have had disastrous results. According to the finding of the Committee charged with the investigation, these officials were acquitted of having done anything corruptly, or with corrupt intent, but what they did do was to treat the Works Department as if it were a trading concern, and they manipulated accounts so as to put to the credit of a job which cost more than the estimate, the surplus accruing to a job which cost less than the estimate. According to the Report of the Committee, there has been practised since April, 1895, a system of accountkeeping in which there have been "(1) Falsely signed and bogus transfers of materials from one job to another; (2) transfers of materials valued at altogether unwarranted prices; (3) incorrect appropriation of invoices to a job when the goods were not used; (4) materials sent from stock and not debited to the job; (5) the deliberate alteration up and down of the ascertained cost of a job for purposes of so-called departmental advantage." As one of the witnesses put it, "When we found we were going to have a loss, we took the profit from one job and gave it to another; it was a system of levelling up and down." The of the Moderates. The officials have been dismissed and an inquiry has been ordered into the department where such a practice had originated. The rule of red tape, therefore, will be made more stringent, for although much abused, red tape is an absolutely indispensable element in managing the finance of public bodies. At the worst, the recalcitrant officials who have had their career cut short and are thrown loose on the world, are guilty of an error of judgment which has been speedily detected and severely punished; but to judge from the indecent exultation of the so-called Moderates, it would appear as if your true Unionist had an absolute delight in discovering, revealing, nay, in exaggerating, and monstrously exaggerating, any mistake made by his fellow-citizens if they should have the misfortune to be in the employment of the County Council. Our Unionist friends will no doubt scoff at the observation, but they are pursuing very dangerous line in thus identifying their cause with the vilification of self-government in London. The County Council is the elect of London, and its members are discharging a great trust committed to them with an honesty, industry, and a public spirit which makes London the envy and despair of every great city in America. Nothing could be worse, either in taste cr in policy, than to exult over every error that is committed in any of the details of London Administration. That is not the way in which to develop civic spirit, or to encourage the best class of citizens to devote themselves to the thankless task of the treadmill of administrative routine. a Good Work Done in Rhodesia. The Daily Chronicle is rightly indignant at the conduct of the Moderates on the London County Council, who display so base a joy in exposing the mistake of the Works Department. But our virtuous contemporary is guilty of just as shameful and ill-considered conduct in the treatment which it uniformly extends to those Englishmen who, at risk of health and life and all their worldly goods, have nobly toiled and greatly suffered for the cause of England in Rhodesia. We still seem to be a long way distant from the day when Englishmen who sacrifice time, labour, money, and life for the cause either of the good government of a city, or the colonisation of a province, may confidently count upon just, not to say generous, recogni one. [October 9, 1896. THE TEN PLAGUES OF SOUTH AFRICA. tion at the hands of their fellow-countrymen, whatever may be their party. Lord Grey's report upon the present condition of Charterland, dated Bulawayo, October 16, records an achievement which, if it had been performed by any other authority than the Chartered Company, would have commanded the enthusiastic eulogy of every As Lord Grey says, the British public finds it difficult to realise what the Chartered Company has done in carrying on a war for six months nearly 600 miles away from the nearest railway terminus, and keeping in a state of efficiency a fighting force of 3,000 men, 3,000 animals, and storing, in addition, sufficient supplies to feed 40,000 natives for three months. It is, as he says, more difficult than the task would be of keeping a big civil population in comfort and an army of 3,000 in a state of efficiency for six months at John o' Groat's House by means of supplies brought from Land's End, when there was not a cart-horse to be obtained in the country, or a single feed of grain on the road for the mules which had to haul the supplies over territory without a single macadamised road. in Of the settlement which has been Home Rule made, Lord Grey speaks