The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 20, 186,q.

nagement that are chronicled as transpiring at
Helsingfors are of a progressive character they are
so far satisfactory, and that good results will follow
on even this minor attempt at enlightened policy
is certain. Putting as:de the consideration of ulti-

mate consequences of the new organisation of things,
the Finlanders are rejoicing at the good things now
provided for them. It will be most fortunate if

they have no cause to change their happy mood for
a sorrowful one. It is to be trusted that policy
may induce their Russian rulers to persevere in the
course now commenced; and so, in waiting for a
better state of things, by that inducement they may
continue to enjoy as a favour what they should
possess as a right.

The usual budget of news from India brings us
little that is remarkable. The doubts as to the
identity of the prisoner now at Cawnpore with the
treacherous NANA SAHIB are not yet laid at rest,
and the conflicting and unsatisfactory nature of the
evidence does not offer much hope of a speedy set-
tlement of the question. The limes of India states
that his arrival at Cawnpore excited a good deal of
commotion, but that the interest which had been
awakened died out immediately after his arrival.
The people of the district, to most of whom the
NANA was of course well known, were unanimous
in declaring that the prisoner was not the veritable
culprit, and though, as the Indian journal observes,
their evidence is not entirely trustworthy, yet the
general indifference is certainly worth noting as a
feature in the case. The same paper, after referring
to the numerous instances on record, in which the
nearest relatives have been unable to recognise
each other after long-continued absence and ex-
posure, remarks that the mere fact of recognition
or its absence, by persons who had formerly known
the NANA, must not be accepted as conclusive evi-
dence, but there are other points in the prisoner's
favour. The fact of the English surgeon who for-
merly attended NANA SAHIB, being decidedly of
opinion that the prisoner is not the man, is cer-
tainly deserving of value, and it must be admitted
that his account of himself and his belongings is
not at all satisfactory. We need not doubt that the
greatest care and discretion will be exercised in
coming to a decision, and we may reasonably hope
that a little more time will throw some farther
light on the matter. With regard to other matters,
the prosperity of India appears to be increasing as
fast as the most sanguine wishes could make it.
The statistics of import, export, and land revenue
during the last ten years exhibit some startling
figures. The customs revenue of Calcutta
has risen during this decade from £95,807 to
£3,081,518. O❑ the old principle of the ill wind,
the cotton famine has brought good to India, for
cotton has of course contributed largely to the
recent rapid increase of trade in Calcutta. Of the
whole increase of nearly £5,000,000 over the trade
of the previous year, cotton we are told claimed
one quarter. Until within a year or two back
Calcutta exported no cotton save to China, whereas
last year its exports of this particular staple were
valued at over a million and a half. Political eco-
nomists may, if they will, preach a sermon to our
manufacturers and our Indian legislators on this
text, and point the moral by showing them what
Lancashire might be if the point now gained in
Indian cultivation had been reached some five or

