in educating all of them for both worlds. Two plain statistical facts will, at any rate, let some light on the present condition of the labouring classes and the colony at large. In the years 1883-84, 4,827 accounts in the Savings Bank were opened, the largest number since the Bank was started in 1870. In the same year the sum of £196,913 was deposited, also the largest sum in the same period. The withdrawals, it ought to be added, amounted almost to an equivalent In 1872-73 the total revenue of the island was £480,954; in 1883-84 it was £561,286. This does not look like going back. sum. Much excite one should expect to have even a tolerable notion of what Jamaica scenery is, who cannot give at least three months to diligently exploring it. I had hardly as many weeks. The coast scenery is said to be finest on the north side of the island; and a coasting steamer, which leaves Kingston periodically and makes the entire circuit in ten days, is a convenient way of seeing it. The boat is small, but said to be quite comfortable. The Blue Mountains at the back of Kingston are the highest in the island, and the loftiest peak is 7,360 feet, a little lower than the basin of the City of Mexico. ment was caused throughout the island by the discovery of a piece of ice on the summit of the peak, in the course of the last winter. It was an unworthy and much resented explanation, that it was only the relic of a luncheon party. These mountains are only The extreme length of the island is 144 partially opened out, but roads are being miles, and its greatest width 49 miles. With developed. The summit of the peak is often the exception of a few square miles just hidden in cloud, as Anthony Trollope found round Kingston, the whole island is supremely to his cost, with others. Bath, at the foot beautiful. But there are many varieties of of the mountains, is reported to be very scenery, wood, water, vegetation, mountain, beautiful. Trelawny is a lovely district, and and sea, lending their charms in turn. No so is Hanover. Archdeacon Douet griev But now it is time to look about us a little, and I shall be only glad if my jejune and rapid survey may tempt any one to visit this charming island, and explore its beauties for themselves. ously tantalised me by telling me of a charming drive to be taken along the high ridge above. Newcastle, the summer residence of the troops, is 3,800 feet above the sea, and commands a beautiful prospect. The latter part of the climb must be done on horseback. The Black River abounds in alligators, a reptile best observed at a distance. The places of which I can speak from personal observation are fairly typical of the scenery of the island, and certainly worth a visit. It is a lovely drive from Kingston to the public garden at Castleton by way of Stony Hill, commanding extensive views, rich in almost every kind of tropical vegetation, from the tree-fern to the bread-fruit; and I do not know what higher praise can be given it, than to say that it constantly reminded me of the wonderful drive from Rio to the Organ Mountains. But it is liable, as I have reason for knowing, to copious showers. The Bay Tree Walk, in the neighbourhood of Spanish Town, is just a Derbyshire or Welsh river, with tropical vegetation, overhanging cliffs, and a capital road: Mandeville, in the parish of Manchester, is a picturesque village, 2,000 feet above the sea, 50 or 60 miles from Kingston. There is a very comfortable boarding-house here, kept by a Miss Roye, at the charge of eight shillings a day. The place is reached by way of railway to Porus, from which conveyances can be procured for the remainder of the exquisite drive. Mandeville is itself the centre for many delightful excursions. It is a short but lovely drive to Battersea, which reminds me, as I look back at it, of the Lune valley, between Kirkby Lonsdale and Barbon. Bel Retiro, the most beautiful prospect I saw in Jamaica, looks down on a magnificent confusion of wood and hill and valley, and a vast plain at the foot, made hideous by a straight line of railway bisecting it, with the Palisades and the sea in the distance, and the Blue Mountains, hazy but magnificent, 60 miles away. The Mile Gully is a beautiful ravine, and a newly erected parsonage house at Ware Pen commands an exquisite view. But one of the most famous prospects in Jamaicathough I cannot say that it impressed me as much as some others-is that from Spur Tree Hill, which commands the sea, the fine range of the Santa Cruz Mountains, said to be one of the most salubrious in the island, and the Great Pedro Bluff, the home of the primitive Caribbeans, and famed for the longevity of its inhabitants. An old man died here lately at the age of one hundred and twenty years, having gratuitously accelerated his departure by a fall in riding a horse-race, whereby he broke three ribs, and failed to rally. The great drawback to the enjoyment of this exquisite scenery is the insects, and especially the ticks, minute and hungry, which swarm in the grass and on the shrubs, fasten themselves on the flesh, where they instantly bury themselves, and then make themselves very much at home at your expense. They are numerous, irritating, and sometimes venomous. They are said to have been introduced into the island with a breed of Spanish cattle, and infest some places to such a degree that even the most luxuriant Guinea grass will not tempt the cattle to face them. It is to be hoped that some day nature will remedy the evil by introducing some species of bird which will feed on them. But this takes time; meanwhile the enjoyment of nature is indefinitely suspended, and the ticks increase and multiply. About the coloured population, and especially the Africans, I must say one word, hampered by the consciousness of the imperfect opportunity I have enjoyed of really studying the