threw out a project for insuring the lives and limbs of workmen in a State-aided society, and refused to increase the duties on timber. A resolution in favour of toleration for the Roman Catholics was adopted in defiance of the injunctions of the Minister of Public Worship, who said it would impede negotiations with the Vatican, which were on the point of settlement. Mr. Sargent, United States Minister at Berlin, came into apparent conflict with the Berlin authorities through the improper publication of one of his reports, in which he commented severely on the decision of the Imperial Government excluding American pork from the Empire, but Mr. Sargent still performs his diplomatic duties, taking slight notice of the attacks upon him in official newspapers. An alliance, with the exact terms of which Europe is as yet unacquainted, has undoubtedly been concluded between Germany, Austria, and Italy. April 19.-A fund presented to the Crown Prince on the occasion of his silver wedding was allotted by him to various public institutions. April 21.-Funeral of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin at Schwerin. He was a nephew of the German Emperor. May 12.-Official Inquiry into the sinking of the Cimbria, on January 19, resumed at Hamburg. New theory advanced: a third steamer reported to have been near at the time of the collision and confused the lights and signals of the Cimbria and Sultan. Three experts appointed to continue investigations. The Naval Court at a previous sitting exonerated the officers of the Sultan from blame in failing to rescue the drowning. Hygienic exhibition at Berlin opened, chiefly for the benefit of the working classes, the charge for admission being only fourpence. RUSSIA. On the eve of the Czar's coronation batches of Nihilist revolutionists are being tried in haste at St. Petersburg. Six were sentenced to death and eleven to severe punishments late in April, and others are awaiting trial. There are hopes that these unfortunates will experience the Imperial clemency, but disclosures made during the investigation do not encourage the hope that Nihilism is extinguished. The organisation is declared to resemble the plot lately discovered in Ireland, being directed by a single person who is unknown to almost all his fellowconspirators. The coronation festivities are estimated to cost £1,500,000, and while. hospitality will be dispensed to all the moujiks of the Moscow district, as well as to countless visitors from the various European and Asiatic provinces of the Empire, a camp of 55,000 men, under the command of a Grand Duke, is being formed on the plain near Moscow, and 12,500 men will be garrisoned in the city. Expectation runs high as to the remissions and reforms to be announced at the coronation. April 18.-Eighteen prominent Nihilistssentenced at St. Petersburg for complicity in plots against the late and present Emperor. Bogdanovitch, a man of noble birth, who constructed the tunnel in Little Garden Street, St. Petersburg, by which the late Czar's equipage was to have been blown up, was sentenced to death, as were five others, including Bazevitch, an officer in the Russian Navy. Twelve prisoners, including some women, were also sentenced to long terms of penal servitude. [Subsequent news leads to the expectation that the capital sentences will not be carried out.] April 24.-Coronation of the Czar fixed for May 27. May 1.-A wide-spread military conspiracy discovered in Russia, its object being to establish a Republican form of Government. AUSTRIA. RIOTS among the working classes continue in Eastern Germany, and there are also signs of an agitation for the severance of the German from the Sclavonic provinces of the Empire. April 24.-The bakers' strike in Vienna pending for some weeks was temporarily settled but again broke out, the number of malcontents varying from 200 to 2000. State funeral of the Archduchess Marie Antoinette, niece of the Emperor, who died while visiting the Riviera in quest of health. May 1.-An increased landwehr ordered by the Reichsrath, to the number of 138,000 men, involving additional expenditure of 1,000,000 florins. ITALY. ENGROSSED in her German political alliance, her Bavarian nuptial alliance, and the increase of her naval power, Italy has contributed no striking incidents to the history of the month. April 28.-Return of the Duke of Genoa to Rome with his bride. Enthusiastic reception by the Roman populace. The Italian Government drafted a Bill to punish persons who deal unlawfully with explosives. For exploding a bomb or other explosive substance in the streets or elsewhere a penalty of six months' imprisonment is proposed. May 7.