The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-24 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

The official correspondence on the subject of the
claims of Ismail Pasha, was published on Saturday. In
a telegram, dated 27th January, Sir E. Baring remarked
that the arrangement come to was satisfactory both for
the Egyptian Government and the members of the
Khedivial family; and in his opinion it was greatly due
to the forbearance, moderation, and sense of justice
evinced by Mr. Marriott, as representing the Khedivial
family, and Sir E. Vincent, as financial adviser to the
Egyptian Government, that the great difficulties in the
way of a satisfactory settlement had been overcome.
General Annenkoff, the constructor of the Russian
railway from the Caspian to Bokhara, has left Central
Asia for Siberia, where he is to examine the proposed
line of railway to the Pacific. He expresses himself
confident that he can complete a railroad from European
Russia to Vladivostock in three years.
The annual Association football match between
England and Scotland came off on Saturday in
Hampden-park, Glasgow. England won by five goals
to none. - .

An action to recover £lOO, balance of a betting
account, came before the Queen's Bench Division on
Saturday. The plaintiff, a carpenter named George
Cole, of Deptford, alleged that he had taken various
sums to the defendant, a pawnbroker named Johnson,
who acted as commission agent, with instructions to
" invest " them on certain horses. The defendant had
given him £7O in respect of his winnings; but refused
to give him the remainder. In the course of the case,
which was not concluded when the Court rose, Mr.
Justice Manisty expressed his opinion that there ought
to be a special court for trying cases of this kind.
An Italian boy was charged on remand at the Lam.
beth Police-court on Saturday with begging. He was
found in the street playing an accordion and soliciting
alms. Mr. Costa, from the Italian Consulate, said it
was much against the wish of the Government in Italy
that boys should be thus sent to this country, and he
urged that the magistrate should make an order for the
boy to be sent back. Mr. Biron, observing that he
had no power to make such an order, discharged the
boy.

In the Italian Chamber on Saturday the Premier
justified the alliances into which the Government had
entered, maintaining that Italy ought to be in unison
with Germany and Austria on all European questions,
and with England on all matters relating to the sea.
He assured the Chamber that war would never be' pro-
voked by Italy. They. could not, he said, exhibit
greater friendship towards France than at present, and
as to Africa, they had no idea of conquering Abyssinia.
A requiem service for the late Emperor William was
celebrated on Sunday morning in the German Chapel
Royal, St. James's Palace, and was attended by a very
distinguished congregation.

Colonel John Ross Farquharson, of Invercauld, died
at his residence in Curzon-street, Mayfair, London' on
Friday of last week. He was formerly in the Scots
Fusilier Guards, and served with that regiment in the
Crimea from November 18, 1853, until August 7, 1855,
including the siege of Sebastopol, where he was severely
wounded. He was a personal friend of the Prince of
Wales, who annually enjoyed several days' deer-stalking
in Invercauld Forest. _ _ _ _

