1. The Victorian Cabinet of Sir George Turner, after having been in office for upwards of five years, defeated on a vote of confidence by 11 votes.

The Sultan of Turkey granted to the Deutsche Bank the concession to construct a railway connecting Smyrna (Anatolia), Baghdad and Bussorah in the Persian Gulf.

2. The treaty for the partition of the Samoan Islands signed at Washington by the representatives of Germany, Great Britain and the United States.

Lord Emly, who had been previously removed from the Commission of the Peace, deprived of his rank as Deputy-Lieutenant of Limerick on account of a violent speech delivered (Nov. 1) at Kilmalloch.

3. The transport steamship Ismore, conveying troops, went ashore in St. Helena Bay, about fifty miles west of Cape Town; all on board were saved.

4. The Court of Appeal allowed the application of Sir Robert Peel to sell certain heirlooms of the settled estates, pictures, books, etc., to provide an income for his wife and infant son.

In consequence of the prolonged drought, especially in the central provinces of India, upwards of 1,358,000 persons employed on relief works.

- Mr. Justice Wright, who presided over an investigation into the winding up of the Industrial Contract Corporation, of which Mr. Newton, the Lord Mayor, was a director, exonerated him and his colleagues from fraudulent and illegal conduct.

Mr. Gage, Secretary of the United States Treasury, transmitted to the House of Representatives the estimates for the year 1900-1, which showed an aggregate expenditure of $631,081,994.

5. President McKinley's message delivered to Congress recommending the latter to support the existing gold standard, and the strengthening of the mercantile marine.

Captain Dreyfus addressed a letter to the President of the Senatorial Amnesty Committee protesting against being deprived of the right to vindicate his character.

6. In the German Reichstag a resolution, accepted by the Government and carried by a large majority, declared that German societies of every kind might combine, and repealed all legal obstacles to such coalition.

At the Socialist Congress held in Paris it was resolved by 818 to 634 votes that no Socialist should form part of a bourgeois ministry. This was followed by a contradictory vote of 1,140 to 245 to the effect that under certain exceptional circumstances a Socialist might hold office.

7. The Aldeburgh lifeboat, which had put to sea to succour a vessel in distress, capsized, and six of the crew were imprisoned under the boat and were drowned. The others got to shore much injured and quite exhausted.

7. H.M.S. Tyne, a screw troopship, en route from Sheerness to Malta, grounded on Bembridge Ledge off the Isle of Wight in a fog.

8. The Irish mail train (North Western Railway), while travelling at a high rate of speed, was partially derailed between Madeley and Stafford by a bale of wool supposed to have fallen from a luggage train. One passenger was killed and several seriously injured.

Signor Palizzolo, a Sicilian deputy, and chief of the Mafia, arrested at Palermo on the charge of being implicated in the murder in a railway train in 1893 of Signor Notarbartolo.

9. A disastrous fire broke out in Exeter Street, Strand, and destroyed a large block of buildings occupied as printing offices of the Ballantyne Press, etc., and did much damage to the neighbouring premises. In the evening still greater damage was done near King's Cross, where the timber yard of Messrs. Haggis and the adjoining premises were destroyed by fire.

A portion of the roadway of the Champs Elysées under which the new Metropolitan Railway was being constructed gave way, carry. ing with it gas-lamps, seats, etc.

10. General Gatacre met with a serious reverse in an attack upon the Boer position at Stormberg. Misled by his guides, he found himself before an impregnable position, and was obliged to retreat, leaving nearly 700 prisoners in the hands of the enemy.

11. In the German Reichsrath, the Chancellor, Prince Hohenlohe, read a statement declaring the intention of the Government to double the existing German Navy in the ensuing sixteen years at a cost of 783,000,000 marks, to be raised by loans.

A bomb exploded in a theatre at Murcia during the performance, and set fire to the theatre, which was completely burned down, but the audience escaped without loss of life.

