The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-07 00:00:00

THE. SUN,
_LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING. NOVEMBER 7, 1849.

which the characters of an alien and a British subject
were united. If the effect of naturalization generally
was to make the party to all , intents and purposes a
British subject, as would be found in the authorities
to which he had referred, and also in the very
learned argument gone into on the whole subject by
Sir Matthew Hale, was there -anything in this Act
of Parliament which at all qualifies that Act of Par-
liament which said that " the party should be taken
and deemed to be naturalized ?" What was the ordi-
nary effect of every naturalization Bill ? It was to
give; not to take away. The argument that had
been urged in the present case might
be urged in every case of naturalization,
because in none of those cases was it said that it
was intended to operate on the trial by jury, but that
it was intended to give certain specified rights. Not
at all ; but rather that by the naturalization the party
be and should be taken and deemed to be a British
subject. What did it give ? It gave all
that belonged to the character of a Bri-
tish subject ? What did it take away ?
It took away all that did ndt belong to a British sub-
ject, far it made the naturalized party a British
subject to all intents and purposes. If a woman
married a husband naturalized in a particular way
she might, by the construction contended for
on the part of the Crown, acquire a dif-
ferent status and be entitled to different
rights beyond those which her husband
was entitled to. Very likely,. if the husband had
been naturalized, subject to certain disqualifications
applied to him by the legislative authority, he was
not less a British subject, because he was under these
disqualifications ; but that could not be taken to
apply to a husband without any disqualification
at all. The general intention of the Legislature
appeared to him to make the woman a British sub-
ject, and he found no words from the beginning to the
end of this Act of Parliament which would at all
alter any conclusion that it was intended to operate at
all by enlarging or limiting all that belonged to the
status of a British subject. It no more referred
to the Jury Act than the Naturalization Bill
referred to the Jury Act. With respect, therefore,
to the prisoner, they could discover no intention
whatever in this Act of Parliament, more or less,
than to make her a British subject ; and if that was
so, the whole question was at an end, and she was not
an alien at the time she was tried. The Court were,
therefore, unanimously of opinion that she was not
entitled to a jury such as she claimed, and, there-
fore, that there was no ground for this application.

MARKET NEWS.-(THIS DAY.)

CORN-EXCHANGE-WEDNESDAY

The total arrivals of English Wheat for our.market
coastwise, since Saturday, have been confined to 880
quarters. By land carriage the receipts fresh up to-day
were small, and the stands exhibited a very limited num-
ber of sampler. All kinds moved off slowly, at about
Monday's quotations. The imports of Foreign Wheat
are only 2,500 quarters. Selected qualities of both red
and white sold at full rates of currencies; but all other
kinds were dull in the extreme, at almost nominal cur-
rencies. We were scantily supplied with Barley, malt-
ing and distilling sorts were in some instances held for
more money. The sale for Malt was heavy, at barely
last week's quotations. There was rather more doing
in good sound Oats, the value of which had an upward
tendency. Other kinds were quite as dear. Beans,
Peas, Indian Corn and Meal as on'Monday.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.

Wheat.

Barley.

Oats

Malt. I Flour,

Qrs. Qrs. Qrs. Qrs. Sacks.
English • • • • • • 880 1,070 I,# 50 2,180 1,930
5c0tch........
Irish •••• • • • • 150
Foreign .••• • • i 2.500 1,050 4,120
EOR•OUGI3 HOP IMILICELET.
Fine parcels of new Hops continue in good request, at
full prices; otherwise the demand is heavy.
WHITECIMPEL.
Our market was steady to-day at very full prices.
Beef from 2s 8d to 3s 6d; Mutton, 3s to 4.; Veal, 3s 4d
to 3s 10d; and Pork, 3s 4d to 4s 2d per Sibs.

WLSTMINSTER FREEHOLD LAND
SOCIETY.

