of gold and silver plate adorned the Royal table, and each of the rooms contained a selection of the finest paintings from the picture gallery of the Palace.

22. THE WIMBLEDON RIFLE MEETING, which has been carried on during the past fortnight, was a highly successful one. Notwithstanding the tropical heat of the weather, the camp has been very healthy-thanks, in no small measure, to the sanitary precautions observed.

Sergeant Pullman, of the South Middlesex, won the Queen's Prize of 250l., and the gold medal and badge of the N.R.A., with 74 points. The silver medal in the first stage of the Queen's was won by Private Burgess, of Newcastle, with 86 points. The Prince of Wales's prize of 100l. was won by Sergeant M'Ausland, of the 6th Dumbarton; and the Alexandra prize of 50l. fell to Corporal Witherington, of the 1st Berks. The China Cup was won by Edinburgh, and the Belgian Challenge Cup by the 26th Middlesex (Her Majesty's Customs) Volunteers. The Donegal Cup, formerly known as the Irish trophy, was competed for between twelve representatives of the Army and twelve of the Volunteers, and the match resulted in a victory for the Army by 21 points. The Chancellor's Challenge Plate, presented by the Duke of Devonshire and the late Earl of Derby, and restricted to efficient Volunteers from the Oxford and Cambridge Universities, was won by Oxford, by 18 points. The Victorian match, between England, Scotland, Australia, and Canada, was won by England, Scotland coming only three points behind. The Elcho Challenge Shield, competed for by England, Scotland, and Ireland, was also won by the former. Princess Mary of Teck distributed the prizes.

25. SIR SALAR JUNG.-The freedom of the City was presented this day to Sir Salar Jung, Prime Minister to his Highness the Nawab Nizam of Hyderabad. The Lord Mayor arrived at one o'clock, and shortly afterwards his Excellency Sir Salar Jung, still suffering from his recent accident in Paris, was assisted into the Council Chamber by his servants. He was able to walk a little on crutches, and when he ascended the dais an easy-chair was provided for him close to that of the Lord Mayor. After the usual formalities, signing the freemen's roll, and so forth, Mr. Scott, the City Chamberlain, addressed his Excellency in a speech in which reference was made to Sir Salar Jung's services to this country and to his own. Sir Salar Jung, who spoke in English, with a good accent, expressed his gratitude for the high distinction conferred upon him, and his gratification at the satisfactory alliance now existing between his master and Great Britain. He was fully conscious, he added, that while the faithful performance of their engagements by the Princes of India had brought good results to themselves and to the British power, yet that the visit of the Prince of Wales to India, and his unfailing courtesy towards all those with whom his Royal Highness was brought into contact, had contributed in an eminent degree to strengthen and attract the

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loyalty and attachment of his (Sir Salar Jung's) countrymen to the British throne. On the preceding day Sir Salar Jung paid a visit to Oxford, in order to receive in person the degree of D.C.L., which he had been unable to do at the Commemoration.

27. ACCIDENT TO THE "FLYING DUTCHMAN."-The express up train from Plymouth, on the Bristol and Exeter and Great Western line of railway, popularly called "the Flying Dutchman," met with a disastrous accident near Bristol to-day. The train consisted of a broad-gauge engine and tender, a guard's van, and five carriages, containing about a hundred and fifty passengers. In going through the long and deep cutting near Bourton the engine suddenly mounted the top of the inner rail, ran along for a dozen yards, and jumped off the track. The chain which coupled it to the van and the rest of the train being severed, the engine dashed along the six-foot way for thirty yards, then cut completely through the down line, rushed onwards for about fifty yards further, and plunged against the precipitous bank, falling back on to the line. With the force of the rebound it reared up, turned completely over lengthwise, and sent the tender several yards up the line. As the en.. gine turned over it was passed by the van and passenger carriages which had kept to the rails. The van, after dashing and swaying about a dozen yards past the engine, suddenly turned at right angles, swerved across the down line, and fell over. Its sides were at the same time crushed by the heavy wheelsof the engine, which, though weighing several tons, were sent flying through the air as the engine turned over. The guard, Thomas Watts, had jumped out, and thus saved his life, but had his arm broken. The first carriage behind the tender had its hinder part smashed. The next to it was quite wrecked; its windows were broken, and the passengers inside received severe cuts about the face, neck, head, and arms. One lady lost the sight of one eye.

