Pontypool Free Press and Herald of the Hills

Midhat Pasha has been ordered by the Sultan to send reports to the Ministry as to the state of opinion in foreign countries. This is his sole mission, and his recall is not even contemplated. An advice from Berlin was published in Vienna on Monday which attributes to the Emperors of Germany and Austria, at their recent meeting at Ischl, a determination to impose an armistice on Turkey should the next battle result in a defeat of the Russians. The story proceeds to say that Italy and France have acceded to this arrangement; and that so far as the immediate future of the campiistn is concerned, Russia, advised by Russian military men, ,»tend3 to act on the defensive for the rest of the year. Letters from Poland inform us that the Reserves, troop" which have already served ten years, are beiug called out in the most brutal manner, the men being surprised at night and dragged from their homes, and heavy fines fceinginflicted on the parents and relations of absentees "-Vanity Fair. A telegram from Poti states that at midnight on Friday a steam torpedo boat attacked the Xiw kiSb frigate Meosurich^ off the Tchuruk Sou. The frigate ttretl several shots at the steamboat, which was suak. At the same moment a light was sighted on the other side of the frigate, and a single shell sent in that direction was seen to burst on board a second er. The Mensarich went in search of this second boat, which, however, managed to escape. The Cologne Gazette says that the merit of having fur- nished Krupp cannons to the Turkish artillery belongs exclusively to Iskender Pasha, a Prussian by birth, whose original name is Grunwald. The Vienna Correspondent of the The Standard says — Private telegrams from Constantinople by indirect route state that secret negotiations are pending between the palace and a certain foreign Ambassador, supposed to be Prince Reuss, thus leading to the supposition that the mediation of the Powers is not far distant. In reference to this the Deutsche Zeitung publishes a telegram to the effect that an order has been given to the generals of the army to push for- ward active operations before the Russians complete their new strategical lines with their reinforcements. The Minister for War suspects that these negotiations are put forward with the object of delaying the operations of Turkey, and securing time sufficient to carry out the designs of Russia." The Vienna Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, says Whenever there is a prolonged pause between two battles, rumours of peace have been put in circulation. There is no more foundation for such reports now than there was a month ago. The absurd story that represents Prince Gort- schakoff as being anxious to see the war at an end, while General Ignatieff insists on pursuing the campaign, must not for one moment be credited. The delay in operations is attri- buted to different causes. According to some the Russians are waiting for the arrival of the Imperial Guard. Others assert that the plans of both armies have been modified, which is not at all unlikely." Reports stating that the Egyptian contingent in Turkey will be increased have lately been gaining ground. It is stated that there are a million Circassians who wish to emigrate to Turkey. The French colony in Roumania, recalling the sympathy the Roumanians testified for France during the war of 1870, have appealed to their fellow-countrymen at home for sub- scriptions in aid of the Roumanian wounded.

CAVILL'S SWIM ACROSS THE CHANNEL Mr. Cavill started from Cape Grisnez at 3.40 on Monday afternoon to. swim across the Channel The following particulars are given The sea on Monday was very lumpy, and it appeared doubtful whether a start could be made. The master of the lugger, however, advised that the wind would most probably fall with the sun. In this opinion Cavill was disposed to concur, and the fact that after midnight the tides would not suit made him anxious to start, even with the weather not altogether favourable. He undressed on the shore at Cape Grisnez, and was rubbed thickly over with porpoise oil. Having put on a silk jersey and drawers, he was rowed out a few yards from the phore, and at 3.45 p.m. he started amid the cheers of some thirty people who had assembled. It was low tide, and the wind was from the south-west. Cavill set off with a powerful side stroke, and made his way through the water at a great rate. He was accom- panied for some distance by a boat containing the superintendent of the Grisnez lighthouse. At starting Cavill wore a sort of waterproof head dress, specially made to shield his head from the sun, but this was soon discarded. He calculated that the tides would take him out in a straight line for about five miles, and then almost in a straight line to the English coast at or near Dover. At five o'clock he took some coffee, and three-quarters of ap hour later some beef tea. These was the chief refreshments he took throughout the swim, but at seven some cocoa was administered. The sea became calmer, but a few minutes later the rain came down in torrents and a heavy storm raged over the French coast, the lightning and thunder being very severe. At a quarter paat ten the sky was clear again. Cavill, being asked at this time how he felt, said he was cold, but felt strong. At eleven o'clock a steam tug passed and was signalled, but did not stay A quarter of an hour later Cavill took some brandy and water. He still kept up a good pace, though slower than at starting, and the English coast appeared very close, the lugger being slightly t<4 the eastward of the South Foreland lighthouses. Cavill continued to struggle manfully, on getting nearer and nearer to the coast. No incident whatever occurred save the frequent adminis- tering of refreshments. About a quarter to four on Tuesday morning, twelve hours after he started, he had arrived within 50 yards of the shore, a mile to the north of the lighthouses. The sea had become con- siderably rougher, and the boatmen" were greatly averse to pulling their boat ashore at this spot, aiid it was considered unsafe for Cavill to get on the shore alone owing to the breakers. He was taken out of the water, rubbed down, and covered with wraps. He was ap- parently not nearly so much distressed as when he left the water after his attempt last year. His voice was almost as strong as usual, but he refused to go below, fearing sickness. Soon after he had left the water it became very rough, and the waves dashed over the lugger, drenching to the skin those on board. On entering the harbour, just before six o'clock, a large flag, with the name of the swimmer in large blue letters was raised. A small knot of people had collected, who, on learning the result, raised a hearty cheer. Cavill was taken to the Flying Horse Hotel," and at half-past eleven o'clock ne appeared none the worse for the great exertion he had undergone. He was accompanied in the lugger by Mr. Cunningham, the founder and late secretary of the Paris Swimming Club; Mr. Gammon, of the Serpentine Swimming Club; and Mr. Earn- shaw.

THE ZAPORAS IN ECUADOR. A paper was then read by Mr. A. Simson, entitled "Notes on the Zaporas," a savage race in an almost unexplored region of South American India. They are great and successful hunters, and feed on birds, monkeys, deer, and fish. Their enemies, the neighbour- ing tribes, describe them as non-salt-eating, un- Christianised Indians. When their dogs are unsuc- cessful in hunting they nearly choke them with tobacco in order to sharpen their scent. When un- provoked the Zaporas are, like most wild Indian tribes, very shy and retiring. They will suffer nobody to employ force against them, and resent ill-treatment with great violence. They can only be managed by tact and good treatment. They are very changeable and unreliable, but are never known either to be civil or stingy. The latter circumstance arises from improvidence, however, rather than generosity. They are always ready and willing to kill eithflf human beings or animals, except alli- gators, to which they manifest the strongest disgust, and will not touch. They have curious forms of matrimony. The swain matrimonially inclined goes into the wood hunting, and returning with his spoil, throws it at the ft-el of the maiden, with sutficj^nt wood to & fire «nd oook it. If she picks them up his suit Is accepted, and she rarely de- clines, but if she does, any other maiden may come forward and undertake the culinary, and, consequently, matrimonial duties. Sometimes, however, the men take their wives by force, and the women rarely make any strong remonstrance. The Zaporas are muc disunited, and wander about in separate hordes. They are, like most Indians, very superstitious, and believe in a devil that haunts the woods but it is not certain whether they believe in a corresponding good spirit. They suppose that after death the men will become tigers or other powerful animals, and the women prettily-plumaged birds.

