The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-12 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

An inbred* historical felt, representingthgentry
of ilenri 11. into the town of Rouen on the let NtoSer,.
1650, will be given in that town•on Sunday on behalf of ths.
lesal charities.
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During a severe thunderstorm on Tueiday, light-
ning struck down two men at Kilmarnock. One was severely
cut, the other was uninjured. A chimney ',tack Was at the
same time levelled to the ground by lightning.
A. despatch frem Pau announces an awful disaster.
One of the arches of a railway bridge being -built over the
Gave fell in, and twenty workmen were presipitated below.
gems were crashed to death and others were drowned.
In the American House of Ilepresentatives a bill .
has been. introduced declaring the, action of American..
citizens unpatriotic an-d. 'unwise in offering the '4511111,0t-
-60,000,000 dole, towards carrying out the Panama Canal
'scheme.... .
The Princess Louise and Prince Leopold have be
in Chicago, watching the political movements.
_ .

Hydrophobia in dogs is extremely prevalent in the, .
town and neighbourhood of whitehureh, Shropshire,- and'
the magistrates have made an order fcrr all dogs.' to be either
muzzled or led with a string until the end of July. '
The arrivals of live stocli, and fres.h meat from' Ufa
United States and Canada during the past week show it large
decrease as compared with the previous week. The total
imports were :-1,244 cattle, 2,366 sheep, 3,420, guarters of
beef, 1,300 carcasses of mutton, and 200 dead pigs:.
Lord Salisbury will, in Committee on the Buriale
Bill, move to insert after clause 1 the following N:ords
"This Act shall not affect any consecrated burial xround
given as a free gift within fifty years before the comnltnoe-
ment of this Act, unless the consent of the donor or' his
representative shall have been previously obtained In Writ
ing."
The cattle plague has reappeared in Cyprus in sucirt
a severe form that two thousand animals have died out of
the total of about a hundred thousand in the island.

A telegram received through Reuter's agency from
New York, dated June Bth, states that the ship Gondolier,
from Rotterdam, has been wrecked on Sable Island, and five
persons are believed to have perished.

A movement is on foot to hold a mass meeting of
the various labourers' organizations in London, for the pur-
we of urging on the Government the necessity ofintro-
ducing a clause for the amelioration of the condition oft he
Irish agricultural labourer in any Land Bill brought inV
the Chief Secretary.

The Accrington town council has resolved to. peti-
tion the House of Lords against Clause 5 of the Burials Bill,
which gives clergymen rights of fees impublic cemeteries.
On the coast of Sicily, twelve miles south of Sciacca;
an exceedingly rich bank of corals has been discovered,. and
many of the coral fishing boats of Torre del Greco have left.
to explore it. It seems that in quantity and richness the
bank is even more important than the one discoverectin 1875
in the same waters. The new Italian fishing law giving to
the, first discoverer of a coral bank the monopoly for fishing
on it for two years has not come into force yet. The bank is
therefore open to all corners. • •

Interesting discoveries are reported from Italy.
Near Este, in the Veneto, at the foot of the Eugancian
Mountains, Prof. Prosdocismi discovered a prehistoric .burial-
ground with many bronze and clay vessels. Eighty-two
tombs were found, of which 44 seemed to have been opened
already by the Romans, while the contents of the others
seemed untouched. The urns belong to three different
periods, some are stained black with linear ornaments,
others are striped red and black. Some vases are of such
exquisite workmanship that they could even to-day, servo as
patterns. A small case of bronze is adorned with human
and animalligures.

•
The unfavourable weather of last summer hi Ger-
many. and France has, arming other causes, contributed te.
stimulate very considerably the export wine trade of Italy.
The consumption of Italian Wines. abroad, ' however, was
even previously largely on the increase. Thus while the
quantity exported from the Peninsula during the first
quarter of 1877 was only 97,095 hectolitres, it rose to
145,866 in the same period in 1878, and increased to 201,663
hectolitres in the first three months of 1879. For the corre-
sponding period of 1880 the quantity exported has shot up
nearly 150 per cent. further, the returns showing that in that
period no less than 491,311 Ifectolitres of Italian wines were
sent abroad.

Mr. Gladstone's letter to the Austrian Ambassador
Is highly approved of by the Bev. Henry Ward Beecher, who
writes in the New York Christian Union that "the dignity
of Christian apology has never in • public life been more
notably illustrated{ and Mr. Gladstone's course in this
matter affords an example which Christian men involved in
not less pronainent public controversies would do well to
follow."

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In consequence of the intimation receivedirom.Mr.
Gladstone on the subject, a meeting of the members of the-
House of Commons and other supporters of the Bill for the
legalization of the marriage with a deceased wifo's sister
has been called to consider what further steps can be taken
to advance the measure during the present Session.

