magnificent donation "-the second large gift made by Lord Mount Stephen to his fund. 4. The Mansion House Fund for the Unemployed was stated to amount to over 39,000l. Publication of a memorandum by the Committee on Wage-Earning Children, containing resolutions adopted at a conference to which they invited Members of Parliament, members of local authorities, and representatives of societies interested in children and in the administration of justice. It strongly recommended legislation requiring the provision of places for the trial of children separate and apart from courts for adult cases, and meanwhile urged magistrates to provide such separate courts, so far as the present law allowed. 5. A Special Army Order was issued dealing with the reorganisation of military commands and staff in the United Kingdom (see English History, Chap. I.). 6. There was published in England an important letter from Prince Troubetskoi, President of the Moscow Zemstvo, to Prince SviatopolkMirski, Minister of the Interior, stating that the writer had personally informed the Tsar that what was now taking place in Russia was not a simple disturbance, but a revolution, which, however, his Majesty could avert. But that could only be done "by placing confidence in the nation and in the forces which the existing estates of the realm furnish," and which, if confided in, would support the Autocracy. 7. Mr. J. F. Cheetham (L.) was returned for the Stalybridge Division, vacant by the succession to the peerage of the Hon. M. White-Ridley (C.). Four thousand and twenty-nine votes were recorded for Mr. Cheetham, against 3,078 given to Mr. J. Travis-Clegg (C.)—a gain to the Liberals. A severe gale blew round the British coast. The North Promenade Pier at Scarborough was washed away. Two vessels were also sunk off Holyhead. Under Rugby Union Football rules, Kent, the champion county, beat the Rest of England by two goals and two tries. The Lord Chancellor (Lord Halsbury) delivered his presidential address at the general meeting of the Classical Association of England and Wales. He urged the importance of methods of teaching which would awaken more of a human interest in classical studies. 10. An enormous slice of cliff, estimated at 250,000 tons, fell into the sea at St. Margaret's Bay, near Dover. - A letter was published from Mr. Lyttelton, Secretary for the Colonies, to the Right Hon. Charles Booth, expressing satisfaction that the latter proposed to send for gratuitous, or at any rate unremunerative, exhibition in the Colonies Mr. Holman Hunt's fine reproduction of his great picture, "The Light of the World," and afterwards to give it to the nation. 11. The German Emperor telegraphed to Generals Stössel and Nogi, conferring on them the Order "Pour le Mérite," in recognition of the bravery shown by them at Port Arthur. 11. Mr. Chamberlain addressed a large meeting at Preston in continuance of his fiscal campaign. He dealt specially with the condition of the cotton trade, and advocated increasing our trade with foreign countries by compelling a revision of foreign tariffs. Under no circumstances, however, would he tax raw cotton. The Royal Commission on the Scottish Church difficulty opened its inquiry at Edinburgh. 12. Mr. H. L. W. Lawson (C.) was returned for the Mile End Division in the place of Mr. Spencer Charrington (C.) deceased; he received 2,138 votes against 2,060 recorded for Mr. B. S. Straus (L.). Mr. Balfour spoke at a banquet at Glasgow. He dealt with the naval and military reforms carried out by the Government, stating that the whole Army would be re-armed in about two years with a very superior gun. Two further landslips took place near Dover, affecting, with that on the 10th, some two miles of the length of the Kentish cliffs. 13. The London Gazette contained an Order in Council formally declaring the Bishopric of Birmingham duly founded. The King received at Buckingham Palace the Rev. Wilson Carlile, head and hon. chief secretary of the Church Army, heard an account of its work, and wished it all possible success, sending immediately afterwards £100 in aid of its funds. 14. A long debate in the French Chamber of Deputies on the general policy of the Combes Ministry resulted late at night in a majority of only ten for the Government in a House of 508 members. Under Rugby Union Football rules Wales beat England at Car diff by two goals and five tries to nothing. 16. A violent easterly gale raged round most of the coasts of Great Britain, and was attended at various places by considerable damage to shipping, and some loss of life. 17. A memorial was published from the President of the Royal Academy (Sir E. Poynter) and twenty-seven other distinguished artists and architects, to be presented to the London County Council, urging that the Strand frontage proposed by the Council should be modified, so as to show better consideration for the position of the churches of St. Mary-le-Strand and St. Clement Danes. The memorialists also protested against the excessive height of the buildings already begun. The resignation of M. Combes was announced. Over 154,000 miners were reported to be on strike in the RhenishWestphalian district. 