The Aberystwith Observer

EXECUTION AT GLOUCESTER. The execution of Frederick Jones, for the murder of "ail n rSWe<J^1^art; Emily Gardner, at Cheltenham, took f. 01Lv-01? y morning at the Gloucester County K pi' s is the execution that has taken place V y loucester under the modern system of semi-privacy, ( j indeed, it is many years since a public execution took place in that city. The culprit died almost with- out a struggle, immediately after the drop fell. There Was but a small number of persons collected outside the gaol and on the bank of the Severn which com- manded a view of the prison. The body having hung if usual time was cut down, and an inquest held upon by Mr. Bull, one of the coroners, as required under the new regulations. The circumstances attending this case were of an Usual character. Both the deceased and the prisoner Were young people. The former was the daughter of a hm Publican, who kept the Early Dawn public- • PfiK011er had, unknown to the girl's parents, e Paying his addresses to her. His advances, how- F' Were not favourably received by the girl. Never- 1 nnfft still followed her. On Sunday evening, the co e.ceJnl)er> he was at the Early Dawn and ac- at^P^^if i ^ceased girl with her sister to the house Ch2uCr latter was in service at Saxhan-villas, Ton J03' i^^er leaving the sister at Saxhan-villas I iQ deceased proceeded towards the Early .This was ten o'clock at night, and some ^in8^118 i111 neighbourhood heard cries of tyi although the murder was committed al- most m the middle of the town of Cheltenham, and although one man actually saw Jones dragging the body of his victim across the road to a ditch no one interfered, and the fact of the murder MVS not known until Jones himself, returning to his own home the same night, announced that he "had murenred Gardner's daughter." He told his incre- dulous, hearers where he had committed the deed, and on 1 ocseding to the spot the body of the poor girl was found in a ditch by the side of the road, with her throat cut from ear to ear. When questioned about the murder e said, I ve killed Emily. She tried to cut my throat, and I cut hers and he added, I'd do it again if I was hanged to-morrow She commenced on me, and v^ uished it, and the sooner the rope's round my neck tne better. The murder had been committed with a razor, belonging to the father of the deceased, which had been kept m the back kitchen. This was known to the pri- soner. Th e razor was found near the spot where the murder was committed. This razor, the prisoner through his counsel on the trial, alleged the deceased had attempted to cut him with, and that he took it from her and retaliated. The defence, however, was unsupported, and has been quite set aside by e admission of the condemned man since s trial. While in the condemned cell, the culprit stated that he carried the razor in his pocket >i /^f10^18 ^or,e attacked the girl, and that when her he said he meant to kill her with her fathers razor, and that he did this because of his jealousy of some men who lodged at her father's house, 1he only way to account for the crime was that the convict was jealous of the attentions paid to the de- based by other men. They had never been observed to nave any serious quarrel, and when the deceased w^ r.^ el-A i h!r half an hour before the foul crime terms together' were apparently upon amicable

THE NEW SEARCH FOR DR. LIVINGSTONE. ir 11 the subject of the search for Dr. Livingstone, r UPy Kowley' of Oxford, writes to The Times 1 learn with regret that it is intended by the Royal Geo- Society to send out another Livingstone Search ,vp Ke"ef Expedition," because during two and a half years geif received no information from Dr. Livingstone him- x-r,(V, • what do we really know of his whereabouts ? rirn, ■g' certainly. True, reports of his position and cIrCUInstances have from time to time during the period j he has been hidden from us come down to Zanzibar, of tv^e now have sensational account of the results !jhe .American search expedition, but we have no fni U ^formation upon the region in which he may be T>r- or uP°n the circumstances in which he may be placed, •^nis new expedition, therefore, will have less information to proceed upon than the first, which had a particular locality indicated where'what it sought might be gained but now it is proposed to send forth an expedition to Lake Tan- ganyika because Livingstone was there alive and well nearly three years ago. By this time, tor all we know to the contrary, he may be with Sir Samuel Baker on the Victoria Nyanza. The only result of the expedition will most likely be to let us know that he really was at Tangan- yika when he himself said so. Of the first expedition I wrote —" If alive, we are far more likely to hear of Livingstone from himself than from those who are sent out after him." That did not prove quite correct, yet a few weeks after the return of Mr. Young, who did his work admirably, we did receive a letter frem Living- stone, written in a region far away from the scene of his SiU^?v.)Se(T mnrder> au<l long after the date assigned to his cteatn. I think the present expedition will prove far less useiul than the first, and must fail to accomplish its object. It is not the first time that Livingstone has been so long inuaen In the wilds of Africa, and it seems to me a great pity that we cannot show a little more of that endurance which characterizes him. If he be alive-and we have no reason to suppose him dead—depend upon it he is quite capable of taking care of himself. I think it an insult to the grand old man (for m experience, if not in years, he is old) to be so alarmed about his safety, &c., and to be proposing, when we do not hear from him, to send out men inferior to himself to see if he has got into trouble, and to rescue him from his difficulties. I have Men Livingstone at work in Africa, and I can fancy his wrath when he learns how little, after all, we think of his capabilities. We gave him reason to think that we con- sidered him almost superhuman in his capacity as a traveller, and now we propose to treat him as less capable than the least experienced adventurer who is ambitious of the fame which attends a successful geographical feat. I think we might spare Livingstone's feelings by doing violence to our own a little longer. If we heard that he was dead, an expedition to seek for information relative to his death and to recover anything he may have left behind him would be due to him and to ourselves, for he is a national hero, and a man of whom Great Britain has good reason to be proud; but not re- garding him as dead, and having every reason, judging from his past achievements to conclude that he is doing his work well, it would now in my humble opinion, be kindness to him and wisdom in ourselves to wait aud wait.

REPRIEVE OF THE COVENTRY MURDERER. Arthur Frederick Brown, a youth of 17, who was sentenced to death at the last Warwick assizes for the murder of John Milward, at Coventry, on the 8th December, has been reprieved during her Majesty's pleasure. The execution was fixed to take place at Warwick Gaol, on Tuesday (the 9th) morning. The murder was one of a desperate character. The convict and Milward worked at the Leigh Mills, Coventry. Brown was discharged, and wrongly attributed it to Milward, who was an overlooker at the mills. He was heard to make use of threats towards Milward, and on the night of the 8th ult. waited for him in a dark entry and stabbed him with a clasp khife, The blow must have been given with great force, as the wound pena- trated the walls of the chest, transfixed the apex of the heart, punctured the diaphragm, and wounded the left lobe of the liver. Milward staggered into the street, where he fell down, gasped out that Brown had stabbed him, and died in a few minntes. The jury accompanied their verdict of guilty with a recommend- ation to mercy on account of the youth of the prisoner and Mr. Justice Lush promised it should be forwarded to the proper quarter, but in passing sentence warned the prisoner not to hope for mercy. Strenuous efforts, however, were made to obtain a commutation of the capital sentence. A memorial was addressed to the Home Office by Lord Leigh, the Lord Lieu- tenant of the county, on behalf of the magistrates another by Mr. Eaton, M.P., from the mayor, ministers of religion, and inhabitants of Coventry a third by Mr. Carter, on benalf of the workpeople of Leigh Mills, where the convict and Milward were both employed; and a fourth from the inhabitants of Birmingham. Late on Saturday night a special mes- senger arrived at Warwick Gaol from the Home Office with a reprieve for the convict; and on Sunday morning Lord Leigh received a similar communication from the Secretary of State, and at once sent it by special messenger to the governor of the gaol. Mr. Anderson communicated the fact of the reprieve having been re- ceived to the prisoner, who was greatly overcome by the intelligence. He had judiciously been keptin ignor- ance of the efforts which were being made to obtain a commutation of the sentence. He asserted that he did not go to the entry with the intention of killing Mil- ward, but to make up their difference but that angry words ensued, and in his passion he stabbed the deceased.

REGISTERED LETTERS IN FRANCE. "Nobody can have lived long in France without ex- periencing inconvenience from the scrupulous care with which the postmen execute the rigid orders of the Post- office about the delivery of registered letters. If you are expecting a registered letter, and are in a hurry to get it, you must be a prisoner in your house till it comes, for neither your wife, your son, your servant, nor your concierge is com- petent to sign a receipt for it. The postman will take it away again and again, till he finds you in person when going his rounds. A decision of a court of law has, however, just ruled, contrary to the practice of the Post-office, that a husband is not only entitled to receive a registered letter addressed to his wife, but is justified in snatching it out of the postman's hands. The circumstances which gave rise to this decision were that a postman, calling at a house with a registered letter for a married lady, not findingher at home refused to deliver it to the husband. The latter, happening to see on the post-mark the name of a place where he suspected-his wife was carry- ing on an intrigue, assaulted the postman, forcibly took possession of the letter, and found in it the con- firmation of his worst fears. The Court of First Instance, which I cannot help thinking was guided by the especial circumstances of the case rather than by principle, dismissed the action for the assault upon the postman, on the double ground that the Poat-ofiice had no right to make rules derogatory to the common law right of the husband to open his wife's letters and that it was intolerable that a postman should be the medium of a criminal-corre- spondence between an adulteress and her lover. The latter clause of the judgment seems excessively wide of the mark," says the correspondent from whom we are quoting, who thus continues" Nobody could be more innocent than the postman, who knew nothing of the contents of the letter, and only obeyed general orders. I should not be surprised to see the decision reversed m Cassation But it will be a public benefit if the scussion shmdd lead to a relaxation of the rigid rules of the Post-office, which, by engendering indefinite de- lay, often make a registered letter a nuisance and an injury, instead of a benefit. It would be practically better if, as m England, anybody in palpable charge of the house were competent to give a receipt for the letter the instant it arrives."

