The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-12-24 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

The Earl of Londesborough has intimated that le
will be very glad to make arrangements for providing
labourers with allo'ments on his East Yorkshire estates.
A sailor named Nelson died at the Seaman's Ho9pitall
Cardiff, on Sunday, from the effects of injuries alleged
to have been inflicted upon him while on board the
batque Longfellow' bound from Bordeaux to Cardiff.
It is alleged that the deceased, who had an injured
hand, was set to do two men's work, and, having failed,
was knocked down and kicked by the boatswain in the
presence of the captain, who ordered that he should be
thrown into the forecastle. The boatswain is in custody,
and a warrant was issued for the captain's arrest.
The Admiralty have selected the new fast torpedo
cruiser Porpoise, which was recently built by Messrs.
Thompson and Son, of Glasgow, to replace the ill-fated
Wasp on the China station. The Porpoise is a larger
and more powerful ship in every respect than the Wasp,
and is built of steel, with a displacement of 1630 tons.
Her engines are of 3600 horse-power, and she is
equipped with six six-inch steel breechloading guns
and eight three-pounder Hotchkiss quick-firing guns,
with five tubes for discharging Whiteheid torpedoes.
She is sister ship to the Archer, which rendered
valuable service during the naval mano3avres as scout
to Admiral Fremantle's squadron.
Mr. Ferguson, of the Royal Horse Guards, master of
the Household Brigade Draghounds, met with a serious
accident while hunting near Horton Manor, Bucks, en
Saturday. Mr. Ferguson put his horse at a five- barred
gate, but the animal failed to clear it and came down
throwing its rider heavily to the ground. Mr. Ferguson
was picked up in an unconscious state, and conveyed
to the house of Mr. Taylor, at Horton Manor. The
regimental doctor was summoned, and did what he
could for his patient, who, however, did not become
sensible until Sunday morning. This was Mr. Fergu-
son's first run with the hounds since he was appointed
master owing to his having met with an accident at
football early in the season.
The Hon. Miss E. Smith lies at Graveley Manor. in a
dangerous condition. During a run with the Cam.
bridgeshire Hounds last week, her horse stumbled
at a fence, and, falling on its rider, broke her collar+
bone and caused a compound fracture of both thighs.
Smuggled tobacco, the value of which, with duty,
amounted to £33 155., having been found on Wednes-
day on the premises of Isaac Benjamin, a general
dealer at Stepney, he was at the Thames Police-court
on Saturday fined £lOl ss.
The meeting of Parliament will take place on Thurs.
day, February 9, 1888.. .

