The Bangkok Recorder.

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Extracts from a Himalayan
Journal.

From the valley of Tillail across the
mountains to Cashmere, there is a short
and unfrequented route which will well
repay the pedestrian who loves to explore
the more sequestered beauties of nature,
unprofaned by the crowds of tourists and
sportsmen that annually flock to the hunt-
ing grounds of the Himalaya. Tillail is a
small narrow valley among the mountains
to the north of Cashmere, on the banks of
the Kishanganga, which flows between the
lawn like slopes of turf dotted with groves
of trees and patches of cultivation that
follow the winding course of the river for
about twenty miles. The mountains rise
so far and so steeply above it that, for four
or five months in the year, the primitive
inhabitants are completely cut off from all
intercourse with their neighbours. They
cultivate their tiny crops of barley and
buck wheat, and live on the produce of
their sheep and goats which they drive up
to the higher slopes of the mountain in the
summer, like the Swiss herdsmen. They
have little care and no use for money, ex-
cept to pay their yearly rent to the Maha-
rajah of Cashmere to whom the valley be-
longs. Each little village constitutes a
sort of family, of which their headman,
who is often also their priest, is the father.
They never heard of any other religion
than their own, scarcely of any other coun-
try beyond the neighbouring valleys. A
journey to Cashmere constitutes an event
in their lives to date by for years. It in-
duces a strangely solemn feeling to visit
such a people and to think of the vast
difference between them and one of our
European nations, and yet to feel that they
are a part of the great family of the human
race, which exhibits on a grand scale the
little differences in character, disposition
and physique of a single household. To
the Tillailees, lawsuits, politics, poligious
differences and doubts, divorce courts,
taxes, social good and social evil are
things unknown. From birth to death
they have no farther outlook into life than
that which is bounded by their own pine-
covered mountains and the silent snow-
peaks which stand there for ever around
and above them. Their ignorance prevents
much communication with them. Of their
thoughts, feelings, ideas, you can learn
nothing. They are strong, active, willing,
not without a rough sort of primitive
humour, and kindly towards one another.
Each of their little villages is built of large
rude wooden houses, strong and heavy to
resist the tremendous storms which sweep
down through the mountain passes. Dou-
ble-storied, the lower one receives their
ponies, sheep, goats, and hen-throughs,
when the snow and cold will not permit
them to exist out of doors.

The second day’s march towards Cash-
mere, after crossing the first high moun-
tain range which surrounds Tillail, lies
along an immense glacier which issues
from a mass of precipitous rocks, whose
spire like summits rise to a vast height and
so steeply that the snow will not rest upon
them. They tower above the surface of
white gleaming snow, dark and barren,
like the blasted ruins of some temple built
by the primæval giants. This indeed the
Tillail coolies believe to be a fact. As
you approach this impassable barrier the
path turns suddenly to the right and up
one of the steepest ascents I have seen in
the Himalaya. Having been unwell for
some days I was mounted on a Tillail pony
and had enough to do to keep myself from
slipping over his tail. These ponies are
well made, hardy, active and wonderfully
surefooted. I have seen them go up and
down places which would have presented
considerable difficulty to a man unaccus-
tomed to hill work. The Tillailaes are for-
ced to keep a certain number in readiness
in the event of the Maharajah going to war,
for which they recieve a small sum yearly.
This is not only done in Tillail but in all
the districts of his territory, so that "car-
riage" is always ready AT A MOMENT'S
NOTICE. From which providential arrange-
ment might not the Government of India
take a hint?

After crossing the pass, I descended into
a little strip of narrow valley quite unin-
habited. A small glacier stream runs
through it issuing from a grand cathedral-
like mass of snow-covered rocks which
bound the head of the valley. The moun-
tains on each side are bare, rugged and
very steep. Heaps of boulders and frag-
ments of rock encumber the valley MARK-
ING the progress and devastation of ancient
floods, landslip, avalanches and glaciers.
I passed a night here, and next morning
commenced a long ascent over the high
mountain range which forms the northern
boundary of Cashmere. After toiling a con-
siderable height I crossed a broad open
plateau. At the further end was an im-
mense wall-like ridge of rock, through
which there was a broad opening complete-
ly paved with enormous boulders which,
being of the same nature as the dark moun-
tain limestone above, must have fallen
whenever the passage was formed. And
as a proof that the opening WAS formed
in the solid rock I plainly observed several
projections on one side of the pass with
corresponding indentations on the other.
The time since it took place must have
been of vast duration, for all the boulders
were worn and rounded in that manner
which unmistakeably marks the long con-
tinued and violent action of running water.
The conformation of the surrounding coun-
try must have been very different then
since now the ground falls away from the
pass, on one side steeply, on the other
gradually. So here in this little spot
seemed to be written in a few short sen-
tences, as plain and authoritative a con-
firmation of the leading ideas of modern
Geology, as if they had been traced upon
the rock like the handwriting of old upon
the wall. After passing through this, the
path turned to the right up a steep and
rugged ascent whose summit was a very
narrow ridge, whence I looked down into
a vast amphitheatre half encircled by
mountain peaks, and on the other side
stretching away towards the edge of the
range on which you stand immediately
above the vale of Cashmere. Beneath my
feet clouds of mist and vapour were drift-
ing about in all directions, and as the
wind caught and lifted them I got a glimpse
of the lake of Gungabal, repoising at the
foot of the great peak of the Hararmuk,
whose white cone is seen from the valley
of Cashmere towering far above all its
fellows. It is supported by an enormous
mass of mountain and rock which itself
rises to a height of 4,000 feet above the
lake, terminating on that side in a dark
precipice of granate extending along the
whole length of the lake, and casting its
dark shadow half across its waters, whose
tiny wavelets continually break against
the vast adamantine wall which rises
darkly above it, like the murmurings of
weak human voices against the im-
mutable laws that govern the moral as
well as the material universe. Upon the
summit of the precipice is a huge glacier,
almost overhanging the rock, and looking
as if a touch would send it into the water
below. A torrent of snow-white water
plunges from it perpetually, 300 feet sheer
down into the lake—and, far above lake
and rock and glacier, the white peak of
the Hararmuk rears its mass of snow never
to be approached by human foot 3000 feet
into the blue depths of Heaven.

Sublime grandeur, lonely desolation,
stern magnificence of immutable repose,
all touched with fairest beauty! How
eloquently do such scenes speak to the hu-
man heart, and bid it lay aside its vain
complaining and its weak doubts, and to
raise itself above worldly pleasures into a
purer atmosphere of loftier aspiration,
of firmer faith, to realise more to ourselves
the existence and the care for us of that
Being from whom, we as well as these
rocks and mountains proceeded, to make
our lives and thoughts more worthy of
Him who has created scenes of such sub-
lime beauty.

I have called these mountain solitudes
"sacred temples of nature" and not with-
out reason, since they seem to have been
formed by the great Creator for no other
purpose than to impress the souls of His
human creatures with a knowledge of His
Glory, Power and Love, to develop that
feeling of admiration for the sublime and
beautiful, and that indistinct longing for a
higher life, which are the patents of our
celestial origin and destiny. With how
much deeper feelings of reverence and
even of awe shall we behold such scenes,
when we realise to ourselves that it was
the THOUGHT of the Creator that they
should touch our hearts and teach them of
Himself. To think that they have been
thus cared for, brings God nearer to us.
Nature thus becomes a link between him
and us, an everlasting sign and seal of
His love for us, a pledge that He has for-
gotten us not, that we are not abandoned
to the caprice of accident, or the tyranny
of fate. She speaks to us of a [......]-
[...] by God of our spiritual nature, of the
human heart which loves and admires,
which can wonder and can feel. For its
development, for its teaching and purify-
ing were these cathedrals of nature en-
dowed with such sublimity of form, such
wondrous delicacy of colour and beauty.
We are fond of tracing evidences of the
design of the Creator in fashioning the
material world with reference to our phy-
sical wants, but we seldom think how our
minds and our spiritual wants have been
also cared for. And it is very striking to
trace the similarity between the plan of
the Divine working with regard to the
grandeur of the mountains, and those won-
derful provisions for our physical wants
to which I have just alluded. Compare
for example what we know of the origin
and formation of the coal which has play-
ed so prominent a part in the history of
civilization. At a period of time in the
past, so long ago as to be literally not con-
ceivable by our minds, and when no life
but that of a few fishes existed upon our
planet, its surface was covered with a rank
and teeming vegetation, so thickly that, in
the words of Hugh Miller, "even to dis-
tant planets our earth must have shone
with a green and delicate ray." The con-
ditions of climate, of soil and of rain, were
of course totally different from those of
the present day, and were exquisitely
adapted to the development of the enor-
mous tree ferns, pine-like ARAUCARIANS
and gigantic reed shaped calamites which
formed the staple of the magnificent forests
of the carboniferous era.

