The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-03-07 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

The Prussian government has ordered a nine-inch
breech-loading gun from Sir William Armstrong, the powers
of which are to be tested side by aide with Prussian cannon
of the same calibre, but different make.
An insane spiritualist in Missouri having declared
that he "could redeem all things on earth,' one of his
audience presented a Confederate note, and asked him if he
could redeem that? Silence ensued.
One hundred and fifty recruits for the Papal Zouave
corps have arrived in New York from Canada. en ranee for
Rome. Their departure from Montreal on February 19 was
the occasion of imposing religioue ceremonies in the Catholic
Churches.
The recent Carnival at Rome is the worst upon
record, the plan adopted by Romans and foreigners. liberabi
and Papalini, being unanimously that of total abstinence
from the customary carriage promenades in the Corso, I
which has consequently presented a most drew y aspect.
On Ash Wednesday the Pope went through the
lengthy ceremony of placing ashes on the shaven headset
his venerable brethren of the Sacred College, and as many
other ecclesiastical, diplomatic, and civil dignitaries as
applied for the enjoyment of that privilege.
The English schooner Mary Ann, Captain Marshall,
laden with naptha and petroleum, caught fire at Antwerp
on Tuesday morning, in consequence of an explosion on
hoard. The ship was entirely deatroyed, and the captain
and crew perished.
The Bristol Times says that since Saturday afternoon
three boys of that city have "mysteriously disappeared."
A 1,500-dollar diamond ring was recently found in a
dead letter at Washington, and returned to the writer in
England. It had been sent to New York, and was never
called for.
- - -

There was considerable disturbance on Monday
night at Rochdale, arising irons an announcement that the
first of a series of lectures on Popery and Puseyism would be
delivered. The magistrates apprehended a disturbance, and
therefore wisely prohibited the meeting. The lectiners
arrived at the hall and were somewhat roughly treated, and
the town was in a state of great excitement.
Mr. Spurgeon is highly favoured by anonymous
friends. A few days ago his secretary placed Oil his table a
letter which had been telt at the door of his residence, there
being '• no answer." The letter contained notes to the
value of a:.2.000, the anonymous donor stating that he wished
£lOO to be devoted to the Orphanage, and £l,OOO to the
Pastors' College, two institutions that most people have
heard something of.
The Limerick monster establishment of Cannock
' Tait and Co., was attempted to be destroyed by Greek
tire thrown into a basement office; but the fire was dis-
covered opportunely to enable its extinction. Mr. Tait, the
incipal partner, to for the second year mayor of that city,
and believed to be popular, giving large employment and of
munificent charity.
The London, Chatham. and Dover Railway Com.
pans, appeared on Monday as claimants on the estate of Sir
Morton Febo and his partners for £6,600,000. The account
on which they claim consists of four items on the debit s.de
amounting to £15,997,993, including the above balance, and
two items on the credit side, making up the same BUM. We
should imagine there never was Buchan account filed in any
bankruptcy of a private firm since the world began.
"The readiness of the Hebrew race in finding
specious answers to the complaints of those who deal with
them, was never better exemplified than in an instance
which lately came to my knowledge. An eating house
keeper of that persuasion sells soup at a penny a basin. A
customer having consumed his basinful, complained that he
had not hail his pennyworth—the soup was bad, and he had
found in it a piece of worsted stocking. Isaac retuned,
• lrye think we can put hits of silk stocking in soup at •
penny a basin —Once a Wet•le.
Lord Abercories Donegal estates comprise more than
twenty thousand acres of tine land, and he has directed
leases of twenty-one years from the present date to be given
to each tenant, at a valuation stale seven years since. One
tenant, disposing of his tenantry in a farm of fifty-one acres
anti £2l annual rent, received for his interest £570 ; ant
another obtained for his title to a farm, the rental of which
was £39, no less a sum than £950.
At Exeter cathedral on Sunday the Very Rev. Dean
Boyd preached a sernmu in answer to "Rem Homo." His
text was St. Nlatthew iv. 3. "The tempter came to Him."
Ile argued that the " Ece Homo" theory with regard to our
Lord's temptation was designed to exalt the humanity of
Christ at the expense of His divinity. He endeavoured to
show the utter groundlessness of the theory that the
Saviour's temptation was not of an objective, but of • nib-
ferule° nature. Ile held that the temptation was a historical
reality, and that" hone llomo" on this point did dishonour
instead of honour to the humanity of Christ.
The following official order has been issued by the
United States Government :—" Department of State,
Washington, Feb. 10, 1060.—1 t Is recommended to all
citizens of the United States, native or naturalised, who have
occasion to visit Great Britain or Ireland, to procure
passports from this department while the Habeas Corpus
remains suspended in the latter country. Citizens of the
United States unjustly arrested are liable to be detained
without prompt examination until they can procure and
produce legal evidence of their citizenship—WM. 11.
SEWARD."

