onomy, in characters similar to those on the Moabite stone, were recently brought to London by Mr. Shapira, of Jerusalem, and offered for sale to the British Museum. Mr. Shapira, who is a dealer in antiquities, states that he bought these parchments from an Arab, who had found them hidden in a cave. Experts in London are doubtful whether they date "from B.C. 800, or from A.D. 1880."

ranean to Algeria. Near Corsica the balloon descended, and the travellers were only saved from being drowned in the sea by throwing every available object overboard, upon which the balloon ascended again to 9000 feet, and eventually landed them in Italy. On August 1 Sir Claude de Crespigny and Mr. Simmons ascended from Maldon, with a view of crossing the Channel, and after a journey of seven hours landed safely at Flushing, in Holland. On August 4 a IN Santa Fé, New Mexico, the oldest city balloon with two French aeronauts descended in the United States, a fête was held beat Wood-Green, near London. They had tween July 2 and August 3 in celebration ascended at Versailles the day before, intend- of its 333rd anniversary. The city was laid ing to descend in Paris, but after encounter-out by the Spanish explorers in 1550 and ing various currents were wafted across the still preserves many of the characteristics of Channel during the night. On August 7 a mediæval Spanish town. M. l'Hoste, the daring aeronaut who so narrowly escaped drowning in the North Sea a few weeks ago, made his fourth attempt to cross the Channel from Boulogne, but descended a few hours later in Flanders.

ART AND ARCHEOLOGY.

THE famous Strawberry Hill, of Walpole and Waldegrave association, has been sold to Baron H. de Stearn, who intends to make it his home and preserve it intact. The sale of the historic furniture, which occupied ten days, was concluded on August 4, and resulted in about £14,000.

THE statue of the Duke of Wellington has continued to occupy its position on the roadside opposite Apsley House, pending the decision of the Committee appointed to choose a site for it. After experiment with a wooden representation of the statue in profile, the proposed site in St. James's Park facing the Horse Guards was abandoned. At the moment our Record closes it is announced that the statue will be broken up, and the bronze cast into more artistic form to serve again as a memorial to the Duke. Meanwhile the work of reconstructing, on Constitution Hill, the arch on which the statue used to stand, is nearly completed.

ON July 22 a memorial window to Lord Frederick Cavendish, subscribed for by Members of Parliament, was unveiled in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster.

THE memorial bust of Henry Fielding, the novelist, to be placed in the Somersetshire Hall, Taunton, will be unveiled on September 4, by Mr. James Russell Lowell, the American Minister.

THE bed used by Napoleon I. when a prisoner at St. Helena was sold by auction at Dover, in July, and was secured by the proprietors of Madame Tussaud's Waxwork Exhibition in Baker Street. It is undoubtedly an authentic relic, having been brought from St. Helena by Major Crockett, who was in charge of the Emperor on the island.

CERTAIN curious documents, fifteen in number, black with apparent age, and inscribed with portions of the Book of Deuter

OBITUARY.

July 13.-At Derby, the Rev. William, or, as he preferred to be called, Mr. William Griffith, aged 77. He was one of the founders of the United Methodist Free Church, and the last survivor of the three Wesleyan ministers, Messrs. Griffith, Dunn, and Everett, whose expulsion from the Wesleyan Methodist body in 1849 caused a serious split in the ranks of Methodism.

July 14-At Ventnor, Isle of Wight, Edward Backhouse Eastwick, the Oriental scholar, aged 69. He was at school with Thackeray at the Charterhouse. From 1860 to 1863, he served as Secretary of Legation at Teheran, and in 1866 the Marquis of Salisbury (then Lord Cranbourne) appointed him his private secretary at the India Office. He published many works on Hindustani and Persian, and was the compiler of Murray's Handbooks for India.

July 15-At Middleborough, Massachusetts, "General Tom Thumb” (Charles Haywood Stratton), in his forty-sixth year.

July 16.-At Mount Melville, near St. Andrews, John Whyte-Melville, Convener of the county of Fife, aged 87. He was Provincial Grand Master of Fife, and Grand Master for Scotland from 1864 to 1866. He was the father of the late Major Whyte-Melville, the novelist.

At West Worthing, Sir John Lucie Smith, C.M.G., Chief Justice of Jamaica, aged 56.

July 17-At Southtown, Great Yarmouth, Retired Commander Francis Harris, aged 86. He was one of the last of the officers of the British Navy engaged at Trafalgar. He entered the Navy in 1805, when but nine years of age.

