The Bangkok Recorder.

A Weekly journal will be issued from the
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Association, at the mouth of the Canal,
"Klawng Bangkok Yai" It will contain such
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"Nigger Equality."

Eighty-nine years after the procla-
mation of the sublime creed of human
equality, which has been an inspira-
tion to humanity the wide world over,
our ears are pained and our souls made
sick here in our own America with the
brutal and vulgar outcry of "nigger
equality." Here in Christian and re-
publican America, every effort of pa-
triotism, liberty, justice, and huma-
nity to lift the burdens imposed upon
a poor race by centuries of slavery—-
every effort to instruct the intellect,
darkened by years of oppression—-is
stigmatized by the brutal and vulgar
demagogism of America as "nigger
equality." "Nigger equality!" When-
ever I hear a man, born in this land,
educated in these free schools, taught
in these Christian churches, instructed
in these varied industries, prate about
"nigger equality," I accept it as a
confession that he instinctively feels
that the negro is his superior, and de-
mands legislation, to make him his
inferior. "Nigger equality!" It is
the language of brutality and vulgari-
ty. No gentleman in America prates
about "nigger equality." The crea-
ture that is so base as to do so must be,
and is a vulgar fellow. He may live
in a fine house, he may dress in the
garb of a gentleman; but a noble or
manly sentiment never dwelt in his
bosom. I remember on one occasion,
when a senator was addressing the
Senate, and indulging in calling a
negro a nigger, that Mr. Seward turned
to me and said: "That man will
never be President; the people always
mean to elect a gentleman for Presi-
dent; and the man who spells negro
with two g's can never be President."
He is a vulgar fellow who raises an
outcry about "nigger equality," and he
is a poor, pitiable creature who fears
it. Under just, humane, and equal
laws, no man should look up to any
one as his superior, nor down to any
one as his inferior. The poorest man
in the land is entitled to equality be-
fore the law with the wealthiest citi-
zen of his country. His cabin may be
humble; but it is as sacred as the
palace of the rich man. His wife may
be clothed in rags; but she is shielded
by the same equal law that protects
the jeweled bride of the richest man
in all the land. His child may be a
little barefoot boy, but he is the peer
of the son of wealth and pride.
Away with the brutal, vulgar, wicked outcry
about "nigger equality." It was born
of the pit. Send it back to its native
depths. Remember those other words
that come to us from the heavens: "In-
asmuch as ye did it unto the least of
these, my brethren ye have done it
unto me.” Walk the earth with your
forehead to the skies, in the conscious
dignity of the equality of humanity—-
that you are men that God made and
for whom Christ died—-and that it
degrades not, but ennobles him who
lifts up the sons and daughters of toil,
misfortune, and sorrow, of all the
races and kindred of men.—-Henry
Wilson.

Cattle Disease.

I was happy to observe, in your is-
sue of the 26th of October, a notice
in the Farmers' Column of the cattle
plague, which is making such terrible
devastation amongst the herds in Eng-
land. It is important that our far-
mers should be fully apprised of the
terrible character of this contagious
disease, and be prepared to meet it in
a decided and summary manner, should
it unfortunately be brought to this
country. That it will be brought to
our shores, unless efficient measures
are taken to prevent it, is certain. This
disease, or plague-—rinderpest, or
Pleuro Pneumonia, as it is variously
termed—-has once been brought here,
and its ravages were only stayed by
the very energetic manner in which it
was disposed of by the Massachusetts
legislature. Three cows and one heif-
er arrived in Boston from Holland
on the 23d of May, 1859. Two of
these cows were sick when landed.
The first died in one week, the second
two days after. On the 23d of June
the third was found to be sick. She
was kept with some twenty or thirty
head of cattle. She died on the 29th
of June, and on that day three calves
were taken from Mr. Chenery's (the
importer) farm to North Brookfield.
The disease spread through the Che-
nery herd, and was propagated from
the calves sent to North Brookfield to
such an extent that a large number of
different herds were affected. The
prospect became so alarming in a short
time that a petition was sent to the
legislature for authority to take action
in the premises. Unaware of the fa-
tally contagious nature of the disease,
the legislature hesitated until thirty-
five days of precious time was lost;
but on the 4th of April, 1860, a com-
mission was appointed, with authority
to kill every animal that was sick or
had even been exposed to the conta-
gion. The commissioners entered at
once upon their work, and with the
utmost expedition executed the law to
its very letter. The result was that
in the whole 870 head of cattle were
killed and buried.

The disease was entirely extermi-
nated in North Brookfield and the
surrounding towns, and has never
made its appearance in that neigh-
borhood since. In Belmont, the suc-
cess of the commission was not so
complete. There was a greater oppo-
sition there to the operations of the
officers of the law, and less faith in
the contagious and dangerous charac-
ter of the disease; and, consequently,
less care in exposing well animals to
the insidious infection. The result
has been that the disease has reap-
peared several times in the region
around Boston; but has so far been
met at once by the most decisive ac-
tion on the part of the government,
and exterminated so far as it could be
discovered, so that at this moment we
are not aware that a trace of the di-
sease is known to exist.

In answer to that enquiry, made in
your article referred to, I would say
that all our experience leads us to one
conclusion, viz.: that the most prompt
and energetic measures should be
adopted for its extermination as soon
as a case is discovered. It is all idle
to tamper with'it at all. That has been
the fatal mistake in England. They
have tried to cure the disease, but with
no success. It is incurable. They have
talked of "Sanitariums," where cattle
might be treated. They have hesitated,
and delayed, and dreaded to act, until
the disease has got a terrible foothold,
and the loss of cattle must be immense.
Prevention is worth more than any
attempt to cure. In the first place, our
Congress should be applied to, as soon
as assembled, to enact a rigid quaran-
tine law, so that no foreign cattle
shall be introduced, until they have
passed a thorough probation on some
island in the harbor to which they are
brought. They should never be al-
lowed to land in any town or city.
Their very tracks and droppings may
be infectious, as experience has abun-
dantly proved, in this country and
Europe.