hopefully. Matabeleland. It amounts to the establishment of native Home Rule for Matabeleland. Lobengula's indunas are to have £60 a year and a horse each, and are to govern their own people in their own way, subject to the authority of a Native Commissioner, who is to act as general peacemaker and nexus between the chiefs and the Chartered Company. Lord Grey hopes that by a system of industrial and agricultural shows the Matabele will learn to accommodate themselves to a system of regular labour. Until January, however, they will have to be fed from hand to mouth to keep them alive. Owing to the ravages of the rinderpest and the havoc made by war, some forty thousand natives will have to be fed on daily rations for three months. Lord Grey speaks in the highest terms of the many services rendered by Mr. Rhodes, of whom he says: With infinite patience and characteristic tenacity of purpose he has sat down at the base of the Matoppos in a camp unprotected by a single bayonet, which could have been perfectly well rushed any night during the last six weeks by the rebels with absolute safety to themselves. It was entirely due to the confidence which this action on his part inspired in the minds of the rebels, who were very suspicious and alarmed as to the treatment they would receive if they surrendered, that they were at length induced to go out from the hills on to the flats. Next year will probably be one of privation and high prices, but nothing seems to abate the absolute confidence which the Rhodesians have in Rhodesia, and the capacity of exciting that confidence is no mean asset in the personal resources of Mr. Rhodes. The Indian Famine. While the Chartered Company is preparing to feed forty thousand Africans for the next three months, the Indian Government is already feeding two hundred and fifty thousand Asiatics, and is making preparations to feed many more. Fortunately last month brought welcome showers of rain, which have done something to prevent the famine which already threatens to develop into an absolutely devastating scourge next year. The Indian Government is exerting itself to meet the threatened disaster with adequate resources, but it is to be feared that no expenditure of time or money will be able to prevent the mowing down of many thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of our fellow-subjects in India. The population has increased so rapidly under the pacific rule of the Queen that there are millions, possibly scores of millions, in India, who are, so to speak, living below the high-water mark of periodic famines which constantly occur in that country. If there were fewer of them, they might live and thrive above high-water mark; as it is, the selvage of the population that is habitually underfed perishes whenever there is too little rain or too much. It may, of course, be argued that there would always be this margin of with the aid of a score of British officers and some thousands of trained native troops, is about to undertake in West Africa, is part of a great design which has been carefully matured for the last ten years. Sir Taubman Goldie is a remarkable man, who has set his mind upon exterminating the slave trade in a district inhabited by forty millions of persons. In the Upper Niger, which lies nominally in the territories of the Company, but over which they have hitherto exercised no direct authority, prevails the worst system of slave-trading in the world. It is from the valley of the Upper Niger that slaves are taken every year for export to all parts of northern Africa, to Constantinople, and to Arabia. Slaves indeed are the currency of the country; cowries are but as their pennies, for gold and silver coinage they use slaves. The value of a slave rises in proportion to the distance from his native village, hence the remoteness of the human mine that is worked by the Arab slave miners on the Niger. A slave from the Niger has no chance of getting back to the West Coast from Egypt or Africa. A Indeed, according to the interesting Much Needed calculation of Sir Taubman Goldie, a Demonetisa- slave never reaches his maximum value tion. until he is about one thousand miles away from his native land. Within fifty miles of his village a slave is not worth more than a fowl. At two or three hundred miles distance he is worth a sheep; but when you get him one thousand miles away he is worth half a horse, for the human currency appreciates according to the increase of the difficulty of his using his legs to run away. The object of the expedition now on foot in the Niger territories is to demonetise human beings as currency, and to introduce silver money in place of slaves. It would be rather odd if an expedition of the Niger Chartered Company should lead to