On April the 21st a committee was formed at the Rheola Hotel to receive money for the relief of the sufferers, and a subscription was opened at the Mansion House by the Lord Mayor, which has already amounted to more than 1,300l. The Home Office has also instructed Mr. Wales to send to the Government the names of those who distinguished themselves in the mine, and the Queen has determined to confer upon these men the Albert Medal, a distinction hitherto never bestowed for other than

gallantry in saving life at sea. All the miners are now progressing favourably.

14. THE "LIGHTNING " TORPEDO-VESSEL.-This vessel, of a new class, has been constructed by Messrs. Thorneycroft & Donaldson for the Lords of the Admiralty, and was inspected at Westminster Bridge Pier, by a party of naval and military officers, members of Parliament (with the Speaker of the House of Commons), and other gentlemen, on the invitation of Mr. Ward Hunt, First Lord of the Admiralty. They went on board the vessel to test her speed, and ran down the Thames nearly as far as Long Reach, a distance of more than twenty-two miles, returning to Westminster within two hours and forty minutes of starting from there. The "Lightning," indeed, although only 84 ft. in length, by 10 ft. 10 in. beam, has the distinguished honour of being the fastest vessel in her Majesty's Navy, the mean speed attained on the preliminary runs being considerably over nineteen knots per hour.

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THE GREAT WALKING MATCH.-The match for 1,000l., or 500l. a side, between Edward Payson Weston, of America, and Daniel O'Leary, to walk against each other, at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, during six days of last week, excited great public interest. On each day the spectators might have been counted by thousands, and included persons of all ranks. At one time on Saturday evening there could not have been less than 20,000 people present. O'Leary, though a native of Cork, is a naturalised citizen of the United States, and is thirty-one years of age; Weston, born at Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., is seven years older. The men were engaged in a similar match in Chicago in November 1857, when O'Leary, who did 501 miles, is said to have defeated Weston by fifty miles. There was great dissatisfaction, however, with regard to the distances, and both men were anxious to meet on English soil and have an unprejudiced record taken. This led to the present match; and there can be no doubt that both men have been justly dealt with. They started a few minutes after midnight on Sunday week, and the contest ended last Saturday night, an hour before midnight, with a victory for the Irishman, O'Leary. The affair seems to have been well conducted throughout. Five gentlemen were appointed as judges.-The result posted at the finish was-O'Leary, 520 miles; Weston, 510 miles. The times of both men were taken by a chronometer lent by Sir John Bennett. It is said that in no previous match has 520 miles been walked in six days.

WILLIAM STEVENS, known as the Buckinghamshire Giant, a man who weighed thirty-five stone, and who was about 6 ft. 8 in. high, died a few days since at the age of forty-nine, at the “Five Arrows," Waddesdon, near Aylesbury. Deceased was formerly a farmer, and went to reside with the landlord of the "Five Arrows" about four years ago, at which time he only weighed the moderate amount of eighteen stone. From that time, however, he devoted his life to eating and drinking, swallowing everything that was put before him, and only varying this amusement by getting into the scales to please the farmers and hunting gentry of the neighbourhood when they felt any curiosity as to his progress in the fattening line. He appears to have been kept on the premises by the landlord as a kind of show, to induce people to visit the inn, and a photograph was taken of him two days before his death.

23. THE GREAT TURF FRAUD.—The trial of the five men charged with fraud upon the Comtesse de Goncourt, after lasting ten days, was concluded at the Central Criminal Court to-day. In the course of his summing-up, Mr. Baron Huddleston said he had been informed that the Governor of Newgate, having reason to suspect that an attempt had been made to corrupt the officials of the gaol, caused the prisoner Benson to be searched, and upon him were found documents which disclosed a scheme for an escape as bold and as ingenious as could well be conceived. It was painful to think, his lordship said, that in our gaols there were means of corrupting subordinates. To do so with the superior officers was perfectly absurd, but when Benson was in custody he found the means of communicating with other prisoners, and that there was some person enabling him to communicate with the outer world was beyond all question. The jury found Benson guilty of forgery; William Kurr, Frederick Kurr, and Bale guilty on some of the counts; and Murray an accessory after the fact. It was proved that in 1872 Benson had been convicted of felony at that court in forging a receipt for 1,000l. The Comtesse de Goncourt, the prosecutrix, asked that mercy might be shown to the prisoners. The judge, in passing sentence, said there was one point he had been asked to take into consideration-namely, that, although Benson had been properly found guilty, there was no intent to commit the more serious offence of forgery. It might be that he thought the offence was only conspiracy; but, in point of law, there could be no doubt that it was forgery, and forgery of a very serious description. He (Mr. Baron Huddleston) could not think, therefore, that the prosecution would be in any way justified in abandoning the more serious charge. It was a crime of the most enormous pretensions; and the scheme which he had planned and carried out was an organised system of plunder intended to be on a wholesale scale. He must look on this as an aggravated case as respected the persons who had been accessory to the crime, and he should fail in the discharge of his duty-painful and imperative though that was-if he did not pass an adequate sentence. His

