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Darieties.

Gustave Doré.

The name of Gustave Doré has long been almost a household word in this country. His recent death, when he had reached only his fifty-first year, has excited general regret. While he was yet in the fulness of his fame we gave some account of his life and works. It was as an illustrator of books that he first became known, and specimens of his skill as such have appeared in this journal. His industry as an artist was only equalled by his invention. The very facility with which he pursued his art, and which sometimes made him careless of technical detail, probably prevented his attaining the highest rank. His later years were devoted mainly to painting. He delighted chiefly in the imaginative presentation of his subjects. His versatile powers were shown also in the success which he attained as a sculptor. The following extract from the "Times" shows him as he was in his studio : "He was an artist born, for he worked energetically from his boyhood without being spurred by the necessity of earning his bread. His parents were well off, and as he was making a good income by his drawings at the age of twenty, he was enabled throughout the whole of his career to live amid luxurious surroundings. The house in the Rue St. Dominique, where he resided with his mother until her death two years ago, and where he himself died, is one of those grand old historic mansions of which there are not many left in Paris. It once belonged to the Dukes de St. Simon. There, in most sumptuous rooms filled with art treasures, Doré did most of his drawing and engraving; but his paintings were executed in a magnificent studio which he had built for himself in the Rue Bayard. In point of size, furniture, and costly arrangements of every sort, this atelier has possibly no equal in the world; and its owner's hospitable disposition caused it to become a regular lounge for artists, literary men, and society flâneurs whenever he was in Paris. Doré did not mind visitors so long as they let him work. They might be talking and smoking in dozens; he could so abstract himself from what was going on around him that in the evening he would be unable to recollect who had called upon him in the afternoon. Strangers who visited his studio for the first time were often astonished at his unceremonious ways. He would give them a nod-perhaps a frowning nod -and go on with his painting, running up and down the steps of a ladder or along a platform, and pausing now and then, with a long, low whistle, to look at what he had done. 'Don't wake him, he's dreaming,' the familiars used to say; and it might happen that a visitor would have to go away, after a couple of hours' waiting, without seeing Doré 'awake.' When he roused himself and emerged from dreamland, he was most cordial in welcoming his guests; but he was not a maker of bows and compliments after the French fashion. His manner had rather something of English bluffness in it. His frugality was wonderful. All the pleasures of his life were wrapped up in his work, and anything that diminished his power of working, or took him away long from his pencil and palette, he regarded as a worry or worse. To the last he was making big projects for work to be done in the house that he was building in the Parc Monceau-a house grandiose, like all he dreamed of, and which was to rival the splendour of the late Alexandre Dumas's Monte Cristo,' near St. Germain."

We reproduce a characteristic illustration, drawn for the "Sunday at Home" by M. Doré. It represents a remarkable incident in the history of the Jews, as narrated by Josephus. Ptolemy Philopator had ordered the Jews throughout Egypt to be seized and sent in chains to Alexandria. On their arrival they were shut up in the Hippodrome, a vast amphitheatre used for the public games and shows. The king then ordered that the Jews should be trampled to death by his elephants, made furious with wine and frankin

* See "Leisure Hour" for 1872, page 792.

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"Paintings are not of necessity pictures. Yet this fact is being every year more and more ignored by our British artists, whereas all who look upon Doré's works must be sensible that he kept it steadily in view. Our artists give us little except 'paintings,' which as studies of drawing and colouring may be perfect, but which convey nothing beyond a sense of that perfection to the spectator's mind. They excite no emotion, recall no recollection, put into form no conception which he may have formed of-for example-some great historical event, or of some sublime or tender poetical fancy. Without undervaluing accuracy of drawing or correctness of colouring, the utmost perfection attained in these will not compensate for the lack of higher attainment. An artist may paint with the most precise accuracy a female human form, and call it Phryne, or anything else he pleases; but it is, after all, nothing more than a specimen of the perfection to which he has brought his hand in the use of brush and pencil, and the accuracy to which he has trained his eye in distinguishing form; and if

