thing, but I never felt myself in the least degraded till I came to that stoneheap. With starvation before me and my family, I at last gave it up. My wife was ill, one of my daughters soon afterwards died (thank God, by the help of some kind friends I buried her without having to apply for a parish coffin); we are as poor as we can be, dependent on the few shillings I can earn in a week and on charity, but we have not again applied to the parish." These words, spoken gravely, and I think sincerely, need no application of mine, and they apply to many more cases than the one now before the reader.

cases

No one who has known anything of the poor parts of London during the last winter, or who has attentively read of them, can doubt that sharp remedies are needed for certain melancholy facts and conditions of life, in some temporary, in others chronic. There are wealthy employers and others ready to assert that the distress has been overstated; that there is a danger of encouraging vice and idleness under the belief that help is being given to honest poverty; that things were always so, and always will be so, &c. All this, however, does not alter the fact that there is a cry, like a wail of woe, among the poor of London; a cry powerful enough, where it can be heard, to silence all such bland assertions, and bring men face to face with solemn responsibilities. It would be utter quackery to attempt to state or define specific remedies for all the wants and woes involved in the term "Eastend distress," but no one need have any difficulty in finding sufficient of them to be made the means of much good. Only, are we in earnest in seeking for them?

Employers and workmen too often deal unfairly with each other, on system. When the workman can say "It is our turn now," the employer often adds, "It will be mine next." Surely it is for the employer, as the man of power, and to some extent the representative there of educated people, to set the example of better things; and if it took him a lifetime to make the ex

ample felt and understood, the life would not be spent in vain. If offences and misunderstandings, "chances" and "turns" of doing each other injury are to cease, the great work must begin among those who, from their wealth, and the vantageground that they possess, could begin it both with dignity and a fair prospect of success. Such examples are rare. Workmen are flattered-dishonestly flattered -as they never were before, but there is a conviction among them that they rarely have fair play, or upright and downright treatment, springing from pure motives.

There is also a conviction among them that they might as well be silent when capital is stating its case and theirs, for that, right or wrong, they are sure to be beaten. A wealthy shipbuilder tells the public that men who refuse to work in private yards at six shillings a day, accept work in Government yards at five shillings a day, forgetting to add that in Government yards there is maintenance in case of injury, and no broken time-facts which this gentleman had himself pointed to, on a previous occasion, for a different purpose, as sufficient to make the lesser wage in the one case better than the greater one in the other. Workmen, charged with all manner of unfairness, point to this, and ask, with excusable bitterness, "Is this fair play?"

There are times when they ask the same question on less reasonable grounds. They are sometimes, like other people, decidedly in the wrong, and when they are so, they work at the wrong as earnestly as if they were making a temple of it, for sacred duties resting on both faith and will; but even then one good breeze of reason and kindness would blow the temple to the ground. In the recent interview of several representatives of trades' unions with Mr. Gladstone, the words of the great statesman were not more pointed and telling than those of the workmen, for here the men were met with kindness, and a desire to know the exact facts they wished to state. Had it been otherwise, had their words been twisted and turned into meanings they were never intended to convey,

Mr. Gladstone might have triumphed over his poorer fellow-countrymen, might have shown them how little qualified they were to compete in dialectics with a great dialectician, but the interview would have been useless, and indeed baneful, instead of being creditable to both workmen and statesman, as it was.

A stern political economist, standing on exact science, and applying "data" to the case of "starving" men will always fail to comprehend the position of workmen. Allowances must be made for circumstances calculated to distort the views of the calmest minds. The men

who would restrict the number of apprentices are men who have been "out of work." The men who, like madmen, destroyed machinery, were men whom machinery had brought from comfort to abject poverty. Let that man or woman be loud in condemnation of them who has known what it is to have an empty cupboard and children crying for bread, who has looked upon a blank hopeless future, while fortunes were being amassed by his or her branch of labour turned into new channels. The exact science and unerring data, without an allowance for the life histories, are as likely to lead to erroneous conclusions as any claim of workmen would be, even when made in defiance of data and science, and without regard for the lessons of general history.

