by association, each member of the Federation would find in the common nationality at least as much scope for its aspirations, as much demand for the patriotism, energy, and self-reliance of its citizens, as it would if trying to obtain a distinct nationality for itself. He saw no insuperable physical or moral bar to such a Federation, but he had no proposal to make as to the way in which such a body should be formed, for one reason, because it would be premature, as no change in our relations was yet necessary. The conditions of such union might, however, be discussed. To him it seemed that, in order that our Empire should continue, all its different self-governing communities must agree in maintaining allegiance to one monarch-in maintaining a common nationality, so that each subject might find that he had the political rights and privileges of other subjects, wheresoever he might go in the realm; and, lastly, must agree not only in maintaining a mutual alliance in all relations with foreign powers, but in apportioning among themselves the obligations imposed by such a course. He did not despair of one future tariff for the Empire, and that, too, based upon our present fiscal policy-namely, customs levied upon as few articles as possible, with a corresponding excise. The Imperial must include foreign policy, and therefore arrangements for mutual defence. Generally speaking, internal affairs must be left to the local governments, and therefore the admission of colonial representatives into our Parliament could not be a permanent form of association, though it might possibly be useful in the temporary transition from the dependent to the associated relation. In conclusion, he would allude briefly to a few principles which ought to actuate our policy if we looked forward to a permanent union. We must continue by every means to invigorate the colonies; therefore we must try to give them the strength of union with one another wherever possible, as already in the Dominion-as we trusted might soon be the case at the Cape, and as hereafter might be accomplished in Australia. We ought also to do our utmost to increase their moral vigour, by encouraging them in self-reliance and in the fulfilment of all the duties of citizenship. Nor must we suppose that we could give this right to self-government by halves. We must allow them to manage, or even, in our opinion, to mismanage their own affairs. But while fully admitting this right of self-government, we might in honest friendliness ask them to carefully consider any internal measure which might appear to be contrary to Imperial interests. We must not sap the desire for union at home by asking the British taxpayer to pay for the colonist that which he was able and willing to pay for himself. And, lastly, we ought to take every opportunity of showing that we consider the colonists our countrymen, and every colony part of the common country, and especially we ought to welcome every step that any colony might take in measures of common defence.

CHAPTER V.

Journey of the Prince of Wales to India-His visit to the Khedive of EgyptArrival at Bombay-Reception at Baroda; Goa; Ceylon; Madras; Calcutta -“Eastern Question "-Political Complications-Turkish repudiation-Speeches of Mr. Disraeli and Lord Derby-Purchase of Suez Canal shares-Sir W. Harcourt's remarks-Ministerial mistakes-Slave Circular-Loss of "Vanguard" -Collision between "Alberta" and "Mistletoe "-Marquis of HartingtonIrish Home Rulers-O'Connell Centenary-Army mobilisation scheme-Disas trous floods-Revenue report-General character of the Year.

THE Prince of Wales quitted the shores of England for his expedition to India on the 11th of October. Our Chronicle will record the incidents of his departure, and mention the names of the principal members of the suite which accompanied him. From Dover he crossed in the "Castalia " to Calais, where the Princess of Wales took leave of him; then pushed on through Paris to Turin, thence to Brindisi, where he joined the "Serapis," commanded by Capt. the Hon. Carr Glyn. He spent three days at Athens, from the 18th to the 21st, and on the 23rd arrived at Port Saïd, from whence he proceeded to Cairo. At the Ghezireh Palace, which had been especially prepared for his reception, he was met by the Khedive and his three sons, together with various officers of state; and here an incident took place, the interest and significance of which were enhanced shortly afterwards when certain diplomatic transactions between the Governments of England and Egypt came to light. This incident was the investiture of Prince Tewfik, the Khedive's eldest son, with the Order of the Star of India, at the hands of the Prince of Wales himself; at the moment, the importance of the investiture was connected only with its being supposed to convey an English endorsement of the principle of hereditary succession, conceded ten years previously by the Porte to Egypt. The Prince of Wales, on occasion of the ceremony, spoke as follows to the Khedive and his son:-"Sir, I consider it a high privilege, a high duty, and it is a great gratification to myself personally to be able, in the presence of your Highness, to carry out the commands of Her Majesty the Queen, who has charged me with the duty of investing you, Sir, [turning to the Prince hereditary,] with the ensigns of the Order of the Star of India. It is not the most ancient of our English Orders, but it is one highly valued by us for the distinction it confers on those to whom it is granted for their services in India. The Queen has determined to confer this especial mark of consideration, Sir, for yourself and family, because of the goodwill Her Majesty bears towards His Highness the Khedive, himself a member of the Order, who has always shown himself a true friend to