Major Thoyts of Sulhampstead Park, one of the
prominent members of the South Berks Hunt, was sum-
moned before the Reading County Bench, on Saturday,
by the Rev. Bernard Body, a clergyman, for riding over
one of his fields and doing damage to the amount of £5.
Mr. Body had given notice to the Hunt to keep off his
land, and on a day mentioned Major Thoyts and others
rode across one of Mr. Body's fields which had been
laid down in grass. He called to the major to stop, but
he went on, and others whom Mr. Body tried to stop
rode at him, and his life was endangered. He after-
wards saw Major Thoyts, who said he should follow the
hunt. Major Thoyts's defence was that he did not
know the land was Mr. Body's, and therefore could not
have wilfully damaged it. If Mr. Body would show
him his land he would do his best in the future to keep
off it. The Bench held that there was no wilful or
malicious damage, actual or constructive, and dis-
missed the case. This is the second case Mr. Body has
brought and lost.
At Cork Assizes, on Saturday, Dennis Donoghue,
John Buckley, and Michael Kearney were charged with
moonlighting at Annascaul, Kerry. The evidence
showed that moonlighters entered the dwelling of Dr.
Kane and demanded arms. On being refused they
fired shots, but without injuring anybody. A struggle
ensued, in the course of which Dr. Kane and members
of his family were badly beaten. Justice Kane
received 11 wounds, and the room was covered with
.blood. In the end the moonlighters escaped, carrying
with them the arms in search of which they had come.
Kearney was acquitted, but the others were found
guilty. Donoghue was sentenced to seven years' penal
servitude, and Buckley, who was recommended to,
mercy, o six months' hard labour.
Residents in the neighbourhood of Clifton Suspen-
sion-bridge were again startled on Saturdaynight by a
report of another suicide from the structure which
spans the river Avon' at a height of 250 feet, and from
which, since its erection, nearly a score of persons have
taken their lives. On this occasion the victim appeared.
to be a middle-aged man, respectably dressed. He was
seen to mount the parapet on the Somerset side of the
bridge, and instantly leap into the river. He floated
down the river some sixty yards, and then disappeared.
Between seven and eight o'clock on Sunday morning
a fire was discovered in the Grantham Theatre. The
proprietor, Mr. Cogan, went the usual round on Satur-
day night, and left all apparently safe. He visited the
theatre on Sunday morning to prepare for a special
gathering of the Salvation Army, when he saw smoke,
followed by flames, issuing from the drop scene. An
alarm was raised, and the Grantham Volunteer Brigade
was soon in attendance, and the outbreak was extin-
guished in about an hour. ' .• .

tt.l-44i laiti kit biliaibk,

Major-General IL Newdigate, accompanied by Lieu-
tenant the Hon. C. C. Winn, is leaving London to take
over the command of the Infantry Brigade at Gibraltar.
The Bishop of Salford, Dr. Vaughan, speaking at a
meeting in Manchester on Tuesday night, attended by
clergymen of different churches, on the subject of cre-
mation, said he could not accept the opinion put forth
by several scientific authorities, that cremation was the
only effectual way of disposing of the dead. The
traditions of Christianity were wholly against it, and
for himself he repudiated the notion that a corpse was
simply to be treated as a mass of decaying matter, to
be got rid of in the quickest possible manner. The
revival of cremation was, in some cases, due to a hatred
of the Christian religion.
William Lawlor, a shoemaker, was charged at the
Dublin Police-court on Tuesday with having murdered
his wife. Evidence was given that the accused and his
wife had been living apart for some time before the
evening of the 12th inst., that at his request she con-
sented to return home, and that, on the way thither,
he stabbed her to death. Two persons witnessed the
murder, but did not interfere, stating that they were
afraid. A police-constable said that when arrested the
accused admitted the charge. The prisoner, who re-
served his defence, was committed for trial.
Some farm buildings in the occupation of Mr. G. W.
Hoddinott, near Stratford-on-Avon, were on Monday
night destroyed by fire, caused, it is alleged, by an
incendiary. A determined attempt, it is stated, was
made to fire the buildings on Sunday night, but the
flames were subdued before much damage was done. On
Monday evening, however, shortly after a policeman
had made an examination of the place, the barn was
discovered on fire in two places, and a straw rick 15
yards away was also in flames. •
A special Crimes Act Court was held at Athenry on
Tuesday, for the purpose of hearing the charge of riot
and assault preferred against 10 men on occasion of the
arrival of Mr. Blunt at Athenry on his way to Galway
Prison. Mr. Paul, R.M., and Mr. Tynte, R.M., were
the magistrates. Inspector Hamilton, for the prosecn-
tion, stated that the crowd was most violent; but they
did not use sticks or stones. The town, however, was
peaceable, a large force of police having been drafted
into the neighbourhood.
The Birmingham Town Council, in view of the ex-
cessive railway freights to which the Midland Counties
manufacturers are now subjected, and the desirability
of improved water communication with the seaboard in
competition with the railways on Tuesday appointed a
committee to apply to Parliament either to insert
clauses in the Railway Rates Bill now before Parlia-
ment, or to introduce a separate measure, authorising
the formation of canal trusts, corporations, and other
public bodies.
Several valuable head of cattle belonging to a Cum-
berland farmer, Mr. Henry Cass, of Stainburn, Work-
ington, suddenly fell dead on Monday in the grazing
field. A post-mortem examination showed that death
had resulted from poisoning caused by the cattle
browsing on the sprigs of yew trees. Other,s of the
herd are not expected to recover from the effect of the
poison.
A shocking discovery was made at Lyrnm, Cheshire,
on Tuesday, when the body of a youth named George
Platt, a bricksetter, was recovered from the mill dam,
where the water was very deep. He had been drinking
heavily, and is said to have been suffering from delirium
tremens. His mother, finding he had not come home,
went to seek him, and was distracted to find his clothes
at the dam side.

