Westerham Herald from Westerham, Kent, England • 6

CHARGES OF FORGERY. CONVICT'S CONFESSIONS. AMAZING EVIDENCE. A further stage in the remarkable West End alleged conspiracy case was reached on Saturday when, before Mr. Curtis Bennett at Westminster Talbot Bridgewater, forty nine, medical specialist, late of the Progressive Medical Alliance, Oxford-street; Lionel Peyton Holmes, fifty-three, his assistant; and William Edward Shackell, forty-nine, draughtsman, were cltarged in conjunction with Elizabeth Foster.

alias Dr. Ilacdonough, an elderly woman, said to have passed as Bridgewater's wife, and apprehended at Seaford, Sussex. with forgery and conspiracy during the summer and autumn of last year. Mr. Muir and Mr.

Bodkin represented the Public Prosecutor, Mr. Wright was counsel for Bridgewater and Foster, Mr. Overend for Holmes, and Mr. A. W.

Dagg, solicitor, for Shackell. STORY OP THE PROSECUTION. The extraordinary story of the prosecution opened by Mr. Muir is that the proceedings almost invariably referred to as The doctor the organiser of a plot to forge and utter cheques for very large sums on the Westminster branch of the London Joint Stock Bank, in the name of Mr. Marshall Fox, a wealthy American gentleman and director of public companies.

Bridgewater, it is alleged, made love to Mr. Fox's secretary, lady residing at Streatham, at whose house he installed as a lodger an American convict acquaintance named Fisher, who managed to obtain an impression of the keys of Mr. Fox's safe, and these he used to obtain forms from that gentleman's cheque-book. One cheque for £319 was cashed at the bank. The principal witness for the Crown is Fisher.

who is undergoing a sentence for office-breaking in the ('ity, and according to his statement at the rut hearing. a mutual suspicion existed between him and Bridgewater. Fisher considering that he had been defrauded of his share of the plunder, and Bridgewater, on the other had, accusing Fisher of having obtained diamonds from the safe for which he had not accounted. CONVICT'S EXTRAORDINARY STORY. The convict Fisher, escorted by warders, was again put in the witness-box, and said that on the night the £Bl9 cheque was "put down," it was suggested that a second cheque for £6OO should be presented at the bank the next day.

Witness thought it would be risky, and that they had better wait. Witness visited Miss Toovey on Friday. and noticed that "there was something wrong." She said that something had occurred which she had promised not to disclose, and that she was in great trouble. "She would not tell me the trouble," added witness, "but I knew what it was all the same." The next morning witness paid an early visit to Bridgewater and told him of his fears that the forgery had been detected. and Dr.

Bridgewater agreed not to send in the cheque. Aftur a time Bridgewater told him that Miss Toovey had called and informed him that a forgery had been coinwitted. He said that detectives from Scotland Yard had shewn her a portrait which very much resembled her late lodger. Mr. Muir: You were the Witness added that "the doctor" had told him he was going to pawn his rings and other jewellery in order that, if they came down on him, he would be able to show that he was hard up for money at the time.

Wmtma's TALI 01 PRISON-111AZINC. In cross-examination by Wildey Wright. witness said he was an American. fifty-one years of age. and he first came to En-land in 1892.

Ile was first convicted in 1865. Ile had been convicted three times in America. including two convictions for forgery. His sentences were six months, ten years, and three and a-halt years. Do you remember an occasion when you broke out of remember an occasion when I left it with others.

Well, put it that way if you like. Did you escape, or were you escaped to England. was here. and sent back to America. I have been knocking about racetracks, selling a bit of jewellery.

getting money honestly and dishonestly. I have served six months and two years in this country, and am now doing ten years. WISHED TO REFORM. He had given information in this case, he said, because he wished to give up his mode of life. He was not actuated by the thought that portion of his sentence would be remitted.

