The Bangkok Recorder.

A Weekly journal will be issued from the printing office of the American Missionary Association, at the mouth of the Canal, "Klong Bangkok Yai." It will contain such Political, Literary, Scientific, Commercial, and Local Intelligence, as shall render it worthy of the general patronage.

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An “unsurpassed” Hymn.

In the NEW-ENGLANDER for August, 1860, Dr. Bacon pronounces the following exquisite hymn “unsurpassed in the Eng- lish or any other language” and adds that “perhaps it is as near perfection as any uninspired language can be.” It is usual- ly ascribed to Hillhouse, the poet, i. e., James A. Hillhouse, but, according to Dr. Bacon, it was written by his younger bro- ther, Augustus L. Hillhouse, who died near Paris in March, 1859.

O Lord! in dust my sins I own,

Justice and mercy for my life

Contend! Oh! smile and heal the strife.

The Saviour smiles! upon my soul

New tides of hope tumultuous roll—

His voice proclaims my pardon found,

Seraphic transport wings the sound.

Earth has a joy unknown in heaven—-

The new born peace of sin forgiven!

Tears of such pure and deep delight,

Ye angels! never dimmed your sight.

Ye saw of old, on chaos rise

The beauteous pillars of the skies;

Ye know where morn exulting springs,

And evening folds her drooping wings.

Bright heralds of Eternal Will,

Abroad his errands yet fulfill:

Or throned in floods of beamy day,

Symphonious in his presence play.

Loud is the song—-the heavenly plain

Is shaken with the choral strain—-

And dying echoes, floating far,

Draw music from each chiming star.

But I amid your choirs shall shine,

And all your knowledge shall be mine;

Ye on your harps must learn to bear

A secret chord that mine will bear.

Pastor Harms.

This great and good man, who has re- cently died in Germany, has shown to the world what great things can be accom-

plished for Christ by faith and prayer and untiring labor. He lived and died in Her- mannsburg, a village on the great Lune- burger Heath, becoming the pastor of the parish after the death of his father in 1848. The care of this parish, which is about ten miles square, and contains seven villages, would seem to be sufficient to engross a pastor's thoughts and energies. A dead orthodoxy prevailed; but, under his earnest and faithful labors, a new Christian life soon began to pervade the people, which, under his direction for over sixteen years, has made the parish of Her- mannsburg the most remarkable mission- ary community in the world.

Though his people knew nothing of for- eign missions, he soon formed the plan of establishing a missionary institute for training candidates for the work by a course of four years; where, besides study- ing to be ministers, they could learn some trade, and thus be able to introduce the arts of christian life as well as christian ordinances into heathen countries. He, however, had no funds to start the enter- prise, and his people were poor. He then cast himself upon God, and like Müller of Bristol, found that He whose is the silver and the gold, could supply all his wants. Funds flowed in upon him from all parts of the world, enabling him to build a large building, and afterwards another, capable of accommodating forty-eight students. Over a hundred candidates now desire ad- mission to the institute.

In 1858, when eight students had finish- ed their course of study and were desirous of establishing a mission on the east coast of Africa, the question arose how were they to be sent? Pastor Harms decided that they must build a ship; and though most of his people had never seen a ship on the ocean, and lived at a distance from any port of the German sea, he prayed to God for this.

The ship called the Candace was built, and sailed from Hamburg October 18th, 1858, and has been sailing on missionary voyages ever since, having transported more than fifty missionaries and more than a hundred colonists. They have nine mis- sion stations in Africa, over 40,000 acres of land appropriated to the missionary service, and more than a hundred converts. Preachers have also gone from his insti- tute to Australia, the East Indies, and to the Germans in our western States. In 1854 he started a monthly paper to diffuse missionary news among his people, which has now a circulation of 14,000, the larg- est of any religious periodical in Germany.

With all the immense additional toil which the oversight of these great enter- prises required, his custom being to spend twelve hours a day over his books or cor- respondence, while he seldom retired to rest before two or three o'clock at night, Pastor Harms did not neglect his paro- chial duties. He preached three times on the Sabbath, often two hours at a time, and held a daily evening exercise of pray- er for an hour at the parsonage. His peo- ple were trained to systematic giving, eve- ry member of his church bringing to him each week, for missions, as God had pros- pered him. There are no beggars, no drunkards, no ragged straggling children, and no paupers in his parish. In every house there is family prayer morning and evening: no one is absent from church services on the Sabbath or in the week, except from sickness. His people are very industrious and live in great harmony.

And all this, humanly speaking, is the work of one man, afflicted with a painful disease, but animated by an all-conquer- ing faith, trusting not in man, but in the promises of an Almighty and prayer-hear- ing God. Professor Park, of Andover, who visited him in 1863, says of him, "I never saw a man so wonderful—so much like a being of another world and a superior race."—THE PACIFIC.

Carlyle on John Knox.

Thomas Carlyle, in his late inaugural address to the Edinburgh students, paid a noble tribute to the Puritan Reformers in general, and to John Knox in particular. Having remarked of Cromwell : "I don't know, in any history of Greece or Rome, where you will get so fine a man as Oliver Cromwell, he added:

And we have had men worthy of mem- ory in our own corner of the island here as well as others, and our history has been strong at least in being connected with the world history, for, if you examine well, you will find that John Knox was the au- thor, as it were, of Oliver Cromwell ; that the Puritan Revolution would never have taken place in England at all, had it not been for that Scotchman. That is an au- thentic fact, and is not prompted by na- tional vanity on my part at all. And it is very possible, if you look at the struggle that was then going on in England, as I have had to do in my time, you will see that the people were overawed by the im- mense impediments lying in the way. A small minority of God-fearing men in the country were flying away with any ship they could get, to New England, rather than take the lion by the beard. They dare not confront the powers with their most just complaints to be delivered from idolatry. They wanted to make the nation altogether conformable to the Hebrew Bi- ble, which they understood to be accord- ing to the will of God, and there could be no aim more legitimate. However, they could not have got their desire fulfilled at all if Knox had not succeeded by the firm- ness and nobleness of his mind ; for he is also of the select of the earth to me—-John Knox. What he has suffered from the ungrateful generation that have followed him, should really make us humble our- selves to the dust, to think that the most excellent man our country has produced, to whom we owe everything that has dis- tinguished us among modern nations, should have been so sneered at and abused. Knox was heard in Scotland—-the people heard him with the marrow of their bones— they took up his doctrine, and they defied principalities and powers to move them from it. "We must have it," they said.

"This doctrine of Knox, which inspired the people of Scotland, and which gave birth to Cromwell and the Puritan Revolu- tion, we need not say was Calvinism. We do not think that its virtues are yet ex- tinct, nor that a little more of it would hurt the American people, or make them less firm and invincible than Knox and his followers. The New England Fathers had the same spirit, because they had the same faith. If we would inherit and perpetuate the former, we must not abandon the lat- ter. The doctrine of the absolute sover- eignty of God and of the absolute depen- dence of man—it is the doctrine to make men at once humble and strong, obedient and unconquerable. The faith of the Scotch Reformer, of the English Puritan, of the New England Pilgrim, is yet needed to steel the supporters of freedom, of justice and of pure christianity in America. En- larged, liberalized, humanized, let it be as much as you please, but not diluted, nor mutilated, nor sublimated to mere va- por."—-THE PACIFIC.

Accessory Before the Fact.

When the President issued his pro- clamation for the capture of Davis, charging him with a part in the assas- sination of Lincoln, the accusation was almost too enormous for belief. And when time dragged on without his arraign- ment, and the trial of the chief assassins failed to prove the complicity of the Richmond authorities, it seemed that Mr. Johnson acted hastily and without good evidence.

