14.-The Geneva Court of Arbitration issue an award unanimously finding Great Britain liable for the acts committed by the Alabama; by a majority of the Italian, Swiss, Brazilian, and United States arbitrators against the arbitrator appointed by Great Britain, they find Great Britain liable for the acts committed by the Florida; and by a majority of the Italian, Swiss, and United States arbitrators against the arbitrators appointed by Great Britain and Brazil, they find Great Britain liable for the acts committed by the Shenandoah after leaving Melbourne. They unanimously decided that, in the cases in which Great Britain was held responsible, the acts of the tenders should be considered to follow the judgment given in regard to the cruisers to which they were attached. They decided that Great Britain was not responsible for the acts committed by the Georgia, or by any of the other Confede rate cruisers except the three above named. They rejected altogether the claim of the United States Government for expenditure incurred in pursuit and capture of the cruisers. They decided that interest should be allowed, and have awarded a gross sum of 15,500,000 dollars in gold (about 3,229, 1667. 13s. 4d.) in satisfaction and final settlement of all claims, including interest. The amount of the claims preferred before the Tribunal, as appears from the Revised Statement of Claims presented on the part of the United States in April last, was 19,739,095 dollars in gold, to which was added a claim for expenses of pursuit and capture to the amount of 7,080,478 dollars, with interest at 7 per cent. on the whole amount for about ten years, or, in all, 45,500,000 dollars in gold (or about 9,479,1667. 13s. 4d.) This award was signed by all the arbitrators except Sir A. Cockburn.

M. Edmond About arrested by Germans at his private residence, Saverne, the alleged offence being seditious speaking and writing. He was liberated in a few days.

15. In opening the Cortes, King Victor Amadeus described the Carlist insurrection as almost at an end, and promised to despatch to Cuba all the military strength necessary to suppress the insurrection; "and when that end is attained bills would be introduced, specially intended for that dependency, relative to finances, justice, commerce, the army, and public instruction."

Old Catholic Congress at Cologne opened. One motion submitted expressed a desire that the Governments of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland will:-1, Regard the Catholics adhering to the Old Catholic Church, and who reject the Vatican decrees as innova tions, as members of the Church recognized by the State, and protect them as such; 2, Deem the bishops recognizing the Vatican innovations and their organs as having no right of jurisdiction over the Old Catholics, who, moreover, are declared in the Vatican decrees not to belong to the New Catholic sect,

22.-Liberal gathering at Antwerp known as the "Banquet des Gueux," or Beggars' League, a name assumed in honour of an ancient confederation of noblemen, who in the middle of the sixteenth century received this contemptuous designation from Margaret of Parma. They vowed that they would make the name respected, and the "Beggars" afterwards revolted and drove the Spaniards from the Netherlands.

soon

Preparations for a banquet to M. Gambetta at Chambery suddenly stopped.

23. -Died, aged 66, her Serene Highness the Princess Hohenlohe-Langenburg, daughter of the Duchess of Kent, (by her first marriage with Emich Charles, reigning Prince of Leiningen), and half-sister of Queen Victoria. Partial strike of London bakers.

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24. A supplement to the Gazette sets forth the judgment and award of the Geneva Tribunal of Arbitration, the reasons of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn for dissenting from it, and the opinions" presented during the progress of the case by Count Sclopis, the Viscount Itajuba, M. Staempfli, and Mr. Adams. Sir Alexander Cockburn's judgment was of a most elaborate character, and filled 250 pages. Writing of the alleged unfriendly feeling said to have been shown by Great Britain to the United States, Sir Alexander explained that a strong impression could not fail to be produced on the public mind by the energy, determination, and courage displayed by the South, and the generous ardour with which its population risked life and fortune

in the desperate struggle for national independence, so resolutely maintained to the last against "Whatever the cause infinitely superior force.

in which they are exhibited, devotion and courage will ever command respect; and they did so in this instance. Men could not see in the united people of these vast provinces, thus risking all in the cause of nationality and independence, the common case of rebels, disturbing peace and order on account of imaginary grievances, or actuated by the desire of overthrowing a Government in order to rise upon its ruins. They gave credit to the statesmen and warriors of the South-their cause might be right or wrong-for the higher motives which ennoble political action; and all the opprobrious terms which might be heaped upon the cause in which he fell, could not persuade the world that the earth beneath which Stonewall Jackson rests does not cover the remains of a patriot and a hero." Again, defending Earl Russell:"When the history of Great Britain during the nineteenth century shall be written, not only will there be none among the statesmen who have adorned it whose name will be associated with greater works in the onward path of polit'cal progress than that of Earl Russell, but there will be none to whom, personally, an admiring posterity will look back with greater veneration and respect. That this distinguished man should feel deeply aggrieved by the unworthy attack thus made on the Government of which he was a leading member, and on himself personally, it is easy to understand; but there are attacks which recoil upon those who make them; and of this nature are aspersions on the honesty and sincerity of Earl Russell." Sir Alexander concurred with his colleagues as to the Alabama, though not for the same reasons, but protested against the allowance of interest and the amount of it. He concluded by expressing an earnest hope that the decision will be accepted by the British people "with the submission and respect which is due to the decision of a tribunal by whose award it has freely consented to abide.'