-Settlement of the claims of Italy for the indemnification of her subjects in respect of losses at the occupation of Sfax by France. Earthquake shocks were reported from Catania. HOLLAND. THE chief event in the Netherlands during the month has been the opening of an International Exhibition at Amsterdam, May 1. SCIENCE AND PROGRESS. THE following topics under this head have been brought to public notice within the past month: PROPOSALS for the construction of a second canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, have been discussed in two forms. That which is at present the more practical of them is the scheme of a representative body of English merchants to pierce the Isthmus of Suez with a second channel; and in spite of the active opposition of M. de Lesseps, who claims to be the only person who has a right under Egyptian law to undertake such a work, an Executive Committee has been appointed to carry out the decision of the British merchants and shipowners and proceed toward the construction of the canal. The second scheme referred to involves the conversion of the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea into a gigantic water-way, and connecting the inland sea thus formed with the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The former project is the more advanced, and the counsel whom the Egyptian Government instructed to examine the question have expressed an opinion that the right of M. de Lesseps is subject to limitations. Meanwhile M. de Lesseps has returned from the Sahara, and promises that his plan for the conversion of the western part of that desert into a lake shall shortly be demonstrated by the publication of a complete account of his investigations. M. Charles de Lesseps, his son, is engaged in the construction of the Panama Canal. the mouth of the Lena news has been received that the party were all in good health, and that the observations had been continued without intermission, though the mean temperature had been 38° Réaumur. Professor Nordenskjold has almost completed his preparations for a summer expedition into Greenland, where he expects to find the work of exploration less difficult than it has proved to previous travellers, the country being reported more free from ice than in any recent season. From Cape Horn satisfactory news of the French Scientific Expedition to the middle of January has been received. The Geographical Society of Lisbon have awarded their gold medal this year to Mr. Carl Bock, the distinguished German traveller. Mr. Stanley, the explorer of Central Africa, has been voted the Vega medal of the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society. ON May 6 the Willem Barents sailed from Amsterdam on her sixth voyage to the Arctic regions. In previous years the persevering Dutch explorers have done good scientific work, but this year they are charged with the rescue of two vessels which have wintered in the Kara Sea. Sir Allen Young, Mr. Leigh Smith, and Mr. Clements Markham chartered a steamer and accompanied the Willem Barents into the North Sea, having gone to Amsterdam to wish them Godspeed. NEW buildings for the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution-the parent of a large family of useful educational agencies which are now found in all parts of Great Britain-were opened, on April 24, by H.R.H. the Duke of Albany. The cost of the build it is estimated that they will furnish facilities for the education of five thousand students. A lecture hall to seat twelve hundred people is one of the new rooms. The Birkbeck Institution has existed for sixty years, and its lectures are now attended by nearly four thousand students. A COMMITTEE of the two houses of the British Parliament, comprising five peers and five commoners, has begun the long-ings was nearly twenty thousand pounds, and delayed inquiry respecting the Channel Tunnel. Sir John Hawkshaw, in his evidence on behalf of the promoters, estimated the cost of the tunnel at eight millions sterling, and said he believed the work would occupy eight years, if not ten. If two millions of passengers were carried annually, at 6s. per head, and 1,200,000 tons of merchandise, at 5s. per ton, the revenue produced would be sufficient, after meeting working expenses, to pay a dividend of 63 per cent. Lord Richard Grosvenor, the chairman of one of the Companies interested, declared that his Company would go on with the scheme, even if they knew the tunnel would have to be absolutely destroyed in case of danger. The Committee has not completed its task, but operations on the French side are proceeding as usual. SATISFACTORY news has been received respecting the circle of meteorological stations which were established some time since within the polar circle by the various Governments which have territory in the northern regions. Should the state of navigation permit, the various expeditions will return in September. From the Russian station at SOME Berlin students have at length made a stand against the semi-barbarous practices which have survived in connection with the Burschenschafts, or students' guilds, of the Fatherland. Duelling, the recognised object of these associations, lately received a check by the death of several students from blood-poisoning; but the Berlin students have combined in a Reformburschenschaft, the object of which is to promote among its members scientific culture, and a greater