The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1858.

intense love, merely because Pericles had i
rescued Charmione from danger. Real in-
difference the indifference of Charmione
not the indifference of a beauty oonacions of
her power, and after all ready to say " Yes" when
the heart that adores her has been sufficiently tor-
mented—cannot give way to such sudden ardour as
Charmione exhibits for Pericles. Be this as it may,
Mr. Leathern has worked up into his story almost
all we know of the domestic life of the Athenians,
with a minuteness and fidelity satisfactory alike to
the lover of fiction and of fact, Indeed, after all,
" Charmione" is more of a history than a romance;
but it is a history with its pictures well brought
out, so sa to catch the eye. Perhaps the sentiment
here and there is a little too modern ; and when the
author has done his best, we feel that the picture is
of the past—that the warm breath of life is not
there—that if it be Greece, "it is living Greece no
more." We do not impute this to Mr. Leathern as a
fault ; he cannot avoid it ; it is a necessity from
which even riper scholars and men of loftier genius
than himself have not been able to escape. Our
schoolboy habits sit too strong upon us. We can-
not realise the fact that the Athenian maids had
teeth of pearl, and coral lips, and thick black hair,
and bright dark eyes, such as are seen in England
at this present day. The Greek term for love we have
to hunt up in the dictionary ; bat the English reality
we discover in a much more agreeable manner. Ho
wonder, then, that the one seems to us so cold and
unreal—that it seems to us hard to believe that the
Greeks had hearts much as ours. Still it is true
that Helen laid " old Troy " in ruins, and that Al-
cibiades, ages ago, on his way home from the Dy-'
onyria, might vow to some tender Ismene or An-
tigone that he loved as man ne'er loved—just as
Brown or Robinson did but last night on his way
home from the pantomime, with the object of his
affections leaning on his manly arm. But we must
not leave Mr. Leathern without one extract. We
will give

of dark eyes, end the mattering of bright thought, snit well
with the flatterfag gra of this adornment. There is an-
other reason elan why ladies with quick tad sbxeric eyes
(the Homeric 4raoutnnier) should wear their tamer in ring-
lets*, roving freely as muck before the face as poribr. For
their dark and dangerous gleam are thus sent out like the
shot of a body of tirailleurs trout a thicket • and the power in
both cases being but partly revealed, and more than half
°marled, strikes with a more startling effect than a fore
that mantle distinctly before us, and can be measured by
inches. lint it is unnecessary to pursue this illustration
further. The Instinct of women, nukes when perverted by
some tyrannous fashion, will generally lead them to a fitting
decoration of their fair forms, as surely ea a poetical genies
will lead • poet to choose that sort of measure which is most
suitable for the special inspiration by which be ie permed.
Lives of the Primo Ministers of England, from the
Restoration to the present time. By J. Houston
13nownE, Esq., J., B. Vol. L London : Thomas
Cantley Newby.

Mr. Browne gas been some time collecting mate-
rials for his work. He tells us the reacting of
Mr. McDiarmid's most interesting book, and Mr.
Forster's masterly biography of " Statesmen of
the Commonwealth," and some other collec-1
flocs of inferior note, induced him to think
of a series of " Prime Ministers" as long ago
as 1840. After eighteen years of preparation we
ought to have had a better book than Mr. Browne
has given us. The principal figure is Hyde, Earl of
Clarendon, a man whose portrait has been rawn by
better artists than our author. Of Thomas, Lord
Clifford ; of Thomas Osborne, Earl of Darnley ; of
Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, we know little and care
to know little. If Mr. Browne continues, he will
have some enviable opportunities for bold and vigor-
ous character painting. But he must put a great
deal more life into his succeeding volumes than he has
into his first. Mr. Browne's language needs very
careful revision. What does he mean when he tells
us " Clarendon was to accomplish threats to the
Queen ?" Dangerfield, we are told, " had a plot
to discover and a revelation to make. Such imple-
ments, like love, laughed then at locksmiths."

Sketch of. the History of Currency, comprising a
brief review of the opinions of the most eminent
writers on Me subject. By JANES MACLAREN.
London: Groombridge and Bona.