an appreciation of the value of silver, which Mr. Bryan's candidature sought to effect and signally failed to accomplish. Not even the Niger Company ventures to abolish slavery or interfere with what may be called the circulation of human currency within areas over which it can prevent the debasement or general ill usage of these human coins of the realm. But slave-raiding is an institution which is bound up with the very existence of the States which owe allegiance to the Sultan of Sokoto. It is quite on the cards that there may be an alliance on the part of several of these tribes against the white man with his heretical notions about the demonetisation of human currency. If so, Sir Taubman Goldie will probably perish at the head of his men, and the Niger Company will go up the spout. If so, there will be no appeal made by the Niger Company to Downing Street to help it out of its difficulties; but in the interests of the Empire, which cannot allow the whole of the Niger Valley to pass under the tricolour, the British Government will be compelled to take over what would then be the wreck of the Niger Company's Protectorate. I hope, however, that fortune will smile upon brave Sir Taubman and his gallant men, and that an enterprise which ought to command the hearty sympathy of every humane man will be crowned with success. "Good Old Cecil." One very curious and significant fact is noted by Mr. Garrett. Cecil Rhodes, when Prime Minister, voted with the Protectionists, but so great is his popularity in Cape Town that at the vast meeting summoned to demand the repeal of these taxes, Cecil Rhodes's name was used as Mr. Gladstone's once was in England, as an infallible specific for evoking loud and prolonged cheering with cries of "Good old Cecil." Mr. Garrett quotes in the Cape Times the following extract from a letter received from a correspondent :— "We want a man of action, a leader in whom we have confidence; one who sympathises and has always sympathised with the people. . . . There is but one man-C. J. Rhodes. He never lived on the lifeblood of his fellow-creatures, nor pandered to anything which he ever thought would injure the people." Mr. Garrett adds :- Used in the sense and context in which this correspondent used them, these words are a signal example of the short memory and general state of muddle which prevail in our politics. It would be nearer the truth to say that in South Africa Cecil Rhodes has already achieved a position. which Oliver Cromwell has established in this country. It has often been noted as a most extraordinary fact that whenever a crisis arises in which the national feeling is deeply stirred, the cry is always raised," Would to God Oliver Cromwell were here! even although those who raise it are directly opposing all the principles which Cromwell held dear. EVENTS OF THE MONTH. Nov. 2. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Creighton appointed Royal Institute of British Architects opened by 3. Major William McKinley elected President of the United States. The Rev. the Hon. Edward Carr Glyn appointed Large purchases of arms ordered by the Sultan. Major Von Wissmann unanimously elected President of the Berlin Geographical Society. Serious Riots occurred in the Bombay Presidency. 9. Lord Salisbury discussed the Venezuelan situation at the Lord Mayor's Banquet. Sir H. H. Kitchener arrived in London. Mayors for Boroughs were elected throughout 25. England and Wales. 10. Reported Massacre of one hundred Armeniaus at Everek confirmed. The American Venezuelan Commission determined to make no decision touching affairs subject to its examination. The German Reichstag resume 1 its sittings. Commercial Treaty between Switzerland and Japau signed in Ferne. At the Guildhall, Cambridge, a resolution was passed to establish a Mission House in South London. 13. Publication of Mgr. Macaire's Report to the Pope of his mission to Abyssinia. 14. Deputation from the Society of Lord Huntly elected Rector of persons on relief." Basis of the settlement of the Motor vehicles, under the Motor- 15. International Ship, Dock, and Treaty of Peace signed on October 26th by Italy and Abyssinia reported at Rome. 25. 26. 27. 28. Public subscription to the New Spanish Internal Loan opened. 17. National Union of Conservative Associations met at Rochdale. London County Council discussed the accounts of the Works Department. Resolution touching increased grants for elementary schools passed by the National Education Emergency Committee. Mr. Ritchie received a deputation of Trades Unionists. The hearing of the appeal against the decision of the Mixed Tribunal at Cairo opened at Alexandria. THE REV. THE HON. E. CARR GLYN. 4. Mr. E. J. Poynter, Director of the National A Deputation from the National Sea Fisheries' 5. Relief for Voluntary Schools discussed by both 18. 