Flintshire Observer Mining Journal and General Advertiser for the Counties of Flint Denbigh

GEORGE HOAR, HERO. A story of heroism is told among the usually prosaic announcements of the London Gazette in ex- planation of the services for which the Queen has conferred the decoration of the Albert Medal of the Second Class on George Hoar, boatman, of the Tyne- mouth Coastguard Station. On the occasion of the wreck of the schooner Peggy, during a severe gale with a very heavy sea on the night of October 13, 1891. after four men had been rescued from the wreck by means of the rocket apparatus, the captain of the Peggy informed the chief officer of the coast- guard that there was another man still on board the wreck in a disabled state, he having fallen out of the rigging on to the deck of the vessel in attempting to get into the breeches buoy. George Hoar immediately volunteered to go off to the wreck and bring the man on shore, and was hauled off to the wreck, a distance of 150 yards, through the heavy sea, in face of a tremendous gale from the south-east. He found on vessel that he could not reach the n*an, j? <wir hawser Having been secured li feet a -m]a (where the man lay helpless and in an u state). He then signalled to be hauled on shore again, to confer with the chief officer; short y wards he was again hauled off, and on reacbin0 wreck the hawser was eased, so as to allow I the breeches buoy) to reach the man on the dec • As the man was perfectly helpless, George Hoar, with his legs seized the man round the body, and held him with both hands by his coat collar, and in this manner the two men were safely hauled on shore, the sea at times washing completely over them.

EmiiqzwT Counsel: Yes, gentlemen of the jury, you will-oh, I know you will restore my persecuted client to the arms of his wife and little ones, who The Court: Your client is a bachelor."

MR. GOSCHEN'S CURRENCY PROPOSALS. Mr. Goschen has addressed a letter to Mr. Mon- tagu, M.P., with regard to the letter of which the latter gentleman has given notice of a resolution to be moved at the Chamber of Commerce with regard to the currency question. The Chancellor of the Ex- chequer Pays The term reserve itself has caused some confusion. I have myself spoken of metallic reserves in a non-technical sense, meaning the final stock of gold on which the country might in emer- gencies fall back. I was, of course, aware of the elementary fact that what is known as the Bank Reserve" is something totally different namely, the reserve of notes and coin in the Banking Department of the Bank of England, not in the Issue Department. I in- tended by the introduction of the £ 1 notes'to in- crease the stock of gold in the Issue Department, but with the ultimate view that, in emergencies, under stringent conditions, an addition to the Banking Reserve in the Banking Department might be made by an increase of the fiduciary issue. I hold that the establishment of a larger proportion of gold to securities in the Issue Department would justify us in sanctioning that increase, whereas it would clearly be attended with much less safety if authorised with the stock of gold at the point at which it has generally stood when the Bank Charter Act has been sus- pended. Some of my critics have pointed out that my plan does not strengthen the Bink Reserve in. ordinary times. That is true, but I have never suggested that it does. But," they reply, that is just what is most wanted." This, again, is true to a certain extent; but it is a matter with which the great banking institutions of the country, including the Bank of' England, are perfectly competent to deal. I have called attention to the subject, I hope not without some effect. But my proposals do not profess to compass that object. They look, in fact, though no longer in form, to a second reserve-what I may call an emergency stock of gold in the Issue Department, lying dormant and not affecting the Bank Reserve" ar, all, until, under certain exceptional conditions, it enables an extra issue to be made which does increase the Bank Reserve." With regard to another mis- apprehension, Mr. Goschen says he has never sug- gested that his object was to better secure the note. What he wants is practically a stock of gold in excess of what is necessary to secure the note. He further denies that the adoption of his plans would be specially advantageous to the Bank of England.

PLOUGHING WITH DYNAMITE. This, says &ience Sif tings, is one of the latest and most innocent uses to which this infernal explosive has been put. The dynamite is fired electrically, and succeeds in loosening the earth to a depth of two orthree feet, and thus allows the absorption of con- siderable moisture in periods of drought. The inventor of this ingenious tilling of the soil driJs holes two or three feet deep and fire feet apart, making1600 to the acre. In each hole is placed a sufficient quantity of the explo- sive, connected with a wire leading to the battery, and after the holes have been plu|ged with clay the whole is discharged by a spark. in recent experi- ments made each charge was about one-fourth the size of a small-sized dynamite cartridge containing about one ounce of powder. After the explosion the ground appeared to be lifted two feet, some clods being thrown to the height of 30ft., while the earth was found to be broken to the depth of 30in. at the point of the explosion and for a considerable distance around the holes.

wi,U ,^<1 to learn that the reports of Lord Salisbury s ill-health were exaggerated. A RUSSIAN officer has just handed to Prince eorge o Greece the stick with which the Prince Tlfr w aimed at the Czarevitch in Tokio. e 8(l1™ 1? covered with gold and has the inscrip- tion, To Prince George, for valour." DUITIN(, the snowstorm which visited co. Tyrone on loth inst., two little girls, named Quin, were lost after leaving school to return to their home in the Coppagh mountain district. Subsequently they were found dead, clasped in each other's arms, in a partly- thawed snowdrift. IN an advertisement by a railway company of un- claimed goods, the letter I" dropped from the world lawful, and so the advertisemenfappropriately reads, People to whom these packages are directed are notified to come forward and pay the awful charges on the same."