Considering what a terrible calamity
the introducing of the disease upon
our prairies would be, it is a matter
of grave question whether it would
not be better to interdict entirely the
importation of any cattle from abroad.
We have all the best breeds well esta-
blished in this country, and from them
we can propagate in purity and safty.

In the second place, each state should
enact a law which should authorize
the officers of every town or city in
which it appears to take immediate
measures for its extermination. And,
in the third place, all farmers should
be on the lookout for the disease, and
be especially cautious in regard to im-
ported animals.

And last in order, but perhaps first
in importance, the press should keep
the people well informed in regard to
the prevalence of the disease abroad,
or any indication of its presence in
this country.

The terrible extent and alarming
fatality of the disease in England may
be inferred from the fact that the
London Star has a column, more or
less, devoted in every day's issue to
its progress in that country, to the ac-
tion of different bodies in regard to it,
and the efforts made to prevent its ex-
tention. We observed that, in one
case, it is stated that, of 140 cows be-
longing to one nobleman, 120 had died.
It seems to be the most exciting topic
at present in Great Britain, as mani-
fested in its press universally, and I
trust the farmers of this country, es-
pecially those of the West, who are
most deeply interested, will not hesi-
tate to call loudly for some action on
the part of Congress in relation to the
subject.

William Ewart Gladstone.

Mr. Gladstone is unquestionably the
first practical man in England. In pre-
ciseness and originality, Thomas Car-
lyle and John Ruskin stand above him:
but if it is of genius wedded to action,
of magnificent power, engaged not in
thinking or in writing, but in working,
that we are in quest, the man who tow-
ers above all rivals is William Ewart
Gladstone. The liberals, all of them
who deserve the name, regard him as
their future leader, and anticipate the
day when he will be Prime Minister
of England. So late as 1845 Sir Ro-
bert Peel was still the great protection-
ist minister, and Gladstone, honored,
esteemed, promoted by Peel, was his
right-hand man in the House. But
the fallacy of the protectionist theory
dawned upon Gladstone before it be-
came apparent to the mind of his lead-
er. The logic of Cobden was irresis-
tible to this hope of the unbending
tories. To their infinite disgust he de-
clared for free trade, and resigned his
place in the cabinet of Peel. But Sir
Robert himself soon yielded to the
force of reason and to the terrible de-
monstration of the Irish famine. His
declaration for free trade brought
Gladstone again to his side, and until
the death of Peel there was not one
of his lieutenants in whom he reposed
confidence so implicit as in Gladstone.
The tories were too stupid or too sel-
fish to follow their leader in his new
policy of free trade, and the old con-
servative party was broken up.

In the coalition cabinet of Lord A-
berdeen, which began the Russian
war, Mr. Gladstone once more took
office as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
It speedily became evident that he
had found his place, and, since the day
when he first presided over the fin-
ances of Great Britain, no other fi-
nancial minister has had a chance a-
gainst him.

Installed in the office of Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and with scope given
him by the appreciating though not
sympathetic Palmerston, Gladstone
has been engaged for a series of years
in undoing that antiquated legislation
by which the commercial and manu-
facturing energies of Great Britain had
been hedged round and bound up.
Year after year he has remitted taxes
tion, but year after year he has shown
a larger surplus. City men, the cold
hearts and calculating heads of the
Stock Exchange, were afraid of him.
They called him speculative, reckless,
fanciful, visionary. City men, as John
Bright says, are always wrong, because
they can conceive no higher motive
than selfishness, have no faith in man,
and think that generosity must issue
in loss. * *

Those who look well into the char-
acter and have accurately studied the
career of Gladstone, deem it possible
that he may yet appear as a reformer
in connection with nobler tasks than
any which have hitherto engaged him.
The province of spiritual reform still
lies before him. The universities of
England, instead of being open on
equal and honorable terms to the
whole people, are tied to the skirts of
the Anglican ecclesiastical establish-
ment. The Church of England—all
that is vital in it—groans under the
bondage of the State. To an intellect
like Gladstone's it seems impossible
that it should not become plain that
the day has arrived in England when
all Churches ought to be free from
state control,' and when no Church
ought to receive state endowment;
when parliaments and governments
ought to see in the subjects of Queen
Victoria, not Churchmen and dissent-
ers, but Britons; and when university
education ought to be trammelled by
no sectarianism, monopolized by no
class. Representing Oxford in the
House of Commons—Oxford, the seat
from time immemorial of classical
pedantry and political obstruction—
and surrounded by timorous, luke-
warm liberals, Gladstone has as yet
been compelled to maintain a certain
reticence respecting the Church and
the university. But he has said enough
to make the old tories fear and young
liberals hope. It is my clear convic-
tion, besides, that the questionable or
equivocal utterances of Mr. Gladstone
on the subject of the American war
have been indications rather of the
necessities, the unavoidable influences,
of his position, than the expression of
his profoundest convictions. I be-
lieve that, in his heart of hearts, he is
rejoicingly proud to behold the brow
of the great democracy rising grandly
over the obscuring clouds of slavery
and rebellion.

Opulence of intellectual, emotional,
spiritual power—that is the idea to
which one always returns in contemp-
lating Gladstone. He is an athlete of
the intellect, a Hercules to whom the
labors of thought are as play His
political toils have been sufficient to
tax an ordinary or even an extraor-lin-
ary man; but he is a distinguished
classical scholar, has a fine taste in
sculpture, and is a connoisseur in pot-
tery. His speeches are a tissue of facts
and figures, the multitude of them a-
mazing; but they are always arrayed
in order so admirable, and arrayed in
eloquence so glowing, copious, and
splendid, that they are as armies par-
aded on a field of cloth of gold. When
Lords Palmerston and Russell leave
the stage, William Ewart Gladstone
will be the man of men in England.—
Watchman and Reflector

Ages of Modern Statesmen.