this be all that is required in the painter's art, then I do not
know why his art should be placed above the art of making
boots or coats or weaving lace, in all of which arts delicacy
of manipulation and accuracy of form are as conspicuous as in
his. No, no; a specimen of painting, mere painting, may
be an admirable study on which to train the hand and eye of
future artists; but it is no more a picture to give pleasure to
the minds of the spectators than a single passage from Shakes-
peare is a play, or four lines from Pope is a poem. From
the former we may certainly see with what force a command
or remonstrance can be expressed in a few words, and from
the latter with what perfection our rather stubborn English
language could be compelled into the most softly-flowing
iambics; but we should hardly admit the claim of either writer
'to be a dramatist or a poet if neither had produced a play or
a poem. Just so, if artists give us only 'studies,' we may
not be justified in denying that they could give us pictures if
they chose; but we are quite justified in denying that the
works they do give us are equal to Doré's, which fulfil in the
painting art what Othello and the Rape of the Lock' fulfil
in poetry.

'Oh that I were a painter to be grouping
All that a poet drags into detail,'

said Byron; and nothing that has ever been written conveys a truer idea of what the painter's aim should be or of what is the test of his genius. If he does not present to the mind through the eye what the poet does through the ear, he is 'not-whatever his dexterity in mere manipulation may be— an artist, but an artificer; and greater is his blame if, capable of being the former, he contents himself with being the latter, and is satisfied with showing mere dexterity in work without any regard to the value of the work itself. I think art critics are not quite free from the blame of having encouraged by their adulation of mere dexterity this sacrifice of the higher purposes of art to the lower. Whether the fact that a sufficient knowledge of technicalities and a glibness in expressing that knowledge are things easily 'got up,' while a capacity to sympathise with a grand idea or a noble conception is an inherent quality not to be acquired, and difficult even to be simulated, may be the cause of this adulation, I leave to the 'critics to determine."

Prince Leopold on Archbishop Tait.-In presiding at the Mansion House meeting for a memorial to the late Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of Albany said: "Never, surely, was a high ecclesiastical position filled in a spirit 'freer from dogmatism or arrogance; never was a great dignitary more careful to give no just offence, to wound no legitimate susceptibilities. It was truly his effort to remain among all the different schools of thought as the central 'exponent of the spiritual side of our national life, to represent, not any passing phase of opinion, but that tolerant and 'manly seriousness which lies at the root of our national greatness. Other religious bodies have other teachers, and in these days there are many teachers not specially connected with any sect or communion. But I think we may say that 'though each sect or school of thought would have naturally valued first the dictum of their own special leader, they would next to that have accepted the sanction and approval of the wise Archbishop, whose very name carried with it a guarantee of sagacity and moderation. We may be thankful that in England, amidst all our speculative differences of opinion, there is so little of that fierce antagonism which rages in some other countries-that false opposition between reason and reverence-as though in this world of awful mysteries a spirit of arrogant irreverence were not the very maddest unreason.

Thomas Carlyle.-Some of the words of Professor Tyndall, in his speech on unveiling the statue of Carlyle at Chelsea, are worthy of remembrance. Carlyle's influence went far beyond the sphere of politics. No man of his day and generation had thrown so much of resolution and moral elevation into the hearts and lives of the young. Concerning the claims of duty and the dignity of work, never man spake like this man. A friend and he had agreed some time ago to describe Carlyle as 'dynamic' not 'didactic'—a spiritual force which warmed, moved, and invigorated, but

