The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-10-20 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

A disastrous fire broke out at day break on
Wednesday morning, at Messrs. Hackett's Tap
Mills, Matlock. The mills were totally destroyed.
The damage is estimated at £10,000; and 200
people will be thrown out of employment. One
man named Hallan perished in the flames. The
last seen of him was at the top of one of the
windows calling for" help," but no ladder could
be found long enough to roach the window. It
Is supposed that the firs was caused by a flue
from a blacksmith's shop attached to the mill.
The premises were insured.

It has been .announced that a Constitutional
Association has been formed, with the object of
increasing the numerical power of the Conser-
vative party by careful attention to the Parlia-
mentary register, Mr. C. Piffard is the honorary
secretary of the new association, which has taken
for its motto the significant phrase, l'as eat a al,
hone dueirs.

A murderous and nearly fatal attack was made
on an official in the Nottingham gaol on Tues-
day morning. A convict named Carpenter, who,
notwithstanding a sullen and reserved temper,
had been treated with some extra leniency, at-
tacked a warder named Slade without any appa-
rent cause, and seizing him by the hair of the
head, savagely stabbed him in the left eye with
one of the points of a pair of scissors, inflicting
a very dangerous wound. Fsrtunately he was
speedily secured and fettered, or the warder
might have lost Ms life at once.
During the present week great Reform meet-
ings have been held in various parts of the
country. Mr. Bright attended at illasgow and
mot with a very warm reception. He was enter-
tained by the Scottish National Reform Leagne.
There has been a shameful trade outrage at
Nottingham. In consequence of the strike in
the building trades of that town, the masters
have been compelled to put on noursociety
hands, and several of these, it seems, took up
their quarters at an eating-house. On Monday
' night a great crowd of turn-outs assembled in
front of this eating-house, shouting and threat-
ening, and at last three or four of their number,
with blacken.' faces, rushed into the place, and
savagely assaulted not only men but women.
The outrage was so unexpected, and so quickly
perpetrated, that the fellows managed to escajw
for the time being, but they were arrested shortly
aft( muds. They have been brought before the
Magistrates and remanded.
Lord Malmeabury presided on Monday at an
agricultural dinner at Christchurch, Hants, and
in replying to the toast of the House of Lords,
defended that hotly from an attack recently
made on it by Mr. Bright. Ito said that Mr.
Bright, " speaking in that off-haunt matmei iju
which he treats all subjects," not long ago chose
to assume that any Reform Rill accepted by the
Commons would be rejected by the House of
Lords, which had therefore better be swept away
altogether. Lord Malmesbnry frankly said "be
was not going to toll " his hearers whether the
the present Government intended to bring in a
it, lona Bill or not, but he wanted to know what
right Mr. Bright had to say that if mien a bill
should pass the House of Corumone under any
Government, the blouse of Loeb was sure to
reject it. His Lordship pointed omit that the
subject of Refonu has never been discusseAl, or
even nowt.' in the Upper House since ls:e2;
that a generation has passed saw since that
period; and that few of the peers who then sat
is the House, remain among its members; and
he theref ore declared it a calumny to say that the
Lards would now inconsiderately reject a Reform
measure. The noble earl further showed that it
was a popular error to suppose that the Upper
Hoase always had little to tin. tp to the mouth
of May that was so, from the constitutional rule
rending that all money bills must be initiated
an the other house ; but after that limo tha busi-
ness of the Lords was quite as great as that of
tho Commons, and much of their lordships'
labour c insisted in amending the crude and im•
perfect measuressent up to Meats