26.-Acknowledging the gift of the freedom of the city of Glasgow, Mr. Lowe censures Sir Alexander Cockburn for publishing his 66 reasons for differing with the other arbitrators. I very much regret," he said, "that my learned friend the Lord Chief Justice did not take the course of simply signing the award with the other arbitrators, it being perfectly well known that he differed from them in certain respects which would appear by the transaction or the award. When the thing is decided, and when we are bound to act upon it, and when we are not really justified in any feeling, I think, of honour or good faith, in making any reclamation or quarrel at all with what has been done in such circumstances, think it is a great pity that he should have have thought it his duty to stir up and renew the strong arguments and contes's, on which the arbitrators had decided. At any rate, I think

October 1. Disestablishment Conference at Birmingham, called to induce Liberal leaders to adopt a new creed demanding immediate action against the National Churches of England and Scotland. Mr. Miall argued that Nonconformists should move every stone in order that the principle may be thoroughly well represented in the next Parliament, but he did not think that in every place, and especially in county constituencies, they should lay it down as a general rule that if they could not have a man purely avowing the principle of disestablishment, they should let the next general election go in favour of the Conservative party. They must not separate themselves altogether from the Liberal party on this question until they were prepared to do far more than they could do now.

Lord Hatherley having resolved upon retiring from the woolsack, the AttorneyGeneral, Sir Roundell Palmer, is generally mentioned as his probable successor.

Died, aged 63, the Right Rev. Dr. Gray, Bishop of Capetown and Metropolitan of South Africa.

2. The Escurial, built by Philip II. of Spain in honour of St. Lawrence, struck by lightning, and partly consumed.

Eleven persons killed and many injured by the Scotch express from London running into a mineral train while some waggons were being shunted at the Kirtlebridge station of the Caledonian Railway. The first passenger carriage was not much injured, but the next three were broken up, and most of the killed found among the fragments. The stationmaster Currie was arrested pending an inquiry as to the position and working of the signals, and afterwards committed for trial on the double charge of culpable homicide and wilful violation of duty. An official report described four

causes as contributing to the accident: the forgetfulness of the stationmaster; the want of interlocked points and signals, worked from a properly placed cabin; the absence not only of a telegraphic block system, but even of any telegraphic warning of the approach of the delayed train; and the unpunctuality of the passenger train. Captain Tyler said there was no blame to be attributed to the railway servants with the passenger train. The whole onus of the accident rested with the stationmaster, who was represented to be a very careful and hard-worked man; but if the particular points, the moving of which was the cause of the accident, had been interlocked with signals, it would have been impossible for the stationmaster or anyone else to cause the accident. This, and neither the block system nor notice by telegraph, was, Captain Tyler asserted, the precaution which was really required to prevent the accident. During the year 1871, out of 159 accidents, 53 were caused by the want of locking or other defective signal arrangements, and during the year 1870, out of 122 accidents, 60 were caused by the same means.

2.-Mr. Justice Willes commits suicide by shooting himself in his bedroom, at Otterspool, near Watford, where he was spending the vacation.

On the afternoon of the Ist, his clerk noticed the Judge looking miserable and depressed, and complaining of want of sleep. This morning about two o'clock he heard a fall and a scream in the direction of the Judge's room, and on entering found him lying wounded on the floor slightly conscious. He survived only a few minutes. Other evidence given at the coroner's inquest showed that the deceased had long been suffering from ailments demanding rest and relaxation. Mr. Justice Willes was born in 1814, called to the bar of the Inner Temple in 1840, when he went the Home Circuit; in 1850 he was appointed a member of the Common Law Commission, and raised to the bench as puisne judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1855.

Mr. Butt addresses his constituents at Limerick on Home Rule, pressing it as the duty of the Irish people to present to England the offer of a federal union under which they should have the full right of managing all Irish affairs, while they were willing to join with England on equal terms in the management of Imperial affairs. As to how he expected to obtain Home Rule, Mr. Butt said the next general election would, if Irishmen were true, give them from seventy to eighty members pledged to Home Rule. He thought in his conscience that if they returned eighty members pledged to Home Rule, the cause was won. He believed, he said, the great majority of the Irish people would be perfectly satisfied with a form of government that would give them the perfect and free management of their own affairs; and that if the people of Ireland demanded separation, it was because they thought that was the only way of gaining independence.

