and a tradesman could not recover the price of such articles if he had reason to believe that the wife had no authority from her husband to purchase such articles, or that the husband had prohibited the tradesmen from supplying them. His lordship then referred to the facts, and said that if the jury believed that the defendant had prohibited his wife from dealing with the plaintiff (a milliner), and she (the plaintiff) was aware of that prohibition, she could not recover in the present action.

Darieties.

SHEFFIELD. The following errors have been pointed out to us in the article on Sheffield in the August Part. In the list of educational institutions, the People's College should be omitted, as it has lately ceased to exist. The Ranmoor Almshouses are stated to be the gift of the late Mr. Mark Firth. Mr. Firth is still living in the improved form of Mr. Alderman Firth, referred to on page 555. He has just built Firth College, at a cost of £20,000, but it is scarcely yet completed. At the last census the population was 239,946. The present estimate is nearly 300,000. In the list of parks Hyde Park should be omitted, as it is not a park in the same sense as Weston and Firth Parks. It is private property, and is chiefly used for pigeon shooting, rabbit coursing, and other degrading amuseThe Botanical Gardens belong to a company, and only those who pay a certain yearly subscription are entitled to frequent them, except in the case of visitors residing more than seven miles from the town, who are admitted free on presenting a recommendation from a proprietor. There are three or four galas held during each year, when the gardens are open to all upon payment of a small charge. Western Park and Museum should be Weston.

ments.

MUSICAL COPYRIGHT.--We have received a note of explanation from the Rev. J. Curwen relative to a paragraph in our Varieties for July 5th, p. 432. We regret that we quoted the statement from a contemporary-the "Echo "- -as it makes Mr. Curwen appear to have acted harshly, whereas the very opposite is the case.

The simple facts are these. The Sunday School Choir printed, without permission, some 7,000 copies of "The Comrades' Song of Hope.' This piece is not an "old French song," but the work of a living French composer, M. Adam. The French words are military and warlike. The "Comrades' Song of Hope" is an original poem by Mr. J. S. Stally brass, written at my request for the song, and paid for by me at the time. It is entirely different in spirit from the French words, and has proved very popular. When the trespass came under my notice I wrote to the choir, and the reason I asked them how many copies they had sold, and whether they were still selling them, was to enable me to show them what a serious injustice they had done me. They replied very courteously, expressing their "annoy" and "regret" that the piece had inadvertently appeared. I named £2 as a nominal acknowledgment of the trespass, and the secretary in sending it said, "I thank you in the name of the committee for the lenient manner in which you have treated us. All through the conduct of my public work I have avoided even the suspicion of hard dealing or mere money getting, and the appearance of such a paragraph in a publication such as the "Leisure Hour" is very distressing to me, as the impression which it conveys is erroneous. I at once consented to allow the choir to sell off the remaining copies of the piece. Had I allowed the affair to pass unnoticed the piece would have been regarded as common property, and copied from one book into another until I had lost all control of it. I was bound to act in self-defence.-J. C.

ance

QUEER RELIGION.-They have a queer sort of a church in a beautiful village called Florence, near Northampton, U.S. It is a free debating society rather than a religious institution, and it has just made a deliverance of its opinions on matters and things in general. This is one of them: "How much better for mankind if all the time and thought which have been given to useless ceremonies and speculation about a world of which we know nothing had been spent in learning the best means of drawing out the resources of the earth; of multiplying the comforts and lessening the ills of life, finding out the best way to reclaim swamps, subdue wild land, and bring the soil up to its

highest fertility, and above all, to learn the laws of our own being, the cause, cure, and prevention of disease, and how to cultivate those moral and humane sentiments which civilise and ennoble mankind." The "New York Express" very aptly remarks on this sagacious stuff: "Christian nations have done more to draw out the resources of the earth, and multiply the comforts and lessen the ills of life, to reclaim swamps, subdue wild land, and bring the soil up to its highest fertility,' than all the others." Of the many kinds of "cant," none is more offensive than the cant of secularism.