What a glorious yet purposeless display
of power would this have seemed to the
mind of an intelligent being, could such
have witnessed it. There were no men to
comprehend the beauty of these forests or
to receive any knowledge and love of God
from their magnificence—and although
before their decay a few inferior races of
animals came into existence those trees
could afford food to none. Ages passed
away and the forests disappeared from the
face of the earth; they sunk into it, or in
many places were covered with soil and
swept over them by floods and glaciers.
Other families of trees took their place,
and type after type of strange and varying
forms of fishes, reptiles, birds and quad-
rupeds occupied in slow and regular suc-
cession the earth, the air and the waters
of the globe. But all the time certain
chemical processes of nature were gradual-
ly converting the remains of the carboni-
ferous forests into another substance.
And still the question, for what purpose
would have forced itself upon the mind of
an intelligent being who could have seen
it. Now that it is an accomplished fact,
now that coal has increased the comforts,
advanced the the civilization, and develop-
ed the energies of the human race, we can
understand the meaning of this chapter of
revelation in the Book of Nature.

But what a striking lesson does it reveal
to us with regard to the mysteries of the
moral world. We now stand in the same
relation to them as the imaginary intelli-
gent being to the coal forests while they
were yet blooming upon the earth. And
as surely as they had a purpose and a
meaning, so surely have those other mys-
teries which now baffle our finite compre-
hension a purpose and a meaning which
will one day be also developed, and which
work even as these hidden forces of nature,
silently, slowly, but surely towards some
great end in the far off and unknown fu-
ture. And now if we compare this pro-
vision for man's physical wants with the
working of those laws which produced the
sublimity and beauty of the mountains we
shall find some very striking similitudes
which, in addition to other considerations,
compel us to believe that they were given
by the great Creator to develop the moral
and poetic part of human nature, in the
same way as we have seen provision was
made for our physical and intellectual
wants. The first resemblance is in the
vast periods of time during which the
beauty of the mountains existed apparent-
ly without purpose or meaning, since there
was no intelligence which could perceive
it. But now that this and all the aspects
of beauty which the earth presents to us
have had so wonderful an influence upon
our religion, our literature and conse-
quently upon our whole life and tone of
thought and feeling, their meaning and pur-
pose has become apparent, and herein lies
the great resemblance regarding this part
of the plan of creation, and that which
was noticed regarding the coal forest.
Another lies in the slow operation of un-
changing laws which have brought about
the grand result. The gradual upheaval
of sea bottoms, breakings forth of molten
lava from beneath the earth's crust, the
friction of ancient glaciers, the rush of
primeval torrents, the silent frosts, the soft
rains and dews and the burning suns of
countless summers—these have been the
implements in the hands of the Divine
Architect with which He has shaped the
mountain temple, and given sublimity to
the glacier and the snow peak, softness and
bloom to the sweet valleys winding beneath
them, and repose and the beauty of peace
to the dreaming mountain lakes that in
after ages they might teach and purify the
heart of man. Those who realize the vast
periods of time which have been required
for the development of purposes like those
in the material world, can surely never
feel surprise or disquietude that the brief
period of a few thousand years has not re-
vealed to us the meaning and the mystery
of that more wonderful creation of man.
Nor will they imagine that time can ever
reveal it. The creation of the immaterial,
of the spirit of man, that mystic essence
of his being which loves, hopes, fears, be-
lieves, aspires, is infinitely more mysteri-
ous and more sublime than all the inanim-
ate worlds and suns which circle at God's
bidding through space, and if these un-
fathomable depths of space (when we look
to the Heavens), these incalculable dura-
tions of time (when we look to the earth)
have been required for the completion of
the idea of material creation—-what less
than infinity and eternity shall complete
the destiny and solve the mystery of the
creation of the spirit of man?

Summary.

COURT.-—The Queen and Royal Fam-
ily are at Osborne, but will shortly leave
for Balmoral, staying a few days at
Windsor en route.

PARLIAMENT.-—The debate on the sec-
ond reading of the Franchise Bill is still
unfinished. Its tendency so far is unfa-
vourable to Government. Colonel Sykes
has asked questions regarding the rebels
in China.

FRANCE.—-A war panic has prevailed
in Paris with regard to the position of
the two great German Powers. A de-
claration of the Emperor's sentiments is
anxiously looked for. His Majesty's visit
to the Camp at Chalons is to take place
in May, instead of in August, the usual
period. The payment for exemption
from military service is fixed at 200
francs less than last year.

PRUSSIA AND GERMANY.—-The Crown
Princess of Prussia gave birth to a
daughter on the 12th. More diplomatic
notes have been passing between the
German Powers. It is reported that
several of the Middle States will demand
that the Schleswig-Holstein question
shall be settled before the reform of the
Federal Constitution be taken into consi-
deration.

AUSTRIA.—-The intelligence from Vien-
na is warlike. The Ministry are much
occupied with bank and currency ques-
tions.

HOLLAND.—-The First Chamber of the
States General has adjourned, and the
day for the reassembling of the Second
Chamber is not yet fixed. The Minis-
ter's defence of his Culture Bill is before
the public. The measure has undergone
some modifications in relation to sugar,
and the Minister denies that he desires to
abolish the cultivation of coffee.

KINGDOM OF ITALY.-—The Minister of
Finance and the Financial Committee
have agreed on mutual concessions. A
Vienna journal professes to give the stip-
ulations of a treaty, offensive and defen-
sive, just concluded between Italy and
Prussia.

DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES.—-The Pro-
visional Government recommend Prince
Charles of Hohenzollern as the new
Hospodar. Prince Couza's Ministers
have been impeached for wasteful expen-
diture.

CANADA.—-An order issued for dishand-
ing the volunteers has been rescinded,
and bodies of them continue to be des-
patched to the frontier.

UNITED STATES.—-A proclamation from
President Johnson declares the insurrec-
tion "to be ended, and henceforth to be
so regarded." General Hawley has been
elected Governor of Connecticut, and
Mr. G. Edmonds appointed Senator in
place of the late Mr. Foote. Mr. Seward
has entertained Madame Juarez. It is
said the regular army, being mainly com-
posed of Irishmen, is not to be depended
on to check Fenian action on the frontier.

JAMAICA.—-The Royal Commission would
finish its labours in a few more days. The
evidence of about 1,000 witnesses has
been taken. Two of the men convicted
before the Special Commission have been
executed. The new Constitution is heart-
ily welcomed.

SOUTH PACIFIC STATES.—-The Chilian
Government has decreed a medal to those
engaged in the late naval action with the
Spaniards. A screw steamer bearing the
Chilian flag is reported off Corrientes.
The bay of Callao is bristling with can-
non.

BRAZIL.—-The allied army crossed the
Parana on the 14th March. The Princess
Leopoldine has given birth to a prince.
The bank of Brazil will not be wound
up.

CONTINENTAL COMMERCE WITH THE
FAR EAST.—-The Danish Government has
relinquished the idea of sending a steam
frigate and a corvette to the Far East;
and the Austrian expedition is also final-
ly deferred. The Hamburg underwriters
have been great sufferers lately, their last
loss being the destruction of the Fow-
TANET in the China Seas, learnt by over-
land telegram. Herr E. von der Heyde is
appointed Prussian Consul at Singapore,
Vice Schreiber.

THE REFORM BILL.—-Several meetings
have been held, but public feeling is not
very strong. Mr. Bright's demand for a
great popular demonstration was not re-
sponded to.

