cost him almost fabulous prices. Not only stance. Mineral wealth is easily tapped, does he borrow at an interest of two and but not so agricultural. It is wisdom then sometimes three per cent. per month, but to set to work with geological surveys at the lender insists upon being paid in kind, the earliest possible moment. I do not with invariably the following results. If pretend to anticipate their conclusions, but the grain which the peasant delivers meas- there is sufficient ground to justify the exures say, ten kilos, he may be thankful if penditure necessary for the best scientific he is credited for it as nine; and if the investigations of the island. These will market value is ten piastres, the peasant be the guides for future work, and will will be exuberant in gratitude if he is ac- enable private enterprise to go surely in corded nine-and-a-half. With these deduc- its undertakings. As early as the end of tions the cost of the advance exceeds forty September competent men should be sent per cent. per annum. But this is suppos- out to visit the localities from which mining the most honorable treatment. Unfor- erals were extracted in ancient times and tunately such treatment is the exception in which it is known that they still exist. rather than the rule. The peasant keeps The term, then, of the patience required no account signs what he is told, and by the British public in regard to the mintakes no receipt. A bad year comes, he eral wealth of Cyprus is not long. What is ashamed to go near his Shylock; and public opinion may now do is to insist when the first good year comes, he finds a upon the employment of the most compedebt of a few hundred piastres swollen tent scientific men, for lack of discernment fourfold. In this is the chief misfortune or careless execution may be the seeds of of the peasant, and a circumstance which blighted hopes in the future. morally deteriorates him. Unable to struggle with his Shylock, or to do without him, he resorts to all kinds of subterfuges, in the hope of diminishing his misfortunes. Hence the grain mixed with straw and earth which he delivers, the bale of cotton left for twenty-four hours in connection with a jar of water, and numberless other similar artifices. It is to be hoped that means will now be found, in a wise and prudent manner, to put capital at the disposal of the agriculturist, and if this be attained the immediate result will be a great extension in his operations, and an equal amelioration in his well-being.

So far I have only dwelt upon the agricultural wealth of the island, but its mineral wealth in ancient times was also very considerable. Its mines of copper were extensively wrought as late as the time of the Romans, and we read of their having been leased from the Roman Senate by Herod, tetrarch of Judea. No mining operations are now carried on in the island, but it is quite possible that scientific surveys may lead to the discovery of important mineral wealth. The principal copper mines were near the ancient Tamassus, about three hours' ride from Idalium. Scoriæ may still be found in the vicinity of the Convent of St. Heraclidion. I have also some specimens of coal found near the ancient Soli.

No doubt many of my readers are anxious to put the question, "How is England to develop the riches of this new country?" The wise injunction of an eminent statesman, "Learn to be patient," appears to me excessively apt in the present in

But the development of the agricultural resources of the island must necessarily be comparatively slow. We may certainly anticipate a considerable colonization from Caramania, the coast of Syria, and other parts of Turkey, where fiscal abuses are rife, but I can scarcely counsel the emigration of agricultural laborers from Great Britain, and certainly only under positive engagements contracted with their own countrymen. The extreme heat of summer, during which the principal agricultural operations must be performed, makes it very doubtful whether Englishmen will prove useful farm laborers in Cyprus. I conceive that the part which Englishmen have chiefly to play in the development of the agricultural resources of our new possession is as intelligent farmers, bringing their practical knowledge to guide operations carried out by natives, and possessing a sufficient amount of capital to undertake works upon a considerable scale. On this subject I may repeat the terms of an official report which I made during my residence in the island, and which I see no cause to change to-day. "The cultivation of grain, cotton, vegetables, and fruits of all sorts is largely profitable where economy and a moderate capital are combined with diligent effort. The climate is not unhealthy, but demands simplicity in diet and temperance in habits. Everywhere to a certain extent, but nowhere more than in the East, success depends upon individual character, and the qualifi cations most essential for agricultural pursuits in this island are practical knowledge, economy, and temperance. Capital ad

taken; in a word, an administration which the British nation should hold responsible for the advancement of all Cyprian interests, and the well-being of the garden committed to its care. Only in this way can the British nation properly control the results of the twofold mission which it has undertaken, and avoid the dangers of thoughtless extravagance and inexperienced action. The civil administration would have a distinct object to attain, with clearly defined resources. Its fixed burden would be the annual payment of 130oool. to the Porte, and from the outset it should be distinctly understood that our new possession should be no burden upon the imperial treasury. Unless this is done, the results obtained will lose their value, as examples for the imitation of the surrounding countries; for not only must we show that our government is enlightened, but also that we are good and wise stewards. It would be folly to make of Cyprus an expensive toy; she must be made a worthy member of the busiest family in the world, honorably paying her own way, and yielding her quota to the general prosperity of the empire.

