The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-02-06 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN. •

The Wornen's Suffrage Journal says the Women's
Disabilities Removal Bill will be introduced by Mr. Forsyth,
Q.C., with whom are associated the Right Hon. James
Stansfeld, the Right Hon. Russell Uurney, and Sir Robert
Anstruther.

The establishment of a vast camp by Prussia on the
left bank of the Rhine is a matter decided on for next
spring.

- -
The Famiglia cotton stores of the Viceroy of Egypt's
Daira have been burnt. The exact amount of the damages
has not been ascertained, but it is estimated at between
£30,000 and £40,000. The stores were insured in several
companies.
Old Bank of England notes are preserved for seven
years. The original value of the present stock was over
£3,000,000,000 sterling, and their weight is more than 112
tons.
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-----
A clergyman who has spent nearly the whole of his
life working among the seamen of Liverpool—the Rev.
William Maynard—died on Thursday in last week at Rock
Ferry, aged seventy.
Mount Etna has recently been giving preliminary
Indications of an eruption. Letters from Catania speak of
hollow sounds and thick smoke clouds 'issuing from the
crater.

Russia, according to an official despatch received at
Madrid, has recognised King Alfonso's Government, and by
the confirmation of Count Ludolf's position as Austro-
Hungarian envoy to Spain, recognition on the part of Austria
is regarded as an accomplished fact.
- -

The Jersey States were on Saturday occupied with
the discussion of a compulsory Vaccination Act for the
Island. The measure met with strong opposition, and the
debate was ultimately adj.airned to a future day. Public
feeling is said to be very strong against the Bill.
The United States debt is still on the increase.
The monthly statement issued by the Secretary of the
Treasury shows that on February Ist the national debt
amounted to 2,143,996,172 dels., being an increase of
1,397,870 dole. during January.

,
A South African paper understands that the surface
of the country in many parts of the Free State is covered
with myriads of locusts, which are doing great damage.

•
Advices from Cape Coast Castle state that great dis-
satisfaction prevails among the native kings and chiefs in
connection with the abolition of slavery, and that a petition
on the subject has been sent to the Governor.
The Indian salt revenue for the current year, from
the Ist of April to the 30th November, amounted to
£3,773,717, against £3,819,333 during the same period of last
year.
Last season there were sent from Delaware, chiefly
by railroad to the north, 837,219 baskets of peaches, pro-
ducing about 80 cents per basket, or 669,775 dols. in the
whole.
The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society clothed, fed,
and forwarded to their homes 690 persons who were ship-
wrecked during the late disastrous gales ; and also relieved
806 widows and parents at a cost to the society for the month
of January alone of £3,640. During the past year 10,028
persons were relieved.
Mr, Thomas Carlyle has declined the offer of the
Grand Cross of the Bath made to him on the recommendation
of Mr. Disraeli. It is stated that Mr. Alfred Tennyson has
also declined the offer of a haronetcy.—Daily News.
In the Court of Common Pleas on Monday the
Solicitor-General, on the part of the Bar, addressed Mr.
Justice Keating, and expressed the deep regret of the legal
profe.sion at bis retirement from the discharge of his judi-
cial functions. He had sat side by side with illustrious men
—men of the highest intellect and the most profound learn-
ing. Yet even in such society he had been enabled to main-
tain a high position on the Bench.—Mr. Justice Keating, in
reply, conveyed his deep sense of the support and assistance
which he had invariably received from the Bar, and assured
them that what had passed that day would never fade from
his memory. His lordship then shook hands with the
judges, fourteen of whom were present, and left the
Bench.

An idea for a dress at a fancy dress ball (it was worn
by a young lady at a recent ball in Marshall, Texas) :—" The
dress represented the flag of the Confederacy. On her arm she
bore the flag adopted by the Confederate National Congress.
On the lower skirts were stars for the States, with the name
and seal of each State in the centre; photographs of Con-
federate generals were on the upper skirt, together with
pictures of the Alabama and Sumter; on her shoulders
were streamers with the successful battles; manacles and
chains were on her arms; a coronet of the seceded States
was on her head, and rising above them was a black veil,
representing the gloom thrown over them. This was fastened
with the dagger of oppression."
-

General Romanoffski, in a sitting of the Russian
Technical Society at St. Petersburg recentiv imparted in-
teresting intelligence respecting the coal-fields of the Sir
Darya country. Coal abounds in the hills, but mostly occurs
in nests containing comparatively small quantities of the
valuable mineral. Of large coal-fields, but few have hitherto
been discovered. The most extensive are those of Kokine
Sai, near Chodshent, containing 19 million pud at the lowest
estimate. Next to them rank the Tatarinoff mines, from
which 300,000 pud of the best coal have been already taken
and the annual output of which averages 70,000 pud. Lead,
salt, and other minerals of superior quality have likewise
been discovered, and promise a flourishing trade.

Much snow fell on Monday in Berlin, where it is
said a great deal of illness prevails.
__ _ - -

The Terre Haute Express talks about a saintly
being "standing clad in the white tights of purity."

A-sum of £62 17s. 9(1. was lately receivecl in Bom-
bay, from Trinidad, subscribed by coolie labourers on 18
estates in the island, towards the Bengal Famine Relief Fund.
The country seat of the Earl of Ellenborough, at
Holly Springs, near Windsor, has been entered by burglars,
and robbed of a large quantity of jewellery.

