Widnes Examiner. — 1883-12-29 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

BRAD-LAUGH in the cause of CLARKE V BRADLAUGH; the outrage in St. Paul's Cathedral, .for which a man named CAmproN was fined Ls, with the alternative of a month's imprisonwent; the distribution of honours to the troops uho served in the Egyptian campaign; the unveiling of the BEACONSFIELD statue in Westminster by Sir S. NORTHCOTE ; the establishment of a new decoration for nurses, to be known as the Royal Red Cross; the opening of the International Fisheries Exhibition, one of the most successful schemes of the kind ever carried out; the barbarous proposal to exhume the remains Of SHAKESPEARE in order to ascertain the shape of the Poet's skull ; the establishment of the parcels post, which has proved to be of great service; the fire in a private lunatic asylum at Southwell Park, in which the doctor perished in attempting to save some of the patients; the establishment of a Land Nationalisation Society; the cruise of Mr. GLADSTONE in company with the poet TENNYSON in the Pembroke Castle, and of Sir S. NORTHCOTE in the Pandora; and what was called the " bombardment " of Woolwich by an accidental explosion of rockets. In literary circles more especially surprise has been generally expressed at the POET LAUREATE accepting a Peerage, which HER MAJESTY has just expressed her desire to confer upon him The year is also memorable in consequence of the great Reform demonstration at Newcastle, at which so 000 persons attended; the Reform conference at Leeds; the proposal toteduce wages in the cotton trade: and the shocking accident at the Victoria Hall, Sunderland, by which 120 childreh who attended a magical and ventriloquial entertainment there were killed. We ought not to omit to chronicle the death of MARWOOD, the executioner, and the fact that the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex received something like r .zoo applications by telegrams and otherwise for A_lARwoD's place. Irish events have again attracted a considerable amount of attention during the year. On the 2nd January Mr. BIGGAR was committed for trial for using inflammatory language calculated to disturb the peace, but the prosecution was afterwards dropped. In the same month Messrs. HEALY, DAVITT, and QUINN were sent to prison for six months for violent speeches. Subsequently Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIEN, editor of United Ireland, was committed for trial for publishing a seditious libel in his journal; and two days afterwards he was elected member for Mallow by a majority of 72 votes over MT. NAISH, the Government candidate. At a later period of the year the :Kerry Sentinel was seized, in consequence of printing a seditious handbill. The trial of the Invincibles, with its horrible details of the hair-breadth escapes of Mr. FoRsTER, and the way in which the murders of Lord FREDERICK CAVENDISH and Mr. BURKE were planned. it is unnecessaryto dwell upon. Sufficient it is that the Invincibles, with their "inner circle" of sworn assassins, have been found out and made to pay the penalty of their cowardly crimes with their lives There is to us but one regret, and that is that so many of the informers should have escaped the gallows. One, indeed the most infamous of the lot,