Denbighshire Free Press

THE S CLHCUIT. À- 1 L-. -ÄJ..L -1- 1- \J ):) _M- -A.- It, The year which is now under rovioT has been more i uteres tin? in its domeatie affairs than i" it? events abroad, and in that respect it r in marked coiilrRst with the years lllve hi-tterly procedeci it. The year t he end of the great war twixt East „. to .say nothing of a blooiHoes revo- h' n Scandinavia, and the resignation of a ti. Government at home. The Union'■st Ofiwrnjr.^nt resigned in the closing davy '•/ the anil in all the twelve months 1i> Mowed nothing has had quite the *n''v q.;ality of the General Election, wh in the seo-oid week of the year. R.;E GENERAL ELECTION. Tr an amazing change in half-a-dozen cl; "U ways. Ex-Cabinet Ministers went ex « ninepins- The ex-Prime Minister 'Aft ■t■■I on the Saturday at Esw5t. Man- rJi^T'T; his brother, Mr. Gerald Balfour, on Monday in Central Leeds Mr. Alfred Lyttel- r ton on Tuesday—"1st us not repeat the melan- chclv tale. Something like a round dozen of then. fell. Parliamentary veterans, too, of Mr. Chaplin's weight and" influence were un- seated. The election meant the coining in of a new order. From the social standpoint its result was chiefly important for the arri- val" on the floor of the House of Commons of th.e Labour party, fifty-four strong. Fewer than thirty Liberal-Unionists went back to St. Stephen's. A complete and startling change had come over the national feeling, such as the student of a century of English politics would be the last man to wonder at. V7V ,i. after a tumultuous fortnight, the new Parliament met, and Mr. J. W. Lowihcr was elected Speaker on February 18th, the Government, counting the Labour party's support, had a majority of 174 over the Oppo- } eiticn. leaving out of account the J-TaticnrJiet greupv Y-'hich numbered eighty uiree. lie P 16C9,I cVa^stioll was to the front in many rid P'v.:<yi and ignored in others. Chinese labour" was an election cry; but the i:>g of the pendulum" and a Liberal pi: 6vnnraie of domestic refcrni- tion, labour, land, licensing, and Irish government—had their tale to tell. Old issues, as well as old parties and old politi- cian?'. had sought a political limbo. Three notable election petitions followed- at Yar- mouth, Bodmin, and 'Worcester, :1 in the Cornwall case, h. Ag ar Bcbarte-s us- seated; to his initiative as a private Mem- ber, the Ministry owe the Land Tenure Bill they later adopted a-9 a Government measure. A BALFOUE MISSIVE. One of the sensations of this tin. Mr. Balfour's "valentine"—the leiie ia tne ex-Prime Minister to Mr. Cham1 "in, on the day after Parliament met, Sll :g that he thought not only a corn duly, but a general tariff, should be advocated if shewn to be neoessary for the attainment of the elids in view or for purposes of revenue. A fort- night later Mr. Balfour was elected for the City, and then another startling thing oc- I curred Sir Edward Clarke, th'o senior and Unionist Member, having introduce iiim to the House, proceeded to shake his Lead at Mr. Chamberlain's advocacy of a ta-z upon corn, and to warn the Opposition thai by any adherence to the policy of Tariff Reform they would imperil causes of far greater -se- quence. Mr. Chamberlain's supporters in the City demanded litn explanation of Sir Edward. Though the representation of his naiife city had been the ambition of his life, the sturdy I K.C. was compelled later in the year, on medical adriee, to retire and to .¡;civ.W active political vrork. The year, too, hi* Mr. I Chamberlain laid aside. T>'J notable event he attended was a mou.u^i ••.