question, assured, moreover, that those who had a long familiarity with it, and take quite another view, may not unreasonably order me out of court. That they profoundly interested me is what most travellers, especially if Christian teachers, would readily affirm and sincerely; but it was something more than that, they attracted me. Many elements may have been_combined to bring this about, but whether I met them in the road, merry and overflowing with the simple joy of life, or preached to them in church, or talked to them at a temperance meeting, or observed them hard at work, giving their gratuitous services to the building of a mission chapel in a country parish, or looked at the happy little children, black, grinning, and very scantily clothed, and with teeth of ivory, my heart seemed full of hope for them, and I continually felt how they too had something to teach us, who think ourselves so vastly their superiors, though indeed in many things, and for years to come, they must be content to sit at our feet. Perhaps the place where I least appreciated them, for they never remember anything, and in some things are incapable of improvement, is in household service. They come, and when, after much trouble, they have learnt something, they go. however, do servants at home. The metallic chatter of the black women is simply intolerable; and it might be an excellent discipline But so, often to an absurd exaggeration. Mr. Besant, by the way, in his delightful book, "All Sorts and Conditions of Men," writes of the London poor, "No duchess sweeps into a milliner's show-room with more dignity than her humble sister at Clare Market on a Saturday evening displays, when she receives the invitation of the butcher to rally up, and selects her Sunday's piece of beef." This punctiliousness, however, sometimes degene for fidgety housewives at home to have a year's experience of black servants. They are kindly and pleasant mannered, as a whole not addicted to intemperance; when won to the cause of sobriety, satisfied with nothing short of the blue ribbon. If addicted in many cases to theft and untruthfulness, we white folk are the very last persons to throw it in their faces. It was our cruelty and selfishness that hurried them from their homes and taught them in self-defence these strata-rates into rudeness. A Scotch travelling gems of helplessness. If our fathers are guilty of the tragedy of their past misery, let us abstain from the hypocrisy of scourging them for sins which may some day be charged on ourselves. A clergyman's wife, in emphatic corroboration of the statement that not all Africans were born thieves and liars, told me that once her father, a resident in the island, was invited by the government to take a number of slaves rescued from a Spanish slaver, to train and employ on his estate. These people, from the very beginning, were as truthful and honest as they could be, though not in other respects unstained. One day a theft was committed by one of their number, though not of their tribe, and it was discovered. They seized him, beat him, brought him before their employer, told him (what he had not yet discovered) of the theft which had been committed, deplored it, disowned the culprit, and asked that he might be expelled. To see how the black women hold themselves when walking is a lesson in calisthenics. The erect head, the bust thrown out, the elastic gait, best of all the bright, and often interesting, face I was never tired of looking at. If parents anxious about the high shoulders of their growing daughters would learn a lesson from African parents, better than lying on boards, or than incessant and petulant reproofs, let them habituate their girls to carry a pitcher on their heads for an hour a day, and the transformation will be complete. I know some one who means to begin it with his own when he returns home. Not that we can expect to emulate the negro for thickness of skull. With abundant muscle, they have hardly any nerve. They are liberal and open-handed, readily contributing their share to Church maintenance, and the Bishop told me of one village where the black folk had already built a church entirely of stone, also a schoolroom, and hoped soon to maintain their clergyman. In the matter of their gifts, some of their white brethren might do well to take a leaf out of their books. In manner they are very punctilious, The companion, who told me the story himself, the disappointment we deserve. But so far as I could gather from those who have at least as good an opportunity of forming a judgment as others, and who take the best methods for justifying it, a quiet but strong hope for the elevation of the negroes in all which affects their real welfare is felt by the great bulk of the ministers of religion. If hopes are sometimes deferred, and prosperity clouded, and vows broken, and careers spoiled among the negroes by shame and sin, we at home have enough to do to heal evils of our own, about which there may be far less excuse, and may receive a much sterner judgment. One last word, and a brief one, on a subject which will not be quite uninteresting to at least some readers of Good Words, also with a certain appropriateness, from the pen of a clergyman. The Christian religion in Jamaica is faithfully proclaimed by the various religious bodies in the island, not least so by that apostolic Church of which the writer had naturally more opportunity of forming a careful judgment, and which, after having been suddenly cut adrift from the State some sixteen years ago, is yearly increasing in numbers and influence, perhaps also in material support. Only one opinion The is held of the sagacity and resolution with which during the last few anxious years Bishop Nuttall has administered the affairs of his diocese, and won the respect and esteem of his neighbours. The Moravians, whose