Clippings.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 230, 5 February 1876, Page 7

Clippings.

CHURCH AND STATE IN ITALY. (From L' Op into nc.) The ideas expressed by Signor Minghetti, in his recent speech at Cologna "Veneta, on the ecclesiastical question, are in conformity with the programme which the Government has been developing ever since the first day of the Italian resurrection, and had their most solemn confirmation at Rome. We have been constant supporters of those ideas, and we are pleased to find the principle declared that " the Church must be free, but within the limits which the State marks out for it, and which are to be such as not to injure its own rights." This appears to us to be a most accurate and happy explanation of the phrase, " A free Church in a free State," which was put forward by Count Cavour, who knew well that the exercise of any liberty is subject to the rights and the laws of the State ; indeed, true liberty is that which is best and most strongly defined by law. And Signor Minghetti is right in saying that the State ought to abstain from any interference which would nob be efficacious, and that would be the case with any direct interference with the relations between the Pontificate on the one hand and the lower clergy and the laity on the other hand. The Premier repudiates the jus protegendi; what the State can do is " to create by legislation the most opportune conditions, and to open tip ways for the Catholic laity and the lower clergy to vindicate their rights." This will, therefore, be the object at which we shall aim. For the rest, our ecclesiastical policy has given us the means of asserting the rights of the State, and also causing them to be respected without having recourse to violence or persecution. The Papacy, which is still a cause of troubles and conflicts in other countries, has lost all political strength in Italy. A RE-DISCOVERED TRIBE. North Carolina, settled in the time of the Stuarts, was one of the thirteen original colonies which threw off the connection with this country, and was also a member of the Southern Confederacy. It would seem, therefore, that it ought to be as well known as any State of the Union, yet recent proceedings in the law courts have brought to light the fact that the higher ranges of its mountains have for a whole generation concealed an utterly forgotten remnant of an Indian tribe, whose condition seems to be as curious and interesting as that of any Red community which has ever gathered together under Jesuit or Franciscan tutelage. The tribe is a branch of the Cherokee nation, which by the treaties of 1819 and 1836 agreed to sell its lands in the south to the Government of the United States, and to accept others beyond the Mississippi. One small band of 1500 appears to have refused to enter into these treaties. At any rate, they did not remove to the west, but still continue to occupy their original teiritory, a mountainous region called Qualla, watered by the Tuskaseege and Oconalufta rivers. Here the tribe fell under the absolute dominion of a white man who is said to have "exercised a dictatorship as unlicensed over them as did Dr. Francia over the half-breeds of Paraguay." He was their ruler, their judge, religious teacher, and master of all their acts, even of their very wills. They married, labored, andmanaged their households according to his orders. Their white dictator induced them to take the pledge against the use of intoxicating liquors, and the unquestioning obedience they rendered him will be understood, when we add that he was able to make them keep the pledge. In other respects he appears to have meddled little with their traditional customs, for he did not attempt to put down polygamy. But, like most earthly providences, this man had in view his own interest rather than the welfare of those who put such implicit trust in his wisdom and goodness. We learn from the New Yorh Tribune that, " in the thirty years in which he ruled them, he managed to possess himself of every part of the large territory owned by them, and also of additional tracts purchased by the money paid them by Government in lieu of that which would have been given them had they gone west." The whole region was held in his name, and, consequently, was liable to be sold for his debts, if he contracted any. It must be admitted that, although thus unscrupulous towards his wards, he really seems to have exercised a most beneficial influence over them. "These Cherokees differ from their Western brethren in that they have never made public appeals for aid, have received no help from any religious body, have no missionaries or teachers, and yet have lived peaceful, inoffensive lives, working willingly and hard to better their condition ; have built with their own means two churches, in which men of their nation preach, and have brought by hard labor ten thousand acres of land under cultivation." In other words, their dictator proved an efficient civiliser, trained them to work, to maintain themselves in independence, and converted them to Christianity. But, unfortunately, he was not satisfied with the work which Qualla afforded him. Not even the absolute ownership of the great territory of the tribe, and the misappropriation to his own uses of the money paid them by the Government, contented his avarice. He engaged in outside speculations, and these failed. The result was that the entire territory of Qualla was sold by auction. But some humane people took up the case of the Cherokees, the matter was taken into the courts of North Carolina, and so flagrant was the swindle that judgment was quickly given in favor of the Indians. They have grown from 1500 to 11,000, and are described as eager for knowledge in this region, " shut in by high mountain ranges and almost impracticable hill-roads from the rest of mankind." But although they have escaped the fate that had so nearly overtaken them, the publicity of the proceedings has called atten-