ALLOTMENT GARDENS. A garden society" has (the Daily Graphic re- marks) been formed on that London Riviera, the Isle of Dogs, to which attention may well be directed relative to the question of what can be got out of an acre of land. Assuredly Mr. Gladstone did good service when, quoting £10 as the profit produce in many cases, he challenged an examination sub- ject which has already produced a mass of wlbful information. Statements, true enough in themselves, have declared farming on a large scale to be the most economical, yet unable to command a profit of half, nor even a quarter, of £10. Then how can small cultivators (working less economically) secure a greater profit ? In both these cases extremely exact defini- tion of detail is necessary. Large farmers—reference is here made to the occupier of say 800 acres-on parts of their land can, by special cultivation, make even E20 to JE30 an acre. In onion cultivation £ 60 to M an acre are sometimes incurred for nfnure, seeding, weeding, and harvesting, and the crop has often been worth E100 and upwards. Such instances might be largely multiplied, but yet they would not disturb the fact that £ 5 an acre profit cannot be realised by farming on a large scale. Nor will this conclusion disturb the other fact that E10 an acre profit may often be realised by small cultivators. "Godspeed the spade!" may be given as a motto to our garden societies all over the kingdom. That allotments are rapidly extending, we are assured by the president of our Board of Agricul- ture, and the following brief history encourages such 1 progress. Londoners who remember Leicester-square, when Tom Tiddler was tenant, and the space seemed a magnet to attract all the unsightly refuse of. the vicinity, may imagine 17 acres of waste land in the J East of London, when the writer visited it a few years ago. The soil was recommended as suitable for grow- ing tobacco on a field scale. It was ready to hand, with its Nile-mud qualities for experiments to be tried, such as had been sanctioned by the authorities of Somerset House. However, this "no man's land," rented by Mr. John McDougall, from the Millwall Decks Company, was passed over, and a transformation scene awaited it, for the wilderness has since become a garden, worked by 177 gardeners, each of whom has about 540 square yards. Every plot has been taken, a ballot being necessary to elect from the many applicants. The rent is some os. per plot, which is free from rates and taxes, and the successful allotters have formed themselves into a Garden Society, of which the first year's report—a most satisfactory one-is before us. We have been assured, moreover, what is not stated in the formal report, that each gardener has made a produce profit of £2 up to £5 a plot- say. jE28 an acre*—against which have to be debited rent, 45s.; manure and road sand, 125s., and the value of labour, the might that slumbers in a peasant's arm '*—nor should the nearness of an in- satiable market for fresh garden stuff be forgotten- leaving as a reward for the healthful labour of the eight or nine gardeners a welcome addition of about Is. per week to each of them. God speed the spade!

PRINCE GEORGE OF WÁLES." The death of the Duke of Clarence has made his brother Prince George the ultimate Heir to the Throne. A writer in the Daily Chronicle says Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert bears the name which is typical of his dynasty-at least, if he ever becomes King George V. men will say so. But there his resemblance to the other Princes of that name ends. He is a bright, lively, quick-witted young man, with a keen sense of public dutifulness, and an easy, tolerant, joyous nature, which has endeared him to many friends in many lands. Like his brother, he was not sent to a public school, and his education was intensely modern. Prince George was extremely popular, when aboard the Bacchante, with the other middies in the gunroom mess, and, like them, was not averse to indulgence in those practical jokes with which our budding Nelsons divert the monotony of life on board ship. Wherever he went he brought away with him the most charming reminiscences of bound- less hospitality and cordial welcome. On his hosts he left the impression of a free-spoken, happy-hearted gallant lad, less shy and dignified than his brother, but full of the liveliest interest in everything that was going on, and bent on learning as much as he could from his travels. Everybody said that Prince George was every inch of him his father's son, and we do not know that it is possible to give a more vivid epitome of his character. After their return lie and his brother took different roada-ia life. Prince George chose the sea as his profession, and ,accordingly went to the Naval College at Greenwich to study for his examination as a eub-lieutenant. Here again he enjoyed no special privileges, except that he bad a set of rooms to himself, and it was a curious indication of his nature that his soleiSea of decorating them was to fill them with the photo- graphs of his relations and comrades. When became to college he was found to be bright and intdjH&»nt, though rot particularly well trained. It was^wStie' had to be specially coached to make up for defi- ciencies, and it is certain that his mother, the Princess, was very anxious about his studies, msiting him very often to encourage him to be diligent. And diligent he was-as diligent as most young men of rank who go into the navy without having any consuming passion for the life of a sailor. Still, the impression left on those who knew him best was that though he took a keen interest in some subjects, and was boyishly eager to beat some of his friends in test examinations in them, he would cer- tainly not give his voice for increasing the severity of naval exams if ever he became Lord High Admiral. Prince George of Wales is the silent member of the Royal family. He has not yet made a speech which has been extensively reported. None of his sayings have gained currency. But he is reputed to be a gay conversationalist, in whose talk there is a ^fifstlhct flavour of Guelphic humour, and he is highly popular among young men and women of his own age who are fitted by their station to associate intimately with him. He is a bluff, hearty youth and, though his attainments in seamanship have not been put to the test, there is no reason to doubt that his career is full of professional promise.

