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on board the "Serapis " amid the firing of salutes. Goa was reached on the 27th, where he was received with royal honours by the Portuguese authorities. On the 29th the "Serapis " arrived at Beypore, whence it was decided to proceed at once, and the Prince accordingly only landed when he reached Colombo at 4 p.m. on the 30th. Here he was received by the Governor (the Right Honourable W. H. Gregory) and his staff, and there was an immense and enthusiastic crowd as His Royal Highness drove through the town.

DIVING FOR THE "VANGUARD."-Divers have been actively employed at the bottom of the sea to recover what is possible from the remains of this vessel. During the operations two of the divers narrowly escaped death. The first instance was that of a man named Rowe, who went down quickly to his work, knowing that he had not much time to stay below. In his rapid descent the pressure became suddenly increased to such an extent that he lost his senses. The signalman above twice gave the signal "All right," and receiving no response, ordered his men to haul up. Rowe, however, was fast entangled in the spare rigging floating about, and it was only by the combined strength of seven or eight men that he was eventually brought to the surface, quite black in the face. A few minutes more under water and he would have been dead. The next case was that of Ingledon, who went down to the bridge of the "Vanguard," in crossing which he slipped, and fell on to the deck. Stunned by the sudden increase of pressure, he was unable to answer the signals, and was in consequence at once hauled up into the boat in an apparently lifeless condition. Restoratives were applied, but it was two hours before he revived, and he had to be placed in the hospital. The greatest danger the divers experience is from the ropes, sails, shrouds, &c., which are incessantly moving in the waters below. As the tide, which here exceeds the rate of four miles an hour, sets in one direction, all the various moving objects go with the stream, and the divers, who have to wait until the water is moderately still, go down clear of all embarrassment. As, however, the tide reverses its course, the moving mass returns upon them, and they often have to cut their way through to gain the surface. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the divers-and especially two of them, White and M'Culloch-successfully reached the hull, which lies in deep darkness, and measured the hole in the side by means of notching a wooden lath carried down for the purpose, and placed against the aperture. The Denayrouze lamp, which had been materially useful in removing the rigging of the ship, was not taken down on this occasion, inasmuch as the divers required to use both hands in endeavouring to escape entanglement by some stray rope.

DECEMBER.

1. DEATH FROM CHLOROFORM.-An inquest was held this day at Lockerley Hall, Hants, on the body of the wife of the Right Honourable H. Childers, M.P., who had been found dead in her bed the previous day. From the evidence it appeared that the unfortunate lady had been in the habit, under medical advice, of sometimes procuring sleep when suffering from attacks of pain to which she was liable, by inhaling a small quantity of chloroform. Her usual habit was to use for this purpose only a small phial, containing eight or ten drops; but on the fatal night this phial was not at hand, and the supposition was that she got out of bed, took the four-ounce bottle and the "drop" glass back with her, intending to take a sniff, and that the heat of the bed forced the glass stopper from the bottle. Her night dress and pillow were saturated with the chloroform, and she must have died instantaneously. The medical man who was called on the inquest remarked on the danger of using a glass stoppered bottle with such dangerous contents. Had the stopper been of cork, he said, the accident could not have happened, but with a glass stopper the mere heat of the hand was quite sufficient to make the spirit expand, and force it out, as was no doubt the case in this instance, the bottle being found in Mrs. Childers' hand, and the stopper in the bed near it.

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THE WHITECHAPEL MURDER.-Sentence was pronounced to-day upon Henry Wainwright, who after nine days' trial before the Lord Chief Justice, was found guilty of the murder of Harriet Lane. He was condemned to death in the usual form, and his brother Thomas Wainwright was sentenced to penal servitude for seven years as accessory to the concealment of the crime.