lordship then sentenced Benson to be kept in penal servitude for fifteen years; William Kurr, Frederick Kurr, and Charles Bale each to undergo ten years' penal servitude; and Edwin Murray to eighteen months' hard labour.

COMMEMORATION OF ST. GEORGE.-A service of a somewhat novel character, which was held at St. George's Church, Campden Hill, was attended by the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lorne, as well as an immense general congregation admitted by

ticket.

It was a service in commemoration of the patron saint of England, and the church was profusely decorated with national flags. The choir was strengthened by a number of amateurs, and there were several members of the Crystal Palace and Philharmonic bands. Shortened evensong was sung by the Rev. S. Flood Jones, precentor of Westminster Abbey, being preceded by a processional. After the third collect, in place of the anthem, Mendelssohn's "Fest-Gesang," which was composed to celebrate the invention of printing, was very well sung. Mr. Prendergast, a barrister, conducted. The Dean of Westminster preached.

-EARTHQUAKE.-A telegram reports that at four o'clock this afternoon a sharp shock of earthquake was felt in Oban. The motion was undulatory, accompanied by a rumbling noise and terminating in a sort of jerk. The motion did not last above six seconds. Furniture and articles of household use were jerked upwards, and pieces of crockery were thrown from the shelves. A slighter shock was felt in the island of Kerrera last week, and a short time ago a shock was felt in Tobermory, island of Mull.

25. BISHOP OF TRURO.-On the Feast of St. Mark, the consecration of Dr. Benson as Bishop of Truro took place in St. Paul's Cathedral. There was a very large congregation, including Lady Rolle, by whose liberality the new bishopric was finally established. The Primate officiated, assisted by the Bishops of London, Winchester, Llandaff, Lincoln, Hereford, Exeter, Ely, Nottingham, and Dover.

28. LONDON ATHLETIC CLUB.-This morning some five or six thousand persons assembled at the opening of the new grounds of the London Athletic Club, at Stamford Bridge, in the Fulham Road. The extent of the enclosure is eight acres and a half, and although the arrangements are far from being completed, it affords a course for pedestrian exercises of considerably over a quarter of a mile, possessing on either side a straight course of over 250 yards, which is said to be the longest piece of straight pedestrian course possessed by any enclosed grounds in the kingdom. There is a grand stand for the accommodation of the visitors capable of seating something like 1,000 persons, with refreshment bar and rooms in the rear, whilst the lower portion contains rooms for the use of the members of the club. On the previous evening a four-mile race was run by J. Gibb, S.L.H., the champion at that distance, and W. Slade, the mile champion. Gibb led till just before the

completion of the second mile, when Slade, who was a dozen yards behind, retired, as his leg had given way. Gibb finished the distance alone. The following are the times of each mile :-One mile, 4 min. 39 sec.; two miles, 9 min. 52 sec.; three miles, 15 min. 14 sec.; four miles, 20 min. 38 sec.

THE SALE OF MR. ALBERT GRANT'S PICTURES, at the rooms of Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods, took place on Friday and Saturday last week. The proceeds of the two days' sales were 106,2021. The greater portion of the best-known pictures sold for considerably less than the prices which had been paid for them at former sales. Sir Edwin Landseer's "Otter Hunt," for which, it was rumoured, Mr. Grant paid 10,000l., was sold for 5,650 guineas. Mr. Frith's "Before Dinner at Boswell's Lodgings in Bond Street, 1796," which was sold at the Manley Hall sale for 4,5677. 108., on Saturday fetched only 3,2021. 108. One of the few pictures which sold at an increased price was Müller's "Interior of the Temple of Osiris at Philæ." Mr. Grant in 1872 bought this picture for 1,800 guineas, and it sold on Saturday for 2,300 guineas.

