The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-19 00:00:00

EIPTRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Lord Russell's letter to Mr. Chichester Fortescue on the
state, of Ireland is, the Times observes, one of many essays
called'forth by the revival of the so-called Irish question.
frlt is distinguished, however, from the rest, and especially
om the pamphlet of Mr. Mill, which has just appeared,
by two characteristic peculiarities. In the first place, it
is entirely free from what Lord Stanley called political
quackery. It is the production, not of a doctrinaire, bat
of a practical statesman, duly sensible, indeed, of the mis-
government which in former times justified Irish discon-
tent, but not insensible of the inveterate faults in Irish
character which the beneficent legislation of the present
century has failed to eradicate. Dealing with the second
part of Lord Russell's letter, which treats of the political
and moral state of Ireland, and contains his ultimate
views on the disposal of the Irish Church, the leading
journal points out that he abandons the old appro-
priation scheme without reserve as inadequate and
obsolete, and arrives at the conclusion that a triple
endowment of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
the Presbyterian Church, and the Roman Catholic
Church, out of the existing Church revenues, is the best
solution of this most intractable problem. The reasons
he gives for deprecating the redistribution of revenues
within the Established Church, now under the considera-
tion of a commission, are not unworthy of attention.
Such a plan would not only fail to meet the demand for
religious equality, but would actually remove Protestant
clergymen from places where their residence is most
valuable to places where it would be thrown away. The
bitterest enemies of the Establishment admit that an
educated man, living in a poor district, may by his
example, his influence, his custom, and his charitable
ministrations, confer great benefits on all around him,
without distinction of creed. If you carry away this
"resident country gentleman in a black coat," as Swift
calls him, from a remote parish in Munster to a thriving
town in Ulster, you will have done what, in Lord Russell's
opinion, is positively mischievous. At all events, the
grievance of the Roman Catholics would remain wholly
nrrredressed, and this grievance constitutes the
whole question. The course recommended by
Lord Russell would not, as he maintains, involve
three Established Churches, but only three en-
dowed Churches, all recognised by the State, but
none directly connected with the State. The most
serious objection to it is one to which he does not advert,
though it can hardly have escaped his notice. The pro-
vision which he advocates is not, as he expressly states,
" a salary voted by Parliament like the old grant to May-
nooth and the present Regium Donum," but a permanent
endowment, practically independent of parliamentary
control. Now, this is an arrangement which Parliament,
representing the State, will hesitate to make with any
religious denomination, and which it is very doubtful
whether public opinion would sanction. It would not,
however, be impossible to modify it in such a way as to
overcome reasonable scruples on the ground of State
policy. It would be too much to expect that it could be
satisfactory to members of the present Established Church,
though even they might prefer it to a secularisation of
Church property. With respect to its acceptance by the
general body of Roman Catholics, we are disposed to
agree with Lord Russell. The bishops naturally dread
the idea of becoming, in any sense, pensioners of the •
State, but it has yet to be proved that their sentiments
are fully shared by the Catholic priests, or shared at all
by the Catholic laity, of Ireland, on whom the real burden
galls.

Speaking of the Scotch Reform Bill, the Post says:—
Notwithstanding all his ingenuity, Mr. Disraeli has not
been able to hit on a fundamental principle for the apportion-
ment of representative power, or, if he has, he has not
ventured to submit it to the acceptance of Parliament.
As a sincere worshipper of Democracy, he might with
plausibility and consistency suggest the division of the
kingdom into electoral districts ; but though, for all we
know to the contrary, he may be educating his followers
with a view to the adoption of such a system, they are
probably not sufficiently far advanced to accept the
suggestion. The most that can be done is to make a
mild approximation to the new doctrine of the
representation of numbers. Seven additional mem-
bers will be given to Scotland, and (unless it be
the intention of the Government to take that number of
seats from Ireland) to the House of Commons. The num-
ber is arbitrary, and was, as probably as not, suggested to
the Government by the magic number which the ancient
magicians regarded with so much reverence. Hard-
headed Scotchmeu might be excused for not seeing the
matter in this light, and some who took part in the debate
on Monday night, like Oliver, asked for more. The retort
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the demand was ii
his happiest vein. He said that if the present measure
was not passed, it was just possible that on a future occa-
sion Scotland might possibly be refused any increase what-
ever in her representative power. We entirely concur
with Mr. Disraeli, and, if the Scotch people really desire
to send a greater number of representatives to the House
of Commons, we advise them to close with the generous
offer which is now made.