TOO MUCH OF A JOKE! A gentleman in Vallejo had a habit of walking in his sleep. One night his good wife, who had re- monstrated with such solid articles as she could lay her hands upon, but to no purpose, resolved that she would compel him to discontinue the unpleasant custom or kill him in the attempt. After he had lain down and gone deeply into dreams, she tied a cord to his ankle, and the other end of the same she looped about a standing shot-gun heavily charged with leaden pellets, intended for the buoyant duck or the fleeting rabbit. Shortly he assumed a vertical attitude, stared blankly at his wife with the look of a gate-post very much in earnest, and said with deliberate precision, "Hanner, I'm goin' to git up." There was no reply. Hanner," he repeated, "I remarked that I'm agoin' to rise. Hannah counterfeited a profound and tranquil slumber. The gentleman slid his feet sidewise out of the bed and stood erect; thawife merely crawled stealthily under the mattress and awaited the result. Muttering a half-articulate anathema against women as wouldn't take no interest in anything a feller done,]'the head of the. family strode forward upon his armless mission. There was a ringing clatter as of something pitched prone upon the <0 floor, a scuffling, dragging sound, as of the same thing jerked violently forward, and two deafening ex- plosions blending into a sullen roar, which gradually died away with an accompaniment of Jingling glasses and rattling crockery. The woman came out of her concealment with the smile of an angel. There^ stood her lord and master, with gun- hampered leg, livid with wrath and sound awake. He parted his lips and spake, slowly, earnestly, and in the words following:—" Now, Hanner, you'n me've lived together's man an' wife agoin' on 17 years. Doorin' that time I've been a faithful husban'. You never had a faithfuller, an' you know it. But darn yer jokes; I'm tired on 'em! Ef yer sense o' yumor is never agoin' to get well, you'n me's gotter part. I haint fit fur to be husband to such a darned witty woman, and I think I'll jest quit tryin' to be. Banner, yer free!" And severing the conjuga-, tie at his ankle, the injured husband marched into another apartment 1

The Liverpool Courier reports a portion of the sermon preached by the Rev. Canon Hornby, from Ephesians, v. 21, as follows :— "In the hearts of many Of us to-day there must be loving memories of him to keep alive whose record the chapel has been built which forms so beautiful an addition to this church. And I would turn for a few minutes to his life as an illustration of what I have said. Surely, if any man could glory in the gifts and greatnesses of this world he would have had as much cause as any. If any man ever had the temptation to exult in and rely upon those large endowments of intellect the danger may well have been his—to delight himself unduly in those wonderful powers of eloquence, in— Genius high and lore profound And wit that loved to play, not wound And every varying power divine To penetrate, resolve, combine; And feelings keen, and fancy's glow, Which sleeps with him who sleeps below and to look upon himself as so much above the ordinary measure of men that he was not expected to descend to their level, and to submit himself to their needs. Think what the dangerous delight must have been of feeling oneself carried away by one's own inherent power on the stream of that pure and lucid flow of words by which so many have been en- tranced or stirred, so clear that you could see through them every eddy and turn of thought, so powerful that they up- held and bore along to their accomplishment the greatest, the most benevolent, and the most Chuistian measures. And yet was not his life one of subjection to others ? I mean in the sense that there was no indolence, no self-indulgence about it; that it was shortened probably by the energy which disdained inglorious idleness, and would wear out rather than rust out; that here especially the monuments remain of thought and care for those beneath him—in this very church, a common work of his predecessors and himself, in the schools, in the benovolent societies, in his plans that those who depended on him should not be de- pendents on mere charity, but should be encouraged to save and care and labour by their own providence and forethought, fostered and furthered by him. And this was not done only from natural kindness of heart, but from a conscientious sense of duty, from a conviction that God had set him in a high station expressly that he might be a beacon and a guide, and that if he had great powers he had also great responsibilities. For those who knew him better than I did will bear me witness that, to use his own express words, he was ever acting under a sense of stewardship that the ruling principle of his life was that he was acting in trust for God, and that he was bound to see that his talents of power and wealth were to be administered in the fear of the Lord and for the welfare of his fellows. It is for those good deeds that we shall reverence his memory here. The nation at large, which he served for half a century-the country, which in a time of commercial trial and distress was specially indebted to him-they will honour him for his public acts and merits. And well they may. For if he had studied his own inclinations only he would have lingered here among his books, or wandered in the woods, whose I every alley green, dingle, and bosky dell,'he knew by heart. His monument here will not be alone in stone and marble, but in the grateful affection of tenants and labourers, whose best interests he was ever striving to promote. And to labourers, and tenants, and servants, and, above all, to heads of departments, let that memory still speak as an incentive to the same conscientious discharge of duty, as an exhortation to the same ever present sense that we are all workers under God in our several places, be they high or low. God forbid that the retainers of this great house, that the tenantry of these large estates, should ever forget the watch-word of their clan, should ever be untrue to the gallant, loyal, faithful devotion in which of old they gathered round the banner of their lord, and raised the cry of 'Stanley for ever r on many a well-fought field."

THE RAILWAY SERVANTS'AGITATION. On Sunday night a densely crowded meeting of rail- Way servants-chiefly of the Great Northern Company pwas held in London at the "Albion," King's-cross, to advance the ten hours movement, payment of over- time, diminution of Sunday duty, and weekly pay- ment of wages. Mr. G. Chapman, the secretary of the newly formed Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, took the chair. The Chairman said he had met Mr. Bass, M.P., who was accompanied by many influential gentlemen, by appointment last Monday, when, for three hours, questions affecting the interest of railway servants were gone into. Mr. Bass said he should like to see railway servants organize themselves and form one grand society, to secure for themselves the advantages Which other working men enjoyed (cheers.) The party were invited to meet Mr. Bass again on Thursday, when among the gentlemen present there was but one feeling—viz., that the time had arrived when something should be done for railway servants, L,, that they could do much if they only these twin1 ou'l^ers to the wheel (hear, hear); and but were satf t?1 !la<\ as e^ why this had not been done, the one handed tb ^the har £ ships existing on these interviews, £ e(ZPobSn-10n T Prom Bass would prove thetrue fri C that Mr. man said he would give 200 T'n" ^hatgentle- liminaiy expenses of the societv tc\ward? the pre- wards erecting a building in whkh th^rl' could conduct their business s?™ts pleasing that, owing to the publicity to latter, the £ '20 given as gratuities f0? the South them.m(K.hhea;f W dlStriWted amongst thf (fiaf X °^hern 6erVant Ck:tail^d the rePly tne i^reat Northern Company to the memorial of the men asking for eleven hours with meal times for day men and ten hours for night men-eight hours to form a days overtime-2s, a week rise-overtime to be paid at the rate of six day^ The repIy of the directors ect that the wages of goods guards atonrtew, porters and others, should be calcu- ktedat the rateoi■ days per ^ek. When work was reqmred beyond the usual fixed hours in troods sheds oryards, where the staff is distinct from the coachincr staff' it was to be paid for _at the rate of ten hours per day for day work, and nine hours for night work • Snndnv "work at roadside or other stations, where neoeHqnrv fr^ safety or for the convenience of passengers, to be ncr. froSed- b7 rotati°n; signalmen and others, iu changing rZ? mg6t t0 aay duty, and vice versa, not to work chn^au?us^y longer than their appointed hours. The night to day duty, and vice verm, will then end nf it and the signalman coming on duty at the timp A Bec°nd six hours will continue his usual ™RS^^Laneetoents will be made to prevent as far as +n 'l e. necessity for the signalman off duty re- Sli?g twelve "St to carry out signal lamps,, and periodical relief will be given to 1 telegraph signalmen from Sunday duty by relief men or otherwise. Three days' holiday with pay will be al- lowed annually to each appointed man after he has been a year in the service, with a pass for himself and family to any part of the Great Northern system (great laughter). Then followed a scale giving an increase of Is. a week to all the servants over three years in the service. The speaker said this was really no answer to the men at all. The reduction made only referred to overtime, but no alteration had been made in the actual hours of labour, which were still 13 hours for day, and 11 hours for night men. (Cheers). And again, although ls. advance had been given to the men generally, the checkers (who check the goods) had Is. a week taken off their wages, and 2s. a week was taken oif the mes- sengers, who used to start at 10s., but were now re- duced to 8s. (Cries of Shame.") A Great Northern Guard.—The directors have not met us even half way, and, therefore, general dissatis- faction exists among us. (Prolonged cheers). I for one am not satisfied. (A Voice: Nor nobody else). We ought not to rest satisfied, but see what action we should take. (Cheers). A Porter--I would say, if we were offered only six- pence, take it. A Checker.—But it's only the three years' men that get the shilling. (Cheers.) Many of us on the Great Northern work 1n hours a day. I know men who have done 23 hours' works out of the 24 for four days successively (loud cries of Shame !") What the men asked for was reduction in the hours of labour, over- time, and increase of pay, and in reply Is. a week was offered to the men of three years' standing. Let them accept it as a small instalment, but let them also write to Mr. Oakley, the general manager, and ask him to give a definite and immediate reply to the memorial sent in by the men. (Loud cheers). He begged that that course be adopted. Another Servant of the company seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation. The Chairman said the agitation had had the effect of increasing the number of guards on portions of the South-Eastern, and thus reducing the labour. Resolutions in favour of the movement were then passed and the meeting closed.

