The Aberystwith Observer

CHAPTER IX. WOOED AND WON. C'h, happiness! Our being's end and aim; Good, pleasure, ease, content! whats'er thy name That something still which prompts th' eternal sigh, For which we bear to live, or dare to die. DH. SAMPSON and the friend whom he was about to visit had been first schoolfellows and afterwards entered at the same college, where they followed up their former intimacy, and had never since lost sight of each other in the course of a life of labour in the respective professions they adopted, remaining fast friends through good and ill-fortune, of which each had his full share. Mr. Sartoris was destined for the bar, and a pos- sible seat in Parliament, of which his father, a York- shire ironmaster and owner of a whole fleet of trading vessels, had long been a member. But one of those sudden reverses of fortune which so often occur to change the whole current of a man's life had come to dispel bis more ambitious dream, and reduced his family to poverty. The young man, forced to work for a bare existence, man- fully abandoned all the bright future he had mapped out for himself and entered an attorney's office as an articled clerk. Here he gradually worked upward, earning for himself, if not fame and the distinction he had looked for, sufficient of this world's wealth to ta1¡e to himself a wife, who unfortunately died in giving birth to their first child, a boy. A few years afterwards Mr. Sartoris, who had not married again, was chosen by one of his clients as guardian to his motherless daughter, a prospec- tive charge which the sudden death of Mr. Granton soon afterwards converted into an existent and not altogether agreeable fact. However, in the begin- ning it was easy to get rid of the responsibility, and Mr. Sartoris did so by sending the oiphan to school at once, and allowing her to remain there until such time arrived as she would be fitted to enter the world. Gertrude Granton was to a small extent an heiress; that is to say, she would have on coming of age, or marrying with her guardian's consent, eight thousand pounds, and Mr. Sartoris, as she grew up and showed unmistakable signs of increas- ing beauty, began to think that it would be a very pleasant arrangement if his son and his ward were to make a match of it and settle down near him. His motives could scarcely be called mercenary looking at the very modest proportions of his ward' dowry, but thev were certainly selfiRh in so far a this, that he was actuated more by a wish to bind his son to some settled home than to secure a cerA tainty of happiness for the girl he desired him to wed for George Sartoris, without being vicious or the possessor of habits that could fairly be called bad, was yet of a nature and disposition the least suited for conjug l happiness. Cold, selfish and indolent, he was content to live upon the income derived from a small inheritance that came to him through his mother, eked out by an allowance from Mr. Sartoris, and positively declined to enter into any calling or profession. I can enjoy life in my own fashion.very welTas I am," he said, in answer to his father's remon- strances. My wants are few, and easily supplied. I am not extravagant, and I like to be my own master. As for a wife I"—and he shrugged his shoulders care- lessly-" I would rather be without one, if it's all the same to you. J But it is not the same to me, George," answered the old man, a little sadly. "I should like to see you with some interest in life, some- thing to occupy you, to make you think sometimes less of yourself and more of others. And, by the way, I hope you'll try and make things pleasant by being near at home in future, Gertrude will soon be here for good now, you know, and it would be very dismal for her, poor girl, to have no society but that of an old fogey like me." Oh! girls can always manage to amuse them- selves at home," carelessly answered the young man. "Gertie will do very well without me, I daresay." She's grown a very lovely girl, don't you think ? Can't say I've noticed particularly, sir. The last time I saw her she seemed to be all elbows, shoulder-blades, and cheek bones, but I daresay she'll be passable enough when she's filled out." Upon my word; you are not very complimen- tary. But filled out or not, I consider Gertude to be very beautiful, and most young men would be of my opinion, I think." Shouldn't be surprised," coolly replied George, helping himself to another slice of tongue, for it was over breakfast that the dialogue took place. Most young men are simply idiots as far as the other sex is concerned. Thank Heaven I'm wiser in that respect than my generation! s "Why! you—you cold blooded, insensible scoundrel! exclaimed Mr. Sartoris, hardly know- ing whether to laugh or be angry at his son's affected cynicism. "Do you mean to say you've no admiration for a pretty face ? i Not much, I must confess," languidly answered the young man. "Besides, in this case I only betray a proverbial