The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-23 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The will of the late Mr. Henry Peace, of Darling-
ton, formerly 11. P., for South Durham, has been proved at
Durham, the net personality being declared to be £360,439
17s. 94.
The heat in the East of France has been so great
that enormous qiiantitie o f fish have bean killed in the
River Meurthe and cas t upon the banks, so that measures
had to be taken for disposing of them in order to avert a
plague. •

President Garfield's mother, an old lady of eighty-
one, is seriously ill, partly through anxiety about her sou.
Fears are entertained that she may not recover.
The, trial arising out of the beer riots, which kept
the University town of Gottingen in a state of uproar for
the greatest part of a week in May last, has just been con-
cluded. A large number of students had been arrested, and
fifty-eight of the number were placed in the dock. The
accused were all found guilty, and most of them lined in
sums varying from thirty to a hundred marks.

•
An article published in the North, American Review,
on the creation of a United States navy, attracts some atten-
tion in New York. The writer, Mr. John Roach, proposes
to const:uct one hundred fast-going iron steamships of four
classes, so constructed that they could at shori notice be
turned into heavily-armoured cruisers.

Five men went out in a boat at New Brighton on
Sunday, mid while tacking their craft suddenly capsized.
Two ui the men were drowned.

The inscription stone of a new Art Gallery to cost
a hundred thousand piunds was on Tuesday laid in Bir-
mingham. The Mayor reproached the Metropolis with
being behind provincial boroughs in providing free libraries,
and bo.isted that Birmingham had five rate-supported lend-
ing libraries, and he hoped they would soon provide free
music for the people.

- -
A Parliamentary return issued on Tuesday shows
that the sugar consumed in breweries throughout the
United Kingdom in the year ending September, 1880,
amount° I to 147,906,14611).

Under the head of "Income-Tax," the Chancellor
of the Exchequer acknowledges the receipt of £203 from
" iptia."---," Under the head of " Conscience-Money," the
Chancollor of the Exchequer acknowledges the receipt of
£l3 is. for legacy duty from "P."

- -
There has recently been sold in Manchester, for the
sum of £6 15s. a copy of "Three Ways of spending Sun-
day, by Timothy Sparks," which is one of the earliest and
rarest of Dickens's writings. It was purchased by the
bookseller who sold it for threepence ! It has been resold
for 48 Ss,

The laying down of the cable between Berlin and
Stettin, which was effected the other day, completes the
subterranean telegraph system in the German Empire
These cables now cover 3,420 miles, nearly all of them hlv-
ing seven wires and they have cost £1,510,548 They are
laid beneath all the principal rivers, and establish direct
telegraphic communication between 221 different cities and
towns of the German Empire.

In London last week 2,533 births and 1,816 deatlts
were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the
births exceeded by 41, and the deaths by no less than 304,
the average numbers in the corresponding week of the last
ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes, which
had been equal to 181, and 10.6, and 21.6 per 1,000 in the
tree preceding weeks, further rose to 24 7. The high mor-
tality was largely due to the excessive heat, and amongst
the deaths were those of 236 infants under one year old.

_
According to the return of the Registrar General,
there were 49 deaths from small-pox in London last week,
and of these 33 took place in the 3detropolitan Asylum Hos-
pitals at Fulham, Homerton, Stockwell, and Deptford.
As some men were loading trucks with timber in the
goods yard at Matlock Bath on Tuesday evening, one large
ham became unmanageable, and swung over the line just as
an express was coming up, striking one of the carriages, aud
killing one of the passengers. A good deal of damage was
also done to the can iages.

A letter has been forwarded to Mrs. Garfield by
Mr. Thomas 13,yley Potter, M.P., from the Cobden Club,
conveying expressions of the committee's abhorrence of the
late attempt on the life of the President of the United
Etatea, and of their most earnest wishes for his speedy and
perfect recovery, with assurance of deep sympathy with the
President's family and the American people.

The famous farm, Tiptree Hall, Kelveclon, Essex,
owned by the late Mr. Mechl, has recently been offered for
sale at the Mart, London. The highest bid for the 132
acres was e. 3,750, or £2B ss. per acre, a very low price for a
"model farm." 'ilia property was withdrawn from sale.

