BRITISH AND FOREIGN. LONDON, August 11,

Sir E. Barton, on being interviewed by the London correspondent of Les Debats, referring to the New Hebrides, waid that all Australia, desired was the maintenance, with some improvements, of the Anglo-French condominium. That regime might suffice for many years, provided the two Governments agreed regarding -the administration of justice and the establishment of a mixed tribunal to settle land disputes.

The death is announced of Mr Howard Spensley, at one time a prominent member of the Victorian Bar.

August 12.

Sir E. Barton consults his colleagues relative to the initiation of a faster service between Vancouver and Australia. He has not indicated any willingness to join in developing the freight service between Canada, South Africa, and Australia. Sir E. Barton sails for New York on the 20th inst. He visits Washington and several Canadian towns, and leaves Vancouver on. September 19 for Australia.

Mr J. Cathoart Wason, who recently seceded from .the Unionist party and joined the Radicals, has resigned his seat for Orkney, with the object of appealing to his constituents for their endorsement of his action.

August 13. The Premiers' Conference recommended all the colonies to unite in a memorial to Queen Victoria. The Oceana is aground in the Suez Canal. A tug has been cent to her assistance.

The Time 9 states that the trustees under Mr Rhodes's will have instructed Professor Parkin, principal of the Upper Oauada College, Toronto, to prepare a colonial-American scholarship scheme. The- Hon. C. ft. Major, Attorneygeneral for Grenada and the Windward Island, has been appointed to succeed Sir Henry Spencer Berkeley as Chief Justice of Fiji. On the occasion of his farewell in Dublin there was a remarkable exhibition oX

goodwill towards the departing Lord Lieutenant and Lady Cadogan.

Mr Nathaniel Coik, banker,

Obituary Durban.

Lord Salisbury has gone to Homburg. Mr Seddon is dis-appointed at the small Imperialistic outcome of the Premiers' Conference.

August 14

The Standard's Ottawa correspondent states that Sir E. Barton is inquiring from the Canadian Government respecting the organisation of Lord Strathcona's office in London.

The Times states that Professor Parkin visits Australasia and the United States to prepare a scheme for colonialAmerican scholarships under the will of the late Mr Cecil Rhodes.

The age limit of candidates for admission to Woolwich has been fixed at 19 and to Sandhurst at 19^. Sir W. H. Walrond, who succeeds Lord Hereford as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, has been re-elected without opposition.

Sir Robert Peel has paid 15s in the pound to alj the creditors interested in his three failures.

News by the Chinese mail states that the Chinese cruiser Kiachi was blown up near Nanking, through the explosion of her magazine. Only two out of a crew variously estimated at from 150 to 250 men escaped.

Sir William O'Brien, M.P., made an inflammatory speech at Galway, in- the oourae of which he suggested boycotting a shopkeeper who had evicted a widow. The authorities disembarked 600 homeward-bound troops at Capetown, owing to the Aurania being overcrowded. Mr Seddon is indignant that adminis? trative economy has indirectly sacrificed the lives lost on the Drayton Grange and Britannic

August 10. Lord Hopetoun, whq is coming home by the Vancouver-Paciiio railway route, traversed Winnipeg on his way across OajwwTa. The Tunbridg© Wells Farmers' Club gave a dinner io the colonial Premifers. Sir fi. Barton, In a speech, said the more the Empire's self-governing units understood each other the less frequent the prospeot of aiming too high. Conferences must asoettam to what extent the opinion of the units coincided and follow the lines of agreement. Mr Seddon, speaking at the Tuahridge dinner, did not agree with Sir B. Baton's item Ark tt&t it ffsa UftEMS Sfl

quicken the pace of the units. The colonies had shown the Motherland that she was going too slowly. English farmers and the colonies were equally interested in retaining England as a market and in seeing that the additional supplies needed were secured from, within the Empire rather than from, out&ide.

The Imperial Trade Defence League presented Mr Seddon with an illuminated address expressive of admiration of his patriotic efforts. Mr Seddon, in reply, said he thought fairtrade and! preferential treatment to the Motherland the right lines. Although not; pessimistic, he anticipated shortly there would be trade depression, and then the advantages of preference would be emphasised. The immigration statistics show an. extraordinary increase in the number of aliens settling in London. Mr Austen Chamberlain, the Unionist member for Worcester, was re-elected! unopposed on his appointment to the Postmaster-generalship. The death is announced of Mr G. F. Vernon, the well-known cricketer.

