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cent.; in 1854 it had arisen to over 81 per cent. Some may question the obligation of Massachusetts to provide for the pauper insane of Europe; but really there is something noble and sublime in her opening her warm arms and her most blessed and expensive charities to all the fainting bodies and faltering minds that the ocean winds may bear to her shores.

The commissioners for the establishment of a State Reform School for Girls have made an elaborate and

valuable report. After careful inquiry and conference with those best prepared to express a safe opinion upon this important subject, they have taken ground against the erection of one large central establishment, and propose the construction of three or four small, separate edifices, capable of accommodating about thirty pupils each. This, it is properly thought, will best secure a careful classification and more of the home feeling in the culture and discipline of the pupils. Immediate measures will undoubtedly be taken to give a practical trial of the plan proposed by the commissioners.

But time will not permit us in this letter to refer more particularly to this important movement in behalf of the neglected and tempted girls of our state, or to mention even by name the other institutions which form the glory and cover the shame of our present civilization.

In looking over the history of "Jury Trial," we fell upon a somewhat amusing fact in the life of conservative and stout-hearted old Lord Mansfield. In attempting to withstand the irresistible force of the arguments of the advocates at the bench, showing that ancient precedent sustained the right of the jury to sit upon the law as well as the fact, he quoted, as he said, from an old ballad, to show that the English people had held a different doctrine. Thus it ran:

"For Sir Philip well knows

That his innuendoes Will serve him no longer

In verse or in prose;

For twelve honest men have determined the cause,
Who are judges of fact, though not judges of laws.”

The amusing feature in this quotation is the fact that the veteran defender of the rights of the court, probably quoted wrongly the significant popular ballad; it may be from a mistake, certainly one much in his own favor. It is said, however, that in the authentic song, the final couplet read in the following manner :

"For twelve honest men have determined the cause,
Who are judges alike of the facts and the laws."

The euphony of this reading goes far to throw doubt upon the authenticity of the copy from which Judge Mansfield quoted.

Another female sculptor has been seized with a passion for the noble art in our vicinity. Miss Louisa Lander, of Salem, has just executed in plaster a remarkable head of the water-nymph, Galatea; and has completed a marble bust of her father, which is said to be a fine likeness. A rough welcome in our material civilization meets the young artist as she crosses the threshold of the world of imagination.

Ex

Just now the friends of the drama are placing triumphant bays upon the forehead of Epes Sargeant, Esq. His play, called the "Priestess," full of poetry and power, has justified the high expectation of his friends, and added to his already enviable fame. Governor Washburn has been appointed to the lawlectureship in Harvard, made vacant by the refusal of the overseers to confirm the nomination of Edward G. Loring. This appointment meets with general acceptance. It is the general impression that the Rev. Mr. Huntington will accept the "Professorship of the Heart," founded by the late Miss Plummer, of Salem, in the same institution, although his congregation hang with aggrieved hearts upon his hands, and most reluctantly submit to the dissolution of the pastoral relation. Richard Hildreth, author of the valuable history of the United States, has in press a new work entitled "Japan as it Was and Is." Messrs. Gould & Lincoln are just ready to bring out a work from the pen of Dr. Sprague, entitled "Visits to European Celebrities.' In these home-like sketches of men known to fame, Dr. Sprague is eminently successful, and the book will be looked for with interest. Ticknor will issue at an early date a new book by Rev. Charles Kingsley, the author of Hypothia, and called "Amyas Leigh, or Westward Ho." If the last work has a moiety of the substantial value of the former, it will be read with delight and profit. One of the most valuable books of the season is the beautiful edition of Dr. Smith's History of Greece, published by Hickling, Swan & Brown, and edited by the learned Professor Felton, of Har

vard University. The editor has enhanced the English edition of this admirable work by an additional chapter upon Modern Greece, brought down to the present time, illustrated by numerous wood engravings, prepared expressly for this work. We consider

this a substantial addition to our libraries, and a most valuable text-book for our universities. Its mechanical execution is worthy of the fame of the city in which it is published. The same publishers have issued, in a handsome duodecimo volume, the lectures of Professor Bowen, of Harvard College, before the Lowell Institute, upese lectures produced a strong metaphysics in their applica

tion to theology.