WORKING MEII'S CLUBS. The following well-timed letters on the subject of working men's clubs have appeared in The Times:— f.s an employer of mechanics and labourers, I naturally vrlir, a>rec0mlnen<lations that are likely to make our work- hnt t ai?^ 8ive them better homes and recreations v>rpr>')ro,?*Ure suggest that they are at present scarcely prepared to properly appreciate all the good things proposed. ,'?'so.'s that there is more than one class ?n,d 1 should like to know if it is found necessary to have clubs of more than one class. Are we, for instance, to expect our mechanics, whose wages vary from 30s. to GOs., to meet together in their recreations in the same club room with .their less educated labourers, who can only earn from 12s. to 203. per week? The me- chanics, too, are better educated in most instances than labourers. -The piiolichonse, with its long experience, makes the distinction I allude to by having its parlour and taproom. We all choose our places, and are likely to do so for ever. I should think It would be better to have two classes of club-rooms, where there are two or more classes of "working men." If these clubs also took up some of the princi- ples of the old cluhs" that used to exist in towns and country places, and if the State protected them from breaking," as they used to break," over their finances, the men would probably cling to them as of old. I don't know whether the propositions of some of your correspond- ents about billiards," cards," and their accessories, were projected for mechanics or labourers, but I believe such luxuries would be better discountenanced for my ex- perience is that mechanics are too reckless of their earnings, iJii m1re 80 than labourers, similar to many other classes UQ get money in excess ef an education without restraint. tw,f°?iltowns tllere is a public room supported by rate, cmMp'fnv atdoPtion of tne Libraries Act. It would be a norrpsonn clubs if we knew whether any of your l 3 havo noticed if the labourer feels at home m If as ,tho mechanic and the tradesman, or w !tfnr<l t1 ret to llave more than one room.—I am, &c., Watford, Jan. 6. G> TIDCOJI:BE, Jun.

Now that the movement in f avour of these clubs is gaming ground 1 aslc permission to lay before the public, through your columns the views of the Prince Contort, as expressed to me m 1856, when I had an interview with his Royal Highness on the subject. I then edited a monthly periodical called More Sympathy between Rich and Poor. The ninth number, for November 1856, was devoted to these clubs, under the heading of Leisure Houses for the Labourer." The principal suggestions there made were that the old nrf? Institutes were too grand places for workmen, managed by committees not selected from among wiem; that the object should be rather to occupy the leisure hour than to improve the intellect; and that there should be numerous small buildings in every town, so as to have one near every workman's dwelling, and not a few large ones. His Royal Highness approved these suggestions, but added emphatically-" These institutions will never prosper unless they are made self-supporting. The workman will not resort to houses supported by charity. Nor would houses of charity last long. They must, to endure, be made to afford a profit suflicient to induce respectable persons to undertake the management." Let me, then, commend the suggestion of the wise and good Prince to the earnest consideration of those who are now forming Working Men's Clubs. Let gifts stop with the purchose of convenient houses, these being devoted to the purpose, with a trust declaring that they shall be let for Labourers' Leisure Houses, and the rent applied in aid of the object; the management being lefc to the tenant, on fixed principles, interfering as little as possible with the usual laws of supply and demand. Let me also say another word as to the size and number of the buildings. Workmen will hardly come to a grand building at all, much less to one at a distance from their homes. You must have them at hand for every one, or the frequent liquor house will entrap him.-I am, Ac., JOHN CLABOH. 21, Great George-street, Westminster, S.W., Jan. 5.

A TALE OF TWO SIXPENCES. The following correspondence has been sent to the papers for publication :— 1, Carlton-terrace, Jan. 2,1S72. SIB,—I havethe honour to send you two sixpences which bave been refused in payment of fares by omnibus conductors. I cannot tell when they were coined. They are mere blanks. Thousands of similar coins are in .circulation, poor men must receive them, but cannot pay them away except at a loss. From new silver coin you take six per cent.; from the coins which I now send you, you take a great deal more. Working men suffer this loss, and are help- less. One plea on which you refuse to coin silver is, that you maintain its standard in return for the profit which, you state, attends its coinage. I now prove to you that this plea is invalid. The other plea is, that you make a profit by coming silver, and that this profit should belong to the Government. If Government did profit, there would be an additional reason for coining more silver; but Lord Kinnaird has proved that, Ikrough mismanagement, you coin at a loss. This plea ismherefore, equally invalid. Within a short time the Ban 1^of England was unable to supply a Govehiment Department with P,400 in silver coin. The London and Westminster Bank, one of the best customers of the Bank of England, applied there and at the Mint for £ 500 in silver and failed. A leading trades- man called upon his banker last Saturday week for £ 10, and could only obtain zC5 in silver, Some manufacturers are obliged to pay premiums for silver. Its scarcity is admitted. Mr. Gladstone has transferred to you the responsibility of remedying this scarcity, and you close the Mint in silence. In doing this, you rely on no statute, on no decision at common law-not even on a Royal warrant, but on the arbitrary exercise of a new prerogative of the Queen. I repeat my claim to have standard silver coined at the Mint. I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant, GEORGE TOMLINE. The Right Ron. R. Lowe, M.P., Master of the Mint."

"5th Jan., 1872. SIR,—I am directed by the Master of the Mint to acknow- ledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd Inst., and to in- form you that worn silver coin Is received and exchanged at the Bank of England and its branches. The two new sixpences enclosed have, in accordance with this regulation, been procured at the Bank of England in exchange,for the two worn coins forwarded in your letter. I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, C. W. FILEIIANTLE. Colonel Tomline, M. P., 1, Carlton-terrace."

