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seven hundred and thirty-nine to one thousand | boats occupying four or five hours. Six regular and fifty-nine. M. Quetelet finds that star-showers passage-boats, conveying an average of one hunoccur at the same periods in the proportion of dred, ply daily each way full, amounting to four twenty-eight to seventy-two.-Popular Science Re- hundred thousand passengers yearly; and though the cost is moderate, the loss of half a day on the way would give the railway so great an advantage as to secure the whole traffic." We trust the object of the report will be accomplished; for by promoting trade, railways would do much for the internal tranquillity and civilization of China. The magnitude of the scheme may best be inferred from an inspection of the large map by which the

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however, abundant in China, and once begun, the works might be carried steadily forward.-Chambers's Journal.

Scenery of the Moon.-Among the many terriblysublime scenes with which the moon's surface must abound, none can be grander than that which presents itself to the spectator were he placed inside one of those volcanic craters-Tycho, for instance -surrounded on every side by the most terrific evidences of volcanic force in its wildest features. In such a position he would have before him, stand-report is accompanied. Men and materials are, ing up from the vast plane below, a mighty obeliskshaped mountain of some nine thousand feet in height, casting its intense black shadow over the plateau; and partly up its slope he would see an amphitheatrical range of mountains beyond, which, in spite of their being about forty miles distant, would appear almost in his immediate proximity (owing to the absence of that "aerial perspective" which in terrestrial scenery imparts a softened aspect to the distant object)-so near, indeed, as to reveal every cleft and chasm to the naked eye. This strange commingling of near and distant objects, the inevitable visual consequence of the absence of atmosphere or water, must impart to lunar scenery a terrible aspect; a stern wilderness which may aptly be termed unearthly. And when we seek to picture to ourselves, in addition to the lineaments and condition of the lunar landscape, the awful effect of an absolutely black firmament, in which every star visible above the horizon would shine with a steady brilliancy (all causes of scintillation or twinkling being absent, as these effects are due to the presence of variously heated strata, or currents in our atmosphere), or of the vivid and glaring sunshine, with which we have nothing to compare in our subdued solar illumination, made more striking by the contrast of an intensely black sky; if, we say, we would picture to ourselves the wild and unearthly scene that would thus be presented to our gaze, we must search for it in the recollection of some fearful dream. - Quarterly Journal of Science.

Railways in China.—Sir Macdonald Stephenson, who some years ago drew up and published a report on railways in Turkey, has just put forth a similar report" on the feasibility and most effectual means of introducing railway communication into the empire of China." It sets forth the results of his own personal examination and inquiry in various parts of China, and considering the great benefits that have arisen from railways in India, it appears reasonable to hope for yet greater benefits from their introduction into the populous empire further east. All the European residents in China are favorable to the scheme; Prince Kung, it is said, thinks well of it, but the sanction of the imperial government has not yet been obtained. Sir M. Stephenson proposes five lines for a commencement, the total length of which would be two hundred and seventy-five miles. Three of these depart from Canton; one is to connect Shanghai with Soochow; and another, Pekin with Tientsin. The Canton and Fatshan line, fifteen miles, could be constructed in fifteen months. This, says the report, should be the earliest made, as it would decide the whole question. It" connects two populous cities containing two million and six hundred thousand inhabitants respectively; constant intercourse being now maintained between them in

