, 1896-10-24

diving away, and is certainly discouraged
alike by Austria and Bulgaria. The Sultan
does not appear 10 hate either Macedonians
or Clet4ns as lie hates the Armenians,
q difference probably due to the submissive
ness Of the liter. Greeks in arms are, in his
eyes, enemies: Armeuinns without aims are
hrrrtic rebels who should he slaughtered out.
Par e.e Superbis debellare euhjectos" is
Abl-HII !amid'S ve:s.ou Of the Roman saying.
It Will not work.
RsatcI s agency has received some infor-
nation from Mr.. a. Pmminter, All expert
eucei officer of the Congo STATE. as to the
methods pursued by the BeIgiaus III that re.
giop. He confirms the worst stories IN cir
culation. He says the regions drained by
the Congo, Upper and Lower, have oply
been Opened up on their banks, on the
officials being entrusted with unlimited row
ers, endeavour to raise money for the state
and for themselves 10y excessive crueIties.
The villages are ordered TO provide rubber,
and if they ito not the sol liers are let loose.
Mr.. Parmjnter actually saw numbers of ears
and han Is cut of negroes in proof that the
work Of punishment had been honestly per
fOrmel I'm one case an officer gave two
women who refl ed some information Two
IVlIltN IiSICS VIII ClNt4 NulIS VI llI)D'r
potamus' hide, and finally "ord rcd his men
to mutilate the women, and then eft them
TO die rs they lay rwo Belgian officers.
it should be added. aware Of the facts, refused
this rufian hospitality, as an assassin. Tie
names of these officers are given in the nara
tive.
There viii be much discussion presently
about the case Of Major Watts. H WAS es-
corting n prominent Matahele chief AIMED
Makoni to confinement, but apparently eh
route, tried him by a field Court Martial,
which condemned linn to death. Major
Watts rs.cgraphed to the High Court to con
firm the sentence, hut before the answer ar
rived the prisoner endeavoureI to escape.
Major Watts thpreuron ordered him 10 be
shot. Eo has consequently been placed urder
arrest pending an il quiry, and Of course those
who condemn or acquit him must await
further details. 1t il p rfectly certain, how
ever, TINT the policy of shooting the Matabvle
Chiefs after they have surrendered, consider.
ed merely as policy, is radically bad. They
are thereby forced to keep in outlawry, and
eaoh chief has a band Of dey0tecs. The true
course is to be mercileSs to these who have
ordered the murder Of women and children,
but to treat those who are guilty only of re-
bellion as ordinary offender., liable to deten-
ton and conhscation Of goods. but not to
capital penalties. A dccIa ntion of ''No
Quarter" never pays or can pay, and always
demoralises those who proclaim il.
The interesting paper in tho Times Of
Thursday on"A Sheaf Of Astronomical
Discoveries" appears to show that a great
many rocky isIets. as we may call
them planetory fragments Of q minute
kind,-are travelling about within no great
distance of the earth's orbit. Five Of these
fragments were discovered on one aud the
same day, Septembeq 9TH. Since the first year
of this century there has been reason TO be-
lieve that some planet has come to grief, and
broken into atoms in the region between
Mars and Jupiter. But since DR.. Oilers
first suggested this h! %pothe>is, 20 many more
minute planetary fragments have been dis
covered, that if it be possible to make some
rough computation of their total weight, and
if they all belong to the region whore a
planet appears to be missing, -b~tween Mars
and Jupiter we might learn of what size
the exploded planet was. These bits Of
planets correspond precisely to the great
boulders which all large mountains scatter on
various stages of their slope, only that the
boul1prs still belnnp to the mountain from