Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/451

 1899.] CHEONICLE. 27

11. Mr. Andrew Carnegie, the great American ironmaster, intimated his willingness to contribute 50,0002. to the projected Birmingham University.

— In the House of Commons, on the discussion of the Finance Bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer consented to modify the extra taxes on wines announced in his Budget speech by sixpence a gallon on bottled wines, and to reduce the charge on light wines from one shilling and sixpence to one shilling and threepence per gallon.

12. A disastrous explosion occurred in the chlorate factory of chemical works at St. Helens, Lancashire. The surrounding buildings to a considerable distance were wrecked, six persons killed, and twenty seriously injured.

— The Russian Minister at Pekin applied to the Chinese Govern- ment for a concession for a new branch railway to connect Port Arthur and Pekin.

— The men of the Nebraska regiment (supported by their officers) serving in the Philippines, petitioned the general commanding to be relieved from duty, in consequence of exhaustion. The regiment had lost more than 200 men since the beginning of the campaign, and of 300 left at the front, 160 were on the sick list.

— A collision took place on the Philadelphia and Beading Railway, by which thirty-five persons were killed, and upwards of a hundred injured. .

13. The Right Rev. George Carnac Fisher, formerly Bishop Suffragan of Southampton, appointed Bishop Suffragan of Ipswich.

— General Pelloux, the outgoing Italian Prime Minister, presented a reconstructed Cabinet composed solely of Conservatives, which was accepted by the King.

— A state of siege proclaimed in the city of Valladolid in conse- quence of the repeated affrays in the streets between the university students and the cadets of the cavalry school.

14. The library of the Paris Chamber of Commerce, containing 40,000 volumes, and considered the best collection of works on trade and political economy in France, totally destroyed by fire.

— The historic drama " Eisenzahn," professedly the work of Major Lautt, but admittedly written under the direct guidance of the German Emperor, produced with great success at Wiesbaden.

15. The Queen, accompanied by the Princess Henry of Battenberg, arrived in London from Windsor, and on her way to Buckingham Palace paid a long visit to Kensington Palace.

— Six Englishmen, five of whom had been non-commissioned officers, and a Dane, arrested at Johannesburg on a charge of high treason, and conveyed to Pretoria. They were alleged to have enlisted 2,000 men for purposes hostile to the republic

— The Decorations Committee of St. Paul's Cathedral, in view of the generally expressed disapproval, decided to discontinue the stencilling of the flat stonework of the arches.