The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-06 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

" Sir,—While I was still in Abyssinia, in the be-
ginning of last May, I received from M. Munzinger,
British Consular Agent ad interim at 'Massowah, a
letter dated the 29th of April, to the following
effect
This morning there arrived here two messengers with
letters from Mr. Rassam, Dr. Blanc, Consul Cameron, and
Mr. Bourgaud. There is also a letter for you. . .
" The letter from Mr. Bassani to my address is dated
Korata, on Lake Tsana, April 9, 1866. . . .
"Mr. Rassam writes—' Doubtless you have heard from
different people how well the Emperor has received me.
and up to this time not a day passes without his showing
me marked civility. Captain Cameron and all the released
prisoners, 18 in number, have been made over to me to
take out of Abyssinia with me when I depart hence ; and
I hope our exodus will take place about the middle of this
month (April). With the exception of Captain Cameron,
who is somewhat weak, all the released prisoners are in
perfect health, and longing to leave this country.'
" Mr. Rassam begs me to say to you—' The letter he (Dr.
Beke) sent to the Emperor arrived on the 15th ult. ; and
the day after his Majesty received it he sent it to me to road
with the petition from the relatives of the prisoners. I be-
lieve the Emperor wishes to consult me about the answer
when I go to see him this week ; and I have no doubt that
Dr. Beke's messenger will be dismissed when we leave the
Court. In that case I shall send a messenger with him to
inform you of our departure hence to Matamma and Kas-
sala. I toll them (the messengers) to bring no letters from
you to my address.'
"Dr. Blanc confirms this intelligence, and says that from
Kassala they would probably go by the way of Sawakin,
instead of Massowah. Capt. Cameron writes to me only on
personal matters.
" As regards oral news, the messengers tell me that on
the day of their departure they (the Europeans) were ar-
ranging and packing their baggage ; and that on their road
(in Bellesa) they heard that Mr. Bassani had already
started. They have no doubt that at the present moment
Mr. Rassam is out of Abyssinia. The Emperor is still at
Isegye. _ . _

";-71.1i5, sir, is the news I have received, and I believe
that in the course of a few days a final messenger will ar-
rive to announce to us that all our friends have left the
country." . .

So definite and so satisfactory was this intelligence
that I felt no possible benefit could be derived from
my proceeding further on my journey to the Court
of the Emperor Theodore. I therefore returned
forthwith to Massowah, arriving there just in time
to catch her Majesty's ship Victoria, having on board
Col. Merewether, C. 8., her Majesty's Resident at
Aden, on his way to Suez. From that officer I re-
ceived the fullest confirmation of the good news
communicated to me from M. Munzinger, and I
had also the gratification of learning from letters from
Mr. Rassam that the petition from the relatives of
the captives, which had been intrusted to me to de-
liver, had touched the Emperor's heart, so that I had
reason to believe that if he had not, as he is reported
to have declared, already liberated the prisoners for
the sake of the Queen of England, he would have
done so for the sake of their distressed relatives.

But though the object of my personal and philan-
thropic mission seemed thus to have been accom-
plished, and had I been allowed to undertake it in
the first instance I should have been yet more con-
fident of success. I had my misgivings as to the fate
of the political mission of Mr. Rassam, as will be
evinced by the following passages from a letter
which I wrote from Halal to a person of high rank
in England on the 27th of April, before the news of
Mr. Rassam's alleged final success reached me
" The reports of Mr. Eason-I's proceedings are most
favourable, and if only they are to be depended on we may
expect soon to witness the arrival at Massowah of our
Consul and the rest of the unfortunate Europeans who
have so long been in chains. But even supposing. the Em-
peror to have thus promptly responded to her Majesty's
letter, there is a contingency which may yet arise. Mr.
Rassam ivili, doubtless, have entered into engagements on
behalf of her Majesty's Government; and the Abyssinian
monarch may be suspicious as to the non-fulfilment of
those engagements when Mr. Rassam and the prisoners are
beyond his reach. lie may, therefore, insist on retaining
a hostage for the fulfilment of those engagements, and, if
so, whom so likely as Mr. Rassam himself ? Without dis-
cussing the rights of the matter, I will merely say that
native Abyssinians of intelligence who know Theodore's
character well assure me that nothing is more probable.
The fact, therefore, shall simply be assumed, and the ques-
tion then is, what would her Majesty's Government do in
such a case?"

The case thus imagined upwards of two months
ago has unhappily now become a fact, but under
circumstances far more aggravated than I had con-
templated. Mr. clad, one of the captives, is on his
way to England with despatches from Mr. Rassam,
containing certain proposals from the Emperor The-
odore to the British Government, and it is said that
until a favourable answer to these proposals is re-
ceived her Majesty's Envoy is to be detained with
the remainder of the " liberated" captives ; so that,
under no circumstance, can their departure from
Abyssinia be expected till " after the rains"—that
is to say, next September or October. We have the
assurance, however, that during the interval they
are to be " well treated." Well did M. de Lesseps
put the case when we were discussing the subject
together at Alexandria on my way home. " His
Abyssinian Majesty," said he, " imprisons his ene-
mies and detains his friends."

It is rumoured, indeed, that Mr. Rassam accom-
panied M. Flad as far as Aden, where he is now
awaiting the reply of her Majesty's Government,
having left the unhappy " liberated" captives in
pledge for the fulfilment of his engagements in her
Majesty's name ; but this I cannot bring myself to
believe.

I feel myself, however, called upon to remark that
when Mr. Rassam so complacently vaunted the ex-
cessive humility of the Emperor Theodore towards
the Queen of England, and his having (as reported
in the Times- of the 29th of June last) " insisted on
Mr. Rassam's acceptance of°
which our Envoy at first refused,l'ooobf ourt hisfoundexpenses,
itpo_
po-
litic to accept and credit the sum to her Majesty's
Government," he can hardly have contemplated
that such a gift was intended as a. mamciladja, which
in Isenberg's Amharic Dictionary is defined as a
" present presented by an inferior person to a supe-
rior," and for which the donor expects in return not
merely an equivalent, but something of very much
greater value. So conscious was lof this usage in
Abyssinia, that never during my long residence in
that country would I, under any pretence, accept a
present from an inferior without first understanding
what I was to give in return ; and whenever I
asked a favour of a superior I first presented my
manzdladja.
It was not without a motive, then, that the Em-
peror Theodore lowered himself so exceedingly be-
fore her Britannic Majesty in the person of her re-
presentative ; and the question put hypothetically
on the 27th of April has now become a sad reality.
What will her Majesty's Government do under
existing circumstances 7—l am, Sir, your very obe-
dient servant, CHARLES BEKE.
Civil Service Club, July 5.

THE PRICE OF A KISS.—A sailor has been fined
ls., and condemned to pay the costs, for having kissed a
young lady while passing through a hayfield near Devon-
port. Defendant, in answer to the charge, said that at the
time referred to in the summons ho was in the hayfield
with his brother and friends, making merry together, when
he saw the complainant, and, thinking she was one of the
party, ho took some hay and went to her, saying, "I'll
make sweet hay with you, my dear." He tried to kiss her,
but she resisted, and on discovering his mistake he said he
was very sorry.

- -
AN AMERICAN MILK MANUFACTORY. —A Boston
paper reports that the assessors of ward 7, in that city, re-
cently had the curiosity to examine a large milk establish-
ment, and finding four large casks, weighing probably 2,400
pounds, they investigated the contents of one of them, a
stave being broken, and thus affording access. It was
filled with refined whiting, and on taking a sample for ex-
periment they found that titiatittg it witli water gave a very
gocisl iuui Lion of milk.