For providing food for inhabitants of Cephalonia after the island had been injured by earthquake, 10 9 6 For rigging-out a pier at Antwerp for reception of Prince of Wales, 2 1 0 For robes, collars, and badges for certain persons who had received honor of knighthood, 1,000 0 0 For maintenance of Congo, pirate chief, at Ascension, 38 3 0 Cost of presents to King of Masaba, by Captain of H.M. ship Investigator, 2 0 4 ======== £4,509 0 4 Thus it costs 13l. to give a luncheon to Prince William of Hesse, and only 10l. to relieve an island full of people who are dying of famine. It requires 2l. to lay down red cloth for the Prince of Wales to walk on, and only 12s. 6d. to reward King Peter for an act of Christian charity. These are facts worth knowing. The only thing we regret is that Government should have withheld information as to the precise nature of the gift with which King Peter was gratified. Did this mighty Empire present him with six pairs of cotton socks, or request him to accept a gingham umbrella second-hand? And the King of Masaba, who figures anonymously, what did he get for 2l. 0s. 4d.? Was it a pair of boots and some pocket-handkerchiefs, or a few pots of Scotch marmalade and a dozen pints of Bass? As to the other items of the bill, it is so obviously right that the country should be made to pay 68l. every time Prince Christian crosses the Channel, that we can only wonder anybody should ever have thought otherwise, and moved, as Mr. Fawcett did, that the sum be struck out of the estimates. We live in strange times, forsooth, when a prince cannot charge the cost of his railway-tickets on to the national purse without being made the subject of unmannered comments!" [Sidenote: LORD ARTHUR CLINTON.]