[*] A severe famine is said to be imminent in Zululand.

To show that I am not singular in my opinion as to the present state
of Zululand, I may be allowed to quote a few short extracts taken at
random, from half-a-dozen numbers of the "Natal Mercury." Talking of
the Zulu settlement terms as dictated by Sir G. Wolseley, the leading
article of the issue 21st November 1881 says:--"It will at once
be apparent that these terms have in several cases been flagrantly
violated, especially as regards clauses of 2, 3, 4, and 6. This last
will assuredly be broken again and yet again, so long as the British
Resident occupies the position of an official mollusc. The chiefs
themselves perceive and admit the evils that must arise out of the
absence of any effective central authority. These evils are so obvious,
they were so generally recognised at the outset as being inherent in
the scheme, that we might almost suppose their occurrence had been
deliberately anticipated as a desired outcome of the settlement. The
morality of such a line of policy would be precisely on a par with that
which is involved in the proposal to reinstate Cetywayo as a means of
dealing with the Boers. The creation of thirteen kinglets in order that
they might destroy each other, is as humane and high-minded an effort
of statesmanship as would be the restoration of a banished king in order
that he might eat up a people to whom the same power has just given back
their independence. To the simple colonial mind such deep designs
of Machiavellian statecraft are as hateful as they are inhuman and
dishonest."

A correspondent of the "Mercury" in Zululand writes under date of 13th
October:--

"I send a line at the last moment to say that things are going from bad