The enlistment of Prince Iturbide, adopted son of
the Emperor Muximilian of Mexico, in the Pope's regiment
of Dragoons, is thus commented on by the Italian journal
Secolo :—" This young man, gifted with a rich inheritance
from his father, has come to serve the Holy See from pure
formality, and to be ready, with the other detlironed royal
pretenders, for the day when the grand campaign of
•
universal reaction will be opened."
The priminers charged with the Clerkenwell mur-
ders, viz the two Desmond., English, O'Neil, O'Keefe,
Barrett, and Anne Justice, were brought up at Bow street
on Tuesday, suit committed for trial at the next sessions of
the Central Criminal Curt. The proceedings did not occupy
live minutes, and as they were brought up so early as eght
o'clock, they were removed to Seagate without exciting the
slightest popular notice.
The Board of Trade have ordered a telescope to be
prepared for presentation to Captain Woodward, master of
the American ship Progress, for his kindness and humanity
to the master and steward of the Gauntlett, of Liverpool,
who were taken off their disabled vessel and brought to
Liverpool in December last. The telescope will be for-
warded through the Foreign Office for presentation to Mr.
Woodward by his own government.
The Easter Monday review of the volunteers will
this year be held at Poitsmouth. This was decided on at a
large meeting of volunteer officers held in !melon, on Tars.
day, at the rooms of the National Elle Association.
Brighton was proposed and rejected, as the recommenda-
tions of the committee appointed to report on the various
sites were all in favour of Portsmouth. on account of the
facilities which this district affords for the co-operation of
the regular troops, and of many county corps which have
previously had no opportunity of taking part in the reviews.
The Mayor and Corporation of Portsmouth promise to be
very kind to the volunteers.
The Civil Tribunal of the Seine has just given judg,
meut In a remarkable suit which has excited much attention.
General Count Delve, who was at one time Senator and
Grand Chancellor of the Emperor Faustin, L, of Hayti, was
Sailed by President Getfrard, and he dM.t in Paris on the
25th March last. Thy body was deposited in a vault in toe
Northern Cemetery A counter-revolution has big taken
place in Hayti, the sou of the deceased by a first wife to-
turned there, and he has now claimed to be allowed to
esburne tint time away his father's remains. The demand
was resisted by the widow, and the court, after hearing the
arguments of counsel on both sides, decided in her favour
and against the exhumation.