NAVAL AND MILITARY.—-Further retire-
ments and promotions have been gazet-
ted. Rear-Admiral St. Vincent King is
now second on the list for promotion,
and, says the ARMY AND NAVY GAZETTE,
several officers have intimated their read-
iness to take command as his successor.
Lieutenant H. C. St. John, of the Opos-

sun, is promoted to the rank of Com-
mander, for his conduct in destroying the
piratical junks.

OBITUARY.—-The deaths include Lord
Clinton, Lady Ponsonby, Sir P. Fleet-
wood, and Dr. Hodgkin.

MISCELLANEOUS.—-Mr. Peabody's reply
to the Queen's letter is published. Mr.
P. P. Ralli has made a munificent dona-
tion to King's College Hospital. A letter
from Dr. Beke announces the discovery
of coal-fields in Abyssinia. The cattle
plague is decreasing. Temple Bar is to
be removed. A city merchant has been
convicted of forgery. The GREAT EAST-
ERN is now taking in the new Atlantic
cable. A shocking murder has taken
place in Cannon-street. General Grant
is about to visit Europe.

COMMERCIAL.—-The Bank rate is still
6 per cent, but money is more plentiful
Consols, 86 to 86½. The panic in Fin-
ance shares still continues. Bar silver
in demand at 5s. 1⅛d. to 5s. 1½d. per oz.,
and Mexican dollars at 5s. 0½d. per oz.
The report of the Commercial Bank
Corporation of India and the East is
very unfavourable, showing losses a-
mounting to £235,000. The Oriental
Bank will declare a dividend of 10 per
cent.-—L. & CHINA Ex. 17th April.

FRANCE AND EGYPT.—-The final arrnge-
ments between the French and the Pasha
of Egypt as to the Suez Canal are these:
-—The Company do not retain a single
acre of ground, except such as is needed
for the maritime channal. In con-
sideration of this cession, the Viceroy
adds 10,000,000f. to the already large
indemnity fixed some time back by
the Emperor Napoleon, and pays the
whole within four years from this, instead
of sixteen, as stipulated originally. Fur-
thermore, the Company sell the property
called Ouadi (which they purchased a
few years ago for 2,000,000f.) to the
Viceroy for the sum of 10,000,000f.; but
considering the great sums expended in
improvements by the Company, this a-
mount is not thought extravagant. Po-
litically the arrangement removes all pos-
sible questions of dispute, while for the
Company it has the great advantage of
enabling them to avoid an appeal for
capital, which most likely would have
created discontent among the sharehold-
ers. Although purchased dearly, the
Viceroy, it is said, will turn these new
acquisitions to account. A line will soon
run through them, of which the terminus
already existing in Zagazig will from the
commencing point, whence it will pass
Ismalieh and go direct to Suez traversing
the valley and ancient province of Goshen.

THE JAPAN HERALD relates a painful
incident which has taken place at Yoko-
hama. A Japanese, one of those put
forward by the native government as hav-
ing been concerned in the attack on a
French sailor which took place at the
beginning of last month, had been de-
capitated. It appears that the affray was
brought on entirely by the conduct of the
Frenchman who was drunk, and who is
represented to have provoked the Japan-
ese in an intolerable manner: but beyond
this it is said to be certain that the man
decapitated had in reality nothing what-
ever to do with the affair. He was a
common robber who had been in the gaol
at the time the affray took place. One
set of people affirm that the French min-
ister, M. LÉON ROCHES, insisted on hav-
ing the man beheaded, but he himself
denies this strenuously. The matter seems
to have excited a great deal of indigna-
tion and there has been a subscription
amongst the Europeans for the widow of
the Japanese who was beheaded.

IN THE NORTH the Rebellion continues
to assume a serious complexion. The
foreign drilled Pekin troops, about 2,000
in number together with some 6,000 or-
dinarily armed Chinese that were sent
from the Chi-li province, in all about
8,000 men, have been unable to make
head against a much smaller Rebel army
of only some 3,000 to 5,000. The latter,
on the contrary, have executed an ex-
tremely clever and creditable strategical
move. They contrived to lure the Im-
perial army northwards, by assembling
and retiring slowly. While however, one
half of their number kept the Imperial-
ists thus in play and led them on to some
eight or ten days march north of Fou[?]kden,
about 1,500 well mounted fellows made a
bend through a wild forest region, and
then re-entering the cultivated portion of
the province, they advanced on Moukden,
which had been left nearly bare of troops.
The foreign drilled Pekinese are now
nearly all back in Moukden again, to which
they have been forced by this move on
the part of the Rebels; and the new
Military Governor of the province (a
man said to have distinguished himself in
the suppression of the Tai-Ping Rebel-
lion in the South) is now shut up in the
City of Kae-Ping about two days' march
north of Moukden, and the Mandarins
are in apprehension of his being taken
there, notwithstanding that he has 300
of the Pekin foreign drilled troops, be-
sides others with him.—-RECORD.

Bangkok Recorder.

Summary.

The only thing of interest which
has transpired to break the monotony
of the week, is the arrival of the
Chow Phya, bringing European mails,
down to April 17th. The steamer was
rather ahead of time this trip, which
is rather encouraging if she is going
to continue, considering the interest-
ing feature of the news from Europe.
After the closing of the rebellion in
the United States, our western mails
for a time became flat, but they have
again assumed their usual interest
Things in Europe are looking no bet-
ter fast. Taking what we have al-
ready heard as a basis upon which to
found our conclusions, we may justly
conclude that actual hostilities are
now going on. Considering also that
we are separated from the Continent
by the distance of nearly half the
globe, it is not to be expected, that
they would wait for our opinion or
advice in those important matters, al-
though we may be abundantly capa-
ble of giving it.

But a short time ago Prussia and
Austria were united in wrestling from
Denmark part of her territory, but
now they in turn, are fighting over the
spoils. It appears strange indeed that
the two leading German powers should
go to war about so little, for when we
look at the map, the whole of the land
in dispute, appears but little larger in
area, than the possessions of a thrifty
Illinois farmer, still a "little fire"
oftentimes "kindleth a great matter."
They now appear bent upon war, and
the friendly offices of the Emperor of
Russia, and Her Majesty the Queen of
England to mitigate the feud have
both been thrown aside. For aught
we know to day, the whole of Europe
may be in a blaze. So far as we can
see it would be madness, in the ex-
treme, for Austria to go to war no
matter what the principle, or interest
at stake may be, for in such a war
she risks every thing, even her very
existence as an independent empire.
War with Prussia, of course means
war all around. Hungary, although
she has lately made some friendly de-
monstrations, when the Emperor Fran-
cis Joseph passed through, is undoubt-
edly only waiting for an opportunity.
Venitia will undoubtedly rise, and the
Italian army was already moving to-
ward her assistance. It is indeed dif-
ficult to see how any part of Europe,
can avoid, eventually becoming engag-
ed in the quarrel. These things might
alarm us, were it not that the hand of
an Almighty mover is in it all. We
are in the midst of a prophetic year.
Great events are still expected by the
believers in prophecy, to transpire in
Europe, and most interpreters of pro-
phecy agree, that this is about the
time that those events are to transpire,
and who can say they have not alrea-
dy commenced. Europe to-day may
be the theatre of an Armageddon.

Both the political and commercial
world appear to be a little shaky
throughout.

In the United States President
Johnson has again shown his firmness
and good sense, by the exercise of the
veto power. Scarcely any previous
President has had occasion to exercise,
the veto power more than once during
an administration, but the pressure of
the radicals upon the President, and
his policy, has been such that it is dif-
ficult to see how he could have done
otherwise. The "Civil Rights Bill"
which the President vetoed, had for
its object the extension to the colour-
ed population, the full rights of citi-
zenship. The President declared the
bill unconstitutional, unnecessary, and
anomalous in its character. In this
matter Mr. Johnson has not only
shown firmness, but also great ability.
His message to the Senate in defence
of his course, contains arguments which
are apparently unanswerable. The
Senate may pass the bill over the veto,
but it will be lost in the House. The
majority of the people too, will un-
doubtedly sustain the President.

As "St. Patricks' day in the morn-
ing," and evening too, passed off con-
trary to expectations, without any
very warlike demonstrations on the
part of the Fenians, it was supposed
and hoped that further apprehensions
on that score were unnecessary, but
later advices, state that they again ap-
pear to be moving, and both the Ca-
nadian and United States authorities
have sent troops to the border to watch
their movements.