«!miration in BirmingJiani in connectltos ■'•i.i his seventieth birthday. THE EDUCATION BILL. I The Education Bill of the Government was meant to secure a national system of eduo tion upon an undenominational b{vsi*. with, of' course, exceptions. The Lord" viial and temporal undertook to shew that it could not be undenominational. In the Voluntary schools they aimed to have religions instruction taught by Churchmen. They charged the Government's bill with ansr*ndir.eoU and sent it down to the Commons. Mr. Birreil made the most trenchant strfafwU of the session in reply. This was not i hi Commons* bill, he said, it was the I.,Lirdf,' it was not a national, it was a Church of Eng- land settlement. It set at defiance their three great prinoipleø-popular local con- trol; universal, or catholic, religious teaching; and no religious teets for teachers; it created intolerable difficulties for tbe Education Office; as a House of Com- mons' measure it was a sheerfeimpossi- bility and-in fine--tho Government bad "no usa" fOJ: it. If the House of Lords could not come to terms, one thing is per- fectly plain to every man, that unless some alteration is made in our Constitution a Liberal Administration must be an imposture and a sham." The House of Lords was threatened. The House of Commons sent back the Lords' amendments without con- sidering them, and. intimated the lines on which conoaasions seemed to them reason- able. Various private conferenoes followed. But negotiations oame to grief over the teach- ing question. Things now are just as they were left by Mr. Balfour's Act. This is em- phatically so siooe the reversal of THE West Biding judgment by the House of Lords. OTBBB MBOF THE SawloN. The Mtt of the MEASURES may be quickly Munmarised, The Trade Disputes Bill places trade uaiooe ta ureoieely the same position a* before the Toff Take ease. Their fnnde wre TO be no lengpf ae the Taff Vale caM made tfcea LIOHIT-RFER any injury wiaicb em- plejece may SAFFO* tbzgmgu a strike that the onion is INSTRUMENTAL in PROMOTING. The CEMPENEA4IIE« Acts, hitWrto had merely DEOORA^BATOD a number of trades in which WORKJUXM shoold HAVE compensation for injuries. The MEW bill lays dovra the prin- ciple broadly that WORKMEN shall be eonwon- sated, and maims only a f*w eecoeptaogs OF TRADES and oceopatioos which at preeent, for various rtasone, oannot be inoludecL The Shipping Acts Amendment (No. 2) Bill (tppiiee-to pasaenger and emigrant ships, deals witb the argeat question of sea- men's food (inckidiim inspection), and with the relief AND repatruttieB of distressed eea- men. We may eventually see ships PROHIBITED from overloading by an INTERNATIONAL load- lioe, but. THE time of AGREEMENT on that. poiat is not yett Not only Labour's claims, but those of THE land I-v-s reoenved a ceftaia measure of con- sideration. The President of the Beard of Agriculture, under the CroNvn Lands Act, i charged with the administration of 70,980 aeree of Crown lands, and these, ae oppor- tunity occnrn, are to be used for a demfcastrs* tiea for all thewerld t»sm ofthe vahieWsmall holdings, The Prime Minister, iu, ILW Albert Hall speech befone the election, spoke, £ «erei:c». &III of colonising our own country. General Booih is bent up6a just such another venture. The late Mr. George Herring, shortly, before hie denth, lent the Geooral £ 1^0,000 for n home colonisation scheme, in, Which small, holdings aad co-operative farming may be put te the teet ia this country. The Land Tenam Btli and the Town Tenants Bill are both "private Members' bills which have been elevated to the dignity of Government measures. They aim to gi- the outgoing tenant compensation, fer dist«rbanae ltaël; eampeusatfoa for une«- heosted improvement. The former «1M makes poeaiole cempe«gation for damage<by game, which the tenant bas not the rignt to kill, and givee reasonable security. against arbitrary dismissal. Mr. Harcourt's Plural Voting Bill wan thrown out by the Lords. Lord Jlebert il tried to make it a step towards t.'a ti ^^van's suffrage. -That was at' a tin^at w,te* m soffra^Hftes were coming in for "t share of public attention. A gfonP *4 k»dice had <*eated' wceues both ia tlle"sbbly and estside moiiH m or te get publicity for their pro- had ta gcnet prison as martyr vs charges of r^w«+ni« the police. Lord Hobert's motion, was simply to; ascert^ia how the Ministry stood disposed to the question of extending the franchise jto woniea. Other ti«ma of Parliamentary interest may witk in disry fashion, OB 4.he d%J in si 1ft id ;Ü,t T" -L after was announced that birching had been sus- pended in the Navy for a twelvemonth. On March 7th a resolution in favour of payment of Members was carried by 348 votes to 110, but the Government had no money. On April 30th Mr. Aequith made his first Budget statement, when of the surplus of £ ti,700,000, was devoted to the roditction of the National Debt, with a similar sum for toe Chinese indemnity, the eoal tax was repealed as from November 1st, off tea Id. duty was taken, nnd off stripped tobacco "(- nothing off the Income-Tax, which re- i. of 3 That im- i j- '•>*>!festly reserved for treatment in a .1(" v.