The small stock of coal having been almost all
used for condensing water, great shifts were
employed to economise the fuel. By cutting up
condemned rope, canvas, &c., and mixing with
this the coal ashes (which were always carefully
preserved), chips of wood, and a little tar or
pitch, fuel was eked out. Damaged biscuit and
tainted pork were found not to answer for raising
steam, though experimented upon by one of
the consorts.

On the 20th the Civet reached Batavia, where
she coaled and watered, and left on the 24th
for Singapore, arriving there in five more days.
At Singapore she made good most of her defects,
and from thence to Hong-Kong was towed by
a government steam transport, arriving on the
15th of May.

From the time the Civet left Plymouth till
arriving at Hong-Kong, a hundred and eighty
days had elapsed, of which a hundred and
seventy were spent at sea, one hundred of them
out of sight of land.

POOR MEN'S ANNUITIES.

THE government have lately issued detailed
particulars for putting into operation one of the
most promising measures which we have
witnessed for many a year—one which, if honestly
carried out by both parties, the authorities and
the people, will tend to place prudent men beforehand
in the world, shielded to some extent against
the cares which press upon those who have no
resource against seasons of disaster. Savings-
banks and post office savings-banks have done
and are doing much good; so with industrial
and provident institutions; so with land and
building societies, if there be honesty on the
part of the managers, and prudence on the part
of the members; so with working men's clubs;
so with (some, at least) friendly societies.
Now we are to have government annuities and
life insurances for working men, and the humbler
section of the middle classes.

This matter has long been talked about; but
it was only in the last session of parliament that
Mr. Gladstone introduced the measure which
afterwards became law. Eleven years earlier a
partial measure had been adopted for facilitating
the purchase of government annuities through
the medium of the savings-banks. The National
Debt Commissioners were empowered to receive
money for this purpose from depositors in such
banks, and to grant immediate or deferred life
annuities depending on single lives, or immediate
annuities depending on joint lives with benefit of
survivorship, or on the joint continuance of two
lives. The annuity was not to be less than four
pounds or more than thirty. The premium for
an immediate life annuity was to be paid in one
sum; but for a deferred annuity it might be paid
either in one sum or in a certain number of
annual instalments. The annuities granted were
not to be assignable, except in cases of
bankruptcy or insolvency. The act of eighteen
'sixty-four repealed that of eighteen 'fifty-three,
and legalised a much more comprehensive
system.

Abjuring altogether the barbarous phraseology
of acts of parliament, we will put into a few
words of plain English the chief provisions of
this government annuity statute. The act of
an earlier date, just noticed, granted annuities
of small amount only, on condition that the full
purchase price was paid in one sum, or by annual
payments during a course of years fixed at the
time of purchase; and it also stipulated that an
insurance for a sum of money at death could
only be effected by the contracting party
purchasing at the same time a deferred annuity on
his own life. These conditions are either
abandoned or modified by the new statute. The
sum required to purchase a deferred annuity
may be payable in smaller instalments and at
shorter intervals than before. The maximum
amount of the annuity is raised from thirty
pounds to fifty pounds. An insurance for a sum
of money at death (by or for a person not less
than sixteen, or more than sixty years of age)
may be effected without the necessity of
purchasing a deferred annuity from the National
Debt Commissioners; the insurance being for
any sum between twenty pounds and one
hundred pounds. A life policy, after the payment
of premiums for five years, may at any time be
surrendered by the holder, and he may receive
for it either a sum not less than one-third of the
premiums paid, or else a paid-up policy of an
immediate or a deferred life annuity. The
National Debt Commissioners are to regulate the
payments by instalments, which are at no time
to be less than two shillings in amount. The
facilities for paying in the small sums of money
are among the novelties of the statute; for not
only may the National Debt Commissioners
empower the trustees of savings-banks to receive
and pay the moneys at an adequate remuneration;
but the postmaster-general, with the consent
of the Treasury, may authorise the officers
of the post-office to do the same, as they already
do in reference to savings-banks' deposits and
withdrawals.

By the terms of the statute, nothing was to
be done towards putting its provisions into
operation until the government had published
full tables of all the payments and premiums
necessary, under various contingencies likely to
occur, and equally full directions how to proceed
in the various engagements concerning annuities
and insurances. Those directions and tables
have just (March, 'sixty-five) been published.
We have nothing to say against the charge made
for printed copies of these documents, for it
amounts only to a few pence; but we have to
warn the reader that he has tough work before
him if he attempts to master all the details.
Forty-four folio pages of "regulations," and
forty-eight octavo pages of " tables," are rather
too much for any except official people. The
"regulations," however, prepared by the
postmaster-general, under the sanction of the
Treasury, are for the postmasters and others
engaged in the post-office; and it is understood