A collision took place on the Midland Railway at Wortley Junction, Leeds, an express train being run into by a mineral train which had jumped the cross-over points. Two passengers were killed and others injured.

General Lord Methuen attacked a strongly entrenched position at Magersfontein held by 12,000, and after several hours' hard fighting was unable to dislodge his opponents, subsequently falling back on Modder River.

12. The freight-ship Denton Grange, with stores and remounts for the Cape, grounded on the rocks at Las Palmas, Canaries, and the transport Rapidan grounded in the roadstead off Cape Town.

13. At the annual meeting of the general committee of the National Liberal Federation a resolution was passed, after much discussion, in favour of prosecuting the war vigorously, but deploring the conduct of the preceding negotiations.

At Queen's Club the Inter-University Football Match (Rugby rules) was won by Cambridge by two goals and four tries to nothing.

13. The Canadian and New South Wales Governments telegraphed to the Colonial Secretary offering a further contingent of volunteers for service in South Africa. The other Australian colonies expressed their wish to co-operate.

The German flag hoisted at Apia, and the Samoans having been told that they might elect their own king, declared for Mataafa.

14. A London and North-Western train from Hereford on entering Crewe station ran into the stop-blocks with great force, and nineteen passengers were severely injured. The brakes in consequence of the frost would not act.

Freemasons of high degree of the United States and Canada held services at Mount Vernon over George Washington's tomb on the centenary of his death.

Mahmoud Pasha, the Sultan's brother-in-law, supposed to have been connected with the Young Turkish party, left Constantinople hurriedly, with difficulty evading arrest by taking refuge on a French steamer.

15. General Sir Redvers Buller, attempting to force the passage of the Tugela, was forced to retire without achieving his purpose, and of his artillery two field batteries had to be abandoned, all their horses having been killed by the Boers' fire. The guns were not carried off by the Boers until the next day,

A special army order issued for the mobilisation of the seventh division, and of the Reservists belonging to its battalions.

16. Field Marshal Lord Roberts appointed Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, with General Lord Kitchener as Chief of the Staff.

All the remaining Reserves, including Section D, called up, and the Militia, Yeomanry, and Volunteers invited to contribute contingents to the forces abroad.

18. Mr. Chamberlain visited Dublin to receive the degree of honorary D.C.L. from Trinity College, and received a great ovation from the students, but an attempt was made in the streets to organise a display of feeling in favour of the Boers.

The Bordeaux express train ran into a fast train in advance of it at Montmoreau on the Orleans line. Two passengers were killed, and twenty-two injured, some seriously.

The Duc d'Orléans addressed to his agent in Paris, the Duc de Luynes, an insulting telegram, repudiating the support of M. Arthur Meyer, editor of the Gaulois, on the ground of his religion.

19. A train standing in the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway station at Bermondsey was run into by another arriving from Oxted. Two passengers were killed on the spot, seven other passengers and three servants were injured.

General Henry Lawton, second in command of the United States forces in the Philippines, killed by a sharpshooter while leading the assault on San Mateo.

Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, speaking at Aberdeen, declared

that the Government must prosecute the war so as to bring it to an end as promptly as possible.

20. At a meeting of the Common Council, held at the Guildhall, the Lord Mayor proposed that the City of London should provide a regiment of 1,000 men chosen from the marksmen in Volunteer regiments, and that the cost of the equipment and despatch of the men to South Africa should be borne by the Corporation, the City of London, and the City Livery Companies. Messrs. Wilson of Hull placed at the disposal of the City a fitted transport for three months.

The election for Clackmannan and Kinross, consequent on the appointment of Mr. J. B. Balfour (L.) to the Presidency of the Court of Session, resulted in the return of Mr. Wason (L.) by 3,489 against 2,973 votes given to Mr. Younger (U.).

M. Déroulède sentenced to a further term of two years' imprisonment for again grossly insulting the President of the Republic and the High Court before which he was being tried.