impression upon the audiences that listened to their delivery, and the present publication will be welcomed by a wider circle. The argument is so clearly stated that it almost seems to be taken from the region of metaphysics, and placed in that of mathematics. No one can read it without pleasure and profit. The twenty-first edition of the Pictorial Geography, by S. G. Goodrich, Esq., in two royal octavo volumes, profusely and handsomely illustrated, has just been issued by C. D. Strong, of this city. It is a perfect encyclopædia of geography, written in the happy style of the well-known author, and covering all the branches of this important science-physical, superficial, &c. There are twelve hundred descriptive engravings; and altogether, we know of no work for the reference library of a school or academy, or for the family, which will compare with it in usefulness or fullness. We have heard that the present edition was revised and brought down to the date of re-issue, by Richard Hildreth, Esq. Mr. Prescott is about to bring through the press of Phillips, Sampson & Co., "The History of the Reign of Philip the Second." It will make three octavo volumes. Miss Maria Cummings has a new work, it is said, nearly ready for the press. Rev. Mr. Barry, of Hanover. Mass., a member of the New-England Historical Society, has in preparation a "History of Massachusetts," which will be likely to prove a valuable addition to our historical literature. The first volume is now in the hands of the printer. Rev. Joseph B. Felt has nearly brought through the press a volume, entitled "The Ecclesiastical History of New-England," which, coming from so faithful and accomplished an editor, will meet a general welcome, certainly from New-England readers.

The Unitarian Association has voted to establish a mission for India to the Unitarians in Madras and the neighborhood; and also among the Mohammedans of that country, who have applied to the association by letter. They have also voted to sustain the Rev. James Turner as a missionary among the Indians in Minnesota Territory; he having changed his ecclesiastical relations from the Baptist persuasion.

As this letter leaves for the press, the overseers of Harvard University have confirmed the nomination of Mr. James Russell Lowell to the Professorship of Modern Languages and Belles-Lettres, as successor of Professor Longfellow, and Hon. Emory Washburn as Lecturer at the Law School. In a previous letter we referred to the remarkable success which Mr. Alvan Clark, an excellent portrait painter of this city, had attained in the construction of telescopes. Through the well-devised liberality of Hon. Mr. Bullock, of Worcester, Mr. Clark provided a superior instrument for Amherst College. While still prosecuting his labo rious profession, Mr. Clark has constructed a telescope for Rev. W. R. Dawes, a noted astronomical observer in England, who, in the January number of the published notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, has bestowed upon it the most flattering commendations. Coming from such a source, and compared with such expensive and superior instruments, so complimentary a notice of his telescope must be a matter of peculiar gratification, as it is an object of national pride.

Our publishers are beginning to bestir themselves in preparation for the sales of the coming season. Little, Brown & Co. have nearly ready, "Wheaton on International Law," "Laws of U. S. Session 1854-5," also new volumes of the poets, Spenser, Chaucer, Moore, Shelley, Vaughan, Chatterton, Merrick, Herbert, Donne, Skelton, Shakspeare, &c.

Gould & Lincoln will soon issue "The Teacher's Last Lesson; a Memoir of Martha Whiting, late of Charlestown Female Seminary." They have in press the following works: "Ella; or, Turning over a New Leaf," being the third in the series of "The Aimwell Stories." "Scientific Certainties of Planetary Life; or Neptune's Light as great as Ours," by T. C. Simonds. Knowledge is Power;" a view of the Productive Forces of Modern Society, &c., by Charles Knight. В. К. Р.

Book Notices.

