LONDON MODERN SHOEBLACKS.-One of the features of ancient London revived for the Great Exhibition was the company of shoeblacks. The revival was an experiment connected with one of the great questions of our day-the disposal of the abandoned children of wretchedness and crime who infest our streets. The poor boys were of various sorts. Many were orphans-some were sailor-boys-not a few had been starving in the streets for years-almost all were homeless, ragged, ignorant, dirty little wretches for whom no one seemed to care. They were, in truth, exact samples of that large class of young castaways from which the criminal population is continually recruited in strength, and for which the ragged-school was especially designed. To deal with the case of these youngsters has ever been a serious difficulty. The usual doors of labour appeared closed against them. If the humane set them to chop wood or break stones, it was objected to as an infringement of the rights of free labour. Happily, the shoeblack was a defunct personage in London streets-and, with the exception of a colony of French boys who established themselves in the park, but were removed by the police for bad conduct, no one could complain of the new aspirants for public favour trenching on ground already occupied. At first the boys had much to contend against. They were new to the work, and felt awkward in their fine clothes. Idle boys mocked at them, pulled their aprons, and put dirt into their pots. Portly gentlemen posed them with strange questions. Elderly ladies told them they would all come to be Lord Mayors. Costermongers called them young cardinals and red republicans, in allusion to their red jackets. Foreigners offered them curious coins for change. Old soldiers

with only one leg insisted on paying halfprice; and sometimes shabby people would say, off-hand, that they would pay next time. Still the boys stood their ground, and held manful possession of the points which they had seized at first. A few of them, it is true, fell into temptation, like other mortals, owing to success. Kossuth's visit to Guildhall was a sort of Capua to some. That day people trod unanimously on each other's toes, and the industrial little colony earned a large sum of money. A few of the urchins could not bear up calmly against this flood-tide of prosperity; they feasted on magnificent pies; they steamed to Greenwich and gorged themselves with whitebait; they made themselves ill with cheap cigars; they shook themselves with rides on Hampstead donkeys. But these offenders were exceptions to the rule, and they were discharged for bad conduct. Nearly all the boys saved money, which was kept for them in a little bank established by the committee. One had 71. put by-several had 51. each. Many a widowed mother was supported by her son's blacking-brush. Seven of the lads spent their savings on an outfit for Australia, and are now in that colony; fourteen others obtained situations in families. One has bound himself apprentice to the Watermen's Company; another relieved his parents from a distress for rent; and a father was enabled by the same means to come up to London and see the boy from whom he had been separated for years! Such is the result of this little experiment as told by one of the Committee. Who will not wish the further trial good speed?-Athenæum.

A correspondent of the Builder has communicated a very simple method of preventing damp walls, by the mere outside

application of a lather of soap and hot water, and then, as soon as dry, sprinkling the walls with a saturated solution of alum. He states that he prepared several places in this way, and water poured on the wall ran off as from a duck's back, without producing the least effect.

HOW LONG CAN THE PRESENT PARLIAMENT SIT?-The Parliament can continue to sit, if necessary, until next year. It can also sit until the 20th August, 1854, when the seven years will terminate, the writs for this Parliament being returnable on the 29th of August, 1847. The circumstance of Parliament being enabled to sit till August, 1854, arises from the fact, that the session of 1847 extended to, and was continued in, the year 1848, thus making these two count only as one year.

THE GLUT OF GOLD.-It is stated on authority, that in order to stimulate the circulation of gold in this country, it is intended to limit-if not altogether stop-the future issue of 5l. notes from the Bank of England. Should this plan be carried out, the public will have to use more bullion in small money transactions than is at present customary. Some notes of other denominations will, it is stated, also be more limited in number than hitherto.

APHORISMS OF CROMWELL.

Subtlety may deceive you; integrity never will.

Nothing must make a man's conscience a servant.

Is it ingenuous to ask liberty and not to give it?

Liberty of conscience is a natural right; and he that would have it ought to give it.

In things of the mind we look for no compulsion, but that of right and reason.

NOVEL EMPLOYMENT OF INDIARUBBER. -An ingenious discovery, by which indiarubber and gutta percha are rendered applicable to the formation of artificial features and to the covering of artificial limbs, has been made by Mr. F. Grey, of Cork-street. By this discovery the necessity of what is called the Taliacotian operation, in supplying the place of a lost nose to the face, is removed, for that feature can be formed, and as it were grafted on the integuments in such a manner as closely to resemble nature. The human ear can also be closely imitated by the substance produced by the mixture of the gums of which indiarubber and gutta percha are constituted. In respect to artificial hands, the material of which they are formed can be covered with this substance, which perfectly resembles the natural skin, and is almost equally flexible. So complete is the decep

tion, that, without the closest inspection, it is nearly impossible to discover that art has superseded nature. This invention is among those which prove the great variety of uses to which the materials employed in it can be applied.

