The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-12-04 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

A barque from the West Indies arrived off Dover on
Saturday morning, but was not allowed to enter the
harbour owing to some of the crew being stricken with
yellow fever.
On Saturday a man named Hayes, a light-weight
boxer, and another man, Robinson, of South Shields,
were each fined £5 and costs, and bound over to keep
the peaco by the Northumberland magistrates at New •
castle for having engaged in a prize•fight near Newcastle
a few days ago.
On Saturday a workman named Mortimer died from
injuries received by the fall of masonry at the new baths
being built at Bath. Another workman was hurt, and
some children had a narrow escape. The accident was
caused by the premature removal of the centering of an
arch. _ _

At midnight on Saturday Madame Elvin completed
her task of walking three miles every hour for a week.
Large crowds had assembled in the streets of Faversham,
where the feat was performed, and half the force of
police in the borough was on duty. During the last
three miles the pedestrian was accompanied by a band.
Sergeant-Major Jackson, Commissariat and Transport
Corps, went for a walk at Devonport oa Saturday, and
on Sunday morning his body was found floating in the
Ham-aze.

The accountant's certificate to the Board of Arbitra.
tion for the Manufactured Iron Trade of the North of
England was issued on Saturday. As compared with
the previous two months, there has been more material
sold but at a reduced rate, the certified price being
£4 us. 6d per ton. This is the lowest average price
recorded in the his tory of the trade.
A telegram from Halifax, Nova Scotia, says the cap-
tain of the Dominion line steamer Vancouver, which
arrived there on Saturday, reports having had the
roughest passage he has encountered during 38 years'
experience.
The "Times," in a leading article the other day,
said :—Parliament will meet for the despatch of busi-
ness on Thursday, January 13, when, we understand, it
is the intention of the Government to ask for the
whole time of the House of Commons in order to deal
in a thorough and comprehensive manner with the
question of procedure.
The Empress Eugenie paid a visit to the Queen at
Windsor Castle on Sunday.
A most extraordinary landslip has taken place in the
Devon River, near Duefermline, whereby the celebrated
'Chauldron Burn F.JIB have boon entirely destroyed.
An enormous mass of rock which overhung the falls
toppled down into the stream, carrying with it a portion
of the bank, consisting of trees, earth, and other ma
terial, the &brie forming a heap fully 100 feet in
height The huge blocks of stone, many tons in weight,
are piled up in the most curious manner, but the wild
grandeur of the falls, which had been the theme of
Scott, Wordsworth, and Burns, is gone for ever.
At a largely-attended meeting of the Wolver-
hampton Working Men's Conservative Club on Satur-
day night the question of the American mail contract
was discussed. A resolution was unanimously adopted
strongly disapproving of the action of the Postmaster-
Genera) as calculated to impair the speed and efficiency
of the mail service, as being detrimental to the inte-
rests of South Staffordshire and other districts having
a large stake in the Transatlantic trade, as
contrary to British interests to subsidise a fo,an
country, and injurious to the Conservative cause
generally.
Mr. ilmin Barry, M.P. for South Hunts, speaking at
a Conservative meeting at Huntingdon on Saturday,
alluding to the Irish question, said he believed there
was a desire on the part of the Irish people to settle
down quietly and peaceably to obey the law of the con-
stitution, and to live in happier and better times. They
were getting tired of their lawlessness, but the great
evil was the agitation that was constantly going on
from one end of Ireland to the other, and by the agita.
tors being subsidised from the other side of the
Atlantic.
in the Queen's Bench thvicion on Tuesuay
Miller, a retired army surgeon, sued the " Western
Daily Mercury for damages for a libel published
shortly after the election, during which he had been a
candidate for Central Sheffield. The paragraph com-
plained of was alleged to imply that plaintiff was a
lunatic, and defendants inserted an apology and paid
£lO into court. The jury found that this amount was
ample, and judgment was entered for defendants
An adjourned sitting for the public examination of
Mr. A. S. Sebright was held in the Bankruptcy Court
on Tuesday, and after nme questions had been
answered the examination was adjourned to the 21st
inst., to enable the debtor to amend his statement and
to file a deficiency and a cash account.
fc: At Southwark Police-court, on Tuesday, Albert
Pewtress was committed for trial on several charges of
obtaining money and goods on false pretences. It was
stated that there were 70 charges against him, but only
seven were gone into.
The revenue received from April 1 to the 27th ult.
amounts to £51,646,863, or £496,760 more than the
£51,150,103 received in the corresponding period ending
November 28, 1885. The expenditure up to the 27th
tilt. was £55,672,063, being £2,271,029 less than the ex-
penditure for the similar period of 1885-6. The balances
on the 27th ult, amounted to £1,956,472, and on
November 28, 1885, to £2,364,840._

Mr. H. C. Bothesy pretided on Tuesday at a meeting
of the members of the corporation of the Royal Albert
Hall, held in the west theatre of the hall, to consider
the draft of the supplemental charter to be applied
for. A long discussion was maintained on varicus
proposed amendments, and eventually the charter,
with some modifications was adopted.
On Tuesday the Bishop of Colctiester conducted a
reopening Fervice in the church of St,. Bartholomew
the Great, Smithfield, and preached a sermon appro-
priate to the event. The foundation of this church
wis laid some 80 years previous to the commencement
of the Temple Church, and but 20 years later than the
building of the chapel in the White Tower.
A Treaty of Commerce has been concluded between
France and Mexico.

Colonels Hope, Reeves, and Maitland attended before
the Royal Commission upon Warlike Stores at its meet-
ing on Tuesday, and gave evidence
Two boatmen on Tuesday reported to the Hull police
that they saw a boat containing three men capsize on
the Humber. They proceeded to the spot, but could
not see either the men nr the boat.

The " World " says that Mrs. Langtry has been laid
up for a week at Boston with laryngitis, unable to act.
She describes her present tour as the best she has ever
had, and says she has been clearing £lOOO a week since
she started this time in America.
Lord Charles Thynne was on Tuesday morning
ordained by Cardinal Manning, at his house, West-
minster. The new priest is the youngesc son of the
second Marquis of Bath, and is 73 years of age. He
was educated at Harrow and Oxford, and was Canon of
Canterbury from 1845 to 1852. He seceded to the
Church of Rome in 1853.

The Governor of Norwich Castle on Tuesday morn-
ing received an intimation from the Home Secretary
that the Queen had respited Arthur Riches, 36, a fish
hawker, who was sentenced to death by Mr. Justice
yield for the murder of his wife in Norwich Market-
place by attacking her there, and cutting her throat.
The sentence is commuted to penal servitude for life.
The extensive paper-staining works owned by
Messrs Mitchell and Arnott, at Golborne, Newton-le.
Willows, were destroyed by fire on Tuesday morning.
For some time the adjoining property was in great
danger, and the occupants hastily removed their furni-
ture into the streets. The damage is roughly estimated
at £40,000, and a large number of workpeople are
thrown idle.

A young man named Hughes, a resident of Farn-
worth near Bolton, was engaged at the cleaning shed
of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway on Tuesday
morning, when a pipe of an engine burst, allowing a
large volume cf steam to escape, which scalded him
terribly. He managed to crawl out of the rushing
stem, and tumbled in the valve-hole beneath the
engine, where he was found some hours later. He was
removed home, where he died in a few hours.

A large meeting of seamen and seagoing firemen was
held at Sunderland on Tgesday to secure a uniform
rate of wages. It was unanfThously agreed that the wages
should be Ll per month, and seamen and firemen were
urged rot to ship below that rate.
A farmer, named Alfred Wood, of Postern, near
'Derby, committed suicide by hanging himself, on Mon-
day night. On hearing of her husband's sad end, his
wife was overcome with grief, and died from the shock
in a few hours. Both Wood and his wife were about
60 years of age.
A branch postoffice in the centre of Belfast was
broken into and robbed on Tuesday morning. No
business was transacted in the establishment during
the day, in order that stock might be taken, and the
extent of the robbery aceertained. It was found that
about £3OO in stamps and other postal forms had been
carried off.

• A meeting was held at Eton en Tuesday evening to
consider the subject of the commemoration of the
Queen's Jubilee. There was a very large attendance of
residents and college masters. Various suggestions
were put forward, and it was eventually resolved that it
was desirable to erect a public hall. A committee was
then appointed to receive subscriptions and to as-
certain in a site could be obtained from the college
authorities.

The shipments of pig iron and manufactured iron
from Middlesbrough during the past month show a
considerable decrease as compared with October. The
total shipments of pig-iron amounted to 71,363 tons,
or 13,000 tons less than during October, whilst the total
shipments of manufactured iron amounted to 30,659
tons, being 1100 tons less than for October. During
the month there have been heavy shipments of pig-iron
to Scotland.

The identity of the derelict ship now lying on the
North Beach, Tenby, was established on Tuesday after-
noon by the findi, g of a chest belonging to T. Linsham,
the boatswain of the Snowdon, with a list of the crew
and several letters addressed to the boatswain at Port
Royal, from which vessel the Snowdon sailed for Bel-
fast. The Snowdon was a vessel of 1000 tons burthen,
was laden with timber, and carried a crew of 17 hands,
all of whom perished.
Mr. Mundella, M.P., speaking on Tuesday night at
Sheffield, alluded to the efferts of the French Minister
of Commerce to suppress false naarking in France, and
said he hoped the time was not far distant when there
would be international fair dealing in trade matters
throughout Europe. He believed that we should see and
hear a great deal about Ireland, and predicted that 12
months of a Conservative Government would quite
suffice to 1 eep them out of office for the next 10 or 12

About eleven o'clock on Tuesday morning three
gamekeepers in the employ of Lord Sackville were
attacked with great ferocity by three poachers, whom
they found in a wood on'the Knob e Park estate. The
poachers, who were armed with heavy sticks, dealt
terrific blows at the keepers, whom they very seriously
injured, and they afterwards escaped.
At Birkenhead on Tuesday three young men, named
George Bolton, Robert Oliver, and William Strowbridge,
were charged with stealing three diamond rings, the
property of Major Poe, of the Royal Marines. The
rings, which are valued at £l2O, were stolen from a
lavatory in a saloon car in which Major and Mrs. Poe
were travehing trom London to Birkenhead. The
prisoners afterwards offered one of the diamonds for
sale, and were apprehended. Bolton was sentenced
to four months' imprisonment, and Strowbsidgo and
Oliver to two months.

Two shocks of earthquake were felt on Sunday itt
Summerville and at Charleston.
The Chilian steamer Ester put into Yarmouth
Roads on Monday morning with the fireman dead on
board, having been killed by the machinery.
The Hon. W. B. Dailey has refused the post of Chief
Justice of New South Wales, and it has been accepted
by the Hon. F. M. Darley.
A strong shock of earthquake was felt at Tashkend,
Central Asia, on Monday morning, causing damage to
many houses in the Russian quarter.
Forty-one prisoners, charged with moonlighting, and
crimes connected therewith, were on Monday removed
from Tralee Gaol to Cork for trial.
The steamer Richard Moxon, of Goole, was towed
into Yarmouth Roads on Monday morning with her
machinery broken down, having been run into by the
steamer Ralph Creyke, of Goole.
At a meeting of the unemployed of Northampton
held on the Market Square on Monday, the men
expressed their determination to decline to work in the
town labour yards unless they were each paid two
shillings per day.
On Wednesday Sheriff Brown delivered judgment at
Aberdeen in the breach of promise action for £5OO
damages brought by a young widow against David
Waldie, a hay merchant, 72 years of age. It was
decided that the pursuer had, by impropriety of
conduct, forfeited her legal rights. No damages were
*warded, but the defender was refused costs.
Tuesday was the last time for the publication of
notices relative to bills to be brought forward next
session, and there appears to be every probability that
the number of measures promoted will be even less
than during the last session, Of late years there has
been a considerable decline in this branch of Parlia-
mentary business, as may be judged from the state-
ment that while the total amount of money proposed
to be raised in 1883 by bills relating to railway El, canals,
tramways, and the supply of gas and water was
£94,342,749, the amount for 1886 in respect to the same
classes of bills was only £23,434,718. Of railway bills
notice has been given of no great number, and some of
these are not in relation to new enterprises, but are, on
the eontrary, for the abandonment of the undertakings
already authorised, and the releass of the deposit
which Parliament requires shall be made by pro-
moters.

Sentence of death has been passed upon nine young
men convicted of outraging a servant girl, 16 years of
age, near Moore-park, in the suburbs of that city, last
September.
Another successful attempt has been made to
navigate the Niagara Whirlpool by a man and woman
in one barrel. The man had performed a similar feat
before.
A special meeting of the Plymfith Chamber of
Commerce was held on Monday to consider the recent
disposition of the American mail contracts, and it was
suggested that the best way of meeting the difficulty
would be to run a fast line of steamers from London
direct to New York, with Plymouth as the only port of
call.