ministered with these qualifications would tirely separate from, the military one just certainly find a handsome return in agri- mentioned. An administration charged cultural enterprise in Cyprus."* There with the especial duty of the fiscal arrange. are many magnificent properties scattered ments of the island, and which, assisted over the island which in intelligent hands by a council containing a native, or at least may produce very large profits, and would a local element of representation, should give ample scope to the enterprise of the determine, after reference to the Colonial individual. The assistance which British Office, the nature and amount of taxation, capital may also afford to the native culti-the works of public utility to be undervators is very evident. When the productions of the island present a greater volume, which they will do in a very few years, Englishmen will establish themselves as merchants in the chief towns of the island, and make advances to farmers upon moderate terms to secure the growing crops. The purchasing power of English capital will also be speedily felt in making property a valuable and easily realizable security, so that the proprietor of land will find no difficulty in obtaining loans guaranteed by his estates. These two circumstances will alone produce a marvellous ameliora tion in the condition of the native cultivators, and suffice to increase the quantum of their operations. Much may also be done by the government in a similar direction. It may be too much to expect that works of irrigation, such as the boring of artesian wells, be done at government cost; but at least all preliminary expenses, such as surveying and experimental boring, should be undertaken under government auspices, and the results freely made public. But in order that this pioneering work of the government may be well and successfully performed, it ought to be entirely separated from the military organization which must necessarily be established in the island. Indeed there ought to be an entire separation between what may be called imperial interests, and those that may be called local. We must keep in view that two distinct objects are aimed at by our settlement in Cyprus. One exclusively imperial, which is the establishment of a military depot; the other the development of the riches of the island as a possession. The expenses incurred in the establishment of the first object ought to be covered by special grants, and the carrying out of the operations connected with it, such as barrack accommodation, transport, etc., ought to be exclusively undertaken by and entrusted to the war or Indian department. But if we would successfully attain the second object, we must have a responsible administration, working side by side with, and yet en

Nor need we fear the burden of 130,000l. which we have engaged to pay to the Porte. The possession is cheap at that price, and if we make that burden, with the cost of administration, the basis of taxation, in a few years the people of Cyprus will be the most favored nation in the world. The cost of administration will not be great. There is no need of many functionaries - the necessity is that they be experienced administrators and practical men. A civil governor and a financial agent were all the superior functionaries which the Porte found necessary for the administration of the island, and it was abundantly sufficient where there was a will and a capacity for work. We shall also greatly err if we do not use to the utmost possible extent native functionaries in the administration. Plenty of perfectly capable men for subordinate offices can be found in the island, and under a strict control they will do their work conscientiously. "Like master, like servant." When peculation and corruption are pun

From The Spectator.

ished with dismissal and disgrace, they | British capitalist in his future movements. will soon disappear, and it is amazing how This done, and done both thoroughly and rapidly the moral purity of the source quickly, we may afford to wait for fuller purifies the stream. But there must be light to direct our further decisions. no false economy in refusing to give emR. HAMILTON LANG. ployés the comfortable means of subsistence. This error is at the base of all the corruption in Turkey, and until it is rectified there is no hope of honesty in the administration. In increasing the salaries of employés we do not necessarily increase the cost of administration. My own experience, based on a considerable administration, has been that the cost of administration generally diminishes with the increase of pay. Fewer, but betterpaid employés, is the principle which requires to be put in practice in Turkey.

Had the limits of this article permitted, I would gladly have made some remarks upon the taxes which were levied in Cyprus under the Turkish government, and the manner of their collection, but the subject is too large to compress into a few lines, and must be reserved for a future occasion.

MR. BOURDILLON'S POEMS.* THOUGH We have from time to time shown our appreciation of Mr. Bourdillon's delicacy of touch by publishing not a few specimens of his verse, we do not feel in any degree debarred from the right to judge his poetry impartially, and to give our readers a sincere judgment on the character and on the promise of his verse. At present, we should speak of his best efforts as poetical cameos. Like the beautiful little eight-line poem which gained so much popularity, called "Light," the best of these poems are cut with extreme delicacy in a very fine and delicate medium, and charm us almost as much by the tenuity, as they do by the grace, of the thought or expression of emotion they contain. There is a beauty in the mere airiness of any earthly substance. To feel that we are dealing with something lovely which it takes some delicacy of perception to recognize as distinct from nothing, as when we admire the shining gossamer threads drawn from leaf to leaf on an autumn morning, has a charm of its own. The fragility-the frailty, if you will — of any beautiful object, adds to the sense of its beauty, so long as that beauty is real and undeniable. The dewdrop is more beautiful, to human fancy, than the raindrop, just because it is conceived as more evanescent, as hardly surviving the sparkle of the morning sun in its cool centre. And the cameo is more beautiful than the wood or ivory carving, for the same reason, because the delicate tissue of the shell from which it is carved gives the sense of something at once requiring and repaying fineness of touch, more perfectly than either wood or ivory. Those who can express adequately a very fine shade of thought or feeling can do something which very few can do, and for which all who are sensible of these fine shades of thought and feeling, without having the requisite power to utter what they feel, are sure to be grateful. Take, for instance, a very slight poem indeed, — not one of Mr. Bourdillon's

