The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29, 1856

ter at the court of Lisbon, was about to leave for
Frankfort, had been contradicted, and had given
general satisfaction to the English residents in
Portugal, with whom he is very popular.
There was no political news in Lisboa when the
steamer left. _ _

From Gibraltar we have advices to the 19th inst.
The French Government steamer Tartare, one day
from Cadiz, arrived on the 15th, and left the same
afternoon for the East. The British merchant
steamer Alps and the Prussian steamer Alexander
11. sailed on the night of the 14th. for the west.
The British steamer Lebanon sailed on the 15th
for Malta. The Dutch steamer Rotterdam sailed
on the. night of the 15th for Marseilles. The Frenah
steamer Marie Stuart, from Marseilles, with a
general cargo for Gibraltar, Cadiz, and Lisbon,
arrived on the 15th, and proceeded again the same
night. The British steamer British Queen, 12
daysfrona Alexandria and six and a half from Malta,
with a general cargo for Liverpool, arrived on the
15th, and sailed again during the night. The
French steamer Normandie, from Marseilles, with
flour, Sic., for Gibraltar and Cadiz, arrived on
the 16th, and left during the night. At five
o'clock p.m. on the 15th the British steamer
Vasco de Gama sailed for the west. The Pen-
insular and Oriental Company's steamship Ripon,
which had been compelled to take shelter at Corun-
na from the furious gales, arrived at Gibraltar on
the afternoon of the 16th, and resumed her voyage
to Malta. and Alexandria on the same evening.
The British steamer Arno, which left Liverpool on
the 4th for Genoa and Leghorn, put into Gibraltar
Bay on the night of the 16th, and reported having
encountered severe gales in the Bay of Biscay,
which compelled her to make for Lisbon, where she
replenished her stock of coal. The Arno proceed-
ed on her voyage during the night of the 17th.
The British steamer Waterwitch, 40 days from
Genoa and five from Carthagena, with a general
cargo for London, arrived on the 17th, and left
again on the morning of the 19th. The British
steamer Rhone, from Palermo, with fruit, dr.c., for
Liverpool, arrived on the 18th, and left on the
same morning. The British steamer African, from
Alexandria and Malta, with wheat for Liverpool,
arrived on the 18th. The British steamer Tene-
rife, 51 days from Liverpool, with bale goods for
Genoa and Naples, arrived on the 18th, and pro-
ceeded during the night. The British steamers
Bceotia and Malta passed from west to east on the
18th. The steamship Danube, from Liverpool,
arrived in the bay on the afternoon of the 19th.
Movements of her Majesty's ships :—The steam
sloop Curlew, Captain Horton, from Roquetas,
arrived at Gibraltar on the 16th. Tne Stromboli
steam sloop, Captain Burgess, having in tow the
steam gunboat Clinker, Captain Hudson, arrived
on the 18th, 8 days from Malta and 1 from Al-
giers, and having called at the New Mole they
both sailed for England on the morning of the
19th. The Duke of Wellington screw three-decker,
bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral the Hon. Sir R.
Dundas, K.C.8., arrived in Gibraltar Bay on the
afternoon on the 19th, and the Admiral was sa-
luted with 11. guns on his arrival. The Duke of
Wellington took in fresh provisions and water, and
proceeded to Lisbon.

in Woolwich basin, has bad her repairs completed, and
is about to be new rigged, when she will be removed
to Sheerness, to be placed in the first-class steam reserve
there.

The paddlewheel steam-vessel Banshee, in Woolwich
basin, is progressing rapidly with her repairs and altera-
tions. She has been fitted with new decks, recsived
new paddle-wheels and boxes, new windlass bits, accom-
modation ladders, &c. ; has been recaulked throughout,
bulwarks repaired, and cabin accommodation greatly
improved. Her machinery has been repaired, and she
has been supplied with a set of new boilers. She is not
in commission.

Her Majesty's store-ship Dee, Master-Commander
Pullen, is shipping machinery and boilers in Woolwich
basin for the Royal Sovereign and the Diadem, at Ports-
mouth ; and, according to instructions from the Admi-
ralty, is to he fitted with Clifford's new method of lower-
ing the ship's quarter cutter, and has been arral.ged for
that purp •se by the dockyard shipwrights. Some further
experiments are ordered to take place on board the Com-
modore's ship Fisgard, at Woolwich, in order to develop
more fully the advantages to be obtained by the substi-
tution of Clifford's principle. The iron paddlewheel steam
vessel Antelope, Lieut.-Commander Pike, about to pro-
ceed to the West Coast of Africa, is ordered to be pro-
vided with Clifford's plan of lowering the ship's boats.
The Antelope is to sail to-morrow.

The following appointments were made on Saturday
at the Admiralty :

Valentine U. Cuming, mate, to the Cornwallis, and
W. A. Banke, midshipman, to the Iris.

THE LATE M.R. HUGH MILLER.