-qy cn the lines of the re- C. 1 "rhed report of the Seloct Com- mitle, Income-Tax, wherein it is rccom- mcdecl that abatements be allowed on iELOOO incomes and not only to Z 10, 0 that earned incomes be more gently taxed than unearned; that there be an additional tax on incomes £,t,J{}): and that every Income- Taxpayer be compelled to state his total in- come. On May 22nd statements were made in the Lords on tbe Ecclesiastical Discipline Commission, and on July 12lh Mr. Haldane announced his proposal for the reorganisa- tion of the Army, embracing the reduction of the Regulars by 20,030 men. On the 18th Mr. Burns announced a Government grant of £ 200.000 to meet the requirements of the unemployed, and on the 20th Mr. Morley made his statement on Indian affairs. It was on the last day of the month that the House debated the Government's proposals for a Constitution for the Transvaal. A constitu- tion is to be granted to the Orange River Colony as well. In either case, there be two Chambers, one nominated (in. the nrst instance, at all events), the other elected. Members of both, are to be paid for their service, and the elections are to be by manhood suffrage. FOREIGX AFFAIRS EUROPE. The most sensational of Foreign affairs have been those of the Russian Empire. After them, perhaps the moot momentous in Euro- pean politics has been the separation of Church and State in France. Russian Duma, elected in the beginning of the year, was eventually dissolved by the Government because of its uncompromisingly, and, as it was said, extravagantly Liberal attitude. But another Duma is to be elected in the spring, so that, as the Prime Minister said when he welcomed the delegates of the Inter-Parlia- montary Union (and got into trouble with his critics for saying so), •" The Duma is dead. Long live tlie Duma!" The constitutional principle, so far, is to become a part of the national life of Russia. Towards the end of the year Russia bus been menaced by the catastrophe of revolution, but in the earlier months there were many serious outbreaks, whose worst character was the mutiny of the naval and military forces—artillerymen at Sebastopol, and, after the Duma crisis, the military at Poltava in July, and the navy at Cronstadt in August. One of the evil features of the year was the number of pogroms, or attacks on the populace, where disorder was feared, instituted (ao it was declared) by secret agents of the Government. Jews have been cruelly persecuted, and in July 40,000 of them fled from Warsaw on this very account. The tale of the assassination of high-placed officials has coutinuad. A bomb was thrown in the building in which tbe Prime Minister waji holding a reoaption ou August. 25th, by wtiioli, although M. Stolypin was not injured, two of hie children were killed, thirty persons lost their lives, and ffty were injured. Later in the year tha Government notified im- portant concessions to the peasants, and fore- shadowed an Income-tax and other reforms. The year has seen the fall of two Cabineta in France—that of M. Rouvier in February, and that of M. Loubet in the autumn. The carrying out of the Separation Law had some- thing to do with each. A stronger Cabinet was formed in October to see the Government through the worat part of the dissolution. of the old relations between Church and State, and M. CleH>enoenu, hitherto known as the breaker of Cabinets," found himself at tho head of one. In forming the new Cabinet one of "time's revenges came about, and Colonel Picquart, who had been expelled from the Army for championing the caufJoO of Dreyfus, became