The Examination of Minerals with the Spectroscope.-In the July number of the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science, we find an important paper on the subject of spectrum analysis, from the pen of Mr. Emerson J. Reynolds. Contrary to the opinion of Kirchoff, that the spectra of a combination of salts are as distinct as the same when viewed separately, Mr. Reynolds declares that it can be easily shown that the spectrum afforded by a mixture of salts depends to a great extent upon the relative proportions of the constituents of the mixture. If a chloride of any metal of the alkalies or alkaline earths be introduced into the flame of a Bunsen's burner, it almost immediately commences to volatilize. The alkaline chlorides being more volatile than those of the alkaline earths, are first completely dissipated in vapor. Chloride of lithium is but little less volatile than chloride of sodium. In Bunsen's experiment (from which Kir choff's conclusion was drawn), the quantities of the various chlorides composing the mixture were about equal; thereupon the order in which the several spectra appeared seemed to indicate the relative degrees of volatility of the different chlorides. The sodium spectrum appeared first, and as it faded the lithium spectrum became visible; but since the volatility of the lithium salt is but a little below that of chloride of sodium, some of the former must have volatilized with the first portion of sodium vapor, though it escaped detection. It was only when the sodium light diminish│ed in intensity that the lithium spectrum made its appearance, together with the spectra of potassium and barium. Hence the conclusion is inevitable, that "if a sufficiently large amount of sodium were present in proportion to the chlorides of other metals, no spectrum but that of sodium would be obtained, and we should therefore fail to detect lithium or potassium, though they were actually present." The only remedy which Mr. Reynolds proposes is the employment in doubtful cases of the inductive spark.

Progress of the Royal Botanic Society.-At the anniversary meeting of this Society, (Professor Bentley in the chair,) the report read by the secretary, Mr. Sowerby, showed that the condition of the Society is improving. The present number of fellows is 2334, of whom 137 were elected during the past year. The receipts from all sources have been most satisfactory. The income was £10,781, and the expenditure £8059 78.

Recent Fall of Manna in Asia Minor.-A letter from M. Haidinger to Sir Roderick Murchison, describing the appearance of a large quantity of manna lately (July 6th) observed near Diarberkir, was published some time since, and has created a

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good deal of controversy regarding the nature of | Hommes, l'Homme Fossile, etc. Histoire Natumanna. We believe, however, that there can be relle du Globe Terrestre, illustre d'apres les Dassins very little doubt that it is a species of lichen, de l'Auteur, M. Boitard.” It is a stout octavo volwhich like a fungus springs up in the course of a ume of some 500 pages, and contains pictures of single night, and thus gives rise to the notion that the animals that inhabited this earth ages before it has fallen from the skies. This manna is ground the deluge. The book is, in many respects, a into flour and baked into bread, the Turkish name scientific puzzle, for it gives a good deal of sober of it being Kudert-bogh-dasi, which means wonder-matter in a very comic dress, and mixes up serious corn or grain. Though used as bread, its composi- truth with speculation something more than laughtion is remarkable; for it contains more than 65 able. One plate represents a fish-like animal with per cent. of oxalate of lime, and has about 25 per claws and fins, and a hard tortoise-shell upon its cent, of amylaceous matter. This substance is evi- back; another gives a frog the size of an elephant dently the manna of the Hebrews, who gave it the -a pretty thing to hop after a person in a country name of Man-hu, which signifies what is it?" lane; "Chien gigantesque terrassant un lion," repfrom the circumstances of its sudden appearance resents an enormous wolf-hound seizing a lion and their previous unfamiliarity with it. across the middle as a cat would a mouse. The plates representing pre-Adamite men and women are still more curious. One is called, "Dernier Age Paleontologique," and shows a man and his wife of the period surrounded by the snouted and other hideous animals of the time. Their home is a hole in the side of a "bluff" or hill, which is reached by a stout pole, after the fashion of an Indian ladder. The woman is outside the cave on a ledge, with a stone axe or hammer in her hand. A dog, or other domestic animal, is keeping her company. The man is above, one foot on the outer branch of a tree, whilst the other is stretched backwards, entwined around another branch, after the manner of the ring-tailed monkeys. He is armed with a bow and arrow, and is taking aim at an ugly animal, shaped somewhat like a pig.

Gun Cotton.-During the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Newcastle, Messrs. Prentice, who have introduced the manufacture of gun cotton in this country, exhibited its destructive powers by blowing up an enormously massive stockade. For this purpose they employed a shell 16 inches long and 12 inches diameter, containing 25 lbs. of gun cotton. The shell was fired by electricity, and reduced the stockade to utter ruin.

