Not only

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were made up by poor slaves of girls and women who were remunerated at the rate of two shillings per dozen. this, but they had to find their own sewing-machines and cotton, and carry their work to and from the City. Sewing. machine needles often broke over the rough work, and there was more than the price gone for making one ulster in a

Hood stirred up England with his “ Song of the Shirt," which might be well published in a different forin to-day.

Stopping Railway Trains.—The accident to the Pullman car on the Midland Railway brought to light a serious defect in the Regulations of Railways Act, 1868. By that Act (Section 22) companies are required to provide and maintain "in every train which carries passengers, and travels more than twenty miles without stopping, such efficient means of communication between the passengers and the servants of the company in charge of the train as the Board of Trade may approve.” A penalty of £5 is imposed on the passenger who starts the communication without sufficient cause ; but, with singular want of reciprocity, no penalty is imposed on the company which refuses to answer the call. Neglect to stop a train on the call being made, if it conduced to the death or injury of a passenger, might give ground for a civil action ; but is the company choose to run this risk, and are only careful to provide an apparatus for signalling in working cider, they may take notice of the signal or not, as they like. The passenger, in fact, is in precisely the same position as Glendower in regard to the spirits. He can “call," but whether there will be any result is quite another question.Low Journal.

Turnips and Jam.-According to the correspondent of a trade journal, it is a mistake to suppose that fruit is absolutely recessary to the manufacture of preserves. He describes a st to a large jam-producing factory, in which he found that the work was being bravely carried on without the aid of fruit at all. Jams of various kinds were being produced de his eyes-currant, plum, apricot, strawberry, raspberry, and gooseberry. Yet neither currant, plum, straw. bert, apricot, raspberry, nor gooseberry was in the building. Tumips served the purposes of the fruit. The flavouring nater was extracted from coal-tar, and the resemblance to raspberry and strawberry jam was further produced by mixing the boiling compound with small seeds of some cheap innocuous herb. A common form of sugar is used, and this is the only honest ingredient of the mess. These preserves are offered as made from “ this season's fruit."

which was just 125. per round per guin. In addition to this there is a sum to be calculated for the firing of the smaller armaments of the Cygnet, Condor, and becoy.

Police Court Poor-boxes. -Sir Robert W. Carden, M.P., in the course of the proceedings at the Guildhall Police Court recently, referred to applications which had been made to him unavailingly for assistance, and added that he never remembered the poor-box to be so thoroughly exhausted as it had been for some time past. The want of funds had constrained the magistrates to withhold the aid which would have been readily given in cases of genuine distress. In addition to the denial of pecuniary help to individuals, the inability to continue subscriptions for letters of admission to various hospitals and other charitable institutions, and for medicine and advice, had deprived very necessitous patients of that relief their circumstances required.

Charitable con tributions were nowhere so beneficially applied as at the police courts of the metropolis. The means of investigation were ample, and nothing was given without due consideration and proper inquiry. The funds were administered carefully —not injudiciously—and every farthing received was bestowed in charity, not a penny being drawn for expenses. Temporary relief was given only with the view to a perma. nent benefit, and nothing with the object of eking out parochial help. In some cases persons from the country, who had failed to find the employment they hoped for in London, and lingered on until they had parted with their last copper, were assisted back to their friends and homes. In others, where the funds permitted, poor convalescent patients were sent for short periods to the seaside or inland homes to complete the cures commenced in metropolitan institutions. Applicants for the benefits of hospitals for consumption and diseases of the chest were numerous, and formed an import. ant item among the claims upon the poor-box, but probably the most valuable assistance given was that in the shape of trusses and other surgical appliances, beyond the means of poor patients to procure. When these facts became generally known, as he (Sir Robert W. Carden.) trusted they would be through the medium of the press, he felt confident that an appeal for the replenishment of the Guildhall and other poor-boxes would not have been made in vain.