He told the story to Inspector Arrow, whom he saw again last week. Mr. Wright: You don't mean to tell me thatwhile you were a An interview of from fifteen to twenty minutes. At this point the prisoner Bridgewater excitedly cried: "Shame! Police plot." Was that an interview of your own The inspector came to me. The prisoner Bridgewater exclaimed hotly: Another rehearsal." Witness: He came to ask me about Seaford.

WRY HE CARRIED WAX. Why did you always carry a box of wax in your pocket? Wu it with the object of having it reedy to take impressions in case an opportunity should do not think I should allow an opportunity to pass. The Magistrate: Though you have reformed Dow, then you were out always on busine.s?-1 might have met someone who had something to do. I might have met another "dodor." (Laughter.) Cross-examined by Mr. Orerend, the witness said that Inspector Arrow suggested that he (witnes) was engaged in the Stockall case, in which a jeweller was gagged and robbed, but the imputation was false.

A WHISPIII STOLIN DIAMONDS. Questioned by Mr. Dagg, the convict said he had stayed at three hotels near Hatton-garden frequented by diamond merchants. Mr. Dagg: Which is the one you found most profitable to stay did not find any of them very profitable.

I am not too familiar with the ways of the Hatton-garden people. Mr. Dagg: Did you open a safe with an "impressionist" key, and steal the diamonds? Someone has been telling you a ghost story. (Loud laughter.) How about the Sunderland bank You ain't piling it up at all against me, are you? (Laughter.) I know nothing about it. A number of other robberies were suggested as having been committed by the witness, but he denied all knowledge of them.

"It is too deep for me," he remarked. "too deep, too deep. This is all yarns that you are telling me." You remember a lady going to Christie's and changing a bracelet? Your address was found on may have been. I had met her. Fisher said he knew all about the "Liddiard (when the offices of Messrs.

Liddiard and Baker solicitors, St. James's-street, were visited by thieves). There were four or five men in the job, he said. All the prisoners were further remanded for a week. BISHOP'S MISSING WATCH.

At Exeter, Herbert Rankine, Thornl son, described as a carpenter, has been remanded charged with stealing gold watch and eleven gold seals, the property of the Bishop of Crediton, at Exeter. It is alleged that in July prisoner called at the Bishop's house on the pretence that he had an appointment with him, and that whilst he was waiting in the drawing. room be stole the articles and decamped. John Lee. et driver for General Booth, has been Settle for driving to the danger of THE CASE OF THE JOHN GRAFTON A Sebastopol newspaper states that the Russian Embassy in London has been instructed to prosecute the most searching inquiries in order to discover the identity of the person, or persons, who chartered tho British steamer Fulham and loaded her with the cargo of arms and ammunition which were transhipped at sea from that vessel to the John Grafton.

The Crimean journal observes that, although more than a month has Lapsed since the John Grafton was exploded and sunk at Jabokstad. in Finland. the veil which then hid the mystery of that affair has not yet been lifted. BOGUS IRONMASTER'S FRAUDS. William Hightleld Pritchard got six months' bard labour at Wolverhampton for obtairting large sums by false pretences.

Prisoner for some time had falsely represented himself as an iron manufacturer in Wolverhampton, and obtained orders from merchants in Liverpool and distant parts of the country and large sums of money on of goods which be had never been in a position to send, having no works or other place of business in Wolverhampton. "DID IT FOR SPITE." William Frederick Edge, twenty. throe, billiard marker. has been committed for trial at Newcastle-under-Lyme, charged with murdering a five-tnonths-old child named Francis Walter Evans, son of a collier. The prisoner lodged with Mr.

and Mrs. Evans, and cut the child's throat. He then gave himself to the police, saying he did it for spite. Edge had been told to get fresh lodgings as he was out of employment and in arrears. SHUNTER'S FATAL FALL.

James Jolly, a shunter, whilst following his employment, was riding on goods train in the pig-iron siding at Albert Edward Dock, Preston, when he overbalanced and fell between the waggon and stack of pig-iron. Ills body was jammed beneath the waggon and his head crushed to pulp between the metals and the wheel, and he was otherwise shockingly fated. The unfortunate man leaves a widow and a large family. MINER'S TERRIBLE DEATH. Two men named George Allington and Hugh Devlin were ascending the new pit shaft at Stakeford, in Northumberland, when the kibble caught against an obstruction and was overturned.

