nd Dutch fleets in 1781.
On the night of the 21st of October 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War,
some British trawlers of the Hull fishing fleet were fired upon by
vessels of the Russian Baltic fleet under Admiral Rozhdestvensky on its
voyage to the Far East, one trawler being sunk, other boats injured, two
men killed and six wounded. This incident created an acute crisis in the
relations between Russia and England for several days, the Russian
version being that they had seen Japanese torpedo-boats, but on the 28th
Mr Balfour, the English prime minister, announced that the tsar had
expressed regret and that an international commission would investigate
the facts with a view to the punishment of any responsible parties. The
terms were settled on 25th November, the commission being composed of
five officers (British, Russian, American and French, and one selected
by them), to meet in Paris. On the 22nd of December the four original
members, Vice-admiral Sir Lewis Beaumont, Vice-admiral Kaznakov
(afterwards replaced by Vice-admiral Dubassov), Rear-admiral Davis and
Vice-admiral Fournier, met and chose Admiral Baron von Spaun
(Austria-Hungary) as the fifth. Their report was issued on the 25th of
February 1905. While recognizing that the information received as to a
possible attack led the admiral to mistake the trawlers for the enemy,
the majority of the commissioners held Rozhdestvensky responsible for
the firing and its results, and "being of opinion that there were no
torpedo-boats either among the trawlers nor anywhere near" concluded
that "the opening of fire was not justifiable," though they absolved him
and his squadron from discredit either to their "military qualities" or
their "humanity." The affair ended in compensation being paid by the
Russian government.

DOGGETT (or DOGGET), THOMAS (d. 1721), English actor, was born in
Dublin, and made his first appearance in London in 1691 as Nincompoop in
D'Urfey's _Love for Money_. In this part, and as Solon in the same
author's _Marriage-hater matched_, he gained the favour of the public.
He followed Betterton to Lincoln's Inn Fields, creating the part of Ben,
especially written for him, in Congreve's _Love for Love_, with which
the theatre opened (1695); and next year played Young Hobb in his own
_The Country Wake_. He was associated with Cibber and others in the
management of the Haymarket and Drury Lane, and he continued to play
comedy parts at the former until