to which was added in another hand :

"The chance is in summer

That you will feel rummer."

Having thus the advantage of knowing something about the meaning of the word "rum," we beg to state, for the information of readers who only use dictionary words, that Rum-mical rhymes mean nonsensical doggrel, and we admit the writer has succeeded in writing, and the artist in illustrating, a comical little volume that should make men grin, ladies smile, and children laugh.

Our Orchestra Stall.

**As we go to press before Boxing-day, we must defer to our next number any notice of the plots of the Pantomimes, Burlesques, Extravaganzas, etc., that will then be produced.

Current History of Literary and Scientific Events.

OCTOBER 1ST.-THURSDAY.

A Garden in London. - Another of these will sweeten the air. Islington Green is being planted and made "pretty," and the public soon will find seats to rest the body, and trees and turf to rest the eye-sight.

British Museum.-The finest reading-room in the world, and, perhaps, where the student's ease and convenience is best consulted, has one drawback in the delay which takes place between the application for and receipt of a work, common or uncommon. At least complaints of such delay are often made, although in our own experience we think them unjust, considering the vast extent of the library. Any student following an out-of-the-way track may, on the first day, have a little difficulty in procuring his books, but afterwards he will obtain them "sharp," and readers of ordinary books will usually find them on their tables in one quarter of an hour after delivering in their written titles, etc.

OCTOBER 2D.-FRIDAY.

Wheat in the Western Shires is now fattening cattle and pigs, being cheaper than barley. Surely we may trust that bread this winter will always be found in the poor man's cupboard.

Salt. Recent exploration has shown that the mine at New Iberia, Louisiana, is the finest in the world; its extent and purity are remarkable, and its appearance, white as ice, is as beautiful as the deposit is scientifically interesting.

OCTOBER 3D.-SATURDAY..

Coals.-83,000,000 tons of coal are annually dug out of English mines. Bark.-Supplies of this inestimable product in the European materia media, was considered likely to fail, as the Cinchona forests of South America are gradually disappearing. However, happily for aguish and other patients, bark has been found in India which will yield the necessary quinine, etc., and of equal quality.

OCTOBER 4TH.-SUNDAY.

OCTOBER 5TH.-MONDAY.

New Periodicals.-"Our Own Fireside," and "The International Magazine," both illustrated, and both sold at sixpence each, are the latest claimants on readers' time and money-either of them are very cheap.

India.-Upwards of 11,000 miles of telegraph wire connected the districts of this vast region at the end of 1862. By the end of the present year the length of lines will probably be doubled.

Entomological Society.—An interesting evening, heightened by Mr. Stainton's paper on the "Proceedings of the German Naturalists," which had been lately held at Stettin.

OBITUARY.-Mr. John Sheepshanks died, aged 76. As brother of the eminent

astronomer, and as the munificent patron of artists, the donor of their almost priceless works to the nation, Mr. Sheepshanks will deservedly occupy a niche in the memory of his country.

OCTOBER 6TH.-TUESDAY.

Earthquake.-During the small hours of this morning, thousands of persons were shocked (literally) in their beds, throughout England, by the rumble and tremulous noise which indicate earthquakes. The cumulative evidence from various persons and districts agree remarkably well, and the present visitation may be recorded as the best observed of such awful occurrences which have taken place in England. Men of science may draw valuable conclusions from the testimony of the unlearned public, who had only their senses to guide them in drawing up their reports. A brilliant authoress, the mother of eminent novelists, a nobly courageous woman and hopeful uphill worker, the written life of Mrs. Trollope should be set up as a guide-post to direct and encourage the faint-hearted.

OBITUARY.-Mrs. Trollope died at Florence in her 85th year.

OCTOBER 7TH.-WEDNESDAY.

Social Science Congress.-The seventh annual meeting inaugurated by Lord Brougham at Edinburgh.

Paris.

Recent returns announce that the extension of the limits of this beautiful city to the surrounding line of fortifications, has added 1230 streets, etc., 146 courts, 13 quays, and 103 places, open to the air.

OCTOBER 8TH.-THURSDAY.

Army Economy.-£380,000 a year may be practically saved in India, by the prevention of avoidable disease and death in the British soldier.

OBITUARY.-Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, died, aged 77. A brief memoir of his valuable life appeared in the R. S. T., for November.

OCTOBER 9TH.-FRIDAY.

Numbers.-£95,720 was spent in 1861 in making the census returns. This amount is larger than that spent in 1851 and 1841, but allowing for the difference of population the expense was less, thus-numbering 1000 in 1841, cost £5, 0s. 9d. ; in 1851, £5, 4s. Od.; in 1861, £4, 15s. 5d.; another proof that organization is only another word for economy.

OCTOBER 10TH.-SATURDAY.

Lord Byron's Manfred revived at Drury Lane theatre. Military Prisons.-Returns from the Ten in the United Kingdom afford a curious result. The commitments are high or low according to the district, not according to the men's nationality. Thus a Scotch Regiment in Ireland, breathing the shillelagh air, do in Rome as the Romans do, and English or Irish quartered in Scotland are naughty even as the Highlanders are, neither more or less. Our conclusion is, that the men are all alike, and the measure of temptation makes the only difference.

OCTOBER 11TH.-SUNDAY.

OCTOBER 12TH.-MONDAY.

Beaumarchais.-Seven volumes of the author's MS. are reported as having been discovered at a bookseller's shop in London. The truth of this report must quickly be seen the MS. will speak and cannot lie, as there are no lack of ears to which the accents of Beaumarchais will be familiar tones.

Red Lead and Asphaltum.-Recent discussions at the Society of Arts infer that either of the above will effectually protect iron from rust. An engine in a well 200 fect deep, during forty-five years, had not rusted beneath its red lead coating.