We have the authority of Mr. Gladstone for
stating that the currency question is a source of
'insanity. If this be so, can we recommend a work
upon the subject? Certainly there is nothing in
Mr. Maclaren to bring about so undesirable a result.
A shorter sketch would have been clearer, but—with
the exception of Harriet Martineau—who, since the
days of Adam Smith, has written upon such
subjects as are discussed by Mr. Maclaren, without
being dull ? Our author begins with William the
Conqueror, and closes with the last commercial
crisis, and quotes at some length the opinion of every
writer of note on the subject. His own opinion
appears to be, that the Bank Charter Act is in-
defeasible, that oar rulers are about to enter into
a course of doubtful, perhaps hazardous, legisla-
tion, for the purpose of preserving the mercantile
community, and that there is another section of
society at this time menaced with loss of property
through a defect in ►he currency, that is, through a
change in the standard of value. Mr. Maclsren
contends that we must follow the example of Hol-
land. Immediately that the fact of a great increase
in the production of gold was established, the
government of Holland discarded gold from its
currency.

TA. Pen, a. Palm, and the Pulpit. By JOHN
STOUGHTON. London : Ward and Co.
- -

- -- ---
Mr. Stoughton, at the autumnal meeting of the
Congregational Union, held in Cheltenham, read a
memorial of illustrious men connected with the
county of Oloucester. The three selected were
Tyndale, the translator of the Bible; Hooper, the
martyr; and Whitfield, the popular preacher.
Thew sketches are mere outlines, but they are agree-
ably written.

ADVANTAGES OF THE SENSE OF PAIN.--Sir Httm-
phry Davy when a boy, with the defiant constancy of youth
which had u yet suffered nothing, held the opinion that pain
was no evil. He wee refuted by a crab, who bit his toe When
he was bathing, and made him roar loud enough to be herd
balls soils off. If he had maintained instead, that pain wee
• good, his doctrine would have been unimpeachable. Un-
less the whole constitution of the world were altered, our
very existence depends upon our sensibility to euffering. An
asseedeb which is quoted by Dr. Carpenter in his " Prin-
-I=Human Physiology," from the " Journal of a
st," shows the fatal effects of a temporary suspen-
sion of this law of our nature. A drover went to sleep on a
winter's evening upon the platform of a lime-kiln, with one
leg resting upon the stones which had been piled up to burn
through the night. That which was gentle warmth when
he lay down became a consuming lire before he roes up. His
foot was burnt off above the ankle and when, roused in the
morning by the man who superintended the lime-kiln, he
put his stump, unconscious of his misfortune, to the ground,
the extremity crumbled into fragments. Whether he had
been lulled into torpor by the carbonic acid driven off from
the limestone, or whatever else may have been the cause of
his insensibility, he felt no pain and through his very al-
eruption from this lot of humanity expired a fortnight after-
wards in Bristol Hospital. Without the warning votes of
pain, life would be a aeries of similar disasters. cn
to the lasting detriment of chemistry,en might have eatol4
the future Sir Ilutophry's foot, while he was swimming,
without his entertaining the slightest suspicion of the ra-
vages which were going on. Had he survived the *Orin
from the crab, he would yet have been cut off in the morn-
ing of his famous career, if, when experimenting upon the
, the terrible oppression at his chest had not warned
gases
to mese inhaling the carburetted hydrogen, nor, after a
long struggle for life, would he have recovered to say to his
alarmed assistant, " I do not think I shall die." Without
physical pain, infancy would be maimed, or perish, before
experience could inform it of its dangers. Lord Kairms
advised parents to cut the lingers of their children " cun-
ningly" with a knife, that the little innocents might aro-
data suffering with the glittering blade before they could do
themselves a worse injury ; but if se smart amomparted the
wound, they would cat up their own fingers with the same
glee that they cut a stick, and born them is the candle with
tits same delight that they burn • Ore of paper in the in.
Without pain, we could not proportion one adione to the
strength of our frame, or our exertions to its powers of en-
durance. la the impetuosity of youth we should strike
blows that would crush our hands, and break on: arms • we
should take leaps that would dleloals our limbs ; as no
longer taught by fatigue that the =Wm needed repo.., we
should continue our sports and our walking tours till we had
worn out the living thane with the same unconscionaness
that we now wear out our coats and our shoes.—Qoarterk
Serino.

