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to Dr. Schliemann in Keppel Street, to the Grosvenor Gallery, and to Mr. Boehm's studio in Fulham Road. The next day he again went to South Kensington, and visited Mr. W. Crooke, Mornington Road; after which he went to Messrs. Young's foundry in Eccleston Street, Pimlico, to inspect the equestrian statue of the Prince of Wales, by Mr. J. E. Boehm, destined for Bombay, in commemoration of the recent visit of His Royal Highness to India. He also inspected the statue of Sir John Burgoyne, and the last group just completed for the Wellington monument in St. Paul's Cathedral. He afterwards went to see Miss Thompson's pictures in New Bond Street; the Byron Memorial Exhibition at the Albert Hall; the Earl of Dudley's picture-gallery, and the collection at Grosvenor House, concluding the day by a visit to the Sir John Soane Museum in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.

THE EGYPTIAN COLLECTION OF THE LOUVRE has just been enriched by a very curious stone from a quadrangular ring, upon which are engraved two representations of an old Egyptian king of the eighteenth dynasty. On one side he is seizing a lion by its tail and making ready to strike it with his club-an emblem of victorious force, as explained by the word Ken-and on the other he is seen in his chariot of war trampling his enemies under foot. Monuments of the reign of this king are extremely rare, and therefore this small stone has a particular value and interest. It was discovered and bought for the Louvre by M. Pierret, the learned Egyptian conservator.

14. ASCOT CUP-DAY.-The Ascot meeting, favoured with splendid weather, has been a great success. The Ascot Tuesday has always furnished the very best day's racing of the entire year, and we doubt if there have ever previously been so many people present on the opening day. The Royal party arrived in state just before the first race was run. The Gold Vase produced the most interesting race of the day, being selected for the first appearance of Rosebery since his great handicap victories. He scarcely, however, looked quite up to the mark, and it was rumoured that he had been beaten in his trial. Skylark won in a canter. The result of the competition for the Gold Cup was that Petrarch won by a length, Skylark being second, and Coomassie third. The time, by Benson's chronograph, was 4 min. 33 sec.

ALFRED THE GREAT.-Count Gleichen has completed his statue of Alfred the Great executed for the birthplace of the great ruler, Wantage, through the liberality of Col. Loyd-Lindsay. It is of Sicilian marble, and 8 ft. in height, a fine bold figure, in the cross-gartered hose of the time, holding an axe in one hand and a charter in the other. The pose is good, and the cast of the cloak gives more variety to the back than statues generally exhibit.

16. SAD DEATH OF AN OFFICER.-An inquest was held at St. George's Workhouse, in the Borough, this day, concerning the death of Henry Augustus Williams, aged forty-five, formerly an officer in the army. From the evidence of his widow, who described herself

as the daughter of the late Rev. R. W. Hartshorne, curate at Christ Church, Blackfriars, and who was dressed in workhouse clothes, it appeared that the deceased had served as captain in the Royal Scots Guards, the Osmanli Irregular Cavalry, the Gold Coast Artillery, and in the second West India Regiment. Being desirous of improving his position he sold his commission for 1,000l. and embarked in some business undertaking in Canada. Not being acquainted with business, he was taken advantage of, and failed. He then returned to England, and tried to get employment in various ways. At last he was appointed an agent for the British Equitable Insurance Company. Failing also in this, he wrote for an appointment in the Turkish army; but in the meantime being, with his wife and three young children, absolutely in want, he applied for assistance to the Charity Organisation Society. The society entered into an investigation of his character from his youth upwards, and, having found it to be without stain, offered that if he could get a commission they would temporarily assist his wife and children. In the meantime, he was compelled by hunger and want to apply for admission to the workhouse, which they entered on June 11. The witness further stated that her husband was a thoroughly sober man, and was much esteemed in his regiment. Their friends had helped them, but he did not like to be continually making demands upon them. The landlord of the house in which the deceased had lodged previous to going into the workhouse said he thought the Charity Organisation Society had acted very badly in the case. It appeared to him that they never did attend to a really deserving case. The public ought to know that 75 per cent. of the income of the society goes in expenses. A medical witness said that on examination he found the deceased had died of apoplexy, no doubt caused by excessive sickness. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence.

