The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-30 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Lord Wimborne shot over fifty stags this season at
Ahsnashelloch, among which were some handsome royals.—
Court Journal.

A memorial to the late Lieutenant Watkin W illiams-
Wynn, who was recently drowned while canoeing on the
Thames, will probably be placed in Holy Trinity Church,
Windsor. Sir Watkin and Lady Williams-Wynn have been
staying at Windsor for the last few days.—Mondays Times.
General Garibaldi and his family left Genoa on
Saturday for San Damiano, where he will rest some days
before proceeding to Milan.
The Earl of Beaconsfield was confined to Hughenden
for a few days last week by a slight attack of gout.

At Glasgow, last Saturday, the wages question was
discussed at a mass meeting of workmen engaged in the
Clyde shipbuilding yards. The men held that they receive a
much lower rate of wages than the workmen in their trade
in London, Newcastle, Sunderland, Liverpool, and Hull. It
was unanimously resolved to demand an advance of ten per
cent.

The, numerous tenants, from the smallest to the
largest; of the late Knight of Kerry, desiring to show their
respect for his memory, have subscribed to erect a handsome
memorial over his grave on the Island of Valentia. •
More than one-third of an inch of rain fell in
London on Friday night and Saturday morning in last week.

Paintings on hat-brims are the newest freaks of
fashion across the Channel.

Telegrams from Cordova report that a shook of
earthquake, lasting two seconds, has been felt, accompanied
by a loud subterranean rumbling. No damage was done.

It is reported that during the recent great storm en
Lake Michigan the steamer Hyllan Castle sank, and that the
whole of her cargo was lost.
The commercial movement of France for the first
nine months of this year exhibits a sensible progress, as
compared with the corresponding period of 1879. Thus the
value of the imports was £147,192,680, as compared with
£137,048,000. The exports for the first nine months of this
year attained an aggregate of £96,015,C00', as compared with
£93,237,880 in the corresponding period of 1879.
The town of Edinburgh has voted a sum of £1,200
for the execution of 30 statuettes representing the heroes of
Sir Walter Scott's nove/s. These are destined to fill the 30
niches on the monument erected to the great novelist in.
Edinburgh which have hitherto remained empty.
Telegrams from New York announce that the
steamer Europa, which was believed to have sunk during
the rece4t storm on Lake Mthhigan, while on a voyage from
Montrealtto Chicago, arrived at the latterport on Friday
evening, a week overdue.

According to the Journal des Fabricants de Sucre,
the quality of the beet in France this year is poor. The
density of the sap is 3.4, against 3.6 last year, and the
volume of the boiled mass is equally unsatisfactory.
In London on Tuesday the fifth Annual Dairy Show
was opened in the Agricultural Hall, and was well at-
tended.
General James Longstreet, who was regarded as
one of the ablest commanders on the Confederate side during
the late American war, arrived in Liverpool on Tuesday
morning on his way to Constantinople as Minister Resident
of the Government of the United States of America.
The Journal de St. Petersbourg reproduces in a
financial review the statistics from an Odessa circular,
according to which the total stock of wheat in that market
Is eighty thousand quarters, whereas to keep the mill going
until the opening of the navigation in March no less than
six hundred thousand are required, and this, notwithstand-
ing that during the first nine months of the current year the
exports to England were nearly sixty per cent. less than in
the corresponding period of last year, the figures being
2,426,777 quintals; against 5,875,000.

In his capacity of Junior Grand Warden of Eng-
land, the Lord Mayor of London on Monday evening enter-
tained the Prince of Wales (Grand Master), the Duke of
Connaught, and a number of other distinguished Freemasons
at a banquet given at the Mansion House.

On Tuesday an adjourned meeting of miners' dele-
gates from various colliery districts in Lancashire and other
counties was held in Manchester. It was stated that since
the last meeting the employers had been asked for an ad.
vance of 10 per cent., and had replied that increased wages
would be given when an advance could be got in the price of
coals. A general strike was proposed.
Great damage has been done in the proßce of
Reggio, Calabria, by the passage of a violent hutricane
Many parts of the country were inundated, and several
houses were washed away. Some loss of life has been
reported
During the fiscal year ended in June last 457,257
emigrants arrived in the United States, including 144,870
from the British Islands, 84,038 from Germany, 59,081 from
Sweden and Norway, 99,706 from Canada, and 5,802 from
China.

The Economic Congress of Berlin has passed a
resolution expressing the opinion that it is viot desirable
that costiv and dubious experiments at establishilig colonies
should be made at the expense of the community in favour
of certain classes.