insensibility, you know. A fellow seldom gives his sister credit for good looks." Sister! what nonsense you talk, George! said Mr. Sartoris, half angrily. Why should you per- sist in such an affectation when you know it to be such, perfectly well?" ■ "In point of fact, yes. I suppose you're right, sir," drawled his son. '• But though I know there is no relationship between us, I have been so accus- tomed to look upon her in that light, that it is diffi- cult to realise the contrary. However, I'll call her, Miss Granton, if you prefer it." Call her what you please, and do try, if y0u can, to help in making the old house pleasant to her while she remains here, which will be till she marries, I suppose." Ah! yes, I suppose that will 'come to pass some day. Wonder who the happy fellow will be?" Why not yourself, George ?" > "Me! ;'K- Yes. She can't have seen anyone else, and you would have a clear field. It would please me, my boy, because of many things, your own happiness not the least, and-" Mr. Sartoris stopped abruptly at the sight of his son's expressive Jtook of dissent from the scheme. You would rather please yourself than me, then," he said, a little bitterly. You will not think of this thing." In plain words, sir, no. Not that I wouldn't do anything to give you pleasure if it lay in my power," the young man added. "But in the matter of taking a wife, I should hold that a man's first duty is to himself, and I am quite certain that Miss Granton and I should never agree in that relation. Indeed, I'm almost ashamed to say it, but I don't thin e I've got it in me to care enough for any woman to marry her." Upon my soul, George, it's my firm belief you care for no earthly being but yourself!" vehemently exclaimed Mr. Sartoris, exasperated beyond measure at his son's coolness. I daresay you're right, sir, but I can't help my disposition," returned the young man. One thin" is quite clear to me, and that is that I do not care for Gertrude Granton. As for wives in the abstract -well, I may be mad enough to prove false to my convictions one of these days—but at present I am quite sure I am happier in a state of celibacy, and feeling so convince 11 am not such an idiot as to risk losing my self-content by an experiment such as you propose." "As you" please," coldly replied Mr. Sartoris. Though I can hardly believe that your cynicism is real, after all. However, I don't want to drive you into matrimony, and perhaps with such ideas as yours it is for Gertrude's happiness that my wishes can come to nothing. She's a good girl, and worthy a better husband than you would be likely to make her." Which nobody can deny," murmured George Sartoris as his father left the room. I've got well out of that I fancy, and shan't be badgered on such a subject in a hurry again, I daresay. Good Heavens! The bare idea is terrifying—to imagine that I should consent to tie myself for life to a girl just fresh from school! And finishing his breakfast in the leisurely manner in which he was wont to do all things- nothing, he averred, being so great an enemy to comfort as hurrying—George Sartoris forthwith dis- missed the subject from his mind. (To be continued.)

THE FATAL COLLISION IN THE THAMES. On Friday in last week an inquest was held at the Black Ball, Cliffe, by Mr. Harris, coroner for Mid- Kent, on the bodies of Wm. Hamblin, aged 28, sea- man; Henry Ball, 42, carpenter; Wm. Briggs, 38, of 244, Commercial-road East, London passenger on board the Dione; and a female infant, aged three months. Charles Jordan, first mate, identified the first two, and believed the infant to be the daughter of W Dives, of Stockton-on-Tees. Mrs. Briggs identified the other body as that of her husband, who left home on Saturday evening to join the Dione. William Moore, a labourer, said that while working on the sea wall at Cliffe he found the body of Briggs lying on the shore about seven a.m, on Thursday. Wm. Talbot said that about the same time he was on the sea wall, and found the body of Ball on the shore. Police-con- stable Arthur Palmer said that he found the body of Hamblin floating in the river off Cliffe about ten a.m. on Thursday. Alfred Billet, coastguardsman, said that on Wednesday about seven a.m. while on duty in Cliffe Creek, he found the body of the infant floating near the water's edge. A verdict was returned that the deceased Were drowned in the collision between the Dione and the Camden." Another inquest was held by the same coroner at the Ship and Lobster, near Gravesend, later in the day on the bodies.of William Miles, aged about 29, fire- man; Harriet Irwin, 42, passenger; and James Nicol Roberts, of Stockton-on-Tees, passenger on board the Dione, which were found in the river. Charles Jordan identified the first, John Irwin the second as that of his wife, and James Roberts the third as that of his father—John Edgley, a fisherman, of Graves- end. said that he found the bodies of Miles and Irwin floating in Gravesend Reach about eleven a.m. on Thursday.The Coroner here stated that in conse- quence of remarks that bad been made in a newspaper he wished it to be known that bodies found in the river should be taken to the dead house at once with- out waiting the arrival of a constable.