21. AWFUL FIRE IN AMERICA.-A terrible fire has occurred at St. John's, New Brunswick. It began at two o'clock, and burned for twelve hours. The fire department is said to have been very slow in getting to work, and to have become demoralised by the extent of the disaster. The supply of water also proved insufficient; and a strong wind blowing, all that part of the city south of King Street is destroyed, including all the public buildings, houses, about half of the private residences, and part of the wharves and shipping. Seven lives were lost. Fifteen thousand persons are homeless, and ten or fifteen million dollars worth of property has been destroyed, about half of which is insured. There are great fears of famine. The United States Consul has telegraphed to New York and other cities for aid. Relief will be sent at once. Railway trains loaded with cooked food have already been despatched from Bangor and Montreal.

24. A COPIOUS SHOWER OF SAND fell upon Rome. Carried over from the deserts of Africa, it filled the upper atmosphere like a great cloud, and to such an extent that the sun at four o'clock in

the afternoon seemed entirely shorn of its rays, appearing like a pale moon of greenish tint. In some places the sand, mixed with water, fell in little drops of mud. In colour the sand has a reddish brick tinge, mixed with grains of vegetable pollen. The same atmospheric phenomenon was observed at Naples; but, although Vesuvius was in a partial state of eruption, no sand or cinders fell there. Telegrams from Naples report that all Saturday and Sunday Vesuvius was emitting great quantities of smoke.

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MIDHAT PASHA was in the House of Commons a few nights since, and was much amazed at the whole of the arrangements. The first thing that struck him was the grating in front of the ladies' gallery, and on being told what it was, he exclaimed, "And you accuse us of shutting up our women!" But what puzzled him most was the three-quarters of an hour's uproar with which a certain member was received and put down. But when he was told that this gentleman was "one of the rédacteurs of a leading paper, and one of the most unpopular members of the House," he chuckled and rubbed his hands, saying, "Then the paper is not so important after all, since its member is received with so much contempt. Certainly in our House the Speaker would have got up and boxed his ears." It was explained to him, however, that this would be against the rules, on which he replied, "Parfait, parfait, très-bon sens."

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26. BOILER EXPLOSION.-There has been another terrible boiler explosion in North Staffordshire. Two boilers suddenly burst at some ironworks at Chatterley, killing six men and two boys and injuring several other persons. No cause, it is stated, has yet been assigned for the explosion, and the coroner's inquest will no doubt, as is usual under such circumstances, return a verdict of accidental death. It may, however, be taken for granted that there was some cause for the explosion. On the same day on which the catastrophe occurred a report of Mr. Fletcher, the chief engineer of the Manchester Steam Users' Association, was read at the monthly meeting of that body, in which, alluding to nine boiler explosions which took place between April 21 and June 22, he points out that, although as many as twenty-three lives were sacrificed, these explosions were all due to the simplest causes, and might have been prevented by competent inspection and the exercise of due care. Some of the explosions arose from wasting of the plates, the metal being so reduced that it was no thicker than an old sixpence, while others arose from excessive and undue pressure of steam, and others, again, from the neglect of the simple precaution of strengthening furnace tubes with encircling hoops to enable them to resist collapse. In every case where coroners' inquests were held the usual verdict of accidental death was brought in.

A FATAL GLACIER ADVENTURE.-A shocking Alpine accident is reported. M. Henri Cordier, well known to English mountaineers as a prominent member of the French Alpine Club, has met

with his death on one of the glaciers at the base of Mont Pelvoux, in Dauphiné. M. Cordier was a cragsman of no mean order, and some of his expeditions of last year, including the ascent of the Aiguille Verte from the Argentière Glacier, of Les Courtes from the Talèfre Glacier, and of several peaks in the Pontresina neighbourhood, were made in conjunction with members of the English Alpine Club.

28. RECREATION GARDENS IN LONDON.-To-day, amid much public rejoicing, the disused burial-grounds of Old St. Pancras and of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, which now join each other, were opened as public recreation gardens, in the presence of Lady Burdett-Coutts and other visitor. The grounds, which have some historic interest, are in the Old St. Pancras Road, and the church in the centre of one is stated to be the last in England in which the ceremonies of the Romish Church were performed before the Reformation. Part of the grounds is the spot formerly known as the burial ground of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields.