The Daily News, dealing with the resignation of the
Premier as certain, asks the question whether Mr. Disraeli
or Lord Stanley shall be head of the Government as well
as the leader of his party. Our contemporary can easily
imagine what would be the secret wishes of the majority
in the Tory ranks. They would ask but a short time to
consider whether they would rather acknowledge for their
chief the son of an aristocratic house or the parvenu poli-
tician who has made his way only by his own brains, and
whose authority they have a thousand times kicked against
even while submitting to it. But Tory wishes will go
for very little. Mr. Disraeli is master, and may have what
he chooses. He cannot be discarded—he cannot be dis-
pensed with. If he yields his claims, which intrinsically
are unquestionably higher than Lord Stanley's, it will be
of his own self-sacrifice and magnanimity. Far be it from
us to doubt that such qualities may be displayed by the
present Chancellor of the Exchequer. In his career their
exercise has not yet been called for, and opportunity may
reveal their existence. Nay, we may go so far as to feel
certain that they will not be wanting if it is evident that
the existence of the party depend on the abnegation of
the leader. If, then, Lord Stanley's premiership should
be insisted on by the squires, it is far from improbable that
Mr. Disraeli would gracefully yield rather than break up
the Government.

The Standard, speaking on the same subject, says that
every Conservative feels that Lord Derby can be implicitly
trusted, not because he professes Conservative views, but
because his very nature is formed on the Conservative
model. The event of last session—the thorough unity
which on so trying a question as that of Reform was con-
stantly maintained between the party and their chief—is
a striking proof of this confidence. Had such a task de-
volved upon Sir Ti. Peel, the Conservative party would
have been broken up for the third time. But a leader
whose heart is with his supporters, who is known to think
and feel as they do, and to have no interests or objects
apart from theirs, may command an almost unlimited
faith and allegiance from men who can say to themselves,
" His ends are ours ; his views of honour and duty arc
those we understand and profess ; he is neither tricking us
for our good, nor sacrificing us to some new lights of his
own ; what he is willing to concede cannot but be neces-
sary, what he recommends cannot but be the best that we
can accomplish." This is the feeling with which the Con-
servatives have always regarded Lord Derby. And the
reason plainly is, that Lord Derby's ideas of political expe-
diency and personal honour are those of his order and of
his party. The pride and ornament of his party, Lord
Derby is in an especial sense the pride and ornament of
the House of Lords. The same qualities which command
tlw confidence of the Conservatives endear him to his
i order. He is in every respect the very type and deal of
the English nobleman ; the representative man of an aris-
tocracy which has preserved its manhood and its vigour of
intellect as of body.by an equal rivalry with all competi-
tors in every field of public service and personal dis-
tinction.