Sir Henry Havelock and Lord William Bentinck. It is well known that, besides lacking powerful influence, the young soldier had many prejudices to contend with which formed a bar to his advancement. It is pleasing to read that when he made application through his colonel to Lord William Bentinck for the adjutancy of the 13th Regiment, his wise, whose death in honoured age we recently had to lament, ventured to second her husband's request in a letter to Lord William, who was then both Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief. Requested to call at Barrackpore Park, she was received by Lady William with the cordiality of a friend. A cloud must have fallen upon her as the Governor-General entered the room, holding in his hands a packet of letters, which he proposed to read to her, for they were written by officers whose ill-will, as she well knew, had been roused by Havelock's religious exertions. They indeed contained complaints of his “strong religious views,” and one affirmed that these would prevent him from acting with impartiality ; but, perceiving his visitor's perturbation, Lord William had fortunately prefaced his observations with the kind words : “Before I refer to this correspondence I give you the assur. ance that I have bestowed the adjutancy on your husband.” His reason for so doing he said was the fact that he was “unquestionably the fittest man in the corps for it.” He hail found from inquiries, he said-and the words must have been musical in the ears of the anxious wife-that the men who had come under his influence were “the most sober, orderly, and best behaved ;” but, added he, pointing to the letters with a smile, “the adjutant mustn't preach.'

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Lientenant-Colonel Balfour of the Grenadier Guards.-A conrade of this lamented officer paid a gracesul tribute to his memory in a letter to the “Times,” in which he said : "He was pre-eminently a company officer. Taking the greatest interest in his non-commissioned officers and men, his continuous aim was to improve them as soldiers when on duty, and to minister to their comforts and assist in their sports when off duty. When his company was employed on fatigue in clearing away the dams in the Canal, he, thinking that his men would work harder with a good example, went in himself, and plied the pick and spade literally at the head of his men.” Colonel Balfour died from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

Cost of Bombardment.-Some curious facts are stated as to the money cost of bombarding the Alexandrian forts. Every round fired from each of the four 80-ton guns of the Inflexible cost the nation £25 1os. The 25-ton guns, of which the Alexandria carries two, the Monarch four, and the Téméraire four, cost £7 per round per gun. The 18-ton guns, of which the Alexandria carries ten, the Sultan eight, the Superb sixteen, and the Téméraire foar, cost £5 55. per round per gun. The 12-ton guns, of which the Invincible carries ten, the Monarch two, and the Sultan four, costs 43 125. per round per gun. The Penelope, which alone carries 9-ion guns, has eight of them, which were discharged at a cost of £2 155. per round per gun. The Monarch and the Bittern each fired a 6-ton gun, the cost being £i 15. per round per gun. The Beacon and the Cygnet have two 64-pounders each, the cost of discharging which is 18s. per round per gun. The Penelope carries three 40-pounders, ihe Beacon iwo, and the Bittern two, the cost of discharging

Silos and Ensilage.—These words denote a new process introduced from the United States, and likely to prove of vast importance to Britisha agriculturists. A silo is a water and air-tight pit, in which green fodder is stored, compressed, and kept by pressure free from all but a very slight fermentation. Provided air and water can be kept from the pit, it does not signify what is the material of which the sides are made. A silo may be even dug in the side of a hill, and the

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large fires, with a good roof over our heads, to sit in judg. ment upon men who hesitate to launch themselves into the white and furious sea for the sum of ten shillings or a pound. Their pay ought to be increased; but I should not advocate large rewards if I did not know that they could be made. The income last year cf the Institution was £37,781 6s. 3d. ; of this, £19,694 os. 4d. went to the maintenance of the boats, repairs, etc, ; leaving £18,000, of which not £9,000, if you deduct the coxwains' salaries, was given to the men. The remainder, £9,000, is too large a sum for salaries, auditors, etc., to be taken from a charity. A large propor. tion should be given to those for whom it is intended. Let this be done, let this be proved to be done, and the public need not fear any repetition of the Lowestoft scandal.”