The rectors of Trofarth and Llangernien, in the Vale
of Conway,were summoned at Llanmost Petty Sessions
on Tuesday for the non-payment of rates due to the
Union. The defence was inability to pay owing to the
withholding of tithes lawfully due. After a long legal
discussion the justices declined to make any order. It
was intimated by the representative of the Union that
distraints would probably follow.
The Highland steam ship Islay, with passengers,
mails, and cargo, broke down on Tuesday morning off
Lamlash, Arran, while on her run from Glasgow to
Islay. She was taken in tow, and brought back to the
Tail of the Bank, her passengers being afterwards
transferred to the steamer Cavalier, which proceeded; to
Islay. The Islay was towed to Glasgow for repairs.
Whilst Mr. Joseph Giddons, a gentleman between 30
and 40 years of age, was taking an active part in the
festivities connected with the wedding of his niece at
Sheffield on Tuesday, he suddenly became ill. Medical
aid was procured, but he died in a few hours, the cause
of death, it is thought, being apoplexy.
Small-pox is existent in Knutsford Gaol, and the
Home Office has issued instructions for the prisoners in
the Macclesfield district to be sent to Manchester,
Nottingham, and Stafford.
Sir Henry James was entertained at dinner by the
members of the Liberal Union Club at Willis's Rooms
on Tuesday evening. Responding to the toast of his
health, he made a speech dealing with the work of the
Dissentient Liberals. _ _ .

Dr. Crosskey, of Birmingham, on Tuesday night
opened a series of political discussions at the National
Liberal Club by delivering an address in favour of free
education. Mr. Mundella, who presided, spoke strongly
in favour of free education. _ .