"Mr. Seely, says the Telegraph, has renewed his crusade
against the abuses of our Admiralty management ; mov-
ing for a select committee to inquire into the application
of the moneys voted by Parliament and into thestate of
thete dockyard accounts. Nor was he without grounds for
motion ; for he showed what mysteries of blundering
still
rrii4.ceAnain to be unearthed. The public correspondence
some weeks back proved, not only that gross
abuses exist, and that the official mind persists in ignor-
ing them, but that even the heads of departments
themselves oft
The now histoe'n do not understand their own case.
first " pigs " which the honourable mem-
berthe Frederick discovered,ill and the subsequent cases of
mus, were glaring 'am' the Brisk, and the Cad-
explained away by the vehement and were certainly not
in
whi:iielent denials and retorts, on
one or two points,
s, thgal Such is the management of
Charge is now more swe
untepin ' Ir. Corry indulged. But the
the Admiralty acco
even a trained accountant, to tell. Seely
defies any one,
o,what is the real cost of
anything. Whatever the results of
the step may be, the
member for Lincoln deserves a acknowledgment of
thanks fur his useful and arduous labo
resolutely to an
of our legislators who devote themv-bille's.s. The number
assault on specific abuses is unfortunately
but the high ground that Mr. Seely has already gained limited ;
public estimation, through his vigilant sagacity gained in
sustained energy in restoring the duty boasted bZ,rii "The
Grand Inquest of the Nation," the Keeper of the p 4(,11e.
Purge, once more proclaims that the community is not'-'.
slow to recognise a true servant of the country.

The Star does not appear to regard the deputation to
Mr. Gladstone as an unqualified success. Of the really
important question—how far is a certain degree and kind
of coercion absolutely essential to the maintenance of such
an organisation, and, if essential, how far is it justifiable?
—both parties seem to have fought shy. when
Mr. Gladstone brought rp this .or that instance of
a ny,de (If c.creion, 110 was g,,encrally met by the
6tateinent, dui thtlu.;B quite correct, that the ex-
ample he selected NS'a.S that of sonic body not be-
longing to the regular organisation. Again, when
Mr. Gladstone pointed to the unfairness of the regulations
which restrict or prevent the labour of women, the answer was
so obvious and easy that we are surprised it was not
instantly given. Other trade organisations of a different
rank in society prevent the competition of women. No
IPgalised profession allows N%omen to work in its ranks.
el'ew organisations of any class or kind whatever are fully
open to women. It is obviously, then, quite absurd to
complain of mechanical organisations because they enforce
limitation where other associations supposed to be more
liberal-pindel enforce an actual

MR. GLADSTONE AND 2LIE TRADES

UNIONS.

The conference between the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone,
M. P., and the deputation from the London trade societies'
delegates took place yesterday afternoon. The deputation
consisted of Mr. George Potter (joiner), chairman of the
delegate meeting, Mr. J. T. Thinning (bookbinder), Mr.
H. Broadhurst (mason), Mr. W. Lawrence (tailor), Mr.
M`Namara (plasterer), Mr. Joseph Leicester (glass-
maker), Mr. Squire (painter), Mr. Lewis (brushmaker),
Mr. Cohen (cigar-maker), and Mr. R. Hartwell, secretary
of the Working Men's Association and the delegate
meeting ; and represented very many trade societies.

It was mutually arranged that the points to be discussed
should be reduced to four, with the collateral questions
arising out of them, viz. :-1. The limitation to apprentices;
2: The minimum rate of wages ; 3. Piece-work and over-
time ; 4. The restraint of trade by trades unions.
At half-past two o'clock the members of the deputation
were received I,y Mr. Gladstone, when Mr. GEORGE
POTTER opened the proceedings in a speech of some
length. He dealt with the four questions seriatim, and
concluded by maintaining that trades unions were not in
restraint of trade, hut only in restraint of the overweening
tendencies which spring from the conscious possession of
large resources in capital au I machinery.

