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Bosanquet makes some suggestions, most of wliich
have heen concnrred in by the Secretary for the
Colonies, although the most im.portant, namely that
the naval officer in command of the South African
State should be ex qffieio governor of the island,
seemed open to so many objections that it has not
been adopted.
A proposal of Lord Carnarvon’s, to give two
hundred pounds worth of useful presents to the
islanders of things which they cannot easily obtain
from passing ships, will no donht be highly popular.
They had, it seems, represented that a clergyman
was one of their most urgent needs ; an educated
man, clerical or lay, of a certain stamp among them
Avonld be an enormous advantage; hut an educated
man of another stamp, such as they were much more
likely to get, u'ould he very much the rcA'erse.
My own impression is that it would have been just
as well to have left the settlers of Tristan d’Acunha
alone. At present there is a general feeling of
equality, and their arbiter is of their owui choosing ;
and they took special care that it should he fully
understood that their deference to Peter Green was
purely voluntary. I should fear that the appointment
of magistrates from among themselves by external
authority maygHe rise to all kinds of jealousy
and ill will. If the place is understood to belong to
Great Britain at all, it is no doubt important that in
such a case as that of the ‘ Shenandoah,’ they should
he able to produce evidence to that effect. The
Tristaners of the present day have certainly not left
tbe most favourable impression on my mind. They
are by no means ill off; they are very sbrcAvd and