VENTILATION OF SEWERS. In connection with this subject, which is one of more than momentary interest, the following letter has been sent to The Times for publication Before the subject of sewer ventilation is put aside and altogether forgotten by the public, until it is again re- suscitated by another catastrophe, will you allow me to bring to notice the principle upon which alone safety is to be insured? The numerous communications which have recently ap- peared in your columns have not dwelt much upon this point, which should be steadily kept in view in dealing with the subject. I had my attention most forcibly drawn to this matter in the year 1854, when I ventilated the drains of my own house, and the principle I then adopted experience now shows to be the only correct method. Since that time I have brought the subject prominently forward by communications to the journals, as well as at the ordinary meetings of the Croydon Local Board. It is, therefore, with much gratification that I find a general acceptance of the necessity of some action being taken not only in this district, bjit all over the country. After a crusade of some years the Croydon Local Board appointed an engineer competent to deal with the matter, and with ability enough to cope with the necessary details by which means alone success was to be obtained. That successful point has now been reached. In the year 18C5 I induced the Local Board to make a by-law adopting the principle of venti- lation which I have strenously advocated. It was carried out as far as could be done by persuasion in all new houses. It is asserted, however, that the Board has nQ power to com- pel the complete adoption of the principle. The result has been that the frequent exceptions which have been made by builders and not enforced by the Board have still more con- clusively proved the truth that the principle I advocate is the right one, that any departure from it in a good system of sewerage is attended with danger, white perfect safety re- sults from its adoption. The principle involved was submitted to the notice of the Health Department of the Social Science Association in a paper which I read in the early part of the year 1809, and which paper I regarded as an answer to one read some time before at a meeting of the Society of Arts, in which the beauties of traps were set forth, and all necessity for venti- lation altogether ignored. It has been fully proved in this district that no cases of typhoid fever of an indigenous character have arisen in any houses so treated (pure water being supplied), while no cases of typhoid have occurred which could not be traced to neglect of the principle, whether stoppages have occurred in the sewers or not. The principle inculcated is, that it shall not be possible for stagnant air to be ever present in any part of a system of sewers or in any part of a house drain. At certain times and in some seasons a very rapid development of sewer gas occurs. It is most likely to happen in sewers containing de- posit (or so-called elongated cesspools), but it does occur in sewers which are comparatively clean. Any portion of a sewer or house drain in which there is stagnant air is in a condition for its rapid development. This production is often coincident in point of time with a heavy rainfall and a low barometer, or at a time when ozone is not to be found in any quantity in the atmosphere. If, then, impermeable sewers have their lower ends flooded by excess of sewage or by floods or by high tides, the outside traps are newly charged by the rain, the joints are scaled by the wet soil, and there is no outlet for the gases developed but into the houses. If this discharge occurs in the night, it necessarily follows that the inmates are exposed to the in- fluence of the sewer products at a time when it is generally acknowledged that human beings are least able to resist the influence of malaria. The condition is not in present circumstances limited to towns or systems of sewerage; it occurs in the drains of single houses, altogether detached from others it is a constant source of danger to the village as well as to the town, to single houses pS well as to an extensive terrace. I will not now enter upon the debatable ground as to whether the typhoid series of diseases are capable of being produced de novo, or whether some corresponding matter must have already found admission to the sewer. It is of no consequence whether the matter is a germ produced by some former case of the disease, or is an action set up in the human economy independently of any germ of a similar kind. It is certain that the sewer gases may be conveyed into the house in the manner described, carrying matter which will set up the diseases in question unless precautions are taken to prevent the possibility of its occurrence. The means necessary for prevention are easy of application and simple in the extreme. It is probable, also, that there is the greatest amount of danger in the smaller house drains, and it is certain that animal refuse is most dangerous when recent and before putrefaction is established, so that the decided stink is not there to warn the inmates of their danger. The principle which I advocate is that it -should become obligatory upon the owner of every house to have ventilat- ing openings for the protection of every trap; that traps should be forbidden unless so protected, and each should be so constructed as not to be capable of easy removal. The extension of the soil pipe of the water-closet upwards above the level of tilt parapet of the house would provide the most important part. and if the principle advocated was carried out in its integrity it would prevent the possibility of hidden danger, even if there should happen to be something wrong with the drains. Overflow or waste pipes, the traps of which may get dry, should never on any pretence be allowed to communicate directly with the sewer at all. If this principle is carried out in a district containing 8,000 houses and if each house averages about five distinct and independent communications with the house drain, it follows that 40,000 openings will exist which should rise above the level of the highest windows, but not on a level with the tops of the chimneys. These 40,000 openings will insure a positive circulation in all the house drains by reason of natural laws which are always in operation such as the tendency of air at different temperatures and at different degrees of saturation as regards moisture to commingle of gases of different densities to diffuse them- selves which action will be constantly assisted by the motion of the' external air. These motive powers win be assisted by the constant changes of temperature caused by the influx of hot water, and also by the varying rise or fall of sewage in the bottom of the sewer. These forces will together compel a circulation and prevent the possibility of that stagnation which allows of fungoid growth, upon which the develop- ment of sewer gas sometimes depends, and the concentra- tion of the latter in a matter dangerous to those who come in contact with it when they are prone to take on a typhoid action. The principle I advocate simply requires that pores shall be made in the tops of the sewera and at the extremity of every junction, which shall correspond with the sweat glands in the human skin, and the stemata which exist under the leaves of trees. If we make these openings numerous enough, Nature will establish a circula- tion sufficient for perfect safety, dilution and oxidation will then quickly dwarf and destroy the causes of disease what ever they may be, and stop the progress of infection from such sources m a marvellous manner. It follows that if-ihese numerous outlets are provided it will be necessary JOT air to enter somewhere. The openings already provided for cleansing and examining the sewer will become inlets, and these gratings in the public streets oftpn giving out most pestiferous odours, only now rendered safe by immediate oxidation and extensive dilution would be come in a great many instances inlets for fresh air If they are outlets the neighbourhood may be perfectly protected by charcoal trays, on the principle suggested liv nv S house, and ably applied by Mr. B. Latltam to the "we'ra of Croydon. An examination of these trays in dry weather easily shows which way the wind blows. If the openings are inlets the charcoal is seen to be covered with a coating of dust and the tray is practically unnecessary, while if there is an escane of air from the sewer the charcoal will continue to be as black as jet. We have on two or three occasions had complaints of smells from these openings, and on each occasion the com plaint has been coincident with the removal of the trav and its non-restoration from some temporary cause The re- storation of the tray has at once removed all cause of com- plaint. The principle I advocate is simple in its application it does not necessitate an immediate and sometimes dangerous turning up of old drains, but allows them to be left in safety to a more convenient season. It does not call for any of those suggested shafts, assimilated <raa curiously constructed furnaces for the destruction ..V +i, sewer products. It simply requires that a sufficient mini ber of breathing pores shaft be made at the extremp of each drain, and nature then will establish a circulation which, by rapid oxidation and continuous dilution shall reduce the chance of danger to an infinitesimal degree' The owners of a considerable number of houses in this district have carried out my suggestions, and a growing experience of 10 years has convincingly proved the success of the rdan when it has not been marred by the ignorance of those to whom the work is confided. The workmen often do every- thing calculated to destroy its efficiency by refusing to re- cognise the simplicity of the design, the pipes are often inserted a long distance from and below the trap as manv right angles are made as can ,'possibly be brought out and the size of the pipe is often ridiculously small; while to be perfectly efficient, the pipe should be straight upwards or nearly so, and its diameter nearly equal to the Dine it is'in- tended to protect. 1 Notwithstanding these drawbacks, it can be incontestably proved that perfect safety results to those houses to which it is applied, and if the work is done moderately well the typhoid series of diseases will not find a resting place under that roof, while the neglect to provide efficient sewer venti- lation is certain to bring mischief the more perfectly any given house is fitted up, and the more studiously fresh air is excluded from entering by natural channels, so that the'rich and luxuriously-inclined will suffer, while the poor com- paratively escape.—I am, &c., AIFRED CARPENTER, M,D. Croydon, Jan. 6.

INTEMPERANCE IN IRELAND. In a letter to one of the parochial clergy of his diocese, Cardinal Cullen, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, writes "Half of the actual evils of Ireland have their origin in intemperate habits; and, if you examine the history of families reduced to misery and starvation, you will generally trace the cause of their ruin to the same disgraceful source. But what are these temporal evils when compared to the harvest of sin and iniquity to which drinking gives rise ? Almost all the crimes- the dissensions, the fighting, the swearing, the con- spiracies, the robberies, the murders, the secret and illegal combinations, the gross immoralities—occa- sionally committed in Ireland can be traced back to this vice. Were it not for this unfortu- nate habit, our country would be almost free from guilt, and again merit the title of Island of Saints. But, alas how many souls redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ are lost every year through an excessive desire of intoxicating liquors, and cast off into the regions of eternal woe. Exhort, therefore, your good parishioners to league themselves against drunkenness, and endeavour to induce those who keep public-houses to set their faces against excessive drink- ing in them at all times, and to close them on Sundays and holidays altogether, and other days at an eany hour, so as to prevent the evils of nocturnal carousing and dissipation. Those who encourage others to commit sin in order to make money by the con- sumption of their whisky, incur an awful responsibility in the sight of God. They will have to render a dreadful account to the Eternal Judge on the last day. They may make a little profit by encouraging the sin- ful passion of others for drink, but what will it profit a man to gain the whole world if he lose his own soul?'"

