SAVINGS BANKS IN MECHANICS' INSTITUTES.

An important feature has lately been proposed to be added to these institutions, by Mr. Chas. W. Sikes, of the Huddersfield Banking Company, in a letter addressed to the president of the Yorkshire Union, namely, the establishment of preliminary savings banks. Through the kindness of Mr. Sikes, a copy of his letter has already been forwarded by the secretary to almost every institute in Yorkshire. The plan is briefly as follows:I venture to suggest a method hitherto untried, namely, that the humbler members of each Mechanics' Institution should be encouraged to "transact a little business" with a Preliminary Savings Bank within the institution, for which purpose some of the leading members might form a small "Savings Bank Committee," attending an evening weekly, to receive their trifling deposits-their threepences, their sixpences, and perhaps their shillings-giving each party a small book, and so soon as his sum reached say 21. 2s., paying it over to the Government Savings Bank of the town, in the person's name, and giving to him or her the new pass-book. This to be repeated until another guinea be accumulated, to be again transferred, and so on-no interest being allowed until paid over to the Government Savings Bank. The little book-keeping requisite would be very simple, and from always being paid over when it reached 11. 1s. or 21. 28., the liability incurred would be very limited.

A list of the balances (with the ledger folio corresponding with the pass-book, and signed by the treasurer) to be suspended in the room each half-year, thus enabling each depositor to see that his money was safe.

Exceptional cases may exist, where the addition of such a bank might interfere with the efficient discharge of the other duties of an institution. Where this is likely to be the case, it is the clear duty of the committee to attend to the original objects of the institution, rather than to any new object; but we are of opinion that, wherever such a plan could be properly carried out, it must largely tend to increase the moral influence and social importance of these institutions. In many places no savings bank exists nearer than the next market town. The savings bank is open at an hour not convenient to the working classes. Besides which, a.though these useful establishments will take sums as low as one shiliing, there is an air of pretension about them which rather repels the lowest class of contributors. In all these respects the Mechanics' Institute would possess a decided advantage. Institutions are likely to derive an accession of members where such a savings department should be efficiently carried out, because those who went merely to deposit their twopence or threepence would become aware of the other advantages offered to them. Moreover, it has been a matter of frequent and deep regret to the sincere friends of the working classes, that the associations for mutual benefit, such as odd-fellowship, friendly societies, sick and funeral clubs, &c., are held in the public-house. The custom has proved a heavy deduction from the advantages, and in many cases quite counterbalanced them. But in the addition of the Savings Bank to the Mechanics' Institute, we recognise a great practical step towards remedying the evil. It will tend to free the benefit societies of the working classes from much that is useless, foolish, and even positively injurious, because it will bring to these objects something, at least, of that moral conduct and intelligence which generally prevails in the management of a Mechanics' Institute. We are, therefore, glad to learn that the plan of Mr. Sikes has already been adopted in conjunction with the institutions at Wortley, Meltham and Keighley, at which latter place it is found to succeed admirably. It is also in contempla tion to establish Preliminary Savings Banks at the Dogleylane, Kirkstal, and other institutions; we hope it will be with such results as may enable us to recommend it still further at the next annual meeting. It cannot be too strongly impressed on the respective committees to enforce the most rigid exactness and punctuality in the discharge of any pecuniary trust they may undertake, with every precaution against possible loss; as a single failure in this respect might bring serious discredit on the whole system, and even on Mechanics' Institutions themselves.

Huddersfield Preliminary Savings Bank.

The preliminary savings bank at the Huddersfield mechanics' institution was cominenced on the 8th July, by fifty-seven persons depositing 31. 7d. Each Monday night has brought an accession to their numbers, until now there are above 300 accounts open; of whom, on the 10th February, 127 deposited an average of one shilling and fourpence each.

members of the institute, who are chiefly youths in factories, &c., and over whom the directors believe it to be exercising a most beneficial influence. The following are the rules adopted at Huddersfield, and we recommend them to the era. sideration of other institutions. With Rule VIII. we are espe cially pleased, and hope it will be considered a sine qua nos wherever Preliminary Savings-banks are established.

Rules.

I. The bank shall be under the management of the com mittee of the Huddersfield mechanics' institution; and the treasurer of the institution for the time being shall be the trea surer of the preliminary savings bank.

II. The treasurer shall, on the night after each deposit. night, pay the balance in his hands into the Huddersfield Banking Company, to the credit of the preliminary savings bank.

III-No monies to be received or paid unless two officers of the institution, or persons appointed by them, be present; one to enter the sum in the pass-book and the committee's cash-book, the other to copy the said entry from the pass-book into the committee's ledger, and then affix his initials in the pass-book.

IV.-The accounts shall be made up half-yearly, on the 30th of June and the 31st of December, and a list of the balances, signed by the treasurer, giving the number of each pass-book, but not the name, shall be laid upon the table for one month, thus enabling each depositor to see that his balance is correct. V.-That deposits will be received from the members of the mechanics' institution, their friends, and working people generally.

VI.-That any sums from one penny upwards shall be received, and when they amount to seventeen shillings (unless requested otherwise by the depositor), shall be paid into the Huddersfied (Government) savings bank; a pass-book obtained in the depositor's name, and given to the party; who may again psy into the preliminary bank until it reaches the seventeen shil lings, to be again transferred to his or her own credit in the Huddersfield savings'-bank, and so on as such sums are accumalated. All sums paid over to the Government savings bank will cease to be under the control of the committee of the preminary bank.