Speaking at the diocesan conference at Gloucester,
the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol sai,d he should con.
scientiously object to consecrate churchyards of which the
land was not specially reserved by trust deed for members
of the Church of England. He had drawn up a form for
his clergy to be used separately in every case of interment
in non-consecrated ground.
In London last week 2,361 births and 1,518
deaths were registered. - Allowing for increase of popula-
. tion, the births were 200 below, whereas the deaths exceeded
by 69, the average numbers in the corresponding week of
the last ten years. The annual death•rate from all causes,
which had been equal to 19•3, 10•9, and 200 in the three
preceding weeks, further rose to 216. —During the as
three weeks of the current quarter, the metropolitan death-
rate has averaged 20•5 per 1,000 against 20.2 and 901 in the
corresponding weeks of 1878 and 1879.
. Those landowners whose ponds and streams have
become choked with the detestable American water-weed,
Anacharis, .will be glad to learn that the pest, which
nothing could extirpate, seems to be really dying out of its
own sweet will. We are not told, however, whether the
dismal growth which England received nearly forty years
ago from America will be likely to revive after a certain
period of quiescence devoted to the resuscitation of its ex-
hausted vitality.

There were 37 British and foreign wrecks reported
during the past week, making a total of 1 037 for the present
year, or a decrease of 247 as compared with the correspond-
ing period of last year. The approximate value of property
lost was £1,500,000, including British £700,000.
A Minnesota fAther who has five grown-up daughters
has sued the county. He claims that his residence has been
used as a court-house for the past two years.

It is said that the Parisians haVe introduced square
umbrellas.

Colliers' Wages are this week advanced 6d. per day
in the district of Possil, near Glasgow. This is the first ad-
vance since the close of the strike.
Mr. Roger Montgomerie, who represented North
Ayrshire in the last Parliament, and was appointed Deputy
Lord Clerk Registrar a few mouths ago, died on Monday at
his residence, near Irvine, from typhoid fever.

The Queen and Princess Beatrice attended divine
-
service in the parish church of Crathie on Sunday. The
Holy Communion was administered. the Rev. Archibald
Campbell, minister of Crathie, officiated.

Mr. Bancroft, the American historian, kept his
eightieth birthday this month with great rejoicings, and
amongst the many presents received was the curious gift of
a huge "candle of life" branching into eighty lights, one
for each year of his existence.

An immense swarm of grasshoppers passed over the
country in the neighbourhood of Jacksboro, Texas. Sept.
27th, destroying all the crops on the way, even eating lip the
cotton leaves. The swarm approached from the north, and
was so dense for a time as to obscure the sun.

White cheese is being made to a considerable extent
in New York state this season.

After many long and not very successful attempts
at the destruction of rabbits in the neighbourhood of
Camperdown, in the Western District of Victoria, it has
been resolved to endeavour to utilize them. For this pur-
pose a rabbit preserving factory has been projected there,
with a capital of £5,000 in 5,000 shares of £1 each.
The other day a phenominally large mushroom was
exhibited in a window in Paris. It weighed 24 pounds. It
was 60 centimetres long, 40 wide and 40 high. Its circum-
ference was lm. 70c. It came from the woods of Versailles.

The Turkish Government has issued a notice invit-
ing the Turkish bondholders to appoint delegates to represent
them at Constantinople in the arrangement of a thorough
and practical solution of the Turkish debt question. The
Note says that the questions of the floating debt and the
Russian war indemnity will be taken into consideration in
connection with this new arrangement.

The Queen and Princess Beatrice, attended by their
suite, are expected to arrive at Windsor Castle about the
20th of November from Scotland. .

-
The London Early ClOsing Association has received
a donation of twenty-five guineas from the Fishmongers'
Company. .

•
The Queen has sent to several of the Hospitals in
London parcels of linen for the benefit of the patießts.
On Saturday the Prince of Wales, accompanied by
Prince John of GlUcksbiirg, and attended by Lieutenant-
Colonel Teesdale, went to Windsor for the purpose of having
a day's shooting in Windsor Great Park. The Royal party
drove to the Great Park! where they met Prince Christian
and Prince Frederick William of Prussia, who were attended
by Colonel the Hon. A. Liddell, the deputy ranger. Excel-
lent sport was had and the party lunched near Cranbourne.
On Sunday the Pope held a reception of the former
Pontifical officials, and delivered a speech affirming his
right to the temporal power, and complaining that he was
not free.

The Belgian iron trade remains in much the same
state, and there is little hope at present of a revival in
affairs. The Belgian mechanical construction establish-
ments have planty of work, and orders for iron are expected
to be obtained from them; but it is doubtful whether these
orders will be sufficient to restore aniniation to the markets.
One of the Liege construction establishments is so actively
omployed that it will turn out a locomotive weekly for at
least a year to come.