The following are the ages of some
of the most celebrated public men of
this country at the present time: Pre-
sident Johnson, 57; Secretary Seward,
64; Chief Justice Chase, 57; Ex Sec-
retary Cameron, 66; Ex-President Bu-
chanan, 73; Ex-President Pierce, 60;
rebel Secretary Breckinridge, 39; Sen-
ator Sumner, 54; Senator Wade, 63;
Senator Wilson, 54; General Banks,
49; Senator Fessenden, 59; Speaker
Colfax, 42; H. Winter Davis, 48;
Senator Sprague, 35; Thad. Stevens,
72; Reverdy Johnson, 69; Secretary
Harlan, 45; Minister Adams, 48;
Clement L. Vallandigham, 44; Fernan-
do Wood, 53; Senator Morgan, 54;
Senator Foster, 59; Jeff. Davis, 57;
John H. Slidell, 72; John M. Mason,
57; Henry A. Wise, 59; Robert
Toombs, 55; Alex. H. Stephens, 53;
John A. Letcher, 54; Herschel V.
Johnson, 53; Porcher Miles, 43; John
A. Gilmer, 60; Wm. A. Graham, 65.
Mr. Lincoln died at the age of 56 and
Mr. Douglas at the age of 48.

The average age of European state-
men will be found to be much greater.
Lord Palmerston is 81; Earl Russell,
73; the Lord High Chancellor of Eng-
land, 65; Mr. Gladstone, 56; Lord
Derby, 66; Mr. Disraeli, 66; Mr. Mil-
ner Gibson, 58; Lord Clarence Paget,
54. Richard Cobden died at the age
of 61; the Duke de Morney at the age
of 53. The Emperor Napoleon is 57,
and the Emperor of Russia and King
Victor Emmanuel each 47.

How General Jackson kept
Sunday.

General Jackson went down to New
Orleans upon an occasion, and met, of
course, with an enthusiastic reception
from his old friends and comrades in
arms.—The latter appointed a com-
mittee to make arrangements for a vis-
it to the "battle ground," about seven
miles below the city. Without con-
salting the General, or thinking parti-
cularly about the day of the week, they
appointed Sunday as the time for the
visit. The day came clear and beauti-
ful. After breakfast they notified him
that everything was in readiness for
the contemplated visit to the scene of
his conflict, his triumph, and his glory.
-—He informed the gentlemen who had
notified him, and in a very quiet way,
that, as it was Sunday, he wished to
attend church, instead of visiting the
battle ground that day. The gentlemen
of the committee were duly informed
of this, and a consultation was had. As
all the arrangements had been made
for that day, and everything ready,
they concluded to wait upon the Gen-
eral in a body and tell him of the cir-
cumstances, and hint that it would look
strange and sound odd, if not Puritan-
ic, for him to refuse compliance with
their wishes. This was done. The
General listened to what they had to
say, and then, turning his keen black
eyes upon them, which sparkled again
with a little of their old fire, he replied
with quiet dignity : "Gentlemen, this
is Sunday, and I have already informed
you that I am going to church." The
committee subsided, rather pleased
than otherwise with the response of
the old hero. "What fools we were,"
some one said as the committee retired,
"to try to change the determination of
Old Hickory after he had once made
up his mind."—Louisville Journal.

NEGRO VOTERS.—At present, negroes
are allowed to vote in only six states,
viz: Maine, New Hampshire, subject
to the same condition as white men;
in Massachusetts they must be able to
read and write; in Rhode Island they
must be worth $130 in real estate; in
New York they must be worth $250
over all incumbrances; in Kansas and
under the radical constitution of Mis-
souri, they are allowed to vote.

MATRIMONY versus SINGLE BLES-
SEDNESS.—Matrimony is hot buck-
wheat cakes, warm beds, comfortable
slippers, smoking coffee, round arms,
real life, kind words, shirts exulting
in buttons, redeemed stockings, foot
jacks, happiness, etc. Hurrah!

Snug bedrooms, washouts, iron-built
blue noses, frosty rooms, ice in the
kitchen, ungenerous linen, holey
socks, coffee sweetened with brick[?]-
gutta-percha biscuits, flabby steak,
dull ears, corns, coughs, cotton, thin
hair, misery, etc. Ugh.

Odds and ends.

—Human existence hinges upon
trifles. What would beauty be with
out somp?

—A philosophical cabman in Mo-
bile this speaks of the section over
which his wheels make their tracks-–
'if you run over a youngster down
here in this here warf,' said he, 'the
folks don't say nothin'—-'kase they've
got more children than wittles for 'em
but you just run over a goat or a pig,
and blest if a mob ain't arter you in
two minutes!'

—Prentice says: "The work of
grafting pardons at Washington pro-
ceeds steadily but slowly. We cannot
help thinking of the idea of Dr. Frank-
lin, who, when a boy, got weary of
standing up and listening to grace
every meal, and respectfully asked his
respected father whether it would not
do just as well to say grace over the
whole pork barrel at once."

—To teach early, is too engrave on
marble; to teach late, to write [it?] in
sand.

Bangkok Recorder.

In resuming our reply to our royal
antagonist we hope not to weary our
readers again by another four columned
editorial at any single sitting. As we
have to do now only with the latter
part of his objections as published in
“The Recorder” of the 18th ulto, we
think we can make tolerably quick
work of them; but there is no saying
for certainty how great a flood a little
breaking of the dam may produce.

The Goliath who confronts us seems
to regard it as a crushing objection to
the authenticity of the Bible that the
preachers of its doctrines are not able
to show any of the miraculous power
which the Bible claims to have been
exercised by the Lord Jesus and His
apostles, and that believers of the gos-
pel of Christ from that time to this
have had no power to save any of their
dear friends from death or even from
any of the common diseases and conse-
quent sorrows of life. Had the fol-
lowers of Christ but shown during these
1800 years of the Christian era some
such power, even though it were only
exerted over but two or three of the
great calamities to which man is heir
“would not,” he enquires, “the whole
world by this time have entered the
christian religion”? Such as we under-
stand it, is the spirit of his objection.

