The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-18 00:00:00

CRETE.

The Moniteur du Soir of last night says :—" The
period fixed by the Porte for the suspension of
military operations in the Island of Crete having
expired, the Grand Vizier has just pubtSshed a pro-
clamation to the Cretans, in which 110 announces
his intention to take energetic measures of a nature
according to him to bring about the pacification-of
the island."

FRANCE.
BOURSE, Nov. 16, Three o'clock.--The market
closed as follows :-
41 per Cent.
End of month —
3 per Cent
End of month 6B 20
Credit Mobilier 156 25
End of month 155
Credit Foncier 1350
End of month 1342 50
RAILWA

Bank Shares 3297 50
Ital'an Loan
End of month 45 95
Mexican Loan
Do. Bonds
Spanish Threes
Home Debt
Deferred 32 50

Account
Orleans
Northern 1145
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern.... 542
Western
Eastern .. 530
Sardinian
Austrian 490
Lombard 346,f •
North of Spain 5,
Saragossa
Roman..

481

THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

ANSLEY BAY, OCt. 27.

The transports containing the advanced brigade
left Aden on the afternoon of the 19th inst., con-
veyed by the Government steamer Sir Bartle Frere,
which had no ship in tow. Her engines were
scarcely powerful enough to keep her up with the
remainder of the fleet, and during the night they
were obliged to reduce their speed to prevent their
heading her.

The most favourable weather was experienced
during the whole passage, with strong southerly
breezes, which enabled the vessels to set sail and
helped the towing greatly.
The channel into Ansley Bay is studded with
small islands, and to the north, towards Massowah,
there is an archipelago of bare volcanic islands,
beautiful in the distance when the morning or even-.
ing sun strikes them, but barren, desolate, and
cinderlike in the glare of noon.

On the afternoon of the 21st inst. the transports
rounded the head of the bay, and before 7 o'clock
all the vessels were safely anchored at convenient
distances from the landing-place. Fortunately the
experience gained from the pioneer party—one of
their ships was nearly lost on a coral reef—pre-
vented any casualty from shoals or reefs, but one of
the steam transports had a narrow escape, one of
the blades of her screw having been struck off by a
coral reef, which she had incautiously approached.
The view from the anchorage at Ansley Bay is
magnificent ; high ranges of mountains rise close
from the shore in some places, and on a clear day
other ranges may be seen, still more elevated, far
behind them. The higher peaks of the first range
are said to be 5,000 ft. in height, and so deceptive
are distances in this day, clear climate that they
seem quite close, although upwards of 30 miles
distant.

Between the mountains and the shore there is a
sandy plain, in many places covered with a saline
incrustation and flooded with the higher spring
tides. Broad water-courses, which during the rainy
season must be foaming torrents, traverse this plain,
and in many places their beds are filled with large
boulders, washed down from the hills. The country
is generally covered with brushwood, and its ap-
pearance is said to resemble very much the banks
of the Indus. The ordinary Indian babul, so well
known to Anglo-Indians, is very common, and is
almost the largest shrub, for it cannot here be called
a tree.