The principle item of news which
especially interests Siam is the total
loss of the new steamer, bearing the
name of the kingdom. This is a mat-
ter too, wholly of dollars, and cents.
We publish in another coluinn the
statement of some of the officers on
board at the time. Part of the state-
ments however, we have thought pro-
per to suppress, until further authen-
ticated, as they are exceedingly damag-
ing to the Captain. If they are at all
true, his conduct was simply outra-
geous. We did not make the acquaint-
ance of Captain B. when he was in
this port, but confess we were not
much prepossessed with his appear-
ance, but then, persons are oftentimes
deceived by appearances. It may arise
from a kind of epauletta phobia on
our part, but we are free to confess
that when we see a man in the simple
civil service, swelling around in the
dress of a high naval, or military offi-
cer we are always forced to the con-
clusion, that there is something sadly
deficient in the upper story, for which
deficiency, it requires a vast amount of
externals to make up If the state-
ment we have received is at all true,
the loss of a steamer in such a place,
must have arisen either from extreme
carelessness, or incompetency. The
vessel and cargo are supposed to be
worth over $ 200,000.

The only local item of importance
is the absence of the Editor of the
Bangkok Recorder, who has gone to
Petchabure in order to enjoy a short
relaxation and rest from his many and
various labours. On account there-
fore of the Editor's absence we have con-
cluded not to have an editoral this week,
which omission our readers we trust
will pardon.

Loss of the S. S. Siam.

April 11th at 11 A. M. got under
way from Rangoon and proceeded on
our voyage to Calcutta. Engines and
boilers in good working order. Every
thing went well until Wednesday the
12th at 7. 45 P. M. at this time the
Capt being on the bridge in charge of
the vessel, she struck the Alguada
Reef about 1 1/2 miles from the light-
house. The vessel struck heavily two
or three times before the Capt. gave
the order to stop the engines. And
when he did give the order, the vessel
was hard and fast upon the rocks.
When the order was given to stop
the vessel, the 2nd engineer let off the
steam and came on deck, the chief en-
gineer, and firemen following him as
quick as they could. As we came up
on deck the Capt. left the bridge, and
came aft. He ordered the boats to
be cleared away and lowered. The
three engineers, seven firemen, en-
gineers cook and four passengers went
into one boat, and pulled round the
stern of the steamer, when the Capt.
ordered us to steer straight for the
light-house. When we were about a
quarter of a mile from the lighthouse
we could see nothing, but rocks and
surf, although the red light was
burning half way up the light-house.
We were afraid to go any nearer, and
not seeing any entrance to get in by
to the light-house, we turned back and
tried to find an entrance at several
places, but not being successful we
went back to the ship.

When we reached the ship, the Capt.
told us that the Chinamen had taken
away the other boat without leave.
We remained alongside of the ship
till 4½ A. M. on the 13th, when we
made another attempt to reach the
light-house by going on the lee side of
the reef, we got abreast of the light-
house, when the keeper came out as far
as he could on the rocks, and showed
us where to land. We got all safe on
shore and pulled the boat on the rocks,
when we went to the light-house and
found the Chinamen had landed with
the other boat. The light-house keep-
er told us that a sea had washed
the other boat on shore, when the
Chinamen jumped out and run for the
light-house, another sea came and with
resurge the boat was carried out to
sea again. The Chinamen had told him
that there was plenty of money in the
boat, and he had went in search of her,
and having found her he had brought
her in between the rocks, and landed
all the money he found on board, a
considerable portion of it was lost as the
bags were open and the boat stove in.

A short time having passed the
Engineers proposed repairing the boat
and returning to the ship and make the
attempt to save the remainder of those
who were on board. The light-house
keeper told us it would be no use to
make the attempt before low water, as
the boat would surely be swamped and
our lives endangered for no purpose.

Notwithstanding this, the boat was
soon repaired as well as circumstances
would enable us to do, but in launch-
ing her, she got half full of water.
The 2nd and 3rd engineers and five of
the crew got into the boat, but three
hands were required to keep her free
of water.

When we got alongside Mr. Soper
told us that the Capt. and the cook
had left the ship on a small raft and
were drifting out to sea. In the mean
time seeing the men all making a rush
for the boat, and were nearly sinking
her, we told them to get out again as
we were going after the Capt. This they
flatly refused to do, saying "that the
Capt. did not care for them so long as
he was all right himself, and now as
they had got into the boat they intend-
ed to look out for themselves." We
then pushed off and made for the
shore, three or four men bailing all
the time, we landed in safety and then
started in search of the Capt. and cook,
whom we found three or four miles
out at sea drifting with the tide.

After taking them into the boat, we
went back to the ship. When we got
alongside the Capt. went on board and
going aft took nearly all his clothes,
cocked-hat, and sword and put them
all into the boat, we also to off some
more of the men. The boat came
nearly being capsizing, but eventually
we got safe to the shore and landed
him, and his clothes in safety. We
then went back to the ship and took
the remainder of the men on board
and brought them safe to land.

The Capt. wishing to return again
to the ship, took the lighthouse keep-
er, the chief engineer and the boats
crew, and once more put off for the
ship. When we got on board we took
three mail boxes, charts, some money,
the binnacle, and five muskets and re-
turned to the shore. In landing the
boat was upset and we lost two mail
boxes, and the one that we landed was
not property looked after, and conse-
quently was destroyed.

On Saturday the 15th the barque
Viscount Canning of London was
passing, when the keeper of the light-
house signalized to her, that there was
45 men in distress at the lighthouse.
The barque was hove to and the boats
sent on shore and we were taken on
board, and conveyed safely to Rangoon.

It was with much regret we heard the
other day of the complete wreck of the
Steamer SIAM on the Alguada Reef. The
vessel is said to have gone ashore on the
rocks during the night of Wednesday of
last week. Our readers will remember
that the SIAM only left Rangoon, bound
to Calcutta on Tuesday the 10th instant.
How this unfortunate accident occurred
is a curious question. The Alguada
Reef Light is now a very prominent ob-
ject in that quarter. During the South
west monsoon with a strong flood tide
setting on to a lee shore, it is easy to
suppose that a sailing vessel might be
driven where she did not want to go.
Her anchor may either drag or the chain
give way, in which case she is wholly
helpless. But it must certainly be differ-
ent with a steamer, and especially where
the weather is anything like favorable.
No account of this disaster has reached
us. But we suppose that under the pro-
visions of the Merchant Shipping Act,
the loss of the SIAM will be made the
subject of an official investigation. We
learn that the Commander and Crew of
the unfortunate steamer were brought to
this port by the sailing ship "VISCOUNT
CANNING."

CORRECTION.

In the Tide Table of the
Bangkok Calendar for
1866 for May, June, Au-
gust, and October, for High
read Low, and for Low
read HIGH.

We are happy to be able to state
that there has been a great improve-
ment in the health of Phya Montree
Soöriwang, and he is now to all ap-
pearance in a fair way to recover.

Persia.

Persia is even still three times as large
as France, but so ignorant are its sover-
eigns of its population that their subjects
are reckoned at from five to ten millions
in number. For miles upon miles noth-
ing is seen but a salt desert of which the
wild ass and the bounding gazelle are the
only occupants. Here and there are scat-