VII-Any depositor may draw out his money on presenting his book, and no sum will bear interest until paid over to the Huddersfield savings bank.

VIII. That in order to secure the perfect safety of the money in the preliminary savings' bank, until either repaid to the depositors or transferred to the Huddersfield and Upper Agbrigg savings bank, the amount thereof be guaranteed, and that the names and designations of the individuals giving such guarantee, and that the sum for which they are respectively liable, also a summary of the progress and position of the preliminary savings bank, be published in the annual report of the Hud dersfield mechanics' institution.

MALT DRINKS.-NEW JOINT STOCK BREWERY.

Ale and porter are our national beverages, and, when genuine, are allowed to be wholesome and beneficial: to obtain either in this state is, however, almost impossible, for in no other depart. ment of trade is the infamous practice of adulteration carried to 80 great an extent. The fluid generally sold as beer and drack from a London pewter pint, is no more that which it is presumed to be than it is like the nectareous liquor Ganymede was fabled to have served to the heathen gods: it is a vile, villainous, and poisonous compound of treacle, liquorice, tobacco, coleuring, colchicum, salts-of-tartar, dye, linseed, and cinnamon, turmeric, logwood, copperas, capsicum, and quassia; with a very minute modicum of malt and hops, but with a liberal allowance of $ deleterious mixture, half alum, half vitriol, in order to impart strength. Such is the chief beverage of tens of thousands in England; and notwithstanding legislative enactments of pairs and penalties, unprincipled brewers and retail dealers are no whit deterred from their poisonous but profitable practice of falsifying the drink of the people. A more effectual means we are glad to see is contemplated to be taken for securing an unadulterated article, viz., the formation of a Joint-stock Brewery Company, on a comprehensive plan, which, it is professed, shall supply a genuine fluid at less price than the public now pay for the injurious mixture of mischievous ingredients. The com pany is designated the Metropolitan and Provincial Joint Stock Brewery Company, of which John Macgregor, Esq., M.P., is one of the trustees. The company is registered provisionally, with a capital of 200,0007., in 40,000 shares of 57. each.

WATER POWER.

The printing-press of a daily paper in Boston, United States, is driven in a manner of which there is no other example in any other city in the republic. Through a two-inch lead pipe a stream of Chochituate water is introduced into a meter, which only occupies twenty-four square inches. The fall of water between the Boston reservoir and this meter is about a hundred feet. This two-inch stream will discharge eighty gallons each minute, and in passing through the meter will give a motive power equal to what is called three-horse power. This is more than sufficient for driving the press. It is less batatdous than a steam-engine, requires no attention, and is always in readiness.

LOW LIFE IN LONDON.

The

The courts and alleys leading out of Gray's Inn Lane constitute one of the worst districts in the metropolis. Our readers have often heard of the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn-the ratepayers of which have acquired so unenviable a reputation by their opposition to the modern soap and water system. Their purlieus are not merely the homes of filth and squalor, but the nightly haunts of men and women who pursue their calling in the lowest sinks of iniquity and crime. Two or three police cases have recently raked up some of these existing abominations. In one of the courts it appears there is an establishment, as widely known in its own sphere as Long's and the Clarendon are in theirs, called the "Thieves' Kitchen." It consists of two large cellars, in which every night are gathered a crowd of the lowest beggars and thieves-men, women and children-huddled together in a space scarcely sufficient to contain them. place is open to the fraternity, one cellar at twopence and the other at threepence per night. The average number which each bed contains is seven or eight. Each lodger cooks for himself: cooking, eating, smoking, swearing, sleeping, drinking, gambling, quarrelling, and often fighting, all going on contemporaneously in the same apartment. The riot begins somewhat before midnight, and lasts until early morning. The "Kitchen" is of course well known to the police. It is the head-quarters of a considerable body. Beggars can there find a market for such information as they may have gleaned in their visits from house to house. Burglars go there to hear of comrades and "plants," -plunderers to divide their booty-Jews, and others, to buy stolen goods. The "deputy," as he is called, of the establishment adds to his other business the professorship of Faganism. Not long since he was caught by the police in the act of teaching a dozen young boys by means of a lay figure to steal handkerchiefs. Why not break up this school and nest of crime? we fancy the reader exclaiming. The police authorities have concluded that it is better not to do so. Closing the "Kitchen " would not stop crime :-it would merely cause it to migrate to a fresh habitat, not so well known to the officers of justice, and whither it might not be so readily traced and so promptly mastered on occasion by the arm of the law. Other agenciessocial, spiritual and material, but all having a moral basis-must be employed in this work of purification and enlightenment. Soap and water, we venture to suggest to the rate-papers of St. Andrew's, might do something towards the work-ventilation, improvement and cheapening of houses something-a little more school and industrial training, yet more-perhaps more than all these, the expression of a little intelligent sympathy on the part of the middle classes of this neighbourhood with the condition of the poor. Were the moral sense-the public opinion-of Fox Court, or even of Gray's Inn Lane, opposed to the Thieves' Kitchen, we presume it would not long remain there. misery is not nice in its bed-fellows. As a beginning in the way of earnest endeavour to improve this neighbourhood, we are glad to find that the committee of the fund raised on the day of thanksgiving for the decrease of cholera in London, have resolved to build in one of the courts a pile of model dwellings for the lower classes, especially for single women. The details of the scheme, so far as we have learned them, appear to be well considered. This example should induce the few who were "faithful found" to the cause of health and cleanliness, to try their fortunes again at the parish meeting in favour of baths and washhouses.-The Athenæum.