There are those who tell us that in emigration alone there is hope for the poor of England; and it cannot be doubted that emigration has done and is doing what nothing else could have done. It is not pleasant, however, to admit that in England all is hopeless, and that the sole hope of an Englishman is in finding his way to a foreign shore. Surely, the time has not come to forget this home of freedom-this mother of free men-and think only of escaping to the refuge of a strange land. Surely, it is the interest of men of all classes to try to do something to show that England, while founding new na

tions abroad, can still be more than a foster-mother to her poor at home.

The hope is in labour. All the kindness in the world without that would be merely supplying means of temporary relief, and even the labour itself on an eleemosynary basis would be no more. The workmen on the Thames think that their employers are now anxious to "take their turn," and make of the very distress a means of profit. I do not say that this opinion is correct; as applied to many cases I am sure it is the reverse; but it is believed, and the workmen's history excuses, if it does not justify, the belief.

There

One thing, however, workmen must make up their minds to do, if they would better the condition of their trade. They must take small wagesin fact, any reasonable wages-the first time they have an opportunity of beginning work on any fair and reasonable principle of co-operative labour. should be no higgling or hesitating, no foolish jealousy, for of every pound saved here they would have a share. They have good reason for hesitating now, but they should shrink from no sacrifice they should work all hours, and "out at elbows" if necessary, to carry that noble idea into life.

The

The money that one kind lady has given to Bethnal Green, would have set on foot some branch of co-operative labour, which, treat it as we may, and blink the facts as we may to meet the wishes of interested persons, is one of the most promising rays of light ahead of the East-end distress. National Education, on a broad basis, is another. winter of 1868 is distant. There is time for real work while the days are long. If that work is done, the distress will be fairly faced, and may be stemmed. If that work is not done, on some high national ground-above all party and sectarian aims-the distress will return again in winter, unchanged in character, unless, indeed, the change is for the

worse.

87

II.

THE MARCH FROM SENAFÉ TO ANTALO (HALF WAY TO MAGDALA.)

WHEN Sir Robert Napier landed in Annesley Bay, and took command of the Abyssinian field force, in the beginning of January, there were two courses open to him in the conduct of the campaign. Teodoros was still at a considerable distance from Magdala, advancing at the rate of two or three miles a day, and impeded by all his moveable effects, some guns, and, above all, by a heavy mortar which his European workmen had succeeded in casting for him.

It might, therefore, have been decided that the great object of the campaign was to reach Magdala before Teodoros could arrive and get the captives into his clutches again. Senafé is twentyone easy marches from Magdala; and, even if the march had not commenced

until the end of January, a small force pushed promptly forward, with two months' provisions, would have attained the object in view. But the general commanding it must have relied on the resources of the country, to a considerable extent, both for supplies and transport; and temporarily, until supports could be brought up, on the friendliness of the people for keeping communications open with his base. The success of such a

course would have brought the campaign to a conclusion in the shortest possible time, and at the smallest possible cost. Whether it was feasible; whether reliance on the resources of the country and the friendliness of the people, to the extent required, would have been justifiable; and finally, whether this course, though not absolutely free from risk, was not the only one by which success

was

possible are questions that may be decided more correctly and more profitably when the results of the campaign are finally discussed at its conclusion. Suffice it that this first course was not even attempted.

which the campaign is actually to be The alternative plan-the plan by conducted-gives the first move to the adversary with a vengeance. While the English player moves a few pawns one square to the front, the Abyssinian is allowed time to castle his king, and take the pieces for which the game is played. The enemy is permitted to reach Magdala and get the game into his own hands, while the English general is maturing arrangements on so large and complete a scale as to leave no room for any possible mischance to his troops, except through inexcusable neglect or incompetence. This course involves an enormous outlay, great loss of time, and desperate risk for the captives. recommendations are that, setting the object of the campaign on one side, it ensures the health and comfort of the troops, and is emphatically a safe and prudent course. The force will be, as much as possible, independent of the Advances resources of the country.