FALSE VIEWS or lam—There are still some
writers who will speak of as corrupt and organ-
avaricepreeske_ of se a of substituted by
and worldffeeme for • sad of ail organised sys-
tems of religion am spirited efielehoome ; mad it • melan-
choly truth, that wickedness mad flay consiettly supply
evidence in support of such amesetions. Their real refutation
lies in an appeal to a:perigees. The slightest acquaintance
with any one sphere of active life overthrows them at once,
end satisfies say moderately candid mind that, whatever may
be the confusions and oontredictione of human sflairs, they are
regulated, in some way or other, by laws and principles
which no one can afford to neglect, or wan to misapprehend.
The Mlle experience will, in most cases, go further, and con-
vince thaw who obtain it that, apeakiac vary broadly, ao-
ciety is right and not wrong on these relit*, and that pm.
tier or theories which can only be justified on the opposite
'opposition are ipso forts refuted. Practical eceptkiam has
never exited to any considerable extent exoept amongst peo-
ple who were isolated from their kind by ease, or maddened
by wrong and suffering. A careless Bohemia who
stands aloae in life, who has no family, no particular
calling, good health and lively Uinta, may mock at the
world and its ways, or, if he is sulky, may turn simieuet
and cares it; and the sense disposition will be found Is ri-
ven more or Me be other classes of society in exact
lion to the degree In which their members stand aloof
from the real business of life. If, however, • men hes to
keep • shop, to follow a profession, to insane an NM% to
bring up • family, or to carry on the business of the world
in any other department, he finds at ones that he must
either mismanage and abandon It altogether, or take up with
the ordinary principles, vulgar as they may look, sad
absurd and worn out se he may have thought them,—jedie.
burgh Review, new number.
" ENLIGHTENED " ORIENTALS. Our mar In
dealing with Orientals is always one and the seas If •
man evinces nom of superiority, we posh him kth before end beyond his age. The late ruler of Zanairis
probably as shrewd and enlightened • prince as Arabi& we
produced, yet we overrated his powers. A beautififf model
of • steam-engine was sent out from England ; it was allowed
to rust unopened in hie stores. Like all Orientals, he was "
ever surrounded by an odious entourage, whom he consulted,
trusted, and apparently preferred to his friends and well-
withers. He believed ffrmly in the African fetid', and in the
Arabian filthier power of metamorphosis; he would never
Bog • Magmas, or medicine man, nor cut down a " desire
tree." He sent for a Bhaykh whose directs were cele-
brated, and fastened the paper with a silver nail to the door-
way of Colonel Hamerton's sick room, thereby excluding
evil spirits and the ghost of Mr. Napier, who had died in
the onnaulate. He refused to aft for his portrait; even Col.
Sroyth'ii " History of Haight-errantry and Chivalrous Cha-
racters" failed to tempt him—for the European peasant's
reason, it would take away part of his life. When " chl-
g miryy " was explained to him, he remarked that only the
Siel (low fellows) interfere between husband and wife.
His favourite axiom—a fair test of man's mind—was, that
" Mullahs, women, and horses never can be called good till

