having a capital of a million sterling, with the intention of leasing or purchasing collieries, to provide fuel for the spinners and weavers of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

THE SOUTH WALES STRIKE has continued through the month in spite of repeated efforts at conciliation and compromise. The last unsuccessful attempt was made at the beginning of this week, but the men unanimously refused to return to work on the terms offered. The negotiations between the masters and men were conducted by a Mr. Evan Jones, a tradesman at Merthyr, acting on behalf of his brethren who are being ruined by the continuation of the strike. He waited on Mr. Menelaus, manager of the Dowlais Works, and obtained from him the following propositions to lay before the men :-"Go in at the reduction, and before March 15 we will tell you what we intend to do as to the restoration of the old rate of wages; and if you are not satisfied with what we offer, you will be at liberty to leave our employment. We ask you to have confidence in our promise of generous and considerate treatment." This was interpreted by the men to mean-" We are to work at the reduction for two or three weeks; then the old rates will be restored for three weeks, and then there will be a rise of 10 per cent."

The district was overjoyed at this supposed settlement, and on Monday (25th) there was a great meeting at Bethania Chapel, which will hold 1600 persons, and the terms, as understood by the men, were unanimously agreed to, a proposal that the immediate reduction should be 5 per cent., so as to save an unconditional surrender, being withdrawn. A deputation then waited on Mr. Menelaus, and then it turned out that the whole thing was a mistake. Mr. Menelaus repeated his terms, which were simply that there should be a truce on the masters' terms for three weeks; at the end of which either party might take what course it thought best. These terms were peremptorily and decisively rejected; and the result is, that the struggle is regarded in the district as more desperate and hopeless than ever.

A suggestion for a fresh compromise has been made by Mr. Halliday, but nothing is expected to result from it. Sir Rowland Stephenson has offered his services as referee for the settlement of the dispute. His proposal was :-That the men should empower him to make an arrangement on their behalf, but that they should pledge themselves to abide by any decision he might arrive at. This offer was contemptuously received, but Sir Rowland's services were accepted as mediator, in order to see how far the masters were prepared to go.

The Times correspondent at Merthyr describes the state of things as one of general despondency, nowhere relieved by a single ray of hope :

"The only solution which we may look forward to after the events of the last ten days is that which will follow from the exhaustion of the weaker party. Whether it will be the employers or their

workmen time alone must decide, but there is a preponderance of probabilities against the workmen. For weeks the greater portion of them and their families have subsisted on the credit of their tradesmen. Those who had no credit to fall back upon have gone begging, while their families have been sustained by the charitable distribution of the soup-kitchens; but now these sources of living are rapidly approaching exhaustion, and a few days hence their supplies will entirely cease. There will then be keener hunger than there has yet been experienced, and we must wait to see what influence it may have upon the general attitude of the men."

MARCH.

1. THE BANK OF ENGLAND FORGERIES.-Great excitement has been created in the City by the discovery-made public to-daythat bills to an enormous amount, purporting to be drawn upon a number of the principal business-houses in London, had been forged and presented for discount at the Bank of England.

The fraud is thought to be the work of a ring of smart Yankee swindlers, and its discovery was declared to have been the result of a mere accident, which had alone prevented the game being carried on to a vastly greater extent before the final and inevitable discovery. One of the forged bills purporting to bear the signature of the great firm of Messrs. Rothschilds was being negotiated, when the omission of date in the instrument induced the holder to send it over to St. Swithin's-lane for rectification. Here it was discovered that the signature was a forgery, but so admirably was it executed that its falsity was only detected through the fact that it was not written in the peculiar ink which is specially used by the firm as one of the means of checkmating that description of fraud.

The extent to which the fraud has been successful has not yet been accurately ascertained. It is stated at the Bank of England that the total sum will not exceed 80,0007., and it will be safe, probably, to put the limit at 100,0007.