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which refused to be clipped into precepts. He desired truth in the inward parts. To the sham, however highly placed and run after, his language was, Depart hence, in the Devil's name, unworshipped by at least one man, and leave the thoroughfare clear.' But his spirit leaped to recognise true merit and manfulness in all their phases and spheres of action. The summer lightning of his humour, and the splendour of an imagination perhaps without a parallel in literature, served only to render conspicuous the far-searching thoroughness of his work. Carlyle held that out of pure unintelligence intelligence could never spring. Every reader of his works would recognise the burning intensity of his conviction that this universe was ruled by veracity and justice, which were sure in the end to scorch and dissipate all falsehood. It was frequently charged against Carlyle that he was the apostle of might. His own words, which were to be found in the eighth chapter of 'Chartism,' are might and right do differ frightfully from hour to hour, but give them centuries to try it in, and they are found in the end to be identical.' Viewed in the light of this utterance, the advocacy of might was not in the abstract offensive; for it meant at the bottom the assertion that, in the end, that only is mighty which has the Law of Universe' on its side. With Carlyle, as with Empedocles, Lucretius, and Darwin, the fit survives. His doctrine was the doctrine of science, not touched' but saturated with religious emotion. For the operation of Force-the scientific agent-his deep and yearning soul substituted God. Since Carlyle's death they had misjudgment and misapprehension manifold regarding him and his; but these were essentially evanescent, and he therefore passed them by with a simple comparison to mark their value. In Switzerland he lived in the immediate presence of a mountain, noble alike in form and mass. A bucket or two of water whipped into a cloud could obscure, if not efface, that lordly peak. They would almost say that no peak could be there. But the cloud passed away, and the mountain, in its solid grandeur, remained; and thus, when all temporary dust was laid, would stand out erect and clear, the massive figure of Carlyle."

London School Board.-Mr. E. N. Buxton, in the course of his annual statement, said that while the number of schools that had been built, together with those they found in exist ence, would more than suffice for the children of London as it was in 1870, London in 1882 has increased to such an extent that they still found themselves in arrear. But though the stern chase which was imposed upon them was proverbially a long one, they had distinctly diminished the distance between the schools that existed and those that were needed. Thus, while the school population has increased since 1871 from 574,693 to 733,060, the accommodation in efficient schools has grown from 262,259, or 45'6 per cent. of the children of school age at that time, to 531,427, or 72'4 per cent. of the children now in existence. During the past three years the school population has increased by 34,720, and they had provided during that period new schools for 70,589. In the twelve years they had provided in 260 schools accommodation for 256,360 children, while the accommodation in voluntary schools, which in 1871 was for 262,259, was now for 261,868. If they now struck a balance of the net results, they found that the number of school places required, after making all necessary deductions for reasonable causes of absence, amounted to 641,428; while the total number of school places in efficient elementary schools would amount, at the end of their term of office, t 539,044 only. One practical proof of this deficiency was found in the number of children who were still refused admission in the growing districts. As the deficiency of accommodation was provided for, the desire for education extended. This was well shown by the fact that, whereas in 1871, when the school places numbered 262,259, or half what they now were, there were only 222,518 on the rolls; but now that the total accommodation, including voluntary schools, had been increased to 531,427, the number on the rolls was 525,999. In other words, though the supply had

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doubled, the demand had more than overtaken it. statistics which they had collected showed that the voluntary schools had fairly maintained their position during the las few years. Notwithstanding the fact that since 1870 accon modation for 256, 360 children had been provided in Board schools, the attendance in voluntary schools had not dimi

nished, a higher standard of efficiency was maintained than was previously thought necessary, and a diminishing number apply to be taken over by the Board. Since 1870, 133 schools in all, with accommodation for 44,678 children, had been transferred to them. They had coaxed or driven into schools some 235,000 children who were not there before. This result was satisfactory as far as it went, and justified the expenditure of £30,000 a year in compelling parents to send their children to school. But whilst much had been accomplished they could not rest content when they remembered that of the 733,000 children of school age only 525,999 were on the rolls, and again that these last were absent on an average once in every five times that the schools were open. The fees charged averaged a trifle over twopence per week per child, and the gross amount collected last year was about £100,000, or a sum equal to one penny in the pound. No doubt the opening of their schools free would greatly simplify many of the most difficult problems with which they had to deal, but their constituents must themselves decide whether the increased attendance which would result would be such as to justify so heavy a sacrifice. He hoped and believed that the ratepayers still desired that the Bible should be read and taught in their schools. Their class-rooms were not schools of doctrine, but the great truths of Christianity, which were sacred to most people, were reverently inculcated. The number of children presenting themselves for examination for the prizes given by Mr. Peek and the Religious Tract Society, had increased from 80,516 in 1877 to 158,134 last year. The Board had in their service 837 head teachers, 2,821 assistant-teachers, 1,078 pupil-teachers, and about 400 candi

