The Potteries Examiner : — 1878-03-09 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

GLEANINGS.  A fire a day or tao a,to at Bordeaux destroyed three s!reets. Two men And several horses perished in the flames.  kl.llle. Sar.th Bernh irdt, the famous French actress, ;s obliged to retire from the stage for a while, from congestion of the lungs. Miss Stride, of the 'Tome for Fallen Women, passed her public examination in the London Coutt of Bankrupty, on Wednesday. The assets were ttii.  Mr. Lawrence Macdonald, sculptor, well known far his portraits sad busts of English peers of more than one generation, died at Rome, on Tuesday, of congestion of the lungs. He was more than 80 years old. Mr. Butt, M.P., is expected to resume his Parliamentary duties the week after next, and tutu take the chair at the Home Rule dinner in celebration of St. Patrick's Day on the 18th inst., at the Weatminster Palace Hotel.  The Town Hall and Municipal Buildings at Renfrew were destroyed by fire en Wednesday. The buildings were erected six years since at a cost of 4120,000. which is not fully covered by insurance.  John Castle, a man over eighty years of age, has committed suicide at DA. It appears that during the lot few weeks deceased had been troubled in his mind, and had stated that he feared he should not go to heaven, and that he had had dreadful dreams, and had been bewitched. At Dublin, on Tuesday, a fire broke out at Power's Distillery. Two large vats of whisky were destroyed, and the large building completely gutted. Au excise °Meer named Mackenzie, in order to escape the flames, jumped from the top storey window, and sustained such severe injuries that little hope is entertained of hi. recovery.  Frank Why, bailiff, vras committed for trial at Manchester City Police Court, on Tuesday. on the charge of having stolen a large quantity of furniniture from several persons. The prisoner, it was alleged, had gone to different houses and illegally seia.,l furniture in payment of debts, aftetwards using the same for his own purposes.  William John Todd, Charlton Todd, and John Thomas Todd, three brothers, farmers at Portgate, near Corbridge, were committed for trial by the Ilexliatn magistrates, on Tuesday, on the charge of killing Robert dons, a labourer, in their employment, on the Dith ult. Was. John Todd is a married man, and his two brothers are single.  John Muff, aged 45, of Beatrice-street, Bradford, was stirring the fire in his own house, on Tuesday, when he slipped and fell forward against the bars of the grate. He screamed out loudly, assistance arrived, and he was pulled away and placed on the Learthrug, fearfully burned. A medical man was sent for, but when be came the unfortunate man was dead.  The Duke of Sutherland. who is the largest landholder in the United Kingdom, has entered proceedings in the Scotch Courts for the purpose of disentailing his estate of more than a million acres in Setherlandshire. Similar proceedings have been commenced on behalf of the Duchess (Countess of Cromartie), who possesses in her own right extensive property in Bosashire. " At a Liberal meeting at Birkenhead, on Tuesday night, Mr. Thomas H. Jackson expressed his satisfaction that the Turks had been practically driven out of Europe. All, he said, must profit by the change, for the land, which had hitherto been to a large extent uneultivated, was one af the most fertile in the world, and could, under new and better conditions, grow grain enough to supply the whole of England. Lord Carnarvon received on Wednesday from a deputation of merchants and others an address expressive of gratitude for the services rendered by his lordship to the colonies, and more particularly to South Africa. The noble lord, in reply. said it was a matter of great personal regret to him to be obliged to retire from office in the midst of much uncompleted work. A Merthyr correspondent repotis a mysterious affab. which has just ecme to light at the vilage of Cefn, near that town. A labourer returning from work on Monday evening found on the bank of the river Taff the body of a man whose bead was nearly severed. Near the body was a broken billhook. It 's J n'Wful whether the injurbe were self-inflicted or not. The body has not been indentified.  According to a telegram from flume. Leo