The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-02-15 00:00:00

JELLALABAD PAST AND PRESENT.

made a rush with the bayonet, and then curiae home to
breakfast.' A well-earned 15reakfast, methiLlts; and I
think every reader will share my hope and wish that the
valiant and modest ebidier who was my cicerone, and who
in his sturdy old age has come back thus strangely to the
scene where in his youth he worthily earned credit and pro-
motion, may retain health and strength to serve his Queen
and country for years to come, as he has done already for
more years than the lives of two-thirds of us can number."

CITY OF GLASGOW BANK AID ASSO-
CIATION (LIMITED.)

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS.

The death is announced at Rugby of William
Morgan, who attained the advanced age of 100 years.
News has reached St. Petersburg of the defeat of the
Chinese by the Berta, who are reported to have occupied the
town of Kashgar and its surroundings.
Next month will appear the fifth edition of Dr.
Busch's book on Prince Bismarck. Down to the present
date over 10,000 copies of the book have been sold.
The notice for a reduction of wages at Ashton has
been met by the weavers with a determination to strike, and
the self-actor minders are also inclined to resist.
In Sweden at the present moment, according to the
Cologne Gazette, appear 300 papers and periodicals, of which
84 are in Stockholm. There are only ten daily papers, of
which five are published in Stockholm ; while in Norway
In
the statement Cabinet in-
tatement according to which the Britißareerlittelegram
t 076 haendCionbogF in Gazettenlae
dair.says that
tends giving Hellgoland back to Germany is regarded as
unAf
unded. It is merely, the telegram says, the resuscita-
tion of an old rumour.
there