Stanhope Burleigh is the title of a novel by Helen Dhu, against "the Jesuits in our homes," i. e., the influence of foreign Catholics in this country. We do not altogether coincide in the apprehensions of ruin to our civil liberty from this source, which this volume personifies, nor do we think fiction the most effective form in which to correct and refute the pernicious delusions of Popery and priestly intrigue. The book appears to be in effect an attempt to ride into public favor on the tide of the present popular feeling against foreigners, and especially Catholics, among us. That feeling scarcely needs the impulse of the impassioned language and extreme representation which this book contains. We may add, that the practice of discussing and exemplifying moral and social principles, by means of fictitious narratives, is growing to be a serious evil in our literature. That they often contain much truth, cannot be denied; but we prefer it pure and uncombined with imagination. (Stringer & Townsend, 222 Broadway, New-York.)

Martin Merrivale, by Paul Creyton, is a takeoff of editorial quackery, and the trials of young authorship. Some of its pictures of dissipated genius and the heartlessness of large cities are painfully accurate. (Phillips, Sampson & Co., Boston.)

Applegate & Co., Cincinnati, have published a second edition of the Methodist Family Manual, by Rev. C. R. Lovell, a brief but judicious and convenient text-book, upon the doctrines and economy of the Methodist Church, with prooftexts supporting each, and suggestions upon the proper mode of reading the Bible. It is well calculated to be useful in the private instruction of children. Dr. Elliott warmly commends it in an introduction.

The love of novelty, proverbial especially among choir singers, has a fresh opportunity of exercising itself upon The Sacred Choral, a new tune book, prepared by Rev. S. Wakefield, and published at the Western Methodist Book Concern, (Swormstedt & Poe, Cincinnati.) The tunes are mostly a selection of old and approved ones, with some new ones. We observe no chants, anthems, or set pieces in the book. The notes used are 66 on a new and improved mode of solmization." Musical professors of late, we believe, generally eschew "patent notes of every description: we are not connoisseur enough to be able to predict whether the peculiar forms here adopted will alleviate their objections. The book is eminently practical throughout.

Messrs. Carlton & Phillips (200 Mulberrystreet, New-York,) publish in a separate form, under the title of The Singing-School Instruction Book, the introductory treatise on the elements of musical science contained in the Sacred Harmony, prepared by Professor Jackson.

Rev. Moses Smith, A. M., has prepared and published (at the Methodist Book Concern, Cincinnati,) a treatise on the Elements of Mental Science, in two volumes, of which volume one

has appeared; volume two, it is intimated, will discuss more especially the bearing of the subject upon moral action. This point, indeed, is kept in view throughout the work, and distinguishes it from other treatises of the kind. The several elements of mind and mental action are clearly and progressively stated, and their relation to each other and to the outward world is developed with much acumen and soundness. The work deserves a more minute and extended criticism than we have room for here. To us it is a great relief to find mental science so analyzed and stated as to avoid those germs of fatalism or moral necessity, which have too palpably appeared in the treatises of those who have followed in the wake of Edwards, in treating the will, and its relation to the emotions and cognitions; and on the other hand, the plain student will be pleased to have metaphysics presented in a distinct and practical form and dress, free from abstruse speculation.

Bessie, a Story for Girls, by Mrs. Bradley, is a neat little volume issued under the auspices of the American Baptist Publication Society, (Philadelphia,) and intended, like others of its class, to combine religious instruction with entertainment for youthful minds.

We have received the first number of The Methodist Magazine, a new monthly, edited and published by Rev. Dr. M'Leod, at Baltimore. It is to contain "memorials of the pious dead, sermons, correspondence, and miscellaneous articles." The prospectus states that it will be of a decidedly religious character, and maintain a silence on politics and slavery. The matter, style, and appearance of the specimen number are creditable, and, if sustained, will entitle it to the patronage, which we wish it may receive, in its sphere.