-A STATUE OF CROMWELL, presented to the citizens of Manchester by Mrs. Abel Heywood, was unveiled on December 1. It is a colossal bronze figure by Mr. Noble, and is placed upon an enormous pedestal of unhewn granite on a site in Victoria Street, in front of the Cathedral and facing the Exchange. The Council met at 12 o'clock and accepted the memorial from Mrs. Heywood, and a number of congratulatory speeches were made. Mr. T. B. Potter, M.P., in moving a vote of thanks to the Mayor for presiding, said the tardy act of justice to Cromwell was most appropriate to the city. He was proud to say that in Rochdale a proper recognition of Cromwell had been made in the new Town-hall, for Cromwell's figure had been placed between the two Charles's.

4. FUNERAL OF MDLLE. DÉJAZET.-The funeral took place this day in Paris of this well-known actress. It was attended by some 2,000 persons, including a large number of actors and actresses. Mdlle. Déjazet was, probably, the oldest actress in

the world, having been seventy-two years in the profession. She was born in 1798, and made her first appearance at the Théâtre des Capucines at the age of five years, from which time till the war of 1870 she acted, chiefly at the Parisian theatres, occasionally in the provinces and in London, to which city she retired during the war. In the autumn of 1874 she had a benefit at the Théâtre Française, all the leading actors and actresses of Paris performing for and with her. A little later she played at the Vaudeville, taking the part of a young man, the role in which she was most successful.

- MR. CARLYLE.-This being the eightieth birthday of the well-known philosopher, an address was forwarded to him, signed by upwards of a hundred men and women of eminence in art, science, and literature, including Professor Darwin, Mr. John Forster, Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., Dr. Hooker, Professor Huxley, Sir John Lubbock, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Martin (Helen Faucit), Mrs. Oliphant, Sir W. Stirling Maxwell, Professor Max Müller, Dean Stanley, Alfred Tennyson, Miss Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope, tendering the expression of their good wishes. With the address there was sent for Mr. Carlyle's acceptance a gold medal engraved by Mr. George Morgan, and bearing on one of its faces a medallion of Mr. Carlyle by Mr. Boehm, and on the obverse the words, "In commemoration: Dec. 4, 1875." The following telegram was addressed to him from Berlin :-"To the valiant champion of Germanic freedom of thought and morality; to the true friend of our Fatherland, who by the labour of a long, rich life has successfully advanced the hearty understanding between the English and German peoples; to the historian of Oliver Cromwell and Frederick the Great, send on his eightieth birthday grateful greeting and warm congratulation." The names of Leopold von Ranke and several other literary men of Germany were appended to the message.

AN EXTRAORDINARY DARKNESS overspread London for about an hour this afternoon. The weather was thick, but the fog was of no great density, when in the city about noonday, and an hour or two later in the West End, a darkness as of night came on quite suddenly, disappearing again with equal suddenness after lasting from half-an-hour to an hour. Snow was falling all the day, and the weather was extremely cold.

6. THE SMITHFIELD CATTLE SHOW.-The seventy-eighth annual cattle show of the Smithfield Club was opened at the Agricultural Hall this day. There were 395 entries, and the prizes amounted in value to about 3,000l. The live stock exhibited included several animals belonging to the Queen, and others the property of the Prince of Wales. The attendance was large, in spite of the severity of the weather, and the extremely slippery state of the streets after a heavy fall of snow, and subsequent alternate thaw and frost. The 1007. champion plate for the best

beast was awarded to Thomas Willis, of Manor House, Carperby, Bedale, Yorkshire.

COLLIERY EXPLOSIONS.-The colliery explosions, which generally form a sad feature in the occurrences of the month of December, have been this year more than usually disastrous. During this week there were no less than four of these sad calamities, resulting in the death of upwards of 200 men and boys. The first accident took place on December 3, at the Alexandra pit, belonging to the Wigan Coal and Iron Company. A party of seven men were descending a shaft for the purpose of completing some works below, when by some means the cage in which they were descending caught an ascended cage midway in the pit, and the whole of the men were precipitated to the bottom and killed instantaneously.

