The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-18 00:00:00

of England. If handreds and thousands of us
were to die, who would count ? But in Eng-
land a statement of dead beasts was prepared."
It is most unfortunate that sentiments of this kind
should be current among the natives. The manifest
injustice of such a statement, the perversion of facts,
and unfairness of illustration, do not prevent it from
being in the highest degree mischievous among the
uninformed. The natives are not for the most part
sufficiently aware of the powers of modern engineer-
ing science to be sensible of the real cause
of complaint against their English rulers—the
neglect of irrigation, but they are quite
able to understand the effect of the apathy and hesi-
tation which have failed to assist them in their sore
distress. We shall be anxious to learn from Calcutta
what steps have been taken since the receipt of Lord
CRANBORNE'S communication, and mean while it
is to be hoped that Englishmen will not fail to learn
from the extent of the present calamity the necessity
of bringing public opinion in this country to bear
upon the constitutional indolence of the Anglo-
Indian Administration.

tomed position without causing any damage or in-
jury of importance. A few cases of fever, however,
had occurred in some of the districts where the waters
had remained for some time. The mortality was not
very great.
The Vienna Gazette publishes in French and Ger-
man the text of the Treaty of Peace concluded be-
tween Austria and Italy, but I do not translate it as
the chief provisions of it were well known before.
The total amount of the subscriptions announced
in the Moniteur to-day for the relief of the sufferers
by the late inundations is 784,023 fr.
More cases of poisoning from eating supposed
mushrooms are recorded. At the village of Cade-
role, near St. Jean du Garde, in the South of France,
a family named Rossignol, have been poisoned. The
family was composed of the mother, her two daugh-
ters, and a governess. Of the above persons three
died very shortly after eating the vegetable—the
mother, one of the daughters, and the governess.
The other daughter was not expected to survive.
I find, from a perusal of many provincial papers,
that the fears respecting the vintage excited by the
long continuance of cold wet weather have happily
proved to be unfounded. There is no doubt that in
the majority of the wine districts the produce is very
abundant. Indeed the abundance was so great as to
cause a demand for extra workmen, who made a sort
of strike for higher wages, and received atout a third
more pay than usual. Such has been the quantity of
wine in some localities that it was difficult to pro-
cure barrels or other vessels to contain it. Of the
quantity produced there is therefore no doubt, but
it is proved that the quality of some of the wine will
not bo so good as that of last year.
This morning early there was heavy white frost in
all the localities around Paris, but the sun rose
brightly, and has been shining already, but a rather
cold wind prevailed.
The Charivari has the following rather malicious
anecdote. A traveller was seated at a table d'hôte,
and when a dish with radishes was passed round, he
emptied them all into his own plate. " I beg your
pardon," said the gentleman seated next to him, " I
am also very fond of radishes." " Not so fund as I
am," said the traveller coolly, and he persisted in
eating them all. This traveller was no other than
Count Bismarck. When the Prussian generals im-
posed burthen upon burthen on the city of Frank-
fort, the bankers of the ci-devant capital of the Ger-
man Confederation found it useless to remonstrate,
" We have worked all our lives to get our millions,"
said they, " and we like them." "Not so much as I,"
said Bismarck, and he took the- millions. King
George the Fifth protested against the annexation
of his states to Prussia, and said that as a good
Prince he liked to govern his subjects, the Hano-
verians. Count Bismarck answered, " Not so much
as I do," and so he annexed Hanover to his
own kingdom.