« KISSING THE BOOK." Members of the medical profession are more fre- quently called upon as witnesses than clergymen, members of the Bar, solicitors, or indeed members of any other profession. Some have complained of the necessity of having to apply to their lips a book which has been handled and kissed by uo many previous witnesses as to become an unclean thing. Others minimise the evil by kissing the open page. A third class conclude, says the Lancet, that what cannot be cured must be endured, and so submit meekly to what is really not such a trifle as may appear at first sight. The same remark applies to jurors, interpreters, and others. The only persons who are spared the in- fliction are Quakers and Separatists, and unbelievers, who, however, form but a small proportion of the whole number of jurors or witnesses. It is to be hoped that those with whom rests the responsibility of the continuance of the objectionable practice are not waiting for absolute proof of infection being conveyed by this means-a contingency by no means remote. The loving cup which is handed round at the Lord Mayor's and other banquets may be accented or refused, but the book must be kissed by the witness, and it is the duty of the person administering the oath to see that this is duly done. It has been suggested that witnesses, especially those whose appearance in the box is frequent, should have their own books, which, as a glance would verify the fact that it was a copy of the Gospels or of the Pentateuch, seem: reasonable enough. Another suggestion, however, is that kissing the book should be dispensed with alto- gether, the form of adjuration being the holding up of the right hand. It is very remarkable that while the kissing of the book has held its own with such persistency in England, Wales, and Ireland, the Scotch have with equal persistency maintained their mode of oath administration, which is by the uplifted right hand, the necessity for handling and kissing a dirty greasy book being thus altogether dispensed with. The superiority of the Scotch mode of adjuration is i* this respect manifest.' But this is not all. Those who have to frequent courts of law must have beep pain- fully impressed by the total absence of solemnity or reverence too often shown by the person who ad- ministers the oath. To the younger members of the medical profession the proceeding savours of a farce, and familiarity does not improve this feeling, but literally and truly breeds contempt. Here, again, the Scotch method is superior. The presiding officer of the court, whether judge or sheriff, rises and holds up his right hand; the witness does the same. The judge repeata the words of the oath, which, it may be added, are simpler but more solemn than the English form, the witness repeating them after the judge. Those who have seen witnesses sworn in both countries un- hesitatingly pronounce in favour of that used in Scot- land. It is not only more cleanly, but also more solemn and impressive. There will, no doubt, be difficulties to overcome in the face of established usage but it is, to say the least, anomalous that two such totally different modes of adjuration should prevail jin the same kingdom. Why should there not be some approach to unifor- mity. that mode being adopted which is jn an respects preferable ? Judges have complained of the English form as not being simple enough for witnesses of tender age. This cannct be urged against the Scotch form, which is simplicity itself More recently the oath has been administered by the judge's marshal instead of the court crier, a proceed- ing suggestive of the gradual approach to the presid- ing judge, and it is to be hoped to a more radical change. The matter has been dealt with in the aspect in which it would occur to medical minds. Under no other circumstances are men and women called upon to handle and kiss anything in common. This, however, is only part of the question, the other part of which we have no wish to ignore. On the contrary, it is of the greatest importance that members of the medical profession should when they become witnesses be duly impressed with the solemnity of taking an oath, and nave no reason (as they have at present) to regard it with contempt or even with disgust. A short Act of Parliament, sub- stituting the uplifted hand for kissing the book and the repetition of the form of words by the witness is all that is required. It would have much support and probably little or no opposition. We commend the suggestion to members of Parliament.