The

28. THE GOODWOOD RACES were, as usual, well attended. principal prize, the Goodwood Cup, was won by Prince Soltykoff's New Holland, Lord Ailesbury's Temple Bar coming in two lengths behind him. The Stewards' Cup fell to Lord Hartington's Monaco, and the Chesterfield Cup to Mr. Acton's Coomassie.

29. A CROSSING-SWEEPER AND THE BAD TIMES.-John Ridley, a crossing-sweeper, with a wooden leg, was summoned at Bow Street by the London School Board, for having neglected to pay anything towards the education of his son, who had been rescued from the streets. The School Board officer said the defendant was a crossing-sweeper in Portland Place, and his wife also earned a few shillings a week, and he had no doubt they could very well afford to pay 18. a week for the boy. Ridley said, "I can't do it, your worship. I makes 6s. or 78. a week during the season, but the season has been a very bad one." Mr. Flowers said: "I know the times are hard, but surely that doesn't make much difference to you?" The defendant replied: "Why, sir, my people are all out of town; and the few that's left can't afford to pay nothing.

People as used to give me a penny don't even look at me now. Times is so hard. Besides, your worship, look at the weather. Not a blessed drop of rain to speak of for a month, and the roads as clean as the pavement." After some discussion, Mr. Flowers said he thought the defendant might pay 18. a week, and adjourned the summons, to give him an opportunity of paying the money. THE ARMY MOBILIZATION Scheme, which was arranged at the War Office last year, has been carried into effect this month by the assemblage, in the neighbourhood of Aldershot and Salisbury respectively, of the 2nd and 5th of the eight corps into which the various military forces of the country were then divided. Regulars, Militia, and Yeomanry were united in the manœuvres and reviews which took place, and at the conclusion of the affair the Duke of Cambridge issued a General Order expressing to the commanding officers of the two corps, Generals Codrington and Spencer, his entire satisfaction with the result of his inspection.

AUGUST.

7. A FEARFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT occurred on August 7, at midnight, between Radstock and Wellow, on the Bath and Evercreech branch of the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The line is a single one, worked jointly by the Midland and London and SouthWestern on the absolute block-system. An excursion train from Bournemouth had got a little distance beyond Radstock, on the way to Bath, when a special train from Bath to Radstock came round a sharp curve, and the two engines, which weighed fifty tons each, dashed into each other with great violence. The men in charge of the Bournemouth train escaped, but a large number were injured more or less seriously. The Radstock train, the speed of which was much greater, was not so fortunate. Its first three carriages were thrown one upon the other, and the passengers, almost without exception, killed. The middle carriage of the three dashed into the one before it; both were broken to pieces, and the passengers were mixed up with the wreckage in such a way as to render it impossible to discern in which of the coaches they had been travelling. A man named Godfrey, who, like most of the fourteen passengers killed, was returning to Radstock from the Bath Regatta, was imprisoned between the engine buffers and the guard's van for three hours. He was sensible nearly all the while, but shortly after he was extricated he died. It was nearly twelve hours after the accident occurred before the whole of the dead were extricated.

FATAL ACCIDENT ON A STEAMER.-A melancholy accident took place the same day on the French coast. As Dr. Trower, late Bishop of Gibraltar, and his family were in the act of embarking on board the small steamer plying between Havre and

Trouville, the gangway connecting the quay with the steamer became displaced, and three of the party-the Bishop, Mrs. Trower, and her daughter-were precipitated into the water. Dr. Trower and his daughter were rescued, but Mrs. Trower, a few minutes after having been withdrawn from the water, expired.