TRANSATLANTIC COMMUNICATION.

But

The subject of a new port for transatlantic steamers is occupying a good deal of attention in Ireland. The decisions of the commissioners of inquiry are not yet made known; but should they prove favourable to the idea of an Irish station, opinion seems to have fixed on Galway as the locality. The advantages of having a packet station on the south coast of the island are so obvious, not only to the county in which it is established and the line of route from Holyhead to the point of embarkation, but also to the whole body of passengers to America-that nothing but the misrule and disorder of the country could have prevented it thus long. Passengers starting from Galway, instead of from Liverpool, will escape all the risk and sea-sickness of the trying voyage in the channel-gain two of the days out at sea for land travellingand save at least some portion of the expenses. The rate charged by the line steamers is 701, for the out and back voyage, including from twenty to twenty-one days of actual sailing. We find it stated in one of the Irish papers that the fare would be reduced to 55. on the calculation at present adopted by the navigation companies; leaving 15.-far more than necessaryto cover the cost of railway fares to Galway. Of the immense advantages to Ireland of having a constant stream of the most active Englishmen and Americans passing through the heart of the land, it is unnecessary to speak.-Athenæum.

MR. ALBERT SMITH'S "OVERLAND MAIL."

The talented author of "A Month at Constantinople," "The Struggles and Adventures of Christopher Tadpole," &c., &c. after having delighted metropolitan audiences with his clever picture of life and manners yclept "The Overland Mail," is reaping golden opinions in the provinces; judging from the notices of the entertainment which appear in the provincial papers. He is now at Derby; and thus speaks the Derby Reporter:-In this entertainment Mr. Smith gives in as pleasant a form as possible the impressions which a succession of new

objects produces on a traveller determined to enjoy himself after his own fashion, and little disposed to be influenced by those who have gone before him. When a situation or a national trait becomes remarkably piquant he tells it in the shape of a song; and, in singing lays, the great effect of which depends on the judicious utterance of the words, there is probably no one who could equal Mr. Smith, except Mr. Charles Matthews. Morcover, these songs are exceedingly well wri ten, displaying a mce feeling for smooth metre, and great power in compressing a number of salient points into a smail compass. The characteristic anecdotes with which the lecture is interspersed are all exceedingly well contrived, and tell with a power of impersonation which is almost wonderful when we consider that the gentleman who affords the entertainment does not belong to the histrionic profession. The pictorial part of the entertainment is prepared by William Beverley, unquestionably one of the first scenic artists of the day, as is fully demonstrated by his exquisite decorations of the Lyceum spectacles. Mr. Smith deserves, and we have no doubt he will be honoured with, an overflowing audience.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE WEST.

A petition to congress from the American Peace Society has been referred to the committce on foreign relations; they reported a resolution that it would be desirable for the government of the United States to secure a provision, in its treaties with other nations, for referring all future difficulties to the decision of umpires before the commencement of hostilities.

PRISON DISCIPLINE.

Following in the wake of the great prison reformer, Howard, the men of humane sen iments, both in this country and in France, are pushing forward those benevolent theories of criminal treatment which look for their results rather to the amendment than to the punishment of the offender. In Howard's time prisoners were not even fed by their gaolers, and hundreds a ed every year of starvation. Now, not only are the animal wants provided for-hunger and thirst appeased, clo hing, warmth, and shelter found by the State-but in many prisons food for the mind, moral teaching, and religious exhortation are added. Some prisons in London-such as Colabath Fields and Westminster House of Correction-have libraries for the sole use of the prisoners: but the majority of English gaols are still without books. In France a movement was lately made by a number of philanthropic persons to procure this mental advantage for that country, and under republican auspices a subscription of books was opened in Paris. A few days brought into the depôt more than 10,000 volumes; which were soon distributed among the gaols in the capital. The report just issued records the entire success of this benevolent trial of the wiser means of reformation. The French authorities have liberal notions of what kinds of reading may be safely set before offenders against the law. They admit works in light literature, and even romances of a certain class-such as those of Scott. Even in those English prisons in which the principle of allowing the prisoner to read is admitted, a veto on the books is left with the chaplain; and the consequence is, that only works of a peculiar kind are passed, and these are seldom read. The Tract Society furnishes all the reading for Newgate. Even in the well administered Coldbath Fields Prison, The Vicar of Wakefield' s among the books prohibited.-Athenæum.

ENGLISH AND FRENCH RAILWAYS COMPARED.

The receipt of the French railways in 1850 was £3,770,317, being an average of £2162 per mile total upon a length of 1819 miles. The cost of construction amounted to £32,738,200, or £25,222 per mile. The average cost of English railways amounted in 1850 to £35,229 per mile, and the gross receipts to £2227 per mile; showing that the cost of railways in England is 39 per cent. more than in France, while the average receipts per mile are greater.

DEVERLEY MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

On Tuesday in last week, Mr. John Leng, of Hull, read a paper entitled "The history of Beverley Minster, and the desirableness of completing the central tower," in course of which it was stated that the estates vested in the hands of trustees for repair of the fabric and payment of stipends, now produced, after payment of stipends, repairs of estates, and other expenses, about 7001. a year net, and that there was an accumulated fund at this moment amounting to 3,000l. At present that sum lay useless and unseen in the cellars of the Bank of England, and why, asked the lecturer, should it not assume a form of enduring beauty in the completion of that sacred edifice for the benefit of which it was bequeathed? There was a strong probability that the Court of Chancery might be disposed to make the present accumulated fund available for the purpose of completing the central tower.-The Builder.

