The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-08-22 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREMN.

Notwithstaading the rain which has fallen, the I
floating island in Derwentwater Lake still keeps increasing in
size, and is daily visited by large numbers of people.
On Monday morning, a man named Powell was
found asleep on a lime-kiln at holsover. Ilia left band, foot,
and side were much burnt, and he died a short time after he
was removed. It appeared the deceased had been in the ,
habit of sleeping there previously. An inquest was held, and
a verdict of "Accidental Death" sun returned, Deceased
was a farm labourer, and fifty-one years of age.
Hunting, as a matter of commerce, is largely pursued
in the Russian province of Archangel. The following is the
average annual capture of various animals: 40,.000 squirrels,
22,000 ermines, 40,000 hares, 3,01 V white or skyblue foxes,
200 large wolves, 175 ditto, smaller breed, and 260 bears
An old man named Ledworth, of Crombe, near York,
was attacked by a bull in one of his master's fields a few
nights ago, and so injured that he has since died The
animal missed Min with the horns, but threw him down and
knelt upon him. The brute had to be pulled off by the
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horns.
The new Bribery Act has made an addition to the
number of the judges essential, and the Globe of Tuesday
evening announces the specific appointments. The Solicitor-
General is to be the additional Judge of the Court of Common
Tleaa ; Mr. Serjeant llayes, of the Court of Queen's Bench ;
and Mr. Cleasby, Q C., the additional public baron of the

Court of Exchequer.
A distressing railway accident is reported from
Coalville, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Two girls were crossing
the line on Monday, and, having an umbrella up at the time,
did not notice the approach of a pilot engine. Both were
knocked down, and one met with instantaneous death, her
head being literally divided.
Commander Rogers, who died recently, made a
somewhat eccentric but withal useful bequest He left
£2,100 in the three per Cents, in trust to the minister and
churchwardens of Lymington to provide annually twenty
good strong coats and twenty cloaks for as many poor men
and women of the parish, or its immediate neighbourhood.
On the day of distribution, the 21st of October, a sermon is
to be preached from the 103rd Psalm or the 11th John, "to
excite the rich and the poor to meditate on the mercies of
God their Saviour."
From Doncaster we get the first illustration of the
working of the Compulsory Church Rates Abolition Bill.
It has hitherto been the practice to levy a general rate of
three-halfpence for Church purposes, but now that it will
have to be confined to the parish an eightpenny or nine-
penny rate will be needed. At a meeting, on Monday, it
WI. decided to have no more Church-rates, but to rely on an
additional offertory.
The murder of a navvy, named George Cornish,
near to Wells, is a mysterious affair. Ile was found with his
head literally smashed by a large stone, weighing tadbs., and
leaning over him was another navvy, named Bisgrove. This
man's statement was that a third man had dropped the stone
on the head of tile deceased. BiegrOVe and a young woman
named Brew, with whom he cohabits, were arrested, and
traces of human hair and blood were found on their clothes.
It was proved that they had quarrelled with the deceased
shortly before the crime was perpetrated. They have been
committed for trial for wilful murder.

'The Herald announces that Sir Michael Hicks
Beach, MY. for East Gloucestershire, will succeed Sir James
Fergusson as Under Secretary for the Home Office ; and that
the lion. F. Stanley will be appointed to the Civil Lordship
of the Admiralty vacated by Mr. Ifficane.
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The Toronto Globe says that there seems to be little
hope of a speedy settlement of the Nova Scotia difficulty.
Sir John Macdonald and some of his colleagues have gone to
Halifax with the object of bringing about a reconciliation,
but they are said to have made scarcely any progress. The
only favourable symptom's.= apparent difference of opinion
and consequent hesitation among the anti-unionists. sonic
of the members of the local Legislature talk very bitterly,
scorn all idea of moderation, and wish a measure to bepassed
_ . . .

