26.-Mr. John Morley delivers an interesting address on the study of literature at the Mansion House, in connection with the society for the extension of university education.

New thoroughfare from Trafalgar Square to Tottenham Court Road-to be known as Charing Cross Road-formally opened by the Duke of Cambridge.

Rumours current that steps were being taken to have Mary Queen of Scots canonised, and that it was expected a definite settlement of the question will be made at Easter. A Roman Catholic church was erected at Linlithgow in memory of the unfortunate Queen.

Died, aged 66, Eugene Rimmel, the well-known perfumer of London and Paris.

27.-The Socialists attended afternoon service at St. Paul's Cathedral. Intimation of their intention having been conveyed to the Dean and Chapter, a large portion of the nave, &c., was reserved for the representative bodies which arrived from various parts of the city. Beyond occasional interruptions of the sermon preached by Archdeacon Gifford, no disturbance took place.

28.-Mr. W. H. Smith informed the Commons that the Queen had intimated her intention to be present at a thanksgiving service at Westminster Abbey on the 21st June, and the Government proposed to recommend that the day should be observed as a holiday.

A writer in the Standard, Mr. Henry Lake, announced the discovery of a manuscript by Antonio Parvadone, in which the composition of the famous Cremona varnish for violins was explained. The recipe was said to have been brought to Italy from China by monks.

The steamer Patagonia lands at Plymouth the survivors of the emigrant ship Kapunda, and five of the crew of the barque Ada Melmore, which were in collision off the Brazilian coast on the morning of January 28.

Died at Rome, aged 55, Cardinal Jacobini. He was made a Cardinal in 1879, and Papal Secretary of State the following year.

March 1.-In the Commons to-day Mr. George Howell moved the adjournment of the House in order to call attention to the corrupt expenditure of public money by the Corporation of London for the purpose of preventing the passing of a measure brought forward by the late Government for the better government of London. Mr. Bradlaugh and Mr. Labouchere declared that they could prove the charges made if a Committee were appointed with proper powers to inquire into the matter. Lord G. Hamilton said the Government would assent, if the House wished it, to a full inquiry into the matter, though they did not believe that the allegations were well founded.

After

a prolonged discussion, in which Mr. Gladstone took part, Mr. Howell, who had prepared a

resolution remitting the subject for investigation to a Select Committee, withdrew the motion for adjournment so that the leader of the House might have time to consider the course the Government should adopt. On the 3rd, Mr. W. H. Smith informed Mr. Howell that the Government would make no opposition to his motion for a Select Committee to inquire into the charges against the Corporation of London.

1. In reply to a communication urging that there was now a great opportunity for disestablishing the Welsh Church, Mr. Gladstone writes that, from his point of view, no such opportunity exists nor can exist until the Irish question is settled. If asked why Ireland should occupy the attention of Parliament to the exclusion of other British questions, Mr. Gladstone says his answer would be that he had no more power to defer the Irish question than he had to defer the recent earthquakes in France and Italy, and that any action towards postponement on his part would only add to the confusion and pressure.

3.

During the discussion in the House on the supply vote for the Irish Constabulary, Mr. Dillon attacked the action of the Government with regard to evictions and public meetings. He defied the Government to put down public meetings in Ireland, and warned them that if in the attempt blood were shed the crime and shame of having broken the law in order to suppress the liberty of speech would fall on their own heads. The Government might carry out evictions and proclaim meetings, but they could not stop murder and moonlighting, and never would. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach admitted that law and order were not at present maintained in Ireland, but as soon as they could the Government would apply for powers to secure their proper maintenance. With regard to evictions, they were due in great measure to the inflammatory speeches of the advocates of an organised system of robbery. As to the suppression of public meetings, that course was only adopted when there was reason to believe that such gatherings tended to obstruction or defiance of the law. When they had powers to bring to justice those who used these meetings to incite the people to break the law they would be able to deal more efficiently than at

present with this matter. Mr. Dillon's speech, which was an incentive to resistance, was a further proof of the absolute necessity for further powers. The discussion was carried

on to a late hour, principally by Irish members, amid scenes of great excitement and disorder.

