sign the report to the Executive Committee,
on which we have largely drawn in this
paper, distinctly express their opinion that the
risk in Channel Tunnelling is confined to one
contingency only, and that is the possibility of
sea water finding its way by some unforeseen
fissure into the workings, in quantities too great
to be overcome. Otherwise, they consider
that the work may be done with comparative
ease and rapidity. The six gentlemen in
question are Messrs. John Hawkshaw, James
Brunlees, and William Low; MM. Paulin
Talabot, Michel Chevalier, and Thomé de
Gamond.

If the scientific advisers of the two governments
be satisfied with the exactness of these
gentlemen's researches, and with the
soundness of their deductions, it is probable that
the Channel Tunnel will, before long, take its
place as one of the things to be tried, at least.

LOAFERS IN INDIA.

"A STRANGER asks to see the Lord of Life,"
said my bearer. Strangers were then rare in
the Upper Provinces of India, and strangers who
don't tell who they are, seldom prove welcome
anywhere. But the man, said my servant, was
an European, and I could not refuse to see
him. A more miserable-looking object I have
seldom seen. He was about thirty years
old, tall, lean, and gaunt: with great hungry
eyes, hollow cheeks tanned by exposure to
the sun, neglected hair and beard. On his
head was an old felt hat, which he removed
when making his approach; on his back was
a ragged alpaca coat; on his legs were an
equally ragged pair of native pyjamas; a pair
of shoes that would scarcely hold together, were
on his feet. His neck was bare, and if he
wore any part of a shirt it must have been the
skirt only. He came of course to beg. Before
deciding how to deal with him, I bade him sit
down and tell me his story.

He started conversation by informing me that
he had not eaten since yesterday. I called to
the khitmutgar whom I saw laying the table
within the house, to bring him some curry.
My visitor went to work upon the curry, like a
wolf, and then asked for some water. His tone
had a whine about it quite different from its
clear ring when he told his honest want of
food. I was sure he had never come to his
present condition upon water, so I told the
khitmutgar to bring brandy as well.

My guest's eyes brightened when he heard
the order. He despatched the brandy and water
as he had despatched the curry; and the double
stimulus produced a magical effect. I had noticed
an improvement in his manner when he took
a seat. Now that he had eaten and drunk, I
saw that he had lived on equal terms with
gentlemen; so it appeared when he proceeded
to give an account of himself.

He had come out to India as a cadet in the
company's service, some twelve years before.
From the rank of ensign he had passed to that
of lieutenant in the ordinary course of seniority.
But he had got into debt, and done a few shabby
things to get out of it. They were not military
offences, nor indictable; but they got him a
bad name, and for an officer who has once
got a bad name, there is not much hope in the
service. Sooner or later he will be caught
tripping, and then probably cashiered. My
visitor had a reputation for unruliness, under
the influence of brandy-and-water; so when,
after a time, he got into a drunken quarrel,
and misconducted himself so far as to be brought
to court-martial, he was cashiered and cast upon
the world.

Had he been a man of rank or fortune
there might have been hope. But he was
neither. His father had made him an
allowance when in the army, but considered that
it would " do him no good " when he had shut
himself from that career. From other branches
of the public service he was necessarily
excluded. But he was not without friends.
One of these, a merchant in Calcutta, took
him into his office. He soon tired of the
regularity of the employment, and sought
independent action. So he started a carrying
company, with himself for treasurer. This
might have succeeded; but he confounded
profits with receipts, in a not uncommon
manner, and the shareholders, with a prejudice in
favour of dividends, wound up the concern.
Then he obtained employment from a speculator
to go to Australia and buy horses. He
was fit for this kind of work, and bought
well, but had very little money to receive on
his return, for his accounts went wrong, and
this failure was fatal to his obtaining more of
the same kind of business. He had all this
time been increasing his debts instead of paying
them; and Calcutta being hot with creditors,
he sought the French settlement of Chandernagore.
How he lived there he could scarcely
say, but he got a small remittance from home,
borrowed a little more, ran up as many bills as
his credit would permit, and when other resources
failed, managed to make pocket-money
at billiards. He had considered Calcutta too
hot for him, but Chandernagore became hotter.
So he went back to the capital, and, being
arrested there, obtained, in time, relief under the
bankruptcy law. Being then, as he said, " free
as air," he went to the North- West. There he
found some men driving a roaring trade as
retail store-keepers, who agreed to advance him
a little capital, and with this he set up a newspaper.
In his prospectus he announced his
new venture to be an uncompromising champion
of liberty; and, in pursuance of his programme,
he attacked, with the utmost violence, every
person in any authority, from the governor-general
down to the deputy-collector of the station.
Below that grade he seemed inclined
to think that honesty was possible. He was
equally hard upon the military department.
Nobody in the service found favour in his
patriotic journal but the non- commissioned
officers, except commissioned officers below the
rank of major, when they chanced to get into