REVIVAL OF ART ETCHING.-An etching-which has attracted much notice in the art world, and which involves the successful application of printing from the plate to a new and very fine description of vellum paper, peculiarly well suited to the display of qualities which the old school of etchers aimed principally at attaining—is in course of publication by Mr. Thomas Maclean, of the Haymarket. The artist (Mr. J. Lumsden Propert) has depicted with seamanlike fidelity, as also with great artistic skill, the doomed hulk of the old man-of-war "Neptune," off Charlton, on the Thames. In his pursuit of a revived art, such as we must consider etching in this country to be, Mr. Propert has abjured those mechanical aids, together with the frequent resort to the tools which belong rather to the engraver, too commonly adopted by French as well as English etchers of the modern school. The work is of somewhat unusual dimensions for an etching, its length being 22 inches and its height 15 inches. There is consequently a great deal of execution; and that which is bestowed on the sky is remarkable for its tone and finish, the labour being totally free from any sign of those adventitious aids to which allusion has been made. The old battle-ship is drawn with so due a sense of proportion that the full idea of her grandeur is conveyed. The emblematic figure-head, towering loftily against the sky, assists the effect in a manner both pictorial and real.

SHAKSPEARE FESTIVAL AND MEMORIAL.-The annual Shakspeare Festival of the Urban Club was held this evening, Dr. Westland Marston in the chair. Mr. Fawcett and Dr. Schliemann were among the speakers.

The first stone of the Shakspeare Memorial Building at Stratford-on-Avon was laid also to-day, with full Masonic ceremonial, by Lord Leigh, Lord Lieutenant and Provincal Grand Master of

Warwickshire, in conjunction with the Deputy Provincial Grand Master. The memorial embraces a theatre, a library, and a picture-gallery. About 500 Freemasons took part in the cere

mony. CURIOUS LETTER BY WASHINGTON.-In a collection of autographs recently sold by Messrs. Bangs & Co., of New York, was a very curious letter written by Washington at the age of 26, when he was serving as an officer in the army of George II. It is addressed to Mrs. Sarah Fairfax (née Cary), whom Washington had proposed to marry, but had been rejected for his friend George William Fairfax. Washington writes from the "Camp at Fort Cumberland, Sept. 12, 1758," and expresses himself very much in love with somebody, but whether it be Mrs. Fairfax or another lady one cannot quite make out. The grammar is distressingly weak, being helped out by many dashes:-

DEAR MADAM--(the document, which is a lengthy one, commences),-Yesterday I was honoured with your short but very agreeable favour of the 1st instant. How joyfully I catch at the happy occasion of a renewing a correspondence which I feared was disrelished on your part I leave to time-that never-failing expositor of all things-and to a monitor equally faithful in my own breast to testify. In silence I now express my joy. Silence, which in some cases-I wish the present-speaks more intelligently than the sweetest eloquence. . . . You have drawn me, dear madam, or rather I have drawn myself, into an honest confession of a simple Fact-misconstrue not my meaning-doubt it not, nor expose it. The world has no business to know the object of my Love— declared in this manner to-you-when I want to conceal it.

...

Washington concludes his letter thus:

Be assured that I am, Dr madam, with the most unfeigned regard, yr most obedient and most oblig'd H'ble serv't, G. WASHINGTON. N.B.-Many accidents happening (to use a vulgar saying) between the cup and the lip, I choose to make the exchange of carpets myself, since I find you will not do me the honour to accept mine.

Within four months of penning this epistle, Washington was married (Jan. 6, 1759) to Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow, with two children, large landed estates, and 45,000l. in money.

THE TITLE OF JUDGES.-Yesterday the new Act to amend the Judicature Acts was issued. Mr. Fry, Q.C., has, as it has been announced, been appointed. His position is now defined, as also the title of the judges of the Supreme Court. All the provisions in the Judicature Acts of 1873 and 1875 relate to the new judge. He is to be attached to the Chancery Division, with the power of transfer, as mentioned in the Act of 1873. As to the title of judges, the ordinary judges of the Court of Appeal other than the president "shall be styled Lords Justices of Appeal," and the judges of the High Court of Justice other than the president "shall be styled Justices of the High Court." A puisne judge