3.-Explosion of fire damp in a colliery at Quarengnon, Belgium, causing the death of 144 miners.

5.-Sir H. J. S. Maine, LL.D., Master of Trinity Hall, elected to the Professorship of International Law at Cambridge University, in succession to Sir W. Harcourt, who had held the Professorship from its foundation in 1867.

Numerous outrages by moonlighters and others reported from various parts of Ireland; the return of many of the "Invincibles," who had fled in 1882, also announced.

Owing to the large number of letters Sir George Trevelyan received in reference to the report that at the Devonshire Club dinner last week he had stated that "the game of law and order was up in Ireland," he communicated to the press the actual text of his speech. Referring to the course taken by the Conservative Government, Sir George said that they should have rigorously enforced the law and placed on the table of the House the first thing this session a thorough and comprehensive scheme for the government of Ireland. They had done neither. "At the very outset of the renewal of agrarian disturbances they had allowed the violence of the mob to overcome the officers of the law, and from that time the game of law and order was up in Ireland." In Lord Spencer's time neither police nor military had ever returned repulsed or defeated.

7.—It was announced to-day that Sir Michael Hicks-Beach had resigned the Chief Secretaryship for Ireland, and that Mr. A. J. Balfour, the Secretary for Scotland, had been appointed his successor. Sir Michael's retirement from the Irish office was said to be

entirely caused by ill-health. He had consulted several specialists, with the result that they declared he had a cataract in each eye, and that his general health was so much deteriorated that it was impossible for him to continue to discharge his official duties.

Died, aged 64, Thomas Watson, M.P. for the Ilkeston division of Derbyshire.

Died, aged 71, John E. Vernon, Irish Land Commissioner.

Died, aged 92, Father Beck, Superior of the Order of Jesuits.

9. Mr. Schnadhorst entertained at a banquet in London, and presented with ten thousand guineas in appreciation of his services to the Liberal party during the last twenty years. A letter was read from Mr. Gladstone expressing the belief that Mr. Schnadhorst's services would largely contribute to restore at no distant date the Liberal party to its old prominence. Mr. Schnadhorst, acknowledging the testimonial, said the Liberal leaders must make haste or the party would reunite without them. Sir William Harcourt said the Round Table Conference had shown that the subjects on which they were agreed were many and great, and those on which they differed were secondary and few.

As the result of an investigation by the Admiralty officials into the alleged supplying of information regarding British naval designs to foreign powers, the following notice was posted at Chatham Dockyard :- "Mr. Young Terry, draughtsman, having betrayed the trust reposed in him by selling information acquired by him in his official capacity, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have directed that he be publicly dismissed the service, and he has been dismissed accordingly."

10. Mr. Luke Fildes, A.R.A., elected to full membership of the Royal Academy, in the place of Mr. G. B. Richmond, R. A., retired.

11.-Sharp shock of earthquake felt at Monte Carlo, Cannes, and Dijon; and shocks of a more violent character at Marseilles, Ventimiglia, and Diano Marina.

Mrs. Samuels, the wife of a dairyman in Kentish Town, found murdered in broad day. light in her shop. Four or five men who had arrived from Wandsworth in a trap were supposed to have been the murderers, and their object to obtain possession of the safe, which they had removed from its place but not opened. The men got off long before any alarm was given.

Died, aged 80, Sir Wm. Andrews, C.S.I., a cultivated advocate of the Euphrates Valley Railway Scheme.

12.-Died H. H. the Rajah of Jhind, one of the great loyal Sikh chiefs of the Punjaub.

14.-Alexandra House, Kensington Grove, intended to provide a comfortable home for lady students of music, science, and art, opened

by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The building and site, which cost £150,000, were provided at the expense of Sir Francis Cook.