LI

It is very much to be regretted that the recen
outrages in Sheffield should not have produced

more effect in arresting the cause of those mis-
guided and malevolent individuals who have out-
raged all sense of justice and propriety by their

conduct. The recent accounts that have reached
us from them show that unfortunately the evil has

taken too deep a root to be eradicated quickly or
easily, and in fact may be considered as one of

those dangers which periodically affect society, and
which must be met in a bold spirit and a determined

manner. It appears that letters have been received
by two of the masters in the town, which contained
threats, and in one of these allusion was made to
another flaring-up occurring shortly. Energetic
efforts have been made to facilitate the discovery
of the offenders, and the reward has been augmented
to eleven hundred, accompanied by the promise of
free pardon to any accomplice who is not the actual
criminal. We trust that these inducements will
speedily induce some one to come forward and
throw light on this confused subject, for much de-
pends upon the effect of bringing the mis-
creants to justice. It will never do to allow
matters to rest as they are, and for a
spirit of terrorism to reign triumphant. It is
true that in Ireland it has long been difficult,
if not impossible, to stop these outrages, but in Eng-
land something must be done, and the sooner the
better for the safety of society and the furtherance
of justice. We may add also, for the credit and
character of those who form these Trade Associa-
tions, the more respectable ones must be against such
acts, and those who are half and half had better
realise the fact at once that great harm will
inevitably ensue to their undertakings, and
blame attach itself justly to them, if a period
is not put to such infamous practices at once,
and for ever. We live in days when such

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Oct. 18.

An Imperial rescript, dated 14th inst., has been
published here to-day, convoking for the 19th
November all the Diets of the Empire, with the
exception of that of Hungary.
The Emperor has also addressed an autograph
letter to Count Majlath, the Aulic Chancellor of
Hungary, announcing that the convocation of the
Hungarian Diet had been deferred for the pre-
sent on account of the prevalence of cholera. The
letter further requests Count Majlath to return to
his post without delay, in order that, should a
favourable change take place in the sanitary condi-
tion of the country, the Diet may be opened imme-
diately. The Emperor also requests Count Majlath
to communicate his sincere thanks to the Hungarian
Volunteers for their services to their country, and
to express to the inhabitants generally his Imperial
tecognition of the numerous proofs which they have
longinitoetlfea.-aliiaii-OPFenirkiinr.bc4h"

outrages can no longer be tolerated, and it is
the duty of all to impress this part seriously upon
those who persist in forming these societies and

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 18, 1866

cellor.

Miss Braddon's New Magazine.
Belgravia a London Magazine. Conducted by
M. E. Braddon. No. I.
As a first appearance this is upon the whole per-
fectly satisfactory. It will disappoint only the
cavillers at Miss Braddon's immense popularity. It
will more than realise the expectations formed in
regard to her new enterprize by the majority of her
admirers, and as such of her very cordial well-wishers.
Externally and internally Belgravia is refreshingly
attractive. It is the most propitious coming forth
of a new adventurer amongst our monthly pe-
riodicals, that has taken place since the
inauguration of the career of the Corn-
hill. And as the ripe golden hue of W.
M. Thackerary's Magazine gladdened the eye
with a welcome touch of colour, to say nothing of
the arabesqued design artistically traced upon that
same rich colouring by the graceful pencil of the
draughtsman—precisely in the same way now does
M. E. Braddon's Magazine, in its turn, both by its
delicate green and umber colouring, and by the dainty
device by which those contrasting hues are blent
together and interwoven, gladden the eye by the
mere charm of its external appearance. Like the
Cornhill both in size and price, Belgravia is
adorned with double the number of the Corn-
hill's full-page embellishments. Whereas the
Cornhill has always contented itself with two,
Belgravia appears with no less than four highly
elaborated illustrations. In regard to the mere
material part of the " getting up" of it—in the
matter that is simply of paper and of typography—it
competes not only with the very best of its shilling
contemporaries, but with the older high-priced
monthly magazines, such as Maga and Regina, or,
reversing the sequence and speaking of them lite-
rally, such as Fraser and Blackwood. Three metri-
cal and ten prose contributions make up the con-
tents of this initial number of Belgravia. Some

among the latter, it is true, we cannot but regard
as so much mere padding. We can't help looking
upon them, in other words, as having been thrown
in, somewhat as straws are in the manufacture o f