11. SUSPECTED CASE OF POISONING.--An enquiry has just come to an unsatisfactory conclusion which has occupied many columns of the public journals for the last month, and has excited general curiosity for a much longer period. On April 21 last Mr. Charles Delauney Bravo, a barrister, residing at Balham, in Surrey, died in his own house with unmistakable symptoms of poisoning by antimony. At the coroner's inquest no conclusion was arrived at as to how the poison was administered; and Mr. Bravo's friends, feeling satisfied that he had not committed suicide, and strongly suspecting foul play, applied to the Home Office for a fresh inquest; the application was laid before the Court of Queen's Bench, and was granted, and the renewed inquest was accordingly opened by Mr. Carter, the Coroner for East Surrey, on July 11. We will here give only the barest outline of the facts, which were elicited by a most minute series of examinations carried on throughout a whole month. Mr. Charles Bravo, who was thirty years of age, was married in December 1875 to Mrs. Ricardo, the widow of a Captain Ricardo, who died a few years ago. Mr. Bravo was aware that previously to her second marriage his wife had contracted an intimacy with a gentleman who was now living at Balham, Dr. Gully; and evidence was brought on one side to prove that he had of late been jealous of this intimacy being renewed. On the other hand, it was urged that the deceased was a man of cheerful disposition, very fond of his handsome wife, and most unlikely to commit suicide. On the day before his death Mr. Bravo dined at home with his wife and her companion, Mrs. Cox, and retired to bed about half-past nine o'clock. Some time afterwards he called for assistance, and on Mrs. Cox going to him he said he was ill, and asked for hot water. This was brought, and Dr. Moore sent for, who, on arrival, found the deceased prostrate, and administered an injection of brandy. After an interval Dr. Harrison also arrived, and these two remained with him all night. He rallied considerably, and was enabled to make a will on the day following. Later a relapse set in, and he died soon afterwards. A post-mortem examination of the body took place, and it was proved that the deceased had died from the effects of poisoning by tartar emetic (antimony). His dinner consisted of a small piece of lamb, with some new potatoes, followed by one egg, and a small part of the spinach. He drank, however, three full-sized glasses of Burgundy. The ladies who were present, Mrs. Bravo and Mrs. Cox, both partook of the lamb and of the eggs and spinach, but neither of them touched the Burgundy. It had been decanted by the butler in the middle of the day, and it had stood in the cellarette in the dining-room the whole of the afternoon. Tartar emetic is a

most active and rapid poison, so far as its immediate effects are concerned, although death does not follow immediately upon it. It was pronounced quite certain that Mr. Bravo could not possibly have taken the poisonous dose, to the effects of which he succumbed, more than two or, at the outside, three hours before the fatal symptoms set in. One of the medical witnesses, Mr. H. R. Bell, stated that Mr. Bravo, in answer to Dr. Moore, said he had taken laudanum for neuralgia. Dr. Johnson thereupon said, "That won't do; it does not explain the symptoms." The deceased then said, "If it was not laudanum, I don't know what it was." Mrs. Cox, after the first inquest was over, made a statement to the effect that the deceased said to her, "I have taken poison for Dr. Gully; don't tell Florence." Sir William Gull deposed to having attended Mr. Bravo on his deathbed, and to his having solemnly asseverated that he had taken nothing but laudanum. Mrs. Cox and Mrs. Bravo were both subjected to the most minute examination, the latter being forced to give particulars of her own life subsequently to the death of her first husband and to admit her intimacy, before her second marriage, with Dr. Gully. It appeared also from Mrs. Cox's evidence that she had procured medicine for Mrs. Bravo from Dr. Gully about the time of Mr. Bravo's death. Dr. Gully himself was also put in the witness-box, but nothing material to the case was elicited from him. The close examination of Mr. Bravo's servants failed to throw any light upon the question how the poison was administered or where it was procured, and finally the Coroner's jury, after deliberating for about two hours and a half, returned the following verdict :— "We find that the deceased, Charles Delauney Turner Bravo, did not commit suicide; that he did not meet with his death by misadventure; but that he was wilfully murdered by the administration of tartar emetic; but there is not sufficient evidence to fix the guilt upon any person or persons." Sixteen jurymen were sworn at the opening of the inquiry; one retired on account of illness, and thirteen agreed to the verdict. In consequence of this decision the Government offered a reward of 250l. for information leading to the conviction of the murderer or murderers of Mr. Bravo; with an offer of pardon to any accomplice, not being the person who actually committed the murder, who should give evidence leading to the same result. The verdict met with considerable animadversion from the public press, as tending to throw upon individuals suspicions which could neither be verified nor refuted; and it was thought that the minute. inquiry into the previous lives of the parties concerned was vexatious and unnecessary, as in no way tending to the interests of public justice.

ANTI-VACCINATION HEROES.-The chairman and five other members of the Keighley Board of Guardians have refused to carry out the Vaccination Act, and were this day arrested for having disobeyed the writ of mandamus issued against them by the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. The crowd