The driver of the excursion train was killed on the spot, and the fireman died a few hours later; the four guards escaped. All the Company's servants appeared to have done their duty well. An inquest was opened in the Town Hall at Newark by Mr. R. Griffin, the Coroner; and Captain Tyler, R.E., Inspector for the Board of Trade, made an official report, which tended to show that the disaster was wholly due to a flaw in the axle of the goods waggon. Its wheels had been properly examined, by viewing and tapping, at the stations passed by the goods train, and, lastly, at Retford; but the crack in the axle, being concealed by the wheel, could not possibly have been detected without taking the wheels off. The waggon was last under repair six months before, in the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire workshops, and had been running almost daily ever since that time. The axle was of an old-fashioned make, and was less stout by half an inch than such as are now generally used.

The inquest was concluded on the 28th. The engineers stated that the broken axle was of the best quality, and that the flaw was imperceptible to ordinary tests.

The jury returned the following verdict :-" We believe that the deceased came by their deaths on the Great Northern Railway by the accidental breaking of an axle belonging to the waggon No. 3238, belonging to the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway Company. From the evidence given, we believe that the luggage train was driven at too great a speed from Retford to the scene of the accident. We are also of opinion that the fracture in the axle, which caused it to break, had been in existence some length of time, and that the axle was not fit for use; and we think there should be some limit or maximum time of use. We are also of opinion that there should be some means devised for the periodical testing of axles, the jury being of opinion that the present system is defective."

The above recommendations the jury desired might be forwarded to the Board of Trade.

23. A TELEGRAPHIC EVENING PARTY.-An entertainment of great scientific and social interest, and of entire novelty in its way, was given by Mr. Pender, chairman of the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company, and by Mrs. Pender, at their private house in Arlington-street. It was an evening party of invited guests to celebrate the successful laying of the last section, from Gibraltar to Cornwall, of the submarine telegraph cable furnishing direct and independent communication between England and Bombay, through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Bay of Biscay. Amongst the company were their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Teck; and several eminent men of science, Sir William Cook being one of them, with Sir James Anderson and Captain Halpin, of the "Great Eastern,' as well as M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, and other persons of distinction, were also present. In addition to the usual preparations for a festive

reception of honoured visitors, Mr. Pender had fitted up one corner of the saloon as a telegraph office, and had placed it, by wires, in electric communication with distant parts of the world. Sir James Anderson officiated at the instruments, by which during the evening, instead of the ordinary amusement of ladies at the piano, friendly messages were sent to and fro between different personages several thousand miles apart. The Viceroy of India, being then at Simla, where the time of day was seven hours earlier than in London, spoke to the President of the United States at Washington, a distance of 8443 miles, or more than one third the greatest circumference of the globe, in forty minutes. To this message, which expressed a hope of "lasting union between the Eastern and Western hemispheres "not only physical, but moral union-President Grant replied, with a characteristic American idiom, congratulating India upon its successful connexion with "the balance of the world," or as we should say, the remainder of mankind. The Prince of Wales sent a despatch to the Khedive of Egypt, at Alexandria, and one to the King of Portugal, congratulating both on their new line of telegraphic communication with Great Britain, and each of those Sovereigns quickly replied. His Royal Highness also corresponded across the Atlantic with President Grant, who probably received the message three hours earlier than it was sent, there being fully that difference in the London and Washington times. Lord Mayo, in his bedroom at Simla, was likewise aroused at the good early hour of five o'clock in the morning (which is quite agreeable, indeed, to Anglo-Indian habits) with an affectionate greeting from his wife the Countess of Mayo, who was one of Mr. Pender's guests that night. Her message was only nine minutes on its way from Piccadilly to the Himalayas; and she was enabled to say that not only political interests but domestic interests were served by the aid of science in this wonderful performance. To this Lord Mayo replied, at 5.10 a.m., "Thankful for your message. I send you affectionate greeting from your two boys and all here." The Viceroy of India also received a message from the Prince of Wales congratulating him on the achievement of the submarine telegraph, which is sure to prove of immense advantage to the welfare of the whole empire. This was answered in appropriate terms by the Viceroy. A message sent by Sir Bartle Frere to Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, at Bombay, was acknowledged in five minutes, with the promise of an answer to follow as soon as Sir Seymour, who was in bed, could be called up. Messages also passed between the Viceroy of Egypt and M. de Lesseps, Mr. Pender, and Mr. Cyrus Field, and various other persons.

