finally completed, it will not be difficult to estab- | sa, is less than 300 miles from the metropolis; lish connections with the principal cities of the East and of Europe; and in this way the keen traders of the commercial metropolis of the United States will get up an active competition with the telegraphers of this side of the Atlantic. It would perhaps be safe to predict, as one result of this competition, that before many years are over messages will be flashed all round the globe.

and yet, for lack of ordinary roads, the common bullock carts of the country-simple and rnde contrivances that have answered their purpose for a thousand years, perhaps-could not be sent with supplies into the famishing districts. The starving inhabitants themselves have, without roads, found their way to Calcutta, where they now crowd in alarming density, while it is feared Sanitary Improvement of Paris.-In his annual that the southwest monsoon, as it blows over from report laid before the Council-General of the de- Balasore direct towards Calcutta, may soon be partment of the Seine, the Prefect (M. Haussman) freighted with deadly pestilence. Notwithstanddwells with just satisfaction on what he has done ing this direct geographical contiguity of the for the city of Paris: the 3614 houses built from famine districts to the oldest and richest provthe 1st of October, 1865, to the 30th of Septem-ince of British India, they are cut off from it for ber, 1866, or 263 more than last year; the 2256 lack of the simplest form of public works-comhouses totally or partially razed to the ground-mon roads.-Times, of India. 967 by appropriation and 1289 by their owners- M. Louis Blanc has brought an action in one of with a view to new and magnificent constructions the French law courts against Count Louis de and corresponding gains. He complains of the Cambacères, formerly a deputy of the Aisne, for "unjust criticisms" on these constructions and the balance due to him on the purchase-money demolitions, which have made Paris the finest of his History of the French Revolution. The city in the world, and have given to the depart- sale was effected in 1865, and M. Leprince, the ment of the Seine "a harmony required by such publisher, was the purchaser. He undertook to a city," and have favorably modified the essential give 60,000 francs for the right of publication conditions of human life. They have caused air, for three years, and the Count guaranteed the light, and water to circulate, have destroyed in- payment. M. Leprince, however, is now in diffifected quarters, narrow and tortuous streets, un-culties, and M. Louis Blanc accordingly looks to healthy and uninhabitable houses, and secured the greatest possible amount of comfort, the best preservatives against epidemic and contagious disorder, which leave their deadly impress on cities and empires. He contrasts the ravages of the cholera in 1831-32, when there were 21,670 deaths; in 1849, when there were 25,052; and in 1853-54, when there were 11,873, with the 6626 in 1865, and the 5700 in 1866; and concludes that the comparatively low rate of mortality-insignificant, if the increased population be taken into account-is owing to the improvements which he has carried out.

VARIETIES.

Orissa Famine, and Neglect of Public Works in India.-Costly and extensive embankments, and irrigation works-which Hindoo rulers, with all their deficiencies in the mechanical arts, had found ample means to construct-have been suf fered to fall to ruin, so that, for lack of irrigation canals, the harvests of Orissa utterly failed last season; and through neglect of embankment constructions the miseries of inundation have now been added to the hopeless suffering from famine. The relief tardily afforded has again been indefinitely delayed, the cargo boats by which the grain was about to be landed on the coast of Orissa having been destroyed by inundation on the river, and by storm on the sea. The fact of sending all the supplies of food by sea, and its destruction in sight of the famine-stricken districts, will call public attention to the terribly condemnatory statement that there are no roads by which grain could be conveyed from Bengal into Orissa by land. Calcutta-the City of Palaces, the centre of all the great power we have wielded for more than a century-is only some 150 miles from Balasore, the scene of the most dreadful suffering; and Pooree, at the extremity of Oris

his surety. The defence was that the young count was incapable of managing his own affairs; but the court held that the contract was binding, and decreed that the elder count, father of Count Louis, must pay M. Louis Blanc 40,000 francs remaining due on the contract, and 20,000 francs damages.

Mountains of Moab.-We saw the range under the most advantageous circumstances. It was toward evening. The setting sun fell upon it, and upon the wild eastern shores of the Dead Sea at its base, the sea itself being hidden in its deep, hollow grave. The light was reflected from every scaur and precipice, with such a flush of purple, mingled with delicate hues of amethyst and ruby, as produced a glory not exaggerated in Holman Hunt's picture of "The Scape Goat."-Norman Macleod's “ Eastward."

The Glowworm says that Mr. Tennyson is about to leave the Isle of Wight, and take up his residence in the metropolis, solely on account of the manner in which he is disturbed by the "lion hunters" of the island. The writer of "Table Talk" in the Guardian records that the Laureate is hard at work on a poem, longer and on a grander scale than his last, and that the house at Hampstead, near the Heath and the Miltia Barracks, so long tenanted by the mother and sister of the poet, and where he himself was often a visitor, is about to be let in "apartments, furnished and unfurnished."