Mr. GLADSTONE : Perhaps it would be well if I were
now to state my general view of the matter, and to refer to
certain rules that I have heard of as existing in certain
trades and certain neighbourhoods. That will give you all
an opportunity of taking exception to anything I may say.
Before I begin I should like to put aside two points. First,
I shall not say a word about any violence exercised by
working men towards their fellow workmen, because I do
not suppose, for a moment, that that would be a subject
of contention between us. That is evidently a thing most
hostile to your main objects, and producing the most
violent reaction in the breast of society. Nor will I say
anything about the remedy of which you have been de-
prived by a judgment in a court of law against fraudulent
officers. lam not able to give anything like a positive
assurance of what I shall do in Parliament on the subject.
I can only state my uninstructed impression that the
remedies against fraud ought to be maintained in full
efficiency as long as the unions or societies are acting
within the limits of the law, even though one may think
some of their objects and modes of action impolitic. I
am bound also to say, as far regards the mere fact
of the unions being in restraint of trade, if the
members are to suffer as regards the security of their
property on that account, I must institute an inquiry to
see what other combinations of classes or trades have been
and are distinctly in restraint of trade—combinations
which would deem themselves very ill-used if they were to
be deprived of the legal remedies appertaining to them-
Now, when in this conversation I speak of a " right," I
wish to remind you of the two senses in which we use that
word. A man has a right to do a thing which is proper to
be done ; and he has also a right to do many things which
are not proper to be done. A landlord has a right to turn
out all his tenants at the expiration of a given notice, but
he would be extremely wrong to exercise such a right.
Now, with regard to the principle of associations among
working men with a view to the diminution of the amount
of labour and getting the best price for it that it will
bring in the market, I can take no exception to associa-
tions on that principle. I rather think it is a natural
mode of what one may call self-defence in that friendly
strife which must always go on between the capitalist and
the labourer. I can conceive also many good reasons
for that association of working men, independently of
their title to obtain the best terms they can for their
labour. There is a beneficial tendency in the simple
fact of association among working men. It is obviously
beneficial to society that the members of trades should
make provision for themselves and their infirm members
by benefit societies. There is an important question, on
which I do not now enter, as to the economical effect of
combining benefit societies with trade rules. I have under-
stood from persons conversant with assurance, that a
benefit society, to be a good one, ought to extend over a
wide area, and not to depend upon the vicissitudes of a
single trade. That, however, is not the immediate question
before us. I will endeavour to state to you where my
objections or exceptions begin. lam not prepared to say
that a strike is in itself a thing unjust or improper. I
apprehend it requires great judgment to determine when a
strike is warranted by circumstances ; but in principle I am
not prepared to say that the thing is wrong in itself.
Then, there are further questions with regard to the right
that unions exercise in certain cases in refusing to work
with non-union men. It seems to me that that is a very
extreme right. Ido not, however, dwell upon it, because
I am not prepared to say that we can expect it to be
altogether renounced. I think it an extreme right, and
one that raight be exercised in such a way as to assimilate
it very much to that which I have just referred to—of a
landlord turning out his tenants without any why or
wherefore at the expiration of a given time. I may say,
in passing, that I view with much interest the experim -nts
which appear to hold out some promise of a means of ad-
justment between employers and labourers. I heard, in
Oldham, only a few months ago, a very good account of
the working of a system of that kind, carried on by a
body composed of operatives and employers. I hope to see
the extension of that system if the machinery is found to
work. There is another thing I saw in Oldham, with great