death ;" meaning, there is no knowing when they deceive.
The Societe Royale des Antiquaires du Nord sent
him their diploma; he refined to belong to • body
of gentlemen who robbed graves and snatched corpses.
The census of Zanzibar being proposed to him, he took re-
fage with Allah from the sin of numbering his people.
When tide-gauges were sent by the Geographical Society of
Bombay, he observed that " the Creator had bidden the
ocean to ebb and flow—what else did man want to know
about it Such was his incapability of understandtna
European affairs, that until death-day he believed Loafs
peilippe to have carried into exile, as he himself would have
dew. all the fiesta and the public treasury of the realm.
=lnez be could never comprehend a republic—. who
the stick?' Yet, peace to his soul Ihe was
She model of Arab princes ; • firm friend to the English
aillan, end a great admirer of the " Malikat el Asuuneh,"
taw most gracious Majesty Queen Viotoria.---Captain Burton
in Blackwood' s Magazine for February.
GOSSIP WITII A MEXICAN fixtrosit.—She was
a handsome dark-eyed girl, and rather handsomely dressed ;
the peculiarity consisted in letting her rich black hair fall to
her want wholly unconfined by. comb or ribbon ; most girls
wear it bound up, and with • yin of gold, if they possess as
much wealth, peening through holding it. But the
more had not judged ill ; and the grace with which she
dung back the dark trews from her forehead and from the
nem katydid around her throat, such as dark-haired Aries
low to nee, was a charming individuality that harmonised
with her rare archness and laughing yet eager curiosity.
"Mates* V.," said she, offering me • chair ma I entered the
verandah arise unsaddling my horse. We soon fell into
ceriverestion upon my day's journey and the terribly unpro-
nounceehle name of the last village, and the flowers she was
=l, freshly plucked from among a myriad of blame= '
urt—the Portugal or Sore di Fella (as she called it),
and the rose, the Clore di Castilla. Some dull visitors then
ease in and broke up our Masi-tett ; but after chocolate,
the delicious chocolate, served up in the tiniest mugs of
porcelain, as if any more of each deliciousness would be
overpowering, we sat and talked and talked. The Senora
man know more about me; was I really Yngka and not
Prams t Certainly I was. And had I ever been at Lou'
doa ? Oh yes, lived there all my life. And the Palacio di
CANED°, was it mucho gran&," and at Hyde Park, was
it not? and who could have thought it would be moved
elsewhere and made "macho ms grinds." And England
wee sot a republic, we had a Rana, and what was her
naras, and was she " bermes " (beautiful) ? To all this
I answered very loyally, sad the Senora expressed her ad-
miration of a country governed by a beautiful Queen who
could not oppress you if she would, and would not if she
could. Then Prance, that was not a republic now, it had
an emperor • was he not related to "el grand. Napoleon."
Yea, I said; be has been President, and behaved like a
scoundrel, and made himself absolute; but such things take
place so often In Maxim., that my little bit of political
morality was quite thrown away on the fair senora. And
there was an empress, was there not, a Caatillian lady, and
was she, too, beautiful, and had I seen her? Yes, she ems
" mucho, macho hernia & ; " I had seen her myself, so there
was no mistake. The senora larked proud of her country-
woman. And were the English Christian. f Yee, said I.
Ah, that was better then the Americana, they were not
Christians, they were anything; and how many brothers
and sisters had I, and how many of them were married, and
was I married myself I' No, senora, I never was at Eguala
before. And how old was I, and what was my birthday.
and who was my patron saint? The lad was more than I
could say. Oh, she must know • there was an almanack
somewhere; so after due examination it turned out San
Herculano was my patron, at which the senora laughed a
good deal, m I take it be is a saint of small account, and the
senora hand could not have told me much about him.
However, I promised, in memory of her to build him •
chapel—in Spain, of eourse.—Pressr's Ilagazine for Feb-
ruary.
SURGICAL PRACTICE AND MUSKET PRACTICE.
—We will hazard an anecdote of one who was
at the time a simple assistant-surg:aon of as-
retry, which, without any tinge of the 'antique" or
heroic," in the epic minas, will yet serve to illustrate our
meaning. We wiß vouch for its authenticity :—" Doctor,
dear," quoth • wounded light-bob, with pure Miledan ao•
actuation, in whose arm—his horses bridle over his own—
a dismounted compatriot of the medical order, was repairing
as best he might, a gash from a cuirsaaier's sword, by the
side of a chemises In Flanders; "Doctor, dear! make
haste! there is French skrimmagers in the wood."
Piet I ping ping !in undoubted confirmation. " Ah. steady,
Pail steady, we'll make a neat thing of it before they de-
bauch now." Mount I doctor, dear, mount and stick in
yer spurs. I can see bag-nets above the bushes, and, raiz :
this elisseoorm is on us in a crack." And the man of the
musket jumps up, and runs for the dear life—email blame to
him—in the direction of a patch of tall standing rye "con.
vaynient," for • hiding place. The discomfitted doctor
sweeps his instruments into the one, drops the case into the
mbretash, mounts his active little rat-tail, and spurs—not
up the chaurie,e but after the fugitive light-bob, in mag-
nificent contempt of the rattling invitations to stop from the
firelocks of the Chasseure de la Garde. "Here! you sir,
Murphy I Patrick 1 what's your name ? Stop, air I stop
seoundred I step, thief I " rears the pursuing " For
Lairm," said he, afterwards, " would you believe it ?
scal was running into the rye with my best surgical
wan sticking in his right arm! "—De&is University
ifigasiow for February.
THE SERMON AND THE PREACTIER.-1.11 It lively,
familiar, striking discourse, the clergyman described a scene