The Somersetshire, from Melbourne, about which
some anxiety hss recently been felt, arrived on Tuesday, and
brought £40,000 in gold.
Mr. Rigby and Mr. Walker, the two largest public.
house proprietors in Liverpool, have, we (Liverpool Albion)
understand, commenced closing their houses on Sundays,
the new reyinqe commencing last Sunday. —This is a step in
the right direction.
The decline of marriage in England affords the
Americans some trouble. They assign the reason to be that
'the rising generation of Englishwomen are deliberately
resolving,.to strike out the word obey from the marriage

-
sacrament."
It is currently reported that the Empress Eugenie,
with the Prince imperial, will pay a yiait to Fiume during the
holy week and the Easter days.
Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased
to present to the library of the Hospital for Diseases of the
Chest, Victoria Park, London, through sir Win Jenner, a
copy of "Leavm from the Journal of Our Lite in the High-
lands," in which is inscribed the Queen's autograph.
The slaters' strike in Glasgow has ended by the
masters conceding the demand of the men,—viz., Cid. per

hour.
At the Downpatrick Assizes' on Saturday, r.
Johnston, a deputy lieutenant, and Grand Muter of the
county of Down Orangemen, was sentenced to a mouth's
Imprisonment for heading an Orange procession from the
town of Bangor Into his own park.
. . . .

The question of education is exciting a good deal of
attention in the agricultural district,. Meetings of Chambers
of Agriculture to consider the subject have been held In
several places:
. . •

The Pope has received from the Emperor Napoleon
an autograph letter, thanking him for the .• Blessed liat and
Sword," and declaring that he will employ the sword in
defending him from all his enemies.
A Loudon Ravings hank, established by negroes,
collapsed because the depositors withdrew all the funds to
attend a circus !
A resolution to prohibit the marriage between
blacks and whites has been defeated in the North Carolina
Convention.
The Town Council of Glasgow has resolved to peth
tion against the Reform Bill for Scotland.
The other day a marriage took place at Poston,
when the assembled friends, in the absence of flowers,
strewed the path of the bride with feathers.
Mr. Dickens is to sail for England on April 23, and
on April (She is to receive a dinner from the lourualists vf
New York.

Rumours of war are again rife in Paris, to which the
sudden departure of Prince Napoleon for Germany has
given a degree of importance that otherwise they would uut
have attained.
The Bishop of Lincoln has caused a new edition of
two little works to be issued for Lent. They are entitled.
Repentance, and The ,Sinfulness of Little Sour.
Two Austrian officers have been empowered to ac-
company the British expedition to Abyssinia.

Photographs of G. F. Train have begun to appear
In the booksellers shop-windows
- - • •

According to some rumours the legal expensee of
the Loi.don, Chatham. and Dover Railway during the past
six months have amounted to A:40.000 or £50,0400.

The Liverpool inhabitants are agitating for a
farthing local postage for letters written and delivered
within the borough.
A curious combination of " talent " is to be seen
and heard nightly at one of the London music-halls. A
person of gigantic stature, 7 feet 2 inches in height,
tomes forward and sings comic songs ! This gentleman
is fairly entitled to be called "the greatest singer in the
world."
An Irish gentleman, of the name of Scragga, offers
to sell the real Shylock knife which both Edmund and
Charles Kean used when they played in The Merchant 41