The Report of the Chloroform Committee was issued some time since, and from it we learn that the strongest doses of chloroform vapor when admitted freely into the lungs destroy animal life, by arresting the action of the heart, whilst by moderate doses the heart's action is weakened some time before death ensues, the respiratory function being generally arrested prior to the cessation of the Mediaval Bristol.-On the 7th inst., the Bristol heart's 's pulsation. Death is due to the failure of Society of Architects walked round their own both functions. In order to administer chloroform city. Previously to starting, Mr. Godwin read an safely, the proportion of vapor should not exceed introductory paper, of which an abstract has reach3 per cent. Its effects should be carefully watched us. Having remarked that there are four classes ed, and the inhalation suspended when the required anæsthesia is produced. The energy with which chloroform acts and the extent to which it depresses the force of the heart's action, render it necessary to exercise great caution in its administration, and suggests the expediency of looking for another and less objectionable anæsthetic. Ether, says the report, produces requisite insensibility, but is slow and uncertain in its action. It is, however, less dangerous in its operation than chloroform. The committee on the whole concur in the general opinion, which in this country has led to the disuse of ether as an inconvenient anaesthetic. A mixture composed by measure of three parts of ether, two parts of chloroform, and one part of alcohol, is regarded as a safer agent than pure chloroform. Artificial respiration is the most certain means of restoring life after poisoning by anææsthetics of any kind. By this means resuscitation may generally be accomplished after natural respiration has ceased, provided the heart continue to act. If due care be taken in the administration of chloroform, no apparatus need be employed. Free admission of air with the anesthetic is the one thing necessary. Three and a half per cent. is the average amount, and four and a half the maximum proportion of chloroform to atmospheric air, which is either needful or safe. If air be freely admitted with the vapor, any apparatus may be employed, though none is necessary.—Popular Science.

Hints for Pre-Adamites.-A most curious work, which we may almost deem a burlesque upon the present antediluvian and pre-Adamite studies, has recently been published in Paris, under the title "Paris avant les Hommes, L'Univers avant les

of towns-military, baronial, ecclesiastical, and commercial-the writer said that the great towns of the middle ages belonged chiefly to the commercial class. They were mostly seaport towns. Self-dependent, self-contained, self-governed-perhaps savoring a little too strongly of self-they exercised in the end the greatest influence, because they were the greatest workers in the State. The Roman walls have long since crumbled into dust, and, having served their purpose, their military cities have settled into quiet country towns, or, what is as bad, have degenerated into mere haunts of fashion. The baron's hall is now a rag and bone shop; the vaulting ribs of his proud lady's chamber bend over the blacksmith's forge; and the highest battlement of the loftiest tower is crumbling under our feet. The great monasteries, too, are no better off; cabbages are growing where the abbot and his royal guests sat at meat; and there is a merry hay-making, once a year, over the very foundations of the high altar. Through all these changes most of the great commercial cities have lived and flourished. Where marshes once existed wide streets and squares have risen, and the hardworking arms of commercial enterprise have pushed the boundaries of one of these grand old towns to ten times the compass of its first walls.—Builder, Sept. 24.

The Colossal Bird of Madagascar.-In the year 1850, a French ship captain, named Abadie, being on the southeast coast of Madagascar, observed in the hands of a native the shell of a gigantic egg, which had been perforated at one of its extremi ties, and used for domestic purposes.

M. Abadie being attracted by the unusual dimen

sions of the egg, set to work to procure specimens | huge sarcophagus, without injury, to London, and of it, and ultimately succeeded in obtaining from the natives, besides the specimen first seen, two others, one of them found in the débris of a recent land-slip. The other was disinterred from recent alluvial formation, together with some bones of apparently no less gigantic size.

Upon these objects, which were shortly afterwards forwarded to Paris, the late Professor Isidore Geoffroi St. Hilaire founded a new genus and species of extinct struthious birds, allied to Donornis, for which he proposed the name Epyornis Maximus. The most striking character of the eggs of the Epyornis is their enormous size. The largest of the two received at Paris measured lengthwise no less than two feet ten inches, and breadthwise two feet four inches in circumference. Its extreme length in a straight line was twelve inches.