Most certainly he is far out of the
way in supposing, that in order to prove
the authenticity of a book, and sub-
stantiate the record it gives, the same ev-
idences which established its authentici-
ty at the first must be reiterated and reim-
pressed upon the book and on its teach-
ers year by year. When and where in all
the world’s history has ever before such a
demand been made? Did ever any of the
great and learned men of the Eastern or
Western world require that any history
of individuals or nations should be
substantiated by miraculous power,
much less that such power should ever
attend all who believe in it? Does the
king of Siam ever deny the authenti-
city of the Buddhist Scriptures be-
cause the present race of “ignorant”
Priests have no power to work such
wonders as those sacred books affirm that
Buddh and his immediate followers
wrought?

We are persuaded that the king,
of Siam, even with all his love of the
marvellous in the Buddhist religion,
conjoined with the great amount of in-
telligence he possesses, can have no con-
fidence in the records of the more-
modern Buddhist miracles like those
which are said to have been wrought
by Nai Pan at Paris in the middle of
the 17th century. We know positively
that many of the most learned and
staunch Buddhists in Siam are ashamed
of that record. And why? Because
they know that there is not a word of
proof to be found of it among all the
records of the French. Now if our
antagonist persist in rejecting the Bible
and hence the christian religion be-
cause its modern teachers possess not
the power of miracles, then to be con-
sistent, he should reject the Buddhist
scriptures and the Buddhist religion
as unworthy of confidence. Ought
he not then to concede that this, ano-
ther of his strong batteries against the
Bible, has been silenced simply by our
little blunderbuss of common sense?

Here we might safely drop the argu-
ment. But we fancy that our advocate of
Buddhism will turn upon us and say,
that though Buddhism has not been
substantiated by miracles since the
time of Buddh, yet it is as strong in
that regard as christianity. By no
means would be our reply. We defy
any friend of Buddhism to produce a
word of authentic history showing that
Buddh and his immediate followers
ever wrought any miracles. There is
not a word of profane, collateral, or
concurrent history of the time when
Buddh lived—about 2500 years since,
that makes the least credible allusion
to any miraculous powers which it is
supposed he possessed. If he did in-
deed live in Bengal, or Ceylon, or any
where in that region of the world, a
contemporary of Daniel the prophet,
how is it that no proof of the wonders
he wrought can be found in other
histories outside of the Buddhist Scrip-
tures?

But with regard to the history
of Christ and his apostles as given in
the New Testament there is a great
amount of concurrent and collateral
testimony outside of church history,
wholly independent of the Bible, show-
ing beyond all reasonable doubt that
the record is indeed and in truth a
statement of facts. And much of this
outside evidence comes not only from
those who neglected Christ, but from
such as positively hated him. Their
words and their writings have been
over-ruled by the Most High, wholly
without their intention, for substanti-
ating the christian religion which they
aimed to destroy. A great mass of
such concurrent testimony to the truth-
fulness of the New Testament could
we cite, but our time and space will
not now admit of it. Should it however,
be demanded, we will hold ourselves
ready to give it.

A grand design of the God of the
Bible was to make a book replete with
all that was needed to render it worthy
of the implicit confidence of mankind
as coming from the Most High, and
intended by Him for man's only infa-
llible guide to the knowledge and faith
of Him as his maker, preserver, and
redeemer. To this end God, in the
plenitude of His mercy, determined
to set upon it the seal of miracles, His
own peculiar seal, which no man or
devil could counterfeit or break. For
the accomplishment of this object, it
was necessary, that miraculous power
should be given occasionally to the
persons whom He honored as His ser-
vants in preparing the Book for the
great mission He had appointed for it.
Having thus stamped every leaf of the
Bible with this divine signet as no
other book had ever or will ever be
honored, God sent it forth on its mis-
sion as being a complete instrument
under the divine Spirit for "making
men wise unto salvation." It would
seem that in the divine mind there was
no more need after that, that He should
grant signs and wonders and miracul-
ous power to His followers, for the
Bible had been completed, and made
the most ancient and authentic book
of history—-a perfect book of faith
and practice-—a complete directory to
a lost world for finding the true God
and eternal life. Hence it would seem
reasonable to conclude a priori that
not only the gift of miracles but also
that of prophecy would be withheld
from the teachers of Christianity about
the time of the completion of the Bi-
ble; and such appears to have been
the fact. And how suitable and wise
and good does it appear in the divine
author of the Bible that it should be
so? Who can have any good reason
for complaining because God has thus
shut up the world and the church to
the Bible as it is, and to the teaching
of His Holy Spirit by it? Having a
perfect chart of the seas to all parts of
the world what do Siamese mariners
now need more in navigating them
than good teachers of navigation and
a careful and diligent attention to
their charts. Abundant proofs of their
correctness will appear in following
them. In like manner, having a com-
plete Bible, a book of divine make,
impressed from beginning to end with
the most extraordinary seals of divi-
nity, and with the Almighty and all
wise Spirit ever attending it, and ever
ready to teach most effectually all who
ask Him for teaching, what need we
now of more signs and wonders than
the Bible gives us? Divine wisdom
speaks to the world now as it did to the
rich man in his agony, "If they hear
not Moses and the prophets neither
will they be persuaded through one
rose from the dead."