In the anchorage at present there are about ten
steamers and six sailing transports. The shore is
very flat, the tide receding about 200 yards, although
its rise and fall are only about 4 feet. The beach
is formed of a muddy sand, very fine and firm. At
no stage of the tide can troops be landed without
their wading, or stores without a transit of 50 yards
through the shallow water. This entails great
labour with the latter, as they have to be carried by
coolies about 250 yards before they are out of reach
of the tide. At the landing-place there is only a
small spit, about 100 yards long and 40 broad,
which is not covered at the highest spring tides.
These companies of Native Sappers are conse-
quently now employed in raising and reclaiming
some more land to servo as a temporary landing-
place for stores.
The grand depot will be about a mile inland, and
a tramway will connect it with the landing-places.
A pier is also being constructed to land stores. It
is proposed to have always a depth of Bft. at the
pier-head, and to effect this it will be about 200
yards in length. This would be but a small work
if the materials for making it were available, but the
stone has to be brought in Arab boats from the
opposite side of the bay, about 12 miles distant, and
they only make one trip in the thy. At present
all these boats are employed in landing stores
urgently required, so the progress is confined to the
portion close to high water, where the Sappers are
engaged in revetting the embankment with stout
fascines fastened with stakes driven into the sand.
When the pier is completed it will have a tramway
laid to its head, which will facilitate lauding opera-
tions greatly.
Although the slope of the beach from high water
to low water mark is very gradual, the water from
the latter deepens rapidly, and vessels lying within
200 yards of it swing in six fathoms.
Great difficulties were at first experienced in the
disembarcation of horses; mules, and stores, but
they aro being gradually overcome as fresh boats
arrive daily from the places along the coast. Un-
fortunately, the services of the only tug steamer
were temporarily lost by her grounding on a sand-
bank when reconnoitreing the head of the bay with
Col. Merewether. She was got off yesterday with-
out damage, and will prove a great acquisition by
tugging the boats from the ships to the shore.
The 3d Bombay Light Cavalry and the battery
of Native Artillery have been landed, and proceed
to-morrow to a place about 16 miles off, where there
is an abundant supply of good water.
The 10th Bombay Native Infantry in a few days
will be marched in another direction, about ten
miles away, where water is plentiful and good, and
only the Sappers and Miners will be left to form
working parties.

Hitherto the efforts to obtain water close to the
shore have met with poor success. A few of the
wells yield very indifferent water in limited quan-
tities, and many have been spoilt by increasing
their depth. Six inches after the water-bearing
strata had been reached a saline bed has been
tapped, which rendered all the water brackish and
unfit for use. Almost all the steamers at anchor
are employed iu condensing watpr for the use of
the troops, and large quantities are landed from the
ships every day.

Colonel Merewether has been absent since the
transports arrived here on a reconnaissance to th e
south. His object was to ascertain if the muuntain
passes in that direction were practicable. He is
expected to return to-morrow, a small steamer
having been sent to meet him, and it is reported
that no route exists where he has explored available
for the march of an army.

The present opinion among military men is that
there will be two or three landing-places for the
army, regulated, of course, by the water supply and
anchorage. Camps will be formed at these positions,
and the divisions or brigades will advance by diffe-
rent passes and meet on the high table land of Abys-
sinia, where a grand depot will be established. This
plan would have great advantages ; there would be
seyerat Lim conahunicatiou with the coast, sup-

plies would be more rapidly and easily brought up,
and the base of operations greatly extended, which
would prevent overcrowding in the harbours and
the mountain tracks. The weather for the last ten
days, although decidedly hot, has not been disagree-
able ; the nights are cool and often necessitate a
blanket. During the day there is a delicious sea
breeze, which fails about 8 o'clock in the evening,
and for the next three hours it is close and hot until
a land wind springs up again. There has been no
news for the last fortnight from King Theodore,
who must before this have received the declaration
of war.

ALEXANDRIA, Nov. 14.
Intelligence received here from the camp at
Z Julia, dated the 2d inst., announces that the ad-
vanced brigade of the Abyssinian Expedition, under
Colonel Field, arrived at Zoulla on the 21st of Octo-
ber and landed, all well.

Preparations for the reception of the coming
forces were progressing rapidly, and one good pier
was approaching completion.

Abyssinians from the neighbourhood were flock-
ing to the camp in search of employment.
The latest dates from the captives were of Octo-
ber 6th.

The Daira of the Viceroy of Egypt is in great
financial difficulties. Bills to a considerable amount
have been protested, and Raghib Pasha has deter-
mined to separate the Daira from the Treasury.

MR. IL A. BRUCE, 1211 P., AT ABERDARE.