Mr. Yates, the Cheshire coroner, held an Inquest at
Sale, near Altrincham, on Saturday, touching the death
of Mrs. Cort, widow of the Rev. J. 0. Cort, first vicar
of Sale. The deceased lady, who was 57 years of age,
had suffered from cancer in the breast two or three
years past, and had undergone two operations—in
November, 1886, and September, 1887. Another opera-
tion becoming necessary, chloroform was administered
on Wednesday, but she succumbed before the opera-
tion could be performed. The evidence showed the
chloroform to have been administered in the usual
manner, and a verdict of death from the effects of it
was returned.
The Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Pennant were on
Saturday welcomed with a public reception on their
arrival on their honeymoon at Penrhyn Castle. They
were received at the station by the Mayor and Corpora-
tion, where an address of welcome was presented, Mr.
Pennant being presented by the inhabitants of Bangor
with a gold hunting watch. The tenantry on the
estate presented a silver centrepiece, with candelabra to
match. Demonstrations also took place at Bethesda,
where the Penrhyn slate quarries are situate.
Some extraordinary atmospherical phenomena was
witnessed in Blackburn and East Lancashire on Satur-
day. Shortly after noon a thunderstorm broke over the
district, accompanied by a very heavy downfall of hail.
This lasted some time, and was succeeded by a snow-
storm, the fleecy element falling in large flakes for
over two hours. The weather was bitterly cold
throughout the day. Thunder was also rolling early on
Sunday morning, and created great surprise.
n. very serious epidemic of measles has made its
appearance in Boston, and several deaths have
occurred. The day schools have been closed, and on
Saturday the medical officer of health issued a notice
that all the Sunday schools were to be closed, and he
has also published a notice warning the parents of
infected children not to attend places of worship or
public entertainments.
On Saturday evening, about seven o'clock, a boatman
named James Langford, belonging to Northmoor.green,
near Bridgwater, *as accidentally drowned in the
River Parrett. About a quarter of an hour before the
approach of the tide the deceased was getting into his
barge with the intention of proceeding up the river in
it, and in stepping from the stern of another boat to
his own he missed his footing and fell into the water.
The accident was witnessed by two men in the boat
which he had just quitted, and cries were raised ot
"A man overboard. A large number of persona soon
assembled on the banks of the river eagerly looking
into the water, and a lifebuoy was obtained after some
difficulty, but nothing more could be seen of the
deceased, who must have been carried down by the
receding tide. Deceased, it is understood, leaves a
wife and three children. The body has not yet been
recovered.
On Sunday the unemployed of Bristol held a de-
monstration, and 800 attended service at St. Agnes
Church, where a sympathetic sermon was preached by
the vicar, who asserted thst want of employment was
the cause of the existing distress, and not imprudence ,
on the part of the working classes.
Arthur Wilkinson, a respectably • dressed young
man, was charged at the Chester Oity court on Satur-
day with stealing from the London and Noah-Western
Railway Company a portmanteau, valued at £2O, on the
Bth inst. Detective Whittit, in the railway company's
service, who applied for a remand, said the prisoner
admitted the theft of some boots belonging to Mr.
Mark Rogers, which were in the portmanteau, The
magistrate granted a remand.
At the Derby Borough Police-court, on Saturday,
Joseph Kent was charged with breaking a pane of
glass in the house of Mr. A. Woodiwiss, J.P., and also
with stabbing at the same time and place Thomas
Brookes, a blacksmith, who essayed to take him into
custody. On being arrested the mewled was armed
with the instrument—a sharp chisel—with which he
had stabbed Brookes. He aaid he had broken the
window because he wanted relief. Prisoner's sister
stated that he had been in a lunatic asylum, and when
displeased he did not mind what he did. The Bench
remanded him for examination by the prison surgeon,
Brookes's injury was not serious.
A football match between Rugby teams representing
North and South, played at Manchester on Saturday,
terminated in a draw, each bide scoring a try and three
minor points.
The Porte has received a dispatch from the Governor
I of Bussora, denying the reported appearance of pirates
in the Persian Gulf. The only foundation for the
rumour appears to lie in the fact that some Bedouin
brigands, having plundered a Turkish ship, were pur-
sued, but managed to make their escape, leaving their
booty behind.
The New Zealand Parliament has adopted the
financial proposals of the Government, involving con-
siderable retrenchments in the ordinary expenditure,
as explained by the Hon. H. A. Atkinson, the Premier
nd Colonial Treasurer, in his budget speechllast month.
Parliament will be prorogued on the 23rd inst.
A Rome correspondent telegraphs that the Duke of
Norfolk who has gone to Rome as her Majefity__ee, was
repro.
mutative to congratulate the Pope on his jubil
received by his Holiness on Saturday with much grace
and affability. The correspondent adds that the Duke's
mission is believed to be more closely connected with
the Irish question than with the establishment of
diplomatic relations between England and the Vatican

Between the Ist April and the 17th Instant the
Exchequer receipts were £55,712,172, as compared with
£56,690,916 in the corresponding period of the last
financial year; and the expenditure £57,069,149, as
against £59,432,664. On Saturday last the Treasury
balances amounted to £3,684,130, and on the corre-
sponding date last year to £2,635,444.
The monster raft of timber, which left Nova Scotia a
fortnight ago for New York, was abandoned on Sun.
day in a gale which snapped hawsers 15 inches thick.
The raft is now derelict, and a danger to navigation.
A remarkable speech was made on Monday, by
Prince William of Prussia, in distributing Christmas
gifts to his Regiment of Hussars. He reminded them
that since last year times had changed and had become
graver. The future was perhaps uncertain; but they
should recollect that the Emperor had called valour,
honour, and obedience the three main pillars of his
army.
The Rev. F. T. Wethered, Vicar of Hurley, Bucku
inghamshire, was the defendant in an action for libel,
tried on Tuesday before Mr. Baron Huddleston and a
special jury. The plaintiff was a gardener named
Seaton, and it was elicited in Court that the expenses
of the action were being paid by other persons. The
defendant had, in es letter and in the parish magazine,
complained that Seaton had been " illegally " married,
by which he explained that he meant "irregularly," as
the banns had not been properly published. The jury
found a verdict for the plaintiff, with a farthing
damages, and the judge refused to give the plaintiff
his costs.

An application was made on Tuesday to Mr. Justice
Stephen at the Central Criminal Court to admit to
bail John H. Goldfinch, one of the two men recently
tried for murder in connection with the fatal fire in
the Strand. The learned judge assented to two sure-
ties in £l5O each, and the prisoner in the same
amount. He refused to allow bail to Berne.
Two cases relating to the water supply came before
the metropolitan magistrates on Tuesday. At West-
minster a young man living in Chelsea complained
that the local company would not supply him with
water. The landlord paid the rates, and as he was
in arrear the company had cut off the supply. The
magistrate said the applicant could only proceed
against the landlord for breach of contract. The other
case was at Worship-street, where a baker named
Green, living at Mile-end, complained that since March
he had been without water, as the East London Water
Company required payment first of six quarters' rate
owing by Green's predecessor. This case was ad-
journed for a fortnight, after the remark by the
magistrate that it seemed to be a monstrous injustice
that the present occupier should not have a supply of
water unless he paid the debts of another man.
The death-rate of London rose again last week to
201 per thousand annually. The fatal cases of
whooping cough were more than double the corrected
average.
A great demonstration of locked-out rivetters and
finishers took place at Northampton on Tuesday. The
procession paraded the principal streets, and
eventually held a meeting in the Market-square, where
resolutions were passed unanimously expressing in-
dignation at the action of the Employers' Association
in locking out thousands who were satisfied with their
wages, appealing for aid, and calling on the masters to
accept arbitration. Several of the masters unwisely
got into the crowd, and one of the most obnoxious was
bonneted and kicked, and had to take refuge in a
publichouse, whence he was conducted by the police to
a cab.

