County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser Abergavenny and Raglan Herald Usk and Pontypool Messenger and Chepstow Argus

DAMAGES FOR LIBEL AGAINST AN M.P. I The action for libel brought by Mr. J. Lowles, formerly Conservative representative of the Hag- gerston Division of Shoreditch, against Mr. Cremer, the sitting member, concluded on Tuesday in the King's Bench Division. The plaintiff com- plained of references made to him in a pamphlet issued by the defendant during the election. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff, and awarded him £ 750 damages. 1

SPAIN'S BOY KING. I The newly-elected Parliament of Spain was on Tuesday opened by the Queen Regent, who read the Royal Speech from the Throne of the Senate House, the young King standing by her side and evincing much interest in the ceremony. A Madrid correspondent says that in the drive from the Palace to the Senate, the Queen Regent and the King were greeted with more warmth than is usual, it being recognised that this was her Majesty's last public appearance before the coming of age of Alphonso XIII.

THE QUEEN AND CAPE TOWN CATHEDRAL. The Queen has consented to become patroness of the Cape Town Cathedral Memorial Fund. In a letter to the Archbishop of Cape Town her Majesty has expressed her great sympathy with so excellent a project. The King had already con- sented to become the patron of the fund.

THE VICTORIA CROSS. I The London Gazette announces that the King has been pleased to signify his intention to confer the decoration of the Victoria Cross on the under- mentioned non-commissioned officer, whose claims have been submitted for his Majesty's approval, for his conspicuous bravery in South Africa, as stated against his name Sergeant W. Firth, 1st Battalion West Riding Regiment.—During the action at Plewman's Farm, near Arundel, Cape Colony, on the 24th February, 1900, Lance Corporal Blackman having been wounded and lying exposed to a hot fire at a range of from four to five hundred yards, Sergeant Firth picked him up and carried him to cover. Later in the day, when the enemy had advanced to within a short distance of the firing line, See. Lieutenant Wilson being dangerously wounded and in a most exposed position, Sergeant Firth carried him over the crest of the ridge, which was being held by the troops, to shelter, and was him- self shot through the nose and eye whilst doing so."

A NOTABLE CATCH. I Great Yarmouth boats have opened the mid- summer herring fishing, but no big hauls are yet reported. The uncertainty of taking fish has just been illustrated by the experience of a local steam drifter, which returned to port with two herrings as a result of a night's fishing.

CAMBRIDGE HONOURS. I The Cambridge University Mathematical Tripos was issued on Tuesday. The Senior Wrangler is Mr. A. Brown, of Gonville and Caius College, and the Second Wrangler Mr. H. Knapman, of Emmanuel. Miss L. M. Reynolds, of Newnham, is the only lady Wrangler, her position being equal with that of the 11th Wrangler.

IN pursuance of the policy of rendering barrack life more pleasant in its conditions, and conse- quently more attractive, the War Office is fitting up a block of the Inkerman Barracks, at Woking, with cubicles, in order to ascertain the expediency of their adoption generally. It is believed that the prospect of separate sleeping accommodation will serve as an additional inducement to enlistment. THE French naval authorities are very well pleased, says the Cherbourg correspondent of the Daily Mail, with the experiments made with the new submarine boat Norval, which has been to a St. Malo and back in a strong westerly wind and a high sea. It is said that the submarine boat, escorted by several torpedo-boats on the surface, is about to make a long trip in mid-Channel, and to endeavour to go as far as the limit of English waters. MR. CHAUNCEY DEPEW the American orator, has been interviewed, the subject of the interview being his speeches and social duties, Popularity does not help a man of affairs in the slightest," he eaid. It is a luxury that a man of affairs has no time to acquire, and wouldn't know what to do with it if he had it. Take Mr. Morgan, for instance. His time is too much occupied with the vast enterprises he controls to leave any room for the lighter side of life. Popularity means a thousand interruptions. Popularity"—Mr. Depew spoke very feelingly— "popularity means that you can't say 'No.' When I went into the railroad business my friends prophesied that I would never be a success because I didn't know how to sav No.

