The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-13 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Under the title of "South Sea Bubbles," the young
Earl of Pembroke will shortly publish an account of his ex-
periences in the Southern Ocean.

The 2lff,lical Time., and Gazette states that that
the mortality of Wolverhampton is now double the average
mortality of the chief towns of England.
Mr. Shaw, the station-master of the London and
North Western Railway Station at Roade, near Northampton,
was killed. o.n,Monday morning by the down express.
_

A special telegram from New York states that Mr.
James Fisk, jun., has been assassinated by a person named
Stokes, against whom he had brought au action for libel.

A rev paper is announced called Woman, which is
to he a weekly journal embodying female interests from a
social, educational, domeatic, anti almost every other point
of view.

The health of Alit7.2illi is improving,
i but his con-
valescence is likely to be long, as be is n a very soak
state.

M. GarAetta is reported b have said at Versailles
on Monday, "Out of seventeen seats we(the Radicals) have
gained twelve, without reckoning Monsieur Vautrain."
The French bishops are getting their flocks to sign
petitions against M. Simon's Bill on Primary Education.
" That project,- they say, "would be in our eyes a more
cruel public misfortune than all our disasters."

Au Imperial Itussian courier has arrived this week
at Sandringham House from St. Petersburg It is understood
that this courier was the bearer of a present from the Em-
peror Alexander.

It is stated that more gold has arrived by South
Eastern Railway packets at Folkestone front Boulogne,
within the last three months, than has been conveyed by
the boats for the previous ten years.

A letter from Versailles says that the Commission
appointed to examine the project for transporting trains on
steamers across the Channel has reported favourably. It
now remains for the English Government to decide upon
the matter.

A prosecution has been commenced against Genera
Cretner, for shooting a grocer at Dijon, named Arbinet, as a
Prussian spy.

The quantity of oranges which arrived in Paris for
New Year's Day amounted to 254,000 cases. Fiume if the
boxes contained no less than 320 ang others 340, but taking
the smallest number we find 81,250,000 in all, or about 40 for
each inhabitant !

The German Correspondent says that the English
Foreign Office has requested the Prussian Goverinneht to
send it a copy et the school regulations aml all the books used
in Prussian elementary schools. The printed matter has
already been toi warded.

At the marriage of an elderly female lately in
church, the organist, out of compliment to the lady, on the
entrance of the bridle party, phi) ad the well-known hymn,
beginning—
.• This Is the way I long have sought,
And mourned because I found it not"
The fire-swept region of the North and West has not,
been abandoned. The axe is ringing in the charred and.
blackened pineries of Wizeousiti awl Ilichigaii as it never
rang before, and the whole region. is instinct with energy and
activity. The scorched trunks of trees arc still valuable,
but they must be used at once.

The foot and mouth disease is satisfactorily de-
creasing in Norfolk. The last weekly returns show a total
of only 206 eases, while, when the disease was at its height,
nearly 2000, cases were reported weekly. Sheep scab is also
decreasing in Norfolk, only 20 cases having been reported
last week.

A railway collision took place on Monday morning
at Attercliffe station. By some inadvertence the Sheffield
train left the platform before the line was clear, and ran into
some trucks. Several of the passengers were more or less
hurt ; an old woman had her ribs broken, and a young lady
from Sheffield was much injured.

A sad accident occurred at Thetford on Saturday
night. Mr. Palmer, solicitor, who was recently a colour-
sergeant in the Local Rifle Volunteer Corps, was showing his
brother, aged 13 years, the action of a revolver, when one of
the barrels exploded, and a shot entered the lad's left eye,
causing death within an hour.

The Prince of Wales was on Saturday chosen Presi-
dent of the Norfolk Agricultural Association for the ensuing
year. At the meeting a letter from the Prince's private
secretary, Mr. I'. Knollys, was read, in which the Princess
consent to take the office was inade contingent on the chow
of the society in June next being held at King's Lynn. This
town, therefore, has accordingly been chosen as the place of
exhibition.