Our champion is quite mistaken in
supposing that men would be conver-
ted to Christ by the power of mirac-
les. Miracles have never had such an
influence. In Old Testament times
they never converted a single heathen
to the love and service of Jehovah.
Those miracles performed by Moses
in Egypt never converted one of her
rulers or even a common person from
idolatry. Not one of the hundreds who
gave their hearts to Jesus and follow-
ed Him in the days of His personal
ministry, nor one of the 3000 con-
verted to Christ on the day of Penta-
cost were made willing to follow Him
by the power of the miracles which
they saw Him and the apostles per-
form. But it was alone by the effectual
teaching of the Almighty Spirit of God,
through the preaching of the truths
of the Bible that the hearts of men
were then drawn unto Jesus; and
such is the power which it pleases
God now to employ as his own chosen
and unchangeable plan for converting
the world. Had the Lord Jesus been
personally present with all the preach-
ers of the gospel from the beginning
until now, and had given them all the
power of miracles that he gave to the
apostles, there is no good reason to
think that His gospel would have
made greater aggressions upon heath-
enism than it has done. For as in
Paul's time "it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe" so has it ever since, and
so doubtless it ever will be. "The gos-
pel of Christ", not miracles, "is the
power of God unto salvation unto
every one that believeth"—that is unto
every one who credits the Bible as be-
ing indeed and in truth the infallible
word of God and acts consistently with
such credence.

The triple foundations of modern
Buddhism to which our antagonist has
called our attention, and the extraor-
dinary attainments he thinks he has
made in the science of Astronomy
under the benign influences of the
religion of all the sovereigns of Siam,
demands special notice in some future
issue.

The Sokan.

In the reign of P'râbât Sómdêtch
P'ra Pooti-yâwtfa Choola-loke, Sóm-
dêtch P'ra-chow p'eenang the young-
er of his elder sisters gave birth to
three sons. The first was born in the
year of the cock, 3d of the decade,
civil era 1163—-Christian era 1801,
and became a Chôwfa following his
mother, but he died in that same year.
The 2d son was born in the year of
the rat, 6th of the decade, civil era 1166,
Christian era 1804. The 3d son was
born in the year of the great dragon,
10th of the decade, civil era 1170
—-Christian era 1808. Both of these
royal sons became Chôwfas following
their royal mother. The 2nd king of
that reign deceased in the year of the
hog, the 5th of the decade, civil era
1165—Christian era 1803. In the
year of the rabbit, 9th of the decade
civil era 1167, the king was pleased
to promote Sómdêtch P'ráchôw lǒǒk
t'o the elder, to the honor and power
of 2nd king. The two sons of this
2nd king, one of them bora be-
fore his father was promoted to the
throne of the Wangna, and the other
after his promotion, were both titled
Sómdêtch P'ráchôwlan t'õ Chôwfa.

P'râbât Sómdêtch P'ra-pôôti-yâwt-
fa Choolaloke had a daughter whose
mother was a child of the Rajáh of
Weang Chân. (a Laos king). This
daughter the king promoted only to
the rank of P'râong-Chôw, being the
same in rank as his sons, and royal
daughters by P'râsânôms (inferior
wives). The mother of that royal
daughter died in the year of the hog,
5th of the decade. When the 2nd king
died she was five years of age a moth-
erless orphan, and hence the king felt
a great tenderness for the child. One
year after this, this little princess follow-
ed her royal sire down to the landing to
see the Lawe k'Atôngs (fireworks on
the River) While running and sporting
on the brink of the water, she fell in,
and was for a little time lost. All pre-
sent were in a great state of alarm and
excitement, seeking for the child. It
was but a few minutes, however, when
she was found grasping the stalk of
a plantain tree, and hence had not
sunk into the water. They who found
her very carefully conducted her back
to her royal father. For this reason
the king had still more compassion for
the child, and issued a royal proclam-
ation, saying, that the mother of this
princess is a Laosian princess, and
a blood relative of the present Rá-
jáh of Weang Chân. It is therefore
suitable that she should be promoted
to the honor of Sómdêtch P'ráchôw lǒǒk
t'o Chôwfa. There has been no festi-
val for a Chôwfa Sókân since the be-
ginning of this reign. When this
Princess shall attain to the suitable
age for receiving such honors, it shall
be my pleasure to bestow them upon
her, and thus transmit the custom on-
ward in the future. Having thus de-
clared his will, the king then gave her
the name engraved on a gold plate or
sheet—-Sómdêtch P'ráchôw lǒǒk t'o
Chôwfa-kôôn-t'ôn-t'ip-wâdee. That
Princess Chôwfa, when she reached
the eleventh year of her age in the
year of the great dragon, civil era 1170,
Christian era 1808, had attained to the
proper time for receiving the honors
of the Sókân. At that time Princess
Chôwfa P'int'awâdee, who had had the
care and honor of handing the royal
Sókân custom down to the succeeding
generation, had been dead seven years.
Nevertheless there was remaining a
complete copy of the ceremonies of
the original Sókân, which Princess
Chôwfa P'int'awâdee had committed
to writing, and there were also many
persons then living who had been well
versed in all that concerned the festi-
val, and remembered accurately all a-
bout it, and had been eye witnesses
of the Sókân ceremonies on three sev-
eral instances in the palace of the 2nd
king. These persons were therefore
appointed to prepare for the forth-
coming Sókân, by the royal command
that it should be of the highest grade
according to the pattern, not wanting
in the least. The preparations were
made in the P’râmaḣâprasât being sim-
ilar to the royal festival on New year’s
holidays. There was the artificial
mount called Krielât and all the Râchâ-
wâts, the golden and silvered five and
seven storied châts or standards stand-
ing on either side of the way of the
procession, together with all kinds of
accompanying plays of the highest
order. There were persons who car-
ried peacock’s feathers before the
Princess, women carrying all her in-
signia of royalty. In the rear, were
women of the bath, a procession clothed
in white escorting the Princess to hear
preaching by the Buddhist priests,
and prayers and incantations on three
successive days. On the morning of
the fourth day there was a grand pro-
cession to the place of hair cutting,
and then the Prince ascended the
mount Krielât and being there arrayed
in royal habiliments, was escorted
down the mount and carried in
great state encircling the mount three
times, and then returned into the palace
before noon. In the p. m. of the same
day, there was another grand proces-
sion, all being clothed in red and
scarlet. Sundry festivities were con-
tinned on the 5th and the 6th days.
On the 7th day there was a procession
for bearing the P’râ kaââ (sacred hair)
of the Prince down to the river and
floating it away. This festival of Sô-
kân for Chôwfa Kôön-t’ôn-tip-yâwâ-
dee was held in the 4th month of the
year of the great dragon, the 10th of
the decade, civil era 1170—Christian
era 1809.