I THE REVENUE. I The receipts on account of Revenue from April 1, 1901, when there was a balance of £5ÖDô,Ð18, to June 8, 1901, were E22,434,,149, against £ 19,47S.014 in the corresponding period of the preceding financial year, which began with a balance of £ 3,517,047. The net expenditure was zE39,700,394, against E30,383,877 to the same date in the previous year. The Treasury balances on June 8, 1901, amounted to £ 2,060,554 and at the same date in 1900 to £ 3,996,184.

DESTROYER EXPLOSION. I I ONE KILLED, FOUR INJURED. I A disastrous explosion occurred in the stoke- hold of the torpedo boat-destroyer Daring at Portsmouth on Monday evening. As a result of the accident one man was killed and four others severely scalded, one dangerously so. The Daring is one of the two destroyers attached to Whale Island, the gunnery establishment at Portsmouth, and had on Monday been engaged, along with the cruiser Narcissus, the gunnery ship attached to the Excellent, in target practice, the destroyer having to tow a target while the cruiser fired at it. At the conclusion of the trials the two vessels returned to Spithead, and the cruiser having anchored for the night, the Daring proceeded into Portsmouth Harbour. She went in under easy steam, and passed the stern of the flagship Victory at 9.20. Those on deck were then horrified to hear a loud explosion in the after stokehold, and at the same moment dense masses of flame and smoke belched forth from the funnels. All the officers and men on deck rushed to the stronghold entry, and it was at once seen that a terrible accident had occurred, for the little compartment was filled with steam, smoke, and fire, while boiling water was floating about the floor. Strenuous efforts were made to get at the five men who were known to have been working there, and there were several instances of great individual bravery, men rush- ing into the scalding water and steam to rescue their shipmates. Long before the com- partment was clear all five men had been got on deck. One of them, Stoker F. Reed, whose friends live at Litchfield, was dead, having re- ceived terrible injuries. The others were alive, but severely scalded and burnt. Their names were Chief Stoker F. Paffett, Stokers F. Parks, E. Gammon, and G. Elliott. With the exception of Elliott, whose friends live in Montague-road, Hackney-wick, London, they all belong to Ports- mouth. Parks was most seriously injured. Assistance was signalled for, and a surgeon from the Hero, which was moored close by, was promptly on board. He dressed the burns, and the sufferers were then conveyed to the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar. After the flames had been subdued, examination revealed the fact that one of the tubes of the Thorneycroft water-tube boilers had been blown completely out through the bottom of the boiler. The whole of the burning coals in the furnace were thus forced out into the stokehold where the men were at work, and the compartment was also instantly filled with the steam and boiling water which had escaped from the rent in the boiler. The Daring is one of the earliest type of torpedo- boat destroyers, having been launched from the works of Messrs. Thorneycroft and Co. in 1893. As her boilers were recently retubed, the explo- r sion is rendered all the more inexplicable.

AN M.P.'S RETORT. I l At Dewsbury on Tuesday, Messrs. Oldroyd and Sons, woollen manufacturers, were summoned for a breach of the Factory Acts in keeping boys too long at work. Mr. Mark Oldroyd, M.P., chairman of the company, attended, and a fine having been imposed in each case, he exclaimed, "I am quite prepared to eat skilly with the criminals whom from time to time you may send from this court rather than see an industry which my forefathers and myself have spent all our lives in constructing and building up go to rack and ruin."