—G. Sutherland, a fisherman, of Gravesend, said that he found the body of Roberts about eleven a.m. on Thursday, near the Ship and Lobster. A verdict similar to that of the former inquest was returned. A. third inquest was held in the evening by Mr. ¡ Penman, Gravesend Borough Coroner, at the Town Hall, on the bodies of James Barnard, aged 35, fire- man, and George Saville, 18, of Blackfriars, passenger on board the Dione, found in the river on Thursday night. Joseph William Saville identified the latter as that of his brother, and Charles Jordon identified the former. John Gooch, a fisherman of Erith, said that he found the bodies floating off the canal, Gravesend, between nine and ten on Thursday night. The inquest was adjourned.

A theological student, being urged by some young adies to join in a quadrille, declined; and, turning to a lady near by, asked, with rather an imposing air: Do you think, Mrs. L-, that a man ought to dance who expects to fill the pulpit?" The lady re- plied: I don't see why he should not, provided he ha3 grace for both." When a man's wife comes in and sees him, razor in hand, and with his face all lather, and asks him, Are you shaving ? it is a provoking thing for him to answer, "No, I am blacking the stove," but it is in human nature so to reply.

CONSERVATIVE DEMONSTRATION AT MANCHESTER. The expected counter-demonstration of the Con servatives to the great meeting of Liberals at Man- chester a fortnight ago took place on Saturday afternoon in the Pomona-gardens, in that city. The audiences were of similar dimensions as a whole, for if the Conservative meeting was rather less closely packed than the Liberals bad been in the principal place of meeting, the Pomona Palace, yet the number attending the overflow" meeting in the Agricultural-hall, besides two others in the open air, appeared to be as much larger as might have been expected from the more favourable weather, the Con- servative gathering having the benefit of sunshine interrupted only by one smart shower. Admission was free, by ticket, only a limited number of seats being paid for, and the meeting was swelled by a large representation of the Conservative associations of different towns in Lancashire and Cheshire. The meeting was announced as one to protest against the dictation of the caucus, and to support the demand of the House of Lords for a complete Reform Bill." A very warm reception was given both to Lord Salisbury and to Lord Randolph Churchill, who were the principal speakers, and also to Sir R. Cross, Sir M. Hicks-Beach, and others, who accompanied them to the meeting. Sir R. Cross, having taken the chair at the Palace meeting, opened the proceedings by calling upon Mr. W. Touchstone to present a number of addresses to Lord Salisbury. Mr. Touchstone advanced to the front of the platform, holding in his arms a great number of addresses. They numbered, he said, 174, and were from clubs and associations in Lancashire. He read only one of them, viz., that of the Conservative Association of South-East Lancashire (Manchester Division), as follows To the Most Noble the Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., &c.—My Lord,We, the Conservative Associa- tion of Manchester, desire to offer your lordship a sincere and hearty welcome, and to assure you of the continued loyalty of the Conservative party in Lanca- shire to yourself as its distinguished leader. At a time when every sinister art is being tried to throw discredit upon the House of Lords, for its patriotic conduct in preventing an unfair manipulation of the constituencies, your lordship has championed the cause of fairness with unflinching courage and energy; what you have done has the unswerving adherence of the party, and we trust that in the autumn session nothing will induce the House of Lords to depart from its demand for a complete Reform Bill. While we entirely endorse the support which the House of Lords has given to the principle of the Franchise Bill, we as completely re- pudiate that it is the wish of the constituencies that menace and coercion should be applied to Parliament -pressure-whose patent motive is to force a Redis- tribution Bill upon the country framed entirely in the interests of Liberal party managers. We also desire to express our entire concurrence in the criticism which your lordship has on several occasions passed upon the foreign and colonial policy of the Govern- ment, which has reduced the prestige and power of England to a lower point than they have reached for many years; and we deem it most fortunate that the time is at hand when the matter must be remitted to a tribunal in whose judgment we have every confidence, namely, the constituencies. We shall then hope to again welcome your lordship