In the French Chamber on Tuesday, the debate
took place upon the motion of M. de Oassagnac respect-
ing the motives of the Government in removing General
Boulanger from his command. M. de Cassagnae ex-
pressed his belief that it was at the request of the
German Government that this step had been taken.
The Premier, in reply, declared that this remark was
insulting. He added that the General had placed him-
self in opposition to the existing laws and that the
Government had decided to refer the matter to a
Court of Inquiry. An order of the day expressing
confidence in the Government was ultimately adopted.
The funeral of the late M. Camot, the elder, took
place in Paris on Tuesday. President Carnot and his
family were present, as well as the Ministers, the
Diplomatic Corps, &e. As the funeral procession left
the church for the cemetery, cheers for General
Boulanger were raised, and a hostile manifestation was
made against M. Ferry.
A case in which a carpenter named Cole, residing at
Deptford, sued a pawnbroker and bookmaker named
Johnson, also of Deptford, for £l5O, the balance of bet-
ting transactions, was concluded before Mr. Justice
Manisty in the Queen's Bench Division on Tuesday,
when judgment was given for the plaintiff. Stay of
execution was refused.
Police-constable David Poole, 326 E, was summoned
before the magistrate at Bow-street on Tuesday for an
alleged assault on Annie Florence Hancock, and there
was a second summons against him for wilfully damag-
ing her clothes. It was stated that the officer took the
complainant into custody as she was getting into a cab
outside the Grand Hotel, late at night, and at the
station desired to charge her with disorderly conduct
and using obscene language. The inspector, however,
refused to take the charge. Mr. Vaughan now said that
Poole had acted with indiscretion and singular in-
humanity. It was of great impoftance that constables
should not trump up charges. Poole would be lined £3
and 14s. 6d. damage done, with costs. Notice of appeal
was given.
In London last week the death-rate per thousand
was 19.5, and was lower than in any previous week of
this year.
Between the Ist April and the 17th instant the
Exchequer receipts amounted to £85,699,044, as com-
pared with £87,115,365 in the corresponding period of
the last financial year; and the expenditure to
£80,496,550, as against £83,426,037. On Saturday last
the Treasury balances stood at £10,095,957, and on the
same date last year at £8,559,400.
Lord Lansdowne, the Governor-General of Canada,
will leave for England in May.
At Birmingham Assizes on Saturday, John Russell,
60, alias Cooper and Australian Jemmy, was sentenced
to 15 years' penal servitude for burglariously entering
the house of Dr. Robins, surgeon, Grantsam-road, Bir-
. . .

mingham. The prisoner was captured in the louse,
after a struggle, by the prosecutor's two sons. Mr.
Justice Smith, in passing sentence, said the prisoner
had been twice sentenced to transportation for life, and
also to ten years' penal servitude for burglary with
violence.

An unusual incident, causing considerable commo-
tion, occurred at St. George's Church, Bolton, on Sun-

day morning, when a parishioner stood up and forbade
the banns of a couple intending to be married. The
objector was quietly requested by a warden to go to the
vestry at the close of the service, when, it is stated, he
grounded his opposition on the alleged fact that the man
was in debt, and consequently not in a position to be
married.

John Prescott, alias Randall, was charged in
Manchester on Saturday with stealing a bag containing
£l2OO from a cab drawn up before a bank in King-
street. It was stated that the prisoner declined to
give any account of himself, except that he came from
Canada. In his possession were found a£s note and
two diamond rings' which he is suspected of stealing.
He was remanded for inquiries.
The Luton Borough magistrates on Saturday fined
Joseph Wright, a local shopkeeper, 40s. for selling
elder wine without a license. The superintendent
analyst from Somerset House said the sheriff had had
the density of the wine tested, and found it to contain
15 per cent, of spirit. The supervisor said it was a
drink taken by some of their temperance friends, think-
ing it not spirituous.
Seventy-five Nonconformist ministers of Gloucester-
shire have forwarded to Lord Salisbury and Mr. Glad-
stone an emphatic protest against the Irish policy of
the Government.

Information has reached Nottingham of the death of
Mr. Hildyard, ex-member for South Notts. Mr. hid-
yard and and Mr. Storer represented the Nottingham con-
stituency for twelve years, and have died within 24
hours of each other.

Lord Rosebery, who is leaving his London residence,
Lansdowne House, has bought Lord Londesborough's
town house in Berkeley-square.
Captain Hall will shortly vacate the Directorship of
Naval Intelligence, to qualify for Admiral's rank.
Dr. M'Cabe, of the Irish Prisons Board, has been
appointed Medical Commissioner of the Irish Local
Government Board, in succession to the late Dr. Coker
King. '
Distress still exists in Pendleton, owing to the cessa-
tion of two or three works which gave employment to a
large number of hands. Separate funds have been
started for distributing relief in necessitous cases. The
Pendleton Ironworks Fund has received nearly £lOO,
and about £2O is being distributed weekly to over 100
men.
The United States Court at Amaha decided in the
United Pacific Railway case that the drivers might quit
work, but had no right to conspire to leave in a body,
and suddenly, the company's service, so as to prevent
that company from exchanging freight with the Bur-
lington Company as the Inter-State Commerce Law re-
quired it to do; and that their refusal to pull the Bur-
lington Company's cars would subject them to impri-
sonment.
The lime trade of Derbyshire is reported to be very
depressed, owing to the severity of the weather. A
large number of workmen are out of employment, and
an appeal has been made for further subscriptions to
relief funds at Buxton and Fairfield.
Orders for cloth in North Lancashire, it is stated, have
been placed for next quarter at more profitable rates.
The result of the present quarter's stocktaking will not
generally show good profits, but many co-operative mills
will declare dividends. There are great complaints
among weavers of bad material and of steam in sheds.
The spinners of many mills have also lodged complaints
with their associations. Readjustment of wages are
being demanded at several places. There are still strikes
in the weaving branch unsettled.