A public meeting was held last evening at the Gun
Tavern, Pimlico, for the purpose of explaining the
principles and the objects of this society. The meet-
ing was well attended.
The prospectus states that—
" By joining this society parties may, by small fort-
nightly contributions, become the proprietor in their
own right of a piece of freehold land, upon which they
may erect a cottage, and cultivate a garden, either to let
or occupy; and thus acquire a ' stake' in the country,
and a voice in the election of Members of Parliament.
The mode of proceeding is this—the land is purchased
for the members in large quantities by the acre. It is
then divided and apportioned to them, at the wholesale
or cost price, in plots at least worth 455. per annum, so
as to give a vote for the county. The vast difference
between the wholesale and retail prices of ' freehold
land' is such, that land selling at 35. 4d. and 3s. 6d. per
yard retail, has been purchased by these societies at
Is. ld. wholesale. Tho enrolment of this society gives
legal security, and affords important savings in law ex-
opietnosreos.f
thTishesonoeiceteyssaarty
3doese.desaacrhe
exclusive
ed
oblysttahmepsso,lia-
sum considerably blow the usu..l charges."
JAMES Warn), Esq., having been unanimously
elected to take the chair, said—Gentlemen, as one of
the Vice-Presidents of the association, it is only my
duty to take the chair this evening in the absence of
your President; but I do so with very much pleasure
nbleicoasut
esre
II h
I.
eeehaorltdi ly concurLan Land
in
Society,
t h
f.orobjectsi of the
think
it Wt-
i s ensot
only one of very great political importance, but is
also one of very great social importance. In the bill
issued by the secretary, I find it has two objects;
first, of enabling the industrious classes to acquire
freehold residences ; . and, secondly, through the means
of those freeholds, of enabling them to secure the
elective franchise for counties. Now, in these mo-
dern times, it will be admitted, that those are two
most important objects ; the first, I hold, if fairly and
properly carried out, will infuse industrious and
economical habits into the great mass of the people ;
and the other also, if fairly and properly carried out,
will enable them to acquire that right which I submit
they are entitled to, but which the political constitu- •
tion of the country at the present moment unfortu-
nately deprives them of.— (Cheers.) Gentlemen, the
society which we meet here this evening to inaugurate,
as it were, constitutes one, out of I believe 29 similar
societies, which are scattered throughout the different
parts of the country, and comprise altogether nearly
10,000 members. The first society of the kind, I
believe, originated at Birmingham, and there it has
been very successful, for at the present moment it
has nearly 826 freeholds; and I have no doubt,
through the influence of the society, a most
important result will be achieved at the next election
of an M.P., whenever it;does take place, not only for
South Staffordshire, but also for North Warwick-
shire.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, the object of this
society is to enable the industrious classes first of all
to acquire some spot of land of a not less yearly
value than 455., upon which they may hereafter erect
a cottage or a house; and next to work out a great
and important change in the representation of our
counties. Now, our county representation at the
present moment exhibits a very peculiar feature.
England has forty counties, which at present return
144 Members to Parliament; the population of these
forty counties is 8,336,263, and out of that population
there are only 475,036 electors.—(Hear, hear.) In
Wales there are twelve counties, with a population of
609,871, which only return fifteen Members ;
and out of those nearly 700,000 people there are
only 37,340 electors.—(Hear.) In Scotland there
are thirty counties, which return 30 Members; the
population is 1,800,000, but the number of electors is
only 48,958. Taking England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland together, there are 104 counties, returning
253 Members, which have only 561,329 electors, out
of a population of 14,773,750 of people.—(Hear,
hear.) Now, the object of this, and similar societies,
would enable the people of this country, not only to
have a good and sufficient residence for themselves,
but also, as I before said, to exercise, through the
means of their freeholds, such an influence upon the
different county constituencies of this kingdom as
will allow them to be fairly and properly represented.
—(Cheers.) This society applies peculiarly to the
industrious classes, and it does so because it
proposes to take very small payments, viz., 3s. a
fortnight, or ls. 6d. a-week ; and, from the report
which has been circulated, it appears that a subscrip-
tion of ls. 6d. a week for five years is quite suffi-
cient to qualify a member to become a county elec-
tor.—(Cheers.) The purchases of similar societies in
the provinces cost on an average about 191. for each
lot of land, and that sum can be repaid in less than
five years by a subscription of ls. 6d. a week ; and,
recollect, the subscribing of that sum will not only
produce an annual income of 40s. or 455., thereby
giving you a very good interest for your money, but
will also give you a most important stake in the
country—the right of voting to send a Member to
the Commons House of Parliament.—(Cheers.) The
principles of the society have been tried in and about the
neighbourhood of Birmingham; and there I find not only.
great political but also great social good has in con-
sequence resulted, for very many members of the
society to which I allude, who before were not frugal
nor possessed of economical and sober habits, have by
joining it not only become good members of society,
but have exercised to some extent those saving
qualities which conduce so much to their own com-
fort and that of their families. Therefore I come to
this conclusion, that in carrying out the objects of this
society, we effect great social' as well as political
good.—(Cheers) It is a peculiar fact in the history
of our country that the great mass of the people have
less interest in the soil than the people
of any other constitutional state either in Europe
or America. Taking the Western States of
Europe, France for instance, in which the population
in round numbers is thirty-two millions, there are
ten millions of landed proprietors, or one in every
three persons has some interest in the land. In the
United States, out of a population of twenty millions,
there are five millions of landed proprietors, or one in
every four; in Holland, a great shipping and com-
mercial country, whose operations are carried on to
a great extent all over the world, and in which one
would not expect a large proportion of the people to
have any interest in the soil, I find even in Hol-
land, out of a population of 3,500,000, there are
400,000 landed proprietors, or one in every nine.
(Cheers.) In Belgium, the population is five
millions, and the number of holders of land is
950 723, or one in every five; and in Sweden,
there are three millions of population and 300,000
landed proprietors, or one in every twelve of the
people.—(Hear, hear.) Now, in the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, supposed to be the
richest and most intelligent in the world, out of a
population of twenty-seven millions, there is:only one
person in forty, and this includes copy holders as well
as freeholders, who have any direct interest in the
soil.—(Hear, hear.) Now, gentlemen, knowing as
you do, not only during the last few years, but for
centuries past, what the course of our legislation has
been, you cannot be surprised that the large mass of
the labouring population have not had their interests
properly guarded; but while I say this, I cannot but
remark, that they themselves, have not taken care of
their own interests by availing themselves of the
power which the constitution gives them of obtaining
an interest in the land, and of obtaining a voice in the
British House of Commons.—(Cheers.) Now it is
said, that the dominant representation of the country
ought to be land; we concede that, and upon that
ground do we intend to meet our antagonists—
(Hear, hear)—and we say we intend, through the
purchase of land, to secure freeholds in the country,
and that right and states which our position, educa•
tion, and our intelligence qualify us to have.—
(Cheers.) That, then, is the purpose for which we
meet here this evening ; and seeing the great and
good results which have attended institutions of a
similar kind in the other parts of the country,
I do hope that Westminster, which has hitherto been
foremost in every great political movement, will not
be backward in carrying out that which will conduce
so much to the benefit and advantage of the
people.—(Cheers.) We all know that at this moment
we have a gentleman, who I may say, without enter-
ing into the arena of political discussion, fairly and
honestly represents us in the House of Commons—
Mr. Bernal Osborne—(Cheers)—has on all occa-
sions and at all times shown himself to be a supporter
of what conduces to the best interests of the people.
—(Cheers.) We know that at the next election, after
the able and impartial manner in which he has
acquitted himself in the House of Commons, we
must again battle for him, or for some individual
possessing similar principles; and we say if the
principles of the Westminster Freehold Land Society,
be adopted, we shall be enabled to return him, and if
not him, some one who approves of, and will carry out
those great principles which he has advocated on your
half.— (Cheers.) I will not take up your time longer
by going at greater length into the subject before the
meeting, leaving that for those who will follow me ;
but I may be permitted to state, looking at the state
of Europe during the last two or three years—know-
ing what the state of our country has been ever since
the commencement of the present century—seeing
that, in the times in which we now are, we have, for-
tunately escaped from all those revolutionary evils
which have passed over, distracted, nay, more,
almost destroyed many states of Europe—when I see
these things and analyse the reason, I find our fortu-
nate position, as far as regards those movements on
the Continent, does not arise from any direct interest
which the mass of the people have in the soil, but
from their innate love of order and regularity, and
their dislike to any internal commotion.—(Hear.)
But that revolutionary period, that state of excitement,
has only subsided ; it has not altogether passed away ;
it must recur again ; and I do hope
that the formation of societies like this,
which will at once give an interest in the soil and a
voice in the Howe of Commons--will prevent any

