The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-01-25 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISII AND FOREIGN.

The civil list of the King of Italy has just been
reduced by four million of francs for the present year.

At one of the halls in London the subject -for recent
discussion was .The Birth of Christ; a fable." The next
topic for discussion is to he " The Lake of Fire and Brim-
stone, Physically and Scientifically considered."

Spain is inaugurating a system of public and com-
pulsory education.
Thomas Quigley, who recently murdered his wife
at Liverpodl in the most cold-111...1ed and atrocious manlier,
has been committed, by the Liverpool magistrates, for
wain' murder.

" Bacchus " seems decidedly • better pay than
"Mars," for within the last two years twenty officers have
retired from the army, and entered the wine trade

The Marquis of -Westminster bas given £2,000 to.
wards the funds of the Denbighshire Infirmary. '

The death of Lord Ventry is announced, at his
residence in Dingle, In his 82nd year lie served with dis-
tinction in the Peninsula, and was severely wounded at the
battle of Albuera. lle was h:ghly esteemed by the people of
the locality in which he resided. The title and estates de-
scend to his eldest son, the HOD. Colonel Li. Z. De Muleyna
A cow-house, in which were twenty-four valuable
cows, the property of Mr. Herbert, justice of the peace,
Ballybeg, near Castle Island, comity of Kerry, was burnt to
the ground on Saturday morning, and only two ot the
animals were rescued. It is supposed to have been mali-
ciously done in revenge for the prosecution of a salmon
poacher
- - •

Mr. Walt Whitman is preparing a volume of his ex.
periences in the hospitals during the war for publication.
The American Congress has decided that its mem-
bers must hereafter buy their own stationery, penknives,
and newspapers. The franking privilege still remains to
them.

The Marseilles journals announce that the Brothers
Davenport have arrived in that city to give iepreSentatiOfli.
The King of Prussia has sanctioned a treaty to
prolong the privilege of the gaming tables at Wiesbaden for
five year.. The establishment is to pay a AIM of one million
of thalers 31r. 750. each for getting its lease renewed.

Within a period of eight days the Inverness Excise
officers have made two seizures of illicit stills. In the latest
case they also found concealed in a stack of corn near
Abriachan, a cask containing five gallons of "very fine
mountain dew."

Mr. Tennyson is to have £2,000 for twelve poems in
Good Wurds.

"At if we had not enough American difficulties on our
shoulders without piling up new ! In Mr. Train's journal we
are told that ' the revolution is rolling—Prepare for No. 2 '
No. 2 has probably appeared by this time, and solute No 3;
but what will No. 4 say? Europe will be glad to put its head
under the bedclothes when that voice is heard."—Morning
Star. - . .

In a letter to The Time; Lord Hobart advocates the
referring of the whole of our differences with the United
states, including our granting belligerent rights and the
Alabama matter to arbitration, and condemns the Govern.
meta for refusing to adopt that policy.

We regret t; learn that Lord 'Derby is again suffer-

leg fro;;;;:attaek of the god.

The trowel prepared for presentation to Isis Royal
Highness the Duke of Edinburgh on occasion sd laying the
foundation stone of a new Townhall at Melbourne Is made
entirely of gold, both blade and handle. Where the two join,
the trowel is ornamented with pearls and turquoise!; at the
other end, the braille has on it a dukes cdronet, set off
with diamonds and emerald. This is a proper trowel lor
•• the land of gold."
An unbroken railway communication is now open
fr on the Atlantic seaboard to the Rocky Mountains, a dim
t nice of more than 2,000 miles. The line passes over the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers on bridges—at Bock Island
03 the former, and Omaha on the latter—so that, if necessary,
sue entire journey can be performed in the same carriages.
In reply to various correspondents regarding the
supposed exemption of sheep dogs, we (Maidstone Journal)
beg to state that we have made inquiries at Somerset House,
L bolos], and that the following answer has been received
"There is no exemptions under the Act 30 Vic, cap. 5,
except in the case of dogs not six months old."
At the petty sessions, held at Possle, 'when there
were a great numlter of summonses for the non-payment of
poor-rates, the assistant overseer said he had been informed
that a combination had been entered into among the fisher-
Melt of the port against payment of the poor-rate. There
was a report that if any fisherman paid the rate he was to he
throws; overboard.
The Nawab of Tonk, in Rajpootana, having been a
party to the treaeherous murder of the uncle and fourteent
followers of the tributary chief of Zawa, orders have been
issued for the Nawals's deposition. His son has been pro-
claimed successor. The late Nawab surrendered himself on
Christmas-day to the agent of the Governor-General, and pro-
ceeds to Benares, where he will henceforth reside
Eft appears that branding is one of the punishments
maintained ins the tailed States army. Five deserters are
Stow ils Washington under sentence to he branded each " with
a letter D upon the right hip," the branding to •'nnake indelibly
a WOlllll.l one and a half inches long " One of these soldiers
has been s tved from the punishment by the interference of
the President. The sentence provides, further, that each
offender shall have his head shaved, and shall be drummed
out of the service.

