The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-02-10 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

It is stated that the Military. Estimates will show
a reduction it is, however, found that, owing to the ad-
vanced pikes of food and munitions, the reduction is con-
siderably encroached upon.
A bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin has been WI.
veiled in Printing-house-square, Min York. an the region of
the newspaper offices is called, and presented to the printers
of New York.
The directors of the Law Life Assurance Society
have contracted to the whole of their Irish estates for
£x30.000. Already £71,000 has been paid on account o the
purchase money. Solkilore Journal.
Up to Saturday last the Treasury receipts amounted
to £6O 118,155, an Increase of more than £3,000.99) ...earth°
corresponding period of last year. The expenditure has been
£6l 299, 2ie.
The death in announced at Paris of M. Jules
Nelaten, aced 67, brother of the celebrated medical prat.-
Whiner. Ihe deceased gentleman was well-known as a
painter.
In support of the belief that the Indians are rapabl
of civilization, It is mentioned by the Branford Courser that
among the Six Nation Indians, of Canada, there area, mane
sober, virtuous, and godly aborigines as there are in the same
number of white people in the parts adjacent.
An extraordinary theft is discovered to have been com-
mitted In the Imperial Artillery Museum at St Petersburg.
All the costly insignia of the Orders of the Saint Andrew,
Alexander Nevsky, and the White Eagle, have disappeared,
the value amounting to millions.
A despatch from Havana to the New York World Of
the 19th inst., says the new cemetery will receive the title of
Columbus, and the remains of Columbus riow deposited in
the cathedral will be transferred at a future day to the new
cemetery, and placed inside of the grand momument to hie
memory.
In the Court of Common Pleas, Dublin, on Tues-
day, £l,OOO damages were given to alias Lucy Fitzgerald, plain-
tiff in an action for breach of promise, the defendant beings.
Mr. Fox, a surgeon ill the army, and now stationed on We
coast.

