"It will hardly be credited that Mr. Waghorn, who is on the point of leaving England, to carry personally into effect one of the most important enterprises in which any man has ever yet engaged--namely, the shortening by one half the time of our communications with India--has been refused, by Sir James Graham, a commission as Lieutenant in the Navy, a rank to which he is fairly entitled from his period of service, and which is most material to his success. The Board of Control, the Admiralty, nay, the whole of the Government, profess the desire to have this great project fully brought to bear; they admit Mr. Waghorn's qualifications, attested by nearly the whole mercantile community of India, for the undertaking; they are relieved, through his and their means, of all expense or thought or trouble about the success of it; the only thing asked is a Lieutenant's commission, simply because Mr. Waghorn is aware of the far greater attention which the rank of a British officer will procure him from the Pacha of Egypt, and would willingly, to obtain it, relinquish the pay of that rank, and yet it is refused by those to whom his labours, if successful, must prove of incalculable benefit!" Another little instance of prejudice, which broader thinking has rendered impossible, nowadays, is given in the _Times_, March 21st-- "MARYLEBONE OFFICE. "Yesterday morning, just as the business had commenced, a case of trivial importance was called on, when at the moment the writer came into the Justice Room, and was approaching the desk usually appropriated for reporters, which had been previously occupied by two policemen, who, knowing the arduous duties which those connected with the press had to perform, immediately gave way, when the following colloquy ensued-- "Mr. Rawlinson (to the policeman): Why do you give way to that man--you have a better right to be here than he has? Then, extending his voice, he said to the reporter, I wish you would not come here so often, sir. "Reporter: 'I believe, sir, that police offices are, or at least ought to be, open to the public; and, as I am employed by the _Times_ newspaper to report the proceedings at this office, I humbly submit that I have as much right to stand here for the information of the public in general as any policeman who may be a witness in the case before you.' "Mr. Rawlinson: The office is too full of reporters; I beg, sir, that you will give way to the witness. "Reporter: Most certainly, sir; but, with all due deference, I beg to submit that in a public office reporters are entitled to admission. "Mr. Rawlinson (angrily): Perhaps I may let you know to the contrary. "Here the conversation dropped."