en years ago. By next spring or summer we
may hope very considerable addition to our sup•
ply, but if the sources which are to keep our mills
at work full time in '64 or '65 had been forth-
coming in '6l and '62, might not English men and
women have been spared much suffering and Eng-
lish trade some loss? It is worth ncticing that the
greater part of the cotton exported from Calcutta
was ;row❑ iu Northern and Central India, and
brought down by the Ganges or by rail. The
time thus gained is of importance, but still more
advantageous is the improved mode of transit, which
spares the cotton much damage on the journey.
When the systems of railway and water commu-
nication is fully developed merchants and culti-
vators will alike profit by the change. The tea
plantations are also rapidly increasing in importance,
and the total value of the trade of India, not many
years since reckoned as one of our most hopeless
and unprofitable possessions, is now estimated at
one hundred millions sterling. Truly a lesson to
political pessimists not to despair of the fortunes of
a great country. And we must remember that even
now only a thirty-third part of all Madras is under
cultivation. Such is the statement of the Madras
Board of Revenue, which reckons 21- millions of
square acres under the plough, and leaves the rest
of the 84 millions to be accounted for, we presume,
by the right hon. baronet at the head of the India
Office. Yet of this small amount more than one-
fourth has been added within the last year. Let us
hope that this is an augury of a little more rapid
progress in the art of cultivation for the future.
The heavy rains have been more violent than usual,
and their season has been marked by unwonted de-
struction, and, still worse, by the progress of the
cholera in some districts. Sanitary officers are dila-
tory, and, unfortunately, epidemics will not always
wait their leisure. Military promptness is better
fitted to deal with such an adversary, and the plain
and sensible rules issued long ago by the Com-
mander-in-Chief have probably been productive of
much good in checking disease. It must be a great
satisfaction, no doubt, to those who fall victims to
defective arrangements this year to know that next
season many reforms will be in progress. Still,
" Better late than never" is the motto; and the re-
organisation of barracks, the appointment of
officers of health, and the bill giving despotic
sanitary powers to magistrates, will go far to
remedy that serious evil of excessive and pre-
ventible mortality which we are now compelled
to deplore. The general peace and prosperity of
our Indian dominions gives us leisure to improve
and consolidate our internal administration. Let
cur statesmen look to it that they seize the oppor-
tunity and do all that lies in their power to atone
for past .n eglect.

REPRESENTATION OF BARNSTAPLE.— Political
feeling is strong in this borough, but no candidate had
come forward, or public manifestation been made, up to
Monday, out of respect to the memory of the late member,
whose funeral took place in London on that day. The
names of several gentlemen have been named as candidates,
but the most popular individual likely to come forward is
Mr. Richard Bremridge, of Newport (Conservative). The
Liborals have, however, resolved on producing another
candidate.

LUNATIC ASYLUM SECRETS.—Every art has its
secrets; the attendants in such madhouses as this
have been for years possessed of one they arc too modest to
reveal to justices, commissioners, or the public ; the art of
breaking a man's ribs, or breastbone, or both, without
bruising him externally. The convicts at Toulon arrive at
a similar result by another branch of the art : they stuff the
skin of a conger eel with powdered stone; they give the
obnoxious person a sly crack with it; and a rib or back-
bone is broken with no contusion to mark the ex-
ternal violence used. But Mr. Cuoper and his fellows do
their work with the knee-joint; it is round, and leaves no
bruise. They subdue the patient by walking up and down
him on their knees. If they don't jump on him, as well as
promenade him, the man's spirit is often the only thing
broken; if they do, the man is apt to be broken bodily as
well as mentally. Thus died Mr. Sizer in 1854, and two
others quite recently. And how many more God only
knows ; we can't count the stones at the bottom of a well.
—Dickens's "All the Year Round," the new number pub-
lished to-day.

GARIBALDI is reported to be very closely watched
by the Italian Government, now that be is nearly restored
to health. The next shot, it has been sardonioallyremarked,
will doubtleks be ordered to be aimed higher.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

[REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

AMERICA.

(Per the Nova Scotian.)
NEW YORK, SEPT. 19 (Evening).
Intelligence received from Charleston to the 16th
inst. announce that General Gilmore is mounting
heavy guns at Port Wagner and Cumming's Point
to bombard Charleston.

CNMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
Unfavourable rumours concerning the position of
General Rosecranz' army have caused a rise in
gold and exchange, which are now quoted, gold at
35 per cent. premium, and exchange on London,
1481. Money easy. Stocks steady. New York
Centrals, 1381 ; Illinois, 1241 ; Erie, 1071.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.
BRESLAU, SEPT. 29.
Fresh well-armed detachments of insurgents have
appeared in the environs of Tarczyn, four leagues
from Warsaw.

The day before yesterday the commander of the
Russian troops in the palatinate of Kalisch held a
council with several superior officers of the Prus-
sian army, relative to the measures to be taken to
paralyse the movements of the insurgents.

INDIA AND CHINA.
SUEZ, SEPT. 28.

