The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-02-04 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NE'ffS,

At the meeting of the Peterborough Board of
Guardians on Saturday, the clerk read the following
extraordinary application :—" Farcet, Hunts. Sir,—
Some time back a man wrote to you for a wife. He
lived at Dogsthorpe, I think. Well now I want one
out of the union if you have one what will do. lam
a batchelor, 44 years of age, and I heard the parson
read at church on Sunday it was no good for a man to
live alone by hisself, so if you have a woman in the
house as wants a good husband send her to me. I hear
that the man at Dogsthorpe got a good wife. Ask the
Board what they can do for me.—Yours, James Dale.
Mr. Vergette, Clerk to the Board of Guardians, P'boro,
N'tonshire." The reading of the letter caused much
amusement, and one of the guardians suggested that
he should have a workhouse order. The master said
the previous applicant, who was about 50, came to the
house, and saw about 20 women, and one of them went
out soon afterwards. (Laughter.) It was suggested
that the applicant should visit the house and see if he
could find a wife, and the matter dropped.
A fire, which caused great excitement, occurred on
Sunday morning in the home of Mr. Enoch Dunning-
ton, Collyhurst-road, Manchester. About one o'clock
Mr. Dunnington was alarmed by his sister, who lives
in the house, and he found that the place was on fire
and that the stairs were impassable. He went to a
bedroom window and attracted attention, and one by
one the members of the family were dropped into the
arms of people into the street who stood ready to catch
them. Meanwhile the fire brigade arrived, and a search
was made for one of the girls who was missing. Ulti-
mately two firemen ascended the burning stairs, and
found the girl lying unconscious on a bedroom floor.
She was at once carried out of the building, and a
medical man after sane time succeeded in restoring
consciousness.

Special prayers, prepared by the Archbishop of York,
were offered in all the Sheffield churches on Sunday,
beseeching that the smallpox epidemic might be stayed.
Archdeacon Blakeney, vicar of Sheffield, stated from
the parish church pulpit that since the year began about
a thousand fresh cases had broken out, and no part of
the town had been entirely free from the disease. He
urged the duty of re-vaccination, and counselled every-
body who had to do with infected people to cease fre-
quenting public assemblies and using omnibuses and
other conveyances. In most of the Sheffield pulpits
the epidemic formed the subject of the sermon. It
was Hospital Sunday in Sheffield, and the collections
exceeded £2OOO.

At the annual meeting of the Chester Farmers' Club,
on Saturday, the chairman, Mr. John Roberts, the
largest tenant farmer on the Hawarden estate, referred
to the havoc wrought by the common house sparrow
among grain crops, and said that the Wirral farmers of
Cheshire were paying 6d. per dozen for all sparrows
killed, and some idea of the fecundity of the pest might
be formed from the fact that, without appreciably
affecting their numbers in that district, £I4 15s. 6d.
had been recently spent in that way, representing the
destruction of 7192 sparrows.
Steps have recently been taken by the Corporation
of Southampton in conjunction with the council of
the Hartley Institution, to obtain the co-operation of
other Corporations and local bodies throughout Hamp-
shire in promoting a general memorial to Government
relating to the proposed National School of Foregtry,
and the scientific and experimental work in forestry
connected therewith. The request is that the proposed
Forestry School for England should be located in
Hampshire, and that the scientific and practical
forestry connected with it may be conducted on the
very extensive Crown lands in that county. Memorials
to this effect are now being sent up to the Lord Presi-
dent of the Council.

A Dublin correspondent says that Mr. John Jameson,
owner of the !rex, has expressed his willingness to join
a syndicate for the purpose of building a yacht to
challenge for the America Cup, but he is disinclined te
build a yacht at his twn expense.

James Barry, one of the prisoners in custody in Gal-
way Gaol, charged with being concerned in the recent
robbery in the Killarney Post-office, intimated his
willingness to show where the money was concealed.
He was accordingly taken to Killarney in custody,
and he pointed out various hiding places' with the
result that £9B was recovered. £lOO is still missing.
A disciplinary committee of the Wesleyans of Ports-
mouth has been held, when the disappearance of Mr.
Cornish, one of their ministers, was considered. No
clue had been discovered of the whereabouts of Mr.
Cornish, and his wife, who was left penniless, had not
heard of him since his mysterious disappearance. Mr.
Cornish was suspended, pending the decision of the
Conference.