On Thursday evening the Right Hon. H. A
Bruce addressed his Aberdare constituents at the
Temperance Hall in that town. His verdict upon
the Reform question was, ho said, that though
household suffrage had been the foundation of the
last Reform Bill, that principle was only embodied
in it by the action of the Liberal party. He con-
tended that the Liberals were thoroughly justified
in the course they bad taken. The plan of the dual
vote which had been brought forward would, if it
had been adopted, have simply counterbalanced the
extension of the franchise below the £lO rental
voters. Mr. Bright and Mr. Glandstone instantly
saw the effect which must be produced, and theta-
fore protested against it. He had not belonged to
or sympathised with what was known as the Tea-
room party or the Adullamite party, but he con-
sidered they had taken a clearer view of the prin-
ciple involved in it than bad been in the first place
the case with the bulk of the Liberal party. He
gusted the speeches of Lord Stanley, Mr. Hardy, and
Mr. Disraeli, all of whom declared that the Go-
vernment would never introduce the principle
of household suffrage. Mr. Gladstone, therefore,
accepted that declaration as an honest one, and be-
lieved that a bill on such a principle would never be
brought forward by the Government. Since the
passing of the bill the Conservatives had much
vaunted themselves upon it as their bill, but the
fact was the Liberal party had forced into it all that
made it a liberal measure. Mr. Disraeli had claimed
the credit for the Conservative party of having been
sincere reformers from the days of the celebrated
Mr. Pitt. The effect of the late bill would have
been to give strength to the middle and upper
classes, without doing anything for the working
classes, if the Conservative party had been allowed
to have its way. He would, however, undertake
to say there was not a member of the Liberal party
who wished to overthrow the present Government
after they had taken office, but they were desirous
that they should carry out a reform bill. The
present Government had, however, shown tha t
they were alarmed at their own work ;
but let them proceed to carry out all
the sequences which must follow the principles
of their own bill. Let them devote themselves to
removing the abuses in Ireland ; let them throw
open the national universities to dissenters, and
carry out all the other Liberal measures con-
sistently with their profession of Liberalism,
and he would not place any limit to the con-
tinuance of the present Government in office, and
to their preventing their political enemies from re-
turning to office. Mr. Bruce proceeded to dilate at
considerable length upon the particular grievances
of the mass of the Irish people, though be confessed
there were many extreme points of the claims put
forward by the Irish people with which he could
neither sympathise nor admit to be reasonable, and
iu fact he could not understand how the Irish people
were so much led by the Roman Catholic priests as
they were. In touching upon the question of edu-
cation in Ireland, he said the plan which had been
adopted in that country bad led him to make a cal-
culation, the result of which was to prove that to
make it reach the 8,030 parishes would occupy about
150 years, and that, he thought, was rather too long
a period to look forward to with satisfaction for
such an object. Passing to England, he said it was
the immediate neighbourhood of the largest towns
where there was the most defective education. He
was sorry to say that in South Wales there was only
an average of 45 per cent. among the population who
were able to write their names. He had great pride
in finding that a number of members of Parliament
were giving in their adhesion to the principle of the
Education Bill which he had placed before their no-
tice, and he had therefore no fear but that he would
be able to carry his bill in the next session. They all
knew that it was most desirable that they should have
the best and wisest heads in operation for the public
weal, wherever they might be found, or to whatever
class they might belong, and therefore, he said, it
was of the utmost importance that they should place
the advantages of education within the reach of
the poorest classes. He contended that it was
perfectly absurd in the present day to make the
national universities more exclusive adjuncts of the
national church. It was never intended from their
first establishment that they should be so. Re-
ferring to the Factory Acts, he maintained the
great usefulness which they bad exercised on the
employment of women, especially in night work.
Mr. Bruce made remarks upon the redistribution of
seats, and particularly approved of the amendment
which had provided that no town with a population
of less than 10,000 should retain two members, and
he went into the statistics to show the disproportion
which had existed in the large and populous
counties in the north of England, as compared
with the agricultural counties in the south, and he
contended that these statistics must show in
the clearest manner the unfairness of the pre-'
sent distribution of seats in Parliament.
He wished to say a few words particu-
larly applying to the locality which he represented.
He disclaimed the slightest desire to appear to dictate
to them who should be his future colleague. It was
perfectly natural in a locality so essentially Non-
conformist to desire to return a Nonconformist as
their representative. He defied any one to show
that during the fifteen years he had been their re-
presentative he had ever done anything in opposi-
tion to the interests of nonconformity. He denied
that there was any truth in the insinuations which
had been freely made in the local papers that
Churchmen were necessarily the enemies of religious
freedom. He cited the names of distinguished men
who had been the most earnest supporters of the
extension of religious freedom, and yet all of them
were zealous Churchmen. With respect to the
gentlemen who had presented themselves as candi-
dates for the representation of the borough, he
would frankly say that Mr. Fothergill, as a large
lauded proprietor, and a large employer of labourers,
had a perfect right* to offer himself as a candidate.
Then, again, Mr. Richard, as a Liberal and a Non-
conformist, had a perfect right to offer himself as a
representative for a community among whom so
much nonconformity prevailed. Mr. Bruce re-
peated the explanation which he gave at Merthyr on
Monday evening, in answer to the false charge
which had been industriously circulated, that he
had years ago said that 12s. a week was sufficient
wages for labourers. Ho said so far from that
being the case, ;the only limit he would put to
the magnitude of wages was when they reached
such an amount as to take away the possibility
of the surplus of profits being devoted to the in-
crease of capital. He further repeated his explana-
tion of the absurdity of the accusation made against
him of not being a Welshman, or of allowing want
of ieterest in Welsh matters when in his place in
Parliament, It reply tv quutivus, he said, with

