The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-09 00:00:00

THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.

About a fortnight ago the House of Commons ordered a
Copy of the estimate prepized by the India Office shewing
the expenditure on the expedition to Abyssinia,. Lord
Clinton, Under Secretary for India, has therefore issued
the estimate, at the same time stating that the informa-
tion available for its preparation was very insufficient,
although repeated applications had been made to the
Government of Bombay on the subject. From the mate-
rials at hand, however, it appears that the charges in India
and England to the end of May will probably amount to
about £5,000,000.
An estimate prepared in October last, and anotter
framed in March of the present year, gave the total cost
at £5,351,600. Of this £1,039,000 was to be disbursed by
the Imperial Government, and £4,312,000 by the Govern-
ment of India. The preliminary estimate made on Octo-
ber 1 amounted to 22,000,000, and this, according
,to
General Jameson, might fairly stand as a near IT_
proximatien to the expenditure up to December
31. From the Ist of January, 1868, the monthly expense
was calculated at £370,000, which, excluding £50,000 for
the pay of troops, would have to be paid by the Govern-
ment at home. It was found, however, that many of the
items, sea transport especially, bad been greatly under-
estimated, the transport alone (calculated at £150,000)
having been nearly £400,000 a month. The number of bag-
gage animals procured for service in Abyssinia was, by the
latest returns, 45 elephants, 8,000 camels, 16,950 mules,
and 5,000 bullocks. The force consisted of 3,213 fighting
Europeans, and 7,711 natives. Other 1,500 natives after-
wards joined the expedition, raising the number of men to
12,424 of all ranks.
Taking every circumstance into consideration, General
Jameson calculates the monthly expenditure at £589,250,
and this from January 1 to May 31 would amount to
£2,946,250. Add this amount to the £2,000,000 spent up
to December 31, and five millions sterling are very nearly
accounted for. General Jameson adds : " Provided the
expedition terminates on the 31st Nay, it would not be
safe to ask for less than three millions, and there are
charges which cannot at present be estimated, such, for
instance, as the railways, telegraphs, &c. If continued
beyond the 31st May next, it would be safe to estimate a
further charge of £600,000 for every month beyond that
date."

The Lancet has been given to understand that all the
medical and sanitary arrangements connected with the
Abyssinian force were made at Bombay by Drs. Arnott
and Gordon, Inspectors-General of the Indian and British
medical services, under the eye and with the approbation
of Sir Robert Napier himself. The sanitary measures at
Zoolla and along the route taken by the troops were
entirely carried out, as far as the Indian and major part
of the force was concerned, by Indian army medical
officers, Drs. Lumsdaine, Lalor, and others.

Mr. E. 13. Hartopp, who has represented North Leices-
tershire in the Conservative interest since 1859, will retire
at the close of the present Parliament. Mr. S. W. Clowes,
also a Conservative, offers himself as Mr. Hartopp's suc-
cessor, and promises to oppose " rash and violent changes,
while allowing full scope for well-considered measures of
political and social progress and improvement." He is in
favour of a large measure of education, and of the union
of Church and State. At the same time he deprecates
" practices of ritual and assertions of doctrine lately seen
and taught within the Church which appear to be at
variance with the principles of the Reformed faith." If
supported by the Rutland interest, which is very strong in
North Leicestershire, there can be little doubt
of the return of Mr. Clowes. Mr. Frewen, a Con-
servative of the Ultra-Protestant stamp, who has
three times contested the division without success, has
been again mentioned as a candidate, but unless the new
county voters think better of him than the £5O renters
and the freeholders, his chances of a return in the face of
the Duke of Rutland's influence will scarcely be as good
as those of Mr. Clowes.

In the Wick Burghs Mr. Laing must be prepared to
fight with a formidable opponent. Mr. George Loch,
to whom a requisition was presented a week or two ago,
has now formally intimated his intention to become a can-
didate at the neat election. He has issued his address, in
which he assumes that the disestablishment of
the Irish Church is a measure demanded by every principle
of right and justice, and says he should be glad to
take part in the removal of a cause of offence to the
great majority of Irishmen and a source of weakness to
the Protestant religion in the sister island.
The Liberals of Sunderland, believing that they can
carry two members, are casting about for a colleague who
is prepared to fight their battle, in conjunction with Mr.
Candlish, M.P., and in opposition to the Conservative
member, Mr. Hartley. Mr. T. C. Thompson, late of
Sherburn Hall, Durham, has intimated his willingness
to stand. Before, however, coming to any decision, a
committee has been appointed to obtain the political
creeds of Messrs..Gourlay (an alderman of the borough),
Thompson, Eustace, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and to re-
port to the general committee. A large public meeting will
then be called. The Liberals of Durham also threaten to
oppose Mr. Mowbray, the Judge-Advocate-General.
Professor Conington writes to the Times to complain
that the university authorities at Oxford took a most un-
usual course by failing to give the accustomed printed notice
of the meeting of Convocation which took place on Wed-
nesday, when it was resolved to present a petition against
Mr. Coleridge's University Tests Bill. Mr. Conington
says that, had he known of this meeting, he and his
friends would certainly have attended it and spoken
against the petition.

Dr. Trower, late Bishop of Gibraltar, will administer
the diocese of Lichfield during the absence of Bishop
Selwyn in New Zealand.

The Bishop of Natal has lately printed a translation into
the Zulu language of the first part of the " Pilgrim's Pro-
gress," which he has prepared for the use of the natives.
The work is highly appreciated, and he is proceeding with
the remainder. This should cover a multitude of sins in
the eyes of his Low Church opponents.