"

CHINESE GRATITUDE.-Mr. Walter Hillier, one of her Majesty's consular officers in China, and one of the best and most fluent foreign speakers of Chinese, on returning from a long tour in the famine districts, published a graphic report of the present state of the country. On the question of gratitude he writes, in a tone that shows how little the idea of disinte rested beneficence has place in the minds of average Chinamen. It is the more necessary to bring to them the Christian religion, which teaches true and unselfish charity. "To any one, says Mr. Hillier, "who has had a long and varied experience of the character of the Chinese it is hardly necessary to say that grati tude is not one of their strongest features, and that thanks from them are so rare, that if an opinion had to be formed upon verbal expressions of appreciation, I am afraid I should have to say that all that was done was accepted as a matter of course. We must look to other indications of gratitude where Chinese are concerned. If we start with the supposition that in the eyes of every ignorant Chinaman a foreigner is a barbarian to be grinned at, hooted at, and yelled at-and this was the treatment I invariably received in Honan-a marked difference is to be observed in the attitude of the people of Shansi, who have been the recipients of foreign relief, showing that they have reached a higher appreciation of the foreigner. Even to myself, a barbarian' pure and simple, in the genuine barbarian dress, perfect civility was shown in and around P'ing-yang Fu, while to Messrs. Richard Hill and Scott, it appeared to me, the respect was very marked. The Chinaman, I venture to believe, is a sceptic in the matter of disinterested charity. He cannot grasp the idea that it is possible for a man to do a purely charitable act, and when the handling of much money is concerned the accepta tion of the theory becomes still more difficult to him. That a number of persons whom he has never seen or heard of should spontaneously send him aid with no ulterior object or design is utterly beyond his comprehension; and when he has at last brought his mind to accept the fact that it is so, he has yet to swallow the still more difficult theory that the agents they em ploy for its distribution are men of absolute integrity, who are actuated by the noblest motives and are perfectly clean-handed. Squeezing, as it is popularly called, in some shape or form, is so essentially bound up with Chinese life, public or private, that perfect honesty is a virtue which a Chinaman reads about but does not understand."

INDIAN EXPENDITURE AND THE SILVER BULLION QUESTION. -In the debate on Indian currency and the value of silver, Mr. Cross, Member for Bolton, made some interesting statements as to the lessened absorption of specie and the causes of the diminution. For a long time India had been a great absorb. ing country. In four years of a period India had absorbed £210,000,000 of specie, but in the last eight years of that period she had only absorbed £50,000,000. India had lost her absorbing power, and the question then arose, What was the reason that India had ceased to absorb? It would be the natural thing to say at once that our exports must have fallen off in proportion to our imports. But this was not the case. Our exports had sorbed £59,000,000 of bullion, whereas in 1877 India absorbed increased in proportion to our imports, yet in 1869 India abonly £20,000,000 of bullion. They should try to find out why India could not absorb in the way she did a few years ago, and it was only when hon. members came to look into the finance accounts that they would find the reason clearly written. They would find there that the home charges were going on increasing year by year. In 1868 it required only 84,970,000 rupees to satisfy the indebtedness, but in 1879 it requires 189,000,000 rupees. This was a monstrous increase. It was perfectly impossible that India could stand it and keep above water, and it was necessary the country should look into this matter as soon as possible. What was the cause of it? That seemed to be the difficulty. India sends us a very large quantity of surplus profits. She sends us nearly £20,000,000 a year more than we send her in merchandise. India would take, had she her own way, her returns in silver, salt, and shirtings, but we force her to take all kinds of things that she does not want. We make her take expensive soldiers and still more expensive civilians, and we make her pay for absentee soldiers-for soldiers who