The report of the judiciary commit- tee, to whom was referred this whole matter, will materially change public conviction. The testimony is so strong that the committee do not hesitate to say that it is PROBABLE that Davis was accessory before the fact to Mr. Lin- coln's death. The evidence which they present, gathered from the captured r. b. el archives, lacks but a link or too to make the chain of full conviction com- plete. Whether that link will ever be found, and Mr. Davis' crimes stand to public gaze crowned with that greater one, at the thought of which the world stands aghast, is uncertain. It is proved that plans and propositions for the mur- der of the Federal authorities were re- ceived and considered by him, and the very papers, endorsed in his own hand writing are in possession of our authori- ties. It is proved that Booth was in pre- vious communication with and in the confidence of the rebel cabinet, and that he also was in communication with the leaders in the plots to burn New York, blow up the National Capital and burn the Mississippi steam boats, and that these fiendish enterprises were set on foot by Davis and his advisers. And to remove all doubt that Mr. Davis could stoop to such, a depth of villainy the documentary evidence is produced that he was directly responsible for the hor- rors of Andersonville and Belle Isle, that he knew the state of things in the prison- depots when at their worst, and refused to interfere to ameliorate them.

In the light of these revelations we do not wonder that there is a hurrying of Davis' counsel to Fortress Monroe, and long consultations. Nor do we wonder at the nervous sleepiness of the crim- inal which complained of a quiet sentry's tread as unendurable.—-Lo. Co. News.

Seward-—Then and Now.

These are the words which Mr. Sew- ard hears from old friends as he turns his back on those principles of which he once made so proud defense. Says the Utica HERALD:

It has been our habit to confide in William H. Seward. We remember when, “faithful among the faithless,” he held high the banner of liberty and human rights, and his ringing words aroused the country like a clarion. We cannot forget the services he rendered to that cause through trying years in the Senate, when great men fell away from it. History will make mention that he steered the ship of State amid foreign breakers and storms, when a false movement of the rudder would have ruined it. His name is subscribed to the Emancipation Pro- clamation with that of Lincoln. He can- not, if he would, sever his name from the destruction of slavery in the land. Weary with cares and with years, does he now refuse to go further in the work of es- tablishing liberty and securing justice? Jubilant over what has been gained, is he ready to forgive his old enemies? So far no one can complain. It is when Mr. Seward prefers enemies to friends, when he throws his influence for reaction, when he casts away the records of his life and enters on a sole[?] in which success is in-

famy, he must go without the associates who have held him up heretofore, without the inspiration of the principles which have made him all he is.—-Lo. Co. News.

An Authentic Account of the
New Orleans Riot.

[The following letter was not design- ed for publication; but, as we so thor- oughly know the writer's truthfulness and intelligence, we lay his authentic account before our readers. Our correspondent has been a twenty years' resident in the South, and was a Union officer during the war.—- ED. INDEPENDENT.]

Yesterday was a sad day for New Or- leans. The Convention of '64 met at noon, at the Mechanics' Institute. After calling the roll, on motion of Hon. King Cutler, a recess of one hour, to admit the sergeant-at-arms time to bring in the absent members, was carried unanimously.

During the interim, on a preconcerted arrangement made by the mayor, the alarm-bells were tolled, and the conven- tion was attacked by the whole united police force. It can be proven, whenever an investigation may be had, that the mayor issued orders to the entire police force to be in readiness, and doubly arm- ed. At twelve o'clock on Sunday night the police were called off their stations. On Saturday Rebel Gen. Harry T. Hayes, sheriff of New Orleans, swore in 250 extra deputies. The rebels were cut-and- dried for the affray and they carried out their vile intent with a vengeance.

It has been their intent to frustrate the action of the convention at any and every hazard. The Union men did not suspect anything more than that writs for the arrest of the members of the conven- tion would perhaps be issued.

About one o'clock p. m. yesterday, the Institute was surrounded by the whole rebel police force-—for all these are parol- ed rebel soldiers—-and others in citizens clothes, all armed to the teeth. About two hundred negroes were in the hall of the Institute and outside in the street. I was in the hall when the convention took a recess, and for twenty-five minutes afterward. I had been sick, and just out of the hospital, and went out to take some refreshment. I noticed, particularly, that the negroes were not armed, except, perhaps, some who may have had small pistols in their pockets. As a proof of this, the rebels killed between sixty and seventy negroes and wounded 150 more. Ninety wounded negroes were carried to the marine hospital, who, when released by the military, were unable to go to their homes, being too badly mutilated. Only a few policemen were wounded, and it is supposed they shot each other accidentally.

Ten policemen rushed up the stairs of the hall, and commenced firing indiscri- minately at black and white. Dr. Hulton, Baptist minister, who offered prayer at the opening of the convention, cried to the police, "For God's sake not to fire," that "the people were unarmed," etc. But nothing could induce these fiends to desist; they fired away, and killed and wounded many. They retired but to re- load, and returned to the bloody work.

I was returning to the hall of the In- stitute when the word was passed along the street, "A riot! a riot!" I saw a negro coming from the Institute all bloody. I went on to within one square of the hall, when a general hub-hub was raised, and shots fired as if a regiment of soldiers were engaged in a regular battle, people running to and fro. I went into a house and to the second story, where I had a full view. I saw a negro shot down, and several beating him with sticks and brick- bats; a policeman came up, and struck him with a mace; he was dragged across the street, and beaten on the head and back with bricks and clubs, and then dragged off to jail. I saw another man across the street, near the railroad car; he was shot down and dragged into the gutter. I saw another dragged out of the Harrow-street car, and shot at sev- eral times; I saw a policeman shoot him, not eight feet distant.

Every place where a negro was found about the hall of the convention was the signal of his murder. Many hid themsel- ves under the houses, and in corners in coalpiles, ect.; but were unmercifully shot, and stabbed, and beaten. The riots of Memphis were but child's play to this.

This has all emanated from the policy inaugurated by Andy Johnson. Where it will end God only knows. There is no security for life or liberty here—for white men, much less negroes. I tell you—and mark my words for it—-that it will not be five years from this day—-if every thing goes on here in the same progressive ratio as in the past twelve months—when slav- ery will be established in this state, in one shape or another.

All the blood which has been shed should be justly laid upon Andrew John- son and his accursed policy.

Fourth of July.

The editor of the Xenia TORCHLIGHT gave the National Anniversary the fol- lowing puff:

“It is only ninety years ago to-day since the sublime Declaration of Indepen- dence announced our country to be one of the nations of the earth. There are men now living whose age reaches back to the birth of the nation. A nation not older than a man, with thirty millions of population, thirty hundred millions of public debt, eight million traitors, and—- Andrew Johnson.

It is a hurried little history for ninety years. But that is what we have come to. Yet our record has some luminous lines in it.

We have distinctly whipped Great Britain twice. (N. B. We are hankering to do it again.)

We have waved the banner of glory in and around the Halls of the Montezumas. (and we have about made up our mind that Maximilian has waved his there nearly long enough.)

We have built incredible thousands of miles of railroad. (Likewise, we have smashed incredible thousands of Ameri- can people thereon.)

We have invented and put in practice an infinite tangle of telegraph all over this continent. (And we keep it to the top of its lightning in diffusing Associated- Press dispatches and Johnson’s vetoes.)

We have searched the old forest with republican civilization, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. (In which process we have combed out and cracked innum- erable vile vermin of humanity called “red men of the forest,”-—romantically so called.)

We have given to the world the bless- ed sewing machine and Hoe’s cylinder press. (With which we are in a way to sew up and Hoe down all creation.)

We have fought the greatest civil war of the world’s history, crushing a con- spiracy of eight million people,—-the most causelessly, criminally, and desperately treasonable people the sun ever shone upon. (Besides, we squelched, in the same process, the hundreds of thousands —-we don’t know how many—of their copperhead allies in our midst; and were so lamentably magnanimous as not to have hanged any of them,—-letting them all live to vote us back to where we fought out from.)

