The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-16 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The value of horses exported last year was .2205,264,
and in the preceding year £177,262. Last year the declared
value of horses sent to France was £74,075.

•
There wa,s an increase in the importation of hops
last rear on the preceding. In 1874 the value was £930,8
and in 1873 £604,817_
The Mormons, according to a report current in
Mexico, are contemplating another exodus. It is said that
they are going to migrate en masse from Utah, and that it
is their intention to take up their abode in Mexico.
In the German Parliament, on Tuesday, the Bill
rendering civil marriage obligatory throughout Germany
was read a first time. The principal discussion will take
place on the second reading.
The Hospital Sunday collection at Liverpool
amounted to £B,OOO. The Unitarian chapel heads the list
with £423.
That important agricultural authority, the Mark
Lane Express, is already hopeful about this year's harvest.
It says:—" We have also started well for the next crop. It
has been a splendid seed time, and there is• already a fair
prospect of spring corn."
In the year just ended the value of poulty and game,
alive and dead, imported was declared at £271,137, against
£257,405 in 1873.

On Tuesday, the funeral took place at Cassel of the
late Elector of Hesse-Cassel. Among the mourners were
the sons of the deceased. Many officials and citizens also
attended the ceremony.
According to the Printer's Register, there are now
Published in the United Kingdom 137 daily newspapers,
distributed thus: London, 21; Provinces, 78 ; Scotland,
15 ; Ireland, 18; Wales, 2; Channel Islands and Isle of
Man, 3.
On Sunday the Pope received 16,000 f. and an ad-
dre:s from the Irish Roman Catholic visitors and residents
In Rome. The Pope replied at some• length to the address
basing his remarks on the Second Lesson for the day.
Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh, speaking at a
large gathering of Highlanders held in Dundee on Tuesday
evening, said he had the best authority for stating that the
Queen would be found among the contributors to the fund
being raised for the foundation of a chair in the University
of Edinburgh for the teaching of Gaelic. Already £3,000
had been obtained for the object, and by April he expected
the amount would-be £4,000.
Catherine Coley, widow of a soldier, died the other
day in the Bradford Workhouse, at the age of 102. The de-
ceased had been an inmate for four years, and enjoyed good
health till quite recently.
The Detroit Free Press says :—"The Millerites have
settled on the 20th proximo as Ascension Day, but for men
who expect to be in heaven on the 21st, they hold hay and
oats up wonderfully still, and want their cash down."
As the nucleus of a fund for the suppression of street
outrages, the Rev. J. Miles Moss, of Waterloo, near Liver-
pool, has made an offer—which has been accepted—to the
Town Council of £l,OOO.
It having been stated that since the introduction of
female operators on the telegraph lines the conversation over
the wires has lost much of its vulgarity, a Western Union
official is reported as saying that the conversation now makes
up in length what it lacks in breadth.
Mr. E. J. Wilson, the secretary of the Estate Ex-
change, Tokenhouse-yard, London, has published the fol-
lowing return of land and other property registered as sold
by public auction and by private contract from the Ist of
January to the 31st of December, 1874, as compared with
the preceding years, 1872 and 1873 :-1872, £9,901,220; 1873,
£5948,362; 1874, £11,100,324.
The Imperial Mint of Vienna is still engaged in
coining Exhibition medals, and will not, it is thought, com-
plete that work for some mouths hence. Up to the present
only about three quarters of the number of medals awarded
have been distributed, the remainder not yet being struck.
"What! you take your mother-in-law out shoot-
ing ? "says a French sportsman in one of Cham's pictures to
another sportsman. "Yes," is the reply, " with a 2.5 franc
gun I have presented her there's no knowing what may
happen."
A curious and painful fact connected with the ex-
istence of Government lotteries in Spain has just occurred
In Barcelona. A young man, on learning that he was a
participator in the great Christmas prize, lost his reason,
and has since died.
A New York telegram says that an express train
on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad has come into colli-
sion with another train near Washington. The express took
fire, and the mails, together with bank-notes to the value of
700,000 dols., were burned.
A historical wine-glass, which is one of a set owned
by John Hancock, was recently deposited in the In-
dependence Hall Museum of Philadelphia. It bears the
following inscription :—" Success to Wilkes and Liberty,
and has an interesting history." It is one of a dozen
presented to John Wilkes while a prisoner in the Tower of
London. and by him sent to John Hancock before the
Revolution. ,

--- • ----
A controversy in a New York paper concerning the
origin of the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword,"
has resulted in a tracing of the sentence to a Latin epigram
on the works of Luther, written when the sturdy reformer
was in his prime, and first translated into English in the
"German Diet" of James Howell, published in 1653. Frank-
lin and Bulwer are the most noted later users of the senti-
ment."—Pie torica World.

