248 We have many other lively descriptions of life in the Mongolian Steppe, and of sublime scenery in the mountainous regions. The whole territory is among the least known in the habitable globe. way. The bearcoote is unerring in its flight, unless chained to their perches, every person keeping at a On the quarry can escape into holes in the rocks. respectful distance from the feathered monarch. the opposite side, kids and lambs were secured in a pen; and outside the door was a group of women, with their small black eyes fixed on the stranger. Mr Atkinson says: 'My belt and pistols formed a great attraction. The sultan wished to examine them. Having first removed the caps, I handed one to him, he turned it round in every direction, and looked down the barrels. This did not satisfy him; he wished to see them fired, and wanted to place a kid for the target, probably thinking that so short a weapon would produce no effect. Declining his kid, I tore a leaf out of my sketch-book, made a mark in the centre, and gave it to the Cossacks. He understood my intention; split the end of a stick, slipped in the edge of the paper, went out and stuck the stick in the ground some distance from the yourt. The sultan arose, and all left the dwelling. I followed him out, and went to the target. Knowing that we were among a very lawless set, I determined they should see that even these little implements were dangerous. Stepping out fifteen paces I turned round, cocked my pistol, fired, and made a hole in the paper. The sultan and his people evidently thought this a trick; he said something to his son, who instantly ran off into the yourt, and brought to his father a Chinese wooden bowl. This was placed upside down on the stick by his own hand, and when he had returned to The holes a place near me, I sent a ball through it. were examined with great care; indeed, one man placed the bowl on his head to see where the hole would be marked on his forehead. This was sufficiently significant. The people we were now among I knew to be greatly dreaded by all the surrounding tribes; in short, they are robbers, who set at naught the authority of China, and carry on their depredations with impunity. On looking round, I noticed that a set of daring fellows had been watching my movements.' The banquet then followed. A small space in front of the sultan was left cleared, the male elders near him, and fifty men, women, and children assembled in front; the boys sat behind the men, and behind them successively, the women, girls, and dogs. After ablutions with warm water, the cooks brought in long wooden trays, piled up with heaps of boiled mutton, garnished with rice, when each man drew his knife and fell to. The Kirghis who sat nearest the trays selected the things he liked best, and after eating a part, handed it to the man sitting behind; when again diminished, this was passed to a third; then to the boys; and having run the gantlet of all these hands and mouths, the bone reaches the women and girls, divested of nearly every particle of food. Finally, when these poor creatures have gnawed till nothing is left on the bone, it is tossed to the dogs.' A hunting excursion then followed in a day or two, We conclude with a few traits of Barnaul, which is the centre for the administration of the mines of the Altaï. The governor, Tomsk, who is chosen from the mining-engineers, is at the head of this department. He resides three or four months of the year at Barnaul, and under him is the chief director of the mines, who must visit every smelting-work in the district once every year, travelling several thousand versts in a mountainous country, or descending rivers in rafts. His power is extensive, and he has a population of about 60,000 miners, peasants, and officers under his charge. It appears that convicts have not yet been sent to work in the mines of the Altaï. Every summer, eight or ten young officers are sent into the mountains, each with a party; They start in and the chief in Barnaul assigns to him the valley to be examined by his company. May, with provisions of bread, sugar, tea, and brandy, their animal food being the game they kill. The officer receives a map, and then the experiments commence-the officer noting down how Several places are tried, many tolotniks of gold can be obtained from the hundred poods of sand. and on this the director in Barnaul decides what gold is to be worked. While one party are seeking gold in the sand, another party are seeking silver in the rocks. These operations are usually concluded by the middle of October, when they return home to Barnaul. Barnaul is well stocked with smelting-works, chemical laboratories, public offices, and private dwellings, all connected with the mining operations; and during the winter, which is undoubtedly very severe in point of climate, balls, soirees, and concerts are given. It has also a bazaar, where European articles, fashions, French silks and bonnets, are