The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-29 00:00:00

TILE GREAT EASTERN.

The following is published in the report of the
surveyors appointed to examine the Great Eastern
steamship at Holyhead, for the purpose of ascer-
taining whether the contract to fit her for sea had
been honestly carried out :

GREAT EASTERN STEAMSHIP, HOLYHEAD, Oct. 18.
Gentlemen,—ln compliance with your request,
we have made a complete survey of the Great
Eastern, but, not having had time to prepare our
detailed report, we beg to submit the following re-
marks upon the points referred to in your letter,
and some others which we think it important
you should brill(' under the consideration of the
board. With reference" to the intimation that Mr.
Russell alleges that his contract is completed, we
mark that the hull of the ship, to which our survey
has been specially directed (exclusiveof the engines),
is not completed either as to the " general scope "
or the " details of the contract" as a first-class pas-
senger ship, such as those of Cunard's line. or the
Royal West India Mail Company, and that, in her
present state, it would be imprudent to send her to
sea on a lengthened voyage.
We are unable at present to arrive at a definite
opinion as to the cost of the works necessary for the
completion of the ship in all respects in accordance
with the contract. The amount must be very large.
We are unable to state the amount of damages con-
sequent on the delay in sending her to sea.
We may remark generally that, with the excep-
tion of a few cabins, the accommodations are by no
means equal to the requirements of a first-class pas-
senger steamer, such as Cunard's line or the Royal
West India Mail steamers, but are very inferior—
materials, workmanship, and furniture.
The accommodation for the officers and crew is by
no means such as ought to have been provided and
is required by the contract.
The decks are not tight, and a great deal of in-
ferior material and workmanship have been used in
them.

There is no heating apparatus for warming the
cabins in winter.
There is a considerable amount of work which is
absolutely necessary to be performed before the ship
can be trusted on a lengthened voyage across the
Atlantic, which work would require a considerable
time to execute in an efficient manner ; and, even
with this done, the ship would riot be what the
contract requires her to be; and deficiencies in
other respects w )uld be a constant source of expense
and annoyance to the company.—We are, gentle-
men, your obedient servants,
GEORGE BAYLEY.
WILLIAM PATTERSON.
JOHN JORDAN.
Messrs. Montague, Leverson, and Hawley,
12, St. Helen's-place, London, E.C.