SNOW IN JUNE. I A period of fine summer weather in Scotland has been succeeded by a most remarkable fall in the temperature, which has brought snow and hail in some places, and bitterly cold blasts in others. On Monday night snow fell in the higher parts of Perthshire, and on Tuesday morning several peaks in the neighbourhood of Pitlochry were shrouded in white, a most unusual occurrence in June. At Crieff snow fell on Tuesday morning. The Grampians are shrouded in white. In the district of Lochaber all the more prominent heights have received a fresh coating of snow. On Ben Nevis the fall reached a depth of about six inches on Tuesday, and the thermometer readings taken at the observatory showed more than five degrees of frost. Heavy showers of hail and sleet were of frequent occurrence. 1

ACROSS THE BORDER. I At a Local Government Board inquiry on Tuesday, Sunderland Rural District Council applied for power to suppress bad language. In the borough, foul language is an indictable offence, but in the rural district it is not, and it is, according to the evidence of several police- officers, a regular practice for people to start to use offensive expressions the moment they cross the boundaries. One officer stated that it was quite common for persons to cross from one side of a street which is in the borough to the other, which is outside, in order to give vent to their feelings.

THE Marquis of Villalobar, who has been appointed the First Secretary to the Spanish Embassy in London, will arrive in town on July 1. THE Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs z, gn has resigned his post. Ms. BALLING-TON BOOTH has been initiated a Mason, at his home in America. A TON of dried Bosnian plums is worth £5.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT. I CORRUPTION BILL. I In the House of Lords on the 10th inst. the Pre- vention of Corruption (No. 2) Bill was accorded a second reading on the motion of the Lord Chan- cellor. I SOUTH AFRICA AND CHINA. I Replying to Mr. Platt-iiiggms in the House of Commons on the 10th inst., Mr. Brodrick said that the systematic intimidation of natives by the Boers throughout the war was a matter of notoriety, and mentioned several instances in support of the statement. The Secretary for War also in- formed inquirers that Lord Kitchener was investi- gating the circumstances under which false news had recently been sent from South Africa, and denied that information as to the progress of the campaign was being withheld from the House. Lord George Hamilton communicated General Gaselee's report on the Tientsin affray, which it appears had as its origin the resentment of French soldiers at the closing of a disorderly house by our military police. The Germans behaved well, and supported the British troops. MOLASSES AND GLUCOSE. I On the House going into Committee of Ways and Means, Sir M. Hicks-Beach proposed certain modifications in the duty on molasses and all sugars which cannot be tested by the polariscope, as well as in that on glucose, with the double object of securing the anticipated revenue and protecting the home manufacturer. The resolu- tion was agreed to. Mr. Labouchere moved several amendments to the Civil List Bill, when that measure was taken in Committee, but all were rejected. The third reading of the Demise of the Crown Bill was then considered. BISHOPRIC OF SOUTHWARK. I In the House of Lords on the 11th inst. the Bishopric of Southwark Bill passed through Com- mittee with some amendments which were agreed to without discussion. QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. Lord Salisbury moved that a Select Committee should be appointed to join with a Committee of the Commons to consider the constitution of Queen Anne's Bounty Board and to report whether economy and efficiency of administration would be promoted by any change in its constitution or by its amalgamation with any other body. The motion was agreed to. COMPANY BILLS. I In the House of Commons, the South Metro- politan Gas Bill was read a third time after an amendment moved by Mr. Lough, who objected to the condition upon which the company propose to issue additional stock, had been negatived by 252 votes against 112. A considerable amount of time was occupied in the consideration of another private bill, the South-Eastern and London, Chatham, and Dover Railways Bill, which came before the House fcr second reading. This measure was opposed by Sir J. Dimsdale, Dr. Macnamara., Mr. Hay, and other members, who maintained generally that the company disregarded the interests of the public and did not deserve favourable treatment. Mr. Gerald Balfour, while admitting that the con- dition of Ludgate-hill Station, to which special attention had been drawn by several speakers, was not satisfactory, pointed out that to reject an omnibus bill of this description, merely because the company that promoted it was not regarded favourably, would be detrimental to the public in- terest. In these circumstances he urged the House not to reject the bill. On a division the bill was read a second time by 277 votes against 166. MOROCCO. Viscount Cranborne returned a negative reply to Mr. Norman's inquiry whether the Government i: ad consented to any extension of French influence in Morocco. SHANGHAI. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, answering the same questioner, said that the German Government intended to maintain their garrison at Shanghai, at any rate for the present, but he was not aware that any explanation of this intention had been given to his Majesty's Govern- ment. GOVERNMENT BUSINESS. Mr. Balfour moved his resolution for the pur- pose of expediting Government business. He said that it was intended to pass the Education Bill and the Factory Bill, and that a measure would be introduced to deal with the dismissal of teachers in elementary schools. On Wednesday, the 26th, he proposed to move for the relegation of the Bale of Intoxicating Liquors to Children Bill and the Pure Beer Bill to a Grand Committee, and he hoped they would be so dealt with as to become practically uncontroversial. The re- mainder of that day would be devoted to private members' bills. On a division the resolution was carrjJl by 144 to 111.

