The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-06-27 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.
:Hark -Twain.* writing a book on in English
experiences. z
A gentleman tvlso lately gave a free leture did not
feel complimented when the morning papers declared that
tt the lecture was worth the price of admission.'
Much more satisfactory accounts are now published
of the mops he Austro-Hungary. A report of the Agricul•
tural Department. datid the 16th inst., states that the
ham. ot is in some plaxwa in exoellent condition, and in
others promise° at least as) average yield.
From April lot to the 20th inst. the Exchequer
re,eipts were .C 15,867,65.1. as compared with £16,161,157 in
the corresponding period of Hat year. The expenditure has
been i15,503,te.2. The balance in the Bank of England
amounts to nearly six millions and a quarter.
The inhabitants of Ityde, at a public meeting,
i_deeided to give the Crown Prince and Princess of Ger, •
-Aline reeeptfeh on the occasion of their visit to the Islk.
Wight. It is announced that the Imperial party will be ac-
companied to Bydc by four Government ships, and are ex-
pected to arrive on the ard July next
The yield of gold in New South Wales in February
amounted to 10,;M.50.t., a smaller production than was effected
in any one month stave May, 1871 A recent. rush to the
Palmer River goldfield in Queensland has Been attended
with great suffering and some loss of life March closed a
dull ~uarier in the 6andhurst (Victoria) gold mining district.
German army will by next November be brought
up to the lull peace-footing strength ',corded by this spring's
Army Bill- the maximum of 401,667 men, that will enable it,
ten years hence, to expand in war time into a force of from
1,600,000 to 1,600,00 e men, with 350,000 horses, 'and above
3,000 tield-pieces.
An 111. i soldier in the American annoy 44 the North
has joist retired from tint service. in which lie has been very
active. He has had no many bullets through him that he
considers he will do for a nursery ruslilight shade in his new
aphere of usefulness.

The Commissioners of National Education have
Issued a circular to the teachers. requesting them to send a
return to their office before Wednesday next of their salaries
from Government and other sources.
Her Majesty did not attend church on Sunday, pm-
bably ((lie Correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette telegraphs)
on account of the thunderstorm which raged around
Balmoral. A larger number of strangers were present in
Crathie church than on any previoos Sunday during her
Majesty's stay in the North at this time, and no little dis-
appointment prevailed when the Royal pew was found to be
vacant.
On Sunday afternoon a thunderstorm of brief dura
Bon but of great violence burst over some districts of the
North of Scotland. At Aberdeen a house was struck by
lightning. Fortunately the inmates were at church, and
the damage was contined to the shattering of the walls. The
gas in the rooted was ignited by the lightning, and the pipes
were fused. Pain fell in torrents for some time.
The Jubilee meeting of the Society for the Preven-
tion of Cruelty to Animals was held in London on Monday
in the Albert Mall, which was filled by those interested in
the proceedings. The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were
present, the latter distributing the prizes, and a letter was
read from the Queen. in which her Majesty expressed her
sympathy with the efforts that were being made to diminish
the cruelties practised upon dumb animals.
On Monday morning a young man, a clerk in the
General Post Office, London, while bathing in the I' hames at
Dittos, was seized with cramp, and before assistance could
be rendered him he was drowned. The body was shortly
afterwards recovered
The Nord gives the following as the quantity of food
and liquor consumod by Paris in 15l It drank 4.eM,u17
hectolitres (e 2 gallons each) of wine, alcohols, liqueurs.
vinegar, beer, .V e. ; and devoured 392,037,564 kilogrammes of
meat ; poultry and conic worth 27,755,7091 : of batter,
31,836,2651. ; eggs, 17,006,000 f. salted provisions. 15,2C5,9261.;
Oyster', L5e0,160f. ; fresh water fish, 2.133,956 f. truffles,
150,022 f.
Baron Rothschild has inaugurated a new and agree-
able fashion in which his neighbours share for being
awakened; every morning at five o'clock a chorus of delight/al
French horns play in a part of his park in the Bois de
Boulogne.—C'eart Journal.
Although the collection of flowers in the Crystal
Palace Rose Show last Saturday was sot so numerous as it
might have been with a more genial spring, the specimens
exhibited were of fine quality, and the bloom was brilliant
There were fifteen classes, each subdivided into ninny
varieties.