In concluding my present remarks, I think it well to recommend caution to all who propose to embark in enterprises connected with Cyprus. The crowd of people whom we hear of as going from Malta, Syria, and Egypt are simply speculating upon the demands created by the arrival of ten thousand British troops and the generally profuse expenditure which is associated in the East with the British nation. In one of the many articles which have lately appeared in the public papers merchants were recommended to consult people in Egypt and Syria as to the kind of goods which the natives of Cyprus would buy, so that the shipments might prove suitable. But it must not be forgotten that the native population of Cyprus has not yet increased, and that a considerable time must elapse before any material increase can take place. It will be quite time enough when fuller information reaches us to embark capital in shipments of goods for the people of Cyprus. There is much new work to be done; but if it is to be done well, it must not be done precipitately. I should say that the only works to be undertaken at once are sanitary works and barrack accommodation. These ought not to be delayed a day, for the lives of our soldiers and civilians depend upon them. Nor ought any time to be lost in getting a thorough geological survey of the island- especially in reference to minerals and water-because such Among the Flowers and other Poems. By Francis a survey will be the guide-book to the W. Bourdillon. London: Marcus Ward and Co.

THE SHADOW OF LOVE.

The branching shades, in woodland glades,
Seem to the under-fern

most beautiful poems, but still one that | founds love with pain, through the mere shows the cunning of his touch all the bet- defect of its vision: ter, perhaps, that the feeling expressed is not of the deepest. It would be difficult, we fancy, to contrast more gracefully than Mr. Bourdillon contrasts, in the following poem, the pang, not to say the resentment, with which we are made fully aware of the beauty we have lost, with the ease with which we are reconciled to losing that which we lose only gradually: —

Two ROBBERS.

When Death from some fair face
Is stealing life away,
All weep, save she, the grace

That earth shall lose to-day.

When Time from some fair face
Steals beauty, year by year,
For her slow-fading grace

Who sheds, save she, a tear?

And Death not often dares

So wake the world's distfess;
While Time, the cunning, mars
Surely all loveliness.

Yet though by breath and breath
Fades all our fairest prime,
Men shrink from cruel Death,
But honor crafty Time.

Wide as the night that leaves no light;

No shape can they discern.

And we, who seek in senses weak
Love's form to entertain, -

So far Love's whole o'erspreads the soul,
Too oft see only pain.

Or take the following as the most perfect
expression we have ever seen of the differ-
ence between the loveliness of an emblem,
and the loveliness of that which needs and
uses the emblem, but lives. in a far higher
world than that of emblems:-

TO A WATER-LILY AT EVENING.
Sleep, Lily on the lake,

Without one troubled dream
Thy hushed repose to break,
Until the morning beam
Shall open thy glad heart again,
To live its life apart from pain!
So still is thy repose,

So pure thy petals seem,
As Heaven would here disclose
Its peace, and we might deem
A soul in each white Lily lay,
Passionless, from the lands of day.

Yet but a flower thou art,

For angel ne'er, nor saint,
Though kept on earth apart

From every earthly taint,
A life so passionless could know
Amid a world of human woe.

That is nearer to vers de société than Mr. Bourdillon generally approaches. If he wrote many verses of this kind, we should hardly admire him as much as we do; for delicacy of touch on subjects which are the theme of society is more common, and not so fascinating, as delicacy of touch on the finer themes with which, by preference, Mr. Bourdillon deals. But it would not be easy to express with more ease and We will give one more perfect specimen of grace, though Mr. Bourdillon himself Mr. Bourdillon's, before we begin to find fault. It would be difficult, we think, to might easily have expressed with more depth of feeling, men's ingratitude to the portray more exquisitely than Mr. Bourheavy blows which bring them to them-dillon portrays in the following sonnet, selves, and their easy tolerance of those which, by constant reiteration, chisel away the very substance of what they most

value.

either the ideal fairness of a bright anticipation and the fear we feel lest when the reality comes it will come with disappointment, or the reason for this, namely, the But the specific charm of Mr. Bourdil- blending of all our higher pleasures tolon's best verse is that it shows this fine-gether into an ideal whole which raises the ness of touch on themes serener and level of every separate part, and so renders higher and nobler than those which most the charm of a memory or a hope or dream interest the young poets of the present day. of beauty, greater than the charm of any one of the individual experiences which There is an air of purity and restfulness, in short of spiritual loveliness, about the bet-have enabled us to hope that hope and ter of these poems, slight and all but gossamer in fibre as they are, which diffuses itself through the mind of the reader, and makes him, too, live for a few moments in what Milton calls "empyrean' air. Take this, for instance, by way of illustration of the limited view which con

dream that dream:

UNDER THE LIMES.

How sweet in winter-time we feign the spring, How fair by night we dream the day shall be!

Can any April-tide such freshness bring,

Our eyes on any morn such brightness see?