into the port of Onsala, so as to be able to claim a large reward under the pretext of having saved the ship. Fortunately the mate, who was a Dane, understood what the Swedes were about, and at once informed the captain, who, having again called upon the Swedes to leave the ship, which they refused to do, called the crew together and distributed arms amongst them, with which they attacked the intruders, and compelled them to jump overboard, when they were picked up by their comrades who had remained in the boats.

THE NORTH OF ENGLAND IRON TRADE.-The award of Mr. David Dale, the arbitrator in the wages dispute in the North of England manufactured iron trade is just issued. The employers claimed a reduction of ten per cent., but the men have shown a strong inclination to resist it, especially as it was expected that it would have collateral issues in reducing the wages in other iron districts. In the award Mr. Dale states that he has given careful and anxious consideration to the evidence advanced at the Arbitration Board. While the decline in the prices of iron since the award of Messrs. Mundella & Williams lent considerable weight to the employers' claim, he thought that the ultimate interests of both parties might be best consulted by leaving the wages unaltered till more time has been allowed for seeing in what direction prices tend. Should it be decidedly downwards, he indicated that the present should be regarded as a minimum rate of wages. If the tendency be upwards, higher selling prices should not be expected to carry an immediate corresponding advantage in wages. He therefore awards that present wages continue till three months' notice be given, no such notice to be available before December 31 next.

GERMAN TELEGRAPHIC WIRES.-The German Government is apparently anxious to lay down subterranean telegraph wires as rapidly as possible, at all events between the capital of the empire and its frontier fortresses. A line has been already established and formally opened between Berlin and Mayence, and it is now intended to join Frankfort and Strasburg in a similar manner. The cost of these wires is about eight to ten times greater than that of the ordinary above-ground telegraphs; but when once constructed they are not liable to be injured by storms or bad weather, and, moreover, it would be much more difficult for the enemy to destroy them, since he would have, in the first place, to find out exactly where they are buried, and then dig down to reach them.

"MONTEM," or "Salt Hill," near Eton, has been sold by the trustees of the late Mr. Botham to Mr. Charsley, the Registrar of Eton College, who has purchased it on his own account and without any reference to his connection with the college, with the view of retaining the fine old mansion familiar to all Etonians for centuries.

ELECTRIC LIGHT.-Experiments were made to-day with the electric light apparatus on board the "Temeraire" at Chatham.

The apparatus worked well, the whole of the dockyard, the Medway, and the surrounding country being illuminated for a considerable distance, so that it would have been impossible for any hostile vessel to have approached within a mile or two without being seen. Admiral Fellowes, C.B., and other officers watched the experiments.

-THE RUBENS TERCENTENARY.-To-day the celebration of the Rubens Tercentenary was brought to a close. The boat-race on the Scheldt took place, and at night the cantata was again performed on the Place Verte. A gold crown of very artistic workmanship was presented to M. Benoit, the composer. Later at night a great pyrotechnic performance took place on the left bank of the Scheldt. The grandest piece of it was an Oriental fortress on fire. The fêtes have altogether been of a character worthy of the great man in whose celebration they were given, and of the old town of Antwerp, renowned in so many ways. M. Guillaume, member of the Institut de France, expressed on Saturday, in the French Academy of Fine Arts, the gratitude felt by him and the other French delegates for the cordial and hospitable reception they had met with at Antwerp.

MR. F. CAVILL.-Captain Webb's feat has been repeated. Between Tuesday and Wednesday morning Mr. Frederick Cavill swam in twelve hours and forty-five minutes from the Calais side. of Cape Grisnez to within twenty-five yards of the Dover coast. Both wind and tide were in his favour, but the sea ran very high, and the party with him would not allow him to land. Of course, cold is the great enemy a strong swimmer has to fear, and to prevent his being utterly exhausted, Cavill was first rubbed over with porpoise-oil, and he wore a silk jacket and an india-rubber overall. He seems to have suffered much-far more than Captain Webb— during his journey, and to have required stimulants almost every half-hour, in the shape of brandy, cocoa, and hot curaçoa. When he was placed on the deck of the lugger which accompanied him, he became utterly exhausted, and was brought round by the application of stimulants and hot bricks. Mr. Cavill does not deserve to be voted a public benefactor on the strength of his feat. None the less will Englishmen feel proud that they have two men among them who can swim the Channel, and that the feat has not yet been accomplished by any other human beings.