Minister of War. The Algeciras Conference settled the Moroccan trouble in the beginning of the year, and various visits of courtesy have been ex- changed by the municipal bodies of London ap.1,Paria. "rnis year has seen the Kaiser busy. He met the King at Cronberg on August 15th; be visited the Austrian Emperor in January; be entertained the King of Denmark thp other day. But he has done far more thah that. He has dissolved Parliament because it would not paas supplementary eetimatee to push on with the war in South-west Africa. The Kaiser will not have his plan for Colonial expansion interfered with. Ha has had to re- prehend the publication of the Hohenlolie M,e'noirs--o;o, that the indiscreet Prince Alex- ander of Hohenlohe, who was responsible for the publication of hilJ father's memoirs, had to resign his post as President of Upper Alsace—and he had to express hie admiration of the exploits of the ingenious Voigt of Kospenick—who is now in gaol. He has had to abide by the decision of the Algeciras Con- ference in Morocco. ASIA. In the Far East, Prinoe. Arthur of Con- naught has conferred the Order of the Garter npoa the Mikado of Japan. China has made some reforms, and promiMd others. The abolition of the opium traffic is the most im- portant. In tbe Middle East the Persians secured from the Shah the oonesesion of an elective oeunetl to adviee in a affairs. In the Keftr East we had a littie disagreement with the Sultan over the demarcation ef the Egyptian frontier, but the Sublime Perte saw the foree ef our arguments after, incidentally, we had presented an ultimatnm. Amkca. In South Africa nothing has had se much interest as the granting of the constitution to the TronevaaL In the middle of the year there wa4, some trouble with the natives of Natal, aud the names of such chiefs as Bam- hatn a Sigafeanda for a while became hmisehoki werds. Lord Kilser, oil whom it had been proposed ia the Cemmens at a r vote of oensure should be psowed, received, on August 3th, an address with 37t,f0# eigsa taret in recognition of kis ftcvioeo te the Ea. pire. Governments in tbme days aim to half the Ironic Spirit. The next day brought the Report of the War Storey Cemmisaiwa. Blame trod oa the heels of compliment. The mi*. published, report on the immorality in th* Chinese compounds need not he a6N mentioned. It will have the effect Iff re- pstriating the Chinese labour on tlte Sand. The Egyptian digp';ute has be" reM" We had trouble with some natives, wke Jata-i dered a British oflicer because of the sheet- ing of pigeons — a pigeon whispered tbe Kgraa to Mohammed—and there was tafk and still i«, of a Paa-Iehimic movemeat, wtaich, however, may be good for the world M) long as it remains educative aad can carry on it* w(Mfk withoat resort to firearms. Re- volt and brtoaadnge challenged repressive measures in Morocco, whil»_ ij# indignation aroused ia this country by tb# Cense terrors moved th« Cabinet to ask the Pow^s to nrgh upon Belgium that the time'had come when she should intervene arid .pot aA end to the miserable and sordid ndetof >th* Congo Free State. rij.-w <-4 v: ..A»D k.aIO.4 The United- States, 88 «e fair share of public attention* It has pro- vided the world with the Chicago meat-pack- g' g horrors; the Revolution ju Cnba; tbe resident's spelling reform} the race riots in- Georgia, when many negroes were mnr. dered; the eloobop for the Goyernorship of New York; the trouble, in California over the invidious treatiheiit of Japanese school cfifldrep arjd the institiitioli of proceedings against the Standard Oil Trust- Indeed, the Presidept seem# -all along to had his hands pretty ftill. desired tcr havfl sifich htige' corporations as Standard Oil declared 'ilfegal. The Manwith the BigStiok helped to ^traight^jn matters out in the Central Ameri- cart Republic, and he told San Francisco that she must nbt allow her raco prejudice to injure Ataerica'e relations with her good friends the Japanese. Commander Peary has gone nearer to tbe-i^c^rth PSle than anybody eJØ. tit got slsrcst wfthis 300 milse go iit TTï- R-«.!V, Tn>; (nRC: AND Till. LAVi'. As far as