MAILS FOR - THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
El CANADIAN PACKETS VIA CORK.—Arrangements have
been made for the Canadian Government packets to call at
Queenstown (Cork) in their weekly winter voyages between
Liverpool and Portland, for the purpose of embarking and
landing mails. For the future therefore the mails for Canada
and the United States, forwarded by these packets, will in-
clude, in addition to the correspondence ordinarly made up
at Liverpobl on the morning of their departure from that
port, such `correspondence as may be posted in London or
may arrive there up to the usual post hour on Wednesday
evening, or may reach Cork up to Thursday morning in
each week; so that a considerable additional time will be
allowed throughout the kingdom for posting letters, Stc.,
sent by the Canadian packets to Canada and the United
States. This arrangement will commence with the packet
appointed to leave Liverpool on Wednesday, the 30th inst.,
and will continue thenceforth till further notice.—By com-
mand of the Postmaster-General, ROWLAND HILL, Secre-
tary.—General Post-office, Nov. 28, 1859.
[AnvEßTisEmENT.]—Holloway's Ointment and Pills.—
Quinsey, Sore Throat.—With the foggy, damp winter even-
ings the human throat becomes subject to many diseases,
particularly inflammation and ulceration. In quinsey or
inflamed throat, Holloway's ointment well rubbed upon the
btoopen boftlhtheecd in
hestwanardargalt and
round the
water,throat and dried,,afterthose
haspa a on
rtswhav!
derful power in checking the inflammation, and removing
all the unpleasantness and danger caused by quinsey. Hol-
loway's pills should be taken at the same time, as they
relieve the general fever. Mr. Knole, of Allogate, Durham,
was thus cured, when, from inability to swallow, his life
wasds e
diseases
ar eendangered.
totally K
dissipatede a ls,
enblayrgthede
same
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Sir,—ln the letter which you recently addressed
to Mr. Brierley, you have given expression to
opinions which, if sound, affect not your constituents
only, but all classes of the community. If unsound,
these opinions ought to be denounced by every man
who prizes the honour and prosperity of England.
In your discourse on taxation, you calumniate
(as is your fashion) the whole body of British land-
owners. Their elder sons, you observe, take the
family estates; the younger sons, you assert, live
'on public plunder; therefore (such is your conclu-
sion) landowners foster every form of public extra-
vagance. The rich impose taxes, which, as you
allege, the poor pay. Our whole fiscal system is,
in your opinion, marked by meanness and cruelty.
The Customs' and Excise duties yield £42,000,000
annually. Of that sum the greater portion, you
allege, is paid by people without property; while
the burdens affecting visible property do not, you
contend, exceed £10,000,000 a year. The Income
Tax you describe as " hateful and intolerable," but
more " intolerable" and more " hateful" still, seems
to you our whole system of indirect taxation.
The remedy which you propose for this "hateful
and intolerable" state of things is the transference
of political power from the hands of the middle
classes to the hands of the classes who possess no
" visible property."
If your assertions as to the character of our
fiscal system were absolutely true, it by no means
seems to follow from your own principles that the
remedy which you prescribe would be efficacious in
working out a better state of things. In the first
place, as the waste of public money has, in your
opinion, been becoming more scandalous every
year during the last quarter of a century, and as
democratic influences have during the whole of that
period been acquiring greater force, it is difficult'
to understand why the mere extension of demo-
cratic power shouid be hailed as the infallible cor-
rective of public extravagance. In the next place,
as the rich, according to your theory, use their
political power as an instrument for plundering
the poor, does not your unfavourable estimate of
human nature warrant the conclusion that, after
the transference of • political power which your
system demands shall be completed, the poor will,
necessarily. plunder the rich.
If robbery be perpetrated by law, the aim of an
honest legislator ought surely to be to put a stop
to the system—not merely to change the victims.
4 The assertions, however, which you parade as
facts, happen to he widely removed from truth.
It is not true that the families of British land-
owners live on public plunder. It is not true that
landowners have an interest in promoting wasteful
expenditure by Government. It is not true that
"visible property" contributes only £10,000,000
towards the £65,000,000 which the English Go-
vernment levies year by year.
Of the £42,000,000 raised annually by means of
Excise and Customs' duties, have you attempted to
ascertain what proportion is paid, directly, by the
rich ? And of the proportion advanced by the
labouring classes, have you attempted to ascertain
whether any, and what, part is represented in the
wages paid by the employers of labour?
You, Sir, characterise the income tax as " hate-
ful and intolerable." Is that tax more intolerable,
more hateful, and more unjust than all direct taxa-
tion may be shown to be? Yet you are understood
to be an advocate of direct taxation.
Are you, Sir, justified in asserting of excise and
customs' duties that they are in themselves " hate-
ful and intolerable ?" If consumers did in reality
pay all taxes on consumption, and if labourers
might add to the prices of the articles which they
produce, the taxes on consumption which they ad-
vance while engaged in the business of production
—what reasonable objection could any labourer
urge against excise and customs' duties ? If all
taxes might he thrown on consumers, the pressure
of taxation on the labourer would, obviously, be
very light. Labourers produce everything.
Labourers do not consume everything. Let con-
sumers be exclusively taxed, and the burden of
taxation would not merely rest on the shoulders of
the rich; but no class of rich men-could shirk their
fair contribution to the Exchequer. Taxes on con-
sumption, fairly levied, would of course affect the
owners of " visible property," like houses and lands.
Taxes on consumption, falsely levied, would affect
also the owners of property not quite so " visible"
—would affect the usurer, the " hard calculator,"
and the race of rich men who profit by the de-
pression of productive industry.
I have assumed, Sir, that taxes on consumption
shall be fairly levied—that the labourer shall, in
other words, be enabled to add to the price of the
article which ho produced, the indirect taxes which

