The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-22 00:00:00

A NEW PLEASURE FOR PUNCH.

Mr, Punch, the other day, had the pleasure of ex-
periencing a new and delightful sensation. He read,
n a newspaper, as follows :

_
General Peel and the Army —Hitherto • married aoldier,
whether • non-c,mmisidoned officer or • private, has when
on detached duty had the burthen thrown upon him of
maintaining his wife and family in the garrison whilt he
has temporarily left. By a recent order of the W. Office
this is no longer to be the case. The wife and family are to
he famed talons out of the Government stores, or, if pre-
rem& the wile is to receive 3J., and each of the children
lid a-day inatead.

The pleasure experienced by Mr. Punch, for the fleet
time for many a day, was that of being pleased with
the British Government for on act on its part towards
the British army. That this act, an act of the barest con-
siderati an, remained to be done is a fact that reflect. great
disgrace on all preced in g arl ministrations. We have been
accustomed from time immemorial to hear Minieters in
Royal Speeches tell the House of Cammons that " the
eetimatre have been framed with a due regard to
economy "—which was altogether false. They were
always framed wi, bout any regard to economy, which
means exact distribution, but with an undue regard
to parsimony and petty caving. So, whilst the supplies
were squandered on the one hand, the soldiers were
iitieheil on the other. Now, when the men are sent from a
garrison on detached duty, their wives and families
will no longer be left behind to starve. This is not to he
regarded as an improvement in a merely sentimental
seine". The occasional liability of a soldier's wife and
children to starvation was one of the objections to a
eolrier'a life which tended to keep decent men out of
the Army, and at any rate prevented them from re-
enli•aing. These objections must be removed, if the
Queen's service is to compete successfully with more
easy arid remunerative employment. The alternative
will be conscription, and a lot which, for those who
hare no passion for a military life, is penal servitude
with the chance of violent death or mutilation. Mr.
Punch begs to congratulate a Conservative Govern.
merit on the adopt on of a liberal obey, which
he hopes it will maintain, in its treatment of the
Army. —Punch.

RECOVERY of .£B,OOO WORTH of STAMPS
STOLEN at MANCHESTER.

Since the conviction of the four men, on Tuesday
last, at Mancheatez, for the great stamp robbery at
the office of the Hon. Mr. Howard, the police have
been u.ing untiring eff wts to ascertain the whereabouts'
of the residue of the stamps stolen in May laet. That,
the actual thieves had been convicted was undoubted,
and that belief has now received the most ample verifies-.
ti. at by the discovery of about 8,000/. worth of the stolen
stamps in • portmanteau at one of the railway station.
in London. All these stamps have been handed over
to the authorities at Somerset-house, and it in nearly.,
certain that about 2 OWL worth more will 80011 be in
the_hands •.!f the police.

Charlei Leeson, who was sentenced to seven years'
la nal servitude, htd been eeven times previously' Con-
victed, twice 11..gged, and waa liberated about twelve,
months ago upon' ticket-of-leave, after b. sentenhe of
svven years' penal servitude frit the following robbery
at Mancheg'ter

WOht a moo, knOwn'ilw Cdttn
Charley: wslt2d-nntdde wlth-whhi!aos !rained f w the on-
pot. Leeson welserL•lor •.51, note in eichainstafew five
sovereign'', an whenths old to in the ahop toot the not&
oat of Ws prceet hook, Leweon snatched IL out fd hh
hand, and ran Off with it, nod when life ahOPUlan punnet
C ,ctney Charley tel the bulldog upon him, and the-,
t"l4, Leeson, got HIV•Jr. The drig was, however, follhwed,
and tree,' to the lodgings of the men, who Were
and.seietoneed to seven veers' penal. servitude.
• andl

Thomas Honglas, who is s 'native of Bristol, ~.
whose real name is liathatesy, in a great sporting
character, owns two or three raoehdrses, anti has won
souleTaces this year. Their is no doubt that he, with
the ethers, was concerned in all the .great tonelor
•htwalaries, and has, always biren known an a mar
dangerous character, .especially in Liverpool, wir . •
he was located for some time. He is an enear ur
by trade, his brother, William Donato., being
a locksmith. These two, it will be rvmetm
breed, were also sentenced to fifteen years' ser-
vi•mle for the stamp robbery. They were •'no chiefs
of that gang of which "Mr. Cal-ley" wa. one ; that
convict, whose graphic narrative in the Court, of
Queen's Bench, at the trial of v, !Adger,
created at the time so much amuseur t and intbreet,
bring merely an outsider, the two men Dcriglas being