Mr. Seagrave, the British Consul at Baltimore, re-
ports that oyster canning is shortly to come to an end,
in consequence of a new invention called muzzling,
which so effectually closes an oyster by means of wire
that the mollusc is unable to open his shell, and is thus
compelled to keep alive for at least a month.
Just before the storm came on at New York there
landed a number of immigrants at Castle Garden that
somewhat startled the residents. They consisted of
40 Germans who had stolen their musical instruments
and deserted from the regimental bands of the Father-
land. The Americans say that they don't want them
as colonists ; but if they must have them they protest
against the additional agony of being compelled to

listen to German music. - -
A Cabinet Council was held at the Foreign Office at
half-past twelve o'clock on Monday, at which all the
Ministers were present except Lord Ashbourne, who 15
in Ireland. Lord George Hamilton was detained by
pressing business at the Admiralty for some time, thus
was unable to join his colleagues until a few minutes
before one o'clock. The Cabinet Council broke up at a
few minutes before two o'clock, having sat for an hour
and a half. Mr. Smith and Mr. Balfour remained for
a short time after the meeting with Lord Salisbury.
A fire broke out at about five o'clock on Monday
morning in Messrs. Mitchell and Son's silk mill near
Derby Station. The upper storeys were burnt out, and
a good deal of stock was consumed, the total damage
amounting to between £BOOO and £lO,OOO, part of
which is covered by insurance. The origin of the lire

is unknown.
The Luton County Magistrates on Monday fined
Thomas Carruthers, collector of Queen's Taxes, zles.,
for assaulting John Smith, a farmer. Carruthers called
three times for the taxes, but Smith refused to paY,
and on the last occasion said the Commissioners were a
lot of swindlers, and that Carruthers was the same,
whereupon Carruthers knocked him down. Smith
retailated with a branch of a tree, scratched Carruthers'