Venice.
At the Warwick Assizes, on Saturday, Charles
King, a retired licensed victualler, and William firecken-
bridge, an agent, were found guilty of obtaining plates for
the purpose of forging notes of the British Linen Company
Bank, Edinburgh, and were sentenced to eight years' penal
servitude.
The leadership in the House of Lords, vacated by
the retirement of Lord Derby, has devolved upon the Karl of
Malmesbury.
Lord Radstock is attracting some attention in Paris
by conducting religious services in the drawing-rooms of
some of the English aristocrany now resident in that city.
The death is announced of an eminent Welsh bard
and antiquary, Morgan Owen, at the age of eighty years.
It is stated that he had never been more than four milgs
away from home ; he had never written a letter to any oils
during his whole life, neither had he ever received one
himself.
George Francis Train continues to furnish letters to
the Nen, York World. It is understood that that joureal has
gained largely in circulation since Ilr, Train became Its
" special correspondent. In eight columns the name of
Train appears, in one shape or another, 357 times.
The wife of a private soldier, named Cullum, serving
in the Ist King's Royals, at Chatham garrison, haa just given
birth to three children—two boys and a girl—at the quarters
erected fer the married troops. The whole of the children,
as well as the mother, are described as doing exceedingly
well
Adyices from New Zealand inform us that the gold
fields in Auckland are progressing very favourably. The
, yields do not appear to be in any case very large but the
field is extensive, and what is known as a "good poor man's'
work_ Latterly gold has been found within twelve miles of
the city of Wellington, among the hills by South Makers.
A Western newspaper, commenting upon the
apocryphal story of the removal of the jaw from a livihg
person, and its replacement by a Parisian surgeon, expresses
a wish that somebody would remove Mr. Train's "jaw," sod
forget to put it back.
"Mr. Speke has not been brained through the risif
of a Hansom cab, or gone off to Oneida Creek under the in:
linen. of Mr. Hepworth Dixon, or been murdered in a
Westminster slum and afterwards dissolved in a powerful
acid, or fallen under the spell of a Pimlico syren. Ile has
done the one thing which nobody dreamt of suspectiug lam
of doing, and therefore he can expect no forgiveness."—
Examiner.
The ceremony of "drumming out" in the British
army, is, in future, to be dispensed with.
It is stated that there is no church living in the city
of Winchester worth g9(et a year, and this precludes curates
there from getting assistance from the recently established
Citrates' Augmentation Fond, beesuse no aeststance Is given
to a curate unless he receives 3,100 a year from his incum-
bent ; and no incumbent can auford to give his curate £lOO a
year out of £2OO.
The New York and Newhaven Railway Company
have introduced compartment cars upon their line, charging
one dollar extra for travelling in one of these carriages be-
tween New York and Boston. The partitions are so con-
structed as to leave a space of about two feet between them
and the top of the car, so that assistance could be obtained
in case of an emergency. The carriages are warmed by
heating tubes. Each compartment is adorned with two
' magnificent mirrors.
The introduction of first-class carriages on an Ame-
rican railway (between Newhaven and New York) will
doubtless become general in the United states. The idea of
republican equality in railway travelling is very pretty in
the abstract; but it happens that an invidious distinction
between classes in a necessary concomitant of civilisation.
The railway cars in America under the present system are
noisy, dirty, uncomfortable in every way; but the sleeping
cars are admirably arranged, and might be imitated to ad-
vantage on some of the continental lines.
At the Dorsetshire markets last week the price of
heel ruled high while the price of mutton was lower. The
weather was stated to lei unfavourable to the turnip crop.
In that part of the country nitrate of soda was becoming a
favourite manure. The use of nitrate of soda was increased
30 per cent, last year.
At the Durham Assizes Timothy Stephenson has
been indicted for the manslaughter of Wm. Harrison Bain-
bridge, at Stockton, oil the 9th of December. The deceased
was the prisoner's apprentice, and on the day in question his
master, being aneoyed at something he had done, in a
moment of passion threw a pair of pincers at the boy,
which struck him on the head. The boy died some days
afterwards from the effects of the lilow. The prisoner wee
found guilty and sent to prison for three months.
The general commanding at Vienna has addressed a
circular to the chiefs of all the corps &armee, °ensuring in
strong terms the conduct of certain officers who are not
ashamed to appear publicly in company of women of bad
fame, the assumed names of whom are given in the
documents.

