37.4-37

20. To mitigate the distress caused by famine in the province of Upper Bengal, the Marquis of Salisbury announces, in the Upper House, the necessity for a Bill being introduced authorising a loan of from three to ten millions sterling, part to be expended in chartering steamers to convey food to the starving districts, and in creating such new means of communication and works of irrigation as might help to prevent a recurrence of such calamities. A loan bill of the nature suggested was introduced into the Commons by Lord George Hamilton, the new Under Secretary for India. In the course of debates which took place prior to the passing of the bill, Ministers gave a hearty support to the policy pursued by the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, especially in so far as he had refused to interfere with the ordinary trade exportations of rice from the famine-stricken districts, a determination in which he was opposed by some of his own Indian officials as well as by a portion of the native and home press.

Lord Rossmore of the 1st Life Guards thrown from his horse at the Windsor Steeplechases, receiving injuries from which he died on the 28th. The Queen, who witnessed the accident from her carriage in the King's Road, caused repeated inquiries to be made at the barracks, and on the following day at Her Majesty's special request none of the military

The Ashantee troops begin to arrive at Portsmouth, the first ship reaching home this morning being the Tamar, with the 23rd Fusiliers. The Manitoban followed next day with General Sir Garnet Wolseley and Staff. On the 24th the Sarmatian with the 42nd Highlanders arrived; and in the course of the week the Himalaya brought the second battalion Rifle Brigade, a detachment of the Royal Engineers and Royal Marine Light Infantry, with a few invalids. On each occasion the troops received a warm welcome, and on the 22nd (Sunday) Sir Garnet had a lengthy interview with the Queen at Windsor. King Koffee's umbrella taken at Coomassie and brought to England by Lieut. Wood, 10th Hussars, was graciously accepted by Her Majesty.

21.-Vice-Chancellor Malins gives judgment in the action raised by Dr. Hayman, late Head Master, against the governing body of Rugby School. He was extremely sorry, he said, for the grievous hardship of Dr. Hayman's case, but was satisfied that a pro

1149

MARCH

longation of the painful disputes which would be the result of overruling the demurrer in court would be of no benefit to him. Believ ing that events had made Dr. Hayman's retention of the office impossible, he would allow the demurrer, but without costs. Dr. JexBlake, of Cheltenham College, succeeded Dr. Hayman as Head Master of Rugby.

22. Died at Cannes, aged 69, Albert Way, F.S.A., founder of the Archeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

23. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession of King Victor Emmanuel, celebrated with rejoicings throughout the kingdom of Italy.

25.-Sir C. Dilke's bill for extending polling hours at elections to 8 P.M., rejected by a majority of 75 votes.

26.-Hurricane at Mauritius continuing over five days, and destroying much property in the harbour and town of Port Louis.

Died, aged 83, Sir W. H. Bodkin, late Assistant Judge at the Middlesex Sessions.

30.-Votes of thanks passed in both Houses of Parliament to the officers and men engaged in the Ashantee Expedition. The whole of the troops returned, numbering about 1,600, were also reviewed by the Queen to-day in Windsor Great Park. To Sir Garnet Wolseley, Her Majesty presented the insignia of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and of a K.C.B. Lord Gifford was then called to the front, and received the Victoria Cross for personal valour, Her Majesty fastening the honourable distinction with her own hand to the breast of the young Lieutenant. similar honour was conferred on Captain Sartorius and Sergeant McGaw of the 42nd Highlanders; Captain Glover was made a Knight of St. Michael and St. George. The cost of the war to the British government was estimated at 900,000l. To Sir Garnet Wolseley, who declined titular honours, a sum of 25,000l. was voted in recognition of his services.

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31.-Mr. Walpole brings up the report of the Select Committee on Privileges arising out of the committal of Mr. Whalley for contempt of Court in the Tichborne case.

The Lord Mayor entertains Sir Garnet Wolseley and officers of the Ashantee force to a state banquet at the Mansion House. The Prince of Wales, Duke of Cambridge, and other members of the Royal family also attended as guests.

