The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONiay. SATEJRUAY E EKING, DECEMBER 28, I:)ti7.

North or the produce of the South Radical legisla-
latiort seems about equally unsatisfactory.

Sir STAFFORD NORTHCOTE has received intelli-
gence from Colonel MEREWETHER at Senafe up
to the 13th of December, at which date all was
going on well. He hal heard from the captives at
Magdala, and it is most satisfactory to learn that
they were well at that time, the 11th of November,
and had received the news of the expedition being
on its way. The KING, it is said, has not been able
to advance wore than thirty miles from Debra
Tabor in consequence of being encumbered with too
much baggage, and also with having great oppo-
sition to encounter. This is very good news
for the captives and their friends, and
tends to increase the hopes of those who are fur-
thering the expedition for their release. Subse-
quent accounts further on also seem to show that
King THEODORE is not likely to treat the prisoners
worse in consequence of the succour that is being
despatched to them. Indeed it is intimated that
of late they have been better used by the KING.
This confirms the opinion entertained by Lord
STANLEY that King THEODORE was too
wary to commit himself by harsh usage of
the captives just when the forces of our So-
vereign were being sent to their rescue.
Mr. FLAD, who is with these prisoners, has sent
information to the effect that the KING has taken
with him all th 3 prisoners who were at Debra
Tabor, all the Europeans besides, some of whom
are free and some in chains.. The women and
children are all well. Accounts from Alexandria
report the sad intelligence of the death of Colonel
KENNEDY, C. 8., Assistant Commissary-General on
service in Egypt in connection with the Abyssinian
expedition. He died on the 18th December. So
far as we can gather from the collective
accounts that have reached us, we may
consider that the expedition as yet has prospered as
well as can be expected, and there is every reason
to hope for its success, notwithstanding the sinister
predictions in which some are prone to indulge.
The truth is that there have been many exaggera-
tions in the matter, and the difficulties which are
inseparable from such an undertaking have been
magnified to an absurd degree. With care and
foresight, and the exercise of skill and spirit, there
is no cause to fear that any other but a prosperous
issue will be come to, and the captives return to their
homes in safety.

OUR readers may remember that the nitro-
glycerine which exploded at Newcastle with such
lamentable results was manufactured by Mr. A.
NOBEL, at Hamburg. This gentleman has written
to the Times in reference to the event, and to the
agent by which it was brought about. The gene-
ral purport of his letter is to the effect that
nitro-glycerine is a comparatively safe substance,
its principal drawback being. a bad reputation.
As a set-off to that frightful illustration
of its power given on the Newcastle Town
Moor, Mr. NOBEL assures us that it is used
without any injurious consequences in Norway and
Sweden ; and to shew that it by no means deserves
its hard name, he enumerates a series of accidents
and attributes which have been wrongly attributed
to it. Unfortunately for Mr. NOBEL, we have to
deal with the terrible fact that this nitro-glycerine,
which ought not to have exploded, did explode,
and that five persons, one of them a professional
chemist, lost their lives in saving Newcastle from
an appalling danger. It could be no consolation
for what has happened, but it might have been
somewhat reassuring, if Mr. NOBEL had shewn that
;the accident occurred through the neglect of some
obvious precaution. The case against nitro-glycerine
is strengthened by his failing to do so. Mr. NOBEL
contends that the late explosion was owing to
" the want of useful knowledge as to the pro-
perties of nitro-glycerine. Even if such is the
fact, it does not remove the necessity for all the
restrictions we have demanded. If, as several
competent persons say, the new blasting oil pos-
sesses real 'advantages over gunpowder, and is in
some respects safer in mining operations, let it be
used, but only when the conditions of safety can
be guaranteed or the danger incurred only by those
who understand what they are doing.