satisfaction—that is, what they call a co-operative mill—
and there are various such mills, I believe, in Lancashire
and Yorkshire. There is nothing I look upon as more full
of promise than these institutions, provided they be com-
mercially sound, because nothing is so desirable as that
which puts working men in the condition of both capitalist
and labourer. It supplies a link between those two classes,
and as a system of that kind extends it creates a body of
men who would be, of all others, the fairest judges of these
questions, and whose opinion would form a powerful
element of mediation. .Do not let me be understood as
saying that society at large has any reason to complain.
It is difficult to raise questions between class and class. Of
course, society has reason to complain of all unreasonable
and excessive use by any class of its privileges ; but that
is a point very difficult to define. It is not the bearing
of certain restrictions that prevail more or less in trades
unions upon society that I shall animadvert upon, nor
their bearing upon employers. The restrictions imposed
upon employers in many cases have had a most powerful
effect in stimulating invention, and the introduction of
machinery might have been less rapid but for the fact
that in some businesses employers have found themselves
hard driven by what they have thought the restraints im-
posed upon them. The question I wish to raise is whether
certain of these restrictions are beneficial to the labourers.
The whole .body of labourers of the country go farther
than the limit of each trade union. I will not under-
take to say that some of these restrictions are
beneficial to the carpenters, considered as car-
penters, or to the bricklayers as bricklayers. I
look at the whole of the wage-receiving population of the
country, and I own it appears to me as a general rule that
regulations in restrain of labour go to diminish the aggre-
gate amount of the fund which constitutes the whole wages
of the country. Of course there is a difficulty in drawing
a line with precision. I may be told that the argument, if
it were taken without limitation, would imply that every
man was to slave from morning to night, seven days in the
week, without any consideration for his health or his
mind. I have not a word to say against limitations
imposed with a view to the preservation of health
and social considerations. Let me refer, for a
moment, to the rules against women, boys, and men.
There was a rule of which I have often heard in the porce-
lain business in the Potteries, which appears to be a very
strong one, that a woman was not allowed to paint porce-.
lain with a rest for her wrist. The practical operation of
that, I understand to be, that no woman can do fine work
in porcelain where that rule is observed. Of course it may
be said that the labour of women competes with the labour
of men ; that women can work cheaper than men ; and
that the men are thrown out of employment. My answer
to that is, I cannot look upon women as a class of beings
alien and separate from the men. If they do compete
with the men they are the wives and daughters of the
men ; and if their labour is cheaper than that of the men
it is for the benefit of the men themselves as a class ;
that is to say, the aggregate earnings of the labouring
class in the community and in that particular trade are
greatly increased. With regard to the boys, it is exactly
the same thing. The boys, whose entrance into trade is
more or less fettered and barred—sometimes by limiting
the number of apprentices, and sometimes by forbidding
them to labour except as apprentices—do not come into
the world of themselves. It is said that apprentices have
small wages, and that that is a reason for limiting their
labour. If that is the fact, the question is, whether it is
not desirable that they should work as unapprenticed
boys, and obtain the best wages the market would afford.
It appears to me that the best condition of the labouring
classes is that in which the way upwards is the easiest
and the most open. Well, gentlemen, that will, perhaps,
suffice to suggest to you anything you may desire to say.
But pray understand me. Ido not presume to say how
far these things prevail. I have so many other things to
think of that I am quite ignorant on that point.
Several members of the deputation joined in the dis-
enssion which followed the right hon. gentleman's address,
and at the close of the arguments Mr. Potter thanked Mr.
Gladstone for the courtesy with which he had heard
them.