storage be effected by walls of earth. But the cheapest and safest material is concrete. Mr. Thurber (“ Silos and Ensilage," New York, 1881) gives as the proportions of his concrete, one part Portland cement to five parts sharp sand. A silo can be packed with all kinds of green fodder. Maize, rye, clover, millet, cow peas, grass, all and every kind of green food for cattle except roots can be used. Some pack it without shredding it, some, as Mr. Haremeyer, cut the corn stalks by a machine into quarter-of-an-inch lengths. When a silo is to be packed, a wall of planks, eight feet to ten feet high, is raised round the pit, and the whole is filled to the top. The mass soon sinks; planks are at once placed on the top, these fitting evenly to the sides of the pit, and the whole is loaded with barrels of sand, each weighing 500 pounds, three layers of such barrels being employed. When the mass is thoroughly pressed it occupies, with the weights, about three-fourths of the pit. When the stowed fodder is needed for use the barrels are raised by a simple hoisting apparatus and deposited in an empty pit. The boards are lifted and the herdsmen descend into the silo by a ladder. The preserved forage is hoisted in baskets and spread for a few hours on the floor. It is then served out to the cattle and greedily devoured by them. Professor Thorold Rogers says: “I cannot help regarding ensilage as more fitting for the United Kingdom than for America. They who practise it say that it doubles the fertility of the land at a stroke. I can conceive nothing which is of greater public interest at the present time than the restoration of English agriculture to its old courage and inventive activity; and it is the duty, and should be the pleasure, of every one who has seen a successful agricultural experiment in a distant country to invite his fellow-countrymen to examine what is new, which can be tried at comparatively little cost by hundreds of enterprising agriculturists, and is claimed by those who have had experience in it as certainly satisfactory and profitable."

Such is Fame !-A weekly journal, in its paragraphs of Literary Announcements, recently said that “Dr. McCosh, formerly of Belfast, now Principal of an American College, is about to issue a work,” which then is briefly described. The ingenuous writer is evidently unaware that this Dr. McCosh, “ formerly of Belfast,” is the author of works which not only the highest authorities as to matter and style, such as Sir William Hamilton and Hugh Miller, but histo. rians of philosophy, as Ulrici and Dorner, have classed among the great books of our time. “The Intuitions of the Mind, "The Method of the Divine Government,” and the “Examination of John Stuart Mill's Philosophy,” are works which will live when many now popular treatises are forgotten. Dr. McCosh is now President of “an American College, over which once presided “the one great metaphysician of the New World,” as Dugald Stewart called Jonathan Edwards, of Princeton, New Jersey.

The Moravians.—The Moravian Brothers have been cele. brating in the little German town of Herrnhut the 150th anniversary of the sending forth of missionaries from among their body to spread a knowledge of the Gospel among the negro slaves. It was in 1732, ten years after the foundation of Herrnhut, that the first mission set out for the West Indies. Since that period it is stated that upwards of 2,000 of the Brethren have founded Christian communities numbering at present more than 76,000 souls.

Canadian Trade.-An examination of the trade and navi. gation accounts of Canada for the year ending June, 1881, presented last Session, shows that the imports into the Dominion from Great Britain were $43,583,808 during that period, against $30,933, 130 in 1879, when the new tarift came into operation. The imports from the United States for the same years were $31,704, 112, and $43,739,219 respectively. These figures show that the imports into Canada from Great Britain are increasing steadily, and that those from the United States are decreasing. This is no unimportant fact, considering the statements that have been made continually during the last few years and repeated only recently, that the tariff of Canada was intended to discriminate against England. Another feature of Canadian statistics that is viewed with satisfaction is the increase in the foreign trade of Canada, both as regards imports and exports.

Foreign Mission Contributions.—The annual summary of British contributions to seventy-seven societies, for foreign mission work, during the financial year 1881, has just been completed by Canon Scott Robertson, of Sittingboume. The total is £15,381 less than that of the previous year. The chief items are as follows: Church of England Missions, £460,395; Joint Societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists, £153,320 ; English Nonconformist Societies, £313,177 ; Scotch and Irish Presbyterian Societies, £155,767 ; Roman Catholic Societies, £10,910.–Total British contributions in 1881, £1,093,569.

Who gets the Profit?--At the present moment wheat is from eight to nine shillings a quarter cheaper than it was this time last year, and yet the price of the quartern loaf has known no abatement. “Who then," inquires the corres. pondent of a contemporary, "pockets the difference and robs the public?” The same class probably to which we are indebted for the startling fact that salt cod and other cured fish which, including the expense of fisherman, curer, railway carriage, and transport across London, costs no more than a penny halfpenny per pound, is never retailed at less than sixpence per pound, and sometimes at more. " Who,” it is naturally asked, “has the other fourpence halspenny?"