The scene of another explosion, which took place on the following day, was the Duffryn pit, near Tredegar, Newport, a colliery belonging to Sir George Elliot, M.P., where about 500 men were engaged in the several departments of the works. The colliers went as usual to their various workings, which had been inspected, and declared by the under-viewer to be safe; but shortly after they commenced operations a terrible explosion occurred. At first it was thought that only twenty men had been killed, but several of the hands afterwards died from the injuries received by burning.

The most calamitous of the series took place on the morning of December 6 at the Swaithe Colliery, near Barnsley, one of the largest in the South Yorkshire district. It appears that some 300 men had descended at about six o'clock, being a larger number than usual for the first day of the working week. About half-past nine a loud report was heard, and immediately the head gearing was not discernible owing to the smoke. Soon the approaches to the colliery were covered by a vast mass of men and women, and in a short time several mining engineers from the collieries around were on the spot, and they were followed by the medical men resident in Barnsley. After a short consultation Mr. John Mitchell, the manager, determined to descend himself, and he was accompanied by a few of the workmen. They found a fire at what is known as the "half-way," which is about 350 yards from the pit bottom. Upwards of twenty of the men were brought out at once, nearly all of them more or less burnt. The explorations were carried on for several days, and the loss of life amounted to about 140 persons.

Another explosion happened the same day at Messrs. Rooker's colliery, near Bentyrch, in Glamorganshire. One hundred and fifty men were in the pit at the time of the explosion, but only twelve were killed.

— WRECK OF THE "DEUTSCHLAND."-On the same day there happened a most disastrous shipwreck off the coast of Essex, during a heavy snowstorm. The German mail steamer" Deutsch

crew.

land," commanded by Captain Brickenstein, of 3,000 tons, was one of the finest vessels of the fleet which, in the hands of a German company, ply between Bremen and New York, and carry the mails between Germany and America. On this occasion she had about 200 persons on board, including passengers and The scene of the disaster, the Kentish Knock, is situate about twenty-three miles north-east of Margate and twenty-five from Harwich, the "Galloper" lightship being about eight or nine miles east of the Knock. The steamer struck in the morning at five o'clock. The sea was very rough, it was blowing hard from the east-north-east, and thick with snow. The lead was cast every half hour. They found twenty-four fathoms and then seventeen fathoms. Immediately afterwards the ship struck while going dead slow. The engines were turned full speed astern, and the propeller was immediately broken. The ship was then driven further up; two boats were lowered, one in charge of the fourth officer, and containing seven or eight persons; the second with Quartermaster Bock, in which it is believed there were only three or four persons. Both boats filled; no others were launched, the sea being too rough, but the rest were kept in readiness. Ultimately, however, the sea stove in and washed overboard the whole of the boats. During the day efforts were made by throwing cargo overboard from the forehold to keep the ship's stern to sea, keeping her bows inshore to prevent her getting broadside to the sea; and passengers were sheltered as far as possible in the deck-houses. The pumps were kept going all the day till dusk came on, at four o'clock. As the tide rose and it grew dark, the passengers and crew were compelled to take to the rigging, for the decks became flooded. Captain Brickenstein, who had not left the bridge, remained there until washed out by the sea; and then he took to the rigging like the others. They remained all night and next morning; but many died. The tug "Liverpool" arrived about noon on the following day, and took off 136 persons, who were thus brought in safety to Harwich. The life-boat of the " Deutschland," with one living man and two dead men in it, came ashore at Garrison Point, Sheerness, at halfpast four o'clock on the morning of the 7th. It was Auguste Bock, the quartermaster of the ship, who thus came to land in the life-boat, after being buffeted about by the winds and waves upwards of thirty-eight hours. He said that when the captain of the vessel gave the order for the boats to be got ready, a great panic seized the passengers, especially the females. The boat by which he was saved was attached to the vessel by a three-inch rope, which soon snapped asunder and the boat capsized, throwing her occupants into the water. She, however, righted herself and drifted away from the ship with Bock and two others who had managed to scramble into her, though they were twice thrown into the sea. One of them was a passenger. The latter was very badly injured by a blow from the boat, and he died about three o'clock the same afternoon. The survivor used every means to

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