Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/446

 22 CHBONICLE. [apbh.

12. At the meeting of the Royal Commission on the Liquor Laws, the chairman, Lord Peel, refused to put certain amendments to his draft report, or the substitution of an alternative scheme to one part of the report, and thereupon withdrew, declaring that so far as he was concerned the commission was at an end.

13. In the House of Commons the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced the Budget, which for the current year showed an expendi- ture of 112,927,0002., and an anticipated income on the existing taxation of 110,287,000*. The difference he proposed to obtain by increased stamp and wine duties, and the reduction of the fixed debt charge from 25,000,000/. to 23,000,000*.

— In the Public Schools' Racquet Match, Eton having defeated Winchester, and Harrow beaten Rugby, the final tie was decided by Eton defeating Harrow by four games to one.

14. A British police party attacked in the Kau-long (Hong-Kong) extension territory, and the mat-shed quarters of the troops burned. A gimtral and 100 men of the Hong-Kong regiment were sent for, and found 1,000 Chinese regular soldiers holding the hills, who after firing a volley, bolted.

— A farmer and his son waylaid near Bantry and beaten to death. Three men were arrested, one of whom, it was said, had been evicted from a farm, subsequently let to the murdered man.

15. The final tie for the Football Association Cup played on the Crystal Palace Ground, when Sheffield United beat Derby County by four goals to one.

— The great ice-breaker Yermak, built at Elswick, welcomed at St. Petersburg with great enthusiasm, having made the journey through the Baltic ice to Kronstadt without difficulty at the average rate of over nine knots per hour. Its subsequent destination was the White Sea, and the mouths of the Obi and Yenisei.

16. The Pope, in fulfilment of a promise given before his illness, took part in the Coronation Mass held in St. Peter's in the presence of an immense assemblage.

17. Hyde Park Court, a huge ten storey building, containing over 1,000 rooms, seriously damaged by a fire originating in a service-lift. Two-thirds of the two upper floors and their contents were destroyed, and much injury done by flames and water to the other parts.

— The Premiers of the Australian colonies forwarded formal pro- tests against the wine duties proposed by the new Budget.

— In accordance with orders from General Otis, commanding in the Philippines, General Lawton's expedition recalled to Manilla, and the towns and territory captured in the south abandoned.

19. The annual demonstration of the Primrose League held at the Albert Hall, Mr. A. J. Balfour presiding.

— At the Epsom Spring Meeting the Great Metropolitan Stakes won by the favourite, Lord Penrhyn's King's Messenger, 4 yrs., 7 st. 10 lb. (F. Allsopp), fourteen started ; and the City and Suburban Handicap