ACTS OF BRAVERY. At the end of the storming of Badajoz, after speaking ef the officers, Napier goes on "Who shall describe the springing valour of that Portuguese grenadier who was lolled the foremost man at Santa Maria ? or the martial fury ef that desperate rifleman who in his resolution to win thrust himself beneath the chained sword blades, and then suffered the enemy to dash his head to pieces with the end of their muskets." Again, at the Coa, a north of Ireland man named Stewart, but jocularly called 'the boy,' because of his youth (nineteen) and of his gigantic stature aad strength, who had fought bravely and displayed great intelligence beyond the river, was one of the last men who came down to the bridge, but he would not pass. Turning round, he regarded the French with a grim look, and spoke aloud as follows So this is the end of our brag. This is our first battle, f nd we retreat The boy Stewart will not live to hear that said.' Then striding forward in hia giant might he fell furiously on the nearest enemies with the bayonet, refusing the quarter they seemed desirous of granting, and died fighting in the midst of them." Still more touching, more noble, more heroic was the death of Sergeant Robert M'Quade. During M'Leod's rus:, tins man, also from the north of Ireland, saw two men level their muskets on rests against a high gap in a bank, awaiting the uprise of an enemy. The present Adjutant-General Brown, then a lad of sixteen, attempted to ascend at the fatal spot. M'Quade, himself only twenty-four years of age, pulled him back, saying, in a calm, decided tone, "You are too young, sir, to be killed," and then 1 offering his own person to the fire, fell dead, pierced with both balls." And speaking of the British soldier generally, he says in his preface "What they were their successors now are. Witness the wreck of the Birkenhead, where four hundred men, at the call of their heroic officers, Captains Wright and Girardodt, calmly and without a murmur accepted death in a horrible form rather than endanger the women and children saved in the boats. The records of the world furnish no parallel to this self-devotion." Let us add to these two very recent examples of which we have all been reading in the last few months—the poor colliers who worked day and night at Pontypridd, with their lives in their hands, to rescue their buried comrades and the gambler in St. Louis who went straight from the gaming table into the fire, to the rescue of women and children, and died of the hurts after his third return from the flames.-Good Words.