On the subject of public prosecutors the Lc a, Times
says that the committee appointed to consider this subject
has taken evidence, received valuable information, and made
an elaborate report, and the Lord Chief Justice of England
has submit fed a paper on the question of the advisability of
the appointment of public prosecutors. A draught report,
founded on the recommendation of the committee, was pre-
pared, and Lao been considered.
The Budget of the French Minister of Works shows
that the total of the engagements of the Government with
respect to the railways to Ist January, 1876, will amount to
741.200,833(r , representing an annuity of 29,440,000 fr., until
1955, when the concessions exMre.
Colonel Edward Thomson, of the Indian Army, and
brother of the Archbishop of York, died on Saturday in
• Paris, from an attack of inflammation His Grace, the
Archbishop, received the intelligence of the sudden illness of
his brother whilst in the House of Lords on Friday evening
and started immediately for Paris.
Cardinal Cullen, in a past, ,ral read in the churches in
Dublin on Sunday, after deploring the outrages on the Pope,
says, •• Caesarism not the Gospel is to be the guide of con-
science ; all spiritual authority Is to come from the Prince
and not from Christ's representative on earth, these are
errors studiously propagated for shaking the foundations
of religion and rendering the existence of Catholicity
possible."

A great demonstration of ruined took place at
Willenhall on Monday, connected with the Amalgamated
Association. Sixteen bands of music and about twenty thou-
sand people, with tumorous banners, collected upon an open
space of ground amongst the pits. The multitudes were ad-
dressed by Mr. Ilalliday, president of the association, Mr.
Brown, vice president, and, amongst others, by two Roman
CatholiCpriesta
"When the rumour was current that a German
prince was a candidate for the throne of Spain, the visit to
Madrid of Count Hatfield, a diplomatist ill the confidence of
Prince llismarek.was cited as proof of the supposed fact. It is
now asserted that the visit was connected with a very diffe-
rent matter—namely, the wish to obtain possession of the
Philippine Island. A sum of money was, it is said, offered
to the Spanish by the German Government, for which these
islands were to be mortgaged, but Spain has declined the
offer, and Count Hatfield will shortly leave for Berlin."--
The liour.
The Scotsman states that the Tweed has not been no
low since UN, in which year the corn was so short in the
stalk that it had to be pulled by Muni Sheep and cattle
are suffering severely from the heat, and the extreme dry-
ness of the pasture Mid damage to hill sheep in Peebles-
shire will be serious if rain sloes not fall soon. Already the
usual death-rat‘has been slightly increased by the drought.
The death is announced of Mr. J. C. M. Bellew
formerly a very popular preacher, but latterly better known
as a public reader and lecturer. Mr. Bellew returned trent
his last visit to the United States a victim, as it seemed, to
the severity of the climate, and after an tomcatting struggle,
extending over several mouths, during which every effort
was made to save Mtn, expired at tour o'clock on Friday
morning, to the great grief of Ills family and friends. Mr.
Bellew was horn on August 3, 1823, and was consequently
In his Mst year. Mr. Bellew was educated at (oxford, and
was a frequent speaker at the "Union" Debating Society.
"A gentleman, 38, with £450 income, wishes an in.
troduction to an accomplished lady of means, with a view to
marriage. Address," six. —Advertisement is llaitchester
Examiner.

In London, on Saturday, a portrait of Mrs. Throb,
in a white dress, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was sold for 1:151
by Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods. "Betty O'Brien,"
by the same artist, fetched £l2O ; and a view near Rome, by
It. Wilson, from the Gillot collection, realised £240. "hake
Need," by the same artist, went for 4:331.
The British Bee-keepers' Association, which was in-
stituted in May last, for the encouragement, improvement,
and atlvamement of bee culture in the United Kingdom, par-
ticularly as a means of bettering the condition of collagen s and
the apiculture] labouring classes, as well as the advocacy of
humanity to the industrious labourer—the Honey-Bee--will
101 l their first great exhibition of bees anti their produce,
hives, and bee furniture, at the Crystal Talace, on Septem-
ber Bth, 9th, and 10th, being the days of the autumn fruit
and flower show.
" Somebody has been giving a harrowing descripthm
of a Madagascar 'man-eating plant.' This is one of his lout
sensational paragraphs : "The retracted leaves iii the great
tree kept their upright position during ten days ; then,
when I came again one morning, they were prone again,
the tendrils stretched, and nothing but a white skull at the
foot of the tree. The indescribable rapidity and energy of
its movements may lie inferred from the fact that I saw a
smaller one seize, capture, and destroy an active little
lemur, which, dropping by accident upon it while watching
and grinning at me, in vain endeavoured to oicape from the
fatal toils.' Is this a grim joke f"—Pictorial World.