never go near her. He was not blaming any particular Govern- | ment; he had shown that in 1868 the home payments amounted to a sum equal to 43 per cent. of the land revenue, and that in 1879 they required a sum equal to the whole net land revenue. This showed an increase of annual charge upon India of 104,000,000 rupees in eleven years. The evidence of Indian officials showed how some of this increased charge arises. Men of great distinction were examined before the Indian Finance Committee in 1873, and they gave very telling evidence. In reply to a question, General Pears said: "Every regiment in India has its colonel-usually a general officer, not an effective officer with the regiment, but at home. We pay that, as he belongs to and is a member of a regiment which is serving in India." So that colonels did not appear to be with their regiments in India, but in London, though India had to pay for their services. Then as to the cost of recruits, General Pears said that under the Company it was £42 per head, whereas now it was £82 per head. The hon. member for Hackney asked the same witness the following question: "According to the figures you have just given, one-fourth of all the officers belonging to the Indian Army, for whom India is paying, are in England?" The reply was, Yes; I think that would not be very far from the mark." On the same subject Sir John Strachey, an Indian official whose opinions were entitled to great weight, had ended a strong protest against the existing system by urging that it was the duty of the Government of India, by economising, to provide for the charges that became due on account of military services in the country.

ASIA MINOR.-We lately published a statement by Professor James Bryce as to Turkish tyranny and misrule in Armenia. Mr. G. Barkley says that from private letters he knows things are getting worse and worse : "The organised brigandage of the officials is more openly and shamelessly carried on than ever before, and unofficial brigandage is now common where, a few months ago, it was almost unknown. Doubtless the people are docile and long-suffering to a remarkable extent; but they are capable of and liable to outbursts of passion that deprive them not only of prudence, but almost of reason. Conversations with men of all classes, soldiers and civilians, in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, make me believe that the temper of the people is strained to such a degree that any trifling cause might plunge the country into anarchy."

CROWS' COURTS.-An eye-witness sends the following note from Paisley-"Between two and three o'clock in the afternoon of the 19th June, a number of crows (about twenty or thirty) were observed coming over the north part of the town, and flying in a very excited manner. On their approaching, it was noticed that they were all taking turn about of attacking one, which seemed very much exhausted. In trying to get out of their reach, it struck against a chimney, and fell to the ground, upon which they all flew down, and, without alighting, gave it another dab, which killed it. After sitting for a minute on a house close by, looking at it, they flew away in the direction in which they had come, seemingly quite satisfied. When the dead crow was picked up, the head was found to be covered with wounds, and a great many of its feathers pulled out. The execution was witnessed by about 100 persons. On the same day, in the opposite part of the town, another encounter, by a like number of crows, was seen, where the unfortunate victim was also killed in the same way as the other. Both crows appeared to belong to the common kind. The cases of killing single crows, which have been mentioned in your papers, have all taken place during the pairing season, and had an apparent reason; but the destroying of their own kind, and after the young ones had come to maturity, seems quite unaccountable, except on some principle of revenge or justice or other motive.

D. K. P.

SIR BARTLE FRERE AND THE ZULU WAR.-In a speech at Cape Town, June 17th, Sir Bartle Frere gave the following defence of his policy in bringing on the Zulu War: When I went to Natal I found great difference of opinion as to the state of affairs in existence. There were prophets of evil, and men who prophesied smooth things, but I felt convinced that they were all living on the brink of a volcano. Every part of the country seemed in imminent danger of a horrible war, owing to a rising of the native races. It has been said that my conclusions were hastily formed, but I would ask those who have studied the Zulu character and history whether their conviction has not been for years past that the position of the Natal colonists was that of extreme peril. I have heard the same opinion expressed by people from Canada and Australia, who gave it as their reason for objecting to Natal as a field for emigration. What I saw there convinced me of what I had

This

long before been told, viz., that the condition of our fellon. colonists was based on an extremely hazardous foundation. Everything I saw and heard pointed to the same conclusion, that throughout the whole of South Africa a movement originating with the Zulus had stirred to the hearts the whole of the native population. All they wanted was some movement to bring about the supremacy of the black races and the expulsion of the Europeans. Our measures were strictly directed to defence, and it appears to us quite impossible to defend the Natal border with the forces in the colony. It was only by carrying the war at once into the enemy's country, by posting columns within the enemy's borders, by meeting them on their own ground, that they could prevent an invasion. is my justification for the act which you have been pleased to-day to confirm. I feel convinced that when our countrymen at home, even including the critics, come to look at this business in the light of history, they will say that we did no more than was necessary for the safety of the colony. Perhaps the verdict will not come in my time. All history points to similar cases of men who have done their best and who have received justice only long after they were dead. This is what has sustained me in what has passed. I do not judge from mere surmise, but from the acts of Cetewayo himself for the last eighteen months. He had repeatedly stated that his power was founded in blood, and that it was necessary for the maintenance of that power that he should be unrestrained in his ability to slay his subjects. He had asked for leave to wash spears in white men's blood, and I knew it was impossible for him to do themselves with us for protection. I thought no risk too great so without killing British subjects, and those who had allied protect her Majesty's subjects. as compared with the paramount duty of doing my best to

