England appears to be equally well served by the -rich
and the poor. When Professor Palmer undertook his mission into- the Desert " to buy camels," he was accompanied by. Captain W. J. Gill, R.E., who had orders to interrupt the telegraphic communication with Arabia. Both were murdered bythe Arabs. It is this week announced that the Crown has granted a pension of £200 a year to Professor Palmer's family, and that the Admiralty will educate his children; while the Illustrated London, News tells us that Captain Gill left £160,000 for division among his relatives. We wonder which is the more creditable, from the patriotic point of view,—the spirit which induces a rich man to face a painful death, in order to do obscure work that he thinks beneficial to his country ; or that which urges a man without property, but with income, to volunteer for the same risk, although, if he dies, hie family must want. The latter is the more common, but we do not know that it is in any way the nobler. Captain Gill has been a little too much forgotten, in the universal sorrow for the fate of his gifted comrade in the" expedition.
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