tered fertile oases rescued from barrenness
by irrigation, but the general aspect is
uninviting to the stranger. Yet no one,
not even the Swiss, so loves his land, so
praises its beauty and when absent pines
for its desert, as the Persian. He has no
patriotism, he loves Iran only as the do-
mestic cat the home in which it has been
reared. From the Elburz mountains to
the Caspian, and in Azeabaeejan, the soil,
however, is well-watered and fertile.
The destruction of trees has diminished
the rainfall, and with great labour such
occupied plains as that of Tehran are ir-
rigated by KHANATS, or under-ground
communications between the lower and
higher lands. Strong barriers at the foot
of the Elburz range like those which
the Italians have constructed at the
base of the Alps would catch the pre-
cious snow as it melts in April, and econo-
mise for the whole country the water
which for a brief period wastes portions
of it by inundations. The people may be
divided into the two classes of tentsmen
and townsmen. The former, under chiefs
through whom the Shah rules the tribes,
move from hill to plain in search of past-
ure in their black tents. They are called
Eelyats, their hereditary chief is termed
Eelkhami, and they supply men to the
army. The townsmen move, like the Ita-
lians of the Campagna and the cities, on-
ly for two months in every year to seek
coolness in the uplands. The FALEH, or
labourer, is fit for any work whether that
of the fields or the artisan. In Tehran
he is paid from 5½d. to 11d. a day and in
the country rather more, according as
his services, are in request in summer and
autumn or at discount in winter and spring.
He saves in the former seasons against
the rigours of the latter. His wife, per-
haps in some distant village, helps him
as a maid-servant to a neighbouring gen-
tleman if she have no children, or if she
has she busily supplies the clothes that
are wanted. Food is cheap, bread being
4d. for 6¾ lbs. and mutton from 2d. to
3d. a pound. The poorest enjoy sherbet
and ice. Indeed few of the labouring
class in any other country are as well off
as the Persians FALEH. Nor are they so
oppressed as is generally believed. They
supply the conscription and pay taxes,
but their landlord, or the Shah himself
who receives petitions direct from the
lowest, prevents exaction. The peasan-
try suffer only as they do in India when
the Shah or a governor makes a progress
through a district. The Shah pays liber-
ally for everything like the English Vi-
ceroy or Governor, but so little of the
money goes to the proper quarter that
the people frequently send a present re-
questing the Shah not to honour their
province with his presence when he in-
tends to pay a visit. The people seldom
work on Friday, and they enjoy numer-
ous festivals. Every village has a bath
and ice-house. Slavery is confined to do-
mestic service. Dervishes, professional
beggars and idle retainers of the nobles
abound, but the nuisance is chiefly con-
fined to the cities, and in 1863 it became
so intolerable in Tehran that beggars
were prohibited from plying their trade.
Although the climate of Northern Per-
sia is very severe the children are so
dressed as to leave the stomach unpro-
tected. Hence the small population, but
the picked lives who survive are very ro-
bust, and the infusion of Georgian and
Circassian blood by domestic slavery has
made them beautiful.

Like most Asiatics Persians are accom-
plished liars. Unlike their ancestors,
they may be good riders and shots, but
they lack the third virtue of speaking the
truth, their object being rather that ac-
complishment of the Spartans—-never to
allow themselves to be found out in a lie.
Mr. Watson, doubtless from a sad expe-
rience, tells us—-"Nothing is more diffi-
cult than to convict a Persian of telling
an untruth, and nothing at the same time
is less common than to hear the plain facts
of a case from the lips of an inhabitant
of that country." The good qualities of
the people are that they are in general
patient and easily governed. The poor
are frugal and respectful. Still this is
but little to set against such a description
as this, so true of all countries where Is-
lam has spread its curse:—-"If there be
any beauty or truth, or honesty, in dealings
between man and man, in uprightness
and independence of character, in wed-
ded love, in family life and family affec-
tion, in readiness to sacrifice fortune or
life, if necessary, for the public good, in
tolerance towards others in points rela-
ting to religion, in fair play towards
others, in gratitude for past kindness, in
modesty, in a consistent endeavour to
provide for the well-being of posterity—-
such beauty it would be vain to expect
to meet with in Persia." The source of
this, apart from the Koran, is found in
the want of education. Few can read
their own tongue fluently. The children
grow up both ignorant and superstitious,
believing for the most part in Mahomed
and Ali and Hussein. The Moollahs are
the village teachers and they are paid,
like the Indian Gooroos, by presents,
when a boy has been taught after a fa-
shion to read and write the Koran. Imme-
diately such a one puts MEHRIA before
his name, as the Government of India ig-
norantly allowed the Nawab of Bengal's
sons to do last year. After seven years
of age girls are removed from the Mool-
la's care to that of a learned woman who
teaches them to read, write and sew and
occasionally a little Persian music. But
the range of their ideas is by no means
wide, and a man more instructed than a
Persian generally is would not, probably,
find their society very engaging. The
Shah supports a Government College in
the capital taught partly by Europeans—-
a Frenchman, for instance, teaches Eng-
lish. His Majesty has caused several
youths to be taught medicine and other
branches of knowledge in Paris, but with
true Mussulman pride their countrymen
distrust them on their return.

All Persians are Sheeahs, maintaining
the inalienable right of Ali to the imme-
diate succession to the throne and mantle
of Mahomed. So highly do they vene-
rate their priests that, however untruth-
ful, they dare not take a false oath if it
be administered by a Mujtahid, or high
priest. Indeed these functionaries are
very loath to administer oaths, for fear
of entangling a true believer in falsehood.
The great event of the year in Persia is
the dramatic representation of the wrongs
and woes of the Martyred Hussein, the
son of Ali.

The Shah is an absolute despot subject
only to the check of the Koran and the
courts which administer the Sherra or
written, and the Urf or customary law.
The nobles are his Peishkhidmutts or
lords in waiting, placing his food on the
table, holding his pipe, and bringing his
slippers, all of which they consider more
honourable than to be made ambassador
to a European court. When appointed
governors of provinces they rule by de-
puty. If they offend the King the bas-
tinado is the result if bribery is not more
powerful. The Shah's sons are married
at fourteen and become Governors. The
King keeps up the healthiness and beauty
of the royal stock by frequently marry-
ing peasants. Except for six years be-
tween the fall of Sedr Azem, after the
Persian War and the selection of Sepah
Salar in March 1865, the Shah has always
ruled through a Grand Vizier and minis-
ters of departments. As the object of
each minister, governor and secretary is
to amass money not only for present wants
but to propitiate his superiors in the day
of trouble, we need not marvel that great
confusion prevails in almost every branch
of the administration. All pay for their
appointments. The theory is that the
army is a hundred thousand strong. The
only well organized arm is the 5000 Ar-
tillery which enables Persia to punish the
Turkomans. Individually the Persian
soldier is brave, but he lacks the moral
elements of courage and does not trust
his leaders. Kept in arrears for years, as
to pay, the men are allowed to work as
labourers. Sometimes a regiment will
even forego pay for a year's leave. They
get no rations, have no surgeon, and are
made to serve till old age. The officers
are appointed by interest and none be-
low a Major is a gentleman. The army
is drilled by Europeans who have no
command. There is no commissariat.
The baggage is carried on asses. The
men have percussion musket.

Mr. Watson tells us that Persia is eve-
ry year being drained of bullion, the im-
ports so much exceed in value the ex-
ports. The legal rate of interest is 12
per cent. but the customary rate is from
24 to 60. The consumption of wine is
very large and they are valued solely for
their intoxicating qualities. There is no
hope for Persia Mr. Watson thinks—-
and he writes with strong sympathy for
the people and with a high respect for
the Kajar family—except in a race of
foreign conquerors “as in the case of
Hindustan.” The inhabitants are dead to
progress ; and their faith keeps them as
they are. The influence of European
Ambassadors has led to the disuse of
some barbarous customs, and foreign
traders may in time create a desire for
foreign luxuries. But the impulse to
progress must come from without. Per-
sia hates Russia which has stripped it of
so many provinces and stolen Ashoorabah
an important island in the south of the
Caspian. It has not been well used by
England which has not fully acted up to
past treaties. And it sees in France only
a clever intriguing people of whom it
may make use but whom it will never
imitate. Persia, like the rest of the Mos-
lem world, dreamily and corruptly awaits
the time when the expulsion of the
Turks from Europe will begin, in the
East, a revolution from which will issue
a new and better Asia.—-THE FRIEND
OF INDIA.

United States.

President Johnson has proclaimed
"the insurrection in Georgia, North
and South Carolina, Virginia, Tennes-
see, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas,
Mississippi, and Florida to be ended,"
and henceforth to be so regarded."
General Hawley, of the Republican
party, has been elected Governor of
Connecticut by a majority of 500 votes.
The Governor of Vermont has appoint-
ed Mr. George Edmonds to be a Se-
nator, vice Mr. Foote, deceased. Mr.
Seward has entertained Madame Juarez,
the wife of the Mexican President, at
dinner. The public debt of the United
States amounted on the 1st April to
$2,837,000. The balance of the Trea-
sury at the same date was $122,000,
000. Gold on the morning of the 4th,
138. Exchange on London, 137. Cot-
ton, dull; middling upland, 39 to 40c.