he has advanced -during the process of production.
But to the attainment of such a result, the labourer
needs the, aid of a peculiar system of currency. Me-
tallic money, with gold at a low fixed price—or
paper money convertible into metallic money of the
kind indicated—will not secure justice to the
British labourer. Metallic money is the money of
the world at large. The money ( f the world can
only be made to express those values, which form
the basis of the system of commerce carried on by
various divisions of the world. The money of the
world is not capable of representing the taxation,
or other social necessities, of particular communities.
Each nation, therefore, needs a peculiar system of
currency—a system of currency which, by permit-
ting taxes pressing on the labourer to be added to
prices, may secure to the labourer a fair share of
the wealth which he creates. Taxation Money
would shield the producing classes from every form
of fiscal oppression.
You may, perhaps, ask what is meant by taxa-
tion-money ? Taxation-money would be money
issued by Government, subject (so far as amount is
concerned), to the control of Parliament. With
that money, Government would effect its annual
disbursements. In that money Government would
receive its taxes. That money would constitute a
legal tender in the discharge of private obligations.
In that money, the price of gold and silver would
rise and fall, as the prices of all other commodities
would rise and fall, in obedience to the law of sup-
ply and demand.

Taxation-money would be the English labourer's
safeguard, for which taxation-money prices would
rise in direct proportion to the increase of taxation,
and in direct proportion Llio to the increase of na-
tional wealth. The enhanced prices would keep
the balance even between producers and consumers
—between the debtor and creditor classes of society.
Nor would these enhanced prices affect injuriously
our foreign trade. Quite the reverse. Our foreign
trade would be fairly regulated by metallic values ;
and these would be undisturbed by the use, in this

Although only six months have elapsed since the
accession of Francis 11. to the throne of the Two
Sicilies, the character of the King's Government
has already acquired a positive and well-marked
character. All the virtues with which the world
was willing to credit the young monarch have been
repudiated, ell the , hopes generously built on the
trying and instructive circumstances of his accession
have been proved vain at the outset of his career.
Francis is as abject in superstition, as suspicious
and mean in oppression, as Ferdinand. If there is
any difference, perhaps it is in favour of the old
tyrant, whose domestic policy had at least the merit
of frankness, a quality which, as we are about to
show, is not inherited by his weak successor. An
impression has become general that the condition
of persons who were obnoxious to the Government
of the Two Sicilies on account of their political opi-
nions heti been sensibly improved by the accession
of the new King. As our readers are aware, the
number of political prisoners in Naples far ex-
ceeds the accommodation of the State prisons. To
supply this defect, the Government has adopted a
vast system of internentent, under which a man is
compelled to reside as an exile in some part of the
kingdom where he has no connection or pursuits, and
from which he may not remove. This class of per-
sons is numbered by tens of thousands, and its mem-
bers are to be found everywhere. They are a source
of great inconvenience to .the Government, which
cannot easily rid • itself of men against whom
nothing can be alleged but that they -are
politically suspected. On the 16th of June last
King Francis granted what was styled an amnesty,
under which it was hoped that the attendibili, as
prisoners of this class are called, would be restored
to their homes, their friends, and their civil avoca-,
tipns. But the decree of amnesty was followed at
an interval of only two days by a circular addressed
by M. Canella, Director of Police, to the Intendants
of the several districts of the monarchy, in which
they were required to observe the following rules :
‘, 1. Whenever political attendibili shall apply for travel-
ling passes to Naples and other places, you must persuade
them not to insist upon obtaining these passes in conside-
ration of the dangers to which they expose themselves on
the part of the Government.
" 2. In case they shall persist, and invoke the recent de-
cree of the 16th inst. (the amnesty), you must previously
inform mo of it without the least delay.
"3. -Whenever in virtue of the said 'decree they shall
demand certificates for the purpose of undergoing public
examinations or of obtaining licenses to practise in any
profession or art, or for sny other purpose whatever, or
whenever the weakness of the municipality shall have per-
mitted them to be proposed as candidates for communal
offices, you must always act in concert with me, so that
none of those documents or acts of nomination are ever to
be granted without my authorisation previously given.
Should any one of the attendibili think of going abroad,
you must immediately inform him that it will be very diffi-
cult for him to raturn home, and in ease he shall nersisi
in his resolution you must instantly send word. of it
to this Ministry and to that of Foreign. Affairs. For this
purpose,_ when sending any ordinary documents relative to
demands for passports to foreign countries, you must state
not merely the quality of the attendibili, but also every co-
relative circumstance.