sold, besides delicacies of the table, comprising English porter, Scotch ale, and French and Spanish wines. There is also a museum at Barnaul, comprising choice specimens of Siberian minerals, and stuffed Siberian animals, including four tigers, which came from the Kirghisian Steppe; their capture having, in two instances, proved fatal to some of the peasants engaged, who had thought to expel the intruder from their farms by pea-rifles and hay-forks. To conclude, such is Barnaul, the capital of the most productive mining district of Siberia. THE BONSPIEL. CAN our English readers imagine a Scottish loch or lake in the winter season after four or five days' hard frost-a beautiful white plain surrounded by white heights, and all under the stillness which allows of an ordinary sound being heard at a great distance? The existence of such circumstances in nature has given birth to an appropriate game which might be described generally as bowls played on ice, though with certain peculiarities, the chief being the use of flat-bottomed stones to slide, instead of bowls to roll, said stones being furnished with handles to grasp by, much in the manner of smoothing-irons. The frost having set labour free in some degree, men assemble at the loch, and give the day to this ancient national sport, usually wakening into wild excitement and glee a scene which would otherwise wear the torpor of death. To stand on a height near by, and see the bustle going on below; to hear the roar of the stones careering along the icy surface, and the shouts and cachinnations of the players as these knock against each other and settle in their respective destinies, is, we can assure our friends, no commonplace amusement. To be, however, an actual player -a curler-'a keen, keen curler,' as the natives phrase it is something far beyond all this; for there are joys in curling that none but curlers know. How else could it be that there are local clubs, county clubs, and a national association of clubs, binding all ranks and denominations of people together for the enjoyment of this game? How else could it be that curling has its almanacs, its annual, its literature; that, curling is a kind of second freemasonry in Scotland? There is a kind of piquancy given to this game by the very uncertainty of the means and opportunities of playing it. The curlers watch for a hearty frost, woo it as mariners do a wind, and when it comes, 'snatch a fearful joy.' That no time may be lost in making an appointment, a flag hoisted on a hill-top sometimes informs a district of ten miles' radius that the loch will bear, and the game hold. Then are seen farmers, lairds, village tradesmen, ministers, ploughmen, and shepherds, converging to the rendezvous, all full of charming anticipation. Society is at once convulsed and cheered by the affair. No great regard is paid to common distinctions in making up the game. The laird is glad to have a clever ploughman on his side. Masters and servants often play together. The distinctions most thought of are local: the people of one estate or parish will often play against each other-or it may be county against county-in which cases the match is termed a bonspiel. Each man requires at the ice two curling-stones and a broom wherewith to sweep. Two marks, called tees, being made on the ice at the distance of thirtyeight yards, and several rings drawn round each, the players arrange themselves, perhaps four, six, or eight on a side; each with two stones to play, and each side having a director or chief called a skip. The space of ice between the tees is called the rink. The object of course, for each side, is to have as many of its stones as possible in positions as near to the tee as may be. When a stone fails to reach a certain limit, called the hog-score, it is laid aside. On any one, therefore, appearing likely to be laggard, all the players on that side busy themselves in sweeping the way before it. 'Soop, soop!' becomes a great cry among the curlers. An English stranger once remarked that he heard them always crying for soup, but no soup ever came ; much, no doubt, to his disappointment. When one side counts thirteen, twenty-one, or thirty-one, as may be, before the other, it has gained the victory. There was lately a bonspiel in a well-known district of the southern Highlands of Scotland, and a characteristic account of it having been obligingly sent to us by one of the players, we hasten to insert it, as perhaps the best means of conveying an idea of this national game. The original language is so appropriate that, notwithstanding its being possibly obscure to some readers, we have left it almost unchanged. 