The Messageries Imperialed steamer Imperatrice
arrived here to-day with India and China mails, 64
passengers, and 1,746 bales of silk.

The Peluse is expected at Marseilles on the sth

October.

FRANCE.

PARIS, SEPT. 29.

The Moniteur of this morning publishes details
respecting the favourable impression produced on
the Japanese by the chastisement inflicted by
Admiral Juares on the Japanese forts from which
the Europeans were fired upon.
The Tycoon has sent the model of a flag which
belonged to him, with an intimation that his Go-
vernment recognised the right to foreigners to seize
any vessel which shall not hoist this flag.
BOURSE, Sept. 28.—The market has been more
buoyant, and a fair amount of business done, at an
advance—Threes, for the Account, being now at
67f. 90c. The Railway Share Market firm. The
market closed as follows :
It per Cents .. 95 60
Do. end month....
3 per Cents
68
Do. end month 67 95
Credit Mobilier 1213 75
Do, end month 1215
Bank Shares 3395
Credit koncier sossl3oo

Italian Loan 74
Do. end month —
New ditto
Do. end month —
Russian
Austrian -
Spanish Threes 52 50
Home Debt —

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans ............ 1027 50 .. 1030
Northern lOOO .. 1000
Now ditto -
Lyons and Mediterranean 1025 1027 50
Geneva
Southern ............. 740 737
50
Western ......
Zastern
Sardinian
Austrian ......
Lombard
North of Spain
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona

416 - .. 415 -
565 - 670 -
550 641 25
655 - .. 660
357 50 36J -

The Metric System of Weights and Measures

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sut,—The article against the Metric System in the
limes of July 9, signed 8., has been already answered by
Mr,. Charles Hutton Dowling, C.E., in the _London Review
of August 1, and by Mr. Frank Fellows, of Wolverhampton,
in the Daily News of Sept. 7, his answer having been first
sent to the limes, but refused admittance. A
much longer essay in the same strain has ju3t appeared
in the Times of Tuesday, Sept. 15, and of yesterday, and to
this I now wish to reply, In the first part ( Times, Tuesday,
Sept. 15), there is only ono passage which seems to require
notice from me. All the observations in regard to the
thermometer, the dimensions of the great pyramid, and ths
measurement of degrees, though tolerably correct, have
nothing to do with the question of the propriety of legalis-
in System
the
ingt
the Metric System in England in the manner now pro-
posed. But Mr. Cobden will pardon me if I step aside from the
pursuit of my more direct object to quote his words in the
House of Commons on the occasion of the recent debate,
and to subjoin the version of them given by your essayist.
EwanMsgl ari.dshoC,poGtbeod,
dveentrhnosmaFielnr—etn i French
Government,eenfo d re
learned
the
Feneincl
1h01w7980, invited Metrico
of our Royal
Se ci e t
for
the
t oFrance
world. to devise
e
aclisnyesdtetmo weightsinofterfer. e" Accent-
and mea-
suresing to the representation which you. have adopted,
" Ill-
as the head of the English
informed persons make the Royal Society responsible for not
attending." Mr. Cobden and his colleagues in the Metric
Talleyrand had
System agitation throw the blame upon the British Govern-
ment and the nation. At the. same time,. as this writer
says, "The letter (of invitation) was writteu.,, It was
addressed to George 111., Go-
vernment,cor-
rectpromi-
nentGovern-
ment, been
informed
agitatora n do
by
yt
ment. It may be true,
thewS ;:
question,Js oo
addressedhn R i ggt becausehsa..t Miller,u c such
wa
as your correspondent suggests, that
George 111. suppressed the letter, but it is admitted by him
method of communicating with the
as an undeniable fact that the French Government, through
Louis XVI. as its head, did communicate with the English
Government by the only regular an. d legitimate channel.
With respect to the alleges accusations against the Royal
Society, I doubt whether such accusations have ever been
made, and lam persuaded they were not deserved. I re-
gret that your essayist should bring these angry and futile
charges against " Messre.Cobden, Ewart, and their friends"
at a time when their friends are united without any narrow
distinctions of party, in the pursuit of a great and good
object, and when, as one of them, I have reason to acknow-
ledge with the highest respect and gratitude, the kind re-
ception given to us at one time by Mr. Disraeli as Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer, and on subsequent occasions by Mr.
Milner Gibson, as president of the Board of Trade.
The second portion of the article, which appeared yester-
day, commences with thissentenoe_4, The great argument
in favour of the introduction of the Metric System here
has been its extreme mathematical accuracy, and the pre-
sumed ease with which the standard could be recovered
and verified in case of the original being destroyed." It is
added, " We have been told, that instead of the quadrant
of the arc of the meridian being, as the Metrie System sup-
poses it to be, 10,000,000 metres, it is 856 metres more ;"
and it is inferred, that " this fundamental error necessarily
vitiates the whole system of weights and measures, and that
the kilogrammes should be augmented by 257 milli-
grammes." In all this it appears to me that your author
is in error. This " great argument " is seldom, perhaps
never, used. In support of this remark I may be per-
mitted to quote pretty largely from a pamphlet published in
1858 by the International Decimal Association as the re-
sult of their inquiries in regard to " the Best Unit of
Length," in which the examination of this very question
occapies 15 pages. ‘ ' The fact appears to be, that in the
process of measuring the earth, no less than in experiments
with the pendulum, absolute accuracy is unattainable ; but
that the metre is sufficiently accurate for all practical pur-
poses, and as truly an ascertained aliquot part of the
meridional quadrant as any y other measure that has been,
or can, at least under present circumstances, be proposed.
The authors of the Metric System never hoped, or pre-
tended to arrive at, perfect exactness in the measure of the
earth. They knew that no measurement whatsoever can
be mathematically accurate, such accuracy being expressed
only by imaginary, not real lines. Their endeavour was,
by the use of the best instruments, by repeating their ob •
servations, by taking every precaution for the avoidance of
error, and by making all the corrections, which were proved
to be important, to come as near as possible to a true result.
No one has denied that their exertions, marked as they
were by energy, perseverance, and self-sacrifice, no less
than by ability of the highest order, have entitled them to
the admiration and gratitude of all enlightened men. Since
the completion of their labour, the measurement of meri-
dional arcs has been undertaken by other parties, and, of
necessity, with a slight difference in the results. The
improvements suggested by experience and by the advance
of science have been carefully introduced. In former
instances, prior to Mechain and Delambre's measurement,
an angle was thought to be sufficiently defined by a church
tower, or a pile of stones ; more recently a mirror, or a
painted circle of wood, has been fixed on the summit of the
previous object, and, if large enough to be distinguished at
the assigned distance, it has admitted of greater nicety in
the observations. On such grounds philosophers are natu-
rally disposed to prefer the more modern conclusions, and
the consequence is, that if the metre were now to be deter-
mined, it would probably be made larger than the
established metre, by a quantity, which though not obvious

I send here, with the Debate of the House of Com-
mons, including Cobden'e Speech, corrected by himself,