IIUstcKancous JtrtelHgma. HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL. OXYDISED WEIGHT.—There has been exhibited to the Prince of Wales and his' portioii of "the rett of the Royal Family," an ox which is stated on authority to weigh "400 stones." This may mean anything— or nothing, to those in the know—perhaps one of them will inform us, what is the size of the stones Fun. A REGRET.—An old man had two sons, the one a minister and the other a doctor. He was very proud of them, and one day he said to a friend, Had I kent ane o' my sons was gaun to be a medical man and the ither a clergymon, I would never hae haen Jenny Cesh for their mither!" "ME. price paid for Pongo, the popular young gorilla at the Westminster Aquarium, by his present proprietor was three thousand guineas. Pongo may pride himself upon the fact that no speci- men of the higher ape," called man, would fetch that sum, or anything like it,. We believe that even the "Two-Headed Nightingale" was originally parted with for not much more than a fifth of that sum given for Pongo. Mr. Darwin fails to discover in the ear of Pongo the pineal knob which proves our descent from animals of arboreol habits having long ears. Probably the creature is descended from a higher original than ourselves.Coming Events. SUICIDE THROUGH PASSION.—An inquest has been held touching the death of Wm. Hollingsworth, of Navestock, near Brentwood, who committed suicide while labouring under a tit of passion. On returning home after his labours in the harvest-field, he found his tea was not to his liking. He went away bidding his mother "Goodbye," and drowned himself in a river not far distant. His brother-in-law tried to dissuade him from going away, as he was under the double influence of passion and drink, but the deceased said he would sooner cut his head off than return home. EMIGRATION TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA.—The Queen of Nations, 846 tons, Captain A. Donald, chartered by Sir Arthur Blyth, K.C.M.G., Agent-General for South Australia, left Plymouth on Monday for Port Adelaide, with 266 emigrants, under the charge of Mr. D. F. H. Kyngdon, surgeon. Among the emigranto were 53 single female domestic servants, under the caie of Mrs. Agnes Osborne, matron. THE HARVEST.—The Agricultural Gazette publishes a large number of reports from correspondents in all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from which the reader can gather a trustworthy impression regard- in the current harvest. Tt is plain from these that 1877 will prove no exception to the succession of un- fortunate harvests which we have of late years ex- perienced. The wheat crop is certainly very generally and very largely below an average. Oats and winter beans seem the best grains crops of the year. On the other ha ad, it has been, and is, a great year for the grazier and dairy farmer. All kinds of cattle food are and have been, and promise to be, unusually abundant. Potatoes, which have also been so promising, are now very generMlly threatened with disease. The hay crop has been abundant, and in all the early districts it has been well secured. The ORIGIN OF THE WORD CANADA."—The origin of the word-" Canada" is curious enough. The Spaniards visited this country previous to the French, and made particular search for gold and silver, and, finding none, they often sang among- themselves Aca nada "-There is nothing here. The Indians, who watched closely, learned this sentence and its meaning. The French arrived, and the Indians (who wanted Done of their company and supposed they were also Spaniards on tne same errand) were anxious to inform them in the Spanish sentence Aca nada." The French, who knew as little of Spanish as the Indians. supposed this incessantly recurring sound was the name of the country, and gave it the name of Canada," which it has borne ever since. CIVILIZATION AGAIN.-The last thing out in Chris- ,tian warfare is an "ariel torpedo." A balloon ig "<itr-ui uv i Culpable of rioiiig with a torpedo beneath it and, starting to windward of a camp or fortified pity, or whatever it is desired to destroy, the torpedo may be burst or detached, and thus its cargo of death and destruction falls into the midst of the enemy. In the presence of this, and other ingenious devices recently hit upon for making people happy, it is sup- posed that the Millennium some time since predicted by Dr. Gumming is not coming off just at present.— Judy, BRAVERY REWARDED.—A domestic servant named Harriet Smith, was on Saturday presented by the painters of Maidstone with a valuable watch in recog- nition of her courage and presence of mind in dragging a painter through., a bed-room window when by the fall of his ladder he was left clinging to the roof of the house he was painting. The girl by her courageous conduct saved the man's life. A NEW DOOR-KNOCKER !-A melancholy young married man, hasmade several ineffectual attempts to have his landlord provide a door-bell for his house. First he sent to his landlord some pathetic verses entitled, What is Home without a Door-bell," which had no effect whatever. Finally the melancholy tenant hit on the following plan, which he has put into active operation He has arranged the floor of his front porch so that it acts something after the manner of the platform of a Fairbank's scale, which, on receiving a person's weight, instantly connects with some diabolical machinery concealed below. The whole force of the apparatus beneath is then com- municated to an immense Indian club, which immediately drops from the ceiling of the porch and bats the door. By an ingenious contrivance a person whose weight is fifty pounds, standing on the porch, causes one single rap; one hundred pounds, two raps, and so forth, being graduated so as to give the inmates an idea of the size of their visitor; by adjusting a little wire he could turn the descending club from its regular course to the visitor on the door step. RARE BOOKS.-The dispersion by auction, by Messrd. Puttick and Simpson, of Leicester-square London, of the old family library founded by Sir Edward Nicholas (Principal Secretary of State to King Charles I.) brought to light some unique and other- wise rare books, among others—lot 225, Blaeu, "Le Grand Atlas," 11 vols., 1662, £ 23; lot 228. Book of Common Prayer, 1662, the "Sealed Book," probably Charles II.'s copy, having the Royal arms on the side, £ 48; lot 517, "Mr. William Shakespear's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies," the third edition, 1664, with an additional copy of the verses by Ben Jonson printed separately on a fly-leaf, 2107 lot 528, "Sully's Memoirs," two vols., 1638, a presentation copy to Sir Edward Nicholas, £ 30; lot 553, Earl Coningsby'a collections concerning the manor of Marden, privately printed 1722-27, 9100. a ANOTHER ILLUSION DISPELLED.—There i&s a com- mon proverb which runs, "You may bring a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink." It ap- pears now, from what a scientific contemporary says, that this is a mistake. He can be made to drink, if you so to work scientifically; and a man can be made to take nutriment whether he will or no. You have simply to "apply the terminals of a Rhumkorff electric coil so as to pass a current from the pharynx to the upper side of the neck, just below the angle of the upper jaw, and the muscles of that region will con- tract, and the pharynx will perform an upward move- ment, thus involuntarily going through all the motions of swallowing, and disposing of any morsel which the mouth may contain." Here is another of our cherished beliefs gone \~Judy. INDEBTED TO AN ACCIDENT.—An interesting story is related in reference to the late Mr. Hunt, which shows that, to some extent, he was indebted to an accident for his position (says the Court Journal). The story goes that, early in the present century, a young couple were travelling in Tuscany on their wedding tour, and when going through a lonely mountain pass, they were attacked by brigands. The party surrendered, and gave up their money and goods, but for some reason, the gentleman stooped to pick something from the ground, when one of the robbers, moved by the suspicion that he was going to fire upon them himself fired, and that one shot was not only fatal to the gentleman, but to his wife, and with her an unborn child, 'lhe incident created a painful sensation in England at the time, and the tomb of the young couple may be seen to this day in the Protestant Cemetery at Florence. The victims of this outrage were a Mt. and Mrs. Hunt, and one result of their death was the passing over a fine estate and handsome property in Northamptonshire to another branch of the family, to a second son, who was a, clergyman, and who was the father of Mr. Ward Hunt. It was this incident which gave Mr. Hunt his ample private fortune. LENDING BOO.Er,The last annual report of the Free Public Library, Boston United States, shows the important fact that books may be lent in large numbers for popular reading witn a loss which prac- tically amounts to next to nothing. For instanc-, the Roxbury branch, which lent 146,829 volumes during theiast year, haa not lost a booik. The six branches, which, have together, circulated 893,202 volumes, have in the same time lost only ten books. The Great Central Library, with a circulation of 647,360 volumes, has lost only 119. This gratifying result is, however, perhaps due not only to the honesty of the borrowers, but also to the watchful system pursued by the managers of the library (says the Pall Mall Gazette). Books which are not returned within a fixed time by those who borrow them are demanded by a policeman specially detailed for the business, so that almost the only loss is of those volumes which are carried off by takers who leave the city. The regulations are strictly enforced, and the library is thus saved from the losses to which it might otlierwisebe exposed. THE NEW FIRST LORB.—The Premier has shown his usual wisdom in his last appointment. He has appointed a "practical Smith to look after our iron- clads.—Judy. NEW SOLICITORS ACT.—One of the last Acts passed was to regulate the examination of persons applying to be admitted solicitors of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England and for otherwise amending the law relating to solicitors. With the exception of making new regulations under the Act by the Judges and the Incorporated Law Society, which has imme- diate operation, the statute will not come into force until the 1st of January next. It is to be construed with the other Solicitors Acts, 1843 and 1880, and will effect a number of alterations as to the future admis- sion of solicitors. PREACHING TOURS.—Mr. George Muller, of the Ashley Down Orphanage, has just issued his annual report relative to the new orphan houses. During his prolonged absence on a preaching tour on the Conti- nent he had received reports once or twice every week from Mr. Wright, whom he had left in charge. During the past year the Lord had been pleased, as during the previous J2 years of the existence of the in- stitution, simply through prayer, to supply all their necessities. Altogether last year the income was £41,500. If this income were added to that of the previous years it would be found that altogether, in answering to prayer and the exercise of faith, they had received £750,000 sterling. Mr. Muller adds that the blessing attending his preaching tours everywhere on the Continent, as well as at home, had encouraged him to go on with this service. He had received many written invitations from Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Vienna, and St. Petersburg, but, yielding to many urgent invitations from the United States and Canada, his next sphere of labour would be America. CARDINAL MANNING ON THOMAS A. BECKETT.— Cardinal Manning preached the dedication sermon of a very handsome church, opened on Sunday, at Water- loo, a fashionable watering-place a few miles from Liverpool. The church is dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury, whom the Cardinal described in his ser- mon as having died for the liberties of England, in- corporated as they were with the liberties of tha Church, as against the power of Henry II. That power at length triumphed in the reign of Henry VIII., with this result-that the people were now like a flock without a shepherd. A legal religion was set up, to which only half the people belonged. Burdening reli- gion with statute laws had become so intolerable that many of those in whose behalf the laws were mads refused to obey them. Notwithstanding the riches with which the Protestant Establishment is endowed, multitudes were now crying out that they would give up all they had if they could but regain the liberty of the Chyrch of God. "DAYVUS SOME!"—A statistical journal says: "Last week the sun was above the horizon 107.4 hours." "Dear me," exclaimed Mrs. Juggins, on reading this, an' I thought the longest day was over weeks ago "—Fun. SINGULAR MORTALITY AMONG FOREST TREES.—Tha Albwy Banner states that a few months since that journal had to chronicle the death of nearly all the black wattles in the neighbourhood of the town. From some unknown cawse they withered up within a few weeks of each other, and there is hardly one to be found. An equally mysterious and much more serious mortality has occurred in connection with some of the most valuable forest trees in the district. At Cumberoona, and from thence up the Murray for miles, the red-gum trees—the most valuable collection of Colonial timber—are dying wholesale, and in the course of a few months more will be fit for nothing but firewood. We have not yet been able to ascertain whether the gum-trees in other parts of the district have been similarly affected; but if they have, this splendid timber will soon became a thing of the past. The only cause whi jh has been suggested for the death of the trees is the long continuation of the recent drought. REMUNERATION.—The Rock compassionates curates who answer an advertisement in a High Church con- temporary, where the advertiser, who is in want of immediate assistance where the duty is light," offers remuneration at the rate of less than £2 10s. a week, adding, however, that a furnished house with five bedrooms may be had for three guineas a week." "Truly," comments the Bock, "a very in- viting prospect." THE COLORADO BEETLE.—It is stated that when the Glasgow Post-office authorities were last week sorting the mail from America they came upon a sample par- cel containing a tin canister perforated at the top. Upon examination the canister was found teeming with living and dead Colorado beetles and locusts. They put the living to death and despatched the whole parcel to the London postal authorities. It is believed that the Colorado beetle discovered in the mail carriage between Plymouth and Bristol was a specimen in course of transit by post, portions of a perforated card- board box having been found in the van, and the Post- office authorities have accordingly given instructions that the American mails shall be carefully watched on arrival, with a view to prevent the transmission of such dangerous insects alive. AFTER" THE REGATTA, — Mamma. "Good gracious, what are you doing, and where's Baby ? "— Henry (trying to explain) "Oh! you see, Ma, we thought Baby would like to be jumping in sacks, and so- "-Daughter. "And oh, Ma. dear! we don't know which sack she's in now."—Fun. A RARE FLOWER.—It is interesting to learn (says the Ha,,ip'tead and Highgate Express) that Hamp* stead-heath still possesses a curious flower that has not been recorded there, nor indeed anywhere else that we are aware of, for nearly three centuries. John Gerarde published at London in 1597, The Her- ball, or General Historie of Plantes," and therein, speaking of betony (stachys betonica), he alludes to having found.a white floweired uLant "1" "W vy Hamsteede, near blaster Wade's nouse." This pretty flower how to be seen plentifully on West-heath, is universally a deep red purple. It is also interesting to notice that Gerarde must have found the white- flowered variety on land now built over, for Mastef Wade, or Sir YVilliam Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower and Clerk of the Council, lived at Belsize House then. Three more white-flowered plants have recently been found in the middle of West-heath by Mr. H. Epps, who forwarded one as a curiosity to the Royal KeW Gardens, which has been acknowledged with thanks by the assistant-curator, Professor W. T. Thiselton Dyer, author of Flora'of Middlesex." EITHER TO HIT OR MISS!—Vanity Fair says .— Dividing the ground among the shooters is a serious business on the morning of the twelfth, when every man's house is pitted against every other man's for the number of brace to be killed. Last Monday this matter was being arranged in a certain northern country-house, when the question was put to one of the guests who happened to be new to those parti, "How do you shoot? Shoot!" said he indig- nantly. 111 back myself to shoot with any man in Scotland." And, he added, reflectively, after a moment's pause, "to miss with any man in or out of it." THE ELECTRIC LIGHT.—Experiments were made on Monday night with (the electric light apparatus on board the Temeraire, at Chatham. The .apparatus worked well, the whole of the dockyard, the Medway, and the surrounding country being illuminated for a considerable distance, so that it would have been im- possible for any hostile vessel to have approached within a mile or two without btlag seen. Admiral Fellows, C.B., and other officers watched the experi- ments. TREASURE TROVE.—An interesting discovery has just been made at Tamworth, in Staffordshire. While a man was engaged in excavating for the erection of a wall near the Board schools he came upon a small leaden box, which on being opened was found to contain some 300 coins. Some of them bear the impress of Stafford, Berwick, and Hereford. They appear to belong to the time of William I. and William Rufus, but it is intended to submit the coims to com- petent authorities for examination. A OVEL SIGHT.—The Anti-tobacco Societarians think the Colorado claro knocks the ditto beetle into a cocked hat for danger and destructiveness. We don't know ourselves, but should like to see the beetle when he is well into the cocked hat—of course smoking the claro to comfort him in his new and unwonted posi- tion.—Fun. AMERICAN CHILDREN.—Professor Bowditch of the Harvard Medical School, having examined the measurements of some 25,000 children in the public schools of Boston, has presented the results in a series of tables, which have been published by the State Board of Health. He makes the following statement: —"The growth of children takes place in such a way that until the age of 11 or 12 years boys are both taller and heavier than girls of the same age, but at this period of life girls begin to grow very rapidly, and for the next two or three years surpass boys of the same age in both height and weight. Boys then acquire and retain a size superior to that of girls, who have now nearly completed their full growth. Children of American born parents are in Massachusetts, taller and heavier than children of foreign-born parents, a superiority which seems to depend partly on the greater average comfort in which such children live and grow up, and partly upon differences of race or stock. Pupils of American parentage at the public Latin school and other higher schools are apparently for the same reasons superior in height and weight to the generality of boys of American parentage in the public schools, and of English boys of the non-labour- ing classes attending public schools and universities, the superiority in weight being as a rule more marked than that in height." FATAL DYNAMITE EXPLOSION.—Three miners of Anitezin (Pas-de-Calais), wishing to see the effect of dynamite on fish, took some from the store the other day, prepared a charge, and went to a pond at a place called Chocques. One of them, Delrive, as soon as he saw the fuse lighted, took to flight, but had not gone far when he heard an explosion. Having procured assistance, he returned to the spot, and found one of his comrades, Legrand, dead, and the other, Rucart, in terrible agony. The latter was removed to the hospital at Bethune, and is in a critical state. He has received numerous wounds on the face and body, his right eye being completely destroyed. A HINT ABOUT,'HYDROPHOBIA.—"A Do Lover" writes:—"The following true incident may interest people now there is so much fear about mad dogs. When L was a girl between fourteen and fifteen I was the owner of a little white terrier. He came in one day with his ear torn. I went directly to wash it, and I suppose hurt him, as he bit me through the thumb. I directly began to suck the bite, and squeezed my thumb till ne more blood came. I said nothing about it and thought nothing. A week after that Wasp was running asr usual after the pony carriage, and went off suddenly, foaming, snapping at. everything, and was shot by a gentleman who met him. No doubt the dog was mad. We were well known were we lived in the country, and when the story got about, the miller came to the house to say a week before he had had to shoot his dog that had been torn by a strange dog which had run into the village and been killed. This happened to me just fifty years ago, and I don't suppose I shall now feel any the worse for my bite, since Iliave never been without dogs of every sort and kind, and my lot has been cast in several different climates and lands. I have never seen a mad dog or heard of one near us. Do not over-feed dogs, give them plenty of exercise and water, and I do not think people need be in iuob a state of terror "I to