Lifeboat Perils and Pay.-Sometime since there was a failure to obtain volunteers for the lifeboat at Lowestoft. Happily this is a rare event. The excuse was that the men thought not of themselves, but of risking their lives as breadwinners for their families. The correspondent of a daily paper says : “I yield to no one in my respect and admiration of the National Lifeboat Institution. No man has worked harder in the noble cause of life-saving than its secretary, and he richly merits all that he receives from the funds sup. plied by the public. But I say that this balance sheet points to a system of payments that cannot be too speedily altered if the lifeboat cause is to flourish, and if we desire to have no recurrence of the deplorable scene witnessed at Lowestoft. The money subscribed by the public is meant for the men who man the boats, who brave the bitter gales, and who have been instrumental in saving seven-eighths of the 1,121 human beings who, according to the Institution's report, were rescued last year. If I send £5 to this charity, I am quite content that £2 of it should go to the maintenance of the boats, but I am not satisfied if I hear that £ I only has gone to the poor fellows who have been risking their lives all night, and the rest to officials who, if you cannot expect them to be philanthropic for nothing, might at least be satisfied with an income equal to ten times the pay of a coxswain. I have written about the lifeboats before. I know the work, the hardships, the deadly perils of the service, and I say it will not do for us landsmen, toasting ourselves before

Capine Heroine at Tel-el-Kebir.--" Land and Water" says : “At Tel-el-Kebir, Juno, an old Irish setter, belonging to the First Battalion Gordon Highlanders, bravely 'rushed the entrenchments at the head of the Highlanders, and displayed a coolness inside and a courage which elicited universal applause, no more minding the rain of bullets than if she was out snipe shooting. Whether she tackled the enemy we do not know; the rest we can vouch for. But even if her teeth did not meet in any Egyptian leg, her appearance must have spread consternation in the rebel ranks. Here, they thought, no doubt, was one of the '2,000 bloodhounds' which Sir Garnet Wolseley was credited with keeping in reserve, and the dauntless pluck exhibited by Juno must have duly impressed upon their timid minds the awful consequences which would befall them if they'waited for the arrival of her 1,999 canine comrades. They did not wait, but bolted for their lives, with Private Juno merrily snapping at their heels. Juno has long been a pet of the regiment. When the order came to proceed to Egypt, every one said that Juno must go too, and go she did, very much to the delight of the men. Juno marched at the head of the regiment through London in the “ triumph” of November 18th. silver ferule, given to him by the Prince of Wales, beautiful Cashmere shawls from great ladies for his wife and female suite, superb railway rugs and piles of prints and other dress stuffs for the use of persons who prefer the garb of Nora Creina. But of all his mementoes that which he values most is a great silver goblet presented to him by the Queen, and bearing the inscription - Presented to H. M. King Cetywayo by H. M. Queen Victoria, August 14th, 1882.' In addition to the goblet the Queen gave him with her own hands a photograph of herself, rather larger than cabinet size."

Longfellow.-When the poet Longfellow died, I believe the loss was felt quite as much in this country and in our colonies as it was in the United States themselves. I would leave to others to go into acute criticisms as to the reason why Longfellow, one of an eminent group of American poets who have survived him, should have attained to that immense popularity, and become so well known among all the English-speaking nations of the world, but it is perfectly obvious that no man ever more united genuine patriotism with cosmopolitan feeling. A great linguist, a great traveller, with a mind impregnated with the legends of old Europeno one so vividly brought before us the legends of the native tribes of his own country. He acted entirely on the principle which he once embodied in verse—that poetry should have its roots in its native soil, but its branches should feed in unpatriotic air. One thing that strikes us all is that, similar to his life, his poetry was imbued with the soundest and the most healthy morality. These are his claims to an exceptional honour. I believe the honour we propose is altogether of an exceptional character, and one that could not possibly be made the rule in this country. Personally I am prepared to help you as far as I can to do honour to this great American poet, whose works we value as those of Alfred Tennyson or any other of our great poets.-Lord Granville.

Egypt and the Egyptians.-We must bear in mind that we have also to guard the interests and to consult the feelings of the people of Egypt; and, as we have now a predomin. ating influence in that country, it must be exerted for their Wellare. They are for the most part a quiet, inoffensive, hari-working race, engaged in agricultural occupations. They have been grievously governed in days gone by, and it is our duty now to see that they are freed, not only from military despotism, but from oppression of all kinds. So far as I am enabled to judge from the interviews I had with his Highness the Khedive, he is an able and well-disposed prince. His chief difficulty, probably, will be in finding good and competent ministers and governors. I do not think that Egypt requires a large army; the smaller the better, I should say. An efficient police is greatly needed, and for our part the duty is plain—to foster real liberty and peace, and preserve the people from injustice and oppression. - The Duke of Connaught.