The Caspian, a Sunderland brig, wrecked off the island of Colonsay, and all on boardCaptain Chambers, his wife, and crew of eight men, with the exception of one of the latter-drowned, Mrs. Chambers after hanging for an hour on to a traffrail,

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31.-Intelligence received of the escape of Rochefort and other French prisoners from New Caledonia to Sydney.

April 3.-Mr. Rumbold, British minister in Chili, demands the release of Captain Hyde, and an indemnity of 25,000l. for wrongous imprisonment on the charge of wilfully causing the death of Chilian subjects in the wreck of the steamer Tacua off Valparaiso. Captain Hyde was afterwards permitted to leave the country and an indemnity promised.

5.-Died, aged 80, Commander R. J. Morrison, astrologer and editor of "Zadkiel's Almanac."

6.-Outbreak in Portland prison, a gang of twelve convicts falling upon two warders and severely maltreating them. The former were ultimately beaten off by officials and driven to their cells,

8.-Re-opening of Worcester Cathedral after undergoing restoration at the hands of Sir Gilbert Scott. The work, on which 100,000l. was said to have been expended, was carried on over a period of twenty years.

9.-Jean Luie, or Lundgren, pretended mate of the Osprey, and the so-called "Captain" Brown, sentenced at the Central Criminal Court, the former to seven and the latter to five years' penal servitude for perjury, in connection with the Tichborne case.

10.-Died, aged 72, Marquis of Clanricarde, K.P., Lord Lieutenant of Galway, Postmaster. General, 1846, and Lord Privy Seal for a short time in the first ministry of Lord Palmerston. (See p. 506.)

The

14-Explosion in the Astley Deep Colliery, Dukinfield, near Manchester, causing the death of fifty-one men and boys out of 151 employed in the pit at the time, about 7.30 P.M. part of the workings where the explosion took place was 700 yards long, and known as the engine brow. Here sixty men were imprisoned by the fallen roof, and though efforts were repeatedly made to break through and reach them, only ten were rescued alive, and of these one died afterwards. The pit was known to be one of the deepest in England, but noted for its freedom from gas.

Inquest held at Payhembury, Honiton, on the body of a young married woman named Miffin, who had drowned herself in a pond near the Vicarage while labouring under the delusion that she had been "overlooked" by a witchwoman in the neighbourhood. Verdict, temporary insanity.

15.-Died, aged 65, Owen Jones, an eminent authority in decorative art, and author of the "Grammar of Ornament and other cognate treatises.

The Malwa, brings the remains of Dr. Livingstone to Southampton where they are

war.

Annual Budget introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The total expenditure for 1873-4 has reached 76,466,500l., including the American Award and Ashantee Last year's revenue was estimated at 73,762,000l. but the gross receipts had increased to 77,335,657. On the same basis the revenue for 1874-5 was calculated at 77,995,000l. and the expenditure at 72,503,000/. With the surplus of nearly 5 millions, the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed, not to abolish the Income Tax altogether as Mr. Gladstone had suggested, but to reduce it by one penny, thus preserving the system with its collecting machinery for future use. He also proposed to abolish the remaining sugar duties and the House Tax. The Budget was well received.

18.-The Duke of Abercorn, the new Lord Lieutenant, makes a formal entry into Dublin.

Funeral of Dr. Livingstone in Westminster Abbey, the Queen among others sending a beautiful wreath of azaleas as a tribute of respect and admiration for the great traveller and missionary of civilization. The coffin bore the simple inscription :"David Livingstone. Born at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 19, 1813. Died at Ilala, Central Africa, May 4, 1873." route of procession from the Royal Geographical Society's rooms was by way of Pall Mall, Charing Cross, and Parliament Street to Broad Sanctuary, the crowds on each side reverently uncovering as the remains were borne along. The following (Sunday) afternoon Dean Stanley preached a funeral sermon in the Abbey to

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a large congregation, among whom were the traveller's aged father-in-law, Dr. Moffat, and Mr. H. M. Stanley. Special sermons were also preached in several other of the London churches.