bricks—just for the purpose, we may presume, o
holding the other materials together. Speaking of the
articles to which we are here taking exception as of
so many mere makeweights, we would pass them by
at once with a simple curt enumeration of their
titles: " African Martyrology," by Winwood Reade,
beginning with Clapperton and ending with Sir
Samuel Baker—"An Adventurous Investigation" be-
ing a delineation of Manx madmen and mad women,
tediously spun out, and painfully out of place as it
1 appears to us—an Oxford sketch, entitled "In the
Schools Quad"—and No. I. of a seriesof Belgravian
Prose Ballads (self-descriptive, this one, of
"The Chaperone") a simple and flagrant eccen-
tricity. " A Fireside Story, told by the Poker,"
promises, by its title, to be better than it proves to
be. The " Feast of St. Partridge, at Park Hall,"
however, is not only vivacious, but delightful from
first to last. "Market-street, Manchester," again,
is another of those animated outpourings of discur-
sive chat, in regard to which George Augustus Sala
has long stood without any competitor—but never
more conspicuously than since the time when (about
two'years ago) he first took, like Young Dorrit to
be "of the streets streety." " Love in November,"
by Mortimer Collins, is a snatch of erotic verse that
one might have looked for more confidently
from Algernon Swinburne than from any
one else. The Rev. Blomfield Jackson's lines
on the " Slain at Sadowa" are utterly marred by the
inharmoniously absurd effect of the first verse of
the opening stanza. Evelyn Forest's " Indictment,"
the other metrical contribution not yet particu-
larised, being suggestive, by a very few words in-
deed, of a very glowing picture, a pictuee pencilled
with only too much passion, but with exquisite
grace, by C. J. Staniland. Another over-impas-
sioned picture is the one by E. K. Johnson, embel-
lishing the serio-comic historical record about
" Swells," in which Antique Swells are shown to us,
while in the enjoyment of a classic symposium. The
writer of this same entertaining paper on Swells,
has evidently acquired a mastery of his subject
. iii-Og£ alJae"ciatiVeTT. tqic(l,ll/14M in g* tinkriatech
perfectly the Fine Gentleman under all his vary-
ing aspects, namely, as the Coxcomb, the Fop,
the Blood, the Beau, the Exquisite, the Dandy, and
the Swell. Speaking of the noblest type of them
all—the Swell—he says, and says truly :
"Yet these heads of theirs never bowed down before the
face of their enemies, which leads me to observe upon a
very remarkable feature in the idiosyncrasy of a swell.
Though gilded, painted, and perfumed,—with tender toes
made tenderer by a reckless employment of leather, and
white hands made whiter by a judicious use of kid, —this
phenomenon of civilised life was never found to be defi -
cient in spirit. Perhaps to be a swell at all—to defy the
scoffs of other creatures, and set completely at naught the
contempt of the wise—argues so large an amount of assur-
ance, that after it, nothing in creation can exist too appal-
ling to be faced with the profoundest confidence and com-
posure. Be this as it may, the histories of the Indian
mutiny, the Crimean war, and similar periods of horror and
bloodshed, attest, as must be confessed, to this redeeming
attribute in a thoroughbred swell ; who is thus as much to
be dreaded by his enemies in war, as friends, with any re-
spect for their own complacency, would dread him in
'sweet piping times of peace.' "
The full length portrait, however, as it has here
been drawn with admirable skill to the very life, is
worth the giving here, or worth the reflection here,
shall we say, by means of quotation :
" The S well ! wonderful offspring of the most intricate
art ! Conscious of his own superlative excellence, and
freezingly indifferent to the gibes of vulgar ridicule, see
how stately he threads his way through the mazes of ob-
servant crowds, and admiring thronged assemblies ! There
are two well-defined varieties of the Swell which we must
remark almost every day of our lives: the soft fragile
creature, upon whom the lightest breeze seems to fall with
a too ungentle force ; and the defiant S well, whose haughty
frowns and devouring looks are apparently borrowed from
the aborigines of New Zealand. Fairness, thinness, effemi-
nacy, weakness, together with pearls, turquoise, and silver
ornaments, are the specialities of the former; whereas the
latter who is by nature sable-haired, olive-skinned, strong-
built, and robust, delights in green and red, and never
misses an opportunity of introducing in his apparel as
many gold busses, rubies, garnets, horse-shoes, and death's-
heads as is consistent with the canons of swelldom ; and in
this respect swelldom is not niggardly. They have certain
family features, however, which are common to both, and
without which they would not be Swells. No aspirant to
either degree would, without whiskers, pass for anything
but a spurious and impudent pretender. It is in vain to
commence swellism, if neither nature nor cantharides have
bestowed this prerequisite. Besides, the culture of the
whiskers supplies the thoroughbred Swell with the main
business of his life. Shave him from ear to chin, and his
occupation is gone. Cover over that inexpressive region
of the human countenance with the luxuriance needed,
and what with washing, brushing, greasing, perfuming,
and stroking, he has enough to do to occupy all those valu-
able hours when he is not showing off the fruits of his
manipulations in public. Then all Swells are, in the ela-
boration of their more trifling accessories, works of the
highest finish. They are stippled all over and in every
part, principal orsubordinate, like a fine miniature on ivory;
and the effect is so artificial and precious, that framing and
glazing seems the next thing to be clone, though in charity
(rather t. them than others) we must stop short of hanging
them up. Now, quitting his exterior, let us look to what
he has, or rather has not, in him. Not much conversation;
not a very rich stock of ideas ; not at an a copious vocabu-
lary. Every portionless widow is 'a horror;' every pen-
niless maid 'a fright ;' an ordinary acquaintance ' a fel-
lah ;' men of fortune ' trumps ;' a friend who accepts one's
bills ' a brick ;' and those old 'uns who don't 'regular muffs
and duffers.' What ho abhors is' beastly ;' what he does
not abhor is ' jolly;' and what he loves—and he disdains to
love anything else—is himself. And with respect to all
the enjoyments of existence he is simply passive. He was
never surprised, amused, or contented since he was born.
Pleasures bore him; people bore him; his creditors bore
him ; the routine of life bores him; the weather bores him;
the first day of the week bores him : the Opera on the last
bores him. The only emotion to which he is liable is dis-
gust; and there is so little heartiness about this, that when
he owns to it, it looks only like a remote objection. Then
he eats without any sign of relish ; drinks only to remove
depression, or create au unnatural sensation, which, when
fully obtained, affords no satisfaction ; and there is so
little vital sensation between his sleeping and waking
hours that he is conscious of no agreeable refreshment in
his slumbers, or pleasurable excitement in the activities
which follow."
And now, having said and quoted thus much of,
and from, No. I. of Belg,ravia, we have to speak but
of two other contributions, making up the full com-
pliment of the contents of this the initial number
of Miss Braddon's New Magazine. We have re-
served our reference to them purposely thus until
the very end, because in bidding adieu for a while
_ to the new periodical, and vii,Alin it all possible °‘l°

