an imaginary enemy. In rear of them followed parties of sick bearers, for whose especial instruction the drill was carried on, while further to the rear again a number of ambulance waggons, distinguished by the red cross, were drawn up, together with some country waggons, specially prepared for the transport of sick and wounded men. As the assaulting lines moved forward, certain men were ordered to fall down from time to time as though wounded, and were directed to take up appropriate attitudes on the ground. After a while, the attack having been supposed to have been successfully executed, the field was searched by the sick bearers, the wounded men were discovered, their injuries temporarily and hastily attended to, and they themselves transported to the conveyances in attendance. Each sick bearer was provided with an album, in which were plates showing how dressings should be applied in various cases, and also how means for carrying wounded men can be improvised out of swords, rifles, branches of trees, and so forth.

30. THE DERBY.-A good beginning of the Epsom week was followed by a continuation of all those favourable influences without which a Derby day, or any outdoor festival, is marred for the multitude of holiday-makers, who lose sight of the business of racing in the pleasures of a race. The weather was splendid, and was highly appreciated by, among others, the Chinese Ambassadors, Kuo ta jen (Principal Minister), Lin ta jen (Assistant Minister), attended by Li Shu-Chang (Secretary of the Legation), Yao Yu Wang (Chancellor), Mr. Halliday Macartney (English secretary), interpreters, and attachés, for whom a saloon carriage in the Royal train was provided.

The result of this, the ninety-eighth Derby, was as follows:

Lord Falmouth's Silvio, by Blair Athol-Silverhair, 8st. 10lb. (F. Archer), i; Mr. Mitchell Innes' Glen Arthur, 8st. 10b. (Dodge), 2; Mr. J. T. Mackenzie's Rob Roy, 8st. 10lb. (Custance), 3.

JUNE.

1. THE OAKS.—A complete change in the weather rendered the Oaks day one of the most unpleasant that we have endured this year. Heavy rain fell in the morning, and there was such a gale of wind that a portion of the roof of Barnard's Stand was blown away, and a great many of the booths and other temporary erections were completely destroyed.

The field, which numbered nine, was a small one, Placida, Lady Golightly, Belphoebe, and La Jonchère, formed a quartet of very smart fillies. The story of the race is easily told. The flag fell at the second attempt, and Placida at once went to the front, and

showed the way at a merry pace, Lady Golightly and Belphœbe bringing up the rear. When they had gone half a mile Plaisante was out of it, and the others constantly passed and repassed; but Placida was never caught, and though Belphoebe made a great effort in the last hundred yards, she was beaten cleverly by three parts of a length. Muscatel was a good third, and then came Lady Golightly, Quickstep, La Jonchère, Astree, and Mirobolante, in the order named, Plaisante being beaten off.

COVENT GARDEN.-A correspondent writes in Notes and Queries:-"Next Friday, June 1, should be looked to by the Duke of Bedford, if he would not lose his Covent Garden Charter, a peck of green peas having to be sold in Covent Garden Market for 6d., agreeably to an ancient custom, the Charter being held by the circumstance of selling at that price on the 1st of June."

2. W. CAXTON.-A special service in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the introduction of printing into England by William Caxton was held to-day in Westminster Abbey. Mendelssohn's "Hymn of Praise was performed by a numerous choir and band, and at the close of the solo and chorus, "The night is departing, the day is approaching," Dean Stanley preached a brief sermon from the text, "The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." At the conclusion of the sermon a collection was made for the Caxton Memorial Fund of the Printers' Pension, Almshouse, and Orphan Asylum Corporation. Mr. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., has consented to preside at the opening ceremony of the exhibition at South Kensington in connection with the anniversary.