18.-"Mad Lucas," the Hermit of Redcoots Green, near Stevenage, and the hero of Dickens' "Tom Tiddler's Ground," found dead among the ashes of his neglected cottage.

In

20.-The Archbishop of Canterbury calls attention to the present state of Public Worship in the Church of England. His grace entered into a lengthened description of existing evils and anomalies, and concluded by moving the first reading of a "Bill for the better administration of the law respecting Public Worship. As introduced at this time, the bill provided that the Bishop should have the sole power in directing worship, as was evidently designed in the constitution of the Church, guided, however, by a Board of Assessors, lay and clerical. the event of the Bishop thinking that a complaint against an incumbent demanded inquiry he was to call his Assessors together, and if they condemned the acts in question an Episcopal monition was to issue forthwith. An appeal was also provided for to the Archbishop and his Assessors, their decision to be final. After detailing various Romanizing practices observed by Anglican clergymen, the Archbishop concluded "I call upon all those who glory in the name of members of the Church of England, who have no feelings of Puritanism in any form, but who have often fought the battles of the Church of England against the Church of Rome on the one hand and against Puritanism on the other, who style themselves Anglicans and regard the Church as one of our great institutions, I call upon them to come forward and declare themselves manfully against such a desecration of the Holy Communion as a thing which all Churchmen should unite in condemning." In the discussion which preceded the first reading of the bill, Lords Nelson, Shaftesbury, and Selborne took part. (See May 11).

The Duke of Edinburgh lays the foundation stone of new buildings for the Royal Seamen and Marines' Orphan School at Portsmouth.

In introducing the Navy Estimates, for which 10,179,4857. was asked, Mr. Ward Hunt describes the late government as having left the navy in a state far from satisfactory. Of our forty-one sea-going ironclads (of which five are building) only eighteen could be considered effective at present, and of the fourteen available for coast and harbour defence-among which he included the Devastation till further trials were made of her, only nine were good for anything at all. The naval administration of the late Government was defended by Mr. Goschen, and later in the session by Mr.

Childers, in the course of a renewed discussion regarding estimates.

21. The Bishop of Peterborough draws attention in the House of Lords to the evils arising from the present condition of the law of Patronage in the Church of England. A Select Committee was afterwards appointed to inquire into the subject.

23.-Inspection at Gosport by her Majesty of that portion of the Naval Brigade which had taken part in the Ashantee war.

24.-Died from the effects of a fall down the staircase at All Souls' College, John Phillips, F.R.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. Professor Phillips was born in 1801.

27.-Discussion raised by the Home Secretary regarding a Bill relating to the Sale and Consumption of Intoxicating Liquors. He proposed among other changes that the hours for opening and closing public-houses should be fixed by statute and not by local magistrates, and that the adulteration clauses in the Act of 1872 should be repealed.

28.-The tariff adopted by the International Tonnage Commission comes into force on the Suez Canal.

29.-Ball at Mansion House in honour of the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh.

Count Arnim, German presents his letters of recall MacMahon.

Ambassador, Marshal

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30.-Fighting in Arkansas between rival political factions, accompanied with loss of life.

May 2.-At the annual dinner of the Royal Academy the Prince of Wales makes special mention of the meritorious picture sent in by Miss Thomson, entitled "Calling the Roll after an engagement in the Crimea."

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Entry of the relieving army under Marshal Concha into Bilboa, being the anniversary of the day when the war of Independence broke out. Four days later Marshal Serrano received an enthusiastic welcome on returning to Madrid from the city he had helped so much to prevent falling into the hands of besieging Carlists.

4.-Earl Russell's motion for papers regard. ing the maintenance of peace in Europe rejected after a speech by Earl Derby, in which he affirmed that while certain feelings excited at present in foreign courts gave rise to anxiety and apprehension, there was, so far as immediate results were concerned, no cause for anticipating any disturbance of the peace.

7.-Died, aged 71, Lieut. Gen. Sir Archdale Wilson, Bart, G.C.B., conqueror of Delhi. (See p. 497.)