Sir William Thompson's siphon-recording instrument was this night exhibited for the first time in England. This remarkable instrument writes down in ordinary ink every fluctuation of the electric current received at the end of a submarine cable, and is likely to displace the mirror galvanometer, by which hitherto all messages through long cables have been received.

JULY.

1. ROYAL VISIT TO READING.-The inhabitants of Reading had an opportunity, of which they availed themselves to the uttermost, of displaying their loyalty upon a visit paid to the town by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The occasion was the laying, or, to speak more accurately, the "setting," of the principal stone of a new school, the lineal successor of the ancient Grammar School of Reading at which Archbishop Laud was educated, and one of the masters of which, Julius Palmer, was martyred in 1556. The ceremonial of the day began at the Great Western Railway Station, where the royal train arrived soon after half-past twelve o'clock, in charge of Mr. Grierson, the manager of the line. The station was prettily draped, and ornamented with flowers and shrubs; and here the Mayor and Town Council, the Mayoress, the Lord-Lieutenant of the County (the Earl of Abingdon), the High Sheriff, the Bishop of Oxford, Colonel the Hon. C. Lindsay, Mr. Walter, M.P., Sir F. Goldsmid, M.P., Mr. Shaw Lefevre, M.P., the Mayors of Windsor, Abingdon, Wallingford, and Maidenhead, and the Alderman of Wokingham attended to receive the royal party. The staff of the Royal Berks Militia were drawn up in the station, and acted as a guard of honour. An address of welcome having been handed to the Prince by the Mayor, without reading it, the Prince and Princess were at once conducted to the royal carriage, and the procession set out, amid the pealing of bells and the firing of cannon. First came a detachment of Yeomanry Cavalry with a band, followed by Foresters and Oddfellows with banners and insignia, and afterwards by Freemasons from various lodges of the province of Berks and Bucks. As this was the first occasion on which the Prince of Wales had set a stone in his character of P.G.M. of England, his brother masons in the province had determined to give him a reception befitting his rank, and the success of the day's ceremonial was in a great measure owing to them. After the Freemasons came the civic cortége, with the more modern and less picturesquely-clad policeman of the nineteenth century; the town wardens, with staves, in handsome uniforms; three carriages containing members of the Council not being school trustees, three others with school trustees and visitors. The seventh carriage held the Mayor, the Mayor's Chaplain, the Recorder, and Town Clerk. Then came the royal carriages, with an escort of Yeomanry Cavalry, and after them more carriages, with the High Sheriff, the Lord-Lieutenant, the Bishop of the Diocese, the Archdeacon of Berks, the members of Parliament, the magistrates of the borough, and the mayors of neighbouring boroughs. The Duke and Duchess of Manchester, the Marquis of Hamilton, Lord Harris, the Hon. Mrs. Coke, General Knollys,

Colonel Keppel, and the Rev. W. L. Onslow were in the suite of the Prince and Princess.

The line of procession being a long one, there was no overcrowding at any point. The decorations began with a triumphal arch at the Friar-street approach to the station. This was erected by the Masons as the first welcome to the royal visitors, and it was full of those mysterious emblems, the full significance of which none but true and accepted Masons can fathom. Among others the Masonic motto, "Audi, Vide, Tace," seemed not at all in keeping with the conduct of the crowd, who saw but were not silent, and cheered the Prince and Princess to the echo. From this point the royal visitors had one continuous ovation, and noted with evident interest and satisfaction the very pretty decorations which the townspeople had provided.

On the school ground a large tent, capable of holding some 2000 people, was put up, and here the principal stone, a handsome pillar of granite, was enclosed. The first Berks Volunteers acted as the guard of honour here, and were drawn up in line on the terrace under the command of Captain H. Hunter. Among those who had accepted invitations and were present in the tents were Viscount Eversley, Miss Lefevre, Earl of Cork, Earl of Abingdon, the Bishop of the Diocese, Lord Norreys, Sir John Lefevre, the High Sheriff of Berks (Mr. J. H. Blagrave) and Mrs. Blagrave, Mr. Walter, M.P., Colonel Loyd Lindsay, M.P., V.C., Sir Francis Goldsmid, M.P., Mr. G. J. Shaw Lefevre, M.P., Sir Daniel Gooch, M.P., and most of the neighbouring gentry.