A post mortem examination of the body of Hugh Miller
was made at his house in Portobello, on Friday, by Pro•
lessor Miller and other medical gentlemen. The following
is the conclusion to which they have come :
" The cause of death we found to be a pistol shot
through the left side of the chest, and this we are satis-
fied was inflicted by his own hand. From the diseased
appearances in the brain, taken in connection with the
history of the case, we have no doubt that the act was
suicidal, under the impulse of insanity."
The following few lines to his wife, found written on
a folio sheet lying on the table beside his corpse, give,
painful evidence of the awful intensity of the disease :
" Dearest Lydie,—My brain burns. I must have
walked ; and a fearful dream arises upon me. I cannot
bear the horrible thought. God and Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ have mercy anon me. Dearest Lydia, dear
children, farewell. My brain burns as the recollection
grows. My dear, dear wife, farewell.
" HUGH MILLER."
"For some months past," states the Witness of Satur-
day, " his overtasked intellect had given evidence of dis-
order. He became the prey of false or exaggerated
alarms. He fancied—if, indeed, it was a fancy—that
occasionally, and for brief intervals, his faculties quite
failed him, that his mind broke down. He was engaged
at this time with a treatise on the Testimony of the
Rocks,' upon which he was putting out all his strength,
working at his topmost pitch of intensity. That volume
will in a few weeks be in the hands of many of our read-
ers ; and while they peruse it with the saddened impres-
sion tnat the intellect and genius of the author poured
out their latest treasures in its composition, they will
search through it in vain for the slightest evidence of
feebleness or decaying power. Rather let us anticipate
the general verdict that will be pronounced upon it, arid
speak of it as one of the ablest of all his writings. But he
wrought at it too eagerly. Hours after midnight the
light was seen to glimmer through the window of that
room which within the same eventful week was to wit-
ness the close of the volume and the close of the writer's
life. This overworking of the brain began to tell upon
his mental heal-h. He had always been somewhat
moodily apprehensive of being attacked by footpads,
and had carried loaded firearms about his person. Lat-
terly, having occasion sometimes to return to Portobello
from Edinburgh at unseasonable hours, he had furnished
himself with a revolver. But now, to all his old fears as to
attacks upon his person, there was added an exciting and
overmastering impression that his house, and especially
that museum, the fruit of no much care, which was con-
tained in a separate outer building, were exposed to the
assault of burglars. He read all the recent stories of house
ruboeries. He believed that one night lately an actual
attempt to break in upon his museum had been made.
Visions of ticket-of-leave men prowling about his pre-
mises haunted him by day and by night. The revolver
which lay nightly near him was not enough ; a broad-
bladed dagger was kept beside it, while behind him, at
his bedhead, a claymore stood ready at hand. A week
lit' so ago a new and more aggravated feature of cere-
bral disorder showed itself in sudden and singular sensa•
tione in his head. They came on only after lengthened
intervals. They did not last long, but were intensely
violent. The terrible idea that his brain was simply
and hopelessly diseased, that his mind was on the verge
of ruic, took hold of him, and stood out before his eye
in all that appalling magnitude in which such an imagi-
nation as his alone could picture it."
Up to Monday last it appears he had spoken to no one
of these mental paroxysm'. Ou Monday be called on
Dr. Balfour in Portobello. "On my asking," says Dr.
Balfour, in a communicvion to the Witness what was the
matter with him, he replied,
" My brain is giving way. I cannot put two thohghts
together to-day. I have had a dreadful night of it. I cannot
face another such. I was impressed with the idea that my
museum was attacked by robbers, and that I had got up,
put on my clothes, and gone out with a loaded pistol to
shoot them. Immediately after that I became unconsci-
ous. How long that continued I cannot say ; but when
I awoke in the morning I was trembling all over, and
quite confused in my brain. So thoroughly convinced
was I that I must have been out through the night that
I examined my trousers to see if they were wet or co-
vered with mud, but could find zone.
The next day a consultation was held between Dr.
Balfour and Professor Miller, the result of which the
latter thus communicates :
" We examined the chest, an i found that unusually
well ; but we soon discovered that it was head symptoms
that made him uneasy. He acknowledged having been
night after night up till very late in the morning, work-
ing hard and continuously at his new book, ' which,'
with much satisfaction, he said, I have finished this
day.' He was sensible that his head had suffered in
consequence, as evidenced in two ways—first, occasion.
ally he felt as if a very fine poniard had been suddenly
passed through and through his brain. The pain was in-
tense, and momentarily followed by confusion and giddi-
ness, and the sense of being 'very drunk,' unable to stand
or walk. He thought that a period of unconsciousness
must have followed this—a kind of swoon, but he bad