15. The sale of the collection of engravings of the late Duke of Buccleuch resumed at the rooms of Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods, London. The lots were all works after Sir Joshua Reynolds, and realised 2348/.

The Duchess of Otranto, aged 40, daughter-in-law of the famous Fouche, Napoleon's Minister of Police, blew out her brains in an attack of mania.

Died, aged 71, Wm. Collingwood Smith, landscape-painter.

16.-Speaking at Liskeard on the position of the Liberal party, Sir George Trevelyan said he had recently spoken some words rather sharply, but he maintained that the reunion of the party would be a result at which every patriot should rejoice. He preferred a settlement of the Irish question which was the work of a united Liberal party to any scheme carried out by the Conservatives; but he did not contemplate for a moment that the Liberal leaders who separated from the party owing to their objections to Mr. Gladstone's bills would reenter unless those objections were definitely met. He spoke of the change which had come over the Liberal party in recent years, and their determination not to touch any great question unless they settled it thoroughly. In order to carry out good work he hoped they would soon be reunited respecting Ireland. The duty of the objectors to Mr. Gladstone's bills was first to be clear upon the points on which they must insist before they came to any agreement whatever-and for his part he would insist to the end-and, secondly, to try to understand the position of their adversaries, and to use conciliatory language towards them.

Examination of Mr. Richard Belt, adjourned from March last year in consequence of the bankrupt's imprisonment, takes place in the London Bankruptcy Court. The accounts now produced showed debts unsecured, £30,572, and assets, £96.

17.-The Duc d'Aumale sends to the Prince of Wales a cheque for £500 in aid of the Imperial Institute Fund, as a mark of his profound and respectful attachment to her Majesty the Queen.

Mr. Gladstone, speaking at a dinner given to the Yorkshire members of Parliament, said, in reference to the present Government, that he would support them in the right and oppose them when in the wrong. Sir George Trevelyan had said the Irish question ought to be settled by the united Liberal party. He did not agree with that. The first thing to do was to settle the Irish question. Alluding to the last election, he said he thought the defeat was

owing in a great measure to the opposition raised by the Land Purchase Bill, and he had since thought it practicable that a system of purchase could be brought forward that would not pledge British credit. One means to secure that would be by the establishment of a real Irish Government.

17.-Upwards of one hundred and fifty banquets given in Paris to celebrate the anniversary of the proclamation of the Commune. A large meeting was held in London, at which Prince Krapotkin was the principal guest of the evening.

The railway to Quetta by the Hernai route completed, and the materials for the last stretch through the Pishin Valley brought forward for immediate use.

Died, aged 79, Sir Wm. Hardy, F. S. A., formerly Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, in which office he succeeded his brother, Sir T. Duffus Hardy.

Died, aged 91, Major John Quin Pardey, Peninsular veteran.

18. Mr. Dillon moves the adjournment of the Commons for the purpose of calling attention to the arrest of Father Keller, parish priest of Youghal, under a warrant issued by Judge Boyd. He explained that the reason Father Keller did not attend to the summons to appear in Court was that he felt that an outrageous insult had been put upon his cloth, and that it was part and parcel of a policy to compel him and other priests to turn informers. As regarded the disturbances which followed the issue of the warrant, there was not a man in the town who did not believe that the object of introducing the extra police was to create a riot and so provoke retaliation, and give an Mr. A. J. apology for a new coercion bill. Balfour said that a more unfounded accusation was never levelled by a public man against those responsible for the government of the country than had just been done by Mr. Dillon. He defended the action of Judge Boyd in ordering the arrest of Father Keller as being the only course which lay open to him, and justified the action of the commandant of the police in ordering them to charge the mob when the disturbance broke out. The law must be obeyed, and he believed it would be carried out peacefully in every district of Ireland if only agitators would cease from their baneful work, which was primarily responsible for all those unfortunate events. An animated discussion followed, and at length the motion for adjournment was negatived by 226 to 88 votes.