RIOTING IN BELFAST. CROWD CHARGED BY POLICE. At Belfast, on Sunday afternoon, a determined attack was made (says the DaiiV Telegraph) on a Roman Catholic combined Corpus Christi proces- sion, numbering between 8000 and 10,000 persons. The rendezvous was St. Malachy's College Grounds, and from about two o'clock thousands of spectators poured into the district, which is in the neighbourhood of Carlisle-circus, quite close to the centre of the city. Processions from every district of the city started about three o'clock, and when the main body was proceeding up Donegal- street stones were thrown from several side streets and from tramcars, accompanied by a storm of hooting and jeering from the crowd. The proces- sionists retaliated, and the excitement became very great. Several rushes were also made at the pro- cession, but the police were strongly posted and made a number of arrests. The procession then went on to St. Malachy's College, and on the re- turn journey it was again attacked. Matters assumed such a serious aspect at Carrick-hill, an old battle-ground, that the police were compelled to charge the opposing mobs, with the result that several persons were removed to hospital for treatment. In the evening there was a renewal of the dis- turbance in Curtis-street and York-lane. Large crowds in both thoroughfares stoned passers-by in York-street, where a large mob assembled and retaliated. The Rev. William Maguire, a Methodist clergyman, succeeded in getting the Protestant crowd in York-street to mcye on, but they congre- gated again in Frederick-street. Here Mr. Maguire called upon them to preserve peace, and about 50 young men stepped out and succeeded in preventing an attack being made on the demonstrators. As the police did not arrive, Mr. Maguire's difficulties increased, but he at length induced the crowd to move by calling upon them to follow him down York-street. This they did, singing the National Anthem and cheering the rev. gentleman. A posse of police came upon the scene shortly afterwards and patrolled the district. At a late hour the city was tranquil. FURTHER RIOTING IN BELFAST. I A serious riot occurred on Monday night in Sliankhill-road, Belfast. The district was in an excited state from an early hour in the evening, and a collision took place between the police and all immense crowd, the former being vigorously stoned. Constabulary reinforcements were sum- moned from other districts of the city, and so threatening did the mob become that the military were telephoned for. A squadron of the 21st Lancers promptly turned out and drove the rioters into side streets. Simultaneously with the out- break the mob began to wreck house property, one establishment suffering severely. The crowds having been dispersed, the military were withdrawn about eleven o'clock. SUNDAY S DISTURBANCE. At Belfast on Monday about 20 young fellowa and one young woman were charged with riotous behaviour during the passing of the Corpus Christi procession in Belfast. Evidence showed that in every instance the prisoners were caught red- handed. Fines of 40s. and costs were imposed in each case, the accused also being bound over to keep the peace. Three others were arrested on Monday afternoon for attacking a returned Yeoman.