LION AND LION-TAMING. The recent dreadful death of Macarthy, the lion-tamer, has furnished to the Daily News a fit occasion for publishing an Interesting article on the above subject, by An Ex-Lion King," from which the following are extracts :— Do I know the history of lion taming, ask you ? I ought to. Having been in the profession so long, I know most of those who were comrades in it with me and then somehow I took a sort of morbid interest in hearing all the stories about tearing, and pluck, and what not, that might escape men who had less on their minds on the subject than I had. There are three kinds of lions come to this country. The greater number are fetched from the Cape, some come from Egypt, but are really Nubian lions, and they are the biggest and dangerousest, and another kind, the maneless sort, comes from Senegal. The. man that imports nearly all the lions into this country is Jamrach, down in Ratcliff-highway. He has his agents out abroad, and also buys from stewards and captains of ships who bring the animals home on spec, and he sells them to the menageries and the Zoological Gardens. You get them from him well nigh as wild as the day they were caught, for I believe he never allows any of his men to go into the cages, and if he wants to shift them he places one cage alongside another and drives the beasts in by setting fire to the straw in the den he wants them to quit if no other way will do. But even with these precautions his men sometimes get torn; I am told he had a man badly hurt a short time ago. I reckon that at present there are about fifty lions altogether in England, but of these only a certain number have been imported. The confinement- bred lions seldom live very long, and are not to be com- pared for looks to the forest-bred beasts but of course they are cheaper, and that has of late hurt the foreign market. T J- The tigers come from India and don't breed so free in captivity. The tiger is not so sullen in confinement, but he is more treacherous, and when he once loses command of hisself, there is not a pin to choose between him and the lion. I think I would sooner on the whole have truck with the lion than the tiger. Some people will tell you that there is no vice about either. Then I ask them, how is it that men who have to >.o with 'em get so often torn ? It is very easy to say that they let their talons out some- times unwittingly into a chap's flesh, and that if he has presence of mind he will lift the paw and think nothing about it. But when you feel the claws going into the flesh, an inch and more, may I never if you can help dragging the limb away. Then the beast drags his way, and so you get torn and the blood comes, and the animal, partly through the sight of,blood, partly through a feeling of desperation at knowing he has done wrong, lets go anyhow and the others in the cage with him catch the infection and then you may say your prayers. The dangerousest time, ordinarily, to interfere with lions is when they*are feeding, especially if .they are gnawing a bone. It is pretty well certain death for a man to go without warning to an old lion or lioness and try to drag a bone away from it. You may switch them away, but it is very dangerous. Crockett used to take the most liberties with lions feeding of any <ian I ever saw. Then, there are seasons when if there be a lioness in a cage, both she and the lions that are with her, are well nigh mad with savageness, and daren't be interfered with if a man values his life a button. True, tamers have to go among them then, else business would be at a standstill, but the chap that does so takes his life in his hand. .The lion-tamer likes to get his beasts as young as he can, because they are then more easily brought into order, although, no doubt, there are many instances where a full-grown forest lion has been trained to high perfection. Whatever is the reason, the forest lions are more intelligent and teachable than those bred in confinement. The lion-tamer begins by taking the feeding of them into his own hands, and so gets them to know him. He commences feeding them from the outside of the den, then ventures inside to one at a time, always carefully keeping his face to the animal and avoiding any violence, which is a mistake whenever it can be avoided, as it rouses the dor- mant devil in the beasts. Getting to handle the lion, the tamer begins by stroking him down thp. back, gradually working up to the head, which he begins to scratch, and the lion, which, like the cat, likes friction, begins to rub his head against the hand. When this familiarity is well established, a board is handed in to the trainer, which he places across the den and teaches the lion to jump over it, using a whip with a thong, but not for the purpose of punishment. Gra- dually this board is heightened, the lion jumping over it at every stage and then comes the hoops, &c., held on top of the board to quicken the beast's understanding. To teach the animal to jump over the trainer, the latter stoops alongside the board, so that when the lion clears one he clears the other, and half a dozen lessons are ordinarily about sufficient to teach this. To get a lion to lie down and allow the tamer to stand on him is more difficult. It is done by flicking the beast over the back with a small "tickling" whip, and at the same time pressing him down with one band: By raising his head and taking hold of the nostril with the right hand, and the under lip and lower jaw with the left. the lion, by this pressure on the nostril and lip, loses greatly the power of his jaws, so that a man can pull them open and put his head- inside the beast's mouth-the feat with which Van Amburg's name was so much associated. The only danger is lest the animal should raise one of his fore paws and stick his talons in, and if he do es, the tamer must stand fast for his life till he has shifted the paw. Lion-hunting, for which Maccomo Was so famous, is never to be attempted except with young animals. When the lion begins to get his mane, and becomes near full grown, he will not stiffer himself to be so driven and bustled about; and so it is that the animals that are put through this performance are so often changed. But most men with strong nerves and high courage like an old lion best for ordinary per- formances. His training is sure to be tetter, and they take their chance of the temper, that always grows crustier with age. But there are comparatively few old lions in England. It takes a lion well into ten years to come to his full growth and when this is once attained, confinement seems to bear uncommon hard upon them. Who was the first lion king in this country ? Well, air, I can tell you all about them, and, in fact, the whole story about menageries. Tlll first great menagerie proprietor I ever heard anything on was old Wombwell, who was originally a. shoemaker in the Commercial-road, and who first travelled about n with a big serpent. Before ever Van Amburg was heard on, old Manchester Jack "was doing the lion king in one of Wombwell's travelling menageries, well on to 50 year ago. The manager, I remember well his name, was Bromsgrove. He was a better man, was Manchester Jack, than Van Amburg; they were to have had a regular competition once at Southampton, and lots of money was betted over the matter, but be- fore the time came the American funked on it, and would not come on. Jack took to hotel-keeping in faunton, with Bromsgrove for head-waiter, and died within the last seven years. Van Amburg, after having been killed on paper over and over again, his back broken twice at least, and his head once swallowed by a Eoyal Bengal tiger, died in his bed within the last three years "but he must have been fearfully scarred. Some of the old menagerie stories are funny enough, sir, although there is gruesomeness about them alL Long ago two men called Gilbert and Atkins had a joint menagerie, a lioness belonging to which got loose on Salisbury Plain, while the caravans were halted at a public-house called the Pheasant." Springing out of the ditch, &he seized by the throat one of the leaders of the mail coach and tore it very much before she let go her hold, after the guard of the coach had fired a shot into her with his pistol Two men—one named Multer, the other Reader-went after her, and caught her cowering under a granary raised from the ground on arches. She was brought back, muzzled, and tied with ropes, and the proprietors bought the coach horse, and drew great audiences in Salisbury to see the identical beast as the savage brute had torn so badly. In later times Crockett mMe the greatest name for himself of any lion tamer, n°t m England alone, but also in France, Germany and America. I remember well the time when the six lions were loose at one time in Astley's, when old Batty had the place. The Sangers had sent the beasts up from Edmonton the night before. Nobody to this day knows for certain how they got out of their dens. There they were anyhow, loose and mad in the place, smelling the horses and mad to get at them. They had already killed a man and half eaten him, when Crockett arrived without halting for an instant, he dashed in among them single-handed, and I'm blest if he didn't manage to den them all single-handed. That was nerve for you. At that time Crockett never drank. Crockett's history was a strange one. His mother was the finest woman I ever saw. She was exhibited for 20 years as Miss Cross, the Nottinghamshire Giantess." She stood six feet nine, and broad in proportion, with quite a beautiful face. His father was a musician as used to play the key-bugle, and the pair made a good deal of money. The way Crockett-came to be a lion king was curious. He was a fine-looking, imposing man, a mu- sician in Sangers' Circus, but with a bad chest, which playing affected. When Howes and Cushing came over from America with their circus about 15 years ago, they proved to be too many for the home circuses of the day, and in search of novelty, the Sangers determined to try performing lions from a menagerie, Crockett, being a fine- looking man, was offered the billet to perform them. Originally he was a man of no nerve for lion performing, or any other calling requiring determina- tion but, after seeing two or three others go into the den with impunity, he accepted the job, and followed the profession to the day of his death. Howes and Cushing took him to America at £ 20 a week, to per- form the animals they had bought from Sangers, and after being in the States for about two years he fell down dead as he was going, on," about midway be- tween the dressing-room and the circus. This was at Chicago. Crockett was born at Presteign, in Radnor- shire, and several times was severely torn while per- forming lions. You ask about Maccomo? I know all about him too. There were two Maccomos—one a duffer, the other the genuine article. Some twenty years ago George Hilton's Menagerie was at Manchester fair, with "Kitty" Lee, for manager, a brother of the Nelson Lee who died the other day. Kitty's real name was Jem, but everybody called him Kitty." Newsome, who was the performer of the lions, had left without an hour's notice, and Lee was aground. But a man named Jemmy Strand, who kept a ginger-bread stand, came forward, and volunteered to perform them at a moment's notice, and Lee christened him Maccomo on the spot. Strand was an Irishman, like poor Macarthy and his head got so turned by success that nothing could be done with him, and his sauce was unbearable. One day at Green- wich fair, a musician, playing in front of the mena- gerie, came to Mr. Maunders, into whose hands Hil- ton's business had passed, and told him that there was a black man outside, who said he was a sailor just come home from sea, and would like to get a job with the wild beasts. Mr. Maunders sent for him, struck a bargain, and sent him into the den at once, and the black man proved to have a wonderful control over the beasts, so that the "gingerbread king" lost his crown at once, and the black man got his nam& of Maccomo, which he bore till he died of consumption about fifteen months ago. Maccomo was the most daring man among lions and tigers I ever saw. He never drank anything stronger than coffee, but he always believed he would meet a violent death. He was fearfully torn over and over again, but not killed. It was riskier for him than for a white man, if it be true as they say, that the beasts can nose a black man and are mad after the flavour of his flesh. These are about the leading lion kings I remember, but there have been many others of less note. As a rule drink is what plays the devil with them all, and you can hardly wonder at it. Ah so you have heard about lion queens too, have you ? Well, I can tell you all about them also. The first lion queen came out in Joe Hilton's circus, at the suggestion of Kitty Lee, to counterbalance the attraction of Crockett as a lion king, and he proposed that Hilton's daughter should come out as the lion queen, as she had previously been in the den with the lion. He pro- posed that she should appear under the name of Madame Pauline de Vere, the Lady of Lions," and so she did. I remember her first appearance quite well. It was at Stepney fair, and didn't she cut a dash on the platform in front of the menagerie before going into the den ? At this time Mr. Wombwell's menagerie-as was under Edmonds' management -had an excellent group of wild beasts, and Miss Helen Chapman (now Mrs. George Sanger) volunteered to perform with them as the rival lion queen to Madame de Vere. You may have heard of Miss Chapman's appearance before the Court at Windsor. At another of Wombwell's menageries another lion queen came out soon after—Miss Helen Blight-but she had not performed long before she was killed by the tiger. It was at Greenwich fair, and I was in the menagerie at the time. As Miss Blight turned from one tiger—the oldest—to perform the other, the old devil, with a roar and a lash of his tail, sprang at her, got her by the throat, and tore it open with such fury that she was dead before they got her out of the den. After this horrible mischance, lion queens were prohibited by order of the Lord Chamberlain and a bad day it was for the treasury, for they used to fetch the money in better than anything else. But it was time. Here was Helen Blight killed, and both Madame de Vere—Polly Hilton as was-and Miss Chapman had been badly torn more than once. Lions are just like human beings—everyone has got his tember. Some you might trust for ever till they tasted blood others you cannot watch too cautiously, for they will pin you if they can. And then in con- finement they get used to the human eye, and it ceases to work any effect upon them If you could stop long enough, sir, I could tell you lots more about lion-taming and lion-tamers but you say you must go. Well, in parting, let me tell you that I think the wisest thing the Lord Chancellor could do would be to abolish lion kings as well as lion queens. They risk their lives several times a day, and that for no useful object whatsoever.