never fallen. Second, what annoyed him most, however,
was a kind of nightmare, which for some nights past had
rendered sleep most miserable. I, was no dream, he said;
ne saw no distinct vision, and could remember nothing
of what had passed accurately. It was a sense of vague
and yet intense horror, with a conviction of being abr/ad
in the night wind, and dragged through places as if by
some invisible power. Last night,' he said, I felt as
if I had been ridden by a witch for 50 miles, and rose far
more wearied in mind and body than when I lay down.' "
" Suffice it to say," acids Professor Miller, " that we
came to the conclusio❑ that he was suffering from an
over-worked mind, disordering his digestive organs,
enervating his whole frame, and threatening serious
heal affection. 'We told him this, and enjoined absolute
discontinuance of all work—bed at 11, light supper (he
had all his lite made that a principal meal), thinning the
hair of the head, a warm sponging-bath, at bed time,
&c. To all our commands he readily promised obedi-
ence. For fully an hour we talked together on these and
other subjects, and I left him with no apprehension of
impending:evil, and little doubting bat that a short time
of rest and regimen would restore him to his wonted vi-
gour::
S'iortlyafrerwards, states he Witness, the servant en-
tered the dining room to spread the taote—
" She found Mr. Miller in the room alone. Another
of the paroxysms was on him. His face was such a pic-
ture of horror that she shrunk in terror from the sight.
He flung himself on the sofa and buried his head, as if
in agony, upon the cushion. Again, however, the vision
flitted by, and left him in perfect health. The evening was ,
spent quietly with his family. During tea he employed
himself in reading aloud Cowper's Ca►st away,' the
Sonnet on Mary U. ;win,' and one of his more playful
pieces, for the special pleasure of hie children. Having
corrected some proofs of the forthcoming volume he
went up stairs to his study. At the appointed hour
he had taken the bath, but, unfortunately, his natu-
ral and peculiar repugnance to physic had induced him
to leave untaken the medicine that bad been pre-
scribed. He had retired into his sleeping room,
a small apartment opening out of his study, and
which, for some time past, in consideration of the
(ielicate state of his wife's health and the irregularity of
hie own hours of study, he occupied at night alone—and
laid some time upon the bed. The horrible trance, more
horrible than ever-, must have returned. All that can now
be known of what followed is to be gathered from the
facts, that next morning his body,:half-dressed, was found
lying lifeless on the lour, the feet upon the study rug,
the chest pierced wick the ball of the revolver pistol,
which was found lying in the bath that stood close by.
The bullet had perforated the left lung, grazed the heart,
cut through the pulmonary artery at its root, and lodged
in the rib in the right side. Death must have been in-
stantaneous."

The terrible story of Mr. Miller's death has created a
still deeper gloom in Edinburgh by the publication of
these particulars. But another sad tragedy in connec-
tion with nis fate had at the same time to be disclosed.
After the judicial and medical inquiry on Friday, Prof.
Miller took the pistol to the gunsmith from whom it
bad been purchased by Mr. Miller in July, 1855, in order
to ascertain how many shcts had, been fired and how
many were still in the chamber,. In the master's ab-
sence, the foreman, Thomas Leslie, an old and expe-
rienced workman, received the pistol from Prof. Miller,
and unfortunately, in.ttead of taking off the chamber, he
looked int.. the 'nuzzle, br,tding the hammer with his
fingers while he turned tb.e chamber round to count the
charges. The hammer sipped from his fingers, struck.
the cap, and the charge in the barrel exploded. T
Miller, still standing outside the counter,
" That's a narrow escape," but unhappily
for as the smoke clearfAl away he P"
head gradually droop and his b"
the fiber. The charge had
penetrated the brain
man, and bad been

rof.
it was not so,
the poor man's
Ay then fall lifeless on
entered his right eye, and
ueslie wag a steady trust worthy
.l 5 years in his present employment.
-JOW and a family of eight children.