EPITOME OF NEWS, ABOUT 1000 fishing-boats engaged around the British coast are named Mary. EIGIIT out of every 10,000 English people emi- grate every year. IT is said that over £ 1,000,000 is spent by Londoners for flowers yearly. THERE aue 10,000 miles of overhead telegraph- wires in London. QUEEN VICTORIA'S collection of lace was worth £ 75,000. The Astor family have £ 60,000 worth of lace, and the Vanderbilts kioo.ooo worth. THE largest Monte de Piéte, or, as we designate it, pawnshop, in the world is probably that on the Boulevard, Montmartre, Paris, which, it is said, receives in pledge over 1000 watches every day. LIVERPOOL, with 99 people to the acse, is the most crowded city in England. AT a low estimate, the manufacture and sale of dolls in Europe, of all sizes, exceeds 26,000,000 per annum. THE United Kingdom produces only 40,000 tons of cheese out of the 120,000 eaten every year by people of this country. ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS a year is spent on English hospitals, averaging 5s. a day for every bed occupied. THE marriage of Captain Sir Edward Wingfield Verner, Bart., of Corke Abbey, Bray, County Wicklow, and Agnes Dorothy, youngest daughter of the late Henry Laming, and of Mrs. Laming, 17, Talbot-square, will take place quietly from Hillstead, Brentwood, towards the end of July. A SYSTEM of insurance against strikes prevails in Austria. Holders of the policies are indemni- fied if strikes occur in their establishments, whether voluntary, forced, or systematic. The cost of a policy is three or four per cent. of the annual pay-roll. The indemnity is 50 per cent. of the wages paid for the week preceding the suspen- sion of work. WITH Ili view of preventing dust from accumu- lating on the line and blowing into the carriages, the whole of the London and North Western main line from London to Carlisle is now ballasted with clean granite chippings in place of cinders. THE marriage arranged between Captain Amyatt Hull, Royal Scots Fusiliers, and Miss Muriel Dobell will take place on Monday, the 17th inst., at St. George's, Hanover-square, at half-past two o'clock. LILY DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH is now at Deepdene, near Dorking, and will not be in town this season. DURING the past year there was no fewer than 550 applications to the Patent Office from women inventors. Nearly a quarter of this number were in connection with real or fancied new appliances relating to dress. A MARRIAGE has been arranged, and will shortly take place, between Mr. Arthur M. Grenfell, son of the late Mr. Pascoe D. F. Grenfell, accl Victoria, eldest daughter of Earl and Countess Grey. IT is announced from Washington that the United States Government will hereafter deport immigrants who are found to be suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs. A PORTION of the new Post Office telephone system in London will be in operation by Septem- ber next, and practically the whole metropolitan area J- ba embraced in the course of 12 months. A SPECIAL train filled with 15,000 homing pigeons ran from Yorkshire and Lancashire to Crewe. The pigeons were addressed to the station-master, with instructions to liberate the birds. The train was run on to a siding, and the birds were set at liberty. MR. SPENCER CHARRINGTON, M.P., is well over 80 years of age, but he has been capable of doing hard labour in Parliament for many sessions, and is prepared to continue it in the future. The secret of his vigour, he says, lies in the drinking of beer. "Every day at home I drink beer for my dinner, and when the House is sitting I may be found every day at the dinner- hour with a tankard of beer in front of me. I always tell my friends that if you would get on and live long you must drink beer." A JFARLIAMENTARY return just issued shows the number of licensed houses owned by peers. The list includes the following: Lord Derby, 72; Duke of Bedford, 50; Duke of Devonshire. 