nr fmtlum Correspondent. (We Ù8ID it to stat* that we do not at all times Motuy WMIVSS with Corraapoadsnt's opinions.] The great cloak in the Palace of Westminster has for years n one of the wonders of London. The bell whiah sands forth the hours is known as Big Bti. and by the Vjie" of Big Ben. time-i-d^ce* of every ties- clipcion are set "11 over metropolis. Not that sound can be heard throughout the length and breadth of the capital at one time the area of the place is too vast for that, but the hearing of this huge bell depends entirely upon the direction of the wind. Of course the residents of Westminster can always hear it, for the clock tower is in their very midst, and the flight of time is boomed forth with a loud reverberation which carries the chronicle into every house. But the people in the city of London, and beyond the civic boundaries at Aldgate far out into the regions of the Tower Hamlets hear Big Ben only when the wind is blowing frum the west, and in the silent watches of the 'ight the sound is carried for miles over the great city. he current of air sometimes takes it to Norwood i to Sydenham at others to Highgate and Hampstead. The reputation of the clock as ce of mechanism is so firmly established is said not to vary a second in eighty at even this marvellous clock is not free from "me—that Time whose passing away it rds, arid so punctually proclaims. It for repairs, and its four dials will be 3 to the millions of London for some are few who will not be glad to hear "otes of Big Ben again. They are better Dr e easily recognized than those of any other on. Meanwhile the Palace of Westmin- it as the clock itself, and from the Speaker r humblest of the three hundred officials iiome beneath its roof, the prorogation of ■t has given a well-earned holiday—one, the length of whi«h does not fall to the lot of m, for its duration is six months. w will the fortunes of war have fluctuated by the ie the Legislature re-assembles in February next ? -n glancing over the incidents of the past half year, much is presented to the mental vision for which men were totally unprepared in February last. One result has been to shatter the superstition that Russia could, by putting forth her strength, become an all-absorbing, all-conquering Power and with one foot in Asia and the other in Europe, fix her grasp successively upon Armenia and India, command the Mediterranean, and at her will and pleasure seize Constantinople. The Turks, both in Asia and in Europe, have shown that they can take very good care of themselves the Russian invasion of Armenia has been successfully repelled; aid the progress of the Muscovite armies through Bulgaria has not quite par- taken of the character of a triumphal march towards Constantinople all was at first expected. Meanwhile the Bummer is passing away, and no warlike eperaiiona will be possible in these regions in the late autumn and the winter. The swollen Danube menacing the safety of the bridges across its stream will have to be reckoned with, and the wants of an immense army in a depopulated country must be supplied, war, or no war. The winter of 1870, which witnessed the Siege of Paris, was the most severe which had passed over Europe for years, the weather adding greatly to the distress of the inhabitants of the beleagured city. A hard winter, or even an unusually rainy one, would materially increase the anxieties of the Russian commanders. The British Association has been called the Parlia- ment of Science, and in its moving to and fro through the country, there is little doubt that it has done much for the advancement of that upon which its members set their hearts. Its gatherings are judi- ciously held at a time when the Legislature having just separated, the columns of the London papers are not filled with the reports of long debates; and people having for the time had enough of politics, turn with i. feeling of relief to the doings of the savants. The peri- patetic plan seems to answer quite as well with the scientists as with the agriculturists; in each district visited fresh ground is broken and renewed interest excited. Last year the British Association met at Glasgow, this year Plymouth was its headquarters. It is a far cry between the Clyde and the Tamar —between the surroundings of the most populous city in Scotland and the beautiful scenery of the West of England. The serious work of discussion in the various sections is always relieved by excursions in the neighbourhood, and no place at which the British Association has everjuet possesses greater attractions, or offers better facilities for reaching them than the vicinity of Plymouth. In estimating the conditions of our food supply it is interesting to note that while the imports of cattle have fallen off during the past two years, those of „ dead stock have coaid8rabJyir>v.J nlfcurists have often differed as- to whether iding or wheat-raising was the most profitable way of de- voting the land in a country where so much had been produced from it, that without rest exhaustion nught ensue. For it must be remembered that the land of Great Britain has now been under cultivation for many centuries, and that restorative agencies, in the shape of artificial manures, have to be applied, in order to compensate for that loss of force which cannot fail to be the result of ages of work which has gone on almost without interruption. The farming interest of America and Canada is not oppressed with anxiety as to how long their land will bear the strain thrown upon it by the requirements of an ever-growing popu- lation. They find a soil which, having had nothing to do for thousands of years, now that it is awakened into life is capable of growing corn and feeding cattle sufficient for the whole civilized world. One result of this is seen in the vast increase of American meat imported within the past two years into this country, and which has augmented more than twelve-fold in that short time. Land-hunger, or a hankering after the acquisition of fresh territory on the part of a people is often made the subject of condemnation in this country. The Czar's manifesto in declaring war last April was censured on the platform aad in the Press because he did not disavow the idea of annexation, and every fresh addition of territory to the Russian Empire in Central Asia is viewed by many with the utmost alarm for the safety of our Indian possessions. We all remember the outcry against the late Emperor Napoleon for having clutched Savoy and Nice in 1860; yet only three years previously we had annexed the kingdom of Oude; we have since taken over the Fiji Islands, and still more recently the Transvaal Republic, a country quite as large as France. The United States have followed our example in taking possession of the Samoan islands, a fertile group not far from Fiji, as distances are reckoned in the Pacific Ocean. The islands were, it appeared, originally offered to ourselves, but before the Governor of Fiji, to whom the suggestion was made, had time to com- municate with the Home Government, the chiefs in Somoa became impatient, and transferred their allegiance to the Americans. Samoa will form an important naval and commercial station for the stars and stripes. The ships which call at those Pacific islands often experience a great difficulty in getting their men together again. The sailors there find a soil of amazing fertility, bringing forth in its abundance without the toil which is so often necessary to the obtaining of a livelihood in civilized lands the climate is a splendid one, and there is a plenty of animal food. What wonder, then, that many, under such circumstances, should prefer a life of ease on a Pacific island, to an existence of care and worry in the great world beyond it ? Samoa should not be con- founded with the Island of Samos, in the Ægean Sea, :ch was so flourishing a community under the rule olycrates, more than two thousand years ago. tips noted for its vineyards, the fermented pro- ldch must have been of a highly seductive for we find Lord Byron warning his readers influence when he exclaims "Dash down wine Denmark has come to see his Princess of Wales at a time of ivhen London is at its very quietest, evious visits his Majesty has generally .vhat is known as the dull Season as which he prefers to move about the capital; Few sovereigns are more unosten- than King Christian, and yet there are not who can feel a greater degree of satisfaction at osition in life which has been taken by his iren. His eldest son, now thirty-four years of is of course heir to the throne of Denmark; his end son is King of Greece; his two daughters, lexandra and Dagmar, are married to the heirs- apparent of the thrones of Great Britain and Russia respectively. The King himself is in his sixtieth year. and married Princess Louisa, of Hesse. Cassel both are descendants of our own George II. In the poetical works of Longfellow an imaginary story of the ad- ventures of a. life are told by a skeleton in armour illustrative of the kind of existence once led bv the hardy Norseman:— "And when I older grew. Joining a corsair's crew O'er the dark sea I flew, With the marauders. Wild was the life we led, Many the souls that sped, Many the hearts that bled, By our stern orders." But the Norseman's home of to-day is no longer on the foaming wave, nor does the corsair carry terror along the wild coasts of the Baltic. Denmark is a country whose civilization is as advanced as that of any nation ia Europe; while Sweden and Norway have become a happy hunting ground for the British tourist. Those are the latitudes which are within the range of per- petual summer daylight, and where the people gaze upon the midnight sun. There, in the early morning, you may wander amidst forest-clad hills, where the white stem of the silver birch gleams through the sombre pines, and watch the varying splendours of that •»<•>ft sunlight in all the gl,ry of ar.nine, and orar.^e, and indigo, flooding not only the he." "èTj bur sea oxia c^usin^ the Wihe;, to u«nee like a tiasil vi living fire. On a clear night, for several weeks to come, the most conspicuous object in the heavens will be the planet Mars. Astronomers, knowing of his intended approach, have for some time past made due prepara- tions for observing his movements, and as he will not again be so near the earth for a very long while to come, it may be relied upon that no opportunity will be lost of adding to the stock of knowledge which we already possess respecting our next neighbour in the planetary system. Kirke White loved to describe the season— When marshalled on the uightly plain The glitteriug hosts bestud the sky," a season affording ample food for reflection. on a calm and cool autumnal evening. Venus, when she appears to us, shows a soft green light Jupiter is always a deep yellow; but here is Mars just over our hsads i-Ih that peculiar tinge of red which in heathen mythology made him the god of war. When the moon rose over the battle-field of Plevna, on the 30th July, and enabled the Bashi-Bazouks and the Circassians to complete the work whioh the cannon and the lifle had left undone, and to slaughter the helpless wounded, a graphic writer described the scene as Heaven holding a lighted lamp to Pandemonium. But in a few days the moonbeams faded away like an unsubstantial vision, and in their place the lurid rays of Mars, which in endless ages have been associated with memories of bloodshed, were sent down nightly upon the reeking battle plains of Bulgaria. The bril- liancy of Mars in the firmament is that of a nocturnal sun, and his light eclipses that of any of the myriads of worlds that are scat- tered along the pathways of the skies. The constellations that have so long held their own, have for the time to stand aside in the attention which can be devoted to them. Cans't thou bin Orion ?" asks the writer of the Book of Job, who at the same time tells us of what in his days was thought of the sweet influence of the Pleiades." We do not bind Orion, who still bestrides the skies, armed with his ponderous club, but the lustre of Mars rather puts him into the shade just now. And when the night is slowly passing away, and the dim grey tinge of dawn gradually creeps up from the eastern horizon and overspreads the heavens, the pale light of the morning first obliterates the Milky Way, next effaces the Pleiades, then removes Orion from mortal ken, and lastly attacks Mars, who, vanquished for the time, is the first to reappear at sunset, and to,shine again upon a world which now seems as far off from realising the prophecy that there shall be no more war as when, in the days when this earth was young, .1 he looked down upon its continents, its islands, and its glittering seas.