A well-informed gentleman, a Switchman, engaged
In business in London, informs us (Court Aurora) that he is
about to promulgate a scheme to present an estate to the
Prince f Wales in lieu of aandringluum which is not such a
healthy place as It might be. ile says that as much as a
quarter of a million of money might easily be raised for this
purpose.

With a view to ascertaining whether there is any
connection between typhoid fever and sewage emanations,
the Metropolitan Board of Works have requested all the
metropolitan vestries to send in returns of the number of
men and boys employed in flushing and other sewer work,
and the number of any that may have been attacked with
typhoid fever.

_
A movement is on foot, promote4l chiefly by working
men at the East End of London, but by no means confined
to either locality or class, for a memorial in honour
of the Baroness Burdett Coutts. It Is proposed that the
memorial should take the form of a work of art—either a
sculptured bust or figure.

Dr. Goss, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool,
In the course of a sermon preached last Sunday, referred to
the late Home Rule meeting in that town, saying that Home
Rule might be very good in its proper place, but he would
urge his flock to let Irshmen achieve their own independence,
or whatever it was they wanted, and not neglect their duties
as British citizens to attend meetings that led to no possible
good to lrehmen in Liverpool.

A story is told in connection with the presentation
of a loyal address to Prince Frederick Charles by the German
residents at St. Petersburg. The orator was in the midst of
a florid compliment to the Prince as "honing entered
FraliCe with the re,olution to cotton r or to die." when the
Mince interrupted him Ph a quiet request to "liaise his
authority for that statement, it being wholly untrue—which
so disturbed the patriotic speaker that he broke down alto-
gether.
;;;; . . .

W.
e Paris papers report numerous injuries sus-
tained by passengers in the streets from the falling of
chimneys and slates during a tierce gale last Friday. One of
the victims was the Comte de Laredan, who immediately
after quitting his house in the Place Frachot, was killed by
a chimney-pot which fell upon him. It is stated as a singular
coincidence that the Count's father died hi 1650 from the
consequences of a similar accident.

The doctrine of chance has been fully borne out by
the Rothschild. of raids. The firm possesses 144 houses in
different quarters of the city, and yet, strange to say, not
one of them was touched by the Prmsian shells Or the Com-
munist petroleum. hi gratitude for this extraordinary
exemption, the Brothers Rothschild have resolved to remit
to all their tenants who may have been injured by the siege
the whole of the year's rent of 1870.

"It is a curious sign of the times when we find Sir
John Ilakington, a Conservative statesman, requesting Non-
conformists to ' make sacrifices,' and to 'act with modera-
thin and forbearance.' If the request had been made only a
very few years ago. it would flare Wen taken as ironical ; for
the Dissenters had little political power, ami their most ad-
vanced hope was that the Church would moderate its tre-
mendous pretensions."—Daily Telegraph.

It is estimated that there are steamers whose tonnage
would amount to 600,0410 tons, and their value when com-
pleted to A:12,000,000, now in course of construction In the
steam shipbuilding yards of Great Britain, much of it on
foreign account, as the French, the fruit. and the Spanish ore
trades have so increased during the past year that they em-
ploy a much greater number of steamers than formerly.

The Memorial &Amiens relates that last Thursday
a grocer of Sancourt Somme„ named .Montfourny, having
been drinking all night, came home, and, after !none alter-
cation, fired a shot from a double-barrelled gun at Ids wife,
wounding her in the left arm, and then discharged the other
barrel with a fatal effect at his son, who had attempted to
disarm him. Sobered with terror at what he had done, he
then reloaded the piece and blew out his own brains.
The Journal de St. Peterstmorg gives an account of
an accident which has occurred to Rustem Pasha, the Tur-
kish Ambassador in Russia. His Excellency, who WU out
bear-hunting, tired at a bear and missed it, upon which the
animal sprang upon him, tearing his face with its claws and
biting him severely in the leg. While the Pasha was en-
deavouring to defend himself with his dagger, no attendant
put an end to the struggle by a fortunate shot, which laid
the bear lifeless. Moslem Pasha, though Buttering much
pain, is not considered to be in danger.