declaring Nova Scotia out of the Union.
An inquest was held in London, on Tuesday night,
upon the body of a commercial traveller named Lazarus, who
died suddenly at the Fenchurch-street railway station the
previous day. The deceased was a Jew, and a very religious
man. Although eighty-five years of age, he observed the
fasts prescribed by the law in the most rigid manner, lie
was keeping the fast ordained for the new moon when he
died, and several of his friends expressed their opinion that
the exhaustion thus occasioned was the cause of his death.
The doctor concurred, and the jury found a verdict ac-
cordingly.
A young man named Larkin, the first mate of a ship
called the Lydia, was tried at the Liverpool assizes on
Tuesday tor the murder of one of the seamen under his
charge. The deceased had clearly been treated with the
greatest brutality, but the jury did not consider that the
evidence was sufficient to justify a conviction on the capital
charge. A verdict of manslaughter was, therefore, returned,
and the prisoner was sentenced to penal servitude for life
On Tuesday night a fire broke out at St. George's
workhouse, situate in the Fulham-road, London. It
originated in the south-east wing in the drying-room, under
the infirm ward, and appears to have been occasioned
through the overheating of a hot air flue. The inmates of
the infirm ward were all got out in safety soon after the alarm.
Fortunately a number of engines were quickly in attendance,
and the fire did not extend beyond the wing in question.
A Berlin correspondent mentions that some ex-
periments have just been made at Kiinigsberg with the new
arm called the Kugelsprltse or bullet squirt. It has thirty-
seven barrels, all of which can be fired from six to nine times
a minute, thus making from two to three hundred shots in
all. The weapon, resting on a support, is fired like a rifle,
the recoil being broken by a strong spiral spring. The
results do not appear to have been very satisfactory.
The death of Dr. William Mackenzie, the famous
oculist, of Scotland, is announced. Ile was 7; years of age,
and had for a long time occupied a most prominent position
as a skilful ophthalmic surgeon, not oily in Glasgow, where
he reshied, but also in England; and he was often called to
great distances in consultation, lie was surgeon-oculiat to
the Queen. in Scotland, and to the Eye Infirmary, Glasgow
Ile was the author of several works, among which his
treatises on the "Physiology of Vision" and "Diseases of
the Eye" are best known.
Several American young ladies have left their homes
for the purpose of visiting Europe. They are attended by a
femme-de-chambre only. When last heard of they had
settled upon a French watering-place for a fresh essay in
the autumn.

Some descriptions of tobacco, it would seem, are
"got up" hi much the some way as linen—absolutely
starched. This interesting fact came out on Friday, at the
Manchester city police-court, when two manufacturei s and
a dealer were summoned for having in their possession and
dealing in adnlterated tobacco. The chemist at the Inland
Revenue Office in London had examined the tobacco seized,
and found that it was adulterated with cereal starch, or
wheat, to the extent of 4 per cent. Each of the three de-
fendants was fined in the " mitigated " penalty of LSO.
An " Anglo-Australian" warns intending emigrants
to look very carefully before they rush to the Queens,and
goldfields. By all means let those go to them who are strong,
active, able to work at husbandry, or any rough trade, and
have some pounds in their pocket to start with ; but let
clerks and others, who merely know bow to wield the pen,
and who would on landing have but sufficient to keep them
for two or three weeks, stay where they are. The writer adds
that gold digging in Australia can never again be what it
was in the palmy days of Ballarat.
The summit of the Matterhorn has been twice
reached this year—by Mr. Elliot and by Professor Tyndall.
A young Pole has lightened the gaming tables at
Hombourg of the sunf,of £5,000.
A singular procession was noticed the other day
passing through the Morskaj-street, in St. Petersburg.
rweuty Jews, with a white cross chalked on their backs,
were carried along under strong military escort. It appears
that these wretched beings had been condemned to depor-
tation to Siberia, but had prayed to be converted to the
Orthodox Church, in order that the usual pardon might be
granted them. Instead of being obliged to work in the
mines, they are allowed to " settle " in Siberia as a reward
for embracing the faith.
Of the thirty-eight candidates who passed for the
army medical service at the last examination, no less than
twenty-eight were educated in Ireland, and may he assumed
to be Irishmen. Four came from Scotland, one studied in
London and Aberdeen, one in Edinburgh and Cork. and one
in Edinburgh and Dublin. Only three received their medical
education in England exclusively.
The mosquitoes have got as far north as Manchester.
"A West Indian," in one of the local papers, vouches for
the fact.

Captain Cotineau, of the French ship Bordeaux, at
present in India, has received the order of the Legion of
Honour from the French Government, in addition to the
gold medal which was presented him by the English Govern-
ment, for his gallant conduct in saving the crew and passen-
gers 1,1 the English ship Royal Family, which was on flre in
Madras Roads.