On Sunday night a rexpectably dressed woman
called at the Grey Goat " Hotel, Carlisle, and engaged a
bed, saying she had just arrived by train. On Monday
morning the servants heard her astir about nine, but at
noon it was discovered that she had hanged herself by a
handkerchief too bed-post. The deceased has not yet been
identified. She was dressed In black alpaca, had on a wed-
ding ring, and was apparently about 40 years old.
A Bill for the protection of children trained for
acrobatic performances has been brought forward In the
French Assembly. The first clause, which forbids the em-
ployment of children under 15 in hazardous feats, was
referred back to the Committee.
There was a brilliant reception on Sunday at the
Vatican of the representatives if Italian dioceses and of the
Llitholic youth in Home. An adih.eas from the members of
the catholic congress at Venice was read, and the Time in
an eloquent reply, which was loudly cheered, praised the
labours of the Congress, and urged all Italians to work
constantly for the promotion of virtue. His Holiness ex-
pressed a hope that the present trials of his Pontificoto would
be changed into joys.
Canon Gregory addressed a meeting of clergymen
and others in Liverpool on Monday on certain questions
arising out of the working of the Education Act by which
the interests of the Established Church were affected. Re-
solutions were adopted in favour of the repeal of the 24th or
Cowper-Temple clause of the Act, and of power being given
to the school boards to greet help to denominational schools
and of the rates, In the manner originally proposed in the
first draft of the Education Bill.
The Paris Fi9aro says that Jules Janiu wrote an
extraordinary hand. Tim oharacters were formed with some
care, but had not their like in any known alphabet. There
were only two compositors on the Journal sirs &LW, who
could decipher them. When he contributed to other papers
he dictated to his wife. One day he wrote to a friend, who,
after an immense amount at labour, managed to make (int
a few word,, loan which he summsed that the letter rias
from the eminent critic. He hastened to Pasty sod was
greeted by the writer ; "41i, you have read my letter, t
zee- " NO, I here not," was the reply; I am come to
ask you to read it to ore." Janin good-humouredly and
seriously held out his hand for the document, and said, " I
will try."
The Executive Council of the Agricultural La.
ChiolllllVt at LeaMillgti,fl on Monday, and roam-
mended all locked-out men in the Eastern bounties to ac-
cept their offer of free emigratMn to Canada, pid requested
Mr, Arch, the president, to accompany them. A large sum
of money was voted for the purpose. A march of agrieut.
tarsi labourers to the number of one hundred is weal
organised, and will commence next week. They will march
through the North of England their object being to elicit
sympathy and relief
A pq 'Tun 1o us escape from death took place on the
Cambrian Railway on Monday. A little girl of shoot eight
years of age, the daughter of Dr. Beresford, ef oswectry.
whose family was travelling to the seaside on Sue Welsh
coast, when between Montgomery litstbm sad Abenuole, bY
smile unexplained means, fell on,. of the carriage. Siiietance
was sent to the rit-,t as aeon as possible. lint she was found
walking Laidig thli line, having sustained only a few slight
bruises.
Thirty-four members of the Ifurlingham Club shot
for the Windsor Handicap on Monday, when Lord he Grey
killed 8, and won the cup arid 465. The second prize. T 25,
was won by Mr. Faire; and Mr. Hargreave Pawson took the
third money, 4:12.
The Parts Correspondent of 2'A4 ?Data writes 1--
'• A letter from Germany speaka of a recent bloodlets dual ci
Dresden, u :deli derives its sole interest front acoessory
details. A Saxon officer and a brother of the Ituraiail
Minister at Dresden fought with pistols, and the Conditions
of the encounter were such as so make very serious results
highly probable; Fortunately the tire was too high, and
only the ham suffered. But the formal report of the meeting
af toesitard drawn up mentions that the seconds of the
offleet were Messrs. Von Arnim and Von BismarckPlne
latter is said to be a son of the Cham.ellor ut the Empire
but the other is certainly not the int.Andiassador of Germany'
in Paris. The conjuctlou ol the two names is not the less
piquant after the passage of arms between the 31Inister
and the Ainbaasador. The Arnims are a family of rtiaty
branches."