Number four of Harper's inimitable and beautifully illustrated story books for children, in the English style, by Jacob Abbott, is entitled the Little Louvre. If children do not improve in mental culture in these days, it is not because instruction is not made accessible, easy, and inviting.

The Minister's Family, by Rev. W. M. Hetherington, LL. D., is another version of the lately oft-told tale of the vicissitudes and trials incident to the pastorate. In this case the author states that, although his work is not a biographical treatise, yet each character and event in it is an exact transcript of what has occurred within his own knowledge. If so, we have here fiction closely bordering on fact. Yet we seriously doubt whether the pastor's lot has been much improved by all these touching narratives, true as they may be. (Carters, New-York.)

Israel Potter, by Herman Melville, published by Putnam & Co., (New-York,) is a story of the revolutionary times, written in a half-comic, half-patriotic vein, yet withal exceedingly attractive, and not a little instructive, both in vividly recalling many of the scenes of that

stirring period, and by the pithy moralisms strangely interspersed amid its almost burlesque companions. The Yankee character is well sustained, in its hero's adventures by sea and land. A tinge of obscure sarcasm pervades the book, most apparent in its dedication to the Bunker Hill Monument!

Calvin Blanchard, (82 Nassau-street, NewYork,) has republished Marian Evans's translation of Fenerbach's Essence of Christianity; an attempt, in the boldest style of German infidelity, to show that mankind have for eightteen centuries totally misconceived the true nature of religion, which this author unequivocally and broadly asserts to be simply anthropology; i. e., a proper development and right understanding of human nature. Truly religion has come to have strange defenders and expounders. Protestant England and Catholic France have clubbed together to hold up the tottering throne of Islam against the incursions of the Greek autocrat; and on a nearer polemical field, skeptical philosophy undertakes to evolve the nucleus of the very religion which it ignores and assails. What would the Apostles Paul, and Peter, and John, have thought of this new exposition of their doctrines? We know how the last-named apostle did treat the not very dissimilar speculations of the Gnostics. The book before us consists of two parts, with an appendix illustrating the positions of each. The first part is an endeavor to show what the true religion is, and the second to show that modern theology is not the true religion. We think we may justly characterize the mode in which the former of these efforts is carried out, as a series of abstract speculations and round

assertions, based entirely on certain views of man himself; the latter as cavils at particular dogmas of Christianity. The fallacy running through the first lies mainly in regarding relig ion as consisting of man's relation to himself, rather than to God, who is alone competent to reveal the necessary knowledge; and the grand mistake in the second, lies in quite misconceiving many of the doctrines represented. this and all other forms of error, is the test of only refutation which the gospel prescribes for personal experience. But to this the author most especially objects, that the faith demandof judgment, and is in a sense compelled by ed by the Bible is rather an act of feeling than fear. Be it so: the sentiments appealed to and

The

engendered are the profoundest and most noble in our nature; the humanitarian ought to be the last to find fault with them.

Robert Carter & Brothers publish a complete edition of Baxter's Saints' Rest, in one volume, double columns, with the notes and a portrait.

The Speller and Definer's Manual is the title of another school book, by William H. Smith, Principal of Grammar School No. 1. We commend it to the attention of teachers. Burgess & Co., 60 John-street, New-York.)

(Daniel

The Rhode Island Schoolmaster is a new Magazine, devoted to the common-school literature, published at Providence, R. I., under the supervision of the Superintendent of Public Schools of that state, who has a skill in his official duties which not only guarantees their right performance, but also such experience as must render this journal valuable.

Literary Record.

AMONG the literary curiosities recently brought to light in London, is a poem of some seven hundred lines in the handwriting of Goldsmith, being a translation, by the celebrated doctor, of Vida's ingenious Latin poem, entitled The Game of Chess.

Mr. James W. Paige, of Boston, has issued a circular to the booksellers generally, stating that he considers the late work published by Messrs. Miller, Orton, & Mulligan, of Auburn, entitled Webster and his Masterpieces, as an infringement of the copyright of Webster's works, of which he is the legal owner.