Great fire at Mandalay.

It is said that a steamer will leave to
morrow morning at daylight. I am going
to send you a few lines. I could write vol-
umes. A fire of unprecedented magnitude
and virulence has destroyed the best, and
certainly the richest portion of Mandalay,
out the city walls. The fire commenced
on Sunday evening at about 5 P.M. some-
where near the Chinese quarter, and before
7 P.M. it had spread west, as far as the
Shosy Tschoang, and north for a mile and
a half making a clean sweep of every thing
that could possibly be consumed. A strong
breeze blew from the south, increased with
the fire, and then swept the flames in ed-
dying fierceness in all directions. Your
house went early in the day. All Kullalads
followed rapidly, including the Puckah
buildings of Moollah and other Mogul
merchants, spreading with fearful rapidity
and fanned by the most insinuating of
southerly breezes. The flames soon reach-
ed the Armenian quarter, and in a few
minutes only, all the good houses on that
line, including the building of Camaratta
and his family were no more. In the mean
time, the fire bore down steadily in my
direction and from three different direc-
tions. I had foreseen danger from the first
and prepared for the worst, by having all
my men on the roof with a plentiful sup-
ply of water. For some time it was hope-
ful that Mr. D'Avera's house would escape,
but the heat from the surrounding blazing
buildings, was too great to admit of any
one's remaining on the roof to afford help.
Almost as quickly as it takes to write this,
his house and compound on all sides was
a mass of bright flames, the wind blowing
almost dead upon what appeared then the
devoted agency!

By this time most of the Europeans who
had been burnt out round about me were
present with me, and rendered valuable
aid. Water was handed up freely, and all
parts of the building deluged. Our diffi-
culty was to maintain our post, owing to
the heat and smoke; but the fates were
propitious and the house was saved by
sheer exertion. Hundreds and thousands
of burnt out individuals, had been stream-
ing down westward and filled the plain
west of me. There was no exit to the
east.

Amongst the SOLICITORS FOR SHELTER
were Mrs. D'Avera, family, and followers.
shortly afterwards, and before I was out
of danger myself Mr. D'A. presented him-
self on the roof of my house and held out
his hand which under the circumstances
it was impossible to refuse. By this time
I had with me, Major Halsted, Messrs
Calogreedy, Levia, Mr. Colter, Mr. D'
Avera, and a host of others. Mr. Berry
had found shelter with Madame d'Orgoni,
who had a narrow escape. The fire was
short, rapid, but most complete. Nothing
stopped the devouring element. Large
trees seemed only to communicate the
flames, and blazed away as they were
LIKED by the CIRCUMAMNIENT flames, as
if they were so much dry fuel—even the
old crying man's place so apparently well
guarded by magnificent tamarind trees
was completely burnt up. There are only
bare cracked WALLS left. Fancy I can
look out now from over a kind of black
maildan eastward and have a clear view of
the west face city wall. So fierce did the
fire rage, and so effectually do its duty
that even the charred remains of posts
usually seen after a fire, hardly exist in
the present instance! The posts them-
selves having been consumed with the
house. There is wide spread ruin and de-
solation. Burmans generally view these
calamities very philosophically but this
time I think they actually feel the visita-
tion to be more than an ordinary one.

THE MYE-LOON-GHEE CASE.—-It will
be of high interest to many persons here,
to learn that this great moot-point has
wound itself into parliamentary influ-
ence in England ; and that it was to have
them brought under discussion in the
House of Commons at an early date—-is
we are told by a paragraph in the last
OVERLAND MAIL, which we here annex—-

The Myloongyee Case,—-Colonel SYKES
on April 12, to move an address for copy
of correspondence of Mr. KNOX, the Con-
sul at Bangkok, with the foreign office,
and replies in reference to the claims made
by Mr. BURN, a British subject, and known
as the Myloongyee case.

It may be expected that the sifting thus
proposed for it, will more readily bring
the matter to a terminable issue, than all
the legal assertions and arguments that
could be employed about it, in all the
Courts in Burmah ; for according to well-
received opinion here, we believe the lever
of influence with the Court of Siam is THE
one to effect a proper adjustment. If
therefore the matter comes to be made a
Government question in England, it will
necessarily follow, as a consequential step,
that it will soon be made a diplomatic one
with the Siamese Court—-where, it is not
inaptly supposed, the vexed question must,
at last, be decided—-at least so PRO FORMA,
by a declaration of the validity or other-
wise of the original assignment.

ISLE OF BONES.

—-The greater part of the coast of New
Siberia and the Isle of the Lackon, on
the north of Asia, is only an agglomera-
tion of sand, ice and elephants' teeth.

The fishermen collect enormous quantities
of fossil ivory which is imported into
China and Europe, where it is employed
for the same purposes as ordinary ivory.

The isle of bones has served as a quarry
of this valuable material for export to
China for five hundred years; and it has
been exported to Europe for upwards of
a hundred. But the supply from these
strange mines remains undiminished.
What a number of accumulated genera-
tions does not this profusion of bones
and tusks imply.

CHANGES IN INDIAN SOCIETY.

-—Dr. Livingstone, after his second
and recent visit to Bombay, has thus
written of the marvellous changes in In-
dian Society. “Our Government is, upon
the whole, directed for the good of the
people. We have wise and equitable
legislation, and the laws are enforced
with fairness. Many of the magis-
trates are natives, and any of them may
rise as high as any European in the ma-
jority of offices under Government. No
other nation would have governed India
so well as we have done, or with as much
tender consideration for the feelings and
prejudices of the natives. We have rath-
er over-done our duty in this respect, and
as it appears to me the statement of a
native in London, that his countrymen
were buffeted if they did not make
obeisance to every European, must be
erroneous. Very few natives take any
notice of Europeans in passing, unless
they happen to be acquaintances. Here
nearly all the gay carriages and dashing
pairs are owned and occupied by native la-
dies and gentlemen, and certainly no more
is expected or received from them than
would be at Rotten-row among ourselves.
It is the same in those parts up country
where I have been, and I believe no other
nation would do so very much for a con-
quered people and exact so little. In
the parts of Africa conquered by the
Portuguese no native dare come near a
white with his hat on.'

Economy in France.

Americans have not the first no-
tions of economy. They make mon-
ey with little trouble, and spend it
without counting. In this it would be
well if they took a few lessons, and in
Europe they would have examples ad
infinitum if they mingled with the
people; but they learn no more of
the daily habits and interior life of
those among whom they travel than
if they staid at home. They learn
to practice their follies and not their
wisdom. Not how they shall make
money, but how they shall contrive to
live on what they have, is the question
with Europeans; how, by hook and
by crook they shall make the ends of
the year meet, and they have no
false shame about exhibiting all these
hooks and crooks. If one takes a
house full of his acquaintances ask
how much he paid for it, how much
income he has, how much it cost him
for dress, food, and all the various
necessaries of life; and then they
calculate to see if he can save any-
thing. An American feels insulted
by one such question. If a lady buys
a dress, her friends demand how
much it cost. They take the material
in their hands, rub it between their
fingers, pronounce upon its strength
and fineness, and whether it is a good
bargain. A French lady is happy to
give the most minute information up-
on all the details of her menage, and
would not be offended if asked how
much the dinner cost to which she had
invited you.

We know families in American
cities who do not think it possible to
have a good dinner for less than two
dollars each person; but we know
families in Paris who keep two or
three carriages, two coachmen, two
valets, two cooks, and three chamber-
maids, who allow only sixty cents each
person per day for food, and live very
well. The chief cook is told how
much he may spend for the table, and
no professed cook takes a place where
he can't make a good profit with the
sum allowed him. There are thou-
sands of families in Paris who live on
salaries of four, six, and eight hund-
red dollars a year, who never spend
more than ten dollars a month on the
table.—This will seem incredible, but
we have lived in such families and
shared their meals, which were suf-
ficient and good. Not a single item
is provided until the cost has been
counted. But the most important
article with English and Americans is
never reckoned by the French people.
This is time. They turn and putter
all day in half a bushel, while an Am-
erican would prefer some hard labor
that would yield him more money,
and save him the necessity of such
economy; and fortunately he lives in
a country where this decision is at his
choice. But here labor is not free, and
therefore money is not plenty, and,
what is worse, labor is not honorable.
—Paris Cor. Chicago Republican.

