The Aberystwith Observer

-n- THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH. The following particulars are gathered from a letter from Biarritz :— The Emperor andEmpresswent afew days back, with a suite of about 30 persons, to Isturitz to visit the grottoes in that neighbourhood, as they had done last week in another direction. The carriages passed througn Bayonne at nine in the morning, and followed the main road which leads from St. Pierre d'Irube to Hasparren. Their Majesties were to have arrived at eleven, but the warmth of the reception at Hasparren induced them to stay some time, and they only reached their destination at two. A lunch was served in a meadow under some fine chestnut trees, after which the whole party commenced theascentof the mountain. At the entrance of the grottoes were 24 lads and 24 young girls, t'ach carrying at the end of long sticks Venetiall .a.nthorns, and all along the galleries were placed at intervals, 24 robust inhabitants of Isturitz, having in their hands flaming torches, which brilliantly illuminated the glittering stalactites of strange and elegant forms, so that toe whole scene was most dazzling and caused the illustrious visitors to express frequently their admiration. Their Majesties examined these wonders of nature most minutely, and were much gratified at beholding the vaults suddenly lighted up with Bengal fires. At three o'clock the Imperial party returned to the Villa Eugenie, leaving, as usual, substantial marks of their benevolence to the in- habitants of Isturitz.

THB EMPRESS IN DANGER. Writing from Biarritz on the 4th of October, a cor- respondent of the PallllIall Gazette sends the follow- ing account of a disaster which nearly proved fatal to the Empress of the French and the Prince Im- perial :— During their stay at their favourite marine residence, the Emperor and Empress of the French have been almost daily making excursions ill the neighhourhoo>i, sometimes by water and sometimes by land. One day they went to the grotto of Isturitz. another nay to the little watering-place ot Cambo ill the Pyrenees, II. few miles from Bayonne and OIl another occasion up the river Nive in boats. tugged hy a steamer Yesterday the Emperor was busy M M. Rouher and La: valette had been EUfldenly summoned hither from Paris, and M. Nigra, the Italian Ambassador, had arrived on important business, so the Empress and Prince Imperial with their suite went out alone. A trip to see some new embankments which are being made to check the inroads of the sea at St. Jean de Luz (close to the Spanish frontier) had been arranged. The Empress drove her phaeton with two ponies to the new dock at Biarritz, the Prince Imperial and suite following in carriages, and there embarked in her baleinitre suppose, from beinc; after the model of tbe whaling boats in which the Biarrots used in former times to pursue the whale when they frequented this coast) 7/d Nive. It is asoitof cross between an admiral's gig and a lite-boat. In this she was conveyed to tne steani yacht the Ckarnom, which immediately started for si- Jean de Luz. This was between two and three in the ™V £ DO?'i.- The day was rather dull and overcast, with oc- casional heavy showers of rain, and the white crests of the aeep green waves certainly promised ill for the pleasure of ine voyage. As the afternoon wore on, the weather became hrei wiy A2rn7\ A s1"a11 had come on, and the huge Atlantic rolled in with more than their usual thr '10ise- The Chamois could get no nearer to whieh thl p ean Luz tha" at Biarritz, and the boats in trvint* timand suite were conveyed to land had a inthf I Si tKVery now and then tliey seemed to be lost ° ,f; L ieir 81tuation became very critical. Just as the boat in which were seated the Empress and Prince Impeiul neared the shore a huge roller struck it broadside and upset it 1 he whole party were instantly strullcling in the sea. With great difficulty the Empress, Prince Imperial, and (heir companions were saved, but one of the sailors was drowned. The Imperial party returned to Biarritz by land. The affair has teen hushed up as much as possible-why, it is difficult to comprehend, unless the Emperor fears that it might be taken as another sign that his evil star is m the ascendant, and might suggest speculations as to what would have been the consequence to France and Europe if the boat had been upset only a little farther fpotn land. One effect may possibly be to complicate the Emperor's embarrass- ments in regard to Rome, for the Empress is very likely to regard it as a warr'ng from Heavan against any with- drawal of French oport from the Papacy. The above particulars of the ..ccidwit are, however, substantially correct, though all sorts of stories are abroad, and it is very difficult to get at the exact truth. As far as I can learn, the Empress and Prince Imperial have escaped with no immediate injury beyond the wetting and the shock of the accident; but, neither being very strong, it is feared they may suffer from the subsequent effects or the immersion. Previous to this, both the Empress and her son were in very good health. The latter has picked up strength wonderfully at the sea-side, although he has lost the robust look he used to have as a child—a circumstance, however, quite natural' at his age. The Emperor, too, is much better than he was a short time since. He has not appeared in public since Sunday, when with the Empress he joined in the promenade at the Place Eugenie when the band played in the afternoon. The Empress wore a hlack silk dress with a cherry-coloured skirt, and a velvet, hat of the style known, I am told, as that of Marguerite de Valois. As her Majesty's dresses are matters of European interest, I subjoin the fol- lowing scientific description of some of her recent toilettes "Lejour de son arrivCe, une robe de taffetas noir, un paletot court raye noir et or, un grand manteau de lame blanche pose quelques instants sur ses épaules. La veille, par un beau soleil; un costume en foulard patlle sans aucun ornement, mais dune nuance ravissante; le lendemain de son arrivfie un costume Bismark sur un jupon de la m2me couleur, mais d une nuance plus foncee. Pour tout ornement au costume, des hseres de la nuance du jupon. Au grand diner de dimanche, robe de taffetas blanc brodee de mouches du Bresil vertes et or, trds espacees; collier d'or et mouches vertes; dansles cheveux, un oiseau-mouche vert et or."

DEATH OF A CELEBRATED FRENCH MINISTER. Tlle, Y*in of ill-iUck which has of late beget the rench Empire seems as yet unexhausted (writes a Pans correspondent.) The death is announced of a states- man whom the Emperor could but ill spare—one whose loss will be keenly felt. M. Fould, whose dismissal from the administration of the French finances was one of the gravest of the many grave errors committed within the last eighteen months, died suddenly at his country house near larbes on Sunday afternoon He was only sixt.-seven years of age. Under Louis Philippe M. Fould was known only as a member of the banking-house with which his name was connected, and as a great patron of art and horse- racing. As one of the Emperor's adviseis he won golden opinions from all the monied classes, and espe- cially the upper bourgeoisie, by resisting to the be.t of his ability the reckle-s expenditure, both for war pur- poses and for public works of an ornamental rather I than useful character, such as for instance the transformation of Paris, which in the year 1860; brought the country to the brink of a financial crisis of a formidable character. With a courage of which not many of his fellow-members of the Privy Council would have been capable M. Fould boldly exposed the rottenness of the system the Emperor was pur- suing, and set forth the consequences perseverance in it would lead to, in a letter which won for him the respect of his contemporaries, and which constitutes his mosi solid claim to the grateful remembrance of. posterity. The advice be gave the Emperor in that memorable document may be summed up briefly- "Cut your coat according to your cloth. D«n't borrow, don't increase the taxes, don't spend this year by anticipating the revenue of the ensuing one. Pare down your expenditure and subject your builget to the test of being closely 81 ui' • u Cambers—as without the control of 1 ublicity there can be no sound administration of the finances. It may perhaps be objected that M. Fould's practice was not always in strict conformity with his preaching but he adhered as far as he could to the sound principle he had laid down. To h.s refusal to sanction the extravagant expenditure which M. Rouher's programme entailed his removal from office was due. His name had become a guarantee for peace abroad and retrenchment at home, and though he was no longer in the Cabinet, the death of a man whose influence might have averted some of the calamities with which the country is threatened, whilst his j experience might in some degree have repaired the mischief caused by the policy of his rivals, is a mis- fortune for the Empire and the country, the magnitude of which it would be difficult to over-rate. The imme- diate cause of his death was apoplexy, but his health had been failing for gome time past.

