The Colonies and India from London, Greater London, England • Page 12

12 walking our usual pace, suddenly we were arrested in our course by an electric current passing from his body through mine, making me feel as though I had touched an electric battery. This condition remained so long as we continued on the vein, but the moment we passed over it the boy's normal condition returned. Once the effect remained while we passed over three or four yards. We tested the boy over and over again by returning and walking over the vein several times, and each time we touched the vein the same effect was conveyed from the boy. Now, as the company had no knowledge whatever of the existence of this new vein, they are convinced that the boy Frederick Rodwell must possess the power of discovering minerals and water.

I understand the boy has now been engaged to go to Australia to divine the underground water and minerals of its arid and auriferous regions." Among the awards made for communications to the Institution of Civil Engineers during the past session are a Telford medal and a Telford premium to Mr. Charles Ormsby Burge, M.Inst. C.E., for his account of "The Hawkesbury Bridge, New South Wales," and a similar award to Mr. Frederick Thomas Granville Walton, C.I.E., M.Inst.C.E., for his description of "The Construction of the Dufferin Bridge over the Ganges, at Benares." Both the French and American papers have been giving a good deal of attention to Sir Charles Dilke's new book. The Bepublique says that the French press is not in the habit of giving much of its space to foreign works, but an exception must be made in the case of Sir Charle3 Dilke's book.

Speaking of the writer, the Republique Frangaise says that there are in Sir Charles Dilke's turn of mind and style of composition two qualities which produce on the reader contradictory impressions. He is, or at least seems, invariably impassible in face of the most unfortunate events and the most disturbing conjectures as regards the future and if in the long run one becomes angry at his Olympian severity, yet, as the real or pretended impassibility allows the writer to discuss all subjects (even the most delicate or the most painful), one follows him with a sense of absolute security, and feels that nothing will remain hidden, that every side of the question will be presented, and that, after having read, one will certainly know. The Boston Literary World says that Sir Charles Dilke has done the United States a service only inferior to that which he has done England herself and her Imperial domain, by presenting us a body of information of the highest trustworthiness, important to every thoughtful American. The Portuguese Government at Lisbon has sent an invitation to the Portuguese agriculturists residing in British Guiana to emigrate to Huilla, a district on the Western Coast of Africa, which Portugal claims to hold in possession. In reply to the invitation, some 800 persons have already expressed their readiness to leave Guiana for the new field of labour offered to them by their Mother Country.

It is expected that a free passage will be afforded and as soon as a sufficient number are ready a good sized vessel will be sent to the Portuguese Colony. As it is stipulated in the invitation that only agriculturists will be received as eligible for the new Colony, the Demerara Argosy trusts that the English Government, while not attempting to impose any restraint on the exodus, will submit to the authorities at Lisbon that in this removal of selected Colonists there should be a fair consideration given to the interests of Guiana, in getting the emigrants to provide for the descendants and relatives" whom they will leave behind. Young men desirous of entering the Indian Staff Corps will for the future be called upon to make their selection before they receive their commissions. They will be appointed to the Indian service from the Militia or from Sandhurst direct, and will be simply attached to British regiments for twelve months in order to pick up the ropes." That no injustice may be done to those who are now passing through, the new regulations are not to come into force until 1892. The decision of the authorities to modify existing arrangements is meeting with the utmost approval in British regiments, some of which have been seriously affected at times by the old plan, which JUNE 18, 1890 has existed since the Staff Corps was created, of allowing officers to elect for the Indian service after their appointment.

It has not unfrequently happened that as many as six subalterns' have gone to the Staff Corps in one year from battalions in India. It may be imagined what an inconvenience this has been, and how it must have tried the tempers of commanding officers and adjutants. The July number of the Contemporary Review will contain a paper recounting in full the particulars of a journey to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, made by the learned Indian Buddhist scholar Sarat Chandra Das. This narrative has been long is said, on the representations of Mr. Colman Macaulay, who deprecated affording minute geographical information of this kind to possible political rivals in Central Asia.

A telegram received at the Hague a few days since from Paramaribo announces that on May 5 the French took possession of the disputed territory on the Lawa River. Mr. H. H. Johnston, Her Majesty's Consul at Mozambique has arrived in London on leave of absence.

He will remain for some time on this side, we understand, as his health has been to some extent impaired by the long and hazardous journeys he has been compelled to take in the Mozambique and Nyassa country. Mr. Aubrey Spencer Grant, seventh son of Mr. John Glasgow Grant, C.M.G., of Barbados, gained a second class in the- Theological Special at the recent examinations at and the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred on him on- June 14. He has been appointed as assistant master in a high classical school.

The Secretary of State for India on June 17, in the presence of a numerous company including Sir Frederick Halliday (formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal), Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, General George Hutchinson, and Sir Richard Temple, M.P., unveiled, at the India Office, a bust of the late- Sir Robert Montgomery, who died in December, 1887. The bust, by Mr. Bruce Joy, is of alabaster. Lord Cross said that was not the time for him to enlarge upon the virtues of his late friend. The energy and nobility of his mind were matters of history, while the simplicity of his manner and the genial kindness of his heart endeared him to all who had to work either under or above him.

We hear from Stockholm that the British, German, and United States Ministers to Sweden, on behalf of their respective Governments, have requested King Oscar, in virtue of Article 3 of the Samoa Convention, to appoint a chief judge in the islands. A further batch of official correspondence relating to the affairs of Cyprus has just been published in the form of a Blue Book. Sir Henry Bulwer, High Commissioner of the Colony, in a dispatch to Lord Knutsford, dated April 10, reports that the harvest prospects were so far favourable. The cereal production of last year was much above the average, and in regard to wheat, barley, and oats was in exces3 of that of any year since the British occupation. The correspondence also includes translations of a letter from Mr.

D. Pilavachi, of Limassol, who wrote Following with careful attention the social movement of the peasantry, I see with astonishment, as- well as with sorrow, that the demoralisation, the thefts, the. murders, and the like have excessively increased, a manifest proof of this being the charges that are brought every day, not counting the cases in which the sufferers either do not bring a charge for fear, or come to some arrangement. The establishment of an agricultural bank would limit usury, and also save from ruin a good many small proprietors, while, moreover, the gang of small thieves being thus enabled to find out money whereby BRITISH ASBFSTOS Partners of this Company have had longer practical ex crier ce in As-bestcs nmnufi cture than any other Londcn House. Manufacturers of all kinds of Asbestos and Jaintincs for High-pressure Steam Engines, also Eo'lrr Covermsr Ccir.poiu n.

Specify cur Trade Mark, PI 10 Duke Street. Aldgate, Lor.don. THE COLONIES AND INDIA.