of those commotions which, unless there is some
kind of safety- valve of this nature, may, .1 fear, have.:
a very calamitous effect in this country.—(Hear.)
I trust that these societies will make the voice of the
people heard in the House of Commons, and will at
the same time give them such a direct interest in the
soil, so that whatever changes do take place in this
country, they will be for the welfare of our political
and our social state.—(llear.)
The meeting was afterwards addressed by several
working men and others, and resolutions were adopt-
ed, approving of the principles and objects of the
society.
Mr. BEALE, in the course of his address, speaking
of the risk there was of insurrection when the la-
bouring classes were depressed, directed the attention
of those in the meeting to the harrowing,details in
the papers of the degraded social condition of the
labouring classes in, the metropolitan, agricultural,
and manufacturing districts. Such as were not be-
fore acquainted with the condition of these classes
would understand, from the letters to which he had
referred, the strong reasons which induced them to
form societies of this kind, with a view to bettering
their own condition socially and politically, and to
securing the peace and prosperity of the country.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
BETTING AT MANCHESTER, TUESDAY.
CHESTER CUP.-1,000 to 10 agst S'ultz (t); 1,000 to
10 agst Melody (r); 1,000 to 10 agst Raby (t).
DEMUY.-550 to 50 agst Bolingbroke (t); 300 to 25
agst Ghillie Callum (t); .12 to 1 agst Knight of Avenel;
20 to 1 agst Sweetheart; 20 to 1 agst Italian; 23 to 1
agst Clincher; 25 to 1 agst Voltigeur; 33 to 1 agst The
Nigger; 1,000 to 20 agst The Swede (t).