Six months after that, P’râbât Sôm-
detch P’râ P’ôöt’i-yâwt’a Chôôlalôke
deceased. His son P’râ Chôw lûûk t’ô
the 2nd king acceded to the throne.
That was the 2nd reign of the present
dynasty. The two Chôwfas sons of
the king became Sômde[?] P’râ-
chow lûûk t’ô. The king, titled P’râ-
bât Sômde[?] P’râ p’ôôt’i-lôt-lâ-nâp’a-
lie, held a royal counsel of all his offic-
ers and nobles concerning the Sókân
festival, saying that the festival had in-
deed been recently observed to confer
the honors of a Chôwfa and would be
a pattern for the future. But there
was no ceremony for bathing and for
conferring the name Chôwfa in full
accord with olden times when the old
city of Ayuthia was the capital. The
elders among the people who witnes-
sed the ceremony as of old, are now
aged and are quickly to pass away.
The old custom will hence be lost. I
desire to have the ceremony performed
complete, that it may be for honor
and glory and a pattern for the time
to come. The great counsel were un-
animously in favor of the royal pro-
position. Accordingly in the year of
the cock, the 5th of the decade, civil
era 1175—-Christian era 1813, there
was an extraordinary Sókân festival
complete with the bathing rites for
Somdetch P’râ Chôw lûûk t’ô, Chôw
the elder. There was made a great
raft of bamboos at the royal landing.
A place was made for the bathing in the
centre of the float. The whole was
enclosed with a fence of bamboo ban-
nisters and railing. Within this was a
wicker-work fence of bamboos, and
within this still another for the proces-
sion, and still further in, was a screen
made of white cloth. There were two
flights of steps up the mount one on
either side, one of silver and one of gold.
There was also another flight lined and
carpeted with long, white cloth and
was called bundy kââo, or precious
steps. In the bathing pool were golden
cocoanuts and gold and silver prawns.
These were floating in all parts of the
pool. Within that enclosure on the
great raft were ranged all the gold
and silver standards of royalty, in three
circles about the premises. Over all
there was stationed the royal guard
with armed boats surrounding the Sô-
kan raft, which was to serve in the
place of the mount Krei lat.

Other things besides those already
mentioned were chiefly displayed in
the P’râmaḣâ-prasât, with a proces-
sions by the streets, and theatrical
performances precisely like the origi-
nal Sokan. There was a procession
all dressed in white escorting the prince
to hear preaching by the Buddhist
priests in the P’râmaḣâ-prasât on
three successive days. On the 4th day
there was a procession to escort the
prince to the royal landing to bathe in
the place prepared, on the royal raft
representing mount Krei-lat.

After the ceremonies of the bathing
were over, the prince was escorted back
into the Pràmahá-prà-ât who re-
ceived his title engraved on a gold
plate which was, Somdetch Prá-
chôw-lôôkt'ô Chôwfa Mongkut sóm-
má-ti-wongs p'ongs itaswárá krá-
atriyá kátíyá rachá kooman. In the
afternoon of the same day the prince
was paraded in a royal procession all
dressed in red and scarlet, himself clad
in the highest state to a royal throne
called Amarin-tara-winít-chí, where
he passed through the T'ám-quan
ceremonies, (that is forms for enduing
the child with fortitude,) at which time
magnificent presents were made to the
prince. On the two following days
there were a variety of performances
which put a complete finish upon that
festival occasion.

Having closed the ceremonies, the
king made a speech in which he said,
this royal custom of Sokán shall be
performed only once on the Chowfa,
which will be sufficient to transmit it
down to the coming generation, so that
this ancient festival shall not be lost,
because it is a custom indispensable
for all the Chowfa princes. There is
no necessity that it should ever be re-
peated on the same person, as the com-
mon people sometimes repeat the com-
mon ceremony for the top-knot cutting
on their children. They do it because
they feel in haste to come into
possession of the money which they
receive in presents for their children at
such times. For this reason they will
sometimes have the ceremony of T'am-
quan performed before they have the
top-knot cut, making two distinct sea-
sons of it. But in regard to the kings
of Siam, they have no occasion to be
in haste to get such presents, and
hence the whole of the ceremony is
grouped together in one. It is a cus-
tom for which there is a stern neces-
sity that it should be preserved.

In the year of the rat, the 8th of
the decade, civil era 1178 in the month
of March, christian era 1817 there was
another Chowfa Sokán for Somdetch
P'rá-chôw-lôôk-t'ô Chowfa Mongkut
(the present king of Siam) an extra-
ordinary festival equal in splendor
to the one which had been given
for Chowfa-koon-t'on-t'ip'syáwadee.
Four years following that there was
another Chôwfa Sôkán of equal dig-
nity given to Somdetch P'ra-chôw-
lôôk t'ô Chowfa Itaswáráte. (the late
2nd king.) It was held in the year
of the great dragon, the 8th of the
decade, civil era 1182 in the month of
March, christian era 1821.

We clip the following from the GA-
LIGNANI'S MESSENGER, Paris, Nov. 1st 1865.
It shows clearly enough how all sensible
European observers must regard the
extraordinary conduct to which allusion is
made: ED.