-----
The constables who so bravely captured Captain
Mackay have been presented with special rewards for their
conduct. tin Friday Colonel Wood. Inspector-General of
Constabulary, attended at Union (4lUty Police Station, Cork,
and presented Head-Constable Geale with a silver medal,
and Constables O'Brien and Mackay, who waisted In the
arrest, received chevrons.
According to a supplementary return publiahed this
week, the number of persons convicted a Landon between
the Ist of January and tat July, 1857, for the use of false
weights and measures was, in the Finsbury division, 68 in
the Marylebone division, 20 ; in the St. Pancras division,
30; arid In the Westminster, 111. The large majority of
offenders lathe Westminster district, are to be found among
the licensed victuallers. The fines paid amount in the aggree
gate to s:11:3 55.
A vessel arrived last week at Southampton with
6,000 quarters of wheat from the Black Sea, the largest cargo
of wheat ever brought to Southampton In a single vessel.
Egyptian wheat is now being imported into Southampton for
the purpose of being ground into flour. Hitherto It has only
been used for other purposes than for human food, but by
means of a patented process to which it is ;row subjected, it
can be adapted for the miller and baker, and converted into
wholesome food.
Military Men of the sporting genus who have Canada
to look forward to as a station will he glad to learn that
game is rigidly preserved in those regions sir Henry Smith
has lately introduced a new bill into the Ontario legislature
for the protection of wild ducks from batteries or sunken
plots, decoys, traps, and snare.. A regular season is also
appointed for the killing of deer, turkey, grouse, bare, gee!,.
ducks, woodcocks, snipe, and also of lerigliah pheasants
which, it seems, have been Introduced there with success.
At Son, a small town in the Lot en Garonne, a
countryman arrived with some wheat, :or which he asked a
larger price than that previously quoted. The crowd in-
stantly set on him, some pricking him with needles and
bodkins, and others trying to tear out his heard. Two
gendarmes, who constitute the whole of the public force at
that point, succeeded, after great efforts, in getting him
away.
The United Service Gazette states that on landing
at the Island of Ascension the visitor is confronted by the
following notice—" The Island of Ascension being the
property of the Lords Commissioners cif the Admiralty, and
bona file part and parcel of H.M.S. Flora, persons are to
bear in nifnd when landing on any part of the island that
they place themselves under naval law. In the same manner
as though they had been en board the Flora herself."
The advertisement of a London "wine and spirit
merchant" bears this heading The Prince of Wales is
the centre of attraction wherever he is fOllll.l, but nowhere
niore so than at the new and elegant Prime of Wales
Tavern !" In the same journal, "the Victoria Park Cents-
, Jery "Company thus puha out the advantages of their grave-
Mani :—" The Victoria Park Cemetery comprises an im-
e °nerd area of land in every respect adapted Mr the pur-
pose of sepultere. A brick wall of nmeiderable height,
with a lofty iron railing arid massive entrance) gates, afford
ample pretection from annoyance or disturbance ! "
The following story is current in Paris :—The
principal ni.nisters of the Sultan give at CoristanUnople, trout
time to time, balls a CEuropeenne. Not many in mils ago
Flied Patha had a dam ng party at his sumptuous reseleuce.
At those balls our own etiquette is strictly adhered to, with
the sole exception that the Turkish ladles remain in their
apartments, where they are visited only by the Fair sex. A
young attathe, very fond of practising the precept of
Napoleon the Great, "Nothing Is impossible in this world,"
gave his arm to the wife of his chief and tea her to the
harem. When he had reached the threshold he seemed
inclined to span it when Feed Pacha, who was watchiug all
the while, came and saidlo him, "Pardon me, sir, you are
accredited to the Porte. Yollf miserati ends here."
A determined attempt was made to murder a po-
liceman arid a man named Hills, in Finsbury-square, In
Loud., on Tuesday morning, bye man named O'll.eara At
a quarter before three o'clock, as Hills was nutmeg down
Whitecross-street he heard the report of a pistol, and un
mediately a shot passed the side of his face. Two other
shots were fired in rapid succession at him, Mit neither of
them took effect. The prisoner, who was about fifteen yards
behind Hills, walked away down to Whitecross-street
conatable Maley, having hoard the report, ran up to the spot
and seized hold of the prisoner. Ile struggled desperately with
him, arid Hills then came up to the constable s assistance,
in
persons
eles
shoulder
1,411 egfitrehetedt so
he ttime
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otc ght leirratothriel
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of left
the revolver were discharged, and the priether toy this time
was kiroperly secured. It was only by "dodging " about that
the constable and the man Rills escaped with their Um.