Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/483

 1899.] CHRONICLE. 59

24 A demonstration held in Trafalgar Square to protest against war with the Transvaal, ended in a fiasco, the assembled crowd refusing to hear the intending speakers.

25. The Servian state trial at Belgrade, having lasted eighteen days, brought to a close. Knezevitch, the would-be assassin of ex-King Milan was condemned to death, and shot a few hours later; two prisoners were sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude ; one, a leading Radical politician to nine years ; the Radical Parliamentary leader and seven others to five years' imprisonment.

— A great strike of workmen engaged in the iron foundries at Creuzot, in which 6,000 men were involved, took place, the reasons alleged being wholly unconnected with wages.

— The Filippinos surprised and destroyed an American gunboat on the Orani River, and captured the officer and nine men in charge of her.

26. The district of Darjeeling visited by a succession of earthquake shocks following on a heavy rainfall, which caused serious landslips- Upwards of 300 lives were lost, and an enormous amount of damage done.

— Admiral Dewey received with great enthusiasm at New York on his return from the Philippines.

27. The Venezuela Arbitration Commission, assembled in Paris, closed its sittings after fifty-five days, of which thirty-two were occupied by the Venezuelan, and twenty-two by the British counsel in stating their respective cases.

— General de Galliffet, French Minister of War, addressed a letter to Colonel Picquart informing him that the inquiry into the manage- ment of the funds of the Secret Service Department by him showed there was no ground for suspicion against him.

28. The Spanish Cabinet decided to tender its resignation in conse- quence of the refusal of the Minister of War to reduce his estimates to the extent required by the Minister of Finance.

— The International Geographical Congress opened at Berlin by Prince Albrecht of Prussia, Professor von Richthofen delivering the presidential address.

— At Newmarket the Jockey Club Stakes, 10,000 sovs., won by the Duke of Westminster's Flying Fox, 3 yrs., 8 st. 9 lb. (M. Cannon). Eight started.

29. The Queen, at Balmoral, presented a new set of colours to the second battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders, who had arrived from Fort George.

— A Cabinet Council, summoned in anticipation of the reply of the Transvaal Government to the last despatch, met at the Foreign Office ; and, in the absence of a reply, drafted a despatch formulating the British proposals for a settlement.

— At the Guildhall Alderman Newton, the senior candidate in rotation, unanimously elected Lord Mayor of London for the ensuit year.

$GIBI8§fe