Under the above title, the Daily News of Tuesday
published an extremely interesting letter from their
.Special Correspondent at Jellalabad.—We make the
following extracts from the letter (which is dated New
Year's Day)
" Eighteen hundred and thirty-nine I It is a generation
and a half ago. Queen Victoria was a slim girl just emerging
from her teens, aid as yet unmarried. Lord Melbourne was
the Premier. Prince Louis Napoleon—his opportunity yet
nine years distant in the future—was living in Carlton House-
terrace. In 1839 Chartist riots agitated the peace of Eilgiand.
In 1839 Mr. Villiers's annual motion ageinst the Corn Laws
laws which are almost as aneent history to the pressnt
generation—was defeated by a majority of 371 against 172;
and in 183, as now again in 1879; an Anglo-Indian army was
invading Afghanistan. In the track of this army, merching
from Candahar to Cabul, lay the Afghan fortress of Ghuznee.
Keane had left behind him his siege train; he determined
to resort to the expedient of blowing in one of the gates of
the fortress with gunpowder, and then carrying the place by
assault: and so it fell out that in the gusty darkness of the
early morning of the 23rd July Durand Was creeping
up to the Cabot gate of Obannee, at the head of
a little band of valiant soldiers carrying the powder-
bags to be piled .against the massive timber of the
gate. The non-commissioned officsr of this powder party
was young Corporal Bayley, of the 13th Light Infantry. The
gate blown, the corporal of the powder party joined the
stormers under the gallant Denote, and took his share in the
brief, hot struggle that ensued. From Ghuznee he tramped
on to Cabul with his regiment, and saw Shah Soojah ride
into the Baia Hiesar with alacknaughton and Burnes by his
side. A supple as well as a brave young soldier, he was the
victor of the long-distance race in the athletic sports which
the Feringhees promoted under the walls of Cabal. Tivo years
later—by this time a sergeant—he quitted Cabul with his regi-
ment, which formed part of Sale's brigade, on the return
march to India. How that brigade had to tight its way down to
Jellelabad need not be told here. Is the story not written
in the pages of Kaye and Gieig ? He followed Sale when
that stout chief, wounded in the ankle at Tazeen, was
carried in a litter to take possession ef the place, which he
made a fortress, and which he held with such indomitable
persistence for six long, weary months. Be took his share
in the heavy tail of reconstructing the defences of Jella-
labad, in the constant watchfulness which alone made it
tenable, in the sorties which again and again hurled back
its assailants. He was one of the illustrious garrison'
which welcomed the advent of Pollock's column of relief
and of retribution. With it he marched back to Cabul,.fight-
ing by the way; with it he marched back to India, once
again seeing the Jellalabad that so long had been his en-
forced home; and surely his heart must have swelled with-
in his breast, as on the great maiden of Ferozepoid the
illustrious garrison,' of which he was S. unit, marched to
tile strains of the 'Conquering Hero' to receive the
enthusiastic greeting of a Viceroy, and to be welcomed by
the plaudits of an assembled army.
"Now once again, after many years, an English army has
possession of Jellalabad. Of all the band of heroes thq
constituted the 'illustrious garrison' of eight and thirty
years ago, there remains but one man still on active service.
Corporal Bayley, of Ghuznee and Jellalabad, by dint of
steady ability, has wrestled his way up a path that was
harder in the days he trod it than it is now; and he is now
Major Bayley, paymaster of the 4th battalion Rifle Brigade.
By a strange freak of the whirligig of time, by a won-
derful caprice of the fortune of war, the veteran revisits
now the place of the most memorable episode of his
early soldiering days. For all of us Jellalabad has an
interest of singular depth and fervour; but think for a
moment of the memories and associations the strangely fami-
liar scene most rekindle in this man's breast I Let us try
bur utmost, there must be an unreality in the pictures we
Strive to conjure up;
_but we can recall the actual reality
itself. Every step to him suggests a memory'.As the other
day the Rifle Brigade marched through Jellalabad, its band
Playing the regimental march, other men thrilled but to the
emotion of the hour. But to him, as he strode along in his
hale old age, there must have recurred the echoes of another
tune—the oh, but ye've been lang o' coming ! ' with which,
in a spirit of genial sarcasm, the band of the 13th Light In-
fantry played in the head of Pollock's army of relief.
"Major Bayley was kind enough to allow me to be his
companion in a peregrination through Jellalabad, and to
illustrate the little tour with his reminiscences, which, after
the lapse of so many years, are singularly vivid and detailed.
Our way to the city was from Sir Sam Browne's camp on the
plain to the east of it, past fertile fields, gardens groves,
and ruins of outlying villages. Major Boley pointed out
the tract on our left which had been occupied as a temporary
cantonment by Wades contingent of Shah Soojah's troops
on its slow march up to Cabul. There had been a brisk
fight on the plain tonhe south-westward on the 12th Novem-
ber, 1841, the day before Sale's occupation of Jellaia-
bad, and the handful of cavalry which his brigade com-
prised had for the first time got a clear field against the
Afghans, and had made the best use of their opportunity.
Four hours after Sale had entered the Afghans crossed the
river from thd left bank, looted and burned the canton-
ments, and threatened to assault the place. They had,
however, little he irt left .after the lesson of the previous
day, and the show of a sortie drove them off, although they
afterwards returued and encamped in tilt vicinity of the
place where Sir Sam Browne's camp now is. As we ap-
proached the Peshawur gate, Major Bayley found little
change in the aspect of the vicinity since he had quitted the
place seven-and-thirty years ago. The mud wale repaired
after the great earthquake, the fissures of which are still
visible, still stands, although a little crumbled at the top.
The ditch dug by the British garrison has gradually filled up.
The gate is not the same, nor quite in the same place' but
Major Bayley readily recognised the open-fronted guard-
house a little way inside. . . . Before us lay the narrow
main street of Jelhllabad, flunked on either side by
shops that are booths, thronged by a motley crowd,
and redolent of stenches that made us hold our
noses. Presently we turned sharp to the left, and gained
the area in which; during the siege, the men of the 13th
ana the 35th N. I had their quarters. The space then
had been cleared and levelled, and huts had been built on
it for the troops. These for the most part have now been
secceeded by native houses, but part of the open space
stilt remains, and in the centre of it stand some handsome
trees, which Major Bayley well remembers. He identified
also, by the carved woodwork of part of its front, a house
which had been occupied by some of the 'officers of the 35th.
Then through a narrow door we entered an outer garden, in
the centre or which is still the well that furnished the
garrison with its supply of water after. Akbar Khan had cut
off the conduit bringing water into the town irons the plain
to the westward. Beyond this is an inner garden, surrounded
on three sides with lofty walls; on the fourth side flanked
by the house of the Governor of Jellalabad, a hand-
some residence with carved wooden front, and a flat
roof looking over the ramparts against which leans the
back of the house. Ihe garden Is pleasantly laid out with
shady arbours. fountains, and orange trees laden. with
golden fruit. There are marl alterations since the olden
days, but even then there was the garden plot, and in houses
surrounding it lived Bennie, the gallant colonel of the 13th;
Monteath, of the 35th.; MacGregor, the political officer;