THE HAPPY MEDIUM.-He who never relapses into sportiveness is a wearisome companion, but beware of him who jests at everything.

AN EXTRAORDINAY PARENT.-A woman at Liege has just been confined of three children, making twenty-four in nine years, having had three at every accouchement. The husband, who was anxious to perpetuate his name, is much disappointed at all his children being girls.

HOW TO GROW RICH.-The only way by which capital can increase is by saving. If you spend as much as you get, you will never be richer than you are. "Tis not what a man gets, but what he saves, that constitutes his wealth. Go, learn the first two rules of arithmetic: learn addition and substraction. Add to your present capital any amount you please: substract the sum which you add, and tell me if the last amount will not be the same as the first. Every merchant should in every year of his life, make some addition to his capital. You may say you get but little; never mind-spend less than little; and then next year you will get more, for you will have the profit upon the sum you save. There

is no royal road to wealth any more than to geometry. The man who goes on spending all he gets, and expects that by some lucky hit he shall be raised to wealth, will most likely sink into poverty; for, in case of adverse fortune, he has then no resource; whereas, by economy, he may lay by a stock that may serve as a provision in case of adversity. You may say that the times are bad, the seasons are bad, the laws are bad. Be it so; but, were the case reversed, it would make no difference to you. Look at home; you spend more than you get. How, then, can you be otherwise than poor. How many a respectable family have fallen from a high station, which they worthily and honourably filled, merely because neither the gentleman nor the lady had been familiar with the first four rules of arithmetic.

THE QUEEN OF SPAIN in order to perpetuate the recollection of the birth-day of the Princess, has directed 6,000 reals to be invested in the name of every child of poor parents born on that day. Every child to receive the principal and interest on arriving at its majority. Every child born on the day of the christening is to receive 3000 reals.

RAILWAY PASSENGERS' ASSURANCE COмPANY.-The Directors report an increased amount of business during the last halfyear, and a satisfactory result in the working of the Company. The tickets which have been issued during the six months ending the 31st of December, are

as

follows:-Periodical tickets, 2,227. Double journey tickets, 2nd class, 273; 3rd class, 19,471. Single journey tickets, 1st class, 29,520; 2nd class, 74,016; 3rd class, 133,468. The amount received for premiums is 4,1977. 2s. 3d., showing an increase of 1,0417. 6s. 6d. upon the previous half-year, and making the total receipts of the year 1851 the sum of 7,3521, 18s. The claims upon the Company for compensation, which have been made and adjusted during the past half-year, consist of 8 fatal cases, and 85 cases of personal injury; and the entire number of claims met by payments since the formation of the Company, consist of 10 fatal cases, on which an aggregate amount of 2,5801. has been paid, and 184 cases of personal injury, the payments on which, in various sums, have amounted to 3,2091. 3s.; making a total paid in compensation on 194 claims, up to the 31st December last, of 5,7897. 3s,, in addition to the sum of 324l. 15s. 6d. paid for medical expenses. The Directors recommend that the proprietors should receive interest for the half-year on the amount paid on their shares, at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, free of Income-tax, which will leave a balance in hand of 1,9137. 13s. to be carried over to the next half-year.

LIVERPOOL. This great and important commercial town, the largest in the kingdom, is situated on the eastern bank of the estuary of the Mersey, which is here about 1300 yards across, and gradually expands between the town and the sea, and possesses therefore, a ready and easy communication with St. George's Channel, and thence to the Atlantic Ocean. In 1710, an Act of Parliament was obtained for constructing the first dock, since which time the docks have increased in number with the increase and population of the town, and now occupy a space of more than three miles in circumference. The merchants of Liverpool have extended their commerce to almost every part of the known world, but the principal trade is with America and the West Indies. In

1760 the first stage coach was established from Liverpool to London, which started once a week and performed, the journey in four days, the same distance can now be performed in as many hours, being connected by railways, with almost every town of importance in England. The market days are Wednesdays and Saturdays. The annual fairs are held on the 25th of July, and November 11.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE has been made accessible to the public in rather a singular way. The interior fittings are now on sale by public auction, and, as it is necessary to admit purchasers, the price of a catalogue, which is sixpence, secures the entree. The sale of catalogues, which on the first day amounted to 200, now, after the interval of a week, reaches 1,500.

LENGTH OF THE DAY.-That the day is longer or shorter as you go north or south of the equator is a familiar fact to our readers. Off Cape Horn, 56 degrees south latitude, the days in mid-winter are about nine hours long. The longest day at London is sixteen hours and a-half; at Hamburgh, seventeen hours; at St. Petersburgh, the longest day has eighteen hours and the shortest five; at Tornea, in Finland, the longest day has twenty-one hours and a-half, and the shortest two hours and a-half; at Spitzbergen the longest day is three months and a-half.