The fishing-boat Father and Son, belonging to
Buckie, came into the harbour the other day, with the
body of one of the crew, named James Reid, jun ,
aged 25, who had been drowned. When the boat was
15 miles off Pentland Skerry the deceased was struck
by a sail, and fell overboard. Oars and ropes were
thrown out, but he failed to get hold of them. The body
was recovered entangled among ropes.
The Manchester stipendiary has remanded Joseph
Murray, aged 19, on a charge of embezzlement. The
prisoner, who resides at Chorley, was employed by a
money-lender, named Townsend, who carries on busi-
ness as the National Mercantile Bank. The prisoner
is alleged to have embezzled sums of money, and then
altered the accounts so as to conceal his defalcations.
When taxed with the offence he said it was through
losing a large sum at betting and billiards.
A girl, who said she was 18 years of age, has been
before Mr. Chance, at Lambeth Police-court, and
asked his advice. She stated that she had been
married only a few weeks, and a day or two ago her
husband's father came and took himaway. Mr. Chance
said he was afraid he could not help her. The father
applied with regard to the marriage of his son, who
was only 19 years of age, and Mr. Chance considered
that the son could not at such an age enter into a con-
tract of marriage.
James Mason, Arthur Hood, and Rhoda Hood have
been charged before the Bristol magistrates with
, making counterfeit florins, also with uttering. For
some time past base florins have been freely circulated
in Bristol, and the police have been keeping watch on
suspicious characters, with the result that they appre-
hended Mason after passing three bad florins in a
publichouse. On searching the house where Mason
lodged with the two other prisoners, 41 similar coins,
dated 1853, were discovered concealed in a chimney.
The prisoners were remanded.
Inspector Horsley, of the A Division, who has been
17 years an inspector in the police, the last three of
which he has spent in the House of Commons, has been
appointed to succeed Chief Inspector Dunning at the
Houses of Parliament.
Early on Saturday morning damage was done to the
extent of £lO,OOO by a fire, which occurred in the malt
store of Messrs. T. and J. Bernard's brewery, Gorgie,
near Edinburgll

At a meeting of the Merthyr Liberal Association on
Tuesday night, Mr. Thomas Williams, J.P., read a
letter from the junior member, Mr. C. H. James, to the
effect that circumstances connected with his home,life
and duties necessitated his resigning his seat for the
Merthyr boroughs. After some discussion it was agreed
that the matter should be dealt with by a joint com-
mittee of the Aberdare and Merthyr Liberal Associa-
tions.

A labourer at Bugbrooke, near Northampton, has met
with a horrible death. He had been missing, and on a
search being made his lifeless body was found dreadfully
mutilated in a stable occupied by a bull. It is conjec-
tured that while the man was filling the manger the
bull became violent and gored him to death.
In the Queen's Bench Division, on Tuesday, judg-
ment was given in an appeal affecting claims for re-
payment of income tax paid in excess of income. A
Copper Mining Company had claimed to be re-
imbursed certain sums, and as the Crown resisted the
claim, the company appealed. Mr. Justice Grantham
was in favour of granting the company the relief
sought; but as Mr. Justice Cave, the senior judge, held
the contrary, judgment was entered for the Crown;
but it was understood the case would be carried to the
Court of Appeal.
Mr. Justice Wills on Tuesday tried an action brought
by the widow of Mr. Horwitz, a writer on chess, to
recover £45 from Mr. Charles Windust. Defendant,
on behalf of the plaintiff, sold for £75 the copyright of
a work on chess, and paid £3O to the plaintiff, contend-
ing that he had bought it for that amount, and was
entitled to sell it for what he could get. His lordship
gave judgment against him for £4O.
John Cousins, coffee-house keeper, was summoned
to the Guildhall Police-court, London, on Tuesday,
charged with wantonly discharging a revolver in a
hansom cab in Houndsditch. Early in the morning of
Wednesday week a constable heard the report of a
pistol, and found the defendant in the cab armed with
a six-chambered revolver, five barrels being loaded.
The defendant, who said the affair was accidental, was
fined 20s.

Louise Hall, a domestic servant, was brought before
the magistrate at Marylebone on Tuesday, charged
with attempting to commit suicide by placing a rope
round her neck, the other end being attached to rail-
ings at Fern Bank, St. John's-wood. The accused told
a strange story as to the occurrence, and ultimately Mr.
Marsham, saying he was satisfied there had been no
attempt on her part to destroy her life, discharged
her.