dates.

Women in University Honours Lists.-The Honours List of the London University in connection with the B.A. and B.Sc. Examinations presents, as did the Pass List which appeared some few weeks ago, remarkable evidence of the capacity of women to compete in the intellectual arena, so far as such an arena is afforded by public examination, with the stronger sex. The Honours List represents the results of severe examinations in various subjects over and above the examination which candidates must pass in order to secure a degree, the design being to afford candidates the opportunity of proving that their range of study has extended beyond that which is absolutely necessary for graduation in the University. In the Honours List last issued there are forty-eight places, fourteen of which have been obtained by women. In mathematics only two names appear in the first class; one of them is the name of a woman, Miss C. A. Scott, of Girton College. In mental and moral science only five places have been secured, four of them by women. It is fair to add, however, that the solitary man in this remarkable list is at the top. In classical honours women only managed to secure two places out of eleven; in French, three places out of seven; in German, five places out of eight. In chemistry, experimental physics, physical geography and geology, botany, zoology, and physiology, men seem to have the field all to themselves; at any rate, in a list of eighteen names, no woman's name appears. Looking at the rest of the list, however, one is disposed to surmise that it was because women did not try in these subjects.

Typhoid Epidemics.-The most usual cause of typhoid fever is from impure liquids, especially impure water. In a paper read recently at the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, Mr. Hunter gave many instances of outbreaks of fever in villages where its water supply came from sources poisoned by sewage. He advocates enlarged power to be given to district officers of health, so that contaminated sources of water supply may at once be stopped by official order.

Highland Clearings. We deny that enormous farms and depopulated glens are at all necessary for the breeding of sheep or the paying of rents; they are necessary only to save a perfunctory factor a little trouble, and to enable a few pampered strangers to make themselves rich at the expense of the industrious natives. In short, we bring a charge against all proprietors in the Highlands who have been instrumental in reducing the population of the glens to a minimum that they have not done their duty to the people over whom God has made them overseers, nor to the State that has a direct interest in the maintenance of a sturdy

peasantry as a sort of seminarium reipublicæ, from which the best recruits can be drawn for all branches of the State service; and we, in the interest of the aristocracy, lament that they should by such conduct have lowered themselves from the high platform of social nobility on which they stood, and instead of the fathers of their people, shown themselves content to be ranked under the vulgar category of rent-gatherers and game-preservers. What the Duke of Argyll says about the prosperity of the island of Mull is perfectly true and requires no confirmation from me. I would only remark that one obvious element in the prosperity of that beautiful island is that it has had the good fortune to be possessed by about a dozen and a half or a score of independent proprietors, each forming a centre of social influence and local culture; but let it be at the same time distinctly noted that, if it should be bought up by any gigantic American or London millionaire, there is nothing in the British law or practice to prevent him from turning the whole island into one huge deer forest, as, in fact, in Ross-shire, whole districts from sea. to sea have been denuded, and are even now being denuded, of all human population, to gratify the unsocial lust of a few foreign Nimrods among the Scottish Bens. Is this a consummation devoutly to be wished? I trow not. We have made laws enough to preserve the landlords and the game, and it might seem wise now to consider our position and endeavour to restore the balance by making a few laws to preserve the people.-Professor Blackie.

