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 were not acceptable, and Sir, the Governor of New South Wales, was despatched to Fiji in Sept. 1874 to negotiate. This mission was completely successful, and the sovereignty of the islands was ceded to her Majesty by Thakombau, Maafu, and the other principal chiefs, in a deed of cession dated Oct. 10th, 1874. A charter was shortly afterwards issued by her Majesty erecting the islands into a separate colony and providing for their government. Thakombau, who had been guaranteed a pension in return for transferring the sovereignty, visited Sydney, N.S.W., at the end of 1874, accompanied by his two sons. When the old chief returned to his native land he was ill with the measles. The disease spread rapidly, and during the six months it ravaged the islands 40,000 Fijians died of it. The natives, as Mr. Thomas narrates, naturally regarded this fearful visitation as an indication that the gods were displeased at the surrender of their country to foreigners. Thakombau died on Feb. 1st, 1883.

Thomas, Robert (p. 464). In regard to the Register newspaper, the policy of the paper did not please the Government, whose representative about 1840 deprived Mr. Robert Thomas and his partner of the position and emoluments of Government printers. This deposition was strongly protested against by the sufferers, and Mr. Thomas visited England to take his grievance to Downing Street. He failed, however, to obtain redress, and his firm sank under an accumulation of embarrassments. Ultimately, however, the family connection with the Register was renewed under brighter auspices, and still continues.

Whitehead, Charles, was born in London in 1804. His first volume, "The Solitary," a poem in three parts, was published in 1831 by Effingham Wilson, then Tennyson's publisher. This was followed by a work of a totally different kind, whose title, "Lives and Exploits of English Highwaymen, Pirates, and Robbers," sufficiently indicates its scope and character. Mr. Whitehead next published a romance called "Jack Ketch." More notable in the history of literature than any of his own achievements, however, was his recommendation of Dickens to Chapman & Hall, who wanted a ready writer of comic "copy" for the artist Seymour's sketches. The commission was indeed offered to Whitehead, who passed it on to his friend Boz; hence the existence of "Pickwick." In 1836 Whitehead produced a play entitled The Cavalier at the Haymarket Theatre, which had some measure of success. His best work, "Richard Savage: a Romance," appeared in Bentley's Miscellany (1841-2), and was most favourably received by the critics. In 1843 he published "The Earl of Essex," a historical romance, and in 1847 "Smiles and Tears; or, The Romance of Life," a novel in three volumes. In 1857 he and his wife emigrated to Victoria, and in 1862 he died in great penury in the Melbourne hospital. Although a casual worker on the local press, Mr. Whitehead did no good work in the colony; and his literary career may be said to have ended some years before he left England. Mr. Whitehead was an intimate friend of Charles Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, and other leading writers of the time. His Life has been written by Mr. Mackenzie Bell, who, however, does not record the fact that he was the uncle of the well-known English actress Mrs. Bernard Beere, who has recently been on a professional tour, and has been most warmly welcomed in the city where her father's brother died so miserably.

Williams, Sir Edward Eyre (p. 509). This distinguished jurist was the son of Burton Williams, a planter in Trinidad, West Indies, by his marriage with the daughter of Major Hartley. He married Jessie, daughter of Rev. Charles Gibbon, of Loumay, Mintlaw, Aberdeenshire, by his marriage with Miss Duff, a cousin of the Earl of Fife's.

Williams, His Honour Hartley (p. 509). Judge Williams married first, in Dec. 1870, Edith Ellen, daughter of Commissary-General Horne; and secondly, in Jan. 1887, Jessie Bruce, eldest daughter of the late Thomas Acland Lawford, of Kinellan, Wimbledon Common, Surrey.

Williams, His Honour Joshua Strange, M.A., LL.M., judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, is the eldest son of the late Joshua Williams, Q.C., author of treatises on the law relating to real 541