18. Mr. John Morley made a speech of great interest at Brechin, giving an outline of his impressions of American and Canadian problems derived from his recent visit to the States and the Dominion. He also attacked the present Unionist Government. It was announced that the Very Rev. William Arthur Holbech, Dean of Bloemfontein, had accepted the Bishopric of St. Helena, which diocese includes also the islands of Ascension and Tristan d'Acunha. 19. The tercentenary of the publication of “Don Quixote” was celebrated by a banquet at the Hôtel Métropole, over which Major Martin Hume presided, and which was attended by the Spanish Ambassador and Consul-General and many other Spanish gentlemen, and a number of Englishmen eminent in literature and the drama. It was announced that a sale by private treaty had been arranged by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge between two customers, involving the transfer of five volumes, chiefly, though not only, valuable for their elaborate early metal bindings, for about 20,000l. One of them was a sixth century manuscript of a fragment of the Gospels with silvergilt binding of the tenth or eleventh century, ornamented with cloisonné enamels and bas-reliefs, enriched with rock crystals. On the Midland Railway, near Cudworth Junction, between 3 and 4 A.M., in foggy weather, an up Scotch express dashed into a mail train from Leeds to Sheffield with lamentable results. Both trains were wrecked and caught fire. Fortunately the number of passengers was small, but six persons were killed on the spot, one died during the day, and fourteen others were injured, several seriously. The appointment was announced of Mr. T. S. Dymond to an Inspectorship of the Board of Education and to act as special adviser in matters of rural education, of nature study in elementary schools, of agricultural instruction in evening schools, and of the advancement of various forms of technical education in rural districts. 20. On this and two following days the Times published, in three instalments, the fragment, making nine chapters, of a novel written by the late Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, in the last years of his life, the hero of which was evidently studied from Mr. Gladstone. It was announced that the Marquess of Bath had been appointed Under-Secretary of State for India, in the room of the late Earl of Hardwicke. 21. A protocol was signed by the Government of San Domingo and the American Minister to that Republic, whereby the United States Government undertook to adjust the Dominican debt, to arrange the method of payment, and to adjudicate upon unliquidated claims. For these purposes the United States Government was to assume control of the Dominican Custom Houses, and after handing over 45 per cent. of the receipts to the Dominican Government for current expenses, apply the balance, after meeting the cost of collection, to the payment of the debts of the Republic. It was officially denied that any protectorate was involved or intended. At a meeting of the Executive of the London Hospital Saturday Fund it was resolved that 21,8611. be awarded to 198 hospitals and dispensaries. An explosion occurred at the Elba Colliery, Silverton, Glamorganshire, by which ten colliers were killed and ten injured. 22. This was "Bloody Sunday" in St. Petersburg, hundreds of unarmed men being killed and wounded by troops in an attempt to reach the square in front of the Winter Palace, where Father Gapon, who had been active in organising a demonstration by the multitudes of strikers, had urged the Tsar, through a letter sent to the Minister of the Interior, to meet his people and receive a petition from them. The Tsar remained at Tsarskoe-Selo all day. 23. Announced that Sir C. Purdon Clarke, Director for Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, had been offered and had accepted the presidency of the National Museum of America in Central Park, New York, in succession to General di Cesnola. M. Rouvier intimated to President Loubet his acceptance of the commission to form a Cabinet. 