- -
The SWiss Times gays that last week a man who had
been imbibing more than was good for him was returning
from Oilach with a bottle of neoline. On the way he slipped,
broke the fettle, and saturated his clothes with the inflam-
mable liquid. In his tipsy foolishness he thought he would
try whether the oil would burn on the snow, struck a match,
and was speedily enveloped in flames. Ile is now lying
dangerously injured at the hospital at Aigle.

_
There was a violent scene in the French Assembly
last Saturday. A petition in favour of monarchy was pre-
sented by a Legitimist member who suggested that whenever
the word Republic " was used in the House it !Mould be
qualified by the term "provisional." There was great
uproar at this, and much altercations between the Right and
the Left. It was not until M. Ur6vy had threatened to sus-
pend the sitting that order was restored.
A great demonstration was made at Lausanne last
Sunday in memory of the French soldiers who died in
Lausanne while the army of General Bourbaki was interned
in awitzerland during the war; 0,000 persons walked is
procession, proceeded by music and by the tricolour flag
veiled in black. A mortuary statue was unveiled at the
Moutifre Cemetery, a deputation from the Council of State
being present at the ceremony.
In his charge to the grand jury at the Central Crimi-
nal Court, on,Monday, the Del-My Recorder drew attention
to the number of cases for trial involving the loan of human
life. In every instance the cause of these crimes seemed to
have been drunkenness, and in all probability none of the
offences would have been committed had not either the de-
ceased person, the prisoner, or both, been at the time In a
state of intoxication. It would be well if some law were
passed which might have the effect of diminishing this evil.

A sad occurrence has happened at the residence
of the Earl of Romney, Mote-park, Kent. Ills lord-
ship is in the habit of giving an annual ball to his ser-
vants and their friends, and the event came off on the
evening of Thursday, in last week. A few minutes before
midnight a young woman named Annie Laura Holland, the
still-room maid, having just danced, sat down on a sofa,
saying that she felt unwell, and almost directly afterwards
fell on her face on the floor and expired. An inquest was
held on Friday evening, and a verdict of death from natural
causes was returned.
Victor Hugo has published an address to the people
of Paris, in which he says that apparent checks will cover
the definitive triumph of that city, which Germany could
not vanquish, and which will not be overcome by reaction.
Yl. Hugo oemands an amnesty as the only mode of termi-
nating party strife and assuring order. The people of Paris
will ilnd in universal suffrage a power far superior to force,
and henceforward exerything will he by the vete, and
nothing by the musket. Justice and truth have sovereign
clearness. A city like Versailles, representing royalty, can-
not long confront a city like Pa* which penonilies the Re-
public.

A gentleman was staying at a little French country
inn, and there seas a melancholy-looking owl, which hopped
about the garden, and had only got one leg. Two or three
days after his arrival he had some glider (game for dinner.
The "game' was very small, but he enjoyed if immensely,
and the next clay he missed the owl from the garden, "Where
has the owl gone tel "he inquired of the landlord. "Monsieur
had a little dish of gibier yesterday," was the answer, to the
consternation of the traveller. "Why, did you kill the owl
for my dinner?" he next asked. "I kill owl, m'sieur no ;
he die hilmeLf."

We learn from the ('ape papers that the formal
annexation of the diamond fields to the British Crown took
place on the 17th November, ski excited a good deal of
enthusiasm among the diggers. The proceedings were very
short and simple. One of the Commissioners read the annex-
ation proclamation from a waggon, and the British Hag was
then belated amid a burst of cheering which, it is said, was
heard for miles. Various entertainments ware afterwards
given to the officials and visitors by the residents in the
camps, and in the evening there was a grand dinner in one
of the hotels, to which all the officials were invited.
The Gaulnis relates a story which will probably be
reed Is ill, givater surprise in Englaud than it has been in
Paris. It states that during the worst period of the illness
of the Prince of Wales some merchants and medical men
proposed to an insurance office to effect a policy upon the
life of the Prince, and the transaction was arranged. The
premium amounted to some hundreds 01 thousands of francs,
hut the amount payable in a fatal event would have reached
millions. " Who knows I" adds the Gauloix, "perhaps all
the English have done the same. That would explain their
anxiety for news respecting the Prince's condition."