47; Duke of Rutland, 37; Duke of Northumberland, 36; Lord Dudley, 33; Lord Cowper, 22; Lord Salisbury, 11; Lord Dunraven, 11. LORD DUFFERIN has the reputation of being one of the finest linguists in the United Kingdom. This facility for acquiring languages has been of infinite service to him as Ambassador at four European Courts. When he was Governor- General of Canada a quarter of a century ago he visited McGill College, Montreal, and was greeted by the students in four addresses — English, French, Latin, and Greek. Without a moment's hesitation Lord Dufferin replied to each address in succession in the language in which it was couched. SOME very remarkable statements have been made by Mr. Bird, the superintendent of the London Shoeblack Brigade, which celebrated its jubilee recently. Mr. Bird said that one boy earned 2658 pence last month, which is just over ;E2 15s. a week. It appears that many of the London shoeblacks earn over £2 a week. IT is interesting to learn that St. Paul's Cathedral has an octogenarian bell-ringer in Mr. J. R. Haworth, who has just celebrated his 80th birthday. Mr. Haworth has rung bells all his life with skill and gusto. He helped to ring the bells of Westminster Abbey on the accession of Queen Victoria, and he was one of the ringers at St. Paul's both at the Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee. Mr. Haworth is still hearty and full of anecdote. RUSSIA'S sailor princes are the Grand Duke Admiral Alexis and his nephew. Cyril. France, long after she became a republic, retained a royal sailor in the person of the Prince de Joinville. Prince George of Greece is an expert sailor, and his younger brother is preparing to succeed him in the post which he vacated on becoming Governor of Crete. King Oscar of Sweden and Norway was a most popular sailor prince before he ascended the throne, and his son. Prince Oscar, is still commodore. A MISER named Bailly. aged 70 years, has just died at Evreux, in France. He left a letter stating that he died in extreme poverty, but his relatives did not believe the statement, and set to work and searched his house. In the cellar, buried in old flower-pots, they found £ 1000 in a soldier's pan- nikin. hidden in the old mans bedroom, they dis- covered £ 500; but their great haul was made in the attic of the house, where they found, hidden under the roof and in crcyces in the wall, money to the value of £ 12.000. The old man for vearm had lived on stale bread he had begged and boiled horse-flesh. BY the retirement of Colonel E. Matthey just gazetted out of the London Rifle Brigade' after many years service in the corps in successive ranks, .Lieu tenant-Colon el Lord Bingham assumes the command, and will, it is understood, be shortly gazetted. Lord Bingham joined the Prince Con- sort s Own Rifle Brigade in 1881. and subsequently passed into the Reserve of Officers. He joined the London Rifle Brigade as major on June 1 of last year, and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on April 3 last. No. 10, DOWNING-STREET, after all, is not to be destroyed, but is to remain in its place among the new public buildings at Whitehall. It was during the reign of George II. that the house, built on Crown property at the end of the 17th century, was made over as the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury. The Sovereign wished to settle it on Sir R. Walpole for life, but the offer of the residence was only accepted on the condition that it remained for all time the official dwelling of the First Lord. FROM Texas comes the story of a boy with X-ray eyes. He seems to have usurped the occupation of the water diviner, for he can see water to any depth in the ground, and has located a larcre number of wells, each having an unfailing supply of water. Naturally his services are in great demand. His eyes, which have been examined by local doctors, show no peculiarities in them. He has the X-ray sight only at night, and the darker it is the better;- ii is said, he can see.

