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OBITUARY.

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with the 4th Light Dragoons, 1846-51; entered the Diplomatic Service, 1862, and served in various parts of the world; appointed, 1875-7, British Agent on fishery Rights under the Washington Treaty, 1871; Minister at Athens, 1881-4; Madrid, 1884-92, which was raised to the rank of an Embassy, 1887; employed on various International Fisheries Commissions; appointed Ambassador at Constantinople, 1892-8, and at Borne, 1898-8. Married, 1857, Annie, daughter of Marquis Garofalo, of Naples. On the 81st, at Knoll Park, Almondsbury, aged 88, Thomas Wimam Chester-Master, of The Abbey, Cirencester. Educated at Eton; sat as a Conser- vative for Cirencester, 1887-44. Married, 1840, Catherine Eliza, daughter of Sir George Cornewall; third baronet. On the 81st, at St. John's Wood, N.W., aged 48, Harry Bates, A.R.A. Born at Stevenage, Herts; began life as a clerk to an architect; entered the Lambeth School of Art, 1879, and studied under Dalon, and afterwards entered the Royal Academy Schools, where he won the Gold Medal, 1888; went to Paris and studied under Rodin; exhibited at the Royal Academv " Mneaa " (1885), " Homer " (1886), etc., many of his later works being in relief; a colossal equestrian statue of Lord Roberts (1897). On the 31st, at Bilston, aged 46, Rev. Charles A. Berry, a prominent Nonconformist minister. Born at Southport; educated at Airedale College; first " called " to Bolton, 1874; moved to Wolverhampton, 1888; was invited to become Pastor of "Plvmouth Church," Brooklyn, N.Y., on the death of Rev. H. Ward Beecher. Died whilst conducting the funeral service of a colleague.

FEBRUARY.

Prince Alfred of Baxe-Coburg and Ootha, K.O. — Prince Alfred, the eldest child and only son of H.R.H. Prince Alfred of England, Duke of Edinburgh, and of the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, was born at Buckingham Palace, on October 15, 1874, and in consequence of his delicate health was educated privately in England, and the only public post occupied was that of a subaltern in the Devonshire Volunteers, 2nd Battalion. In the German Army, after the accession of his father to the Dukedom of Saxe- Coburg and G-otha, he was made a lieutenant d la suits in the Thuringian Regiment, and a lieutenant in the 1st Regiment of Prussian Guards. At the end of 1898 he left Coburg for Meran, where it was intended that he should spend part of the winter, but his health, which had long been a source of anxiety to his parents, never im- proved, and he died somewhat suddenly at Meran on February 5, from an attack of cerebral congestion.

Count von Caprivi. — George Leo, General Count von Caprivi de Caprera de Montecuculi, was the son of Julius Eduard von Caprivi, a distinguished Prussian official and member of the Upper House. He was born at Chariot- tenburg, 1881, educated at the Werder Gymnasium in Berlin, and entered the Prussian Guards in 1850, and in 1861 was attached to the general staff as captain. He served through the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 in Bohemia on the staff of the Com-

mander of the First Army Corps, and in the Franco-German War of 1870 he was chief of the staff of the Tenth Army Corps, and distinguished himself at Mars-la-Tour, and afterwards in the operations at Orleans and on the Loire. After the war General von Caprivi held various prominent posts, including that of Military Governor of Mets. From 1888 to 1888 he was Chief of the Admiralty, without, however, abandon- ing his military service in which he distinguished himself in the autumn manoeuvres, and was in this manner brought into close relations with the young Crown Prince who shortly afterwards succeeded to the Imperial Crown. It was, however, a matter of general surprise that on March 20, 1890, he was nominated by the young Emperor to take up the Chancellorship, which Prince Bismarck had been forced to resign. Beyond the reputation of being a man of strong purpose and anti-revolutionary views his political bias was unknown. He found him- self soon exposed to the hostile attacks of his predecessor, and the Junkers of the Bismarck party, who declared themselves against the " man without an acre or a straw."

Contrary to general expectation, General von Caprivi found means of gaining the support of the Radicals and even of the Social Democrats, by whose help he succeeded in passing through the Reichstag the Treaties of Commerce conoluded with Italy, Bel- gium and Austria-Hungary. The fall in the price of corn, subsequent upon VjOUv LC