Atriean

Vie two telegraphists employed at Sandringham
during the Prince of Wales' Illness have received a handsome
bonus front the Postmaster-General, in recognition of their
services during that trying period His Royal Highness
also, it is understood, tutend• 'base gentlemen a re-
membrance of their stay at
A special telegram from a New York Correspondent
states that, in official circles, it was not thought that any
claims for indirect damages In the A labama ease would be
paid, but that it was nevertheless comidered proper to
include them in a general statement of the •meritaus
grievaucem.
A public meeting wan held on Tuesday night, in
Huddersfield, t.) consider the Queen'. Speech in relation to
financial reform. The meeting was held under the auspices
of the Liverpool Financial Reforni Association. The miniepal
speakers were Mr. T. A. Jimes. Liverpool, and Mr. Robert
Coningsby, London. A resolution wee passed expressing re-
gret that in the Queen's Speech no pledge was given that
the national expenditure should be reduced.
The Subra Times says that 111/mini has for some
weeks past taken op his residence at Geneva Though ap-
pareutly very feeble, he may be seen abroad, on fine days,
taking his accustomed walk. His pallid complexion, his
stooping carriage, his tottering steps, supported by means of
a substantial walking stick, are strikingly reminiscent, not
only of the fable of the Sphinx anti its solution by Okliptm,
but also of the still more instructive allegory of one who has
been conaidered the wisest of mankind, in which ha so
graphically descrihes the last of the seven ages, or stages,
when "man goeth to his last long home."
On Saturday last a shepherd in the employ of Mr.
remit, of Bunchani, Norfolk, was driving a large flock of
sheep over an oeematiou crossing upon the ilunatanteu and
Wells Junction Railway, a fog prevailing at the moment,
and the man, beim; unaware that a special train was about
to pass, had got the belle of the flock to the very centre of
the line when the tenth dashed into the midst of them.
killing 12 on the spat and cutting some of them completely
In halves, while others were badly injured. The escape of
the shepherd himself was almost s miracle.
In the Monthly Paper of the National Education
l_eigue, issued on Monday, 111, (Odell; stated In regard to
th, new programme lately adopted by thd Executive Com-
m ttee, that "Ii is believed that the advice, ~Ifered by the
Committee will be accepted almost unanimozialy by the
members. Up to the time of going to ernes we hay.' received
the resighetion of two members only, while a sonsi:lerable
addition, Including the new autscribers of £lOO each, has
been made to the list."
A fully-attended meeting of the Birmingham Town
Council was held on Tuesday, at which the precept of the
School Board was presented, making a demand for £4,0 0.
As a portion of this amount was to be devoted to the pay-
ment of fees In denominational schools, Alderman Manton
moved, and Aldermen Charles sturge seconded, a motion
that the precept be not complied with. An animated die-
eussion terminated in the rejectiou of the School Board
application by a innlarity of 42 to 12.
It has only recently been discovered that in the
district of the river Amour Russia possesses a gold field
which explorers of those parts are inclined to consider the
richest in the world. Gold-washing and gold-digging Is
going on in the tributaries of the Reaso-Chinese frontier
stream and their valleys, and repay the persons engaged in
it so abundantly that labourers cans from 60 to 150 roubles
in silver per day. To make these treasures available for
western nejustry, a company has been started at St. feign.
burg, sterling partly with English capital, to navigate the
Amour by a regular steamer service.
Referring to the Alaht am question, the IMbato saye
It is easy to see that the United States are now taking their
revenge far the attitude of the English Government Miring
the secession war, when England thought she was ailopttlg
a very skilful policy in encouraging the South, aud favouring
thus a movement which might have weakened the great
Republic. The secessionists were nevertheless defeated,
and the United States, as etrong now as before the war,
show now that they have forgotten nothing. "It is to be
hoped, however, in the interests of the peace of the world,"
adds the DeThat, "that this Alabama matter will be amica-
bly settled."
A correspondent who has been on a visit to Chisel
burst says that in the arrangemeets of the Imperial house
hold everything is very simple, and presents a striking con-
trast to the sumptuousness of the inmates' former days. The
Emperor BO longer indulges in expensive wines ; the table
Is humbly served, and lea toilettes elkollett'es absolutely
banished. His ex-Majesty keeps only one carriage, and hall.
a-dozen horses, and the Empress goes out generally on foot.
Napoleon 111, rises early and works hard; he reads all the
newspapers attentively. All frivolous pleasures and mundane
amusements are forbidden the Empress has embroidered
an ornament for Chiselhurst chapel, and the young Prince is
being trained like a Spartan.
There exists in Belgium a society called the " Libre-
PensCe,- whose avowed object it is to uproot religion from
modern society. It has just published its annual report, and
from that document the world is informed that the members
consider their cause to be making satisfactory progress.
They say that the number of civil f unerale—that is, funerals
without religious rites—was bust year double that of the year
previous; and of the persons " civilly " interned one-half
were women civil marriages, too, they say, are becoming
the rule. The Free Thinkers declare that so compromise Is
any longer possible between the old ideas and the new ;
men must be for the Church or sealant it.
last Friday evening, in a granite quarry, six miles
from Peterhead, Aberueenshire, three men were engamel
boring, preparatory to a heavy blast, when a heavy Maas of
600 tons of reek suddenly came away and buried them to a
depth of 40 feet. The other men in the quarry immediately
took steps to extricate their companions, and alter twelve
hours' labour sueceoled in reaching the place where they
were. Two of there were 10111111 dead, tbelr bodies fearfully
mutilated. One of the men, named Allen, was got alive in
a crevice, in a sitting posture ; he lied a few minntes after
being taken out. While the work of excavation was gulag
on he was frequently imploring the men to lie speedy ha
their aorta to release him, and gave directions for the
work.
"A communication has—it is reported on go'red au-
thority—been already forwarded from our Govetetnent
Washington on the subject of the claims of the Milted States
for indirect damages as put forward in the American Case.
The despatch, if we are rightly imformed, is most friendly
In its tone, and expresses an earnest desire on the part of Her
Majesty's Government for the due carrying out of the Treaty
of Washington. At the same time, it states In distinct
terms that any liability for indirect damages was not under-
stood on our side to be contained in the Treaty, and declares
that England cannot consent to arbitration if her liability lii
respect to such damages 111 to he regarded as an open quote
tion."—Oimseme
•
resumed

give a-
. Sandringham.