ATONING FOR THEIR SINS! The Foeehtlw Advertiser translates from the Pekin Gazette an Imperial edict, in which the Emperor, lamenting the prevalence of drought, directs measure* to be taken for ameliorating the condition of the lower classes:— The Censor Liu-ping-hung has memorialised the Throne, recommending the reform in the benevolent institutions of the country, with a view to bringing down upon the earth the blessings so long denied us. The Emperor is aware that this year we have been more than usually deprived of the rain so grateful to the crop", and that though our prayers for it have been frequent and earnest, yet no copious showers have rewarded our exertions. His Majesty therefore considers that, as a last resource, acts of benevolence should be performed in hopes of earning the gratitude of Heaven. Now the Nien-fei rebels have recently made great ravages in the country, and the poor people who have been turned out of their homes by them, and forced to wander about, have in many instances been killed by the tnoops, who have mistaken them for rebels. As this is utterly at variance with the law of har- mony between heaven and earth, His Majesty hereby directs the high provincial authorities to take measures to relieve the people from their destitution and protect them from their unauthorized destruction by the soldiers. Again, the families of the soldiers who are riain in battle, and who give up their lives for their country, are often miserably poor, and are still more deserving of compassion. His Majesty therefore orders the Viceroys and Governors of the various provinces to make careful inquiries about their condition, and if they have no means of gaining a livelihood to devise some means of keeping them alive. Moreover, though it is punishable by law for people to cast away or drown their children, yet as it is next to impossible for those who have no fixed place of abode to help doing so, His Majesty orders the establishment of more foundling asylums, that more may be received within their hospitable walls. Furthermore, in the disturbed districts there are many corpses which have not received interment, but are kept in their coffins in temporary rest houses. His Majesty therefore orders the local authorities to proclaim throughout the land that they will be at once removed from exposure to the rays of the sun and the dews of night, and be granted a decent buriaL Respect this.

RECOVERY OF THE BODIES OF MR. PARKIN JEFFCOCK AND OTHERS. At the Oaks Colliery during Friday and Saturd ay the men engaged in clearing out the bottom ef the No. 2 shaft, and also the box-hole, were successful in reê9yering several of the bodies, including that of Mr. Parkin Jeffcock, the well- known mining engineer, who heroically volunteered to re5cue thole immured by the first explosion. It will be some little consolation to his relatives that it is clear his death was so sudden as to preclude the possibility of any lingering pain. On Friday evening, about six o'clock, the remains of a man named Haylalld were breught out and identified, owing to his having some years linee lost an arm. Shortly after two legs were brought out, with a small pocket memorandum-book, which was found to have belonged to Mr. Parkin Jeffcock, and which contained several notes re- lating to the colliery, which he had made during the nieht of the 12th of December and the following morning. The following entries are made in separate lines, part of the writing being illegible from damp Examined returns. Return air coming Itvel. Strong fire on the south level. Telegram Mammett Ltvel where overeast Return air coming level Strong fire on south side Not watched if wafted Furnace eye." At the time of the second explosion it was known that shortly before Mr. Jeffcock and party were going along the south level, where it is now too evident the force of the explosion was greatest. It is believed from the place where the bodies have been found that the party, whilst exploring, had felt that peculiar indrawing which is termed by the colliers the suck," the sure precursor of an explosion, and were hastening to the bottom, when they were overtaken by the blast just as they had reached the box-hole, not mo a than nine or ten yards distant from the bottom of No. shaft. On Saturday morning about a quarter past eitjlit o'clock, the men having got a good deal of dirt out of the box-hole, brought out the body of Christopher Siddons, a deputy at the Oaks, and in about an hour afterwards that of Mr. Smith, the principal steward of the Lund-hill Colliery. The bodies were identified by the clothing, and also by the watches found in the pockets. It is not a little singular that the watches of Siddons and Sudden "got out on Wednes- day, stopped at exactly the same time, viz five minutes past twelve. The last two bodies were found nuder those of Tewest and Sugden, who were got out on Wednesday. After the remains of Smith and Stddons were placed in the dead house, great exertions were made by the men in cleaning out the box-hole, and shortly after two o'clock they brought out the body of Mr. Parkin Jeffcock, but without the lees, those found on Friday evening belonging to the body. The remains were received by his cousin on reaching the pit bank, and placed in a shell, and on Monday were interred in the family vault at Ecclesfleld, near Sheffield. There was an immense concourse of people at the grave. After the service the ''Dead March" was played upon the organ. The coffin was of polished elm, and bore on a plain brass plate the following inscription (surmounted by a plain Latin cross), in plain Roman letters:—"Parkin Jeffcock; born Oct. 27 1829 died, Dec. 13,1866."

A FRIGHTFUL TRAGEDY. The Invallde Itus&e recently recorded a case of a pecu- liarly horrible character, which has just been heard before the criminal tribunal of Vladimir. A man named Kursin, a member of a numerous and fanatical Russian sect, called the sect of the Saviour, lately killed his own son, and offered him as a sacrifice to God. The narrative in the Russian journal is as fol- lows :—The doctrine of this sect consists in an absolute negation of all earthly property. An adherent pos- sesses nothing whatever, and according to his notions everything around him is evil personified. Such ideas naturally prompt these unhappy men to acta of fright- ful despair. They believe it is necessary to constantly implore the mercy of the Saviour by every means, for it is he alone who can save them. The accused person, who was twenty-seven years of age, killed his son, a little boy of seven, in the conviction that the act would be agreeable to the Saviour. His own account of the crime is as follows :— One night I felt so strongly that the human race must soon perish that I could not get a moment's sleep. I rose and lighted all the lamps before the images of the sainta, and throwing myself on my knees I fervently prayed God to save me and my family. Suddenly the idea came to me of saving my son from eternal damnation, for as this only child was a beautiful boy, and finer than most boys of his age, I feared that he would become, after my death, the prey of hell, and I determined to sacrifice him to the Lord. Filled with this idea I continued to pray. I said to myself that if during my prayer the thought of sacrificing my son to God came to me from the right side I would execute it; if, on the contrary, it came from the left, I would give it up for, according to our religious teachings, the thought which comes from the right side is from our good angel, and that from the left is the instigation of the devil. After a long prayer, the thought came to me from the right side, and I returned full of joy to the room where my son slept by the side of my wife. Knowing that she would oppose the sacrifice wh'ch I desired to offer to God, I sent her to the market to purchase pro- visions. When she had goue, I awoke my child, and said to him, "Get up, my son, put on thy white shirt, that I may admire thee." When he had done this I laid him on the bench, and stabbed him several times in the stomach. The child in struggling fell frequently upon the knife, and when found was covered with wounds. The father, it seems, intending to end the lad's sufferings, cut the stomach open from top to bottom but even then he lingered for a little while. This frightful scene occurred j ust before sunrise. Kursin says that just as the chi'd had breathed his last, the first rays of the sun shone through the window, and in a moment of ecstacy he fell on his knees and implored God to merci- fully receive this sacrifice. Kursin continued his narrative in these terms :— Just as I had,thrown myself before the holy images, and as my son was lying in his blood the door opened and my wife Game in. She instantly saw what had passed, and, seized with horror, she fell senseless to the ground. I raised her, and I said, "Go to the mayor and tell him alL I am going to give a fits to the saints." We learn further from the Russian journal that Kursin, after he had been sent to prison, resolutely refused all kinds of nourishment, and died of star- vation before the sentence upon him could be executed.

SHOCKING ATTEMPT AT MURDER. On Saturday morning a shocking attempt at murder and self-destruction was made in Eyre-street, Chesterfield. The attempted self-murderer is a man named Lee, formerly a staff-sergeant on the militia, and the victims are his wife and daughter. Lee and his wife have lived unhappily for some time past, and a short time ago his wife brought him before the magistrates for assaulting her, and he was ordered to find sureties to keep the peace for six months, or in default to go to prison for that time. Being of a very peculiar and excitable temperament, especially when under the influence of liquor, he failed to find bail, and was sent to prison in default. While there he succeeded in ob- taining ba>l and was liberated, but his situation on the Militia Staff, said to be a good livelihood for him, being worth from 20s. to 25s. per week, was lost, and he was therefore out of employment. He afterwards obtained work as a clerk in the office of a builder, and remained there for a short time, when he ran away, the loss of his situation and the miseries of his family affairs very much affecting his mind. He then threatened to destroy himself, and would frequently burst out in tears as though his mind was overburdened with grief. Since his in- carceration he had lived separate from hid wife and the three children she had when he married. On Saturday morning Lee went to the premises and con- cealed himself in the privy until he had observed a man who was lodging with his wife leave the premises. He then went into the house and accused his wife of unchastity, which led to high words, when he took out a knife, and laying hold ot his, wife he pointed the knife to her throat. She raised an abirm, when her eldest daughter, a girl fifteen or sixteen years of age, laid hold of her mother, putting her arms round her throat. Lee then inflicted a gash on the girl's throat, and her hands were also cut in protecting her mother from her father's violence. Lee, finding that he had seriousiy wounded the girl, rushed upstairs and in- flicted two immense gashes in his throat, baring the windpipe and carotid arteries, but not wounding them. The gashes extended from ear to ear. The alarm which Mrs. Lee had raised brought in the neighbours, and a messenger was immediately despatched for a surgeon, who was immediately in attendance. He found the girl being supported in the arms of her mother, while Leo himself was laid eo a bed upstairs bleeding to such an extent as to cause a pool of blood under the bed. He was also surrounded by a number of persons who were praying round the bed, they be- lieving that he had wounded himself so seriously that life would momentarily depart. The surgeon succeeded in stopping the bleeding and dressed the wounds of Lee and his daughter. The daughter has been re- moved from the house. Her wounds are not con- sidered dangerous, but Lee lies in a precarious state, but as no vital part of the throat has been seriously endangered, it is expected that he will in all proba- bility recover. The tragic circumstance has created great excitement in Chesterfield.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND ITS SUBSTITUTE. The only substitute for capital punishment ever seriously entertained by persons competent to speak on this subject is life-long imprisonment, with hard labour. The idea of solitary confinement has long since been given up by the advanced guard of the abolitionists as at once a purposeless and cruel system. Imprisonment with labour is the substitute which meets with largest favour, and it certainly appears to be most capable of being carried out in its integrity, and to be attended with more advantages, both to the criminal and the community, than any other proposal with which the long discussion has been lighted up. We (City Press) will endeavour to place before our readers a short summary of the supposed advantages of imprisonment. In the first place, we escape innictingupon the public conscience the shock that accompanies an execution. The revulsion of feeling attendant upon the consigning of a criminal to eternity, in the presence of a crowd in the open street, is at least worthy of respect, and is not to be got rid of by chalking up the words "sentimental" or maundering." It is solemnly on record that innocent persons have been hanged, of course with the very best intentions, and it is not on record, and never will be, that any proved murderer was the better for being executed. One immense advantage of the substitute, and one that has never had fair consideration, is, that it may be made a punishment to any degree of severity or mildness that public opinion and prevailing ideas on the requirements of justice and public safety may demand. A criminal locked up for life, knowing escape to be impossible, must be wretched, even if very light labours are allotted him, with an abundance of creature comforts.

