mss.. "Hotel L'Anglenoir, Constantinople. Saw the new Sultan on Friday on his way to prayer. He was put on the throne 2 months ago by the Troops shown on the card. 3000 men were killed here, and the Turks are still hanging the prisioneeres in batches." etc.

26 April 1909 Sultan Abdul Hamid II is deposed, suceeded by Mohammed V.

HISTORICAL ITEM.

HMS SPITFIRE - Wood paddle gun vessel, 5 guns. Built 26.3.1845.

'J H Martin Esq' became MATE on HMS Spitfire 1.3.1860.

Bonnici sounder, invented by Carmelo Bonnici, a blacksmith on HMS SPITFIRE. This device was used in surveys in the Black Sea in 1855.

'M28' Liverpool mark (Dec. 20th) only known on mail to N. America.

Another cause of friction was "British gunboat imperialism" -- a tendency to show off British power by blasting away with cannon at helpless villages at the smallest provocation. This happened Kambia in Sierra Leone in... 1859.

Slavery is abolished in British Guiana. Friday 1 August 1834, It was a public holiday and many Africans who were now Christians attended religious services. Others danced in their homes, in their yards and in the streets and the merry-making continued late into the night. But a rude shock awaited all the ex-slaves early the following morning when they were ordered back to the fields and other workplaces. This caused great confusion since they failed to understand how they could have gained their freedom and still be forced to work in their detested old posts. But this condition was part of the Emancipation Act - an Apprenticeship period of six years - where the freed slaves were compelled by law to serve their old masters just as they had done when they were slaves.

The BOY SCOUTS as an organization was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in 1916.

[The 'Scarlet Scouts' of Belgium won fame for heroism as messangers during the German onslaught in Autumn 1914.]