A circumstance of a most extraor-
dinary character in connection with
the relations existing between the
French Consul at Bangkok-—the Siam-
ese capital—-and the KING OF SIAM
will be found narrated in another
column. Space unfortunately is not
at our command sufficient to give the
full details as they appear in the re-
spectable English Journal published
at Bangkok itself, enough will appear
in our epitome to show that the con-
duct of the French Consul has been
apparently grossly reprehensible, and
certainly very far removed from that
far-famed politesse which has hitherto
been the pride and the characteristic
of French diplomacy. We cannot
doubt that the Imperial Government
will both disavow the acts, and repri-
mand the behaviour of its official, as
soon as the matter comes fully and
officially under its notice.

Local Items.

The Dutch Barque Sophia Amalia
which arrived in port on the 1st inst.,
from Hong Kong reports that she ran
into a Chinese Junk off the Lema
Islands—that five of the crew were
drowned and the rest, 17 in number,
were saved.

The Siamese Steamer Chow Phya
Captain Orton left this on Friday
morning the 2nd inst, and sailed from
the bar at 9 o'clock P. M. of the same
day. She had for passengers Messrs
Vergin Blythe, and Maclean.

The weather

The month was ushered in by re-
markably warm days for the season,
the wind having shifted from the N.
and N. E. to the South, which point of
the compass it is held until it brought
us, on the early morning of the 4th, a
powerful rain of 7 hours. Early in the
evening of the same day it commenced
raining again, and continued till late
in the morning of the 5th. It is a rare
occurrence even in the wet season to
witness half as many hours of contin-
ued rain. It was withal a wonderfully
cold rain, the wind being northerly.

The rain had doubtless come from the
South in an upper current of clouds and
was driven back upon us by the North
wind in an under current. A very un-
common amount of water fell for the
season, and it is reported that large
quantities of rice at the North, lying in
scattered bundels in the fields, has been
destroyed by it. Yet there is little
fear that this will seriously effect the
market as the general crop is so abund-
ant.

The farmers had made no calculation
for such a powerful rain. They had, it
is true, always expected one or two gen-
eral showers about the middle of Jan.
and Febr.: but never any so drenching
and prolonged as to injure much, any
rice that might still be in the field.
Indeed in the usual course of the sea-
sons the rice is all gathered and thresh-
ed by the middle of January. But
the last crop was very remarkable for
being too late by at least a month.
Consequently the harvesting of it was
equally behind the usual time. The
showers of rain which fell in January
were so light as scarcely to wet the
earth to the depth of an eighth of an
inch. Hence the reaped rice in great
quantities, then scattered over the fields
were not at all injured by it. But the
Febr. rain was not only uncommonly
drenching, but also came ten days sooner
than is usual, and found the farmers in
some quarters quite unprepared for it
as above stated.

We have been informed by very
reliable natives, that there seems to be
in this change of the seasons an essay
of nature to return to the good old
fashion times, a score of years ago or
more, when the February rains came
earlier than of late years and more
abundant, and when the threshing of
rice was all over. Hence those rains
were denominated fon eh'a-lan—liter-
ally rain for soaking threshing floors.
Such drenching rains were then re-
garded as the joyful harbingers of a
forth coming bountiful harvest. We
are quite glad to perceive that the peo-
ple, so far from being alarmed by the
great amount and unseasonableness of
this rain, regard it, as their fathers did
similar rains, with lively hope of " a
good time coming." The reader will
not fail to remember, that threshing
floors in Siam, as in Old Testament
times, are in the open fields, and on
the bare earth."

There are now in Bangkok three
Steam mills for hulling rice, running
night and day. The first in order
of establishment is the Am. Steam
Mill under the management of F.
Blake,—-M. Gurvey Superintendent.
The second is the Bangkok Rice Mill
Company under the management of
A. M. Odman. The third is A. Mark-
wald & Co's Steam Rice Mill, Super-
intended by P. Littlejohn.

The 1st is said to turn out 1000
piculs daily. The 2nd, 1600 or more,
and the 3d, 900. We have examined
the quality of their work and are
pleased to see that they are about
equally good, and all far better than
the natives hull their rice by their
hand-mills. The native mode breaks
the kernel very much, the European
mode but little.

If we have been correctly informed,
neither of the Steam Mills attempt to
polish any rice, as that renders the
grain much more liable to be injured
by shipment.

We are also pleased to learn that
the house of Scott & Co. are now
engaged in erecting a 4th Steam Mill.
But by an accident which occurred to
some of the machinery a few days
since, the work will be delayed, it is
said, several months.

During the past week an English
Gunboat has visited Bangkok.

H. M. S. Coquette, which left on
Tuesday morning last, arrived here on
the 31st of January bringing up Thomas
George Knox Esq. H. B. M. Consul
from Singapore. During her stay here
the Captain and officers accompanied
H. B. M. Consul to a private audience
with H. M. the Supreme King to pay
that respect and sympathy which His
Majesty’s sad bereavement entitles
him to receive.

His Majesty, so we have been in-
formed, was willing to grant a public
audience if such had been desired;
but it was felt that such a proceeding
would have caused both trouble and
inconvenience to the King, which in his
present afflicted state it would not have
been proper to subject him. On a
subsequent day the Captain and officers
were admitted to view the urn which
now contains the remains of His
deceased Majesty the Second King.

On Monday evening last a Ball was
given at H. B. M. Consulate.

The officers of H. M. S. Coquette
were present and a great proportion of
the Foreign community. The Ball
room had been very tastefully deco-
rated; and His Excellency the Prime
Minister’s Band, which had been very
kindly lent for the occasion, played
throughout the evening.

Prices Current.

America.

Perhaps the news of most interest
from New York is that relating to the
attitude of the Government towards
Mexico, in connection with which
General Grant is receiving much popu-
lar attention. He has visited the Union
League Club in New York, when, in
reply to a speech of Mr. Beckman
expressing sympathy for Mexico and
a firm belief in her coming deliverance,
the General said that the speaker's
remarks concerning the future of Mex-
ico expressed his own sentiments. The
President, on the 14th ult, appointed
General John A. Logan Minister, and
William A. Browning, Esq., Secretary
of Legation, to the "Republic of
Mexico." Colonel Browning has been
the private secretary of President
Johnson, and is now succeeded by
Colonel Robert Johnson, a son of the
President, in that office. it is authori-
tatively announced that the Federal
Government, in order to preserve
neutrality in the Mexican war, will
allow no armed parties to pass the
Federal frontier, nor permit munitions
of war to be sent to either belligerent.