A HISTORICAL PARALLEL was drawn by Baron Henry de Worms in an address delivered at the Onslow Hall, a day or two ago. Referring to the fact that the Emperor Alexander declared war against Turkey at the moment when she had adopted a Constitution, the speaker pointed out that in 1792 the Empress Catherine of Russia made war against the kingdom of Poland under circumstances strikingly similar to those which preceded the present struggle. Catherine began by taking up the cause of the members of the Orthodox Greek Church in Poland, just as Alexander II. did in Turkey; but in both cases it was not until a Constitution had been adopted by the neighbouring State that Russia declared war against it. The establishment of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, which Burke described in the House of Commons as "a masterpiece of political wisdom," and "a glory to humanity," was alleged by the Empress as one of her reasons for sending her troops into Poland, on the plea that the principles of this Constitution were "totally opposed to social and political order, and provoke disobedience by weakening the respect which good citizens owe to their Sovereigns." She added, in much the same words as those of the present Czar, that she had no motives in declaring war "but such as are generous and disinterested.”

KUO-TA-JEN has arrived in London as the first Chinese Minister regularly accredited to the Court of St. James's. He is indeed well fitted for the mission which has been confided to him. Born nigh sixty years ago, he passed his youth in those arduous literary studies by which in China eminence is reached; while still a youth he achieved some of the highest honours which examination can afford; and being by his learning and manners commended to the Emperor was appointed first to a post in the Palace, and later to the governorship of the Province of Canton, to the vice-presidency of the Council of War, and subsequently to the vice-presidency of the Chinese Foreign Office. Being then found very curious as to foreign men and things, he was—although a mandarin of the red button, and not of the peacock's feather-sent to England, where his very pleasant features and high-bred manner have already become familiar, and earned for him the sympathy and respect of all who have become acquainted with him. Moreover, he is accompanied by his wife, who has rapidly become as great a favourite with all the ladies who have been allowed to visit her, as her husband is with all those who have been able to know him.

THE CHINESE AMBASSADORS.-There is rather a good story about concerning the late visit of the Chinese Ambassadors to the law courts. They are rather hard put to it for amusement, and one day last week they made their appearance in the Court of Appeal. The usher whispered to one of the judges, who whispered to another man, and so on, until the whole bench was informed of what was about to happen. Then entered the Chinese Ambassador and his suite, all of whom chin-chinned, while their lordships gravely saluted in return. Ten minutes of the proceedings were enough for His Excellency, who, on retiring, shook hands gravely with each and all of the judges, and wound up by shaking hands with the usher, whom he appeared to consider the most important man in the place. The usher was, apparently, the person who least enjoyed the joke.

A LONG-LIVED FAMILY.-Mr. William Young writes o the Times from Lloyd's:-"In your obituary of Thursday is recorded the death of Lady Cuningham Fairlie, aged 95. It may be deemed worthy of record in your columns that she is the last survivor of a family many members of which lived to extreme old age. Her father, John Wallace, of Cessnock and Kelby, North Britain, died in 1803, aged 92. His eldest son, Robert Wallace (long M.P. for Greenock), died aged 85. His second son, General Sir James Maxwell Wallace, died aged 84. His eldest daughter, Mrs. James Murdoch, died aged 95. His second daughter, Miss Ann Wallace, died aged 102. His third daughter (as above), Lady Cuningham Fairlie, died aged 95. Several other members of the family lived long, but I do not cumber your space with those under 80."

ELECTRIC LIGHT.-A few days since a series of interesting experiments, which possibly at some future period may have an important bearing in the illumination of public buildings, ware

houses, docks, &c., took place at the West India Docks before a considerable number of gentlemen. The apparatus used for the occasion consisted merely of an electro-magnetic machine worked by a small steam-engine, some insulated wires, and the electric candles, which are the invention of M. Paul Jablochkoff, an officer in the Russian engineering service, and composed of two carbons placed side by side with a slip of insulating substance between them, which burns away with the carbon exactly in the same way as the wax of a wax candle is consumed with the wick.

A CALAIS PAPER states that two arrests have been made in connection with the recent robbery of bonds and other valuable property from the Paris mail while on its journey between Calais and Paris. One of the persons suspected is the man appointed to watch the train on the night of the robbery, and the other was arrested in London when offering for sale railway bonds which had been stolen eight months ago. Improved carriages, having only one door and a strong safe, are to be used in future, and the conductor is to be armed with a revolver.