The census which was taken during last summer
states the population of Bosnia ana Therzegovina to be nearly
a million and a quarter, which pretty well tallies with the
estimate given by the Turkish Government. The figures are
roughly given as follows :—Mussulmans, 442,000 d Orthodox
Christians, 500,000; Catholics, 208,1)00 ; Jews, 3,ooo—total,
1,153,000.

Recent discoveries in Queensland lave led to A de-
termination to examine the great stretch of country lying
said
dwtco be a
enClvionrgcuinrilistarincdt
sthe f northernra gol
d migiedrillarele concerned.
d'whichis
A party has recently started to. explore_ thoroughly the
auriferous country at Wills' Creek.
According to the France, the preliminary workino
for the tunnel uniting England and France have had the most
satisfactory results. The promoters have sunk their shaft
to the stratum in which' they propose to bore the tunnel, and
are now going •to sink another shaft and lower all the
machinery for the bore. In eighteen months they expect to
have reached two kilometres under the Channel, and in three
or four years to have completed the task.

A contributor to Notes and Queries states that, from
a recent number of the St. Petersburg Herald, it appears
that, it is a general custom in Russia to place the coffin-lid
before the door of a house in Atich a dead body is lying.
In towns, where the narrow staircase is sometimes used by
many persons and different families, this sometimes leads
to accidents.
Two dreadful accidents happened at 'Swfmsea last
Saturday, resulting in the death of three persons and in the
serious injury of a number of others. In one instance a
scaffolding and stage gave way at the Works of the Swansea
Furnace Company, and precipitated eight men about 25ft.
Two of them died shortly afterwards from injuries received;
whilst two others are in the hospital. —ln'the second case a
violent explosion took place at the copper works of Mr.
Vivian, M.P., blowing out the top of a furnace. A man
named Jones, engaged in feeding the furnace With ore, was
hurled into a tank of molten metal. When extracted he was
of course quite dead, whilst nearly all the flesh was removed
from the bones.
"Who shall say that the Prince of Wales does not
work hard? On Saturday morning we all saw and cheered
him in the Horse Guards' quadrangle. The same afternoon
he was at the Gaiety. Eight o'clock found him dining. with
the Prime Minister in Downing-street. Two hours later he
was at the opera ; and midnight beheld the Prince the centre
of Lady Granville's reception at the Foreign Office. As Peel
said of dear old Pam we are all proud of him I' "
Whitehall Review.

The rector of Clewer, which was lately vacated by
the resignation of Canon Carter, has been presented by the
Provost and Fellows of Eton College to the Rev. Roland
Errington, formerly curate of Stoke PogeS, and afterwards
of Ringwood, Hampshire.

A Plymouth correspondent says that the building
of the new Eddystone Lighthouse is mow making rapid pro-
gress, and the work achieved this year already exceeds that
done last year. Two-thirds of the solid base of the striae
ture is now brought up to within three feet of high-water
mark during the spring tides, and tire work will shortly be
less dependent on tides and weather.,

Lord H. Lennox has given notice that on the
British Museum estimates he will move that when the col-
lections of natural history are removed to South Kensington
it is expedient that they should be open to the public on
Sundays throughout the year.

Mr. Chamberlain, M.P., has received a deputation
from the Associated Chambers of Commerce, which contended
that the Railway Commission should be made a permanent
Instead of a temporary body, and that its powers should be
enlarged. The right hon. gentleman, after pointing out that
last session the Commission had been continued for three
years, said he would take into consideration the whole of the
suggestions which had been made to him, and if the Board of
Trade could support the views so advanced, he should be glad
to do so.

Last week there were 2,489 births and 1,306 deaths
registered in London. Allowing for increase of population,
1 the births exceeded by 75, whereas the deaths were 124
below, the average numbers in the corresponding week of
the last ten years. The annual death-rate from all causes.
which had been equal to 18-5 and 19-0 per 1,000 in the two
preceding weeks, declined again to 18-6. During the past
nine weeks of the current quarter the death-rate in Lon-
don has averaged only 199 per 1,000, against 232 and 21'0 in
the corresponding periods of 1878 and 1879.
The members of the Chicago Convention, assembled
to nominate the Republican candidate for the Presidency of
the United States, on Tuesday selected Mr. Garfield, after
taking 36 ballots. Mr. Garfield is an Ohio man and senator-
elect for that State.—Mr. Arthur has been elected Republican
candidate for the Vice-Presidency. '
In London, on Tuesday; there was .a
conference of
trade delegates at the " Freemason's " Tavern. The meeting
declared itself to be of opinion that any further licensing
legislation is unnecessary, gave its unanimous and un-
qualified opposition to the principle of local-.option, pro-
tested against any curtailment in the present hours' of open-
ing and closing publichouses on Sunday, believing that any
curtailment would be fraught with much, inconvenience to
the public, expressed the hope that every measure having foi
its object any al:oration in the hours of opening and closing
publichouses on Sgturday would be strenuously opposed and
rejected, and urging that for any depreciation in the value
of the property of licensed 'victuallers resulting from future
licensing legislation they should receive fair and full pecu-
niary compensation.