The South Carolina Legislature has
adopted the Constitutional amend-
ment abolishing slavery, thus securing
the adhesion of the necessary number
of States to make the amendment form
part of the Federal Constitution.

Mr. Worth, the popular candidate,
has been elected Governor of North
Carolina by a large majority.

The Fenians have rented a long
house in Union-square, New York,
which has been fitted up for Govern-
ment offices.

The States of Wisconsin and Min-
nesota have voted against negro suff-
rage.

The sales of Government property
in Louisiana has been suspended; and
according to a New Orleans journal,
some troops had been ordered to the
Rio Grande.

General Kilpatrick has been ap-
pointed Minister to Chili. Before
going to his post he will visit Spain
on an official mission.

The general Conference of the Mor-
mon community commenced in Great
Salt Lake City on the 6th of October,
and concluded on the 9th. The meet-
ings were larger than have been seen
for years.

"OLD BUMBLEBEE," was the cogno-
men of Mr. T., or Newburyport, who
gained the title from the fact of his
catching a bumblebee one day, as he
was shingling his barn; and in attempt-
ing to destroy the insect with his hatch-
et, cut off the ends of his thumb and
forefinger, letting the insect go unharm-
ed. Uncle T, in one of his oblivious

freaks, nailed his left arm so firmly be-
tween two boards of a fence he was
putting up, that he had to call for ar-
sistance to get extricated from self-im-
prisonment. He once put a button on
a gate instead of the post. But the
rarest freak of all was when he ran
through the streets, with his hands
about three feet asunder, high before
him, begging the passers-by not to dis
turb him, as he had got the measure
of a doorway with him.

—Dr. Johnson used to say that a
habit of looking on the best side of
every event is better than a thousand
pounds a year. Bishop Hall quaintly
remarks: "For every bad there might
be a worse; and, when a man breaks
his leg, let him be thankful that it was
not his neck." When Fene lon's libra
ry was on fire, "God be praised !" he
exclaimed, "that it was not the dwell-
ing of some poor man."

—He who forbears to take revenge,
I know.

Achieves the noblest conquest of his
foe.

—Woman—-the first gatherer of
fruit—-by picking the first apple, she
caused the first pair to fall.

A NOBLE APPEAL.

We envy neither the head nor the
heart of the man who can read the
following extract from an appeal of the
colored people of Missouri for Equal
Suffrage without shame for the pre-
judice which graduates human rights
according to the color of the skin.

We are forced to pay taxes without
representation—to submit without ap-
peal to laws, however offensive, with-
out a single voice in framing them—-
to bear arms without the right to say
whether against friend or foe, against
loyalty or disloyalty. Without suf-
frage we are forced in strict subjec-
tion to a government whose councils
are to us foreign, and are called by
our own countrymen to witness a
violence upon the primary principle of
a republican government, as gross
and outrageous as that which justly
stirred patriot Americans to throw
overboard the tea from English bot-
toms in Boston harbor, and to wage
the war for independence.

We ask not for social equality with
the white man, as is often claimed by
the shallow demagogue; for a law
higher than human must forever
govern social relations.

We ask only that privilege which
is now given to the very poorest and
meanest of white men who come to
the ballot-box.

We demand this as those who are
native born citizens of this state, and
have never known other allegiance
than to its authority and to these
United States.

We demand this in the names of
those whose bitter toil has enriched
our state and brought wealth to its
homes.

We demand this as those who have
ever cheerfully sustained law and order,
and who have, within our means,
zealously promoted education and
morality.

We demand this as those who have
been true and loyal to our government
from its foundation to the present, and
who have never deserted its interests
while even in the midst of treason and
under subjugation to its most violent
enemies.

We demand this in the honored
name of the nine thousand colored
troops who, with the first opportunity,
enlisted under the banner of Missouri
and bared their breasts to the remor-
seless storms of treason, and by hun-
dreds went down to death in the con-
flict, while the franchised rebel-—the
cowardly conservative—-the now bit-
terest enemies to our right to suffrage,
remained in quiet at home, safe, and
fattened on the fruits of our sacrifice,
toil, and blood.

We ask for a citizenship based upon
a principle so broad and solid that
upon it black men, white men, and
every American born can equally, safe-
ly, and eternally stand.

We ask that the organic law of our
State shall give to suffrage irrevocable
guaranties that shall know of no dis-
tinction at the polls on account of
color.

If those guaranties are still to be
denied, and hereafter color is to mark
the line which shall be drawn about
the ballot-box, we ask for a statute
that shall clearly define the castes and
grades of complexion which shall be
permitted within, or expelled from, its
loyal precincts.

If wealth is to guard the portals of
a free suffrage, we ask that our ac-
quirements be respected and admitted
to equal representation.

If intelligence shall prescribe the
limits, we ask for an impartial dis-
crimination, which shall affect white
as well as black, and submit that the
entire ignorance and stupidity of the
people should not by any presumption
be wholly charged to the account of
ourselves.

To such an universal test of intel-
ligence we are willing to submit our
claims to suffrage, and believe that it
would promote a most healthy spirit
of emulation and prove the greatest
educator of the masses.

Our asserted ignorance is not a
condition from choice or disposition,
as is now everywhere made evident
in the zealous efforts of our people to
educate themselves and their children;
but arises from the black code legis-
lation of our illiterate franchised mas-
ters.

We ask that colored loyalty, indus-
try, and intelligence shall receive as
full rights, guaranties, and privileges
as those accorded to white treason,
arrogance, and indolence.