to Horsemonger Lane Gaol. Here he remained until the sheriff, who had been informed of his movements, sent an officer, who about three o'clock in the afternoon effected the arrest quietly. Mr. Tooth, accompanied by his friend, proceeded to the gaol, and was, in the absence of the governor, received by the warder as an ordinary prisoner. He was conducted to that part of the prison in which debtors are confined. He complained that he was not conducted to the better part of the prison set aside for "first-class misdemeanants." He was informed that, as he was not a criminal, he could not be accommodated in the part of the prison referred to. It had been supposed that the rooms lately occupied by a late "first-class misdemeanant" would have been placed at his disposal, but for the reason mentioned this could not be done. Mr. Tooth was confined in the department of the gaol inhabited by prisoners committed for contempt, and, except so far as the rules will allow the governor to mitigate the régime by allowing him the best possible room to be found there, is subjected in all respects to the treatment meted out to his humbler neighbours.

The apprehended conflict for possession of the church at Hatcham on January 21, between the curate licensed by the bishop and the clergyman chosen by the Rev. A. Tooth and the churchwardens, was averted by measures which resulted in the church being closed all day. It would appear that the Rev. Richard Chambers, on being appointed curate-in-charge by the bishop, made formal application to the Rev. Mr. Tooth for the key of the church, which was refused him. A part of the congregation were left under the impression that, as the key was still held by Mr. Tooth, or his churchwardens, they would enjoy undisturbed access to the church at six and seven o'clock on Sunday morning. But at half-past ten o'clock on Saturday night the churchwardens were informed, as a matter of courtesy, that the bishop's apparitor had arrived with a notice which, under the protection of the police, he was about to affix to the principal door of the church. The notice was accordingly affixed at that hour, and the police were left in charge of the notice, with instructions to enforce it. The effect of it was that no one was to be allowed to enter the church during Sunday, and it recited the authorisation of the bishop, unless he was satisfied that due provision was otherwise made for the spiritual charge of the parish, to Mr. Chambers to make due provision for the services and the cure of souls.

At six o'clock on Sunday morning the churchwardens, accompanied by a clergyman from the north of London, and a considerable congregation of early worshippers, presented themselves at the door of the church and formally demanded permission to enter, the churchwardens having the key. The police officers who were in attendance called attention to the notice, which they had orders to enforce. The churchwardens denied its validity, as it was not signed by the bishop, but did not make any attempt to go further in assertion of their claim to enter. It had been formally made

and formally refused, and that was sufficient for all ulterior purposes. As the time approached for forenoon service, a small crowd gathered around the church. As far as practicable, persons were allowed to read the notice on the church door or gather its purport, which was being continually stated by the two police officers by whom the church door was guarded. When satisfied that the church was closed, people went away again. Throughout the forenoon there were continuous streams of persons going up and down the short street leading to the church, but, as very few remained for any length of time, there was never anything like the assemblage there had been previously. There was by comparison a marked absence of the rough element, and there was no conduct calling for the active interference of the police, who, as before, were present in greater numbers than were allowed to be seen.

23. A COAL PIT ON FIRE.-A most disastrous fire occurred at Messrs. Roscoe and Lord's Stonehill Colliery, Worsley Road, Farnmouth, near Bolton, to-day, by which seventeen lives were lost. The pits belonging to the firm are the most extensive in this district. The mine in which the calamity happened is known as the New Cannel mine, and at the time the fire broke out eighty men and boys were working in the immediate vicinity. The first indication of the accident was the issue of fire in one of the tracks of the pit. Information was at once sent to the bank, and in a short space of time steps were taken for bringing help to such of the men as had escaped. The miners work at such distances from each other that many of them were greatly surprised at being so hastily brought from their labour, being quite ignorant of the fate of their less fortunate fellow-workers. Several of the miners who had escaped with their lives had swollen faces, and were much disfigured by passing through or near the fire. It is supposed that the catastrophe arose through a lad carelessly setting fire to the brattice cloth, the flames igniting the cannel at a distance of 2,000 yards from the pit shaft.

