OUR MAIL BUDGET.

SUMMARY OF WORLD'S

HAPPENINGS. LONDON, March 2. Tho distress m Edinburgh is said to be greater than for many years. Fifteen thousand persons, mostly women, are striking for higher wages at Dundee. Eight thousand cab drivers struck work iv Berlin, and reduced traffic to a state of chaos. Nearly thirty-seven million pounds will have been spent on the British Xavy durt ing the year ending March 31st next. According to Russian newspaper estimates, 72,000 persons are now imprisoned iv Russia, on political grounds. Cycle factories m Birmingham and Coventry are- working night and day to cope with the great rush of orders. All Chinese coolies on the Rand wishing to lvturn home will have to give tlnve months' notice. ■ Mr Edward: Steinkopff, who received £1.500,000 as his share of the Apollinaris business, which he helped to found, died at Hay ward's Heath. Inland postage m France, which was formerly l£cl, will from Easter Monday be reduced to Id. Twelve persons were drowned by the sinking of an overloaded boat m the river Nefvinu, near Bilbao (Spain). The extraordinary fall m values of South African mining shares during the past 13 montlis has resulted m a loss of over £65,000,000. It is estimated that 30,000 extra cotton operatives will be required m Lancashire if the present boom m trade con.

tiuues. The Japanese Government are trying to increase the size of the Japanese race by making experiments with various kinds of foods. Tluee persons were killed and about a hundred injured m a fire which broke out at the San Martin Theatre m Santiago de Chile. A wonderful ornament valued at £30,000, for a Turkish potentate, has just been complted by a firm of London jewellers. It is stilted that ex-Superintendent Melville, one of the greatest of Scotland Yard detect ivis, has joined the Hussian political police. Throughout Germany no less than £450,000 has been subscribed for charitable pin poses to celebrate the Kaiser's silver wedding. The Emperor Mentlik of Abyssinia is rapidly improving his capital, Adis-Abe-ba, where a large club house lia.s- been completed and a racecourse laid out. As compensation for sharing m tlie hardships . of the siege of Port Arthur, about 5000 male civilians who lost their property have been awarded 36y each. A derelict steamer, the Dunmore, lias been sighted by the steamer Bylands 300 miles from New York, m the direct track of tin; huge Atlantic liners. Tt is stated m the Madrid press that King Alfonso and Princess Kna, after their marriage, will pass the honeymoon at Kylemore Oa&tle. Ireland, the property of the Duke of Manchester. Mr John Ward, M.P., who made a notable speech m the House of Commons on Friday, state's that lur has been trying to live m Parliament- on 50s a week, and finds it- impossible. A feature of the Milan Exhibition is to be a race between a. Hying machine and a train running through the Simplon tun. nel.

It was stated m the discussion on const erosion, m the House of Commons, that a Gibraltar disappears every year m Yorkshire. The contract fur Mic electrification of tho tramways at Bahin, Brazil, estimated at- about £i,000,000, has been .secured by the General Electric Company of New York.

At the time of Trafalgar the capital value of rhe British Navy was £10,000,000 In 1902 it was £100,000,000. Now tlie cost oi each vessel approaches £2,000,000 There was a decrease of £141,800 m the drink bill of Canada last year, while 401,000 more pounds of tobacco, 4,522,0(50 more cigarettes, and 5,739,000 move cigais were sold. As the result of the poll by postcards the inhabitants of Bath have decided, by a majority of 2652 not to accept Mr Carnegie's offer to build a free library m that town. As a. non-union printing finn at Chicago is publishing a city d'.rctory, 25,CC0 union:.s;s, with a> view of making the publication worthless, have given their names as "John* Smith." Sir John George iollemache Sinclair, Bart., of Thurso Castle, Caithness, has presented a gramophone aira records to 600 asylums and other institutions, tlie gifo representing, over £4000. Gallay, the bank clerk, who absconded with £34,G00, was sentenced m Paris to seven years' liard labor, and his companion, Mine. Merelli, was acquitted. She lias received five invitations to "star" the halls.