WET SEASONS.-The following extracts from the "Diary” of Pepys for the year 1663 may have some interest for those who are calculating cycles and making forecasts, or they may show the despondent that the country has emerged from similar atmospherical disturbances such as those with which we have been this year afflicted :

"July 1. This morning it rained so hard, though it was fair yesterday, and we are therefore in hopes of having some fair weather, which we have wanted these three months.

“July 7.—In Mr. Pett's garden I eat some of the first cherries I have eat this year.

"July 8.-I hear not what will become of the corn this year, we having had but two fair days these many months. "July 21.-This day the Parliament kept a fast for the present unseasonable weather.

great frost, they say, abroad, which is much, having had no August 28.-Cold all night and this morning, and a very

summer at all almost." Evelyn, in his "

subject once.

Diary" of the same year, only mentions the Under date of July 16, he says:—“ A most extraordinary wet and cold season.'

DARIEN RAILWAY SCHEME.-Captain James B. Eads, who is constructing the jetties to deepen the channel at the mouth of the Mississippi river, has written a letter to the "New York Tribune," in which he proposes to substitute for the contemplated ship canal across the Isthmus of Darien a railway by which the largest vessels may be conveyed across. This project siderably less than the canal, and might be completed in three he claims to be entirely practicable, and says it would cost conone-third of the estimated cost of the canal (or about 50,000,000 or four years. Captain Eads says that for a sum not exceeding entering the port of New York can be transferred, when fully dollars) a railway can be constructed by which the largest ships loaded, with absolute safety across the Isthmus within twentyfour hours. Such a railway would not require steeper grades than are in use on our chief lines; and the roadbed need not be over 40 feet wide, nor have more than eight or ten rails laid upon it to sustain the cradle upon which the ship is placed. The ship could be raised by a lock and the usual hydraulic methods, and he suggests two methods that are practicable, and with precautions to prevent straining. He recommends turntables instead of curves in the railway where changes of direction are necessary. The car, or cradle, to carry the ship should be built in sections, each about 100 feet long, and each section supported by about 200 wheels, some of them driving wheels moved by engines. The weight of the largest merchant steamers and their cargoes would not exceed 10,000 tons. Such a vessel Captain Eads would place on five of these sections, supported by 1,000 wheels bearing on eight or ten rails, so that each wheel would support about twelve tons. He thinks his plan entirely practicable, and urges it very strongly.

more excitement; but he was very happy; and to | Martin it was all new and romantic and delightful. "Where are we going?" he asked, after they had been half-an-hour at sea.

"Anywhere you like," was the answer. "A bit of a cruise I suppose, out and home again. There are some lines in the boat, and some bait, if you would li; to have a bit of fishing."

Martin was fond of fishing with a rod and float, and he hailed with delight the prospect of hauling in something larger than a perch or a roach-a mackerel, or perhaps a cod.

"Mackerel you may," said Dean; and he showed him how to bait the numerous hooks with which the line was furnished, and to lower them over the boat's side, making them fast to the thwarts.

"How jolly it is!" said Martin, leaning over the side of the boat, and dipping his hand into the water as he fingered the line, trying it every minute in the expectation of a bite. "I suppose you were always fishing when you were on your voyage home from India? There must be some very big fish out in the great ocean."

"No," said Tom; "a distinguished 'natural' like yourself ought to know that there are no fish in the great deep. Mackerel and herrings and soles could not live there-they would be drowned."