BELFAST MANUFACTURES.

So brisk at present are that class of our capitalists who are engaged in the manufacture of machinery for flax-spinning, that the steam engines in most of their workshops are running night and day. Stands are not to be had, for love or money, either in Scotland or England. Several new mills are unable to start for want of their machinery, and partly for lack of operatives.-Ulster Gazette. 19

NEW STEAM CARRIAGE FOR THE STREETS.

In the Avenir Republicain of St. Etienne is given an account of the appearance in the streets of that town of a new steam carriage for ordinary roads, invented by M. Verpilleux, of Rivede-Gier. The carriage in question went through all the streets of the town with the greatest facility, under the most perfect controul of the man sitting in front, turning it to the right or left, or sending it backward or forward as he pleased. Two cabriolets, filled with some of the friends or the inventor, were attached to the carriage; as was, afterwards, a heavy cart of coals, which it carried from La Croix-de-l'Horne to the lime kilns of Mr. Jackson. The carriage weighs two tons, and is of four-horse power. It runs on three wheels, and its speed is ten English miles an hour. Its consumption of coke is exceedingly small. It had left the same morning Rive-de-Gier and arrived at St. Etienne by the old Sorbiers road, which is badly kept and full of ruts. The carriage, however, did not suffer. A new vehicle on the same principle, but of twelve-horse power, is now in course of construction; it will be able, it is said, to move four coal-waggons with a weight of 12,000 kilogrammes. It is intended shortly to employ this mode of locomotion for carrying the coals of Bessege to the Rhone, and those of Firminy to the Lyons railway.

COFPER-PLATE PRINTERS' BENEVOLENT FUND.

The per

An amateur dramatic performance took place on Saturday, February 22nd, at St. James' Theatre, for the benefit of the above fund. An address written by Mr. Graves and spoken by Mr. Nelson commenced the entertainment: this was followed by Bulwer Lytton's beautiful play of "The Lady of Lyons." After the play, Miss Ellen Flist recited Collins' Ode to the Passions, and Mr. Griesbach performed a solo on the violin. formances concluded with Tobin's comedy of "The Honeymoon." Like most benefits, there was too much given; and the two plays were too much alike in some of their scenes; these, however, are minor drawbacks to an entertainment that reflected much credit on all concerned; and, from the brilliant appearance of the house, we feel no doubt the society realised a good round sum.

EAST AND WEST INDIA DOCKS AND BIRMINGHAM JUNCTION RAILWAY.

This railway is one of the most important yet undeveloped results of progress in the metropolis, and we doubt not will be found highly advantageous to the shareholders and the public at large. From a report just issued, we learn that the part of the line just completed, between Islington and the Blackwall Extension Railway, was opened on the 26th of September, and an additional portion between Islington and Camden-town on the 7th of December. The length of the line now completed is about seven miles. The total number of passengers during October was 97,531, receipts 1,6801.; in November 59,372, receipts 1,522.; in December, 142,997, receipts 2,2057.; and in January, 186,775, producing 2,790. The requisite locomotive power has been furnished by the London and North Western Railway Company. The receipts from the commencement amount to 870,7791., the expenditure 864,0777.

CITY OF LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

Mr. Thomas Price delivered an able and eloquent lecture at the above institute, on "Columbus and his age," on Monday evening, February 24th; Mr. Thomas Gilks in the chair. The lecturer commenced by observing upon the great interest which had always attached to maritime adventures. They had been the subject of some of the noblest poetry in different ages; and Homer himself never touched more successfully the tenderest chords of the human heart, than in his description of the oceanpilgrimage of the wise Ulysses. The history of Columbus in its mighty achievements, its romantic incidents, and its unity of purpose, night almost be said to form in itself a great heroic poem. His wanderings from court to court in search of some imonarch who could appreciate his great theory and vast projects, are full of pictures and incidents of the most touching nature. The indifference of princes, who, expending all their energies in petty acquisitions, turned a deaf ear to the man who offered them the dominion of a continent; the bigotry of pedants, who would not believe that anything good could originate beyond the pale of the schools, and pronounced against the claims of Columbus because he asserted the world was round; the prejudices of the people, who looked upon him as an enthusiast and a madman, had to be endured and overcome by the man, to whose discoveries Europe and America owe so much. A prophet in his mission, he was also a prophet in his fate. But when, in the stillness and gloom of the night, the great admiral saw a light moving to and iro in the horizon, and the companion to whom he pointed it out confirmed his hopes, what triumphant joy must have swelled his heart! He was no longer a visionary-the finger of scorn should point at him no more -the promise he had given to princes he had nobly redeemed; the theory he had defended before philosophers, he had fully proved; what poets and sages had only dreamt, he had done. The barrier of the ocean was broken down; the dominion of man was asserted over the wildest of the elements; continents unknown to each other had been brought into communion; and to him, the despised and unknown amongst men, it had been given to accomplish a mission so sublime.

MANCHESTER FREE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.

The building committee having discussed the plans and estimates for alterations in the building to be adapted for the purposes of the library and museum, had addressed the general committee in a resolution-"That notwithstanding the large amount required to complete the building, the sub-committe, after due consideration, recommend that the plans now sa mitted be adopted, and that no time be lost in carrying out the design in its fullest integrity." The general committee have ordered that specifications and working drawings be prepared as soon as possible, and that tenders be requested from a limited number of builders. The subscriptions have already reached to upwards of 8,0007.; and at one meeting only of the general committee, no less than 181 volumes were presented, many of them in small parcels, by working men-joiners and others. LONDON MECHANICS' INSTITUTION.