A Race for the Telegraph Wires.-Few persons have the slightest conception of the trouble and expenditure required to obtain possession of the telegraph wires when the "mail" arrives at either of the colonies. The arrival one Tuesday morning of the first Panama mail was the occasion of a bond fide and most exciting boat race. The appearance of the Raikaia had been most eagerly looked for for some days by the boats' crews employed by the Argus (Melbourne), and Messrs. Greville's Telegram Company, for the

The whole of the folio MSS. of Bishop Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, which is to be reprinted verbatim by the Early English Text Socity, is now, we understand, copied out, and a large part of it is in print. We read in the Athenæum that "Mr. W. Chappell is helping the editors with the ballad part of their work; but no news can be got of the second copy of King Estmere that the bishop mentions in his second edition, Vol. I., p. 59. Can any reader tell us where it is? The copy in his own folio the bishop tore out to send to the press, so that the second copy is now more wanted than ever. The subscription has reached £400, leaving still £200 to be raised to save the editors from loss in their labor of love." The work will be one of very great interest, as the bishop's volumes, though charming and admirable in their way, were misleading, owing to the alterations he made in the old ballads, and the modern additions he tacked on to them. We trust that the editors will not be al

purpose of landing the first dispatches, and ob- | jarred with the pathos and potent effect of this taining possession of the wires. The boats admirable appeal to every human feeling.-W. brought into requisition were small whale boats. Jerdan. In the Argus's boat were Green, the ex-champion, Mr. C. Cook (the shipping reporter of the Sydney Morning Herald, who is employed to land the telegrams for the Argus), and two others. In the service of Reuter's agents, Mr. McGregor and three able-bodied men pulled the well-known butcher's boat, Fairplay, the property of Mr. Fairplay, of this city. Both crews reached the mail outside the Heads, and boarded and procured their dispatches from her, and were towed up as far as Fort Denison. Here they let go, and a keen contest ensued, as might be anticipated, McGregor's crew being at a slight disadvantage as regards position. This, however, they lessened by degrees, and before passing Fort Macquarie were slightly in the lead. From this point the boats diverged, the Argus boat making for Campbell's wharf, and McGregor for the central steps at the Custom House. Thus the Argus crew had a much shorter distance to pull, yet both boats reached the shore within a few seconds of one another. At both points convey-lowed to suffer. ances were waiting, and up the different streets M. Cousin was buried on the 24th ult., in Père both vehicles went at full gallop, and when they la Chaise Cemetery, after the performance of a entered George-street, Greville's Telegram Com-religious ceremony in the church of the Sorbonne. pany had a very considerable lead, and their M. Duruy, the Minister of Public Instruction, telegrams, in consequence, gained precedence, was present, and most of the learned bodies of and the messages, having been already prepared, Paris sent deputations. The pall-bearers were were transmitted to Victoria, Queensland, and M. Patin, the senior member of the Faculty of throughout this colony. The distance pulled Letters; M. Thiers; M. de Parieu, Vice-President over by the two crews is about a mile and a quar- of the Council of State; and M. Mourier, Viceter, and was done at a terrific pace. Both crews Rector of the Academy of Paris. strained every nerve, and pulled with a determination seldom witnessed in a champion aquatic contest.-Sydney Empire.

Hindoo Abstinence from Animal Food.—In the new edition of McCulloch's Geographical Dictionary (four vols., Longman & Co.), Mr. F. Martin, the editor, says: It is a popular but erroneous notion, that the Hindoos live almost entirely on a vegetable diet; such a fact would be inconsistent with the physical nature of man, who, in reality, is omnivorous. The most fastidious of the Hindoos in point of diet are great eaters of milk and butter; fish is also extensively used near all the sea coasts, and on the shores of the principal rivers; and none of the people of India hold this description of food as abominable, except the inhabitants of the remote interior, who have no means of procuring it. Even flesh, however capricious in the selection, is occasionally eaten by the greater portion of the Hindoo people, and it is the want of means rather than religious scruples that makes them refrain from it. In cases of urgent necessity, even religion authorizes any kind of food, and in the event of a famine a Brahmin may eat the limb of a dog." [We can hardly reconcile this with statements made during the late terrible famine in Orissa, where the people were dying for want of rice, while multitudes of sleck oxen roamed about un⚫ touched.]

Hood's "Song of the Shirt" was begun and so far proceeded with under the title of "Tale of a Shirt," before the ludicrous equivoque struck the intense mind of the author! If perpetuated, it is easy to see how such a step might have

Japanese Progress.-The Japanese have a large fleet of steamships, purchased from Europeans at a liberal rate. The great Daimio princes are all more or less alive to the advantages to be derived from the adoption of European methods of warfare and commerce. They patronize our manufactures, even to boots and shoes; they purchase our books, and maps, and musical instruments. A curious fact is mentioned by a gentleman, resident in Yokohama, that he saw a Japanese enter a shop and purchase a dozen copies of Webster's English Dictionary, and carry them away with him. The Flying Dragon Reporter. [A bimonthly journal, edited in London, by Professor Summers, of University College, for circulation in China and Japan; also in Java, Sarawak, the Malay peninsula, and other places with Chinese merchants or colonists.]

Order of St. Patrick.-"The Order of St. Patrick, when he was obliged to wear it, hung round his neck as a thing that was in his way, and which he would gladly, if he could, have taken into a corner. On his first visit to London, he presented himself to William the Fourth's levée without it, not designedly, but simply be cause he had never thought of it. The king said to some one near him, 'Is the Archbishop of Dublin ashamed of his Order?' The remark was repeated, a message sent to Dublin for it, and after a long search and breaking open of some locks, it was found, and dispatched to him in time for his being duly equipped in it on his next appearance at court."--Dr. Hinds.

"Druidical Temples."-Mr. Stuart, secretary of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland, states