of which he had been witness the previous week—the execu-
tion of • horse-stealer after assizes. He described the man
and his previous good character, his family, the love they
bore one another, and his agony at parting, from them. He
depicted the execution in a manner starting, terrible, and
picturesque. He did not introduce into his sermon the
Scripture phraseology, such as Harry bad been accustomed
to hear it from those somewhat Calvinistic preachers whom
his mother loved to frequent, but rather spoke as one
man of the world to other einfd peeps who mot be likely to
*profit by good advice. The unhappy man just gone had
gun as • farmer of good prospects ; he bad taken to drink-
ing, card-playing, horse-racing, cock-fighting, the vices of
the age ; against which the young clergymen was generously
indignant. Then he had got to poaching, and to horse-
stealing, for which he suffered. The divine rapidly drew
striking and fearful pictures of these rustic crimes. He
a his hearers by showing that the eye of the law was
watching the poacher at midnight, end setting traps to catch
the criminal. He gallopped the stolen horse over highway
and common, and from one county Into another, but showed
retribution ever galloping after, seizing the malefactor in the
country fair, carrying him before the justice, and never un-
locking his manacles till he dropped them at the gallows-
foot. Heaven be pitiful to the sinner I The clergyman acted
the scene. He whispered in the criminal's ear at the cart.
He dropped his handkerchief on the clerk's head. Harry
started back as that handerchief dropped. The clergyman
had been talking for more than twenty minutes. Harry could
have heard him for an hour more, and thought he had not
been five minutes in the pulpit. • • Parson Sampson
formed the delight of the entertainment, and amused the
ladies with a hundred agreeable stories. Besides being
chaplain to his lordship, he was • preacher in London, at
the new chapel in May-fair, for which my Lady
Whi (No well known in the reign of George
left anyendowment. He bad the chomest stories of all the
clubs sad coteries—the vary latest news of who had run
away with whom—the last boss ma of Mr. Selwyn—the last
wild bet of March and Rockingham. Hs knew how the old
king had quarrelled with Madame Walmoden, and the duke
wee animend of having • new love, who was in favour at
Carlton House with the Princess of Wales, and who was
hang het Monday, sad how well he behaved in the cart.
My lord's chaplain poured out all this Intelligence to the
amend ladies and the delighted young provincial, seasoning
his oonvereation with each plain terms and lively jokes as
made Harry stare, who was newly arrived from the colonies,
and unused to the elegance* of London life. The ladies, old
and young, laughed quite cheerfully at the lively jokes. Do
not be frightened, ye fair readers of the t day I We
are not going to outrage your sweet or cell blushes
on your maiden cheeks. But 'Us certain that their ladyship
at Castlewood never once thought of being shocked, but sate
listening to the parson's funny tales, until the chapel bell,
clinking for afternoon service, summoned his reverence away
for half an hour. There was no sermon. He would be back in
the drinking of a bottle of Burgundy. Mr. Will called a
fresh one, and the chaplain tossed off • glass ere he ran out.
Ere the half-hour was over Mr. Chaplain was hack again
bawling for another bottle. This discussed, they joined the
ladies, and a couple of card-tables were set out, as, inde4
th
famieywas;ingmed Madame for many hours . everyt de Bernstein
y, atwhichthecold beat
of
the
any one of olk at *qua, and there was only Mr.
Chaplain In the whole circle who was at all • match for her
ladyetiip.—The Vie/raises, No. 4.
MODERN BURLESQUE.—Let any one, for example,
who has undergone the penanoe—and it is no alight one—of
going to ese the burlesques, which, either alone or as in-
troduction to pantomimes, are filling the West-sod theatres,
ask himself if they are exhibition which be can with pro-
priety take any woman or child to witness. The sickening
vulgarity of the jokes, the slang aftsiens the use of w wels
and phrases unknown in the vocabulary et ladies and gentle-
men, the Meals of associations white are all but sacred, the
="searkeenres gay prisms, the exhibition of
tir skis la seMismse any Minis flar the poses pi
dLeisamernipme—aboveall. the nay In which young
senuess are mods to swg and do dings which must destroy
every shad al Nothely mg Mika in them, make
them burlesques Ternideua alas le and audience.
WYE, too, as we generally irk they lee based upon some
drama or ram that is havered by every masociation with
which genius and art as fawn V, nos assuscapt and disgust
which they provoke in all educated ma Inevitably recoil
upon the theatre where they are pawated. How should it
be otherwise ? If the stage has • poem at all, it is to ele-
vate, not to debase ; to lift the real towards the ideal, not to
drag down the ideal into the any mire of a sordid reality.
It la meant to educate, not to persist ; and if the character of
the audience declines whereC ails ie presented, who can
he sasprind? What cradle day if, with such pieces to
barapremmt,r F even actors of ability dagemsrate.—Frattr's Nage-
-1 sins ebrua-T.
Prrfe LAST WORDS.—An undue importance is
often attached to the incoherent ramblings of eminent men
upon their death-beds. It seems certain that Pitt died with
little warning of his danger, and that his mind was in a
lethargic state, with occasional delirium, for some time be-
fore his death. The story of his palliation:duration, which
has been denied, is, however, in • certaisteenee, well attested.
Lord Malmeebory states that Lady Malmesbury maw Pitt's
physician. Sir Walter Parquet, three days after his death,
and received from him an account of his last hours; and
that almost the last words he spoke intelligibly were these,
to himself, and more than once repeated—" Oh, what times ;
oh, my country "—Edinburgh Bevisso, new number.

