... COAST DEFENCES. The Press Association's Woolwich correspDn- deut states that the work of improving and strengthening the coast defences which has been going on for some years is now practi- cally complete. The old batteries erected along the coast to protect the entrances of harbours and ports have been replaced by the latest guns, the strength of the armaments having been made commensurate ...

... CASUALTIES TO LOCAL VESSELS, The steamer A.. Strong, from Oran, has ar- rived at Fleetwood with considerable damage to her hull, bridge, boats. and upper works, throngh collision off Finisterre with a, French steamer, name unknown. The steamer Falka has dry docked at Ca.rdiff with ballast tank leaky. ...

... Rome, Saturday Morning.—A banking syndi- cate, composed of Messrs Bienenfeld, Gnascony, and Scheiber, having a capital of 2,500,OCO lire, have offered the Government a loan for exclusive concessions in the development of Erythrea.- Central News. ...

... SEVEN DAYS' NEWSPAPERS. The Chief Rabbi Defends the Jewish Community. OUT-SPOKEN UTTERANCES AT CARDIFF. The Very Rev. Dr Adler, the chief rabbi, preached at the Cardiff Synagogue in Cathedral- road this morning to a large congregation. He selected as his text the words Ye shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My Sanctuary I am the Lord. In the course of an eminently prac- tical sermon Dr. ...

... SUDDEN DEATH OF AN ABERGAVENNY PUBLICAN, An inquest was held at the Police Station t2- day (before Mr J. B. Watford, coroner) touching the death of John Joseph Clarke (57), landlord of the Station Hotel, Brecon-road. Alice Horton said I am a nnrse employed to look after the children, and had been there for four years and on Thursday night assisted in the bar from 6 till 11 o'clock along with ...

... A P/lember of the House of Lords as a Co-respondent. The official list of probate and matrimonial causes to be tried at the ensuing sittings, which commence to-morrow, has been issued. The undefended divorce list is unusually heavy, there being 152 suits for hearing. The defended cases, without juries, number 62, while there are 24 actions to be tried by common juries. Byar. rangement, no ...

... The Stella Disaster. I AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH. The Captain's Anxiety. A Guernsey correspondent states that Alder- ney fishermen have searched the Casquets for any indication of a collision. but so far without success. They are unanimous in saying that the Roque Noire is the large rock that those aboard the Stella assert they saw loom ahead imme- diately prior to the collision, and that the ...

... WILL OF THE MARQUIS OF ANGLESEA. Probate of the will,which bears date 1st August, 1898, of Henry, fourth Marquis of Anglesey, of Plasnewydd, Llanfairpwll, Anglesey, who died on the 18th of October last, aged 63 years, deputy lieutenant for Staffordshire and Anglesey, honorary colonel of the Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry, and the Royal Welsh Fnsiliers, and formerly commander of the Liverpool ...

... DUKE OF BEAUFORT'S ILLNESS! The Duke of Beaufort, who hats been ill for Otoe weeks, became alarmingly worse last night. son the Marquis of Worcester, the present Occupier oE Badminton, has been summoned. I ...

... rSPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE;, ECHO.] i Derby, r nday.—Heavy rain has been falling for some time in the Midlands, and it continued with force up to the hour for racing. The going was in very slopp, condition. One would have ex- pected a small attendance under such circum- stances, but the gathering was not at all bad. The lot entered for the Quarndon Plate turned out, and the favourite Worksop ...

... A shocking fatality occurred about noon on Thursday at the ropeworks of Messrs Haggie, Sunderland. Kenneth, the youngest son of Mr D. H. Haggie, J.P., had been in the t:ngine room alone, and was found under the engine terriblv mutilated, having evidently been entangled in the machinery. Death must have been almost instantaneous. He was a promising young man, well known in the North and at ...

... Pretoria, Thnrfday.— With reference to the telegram published by the London Times con- taining the declaration of the TJitlp-nders' rights, it is officially (I.ec;&wi here that publication must be a breach of confidence on the part of the original transmitter of the letter embodying the terms of the declaration. Such a letter, it is stated, has been received by the State Secretary, and is ...