"4. It remains expressly understood that all the decisions
concerning the arrest, removal, burial, and all other police
measures, remain in full force as affecting those who are
compromised by their words or acts since 1848 and 1849.
These measures remain equally in force against those who
compromised themselves in 1848 and 1849, measures that
were ordained by special regulations, and which will be
dictated in future by a spirit of precaution.
" You continue to be Monsieur l'lntendant, personally
responsible for the least deviation froxn this regulation.
You will be duly informed of the changes and energetic
measures you will be directed to'enforco in accordance with
the will and the orders of your superior."

The amnesty, which expresses the gracions
intentions of the Monarch, was intended for the
European public; but the lot of the political pri-
soners was to be effectively fixed by this circular.
We here see the Government extending one hand
to offer a gift, and raising the other to threaten
those who might be inclined to accept it. There
is n.)t one point in which the amnesty seems to
improve the condition of the atlendibili in respect
of which the_ circular does not most completely
nullify its provisions. The history of a kingdom
governed on principles so purely personal as is
that of Naples can supply but little instruction ;
accordingly, in the absence of wars and revolu-
tions, we snail employ in more promising fields
much of the attention we formerly devoted to the
Two Sicilies; but we could not withhold from the
public this last trait of Bourbon rule at Naples.—
Daily News.

DEATH OF THE CITY SWORDBEARER.— Mr.
C. W. Hick, formerly a leading member of the Court of
Common C.uncil, and for the last quarter of a century
swordbearer to the city, died on Sunday at his residence,
Acre-lane, Brixton, at the ripe old age of 94, of pleurisy.
The Lord Mayor has appointed as his successor, pre tom.,
Mr. H. W. Sewell, who for some years past has discharged
the active duties of the office.