FAST MEN.

A SKETCH BY "WHIZ."
(From the Sporting Review.)
Notwithstanding the patronage of Augustus Caesar, the
mentorship of Maecenas, and the friendship of Marcus
Tullius, Cicero, and Publius Virgilius Maro, Horace was
one of the fastest men of his age, and as a man of the world
had a thorough knowledge of human nature, men, and
manners; and he was the first man who brought lyric
poetry to any degree of perfection amongst the Romans,
and there is no doubt, from his odes and satires, was a
swell of the first water, loud in his apparel, which oft pro-
claims the man, and a promenader in the Campus Martins
and the Circus Maximus, and a constant attendant at the
Forum. We fancy him a sort of cross between Count
D'Orsay and the late lamented Earl of Chesterfield, with a
dash of Tom Moore in his composition. He was a gallant
—a perfect Don Juan, and his armours with Lydia, Chloe,
and Lyc6 most engaging. He was faithless in the extreme,
but evidently fonder of Lydia than his other loves. When
Lydia upraids him for his affection for Chloe, what says
Horace ? "If our former love returns, and unites us by a
brazen (not, as often at the present day, golden) yoke, what
if Chloe, with her golden locks, be shaken off, and the door
again opened to repudiated Lydia ?" Lydia replies with
much pathos, " Though you were brighter than as a star,
of more levity than a cork, and more passionate than the
Witorkai ikAllliali„s2?-1111dlyvaro.,I should love to live, and

" Tecum vivere antem, tecum obeam libens."