Died at Walmer, aged 86, Field-Marshal Sir George Pollock, G. C.B., Constable of the Tower, and engaged in important services in Nepaul in 1817, and Afghanistan in 1842-3, when he forced the Khyber Pass, and relieved the garrison at Jellalabad. He routed the Afghans, released the prisoners, and carried the English flag in triumph to Cabul. (See p. 119.) For these services Sir George received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, and was made first a member of the Supreme Council of India, and then a Crown member of the Court of Directors. Sir George was buried with honour in Westminster Abbey on the 16th.

8.

The State elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Nebraska carried by Republicans.

The twelfth Church Congress opened at Leeds, under the presidency of the Bishop of Ripon. A stormy discussion took place on the 10th, on "The just principle of the Church's comprehensiveness in matters of doctrine and ritual," when a member present, who described himself as belonging to the Protestant Reformed Church of England, mentioned other speakers as talking like Roman Catholics. Scores of clergymen bawled and gesticulated, and the President for some time could neither direct nor check the disorder.

11.-Republican rising at Ferrol, in Spain. Died, aged 66, his Excellency Baron de Beaulieu, Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's.

Bonds and coupons to the amount of 40,000l. stolen from the house of John Allan, Derby Terrace, Glasgow, during the absence of the family. The theft was afterwards traced to a man named Fraser, and the bonds recovered in a quarry on the Gareloch.

12.-On the subject of Home Rule for Ireland Earl Russell writes:-"I fear, if an Irish Parliament is set up in Ireland, all her energies will be wasted in political contention. I therefore wish to divert the forces which might give heat and comfort instead of concentrating them in a manner to produce a conflagration. This is the more necessary, as the Irish nature is so very inflammable that it

Died, aged 77, Albany William Fonblanque, formerly' proprietor and editor of the Examiner, and latterly head of the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade.

14. Mr. J. S. Mill, writing from Avignon, explains to a Nottingham association his views on their programme described in "The Law of the Revolution." "There is no real thing called the revolution,' nor any 'principles of the revolution.' There are maxims which your association, in my opinion, rightly considers to be essential to just government; and there is a tendency, increasing as mankind advances in intelligence and education, towards the adoption of the doctrines of just government. These are all the facts there are in the case, and the more clearly and unambiguously these, and nothing but these, are stated, the better people will understand one another, and the more distinctly they will see what they are disputing about and what they are avowed to prove.

I cannot conclude without expressing the great pleasure with which I have seen the full and thoroughgoing recognition by your body of the claim of women to equal rights in every respect with men, and of minorities proportionately to their numbers with majorities, and its advocacy of the federal principle for the security of this last."

Opening of the new Japan railway from Jeddo to Yokohama.

15. In the course of an audience at Balmoral, Lord Hatherley formally surrenders the Great Seal, and is succeeded by Sir R. Palmer, now Lord Selborne. In taking leave of his constituents at Richmond, the latter wrote "In the high office to which her Majesty has been pleased to call me I trust I may be enabled, by God's blessing, so to act as not to forfeit your good opinion, nor give you any cause to regret that my name has been so long associated with the borough of Richmond."

Died, aged 49, Rev. John Purchas, of St. James's Chapel, Brighton, a ritualist leader whose case had repeatedly occupied the attention of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council.

-Died, somewhat unexpectedly, the Countess of Shaftesbury, eldest daughter of the late Viscountess Palmerston, by her first marriage with Earl Cowper.

15.-Unveiling of a statue erected to the memory of Sir Humphrey Davy at Penzance, where the great natural philosopher was born in 1778.

The Count de Chambord writes to La Rochette from Ebenzweyer :-"As a whole France is Catholic and Monarchical; it is for us to caution it against errors, to point out the rocks, and to direct it towards the port. I trust that I have never failed in that sacred duty, and no one will ever be able to seduce me from my path. I have not one word to retract, not an act to regret, for they have all been inspired by love of my country; and I insist upon my share of responsibility in the advice which I give to my friends. The day of triumph is still one of God's secrets, but have confidence in the mission of France. Europe has need of it, the Papacy has need of it, and therefore the old Christian nation cannot perish."

Mr. J. A. Froude, presently lecturing to American audiences on the political relations between England and Ireland, entertained at a banquet in Delmonico's, New York, by literary men and publishers.