CLERGYMEN AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. If you desire to convert you must deal gently with people's prejudices. Such seems to have been the maxim of the late Bishop Patteson. Sir John Gorst, who knew the bishop intimately, relates that he (the bishop) once told him that in going to the South Sea Islanders he never sought to attack their customs. He added, "I don't even tell them that cannibalism or Taboo is wrong. I simply teach them great positive truths, and trust to the influence of these truths to lead them to abandon their old evil practices. I find that this plan answers better than any negative teaching could possibly do." Sir John, in his interview with a contributor to the Review oj the Churches, applies this anecdote to the question of the direct interference of clergymen in social movements. On the question whether the late Cardinal Manning was right or wrong in the part he took in the dockers' contest Sir John declined to speak; but on the general question of the relations of organised to un- organised labour, of men and women as rival employes, and other problems involving a practical application of general principles, he expressed the opinion that the Church's duty is confined to enforcing principles. The only instance in which he recognises the right of the clergy definitely and absolutely to step beyond these bounds is in the case of manifest cruelty, oppression, and tyranny.

I CHILI AND THE, UNITED STATS. ULTIMATUM FROM PRBSIDHHT JTI[KFTT80JT. The news that the Government of the United States have presented an ultimatum to Chili will (the Daily Graphic holds) be Welcomed as a relief by many a bored newspaper reader. The quarrel between the two States has lost all interest for the serious public, and the unedifying interchanges of snarl and bluster between Santiago and Washington have long ceased to possess even a sensational recom- mendation; President Harrisbn's ultimatum will bring matters to a crisis. Chili will apolo- gise, and Mr. Egan will be withdrawn, ana we shall hear nothing more of thi strained relations of these two States until, perhaps, the next Pan-Ameri- can Congress. At the same time it must be confessed that in the eye of even a work-a-day ethics the situa- tion leaves much to be desired. President Harrison is far from making out a satisfactory case for. his ultimatum in the portentous message he has addressed to Congress. He is noC\ satis- fied with the withdrawal of Senor Matta's \*#fen- sive despatch, but demands an apology besides, and he is not contented with the sincere regrets of the Chilian Government for the assault on the Baltimore ) sailors, but wants a ceremonious salute of the Start and Stripes and an expression of unreserved penitlsnce to the American nation in the bargain, before such a sweeping satisfaction can be required President Harrison should be able to say conscientiously that the Chilians have no legitimate cause forcomplamtagainst the United States, and this we are afraid he cannot say. The maintenance of Mr. Egan at the Santiago Legation, after his active partisan" ship of the Balmacedists, is alone sufficient to account for any amount of anti-American feeling in Chili. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the obstinacy of President Harrison on this point —due, of course, to electioneering considera- tions at home-has been at the root of the whole quarrel, and is primarily responsible for the assault on the American sailors at Valparaiso. Nor is this the only irritation under which Chili has been smart- ing. Ever since Mr. Blaine has been in office there has been a spluttering quarrel on the tapis, due to the perfectly justifiable resistance which the Chilians have offered to the Pan-American doctrines of the Washington statesman. It is felt in Santiago that for this reason an opportunity has been studiously sought to humiliate the Southern Republic in the eyes of all America. However, dis- cussion would now seem to be useless. The United States are determined to have their full measure of satisfaction out of Chili, and Senor Montt is, we are sure, too sensible a person not to bow to the in- evitable. A defiance is out of the question. It would not be merely unpatriotic-it would be rank mad- ness.