Allington was pitched to the bottom of the shaft, falling twenty fathoms, and was killed instantly. Devlin caught hold of the kibble and reached the surface safely, his escape being marvellous. RETURN OF A LOST VESSEL The case of the barque Lalla Rookh, which passed the Lizard on Friday, and which had not been heard of since March 21st, when she left Brisbane for Falmouth, is very nearly unique in the annals of underwriting. The Lelia Rookh, a vessel of 814 tons net register, is owned by Messrs. Lever Brothers, of Port Sunlight.

The barque Kirkdale, belonging to the same owners, sailed on April 16th from Brisbane for Queenstown, where she arrived on July 20th. and reported that she had not spoken the Lelia Rookh on the voyage. Grave fears began to be entertained for the safety of the latter vessel, and as time went by the Lalla Rookh was entered on the overdue list. The re-insurance premium grew until it reached ninety guineas per cent. Theo the ship was given up as lost, and underwriters at Lloyd's refused to aoeept further risks.

Now, three months late, the Lalla Rookh has turned up out of the unknown, and the speculators in overdue risks, who had assumed that she had gone down, lose their money. A STRANGE WANDERING WOMAN. A Darwen policeman's attention was attracted early the other morning by the strange appearance of a young woman. On her feet she wore only thin sandals, and she was footsore and tired. She wore a weather-stained mackintosh and a small white sun cap or bonnet, secured by a piece of string beneath her chin.

Her speech suggested that she was well educated, but she appeared unable to give any information that would lead to her identity. She said she ht.l come from the place she had left and was ng to the place beyond. She did not know the name of either, and when asked where she slept on the previous night, replied, "In tho open air. where I do harm to no one." Her umbrella was torn to ribbons, but in the bass she carried there were some articles of clothing, a number of books, including "The Scottish Chiefs." a book of music, a German dictionary, a Church of England Prayer-book, and a copy of a lady's paper. The clothing in the bass was found to be marked B.

in some instances the year 1904 appeared, and in others 1905. After being questioned for a considerable time as to her name and whereabouts, she wrote the name Bevill." The only explanation she would offer as to what meant was that was She said she had never known her father or mother, and had no relatives. OUTRAGE IN CLARE. News has been received at Ennis of an outrage at the residence of Lieutenant-General E. A.

Gore, Derrymore, East Clare, which occurred when the family were preparing for dinner the other evening. The General was in the dining-room, while Mrs. Gore and her sister were in the library, when a couple of large stones came crashing through the plate-glass windows of the library, passing quite close to the two ladies. At the same moment a loud noise of glass breaking was heard in the study adjoining, and it was found that the large window there had been destroyed, five windows in all being smashed. General Gore ran to the door, but he did not see anyone.

Three large stories, weighing some pounds each, were found in the in the library and one in the study. Mr. Smyth, Divisional Inspector, of Tulle, has visited Derrymore, and in the course of investigations the was made of two revolver bullets embedded in the massive oaken hall door. The presumption is that the shots were fired simultaneously with the smashing of the windows. General Gore is one of the most popular resident landowners in the county, his relations with his tenantry being of the friendliest nature.

MR. W. CHURCHILL'S OPINIONS. Mr. Winston Churchill, M.P., sneaking at the Manchester '95 Club, referred to the introduction of Chinese labour into South Africa, and declared that it had been a greater failure than had been anticipated even by those who were opposed to it.

It was a question that must form the great moral issue at the next election. Giving general approval to the new treaty with Japan, he pointed out that it was a Free. Trade treaty, and said it was refreshing in these days to find the voice of England declaring in diplomatic document the advantages of open ports and equal opportunities for all nations. As to the action of the Government in dismissing Lord Curzon. he feared our prestige would suffer in India, and he trusted that at the earliest opportunity a Liberal Secretary for India would deprive the Commander-in-Chief in that country of an unprecedented and excessive power of control.