Lightning fired a sixth-cent my church at Swanscombe. The bells were melted by the fire, and the Norman font was destroyed. [Swanscombe is 19 miles N.W. by N. from Maidstone, and about three miles W. from Clravesend, Kent. It is said to have derived! ita name, originally Swcynscatnp, from Sweyn, the Danish King, having landed and! encamped at the place. The church, an anoient edifice, hag some portions of AngloSaxon date. It JB said that at Swanscombe the men of Kent met William the Conqueror, and disputed hia progress till he had promised to confirm to them theiu former rights and privileges.]

August 16.

The Prince of Wales has purchasedl tor £7000 the estate of Darlingham, adjoining Sandringham. Mr Carnegie has given £80,000 to «! library for Mary lebone. The I)aily Mail says Lord Kitcheneropens the Khartoum College in Novenx* bfer, fAlmoßt the first «ot of Lord Kitchene* afwr smashing the Mahdi was to appeal to &• English publio to tubacrib* £100.00p for a college at Khartoum for the educaiioql of Soudanese soholari. The money we^ auloldy furnished, ana ths result is gi-vsa i the abova message.] August 17, Richard Marsfe, the welUcaoarn) trainer, has presented Lord KitoiumSij with the American-bred racehorse Demo-* crat for a oharger. fteutgr/t fiorreaDondent tQ The Time*

reports that Senussi, known as the Mahdi of Central Africa, is dead.

[Senussi had recently been giving much trouble to the Frenoh in the Lake Tchad district. A rather severe engagement was reported to have been fought some time in March.]

August 18. Prince Arthur of Connaught, on behalf of the King, welcomed the Shah of Persia at Dover in the presence of immense and enthusiastic crowds. The Prince of Wales returned to London to receive the Shah to-day, and places Marlborough House at his disposal. PARIS, August 11.

Owing to the derailment of a train near Signy-le-Petit (France) two carriages were precipitated over an embankment. Three persons were killed and 18 injured. Two Parisians, accompanied by two guides, were overtaken by a snowstorm, and had to spend the night on the Petit Plateau, Mont Blanc. The former were frozen to death.

Colonel Ue Strerny has been arrested for declining to obey his general's orders to assist in closing the religious establishments at Ploermel, near Rennes.

Two priests near Angers each received two months' imprisonment for breaking the seals affixed by the Government officers.

Four mayors have been suspended for disregarding their instructions as to the closing of religious establishments.

August 13

Disturbances have occurred through the closing of the schools at Finisterre. A battalion of infantry and a large force of gendarmes are proceeding to the town.

August 14. - Admiral Cuverville has appealed to the Government to submit M. Loubet's religious associations' decrees to the Council of State. Meanwhile the judgment of the Lyons Court of Appeal declares that the fixing of the seals to the convent school at St. Charles is illegal, and orders their removal.

August 15. Mr Fair, brother-in-law of Mrs W. K. Vanderbilt, was travelling in a motor car at a speed of 100 kilometres near Evieux, when the tyre burst and the car was dashed against a tree. Mr Fair and his .wife were killed. The driver was not fatally injured.

It is reported that Mr ?Pierpont Morgan is seeking a controlling interest in western French railways, in. pursuance of his ocean trust scheme*.

The French Colonial party urges the sending of homeless residents of Martinique to the New Hebrides, and the appointment of an official to represent the settlers and keep the authorities in Paris acquainted with matters of interest in the group.

■ The Cabinet, considering the Royalist party to be the •fomentors of the resistance to the Religious Associations' decrees, has ordered the strongest pros«cutions to take place.

ANTWERP, August 16

During a torchlight procession the municipal festival car representing *' Winter " took fire. Of the five women taking part in the tableau one was burnt ko death and the others injured.

BERLIN, August 12.

The Deutsche Genossen-Sehaft Bank, Berlin, have lost £173,500 owing to the chief director's speculations in industrial undertakings.

August 13.

The Kaiser at Stettin launched the Kaiser Wilhelm H, of 20,000 tons, a German Lloyds steamer, to have a speed of 23J, knots.

Lieutenant Hildebrandt, the duellist, was accorded an enthusiastic reception by his comrades, who entertained him at two banquets.

