The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-28 00:00:00

THE GREAT CLOCK AT WE PAUL'S.

This celebrated piece of mechanism was made by
Langley Bradley, clockmaker' &c., in the year 1708,
in accordance with the instructions given by the great
architect of the structure, Sir Christopher Wren, and
which were in the form of a specification, as follows :
Fr a large and substantial turret clock, going eight
days, and to turn the hour and minute hands on three
I several dials, viz., on the east, smith, and west sides of
the south-west tower ; and to keepthe same in good order
I for the space of seven years from the day of its crumple-
than." The amount paid for the work, under these con-
ditions, was £3OO only. The clock is consi•lercd to be of a
very superior description of workmanship, and has
been pronounced by competent judges to be one of the
A Venice correspondent sends the following to the Pall ! largest in Europe. It has, at the present time, two
Mall Gazette dial-plates, which are placed due south and west.
The question of duelling is attracting so much atten. Each of them are 57 feet in circumference, or nearly
twin just now in Venice (partly because Signor Fambri, 20 feet in diameter. The length of the minute hands
the deputy, has written shook about it—partly becaime is 9 ft. 8 in., and their weight P 3 D.. ; the hour hands
the liberty of the press in Italy is to a certain extent being 5 ft. 9 in. in length, and weighing 44 lbs. each.
wrapped up in it) that you will, perhaps, allow me The figures are 21t. 2iin. in height, small as they may •
space for a few remarks. Hardly a week passes with- , appear to the spectator below. There are also, in the
out some squabble between literary melt. sometimes r inside works, two 1-inail dials which work the reverse
these disputes end in a street fight, sometimes in a war way, one showing the hours and the other the minutes.
of words (putting Billingsgate to shame), and now awl I The pendulum is 16 ft. long, with a large "bob,"
then in a duel with seer lii. Five duels have been weighing 180 lbs., at the bottom, and which is sllB-
- during the past autumn; and as many more pended by a thin metal sprieg, about the thickness of
have been prevented by the interference of f; iends a shilling. The beat of the clOck is technically termed
and the decision of juries of lawman Wheit tOese "a dead beat," or two seconds—thirty to a minute
juries are composed of military men, the decisions are instead of sixty. Since it was first made it has been
pacific; hut when the verdict lies with men of peace, very mulch altered, in consequence of the repeated re-
melt. who wield the pen instead of the swop I, the pairs it has mah.rgone, hut it still ina:ntxins its reputa-
result is invariably warlike. A Dr !King tak, place thin as a faithful time-kurper nod hourly monitor to
at the Lido, and the victor goes hutee to recess o the the citizens of London.
congratulations of his friends and to become for a few
days the hero of the caffes and club-roonts. Up to
the present time no lives Lave been lost in these ea-
counters, but a good deal of blood has been shed, and
many minor quarrels—sometimes haling up in their
turn to duels-- have grown out of the original one.
Singularly enough the law takes no cognizance of these
doings. A prefect or delegate of police nmy I.e asked
to give his opinion on e " nice " point f hon. er. but
he cannot take upon himself to prevent the duel by
sending a couple of gendsrmes ti the place of rendez-
vous. Neither can lie cause either of the duelists to
be arrested after the fight unless he kills I,i. mm ; and
a magistrate may himself become a party to a Intel
either as principal or second.
A few ninth' ago the military governor of Venice
(General ilezzacapid, assisted by A, huh al Lungs and
other officers of the fortress and arsenal, sat on a jury
of honour to decide a doubtful ens One of the dis-
putants was M. Rigonfleam a Frenchman, and editor
of a journal (now defunct) called La Revue Uricatale,
published in Venice in the rr,-, sb 1011-flllfle. The
other was Signor Fambri, Ml. tor Veeice, and author
of a work on and a•s;fio, •b t• above aim led to.
The gontlumen wad sat ua,L, their minds what

