lands India sufferers [from the volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in Java] by sending a telegraphic despatch of sympathy to the governor-general and a donation of $4800. Her Majesty, the queen of Siam, has likewise most graciously given a donation for the same purpose of $4200.
"The line of telegraph from Bangkok to Saigon in French Cochin-China, recently completed, which on the 16th of July last put Siam in immediate communication with the rest of the world, is working most successfully, as is also the local mail system, which this progressive ruler has just established in the capital of his dominions. Of these he speaks in his royal speech in reply to the congratulations tendered him on his thirtieth birthday, September 21, 1883:
". . . 'This year has been especially marked by the opening of telegraphic communication viâ Saigon with Europe and the world. We are well pleased by the energy with which our commissioners and the provincial officers labored in erecting this line, and we gladly take occasion to thank the government of French Cochin-China, the consulate of France at Bangkok and the French engineers who assisted in its construction.
"'Our commissioners and provincial officers have also with great rapidity set up a line to the frontier of Tavoy, and when the British