One sentence in Mr. NOBEL'S letter throws some
additional light on the disaster at Newcastle. "As
regards nitro-glycerine," he writes, " the congealed
crystals, to be exploded, require a far more potent
blow than the liquid oil ; and it was probably
owing to adhering drops of the latter that the
Newcastle explosion took place." This sentence
contains a very probable explanation, of the cata-
strophe, but does it tend in the slightest degree
to lessen what Mr. NOBEL calls our prejudice
against nitro-glycerine ? Normally this compound
is in a liquid state. Is it reassuring to be told
that it is ten times more dangerous when liquid
than when frozen ? Could the danger of hand-
ling it be more forcibly put than by the admission
that the loss of life now deplored was due to the ex-
cessive explosiveness of a few drops of the liquid oil?
After this admission it is unnecessary to answer the
unfounded charges made against nitro-glycerine.
It is manifestly an agent against which the public
ought to be protected with the most sedulous care.
Mr. NOBEL'S pleas for " liberal regulations " to
allow of its use and transit, founded on the fact
that sometimes crystals may be crushed without
exploding, are nothing to the purpose after what
has occurred at Newcastle, at Aspinwall, and
at San Francisco. The danger of using
the oil for blasting purposes may have
been exaggerated, but its general bad name
is too well deserved. Its reputation has become
bad only in consequence of its effects. We may
have in modified forms of this new substance an
agent for mining or military purposes of the utmost
value. As it is nowmanufactured and sold, all protes-
tations to the contrary notwithstanding, its use is
precarious, and its carriage extremely dangerous. No
penalties, it seems to us, can be too severe against
the incautious sale and storage of an element thus
circumstanced. It will be well when the inhabi-
tants of large towns have some better guarantee
than they have at present that dangers like
that to which Newcastle has just been awakened
have been rendered morally impossible by the
adoption of the most stringent regulations.

All the precautions that have been taken against
the Fenians are more than justified by the events
which are constantly recorded. If one thing is
more certain than another in this cons' iracy it is
that its abetters stop short at no consideration of
difficulty or danger, and display a zeal and ingenuity
worthy of a better cause. The last news is that
they have been very busy in Ireland again, and
have succeeded in capturing some Government
stores. From Cork it is reported that a body of
insurgents crossed the river from Passage West, and
took the guard by surprise who were in charge
of the Government Martello Tower, which consisted
of two artillerymen ; they carried off a number of
muskets and a quantity of ammunition, and in pos-
session of these they recrossed the river. In Killar-
ney three men have been arrested ; one of them is
the secretary of the funeral procession, and the
others shop:lien's assistants. These have been sent
to the county gaol at Tralee under a strong escort.
Both these circumstances show that the mischief is
still rife, and great caution must be observed to
check its course, for at times:and seasons when least
expected, it may create confusion and distress to an
incalculable degree. An attempt was made to burn
the letters in the General Post-office, but fortunately
only some were destroyed; however it shows the
mischievous design that pervades these culprits to
be thus constantly interferinglwith the transaction,
of business.
A letter from Mr. MAGUIRE will be read with in-

terest. He states that, as one result of the deputa-
tion to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Thurs-
day, the Lord Mayor has consented to receive sub-
scriptions at the Mansion House towards the fund
for relieving the sufferers at Clerkenwell, and has
permitted his name to be placed on the list of the
committee. In consequence of the suggestion of
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the rev. gentleman
offers some brief statement of the position of affairs.
" One whole street is in ruins, fourteen other
streets, containing two hundred houses, are more or
less shattered ; six hundred families look to us for
reparation and comfort, forty persons lie badly
wounded in the hospitals, there has been loss of
homes, clothing, tools, costly working materials;
add to these health impaired, limbs lost, and lives
forfeited, and now the cost of these evil doings is
estimated at between twelve thousand and fifteen
thousand pounds. We fully agree with the subse-
quent passage of this letter, to the effect that
the responsive sympathy of the nation would
be the most satisfa'tory mode of treating
the calamity ; a loyal protest would be borne by
Englishmen as well as Irishmen against Fenianism,
and the smallest contributions would testify to the
feelings entertained as to the nature and object of
the perpetrators of these outrages. The swearing
in of special constables still proceeds with alacrity,
and up to yesterday as many as 3,090 persons had
been sworn in at Guildhall as special constables.
Some of the Volunteers have been sworn in, which
is an excellent azrangement, as they are so well
qualified to render assistance when required.
Some alarms having been experienced at
the Marchand Magazine, near Southampton,
the most decided measures have been adopted for
the prevention of any outrage, and armed police-
men and sentries surround it. In various parts of
the country alarming rumours have been circulated,
and anonymous letters been received, in consequence
of which steps have been taken to counteract the
evil threatened. On the whole, it may be said that
no efforts seem spared to insure the safety of the
public from the machinations of the evil-disposed
among us ; and in due time it is to be hoped that
the efforts of the authorities, aided by the exertions
of the community, will be crowned with success, and
that the plague of Fenianism may be rooted out
from among us.