We have, by this war, righted the most stupendous wrong of christendom, strik- ing off the shackles from four million slaves, and restoring to them those “un- alienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” which our 4th-of- July Declaration maintains that all are “endowed with.” (We are taking meas- ures to secure these freed loyalists in the aforesaid rights by remanding them to the mild and patriarchal rule of those whose judicious and gentle lash has go- verned them hitherto, even as a fond father governeth his wayward children.)

In this war, we put the finest body of soldiers into the field that ever did bat- tle,—-noble, generous, glorious men, who, (God bless them!) lavished their lives by the hundred thousand that we might still be a nation. (And we manufactured Generals and Colonels enough to fill our offices for two generations.)

In this war, too, we found three of the grandest heroes of history.—-Grant, Sher- man, Sheridan. (This was after we had found George B. McClellan.)

We had for President, from the begin- ning to the end of this war, one of the most honest, earnest, genuine men that even guided a people through the Red Sea of battle. (We have-—Andrew John- son.)

Such are some of the glories (and so forth) that it is natural to recur to on this 4th of July. And it is natural, too, to look round and contemplate results. We have the ninety years of national growth before us—-and that with slavery’s mortal poison in the national soul and body. Look at it, and, without any 4th- of-July fustian, say if there is anything in the books that can be named in com- parison. In spite of the shameful and degrading drawback, we have risen to a standing with the first rate powers of the earth.

But, the stain on the banner now dyed out with patriotic blood, we go forward from a new era henceforth. Ten 4ths of July from this will not have passed till we shall be recognized as the controlling power on the globe. This is not patriotic prophecy; this is the logic of events—- destiny.

Dear readers, may we all celebrate that hundredth 4th of July. And let us live, and act, and vote as to feel that we have contributed our share to promote the integrity, peace, prosperity, and gran- deur of the Great Republic.—-Lo. Co. News.

EMPLOYMENT. “Nature’s physician,” is so essential to human happiness, that indo- lence is justly considered as the “mother of misery.”

Bangkok Recorder.

An outlook Homeward.

By the last Chow Phya we are in receipt of telegrams from U. S. to the 7th September; from London to the 8th September; papers from the States to the 23d of August; from London to 8th September; from Serampore to 20th ult; from Penang to 22d Sept., from Shanghai to 15th September, from Hongkong to 27th September and from Singapore to 6th inst.

Peace appears to be fully establish- ed in Europe, and the results of the late war no less inspiring of hope, to our minds, than when we ventured to pen our thoughts on the subject four weeks ago. We feel confident that we shall yet see more and more occasion to admire our King of kings for his wisdom and power, faithfulness and love in overruling and directing the political affairs of Europe.

The signs of the times in the U. S. seem to indicate a very stormy time near at hand. President Johnson still ad- heres to his policy of admitting all the Southern States, lately glowing hot in rebellion and now but doubtfully penitent, to full representation in Con- gress without delay: and Congress still opposes it with great wisdom and power though there have been some deplorable defections from her ranks. It is very sad to see the President using his great power to proscribe the Republican party who raised him to his high seat, and on whose platform he pledged himself to abide. His pro- mises of being a Moses to the Freed- men, he seems to have abandoned, leaving them to fight their own way alone through the wilderness, beset with most fearful dangers. Instead of exerting his influence to punish any leader of the rebellion, and thus asser- ting 'the majesty of the law against treason, as he has often said he would do, he pardons all. It looks too much as if he had gone back into Egypt and become confederate with Pharaoh and his host.

He seems now to fraternize more with Southern politicians, whose hands have been imbued in the blood of hun- dreds of thousands of Union men, than with the party who under God sub- dued the rebellion, and who elected him to power. He is making most extraordinary efforts to form a new political organization composed of those Southerners, and those at the North who sympathized with them in the rebellion. He is determined to swell their ranks by all the power he has to make backsliders from the Re- publican party. He hopes to sway the elections this fall so that the next Congress will favor his policy of re- construction, leaving the question of the full enfranchisement of the blacks to be disposed of as shall best suit their old masters. We must say that we can have little hope for any peace and prosperity to the Freedmen for a whole generation to come, if that poli- cy shall be fully inaugurated. But our hope in God is, that he will leave Mr. Johnson to work out his own over- throw in the course he is taking, that the people of the States will thus be incited to come to the polls against him with overwhelming majorities, and that the next Congress will be found even stronger against him than the one which has just been disbanded.

The Philadelphia Convention, held last August for raising a new political party for sustaining the President's policy, appears to have been the most extraordinary "deliberative body" of politicians which the U. S. has ever had. We cannot learn that there was any exchange of sentiment on its floor whatever. One of the most respectable public journals of the States declares that the convention did nothing but appear in dress-parade before its leaders, that its total sessions amount- ed to less than five hours, two of which were occupied by the reading of the address and the declaration of sentiment, that all motions, resolutions, and nominations were prepared be- fore hand, that every State delegation voted in its private committee-room and that no member was allowed to speak except by unanimous consent of the delegation.

The argument of the convention for admitting the Southern States to Con- gress, is founded mainly on the soph- istical idea that Southern States are now in the Union. "Why" says the same Journal "are they in? They are in because they were never out. But are these States entitled to be in Congress just because they are in the Union? Were they not, according to the argument, just as much in the Union as they are now? And were they entitled to sit in Congress during the war? Such a proposition shocks common sense. If, then they were in the Union during the war, yet not in Congress, they can be in the Union now, and not in Congress."

[We extract the following article from the Bangkok Recorder for 1860, thinking that few of our readers are acquainted with the customs therein described, and that those even who are will not take it amiss to have their memories thus revived on subjects to which the present season is especially calling their attention.

The phrase KOW WASA means the com- mencement of the wet season and AWK WASA means the going out or ending of the wet season. These names however are not to be understood as any thing near an exact representation of the beginning and ending of the wet season, for it really be- gins two months earlier and ends generally a month later.

The KOW WASA season always commen- ces at the middle of the 8th Siamese month and the AWK WASA at the middle of the 11th month. The intervening time of three months has sometimes been denominated by foreigners the BUDDHIST LENT.]

K'ow Wasa

All Buddhists who have much ven- eration for their religion, anticipate this season, by making special provi- sion in behalf of the priests to serve them for a term of 3 months on which they then enter, and during which they are deprived of the privilege of tra- veling so far from the temples to which they belong, as to make it ne- cessary to spend a night away from them. For their comfort during this term of confinement, all classes set themselves to provide for their parch- ed rice and corn, flowers that never fade, both natural and artificial, silver- ed and gilded trees, figures of birds and various animals beautifully con- structed, and made to stand daily be- fore them in their dormitories. On the day of the 15th, they are formally presented to them. Of these the priests take a part and offer them to the idol, and place them in order at his feet to stand there for three months. Another part they present to their teachers, and elders, and aged priests residing in the same temple. Having done this, the priests then assemble together and pledge themselves to the idol, and to one another, that they will not sleep out of their dormitories un- til the expiration of the three months.

The 15th waxing of the 11th moon is the day when Buddhist customs allow the priests to come out of their confinement in the temples, and travel as far away from home as they please. To provide for them suitable clothing during their wanderings, extraordin- ary efforts are made by the laity, from the highest to the lowest, in anticipa- tion of these days.

The awk wasa Holidays.

The Kings especially, take care to have innumerable bales of white c.tton shirting cut up into small pieces, and then sewed together into large priest robes to imitate apparel made up of patchwork, for Buddhist priests in the beginning clothed themselves with rags, to show their self mortification. But how greatly have they in these days, departed from their original simplicity! These robes are after- wards, dyed yellow. They are not all, nor the greater part, presented to the priests on either of those days. A whole month is required to finish the offerings. There is on those three days a general devotion to works of merit-making.