DEATH OF SIR FRANCIS CROSSLEY M.P. Death has just carried off Sir Francis Crossley, one of the representatives for the Northern Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire. He died on Friday morning, at his residence, Belle Vue, Halifax, at the age of 54. The youngest son of the late Mr. John Crossley, who more than half a century since was the founder of the great carpet manufactory at Halifax, which now gives employment to upwards of 3,000 hands, if not more, Sir Francis was born in the year 1817. He had sat in Parliament without interruption for just twenty years, having been first returned for Hali- fax in 1852. That constituency he continued to represent down to 1859, when he was returned for the West Riding, for the North-west Riding in 1865, and, lastly, at the last general election, "on the subdivison of that Riding, he was chosen by the Northern Divison. It is almost needless to add that, true to his Noncon- formist principles, he has always been in Parliament a strong opponent of the principle of religious endow- ments, and a firm advocate of the Ballot. His name, too, is well known in Yorkshire and elsewhere as the munificent co-founder, with his brothers, of an or- phanage at Halifax, which bears the family name, and as having been himself the donor to his native borough of a public park, which was laid out by Sir Joseph Paxton with walks, fountains, and marble statuary, at a cost which sounds almost fabulous. He was a magis- trate and deputy-lieutenant for the West Riding of Yorkshire, and also a magistrate for Suffolk, in which county he purchased the magnificent residential estate of Sir Samuel Morton Peto at Somerleyton, near Lowestoft. Sir Francis, who, it will be remembered, acted as one of the Commissioners for fixing and arranging the boundaries of the new constituencies under the last Reform Act, was raised to the Baronet- age in 1863. He married, in 1845, Martha Eliza, daughter of Mr. Henry Brinton. of Kidderminster, by whom he has left issue a son, Mr. Saville Brinton Crossley, born in 1857, who now succeeds to the title as second baronet.

MEMORIAL CHAPEL TO THE LATE EARL OF DERBY. A stranger visiting Knowsley Church on Sunday morning would (says the Liverpool Mcrcury) for some time, at least, have failed to observe that the day was associated with any unusual occurrence yet the service was connected with an event of special interest to the locality, and not altogether uninteresting, probably, to many throughout the nation. Edward Geoffrey Stanley, the fourteenth and late Earl of Derby, was no less distinguished for his high intellectual attainments and statesmanship than for the nobility of disposition and the kindly feeling which were evinced towards all with whom he came in contact. None experienced the force of these excellent qualities more, perhaps, than the tenants with whom he had not unfrequent personal intercourse in the management of his extensive estate at Knowsley, and therefore it was with the most poignant sorrow they mourned his death now more than two years since. Soon after that sad event a very general desire was manifested by the tenantry and a large number of other friends in the neighbourhood to record in a lasting manner their respect and esteem for his memory, and ultimately it was decided to add to the parish church at Knowsley achantry or memorial chapel containing a statue of the late earl. The new chapel was inaugurated on Sunday morning, and allu- sion was appropriately made in the course of the sermon to the late earl, whose memory was more especially re- called by the interesting event of that day. The total cost of the memorial chapel is about £3,000, of which nearly j31,000 has been expended on the statue and tomb. At the service on Sunday morning there was a large attendance. The congregation included the Earl and Countess of Derby and family. Service was con- ducted by the Bishop of Chester; the Rev. Edward Hornby, rector of Bury the Rev. William Feilden, rector of Knowsley; and the Rev. J. B. Bolton, curate of the parish and private chaplain to the Earl of Derby.

The Oxford Local Board are about to appoint a medical officer of health, during the progress of the drainage works at a salary of .£160 perannum.

BREAD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. (From the Lancet.) For several years we continued to expose in the pages of this journal very clearly and systematically the many and scandalous adulterations to which nearly every article of food and drink was then, and is still, though to a less degree, subjected. In doing so we published in every case the name and address of the vendor of each article, and this whether it was found on analysis to be genuine or adulterated. In this way the names of some 3,000 merchants and traders were pro- claimed. This procedure was one of so much boldness and risk that it has hitherto found no imitators, and it is not a little surprising that we should have been able to do this for so long a period with impunity. Having, in the most unhesitating manner possible, exposed nearly all ths deteriorations and adulterations to which food is subject, and so rendered an important public service, we left it to the public and the legislature to find a remedy for so gigantic and demoralising an eviL s The public, however, through roused for a time, have for the most part continued to display that apathy for which it is so remarkable on nearly all questions of a sanitary character, and which are really amongst the most important and practical which can engage the attention of mankind, while the government of the day has contented itself with talking about the liberty of the subject, and with legislating for the evil in a most feeble and nearly useless manner. Once more, however, the apathy of the public shows some slende signs of giving way, and attention is now in certain quarters being again directed to the subject of adulte- ration. The fact that the subject will be discussed in the next session of parliament with a better chance of its being legislated upon has led us to again take up the question. Probably nothing has tended so much to discredit the question of adulteration in the eyes of the scientific and the public generally as the exaggerated and false statements which have been put forth from time to time. Any person conversant with this subject, on reading almost any book on adulteration, cannot but be struck with the mixture of pure invention or mistake with actual fact he meets with in nearly every page. Not long since the alarming statement went the round of the press that our daily bread was commonly adulterated with sulphate of copper or blue -vitriol It was, in fact, to test this statement that we instituted, several weeks ago, some analyses of bread purchased in various parts of London, and with the following results: —1. That the quantity of salt contained in the breads varied from 91 to 226 grains per 41b., loaf those sam- ples as a rule, containing the most salt which were free from alum. 2. That of the twenty breads examined, ten, or one half, were free from alum while in the other ten samples the amount present varied from 12 to 96 grains the 41b. loaf. This result is certainly much more favourable than any that was obtained some fifteen years ago. 3. That not a trace of copper was found in any one of the samples, nor in eight other samples which were likewise examined. These investigations, therefore, do not lend the slightest support to the startling statement already alluded to as to the common adulteration of bread with copper. There is a fashion in fraud, as in most things; and it is this tyrant fashion which, for the mere sake of appearances, sacrifice too often the sub-' stance and that which is really desirable. The fashion in food, stated generally, is, that the eye and the palate must be pleased at all cost,_ even at_ the expense of quality, of nutritive properties, and of wholesomeness. There is even a special fancy in bread, and this is, that it should be particularly white. For this purpose it is in part, that alum is so much used with flour. A bread not very white is too often condemned, and this unjustly, as bad in quality. Thus the bread prepared from meal made from the whole grain, the outer as well as central portion, is not nearly so white as ordi- nary or alumed bread, but it is far more nutritious and wholesome.