The Marquis de Campana, a celebrated collector of
antiquities, has just died at Rome at the age of eighty years.
The deceased had brought together quite a museum of
Greek, Roman, and Etruscan vases, sculptures, and other
works of art. Having thus exhausted his fortune be was
compelled to dispose of his treasures, which he tranfterred
to the State for 5,000,000 f., or not more than half the sum
which he had spent in their purchase.

The total rent of all the houses in Paris amounts,
according to the latest statistics, to 500 millions of francs
per year, or 145 millions per quarter, the revenue at live per
cent. of about 12 milliards. This sum is produced by 75,000
houses, facing more than 3,000 streets, avenues or boule-
vards, which measure newly 900 kilometres.
A telegram has been received from Iquique, dated
Oct. 23: "Iquique almost destroyed by fire.'

In Paris, on Saturday night, M. Sylvain Saint
Etienne, a gentleman well known in literary and musical
circles, met with a painful death. About seven o'clock M.
Saint Etienne was walking along the Rue Lafayette with a
friend, and, being rather short-sighted, caught his foot in a
wooden rail placed round a deep excavation': in which the
drains were being repaired, and was precipitated into the
hole to a depth of about ten yards. Help was obtained im-
mediately, but the unfortunate gentleman, having fallen on
to his head, which was badly fractured, expired before he
could be carried into a neighbouring chemist's shop. The
deceased•was sixty-five years of age.
The Registrar-d-eneral reports that last week scarlet
fever showed the largest proportional fatality in Sunderland,
Liverpool, anil Leicester; and measles in Leicester. The
highest deathrrate from fever (principally enteric) occurred
In Portsmouth, Brighton, and Salford.
The increase in the number of railway accidents in
Prussia is so alarming that the responsible Minister will be
questioned upon the subject as soon as the Prussian Parlia-
ment is opened.

The receipts on 'account of revenue from the Ist
April, 1880, when there Was a balance of £3,273,428, to Oct.
23, 1880, were £41,787,778, against 140,633,404 in the corre-
sponding period of the preceding financial year, which began
with a balance of £6,915,756. The net expenditure was
£47,106,671, against £49,069,463 to the same date in the
previous year. The Treasury balances on Oct. 23 amounted
to £2,263,788, and at the same date in 1879 to £1,312,413.
be result of the past financial wear in Russia is
stated by the Gobs to be as follows :—Astimated revenue,
617,097,942 roubles; actually received, 661,954,191 roubles ;
ordinary expenditure, 643,892,258 roubles, besides extraordi-
nary expenditure arising out of the late war, 132,109,316;
and from other causes, 35,711,227, the latter covered by the
extraordinary resources. The expenditure thus exceeds the
estimate by 26,343,461 rounles

The London Gnzeti,
rules which the Postmaster-General has made under the Act
of last Session. These are to come into force on next New
Year's-day. They provide that every such postal order shall
be for one of the following amounts, and in respect thereof
the following poundage shall be paid : is., halfpenny;
is. 6d., halfpenny; 2s. 6d., one penny; 55., one penny;
7s. 6d., one penny; 10s., twopence; 12s. 6d., twopence;
twopence; 17s. 6d., twopence; 205., twopence.

Sir Moses Montefiore, Bart., of East Cliffe Lodge,
Isle of Thanet, was born on Oct. 2.4, 1784, and consequently
completed his 96th year on Sunday. The venerable Hebrew
baronet was sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1837, and
was knighted by the Queen at Guildhall on Nov. 9 of that
year, on the occasion of Her Majesty's first visit to the City
after her accession to the throne, being created a baronet in
1848. In 1875, when in his 91st year, Sir Moses visited the
Holy Land on behalf of his oppressed fellow-countrymen.

A statue of the famous French sculptor, Pierre
Jean David, more commonly known as David d'Angers, was
unveiled at Angers on Sunday. M. Barthelemy St. Hilaire
and M. Turquet, the Under-Secretary for Fine Arts, repre•
sented the Government and delivered appropriate speeches.
U. Barthelemy St. Hilaire gave a sketch of the life of the
great artist, of the sufferings of his youth, his struggles for
bread and art, of the eventual patronage of his town, at
whose expense he was educated, and his final fame.

According to the reports collected in Bradstreet's, a
New York journal devoted to trade and finance the harvest
of the United States will not give a larger total of product
of wheat than 455,000,000 bushels; this, allowing for a home
consumption of 261,000,000 bushels, will give about
194,000,000 bushels available for exportation. Last year the
actual export amounted to about 186,000,000 bushels, so
that the present crop appears to promise a considerable
excess should these estimates be accurate.
At Sheffield, on Tuesday, his Grace the Archbishop
of York, preaching at the opening of the parish church,
made special reference to the presence of many 'Simeon-
fermists at the services. The Archbishop said " Noncon-
fermists have compromised nothing in coming here to-day to
worship in the house of their fathers. They carry off some-
what of public respect by doing so, and their own self-respect
will be in no way lessened. They kneel here and their
thoughts go back to times when Nonconformists had little or
no existence. I would that those times would come again,
but we shall never see them."