EASTBOURNE SALVATIONISTS. IMPORTANT JUDGMENT. In the Queen's Bench Division on Saturday, before Justices Hawkins, Wills, Lawrance, Wright, and Collins, the case of the Queen v. Clarkson and others came on for hearing. This case arose out of the prosecution of members of the Salvation Army in connection with the recent disturbances at Eastbourne, the nine defendants having been tried before Mr. Justice Hawkins at the Central Criminal Court upon an indictment found by the grand jury at the last Lewes Summer Assizes. The indictment contained six counts, the first, second, and third charging the defendants with conspiring to contravene the provisions of the Eastbourne Im- provement Act of 1885, and the remaining counts charging them with unlawful assembly. On each count except the fourth the defendants were acquitted, but they were all found guilty in regard to the fourth count. By Section 169 of the Eastbourne Improvement Act, 1885, it was enacted that no pro- cession, except of her Majesty's Naval, Military, and Volunteer forces, should take place in the bbrough of Eastbourne on a Sunday accompanied by instrumental music. The defendants were charged in the fourth count with unlawfully assembling and gathering together on a Sunday, armed and provided with drums, cornets, and horns, and other musical instru- ments, to disturb the peace, and, being so unlawfully assembled, making a great noise, tumult, and disturb- ance for tbe space of an hour or more, to the great disturbance and terror of the residents and passers by. At the trial defendants' counsel, after the defendants had pleaded not guilty, asked the learned judge to quash the indictment upon the ground that it did not describe any offence amounting to an unlawful assembly, the chief objection taken being that the alleged acts of the defenders were not stated to have been "riotously or tum ultuously" done. Mr. Justice Hawkins declined, however, to stop the case, but reserved the point for the consideration of this Court, the question for decision being whether the count was good or bad. The learned judge, with great hesita- tion, thought it better to leave the case to the jury, and he did so, directing them so far as regarded the fourth count, that in order to constitute an unlawful assembly it was essential that a breach of the peace should be involved, or that the public peace should be endangered as the probable result of such an as- sembly. Besides the question whether the fourth count was bad in law, the learned judge asked the Court to say whether there was jurisdiction on his part or if he ought to have withdrawn the case from the jury. Mr. Willis, Q.C., and Mr. Cohen appeared for the defendants, while Mr. Danckwerts, Mr. Gill, and Mr. Marshall Hall represented the Corporation, who prosecuted. After long legal arguments, Mr. Justice Hawkins said the Court were unani- mously of opinion that this conviction ought to be quashed. Without discussing the question whether the fourth count of this indictment was bad, and without discussing what in law constituted unlawful assembly, which was unnecessary, and oonfining them- selves distinctly to the evidence, they had come to the conclusion that there was not any which a reasonable jury could have acted upon in finding the defendants guilty of unlawful assembly. Theee nine defendants were strangers to Eastbourne, and there was no evidence that when they came down they knew of what had occurred at Eastbourne, on two or three occasions before. They conducted themselves as quietly as men could do, and they did not even play their instruments upon the piece of land upon which they were assembled, as they might lawfully have done. There was no indication of an intention to form a procession with the contingent. On the other hand. the crowd were there to annoy the Salvation Army, and out of 1500 persons not one raised his hand or voice to prevent what he could not help describing as a brutal outrage upon tbe bands- men. They had a perfect right to walk through the streets carrying their musical instruments w long as they did not play them, and although one or two men might have beaten a drum, &c., everybody knew that it was not done with the intention of playing as a hand of music. It was not, therefore, a band of, in- strumental music accompanying a procession, and from first to last the defendants bad not been guilty of an aggressive act. He had left the matter to the jury, as he said in the epecial case, with great hesi- tation, and he felt he was wrong, but he did so as he had to leave the question of conspiracy, and he thought he had better leave the whole matter to them. The other learned judges concurred, and the con- viction was quashed. „ RENEWED DISTURBANCES. There was a repetition of the three-cornered conflict between Salvationists, public, and police; at East- bourne on Sunday. The disturbances occurred when the Salvation band attempted to play their instru- ments on the beach, near the Wish Tower. The police interposed, and the crowd immediately closed round. A violent scrimmage resulted, during which many persons were knocked down and trampled upon, and several were hurt by blows and kicks. The Salva- tionists were scattered, but with the assistance of the police they ultimately made their way to the parade and marched to their citadel." Some of the instru- ments were seized, but were recaptured.

NEARLY 4:1000 has been collected in Cardiff for the rtlief of the widows and orphans of the crev, of the Prinz Soltykoff, which went down off Ushant during the recent gales, when all except the mate perished. THE Queen has placed a handsome tombstone over the late Mr. James Long, of the Royal Mews, in Windsor Cemetery. Mr. Long had been in her ser- vice and that of William IV. for 56 years. ANN CREER, aged 60, of Douglas, while the worse of drink, was preparing for bed, and took up a petroleum lamp. She stumbled and broke the lamp, and she was so terribly burned that she died. I The jury said it was accidental. THREE hundred leading merchants of Paris re- cently unanimously agreed to participate in the Chicago World's Fair.