Gambetta on the Emperor of Germany.-The editor of the Austrian newspaper, the "Tagblatt," has been publishing recollections of conversations at various times with Léon Gambetta. In September, 1880, at Paris, speaking of the Emperor William, M. Gambetta said: "The death of the Emperor of Germany would be an event of enormous importance for all Europe, which does not imply that it would be a misfortune for us. Everything duly considered, I regard the Emperor of Germany as a grand sovereign'un souverain tout-à-fait hors ligne'-particularly from a military point of view. He is the ideal incarnation of the Ger man military system. It was he who, by his exceptional individuality, gave the German army its peculiar stamp, its vital power, its cohesion. He has understood how to combine modern military spirit with the 'chevaleresque' qualities of the warriors of the Middle Ages. The feudal knight and the scientific officer of the staff are thus incorporated in one. Count von Moltke is certainly a great general, but I do not believe that he could ever have exercised such influence, such, immediate action, upon the German army as the Emperor William. To describe the Emperor of Germany in a word, he is a true Imperator."

Infectious Diseases.-The benefit of enforcing notification of infectious diseases has been remarkably attested in Edinburgh. Bailie Clark, one of the magistrates, says that during 1882 no fewer than 7,063 intimations had been sent in to the authorities by the medical practitioners of this city, and that not the slightest objection had been stated to our system of notification by any of our numerous medical men, or by the ratepayers. Several threatened outbreaks of smallpox they were enabled, by early intimation, to stamp out. Last year there were several outbreaks of typhus, which used to be the great scourge of Edinburgh. In every instance these were promptly dealt with, and much mortality and expense saved to the citizens. The death-rate in 1882 was 18.54 per 1,000, and zymotic diseases contributed 9'90, per cent. of the mortality, as compared with 13:20 per cent. in 1881.

Religio Medici.-"You cannot have looked," said Sir Thomas Watson, addressing the students of King's College, "into the mechanism of that intricate but perfect work, the. human body, you cannot have contemplated its inexhaustible. fulness of contrivance, its endless examples of means adapted to ends, its prospective expedients against future needs, its compensations for inevitable disadvantages, its direct provisions for happiness and enjoyment, without ceiving the profoundest conviction of the being and attributes of its Maker. It is upon human anatomy that Paley in his unrivalled argument on behalf of Natural Theology takes his stand, and sixteen centuries before him Galen had felt that in writing his anatomical treatises he was composing a hymn,

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Absinthe.-General Bugeaud, well known in the Algerian campaigns, said that absinthe had killed more of his soldiers than the fevers of Africa or the bullets of the Arabs. The increase in the consumption of this deadly poison is now attracting serious attention in France. It is estimated that in Paris alone there are not much fewer than 500,000 drinkers of absinthe, and more than 20,000 places where this liqueur and others are sold. It is a startling fact that in most of the cabarets or drinking shops the price of the glass of absinthe is less than the duty on the pure spirit, so that there must be an admixture of drugged material, merely flavoured with the favourite bitter essence. Chemists have published analyses of some of these poisonous stuffs. Medical men declare that many cases sent to hospitals and asylums are due to this source. The action of the poison is to stupefy the brain, causing permanent benumbing, not of the intellect only, but of the moral faculties, frequently leading to suicide, and always to deterioration of character and constitution. As the vice is equally diffused among women, the degradation is becoming hereditary, and must affect the national life. These statements are at first sight strangely inconsistent with the alleged sobriety apparent in France as compared with England, but this liqueur-drinking, although less obtrusive, is more insidious and destructive than the forms of alcoholic excess prevalent in our own country.

Turnip Jam. In reference to a paragraph describing the manufacture of jams out of turnips, flavoured by coal-tar, a firm, claiming to be the largest makers of jam in the kingdom, writes to say that they only use the best fruits and pure refined sugar. This is true of several well-known houses, but the manufacture of inferior stuff may be true nevertheless.