The Spectator has a leader headed " Sir Roundell
Pahner's Renunciation." Pointing out that he was ou the
very threshhold of the highest legal functions of the country,
and that he has deliberately renounced ere prize which was
within his grasp rather than violate his conscience, the
.S'reetatov says that "it is a great thing to have a brilliant
and successful politician among our foremost men, whose
mind not being open to new conviction, can so easily
iorego the most splendid rewards of life for the sake of the
)41 conviction which it has not lost." Such a spectacle is
rare indeed, and it is one which may save many a man
from political cynicism, by furnishing him with a satisfying
Answer to the gnertion " Who will chew us any good ?"
During the recent Easter services in Constantinople,
the simultaneous occurrence of the Easter Day observed by
the Greek Church and that observed by the rest of Chris-
ton.7em (a very rare event) was signalised in a very satisfac-
tory manner. The G reek and the Armenian bishops entered
the churches together, and pronounced words of friendship
and union from their pulpits. As these two Churches
have hitherto hated each other with a bitterness worthy of
contending parties in the English Church, this fact is very
remarkable. It is also a political event of great impor-
tance, as it will strengthen the opposition among the
Christian subjects to the Turkish rule.

THE QUEEN'S BOOK IN GAELIC.--It haa both
intimated to Mr. Angus Macpherson, through boy GM@
the Duches3 of Atli°lc, that it is her Majesty'a pkultre
that Mr, Macpherson translate the Qttetle4 beek Wei

.4170
,
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t4l'll, 1114 CiluiTar

II EIS MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, May 8.
The Queen, accompanied by Princess Louise,
drove out yesterday afternoon.
Iler Majesty, accompanied by Princess Beatrice,
drove in the grounds this morning.
The other members of the Royal Family also
went out.

WINDSOR CASTLE, May 8•
The Queen and suite arrived here from Osborna
at half-past six o'clock.

LITE LSAT URE.

.4 Noble Woman. By J. C. Jeaffreson. Three Vols.

Hurst and Blackett.

This new work of Mr. Jeaffreson's is one of his
best. The story is interesting throughout, and the
characters of the two rival heroes of the tale, James
Stapleton and Herrick Kingsford, are capital deli-
neations from first to last. The " Noble Woman"
who gives its title to the book is Geraldine Kings-
ford, the daughter of Herrick ; but right worthy
though she is of the commendatory appella-
tion bestowed on her, the interest of the
story does not depend upon her, save at the very
close of the third volume. James Stapleton and
Herrick Kingsford, the country doctor and the
county banker, the one honest and straightforward
in character, but somewhat uncouth in manner and
ungainly in appearance, and the other elegant and
attractive in person, plausible and smooth-tongued,
but self-seeking and treacherous when occasion seems
to require, are the real centres of interest through-
out the whole story. In the first chapter we find James
and Herrick, notwithstanding the dissimilarity
of their characters, fast friends, and the conversa-
tion on both sides is full of mutual confidence and
congratulation, but a few pages farther on they are
utterly estranged for ever. The reader, of course,
will not be slow to guess the cause of this disunion.
After the fashion of that sapient justice, extolled by
Quevedo, who, in every difficult case that came
before him, wishing to come to the root
and cause of the dilemma, was wont to en-
quire " Who is sbe ?" the reader will at
once divine the fair cause of a very unfair
antagonism. We have said that the characters of
the two principal actors are well delineated, and
they are consistent throughout, Herrick Kingsford
from the moment when we first discover him smok-
ing his cheroot and admiring his finger-nails, until
the impending downfal of the unstable castle-build-
ing, erected with so much craft and treachery and
with so much apparent cleverness, is the same weak:
and frivolous, vain and unprincipled fortune-seeker
while James Stapleton, on the other hand, is equally
simple and outspoken, ready to serve his friend or
sacrifice himself in the days of his early love for
Bessie Clay ton, or in the days of his sou's devotion to
" the noble woman," Geraldine Kingsford. Another
very excellent character is old Cornelius Kinderbeet
the supposed uncle of Bessie Clayton, who dearly
loves a practical joke, and whose last will and testa
ment deals retributive justice to the rime)"
loving Herrick, and disappoints the expectations
which the old man had, by way of a joke, encour-
aged him to indulge. Mr. Jeaffreson, like some
other writers, has fallen into the fashion, so fami-
liar to the readers of fhackeray's delighful collo-
quial narratives, of introducing us to apparently ac-
tual places and bringing supposed real personages en
the scene. Alfred Powditch, ILA., who proves a
seasonable friend to Geraldine in her hour of
anxiety, and who is spoken of as one of the living
brethren of the brush, is just one of these. TO
hospital of St. Anthony's, and Sir Benjamin Lor-
rimer, lier Majesty's Sergeant-Surgeon, and Sister
Catherine, the hospital nurse, all remind us of the
surrounding 3 and associates of Philip and Pen'
dennis. But if, as the a Inge tells us, it is 13Wftli
to learn from an enemy, it is assuredly permissible
for other writers to imitate the example of so true a
friend to the novel writers and novel readers
as the historian of Greyfriars and the delineator
of the little sister. It is only in thc33 incidental
allusicns to actual characters that we recognise
resemblance we have spoken of. The story itself i 6
'trite original in its way, and is likely very greatly
to increase its author's reputation. the