The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-27 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Another twopence in the income-tax is predicted
Instead of a reduction of that amount.
The Constantinople correspondent of The Times
says the Sultan has telegraphed to Queen Victoria his con-
gratulations upon the recovery of the Prince of Wales.
. .

Mrs. Laura D. Fair, under sentence of death in
San,FrauFisee for the murder of Judge Crittenden, died In

gaol on the 30th December.

- - ----- ---•
The Empress of the French has presented Mr. Strode,
who is the owner of Camden-place, Chialeburst with a mag-
nificent gold sin!ff;boo, inlaid with brilliants, with her

miniature painted thereon.

On Friday Mr. James Cornell, for nearly 30 years
librarian of St. George's Hospital, dropped down dead while
waiting for an
.omnibus in the Commercial-road, London. Ile

was 00 years of age.

A Dutch sailor belonging to a Rotterdam steamer
was, on Tuesday, convicted at the Mansion-house. London,
of smuggling, lie was tined £lOO, with the alternative of six
months imprisonment with hard labour.

At a preliminary meeting held on Tuesday evening
at the Chambers of Sir Antonio Brady, it was resolved to
begin a movement for establishing a university for the
spread of technical education amongst the industrial
classes.
On Tuesday the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, in
addressing a meeting in the last-mentioned city, declared
that the Church must now assume an Attitude of defence

against the attacks of the Nonconformists, who no longer
contended for toleration, or even for equality, but for some-
thing very like supremacy.

A woman who went into a photographic establish-
ment, the other day, to have a picture of her baby token,
gave the child a preliminary spanking, in order, as she said,
" to bring a healthy bloom into its cheeks, so it would make
a prettypicture."
Lord Granville was waited upon on Tuesday by a de-
pntationoi the Anti-Slave Trade Society, whose meadmrs asked
the noble earl to use his influence with the Spanish Govern-
ment in favour of the abolition of slavery both at Porto
Rico and Cuba.

From April lot to the 20th instant the Treasury
receipts amounted to £52,815,480, an increase of more than
£2.700,000 upon the amount in the corresponding period of
last year. The expenditure has been £9,361,531. The
balance in the hank of England on Saturday last was
£973,880.

At a meeting held on Monday night at Pirmingham,
in support of the Marriage with a 13leeeased.Wife'r, Sister

Bill, iileqer was read from Mr:ltright,in which the right

.

"1 caßn.ot yet take par.t. in pnlilic

matters, and I really have nothing to say beyZnal what 'l
said
three years ago in the House of Commons."

At the annual meeting for the revision of the rules
and prize lists of the Bedfordshire Agricultural Society, held
at Bedford on Saturday last, the President, Mr. James
Howard, M.P., tu the chair, the subject of politics being
discussed at the annual dinner of the society was warmly
" ' " .• • . •

debated, and the meeting unanimously resolved that in
future party politics should be rigorously excluded.

--1
• The death is announced at Colchester of a Trafalgar
veteran named Isaac Pooley. Pooley, who was 87 years of
age when he wa, reintved by death, fought at the battles of
Trafalgar and the Nile, and he was on board the Victory
when Lord Nelson received his mortal wound. The veteran
had long enjoyed a pension from the State.
When the den of lions in Manders' menagerie was
opened for public exhibition at Preston on Friday even-
ing, one of the lions was found dead at the bottom of the
cage. It had been stabbed more than once at the time of
the horrible accident to the lion-tamer Massarti. Moffitt-

