The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-01-21 00:00:00

SATURDAY, JAN 21, 1888.

After conferring with some Irish ecclesiastics
recently, the Pope exhorted them to use all their in-
fluence to restore tranquillity and respect for the law in
their country.
Serious collisions are reported to have occurred
between the officials and the peasantry in • Madeira, in
consequence of an attempt to enforce a tax which the
poorer people refused to pay. Lives are said to have
been lost on both sides, and troops have arrived from
Portugal.
Lord Salisbury has caused a communication to be
sent to the Hull Chamber of Commerce and Shipping
stating that there is reason to believe that the Russian
Government will shortly appoint an official committee
to consider the revision of the Customs tariff and
regulations.
Mr. Shaw Lefevre, addressed a political
meeting at Tunstall on Monday night, in the course of
which he repeated his statement that other members of
the Cabinet of 1885 besides Lord Carnarvon had led
the Irish members to believe that they were in favour
of some form of Home Rule. Lord Salisbury himself
and Lord Randolph Churchill had done so. This he
stated on the authority of Mr. Justin M'Carthy.
An inquest was held on Monday, at Hapton, on the
body of James T. Hill, the goods guard who was killed
by the railway collision at Hapton, near Accrington,
during the fog of last week. Hill was not in his van,
but was standing by the side of the train, and was
killed by a splinter. The jury returned a verdict of
"Accidental Death," and expressed the opinion that
the pointsman gave the driver of the express the
signal "Line clear" under the impression eat the
goods train had passed into the siding.
Robert Preston, a bill-poster, of Bury, was brought
on Monday before the Bolton magistrates and re-
manded, on a charge of burglary. It was ;fated that
the prisoner was formerly employed at the Bolton
theatre, but was discharged for misconduct, and that
he broke into the premises of the Bolton Bill Posting
Company on the morning when the Theatre Royal was
burned down. It was also alleged that he was on the
theatre premises.
Alderman Sir John Staples, K.C.M.G., who recently
served the office of Lord Mayor of the City of London,
died on Monday morning at his residence in Avenue-
road, after an illness of about a week's duration. Sir
John, who was 73 years of age, had been a member of
the Corporation of London for many years—first as a
member of the Court of Common Council and next as
alderman of Aldersgate Ward, where he succeeded Mr.
Alderman Besley in 1877. He served the office of
sheriff in the same year with the late Mr. Alderman
Nottage. He was Lord Mayor from November, 1885,
to November, 1886, and during his year of office he
raised a large sum for the relief of the unemployed in
London. At the close of his year of office he was
appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St.
Michael and St. George in recognition of his connection
with the hospitalities to the colonial delegates.
A man named Burnett was charged, at the Liverpool
Police-court on Monday, with stealing five shillings at
a National League meeting in Everton en Sunday, and
also with assaulting an official. It was stated that pri-
sioner ran away with the collection, which had been
placed in a drawer, and, when chased, assaulted his
pursuer. This was alleged to have been part of a con-
certed Attack on the meeting, windows being broken,
and the chairman assaulted. No statement was
made as to the cause of the attack. The prisoner was
remanded.

Great indignation has been excited in sporting circles
in the neighbourhood of Taunton by the wholesale
slaughter of foxes which has been carried on for some
time by enemies of foxhunting. The Taunton Vale
foxhounds, of which Captain Fitzroy is the master,
have been out eight or nine times without meeting with
sport, in a country where foxes at one time abounded.
This led to an investigation, and it was discovered that
in one parish as many as half a score of gins had been
laid, and that the foxes had in consequence become
almost extinct in the district. Captain Fitzroy, being
unable to show sport, resigned the mastership, but a
meeting was held at which he was induced to reconsider
his decision, the owners of covers to be communicated
with in order that a stop might be put if possible, to
the trapping of foxes. All the more surprise is felt at
what has occurred because the Hunt Committee have a
very substantial poultry fund, and deal liberally in the
way of compensation with tenants who may suffer from
the depredations of foxes.
Her Majesty's troopship Himalaya, when leaving
Queenstown Harbour on Monday evening for Malta,
with a large number of troops on board, ran foul of the
Government buoy No. 3, in the chains of which her
propeller became entangled. The troopship then be-
came unmanageable, and was drifting towards White
Point, on the lee shore. The anchors, however, were let
go, and she was brought up. The Government steamer
Shamrock proceeded to her assistance, and a steel
hawser was run from her starboard bow to the Govern-
ment moorings astern of the guardship Revenge, and
she will thus be prevented from driving on to the lee
shore. Tugs were the same evening endeavouring to
turn her head to the eastward, so as to enable her to
anchor in deep water, and divers have been sent down
to free the propeller from the chains of the buoy. A
considerable delay, however, is sure to be caused. A
strong easterly wind was blowing at night.
Mr. J. Jacobs, Conservative, was on Monday elected
member of the Birmingham Town Council for All
Saints' Ward by a majority of 237 votes. This is the
first time that a Conservative has been returned for the
ward since the incorporation of the borough. His
success is all the more significant, because All Saints is
the most populous of the three wards in Mr. Chamber-
lain's division of West Birmingham.
The following letter has been received from the Homo
Secretary, in reference to the Jubilee Memorial to the
Queen, signed by 1,132,608 women of England:
" Madam,—l have had the honour to lay before the
Queen the loyal and dutiful address placed in my
hands by a deputation appointed for the purpose
numerously signed by women interested in the cause of
temperance in this country, on the occasion of the coni-
pletion of the fiftieth year of her Majesty's reign ; and I
have the satisfaction to inform you that her Majesty
was pleased to receive the same very graciously.—l am,
Madam, your obedient servant, HENRY MArrnEws.
Mrs. E. Spring, 60, Mount-pleasant, Liverpool."
Sir Henry G. Harnage, Bart., died at Belleswardine,
his seat in Shropshire, on Friday last. He was the only
son of the late Sir George Harnage, Bart. by Caroline
Eleanor, daughter of the late Mr. Bartlett Goodrich,
of Saling Grove, Essex. He succeeded to the baronetcy
on the death of his father in March, 1866, and in
October the same year married Elizabeth Sara Maude.
third daughter of the Rev. Richard Egremont,
Wroxeter, Salop. For some years he was an officer in
the South Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry, and served
the office of High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1875. By
his death, in default of issue, the baronetcy becomes
extinct.
The Deanery of St. Asaph is about to become vacant
through the resignation of the Very Rev. Herbert A.
James, appointed in 1886, who has accepted the Prin-
cipalship of St. David's College, Ler:Teter, in succes-
sion to the Rev. Herbert. E. Royle, appointed Hulsean
Lecturer in Divinity at Cambridge. The Deanery of
St. Asaph is in the gift of the Bishop of the Diocese,
and is of the annual value of £7OO.

Mr. Henry Manners (Lord Salisbury's Private Secre-
tary), writing to Mr. Thompson, Secretary of the
Liverpool Demonstration Committee, says that every
arrangement made for Lord Salisbury when at Liver-
pool was most satisfactory and admirable, and his
lordship was greatly pleased and gratified at the singu-
larly cordial kindnesses which he everywhere received
during his visit there.