Midhat Pacha has written the following letter to the Débats :Some papers continue to attribute to me a con- fidential mission, in spite of the official denial published in all the Constantinople journals In view of the reiteration of this statement and in order to maintain my personal character in respect to the ideas and opinions which may have been expressed by me in conversation, I declare that no mission, either official or confidential, has been confided to me by the Sultan. I do not require a mission to speak my mind on the war which my country suffers from and supports with so much patriotism, on the great European interests at stake in it, on the means of putting an end to it, and on the r6le which belongs to European diplomacy. The pain which I feel in being absent from my country, espe- cially at this supreme moment, when her fate is being de- cided, would be too great for me if I did not endeavour to find, in the numerous sympathies I meet with in Europe the strength to plead the cause of my country with those who deign to give me some credit. The sentiments I ex- press may agree with those of the Imperial Government without my having any authority to speak in its name They are, above all, the expression of that public opinion which has been formed and developed in Turkey by the influence of events, and when, in order to destroy prejudices which still exist, I say that the Turks to-day ask for nothing better than to practise liberty at home, to establish, political equality, and to improve their administration by serious reforms, when I say that, it is necessary for the public belief that I should have an official mission? May I be allowed to say that if they are victorious in the war, as they are and deserve to be, on account of their bravery, patriotism, and the justice of their cause, the Turks will profit by the war only to conclude an honourable peace, and to inaugurate a new era under the auspices of a Sovereign who has given his people both liberty and glory. To a war of extermina- tion and conquest they will reply by a defensive war (t outrance but the only peace they will refuse is a false peace, which would render the political and strategical position of Russia stronger as regards Turkey, and which would open to her, sooner or later, the route to Constanti- nople. Such are the facts I affirm, and when I make myself the interpreter of them, not a single Ottoman, you may rely on it, will give me the denial."

THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA. Messrs. Fairman and Co., of Gracechurch-street, London, give the following information respecting the approaching Hadjilik," or Pilgrimage, to Mecca :— "The great feast of Mohomedans, viz., the Cour- ban Bairam,' is the day by which all the pilgrims must have arrived at Mecca. This year this feast day will fall on Friday, the 14th of December next. Therefore, from about the 24th of December next the pilgrims will begin to leave Jeddah on their return homewards. They take steamer at Jeddah for the Persian Gulf, Bombay, Calcutta, Singa- pore, Penaug and Batavia, and some numbers go to Zanzibar on their way to the youth-eastern ports of Africa and to Capetown. Besides these Eastward- bound pilgrims we have those pilgrims returning to the Syrian and North African and Moorish ports. The bulk of them embark at Jeddah, but svuie 7,000 embark at Yambo, a little to the north of J eddah. Therefore steamers, either eastward or westward bound, desirous to embark pilgrims should begin to call at Jeddah from about the 24th of December to about the 15th of March next. Our special information from the different Mahomedan ports tells us that the crops ~ave been generally abundant, and, moreover, the L our ban Bairam feast day will fall on a Friday— which is the Mahommedan Sunday and their holy day in every respect. The Mahommedans take notice of srch coincidences, and include this incident in their calculations; therefore, considering these two com- bined favourable facts, we anticipate an extraordinary large number of pilgrims through Jeddah this next season, in spite of the war which concerns more directly only the Mahommedans of Turkey proper and Egypt, and does not affect the larger numbers from the above- named ports."