TEE APYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

Interesting and valuable information is now being sent
to us from Abyssinia. The Times special correspondent
writes from Rayray Guddy, near Senafe. After leaving
Upper Sooroo the character of the road was completely
changed. The pass widened into a valley, and was covered
with copse enough to furnish some for tame. The moun-
tains grew loftier, though as precipitous ; the acacia, the
tamarisk, and tamarind were seen along the line of
march. "As night came on," says the Times corre-
spondent, " occasional fires, glimmering through the dark-
ness out of some bushy recess on the mountain side, told
where a wandering Shoho had fixed his hut, and, as our
long line of well-laden baggage animals presented rather
a temptation to gentlemen of easy virtue and no par-
ticular residence, it was some satisfaction to feel that Shoho
and Great Britain were just now fast friends and allies.
The Shoho's arms arc a long spear, which lie can throw
with precision thirty yards, a round buckler of buffalo-
hide about 2i feet in diameter, and a curved sword worn
on the right thigh. As the station of Rayray Guddy was
approached the route lay through narrow tortuous, defiles,
with windings so incessant as to more than double the dis-
tance. The existence, says the writer already referred to, of
such a pass up into Abyssinia as the Koomaylee is cer-
tainly a wonderful piece of luck for our force. "There is,
I am told by professional men, no other pass known in the
world by which so great a height is attained at so gradual
an ascent. Senafe, at the summit of the pass, is as nearly
as possible 7,000 feet, and the ascent is, on an average,
about lin 41. The natural obstacles are, moreover, very
few and far between, as your readers may have judged
from my account, although, certainly, I did not see the
pass until the 10th Native Infantry—who have set a first-
rate example by the energy with which they have thrown
themselves into work out of their own line—had been
road-making over a great portion of it, and until by far '
the most difficult part had been admirably handled by a
company of Sappers, under the direction of Lieut. Jopp.
The path is extremely narrow—at some places I should
think not twenty feet from cliff to cliff—and immense
blocks of granite, hard enough to turn the best tools, have
been washed down by the torrent into the midst of it.
These torrents, by the way, are only considered dangerous
during the prevalence of the highland rains in Abyssinia,
from about June to September. During the lowland
rains on the coast, which ought to commence in Novem-
ber (the Abyssinians say that they have been kept back
because God is displeased at the English invasion),
and which last till January, the flood is very rarely
sufficient to fill the bed of the torrent or do serious
mischief, unless it were to stores of food too heavy to be
at once moved. Besides, we hope to have established
very shortly between Senafe and Annesley Bay a tele-
graph, which will outstrip even the torrent, and give
timely warning to all below of its resistless charge.
Except this difficult bit of road at Lower Sooroo, the Koo-
maylee Pass presents scarcely any difficulty worth men-
tioning. The Rayray Guddy defile will make some
tough work requisite, and there is said to be a steep
—and, considering the general character of the Koo-
maylee Pass, very sudden—ascent from here to Senafe.
It will also be necessary to establish in some way
a water supply between Upper Sooroo and Ray-
ray Guddy. The distance—some twenty-nine miles—
cannot otherwise be got over, without risk of casualties,
by baggage-animals heavily laden. But none of these
difficulties are formidable, and there is every reason to
hope that our troops, instead of remaining on the hot and
during the rainy season malarious plain below, will be
moved in succession with ease from depot to depOt esta•
blished along the Koomaylee Pass, until they arrive at the
healthy table land of Abyssinia. A messenger named
Murdja Wurk6, who spoke English fluently, having been
educated in Bombay, came into camp here this
afternoon (December 4th) with a letter to Colonel
Merewether from Kassai, supposed to be now the
most powerful chief in Tigr6. Abyssinian politics
are in such a hopeless state of complication that I
scarcely dare to touch upon them, but, according to
all I can learn from those who know the country, our
diplomatists will have very difficult cards to play ; and it
is fortunate that we have in Colonel Merewether one who
has for some time made the Abyssinian question his special
study. There seems to be a number of great feudal chiefs
in the country, all regarding Theodore, notwithstanding
his recent reverses, with a strange superstitious awe, but
all prepared on his overthrow by foreign arms to fly at
each other's throats, and fight to the death for the Im-
perial supremacy he once enjoyed. It is probable that
most, if not all, of these will try to secure our alliance,
in the hope of obtaining by it dominion over their rivals."
Senafe has been frequently mentioned. It consists of
two or three small clusters of wretched hovels stowed away
under the shelter of the mountain side. They are built
of clay, stuck with rough stones, are only about seven feet
in height, with flat roofs, which must lead a hard life in
the rainy season, but are of considerable length and
breadth, having to hold all the proprietor's cattle and
sheep, as well as the more immediate members of his
family. No invidious distinction, however, is made be-
tween his quadrupeds and his blood relations. The
former, in consideration of their number and size, have
by far the largest share of the apartment assigned to
them, while a small space, marked off with stakes and
twisted grass, is reserved as the parlour, bedroom, dining-
room, and kitchen of the latter. The latest news from
Abyssinia is dated December 13th, and consists of a letter
from Colonel Mcrewether to Sir Stafford Northcote. All
was going on well ; the captives were well ; King Theu•
dore had not been able to advance more than thirty miles
from Debra Tabor.

