Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/479

 1899.] CHRONICLE. 55

5. The Australian cricketers closed their season, having played thirty-five games (irrespective of the hve great matches against England), of which they had won sixteen, drawn sixteen, and lost only three — viz., those against Essex, Surrey and Kent.

6. A violent thunderstorm, accompanied by a heavy downpour of rain, passed over the southern parts of London. About an inch of rain fell in half an hour, causing some interruption of traffic on the Midland and Metropolitan Railways.

— A general exodus of Outlanders took place at Pretoria and Johannesburg, the large financial houses at the latter removing their staff and books to Cape Town.

— At Doncaster the St. Leger Stakes won by the favourite, the Duke of Westminster's Flying Fox, 9 st. (M. Cannon), six started ; and the Doncaster Cup by the same owner's Calveley, 4 yrs., 9 st. 4 lb. (M. Cannon), three started.

— The Legislative Council of Victoria rejected by 27 to 17 votes the Women Suffrage Bill.

7. The New South Wales Ministry, after a week's debate, defeated in the Legislative Assembly by 78 to 40 on a vote of censure moved by a member of the Labour party.

— A heated debate took place in the First Volksraad of the Trans- vaal concerning the mobilisation of British troops on the borders, but no vote was taken.

— The German Emperor before leaving Strasburg, where he had been present at the autumn manoeuvres, appealed to the dignitaries of the Church to devote their energies to strengthening confidence in the Crown, and added that "the Church's only hold is the imperial hand."

8. A Cabinet Council suddenly summoned in view of the critical position of affairs in South Africa— all the ministers coming from various parts of the country assembled at the Foreign Office. It was decided to despatch 10,000 men from England and India to Natal and

• Cape Colony.

— Mr. Clinton Dawkins, financial member of the Viceroy's Indian Council, introduced the currency, making gold a legal tender, and fixing the rupee at 16d., the Government incurring no obligation to give gold for rupees.

— The Spanish Catholic Congress, assembled at Burgos, separated after sitting a week, during which its proceedings had been marked by disloyalty to the Queen-Regent and hostility to the Papal Nuncio.

9. After proceedings lasting over a month, the Rennes court martial, by 5 votes to 2, found Captain Dreyfus guilty of handing over to a foreign Power the documents enumerated in the bordereau. The Court found extenuating circumstances, and he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The verdict was accepted calmly in France, but universally condemned in every other country of the world as a travesty of justice.