The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-02 00:00:00

THE V SUN; LONDON, WEDNESDAY _EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2, 1863.

like othere, and the King's sister, the handsomest girl in
the palace, had the privilege of also being his wife. He re-
turned my call the day after the first interview. I heard

the sound of a rushing mob outside the fence of our hut,
when in bounded the young king, bareheaded, clearing the
fences, dressed in an open chintz jacket, no shirt, and loose
white trousers trimmed with red, and looking, not the swell
of yesterday, but the picture of a negro blackguard. He
was followed by 20 lads and boys, his brothers, carrying
guns, sticks, dead vultures, and other birds which he had
shot. One or two were heavily ironed, feet and hands;
another had a wide-a• wake of leather on ; all were as jolly
as only Africans can be. Giving him a chair outside the hut,
ho rapidly turned over the leaves of a sketch-book, stared
widely about, asked whether his likeness had yet been done,
whether we had seen the birds he had shot, ordered me to
show my head uncovered to his brothers, who squatted round
him, tearing at sugar-cane in the most ravenous manner.
You are the guest of the King„and must never pay the people
for anything, and every house must be deserted instanter on

your arrival. In fact, it was a villanous system of oppres-
sion, but no redress could be had, as these were the orders

of his Majesty—to eat and take whatever you liked, but not
pocket or carry away. Payment in sloths, guns, and other

presents for one having thus plundered his peasantry was
made to him alone. The villages in the vicinity of the
palace, being occupied by the favourites of the Court, were
alone exempt from this taxation."

Sir R. A luncalsoN, in thanking Captain Grant
for his entertaining paper, said that though his
distinguished friend had spoken of one of those
kings whose quick eye observed that he had lost a
portion of one of his hands, with the modesty that
so peculiarly characterised him, he did not tell the
meeting that he had lost it while serving with his
regiment in quelling the Indian mutiny. When the
gallant Havelock was advancing to Cawnpore his
rearguard was harassed, and suffered great losses
through the proximity of a gun served by the rebels.
This gun did immense mischief and occasioned con-
siderable lcm of life both among officers and men.
Capt. (then Lieutenant) Grant was accordingly sent
to silence it. Fortunately ho was a remarkably good
shot, and succeeded in killing one of the artillerymen
at the first discharge of his rifle. His men supplied
him with a fresh rifle, and that brought down a
second man, and in a few minutes four out of the
five artillerymen were put hors de combat, the piece
was silenced, and the rearguard was saved from
any further annoyance from that quarter. No doubt
had General Havelock lived he would have taken
care that Captain Grant's services on that and other
occasions should
nvssAhoßliuldsTbßeobNrco,ught under the notice of the
proper authorities, and that he would receive what
azm
he so well deserved—the Victoria Cross.
arks, which were warmly supported few
complimentary
by
the u
ence, welcomed Captain Grant to Newcastle, and
Commodore Maury expressed a hope that the Go-
vernment would give him the Victoria Cross, which
he so well deserved.

