This prize was founded at the first Wimbledon meeting, and is regarded as a match for the championship amongst volunteers.

The International Trophy.-This prize was competed for, on July 12, by twenty representatives of Ireland, Scotland, and England respectively, at two, five, and six hundred yards, with the long Snider. The English team led slightly at the 200 yards, closely followed by the Scotch; the Irish, though figuring well in some of their squads, occupying the third rank. As there are no volunteers in Ireland, the squads here were made up from Irish-born men, who belong to English or Scotch corps, and it is only justice to the habitants of the sister isle to say that, under these circumstances, they have to compete at a disadvantage. In the result, England scored in the aggregate 1180; Scotland, 1168; and Ireland, 1072. England accordingly won by twelve points; and the first cheers that arose were those of and for the English. Congratulatory speeches were made, first by Colonel Knox, the head of the Irish team; next, by Captain Dunlop, of the London Scottish; and last, by Captain Field, of the Hon. Artillery Company, on behalf of the English. Major Waller, of the St. George's Rifles, who made the highest individual score, he having contributed 70 to the English score, became the winner of the Gunmakers' Company's Challenge Cup.

On the 10th took place the match between the Lords and the Commons. The representatives of the Peerage were the Earl of Denbigh, the Earl of Kingston, Earl Ducie, and Lord Cloncurry, with the Marquis of Lorne, who had been taken from the Commons' reserves in order to equalize the list. The members of the Lower House who shot in the match were Lord Bury, Mr. Arthur Vivian, Mr. Arthur Bass, Mr. Malcolm, and Mr. Fordyce. The Lords made 252 points, and the Commons 262. The latter were thus victorious by ten points.

22. A THUNDERSTORM, causing considerable destruction of valuable property, and in several instances loss of life, has occurred in the provinces.

At Preston, the most severe storm that has happened in that part of the country for many years passed over the town from the south-east to north-west. From 8.30 until 9.30 the lightning was almost incessant, sheet and fork lightning appearing at the same instant, and the accompanying claps of thunder were terrific. Many of the flashes of forked lightning seemed to be composed of small rings of fire, and others had the appearance of zig-zag chains of stars. Rain fell in torrents for about two hours, causing a sudden rise of several feet in the river Ribble, and the low-lying streets of the town were temporarily flooded. A young woman walking on

the banks of the river was blinded by the lightning for a short time. A man and two horses were instantaneously killed by a flash of lightning at a stable door in Hutton; and in Grunsargh, another neighbouring township, three men were struck dead as they were returning from a hay-field in a cart. The same fate befell a man in Fulwood, who was walking on the highway. The thermometer at noon showed 120 degrees of heat in some places.

At Leeds the storm was also attended with fatal results. At Liverpool the heat for several days had been excessive, and on this date was most intense, the thermometer marking 124 degrees in the sun in the afternoon. Towards evening the western sky became clouded, and in a short space of time the town was enveloped by the storm-clouds, the thunder and lightning being almost appalling, and accompanied by torrents of rain, which flooded cellars and streets in the lower portions of the town. Fortunately no fatal accident occurred, although several houses and buildings were injured.

The storm raged with great violence at Richmond, Yorkshire. In some parts of the town the paving-stones were ploughed up, and the sand lay so thick that men have been engaged lading it for building purposes. A young farmer named Clew, living at Wood House, was struck by the lightning, and he became blinded for some time, but ultimately recovered, and his watch, which was in his trousers pocket, was completely smashed. Four or five cases of sunstroke, caused by the excessive heat, are reported from Skipton and Settle, in Yorkshire. Some are said to be fatal.

Shields also suffered from the storm, the flashes of lightning being very frequent and the thunder very loud. At Bath rain fell in torrents, sand and stones being washed into the city in large quantities from the surrounding hills. The lightning was exceedingly vivid, and almost unintermittent. Great alarm was created amongst the inhabitants, the most of whom got up. So fierce and continuous was the forked and sheet lightning that the hills around the city were visible for several miles. It is said on all hands that the storm was the most violent that has occurred since the night of the death of George III.

At Bolton, a number of lads were playing cricket, when four boys who were watching the game were struck to the ground by the lightning. Several other boys were also prostrated, but they recovered almost immediately, and went to the assistance of their companions, two of whom were found to be dead, while one was also very seriously injured. One of the boys who was killed had been struck on the head, and his cap set on fire. The hair on the crown of his head was singed off, and the lightning appears to have travelled down his neck and cheek, the latter being badly burnt. The other had also been struck on the back of the head, the hair being frizzled off quite closely. The lightning had afterwards run down his neck on to his right shoulder, the skin of which had been pealed off.

31. THE NEWTOWN-STEWART MURDER.-Sub-Inspector Montgomery, after being tried three times, has been found guilty of the murder of Mr. Glasse, the cashier at the Newtown-Stewart Bank, on June 29, 1871. Before he left the dock, the prisoner made a confession. The evidence, although entirely circumstantial, was such as to point very clearly to the guilt of the accused :

The deceased gentleman, it will be remembered, was cashier of the Northern Bank at Newtown-Stewart, and on June 29, 1871, about an hour after the closing of the outer door, he was found lying in the inner or back office, his skull fractured by several wounds. The prisoner had formerly been a bank clerk, was on terms of intimacy with the deceased, and was accustomed to visit him in the inner office. At the time of the murder he was in great pecuniary difficulties. The theory of the prosecution was that he went into the inner office, remained there with the deceased until the bank closed at three o'clock, and then committed the murder, taking away 16057. The greater part of this money, together with a billhook with which the wounds might have been inflicted, was found buried in a gravel-pit at Grange Wood. The prisoner was seen going towards Grange Wood, and returning from there on the night after the murder.