Professor Geoffroi St. Hilaire estimated that it would contain ten and one-eighth quarts, or nearly as much as six ostrich eggs. A large ostrich egg, we may mention, measures only about six inches in length, being little more than half that of the Epyornis.-Quarterly Journal of Science.

he also brought away some fragments of the lid. Copies were made of the paintings which covered the walls of the galleries and chambers, and a model of the tomb was constructed, and made visible to Cockneys at the charge of one shilling. The sarcophagus was ultimately purchased by Sir John Soane, and now forms the most remarkable feature of the toy-museum presented by him to the nation. It is covered both inside and out with pictures and inscriptions, which have been cut into the stone and filled up with a blue pigment. The work now before us contains accurate copies of the whole of these inscriptions, drawn by the practiced pencil of Mr. Bonomi. There are nineteen plates in all, containing a mass of hieroglyphical texts, executed with a care and fidelity rare even in the best publications of this class.

The subject of the pictures and inscriptions engraven upon this royal coffin is the passage of the soul of the deceased in the boat of the sun, through the regions of the under-world. In the rising and setting of the sun the Egyptians saw an emblem of birth and death, and it was a leading idea of their religion that the souls of the just were at death united with the sun, the supposed source of life, and that they continued forever to circulate with him in his daily and nightly voyages above and beneath the world. The under-world was filled with the strangest imaginary scenery. It was supposed to consist of a series of halls, each of which was entered by a massive door, over which a serpent per

A curious instance of a change of instinct is mentioned by Darwin. The bees carried to Barbadoes and the Western Islands ceased to lay up honey after the first year. They found the weather so fine, and the materials for honey so plentiful, that they quitted their grave, mercantile character, became exceedingly profligate and debauched, ate up their capital, and resolved to work no more, and amused themselves by flying about the sugar-petually kept watch. On the outside of the sarhouses and stinging the negroes.

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The Soane Sarcophagus.* -The enterprising traveller Belzoni, while carrying on explorations in the neighborhood of Thebes, had the good fortune to hit upon the spot where the tomb of one of Egypt's most illustrious kings lay concealed under eighteen feet of gravel and earth. His sagacity led him to dig in a place which to other eyes might ⚫ have seemed very unpromising; it was in the bed of a watercourse among the hills to the west of the Nile, down which, when rain falls, a torrent of water rushes towards the river. After the surface earth had been removed, indications were discovered that

others had dug in the same place before, and, the research being continued with zeal for several days, the entrance of an important tomb was at last reached. After descending several flights of stairs, passing through long corridors, and narrowly es caping falling into a well thirty feet deep which lay at the bottom of a staircase, Belzoni arrived at a series of halls richly painted and adorned, and in the middle of the largest of them lay a beautiful sarcophagus of transparent alabaster. It was empty, and the lid of massive stone by which it had once been covered lay broken in fragments around. The body of the king had been abstracted, by whom or in what age of the world will never be known. The rope-ladders by which the depredators had crossed the well were the only memorials which they had left behind them. Belzoni contrived to remove the

The Alabaster Sarcophagus of Oimeneptah I., King of Egypt, now in Sir John Soane's Museum. Drawn by JOSEPH BONOMI, and described by SAMUEL SHARPE. London: Longman & Co.

cophagus four of these halls are shown, the sun's boat being represented passing through them. There are three rows of figures, the sun procession occupying the middle row; above and below it are the various beings, divine or diabolic, who inhabit the hall. the conversations which take place between the sun The hieroglyphical inscriptions recite and those personages. In the inside of the coffin are four similar representations. Four more halls were represented on the lid, but of these a few fragments alone remain. There were thus, in all, twelve halls, corresponding possibly to the twelve hours of the night. Besides these halls and their inhabiof which the most curious is that in which Osiris tants, there are one or two other scenes represented, appears sitting as judge of the dead, the figure of the deceased standing before him, bearing on his shoulder the balance in which his merits and demerits are to be weighed, while a cynocephalus in a boat carries away the sinful part of him in the shape of a hog.

