Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/499

 1899.] CHBONIOLE. 75

that the Government must prosecute the war so as to bring it to an end as promptly as possible.

20. At a meeting of the Common Council, held at the Guildhall, the Lord Mayor proposed that the City of London should provide a regi- ment of 1,000 men chosen from the marksmen in Volunteer regiments, and that the cost of the equipment and despatch of the men to South Africa should be borne by the Corporation, the City of London, and the City Livery Companies. Messrs. Wilson of Hull placed at the disposal of the City a fitted transport for three months.

— The election for Clackmannan and Kinross, consequent on the appointment of Mr. J. B. Balfour (L.) to the Presidency of the Court of Session, resulted in the return of Mr. Wason (L.) by 3,489 against 2,973 votes given to Mr. Younger (U.).

— M. Deroulede sentenced to a further term of two years' imprison- ment for again grossly insulting the President of the Republic and the High Court before which he was being tried.

21. At a meeting of the council of the Prince of Wales' Hospital Fund, held at Marlborough House, it was stated that the receipts for the year had been 47,808J.— about 9,000/. above those of the preceding year.

— In response to a request, Lord Roberts sent a message to the American and Canadian peoples expressing himself grateful for their sympathy and entire confidence in the British soldiers.

22. Insalah, an oasis in the Sahara Desert, east of Tuat, occupied by the French scientific expedition under M. Flamant, who, having repulsed a body of 1,200 troops, the natives of the surrounding country made their submission. %

— A terrible landslip occurred at Amalfi, on the Bay of Naples, a huge portion of the rock above the town detached itself, and swept away the Albergo dei Capuccini and a number of other houses, smashed the lighthouse, and swamped several boats and steamers.

— The Austrian Cabinet formed by Count Clary resigned in con- sequence of the continued obstruction of the Czechs, and reformed under Dr. von Wittek.

— An explosion took place in the chemical house of the Douglas (Isle of Man) Gasworks, followed by a serious fire, by which much damage was done, and three workmen lost their lives.

— Mr. Winston Churchill, who had been taken prisoner near Colenso, and sent to Pretoria, escaped, and after much hardship reached Delagoa Bay in safety.

23. The holiday traffic much impeded by | three railway accidents, two of which were due to the dense fog which hung over the south of England. At Wivelsfield, near Hayward's Heath, the Brighton express ran into the Newhaven boat train ; six persons were killed, and upwards of twenty-six injured. At Slough a Bristol express ran into a Windsor train, but only two persons were seriously injured. On the Caledonian Hail way a passenger train ran off the metals between Strathaven and Hamilton, and fell down an embankment. A guardjand two passengers were killed, and ten passengers seriously injured.