THE BEGGING LETTER-WRITER. We extract the following interesting article from the columns of the London Times: There is a branch of literary enterprise which has hardly received the attention it deserves, either as a j matter of curious inquiry or for the proof it affords of the original genius of this country. Like the noble quality on which it loves to depend, it vaunteth not itself and is not puffed up. It shuns the advertising columns as carefully as those of the police reports, and prefers the quiet agency of the post to personal intru- sion. The Begging Letter Writer has talents which it is imp ssible not to admire, and a province from which he cannot be expelled. His wide dominion is in the hearts of the sympathetic, the all-believing, and the soft. His opportunities and his continual study are all the changes and chances of this mortal life. all the ills that flesh is heir to, and all the wicke lness of which man is capable. He is a student of human nature in all its aspects, and without having read the Rhetoric of Aristotle, or a single volume of litt rary cor- respondence, he is accomplished in the arts of persua- sion. To those of our readers so fortunate, or so un- fortunate, as to occupy distinguished places in The Court Guide, The Red, Book, the subscription lists of benevolent societies, or those elicited by great calami- ties, it is almost needless to say more. Most of them have accumulated, before this, a large and valuable mass of this truly national literature. Those of them who have outlived the more generous class of illusions will bear us out when we say that there is no greater calumny than to charge our countrymen with want of imagination or inventive power. For reasons of its own our stage may choose to derive its inspiration, and something mere, from a neighbouring country; but meanwhile an indigenous form of the domestic drama is cultivated with prodigious success. The novelists of the circulating library, by dint of huge type and monstrous margin, stretch a simple tale of passion and wickedness into three volumes, nominally priced a guinea and a half. The Begging Letter Writer confines himself to one sheet of note paper, and often gets from the reader two or five guineas. The profession is one of the most remunerative in this metropolis. The greatest man of his day was a mine of wealth to its adepts. Having a just suspicion of many eleemosynary agencies, he had rather too much confidence in his own unassisted powers of disoern- ment, and became, without being the least aware of it, the great patron of the class. 0 They found out his weak point, and improved the opportunity. Whole families, every member of which went through endless transformations, living many lives, and suffering every known or conceivable misery, drew handsome in- comes from him. No doubt his place has been well supplied, and his interesting correspondents have found other great men equally vulnerable, though they can no longer describe themselves as the widows, daughters, sisters, mothers, or aunts cf Waterloo seldiers. All honour to art, even in its most questionable ap- plications Art deals with fiction, imitation, per- sonation, and whatever adorns or recommends truth, at a slight sacrifice of its essence, or departure from its straightest code. Let us not despise this humble pro- fessional, who gives a pleasant impu18e to our benevo- lent affections, and supplies our opportunity of good- ness, without seeking the usual guerdon of fame, or aggravating the bitter rivalry of literature. While authors are envying, quarrelling, and starving, the Begging Letter Writer carries off the ready money; yes, the golden sovereigns, due, perhaps, to the butcher, the grocer, the bookseller, or even the laundress. He is the little urchin who comes to a stream where a practised angler with the best tackle in the city of London has been whipping the stream for days and caught nothing, puts his hsnd into the water by the bank side, and brings out a fine trout, just with a little tickling. There must be some art in that. The Begging Letter Writer enters with ready sympathy and keen appreciation into all forms of misery, all phases of grief, all circumstances of sudden pressure, approaching ruin, accumulated mis- fortune, despondency, and despair. The familiar images that rise to the smell of his ink, the scratch of his pen, the jingle of his glass and spoon, and the fragrant odour of the contents, are fraudulent stewards, knavish attorneys, faithless guardians, unprincipled uncles, spendthrift brothers, usurious money-lenders, tenants that will not pay, landlords that will have their rent, title deeds detained or lost, receipts that cannot be found, patents infringed by a hundred unscrupulous rivals, duly garnished out with the less artificial disasters of blindness, paralysis, idiotcy, or decline. Knowing that it is better to be in the hand of the Almighty than in the hand of man, the mis- fortunes that never come sirgle in these narratives must be crowned by some master villain who drops like a vulture on the fallen prey. Indignation is a stronger motive than pity, and the powers of evil are accordingly discovered through a mist of cruel parti- culars contending for the victim. The victim has struggled on, with heroic but unrequited perseverance to maintain self, declining mother, ailing sisters, sick children, with needle or pen, till death threatens to drop the curtain on the harrowing scene, and sweep all out of sight, unless you come forward, with your known kindness of heart, with five pounds, or even the merest trifle. Hundreds of these compositions have we read, and the more we read admired. They are perfectly simple and unaffected, and if they sometimes seem to wander from the point, it is because painful circum- stances will intrude, and the mind, enfeebled by long sorrow and repeated blows of calamity, cannot but re- vert to names even incidentally associated with its sufferings and wrongs. You think it possible there may be two sides to the story, but evidently this that you see is the side which possesses the mind of the writer. This is what it believes and feels, and it is difficult not to yield some faith, some sympathy. Do you doubt ? The proofs and references are all given, the name of the family mansion, the exact neighbour- hood of the property, not only the present residence of the solicitors in the suburbs, but their address thirty years ago in the city, the regiment of one dead son, the college of another, and the very year in which the still unsettled suit was instituted in the Court of Chancery, which stands pro eminent in the crowd of diabolical agencies peopling these painful records. Good reader,—simple, confiding reader,—caught for once with a full heart and empty purse, and a little suspecting the professional handwriting, the very queer address, the inscrutable reference, and a slight ten- dency to rigmarole in the style, you send the begging letter to the Mendicity Society, 13, Red Lion-square, W. C. You are half ashamed of your act. Suspicion is brutal. Why seek te harm the poor creatures, who are no doubt miserable enough, even if not perfect ? In two or three days you receive a formal, tabulated, and certified biography of the writer a list of his many successive avatars, an exact description of liis habits, his invariable relations with his landlord, and the impressions everywhere produced on his neigh- bours. The writer of the artless and affecting narrative which has struck a real pang into your breast and raised images you cannot dispel is a drunken sot, separated from his family, except one or two as bad as he, whose mental, powera are just sufficiently quickened by incessant potations to enable him to find a new lodging when his old one is too hot for him, and adopt a new character when the old one is detected. He is a Proteus in personation. He has been a D. C. L. soliciting subscriptions for a Poem on Divine Love, a Commentary on the New Testament, or a Chronologi- cal Harmony of the Old. He has been a farmer ruined by free trade, a coach proprietor thrown off the road by the railway, a portrait painter deserted for the photographist, a commercial traveller who has never recovered from a rail- way collision, and a schoolmaster starved out by the public and proprietary schools. He has changed his sex a dozen times, and added and subtracted years at discretion. Sometimes he is a lonely wretch on the verge of the grave sometimes a paterfamilias with affluence still open to him, with a trifling aid. The Society's officers know him well, and he knows them. There he sits with his tankard or his tumbler by his side, daily covering quires of note paper, and occa- sionally going for the answers to small tradesmen who have been foolish enough to let him use their address. He d wens in an atmosphere of brawls, scandals, and outrages, and if his neighbourhood is at all respectable and quiet it is glad enough to get rid of him, though rent and bills he unpaid. But are no such cases real and no applications true ? Very few indeed, we fear —scarcely any, except those that come through your own friends and acquaintances. Within the range and under the test of anybody's own know- ledge there are and must be manv cases of respectable and utter destitution. How many governesses, for instance, have just maintained them- selves, and others too, till sixty, to linger out a few years more of sickness and extreme hardship They don't write begging letters, and few write for them. Nay, it is an error to suppose that all the people that ask our alms in the streets are undeserving. The Mendicity Society stands on the very opposite supposition—viz., that many mendicants have been driven to that course by stress of circumstances, and with a little aid can be rescued from it and safely recommended for employment. But so longaa the tender-hearted throw away their sovereigns oa-Beaing Letter Writers, and their pence on the first man that holds out the palm, the Mendicity Society must always be straitened from want of means, and must find its work hindered rather than forwarded by the casual almsgiver.