We have, in this series of pictures, a prototype of the medieval Divina Commedia. Amongst the various personages who inhabit the halls through various kinds scorched and consumed by the fiery which the sun's boat passes, we find evil-doers of with an easy existence and abundance of food from breath of serpents, while the virtuous are rewarded the tables of the gods. In one compartment is that well-known picture in which the four races of men views of ethnology in the fourteenth century before are represented, and which gives us the Egyptian Christ. It appears, from this, that they divided Asiatics, Negroes, and Libyans. Or, possibly, these mankind into four principal races Egyptians, four races were recognized as inhabitants of Egypt, for they are all termed the flocks or goats of the sun; but the Egyptians and Negroes are said to have been created by Horus, while the Asiatics and

Libyans were created by Pasht, the lioness-headed | mediocrity, and left them in a miserable state, ungoddess of Northern Egypt. The physiognomies of the representatives of the several races are not defined upon the coffin, but in the repetition of the picture which is found on the walls of the tomb, and which is given in Belzoni's work, the features and dresses are clearly marked. The Egyptians, with Uncle Toby, had arrived at the conclusion that the negro has a soul, for the inscription pronounces a blessing upon all the races, Negroes included, and commits the care of the souls of the Egyptians and Negroes to Horus, of those of the Asiatics and Liby-ishing state; that an average of two hundred pupils ans to Pasht. Serpents, we find, abounded in the Egyptian Hades, but of very various dispositions. Some are represented as the enemies of the sun, and destined to defeat and destruction; others have a beneficent or useful character.

Mr. Sharpe has prefixed to Mr. Bonomi's plates a general description of the sarcophagus and of the pictures; but, as he has attempted no decipherment of the hieroglyphical texts which accompany and to some extent explain the pictures, his descriptions do not throw much light upon these representations. The king for whom this elaborate sarcophagus was executed was Seti, surnamed Merien-Ptah, the father of Rameses the Great. His name has been preserved by Manetho under the form of Sethos. According to Dr. Lepsius, he began to reign B.c. 1439, and reigned fifty-one years. Dr. Brugsch places him twenty years earlier. Mr. Sharpe, for reasons which appear to us very insufficient, supposes the king to have reigned about two hundred years later. Whatever may be the exact year in the world's history when he began to reign, it is at all events certain that he was the father of that king who passes for the persecuting Pharaoh famous in Israelitish history. He made war against the inhabitants of Syria, and some of the most beautiful works of Egyptian art are the representations of his return from this campaign, bringing with him many captive kings. His reign was one of the culminating periods of Egyptian taste and skill. There is a cast in the Crystal Palace, taken from the wall of the temple of Karnak, which represents Seti in his chariot, dragging his captives after him. If this be a true likeness of the king, he must have been an Egyptian Apollo. The artist who designed this work was a Raffaelle in his way; the composition combines the highest grace with life-like representation of the subordinate characters, and admirable grouping. The profile of the king is slightly Jewish-a characteristic which is still more strongly developed in his son Rameses, and in some of his predecessors. The discovery has lately been made that these kings were not of pure Egyptian descent, but that they traced their origin to a branch of the Shepherd Kings. This accounts for the circumstance, hitherto puzzling, of the high respect paid by the kings of this family to the Northern or Asiatic god, Set, known in later times under the Greek name of Typhon, and identified with the evil principle. The king's own name, Seti, is in fact taken from this god, the tutelary deity of that foreign race which produced so deep an effect upon the history and development of Egypt.-Saturday Review.