He intimated that there was policy enough for the next Liberal Government in the undoing of the mischievous work of the present Government. There were problems before them of taxation and finance, of land, of liquor. of labour, of Parliamentary reorganisation, of electoral reform, of the building up of an efficient system of national education. To these problems they desired to see applied the oldest and boldest principles of Liberalism, for the advantage not of any particular class, but of tka moss of the nation. PENNY POSTAGE.

A WORLD-WIDE MOVEMENT. The Times has devoted a whole page to plea for universal penny postage set forth by Mr. Henniker Heaton, M.P. To his own advocacy Mr. Heaton adds that of a large number of representative men of every class in society, and of every political party, in the form of letters assuring him of the strongest support of the writers in another effort to make the advantages of penny postage world-wide, and to open every country to it.

A league is being formed to advocate the reform. A first list of members shews that among them are the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London. St. Asap'', Liverpool, and Ripon, Lord Roberts. the Earl of Orford, the Earl of Kintore, the Earl of Wemyss, Lord Milner, Lord Cheylesmore, Lord Gleuesk, Lord Armstrong, Lord Grenfell, Lord G.

Hamilton. Lord Strathcona, Sir Wilfrid Lawson, Sir E. Flower. Sir T. Dewar.

Mr. Rudyard Kipling, the Lord Mayors of Dublin. and Glasgow, Mr. Keir Hardie, and Mr. Crooks, besides host of other well.known names.

Mr. Henniker Heaton sums the question under which may be briefly summarised as No extra machinery will be required to meet the change. The existing madmiery is ample. so that there will be no expenditure on this head involved. The post-offices of the world are worked at a profit, which in the case of England is in the sage of Germany, and in the case of France, £2.900,000.

An excessive postal surplus is bad finance. Heavy postal rates are i iivalent to a tax on the initial operations of 4 ltnerce. International halfpenny ostage already exists for printed matter, which is a precedent for the suggested change if one be needed. If two ounces of printed matter can be sent anywhere for a halfpenny, why should not half an ounce of written matter be sent for a penny? The change would result in a remunerative increase in torrespondenoe, judging from our ex. perience of the imperial penny post.

A penny postal rate already exists between Canada and the United States, and Germany and Austria form one postal Verein." So glaring an anomaly as the charge of 2id. for sending a letter to France, only 21 miles away, while Id. is (hanged for sending a letter to Fiji. 11,000 miles away, cannot be defended. The loss to the revenue due to universal penny postage would be only £125,000 in the first year, which would diminish or disappear with the development of correspondence.

British emigrants to the United States would be able to write more letters to their relatives in England: they would write three letters if the charge were a penny for the one they write at present. Trade would not be imperilled, as the English merchant could address five foreign customers for the same money as he now spends in addressing two. On the important point as to the state of public opinion in other countries. Mr. Heaton declares that the weight of popular feeling is everywhere on the side of reform.

Ile says: "In conclusion, I have to say that the peoples of all the principal foreign countries are in hearty sympathy with the project for a world-wide penny post. At least two countries are willing to adopt the proposal forthwith. It may suit England to agree to introduce the reform gradually if timid financiers decline to accept the whole burden. In case, I have an assurance that the proposal will be supported by the chief German commercial men, and by leading French. Austrian, and Belgian Chambers of Commerce and bankers and merchants." SOUDAN OPEN TO MISSIONS.

The Soudan is at las.t to be thrown open to mission work, and a pioneer expedition to the Soudan is being despatched by the Church Missionary Society this month. The sphere of work has been selected by Lord Cromer, and comprises a region about four times the size of England, inhabited by pagan tribes, the majority of whom are men of immense stature, and some of whom are cannibals. The party includes a doctor from Poplar Infirmary, carpenter from one of the County Council technical schools, and au agricultural expert. FATAL MOTOR-CAR SMASH. James Weightman, a young engineer, died in the Newcastle Infirmary, on Tuesday, from injuries received in a motorcar smash at Benwell, near Tyne.