ASSAULTING SIR GEORGE BOWYER, M.P., IN THE PUBLIC STREET. Great interest was excited at Abingdon last week by a case which came before the borough justices, a charge of assault being preferred by Sir George Bowyer, M.P., against Mr. William Westbrook, one of the hon. baronet's tenants, and also a co-religionist. Mr. J. T. Morland, solicitor, of Abingdon, appeared to support the complainant, and the defendant con- ducted his own case. The complainant, who resided at Radley-park, proved that on the 28th ult. the de- fendant came up to him in a violent manner, near the George and Dragon Inn," and demanded to know why he had been served with notice to quit. Sir George told him that he knew that by his agent, him- self, and his secretary he had been warned to live peacefully with his neighbours, and complainant also added that defendant knew he (Sir George) had always been an indulgent landlord, and had allowed him to pay his rent when convenient. However, notwith- standing the remonstrance of the hon. baronet, de- fendant continued hi abuse, and several times seized Sir George by the collar, telling him he was a disgrace to the country. Defendant ran away when com- plainant had almost reached the police-station, but at a subsequent part of the day he renewed his abusive and violent oonduct. Defendant's wife interceded for him, and Sir George said he would not ask for a con- viction if he would in court state his regret for what had happened and was willing to be bound over to keep the peace. Defendant said he was willing to beg his pardon in private. Sir George replied No the offence was committed publicly and the reparation ought to be public. You have insulted a magistrate in the streets of Abingdon, and a public satisfaction is required for the outrage." Corroborative evidence was given, and the defendant having said ho was sorry for what he had done, was bound over to keep the peace for six months. Sir George generously undertook to pay the cOlltl.

COMMITTAL FOR FORGERY AND EMBEZZLEMENT. Mr. North, late corresponding secretary of the Nottingham Imperial Order of Odd Fellows, was taken before the sitting magistrates at the Nottingham police-office, on Saturday, on the charge of forgery and embezzlement of the funds of the order. The evidence of Mr. Simmonds, secretary of the Lord Leigh Lodge, Coventry, went to show that he sent jBlO 4s. 6d. to the prisoner as the grand secretary of the order, and received a receipt from him. Mr. Gascoyne, head clerk at the Nottingham Post-office, produced two post-office orders, which were both signed by the prisoner, and were paid in March, 1866, one being for J610 and the other for JM 6s. 4d. Witness could speak to the identity of prisoner's handwriting. Mr. Carver, the present secretary of the order, stated that it was the duty of the prisoner to have entered the money he received from the Lord Leigh Lodge in the post-office order book and the quarterly easli-book. Witness had examined those books, but found no entry of the sums so received. The signatures of the post-office orders were in the prisoner's hand- writing. llr. Shortley, seoretary of St. Peter's Lodge at Coventry, proved having paid the prisoner £64 16s. 2d. on account of 'his lodge on the 5th of June last, but the prisoner had only entered £4 16s. 2d. Mr. Prince, of the Queen Adelaide Lodge, Heanor, Derbyshire, said he paid the prisoner £ 8 4s. 2d.. but this sum had not been entered in the books. This completed the charges of embezzlement, and the forgery ease was then inquired into. Mr. Shaw, treasurer of the Nottingham Order of Odd Fellows, and also of the Funeral Fund, stated that on the 20th of July, 1866, the prisoner gave to him a certificate which he now produced. It was to the effect that the son of Mr. Wells, of Hardwick, Warwickshire, was dead, and he required the payment of the funeral money. Prisoner took the letter con- taining £11) to the post-office, and a few days after- wards witness received a receipt signed "Edward Wells." Mr. Wells said that both these signatures were forgeries. The prisoner was then committed for trial at the Nottingham Assizes.

GALLANT RESCUE. On Saturday there arrived at Hull three smacks belonging to that port, which had amongst them the captain and crew of the steamship Jarrovt. The steamer, which was owned by the General Screw Colliery Company, left Middlesborough on Wednesday last, under command of Captain William Walker, with a cargo of iron rails and fishplates, bound for Riga. At six o'clock on Wednesday evening the pilot was sent on shore, and the Jarrow proceeded on her course, with a fresh breeze from the N. W. At ten o'clock that night the wind increased, and raised such a sea that the vessel laboured heavily, and it was found necessary by midnight to alter her course, so that she might be kept head to the sea. Thursday morn- ing dawned with the gale increasing, and still heavier sea, which constantly broke over the vessel. At six a.m. the foretopsail was carried away, and the crew hauled up a square foresail. After this the ship was hove to under closed reefed mainsails, and heavy seas continued to break over her. After ten o'clock she was making water very fast, the pumps being unable to keep her clear. At two o'clock water rose above the engine-room floor, and the crew were employed with buckets to bail it out. At three o'clock it became level with the furnaces, and shortly afterwards the fires were put out. The vessel was then comparatively unmanageable, but still, with constant attention, she was kept head to the sea. At ten o'clock on Thursday night the square fore top-sail was blown away, and all control over her was lost. The captain ordered the anchor to be let go, the vessel then being on the Dogger Bank, and in twenty-one fathoms. At three o'clock on Friday morning the crew were in a most pitiable con- dition, and were each moment drenched with the heavy sea which constantly washed over the vessel. About this time a vessel's light was seen to the northward, and the steamer's crew therefore made light signals. In about an hour afterwards a smack's boat hove in sight, proving to belong to the Henrietta, of Hull, Captain Ham. Four of the Jarrow's crew got into this boat, and were taken safely on board the smack. Soon two other boats went to the steamer, those be- longing to the British Queen and the Prima Donna, by which the other portion of the crew left, the captain being the last man to leave the sinking ship. Captain Walker speaks in the highest terms of the bravery displayed by the Hull fishermen, who on a dark and stormy night launched their small boats on a sea which ran mountains high, risking their lives to save those of their fellow creatures in distress. The vessel went down about three hours after she had been abandoned, seventy miles from the land, Spurn point being W. by S. The men on arriving a.t Hull were forwarded to their homes by the Ship- wrecked Fishermen and Mariner's Society.