30. MR. BRADLAUGH AND MRS. BESANT were called up for judgment before the Court of Queen's Bench for the offence of publishing the "Fruits of Philosophy," a book declared by the jury calculated to deprave public morals. The Lord Chief Justice, after rejecting a plea that the indictment was bad, and a demand for a new trial, declared that, as the defendants had set the law at defiance by circulating the book after the verdict had condemned it, the sentence, which otherwise would have been light, must be severe. Each defendant was therefore condemned to imprisonment for six months, to pay a fine of 200l., and to enter into recognisances in the sum of 500l. to be of good behaviour for two years,-good behaviour including, of course, the withdrawal of the book.

THE COLORADO BEETLE.-Simultaneously with the passage of the Danube by the Russians, it is announced that Sir Wilfrid Lawson's favourite dread, the Colorado beetle, has succeeded in effecting the passage of the Atlantic, and has landed on German soil, being first observed, with numerous larvæ, in a potato-field at Mülheim, near Cologne. The German authorities were equal to the occasion, and promising to indemnify the proprietor, they covered the field with sawdust and tanning-bark, over which they poured petroleum oil, which they set on fire. One beetle, however, was seen on the wing, so that the whole invading force was certainly not exterminated. "Coloured engravings" of the insect have been issued by our own Commissioners of Customs-just as coloured photographs of escaped criminals are issued by our Commissioners of Police to all and sundry likely to fall in with the potatobeetle, if he does come. But it will be an unequal war. The beetle, like Shelley's "Desolation," is a "delicate thing," which can easily find harbourage without being detected by our coarse faculties at all. We shall find it almost as difficult as to make war on Professor Tyndall's "germs."

OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE.-At the match at Lord's between

Oxford and Cambridge, the latter team were strong favourites, even though they had not done so well in the trial-matches as their rivals, and never was there a more complete upset of the public fancy. Though they were indubitably a fine batting team, only one of the Cambridge men-A. P. Lucas-played up to his form, their bowling was weak, and their fielding very poor, though an honourable exception must be made in the case of the Hon. E. Lyttelton, who kept wicket in splendid style. On the other side, F. M. Buckland gave a grand exhibition of batting, scoring 117, and, as he took no less than seven wickets, at an expense of only fifty-two runs, Oxford has to thank him for a hollow victory by ten wickets. Cambridge scored 134 and 126; Oxford 214 and no wickets down 47.

— THE CZAR.-The temporary residence fitted up for the accommodation of the Czar at Plojesti is most unpretending. It is but one storey high, and there are only eight rooms-a vestibule, an antechamber, a salon for the aides-de-camp and officers on duty, a smoking-room, a study, a reception-room, a bedchamber, and a salle à manger. Except the reception-room and the antechamber, they are all extremely small, but they are upholstered with much elegance. In the smoking-room, which is furnished in the Turkish fashion with luxurious ottomans and carpets, there is a portrait in oil of the late Emperor Nicholas and a chromolithograph of Princes Charles of Roumania on horseback. The Czar sleeps on an iron camp-bed, which he always carries with him. Sixteen is the largest number that sits at the Imperial dinner-table, and that only on gala occasions. There are no fewer than four hundred horses-many of them superb animals--attached to the service of His Imperial Majesty and his suite.

JULY.

4. BLEWITT'S BUILDINGS-The inhabitants of about twenty wretched houses in Blewitt's Buildings, a blind court in Fetterlane, were turned out by order of the Metropolitan Beard of Works, who had obtained the necessary orders to have the buildings razed to the ground, in order that artisans' dwellings might be erected in their place. The usual three months' notice to quit was given, but the majority of the tenants, who were of the very poorest class, had either forgotten the notice or were unable to get other lodgings. The authorities entered the court, accompanied by a number of police, and proceeded, as one old woman said, "to chuck the sticks out of window." In the course of an hour or two every house was empty, and men, women, and children, with their goods, were huddled together in the court. As the day advanced a few of the evicted tenants managed to get other lodgings, but most of them.

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