The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-03 00:00:00

Dr, Livingstone.

The following communication from Sir Roderick
Murchison will be read with interest and gratifies-
tifieation, as imparting information concerning the
movements of Dr Livingstone, and serving to allay
the painful anxiety excited by the reported murder
of the energetic explorer of African territory :

I have received letters from my distinguished friend Dr
Livingstone, by the last of which, dated Mozambique,
Feb. 24, I learn that ho was in good health, and was about
to proceed to Bombay, there to endeavour to sell the Lady
Nyassa steam vessel, which he had constructed at his own
cost. When he received at Shupanga the notice of the abo-

lition of his consulate he was unable for want of water to
transport the Pioneer steamer down the Zambesi. Knowing
that he must wait till the rains filled the stream, he, with
his well-known zeal, resolved to devote all the time which
must intervene to execute a journey into the interior along
the western banks of the Shiril, and, if possible, to deter-
mine if the Lake Nyassa, which he had formerly examined,
was eupplied by waters from the north, and which were
supposed to issue from the Lake Tanganyika of Burton
and Speke. Unfortunately, the boat which he had pre-
pared to ascend the Mhire" was lost in one of the cataracts.
Nothing daunted, he pushed on upon foot, attended by his
faithful Macololo and the steward of the Pioneer, and
keeping to the north-west explored a range of mountains
running north and south, about 6,000 ft. above the sea,
with rich valleys beneath them, at an altitude of 2,000 ft.
Arriving at Kotakota Bay of the great lake, in lat. 12
deg. 55 min. S., where that vast sheet of water is reduced
to a narrow channel, he there found the transfer of slaves
across to the east coast to be in full vigour, and he deeply
regretted that he had not been permitted to continue
his services by bringing his little steamer, the Lady Nyassa
up to this point, as he could with her moat effectively check
this slave transit. The Pioneer, constructed by the Go-
vernment, was found to draw too much water for interior
navigation. The account of his journey from there to the
west and north, which is full of interesting new data, will
be given to the Royal Geographical Society on June 13.
With the sincerest desire to prosecute his researches to the
north by west, his sense of duty impelled Dr Livingstone
to return to the Z ambesi, before he could determine by per-
sonal survey the direction in which the waters flow at the
north end of the Lake Nyassa, but he collected much valu-
able native information, which will produce interesting dis•
cussions among geographers. Suffering temporarily from
severe illness, and being under strict orders to abandon the
Zambesi expedition, he felt compelled to return to complete
his official duties by taking the Pioneer down that river,
and with his companions he therefore travelled back nearly
700 English miles in 55 days, and reaching Shupanga he
thence descended the stream. True to his word, ho under-
took to send to the Cape the native boys and children, who
had been freed and partially instructed. Let us hope that
he may not saffer much pecuniary loss by the sale of his
own Lady Nyassa, expressly constructed at his cost, to stop
the slave trade across the Shire, and that our Government
will not be oblivious of the hearty and devoted services of
this meritorious missionary and explorer.
P.S. In a letter from Shupanga, on the Zambesi, dated
Feb. 10, Livingstone adds, toe detail of his recent explora-
tions in the interior, the following paragraph :—" I hope a
report of my being murdered had not reached my family,
as they may believe it the more readily on account of the
lies already propagated. I have never known any difficulty
with an interior tribe, or any other not engaged in slaving."

GOVERNMENT SUCESSES IN THE FRENCII ELEC..
TlONs.—The Government appear to have won u
double electioneering victory in the South. M. Bravay,
whose name is known in England chiefly in connection with
the steam rams, has been returned by a large majority in
the first circumspection of the Gard. Ile had been elected
twice already, and the Corps Legislative had quashed his
election-14,765 votes were recorded in his favour; his
opponent, M. Chabanon, only polling 6,381. In the fourth
circumscription of the same department the Opposition
candidate was also defeated by the gentleman supported by
the Administration--the numbers at the close of the voting
were as follows :—M. Andre, 14,490 ; M. Parquet, 5,311.
Some curiosity is felt as to whether the Legislature will
again unseat M. Bravay, who is objected to apparently for
the sole cause that slanderous rumours have been circulated
against him which do not appear to have a shadow of a
foundation, but which the peculiar procedure of
.French
courts in the matter of libel did not enable him to disprove,