Miss Vaughan had her first benefit concert in the above Institution, assisted by Miss Jolly, Miss C. Jolly, Miss Luev Paton, Miss Stevens, Miss Emily Macnamara, Miss Godden, Mr. D. E. Sutch, Mr. Cooke, and Mr. W. West, on the 25th instant. The selections comprised compositions by Bishop and Benedict, Sporle, Dibdin, Rodwell, and several other eminent composers. Bishop's glee, "The Chough and Crow," was sung very effec tively. Horn's duet, "I know a bank," was given by Miss Jolly and Miss C. Jolly, and was loudly encored. Dibdin's old song of "Lovely Nan," was also given with excellent effect by Mr. D. E. Sutch. Miss Vaughan was most deservedly honoured with several encores during the evening. We wish we could have congratulated her, however, on a better house.

MR. BEAUFOY'S SHAKESPEARIAN PRIZE ESSAY.

Yet another munificence of Mr. Beaufoy to the City of London Schools claims to be recorded. This is, the endowment of a fund which shall reward the best essayist on Shakespeare (in the widest sense of the word) with cer un prizes and privileges. To this intent the sum of 1,000l. was the other day lodged in the hands of proper securities.

BOLTON LE MOORS.

We saw at Bolton a specimen of a new mode of casting architectural and other enrichments invented by Edward Tilling, a working man of that town, and which promises to be of great value. The specimen consisted of vine stems and leaves in fall relief, very artistically displayed, and so curled and twisted, that to cast them would seem to require a very expensive ope ration. One great feature in the arrangement, however, is extreme cheapness, and the method is said to be so simple that it is feared it will be difficult to secure any advantage to him for his ingenuity. He has a mode, he says, of making natural leaves rigid to mould from, an the easts have the advantage of boing ready for gilding when required, without any previous preparation.

The baths here seem to answer their purpose admirably. They are arranged for four classes-gentlemen, workmen, ladies, and workwomen: there are two large swimming-batus, and each class has a tepid plunge-bath and three private baths. The cost of the building, which includes a large assembly-room above, was 5,4587. The working expenses of the past year were 1311. 17s. 7d.; the receipts from the baths, 1347. 5s. 7d., and the pro. ceeds of the assembly-room, 471.

A great improvement will be made in Bolton by the erection of the proposed markets, which are to occupy a site at prescat covered by tenements of very miserable character.

A gothic chapel of considerable size and pretensions, is in the course of completion for the methodists. A Town's Improvement Society, similar to that which is now being organised for Leeds, might do good service in Bolton.-The Builder.

LIABILITY OF LITERARY INSTITUTIONS.

Lord Campbell has given judgment in the Court of Queen's! Bench in the case of a disputed exemption of the Royal Manchester Institution, for paying poor-rates. The institution was established exclusively ior scientific and artistic purposes, but Lord Campbell said, that although the object was very laudable and right, yet "the court could only look upon the society as a club of 600 gentlemen associated together for their own amusement, and therefore not entitled to the exemption given by the act."

THE ENCLOSURE COMMISSION.

The Sixth Annual Report of the Enclosure Commissioners has just been printed, from whieh it appears that the number of applications of all kinds since the passing of the act 8th and 9th Victoria, c. 118 has been 644. The proceedings of 161 have been completed. Of the remainder, 364 are for enclosure, 10 for exchange of lands, 5 for partitions, 3 for division of inter mixed lands, 8 in respect of proceedings under local acts, and 1 for setting out copyhold and other boundaries. The number of acres comprised in the applications for enclosures and con version is 320,686. The number of cases since the last annual report is 146. Of these 60 have been enclosures, of which will require the authority of Parliament, and 16 will not. The quantity of land comprised in the applications for enclosure since the last annual general report is 46,719 acres. The c.s of exchange have increased by nearly one-third, and the com missioners are of opinion that if the exchange clauses were better known, the public would more generally avail themselves of the provisions.

KINGSLAND, DALSTON, AND DE BEAUVOIR TOWN INSTITUTION.

We are glad to notice that the spacious building which so long remained unfinished in Albion-square, Kingsland, has at length, through the enterprise of Mr. J. Kent Vote, been opened as a literary and scientific institution. On Friday the 7th instant, the institution was opened with a grand ball. An efficient band was in attendance, and dancing was kept up with unflagging spirit until morning's dawn. We sincerely trust that this institution will prosper. It has been erected and beautified, regardless of cost, and in so populous a neighbourhood we should hardly think it will be suffered to remain unsupported.

CURIOSITIES OF THE EARTH.

At the city of Modena, in Italy, and about four miles around it, wherever the earth is dug, when the workmen arrive at the distance of sixty-three feet, they come to a bed of chalk, which they bore with an auger five feet deep. They then withdraw from the pit before the auger is removed, and, upon its extraction, the water bursts up through the aperture with great violence, and quickly fills the newly made well, which continues full, and is affected neither by rains nor droughts. But that which is most remarkable in this operation is the layers of earth as we descend. At the depth of fourteen feet are found the ruins of an ancient city, paved streets, houses, floors, and different pieces of mosaic work. Under this is found a soft oozy earth, made up of vegetables, and at twenty-six feet deep large trees entire, such as walnut-trees, with the walnuts still sticking to the stem, and the leaves and branches in a perfect state of preservation. At twenty-eight feet deep a soft chalk is found, mixed with a vast quantity of shells, and this bed is eleven feet thick. Under this vegetables are found again, with leaves and branches of trees as before.