'You remember,' says our correspondent, that I promised to send you something of our bonspiel with the Mitchell-hill lads, whenever it should be played. Well, it was a bad winter for frost: not aboon two or three days of it till Candlemas; but at last we got a hard one for about a week, and a' was right. So, one afternoon, two of the Mitchell-hill lads came to us at Blendewan, and asked if we had ony objections to meet them next day, providing the frost held. They said they had been at the laird's, and that he was willing to come out, and bring a guest of his-Sir Alexander Gordon-along with him; that the herds of Stanhope and Eildon were to be there; and that Wully Wilson, the wright, and Andrew Blair, the smith, were both keen to give us our revenge for last year's drubbing. So I mentioned that if I could get our side made up in time, we would meet them on the ice by ten o'clock next morning. The two lads were rather crouse about the match, and said they hoped we would not let them win so easy a victory this year as last. I said nothing; but, thinks I, wait a wee, my lads, and we'll see who will craw the loudest the morn. So away went Johnny Armstrong and Peter Blackstocks back to tell the laird and the rest o' their folk that we would meet them, on the understanding that if anything happened to interfere, I was to send them a line not to come. 'Well, Mr Editor, I ken ye like particulars; so ye see I threw my work bye, put on my cap, and went through the village, speering at the folk if they would be ready to come forrit next morning; and I must add that I was very fortunate too: but who could refuse the chance o' playing a bonspiel for the honour o' Blendewan! I soon got the minister to promise, and the precentor too (Jamie Forgrieve, the miller, could not be spared from home); Adam Prentice, the old herd, said he would be our man; Sandy Grieve, the tailor, swithered a wee, but promised at last; so there was five, and we wanted other three but these I kent where to find. I gaed the length o' the Fairy Knowe, and secured Mr Thompson-a keen hand-and a boarder of his, who was learning farming-another keen hand, and a great wag; and I made up the number with Isaac Melrose, the cadger. Isaac's horse was not sharpit for the frost, and was sair fatigued forbye; so the carrier was glad of the opportunity o' joining us against the Mitchell-hill curlers. 'It was late before I got our side made up, and my wife was beginning to give me up for lost. But ye'll mind Nancy, sir, and ye ken she's no ill to temper down! Well, everything was settled, and I sent two lads to the pond early in the morning, to sweep it clean and make the rink; and just as I was getting my stones ready, the laird and Sir Alexander drove up to my door. I went out and gave them time o' day, and the laird speered at me if we were prepared, as the players on his side were just coming down the road in a cart. I told him we were all ready, and that our chaps had gone down to the pond with the minister a few minutes before. Wi' this, up drove when they saw the laird and Sir Alexander cracking the Mitchell-hill cart with the six rival players; but with me, they never halted, but drove straight on. The laird got me in his dog-cart, and gave me a lift down; and when we got to the ice, his servant drove the gig back to the nearest farmhouse, where the beast was put up. "Well, Frank," says the laird, "what sort of trim are you in?" "Oh, sir," says I, "I'm thinking I'm in kind o' guid trim." "That's right, Frank. See and don't let us run away with the match, as we did last year.” "Well, I think, sir, it will tak a' your pouther to master us this time." "Think so, Frank? Why, here's Sir Alexander Gordon on our side, and he's one of the best curlers in the country." "That may be, sir, but he'll maybe find his match in the cadger." In the meantime the minister and two gentlemen were holding a preamble about which side was to be the winner, and I must say the gentry were just as keen as us chaps. But you will better understand how the match was made up if I give you the players' names on each side, in the order of their playing: 8. Myself, Francis Baldwin, 8. Peter Blackstocks, the laird's souter (skip). forester (skip). 'Well, sir, in about a quarter of an hour the rink was ready, the stones lying a' thegither about the brugh (the brugh, ye'll remember, is the ring round the tee), and every man had his besom in his hand. Just to try the keenness o' the ice, we sent our stones to the other end--of course not counting. Sir Alexander, I must admit, laid on his stones well, and, faith, I began to think he was like to be fashious a wee, from his easy style and curler-like appearance. In driving his two trial-shots, the laird asked him to tak the wick-which means to strike the stone on the side, and glance off at an angle-o' one o' Tam Anderson's stones; which, faith, he managed; and his second one he drew to the laird's besom, and lay. I saw our chaps looking rather queer when they saw the shots played, but I counselled them never to mind that, for he couldna aye play the sanie. "Now, Frank," says the laird, when I was about to play my trial-stones down the rink, "here's a chance for you; raise that stone." "I played a fine shot; but being out o' practice, I couldna be expected to do very well at first, so, instead o' raising (which, as you know, means just striking it fair-your own stone lying) the stone at the laird's besom, I missed it, and took an outwick on another stone, which sent it close to the tee. Though the laird nichered and laughed at my miss, he wasna sae ready to laugh a while afterwards. 