21. At a meeting of the council of the Prince of Wales' Hospital Fund, held at Marlborough House, it was stated that the receipts for the year had been 47,8087.-about 9,000l. above those of the preceding year.

In response to a request, Lord Roberts sent a message to the American and Canadian peoples expressing himself grateful for their sympathy and entire confidence in the British soldiers.

22. Insalah, an oasis in the Sahara Desert, east of Tuat, occupied by the French scientific expedition under M. Flamant, who, having repulsed a body of 1,200 troops, the natives of the surrounding country made their submission.

A terrible landslip occurred at Amalfi, on the Bay of Naples, a huge portion of the rock above the town detached itself, and swept away the Albergo dei Capuccini and a number of other houses, smashed the lighthouse, and swamped several boats and steamers.

The Austrian Cabinet formed by Count Clary resigned in consequence of the continued obstruction of the Czechs, and reformed under Dr. von Wittek.

An explosion took place in the chemical house of the Douglas (Isle of Man) Gasworks, followed by a serious fire, by which much damage was done, and three workmen lost their lives.

Mr. Winston Churchill, who had been taken prisoner near Colenso, and sent to Pretoria, escaped, and after much hardship reached Delagoa Bay in safety.

23. The holiday traffic much impeded by three railway accidents, two of which were due to the dense fog which hung over the south of England. At Wivelsfield, near Hayward's Heath, the Brighton express ran into the Newhaven boat train; six persons were killed, and upwards of twenty-six injured. At Slough a Bristol express ran into a Windsor train, but only two persons were seriously injured. On the Caledonian Railway a passenger train ran off the metals between Strathaven and Hamilton, and fell down an embankment. A guard and two passengers were killed, and ten passengers seriously injured.

24. The " Holy Year" 1900 inaugurated at Rome by the solemn opening of the "holy door" at St. Peter's, St. John Lateran, and St. Maria Maggiore, the Pope officiating at St. Peter's in great state.

The steamship Ariosto, from Galveston to Hamburg, stranded on Orracoke Beach, North Carolina shore, and twenty-one persons out of thirty were drowned.

25. The whole of the 3rd Bengal (native) Cavalry voluntarily subscribed a day's pay to the Transvaal War Fund.

Africa.

The Queen sent Christmas greetings to the troops in South

26. The Queen, who had remained at Windsor for Christmas, gave a tea-party in St. George's Hall to the wives and children of noncommissioned officers and soldiers serving in South Africa, and belonging to regiments stationed at Windsor.

The garrison at Mafeking made an unsuccessful attempt to storm the advance posts of the besieging force, notice of the intended sortie having been communicated by spies to the Boers.

27. The fifteenth Indian National Congress assembled at Lucknow, and was attended by nearly 1,000 delegates, of whom about onehalf were Mahomedans. Mr. Romesh Clumder Dutt was elected president.

Several cases of bubonic plague reported from Noumea and other places in New Caledonia.

The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maharajah of Gwalior offered their troops, their purses, and their own swords to defend her Majesty's empire.

28. The Queen, accompanied by Princess Henry of Battenberg, left Windsor for Osborne.

At Odessa the military chief of the recruiting district put on his trial for corruption, found guilty, and condemned to deprivation of his military rank and orders, of his personal civil rights and property, and exile to Tobolsk for one year.

29. A furious south-westerly gale prevailed round the British coasts, interrupting all communication with the continent. A large Hamburg-American liner, the Patria, went ashore off Dungeness, and became a complete wreck. The South Goodwin light-ship was also driven from her moorings, and was dreadfully damaged by the surf on the sand.

H.M.S. Magicienne brought into Durban the German steamer Bundesrath, seized off Delagoa Bay with contraband of war, and German officers and men on board.

30. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught appointed Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland.

31. The German Emperor by decree decided that with the present year the nineteenth century was closed, so far as concerned Germany. The Bureau des Longitudes at Paris declared that for France the century would not close until the end of the following year. Great newspaper controversy took place on the subject in England, where the majority seemed disposed to take the French view.