The car ran into a horse and cart. and Weightman and another engineer, named Dodds, were pitched out of the car. The occupants of the cart were also injured. Dodds was taken, still unconscious, to dm Newcastle Infirmary. BOY AVENGES HIS FATHER.

A curious case has just been tried in Pesi. A boy of sixteen was brought before the court charged with the murder of a coachman. On being asked to plead, he answered that he bad killed the man, but that it was only what he deserved, and told the following tale: Since the death of his father his mother had continued an intrigue which had begun during his lifetime, and the coachman had come to live in the house, where he quickly made himself not only master but a tyrant of the most insupportable kind. Besides ill-treating the mother and the other children, he frequently beat the young Stephan, took him away from school, and apprenticed him to a shoemaker. Several times he told his mother that he would like to do away with himself.

but that he must first free them all from Though his pretended stepfather took away all the money the boy earned, he succeeded in saving up "tips" and trifles given to him for odd services till lie had enough to buy a revolver, and as soon as he had procured one he waited for his enemy in the street, and going up to him shot him dead. He then gave himself un to the police, and duly came before the tribunal on the capital charge. He was, however, unanimously acquitted, and left the court amidst general applause. DEATH OF EARL FORTESCUE. Earl Fortescue died at his seat, Castle Hill, South Molten, Devon, on Tuesday morning.

The deceased nobleman was the eldest son of the second Earl (who was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in 1859-41), and was born April 4th, 1818. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1841. while Viscount Ebrington. he entered Parliament as member for Plymouth, which he represented in the Liberal interest until 1852, when he undue( cisfully contested Barnstaple.

In December, 1854, he was elected for Ma rylebone. for which he resigned his seat in 1859, and was called to the Upper House in his father's Barony of Fortescue. He succeeded to the Earldom September 14th, 1861. Lord Fortescue was a Lord of the Treasury from 1846 to 1847, and Secretary of the Poor- Law Board from 1847 to 1851. In May.

1856, while visiting military hospital with view to the motion which he carried afterwards in 1858, in favour of sanitary reform in the Army, he caught ophthalmia, which deprived him of one eye, permanently impaired the other, and so much injured his health as to compel him after a while to retire from the House of Commons. In 1847 be married Georgians, daughter of the late Right Hon. G. Dawson -Darner, who died in 1866, leaving large family. Lord Tortuous is succeeded in the Earldom by his eldel6 son, Viscount Ebrington, who sat a Liberal for Tiverton, 1881-85, and Taviabock 1885-92, declaring himself as Liberal Unionist in 11186.

Lord Ebrington is at present Lord Lieutenant of Devonshire. One of the deceased Earl's Lucy Sir iffiehaW Hicks-Beach, Df.P.. in 1874. PRANKS ON THE PANDORA. THE CHARGES AGAINST AN EXPLORER Thomas Caradoc Kerry, an explorer, of the Royal Colonial Institute, again surrendered to his bail at Bow-street Police-court, London, on Tuesday, to answer charges of stealing provisions, books, entrusted to him for conveyance to inhabitants of the Tristan da Cunha Islands, in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Mr. R. D. Muir and Mr. Bodkin appeared on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions; Mr.

George Elliott defended. William Hamblin, the cabin boy, said that after he had called the prisoner's attention to some cocoa which he had not delivered to the islanders, he did not see it again until they reached St. Helena. There the consisted of three tins of 141 b. put into a lighter with other provisions and sent ashore.

This cocoa had come from the Seamen's Institute before the Pandora left England. At Tristan boats came out to the yacht for goods intended for the islanders every day. A case of tools was also placed on board, and he (the witness) stored it away. The prisoner told him one day that that was the best present which had been sent, and he understood from that that they were intended for the islanders. The case was not delivered at Tristan, but was sold to a cable called the Britannia at Sierra Leone on the home.