- FORTIFICATION OF ROME.-Fortifications are about to be begun in the neighbourhood of Rome, which, although not sufficiently extensive to convert the town into a regular fortress, will no longer leave the capital of Italy, as it is at present, an entirely open and unprotected city.

SEPTEMBER.

3. GREAT FIRE IN NEW YORK.-A fire, which caused a terrible loss of life, occurred yesterday in New York. It began at 9.45 A.M. in Hales' pianoforte factory, Thirty-fifth Street, near Eleventh Avenue, a large five-storey building, in which 200 persons were employed. In a few minutes the flames enveloped the entire building, and many of the occupants jumped from the upper windows to escape. From twenty to thirty were injured, and the loss of life was heavy. According to some estimates 100 persons were killed. The fire quickly extended to several adjoining buildings, and the wind being high, and the supply of water scanty, the firemen were able to do very little. Thirty-eight buildings were destroyed, and the loss of property is estimated at 310,000l. One steam fire-engine was abandoned owing to the intense heat, and was destroyed. The fire was ultimately got under by pumping water from the Hudson River for the use of the engines.

A SUBTERRANEAN TELEGRAPH WIRE has already been in use for twelve months between Berlin and Halle. During the whole period the working of the line has been highly satisfactory. The conductibility of the buried wire instead of decreasing has, on the contrary, somewhat increased, and no fault in the insulation has made itself apparent. The cable is composed of seven thin copper wires, twisted together so as to form a single conductor for the electric fluid, and encased in india-rubber. The other similar lines which are to be laid down, and some of which have been already begun, run from Berlin to Cologne, from Berlin to Frankfort, from Berlin to Strasburg, from Berlin to Hamburg and Kiel, from Berlin to Breslau, and from Berlin to Königsberg. An ingenious steam machine has been constructed which excavates the trench in which the wire is buried, places this latter in its position, and again fills up the excavation; the ditch which is dug by the locomotive being one metre deep and half a metre wide. Apart from the military advantages derivable from the substitution of these underground wires for the ordinary overhead lines, it is believed that in the long run the former will also prove to be more economical than the latter. The first expense of laying them down may be greater; but the enormous number of posts and insulators required for the ordinary wires are dispensed with, and will not have to be replaced, as is now frequently the case, after every heavy storm.

THE BOLTON STRIKE.-A meeting took place to-day at Bolton between representatives of the master cotton-spinners and of the operatives, 12,000 of the latter being now unemployed, owing to a proposal to reduce wages five per cent. The operatives offer to work for two years at the old wages if the masters will

engage that no reduction shall be made. The masters, however insisted that the present state of trade demands a reduction, and declined the proposal. The strike therefore continues.

5. THE ROBBERY OF FOREIGN BONDS.-This afternoon one of the detectives of the City of London Police Force apprehended in the Euston Road a man, aged about forty, who is supposed to be concerned in the robbery of foreign bonds of the value of 70,000l., belonging to Mr. Raphael and other bankers. The particulars of this extensive robbery were gone into at the Mansion House Police Court on Thursday last. Since then the detectives who have charge of the case-viz. Detective-Sergeant Hancock, of the City Police, and Detective-Inspector Shore, of the Metropolitan Police-have been energetically engaged in prosecuting inquiries, and various hotels in the vicinity of the several railway termini in London have been closely watched, and close to the Euston Hotel yesterday afternoon a gentlemanly-looking man was apprehended on the charge of being concerned in the robbery. He was at once `removed in a cab to the Bow Lane Police Station, and upon being searched Peruvian bonds were found in his possession amounting to 20,000l., besides other property.