"If you were like some of the fellows," said Martin, looking at him doubtfully, "I should think you were greening me."

"Ne joco quidem," Tom replied.

"How could fish be drowned?"

"I don't know how it is, and perhaps drowning is not the proper word for it; but I know that when fish get out of their depth they cannot live. Fish are mostly found near the coast.'

"That's true," said Bowley, with a jerk of his head towards Tom-"that's true enough. knows."

He

"Of course it's true," said Martin; "but it seems strange to me all the same."

"There's a many strange things going," said the man, "and that's one on 'em; though I never thought of it afore in that way."

"And yet," said Tom, "the bottom of the ocean at its greatest depth is covered with little shell-fish, and they can live-tiny delicate shells, you would think they could only exist in calm and shallow water."

"That's where it is," said the man; "it's calm enough down there; there ain't no waves down in them great depths; nothing a-stirring there. That's the proper place for them, that is."

"Of course," said Tom; everything is in its proper place where God has placed it."

"So it is," said the man; "right again, young gentleman; though I don't know as I ever thought so much of that afore."

"But there are big fish in the ocean, are there not?" Martin asked; "whales and leviathans, and that sort?"

"but

"I never seed a leviathan," said the man; whales keep near the shore as a rule. They don't venture very far from it."

"It would take a great deal of water to drown a whale."

"Well, you see, there is a pretty good deal of it in the ocean. Not but a whale might be able to live there, for aught I know, if he had a mind; only there would be no little fish for him to feed on.

Whales could not live on them tiny shell-fish the young gentleman was talking about, I take it; so they keep near shore, where their food is. Yes, there's a place for everything, and everything in its place, and there's One above as puts 'em in it, that's clear."

"Yes," said Dean, who had been listening to the conversation, with his hand upon the tiller. "That don't seem like chance, does it? I heard a fellow once lecturing and trying to prove that there was no God. All things were made by chance, he said, or made themselves. He did not spin a very good argument, though; and when I came to think about it afterwards, I could have answered him myself. If he had come our way again, I should have stood up and asked him a few questions before all the people. But all that is passed and gone, ," he added in a lower key; "that was in days gone by."

He turned away moodily, thinking to himself, no doubt, that it was not for such as he to put himself forward now, even in a good cause, and bitterly conscious of the degradation which he had brought upon himself by his intemperance. Leaning over the side to hide his emotion, he busied himself with the hooks and lines, and took no further part in the conversation.

"Only big fish as ever I heard on out at sea," said Bowley, who perhaps guessed what his mate was thinking of, and wished to divert the boys' attention from him- only big fish as ever I heard on out at sea war the sea-sarpent."

"Oh! did you ever see it?" cried Martin. "No; I never seed him; can't say as I did; but I have heerd tell on him."

"Tell me all about it, do."

"It's only a yarn," said the man.

"A yarn! Oh, capital! Do spin us a yarn!" Leastways it's a song."

"Oh, then, sing it."

"But you'll perhaps be offended?" "Why?"

"'Cause it's only meant for land-lubbers and such." "Never mind; go on."

The man being thus urged, cleared his throat, fixed his eyes upon the deck, and began in a husky voice as follows:

:

"Come listen to me, ye land-lubbers,
I'll sing you a song of the sea,
While the wind high aloft, through the scuppers,
Comes whistling up over our lee.

'Twas a-sailing across the Atlantic,

North longitude forty-and-two, When a sarpent-like figure gigantic Hove suddenly into our view.

Straight over the bows to the nor❜ard
He lifted his p'isonous head,
And under the starn, right for'ard,
The bight of his tail was spread.

'Furl the main yard!' cried the captain, Run for'ard and dowse the spanker!

Lay out on the signal halyards,
And take a reef in the anchor!

Bring up the best bower, and load her With canister, grape, and shell; Fill her up to the muzzle with powder, And prime her and p'int her well!

"No," said Dean, with a laugh.

"Because I have read such dreadful stories about sharks, and we are so far away from the shore." "No fear; sharks don't come this way. But look yonder."