The Kings of Siam have on each evening, a public exhibition of their own personal offerings, made with particular reference, it is said, to Buddha's foot-print near the sea-shore in a distant country, unknown, which can only be reached by water convey- ances. Consequently the offerings are made on the river. They consist of little skiffs and plantain stalk floats; some in pagoda form, towering ten or twelve feet; some bearing images of birds and beasts, real and fabulous; with other varieties innumerable, all splendidly illuminated with wax can- dles. These offerings are floated off in regular succession, one by one, by the ministration of His Majesty's ser- vants, he himself being present in his royal seat on the river. The offerings float down with the ebb tide, beauti- fully illuminating the river for several miles before their lights burn out. Af- ter this, many of the naked floats are captured by the people, and each skiff is returned by the man who had charge of it.

This part of the ceremony being finished, the King then ignites a match to the fire-works arranged in boats, in the midst of the river; when a new scene breaks forth. Fire trees are seen standing in the river; and by their powerful sulphurous blaze, illuminate much of the city. Presently the glo- ry of these depart, and then a line of flowering shrubbery made by fire ap- pear, and develope their varied flow- ers, continually changing their hue. After this, rockets and squibs of great variety are shot off from boats.

The people generally make their own family offerings, on those three evenings, several hours before the King comes out of his palace. You may see them all over the city, on the rivers and canals near their homes. They consist of the arks made of the inner layers of the stalk of the Scilla maratima, illuminated by wax can- dles, and squibs innumerable flying in the open heavens, and frolicking in the water. The prevailing notion among the common people seems to be, that these fire-works are offerings to the genii of the land and water, to ex- piate for the sin of polluting their do- mains with the excrement and filth of man and beast, as they have done, dur- ing the 12 months which are then about to close.

All the time onward thence to the 1st day of the 12th waning moon, is regarded as being peculiarly propiti- ous for making offerings to the priests, and worshiping the idol. About the beginning of the 12th month, the Kings, one at a time, make their ap- pearance in their best estate, being es- corted by vast processions by land and water, carrying with them yellow robes to present to the priests, with their own hands, at the many temples dedicated to them. Some 15 days are almost wholly occupied in this way, passing in great pomp from temple to temple. Three or four of the temples are usually visited by them daily.

Other temples not dedicated to the Kings, are in the mean time visited by large parties of Budd'h's followers, who unite together in processions by water, and carry yellow apparel, fruits, and other things, to their priests after the fashion set them by their Sover- eigns

About the same time, many parties get together evenings, and make a great show of lanterns, gongs, and trumpets, on the river, in bearing to temples, yellow garments, and fruit, suspended on bushes fixed in their boats. Having arrived at their desti- nation, the priests come out and pick them off from the bushes, according to their several wants. This custom is said to have originated in the fact, that Buddhist priests in olden time, lived in the woods, and satisfied their daily wants by gathering wild fruits, and old cast-off clothing. Such self- mortification is said to have been high- ly praised by Buddha. How widely have the priests in these latter days, departed, in this matter as well as in most others, from the teachings of their venerated Head!

The 14th and 15th of the 12th wax- ing, and 1st of the waning moon are the closing holidays for the season. On these three days, the Kings have extra- ordinary religious services in their res- pective palaces, and late in the evening of each day, make offerings of fire-works publicly on the river, much as on the former occasion, but more complete and beautiful. This is the better time of the two, to witness those plays, as the weather is almost sure to be fine, the sky cloudless, with a full moon in extraordinary splendor.

A two legged Hog.

Less than a year since we were on our way to Petchaburee in company with Mr J. Thomson the Photograph- er, and stopped a while at one of the temples in the town of Maaklawng. Here we called the attention of Mr. T. to a great animal curiosity which we had many times before seen, and which we thought would make an in- teresting photographic picture.

The creature is a sow about ten years old, and would probably weigh more than one hundred pounds. She was born without any hind legs. There seems to have been an essay of nature to form them, but became a- bortive after the first incipient effort had been made. There is something within the integuments where the legs should be, which work back and forth on walking, as if they were short stumps of the thigh bones. The pig moves about slowly on her two legs dragging her breach on the ground. She was presented to the priests of that temple when quite young to pro- tect and rear as a meritorious work, and they seem to have been faithful to the charge committed to them. We proposed to purchase the hog of the priests, but they would not con- sent to sell the creature at any price.

It is a singular coincidence that the Siamese twins of world wide celebri- ty for their monstrous union, and this hog monster were born, not only in the same country, but also in the same town, and very nearly in the same place.

Mr. Thomson, thinking it a good opportunity to increase the number of his many interesting pictures of Siam- ese creatures and things, determined to try his skill on the hog. So while he was making ready his instrument to do so, we procured a few plantains and by them beguiled the pig to a favora- ble spot. We found it quite diffi- cult to persuade the creature to balance herself steadily on her two legs like a cat in a sitting posture. Mr. T. took three pictures of her," and found the first one taken the best. The one preserved represents, the hog in its only possible standing position, that is standing on her two feet while resting her breach on the ground.

The priests of the Wat were a good deal interested in witnessing the ex- periment, but not the hundredth part as much so as it seemed to us we would have been in their circum- stances. But the truth is, we cannot tell what we should or should not feel in all the ignorance and stupidity of Buddhist priests. It is a great part of their religion to look with a spiritual heart upon every thing that is curious, beautiful, and wonderful.

A FISH CURING ESTABLISHMENT.

Having to wait until the next morning watch, either there or at the mouth of the Maaklawung river three miles distant, before it would be safe to cross over the bay toward Petcha- buree, we concluded to stay in the town of Maaklawng until sunset and get all the information we could from the people near by. We first walked into an establishment for curing the pla coo, which is a small salt water fish about the size of herring, and very abundant in the gulf. When slightly salted and properly steamed, they are very nice to eat with rice. Thus prepared they are called plat oo nung, and are sold by pedilers at 7½ cts. for 30 or 40. But the fish esta- blishments at Maaklawung are designed chiefly for preparing the fish for ex- portation to Batavia and other ports in the Indian Archipelago, and when ready for market they are called pla too k'em—Salt p'at oo. The works we visited had in its employ from twelve to fifteen persons whose sole business is to dress the fish, and then salt and dry them. They have nothing to do in catching them, this work being done by other parties entirely distinct.

The latter go out in their fish boats to the mouth of the river late in the evening, and wait until the calm of the morning, from midnight to 8 or 9 o'clock A.M. When the sea is calm they scare the fish in large schools into enclosures made by stakes stuck in the mud, so arranged as that the two sides of the enclosure come together at an acute angle where the fish are caught in nets by thousands at a time, and put into the boats.

The fish are always the most a- bundant at seasons when the wind is generally from the head of the gulf, as their nature is to resist the current made by the wind. Consequently the best season for fishing them is during the North East monsoon; and that too, very providentially, is the very best season for preparing them for market, as no rain falls from week to week, and the sun by which they are dried is unobstructed by clouds. In fact the fish in the wet season are so scarce, and the weather so precarious that little of any consequence is ever done at these fisheries but to prepare their establishments and fishing grounds for the next dry season.

As soon as the fish boats come into the mouth of the river they are met by the servants of the curing esta- blishments, bidding for each load. Hence the fish are sold to the highest bidder, usually, before they get into town.

The companies who cure the fish, hire men and women to dress and put them into brine at the rate of 7½ cents a person for each boat-load.