cation of the wounded parts set in, and the death of the
animal has been daily expected. It was a full grown ani-
mal, seven years of age.
Further consignments of diamonds from the Cape
reached England by the last mail steamer. There was a re-
port in the colony that two diamonds, each weighing more
than 1,000 carats, had been found, but it was discredited.
The total value of the diamonds exported during the year is
estimated at a million and a half sterling.
A blind musician stood in one of the principal
thoroughfares of London, performing on his instrument,
when a little boy was observed to take up his position by
the side of the poor afflicted mendicant, and, with cap in his
hand, solicit alms from passers-by. After receiving a few
pence he turned the street corner, and quietly moved off
with the money, leaving the musician actively continuing
his performance on the cheery flageolet. Such is life !
According to the Registrar-General's returns the
mortality in Liverpool last week was at the rate of 30 per
1,000 annually, being 1 per 1,000 above the aggregate rate
for the twenty-one leading cities and towns of the kingdom.
The rate at Wolverhampton was highest, being 49 per 1,000 ;
it was lowest at Bristol, namely, 24 per IMO.
The Swim Tibia learns on reliable authority that
there is a great division of opinion among the Internationals,
and to judge from all appearances the time is not far distant
when they will lie resolved into two pasties—one for
'govern n entrance" against all capital, the other for bring-
ing as great a pressure as possible to bear upon it by the
means of legitimate strikes and other legal measures.
It is stated that the date of the Thanksgiving service
at St. Paul's Cathedral, at which her Majesty will attend,
will he fixed as soon as it Coll be ascertained when the
necessary fittings can be erected. The Dean of St. Paul's
had an interview on Monday with the Lord Chamberlaia
on the subject. The choir of the cathedral is now closed,
and the flooring is being raised one foot throughout.
• •

At the High. Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, the
Lord Justice Clerk and Lord Dens presiding, Alexander
Whitecross, CU); Guide, Edinburgh, has been charged with
the murder of his son in November last, by stabbing him in
the abdomen with a knife, in consequence of which he died
four days afterwards, The prisoner pleaded "Not Guilty."
After evidence was adduced, the jury returned a verdict,
unanimously finding him Guilty of culpable homicide. lie
was sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude.

- -
The Rev. Canon Moseley, aged 73 years, died on 1
Saturday morning after a fortnight's illness, lie had been
connected with Bristol Cathedral nearly twenty years, the
canonry having been given him in 1853 as a reward for his
services as one ot the earliest school inspectors. Be
graduated at Cambridge, where he was seventh wrangler,
In 1020. The vicarage is worth £865 a year, with house, and
Is in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Bristol. The
canonry is in the patronage of the Lord Chancellor.
The Devonport School Board decided on Monday
not to pay fees to denominational schools. This determina-
tion was practically come to seine time since, but to meet
emergencies, and to satisfy the minority, it was inserted in
the bylaw that the Board would not pay fees except under
exceptional circumstances, to be individually considered by
he Board. The Education Department objected to these
words—hence the present determination.

Lord Hartington has replied to a letter complaining
of the attacks made by the English press, addressed to him
by Robert Kelly, now awaiting trial for shooting at one of
the policemen who arrested bins on the night of Talbot's
murder. Lord Hartington says that the English law advisers
have been consulted on the subject; that they do not think
prosecutions ought to be instituted; but that, should articles
calculated to interfere with the ends of justice be published
during the coming trial, the Government is prepared to
vindicate the law. .

A valuable seam of coal has been discovered on the
estate of the Duke of Devonshire, by the Wingerworth Col-
liery Co pany, while sinking a new shaft near Chesterfield.
The sisters found the bed at a depth of 450 yards from the
surface. The pit, which is the deepest in Derbyshire, will be
worked by the above-named company, under the style and
title of the Hardwick Colliery Company. The coal in qua-
lity and quantity quite fulfils the expectations of the directors.
Powerful machinery, constructed on the best principles, aid
embracing modern improvements, is being laid down for the
purpose of working the mine.
• - • •