the English nation, and has done so much to promote the safety and convenience of our communication between England and India, in facilitating the transit of our troops and commerce. I trust that in fulfilling this charge with which the Queen has entrusted me I may be adding another link to strengthen the bonds of friendship which already exist between England and Egypt." The Khedive replied in a voice of emotion, and in terms most complimentary to England.

Rejoining the "Serapis" at Suez, the Prince proceeded down the Red Sea, reached Aden on the 1st of November, and arrived at Bombay on the 8th. For three weeks there had been gathering in that city such a crowd of native Rajahs and Princes as had probably never before been collected in Western India. Upwards of 40 Chiefs of various degrees arrived to meet the Prince of Wales, the most distinguished among these strangers being the young Guicowar and the young Maharajah of Mysore; then came Sir Salar Jung and the band of Hyderabad nobles who had been sent to represent the Nizam; after them a band of princelings, whose titles, excepting, perhaps, those of the Maharajah of Kolapore and the Maharanee of Oodeypore, are little known out of India. Each chief brought with him a retinue of followers varying in number from the 1,500 troops who swelled the train of the Guicowar to the four or five unarmed attendants of the more humble Sirdars of the Deccan. At every turn in the streets were to be seen carriages containing some gorgeously dressed and jewelled potentate, escorted by a more or less orderly body of horsemen, some of the Rajahs boasting bodyguards hardly inferior in equipment and discipline to our own native Cavalry. The Guicowar's Highlanders, the favourite corps of the notorious Mulharrao, and the gold and silver guns on which that monarch spent such enormous sums, formed prominent features in the military display.

The day after the Prince's arrival happened to be his 34th birthday, and the occasion was celebrated with great pomp and rejoicings.

From Bombay he travelled 230 miles north to Baroda, and visited the young Guicowar who had been placed on the throne of the late iniquitous ruler Mulharrao by British authority. Here he received his first impressions of a native court and government. The Guicowar and Sir Madhava Rao, his minister, first accompanied the Prince to the Residency, and the youthful Sovereign was treated by the Prince with the respectful courtesy befitting his rank. There was a reception of the Sirdars, who offered presents indicative of their loyalty and satisfaction. Outside the station the crowds of natives were immense; there were twelve gigantic elephants curiously painted and magnificently caparisoned. The Prince ascended a golden howdah hung with cloth of gold trappings; in front was a row of elephants all kneeling. Then, waving cloths of gold, yaks' tails, peacock-feather fans,

came a procession of Indian Cavalry, matchlock men, and Baroda Sowars, strains of barbaric music, gold chariots drawn by oxen with gilt and silver horns, an exciting entertainment of wrestlers, elephants, rhinoceros, buffalo, and ram fights.

The programme of the Prince's route had to be altered in consequence of the appearance of cholera in some of the districts he intended to have visited.