the Services were concerned the 'Ttstanding fact of the year was t'he special Army Order containing regulations r the organisation of a, General Staff. As was said n more than one quarter the Army had been "i en its brains at last. On October 23rd •••une the news that the Admiraltvhad de- cided on important alterations in the distri- bution of naval strength, involving the con- stitution of a distinct fleet from the ships in em amission in teserve'to be called the Home F1"t. The stranding of H.M.S. Montagu :1 f,i,ncly, Island in a fog occurred early in ■ear, and one of tho pri-ncipai interests oi (he court-martial which followed lay in unr demonstration again of I lie .fact that fo.g cloak the sound of the signal that are the only warning which cnn be given to vessels while it prevails. TP.t' became known as the on-the-knee ciMn-t-marti al, 1: -3 the insubordination of stokers >;3111.1,, belongs to only a few weeks pe to tk'5 Army, the new War Minister has made many speeches on Army reform, and oioeet is to be given to various changes both in the Regnlar and Auxiliary Forces. The "volunteers are especially receiving Mr. Haldane's attention. The year has seen tho retirement of Genernl Buller, and his ap- pointment to manage the estate of the Mar- quis Tcwnshend recalls a law case which was followed with a good deal of interest at the time. To return to legal matters, in the Clark- Kennedy ragging case in March a long- standing problem presented itself for solu- tion. In June came a "Christian Science" cose, in which a doctor who. with his patient, had relied on a faith cure was ac- quitted on a charge of manslaughter. A relict Coir, oil" to see how London's police affairs are conducted, has not yet con- cludod its work, The West Riding judgment has been referred to, and the Poplar Inquiry resulted in a condemnation of the extrava- gant "Socialistic" policy of the Poplar Guardians. In connection with a charge of corruption against West Ham Guardians, one of them, leaving a note to say that he was innocent of the charge, went down into his cellar and shot himself. Among libels there were the Cecil and the Phyllis Dare cases. In the former an old servant was sentenced to imprisonment for publishing a gross libel on Lady Gwendoline Cecil; in the latter, a youth named Woolfries, who had represented himself as a brother of popular Miss Phyllis Dare, was sent to gaol for improperly associating her name with that of Mr. Sey- mour HtCKfl. For the Church this has been an eventful year. Besides the Education Bill, with all its religious controversy, the Ritual Commis- sion's report was published at the beginning of July. A movement has made considerable headway for rearrangement of the dioceses of Ely, Norwich, and St. Albans, so as to give two others, to be known as Suffolk and Essex. The King opened a new wing of Marischal College during the Aberdeen quater-century celebrations, and the Univer- sity of Cambridge has abolished the Senior Wranglership. Selby Abbey was burnt down some two months ago; and there was some discussion of it3 political significance at the time that Father Wernz, the German bead of the Jesuit University in Rome, was elected General of that Order. HORRORS ON HORROR'S HEAD." One of the things which will render the year memorable is tlia number' of serious seismic disturbances which have taken place., The first of the Black Days of the year was January 4th, when a Nicaraguan town was y 11 destroyed by an earthquake and many of its inhabitants killed. Before the month was out Hungary and Samoa had also been similarly visited. Other tragedies of the month were the sinking of the Brazilian warship Aquida- ban and the drowning with her of the four Admirals and over 200 sailors, and the wreck of the American passenger steamer Valencia, in which 140 souls went down. During the z, second month of the year another earthquake, accompanied by a tidal wave, eauscd great loss of life and property in British Columbia, while a tornado devasted Tahiti, and early in lIarch part of the Mississippi Valley was laid was!n fxom the same cause. TTe liaa scarcely