buildings, as a city set on a hill, crown so many of the loveliest eminences in the island, have long laboured here. The Wesleyans and the Baptists and the Presbyterians have also their ample organization and their attached members. negroes are a religiously disposed people, and, as I have already observed, are at least quite as willing as their white fellow-subjects to make sacrifices for the religion they profess. One gain at least from extensive travel is the abundant verification to be found on all sides-if only there is a willingness to find it-of the supreme necessity in the human soul for a religion of some kind to satisfy its aspirations and console its afflictions, and direct its energies and inspire its hopes. Another, perhaps even a greater, is an ever-deepening conviction that nothing short of the Christian faith will meet the deepest need of man. Yet a third is the ever-widening and grateful sympathy of any one who sees the vast harvest-field to be reaped, and who remembers the great saying, "He that is not against us is on our side,' with the aspirations and efforts and victories of all who in every place fear God, and serve the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in truth and charity. THE HER TWO MILLIONS. BY WILLIAM WESTALL,, AUTHOR OF RED RYVINGTON," "THE PHANTOM CITY," "Two PINCHES OF SNUFF," ETC. CHAPTER XII.-FAREWELLS. HE confirmation of Balmaine's appointment came sooner than he expected. The proprietors of the Helvetic News informed him that, owing to the illness of one of the subeditors, they were short-handed, and offered, if he would enter on his duties before the end of the month, to pay his travelling expenses to Geneva. That meant in a fortnight, and he resolved to profit by the opportunity. Mr. Grindleton made no difficulty about releasing him, and a week later he had engaged a new editor. Before this was done Balmaine had informed Lizzie of his approaching departure. In doing so he laid particular stress on the fact of their engagement, and the necessity thereby laid on him of trying to better himself. While he remained at Calder, he said, there was not the least prospect of his being able to marry, and until he was in a position to keep her as she would like to be kept, without troubling anybody, he could not ask her to be his wife. This drew from Miss Hardy a letter, in which she said that, although his going away would almost break her heart, she could not deny that he seemed to be acting for the best. She wished him good speed, vowed that she should think of him every minute and pray for him every night, implored him to write to her very, very often, and said so many tender and gracious things that Alfred's heart was touched: he accused himself of mis- | judging her, and regretted that he could not return her affection with a more ardent love. An evening or two before he went away he was invited to take tea at Waterfall House. It was a somewhat extensive establishment, about a mile from the town, which Saintly Sam had got as a great bargain, but the outlay in furniture and repairs made it, as he observed to his wife, "a very dear do." It was considered at Calder that Mrs. Hardy had not risen with her husband. This meant that she made no attempt to be other than she ever had been, preferred living in a plain way to inhabiting a grand house, and never looked or felt comfortable either in her carriage or her drawing-room. She was not a little afraid, poor woman, of her stylish daughter, and sometimes wondered how she had come to have such a child, for they did not seem to possess an idea in com mon. Lizzie detested the kitchen as much as Mrs. Hardy detested the drawing-room, delighted in fine clothes and fine company, and often used language that her mother only half understood. Miss Hardy, on the other hand, found her mother a sore trouble. She would do servants' work-bake and cook and make beds-and sometimes when visitors called, Lizzie found her "throng" in the wash-house. And then her language! She spoke with a strong Yorkshire twang, and scattered her aitches about in lavish profusion. Mr. Hardy was at least consistenthe had never used the aspirate in his lifebut his wife used it indiscriminately; she could not be brought to see the difference between an H and any other letter. When they made calls or received visitors the daughter passed many a "bad quarter of an hour," and sometimes almost wished that her mother would stay in the kitchen altogether. Saintly Sam, as usual, was very patronising. "I hope as you'll prosper in your new undertaking, Balmaine," he observed, as they sat at tea, "and be a credit to your native place. Everybody thinks highly of you here. You have edited the Mercury uncommon well, and your articles have been extensively read. Some folks thought you were too young; but I did not, and I was never deceived in a man yet. You were the right man in the right place, and I am sorry, for th' sake of th' town and th' cause of loyalty and religion, as you are going away. That leader of yours, last Saturday, agen th' Government was a nipper-it was nowt else. It spoke my mind to a T, and I am seldom wrong about them things. I hope as th' paper as you are going to be connected with is on the right side." "The Helvetic News tries to be neutral in politics, I think. At any rate, it does not seem to take strong views either way." "That's a pity, that's a pity. I like folks to be summat either fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring. You know what they're made on then. Everybody knows I am a Conservative. I belonged to th' tother side once, it's true; but what could you expect? I was brought up Liberal, and most folks sticks to the faith of their fathers, both in politics and religion. There's very few as thinks for themselves, but I did; and I am of opinion as I came to a right conclusion." |