The inventive genius of the Yankee nation seems to
be inexhaustible. At the Patent-office in Washington.
during one week last month, 315 patents for entirrly new
Inventions were lesueil. The total number of patents that
have been issued since the establishment of this bureau is
72,151. A mole! of each Invention Is deposited in the
rooms of the office, which are always open to the public,
and a visit to them is one of the utmost interest.

If ballooning is never turned to any practical
account it will not be for want of inventions for the purpose.
The last new thing In aeronautics is thus described so the
patent columns of the London Gazdre :—" And John Kin-
nersley Smythies, of 23, St. Luke's-road, in the parish of
Paddington, in the comity of Middlesex, barrister-at-law, has
given the like make in respect of the invention of 'carrying
passengers through the air by a steam bird or flying steam
engine titte,i with wings Rapped by the action of steam.'"

A Dublin paper announces that the Prince of Wales
le to volt Ireland iu April twit, to be preeeht at the burr-
cliestuwn races.

The Boston Pilot states that Colonel Burke is a
graduate id queen's College, Cotk, is highly eduesied, and
was on the staff of General Benham, and afterwards on
Major-General Woodbury's staff In the late war for the
restoration of the Union. He is a skillel engineer, and had
he not been arrested would have been a sore thorn in the
side of John Bull.

An investigation has been held at the London
Hospital, to inquire into the death of John Ilenville, aged
nineteen years. The deceased Is a man of colour and a
seaman, and came by his death in a public-house affray at
the East-end with an Italian, named John Morelli, also a
seaman. The two men were quite unknown to each other.
A verdict of wilful murder against the latter was returned.

Mr. Alfred Tennyeon regrets that it ia no longer
possible for him to answer the innumerable letters, or to
acknowledge the NIS. verses, which he La in the habit of
receiving from strangers.

Galignoni says 'The 'Chanteuse Masquee' garb'
at the DCiszet Theatre as promised last week. Iler claims
upon public favour repose mainly upon the polgnard in her
girdle and the mask upon her face. Other attractions may
perhapa lurk beneath this highwayman.artiat attire, but she
sings no better, though perhaps not quite so well, as many
unprofessional and unmasked, undaggered ladies who warble
In our salons."

n Tuesday evening, about seven o'clock, a middle-
aced widow lady. named Mary Melborn, residing at 241,
Heneage-street, Birmingham, was found murdered in her
house, at the top of the cellar steps. It is believed she had
been strangled by three men who were seen to come from
the direction of the house. Their object is supposed to have
been money, as the murdered woman had upwards of £6OO
In the bank, which was deposited only a few months since.
The murderers carried off a few trifling articles, and neither
of them has been apprehended.

- - -- --
So multifarious are the applications for subscriptions
and donations for all sorts of objects, that the columns of
appeals which each day appear in the Loudon Times, either
in the shape of advertisements or in that of letters to the
editor, would form an interesting volume in a future
o Curiosities of Literature. One of the most recent calls on
the public Is for a food to keep the tomb of 31. Soyer, the
late celebrated cook, and his wife, from falling into decay,
as it threatens to 00. It seems that this .mausoleum was
erecten by Boyer himself, at an expense of £l,OOO, lime-
diately after the remains of his wile were laid in Kennel
-
green.

The prevailing belief is that the annual N snunteer
review wut be at Dover again this year. Portsmouth ha
been talked of, but it is said in "well-informed circles" that
overtures will be made to the people of Portsmouth by the
Doverians to postpone their claims for twelve months, with'
the understanding that it they do so Dover will not only I
abstain from making any application for itself in the year
1869, but will baek up the claim of Portsmouth. Either of I
these places has advantages which Brighton does not possess
for a sham fight, because at either of them ships can be
brought into action. This was done at Dover last year, with
very great. elect.