Broadfoot, of the Sappers and Captain Henry Haveloek,
who survived to earn a fame that shall be coeval with our
military annals. Major Bayley believes that it was in
this garden where were held the stormy councils of
war wherein was debated the question of evacuation or of
continuing to hold the place in the face of Elpbinstoue's
order to evacuate, written when he was a prisoner. Stand-
ing here and looking on the historic spot, one may easily
conjure up before the mind's eye the circle of excited deba-
ters and Broadfoot's outburst of maguiticsnt wrath as he
flung on the ground the propositions of capitulation and
vehemently struggled against their adoption. One can ima-
giue MacGregor, the spokesmen of hire military chief, stem-
ming the torrent of Broadfoot's impassioned argument with
the quiet logic of discipline; Sole seated in the armchair in
which, by reason of his' Wound, he was always carried about;
Blachhouse, a man of fiery courage and a plain discourse,'
backing up Broadfoot ; Oldtield, the taciturn cavalry leader,
a silent voter to the same effect; and Havelock, cold of eye
and severe of face, but at heart hot as Broadfaot himself
against etecuation, standing aside and silent, having no
voice in the council, but gradually swaying it nevertheless
with the cogent arguments with which he had fortified his
friend Broadfuot.
"A number of armed irregulars hung around the front of
the Governor's house, as we passed up the staircase on to its
roof. Here were squatted a circle of scribes, asstcluously
writing on blue paper what we were informed were the
accohnts of the revenue. They greeted us, and placidly went
on with their work, never once lifting their heads again from
their papers. Close below us lay a section of the ramparts,
which neither time nor the hand of man had materially
changed since 1842. The parapet and banquette were almost
intact, the latter so broad that it was possible to wheel guns
along it from one point to another. . . .
"From the eminence of the roof of the Governor's house
we looked far over the plain to the south, to where the
snowy ridge of the Sujed Koh closes in the horizon At our
feet lay tile Anaeer's gardens known to the old garrison as
the Shah's gardens. And within the range, too, of our
vision was idper a Hill,' one of the three isolated rocky •
eminences about a rifle shot from the ramparts. It got this
name during the defence, and by it the Afghans still know
it. It was wont to be the resort of a performer
on the Afghan bagpipe, who used to caper defiantly
on its summit, and play on his shrill instrument,
when his fellows in the broken ground below were annoying
the garrison. It happened that Captain Holcomb of the
13th had a rifle, the only one in the garrison, and that one
day losing his temper at the antics of the Afghan musician,
he took a steady sight at him, and after a few attempts
terminated at once his music and his life I
"Returning to the main bazaar, Major Bayley led usthrough
it toward the Cebu' gate, the route to which is in a straight
line athwart the city from the Peshawur gate. . . . On the
right of the Cabul gate as we approach it, there is an open
space planted with trees ; on the 'left are some tall and '
rather good houses. It was in the open space tinder the
trees Where was pitched the tent in which Meijer Bayley
tells us brave old Sir. Robert Sale. abode during the
Whole of the siege, here in the vicinity or 'the most
critical point. .In the homes on the left dwelt the
sofficers of the cavalry and the artillery, the horses
picketed close to the ramparts in the open•spiebe beyond.
The Gibul gate is• the idehticatgate of the old days' as re-
paired after the earthquake. One can &race still the depress
• sfons of the trenches outside and inside of it, which were
• elug in hopes to achieve some measures of security when the
• Shock of the earthquake had crumbled • the gate-work
and the defences about it. Major Beyley tells how a
breastwork was improvised of camel saddles and sandbags.
Above the gate the rampart, the parapet, and the bui-
-1 iquette are carried over' upon massive beams, and
Phere during the siege was constantly fixed a telescope
mg use
rarni
gdoend
Ithheet rtohaed t
rforoo
pm
tcheahtas sir ptt
was
se
knownvalie valley anin dthceo
from Cabul were retreating, and 'eager was the anxiety
for tidings of its progress or for the heralding tokens of its
approach. Disaster had been predicted, hut only Dennis
had been pessimist enough to foretell the awful issue.
There comes even now, after all those years, a tremble into
Beyley's voice chile in low tones, as we stand here grouped
on the Cebu' gate, be tells how en the afternoon of the
13th January, 1842, Captain •Talbot, of the 13th, gazing
out through the telescope saw a solitary horseman toiling
slowly over the broken ground between the bills and the
Cabin road. • As he drew nearer, it was seen that he was a
white man, and that he was sore-awearied As he bent
over tha neck of his wretched . worn-out pony. It
was Dr. Brydora, the one man who escaped to tell
of the massacre of thousands. At first they took him for a
41th man, because he wore a forage cap of the pattern
peculiar to that regiment. ' Presently the ramparts were
'lined with officers and men, looking out with throbbing
hearts, through unsteady telescopes, or with straining
eyes trades; the reed. Slowly and painfully, as though
horse and rider both were in an extremity of mortal weak-
ness, the solitary mounted matt came reeling, tottering on.
On a wretched weary, pony, clinging as one sick or
wounded to its neck, he sat or rather leant forward;
and there were those who, as they watched his progress,-
thoeight that he could haver reach, unaided, the walls of
Jellalabad.' Oldfield took opt a deeachment of cevalry aud
brought him In, With his ghastly reports that he believed*
himself the sole survivor of some sixteen thousand men.
They took him away into the cavalry officers' quarters, and
he tarried there until his wounds were healed. He owed his
life to a wound, strange to say. One of his Afghan
pursuers cut him with his sword over the right arm. The
sinews severed, the arm fell helpless on the holster, but the
eseption zugg_eiteg the &imitate of a pistol, and his puraueis
itbandonea their pursuit Of ilisi.• •
„
. . . "From the eminence aboge the Cabal gate the eye
range a oveir the plaid whieh was the battlefield of the 6th
April; when Akbar Khan was wholly routed, and when the
'illustrious garrison' worked out its own -release from
further molestation. It is a fair Eight now, with the trees
and the towers the umbregeous groves of the gardens, and
the gleaming silver of the Cabul river away on the left. and
far disteut on the right the snow-white ridge of the Sufed
zos tZe east snarkling on the §tlQ W crs stals.
ihare,, haiLeat riluch`"6l ih'eye 'fief seenery east theh,' is
Major Bayley's' 0414 cornnidnt on enbotnia o the beauty of
the specteele. A-Oeneid thapY of lit 4 heareriLsthe party had
lucre aged as -wei wept elong-ecOvete'a greatly 'his eneeilenees
in that he had seen that plain, not basking in the peaceful
sunshine, but clouded with the smoke of bat*, and scored
by lines of men deployed in battle array. The eye of Op
veteran kindled and his bronzed cheek glowed, as he
told us, as the day dawned Akbar's line was visible
Stretching from his camp among the trees out yonder
away to the COO river. There, not three hundred
yards from the gate, anode eset the tower in. the CalsrY-
jug pf which the gallent pentne Met Eeeldiers death,
and-beyond lies the level stretch 'over ivhitiliniovedsteadi4
on to thenetaek the three converging columne, Havelock 's.,
next the river, more then, (Tee forced to, form square to
resist the onelaughts of the Afghan n se en;- ,There s the
garden wall thatiereened the bettery Akbanwas repokSad th e_
be.4lrealiPen
the
ma
jot,
whopego4no. ipwr.ohatowienTotn.6tneAur enwootdughs,. lays Pondicherry i 3 to have the olectric light, M. Berne,
we engineer, hay.ing Nu_ t P_aris.ior that purpele.
• . „', .-7
•
• „
7(.1E '/11 "ai"l. -stocieti? ainhth (settled ItPflal ffe orAmuurn