left to -.upport the family, consisting of Hugh and two
younger sisters, by her own exertions The mother had
two brothers who appear to have taken an especial in-
terest in little Hugh, and to them, as he himself says,
he owed much wore of his real education than to any of '
the teachers.to whose superintendence he was afterwards
committed. Uncle John. the elder, had too mach work
always on his hands to be able to look much after his
nephew ; but the influence exerted over him by Uncle
Alexander is unmistakeable. After having attended the
dame school and afterwards the parish school, Hugh
was bound apprentice for three years to the husband
of one of his maternal aunts, a stone mason in the
neighbourhood of Cromarty. He was then a slender
little lad of 17 ; and the excessive labour which he had
to go through in the quarries proved at first too much
for his strength. He had frequent fits of depression, grew
absent in mind, and became subject even to fits of partial
somnambulism. But after the first year, he got u-ed to
she severe toil, and his health returned. While still at
school he was fond of wandering along the sea side, and
examining the pebbles and debris that lay scattered in
closely packed beds along the shore ; and encouraged by
his uncle Sandy, who had a taste for natural history, had
picked up a good deal of information about the materials
and formation of these rocky strata. The bent of his
mind to'aards his favourite science was thus early and
distinctly indicated; though at first it lay rather in the
direction of mineralogy than geology. " Mineralogy in
its first rudiments," he writes in his " School and School-
masters," " had early awakened my curiosity, just as it
never fails to awaken with its gems and its metals and its
herd glittering rs eke, of which tools may be made, the curi-
osity of infant tribes and nations. But in unsightly
masses of mechanical origin, whether sandstone or clay,
I could take no interest ; just as infant societies take no
interest in such masses, and so fail to know anything of
geology ; and it was nut until I had learned to detect
among the ancient sandstone strata of this quarry ex-
actly the same phenomena as those which I used to wit-
ness in my walks with Uncle Sandy in the ebb, that I
was fairly excited to examine and inquire. It was the
necessity which made me a quarrier that taught me to
be a geologist." Soon after the period of his apprentice-
ship bad expired, he quitted Cromarty and went to Leith,
in the hope of getting employment as a mechanic among
the stone cutters. He soon got work of the kind he
wanted at Niddy Mill village. He does not seem, how-
ever, to have been very comfortable in his new quarters.
His comrades, though good workmen, were for the
most part a hard-drinking, ignorant set, who were
u
p rdo
iveciekde dagbay h i
nsisteadiness
ts
hi g
Highland
birthvoo conduct, d
and a
aec e
ntnd pre-
j His
health also soon gave way, and he resolved to return tc
ferrieonmdasritay.
the He was
;hecararteily welcomed
spebeydilayllrehsitsoroeldd
him, and in the summer of 1828 he set out for Inverness
for the purpose of getting employment as a cutter of
inscriptions on stones. It was then that he first formed
a connection with the press. Some poetry which he sent
to the Inverness Courier brought him under the notice
of the editor of that j ,urnal, who encouraged him in his
literary efforts, and afterwards assisted him in his pub-
lishing a small volume of fugitive poetry. His poetical
efforts, though on the whole rather unfavourably received,
gained for him several good friends. Among the number
was Principal Baird, who, after perusing Miller's verses
and series of letters on herring-fishing, which he had con-
tributed to the Inverness Courier, had expressed a desire
to know :heir author. A meeting accordingly took place,
and Dr. Baird urged Hugh Miller very strongly to quit
Inverness and seek literary employment in Edinburgh.
Hugh prudently declined the ii.vitation. "I did think
it possible," he says, " that in some subordinate capa-
city—as a concoctor of paragraphs or an abridger of
Parliamentary debates, or even as a writer of occa-ional
articles, I might might find more remunerative employ
merit as a stone-mason. But though I might acquaint
i ed
whetherin thisalh seitfheinwaorldo
largef
btooowkns
I when
questoinuecould way,
With
enjoy equal opportunities of acquainting myself with the
occult and the new in natural science as when plying my
occ
labours in the provinces as a mechanic." So he resolved
not altogether to give up the project of becoming a literary
man, but to postpone its realisation. It was about this
time that he began to collect the traditions of his native
district, which were afterwards published in Edinburgh.
He also began to give more attention both to local and
national politics, as, indeed, no man of any earnestness
or spirit could help doing in those spirit-stirring times.
So interested did he become in local affairs, that on one
occasion he went the length of standing at a municipal
election, for a councillor, at which, not a little to his
surprise, he was successful. The honour, however, soon
lost its relish for him. "In duly attending the first meet-
ing of Council," he writes, "I heard an eloquent speech
from a gentleman in the Opposition, directed against the
individuals who, as he finely expressed it, 'were wielding
tee destinies of his native town,' and saw, as the only seri-
ous piece of business before the meeting, the councillors
clubbing pennies a-piece, in order to defray, in the utter
lack of town funds, the expense of a ninepenny postage.
And then, with I fear a very inadequate sense of the re-
sponsibilities of my new office, I staid away from the
Council Beard, and did nothing whatever in its
behalf, with astonishing perseverance and success,
for three years together." Satisfied of his capacity
for a newspaper writer, he next determined on
publishing the " Legends of Cromarty," by way
of a sample of his literary powers. Before, how-
ever, this project was carried into effect, he was offered,
and accepted the accountantship of a branch agency of
the Commercial Bank of Scotland, which was about to
be established in Cromarty. He then went to Edinburgh
to receive instructions, and after a few days was sent to
Linlithgow to be practically initiated into the mysteries
of book-keeping. Before leaving Edinburgh he managed,
through the medium of Sir Thos. Dick Lauder, to get
Mr. Black to accept the Legends, on what he then con-
sidered very liberal terms. After two months' pupilage he
returned to Cromarty and married. This change in his
situation brought with it anxious thoughts as to bow he
would increase his limited income. About that time (1335)
a periodical called "Border Tales" was started, and to it
Hugh Miller contributed a number of tales. This helped
to eke out his slender means, and led to his forming a
connection with Citambers's Journal. All this time Mr.
Miller continued to devote what spare time he could afford
to the study of his favourite science, geology. To the
examination of a rich ichthyolitic deposit of the old red
sandstone his attention was especially directed ; and the
discoveries and restorations in which these investigations
resulted afterwards formed the basis of his great scientific
reputation. A more exciting subject, however, was soon
pressed upon his notice in the shape of the Voluntary
controversy, and the critical situation of the Presbyterian
Church. " Could Ido nothing for my church in her hour
of peril ?" he asked himself. "I tossed wakefully
throughout a whole night, in which I formed my
plan of taking the purely popular side of the question,
and in the morning I sat down to state my views to
the people in the form of a letter to Lord Brougham.
I devoted to my new employment every moment not
imperatively demanded by my diries in the bank
office, and in about a week after was able to despatch
the manuscript of my pamphlet to the respected
manager of the Commercial Bank." This pamphlet
thei
,4gE, :zit a
tbhl
ei s hy me whoaernltB4o,
it awf tat), r
pwraorpdos
ed tfoundedhat a n
et byres
pFa
pr ee
at once attracted the attention of those ministers of
e
sChhouurlcdh .
be
eAs ft taebrl
shdei
ds c s
to i o npopularhouse oof th
views,
iRe
we vs;
and
in
promoteth et
he
the author of the pamphlet was invited to become its
editor. Thus the Witness was established, and it soon
flourished under so able a manager.
In addition to the pamphlet an " Legends of Cromar-
ty," Mr. Miller's other works were " First Impressions
of England and its People," "The Old Red Sandstone,"
" Footprints of the Creator," and " My Schools and
Schoolmasters." Up to the time of his decease he was
engaged in writing a work on the geological accuracy
of the Mosaic narrative, entitled "The
the Rocks."