A young man returning from a wake has been beaten
to death in Connty Donegal ill a very savage manner.
Twelve Swiss guides lost their lives on the Alps la t
year.

A Royal warrant, regulating the pay and allowances
of lieutenants and sub-lleutenauts, has been promulgated to
the army.

A movement has been started to establish a hospital
In London " for the treatment of dtsea.s apart ,rorn the
ordinary administration of alcoholic liquors."
- - - - -

- --
The Loy fort, near Paris, has been soh' for ,C 440
being considered useless. This is considerably below the
cost of the projectiles thrown on it.
_

- -
The German iournala state that the Deputy Owo
accused of outrages by gesture and menace to Prince de
Bismarck, has been acquitted by the tribunal of Hanover.

The Chariruri (the French Punch)hm a caricature
representing Death with his scythe held as a whip, drivihg
hearse on which is inscribed the kures 1671. rencath are
the words, " The Accursed."

London is a wonderful city. Every eight minutes,
day and night, one person dies every live minutes, one is
born; 800,000 have been added to the population since 1001,
It is a world in itself.
The population of the United States, enumerated at
the Census of 1870, is now reported by the superintendent
of the Cerssus 76,923,210. The coloured population is
4,180,307; Indian, 383,712 ; Chinese, 63,251.

Dean Stanley preached on Sunday afternoon in Old
Greyfriars, one of the Scottish Established thurches,in Edin-
burgh. There was a crowded audience. The text was John
31.

The search for Dr. Livingstone, which the British
Government has refused to undertake or to assist, has been
entrusted by the New York Herald to a " special COLUlllii-
stoner."

Already a number of brilliant entertainments to
the Prince of Wales have been proposed for the coming
season, among them, naturally, the Corporation of London
intends to do so methingmagnineent
The area of California, which for many years has
been estimated at 100,951 square miles, is found to be only
about 153,000 square miles. The measurement includes San
Francisco, San Diego, and Humboldt Bays, but not the liay
(or rather Gulf; of Monterey.
Upwards of 250 distinct species of paper are manu-
factured in Japan. Many kinds male in the distant pro-
vinces are aulimitted tea distinct process in Yedo, and each
kind has its distinctive name. Specimens of all these have
been deposited, by the care of the Foreign Office, at the
South Kensington Museum.

There are two suits in the Arches Court for the
ensuing tens—one by Sir Robert Peel as to the allotruent'of
seats in the pariah of Tainworth, and the other In respect to
a church-rata loan. The only other ecclesiastical case pend-
ing for judgment is "Sheppard v. Bennett. before the
Judicial Committee.

The ether Sunday, Mr. Spurgeon, in the course of
his sermon, "came down '' on the fashionable congregations
who take no part in the praise of God, but leave it all to be
done by a few Voices, or by paid choirs. "It is wretched :
It is horrible," said Mr. Spurgeon, "to sit In a &lurch w here
such a custom is observed." -

Small-pox has been prevalent in Plymouth and the
adjoining town for some weeks past, and has very much
increased of late in Plymouth, there having been tel cases
reported last week, besides others not brought under the
notice of the sanitary inspector. In Devonport, however,
the disease is fast abating.
Young women appear to be rapidly demon4rating
their ability to master the higher branches of learning. Dr.
Welch, President of the State Agricultural College of lowa,
says there are fifty young ladies in the institution, and that
but little trouble arises from their intercourse with the young
men. The intellectual capacity of the sexes appears to, be
about emial. The best chemist working hi the analyth al
labatery ia a girl of seventeen. The girls do all the house-
work, under the superintendence of a matron and a general
housekeeper.