time to think of these things; they involved the loss only of hun- dreds of lives. Catastrophes involving thou- sands followed. The great explosion at the Courrieres Mines, in the North of France, with all its harrowing accompaniments, riveted attention. Over 1,200 lives were lost,' and the story of how a few survivors who were entombed kept themselves alive for days until they were rescued by relief parties is one of the mest thrilling in the whole romantic history of coalmining. Exactly a afterwards a destructive earthquake oc- curred in Formosa, in -which over 1,000 lives were lost, while towards the end of tbe month two other mining disasters occurred, one in West Virginia, in which 100 miners were killed, and one near Nagasaki, Japan, in which the death-roll was 250. But April was the month of earthquakes. First came the eruption of Vesuvius, when whole villages were swept away by the streams of lava or buried beneath the showers of ashes and debris. In Naples build- ings, including the market-place, fell in, and the extent of the loes of life in and around the city has never been stated. Besides this visitation comparatively near home, another earthquake in Formosa, in which hundreds were killed and thousands rendered homeless, was scarcely noticed. The sensation had not died away before an even more terrible thing befell—the San Francisco earthquake. What is there to iay of this desolation exoept that one of the fit cities in the world was laid in ruins, that thousands of lives were lost, and that damage to property was to be reckoned in millions? Towards thetand of June there occurred the boat express-train disaster at Salisbury, in which twouty-eight perivens were killed and ninsteen injured through the train leaving the metals.The victims included many wealthy Amerioan visitors. Augutit began with the wreck of the emi- grant ship Sirio, in which 350 lives were lost; but although several of the victims were people well known here, this is not the catastrophe by which the month will be remembered. The last and perhaps the most terrible of the earthquake* of the year was the Valparaiso | earthquake. Net only was "the San Fran- gis4J» of the South -as it now became in another and tragic sense almost completely destroyed; eighteen towns in all shared the same fate. Another railway accident, the wrecking of the Scotch express outside Grantham Station, has to be recorded, and a menth afterwards occurred the one serious mine accident of the year so far as this coun- try is eoneerned—the Wing ate disaster. SOCIBTT AND WEDDINGS. Taking it altogether we have had a toler- hly brisk and owia" twelve months from a social tof view. Soeiety weddings have r been plentifal. Of oouree, the usual number of Peers have married actresses. Lord da Clifford opened the series in February by marrying Miss Evelyn Chandler, better knawn to the public as Miss Eva Carrington. lie met her while she was playing as a Gib- 80a Girl in M Tbe Cateh of the Season." Another wedding which attracted much more attention, and, indeed, along with the Spanish Royal marriage oo«stituted one of the prime social "events" of tbe year, wav. of course, the Roosevelt Longworth wedding. Vieconnt Cranley and Miss Violet Bampfykle were the aext pair to go off, and abent. week later the first Royal pair of the year to be wed approached the alttr-Prinoo Eitel Frederick and the Princess Sophie Charlotte of Oldenburg. Early in March Princess Ena of Battenherg was converted to the Roman Catholio faith, and on May 1st King Alfonso made his first visit to London since bis betrothal. Both then and on their subsequent visit to Cowee this Roval pair were the lions of British society. The bomb outrage which marred their wedding-day drew to them the sympathy of their own sub- jects and of everyone else. Then came the weddin# of Britain's richest heiress," Lady Mary Hamilton, the controller or more millions than any other young person of twenty-one, who endowed tba JMarqui3 of Graham with her hand and her fortune in the middle of June; and two days afterwards Lord Howiek took to-wife Lady Mabel Pal- mer. The echo of the bells at Lord Bute's wedding, which took place in June, 1905, may be said to have been heard in the wedding of Lowd Ninian Crichtoa-Stuart aad the Hen. ismay Pr^L^ TV litter was a bridesm-tdd on the former occasion, and tliei,e groom's brother fell in love at first, sight. Tb turn to more august doings, the month of June saw the Coronation of King Hakon of Norway and his English Princess (who, later in the year, visited this country), and two days before tho month went out we were all wishing King Edward VII. many happy re- turns of his birthday, when the honours list was larger than usual. amongst the most not- able names in it being thooo,of Mr. Leonard Courtney, who became Bar^n Courtney cf Penwith "F.C.G. the noted, political car- toonist, who became Sir Carruthers Gould; and the Earl of Cromer, ho received the Order of Merit. One other Jiitte incident t is not likely to be forgotten. FatnAr Bernard Vaughan'from the pulpit lectursd "smart" society on its ways. 4 The early part of July was marked-by fine weather and smart people at Henley. To- wards the end of the month another of the great weddings of the year took pbthat of Mr. Austen Chamberlain and Miss lvv Muriel Dundas, when all the world, political and social, went to St. Margaret's Chvtr-eh, Westminster, to see the surrender of one of I the "connrmed" front-rank political bache- lors. A society sensation was caused by the en- gagement of the Hon. Henry Lyndhurst Bruce, eldest son of Lord Aberdare, to Miss Camiile Clifford.- a "Gibson Girl." When it was rumoured that owing to hie father's opposi- tion to the match the young nobleman would have to go into business, and that he had actually Opened a motof-garage, the affair be- came the topic of the hour. Mr. Bruce and his fiancee were married quietly, society and .everybody being kept in ignorance of the event until nearly a fortnight afterwards. j Another so le-ty wedding, that of Lord Ger- ard and Miss May Gosselin, took place a little later. In the middle of October one of the three chief marriages of the year took pbce Hut of Frauiein Bertha Krupp. This untitled German lady, inheritor of the gigantic gun factory and iron industry of Essen built up by her father, was reputed to be the wealthiest woman in the world. THE WORLD OF SPORT. The dry summer had more effect on the sport of the year than is generally supposed. I Huntin g men suffered, and shooting was handicapped by the fall of leaf being so exceptionally late. High scores in cricket were another result of the beau- tiful weather, which lasted through the greater part of the summer, and by winning the cricket championship .Kent o reaped the benefit of having established a nursery for young cricketers at Tonbridge some years ago, and in Fielder and Seymour, a brace tho nursery pupils. tho hop coup.ty possesses; twoaof the mtet promising young- sters in the country. The success of the Southern shire was popular, and it was gene- rally admitted that their win by the defeat of Hampshire on September 1st was well de- served. Hard wickets suited their bowlers, and their plucky uphill games against York- shire, Lancashire, Surrey, and Middlesex will be remembered for many years to come. Sports which have made gusat progress during the year are motoring and ballooning, or aerial navigation, and although the aeroplane still remains an interesting problem, it will not surprise students of aviation should the prize of £ 10,000, which is offered for the first aeronaut who shall conduct an aereplane in flight from London to Manchester, be claimed before the history of another year's sport comes to bo written. To Mr. E Bucknall, of Seveuoaks. falls the honour of having established a record in balloon travel during the year, for in the la&t week of November he started from Wandsworth and in sixteen hours dropped at Vevey, near the Lake of Geneva, a distance of 43ft miles, and the flight might have been extended had it not been for the wall of the Alpine range. The Hon. CharLes Rolls, who on September 27th won the Motor Tourist Trophy in the Isle of Man over a course of 162^ miles, which he drove in 4hr. 6mia. 8-5»ec.. is also an aeronaut, but he was beaten in the race for the Gordon-Bennett Cup by Lieutenant Lahn, an Amerioan. The two motor and cycle shows at Olympia and the Royal Agri- cultural Hall were great suooeeees, no fewer than 192,496 people paying for admission to the first-named, where the value of the ex- hibits was close upon £ 500,006. T big ball match of the year, of eourso, was the contest for the Association Cup at the Crystal Palace, Everton beating Newcastle United by one goal'to nothing in the final tie on April 21st, over 75,000 people seeing the game and on the first day of the y*ar, in Paris, the New Zealand Rusbv footballers brought a most, successmu tour to a close by "bmating All France by 38 points to 8. England beah Scotland under the same coele of rules by 9 points? to 3; but the championship was won by Wales, the only team which beat the New Zealanders. A team of South Africans began a tour in Great Britain and Ire-land on September 29th by beating the Midland Counties by 29 points to nil, and although beaten by Scotland they did what the earlier tourists failed to do by getting the upper hand of Wales, but the match sgainot Eng- land was drawn, each side scoring a try. The racing year was full of interest, al- though the popular colours of his Majesty were not seen to the front in ,ny of the classic races, and Lord Derby, for the first time since he began racing in 1894, headed the list of winning owners, his stud having won £ 32,926 in forty-four rkoos. His Key. stone II. won the Oaks, but Majer. Eustace Loder's Spearmint and the Duke of West- minster's Troutbeek were the wis&ers of the Derby and St. Legar respectively. Mr. John Ilill", Mintagon, a Yorkshire trained horse, won the first of the big autamH handicaps, the Ceftarewitoh, but Mr. Joel's Pelymefus won the Cambridgeshire; while the Man- chester handicap, the last big 1' of the season under Jeekey Club rules, went to Cap- tain Orr Ewing'q Spate, a great triumph for the Wantage stable. Other representa- tive sporting events of the year were the Grand National steeplechase, which was won by Prinoe Hatzfeldt's Ascetic's Silver, trained and ridden by the Has. Aubrey Hastings; the open golf chawpteifrship woo by James Braid; ;the Wfterloe Cup, which is still the big event of t&e ooursiae season, and which went to Mr.'H«w^ Hardy's Hep- rend and the boat race., wlueh was won hv Cambridge. In the the Harvard crew met the winners ef the inter-University race, but the Aaerloan" stodeets stood no chance in a raoe on the Thames tide-way; they weee led all the wav attd heats* any- how. The King's Cup at Cowcs Regatta was won by Sir M. Fi*«geraid's Satanit*, aad the chief swimming etemt of the vear was the at- tempt of Burgess te eress the Channel 8Q August Mst- Tbe pl«rkv Yoirwhireman got within fonr mito of the Prenoi eeesrf before he was ohuged te gtre up the attempt. Other swimmwrs, hwrfuding the Australian. Miss Kellenman, did not Make MMh a good show as Burgess, and the late Captain Webb s record still stands. TUB OI»TT?a*Y. The year's defttfe-raU ineludes the nam«« of many ef the du-wagmtiwd ia every erder of sooiety. We have enly space fter the mes* prominent Lord Sitehie, Sir Menntrfsff1"1 Grant-Duff, Mr. G. J. Holyoske, Mr. *7 gpeaeer, Kiag Christian of ])Oaai*vx, Lady Grey, the Conntess Howe, IK* <WIN>aiB Gathers, tbj Princess, LouiSfe of UlUburg- Lippe, Sir Wyhe Bayiies, Dr, Pro- fessor Cnrie, the Baal at Lerd Carrie, the Ptiaeess Fiwdorjfr. of Prussia, Hearik Ibsen, Ur Davitt, Sir Frederick Peel, Sir Q*«e*rfitey, the Right He*. Richard Bidden. f»iP Tf. 'Laimmn, Professor Garcia, Mr. frd BH.L!dy Cur- zon. Mr. Russell S k r'al Kedams, Mr. J. L. Teole, the poke of KtotlSnd. Mrs. Craigie ("John o Hobbes"), the Earl of Leven and Melville, hadj CaaanbelK-IlaniMr- man, Mr. OeMobs, Qapiain Jeha Low of the.. Alabamn, General Trepoff, Prince Albert M Prussia, the Dowager-Mar- chionees of Londonderry, Lieutenant Re- dtt" Madame Itistori, Mrs. Lewis- Hill, Saunderson, the Earl of Cran. brook, Mr. George Herring- the Arcbduks Otto ef Austria.