An autumn Session of Parliament had been held in November, 1867, in order to vote supplies for one of those “little wars’ in which England has so frequently been engaged during the Queen’s reign, a war which arose out of a dispute with the King of Abyssinia. This swarthy and half-savage potentate had detained in captivity several British subjects, one of them being Captain Cameron, a British Vice-Consul on the Red Sea littoral. Theodore of Abyssinia had seized them to mark his indignation at Lord Russell’s culpable discourtesy in neglecting to answer a letter which he had addressed to the Queen. Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, a Syrian emissary of the Foreign Office, had endeavoured to procure the release of the prisoners, but in his turn he, too, was seized and compelled to share their fate. When Parliament was prorogued the Queen’s Speech had intimated that the captives would have to be rescued by force, and an army of 10,000 men, under Sir Robert Napier, was equipped at Bombay for that purpose. At the end of 1867 a portion of it had landed in King Theodore’s country. Napier was a skilful but an expensive general. At the outset he spent £2,000,000 on his Expedition, and a further demand for an equal sum was made. Hence Parliament had to be summoned in November to vote these supplies. An additional penny was put on the Income Tax, and the Government was authorised to use the Exchequer balances for the expenses of the campaign. The most caustic critic of the Ministry was Mr. Lowe, who condemned it for declaring war without the authority of Parliament. The New Year (1868) found Parties and politicians preparing for the great electoral struggle for power. But there could be no General Election till the new register of voters became operative. Hence the country passed [Illustration: SIR ROBERT NAPIER (AFTERWARDS LORD NAPIER OF MAGDALA).]