Ten Italians who attempted to cross the Grand St. Bernard Pass m a snowstorm were swept away by an avalanche. After being carried 200 feet they extricated themselves unhurt. The Canadian Government have decided to build three wireless telegraph stations on the 1 Pacific coast for communication with vessels at sea. This action is due to tho recent loss of the steamship Valencia. The American War Department is said to have prepared plans lor an extensive campaign m. China, which provide for the embarkation of 25,000 men. with siege and field artillery, m the event of a serious outbreak. Chancellor Prescott has called attention at Carlisle to the fact that m a city of less than 50,000 people there aacr c 10,000 poor people receiving gratuitous medical assistance from one or more of the local charitable iusritutions. The latest reports from Colombia (South America) show that 2000 persons weie killed as the result of the earthquake and tidal wave which swept the coast southward from Buenaventura on January 31st. Mr Thomas W. Lawson, of "Frenzied Finance" fame, is now actively engaged m liis campaign to defeat the Standard Oil interests m the control of the New York Life and Mutual Life Insurance Companies, and declares he holds enough proxies tv ensure control. Lord Kitchener, m an interview, said he found on, his arrival m India the Army just as it Mas at the chin- of the Mutiny, and also that worst of military faults, division of authority. He characterised as "utter nonsense 1 ' his desire io place the military above the civil power. In every respect the tour of the Prince and Princess of Wales m India has been successful beyond the most sanguine expectations. The special correspondent- of the Pms Association telegraphs from Lucknow that he lias the highest warrant for making that statement. The tour lias been a triumphal Imperial progress. Great trade depression exists m Johannesburg, says the South African Newjf, and one large millinery establishment, m order to attract custom, hue been giving away a lady's trimmed hat to every customer whose purchases exceed ten shillings.

Mrs Helen, Constauce Taylor, of Phillimore Gardens, widow of Mr Hugh Lewis Taylor, died intestate without any known relations, leaving £51,084, and letters of .administration.. liave been gninted to the solicif-i. for tlie Treasury for the use of his Majesty. . , : . Dalton-in-Furntes Council has. received a severe letter from Mr Andrew Carnegie, who gave £3000 to build a local library. He now flatly refuses to give a further donation, lor which the Council asked him. There is too much "Go to Mr Car-, negie'and get i\\e money a.<? a matter of course," he swys. - The Neve Freie Presse publishes a communicatioit from Dr, Ott, King Edward's Marienbad pliysician. M-ho declares that his Majrety has never been m bitter health than at present, and, all'reports to the contrary are malicious in--veiitiuns,. jxjssibly .-to...bs -traced to pplir tical- motives. , ' "Butter is now so skilfully and scienti fic:illy adulterated m Holland, or m England under Dutch guidance, that analy--tical processes fail definitely to trace the admixture." reports Mr Otto Hehner. public analyst to the- Isle of Wiglu County Council. A newly excavated house at Pompeii, which is said to rival the ' House of tlie Vetti" m beauty, will be opened to visitors m a few days. It is called "The House of the Gilded Oupids," the walls bting adorned with glass discs, enamelled m gold, with fine miniatures of cupids. Shrove Tuesday football, which was played according to ancient custom at Ashbourne, iv Derbyshire, had a tragic outcome. A young man named Tunnicliffe, being exhausted, sank down m a hedge bottom, .and wag afterwards found there frozen to death. RUSSIA'S FINANCIAL STRAITS. The most recent advices, private and other, from St. Petersburg point to the probability that before long the Government will be compelled to make a clean breast of the deplorable and even desperate straits into which the national finances have drifted. — The Scotsman. A NATIONS STRENGTH. .. The strength and greatness of a nation lies m neither its sinews nur money, but m the devotion of its citizens to a lofty ideal of public and private- duty ; m the lovo for the true, the good, and the beautiful, and m the hatred of what is false, evil, mean, and ugly.*— British Medical Journal. SAILOR PRINCE REWARDED. Prince Alexander o-f Batteuberg, a nephew of Prince Lmris, who commands the second cruiser squadron, has been awarded a medal of honor by the Spanish Lifeboat Association for.. having, on the night of February llth, saved the lives of several seamen of the Spanish cruiser Rio de la Plata, m the. Buy of Algeciras. TO LIMIT PRIVATE FORTUNES. A Bill has been introduced into the United States Congress with the object of limiting private fortunes. It provides that no man m the United States shall be permitted' to possess a greater fortune than £2,000,000. In the event of any individual exceeding that amount, the «ur. plus shall be condemned as a "public nuisance," and &hall be forfeited to the State. <