He could not say if the prisoner was us ward-room when the tools were taken out examined by the carpenter of the Britannia. was a discussion between the prisoner and the carpenter as to the price of the tools, and during this the prisoner sent him (the witness) away. Before he went, however, he overheard the prisoner say that the tools had cost him £l4, and he offered to sell them for either £5 or £6, he was not sure which. The next he saw of the tools was when they were being taken away by the carpenter. When they reached Ascension on May 12th, he, acting on the prisoner's orders, took a portmanteau full of books on shore and delivered them at the house of the Governor of the island.

There was a large quantity of ladies' clothing on board, and some of the things were given out to the men by the prisoner for the purpose of cleaning the paintwork. Some of the garments which were used this way had holes in them, but they were wearable. When they got to Tristan all the men there had on good clothes. The clothing which was being sent out to them was not so good as that which they were wearing. It was a Sunday when they arrived at Tristan.

On one occasion, about a fortnight before they arrived at Tristan. he dressed himself out in woman's clothes and waited at dinner. The prisoner was present and some passengers, including a Mr. Lazarus, Dr. Newton, Mr.

McCann. and Mr. Lewis. There was a great deal of laughter, but no remark was made. He dressed up in that way for a lark, at the suggestion of Mr.

Burlton, the chief officer. In cross-examination, the cabin boy said that the Board of Trade were paying him four shillings a day to stay in England for the purposes of this case. He did not see anything terribly wicked about the dressing up. When he was asked to put the things on he said he did not mind. He had his ordinary clothes on underneath the others.

The only things on board which he knew were intended for the islanders were those which the Missions to Seamen's men brought on board. Compared with the ship's stores the presents for the islanders were very small indeed. The stores which were sold at St. Helena were sold in the ordinary way, and a list was made of the things which were parted with. He could not say if it was the only part of the ship's stores which was sold.

He had stored away in the bath some clothing intended for the islanders. On one occasion the prisoner gave him a pair of white duck trousers to use for cleaning. Among the things which he was given for cleaning purposes were some vests with small holes in, similar to some that he had seen the prisoner wearing. It was clear to him (the witness) that the islanders had a supply of clothes if they cared to wear them. They told him that on Sundays they always used to put on their best things for church.

That suggested that they had two suits of clothes. The prisoner was again remanded on the same bail. ship wil in 't and There HONOURING LORD SELBY. Lord Selby, the late Speaker of the House of Commons, has been. at meeting of the Court of Common Council in the London Guildhall, presented with the freedom of the City in a gold box, in token of the admiration with which the Corporation and citizens regard the able and dignified manner in which he discharged the exacting duties of his office.

The Lord Mayor presided, and Sir Joseph Dimsdale, M.P., the Chamberlain, performed the presentation. paying a warm tribute to the qualities which Lord Selby had displayed in the Speaker's chair. Lord Selby, in reply, expressed his lively sense of the honour paid to him. and said he believed that the office he had held was growing in importance. The difficulties and responsibilities of the Chair had of late years increased, but he felt sure there would come a cycle of years which would be more peaceful for the Chair, and better for the State.

Lord Selby and a large company of guests were afterwaras entertained by the Lord Mayor at luncheon at the Mansion House. Among the speakers were, besides Lord Selby, his predecessor in the Speakership, Lord Peel, and the present Speaker, Mr. J. W. Lowther.

BRIEF BUT COMPREHENSIVE. There was an amusing incident at the conclusion of the Blackpool Bowling Tournament on Tuesday, when Moses Sharpies, a C'horley collier, a victor, was handed a silver cup and a purei containing fifty sovereigns by the Mayor. Embarrassed by calls for a speech. Sharpies shook the Mayor heartily by the hand, saying in broad Lancashire: Ahm reight sorry fer them chaps as lost, but ah tried to win. Ahm glad to tek money.

Ah'll tek whoam to Chorley. Thanks, one and all." FINNISH ASSASSIN'S ESCAPE. A telegram from Ilelsingfors states that cart llohenthal. the man who assassinated Proeurator Johnsson, and was sentenced to imprisonment for life. has escaped from Ilelsingfors Prison by cutting out window.