Leaving Bombay in the "Serapis" on November 25th, the Prince touched at Goa, and there visited the Portuguese Governor and the chief monuments of the old colonial grandeur of the Portuguese rule. He reached Ceylon and landed at Colombo on December 2nd. Here his exploits in elephant hunting were animated, and some thought a little too adventurous for the heir of the British throne to be allowed voluntarily to encounter. On December 13th he reached Madras, where he was magnificently entertained by the new Governor, the Duke of Buckingham, and received visits from the Maharajah of Travancore and other native potentates. Embarking again in the "Serapis," as the sanitary condition of parts of the country made an inland journey by railway unadvisable, he reached Calcutta on December the 23rd. The last week of the year was spent in grand entertainments and ceremonies, at the head quarters of the British Empire in India; the Prince acquiring good opinions every where by his indefatigable activity and good humour, his urbanity and tact, his social grace, and his distinguished manners. With Sir Bartle Frere, as conductor-in-chief of the expedition, the Duke of Sutherland and other members of the aristocracy as private friends, his enjoyment was amply provided for.

Up to the end of the year, therefore, complete success had attended the visit of the heir of the British Crown to his future dominions in the gorgeous Indies. But it so happened that the outset of his tour coincided in point of time with certain political complications, which caused considerable anxiety and fear of possible war among the principal European Courts; and when the Prince of Wales arrived at Bombay political vaticinators thought it very possible that the state of public affairs at home, or possibly a Russian inroad upon India, consequent on some hostile interpretation of the "Eastern Question "might have made his prompt return necessary. Happily, as our further history will show, the Powers principally concerned in the ultimate distribution of the "Sick Man's" property were just now more disposed to prolong his existence than to rush into the disputes which must needs ensue on its termination; and the transactions between dilapidated Turkey and her powerful neighbours resulted for the time being in an amicable evasion of difficulties.

To the English public the chief immediate inconvenience caused by the wretched state into which the affairs of the Sublime Porte had fallen in consequence of the Herzegovinian Insurrection and the generally disorganised state of her affairs,

both provincial and central, was her decision, announced early in October, to pay during the next five years half only of the dividend on her State debt, by far the largest portion of which was on the books of British bondholders. This was a distinct act of repudiation, and might, it was apprehended, be but too probably the prelude to a declaration of still more hopeless insolvency.

At a meeting of the bondholders which was summoned in London to consider the exigencies of the case, it was resolved to address the Government as having formally guaranteed a part of the Turkish loan at the time it was raised. What obligation as towards the British lenders did the "guarantee" involve?

"The 1854 Turkish loan is special," argued the bondholders, "for these reasons,-it was recommended to the public by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs in England and France, and their recommendation was authoritatively announced in the prospectus of the loan by Sir J. Goldsmid and Mr. Palmer, who issued it. This loan is the only one, excepting the loan of 1855, guaranteed by France and England, which possesses the Hatti-Sherif of the Sultan. The loan was recommended by the English Parliament when asked to sanction the Convention of 1855 between France, England, and Turkey, and the security for that loan was announced in the Parliament which voted the guarantee to be the tribute of Egypt after the sums necessary for the interest on the previous loan-that of 1854-had been paid; with the further security of the Customs of Smyrna and Syria. It was further stated in Parliament that the tribute was to be paid twice in the year to the Bank of England for the purpose of satisfying the interest on the loan; and the tribute has been so paid for 20 years. The Ottoman Government now proposes to assign this tribute, already hypothecated, to other holders of Turkish bonds, and to the internal debt of Turkey, and thus place the secured bondholders on the same footing with the unsecured. It is submitted that, independently of the injustice of such a confiscation, it is one to which the Governments of France and England can give no sanction, for the reason that they will part with a valuable security, and have only the promise to pay of Turkey, which promise, should it fail in fulfilment, would entail on France and England the payment of the interest guaranteed by them. It is also submitted that it would be unworthy of Governments who are now second mortgagees of a property to allow themselves to be placed, by the default of the Turkish Government, in the position of first mortgagees, at the expense of the rights of those whom they are bound to protect, certainly not to injure. This injury cannot be inflicted on French and British subjects without the connivance of the French and British Governments. All, therefore, that is asked is that the French and British Governments should require the strict fulfilment of the Convention of 1855. The Turkish scheme for arrangement with the creditors of Turkey being based on