attention to physical training, and to discard in principle and gradually abolish the practice of duelling. AN instance of the degree of superstition still surviving in some parts of England was recorded on May 6 in Dorsetshire. A parhelion was observed, and caused so much terror among the country people, that women fell on their knees in the street to pray, supposing that the end of the world had come. The phenomenon was widely seen in the southern counties. A NEW article of commerce has been found for the European markets, in the form of candles made from kerosene and the grosser petroleum products, under a process discovered by M. Ditmar, a Swede. M. Ditmar gave the first account of his discovery at St. Petersburg, and was soon afterwards engaged by Nobel Brothers, the firm by whom the wells at Baku on the Caspian are worked, and has contracted with them for the carrying out of the patent. A LITERARY Copyright Convention between Germany and France has been signed at Berlin. A BILL has been introduced into Parliament for the construction of a tunnel beneath the Thames at Tower Hill, the point from which the various engineers consulted by the Metropolitan authorities have almost invariably recommended that such communication should be made. There is no probability of success being achieved by the promoters of the measure, as it proposes to levy tolls; and the Metropolitan Board of Works is still engaged in considering plans for the construction of a public way across the river at this point. THE Subway under the Mersey, which is to connect Liverpool and Birkenhead, has been advanced nearly a quarter-mile below the river bed. Strange to say, the workmen are embarrassed for want of water, the face of the heading being so dry that water has to be laid on to keep the boring tools cool, and lay the dust By a suspension of the standing orders of Parliament the promoters of the Manchester Ship Canal Bill have been enabled to proceed with their measure, and the Parliamentary inquiry has lasted throughout the month. AN electric railway will be laid down at Wimbledon for the convenience of visitors to the rifle meeting this year. ART AND ARCHEOLOGY. sented the most numerous collection they have yet brought together-about nine hundred. The Society of Water Colour Painters opened an exhibition of larger proportions than usual, and of average merit. The Grosvenor Gallery was not less wellfilled than in former years, but the high interest which attached to some previous exhibitions there was scarcely maintained. Mr. Burne Jones's pictures, The Hours and The Wheel of Fortune, were, perhaps, most generally remarked. Nor did the Salon at Paris strike a higher note. The works there were of the average class and the average number. Concurrently with the Salon an exhibition of decorative art is again being held at Paris. Arrangements for a new exhibition of French art, the Triennial Salon, are being made, and an exhibition at Munich by artists of various countries is in preparation. ALTHOUGH the galleries show no striking signs of new artistic life, the interests of the Fine Arts have been materially advanced by various events of the month. The opening of the fine buildings of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours was signalised by the presence of several Royal personages at a concert, and the inspection of the pictures in the new gallery by the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Institute will also commemorate the event by hereafter admitting all painters to its exhibitions, and by establishing classes for the free instruction of promising students. More important, in a permanent sense, is the decision of Her Majesty's Government to carry out extensions of the National Gallery, which will admit of the much-needed rearrangement of the galleries in that building. The estimated cost of the work is £66,000, and a note on account has already been made by the House of Commons. space added will increase the Gallery by nearly one-third, and the visitor will be able, by-and-by, making a circuit of the building, to inspect all its contents without retracing his steps. Turner's pictures will be re-hung. The picture NEGOTIATIONS are proceeding for the acquisition of part of the famous Ashburnham manuscripts by the trustees of the British Museum on behalf of the Nation. The ground on which the owners of the collection consented to the division of the manuscripts, was the importance attached in England to certain claims of France for the re-acquisition of some portions which are said to have belonged formerly to public libraries in that country. THE verdict of the critics upon the several great collections of pictures, which were opened to the public early in May, is in the main unfavourable. In the exhibition of the Royal Academy, artists of recognised position did not gratify their admirers with many new works of conspicuous merit. Some portraits by Mr. Millais, Mr. Alma Tadema's An Oleander, Mr. Fildes's Village Wedding, and A COMING change in the rules of the a pathetic