19. School of Arts and Crafts opened in Rege: t Street by the London County Counci!. Marriage of the Duke of Orleans with the Archduchess Maria Dorothea of Austria took place in Vienna. 20. The Greek Chamber opened in Atheus. Ex-Queen Liliuokalani completely pardoned by the Hawaiian Government. Duelling discussed in the Reichstag. Sir M. W. Ridley received a deputation supporting resolutious passed by the September Trades Unions Congress. Mgr. Ormaniau elected Patriarch by the General Armenian Assembly. Publication in Constantinople of subscriptions towards military equipment. Ontario Law Society passed rules making women eligible to the Bar. Inauguration of the University of Paris. Fatal colliery accident at Recklinghausen, Westphalia. Debate in the Reichstag on duelling concluded. French torpedo boat sunk off Cape de la Chèvre. Ulster Convention League assembled at Belfast. Edward Ivory, alias Bell, committed for trial in connection with the alleged dynamite plot. Twentieth Annual Stanley Cycle Show opened at the Royal Agricultural Hall. Yao Chief Katuri, north of Mangoche, British Central Africa, reported captured by Lieut. Alston. 2,500 Hamburg and Altona dock labourers went out on strike. Nov. Several British officers sailed from Liverpool to join the Niger expedition. Motion to appoint Committee to inquire into Management of Works Department made in London County Council by Lord Onslow, Estimated that 7,000 men were on strike at Hamburg. Publication of a Roman Catholic Appeal on Education by Cardinal Vaughan and the Bishop of Westminster. Sick List in Havana exceeded 16,000 men. The Rt. Rev. Dr. Temple, Bishop of London, elected Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England. Deputation urging legislation for Technical and Secondary Education, waited on the Duke of Devonshire. General Medical Council resumed its Session in Coventry Patmore, poet, died at Lymington. President Crespo of Venezuela telegraphed his satisfaction with the Settlement effe.ted in Washington. Thanksgiving Day celebrated at Hotel Cecil by the American Society in London. Ambassadors presented a Note regarding Crete to the Sultan. Mr. Tom Mann arrested in Hamburg. Proclamation issue for the re-assembling of Parliament on January 19th. Resolutions approving of several University Endowments in Memory of Sir John Pender passed by the International Submarine Tele graph Committee. Many lives lost through a Storm in Greece. Sir Alexander Mackenzie laid the First Stone of the Drainage Extension Works in Calcutta. Publication of Lord Grey's Letter on Rhodesia The Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha presided at a Meeting of the Special Appeal Committee of the Charing Cross Hospital. Lord Savile died at Rufford Abbey. New Form of Electric Railway opeuel at Brighton. Mgr. Ormanian's election confirmed by the Sultan. Sir Joseph Lister presided at the Annual Meeting of the Royal Society at Burlington House. The Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants made demands on behalf of the Draymen and Carmen. Hamburg Strikers numbered 13,000 men. Privileged Cab System condemned by a Meeting of London Cab Drivers' Trade Union. BY-ELECTION. 10.-Bradford (East Division): Capt. the Hon. R. H. F. Greville (C) 4,921 Mr. A. Billson (L).. Mr. J. Keir Hardie (Ind. Lab.) 1895: 4,526 1.953 Majority (C) 395 3. Mr. Wolfe Barry, before the Institute of Civil Engineers, on Engineering Progress during the Present Reign. M. Hanotaux, in the French Chamber, on the Mr. John Dillon, at Toomebridge, on the Report Lord George Hamilton, at Stepney Green, on the Schools and Rate Aid. 4. Mr. Walter Long, at Wantage, on the Agricultural Rating Bill. Cardinal Vaughan, at the Hotel Cecil, on Commercial Education. 5. The Archbishop-Designate, the Bishops of York, Rochester, and Manchester, and others, in the Church House, on Further Relief for the Schools. 5. Prof. Herkomer, at Liverpoo!, on English Art. 6. John Morley, M.'., at Glasgow, oa Home Rule and British Foreign Policy. The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, at Belfast, Lord Selborne, at Edinburgh, on British Foreign 7. Mr. Cripps, QC., M.P., at Stroud, on the Education Question. Professor Courthope, at Oxford, on Poetical ALDERMAN GEORGE FAUDEL PHILLIPS. The New Lord Mayor of London. (Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company, Regent Street.) 8. Mr. Fre leric Harrison, at Newton Hall, Fetter Lane, on Great Britain and the Armenians. 9. Lord. Salisbury on the Policy of the Present Government, Lord Wolseley and Mr. Goschen on the Army and Navy, and Mr. Bayard on International Dependence, at the Guildhall Banquet. 