tion to them, and " already Government agents, traders, and dealers in whisky have been cognizant of there whereabouts, and have penetrated the hitherto untravelled gorges of the Soco and Oconalufta. Unless something is done by better men in their behalf, there is every probability that this people will be driven down the short road to ruin." THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND THE JOINT-STOCK BANKS. The Economist thinks that the London and Westminster Bank are greatly to be praised for the step which they have taken in regard to their allowances on deposits. Hitherto it has been their practice, in accordance with that of other banks, to give 1 per cent, under Bank rate for deposits ; and they have also, differing in this from most other banks, allowed their deposits to be at call instead of requiring notice. The change now made brings them more into harmony with the facts of the market. For new money it is announced that the rate for money at call will be instead of 1 per cent, under Bank rate, and the bank will also receive deposits at notice, instead of only at call, giving for these a higher rate, or 1 per cent, less than Bank rate. The announcements only relate to new money, but pi'actically the change will come to be applicable to all money. The advantages of the change are, that a lower rate for deposits at call than for deposits at notice does in fact recognise a real distinction between the relative value of money at call and at notice, and in present circumstance, at least, an allowance of 1J per cent, under Bank rate is quite high enough for the former sort of money. Nothing but good, we trust, will result from thus breaking through the old routine, and removing the temptation of accumulating a great deal of money, on which a high allowance is paid, and which must be employed. Now that the bank also is in harmony with other banks in its rates for notice money, it may be hoped that the way will be further prepared for considering proposals to alter the routine of giving 1 per cent, under Bank rate for such deposits. The matter ought to be settled by mutual arrangement, or on some different principle from the present, and perhaps the success of the London and Westminster Bank in giving less for call money will induce the. other banks to see the advantage of breaking through the old routine as to notice money also. SALLY IN SILK? (From the World.) It was a considerable time before it dawned upon us as possible that the letters recommending us to have our grates blackened by ladies of gentle birth, and to make cook and companion convertible terms, were really written in all seriousness. We have believed them flights of fancy, not indeed especially brilliant or amusing, but still gratifying to the vanity of their authors by enabling them to appear in print. It seems, however, that we were behind the age ; that what we smiled at as a harmless absurdity is really in some instances a positive fact, and that we are open to the posibility of a parlormaid whose blood is as blue as that of the Knight of Calatrava himself. This, at least, is the ideal presented to our awestruck imagination ; it is true that when we descend to particulars, and inquire into hard matters of fact, we soon discover that some of the preachers of the new evangel have somewhat singular ideas as to what the statixs of a lady really is. Let us imagine for a moment—for we do not believe, except in the realms of imagination, that such a thing is likely to occur—let us imagine a large household consisting of real ladies and gentlemen. Is is possible to conceive any two people more to be pitied than the master and mistress of such an establishment ? Their servants—we humbly apologise, assistants—are their equals ; how can they be so rude as to find fault ? Miss Matilda is, we conceive, hardly more likely to prove herself immaculately perfect as a housemaid than her humbler prototype Molly ; but how can her " mistress-friend," which is the favorite euphemism employed, venture to point out cobwebs, or remark on slovenly work ? She would indeed be a bold woman if she attempted it. It would, we think, be pretty certain to produce a flood of hystei'ical tears, and a sobbing protest that the culprit had " never been used to be so spoken to." So the cobwebs would remain unmentioned for fear of another outburst, and raw meat, burnt soup, and flavorless puddings ■would also be endured in silence. Imagine, too, the utter loss of privacy; all these "helps" being equals of their employers, must, of course, be accepted as companions, and after Miss Matilda has condescended to dust the china, or has fatigued herself by half-polishing the fire-irons, she would naturally take her repose on the drawing-room sofa with the last new novel or magazine. We have strong doubts whether this would always be found productive of domestic harmony. Miss Matilda may possibly be young and good-looking, and may soon prove to have attractions for the sons of the house which will hardly meet with the parental approval. Considering the agonies suffered by most mothers of young sons when they happen by misadventure to have engaged a governess anything short of a Gorgon, even though the schoolroom is as rigidly tabooed as an Oriental harem, and the very idea of the governess opening her mouth at luncheons, the only time at which she is visible to the naked eye, is unheard of, we think the introduction of the lady helps will hardly recommend itself to prudent matrons. Then, too, they will tremble, for their daughters' propinquity is very perilous, and Edith and Evelyn are to the full as likely to fall in love with William and Edward, whom they see hourly as "gentleman helps," as with the young baronet or the fox - hunting squire for whom they are destined by their prudent parent. We utterly decline to contemplate a household framed, as one of the theorists suggested, with lady helps and ordinary men-servants, unless, indeed, the helps

