umns are cut out in blocks and conveyed on | pack animals to the Columbia river, and from thence are shipped to all the markets on the coast.-N. American. THE LAST OF THE OLD BRITISH PARLIAMENTS. Within the last week (on the 14th instant) has opened the last session of the English Parliament of the ancient class. For a thou sand years, liberty has gradually evolved itself in Great Britian, through the free discussions of Parliament, a term formed, as Coke says, from parlare la mente, " to speak judic. iously the mind." By slow degrees, and after many and fierce contests, an amount of freedom has grown out of these Parliamentary debates which has become the basis of the practical liberties which Englishmen enjoy in measure, but which in these United States we have carried out so much more consistently. So far, classes only, and not the people as a body, have been fairly represented in the British Parliament; and this is to be the last meeting under the old regime. In 1869, a House of Commons chosen by much larger masses of the people themselves, will, for the first time, meet in the Halls of Westminister. The real foundations of the liberty which has thus been the slow growth of ages can only be very imperfectly traced now in spite of all the labor that has been bestowed upon the investigation. In England, there has been a sort of general council held from time immemorial, under the several names of great council, great meeting, witnagemote, or meeting of the wise men. Courts of this kind were held under the several kingdoms of the heptarchy. After the union of these, King Alfred, it has been said, ordained such a meeting twice a year. When a king was popular and strong he paid but little heed to any Parliament. Yet in Edward III.'s time, an act of Parliament made in the reign of the Conqueror was pleaded in Court, and allowed. But from the days of King John and the great charter forced from that king by the Barons, parliamentary rights and liberties have been explicitly established, and there are still extant writs to summon knights, burgesses and citizens to Parliament as far back as 1266. But at that time, and for long after, the House of Commons was in fact only a court, registering the assent of the deputies to the taxes, and it was only by refusing to vote the supplies until their wishes in regard to all other laws were complied with, that the liberties of the nation were enlarged. When the king became poor and wanted to tax the people for money, he became full of explanations and conciliation. But when the government was in funds, liberty suffered. Even to this day, if the two Houses of Lords and Commons differ on a bill, and a conference is held of committees, the Lords sit covered while the conmoners stand bare-headed, and discuss the bill. These discussions used to take place in the Painted Chamber for centuries. By degrees, the power of the purse has made the House of Commons the ruling power in the State. But the question of late years has been, whether the people or only the wealthy. and selected few shall be represented in the House of Commons. The last reform bill has peetty well settled that question, and next year the House of Commons will, to a larger exten? than ever, represent the masses. The last session of the old-fashioned house commenced on the evening of the 13th, and it is clear all parties are anxious to prepare for the coming change. The condition of Ireland will be thoroughly discussed, and the Church of England, which hardly numbers more than a fifth of the population of Ireland, will probably be no longer allowed to claim tithes from the other four fifths as heretofore. The ministers seem disposed to allow all proposed reforms in anticipation of the coming change, and all that the present Parliament refuses to grant will be carried over in expectation of a more radical sway next year. This is the last session of an old British Parliament. Henceforth England will be governed by a Legislature far more advanced and representatives of the whole people, like our National and State Legislatures.-Philada. Ledger. THE SUMMIT OF THE SIERRAS. Mr. Lin Sing made some remark to Mr. Ah Pong as I passed, which, not being familiar with broken China, I did not comprehend. Messrs. Ah See, Ah Yew, Ah Hee and others took up the muttered strain as we went along. Perhaps it was to the effect that the lineal descendents of the sun, moon and stars were at that particular moment passing through that hole in the ground shorn of the beams to which their illustrious parentage legitimately entitled them. At any rate, we were not sorry to come out of eclipse. After walking through the next tunnel we mounted our horses, but found that the grading soon came to an end. We followed the line around on the natural surface, scrambling through brush, pitching into and out of gullies, and seeing as much of the country as could be seen under such embarrassing circumstances. Fortunately the surface bere is much gentler in slope, and covered with more soil than the canons on the other side of the summit. It has been a volcanic region, and abounds in such rocks and soil as might be expected in such a locality. The excavations are frequently through lava, some of it honeycombed, some solid, and of the color of the lava cameos we get from Italy The topography of this part of the route is simple. Two long canons, nearly parallel, empty from the south, one into Douner Lake, the other into the outlet of the lake which runs east into the Truckee. The line of the road is thrown into these canons in two great loops, so fitted to the ground that little excavation or embankment is necessary, except where