OCTOBER 13TH.-TUESDAY.

England's Rome.-At the village of Enham (intersected by six Roman roads), several antiquities have been lately discovered, and the explorers of the site believe they can identify it as that of Vindomum.

Woman's Work.-213 girls are employed as operators on our English telegraphs, which also occupy 2399 clerks and boys. We hope the future proportion of the sexes will be more equal.

Beethoven and Schubert.-The earthly remains of these eminent composers were disinterred. A plan is proposed of depositing them in a new building, which should, in time, become an Austrian Pantheon. Monuments are well enough to remind a nation of its obligations, but why should the bones of great men be disturbed ?— they do not make the monument.

OCTOBER 14TH.-WEDNESDAY.

The Old Blue Boar Inn, in Holborn, has to make way for improvement. If its walls had a tongue as well as ears, it could tell many a story of the good old coaching days, and verify English history, which states a letter from Charles the First to his Queen was here discovered in the messenger's saddle flap. In this letter was strong evidence that the King was a traitor to his people.

Indian Tea. The cultivation of the plant is widely spreading; already about 4,000,000 lbs. are yielded.

Indian Steam Press.-The "Englishman" is now a double broad sheet, the first printed in Calcutta by steam.

OCTOBER 15TH.-THURSDAY.

Shakespeare Right.-On the authority of Sir Lascelles Wraxall, Silesia formed a part of old Bohemia, and thus the sea did, as Shakespeare made it, come up to Bohemia.

South Kensington. -Mr. R. Soden Smith has been promoted to the head of the Educational Department.

Numismatic Society.-Among other novelties exhibited was an Ancient British coin, found near Llanthony Abbey, in Wales. This Abbey is on the estate of the very old poet, the renowned, the indomitable Walter Savage Landor, who hearing of the "find," claims the coin as Lord of the Manor. The Collector, however, who honestly bought it, brings the subject before the tribunal of equitable argument, and successfully establishes his right to retain the antiquity.

OCTOBER 16TH.-FRIDAY.

Daylight is reflected into the Standford Tunnel now being made in Aurora by a mirror, thus enabling the men to see their work. The introduction of Daylight Reflec tors by M. Chapuis into London, has, in the same way, brightened up thousands of heretofore dingy offices where either gloom or gas prevailed. Imperial Wisdom.-The far-seeing French Emperor has increased the salaries of schoolmasters and mistresses, and proposes that the schools and masters' dwellings shall be of the model kind, to serve as examples for rural neighbourhoods. This imperial decree of September last will not be one of the least useful in the present enlightened reign.

OCTOBER 17TH.-SATURDAY.

Springs between the tyres and felloes of railway wheels (Mr. W. B. Adams's patent) have been introduced, and found successful. Engineers should make a note of this.

OCTOBER 18TH.-SUNDAY

OCTOBER 19TH.-MONDAY.

Sugar and Tobacco ?-What possible connection can bring these two words together? They are drawn together by tooth-drawers, as a meeting of surgeon-dentists lately held at Frankfort discussed the effect of either article on the teeth, and decided they were not injurious when moderately used.

Ancestry.-On a farm near Chertsey, lives Farmer WAPSHOT (we print the name in caps.), whose fathers are stated to have lived on this same land, "Ambrose's Barn," since the time of Alfred the Great, without a break in the family. The farm was granted by Alfred to Reginald Wapshot.

OCTOBER 20TH.-TUESDAY.

Railway Signal Clock.-On the Midland line, at Kegworth, a signal clock on a novel principle is being worked. It indicates the time each train is before another, up to fifteen minutes.

OCTOBER 21ST.- WEDNESDAY.

Realistic Science is killing the prettiest of summer's sights; the winged, the beautiful, the airiest of creatures, the type of the soul—in short, the Butterfly! 12,000,000 are reported as having been destroyed this year in one Swiss Canton, at a cost to the Government of 1,000,000 francs. And why? because these 12,000,000 butterflies would, we speak mathematically, produce some 216,000,000 crawling, destructive, friendless caterpillars, whose ravages gardeners and others abhor. We feel inclined to change the order of Nature. Let the caterpillars become butterflies, and the butterflies birds, to destroy the worms-the end would be much the same, but then the human foot would be spared this new task of crushing remorselessly the companion of our summer pleasures.

OCTOBER 22D.-THURSDAY.

President-Society of Arts.-The Prince of Wales elected at a special meeting. His Royal Highness's speech on the occassion was in the best possible taste; he accepted the office, "that I may be better able to promote the great and beneficent objects which my dear father had so much at heart," etc.

OCTOBER 23D.-FRIDAY.

Money in the Stocking.-The Post-Office Savings Banks have been two years in operation, up to the fifteenth September last, and the reports show the Banks have received £3,736,885, and repaid £1,088,544, holding in hand for the people, £2,648,340.

OCTOBER 24TH.-SATURDAY.

Across the Atlantic, 4,200,000 have found a home and become naturalized citizens of America. Of the three first countries who have supplied this raw human material, Ireland comes first with her 1,611,000 children; Germany, 1,198,000, and England, 430,000. Only two other countries send over 100,000; Prussia only sending 3000 emigrants.

OCTOBER 25TH.-SUNDAY.

OCTOBER 26TH.-MONDAY.

Wedgwood Institution.-The foundation stone laid, with public ceremony, at Burslem. A school of art, a museum, and a free library will be comprised in the building.

OCTOBER 27TH.-TUESDAY.

Fire! in many cases would be stopped or checked by a simple expedient suggested by a gentleman of Kensington, who recommends the door-sills rising a few inches above the floor. They would then enclose the water, engines might throw through the windows, but which now runs off.