"A CREAKING DOOR HANGS LONG ON ITS HINGES I believe there is not a malady in all the said list of ills to which flesh is heir that has not been, at some time or other during the last fourteen years, attri- buted to the Emperor Napoleon, writes the Paris correspondent of The Times. It is true that His Majesty, with his robust constitution, has had his share of these indispositions, from which no special privilege exempts him. But had he only the twentieth part of what common report has imputed to him he must have succumbed long ago. The Pope, I think, is the great personage who, after the Emperor, has been repeatedly declared to be beyond all chance of recovery. Until the last few years his Holiness has been often in the last agony and the Parisian public watched with much interest and from various motives the telegraphic news from Rome with the certainty of its soon announcing that all was over. In the pre- sent instance the persons who sent about the various stories in the early part of the week, in which that about the Emperor's health figured prominently, must have been sorely taxed to discover some new ailment, which, as I have already hinted, was no easy task. Before his accession to the throne, and from his election to the Presidency down to the Coup d'Etat, it was confidently believed that he was of weak under- standing so strong is the force of prejudice that an eminent statesman, one who had held a high place in the Council of the nation in former days, declared, after a pretty long interview with the President of the Republic, that he was struck by the poverty of his in- tellect. He soon showed that he was not an imbecile, whatever else he may have been. It was to this mental incapacity that the propagators of these re- ports reverted. It appears that accounts, on unquestionable authority," had reached from Biarritz that His Majesty had fallen into complete imbecility his mind had quite given way he could not under- stand anything that was said to him he had lost the use of speech he no longer recognised anybody; and, in fact, he was reduced to that prostration— QUIIe nee Nomina servorum, nee vultum agnoscit amici." It was in conspquence of this deplorable state of things that the Ministers and members of the Privy Council, Marshals of France, &c., were summoned to Biarritz in hot haste, and where, as the latest accounts stated they were in anxious deliberation in the Villa Eugenie. About seven or eight years ago the Emperor's health was said to be in the same desperate state. Rheu- matic gout, liver complaint, sciatica, intermittent fever, together with various minor affections, had be- fore t' j > t been attacking his constitution, but appa> j rently without any serious effect, for it was certain that he persisted in living, no doubt to spite his ene- mies, and the alarmists who had given him over were, like the good folks of Islington mentioned in Gold- smith's well-known Elegy, again baffled. The Emperor and his family were then at Biarritz, as they now are. I happened about the same time to pay a visit to Bayonne—a town, by the way, which surpasses any other in France in its picturesque beauty, the more striking as the tourist comes upon it after the weari- some hours on the flat and monotonous Landes—and had just got a letter from a friend in London, where these alarming reports had reached, and which had not, as you may suppose, lost anything by the dis- tance, asking me to make some inquiries on the spot as to their truth or falsehood. The morning after my arrival I walked down to Biarritz, and met, at the angle where the road branches off at the village of Anglet to that now celebrated bathing-place, an old acquaintance whose residence was hard by. As the morning was fine, with a light breeze that came up from the ocean, and which tempered the heat of an August sun, we continued our way. My acquaintance was a most worthy gentleman, without a particle of ill nature in his composition, and as free from weak- nesses as most men. He was, indeed, somewhat cre- dulous and easily imposed upon, and he had one little foible, moreover, which consisted in desiring to appear not only better but sooner informed than anybody else of all that was going on in the world. Some of his friends who knew this foible used to amuse themselves by telling him stories about things which never hap- pened, and he invariably interrupted them by declar- ing that he had known all about it long before, though prudence kept him silent. As we walked along I asked him as to the reports about the Emperor's dan- gerous illness, which he must have known, as he was residing in the neighbourhood. He answered :—■ Of course I have, and I knew the fact long before any human being even suspected it. He is very ill, poor man, and I am very sorry for it; for what would become of us all if anything happened to him ? I have not seen him since I came here, but I know it is positive that he is hardly able to walk; he receives no visits, hardly stirs out of the villa, and the most serious part of the affair is that he, who was so fond of exercise, cannot mount his horse. He has not had his foot in the stirrup for a long time, and his doctor says that, in his present state, to mount a horse would be fatal to him Carriage exercise, and that very gentle, is all that is allowed him, but as for walking or riding it is out of the question. This I heard last night on the best authority. While we were talking we saw in the distance two horsemen coming from Biarritz in the direction of Anglet, by what is called the old road, which affords more shade than the new one, and appearing and dis- appearing as the trees and windings of the road allowed them to be visible. They were at first walking, but as they approached the level ground they gat into a trot. From the peasants who were working in the meadows and maize fields on both sides of the road taking off their caps and saluting, we knew that one at least, must be a person of great distinction, probably the Soua-Prefectofthearrondisse- ment, or the Mayor of the commune. As they emerged from a dip in the road and came close to us they broke into a gallop, and there could be no mis- take about the matter, it was the Emperor himself and one of his orderly officers, both in light summer clothing, and with the low-crowned melon-shaped gray felt hats which are so commodious in the country. There he was, the man who could hardly stir from his bed or off his sofa, afad who was utterly unable to mount his horse. We, of course, saluted as they passed us at a smart pace, and continued on their way to the citadel of Bayonne, at least four miles distant, his Majesty looking well and hearty. I stole a glance at my companion, but only for an instant, and out of sheer compassion, turned the conversation to some other topic for the rest of tne time we remained to- gether. I soon learnt at Biarritz that not a day passed without the Emperor walking out, and making pretty long excursions in the country either riding or driving. Since then I have been a little difficult of belief when the Emperor's health is talked about. A AMERICAN VIEW OF FREE TRADE.

The following remarks from a correspondent, signing himself Monadnock," have just appeared in the New York Times:— The eorrespondents of English papers give melan- choly accounts of dull business in commerce and manufactures in America, but the remedy for this is so easy, as pointed out in a Times' leader, that it is only necessary to call an extra Session of Congress and adopt it. You have only to remove all restrictions upon Free Trade. Repeal all duties upon imports, and every shipyard would be alive with workers, every factory in full operation, and the whole country pros- perous and happy. But the trouble is that nobody in America knows anything about political economy. Under the actual tariff it is said that American manu- facturers are undersold by those of England and Germany—and Free Trade would bring all right again. It happens, however, that England, with Free Trade, is scarcely building any ships, and that she is in serious danger from Continental competition. How is this muddle to be disposed of ? With Free Trade half the labouring population in England lives upon wages just above the point of starvation, with no resource in sickness or old age but the workhouse, and Ireland is in a state of chronic poverty and discon- tent. With Free Trade there is a perpetual war between capital and labour, and the enormous burden of pauper- ism is increasing. Americans may be ignorant of political economy, but I cannot see that the English are over- burdened with wisdom, or that the practical results of their system are of a very enticing character. The working men of England believe in Protection, and the English colonies practise it to the great annoyance of the theorists at home. After all, Free Trade is a proved impossibility. Parliament is constantly interfering with what, ac- cording to our philosophers, should regulate itself. The Poor Law system is itself a Protective measure. So are all the laws limiting the hours and ages and regulating the conditions of labour. We have Acts of Parliament forbidding the employment of women in coal pits, where a few years ago they worked naked like brute beasts Acts forbidding the employment in factories of children of twelve years and during the last Session laws have been passed for the protection of children in the numerous trades and in the agricul- tural gangs which would disgrace Dahomey. There is need of abundance more of such interference. In the black country, north of Birmingham, there is a large population engaged in making nails by hard labour, especially horseshoe nails. On an average, three females are employed in this work to one male. I wonder if in all America there is one female black- smith. Even the strongest-minded of the advocates of woman's rights have not claimed for women the trade of a blacksmith. But here little girls from seven to nine years old are set to work and kept at work as long as they can stand, hammering at the anvil, roast- ing by the forge, blacked with soot, never seeing schoolhouse or playground, but employed their whole lives making horseshoe nails for a bare subsistence. Absolute Free Trade sets women a.nd children to work at forge and mine, and reduces wages to the lowest possible standard, and that is the system against which humanity protests, and with which Parliament, in spite of theories, finds it necessary to interfere. Free Trade, as ultimated in England, is the most de- based ignorance, the most abhorrent cruelty, the most disgusting vice, and the most heartbreaking misery that can be seen in any country calling itself civilised and Christian. There is too much freedom of all kinds in England, and especially a great deal too much Free Trade.

Noticing the above article, The Timet concludes a leader with the following remarks :— As the writer has taken his picture of England from the columns of its public press, and from its Parliamentary de- bate* and returns, we should be the last to deny that there is in it a foundation of truth. But it is only as if an American were to fill his boxes with the very worst and filthiest rubbish he could pick up in this metropolis, and take it home as a fair average and faithful representation of the capital of the mother country. There is no falsehood so mischievous as truth partially and malignantly selected. As to Free Trade, the writer does not know what it is, and probably does not care to know. It is trade emancipated from all restrictions and burdens which are not in the interest of all the parties concerned; that iI, which are for one person against another, one class against another, or one nation aganst another. As it is in the interest of common humanity—that is, of all the world—that the destitute, sick, and aged should not be left to perish; that children should not be worked above their strength, or left without education that women and girls should not be made mere beasts of burden, or reduced to savagery, these are not questions of trade at all, free or not free. Little as Monadnock seems to be aware, he is him- self interested in the maintenance of human nature at its highest possible elevation all over the world. At all events, he must allow Englishmen to indulge the sentiments of benevolence without having it imputed to them that they do it on protective—that is, leI fish-principles, and, in so doing, are offending against the great doctrine of Free Trade. But is it Free Trade that has produced the scandals which Protection, this writer says, is invoked in vain to mitigate ? They all existed, far worse, in the days of Protection. They are the evils of a crowded country. Tne population of these islell haa doubled since the beginning of the century, but it is impossible to rescue an acre from the surrounding seas except generally at an extravagant COlt, or even to reclaim an acre without risk of loss. The land won't employ all, and the surplus must do what they can. America, on the con- trary, has millions upon millions of the best land in the world to draw upon as fast as she wants them. She has all the charm of novelty, as well as its more solid advantages. Till her citizeni fell out with one another in the mere excess of youthful energy an I the mere exuberance of wealth and power, they had no need of an army to call an army, or of a fleet to can a fleet. It is folly, if not mockery, to compare such a country with England, as if the circumstances were equal, and laws responsible for all the difference. A septuagenarian may be healthy and strong for his years; hiB actiyIty of mind and body may speak well for the moderation of his diet, the regularity of his habits, and the calmness of his temper. What would be thought of a young man of twenty, of remarkable strength and stature, who taunted the old gentleman with his inability to carry a sack of corn, to throw a cricket ball a hundred yards, to run a mile in five minutes, to leap over his own height, to walk twenty miles in a day, to eat a dish of raw fruit or a quart of oats without Indigestion T Should the old gentleman even confess himself unequal to such feats, that would be no disparagement of the habits and plan of life which have made him what he is—healthy for his time of life, strong for his physical frame, with a good heart, and with duly cultivated mental powers.