to the eye may nevertheless be rendered perceptible by
I the use of very delicate instruments, and which, though
quite insignificant as far as regards the daily operations of
commerce and even the ordinary pursuits of science, may
become considerable by being multiplied, and may conse-
quently have a sensible influence on geodetical and astro-
nomical inquiries."—(Page 29-30.)
" The inference from all the preceding facts and consi-
derations is, that neither the metre, nor any other linear
measure which may be substituted in place of the metre,
can with our present means of information be assumed with
certainty, and to the exclusion of all other quantities, as
the exact 10,000,000 th part of the quadrant of a meridian,
supposed to be measured from the North Pole to the
Equator. All such quantities must be taken as approxima-
tions, the same latitude being used in regard to them, as in
all ordinary cases of linear measurement; for it is to be
observed that minute differences must exist in all attempts
to compare the lengths of different objects. Euclid's
axiom, " Things which are equal to the same are equal to
one another," is strictly true only of mathematical lines
and other imaginary quantities. In practice it is sufficient,
if the inequality is not obvious to the naked eye, and does
not go beyond reasonable limits. All parties can only make
it their honest aim to arrive at perfect exactness, but will
not pretend to have attained it, such a pretension being a
proof of nothing but their own ignorance."—(Page 37.)
I also attach importance to the remark in the same
pamphlet (page 40 and 26 note), " that in case the rectifi-
cation of the metre should be rendered expedient by the
progress of discovery, the founders of the Metric System
themselves provided a remedy, not by altering the metre
itself, but by a change of the regulation, which fixes its
standard temperature. This temperature is now fixed
at Zero of the centigrade scale, which is the
temperature of melting ice. The consequence is
that in daily use the rectification takes place
without any legislation at all. The warmth of the
hand, the heat of the atmosphere, or the superior tempera-
ture of most foreign countries will of themselves prolong
the metre so as to meet the objections of those who deny its
accuracy. It is only in rigorously scientific calculations
that the incorrectness of the metre, even supposing it to be
proved, can be of the slightest importance. . . I
cannot find that this temperature is fixed by any positive
law, although it was applied under the authority of the
commissioners in constructing the definitive metre of 1799,
and has been maintained to this day. It appears that the
temperature may be altered whenever any sufficient reason
for the change is made manifest, and that the metric system
is in this respect self-adjusting."
It should be underatcod that the whole difference which
your author so strenuously condemns as rendering the
metric system worthless, ie not more than the thickness of
a film of varnish at the extremity of any metre which may
be in use.
Let your author show us proofs of the universal adoption
of this " great argument." I find it not in the speeches of
Mr. E wart and his supporters in the recent debate. I search
for it in vain in the report of his committee printed in July,
1862, by order of the House of Commons, and in the answers
of all the witnesses, on whose evidence that report was
based. It does not occur in the " Inaugural Address" of
Sir William Armstrong, which you quote ; nor in the
Report of the Council of the international Association
'n February, 1858, nor in any of the tracts issued by that
association. In short your author's assertion is nothing
better than a dream.
I now come to a part of your article, which more imme-
diately concerns myself, and which it is the more necessary
to rebut, because its aim is not merely to destroy my own
reputation for common sense and veracity, but to overturn
at one stroke both the report of Mr. Ewart's Committee,
and the credit of the Metric System. You produce as an
opponent of the Metric System, the late Professor Play_
fair, of Edinburgh," whom Mr. James Yates, Secretary of
the International Association, with a recklessness rarely
surpassed, quotes as being the author of ' a most beauti-
fully written article,' in which he expressed a decided
wish that the system should be adopted in this country.' "
The reference to my evidence before Mr. Ewart's Commit.
tee, query 498. I will remark, en passant, that lam not
the Secretary of the International Association. That office
has been held for some years by my distinguished and very
able friend, Professor Levi, who would probably have
answered were he not on the Continent, having been sent
to Btrlin as a delegate to the Statistical Congress, and
having, moreover, informed me by letter, that the Congress
has unanimously passed resolutions recommending the
adoption of the Metric System, and, following in this, the
example of the Congresses held at Brussels, Paris, Vienna,
and London.
1 will now quote Professor Playfair's words in the renew
referred to, that your readers may judge for themselves whe-
ther I was justified in stating to Mr. Ewart's committee that
the professor expressed the opinion which I have imputed to
him. The article in question concludes as follows:—" We
cannot finish our account of these scientific operations with-
out expressing our wish that the uniformity of measures
and weights were introduced into our own, and into every
other civilized country. The difficulty is not so great as
we are apt to think, when we consider the matter at a dis-
tance; and to efeet it requires in reality nothing but for
the Legislature to say it shall be done. As to the standard

to be adopted, though we think the pendulum would have

afforded the most c liavenient,yet when one has been actually
fixed on, and determined, that circumstance must great!)
outweigh every other consideration. The system
adopted by the French, if not absolutely the best,
is so very near it, that the difference is of no account.
In one point it is very unexceptionable. It involves
nothing that savours of the peculiarities of any country,
insomuch as the commissioners observe that, if all the
history which we have been considering were forgotten,
and the results of the operations only preserved, it would
be impossible to tell with what nation this system had
originated. The wisest measure, therefore, for the other
nations of Europe is certainly to adopt the Metrical Sys-
tem. . . . It would not be necessary to adopt their
names, which might not assort very well with the sounds
that compose the language of other nations. But the