DR. LIVINGSTON UPON AFRICA.

Dr. Livingston has Acidrepze4 the folio wing letter to a
contemporary :

Sir,—There certainly would be no increase in the
general happiness of the world by the simple transfer of
the slave-labour system of cotton-growing from the
Southern States of America to either one portion or
another of the African continent ; but as I believe it
improbable that such a system—one of monstrous wrong
to the black, and bad neighbourhood, with a tendency
of political tyranny, to the white, will be the result of
our encouraging the Africans to produce the raw mate-
rials of our manufactures on their own soil, I shall en-
deavour to give a general view of the social and political
relations of the tribes with which I am best acquainted,
as it is on the peculiarities of these that my belief is
founded, and you will then be able to decide whether I
have been led to my conclusion by sober reason or by
too sanguine hopes.
The government of most of the African tribe is
patriarchal. Each man becomes head or chief of his
own family and their dependents. The children build
huts around a spot called the "kotla," which answers to
the "gate" in ancient times. Above these paternal
chiefs there are influential men, allied by either blood or
marriage to the chief of the town or tribe. They have a
kotlas under them, and are often termed Barenana—
" little lords ;" or by anther word, meaning " little
great old ones." The chief (Nlorena or Kosi—lord or
king), with his cattle pen and kotla in the centre of the
town, is head over all. When a man cannot manage his
■in he appeals to his "little lord" for assistance ; and
when a man of one kotla has a compiaint against one of
another kotla the case is brought by these " little lords"
before the chief. If a case requiring little considera-
tion, the chief decides on the evidence, which is given
orally, the witness always standing. Should it
be a matter of more importance, or any pub-
lic question, the chief sends for all his lords,
and the case is reheard in their presence. They
utter their opinions freely, and the chief sums up their
opinions, taking the sane view or not, as the case may be,
with the majority. If a man of decision of character, he
carries it his own way ; if otherwise, they generally carry
it in theirs. The chief seldom adopts any measure di-
rectly contrary to public opinion. One or two decided
opponents will make him waver and hesitate, and perhaps
have resource to the dice or divination. The elders or
lords are guided by a number of maxims or proverbs,
which seem to have come down to them by tradition.
These remarks refer chiefly to the tribes south of 18 deg.
south latitude. In the country of the true negro, which
lies north of that point, the political relations, though
generally the same, are somewhat risodifiel by female in-
fluence ; but the general relation of one tribe to another
is the same in all which came under my observation. One
tribe is perfectly independent of another, except by a sort
of traditionary bond, which will become developed in cases
of invasion or common danger. It seems to have arisen
from having had a common origin, and it became partially
apparent when a late colonial Governor made the enor-
mous mistake of pretending to place himself in the tradi-
tional headship of the Caffre family. A better plan for
rousing every particle of patriotism and loyalty of
the most devoted people on earth could not have
been devised than that of what to an Eng ishina❑
will appear a very simple affair viz., appoint-
ing a European Kosinkolu instead of a poor
Caffre one with a withered leg. Universally it must
have been felt as a stab at their entire nationality. If we
speak of it with reference to right and wrong, a know-
ledge of the African political constitution would have
led any man with his wits about him to imitate the con-
duct of the English Government with the Highland
chiefs —quietly bought up the power of the under chiefs
or subsidised them, and then the Kosinkolu would have
given no more trouble than did the descendants of our
Pretender.

Among the Bechuanas there is no paramount chief,
though they refer themselves to a common origin. They
are more effeminate than the Caffrss, and those of them
who were subjugated by Moschatze gave no trouble to
the Boers, who very wisely sidled away from the Caffres,
of whom they universally entertain a very wholesome
dread. When they (the Boers) wish to appear valiant
they name the Becbuanas " Caifres," and may with
out much danger " perform brilliant service before
the enemy," seeing our Government at the Cape pre-
vents the Bechuanas from receiving supplies of gun•
powder—although they never gave us any trouble—
and allows a free supply to the Boers, who have. Among
the negroes beyond 18 deg. the system of paramount chiefs
prevails in somewhat greater force than in Caffreland,
Matiamvo is the paramount chief of a very widely scat-
tered tribe celled Balonda (or Balonda) ; but the various
chiefs who profess subjection to him are perfectly
independent, yet use his name as a sort of bugbear to
each other, and every few yews send him a present.
Cazembe calls himself a vassal of Matiamvo too, and
has an hereditary claim to be general-in-chief to him