Home Conversations.

Children hunger perpetually for new
ideas, and the most pleasant way of
reception is by the voice and the ear,
not the eye and the printed page. The
one mode is natural, the other is
artificial. Who would not rather listen
than read? An audience will listen
closely from the beginning to the end
of an address, which not one in twenty
of those present would read with the
same attention. This is emphatically
true of children. They will learn
with pleasure from the lips of parents
what they deem drudgery to study in
the books; and even if they have the
misfortune to be deprived of the
educational advantages which they
desire, they cannot fail to grow up
intelligent if they enjoy in childhood
and youth the privilege of listening
daily to the conversation of intelligent
people. Let parents, then, talk much
and talk well at home. A father who
is habitually silent in his own house
may be, in many respects, a wise man;
but he is not wise in his silence. We
sometimes see parents who are the life
of every company which they enter,
dull, silent, uninteresting at home
among their children. If they have
not mental activity and mental stores
sufficient for both, "let them first provide
for their own household."

"The Wooden End
of the Board."

Gen. Banks, in a recent speech
delivered in Washington in favor of
free suffrage, told this anecdote:

When I was younger than I am,
living in the State of New Hamp-
shire, at the town of Nashua, where I
obtained my education at a University
with a belfry on the top and a water
wheel under the lower stories, looking
out with my associates and fellow
students upon the smooth and glassy
surface of the Merrimac river, the
stream of perpetual beauty and per-
petual life, we saw a colored boy, in-
timately known to us, upon the surface
engaged in the pleasant exercise of
skating, for it was winter. While we
looked upon the beautiful Merrimac,
the little negro boy suddenly went in.
You may never have seen a negro un-
der such circumstances.

We went down to him with all the
speed possible. Going out to the
middle of the river, we took up a
plank and handed it to the little negro,
and he grasped it with as much alacri-
ty as any one of them will take a ballot
when we give it to him. Just as he
had got it on the hole into which he
had fallen, he fell off the plank and
went in again. The second time he
came up, he wore an expression I shall
never forget. You have never seen a
negro under such circumstances.

He was speechless, his emotions
suppressed all rhetoric; he did not
indulge in any eloquence at all. He
grasped the plank this time, not with
alacrity but with ferocity, and we
brought him again to the surface. We
thought he was a negro saved from
the jaws of death; but off the little
fellow slipped and went down. You
may never have seen a negro under
such circumstances. We handed him
the plank again, but he did not touch
it this time. You may never have
seen a negro refuse a plank under such
circumstances. He addressed us a
speech, and I never heard a speech
that contained so much of touching
eloquence as was embodied in that
little negro's speech. "Please gib dis
nigger the wooden end of that board."
You see the end we had given to him
was the icy end. It was the same icy
end that the Southern people have
been holding out to him for two hun-
dred years. He was entirely satisfied
that the wooden end was the best.

Now, sir, what we propose for the
negro in this country is, to give him
the wooden end of the board. He has
had the icy end for more than two
centuries. The desolation of more
than mortal retribution has come up-
on the men who extended to him the
icy end of the board, and come upon
them justly. I wish now to give him
the wooden end of the board. He
will receive from that act of justice the
same joy which that little negro ex-
perienced.—Lo. Ca. News.

A Spider Story.

Fired with emulation, I carefully watc-
hed a common garden spider (EPEERA
DIADEMA,) which I found as wonderful.
I commenced by destroying the web of a
fat spider, and the owner appeared ex-
cessively astonished as her web collapsed
around her. At length she took refuge
in an inverted flower-pot, where I found
her two hours after. I am inclined to
think that during this period she was
preparing materials for a new web, I
found in every case where a web was de-
stroyed that the spider went away to some
quiet spot, and drawing his legs around
him, remained quiet for two or three
hours. During this period of repose the
spider is stupid and dull—just gives an
impatient shuffle when touched, but does
not run off as spiders generally do when
disturbed. I watched again, then left,
and when I returned in half an hour I
found the spider as active as a spider could
be in building a new web—-the old one,
which at my last visit was still hanging,
had vanished. Had the spider eaten it?
“thats the rub.” By a lucky chance an-
other spider came a-up the piece of wood,
from the end of which my spider had
fastened one of her foundation lines.
“They met,” and in an instant the claws
of each were shot out with a dexterity
that a pugilist might envy; the blows were
given in exactly the same manner as a cat
strikes her antagonist. The trespassing
spider was soon convinced that it would
be the hight of folly to stop where he
was; so fastening a line from where he
stood. he let himself down on to a con-
volvulus leaf. My friend rushed to the
spot where spider No. 2 had fastened his
line; and seizing on it the other end of
which, be it remembered, was in com-
munication with spider No. 2’s body be-
gan to wind him off, that is to say, she
drew the line in toward herself, in the
same manner that a sailor hauls in a rope,
but with a rapidity that was truly wonder-
ful; the front legs moved so rapidly
that my eyes could scarcely follow them.
Spider No. 2 having a decided objection
to his vitals being wound away in this
sort of manner, put an end to my friend’s
little pastime by cutting the line. Spider
No. 1 had now collected web that amount-
ed to the size of a large pea; when she
found the supply cut off she began stow-
ing it away in her own body, forcing
it in with her two front claws, and in a
few moments not a vestige was left.

Sowing Wild Oats.

In all the wide range of accepted max-
ims, there is none, take it for all in all,
more thoroughly abominable than the one
as to the sowing of wild oats. Look at it
on what side you will, and I will defy you
to make anything but a devil's maxim of
it. What a man-—be he young, old, or
middle-aged—-sows, that, and nothing
else, shall be reapt. The one only thing
to do with wild oats is to put them care-
fully into the hottest part of the fire, and
get them burnt to dust, every seed of
them. If you sow them, no matter in
what ground, up they will come, with
long, tough roots like the couch grass,
and luxuriant stalks and leaves as sure
as there is a sun in heaven—a crop which
it turns one's heart cold to think of.
The devil, too, whose special crop
they are, will see that they thrive, and
you, and nobody else, will have to reap
them; and no common reaping will get
them out of the soil, which must be dug
down deep, again and again. Well for
you if with all your care, you can make
the ground sweet again by your dying day.

A Methodist Estimate
of Spurgeon.

Rev. Gilbert Haven, in his notes of
European travel, says, of Spurgeon:

I confess to a previous prejudice against
him; but he disarmed me. I heard him
through. And though I dislike to admit
any one into the circle where my three
great preachers dwell—Olin, Durbin and
Beecher—-yet I have to acknowledge that
he has a seat beside, if not above them.
He is a very remarkable man, the great-
est preacher, I think, that I have heard.
He glories in the simplicity of his preach-
ing and seems to think that he is nothing
remarkable; but only an earnest, straight-
forward evangelist.

Careless Business Men.

It is not possible for a man to be care-
less in business affairs, or unmindful of
his business obligations, without being
weak or rotten in his personal character.
Show me a man who never pays his notes
when they are due, and who shuns the
payment of his bills when it is possible,
and does both these things as a habit, and
I shall see a man whose moral character
is beyond all question bad. We have
had illustrious examples of this lack of
business exactness. We have had great
men who were in the habit of borrowing
money without repaying it, or apologizing
for not repaying it. We have had great
men whose business habits were simply
scandalous—-who never paid a bill unless
when urged and worried, and who expend-
ed for their personal gratification every
cent of money they could lay their hands
upon. These delinquencies have been
apologized for as among the eccentricities
of genius, or as the unmindfulness of
small affairs which naturally attends all
greatness of intellect and intellectual ef-
fort; but the world has been too easy
with them altogether. I could name great
men—-and the names of some of them arise
before the readers of this letter—-who
were atrociously dishonest. I do not care
how great these men were. I do not care
how many amiable and admirable traits
they possess. They were dishonest, and
untrustworthy in their business relations,
and that simple fact condemns them. I
am ready to believe anything bad of a
man who habitually neglects to fulfil his
business obligations. Such a man is cer-
tainly rotten at heart. He is not to be
trusted with a public responsibility, or a
rum bottle, or a woman.—-DR. HOLLAND.