Professor Müller, of Basle, has just put forth an important octavo volume on the Religion of the Native Tribes of North and South America. He presents, so far as possible, a complete and systematic view of the old Indian traditions and belief. He brings to the task a vast amount of learning and research upon a subject of no ordinary interest, especially in America.

Rev. Mr. Goddard, the Baptist missionary, who recently died in China, had just completed a translation of the entire New Testament into the Chinese.

The well-known antiquarian and linguist, Professor Lepsius, at the instigation of the Chevalier Bunsen, has completed an alphabet containing the sounds and letters of all languages in the world.

The Queen of England has granted a civil list pension of £100 a year to Thomas Keightley, the historian, "in consideration," so the warrant runs, "of his services to historical literature, and of the straitened circumstances to which he is reduced."

We learn from the Christian Examiner that "the library of the late Dr. Gieseler, the eminent Church historian, is now offered for sale. It is not so large as might at first have been expected."

The Second Annual Report of the Tract Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, contains an historical sketch of the society, and the statistics of its operations during the past year. It was incorporated by an act of the State of New-York, April 15, 1854; and during the short period since its organization has given a very powerful impulse to the circulation of religious books and tracts among that de

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nomination and the community generally. During the past year it has sent out 153 different persons as colporteurs in various parts of the country; who have distributed 11,784,627 pages of tracts; sold, or given away, 46,666 tract volumes, and 33,947 larger books; visited 91,751 families, 5,996 of whom they have supplied with a copy of the Scriptures; and been the means of 624 conversions. The society publishes tracts and books in the German, French, and Swedish languages, besides the English. Its total receipts the last year were $13,623 25; and its expenditures, $11,135 92.

An interesting inscription was recently discovered in the excavations round the Pantheon, referring to the corporation of tavern-keepers instituted in Rome during the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, when Lampadius was prefect of the city, A. D. 366.

James Montgomery, the poet, who died last year, left an estate, which has just been sworn under £9,000. Times have changed since Johnson exclaimed, on hearing that Goldsmith died £3,000 in debt, "Was ever poet so trusted before?" Southey died worth about £7,000, and Wordsworth as much, while Rogers is a millionaire.

Libraries in the United States. - Professor Jewett, of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, gives the following table of the public libraries in the United States :-State libraries, 39-288,937 volumes; college libraries, 126— 586,912 volumes; social libraries, 126-611,334 volumes; students' libraries, 142-254,639 volumes; seminaries and professional libraries, 227-320,909 volumes; scientific and historical societies' libraries, 34-138,901 volumes.

The French Minister of Public Instruction has issued a work on the Public Libraries of France and Algiers, from which it appears that, excluding Paris, there are in all the libraries 8,733,439 printed works, and 44,070 manuscripts. Bordeaux has 123,000; Lyons, 130,000; Rouen, 110,000; Strasbourg, 180,000; Troyes, 100,000; Avignon, 60,000; Dijon, 80,000; Versailles, 56,000; Tours, 57,500; Grenoble, 80,000; Nantes, 45,000; Marseilles, 51,000; Amiens, 53,000; Toulouse, 50,000. In 1853-4 there were expended for all these libraries 407,781 francs, of which sum only 184,227 francs were for the purchase of books and binding. There are 338 public libraries.

A new edition of Horne's Introduction is to be published, greatly improved; he will be assisted in the editing by Dr. Davidson, and by Dr. Tregelles.

Mr. Bentley, the London publisher, paid for copyrights, to Washington Irving £2,450; to Mr. Prescott, £2,495; and to Mr. Cooper, £12,590.

The Works of Napoleon the Third are now in course of publication by an eminent Parisian bibliopole, under His Majesty's own supervision. When collected, they will form four handsome volumes, and consist chiefly of essays and disquisitions on political, social, and military topics.