(Fiom the 2Yazcs)
Were anything wanted to give a fresh impetus
to the " rifle fever," it would be an attempt by the
authorities to administer a cooling draught, out of
regard to the feelings of our too sensitive neigh-
bour. Let it be officially announced that the Em-
peror of the French made a point of our disarming,
by land and by sea, and let orders to that effect be
sent down to our dockyards, our recruiting sta-
tions, and our LOrd Lieutenants, and the only result
would be that every man in England fit to be
intrusted with firearms would be enrolled in a rifle
club before Easter next. There would also be a
change of Ministry the first week in February.' It
is not that people expect anything, or really fear
anything. We are in no immediate apprehension
when we bolt and bar our house doors. Our school-
boys practise the noble art of self-defence, and give
one another hard knocks, all in play, and without
a thought of serious quarrelling. Indeed, while we
enjoy greater security than other nations, we be-
stow as much superfluous trouble for peace and
quiet as the Dutch do for cleanliness. We main-
tain a policeman, at the cost of near X5O a year, in
almost every village, in order that we may be quite
sure of seeing eventually on our table every indivi-
dual of the interesting family of ducklings now
waddling about our farmyards. Confidence with
us is a national'luxury, and we care not what we
pay for it. - That is the whole secret of the prepa-
rations which,:like the slow and gentle undulations
on the surface of- a pool, are spreading to every
hamlet in this isle. Day by day the pressure is
increasing, and not only country gentlemen want-
ing to do something more than hunt foxes and
shoot pheasants ; not only fast young men, but
stout yeomen and fathers of families, are summoned
to a regular evening drill. Agricultural meetings,
once perverted into Protectionist demonstrations,
now call to arms, and no recruiting sergeant could
de his work better than the members for agricultural
counties. Slowly have we come to this state of
things, and slowly shall we leave it, if we do so in
our time. The people who frequent a provincial
town-hall or Market table don't rashly give up a
notion they have once imbibed. They are very
apt to suspect mischief when they hear advice con-
trary to their prejudices,. and at this moment any
Minister who told us that all other nations were
disarming, and that therefore we ought to follow
their example, would only fan the new flame.
Should any such proposition' be made, in good
or evil part, it would be sufficient to paint to the
enthusiastic orators and hearers at Taunton for
example. These people don't excite themselies in a
hurry. They are not the men who demand to be
led to Paris, and many of them would probably ap-
preciate the discomfort of a journey to London at
this time of the year. Yet they have only to be told
on respectable authority that England has been
threatened or insulted, and they commit themselves
to do anything they may be asked to do. The
yeomanry will go out for an extra month ; and the
others, if no longer light horsemen,. will meet an
hour or two a-week or a-day for drill or rifle exer-
cise. We wait here for numbers, authority, and
example ; but, when we once have them, we go on,
and are not easily called back. It is true that the
state of English society offers many obstacles in the
way of a general armament ; but they are only ob-
stacles, and will be surmounted. It is not a pleasant
thing to be a special constable when the foe is a
mob, with the certainty of brickbats, and a fair
chance of something worse ; yet there never is the
least difficulty in obtaining any number of special
constables, be the emergency ever so sudden or ever
so serious. Our domestic habits and our mutual
jealousies do not prevent political co-operation on
the largest scale. They have not prevented a sys-
tem of social organisation to be found only in this
country. They did not prevent the formation of a
militia in evei.y market town at the beginning of
the century, and they will not prevent a repetition
of that process on any scale that public opinion
may now think required.
It will be observed that nobody flatters our rural
patriots. They are not told they can fight without
drill, or break a square of infantry as easily as they
could a dry fence. But they are told they may
have to fight for their homes, and that, in the
event of a successful landing, they may have to
retreat a hundred miles or so, seeing all their
homesteads given to the flames, and county after
county converted into deserts. They are loft to
conclude that we should have rather a hard time of
it, and that England would have to pay a large
price for her safety. All this is far from pleasant
to men long habituated to regular meals, quiet
sleep, good attendance, dry roofs, and ,no other foe
than pilferers and small vermin. These people may
be ready to meet a more terrible foe face to face, if
necessary, but they would rather be spared. It is
not in their line. Were it au affair of fists, or of
hard riding, they would feel it all fair ; but it is not
fair to be suddenly matched with men who have
made soldering their business all their lives. So

they would rather it did not come to this. They
expect the navy to advance in proportion to the
growth of our internal defences. Paradox as it
may seem, the more we prepare ourselves to meet
an invader on our own shores the less should we
permit him to land. Preparation itself provokes.
All this talk of rifles is unavoidably the hurling
back of a menace, and therefore a menace itself.
These things provoke one another. Neither side
can or will sit still till the other does, and that in
reality, not pretence.
As for a common disarmament, if such a thing
has been proposed, it could only be as a figure of
speech, with no serious meaning. But the other
day France had not armed, and would not
arm,. and then suddenly poured 200,000 men
across her frontier, and drove Austria out of
Lombardy in a few days' march. France, of
course, is now as unarmed as she was then, and
that cannot mean much. There can, indeed, be no
common terms between a country which lays the
whole of its population under the conscription
and another which trusts wholly to volunteers.
Our army and navy are both volunteer ser-
vices, got together and kept together with im-
mense difficulty and by high pay. Once laid aside
they arc RS good as thrown away, and cannot be
replaced. It has been shown over and over again
that were every regiment disbanded and every
ship put out of commission, France could summon
a new army of trained soldiers and a navy of
good sailors in a fortnight, if need be. For her
to disarm is only to give her men a furlough, and
save herself their pay. Our soldiers and sailors
would have flown away to every corner of the land
and every shore in the world, beyond the reach of
recall. It is the system of France to provide
against the evils of disarmament, and to reduce it
to a mere name. She' has a reserve of soldiers and
sailors, good enough at least to make an army and
a navy for any emergency, and that reserve she
has always within call. We have no such system.
Disarmament with us is a serious reality. It is
equivalent to burning the ship and casting away
the sword altogether, instcd of merely turning
it into a pruninghook for the time. No such pro-
position has bean made, to the best of our belief,
and none such will be made. The bare sugges-
tion is little more that a jest. We are twitted
for our Channel fleet and our rifle corps. It is
evident, however, that the latter have no desire to
cross the Channel; and it is not in regard to that
alternative that France can object to them.