LITERATURE.

ALISON'S HISTORY OF EUROPE. Vol.

VIII. Illustrated Edition.
Deepening in its profound interest as it unfolds the
narrative of the almost miraculous achievements of
the Emperor Napoleon, the present division of
Alison's celebrated and popular history possesses very
peculiar attractions for every Englishman, seeing that
it recounts the appearance of Sir Arthur Wellesley
upon the political and martial scenes of Europe, and
describes the commencement of our memorable suc-
cesses in the Peninsula. The volume is, therefore, ap-
propriately embellished with a portrait of the Duke of
Wellington, copied from the well-known original by
Sir Thomas Lawrence. Mr. Alexander Keith John-
ston's illustrative Atlas is in due form continued, with
maps relating to the battles and campaigns described
in this portion of the narrative. It is impossible not
to see that in detailing the advance of the imperial
sway of the great Napoleon, Mr. Alison is dazzled
by the pomps and splendours of that majestic spec-
tacle. It is in this spirit of marvel that he
records the fact, that on the occasion of her
marriage with the hero of the age, the train of the
Empress Maria Louisa was held by four queens !
In the same mood he observes, that it was not an un-
frequent occurrence to see seven kings waiting in the
ante-chambers of the Emperor Napoleon. While
penning the account of his warlike achievements, the
historian asserts in so many words, in the volume
under consideration, that after the campaign of
Eckmuhl, Napoleon, more truly than any other man
who ever existed, could say with Caesar, Veni, vidi,
rich I While enumerating the peaceful deeds of the
great Emperor—his construction of public roads, of
harbours, of canals, of mannfactories, of schools, of
hospitals, of triumphal arches, of columns, statues,
and fountains, with all the other gorgeous monu-
tfimhrees nt t sfi wtt
city
t chi
ot
yf w hiinc hish t
heheme p
rpoear, rl
world—Paris,
i—caunpl
da
ar
rl
sa,t adA oihrran. t e
Ad
time
nee
is compelled to acknowledge that the modern Sesos-
tris was an Augustus as well as a Hannibal. Like
Sesostris, the car of his imperial fortunes was drawn
by kings; like Augustus, he embellished his capital
and scattered the evidences of his grandeur through-
out the departments; like Hannibal, he overleaped
the Alps and triumphed in many pitched battles ;
like Lycurgus, Pie took the sting from anarchy by
drawing his immortal code from the ruins of a revo-
lution ; like Theodosius the Great, he gave religion
to his country, not by a senatorial decree, but
through the instrumentality of his Concordat. Such
is the hero, the mere-recital of whose fortunes has
imparted to Alison and so many other annalists
celebrity.

THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF
FERRINAIVD AND ISABELLA. 3 Tols.

By W. H. Prescott.
As a companion series of volumes to the sixteen-
volumed edition of Alison's " History of Europe,"
Mr. Bentley, the Publisher in Ordinary to her Ma-
jesty, has just commenced a very valuable and beau-
tiful republication of the noble historical composition
of William IL Prescott, the celebrated American.
Familiar as the mass of the reading public have by this
time become with these eloquent and erudite produc-
tions, it would' be idle, if not even impertinent, to
offer any analysis of their character. Their re-issue in
their present excellent form commences with the
" History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,"
and this work will be followed successively by the
History of the Conquest of Mexico" and the " His-
tory of the Conquest of Peru." Destined to be
ranged upon the bookshelves with the his-
torical writings of Lingard, Gibbon, and
Robertson, the volumes of Prescott cannot but be
regarded as inestimable additions to English Classical
Literature. The present narrative, namely, the
history of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, must,
to our thinking, be regarded as most unquestionably
his masterpiece. It has fallen to the lot of two great
American authors to relate, in language not soon
destined to perish, the discovery of the vast continent
of their birth, America, by the illustrious Columbus.
Those authors are of course Washington Irving and
William Prescott; but the touching and brilliant
narrative of Prescott is only a single episode in his
splendid narrative. From the singular beauty of the
episode, however, it may well be conjectured how
admirable must be the whole composition, a work
recounting the wars against the Moorish invaders,
the battle of Granada, and the other heroic incidents
of the age when Isabella wielded her golden sceptre
over the united kingdoms of Castile and Arragon.

THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. XX.

A brilliant biographical notice of the celebrated
Savonarola, the Italian Dominican, is the opening ar-
ticle for the current number of the British Quarterly.
Another contribution relates to the life and genius of
another renowned monk, the witty but rather disre-
putable Rabelais. In an otherwise clever and inge-
nious paper on the " Ethics of Art," we meet with a
foolish denial that Byron was a great poet, with an
acknowledgment on the part of the writer that he
does not think highly of Keabs and Shelley—Keats,
who wrote the sublime fragment of the Hyperion
before most men have forgotten college mannerisms,
and Shelley, who is called in our English encyclo-
pmdias the " Poet of Poets." The writer of the
article should unquestionably be bottled up in spirits
of wine, and preserved among the curiosities of
literature. One of the most charming and intelligent
articles in the Review, however, is yet unmentioned—
the one devoted to the consideration of the " Chemis-
try of the Star 3." The gist of the contribution may
be comprehended from the following quotation :
" The oft-quoted Oriental proverb, which teaches,
that since the mountain will not come to Mahomet,
Mahomet must go to the mountain,' has in this case, for
once, been reversed; for when the chemist could find no
way of travelling to the spheres, behold! certain bright
ana-
lysis;parti c uwl aer
refer stars
thay©oth ceoame
re
otioi
tehs, meteorites,
him and
submitted
stones, which, according to the most generally adopted
of many theories, at one time were thought to have
been projected from volcanoes in the moon. They are
now almost universally acknowledged to have been true
stars before they reached our earth. For a statement of
the reasons which have led astronomers to this conclu-
sion, we must refer our readers to Humboldt's Cosmos,
where the whole subject is discussed at great length. It
may suffice to say, that many considerations justify the
conclusion, that multitudes of asteroids, starlets, or, as
Sir John Herschel calls them, meteor-planets,' revolve
in definite orbits round the sun, and some also as invi-
sible, or momentarily visible, minute moons round the
earth. The orbits of some of the former are believed to
resemble that of the earth, but to be in a different plane,
so that in the course of their revolutions round the sun,
these tiny planets come, at certain periods, within the
sphere of the earth's attraction, and are precipitated as
meteoric stones upon its surface, as weary and forlorn
birds of passage, far out at sea, are entangled in the rig-
ging of vessels, and fall helpless on deck.
" This modern theory of meteorites reads like a bald
rendering of the poetical myth of the angels, whom
earthly loves induced to forfeit fur ever their places in
the heavens, but it has invested the strange fallen stars,
to which it refers, with a new interest. The largest of
them is but a microscopic grain of the star-dust scat-
tered over the sky, but it is none the less of celestial
origin, and may be submitted to analysis."
What renders these aerolites, meteorites, asteroids,
starlets, meteor planets, or atoms of nebulosity, yet
more remarkable is the consideration of the singular
fact mentioned by the author of the " Vestiges of
Creation."

