ECCLESIASTICAL LAYMAN.--At a meeting in Rome, the "Duke di SERMONETA" took
the chair. If ever there were a staunch Churchman, this by his name,
rendered in English as "Sermon-devourer," should be he.

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OUR OWN FINANCIAL COLUMN.

_Telegraphic Address_--"_Croesus, E.C._"

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Sir,--Let me first express my financial acknowledgments to the teeming
millions who have honoured me, and benefited themselves by seeking my
advice since my first letter appeared last week. Communications containing
cheques, postal orders, and stamps, have poured in upon me in one unceasing
torrent. The consignors have, in every case, been good enough to say that
they handed all they possessed over to me, in the full confidence that I
would invest the proceeds to the best advantage in some of the countless
undertakings in which I wield a paramount influence. Their trust is fully
deserved.

Investors will remember that, in the course of the last German Expedition
to Central Africa, a tract of country, rich in every mineral deposit, and
admirably fitted for the operations of husbandry, was discovered in lat.
42°, long. 65°. The Germans at that time had not a single handkerchief
left, and were unable, therefore to hoist the German flag over the palace
of the native king, GUL-GULL. Private information of this was conveyed to
me. I at once fitted out an Expedition _at my own expense_, placed myself
at the head of it, and after terrible hardships, in the course of which no