The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-12-18 00:00:00

SATURDAY, DEC. 18, 1886.

The &at stone of a new Central Fish Market, near
the present Farringdon market—which Is to be con-
verted into a fruit, flower, and vegetable market—was
laid by Mr Henry Hugh Lavington, chairman of the
Markets Committee of the City Corporation.
Mr. Wynne E. Baxter has been elected coroner for
East Middlesex by a majority of 121 votes over Dr.
Macdonald, M.P.
By the fall of an embankment on the Swansea Blast
Furnace Company's Works 500 men are thrown out of
employment. Damage to the extent of £l5OO has
also been occasioned by the fall of a huge stack on the
mill during the late storm-.
The Hon. Almarus Kenelm Digby, second son of
Lord Digby, has died suddenly at Longford Castle,
Wilts.
The Paris" Figaro "announces officially the betrothal
of Letitia, daughter of Prince Napoleon, to Rosland
Bonaparte, whose first wife was the daughter of M.
Blanc, owner of the Monaco gaming tables.
In a letter to the Rector of Lambeth, the Bishop of
Rochester promises three pounds' worth of books to
each of the ten centres in which the proposed free
libraries are to be established. _ _ .

Archibald Robertson, who has suffered 60 days' im-
prieonment for ringing fire-alarm bells, was again
brought up at the Glasgow Police-court on Monday
morning for a similar offence. He was fined £lO, or
two months' imprisonment.
A Spanish Chamber of Commerce, under the
patronage of Sea Spanish Government, was constituted
at Tangiers on Saturday evening, with a view to
promoting commercial relations between Spain and
Morocco.
At Cork Assizes on Monday, six young men, of the
farming class, were charged with having, on August
11th, at the Abbey Killorglin, being armed and dile
guised, entered the house of Abraham Huggard in
search of arms.. The jury could not agree to a ver-
dict except in the case of one man, Michael Murphy,
who was acquitted:
At Manchester, on Monday, a married woman named
Mareland was committed for trial for child desertion.
The prisoner earned omall sums by calling people up
in the morning, and the other day, while going her
rounds, she was confined. She left the child in the
street, and it was discovered by a policeman who took
it to the asylum. The prisoner, when apprehended,
said she was bewildered at the time, and did not knovr
what she was doing.
A preliminary call of 10 per cent. has been made
upon the guarantors of the Folkestone Art Treasures
Exhibition, which most of them have declined to pal
unless a full statement of liabilities is made. It le
thought that the guarantors will have to pay over 50
per cent.
Ur. Justice Boyd, sitting as receieer judge in the •
Land Court at Dublin, announced that if the tenants on
any of the estates under the supervision of that court
joined what was called the "plan of campaign," he
would treat it as contempt of court, and he would know'
how to deal both with the tenants and the persons who
received the money from them.
The annual general meeting of the constituents of
the Hospital Sunday Fund was held on Monday at
the Mansion House. The report of the council stated
that the fund of 1886 amounted to £40,399, as corn.
pared with £34,320 in 1885. The 19th of June Wag
fixed for Hospital Sunday in 1887.
Speaking at one of a series of meetings being held
in West Southwark with a view to encourage ladies to
take a practical interest in politics. Mr. A. Cohen,
M.P., said that he had pledged himself to a statutory
Parliament for Ireland, and he meant to keep that ,
pledge.
It was resolved by a town's meeting at Nottingham
on Monday to erect a statue to the memory of the late
Mr. Morley, and to devote the surplus funds to the
building of a hall where societies for the education and
improvement of the masses should have a free home,
and to the establishment of almshouses for the nged
poor.
Shortly before noon on Monday the steam lanncb
Queen, plying between Portsea and Gosport, was run
down by a Snit-class torpedo boat, which was running
out of harbour at high speed. There was a number of
passengers on board the steam-launch, which was struoS
on the port bow. A severe shock was experienced and
a yachtsman named Wm. Pryor was jerked into the
water. Fortunately he managed to secure a life-buoY,
with which he kept himself afloat until he could be
dragged on board. Complaints have been made ou
account of the great speed with which torpedo boats