The Almanach de Gotha for 1860, which has
just appeared, does not take any notice of the changes made
in Italy by the last war, with the exception of Lombardy.
The reason apparently is nothing is yet officially decided'on.
Lombardy no longer stands under the head of Austria,
neither does it find a place in the article relative to Pied-
mont. Nothing is changed in the Almanach in the Roman
States, nor in the Duchies of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena;
the Marquis Taney de Nerli remains designated as the re-
presentative of the Grand Duke Ferdinand IV. The
Almanach is evidently waiting until the Congress shall
have definitively decided on the reorganisation of Central
Italy.

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DR. LIVINGSTONE'S
. Yesterday evening the :XeC,%.
society was ileld at Surlinslon
Sir R. Murchison, Bart., .F.7l.Sit
Among the distinssuished visitors present were
Admiral Van 'Dockums the Denisli Minister;- the
Bishop of Llandaffs the Earl of Slit:llldd, Lord
Keane, Arclleaeon.Raymond„kdmiral Sir Thomas
Herbert, Sir E. Belcher, Generals Cannon, Fox,
Monterth, Phillips, Beatson, and Mfmrt: ; Colonel
F. Davis, Captalus Craa-
fur3, Bea -ford, and Bet:las-add ; Tr. l'sra4::lcan,
Astronomer hove? at. the Cape: Major Cooke, Cap-
tains Burton, Speke, Lynch, Jenkin, Defree, and
W. Harrison Walker; the Hon. G. Barrington, the
Hon. R. Marsham, Mr. Dan by Seymour, M.P. ;
Drs. Kinkel, Fitton, and-NVade ; and Afessrs. Bah-
bage, tStaveley, Osborne, Smith, Cranford, Barrow,
and Arrowsinith.
The formal business Of electing scene new-Mem-
bers having been gone through,
The CHAIRMAN called on the Secretary to read
the letters from Dr. Livingstone.
The SECRETARY said the communications rela-
tive to the Livingstone expedition were so volumi-
nous, that it would not be possible to read a quarter
of them. He should, therefore, confine himself to
readisg the most important of them. The first
letter he should read was addressed by Dr. Living-
stone to the Earl of Malmesbury. The first letter
he read stated, that after the alarm created by their
arrival had subsided, they landed, leaving . the
vessel in command cf the quartermaster, stokers,
and a chief named Chibisa, and with Dr. Kirk and
-13 Makololo advanced on foot; until they had dis-
covered a magnificent inland lake, called Shirwa
which had no outlet, and is separated from the
lake Nynagesi (probably the Nyassa Nyanja, or
Uniamesi, which is believed to extend pretty well
up to the equator) by a tongue of land only five or
six miles broad, and as he ascended the southern
end of the Shirwa is not more than 30 miles distant
from a branch of the navigable Shire, Thb course
pursued was chiefly north, and along the banks of
the Shire. They ascended the country, and as they
did so their route became very tortuous, as they-
had to go from—one chiefs village to another, and
the formalities occupied in convincing those great
little men that they were not a company of marau-
ders took up considerable time. Chibisa was the
only chief that did not deem it necessary to call
his people together and arm them before giving an
audience, and his influence was of great service to •
them. His progress was so sloW that after travel.
ling for a fortnight they were not more than 40
miles in a straight line from the ships. He crossed
the spur of a mountain called Dzomba and &tuba.
On the south side they got a distant view of
a part of Lake Shirwa, at the feet of a
range of high mountains at the east. On
the 18th of April lie reached the shores of the
lake,, and fbund many streams flowing into,
it, but' the ,natives knew of no outlet. The
adjacent country was well watered, and several
streams flow into it, and form the Tolornbe and -
Zombane, which flow into the lake. The water is
bitter, but drinkable, and abounds in fish, and the
country abounds in alligators and hippopotami.
The height of the lake Chibisa was 2,000 feet above
the level of the sea. Dzomba, was over 6,000 feet
high, and the spur he crossed on the south was
3,400 feet above the ship. The whole district was
well, though not densely populated with the Mang-
