Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/471

 1899.] CHEONICLE. 47

29. The Peace Conference at the Hague held its final sitting, when the various conventions were signed by the representatives of the Powers — or referred by them to their respective Government— that on arbitration being most generally accepted.

— At Hull a large grain storehouse, and the contents of an extensive timber-yard, totally destroyed by fire.

— M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire published in a Paris newspaper the results of his inquiry into the Dreyfus case, of which the president of the Rennes court-martial refused to take cognisance.

31. The Archbishop of Canterbury delivered at Lambeth Palace the conclusions arrived at by himself and the Archbishop of York, declaring the ceremonial use of incense and processional lights to be illegal.

— A peerage conferred upon Sir Julian Pauncefote, G.C.B., in re- cognition of his services as principal representative of Great Britain at the Peace Conference at the Hague.

— The parliamentary committee, to which the Belgian Elec- toral Bills had been referred, rejected the Government measure by eight votes against seven abstentions. The Belgian Premier, M. Van den Peereboom, at once tendered his resignation and that of his colleagues.

AUGUST.

1. Some excitement caused by the failure of two banks at Montreal in which the French artisans had deposited their savings.

— A revolution in favour of Jimenez broke out in the western portion of the Island of San Domingo.

— In consequence of the partial failure of the monsoon in Bombay, the Central Provinces and Madras, a general failure of the rice and grain crops threatened the renewal of famine in these provinces.

2. The Italian Government announced Its intention of abandoning the occupation of Sammun Bay, which had been ceded to Italy by China.

— An Inter-Parliamentary Peace Conference opened at Christiania under the presidency of M. Steen, Norwegian Minister of State.

— M. Delcass£, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, left Paris for St Petersburg.

— The British North Borneo Company, on the invitation of the Tambunans, consented to occupy and administer the hinterland (about 500 miles in extent) of the company's possessions.

3. The naval manoeuvres closed with the safe arrival of Admiral Domvile's fleet and convoy at Milford Haven, which, owing to a fog in the Irish Channel lasting forty hours, had managed to elude pursuit by Admiral Rawson's cruisers.

— The annual race for Doggett's Coat and Badge rowed from London Bridge to Putney, and won by John See of Hammersmith, in 27 min. 34 sec.