The convict, who has obtained a start of seven hours, is stated to be now on the sea. "DEAD" MAN REPORTS HIMSELF: A curious sequel to the adventurous voyage of the Stork (which was believed to have been lost in the Arctic regions, but which arrived in the Thames a few days ago). has occurred at Shields, where H.M.S. Satellite is lying in the harbour. One of the crew of the Stork is Daniel Hart, naval reservist, attached to the Satellite, and when the Stork was posted as missing, Hart's name was struck off the list of naval reserve men, in the belief that the man was dead.

This week the supposed dead man reported himself to the captain of the Satellite, and was warmly congratulated by his old colleagues. SMART THEFT BY TELEGRAPH. A remarkably ingenious fraud has been carried out on one of the branch post-offices in Edinburgh. The office is kept by a chemist, and about month ago a man called with a tut hand and had it dressed. The man returned for several days for treatment, and became very friendly with the chemist.

He told the tradesman that he was a telegraphist, and said be would like to send message over the wires to the head office. The unsuspecting chemist permitted the instrument to be used, and the man, so it was afterwards discovered, telegraphed to another Edinburgh sub-office to pay £35 in his own name. He then travelled by tramcar to the office he had telegraphed to. and obtained the money. The whole plan was carried out in less than fifteen minutes.

MR STEAD AND RUSSIA. PRAISE FOR THE CZAR the Review of Reriers for this month appears a series of letters from Russia, written by Mr. Stead. The first, dated September 21st, refers in large measure to the conclusion of peace: The longer heads among the Russian statesmen see in the action of Japan the shrewd policy which led Prince Bismarck, after the Seven Weeks' War, to make peace with Austria in terms which render possible, at no distant date, the establishment of an entente cordiale, it not an actual alliance, between the late Japan offered Russia her alliance, through Marquis Ito, before she made the alliance with England. The offer was rejected, from misapprehension of the fighting strength of Japan.

It would not be rejected if the offer were renewed. If the Marquis Ito had been sent to Portsmouth the opinion is confidently expressed that M. Witte would have arranged with him a Russo-Japanese alliance. Certainly there is no bitter feeling against Japan. At the Narodi Dom there was not the slightest manifestation of animosity to be seen in the great crowd when the portraits of the Mikado and his family were thrown upon the screen.

There is even a frank admiration expressed at the skill and courage of the Japanese. "Our soldiers were GS good as theirs, but their generals were better, and there were more of them." Mr. Stead, in discussing to whom the honour of bringing about peace is due, praises the Czar for acting as his own Foreign Minister: If the first honour of securing the end of the war belongs to President Roosevelt, and the second place to the Mikado, the next place belongs to the Czar and to Mr. Meyer, the American Ambassador at St. Petersburg.

If the difficult and delicate negotiations necessary before the Conference, and in its final stages, had been in other hands than those of a monarch as intelligent, as cool, and as self-possessed as Nicholas 11., or an Ambassador less skilful, leas resolute, and less diplomatic than Mr. Meyer, the war would still be raging. I have for years past stood almost alone in maintaining that the Czar was a man of great intelligence, of keen and intensely conscientious. It is true that I had reasons for forming a judgment, as have had the honour to meet the Emperor on three occasions in private, and that is an advantage whi.h most of those who abuse him have not enjoyed. Count Tolstoy, I see, in his latest outpouring, actually declares that he knows that Nicholas 11.

