Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/480

 56 CHRONICLE. [sept.

9. A canal embankment in the Stour Valley, near Dudley Port, gave way, causing the escape of water from a long reach between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and doing much damage.

— A fanatical outbreak against Christian Armenians occurred at Kazoni, in Persia. On receipt of orders from Teheran, 300 persons were arrested, among whom cutting off of hands, ears and noses, and severe bastinadoing were freely distributed.

11. A collision occurred at the Exchange Station, Manchester, be- tween an excursion train and a passenger train standing in the station. About thirty-five persons were injured, several seriously.

— News reached Paris of the total destruction of the Fourneau Lamy expedition at the oasis of AJfr by an immense body of Tuaregs. The object of the expedition was to open up communication between Algeria and Lake Chad. The news proved unfounded.

— A general rainfall of from two to three inches in Western India, and the Deccan dissipated in great measure the fears of an impending famine.

12. The reply of the British Government to the Transvaal Govern- ment demanding the equality of Dutch and English in Parliament read in both Raads, where it was regarded as an ultimatum.

— A desire to boycott the Paris International Exhibition of 1900 expressed in many centres of trade in England, Belgium, Italy, the United States, etc., and many notices of withdrawal by intending exhibitors sent to their respective commissioners.

— A national monument in commemoration of the first Danish- German war, 1848-50, unveiled at Copenhagen in presence of the King, the Czar and Czarina, the Princess of Wales, etc.

13. The British Association met at Dover, and was attended by several French men of science. The president, Sir Michael Foster, delivered the inaugural address, dealing chiefly with the external changes of life during the century due to scientific discovery.

— A violent cyclone passed over Bermuda, doing a vast amount of damage to public and private property and buildings. The breakwater was seriously injured, much of its face being washed away.

— At Leutschistz, in the Government of Kalisch (Russian Poland), a panic occasioned by the upsetting of a lamp in the Jewish synagogue, and thirty-two women and children crushed to death, and many others injured.

14. Mr. Schreiner announced in the Cape House of Assembly that bubonic plague had broken out at Magude on the coast near Delagoa Bay, and that forty-two cases had occurred, all of them fatal.

— A new Ministry, with Mr. W. J. Lyne as Premier, constituted at Sydney, N.S.W.

15. Mr. John Morley, M.P., and Mr. Leonard Courtney, M.P., addressed a largely attended meeting at Manchester, criticising severely the conduct of the negotiations with the Transvaal Govern- ment. The meeting was much interrupted at first by the supporters