'For the first two or three hours, the spirit of the game was never very high; both sides played tolerably well, but without that roaring fun which I have known to accompany every "end" at curling-matches like ours; in fact, the company was beginning to get a thought dull, though the scoring was even enough to have excited more enthusiasm between rival parties, when a halt was called, the besoms flung down, and half an hour was allowed for bread and cheese. There was a good deal of sport going on while we sat on the banks of the pond, all mixed throughither; the laird and the cadger were holding a confab about something I couldna hear, and Sir Alexander and auld Adam Prentice were smoking their pipes thegither as crouse as ye like. "Now, Frank," says the laird, "we'll have a dram together. I know that's what you want." "Weel, laird, may be if we had had one sooner, we might have shewn you more sport; but better late than never, if it's your pleasure!" 'So we all got a dram-a guid ane too, which I must say improved the spirits of the company most wonderful, and then we commenced to curl in earnest. It was but child's play before: we begood to play like men now. 'I will not take up your time by alluding to the various outs and ins of the game either before the mid-day halt, or up till nearly the finish; but I will go on to relate how we gained the bonspiel after as tough a contest as the Mitchell-hill players would ever wish to have. 'At 3 o'clock, P. M. the game stood thus: Mitchellhill, 24; Blendewan, 29-the latter wanting but two to be game. "The closing shots were lost and won thus: Mr Thompson o' the Fairy Knowe played uncommonly well, and his boarder chield not amiss; and Johnny Armstrong, the forester, and Wully Wilson, the wright were bye-ordinar guid. Wully played his first stone a perfect pat-lid on the tee, and with his second guarded it within two feet. The first remained a patlid till the end was played out, though his guard was chippit frae its place. They were unco near getting other two forbye this one, and indeed they were three shots in, till my last stone inwicked from one and curled in second. They were now twenty-five to our twenty-nine. "We're gradually making up on you, Frank," the laird quietly observed. "You'll have to play your best, or we'll be upsides with you yet." "That'll be seen next end, Maister Dalrymple, or I'm cheated." 'And the next end began by Wully Dalgleish, the Stanhope herd, making a hog. "That's one off the ice, at any rate, says I to our side; and you'll see more o' that kind before the end's played out, for the ice is beginning to be dour. Now, lads," says I, "this end must decide it; there's nae use in hinging on or saying ony mair about it: we want but two; the minister's to be first shot this time, and, faith, I'll be second myself." And up comes the worthy minister's stone, fine howe-ice-that's straight along the centre o' the rink, as you know, sir-and lies within three feet o' the tee. The herd's second stone was better than the first, and lay a goodish side-shot. They were on their metal, and playing their very best; sometimes putting in plenty o' pouther when it was needed, and whiles playing gently for a draw when it was needed. Three hogs had been already played through over-caution. Adam Prentice shewed that he was still the auld man, and a swankin' player into the bargain. The tailor and precentor did their best, which, however, was by no means bye-ordinar; but Mr Thompson and his boarder proved themselves curlers o' the richt sort, and played every shot in grand style. On the other side, the players were just as good-not a hair to judge by, and each man following the skip's direction terrible weel. Well, sir, the stones were lying well about the brugh, and they were two shots in. It was Sir Alexander's turn to play, and fortunately for us, he unintentionally opened up a port-which you know means a clear passage between stones-the very thing they should have avoided, but just what we wanted; and then the cadger stood ready to play. "Now, Isaac," says I, "ye ken as weel as I, what to play for. The port is open, and they are two shots in." "The cadger's stone is delivered, and, for a wonder, he misses the port; however, "She's coming forrit well enough, lads," says I; "soop her up, soop her up, so-op her weel-there now-come: that's as good as the port yet. You've positively brought one of the minister's stones in for shot." And great was the consternation on their side at this unlooked-for turn in our favour. However, Peter the skip told them not to mind that, for the port was still open for Sir Alexander's second and last stone. And to that gentleman's praise I will say, he took the port in first-rate style; and had he given his stone a little less pouther, he would have retrieved: but his stone curled away to the other side o' the brugh, and lay outside. "Isaac, man, I want you to close that port-draw to my besom; and if you do touch any of the stones, break an egg, and no more, for they're both against us." "Put your bannet on the ice, where ye want me to lie, Frank." "I'll do that, my man: there's the verra bit." And by one of the cadger's best strokes, the port was filled. 