" What," says he, "is exceedingly remarkable, and
particularly worthy of notice as strengthening the argu-
ment that all the members of the solar system, and per-
haps of other systems, have a similar constitution, no
new elements are found in these bodies [meteorites];
they contain the ordinary materials of the earth, but asso-
ciated in a manner altogether new, and unlike anything
known in terrestrial mineralogy."
Other contributions of various merit relating to Lon-
don, to Hungary, to our Colonies, to Ethnology, &c.,
complete a very able and varied number of the British
Quarterly.

ur recollection the anecdote of a French princess,
ho entertained truly royal opinions with respect to the
poor:—

" Why are the people making this disturbance?'
" Because, madam, they have no bread.'
" ' No bread!'
" None for them to buy. There is a famine in the
country, and wealthy men hold the corn back.'
" The fools!' exclaimed the innocent Princess, 4no
bread! Well, who's to help it? If they can't get bread
let them eat pastry.'
"Precisely of the same character is oligarchical sym
pathy with pltbeian distress."
Mr. Percy St. John continues the " Adventures of a
French Republican," and gives us a stirring de-
scription of the closing scenes of the enzeute
in the cloisters of St. Alery in 1832. Mr. John
Tomlinson commences a series of notices of "Our
Household Poets" with Burns, and he nobly and
successfully vindicates the character of this great
poet, and greater man, from the ill• natured and envious
slanders by which "decent mediocrity" has sought to
blacken the character of the most " manly" poet that
perhaps the world has ever produced. honour to
Mr. Tomlinson for the homage he has:paid to Burns.
The 4' Biography of the Kings of England" and the
History of Music" are continued.

THE ALMANACKS.

THE FINAA CIAL REFORM ALMANACK

for 1850.
An extraordinary mass of information—informa-
tion of the utmost importance to the inhabitants of
the British islands—has been here condensed into a
compass singularly compact and portable. Some of
its simple calculations are more cogent than the most
elaborate arguments in demonstrating the necessity
for some sweeping measures of financial innovation.
The circumstance that the national expenditure has
increased by the enormous sum of 10,000,0001. since
a period so recent as the year 1835, is of itself elo-
quently persuasive. The fact that our revenue is
greater by 5,000,0001. in this time of peace than it
was during the period of our bloodiest wars with
Napoleon the national income being little
more than 54,000,000/. under George 111.,
whereas it is upwards of 59,000,0001. under Victoria
—is a matter of yet more serious consideration. The
circumstance that while the revenue now-a-days ap-
proximates to 60,000,0001. annually, it was just
64,000/. under Henry VI., is, moreover, not unde-
serving reflexion—seeing that upon the department
of the Master of the Horse alone there is now ex-
pendedyearly noless than 67,0001. Some of the:literary
chapters interspersed among the tables of figures
are of peculiar excellence, forlinstance the one on
" The History of Taxation," or again the one on "The
Civil List." The Civil Service, moreover, the Woods
and Forests, the Executive, and the Colonial Expen-
diture, afford inexhaustible reasons for heartburning
to patriotism. Altogether the Financial Reformer's
Almanack does vast credit to the industry, the
earnestness, and the intelligence of its editor, Mr.
John Cassell. It cannot fail to advance the cause in
which he manifestly feels such deep and active in-
terest—circulating as it must inevitably do among a
very large portion of the community.