SCIENCE AND ART.

XENTINOS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK.

Monday.—Britiat Architect*, B.—Geographical,
B*.—" Journey from Little Namaqualand, eastwerdalong the
Orange River, the Northern Frontier of the Colony, &e.,
by Robert Modiett."—" Route by the Riven Waal, Ba-
nns, and Curial, to the Gold Fields and Carats]," by Sir
W. H. Holmes and Mr. Campbell.—Preparations for the
Deferents of the Livingstone Expedition.
Theiday.—Bro-Egyptiazi, 7i.—" On the Cylinder of
Tlgleth Pilaw end Notice of a Slab lately brought from
Koranjik, illustrating some Perigee in the Book of Amos,"
by Mr. Hark.—" On Egyptian Mythology," by Dr.
Jolowica. Institution of Civil Engineers, B.—Disenasion
" On the Methods generally employed in Cornwall, in Dron-
ing Tin and Copper Ores," by Mr. Henderson.—" On Sub-
merging :Telegraphic Cables," by Mr. Lcmgridge and Mr•
Brooks. Zoological, 9.—Scientific. Royal Institution, 3.
" Animals and Plants conaidered Morphologically," by Pro-
helot Huxley.

Wednesday.—Graphic, 8.-11 B.—Annivereary
—Society of Arts, B.—" On Steam Cultivation," by Mr.
Clarke. British drobisological Association, B}.—Adjourned
Discussion "On Roman Horse-shoser On Aglets," by
Mr. Coming—" Notes on a Visit to the Roman Camp, at
Ardooh," by Mr. Nacintyre.

Thuisday:—Royal Academy, B.—" Architecture," by
Professor fimirks.—Society 'of Antiquaries, B.—Royal,
—" An Account of some Relent Researches near Cairo,
undertaken with the view of throwing light upon the Geolo-
gical History of the Alluvial Land of Egypt," Part 2, by
Mr. Horner. Royal Institution, 3.—" On Heat," by Pro-
how Tyndall.

.
.P6day.—Astronoulical, 3.—Anniversary. Royal Insti-
tution, 811.—" On Btatk Induction," by Pro/want Faraday.
Satorday.—Royal Institution, 14.—" On the Elements
which circulate in Nature," by Professor Blomin.