CUTTINGS FROM AMERICAN PAPERS. Rustics in Detroit are allured by a sign which reads Fifty cents for dinner and a lunch for your dog." Get,your sweetheart a new set of teeth as a Christ- mas present." is the invitation of an advertising dentist. A young man in New York is becoming indepen- dently rich by breaking off marriage engagement, objection- able to his father at 100 dollars a time. The city of Richmond needs Revenue, and is fining the owners of baby carriages one dollar each for obstructing the sidewalks. Many fashionable ladies of New York who are partial to low-necked dresses and have not a pretty neck. wear a false neck of wrax or alabaster, which, when a heavy necklace is worn with it, can hardly be detected from the real article. A photographer at Iowa has got into trouble from selling the effigies" of a lady whose negative he chanced to have, as the portrait of Mrs. O'Leary, the owner of the Chicf> go kerosene kicking cow. A Connecticut fisherman one day baited his hook with a live frog. After patiently waiting some time for a bite, as he chatted with a friend, he found that his lively bait had swum ashore, and was sitting quietly on the rock by his side. He wound up his line, and went home. A Southern paper having discussed the question propounded by a New York paper, "Shall the next Presi dent of the United States be a woman?" concludes as follows:—" We nominate Powers's Greek Slave.' She has three of the qualifications, at least-a marble brow, a finely- chiselled nose, and a silent tongue." Don Piatt tells the following touching story how a life was saved A Sunday School superintendent out in Alaska treated his entire charge to a sleigh-ride. There were just forty-one of the cherubs and a six-horse sleigh. On the way home they were beset by a pack of ferocious wolves. Cool and collected in that hour of fearful trial, the heroic superintendent saw at a glance that he must toon be over- taken. In an instant his quick mind grasped the only chance of escape. Seizing the child that always sang 1 want to be an Angel" two notes too high, he flung it to the rapacious horde. It stayed their onward rush for a moment. Next came the urchin who never brought any pennies to the heathen. And so on swept the pursued and the pursuers until the last infant was exhausted. But the brave fellow had economised his material nobly. He was saved. YANKEE PREACHER ON PREDESTINATION.—Let us, for argument's sake, grant that I, the Rev. Elder Sprightly, am foreordained to be drowned in the river, at Smith's Ferry, next Thursday morning, at twenty minutes after ten o'clock; and suppose I know it: suppose I am a free, moral, volun- tary agent, do you think I am going to be drowned? I should rather guess not I stay at home and you never catch the Rev. Elder Sprightly at Smith's Ferry nohow, nor near the river, neither.

Miscellaneous áfnttlHgtlltt, HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL. METHODICAL MENDICANCY.—The South Lon- don Press says that a woman called a day or two ago at a house in Dante-road, Newington, and solicited relief. The proprietor of the house happened to have some tickets of the Newington Relief Society, and offered her one, telling her that she should go to the office in the Walworth-road. The woman took the ticket, turned it about, and said that it was no use going because it was too late in the day. Well, then, go to-morrow," said the giver. Why, Sir, how can I?" returned the beggar piteously, "I shan't be here to-morrow. I only comes round this way once a week. A NOVEL REVENGE. — A tragical affair has occurred at Saint Pierre-de-Salerne. A carpenter named Pierre Yautier, had so ill-treated his wife that she was compelled to leave him and live with her mother. Vautier had often threatened to do her an in- jury, but as she seldom left her mother's, he was unable to carry out his threats. He, therefore, adopted another and a novel method of carrying out his revenge. The house m which he lived belonged to his wife. One evening the neighbours saw it in flames, and all thair efforts to extinguish them were unavailing, and the house was burnt to the ground. On a search being made, the body of Yautier was found, dreadfully charred. He held in his right hand a discharged pistol, and an examination showed that he had blown out his brains. The evening previously he told a brother of charity that in two days he would have a funeral to con- duct for him. THE TICHBORNE CASE.—The case of Tich- borne v. Lushington" will be resumed, before Chief Justice Bovill, and the eleven" special jurors, on Monday, the 15th instant, when the Attorney-General will open his case against the claimant to the property and baronetcy. On the adjournment for the Christ- mas recess the jurors were paid one guinea a day each for the 30 days attendance, making 70 guineas paid to each of them for their attendance on the trial. The first sittings extended to 40 days, and the second to 30. According to the strict rule, now the provision as to special jurors has been repealed, a special juryman is only entitled to one guinea for a cause, but it was ar- ranged that in this case the payment should be one guinea per day, and the solicitors on both sides have divided the expense between them. MR. BRIGHT AND THE CABINET.—On Satur- day night Mr. Potter, member for Rochdale, in address- ing the members of the Lowerplace Liberal Associa- tion, said that they would remember that in July, 1870, the Government proposed the increase of the army by 20,000 men, and an enlarged vote of two millions sterling. He voted with the glorious minority of seven on that occasion. They had been called "the seven wise men," and he had been told by the Tory party that he had taken a course that was a disgrace to Rochdale. Since Mr. John Bright had been better, he had told him (Mr. Potter) that when he was far from being well he had heard of this question being brought before the House, and partially connected with the Belgian diffi- culty, and that, agreeing with the seven wise men," although he knew nothing of their voting at the time, he (Mr. Bright) sent in his resignation to Mr. Glad- stone on that very question. However, it was likely that, for the stability of the Government, his resigna- tion was not then pressed. It was now a satisfaction to him (Mr. Potter) to remember how he voted on that occasion, and he was sure there were now many members of the House of Commons who wished they had taken the same course, for to this day the egregious blunder was a stumbling-block in the way of the Government. THE MORGUE,-There died in Paris (remarks the Globe), just in time to have his name included in the obituary cf 1S71, a somewhat remarkable person. His name was Charles Francois Perte, and his business in life was to receive the bodies of persons whom crime, accident, or suicide led to the Morgue. Forte, by reason of his taste in waistcoats popularly known as "l'Homme rouge," is described as a man who, under a somewhat rough deameanour, hid a kind heart. Many stories of his acts of humanity are current, but it suffices to know that he has left behind him a child which the double suicide of its parents had left unpro- vided for, and whom l'Homme rouge" took home with him, cared for, and had properly educated. But he has left behind him something more interesting still. Day by day, during the 26 years of his service at the Morgue, Ferte was composing a book, to which he has given thelsingulartitle, Bcgistre de Macabre. The book, which extends to many volumes, is nothing more nor less than the register of the names and addresses— when known, otherwise of the descriptions-of the bodies received by him, which reach a total of 20,000. Ferte appears to have spent his leisure hours in making inquiries into the antecedents of the more interesting of his charges, and the results are given in voluminous notes appended to the register of death. It is not stated whether the book is for sale, but if it be, we need not point out its value to a youthful novelist about to com- mence business. In the record of 20,000 violent deaths annotated by the late keeper of the Morgue there would surely be found material for a complete parlour library of sensational novels, MISTAKEN KINDNESS.-A few days ago the United States zealous and efficient president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, visited Barnum's show, and had his pity deeply stirred by the sufferings of the hyena, which was chained in its cage. Mr. Beigh ordered the chain to be taken off so that the animal might be allowed to roam up and down its narrow place of confinement. This demand was at once complied with, and the result came very near proving disastrous to the whole menagerie. The hyena broke out of its den in the night, entered by main strength the cage of the loapard, and mutilated that beast severely then attacked the elephant, and, being beaten off, seized upon an inoffensive camel, which it so seriously injured that the poor brute had to be killed, and was only secured at last by the lasso, dexterously thrown by a Digger Indian, who was one of Barnum's keepers. TREATMENT OF A HUMANITARIAN BY A LON- DON MOB.-An occurrence of an exciting character took place on Sunday upon that part of the Thames Embankment which lies next to Chelsea College- gardens. This is the spot chosen on Sundays as the debating ground of self-styled ministers of various denominations. On Sunday, a German, who called him- self a Humanitarian, was holding forth to an immense crowd, and above him was a placard on a large board headed, "A Challenge to All," defying popes, cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, &c., to contradict him. He stated that there was no God, and Englishmen were fools and rogues for believing that there was one. At last a vivacious cockney youth began to chaff him, and then a scene of great confusion ensued. The lecturer's hat was knocked over his eyes, his board was torn down, and his stool seized. With an iron rod which had supported the board he strove to defend himself, but this was of little avail, as it was soon wrested from him and amid the groans, hisses, and buffets of about 500 people, he commenced his retreat to the station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. His hat, or, at least, the remains, was politely handed to him, and, more dead than alive, he reached his goal of safety. An assistant was subjected to equajly rough treatment. THE BISHOP OF LINCOLN.—The Bishop of Lincoln has issued a pastoral letter to his clergy and laity for 1872. His lordship says :— The year which is now closing upon us has been a very eventful one. We have seen the continent of Europe ravaged by a terrible war. We have seen a mighty empire suddenly laid low. We have seen one of the fairest cities of the world stained with the blood of its own citizens, shed by the hands of their brethren, and laid waste by fires lighted by their hands. These things are warnings to us. They call on us to humble ourselves before God to confess our sins, public and private; to repent and amend our lives, and to pray Him to have mercy on us and spare us and protect us. It needs no spirit of prophecy to foretell that we have a severe and searching trial before us. The uncertainty of the future ought to stir us up to make a good use of the present, and to abound more and more in good works." SOMETHING NEW IN WHISKY.—Something new in whisky is reported from Canada. An inhabi- tant of the township of Cayuga, after much thought on the question for what purpose thistles were created, came to the conclusion that it might be possible to ex. tract whisky from them. The Cayuga experimentalist has got an article" of spirit by the distillation of the leaves and stalks of the thistle which he calls whisky, the alcoholic strength of which is declared to be about 35 per cent., the flavour being pleasant and aromatic while the effect of the new drink on the system is said to be "penetrating and exhilarating," the sensation being the same as if a Jew's harp in full tune was at- tached to every nerve. NOVEL AIDS TO NOVELISTS.—A sale is an- nounced in Paris of the puppets or little wooden .figures which the late M. Ponson du Terrail, the well. known romance writer, made use of when employed in composing the voluminous feuillctons for which he was so celebrated. The marionettes, which represent the various characters of the author's different novels, are small dolls, their faces having been carved ex- pressly for M. du Terrail's use by M. Dollegas, a Swiss artist. They are divided into groups, each bear- ing the name of the story in which the personages composing it played a part. For his great—in length at least—work of Rocambole the author had no fewer than 282. It should perhaps be mentioned that this last work fills nearly a score of closely printed volumes. M. Ponson du Terrail at one time contri- buted simultaneously five distinct novels to the feuilletons of five journals in Paris and it is not to be wondered at that he was driven to the use of mechani- cal contrivances in order to avoid confusing his plots. It is said that M. Paul Feval employed the same plan. HAWKERS' LICENCES.—The plan of granting sixpenny licences to hawkers, available for one year, has been tried for twelve months, and was superseded on the 1st inst. by a five-shilling licence. The conse- quence has been that the crowd of itinerants who last year obtained hawkers' licences as a cover for begging, and defied the police, have this year kept aloof, and the number of applications has not exceeded 2 per cent, of the number who obtained licences in the first week of 1871. THE LAST INVENTION !—An ingenious in- strument for dyeing hair has been invented in America. It -consists of an arrangement like a large pair of scissors but one blade consists of a hollow cone, like an extinguisher, and the other of a flat plate, which shuts' up against the side of the extinguisher. Within the extinguisher a piece of sponge is fitted, and an ob- long hole is cut in the side of the extinguisher where the flat plate comes in contact with it, through which hole the sponge slightly protrudes. The sponge is now saturated with the dye, and the hair is drawn through between the flat plate and the projecting sponge, whereby it is dyed without any of the dye being spilt upon the skin. A LONG AND QUICK RIDE.-The celebrated ride of Dick Turpin on his famous Black Bess waa brought forcibly to memory by the evidence given by a man named Shea, one of the witnesses for the prosecution in a case of sheep-stealing which was tried at Melbourne on the 27th ult. This man stated that on the morning of the 10th of August he rode from Egerton to Melbourne, a distance of 62 miles, leaving the former place after sun. rise, and, after half-an-hour's stoppage on the way, reaching Melbourne at eleven o'clock; that he re- mained in Melbourne an hour, and then returned to Egerton, getting there by dark, and accomplishing a distance of 124 miles, riding one horse. SINGULAR EXHIBITION.—The Suisse Badicale contains the programme of the Exhibition to be opened in 1872 by the Society for the Protection of Animals. The Exhibition will consist of collections of domestic animals :-Quadrupeds (stuffed), birds and their eggs, drawings and paintings. Of non-domestic animals Quadrupeds and birds, reptiles, insects preyed irpon .by insectivorous birds, and drawings and paintings. The second section will consist of tha various objects having reference to the society's aimsCol. lections of reptlies and birds' eggs, artificial'nests improved horse-shoes, bridles, harnesses, reins, yokes, &c., carts for the transportation of live cattle, ike., veterinary instruments and remedies; agriculture— re improved hives, &c.; pisciculture—various imple- ments literature—special biography, drawings, plans, paintings, statistical maps, list of places where the society has branches, &c. Intending exhibitors are requested to send in their applications by, or before, April 20, to M. M. Carey, No. 3, Rue du Vieux. College, Geneve. Prizes, in money and medals, will be awarded by jury. Contributions will he thank- fully received by M. Lagier, treasurer of the society, at the Athen^e.