A rippling sound was heard to leeward, and a small boat under sail was seen running towards them. Two men were sitting on the gunwale, and the boat, which carried a good deal of canvas, was bending to the breeze as it freshened, blowing off shore. Near the bow was a large Newfoundland dog, standing in an attitude of attention, and with his eye fixed upon some object not far off.

"What a fine dog!" said Martin.

"Yes," Bowley replied. "It's Resky. He's a good dog, Resky is. He has saved a many lives, Resky has. Everybody knows Resky."

"He is looking at Tom," said Martin. "There he goes."

Rescue had caught sight of Tom Howard's head in the water, and after a few moments of reflection had come to the conclusion that it was a case for him.

"That's like Chaffin," said Martin.

"No," Tom answered; "because nobody could be deceived in this case. It's a yarn from beginning to end, and does not pretend to be anything else."

"A yarn for land-lubbers," said the singer, with a look of much satisfaction. "Wind blowing aloft through the scuppers, up from our lea; north longitude; starn right for'ard; reef in the anchor. Haw! haw! haw!"

Martin did not see all the force of the joke, and the questions he asked added much to the entertainment, and provoked frequent repetitions of the Haw, haw, haw, in which he joined merrily, though without knowing why.

"How I should like a dip?" Tom said, presently, looking down at the water, upon which a ripple was beginning to play.

"Can you swim?" Joshua Dean asked.

"Oh yes; I have bathed from the Mersey-the ship I came home in from India. The captain used to have a boat lowered in calm weather, and the sailors used to bathe. I could always swim; at least as long as I can remember.”

He had thrown off his jacket by this time, and was preparing to go overboard. Martin came aft in a great hurry and caught hold of him.

We are a long way from the shore," he said, "and the water must be a mile deep, at least."

"Nonsense! Besides it would make no difference if it were. I like deep water to plunge into. Here goes!" "But even a fish cannot live in deep water," cried Martin.

The only reply to this was a good-humoured thrust which floored the " Swallow," and the next moment Tom went over the side, head first. By the time the younger boy was on his feet again Tom was also up, puffing and panting, and dividing the sea manfully with his arms. Dean had thrown off his jacket and shoes, and stood watching the swimmer, ready to spring after him if it should be necessary, and Martin, though still a little alarmed at his friend's daring, was contented to watch him as he dived and swam, and felt not a little proud of him.

Suddenly a thought struck him. "I hope there are no sharks about here," he exclaimed.

sibility, and was swimming with all his power towards the bather.

Tom was a little alarmed when he saw him approaching, for he did not know what sort of animal it was, little more than his head being visible. He began, therefore, to swim towards Dean's boat; but Resky gained upon him, and before Tom was aware caught him by the shoulder, but so gently that his teeth were scarcely felt, and began to draw him towards the boat from which he had himself descended. A struggle ensued, Tom trying to liberato himself from the dog's grip, while the dog persisted in its attempt to hold him fast and safe. Dean put an end to the contest by running his boat to the spot, and then going overboard himself to the boy's assistance. Tom was very glad to find himself safe on board again, for he was exhausted and half drowned by poor Rescue's well-meaning efforts. The adventure caused them a great deal of amusement, though it had not been without its alarms at one moment.

"You had better go and change your clothes," said Tom to his friend Joshua. "You'll catch an awful cold if you don't."

"I will," said the man; "though the wet would not hurt me; salt water never does, nor fresh water, neither. It an't the water," he muttered to himself, as he disappeared under the hatchway of the halfdeck.

"You should have let him have his own way, master," said Bowley, referring to the dog. "He would have brought you alongside famously."

"But I did not want to be brought alongside," said Tom.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed," said the man."

"But I was not in need."

"That makes all the difference, of course. Even a friend may be one too many sometimes; or he may do you a mischief even when he means to be kind. I don't know as ever I thought of that afore."

"It's true, though," said Dean, who had shifted himself by this time. "Save me from my friends, I say."

He looked so serious that Tom felt a little hurt. It seemed as if Dean had intended some reflection upon himself or some one belonging to him. "Why do you say that?" he whispered.