In London last week the death-rate per thousand
from all causes, which had been 22.8, 23.6, and 24.4 in
the three preceding weeks, declined to 221. The
deaths from whooping-cough showed a further increase.
The Registrar-General reports that in the United
Kindom 275,246 births and 173,875 deaths were regis-
tered in the three months ending 31st December, 1887.
The natural increase of population was therefore
101,371. The registered number of persons married in
the quarter ending 30th September, 1887, was 119,720.
The birth-rate in the United Kingdom for the fourth
quarter of 1887 was 29.4, and the death-rate 18.6 per
thousand. The marriage rate in the third quarter of
1887 was 12.8 per thousand.
Between the Ist April and the 28th January the
Exchequer receipts were £6B, 875,134, as compared with
£69,633,205 in the corresponding period of the last
financial year; and the expenditure £71,371,070, as
against £74,022,148. On Saturday last the Treasury
balances amounted to £2,590,533, and on the same date
last year to £1,859,120.

Pl:efessor Asa Gray, the botanist, died of paralysis
on Tuesday at Cambridge, Massachusetts, aged 77
years. Dr. Gray, who was born in Paris, New York,
in 1810, graduated M.D. at Fairfield Medical College
in 1831. He soon gave up his medical practice, and
devoted himself to the study of botany. In 1842 he
was elected Fisher Professor of Natural History at
Harvard College. Dr. Gray also lectured before the
Lowell Institute at Boston. He twice visited Europe,
first in 1838-39 and again in 1850-51. In 1874 he was
chosen a Regent of the Smithsonian Institute, and in
1878 the Academie des Sciences of Paris elected him a
corresponding member in the section of Botany. Dr.
Gray published in 1836 his "Elements of Botany,"
subsequently enlarged into the "Botanical Text-Book."
In 1838 he began with Dr. Torrey "The Flora of
North America," and since that date has issued a large
number of works, the " Synoptical Flora of North
America" appearing in 1884.
Major Roberts, Governor of Cork Gaol, appeared at
the Police-court in that city on Tuesday, in answer to
a summons charging him with assaulting young girls.
Two separate cases were gone into, and on both the
magistrates refused to issue an information, for the
reason, in one instance, that the alleged offence
occurred more than three months ago.
Under certain restrictions for the purpose of
securing a fair contest, Smith has accepted Sullivan's
challenge to fight for £lOOO a side and the champion-
ship of the world.
Sentence of 15 years' penal servitude was passed
upon a desperado named Albert Martin at the Old
Bailey on Tuesday for maliciously and dangerously as-
saulting Police-sergeant Adams. The prisoner was
attempting to break into a house at Mile-end when the
sergeant arrested him, but he made good his escape
after inflicting wounds which, in the opinion of the
doctor, have probably maimed the officer for life.
The Lord Chancellor, on Tuesday evening, at the
London Guildhall, distributed the Queen's Prizzs which
had been awarded by the Science and Art Department
to the successful students in the Metropolitan drawing
classes. He said the number of young men who attended
these classes showed that there was no reason to despair
of the future progress of this country.
It is officially announced at St. Petersburg that seven
persons have been tried and condemned to death for
having been concerned in Nihilist plots. Their sentences
were, however, commuted to various terms of penal
servitude.

Messrs. Peterson and Stevens and a party of armeo
emergency men left Chester on Tuesday to continue
their distraints for tithes. When they arrived at Holy-
well the wind was blowing fiercely, with blinding
storms of hail and rain intervening. At Holywell th
party were joined by some members of the Flintshire
Constabulary, and the necessary vehicles having been
obtained, a start was made to collect arrears of tithe
from farmers :on the hills behind Helywell. Snow
began to fall heavily, and the atmosphere was so dense
as to indicate a heavy storm. Notwithstanding the
storm, Mr. Peterson proceeded with his work, and with
two exceptions all the amounts due, which ranged from
£2 to £36, were paid, and the distresses withdrawn.
One case in which the tenant refused to pay was that
of Edward Ellis, of Rhydwen Farm, where some
potatoes had been previously distrained upon. As they
were insufficient to cover a demand of £l9, there were
also seized part of a rick of hay, a hog of potatoes, a sow
and 10 young pigs, and a boar and two young beasts.
The party returned to Chester in the evening.
The adjourned Quarter Sessions for Derbyshire was
held at Derby on Tuesday, to consider the proposed
adjustment of county and union boundaries. Reports
were received from various public bodies in the county,
nearly all of which opposed any alteration of county
boundaries. It was unanimously resolved that the
Court did not approve of altering the county boundaries,
except in case of one part of a county being absolutely
detached in another county, or except in other cases in
which local circumstances may render the alteration
absolutely necessary. The court also unanimously ex-
pressed the belief that every object which could be
gained by altering the boundaries of either the county
or the union may be attained by apportioning the union
expenditure on some equitable scale between the
portions of the unions in different counties and treating
that portion as if it were a distinct union for electoral
purposes..