loud applause, he would repeat the answers which
he gave at Merthyr to the same questions, namely,
that he was quite prepared to adopt any
effective
course which might be struck out to correct the
evils of the ratepaying clauses, but he was not pre•
pared to bring forward any measure of his own at
present. On the question of the ballot, he frankly
declared that he would not give that his support,
and he instanced the working of the ballot in the
Athenrewn Club, to which he belonged, where there
had been numerous instances in which gentlemen
of the highest and universally acknowledged distinc-
tion in literature or science ha 1 been rejected under
the cover of the ballot, which would not have been
the case had there been open voting. He was not
prepared to support the entire abolition of
capital punishments, as he thought they
should be re ained in certain extreme eases
only. As to the truck system, he had always been
desirous of removing it, and he would still support
every measure having the same object in view. On
the question of the disendowment of churches, he
could only say that no man had ever yet been bold
enough to propose such a measure in Parliament as
the entire disendowment of churches, and he cer-
tainly could not profess himself in favour of se
sweeping a measure. He said in the present day
they had a clergy in the Church who were zealous
and faithful in the discharge of their duty, and
there was this distinction between the ministry la
the Church and Dissent—that the latter, though
faithful and zealous in an equal degree with the
former, were only careful of their own flocks,
while
the clergy of the Church looked after the stray
sheep in their respective parishes, who belonged to
no denomination or sect. In answer to a further
question as to the disendowment of the Irish
Church, Mr. Bruce said he could not say that he was
at present prepared to support such a measure.

A resolution, pledging the meeting to support
Mr. Bruce at the next election, was carried by ac-
clamation, and a vote of thanks to the chairman
having been also adopted, the meeting separated.

la
Zll +

lIER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Nov. 17.
The Queen, Prince and Princess Christian,
Princess Louise, Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold,
Princess Beatrice, and Princess Henrietta of
Schleswig-Holstein, and the Ladies and Gentlemen
in Waiting, attended Divine service this morning
in the private chapel. The Rev. Stopford Brooke,
Honorary Chaplain in Ordinary to the Quient
preached the sermon.