April i, 1 891] 



THE HUMMING BIRD. 



29 



here several weeks and has been working at the 

 British Museum. 



Indubitably many other Scientists among the 

 Ornithologists and others have been studying and 

 working at the British Museum lately, and this shows 

 how appreciated are by all the splendid Collections 

 gathered in this Museum ; but unfortunately I hear 

 from all sides that the accommodation for scientific 

 workers is very limited. 



This shows that I was right when I say page 13 of 

 the Humming Bird that in building a Museum, rooms 

 and library for the use of Students ^should be the 

 first thing to think of. 



If there was sufficient accommodation for Students 

 with its correspondent attendance, I have no doubt 

 that hundreds of Scientists would be seen every day 

 at work in the laboratories of the British Museum 

 and I hope the day is not far off when this wish of 

 many will be realized. 



A. B. 



Royal Aquarium. 



The ordinary general meeting of the Royal Aquarium 

 was held on the 4th of March, under the presidency 

 of Captain Molesworth, R.N., the Chairman and 

 General Manager of the Company. 



It was rather a stormy meeting in consequence of 

 the division existing between the Directors. Much 

 was said on either side, but it would have been much 

 better if half of what was said had been kept to 

 themselves. It is not satisfactory to hear Directors 

 of one same Company charging one another of deeds 

 resulting against the welfare of the Institution. I 

 shall not go into details about all what was said at the 

 Meeting as every leading Journal of the Metropolis 

 has published minutely the report of same ; but I 

 was quite surprised that none of the reporters assist- 

 ing at the meeting have said a word about several 

 speeches made by many of the independent share- 

 holders. One of them, Air. F. Stroud, gave a very 

 good acccount of what is going on at the Aquarium 

 since Captain Molesworth is one of the Directors and 

 Chairman. He said that the reports were always 

 very promising ; but the fact was that for one reason 

 or another, now in consequence of the fogs, at other 

 times in consequence of the Italian and Spanish Ex- 

 hibitions or for other causes, the dividend for the 

 Shareholders was always small ; although we are told 

 every year that there will be a fine dividend for the 

 next. 



He spoke also of some very valuable properties 

 that we have close to the Aquarium which are in a 

 very delapidated state and could be let at a high rent 

 if properly repaired. He concluded by saying that 

 he thought that the Shareholders ought to give 

 another chance to Captain Molesworth ; but it should 

 be understood between him and the Shareholders 

 that if in six months time, he could not give us 

 a better dividend than the last, that he should 

 resign. These remarks were very well received 

 by the Shareholders present at the Meeting. 

 Myself, an original Shareholder of eighty shares, 

 said that we had a splendid property which well 

 managed ought to pay us a dividend not of two or 



five per cent ; but 10, 15, 20, 30 and possibly 50 per 

 cent, as many other institutions of the same class had 

 done ; but up to the present time we have had yearly 

 all sorts of promises about very good dividends ; but 

 up to this time we never have had the legal 5 per 

 cent, interest of our money. I said that I assisted at 

 the meeting when Captain Molesworth was first 

 elected a Director and that I thought he might be a 

 good Director and a perfect gentleman ; but did not 

 think he was the proper manager for such an Institu- 

 tion as the Royal Aquarium. 



After a few more remarks from other Shareholders 

 the meeting terminated rather abruptly. A gentleman 

 proposed a vote of thanks for the Chairman, but the 

 meeting was virtually ended when this was done. 



Well now, I repeat what I said at the meeting. 

 We have a magnificent property in the Royal 

 Aquarium which could give us excellent dividends if 

 managed by a competent person and the least that 

 Captain Molesworth ought to do is to look for a 

 manager accustomed to that sort of business to assist 

 him and entrust him the management of the Society 

 as soon as he has given proof of his abilities in man- 

 aging the Royal Aquarium in such a way that enables 

 the Company to pay at least 5 per cent, dividend to 

 the Shareholders. Short of this, I think that the 

 Shareholders will not rest long satisfied with what has 

 been done and is still done at the present time. 

 They want good dividends and no more promises. 



A. BOUCARD. 



The Panama Canal. 



On the 2 1 st of February last there was a debate on 

 the Nicaragua Canal Bill in the Senate at Washington. 

 Being very important that the bondholders of the 

 Panama Canal Co. should be acquainted with all what 

 occurs in America about the Interoceanic Canal of 

 Nicaragua, I reproduce here the telegraphic message 

 sent by Reuter to the leading journals of Europe : — 



The Nicaragua Canal. 



Washington, Feb. 21. -During the debate on the 

 Nicaragua Canal Bill, Senator Davis, of Minnesota, 

 opposed the passing of the measure in a speech in 

 which he declared that the Bill virtually proposed a 

 subsidy of 100,000,000 dollars for the building of a 

 work lying outside the national domain and traversing 

 a foreign country. The means by which it was pro- 

 posed to construct the canal Mr. Davis described as 

 objectionable, and said that if the canal was to be 

 made the work should be done by the American 

 Government in its sovereign capacity through its own 

 corps of engineers. He regarded it as most unfor- 

 tunate that the treaty concluded with Nicaragua in 

 1884, providing for the construction of the canal by 

 the United States, has been withdrawn. In his 

 opinion, the question was not embarrassed by any 

 complications under the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 

 because he considered that that treaty had been abro- 

 gated by the action of Great Britain. The American 

 people, however, were not crying out for the canal, 

 neither was Great Britain nor any other Power, by 