MILTON'S FIRST WIFE.-Horton Church, Bucks, a very old Gothic structure, which is supposed to be the mother church of Eton, was re-opened to-day by the Bishop of Oxford, after restoration. In the chancel lie the remains of Sarah, the wife of John Milton, and it was in the parish that the poet wrote his "L'Allegro" and "Il Penseroso." The contract included the rebuilding of the south aisle, new oak seating throughout, paving the floors and passages with encaustic tiles, and restoration of the handsome entrance porch and chapel, the total cost of the work being about 3,000l.

FEMALE HEROISM.-The French Government has just conferred the military medal upon a young woman employed in the telegraph office at Pithiviers during the war of 1870. Upon the arrival of the German forces in that town during the month of November, they at once, as was their wont, took possession of the telegraph office and relegated Mdlle. Dodu, the young woman in charge, to a room on the first floor. The wires passed through this room, and Mdlle. Dodu managed to tap them and convey the information to the sub-prefect. One day a telegram arrived from the Prussian staff at Orleans addressed to Prince Frederick Charles, informing him of the march of a French corps upon Gien, and suggesting the movements to be made in order to surround it. This telegram she took to the sub-prefect, who made three copies of it for the commander of the French corps, sending each by a different messenger. Two of the messengers were killed, but the third arrived, and the information enabled the French commander to make a timely retreat. The Prussians did not ascertain what had taken place until just before the armistice, but for which Mdlle. Dodu might have fared badly. As it was, Prince Frederick Charles, who was at Pithiviers just after the armistice, congratulated Mdlle. Dodu upon her courage, and offered her a place in the Prussian telegraph

service. This she naturally refused, and, after having been placed in the orders of the day by the Minister of War, was appointed directrice of the telegraph office at Enghien.

HORSE SHOW. The fourteenth annual horse show was opened at the Agricultural Hall last Saturday, and is considered to be an unprecedently good one. The hunters are remarkably fine animals, and the number of entries-130 altogether-is unusually large. In the first class, for weight-carrying horses, there were thirty-five competitors, and it was a matter of some difficulty for the judges to decide which were best entitled to the prizes where all displayed excellences of the highest order. The champion cup was, however, awarded to Mr. Foord Newton for his four-year-old Sir George, which took the prize at Manchester. For the second class of hunters, without conditions as to weight, there were forty entries. The judges were the Marquis of Waterford, the Earl of Shannon, and Lord Valentia.

this

6. THE FALL OF A BRIDGE AT BATH.-An accident, not unusually destructive, but unusually frightful to the imagination, occurred at Bath this morning. Between the Great Western station and the building in which the Exhibition of the West of England Agricultural Society is held, stands a wooden trussbridge, Widcombe Bridge, on which a toll is levied. The collector, anxious, it is supposed, to increase receipts, put upon bridge a placard,-"Nearest way to the Exhibition," and so great a crowd pressed upon it that the bridge gave way, two-thirds of it hanging suspended till it also fell. As the height of the bridge above the water is thirty feet, the two hundred persons on the bridge were all more or less hurt-eight being killed, and fifty being dangerously wounded in arms, legs, or spines. Assistance was, of course, at hand; and it is said that the majority of the sufferers waited for it with astonishing coolness and nerve, though the shrieks of some of the wounded and of many unwounded persons upon the banks were appalling. The cause of the accident was undoubtedly the inability of the bridge to sustain a crowd on the march, the movement greatly increasing the vibration, and the question to be tried is whether this inability was not known to the people who allowed the crowd to pass. The accident is a curiously rare one in England, though a great many bridges are so doubtful that the pace of carriages driving over them is reduced by the rules to a

walk.

7. MR. LEOPOLD DE ROTHSCHILD this day laid the foundationstone of a new Temple of the United Synagogue at St. Petersburg place, Bayswater. It will be built in Greek-Byzantine style, at a cost of 18,000l., of which 8,000l. has been subscribed and 4,000l. granted by the United Synagogue. Mr. de Rothschild said it was now seven years since his father, Baron Lionel de Rothschild, laid the foundation-stone of the Central Synagogue, and since then seven of these sacred buildings had been consecrated.

9. ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.-The executive committee for the