A current paragraph asserts that many years ago.
Horace Greeley wrote to a female contributor, requebting her
to obstain from further poetry. A council of friend. In-
spected the letter, and finally pronounced it an otter of mar-
riage. Bence Mrs. Greeley and the junior Greeleys. We
know as a fact that an otter of marriage was sent by a mar-
imis to the lady's father, who declined with thanks, supposing
it an invitation for a picnic. Doubtless many of our readers
have heard of the odd incident.
Mr. Matistone's secretary has written to the pro-
moters of the education meeting in Derry, acknowledging
the receipt of the memorial, which, the promoters say, was
signed by two thousand Roman Catholic clergy and laity in
favour of denominational education. The memorial is to the
Utilise of Commons, and was sent to Mr. Gladstone for pre-
sentation. The answer is simply an acknowledgment of the
receipt of Use document.

The week of .universal prayer, which it is usual to
hold at the commencement of the new year, under the
auspices of the Evangelical Alliance, was commenced in
London, on Monday morning. Tilt! Rev. Gordon Calthrop,
vicar of St. Augustine's, ilighbury, presided, and having
directed certain hymns to be sung and psalma to he read,
suggested a prayer for the Prince of Wales. An earnest
prayer fur the Prince followed, and it was announced that
another meeting will be held this morning.
• • - - - -

The following did not win the prize git en by a Board
of Education old gent to a school, for the best 'mom on
December in the style of Gray's Elegy

December's come, and now the breezes
Howl among the lifeless treesis
Now the boy with ragged trowses
Shivering homeward drives the cowses
His boots are old, and torn his clothes is,
The Board can new them If it chooses.
At a meeting of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, a
report was read from the Committee of Management of the
Hampstead Small-pox Hospital, in which it was stated that
immediately after the recent inquiry they had passed a vote
of sympathy with Dr. Grieve Sister Frances, and the other
nurses and sisters, in regard to the unwarranted imputations
made against them, and the committee felt that gratitude
and thanks were due to them for their untiring labours,
watchfulness, and skill in the treatment and nursing of the
sick during the recent severe small-pox epidemic. The re-
port was unanimously adopted; and a resolution of the
Board passed expressive of unabated confidence in the
managers, the medical superintendent, head and other
muses.

"An nnuntal incident has transpirssi in Collc, Ii cc
with betting. A gentleman made n bet for £lOO with a well.
known firm of bookinakeri' and, us he supposed, Mon It, but
on applying for the money he was told that lie was mistaken,
alai though he appealed to the stewards of the race-meeting
concerned he failed to get his claim allowed. A short time
since one of the members of the bookmaking firm in question
died, and it was found on opening his will that he had
directed his executors to pay half the £lOO from his assets
anti to obtain. the balance from his surviving partner, as the
gentlemen to whom it had been refused was justly entitled to
it."—Conit Journal.
In London, on Sunday evening, the Victoria Theatre,
Inc the Waterloo-road, which has just been re-opened alter
its entire reconstruction Internally and decoration, was for
tho4irst time appropriated to the purpose of a popular reli-
giollll service for the masses, when the immense edifice was
well filled by a large and attentive audience, consisting to
some extent of the labouring population from the neigh-
bourhood of the New Cut. The utmost decorum was ob.
servpl throughout and the services, which consisted of
singing, prayer, and sermon, were of a highly interesting
character. The service will be continued every Sunday
evening during the wintcr.

The fleet of the special services in St. Paul's Cathe.
dmi for 15,72 took place on Sunday evening-under the dowe.
and was attended by a congregation overwhelming in
numbers. The sermon, which was both eloquent and im-
pressive, was preached by the Very Rev. the Dean of St.
Paula, whose voice could be heard with tolerable clearness
even in the remotest parts of the building Those who
have not attended these special evening services can form
but a faint idea (,f the grand and imposing effect produced
by the lighting up of the dome, whence a flood of rich soft
light is dill used over the vast apace beneath and around,