are "ladies" of the farmers'-daughter class alluded to. The companionship of the ordinary man-servant, however good of his class, would, of course, be insupportable to ladies; and the very suggestion of the possibility of their fraternising like servants in general inclines us to the belief that the originators o£ the scheme were utterly ignorant as to what manner of creature a lady was, or else, having elected to endow their farmers' and tradesmen's daughters with the name, imagined that every one who read their letters would be able to gauge the depths of their social ignorance. We would not for a moment be understood to detract from the merits of the said daughters of small farmers and tradesmen ; they are exactly the class from which the domestic servants of the upper ten should be drawn ; but we fail to see the smallest use in suddenly elevating them to the rank of ladies, and calling them "helps" instead of servants. The chandler's or small farmer's daughter would not be a companion for our wives and daughters in her original sphere in her father's house; why should she become qualified to be one because we take her into ours to scrub the floors or cook the dinner? But we are told that this class now despises domestic " service," and will not condescend to soil its fingers unless bribed by a nominal step in social rank, and the accordance of an unlimited amount of consideration and liberty. If this is the case, so much the worse both for us and also for the class ; but we shall hardly improve matters by pandering to these young women's conceit, and abetting them in their absurd endeavor to alter the condition to which they were born. If they wish to be ladies, let them stay at home and cultivate their minds and taste, in the hope of gradually becoming so ; not enter our houses as uneducated servants, and claim equality with us because they will only do so under the title of lady helps. We write of this class briefly, because from all we can gather from the letters and exordiums of the advocates of the movement, it is from it that their recruits are to be mainly drawn. In fact, it appears to us that the title and fanciful status of " lady helps " are but sops to Cerberus, bribes to induce those who have an objection to domestic service to enter their natm'al sphere under an assumed name and unnatural conditions. We imagine that the number of real ladies who enrol themselves under the banner raised by Mrs. Rose Mary Crawshay and her friends will be infinitesimal, certainly until the notion has taken wider and deeper root than at present seems probable. No one with the feelings of a lady could enter upon domestic service unless secure of finding her sister helps of her own class, and her sensibilities would be jarred to the full as much by the vulgar self-assertion of those by whom we conceive the ranks will be mainly recruited as by the homely manners and coarser speech of those not yet too proud to call themselves by their true name. RESEMBLANCES OF INLAND JAPAN TO ANCIENT ROME. (From the Fortnightly Revieio.) Those who land for the first time in the more remote parts of Japan find themselves transported not so much to a new world as to a different age. Immediately after having entered the inland sea, the voyager is brought face to face with the scenes and customs irresistibly recalling what is known of those of ancient Grece and Rome. The ships seem to have floated off some ancient coin. They have the same rig, the same single sail, with antenna and ceruchi, and, if not the same rudder, at least one all but the same, as the pedalien. Their exact shape has been seen on hundreds of coins and marbles, which have made us familiar with the overhanging prow and the chambered aplustre at the stern. Dodona and the shrine of the Tyrian Astarte are recalled by the sacred groves which wave on every island, and crown headland after headland on the main. Shrines and temples, with their statues and sacred vessels, their fonts for lustration, their altars and votive tablets, are to be seen on those shores on every side. One feels that here, if nowhere else, the classical antiquarian may realise much of the real life of ancient times. The garments of the inhabitants are of a Roman or an ancient fashion. The flowing robes of the comfortable classes in the streets of towns closely resemble the toga of the Romans, but not more closely than does the short tunic of the women the chiton of the Greeks. The shops, with their open fronts, are on the model of those still to be seen at Pompeii. The spaces between flat, adjacent tiles upon the roofs are in Japan now, as in Southern Europe in the days of Plautus, closed by rows of semi-cylindrical imbrices. The state of material civilisation is on a level with that which prevailed throughout the Roman world in the best days of the Empire. HORRIBLE CRUELTY. (From the Belgrade Correspondent of the New Yorh Herald.) Two priests in a monastry not far from Berbir, which is a Turkish fortress opposite Alt Gradiska, in Austria, were convicted by the Turks of participating in the insurrection. A force was sent to the monastry, and one of the priests was captured. The other succeeded in escaping to the mountains. The priest who was taken had his hands and feet cut off while he was alive, and after being allowed to suffer the horrible tortures consequent on mutilation for some time, he was impaled on a sharp stake and left as a warning to all others. A troop was sent to the hillside forest in pursuit of the second priest, but he was not found until a day or two after, when hunger forced him to stray into a neighboring village. There he was re cognised, denounced by some Bosnian Mussulmen, and at once arrested. A guard was sent for, and the unfortunate priest was brought into Berbir half dead from wounds, and with a huge iron color around his neck. He was thrown into a filthy dungeon, and was not even given food. He seemed likely to starve before his tormentors should decide to kill him.