The prime mover in this long-considered, deeply-laid, and cunning scheme is said to be an American named Warren, but whether he has been acting singly or with confederates is not yet quite clear; for he has so well provided against the contingency of premature discovery that he has been able so far to evade the active and intelligent exertions of the City detective department, under Inspector Bailey. For a year past he has been an occasional guest at the Golden Cross, Charing Cross, an hotel much affected by his compatriots. Here he was, like most of his countrymen, free in spending his money, and passed for an American on a pleasure tour, the only peculiarity about him being that he always declined

to sign the register, which, in imitation of American hotel custom, was kept for the guests, and he never seemed to associate with any one..He was last at the hotel in January, arriving on the 3rd, and leaving on the 11th, with the intention of going to Germany. It now appears that he was introduced in May last to the manager of the West End branch of the Bank of England by one of their customers a highly-respectable West-end tradesman-as a gentleman who wished to open a drawing account. He represented to the manager of the branch that he had come to Europe for the purpose of introducing Pulman's American Sleeping Cars on the Continental lines of railway for use during the forthcoming Vienna Exhibition, and that his monetary transactions would therefore be somewhat extensive. To throw the bank off its guard, and to prepare the way for the coup he meditated, he kept a regular-and, in point of amount, very creditable-deposit, drawing against it frequently, but always maintaining his balance at a respectable figure. Up to last January there is no doubt that his somewhat extensive transactions with the bank were solely to lull suspicion, and that nothing except bona fide first-class paper was paid in; but then he commenced the series of forgeries that were to bring him the reward of his nefarious operations. There is no doubt that he has successfully imitated the acceptances of Messrs. Rothschild, Messrs. Baring Brothers and Co., Messrs. Brown, Shipley, and Co., Messrs. J. H. Schroeder and Co., Messrs. Suse and Sibeth, Messrs. B. W. Blydenstein, Messrs. J. and C. Imthurn, the German Bank of London, the London and Westminster Bank, the Union Bank, and the Bank of Belgium and Holland-the spurious paper, which is marvellously exact in every particular in the imitation of genuine bills, being in all cases discounted by the branch Bank of England. Even while the forgeries were going on he occasionally discounted. some genuine bills-one of 4,5007. of Messrs. Rothschild being the largest in amount. It is stated in the City that the paper and the imitation of the genuine signatures and endorsements on the forged bills are so admirably good that they could in some instances only be proved to be forgeries by the dates and amounts not agreeing with any entry in the books of the firms, or from their purporting to come from places-Lisbon, in one instance-where the firm at the time had no current transactions. With the firstfruits of his operations the enterprising financier invested from time to time to the extent of 50,000l. or 60,000l. in the Government Bonds of the United States. They were purchased direct from Jay Cooke, M'Culloch, and Co., by Warren himself, or by his soi-disant clerk, Noyes, who is now in custody. It is a custom of this firm never to deliver bonds which are paid for by cheques until the latter have been verified and found to be correct, and fortunately the fraud was discovered before bonds for 20,000l. were delivered over.

After the ordinary business at the Mansion-house had concluded to-day, a young man of gentlemanly appearance and manners, named Noyes, was brought to the bar on a charge which it was

understood was that of having been concerned in these forgeries. The Lord Mayor stated that there were reasons for hearing the charge in private, and he therefore requested, under a power given him by statute, that all strangers would retire from the court. The result of the hearing was that the prisoner was remanded.'