July 18-John Bruce Norton, aged 68. He was for some years Advocate-General and Member of the Legislative Council of Madras, and was the author of Norton's Law of Evidence, which is a pass-book on Indian law, and many other works.

July 20.-At Cambridge, the Rev. Thomas Rawson Birks, M.A., the Knightsbridge Professor of Moral Theology and Philosophy

Editor's Drawer.

"Ah!" said the listener, with a long sigh, "would that I had been with the Mayo men that day!"

stranger, and finally said, with significant emphasis, "All right, old boy; but if there's any flickerin' in this thing, you may know what to expect."

The

IN the early part of the present century there lived in Nashville, Tennessee, one Without further parley the Colonel diColonel W, of the militia, who made his them with his cane upon the grass, stepped vested himself of coat and hat, and placing fortune in the slave-trade. But before he out upon the road, and put himself in posibecame comfortably settled in life he had tion by the side of the champion. many ups and downs of fortune. carried a number of slaves to New Orleans, the race, and ranged themselves along each Once he spectators evinced the liveliest interest in and made a very successful sale. He under- side of the road. Bets were freely offered at took, however, to increase his supply of money by methods which involved more enormous odds against the rash stranger, elements of chance than were connected with stalwart competitor; but there were few of who certainly did not look a match for his his regular business. It was an unlucky these bets taken. At a given signal the venture, and in a short time he found himself with only money enough to pay his lighted crowd. For nearly the whole distance men darted off amidst the yells of the depassage on a boat as far up the river as Natchez. Although he had not a dollar in straining every nerve, kept side by side, but the two contestants, who seemed to be his pocket, when he reached Natchez he put when within about twenty yards of the goal up at the best hotel. He wore fashionable the Colonel, by dint of extraordinary effort, garments and a silk hat, and carried a goldheaded cane with which he would not have the hero of the hour, and as he walked back shot ahead, and won the race. parted for many times its value. He bore He was now himself with an easy dignity, calculated to to the starting-point, exhausted and almost impress all who saw him with the belief that excited spectators. His opponent came up breathless, he was heartily cheered by the he was a capitalist with abundant resources, promptly and paid him the fifty dollars, and who might be induced to invest thousands at the same time challenged him for another in the property of the town. A week had trial. nearly passed, and he had not succeeded in putting money in his purse to pay his hotel bill. One Sunday afternoon, when he was seriously thinking of making a stealthy exit at night, he learned that the roughs and gamblers, who at that time formed a considerable part of the population of Natchez, had assembled on a public road not far from the town to witness some foot-races. He at once started, and reached the place just as an athletic and fierce-looking fellow, who was exulting over his victories, offered in a loud voice to bet fifty dollars that he could beat anybody on the ground in a race of one hundred yards. The Colonel remembered that he had himself been fleet of foot in his younger days, and, pressed by dire necessity, he resolved to try his luck on this occasion. So in the pause which followed the champion's challenge he stepped forward, and making a stately bow, said, quietly, "I will take your bet." The bully looked at him a few moments in contemptuous surprise, and said, "Well, put up your money."

With a courtly wave of the hand the Colonel replied, deprecatingly, "There is no need of that formality between gentlemen. I am a gentleman, and I take you to be one. If I lose the race I will pay you the fifty dollars; if you lose it, I do not doubt that you will act with equal honour. The word of a gentleman is his bond."

The rough and desperate men present seemed to regard this as a very remarkable proposition, and for a time the challenger was nonplussed. He steadily and suspiciously eyed the polite and well-dressed

pocketed the money; "I make it a rule "No, thank you," said the Colonel, as he never to run more than one race in a day."

tucked his cane under his arm, made one He then calmly put on his coat and hat, "Good afternoon, gentlemen," strutted comof his profoundest bows, and with a pleasant placently away. That evening he paid his bill at the hotel and took a boat for Nashville.

with great pride, and when asked what he Colonel W used to relate this incident would have done in case he lost the race, he was a desperate case; but I had made up used to say, "Well, to tell you the truth, it my mind that if I didn't win, I would keep on running, and never look behind until I reached Tennessee."

as a

THE fire burned low in the Franklin stove, mouse stirred behind the wainscot the cat was asleep on the rug, and not a less pen. All the house put on slippers mother wrote by a shaded lamp with noiseof velvet when little Rose went to bed, for sleep and she were enemies, and she fought him to the last eyelash. Her voice came from the bedroom now with no sound of surrender in it. It was better to be at prayer than to be asleep, and of course no one could reprove her for praying.