At this juncture the Austrian consul at Berbir heard of the priest's horrible treatment. Now the Austrian Consul there is a man, and his blood boiled as he saw the ignorant and degraded Turks day by day abusing men who are in everything their betters. When the fate of the first priest and the danger of the second was related to him he went straightway to the local functionary and said something very like this : " You miserable old cur, is it possible that you can treat human beings, and above all, Ministers of God, as you have treated the poor priest ? Are you not aware that an intelligent Europe, which despises you, is looking on ?" The Consul, whatever he said, used very strong language, and demanded that the collar be at once taken from the priest's neck, and that he be given decent food and some kind of protection against the howling mob that surrounded the jail. Perhaps there was a tinge of Sclavonic blood in this Austrian Consul's veins, and there was beneath his earnest pleading for the priest the fervor of a dangerous menace which even the dull Turk could discern. At any rate, the Consular's suggestion was heeded, and the life of the priest up to date has been spared, although he is still in prison. A REMARKABLE FAILURE. (From the Pall Mall Budget, November 5.) Dr Strousberg, a well-known Prussian railway contractor, has failed for £IOO,OOO, and was arrested at the St. Petersburgh railway station on the 25th ult., and sent back to Moscow. His bankruptcy has led to the Commerce and Loan Bank of Moscow being declared insolvent. Some of the directors have been placed under arrest in their own houses, and the property of others has been sold on behalf of the creditors. Strousberg is of Jewish origin, his full name being Baruch Hirsch Strousberg. Born in 1823, in humble circumstances, at Neidenburgh, in East Prussia, he went to London in 1835, after the death of his father. Here he was received by his uncles, who were commission agents, and was shortly afterwards baptized a member of the Church of England. Gifted .with great intelligence and energy, he more or less educated himself, and entered journalism. In 1848 he went to America, where he gave lessons in German, but finally realised some money by buying a cargo of damaged goods and selling them at a heavy profit. With this capital he returned to London in 1858, and founded several newspapers, but six years afterwards he went to Berlin, where he was for seven years the agent of an English insurance company. In 1864, however, Strousberg began_ to think of improving his fortunes, and having made acquaintances at the 5 " British Embassy, by this means came to know some English capitalists, with whom he contracted for the construction of the Tilsit-Inst erburg Bailway. Within six years Strousberg was making a dozen lines, among others those of Boumania. He had over 100,000 workmen in his pay, and had launched out into other vast enterprises. At Hanover he established a gigantic machine factory ; at Dortmund and Neustadt he had smelting works and iron factories ; at Antwerp and Berlin he built entire new quarters ; in Prussia he bought 10 estates, in Poland an entire county; in Bohemia he paid £BOO,OOO for the splendid domain of Zbirow, where he established railway carriage works which employed 5,000 workmen. Meantime he built a palace for himself in the Wilhelmstrasse at Berlin, which in decoration, luxury, and accommodation surpassed that of the Emperor himself. In it were to be found works by the first German and French artists—Delacroix, Meissonnier, Gerome, and others. Nor was his charity on a less splendid scale. In winter he caused 10,000 portions of soup to be given daily to the poor, in addition to £2OOO worth of wood. When the famine broke out in East Prussia he sent whole trains laden with corn and potatoes to his suffering fellowcountrymen. Of course, such a man had his own organs in the Press, and was chosen to represent the nation. Yet he took from the Moscow Bank, which he founded, 4,308,000 roubles, and it is hinted that his future is not altogether unprovided for. No greater collapse than that of Strousberg has probably occurred in the financial history of the country, save, perhaps, that of Law. THE FIRST BAM BATTLE AT SEA. Now that the prompt and peremptory though accidental sinking of the British iron-clad Vanguard by her consort, the Iron Duke, has called public attention so sharply to the use of the ram in naval warfare, it ought to be put on record that the first modern naval fight in which this method of settling an international difficulty was decisively adopted, was fought by the victorious commander on a hint given him from this country. A writer in the New York World says:—l allude, of course, to the severe engagement of July 18, of Lissa, on the Dalmatian coast, between the Italian fleet of Admiral Persano and the Austrian fleet of Admiral Von Tegethoff. # The admiral, who was one of the simplest as well as one of the bravest of men, told me that on reading the account of the preparations which were made at New York in 1862 to fit out the Vanderbilt for the purpose of ramming and sinking the Confederate iron-clad Mernmac, he made up his mind that this would prove to be the best way of dealing with armored vessels in action, and devoted himself to a special study of the qualities involved. When he was ordered .down with a small mixed squadron to Lissa, early in July, 1866, to relieve that place, then besieged by the powerful iron-clad fleet of Admiral Porter, his intention was to test his theory on this subject. As she went into action on the 18th, he signalled all his ships, "Bear down on the enemy and sink him." His own flagship, the Ferdinand Max, if my memory serves me rightly, was an iron-clad of about 600 horsepower. His captain —Baron Max von Sternek—had orders to "go for" all the iron-clads in the enemy'si i ne, one after another, and did