Extraordinary stories are told of the healing pro-
perties of a now oil made from the yolk of hens' eggs. The
eggs are first boiled hard, the yolks are then removed,
crushed, and placed over a fire, where they are carefully
stirred until the whole substance is just on the point of
catching fire, when the oil separates and may be poured
off. It is used for cuts, bruises, and scratches.—Ptctorica
World.
- - - -

"It is stated in diplomatic circles in Paris that his
Majesty Alfonso XII. was betrothed before quitting France,
to his cousin, the Princess Marie des las Mer9edes, the third
daughter of the Duke de Montpensier, and the younger
sister of the Comtesse de Paris."—Observer.—ghis report is
declared, "on the best authority, to be without founda-
tion."]
Many ladies just now are wearinff deep fur trim.
mings round their walking dresses. The London street
thieves have invented a new mode of robbery, which it is as
well that ladies should know. Coming behind the lady at_ a
favourable moment with a sh:irp knife, they cut the fur
down right in half just at the centre of the back, and then,
giVil:g a sharp tug with each hand, tear off as much fur as
will come off at one pull.

• • • -
During last week 6,379 births and 5,834 deaths were
registered in London and twenty other large towns of the
United Kingdom. The natural increase of population was
545. The annual death-rate was 45 per 1,000 in Edinburgh,
66 in Glasgow, and 42 in Dublin. In London 2,853 births
and 2,296 deaths were registered. Allowing for Increase of
population the births exceeded by 340, and the deaths by
615, the average numbers in the corresponding week of the
last ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes,
which in the five preceding weeks had averaged 31-5 per
1,000, further rose last week to 35, a result which may be
attributed to the low temperature which prevailed until and
including the Ist instant.
One of the most popular Nonconformist ministers of
the past half-century, the Rev. Edward Ma.nnering, has just
died at his residence at Haverstock-hill, London, aged
seventy-three. Mr. Blannering commenced his connection
with the Congregational body as one of its recognised
ministers in 1820, and was,for many years the pastor of Holy.
well Mount Chapel, Curtain-road, Shoreditch. In 1855 the
congregation united with the congregation of Bishopgate
Chapel, and Mr. Mannering became its minister. A few
years ago he was compelled to resign his charge owing to
ill-health.
Mr. Fawcett, M. P., spoke on Monday at the open-
ing of a new board school at Bethnal-green lie argued in
favour of compulsory ed•ication, without entering into the
controversy as to whether school boards should be universaL
Ile deprecated the opposition which was offered by the
clergy to tho establishment of school boards, and pointed
out the advantage which children in towns possessed in
being kept longer at school, and not sent to work at so early
an age as the youth in agricultural districts. He urged
parents to bring up their sons as handicraftsmen in
preference to letting them enter upon life as poorly-paid
clerks. He also referred to the better administration of
educational endowments.