Since the abandonment of the Glasgow lottery
scheme a large number of gentlemen in Glasgow and
elsewhere have been in consultation as to the practi-
cability of adopting some other plan whereby relief can
be afforded the unfortunate shareholders of the City
of Glasgow Bank. These consultations have now led
to the adoption Of h scheme which, it is believed, will
meet the object in view, and the prospectus has been
issued to the public. it is proposed to form an associa-
tion, to be called the City of Glasgow Bank Aid As-
sociation (Limited), with a capital of £1,000,000, in
100,000 shares of £lO each. With these funds it
is intended to purchase obligations or assets of the
City Bank. It is believed that a large amount of
these obligations can be purchased at a material
reduction in price. If they can be secured at 15s.
per pound, it is calculated that for every £l,OOO of
the capital of .the association thus invested there
will be a relief of £2,000 to the shareholders of the
bank. In order to illustrate this, it is assumed in the
prospectus that obligations are purchased to the extent
of £B,OOO, for which £6,000 is required to be supplied
thus :—From subscribed capital of the association,
£l,OOO, and from advances which the association wish
to obtain of 125.. 6d. per pound on security of the obli-
gations purchased, £5,000, making the required sum of
£6,000, and effecting a relief to the shareholders of
£2,000 for the £l,OOO subscribed and so invested. The
amounts to be received from the liquidators on the
obligations purchased are to be applied in repayment
of the money borrowed upon security of these obliga-
tions, with interest, and in repayment of the capital
of the association.