so with great spirit and skill. The Ferdinand Max successively ran three Italians aboard, captured the flag of one, crippled another, and sank the third—the Be d'ltalia—in two minutes, with her whole crew of 600 men. The Austrians tried to save these poor fellows, with human inconsistency, but only succeeded in rescuing few of them. Admiral Von Tegethoff told me, by the way, that he never saw men behave more gallantly than the Italians on this ship. The crew cheered defiantly as their huge ship careened over, and the sharpshooters in the tops went down firing their rifles. POSTAL RETURNS IN GREAT BRITAIN. The Postmaster-General, in his report for the year 1874, states that the number of letters posted in the United Kingdom during the year was 967,000,000, being an increase of 6g per cent, en the number in 1873, a.nd showing a proportion of thirty letters to each person in the country. The number of post-cards was 79,000,000, which was an increase of 9£ percent., and the number of book-packets and newspapers was 259,000,000, which was an increase of 2 per cent. The number of registered letters in the United Kingdon during the year was upwards of 4,000,000, or about one in 250 of the total number of letters. Respecting returned, unaddressed, and misdirected letters, the report says:— The number of letters received in the Returned Letter Office was more than 4,400,000, bein" 1 in every 220 of the total number of letters. As respects more than three-fourths of these, it was found possible either to reissue them or to return them to the writers. Upwards of 20,000 letters were posted without any address ; one of these letters containing more than £2OOO in bank notes. A registered letter from Switzerland was found open in the chief office, London. The contents, which had become exposed owing to the flimsiness of the envelope, consisted of cheques for upwards of £2OO, and of bank notes to the value of more than £SOO. A registered letter containing Turkish bonds, with coupons payable to bearer, worth more than £4OOO, intended for a firm in the city of London, was misdirected to a street in the West-end, where it was delivered. On inquiry being made for the packet, it was found that the bonds had been mistaken for " foreign lottery tickets " of no value, and had been put aside for the children of the family to play with. In the chief office in London two gold watches were found, each enclosed in an unregistered book-packet addressed to New Zealand; the leaves of the book having been cut, so as to admit of the watches being enclosed. The packets were sent to the Returned Letter Office, whence information was forwarded to the addresses, there being nothing to show who were the senders. About 61,000 postage stamps were found loose in different offices. The number of newspapers for places abroad detained for insufficient postage or other causes, which was 700,000 in 1872 and 250,000 in 1873, was last year only 173,000. Newspapers sent to this country from the United States and from Canada frequently contain enclosures liable to the letter rate of postage; and in six months of last year more than 14,000 newspapers were found to have such enclosures secreted in them. Among the articles posted contrary to the regulations of the department, and sent to the Returned Letter Office, were a horned frog alive, a stag beetle alive, white mice alive, snails alive, an owl, kingfisher, a rat, carving knives and forks, gun cotton, and cartridges. THE NEXT NAVAL NOVEL. (From Punch.) Chapter XLV.—" The Lively Polly." The Vulcan was ploughing the sea bravely. In spite of the immense thickness of her iron sides, she was moving at a speed of at least two knots an hour. It is scarcely necessary to explain to the nautical reader that she could have attained even a greater rate of speed, had not the Lords of the Admiralty issued their celebrated instructions regulating the consumption of coal. " And so, Mr. Simple Simon," said our First Lieutenant (a Fellow of Trinity, by the way), "our Junior Midshipman will join us at Portsmouth from Cambridge." "Yes, Sir," I replied. "Mr. Muttonhead has done well. You will have noticed, from reading the newspapers, that he joins us as Senior Wrangler." "Yes, yes, very fair," commented my superior'officer. "Still, I must confess that I should have been greatly disappointed had he not joined us as First of his year." " I suppose, Sir, he will resume his ordinary duties when he reports himself ?" " Quite so. He will personally superintend the weighing out of the rations, and will occasionally (in his official capacity) test the quality of the grog." Our conversation was interrupted at this point by a cry from the sailor on the look-out. The second lieutenant hurried on to the quarter-deck, and, after the customary salute, addressed himself to his senior. "Sir," said he, "it is my duty to inform you that black care often sits at the back of the helmsman, and that, therefore, post equitem sedet atra cura may have a wider meaning than the glorious old Roman was inclined to give to it." "Always classical, Sobersides, remarked the First Lieutenant with a smile ; " but I hope you bring no bad news. Remember garrula lingua nocet !" "Well said !" exclaimed SOBERSIDES (who, I must admit, was something of a sycophant). " But I wish merely to report to you that the look-out, through his telescope, has made out a boat in the offing. She appears to be steering for us. How shall we get out of her way ?" " How far off is she ?" " Some five-and-twenty miles." " We may yet have time to save ourselves !" exclaimed the First Lieutenant, gallantly. "Mr. Simple Simon, will you be good enough to get the Book of Signals."