1

Its

will not be made unless ample means of transport are previously secured; three safe depôts will be formed at the chief places along the line of march, and the whole campaign will be conducted as if the line was through an enemy's country, and Teodoros was a formidable European foe.

The state of the transport-train when the Commander-in-chief landed was such that, for the conduct of a campaign on this plan, serious delays were un

1 Senafé, Adigirat, and Antalo.

avoidable; and in that state it long remained. The omission, at Bombay, to send muleteers in adequate numbers who could understand the transport officers is the main cause of this complete break-down ; but total ignorance of the proper treatment of mules has also had much to do with it. Saddles were sent out of such monstrous patterns and fearful weight, that sore backs were a certain consequence of their use. One of these is the mass of wood and iron and leather straps, called the Otago saddle, without blanket or covering of any kind for the night; another was the Suez pattern, which was a breed between a hatchway ladder and a hencoop. Even now there is not a single proper packsaddle in Abyssinia-not a single aparejo, such as experience has proved to be best adapted for baggage-mules in all countries where mules have for centuries been the chief or only means of transport. The treatment of the mules is of a piece with their equipment. Instead of driving them, four are chained together and dragged along the road; and the scenes that take place when the poor brutes come to any difficult or dangerous part may be imagined. But this chaining-up is carried still further. When the mules are turned out to graze, four are chained together by the headstalls, the sick to the strong, and those that want to lie down and rest to those that would wander about and graze. Near Senafé one of these forlorn chain gangs slipped into a pond about eight feet square, the rest were dragged in after him, and all four were drowned, while the Turkish muleteer sat smoking a few yards off. No wonder that out of 12,000 mules that have been landed, upwards of 4,000 have been lost from neglect and starvation, while the survivors are in so reduced a condition that, instead of the usual mule load of 280 to 300lbs., they are incapable of carrying more than 150lbs. in addition to the ponderous saddle, weighing

40lbs.

1 A number of muleteers from the Punjab, good well-disciplined men, were at last sent from India, and 1,800 men were landed towards the end of February.

This state of things accounts for some of the delay; and during the months of January and February the arrangements of the campaign were slowly progressing. By the middle of January the whole of the 33d Regiment had arrived at Senafé; and during that first half of the month the commissariat had so far availed themselves of the resources of the surrounding country as to have purchased 60,000 lbs. of barley and 200,000 lbs. of grass. Little girls were to be seen in all directions, staggering along under the weight of 40 lbs. of grass; and upwards of 400 loaded persons came in daily, beside those bringing in firewood. Bullocks, goats, and sheep were also sold in great numbers; and, in return, dollars were sown broadcast over the district around Senafé, which was being rapidly drained of its produce. Towards the end of January carts drawn by bullocks arrived on the plateau, and demonstrated that there was at last a road suited for wheel-traffic from the coast to the highlands of Abyssinia. This was a great achievement, reflecting the highest credit on the officers and men who had thus overcome all the difficulties of the path; and it was one which would be of the utmost future importance. The whole of the surviving mules, relieved of the harassing work between the coast and Senafé, would be available for troops on the line of march, while the provisions and stores would in future be pushed up from the coast by means of camels, bullocks, and cart traffic. Elephants were also landed at Mulkutto for use on the coast plain, and the railroad between Mulkutto and Komayli was making progress.

At length, after a delay of nearly a month on the coast, Sir Robert Napier, with his numerous personal staff, arrived at Senafé on the 29th of January. Brigadier-General Merewether, the political officer who had been the life and soul of the expedition from the commencement, had come up some days before, and his arrival betokened activity and movement. Accordingly, the march onwards may be said to have commenced during the last ten days of January.