Manitoba.-An emigrant from Tranent, in East Lothian, says: "Any person coming here with plenty of money to go into and crop 200 or 300 acres at once, I think would very soon make a fortune. But the country is full of such as myself; they have mostly to find work for the winter months to get a little money to help them to get some crop in the following spring. I have been very fortunate in this respect. An English gentleman bought near 2,000 acres in the neighbourhood of Morris, where I was working at the harvest. It so happened that I got a situation from him for the winter to look after his stock. I have got my wife and family here, and we have got a good house for this country. But the houses here are all summer houses-they are wretchedly cold in winter."

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Sleeplessness or Wakefulness.-Some remarks made in the " "Lancet at the time of Mr. Gladstone going abroad may be useful to others: "It is the vaso-motor system, or centre, which is at fault in a case of this class; and the fault is neither a simple one nor easily remediable. Narcotics would be inadmissible; at least, the only purpose for which they could be employed would be that of breaking a morbid habit, and if a very brief exhibition of remedies of this nature did not effect the limited object in view, they would have to be abandoned. The morbid state it is required to treat is, in fact, a combination of weakness, irritability, and, in a sense, inordinate, and therefore wasteful and exhausting, energy. The best remedies are rest or change of work, change of climate and atmosphere, and change of scene. It is not reasonable to expect that the trouble will be immediately relieved. There must be a considerable gain of nervestrength, and some replenishing of the exhausted 'reserves' of nervous energy, before healthy sleep can be enjoyed."

Standing Committees.-The appointment of Standing Committees of the House of Commons is a revertence to the memorable Grand Committees of the Long Parliament, to which were referred the chief measures to be considered in

that epoch of reform. In one of these, the Grand Committee on Religion, the burning questions were discussed which led to the wreck of the political influence of that Parliament. This subject is now not likely to be referred to a Committee, but the principle of such delegation of business was a sound one then as now. The nearest approach to the proposed Standing Committees is to be found in the Select Committees, which are sometimes appointed to inquire into public Bills, or to report upon particular subjects. The rules of the House permit the appointment of such a Committee on every Bill, and many of those who are most familiar with Parlia mentary procedure have recommended the more frequent adoption of this practice, as a remedy for the evils complained of. After a Bill has been inquired into by a Select Committee, the House does not, as a rule, take so much trouble in the discussion and settlement of the details of the measure, and Sir Erskine May, in his evidence before a Committee on procedure, said that the reference of a public Bill to a Select Committee was an advantageous practice, as it obviated objection, "the members most actively concerned in opposing the Bill having had an opportunity of proposing amendments in Committee." The present proposal of the Government is that there should be two Standing Committees -to consist of not less than sixty or more than eighty members-appointed for the consideration of all Bills relating to Law and Courts of Justice and trade respectively; and that the Bills which have been referred to these Committees should not afterwards have to pass through a Committee of the whole House. It is well known that more time is wasted in "Committee" than in any other stage of a Bill's progress, and we may hope that the division of the labours of the House in Committee between two Standing Committees will be the means of economising time. If, however, Bills are to be relegated to one of these Standing Committees, the selection of the members to serve upon these Committees will involve an important and difficult duty.

Rhythm of the English Bible.-Of the language of the English Bible (the Authorised Version), the "Athenæum' says: "Bible rhythm is not the language of the prose of Shakespeare, nor of any other writer, but in its movement is fundamentally like nothing else in our literature. It is, in fact, as Selden hints, the happy result of an endeavour on the part of the translators of the Old Testament to reproduce the metrical bars of the Hebrew original in a language peculiarly fitted to reproduce those bars. There is probably no other movement in the world so fine as our Bible rhythm, and when it first appeared it was quite a new literary form."