A mass of interesting and useful information concerning
Abyssinia, which has been compiled at the Topograhical
and Statistical Department of the War Office by Lieute-
Colonel A. C. Cooke, C. 8., R.E., appears to-day in
the form of a Blue-book. The object of this compilation
is to collect together the information on the routes in
Abyssinia which is scattered through the works of diffe•
rent travellers. The following notes on the army and
fortresses of Abyssinia have been communicated by Capt.
Webber, R.E., and Capt. Hobart, R.A., who received
the information from M. Legean, who was French Vice-
Consul at Massowah in 1863 :—ln the army the battalion is
the unit. It consists nominally of 1,000 men, and is
commanded by a chief and numerous under officers. The
fighting strength only amounts to 250 well-armed men,
and about 150 to 200 half-armed followers, the remainder
being merely servants. A thousand rations are drawn for
each battalion, the number including about 250 women.
There is no attempt to carry artillery in the field, but they
have many guns and mortars in the forts, or " ambas."
Monsieur Legean considers that the Abyssinians are
brave even to temerity, and that they would not in the
first instance try to defend the passes, but would rather
allow an army to enter the country and attack them in the
open field. He speaks of having witnessed reviews and
sham fights. The irregular army is the feudal following
of the great chiefs, and its numbers depend on the
willingness of the chiefs to obey the Emperor's summons.
They might amount to nearly 100,000 men. The hill forts,
or ambas, occupy the summits of small table mountains,
where water is to be had. They arc scarped on all sides,
and have only one means of access—by a winding ascent.
It is rarely necessary to fortify the summits, or build a
rampart. M. Legean considered them impregnable to
assault and unassailable by mining operations. They
could generally, however, be taken by stratagem. Their
garrisons only consist of 300 or 400 men, and their chief
use is as depots, &c. The greatest number of them being
to the south, they. are not likely to prove an obstacle early
in the campaign.

A GOOD EXA➢IPLE.—The directors of the Nations..
Provincial Bank of England have ordered a bonus of ten
per cent. to be presented to the officers and clerks of the
company upon their salaries for the year 1867.
COLLISION ON THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—A
collision took place on the Caledonian Railway on Thurs-
day, which, although fortunately attended with little per-
sonal injury, was of a somewhat alarming character. It
appears that as the train which leaves Motherwell at
12.10 p.m. was nearing Jerviston Bridge, an engine was
observed coming out of a siding, and seemed likely to run
right into the advancing carriages. The driver of the pas
senger train pulled sharply up, but a . collision could not
be avoided, although the violence of the shock was doubtless
lessened by his promptitude. As it was the carriages were
badly smashed, a number of them being thrown off the
rails. The passengers were knocked about and much
frightened. The conduct of the driver of the engine in
leaving the siding without, as we are informed, having
authority to do so, is most reprehensible, and will doubt-
less be made the subject of inquiry by the company.—
Glasgow Herald.

THE HOMELESS POOR. Friday was the
Christmas-day of the homeless poor of London. About
ten days ago a dinner was provided at the Refuge for
Homeless Boys, Great Queen-street, Lincoln's-inn-fields,
to which some 400 or 450 destitute children had been
invited. On Friday another reunion of a similar
character was held at the Refuge, and in no part of the
metropolis was Christmas celebrated with greater intensity
of happiness. The Refuge at Queen-street is rapidly
extending its benevolent influences, and no less than sixty
children have been received within its walls during the
current month. As we stated some time ago, the com-
mittee of management have purchased a farm at Risley,
near Woking, but £5,000 will be required to provide the
buildings necessary for utilising the newly-attained pro-
perty. A transfer to the farm of fifty of those at present
in the Refuge is contemplated, but this cannot be done
until the necessary funds are provided.