the Sultan's authority has now to swim in the same stream with one of very hard iron, and must quickly crack and go down. Indeed, it has gone down already for all practical purposes; and the authority exercised in that sink of villainy, the town of Zanzibar, nominally that of the Sultan, is really that of Great Britain.1 After all, blundering and aggressive as it is, Germany is a civilised Power, and to it the task has fallen, not without a certain fitness, of doing the rough work absolutely needed for cleansing a large district made vile by far the largest crime against our common nature committed anywhere on the planet. We rejoice to learn from the same speech that the export trade in slaves has been absolutely stopped at last; 2 and we would cordially support the efforts which Bishop Smythies is making to have the status of slavery in Zanzibar reduced. Very much would be gained if the soil of that island were made like that of Britain, its touch imparting to man his primary right of freedom.

Correspondingly great is the wrath of those in the interior who "know that their time is short," and the most prompt and vigorous dealing is required to suppress it, Till Tippoo Tip and his myrmidons are suppressed, missionaries and traders must look only for growingly malignant opposition in the regions over which he has been allowed to dominate these twenty

years.

As for the Englishmen and Scots in our new British East

African territory, a most happy and judicious quietness continues. Long may it continue. There are old and active stations of the Church Missionary Society there. Trouble might easily have arisen at Rabat, behind Mombasa, through Arab masters claiming a considerable number of runaway slaves whom the missionaries have succoured; but these niggers of doubtful position, to the number of 1422, had their freedom presented to them as a New Year's gift, at a cost of £3372 paid to the Arabs. Of this sum the Government gave £800, and the Church Missionary Society £1200. A road has been made fifty miles inland, and a short line of railway is about to be begun. The Company goes as far as it can in the way of conciliating the Arabs, and says they are by no means all bad. This canny and kindly method has answered well as yet; and it is not for any one to say worldly policy may mingle with its obvious philanthropy. We will be well pleased if no tidings come from that quarter till a telegram flashes over Europe the welcome news that Stanley is within a march or two of Mombasa.

There are two Europeans-one an Austrian Jew, quondam named Schnitzner, the other a Welshman, quondam named Rowlands,-about whose critical position in the heart of the Dark Continent Europe and America are more concerned than about any others. Part of the remarkable letter from Major Parminter, already quoted, represents Tippoo Tip as saying that he had

sent Salim bin Mohammed to overtake Stanley on his last march from Bonalya, and that he learned through that messenger of Emin and Stanley proposing to start for the east coast, after six months' rest and preparation, with 6000 guns and 6 cannon. If we believe part of this, it is not because Tippoo says it. Our belief is that these two distinguished servants of African civilisation have, by this time, made their way through Uganda to the Victoria Lake, and are now coming down in leisurely fashion through our new territory. Further, it is likely that they have formed, or soon will form, a junction with the strong caravan sent in from Mombasa, under Lieutenant Swayne, some months ago. Any day, perhaps before these words can be printed, some such tidings may come regarding Stanley and Emin. If our expectation is justified by the event, then the way which the feet of so large a caravan will create, connecting the head-waters of the Nile, and the great sea which feeds it, with the coast through British territory, will do more than anything that has yet taken place to give security to the lives of Europeans.

The struggle with slavery, if it must be sterr, is altogether hopeful, and need not be of long dura tion. The time has fully come when the behests of righteousness must be executed, in the name of God and of humanity, upon the miscreants who are enslaving, mutilating, murdering men, wonen, and children, at the rate of two millions a-year, destroying vast fields of lawful commerce, and frustrating every philanthropic enterprise.

Postscript, June 18th. While these pages were passing through the press an important telegram

reached Sir Francis de Winton from Zanzibar on June 12th, and was by him at once communicated to the newspapers with an expository letter. It appears that at the end of 1888 Stanley, alone, had visited the south-east end of Victoria Nyanza, presumably to pick up the stores so long lying for him at Msalala; that his followers had suffered much from disease and privation; that Emin had come with him to Unyora, and that he proposed to rejoin him there-i.e., at the north-east end of Victoria, the distance being reckoned at fifteen days. The belief above expressed is thus confirmed in a satisfactory manner, for Unyora is in Kavirondo, the western frontier of our new East African property, and the route the two heroes are taking is therefore not the old one by Ujiji, which would have led them into Wissmann's camp, but a quite new one through Masailand.

Had

How long is it since they started from Unyora? We wish there were materials for some certainty as to that. According to the above telegram, the news contained in which is said to have left the south end of the lake on December 31st, the start might have been made at the beginning of February, five months. ago, long enough for the great caravan to have passed through Masailand and to be now encamped on the northern slopes of Kilimanjaro, only 250 miles from the sea. that been the case, however, surely tidings would have been expressed down to Mombasa. We do not know what difficulties may beset the movements of so large a body, including many women and children and through countries where the man-stealers are once more in ad vance of them. Besides, there arrived yesterday afternoon a very perplexing telegram, conveying news that left Ujiji on the 10th of March. According to this,