- -
A venerable Madagascar Chief has made a wonder-
ful discovery. "What.," he asked his fellow-countr) men,
"do the Vagah (Europeans) want with our india.rnbber
Why, to make big ships ! When they have got plenty they
will make great india-rubber ships, and come to Madagascar
to take it, and when our soldiers at Tamatave fire guns at
them, the balls will strike the rubber ships, and rebound
and kill our own men. We are fools to sell them the rub-
ber t and this, I say to you all, don't do."
An application on behalf of Captain Firebrace to
the Court of Divorce made on Saturday, in the case of
"Firebrace V. Firebrace, skc.," for a new trial, was refused.
The full Court was of opinion that the question of the
credibility of the witnesses having been left by Lord
Penzance to the Jury, it was not competent to overide that
decision. On the application of Dr. Deane, the applicant
was allowed time to consider the question of an appeal to
the House of Lords,
A Yankee paper says:—" During the Grand Duke's
visit to this city, he called at the Courier otfiew aol renewed
his father's subscription. The Czar is one of our oldest sub-
scribers he always pays in advance), and the Duke expressed'
himself as highly pleases? with the account of the Revere
House banquet published in our colums, remarking that the
report of his speech was in gratifying contrast to the culpably
garbled version which appeared in the columns of a con-
temporary." This is rich, and in the time transatlantic vein.
It will be remembered by our readers that Mr
Harvey Adams, china manufacturer, at Fenton, a Noncon-
formist, a shoretime ago' was summoned for having refused
to pay a rate laid under the Education Act, he being a re-
sident in the Stoke-upon-Trent school district. After the
order for payment was made by the magistrates, Mr. Adams
Intimated that he should, on conscientious grounds, still
refuse tdipay the money. A distress warrant was accordingly
horsed, and on Monday evening it was excuted by Inspector
Harrison, who seized a weather-glass, which will be sold for
the payment of the rate and costs.
Very quietly there is going on in London what may
be called an exposition of spiritualism. There has arrived
in this country from America a Miss Kate Fox, of Boston,
who belongs to a family in the house of which the earliest
manifestations of spiritualism in the United States were
developed. She has come on a propagandist mission in the
cause of spiritualism, and she has been holding seances in the
houses of several persons of station. The* have been at-
tended by several men of science, and it is said that they
have accepted the fact of the phenomena which they
have witnessed, though without giving any opinion as
to their causes. The proceedings have been carefully
watched.
On Monday, at Bow-street police-court, at the re-
quest of Sir Thomas Henry, the magistrate, Superintendent
Eccles attended the Court with Police-constable Dean, who
had recently distinguished himself by an act of bravery
It appeared that lie witnessed the escape of a lunatic from
the llanwell Asylum, and pursued hintfor three hours across
the country. The madman stopped on the towing-path of
the Grand Junction Canal at Greenford, and threatened to
drown the constable. Suiting the action to the words, he
fiewat the officer, and, seizing him in his arms, jumped with
him into the seater, and, in all probability, they would have
been drowned had it not been for the timely assistance of a
bargeman, who jumped into the water and succeeded in
rescuing them. Sir Thomas Henry spoke very highly of the
courage displayed by the constable, and presented him with
Ls from the Police Reward Fund at the disposal of the
magistrates of that court.
An important and influential meeting, the Lord
Mayor in the chair, was held in London, on Monday, at the
Mansion House, to consider the complaints made by trades-
men, that the Exhibition of 1872 under the proposed regula-
tions will be nothing but a giganticbazaar. fine of the resolu-
tions was," That the scheme of the Royal Commissioners is
entirely subversive of the original design of internationv..l
exhibitions as proposed by the lamented Prince Ccnsert,
viz., the improvement of public taste and the promotion of
art in manufactures ; ' and is inimical to the interests
of, anal unjust to the community at large." This and other
resolutions denouncing "the schem;:" were unanimously
carried; and a committee was appointed to prepare an ad-
dress to the Queen, as well as petitions to Parliament, and
to take all other available means of opposing the objection-
able arrangements.
Tne Board of Trade have awarded a gold watch and
chain to Captain P. Sabatier, of the French ship Omer et
Julie, in acknowledgment of his humanity and kindness to
the first officer and seven seamen of the ship Taeping, of
Glasgow, whom he picked up at sea on the 29th of September.
The Taeping was lost on the Ladd's reef in the China Sea,
on the Seth of September, being then bound from Amoy to
New York with a cargo of tea. The crew left her in three
boats. The master, with his boat's crew, arrived at Saigon
on the 15th October; the second officer and his crew were
picked up by the &Kea ; and the first officer and his crew
were picked up by the (Inner of Julie on the 29th September.
Captain Sabatier treated them with the greatest kindness,
and although he subsisted them for 60 days on board his
vessel he refused to accept any repayment of expenses.