The committee which has been formed for the relief of
the distressed Circassians feel it incumbent upon them to
lose as little time as possible in appealing to the public for
support to enable them to carry out the benevolent object
they have in view. The accounts which have already reached
this country convey some idea of the nature and extent of
the misery it is sought to relieve.
The committee, in the interests of the Circassians them-
selves, are anxious to have it clearly understood at the out-
set that the present appeal is based exclusively upon motives
of humanity. At the same time, while they disclaim any
object of a political character, they cannot possibly deny
that their desire to assist in relieving the Circassians is
greatly increased by the consideration of those circumstances
which have led to the present catastrophe.
The final result of 40 years of determined resistance to
the armies of Russia is the deportation of the three principal
tribes of the western Caucasus. The resouroes of their
country having become exhausted, and the energies of its
population worn out by the protracted struggle, they have
at last submitted to an overwhelming necessity, and are now
undergoing the painful process of expulsion from the coun-
try to which they have shown themselves so peculiarly at-
tached. We may, Weed, measure the degree of pressure
under which they are migrating to Turkey by the vigour
with which they have resisted the encroachments of their
enemies through this long course of years.

As there- is no.oircul4iiiF medium in Cireassia these
mountaineers arrive at the coast ateirrdestitart3:- Ships
provided by the Turkish Government convey them to Tre-
bizonde and other ports oa the northern shores of Asia
Minor. The mortality during this short voyage has been
in many instances fearful, and typhus fever and small-
pox have already swept off thousands of men, women, and
children. The Turkish Government has taken most ener-
getic steps to mitigate this misery, and we are credibly
assured that a sum of £50,000 has been devoted by the
Sultan himself to conveying the Circassians to Constanti-
nople, housing them when there in refuges and hospitals,
and sending them in small colonies as settlers into the in-
terior. The necessities of a whole nation, however, tax the
charitable resources of Turkey beyond what they can bear.
It is, therefore, earnestly hoped that the public, in the true
spirit of our nal ional generosity, will contribute towards
helping the Circassians to reach the land provided for them
by the Turkish Government, and towards keeping them
alive until they can work for themselves. As these poor
people have been reduced to their present condition by no
fault of their own, but, on the contrary, are suffering in
consequence of the very zeal and ardour of their patriotism,
as they have no choice left them as to their fate, but are
compelled to face pestilence and starvation, and as their only
desire is to find that peace elsewhere which has hitherto
been denied them in their own country, and to earn their
bread by honest industry, they have the highest claims
upon our charity.
It is calculated that in the course of the next two
months a population of 300,000 souls, a large proportion of
whom are women and children, will be cast, starving and
half naked, upon the shores of Asia Minor.
The Committee trust that the circumstance that this
nation is obscure and little known in this country will not
deprive it of the sympathy of the public. Nor should the
fact that the misery is on such a gigantic scale dishearten
us in our attempts to relieve it. Whatever money is
collected and subscribed in England will be applied to the
relief of the most urgent cases of suffering.
The late Sultan himself set us an example which we
Might now gracefully follow when he subscribed £l,OOO out
of his own purse to a fund which had been raised in this
country to relieve a distress in Ireland almost as vast in its
dimensions.

THE RIGHT HON. ROBERT Lowe, M.P., has
been elected a trustee of the British Museum, in the room
of the late Sir George Cornewall Lewis.

MELANCHOLY DEATH.—It is our painful duty to
announce the death, in the prime of life and health,
of Mr. Henry P. Pigot, of Capard-house, who was found
drowned in his own lake on the 28th ult., at 6 o'clock. It
appears that the unfortunate gentleman left his house on
the evening previous, at 8 o'clock, to take his accustomed
walk through the grounds; and, in anticipation of a sheep-
shearing which was to take place on the following day, he
gave orders, as he was leaving, that he should be called in
the morning half-an-hour before the bell rung for the work-
men to assemble. Expecting bis return to the house, one
of the household remained up to open the door and receive
any commands he might have to give. Not returning for
some hours, there was a certain amount of uneasiness felt
at his stopping out so long; still his absence was attributed
to his having gone to the house of some neighbouring gentle.
man, and it was only at 6 o'clock next morning, when the
labourers were coming to Capard for the day, that a search
was instituted for him. On passing the edge of the lake,
which lies at some short distance from the house, two of
the workmen saw in the water the body of their lamented
master, and, having carried it to the shore, they discovered
that life had been extinct for several hours. It appears
that the walk by the lake at this particular point is very
narrow, and has been made more difficult to pass by
the boughs of the laurel trees which thickly overhang it;
and it was evident from the marks on the ground at
the edge of the lake that the unfortunate gentleman's foot
slipped, and that he was unexpectedly immersed in the
water. Although the lake is not more than three or four
feet deep at this place, the bottom, which is composed of a
thick, slimy mud, carried down from the mountain, would
render it, in all probability, impossible for him to extricate
himself, and he thus lamentably perished. An inquest was
held during the day on the remains, and a verdict in accord-
ance with the circumstances, of " Accidentally drowned,"
was brought in by the jury. There is one universal and
widespread feeling of regret at his death. He was heir to,
and, but for his sad and untimely fate, would have in-
herited, on his father's death, who still survives him, the
vast estates of the family, which bring in a rental of nearly
£lO,OOO a year, and which must now pass to another
branch.—Freeman.

