The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1884-06-21 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

GOB., late Speaker of the House of Commons. The title by which he will le elev ited to the Peerage will be that of Viscount Hamixlen, of Glynde, in the county of Sussex. A Parliamentary return of loans Rinctioned under to the Irish Land Act from the 21st of December, 1881, the 31st of January, 1884, shows that 76.150 applications have been found inatlmissable and 322,515 have boon recommended, while 108,525 are at present being considered. The amount actually advanced is about £127,000. A labourer named William Ashton, of Ambergate, who was in custody at the Belper lock-lip, committed suicide by hanging himself with his scarf during Saturday night. He was waiting his trial on a charge of stealing wine from the White Horse Hotel, Ambergate. The Printers' Pension Corporation Council have the gratification of announcing that John Saunders Gilhat, Esq., Governor of the Bank of England, has consented to preside at the anniversary festival of this Corporation for 1884. At a recent sitting of the Dominion House of Commons at Ottawa, Sir S. L. Tilley, Minister of Finance, stated that while the credit and financial condition of Canada was never better, the state of trade was unsatisfactory, owing to the prevailing depression, which he attributed to the decline in the exports of lumber, and to over importation. From Philadelphia it is reported that the loss by the recent fire at Powers and Weightman's works is estimated to exceed $1,000,000. The property destroyed consisted largely of Peruvian barks and their products. The firm were extensive manufacturers of quinine; and a, large number of workmen must lase employment. Last week was another quiet one with respect to actual shipwrecks, the number reported being 30, or about the sar_e as the previous week, against 44 at this time last year. Though the weather in the Atlantic particularly was very bad, most vessels escaped with whole hulls, only four having been abandoned at sea. British wrecks numbered 17, of which six were steamers. Total lives lost 115, five vessels being lost with all hands. The aggregate wrecks since Ist January, 1884, are now 401, against 474 last year. A shocking accident happened to an Artilleryman during the march of the troops from Barham Downs to Dover, after a review at the former place. One of the drivers fell off a gun carriage while the horses were in full trot. He was run over, and had both legs broken below the thighs. Lord Randolph Churchill has collected some interesting statistics showing the various periods which the House of Commons has occupied at stages of successive Reform Bills, which will be made use of during the coming debate. It is stated that 46,000 inhabitants of Somersetshire have declared in favour of the Sunday closing of publis houses, and petitions are still being signed. An explosion recently occurred at a powder mill near Omaha, by which four boys were blown to atoms. From an official paper issued by the Government of Bombay it appears that a mysterious epidemic exhibits itself from time to time among cats in India. It is stated that between the Ist and the 25th of July, 1881, 750 cats died at Ahmednagar ; and in 1883, 125 cats died in Poona, the chief symptom being vomiting. A letter from Constantinople states that the ball lately held in that city on behalf of the Armenian Schools yielded a sum of £