in Lancashire, not its the leader of her Majesty's Opposition, but as the Prime Minister of England." Lord Salisbury, who was received with great enthu- siasm, said Ladies and Gentlemen, I am heartily glad to receive this kind welcome from so large, so enormous an assembly, because the cause which I am representing here is the cause of freedom and consti- tutional order. I wish it were possible that some of her Majesty's Government could be here to witness this great assembly. I believe that the numbers assembled for the present demonstration exceed any- thing of which we have bad experience before, and that as many as 120,000 tickets had been taken for this de- monstration. That number gives me great consolation, because Mr. Chamberlain has been threatening at Bir- mingham that he is going to march with 100,000 men upon London. He says that he is a very mild man, and that at present his temper is benignant, but that you must not imagine he is less resolute than his fore- fathers, who were prepared to march at the head of 100,000 men. I am very glad that if that should be the case we shall be able to hang on his rear with a Lancashire army of quite as large dimensions. Lan- cashire has a special interest in this battle for re- form. The present representation of Lancashire is thirty three members. If Lancashire had the members which, according to a merely arithmetical computation would fall to her share, she would have sixty-three members. Therefore Mr. Chamber- lain may be sure that if he goes to London at the head of 100,000 men to prevent a good redistribution scheme passing, Lancashire will be prepared to see that justice is done. And I do not think that when he gets to London he will get a much better reception. Middlesex has even a greater interest than Lancashire in the passing of a fair redistribution scheme. It has now sixteen members. It would have a right, under a strict computation, to fifty-four members. So that I am afraid that if Mr. Chamberlain undertakes this perilous march he will find a considerable force in front of him as well as a considerable force behind him, and I think, before the expedition is done, he will wish that he bad confined himself to the safer warfare of his peaceable colleague who only fights by word of mouth. In the course of his further remarks, his lordship said: In the year 1832, when Parliament assembled—there were other matters of importance cropped up later — but when Parliament assembled there was absolutely nothing which prevented them from addressing themselves to this great question of reform. In 1883 the ground was so clear that Mr. Gladstone was positively on the shores of the Mediterranean when Parliament opened. During those two years there was an entire vacancy, so that they might have intro- duced this question of reform, and if they bad done so redistribution must have accompanied the enfran- chisement nothing could have prevented it. But they pushed it off to the fourth year, and why did they do so ? Lord Hartington has told you in this room, they wanted to put the House of Commons and the House of Lords under compulsion, as he says. They wanted to arrange matters so that the two Houses must pass whatever bill was put before them, under pain of leaving the representative system in a condition of anomaly and confusion. That was their object, and now their one object is to avoid taking their conduct before the tribunal to which they made their promises. In 1880 they gave promise after promise. They held out before you a splendid picture of taxes reduced, of peace all over the world, of Ireland pacified, of trade revivified. No one of those promises had been kept. The expenditure has risen beyond any previous prece- dent. They have shed blood like water—the blood of naked savages with whom they were not able to state the nature and character of their quarrel. They have brought Ireland to that condition that it is a matter of notoriety that whenever Parliament is dissolved, seventy or eighty members will appear who are hos- tile to every Government in England. And as to trade, we hear of nothing but business carried on at a loss, of banks that cannot put out their money, and of the ships that are laid up by the hundred be- cause they have not freights to carry. For all these things, so far as they are answerable for them, they would have to give an account to their constituents. But their one object has been this-so to alter the constituencies, either by having no re- distribution scheme, or by having one exclusively in their own interest, that they shall come before judges who have no experience of their promises, who are unacquainted with the issues, and that they will be able to snatch a verdict which the old constituencies would refuse to give. All this fight, cleverly as they have got it up, is to prevent a dissolution before the old constituencies. It is for that that they send their Cabinet Ministers about the country, it is for that that they employ the