The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-03-17 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

The friends of Hugh Willoughby Sweeny—the
London journalist who died in October of last year
from an attack as mysterious as that which in Edin-
burgh put an end to the life of the well known painter
Paul Chalmers—have organised a little exhibition for
the relief of his family. This is held at the rooms
of the Royal Society of British Artists in London, and
it is contributed to by many members of artistic socie-
ties from the President of the Royal Academy down to
the least celebrated, but not, perhaps, the least interest.
ing of students. It is representative, not, of course, of
the painters' best work, but of a great variety of artistic
endeavour; and we cannot doubt that it will receive a
large measure of sympathetic support. Very moderate
prices are put upon most of the works.
Her Majesty's ship Orontes' which arrived at Madeira
on Saturday, brought word that the Norham Castle was
disabled by an accident to her machinery on the 19th
Fekuary, 417 miles south-east of St. Helena, to which
island she sailed without assistance, all on board being
well. The Norham Castle's mails were transferred to
the Orontes, which will also doubtless bring letters from
the passengers and crew of the mail steamer.
_ _ .

Tlie Grand Jury for the County of Cork on Saturday
awarded Constable Leahy £lOOO as compensation for
permanent injuries sustained by him while in the dis-
charge of his duty at Mitchelstown on the lgth Sep-
tember. Leahy was found lying in the street very
badly injured, having been kicked anct beaten by the
crowd. He was one of the witnesses examined in the
case of Mr. O'Brien, and it was alleged that this caused
him to be marked out particularly for attack.
Mr. Francis Carew, Lord Lytton's private secretary,
died on Sunday morning of intestinal disease, after a
week's illness.

Mr. Richard Benyon, of Englefield-park, near
Reading, has just given £5OO to the Royal Berkshire
Hospital, of which he is president.
. . . _ _

. General J. M. Perceval has been selected for the
Honorary Colonelcy of the Suffolk Regiment.
Lieut.-Colonel Fitzroy Gibbons has been selected for
the command of the Devonshire Regiment.
Sir E. H. Currie has resigned his office as a nomi-
nated member of the Metropolitan Asylums Board.

Margaret Dickenson, and her liusband Thomas,
living in Brook-street, Birkenhead, were burned in a
shocking manner by the explosion of a paraffin lamp
late on Saturday night. It was reported to the police
that the couple had been quarrelling, and that the ex-
plosion was the result. The woman's clothing was all
burnt, and her body scorched in a dreadful manner, her
death ensuing early on Sunday morning in hospital.
The man is still in the institution, suffering from sere
injuries.
A spectacle mission has been started to provide poor
applicants with glasses carefully suited
.to their eye-
sights.
A terrible accident is reported from Carthagena,
Columbia. Forty persons lost their lives by an explo-
sion on a river steamer.

Sir A. L. Haliburton, the new Under-Secretary
of State at the War Office, is the son of "Sam Sliok."
A night school for convicts has been started in the
New Jersey State Prison. One of the convicts has cora-
menced the compilation of a dictionary.

There are about 300,000 people engaged in keeping
bees in North America, and the honey produced is
100,000,000 lbs., valued at 15,000,000 dols.
Mrs. Hawley, a charming English woman, who lately
became the wife of the Connecticut senator, is said to
be
_a great favourite at tho White House.
_ _

Mr. A. Spicer, Dr. Dale's companion in Australia,
has returned to England.
Mr. Cunningham° Graham has been ordered a
month's rest by his medical advisers.
It is the intention of her Majesty to hold a Drawing
Room at the beginning of May.
Even the Paris Morgue is to be lighted by electricity.
Samuel Frampton, of Nodaway county, Mo., still
takes and keeps good care of the horse he had when he
rode off to the war in 1861. The animal is 32 years old,
and is active and in good condition.
The gardeners of Paris have begun laying out the
public squares, and, should there be no return of cold
weather, early flowers and shrubs will be planted out in
all directions by the end of next week.
A fortune of 30,000 dols. has fallen, through the
death of his father in Germany, to a prisoner serving
out a sentence in a Nebraska gaol for the theft of a
steer.

The Queen is fast becoming ploficient in Hin-
dustani ! She can converse with the two much.
bedizened Hindoos who always stand behind the Royal
chair.

The Rev. Samuel Macall, who was for 24 years
principal of Hackney College, and was well known
among the Congregationalists, has just died at the age
of 80.