A long address was read by the Town Clerk, to which his Royal Highness replied; and then another address was handed to the Princess in a very novel form. It was reduced by photography, and appended to a fan mounted in mother-of-pearl delicately carved, and mounted with gold. Attached to the fan was a solid gold vinaigrette, having on one side the coronet and monogram of the Princess, and an inscription setting forth the occasion of its presentation. The Princess, who wore a dress of pink silk, with a skirt of white muslin, bowed her acknowledgments, and appeared much pleased with this little memento of her visit. The ceremony of setting the stone then began, one side of the tent having been entirely occupied by the Masons in their aprons and robes, while the chief functionaries of the Order were in the foreground. The Prince, before entering the tent, had assumed the apron and insignia appropriate to his rank, and the Duke of Manchester, P.G.M. of Northampton and Herts, also wore the apron, Sir Daniel Gooch and the Rev. Sir G. W. Hayes, prominent members of the Masonic body, occupied chairs near the dais. Mr. Algernon Perkins, Colonel Burdett, Rev. C. J. Martin, Rev. J. R. D. Fidler, and the Rev. A. Purey-Cust, Vicar of St. Mary's, Reading, were also among the Masons present in costume. The Mayor, having received from the Provincial Grand Master the handsome silver trowel prepared for the occasion, now asked the Prince, in the name of the School

The Grand Chaplain

Trustees, to proceed with the ceremony. offered a prayer, the Architect presented his plans, the Grand Secretary read the inscription on the stone, and the Grand Treasurer deposited gold, silver, and copper coins of the present reign in the cavity prepared for them. The Town Clerk also deposited in the same cavity a vessel hermetically sealed containing a copy of the Act of 1867, constituting the school trust, and a copy of the programme of the ceremony. Then a choir composed of members of the Reading Philharmonic Society, assisted by the band of the Grenadier Guards, led by Mr. D. Godfrey, performed a hymn composed for the occasion by Mr. Blake Atkinson, and set to a chorale of the late Prince Consort. The Prince afterwards proved and set the stone, saying, " May the Great Architect of the Universe enable us successfully to carry on and finish the work of which we have now laid the principal stone, and every other undertaking which may tend to the advantage of the borough of Reading and this neighbourhood, and may this school be long preserved from peril and decay, diffusing its light and influence to generations yet unborn." To this the Masons present answered with one accord, "So mote it be." The Prince next spread corn on the stone, and from the ewers handed to him poured out wine and oil, saying, "May the bountiful hand of heaven ever supply this country with abundance of corn, wine, and oil, and all the necessaries and comforts of life." The brethren again responded in the Masonic formula, "So mote it be." Then the Treasurer to the school presented to the Senior Master Builder (Mr. Parnell) a purse of gold, saying, "It is the pleasure of the Prince that those who have hewed the stones, and those who have laid them, and all who have assisted, should rejoice in the light."" Prayers by the Bishop of Oxford, and the " Hallelujah Chorus," performed by the band and choir, closed the ceremonial, which was very quaint and impressive.

Unhappily, on the return of the procession to the Town Hall, the rain fell heavily, and it was necessary to close the carriage containing the Prince and Princess. This somewhat marred the effect of the cortége along the new route assigned to it, which was decorated with quite as many banners and flowers, and filled with quite as eager and loyal a gathering. At the Town Hall, which was tastefully decorated for the occasion, a grand luncheon was given by the Mayor and Corporation to the Prince and Princess and their suite, and a large number of the distinguished visitors who had witnessed the ceremony in the school grounds. At the conclusion of the luncheon their Royal Highnesses took their departure.

4. INTERNATIONAL ATLANTIC YACHT RACE.-The great International Yacht Race across the Atlantic, between the English yacht "Cambria" and the American yacht "Dauntless" commenced to-day, when the rival yachts were towed out of Cork Harbour at one p.m. to Daunt's Rock. A large number of yachts and steamers, crowded with spectators, went out to witness the start. The wind was from the westward, and after the start, which was made at