Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/438

 14 CHBONICLE. [mabch

4. The fifty-fifth Congress of the United States which sanctioned the war with Spain closed.

— At Edinburgh the international football match (Rugby Rules) was won by Scotland, which scored twenty-one points against ten by England, and the match between Ireland and Wales (Association) was won by Ireland by a goal to nothing.

5. The Lagouban naval magazine, near Toulon, containing 50,000 kilogrammes of black powder, exploded, killing all the soldiers on duty, forty-five in number, injuring at least 100 others, and laying the country bare within a radius of two miles.

6. The National Association of Master Builders gave notice of a general lock-out of the plasterers in consequence of the demands as to the arrangement of work made by the latter.

— In the House of Commons, the Secretary to the Treasury, Mr. Hanbury, obtained leave to bring in a bill to raise 2,000,000*., in order that the Post Office might put telephonic communication on a more satisfactory basis.

7. A case of plague, attributed to disregard of the quarantine at Jeddah, reported to have occurred among the Mecca pilgrims.

— Admiral von Knorr, chief of the German Navy and senior admiral, resigned his post,, the Emperor assuming direct command of the Navy as of the Army.

8. The National Liberal Federation held its annual meeting, when resolutions were carried in favour of the reform of the House of Lords, of the land and franchise laws, and welcoming the Czar's rescript. In the evening Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, as president, addressed a mass meeting.

— The Church Association issued a long reply to the manifesto of the English Church Union, charging that body with a deliberate attempt to undo and reverse the work of the Reformation.

— The election for the Elland Division of the West Riding of York- shire, caused by the retirement of Mr. T. R. Wayman, resulted in the return of Mr. C. P. Trevelyan (L.), who received 6,041 votes against 5,057 polled by Mr. P. S. Foster (C).

— In the French Chamber, the War Minister, M. de Freycinet, speaking on the Army Estimates, stated the total number of effectives was 557,000 men, and that it would be impossible to handle a larger number of men in the zone between Switzerland and Luxemburg.

9. The formal opening of the London extension of the Great Central Railway (formerly the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln Railway), performed at the Marylebone terminus by the President of the Board of Trade, Mr. C. T. Ritchie.

— A force of 2,000 American troops, en route for Manilla, landed at Malta, and were inspected by the governor.

— In the House of Commons, Mr. Goschen introduced the Navy Estimates for the years 1899-1900, amounting to 26,594,500*., or nearly 3,000,000/. in excess of those of the previous year.