A dressing-room in a Washington house that is built
to resemble a Venetian palace, has its walls so
covered with mirrors that a woman need not turn her
head to see herself on all sides.

A young fellow, named Beaumont, was recently
toboganning at Dover, when—as he was sliding down 3
steep hill—some obstruction came in his way, and he
was dashed against a post and frightfully injured. His
death has since resulted.

The Queen has been pleased to give orders for the
sppointment of General his Royal Highness Christian
Frederick William Charles, Crown Prince of Denmark,
to be an honorary member of the Civil Division of the
First Class, or Knights Grand Cross of the Most
Houuurable Order of the Bath.

Baron and Baroness de Solvyns, the Belgian Minister
and his wife, were driving to the Foreign Office on
Tuesday afternoon, in a carriage drawn by a pair of
chestnut horses, when the off horse took fright at some
water running in Downing-street, and both the animals
bolted and turned into the narrow archway leading to
the Foreign Office quadrangle. Here one of the horses
and the carriage came into violent collision with one of
the buttresses smashing the harness and damaging the
carriage. The Belgian Minister and his wife escaped
unhurt, beyond receiving a fright.
Messrs. Nicholson, the distillers have just given
£5OO, and thus cleared off a long-existing debt upon the
parish church of Clerkenwell. Captain Penton, M.P.,
has guaranteed an annual sum of £.50 towards carrying
an the Church work of the parish, and Lord William
Compton an annual sum of £lO with the same object.
The Home Secretary has appointed Mr. J. R. W.
Bros, of the Oxford Circuit, and Recorder of Abingdon,
to be a Metropolitan Police magistrate. It is not yet
settled to what district Mr. Bros will be appointed, but
it is expected that he will preside over the new court at
Dalston, which will shortly be opened.
A fatal quarrel occurred on Tuesday afternoon near
a cottage called Penrhos Isa, about a mile from the
town of Bala, in which two families live. It appears
that both wives quarrelled very often, and on Tuesday
they quarrelled in the garden before the house. It is
stated that the wife of Thomas Evans, underkeeper to
Mr. R. T. Leprice, of Rhewlas, struck Ann Jones, wife
of Evan Jones, a joiner on the same same estate, with
a broomstick. Mrs. Jones walked a few yards and
fell down dead. She was the mother of nine or ten
children, the eldest not being 13 years old. Mrs. Evans
was taken into custody.
At the Alfreton County Court, on Tuesday, the Rev.
Howard L. Davies brought an action against the Rev.
Rowland Paul Hills, vicar of Ironville, for £35, three
months' salary, as compensation for wrongful dismissal.
The plaintiff,who acted as curate, worked in the parish
only a fortnight when quarrels took place with the
vicar, who gave him £5, and asked him to leave the
parish at once. Consderable sympathy was shown
for Mr. Davies, for whom a large sum of money was
collected, and he preached several times in the district.
After along hearing, the jury awarded the plaintiff £25
and costs.

At the Stafford Assizes on Tuesday, before Mr.
Justice Smith, Joseph Stockley and John Robinson
were charged with burglary at the Bishop of Lichfield's
Palace in February last. The palace was broken into,
and plate to the value of £l5O and £33 in money
were stolen. The prisoners, who were f uspected, were
arrested at Birmingham, and a considerable sum of
money was found on them. On being asked to account
for it, Stockley said, "It's there; you can't swear to
money." The prisoners were found guilty. Stockley
had been sentenced in all to 28 years' penal servitude
during his life of 53 years, and he was now sentenced
to 12 years' penal servitude. Robinson had been pre-
viously convicted of burglary, and he was now sentenced
:to 10 years' penal servitude. The prisoners left the
dock exclaiming, "We are innocent this time."

Mr. Justico 13-titt on Tuesday tried an action brought
by Mrs. Mary Annie Kelly, of Clarges-street, against
Mr. Charles George Cookson, to recover £5OO upon a
bill of exchange with nearly three years' interest. The
defendant said he had lived for some time with the
plaintiff, and that he gave her the bill so that she might
have a claim-upon his family in the event of anything
happening to him. This the plaintiff denied, and his
lordship decided in her favour, giving judgment for
£572.

The Lord Mayor of London on Tuesday presided
over a public meeting, held in the Venetian Hall of the
Mansion House, in aid of the fund for acquiring North
Woolwich Gardens as an open space for the East of
London. A resolution in favour of the object in view
was, on the motion of Sir R. Fowler, M.P., seconded by
the Bishop of St. Albans, adopted, and the names of
several gentlemen, including that of the Lord Mayor,
were added to the committee.