In the House of Commons, after prolonged discussion, the Closure Rule carried by 262 votes to 41, and made a Standing Order of the House,

In the Outer House, Lord Trayner found that defender's right had not been made out, and gave decree, with expenses; but their Lordships to-day unanimously reversed this decision, and gave absolvitor, with expenses. In their opinion the Doon is not a navigable or public river in any sense, and as the Marquis of Ailsa owns both banks, the public have no right of access to it. This decision ruled a Sheriff Court action with reference to the same subject, which was decided by the Sheriff in favour of the Marquis.

18.-Destruction by fire of the Richmond Hotel, Buffalo; 15 lives lost.

Died at Buenos Ayres, aged 40, William Denny, of Dumbarton shipbuilder and naval architect.

20. At a special sitting of the Dublin Bankruptcy Court the Rev. Daniel Keller, on taking the oath as a witness in the case of Patrick O'Brien, made a declaration that he would answer no questions that would tend to disclose any confidence reposed in him as a priest. In examination, Father Keller admitted that he knew the bankrupt, Patrick O'Brien; but on being asked whether he saw him in the Mall-House at Youghal on the 16th November, he refused to answer the question as it trenched on the secrecy of matters entrusted to him in his priestly character. Judge Boyd ruled that there was no legal justification for refusing to answer the question, and on Father Keller persisting a warrant for the rev. gentleman's committal to Kilmainham was made out. Father Keller was accompanied to prison by the Archbishop and his chaplain. The horse was unyoked by the crowd, who drew the cab amid a scene of wild enthusiasm to the prison gate, within which the Archbishop and the members of Parliament were admitted. On leaving Kilmainham Mr. W. O'Brien delivered an animated speech, in which he characterised the event just witnessed as one of the most memorable scenes in Irish history. He did not pity Father Keller; he congratulated and envied him. It was certain that no man living that day envied Judge Boyd's feelings, or those of Mr. Arthur Balfour, for they had entered upon a conflict the end of which would be the destruction of their power and of the infamous system of alien misrule of which they were the instruments.

21.-Colonel de Sandoval, who, three weeks ago, was found guilty of fitting out an expedition in this country to proceed against the Republic of Venezuela, was sentenced to pay a fine of £500 and the costs of prosecution; also to suffer one month's imprisonment as a firstclass misdemeanant.

22.-In the House of Commons, Mr. W. H. Smith moved for precedence for the Criminal Law Amendment (Ireland) Bill. Mr. John Morley moved as an amendment that the House declined to set aside the business of the nation in favour of a measure increasing the stringency of the criminal law, while no effectual security had been taken against the abuse of the law by the exaction of excessive rents. The debate on this amendment was continued on successive days till the 25th, when it was rejected by 349 to 260 votes.

The ninetieth birthday of the Emperor of Germany celebrated with great rejoicing at Berlin and throughout Germany.

23. Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by Princess Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg and suite, visited Birmingham in order to lay the foundation-stone of the New Victoria Assize Courts. At the Town Hall the Queen received an address from the Corporation, and, in her reply, stated her full appreciation of the cordial welcome that had been extended to her, her satisfaction at the vast improvements carried out by the energy of the Corporation since her last visit, nearly thirty years ago, and her admiration of the designs of the New Law Courts. Driving from the Town Hall to the site of the new Courts in Corporation Street, the Queen laid the foundation-stone of the buildings in view of another immense concourse of townspeople. The Royal party then drove slowly through a considerable portion of the town to Snowhill Station on the return journey south, being again at all points received with most demonstrative loyalty. In the evening the town was brilliantly illuminated.

Mr. Goschen, speaking at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor in the Mansion House at London, said the forthcoming budget would be of a humdrum description. He had not been long enough Chancellor of the Exchequer to be able with any degree of confidence to attempt to change the basis upon which taxation was now imposed, and though there were many changes and reforms desirable he could not divert the attention of Parliament to these until they had solved the question upon which the integrity of the empire depended.