A well known Boston Minister, in course of a
sermon upon angels, alluded to them as "an extinct race."
A mule's head does not contain a brain capable of
culture and refined rearing, but it is wonderful to what an
extent the other end of him can be reared.

When a woman combs her back hair into two ropes,
holds one In her month until she,winds the other upon her
tuck comb, and then finds that she has lost her last hair pin,
she feels that the sex needs two mouths—one to hold the hair
In and the other to make remarks with.
You may break, you may shatter the hive if you
will, bat if yon get off without a puncture or two you'll be
very lucky.

A Yankoe editor, in quest of special attractions for
his paper, says :—" What we want tor this column is per-
sonalties as mean as possible. Expense of lawsuits to be de-
frayed by the writer—funeral expenses by us."

A reformed teetotaller has been lecturing through
lowa, says that for forty years he was by turns a "beer
barrel, a rum puncheon, and a whisky cask." He has been
"a cl'ystallized aqueous filter," and now he mixes the two.
The young men of Chicago are said to be classified
according to their skill as velocipedists Into the "timid
toddlers,' the "wary warblers," " go-itrgraceftus," and
the fancy-few."

An Order in Council has been promulgated by the
Government of Canada prohibiting the importation of
American cattle into Canada for three months from the 6th
instant.

The Electrician says it is stated that the cost of the
electric light during the experiments carried on In Billings-
gate Market, London, including interest, and depreciation on
plant, engine power, attendance, and carbon, was upwards
of £4 per night, against rather less than £2 10s. per night
for gas. •

A Chicago naturalist claims to have discovered that
crows' when In flocks, have regularly orgaulzed courts, in
which they sit around and try offenders—a sort of crow.bar,
- - -

An old coloured preacher was lecturing a youth
about the sin of dancing, when the latter protested that the
Bible plainly said, "There's a time for dance." "Yes, dar
am a time to dance," said the dark divine; "and it's 10i-en
boys get a whippin' for gwine to a ball."