THE REFORMER'S ALMANACK for 1850.
An ephemeris of a very similar character has
simultaneously appeared with the Financial Reform
Almanack. As its title will sufficiently indicate,
however, its purpose is wider—extending to all
descriptions of reform, financial, Parliamentary,
social, &c. The alinanack is contrived altogether in a
different fashion from the foregoing, partaking less of
the character of calculations than of logical arguments.
Among its more attractive features must be men
tioned the able digest of the last session, detailing all
its errors and virtues, both of commission and omission.
Electors may obtain some inestimable advice from
paragraphs devoted to the subjects of the forty-shilling
freehold movement, and to the Courts of Registration.
Another of the most felicitous sections of the Reformer's
Almanach is the one relating to the taxes imposed
upon knowledge.

THE CO .3HG ALMANACK for 1850. Illustrated
by George Cruikshank.
_ _

Of a very different description, in truth, is the
Comic Almanack and Diary for 1850, edited by
Henry Mayhew, and embellished by the pencil of
George Cruikshank. In Yankee parlance the book
is a very screamer, and is decidedly equal, if it be
not even superior, to any one out of the many
comic almanacks already produced by the inimi-
table and immortal Cruikshank—beyond all ques-
tion the most delightfully extravagant, caricaturist
that ever existed. What can be more effectively
grotesque than the large-coloured frontispiece, pour.
traying " A New Court of Queen's Bench, as it ought
to be, on the Ladies trying a contemptible scoundrel
for a Breach of Promise "—the pretty young barris-
, tern in their pink " gowns " and beribboned wigs,
reminding one of the " sweet girl graduates with
their golden hair" mentioned by Tennyson in his
" Princess." The " contemptible scoundrel" is a
figure such as only the; hand of CluiksLank could
have delineated—as also are the goalers and the
judges. The Lord Chief Justice is a magnificent
old frow—sardonic and inexorable. Do you want a
good guffaw ?—glance at the sketch of the " Fearful,
but Probable ultimate Effects of Feeding John
Bull on Foreign Produce "—a Itabelais-like illustra-
tion of Mr. Fox's celebrated apostrophe. See again
the preposterous etching of " What it must come to at
last if the Ladies go on blowing themselves out as
they do !" " The happiest Moment of My Lite" is
perhaps one of the very drollest things George Cruik
shank has yet done—he who has conceived the image
of the little dog whose tail curled so tight that it
lifted him off his hind legs, and the famous drummer-
boy whose pig tail was tied so tight that he couldn't
shut his eyes ! " A Magnificent Spread," again, is
another Cruikshankian joke at the ladies. Among
the minor embellishments in the shape of woodcuts
(especially those ridiculous little black caricatures),
we fancy we can detect the hand of the inexhaustible
and facetious Hine. E. gr. the double series
" Before and after Marriage." We can conscientiously
commend the Comic Almanack to our readers as a
certain means of provoking their laughter.

THE PROTESTANT DISSENTERS' AL-
MANACK for 1850.

The Nonconformists may be proud of the manner
in which this their annual organ is now got up. It
is a most valuable collection of the statistics of Dissent,
and the writers boldly stand up for their principles,
which are those of religious liberty in the most
extensive sense of the term.

THE EMIGRANT'S ALMA2VACE for 1850.
The Emigrants' Almanack is greatly improved in
this the second year of its existence. A new
arrangement has been made in the Almanack, so as to
bring all the desirable information under distinct and
separate heads, and to present at one view all that
relates to each colony. Instead, therefore, of the
reader having to look in two or three different places
for the information relating to the point of destination
he may have selected, he will find it under one head.
If, for example, he wishes to obtain knowledge as to
the Cape of Good 11ope, he will simply have to refer
to the index, and will be directed to every particular
in relation to it at once. This almanack contains
every information which a person doubtful as to the
propriety of emigrating can require i❑ order to enable
him to determine whether he should emigrate at all,
and if so, to what part of the world.