24. In the Commons Mr. Gladstone, on resuming the Urgency debate raised by Mr. Morley's amendment, warned the Government against an unwise use of the power of cloture, and, proceeding to the merits of the question, declared that the present condition of affairs was very different from what it was in 1881. The description of crime which then prevailed in Ireland was that which especially threatened social order, and agrarian offences had doubled compared with the returns of the highest year since 1844. At present the object of crime, at its worst, was the concession of a certain reduction of rent. In every point the Government proceedings stood in glaring contradiction to the precedent which had been quoted as their sole justification, and those who had yet to speak for the Government must set about searching for some other plea.

Died at Lowick Rectory, Thrapstow, aged 70, Rev. Wm. Lucas Collins honorary Canon of Peterborough, editor of "Ancient Classics for English Readers."

Died, aged 71, Surgeon-General Wm. Rutherford, honorary Physician to the Queen.

Died, aged 80, William Stevens, proprietor of the Family Herald.

25. In the Commons, after several members had spoken, Sir Henry James addressed the House in support of the motion for urgency. Sir William Harcourt said the effect of the proposed Bill would be to give the landlords a greater power to enforce the payment of unjust rents, and the inevitable result to the Irish tenants would be great and cruel injustice. Provided the rents were just, there would be no need of a Coercion Bill at all, and the object they all had in view would have been attained by a simpler and a better method. Mr. Goschen, speaking for the Government, declared the proposed Bill was necessary owing to the present condition of Ireland, and the reasons which prompted its introduction were practically those which brought about the Bill of 1881. The House afterwards divided, when there voted-For Mr. Morley's amendment, 260; against, 349; majority against the amendment, 89. Mr. Smith's motion for urgency was afterwards adopted.

won by the former, which arrived off Roches Point, Queenstown. The boats started from Sandy Hook on the 12th inst., and after that night the Coronet lost sight of her rival. During the voyage some severe weather was encountered, and on the 22nd and 23rd only 38 and 50 knots respectively were made. The biggest run was logged on Saturday, the 26th -291 miles. Notwithstanding the severity of the weather the Coronet sustained no damage whatever. The Dauntless arrived on the evening of the 28th.

28.-Commencement of debate in the Commons on the proposed Criminal Law (Ireland) Amendment Bill, generally described by its opponents as the Coercion Bill, but which ultimately became the Crimes Act. In asking leave to-night to introduce the measure, Mr. Balfour said the amendment in Mr. Parnell's name that the House should resolve itself into a Committee to consider the state of Ireland-was unnecessary so far as the Irish members were concerned, for none could know better than they to what an unhappy condition they had reduced the country. Since 1845 there had only been seven years in which the present list of crimes had been exceeded in amount, and with the exception of 1880 exceptional legislation was in force in each of those seven years. At present 917 persons were under the special protection of 770 police, at an additional cost to the taxpayers of £55,000 a year. The right hon. gentleman proceeded to show from the charges of the judges that the law was not enforced over a large part of Ireland, and from the results of outrages and trials that persons were afraid to prosecute and that juries gave verdicts against the evidence. Not only was the law in abeyance, but its place was usurped by the National League. This being the case, he proceeded to detail the provisions by means of which the Government would endeavour to cope with the difficulty, and, in conclusion, he asked the House, in the cause of liberty, to assist the Government in breaking the yoke under which so large a portion of Ireland was now groaning. Mr. Dillon said if this measure were passed he would give up all hopes of seeing the people of England and Ireland shaking hands; if it were passed, he for one would either abandon all public agitation and leave the country, or, if the people were brave and willing, he would lead them to battle.

Died, Hon. W. Smith, Premier of British Columbia.

29.-Proclamation in the London Gazette prohibiting the importation into the United Kingdom of all foreign coins other than of gold and silver.

In the resumed debate on the Crimes Bill Mr. Gladstone opposed the motion on the ground that the allegations on which the