- SHIPPING DISASTERS.-The news was received in Liverpool this morning that a three-masted screw-steamer, having a black funnel with a white band, had foundered off the Great Ormeshead; and that a sailing-vessel had also gone down near the Fairway Channel. Upon inquiries being made it appeared that Capt. Henry Strong, of the steam-tug "Guiding Star," fell in with the ship "Chacabuco," inward bound from San Francisco to Liverpool, off the Great Ormeshead. The wind was blowing strong at the time from S.E. by E., and Capt. Strong ran as close as possible to the ship, for the purpose of making terms for towage. After some time there was a dispute as to the amount of money to be paid to the tugboat, and the "Guiding Star" left the "Chacabuco." This was about a quarter to two o'clock, and the wind immediately increased to a heavy gale from the E., veering round to the S.E., accompanied with blinding showers of sleet and snow. Shortly after this Capt. Strong heard cries, and at once bore up in the wake of the ship, but as she was running ahead under a full press of canvas the tug was unable to come up to her, and even if she had it would have been impossible to have placed a tow-line on board, in consequence of the high sea which was running. Suddenly a terrible crash occurred, and the screams and cries for assistance are described by Capt. Strong as of the most heartrending nature. It was then evident that a collision had taken place, and the tug was steered to the spot from whence the cries proceeded. The snow-storm became denser, and before he was aware of his position the captain of the tug found himself running over the sinking vessel; in fact, to use Captain Strong's own words, he "was almost on the top of her before he ported his helm." The tug's boat was at once lowered, and three of the crew of the "Chacabuco "" were picked up in a most exhausted state. Search was made for any others that might be floating about, but beyond the three who were rescued, none others were to be found. The lights of a vessel were shortly afterwards seen a little to the westward, and the "Guiding Star" ran down towards the vessel, which proved to be the steamer "Torch," bound from Liverpool to Dublin. The "Torch" was in a sinking condition, terribly smashed up; and the crew and passengers appealed to those on board the tug-boat to stand by and save them. The "Guiding Star" ran alongside with great difficulty, and found that the steamer was sinking rapidly, and all on board, with the exception of one man, a bullock driver, named James Lonran, were taken on board the tug. The poor fellow was jammed between the

1 For the sequel and details of this singular story, see the Remarkable Trials in this volume.

smashed-up plates of the bulwarks and could not be extricated, and shortly before the steamer sank he cried out, "Good bye. God bless all!" The steam-tug you (6 Rover" soon afterwards came up, but was unable to render any assistance, as the vessel gradually settled down, and the "Guiding Star" bore up for Liverpool. The "Chacabuco was a very fine iron vessel of 999 tons register, built at Dundee in 1869, and was owned in Liverpool by Messrs. Balfour and Co. When the disaster occurred she was under the command of Captain Ritchie, who, with the pilot and twenty-two of the crew, went down with the ship. The "Chacabuco" left San Francisco on the 5th of November last for the Mersey, with a very valuable cargo. The "Torch" had just sailed from Liverpool.

Details have arrived of the wreck on the Lizard, Cornwall, of the barque "Boyne," of Scarborough, with a cargo of 900 tons of sugar, from Samarary for Falmouth. She was 120 days out from Batavia, and sighted the Lizard light-house on Friday night. At three o'clock on Saturday morning, the officers believed they were standing right for Falmouth, the weather being very thick and the wind blowing heavily. The ship was then sailing ten miles an hour. The first indication of danger was her bowsprit striking against a perpendicular rock a hundred feet high, by which the vessel was thrown round on her broadside on two cliffs. Then commenced a terrible struggle with the waves, but the vessel quickly parted amidships, and the water washed over the helpless crew, numbering nineteen souls. A farmer, perceiving the blue-light, sent for the lifeboat and rocket apparatus; and the latter arriving at six o'clock, threw a line over some men who were discerned clinging to the remnants of the wreck; but the poor fellows were numbed, and powerless to make the rope fast. One, supposed to be the captain, with a life-belt on, seized the line and tried to haul himself in-shore, but was dashed against the rocks and perished.

5. "THE HAPPY LAND."-On this evening the little Court Theatre, in Sloane-square, rose into historical importance by an act of indiscretion, which will not soon be forgotten. The movement has a decided bearing on the Lord Chamberlain's office as licenser of plays, and was at first regarded as an instance of its inutility, but in the sequel assumes quite another direction. It will be recollected that when the celebrated Foote had the conduct of the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, he catered for popularity by indulging in personalities, assuming himself the gesture and costume of public characters. To counteract this abuse, the licensing system was instituted, and has continued to the present day. In spite, however, of its existence, a new burlesque, by Messrs. F. Tomline and Gilbert A'Beckett, entitled "The Happy Land," being ostensibly a mere parody on Mr. Gilbert's fairy play of "The Wicked World," was on Wednesday the 5th produced at the Chelsea theatre, when it appeared that Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Lowe, and Mr. Ayrton were caricatured under the names of the Right Hon. Mr. Ethais, the Right Hon. Mr. Phyllon, and the Right Hon. Mr. Luton, represented by Messrs. Righton,