DISTINGUISHED DEAD. LORD WANTAGE. We regret to record the death of Lord Wantage, V.C., which occurred at his residence, Lockings House, Wantage, on the morning of the 10th inst. Robert James Loyd Lindsay, first Baron Wantage in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, was the son of Lieutenant-General James Lindsay, by marriage with Anne, eldest daughter of Six Coutts Trotter, Bart., and was born in London in 1832. He was educated at Eton, in 1850 obtained 0 a commission in the Scots Fusilier Guards, with which regiment he served throughout the Crimean War of 1854-55, taking part in the battles of the Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman, and the siege- and fall of Sebastopol. Lord Wantage was awarded the Victoria Cross for the following services: When the formation of the line of the regiment was disordered at the Alma he (then Captain Lindsay) stood firm with the colours, and by his example and energy greatly tended to restore order. At Inkerman, at a most trying moment, he. with a few men, charged a party of Russians, driving them back, and running one through the body himself." In 1857 he became lieutenant-colonel of the Scots Guards, and eventually retired from the Army. In 1858-59 he was equerry to the Prince of Wales, was colonel of the Royal Berkshire Volunteers from 1860 to 1895, and colonel of the Honour- able Artillery Company from 1866 to 1881. He sat in the House of Commons as member for Berkshire from 1865 to 1885, and was Financial Secretary to the War Office in Lord Beaconsfield's Government from 1877 to 1880, being raised to the peerage in 1885, under the title of Baron Wantage. He served as chairman of the Committee of Inquiry on Recruit- ing in the army in 1890, and was a member of the Royal Patriotic Fund Commission. Lord Wantage was chairman of the English Red Cross Society, and in this capacity visited the hospitals along the lines of communication between Havre and Paris, and entered Paris during the siege of October. 1870. During the Turco-Servian War of 1876 he also rendered admirable service to the sick and wounded. An extensive landowner in Berkshire and other counties, he conducted the farming of a large part of his estates, and in 1894 he gave evi- dence before the Royal Commission on Agriculture, and also before the Royal Commission on Agricul- tural Holdings, presided over by Mr. Chamber- lain. He was the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, a brigadier-general of volunteers, and Extra Equerry to the King. Lord Wantage contributed articles to the Nineteenth Century and other periodicals on volunteer matters, on the Red Cross Society, and on farming and estate management. The late peer did much to foster the volunteer movement in its early days, and was a well-known figure at Wimbledon and Bisley camps. He be- came president of the National Rifle Association, in which he manifested deep interest, in 1887. He married in 1858 the Hon. Harriet Sarah Jones Lloyd, only child of the first and last Baron Over- stone, when by Royal licence he took the additional surname of Lloyd. As he leaves no heir the barony becomes extinct. SIR WALTER BESANT. Sir W alter Besant, who had been for some time past in ill-health, died at his residence, Frognal- end, Hampstead, on the 9th inst. Lady Besant and one of his daughters were present with him at the last. Sir Walter's two sons, Philip and Geoffrey, are both at the fro at. The former is captain in the 4th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment, the latter a trooper in the Imperial Yeomanry. Sir Walter Besant, who was the third son of Mr. William Besant, of Southsea, was born at Portsmouth in 1838, and educated at King's College, London, and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in high mathematical honours. He was intended for the Church, but aban- doned this career. He was then appointed Senior Professor in the Royal College of Mauritius, but was compelled by ill-health to resign, and returned to England, where he has since resided. In 1868 he produced his first work, Studies in Early French Poetry." In 1873 he brought out The French Humourists in 1877, Rabelais," for the Ancient and Foreign Classics and in 1882, Readings from Rabelais in 1879, "Colligny"; and in 1881, Whittington," for the New Plutarch" series. Mr. Besant acted for many years as secretary of the Palestine Exploration Fund, in which capacity he wrote, in 1871, a History of Jerusalem," with the late Professor Palmer; and was editor of the great work entitled The Survey of Western Pales- tine." He has contributed to most of the maga- zines. In 1871 he entered into the partnership with the late Mr. James Rice which produced the series of novels that bear their joint names. Mr. Besant has also written, under his own name, "The Revolt of Man," The Captain's Room," "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," 1882; "All in .a Garden Fair," 1883; "Dorothy Forster," 1884; Uncle Jack," 1885; "Children of Gibeon," 1886; The World Went Very Well Then," 1887; "For Faith and Freedom," 1888; "The Bell of St. Pauls," 1889; Armorel of Lyonnesse," 1890; and two volumes of collected stories entitled To Call her Mine and The Holy Rose." He also, with Mr. Rice; put on the stage two plays, one performed at the Royal Court Theatre, a dramatic version of "Ready Money Mortiboy," and the other, Such a Good Man," the play from which their story bearing the same title was