are navigated in the harbour. The captain of the Queeit
attributes the accident to the rapidity with which the
torpedo boat suddenly changed her course. Neithet
craft was seriously injured.
The River Spey baying burst into the old bed of the
river, from which it was diverted about a year ago,
previous to the completion of the Moray Firth Coast
Railway, and having threatened to demoliele a concrete
wall protecting the railway embankment, a sqaad or
100 men started work on Monday to prevent the
apprehended destructiose The concrete wall is a foot ,
thick, and the water is in sevetal places workiog
through in little streams and finds its way under the
foundation. The embankment holds good; but should
the wall give way part of the line would be at close
swept away.
The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain volt
successful on Monday in obtaining a verdict of glo
claimed as penalties from a man named Jarman foi
selling laudanum and calling himself a druggist, when
he was not re.istered as such, contrary to the pre;
visions of the Pharmacy Act. The action was trien
at the Salford County Court, before Judge' Russell.
The judge sugeested that an application should
•he
made to the Treasury for a reduction or a remiesion
of the penalties, because the defendant had givea sif
ereivig, the well-known Danish philologist,
dice note on Sunday afternoon.
At Cheltenham on Saturday an inquest was held on
the body of a lady, aged 60, whose death was occae
eloped by a member of a local club of harriers acci-
dentally knocking her eown. In the fall she sustained
severe injuries to her head, and died a few hours after.
wards. A verdict of "Accidental death " was returned.
Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P., and Mr. Jesse
Collings have returned to England.
A violent shock of earthquake has occurred at
Smryna and at Chios. Frequent oscillations have been
felt during the past fortnight, causing fissures in the
walla and fronts of numerous houses in the town.
An individual was arrested in front of the Imperial -
Palace, Berlin, for throwing a atone at the Emperor's
well-known corner window.
The elections to the Brussels Communal Council
have resulted in the return of eight of the outgoing •
members and a candidate of the working men's
party.
The Countess von Beust has not long survived her
husband, the aged lady having expired at her residence
at Schloss Altenberg, Vienna.
Cardinal Franzelin' of the Order of Jesuits, has died
of p olds sis of the bronchial tubes. The deceased
Cardinal was born at Altino on April 15, 1816, and wee
created a Cardinal on April 3, 1876.
Mr. James Lowther, speaking at a Primrose League "4
meeting at Redcar on Saturday, referred to the present
situation in Irish affairs. He expressed his satisfaction .
that the Unionists bad recognised the necessity of main-
taining law and order, sod that the meeting of the
party last week had been followed by a well-timed and
vigorous speech to the same effect from the Prime
Minister
A public inaugural meeting of the London Commercial
Travellers' Benevolent Society was held on Saturday et
the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor presiding. The
society has been established for the relief of necessitous
London commercial traveller, being members, who are
aged or incapacitated from earning a subsistence, arid
for their widows.
The Council of the London Chamber of Commerce,
at their December meeting, passed the following reso-
lution 'With regard to the North American Mails
"That this Chamber confirms the statement of its
Annual Report for 1884, and renews its approval of
arrangements being made by the Post Office for the
carriage of the North American Mails without contract,
and by the quickest steamers of any or all lines;
also reiterates its approbation of the despatch of malle
to New York by the rapid service viA Southampton. s
A sad domestic tragedy is reported from Hoowoon
Digley, near Holmtirth. It appears that a man named
Joshua Woodcock, 45, employed in a neighbouring
mill, on Friday complained of having bad a sovereign
deducted from his wages for damaging a piece of cloth.
This seems to have preyed upon his mind, for be wile
subsequently missed from his house, and on a search
being made he was found to have thrown himself and
two of his children into the Bilberry Reservoir. All
the bodies have been recovered.