6. ANOTHER ALPINE FATALITY mars the pleasure of Swiss excursionists. The Lyskamm of the Monte Rosa range, except at one part, is not a very hard mountain to climb. Here, however, two barristers, Mr. W. A. Lewis and Mr. Noel H. Paterson, and three guides, the brothers Knubel, who conducted them, have lost their lives. Setting out from Zermatt, the Alpineers, passing close to Monte Rosa, reached the rocks called Auf der Platte. From this point a glacier is passed, and then a dangerous arête, presenting a very narrow ridge, has to be scaled, requiring, we are told, "great care and patience, as well as steady nerves." The cragsman has to walk at times "as if on the top of a wall sloping down on either hand at a sharp angle." At others he must "descend the steep and dangerous sides to avoid a sudden break in the arête." It is supposed that an overhanging snow cornice gave way in this critical part of the ascent, and all five were lost. The bodies have been recovered, and another disaster is added to the list proving that the ecstasy of climbing in Switzerland cannot be realised without risk of life. In the present instance all precautions appear to have been taken.

- SULTAN ABDUL HAMID.-A dinner party was given this evening at Therapia by the Sultan, to which Mrs. Layard was the first lady, not of royal rank, to whom this compliment has been paid. The dinner party consisted of the Sultan, the Grand Vizier, Mahmoud Dama Pasha, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the two Said Pashas. The dinner was served in French style, and the Sultan played the host to perfection. Wine was on the table, but the Sultan only drank sherbet. In spite of the stringent rules of Oriental court etiquette, the dinner was given in the Seluntyk, that portion of a Turkish house set apart for the men,

into which hitherto no Turk would have thought of allowing even a woman of his own household to enter.

CONVICT PRISON FARMING.-Our Plymouth correspondent states that the annual sale of stock from the Dartmoor prisons farm having just taken place, it has now been ascertained that, deducting the cost of convict labour, the establishment has gained nearly 1,000l. as the result of last year's agricultural operations. For some years the convict farm was unremunerative, but now 1,000 acres on Dartmoor have been reclaimed and profits are made. Black-polled heifers from Scotland have been introduced, and more extensive operations are contemplated. The convicts employed are men whose sentences are nearly expired, and who, therefore, have less inducement to escape.

- LIVERPOOL ART GALLERY.-Lord Derby this day opened a new Art Gallery at Liverpool, presented to the town by the Mayor. At a banquet in the evening Lord Derby, in responding to the toast of his health, said that the Famine in India was a graver matter for England than the Eastern Question.

8. HOUSE OF COMMONS WHIPS.-In a speech at an agricultural dinner at Carlisle last night, Sir Wilfrid Lawson said that in the House of Commons each party had a whip who called his hounds together when he wanted them. A little circular was sent in the morning for the political hounds to assemble. The circular was worded, "You are earnestly requested to attend in the House of Commons this evening, when business of such and such a nature comes on." If the circular came without a dash or stroke under the word "earnestly," it meant there was some business that might come on; if there were one dash or stroke under "earnestly"—it meant that the member ought to come; if two dashes-it meant that he should come; if three-that he must come; if four-it meant "stay away at your peril."

10. A MEETING OF WATCHMAKERS was held this morning, in Clerkenwell, to confer with a deputation of the trade from Liverpool, on the grievance of the hall-marking in England of watch cases from abroad, the cases, after receiving the hall-mark, being returned to Switzerland to receive the works, and subsequently, by means of the hall-mark, being sold as English watches. A resolution was passed, pledging the meeting to co-operate with the watchmakers of Liverpool and Coventry in getting the grievance redressed.

- AN HONEST PORTER.-A gentleman residing in London reported to the Great Western Railway Company's officials at Birmingham the other day that he had left a bag containing 500l. in notes and cash in a railway carriage. He had come from Warwick races, and the fact of leaving the bag in the carriage did not occur to him until after he had got out of the station. As a great many extra trains had been running during the day, it was difficult to identify the carriage in which he had been riding. A search of several trains was made, but without success. The following