CULTIVATION OF MIND AMONG ARTISANS.

In the course of my life I have had the pleasure of being acquainted with many individuals of the working classes who had, by sel -education, attained not merely a large amount of knowledge, but a high degree of mental cultivation and refinement. At this moment I could name to you some half dozen of my artisan friends, whose acquirements and intellectual refinement would do honour to any scale of society. All these men are, to my knowledge, good and contented workmen, and regard their own position, in relation to that above them, in the philosophical manner I have pointed out. They all cherish the knowledge and the love of knowledge, which has become part of their mental being, as the grand treasure of life, as a talisman which, by opening up an endless source of happiness to themselves, and disclosing the real source of happiness in others, has equalised

to their view all differences and distinctions among men of merely worldly character. These men are all extremely temperate in their habits; and they are unanimous in the opinion, that the dreadful intemperance of the lower classes-at once the curse and disgrace of this country-is mainly owing to their ignorance. The beer-shop and gin-shop are frequented because they supply, in their degraded sociality, the materials for mental occupation, which their frequenters have not within themselves, and too often cannot find in their families at home. To see how perfectly compatible is the existence of such a mental state with the condition and habits of labourers of the very lowest class, we have only to refer to the lives and writings of those noble brothers, those heroic peasants, John and Alexander Bethune, whom I cannot but regard as casting a lustre on their country, and even on their age, by their matchless fortitude and inuependence, and indeed by every virtue that could adorn men in any station of life.-Dr. Forbes.

ILLUMINATING GAS-STOVE.

The idea of the atmopyre appears to have been followed out at Scarborough in a design, by Mr.G. Knowles, of a gas apparatus, for the simultaneous supply of light and heat. In form his invention resembles the cylindric l-shaped stoves in ordinary use. The burners are placed between two cylinders, the outer one of glass and the inner one of glass or polished metal, acting as a reflector. The heat produced is sufficient, it is said, for all ordinary purposes, and is tempered and the air purified through a water cylinder, so as to be comparatively innocuous and agreeable when respired. The expense of combustion is stated to be 3d. in twelve hours (gas at 68. 8d. per 1,000 feet.) The design has been registered. The Scarborough Gazette gives further particulars of this invention.

A MEMENTO OF SHAKESPEARE.

The late Charles Wynn's copy of the first folio edition of Shakespeare was sold recently by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson to Mr. Beaufoy for 1417. 10s. The copy was in many respects a very fine one-thirteen inches by eight and a quarterfull size, with a rough leaf in King John; but the title, the verses opposite, the last leaf and six others had been inlaid by the binder, old Roger Payne-whose curious bill for binding the book in Russia in his very best manner accompanied the volume. No other copy of the book in a Roger Payne cover is known to exist. Mr. Wynn's second tolio-also very fine-was bought at the same time by Mr. Beaufoy for 301. Dr. Farmer's copy of the first folio, with the title and Ben Jonson verses reprinted and the last leaf but one inlaid, was sold in the same room at the late Mr. Amyot's sale the week before for only 241.

PRINTING PRESS PAPER-FOLDERS.

A Mr. E. N. Smith, of Springfield, Mass., is said to have perfected a newspaper and bo k-folding machine, now in successful operation under the management of an association at Boston, U. S., called "The American Paper-folding Company." The Inachine consists of the combination of a number of wooden

rollers and metallic cones, so arranged, that by means of tape guides the printed sheets are made to pass in different directions between the rollers, each change of direction giving a fold to the sheet, until at last the sheet is discharged, evenly folded in the form desired, and neatly pressed. The sheets fall from the machine into a proper receptacle, where they form an even pile. One of these machines is in operation on the Boston Transcript's steam-press, and another is at work in New York. The amount of work that such machines will ultimately have to do in the States alone may be estimated by the alleged fact, that in the various newspaper and book-binding establishments there, no less than 500,000 persons are employed in folding alone.

CHRIST CHURCH INSTITUTE, COMMERCIAL ROAD EAST. Mr. Walter Rowton delivered the first of three lectures at the above institute on March 3rd, on "Oratory." He divided the subject into three branches-thought, style, and deliveryand dilated upon the former two on this occasion. The illustrations were from Shakespeare, Burns, Dickens, Mitford, Willis, &c. The lecture was listened to with attention by a capital audience, and a vote of thanks accorded to the lecturer.

annum.

LIVERPOOL STRANGERS' FRIEND SOCIETY.

A meeting of the friends of this society was held in the Clarendon-rooms, March 3rd, Mr. Tuomas Kaye in the chair. The chairman said he felt a very deep interest in the Liverpool Strangers' Friend Society, having been immediately connected with it for the last forty years, during a portion of which time he had been their treasurer. The Strangers' Friend Society was deeply indebted, above all others, to the family of Mr. William Rathbone, who had regularly given a donation of 1007. per He (the chairman) hoped that God might long spare Mr. Rathbone to the institution. Mr. Townsend then read the statement of accounts, from which it appeared that a balance o! 60l. 168. 9d. was left in the collector's hands. Mr. William Rathbone moved that Mr. Kaye be appointed treasurer, which was agreed to. The committee for the ensuing year was then appointed. On the motion of Mr. Rathbone, Mr. Beloe was appointed sub-treasurer; after which Mr. Andrews was appointed secretary, and the business of the meeting terminated by a vote of thanks to the chairman.