At a meeting-- of the Royal Colonial Institute in
London, on Tuesday night, Mr. T. Henniker Heaton,
M.P., read a paper in advocacy of a penny ocean
postage between this country and Australia, and also
of the acquirement by the Imperial and Colonial
Governments of the telegraph service of the Empire,
with a view to cheaper telegraphic communication.
The Rev. Dr. Henry O'Callaghan, the new Roman
Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, was
formally enthroned on Tuesday in St. Mary's Cathedral,
Newcastle-on-Tyne. The ceremony was witnessed by
a very large oongregation.
The warehouses of Mr. J. W. Cook, Orchard Wharf,
Blackwall, London, were the scene of a serious out-
break of fire on Tuesday afternoon. A building used
as stores was, with the contents, severely damaged,
the roof destroyed, and the premises partly fell down.
Other portions of the warehouses attacked also received
considerable damage.
James White, a shoemaker, of Eden-place, Pond-
place, Chelsea, was again brought up at the Westminster
Police-court on Tuesday, charged with the wilful
murder of his wife. A coroner's jury had, since the
previous hearing, found a verdict of " Murder" against
the accused, who was further remanded.
Sydney and Melbourne correspondents telegraph that
in the cricket matches which were concluded. on Tues-
day, Mr. Vernon's English team defeated Victoria, at
Melbourne, by 282 runs, whilst Shaw and Shrewsbury's
eleven beat Combined Australia at Sydney by 158 runs.
Playing for Mr. Vernon's team Mr. Walter Read, the
Surrey amateur, scored 142 not out in the second
innings, and Mr. Stoddart contributed 75. Arthur
Shrewsbury, the celebrated Notts bat, played a fine
innings of 206 in the match against Combined Aus-
tralia, for whom Jones, who has scored so well in
England, hit up 134 not out. Shrewsbury's many admirers
here will regret to learn that he remains in Australia
over the summer.

Arrangements have been made for Lord Randolph
Churchill to visit Birmingham on the 9th of April. He
will open the new premises of the Edgba,ston Conserva-
tive Club, will dine with the members of the Birming-
ham Conservative Club, and in the evening will address
a public meeting:in the Town Hall.
The Easter Recess will probably extend from Tues-
day, the 27th inst., to Thursday, the sth of April.
We understand that the New Post Office Regulations
with reference to annuities and investments in Govern-
ment Stock will, if possible, be brought into operation
on May 1.
At the Southwark Police-court on Monday two men,
named Chandler and Woodford, were charged with re-
ceiving a large quantity of jewellery and other property,
the proceeds of burglaries in various parts of London.
Some detectives went to a coffee-house kept by one of the
men, and there found stolen property to the value of
DOO, besides duplicates relating to other plunder. The
prisoners were remanded, and bail was refused.
Judgment was on Monday given in the Court of
Appeal in the litigation between the Metropolitan and
District Railway Companies. • Mr. Justice North had
decided that the Metropolitan Company were bound to
establish through booking to any station by either the
east or west route, and this decision was affirmed. Mr.
Justice Kekewich had held that the District Company
were not entitled to fix the fares from Mark-lane to
South Kensington, nor to authorise the issue of through
tickets. This judgment was reversed by their lord-
ships, who thus decided both actions in favour of the
District Company.
It is stated that in the proceedings in connection
with the libel action brought by Sir George Chetwyna
against the Earl of Durham, and which have not yet
proceeded beyond the usual preliminary stage, Sir
Henry James has been retained on behalf of the plain-
tiff, assisted by Mr. Collard, Q.C. ; whila the Earl of
Durham will be represented by Sir Charles Russell,
with whom will be found Mr. Charles Matthews, Q.C.,
Mr. Lockwood, Q.C. The Hon. Alfred Lyttelton has
been retained as counsel for Charles Wood, the famous
jockey, in his actions against Lord Durham and the
Licensed Victuallers' Gazette.