OUTRAGE ON A FENIAN WITNESS. - Patrick
Joyce, a pablican, of St. Patrick's quay, Cork, bas been
committed to gaol under the Lord-Lieutenant's warrant
for Fenianism. The out-offices and haNurd of Mr. John
Hannon, Rathcormack, was maliciously burned on Sunday
night. This is the third incendiary fire on his premises
since he gave evidence for the Crown at the special com-
mission on the trial of a Fenian head-centre.

MR. MILL, M.P., ON IRELAND.

The pamphlet issued by Earl Russell on the state of
Ireland has been followed by one from the pen of Mr. J.
Stuart Mill, M.P. for Westminster. There is a remark-
able difference in tone'between Mr. Mill's declaration of
policy and Earl Russells. The former is eager to expunge
the shame which our oppression of Ireland has stamped
upon the English name. The latter is desirous to accom-
plish the same end, but he has to be forced into action ; he
Is terrified at the obstacles which beset his path, and he
m3ets every difficulty with a makeshift scheme. Lord
Russell hovers about the skirts of the Irish question ; he
admits the Irish Church to be a grievous wrong, and the
Irish tenure system to be justly disliked by the Irish
people. But he cannot take courage boldly to abolish
the one and to change the other radically. Mr. Mill,
on the other hand, goes right to the heart of the question.
He alludes briefly to the position of the Church Establish.
ment, and gives his voice for immediate and total abo-
lition ; but he does not pause long over this point. He
add] asses himself to one even more vital to Irish interests,
and more likely to be fought for boldly by the Tory
party. The greater part of Mr. Mill's pamphlet is
occupied with a discussion of the laws of land tenure in
Ireland, and he promulgates no new doctrine ; he merely
reads his recantation of some of his more recent opinions,
gives an explanation of his error, and reverts to the
views which he had long ago expressed in the early
editions of 1-0 g " Political Economy." For the years
of comparativ quiet which intervened between the great
disaster of the famine and the end of the American civil
war in some degree deceived Mr. Mill, as they did other
people. He was led to believe that emigration had so far
slackened the competition for land in Ireland that it was
not necessary to adopt the "heroic remedies" he had once
recommended—namely, the conversion of the Irish pea-
sants into a proprietary class and no doubt Mr. Mill was
justified in believing that a few years ago it was possible
for the English governing class to purchase the tranquillity
of Ireland for a much lower price than it can now be
bought for. A fair measure of tenant compensation,
with a liberal system of State loans to occupiers, might
even in 1860 or 1865 have done much to reconcile
the Irish masses to the English connection. But Eng-
land was blind, for she would not see. The hour of
opportunity passed ; and the spirit of Irish discontent was
still unappeased, when the fall of the Southern Con-
federacy set free the Irish-American soldiery, and set the
spark to the train. Under existing circumstances, and
having regard to the excited feelings which now prevail in
Ireland, Mr. Mill acknowledges that the minor remedies
from which he once anticipated the best results would
effect no great practical benefit. He returns to his first
idea, his " heroic remedy," the appointment of a commis.
sion, with compulsory powers, to examine every farm in
Ireland that is let to a tenant, and commute the present
variable for a fixed rent. There must be ascertained in
each case what annual payment would he an equivalent
to the landlord for the rent he now receives, provided
that rent be nut excessive, and for the present value of
whatever prospect there may be of an increase from any
other source than the peasant's own exertions. This annual
sum should be secured to the landlord under the guarantee
of the State. He should have the option of receiving it
from the national Treasury by being inscribed as the
owner of Consols sufficient to yield that amount. Every
farm not farmed by the proprietor would then become the
permanent holding of the tenant, who would pay either
to the landlord or the State the fixed rent that had been
decided on.

ENGLISH CAPTIVES IN AFRICA.

- - --~-

A correspondent of the Morning Herald writes :
"It is now, I believe, acknowledged as an established
fact, that the ship St. Abbs, wrecked in 1856 upon the
island San Juan de Nuova, did not go down with all on
board, but drifted off the reef, and was swept with the
current to the coast of Africa. In the report read before
the Royal Geographical Society, in March 1866, Colonel
Rigby proved that the numerous articles bearing the
Government mark, which were brought for sale from
Magdesho to Zanzibar, in 1859, were identical with
articles known to have formed part of the St. Abbs'
cargo. Also the curious fact, proved by nautical cal-
culation, that the highest tide of the month oc-
curred upon the very night on which the ship disappeared
from the reef, coupled with the knowledge of the immense
force with which the current sets directly towards the
Somali coast, leaves little room for doubt in the minds of
the most incredulous. Had the ship gone down some one
of the bodies of the twenty-six persons who remained on
board must have been washed on the shores of the island,
and it is hardly conceivable to the most \ i id imagination
that the numerous cases, containing Looks, nautical and
surgical instruments, billiard balls, &c., should have
drifted side by side, across the ocean, a distance of 800
miles, arriving at Magdesho, and subsequently offered for
sale at Zanzibar, without any appearance of ever having
been in the water. Assuming, therefore, that the ship
drifted with the current to the Somali coast, near Magdesho,
and that the above-named articles were obtained from
the wreck by the natives, the question naturally arises,
What became of her living cargo--twenty-six of our fel-
low-countrymen ?