But enough of the ancients. In the Middle Ages there
was Henry 11. with Fair Rosamond, Edward IV. who had
his Jane Shore, and Charles 11. his Nell Gwynn, and sub-
sequently George 11. his huge elephants and his white
mice, so ably described by Thackeray ; but we aro not sur-
prised at his loves for these angels or otherwise, as the case
may be. We all woo them and win them for weal and woe,
and as Shakspero says—
" Win her with gifts if she respect not words ;
For costly gifts, in their silent kind,
More than quick words do move a woman's mind."

We now come to George IV., the gamblers, and gaming
houses, the bane of all good, and which were now in the
ascendant at the west end of London ; and many of the
gaming houses merged into the then new Crockford 's
Clubhouse in St. James'-street. Crockford was a partner
in Wattier's Club in Piccadilly, where play was carried on
to a great extent ; and report states that Hughes Ball,
called " Golden Ball," lost £45,000 at a sitting. During
the progress of the new building in St. James'-street, there
was a removal to Pall Mall, whilst Crockford laid the foun-
dation stone of that princely fortune he eventually amassed.
Luck never seems to have deserted him, and his winnings
have been stated to have reached in one year £lOO,OOO.
In 1828 the club was formally constituted. A committee
was formed, and the chair was filled by the Earl of Sefton,
and 300 noblemen and gentlemen enrolled their names as
members ; and Ude was engaged as French cook at £l,OOO
a year. Forty-two servants, in and out of livery, were
engaged on this establishment. Of the 300 members not
more than 70 were playmen, who played games of chance
—hazard, for instance, whilst others played at whist,
ecart6, and games of science, but declined partaking in the
amusement and excitement of the dice-box. The game of
hazard was played in a small front room on the second
floor, and that room was never shown to visitors, who re-
quired a ticket to visit the morning play, which commenced
at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till 7. At
11 o'clock the real play began, the bank putting down
£lO,OOO, and the stakes may be said to have been un-

limited.
I cannot conclude this sketch without observing that Old
Grockey was a man of the most humane and bonevolont
disposition. He never discharged a servant if ho could
possibly avoid it, and he has been known to read a strong
moral lesson to one as to his future conduct in life. lie
had a splendid freehold estate at Newmarket, where his
young wife and family resided, and were greatly re-
spected by the inhabitants, and particularly by the
poor, who often felt the benefit of their humanity and
generosity.
There were also several mihor silver play-houses in the
neighbourhood of Leicester-square that we have visited
to seo life, which was all the fashion in the days of
Tom and Jerry; in fact, we all tried to be Corinthians
of the first water, and we thought of the beautiful lines of
Milton

"Open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring sound
The infernal doors, and on their huge hinges grate
Harsh thunder. I fled, and cried out
'Death !' Hell trembled at the hideous
Name, and sighed from all her caves,
And back resounded 'Death !" "