According to the Paris Tempo, general satisfaction
is felt, not only in Paris, but in the provinces, at the settle-
ment of the Parliamentary conflict by the return of M.
Thiers to office. At the same time there is some little appre-
hension, it admits, as to the future. People ask if there
will not be another crisis when the financial question is
again brought forward. The Temps hopes that henceforth
M. Thiess will assume an attitude of prudent reserve, and
remember that he lane mere Minister, or President of the
Council, but an undoubted Head of the State placed beyond
and above the range of Parliamentary storms. It hopes,
too, that in future he will let his Ministers do battle for
themselves in the Assembly, and only come forward himself
upon exceptional occasions, as, for Instance, when asked by
his colleagues, or when placed in a difficult position by
party combinations--an event which the Temps thinks not
likely to occur.

Mr. George Cruikshank has in preparation a
Autobiography.

The following question is now being diseusse before
the London Sucking Barrister's Debating Society :—" Can a
big man ache harder than a little one?"

A rumour is current in the Isle of Wight that the
Prince of Wales has been ordered to the 'South Coast, and
Ventnor is mentioned as his probable residence.
-

The Great Northern Railway servants have agreed
to the eoncessions.recently made by the directors, and hare
passed a resolution of thanks to the Board.

The Worcestershire Chamber of Agriculture have
passed a resolution expressing their opinion that " a mode-
rate and equitable system of tenant-right" should be estab-
lished in this country.

The Nava/ and 11- !Vitae!, Gazette hears that several
naval officers have volunteered to conduot the expedition
about to be organized by the Royal Geographical Society to
proceed in search of Dr. Livingstone.
The newest style of dressing the hair in New York
Is the " Alexia twist." A pull to worn very high on the head,
surrounded by a twist of hair to imitate a came-rope, and is
ornamented on one side by a large gilt anchor.

_
A railway battalion has been formed in Germany to
construct and work railways in time of war. In order to
facilitate the training of these men it is said that some short
lines will probably be purchased by the Government.

- -
The Women's Rights Association may be quite
certain that we all admit that men are superior to women,
as men; and that women are immeasurably superior to
men, as women; while both of them together are more than
a match for either of them separately.

Sir Albert Woods, Garter Principal King of Anna,
arrived at Windsor Castle on Monday morning, and placed
the banner and regalia of the Emperor of Brazil, over the
Sovereigns' stalls of the Knights of the Garter in St. George's
Chapel.
- - - - - - • • • -•

--------
Letters from Constantinople of the 3d inst. give the
welcome intelligence that during the mouth of December
the cholera eases had gradually decreased from 50 to only
two eases per diem, indicating the almost total cessation of
the disease.

A meeting of Volunteer Commanding Officers was
held in London, on Saturday, at the rooms of the National
Rine Association, when resolutions were passed recognizing
the value of the Easter Monday field-days, and by a large
majority Brighton was selected as the place for this year's
gathering.
The directors of the Crystal Palace Company have
fixed the let of May for a grand National Festival in cele-
bration of the recovery of his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales ; and have commissioned Mr. Arthur Sullivan to com-
pose a To Deunx, for voices and orchtstra, to be performed
on the largest scale in the centre transept on that day.
Mr. Armistead, one of the members for Dundee,
has presented £5,000 to be expended in providing two club-
houses for the working men. Several gentlemen arc to be
' appointed trustees, but it is intended to leave the working
men who become members to make the arrangements of the
institution themselves.

The small-pox epidemic continues without abatemen,
at Plymouth. Daring the week ending the 19th inst. there were
98 eases reported, and. 10 deaths, and on the previous week
87 eases and 11 deaths. Although the epidemic has pre-
vailed but a short period, there have been 91 deaths regis
tered as having occurred (rem the disease in that town.
The Court of Trauensteia, in Bavaria, in pro-
nouncing judgment in an action for libel brought by an
excommunicated clergyman, named Bernard, has decided
that the excommunication has no legal consequences, and
that the offence is to be punished as if the clergyman still
enjoyed the full exercise of his functions.

The Rangoon Nail says that on the night of the
12th December an earthquake, which lasted about ten
seconds, was felt at Prome. The wave appeared to travel
from north-east to south-west. The shocks were stated to
be severe, and followed in quick succession, but no damage
Is reported in the town. The earthquake occurred on the
night of the new moon. A letter received from lieneadah
states that an'earthquake was felt there the =no niont.