Dr. Richardson's Report on the Healthiness of Brighton. - In 1881 there was a very serious increase of epidemic diseases in Brighton, small-pox being especially prevalent in Hove and the western district. The facts were notorious, but the “ Lancet,” in commenting on the facts, made a general statement as to the unhealthiness of the town from defective sanitary conditions. This medical opinion was so damaging that the town authorities resolved to prosecute the "Lancet” for libel, at the same time engaging Dr. Richardson to make an official report. The “ Lancet” having published this report in extenso, made some explanations which induced the Corporation to abandon the intended legal proceedings. Dr. Richardson, in his report, touches very lightly on the epidemics which led to all the inquiry, and states that “the mortality from four diseases in the epidemic period defined was due to accidental and social as distinguished from any general causes affecting the town altogether, and that the town had been singularly favoured in respect to the prevalence of the other diseases of the contagious and epidemic type.” The report is altogether most favourable, and Brighton is said to be unsurpassed so far as water, air, and soil, and all the natural conditions of health are concerned. But it would have been well if more had been said about the “accidental and social, as distinguished from the general sources of disease.” There is wanted a far more stringent system of medical and hygienic inspection, with more authority committed to the officers of health. Every

case should not only be reported, but means taken for isolation, and for preventing the spread of disease. In Paris the rules and arrangements as to these matters are far more rigidly carried out. The remarks on house-sewage apply to all large towns. “ The authorities should, I think, more earnestly insist than they have yet done on the importance to every householder that he should separate his house from the sewer by an open grating ; that he should most distinctly. connect his house with the sewer by a good trap; that the soil pipe of his house should be freely open above the house ; and that the present effete pan closet should be replaced by the valve or syphon system.” This is all very well, but the compulsion ought to be upon builders of houses, and upon district surveyors, not upon the occupiers of houses, who are ignorant as to what has to be done, and fear the expenses in which they may be involved by calling in the sanitary engineer.

Saluting the Holy Carpet.— The facts, in short, are, that no people are more averse to idolatry than Mussulmans, and that no worship is paid to the Mecca carpets presented by the Sultan and Khedive respectively; but that the howdah, or litter, which is supposed to represent the presence of the suzerain, has always been the object of honours, and is annually saluted, as the Queen's colours are saluted throughout her dominions. The Khedive's Egyptian army had ceased to exist, and Sir G. Wolseley, as military governor of Cairo, considered that her Majesty's troops, who on the occasion were to a large extent Mussulmans, should give the same salute as that given by Egyptians. Their presence was, in fact, essential for the preservation of order on an occasion of great annual interest, when large numbers of the population in and around Cairo are collected. Section 2, Paragraph 70, of the Queen's Regulations, especially sanctions such salutes as may have been customary on these occasions ; and I consider that Sir G. Wolseley acted in accordance with the spirit of that regulation.—Mr. Childers, Secretary of War.

The Law Courts at Westminster.—The Courts of Law have held their sittings there for seven hundred years, Nearly all the great State trials have taken place at Westminster. Hither the gloomy band of gunpowder conspirators were brought up for judgment. Here More and Fisher, Northumberland and Buckingham, were tried. Here Straf ford pleaded vainly for his life. Here Hampden held up his hand, and here took place “the thing that was not done in a corner,” the trial of Charles I. Naturally the lawyers cherish the memory of Westminster Hall, with its splendid traditions of the learning and eloquence of Holt and Hale, of Mansfield and Camden, of Ellenborough, Denman, and Cockburn. Moreover, the Law Courts at Westminster are so conveniently close to the Hight Court of Parliament. The Hall of Rufus is an antechamber alike to the King's Bench and the Common Pleas and to the Houses of Lords and Commons; and the peer in his robes of to-day may have been the stuffgownsman of thirty years since. But the best of friends must part ; and, although Westminster Hall itself has been magnificently renovated, the Courts adjoining it, narrow, ill. lighted, and ill-ventilated as they are, have long been notoriously inadequate for the decorous administration of justice. As regards the great mass of the community, they will possibly be very pleased to learn that the judges and the Bar are about to be installed in comelier and more comfort. able quarters than those in which they have hitherto been bestowed, and where, in addition, jurymen have been periodically tortured, and witnesses subjected to the “peine forte et dure" of physical discomfort, time out of mind.