ISLE OF DOGS BENEVOLENT INSTITUTION.

Miss

A literary and vocal entertainment, under the direction of Mr. H. Nelson, was given on the 4th inst. at the town hall, Poplar, in aid of the funds of the above institution. Lizzie Stuart gave some of her much admired Scotch songs with good effect. Messrs. Nelson and Pringle gave a scene from The Rivals." The laughable dialogue of the "Silent Woman" went off well. The second part contained two concerted pieces, "The Beggar of Bethnal Green," and "The Gent and the Gentleman;" both being very creditably performed. Mr. Ford's comic songs delighted the audience throughout the evening. Much credit is due to these amateurs for their efforts on these charitable occasions.

GREAT NORMAL SCHOOL OF NATIONS.

What

The Great Exhibition will serve as a Normal School of Courtesy, in which nations will teach and be taught the deportment and proprieties of those delicate conditions of society, the relations of guests and hosts. We love to contemplate its influence in this direction. The nice perception of what pertains to these reciprocal relations, makes the charm of the most refined circies in private life. The spirit and grace with which they are filled, are accepted as the first evidence of high cultivation. Look in upon a parlour party of persons forming such a circle of acquaintance. See what a bland spirit of courtesy graces the bearing of guest to host, and of guest to guest towards each other. What mutual deference, and gentle efforts to put each other in the highest seat? palpable wish to commend hospitalities with the heartiest goodwill on one side; to appreciate and enjoy them on the other! What a school for courtesy! But all the delicate responsibilities which attach to these conditions of intercourse will devolve upon the millions of different nations, who will meet in London at the Great Exhibition. It will virtually be a parlour party of the people of Christendom. They will put themselves into these nice relations with each other on the magnificent occasion. To the usual sentiment whien attaches to the conditions of host and guest, will be superadded the sense of those proprieties which should illustrate and commend a nation's hospitality to strangers on one side, and its appreciation and recognition on the other. The nations represented in this mighty assembly will feel their honour staked upon the deportment of their subjects who shall be pre-ent. They will watch with solici ude that deportment, and will experience a sense of humination if it does not become the courtesies of the occasion. S, on the other hand, the whole British nation must comprehend the responsibilities involved in this magnifi

cent act of hospitality. No committee of arrangements, nor London with its millions, can assume and fill these responsibilities. They will devolve upon the whole population of Great Britain, and concern the reputation of the entire nation. Every man must assume the disposition or character of a host; not the rich only, who may invite foreign visitors to his drawing-room, parks, or gardens, but the day-labourer, the cabman, the waiter at the hotel, the railway porter, and every person who is called to render any service to one of the myriad guests of the nation. What a school for courtesy, not the mere bowing, phrasy courtesy of conventional etiquette, but that which St. Paul describes, who had the best idea of a true gentleman of any man that ever lived; a courtesy that breathes a spirit of kindness; that does as well as bows; that goes with a foreign neighbour when asked to go a mile, to put him in the right way; that, instead of curling the lip at his language, interprets his words by the intuition of goodwill and sympathy; that prefers him to the best place in the public walks; that says, whenever he is met, in expressions of kinduess he can understand, without knowing a word of English, "Brother, I am glad to see you; what can I do to make you happy?" Great will be the part which the cabmen, porters, waiters, &c., will take in this magnificent demoustration. Great will be the responsibility devolving upon them, in discharging the first duties of the nation's hospitality. They will, we are sure, recollect that they are the first to act the host towards these foreign guests; the first to go out to meet them, with Britain's welcome; the last to pay them the parting hospitalities of the nation; to attend them a little on their way homeward. The first and last impressions will be received and retained from their deportment. Come, now, what a school for universal brotherhood will this be to the labouring men of the metropolis and the nation! Fervently hope we, that they will not only learn but teach the highest lessons in the law of kindness and courtesy. ELIHU BURRITT.

THE GOOD WIDOW.

Her sorrow is no storm, but a still rain. Indeed, some foolishly discharge the surplusage of their passions on themselves, tearing their hair, so that their friends coming to the funeral know not which to bemoan, the dead husband or the dying widow. Yet commonly it comes to pass, that such widow's grief is quickly emptied which streameth out at so large a vent; whilst their tears that but drop will hold running a long time. She loves to look on her husband's picture in the children he hath given her; not foolishly fond of them for their father's sake (this were to kill them in honour of the dead), but giveth them carefu! education. Her husband's friends are er her welcomest guests, whom she entertaineth with her best cheer and with honourable mention of their friend's and her husband's memory.-New York Home Journal.

CAN LIBERTY PROFIT BY THE SWORD?