Sir Dominic Corrigan has proposed in a letter to the
Dublin papers that patients suffering under small-pox should
be conveyed through the streets of that city on shallow
baskets or cots six feet long, resting on poles on men's
shoulders. "No suggestion." says the Irish Tines, "was
ever made so well calculated to drive from the city of Dublin
everyone who could leave it."
The clergy and laity of the diocese of Hereford in-
tend presenting their Bishop with a pastoral staff, which
has been carved out eta piece of oak which recently formed
part of one of the ancient pillars of the Bishop's residence
at Hereford, which is well known to arclueologists as being
one of the most remarkable 12th century buildings now re-
maining in England.
The London Ga:atc of Tuesday night announces that
the Queen has been pleased to direct Letters Patent to be
passed under the Great Seal, granting the dignity of a
Baronet of the United Kingdom of Great Brawl and Ireland
unto William Withey Gull, of Brook-street, in the parish
of St. George, lianover.smare, in the county of Middlesex,
M.D.
A Russian correspondent of the Independanee Berge
states that the Emperor of Russia lately escaped from great
danger by his own easy /cold and presence of mind. His
Majesty was attacked by a bear during a bear hunt, and his
life was in great peril until he succeeded in shooting tile
dangerous animal. The Emperor of Austria warmly con-
gratulated the Czar by telegraph on his escape and the
courage which he had displayed in freeing himself from the
danger which beset him.
An agitation whirls commenced at Manchester fora
20 per cent, increase of salary to railway clerks bas been
taken up in London. fits stated that clerks of from fifteen
to twenty years'service do not average more than 30w a week,
while many shorter service inert are earning less than a
pound a week. A joint memorial to all the companies re-
presented in London is being prepared. The increase to be
asked will be 15 or 20 per cent., with a graduated scale for
seniority. The promoters hope to interest Mr. Bass in their
cause.

Last week the aggregate mortality in London and
to only other large towns in the United Kingdom was at the
rate of 27 deaths annually to every 1,000 persona estimated
to be living. In the metropolis, 2,465 births and 1,628 deaths
. . • .

were registered, the former having been 05 above, and the
latter 187 below the average. Ninety-three persona died
from small-pox, 60 from measles, SI from scarlet fever, 6
from diphtheria, 115 from whooping-eough, 40 from different
forms of fever, and 10 from diarrhcea. The mean tempera-
ture during the week at Greenwich was 36.1, and this was
2.5 above the average of the corresponding week of fifty
years.
-

• -----
The death of M. Aires-Dufour is announced. Few
living Frenchmen were better known in England, especially
among commercial men, and the regret at his death
which will be felt in France will be shared in this
country by very many. If. Jean-BarthOlcmy-Arl&s was born
at Lyons in 1805, and was consequently sixty-seven years of
age: He assumed the name of Dufour on his marriage with
a lady or that name, belonging to a well-known mercantile
family at Lyons. M. Arles-Dufour was attached to the

iurie;at the International Exhili.itio.na.of Paris and London

...
In 1849, 1851, and 1855. He received the decoration -th;
Legion of Honour in 1837, was made officer of the order in

3854, and commander in MM. It need hardly bea im
the deceased gentleman was an ardent supporter of free
trade and of the English alliance.
The case of Milne v. Milne and Fowler has been
again before the Divorce Court. It will be remembered that
on a petition by Mr. Milne, subsequent to his obtaining a
decree for a divorce, Lord Penzance made an order that the
respondent should pay out of the money settled upon lies-
the sum of fisoo a year for the benefit of Mr. Milne and her
children by him. An appeal by respondent against that
decision was U3W heard. Sir John Kerslake, on behalf of the
respondent, contended that the Court had no power to make
such an order. In the course of the argument a letter froin
Mrs. Milne was produced, in which she stated that she was
quite willing to obey the order of the Court if she could, sad
was desirous to deal liberally with her late husband.
this, at the suggestion of the Court, it was arranged that ta
case should stand as it now did, leaving it in the option of
the parties to come before the Court again.