A vendetta in Vermont is a surprising thing, but it
has existence nevertheless. In Shrewsbury, on Saturday,
the membersof two hostile families collected to quarrel about
a civil stilt; pistols were used, and several persons were
wounded. Finally, one Gilman, who Is described as a "dig-
interested and innocent young mail," was deliberately mur-
dered. Seven of the criminals have been arrested.
A gentleman in Albany was arrested lately for fol-
lowing a lady in the street. Ile claimed that a man had a
right to admire a hands -me woman, let him meet her where
he might. The court and the lady agreed to this, and the
gentleman was discharged.
A. matrimonial scandal, in which a military officer
fills the part of the injured husband and another military
gentleman is also concerned, has sprung up in Bengal anti
been brought into a criminal court under the penal ctule ;
but, with the consent of the prosecutor the case has been
" quashed."
Sir Duncan Cameron has instituted a new reginti at
Sandhurst. Three cadets who were found guilty of appearing
publicly intoxicated near the college, and insulting a stranger,
•
have been summarily expelled
At the beginning of this year them were in Europe
102,001 miles of railway, and throughout the world 102,500.
French writers are giving their readers some advice
with reference to mad dogs. One of them says, "If you
encounter a dog and suspect that he Is mad, strike hint with
a cane ; if he cries out, there is no danger ; lie is not mad.
But if he remains silent, he is mad. Kill him at once ! "
Another writer says, "If you are bitten by a mad dog, return
to your house, any nothing to your wife, but immediately
cauterise the wound. Take good nourishment, good wine,
and wait the result with confidence. Don't bite your wife."
"The mournful intelligence that George Fiancis
Train has been released from prison has cast a gloom over two
continents."—Comic Monthly American paper
The Parisians are turning velocipedes to a variety
of uses. The other morning two velocipedists were exercise.
tog In the Champs Elysee when a cry of "stop thief " was
raised. The velocipedists immediately pursued the young
pickpocket, captured him, and handed him over to the
police.
M. de Bonnaire, the great trapkist of Ba-ta-Clan,
and the rival of Leotard, has been killed by a tall M the
Madrid Theatre. Bonnaire had a fortune of A. 1,005 a year,
and followed his dangerous occupation from mere love of the
art. Ills mother often entreated hint to renounce the practice,
but he always replied with a smile, "What matter whether
one dies in thin way or another 7 " lie was only 28 years of
age.
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In October, 1866, there was an accident on the Bow
and Fenchurch-street branch of the North London Raliway, '
which involved the company in compensation charges to the
amount of about £4,500. As the receipts from the branch are
comparitively small, the directors have given notice that the
train service will be discontinued at the end of the present
year. The "unlimited liability for compensation in case ef
accident" under the existing law has had some influence in
bringing the board to this conclusion.
The Secretary of the United States Treasury has
signed a warrant for the payment of the purchase money of
Alaska. the sum being 7,200,000 dollars in specie. The draft
for that amount, payable in New York, was handed over on
the Ist inst, to the Russian Ambassador, Baron Stocckl,
who gave a receipt in due form on behalf of the Emperor of
Russia. According to the New York papers Mr. iwward is
in negotiation for a fresh purchase of territory, a large and
fertile island of the Malay group, lobe used as an East India
station. The price is six hundred thousand dollars.
A Paris correspondent mentions the arrival at Havre
; of a most singular cargo—a shipload of human hair from
Vera Cruz. The hair comes from the heads of various native
Mexican tribes who have been scalped by their enemies. It
In described as in a most filthy condition, and with so foul a
smell as to infect the whole port. The hair is, of course, to be
worked up for the use of European beauty, according to the
prevailing mode.
The Marquis of Downshire, whose death has just
occurred, PAS remarkable for his immense physical strength
even w hen quite young and it is said that he once killed a
" bargae " by a single blow of his fist in a quarrel when at
College. It is also said that he used to take his place with
a scythe among his mowers, or on a potato ridge with his
spade ; not for a spurt, but to do a good man's work, and
then sit down to lunch, and chat, and, mayhap, to smoke •
pipe with the men when their dinner was brought tel them
In the field.

The grand annual gathering of the clam and atbletia
games of the Braemar Royal Highland Society erect leigth
definitely appointed to take place at Mar castle, en Thursday,
Use 3rd day td September.
Three colliers named Jolly, Alexander Shepherd,
and John Shepherd, were each sentenced to three months'
imprisonment by Chief Baron Kelly at the Liverpool Assizes
for having thrown a gingerbeer bottle full of gunpowder at
the house ,d Joseph Johnson. The motive for this violence
was believed to be that Joseph Johnson had undertaken
ii
work for a coal company at Wigan, while other colliers we: o
on strike. . .

There was a larger supply of potatoes at the Corni:h
markets &ming the past week than is remembered to have
bees seen for several years past. This very useful vegetable
was, with few exceptions, of magnificent quality, mid sold at
its, to its, per bushel.
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the editors Of
the Revolution, has been rusticating at Peterhof., ugh, in w
York State. Writing from thence to her paper Ale say, --
"On last Sunday morning we had the pleasure 4 pry,
in • the Free Church' oil the • Women of the to a '-
and attentive audience. At five p.m ,as is the custom .
the c‘ mgregat ion asseml fled to criticise the morili,g dfne,l,-
where we had quite a spirited discussion on the whole guys.
tion of suffrage for woman. At the close, a ri,ing vote is.
taken, which was almost Ilhatitilloall in the Mtn on'y
one maiden lady and one coloured youtl,, Theoikre
West, rising in opposition." The same lady, in another
article in the Revolution, tells us that the NI eth•dist Chur,
in America has lately struck the word obey from its marriage