police to facilitate demonstrations in London. The one, the increasing fear that occupies their thoughts is, lest the time fixed by law shall run out and they shall be obliged to come before the judges whom they have deceived. And it isbecause the House of Lords has refused to be a party to this manoeuvre, because they have stood in the way of the most shameless at- tempt to jockey the public liberties that has been made within our time-it is for that that they have attempted to turn the whole question into a question of slander against individual political opponents and a question of agitation against the existence of the House of Lords. Now I am not going to defend at length the House of Lords against the statements which are being made by the members for Birmingham. It is not necessary, and it is not relevant. The point is not how they got there, but have they done their duty ? But even assuming that the House of Lords is an objectionable institution—which, of course, I do not admit for a moment-but assuming it, we did not put ourselves there. We came there by the institutions of the State, such as they have been handed down ane such as we find them and are we, because a suspiciod or an objection is stated against the institutions as wn find them-are we to refuse to do our duty; are we to refuse as Englishmen and as men to act up to what we believe to be conscientiously our duty in this matter, to resist these unprincipled and shameless manoeuvres, simply because we are threatened with an agitation against the institution to which we belong ? I am sure that if a House of Lords was selected by random in this room, and the men who composed it were told to decide upon the case as it is presented to us they would have said, That way lies our duty, we will follow it, and we will treat with indifference and con- tempt the menaces that are hurled against us." His lordship concluded by referring to the agitation against the House of Lords, and said: Believe me, this whole agitation is a mere red herring drawn across our path. They only desire to distract your attention from the matters which it is inconvenient that you should consider, and I exhort you when the time of election comes, as come it must very soon, to remember other things besides this reform agita- tion. Remember all those promises broken, remember the line of English power retreating in every corner of the world, remember the flag of English honour and English prestige drooping upon every shore, and in reference to these matters do not allow a false issue to be put before you. Do not allow them to persuade you that the Lords is trying to pit their privileges against the will of the people. The Lords are trying to do nothing of the kind. The distinction between the position of the House of Lords and of the House of Commons at this moment is this, thtU the House of Lords is willing and anxious to submit its decisions to the arbitrament of the people, and there is nothing that the House of Commons so much dreads as that. We are asking you to exert your- selves, and to fight a battle, not for the privileges of the the Lords, which we hold to be a matter of secondary importance, but for the great constitutional issues that are involved in this struggle. We are asking you to unite, and to organise, and to make great efforts in defence of the sovereignty of the people and the freedom of Parliament from compulsion. We are asking you to determine that great legislative measures shall not be pushed before Parliament under compulsion. We are asking you to resolve that when great constitu- tional issues are at stake they shall not be decided by a Parliament which is already moribund, but that they shall be referred to the arbitrament of the people. We are asking you in the spirit of the highest traditions of English liberty to unite with us, and to unite with the House of Lords in resisting a Minister who is afraid to submit his actions to the judgment of the polling-booth, and a House of Commons, the majority of which for such supreme purposes as this has ceased to represent the people. Mr. Chaplin, M.P., followed, and said that the agi- tation ostensibly directed against the House of Lords was the last desperate expedient of a defeated Minister to conceal blunderings and failures. Sir M. Hicks Beach said that the principle of the extension of the franchise to the counties was ad- mitted by all parties, and the Radical party were at- tacking the House of Lords for having acted in defence of the people. Lord Randolph Churchill, speaking at a meeting in the Agricultural Hall, went through a long list of the failures in the Government policy, and said he had no doubt that the British nation having to decide between the House of Lords and its long centuries of achievements on the one hand, and the follies and failures of Mr. Gladstone's fours years of government on the other, would award the honour and the victory to those who defended the ancient liberties of our race.