On an exploring party descending the mine, they discovered cannel burning for a length of 110 yards and raging fiercely. The brattice cloth was consumed, and the props supporting the roof were also blazing. At great risk to their personal safety the explorers pushed on, the van of the gang stumbling over two dead bodies. Although they had every reason to believe that more bodies were close at hand, the men were unable to make further progress, owing to the want of air. They therefore returned to the surface, and obtained a quantity of piping to subdue the conflagration. Hose tubing was speedily procured from Tamworth Local Board Fire Brigade, and vast quantities of water were poured into the mine.

One of the explorers states that he came across fifteen dead bodies all in a heap. This number was known to be in the pit, whilst two other men are missing, and are believed to be among the dead. A man named Robert Smith fell down a working ten

yards deep as he was escaping, and was severely injured. The pit is worked with naked lights, and it is twelve years since this district was visited by a calamity of such magnitude, when seven lives were lost at Messrs. Wright's Colliery, Hanging Bank, Little Hulton, by a gas explosion.

The excitement during the day was most intense, four large mills in the neighbourhood being stopped. The pit bank was besieged by hundreds of anxious relatives and friends of the men, about whose fate they were uncertain. The latest information obtainable was to the effect that the efforts of mine surveyors, engineers, and many assistants were unavailing to arrest the progress of the fire, which continued to spread. Immense quantities of water are being thrown into the colliery, but it is not anticipated that the fire can be extinguished for several days. Seventeen men are known to be in the mine, some hundreds of yards beyond the portion on fire, and experienced persons take it as all but certain that the poor fellows are dead. It is said that most of them were warned, but that they were unable to get through the smoke, and threw themselves crying and moaning on the ground.

27. UNVEILING THE BURNS STATUE.-The statue of Burns, in Glasgow, was unveiled to-day. A procession, estimated to number 25,000 strong, started from the green at noon. It was three miles long. Bands played, banners were waved, and the city bells rang. The procession marched through Irongate, Argyle, and Sauchiehall Streets to George Square, where Lord Houghton unveiled the statue. The weather was splendid, and the day was observed as a general holiday. The spectators were estimated at 100,000.

In performing the ceremony, Lord Houghton said:-"To you the figure I am about to reveal will be nothing new or strange. It will be the recognition of a friend of your childhood, the greeting of one of whom the memory is ever fresh, and with whom your associations are ever dear. This, your friend and poet, will look with kindly and grateful eyes for generations to come on the tides of men who will traverse the busy streets of this multitudinous city. From him they will learn a lesson, hardly taught by the images of the leaders of armies or rulers of nations, yet one of which Scotland may well be proud. For, through his difficult, and, may be, faulty life, he never lost the manly endurance, the simplicity of manners, the spirit of fraternity she ever teaches to her sons, and which has enabled them to go forth conquering, and still to conquer, in the battle of material life, in the conflicts of intelligence and skill, and to spread to the farthest confines of our earth the name and fame of Robert Burns."

The Lord Provost, on behalf of the Corporation of Glasgow, accepted the statue.

30. "UNCLE TOM'S " FAREWELL.-To day, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the Rev. Josiah Henson-whose identity with Mrs. Stowe's" Uncle Tom," on the strength of her own testimony in the "Key" to her great work, is a scarcely disputed article of

faith, especially in the religious and philanthropic world-took farewell of his friends on his approaching return to Canada.

Mr. Henson visited England in the spring of 1851, and stayed here, with the intermission of a flying visit back to Canada, to close the eyes of his dying wife, Charlotte, the Chloe of" Uncle Tom's Cabin," until the winter of the same year. At the time of his former visit the tale, if written, was not as yet published even in America, and still less the "Key" to that work, which distinctly points to this coloured clergyman's autobiography as having first suggested to the authoress the idea of her hero.

