The Birkenhead News and Wirral General Advertiser. — 1907-04-27 (Birkenhead, Merseyside, England)

PASSING WEEK.  In the House of Lords on Monday the Marquees of Lansdowne, the Leader of the Oppoeition, asked whether the Government were able to give the House any information as to the names of the delegates who would represent this country at the Hague Conference. Lord Fitzmanrice, UnderSecretary for Foreign Affairs, stated that the following four gentlemen had been selected:--Sir Edward Fry, Sir Ernest Batow, Lord Haley, and Sir Henry Howard (British Minister at the Hague).  What is known SI the Croydon stoutpoisoning mystery had a sensational development on Monday, when Richard Brinkley, a Fulham carpenter, was remanded on a charge of mard•ring Mr. and Mrs. Beck at Churchill-road, Croydon, *a Saturday night, by administaring a noxious drug or poison. • • • •  The death ocourred on Monday, in Lon. don, of him Honour Judie Addincin, S.C., ea.  Judge of Southwark County Court, and at one time a distinguished member ot the Northern Circuit. He appeared as•leading counsel for the prosecution in the Maybrick • • • •  Recruits who joined the regular British Army during the twelve months ended September last totalled 36,410, an increase of 1,039 compared with the previous year. Recruits for the militia numbered 28,732, a decrease of 1,209. There is now an improvement in Lumbers and in the stamp of recruits. _ _  S • • •  At Grimsby on Tuesday a coloured man, calling himself Prince Makaroo, was sentenced to thv,e months' imprisonment for having attempfed to obtain money by false pretenees from the Mayor. It was stated that prisoner had been an engineer on a trawler, where he was known by the name of Brown, and also that he had impersonated Sergeant Gordon, V.C., and had obtained several sums of money.  A return of births. deaths, and marriages registered in England and Wales during the year 1906, which was issued last evening, furnishes some interesting statistics. The births during the year numbered 934.391, of which 476,747 were males. Deaths totalled 530,715, 273,972 being males and 256,743 females. The marriages registered numbered 269, 734. The total population as , enumerated on April 1, 1901, was 32,527,843, and this number was increased to 34,547,016 in the estimated total to the middle of 1906. In Lancashire, the births totalled 131,070, and the deaths 83,025, the number of males being 66,754 and 42,628 respectively. The marriages registered during the year were , 39,553. while the population of 4,437.518 in 1901, increased to 4,71L024 in the middle of 1906. Cheshire was responsible for 21.946 births and 12,670 deaths, the males being 11.268 and 6.497. The marriages numbered 6,154. The population of Cheshire in 1901 was 774,638, and in 1906 823,781.  The Color.ial Premiere were entertained at luncheon in Westminster Hall, London. on Wednesday, and Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman. in his speech from the chair, said the relationship of the colonies and the mother country was a family relationship. All the races of the Empire derived their national life from independent representative government. Mr. Balfour, in a graceful speech, associated himself with the welcome of the Prime Minister. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in his response, said their ambition was to imitate the Mother of Parliaments, and they would return to their own lands impressed with the sense of Imperial unity, coupled with and based upon local autonomy.  On Wednesday night a lion-trainer named Mra. Lasoelles, an English woman, entered the cage of a surly lion in view of the audience at Oxford, Pennsylvania, and almost immediately the lion attacked her. Mrs. bowelles fired a revolver in the lion'd face, but the weapon jammed, and the beast cut off her retreat from the cage. Eventually the attendants subdued the animal with the aid of hot irons, but not before Mrs. Laecelles's arms were nearly torn off and other injuries had been inflicted. The spectators fled panic-stricken.  The word '`lchabod" was found inscribed thirty feet from the ground on the front of the City Temple on Thureday.  Pedlar Palmer, the pugilist, was charged with the murder of a man in a race train between Epsom and Purley, and remanded. The victim of the tragedy has been identified.