MECHANICS' FINE LADIES.—Very different in
texture altogether is the physical humanity of the
small-handed woman opposite, dressed in a shabby gown,
with a soiled flaunting bonnet, and a torn shawl of many
colours, who evidently thinks that nerves and idleness are
three parts of the essence of gentlehood, and that she can
make herself "a lady" by ceasing to be a woman and be-
coming a doll. Her husband is a rough-mannered, rough-
handed mechanic, making perhaps forty shillings a week
or so, more or less; and he, too, shares in the delusion that
work is " low" for a woman, and that idleness is a refine-
ment, and a thing to be cultivated by the ambitious. It is
his pride to boast that "his wife is kept like a lady, with a
servant of her own—and needn't do a hand's turn if she
don't like." So he puts her in a " nice little home" at
Camberwell, with a best parlour and a black horse-
hair sofa, quite comfortable ; and there she lords it in state
over a miserable little elf, a parish apprentice, small enough
to be carried like a lapdog in the pocket. But the elf does
all the dirty work, and the rough and the hard work
toe, that my lady the mechanic's wife, may not soil her
hands, or make them "hard like a common woman's."
She is one of a kind I see a great deal of, and that I can
never sufficiently deplore ; for they seem to me to be cutting
at the root of all that is most wholesome in the English ar-
tisan class, its simple strong hold on realities ; and that
while the men of that class are so wonderfully improving,
the women are just as much deteriorating by their terrible
spring of fine-ladyism and finery. Look at the envious
glances which our lady of Camberwell is casting at those
two pretty young creatures in bright blue !glee, so
carefully •tucked up over their knees, evidently off to
a friendly party somewhere. You: can see that they are
ladies, even it papa's income makes it necessary for them to
peril their best dresses in an omnibus, rather than spend a
few shillings In a cab. That they are happy and innocent,
and inncently happy in their present finery, is also evident ;
and yet both these girls would do real good hard work if
need be ; and, indeed, do so ; helping their one servant,
Jane, as much from kindness that she should not be over-
worked, as from mamma's desire, and their own, to " make
things look nice."—Dickens' "All the Year Round."
DROWNED WHILE BATHING IN LOCH LOMON::::i7
Mr. James Begg, jun., stationer, Glasgo:, h
three others, having come down by the early
boat
toached the
Satur-
day, proceeded to the water to bathe. They approached
Inn,
loch a short distance to the south of
,Roo a
t ; but the gentle
where the bank seems to slope gradual!)
yardso from the edge
inclination terminates abruptly
the first to plunge
of about seven fathoms. Mr 13 ye b
ad scarcely entered the
of the loch, and beyond the watear,fse,uldsenly attains a depth
to strike wildly about hint
in, which he did with a race.
otegthaenbank thought at first he was
to be in eat nest, one of
arm, and struck out for
water a minute when he
as if in distress.
Unfortunately Mr Begg was struggling with
mthaekming rushed
the shore. ljn
so that his friend had to relinquish his hold and
sport; i o , butl
caught' perceivingh-
hold o
fh
hisim
• swim
violence,
imto
shoal water, His companion then joined hands
with' him to support each other, and, wading to the edge of
the descent, strove to reach Mr Begg as he rose to the sur-
face, but in vain. He never appeared again, but sank
' slowly in from S to 10 feet of water. His brother was a
witness of the distressing e7ent, and his agony may be
more easily conceived than described. The body was not
recovered till Sunday afternoon, when it was conveyed to
o:asgow.

With the view of preventing the overcrowding of the
barrack rooms at Chatham garrison during the summer
months, Major-Gen. Eyre has issued orders for the number
of men in each of the barrack rooms to be reduced accord-
ing to the size of the rooms, by which arrangement 12 men_
will in future occupy the space formerly apportioned to 18
men in the large rooms, and 9 men the space formerly de-
voted to 12 men in the smaller rooms.