I THE INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC!. LOCAL GOVBRHilEtlT BOARD MEMORANDUM. 10 The Local Government Board have issued to sanitary authorities the following provisional memorandum lipon precfAtitidns advisable at times when epidemic influenza threatens, or is prevalent: In July, 1891, the Local Government Board issued a report by Dr. H. F. Parsons On the influenza epidemic of 1889-90," together with an introduction by their medical officer. It was then pointed out that "action for the prevention of disease in order to be effectual must be based on a knowledge of its causation," and since our knowledge of the natural history of influenza, and especially of the circumstances of time and place under which it spreads, remains most im- perfect, any advice which can be given as to the pre- cautions to be taken for its prevention of mitigation can only be correspondingly incomplete. But, in view of the, recurrence and, maintained prevalence of ;the disease, the board feel that there may be advan- tage in setting out certain points as to which some definite knowledge has been obtained. 1st. Influenza is spread by infection from person to person. On this point the medical officer of the board wrote: The disease has long been regarded as of the mias- matic group; of that group, namely, wherein patho- logists and statisticians comprise the common infec- tious diseases of our own and other countries." In its epidemic form influenza is an emi- nently infectious complaint, communicable in the ordinary personal relations of individual* one with another. It' appears to me that there can hence- forth be no doubt about the fact. In some circumstances it would seem that infec- tiveness of influenza through the atmosphere shows itself over a wider area than the limits of household life. Probably, also, there are other less direct ways by which the infection of the disease can travel; and ways, moreover, by which the infection can be retained for a time in a state of suspended activity. But we have, no doubt, much to learn about the dissemination of influenza, and particularly of the stage when the complaint acquires its epidemic power. [Since the above was written evidence has accumulated to indicate that influenza is infec- tious at quite an early stage of the illness, find may remain so as late as at least the eighth day from attack.] By having established a place for this influenza among infectious diseases, we assert a position for the disorder within a class of diseases over which we habitually exercise a measure of con- trol. But from what we have thus far seen of the specialities of influenza we cannot feel particularly confident of our ability, under the existing con- ditions of society, to successfully defend ourselves against a further outbreak. A disease that can be absent in an epidemic form for 30 years together cannot, even if a first attack confer immunity, avail to give the protection of a first attack to any large part of a popula- tion, and abundant evidence has now accumulated to show that influenza does not in any marked degree, or for any considerable length of time, confer immunity against another attack. Early isolation precautions, applicable perhaps to children suspected to have measles, cannot well be applied to persons suspected of influenza among the breadwinners of acommunity and the singular ability possessed by influenza to dis- perse itself over a population, owing to its brief incuba- tion period, must add to the difficulties of dealing with an infection that finds the bulk of the population susceptible to its attack. Having, as would seem, something like a third part of the incubation time proper to smallpox, measles, or typhus, influenza; has correspondingly rapid ability to reproduce itself; can, that is, give rise to some thousand attacks in the time that smallpox or typhus had taken to produce 10; each of the thousand-cases being ready to infect other 1 susceptible people, and the difficultv of applying prin- ciples af isolation and disinfection being in like measure enormously enhanced." A further difficulty in applying the process of" stamping out" by means of isolation and disinfection at the commenceinent of a threatened epidemic of influenza, when alone success is likely to be attainable, arises from the cir- cumstances that the disease do-*s not possess any de- finite and easily recognisable feature like the raeh of some of the other infectious diseases, so that the first cases of it may not be discriminated from ordinary catarrhs, transient febrile attacks, &c. The conse- quence is that such preventive measures as are avail- able are delayed until obscure cases have multiplied, and the disease prevails in a recognised form. In view of the difficulties reftrred to, it is not practicable to devise any restrictive measures for the prevention of the spread of influenza which shall be universally applicable. But, under some circum- stances and certain classes of persons, some such measures should be resorted to, and this notably—(a) For persons in whom an attack of influenza would be specially dangerous by reason of age or infirmity. (b) For the inmates of institutions the mode of life in which can be regulated and controlled.-s(c) For the first cases of influenza in a locality$>r a household where the attacks are early recognised. In such cases: 1. Separation between the sick and the healthy should, as far as practicable, be carried out. Measures to this end have in some instances been adopted with marked success. 2. With isolation should be combined disinfection of infected articles and rooms. Persons suffering from influenza should not expose themselves in public places. Since the propagation of influenza is known to be promoted by the assem- blage of large numbers of persons in a confined atmo- sphere, it is advisable that when an epidemic threatens or is present unnecessary assemblages should be studiously avoided. The ventilation And cleanly keeping of any building in which many ped.ple are necessarily collected together should receive special attention when influenza threatens or, is present, With a view1 to secure that the air of ithe building shall be frequently changed, at any rate during the interval of its occupation; and to avoid accumulation of dust and dirt. 2. The liability to contract influenza, and the danger of an attack if contracted, are increased; by depressing conditions, such as exposure to cold or to fatigue, whether mental or physical. There is a reason to believe that the development of an attack of influenza in a person exposed to the infection depends very largely upon the receptivity of the individual; and that the power of re- sistance varies not only in different per- sons, but also in the same person 'from time to time; being diminished by any conditions which depress the general bodily vigour. It is there- fore important that at the time of an epidemic all persons should, as far as they are able, pay attention to such measures as tend to the maintenance of their health, wearing clothing of suitable warmth, and avoiding unnecessary exposure to cold and fatigue, unwholesome food, an excessive use of alcoholic liquors. Similar principles should be borne in mind by those who, as managers of institutions and establishments, have to make regulations for others. There is also a very general agree- ment among medical practitioners that the risk of a relapse and of the occurrence of those pul- monary complications which constitute a chief danger of the disease is increased by anything which involves exposure to cold or fatigue before complete recovery. Persons, therefore, who are attacked by this malady should not attempt to fight against it, but should at once seek rest, warmth, and medical treatment. The nature of such treatment does not fall within the scope of this memorandum. R. TnoRNB THORNS, Assistant Medical Officer. Local Government Board, S.W., Jan. 23, 1892.

