The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-02-01 00:00:00

PASSING EVENTS, RUMOURS, ta.

A crest meeting under the auspices of the Reform League
waa held in St. James's Mall, in London, on Tuesday evening.
The hall was densely crowded. Mr Edmond Beales pre-
sided, and, In an introductory speech, declared that the
Reform Act of last Session was wholly unsatisfactory as a
settlement of the question. Resolutons were proposed
and unanimously adopted, denouncing the rate-paying
clauses of the Act demanding a better 1118.111.1 re of redis-
tribution ; and insisting upon the adoption of the ballot.

The Observer states that the Alabama claims are, for the
present, no looker II matter of discussion between the two
Goverumenta of Great Britain and the United States. Lord
Stanley having refused to arbitration the legality or expe-
diency of the recognition of the Southern States as belli-
gerents by her Majesty's Government, and Mr. Seward
insisting that that question should also be taken into con-
sideration by the proposed tribunal, the correspondence
is closed.

American papers inform Us that the Indian Peace Com-
missioners, who have succeeded in paciflcating the Indian
tribes of the western border, have made a lengthy report to
Congress, concerning the whole Indian question, In which
they state that the Indians have suffered great wrongs at the
hands of the Government and its white citizens ; and recom-
mend that the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains be
gathered into reservations, aside from the main routes of
travel, placed under efficient protection and control, taught
the industries of peace, brought under civilised influences,
aided in the transition from nomadic to productive pur-
suits, and otherwise assisted and directed. This course the
Commissioners think will secure a lasting peace between the
whites and the Indians.

The agitation throughout the United States for the pro-
tection of the rights of American naturalized citizens when
abroad grows apace, and the demand among the people that
those righta shall rest upon some well-understood basis Is
almost universal. Both American parties are fully com-
mitted to this, and it Is one of the very few doctrines upon
which they have agreed in sentiment since 1661). The
popular meetings to advocate the doctrine continue, and the
leading men of the country, finding the current to run so
strongly, are all taking advantage of it, and declaring their
sentiments to coincide with those of the masses.

The report of Mr. W. Overeud, Q.C., Mr. T. I. Barstow,
and Mr. George Chance, the Examiners appointed under the
Trades' Unions Commission Act of 1867 to inquire into the
outrages asserted to have taken place at Sheffield and else.
where with the support and connivance of associations of
workmen, has just been issued, together with the evidence
taken at Sheffield. The report is addressed by the Examiners
to the Commissioners appointed under the Act, and consists
of little more than a history of their inquiry, the facts of
which received so touch attention during its progress. The
accompanying evidence, filling 450 folio pages, contains
nothing of importance thlt has not already been published ;
but it will always remain meet, the most valuable as well
as most painful records I a state of social disorganisation
and anarchy, such as scone could have believed to eidat
upon evidence lean than irrefragable.

In London, on Monday, the magistrate at Bow-street was
engaged for some time in investigating a most remarkable
charge of conspiracy to obtain money under false pretences.
The accused were two Germans, named Victor and Fordon,
1101 it would appear that Victor went to the Prussian Em-
bassy and offered for a certain sum to reveal the particulars
eta plot to assassinate the King of Prussia. The person
who was to do this atrocious deed was a Banoverian soldier,
minted Wilhelm Emerick, and Victor took some nine from
the embassy and pointed out the residence of Baron Biome,
the late Hanoverian ambassador, as the place where the
plot was hatched. The very idea of such an infamous plot
was repudiated on the part of M. Biome and other Hano-
verian gentlemen with the utmost indignation. The evi-
dence against Fordon was insufficient to establish his com-
plicity, and he was discharged. Victor as committed for
trial.

The magistrates of Limerick, fined a sib-constable t
on Friday last for making a false arrest of a respectable
fanner, on the pretence that he was a suspicious character.
The sub-inspector in charge of the police party pressed the
prosecution, feeling it his duty to punish the man who had
acted so improperly. It is the only instance of any alleged
misconduct on the part of the constabulary during all the
period that extraordinary powers have been intrusted to
them, and great temptations offered to indulge personal
feelings if they entertained them.

The Secretary at War presided recently at the annual
dinner of the Droitwich Benefit Building Society, and re-
marked, with regard to the outrages that had been com-
mitted by trades unionists, that to his mind if anything
could equal the wickedness of those outrages it was their
folly. It was an attempt by tyranny, violence, and persecu-
tion to lay down that no nian should be at liberty to earn a
higher rate of wages than his neighbour, lie considered
that such an attempt to bring down the industrious and
idle, the clever and stupid, to one deadening level, was an
attempt in direct opposition to one of the moat obvious law,
of human nature, and that it must signally fail.

An interesting gathering of Anstralian colonists now in
England took place in London on Saturday last to celebrate
the Both anniversary of the first British settlement In Aus-
tralasia, Sir \V. Denison, K.C.8., in the chair. The principal
speakers were the chairman, the Duke id Buckingham, Mr.
Corry, M. P., Sir C. Nicholson, tkc. The increase of the
wealth and population of this important part of the British
empire; its loyalty, as just displayed by its enthusiastic re-
ception of Prince Allred; and the noble way in which it
always rallied round the old country when any appeal was
made to it, like the Patriotic Fund to which Australia and
New Zealand contributed £170,000, were the principal topics
of the eloquence of the speakers.

Mr. Young, of the Livingstone Search Expedition, enter-
tained a large audience at the meeting of the Geographical
Society in London on Monday night with his report of the
results of his journey, and an interesting address by which
the written report was supplemented. What he said
seemed to bring his hearers to the conclusion of Sir Roderick
Murchison (which he expressed in a letter, being unable to
be present through indisposition) and his own, that the great
traveller is still alive. Mr. Young, in conclusion, said he
trusted that the doctor would turn up in a few weeks more
to set at rest all doubt. Sir Samuel Baker in still unsatisfied,
though more hopeful than he was lie thought that, as
Livingstone had been seen with only nine followers, it was
almost impossible that he could get to Alexandria lie
hoped, however, almost against hope, that they would hear
of his return to Zanzibar. They had heard much of Dr.
Livingstone, but unfortunately they had heard nothing from
him. Let them, therefore, not suffer their spirits to grow
too buoyant For himself, last year he confessed that he
had no hope of Livingstone's safety, but he bad some hope
now, because it had been proved that Moose and the
Johanna men did tell lies.