The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-20 00:00:00

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The installation' of the Prince of Wales as Grand
Master of the Freemasons will take place at the Albert Hall
on Wednesday, April 28. It is expected that about seven or
eight thousand masons will be present at the ceremony.
According to the Moscow Gazette the laws regulating
the position of Dissenting sects in Russia are to be revised,
and fuller liberty of worship is expected to be conceded.
Miss Hannah de Rothschild has presented to the
National Lifeboat Institution £2,000, to form and endow a
lifeboat station, in memory of her father, Baron Mayer de
Rothschild.
A. boy jockey in California, who during the past .
two years has ridden horses in several races, was lately dis-
covered to be a girL
"Mr. George Smith has discovered among the
Assyrian tablets in the British Museum, the legend of the
building of the Tower of Babel. This discovery is quite as
important as that of the tablet relating to the Deluge, made
known last year by the same gentleman."—Athenceunt.
In the half-yearly report of the Great Northern
Railway the directors call attention to the fact that they
have decided not to discontinue the use of second-class car-
riages. The wishes of the public, so far as they have been
expressed, appear to be in favour of retaining three classes.
The army estimates were published on Monday.
The gross amount is £14,677,700, an increase of £192,400, but
deducting the estimated Exchequer receipts the net charge
for army services is £13,488,200.
The Queen lists received, through the Earl of Car-
narvon, the war club of King Thakambau, which was in
former times the symbol of sovereignty in the Fiji Islands,
and which has now been presented be her Majesty by the
King in token of his dutiful allegiance.
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The Committee of the National Agricultural Union
decided, at a sitting at Leamington on Monday, to send out
290 unionists to Ontario. They will sail from Liverpool on"
the 25th inst. The authorities at Ontario have arranged to -
receive 1,000 farm labourers, and 700 more will be forwarded
at intervals in March.
The Agent-General for New Zealand has been ad-
vised of the safe arrival in that colony of the following emi-
grant^ships :—Dilharree, Warwick, Invererne, Berar, Hum-
boldt, Wild Deer, Michael Angelo, Avalanche, Lady Jocelyn,
and the Waimate.
Garibaldi has entrusted an English firm of engineers
with the preparation of plans for the formation of a harbour
at Fiumicino, in connection with his Tiber scheme. The
plans are to be prepared at once, so that the works may be
commenced as soon as possible.
The Corporation of Blackburn have purchased the
works and rolling stock of the Blackburn Water Works Com-
pany, and have guaranteed to pay to the latter a fixed per:,
centage of nine per cent. for a period of five years, and at the
expiration of that time the sum of nine and a half per con
for ever. The value of the works is expected to be £200,000
Her Majesty the Queen sent to the widow a
Napoleon 111., immediately after her return from her visit
to Windsor Castle, the first volume of Mr. Theodore Martin's
"Life of the Prince Consort," and last week the Empress
presented to Queen Victoria a superbly-hound copy of the
first two volumes of Mr. Blanchard Jerrold's "Life of
Napoleon III."
A deputation waited on the Rev. Dr. Begg, at
Edinburgh on Saturday, headed by Colonel Macdonald
Macdonald', of St. Martin's, Kidston, of Ferniegar, and pre-
sented him with £4,670 in acknowledgment of the im-
portant services he has rendered for the maintenance or
Protestantism, religious education, and national religion.
Dr. Begg suitably acknowledged the gift.
Mrs. Badcock, residing at Birmingham, died in
London, on Monday, at St. George's Hospital from the result
of an accident which happened to her on Saturday morning
at Victoria Station. In stepping Oat of a carriage she
slipped and fe4 under the wheels, one of her feet being cut
off and the other severely crushed. She was removed to St.
George's Hospital, where it was found necessary to take off
the other foot. She lingered till eight o'clock on Monday
morning, when she died.
Sir Garnet Wolseley, Inspector-General of the Re-
serve Forces, presented the prizes to the London Scottish
Rifles on Saturday evening. He expressed his belief that,
with regard to the Volunteers generally, there had been a
great improvement during the last few years; and so far
from the regular army not having a friendly spirit towards .
the force, he was certain that the contrary was the case.
A peculiarity of the emigration to Europe just now
Is the large number of German artisans—bookbinders, '
machinists, type-setters, &c.—who are returning to the old
country at the invitation of Prussian manufacturers who ,
have been sending agents to America to secure workmen for
their establishments. Cheap labour in Prussia, as in Ame-
rica, is only too plentiful, but skilled labour is scarce, and •
readily brings two, and even three, times the wages formerly.
paid.
At the Liverpool Quarter Sessions, on Saturday,
the Grand Jury made the following presentment :—" The
Grand Jury present, in the cases brought before them, have
noticed with deep regret the great number of crimes of
violence, in many cases made upon unoffending perscins '
and they are of opinion that the hands of the Recorder and
the magistrates ought to be strengthened, that the per-
Tetrators of these cowardly crimes may be intimidated and
punished."
Miss Elizabeth Thompson's picture, "The Roll •
Call," which, from the moment of its first attracting notice
on the walls of the Royal Academy, has been the theme of
extraordinary Praise, is now on *view at the gallery of the
Society of French Artists, in New Bond Street, London.
Prominently hung, in the midst of a collection of water-
colour drawings, which, from their nature, do not detract
from its peculiar interest, the lady-artist's famous work l.a•
here beheld to the utmost advantage, and will no doubt be ••:,
of itself a most popular exhibition.
A veteran named Simmons has lately died at Ifeacl- • •
ing. The deceased soldier enlisted into the 2nd Battalion
3rd Old Buffs, No. 1 Company, when only aboutl7 yeart ot
age; and, after serving through the Peninsular campaigns -
in Portugal and Spain, where he was wounded in the head ix,
and nearly lost his life; he fought in France, and atiro .
Canada, and in 1818 received his discharge, with a good' •
character, having been in active service for about ten years.
He worked as a bootmaker until 1874, when, more than 50
years after the date of his discharge, the Commissioners of '
Chelsea Hospital granted him a permanent pension of is. gd.
per day. He had attained the advanced age of 85 years. .
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