and "Guillaume Tell," to say nothing of a crowd of
EXTRAORDINARY ROBBERY IN
otheoras, I felt that my best powers had been
exerted. After reaching his prime a man does not FRANCE.
expect to grove taller or stronger. He may grew
Th
fatter—" mats pour ma part je im me e,,,,,i, p, qua e Court of Asiiz,a of 1,, irc-et-Cher has just been
MA musique venue du ventre." " But you began engaged in the trial of five persons, the brothers
colnPosing very early in life, you know," said his wife; Adolphe and Leon Thizeau, a man named Durivage,
" what age were you when yon wrote the "Larbiere,e
ob
twenty-three, was it not?" " YUsl I do not pretend
and the wives of the former, for an extraordinary
rlemy of a sum of 8.00.000 fr., in plate, cash, and
to fix the age at which a writer shoal cease to publish. "untie°, from the residence of M. ilzard' of
morantin
All I say is that when you have reached your greatest Ko. The property was contaihed in an iron
height decline, so I think it safe wei,;hing over three hundred weight, and which
eight your must necessarily
better to leave off at the top. I write still. I shall .1., was carried off frvin the prosecutor's house on the
so de temps cc temps, I dare sav, as long as I live; but night of the :Nth March, during his temporary absence.
o the The premises had been left in charge of two female
there is no reason why I should expose myself t
caprice of a public whose praise Ido not care for, and servants who, however, heard no noise during the
night in question, although
whose blame might annoy me." Talking of his age on the safe had been carried
me that he was born only away from a room on the first floor. Two days after,
this same evening, he told
bundle of the securities
eight weeks after the death of Mozart (1791. .. Now a rities stolen was found in a street
you speak of Mozart, maestro," said I, " I must read of the town, and at about the same time the iron chest
you what my brother, an accomplished musician, says was di i vered in the river Sauldre, about a , empty ,
received yesterday. He is in an out-of- mile off. Adolphe Thizeau ultimately confessed his
in a letter I
the-way place in India, where he hears no music, and culpability and declared , that he had been aided by his
has no instrument, and he consoles himself by studying brother Leon, and that Durivage had received a small
the scores of "lion Giovanna" and " Guillaume Tell, " sum t° purchase his silence, as he was privy to the
and can hardly make up his mind which to place I attain. The property had been divided in presence of
highest." Rossini shook his head. "11 a tort. Il no the two women. The brothers Thizean had effected
fait pas dire eels," And on my making a deprecatory an entrance into M. Bezard's room, had thrown the
safe out of the window, and had then removed it on
gesture, he continued, laying his hand on mine, "Non !
a barrow, and concealed it beneath a dungheap, until
je V 01.13 le die trio serieusement et en conscience. Jo
n'ai jamsis ete is la hauteur de Mozart- When young they had an opportunity of breaking it open. Adolphe
Thizeau Wall condemned to fifteen years hard labour -,
composers come to me for counsel I always give them
Leon to ten years' imprisonment ; and the wife of
this :Take every opportunity of studying Mozart. He
the former to two years of the same punishment. The
has excelled in every kind of music ; in his works you
will find every sort of effect, and always produced by two other prisoners were acquitted.
the most lerfithnate means." I never heard Mtn speat
so emphatically. In general there was so much of
persiflage concealed under his pretended bonhomie
that the simple and unsuspecting might easily be
taken in; but on this subject he was unmistakably in
earnest.

The will of the great maestro, among other bequests,
has two of special interest. One is to the effect that
the testator, in recognition of the hospitality which he
found on the soil of France, desires to take his eternal
repose there; consequently, he prescribes that his body
shall be interred at Pere Lachaise. there to remain. The
second disposition bequeaths to the Institute of France
a capital necessary to yield two prizes of 3,000 f. each ;
one to be annually awarded to the author of the best
libretto of an opera, and the other to the composer who
shall have produced the best musical score for such a
work. However, he stipulates expressly that the
reward to be given to the musician shall only be granted
to a "melodist.'