Pride of the Munich Artists.-The Academy of Fine Arts in Munich has just given rise to an animated controversy. The Bavarian Ministry of Commerce sent the Academy a memorandum, criticising it in no measured terms, saying that its practical working was small, that it educated pupils to VOL. LXIII.-NO. 4

able to earn their bread as artists, and dependent on eleemosynary support. The Ministry wished to turn the Academy into something useful, by combining with its instruction in art a school of design for manufactures, a branch of industry which has had great results in Nuremberg. The Academy answered sharply, that Munich artists were not dependent on alms; that they had a society of their own creation, which was bound to support needy artists, and which was in a very flourstudied in the Academy, and the majority of German artists had lived or studied in Munich; and that about eight hundred artists were now living regularly in Munich, some of them of the greatest reputation, and brought large gains and a great influx of money to the country. The Munich Academy was respected everywhere; had a tradition of idealism to which it must be faithful; had not a tradition of practical work, or a surrounding of manufactures, as is the case in Nuremberg, where the German artists of the middle ages did not disdain to draw designs for handicraft, and where, at the present day, there is a considerable and active trading population. On these principles all thought of government interference was emphatically rejected.

The Last Photographic Exhibition has proved a failure. The collection, for want of space, was an unusually small one, and although good, contained so few works of an interesting or novel character, that our surprise at continually finding the little room empty, was, after a first visit, considerably diminished. It was, as we expected, too literally the exhibition of the Society, all, or very nearly all, the works contributed being the production of members. The artistic photographs of Mr. H. P. Robinson, the clever enlargements of Mr. Alfred Harman, Mr. Swan's carbon-prints, and some photo-zincographic and photo-lithographic specimens by Colonel Sir Henry James, Mr. Toovey, and Mr. Osborne, were the most deserving of special notice, if we except the very charming and beautiful little pictures sent by Lady Hawarden, who deservedly carried off the principal of the several medals awarded. Our monthly contemporary, the Art Student, says: "One of the most important and attractive features of former exhibitions-colored photographs-was this year sacrificed by a ludicrously prudish affectation of being intensely mechanical and scientific. Extremes meet: from unhesitatingly introducing life-size paintings, simply because they were drawn by the aid of a camera, we have the most harmless and solitary brush-mark, to remove a trivial defect, condemned as excluding an otherwise splendid production from the reward honorably and fairly due to its producer." This allusion is to some beautiful landscapes by Mr. Annan, one of which would have carried away a medal but for the "defect" mentioned.-Popular Science Review.

An Improved Solar Camera.-Towards the end of August last, a singularly perfect collection of enlarged photographs were exhibited at the establishment of Mr. Thomas Ross, the optician. These were shown in illustration of a new dialytic en. larging apparatus, invented by M. D. Monckhöven, a name long and favorably known to the scientific portion of the photographic world, although that of a very young man. It is based upon the principle of Woodward's American solar-camera, but the field of

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illumination obtained is more equal, the possibility of distortion is avoided, and it works with a greater degree of ease and certainty. Its chief exterior features consist in an improved mode of working the external reflector, and in the curves of the condenser, being so calculated as to reduce its spherical aberration to a minimum. But the most original and valuable improvement is in the introduction of a new lens, in the form of a divergent meniscus, placed at a distance equal to that of its diameter from the condenser, and made very thin in order that as little light as possible may be lost by absorption. This lens acts by bringing the central and marginal pencils of light to one plane (represented by the negative as placed within the camera), and also by bringing into its focus a larger body of light than was obtainable by the older process. The object-glasses, used to transmit the image, also have certain peculiarities for cutting off diffused light, etc. The specimens produced by this apparatus speak highly for its capabilities; but we are sorry to hear that it is likely to be very expensive.-Ditto.

Important New Work.-A new and practical treatise on photographic optics is announced from the pen of Dr. Monckhöven. Intimately conversant with this subject in all its practical as well as scientific departments, this work is likely to supply a want which photographers have felt for many years.

Photography on Canvas or Panels for Painting. -The Art Student gives the following simple process for transferring photographs to these surfaces for the painter. A sheet of albumenized paper, about two inches larger than the photograph to be transferred, is fastened by the four corners to a drawing-board, and covered with a solution of gum to within about half-an-inch of the edges. When this is dry, a thick coat of chloridized albumen is passed over it, and the surface shielded from dust. On paper thus prepared, the proof is printed. When this is done, the dried print is coated with gelatine, and the surface is afterwards gummed upon a sheet of white paper, stretched on the drawing-board as before, but with the edges fastened down. When this is again dry, the first applied paper may be soaked with warm water, until it is easily removed. After drying once more the proof is gummed, and placed upon the canvas or panel, and when it is again dry, the sponging with warm water is repeated and the operation complete.