in hot haste for him as if to visit one of the family, then living at their charming residence at Bougival. Nélaton arrived, and entering the drawing room, began talking on various topics with the master of the house, who, although he had painted many battles and carried off many victories, knew not how to face the present affair. At last Nélaton, becoming impatient at the delay, and knowing the value of his time, asked, to the great embarrassment of the painter, where the patient was. Presently the wounded brute was brought in on a magnificent cushion, howling with pain in spite of all the care taken. At so distressing a spectacle, Meissonier, forgetting everything else, exclaimed in agony, "Save him ! illustrious master, save him!” Nélaton dressed the fracture, and the dog recovered ; and shortly afterwards its master wrote a grateful letter to the great surgeon, thanking him for his kindness, and requesting to know his fee. Nélaton replied that when the painter came to Paris he could call upon him. This he soon did, and was producing his purse crammed with bank-notes, when Nélaton exclaimed,

Stop, sir ! you are a painter, are you not?. Just put a grey coating on these two panels which the cabinet-makers have finished !” This was indeed a delicate revenge ; but which had the last word? Meissonier, who, going at once to work, at the end of a few days produced two of his chefsd'auvre on the panels.- Nedical Times and Gazette.

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An Early Bias.-An American, who spoke at the meeting for distributing prizes and rewards for school essays on humanity to animals, gave an interesting personal anecdote. “Some forty years ago a teacher in a little wooden schoolhouse in a country town in New England gave to a little lad, as a reward of merit, a card having on it a picture of a bird's nest, and underneath it were printed these lines :

'If ever I see, on bush or tree,

Young birds in their pretty nest,
I must not in play steal those birds away,

To grieve their mother's breast ;
For my mother, I know, would sorrow so,

Should I be stolen away ;
So I'll speak to the birds in

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softest words, Nor harm them in my play.' The words of that reward of merit sank deep into the heart of that lad. He never will forget them. That lad, now a man of mature years, was mainly instrumental in forming the Humane Society at Chicago. Four or five years afterwards they did him the honour of making him the first President. Four or five years after that he was chosen President of the American Humane Association, to which Humane Societies in all parts of the United States belong. Now, if it had not been for that reward of merit I should not have had the pleasure of seeing you here to-day.”

The Indian Contingent in Egypt.-Contrasted with the heavy losses of English troops through climate and disease, the condition of the Indian troops gave a lesson to the war authorities for future service. It is stated that none of the contingent suffered the least in health, and for days together there was not a single man of the native corps in hospital. Every man, camp followers and all, that landed in Egypt, embarked to go back again, except the few who were killed by the enemy. The horses and mules, too, were all right the whole time. One lot of the 6th Cavalry, that only left Ismailia on the evening of the 12th, were present at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir on the 13th, and were in Cairo on the 14th, eighty-five miles from Ismailia, and not a horse or man left behind. The men never missed a meal the whole time, and generally their stores, hospital, and everything were up within an hour after they got to the end of their march.”

Blood-Letting.-A medical journal thus refers to the revolution in medical practice as to blood-letting : “No one of the present generation, reading for the first time the clinical memorabilia of 1832, could fail to be struck by one all-pervading method of treatment, viz., blood-letting. In. deed, at first sight, it almost obscured our perception of any other therapeutical means or agents. The difficulty was to name diseases in which it was not used, not those in which it was.

To get a full impression of this frequency, they must read, one after another, the records of cases in which -medical, surgical, traumatical, and obstetrical-bleeding from the arm was practised. Indeed, this did not exhaust the category The chief resource of preventive medicine was to let blood from the arm every spring and fall. Such was the practice of that day, and such, in large measure, the therapeutical science ; for these things were done, not only by obscure apothecaries, but under the direction and auspices of those who constituted the highest court of scientific appeal. Not many years before 1832 a weekly medical journal, which still maintained its high character, was 1.stituted under the name of the 'Lancet.' In a few years after this date, the title of the periodical had well-nigh become an anachronism.”