face, and snowballed him.
On Monday morning an engine-keeper at Punirher"
ston Oi'works, Liulithgowshire, was killed by falling
into a pond containing liquid ammonia. He was cross-
ing the pond on a plank nine inches broad, when ha
slipped and fell, and the effect of the liquid was such
that although he was immediately taken out, medical
aid was of no avail.
The Philadelphia Public Ledger tells how some Jaya
ago a murderer out West claimed leniency because he
killed the man in a fit of "temporary frenzy." That
was rather fine. Now we hear of a Camden woman
thief, who works her trade in Philadelphia, that sho
only does it when she's under a "spell." Our male-
factors are refining their pleas in felony by very nice
shades.
An inquiry was held on Monday morning concerning
the sudden death of Mr. John Stone, 60 years of age,
lately residing at Fernside Estate, Weybridge, found in
a dying state in a carriage on the London and South-
Western Railway. Heart disease was shown to be the
cause of death.
It is stated that the Council of the Incorporated Law
Society have forwarded to the Chancellor of Exchequer
a report upon the National Debt conversion scheme,
calling attention to certain defects in the bill, and
pointing out remedies.
The Court of Referees, on Monday morning, refused
to allow two petitioners, whose property was not
scheduled, to appear against the Kensington-Sqttni°
Improvements Bill, on the alleged ground of probabld •
depreciation of their property by reason of the removal
of adjoining houses.
A farmer named Finncan, living at Lissycasey, was
fired at and badly wounded while returning from
Mullough Fair on St. Patrick's Night.
The line between Calais and Boulogne has now been
re-opened for traffic and the mail trains are running
between Calais and Paris with the usual regularity.
On Sunday afternoon a boat, containing the captain,
mate, and four other persons, left the ship Cambria in
Carmarthen Bay to fetch an anchor from Rhosilly
Sands. The sea was calm, but, from some unexplained
cause, the boat capsized, and its occupants were thrown
into the water. Those on board the ship witnessed th 4
occurrence, but were unable to render help, as their reJ
maining boat had no oars. As soon as possible the
vessel's anchor was hove up, and sail was made towards
the spot; but all the men had then disappeared. The
catastrophe occurred only about 200 yards from the
shore, where many persons witnessed it, but could give
no help.
On Monday, at Darcy Lever, Bolton, a conference
between Messrs. Woods and Ashton, miners' repre-
sentatives, with Mr. Miles Settle, manager of the
Darcy Lever Collieries, where 400 men have been on
strike on the dirt question, a compromise was suggested
and accepted. The men will retarn to work at once.
The Exchange Telegraph Company is informed that
it has been decided not to make public the comments
of the Lord Chancellor on the conduct of Mr. Newton
in the Cass case. Mr. Atherley-Jones, M.P., was
given the opportunity of seeing the document at the
Home Office, and he is of opinion that, considering all
the circumstances, it would be invidious to publish the
details after so great a lapse of time.
At Birmingham Assizes on Monday, Thomas Hensley',
enameller, Smallheath, was sentenced to penal servi-
tude for five years for a murderous attack on his wife
in December. The prisoner was living apart from his
wife. In a fit of jealousy at her refusal to live with
him, he struck her seven times on the head with a
poker, and afterwards stabbed her with a knife. Pro-
secutrix was in the hospital for six weeks.
A Queenstown telegram states that the steamship
Aurania, from New York brings intelligence of an
ex
plosion on board the excursion steamer Rafaele Rey-es,
on the 21st ult., on the River Dique, South America.
Out of 40 passengers, 20 were killed and several
injured.
On Monday morning the recruits of no fewer than
nine regiments of Militia were called up for training,
thus making 23 regiments whose new men are now
embodied, while the whole of the Southern Submarine
Miners' Militia of Devon, Hampshire, and Kent are
now up for long periods of instruction. The Artillery
recruits summoned to their headquarters on Tuesday
were those of the Kent Brigade at Dover, the Dublin
City at Dublin, and the Clare at Ennis; the Infantry
battalions, whose recruits mustered on Tuesday morn
-
in.-, were the Berkshire at Reading, the Bedfordshiro
at Bedford, the South Lincoln at Grantham the Hunts
at Huntington, the Mid-Norfolk at Norwich, and the
East Yorkshire at Beverley.
A great sensation has been excited in Hereford by?
the suicide of one of the principal witnesses at the
Tupsley murder trial. George Parry, a postman, who
deposed that he saw the prisoners crouching under a
hedge on the night the crime was committed, had been
despondent for some time, and on Sunday night, after
returning from chapel, he drank a quantity of
laudanum, from the effects of which he died.
Telegraphic communication has been established
with Vryheid (new Republic), under the Transvaal
Department. The Kontatie Observer reports that an
Impi of five Swazies is now in prison at SteynsdorP
(Transvaal), for having crossed the border to scizo
cattle belonging to Locales, a headman living near tho
town. It appears frorn.their statement that the Swazi°
General is dead, and that they were despatched by?
Umbandine to kill Umsweli, who lives on the Swazi°
side of the border, and who was accused of causing the
General's death.