They are salted in large wooden tubs holding from three to four hogsheads each, and kept in brine three days. They are then taken out and spread about on bamboo slats raised three feet from the ground and exposed to the sun three days. When thus made ready they are sold at the place for 22 Ticals per 10000 on an average. Many are spoiled before they reach the brine and become exceedingly offen- sive. These are sold for manuring den plants and other orchard and gar- den plants. It is these rotten fish which make the cori and betel or- chards in the vicinity of Bangkok of- ten times so exceedingly offensive to the olfactory organs.

NATIVE MODE OF HULLING RICE.

From the fishery we went into a rice hulling shed. The native mill for hulling rice consists of a pair of circular blocks like small mill stones. The nether mill block is usually about 18 inches both in diameter and thickness, fixed firmly to its place by stakes driven into the ground. There may be two or more of them in the same shed. Its upper surface is thickly set with rows of teeth made of the hardest wood, ap- parently driven into the block, but really set in a kind of cement which becomes like stone when perfectly dry. The teeth are set with the greatest order much after the usual arrange- ment of the grooves and ridges made on mill stones. They are neatly trim- med, so as to form an even plane to match a similar set of teeth in the up- per mill block. This is of the same circumference, but only ten inches thick, and has a hole near its middle, a small bamboo basket-work hopper attached, and a little basket fence en- closing it at a distance of 4 inches. It is fixed to its fellow by means of a pivot in its centre, and is made to revolve about this by a crank attached to it. This block is turned by a rude wooden shaft eight or ten feet long, made fast to the crank by a pivot in which it sits loosely. The outer end of the shaft has a handle two or three feet long to admit of two persons work- ing it; and this is suspended to a beam in the shed by a rope. The workmen, or more commonly women, take hold of the handle of the shaft, and pushing or pulling, as the case may be, turn the mill block the half of the circle, and then by the opposite motion make it complete the revolution. And thus they do rapidly until they get out of breath. It is a brisk exer- cise for two stout persons, and quite hard work for a single one. The hull- ed rice comes out of the mill all about its circumference, and is scraped to the door way of the basket work sur- rounding the mill, by a little paddle attached to the block.

The next process is to fan out the chaff which the natives do by two modes.— The one by throwing it up and down in the breeze on a large flat and shallow bamboo basket, catching it with the same as it falls down. The other by a wooden fanning mill with wood cogs, much like those we used to turn 40 years ago when timber was cheap; and labor saving machines little known. It makes us groan, even now, to think of the sweats we had in turning those mills.

The rice as thus hulled is far from being clean enough to use in cooking, but sufficiently so for exportation. To prepare it for cooking it has to go through another process. And that is to put it into a wooden mortar and pound it with a wooden pestle. The mortars are simply blocks of hard wood two feet long and 18 inches in diameter, chiselled out so as to form a vessel of conical shape, and to hold a half bushel or more of grain. The pestles are of two kinds. One of them is merely a round stick of hard wood made conical at each end—-slender and wasp-shape in the middle, for the convenience of handling. Its weight may be 10 or 15 pounds. One or two persons grasp it in its middle, and strike it down on the rice in the mor- tar. The other kind of pestle is a piece of hard wood framed perpen- dicularly into a heavy horizontal shaft which rocks up and down on a pin passing through two posts. The end on which the pestle is attached is much heavier than the other. It is worked by two or more men or women treading on the lighter end, and when down they raise their feet, which leaves the pestle to fall heavily into the mortar.

This process thoroughly cleans the rice of its chaff, and when winnowed on the basket winnower, comes out white almost as snow. This work is called by the Siamese Sawn Kow.

LOCAL.

The Presbytery of Siam will meet on Thursday, Nov. 1st at 10 A. M. in the Chapel of the Presbyterian Mis- sion.

The Presbytery will be opened with a sermon by Rev. D. McGilvary. All who are interested are cordially invit- ed to attend.

Passengers per Chow Phya arrived on the 16th inst from Singapore.

Mr. Harvey, Principal Manager of the Borneo Co. Limited, R. R. Scott Esqr. P. Littlejohn Esq. Mr. Muller, and 2 Rajahs.

Passengers by Chow Phya sailed on the 22nd inst, for Singapore.

Mrs. Campbell and two children, Tan Kim Chieng, Siamese Consul at Singapore, and the Rajah of Quoda.

The first of the royal fire works called Lawi Katong come off on the evenings of the 23d, 24th, and 25th inst. We have heard no report of them except- ing the noise, which the multitudes made in frolicking on the river with il- luminated little floats, with fire birds, and fishes, and rockets, and with boat- racing and shouting, from early lamp- lighting till after midnight.

The next of the series will fall on the 21st, 22d, and 23d proximo.

Foreign shipping is arriving slowly. We have now 14 vessels in port, most, if not all of them, are loading cargo.

The Siamese fleet having nearly all sailed on their annual trip; there re- main 26 vessels in port, and judging from the appearance of some of them, their sea-going days are over, and they ought to be struck out of the list of sea-worthy vessels.

We are sorry to record that Mrs Doctor Campbell, though convalescent from many weeks of ill health, has felt it to be her duty to leave Bangkok for a season, and try a change in Singa- pore for a more thorough restoration. She left on the 22nd per Chow Phya, taking with her her two small child- ren. Her society will be greatly mis- sed by all the European and American ladies here, while they will earnestly hope and pray for her return to them after a month or two.

To'day as we were out on the river we saw some China-men bringing down a raft of teak logs from above the city, and when they came opposite the mouth of Bangkok Yai canal, they discovered 'that the raft was unfortu- nately floating direct upon one of H S. M's. gun boats anchored in the river. The current was very swift, and they were drawing close to the vessel. The men on board were shouting to them to push off to one side. The China- men became excited and began to jab- ber. They would push the raft first to one side, then to the other. Some appeared to be in favor of passing on this side, and some wished to go on that side, and instead of uniting their strength to turn the raft to one side the result was that they kept it direct in the line of the vessel and brought it down on the bows. The raft parted on the anchor chain with a great crash, and a part passed down on either side. Just before it struck we saw two men, one on each side bellowing at the top of their voice and pushing with all their might in opposite directions. In an instant the men on board sprang down and siezed the Chinamen, and left the logs to float down with the current. We suppose they were seized to be punished for such a daring at- tack upon a gun boat. So much for not being UNITED.

We learn that His Majesty's birth- day dinner party for the Consuls and Roman Catholic Bishop had well nigh become an utter failure, not for the want of attendance on the part of the guests, but from want of what was thought due attention on the part of the king, and that but for extraordin- ary efforts which His Majesty after- wards made to re-call the dispersing consuls he would scarcely have had any but the French to represent the Western powers. We hear also that the second day dinner party of Euro- peans and American was sadly slim both in going and returning, and that only one American attended it. The truth in His Majesty's peculiar ideas of absolutism and Imperialism are not at all popular with the large majori- ty of his western friends residing at his capital.

There have been four days of ex-

extraordinary services, ending yesterday, held in honor of His Royal Highness Prince Somdetch CHOWFA CHULA LOXKORN whose regular term of ser- vice as a Nane closed the same day. It is understood however that he will remain in the Nane-hood a month longer. We understand that on each of those days there was preaching in the royal palace by 15 different priests, and that Prince CHOWFA himself made his debut as a graduating nane by de- livering one or more sermons in his turn.

The thing most extrsordinary about the whole affair was, a monstrous sham Junk near the eastern gate of the roy- al palace loaded with all sorts and kinds of eatables which the season af- fords, and which the ingenuity of the Chinese and Siamese could get up, and then being on public exhibition sever- al days were distributed to the thou- sands of spectators, making special pro- vision for the Buddhist priests and all the royal officials.

We are thankful to learn that His Majesty has requested an able writer to prepare for us an article descriptive of the many curiosities that were there exhibited, and that that article will probably be ready for insertion in our next issue.

