Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/493

 1899.] CHBONICLE. 69

large meeting in celebration of the tercentenary of Cromwell's birth held, at which Lord Rosebery delivered an eloquent address on Crom- well as a soldier, a ruler, and an upholder of British power.

14 The parliamentary session opened simultaneously at Paris, Berlin, Borne and Brussels.

15. The Queen paid a visit to Bristol to open the Convalescent Home erected in commemoration of her Diamond Jubilee. She was received with great enthusiasm, and after receiving an address and performing the ceremony, her Majesty returned to Windsor. (

— The Hamburg steamship Patna, from New York, took fire in the English Channel. Her 150 passengers and 118 crew were- safely landed at Dover, but with little clothing.

— A collision took place on the Dutch State Railway between Gouda and Rotterdam, the Flushing express running into a slow train owing to a fog. Five persons were killed on the spot, fifteen fatally injured, and as many more severely bruised and shaken.

16. The Leonid meteors, which had been earnestly looked for and confidently expected, seen in very small numbers from the various observatories of Europe and America.

— In the French Chamber of Deputies a vote of confidence in M. Wal deck-Rousseau's Ministry carried by an unexpected majority of 106 votes, the numbers being 317 Ministerialists and 211 Oppositionists.

— The lower part of Athens and the Piraeus flooded after pro- longed rains. Railway communication was interrupted, and immense damage done to the manufactories at Phalerum and the neighbourhood.

17. A colossal figure of Ferdinand de Lesseps unveiled at Port Said by the Khedive in the presence of the representatives of the various European Powers.

— M. Zakrevski, a Russian Senator and Privy Councillor, dismissed from his offices in consequence of articles in favour of Dreyfus pub- lished in some foreign newspapers.

18. The Hamburg steamship Patria, after drifting about the Downs, and an attempt to extinguish the fire having failed, sunk about two miles off Walmer Castle.

— In Paris M. Paul De>oulede succeeded in getting sentenced to three months' imprisonment for unseemly conduct and language during his examination before the High Court of Justice.

19. The unveiling of the colossal statue of the Republic by Dalou, erected in the Place de la Nation, Paris, took place, attended by a large gathering, computed at 250,000. The number of red flags in the trades processions attracted much comment, and President Loubet, who was to have been present at the ceremony, left the place on the fact being notified to him. The police, however, made no attempt to remove the revolutionary flags.

20. The German Emperor and Empress, with two of their sons, arrived at Portsmouth on board the yacht Hoheitzollern, on visit to the Queen at Windsor.