- A- largely attended'meeting of the Barnsley Chamber
of Commerce was held on Tuesday evening to consider
the advisability of petitioning against the proposed
amalgamation of the Hull and Barnsley Company with
the Midland Railway Company. It was officially stated
that a petition, largely signed by nearly all the South
Yorkshire Colliery owners, was drafted ready for pre-
sentation when it was known whether the bill would be
presented before the House of Lords or Commons, and
that a largo guarantee fund had been raised for pro-
moting opposition. A resolution was unanimously
carried promising every assistance to the coal-owners
in opposing amalgamation, which, it was said, would
destroy the present healthy competition with the
Humber ports. _

Six mare Lewis crofters were tried in the High
Court of Judiciary, Edinburgh, on Tuesday, before
Lord Craighill. They were charged with rioting at
Aignish Farm on the 9th of January, whereby a large
number of stock were driven off the farm, and several
policemen, marines, and military were injured. Wm.
Macleod, jun., Donald Macleod, and Colin Nicholson
were found guilty of rioting and endeavourimg to
rescue prisoners, and John Macleod, of Aird, Malcolm
Mackenzie, and John Macleod, of Broker, were con-
victed of rioting on y. Sentence was reserved. The
Solicitor-General for England was in court during the
day.
A terrible fire has destroyed the village of Aisone, in
the province of Cunio' Italy. Only a part of the church
and the municipality have been saved. The damages
are calculated to exceed £20,000, and the whole popu-
lation are rendered destitute. Two persons have
perished, and many more were injured, some severely.
Several head of cattle perished.
The Manchester coroner held an inquest on Monday
on the body of a still-born female child, which had been
hidden in a cupboard in a house in the Hulme district
of the city for three months, and was only discovered
on Saturday. The mother, a young woman named
Howarth, had lodged in the house, and hid the baby
when it was born. She was arrested, and admitted the
charge, and is now under remand for concealment of
birth.
The Prince of Wales leaves England on a short visit
to the Continent on the 9th or 10th inst., returning
early in March.
It is reported that Lady Burdett Coutts and some
other philanthropic ladies are projecting the establish-
ment in London of rooms furnished with sewing
machines, to which poor women may take their work
and use the machines at nominal cost.
A largely attended meeting of ratepayers was held on
Tuesday night at Basingstoke to discuss a new scheme
of sewage disposal, recommended by the Town Council.
Eight or nine years ago the Council spent £26,000 on a
system of drainage, the sewage being treated on the
sewage farm principle. With this scheme a majority
in the Council have become dissatisfied, and they now
propose to treat the sewage by means of precipitation
tanks and sludge pressing, the effluent being run over
six acres of land, and thence into the river. The meet-
ing passed a resolution condemning the scheme.
A singular discovery was made in Portsmouth,Con-
vict Prison on Tuesday. One of the prisoners named
Davis, aged 24, who had just commenced his second
term of five years' penal servitude, was having his cell
searched, when it was found that he had only one sheet
in his bed. He was examined, and it was ascertained
that he had converted one sheet into a perfectly fitting
suit of clothes, a cap being made of the same material,
and he was wearing this under his ordinary prison garb.
A letter was found on him, addressed to a resident in
Portsmouth, appealing for money.
The booking-office and waiting-room of the Great
Western Railway Company at Midgham,_between Read.
ing and Newbury, was totally destroyed by fire at an
early hour on Tuesday morning. The station-master,
who lives close by, reached the spot in time to remove
the cash from the safe, but all the other contents were
burnt. The goods sheds and the office narrowly
escaped destruction.

The elections held on Sunday to the Communal and
Municipal Councils of Berne resulted in a victory for
the Liberals.