scene, entitled A Last Look, by a English museums and galleries, by which new artist, Mr. Maynard Brown, are perhaps duplicates and casts of great works of art the pictures which have attracted most will be available for distribution in the attention among the nearly seventeen provinces, has been anticipated in Prussia. hundred to which wall space has been given. The German Emperor has issued a decree At a new gallery in Piccadilly, which they authorising the loan of pictures from the had just completed, the members of the Berlin National Gallery to provincial Institute of Painters in Water Colours pre-museums in Prussia. A RESOLUTION in favour of opening the British Museum, the South Kensington Museum, and the public picture galleries on Sundays, was moved by the Earl of Dunraven in the House of Lords, May 8. The proposal was supported by the Liberal leader, Lord Granville, but opposed by the Bishops, and rejected by 91 votes to 67. The House adopted a resolution of the Earl of Shaftesbury, in favour of keeping such institutions open during the evenings of three days in each week. THE trustees of Shakespeare's birthplace held their annual meeting at Stratford-onAvon, May 5, and decided to throw open New Place on three days of the week free of charge, and to make some structural additions to the library and picture gallery. During the past year nearly 13,000 visitors paid for admission. 66 EXTRAORDINARY prices have been obtained at sales of prints during the month. Messrs. Sotheby sold a first state" of Rembrandt's portrait, known as The Advocate Tolling, for £1510, which is said to be £230 more than has ever before been given for a print. M. Clément, of Paris, was the purchaser. The plates of Turner's Liber Studiorum were sold at Christie's for good prices, of which the highest was £106 for the Isis. The Aston Rowant Gallery was dispersed April 28, when Mr. E. Long's The Gods and their Makers sold for 2500 guineas, Mr. Briton Riviere's Sympathy for 2000 guineas, Mr. Luke Filde's Casual Ward for 2000 guineas, and his A Widower for 2000 guineas. At the sale of Prince Narischkine's pictures in Paris, Pieter de Hooge's Consultation produced £6200, and a tiny portrait by Albert Dürer £3120. Clesinger's last work, a triumphal group for L'École Militaire at Paris, is in the Salon. Doré's last work, a statue of his friend Dumas père, has been erected in the Place Malesherbes, Paris. FRENCH art has sustained great loss by the death of M. Jules Goupil, one of the most distinguished pupils of Ary Scheffer, and of M. Edouard Manet, one of the leaders of the Impressionists. From France comes news also of the illness of the great Russian novelist, Tourgueneff, who was, May 11, in a well-nigh hopeless condition with disease of the heart. It was also said that his reason had partially given way. AN Egyptian Exploration Fund has been organised, with Sir Erasmus Wilson as president, and two secretaries, Miss Amelia B. Edwards and Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole. The Society began its operations at Tel-elMaskhuta in the Delta, and shortly lit upon remains of the ancient city of Succoth. It is hoped to identify the Pharaoh of Moses, and to settle the much-disputed question of the route of the Jewish exodus, by discoveries in this neighbourhood. OBITUARY. April 13.-At Cannes, the Austrian Archduchess, Marie Antoinette, aged 25. She was buried with much splendour at the Hofburg, Vienna, on the 24th April. April 14.-In London, Dr. William Farr, C.B., a distinguished writer on health statistics, aged 76. April 15.-At Schwerin, the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a nephew of the German Emperor, aged 60. April 19.-At Twickenham, the Hon. Edward Morris Erskine, C.B., late British Minister at Stockholm, and previously Envoy at Athens, aged 66. April 24.-At St. Cloud, M. Jules Sandeau, author and member of L'Académie Française, aged 72. M. Sandeau, while he was studying law in Paris, became acquainted with Madame Dudevant, in concert with whom he composed a novel, which was published under the pseudonym " Jules Sand." The lady became distinguished as George Sand," adopting the assumed surname of her first work, and M. Sandeau published in his own name a considerable number of novels and plays. Among the latter Le Gendre de M. Poirier is best known. At Paris, M. Michel Mason, doyen of the French Literary Association, aged 82. He wrote Mason, the Contes de l'Atelier Marceau, and several successful plays. April 25.-At Newmarket, suddenly, Prince Batthyany, a Hungarian nobleman, who was for forty years one of the most generous patrons of " the turf " in England. April 28-At Paris, M. Jules Goupil, one of the most distinguished pupils of Ary Scheffer. April 29.- At Potsdam, Dr. Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, a political economist and leader of the Liberal party in the German Reichstag, aged 74. April 30.