Sutton's Amateur Guide in Horticulture for 1883.-Trade lists are not usually very artistic or attractive, but the Amateur's Guide of the well-known florists and seedsmen, Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, is a really beautiful as well as useful publication. The coloured plates of Primulas, Cinerarias, Cyclamens, and other favourite flowers, are exquisitely done, and the pictures of homelier and more useful members of the vegetable kingdom, such as cabbages, cucumbers, and peas, give wonderful idea of what can be produced with good culture and from good seed. The latter branch of Horticultural art and skill has long been a special success at Reading, and Sutton's seeds of every kind are famed not in our own kingdom only, but throughout the world. From our colonies, and from many countries, letters are sent attesting the successful use of Sutton's seeds. The seed establishment covers six acres of ground. There are apartments of different and regulated temperature for seeds gathered in and intended for various climates. Where such care is taken, purchasers feel confidence, and we are not surprised to learn that on one day 18,000 seed packets were dispatched from the post office on the premises. The business was originally established for the farming interest only, but for half a century all branches of Horticultural as well as Agricultural art have flourished under this famous firm, the Suttons of Reading.

Third-Class Passengers.-It is notorious that upon many lines the greatest unpunctuality has long prevailed, while upon others no third-class carriages are provided for women and children, and the waiting-rooms at the stations prepared for the humblest, but by far the most numerous, patrons of the railway are often little better than pigstyes.

While a neatly carpeted and elegantly furnished room and a blazing fire are always available for first-class passengers, who, being well fed, clad in warm apparel, and amply provided with furs, shawls, and rugs, stand little in need of other artificial warmth, the poor are too frequently left to pace the cold and draughty platforms to keep their feet warm, or to sit down in an apartment which does not even contain a fireplace. If, as in our climate is always a possi bility, the weather be inclement, the cheap comfort of footwarmers supplied to third-class passengers would cheer many feeble folk and save many a life. There is no need, we hope, to point out that every ticket clerk or ticket collector, every guard or porter, taken into a railway's employ should be courteous, obliging, and considerate to high and low alike. It should be the ceaseless endeavour of the railway directors, upon whom so much of the public comfort depends, to see that their officials treat passengers of all classes with kindness and consideration.-Daily Telegraph.

Luminous Paint.-For making luminous paint, the following has been given :-Take oyster shells and clean them with warm water; put them into the fire for half an hour; at the end of that time take them out and let them cool. When quite cool pound them fine, and take away any grey parts, as they are of no use. Put the powder in a crucible in alternate layers with flour of sulphur. Put on the lid and cement with sand made into a stiff paste with beer. When dry, put over the fire and bake for an hour. Wait until quite cold before opening the lid. The product ought to be white. You must separate all grey parts, as they are not luminous. Make a sifter in the following manner :-Take a pot, put a piece of very fine muslin very loosely across it, tie around with a string, put the powder into the top, and rake about until only the coarse powder remains; open the pot and you will find a very small powder. Mix into it a thin paint with gum water, as two thin applications are better than one thick one. This will give a paint that will remain luminous far into the night, provided it is exposed to the light during the day.

The

Nut Trade in America.-During recent years the trade in foreign and domestic nuts has developed wonderfully. New York city has become the most important centre of the trade, the extent of which indicates that people have either secured patent stomachs or that indigestion has lost its terrors. Africa used to supply us with peanuts, sending them by shiploads, but our Southern States have so successfully culti vated this popular nut that we are now independent. States that furnish the bulk of the supply are Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. During the present season the crop of Virginia was 1,100,000 bushels, of Tennessee 550,000 bushels, and of North Carolina 120,000 bushels. The Texas pecan is especially in demand. While a few years ago several barrels of pecans abundantly supplied the demand, car-loads and invoices of one or two hundred barrels are not now uncommon. In many localities, especially in the Eastern States, the hickory nuts are sufficiently plentiful to ship to New York half a dozen car-loads a week when demanded. The chestnut is becoming scarcer every year, but their great popularity will probably prevent their total disappearance, for they are already being successfully cultivated, and it is expected that in a few years the cultivated nut will equal in quality the high-priced Italian chestnuts. Black walnuts and butternuts are regarded as too rich, and only for table use; but the former is largely used by confec tioners. The American hazel-nuts are not an important article of commerce, the filbert largely taking their place. Only a few English hazel-nuts find their way to the American market. It is stated that growers in California contemplate introducing a number of varieties of nuts native to Spain and Italy. The trade in foreign nuts is enormous. The demand is said to have tripled during the last five years. The almond always has been in demand, and probably always will be. The English walnuts, formerly called Madeira walnuts, mainly come from France and Spain, the English crop being consumed at home. They have been successfully raised in the States on the Pacific coast. The Brazil nuts are a kind of which a few go a long way. For cocoanuts the demand is steady, and so immense that our dealers feel safe in buying them by the hundred thousand. The process of desic