A statement was given of the results of the efforts made during the six or eight months of Mr. Henson's present stay here to relieve him of pecuniary liabilities incurred in his zeal for public ends, and to render comfortable the few remaining days of this nonagenarian patriarch, Mr. Henson having been born in 1789, as well as to make some provision for his family. The announcement that 1,300l. had been raised for that purpose was received with cheers.

Mr. Henson then presented himself, and was received with loud and long expressions of applause, which were repeated frequently in the course of his narrative of his life as a slave and of his escape in 1830. Mr. Henson finished by singing the Slaves' Parting Hymn, composed by himself, and sung by many thousands of the blacks when torn from their family ties.

Mr. Church mentioned that the present was the third visit of the Rev. Josiah Henson to England, the object of which had, indeed, been very successful. He returned to his country with 600l. at his command to comfort him in old age.

FEBRUARY.

1. THE CHINESE MINISTERS IN LONDON.-The presence in London of the Chinese Ministers is another of the indications which, of late years, China has given of her having at last awakened to a sense of her position amongst nations. Kuo-Ta-jên is accompanied by Lady Kuo, who may be said to be the first lady of position who has ever ventured beyond the shores of the Central Kingdom. During her voyage to England, in conformity with Chinese ideas of propriety, she remained during the whole time in the strictest seclusion, never once having even taken a seat on the deck. Of course, she interchanged visits with some of the foreign ladies on board, but always in their private state-rooms. Since coming to London she has persevered in the same custom, visiting and receiving persons only of her own sex.

2. ASSAULT ON A SERVANT OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY.-At the

Marlborough Street Police-court, John Donovan was charged, before Mr. Knox, with being drunk and assaulting Mr. Chang Amaon, servant to one of the Attachés of the Chinese Embassy. The complainant (who was sworn according to the custom in China, namely, by kneeling and breaking a saucer and repeating the following words, spoken by Dr. Macartney, English Secretary to the Chinese Legation: "You shall tell the truth, the whole truth; the saucer is cracked, and if you do not tell the truth, your soul will be cracked like the saucer") deposed that he was walking along Oxford Street yesterday afternoon with a friend, when the prisoner struck him a heavy blow on the back of his head, and his cap fell off. Mr. Yang Hsi corroborated Mr. Amaon. The prisoner said he was under the influence of drink, and did it more out of play than anything. He knew he had no business to do as he had done. Mr. Knox said he regretted the occurrence, not for the sake of the prisoner, but for the sake of the country. The Chinese Ambassador had just landed in this country with his servants, and about the first day of his doing so, one of his servants was made the victim of the abominable conduct of the prisoner. His sentence on the prisoner would show that the magistrates were determined to protect strangers in London. The prisoner would be committed for two months with hard labour.

4. THE HON. A. C. HOBART.-The following is the true story of Capt. the Hon. A. C. Hobart, better known as Hobart Pasha, an eminent historical figure. In 1868 the Turkish Government requested the British Government to send them a naval officer of rank to organise their navy; and the Foreign Office granting the permission, the Admiralty was asked to find an admiral willing to go. There was little difficulty in finding one, the promised salary being something like 7,000l. per annum, and there was any amount of scrambling for the prize. Their lordships took such a long time considering the claims of the numerous applicants, that the Turks became tired of waiting, and they accepted the services of Capt. Hobart. The authorities at Whitehall selected Admiral Sir William Wiseman, Bart., K.C.B., who conducted the naval operations in the last New Zealand War, and informed the Turks of their choice. The latter declined the offer "with thanks," being already suited. Their lordships, in great anger at losing such a piece of patronage, ordered Captain Hobart home, and declared they would erase his name from the Navy List if he did not obey them. Naturally enough that gallant officer did not see why he should give precedence to Sir William Wiseman, and he refused point-blank to return to England. His name was therefore struck out of the Navy List. Three years ago the injustice was recognised, and Capt. Hobart's name was replaced on the Retired List.

DISCOVERY OF COINS.-A numismatic discovery almost unparalleled in extent has been made near Verona. Two large amphoræ have been found, containing no less than two quintals, or