-In London, Admiral Frederick Edward Vernon Harcourt, aged 92. The son of an Archbishop of York, he entered the British Navy at ten years of age, and was the oldest officer on the flag-officers' retired list of the service. At Paris, M. Edouard Manet, an artist of the French school known as "Impressionists," aged 50. His most famous works were Le Bon Bock and Enfant à l'Epée. May 1.-In London, Lord Vernon, aged 54. He devoted much time and attention to promoting the interests of agriculture in England. At Windsor, the Very Rev. George Connor, Dean of Windsor. May 8.-At Chelsea, Sir Thomas Tyringham Bernard, Bart., aged 91, the oldest county magistrate in England. He was a schoolfellow of Byron at Harrow. At Paris, Louis Viardot, aged 83, once a collaborateur of " George Sand." A CORRESPONDENT who has charge of the arithmancy department of this Magazine, and who is now engaged in constructing a system that will enable us to calculate the periodicity of South American revolutions, and the probable advent of what is called "early spring" in New England, sends to the Drawer the following timely figures bearing upon the immediate future of France: I am reminded of an article on arithmancy which I read in Notes and Queries many years ago, in which the writer suggested in (1866) that something serious might happen to the Emperor and Empress of France in 1870. I find it in the number of September 15, 1866. (Notes and Queries), 3rd Series, X., 215.) Arithmancy is the science of divining by numbers. In 1866 many persons in France were looking to 1869 and 1870 as years of possible catastrophies because of some curious arithmetical facts in past French history. Louis XVI. came to the throne in 1774; adding these digits together makes 19, which added to 1774 gives 1793, in which year he lost his crown and head. The next regular order of government began with the fall of Robespierre in 1794, and the Convention out of which grew the First Empire. To 1794 add the sum of its digits, 21, and you have 1815, the year of Waterloo, the fall of Napoleon, and the return of Bourbon power with Louis XVIII. Again add to 1815 the sum of its digits, and you have 1830, the year of the revolution of July, the fall of Charles X., and accession of Louis Philippe. Here another rule in arithmancy became operative. Louis Philippe was born in 1773, the sum of whose digits is 18. His queen, Amélie, was born 1782. The sum of the digits is again 18. His accession was in 1830. Add 18, and the result is 1848, the date of his fall. During the reign of Louis Napoleon French believers in arithmancy were divided in methods of prognostication. Adding to 1848 the sum of its digits gave 1869, to which many looked as a year of disaster. Others counted from the year in which he was proclaimed Emperor, and married to Eugénie, 1853. Louis Napoleon was born in 1808, and the Empress was born in 1826, both which years give 17 as the sum of their digits. Following the rule, as in Louis Philippe's case, and adding this to 1853, gave 1870. By a remarkable coincidence, the sum of the digits of 1853 was also 17, and the old rule, as in the case of Louis XVI., also gave the year 1870 for disaster, which came with the German war and the fall of the empire. That this was not an after-thought is shown by the publication of this prognostication for 1870 in 1866, as I have already cited it. Now, however, the French prophets, by help of the magic in numbers, are in the darkness Ah, indeed!" replied the pleased preacher. "Such praise of my poor labour is very grateful. _ I should like to know what sermon it was. Do you remember the text?" Well, no, I can't tell what the text was now; but it was the greatest sermon I ever heard. It just lifted me. I never forgot that sermon." I should really like to know what sermon it was," replied the clergyman, much interested in so decided a case of the power of the pulpit. "If you cannot recall the text, what was the subject of the sermon ?" "Well, now, doctor, it's gone from me; I forget what the text was, and I can't rake up the subject now; but I tell you it was a great sermon. It did me more good-it was the most powerful discourse I ever heard. I shan't forget it if I live to be eighty." "But can't you recall anything in it? You excite my curiosity. Can't you give me a clew that will identify it?" "No, I can't tell what was in it exactly; the subject has slipped out of my mind. I don't know exactly what you said, but it was a magnificent sermon. It did me more good than all the preaching I ever heard. It has just staid by me for fifteen years." And you cannot recall a word that will help me to identify it?" "Well, I can't now bring up what it was about, but I remember how it wound up. You said, 'Theology ain't religion—not by a sight!"" MRS. WHALLEY is a character in our village. She is now an old woman, and lives in a small cottage off the main street. A few days ago she met a lad driving a fine load of hay to market. She stopped him, inquired the quality and price of the hay, and, after much deliberation, ordered the boy to drive his horses into her yard. The place was rather strait for the waggon to enter, but he finally managed to |