THE WHEAT CROP OF 1867. The following letter trom MLr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, Herts, will prove interesting, especially to our agricultural readers A wet autumn, a very severe winter, a spring with alternations of extreme heat with cold and wet, and a summer with occasional violent storms of wind and rain, which laid the growing corn as flat as if a roller had been passed over it, are not the conditions of season from which we might expect a productive har- vest to follow. I was, therefore, somewhat surprised, on reading the reports of your correspondents, to find thnt, as the result of extensive observation, they were led to speak in sanguine terms of the corn crops of 1867. Fortunately the weather just before and during harvest was, over a very considerable area, upon the whole, fine and dry—indeed, in every respect the reverse of that of last year. Otherwise we should, pro- bably, have had the worst crop tever grown in Eng- land and, even with the more favourable ripening and harvest weather of the present season, I fear that the corn crops of the country are greatly deficient in quantity, though generally stored in good condition, and of more than average, if not even of good, quality. With regard to the wheat crop, it is to be hoped that, from some exceptional cause, the results I am about to record may not represeint the yield of the country in general. At the same time I must confess that careful observation for many years past has shown that the produce of my experimental field affords a pretty oorrect indication of the productiveness of the harvest over, at any rate, the more southern parts of the county. The soil is of fair average quality, is naturally well- drained by resting upon chalk, and has also, for nearly twenty years, been drained artificially. WTieat has now been grown on this land for twenty-four years in succession. During the whole of this period (and for some years previously) the "unmanured" portion has been entirely without manure. The farm-yard manure plot has had fourteen tons per acre applied every year. Where" artificial manure" has been em- ployed there were some changes during the earlier years but the same manure has now been applied on the respective plots for sixteen years. Hence, in order that the results may be strictly^ comparable, there are given by the side of those of the present year (and of the four immediately preceding years) the average annual produce on the same plots for the fifteen years preceding the present—that is, for 1852- 18GG inclusive. The whole of the results from 1844 to 18G3 inclusive will, however, be found recorded in the Journal of tlie Royal Agricultural Society of England for 1864. As the preparation of the land, the quantity of seed sown, the time of sowing, and every other operation is each year the same for all the plots, the difference of result between plot and plot in the same year is due to the difference in the manuring and, as the operations are also conducted as far as possible in the same way from year to year, the variation in the produce of one year compared with another should represent the varia- tion of climatic conditions or season. As, however, the last five crops show a progressively declining yield, it may, perhaps, be supposed that the land is becoming unfit for the growth of wheat, or that in its present condition the nsanures employed can no longer pro- duce the same effects as formerly. But a reference to the produce of previous years shows that trom 1860 to 1863 there was a progressively increasing yield from year to year; while the extraordinary crop of 1863, the 20th of the successive growth of wheat, was the largest obtained during the whole twenty-four years. We have thus bad a series of years of progressively increasing as well as a series of progressively decreas- ing produce, and it is to be hoped that the present season may prove to be the last of the recent declining series. ° The following table shows the produce of wheat on the selected plots (the same as those referred to in former years) in 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, and 1867, and also the average produce per annum for the fifteen years, 1852-1866 HARVESTS. AVERAGE How manured 15 years, Plots. each year. 1863. 1864. 1865. 1866. 1867.1852-66. Bushels of Dressed Corn per Acre. S TJnmanured 17J ,16 £ ,13 £ ..12J 8J ..15J 2 Farm-yard manure ..44 ..40 ..371 .,32f ..27^ ..35} Plots. each year. 1863. 1864. 1865. 1866. 1867. 1852-66. Bushels of Dressed Corn per Acre. ¡,¡J S TJnmanured 17J ,16 £ ,13 £ ..12J 8J ..15J 2 Farm-yard manure ..44 ..40 ..371 .,32f ..27^ 35} 7 Artificial manure.53$..45} ..40J 2M ..22J ,.36fjl 8 I>itto 55# ..49J ,.43f ,.32| ..30* ..38} a 9 Ditto 55^ 51J ..44 ..32^ ..29J ..36^ Weight per Bushel of Dressed Corn, lbs. 3 Unmanured 62 7..62 0..60 6..61 -3..561..575 2 Farm-yard manure ..63 1..62 5..61 5..61-7..61 4..59 8 7 Artificial manure.62 6..63 1..61 6..61 0..61 0 59 1 8 Ditto 9 Ditto thus, on every plot, the produce of 1867 is not only inferior to that of any one of the four preceding years, but it is also very inferior to the average of the pre- ceding fifteen years. The produce without manure ia unusually low (indeed, lower than in any year of thef twenty-four excepting 1853), indicating that the season was specially unfavourable for the crop on lands out of condition. The plot manured with fourteen tons of farmyard manure per acre each year (the crop of which is probably less affected by variations of season than that of any other) gives one quarter less wheat per acre than on the average of the previous fifteen years. Plot 8, which may be said to represent extremely high farming, also gives one quarter less per acre than the average of the fifteen years, and more than three quarters less than was obtained by exactly the same manure in 1863. The quality of the grain, as shown by the weight per bushel, is much more satisfactory, being above thef average in every case excepting where there was no' manure employed. It may be mentioned that on none of the plots was there any deficiency of plant. The straw was, upon the whole, abundant, and amounted on plot 9 to 44 cwt. per acre, a quantity which, on the average of seasons, would be accompanied with about one-third more corn than was actually obtained, and in favourable seasons even much more. In addition to the evidence afforded by the above experimental results it may be stated that, under the ordinary management of my farm, three fields in very high condition have respectively given this year 361, 35, and 32 bushels of wheat per acre, while three last year (1866) gave 40, 42, and 46 bushels, and four the vear before (1865) gave respectively 38, 48, 48, and 51 bushels. There is here again, therefore, very con- siderable falling off. The conclusion I draw is that the wheat crop of 1867 is decidedly inferior to that of 1866. I estimated the crop of last year to be 10 or 12 per cent. below an average, and I fear the present crop cannot be estimated to b# less than 20 per cent, below an average. Further, this time last year there was a very large quantity of old corn in the hands of the farmers, while at the present time there is very little of last year's crop in the country.

GOOD NEWS FOR EMIGRANTS. A correspondent of a Texan journal sends, for the en- couragement of Southerners desirous of emigrating, the following account of the state of the British island of Ruatan, Honduras:- I do not think a healthier place can be found any- where. During a two years' residence I have seen nothing but chills and fever, and these do not prevail to any extent. All the tropical fruits are raised, but only bananas, plantains, pineapples, cocoanuts, and mangoes are raised for exportation. The other fruits would not keep a sufficient length of time to reach the United States. Sugar-cane produces well here. It will rattoon for fifteen or twenty years, and will pro- duce from three to four hogsheads of sugar per acre. Corn also produces well here. Planted in the proper season, two crops per year can be raised. In fact, everything can be raised that is raised in the Southern States. The price of Government land is 1 dol. per acre, but improved places can be had with additional charge for all the improvements that have been made upon the land. The harbours upon the island are not excelled anywhere, there being no less than nine upon the south side and three on the north side. As to good fresh drinking water, I never drank better; it runs directly out of the mountains. The population is composed of whites, Indians, mulattoes, and negroes-the latter class predominating, but quite a different class from what you at present have in the Southern States; those upon this island are industrious, every one having his own fruit plantation, or some kind of boat, by which he makes his living by fishing or taking freight and passengers to and from Belize. Labour can be procured here at from three dols. to seven dols. per month, with rations, which is 41b. of pork and fifty plantains per week. Houses can be put up and comfortably made in two or three days with palm sticks and covered with the palm leaf. All that is necessary is protection from the sun and rain, there being no weather cold enough for fires. The prices of houses range from fifteen to twenty dols. Persons coming should bring at least six months' pro- visions with them, and just as little furniture as they can get along with. I will say to those who wish to raise sugar, this is the country. Schooners leave New Orleans two or three times monthly, and the passage by them ranges from twenty-five to thirty dollars.