Acute goitre, attributed to the mountain waters
and the climate, has broken out among the French sappers
and miners at Conftans, near Albertville, Savoy.
'They do not quite promise you at the Village
Clubs that you shall drink your beer and keep it too; but
they offer something very similar. They enable you, after
paying your subscription, to sAve the money, supposing that
you would, if you were not a member of the Club, buy four
pints of beer per week elsewhere. Of course if, in considera-
tion of this cheapness, you drink half as much again as you ,
have been in the hahit of drinking, you will not be a gainer."'
—Mark Lane Express.

The interest shown by Austrian military men i n
the operations of foreign armies is shown by the fact that
' two lectures on the Afghan war, attended by the general
In command at Vienna and the principal officers of his
staff, have already been delivered in the Military Scientific
Society.
A telegram from Berlin says that Prince Bismarck
lain good health and that he is getting through a consider-
able amount of hard work. He has had interviews with the
Emperor every day since his return.

The electric light has been tried in the Dundee
Free library. The most satisfactory light was produced at a
height of about 201 t. from the floor. The general °pink n
was in favour of the light, and it was found that even in the
farthest corners small print could be easily read.
The barque Alpbeus Marshall, from Nova Scotia,
with a general cargo, went ashore on Sunday night en
Atherfield"Ledge, Isla of Wight. The lifeboat at once put
off, and saved 14 men, being the whole of the crew, except-
ing the boy;who was, unfortunately, washed off the deck of
the ship and'drowned. Toe fog was very thick, and another
ship, sesicamer, got aground•near Luccombe, but was got off
by steam tugs.

At the Quirinal Palace several balls are to be set
*side to receive the wreaths offered from year to year to
Victor Emmanuel's memory. They will form quite a
gallery.

A_ conference of' beer, wine, and spirit traders has
been held in Dublin, and, in consultation with Mr. P. J.
Symth, M P., the question of compensation and other matter's
affecting trade interests and general organisation throughout
the country were discussed. The principle of the Sunday
closing measure was vigorously condemned.
Sir James Elphinstone, one of the Junior Lords of
the Treasury, and the Hon. T. C. Bruce, the members for
Portsmouth, addressed their constituents on Tuesday night.
Sir James Eiphinstone, referring to the reverses in Zululand,
said, much as tne disaster was to be deplored, it would
stimulate the country to greater exertions, and end in the
total destruction and subjugation of our enemies. What-
ever might be the result of the Afghan war, which was now
virtually over, it was perfectly certain to his mind that the
Hindoo Koosh would eventually be the frontier of our do-
minion. The Government intended to carry out the Berlin
Treaty In all its parts, and other countries were equally de-
termined, now that England has taken the lead, to assist in
cubing Russian ambition.

There were 2,667 births and 1,839 deaths registered
in London last week. Allowing for increase of population,
the births exceeded by 58, and the deaths by 119, the average
numbers in the corresponding week of the last ten years.
The annual 4atli-rate from ail causes, which had been equal
to 261 and 26 2 per 1,000 in the two preceding weeks, further
rose to 26 5 Daring the past six weeks of the current
quarter the death-rate has averaged 26 9 per 1.000, agq.inst
211 and 2611 in the corresponding periods of 1877 and 1878.
The deaths included 17 from small-pox, 13 from measles
38 from scarlet fever, 11 from diphtheria, 47 from whooping-
cough, 20 from different forms of fever, and 13 from
diarrhcoa.

Princess• Lucien Murat died raddenly ot Monday
night. The daughter of a member of the Scotch clan of
Fraser, an officer settled in America, she was a Protestant,
and married the second son of Napoleon's famous General
in 1831. In 1843 she and her husband came over to France
and since the fall of the Empire have lived in retirement.
She leaves three sons and two daughters, one of the latter,
Baronue de Chassiron, being a Protestant and the rest of (ha
family Catholics.—Paris Correspondent of 2he Times.

According to the Democrat, San Francisco is to be
the drat city whose streets are to be lighted entirely by
the electric light. It is proposed to divide the city into dis-
tricts, varying in extent from one to three miles, each of
which will be fed by a sufficiently powerful Gramme machine.
The machines have already arrived at New York, and
arrangements have been made for adopting two or three
different patents.