Sales of Autographs are more frequent in Paris than in any other city of Europe. At an extensive sale which has just taken place, we observe by the papers that several autographs of literary interest fetched good prices-higher, indeed, than others emanating from historical personages. Thus a letter of Racine the poet was knocked down for nearly $80; one of Adrienne Lecouvreur, the actress, for $55; one of Jean Jacques Rousseau for $20; one of Fenelon for $12; and one of Boileau for nearly $20; while a manuscript ode to Charlotte Corday, by A. Chenier, fetched $25; and a manuscript entitled 'Les Arrêts d'Amour,' by Lafontaine, $40. In another autograph sale at Paris, an unpublished sonnet of Tasso was knocked down for the modest sum of $100; and a number of sermons and other manuscripts of St. Vincent de Paul were also disposed of.

It is stated, in a letter from Bohemia, that a Dr. Herzog has just discovered in the archives of the town hall of Zwickau, twelve folio manuscript volumes, containing the poetical works of Hans Sachs, a celebrated German troubadour, who was born in 1494.

Irving. The London Athenæum (usually prejudiced against our indigenous writers) gives a very favorable notice of Irving's last book,the subject of one of our articles in the present number. It says: "It would not be easy to overpraise this American miscellany. To be classic seems a lost ambition among our young writers, who confound correctness with academical frigidity, and conceive that invention is substantiated by impudence. Nevertheless (as the wit said of church-going) quiet readers can 'see no harm' in a pure style, especially from a new country like America, which has a literature yet to establish, and its models to range on their pedestals. It is better, we think, for a man to tell his story as Mr. Irving, Mr. Hawthorne, or Mr. Longfellow does, than to adopt the style Emersonian-in which thoughts may be buried so deep that common seekers shall be unable to find them. Geoffrey Crayon's' elegance and polish do not imply want of life or the absence of humor. His fancies are ideal, not typographical. They do not consist of verbs for nouns,-of full stops barring the way when the reader desires to go on,-of tumid epithets, which arrest by their strangeness, not introduced (it may not be uncharitable to their appositeness,-of foreign idioms and forms, divine) by way of apprising the public that the writer is versed in French, Italian, or German.

The following editions of Scripture are now in press for the British and Foreign Bible So-Geoffrey' is less poetical than the author of ciety: The Bible in Armenian, 12mo.; in Armeno-Turkish, 12mo.; in Greco-Turkish, 8vo.; the New Testament in Armeno-Turkish; in Ararat Armenian; in Ararat and ancient Armenian, Diglott. These editions will cost approximately, £4,200.

'Hyperion,'-he does not possess the strange and weird vigor of Mr. Hawthorne ;-but, as the eldest, he may possibly, in the Book of American Worthies, be ranked as the first, also, of those three writers,-whom we mention in company because of the affinities among them."

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Arts and Sciences.

A PLANT of a most remarkable and beautiful habit, character, and species, has been discovered in Downieville, California. It is a fibrous rooted plant, of succulent growth; throwing up a spike of very rich crimson flowers and fruit, and giving forth a pleasant odor. The spike of flowers is about fifteen inches long, and contains within the flower about sixty berries of fruit, the size of a filbert, inclosed in a covering similar to a filbert, but of a deep crimson.

William Howitt's book, sent home from Australia, is out. The author has arrived from his far journey. Anna Mary Howitt is getting on with her second picture of "Margaret," the first of which series was so highly spoken of, when exhibited last season at the Portland Gallery. "It indicated," says a correspondent of a NewYork Journal, "great talent for painting, but (mark this, ye aspirants) the Council of the Royal Academy would not give it a place in their rooms, and bade it go hang elsewhere. I think Miss Howitt will become the Mrs. Browning of painting. I saw a beautiful picture in two parts, from Shelley's 'Sensitive Plant,' which she is working at. Floral beauty and desolation have seldom been more graphically realized in color. She had another on the easel, which ought to be a companion piece to Hunt's Awakened Conscience,' if the conception is well wrought out, as it promises to be. It is entitled the 'Castaway,' and is a scene from the life and circumstances of to-day."