let me go in the omnibus to see Aunt Mar"O Lord," said she, "make me good, and garet and all the aunts and nieces and mothers. Keep me safe, for I want to go and see Aunt Margaret, and see what I can

see. Don't let it hail, or snow, or rain, for I want to go in the omnibus to see Aunt Margaret very much indeed, and all the aunts and nieces and mothers. Make me well so that I can go in the omnibus; please do. Bless grandpa and grandma, Aunt Kate and Aunt Sophia and Mr. Charles Swan. Bless papa and mamma, and make us all good, so that we can go to heaven at last." There was a short pause, and then the wide-awake, defiant voice went on:

"Keep grandma from dying before she gets here. Don't let anything happen to her. Don't let any bears or wild beasts eat me up. Bless grandpa and grandma and Mr. Charles Swan, and Aunt Kate and Aunt Sophia."

Another pause, a little longer than the first, and the unconquered began again:

which they found her guilty. The next was the case of a pickpocket taken in the very act, and the crime was proved by two or three eye-witnesses. The judge charged the jury in substance that the case was too clear to need any remarks from him, and the jury thereupon acquitted the prisoner.

Gilbert was astonished, as well he might be, and none the less at some other cases which he saw tried and decided that day; while in some he could not deny that the verdicts were manifestly just and right. But these strange cases rather bothered him, and after the court adjourned, and while they were all on the way into the sheriff's apartments for dinner, he ventured to ask of his friend an explanation of what he considered horrible injustice... The functionary paused and looked with something like pity, mingled "I long for apples. I long for milk. Iwith indignation, on his guest. He could long for pie. I long to be good. I wish I not stand an insinuation against his court. had not that cold. I long for some water. I long for some brown bread. I long for some sweets. I long for some white bread. I long to be a woman. I thank Thee that it did not rain or snow. Give me a clean spirit. Let me be good when papa is here, for it grieves him to have me naughty, and he buys me things-playthings. I have prayed that I should go to sleep. That makes three prayers."

A yawn, a long-drawn breath, and then silence presently announced that the last prayer was answered, and sleep reigned.

"THEY have discovered foot-prints three feet long in the sands in Oregon, supposed to belong to a lost race." It is impossible to conceive how a race that made foot-prints three feet long could get lost, writes J. H. W., of the Norristown Herald.

NAPOLEON'S hat once fell off at a review, when a young lieutenant stepped forward and picked it up, and returned it to him.

"Sir," said he, "our juries have had a great deal of experience in these matters, and their wisdom has hit upon this plan: They always find the first prisoner guilty, the second not guilty, the third guilty, and so on, alternating with each trial through the day; and I fancy that justice is about as evenly administered in the Court as in any court in this kingdom!"

This story reminds us of a diffident barrister who was making his maiden speech before Lord Denman and a bench full of big wigs:

My Lords," he began, "when-my unfortunate client-my Lords, my-when my client-as I was about to remark, my Lords -a-my-when-my client who is so unfortunate-" Here the poor fellow fairly broke down, and the kind old chief helped him along by leaning forward and saying in his blandest tones:

"Go on-go on, Mr. Jones; the court is with you so far."

As we are in court now, let us relate a story we read lately of a lawyer in Nuremfortune came to him for advice in a matter berg, Germany. A young man who had no of matrimony and a matter of money too;

"Thank you, Captain," said the Emperor. "In what regiment, Sire?' asked the lieutenant, as quickly as possible. Napoleon smiled and passed on, and forth-for, as in too many other cases, his fair one with had the lucky youth promoted.

GILBERT GURNEY was invited by a sheriff, his friend, to visit the Court and see the process of the trial and conviction of offenders in that tribunal, and afterward to dine with the judges and some of the senior members of the bar at the sheriff's table.

The sheriff secured his guest a good seat, and the court opened with all the formality of big wigs and gowns.

The first prisoner placed at the bar was a poor girl charged with stealing. There was no evidence against her, and her good character was abundantly manifest, and so the judge charged the jury, notwithstanding

was willing, but he feared the parents would refuse their consent. The lawyer called on the father, and proposed the match as one in all respects suitable. The father had an eye to money, and at once asked what property the young man had. The lawyer said he did not know, but would inquire. The next time he met his client he asked what property he was worth, and was told, none at all.

"Well," said the lawyer, "would you suffer any one to cut off your nose if he would give you twelve thousand pounds for it?"

"No, not for the world."

"All right," said the lawyer, "I had my own reasons for asking."