in somewhat the same way one of our Scottish peers
does in reference to his clan. Monomotapa (Lord Mo-
tapa), often named by the Portuguese the "Emperor,"
is another of the paramount chiefs; but, though formerly
subsidised by the Portuguese and honoured with a guard
of European troops, is certainly not such a powerful
man as Saudillah in Caffreland.
Now, these various chiefs, though nearly independent
of each other, are by no means independent ”f their
people. Suppose a man is dissatisfied with one chief he
can easily transfer himself to another, and as a chief's
importance increases with the number of his followers

fugitives are always received with open arms. The chief of
the Balobale, who are west of the Balonda (12 deg. and
13 deg. S. lat., 23 deg. E. long.), sold some of his people
a few years ago to Mamhari, The consequence was, whole
villages passed over to the Balonda, and we saw them
as a❑ important part of the population ender Sainte.
Slavery invariably produces bad neighbourhood. Nearly
all the Portuguese wars have had this element in them
—" they received and kept our fugitive slaves." So
constantly is this the case I cannot c mceive a cordial
friend,hip between the United States and England
till either a fugitive slave act is operative in Canada and
England, or slavery is abolished in the South. In
Africa an extensive slave system could not be carried
out anywhere except in the spaces enclosed in the deep
reedy rivers of the Great Valley. One of the queens of
the Sebituane tried to escape thence to the south ; but,
though accompanied by eight attendants, she got so en-
tangled in the branches of the rivers as to be obliged,
after a month's absence, to give herself up. In all the
other parts of the country the facilities for escape are -in
great that the slave system, even though it were de-
e'rable to establish it, c mld not be worked. Would it
be necessary t Take the most free independent persons
in the country, the Bushmen and Bakelahari ; they kill
and prepare upwards of 30,000 small animals, the skins
of which are taken annually t the Cape in the shape of
" karosses." Ultimately many of them purchase tea in
China. Three or four traders manage the whole affair.
Ask an American, and he would answer that these
animals could only be collected from the desert by slave
lal ear.

I Then in Angola a very large amount of ivory, bees-
wax. and palm and sweet oil is exported. We met
hundreds of people carrying these articles to the coast.
The Balonda and Ambonda collect most beeswax by
means of hives, which we saw at distances of a few miles on
trees in the forest. They are not given to steal each other's
honey, from a fear of medicine being placed on the trees.
For the most part, nearly all the wax is collected by
perfectly free agency, though to one sitting in Loando
the amount seems enormous. And so of the palm and
sweet oil. It is produced by independent negroes, and
had they roads, as I recommended they should have, in
Angola, the produce would be multiplied a hundredfold.
I say this because of the cheap rate at which these arti-
cles may be obtained from the oultivater i in the interior,
aed the very wonderful predilection which all Africans
have for barter. In connection with this subject I may
mention that before our cruisers were so increased in
number as to repress the trade in slaves the traders went
inland and purchased slaves sufficient to carry the wax,
ivory, &c., they could rind to the coast. Both were sold
for exportation. But when our cruisers became by in-
creased numbers more efficient, a new system was neces-
sary ; and now the Government of Angola compels the
negroes living under it to render service in transporting
merchandise at a fixed rate to the coast. This was
pretty clear proof that the slave trade was repressed,
though it did not prove its entire suppression. We can.
not always trace an untruth to its author. I had im-
bibed a Yankee notion that our cruisers only made bad
worse, and increased by interference the horrors of the
middle passage. My brother, a clergyman in the United
States, heard a professor of political economy assert
the same thing ; and as our cousins like to say remark.
able things, it was added, that "England would adopt
a more humane course were she to fit up a line like the
Cunard to transp at the negroes from Africa to Cuba in
comfort." I was led away by these and other state
merits made in Parliament. But in Angola I found
" the time of the slave trade " spoken of in the past
tense. I saw slaves sold for 12s. within 100 miles of
the coast who formerly would have commanded 70 dol-
lars, and travelled with companies of slaves carried from
Angola (chiefly women) to be bartered among the
Balonda for
.ivory and wax. The entire trade is not
closed, but it is se dangerous as to prevent any one
t 3 xcept a very few daring characters risking their money
in it. The heartiness manifested by all our officers in
their work and other things made me rather ashamed of
myself fur imbibing what I could clearly see was rather
-
a Yankee than an Eillish notion, propagated probably,
in the first place, by triage Who may have been interested
indirectly in the slave trade, and believed by those who
were not, but had no means of testing its accuracy. The
idea that the Africans could not produce cotton enough
for the supply of England on their own soil I very much
suspect is a Yankee notion too. Look at the insigiacant
istanSl of the Mauritius, 35 miles long by 25 brosd ; a
great piece of volcanic rock,
and.so little soil that the
b ailders wbiCb covered it must be placed in rows, as dry-
stone dykes, in order to get space for the sugar cane; the
iclee *l'6 made for the cane between the rows, and a
little guaryi welded, f rr without that there would be e
sugar ; and whet that part is exhausted the dykes inu,t
all be moved on to the intervening spaces. The labour
must all be brought by colonial money from India, and
then English enterprise produces sugar equal in amount
to one-fourth of the entire consumption of Great Britain.
The population of this wonderful lit le island, 200,000,
is entirely free ; the labourers, happy and comparatively
free from the idiueuce of caste, feel more friendly to
Christianity and civilisation, and often return home as
such men to spend their after life in ease and quiet. In-
deed, it is free labour which here, asin Angola, produces
the large supply of the articles we need. The latter
country conteiss a population of 600,000 souls, and only
from 5 to 7 per cent are slaves.
But it may be objected that the colonists of Natal
cannot`get free labour from the Caffres, and eurGovern.
meat must supply them with coolies—there can be no
harm in quoting the Natalians' own words, as published
f:om reports of public meetings in their own newspapers.