16.-Foreign Office circular issued to Chambers of Commerce explanatory of the negotiations with France relative to the new Commercial Treaty.

Died at Boston, aged 61, Mrs. Parton, sister of N. P. Willis, and widely known in literary circles under the nom de plume of Fanny Fern."

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The Emperor of China married at Pekin. There was no public ceremony outside the palace, beyond the procession to bring the bride, the Lady Aluto, daughter of Chungchi, a doctor of the Imperial Academy.

17. Correspondence with Russia regarding the disputed Afghan boundaries. Earl Granville writes to-day that her Majesty's Government considers as fully belonging to the Ameer of Cabul (1) Badakshan, with its dependent district of Wakhan from the Sarikol (Woods Lake) on the east to the junction of the Kokcha River with the Oxus (or Penjah), forming the northern boundary of this Afghan province throughout its entire extent. (2) Afghan Turkestan, comprising the districts of Kunduz, Khulm, and Balkh, the northern boundary of which would be the line of the Oxus from the junction of the Kokcha River to the post of the Khoja Saleh, inclusive, on the high road from Bokhara to Balkh. Nothing to be claimed by the Afghan Ameer on the left bank of the Oxus below Khoja Saleh. (3) The internal districts of Aksha, Seripool, Maimenat, Shibberjan, and Andkoi, the latter of which would be the extreme Afghan frontier possession to the north-west, the desert beyond belonging to independent tribes of Turcomans. (4) The western Afghan frontier between the dependencies of Herat and those of the Persian province of Khorassan is well known, and need not here

be defined. Prince Gortscnakoft's reply to this despatch, of date St. Petersburg, December 7, stated that General Kaufmann, owing to various difficulties, had been unable to carry out his investigation as speedily as the Russian no less than the British Government desired. The conclusions drawn by the Russian Government did not much differ substantially from those of the British Government, but Russia was unable to find any traces of sovereignty exercised by the Ameer of Cabul over Badakshan and Wakhan; on the contrary, all our information upon the subject goes to prove that these districts should be regarded as independent."

17. Mr. Justice Denman sworn into the vacant judgeship in the Court of Common Pleas.

The Prince of Wales, now on a visit to the Earl of Tankerville, engages in a wild bull hunt in Chillingham Forest, and brings down with his rifle the king of the herd, about seven years old and weighing upwards of sixty

stone.

Lord Northbrook holds a public durbar at Umballa. In a brief address the Viceroy referred to the loss which the native princes had sustained by the death of Lord Mayo, and thanked them for their prompt action on the occasion of the Kooka outbreak.

- A Great Eastern express train runs off the line at a cutting near Kelvedon, killing one person, injuring twenty others, and destroying several carriages.

Died suddenly at Campbeltown, Dr. Finlayson, Scotch clergyman.

18.- Died at Auburn, aged 70, W. H. Seward, late Foreign Secretary for the United States.

Collision between two mineral trains at Woodhouse Junction, near Sheffield, causing the death of an engine driver and stoker, with great damage to rolling stock.

19. A man and woman, names unknown, found dead in their lodgings in Golden Square. A phial labelled strychnine was on the table. There was also, in a man's handwriting, a note in English to the following effect :-"Our last will. We wish the trunk and the contents to be given to Mrs. Cunningham in return for ; the trouble given her. The rest may serve to pay the expenses of the funeral. Nobody is to blame, as we both took strychnine, and we wish to remain unknown. We have done no wrong to anybody. O Lord, forgive us all, and pardon us, for Thine infinite mercies. We leave 57., 17. to be given to Mrs. Cunningham for one week's rent. The rest for the burial. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me: Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.' No papers of any description which could lead to the identity of the persons were found, but from the appearance of the grate in the room a number of papers were destroyed

Died, aged 82, Simon Thomas Scrope, of Danby Hall, York, the representative of a house which during the last 300 years produced two earls, twenty barons, one Chancellor, four Treasurers, two Chief Justices of England, five Knights of the Garter, and numerous baronets.

23.-Died at Paris, aged 61, M. Théophile Gautier, dramatist and journalist.

24.-Addressing his constituents at Exeter, Sir John Coleridge said that no Ministry in the world ever fulfilled the expectations that were raised about it, and no man that ever lived, not Pitt, nor Peel, nor Palmerston, ever maintained the power with which he began. It therefore would not surprise him, Sir John Coleridge said, if after four years of administration the foes of the Government were found to be more active and its friends somewhat more disunited than in the winter of 1868. The Tories were always united. There are five hundred ways of going forward, but one way of standing still. To stand still and observe the Government seemed to be their best idea of a policy. To