Mr. Hewitt Poole Jellett, Q.C., has been appointed
Irish Sergeant at Law, vacant by the promotion of Mr.
Sergeant Madden. Mr. Jellett is a leader of the
Chancery Bar and a Liberal Unionist.
Lord Eustace Cecil, who, with his son, has been
making an extended tour in the United States and
Japan, is expected to arrive in India, after visiting
China, during the ensuing month.
Sir Tatton Sykes has made a return to his tenants
on their last half-year's rents amounting to four
thousand pounds, and has also permanently reduced
some of his rents.

The strength of political parties in South Tyrone
will be tested shortly by the election of a new coroner.
Both Unionists and Nationalists have nominated popu-
lar candidites, and the contest will be fought on purely
political lines.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford have sus-
tained a sad domestic bereavement by the death of
their daughter, aged two and a half years, which
occurred at Sutherland Tower, the Duchess of Suther-
land's marine residenca at Torquay, on Saturday last.
A mural monument to the late Walter Savage Lander,
from the studio of Mr. James Forsyth, was on Monday
unveiled in St. Mary's Church, Warwick. It is executed
in alabaster from a design by Mr. Edmund Ferry,
F.S.A. The inscription is as follows: "Walter Savage
Landor : born at Warwick, January 30, 1775. Died at
Florence, September 17, 1864."
Arrangements were made for Mr. Leonard
Courtenay's Sub-Committee on Admiralty Finance and
Office Re-organisation to commence their inquiry on
Tuesday. They were to visit the Financial and Audit
Departments first, making actual inquiries from the
clerks themselves as to the nature of the work,
individual responsibility, and the supervision exercised
over them. Mr. Waterhouse was instructed to inquire
into the efficiency of the audit of Dockyard and Naval
Stores. The whole inquiry is to be completed as soon
as possible in order that the Cabinet may decide upon
the terms of retirement which are to be given to those
clerks who will be compulsorily retired.
An address on the Welsh Eisteddfod and its critics
was delivered in London, on Monday, by Mr. J. C.
Parkinson, before a large company.
A Berlin correspondent reports that in the adjourned
debate on the Socialist Bill on Monday Herr Bebel
repeated the accusation that the German police have
agents provocateurs in almost all the European capitals.
He named one who he said was employed in London.
Herr Bebel's speech lasted three hours. A committee
was ultimately appointed to which the bill was referred.
A correspondent in St. Petersburg telegraphs that
the speech of M. Tisza has produced a most unfavour-
able impression there. A special cause of complaint is
that it does not mention Bulgaria.
Upon the arrival of the steamer Newbattle, of Leith,
at Newport, Monmouthshire, on Sunday evening, the
captain received a telegram from the agents at New
Ross, county Wexford, inquiring about a labourer who
was engaged to discharge the ship there, and who had
been missing since. The hatches were thereupon taken
off, and search being made the dead body of a man
-was found in the hold, having a great wound across
the forehead. It appears that while at New Ross a
difference arose regarding a gratuity to be paid to the
Labourers, and a great uproar followed, which the police
were summoned to quell. But the quarrel again broke
out, and it is supposed that the deceased was
maltreated by his companions and then thrown into the
hold.

An alarming occurrence happened on Monday
morning on the Coventry Canal near Nuneaton. A
line of railway, about a mile in length, for the con-
veyance of stone, runs from Mr. Judkin's granite
quarries to the Midland Railway Station, and shortly
before reaching their destination the trucks have to
pass over a wooden bridge which spans the Coventry
Canal. On Monday morning, after four heavy trucks
loaded with stone had crossed the bridge and deposited
their contents, they ran back rapidly down the incline,
and while crossing the canal got off the metals. The
result was that one side of the bridge was knocked
over and the trucks precipitated one after the other
into the canal. Fortunately no boats were passing,
although several were moored within only a few yards
of the spot.
The Wrexham magistrates on Monday remanded a
man named John Phillips, a collier' on a charge of
assaulting a woman named Harriet Daniels, of Cefn
Mawr. Miss Daniels was a passenger by the last train
from Wrexham to Cefn on the 16th ult., and, the train
being full, she got into a first-class carriage, being im-
mediately followed by Phillips, who, directly the train
started, commenced to molest her. She tried to obtain
assistance at the next station, Ruabon, but did not suc-
ceed in doing so until the train had started. Before
reaching Cefn the prisoner jumped out of the train,
and was severely bruised.
Charlotte Canham, an independent lady, was on
Monday charged at Brighton with stealing articles
from the fancy warehouse of Mr. Hetherington, of
Western-road. The assistant saw the prisoner walk
about the shop on Saturday, take things, and conceal
them. When questioned, she cried, and said it was the
first time that she had done such a thing. The defence
was that she had always lived in luxury, and that she
could not have been in her right mind when she took
the things. She went to make some purchases, and
was seized with an unaccountable impulse to steal. A
fine of £lO was inflicted.

