The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-03 00:00:00

the neighbourhood of Lake Nyassa, for an abundance
of fish and game may be found there, and it has
accordingly been determined to establish, under the
name of Livingstonia, a station which shall be a
species of combined mission, colony, trading post, and
anti-slave trade centre. The natives will be enabled to get
any quantity of beads and cotton without resorting to
he infamous slave tralfi3. The people in the Windsor
caste have taken out an ample store of such articles,
and those who believe that the puff of a steamboat
and the shriek of the locomotive are the true heralds
of civilization will be glad to hear that communication
between the villages which dot the margin of the mag-
nificent lake will be kept up by means of steamers.
The importance of this movement will be better esti-
mated when it is remembered that Lake NyazFa is
really the headquarters of the slave trade, for more
than 20,000 slaves were carried coastward over its
native ferries last year.

The Te Deum celebration in St. Paul's for the safe
return of the Prince of Wales from India was, as
might have been expected, very fully attended. Such
An event in the national cathedral is one of some rarity;
and previously to that which took place on the 27th
February, 1872, for the recovery of the Prince from
his dangerous illness there had been no Thanksgiving
Service for a very long time. Queen Anne was accus-
tomed to go in State to St. Paul's, in order to expreEs
the national gratitude for the great victories won by
the Duke of Marlborough; George 111. also went
there to show how grateful he was for having re-
covered from a serious mental attack, although the
poor old King afterwards suffered a relapse, and
remained in that state until his death. To those who
believe that in our own time we concentrate the in-
tellectual power of all ages, it is sufficient to point to
the grandeur of such a composition as the Te Deum to
prove that there must have been giants of intellect cen-
turies ago. Our ancestors, it is ttue, did not develop the
mighty forces of steam and electricity; but the history
,)f the world makes it clear that master minds have
flourished in all ages of the world's existence. No
modern city has ever been laid out with the luxury of
ancient Babylon, with its hanging gardens and its
magnificent palaces. Few engineering works have
.urpassed in magnitude the diverting of the great river
Euphrates from its bed, and the marching of the Persian
army under Cyrus, into Babylon over the former
course of the stream. Few monuments of perseverance
are so palpable to this day as the pyramids of Egypt.
Few works of strength were more effectual for
their purpose than the great wall of China. Few
specimens of architecture can excel those which might
have been witnessed in ancient Athens. Hannibal,
the famous Carthaginian general, led an army across

the Alps 2,000 yea; before a similar feat was accom
plished by the great Napoleon. The astronomical
year was settled for us by Julius Ctesar, who
was assassinated in the Senate House at Rome
before the occurrence of a single event recorded
in the New Testament. The Roman aqueducts
were marvels of engineering skill; and no bridge
across the Thames is superior to those which spanned
the troubled Tiber. "Our fathers—where are they ?"
Well, they repose in vast numbers beneath the
shadows of the trees whose leaves are for the healing
of the nations ; but many have left enduring memorials
behind them to tell us that, highly civilized as we may
be, no age in the earth's history has ever been able to
boast of a monopoly of intellectual power.