Diet for the Cyclist.- Mr. Wynter Blyth, medical officer of health for Marylebone, writes in the Sanitary Record": “I have studied 'the diets recorded as in use, and find that those who have done long journeys successfully have used that class of diet which science has shown most suitable for muscular exertion-viz., one of a highly nitrogenised character

- plenty of meat, eggs, and milk, with bread, but not much butter, and no alcohol. I have cycled for over fisty miles, taking frequent draughts of beer, and in these circumstances, although ihere has been no alcoholic effect, it has caused great physical depression. The experience of others is the

However much it may stimulate for a little while, a period of well-marked depression follows. I attribute this in part to the salts of potash which some beers contain, in part to injurious bitters, and ir. part to the alcohol. own experience as to the best drink when on the road is most decidedly in favour of tea. Tea appears to rouse both the nervous and muscular system, with, so far as I can discover, no after-depressing effect.”

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New York to Paris by Rail.-Some American engineers have been amusing the public by the project of an overland route to Paris. The journey is to be completed in less than six days, the sea transit occupying less than two hours. The line siarting from New York, would cross the Canadian Dominion and the territory of Alaska, to Prince of Wales Cape, where the travellers will be conveyed by steamer to Cape East, on the Asiatic side of Behring's Strait, at a distance of about forty miles from the western extremity of the North American Continent. After landing in Asia, the line traverses the Siberian territory of Russia, the railways of which are in correspondence with Moscow and St. Petersburg, and thence to all the capitals of the European continent. It is estimated that the whole distance between New York and Paris could be covered, at express speed, in 130 hours, a little less than the actual time taken now to reach San Francisco; and if the line is encouraged, the fare would not exceed 750 francs each passenger.

Anecdote of Nelaton.- A pet dog of the painter Meis. sonier one day broke one of his legs, rendered friable by over feeding. Meissonier, desolated by such an accident to so beloved an animal, resolved to have recourse to the prince of surgical science, who at that time was Nélaton : but not venturing to declare the true motive, he telegraphed

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Longfellow and Washington Irving.–The Dean of Westminster, in giving his sanction to the erection of a memorial to Longfellow in the Abbey, said it would be well to associate the name of one of his countrymen, whose writings have contributed to bind together the two nations. The name of Washington Irving is one familiar as a household word, and he, of all Americans, has most deeply touched the common sympathies of readers on both sides the Atlantic. This could be gracefully embodied in the inscription on the Longfellow monument.

DEAN

EANTON, though a market town, was small

and sleepy, except on one day in the week,

when it woke up to the sound of rumbling carts, lowing cattle, squeaking pigs, and other rural noises of equal melody, occasionally mixed with the fife and drum of some itinerant showman. It had not been always so; in the days of mailcoaches Deanton had another aspect. It was then the chief thoroughfare between some of the principal midland towns and London, and two of these dashing public vehicles passed daily “up” and "down," throwing considerable life and animation into the now half-deserted streets. To this circumstance, probably, they owed some of their handsomest houses formerly occupied by professional men, well to do in their several lines, and some of whom had retired upon easy incomes or pensions.

A few hundred yards from the entrance to the town stood a large red-brick house, bearing no sign of the vanished prosperity conspicuous in many of the others, but without any pretension to modern adornments. It was heavy and solid

looking, but in every way comfortable, and belonged to one well-known in Deanton and throughout the whole neighbourhood as Lawyer Nash, to whose opinion not only his fellow-townsmen, but the gentry around, attached no small value, few having the courage to act against it.

A fine lawn studded with shrubs and trees, and broken here and there by flower-beds, lay in front of the house, and extended to a wall some distance off, high enough to disappoint the curiosity of the passers-by, and to interpose a partial protection from the dust of the road. Very partial it was just now, for a thick brown cloud followed in the wake of a reckless horseman obscuring in a moment the view of the fields opposite, where the waving corn, interspersed with autumnal flowers, charmed the eye with a blue and red colouring, more pleasing to the taste of an artist than to that of the farmer. The horse, whose rapid pace had produced this undesirable effect, was pulled up at the side door just as Lawyer Nash was issuing from it, and the rider, an uncouth farm lad, lost no time in accosting him.