I really the men who broke open the safe' as spoken to
by " Mr. Caeeley ;" and it is now well known that
Thome; Douglas bad and used to wear one of the most
billable .4 Mr. Walk.fe watches All the men were
cone,-reed in the great silk robbery at Gresham House
and also in the bullion robbery at Baum's, in Cheap-
side, London.
The convict Batt, whose alias is "Charley the Flat,"
was out Ott ticket.of-leave at the time of the stamp
robbery. being under eentence of three yeerie penal ser-
vitude for a very clever robbery at the West-end of
London. It may also be further intereating to mention
that had the four prisoners been acquitted for the
' -tamp robbery on Tuesday last, they would have
I teen taken into custody ..n a charge of burglary
at a Mr. Macfarren'a, a jeweller at Mancheeter,
when pronerty to the value of 15,000 e. was
carried off. some of which bae been found
in Thomas Douglas house, and identified. It may
, be added that all these men have long been suspected
of committing numerous burglaries at Manchester,
Birmingham' Sheffield, Leeds, and elsewhere, but the
legal proof Isas never been attainable. Their practice
was to leave the produce of the robberies in boxes or
portmanteaus at varioua railway stations until an op.
portune moment for it. easy transmission to the store,
of one of the numerous " fence " establielimende in
London.
The capture of these men has frustrated one of the
most gigantic robberies ever known, or perhaps con-
templated, as the clearest proof has been obtained that
means had been devised and were in actual progress
to gain accese to the Mint and Bank bullion vaults by
tunnelling under them ; and bad the scheme been
successfully carried out, the plunder would have been
of such a character an to render identification almost
imposeible, and conviction, even had the robbers been
caught, equally difficult. All these and, no doubt,
other nefarious plans are now put an end to, and,
assuredly, society has good reason to be rejoiced
thereat.

GARIBALDI AND EARL RuElBlMlO—An Italian
paper publishes the following letter from General
Garibaldi :

To the Italians —Lord John Russell Is Coming to Visit
Italy I wish to make known to my compatriots that the
illuetrious statesman in IWO threw Into tbelmile of cur
conntry's destiny the powerful voke of England &salad
those who wished to intervene and to bonito in Sicily the
movement for emancipation Thanks to this generate idea
the deliverance of the Yeapolitan continent was facilitated,
and the union of the Italian family, now so happily accom-
plished, became poselble To this noble Immo, then, the
well-merited expression of oar gratituda.-0 GARIBALDI
Caprera, Dec. 4, 1066.

" FENIAN FIRE" AT LlVERPOOL.—Experiments
have been made at the Liverpool Fire Police-station
for the purooe of testing the qualities of the so-called
"Fenian Fire." A bottle of it warn first flung atainst
A wall, and a loud explosion immediately followed.
Next, a quantity of the destructive liquid was thrown
upon cotton in a wet and dry state. In each case the
cotton instantly ignited, but the fire was quickly ex-
tinguished by water poured noon it from an engine.
The experiments took place in the presence of several
of the borough magistrates and members of the com-
mittee.

HARD WIT NATURAL-0B MT. Walpole's name
being submitted to the Prince of Ws/es among the
guests invited to meet him in his Norfolk shooting
parties, the Prince objected on the ground that Mr.
Walpole would be certain to " wipe his eye."—Punch.
ARABIAN NIGHTS REVIVED !—A new game has
been invented by the Empress Eugenie for the amuse-
ment of her guests, which taxes not a little the
inventive genius of the luckless wight who in this cane
may truly be said. like the peasant at the conscription,
to have drawn "un mauvais numero." The official
reception at Compiegne terminates at ten o'clock.
Her Majesty at tnat hour retires to her private apart.
meats, where those of the invites whom she haa
honoured by a special invitation are received by her
without any ceremony. A velvet bag, filled with slip'
of parchment, on each of which the name of a guest is
inscribed, is handed to her Majesty, who draws from
thence a single name. The individual than chosen by
fate is bound to relate • story which will amuse the
company during the space of one hour. At the last
party M. Edmund About excelled in this story-telling ;
but it appears that the amusing contributor to the
Figaro, A lberic Second, has thrown him completely into
the shade.

A THIEF'S TRAGIC DrAnt.—A letter from
Rome of the 11th gays :

The Pontifical corpa de garde on the Piazza Colonna had •
sanguinary inauguration yesterday morning Daring the
sale by auction of horses belonging to the French Owners on
the Piazza, in front of the guard-house, &pickpocket rubbed
• gentleman of his watch, bat was pursued by him end by
eeveral other bystanders. who Joined in the hue and cry.
The thief made for the Via del Bergamsechl, twilling into
the hit,. di Petra, but his paeans wu barred by
the soldier on guard, of the In ilgenons line regiment,
who, presenting his bayonet, ordered him to halt. There
are different accounts given by the eye-witnesse• as to
whether the thief could not stop short in his headlong
career, and so ran on the bayonet, or whether the soldier
purposely plunged the wearson Into him ; but certain it is
that he waa run through the body, and after staggering a
few steps fell down asp ring, and was put Into a carriage
ard taken to the hospital pro j ormet. He era. • youth of
nineteen or twenty, mid never spoke alter being 'rounded.

A WICKS]) Hoax.—With reference to a report
which bag reached the Transport Office at Somerset
House, London, and which bas also been circulated at
Lloyd's, in regard to the Golden Fleece transport, it
appears that a piece of pause in a bottle was picked up
by a cortetgnardman at Rock-end, lain of Wight, on
toe 10th of December, bearing these words : "Please
send something, for the Gulden Fleece has gone down
with 100 soldiers and 59 men, at a little past Port.
reath " (this word not plainly written). This mast be
a wicked hoax. The bottle could only have been thrown
overboard during the voyage made by *the Golden
Fleece fr ,m Portsmouth to Cork on the 17th of
November. This voyage was accomplished in Safety,
and the men landed at Cork on the 21st of November.
The Golden Fleece has linen then embarked agegiment
with more than 700 men, women, and children, and
sailed from Cork on the 21. h of November, direct to
China. She could not have been near Portreath, which
is on the north-west road of Cornwall, on her voyage
to China, except intenti, molly, and must in such case
have been seen and spoken by many vessels: