← Table of contents
The Annual Register 1914

PART II.

Reading edition

CHRONICLE OF EVENTS IN 1914.

JANUARY.

1. The official list of New Year Honours comprised one new Viscount (the Rt. Hon. James Bryce, who took the title of Lord Bryce of Dechmont), four new Barons (Sir Rufus Isaacs, Lord Strathclyde—the Scottish judge, Mr. Alexander Ure,—Sir C. A. Cripps, and Sir Harold Harmsworth, whose titles were respectively Lord Reading, Lord Strathclyde, Lord Parmoor of Frieth, and Lord Rothermere), and five new Privy Councillors (Lord Colebrooke, Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson, the Hon. William F. Massey, Premier of New Zealand, Mr. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., and Sir Christopher Nixon, Bt.). There were six new Baronets, among them Sir Gerard Lowther, G.C.M.G., lately Ambassador at Constantinople, and Colonel Sir Edward Ward, K.C.B., Permanent Under-Secretary at the War Office. Among the twenty-two new Knights were Mr. Owen Seaman, Editor of Punch since 1906; Judge Lumley Smith, late Judge of the City of London Court; Mr. W. E. Garforth, an inventor of safety appliances in coal mines; and Mr. Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S. The Order of Merit was conferred on Sir Archibald Geikie, President of the Royal Society.

—Mr. Llewelyn Archer Atherley Jones, K.C., appointed a Judge of the City of London Court, vice Judge Lumley Smith, retired.

—At Paris, in a Rugby international football match, Ireland beat France by eight points to six.

3. The Home Secretary refused to reconsider the sentence of four months' imprisonment passed at the Stafford Assizes on Thomas William Stewart, a Rationalist lecturer. The reasons for the refusal were, in substance, that the prisoner was punished, not for holding opinions or arguing in support of them, but for utterances designed to wound the feelings of his hearers, and that his speeches on religion were intended to advertise, for his own profit, his lectures on other subjects and certain appliances sold by him, in respect of which he was accused of indecency.

3-4. Further severe storms on the New Jersey coast, doing much damage at Atlantic City and Seabright.

5. Final abandonment announced of "The Romance of India," a spectacle projected at Earl's Court, and designed by a well-known artist, Mr. R. Caton Woodville, but objected to by the India Office and Indian residents in London as likely to give offence to Hindus and others. Several hundred performers were left destitute.

—The tank steamer Oklahoma was broken in two by a wave fifty miles off Sandy Hook and sunk; seven lives saved, about thirty-two lost.

—At Johannesburg, the third Cricket Test Match was won by England by ninety-one runs. England had now won the first three.

7. Announcement that Sir R. H. Brade had been appointed Secretary of the War Office and the Army Council vice Colonel Sir Edward Ward, retired.

—Announcement that Mr. Joseph Chamberlain would retire from Parliament at the next general election.

—Railway strike in South Africa. (See post, For. and Col. Hist., Pt. I., Chap. VII.)

—At the King's Hall, Covent Garden, a mock trial was held of John Jasper for the murder of Edwin Drood, the hero of Dickens' last and unfinished novel. The literary problem involved in the book, the subject of much speculation, was not solved. Mr. G. K. Chesterton was Judge, Mr. George Bernard Shaw foreman of the Jury. The verdict was manslaughter, but the Judge committed all those present for contempt.

—Attempt to blow up Territorial barracks at Leeds, temporarily used as police quarters; damage slight.

8. Fire at St. Paul's Training College, Cheltenham; damage over 5,000l.

9. At Cambridge, Dr. Henry Frederick Baker, D.Sc., F.R.S., Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College, was elected Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry, vice Sir Robert Ball, deceased.

9-10. Severe snowstorm in North-West Russia.

9-11. Severe floods on the German Baltic coast, owing to storms and the bursting of dykes; floods also in Würtemberg, the Rhine Valley, Switzerland and Belgium.

10. Barton Hall, near Bury St. Edmunds, burnt down in the early morning; most of the art treasures saved.

11. The Chinese Parliament formally dissolved.

12. At Pretoria, the return match between the M.C.C. and the Transvaal cricket eleven was drawn.

12-15. Severe winter weather in England.

13. Volcanic eruption near Kagoshima, Japan; about 200 lives lost.

—Martial law proclaimed in South Africa.

—The Royal Mail Company's Steamer Cobequid (late Goth), from the West Indies to St. John, N.B., went ashore on the Trinity Ledges, near the entrance of the Bay of Fundy; the passengers and crew were saved after severe sufferings. The Board of Inquiry (Feb. 2) severely censured the captain, but in view of his subsequent exertions for the safety of those aboard it did not deal with his certificate.

13. Extreme cold in Ontario; at Toronto 54 degrees of frost were registered, at Ottawa 60 degrees, and at White River 80 degrees.

14. At King's College, London, Lord Rayleigh unveiled a memorial tablet to Lord Lister, the founder of antiseptic surgery.

—The inquest on the victims of the Senghenydd Colliery accident (A.R., 1913, Chron., Oct. 14) resulted in a verdict of "Accidental Death." The jury found that there was no neglect, and that the fire probably originated with a naked light at the lamp station.

15. The Special Committee for promoting English representation at the Olympic Games in Berlin retired. (See A.R., 1913, Chron., Dec. 31.)

—Announcement that Sir E. Hildred Carlisle, M.P., had given 105,000l. to Bedford College, as a memorial to his mother.

—Surrender of the Johannesburg Unionists besieged in the Trades Hall. (See post, For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VII., 1.)

16. Submarine A 7 disappeared in Whitesand Bay, near Plymouth, during exercises; her officers and men, numbering eleven, were lost. She was located on January 21, but attempts to raise her were abandoned at the end of February, and the mystery of her loss was unsolved. A memorial service was held on March 5 at the spot where she lay.

—Under the Ancient Monuments Act of 1913 the destruction of a Georgian house, 75 Dean Street, Soho, London, was forbidden by the Office of Works.

17. At Twickenham, England beat Wales in an International Rugby football match by ten points to nine.

—At Frankfort-On-Main, Karl Hopf was convicted of murdering his first wife by poison, and attempting to murder his second and third wives and his two children, and was sentenced to death. He had purchased and used typhoid and cholera bacilli.

19. Final collapse of the Dublin strike. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. VI.)

—At Kimberley, South Africa, the M.C.C. cricket eleven beat Griqualand West by an innings and 101 runs.

—At McAlister, Oklahoma, three convicts escaped from the State penitentiary, but were ultimately shot after a fight; in all seven men were killed and two men and one woman wounded.

20. The dead body of Thomas Kent Reekes, an Australian and a marine engineer, was found in a disused pit shaft at Ettingshall, near Wolverhampton. Death was due to gunshot wounds. Efforts to account for his presence in the district and to trace an alleged companion failed.

21. The King in Council ratified the Orders defining the boundaries of the new sees of Chelmsford, St. Edmundsbury, and Ipswich.

—Lieut. Seddon, R.N., flew from Sheerness to Plymouth (down the Channel) on a Maurice biplane—nearly 350 miles in 5 hrs. 35 min., exclusive of a stop.

21-28. Strike of 7,000 London coal porters, (See Eng. Hist., Chap. I.)

23. At Brussels, Princess Victor Napoleon, before her marriage Princess Clementine of Belgium, gave birth to a son, the direct heir to the Bonaparte dynasty.

25. At the Hendon aerodrome, George Lee Temple, an airman, was killed while flying.

26. On Salisbury Plain, Mr. Gibb, an airman, was killed while flying and a passenger injured.

—An explosion took place aboard the Cunarder Mauretania among men engaged in brazing the turbine blades; three men killed, six seriously injured.

—An equestrian statue of King Edward VII., by Landowzki, was unveiled in the Rue Edouard VII., Paris.

27. Announcement that Mr. Arthur Jacob Ashton, K.C., had been appointed Recorder of Manchester vice Sir Joseph Leese, Bart., resigned.

—Announcement that Lord Denman had resigned the post of Governor-General of New South Wales through ill-health.

—Mr. F. W. Vanderbilt's steam yacht Warrior stranded off the Colombian coast; all on board saved.

—An Interim Report of the Dominions Royal Commission dealing with the needs of Australia condemned the methods of recruiting immigrants in Great Britain, recommended reduction in cable rates, and held that the existing postal service was inadequate, but that it would be inadvisable to bind the State to a new contract by the Brindisi and Suez Canal route.

—Narrow escape of St. Petersburg from serious flooding after a great storm.

28. Labour leaders deported from South Africa. (See Eng. Hist., Chaps. I. and II., and For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VII.)

29. Announcement that Mr. John Horace Round, D.L., LL.D., had been appointed by the Attorney-General honorary adviser to the Crown in Peerage Cases.

30. Announcement that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had appointed a Committee on the relations of Church and State. The Earl of Selborne was chairman and Mr. Balfour one of the members.

—At the Parliamentary bye-election for North-West Durham, due to the retirement of Mr. Lt. Atherley Jones, K.C. (see Jan. 1), Mr. Aneurin Williams (L.) was returned by 7,241 votes; Mr. J. O. Hardicker (U.) obtained 5,564 and Mr. G. H. Stuart (Lab.) 5,026.

—The liner Monroe, plying between New York and Norfolk, Va., was run down by the s.s. Nantucket; forty-one persons in all were drowned.

—Explosion in a coal mine at Achenbach, Westphalia; twenty-two men killed, seventeen injured.

31. The German sailing ship Hera was wrecked off Falmouth; of the crew of twenty-four nineteen were drowned.

—Strike of elementary school teachers in Herefordshire; it was settled February 25.

31. The official return of pauperism for January, 1914, showed that the total number of paupers had dropped from 33.8 per 1,000 in 1874 to 17.5 in 1914, and that of outdoor paupers from 27.5 to 10.3 per 1,000. Indoor pauperism, however, had risen since 1874 from 6.3 to 7.2 per 1,000, this being due largely to the greater use of workhouse infirmaries. Between 1906 and 1913 the total number of paupers over seventy had fallen nearly 75 per cent., and of outdoor paupers over seventy nearly 95 per cent., owing mainly to old-age pensions.

FEBRUARY.

2. First performance in England of Wagner's Parsifal at Covent Garden Opera House. (See post, Pt. II., Music.)

—Announcement that the anonymous lady who had promised 25,000l. to lay out Shadwell Park in memory of King Edward was precluded from giving it by "severe and sudden financial misfortunes."

—At Windsor Castle, Gustav Hamel "looped the loop" before the King and Queen fourteen times in 17 minutes.

4. Influential meeting at the Mansion House to explain the plans for celebrating the Hundred Years' Peace between Great Britain and the United States; among the speakers were the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Bryce.

—Announcement that the King had approved the appointment of Mr. William Warwick Buckland, M.A., Senior Tutor of Caius College, to be Professor of Civil Law in the University of Cambridge, vice Dr. E. C. Clark, resigned.

—At Sheffield, during an Association Football Cup-tie Match, a wall collapsed owing to the pressure of the crowd on its base at a corner; about seventy persons were injured, three very seriously.

—At Christie's, a James I. silver-gilt cup and cover was sold for 4,500l.

5. At the Liverpool Assizes, George Ball, alias Sumner, was found guilty of the murder of Miss Christina Bradfield (Chron., 1913, Dec. 11) and sentenced to death, and Samuel Eltoft convicted as an accessory after the fact, and sentenced to four years' penal servitude. An appeal by Ball failed, and he was executed on February 26.

6. Announcement that the King had approved the appointments to the new Sees created under the Bishoprics Act, 1913, as follows: to the Bishopric of Sheffield, the Rt. Rev. L. H. Burrows, Bishop Suffragan of Lewes; to the Bishopric of Chelmsford, the Rev. J. E. Watts-Ditchfield, Vicar of St. James the Less, Bethnal Green; and to the Bishopric of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Ven. H. B. Hodgson, Archdeacon of Lindisfarne.

—Mr. R. C. Munro-Ferguson, M.P. for Leith, appointed Governor-General of the Australian Commonwealth, vice Lord Denman, retired.

7. At Cardiff, in an International Rugby Football Match, Wales beat Scotland by twenty-four points to five.—At Queen's Club, West London, in the Inter-University Association Football Match, Cambridge beat Oxford by two goals to one.

9. Announcement that the "Panshanger Madonna" (Chron., 1913, Nov. 26) had been sold to Mr. P. A. Widener, of Philadelphia.

—Announcement that Lord Justice Cherry was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, vice Lord O'Brien resigned.

—Before a court-martial at Chatham, Fleet Paymaster J. A. Lowry, of H.M.S. Ganges, pleaded guilty to desertion and embezzlement, and was sentenced to three years' penal servitude.

10. Sir Laurence Gomme resigned his office as clerk of the London County Council, owing to ill-health.

—Meeting of Parliament. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. II.)

—At Durban, the M.C.C. cricket eleven were defeated by Natal by ten wickets.

11. Announcement that Lord Gladstone had resigned the office of Governor-General of South Africa. (For the consequent Ministerial changes, see Pt. I., p. 27.)

—The Mont Blanc range crossed by the airman Parmelin in a flight from Geneva to Turin. Fog compelled him to descend at Aosta.

13. Announcement at the annual meeting of the Great Eastern Railway shareholders that Mr. Henry W. Thornton, general superintendent of the Long Island Railroad (New York), had been appointed as General Manager of the Great Eastern Railway in succession to Mr. Walter Hyde. He had special experience with heavy suburban traffic.

14[missing period] At Rochdale a tramcar was derailed; eighteen persons were injured.

—At Twickenham, in an International Rugby Football Match, England beat Ireland by seventeen points to twelve.

15. At Lyndhurst, Hants, a madman named Lee Bond was arrested after a thirty hours' motor drive through Dorset, Wilts, and Hants; he compelled the chauffeur to drive under threat of shooting him, and requisitioned petrol by like means. He attempted suicide next day.

17. At Durban the Fourth Test Match between the M.C.C. and South Africa resulted in a draw.

18. In the Upper House of the Convocation of Canterbury, the Bishop of London presented a petition signed by 676 priests in the diocese of London, expressing anxiety at the unchecked denial of fundamental Christian truths by office-holders in the Church, and at the tendency to approach the problem of reunion in a way inconsistent with the recognition of the necessity of episcopal ordination.

—At the Parliamentary bye-election in Bucks (Wycombe) due to the elevation to the Peerage of Sir A. Cripps (U.), Mr. W. B. Du Pré (U.) was returned, obtaining 9,044 votes; Mr. Tonman Morley (L.) obtained 6,713.

19. At the Parliamentary bye-election for South-West Bethnal Green, due to the appointment of Mr. C. F. G. Masterman (L.) to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster, Sir Matthew Wilson (U.) was returned by 2,828 votes; Mr. C. F. G. Masterman (L.) receiving 2,804, and Mr. John Scurr (Soc. and Lab.) 316. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. II.)

19. At Cradley Heath, Staffs, owing to a subsidence caused by old colliery workings, some forty houses in the High Street were cracked and injured.

—Near Birmingham, Ala., a mail train was held up by three men, and robbed of $40,000; they then detached the locomotive and escaped on it.

—In the King's Bench Division, before Mr. Justice Darling and a special jury, the six days' trial was concluded of a libel action brought by Major W. A. Adam, sometime 5th Lancers and late Unionist M.P. for Woolwich, against Sir Edward Ward, recently Permanent Secretary for the War Department. The plaintiff complained of the publication of a letter addressed officially by the defendant to Major-General Scobell in August, 1910, declaring that the charge brought against the latter by the plaintiff was unfounded and containing words which the plaintiff regarded as a reflection on his character. The defendant denied publication, and alleged that the words were privileged. The charge in question had been debated in the Commons (A.R., 1910, p. 150). The jury found for the plaintiff; damages 2,000l.

20. At the Parliamentary bye-election for Tower Hamlets (Poplar), due to the appointment of the Rt. Hon. Sydney Buxton to be Governor of South Australia, Mr. A. W. Yeo (L.) was returned by 3,548 votes; Mr. R. Kerr Clark (U.) received 3,270, and Mr. J. Jones (Lab. and Soc.) 893.

—In the final heat of the Waterloo Cup, Messrs. Dennis's hound Dilwyn beat the Duke of Leeds's Leucoryx, nominated by Major McCalmont.

—At Messrs. Nobel's factory of explosives at Ardeer, Ayrshire, an explosion killed seven men and injured two, one fatally.

—On the Wexford coast, near Kerrig Island, the Fethard lifeboat was wrecked while assisting the Norwegian schooner Mexico; five of the lifeboatmen and nine of the schooner's crew were rescued on February 22, after sixty hours on the island; nine lifeboatmen were drowned; one of the crew had died of exhaustion.

21. At Challapata, Bolivia, a magazine containing 3,500 tons of dynamite exploded; the town was destroyed, with great loss of life.

—Count Mielzynski acquitted of the murder of his wife and her nephew at his castle in Poland (A.R., 1913, Chron., Dec. 20). The trial was in camera, but it was stated that the Countess had been unfaithful.

22. Severe storm in Switzerland. On the Lötschberg railway, a train was partly derailed by wind on emerging from a tunnel; one passenger killed, several injured.

23. At Debreczin, Hungary, a bomb sent by post to the Greek Catholic Bishop Miklossy exploded and killed the episcopal vicar and the secretary. The outrage was ascribed to Roumanian resentment at the creation of a Greek diocese of Hajdudorog, severing 12,000 Roumanians from the Roumanian branch of the same Church.

26. At the Parliamentary bye-election at Leith, due to the appointment to be Governor-General of Australia of Sir R. Munro-Ferguson (L.), Mr. G. W. Currie (U.) was returned by 5,159 votes; Mr. M. Smith (L.) received 5,143, and Mr. J. N. Bell (Lab.) 3,346.

—Announcement that Mr. Otto Beit had offered a South African Research Fellowship for two years at Oxford, for the collection of the South African history preserved by memory and oral tradition.

26. Announcement that Sir Hugh Lane was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, vice Sir Walter Armstrong, resigned.

—At Chelsea, in a baseball match between two American teams, the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox, the latter won by five runs to four. The King was present.

—In a duel near Metz a German officer, Lieut. Haase, was shot dead by a brother officer, Lieut. von Lavallette St. George, who had shown undue attention to his adversary's wife.

28. At Dublin, Ireland beat Scotland at Rugby football by six points to nil.

—At Samar, near the Sea of Galilee, the Turkish military airmen Fethi Bey and Sadik Bey, while flying from Damascus to Jerusalem, were killed by the fall of their aeroplane.

MARCH.

1. Announcement that the King would offer a cup of the value of 100l. for an international yacht race at Panama in 1915.

1, 2. Severe snowstorms in the Eastern United States.

2. At Swansea, Wales beat France at Rugby football by thirty-one points to nil.

3. In the fifth and final South African Test Match, at Port Elizabeth, England beat South Africa by ten wickets.

—The Admiralty issued a return giving particulars of the strength of the eight chief naval Powers on January 1, 1914, omitting such battleships, battle cruisers, and cruisers, as had been launched more than twenty years. Vessels built are given first; vessels building, if any, are added after a plus sign. The British figures included Dominion ships. The number of submarines given for Germany was admittedly too low.

Britain. Germany. France. Russia.

Battleships 58 + 14 35 + 6 21 + 10 8 + 7

Cruisers 47 9 24 12

Light Cruisers 65 + 20 43 + 6 8 2 + 8

Torpedo Vessels 25 + 1 —- 3 —-

Destroyers 201 + 36 132 + 12 80 + 7 95 + 45

Torpedo Boats 70 80 153 25

Submarines 69 + 29 24 + 14 50 + 26 25 + 18

Italy. Austria. U.S.A. Japan.

Battleships 9 + 5 14 + 2 30 + 6 17 + 2

Cruisers 9 2 17 15

Light Cruisers 14 + 4 9 + 3 18 19

Torpedo Vessels 3 11 2 + 2 3

Destroyers 30 + 16 15 + 3 52 + 9 51 + 2

Torpedo Boats 94 + 1 58 + 27 21 33

Submarines 18 + 2 6 + 5 29 + 21 13 + 2

4. On the Ortler Spitz, Tyrol, a patrol of twenty soldiers under instruction in ski-running were caught by an avalanche; fourteen were killed.

6. In Birmingham, a statue was unveiled of Bishop Gore, first Bishop of the diocese, as a memorial of his connexion with it.

—At Boulogne-sur-Seine the Penitentiary Convent School was attacked by a band of fifteen "Apaches," who rescued three girls; these, and seven of the band, were eventually arrested.

9. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister gave particulars of the proposed permissive exclusion of the Ulster counties from the Home Rule Bill.

—At St. Louis, Mo., the Missouri Athletic Club was burnt; about thirty lives were lost.

10. The Rokeby Venus in the National Gallery damaged by a militant suffragist.

—At Upavon, Captain C. P. Downer, Northamptonshire Regiment, was killed while flying in a BE biplane.

—Ceiba, Honduras, was burnt down; estimated damage $10,000,000.

—In the Convocation of Oxford University a statute throwing open the eighteen seats of the Hebdomadal Council (hitherto elected from Professors, Heads, and Masters of Arts equally) was rejected by 97 to 83.

11. On Salisbury Plain, Captain Clement Allan, Welsh Regiment, and Lieut. James E. G. Burroughs, Wiltshire Regiment, were killed by a fall from an aeroplane, the only one of its type.

—At Eastchurch, Engineer-Lieut. Briggs, R.N., Royal Flying Corps, reached a height of 15,000 ft. on a biplane; he was frostbitten, the temperature falling to -38° Fahr.

12. At the annual dinner of the Association of Chambers of Commerce, the Prime Minister, after mentioning the development of Inter-Imperial trade through Trade Commissioners and local correspondents in the Dominions, said that 1913 had been a record year in trade and employment; there were signs of slackening, but little reason to anticipate any serious impression. The character of the Labour unrest, however, was disquieting.

—The training ship Wellesley, on the Tyne, was burnt; no lives lost.

13. At Exeter, N.S.W., between Sydney and Melbourne, a mail train ran past signals in a fog into a cattle train shunting; fourteen killed, fifteen injured.

13-14. Great storm on the Sea of Azof. The coast was flooded, the Kuban railway (under construction) was wrecked, and there was heavy loss of life.

14. At Belfast, Wales beat Ireland at Rugby football by eleven points to three.

15-16. Heavy gales and rains; five men were drowned through the foundering of a tug off Greenhithe. The Swedish barque Trifolium was wrecked in Sennen Cove, Cornwall; five drowned.

16. At Cardiff, England beat Wales at Association football by two goals to none.

16. The Times appeared for the first time at the price of 1d.

—At Paris, M. Gaston Calmette, editor of the Figaro, was fatally shot by Mme. Caillaux, wife of the Finance Minister. (See post, July 28.)

17. At Wellesley College (for women), Wellesley, Mass., the College Hall was burnt down; no lives lost.

18. Birth of a son and heir to the Duke of Brunswick, whose wife was the daughter of the German Emperor. This was the first Guelph Prince born in Germany for nearly a century.

—The World's Tennis Championship was won in Philadelphia by Mr. Jay Gould, who defeated G. F. Covey by seven sets to one.

19. The King and Queen visited the National Institute for the Blind in Great Portland Street and opened the new buildings.

—At Upavon, Lieut. H. F. Treeby, West Riding Regiment, was killed by a fall of his biplane into a wood while descending.

—At Stockholm, the Council of State dissolved the marriage of Prince William of Sweden and his wife, Princess Marie Pavlovna of Russia.

—At Venice, a ferry steamer was run down by a torpedo boat; about fifty persons were killed.

20-21. Ulster military crisis. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. II.)

21. At Inverleith, England beat Scotland at Rugby football by 16 points to 15, winning the International Championship and the Calcutta Cup.

24. At the sale of the collection of silver formed by the Earl of Ashburnham, a Henry VII. silver-gilt standing salt-cellar weighing 30 oz. realised 5,600l.; a George I. silver-gilt toilet service (626 oz.) 6,100l.

—At Johannistal, Herr Otto Linnekogel, flying with a passenger, reached a height of 5,500 metres or nearly 3½ miles—a record.

24-26. The King and Queen at Knowsley, and in Cheshire. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. II.)

27. At the Oxford and Cambridge University Sports at Queen's Club, West London, Cambridge won six events—the Hundred Yards' Race, High Jump, Half Mile, Quarter Mile, Putting Weight, and Long Jump; Oxford four—Throwing the Hammer, the Mile Race, the 120 Yards Hurdle Race, and the Three Mile Race. In the last-named G. M. Sproule beat the record for the Sports, his time being 14 min. 34-4/5 sec. In the Long Jump H. O. Ashington made a record—23 ft. 6¼ in.

—The Grand National Steeplechase was won by Mr. T. Tyler's Sunloch, Mr. H. de Mumm's Trianon III. being second and Mr. J. Hennessy's Lutteur III. third. Won by eight lengths; time, 9 min. 58-4/5 sec.

28. The University Boat Race from Putney to Mortlake was won by Cambridge by 4½ lengths; time, 20 min. 23 sec.

29. The Report of the Departmental Committee on Local Taxation (Chairman, Sir John Kempe) recommended a large increase in State subventions to local authorities, a system of direct grants being substituted for that of assigned revenues. But grants should only be given for semi-national services, e.g., education, poor relief, main roads, public health, criminal prosecutions, and provision for mental deficiency. Under these heads a revised and simplified system of grants was recommended. The total increase would be 4,700,000l. annually, of which nearly 2,500,000l. would be spent on elementary education.

30. The Premier announced the resignation of Sir John French, Sir J. S. Ewart, and Colonel Seely, and his own assumption of the post of Minister of War. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. II.)

31. Great disaster to the Newfoundland sealing fleet. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VIII., 3.)

—In the King's Bench Division, the libel action Adam v. Hayes Fisher was settled. The defendant, the Unionist M.P. for Fulham, had recommended that the plaintiff should not be selected as Unionist Parliamentary candidate for Woolwich, and the plaintiff now withdrew the charge that he had been actuated by express malice.

APRIL.

1. In the Central Criminal Court, the trial of John Starchfield, a newsvendor, for the murder in a North London train on January 8 of his son Willie, aged seven, was stopped after the close of the case for the prosecution, the Judge suggesting that the evidence of identification was insufficient, and the prisoner was formally acquitted. The child lived with his mother, the parents being separated.

2. Announcement that General Sir Charles Douglas had been appointed to succeed Field-Marshal Sir John French as Chief of the General Staff.

3. At the Central Criminal Court Frederick Augustus Gould or Schroeder was convicted of espionage under the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to six years' penal servitude.

4. At Glasgow, at an International (Association) Football Match, Scotland beat England by three goals to one.

5. First opening of the Bisley rifle ranges for shooting on Sunday.

6. Explosion in H.M.S. destroyer Albacore, at Chatham; three stokers killed.

7. At Little Chesterford, Essex, nine cottages, two public-houses, and other buildings were burnt; no lives lost.

—Completion of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VIII., 2.)

8. The Prime Minister was returned unopposed to Parliament for East Fife on his appointment as Secretary for War.

—Announcement of the appointment of Lieut.-General Sir H. Sclater, K.C.B., to be Adjutant-General of the Forces, vice Lieut.-General Sir J. S. Ewart, resigned.

9. The King of Sweden underwent a successful operation for gastric ulcer.

13. (Easter Monday). At Paris, in an International (Rugby) Football Match, England beat France by thirty-nine points to thirteen.

14. In the early morning, the East Coast Express from London to Aberdeen collided with a goods train near Burntisland and was partly derailed; the driver and fireman were killed and ten persons injured.

14. The fourth Report of the Civil Service Commission (A.R., 1912, Chron., March 14) made ninety-seven recommendations as to reforms in the constitution, appointment, and system of promotion of the service. It found that the basis of the service was sound and its organisation efficient, and it proposed certain reclassifications, harmonising them with the educational system; recommended (with certain reservations and some dissentients) the permission of transfer from one department to another, and made a number of recommendations as to women, favouring compulsory retirement of most grades on marriage.

15. The Yorkshire coal strike virtually closed by a ballot of the miners, in which 27,259 voted for returning to work and 11,393 against.

18. Death of King Edward's well-known wire-haired terrier Cæsar while under an operation.

20. Announcement that Mr. Justice Pickford had been appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal, vice Sir R. Vaughan-Williams, resigned.

21. Announcement of the appointment of Mr. Montague Shearman, K.C., and Mr. John Sankey, K.C., as Judges of the King's Bench Division, and of Mr. Justice Channell's resignation.

—At Köslin, Pomerania, the second Burgomaster Heinrich Thormann, was arrested as a savings-bank clerk convicted of embezzlement in 1910. He had escaped from custody, fabricated a diploma giving him the degree of Doctor of Laws, entered the Civil Service, and married a wealthy wife.

21-24. Visit of the King and Queen to Paris. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. III.)

23. Celebration of Shakespeare's birthday at Stratford-on-Avon; the American Ambassador proposed the toast to the memory of the poet at the luncheon. The German Shakespeare Society also celebrated at Weimar the poet's birthday and its own jubilee.

24-25. Gun-running in Ulster. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. III.)

25. At the Crystal Palace, in the final contest for the Football Association Cup, Burnley defeated Liverpool by one goal to none. The King was present and presented the Cup to the victors.

26. The Russian tank steamer Kometa was burnt off the Algerian coast; thirty of the crew were saved by various steamers; sixteen were lost.

—On the Great Central Railway, near Finchley Road Station, a light engine ran into an excursion train; about eighteen passengers injured.

—At Hendon aerodrome, the airman Marty was fatally injured by the fall of his aeroplane.

28. At Eccles, West Virginia, an explosion in a coal·mine entombed 178 men; all were lost.

29. At Newmarket, the Two Thousand Guineas Stakes resulted as follows: Sir John Thursby's Kennymore, 1; the Marquess of Londonderry's Corcyra, 2; Mr. J. B. Joel's Black Jester, 3; time, 1 min. 38 sec.

30. The King opened new buildings at the Leys School, Cambridge.

—The Upper House of Convocation adopted the resolutions presented by the Bishop of London on the questions of Faith and of Church Order raised in the memorial presented February 18 (see that date). These resolutions reaffirmed that of May 10, 1905, asserting the determination of the House to maintain unimpaired the faith in the Trinity and Incarnation contained in the three Creeds, and that of the Lambeth Conference in 1908, affirming the historical facts stated in the Creeds to be part of the Doctrine of the Church. They also reaffirmed the principle that no man should be suffered to perform priestly functions without Episcopal ordination.

MAY.

1. Off Aldeburgh, Suffolk, five Coastguardmen were drowned by the upsetting of their boat.

2. Announcement that the Rt. Rev. George Nickson, D.D., Bishop Suffragan of Jarrow, was appointed Bishop of Bristol in succession to the Rt. Rev. George Forrest Browne, D.D., resigned.

—At Pershore, the Bishop of Worcester dedicated the House of St. Benedict (Caldey Island) for the remaining members of the Benedictine House at Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire, after the secession of the main body to the Roman Catholic Church. (Chron., 1913, March 5, July 31.)

—Royal Academy Banquet. The Duke of Connaught adversely criticised certain "fantastic vagaries" of current art [presumably "Futurism" and "Cubism"]; Sir Evelyn Wood defended the action of the army officers in the recent Ulster crisis; the Lord Chancellor defended party government, and advocated better industrial education; and Sir Edward Poynter, P.R.A., expressed the regret of artists at the refusal of the Government to take part in the Panama Exhibition.

3. The Leyland liner Colombian, from Antwerp to New York, took fire and blew up off Sable Island; of the crew of forty-nine eighteen lives were lost; one boat, with four survivors, was not picked up till May 16. There were no passengers.

—Near Paris, a troop of Boy Scouts was stoned by roughs and defended themselves with sticks, beating off their assailants, who replied with revolvers; one scout was wounded.

4. On the first public day at the Royal Academy, Mr. Sargent's portrait of Mr. Henry James was damaged with a chopper by a militant suffragist.

—The Times published newly discovered fragments of a poem by Sappho.

5. The Report of a Committee of clergy and medical men, formed in 1910 to investigate "faith-healing," declared that the results did not differ essentially from those of "healing by suggestion," and could be expected to be effective only in "functional," and not in "organic" disorders. It proposed to continue its investigations.

7. Marriage of President Woodrow Wilson's daughter Eleanor at the White House to Mr. W. G. McAdoo, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

—The King opened the Edward VII. Galleries at the British Museum.

8. Announcement that Prince Alexander of Teck would succeed the Duke of Connaught in October as Governor-General of Canada.

—At Bedford College, Regent's Park, Mr. Balfour delivered his address as President of the English Association. His subject was the comparative value of prose and verse as vehicles of didactic argument.

8. An earthquake took place in the district S.E. of Mount Etna, between Catania and Mangano; Linera was destroyed and several other villages suffered seriously; about 150 people were killed and 500 injured.

10. Special services were held in many churches and chapels throughout Great Britain by way of thanksgiving for the gift of sight, in connexion with a movement to extend the provision of books for the blind in Braille type.

11. Funeral ceremony at Brooklyn of seventeen marines and bluejackets killed in the operations at Vera Cruz; President Wilson delivered an address.

12. At the Parliamentary bye-election at Grimsby, due to the death of Sir George Doughty (U.), Mr. T. G. Tickler (U.) was returned by 8,471 votes; Mr. A. Bannister (L.) received 8,193.

—At the Royal Academy a militant suffragist, Mary Ansell, injured Herkomer's portrait of the Duke of Wellington.

—The King and Queen of Denmark were entertained by the City Corporation at luncheon at the Guildhall.

—At Farnborough, Captain E. V. Anderson, of the Black Watch and the Flying Corps, and Air Mechanic Carter were killed in a collision between aeroplanes, and Lieut. Wilson, Special Reserve, seriously injured.

13. The steamer Turret Hill foundered off Lowestoft; of fourteen persons on board twelve were drowned.

—Five pilots were drowned in Bristol Channel through a collision of their pilot cutter with a steamer.

—The Derby favourite, Captain McCalmont's Tetrarch, was scratched, having gone lame.

15. While flying in fog in a flight of ten army aeroplanes from Montrose to Salisbury Plain, Lieut. John Empson, Royal Flying Corps, and George Cudmore, air mechanic, were killed in landing near Northallerton.

18. The Times published two previously unprinted sonnets by Keats.

20. At the bye-election in N.E. Derbyshire, due to the death of Mr. W. E. Harvey (Lab. and L.), Major Harland Bowden (U.) was returned by 6,469 votes; Mr. J. P. Houfton (L.) received 6,155; Mr. J. Martin (Lab.) 3,669.

21. Grave disorder in the Commons. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. III.)

—Suffragist riot outside Buckingham Palace. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. III.)

23. At the Parliamentary bye-election at Ipswich, due to the death of Mr. Silvester Horne (L.), Mr. F. J. C. Ganzoni (U.) was returned by 6,406 votes, Mr. C. F. G. Masterman (L.), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, receiving 5,874, and Mr. John Scurr (Soc.) 395.

—At Sheerness H. G. Hatton, a naval signalman, was found guilty on charges arising out of the loss of a signal-book of H.M.S. Queen, and sentenced to four years' penal servitude.

—Mr. Gustav Hamel, while flying from Paris to Hendon, disappeared, and was drowned in the Channel.

23. At Sandwich, Mr. J. L. C. Jenkins, of Troon, beat Mr. C. O. Hezlet, of Portrush, in the final round of the Amateur Golf Championship by three holes up and two to play. (Mr. Travers and Mr. Ouimet were beaten at an early stage in the contest.)

—A lightship built in Scotland for service on the Sambro Ledges, Nova Scotia, was lost with all hands (fifteen in number) in fog off Lipscomb Harbour, Nova Scotia.

—Heavy storm on the North Sea and Baltic, with some loss of life.

—Arrival at Port Jackson of submarines from Great Britain after a voyage of 12,500 miles under their own steam.

25. Empire Day was celebrated by a review in Hyde Park of upwards of 6,000 boys belonging to naval brigades, scout patrols and cadet corps, with 1,500 members of the National Reserve. The Lord Mayor of London was present, with many representatives of the Dominions.

—In the King's Bench Division, after three days' trial, the libel case of Kemp v. Yexley resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff; damages, 3,000l. The suit was brought by the captain of H.M.S. London against the editor of a paper for naval men, for libel in criticisms reflecting on his action as captain of the ship.

—At the Central Criminal Court Charles Edwin Fenner, a stockbroker, pleaded guilty to fraudulent conversion of securities entrusted to him and was sentenced to four years' penal servitude. Sixteen of the counts of the indictment had reference to his dealings with Lord Murray of Elibank.

26. Announcement that Prince Oscar of Prussia, fifth son of the German Emperor, was betrothed to Countess Ida Bassewitz. (The marriage took place on August 1.)

27. At the Central Criminal Court, before Mr. Justice Darling, Colonel Whitaker, sometime commanding the Yorkshire Light Infantry, and Archibald Minto, one of the employees of Liptons, Limited, were convicted of conspiring that money should be given to Colonel Whitaker to induce him to favour the company in certain catering contracts, and six other employees of Liptons and eight military officers were charged with kindred offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connexion with contracts for the supply of Army canteens. Colonel Whitaker was sentenced to six months' imprisonment; the other civilian defendants, save one, were fined from 50l. to 500l.; the remaining civilian and the military defendants were bound over to come up for judgment when called on. The trials, collectively known as the "Canteens Case," had occupied nine days in all. An appeal by Colonel Whitaker was unsuccessful (July 2), but his sentence was eventually reduced to two months. (See post, July 1.)

—At Epsom, the Derby resulted as follows: Mr. H. B. Duryea's Durbar II., 1; Sir E. Cassel's Hapsburg, 2; Mr. H. J. King's Peter the Hermit, 3. Won by three lengths; time, 2 min. 38-2/5 sec. The winner (who started at 20 to 1 against) was owned by an American, and trained in France. Sir J. Thursby's Kennymore, the favourite after the scratching of Tetrarch (see ante, May 13), was eleventh.

—Announcement that a balloon discovered in a forest in Siberia was believed to be that in which the missing explorer Andrée had left for the North Pole in 1897.

29. The Canadian Pacific steamer Empress of Ireland, from Quebec to Liverpool, was run down in fog off Father Point by the Norwegian collier Storstad at 1.52 A.M., and sunk in 17 min.; of the 1,467 persons aboard 1,023 were lost, among them Sir H. Seton-Karr and Mr. and Mrs. Laurence Irving, the well-known actors. (See post, July 11.)

—At Epsom, the Oaks resulted as follows: Mr. J. B. Joel's Princess Dorrie, 1; the Earl of Carnarvon's Wassilissa, 2; Sir J. Thursby's Torchlight, 3; time, 2 min. 38-1/5 sec.

30. At the Wharncliffe Silkstone colliery, Barnsley, eleven men were killed and two injured by an explosion.

JUNE.

1. Wargrave Church, Henley, was burnt down by militants; no arrests.

—At Somerleyton, near Lowestoft, four out of a party of five Boy Scouts, with their instructor and their scoutmaster, Mr. T. W. Lory, a local solicitor, were drowned by the capsizing of a small sailboat.

—The Co-operative Congress opened at Dublin. The delegates numbered over 1,300, representing over 3,000,000 members. The volume of their trade for 1913 exceeded 130,000,000l., and the profits 14,260,000l. The employees numbered 145,774, and the wages bill exceeded 8,490,000l.

2. At Oneglia, Italy, Signora Oggioni, wife of an Italian officer, was acquitted of the murder of her husband's orderly. The prosecution alleged an intrigue with him; she claimed to have shot him in defence of her honour.

—At Weymouth Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain (née Endicott), accompanied by Mr. Austen Chamberlain, M.P., unveiled a memorial to Richard Clerk and John Endicott, who sailed from the harbour to assist in founding the colony of Massachusetts, of which Endicott became governor.

—Mr. B. W. Leader, the artist, received the freedom of Worcester.

3. The King's Birthday. A number of elementary school children sent letters of greeting in their own words. A selection was published.

4. Suffragist appeal to the King at his Court by Miss Mary Blomfield, granddaughter of a former Bishop of London.

—In Southampton Water, Lieut. T. S. Cresswell, R.M.L.I., and Commander A. Rice, R.N., were drowned through the fall of their aeroplane.

5. At Florence, Vicenzo Peruggia, who stole "La Joconde" from the Louvre, was convicted and sentenced to one year and fifteen days' imprisonment with payment of costs. (See Chron., 1913, Dec. 12.)

—Volcanic eruptions in the Sangir Islands, Dutch East Indies; much damage to villages and plantations.

5-6. Great storm off the northern coast of New Brunswick; about fifty fishermen drowned.

6. The "Aerial Derby," round London, was won by W. L. Brock; distance, 94½ miles; time, 1 hr. 18 min. 54 sec. Only four competitors completed the course, owing to fog.

6. Failure of Chaplin, Milne, Grenfell & Co., Limited, a London banking and financial house; liabilities estimated at 1,965,761l. gross.

7. At Buckingham Palace, a man who had succeeded in entering was arrested as a burglar; the crime was apparently the result of a drunken freak.

—At Sezanne (Marne) a balloon just about to ascend exploded; the pilot and a child were killed, and 106 persons injured.

9. At Cambridge, the new physiological laboratories, given to the University by the Drapers' Company, were opened by Prince Arthur of Connaught.

10. At Oxford in commemoration of the seventh centenary of the death of Roger Bacon, a statue of him was unveiled in the University Museum by Sir A. Geikie, O.M. The centenary was celebrated by a banquet at Merton College on June 25.

—Peace Centenary Costume Ball at the Albert Hall in honour of the 100th anniversary of peace between Great Britain and the United States.

11. Bomb outrage by militant suffragists in Edward the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey; the Coronation Chair and Stone were slightly injured.

—Salvation Army Congress; reception of international delegates in the Albert Hall. A cordial message of greeting was sent by the King. The Congress sat in a temporary hall between the Strand and Aldwych, June 12-20.

13. The Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone of St. Anselm's Church, Kennington, on the Duchy of Cornwall Estate—his first public function.

—Inspection of 10,000 Boy Scouts on the Horse Guards' Parade by Queen Alexandra, accompanied by the Empress Marie of Russia.

—The American liner New York and the Hamburg-American steamer Pretoria were in collision 400 miles east of Sandy Hook at 3.20 A.M.; the New York was badly damaged; no lives lost.

—The German army airship Z 1 was wrecked in bad weather at Diedenhofen; no lives lost.

—At Meadowbrook, Long Island, England beat the United States in the first Test Polo Match by eight and a half points to three.

14. A heavy storm passed over South London about 1 P.M. Three children were killed by lightning on Wandsworth Common, and two adults and a child in the neighbourhood, while sheltering under trees. In the suburbs roads were flooded, and birds were killed by large hailstones. In less than two hours 1.23 in. of rain fell in Wandsworth, and by 5.30 1.88 in.

15. Heavy storms in Paris from 3 to 7.30 P.M. The sewers burst, and there were subsidences owing to the flooding of unfinished workings of the Metropolitan Railway, notably in the Boulevard Haussman, Avenue d'Antin, and Place St. Philippe du Roule. A taxicab containing a lady was engulfed. About twenty-five lives were lost. The rainfall was 59 millimetres or about 2-3/8 in.

16. At Oxford, a statute for the reform of Responsions was rejected in Congregation by 110 to 73.

16. In the second International Polo Test Match at Meadowbrook, Long Island, England beat the United States by four goals to two and three-quarters.

—Severe storms in South Germany.

17. At Reading, an express train from Worcester collided with an excursion train from Bristol at a point where two lines converged; the driver of the express was killed; the two firemen and a lady were injured.

—The German Emperor opened the Hohenzollern Canal from Berlin to the Oder, thus connecting the capital by water with Stettin.

18. At Carrbridge, on the Highland Railway, a culvert, blocked by a sudden cloudburst which had carried away a stone bridge above it, collapsed under an express train; seven persons killed, eight or nine injured.

—At Glasgow, Kingston Dock was burnt, the creosoted piles igniting while being bored with a red-hot iron; four schooners destroyed; damage, 250,000l.

—The Ascot Gold Cup race resulted as follows: Mr. Fairie's Aleppo, 5 years, 9 st. 4 lb., 1; Mr. J. Ryan's Willibrook, 3 years, 7 st. 7 lb., 2; Mr. T. Martin's Junior, 5 years, 9 st. 4 lb., 3. Won by three-quarters of a length; time, 4 min. 25-2/5 sec.

19. Announcement that the Government had refused to give up Somerset House for the University of London.

—At Hillcrest Mines, near Crow's Nest Pass, Alberta, upwards of 190 miners were killed by an explosion.

—On the Nice-Coni line, in construction, the Mont-Grazzien tunnel collapsed; about thirty men were buried, of whom several were killed and injured.

—Severe storms in London; also in Southern Essex, where lightning killed two persons.

—At Prestwick, the open Golf Championship was won by H. Vardon with 306; J. H. Taylor was second with 309.

20. At Fischamend, near Vienna, the Körting dirigible was run into at a great height by a biplane; all on both vessels, numbering nine, were killed.

—Announcement that a thunderstorm and earthquake had devastated the islands north of Papua; great loss of life.

—The air race from London to Manchester and back was won by W. L. Brock, an American; distance, 322 miles; time, 4 hrs, 42 min. 26 sec.

20-21. Rioting at Andover, Hants, due to public sympathy with two women imprisoned for assault.

—At Eisleben, Saxony, the centenary was celebrated of Friedrich König, the first to use steam power in printing.

22. King's Birthday Honours. An Earldom was conferred on Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum, who continued to use his existing title: Baronies of the United Kingdom on Sir H. Cozens-Hardy, Master of the Rolls; Sir Edgar Vincent, Chairman of the Dominions Royal Commission; Major-General J. F. Brocklehurst, C.V.O.; and Sir Leonard Lyell, Bart., sometime Liberal M.P. for Orkney and Shetland: Privy Councillorships on Lord St. Davids, the Prime Minister of Australia (Hon. Joseph Cook); Mr. H. J. Tennant, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for War; Mr. Ellis J. Griffith, Assistant Home Secretary; and Mr. W. J. Starkie, Chairman of the Irish Board of Intermediate Education. The eight new Baronets included the Lord Mayor of London, Sir T. Bowater; Sir Joseph Beecham, the operatic impresario; and Sir J. W. Benn, L.C.C. Among the twenty-six new Knights were Dr. J. G. Frazer, the eminent anthropologist; Dr. W. H. St. John Hope, a noted archæologist; Dr. S. J. Sharkey, a prominent surgeon; and Dr. Henschel, a conspicuous singer and musician. Earl Beauchamp received the Order of the Garter, and Lord Kinnaird that of the Thistle.

On the occasion of the King's Birthday, the following Colonelcies were conferred on Royal ladies: 18th (Queen Mary's Own) Hussars, on the Queen; 19th (Queen Alexandra's Own Royal) Hussars and Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regt.), on Queen Alexandra; 7th (Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards, on the Princess Royal; Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, on Princess Louise.

22. German manufacturers visiting England entertained at Guildhall; Herr Dernburg, sometime German Colonial Minister, was among the speakers.

—At Oxford, the Rev. Charles F. Burney, D.Litt., Fellow of St. John's, was appointed Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture, vice the Rev. Canon Cooke, appointed Professor of Hebrew.

23. Postal strike in Paris.

—The Red Star liner Gothland, Montreal to Rotterdam, with eighty-four passengers, ran on the Gunner Rocks near Wolf Rock lighthouse; no lives lost.

24. Encænia at Oxford University. Honorary degrees were conferred on the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, Viscount Bryce, Prof. Ludwig Mitteis of Leipzig, and Dr. Richard Strauss, the eminent composer.

—Alexandra Day. Throughout London and the suburbs artificial roses were sold by ladies in aid of charities patronised by Queen Alexandra. The sum available for distribution among them was 22,000l., or 6,000l. more than in 1913.

—Sexcentenary celebration of the foundation of Exeter College, Oxford.

25. Midnight ball at the Savoy Hotel, London, in aid of the National Institute for the Blind.

26. The King, with the Queen, opened the King George Dock at Hull, and announced that the Mayor of that town would in future bear the title of Lord Mayor.

—Great fire at Salem, Mass.; 10,000 persons homeless; estimated damage to property $10,000,000.

—Earthquake in Sumatra, followed on June 28 by a cloudburst; many natives killed.

—At Christie's, at the sale of the Grenfell collection, a portrait of a man with a red cap, attributed to Titian, realised 13,000 guineas; a landscape with cattle, by Gainsborough, 8,200 guineas; portrait of Miss Constable, by Romney, 7,200 guineas; Lady Betty Foster, by Lawrence, 5,600 guineas.

27. Outside Cannon Street Station, London, a train to Hastings collided with a train from Plumstead; one passenger killed, twenty injured.

—At Paris, Jack Johnson, the negro pugilist, was defeated by Frank Moran (U.S.) in a boxing match.

28. Murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria and the Duchess of Hohenberg, his wife, at Sarajevo. (See For. Hist., Chap. II.)

—The Grand Prix de Paris resulted as follows: Baron M. de Rothschild's Sardanapale, 1; Baron E. de Rothschild's La Farina, 2; Mr. H. B. Duryea's Durbar, 3. Won by a neck; time, 3 min. 11-3/5 sec.

—The Anchor liner California, New York to Glasgow, ran ashore in fog near Tory Island, on the north coast of Ireland; no lives lost. The ship was refloated in August.

29. At Hertford, a pageant began in commemoration of the millenary of the town.

30. Mr. R. E. Prothero (U.) returned unopposed to Parliament for Oxford University, vice Sir William Anson, deceased.

—At Freeport, Long Island, U.S., Mrs. Louise Bailey, wife of a New York manufacturer, was shot by an unseen person while consulting a medical man, Dr. Carman; his wife was arrested on suspicion. [On her trial at the end of October the jury disagreed, and she was released on bail.]

JULY.

1. At Victoria, B.C., Jack King, a Chinese servant, was convicted of the manslaughter in April of his mistress, Mrs. Millard; sentence, penal servitude for life.

—The freedom of Hertford was conferred on the Rt. Hon. A. Balfour, the ex-Premier, who had represented it from 1874 to 1885.

—After some days of warm weather, the temperature in London reached 90°; local thunderstorms followed, doing considerable damage, especially in the Midlands.

—In the House of Lords, Lord Saye and Sele made a statement defending himself from the severe comments of Mr. Justice Darling in the "Canteen Case" (see ante, May 27) on a letter written by him, twelve years earlier, as the representative of a firm of brewers, and used by Colonel Whitaker's counsel in the case. Lord Saye and Sele's explanation was accepted by the Marquess of Crewe, the leader of the House, as satisfactory.

2. Death of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. (See Eng, Hist., Chap. IV. and Obituary.)

—Announcement that Mr. James O'Connor, K.C., had been appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland, in succession to Mr. Jonathan Pim, K.C., appointed Attorney-General on the promotion of Serjeant Moriarty to the Bench.

3. In the early morning, Sir Denis Anson, Bart., dived for fun into the Thames at Battersea off a launch returning from a midnight excursion, and was drowned; verdict (July 9) "Accidental death."

—At Christie's, Corot's "Le Rond des Nymphes" realised 6,600 guineas; Troyon's "Un Sous-Bois avec des Vaches," 5,800 guineas; Troyon's "Bœuf's à Labeur," 5,500 guineas; Millet's "La Gardienne du Troupeau," 5,600 guineas. These were from the collection of Mr. Archibald Coats, deceased.

The Civil List pensions granted during the year (to March 31) were:—

Mr. Arthur Henry Bullen.—In recognition of his services to the study of Elizabethan literature, 150l.

Mr. Alexander James Montgomerie Bell.—In recognition of his valuable contribution to Geology and Palæontology, 60l.

Mrs. Phoebe Anna Traquair.—In consideration of the services to Science of her husband, the late Dr. R. H, Traquair, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., and of her own artistic work, 50l.

Miss Edith Hipkins and Mr. John Hipkins, jointly and to the survivor.—In recognition of the service to music rendered by their father, the late Mr. A. J. Hipkins, F.S.A., and of their inadequate means of support, 50l.

Mrs. Jessie Gray.—In recognition of the valuable contributions to the Science of Anthropology made by her husband, the late Mr. John Gray, and in consideration of the circumstances in which she has been left by his death, 50l.

Mrs. Annie Wallace.—In consideration of the eminent services to Science of her husband, the late Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, O.M., LL.D., F.R.S., and of her inadequate means of support, 120l.

Mrs. Henrietta Corfield.—In recognition of the public services rendered by her son, the late Mr. R. C. Corfield, as Commandant of the Somaliland Camel Corps, and in consideration of her reduced circumstances, 60l.

Mrs. Lilian Alcock.—In recognition of the valuable contributions to the study of Physiology made by her husband, the late Professor N. H. Alcock, M.D., D.Sc., and in consideration of the circumstances in which she has been placed by his premature death, 50l.

Mr. Haldane MacFall.—In consideration of the merits of his writings, 50l.

Mrs. Selina Mary Ward.—In recognition of the eminent services of her husband, the late Professor Marshall Ward, F.R.S., to Botanical Science, 40l.

Mr. Walter Shaw Sparrow.—In recognition of the merits of his writings on art and architecture, 120l.

Dr. Oliver Heaviside, F.R.S.—In recognition of the importance of his researches in the theory of high-speed Telegraphy and long-distance Telephony, in addition to his existing pension, 100l.

Mrs. Mary E. Bacon.—In consideration of the merits as a painter of her late husband, Mr. J. H. F. Bacon, A.R.A., and of her inadequate means of support, 80l.

Miss Kate Babb Hearder.—In consideration of the contributions to Electrical Science and Telegraphy of her late father, Dr. Jonathan Nash Hearder, F.C.S., and of her straitened circumstances, 70l.

Mr. Henry Arthur Nesbitt.—In consideration of his services in the improvement of the teaching of English and Arithmetic, and of his reduced circumstances, 50l.

Mrs. Katherine W. Grant.—In recognition of the merits of her writings in the Gaelic tongue, 40l.

Miss Ethel Mary Willoughby.—In consideration of the services of her late father, Dr. Edward Francis Willoughby, M.D., in connexion with questions of Public Health, and of her inadequate means of support, 30l.

Miss Constance Anthony.—In consideration of the merits as a painter of her late father, Mr. Mark Anthony, and of her straitened circumstances, 30l.

4. Close of Henley Regatta. The Grand Challenge Cup was won by Harvard, beating the Union Club, Boston, U.S.; the Stewards' Challenge Cup by the Leander Club, against the Mayence Ruderverein; the Ladies' Challenge Plate by Pembroke College, Cambridge; the Wyiold Challenge Cup by the London Rowing Club; the Thames Challenge Cup by Caius College, Cambridge; the Visitors' Challenge Cup by Lady Margaret Boat Club, Cambridge; the Diamond Challenge Sculls by Giuseppe Sinigaglia (Lario Club, Como, Italy); the Silver Goblets by Trinity Hall, Cambridge. The Thames, London, and Leander Rowing Clubs' eights, and that of Jesus College, Cambridge, were beaten by foreign crews in heats for the Grand Challenge Cup.

4. In New York, a tenement house was blown up and three men and a woman, all foreign Anarchists, killed, probably by the premature explosion of a bomb.

—The Report on emigration from the United Kingdom for 1913 showed that the loss by migration, exclusive of aliens, was 241,997, or about 71,000 less than in 1912. The proportion going to the oversea Dominions was 715 per 1,000 emigrants, against 760 per 1,000 in 1912.

5. At Bornim, near Potsdam, five men were killed and two seriously injured while amusing themselves by obtaining electric shocks from a broken power wire.

6. Funeral of Mr. J. Chamberlain at Birmingham.

—Near Beaumont-sur-Oise, two tramps were arrested with bombs, said by them to be designed for the Tsar on his next visit to France, but believed to be intended for the French President.

—At the Central Criminal Court, after eight days' trial, Mr. T. W. H. Crosland, an author, was acquitted of conspiring with Lord Alfred Douglas and others to make a false charge against Mr. Robert Ross.

—At Saumur, the airman Legagneux was killed by a fall into the Loire while flying.

7. A statue of Captain James Cook, the navigator, in the Mall, London, was unveiled by Prince Arthur of Connaught.

—A statue of Victor Hugo, who had lived for many years in Guernsey, was unveiled in Candie Park, Guernsey, with great ceremony; the British and French Governments were represented.

—Announcement that Sir Joseph Beecham had bought the Covent Garden Estate from Mr. Mallaby-Deeley, M.P.

8. At Lord's Cricket Ground, Oxford beat Cambridge in the Inter-University Match by 194 runs.

9. At Quebec, the Dufferin Terrace was partly destroyed by fire.

—The Representative Church Council (the Houses of Convocation and of Laymen of the Provinces of Canterbury and York) decided to give women votes in the election of Church Councils, and to admit them to seats on parochial Church Councils.

11. At Quebec, the Court of Inquiry into the loss of the Empress of Ireland found that the collision was due solely to the Storstad porting her helm during the fog. The captain of the Empress of Ireland was exonerated from blame, and Mr. Tufteness, the mate of the Storstad, blamed for altering her course. The conduct of the crews of both vessels was commended.

—At Lord's Cricket Ground, Eton beat Harrow by four wickets.

—At Kennington Oval Cricket Ground, the Players beat the Gentlemen by 241 runs.

11. At the first "international" athletic contest between England, Scotland, and Ireland, held at Glasgow, England won six events out of eleven, Scotland three, Ireland two.

—The air race from London to Paris (Hendon to Buc) and back was won by W. L. Brock; his time outward was 3 hrs. 33 min. 24 sec., homeward 3 hrs. 39 min. 42 sec.; only two of six starters completed both journeys.

12. Celebration at Disentis, Switzerland, of the thirteen hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Benedictine Abbey by St. Sigisbert, an Irish monk, A.D. 614.

14. At Newport, Mon., Prince Arthur of Connaught opened a new lock at the Alexandra Docks.

—Mr. Austen Chamberlain returned unopposed for West Birmingham, vice Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, deceased.

16. At Gravesend Parish Church, two windows in memory of Pocahontus, the famous Indian princess who saved the life of the explorer John Smith, were dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester and unveiled by the American Ambassador.

—At Olympia, Kensington, Georges Carpentier (France) defeated "Gunboat" Smith (America) in the fight for the White Heavy Weight Championship of the world in the sixth round, on a foul.

—At Christie's, a pair of Chinese vases of the Koang-Ho period realised 3,800 guineas.

18. Home Rule Conference arranged. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)

18-20. Naval display at Portsmouth. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)

20. At Fort Grange military air station, near Gosport, Lieut. L. C. Hordern, Lancashire Fusiliers, was fatally, and Sergeant Campbell seriously, injured in an aeroplane accident.

—At the Pont d'Empalot near Toulouse, an express from Bayonne ran into a stationary train; seven persons killed, over thirty injured.

21. The Shah of Persia crowned at Teheran.

22. Mr. George Smith, M.A. Oxon, Headmaster of Merchiston Castle Grammar School, Edinburgh, appointed Headmaster of Dulwich College, vice Mr. A. H. Gilkes, M.A. Oxon, resigned.

24. Failure of the Home Rule Conference.

—Tercentenary celebrated of the publication by John Napier of Merchistoun of his discovery of logarithms.

25. Close of the National Rifle Meeting at Bisley. (See next page.)

—Attempt to murder the Khedive of Egypt in Constantinople. (See For. Hist., Chap. VII., 2.)

26. Gun-running by Irish Volunteers at Howth; the Scottish Borderers subsequently fired on the crowd. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)

27. Announcement that Sir Jeremiah Colman had purchased Reigate Hill, Surrey, for the use of the public.

28. Austria-Hungary formally declared war on Servia. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV., and For. Hist., Chaps. II. and III.)

Competitions. Distance, yards. Highest possible score. Highest scores.

Humphry Challenge Cup (M.R.) 900, 1000, 1100 1080 Oxford 906

Cambridge 822

Halford Memorial Challenge Cup (M.R.) 1000, 1100 180 Capt. D. Campbell, unattached 167

Astor County Championship Challenge Cup (S. R.) 200, 500 420 Lewisham 380

South London 379

Midland Railway, Derby 378

Wimbledon Cup (M.R.) 1100 90 Mr. R. W. Barnett, U.R.A. 87

Ashburton Challenge Shield (M.R.) 200, 500 560 Sedbergh 496

Eton 490

Harrow 490

Edinburgh Academy 490

Spencer Cup (S.R.) 500 35 Cadet O. Baker, Sherborne (after tie) 35

Elcho Challenge Shield (M.R.) 900, 1000, 1100 2160 Scotland 1912

England 1899

Ireland 1871

Kolapore Imperial Challenge Cup (S.R.) 300, 500, 600 840 Australia 776

Canada 774

Mother Country 770

United Service Challenge Cup (S.R.) 200, 300, 500 1200 Army 952

Royal Marines 948

Chancellor's Challenge Plate (S.R.) 200, 500, 600 840 Cambridge 751

Oxford 724

China Challenge Cup (S.R.) 600 500 County of London 455

City of Glasgow 447

Houses of Parliament Match [Vizianagram Challenge Cup] (S.R.) 500, 600 560 Commons 416

Lords 390

Mackinnon Challenge Cup (S.R.) 900, 1000 1800 Australia 1531

England 1531

Scotland 1498

National Territorial Challenge Trophy (S.R.) 200, 500, 600 2100 England 1932

Scotland 1904

Waldegrave (M.R.) 900, 1000 120 Mr. B. W. Barnett, U.R.A. 116

Albert (M.R.) 900, 1000, 1100 270 Major T. Ranken, 8 Royal Scots Reserve 253

Wimbledon Cup (S.R.) 600 50 Tpr. C. P. B. King, Camb. Univ., O.T.C. (after tie) 50

Prince of Wales (S.R.) 300, 600 85 Col.-Sergt. G. Higgins, 4 Royal Scots Fusiliers 84

Alexandra (S.R.) 200, 600 70 D. L. McAlister, Australia 69

C. Cross, Australia 69

2nd Lt. W. L. McCurnock, London Univ., O.T.C. 69

Duke of Cambridge (S.R.) 900 50 Pte. E. A. Lowry, Canada 50

S. Sgt. A. McKenzie, S.R. 50

Lance-Corp. G. Wilson, London Scottish 50

Pte. S. E. Johnson, H.A.C. 50

Queen Mary's Prize (S.R.), Queen's Gold Medal and 50l. Determined by certain sections of the Musketry Regulations, 1914. — Pte. A. G. Fulton, 16 Lon. 164

Do., N. R. A. Silver Medal and 25l. — Sgt. C. Medland, 1 Devon Yeomanry 160

Do., N. R. A. Bronze Medal and 15l. — Sgt. T. S. French, Herts Yeomanry 160

King's (S.R.), 1st stage, Bronze Medal 200, 500, 600 105 J. M. Jamieson, Australian Reserve 102

Do., 2nd stage, Silver Medal 300, 600 205 Pte. A. G. Fulton, 16 Lon. 195

Do., 3rd stage, Gold Medal 900, 1000 355 Sgt. J. L. Dewar, 4 Royal Scots 309

St George's Challenge Vase (S.R.), Dragon Cup and Gold Cross 600, 900 175 Pte. G. M. Corrie, 7 H.L.I. 114

Do., Silver Cross 600, 900 150 Cpl. H. A. Ommuudsen, H.A.C. 112

Do., Bronze Cross 600, 900 150 Sgt. F. Wood, E. Rdg. Yeo. 112

Grand Aggregate (S.R.) — 330 Dr. F. H. Kelly, N. Lond. R.C. 313

Territorial Aggregate (S.R.) — — D. L. McAlister, Australia 282

28. At Paris, after seven days' trial, Mme. Caillaux was acquitted of murdering M. Gaston Calmette. (See ante, Chron., March 16.)

30. Belgrade taken by the Austrians. Partial mobilisation by Russia. (See For. Hist., Chaps. II. and III.)

—A painting of "An Interior with Figures," by P. de Hoock, realised 8,200 guineas at a London auction sale.

—Lieut. Gran (Norway) flew from Cruden Bay, near Aberdeen, to Stavanger, 400 miles, in 4 hrs. 10 min.

31. The London Stock Exchange was closed by order of the Committee, and the Bank rate raised to 8 per cent. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)

AUGUST.

1. The Endurance, with Sir Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, left the Thames on her voyage to the South Polar regions.

—The Bank rate was advanced to 10 per cent.

—The National Penny Bank suspended payment.

—Mobilisation ordered of the German and French armies.

—Germany declared war on Russia and France.

2. Russian troops crossed the East Prussian frontier; German invasion of Luxemburg and France.

—Prayers offered for the nation in churches and chapels throughout the United Kingdom.

—The Admiralty called out the Naval Reserves. Patriotic demonstration before Buckingham Palace.

—Partial Moratorium decreed in the United Kingdom by Royal Proclamation.

3. Announcement of the abandonment of Cowes Regatta by special desire of the King.

—German ultimatum to Belgium.

—Royal Proclamations issued authorising the Admiralty to requisition British ships, prohibiting the use of wireless by British merchant vessels, and forbidding the export of numerous articles described as warlike stores.

—The German Embassy left Paris, the French Embassy Berlin.

—Sir E. Grey's statement in the House of Commons. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. IV.)

4. Order in Council declaring it expedient that the Government should take control of the railways of the United Kingdom.

—British ultimatum to Germany. British Army mobilisation ordered by Proclamation.

—Resignation of British Ministers. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—German invasion of Belgium.

5. Earl Kitchener of Khartoum appointed Secretary for War.

—The German mine-layer Königin Luise, a converted liner, sunk by H.M.S. Amphion and the Third Torpedo Flotilla.

5. French troops entered Belgium.

6. Vote of Credit for 100,000,000l. and vote of 500,000 men for the Army passed by the House of Commons, after a statement by the Prime Minister.

—Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia.

—H.M.S. Amphion struck a mine in the North Sea and sank; a paymaster and 150 men were lost.

—Bank rate reduced to 6 per cent.

—The Prince of Wales and the Queen appealed for subscriptions for a National Relief Fund.

7. Reopening of British Banks after the extended Bank Holiday.

—Issue of Government notes for 10s. and 1l.

—Montenegro declared herself at war with Austria-Hungary.

8. Bank rate reduced to 5 per cent.

—British Expeditionary Force landing in France.

9. H.M.S. Birmingham sank the German submarine U 15 in the North Sea.

10. State of war between France and Austria-Hungary.

—Lord Islington appointed Under-Secretary for the Colonies, vice Lord Emmot, appointed First Commissioner of Works; and Dr. Christopher Addison, M.P., appointed Parliamentary Secretary of the Board of Education, vice Mr. C. M. Trevelyan resigned.

—Completion of the purchase of the Crystal Palace.

12. Declaration of war by Great Britain on Austria-Hungary. Proclamation under Defence of the Realm Act, establishing a kind of martial law in Great Britain.

—Announcement that Turkey had purchased the German warships Goeben and Breslau.

14. The Austrian Lloyd liner Baron Gautsch struck a mine off Lussin, Dalmatia, and sank; 150 persons drowned.

15. The Panama Canal formally opened.

—Proclamation by Grand Duke Nicolas of Russia to Poles. (See For. Hist., Chap. III.)

16. Japanese ultimatum to Germany.

—Arrival at Avonmouth of General Huerta, ex-President of Mexico. Entry of the Carranzist General Obregon into Mexico City.

17. The Belgian Court and Government removed from Brussels to Antwerp.

—French Fleet cleared Adriatic up to Cattaro.

18. Germans entered Tirlemont.

19. French reverse in Lorraine.

—Russians defeat Germans at Stallupönen, East Prussia.

20. Death of Pope Pius X. (See Obit.)

—Belgian Army retired to Antwerp.

—At the bye-election for Wicklow (W.) Mr. J. T. Donovan (N.) was returned unopposed, vice Mr. E. P. O'Kelly (N.)

20. At Sydney, N.S.W., the President of the British Association, Professor Bateson, delivered the Presidential Address. (See post, Science.)

21. German occupation of Brussels.

—Day of Intercession for the War.

22. Funeral of Pope Pius X.

23. War began between Japan and Germany.

23-26. Four days' battle in France. (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)

24. Fall of Namur.

25. Parliament reassembled. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

26. Destruction of Louvain.

—The American steamer Admiral Sampson sank after collision with the British steamer Princess Victoria; ten persons drowned.

—The German light cruiser Magdeburg went ashore at the entrance of the Gulf of Finland, and was blown up. A Russian attack had resulted in some loss of life.

27. First British wounded arrived at Folkestone.

—Further Parliamentary Papers published containing additional details of breach with Germany.

28. It was announced in Parliament that Indian troops were on their way from India.

—British Naval victory in the Bight of Heligoland. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

29. Apia in Samoa surrendered to a British Expeditionary Force.

31. Arrival of the Queen of the Belgians and her children at Dover.

—Russian defeat in East Prussia.

SEPTEMBER.

1. The King received the Belgian Mission to the United States. (See For. Hist., Chap. VIII.)

—Announcement that, by order of the Tsar, St. Petersburg would be known for the future as Petrograd.

—It was reported at Petrograd that Lieut. Sedoff, leader of the Suvorin Polar Expedition, had died and been buried in Kronprinz Rudolf Land.

—At Llandaff, the Bishop's palace was burnt down; many of the valuables, pictures, and books were saved.

3. The French Government left Paris for Bordeaux. (See For. Hist., Chap. I.)

—The election of the Pope resulted, at the third ballot, in favour of Cardinal Della Chiesa, who took the title of Benedict XV.

—The steam drifter Linsdell, and shortly afterwards H.M.S. Speedy, struck mines off the east coast and sank; eight lives lost.

5. H.M.S. Pathfinder was sunk by a mine (or, more probably, a submarine) off the east coast; 259 killed, 16 wounded. The Wilson liner Runo, from Hull for Archangel, met a similar fate; about twenty-five lives lost.

5. A collision occurred outside Cannon Street between two outgoing trains; eight persons were injured.

7. Announcement that the German cruiser Nürnberg had cut the cable between Fanning Island and British Columbia.

9. The armed merchant cruiser Oceanic, late White Star Line, wrecked off the north coast of Scotland; no lives lost.

—At Doncaster, the St. Leger resulted as follows: Mr. J. B. Joel's Black Jester, 1; Sir J. Thursby's Kennymore, 2; Sir J. Thursby's Cressingham, 3; time, 3 min. 23.8 sec.

10. A troop train was derailed at the Hex River Pass, South Africa; eight persons were killed, eighty-six injured—one fatally.

—Russian advance checked at Allenstein, East Prussia.

11. Pope Benedict XV. issued an appeal for peace.

—Minimum height of recruits raised by War Office to 5 ft. 6 ins. and chest measurement to 35½ inches.

12. The Annual Report of the Development Commission showed that grants had been recommended during the year by that body of 767,387l., of which 472,793l. was intended for the development of agriculture and rural industries. Special grants had been made for veterinary research work for the improvement of live stock. The Commission repeated its warning that it would be obliged to cut down or abandon several of its most beneficial schemes unless Parliament aided it after 1915.

—The Spreewald, an armed German merchant cruiser, with two German colliers, was captured in the North Atlantic by H.M.S. Berwick. (The capture was announced Sept. 23.)

13. The King received Cardinal Mercier at Buckingham Palace. In the afternoon His Eminence, standing on Cardinal Bourne's balcony, blessed 10,000 Irishmen passing beneath in procession.

—The German cruiser Hela was sunk in the North Sea by the British submarine E 9.

14. At Lebanon, Missouri, a train broke through a bridge and fell into the river; over thirty-five persons were reported drowned.

—The German merchant cruiser Cap Trafalgar was sunk off the east coast of South America by the British armed cruiser Carmania (a converted Cunard liner).

—The Australian submarine AE 1 was lost by some unknown accident while returning from patrol work; thirty-five officers and men were lost.

15. The Stock Exchange issued a list of trustee securities with minimum prices, below which its members were forbidden to deal in them.

17. H.M.S. Fisgard II., formerly the Invincible, flagship at the battle of Alexandria in 1882, now fitted up as a floating repair shop, sank in a gale off Portland Bill while being towed; twenty-one of her crew were drowned.

18. Prorogation of Parliament. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

18. Near Astoria, Oregon, the United States merchant steamer Francis H. Leggett foundered in a gale; seventy lives were lost.

—A South African force occupied Lüderitzbucht, German West Africa.

19. The Pacific Mail steamer Ortega, 8,000 tons, Capt. D. R. Kinneir, bound from Valparaiso to Liverpool, escaped from a German cruiser into the Straits of Magellan, through Nelson Strait, a dangerous and quite unsurveyed passage—a daring feat of seamanship.

20. At Zanzibar, H.M.S. Pegasus, while at anchor, was surprised by the German cruiser Königsberg, and disabled; thirty-four of her crew were killed and sixty-one wounded; the Königsberg escaped.

—German bombardment of Rheims Cathedral. (See For. Hist., Chap. I.)

22. Two Parliamentary seats were filled, by arrangement, without opposition. At Hartlepool Sir Walter Runciman (L.) was returned, vice Sir Stephen Furness (L.), deceased; at Bolton Mr. A. H. Gill (Lab.), deceased, was succeeded by Mr. A. H. Tootil (Lab.).

—At 6 A.M., H.M.S. cruiser Aboukir was torpedoed by a German submarine in the North Sea and sank; H.M.S. cruisers Cressy and (two hours later) Hogue suffered the same fate while standing by to save life. The total loss was sixty-two officers and 1,397 men; the saved numbered 917.

—British air raid on Düsseldorf; Flight-Lieut. C. H. Collet dropped three bombs on the Zeppelin sheds, approaching within 400 feet; an attack on the sheds at Cologne was frustrated by fog; all five aviators returned safely. (See Eng. Hist. Chap. V.)

—Madras shelled by the German cruiser Emden; little damage.

24. An attempt was made to wreck the up Folkestone boat express train at Hither Green; no harm was done.

—First Indian troops landed at Marseilles.

26. At Cambridge, the Rev. Edmund Courtenay Pearce, M.A., Fellow and Dean of Corpus Christi College, was elected Master of the College, vice Colonel R. T. Caldwell, LL.D., deceased.

27. First bombs dropped on Paris by a German aeroplane; an elderly gentleman was killed and a little girl badly wounded.

—The Albanian Senate proclaimed Prince Burhan-ed-Din, a son of Abdul Hamid, ruler of the Principality.

28. Announcement of the surrender of Duala (Cameroons) to an Anglo-French force.

29. Announcement that four British ships had been sunk by the German cruiser Emden in the Indian Ocean, and a fifth, the collier Buresk, captured.

OCTOBER.

1. Announcement that the Rev. Canon George Wilfrid Blenkin, Vicar of Hitchin and sometime Fellow and Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge, was appointed Dean of St. Albans, vice the Very Rev. Walter J. Lawrance, D.D., deceased.

—In the King's Bench Division, a compulsory winding-up order was made for the National Penny Bank. The Government enabled the Bank of England to render assistance, whereby depositors were paid 5s. in the pound at once. The management of the Bank was officially declared (Nov. 5) to have been unsatisfactory.

1. Announcement that seven German merchant steamers and a gunboat had been captured by H.M.S. Cumberland off the Cameroons.

2. The Admiralty announced that a minefield for defensive purposes had been laid in the North Sea.

—On the Highland Railway, the mail train caught fire; the guard was injured and sixty mailbags destroyed.

—On the arrival of the steamship Komagata Maru from Vancouver at Budge Budge, near Calcutta, with British Indians who had been refused admittance to British Columbia, some of the emigrants attempted to walk to Calcutta instead of proceeding direct by train to the Punjaub. Eventually they fired on the police, killing one and wounding others, and were fired upon by troops; sixteen rioters and two spectators were killed. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. V.)

5. Exactly two months from its commencement, the National Relief Fund reached 3,000,000l.

6. Off Schiermonnikoog, H.M.S. Submarine E 5 sunk the German destroyer S 179; most of the crew of the latter were reported saved.

—President Poincaré visited Sir John French's headquarters and exchanged congratulatory telegrams with the King.

7-8. The bombardment of Antwerp began at midnight.

9. Fall of Antwerp. (See For. Hist., Chap. IV.)

—Announcement that three British naval airmen had destroyed a Zeppelin at Düsseldorf.

10. Death of the King of Roumania. (See For. Hist., Chap. III.)

11. Two German aeroplanes flew over Paris soon after midday, dropping twenty bombs, of which one struck Notre Dame; three persons killed, fourteen injured.

—The Russian cruiser Pallada was sunk, with all her crew, in the Baltic by a German destroyer; two German destroyers sunk by the Russians.

11-12. Bombardment of Arras.

12. Warning by the Mayor of Gravesend regarding hostile aircraft.

13. The Prime Minister received a deputation of women protesting against a possible revival of the Contagious Diseases Acts, in view of the evils that had arisen in the neighbourhood of certain camps.

—Announcement of Maritz's rebellion in South Africa.

14. The first Canadian troops arrived at Plymouth.

—Fire at the Monfalcone Shipbuilding Works, near Trieste; a large cruiser building for the Austro-Hungarian Government was destroyed.

15. Announcement that H.M. cruiser Yarmouth had sunk the German liner Markomannia near Sumatra, and captured the Greek steamer Pontoporos. Both had been coaling the Emden—the latter compulsorily.

15. Near Bucharest, two English M.P.'s, Mr. Noel Buxton and Mr. C. R. Buxton, were shot at and wounded by a Young Turk while proceeding to King Carol's funeral; they recovered.

—H.M.S. Hawke was sunk by a submarine, and H.M.S. Theseus attacked, in the northern waters of the North Sea. The number saved was seventy, leaving 524 killed and missing.

16. On the Didcot-Newbury line, in the evening, at a level crossing, a goods train struck a motor-car containing ladies returning from a concert at Churn Camp; one lady killed, two injured.

17. Four German destroyers, with all their crews but thirty-one, were sunk in the North Sea by H.M.S. Undaunted and four destroyers, the Lance, Lennox, Legion, and Loyal; one British officer and seventy-four men wounded.

—Severe earthquake in Greece and Asia Minor; thirty-three miles of railway in Asia Minor damaged, and 3,000 peasants reported killed.

—The Japanese cruiser Takahichio was sunk by a mine in Kiao-chao Bay; about 254 persons believed lost.

—In Camberwell and Deptford a number of shops, belonging, or believed to belong, to Germans, were wrecked by a mob.

18. H.M.S. submarine E 3 reported sunk on the North Sea coast.

19. Announcement that a "Distinguished Service Medal" had been instituted for non commissioned officers and privates in the Royal Marines, and for petty officers, men and boys in the Royal Navy.

—At Marquise, near Boulogne, a train with Belgian refugees was partly telescoped by a following goods train; thirty-one killed, eighty-one wounded.

—Attempted rising in Portugal. (See For. Hist., Chap. IV.)

20. Announcement that the Tsar had decided to prohibit for ever the Government sale of alcohol in Russia.

—In Montreal, a block of nine houses, with three shops, was blown up, probably by Austrians; four killed, including three of the perpetrators. The occupants were chiefly Russians.

21. Trafalgar Day. The tributes at the Nelson column included mementoes of the Aboukir and Hawke. Crowds of people visited the square.

—Extensive arrests of Germans and Austrians in London and many English towns.

22. Announcement that German and Austrian merchant ships must leave the Suez Canal.

23. Announcement that Dr. Arthur Berriedale Keith, D.Litt. Edin., D.C.L. Oxon, had been appointed Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Edinburgh University, vice Dr. Julius Eggeling, resigned.

24. H.M.S. Badger rammed (and was believed to have sunk) a German submarine off the Dutch coast.

—President Poincaré and Earl Kitchener were unanimously elected Lord Rector of Glasgow University and Lord Rector of Edinburgh University respectively.

26. The French liner Amiral Ganteaume, with 2,500 refugees on board, bound from Calais to Havre, was torpedoed twelve miles off Cape Grisnez by a German submarine, and sank; four engine-room hands were killed. The cross-Channel steamer Queen (S.E. & C.R.) took off the passengers, but about twenty were killed, chiefly in trying to jump aboard her in a panic.

—Importation of sugar into the United Kingdom prohibited.

—An Anglo-French force entered Edea, Cameroons.

27. News of the risings headed by General Beyers in the Western Transvaal and by General De Wet in the Orange Free State.

—The steamer Manchester Commerce struck a mine near Tory Island, off the north-west coast of Ireland, and foundered; thirty of the crew were saved; the captain and thirteen were lost. The Admiralty consequently warned shipping to pass by Skerryvore and the Hebrides.

—Closing by order of several entrances to the Thames.

—Announcement that Mrs. Carman had been released on bail after a disagreement of the jury in her trial for murder. (See ante, June 30.)

28. Completion of the piercing of Moutier-Granges tunnel, on the line between Delle and Berne, Switzerland, saving thirteen miles on the route from Paris to Milan via, the Lötschberg.

—Announcement that the Germans had invaded Angola.

—At Sarajevo, sentence was pronounced on the persons convicted of conspiring to murder the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg. (See Chron. June 28, and For. Hist., Chap. III.) Four were sentenced to be hanged, three, including the actual murderer, who was too young for the death penalty, to twenty years' penal servitude, and seven others to shorter terms.

—At Penang, the German cruiser Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and a French destroyer; eighty-six lives lost; three officers and 112 men injured.

29. Resignation of Prince Louis of Battenberg. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—Bombardment by Turkish warships of Black Sea ports. Turkey thus entered into the war.

30. The British hospital ship Rohilla (late a P. & O. liner) proceeding from Leith to the Continent to fetch Belgian wounded, went ashore just south of Whitby, having probably struck a mine; after great difficulties, the last set of survivors were rescued on November 1, after thirty-six hours' exposure to heavy seas. About seventy-five lives were lost; the saved numbered 146.

—Lord Fisher of Kilverstone appointed First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, vice Prince Louis of Battenberg, resigned.

—The German cruiser Königsberg bombarded by H.M.S. Chatham in the Rufigi River, East Africa, and her exit prevented by sinking colliers.

30. The Morning Post published the letter written by the German Emperor to the late Lord Tweedmouth when First Lord of the Admiralty, assuring him that the German Navy was not intended to challenge British Naval Supremacy. (See A.R., 1908, Pt. I., p. 58.)

31. Gallant charge of the London Scottish near Ypres.

—The cruiser Hermes, seaplane carrier, was sunk at 10.30 A.M. in the Straits of Dover while returning from Dunkirk; twenty-two killed, seven wounded.

NOVEMBER.

1. Sea-fight off the Chilean coast; H.M.S. Good Hope and Monmouth sunk. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—The German Emperor reported to have had a narrow escape from bombs dropped by a British airman at Thielt.

—Foreign Office statement of repeated provocations offered by the Porte to the Powers of the Triple Entente, culminating in attacks on Russia and project of invasion of Egypt. (See For. Hist., Chap. III.)

2. British reverse in German East Africa. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VII.)

—Municipal elections throughout England and Wales. By arrangement, contests were avoided almost everywhere.

—Admiralty announcement of restriction of navigation in the North Sea and on the North of Scotland and of Ireland, owing to indiscriminate scattering of German mines.

—Bombardment of the Dardanelles forts by an Anglo-French Squadron.

—Bombardment of Akabah by H.M.S. Minerva.

3. United States elections; large Republican gains.

4. The German cruiser Yorck struck a mine (or was sunk by a British submarine) off Jahde Bay and sank; about half the crew drowned.

5. British declaration of war with Turkey; Cyprus annexed to Great Britain by Order in Council.

—Military execution in the Tower of Karl Lody, convicted of espionage by court-martial, November 2.

—The Earl of Annesley and Flight-Lieutenant C. Beevor, R.N., shot down near Ostend while crossing in an aeroplane from Eastchurch to France.

6. At Edinburgh, William Drummond Dick, recently a coal importer at Berlin, sentenced to five years' penal servitude for attempting to sell coal to Germany.

7. Surrender of Tsingtau. (See For. Hist., Chap. VI.)

—Admiralty announcement of the occupation of Fao, at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab. (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)

9. Ministers at the Guildhall. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—The Lord Mayor's Show included contingents from the Canadian, Newfoundland, and New Zealand troops, and also from the Honourable Artillery Company, the London Scottish, and other London Territorial Regiments, and the Officers' Training Corps of the City of London School.

9. M. Rodin presented to the British nation twenty of his statues, recently exhibited in London, as a token of admiration for its heroes.

—Announcement that the German cruiser Emden was sunk by H.M.A.S. Sydney of the Australian Navy, on November 9, while attempting to destroy the wireless station at the Cocos or Keeling Islands, and that the German cruiser Königsberg had been discovered on October 30 (see that date).

11. Opening of Parliament. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—H.M.S. Niger torpedoed in the Downs, two miles off Deal; all the officers and crew saved; four men injured.

14. Death of Earl Roberts at St. Omer. (See post, Obituary.)

—The Royal Society medals were awarded as follows: Royal Medal to Prof. Ernest W. Brown, F.R.S., for astronomical investigations, chiefly in the lunar theory, and to Prof. William J. Sollas, F.R.S., for palæontological researches; the Copley Medal to Sir Joseph Thomson, for discoveries in physical science; the Romford Medal to Lord Rayleigh, for his numerous researches in optics; the Davy Medal to Prof. William Jackson Pope, for researches on stereo-chemistry; the Darwin Medal to Prof. E. B. Poulton, for researches in heredity; and the Hughes Medal to Prof. John S. Townsend, F.R.S., for his researches on the electric behaviour of gases.

16. Official announcement of nine awards of the Victoria Cross—the first in the War.

17. Announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the new war taxation and war loan. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—The Prince of Wales appointed A.D.C. to F.M. Sir John French.

—At Amiens, fifteen bombs were dropped by German aeroplanes; a gasholder exploded; one man killed, one injured.

—German bombardment of Libau; Russian bombardment of Trebizond.

—Turkish defeat on the Shatt-el-Arab, (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)

18. The Russian Black Sea battleship division engaged the Goeben off Sebastopol; she retired seriously damaged.

19. Riot among German prisoners in camp near Douglas, Isle of Man; five killed, one fatally injured. The jury at the inquest exonerated the authorities, in view of the riotous conduct of the prisoners.

—Funeral of Earl Roberts in St. Paul's.

—Announcement that the Rev. John Pentland Mahaffy, D.C.L., had been appointed Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, vice Dr. Traill, deceased.

—Announcement that Dr. Walter Ramsden, Senior Demonstrator of Physiology at Oxford University, was elected Johnston Professor of Bio-Chemistry at Liverpool University, vice Dr. Benjamin Moore, resigned.

20. Turkish bombardment of Tuapse.

21. British raid on the Zeppelin airship factory at Friedrichshafen. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

—Basra occupied by British. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

23. The German submarine U 18 was rammed and sunk by a British patrol vessel off the north coast of Scotland; she subsequently rose, surrendered, and foundered; one man killed.

—The German destroyer S 124 was sunk by collision with the British steamer Anglo-Dane off Falsterbro.

—The Cunard freight steamer Malachite, from Havre to Liverpool, was shelled four miles off Havre by a submarine and sunk; the crew landed in their own boats.

—The U.S. troops evacuated Vera Cruz.

24. First Indian soldier recommended for the V.C.—Havildar Gangna Singh, a Dogra, 57th Wilde's Rifles.

26. H.M.S. battleship Bulwark blew up at Sheerness at 7.35 A.M.; about 750 lives were lost.

—The British merchant steamer Primo was sunk off Cape Antifer by a German submarine; crew saved.

27. Announcement that Dr. C. S. Loch had resigned the secretaryship of the Charity Organisation Society, which he had held since 1875.

—Earthquake in Western Greece and the Ionian Islands; at Leucadia, twenty-three persons reported killed, fifty injured; great damage also at Corfu.

—At the Central Criminal Court, in the trial of Lord Alfred Douglas for libelling Mr. Robert Ross, the jury disagreed; a nolle prosequi was entered December 10.

29. December 4. The King visited the front in France. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

30. At the bye-election for Londonderry City, due to the death of Mr. D. C. Hogg (L.), Sir James Dougherty (L.) was returned unopposed. His opponent, Mr. J. P. Goode, a "Federal Imperialist," was disqualified on the informality of his nomination papers.

DECEMBER.

2. At the Cleckheaton Chemical Works, Heckmondwike, seven lives were lost by a lyddite explosion.

3. Riot among interned Belgian soldiers near Zeist, Holland; the guard fired, killing seven and wounding twenty-two.

3-8. Great Austrian defeat in Serbia.

4. Mr. James Cosgrove (N.) returned unopposed as M.P. for Galway (E.), vice Mr. John Roche, deceased.

5. War precautions in the English Channel.

—At Riardo, between Rome and Naples, a passenger train for Naples was partly telescoped by a following goods train; eleven persons were killed or mortally injured, about fifty less seriously injured.

5. The German mercantile cruiser Prince Eitel Friedrich sank the British steamer Charcas about seventy miles south of Valparaiso; the crew were landed.

—French air raid announced on the Zeppelin sheds at Freiburg-im-Breisgau.

5-6. Heavy gale; serious floods in Wales.

7. Defeat and death of General Beyers in South Africa. (See For. and Col. Hist., Chap. VII.)

—The Rev. L. R. Phelps elected Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, vice Dr. L. Shadwell, resigned.

—Severe storm on the United States coast from Maine to North Carolina; many wrecks.

8. Off Barrow, the oil-tank steamer Vedra stranded and exploded; thirty-four persons were lost, two saved.

—In the King's Bench Division, an action by Sir John Brunner and Sir Alfred Mond against Mr. R. T. Palmer, a Leicester manufacturer, who, being excited by the war, had written addressing them as "German swine," was settled by an apology and payment of costs.

—British naval victory off the Falkland Islands. (See For. Hist., Chap. V.)

9. At the Parliamentary bye-election for King's County (Tullamore), due to the death of Mr. E. Haviland Burke (N.), Mr. E. J. Graham (I.N.) was returned by 1,667 votes, Mr. P. F. Adams (N.) receiving 1,588.

—At the Durham Assizes, before Mr. Justice Shearman, Nicolaus Emil Hermann Adolf Ahlers, recently German Consul at Sunderland and a naturalised Englishman, was convicted of high treason and sentenced to death, he having incited and assisted German reservists in England to join the German forces after the declaration of war. (The conviction was quashed on December 18 by the High Court.)

—The Edison Works at West Orange, New Jersey, burnt down; estimated damage $5,000,000.

10. Lieut.-Gen. Sir James Wolfe Murray appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff, vice Lieut.-Gen. Sir Charles Douglas, deceased.

11, 12. Suspension of the London tramway service owing to an accident at a generating station.

12. On board the s.s. Batavier V., at Tilbury, for Rotterdam, a box which broke during shipment contained a young German lieutenant, Otto Koehn, who was attempting escape to Germany and had been interned at Dorchester.

—Announcement that Russia had declined the Christmas truce suggested by the Pope.

13. In the Dardanelles the British submarine B 11, Lieut.-Com. Holbrook, torpedoed and sank the Turkish battleship Messudiyeh.

14. Serbian army re-entered Belgrade.

16. German bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby. (See Eng. Hist., Chap. V.)

17. Egypt was proclaimed a British Protectorate, and Lieut.-Col. Sir Arthur Henry MacMahon, G.C.V.O., appointed British Commissioner.

—During a performance in the 86th Street Theatre, New York, five lions escaped; one was eventually killed in the street, the rest recaptured; the police had fired on them, wounding three persons.

—The Austro-Hungarian naval cadet training ship Beethoven was reported to have struck a mine near Trieste and sunk, with the loss of all on board.

18. The Khedive Abbas II. of Egypt deposed; Prince Hussein Kamel Pasha, a son of the ex-Khedive Ismail, appointed Sultan of Egypt.

—Meeting of the Kings of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, at Malmö.

19. The Donaldson (cargo) liner Tritonia, from Partington (Manchester Ship Canal) for St. John, N.B., struck a mine off the North of Ireland; the crew escaped.

20. Herbertshire Castle, Denny, Stirlingshire, was burnt down in the early morning; two young girl visitors and a lady secretary lost their lives.

21. The United States Supreme Court decided that Harry Thaw must be extradited from New Hampshire to New York (A.R., 1913, Chron., Aug. 17.)

24. A German aeroplane dropped a bomb on Dover, missing the Castle; little damage.

24, 25. A German aeroplane dropped bombs on Nancy; two persons killed, about twelve injured.

25. British air and sea raid on Cuxhaven,

—German aeroplane over Sheerness; the airman was shot at, and probably killed.

27. A British destroyer wrecked near St. Andrews; all hands saved.

28. Sudden storm in southern England; at Clapham a house was blown down, killing one person and injuring others.

29. At Edinburgh, Kate Hume, aged seventeen, of Dumfries, was convicted of forging and altering two letters purporting to relate German outrages on her sister; she was released on probation.

30. German aeroplane raid on Dunkirk; four aeroplanes dropped seventeen bombs intended for military buildings, but they fell in the market-place and streets; fifteen killed, thirty-two wounded, including many women.

—The Prussian casualty lists, numbering 112, gave the total of killed, wounded and missing as 771,073. The eighty-three Saxon, eighty-five Würtemberg, 130 Bavarian, and thirteen naval casualty lists increased this total by over 500,000. Some estimates, however, put the total German losses much higher.

RETROSPECT OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART IN 1914.

LITERATURE.

There is an undoubted temptation in reviewing the Literature of 1914 to consider it from two obvious points of view: that published, or already in the Press, before the declaration of war with Germany, and that issued afterwards. But, although the outbreak of war caused a momentary pause in the operations of many publishers, it did not affect the flow of volumes already announced, though it has doubtless seriously reduced future commitments.

Explore with AITake your curiosity a little further.

Reading settings