A meetlug of Berkshire farmers has been held at
Aes:ding to consider the present distress amongst agrieul-
turists, and to suggest a remedy. After a discussion a rezolu-
tion was passed affirming that the farmers were unjustly
assessed as compared with other ratepayers, and urging the
Government to revise at once the present burdens upon the
land. A committee of nye farmers was also appointed to act
in conjunction with the committee appointed by other dis-
tricts in Ilergshire to consider the whole question as to the
oaizzo of the present agricultural distress.
The Agent-General in London for New South
Wales has been informed by telegram of the arrival in,
Sydney of the ship Peterborough, which sailed from Ply-
mouth with emigrants in April last,
-

_
Some time ago tile Vogmaster-General intended as
an experiment tq employ a number of deaf and dumb per-
sons as zonrter4 in the General Post office. The experiment
has been successful, and the desirability of extending it is
under the consideration of Mr. Fawcett.

Sir E. W. Watkin, M.P., in presiding, at the half-
yearly meeting of the Aletrop3llt4n Railway, pointed out
that during the six months they carried 33,400,000 passen.
gets, against 31,5)00,400 in the corresponding period of 1880.
The first-nlose; percentage was 1158, the second-class 1619,
aln the thitd-class 69 03. The 'total receipts of the half-
year had Leen £295,916, against £279,246 in the correspond.
nig period of last year, an increase of £16,700.

A peaceful sign of the times is ruanifeated by the
fact that Herr Krupp's great steel works at Essen are so
busy just now that 4,000 additional men have been engaged,
thus bringing the total of hands up to 13,000 ! The various
European Powers want all their orders executed at once.
Two children were born a few days ago in Canton
Vaud, Switzerland, joined together like the Siamese twins.
Shortly after their birth, the operation of dividing the
ligament by which they were joined was successfully per-
formed, and the twins arc reported to be doing well.

A Bad accident occurred on Saturday at Cove
village, a short distance from Aberdeen. A girl, eleven
years of age, named Catherine Edmond, daughter of an
Aberdeen I.'inibinal.zer, whilst gathering ferns MI over a cliff
it hunili•ed feet high, and was instantaneously killed on the
rocks beneath.

A fire occurred at gonthsea on Tuesday, result;ng
in the deArtiction of two houss. At the back of one of the
buildings was a glass house s,or,d with straw and sha%ings,
and the heat of the sun throuidi theglass caused the igni-
tion of the shavings, and. tile aubtequsiit destruction of the
two adjoining liousps,

A. al-nnsin„a report has lately been circulated. it
L! the effect that directly the Land Bill has passed the
COIIIIIIOIIB Mr. GladStolle will go to the Upper House as Earl
of Oxford, and look after the interests of the Bill in tb2t
august assemblage. This certainly is ingepic.us, if true:'—
The World.

The stock of pelmy postage-stamps aL. the Post
Office having bcooroe e;iliausted, the new stamps available
for p:istao Or receipt are now being is6tied Tne ordinary
reoeipt and penny postage stamp are still available either for
receipt or postage, and will be some time before they are
fully superseded by the new stamp.
Whilst the thermometer outside registered 90 deg.
in the shade on Monday, the temperature of the House of
Commons was equally maintained at 74 deg. A ton of ice
was consumed in the effort to reduce the temperature.

The consumption of brandy in the Duchy of Baden
bac caused such a rapid increase of drunkenness that the
Grand Duke is determined to put down alcoholism as much
as possible. All managers of clubs have been ordared to dis-
courage brandy drinkiug, spirit licenses in the various vil-
lages are very sparingly accorded, and any one selling
brandy without authorisation is liable to six weeks' impri-
sonment.

"What's a home where love is not?" asks a youth-
ful poet. On this head we can give that junior Shakespeare
k owe information. " A home where love is not," is a very
Interesting spectacle—to the neighhours.—Sporti3g Timm
Some English residents at Paris have sent over a
petition to the House of Coinmons praying for the total
abolition of vivisection.

