The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1884-11-08 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.  The guarantee fund for the next season of the London Philarmonic Society reaches over £l6OO. A firm of music publishers have paid £40,000 for Gounod's new oratorio " Mors et Vita."  -.„... . "Lea Yule de John Dull" (Max 0' Rell) has reached a circulation of So,l'oo copies. The Cobden Club about to issue an edition of Sir Thomas Brassey's book "Work and Wages." The Industrial and Archmological Exhibition at Wolverhampton, which was opened on May 30, and has just closed, has been visited by about 3-60,000 persons, and the total receipts amount to £12,000. Professor Baron Nordensjold is about to vary his Arctic experiences by an attempt to reach the South Pole. What is Prince Bismarck's favourite beverage—beer or wine? was lately the subject of a wager between two Prussians living at Warsaw, who actually applied to the Chancellor himself to settle the bet. The Prince's verdict left them as wise as they were before, for his secre. tary replied, "His Highness directs me to inform you that you are both in the right, inasmuch as he is equally fond of good wine and good beer, and, with the exception of his sick days, partakes of one as well as the other."  _ Notices have been served on a number of the Marquis of Waterford's tenantry at Ballyknockan, Ballynastockan, Lug,naskae, and Kyle to leave the premises they now occupy on Nov. 1,1885. The notices, which were served on the 30th ult., will affect about 500 persons. There is considerable excitement in the locality. Only a.few of the tenants are in arrear. In the Senate House, Cambridge, on Saturday, the Rev. Dr. Ferrers, Master of Caius, the present ViceChancellor, was re-elected without opposition to serve the office for the year commencing in January next. The Le Bas prize, given for the best English essay on a subject of general literature connected with India, has been adjudged to Arthur Llewelyn Davis, Trinity, subject, " Usuary in India; with special reference to the Rvots of the Deccan." The River Dee Company propose, in the next session of Parliament, to promote a bill severing their estate from their obligations respecting the navigation of the river from which they received their lands. They intend to hand over the Dee to a Conservancy Board, with powers to deepen the river so as to give an available depth of 201 t., with a dock at Chester where vessels will be able to float at all conditions of the tide. A Parliamentary return issued on Saturday shows that since the commencement of the Merchant Shipping Act of 563 ships reported as defective nine were found safe and 544 unsafe, while in three cases the survey is pending, and in six the vessel was improperly detained. Of 341 reported as overladen, only five were found safe, and 336 unsafe. The gains of the Conservative party at the recent I German elections prove to be even larger than was at first reported. There are ninety-seven second ballots to be held. Six persons have been killed and several wounde d at a palitical riot in the State of Louisiana. The Earl of Dufferin was entertained on Saturday evening to a banquet by the Northbrook Indian Club, given in the Westminster Town Hall, where Sir Barrow Ellis presided. The earl leaves on the 13th to assume the Viceroyalty of India.  The higher education of Hindoo women is steadily gaining ground in India, notwithstanding native prejudices. Thus a high school for girls has been opened 1 at Poona, and already claims some sixty pupils, several of whom are young wives, while the native community show great interest in the movement. The Bombay Presidency, indeed, is decidedly ahead of the other Provinces in this respect, but matters are greatly improving in Madras, where a much larger percentage of girls now attend school than, in previous years. A great increase is also noticeable arAong the Mahometan female pupils. The Gloucestershire Chamber of Agriculture on Saturday passed a resolution urging the Central Chamber to press the Legislature to grant a Royal Commission to inquire into the agricultural and commercial depression, especially as regards foreigQ restrictive tariffs.  The death is announced at New York of Mr. Fau formerly United States Minister to France. The death was announced in New York on Sunday of the widow of Admiral Farragut. M. Vaucorbeil, director of the Theatre National de l'Opera, died in Paris on Sunday morning. Mr. Charles E. H. Bowen, Scots Guards, was found dead in his bed at his lodgings in St. James's-street, London, early on Saturday morning. The 44 gentleman had evidently committed suicide. He entered the regiment in July, 1881. fortunate The Orkney white fishing was fairly successful last. week. The trawlers from Kirkwall were out twice, and landed catches of from 4cwt. to 18cwt. of plaice on both occasions. Owing to the stormy weather the haddock fishing at Seapa has been irregularly prosescouted, but on Sunday the boats landed from 2owt. to 3cwt. each. The price of white fish has ranged from 7s. to 10s. per cwt. The lobster fishing at Stronsay has made a good commencement. The steamer Roseville, which was beached at CloCh, on the Clyde, on the 12th ult., after colliding with and sinking the steamer Europa, was successfully floated late on Saturday night and taken to Greenock. At Hull, on Saturday, Richard Pexton, corporation 2oal inspector, Christopher Firby, retired, and James Oliver, accountant, were committed to the assizes on the charge of conspiring to defraud depositors of their savings in the Hull Rechabite Loan Society, which became insolvent in 1881. The deficiency amounts to about £12.000.  a—gaol