Middlesbrough & Stockton Gazette and General Advertiser. — 1876-05-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

NOTES OF THE WEEK.  Tas Countess of Essex died on Friday morning.  -CsrreiN BARNES, of the Locksley Hall, has been liberated.  --THE navigation of the Neva will be open in a few days, the ice having broken up and drifted to the Baltic.  _— ALL the officers of the barque Caswell of Swansea have been murdered by the mutinous crew of the vessel.  --COUNT ARNIM is to be tried at Potsdam on Thursday for high treason. The proceedings will be strictly private.  PRESIDENT GRANT has declined to give any account to Congress of his proceedings during his absence from Washington.  A DISPUTE has arisen between the crew of Barracouta and natives of Samoa, in the Pacific Ocean. No details are given, bWi; it is stattd that loss of life has occurred.  Tull British gunboat Bittern and the Greek man-of-War Salamies have sailed for Salonica. The murder of the French and German Ambassador has aroused the greatest indignation.  ON Friday, the English Presbyterian Synod adjourned till the 13th June, on which day it is expected the union between the English and Presbyterian Churches will be consummated.  TnE anhual meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales was held in London on Monday. In the forty-sixth annual report the proposal to provide separate places of burial for Nonconformists was condemned in the most severe and unqualified terms. Mr Henry Richards, M.P., was elected chairman of the Union fur the next year.  MR SATOJEL MORLEY, to whom the Cathiff I building trade dispute was referred as arbitrator, has refused to grant the demand for wages asked for by tLe men, but recommends employers to provide better shelter for the men during the wiuter.—The Barnsley masons have resumed work at the advance asked for, --3 s per week.  A MAJORITY of the South Yorkshire Miners have voted for resuming work at a reduction of 7i per cent. Mr Macdonald and Mr Burt, M.P., advised the men to resume work at a reduction of 10 per cent. The loss in wages alone to the districts affected by the strike is £50,000 per week, 30,000 hands being idle.  ON FRIDAY, at the Wakefield Police Curt, a commercial traveller was fined 15s for breaking a railway carriage window on the Midland Railway between Leeds and Sheffield. He was also fined 12s Gd, and ordered to pay £2 for done damages to the door and window of another carriage into which he had been removed by the guard after breaking the first window. The magistrates asked the guard why he had allowed a man so drunk .as he represented the prisoner to be to enter the train to the annoyance of the passengers.  A SINGULAR case of suicide was investigated by the surrey coroner on Monday. Mr J. T. Howes, a gentleman of independent means, living apart from his wife in Camberwell Newroad, shot himself on Friday morning. From the evidence of his cousin, Howes must have lived a very loose and immoral life. The reason assigned by his acquaintances for committing suicide was a dread of being apprehended on a charge of forgery. Mr Joseph Howes, cousin of de• ceased, deposed that he had threatened to take proceedings against him for registering an illegitimate child as legitimate. The mother of the child was not his wife. He kept a Miss Pim as his mistress, and another young lady of independent means, a Miss Nevill, also lived in the house, besides a housekeeper. In 1840 deceased forged an acceptance for £l2O, and got witness (his cousin) to cash it. He then gave information against him, and wanes had to undergo two years' imprisonment for the crime committed by deceased. The jury returned a verdict that Hughes committed suicide whilst in an unsound state of mind.  lA;ff.,sl':4•;•te  COMMODORE HEWITT, in command at Cape Coast Castle, has addressed a letter to the Vtlydah merchants, acquainting them with the demand made upon the King of Dahomey, and warning them to be prepared for any circumstances that might arise. The King, through Mr C. E. Stafford, sent a reply, stating that when the Commodore's letter was received e the King) was away at war. From the commencement of the Kingdom of Lahomey to his father's and his own reign no such fine as that enmanded had ever been paid, and the King vi not pay it until he has seen the Commodore and judged whether the amount is correct. The King believes the palaver to come from the Commodore, and not from the Queen of England; and, in conclusion, the King says he would like the Commodore to " stop all war palaver, and be a merchant ; to turn his vessels into sailing ships, and load them with rum, cloth, and other merchandise; come to trade with him." There appears to be a little difficulty in ascertaining if this is the real purport of the King's reply, or if it was that sent on the previous occasion telling the Commodore that if he liked to go and get his fine the King would pay it in bullets and powder. It is becoming apparent that recourse will be made to bullets and powder to settle the dispute, and then the King will be called on to pay a still heavier fine.  Eir-Qneen Isabella is at length about to leave Paris for Spain. She will not, however, go to Madrid at present, but only to SanlSebastian, where she has purchased a villa. The Duke and Duchess de Joinville proceeded to Windsor Comae on Tuesday afternoon for the purpose of paying a visit to Her Majesty. The illustrious visitors remained half-an-hour. The Commander-in-Chid has notified that it 5s contrary to the rides of the service ' for soldiers to take off their caps and cheer tne Queen, and that the proper way to respect Her Majesty is to salute in the usual military fashion. Tam Finn Cmartmem