Prices Current.

EXCHANGE—On Singapore 1 @ 1⅓ 10 d.s.
Hongkong 2 P cent discount 30 d. s. Lon-
don 4s 9⅓ d. P 86 m. s.

Odds and Ends.

—-A bone of contention should be
thrown away when there is no longer
any meat on it.

—-To bring up a child in the way
he should go.-—Travel that way your-
self.

—-The man who would like to go
to heaven alone, will never get there
either alone or in company.

—-"What are you doing!" said a
father to his son, who was tinkering
at an old watch. "Improving my
time," was the rejoinder.

Wood-sawyer's soliloquy—"Of all
the saws I ever saw to saw with, I
never saw a saw to saw as this saw
saws."

A poor Irishman who applied for a
license to sell ardent spirits, being
questioned as to his moral fitness for
the trust, replied, "Ah! sure it is not
much of a character that a man needs
to sell rum!"

—-We should give as we receive,
—cheerfully, and without hesitation,
for there is no grace in a benefit that
sticks to the fingers.

—-Different sounds travel with dif-
ferent degrees of velocity. A call to
dinner will run over a ten acre lot in
minute and a half, while a summons to
to work will take from five to ten
minutes.

—-There is no greater obstacle to
success in life than trusting for some-
thing to turn up, instead of going to
work and turning up something.

—-An Irish peasant being asked
why he permitted his pig to take up
his quarters with the family answered
—"Why not? Don't the place afford
every convenience that a pig can re-
quire!"

—-A lady in an omnibus at Washing-
ton, espied the great unfinished dome
of the Capitol, (which don't look
much like a dome at present) and said
innocently, "I suppose those are the
works!" "Yes madam, for the na-
tion," was the answer of a fellow pas-
senger.

—-If we are loved by those around
us we can bear the hostility of all the
rest of the world; just as if we are be-
fore a warm fire, we need not care for
all the ice in the Polar regions.

Our Financial Revolution.

A WRITER in the December number of
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE demonstrates,
with great clearness and force, the injur-
ies which have been inflicted on British
commerce by the laws which restrict the
issue of paper currency, and make the
amount of it dependent, not upon the
exigencies of the public, but the amount of
specie held by the Bank of England.
The constantly recurring crisis in com-
mercial affairs which have been so ruin-
ous to England are with singular clear-
ness proved to be owing to this cause.
At the very time when specie grows scarce
by its withdrawals, for exportation, and
the necessities of the public for an in-
creased emission of currency become a
alarming, then instead of meeting the de-
mand by an issue of more paper, the bank
begins to contract its issues ; as a matter
of course, trade becomes cramped, mer-
cantile operations restricted, prices fall,
distrust spreads, failures occur, and dis-
tress pervades the whole country. We
know all about these things in this country,
having been constantly subject to them
under our old state-bank system, the last
and most disastrous of them having fallen
upon us in 1857. Seeing how easily these
financial crisis occurred during times of
profound peace and abundant harvests,
when we ought to have been in the most
prosperous condition, financially speak-
ing, it was perfectly natural that all our
financial writers and bank managers
should have predicted utter ruin to our
commerce in the event of a war with the
South ; and that visions of ships rotting
at our wharves, and grass growing, in
Broadway and Wall street, should fright-
en the wits out of prudent, conservative
capitalists. What right had they to ex-
pect anything else, in the event of a civil
war, when disasters nearly as great oc-
curred in times of peace? But the long-
dreaded event at last came, and the pro-
phets of evil held their breath, anticipa-
ting the predicted ruin. The ruin, how-
ever, did not come—-at least not the kind
of ruin that was looked for. Broadway,
instead of being overgrown with grass,
was overcrowded with customers. Wall
street sprung into new life. Sagacious
conservatives shook their venerable heads,
and said : "It's all very well now ; but
wait and see." Well, we have waited, and
what have we seen? Why, a severe fin-
ancial crisis in England in 1864, but none
here as yet. Peace, however, was to bring,
not healing on its wings, but the great
smash up which was to involve all in one
wide-spread financial ruin. But we have
now had nine months of peace, which
have been to us nine months of uninter-
rupted commercial prosperity. Of all
the commercial nations of the world with
which we have had intercourse during
the past five years, not one of them has
been so free from financial derangements
as our own country ; and yet, while they
have been at peace and in the enjoyment
of a specie currency, we have been at
war, have increased our national debt
3,000,000,000 of dollars, have given free-
dom to four millions of slaves, have had our
most valuable ports blockaded, have re-
duced our cotton crop from 4,000,000 of
bales to 1,500,000, have lost more than a
hundred thousand tonnage of shipping
by rebel pirates, and have suspended
specie payments during all the time, too.
We wonder if any of the people who are
so desirous for a return to the old order
of things, who would impose upon us
again the old state-bank system, ever
give themselves the trouble of thinking
to what we owe our marvelous successes
during the past four years, as well as our
continued prosperity during the last nine
months?

If they do, they cannot fail to see that
they were directly owing to the abundant
issues of legal-tender, which were re-
garded as a dire necessity at first, but
have proved to be our great salvation.
These legal-tenders gave us something to
work with ; they furnished the people with
a perfect currency, and at the same time
gave the Government a permanent loan
of four hundred millions of dollars, free
of interest. And now it is proposed to
roll back the great financial revolution
which we blundered into, to return to
the restrictive scheme of a paper curren-
cy, based upon specie, which proves so
inconvenient and disastrous to England,
and which once was so inconvenient and
disastrous to ourselves ; but we believe it
to be wholly impossible to do this, and in
the impossibility of it our safety lies. It
was an easy matter to put four millions of
greenback currency into circulation ; but
to suppress it will be about as practicable,
and about as sensible, as it would be to put
a full-grown turkey back into the shell
from which it had been hatched. We
might kill the fowl in attempting to com-
press him into his original condition, and
that is about all we shall be able to do
with our financial prosperity if we attempt
to go back to the ante-rebellion system
of currency.—-N. Y. INDEPENDENT.

How Justice is to be Enforced.

The following terse answer to a let-
ter of inquiry recently sent to Gen.
Fisk from an agent of the bureau,
will show your readers how justice is
to be enforced in this State:

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE,
NASHVILLE, TENN., DEC. 13, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowl-
edge the receipt of your favor of the
13th, and to reply as follows:

Q.—-What shall be my course to en-
force a judgment for debt?

A.—-You will, after giving reason-
able time, seize and sell the debtor's
property.

Q.-—When a white man is fined for
beating a freedman, and he refuses to
pay the fine, how shall I enforce the
payment?

A.-—Hold him in arrest until he
pays it; and if he still refuses, put him
in jail.

Q.—-When I order a white man to
appear to answer a claim for debt due
a freedman, and he refuses to ap-
pear, what have I to do?

A.—You will arrest and fine him
for contempt.

Q.—-What about carrying fire arms?

A.—-Treat every one alike. You
cannot disarm the negroes when white
men of every class are allowed to car-
ry arms.

Q.—-What about whipping as a pun-
ishment for crime.

A.—-No! Let the lash be laid a-
side forever. All civilized nations
have discarded it. Its use would dis-
grace the American name. Should any
one attempt to use it on any one of
his laborers, you will punish him so-
verely.

Q.—-What shall I do with roving
and vagrant negroes?

A.—-Treat them just as the law
treats white vagrants. Let freedmen
know that you are the friend and pro-
tector of the industrious but the en-
emy and punisher of the dishonest and
vagrant.

You may ask : How am I to ob-
tain officers to enforce my orders? Se-
lect civil officers in the county, if you
can find such as will enforce your pro-
cesses; if not, appoint officers from a-
mong civilians. If you cannot find
such, apply for military aid. You are
in the service of the United States,
and its whole power is pledged to sus-
tain you in the discharge of your du-
ty. I am, sir, very respectfully, your
obedient servant,

Brevet Maj. Gen. and Asst. Com.
for Kentucky and Tennessee.

This has the right ring in it. Let
the spirit of this letter be carried out
by the agents of the Bureau, in every
State and country in the rebellious
States, and it will not be long until
public sentiment will be purified, and
equitable laws will be passed, securing
to all, the rights of person and pro-
perty—-N. Y. Independent.