The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, preaching on
Sunday in the Bristol Cathedral in aid of the Mayor's dis-
tress fund, said there were 280 gentlemen engaged in the
work of relief, and they had already distributed 91,000 pints
of soup, 93,000 two-pound loaves, and 17,000 cwta of coal, at
a cost of £2,500, but of L 3,100 as yet subscribed.

. Her Majesty's Indian relief troopship Malabar,
Captain John F. Grant, left Portsmouth on Tuesday morning
for Bombay, calling at Queenstown and Gibraltar en route.
She takes out' the 78th Regiment, and drafts of the 6th
Brigade of the Royal Artillery and the 81st Regiment,
'altogethfr amounting to forty-six officers, 1,153 men, sixty
women, and twelve children.
A. resolution, supported by Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P.,
was passed at a Liberal meeting at Ashton-under-Lyne, on
Saturday declaring that the present Government had
"neglecttd needful domestic legislation, and had pursued a
forei4n policy contrary to our noblest traditions and sub-
versivenf the best interests of the country." Another reso-
lution, moved by Mr. Hugh Mason and supported by Mr.
Rylands M.P., was also carried, expressing alarm and
Indignation at the taxation caused by the wasteful expendi-
ture of the Government, and a belief that the continued de-
pression of trade is largely 'due to their neglect of the
financies of the ation and to thetr foreign policy.

The salmon fishing on the Dee, Don, and Deveron
opened on Tuesday most unfavourably. Between 50 and 60
fish were got from the Dee, being about equal to the number
caught on the opening day last year. Seventy salmon were
got In the Don, as against 346 last year. Nothing was got
from the Deweron, and on the Aberdeenshire coast the
weather was so boisterous that it was impossible to attempt
fishing with the sea nets. The price of salmon in Aberdeen
was 2s. per lb.

-
Sir Arthur Gordon, Governor of Fiji, delivered an
address in the Town Hall, Reading, on Tuesday evening, on
the condition, progress, and resources of the colony, and
spoke.of the fertility of the soil, and of its adaptability for
coffee and cotton plantations, remarking also that sugar
grew there spontaneously. The revenue had increased four-
fold in four years, and the exports had doubled in the same
time.
On Tuesday afternoon the launching of a new
trading vessel named the Tarteton Lass, on the River
Douglas, was accompanied by a sad disaster. After the
launch nine ners2us went out in a pleasure boat, and it
caught the mooring chain of the Tarleton Lass and capsized.
Four persons were picked up in a bbat, but three young
women and two children sank before assistance arrived.
The captain of the new vessel is Mr. William lligharn, and
two of his children are among the drowned—Henry Ingham,
aged six, and Jane Ingham. The names of the other victims
are Mary Fazackerley, aged eight; Ann Fazackerley, the
young woman; and Elspeth Lund, daughter of the builder
of the vessel.
The plan of providing Berlin houses with steam-
heating, after the manner in which they are provided with
gas and water, seems to he on the eve of realisation, at all
events in a portion of the city. An ex sanitary officer has
received the approval of the President of the Police Board
for his suggestion of a preliminary experiment in a western
suburb. The land is taken, capitalists have come forward,
and a pattern 'station will be in course of construction. All
that remains is that not less than fifty householders shall
give an engagement to employ the new system in their own
dwellings. It is believed that this number will readily be
found, even amongst the middle or poorer classes, since the
proposed heating will be considerably cheaper than the
ordinary fuel. The amount consumed in each house will be
regulated, as the custom is with gas
The Board of Trade have received through the
Secretary of State for Foreign affairs a copy of a telegrana
from Her Majesty's Ambasstudor at Constantinople, reporting
that the Turkish Board' of Health have decided—with a
view of preventing the spread of plague from Russia—that
vesselspt:
si
bai
tlrser iwvoiifnt
without
uf from Russian
touching
transmittingchin g p;.l
andapgo urett
that
a raa are e
the
htteoo
visa
ei
se
asubjecteddoisfii: hfee 0ad::
medical observation for 24 hours; that goods for Turkey
ttshuheasetesa health guard is to accompany vessels passing through
Otto-
-1
man Consul is to be required to bills of health from Black
Sea ports, and the vim of the Consul at Kertch to those iroci
the Sea ot Azov