THE MARKETS. MARK -LANE.MoNDA. Y. Fresh up to Mark-lane to-day the arrivals of English wheat were very moderate. The condition of the samples was very unsatisfactory, the effect of the damp weather being very perceptible. There was no decided activity in the trade, but all good and fine samples sold steadily on rather higher terms. Damp and inferior parcels met with a slow sale, at late rates. A full average supply of foreign wheat was on the stands. Samples of good quality and condition were readily disposed of,_ and last Monday's prices were fully supported. For other kinds the demand ruled quiet at previous rates. Floating cargoes of grain were in steady request at full cur- rencies. The market was moderately supplied with English and foreign barley. All good and fine qualities sold steadily and prices were well maintained. Fine malting product realised extreme rates. As regards other sorts, the market was quiet, on former terms. There was a fair demand fcr malt, at full quotations. The supply of English oats on offer was small, of foreign tolerably good. The trade was very Arm, and prices were 6d. per qr. higher. MahD sold readily, at fully late rates. The supply on offer was tolerably large. Beans, the supply of which was only moderate, sold slowly, at late rates. There was a moderate inquiry for-peas at previous quotations. The market was fairly supplied. In flour quite an average business was transacted, and prices showed a tendency to advance. METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET.—MONDAY. The supply of foreign stock on sale here to-day was ve*-v limited, and the quality was mostly inferior. The trade wh a quieter than on Monday last, and that day's prices wei^ barely supported. A diminution in the supply of beast-. from our own grazing districts was apparent: but on the whole, the quality was satisfactory. The supply from Scot- land was, as usual, in excellent condition. Although the trade was less active than on Monday last, yet all good aud prime breeds were steadily disposed of. In some instances prices were 2d. per 81b. lower nevertheless, prime Scots and crosses realised lis. Sd. to 6s. iod per 81b From Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Cambridgeshire, we re- ceived about 1,500 head; from other parts of England about 50Q various breeds and from Scotland, 217 Scots and crosses With sheep the market was very scantily supplied. This deficiency caused butchers to operate with extreme caution and also iuduced salesmen to demand extreme prices. Most breeds moved off steadily, but no advance was established Prime Southdowns and half-breds sold at 6s. lOd. to 7s. per 81b. Very few calves were on offer, either English or foreign. These were disposed of at late rates. Pigs were in abort supply and steady request, on former terms. Per Sib. to sink the offal. 8. d. a. d. s. d. s d. Tnfr. course beasts 3 8 4 6 Prime Southdown.. 6 10 7* 0 Second quality 4 8 5 2 Large coarse calves 4662 I rime large oxen,. 5 6 5 8 Prime small 6 4 6 4 Prime Scots, Ac. 5 8 5 10 Large hogs. S 8 4 0 Infr. coarse sheep,. 4 4 6 0 Neat small corkers 4 « o Second Quality. 6 4 6 0 Lamb q 00 0 Prme coarse wooled 6 4 6 8 Qr. old store pigs' 0 0 0 0 METROPOLITAN MEAT MARKET.—MONDA7 The supplies of meat on offer here to-day were mc.J.date, The trade was quiet, and prices generally favoured buyci-a, Per 81b. by the carcase. s. d. s. d. s. d. s d Inferior beef 3 44 0 inferior mutton 3 8 4 4 Middling ditto 4 4 4 8 Middling ditto. 4 G 5 li Prime large ditto 4 8 4 10 Prime dftto 5 0 5 4 Prime small ditto.. 4 10 5 0 Large pork 3 43 h Veal 5 4 6 0 Small pork 4 04 « HOPS. During the past week a firm feeling has prevailed. Tl,, re has been more disposition evinced to operate, and f',r all classes of hops extreme prices have been realized Mi,l an,i East Rents, £ 10 to- £ 16 16s.; Weald of KeK,s '« !(!, 10s- SurXV £ 7 V" £ 0^8. :Far-ua^ and counti^ £ 11 to £ 16. i earlings: Mid and Eas* Kents £ 3 to loa ■ Weald of Kents, £ S to £ 5 15s^; tiam and country, £ 410s. to 0lds, £ 1 5s. to £ 2. 1. POTATOES. The market bis been abundantly supplied with potatoes. The trade is generally slow, and prices are rather ™er. Ths following are the quotationsRegents, 80s to 1208. flukes, 110s. to 140s. rocks, 60s. to gbs. Victorias, WOOL. The parket still presents a firm appearance. There is a good demand for English wool, at extreme prices. Other qualities command a fair amount of attention, at fully pre- vious currencies. FISH Pickled herrings, 26s. 6d. to 30s.; red ditto, 12s. to iSs. per bMTel; bloaters, 2s. to4s.; kippers, 2s.to 4s. 6d. per box; turbot,8s. to 10s.; brill, 4s. to 6s. 6d. each soles, 2s. to 4s. per pair lobsters, Is. lOd, to 4s. crabs, 2s. to 3s. 6d. each eels, Is. 2d. per lb. native oysters, £10 10s.; com- mon ditto, 15s. to 32s. per bushel.