The ge with the ration of the War Once, to which events in South Atriea have given rise, has hon intense week by the bung: ing and stupidity whiely have caused four deaths ud an immense amount of suffering among the troops at Aldershot. rigid day had been arranged for Monday, and in spite of xn extraordin Inat wave, which rendered the a almost insupportable even for those who Dad nothing 1 do but recline and absorb ing drinks, the whole programme was ed through "s though the weather were normal, Not only were the men exercised for hours under a broiling sun in winter uniform and fora, c caps, bus owir to-some bangling they got almost nothing to eat and very little water to drink, A temperature of 894 in the shade may seem comparatively cool to your readers Shanghai; ently a date as the Lith of June it established w sixty yenrs' record for London. An enquiry into the Alder-hot blund: r has been instituted; but whether those responsible will ever be brought to book is very doubtful.
MRS, GLADSTONE, The death of Mes. Gludstons, which took price ut Hawarden Castle yesterday, was as peaceful as that of her: husband two years ayo, She was quite free from most throughout her illness, and indeed for the lust two or three days she was never conscious, death being really due to no other cause than old age. The young heir of Hawarden, William Glynne Gladst who is now at Eton College, arrived at the castle with his two sisters just too Into to see his grandmother alive; but with these exceptions practically all the members of the family were present. The funeral is, of course, to take place in Westminster Abbey, for Mr. Gladstone's most emphatically expressed desire with regard to his burial was that he and his wife should rest. side ly side, It was observed that the fami consented to Mr. Gladstone's bur Abbey. It is intimated, however, that were is to be nothing in the nature of a public funeral, and that only relatives and personal friends are to be invited. sik HENRY IRVING'S RETURS.
No doubt Mr. Choate, the American Ambassador, was indulging in humorous exaggeration when, speaking at a banquet given last Saturday to Sir Hevry Irving on his return from America, he declared that he had brought away so much money from the United States as to cause a tem-Fixchauge; but. there is no doubt that orary panic on the New York Stock this last tour in the States has been by far the most successful that Sir Henry has ever had. Everybody will rejoice "with him, for there has been no secret about the fact that his financial position has not Deen so flourishing recently as it was a few itis well known, too, that argoly due to his open-handed generosity. Under the terms of his agree-tment with the Lyceum Theatre Compwny a proportion of the profits of his tour goes to the shareholders; bat even when this eduction has been made he will have a very handsome margin, At the banquet idea to welcome him there was a brilliant othering of actors, artists, men-of-letters, ud others, among whom the United tes were representd not only by their Ambassador at the Court of St. James, hut by their two great humourist, Bret Harte an! Mark Twain, the latter of when unde a very amusing little speech in which he claimed to have written 415 plays though he admitted that he had never succeede) in gelting any of them acted. no society gathering of the year have the gaps left by the war been more apparent than they were at Ascot. On the opening day the Four-in-hand and Coacing Club:
only sixteen drags in their enclosures, i plice of the usual fifty or so; and the muster of earringes was the poorest that has been seen there for many years. The meeting was deprived, too, of one of its most interesting features by the omission of the Royal procession, the Prince of Wales his quarters this year at th House, from which he had a of only two or three minutes to the Royal enclosure. Among the party whom he entertained were his son, the Duke of Ye Duke of Connaught; and Prince Christian als" attended the meeting; but the Indies of the Royal family had but one representative present, the Duchess of Comnanght, who drove oer from Bagsh: The tacing, too, was not of a very. hi order, ant the Ascot of 1900 will be remembered as the least brilliant o " record.
15th June.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.