"is a most commonplace man, standing lower than the average level, coarsely superstitious and unenlightened." But Count Tolstoy has never met the Emperor. He knows nothing about him except from hearsay. If he had met him he would have been the first to admit that he had calumniated his Sovereign. It is not too much to say that the peace of the world hung in the balance during the two hours in which the Emperor and the American Ambassador discussed, face to face, alone, the question of the cession of the southern half of the island of Saghalien. How.

adds Mr. Stead, the Czar was finally convinced that it could be ceded without infringing the public pledge will remain a secret known only to the Ambassador and the President. THE SEX OF ANGELS. Mr. Gutzon Borglum, a New York sculptor.

was recently commissioned by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in that City to execute statues of an "Angel of Annunciation" and the "Angel of Resurrection." Mr. Gutzon Borglum duly delivered two female angels to the Church, and a dispute arose as to the sex of the angels, the cathedral authorities pointing out that angels have always been held to be masculine. The affair came to a head the other day when the sculptor proceeded to the Church with a mallet and chisel and destroyed the female angels which he had carved. ROYAL ENGAGEMENT.

The engagement is announced at Glucicsburg of Prince Eitel Friedrich with the Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Oldenburg. The second son of the Kaiser is a fine upstanding soldier, who has travelled much in the Far East. and is said to be his father's favourite son. He gave his parents some anxiety this spring by his severe attack of inflammation of the lungs, for which, however, he now seems to be no worse. His future bride is twenty-five years of years older than her EAST AFRICAN SKIRMISH.

The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that a teWgram received there from Dares- Salaam shews that the insurrection in the northern districts of the colony and the disturbances in the immediate neighbourhood of Dares-Saturn are more serious than the published official accounts have hitherto indicated. A German sergeant has fallen at the head of his black troops between the Matumbi mountains and Kilwa. WELL-KNOWN CRICKETER DEAD. The famous old Notts cricketer, William Oscroft, who had been ailing for some time, died at Nottingham late on Tuesday night. He took part in first-class cricket from the early sixties right up to 1882.

His highest score was 140, made for his county against Kent at Canterbury in 1879, his only other three-figure innings being 107 against Sussex at Brighton in 1865. THE PUBLIC HEALTH. The deaths registered last week in seventy-six great towns of England and Wales corresponded to an annual rate of 135 per 1,000 of their aggregate population, which is estimated at 15,609177 persons in the middle of this year. In the preceding three weeks the rates had been 143, 131, and 141. The highest annual death-rates per 1,000 living, as measured by last week's mortality, were: From all causes, 171 in Wolverhampton, 179 in Swansea, 180 in Blackburn, 181 in Newport 18'7 in Bury, 205 in Wigan.

and in Sunderland, 21 9 in Merthyr Tydfil, and 263 in Tynemouth; from measles, I'2 in Blackburn, 11 in Gateshead, and 1 6 in Swansea; from scarlet fever, 16 in Blackburn and 2'5 in Bootle; from diphtheria, I'4 in South Shields; and from diarrhosa, 26 in Burnley, 27 in Sunderland. 3'3 in Smethwick, and 36 in Bury. No death from small-pox was registered in any of the seventy LIZ towns. In London 2,380 births and 1,189 deaths Were registered. Allowing for increase of population, the births were 200 and the deaths 234 below the average numbers in the corresponding weeks of the previous ten years.

The annual death-rate per 1,000 from all causes, which had been 13'2, 131, and 131 in preceding three weeks, was 13'2 last week. The 1.189 deaths included 15 from measles. 7 from scarlet fever, 9 from diphtheria. 18 from whooping-cough, 5 from enteric fever, and 59 from diarrhma, but not one death from smallpox. The deaths attributed directly to influents numbered 10, having been 3,6, 3 in the preceding weeks.

Different forms of violence caused 61 deaths, concerning all of which inquests were held. Of these 61 deaths, 17 were cases of suicide, and of homicide, while the remaining 41 were attributed to accident or negligence. Five of these latter were referred to vehicles in the 8 to burns or scalds. 3 to drowning. and 8 (of infanta under one year of age) to suffocation in bed.

In Greater London 3,641 births and 1,621 deaths were registered. Allowing for of population, these numbers are 210 and 371 the respective averages in the corresponding weeks of the previous ten years. In that portion of the Outer Ring which is outside the great towns, 2 deaths from measles, 1 from diphtheria, 2 from "fever." and 9 from diarrhosa were registered. THE HERALD, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1905..