Metre, by whatever name it may be called, ought to be
adopted as the unit of length, and all the other measures
of linear extension derived from it by decimal multiplica-

lion and division."
Your readers will now be prepared to find that I was
instified in what I stated before Mr. Ewart's committee
Questions 499, 500), in regard to Mr. John Quincy Adams.
' Mr. Yates," you observe, "did nut scruple to say that

Mr. Adams passes the highest eulogy, quite enthusiasti-
cally, on the philosophers who were employed in making
the measurement and devising the system." Let us now
hear Mr. Adams himself, whose book I handed to the com-
mittee. After a most instructive history of the labours of
the French commissioners and the correspondent proceed-

ings of the Legislature, President Adams thus writes:—
" No apology will be deemed necessary by Congress for
dwelling upon these details which signalised the establish-
ment of the new French Metrical System. The spectacle
is at once so rare and so sublime, in which the genius, the
science, the skill, and the power of great confederated na-
tions are teen joining hand in hand in the spirit
of fraternal equality, arriving in concert at one
destined stage of improvement in the condition
of human kind; that, not to pause for a moment, were it
even from occupations not essentially connected with it,
to enjoy the contemplation of a scene so honourable to the
character and capacities of our species, would argue a want
of sensibility to appreciate its worth. This scene formed an
epoch in the history of man. It was an example and an
admonition to the legislators of every nation, and of all
after times." (Report on Weights and Measures, p, 59,)
Again, "If that universal uniformity so desirable to human
contemplation be an attainable perfection, it is now attain-
able only by the adoption of the new French system of
metrology in all its important parts. Were it even possible
to construct another system on different principles, but em-
biacing in equal degree all the great elements of unifor-
mity, it would still be a system of diversity with regard to
Franca and all the followers of her system. Ani as
she could not be expected to abandon that, which
she has established at so much expense, and
with so much difficulty, for another possessing, if
equal, not greater advantages, there would still be two
rival systems, with more desperate chances for the triumph
of uniformity. . . , This system approaches to the
ideal perfection of uniformity applied to weights and mea-
sures, and, whether destined to succeed or doomed to fail,
will shed unfading glory upon the age in which it was con-
ceived, and upon the nation by which its execution was
attempted and has been in part achieved. In the progress
of its establishment there, it has been often brought into
conflict with the laws of physical and moral nature with
the impenetrability of matter, and with the habits, passions,
prejudices, and necessities of man. It has undergone various
important modifications. It must, undoubtedly, still
submit to others before it can look for universal adoption.
But, if man upon earth be an improvable being, it
that universal peace, which was the object of a Saviour's
mission, which is the desire of the philosopher, the longing
of the philanthropist, the trembling hope of the Christian,
is a blessing, to which the futurity of mortal man has a
claim of more than mortal promise ; . . . then this
system of common instruments to accomplish all the
changes of social and friendly commerce will furnish the
links of sympathy between the inhabitants of the most dis-
tant regions; the metre will surround the globe in use as

well as in multiplied extension; and one language of

weights and measures will be spoken from the Equator to
the Poles." (P.p. 47, 48.)
I must be excused from following your author through
the sequel of his essay, more especially since his remaining

assertions are rather expressions of opinion than state-
ments of facts. The best judges may differ in regard to
the " balance of scientific evidence," the convenience of the

Metric System, the advantage of uniformity, the preference

duo to a binary scale, and V"
the sublime audacity," the
" breach of good faith," &c., implied in the introduction of
a bill such as Mr. Ewarrs. Also, the question respecting
the sale of grain and wine is too intricate to pursue into itt,

details in a letter, which may, even as it is, try the patience

of your readers. I will conclude by observing that I make
it a general rule not to answer anonymous assailants. In
the present instance I have deviated from my ordinary

practice, not thinking I was under the slightest obligation
to reply, but in compliance with the suggestion of a friend.
JA3IES YATES,

Lau ierdale House, Highgate,
Sept. IS, ha

LITERATURE.