Relative to the despatch of public business in the
piguse of Commons Mr Mode Palmer will shortly propose
" I hat Mr. Speaker be respectfully requested to frame during
the recess any alterations and additions in and to the Stand-
ing Orders which from recent experience he may consider
necessary or desirable for facilitating the progress of public
business, and to submit the same to the consideration of the
House as early as he convellieDtly can in the next session of
PArliament.'

lt ia Announced from Rouen that a fire broke out
tha other night at the station of St. Sever, destroying the
entire station and a number of trucks laden with merchan-
dise. The losses are estimated at 1,000,000 francs, more
than half of which is the value of the merchandise destroyed.
A scheme has been lately prepared by the French
lighthouse administration for gradually substituting the
electric light in all lighthouses of importance in place of
the oil lamps a's present in use.

Efforts are being made to introduce a new industry
into Bengal on the model of the coffee-planting experiments'
made in the Chittagang district, which are said to have been
very succeaful.

In the province of Reggio there is a mud volcano,
which has lately, it is reported, showo extraordinary signs
of activity, so much so as to alarm the inhabitants in its
vicinity.-Stong explosions are beard, jets of liquid mud
rice to the height of several feet, and slight earthquakes
are felt. The phenomenon attracts many visitors to the
spot

The Kiel correspondent of the Daily News says
that a trial has just taken place of the capahflitiels of a new
vessel invented by Herr Emil. Fiei2aher, to which he gives
the name of the Liv.ctramotGr. By order of the Duke of
Edinburgh, Captain Hcneage, of the flagship Hercules, and
the chief engineers of the Hercules, Valiant, and Penelope,
accompanied by two chief engineers of the German navy,
went for a three hours' trip with the Hydrantoter. They are
said to have exprested a very favourable opinion on the
practical value of the invention both for commercial and
naval vessels. After the trip the inventor and the builder
were invited to dinner by the English °facers.

A shocking accident baz acourred at the Columbia
Cotton Mill, Bolton. .4k. stripper and grinder, named James
McClelland, was repairing a strap over a drawing frame creel
when he was caught by it and drawn up to the shaft, which
at the time was; making two hundred revolutions per minute.
Several minutes elapsed before the engine could be stopped,
and the poor fellow meanwhile was literally dashed to pieces,
his head, legs, and arms being picked up in different parts
of the room. Deceased was aged and leaves a large
family.

Fresh • anti-J(3%7U diuturbances are reported from
Rusqla. The Sf. Petersburg correspondent of the Standard
states that the Jewish inhabitants of the town of Perejas-
laval, in South Russia, have been attacked, their housez
and shops being pillaged and wrecked because of their pro-
test against a -decree ordering that all the Jews resident in
the town who were not duly itisciihed should be cornpeU?il
to leave within a certain time

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A. letter from St. John's, Newfoundland, states
that the personnel of the, Lady Tranklin bay expedition
arrived tire from New ;toil. on June 22. They were to
s;ort for the Artie regions on July 4 in the steamer Proteus,
under the command of Lieut. Greeley ; and the first stage
in their, operations will be the foundation of a polar colony
at Disco.
In the first week of August a free public library is
to be opened at Woodside, Aberdeen—a gift to the place of
his birth from :in. John Anderson, lately Superintendent of
Machinery to the War Department. The cAlection, which
numbers about 6,000 volumes and pamphlets, is said to
be a good all-round selection, and inelnd(4 4 children's
library.
Under the head of QaTiscienee Money," the Chan-
cellor of tie Exchequer acknowledges in The Times, the
receipt of the first half of a 4100 note from " Mistake," for
til'e public service.
An inquest has been held on the body of a young
man named Thomas Henry Holbrook, aged 16, sou of a
retired tradesman, living at Old Trafford, Manchestu, who
was drowned in Windermere on Sunday evening Holbrook
was returning with a friend from Waterhoad, in a small row
lug boat. The lake was very squally, and liolbrook's par
broke opposite Itayrigp, The boat immediately upset, and
the.young men tiled to swim to shore, a quarter of a mile
distant. Holbrook sank flfty yards from shore and was
drowned ; his companion saved himself. The body
recovered on Monday. A verdict of " Accidentally drowned, '
was returned,