It is rumoured, but we can hardly credit the rumour that some English naturalists, more curious than cautious' are trying to get hold of live Colorado beetles, to experiment on the powers of eating possessed by these creatures.— Athenceum.

DISASTROUS FIRES IN AMERICA. Information has been received of a destructive fire which broke out on the premises of a cigar manu- facturer in Cincinnati, U.S.. on the 3rd inst., result- ing in the loss of several lives and scenes of the most he- riding character. The building was situated at the corner of Eighth-street and Broadway, aiid the ire was discovered in the lower storey. It sprea. with x\rj,"i-Jiiii»r5* rapi-iity, owing to the iiiiiani'aabie nature of the material, and extended to the upper rooms. At the time of the fire all the hands were at work, and those engaged in the lower storeys were able to get safely away. There were, however, about twenty girls at work in the top rooms occupied in trimming boxes, and the flames having caught the stairs to all the lower storeys cut off their means of escape. About sixteen of these, notwithstanding the stifling smoke and flames, made a bold attempt to escape through the fire and gained the street, though not without being terribly burnt. The others that re- mained in the building were seen at the windows, and their gesticulations and cries for help were of the most heartrending description. Shortly after this the floor en which they stood gave way, and they were thrown head- long amongst the burning ruins, where they perished. The building was one mass of ruins, and after the flames had been got under control search was made for the missing persons, when the charred bodies of three girls and one young man were discovered lying close together and almost unrecognisable. The engineer of the works, in endeavouring to escape by jumping from the building, was killed by the fall, and several persons who were known to be on the premises at the time were missing, and it was thought that they also had perished.

Two days later a shocking disaster occurred at Sim- coe, Ontario. The poor-house on the Industrial Farm of the county of Norfolk, a mile from Simcoe, was discovered to be on fire at eleven o'clock at night, and the building being of wood, it waia quickly reduced to ashes. Notwithstanding the exertions of the few people who reached the burning building, seventeen human beings were burned to death. All the victims were from neighbouring townships. The cause of the fire was unknown.

THE FAMINE IN INDIA. The Lord Mayor of London has received the sub- joined communication from Miss Florence Nightin- gale:- "London, Aug. 17. My Lord,-Tf English people knew what an Indian Famine is- worse than a battlefield, worse even than a retreat; and this famine, too, is in its second year-there is not an English man, woman, or child who would not give cut of their abundance, or out of their economy. If we do not, we are the Turks who put an end to the wounded, and, worse than they, for they put an end to the enemy's wounded but we, by neglect to our own starving fellow-subjects and there is not a more industrious being on the face of the earth than the ryot. He deserves all we can do. Having seen your advertisement this morning only and thanking God that you have initiated this relief, I hasten to inclose what I can— £ 25; hoping that I may'be allowed to repeat the mite again for all will be wanted. Between this and January our fellow-creatures in Tndia will need everybody's mite-given now at once-then repeated again and again. And may God bless the Fund. "Pray believe me, my Lord, ever your faithful servant, FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor."

The Lord Mayor of London has received a comm uni- cation from the Prince of Wales, stating that the dis- tressing accounts from India of the terrible famine now raging in the southern parts of that country have caused him the greatest concern, enclosing a cheque hundred guineas as a donation in aid of the relief fund now being raised by his lordship, and ex- pressing the hope that the Lord Mayor's appeal to the public mav meet with the prompt and generous re- sponse it deserves. The fund had reached £ 12,000 on Monday evening.

On Saturday (18th) the Indian Famine Relief Fund amounted to upwards of 97,000. Among the donors were Messrs. Arbuthnot, Latham, and Co., 2,500; Sterne Brothers, £500; Messrs. F. Huth and Co, ■Y 1 ^rsk,me Perry, £ 50; Mary Lady Hobart, widow of the late Governor of Madras, £ 100; Air. Lewis Lloyd, £100; Mr. T. S. Cowie, 1:20; Mr. A. W. Gadesden, £ 25; Mr. W. Robinson, R50 C. D. H., £25; Gellatly, Hankey, Sewell, and Co.. £100; Miss Borradaue, £ o0 Colonel Makins, M.P., £ 20; Sir Christopher Rawlinson, £ 20; Miss Florence Nightin- gale, £ 25 Lord Lgerton of Tatton, £ 50 Mr. R. H. Vade Walpoie, £ *20 bir Edward J, Gambier, £ 50 Thomas Gray and Walker, e20 Messrs. Bixley and Abell, £100; and Messrs. Carlyle and Brothers, £100.

The Calcutta Correspondent of The Times in a tele- gram of Sunday's date, states that the reports for the past week show that there is little if any change for the better in the harvest prospects. On the whole, he says, the prospects of the autumn crops may be re- garded as hopeless in Southern India, most critical in Western, Central, and Northern India, and fairly good in Eastern India." The Relief Committee appointed at the Madras meeting have published an appeal for help, which they are circulating on all sides. A meeting will shortly be held in Calcutta for the purpose of appointing a committee to co operate with the Madras committee.

The Times publishes a private letter, under date, Bangalore, July 22, from which the following is extracted This famine is a terrible calamity, and why the people of England do not send any aid is a mou- vol to all in the, South of iajia. Ynu have no coneeption what the failure 6i rain far thipe in l;ulia mean#. It ia simply utaihfto te*s of ihonsMiiis. 1 mippose people at home are chary ofjjivlng, as they thin* 11), Bengal Famine was a cry of I W,,If, wolf'! but this is h tenfold worn calamity. Tens of thousands have alreq^gr starved to death, and if the rains fail, as is certainly now threatened, the deaths will amount to a mil- lion. I do not believe Government can possibly bear the train that will be thrown on their resources. It seems a cruel mockeiv for England to subscribe towards Bulgarians anc others, while actually its own sub- jects are starving by thousands. An area greater than the whole of France may be said to he threatened with depopulation. In Mysore we can speak personally, as we have seen the most harrowing scenes in our march across it lately poor little mites of children wandering about in the last stage of starvation, all their relations having either died or deserted them, were common spectacles. It is a sad subject to write about, but all others pale before it. .It is a fact that the greater part of the South of India i; at present supported by importations of grain from the North. When these cease Within the limits of actual starvation there must be awful misery to those who, at the best of times, can only keep body and soul together. The prices of everything have risen to a height, I believe, only once exceeded before.

The Standard has published the following letters on the subject of the Famine Sh">—I venture to send you an extract from a letter from niy daughter received this morning, and dated Ootacamuncf, Madras Presidency, July 23, 1877. If yon can make any use of it in showing the reality of the sufferings of the poor famine-stricken creatures in Mysore, I shall be glad. If any who feel their hearts stirred by this bitter want wish to localise subscriptions, I shall be hap to receive and forward them weekly.—I remain, Sir, yours truly,—AGNES BLIGH LL.Gore House, Uffculmn, Devon, August 18 Extract of a letter from Mrs. T. M. Minchin, dated Oota- camund, July 23, 1S77 :— The rains seem to have failed again, and the number of deaths from starvation in Mynaad and Mysore, and, in fact, all parts of the Presidency, is something fearful. My hus- band has to pass three or four dead bodies along the sides of the road every time he goes up and down between Mynaad and this place. Sometimes there are even even more than that. Poor people come in from Mysore in the hope of get- ting work on our plantations, and die on the road from starvation. It is most heart-rending. Government is doing what it can in the way of giving away food. Money is no use to poor people in the exhausted state in which they come into Mynaad; they would have neither strength nor sense to go and spend it. "The hospital which my husband built, with the help of other planters, has saved the lives of a great many poor half-starved people but most of them are so utterly miser- able that unless they are carried up to the hospital they have neither strength nor spirit to go there, and very often when they do get there it is too late-the food and medicine is too late to save them. If we do not get rain in Mysore and the other famine-stricken districts within the next week or so all the crops of rice and other grain that the natives live on will again be lost, and there will be no food at air for them. The cattle too, are dying for want of pasture, and altogether it is a sad, sad time of trial for us all. Our coffee crops got rain in time, and are getting on pretty well; but the labour will be our difficulty. The estates are crow- ded with poor half-starved people, none of them able to do a proper day's work, and all of whom have to be paid, as we could not reduce their wages in these hard times. The government is importing grain from all parts, but is is of course very dear, and the price of everything is raised accordingly. So we have to be very careful (us Eng- lish people out here), so that we may give all we can to save a few of these poor creatures." Sir, —I beg to send an extract from a letter received from my son, who is in one of the Queen's regiments at Ban- galore touching on the terrible famine which is now deci- mating the greater part of the population of Southern India. If you think it worth inserting in your paper it may touch the sympathy of our generous-hearted Englishmen —I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, C. D., Folkestone, August 18. «w « "July 17. We are again suffering from want of rain, and the whole place wears a dried-up appearance and the worst of it is that the crops that had just begun to appear above the ground have been completely destroyed for want of rain, and the famine is worse than ever. The chief engineer of Mysore, who has the whole of the tanks under his charge, has made a calculation that if we do not get a heavy fall of rain before the 5th of August at the outside Mysore will become a desert, and the whole of the population will be wiped out. The basis he goes on is that not only will there be no crops this year, but the i ail way from Madras to Ban- galcre (if all passenger traffic be stopped, and nothing but grain trains are run sharp one after the other) can only bring 400,000 bags of rice per diem, and the consumption will be 500,000 and this calculation does not take into consideration that the grain has to be carried by bullock gharries into the outlying districts, and under the most favourable circumstances 2,000,000 of the inhabitants must perish. Sad. indeed, is the distress all round, and our great hope is that England will send help soon." —