Of course, I complied with the request ; and for the next three hours the First Lieutenant, Sobersides, and myself were engaged in perusing the mysterious volume. In the meanwhile, the boat discovered by thelook-out continued on her reckless course She seemed to be a deserted pleasure yacht, of about two tons, and, from the fact that she carried the name of Lively Polly pamted m white letters on her bows, I took it that she hailed from the Port of Margate. By degrees, she came nearer and nearer, until she was within half-a-mile of us. Then there was a cry of astonishment from the lips of the younger of our crew. She was carrying a sail—an article of nautical perambulation scarcely known to the rising generation. " Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno," I heard one of our Second Class boys observe to a companion. " Tupto !" replied the other, suiting the action to the word. " Really, Mr. Simple Simon," said our First Lieutenant, " I do not like to disturb the Captain in the midst of his experiments, but I think I »must trouble you to request his presence on deck." " Aye, aye, Sir," I replied, and I descended below, and knocked at the door of the laboratory of my Commanding Officer. Chapter XLVI. — The Captain of the " Vulcan." " Come in !" And I entered. The Captain of the Vulcan was a thin, intel-lectual-looking student. He woie long hair, and his eyes were shielded from the glare of a small fire (in which several crucibles were glowing) by a pair of azure-colored spectacles. His laboratory, or (to use the nautical term, " cabin") was furnished with a library of dusty volumes, a stuffed alligator, and a few skeletons. He was standing near a camera, and held in his hand a penny whistle. "This interruption is very mal apropos," he exclaimed as I entered. " What is the matter, Mr. Simple Simon ?" " We are in danger of a collision, Sir," I replied, respectfully. " We are always in danger of a collision," he murmured, petulantly. " Really, I must leave the matter in the hands of the First Lieutenant. I have every confidence in him." I bowed, and was about to leave the apartment, when an irresistible impulse seized me to put a question to my Commanding Officer. " Your pardon, Sir," I said with some hesitation, " but the experiment upon which you are engaged seems to interest you deeply. Is it indiscreet to ask you what you are doing ?" " Not at all !" he cried, with the enthusiasm of an inventor. "lam attempting, with the aid of photography, to fix and depict a ray of sound." And he blew the penny whistle, and concealed his head in the curtains of the camera. On my return to the deck, I found that the Lively Polly was Avithin a few yards of the Vulcan. We consulted the Signal-Book for the- last time, and prepared to meet our fate like Officers, Gentlemen, and Scholars. The crew of the Vulcan stood still, and closed their eyes, and then came a shock. The Lively Polly's bowsprit had made a hole in the side of the Vulcan, and all was lost ! At this moment the Captain appeared. He was calm and resolute. He spoke to the First Lieutenant — " What is the size of the leak?" " Two inches by three, Sir." " At what rate is the water coming in ?" " About a pint an hour, Sir." " Then get to the boats, and save yoursglvgs ! Within five hours of the collision, every man belonging to the Vulcan had left that hapless ship to her melancholy fate. And such is life on the wave ! Chapter XL VII. — The Last of the " Vulcan" It was many years after the events related in the last chapter that I (now Sir Peter Simple Simon) was coasting in a steam-launch off the~lsle of Thanet. On board were my eldest son, his wife, and their youngest daughter, a charming little maiden of nineteen. My grandchild, who was called Wolehilda (a family name), was standing near me, looking through a pair of opera-glasses at some object seen dimly in the distance. "O, Grandpa!" she cried, with a little joyous laugh, "do let us see what it is! I am so curious!" Willing to please her, I smilingly put the helm hard-a-port, and we soon neared the subject of our conversation. It turned out to be a very old ironclad, covered with seaweed. In the starboard side was a hole, which had evidently grown larger, in the course of years, from rust and the action of the waves. " Oh look, Grandpa !" cried Wolehilda, pointing to the stern of the vessel. " See, the name is written up !" I put on my spectacles, and then leisurely looked at the boards at which my descendant was pointing. Then I uttered a cry of surprise. It was the Vidcan that we had deserted five-and-forty years before ; and as we gazed upon the wreck, the brave old ship at last began to sink. Two months afterwards, the spot once occupied by the Vidcan was occupied no longer. TIBETIAN DOGS AND BEARS. Huo-e savage Tibetian dogs used to come down ° the mountain sides from a Lama nunnery and other houses above, and prowl round my tent, and poke into it, in search of what they could find ; and the letting them loose at all was highly improper conduct on the part of the virtuous sisterhood. One splendid red clog came down regularly, with long leaps which I could hear distinctly ; and I had quite an affection for him, until one nio-ht I was awakened from an uneasy slumber by finding his mouth fumbling at my throat, in order to see if I was cold enough for his purposes. • This was a little too much, so I told Silas to watch for it and pepper it with small shot from a distance; either acci-

dentally or by design, he shot _it in the side from close quarters, killing it on the spot, its life issuing out of it in one grand hoarse indignant roar. 'Possibly it occurred to my servant that the small shot from a distance might be a rather unsafe proceeding. As if these things were not enough, I had a visitor of aiiother kind, one night, who puzzled me not a little at first. I was lying awake, exhausted by one of the paroxysms of my illness, when a large, strangelooking figure stepped into the moonlight just before my tent, and moved about there with the unsteady swaying motion of a drunken man, and with its back towards me. My first idea was that this was one of the Chinese Tartars encamped beside the temple, who had come in his sheepskin coat to treat me to a war dance, or to see what he could pick up ; and so I let my hand fall noiselessly over the side of the couch, upon the box which held my revolver. It was only natural that I should think so, because it is very rarely that any animal, except Jiomo sapiens, moves erect upon his hind legs, or I may add gets drunk. But still there was something not human in the movements of this creature, and when it began slowly to climb up one of the apricot trees in a curious fashion, I could not help ex claiming aloud, " Good heavens ! what have we got now ?" On this it turned around its long head and gave a ferocious growl, enabling me both to see and hear that it was one of the great snow bears which infest the high mountains, but enter seldom, and only by stealth, the villages. I thought it prudent to make no more remarks ; and after another warning growl, evidently intended to intimate that it was not going to be baulked out of its supper, the bear continued up the tree, and commenced feeding on the apricots. As may be supposed, I watched somewhat anxiously for its descent ; and as it came down the trunk the thought seemed to strike it that a base advantage might be taken of its position, for it halted for an instant, and then gave auother warning growl. It repeated this manoeuvre as it passed my tent, on its four legs this time, but otherwise took no notice of me, and there was a curious sense of perilous wrongdoing about the creature, as if it were conscious that the temptation of the apricots had led it into a place where it ought not to have been. I did not mention this circumstance to Silas, for he was extremely anxious to have a shot at a bear, and I was just as anxious that he should not, because he had not sufficient qualification for such dangerous sport, and to have wounded a bear would only have resulted in his killing him, and perhaps some more of us. After that, however, though never troubled with another visit of the kind, I had a sort of barricade made at night with my table and other articles in front of the tent, so that I might not be taken unawares ; for my visitor was not a little Indian black bear, or even an ordinary Tibetian bear, but a formidable specimen of yellow or snow bear (JJrsus isabellinus), which usually keeps above the snow line, is highly carnivorous in his habits, and often kills the yaks of Pu, and of other villages, when they are sent to graze in summer upon the high alps.—" The Abode of Snow;" THE USE OF INSECTS. (From Land and Water.) At a late meeting at Canterbury of the East Kent Natural History Society, after a discussion on the benefits conferred by the ichneumon flies in the destruction of noxious insects, some further observations were made by Professor Gulliver, F.R.S., on the use of insects. At former meetings of the society, evidence had been given of the benefits conferred on agriculture and gardening by shrew mice, bats, starlings, toads, and other insectivorous animals, whose operations are in effect like so many ever active traps for the destruction of noxious insects, and ought to be encouraged accordingly. Yet, in the cruelty of ignorance, every idle boy and most idle men rejoice in the persecution and destruction of those animals so highly beneficial to mankind. But it is to be hoped that, as a knowledge of natural science extends, farmers and gardeners will learn to distinguish their friends from their foes, and treat them accordingly. This may not be so easy in the vast world of insects, but should be as easy at Canterbury as anywhere, since the illustrious entomologist, George Newport, F.R.S., pursued his labors at and was a native of this city, on which he has reflected such honor as his townsmen might have shown their capacity to appreciate by some suitable memorial to him. But, as usual, a prophet is little honored in his own country ; and, after all, his best monument exists in his works ; though dead, in them he yet speaketh. At present the popular knowledge of insects, so much increased by his profound researches, will go far to assist the husbandman. AmoDg the many examples of useful species, besides the great family of ichneumon flies, are the pretty ladybird or lady cow (Coccinela) and the numerous lace-winged flies (Hemorobridas), which are among the greatest enemies of those pests known as the plant lice or aphides. A wolf in a sheepfold would be comparatively less destructive than a larva of a lace-wing fly among a colony of aphides on a hop-leaf. But while these are insects thus directly beneficial, others that seem to be unmitigated evils may nevertheless be indirectly useful. Insects make up for their individual insignificance by the aggregate potency of numbers. Countless myriads of gnats, in such clouds as to appal the traveller, and numberless other tribes that also annoy us, may be useful as manure; for as the researches of John Davy have shown, insects convert vegetable mattersintonitrogenous compounds, and are thus so many laboratories of guano. Hence the marvellous prodigality of insect life and death m tropical forests may be one cause of the luxuriance of vegetation there. And even the worst of our domestic pests have a meaning as monitors of the necessity of a vigilant cleanliness and ventilation for our health and existence. Indeed, it might be a curious question how far

some great fevers and other plagues, centuries since, might have been indirectly prevented by the effect in this manner of the detestable bugs, had these loathsome insects then existed in England. . Upon the whole, notwithstanding all the wailing about, insect depredations, were the entire insect world destroyed, more lamentations would ensue than has ever been caused by their ravages. Insects have been food for some races of men, and St. John's experience of locusts and wild honey has lately proved so excellent in some parts of the United States of America that the experimenters have been declaring that no one need starve amidst the most lamentable ravages and abundance of locusts. They are said to be nutritious and nice, "tasting something between meat and fish," when mixed with a little oil, and browned over the fire. Whether they were eviscerated first, we are not told, but if not, perhaps the ingested vegetable matter may have been a sort of sauce, like spinach, to make the dish more pleasant. To insects we owe wax and honey, silks and precious dyes, valuable medicines, food for birds and many other animals, the fertilisation and increase of necessary for the subsistence of numerous animals, and thus indirectly for the preservation of man. In short, the human species, wholly deprived of the services of insects, would fade from the face of our planet. So the husbandman has only to make the best of it, by learning to distinguish between his friends and his foes, and how to assist the beneficent operations of nature, in encouraging the former and checking the latter. TUFT-HUN TING. (From the Liberal Jieviciv.) As soon as people of a certain sort have made a little money they begin to think that the majority of their acquaintances are not good enough for them. The jingle of gold in their pockets inspires them with so much confidence that they feel they are fit to force themselves into any circles, however brilliant and exhalted the same