written. Mr. Besant has also written a biography of the late Professor Palmer, 1883, and The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies," 1888. On the establishment of the Incorporated Society of Authors, he was elected the first chairman of the executive com- mittee, and, in succession to the late Sir Frederick Pollock, he was re-elected to the same office, which he held for four years. He was the editor of The Author. Latterly Sir Walter Besant took great interest in the scheme for celebrating the millenary of King Alfred, and in February, 1898, he lectured at Winchester upon the Alfred Com- memoration. Mr. Besant was knighted in 1895. He married Mary Garratt, daughter of Mr. Eustace Foster-Barham, of Bridgwater. MR. ROBERT BUCHANAN. Mr. Robert Buchanan died very peacefully at ten minutes past eight o'clock on the morning of the 10th inst. at Streatham at the residence of his sister-in-law, Miss Harriet Jay, 90, Le win-road. He had been ill for a long time, and his death was not unexpected. Robert Buchanan entered on his singularly strenuous career on August 18, 1841, at the village of Caverswall, Staffordshire. His father, also named Robert Buchanan, was a Socialist lecturer and editor of no mean ability, and he also did some missionary work. His mother was a Mar- garet Williams, of Stoke-upon-Trent, and her influence and example he always gratefully ac- knowledged. His education was carried out at the Academy, Glasgow, and at the University of the same city. There he formed a friendship which had no little effect on his after career. With David Gray he passed an idyllic youth, building castles in the air of prodigious proportions, and drinking in the wealth of natural beauty and romance of the Clyde-threaded country. While still at college they decided to leave Glasgow for London, Gray carrying with him a poem, The Luggie," which was to take the world by storm. The enterprise opened inopportunely. They got separated on the journey, and arrived at opposite ends of London. At length, however, they got together again, and lived for some time in a garret in Stamford-street, a sordid neighbourhood that, if it did not kill the hope and romonce that lived in them, yet rapidly fanned the flame of consumption that was con- suming David Gray's young life. Gray died, and Buchanan returned to Scotland broken-hearted. In 1860 his first book, Undertones," was pub- lished, and since then his output has been remark- able even in an age of prolific productions. Poetry, essays, novels, plays, have all fallen from him, and while much of his work is of but average merit, some of it, and especially his poetry, may look for more permanent recognition. It is a little pathetic that he should have acquired much of his popular fame not from his writings, various as they were, but from a chance essay which appeared in the Contemporary Review, entitled "The Fleshly School of Poetry," in which he unsparingly and bitterly denounced the character of the writings of Dante, Gabriel Rcssetti, and Swinburne. This production, unmeasured and unbalanced as it was, aroused a furious controversy, especially as the author of the acid critique was unknown, but in later years Buchanan saw that he had done an injustice to Rossetti, and made noble re- paration. Perhaps in more recent years he won a good deal of notice for a series of striking and brilliant letters which appeared in a Sunday paper. Buchanan was a, man of strong views, and the vigour with which lie expressed them kept him involved in endless controversy. In his time, he made for himself many enemies, but he was not a man to seek for popularity at the expense of what he held to be the truth. His best known novels are The Shadow of the Sword," God and the Man," "The New Abelard." and Foxglove Manor," while of his plays the most successful were A Nine Days' Queen." Lady Clare," Storm- beater," "Sophia, and "Joseph's Sweetheart." By his death the world mourns a picturesque per- sonality, and a brilliant man of letters. I THE EARL OF MORAY. I The Earl of Moray died on Tuesday afternoon at his seat, Doune Lodge, near Stirling. He had been out on Monday, but was suddenly taken ill next morning. Edmund Archibald Stuart, Earl of Moray, Baron Doune, and Baron St. Colme, in the peerage of Scotland, and Baron Stuart of Castle Stuart in the peerage of Great Britain, was the grandson of the Hon. Archibald Stuart, son of the ninth earl, and was boru in 1840. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he took his M.A. degree in 1866. he was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1867. Ten years later he married Anna Mary, daughter of the late Rev. G. J. Collinson, of Clapham. In 1878 he assumed the additional name and arms of Gray on succeeding to the estates of Margaret, Baroness Gray, which he dis- continued when, in 18S5, he succeeded his kins- man as 15th earl. Lord Moray was a J.P. and D.L. for Perthshire and a D.L. for Inverness- shire. Lord Moray leaves no children, and is suc- ceeded in the family honours by his brother, the Hon. Francis James Stuart-Gray, who was born in 1842, was formerly major of the 1st King's Liverpool Regiment, retiring as lieutenant-colonel, married in 1879 Gertrude Floyer, daughter of the late Rev. Francis Smith, and assumed the addi- tional surname and arms of Gray on succeeding to the Gray and Kinfauns estates. Lieutenant- Colonel Stuart-Gray was raised to the rank of an earl's son in 1897. __4.