the cossack worn by Monseigneur Darboy on the day of his
death. It inn violet vestment, well worn, stained with dirt
and blood, and showing diatinctly the marks of bullets. The
curious who I,,sit tile church of Notre Dame may now see the
casdocks of the tare. Archbishops of Paris who died by ans.-
&Motion—of Monseigneer Afire, killed on the barrioade of
Bt. Antoine; of Mouseigueur sthour, killed in the church of
St. Etienne du Mont; and of tiolditignear Dal boy, killed in
the prison of ha Roquette.
In connection with the reduction of twopence in the
pound lit the income-tax, as announced by the Chancel', of
the Exchequer on Monday evening. it may be stated that
from the fame of the Imp eaten of the tax, now thirty years
ago, it was not until Slay, 1565, when Mr. Gladstone wu
Coancellor of the Exchequer, that the rate of fourpence .54
reacted, this cautioned through 1-66, and until lioveniber,
1067, when a penny was pat on to meet the expenses of the
Abyssinian war. In April, IS6•, Mr. Ward Hunt raised the
rate to 64. ; twelve months later Mr. Lowe reduced it to fah,
and in 187 d to ad. It was again auamentea to 6d last year.
When She Robert Peel's sevenpenny rate was imposed, the
tax brought in about £5,350,000 per annum, and the highest
amount received in any single year was in 1850, immediately
on the close of the Russian war, when with a lid, rate the
yield exceeded £10,000,000 Illialbag•