cating them has widened their family use, and they are now a favourite ingredient of pies, cakes, and candies.- Cincinnati Commercial. [This statement may be interesting for comparison with the nut trade in England.]

Royal Marines.-The total cost of the entire corps for the present year is £913,456; there being in all forty-eight companies of infantry and sixteen of artillery. The war services of the Marines are too voluminous to be more than briefly referred to. They were first employed at Cork in 1690. Between that date and 1815 their services are mentioned in 369 naval battles and 169 coast operations and campaigns. At Gibraltar, Manila, Belleisle, Bunker's Hill, Negapatam, the Cape of Good Hope, Acre, Aboukir Bay, and Gaeta, they won the special commendation of Generals Gage, Sir Sydney Smith, Abercrombie, and others; while in the great sea fights of the 1st of June, Cape St. Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, and Trafalgar, they took full share in the glories of victory with the Navy. Later on, at Sidon, Navarino, Acre, in the Baltic, and in the Black Sea, and in the campaigns in India, New Zealand, China, Abyssinia, Ashantee, and Zululand, they have justified once more their right to their motto of "Per Mare, per Terram. In Egypt the Marines were represented in every action from the early reconnaissance at Ramleh to the assault of Tel-el-Kebir. Thus, for nearly 200 years the corps had seen constant service. The motto, "Per Mare, per Terram," was granted in 1760 for "special service during the war. The title "Royal was added in 1802 "for its many and varied services," and the regimental facings were altered from white to blue. In 1827 the globe surrounded by the laurel wreath to commemorate the gallantry of the corps at Belleisle, and "Gibraltar to mark its share in the defence of that fortress, were added to its badges by George IV.

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President Lincoln and Mrs. Gurney.-In the yearly obituary volume of the Society of Friends, "The Annual Monitor," there is a memoir of Mrs. E. P. Gurney, widow of Joseph John Gurney, of Norwich. After his death she returned to America, the land of her birth, and lived to a great age, at Burlington, New Jersey. During the Civil War she had a very interesting interview with President Lincoln, and afterwards wrote a letter, to which he sent the following reply:" Executive Mansion, Washington, Sept. 4, 1864. Eliza P. Gurney, my esteemed Friend,-I have not forgotten -probably never shall forget—the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me, on a Sabbath forenoon, two years ago. Nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten. In all, it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of this country for their constant prayers and consolations, and to no one more than yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this, but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own error therein. Meanwhile, we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great end He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make and no mortal could stay. Your people, the Friends, have had and are having a very great trial. On the principle of faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma some have chosen one horn and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can in my own conscience, and under my oath to the law. believe this I doubt not, and, believing it, I shall receive, for my country and yourself, your earnest prayers to our Father in heaven.-Your sincere friend, A. Lincoln." The memoir continues: "The course of public events is well known. It is unnecessary here to do more than allude to the fact that soon after the foregoing letter was penned its noble-minded writer was for the second time elected President of the United States. His inauguration took place in March, 1865, and within a few weeks from that time he had the joy of seeing the war brought to a close. He lived but a few days after this great result had been achieved. A pang

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