OUT-DOOR BELIEF IN IRELAND.-According to a return issued, the number who received out-door relief in Ireland during the year ended the 29th of September, 1848, was 1,419,020; in 1849, 1,210,486; in 1850, 348,899; and in 1851, 62,261.

VALENTINE'S DAY.—Saturday was a very busy day in the Post-office. Up to five o'clock in the evening, 200,000 letters above the ordinary daily average had passed through the Post-office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, the total number amounting to nearly 400,000, the postage realised being 1,500l.

THE GOVERNMENT BALANCE-SHEET.-In a Parliamentary document, an account was given of the public income and expenditure; or the year ending the 5th of January last. The net receipts were 52,233,0067. 16s. 5d., and the expenditure, 49,506,6107. 11s. 7d., leaving the excess of income over the expenditure 2,726,3967. 4s. 10d.

TO SLEEP LIKE A TOP.-This we say in familiar language of a person completely under the influence of Morpheus; and we generally imagine the simile to be taken from the momentary pause of a peg-top, or humming-top, when its rotatory motion is at the height. But no such thing: the word top is Italian. Topo, in that language, signifies a mouse; it is the generic name, and applied indiscriminately to the common mouse, fieldmouse, and dormouse; from which the Italian proverb-Ei dorme come un topo is derived. Anglicè—“ He sleeps like a top."

WHY DID SOLOMON IMPORT APES?(1 Kings x. 22).—To this question I lately found an answer in "Eadie's Early Oriental History" (Encycl. Metrop., 8vo. edition):-"Egypt produced different kinds of wine, of which the light pale wines of Marcotes and Tenca, were among the most famous. Figs, sycamores, and pomegranates, were extensively cultivated, and monkeys were sometimes trained to climb the branches, pluck the fruit, and throw it down into a basket beneath the tree."P. 164. Scott intimates, that Pharoah and Solomon were joint traders, and so we at once find both a market and a use for the imported "apes."-W.

DINE WITH DUKE HUMPHREY. -This proverb originated from the accidental circumstance of a wit in the last century being shut up in the abbey of St. Alban's, where the remains of Duke Humphery (the good Duke Regent) are yet to be seen, while a party of his friends, who came down to that ancient and loyal borough with him, on an excursion from London, were enjoying the hospitalities of the landlord of the White Hart.

WISE MEN OF GOTHAM.-Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire. Its magis trates are said to have attempted to hedge in a cuckoo; and a bush called the cuckoo's bush, is still shewn in support of the tradition. A thousand other ridiculous stories are told of the men of Gotham.

A SCOTCH PROVERB.-" What I gain afore, I lose ahint." (Scotch). To be engrossed with a fixed object is to forget what is going on all around us. I am closely engaged with what is passing before my eyes, while I am deceived and injured behind my back. The quaint old proverb has been ludicrously illustrated by、

a characteristic story. A Highlander, in a somewhat scanty kilt, was crossing a desolate moor one winter's night, and being very cold, he hastened to a light he saw at no great distance. It turned out to be a decomposed cod's head, which sent forth phosphoric gleams. He stooped down to try and warm his hands at it, but finding the bleak winds whistling all round his legs, he made the sage observation above, which has passed into a proverb.

GOOD FRIDAY-the Friday before Easter Sunday. It was also called by the Saxons, Long Friday—perhaps from the long fasts and offices used by them at that time; for there appears no other reason. The epithet of good it is said to have obtained because the good work of man's redemption was then consummated, and on account of the benefits thence derived to us. The hot cross-buns that are in such common use amongst all classes, have by some been derived from the eulogia, or consecrated loaves, of the Greek church; though one would suppose that this was the very last quarter to which the Latins would have gone for any custom. The buns marked with a cross, we imagine, were but a sort of lay-sacrament, and eaten as much in commemoration of our Saviour, as the consecrated bread itself; being manifestly no more than another form of the bread that was at one time given in alms to people at the churches. Bishop Bonner tells us that "the gevying of holy bread is to put us in remembrance of unitie, and that all Christen people be one mysticall body of Christ, like as the bread is made of many grains, and yet but one loafe; and that the sayd holy bread is to put us also in remembrance of the housell, and the receyvying of the most blessed body and blood of our Saviour Jesu Christ." the word bun, it is likely enough to be a corruption of boun-the_original name for sacrificial cakes. Another custom of this day, but which was abolished by the convocation under Henry VIII., in 1536, was the creeping to the cross upon the knees, and kissing it. Bishop Bonner in the work just quoted, says that "the creepying to the cross on good fryday signifieth an humblyng of ourselves to Christe before the Crosse, and that the kissyng of it signifieth a memory of our redemption."

As to