Stevens' Grade Lesson Books. Fifth Standard.
Pp. 220. Longman and Co.

Already we have noticed the four preceding
volumes of this really admirable series of "Lesson
Books," a series especially adapted to meet the
requirements of the Revised Code. The " Fifth
Standard," here added to the set, brings out yet
more clearly to view the excellence of the system
upon which the compilation has been made.
Another, the Sixth, Standard alone remains to be
published, and the series will then stand completely
before the public. As far as it goes even now, it is
already in one sense complete—complete that is up
to the point at which the course of tuition has, at
the close of these 220 pages, arrived. Throughout,
with the most scrupulous care, the brother editor 3
of the series, that is to say, Mr. Stevens, of King's
College, and Mr. Hole, the head master of the
Loughborough Collegiate School over at Brixton,
have attended to the several requirements of the
Revised Code. While doing this, they have
notified to all such Teachers as may use these
Grade Lesson Books with due attention to
the official requirements alluded to, that the
reading lesons are intended to be car-
ried out as here given, namely, consecutively.
That the selected words, with their respective sig-
nitications attached, are designed to be learnt by
the pupil before beginning the lesson s'n which they
occur, and to which they are prefixed. And—among
other similarly useful little items of advice—
that the exercises in Reduction here given are
placed after those in Addition and Subtraction
advisedly. Even Tommy Merton, when first
he went, as a email high-bred dunce,
to good Mr. Barlow's parsonage, there to learn, or
not to learn, exactly as he pleased, in companion-
ship with honest Farmer Sandford's son Harry
—even little Tommy Mertoa might with the
aid of these Grade Lesson Books have astonished
:qr. Barlow in half the time required thus to
astonish him, by unexpectedly evidencing his
(Tommy's) suddenly acquired proficiency as a
reader. And many of the lessons here grouped
together for the boy student are to the full as in-
teresting as—while they are, beyond a doubt of it
(as thus given), far more rapidly instructive than
—the charming series of tales scattered through
the history of "Sandford and Merton," by Thomas
Day, Anyone, without looking into the book
under notice, may understand that it is actually
thus, as we say—upon oar enumeration of some
among the various reading lessons here collected
together. Instance this, Eliza. Cook's " Bruce
and the Spider,"DAniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe
Saving Friday," Professor Longfellow's " Village
Blacksmith," Charles Dickens's " Little Dombey's
Deathbed," William Longman's "Dinner at an
Old Manor House," Da Chaillu's " Infant Gorilla,"
Oliver Goldsmith's " Moses at the Fair," and other
admirably well selected fragments from a very
wide range of sterling and popular literature.

Vie Arts of Writing, Reading, and Speaking, in
Letters to a Law Student. By Edward W. Cox,
Recorder of Falmouth. One vol., pp. 328. Crock-

ford.

These very excellent lettera of practical advice
are republished from the Law Times. They were
commenced, Mr. Cox tells us, with the purpose
only of imparting to law students some hints on the
art of speaking, which had been suggested to the
writer by experience and observation. Becoming
impressed with the conviction that to speak well it
is necessary to be able to write well and read well,
the learned author has enlarged his original design
by the addition of instructions in the arts of writ-
ing and reading. By so doing he has greatly in-
creased the value of his book, and he has also ren-
dered it generally useful as a manual of practical
information for others besides the Banister and the
Member of Parliament. Mr. Cox's instructions are
remarkable for their sound common sense; for
example, how earnestly truthful aro the following
remarks on—