We learn that the Siamese govern- ment are introducing a quantity of improved rifles for their army. Mo- dern improvements are progressing with such wonderful skill and rapidity that governments scarcely know what to do in the way of arming their forts, ships, and armies. Should the im- provements in instruments of war and slaughter continue to progress for a few years to come as they have done for some years past, the day will soon come when no nation will dare to make war on another unless she be quite sure of possessing a great advan- tage over the other.

While writing on this subject we would remind government of the great importance of rebuilding their forts and putting them in good repair. The island off the village of Paknam possesses rare advantages for a strong fort, and if properly rebuilt and mounted with modern artillery, no ironclad nor any other war vessel could ever pass it or get up to Bangkok. Com.

His Majesty left the Royal palace soon after 10 p. m. on Wednesday evening the 25th inst, for a trip up the river to the ancient city and pro- vince of Pitsanuloke, and will probably return about the 1st November. This city was one of the early capitals of Siam, and there are many interesting historical reminiscences connected with it. The river at this season of the year is full to overflowing, and the tour will be in steamers. No king of Siam has visited this city, so far as we can learn, for a hundred years or so, and it must be quite an event for the people to see their sovereign in those regions. For this royal visit they are indebted to the introduction of steam, which has already wrought wonders in Siam as well as in other countries. The first steamer built in Siam was launched on the 25th Sept. 1855, and was built by H. E. the Prime Minister with the assistance of J. H. Chandier Esq. who has the honor of introducing steam boats and steam machinery into the country.

His Excellency the Prime Minister returned from his tour to Ratburee on the morning of the 25th inst. The rice crop in the region is reported to be one of the best for many years.

THE GAS exhibition advertised in our last to come off on the 24th, was a failure, because the gas having been made too long before hand became so much decomposed by the heat of the sun that it gave only a blue light but slightly illuminating.

But we are happy to add by way of a postscript, on this evening of the 26th that Mr. Nelson succeeded ad- mirably with the gas. He exhibited an illuminated Elephant and the initials of His Majesty the king of Siam from a window in front of the New Rice Mill, glistening, as it were, with hundreds of fixed stars, closely united. And when on leaving we looked at it from a distance it was bright like a full moon rising in the clearest horizon.

We sincerely hope Mr. N. will be well supported in introducing this great improvement of night lighting not only in the Rice Mills but also the many consulates, mercantile es- tablishments, palaces etc.

PRICES CURRENT.

EXCHANGE-On Singapore 6 P cent

FREIGHTS-Very little has been done in charters, only two or three disengaged vessels in port. Rates may be stated at from 40 to 47 1/2 cents P picul for Hong Kong. There is a slight demand for small vessels to take fish to Java.

The following vessels have sailed for Hong Kong since the 23d Sept. viz :- British bark "G. SHOTTON" with 11073 picul rice.

British bark "COSTA RICA" with 4405 piculs rice, 21 Sapanwood, 475 paddy.

British bark "STANLEY" with 2100 pi- culs rice, 480 Sugar.

British bark "NORTHAM" with 8300 piculs rice, 135 Sugar, 15 horns.

French bark "EMMANUEL" with 5366 piculs rice.

Dutch bark "G. H. SUSANNA" with 11,239 piculs rice, 75 Sapanwood.

Dutch ship "PIETER" with 14,063 pi- culs rice, 218 Sapanwood.

Dutch bark "JOHANNA MARIA" with 10,221 piculs rice, 13 Sapanwood.

British bark "EASTFIELD" with 9,538 piculs rice, 65 Sapanwood.

The following have sailed for Singapore, since 1st, inst.

Siam steamer "CHOW PHYA" with 1,779 piculs rice, 735 Sugar, 26 Hides, 90 Teelseed.

British bark "FLORENCE" with 4,742 piculs rice, 98 Sapanwood, 140 Sugar.

British steamer "SEAWOOD" with 3,607 piculs rice, 150 Sapanwood, 180 Sugar, 52 horns, 197 Sticklac.

The present King of Siam.

To a superficial observer, indepen- dent of the question of right and wrong, it might seem sound policy, in a king to cluster around him a host of women, and to take into his house- hold wives from all the important no- blemen's families in the kingdom but it is neither sound policy for perman- ent fame, or benevolent, or kind, or human even.

True, noblemen that have given a daughter as a sort of hostage, may be expected to be true and faithful, par- ticularly so, if his daughter should bear children to the king. But let the king die, and then what follows? The host of wives become dead weights to clog the career of the reigning mon- arch, and many of the children misera- ble vagabonds because they have not the money to sustain the career which was planned for them in infancy.

There is not wisdom in such a course aside from the light of christi- anity Where are all the children of the three hundred wives of the bro- ther that sat on the throne during the last reign in Siam? They had a tem- porary notoriety it is true, while their father lived, but their multitude, when their father's patrimony was eked out to them, placed them in the company of those that had to make so many shifts to eke out a subsistance, that they have little time for fame or pa- triotism.

One of the saddest things on the death of the preceding monarch was the miserable condition of the concu- bines he left behind him. They lead a hopeless, aimless, miserable existence;

and such must be the destiny. of the house-hold of him that now setteth upon the throne, unless while he yet lives he frecs them from their im- pending destiny, restores them to their parents, and bids them seek an alli- ance that shall give them honorable protection while they live, and a circle of friends, tried and true, that shall cherish their memory when they are dead.

We do not become securely great by aggrandizing ourselves, but by ag- grandizing the great and good cause to which we may be attached. We do not secure permanent good to others by placing them where we cap meet most easily their wants and secure their immediately interests, but by making them powerful to meet their own wants and adequate to secure their own interests.

Rulers become really great only by serving faithfully the people they go- vern, and so far as possible making each subject happy and independent in himself. Happiness or greatness does not reside in the name but in the character and circumstances that make the wants of the character most nearly met. To be a daughter of a king might seem to be a boon. But if to be a daughter of a king, imperial eternal-celibacy, and eternal idleness and seclusion, weighed in the philoso- pher's scales, the risk would bound aloft as a weightless bubble, the bene- fits sacrificed in holding the rank would sink down, down, down, with no imaginable counterprise to tell their value.

In the light of God's word how beau- tiful is the position that women holds in the scale of being. A help mete for man, taken from his side. A true yoke fellow—united to his inte- rests in every relation of life. To share his every thought; his every wish, to help carry out his every laudable purpose—-identified in all his interests, and rising in the scale of being as her sworn protection, leads her on and shields her path-way—-to whom love makes every burden light, and truth every care a pleasure.

Man holds the destiny of woman, in his influence to make her what he will. If he will to bring her into her true position and awaken in her a character that is congenial to her ori- ginal nature, she then from the throne to which he elevates her, pours forth a flood of influence that gives to man, refinements of all he has most nobly conceived. Let man be true to wo- man in her girl-hood, and in her wo- man-hood she will be his greatest safe-guard and his wisest counselor.

But what has all this to do with the king of Siam! Much every way, but chiefly, that the king errs more, in the course he is taking in his own domestic relations, than in any other respect; and when he is dead, the in- fluence of his present course, if not averted while he still lives, will bring a world of sorrow. and still prolong the thraldom of his kingdom Ms Recorder,—-"Some of your readers " have been very much shock- ed to hear you call an Alligator, or a Crocodile a domestic animal! The tookhaa of Siam, you say, belongs to the same class, and indeed it looks enough like an Alligator, differing on- ly in size.