24. Announced that Major-General D. D. T. O'Callaghan, C.V.O., who had recently relinquished the command of the Royal Artillery at Malta, had been selected for the appointment of President of the Ordnance Committee, in succession to General J. F. Owen, C. B., R. A. 25. There was issued the report of the Royal Commission on Coal Supplies, arriving at the conclusion that there was no present necessity to restrict artificially the export of coal (see English History, pp. 22-4). At a special meeting of the British Academy an address was delivered by Mr. J. Fitzmaurice Kelly, on "Cervantes in England," in celebration of the tercentenary of "Don Quixote," and several eminent members of the Academy and visitors paid tributes to the genius of Cervantes. 26. Mr. Balfour addressed his constituents in Manchester. He vindicated the conduct of the Government in remaining in office; recapitulated his fiscal declarations on a half-sheet of notepaper; defended leading features of the Government policy, and described the Opposition policy as simply one of negation. - Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, at Queensferry, sharply criticised the policy and measures of the Government and urged the necessity of social reforms. It was announced that the sum of 30,000l. being still required to bring up the permanent income from investments of King Edward's Hospital Fund to 50,000l., Mr. H. W. Marshall, of the Stock Exchange, had offered freehold land in London of the estimated value of 12,000l., on condition that the remaining 18,000l. was subscribed to the permanent income fund before July 31. At the inquest on six of the victims of the Cudworth railway accident the jury found that there was not sufficient evidence to convict any one criminally; that the collision was accidental, but was mainly contributed to by the system of calling up fog-signalmen at Cudworth, and that the driver of the pilot engine of the Scotch express was blameworthy for relying too much on his fireman. The signalman was exonerated, and several employés were complimented for conduct which averted further disaster. The Executive of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain decided to grant the German miners on strike 2,000l. a week during the strike, and to recommend the districts to supplement this grant as much as possible. 26. A numerous and very influential deputation waited on Lord Stanley, Postmaster-General, to deplore the disfigurement of many commons and places of natural beauty by the erection of posts and wires in connection with the rapid extension of the Post Office telephone system. Lord Stanley gave them a sympathetic but not very encouraging reply. 27. The vacancy in the representation of North Dorset caused by the death of Mr. W. K. Wingfield-Digby (C.) was declared to have been filled by the election of Mr. A. W. Wills (L.), who received 4,239 votes against 3,330 recorded for Sir Randolf Baker-a Ministerial loss. It was announced that Mr. David Dundas, K. C., Solicitor-General for Scotland, had been appointed one of the Senatus of the College of Justice for Scotland (a Judge of the Court of Session) in the room of Lord Moncrieff, resigned. 28. The King unveiled, in Holy Trinity Church, Windsor, a memorial to twenty-nine officers and 713 non-commissioned officers and men of the Household Brigade of Guards who fell in the South African War. At Christie's, "A Sibyl," by Rembrandt, was sold for 3,200 guineas, a winter landscape by A. Cuyp, 2,200 guineas, and an equestrian portrait of Henri II., by François Clouet, 2,300 guineas. In the Combination Room of St. John's College, Cambridge, a meeting was held of members of the University to present to Professor J. E. B. Mayor, on his eightieth birthday, a Latin address of congratulation, bearing nearly 200 signatures. Sir Richard Jebb, who presided and read the address, spoke in the warmest terms of Professor Mayor's distinguished services to classical learning, which were recognised abroad as well as at home. The Professor replied in Latin to the address, and then gave some interesting reminiscences of the University, and indicated his views as to the teaching of languages. 30. Telegrams were published showing that an offensive movement attempted by the Russian right wing against the Japanese left on the Sha-ho had failed, with heavy losses. 31. It was announced that Mr. Graham Murray, M. P., Secretary for Scotland, had been appointed Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, in succession to the late Lord Kinross, and had received a Peerage of the United Kingdom; and that Mr. E. T. Salvesen, K.C., had been appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland, in the room of Mr. David Dundas, K.C., appointed a Judge of the Court of Session. The Princess Victoria, who had been suffering from appendicitis, underwent an operation at the hands of Sir F. Treves, and was reported as progressing favourably. FEBRUARY. 1. Mr. Chamberlain addressed a large meeting at Gainsborough in continuance of his fiscal campaign. -The Archbishop of Canterbury received a deputation representative of various schools of clerical opinion-whose views were set before |