The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-11-13 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Carried Unanimously—The harvest.—Judy.
A weekly French newspaper made its appearance
last Sunday at Berlin, entitled Journal de Berlin. The
journal will henceforth be published regularly every Sunday.

A Great Bore.—That of the 81-ton gun.—Judy.
Liverpool charities benefit to the extent of £9,000
by the will of the late Mr. John James Rowe, merchant of
that town. _ _

_____:.....
Zodiacal Signs for the British Fleet.—After the
ram, the fishes.—. Judy.

Her Majesty the Queen is expected at Osborne on
the 17t1* of December, and will remain there until February.
Last year, of 25 persons sentenced to death, 16 were
executed in England and Wales; 14 males and two females.

The screw steamship Olga, Captain Penman, from
Oporto, arrived in the Southampton Docks on Monday
morning with 160 oxen for that port and London.
In honour of the Prince of Wales's birthday all the
foreign and Greek war vessels lying in the Pincus were,
according to a Reuter's telegram, dressed with flags.

According to the official returns, the receipts of the
French Treasury during the month of October were
12,000,000 f over the estimate, making the total excess of the
past ten months St 0(0,000f.

The importation of eggs increased from £1,941,858
in nine months of last year to £2,105,971 in the same period
this year.

The maynrs in the corporate towns of England and
Wales were elected on Tuesday, the 9th, the choice in most
Instances being governed by political considerations.

From an official note published in Paris, it seems
that six of the crew of the Magenta, which recently blew up,
are missing, and there is reason to fear that they went down
with the vessel.
The Marquis of Ailesbury, in speaking at an agri-
cultural meeting at Marlborough, denied that the breed of
horses in this country had deteriorated. They had merely
risen in price, like other stock. He advised agriculturists
to turn their attention to the breeding of horses, particularly
those of the heavier class.

On Tuesday, the 9th, the Prince of Wales completed
his thirty-fourth year, having been born on the 9th November,
1841. There were the usual celebrations in London, at Wind-
sor, and at Sandringham.

The returns of emigration compiled by the Govern-
ment Emigration officials at Liverpool show that during the
past month 6,306 persons left Liverpool, the decrease, as
compared with October, 1874, being 4,071, and as compared
with the corresponding ten months of last year 30,874.

In the year ended the 29th of September, 1874,
there were 863 criminal lunatics in confinement-649 males
and 204 females. The number in Broadmoor Asylum was
654.

---•
It is notified that an experimental sheep farm will
shortly be instituted in Japan under the supervision of
Europeans. Pupils will be received whom it is intended to
instruct in the care of sheep and in the proper mode of
getting up the wool.
The revisers of the authorised version of the New
Testament met on Tuesday in the Jerusalem Chamber.
Twelve members were present, the Bishop of Gloucester
being in the chair. Th a company revised the version of the
Ist Epistle to the Corinthians to the middle of the 14th
chapter.
A licence to marry issued by a superintendent regis-
trar is charged 10s., and from a return to the House of Com-
mons. there were issued last year 10,856, and the duty
received was £5,427 10s.

The mothers of England will rejoice to hear that
the Duchess of Edinburgh is an exception to most other
Royal mothers in not employing a wet nurse, and in nursing
her own child as nature intended.—Court journal.

It is stated in a dispatch from San Francisco that
the insurance on the Virginia City (Neveda) property de-
stroyed by fire has been greatly underrated, and that the
total losses amount to 7,500,000 dols.
Bishop Ellicott, in the course of a sermon in Bristol
Cathedral on Sunday morning, declared that the secret and
persuasive teaching of sacramental confession was the
greatest danger with which the loyal members of the Church
of England had now to contend.
A fresh batch of fifteen students will shortly be
sent from Japan for instruction. Of these two will be sent
to France, two to Germany, and eleven to the United States,
whence they will be subsequently sent to continue their
studies in England. -

Another appalling shipping disaster is reported. A
telegram from New York announces that the steamer Pacific,
en route to San Francisco, has foundered off Cape Flattery,
and that, out of 110 passengers and a crew of 50 men on
board, only one life has been saved.
- - - -

A new postal tariff has just been issued by the
French Government, whereby letters for England will be
charged at the rate of 30 cemtimes for 15 grammes, instead
of 30 centimes for 10 grammes, as heretofore. The new
arrangements come into operation in January next.
The death is announced of the Rev. Theodore
Williams, vicar of Hendon, a living which he had held for the
long period of sixty-three years. Mr. Williams, who died on
Saturday, aged ninety, had been in bad health for some
years. The vicarage is worth £l,3oo_a year, and is in the gift of
the Duke of Portland.
In distributing prizes in connection with the
Leicester Archidiaconal Board of Education, the Bishop of
Peterborough expressed himself in favour of compulsory
education ; but, referring to the system of competitive
examinations and prizes, said they might compel many boys
and girls to go to school, but unless there was some induce-
ment put before them that they would not learn much.
A survivor of the soldiers serving in An 11. has been
discovered at Colmar in the person of Jean Rippert, who was
with Bonaparte in Egypt and at most of the subsequent
• battles. Rippert, despite his 98 years—he was born in 1771--
is daily seen taking his exercise in the Champs de Mars with
deportment as erect as a youth's.
The Hon. and Rev. C. J. Willoughby, Rector o
Wollaton, near Nottingham, and brother of Lord Middleton,
died very suddenly on Saturday. Mr. Willoughby in the
morning officiated at a marriage. At dinner he suddenly
complained of a pain in his head, fell back unconscious, and
died about an hour afterwards.
According to telegraphic advices from Pereak, the
British troops dispatched with the obiect of discovering and
punishing the murderers of the British Resident had arrived
there, but,the body of Mr. Birch had not been recovered. The
MalaN s are stated to be besieging the British Residency, and
the Sultan Ismail is collecting forces with the view of re-