Amongst all the vicissitude of life and the various phases
of human nature in her best and worst form, perhaps
gambling is the most fatal. We remember a man—a young
nobleman—having a capital, on coming of ago, of £200,000,
and an income of £75,000 a year. He might have been a
Prince of Wales in those times, as there were few Crightons
afloat, but he took to handling the dico box ; and as every
body knows, or ought to know—as Crockford once said, he
could not live under the sacrifice of a nobleman an hour—
the capital soon went. Ho became a mere tool in the hands
of his creditors and his dear friends the Jews—the vaga-
bond Jews I and ho subsequently subsisted on £5,000 a year
out of his very fine estates in Derbyshire and Nottingham-
shire. We also knew another man of a different calibre, a
much greater rogue and fool. He married a black-diamond
heiress, of the North of England district. He left her as too
black or too stupid ; and he, being a good-looking fellow,
she loved him; and after he left her she settled £4,000 a
year on him. He gambled on the Stock Exchange, and is
now living in retirement in the country with a bare subsis-
tence ; and, for excitement sake (a ruling passion), he has
turned religious. We need not go on multiplying examples
of stupidity. Everybody knows there is either a rogue or
a fool born every minute ; but we prefer the former. As
Old Weller says, you may circumvent him somehow, as he
wanted Sam to circumvent the housemaid, or himself the
widow of the Markis of Granby.
Perhaps two of the fastest men of their day were Colonels
Leicester and Lincoln Stanhope; and Colonel Berkeley,
Lord Segrave, and Earl Fitzhardinge-1 believe these men
were both too clever to be gamblers, because they knew the
deed odds against which they would have to play. But
such was the innate love for gambling amongst all classes
of the community that open betting was allowed at all the
races, in booths, especially Epsom; and huge fat women
under large umbrellas kept watch and ward at roulette
tables for the lower orders on the course, as there was n. A
division under Inspector Walker, perhaps one of the most
cunning of his craft, and who rivals Buthven, Forester, and
Gouge Ledbetter, of thief-taking notoriety, and Doy-otreet,

cess upon the delightful path upon which it has runners, and who received as much as an ex-Lord Chan-
already by its very first step advanced so far and so
adventurously, we would fain speak of it by pre-
ference as at its best. Both these contributions are
purely imaginative. Both, in fact, are stories. One—
a miniature story which is to be related in no more
than three parts (of which the first part is here given
to us in its entirety)—is anonymous. The other, more
ambitious in its character as a work of art of far
more considerable dimensions, is the grand attrac-
tion with which Belgravia opens—the pice de resist-
ance with which it undertakes to satisfy the appetite,
month by month, of even the most insatiable of its
devourers—being nothing less than the new serial
story by the Editress herself—a story entitled " Birds
of Prey," from the hands of the authoress of " Lady
Audley's Secret," and of so many other renowned
talcs of enthralling interest. The " Iron Casket" is
the title, by the way, of the smaller (anonymous)
story, here very effectively commenced --a tale of
the travaux forcs. Both it and the " Birds of
Prey" will be found to have been exquisitely
illustrated—the former, that is " The Iron
Casket," by F. J. Skill, the latter, that is Miss
Braddon's own romance by M. Ellen Edwards. Four
chapters leading off the "Birds of Prey" have already
taken us far on into the interest of the plot and into
the thick of the intricate mysteries among which
some of the principal characters of the narrative
are now seen to be getting inextricably entangled.
Bloomsbury is the familiar scene in the midst of
which the story opens. " The Birds of Prey" being
manifestly those two congenial brothers—one a
surgeon dentist, the other a horsey kind of
attorney--Philip Sheldon, the dentist and
George Sheldon, the attorney. Scattered
plentifully enough, here and there, through
the opening chapters of the new tale, are some of
those inimitable touches which more than anything
else almost that can be specifically particularised
indicate what one speaks of as the master-hand. Such
minute yet vivid touches, let us say, as that in
which old Mrs. Woolper is spoken of as caring in her
capacity as Philip Sheldon's housekeeper for the in-
terests of the hard, strong, black-whiskered young
man of thirty, or rather for the interests, as Miss
Braddon puts it, " of the black-eyed baby she
(the old housekeeper) had nursed three and
thirty years ago !" Or such another touch—
so slight yet so startling—a touch this time not
emotional in its way, but half weird half gro-
tesque—as where Philip, while wandering down
stairs in the very dead of the night on come wicked
errand, when all the house is hushed in sleep—
comes into his professional torture chamber, and we
read—as from under the hand of Henri de Balzac—
" The tall horsehair chair looked unutterably awful
in the dim glimmer of the taper, and a nervous person
would almost have fancied it occupied by the ghost
of some patient who had expired under the agony
of the forceps !" Miss Braddon is evidently in full
force, and writes accordingly--her new story being
already as enthralling as her new magazine promises
`o be successful.