VARIETIES.

The Pay of French Men of Letters.-Recently the incomes of literary men have become a matter of discussion in the Paris journals. Of M. Louis Ulbach, a correspondent says that he has engaged to furnish a publisher three novels a year, for which the publisher agrees to allow him 1200f. a month, for five years' copyright of these novels, or £600 per annum. He receives, as dramatic critic of Le Temps, somewhat more than £1000 per annum, and for his correspondence to L'Indépendance Belge, in which a letter from his pen appears every three weeks, he is paid yearly the sum of £300. Add to these a play, which he produces every year, and for which he receives about £250." This income, however, the correspondent assures us, is as nothing compared to the revenue of successful dramatists,

who make their £8000 and £10,000 per annum. Formerly French authors were most wretchedly paid for their books. Their most lucrative patrons were the press and the theatre. It is said that M. de Lamartine only received £50 from Didôt for his Meditations. His Song of Harold's Pilgrimage realized about £800, but now his income is some thousands per annum from the French publishers. M. Thiers received £20,000 for his famous History of the Consulate and Empire; Victor Hugo accepted the same sum from the Brussels publishers for his Les Miserables, whilst Michelet will only publish with the Messrs. Hachette on commission, preferring to keep the copyrights in his own hands, as is the custom with many of our English authors. It is believed that M. Michelet is the only literary celebrity in Paris who adopts this course, although it was followed by Balzac, who united in his person author, printer, and publisher, and, as might have been expected, finished his affairs in bankruptcy.— Paris letter.

Libraries in Paris.-Paris possesses thirty-five large libraries. Some are public, others are partially so, and the greater number are exclusively devoted to certain establishments. The public libraries are: the Bibliothèque Impériale, with 1,400,000 printed volumes, about 300,000 pamphlets, and 80,000 manuscripts; the Arsenal, 220,000 volumes and 6000 manuscripts; Sainte-Génevieve, 150,000 volumes, 4000 manuscripts; Mazarin, about 120,000 volumes and 5000 manuscripts; the Sorbonne, 80,000 volumes; the City of Paris, 65,000 volumes, 300 manuscripts; the Ecole de Médecine, 40,000 volumes; the Museum of Natural History at the Jardin des Plantes, 35,000 volumes; the Invalides, 30,000 volumes; the Conservatoire des Arts-et-Métiers, 20,000 volumes; and the Conservatoire de Musique, 8000 volumes.

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English Newspaper in Siam.—We have before us curiosity-the first number of an English journal published at Bangkok, the Siamese capital. It is called the Siam Times, and promises to furnish us with information, new, curious, and useful. Siam is one of the eastern countries which has of late years made the most rapid progress. Forty years ago it was as little known as was Japan, and European intercourse almost as jealously excluded from it; but now we find it with a liberal sovereign, who is imbued with the love of European art and science, and governing with skill and equity. The new journal has a short but well-written prospectus, pointing out the great extent and eminent fertility of the country, with its important position, lying, as it does, between the British possessions in Birmah and the newly acquired possessions of the French in Cochin China and Cambodea. Of the prospectus we have a Siamese translation in the Siamese character, of the merits of which we do not pretend to offer any opinion, believing that our incompetency to do so is shared by the European world at large. The list of the arrivals and departures of shipping in the month of July last, with the number of shipping in the roads and river of Siam, enable us to form some notion of Siamese commerce, which forty years ago was confined to two or three small brigs. The arrivals last July amounted to fourteen and the departures to no fewer than thirty-four, while the shipping in harbor were forty-three in number, as many as eighteen of these being owned in Siam and sailing under the Siamese flag. The tonnage of the ships in harbor was no less than 18,378 tons, of which 6290 was

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