pelling the British.
It is officially announced that the besieged British
Residency on the Perak was relieved on Saturday. On the
following day a stockade further up the river was attacked,
but without success, and one officer was killed, twe others
being wounded as well as eight men. Orders have been
given for the immediate despatch of reinforcements from
Hong Kong and Calcutta. A telegram from Penang states
that the body of Mr. Birch has been found in a mutilated
state.
The Bourse Gazette of Berlin makes the statement
that a plan for the acquisition of all the German railways by
the State is assuming a definite shape. Prince Bismarck has
intimated in a most decisive manner that the question has
reached a point at which it requires to be settled, both on
Prussian and Imperial grounds, and he has therefore ordered
negotiations to be opened which have resulted in a resolve
to go at once into the matter.
The receipts on account of revenue from the 18t
April, 1875, when there was a balance of £6,265,322, to the
6th inst. were £42,409,920 against £41,452,630 in the corres-
ponding period of the preceding financial year, which began
with a balance of £7,442.854. The net expenditure was
£46,810,629, against £46,098,251 to the same date in the pre-
vious year The Treasury balances on the 6th inst amounted
to £1,654,183, and at the same date in 1874 to £1,754,981.
The following words were said on Tuesday (Novem-
ber 9) in Westminster Abbey immediately before tne Prayer
for the Royal Family, and will be said on all Sundays before
that prayer and the Litany during the Prince's absence in
India : Our prayers are desired for the Prince of Wales
during his journey through India, that it may advance his
own best happiness, the welfare of the empire, and the glory
of Almighty God." A pause is made after the name of the
Prince of Wales, both in the prayer and in the Litany.
•

- -
A communication from Saint-Agnes (Savoy) gives a
curious account of a novel kind of bull-fight. The district in
question has for some time past been infested by bears,
which have already devoured about 40 sheep. A few days
ago four bulls were turned out to pasture, and while they
were quietly grazing one of them was suddenly attacked by
one of the wild animals. The troop took to flight, and the
one assailed succeeded, after a while, in rejoining his com-
rades, but with his ears bleeding and his flanks scored. The
others then turned round and faced the enemy, and after a
short combat bruin got gored in the side, and had to go limp-
ing off. Since then the bears have not again made their
appearance.
The Mayor of Kidderminster (Alderman Goodwin),
whose mayoralty closed on Monday, presented to the people
of Kidderminster a centrally-situated piece of land, worth
about £l,OOO, as a site for an institute, to include a school
of art, science classes, lecture theatre, exhibition room, free
library, reading room, &ie. The Mayor's offer was accepted
with gratitude by an influential committee of gentlemen,
and it was resolved to take steps with the view of enlisting
public support for the complete realization of the schemes
The proposed buildings will, it is estimated, cost between
£5,000 and £6,000, and it is hoped that the local subscriptions
will he supplemented by a grant from the Science and Art
Department.
The Empress of Austria has been pleased to send to
Mrs. Barton a magnificent gold locket with her Majesty's
monogram and Imperial Crown in diamonds as a mark of
her appreciation of Mrs. Burton's work, "The Inner Life of
Syria,' thus keeping up the traditions of the favour shown
by the Imperial House of Hapsburg to the Arundells of
Wardour. Rodolph of Hapsburg made Mrs. Burton's
ancestor, Sir Thomas Arundell of Wardour in 1695 a Count of
the Most Sacred Roman Empire with all the privileges and
honours of an Austrian noble, on account of his having
joined the Hungarian army and distinguished himself in a
long campaign against the Turks, in the course of which he
took the standard from them with his own hand at the siege
of Gran.—Pail Ma/ Gazette.

It is pointed out in the return of the Registrar-
General that during the past five weeks 616 deaths in London
have been referred to scarlet fever, against 565 in the corres-
ponding period of last year. Of the 616 fatal cases in the
past five weeks, 63 per cent. were of children under 5 years
of age, 35 per cent. between 6 years and 20, and nearly 2 per
cent. of persons aged upwards of 20 years. The proportion of
deaths of persons aged over 6 years from scarlet fever in
recent weeks kas exceeded that which prevailed in the same
period of last year.
In London last week 2,374 births and 1,583 deaths
were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the
births were 59 below, whereas the deaths exceeded by 34,
the averiige numbers in the corresponding .week of the last
ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes was 24.
The deaths included one from small-Pox, 40 from measles,
129 from scarlet fever, 12 from diphtheria, 61 from whooping-
cough, 23 from different forms of fever, and 24 from
diarrhcea ; thus to the seven principal diseases of the
wmotic class 280 deaths were referred, against numbers de•
caning from $5O to 27$ in the Ave preceding weeks.