10. Mr. John Morley, at Montrose, on Domestic Affairs and English Foreign Policy. Mr. Montefiore Brice, before the Royal Geographical Society, on the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition. Lord Spencer, at Gloucester, on the Government Sir Josbua Fitch, at Hampstead, on the E luca- Mr. Balfour, at Cambridge, on a "Cambridge 11. Mr. E. H. Lecky, M.l'., at Dublin, on President Kruger. Mr. John Morley, at Brechin, on the Government during the last Session. Mr. Asquith, at Oswaldtwistle, on American Lord Reay,,at Elinburgh, on Great Britain and Sir John Lubbock, at the Central Foundation Lord G. Hamilton, at Acton, on the Impending 12. Sir John Gorst, at the Constitutional Club, on the Education Question. Mr. G. Dixon, at Birmingham, on the Proposals of the recent Conference at the Church-house. Sir Joshua Fitch, at Skinners' Hall, on University Extension Work in London. 13. Sir M. Hicks-Beach, at Bristol, on Parliamentary Reform. Mr. Chamberlain, at Birmingham, on British 14. Sir M. Hicks-Beach, at Bristol, on Ail for Voluntary Schools. The Duke of Cambridge, at St. James's Hall, on Military Discipline. 16. Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, at Dunfermline, on British Public Opinion and Armenia. 16. Professor Crookes, at the Imperial Institute, on the Diamond Mines of Kimberley. 17. Mr. Arthur Balfour, at Roch lale, on the Posi- Lord George Hamilton, at Chiswick, on the 19. Mr. Arthur Balfour, at Sheffield, on British Manufactures; and at Edinburgh, on Athletics in Education. Lord Dudley, at Birmingham, on the Education Mr. G. W. Russell, at Manchester, on Armenia. 20. Mr. Bayard, at Burnley, on the Bonds of Union between Great Britain and the United States. Lord Cranborne, before the United Club, on the Education Question. 21. Lord Carrington, at Southport, on the Proceedings of the Welsh Laud Commission. 13. The Archbishop-Designate of Canterbury, at Bethnal Green, on Church Reforms. Dr. Creighton, Bishop-Designate of London, at Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman, at Sheffield, on the Lord Peel, at Leamington, on Progress in Lieutenant Vandeleur, in Burlington Gardens, on Exploratious in Uganda and Unyoro. J. W. Judd, C.B., F.R.S., at the Imperial Institute, ou Rubies in the British Empire. 21. Mr. Asquith, at Leicester, on the Liberal Programme. Lord Farrer, before the Cobden Club, on Mr. Sir E. Clarke, at Accrington, oa the Venezuelan 26. Lord Rosebery, at Edinburgh, on Parliamentary Oratory. Sir M. W. Ridley, at Perth, ou Domestic Sir John Gorst, at Oxford, on the Unemployed. 27. Mr. Walter Long, at Chippenham, on the Upward Tendency of Agriculture. President Kruger, at Pretoria, on the Indemnity 30. Mr. Ritchie, at Croydon, on the Armenian and Venezuelan Questions. Sir Joseph Lister, the American Ambassador, Lord Rayleigh and others at the Royal Society banquet at Hôtel Métropole. 6. Mgr. d'Hulst, 55. Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt. 7. Felix Delany. 8. Rev. Josiah Viney, 80. Rev. Wm. Drake, 83. The Very Rev. Alex. Orme, Dean of Ardagh, 83. 9. Dr. Emil Wilhelm Frommel, German Court Chaplain, 63. Professor Hugo Gylden, astronomer, 55. 11. W. S. Mackie, editor of the Leeds Mercury, 54. Brigade-Surgeon Valesius S. Gouldsbury, 59. 12. Surgeon-Major F. Foaker, 86. 13. Major-Gen. George Mein. Richard Bearis, painter, 72. 14. Roger Eykyn, 68. Admiral Sir G. H. Richards, 75. 15. John Noble, General Manager Midland Railway, 68. General Sir Robert O. Bright, 73. 16. General von Wyttenbach, defender of Palermo against Garibaldi, 85. Rev. William Gorer, F.G.S., 78. 17. Fredk. Hill, Ex-Assistant Secretary, P. O., 94. Sir Edmund G. Hornby, 71. COMMANDER LIONEL WELLS, R.N. Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. (Photograph by Hodge, Plymouth.) 26. M. Emmanuel Argo, French politician, 84. Miss Mathilde Blind, poet, novelist, critic, 49. 27. T. Ballan Stead, Secretary of the Foresters. Rev. John Morris, D.D., Principal of Brecon 28. Count Moltke Hvitfeldt, Danish Minister in Paris, Rev. Dr. Wm. Henderson, Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, 62. Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior ia 1870, 87. M. Bogoluboff, Russian Court Painter, 72. Monomohun Ghose, Calcutta lawyer, 52. M. Eugene Simon, ex-Consul to China. Major Frederick Carr S. Dyer, 59. Francis Alfred Skidmore, Founder of Ski imore's Art Manufactures Company, 80. Miss Mary A. Parry, Lady Hesident of Queen's College, 83. Colonel Edward Swatman Reynolds, 58. Heer Obreen, Chief Director Ryks Museum, Amsterdam. M. Noel Parfait, 82. Rev. John Ind-Smith, 82. Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D.D., 69. General Riva Palacio. Major G. K. Moore, at Hong Kong, 38. Marshal Nusret Pasha, Aide-de-Camp General to the Sultan. Rev. Dr. William W. Gill, New Sonth Wales, 68. |