A man was killed on Saturday afternoon on the
Great Western Railway, at a level crossing near Hayle,
West Cornwall. He was driving a horse and cart over
the line, and was run down by the mail train. At the
inquest held on Monday, the jury brought in a verdict
of " Manslaughter " against the directors of the Great
Western Railway Company, on the ground that while
the dangerous state of the crossing had been frequently
complained of, in consequence of accidents having oc-
curred there, the directors had taken no steps for the
public safety.
The Rev. Canon Whelpton, who founded St.
Saviour's Church, Eastbourne, 21 years ago, and who
has been vicar the whole of that time without the pay-
ment of any salary, was on Monday presented with
a service of plate costing about 300 guineas. The
Bishop of Bedford was present, together with the
leading Sussex clergy, and the Bishop of Chichester
sent a congratulatory letter on the work and self-
sacrifice of Canon Whelpton.
The great rise in the price of tin has materially im-
proved the prospect of Cornish mines.
Her Majesty's new steel cruiser Narcissus left Chat-
ham Dockyard on Monday for a series of machinery
trials at the Nore. While passing out of the Steam
Basin she fouled a steel hawser. On her arrival at
Sheerness an examination was made of her under-water
fittings, with the result that it was found that her star-
board propeller had been broken. The Narcissus was
therefore ordered to return to Chatham for repairs.
It is stated that the Orders issubd to the constables
of the K Division of the Metropolitan Police on Monday
night included a paragraph with reference to the case
of Constable Bloy, 79 K, who a few days ago was taken
to task by Mr. Baggallay, the West Ham magistrate, in
reference to a charge against a young woman named
Coverdale. The Commissioners say they have had the
case under their consideration, and have decided to
exonerate Bloy. They further regret that Mr.
Baggallay came to so hasty a decision, and that he did
not give the constable an opportunity to call the
sergeant who was on duty at the station, and others,
who could have given corroborative evidence.
In the Recorder Court at the Old Bailey, on Monday,
George Henry Wade, 51, postman, in the service of
the General Post Office, pleaded guilty to stealing a
post letter and its contents. It was stated that it had
only lately come to the knowledge of the Post Office
authorities that the prisoner had been previously con-
victed for another offence at the Middlesex Sessions.
He was now sentenced to five years' penal servitude.
A fatal railway collision occurred on Sunday on the
Russian South-Western Railway. The mail train from
Kieff, when approaching the station of Migajevo, about
82 versts from here, came into collision with a goods
train. Two passengers and a guard were killed on the
spot, and 11 passengers and two guards injured, four
of them seriously.
The Maharajah of Jodhpur has made an offer to the
Government of an annual payment of two lakhs of
rupees for five years as his contribution towards the
frontier defences.

A East London waterside labourer named Conrad
Fenner, who had been drinking heavily for a month
past, went to bed on Saturday week in a state of intoxi-
cation. It was his practice to keep a bottle of rum in
his bedroom where also was stored some ammonia in a
similar bottle. During the night he drank from the
wrong bottle, and he died from the effects on Sunday.
It is stated that no decision has yet been arrived at
as to the appointment of a successor to Sir George
Macfarren at the Royal Academy of Music. The date
of the election will probably shortly be fixed, and candi-
dates will be invited to send in applications for the
vacancy..

Ingenuity is likely to overcome Nature even at
Niagara. It is now proposed to cut a canal round the
great falls, so that ship traffic can go on comfortably
between the two great Canadian lakes, while the fall
rumbles on as it has for ages past. Of course, the
canal would need to be filled with locks, but the
.American engineers who have examined the project see
no reason why it should not be carried out. Successful
results would be enormously valuable in a commercial
way,

Thomas Grady, an elderly man, was sentenced to
one month's imprisonment with hard labour at Jarrow
on Monday, for obtaining money by fraud from
solicitors and clergymen on the representation that he
was the father of deceased soldiers, whose effects he
was entitled to receive at the War Office. A letter was
read from the War Office stating that the prisoner
had attempted to obtain money under several assumed
names.