THE mangled body of a farmer, named Connor, has been found on the railway between Cabir and Bansha. THE principal Scotch railways have agreed to combine rather than compete and their systems will be worked amicably, resulting in a saving of expense, and increased facilities for travelling. Two of the four firemen injured at the fire on the premises of the English firm, Muir and Mirrielees, at Moscow, have died. "OFT was I weary when I toiled at thee" is tbe motto which Mr. Rudyard Kipling has carved roughly with a pen-knife on the desk at which he mostly works. IT is proposed to institute legal procee ings against the Wiener TagUatt for circulating e report that caused the panic on the Vienna ourse on 14th November. „ -n ■ ALL shops and places of business m Russia will in future be closed throughout the whole of Sunday. Hitherto they have been open from eleven a.m. to tbMoREthan 50 persons have been killed and injured at the small town of Slobadskoi, in Russia. Whilst a service was being celebrated in a church the build- ing collapsed, burying half the congregation in the ruins.

TRAGIC DEATH OF MR. HUME WEBSTER. Mr. Hume Webster, well-Known as an accountant and company promoter, and as a breeder of thorough- breds, died on Friday morning of last weex lrom a pistol shot, which there is reason to believe was fired by himself. Mr. Webster was a member of the firm of Hume Webster, Hoare, and Co., chartered ac- countants, Abchurch-lane, and he lived in Aldford- street, Park-lane. He by no means confined himself to the ordinary r:,n of an acooi'.ntant s business. He embarked in many commercial schemes of very diveri-e character and various fortune. From the worries of these he sought relief by retiring occasionally to his farms at Marden-park, about two miles from Caterham. There he had a large horse-breeding establishment with a ,mall house. On Thursday afternoon of last week. Mr. Webster arrived from London, very calm in manner, but rather dejected in spirits. He complained that he was suffering from a cold in his throat and chest, and told his housekeeper that no caller was to be in- formed of his arrival, as he wished to spend theeven- ing quietly, and would go to bed early in order to try and rid himself of this cold. Next morning fcM was up and about thehomestead -arlv. He talked with his farm bailiff about the feliiDg of a tree, and with his head groom about his horses. Those persona noticed that his manner was rather different from what it was usuaily, and they now remember the circum- stance that one hand was kept continually in his- top- coat pocket as if grasping something. Another curious circumstance was that, having sent the j2ead groom for the carpenter, he did not wait for the latter to be fetched, but set off towards the hill beyond the valley in which the stables are situated. The head groom and carpenter did not follow, as they concluded he had gone to what is known as the Hill Farm, where he had other thoroughbred stables. That was about 9.30 in trie morning. Some time afterwards the head groom heard three shots fired in the wood on the hill; but that caused him no surprise, because Mr. Webster bad given a neighbouring farmer liberty to shoot rabbits there, and the farmer frequently availed himself of the privilege. Mr. Webster himself was never known to handle firearms, at least there. About hfilf-past eleven a clerk from the office in the City arrived, wanting to see Mr. "Webster, and some of the men about the place began,' therefore, to search for him. He was not found at the Hill Farm, and could not be seen anywhere in the neighbourhood. The clerk was forced to depart at half-past two without 'having fulfilled his mission. The grooms and workmen were a little startled by these circumstances, and fearing that their master had been taken sud- denly ill they commenced a thorough search of the wood. Some went one way and some another. At last a boy, peering through some underwood, saw Mr. Webster's bodv. The lad, with a face as white as a sheet, ran to the gardener, who was near, and told him of his discovery. A shout brought other men to the spot, and then, having penetrated the bushes, the men found Mr. Webster was lying dead, and quite cold. He lay on one side with his arm iftexed across his stomach and a revolver in the band of the other arm. Blood was trickling out of a corner of his trouth. It was then nearly three olclock. A messenger was despatched to Waldingham, a neighbouring village, for a constable, the body lying untouched until this functionary arrived. A surgeon having also been sent for, the body was slung in a blanket and carried down the hill to the farm house. It then began to bleed much more freely, the blood having evidently been retained in the body by the fact that the head bad been upper- most on the slope. The policeman when he took the re- volver out of the dead m*n's hand found thatof its five chambers three had been fired and two remained charged. It was conjectured that two of the chambers had been fired as trial shots, and Mr. Webster then shot himself. The muzzle of the pistol had apparently been put into the mouth and the shot fired up through the brain. The revolver was not a large one, but its bore was wide, and the bullet, though it did not pass through the skull, must have penetrated far through the brain. Five more cartridges were found in one of the de- ceased's pockets. Fearing the results of a telegram despatched to Mr. Webster's house in London, his men resolved upon the wise expedient of telegraph- ing to the deceased's solicitor that he might break the news, for it was known that Mrs. Webster had been anxious about his state of health. The polioe communicated with the coroner at Redhill, and this official appointed an imjuesfc. It appears that Mr. Web- ster only recently-renewed his lease of tht farms here for 21 years from Sir William Clayton. On what is known as the Bottom Farm he has some 36 brood mares, 24 foals, four stallions, and 20 Suffolk punches, besides about 50 Highland cattle, of which he was also a breeder, and about a score of sheep. On the Hill Farm his stock was much smaller, but added to the foregoing it made the thoroughbred stud one of the largest in England. The deceased leaves, besides his widow, five children, mostly grown up. He was a Scotchman, born in Montrose, and claimed relationship with the celebrated Joseph Hum*. INQUHST AND VERDICT. The inquest concerning the death of Mr. James Hume Webster, who was found shot in a wood near the Marden-park Estate last Friday, was held on Monday by Mr. W. Percy Morrison, coroner for the Croydon Division of Surrey. Mr. George Lewis Serampi Maggiolini gave evi- .dence identifying the body as that of his father- in-law, Mr. James Webster. He was an account- ant, and about fifty-two or fifty-three years of age. His health bad not been particularly good lately, as he had been suffering from influenza and complained of general depression. His mind had in been much occupied with various things connected with his business, and his works at Marden-park occupied him a great deal. The state of his health had been a cause of anxiety to him for several years. Witness was not aware that Mr. Webster was in pecuniary difficulties. He always endeavoured to look cheerful, and put the best completion on anything. He was not the man to complain, and witness had never heard him threaten to take his life. He came to Marden-park at all times, and in all weathers. He was generally there on Saturday and Sunday. Business generally was not very flourishing, and he bad very vast transactions and very large con- nections, which caused him more or less worry. Witness thought that one thing that preyed on him was in reference to bringing Ormonde back to England. He bad thoroughly made up his mind to bring the horse over. The question of Ormonde troubled him considerably, for he ielt .himself responsible either for the success or failure of it. Mr. Noel Hume Webster having given evidence to the same effect, Reuben Woolger, gardener on the Marden-park Estate, stated that Mr. Webster arrived unexpectedly on Thursday of last week. Witness saw him in the evening of that day, and he remained there the night. He seemed as cheerful as usual. No reference was made in their conversation to Ormonde. He came alone. He saw him about eight o'clock on the Friday morning. There was no change in him. Witness did not know tlat he kept a revolver in the house. His wife and he lived in the house. They expected him back to luncheon. They did not become alarmed till two o'clock. A lad named Richardson accompanied him in the search. They then went as far as the wood called The Bushes, where they found the bldy of Mr. Webster. He had a revolver in his right hand. Dr. W. Stephen Johns, of Caterham, stated that when he was called to the house to see the body, life had been extinct six or seven hours at least. He found a wound at the back of the palate in the roof of the mouth. He passed a probe into the wound, and he found a fracture at the top of the head. After hearing some further evidence, the jury returned a verdict of 'Suicide while temporarily insane."

