The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-04-11 00:00:00

EPITOME OF SEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN

Lord Neville recently performed the ceremony of
chri,tening a new printing machine, over which a Wale of
port wine was broken.
Sir Brook Bridges, who is about to be called to the
peerage, has no children, neither has his brother.

Mr. Peabody, it ill said, left the Pope £2.00,000
before quitting m me.
The Spectator regrets Sir R. Phillimore's judgment
in favour of lighted candles on the altar.

A letter just reeeivesl from Rome states that the
green corn to now waving on the very spot whrre Garibaldi
planted his guns upon the battle field a Montan.

- -
The accouchettmot of her Royal Highness the
Prim ess uot Wales ts expected to taloa place in duty.
• .

•
1 here is a probability of the All-England Eleven
paving another visit to America for a erigketing tour this
111111111111 r.

Tie short time movement is spreading in the cotton
trade ,1 borth aid ea,4 Lancathira

It hi aaid (and he also been cOntradictell) that the
parents of the boy who was murdered by the idiot son of
Colonel If °lmes have had V.. 0 a year settled upon them
by the Colonel.

The villa2e of Valbella•Snperiore, in the Milanese,
has been entirely destroyed by Pre An old woman, a young
girl, and twenty nine head of cattle perished in the tl aura
Six hundred and forty persons base been reduced to destitu-
tins by this catastrophe.

The Spectator contends that Mr. Disraeli's policy, if
It were iwrAtted Au, or, still worse, adopted LA a Kee.-.lent
by other Premiere, would, in the end, turn Parliamentary
government tato one 1 ing intrigue.

A gebtleman advertise, that he has a " Breeches "
Bible to dlepoee of for 100 glli ll est

On Monday morning the St. George's pigeon fancy
decnied n meieh from W nuln.ster to London. Twenty kirde
contended. The winning pigeon Ilew the (listeno home in
76 minutes. The bud was of the Antwerp bread. The
stakes were £lO.

Earl Grey has given notice of his intention to move,
in coinniittee on the Itevidation of Railways the
tunes tion of clauses imposing penalties for the emission or
Opaque smoke by railway el glees required liy the law to
consume V ca. own. The stationuiastar in the district In
which the offence in committed is to be the nominal defen-
dant.

The Dowager Marchioness of Queensberry has again
maid'ested her regard for the Wife of "Captain" Mackay,
the Fenian sentenced some dap' ago to twelve >ears' penal
se: anode at tire Ihal( asmires. by sending a kohaolit.t lon of
£5 to tire fund wind, a Roman Catholic clergyman of Cork
is collecting on Mrs. Mackeys behalf.

An address has been printed in a cheap form, for
distribotion in parishes before the holding or the annual
vestry meetings, proposing the appointment of • committee
to c4roider the whole subject ,d the restoration of the
ancient freedom of the parish church a form of resolution
is subjoined and a renuidtion to the wardenS to Convene a
vestry Mr the purpose, and all needful irformation. writ he
h•rwarded on application at the ventral office of the National
Free Church Association, Manchester.

Havannah wivices state that the Mexican papers
are toll 14 accounts of robberies and other primes by bands
of mouraudera, tin numbers Iron, ten to 300, covering the
whole land where villages, hamlets, or farms are to he found
beyoi d the reach of nal:tory prouction, not excatelog the
large centres of population, nor the capitakitsclf. "Tie de-
tails," it is said, would 1111 columns—the old picture re-
freshed with new hot..'

The other Ilay the Queen, accompanied by the
Princesses Louisa and Beai I.*. made a private and uneg
pected visit to the ancient church at Clearer, said to be that
which William the Conquer, used to 'weed, and where
several of her Majost)'s faithPil servants are honed. The
gravedigger being the only person In the churcliYard, was
totted on to show the Q.ll en over he church, mid he after-
wards conducted her M ,jesty to the even f a domestic of
the trams if Glover, upon whose grave the Queen placed
some flowers.

A story of Theodore Hook is told by Cornelins
0.1)01.1 i his last essay, to the ffect that at some civic
hanonet, on the appearance of a filth conne of dantieff,
Hook laid his kilo and fork and declared that he would
•• take the rest out in money " The idea, 0 D wi declares,
was •.ernizieutly British," and he whhes that sneh a policy
might he pimued as to make 1< 114 Theodore see the sense .of
such a ovine, give up his pr s 'Hers, ai.d take the rest of the
Atoysennan campaign out it, money.

Dr. Bernie*, of Kentucky, has published some in-
teresting and important statistics upon the results of mar-
riage between blood relations lie states that "he has
found tin at ten per cent, of the deaf and numb, five per cent.
of the blind. and fifteen per cent, of the Idiots admitted Into
the various charitable ihstitutions of the United States, are
the issue of marriages of first cousins." Unions of this kiwi
sre not. prohibited in Kentucky, and in several other States
of the Union.

Every good work in France is bl..ed. Let a rail-
way he opened, a ship launched, or a hell put in a tower, all
claim the "rites of the Crouch " The other day the Arch-
hiehop of Paris attended at the church of St. Peter's, In a
v.llag, on the oub.kirts of the city, to hatoi,e four hells
The largest of the bell. was ..dresaed " in white silk, covered
with Nee, fl were, and ribbons: and Its three "lovely corn-
palms." in rnse.cohoired 6i4c and lace. The four hells were
temporarily hung In the middle of the church, under a data
of red velvet with gold fringe, garlands of flowers, and leaves.
Inning the ceremony an immense quantity of bread was dis-
tributed to the poor.

A dealer named Fletcher, on Friday loot, woe
charged at the , WlAtahurch ,aaloi, Petty Sessions with
cruelty to a t.,./t The cruelty consisted in plucking the
feathers off the fowl whilst it was living. Fletcher did not
deny the act, and maintained that the proper way to deal
with a fowl so vs to make it appear to the hest advantage on
the poulterer's show board is to bleed it nearly to death, and
theo to pick it before it is cold, lie produce.' a wanes,
named Ti.ornas !if uirle 01, a penitarer, who d.p aril that he
ie in a large way er badness, kit ieg beta een 5, 6. wt., 6 00,)
foal, a week, 'nal that that are ali pickod " warm." Fletcher
ed 24..