Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1889-04-10 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

STANLEY'S MARCH.  Sir Francis de Winton forwards to the newspapers copies of two letters written by Mr. Stanley to the late Major Partelot. The first was sent on September 18, 1887, from a camp on to Aruwimi, and the second on February 14, from Fort Bodo. The messengers carrying the letters were detained at Arab camps which Mr. Stanley encountered on his journey to the lake, and werc picked up by him as he returned to ascertain what had become of Major Bartelot and his companies. Further intelligence has reached Brussels bringing news of Mr. Stanley down to the end of February, at which date he was reported to be marching to Zanzibar in company with Emin Pasha.  Mr. Stanley's further letters bring out into clearer relief than did his first the nature of the Central Forest through which he literally tunnelled his way for five months. This forest covers an area as large as France, and it seems to have been about as ugly a patch of territory as is to be found anywhere on the earth's surface. The inhabitants of this" dismal and horrid grove" seem to resemble the region in in which it is their ill lot to live. They are a venomous, cowardly, and thievish race, and cannibals to boot. It is difficult to see how they could be anything else if Mr. Stanley's account of their habitat be not over-coloured. If the Twelve Apostles had been condemned to live in the heart of that great forest it is a moot question whether the natural and climatic influences would not have proved too strong even I for the stock of virtue with which they had been endowed during their sojourn in Palestine. It will be good news to many hundreds of our readers that there is to be a Royal Commission on the Vaccination Acts. We are heartily glad of it too. If the arguments of the anti-earringlion agitators can stand the test of public Inquiry and scientific (we mean genuine scientific) criticism, the sooner all the laws on this subject are wiped off the statute-book the better. We believe that there are two things which a properly conducted Commission is bound to show —first, that disease and death have been brought about in countless cases by unskilful vaccination and unwholesome lymph ; secondly, that half the diminution in small-pox with which vaccination is credited is really due to improved sanitation—witness Leicester; and thirdly, that even with these deductions, vaccination has enormously diminished one of the worst scourges of the human frame.  Colonel William Thornhill, Blois, aged 47. who has resided with his wife and family at Bournemouth, for about two years, has been found lying in a pool of blood on his bedroom floor, quite dead, with a bullet wound through his head. It is believed the deceased committed suicide.  The French Chamber has voted 500,000 fr. to the President and 1,000,000 fr. to the Ministers for entertainments during the Exhibition. Among the oldest friendships formed by the late Duchess of Cambridge was one which she maintained to the last, with the Rothschild family. She had known four generations of the great financial house. It was her father who founded its fortunes by employing the first Rothschild, old Mayer Amschel, of the Judenxasse in Frankfart a. his "Court Jew." The story how the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, flying from the French, deposited his entire wealth with the honest Jew, who saved his employers' money at the expense of his own, has been told a thousand times. The first time it was narrated was by the Landgrave himself at the Congress of Vimma, and this advertisement practically made the Rothschilds. Merits Oppenheim commemorated the story in two fine pictures, which are now at Giumer,bury. Copies of these interesting paintings wers presented to the venerable Duchess as a birthday gift by Lord Rothschild a couple of years ago. ,