The fast men of the present day seem a different race
altogether ; and whether the immense and absurd excess of
smoking obliterates and obfuscates the finer faculties, is a
problem for the more astute philosopher. But when we find
a young man—a very young man—giving upwards of
£2,000 for a yearling (as a sporting writer observed to us
the other day, who was at the sale) worth £5OO and no
more, notwithstanding the value of the Derby, as the cog-
noscenti immediately laid £lO,OOO to £2OO against him for
the Derby of 1868, we think he must be wrong in his judg-
ment, or have taken too much champagne on the lawn.

ull Lt.
_
&f
,
_
~..: ,
°' artatr

HER MAJESTY,

BALMORAL, Tuesday:

The Queen went out in the morning yesterday
with Princess Christian, and drove in the afternoon
with Princess Louise, attended by the Duchess of
Roxburghe.
Princess Louise rode in the morning, attended by
the Hon. Emily Cathcart. _ _

The Duke and Duchess of Aumale dined with the
Queen and the Royal Pamily.

To Australasia via Panama.

A passenger by the first mail steamer on this
route has sent to an Australian paper a narrative of
the journey. He writes :—" 1 have come in the
pioneer ship of the new line, the Rakaia, which has
carried the first mails. ➢ly ticket was No. 1. We
left Southampton on Saturday, June 2, in the

Atrato, a magnificent steam frigate of 1,967 tons
register, 3,126 tons burden. 'We anchored early on
the 16th in the capacious harbour of St. 'Thomas's,
having made the run of 3,630 miles (actual dis-
tance) in 13 days and 14 hours.., The enginesmade
mcre than 14 revolutions per minute, each turn of
the wheels propelling the ship nearly 24 yards.
Twenty hours were run at half speed, and we had
a strong head wind. At St. Thomas's four ships
awaited our arrival, and in the course of the day

proceeded on their way to their various destinations,
my own lot being on board the Tamar. We had
about 30 passengers and 30 tons of cargo, contained
in 700 packages, all of which had to be transhipped
in the course of the day and under a blazing sun.

No sooner was the work effected than we began our
life on board the Tamar, which, favoured by a strong

trade wind, made the run to Colon-1,060 miles—
in four days 15 hours, and the captain informed me
that it could have been done in 22 hours less, had
there been any object to gain, but it was useless to
make speed, because the ships at Panama going
north, south, and west would not be ready to re:

. . -
ceive their passengers till the 24th. Disembarked

at Colon, or Aspinwall, as the Americans term it,

we mount the cars on the 22d, and plunge into the
wild and exquisitely beautiful scenery of the
Isthmus. We cross the immense chain of the
Cordilleras at a depression, so that we have not to
ascend more than 254 feet above Pacific high-water
mark. The total length of the railway is 47 miles ;
the fare is included in your ticket from England