The English plan of tagging salmon ha a been
adopted at the Government Fishery on the McCloud
River.

The Paris Correspondent of The Times says that
Professor Giuseppe Nov! the discoverer of Vicus Palatino and
the site of Casilino, has found in the Roman C,ornpagna,
alongside the Via Gabinia, the cemetery of the famous Pago
of Diana. consisting of tombs with inscriptions, lonic
columns, Corinthian cornices, statues, terra-cotta ornaments,
&c. He has also laid bare the Via Diana, buried under 911.
of hard clay. The road is composed of largo shapely stones
with footways of volcanic tufa.

The Daily News Berlin correspondent telegraphs
that, according to news from St. Petersburg, the Czar's
health is by no means satisfactory. It is believed that his
Majesty sutlers from paralysis.
A boiler explosion occurred on Tuesday at the Bal-
frou Company's ironworks, near Dunfermline. The engineer
was killed and several men were injured.

The published reports show that the value of the
exports from Victoria, British Columbia, to the United
States, for the quarter ending June 30, to be 476,034,003d015.,
an increase of nearly twenty per cent. over the corresponding period of last year. The quantity of coal shipped in the
year 1870 quarter was 35,587 tons, whereas during the same
period of the present year the shipments to the United
States amounted to 56,066 tons, an increase of over seventy
per cent.
At Exeter an important decision has been given by
the Mayor, on an objection taken by the Conservatives
;phut the nomination of one of the independent candidates
Mr the Town CounciL The candidate was described as
Joshua C. Tuckwell, and the contention was that the clause
of the Act requirink that the candidate's surname and other
names should.be set out had not been complied with, an
Initial not being equivalent for a name. The objection ,was
ruled good, and, there being only two other candidates
nominated, there will be no contest in this particular ard.
Two fishermen, named Gringer and Wells, were
drowned at Brighton on Tuesday night. They put out in an
open boat to fish for herrings. Shortly after eleven cries for
help were heard near the Western pleasure pier. The boat
was found upside down, and the dead body of Gringer was
discovered entangled in the nets. The body of Wells was
not recovered. There was a heavy rain and a choppy sea
at the time of the accident.
The Liverpool Peace Society have addressed a pro-
test to. the Prime Minister against the coercive policy
pursued towards Turkey. The memorialists ask Mr. Glad-
stone and his colleagues to reconsider the steps which they
have taken to compel the Sultan to fulfil the terms of the
Berlin Treaty, The attention of the Government is also
directed to the revolt of the Basutos. The' Prime Minister,
in his reply, avoids all reference to the Eastern Question,
and simply indicates the fact that the subject of the Basuto
war is within the competence of the Colonial, not the Im-
perial GOVCrll.lllellt.
speaking at Ashton-under-Lyne, Mr. Hugh
Mason, 31,p., said the friends of religious liberty and all
who were anxious to see the country prosperous must re-
joice in the work which the present Government had been
able to do in the short time since their accession to oftice.
Be looked forward with confidence to next session, and he
believed many pressing questions would be raised at an
early date. With regard to foreign affairs, he was sure the
Government would as speedily as possible relieve the country
from the embarrassments for which their predecessors were
wholly responsible. •

The licensed victuallers of Sheffield held a crowded
meeting on Monday, under the 'presidency of Mr. Ellis,
chairman of the Local Association, to protest against the
new Customs and Inland Revenue Act, and against the
burdens Mr. Gladstone has placed on the trade by the in-
crease of the licence duty. Representatives Were present
from various biovns, and resolutions were carried pledging
the licensed victuallers to unite with other-branches of the
trade for protection against further legislation in this
disc-Um.
The United Service Gazette says the Duke of Cam-
bridge, as Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Artillery, has
approved of a regimental memorial being erected by the
officers to their comrades of all ranks, who have fallen in
the campaigns in Afghanistan and South Africa.

- -
An important step has been taken towards render-
ing smooth the working of the Employers' Liability Act in
the Lancashire and Cheshire coal trade. A suggestion made
by Mr. W. Pickard, miners agent, that a friendly arrange-
ment should be come to for meeting cases contemplated by
the Act by enlarging the scope of the Miners' Permanent
Relief Fund, was woll received on all hands, and a com-
mittee has been appointed to consider the details of A scheme
for dealing with claims for compensation without having
resort to litigation.

17.; :4.