The

The Cincinnati Price Current has some interesting statistics on the lard produce of the country. The number of hogs killed the last season and packed for commerce is three millions. average amount of lard per hog, is thirty-two pounds. The total amount of lard in commerce is estimated at ninety-six millions of pounds. Of this amount, twenty millions are shipped from Cincinnati. England and Cuba take more lard of us than all the rest of the world. Each of these countries buys over eight millions of pounds. In the West Indies, lard is very generally used as a substitute for butter. Lard oil is made more extensively at Cincinnati than at any other point in the Union. Thirty thousand barrels of it are annually sent from that city.

Colby's Altimeter.-Mr. Hall Colby, of this city, has invented a neat and extremely convenient little instrument for ascertaining the altitude and zenith distances of objects, without referring them to a horizon. The instrument is especially designed to facilitate the operations of the ship-master, as by its aid both these measurements are read off with surprising accuracy; or even if the horizon is obscured by fog. An elegant dial of brass, supported in a vertical position by a handle on the back, carries, firmly secured to it, a small telescope, with cross wires for placing its axis directly in line with the object to be observed. The face of the dial is graduated, and two verniers or indexes are delicately mounted, the motions of which are governed by a weight inclosed within. The instrument is raised gradually, avoiding all violent jerks until the telescope is in range,

when the pulling of a trigger releases a spring which secures the verniers, to be read off at leisure. Little dexterity or practice is required for its manipulation, all vibratory motion of the verniers being provided against by a very simple and effective expedient in proportioning and attaching the weight. The invention promises to be of immense value, its indications being obtained instantaneously, and having, in the several experiments witnessed, varied less than three seconds.

Protecting Ships against Leaking.-Mr. V. P. Corbet, of Corbetsville, in this state, has invented an improvement in constructing ships, by which he proposes to avoid the danger of leaking. The means is a layer of India-rubber or gutta-percha, of something like half an inch in thickness, carried all over the inside of the vessel, so as to line the entire hull. The elasticity of the substance would prevent its giving way if the planks should crack, while its impermeability would prevent the entrance of water. This lining Mr. Corbet proposes to protect by an inner planking. Several shipbuilders have expressed their approbation of the invention.

Miller's Steam-Brake.-A steam car-brake, designed to supersede the one now operated by hand on our railroads, has been invented by Henry Miller, Esq., of Detroit, and it appears to be a very decided improvement. It was tried upon the Pontiac Railroad last fall, and since that time has been put to some pretty severe tests upon the Michigan Central Railroad. On the 7th instant it was applied to a train of five cars, viz., one baggage, one second-class, and three passenger cars, drawn by a locomotive weighing twenty-eight tuns, with six feet two inch drivers-whole weight of train one hundred and four tuns-and brakes were applied to twenty pairs of wheels, under the cars only. The result was as follows: on the first trial, with the train moving at the velocity of thirty miles per hour, the train was brought to a perfect stop in seven hundred feet, taking twenty seconds of time. On the second trial, with train moving forty miles per hour, it was brought to a stand-still in nine hundred and forty-five feet, and twenty -six seconds of time. On the third trial, the train was backed down two miles, and coming up, ran the last mile in one minute and twenty-five seconds. It was brought to a full stop in one thousand and six feet, taking twenty-eight seconds of time, the train not running over three miles per hour for the last three hundred feet. The invention, if what it seems to be, is a very important one on a number of accounts: 1. A train can be stopped in one-third of the distance and onethird of the time usually required at stations. 2. The stoppage or control of the train is given to the engineer, the only person who can know the necessity of stopping and the danger to be avoided. 3. The steam operating simultaneously upon each brake of each car at the same instant, holds every car in its proper place, and steadies the engine and train.

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