- -
The authorities cf San Remo have presented to the
Empress of Russia a magnificent album of photographs as a
memento of her visit her Majesty has given I,ooof to the
Mile Evangelique at Nice.

Dr. Hitzig, the eminent Biblical and Semitic
scholar, died a few days ago at Heidelberg. where he had
been Professor of Theology since 1861, when he resigned the
Rectorship of the High School at Zurich. He was in his
68th year.
In the German Parliament on Saturday the Imperial
Bank Bill wasread a third time and passed, an amendment
by Herr Lasker to one of the clauses being adopted The
bill was also carried on the final vote by a large majority.
The Imperial Message declaring the session closed was
then read, and the House dispersed with cheers for the
Emperor.
In London, about ten o'clock on Sunday morning a
fire took place at No. 2, Queen-street, Tower-hill. The fire,
which is supposed to have been caused by a candle, took
place in the room of a lodger, aged 48 years, who occupied a
back room on the first floor. When entrance was gained by
the firemen, the lodger was found to have been burnt to
death. The flock bed was destroyed, and the other contents
of the room had sustained more or less damage.
-

_
The lifeboat of the National Institution at Broad-
stairs was launched on Sunday afternoon, in reply to signals
of distress from the lightship on the Goodwin Sands. She
found on the Sands the barque Anna, of Bremen, from
Rotterdam for New York, with a general cargo. As the
ship was likely to become a total wreck, the lifeboat took
off the whole of the crew, consisting of sixteen hands.

In South Durham, the largest coal producing district
in the kingdom, the price of household coal, which had not
been reduced for nearly a year, has now been reduced 2s. per
ton. This will make 149. to 14s. 9cl. at the pit. In North
Durham, where the supply goes chiefly to the London mar-
ket, there has as yet been no reduction.

Under the presidency of the Comte de Jarnae, the
French Ambassador in London, the annual festival of the
French Hospital was held at Willis's Rooms on Saturday.
The chairman proposed several toasts, and in giving the
health of the promoters of the hospital made an appeal on
behalf of the institution, and reminded the company that the
Princes of the House of Orleans, though restored to their
native country, had not forgotten their poor compatriots in
the land of their former exile. Among other speakers was
the Lord Mayor, who referred with expressions of gratifica-
tion to his recent visit to Paris. Subscriptions to the
amount of upwards of £l,OOO were announced during the
evening.
In London last week 2,567 births and 1,650 deaths
were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the
births exceeded by 128, whereas the deaths were 26 below,
the average numbers in the corresponding week of the last
ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes, which in
the three previous weeks had been equal to 35, 29, and 24
per 1,000, rose again last week to 25. The 1,650 deaths in-
cluded 5 from small-pox, 8 from measles, 61 from scarlet
fever, 7 from diphtheria. 39 from whooping-cough, 31 from
different forms of fever, and 20 from diarrhea.
_

Captain Ericsson, of Monitol fame, has, it is stated,
Invented a new kind of torpedo for use in naval warfare.
The new weapon is somewhat similar in construction to the
well-known fish torpedo, but Captain EriCBBoll claims that,
by means of a flexible tubular cable, his torpedo will enable
the person firing it to direct its flight, and to steer it under
water with as much certainty as a boat is steered above it.
The annual report of the Arbitration Board for the
North of England manufactured iron trade mentions as a
matter for congratulation that there has been no general
strike since the establishment of the board six years ago.
There are 13,000 persons members of the organisation.
Partridge and pheasant shooting closed on Monday.
The sport in Perthshire during the season has been un-
usually good. Some of the larger estates yielded one thou-
sand brace of partridges and three hundred brace of
pheasants. A fair stock has been left for breeding. Latest
reports from the moors state that the storms have been very
destructive to grouse, and on the higher grounds game of all
kinds have been found dead in large numbers.
Garabaldi had an interview with King Victor
Emmanuel on Saturday. No one else was present at it ex-
cept Nenotti Garibaldi, but it is said to have been long and
cordial, and to have related chiefly to the General's sant-
ary schemes. When Garibaldi departed the King accom-
tanied him to the hall door, and military officers escorted
him to his carriage. Nearly all the Deputies of the Chain-
pers sent in their cards.
The scheme for tunnelling the Channel has got thus
far, that two companies—one French and one English—have
agreed to try an experiment on each side (says the Court
Journal). They have the necessary concessions and the
needful capital, and are going to bore in earnest. When
they have bored, the world will be in a position to judge of
their prospects, and not till then. They hope to bore through
chalk, to keep a chalk wall fifty yards thick over their heads,
and to find no very serious " fault ;" and if their hopes are
justified, they may make the tunnel, and have no tasks remain-
ing except to secure the needful air, the necessary passengers,
and a profit.
Newspaper correspondents in Rome say that Gari-
baldi seems intent upon winning over men of all ranks and
political opinions to his project for diverting the course of
the Tiber and improving the Campagna. In speaking of it
the other day he declared that if carried out it would greatly
benefit Rome and double the population. He talks little of
politics, but still retains his Republican opinions, while ad-
mitting that it would avail nothing now to proclaim a
Republic. It is mentioned as a noteworthy circumstance
that on the day of his arrival not a single offence was re-
ported at the police-station ; and though the crush was
tremendous, the pickpockets did not ply their trade. The
General has been invited to pay a visit to Naples, and it is
thought that he may perhaps accept the invitation. Be has,
however, allowed it to be clearly understood that he will
give no sort of assistance to any movement likely to em-
barrass the Government.