The jury, after a quarter of an hour's deliberation, found the prisoner guilty. When asked what he had to say, the prisoner coolly leaned forward on the rails of the dock, and having thanked the Judge for his consideration and impartiality, said that at the time of the perpetration of the murder, and for twelve months before, he was in a state of complete insanity. In June, 1870, he was invited to Molecross, the residence of the Rev. Mr. Bradshaw. At that time he was in excellent health. He was then deliberately drugged and poisoned with the object of weakening his mind, so that a doctor told him he might die in a day or a week, but he could scarcely recover. While thus weak-minded he consented to marry, but he grew worse and worse, and in the month of November embarked in those foolish and ridiculous speculations by which he lost enormous sums of money, much larger than had transpired in the evidence, some of the persons from whom he got sums of money not having come forward. A monomania for robbing banks then took possession of him, and he told his orderly on one occasion of his intention to rob a bank and murder the cashier. Sergeant Armstrong had said it was a terrible murder; there could be no doubt of that. A man of education or feeling would not have committed such a deed but he was demented at the time. As to its being wilful, he was helpless, weak-minded, and silly, and he did not think that the action of a man in that state ought to be visited upon him as the action of a man in possession of his senses. That was all he had to

say. The Judge then passed sentence of death.

Some reporters for the Irish papers have been allowed to have an interview with Montgomery, who is said to have related to them with great minuteness the details of the murder. He said the

weapon was lying on the bank table, and was not concealed. Mr. Glasse saw it, and asked him what he was going to do with it. The prisoner replied that he was dangerous, and commenced brandishing it about his head; but the deceased only laughed. Mr. Glasse then turned round to look at a map on the wall, and the prisoner struck him a heavy blow on the head. He turned round and looked, but he was powerless to do anything. Afterwards he fell on the floor, and Montgomery sat down and began to read the Belfast Newsletter till Mr. Glasse was dead.

THE GOLD CUP DAY AT GOODWOOD attracted as usual a large and fashionable assemblage. The Prince and Princess of Wales, the Czarewitch and the Czarevna, Prince Arthur, the Duke and Duchess of Teck, Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, and the Duke of Cambridge, were all present.

Only three numbers-those of Cremorne, Favonius, and Flageolet-were hoisted for the Cup, and the paddock inspection was so decidedly adverse to Cremorne that by common consent the issue became reduced to the representatives of M. Lefevre and Baron Rothschild. Although fielding was freely indulged in, there was yet plenty of money forthcoming against Flageolet—the colt, indeed, going rather badly in the market at the finish. The race was one of the most hollow ever witnessed, as Flageolet, dashing away from the start, was never headed; Cremorne was beaten after a mile had been covered, and at the end of the next half-mile Favonius began to evince symptoms of distress. The winner was well ridden by Huxtable, who obeyed his instructions to force the pace to the letter.

AUGUST.

2. GREAT RAILWAY DISASTER.-A most terrible accident, causing the death of twelve passengers and serious hurts to many more, occurred on the London and North-Western Railway, at the Wigan junction station, to the tourists' night express train from London to Scotland, leaving the Euston-square terminus at eight in the evening.

The train, which was an unusually heavy one (consisting of two engines, twenty-two carriages, and three vans), left Euston station at 8.5 p.m., five minutes after the advertised time. When, at eighteen minutes past one p.m., the train (more than fifteen minutes late) approached Wigan, the signals showed "all right." Within a few yards of the down platform, and opposite the south box, a pair of "facing" points work in connexion with the main down line and a single-line siding which runs along the back of the down

platform for a distance of about one hundred yards, and again into the down line at the extreme end of the platform. The two engines (both of which were at the head) and seventeen or eighteen of the carriages passed the facing points in safety at the usual rate of from thirty-five to thirty-eight miles an hour. Owing to some cause unexplained, the remaining six or seven carriages and a guard's van were jerked from the body of the train and the main line at the facing points, and rushed up the siding. Having lost their equilibrium, they veered over against that portion of the platform abutting on the siding, and ploughed up the flags and earth a length of twenty or thirty yards. The leading carriage, which was of composite construction, was overturned and broken to pieces, the wheels and flooring being all that remained. The other carriages sprang from the metals to the platform and fell over upon their sides. One or two others turned almost completely over, a few yards beyond, blocking the siding; and these, too, were knocked to pieces.

The shock was tremendous with which the carriages that parted from the train came against the station buildings. One corner of the wall from which springs the roof of the station was knocked out of plumb along several yards of its length, to the extent of six inches. One of the iron pillars on the roof, which stood midway on the platform, was struck down by the extraordinary leap of one of the carriages against it, and by three or four of the carriages running right on the top of each other. The telegraph-wires were caught and dragged asunder. A length of thick brick wall adjoining, built between the railway and Queen-street, which is five or six yards below the level of the railway, was partly knocked down. A large fragment of one of the carriages, with a lady passenger inside it, was hurled over the wall and fell upon and through the slated roof of a portion of Mr. Walker's foundry. A number of men working a "night turn" on the premises escaped injury, but the lady was killed.

The leading portion of the train, which kept to the main line, was brought to a standstill at Turner's siding, several hundred yards from the scene of the accident. Except the conductor, who received some bruises, nobody in these carriages was injured; but the Perth van, occupied by him, which was at the extreme end of those which kept on the main line, jumped from the metals when the separation occurred at the facing points, and ran, half in the four-feet space and half in the six-feet, as far as the pointsman's post at the north box, where it was guided back to the metals. The van was much damaged, one side being completely torn away. How the conductor escaped as he did is surprising. The footboard of a saloon carriage which ran next in order was broken off and an axle-box damaged.

The officials in charge of the station sent messengers to the town for medical and other assistance, and people living near were roused from their beds by the shrill whistles and cries of the porters. A