" In the same year, 1859, these reports were made known
to the British Government through the evidence of pil-
grims from Ceylon and the Mauritius, returning thither
from Mecca, where they had met with other pilgrims from
Magdesho, who in consequence of some delay had bet n un-
able to proceed on their pilgrimage by sea, and had there-
fore taken the old caravan route through the interior,
following the course of the Webbe Shebeyli for some
distance, and then striking northward for Zeylah.
On their journey they had seen and spoken with
many white captives among the Somali tribes, who
begged them to forward intelligence of their existence
when they arrived at Jeddah. The pilgrims found that
their only means of sending this information was by
charging the pilgrims from Mauritius and Ceylon with the
message, which was faithfully delivered to our authorities,
and in this way the report first reached Colonel Rigby at
Zanzibar. From this time Colonel Rigby appears to have
felt confident that these captives were no other than the
survivors of the St. Abbs wreck ; and surely his con-
viction, formed at that time, with the knowledge of the
circumstances, must carry considerable weight. Such
an opinion formed upon the ground of evidence is worth
far more than any conclusions drawn from a due
consideration of facts' in England. Colonel Rigby
obtained information confirming his opinion from
a native of Magdesho, who, upon hearing that £lOO per
head would be given for each captive restored, volunteered
to return to Magdeshe by land for the purpose of obtaining
their rescue. This man unfortunately fell into the hands
of a hostile chief at Jarnoo, who imprisoned him for several
months, and when his release was effected he returned to
Zanzibar destitute. Those who are acquainted with the
native character would see in the fact of this man's readi-
ness to start upon his errand, without any other induce-
ment than the reward which depended entirely upon his
success, a signal proof of his own conviction that the rescue
of the captives was feasible, and therefore it appears
the more incomprehensible that no further effort was made
until six years later, when Colonel Playfair, then consul
at Zanzibar, received a hide upon which English charac-
ters were cut. These letters had attracted the notice of
the purchaser, and for this reason the hide was delivered
to Colonel Playfair, who commissioned the Arab merchant
to return at once to Magdesho in order to make further
inquiry from the original vendor, and, if possible, to trace
out the clue. Of the result we know nothing. The letters
cut upon the hide are said to be N.E.B.M. ;' but where
is the hide ? Was it sent to England for the inspection of
the relatives of those who are believed to- have used this
means of drawing attention to their existence in the tenth
year of their captivity ; or are we to add another link in
the chain of evidence of culpable neglect by finding that
the hide has not been sent home, but may yet be lying at
the consulate in Zanzibar, or even cast away as worthless?
Is there no one in England who can throw any light upon
this question, and explain why, in each attempt to obtain
authentic tidings of our captive countrymen, the persons
empl
do y
to
hod
n av
ev
se been t
iigate
the natives.
matter
; yet EurEur
within European h
eakedn
oawtaoslyeeydaegrt olu
eovoff Zanzibar,
thn-
teere
thethe
reported massacre of the Baron Von der Decken an expe-
diwatinyo havingin wawaschciocmfih tptt accompli dse hbeoadurtoi ,tns
mo whichbej
te cht fas
deathgari en ti. un: ng

The Australian mail which has just arrived had
no New Zealand mail, the latter not having arrived at
Sydney when the mail packet left that port. The New
Zealand mail missing is that of the middle of December.
The next New Zealand mail will be the one of the begin.
ning of January, rid Panama, and will reach Plymouth
the latter end of this month.

A joint stock company for the erection of
working men's dwellings has just been founded in Brussels,
under the patronage of the Belgian ImmobiMre. The
King has taken a hundred shares of 5 )of. each, and
Count de Flandres fifty. The General Industrial Com-
pany, the Bank of Belgium, and the Mutual Company of
Manufacturers have each taken a hundred, and the Immo-
biliZ„re has subscribed for two hundred. The capital is tJ
be 5,000,000 f.

A WHOLESALE MURDERESS.—The General Cor-
respondence of Vienna says :—" A letter from Pesth in-
rms us that the daughter of a man employed on the
roads near that city, and who resided in a cottage between
Alt-Olen and Uercem, has just confessed, in a fit of re-
morse, that in concert with her father she had committed
not less than sixteen murders during the last ten years,
for the purpose of robbing their victims. Seven skeletons
have already been discovered by the authorities, and infor-
mation given by the young woman has led to the finding
of the nine others."