The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-17 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN,

The Rev. Dr. Cosens, vicar of Dudley, contemplates
the use of the electric light in the parish church.
- -

On Tuesday morning a cablegram was received
stating that the steamer Prince Edward was spoken on the
14th inst. in lat. 4734, long, 3545, all well. Short of coal.
The above steamer sailed from Liverpool on Nov. 10, bound
for Charlotte Town, Prince Edward Island.
-

------ - - -
The London Hospital Saturday Funl held its
annual meeting on Saturday, when the result of the collec-
tions of the present year placed before the delegates showed
that the amount raised
.(over 4.8,000) had been larger by
£1,540 than that subscribed in 1880. The question of a
Convalescent Home Fund was afterwards discussed.
The death is announced of Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil
William Forester, for many years Assistant Sergeant at-Arms
In the House of Commons, at the age of 73.

The Liverpool Daily Mercury announces the death
of Mr. John Maitland, who for many years past, in addition
to being one of the proprietors of that paper, has been
responsible for its editorial control and management. Mr.
Maitland was in his sixty-seventh year, and had been con-
nected with the Mercury, first in the printing and afterwards
in the reporting and editorial departments, since he was
twelve years of age.
which Th
eoenna iasn Daniel
wOLCnmopnl
completed,
hand in eni
o
o r a for emanyts3t u statue to o
D,
and the colossal bronze casting will leave the foundry shortly
for erection in Ba.ckville-street, Dublin. The cost of the
memorial is £12,500. The " Liberator " is represented in
of
his buttoned-up frockcoat and the other holding a roll of
every-day dress, with one hand resting on the breast,
paper.
At Brierly-hill, during the dense fog on Friday
night in last week, three persons walked into: the Birming-
ham Canal and were drowned. A man was killed at Dudley
station while laying down fog-signals. At Wolverhampton
a man and a boy walked into the canal and were drovviied.
,Ale. Peter I.3,ylandsM.P., was present at a demon-
stration of West Cheshire Liberals at Frodsham. Referring
to agricultural grievance he said that the present land laws
had to a greater or less extent broken down The two iflaiLm
questions were these : First, are the owners of the soil of
England in the bet position for doing that which their
country has a reasonable right to expect of them ?tlec.ndly,
are the occup)ing cultivators of the soil in the position of
security which they have a right to expect in order to con-
duct their business with comfort and success to themselves?
He had no hesitation in answering both questions in the
negative.

_,l

His lloyal Highness the Prinoe of Wales has sent a
present of forty pheasants for the use of the patients of the
St. George's Hospital London.
The farm of Su:dieter, Caithness, has just been
purchased from the CrooT by Mr. John Miller, the present
tenant, for £29 000. As his fent has hitherto been £975 a
year, this suni is equal to about 30 years' purcha.e. The
farm consists of 1,000 acres of arable laud, and a little over
500 acres of meuntain pasture.

A number of members of Parliament have already
signed the petition to the Home Secretary for the release of
the persons recently sentenced to imprisonment for bribery.
A Reuter's telegram from the West Coast of Africa,
dated Accra, Nov 11, says that Mr. Woodcock, Queen 'a
Advocate for the Gold Coast, has lost his life under very
painful circumstances. He was sailing in a surf boat, in
company with three English officers, when it was capsized
in the heavy surf on the beach. The three officers pit ashore
safely, and Mr. Woodcock had almost reached the shore
when he became unconscious. He was pulled ashore by a
number of people, and conveyed at once to the Treasury
House, but he died on his arrival there.

The Marquis of Lome will on the 4th of January
next accompany the Princess Louise to the south of France,
where Mr Royal Ilighnem intends to remain some time for
the benefit of her health. After seeing the Princess settled
there his Excellency will return to England, and on the 10th
of January will sail for Canada to resume his official duties
as Governor• General. Whether the Princess may join her
husband there later in the year will depend entirely on the
state of her health.

An influential meeting has been held at the Assize
Courts, Reading, convened by the lord-lieutenant of the
county to take steps for raising a fund for the erection of a
monument to the memory of Colonel Galbraith, the officers,
non-commissioned officers, and men of the 86th Berkshire
Regiment who fell at the Battle of Maiwand. It is hoped
that enough money will be raised to erect a monument in
the Forbary Pleasure Grounds at a cost of COO, and a
window in St. Mary's Church, where the old colours hang,
to cost £l5O, any balanc& remaining to be given to the
soldiers' daughters' home al Hampstead

At a meeting of Cheshire farmers at Chester it was
decided to form a Dairy Farmers' Association for the
county, one of the principal objects of which should be to
procure the holding of more frequent fairs. The chairman
of the meeting said that a good deal of Cheshire cheese was
destroyed for want of a market.

