Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/481

 1809.] CHRONICLE. 57

of the Government, but a resolution in favour of the adoption of pacific means and of the recognition of the Transvaal was carried by a large majority.

16. The annual report of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade showed that the proportion of unemployed in 1898 had been lower than for several years, that the hours of labour had been short- ened, and that the aggregate rise of wages had been 95,000/. per week.

— The Raads at Pretoria finally considered the British despatch, and settled a negative reply to the demands contained therein.

— Serious floods took place in various parts of Austria, the lower parts of the city of Vienna were inundated, and the iron bridge over the Traun, near Gmunden, carried away with nineteen workmen engaged on it.

16. At Polna, in Bohemia, a Jew found guilty of having murdered at Easter a young Christian girl in conjunction with two unknown accomplices. It was assumed throughout the trial, which was domi- nated b> the Anti-Semitic party, that it was a case of " ritual " murder, the blood of the victim being required for Jewish religious rites.

— .The Venezuelan insurgents under General Castro, after a san- guinary struggle captured Valencia, and afterwards occupied Puerto Cabello, which was abandoned by the President, General Andrade, and the Government authorities.

— At Rochdale, H. Watkins, the champion ten mile runner, accom- plished 11 miles, 1,286 yards in an hour.

17. A mass meeting, attended by upwards of 50,000 persons, held in Hyde Park to express sympathy with Captain Dreyfus.

18. The French Senate assembled at the Luxembourg as a High Court of Justice for the trial of twenty-two persons accused of com- plicity in Royalist, Bonapartist, and Nationalist plots against the republic

— A severe storm swept over the coast of Newfoundland, doing great damage to the fishing settlements and their boats, and causing the loss of upwards of thirty lives.

— Bubonic plague reported to have broken out in Asuncion, Paraguay.

-— The Prince of Wales at Bal later presented new colours to the first battalion of the Gordon Highlanders.

19. President Lou bet, after consulting the Cabinet, exercised his powers by granting a pardon to Captain Dreyfus, who was almost immediately released, and left Rennes for the south.

— A collision occurred at Perth Station, where a Glasgow train ran into a North-Western Railway train which had just arrived from London.

— The decision of the archbishops on the use of incense and portable lights almost generally accepted by fohe Ritualist clergy throughout the kingdom.