Judge Forbes, of Northampton, Mass., has left $300,000 to found a second free library in that town. * * * * * GENERAL NOTES. Africa. —King Meneleck, who rules in Southern Abyssinia, has recently abolished the slave-trade in his dominions. —Tunis and Algeria are now united by a daily postal service, and letters are transmitted at a cost of fifteen cents each. —M. Lombard, corresponding member of the Norman Society of Geography, has been charged with a scientific mission in Abyssinia. He has arrived at Massoua. —The caravan of the missionaries from Algeria, bound for Lake Tanganyika, has arrived safely at Karéma, near the Lake. Those that started, however, for the Victoria Nyanza, have been pillaged on the route. —The Chamber at Paris has approved the grant made to a company for a railroad from St. Louis to Dakar and voted a credit of 1,700,000 francs for laying a cable from Dakar to St. Vincent. This last line will place Senegal in direct communication with Europe. —The Church Missionary Society has received an offer from Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, of $25,000, the income of which they will be at liberty to use towards maintaining a steamer and staff of agents on the Upper Binué and Lake Tchad. In returning thanks to Mr. Arthington, the Society was obliged to inform him that the amount would be insufficient for the purposes mentioned. —Mr. J. M. Cnouwer, a Hollander, has undertaken a journey from Alexandria to the Cape of Good Hope. It is announced that he will be joined on his way by a Frenchman who has lived a long while in Abyssinia. He possesses considerable fortune and has had much experience as a traveler. It is not his purpose to take with him more than a single servant and a small amount of luggage. If he succeeds in his endeavors, his name will be placed by the side of the most renowned African explorers. —Stanley continues his travels towards the interior without allowing himself to be stopped by the difficulties of his enterprise. The 7th of November he was rejoiced to meet H. Savorgnan de Brazza, who, after ascending two tributaries of the Congo and establishing a station, traversed the territory of Apfourous and reached by land the shores of the Congo. Resuming navigation he descended the course of the river half way to Stanley Pool, where he founded a new station. Then, continuing to follow it, he rejoined Stanley. It appears that the journey made by Brazza, which traversed a territory north of the lower Congo towards the interior of Africa, is a much more practicable route than the one up the river itself.