may presumably be. Nor is their confidence as a rule altogether misplaced. Though they no doubt meet with many rebuffs, and though, in a general _ way, they do not soar nearly so high as they wish to do, their money invariably enables them to secure standing room, if not to shine, in the midst of company of a more or less fashionable character. When people see a man scattering wealth about him with a prodigal hand they do not openly inquire into the ways and means by which, he has secured the same, nor do they pointedly show him that they know perfectly well who and what he is. They content themselves with whispering spiteful things about him in out-of-the-way corners and with hinting that he may not always be what he is, but may return to what he once was, and which, they more than hint, he would still be if he had not been unscrupulous, lucky, or something else indicating that no real credit is due to him for what he is. Meanwhile they return his smiles with interest, if they imagine they can gain anything by doing so ; and they lead him to believe that they are in blissful ignorance as to his shady antecedents, if they fancy that they may profit thereby. It is fortunate for the man that they act in this Christian and considerate manner ; but it can hardly be fairly said that he is undeserving of such handsome treatment. Often he does his best to raise himself and forget his vulgar antecedents and disreputable connections. Given, that he was once an office boy, and that the time was when he was wont to sleep under a shop counter, he never shows that he remembers these facts, and if you venture to let him know that they are familiar to you, you may be certain that he will not think any the better of you on account of the knowledge of history which you thereby display. Given, again, that he has a number of shabby relations, who dress badly, eat meagrely, and have to follow low callings, he shows that he is thoroughly ashamed of them, and that he would forget them altogether if it were possible for him to do such a thing. As it is he succeeds in completely ignoring them and in acting as if he were unaware that they existed. You may go to his house a hundred times and you will not see one of them, nor will you hear one of their names heard, and if he meets one of them in the street when he is in your company he will fail to see the individual, whose name you may mention without drawing from him any symptom of recognition. Thus it is not surprising that Smith the baker in a small way is the brother or near connection of Smith the wealthy magnate, and yet you are unaware of the fact. Whether Smith the baker and his wife and family appreciate the way in which they are treated by their magnificent namesakes is doubtful. Probably they would like him to give them a helping hand, and to acknowledge them in the face of the world. But he is not fool enough to do this, and profits accordingly. Probably, also, they would like to be asked to his house other than at times when no one else is there, and to be shown when they are there that they are something more than disagreeable encumbrances. But they forget that Smith's fashionable friends might not like them, and that Smith is, therefore, judging by this latter-day ruling, only doing what is prudent and proper in giving them the cold shoulder.- They forget, further, that if their children and those of Smith were allowed to fraternise, curiosity would be excited, and inquiries of a disagreeable character might be made. At any rate they are so unreasonable that they fly into pets and wipe their hands of all connection with Smith, whereby they flatter their own dignity, give a harmless vent to their anger, and do precisely what he wants. Indeed they may be snre that nothing but an unaccountable feeling of delicacy, which a practical man of the world should be ashamed to be the victim of, prevents the worthy Smith from doing himself what they at last save him from the trouble of doing. Smith, having got rid of his relations, and "cut" all his friends who have remained where he once was, finds himself at liberty to

make such new associates as he pleases. It is not his fault if he fails to enlarge the circle of his acquaintances. Wherever there is a chance of picking up a decent acquaintance or two he or some member of his precious family may be found, and it must be confessed that he is net chary of his money in his endeavors to bring about the object which he has at heart. 'lie is constantly giving magnificent entertainments, and he clothes his women in a style of grandeur which it would be difficult to beat. Then those who are able to give him a lift upwards he dogs with a consistency which is simply astonishing. They cannot escape from his clutches unless they snub him outright, and they find it difficult to do this. They are unable to get up an argument with him during the course of which they may wound him to the quick, for, however selfopinionated and dogmatic he may be when dealing with his underlings and poor relations, he is meekness itself when he is face to face with a man who is undoubtedly his superior. Under the latter circumstances he will hardly contradict the statement that the moon is made of green cheese, so eager is he to display his amiability and appreciation of ability in another by saying ditto. Nor does his spirit of concession end here. With you he will condemn the class from which he is sprung with a fervor that is positively terrific ; with you he will cry that the lower classes ought to be kept down, and with you he will gladly co-operate in preventing any one scrambling up to where he stands. Persuade him that you are not aware that he was born in a dirty back street, and that his father was a working man, while he himself once made money by soiling his hands, and afterwards his conscience, pretty considerably, and he will speak in terms of the most withering sarcasm of all who have to live by what they earn, and do not earn sufficient to enable them to have half-a-dozen courses to their dinner. Of all conservatives he is, perhaps, the most conservative. Yet he loves the populace after a fashion. He likes them to hear that he is a great man and the companion of great men ; he is pleased when they are enabled to sae his name in print; he deems it right that they should know when he has given five pounds to a charity ; and he considers that they should in a variety of ways be allowed the pleasure of contemplating him and his magnificence. Indeed he frequently goes to great expense in order that they may do this. We do not know that it is necessary to say that it is somewhat surprising that he is not only allowed to flourish according to his own sweet will, but is occasionally exalted to many important places.