'`e vowed object of the speakers at one meeting a few
years age Ole, to induce the government to grant Chinese
or C,) die labour, for the. they w••ul 4 aet English
caps a! on the strehgth v i"New, I vvisti them
to get some of it ; they would make a much better
use of it than the Emperor of Russia would, but,
though desirous to see them prosper, I think it will
be in their power to remember that Caffre labour by the
thousand was at their door at 7s. 6d. a month, and if
a Times' commissioner had gone out they would both
have left off their clamour for " labour" and for a Caffre
war, fir these " Times' people" are i.ad fellows for put.
ting the ends of things tog. ther. The attempt by a
commission to get up a Caffre war produced the opinion
of the Recorder of Natal, " that history does not present
another instance in which greater security was enjoyed
of both life and property than had been enjoyed by the
Natnlians during the period of English occupation."
Mr. Cloete, the Recorder, is a gentleman of Dutch
desc-nt, of distinguished impartiality of judgment, and
eminent in legal attainments. And then they were told,
neat. con., in the commission, that nearly all those who
were clamouring for labour were so unable to employ
labour that they had antua'ly come to the ' oolony in
search of employment. I wish them succe-s ; but you
will see whether their want of labour means more than
want of capital, and whether the case has any bearing
on the question, producing cotton by free labour in
Africa.

With respect to the fertility of the soil I have very little
doubt, because cotton is already cultivated, though of in-
ferior quality. It is short in the pile. In Cazengo, a dis
triet of Angola, 1,200 cloths, 6 feet long by 3 broad, is
the annual tribute of the free population to Govern-
ment. There is been'-wax in great abundance in the in•
terior, but the people eat the honey and throw the wax
away. Coffee, wheat, sugar, and indigo were formerly
exported from Tete. The country in many parts is quite
covered with wild vines ; but the grapes are bad. There
is abundance of specular iron ore and the black oxide,
but I have spoken of these elsewhere. The wheat grows
on parts flooded by the Zambese ; and this river inun-
dates large patches of country annually, exactly as the
Nile does. Indeed, it rises in a great velley, containing
extensive collections of water with islands. And, as the
view of Sir R. Murchison respecting the formation of
Africa was remarkably confirmed by my observations,
' made without the remotest idea of his having enunciated
it clearly three years before, I think it highly probable
that the Zambese and Nile rise in one great valley. The
Valley ot the Nile between Cairo and Alexandria is the
exact counterpart to the Valley of the Barotse, between
16 degrees and 14& degrees south latitude, and 23 de-
grees east longitude
My principal object in referring you to these matters in
the present paper is to take advantage of your wide cir-
culation to utter a sort of protest against any rash specu-
lations being made in connection with them. The ports
called Barra Catrina and Melum be, at the teal mouths
of the Zambese, might to be examined by competent per-
sons, if the opinion of the late Captaiu Parker, who was
killed at the mouth of the Danube, and who is said to
have been delighted with the branch called Luabo or
enema, cannot be found at the Admiralty. The river
of Quillimane, which I came down, is not the Zambese
at all. When I left that river it was lowing rapidly,
with about three-quarters of a mile of deep water. It
remains high during five months of the year—i e.,
small steamer would scarcely run aground anywhere
within 300 miles of the coast ; and during the remaining
months there is a deep channel, rather winding and
shifting from year to year. There is a shifting, too, of
the large reedy island in the river below Lupata ; the
healthiest period of the year—May, June, and July—
corresponds with the time of medium height of the
water. The country is uninteresting until you go through
the gorge of Lupata. The numerous islands where, be-
fore the late war, 24 fowls could be bought for two
fathoms of strong unbleached calico, and grain equally
cheap, are now depopulated. The Portuguese Govern-
ment has made the ports of the eastern coast free, and
certain privileges are granted to any one who may disco-
ver and work a mine. The country, especially that north
of the Zambese, is remarkably fertile, and the people
cultivate largely ; yet I would recommend nothing but
a small outlay in any attempt to develope the resources
of the country. Anything on a grand scale would be
sure to fail, because it is so very difficult to get the pro-
per agency, for however good men may appear at home
when freed from the restraints of public opinion and the
thousand other influences which bear upon them in
England, they do often act in the most unaccountable
manner. Let but little be attempted at firer, and when
success in the small way is attained operations can
easily be extended ; your men will then be known too.
If, fir instance, an attempt were made to develops the
coal trade there. would be no great difficulty in a small
armed steamer going up the Zambese 360 miles to the
parts around Tete, where the seams crop out of the sur-
face. One seam could be reached by going up, in flat-
bottomed boats, a river 60 or 80 yards broad, called
Revubne (Revubwe), 'which falls into the Zambese on
the north bank about two miles below the fort. These
lat-bottomed boats would approach to within two or
three miles of the seam, and, but for a small cascade in
the Revubwe, they could enter the tributary ot the
Revubwe in which the seam exists. It is situate in tke
perpendicular bank, anft, measured from the level of the
stream, it is 48 inches in fii.meter, a few inches of shale,
then another of 10 inches-58 inches of coal in all. The
dip of the seam is inclined upward, so as no machinery
for drainage would be required. Close by the coal has
been converted into coke by volcanic action. , Another
tributary of the Revubwe, which enters nearly opposite
this, contains another seam, and there are others higher
up, or northwards. I. have brought specimens for the
museum in Jermyu-street, under Sir R. Murchison,
whose opinion will be decisive as to the value or worth•
lessness of the mineral. Should such a speculation be
successful, accurate information of the co umercial value
of other articles would in the meantime be secured. I
am not qualified by a commercial education to give any
opinion, and others equally clever might not succeed in
gaining the affections of the natives. With me, indeed,
it has been a work of time, and I have profited muob
by the kindness of those with whom I have lived in'
giving me a good name. But any one may keep a civil
tongue in his head and avoid espousing the quarrels of
others, as the English have done those of the Boers with
the Caffree. Let it always be remembered that slave-
keeping is bad neighbourhood ; "if you don't give up
my runaway slave you are my enemy." This has been
the root of many a war.