RELIGIOUS MANIAS. The strange frenzy, known as the dancing mania, differs from that of the flagellants in several important particulars. The outbreaks of the dancing mania burst forth-in the first instance, that is-in isolated localities, affecting only a few individuals. Thus, early in the thirteenth century a number of children are said to have been seized with the malady at Erfurt in Prussian Saxony, and to have danced the whole way along the road to Armstadt, on arriving at which place they fell exhausted to the ground. Many of them are reported to have died in consequence of this seizure, and many more to have retained the traces of it to the end of their lives. A large assemblage of persons, pilgrims apparently from different parts of Germany, made their appearance in the neighbour- hood of Aix-la-Chapelle, and there commenced their extraordinary performances. Joining hand in hand they formed large circles, and began simultaneously to dance, losing irfore and more the control of reason as they went on, until their enthusiasm merged in de- lirium, and they fell to the ground completely ex- hausted. They then complained of acute tympanites, which could only be relieved by tight bandages round the chest. After the application of these, they remained free from pain or irritation, unless they provoked a return of the malady by again engaging in the dance. Those who for any reason failed to find persons able or willing to swathe them in the manner above described, found some mitigation of their pains by the ruder process of having the parts affected violently thumped or stamped upon. During the paroxysm of their excitement they were insensible to all that was passing round them. They fancied them- selves surrounded by supernatural presences, and fre- quently shrieked out the names of spirits, with whom sthey imagined themselves to be en rapportSome of them declared that they were plunged into a sea of blood, from which they could only escape by high leaps and bounds. Others professed to have seen the heavens opened, and the Virgin with the child Jesus in her arms enthroned in the midst. The insanity spread with incredible rapidity through the neighbour- hood, reaching the great Dutch and Belgium capitals on the one side, and Cologne and the Rhenish cities on the other. In Liege they excited so much terror that the magistrates forbade the manufacture of any but square-toed shoes, the fanatics having conceived a great horror of such as had sharp points to them, whichwere the general wear at that time. For the same reason it became necessarv to interdict the wearing of red-coloured garments,'which inflamed the fury of the dancers, as they are known to do that of mad bulls. At Cologne land Metz the mania ran to a greater height than in any of the cities previously attacked. The streets of these towns were filled with hundred of these dancers, the inhabitants everywhere hastening to join them, unable, as itseemed, to resist the infatuation. As in the instance of the Flagellant frenzy, the labourer left his plough, the artisan his work-room, the tradesman his shop, to swell the band of devotees, and these great centres of industry and commerce became for the time scenes of the wildest and most lawless disorder. The young and unmarried of both sexes quitted their homes to take part in the revelry, and scenes of shameless licence were speedily the result. The cases of the American Shakers, and the Cornish and Welsh Jumpers ought not to be omitted. In these, as Hecker remarks, more than in any others, it is diffi- cult. to draw the line between religious ecstasy and disorder of the nerves. The sect of the Shakers was founded A.D. 1747, by one James Wardley-a certain Anna Lee (identified by her followers with the woman as mentioned in Rev. xii. 1) being its prophetess. The Shakers accounted dancing to be a sign of favour with heaven, because the younger brother (St. Luke xv. 25) was received by his father with music and dancing." The Shakers were wont to kneel in prayer awhile, and then leap up dancing furiously, springing up to the very ceiling. The exertion would bring on a cold shuddering, whence the name Shakers." The Jumpers, a sect of Cal- vinistic Methodists, were initiated by a Cornishman, Harris Rowland, in 1760. At their meetings they excite themselves by the use of certain phrases, such as "David danced before the Lord with all his might," to dance more and more furiously, until they frequently fall exhausted, and are carried in a state of syncope to their houses.-Sunday at Home.