EXPLOSION AND LOSS OF LIFE ON THE NORTH LONDON RAILWAY. Shortly before seven o'clock on Monday morning a fearful explosion, involving loss of life, took place at the Highbury coal depfit of the North London Railway. There are several lofty timber lifts for raising the coal trucks from the line into the yard, and they were worked by a powertul stationary engine. It appears that the unfortunate driver, named Charles Platt, who has perished, got up steam at the usual hour, and the work proceeded in an apparently safe manner. Twelve coal trucks had been raised, and the thirteenth was about being lifted, and when it had got some two feet or so from the ground a fearful explosion occurred which shook the whole neighbourhood. Considering the nature of the catastrophe, it is marvellous that there was not a greater loss of life. As it was, how- ever, the destruction of property was something fear- ful to witness. The brick walls of the engine-house were shattered to atoms, and much of the massive timbers of the lift torn away. Had a passenger train been passing at the time, it is fearful to contemplate what would have been the conse- quences. The officers at the Highbury Station im- mediately took every precaution to block the line, and as soon as possible an examination was made among the ruins of the engine-house. The remains of the driver Platt were found sadly mutilated life of course, being extinct. His arm was found round the piston rod, and it is thought that he had heard something, and was endeavouring to escape when the explosion ensued. The coalman, who had been attending to the coal truck which was about being raised, had a mira- culous escape, as had some of the other labourers. From an inspection which has been made of the re- mains of the boiler, it appears that it was the casing that exploded, the tube which was thrown across the line being almost uninjured. The lift and depot were the property of the North-London Railway Companv, but they were in the occupation of Messrs. Lea & Co., coal merchants. The deceased was in the service of the railway company, and it is stated tbe orders were never to exceed a pressure of 401b. to the inch. The boiler was what is called a Cornish one, and had been in use some years. The deceased has left a widow and a numerous family. The passenger trains ran as usual afterwards.

THE MARKETS. MARK-LANE, MONDAY. The quantity of English wheat received fresh up to our market to-day coastwise and by land carriage was only moderate. Although the attendance of buyers was by no means numerous, sales progressed steadily, at an advance in the quotations, compared with Monday last, of 3s. per quarter. In some instances 4s. per quarter more money was realised for picked samples. We were fairly supplied with foreign wheat, in which a full average business was trans- acted, at an improvement in value of from 3s to 43 per qr. Floating cargoes of grain were held for very hitrh rates. Grinding barley was Is. per quarter dearer. Other kinds, the supply of which was limited, sold at very full prices. There was a moderate inquiry for mlllt, at previous rates. The quantity brought forward was only moderate. The arrivals of oats having been limited, the oat trade was firm, and the quotations advanced fully Is. per qr. Beans commanded ex- treme rates, with a moderate demand. We have no change to notice in the value of peas, very few English were on offer. The flour trade was firm, at 2s. per 2801b. advance. American flour was 2s. per barrel dearer. Linseed, rapeseed, and cakes were steady in price hut most agricultural seeds were a slow inquiry. METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET, MONDAY. Our market to-day was seasonably well supplied with foreign stock, in fair average condition. The demand ruled heavy, and last week's prices were barely supported. The arrivals of beasts fresh up from our own grazing districts were only moderate. Most breeds, however, were of full average weight and quality. On the whole, the demand ruled very inactive nevertheless, no quotable change took place in prices. The highest figure was 5s. per 81b. From Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire we received about 1,750 shorthorns, tfce. from other parts of England, 700 various breeds; from Scotland, 3 Scots and from Ireland, 180 oxen, cows, <fcc. The show of sheep was only moderate. Nearly all breeds met a heavy inquiry, at unaltered quotations. The best Downs and half-breds sold at 4s. lOd. per 81b. For the most part, the sheep Were in fair condition. We have to report a slow sale for calves, at about stationary prices—viz., from 4s. 2d. to 5s. 2d. per 8lb. The supply was rather limited. Prime small pigs were in fair request at previous rates, but large hogs were a dull inquiry, at late rates. The number brought forward was tolerably good. POTATOES. These markets are well supplied with potatoes. On the whole, the trade is steady, at our quotations. Last week's import was 91 bags from Dieppe, six baskets from Ham- burgh, and four packages from Antwerp. Regents, 90s. to 120s. Flukes, 105s. to 130s.; Rocks, 75s. to 95s. per ton. HOPS. Large quantities of English and foreign hops are on sale. The cc ntinued extensive arrival of foreign hops has caused buyers to hold aloof, or to restrict their operations to the smallest possible limits, hoping that, by refrainiug from purchasing, they may compel holders to accept lower rates. Last week's import consisted of 1,345 from Antwerp, 414 from Boulogne, 464 from Calais, 587 from Dunkirk, SOS from Rotterdam, 558 from Hamburg, 277 from Bremen, and 338 from Ostend. Mid and East Kent, 10l Os. to 12Z. 12s. Farnhams, lOi. Os. to 122. Os.; Weald of Kents 71. 10s. to 10s.; Sussex, 81. 10s. to 9J. 9s.; Yearlings, 71. 10s. to 91. Oa. per cwt. WOOL. In colonial wool by private contract very little business has been doing, but no change has taken place in prices. English wool has met with very little attention, on former terms. The imports of wool into London last week con- sisted of 2,433 bales from Sydney, 3,927 from Algoa Bay, and 327 bales from Adelaide. Fleeces: Southdown hog- gets, Is. 4d. to Is. 5d. half-breds, Is. 4ld. to Is. 5d. Kent fleeces, la. 3id. to Is. 4d. Southdown ewes and wethers, Is. 3d. to Is. 4d.; Leicester ditto. Is. 3d. to Is. 4d. per Ib. Sorts: Clothing, Is. 2d. to Is. 6id; combing, 1&.241. to Is. 8Jd. per Ib.

J —— ■ iii MORBID CURIOSITY. Se the trial of the murderess for the assassination t Forest of Fontainebleau immense numbers of peo-, including- English and Americans, have gone dovevery day from Paris to see the spot where the crij wa* "committed (writes the London correspondent of e Liverpool Albion). If such an occurrence had tali place in this country we should have had photo- grils of the locus in quo of the victim and of the as- sasi exposed for Fale in the shop windows. This is nollowed in France. Actuated by the belief that thiesire of obtaining notoriety prompts some persons toecome great criminals, the Administration take >ev,r precaution for preventing1 any false halo of glory fr, encircling the brow of a murderer. This prin- t;i} is applied, not only in the case of murders com- med in France, but also in that of the same crime wh committed in anv other country. Thus, imme- dielytne portraits of" MuHer were produced in this ccatry, the examiners at the different French ports reived a circular from the Minister of the Interior, sting that, doubtless, an attempt would be made to iroduce those portraits into France, and directing t'tin such case there should be a seizure of the articles, vich, under no circumstances, were to be permitted to (exhibited or sold in the French Empire. Soon after ts order was issued, two large cases, containing ]fister casts of a head, were brought into Boulogne. struck the examiner that the head was that Muller. This was stoutly denied by the Qporter, who assured the official that the head was lat of Bums the poet. The examiner compared the hysiognomy of the cast with that of a photograph of fuller, which he had procured for the purpose. satisfied that the murderer, and not the poet, was the Person whose head was represented in the plaster, he took upon himself to seize the two cases, leaving the owner to his remedy, or, in other words, throwing it upon him to make good his assertion. The sagacity of the examiner was vindicated no proceedings ever have been instituted against him by the importer; and only a few days ago the two cases and their contents Vere opened for sale by public auction, among other "unclaimed goods which had lain for a certain time in the Boulogne Custom-house. I have not heard whether there were any bidders hut I don't suppose a.ny very good offer was made, inasmuch as a condition of sale was that the heads should either be re-exported or destroyed. Would it not be a very good thing to adopt, a similar rule in London, and to deny to that portion of our population who have such a desire to gaze on the features of atrocious criminals the oppor- tunity of gratifying their morbid appetite? A due English regard to "vested interests" might require that we should compensate the Messrs. Tussaud for adopting a regulation which would prevent any further additions to the Chamber of Horrors but even that would be a good u* vestment.

THE POSITION OF FRANCE, PRUSSIA, AND ITALY. The imprudence of Garibaldi appears sometimes to Serve his country better than the craft and caution of wiser men (remarks the Daily News). The blunder and mischance of Aspromonte drove the French from Rome more certainly than the bayonets of the Volunteers could have done. The enterprise baffled at Sinaluuga is renewed at half-a.-dozen places within the heart of the Papal territory. It is a small gain to have the hero himself under lock and key in Alessandria or fastened to his rock in the ocean by the Watchful vigilance of Italian cruisers. His captivity fights for the cause tor which he is held in bonds. Magical as the sway of Garibaldi's personal presence Seems to be, his influence is now independent of his presence. Like the English Talbot, as Shakespeare has drawn him, he himself is but "shadow of himself." His "substance, sinews, arms, and strength," lie in the devoted adherents whom his call summons around him or sends on the mission which he assigns to them. It is possible that Garibaldi understood the real posture of affairs in Italy better than some of his critics. We do not suppose that he has been acting in complicity with llatazzi, that the movement to Sinalunga was a feint, or that the arrest and detention of the hero took place with his own contrivance. But Garibaldi knew probably that in the course which he adopted he was forcing the hands both of Napoleon and of llatazzi; that he was setting in motion causes which they must obey; and caring little for the fate which might befall himself, he would doubtless have Welcomed a bullet sent with truer and more deadly aim than that which maimed him at Aspromonte, pro- vided only that his death brought the work of his life Bearer to its accomplishment. Italy is not now sup- pliant and dependent. She holds the balance between Prussia and France, and both these States court her alliance. The return of the French Legion to Rome would have led to a permanent breach between the cabinets of Paris and Florence. It would have thrown Italy into the arms of Prussia. Such a consequence as this Napoleon III. would have been reckless to madness if he challenged and Garibaldi, we may well believe, felt this, nd acted upon his conviction.