Several other papers were also read on the Nile
discoveries. One was by Mr. John Hogg, on the old
maps of Africa, and a short memoir from Baron von
Heughlin was read on his exploration of certain of
the affluents of the Nile.
Mr. MARKHAM also read a letter from M. Miani,
a Venetian explorer of whom our travellers found
some traces at Gondokoro. This gentleman had cut
his name on a tamarind tree which he said waa on
the eastern side of the river, while that mentioned
by Speke and Grant was on the western side. He also
pointed out several other matters in which he asserted
the geography of the exptorers was at fault.
Captain GRANT said that the mistake of M. Miani
with reference to the aide of the river on which
Captain Speko and himself discovered the tamarind
tree arose from his having seen an erroneous map.
M. Miani's
where he was represented
wearse raivdeicryuled old
damt
an,witha
large white beard, travelling along on the back of
a donkey explorations Khartum,
in search of the Nile. He was prepared
to stake his reputation that not a single lati-
tude laid downSpeke
by Captain and himself,
from Zanzibar to Gondokoro, would be found halt
a mile opt of its proper position by any geographer.
Observations taken in a foreign country could be
verified at home; and, therefore, it would be easy to
put their statements to the test.
Mr. GREENFIELD said that the Assistant Astro-
nomer Royal had tested all the observations as to
latitude and longitude made by Captains Speke and
Grant, and had forwarded the results to the Royal
Geographical Society.
The rest of the day in this section was consumed
by the reading of a paper by Mutu Coomara Swamy,
a Cingalese barrister, on the Ethnology of Ceylon,
referring especially to its Cingalese and Tamil inha-
bitants.
In the Economic Section there seems to be a
growing tendency to slip away from pure science
into the domain of politics, and not unfrequently,
dropping into the room in the middle of a discus-
sion, a stranger might fancy that he had got by
mistake into the House of Commons in Committee
of Supply, or on the provieions of some Bill.
Colonel Sykes read here a long paper "On the Bud-
gets of the French and English Armies for 1863-4,"
in which he drew a comparison between the two,
very unfavourable
to the economy of the British ser-
vice. The French effective and non-effective service,
of 400,000 men, cost £43 9.3.4 d. per head, while the
British service, effective and non-effective, number
ing 147,118 men, cost £94 ls. lid. per head. The
gallant colonel expressed his belief that greater
economy would be secured, if the Government, in-
stead of manufacturing all their own materiel,
would make more use of the services of contractors.
In the discussion which followed, Captain Galton
said that much of the difference pointed out in the
paper might be explained away.
Dr. HANCOCK read a paper on the "English and
Irish Poor-law," in which he advocated the exten-
sion to Ireland of the English system of out-door
relief. Mr. Purdy, on the other hand, wished, if
there was any assimilation, that the English system
should assimilate with the lash, and other gentle-
, men who spoke on the subject deprecated any en-
' largement of out-door relief.

CHIMES DIBDIN'S SEA-SONGS.

(From the Atheneeum.)

Dib3in embraces his subject heartily, and gripe, so far as
his reach goes, with the real smack of a sailor's salute. He
is true to certain qualities of the English nature, which
lie, with their mineral strength, at the heart of all who are
worthy of wearing the English name,—that superior sense
of being English which alone has often served to grapple us
together, rich and poor, as with hooks of steel, and served
us nobly when peer and peasant have gaily galloped the
death-gaps horse to horse, or swept up to the deadly breach
shoulder to shoulder, and on many a hard-fought field lain
down side by side in a peerless brotherhood after turning
the tide of battle,—that singleness of purpose which puts
the whole heart into the act,—that union of gentleness and
strength which produces our favourite heroes, the darlings
of the national heart, who solve Samson's riddle for us, and
show the honey of sweetness hidden in the lion of their
strength, as in Nelson's noble and tender type—he who
struck such a blow as left our country without a rival on
all the seas, then, like a noble boy going to bed, said, "Kiss
me, Hardy," and fell asleep, or, as Dibdin sings,—

I heard his last words, that so grieved each bystander,
Words sounding so mournful and sweet ;
'Twas his " Love and farewell"—Damme I there's a com-
mander I

—To each brother tar in the fleet.
Dibdin caught a glimpse of the right kind here. His
sailor has a tender heart underneath the coarse, rough
strength of his character; a spring of fresh water welling
and sweetening the great salt ocean of his brute force. In
his foretop moralising mood he considers, after all, that
piping your eye and a wet pocket-handerohief aro about
the best things to bring you into port at last; although
his mode of soothing his sweetheart at parting is anything
but comfortingly sequential :
I said to our Poll, for d'ye see, she would cry,
When last we weighed anchor for sf a,
What argufias sniv'lling and piping your eye ?
Why what a d—d fool you must be
Can't you see the world's wide and there's room for us all,
Both for seamen and lubbers ashore ?
And it to Old Davy I go, my dear Poll,
Why, you never will hear of me more.
Ho does not wear the soft heart on his sleeve, and is
glad of any excuse for keeping the mother down from his
throat

Just hear the Chaplain's story, glowing
With all that's good and wise ;
Be swabs his bows while tears are flowing—
The scuppers are his' eyes.
He talks in terms to molt a lubber;
And then he'll preach and pray
So moving, one could almost blubber,
But, that's all in his way I
Still, choke it down as he may, the tenderness is there.
There is still always a soft corner, and a woman in it, in
Jack's heart ; or else little child 'fingers are playing on it as
an instrument. He has the true English feeling for home
and its joys, albeit he may have strange ways of showing
his domesticity, realising his own commentary on Jove :
What a devil that god was for following the gals

—When at sea he likes to think of his Nancy, with all her
Toying works and hs,usehold ways ; and thoughts, end