A remarkable accident happened in Cincinnati re.
cently to a clerk in a store. The electric light had just been
turned on in the store, when the clerk, with a brass rod in
his hand, was in the act of transferring from its place a
buffalo robe. In passing the robe beneath the wire which
holds the electric current the rod came in contact with it,
and a startling result followed. The poor clerk was raised
from the floor as if a simoon had struck him, and was hurled
head foremost through the show-window to the pavement,
but fortunately he escaped with but few injuries.

Statistics regarding the vernacular press in India
show that there are in the whole Bengal Presidency 111
vernacular papers, with 36.000 subscribers. Forty-five of
thew, with a circulation of 20,000 are published in Lower
Bengal, and the remainder in the North-West Provinces
the Punjaub, Central India, and Rajpootana.

Mr. Ecroyd, M.P., speaking at Brierfield, near
Flurnley, said that the quarrel he had with the Govern-
ment in regard to Fair Trade was not that they did not pro-
pose it as a policy, but that they refused a fair and open
discussion. The question would require many years to
ripen, but when the working classes came to understand it,
no power on earth would prevent them demanding and
obtaining legislation which would give them more fair play
than they have hitherto had.
On Tuesday afternoon Mr. Wynn, M.P., Mr.
Lowther, M.P., and Mr. Heneage, M.P., attended the
dinner in connection with the Market Rasen Fat Stock
Show. The Earl of Yarborough presided. The hon. mem-
bers spoke on the subject of local taxation, the law of
entail and primogeniture, and Mr. Lowther expressed him-
self in favour of subventions from the Imperial Govern-
ment in aid of the local rates. Mr. Heneage disagreed
with the suggestion on the ground that it was putting
money out of one pocket into the other.
All the east of Fife boats, 52 in number, which
have been engaged in the herring fishing at Yarmouth and
Lowestoft, have now returned to Anstruther. In no previous
year have the fishermen met with such success as has at-
tended their labours this season. One crew netted the un-
precedented sum of £7OO. two others had about £5OO each,
and a large number had from £3OO to £l6O, only three having
less than £2OO. The expenses, which amount to £5O per
boat, must be deducted from the sums mentioned.

The Empress Euenie has so far recovered from her
late serious indisposition that she is able to move freely
about the house. Owing to the unsettled state of the
weather her physician has not yet allowed her to take
out-door exercise.
During a terrible storm at Buenos Ayres last week
the new Exhibition building was compleMly blown down,
and great damage was done both in town and the surround-
ing country. The Exhibition is being rebuilt, and will be
opened on the day originally fixed.
A monument of considerable interest and import.
ance has arrived at the british Museum from Jerablus. on
the Euphrates, the supposed site of the ancient city of
Carchemish. It is of basalt, standing nearly six feet in
height, sad having a figure sculptured on the one side,
and an inscription of five lines in hieroglyphics on the
other.

There were 36 British and foreign actual wrecks, of
whish IS were British, reportA during the past week,
making a total of 1,868 for the present year, or an increase
,of 318 as compared with the corresponding period of last
year. The increase on the we fk is four. The approximate
value of property lost was £5.500,000, including British
£3,000,000. The number of persons lost and missing was 6.
The arrivals of live stock and fresh meat at Liver-
pool last week trom the United States and Canada showed a
slight increase in live stock; and of fresh meat a somewhat
large increase in comparison with that of the preceding
!week. The totals were 413 cattle, 950 sheep, 7,085 quarters
of beef, and 879 carcases of mutton. No hogs arrived.

The approaching census in France will be taken
under conditions differing in some important respects from
those of all its predecessors. Instead of devoting a month
to the task, as heretofore, the enumeration of the people
will be accomplished as in other countries, in a single day—
namely, Sunday, the 18th instant. On all former occasions
the numerator has interrogated the inhabitants and recorded,
their answers. This time census papers will be left to be
filled up as with us.

A New York telegram says that the visible supply
of wheat on Dec. 9, was 18,900,300 bushels, as against
10,800,000 last week. Visible supply of corn, 18,800,000
bushels, as against 20,600,000 last week. Export clearances
of wheat for Europe during the past week. 1,030,000 bushels;
export clearances of corn for Europe during the past week,
850,000 bushels.
Last week's receipts of cotton at all United States
ports have been 231,000 bales, and since let September,
2,471,500 bales. Exports to Great Britain, 65,000 bales, and
to the Continent and Channel, 60,000 bales ; total since Ist
September, 1,175,800 bales. Stock at all ports, 1,036,000
bales.

Mr. Winn, M.P., speaking at Grimsby on Monday
night,said that if it were now sought to make the Agricultual
Holdings Act compulsory, he would raise no objection. IA
A new Corn Exchange, erected by the Duke of
Norfolk, who is the lsrd of the manor, was opezed at
Sheffield on Tuesday for market purposes. It has cost