There has been a rumour during the week, resting on
a tele- graphic message said to have been received from Aden at the British Embassy at Constantinople, that Theodore, the King of Abyssinia, had given up the British captives, and that the expe- dition, therefore, was at an end. But as no such message has been received at the Foreign Office from the Embassy at Constanti- nople, and as, moreover, according to the latest accounts, the prisoners were not in King Theodore's power to give up, the rumour, credited at first, is now known to be false, and the preparations were never for a moment relaxed. Indeed, the fuss made about the expedition is rather in excess than otherwise- The physical geography of the Red Sea and of Abyssinia, the habits of the guinea-worm and the tape-worm and the tetse fly, the relative advantages of oxen, mules, and camels as beasts. of burden, the question of the proper sorts of artillery, the advantages to be gained by watching the flight of birds an hour before and an hour after sunset, and fifty other minutiae are being discussed with the elaborateness of a German Bin- leitung in dos Soldat-r.eben Abyssiniens. The truth is, we sup- pose, that we are all; lick of Reform, and there is something of adventure about this)..alayssinian affair which fascinates our dull souls. Besides, the Guinea-worm, though not nice, is interesting.