year

The declared value of petroleum imported last
was £1,002,541, against £933,948 in the preceding year.
The value of the gunpowder exported last year from
the United Kingdom was £413,301; in 1873, 4442,140.
The American postal card factory, says a Spring.• •
field Mass., paper, has sent 'out about 20,000,000 cards this
quarter, and has about 6,000,000 in store.
The Great Northern Railway Company notify tha
the time for which first, second and third class return tickets
will be available, will be for any distance up to and including
fifty miles, seven days; exceeding fifty miles, one calendar
month. Sunday will not be counted as one of the days. for
which return tickets will be available.
The leading Nonconformists of Glasgow have held a
private meeting, and resolved to found a national association
to promote the disendo wment and4lisestablishment of the
State Church of Scotland. The funds are said to be ample.
Mr. Daniel, arbitrat4 in the West Yorkshire coal
dispute, has awarded a reduction of 12i per cent. in miners' _ -
wages.
The John, Bull understands that Lord Lyttleton
has obtained the consent of the Government, of air. Glad-Fri
stone, of Lord Selborne, and of nearly all the bishops, to the
second reading of the Bill for the increase of the Episcopate
as it was last introduced into the House of Lords. The
battle will be as to details.
' According to a telegram from Santander, the return
of the German gunboat Nautilus to that port is attributed
to the recent outrage by the Carlists on the German brig ,
Gustay. The Nautilus was on her way to the West Indies,
and on touching at Madeira was recalled.
According to the return of the Registrar-General
cold weather prevailed without interruption from the 9th ;
December to the lst Januaiy, both days inclusive, during
this period of 24 days the mean temperature averaged
30-1 deg., which was 7'9 deg. below the average for the cor-
responding period in fifty years. The cold was most intense
however, iuthe last week of December. On the other hand,
during the seven days ending on the th instant, the mean
temperature was 43 deg., or six above the avet age.
The King of Siam has invited the Royal Society
and the Royal Astronomical Society to appoint some men of
science to go there as his guests, with a view to observing
the total eclipse of the sun in April next. The object, ac-
cording to Mr. De la Rue, is to make such observations as
have never yet been attempted.
Some of the French papers state that M.• Francis
Gu6rin. a Frenchman, who has returned to Paris from the
Cape, is in possession of a white diamond, found in a de-
serted pit near the "Devil's Table," said to be worth
£280,000. '•
One of her lfajesty's ships of war employed on the
West Indian station has been despatched to Santiago, to in-
qiiirp into the circumstances under which the British
schooner Eclipse was recently captured and taken into
harbour with the British ensign flying. 4
Archbishop Manning, in forwarding a cheque for .71
£5, which he had received from India for the Hospital k.
Saturday Fund, expresses a hope that the committee will-not k
be discouraged at the amount of the collection being less
than some of them had expected, as it is more than he him-
self had hoped or n•
At the last meeting of the Royal Geographical -fIP
Society a letter was read from Colonel Long (who is with 44
Colonel Gordon exploring Central Africa for the Khedive of
Egypt), giving an account of his visit to Metsa, with whom
he remained nearly a month. He afterwards went to the
Victoria Ny anza, but on his return, encountering much i op-
position from the native chiefs, he had td effect an escape,
and on his way back defeated a large body of natives who
attacked him.
A noteworthy instance of public spirit on the part
of two Ilindoo potentates is mentioned in the Indian papers.
The Maharajah of Vizianagram has offered to contribute
£140,000, and the Ranee of Bobili £40,000, towards the con-
struction of a line of railway from Vizianagram to Raipore.
The fact is noteworthy on another account, as this co..
operation in a public work must be taken to indicate that an
old blood feud, a sort of vendetta, which existed between
the ruling families of these two States, has died out. The
origin of the feud is described in, Orme's History of India
and constitutes one of its most thrilling stories.
The late Elector of Hesse Cassel, in his will, divides
his personal property, amounting to" £700,000 sterlifig,
among his children. His eldest son Moritz, being an officer
In the Prussian service, receives no more than the portion
allotted to each of his brothers and sisters. The testament
repeats the Elector's protest agaipstathe annexation of Hesse
Cassel by Prussia, and hopes for the restoration of that Prin-
cipality by Austria.
Presiding at a meeting held on Saturday at Leicester,
Mr. Ellis, chairman of the Midland Railway Company, in the
course of a long speech, said that, in taking the step which t
his brother directors and himself, with the assistance of f
their able officers, had thought right to do, they had been t
actuated by a desire to benefit their own proprietors, and t
they thought the best way to do so was to study the con- "•••
venience and accommodation of the great travelling public!
Therefore he did' not wish to take credit for any great amount
of patriotism in the matter. It was, he believed, good policy 3
as regarded the commercial interest of the public.
At the meeting of the Committee for the relief of
the sufferers by the famine in Asia Minor, held in Constanti-
noplefon the 29th ult., several reports on the condition of
the distressed districts were read. One correspondent stated
that in TellEalgollra ten deaths a day were taking place from
a malignant and fatal fever, occasioned by the famine. In
Marsovan, fever had also appeared, which was pronounced
relapsing and contagious by a physician who had been sent
to the town. At Talas, assistance had been given to 1,130
persons, including Greeks, Moslems, and Armenians. In a
neighbouring village, containing about 1,000 inhabitants, 176
were found to be in danger of perishing from starvation. In
the city of Cesmrea 200 families were being assisted, and it
was thought that from 300 to 400 more would have to be added
. - • a ..- Zit/