It inhabits our houses, it is true, but it is a much more fit inhabitant of the forest. If it is domestic, it is cer- tainly not in looks. Its song is any thing but pleasant, often startling you from your midnight slumbers with its shrill scream. Often times it seeks a convenient spot near the head of your bed, where its scream will be the most effectual in arousing you. It is, I think, any thing but a "harmless" creature. True, it makes no unpro- voked assaults upon you with open mouth; but then, imagine a diminu- tive Alligator tumbling down from the ceiling upon your head! Whether or not its intentions are malicious, its effect upon your feelings in this un- provoked attack, is certainly any thing but "harmless" and pleasant.

If you have a friend to dinner with you, the tookkaa is almost certain to take up a central position upon the ceiling directly over your table, per- haps attracted there by the swarm of flies and mosquitoes buzzing in the lamp-light, and, like yourself, trying to get his supper, but if he makes a wrong step and his foot-slips, he might, to your great annoyance, supply some of your platters with fresh meat, not much to your liking. Now, Mr. Edi- tor, this is a "social" quality of the CREATURE which I should think was not very pleasant nor agreeable. I should rather, for my part, dispense with his friendly and "social" approaches thus to my table.

I know there are many in this city who will agree with me in saying that he is any thing but a "beautiful" CREATURE. Beautiful! Monstrous! Hide- ous! The only description I ever heard of a tookhau, before I read yours, Mr. Editor, was "what a hideous looking thing!" But Sir, I have no objections to you admiring his beauty. I sup- pose the old, and oft repeated saying, "people will get accustomed to any thing," accounts for it. I know that some of those who have recently tak- en up their residence in Bangkok would gladly dismiss all such annoy- ing creatures from their houses, and send them "rapping" at your door for admittance. A RESIDENT.

Wit in the Right Place.

At the last quarterly conference of the year they showed great anxiety as to whom they should have for a preacher the ensuing year. They said that the place was a very growing one, and that the minister settled in a church near by was a very talented man; moreover, that some men of position in society, among them a physician and a young lawyer who had lately moved into town, had been two or three times to their church; also, that there was talk of building two new factories and a branch railroad to connect the village wit's the main road, and they closed by saying:

"Brother Rice, we must have the ablest and best man in the Conference."

"Oh, yes," said he, "no doubt you must, and I must try to gratify you. I suppose you want a thousand dollar man?"

"Oh, Brother Rice, we couldn't think of paying that sum."

"Well, then, you want an eight hun- dred dollar man, do you?"

"Why, Brother Rice, we couldn't pay half that."

"Well, then, a four hundred dollar men, is it?"

"Why, it would be hard even for us to raise even half that."

"Perhaps, brethren," he concluded, "I can find you a two hundred dollar man; such a one is very scarce among us, but I will try and do the best I can for you at that price."

They did not urge any more to have the ablest man in the Conference; and Mr. Rice knew that the excellent brother that had served them for the year nearly closed had been terribly pinched to live among them.

— THE BRITISH fleet on the coast of North America consists of 26 ships, with 443 guns, and manned by 5,288[?] officers and men, two vessels mounting 21 guns and with 440 men.

— THE TOTAL attendance in the different departments of the College at Oberlin, Ohio, this season is 770, of which 425 are gentlemen, and 345 are ladies. Of the whole number, 261 are new students.

— The success of westward bound trav- elers over eastward bound, that passed through Chicago during April is estimat- ed at 10,000. This is an index to the flow of emigration to the west this spring.

— UNLOCKING[?] THE ROCKS. The great cost of silver and gold arises not so much from their scarcity in the earth as the difficulty of extracting them from their [...] combinations. Dr. J. C. Ayer, the well known chemist of Massachusetts, has cut this gordian knot. After having merited and received the gratitude of half mankind, by his remedies that cure their diseases, he is now winning the other half by opening for them an easy road to the exhautless treasures of the hills. He has discovered and published a chemical process which renders, at little cost, the hardest rocks and ores frialde like chalk, so that the precious metals are loosed from their containment and easily gatiner- ed. Mines too poor to pay, many be worked at a profit now, and the yield of rich minerals largely increased, while the cost of extracting the metals from the ore is diminished. Either is a great achievement—to enrich mankind ro cure their diseases. But we are informed our celebrated countryman [...] to the latter, as his speciality and chief ambition. —Buffalo Sentinel.

OLD AGE is a public good. Do not feel sad because you are old. Whenever you are wlaking, no one ever opens a gate for you to go throught, no one ever honors you with any kind of help, with- out being himself the better for what he does; for fellow-feeling with the aged ripens the soul[?].

BOOKS are the windows through which the soul looks at us. A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children with- out surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is a wrong to his family.

CONVICTION makes us rich. Repetition makes us act. The farmer builds the barn into our hearts, that we may see and show our grievances; the latter leads us to the mercy seat, where pardon may be ob- tained.

Famine Districts.

The Famine in Orissa seems to have at- tained more frightful proportions than even those who dissented most widely from the views of the Bengal Government ever anticipated would be the case. A correspondent of the HURKARU states that at Balasore out of 9000 persons there is a daily average of 140 deaths; that there are only 1700 men fit for work; and that it is the firm belief of a member of the committee that already half of the popu- lation has perished. The non-distribution of food, the reluctance to interfere with the rules of commerce, the absurd talk about the laws of free trade and the grand principle of supply and demand, have re- sulted in excluding all but a very small portion of the community from any chance of preserving their lives. The deaths in Cuttack are now said to amount to the fearful number of six thousand per week. The HURKARU points out that the cost of bare subsistence for husband, wife, and one child at present rates would be Rs. 9.6-0, for one man Rs. 3.9-6 per month, and asks where people who have nothing in the world but a dirty and worn out rag are to get this sum of money month by month? Perhaps Sir Cecil Beadon can tell.

Reports of the most harrowing nature continue to reach us from the famine- stricken districts around Cuttack. Death appears to be the solitary escape offered to thousands, and tens of thousands. Whilst it seemed that the lowest depths of human endurance and suffering had been reached, another and lower deep presents itself. Floods, and the partial failure of the rice crops, have destroyed to a great extent the only ray of light which has been permitted to touch the picture in Orissa. Whilst rice, a few weeks back, was selling at Khunditta for two seers the rupee, this poor and little nutritious food is now said to sell at Damougpur, some few miles from Jajipore, at one shilling per pound. In the wealthiest countries of the world, this simple fact would tell its own story but, applied to the poverty stricken and inert peasantry of India, its meaning can only be guessed at by the missionary and district officer. Jackals and vultures grow sleek, and an ominous silence rests upon villages half depopulated, fields untilled, roads marked by human bones. All the truth will never be realized : how many fell who might have been saved by timely succour, or how much of the aid furnished was never permitted to reach its destina- tion. It is beyond doubt that considera- ble quantities of rice, forwarded to the distressed province by Government, have been abstracted in transit. Bags of grain, issued for distribution, are found material- ly under weight. Whether this robbery of the dying occurs before shipment; whilst at sea, that is between False Point and Cuttack; or at all three places, imports nothing. The fact remains, and demands instant attention. It is enough that we slept when action was required, that the Bengal Government talked and wrote re- ports when Sir Cecil Beadon should have been at Cuttack, without permitting our tardy charity to miscarry, to be misappro- priated by rogues and harpies. Even now, at the eleventh hour, sufficient European superintendence is wanting. A few over taxed officers are crushed by the responsi- bility and labour imposed upon them. Meantime, whilst multitudes perish under our eyes from hour to hour, the talented and impassive official entrusted with their care rests resignedly at Darjeeling. The health of the Lieutenant Governor of Ben- gal is unequal to the responsibilities im- posed upon him. Such is the excuse.—-The FRIEND OF INDIA.

The Telegraph and the Press.