"EACH CAN LEARN FROM the OTHER." At the luncheon given by the Mayor of Exeter to the members of the British Association and their visitors, the Bish »p of Exeter, in responding to the toast—the Health of the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese"—dwelt on the advantages to be gained by greater intercourse between the clergy and the students of science, between the students of God's word and the students of God's works. (Cheers.) They often heard of the great increase in the efficiency of human opera- tions by the division of labour. He reminded the audi- ence of the old illustration of the ten men employed to make a pin, but pointed out, as had been remarked by a great philosopher, that what enormously improved the work m several ways deteriorated the workman. The man who did nothing but make pin's beads acquired a wonderful skill in his craft, and the pin«' heads were out of aU proportion mere numerous and more excellent, but the pinhead maker was much less of a man. (Cheers and a laugh.) Now this applied, and increasingly applied, to the present division of study, and there was a real danger that the division of study might be better for the study, but worse for the student. The mathematician might end with a wonderful power of solving questions, but with a loss of power to appreciate what lies outside mathematics. (Cheers.) It was for tjiis reason greatly to be desired that all who study Bhould correct, by frequent inter- that all who study should correct, by frequent inter. course, the narrowness that results from exclusive devotion to particular subjects. He did not ear that ultimately the progress of science would be hostile to religion, but meanwhile both men of science and students of the Bible had to learn from each other, and Would greatly gain by mixing so as to understand each other. The clergy no doubt would often have to modify many ef their opinions in de- ference to th3 li^ht of .science (cheers); but men of -fiance, also, would learn much by finding how dit- rereuily many conclusions were viewed by intelligent men who had pursued a different line of study, (Cheers.) Each would learn from the other, and if mistakes had been made by either it was by persisting in study that such mistakes could be corrected. Science would at last correct itself if it needed correc- tion, and he looked forward to finding hereafter that the more study was pushed on the nearer did all the students come together. (Cheers.)

MR. GLADSTONE ON RUSSIAN ATROCITIES." Mr. Gladstone having been asked by a correspondent to let his voice be heard on the atrocities charged to the Rus- sians, as he had formerly done with respect to those alleged against the Turks, replied, under date, August 10 "Sir,—I feel that your letter is conceived in the i spirit of justice as well as humanity. We have in these cases to ascertain, first, that the events have really occurred and, secondly, who were the doer3. The people of this country remained quiet last year about the Bulgarian atrocities until both were as- certained. This is not, so far as I know, the case at present. The shameless, wholesale lying of the Turkish Government deprives its allegations of all claim to value. There is, however, I think, evidence enough of many cruel and horrible deeds. I myself should be most thankful to anyone who would give me the means of judging whether they were due to Rus- sians or to Bulgarians.—Yours faithfully, W. E. GLADSTONE.

LEARNING TO SWIM Mr. J. J. Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, thus relates his own ex- perience in learning to swim :— "Some half a dozen years ago, after an afternoon's pike fishing, I attempted to cross the river Colne on a shaky plank, which began to wobble as I approached the centre, so in I went on my back, in deep water, and being no swimmer, a sudden rush of serious ideas passed through my mind like lightning—bidding adieu to my family, &c. As soon as I turned over I remembered the frog, and, extending my arms under water, struck them back vigorously, and in about a dozen such strokes found myself comfortably, or rather comfortingly, at the bank, although my legs were not used, and, of course, sank. In fact I had learned to swim in a few seconds, and should not now feel alarmed by a ducking. Had I raised my arms above water, as is too frequently the case, I should have gone down like a shot, but I happened to do 'the correct card.

REVENUE ITEMS. The Customs' duty on tobacco and snuff, as appears from the Finance accounts just issued, amounted in the year ended the 31st of March to 27,864,113 3s. 4d. gross, and £7,775,57414s. 8d. net. The Excise duty on railway passengers was 2728,728 16s. lOd. The net revenue derived from stamps on bills of exchange was P,768,542 17s. 3d. The fee stamps headed Judicature produced in net 2193,239 7s. 8d., and in addition tl28,988 4s. in the Probate Court (England). The amount derived from fees in public offices was £762,91868. Id. The Foreign Office received 2647 2s. as passport fees," and the amount of forfeited suitors' money in County Courts paid over to the Government was £ 1,15110s. lid. The amount realised from the sale of the "gold sweep of the Mint in the last year was £1,403 6s. 3d. The amount received by the Government on void money orders was £5,472 lis- 2d. The stamp duty on "playing cards," net was a3,734 6s.

AMERICAN HUMOUR. Brigham Young likes to talk of old times, but says that his second dozen weddings seem like a dream to him. It is remarked by a bilous Eastern journal of a Chicago couple, Two souls with but a single thought-how to get rid of each other." A lonely Keokuk bachelor wants to adopt a girl baby-not less than eighteen years old. The editor of an American paper recently insisted that poets must be brief. The next day he received a com- position entitled, The Ballad of the Merchant" Trust- Bust He was from Nebraska. He was passing by a White-street fish-market wheu he saw a lobster on a bench The sight was so unexpected that he lost his presence of mind, and before he could recover himself had openly con- fessed, By jinks, that's the biggest grasshopper I ever seen. An old gentleman had three daughters, all of whom were marriageable. A young fellow went awooing the youngest, and finally got her consent to take him "for better or worse." Upon application to the old gentleman for his consent, he ilfiv into a violent rage. declaring that no man should "pick nis daughters in that way," and if he wished to marry one of his family, he might have the oldest, or leave the house forthwith. The New Orleans Picayune says it was customary with persons at the South who had old negroes they wished to sell for a good price, if they happened to be minus a tooth or two, to put kernels of Virginia cam, flat and white, in their jaws, set in red putty, which did well enough until they u tc qprout. k., It takes all the enjoyment out of a game of croquet to hear it called an amusement within the reach of the feeblest intellect." The Bost on lady is very delicate. Her only call for ir.ore is embraced in the remark, I will have another bean if you please." u lea A young Chicago poet, who could not pay his hotel bill, declared Life in the free, far and mighty West is corroded with the sublimate of darkling social gloom, glowering from a sky of midnight blackness, unre- lieved by a ray of dancing sunshine." A San Francisco divine has published a small volume entitled, The DevilCan He be Converted I The writer thinks he could. -No doubt he IS in his secrets. Most of the Maine hotels have no wine lists. The Bangor House, however, still has the heading on its bill of fare, but beneath it there is only this: "We would if we could." Did you see a dog come by here that looked as if he were a year, or a year and a half, or two years old ?" said a Yankee to a countryman at the roadside. "Yes," "He passed about an hour, or an hour and a half, or two hours ago; and is now a mile, or a mile and a half, or two miles ahead; and he had a tail about an inch, or an inch and a half, or two inches long. That'll do," You're into me a foot, or a foot and a half, or two feet." A certain Yankee judge, whose pompous and officious ways tempted some of the lawyers to acts which his honour constructed to mean contempt, fined them ten dollars each. When they had paid their fines, a certain dry and steady-going old attorney walked up to the bench and very gravely laid down a ten dollar bill. "What is that for'"said the judge. For contempt, your honour," was the reply. Why, I have not fined you for contempt," an- swered the judge. "I know that," said the lawyer; but I want you to understand that I cherish a secret contempt for this court all the time, and I am willing to pay for it.'