« THE FRAGRANT WEED." Cigars made in Italy have been a by-word and dis- grace for many years. Even the very best of them are so vile that they would, on the first trial, turn the stomach of an ostrich. They are long and thin, black and bitter, and have a straw through them to facilitate their draught. It would be impossible to imagine anything worse in the cigar line. They are so cheap, too, as to stagger belief, says the Smoker. The native Italians smoke the native rat-tail Sigarros" and Brissagos," and thank their king that they are still cheap enough to be purchasable. Fastidious Italians smoke cigar- ettes, which they make for themselves. The very poor in Italy—the lazzaroni of Naples, for iiiistanoe--either smoke very seldom or not at all and in their abstention from an indulgence which is cheap enough to come within the purchasing ability of even the most poverty-stricken peopleof other countries, they are remarkable. The Italian cigar, chaap and nasty as it is, is yet too dear for millions of the male population of the kingdom. Cigars in the Italian army are part of the daily fare, for each soldier has his allowance of them. The military cigars are inferior even to those which civilians with money in their pockets are able to buy-very much inferior. Yet they are eagerly'smoked by the soldiers, but it is a marvel that those who smoke one of them survive to repeat the experiment. It is a fact that the Sigarro of the Italian army, incredibly vile as it was, became still further adulterated by the Government monopoly (Régie) under the administration of Signor Magliani, the Minister of Finance, in 1888. A fiendish ingenuity was euhausted in imparting to the cigars which Minister Magliani furnished to the army substances so foreign to tobacco and so undreamed of by even the most dishonest cigarmakers of other countries, that his fraud will live for ever in the history of the weed." The Magliani cigars, so called in honour of the Minister of Finance in Italy, was born at the beginning of the fiscal year 1888, but it was not until several months afterwards that the fraud was investi- gated, when it was discovered that the average Magliani cigar contained: 1. A piece of lime. 2. Some powdered gypsum. 3. A quantity of earth. 4. A splinter of wood. 5. A length of string.