to the Antipodes. For the most part the rail is
carried through alluvial plains or savannahs—by
the edge of morasses—along the bank of the
Chagus and Obisco rivers, through dense forests
of exceeding richness and beauty of foliage and
flowers. The overwhelming fertility of the soil is
indicated by a reeking mass of vegetation which
covers the whole face of the country, and would
speedily choke up the railway itself but that it is
kept in check by gangs of men, whose work it is to
conflict with this prodigal growth. Arriving at
Panama, the most picturesque and imposing town
along the west coast, stately, but comfortless, We
found the Rakaia, in which the voyage across the
Pacific was to be made, waiting for us. She had
made the run from Milford Haven, 11,315 miles, in
46 days and 11 hours, with two stoppages for coal,
involving a detention of seven days and a half, and
a delay of three days in the Straits of Magellan,
owing to heavy weather. She left Panama on the
24th for the longest run on any mail route iu the
xv hen tile n. 31,.. w. lett Panama her weight,
including engines, coal, and cargo, was 3,200 tons,
and it must be regarded as a triumph of mechanical
skill and science that the application of 21 cwt. of
coal should drive this mass through the water at the
rate of a mile in six minutes, and that this should be
repeated for 27 or 28 days in continuity until the
whole breadth of the Pacific, 6,540 miles, has been
passed over. The Rakaia is a very comfortable ship,
with all sorts of convenience for passengers, and
her ventilation is good, but it seems to me that it is
a serious defect for any ocean-going steamer, in-
tended for long passages, not to be fitted, by means
of tanks or an inner skin like the Great Eastern, to
take in water ballast, and thus to preserve the trim
and gravity of the vessel. In consequence of the
want of such loading, the Rakaia has tumbled about
and rolled greatly during the last 2,000 miles, affect-
ing not only her company, but also her working.
We left Taboga, an island about 12 miles from
Panama, where ships anchor and take in coals be-
cause the bay nearer the shore is shallow, at 2 p.m.
on Sunday, June 24. Our course lay south, in order.
to clear Cape Mata—a low point 80 miles distant,
and forming the western arm of the Gulf ; thence
to the Galapagos, sighting and leaving them on the
starboard hand. From the Galapagos, the captain,
who has had long experience in command of steam-
ships, and is evidently a master of his craft in its
higher departments and scientific knowledge, took
a great circle course that would carry us by Pit-
cairn Island to a certain point on the New Zealand
coast, whence he could at any time diverge to Cape
Palliser. From the Galapagos we had the Humboldt
or equatorial current in our favour, and the trade
winds blew softly.We accomplished half our distance
in 12i days. During this period the weather NOS
deliciously mild and enjoyable. We were in the tro-
pics. The thermometer generally stood about 80
deg., but the atmosphere was so pure and invigorat-
ing that it was a luxury to inhale its freshness, and
at night the vault of heaven seemed to have enlarged
and the stars to have become more lustrous, owing
to the absence of moisture and the diaphaneity of the
atmosphere. On Sunday evening, July 8, we passed
Pitcairn, but as it was dark and a heavy swell run'
ning, we durst not near the shore. The island is
in-
habited, but, being out of the usual course of ships,
communication is infrequent, and a heavy swell ren-
ders landing difficult. No sooner had we passed the
island than we found we had left the tropics and
pleasant weather, and fallen at once into wintry
storms and cold. The sea raged, the winds were
fierce, and the ship, lightened of her coal, began to
roll heavily. After two gales of great severity had
blown themselves out, we began to fear that our hopca
of a rapid passage would be disappointed ; then fa"
vouriug winds sprang up, and theengines, refreshed
by cold water, propelled the ship with greater velo-
city, and we recovered lost time ; but it was then
found that the rate given by the log and the work
done by the propeller gave a much less result by ob-
servation than was expected, proving a strong cur-
rent towards the east. A third gale of greater force
and endurance dashed our hopes, and for several
days the powers of the ship were heavily tasked. At
about 800 miles from Cape Palliser a patch of green
water, with much weed, was passed, and on Satorl
day, the 21st, the weather cleared, and a fine win"
speeded us on to our desired haven. We sighted
Pallisenal. The total distance run has bee' 6,523
miles. The engines made 1,519,502 revolutionel
and 861 tons of coal were consumed. The thermo-
meter between Panama and Pitcairn ranged from
90 deg. to 75 deg. ; between Pitcairn and Palliser
from 69 deg. to 49 deg. On the 22d of July we
arrived at W ellington, New Zealand. The near
reute is of great value to IN ew Zealand. The great
difficulty is the very wide stretch of ocean without
any place for coaling, &c., so that the ship has t°
leave either end very heavily freighted, and in case,
of accident may be in distress or continuous ball
weather ; may be near her terminus, and yet be
short of fuel to take her home. The voyage of the
Rakaia, an experimental trip, absolutely the firs
over an untried way, without any collected know-
ledge of winds and currents, has been made within a
few hours of the computed time, and must there-
fore be regarded as a success most satisfactory to
her captain and officers, and encouraging to Of
company and the New Zealand public. I have at!.
interest whatever in the company. I was but '
passenger. I have been sailing half round the werld
in the wake of the setting sun, and have come at 10'
to his rising. I find I have lost a day, dropped etly
of our log."