Lieutenant Hildebracidt was helping Lieutenant Blaskowitz homewards after a supper, when the latter struck him. The matter was referred *o a military court of ihonour, which considered that a duel between the two officers was inevitable. The duel took place, and Lieutenant Bla=ko\vitz was killed. Lieutenant Hildebrandt was 'tiied by court martial, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. The Emperor William gave the incident careful tonsidertion, and has remitted the sentence. August 15. Prussia is establishing a German University at Posen. MuiN'ICH, August 14.

Recently the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies refused to pass a vote for 100,000 marks for the purchase of eertaiii pictures. The Kaiser thereupon wrote to King Leopold of Bavaria offering him the money for the purpose, and at the same time expressing his displeasure at the Chamber's meannesß. King Leopold, replied, thanking the Kaiser, adding that a member of the Bavarian Reichrath had given t"he requisite sum.

Ansciist 15

The Kaiser's censure on the Bavarian Chamber caused great excitement in Munich, where the Kaiser is widely blamed for undue interference in some of the affairs of the federated State.

The Wiener Allgemeine Zeitimg predicts that the Kaiser's impulsiveness will increase Bavaria's particularist tendencies.

ST. PETERSBURG, August 12. Russian banks have cached £490,000 worth of forged rouble note*.

An assassin fired four shots at Prinre Obolonski, the Governor of Kharkov, wounding him in the neck. Another bullet hit the chief of the police.

August 13,

All the students connected with the Moscow disturbances in February last have been released.

AiK'i^t 15.

At the Pope's request the C/ar has pardoned 31. Zierkowici, Catholic Bishop of Vilna, who was sentenced to life-long banishment for propagating anti-Russian ideas in Poland, and converting Greeks to Roman Catholicism. The Grand Duke and M. Pobiedonostoziff (Procurator of the Holy Synod) strongly disapproved of the Czar's clemency.

ROME, August 11.

The campanile at St. Stefano, Venice, is 65 inches aslant. It is being pulled down.

WASHINGTON, August 15

The National Geographical Society of "Washington have engaged Mr Borchgrevink to take two ships on an Antarctic •expedition^ using reindeer for the

sleighs. The party will probably start in the autnin.

NEW YORK, August 11. A cyclone at Trenton, New Jersey, unroofed the houses and wrecked factories. The damage is estimated at 300,000d01.

August 12. ' An American Lead Trust is forming, with a capital of £10,000,000, to control the output of lead east of the Mississippi.

August 13. The Venezuelan revolutionists captured and sacked Barcelona. Eight generals, 23 colonels, and 167 men were among the killed. On both sides some women and children were also killed.

Augu«t 14

A party of Moros surprised an American outpost at Bacold, in the Philippines. A sergeant ami private soldier were killed and another wounded.

OTTAWA, August 1-1. Judge Caron, of Quebec, declined to make an order for the extradition of Gaynor and Greene, contractors, accused of defrauding the United States Government of nearly a million sterling in connection with harbour improvements at Savannah, and discharged them from custody.

August 15,

The August average for oats-, wheat, and barley in Manitoba (Lower Canada) is 114,000,000 bushels. The CanadianPacific Railway are unable to carry such a quantity to the seaboard.

CAPETOWN, August 18. The barque Highfields, from Cardiff, collided with the German-African line steamer Kaiser, anchored in Table Bay. The Highfields sank. The captain, .second officer, and 21 of the crew were drowned, only four escaping. PEKING, August 15. Owing to Russia's refusal to relinquish the workshops and railways near the Great Wall until tho Niuchwungline is evacuated, Great Britain's surrender of the Peking-Tient.sin-^han-hai-kwaii railway is postponed till October, unless Russia, reconsiders her decision.

August 18.

The Imperial troop> killed 1000 rebels at Szechunn. The ringleaders have been executed.

BANGKOK, August 14. The Siamese Government have offered to appoint a French official to an important post in Bangkok.

August 16 The Shane, -who Mujii^ l*i.iv, have been defeated Twth ;i 10-s of 201). The remained of their force was scattered.

TOKIO, August 1M

There is an insurrection in Jenchiun and three other Corean provinces against foreigners. Severai Japanese merchants were killed and many expelled. The Japanese Minister has demanded reparation. Corean ti-oop-. ha\e been sent to quell the outbreak.