All bazaar records will be broken by the great three days' sale on behalf of the war funds which was opened by the Princess of Wales at. Kensington, and reopened the Duke of Cambridge to-day, and whit is to be reopened once more by General White to-morrow. There were sisty-si: stalls, each representing "a regiment or groups of regiments at the front; and all the leaders of fashion were among. those who presided or assisted at the stalls. All the members of the Royal family have contributed articles for sale Emperor a splendid lot of costly Dresden china as well as reproductions of a picture by his own Imperial hand; and every legitimate device was resorted to to charm the money from the pockets of those who attended. The sum obtained yesterday was upwards of ten thousand" pounds. A money-raising scheme of a more plebeian character was carried into effect on the same day in St. Pancras, in the shape of a carnival of a similar kind to those which have already taken place in Brixton and ether parts of London. A procession some three miles long, consisting of allegorical and triumphal cars, men and women in fancy costume, torch bearers, and so forth, paraded the streets, accompanied by money collectors. Nearly. all the houses in the huge parish were decorated and illuminated, and somewhat boisterous fun was kept up till an early hour this morning. The carnival is to be repeated to-night, and it is hoped that a substantial sum will be added to the war funds.
THE COMMONWEALTH BILL, Mr. Chamberlain and the Australian delegates have achieved a common triumph. The Colonial Secretary met the delegates more than halfway in the matter of the celebrated Clause 74, and on Monday night. The Commonwealth Bill passed its Second Reading by a unanimous vote of the House of Commons. The only man who has any right to feel aggrieved is Mr. Dickson, who braved the ill will of his colleagues, and, was consequently submitted to something very like a boycott, by siding with the Colonial Secretary on the question of the appeal to the Privy Council. He was supported, it is true, by his Colonial Government, but Mr. Chamberlain has practically thrown over both Mr. Dickson and the Queensland Gorernment. The amendment which has been made in Clause 74 appears at first sight to be purely verbal. In the origin the appeal to the Privy Council was to in all cases except where the public interests of other parts of the Empire than Australia were concerned. In the Clause as amended, the appeal will continue to exist except where Australian interests alone are concerned. In terms, this is only the same thing stated in a different way; but in effect it will no doubt largely' safeguard the right of appeal. The onus of proof will now be on those who contend that the subject matter of an appeal affects Australia alone. The latter part of the Clause, which empowered the Australian legislature at a future time to further curtail the right of appeal has also been modified. The exact terms of the compromise are, however, of little moment, beside the fact that agreement has been arrived at in a matter which threatened to strain the relations between Great Britain and her Australian colonies. It would not have he rious strain in a Int at a time as this it is even the slight Fortunately the Commonwealth Bill vow safe; and Mr. Chamberlain' may congratulate himself on having assisted most successfully at the birth of the constitution of a continent, at the making of a nation which no one can doubt has great destiny before it.
25th May.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.