In Glasgow, on Monday, Sheriff Mair delivered judg-
ment in the Board of Trade inquiry into the stranding
of the Western Highlands steamer Staffa off Kintyre in
August. The vessel ran upon rocks in a dense fog and
foundered, the passengers and crew being landed
safely. The court found that the master, Angus
Mackinnon, and the first mate, John Bowie, had not
navigated the vessel properly, nor taken due pre'
cautions and accordingly suspended their certificates
for three months. _ _

Mr. John Hargreaves, of Maiden Erleigh, near Read-
ing, who has occupied the position of Master of the
South Berke Hunt since 1865, has signified his inten.
tion of giving up the hounds at the end of the present
season. Mr. Hargreaves hunced until 1875 with the
aid of a subscription, after which he purchased the pack
from the committee, and has, until now, hunted the
county at his own expense. During the last few
seasons Mr. Hargreaves has hunted five days a week.
It is understood that Major Allfrey, of Wokefield-park,
will take over the mastership on the retirement of Mr.
Hargreaves.
On Monday Dr. Tindal Robertson, Conservative was
returned unopposed es representative in Parliament for
Brighton.
The committee on the equestrian statue of the Duke
of Wellington have decided that it shall be placed with
the duke facing Aimley House on the enclosure directly
opposite. The pedestal will be of red polished Aberdeen
granite with four colossal bronze figures of British sol-
diers as supporters, representing the four national di.
visions of the kingdom.
A fire has occurred at Duluth, Minnesota, which has
destroyed three elevators, 880,000 bushels of grain, and
a number of dwellings and stores. Three lives have
been lost, while the damage caused is estimated at
1,000,000 dols.
P- The salaries of tbe Chief Constructors at Chatham
Portsmouth, and Devonport have been materially re-.
duced. The old scale was £7OO to £850; the nevi
scale will be £6OO to £7OO per annum.
The Admiralty have decided to lay down three
steel cruisers at Portsmouth. Two are to be proceeded
with as soon as possible in building slips that have
for some years been unoccupied; the third is to be
laid down in the slip where the Trafalgar is being
constructed. It is not contemplated to discharge any
more men from Portsmouth Dockyard.
The arrangements for the mobilisation of the Ist
Army Corps early next year are being pushed forward
at the War Office, and it is understood that the Esti-
mates for 1887-8 will include a provision for manceuvres
on the large scale of those which were held in the
vicinity of the camp at Salisbury Plain, Daxtmoor, and
Cannock Chase some years since.
The steam trawler Telephone, of North Shields, and
belonging to Mr. William Brown, of Newcastle•on-
Tyne, exreriesced heavy weather whilst proceeding
from Penarth to the Tyne. Her connecting rod broke,
the planks gave way, the water rushed in, and the
vessel afterwards foundered. The crew were saved by
the screw-steamer Westoe, of South Shields.

Three soldiers died last week in Cork Barracks from
typhoid fever, and on the tank from which the rater
supply is received being examined, a dead dog was
found in an advanced state of decomposition.
Last Monday v, as the anniversary of the election of
the first School Board for London, which took place on
November 29th, 1870.

•
Mr. W. Fieidc: Crump, of North Ceinay House,
Cirencester, chit man of the Cirencester magistrates,
met his death on Saturday whilst out with the Cotswold
Hounds.

Mr. J. P. B. Robertson, MP.. Solicitor• General for
Scotland, presided on Saturday evening at the annual
gathering of the Argyle and Bute Artillery Volunteers
at Rothsay. He spoke of the great benefit, physically
and otherwise, which young men received from volun-
teer training, and considered the Government would
act wisely i a encouraging and fostering the movement.
The Solicitor-General was afterwards initiated into the
Ancient Order of Shepherds as an honorary member.
The report that Hamilton Williams will succeed
O'Donovan Rossa as head of the dynamite section of
the Fenian Brotherhood is confirmed.

An inquest was held et Flatefield, near 'Uxbridge, on
the body of a woman who was found dead in a neigh.
bouring wood under mysterious circumstances. After
hearing the evidence, the jury found that the deceased
had committed suicide while of unsound mind.