Widnes Examiner. — 1886-09-18 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

TOUCH AND GO." At Birmingham, Wm. Nokes, a captain of the Salvation Army, has been deserting his wife and family in order, as he put it, to " serve the Lord." The magistrates thought he would be better employed in serving a month in gaol; it is the best place for sanctimonious vagabonds.  There has been another drowning case in the canal near Sankey Bridges—the third in three weeks. "One woe doth tread upon another's heel, so fast they follow." The body of the last victim—that of a joiner named George Unsworth—has been removed to the Black Horse Inn, where no less than four inquests have been held within four weeks.  More records of violence and brutality; at S. Helens a young man brought before the Bench for kicking a man whilst he is down, and thereby cutting his lip through; at Earlestown another young man fighting with his father, and following this up by throwing a brick which strikes a woman, who is thereby injured and dies within a week!  It is too much to expect that the brute shall be eradicated from society ; but surely by taking him in hand early he can be kept better under control. Why should not the schoolmaster operate on him before he is in his teens ? If violence of all kinds, and especially kicking, were put dawn in the boy there would be less of it in the man.  Sir W. Cunliffe Brooks, M.P., who has paired for the remainder of the session with Mr. Channing, has been entertaining Lord Cranbrook in Scotland. His lordship, on leaving Balmoral, where he had been acting as minister in attendance on the Queen, went on a visit to Sir William at Glen-Tana, near Aboyne Castle. Lord Cranbrook has this week, however, returned to London.  A contemporary says :--" At the Accrington Police Court, on Wednesday, several gentlemen concerned in a bazaar held in the Town Hall in aid of the Church Conservative Club, were summoned for permitting lotteries at the bazaar. The Bench deferred their decision for a fortnight." This is as it should be; it is time that " gentlemen" were made to feel that the law may apply to them as well as to publicans and other sinners.  A special committee at St. Helens has reported in favour of a Branch Free Library for that portion of the borough known as East Sutton. From certain figures that were taken into consideration, there is reason to believe that the increased facilities for obtaining books would treble the number of readers. This is a point which the Warrington Library Committee would do well to consider; they have not yet come to the conclusion that one Free Lending Library, is necessary in the town—to say nothing of two. Poor Warrington I  Lord Randolph Churchill is redeeming one of his pledges in overhauling the Departments. Speaking at Blackpool some two years ago, he said :—" The first and most vital business of a natinn is finance ;" and then he added, "I should like to turn the members of the House of Commons loose into our public departments on a voyage of discovery." He has got his opportunity as Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, and he is having his way; he has let the members loose "on a voyage of discovery."  It is a fitting thing that Mr. Peter Rylands has been appointed a member of the Committee of inquiry into the national expenditure and the working of the various departments of the public service. He has often fought the battle of economy when there were few to. stand beside him; and it is to be hoped he will be the means, under improved arrangements, of helping to check extravagance in high places. If Governments had less money to spend, there would be less mischief done and there would be a reduction of the income tar.  It transpired at an inquest in Liverpool, on the body of a farmer who had been drowned in a pit, that about a dozen people had seen the body without making an effort to remove it. The impression was that it would be illegal to touch it until seen by a policeman. The same ignorance, or fear, has been shown in cases of suicide by hanging. Is it not time that schoolmasters labouring amongst the bucolics dealt with matters of this kind. Restoration is out of the question where a victim is left lying in a pit for three hours after he is first seen.