e*, who inhabit the banks of the river Shire from
Morambola up to Chibisa's place, but they occupy
the eastern bank only and the adjacent mountains
beyond that point. The western bank above
Chibisa is peopled by the Maravi. None of this
tribe are to be met with near Shirwa, so that it
would be improper to identity them with the Lake
Maravi of the maps. The Portuguese do not even
pretend to know Shirwa, but, after the first Euro-
pean had traversed this vast continent, the Portu-
guese Minister claimed the honour for two black
men who were trading to that part of the country,
but'it was in the memory of a lady now living at
Zette that those two black men came thither dressed
and armed like the people of Louda, but proceeded
no further than there. They thus failed by about
4,000 miles of what was claimed for them. Dr.
Livingstone had made inquiry everywhere to ascer-
tain aether the country had ever been visited by
white people before, and everywhere he was an-
swered in the negative. In this he was confirmed
by the fact that the Portuguese dare not enter far
up the Riser Shire for fear of being attacked by
the natives. The Mang Anja were a brave people,
and repelled an expedition the Portuguese had sent
up the country before it had got thirty miles.
The traders would not venture up it, because some
who had tried it had been robbed by ,the native
tribes, so that -the interior was not known to the
Portuguese. The country everywhere appeared fer-
tile even on the sides of rocks and mountains. The
grass grew high, and cotton was cultivated in large
quantities, and the further he went the crop ap-
peared to be of greater importance. The women
alone appeared to be well clothed with the pro-
duce of the country, the men appearing to be con-
tent with goatskins and a cloth made of the bark
of trees. Every one of the natives spins and weaves
cotton. Even chiefs may be seen witk a spindle
and a bag, which serves for a distaff. There were
two varieties of cotton he noticed grown in this
country. One was a woolley kind, and the other
was from imported seed, yielding a cotton that ren-
dered it unnecessary to furnish the people with
American seed. A point in its culture worth
Rotice wte.:, that the time of planting had been
selected so that the plants remained in the ground
during the winter, and five months after sowing
they came to maturity, before the rains began- and
insects came to damage the crop. The natives had
no domestic animals but sheep, but large game was
plentiful among the Maravi, west of the Shire.
Their weapons'were bows and poisoned arrows with
iron heads, and every native carried a knife. There
were also some rude attempts to make a pistol.
Almost every village had a forge for smelting
black magnetic iron ore, and many implements
were made of it, but all very rude in their form
and shape. The letters further gave minute details
of the domesCe life of the inhabitants, whom they
described as strictly honourable in their bargains,
and that if wo were to purchase land of them our
right to it would be respected by all. They then
referred to the ,navigation of the Mozambique
river, which Dr. Livingstone contended was of the
utmost importance in a commercial. point of view
to this country.
The letters were received with much satisfaction,
and after some discussion on the nature of the
country and the advantages we might derive from
our commerce with it, the meeting adjourned.

ROYAL GLISH OPERA
COVENT-GARDEN.
Under the management of Miss L. Fyne and Mr. W. Harrison
THIS EVENING. DINOR. AH. Messrs. Santley, H.
Corri, St. Albyn. and W. Harrison. Miss Pi Miss Thtri-
wall, and Miss Louisa Pyne.
Conductor, Alfred Mellon. -

Ballet, LA FIANCEE. Messrs. W. H. Payne, H. Payne
F. l'ayne, :Mlle. Lequine, Pasquale, Pierron, Clara Morgan
and Mons. Vaudris.
Doors open at half-past 7—Commence at 8 o'clock.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET
Lossee, Mr. J. B. Bnckstone.
,I`i-TT3 EVENING thp performnnees will commence with
A BOLD STROKE FOR A WIFE. Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Mathews.
After which, TIIE BACHELOR OF ARTS. Jasper (his
ori2inal character), Mr. C. Mathews.
And WALLOW E'EN.