They have in America a Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children, and it would seem to be atten-
tive to its duties. It has just requested the Mayor of
York to restrict the number of concerts given by Josef
Hofman, on the ground that the boy is overworked.
The Mayor has consequently summoned the manager to
bring the lad before him, that he may satisfy himself
on the subject.
On Monday morning, at the Shoreditch Town Hall,
Mr. Baxter concluded the inquiry into the cause of the
death of Caroline Hurl. At the opening of the in-
quest, the doctor who was called to the poor woman,
but did not attend until she was dead, told the coroner
be could not certify the cause of death, and that there
ought to have been a post-mortem examination. Upon
this a squabble arose between the doctor and the
coroner, and the inquest was adjourned. Another
doctor now said that fatty degeneration of the heart
was undoubtedly the cause of death. The coroner, in
summing up, observed that they had an unfortunate
scene with the first doctor, and as they wanted to let
bygones be bygones, he wished to say nothing more
about it. The jury agreed upon a verdict of "Death
from natural causes."
News from America as to the fate of the Fisheries
Commission is still doubtful. A Philadelphia corre-
spondent now tells us that there are signs of an early
dissolution of the Commission, with practically nothing
accomplished. The Commissioners have been waiting
for the Ways and Means Committee to introduce a
"free fish" clause in the new Tariff Bill, but the Demo-
cratic leaders now intimate that such a provision cannot
be permitted to become law, as they fear its effect on
the popular mind in the approaching election: publics
feeling being opposed to the policy of yielding to
Canada.