THE POPULATION OF GERMANY.—In 1882, the popu- lation of Germany amounted to 27,287,860, of which 11,712,485 may be regarded as the bread winners, The latter are divisible into the six classes following (1) Agriculture, the rearing of animals, gardening, forestry, hunting, and fishing, 3,462,268 men, 1,230,080 women; (2) mines, works, and construc- tion, 3,065,218 men, 585,408 women; (3) trade and commerce, 766,127 men, 145,579 women; (4) work for salaries and daily wages, 160,640 men, 118,283 women; (5) the church, law, army, and liberal pro- fessions, 526,549 men, 60,661 women; (6) unde- clared, 352,431 men, 353,064 women; total, 8,333,233 men, 2,493,075 women. Among the 11,712,485 bread-winners, 1788,679 engage in 1,915,035 sub- sidiary occupations, in addition to which 399,244 of those returned as devoting themselves to house- hold cares are also engaged in subsidiary occupations. 1

EXECUTION OF AN ANARCHIST. A Times telegram dated Vienna, Aug. 8, says At five o'clock this morning the Anarchist, Stell- macher, one of the murderers of the money-changer Herr Eisert, was executed. The Emperor's con- I firmation of the sentence of death had been sent in yesterday, but the fact was kept strictly secret, and only communicated to the journals at a late hour of the night, so as to exclude all possibility of demon- strations. The public indeed heard of the execution only after it had actually taken place. Nevertheless, all the necessary precautionary measures had been I taken, and the guards at the prison were reinforced. Stellmacher received the news of his approaching end with great effrontery, refused to sign the report and rejected the visit of a priest, but admitted his legal adviser. He passed the night quietly, and wrote a long letter to his wife applied ice compresses from time to time to his head and at last fell asleep, so that he had to be awakened just before the time appointed for the execution. He suffered his hands to be bound without resistance, stepped resolutely on to the scaffold, and without uttering a word abandoned himself to his fate. Only 16 persons, chiefly journal- ists, were witnesses of the terrible scene. In his prison he wrote an autobiography, in which he de- clares himself an atheist, and evinces an interest in his wife and children such as he had not manifested with respect to Eisert's children.

TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND MUSEUMS. The influence of industrial museums in technical instruction is gradually being more appreciated in this country, mainly through the action of the Science and Art Department. Manufacturers, however, do not yet seem to fully recognise the real value of such collections. They show very little interest in the development of these museums, and shrink from co- operating in improving and adding to the collections to the same extent as is done by continental manu- facturers. The heads of firms in this country have a greater distrust of one another than is the case abroad. In many foreign museums are found collec- tions of all the newest patterns contributed by those engaged in the same trade, and these collec- tions are open to the inspection of the general public. In this way, each manufacturer benefits by the work of others, and the general industry of the town is improved by the opportunities thus afforded for the better education of the workmen, the managers, and the masters. The study of new designs exhibited in a museum of this kind helps to form the taste and to improve the designing power of all who are engaged in the industry. Of those who visit such a museum, some, owing to natural aptitude or to superior education, will make better use of their oppor- tunities than others; and in this respect such museums are very similar to schools, the pupils of which benefit in very different degrees from the education they therein receive. This co-operation of manufacturers to benefit the trade in which they are engaged, which is particularly exemplified in the educational agencies of Mulhouse, and is in striking contrast to the "trade secret" theory of the majority of English manu- facturers, is founded on the belief, entertained very generally on the continent, that it is more advantageous to manufacturers to compete with foreigners than among themselves, and that everything that tends to increase the technical knowledge and artistic skill of those working at their own trade helps them to produce superior goods, and so to successfully compete with manufacturers abroad. Later on, further particulars will be given with respect to some of these foreign trade museums and to their industrial influence. I have been induced to refer to the subject here on account of its connection with the circulation of works of art as organised by the Science and Art Department, and with the encouragement afforded by the department, and to the establishment of local museums in the great centres of trade. The subject of museums is only incidentally associated with that of the evening instruction of artisans which we have been considering; but it seemed appropriate to con- sider it, whilst reviewing the several different ways in which the Science and Art Department is directly and indirectly assisting in educating the industrial classes of this country.— The Tec/mical Educator.

A newly married couple found themselves in a railway carriage with only one fellow passenger, who appeared to sleep profoundly. Soon the lady r;;lill- menced to call her lover all the endearing names that natural history can supply. The traveller roused up, begged the lady to call her partner a Noah's Ark at once and allow him to sleep quietly.

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