A prisoner in York Castle, named Cuflings, recently
attempted suicide in his cell, and in explanation told
the Governor that a murder ha had committed preyed
upon his mind. He stated that he and another young
ma i were in Middleton-ma, Chadderton, near
Oldham, at midnight on November 27, when they
robbed a sailor, shot him dead, and buried his body
behind a high wall. Doctors declare that Cullings is
sane. The prisoner was a member of the "Man to
Man" Dramatic Company, for stealing whose property
he is in gaol. He implicees another man, who has
been arrested.

The Licensing Sessions of the Liverpool Magie.
testes were held on Tuesday. The City Surveyor and
City Engineer were called, and presented elaborate and
lengthy reports of the construction and accommodation
of the various theatres. It was decided to renew for
six months the licenses of the Alexandra, Court, and
Rotunda Theatres, and that of the Prince of Wales
Theatre for three months, on the understanding that
in each case the alteration suggested should be carried
out. The magistrates declined to renew the license for
the Bijou Opera House.
At a meeting of the Cambridge Improvement Corn.
missioners on Tuesday it was stated that the Surveyor
(Mr. Wood) had presented to the Sanitary Committee
a lengthy report upon the three rival schemes for
diverting the sewage from the river Cam, and it was
resolved that the same should be printed and circulated
amongst the members of the Board. A resolution
was passed to place on record the Commissioners'
appreciation of the services rendered to the Board by
the late Rev. Coutts Trotter, Vice Master of Trinity
College.
A court-martial was held on Tuesday at the Houn-
slow Infantry Barracks, Colonel Bailey presiding, upon
Henry Ford, superintendent clerk in the Pay Office of
the 7th and 57th Regimental Districts, who is said to
have embezzled £245 of the public money entrusted to
his charge by Major W. Thompson, the District Pay.
master. There were 11 distinct charges of embezzle-
ment and forgery of receipts for various amounts.
Numerous witnesses were examined. The decision of
the Court was not made known.

At the instance of the Somerset House authorities,
four tobacco manufacturers of Nottingham were
summoned before the Nottingham magistratei, on
Tuesday, under a clause inserted in the last Bridget
Act forbidding the employment of more than 35 per
cent, of moisture in the manufacture of tobacao. It
was proved that the defendants were in possession of
tobacco containing a considerably higher percentage of
water than allowed by the Act, and fines of 210. each
were imposed.
At a special meeting of the Birmingham Town
Council held on Tuesday, a long discussion took place
on a letter from the Postmaster General asking the
opinion of the Council respecting the abolition or
retention of the delivery of letters on Sundays. The
Council, by fifty-three to two, resolved that, both in
the interests of the public and of the postmen, it was
undesirable that the present system should be abolished.
The Forster Memorial Committee have been urged
by a deputation of Bradford working men to devote
the subscriptions to erecting a school of art, but the
committee have decided to adhere to the original
proposal to erect a memorial in Forster-square, Brad-
ford, and to appropriate the surplus to a scheme for
perpetuating the memory of the deceased statesman
by erecting some educational institution.
At Leeds on Tuesday, Eliza Sapiers and Wolf David,
two Polish Jews, who have lately lived in Templar.
street, were charged with having illegally imported
11 lb. of manufactured tobacco, under the pretence
that the boxes in which it was found contained her-
rings. The prisoners were each fined £5O, or, in
default, three months' imprisonment.
At a meeting of the Sanitary Committee of the
Leeds Corporation on Tuesday the present serious
outbreak of small. pox in the borough was considered,
after which it was resolved that an additional hospital
should be erected, to accommodate 32 patients. At
present there are 21 patients in the hospital.
A Penzance telegram states that 17 men, being the
crew of the steamer Brighthouse, who were supposed
to have been lost in the Bristol Channel, are safe
on board the Seven Stone lightship, but one of the
lightkeepers was injured during the recent stormy
weather.
At the rent audit of the Duke of Buckingham,
held at Woott en the other day, a reduction was
announced at 121 per cent, on the half-year's rent, and
the Duke also intimated that if the agricultural
depressioa continued he would allow further remis-
sions.