A meeting has been held at the Cannon.street Hotel
London, on Monday, at which a resolution was passed, ex-
pressing the opinion that a Royal Commission should be ap-
pointed to inquire into the pplonged depressiou of trade,
'with the object of ascertaining. in the interest alike of the
working classes and of those who employ them, to what
extent, it any, one-sided Free Trade is respthisible for the
present manufacturing; commercial, and agricultural dis-
tress." A. copy of this, as well as of other resolutions which
were suhmitted to the meeting, is Ito be forwarded to the
Prime Minister.

On Monday morning, shortly after nine o'clock, an
expiosion occurred at the Chilworth Gunpowder Mills, near
Guildford. It was confined to ttia' press•house, which was
entirely destroyed. Two men named Goodchild and Baker,
who mere at work at the time, were killed. Both melt
leave large families.

Lord Hartington addressed a crowded meeting of
Liberals in the Theatre Royal, Liverpool the other evening.
Be urged that efforts should never be relaxed to change the
political representation of Lancashire, awing to the influence
which the example of that county had over the rest of the
country. He sketched a prospective policy for the Liberal
party, whose programme would include the extension of the
franchise in counties, redistribution of the Parliamentary
representation in great commercial centres, relief of the
Dissenters as to the burials question, the reform cf local
government, and the reduction of local taxation. The noble
Lord also criticised the foreign policy of the Government.
"The Duke of Argyll has published a very able
pamphlet of 946 pages on the Eastern Question. His two
large volumes forms the most exhaustive brief which haa
yet been prepared for the service of the Opposition. Liberal
members must be very mill indeed it they fail to draw from
the Duke's pages a formidabje indictment of what the Go-
vernment has done in dealing with Turkey, Russia, and
Afghanistan. Many Blue-books are analyzed with greSt
skill; the arguments are stated in a style which, may e'zime-
times lack elegence, but never force; and the whole book is
spiced with invective of astonishing vehemence and
strength."—From a leader in The Times.
Tuesday's Invalide Rum states that the Emperor
Alexander, after inspecting the Grenadier RegEnent on Sun-
day last, informed the officers of the signature of the de-
finitive treaty with Turkey, and expressed a hope that they
would be spared future bloodshed. A review is to be held _
at the Winter Palace on the'l6lh instant in celebration of
the signature of the treaty.
Enoch Whiston was executed at Worcester Om
wthtleicheoxrepruiarimitahtienaorntthoefde
Dudley, on the 6th December (the particulaersexof h
execution svas
be in the recollection or our readers)
of the Press
conducted with strict privacy, representativesi i. were present,
not being admitted, and only c ~:.• a_
biaffica nag was hoisted at
ty
liarwood was the executioner.
Prison, on Monday, for the murder of Alfred Merew ciloith:lllat
outside the prism
an hour. About 200 People assembled flag to indicate '
visible beyond the g what was
but nothing was v
going on within.
wanting t ) prove tl: e evil times
If figures were
English farmer in 1878,
and link food-productors and' sumer'
which encountered the
the time of tbrebearde
5c
euat.i
oo
nn
8,
been reached trying epoch o
in far spread agrioultnr 1
in the bygone years a ruin, the data
of f 'i
lie to hand in the numbersf ai urea officially announced.
It would appear that SI attners failed in 1878 as against
andan d lowln A
epricksr e d a
t
477 in 1877- Nor do the evidences of depression stop here
for the auxiliary classes whicltform the fringe of the agri-
cultural
by the same wave of misfortune
For 126 corn merchants, corn chandlers, hay and straw
dealers who threw up the qioitge in 1877- there were 184 last
year' svbi:e eigntyEtveu Millers and corn dealers failed AA
• against Ibirt3-six —Cdurt Journal.
together
havebo d y

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