The Queen's Speech, it will be noticed, contains the first
official announcement of waewith Abyssinia. There is, we imagine, no chance that Theodore, who is amusing himself, like a Nero or a Bishop of the fifteenth century, by enclosing people in was cloth and burning then, alive, will yield to any letter, hOwever peremptory. If he does not, the expedition to punish him we imagine, leave Bombaystowards the end of September, so as to reach the coast with the entire cold weather before it for actual operations. The descent will probably be followed by a universal rising against Theodore, but even if it is not, the ex- pedition can hardly be more difficult than many which the Indian Government has carried to a successful termination. The only point to be alarmed at is the cost, for though tie sea is an excel- lent base for operations it is a costly one. We shall hardly reach Magdala under four millions, or get out of the country again under six, even if we resolve to quit a land which could fin-slab great bodies of Christian sepoys, with whom neither Hindoos nor Mussulmans could amalgamate.