SOME OF THE SIGHTS OF PARIS. A correspondent writes:—"There Is an exhibition here, which if not an agreeable one, is at all events very wonder- ful. A tribe of twenty-six persons, male and female, from Algeria, called the Aissa Houa" are to be seen at the Ath- letic Arena in the Rue Lepelletier, who go through some Strange performances, mystic dances, eating fire and swallowing serpents. Tne tantams beat monotonously during a curious bullet. One of these young Arabs puts a large piece of burning charcoal in his mouth and crunches it With his teeth. A piece which fell down burnt a hole in the tl.w. 80 t.hpr« is no deception. A large piece of window- glas3 was given to anntirer, whtcn cnlmbleù in his teeth, aud was eaten with voracity. The teeth of the Are-eaters are burnt, and the gums calcined. While they eat the Are they make horrible contortions. A box of adders was brought in. An Arab selected one, and while the irritated reptile put out its sting he first bit off its head and then ate it all. You could hear the noise of the eater's teeth, and the blood ran Upon his lips. The music of the tantams and kettledrums accompanied this epicurean feast. There are other similar things to be seen, but this perhaps is enough of them. The name of Aissa Houha, according to The Dictionary of the Nineteenth Centunj, is given in Algeria to men who eat ser- pents and pass for sorcerers; they also form a Mussulman religious order, founded by Sidi Aissa."

RE-APPEARANCE OF THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON. Last Sunday morning, to the delight of an over- Whelming congregation, the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon once more appeared upon the platform at the Metro- politan Tabernacle after an absence of four successive Sundays. He complains still of great weakness of body. and the pallor of his countenance shows but too plainly that his late sufferings must have been, as indeed they were, exceedingly painful and severe. He Was only able to liup slowly across the platform as he labours under a considerable lameness in the right leg, and during that poi t ion of the servicein whichhe did not take a leading part he sat down. He was assisted in the giving out of the Psalms and hymns, and the reading of the Scriptures by Mr. Varley, of Notting- hill, but he himself offered up the prayer and preached the sermon. In the evening immense crowds of persons assembled a.t the Tabernacle, expecting that the rev. gentleman would again appear. But they were disappointed in this respect, his strength at present not enabling him to preach twice on the same day. The evening service was conducted throughout by Mr. Varley.

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT ON POLITICAL AFFAIRS. Sir William Bagge, M.P., and the Hon. T. de Grey, M f J were among the speakers at the Marshland agricultural dinner, near King's Lynn, which was held on Thursday nipnt tn last week. Sir W. Bagge, in adverting to the Reform Kill, said it was no doubt a leap in the darn," but he claimed credit for the Government for having done more than pass a Reform BilL He referred more particulaily to the increase in the pay of the army, and to their efforts to mitigate the evils of the gang system. He urged the necessity of better cottage accommodation for the labourers as an important auxiliary to the work of the schoolmaster. The Hon. T. de Grey, approving of legislation to lessen the evils of the gang 8ystem, said:- Great care must be taken that these restrictions are not carried too far. You cannot, as it appears to me, prevent those who are to live by the sweat of their brow from providing for their own subsistence as soon as they are able to earn wages. No doubt we should all desire that children should receive some instruction before they go out to work in the fields, but with the labouring classes you have this difficulty, that it is undeniable that children who are not at an early age educated for that which is to be their main dependence in life will rarely make good farm servants or farm labourers. If you attempt a system of compulsory education, you have a further difficulty, which arises out of the various opinions which are held by various persons upon religious and other subjects. Ne man would willingly consent to be rated for a form of edu- cation which he did not approve after all, I believe we must rely on the good feeling and good-will of those who have it in their power to establish schools for those who may care to avail themselves of them, and to the private influence which may always be exercised to convince all classes of the great benefits that are to be derived from a good education, and the knowledge of those things which can only be acquired in schools and at an early period of life. Educate as you will, the cleverest and most industrious boys will fit themselves for higher positions, while the duller and more indolent never rise beyond the condition of tillers of the earth. hewers of wood, and drawers of water, to the end of their natural existence, all of which is well summed up in the old proverb— You may take a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink." On the Reform Bill the hon. member said;.—"A Reform Bill has passed, and whether for good or for evil I barely venture to give an opinion, but I feel, and I believe you will feel with me, that our present duty is to submit to the law as it has been determined by Parliament, and to endeavour to do all that is possible to make that law work for the interest and advantage of all classes of the community." A dis- cussion ensued, during which it was stated that no gang system prevailed in Marshland. Some cases ot overcrowding in cottages were quoted, and several speakers strongly protested against the Legislature prohibiting young children from working in the field, asking if free trade labour was to be superseded, would the Government make up to the labourer the loss of earnings of his family ? It was contendtd that if girls did not go to work in the field till they were thirteen years old, they would never go, and the best women in Marshland were those who worked in the fields.

REMARKABLE SHAKESPERIAN DISCOVERY. Mr. Charles Edmonds, of the firm of Willis and Sotheran, communicates intelligence of a remarkable discovery he has just made, being none other than the recovery of a copy of Shakspeare's Passionate Pilgrim," bound up with an addition of "Venus and Adonis." The precious book has been found in a lumber room in the mansion of Sir Charles Islam, at Laneport, Northamptonshire. Mr. Edmonds says "The subject of the present notice is bound in the original wrapping vellum, with strings, and without any outside lettering and from its small size, for it measures only 5in. by 3;flD., would be easily over- looked or lost. At the end are bound two other rare tracts—namely, 'Epigrammes and Elegies.' by I. D. and C. M. (i.e., Sir John Davies and Christopher Marlovr); and "Certain. ef Orid'i Eitgiet," by C. Mariow, both printed at Middlesborough, with- out date, but probably about 1596. The edi- tion of 'Venus and Adonis' I have had the good fortune to discover was printed for William Leake in 1599. In all bibliographical lists hitherto published, an edition of 1600, 'printed by 1. H. for John Harri- son,' is noticed as being in the Bodleian Library. This copy, however, has only a manuscript title-page, and it was pointed out by Mr. Halliwell (folio Shake- speare, vol. 16, p. 245) that no-edition bearing the date of 1600 with such an imprint could have existed, Harrison having parted with the copyright to Leake four yews previously. It may naturally be conjectured that the Bodleian copy may be the edition of 1599, but, on examining the collation given in the Cambridge Shakespeare, I find that it is not. The edition of 1599, the existence of which I have the pleasure of announcing to the public is, therefore, not only unique, but an impression hitherto unknown to all Shakesperian editors and critics. I will conclude by saying that the owner of this remarkable volume has done me the favour of entrusting it to my custody for a short time, during his temporary absence from home, with per- mission to show it to any gentleman interested i. Shakesperian literature."

AN INTERNATIONAL BANQUET. It has been stated that, in the course of the present month, a grand international banquet will be given by the foreign commissioners to the members of the Imperial Commission of the Exposition. Earl Gran- vrfle has undertaken the office of chairman, and the banquet is to be such as is not yet on record. Every country is to be represented on the tables either by its wines or its national dishes. Her Majesty has graciously announced her intention of supplying the game for this Homeric feast; Scotland will contribute salmon and grouse, and the reindeer of Lapland will be served up side by side with the gazelle from Tunis. The wines of the Cape, of Greece, and of the Rhine will flow in goblets from Bohemia, while the Hungarian tokay, and the lachryma christi, from Vesuvius, will rival the choicest vintages of Oporto and Cadiz. The guests meanwhile will be regaled with cosmopolitan music. Swiss airs will alternate with the strains of Naples and of Spain. Even China will not be for- gotten, thanks to M. Hainel de Crorwenthal, the skilful composer, who has succeeded in reproducing for us the ancient national airs of the Celestial Empire. Exquisite meats and cates, now almost unheard of, are to be served in succession at the board, recalling to the be- wildered partakers the magnificence of feasts of ancient Borne. Small states as well as great will furnish their contingent. Even the little republic of Andorra will not be forgotten—she will send her celebrated trout, her heath cock, and her white partridge.