During the last month the officers of the Fish-
mongers' Company of the City of London seized at
and near Billingsgate Market the unprecedentedly
small quantity of seven tons of fish as unfit for human
food. Of this four tons were wet fish, and three tons
shell fish. All of it arrived by land. The total weight
of fish delivered in February was 11,566 tons, of which
7924 tons came by land, and 3642 tons by water. The
fish seized included cat fish, coal fish, cockles, cod,
crawfish, herrings, mussels, oysters, periwinkles,
salmon, shrimps, skate, trout, whitebait, and whiting.
At Shadwell market, out of a delivery of 1089 tons
delivery this month, only 7cwt. were seized.
A. Rome telegram announces that the Pope is much
better, and has been able to transact business with the
Pontifical Secretary of State.
According to a telegram which has reached Brussels
from Aden, the report was current at the latter place
that the Soudanese had burned Suakim and killed the
Governor.

The fifteenth annual meeting of the St. Pancras
Local Option Union has been held, Mr. H. L. W.
Lawson, M.P.' presiding. A resolution stating that no
reform of the local government system would be satis-
factory which did not give the people of each district
the power of preventing the issue of all licenses, what-
ever the future licensing authority might be, and de-
precating the proposal of compensation to present
license-holders, was spoken to by Sir Wilfred Lawson,
M.P., and adopted.
About four o'clock on Monday afternoon Sir Samuel
Wilson, M.P., drove up to the members' entrance of
the House of Commons in a hansom cab, when the horse
became restive, kicked and got his leg over the splash-
board, when it brake through the glass of the cab and
remained fixed. Sir Samuel was in peril for some few
seconds, but ultimately got out unhurt. The horse was
at length extricated and was little the worse.
At Walsall, on Monday, Thomas Simmons, formerly
the owner of much colliery property, but now a work-
ing miner, was charged with attempting to murder his
son Joseph, a young man. On Saturday last it was
stated that the prisoner, by his throats drove his entire
family from home; but complainant returned on
Sunday night, when, it is alleged, his father discharged
a double-barrelled gun at him. Simmons was re-
manded.

Between 200 and 300 miners employed at the Rowley
Hall Colliery, Rowley, Staffordshire, turned out on
strike on Monday, in consequence of the employers
posting a notice stipulating that the men will be re-
quired to pay for damage caused to the pit by men
absenting themselves from their work.
On Monday Mr. A. Braxton Hicks, barrister-at-law
and coroner for the Kingston division of Surrey, was
appointed deputy coroner for the City of London and
borough of Southwark.
At Manchester, on Monday, a German Jew, named
Felix Rosenbaum, contortionist, was brought up for
cruelty to a child, aged four years. The landlady of
the house where the prisoner lived complained to. the
police of his treatment of the child. The police surgeon
found the little one's back, legs, and arms one mass of
bruises, caused by being beaten with the back of a hair-
brush. The prisoner said he had the child from a
woman at Grimsby "to teach the profession of bender."
He was taught himself in the same way. The prisoner
was remanded.

An inquest was held at Armley Gaol, Leeds, on Mon-
day, respecting the murder of a prisoner named John
Edward Taylor, aged 40, by a fellow-prisoner named
William Sissons, who was undergoing a term of
imprisonment for shooting a man at Sherburn, and
who suffered from epileptic fits. The jury returned a
verdict of "Wilful murder against Sissons."
At Millom, about two o'clock on Monday morning,
John Fackey, 31 years of age, labourer, of Millom,
attempted to murder his wife, Harriet Mary, by cutting
her throat with a table-knife, at John-street, Millom,
and afterwards he cut his own throat. A doctor dressed
the wounds, which are not considered dangerous. The
doctor thinks that Fackey is out of his mind. He had
suffered from consumption, had been in Bootle Work-
house for six months, and only returned home on the
Saturday.
During the last few months several important "finds"
of inscriptions have been made in Babylonia by native
explorers; several thousand inscriptions have been dis-
covered in the neighbourhood of Babylon. In view
therefore of the rapidly increasing interest in the his-
tory and civilisation of this ancient empire, Mr. W. St.
Chad Boscawen, F.R. Hist. Soc., will commence a new
course of lectures at the British Museum on "The Art,
Literature, and Civilisation of Chaldea," concluding
with a special lecture on the influence of this civilisation
on surrounding lands.
On Monday evening the body of Lieutenant Monta-
naro, of the 20th (Cheshire) Regimental Depot at
Castle, was recovered a short distance from
where his skiff overturned the previous evening on the
Dee. The face is much disfigure, one hand was held
erect over his head, and to ;lagers tightly clenched,
leading to the conclusion that death resulted fro .
cramp.