AKOTHEE OPPORTUNITY FOB REFORM.—It is asserted that at a recent Government examination a candidate, asked to define the word buttress," wrote as its meaning, A female who makes butter." In this answer are evidently the rudiments of a new system. By the same reasoning, a "pillar" would be a man who makes pills-or, if not, it ought to be. Members of the Spelling Committee of the London School Board will do well to make a note of such a splendid oppor- tunity of further distinguishing themselves, —Jvdy>

DOUBLE EXECUTION AT LIVERPOOL. John Golding and Patrick M'Govern were executed at Kirkdale Gaol, Liverpool, on Tuesday morniug- Golding for the murder of Daniel Lloyd, by striking him on the head with a poker several times; and M'Govern for having fatally stabbed John Campbell with a table knife. Both murders took place in Liverpool. Golding, who was a young man, was re- commended to mercy by the jury, and for some time he had strong hopes that his life would be spared, even to the last protesting that the sentence was too hard. Both prisoners, however, got more resigned as the time drew near, and were very attentive to the ministrations of the Roman Catholic chaplain, the Rev. Father Bonte. At a quarter-past six private mass with Holy Communion was celebrated, and after this time Father Bonte remained with M'Govern until he was taken to the pinioning-room, as he was very disturbed and nervous. Under the drop Golding stood firm and submitted quietly while the necessary pre- parations were being made, but M'Govern was much agitated, and almost sunk down whilst the rope was being adjusted. Marwood was the executioner, and gave the culprits an unusually long drop, the fall in the case of M'Govern being seven and a half feet, and for Gold- ing eight feet. With such a terrific drop death, or at least insensibility, could hardly fail to be instan- taneous, but for some two minutes afterwards there was a convulsive muscular movement in the limbs of both men, and Golding's legs were considerably drawn up. Both of the prisoners were visited by their wives on Monday. Golding was quite a young man and had not been long married. M'Govern was about 40 years of age, and had a family of five or six children. After the bodies bad hung the usual time, they were cut down and a formal inquest held, after which they were buried in the graveyard within the gaol walls.

THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PREHISTORIC TIMES. At the meeting of the British Association, in the Anthropological department, Professor Ilolleston, M.D., F.R.S., gave an address on the flora and fauna of prohistoric times. He succeeded in making the subject very popular and interesting. In the course of his paper he referred to the rabbit as an animal which had only established itself in this country in comparatively recent times—say since the time of Richard I. As one instance of this he referred to the mischief done by the rabbit now-a-days in destroy- ing ancient tumuli. Not being antiquarians—(laughter) —having no fear of Sir John Lubbock, or possibly knowing that his Bill had not passed into law, they frequently, in making their burrows, drew out old flint implements, ancient pottery, &c., from the tumuli, He had frequently seen such remains lying at the mouths of rabbits' burrows. Now, had the rabbits existed in England in prehistoric times, when the British burrows were built up for the interment of burnt bodies, they would ere this have destroyed them all. Professor Rolleston also mentioned incidentally that, in spite of the frequent statements to the contrary, England was better wooded now than any other Euro- pean country. There were more trees per acre in Eng- land than in Germany, or any other continental country, not excluding their forests. Colonel Godwin-Austin, F.L.S., remarked that the common English rat did not appear to have existed in prehistoric times. Sir William Guise stated that an animal called the martin cat used to exist in the Forest of Dean. and was sometimes caught and tamed into a domestic animal. It had now, however, been so far extirpated by the keeper that it was almost impossible to procure a specimen. Professor Newton, F.R.S., as a zoologist and orno- thologist, mentioned that the fir tree appeared to have been extinct in England in the middle ages. One consequence of the failure of the fir forests in England has been that the bird known as the coal titmouse of this country had entirely changed the colour of its plumage, and become entirely distinct from the Scotch titmouse which inhabited the firs there. Formerly there used to be large visitations of crossbills to this country, and great complaints were made by old writers as to the immense damage done by these birds to English orchards, where they used always to take up their quarteis. The crossbills still came to Eng- land, but they were no longer a trouble to our orchards. The fact was that they formerly went to the orchards because there was no fir trees, on the cones and seeds of which they could feed. Now, however, there were plenty of firs, and there the crossbills must be looked for, so that the firs had saved the apple trees. (Cheers.)

DEAN STANLEY ON THE PHARISEE AND PUBLICAN. On Sunday, Dean Stanley, who is spending some holydays in Scotland, and who is now in excellent health, preached in the parish church of Roseneath, his subject being suggested by the parable in St Luke, Two men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharasee and the other a Publican." For nearly an hour he traced the Pharasee and the Publican of everyday life through their several disguises, and dwelt upon some of the forms in which they are per- petually reappearing in the world. He was not always a Jew who was one outwardly he was not a Gentile who was one outwardly neither was he always orthodox or religious who was so outwardly; nor was he always a heretic who was one outwardly. In the ancient Church there was a maxim that it was possible to hold orthodox truths in a heretical manner and heretical truths in an orthodox way. Old truths often became the mask of modern error, and modern error often became the mask of old truths. There was a secret popery in the heart of many a rigid Pro- testant; there was a secret Antinoraianism in the midst of the most rigid Catholicism; there was a secret rationalism in the midst of the most rigid dogmatism; there was a truth which, being held in unrighteousness, was turned into positive error. There was, on the other hand, an error, which, being held in an honest and good heart, ripened into positive truth. There was a humility and reverence about sacred things which, while fear- ing to approach them, was itself religious. Taere was a sincere belief in the midst of unbelief. There was the belief of Job, Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him." There was a faith intense in proportion to its scantiness there was a prayer fervent in pro-, portion to its misgivings. There was a grasp on divine truth firmer SInd stronger by far than the tolerant acquiescence of hereditary belief. There was a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin deeper than to be expressed in any fixed form of words. Of all prayers there were few more sacred and comprehensible than the single agonized, almost inaudible murmur of the half heathen, half outcast Publican, God be merciful to me, a sinner." That was the litany of the universal Church. It should ne the prayer of all mankind.

A VISIT TO AN OLD LINE OF BATTLE-SHIP. One of the excursions in connexion with the British Association, and which attracted a large number of visitors, was one up the Hamoaze, and after round the Eddystone Lighthouse. This was of a diversified as well as interesting character. Three small steamers, lent by the Admiralty, conveyed Dr. Allen Thomson, the President, and nis friends first of all to Her Majesty's gunnery ship Cambridge, where a treat of no ordinary description was provided. This magnifi- cent hull is a fine specimen of the old line-of-battle ship, the glories of which have been so unworthily eclipsed by rams, monitors, war shields, float- ing turrets, and torpedoes. In bulk alone it is a sight worth travelling some distance to see, and gives an excellent idea of the style of naval architecture which was growing towards perfection with Nelson and may be said to have died out with Sir Charles Napier. Regular gun drill was gone through by the crew, and those who had the privilege to be present were initi- ated into the mysteries as well as the strength of the class of ship to which we in part owe our naval supremacy. There was excellent practice at the tar- gets with ball cartridge. To this there succeeded several torpedo experiments, which impressed all who beheld them with a befitting idea of the power of this tremendous engine of destruction; an old boat was exploded, and its shivered particles hurled at least 60ft. into the air. Divers also went down and affixed subterranean mines to the bottoms of imaginary ships, which were also exploded iftost successfully, much to the wonder of the occupants of certain passing boats. Then there came a voyage up the Hamoaze, past the dockyards, the steam basins, the victualling yards, between lines of scores of old men-of-war, once the pride of the navy. A cruise round the Eddystone brought the excursion to an appropriate olose.