The Dewsbury Chronicle, and West Riding Advertiser. — 1873-02-15 (Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England)

GENERAL.  A panic through the present high price of coal seems imminent. There are expectations that coal will be advanced in London to 60s. per ton within the next few days, while in Leicester it has just undergone an increase of 3s per ton. As we have already. stated in these columns, the price of steam coals has recently been advanced in Huddersfield, and in and about Sheffield the poorer people have undergone dreadful sufferings during the last few days—while the cold has been so intense—through the scarcity of coal. The steam engine and wheel proprietors of Sheffield have just announced their intention, in consequence of the exhorbitant price of coal, to increase the rents of their tenants by 25 per cent. How far the rumoured Coal Consuming Association—which has been started for the purpose of purchasing collieries in order to obtain coal at moderate prices—will affect the presont dearth it is impossible to say. It is pleasing to notice a fair prospect of a termination to the South Wales strike. The furnaces at Mr. Brogden's works at Llynvi and Maesteg are being rekindled, the ironworkers having agreed to resume work at the reduction. The Blaina colliers have joined those of Beaufort and Nantyglo in adopting the double shift. Mr. Brogden has agreed to arrange another conference of employers and workmen, at which an amicable settlement it is confidently expected will be arrived at.  _ The Observer has very good authority for stating that there is no foundation for the report of the Irish Solicitor-Generalship being about to become vacant. About eleven o'clock on Saturday forenoon the express train leaving Edinburgh for London at 10-20 a.m was run into by an ordinary passenger train near Dunbar, but beyond a few scratches received by passengers and an engine-driver, there was no further injury to those travelling by either of the trains. A fire broke out on Saturday morning in the cotton mill belonging to Mr. Robert Fitton, near Oldham. The damage is estimated at £12,000. A hundred persons will be thrown out of employment. Early on Tuesday morning two platelayers were killed at Leyland, near Preston, on the London and North Western Railway, by a passing  engine. The Hon. Auberon Herbert has announced his intention not to stand for N ottingham.at the next  general election. He does not intend, however, to withdraw altogether from politics. On Wednesday another important rise in the price of coal took place in Sheffield, the necessary notices having been posted on Tuesday, while the price of the precious mineral underwent an advance of 23. per ton in London on Monday. The Daily Telegraph says the result of the present position of the coal market will be the speedy introduction of coal-cutting machinery, which ere long will supersede manual labour, and a correspondent writing on the same subject in a Manche3ter contemporary suggests the advisability of putting a heavy duty on all coals exported from this country. On Wednesday, in the slander case of Clayton v. Jones, the jury, after an hour and a half's deliberation, were discharged without a verdict. On Thursday, a brutal fellow named Austin Mealy was remanded at the Liverpool Pelice-court, for having made a desperate attempt to murder his wife on the previous evening. The accused, it seems, repeatedly stabbed his wife in the throat, with the intention to murder her, and when a lodger named Joyce interposed, the prisoner used the knife to him. The woman is lying in a most critical condition in the Liverpool Hospital, her life being despaired of.