Electricity has been a serious blow to the Indian journalist, whatever it may have been to the public. Formerly, Euro- pean questions were discussed at length, ARRIATIM ET VERBATIM; affording sub- ject for many editorials and much display of wisdom. There was the view possible, impossible, and probable. Each was care- fully and artistically exhausted, and when the truth finally reached us, and results proved at variance with prognostication, it became necessary to sift and explain away the causes of the miscarriage. Clear- ly a Calcutta writer was not to blame that Louis Philippe could not, or would not ace, the propriety of dying at the cannon's mouth. On the other hand there was glo- rification and self-worship when events proved in accordance with any of the mul- titudinous predictions offered. Attention was drawn to some remarkable leader, venerable from age in which the future had been anticipated, by three weeks. The best oracles were, necessarily, those which prophesied with sufficient vagueness to meet any contingency; and by which peace and war, prosperity and disaster, appeared equally imminent and remote. Placed many thousand miles away from the scene, uninformed of the conflicting interests which influenced events, and lit- tle versed in the political history of Eu- ropean courts and statesmen, the opinions propounded by the local press were rather curious than profound, and somewhat re- sembled those of home papers when treat- ing of Indian subjects. There was about the same amount of special knowledge, practical experience, and breadth of view. Still there was matter in abundance upon which to build paragraphs and columns, and journalists, butterfly like, disported themselves from Dan to Beersheba; Eu- rope and Asia were their play things, and China yielded her riches. But whilst hea- vy articles upon political complications in Chilli and Vienna, penned in the back streets of a cantonment, or about Dhur- rumtollah, were assumed essential to the character of high Anglo-Indian journa- lism, it was not insisted that subscribers should read them, and, in truth, few did. If the public cared nothing about what opinions the PONDICHERRY OBSERVER en- tertained regarding a £6 franchise, the fact rather concerned the public than the editor. Happily, at this juncture, science and British capital destroyed the respec- table dulness, and India was linked by an iron thread to the civilized world.

By these new means of communication Edinburgh has virtually become nearer to Delhi, for purposes of correspondence, than York was to London forty years be- fore. Space and time have been bridged. It costs less time to-day, to ascertain what is passing upon the continent, than to re- duce our surmises to type. Half a dozen battles lost and won, were the first intima- tion of the German War. We learn the conclusion of a campaign in the act of proving that hostilities are impossible, or in predicting when they may be anticipa- ted. Swift footed electricity outruns the brain, and probability; sometimes itself. The birth of a Prince is announced before the infant is born, and longitude-—the dif- ference of a few minutes—-becomes res- ponsible for the anomaly. Editors and Mrs. Gamp, are at their wits ends. Una- ble to dive into the future, to know where the next telegram may cast us, we reason to small purpose. Instead of arguing from cause to effect, it is necessary to in- vert the operation, and crawl, crabwise, from effect to cause. Three ill spelt words destroy the ablest article, and the manu- scrip passes to the waste basket, or is pruned to suit the new position. Judi- cious silence passes for prescience, and is most often right. Just sufficient intelli- gence is conveyed to establish a fact, which cannot be explained upon any data we possess, and which is, nevertheless, too succinct to permit of doubt. The Indian journalist knows too much to be altoge- ther silent, too little to write with confi- dence, and, like another Newton, plays with shells upon the sea shore, whilst the great ocean of truth lies beyond. He has been distanced by electricity, made the sport of the "lightning wire;" and the public must henceforth be content to sup upon editorial paragraphs intended to ce- ment and connect Reuter's telegrams, in lieu of the heavy literary fare formerly supplied. Probably the loss will not be very seriously felt, whatever views Mr._______ may entertain to the con- trary. By electricity we are enabled to follow the course of events in Europe with some degree of closeness, for India is seven or eight and twenty days nearer to the world, and their full explanation through the columns of the home and con- tinental press, is no longer in reaching us than heretofore. With a weekly Bombay Mail the delay will be decreased. Instead of living upon anticipations—-futile and unsatisfactory gropings after the truth, Anglo-Indians are compelled to look back, think back, read back, live back, in order to comprehend events the outlines of which have alone been permitted to reach them. Great events arise from out the un- known promontaries looming high above a sea of mist and doubt, solitary and grand, and bye and bye, and bit by bit, we are permitted to fill up the landscape; to tear events, beginning with the occupa- tion of Leipsic, and terminating in fatal Badaw, piecemeal from the electric wire, and complete a Mosaic, which is history? at our leisure. If the continuity of the story has been destroyed, the gain in other respects has been out of all proportion to the loss. Better to see in part than not to see at all, better to know the truth than to guess at it, and by so much richer has electricity made the Indian public. Nor is the day very distant when increased competition and communication between the countries will render possible telegra- phic messages as detailed and complete, as they are now brief and often unsatisfac- tory.—-THE FRIEND OF INDIA.

The end of the Jamaica affair.

Mr. Eyre is not even censored, may be to-morrow appointed Governor of Madras or Bombay, to govern a score or so millions of persons with dark skins, and will in all probability receive some acknowledgment of his zeal. The House, it will be remembered, defends a limited suffrage, very justly, on the ground that it represents not only the kingdom, but the Empire, and would angrily deny that it changed its measure of Justice within that Empire for any consideration of race, creed, or colour. Consequently, if London is placed under martial law, and Hyde Park rioters shot in batches under sen- tences passed by ensigns, and women flogged by the score for slanging the po- lice, and Whitechapel burned to the ground because some rioters came from thence, and Mr. Bright hanged by mock trial for having been a "troublesome agitator," the House will pass a resolu- tion "deploring" those events. The mere statement of such an absurdity is sufficient to convict the majority, it may be even to convince them, of the offence they un- questionably have committed. They have refused to do to one, and a weak, section of Her Majesty's subjects the justice they unquestionably would have done to an- other and stronger one.

We have said little of Mr. Gordon's case, designedly, for Mr. Eyre is on that case to be brought to trial, and have only to remark that the Commission reported Mr. Gordon unjustly put to death, that Mr. Russell Gurney in his place formally reiterated and justified that verdict, and that on such unjust putting to death the House of Commons, which accepts the Commissioner's report as final, has no com- ment to make, while Mr. Adderley, who calls the Commission a "judicial tribunal," declares its verdict unjust, and the offence it condemns merely an "act of practical justice." And House and Minister alike represent that "aristocracy which has stood for ages between the throne and the people."—SPECTATOR.

The Hero of the Hour.

No man in the country has a right to a prouder joy to-day than Cyrus W.

Field, whose eight years of labor in be- half of the Atlantic Telegraph are at last crowned with complete success. The whole world owes him gratitude for the untiring energy, the patience under de- feat, the steadiness under opposition, the faith amid difficulties with which he has pursued his work. He is a representative American of whom his countrymen may be proud. All honor to the hero whose laurels are not stained with blood, and who has wrested from the stubborn sea and stubborn men so signal a victory for science and civilization.—Lo. Co. News.

The Needle Gun Described.

The "flint needle-musket" (Zund- nadelgewehr) has spread as much terror to the Austrian ranks as did our gun- boats for a year or two, among the Southerners. This musket is breech- loading, though not revolving. A sec- tion of the breech, about six inches in length, can be removed by means of a fixture similar in principle to that by which the bayonet is removed from the muzzle of the Springfield musket. When the piece has been fired the soldier brings it down a little, and by two move- ments of a little arm, ending in a knob, which can be made in a second, unfixes the section, drops the butt of the gun on the ground, in two seconds more inserts the cartridge in the forward end of the section, brings up his piece, claps in the section, and, by two movements of the little arm, has, at the same time, fixed the section and shoved the cartridge forward into the muzzle. Another movement sets back the hammer, and he is ready to fire. The average rate of firing is about ten times a minute, and the universal testi- mony of the wounded Austrians is, that they cannot fire oftener than once while the Prussian fires five times.-—NATION.