Our answer is first, No, for the coarse brutalities of war are radically at variance with the very essence of true freedom, which is an appeal from the power of the strongest, to intelligence, virtue, and right. Secondly, No, because the process through which those pass who fight their way to liberty, unfits them, by hardening and debasing their moral nature, for understanding the rights and exercising the privileges of free citizenship. Thirdly, No, because all history proves that a conflict for freedom by the sword, even when successful, almost invariably conducts to a military despotism. The strongest and most plausible historical instance against this theory is that afforded by the American war of Independence; and we find that abundant use is made of it by the partisans of brute force. They say, "Here is an instance which totally refutes your assertion that armies which have achieved freedom themselves become its destroyers, and that the military leader in the struggle always ends by converting the sword which has obtained deliverance for his country, into a rod of iron for its oppression." Notwithstanding the triumphant air with which this "modern instance" is urged, the plain, hard facts, when we come to divest them of all enthusiasm and romance, so far from sustaining the argument of our opponents, afford in truth one of the most striking and conclusive demonstrations of our views. So far, indeed, as the General is concerned, the boast is true. The name of Washington stands forth with a conspicuous and untarnished lustre, the only example on record of a victorious chief, surrounded by an army attached to him by an intense and passionate devotion, and having the supreme power at his free and absolute command, surrendering the sword into the hands of his country without a sigh, and with a calm and sublime dignity retiring into the quiet shades of domestic life. All honour to this noble man! and all the more honour to him, that it was his stern and incorruptible virtue that formed the only bulwark between America and that military domination in which we affirm all revolutions by arus naturally and all but inevitably issue. For it is an unquestionable fact, that on more than one occasion the army of the war of Independence did what all such armies have ever done, conspired against the civil authority, and would have placed their country bound and prostrate at the feet of their General. "In 1782," says M. Guizot, in his recent historical work entitled "Monk and Washington," "certain discontented officers offered him the supreme power and the crown, which he refused with great and sorrowful surprise,' (those were his expressions). In 1783, as the time approached for the disband

ing, a plan of address circulated in the army, and a generai meeting was about to take place, to consult on the means of obtaining by force what the Congress refused in spite of justice. When he was informed of this, he expressed his severe disapprobation in an order of the day, himself called another ineeting, appeared in it, and recalled the officers to a sense of their duty to the public good." We say then that this example speaks trumpet-tongued in support of our principle, that liberty cannot be trusted in the keeping of armed men. If ever there was a case where we might expect the patriotie to triumph over the military sentiment in an army, it surely was in the army of the American war of Independence. For never did men take up arms for a more righteous cause, or under the impulse of purer feelings, and yet so depraving is the influence of a military life that these men were prepared to smother the infant republic by crowning their chief, and to extort their wishes from the legislature at the edge of the sword, And indeed the very excess of the admiration and eulogy with which Washington's conduct has been rewarded by the world, proves how strong was the temptation he had resisted, and how rare and almost superhuman was the virtue he had displayed -so rare, that it stands alone and unparalleled in the annals of history.-Herald of Peace.

ON THE FARCES OF THE "FAST" THEATRES.

There is a little preamble in the patents of the two large theatres. It there states that the lessee shall hold them for "the increase of public virtue and the instruction of the ha man race." I think these are the words.-Speech of Mr. Macready.

For public virtue and instruction writ,
Dramas are voted "slow" by modern wit,
Reversed, to suit the audience, in a trice
These laugh down virtue, and instruct-in vice

MANUFACTURING & QUEEN BEE.

The Play-goer.

When the members of a hive have the misfortune to lose their queen, provided there be any eggs in the worker-cells, or even grubs that are not more than three days old, they immediately break down three worker-cells, destroy two of the eggs or grubs, as the case may be, surround the third with the walls of a cell particularly appropriate for rising queens, and, by administering to the inmate a particular food called royal jelly, they are enabled to raise up a bee possessing every attribute of royalty, which, but for the peculiar diet and the large royal cradle with which it was supplied, would have turned out simply a working bee. A knowledge of this power in the bee has long been fami liar to a few foreigners, though for a time discredited in this country. In consequence of this discovery, apiarians have been enabled to increase their stock of bees by means of what has been called artificial swarming. -Dr. Beaven.

WORTHY OF A ROMAN.

Then followed an incident well worthy of Roman history. Alladad, enraged at the failure of his well-planned measures, carried out the son of the killadar in front of the walls of the fortress, and summoned the garrison to surrender. "Give up the keys," he shouted to Khooda Buksh, "or your son's head shall be cut off!" The intrepid warden replied: "If I lose my son I can get more; but honour lost is neither to be recovered nor replaced." This noble speech is related to this day upon the border with enthusiasm and pride, but it found no echo then in the inhuman and vindictive heart of the drunken exile. "Strike!" he cried to the guards, and the youth's head rolled in the dust before his father's eyes. A volley from the garrison replied to this atrocious act, but Alladad escaped unscathed, and having plundered and fired the town, retired to the hills as rapidly as he had come.-Edwardes' Year in the Punjauh.

IMPROVED MODE OF POSTING THE NAMES OF STREETS.

A gentleman from the Whitefriars' Glass Works has an improved mode of representing the names of the streets on the public lamp posts, so that the locality should be known by night as well as by day. The system is patented, and consists simply in impressing, by a peculiar process, the name of each street upon glass while in a state of softness.

KISSING GREAT MEN.

We think there is nothing more ridiculous than the practice our American ladies have of kissing all the great men, both foreign and domestic, who travel through our country. Henry Clay, with his great ugly mouth, had the fun of kissing all the pretty and ugly girls from Maine to Georgia! Even the good eld La Fayette was frightened out of his propriety by the demo selles of l'Amerique. More latterly, General Taylor kissed all the beauties of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c. This, however objectionable, was better than kissing a grand Turk, as some of the New York ladies have been doing. Axia Bey, the Turkish ambassador-or rather, foreman in a Turkish dock-yard-had a grand time of it on Monday, at the govern nor's room, in New York, having kissed more pretty women in the course of an hour than he had ever seen before in his life. This he honestly confessed, and inquired very court ously to whom they belonged. On being informed that, they were the wives of the sovereign people, he smacked his lips, and said he had no idea that any sovereign on the earth had so magnificent a harem.-New York Hour of Mirth.