Mr. George Godwin, who for upwards of 40 rag
was editor of the Builder, died on Friday of last week,
at his residence, Cromwell-pla,ce, South Kensington
;
London, at the age of 73. Mr. Godwin, who was born
at Brompton in January, 1815, was the son of an arch'
tect, and was educated for hi 3 father's profession, for
which he early showed great aptitude. In 1838 1,10
published a work on the "Churches of London,”.m.
connection with which it may be mentioned that he
the architect of St. Mary's, West Brompton, and 7',
Jude's and St. Luke's, South Kensington. Of the .1
Union of London, founded 1837, he was oue of ,1'!
earliest supporters, and held the office of honorary.
secretary. In 1844 Mr. Godwin accepted the post et,
editor of the Builder. Mr. Godwin was a Fellow Of
the Royal and Antiquarian Societies and Vice-President
of the Society of British Architects, and in 1851 he w?`!
one of the jurors at the great Exhibition in Hyde-pari:._
The Treasury have approved of the sum of £250,10(!u
being spent out of the Naval Vote for the subvention??
various shipping companies to secure their vessels to 00'
Admiralty if wanted.
Lord C. Beresford, M.P., addressed a Uni°lli'
meeting at High Wycombe on Saturday. He dealt r
upon the Home Rule question from the point of view ec
an Irishman, declared that the objects of the leaders 0'
the Irish party was separation, and that separation
would produce formidable difficulties to the countrY a 5
a whole.
Sir Morell Mackenzie arrived at San Remo on Sunda,'
evening. The general health of the German Crown
Prince has not altered, and his voice remains slightl.l
hoarse.
Early on Saturday morning a goods train violently_
collided with some coal trucks which were being shunted
at the Hampstead Colliery siding, a few miles frora
Birmingham. The driver and fireman leaped from tild
engine to save their lives, the latter being much
jured, and there was considerable destruction
rolling stock.
An inquest was held at Ramsgate on Saturdat
touching the death of Charles S. Pillow, who was she'
through the body in the street on New,Yeaf 5 Day b 5:,
the man Alan W. Richardson, who was going ab°u:
firing a revolver, and who is now in custody.
jury returned a verdict of "Wilful murder ' sagallis
Richardson.
At Bow-street Police-court on Saturday, summonsel
were granted, on the application of Mr. George Lewis'
against Mr. James Davies, proprietor of a London
society journal, and also against the printer, for resPc.
tively writing and printing a malicious libel concerning
Lord Durham.
Replying in the Hungarian Diet on Saturday ter
interpellations that had been addressed to him, I‘l'
Tisza denied that any change had taken place in the
relations between Austria, Germany, and Italy. 116
added that Austria-Hungary still hoped for the con"
tinued maintenance of peace, and announced that a
declaration of the most pacific intentions had been re-
ceived from the highest quarters in Russia. In view'
however, of Russia's military activity, he added that
measures were being taken for the security of the
Austrian frontiers.
A Cairo correspondent states that owing to the long
-
continued maladministration of the Daira Sanieh, the
Egyptian Government has lost nearly two millions stet'
ling during the past six years.
Among the passengers on the Nord Deutscher Llerl
steamer Bayern from Shanghai, which arrived ftt
Southampton on 'Saturday, were 10 high officials of the
Chinese War Office—members of the special missions
appointed by the Chinese Government to various Due-
pean capitals. The object of the mission is to collect
information on naval and military subjects, and on the
most recent improvements in offensive and defensive
warfare. The Honourable T. S. Yib, of Pekin, wh°
speaks English fluently, is the secretary of the mission.
He left the Bayern at Genoa to travel overland, and
went down from London on Saturday to meet his col-
leagues. They left the same afternoon for London,
where they intend making a lengthened stay previous
to visiting Berlin and the other principal Europeae
capitals.
A Reuter's telegram from St. Peterburg states that
Hung Suen, the new Chinese Minister, who recently
arrived there from Berlin, in order to present his
credentials to the Czar, left Russia on Saturday.
The medals and funds to be given at the annual
meeting of the Geological Society, on Feb. 17, lia.r,v°
been awarded as follow: Wollaston Medal to H.
Medlicott, F.R.S. ; Murchison Medal to Professor J•
S. Newberry, M.D., of New York; Lyell Medal to
Profnssor H. Alleyne Nicholson, M.D., Sc. ; Wollaston
Fund to John Horne, F.R.S.E. ; the Murchison Fund
to H. Wilson, of the Bristol Museum; and the LYell
Fund, to Arthur H. Foord and T. Roberts, B.A.
An extraordinary fatality occurred on Saturday at
Liverpool. Two men employed in a stable-yard were,
quarrelling, when one of them, named Hughes, stoopea
down and attempted to butt his antagonist with hie
head. Just as Hughes made his rush the other man
stepped aside, and Hughes struck his head with great
force against a cart-wheel. He fell down immediately,
and when picked up was found to be dead.
The body of Mr. John Dyson, brick manufacturer, of '
Stannington, near Sheffield, was found in a pool of
water on Saturday close to his residence, The Griff.
Mr. Dyson, who was well known throughout Yorkshire
and Derbyshire, had been in a depressed state of mina
owing to financial difficulties, and is believed to have
committed suicide. Some time ago a serious boiler
explosion occurred at his works, involving a consider.
able loss of life.
A correspondent, writing from Jarrow, says
about twelve o'clock on Friday night of last wee'',
during a severe snowstorm, what is supposed to have
been a whirlwind passed along the Grange-road, Jarrolv.
A trap, in which were George Atkinson, James Tees'
dale, and the driver, was passing up the street at the
time. The snow was seen to be circling round in a
curious fashion in advance, and the driver was called
upon to stop the horse. Before he had time to do so,
however, the horse and trap were caught up by the wind,
carried a short distance, and then thrown down. Atkin-
son was carried about 150 yards before touching the
ground, when he was thrown on his back, his leg being
badly injured by coming into contact with the wall of a
house. Teesdale was thrown against some iron railinge,
to which he clung until the storm had abated, while the
driver was carried into Gray-street, and deposited with
force against the door of a house. The seat of the traP
was found in Perry-street, and the rug in Boddie-street,
some 250 yards distant. A number of people collected,
and the horse was found to be badly injured. A shop
window was blown in at the same time, and the chinanef
48 the Prince of Wales Hotel was blown down. The
whirlwind lasted about a minute."
An inquest has been held at Ballydehob on the bodies
of two men, wh died suddenly at a wedding in that
place. The circumstances attending the sudden de-
cease of the men were considered mysterious, but after
the medical evidence a verdict of " Death from natural
causes" was returned.
The Oswestry Advertiser states tl,at an extraordinarf
state of affairs exists at Llungollen parish church.
Owing tea dispute as to the musical character of the
services, they have been conducted for the last two
Sundays with an entire absence of music, either vocal
or instrumental.
An order has been issued by the Great Northern
Railway to the effect that the engine-drivers and fire-
men of the company at King's-cross, London, are not
to be allowed to resume duty without an interval of
nine hours' rest.