the sharp promontories looking on the lake are rounded. We rode around the concave of the first loop, but took advantage of a gap (so my guides said) to cross over the mountain and save passing over the curve and through the tunnel by which the road comes into the second canon. From the way in which we went up and up into the hills, and after riding for an indefinite period in the woods and bushes, finally came down a side hill so steep that the rider had a strong tendency to pitch over his horse's head. I am sceptical about the saving of distance. I am unable to see how a hoop is made any shorter by setting it up edge wise. On the second loop we found more work completed, and after riding several miles came to the high bridge crossing the outlet of Douuer Lake. There we descended into the depths again and zig zagged our way up the other side, where we found a bevy of Chinamen prying at the lava rocks which had been thrown out by the blast. The Celestials were using some profanity, I fear; for that portion of the English language which consists of expletives more vigorous than polite, is amongst their earliest acquisitions. This is not owing so much to any special depravity in the Celestial mind, as to the fact that the Anglo-Saxons put over the workmen make free use of curses, as in fact nearly every body does, in this country. These Chinese, however, are model operatives. Their industry is wonderful, and they are frugal and orderly. They get a dollar a day and board themselves, and can be worked eleven hours a day, and seven days in a week if necessary. Five hundred dollars is a fortune to them in their own country; and they sometimes return there, after laying up that amount. They are invaluable to the railroad company and to this region generally, where cheap labor is so scarce, and yet so necessary. Fifteen miles from the summit brought us to Truckee river, where there is a town or station called Coburn's. From this point for nineteen miles the track is laid to Truckee Canon. Having sent down the road for the locomotive, we had to wait some time. About 4 o'clock it arrived, and mounting on the tender we backed down to tunnel No. 15, where we hooked on to the platform cars, and brought the workmen back to their camps. Henceforth, if properly pushed, the former will make rapid progress. In a few weeks, if the weather is favorable, one hundred and thirtyeight miles of track will be laid; and forty miles more may be finished during the winter. Beyond that, progress will be limited only by the number of men employed. There is a race between the roads for Salt Lake, and I join in the Irish wish that they will both reach it first. The Central Pacific even sets its stakes at Fort Bridger; but it is to be hoped the passage of the Rocky Mountains will not hinder so long as that of the Sierras. This Pacific coast sadly needs the railroad, and with all its natural charms, will languish until it is completed. M. T. T. ITEMS. Prof. Wickersham, Superintendent of Commonthe adoption of a system whereby the Colleges of Schools in Pennsylvania, urges upon the Legislature the State may receive aid from the public treasury. He proposes that colleges possessing, as a minimum, accommodations for two hundred students, a library of three thousand volumes, apparatus worth three full College course, and an income of five thousand thousand dollars, a President and four Professors, a dollars, receive from the State an annuity of three thousand dollars, on condition of granting free tuition to one scholar from a free school for every fifty dollars. Of twelve Pennsylvania colleges, only eight report an income reaching five thousand dol lars. B. BAYARD TAYLOR and family it is said have narrowly escaped death from a land slide at Naples, which destroyed a large number of houses. Taylor happened to be absent at the time. Eighty tain is attributed to the disturbed state of Vesuvius. persons lost their lives. The falling in of the moun RAIL EXPANSION.-The expansion of the rails on a railroad, 500 miles long, amounts in a hot summer s day to nearly a quarter of a mile from the extreme contraction in winter. Of course this expansion is all taken up by the joints.-Amer. Artisan. THE CHEMICAL TOYS called Pharaoh's serpents en joyed but brief popularity, on account of the poisonous nature of the materials from which they were formed. According to a Paris chemist, a harmless variety of this toy may be manufactured by using the black liquor resulting from the purification of coal oil and sulphuric acid, and treating it with fuming nitric acid. The dark colored resinous matter which swims on the surface of the mixture is to be collected, washed and dried, when it forms a yellowish brown mass, baving about the consistency of sulphur which has been melted and poured into water. When this mass is ignited, it undergoes a wonderful increase in bulk, so that a cylinder one inch long will make a snake about four feet in length. THE RESISTLESS POWER of frozen water is illustrated in a lecture on heat and cold, delivered by Professor Tyndall before the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Among his experiments, an ordinary bombshell was filled with water, securely plugged, and then placed in a bucket filled with pounded ice and salt to freeze it. In about half an hour the bombshell was burst into fragments by the freezing of the confined water. The Central Pacific has conquered its worst AT the University of Zurich, Switzerland, it is reobstacles, while the Union Pacific has been hur-ported that recently a Russian lady received the derying over the plains to reach its heavy work. "gree and diploma of Medical Doctor. |