Stanley "intends forcing his way with Emin through Masailand to Mombasa," which is our expectation again confirmed almost in so many words. But it appears that Tippoo Tip has "met with Stanley," and had announced his intention of being in Zanzibar in November. This is not good news. There can now be no doubt whatever, as has been shown above, of the cruel treachery of the Governor of Stanley Falls; and we would again earnestly urge that public attention should be given without delay to the simple and truthful narrative of Mr Werner in chapters ix., x., xi., and xiii. of the volume quoted above. We can hardly believe that Tippoo will venture into Zanzibar of his own free will, placing the barrier of Wissmann's military operations on land and of the joint-blockade at sea between him and his happy hunting-grounds. But it is just possible that he might carry bravado so far, and the public opinion of Zanzibar regarding slavery is exceedingly debased in comparison with that of Britain. It is therefore of the most urgent importance that his true character and deeds should be fully known, in order to

his being brought to justice. He is supposed to be under the jurisdiction of the Congo Free State, in which case he could be handed over to its authorities. It is probable, however, that his ill-starred relations to that State have ceased by this time (see pp. 147, 148, supra), in which case it would fall to the British representatives at Zanzibar to take action against the man who gave orders for the murder of Major Barttelot.

Unless some great disaster has befallen the caravan, Stanley and Emin must now be far on their way to us. What is quite certain is, that another large tract of country, where Europeans have not been since 1861 and 1862, when Speke and Grant followed the Nile out of the inland sea which creates it-the country between the Nile and Kavirondohas been crossed; and thus Stanley will have to tell us fully, what we partly know from his letters, of the way from the Congo to the Albert Lake, of the adventures he has met with between the Albert Lake and the Victoria, and of his march through Masailand -an immense addition to our knowledge.

THE revelations from prison life which we have been allowed to bring to light in these pages, have not unnaturally drawn forth various expressions of opinion on the subject, which we are glad to have an opportunity of refuting in so far as we hold them to be mis

taken.

The first strong impression conveyed by the recital of scenes from a Silent World seems to have been that work which implies continual association with the lowest and vilest of criminals must be to the last degree depressing and distasteful, and even to some extent demoralising. There is truth in this idea only as regards the pain which must always be felt in witnessing the sufferings and errors of our fellow-creatures, whatever may be their position in the social scale; but there is another aspect of the case which gives to labour among the tenants

VOL. CXLVI.-NO. DCCCLXXXVI.

of our prisons an indescribable charm, such as could hardly be found in any other form of altruism that may be open to us.

The realism and energetic truthseeking of this nineteenth century have, as we are all well aware, caused a widespread awakening to the inscrutable problems in the condition of humanity which surround us on every side. The complicated evils that beset our race are patent enough to all observers, but the difference of opinion among thoughtful persons as to the remedies which might be attempted for them simply offers to us contrasts of a truly bewildering description. The most be neficent schemes are represented as doing more harm than good-while even the old-fashioned virtues of charity and almsgiving are denounced as mischievous to the recipients, and fatal to the good of the community. There is no

doubt that this particular view is to a great extent borne out by recent experiences.-such as the disastrous results of the distribution some time since of the Lord Mayor's fund for the unemployed in London. The sixty thousand pounds generously contributed for the relief of starving families, is said to have drawn to the Capital, hordes of the most vicious and worthless of those who live in idleness, abjuring honest work, and to have been for the most part absorbed by them, in spite of strenuous efforts to use the fund judiciously.

The discord of opinion to which we allude, however, obtains in respect to many burning questions: the higher education strongly adTocated by some, is supposed by others to engender socialism and infidelity; the rescue of the fallen is said to have the result of drawing numbers yet innocent into the ranks of the lost;-the strife of parties, the conflicts of Churches and sects, and many other opposing elements, combine to render the work of those who would serve their fellow-creatures in the outside world a most discouraging and ungrateful task,-yet the enthusiasm of humanity has entered too strongly into the spirit of the age for these efforts to be abandoned whatever may be the difficulties attendant upon their execution, and herein lies the charm of service done within the walls of a prison to the most utterly hopeless and depraved of human beings. There can be no question of their sore need of help and pity: they have reached the lowest depths of misery and degradation: they are without God, and without hope; they look upon all men as their enemies; they can fall no lower: they can endure nothing worse. Whatever, therefore, is done for

their benefit. even mistakenly, must have a true value in contradistinction to their moral and physical destitution, which it probably could not have in more favourable circumstances. The faint gleam of light which would be wholly lost in the blaze of the noonday suu, is as a radiant messenger when it enters on impenetrable darkness. Prison visitors have the comfort of feeling that, as they alone have access to the criminals, what they attempt would be left entirely undone without their aid, and that their efforts, however feeble and unsatisfactory, must be better than nothing. Thus it is that tasks performed within the mournful jail, have a sweetness and attraction they could never have elsewhere. While the world without is ever steeped in mysterious evils, fettered and burdened by problems that may well make the most energetic philanthropist despair of accomplishing any good in his generation; it can, think, be understood that there is rest and consolation in spending an hour in the condemned cell with a man just about to suffer a terrible and ignominious death, so that he may feel-since even in that deepest abyss of misery he is not bereft of human sympathy

we

there may surely yet be hope for him, that mercy and pardon will not fail him at the feet of God.

If we can thus disprove the idea that prison work must necessarily be distasteful and depressing, we can still more strongly repudiate the theory which has been forcibly enunciated. that it engenders a sentimental "tenderness to crime." Some persons, it would seem. object even to any revelations being made from the Silent World on the ground that they are "gruesome," and that