Major-Gen. Lefroy, R A., Capt. L. Heath, C. 8., R.N,,
the President and Vice-President of the Ordnance Select.
Committee, with various members of the committee, arrived
at Portsmouth yesterday from London. They went on
board her Majesty's ships Excellent and Royal Sove-
reign, over which they were conducted by Capt. Astley
Key, C. 8., the officer commanding her Majesty's ship
Excellent, The various methods of mounting and sighting
guns of different calibres on board broadside and turret-glut
ships were explained by Capt. Key, on board the Royal
Sovereign, assisted by Capt. Cowper P. Coles, R.N. The
Committee, on leaving the Royal Sovereign,embarked in the
galley of Capt. H. Caldwell, C.B. (the officer in command of
the steam reserve at Portsmouth), and visited some of the
ships afloat.
.It is presumed that the visit of the Cora-
mitt.e to Portsmouth relates to the future armament of the
navy, whatever clasafef vessels it may consist of, turrets or
broadsides, or both combined—biii, if so, they'nzmorlave.
been greatly enlightened at the conclusion of their day's
labour, inasmuch as but one of the members was a naval
officer, and to purely military men the Royal Sovereign, ix
her present incomplete state, must be at first sight an em-
barrassing mystery.
Some time since half-a-dozen Enfield rifles, fitted at the
breech with the Mont Storm breech-loading apparatus, were
forwarded by Government order to her Majesty's ship Ex-
cellent at Portsmouth, in order to have the principle
thoroughly tested and its suitability for service in the navy
reported upon by Capt. Astley Cooper Key, C. 8., of the
Royal Naval College and her Majesty's ship Excellent. We
understand that the trials of these weapons on board the
Excellent have proved most satisfactory, and that they fur-
nish sound reasons for believing that by the adaptation of
the Moat Storm breech to our present Enflelds our soldiers
and seamen may have a breech-loading rifle as simple, safe,
and efficient as can be wished for general service.

The Aurora, screw frigate, Capt. Sir Leopold M'Clintoek,
arrived at Spithead yesterday from the Nor:, and on anchor-
ing exchanged the customary salutes with the flagship of
the Commander in Chief, Admiral Sir Michael Seymour,
G.C.B. The Aurora will embark part of the 60th Rifles for
conveyance to Kingstown.
The Gladiator, 6, paddle, Capt. F. H. Shortt, arrived at
Portsmouth yesterday from Devonport, and took up a berth
alongside the dockyard. She will embark a portion of the
60th Rifles for Kingstown on the same day as the Aurora.
The Adder, paddle steamvessel, tender to the Wellesley,
at Chatham, was taken into dock at Sheerness yesterday to
undergo thorough repairs, which, it is expected, will oc-
cupy several weeks in completion.
The Dauntless, 31, screw steamship, 1,575 tons, 580-horse
power, late Coastguard vessel in Southampton Water, and
now being refitted in the basin, Sheerness Dockyard, as
Coastguard vessel in the Humber, Capt. James N. Strange,
will shortly be out of the hands of the dockyard artisans,
when she will be taken on trial to the measured mile, and
if the trial prove successful she will then proceed to her
destination.

The Terrible, 21, paddlewheel steam frigate, 1, 850 tons,
800-horse power, in No. 2 dock, Sheerness, has a large
number of workmen at present employed upon her, and it
is expected that their labours will soon be completed, She
will then leave the dock and be taken to her moorings in
the harbour.

A private letter received at Portsmouth from her Ma-
jesty's ship Euryalus, dated at Yokohama, Japan, April 1,
says :

" We have now, unfortunately, 42 cases of smallpox on
board, but not of a very serious nature, generally speaking.
There are very few now in the ship tilt-.t left England in
her; only six of the latter class remain in the wardroom.
Parker, our master, was the last officer invalided. Every-
thing is going on quietly here, but there is very little trade
doing between the Japanese and Europeans."
The following appointments have been made at the Ad-
miralty :—Commander the Hon. Maurice H. Nelson to the
Rinaldo, vice Dunlop, invalided ; Lieut. Henry Golden to
the Wellesley; Lieut. George V. Philipps to the Princess
Charlotte ; John A. H. Petch, master, to the Leander ;
George J. Tomlin, acting master, to the Shearwater ;
Charles D. Shephard, surgeon, the Immortalite ; William
Nicholson, surgeon, to the Aboukir; Dr. George E.
Wright, acting assist-surgeon, to the Black Prince ; and
Charles Beal, chief engineer, additional, to the Asia for the
Arrogant.