SIR B..BALL'S DETERMINATION AS TO
THE DRAINAGIM QUESTION.

(Front the Examiner.)
Sir Benjamin Hall has resolved to refer the ques-
tion of the metropolitan drainage to a commission,
composed of two civil engineers and one military.
They are to consider the plans which have been
proposed, including, of course, the plan B (the
initial of bad), adopted by the huge vestry called
the Metropolitan Board of Works, but they are not
to be confined to a choiew- of these plans. They are
to be free to suggest any other which may be more
complete and effectual for the same object. If it
should seem fitting to these gentlemen that the
outfall of the sewage should be placed lower down
the river that. the point proposed in plan B—let,
us suppose at Shellhaveu or Shoeburyuess—they
will have to calculate the increase of the cost of the
work above the estimate for plan B,
the requirements of the act of Parliament, exempts
the metropolis from any charge exceeding the cost
of that work This is au equitable and wise arrange-
ment. The whole population of the eastern valley
of the Thames is interested in the purification of
the river, and it is but fair that they should bear
a share of the burden serving to their sanatory and
other interests. But who is there in the kingdom
who is not concerned in this great work, which is
is
veer,ryebitohdeyr cfoomr ebsusitnoeLssoonr-
ednsosenatt some
essentially
taitmioenaolr?
pleasure, and it is eveortEyhbody's interest, therefore,
that London should be in the cleanest and most
wholesome state possible.
Much will now depend on the select(i)on of the
maythr lye,eeengtilaneeyerwsill Letnot b
ues l
ed hopehy
the
that,n swohe by Captain whoever they
Burstal's observations on the tides. A Greenwich
pilot will be a much safer authority. For want of
an instructor of that practical class, one of the most
celebrated engineers of our time committed himself
to a theoretical blunder of a magnitude hardly
credible. The occasion was an inquiry as to the
probable effect of the present London-bridge
upon the rise and fall of the tides, the old
bridge having by its startlings served as a dam, and
apprehension having been entertained that the re-
moval of the dam would be attended at spring floods
with an overflow, inundating the metropolis and its
neighbourhood at high-water, and at the ebbs with
au exhaustion of the stream, rendering it unnavig-
able. Examined as to the rate at which the tide
ran in springs, the engineer astonished the commit-
tee by answering 20 miles an hour. The urn ientific
members of the committee stared at this informa-
tion, for all of them had seen the tide flowing be-
tween the bridges, besides having tided it down to
Greenwich and Blackwall white-bait dinners at no
such rampant rate ah 20 miles an hour. One of
the committee, after a pause, ventured timidly to
ask whether there was not some little mistake in
the witness's statement of so rapid a run of the tide?
No, he replied, with all confidence, adding that he
would demonstrate the matter beyond the shadow
of a doubt. " You will see, gentlemen," said he,
"by these tables that is flood to-day at the Nora
at 12 o'clock. Well, if you will turn to the tide-
table for London-bridge you will see that it is flood
there at two p.m. Thus there is a difference of
two hours between the time of flood at the Nore
and London-bridge. The distance between the two
places is about 40 miles, which divided by two gives
20, the rate at which the tide runs up from the
Nore to London-bridge." Such a blunder of false
reasoning as this, in contradiction to the plainest
and clearest of plain and clear facts, seems now
inconceivable, but some 30 years hence not less in-
credible may it appear that engineers of our day
left out of their calculations the fact that the flood
tide outcarrits the ebb, though at any fixed point
the duration of each may seem equal, or the tim,
of the ebb rather the longer of the two. Bet lawn
an empty bottle at London-bridge, and it will not
have more at the utmost than a five hours' voyage
down the river against seven up again on the flood.
This, however, is a sort of demonstration which a
Capt. Burstal will hold in supreme contempt.