The tenth annual exhibition of inventions in con-
nexion with the Society of Arta, will be opened on the 6th
of April.

In July next an examination will take place of
candidates for the dvil eervioe of the tut India Company.
Government (eaye the .Alhenceuni) has determined
that a scientific exploration shall be made in Vancouver's
Island, and with this view the Royal and Geographical So-
cieties have been requested to furnish suggestions for the
efficient carrying out of the expedition.

Mr. Macdow ell's large statue of Lord Fitzgibbon
has been erected In Limerick, on the bridge which Sp= an
arm of the Shannon.

Prince Frederick William of Prussia has given
Mr. Ernest Elect a oonuniasion to paint a large picture of
Windsor Castle.

Mr. W. N. Sainsbury, of the State Paper-office,
has discovered in that repository of original documents some
important Ruben' papers. Mr. Sahmbury is arranging
these papers for publication.

Colonel Baird Smith, whose eminent services at
the siege of Delhi have just been rewarded with • Com-
panionship of that order of which Colonel Phipps has been
made • Commander, is • eon-in-law (says the Literary
Gazette) of Mr. De Quincey.

The friends of Dr. Livingstone have asked him
to meet them at dinner at the Freemasons' Tavern, on
Saturday next, to receive their farewell. Sir Roderick
Murchison preeidee.

Dr. Livingstone, our readers are aware, has
been appointed H.B.M. Consul for Quillimane, Sena, and
Tete, on the mat coast of Africa. The iron steamer in
which the expedition will ascend the Zambesi river is to be
taken out in pieces on board the African packet of next
month, and prepared at Quillimane for the voyage.
Since the lit of January last an illnstratedjournal
in the Arabic language has appeared at Beyrout.
The reader will see from our report of the proceed-
ings at the Westminster Police-court yesterday, that the
Earl of Suffolk has discovered the whereabouts of the valu-
able paintings stolen from Chariton Park in 1866. The thief
proves to be a romeenger in the War-offioe, who was for-
merly valet to his lordship.

further additions, by purchase, have been made
to the National Portrait Gallery. They consist of a small
crayon drawing, in full colours, of the learned Elisabeth
Carter, the lady who translated "Epictetua," taken at an
advanced age by Lawrence ; • life-sized portrait of Sir Wil-
liam Chambers, the architect of Somerset House, being the
first example of Sir Joshua Reynolds ; a large picture of
William Sharp, the distinguished engraver, from the pencil
of Londe!' ; and a small oval picture representing Captain
Cook, and taken by Webber, the draftaman to the expedition,
at the time when the ships were refitting at the Cape of Good
Hope. Fox, the martyrologist, alto on a small scale, and
authenticated by the well-known engravings, has been pre-
sented to the gallery.

Yesterday evening Dr. Lankester delivered a
lecture, " On the Drinking Waters of the Metropolis," to •
numerous audience, at the Royal Institution. The
quantity of solid matter per gallon to the New River
water is 20 grains, in River Wandle, l7 'grains,
whilst the contents of -the—water of theTU=B4l;mb'
at different times from 15 to 115 grains. The chief petit to
which Dr. Lankeeter drew atte.nti,ci connected with the
drinking waters of the metropolis was the Impurity of that
drawn from most of the street pumps. Spring water when
drawn from deep wells sunk through the olay into
the chalk, is more free from organic matter than
the river water, and is unobjectionable u a beverage;
but the surface wells, sunk only into the clay to the
depth of about thirty feet, contain a large amount
of impurity of a my suspicious kind. A table wee ex-
hibited presenting the results of analysis of the water from
most of the inert pumps of the metropolis, which showed
that even the freest from impurity contains a large perdu of
solid matter. The water supplied from the Thames is now
of much purer quality since the water companies have tskes
their supplies from above Teddington Lock ; but it is still
fez from being in the state of purity that Is dasirahle.,Dr.
Larikeeter recommended that drinking water should be
boiled, bat If that were objected to, filtration effected a great
improvement, and when properly constructed filters are used
the water is practically pure.