'It was now Peter Blackstock's turn to play, so the laird acted skip for him. "Peter, if you'll take an inwick on this stone at my besom, I'll make your wife a present of a new gown." 'I saw the stroke fine, for I ettled [intended] to play it myself when my turn came; and says I to myself: "Oh for a miss from Peter, though it should lose a gown to the wife!" Peter's hand was trembling with anxiety, and he fairly bungled the stroke altogether. "Od, laird," says I, "ye shouldna have spoken about the gown till after the stroke was played, for you've fairly dumfoundered the forester's nerves!" "Now, Frank," says the cadger, "I wasna feered for onything the forester could do, for I kent it wasna one o' his kind; but that's not to say I'm frightened for you. Try for the verra same stone; and if ye tak the wick at my besom, we 're game." "Stand awa' from the stone, Isaac, my man. I ken what's wanted: here goes." And up comes the stone. "I believe she has it-no-yes, she has it. Dinna soop, callants-she's there, she's there, she's THERE!" "Frank, you're a gentleman (the first time I was ever called that before, Mr Editor), and no mistake!" 'A kind of unnatural calmness now spread over the laird's countenance; and after the bursts of enthusiasm had subsided on our side, a perfect silence reigned over the rink, for on the forester's last stone depended all their hopes of cutting us out yet; twenty-nine before, we were now thirty-one, or game, unless the forester's last stone should render his side a service by knocking out one, or maybe both, of ours. In a calm, clear voice, the worthy laird informed Peter what he, poor chap, already knew too well-namely, how the game stood. "There's but one chance left, Peter-a forlornhope, and it's do or die. Come up the ice all your force, and take that stone" (pointing to one of ours at some distance in front of the tee). "The forester eyes with an air of determination the group of close-set stones that close up every road to the tee; he sets himself firmly in his crampets, to the precise posture requisite for a dashing stroke; his stone steadies for an instant in the air behind him, and away it careers with tremendous force. "Splendid!" cries the laird, the only word he has time to say. "Mind your feet," cries Sir Alexander Gordon, as half-a-dozen stones are sent scattering in all directions. But to no purpose; for though the minister's stone was slightly touched, it still remained first shot, and mine second. "Game-game-GAME!" and up went our bonnets fleein' in the air. "Give us your hand, Maister Montgomery," says I, "for you and me 's played unco weel;" and the worthy pastor and I shaked hands up to the shouthers. if you will be good enough to send us a few copies o' the Journal, for the chaps to see their names in, you will oblige your old friend-the SKIP.' THE CITY OF MEN. HOLINGSHED, in his History of Mancuniensis, repeats a prophecy well known to all northern antiquaries: When all England is aloft, Weel ar they that are in Christ's Croft; And however learnedly Camden may dispute the etymology which derives the name of Manchester from the English tongue, instead of referring it to a purely British origin, the former will still find favour in our eyes, since, as he tells us, its good people call the city Manchester because it is a 'city of men!' And they are right, those good people; that is a conclusion I have come to from a recent close, however brief, inspection of themselves; and I give my vote accordingly for the English etymology. If ever a place could apply to itself the account Black Topsy gave of her origin, it would surely be this great capital of the north of England: for when one sees its most important streets, with scarcely two houses together of uniform appearance, and with commerce sitting enthroned at one end to dispense millions of wealth, while at the other the huckster hawks his petty wares from a stall; its princely edifices hustled by mean low-browed shops; its warehouses of palatial vastness and decoration, side by side with factories that are mere brick boxes; and its long, long rows of poor streets, bare, plain, and monotonous as the calico which the inhabitants have spent their lives in producing: he is by no means inclined to question the Topsyan surmise-spects I growed.' Yes, we have here the America of England, not certainly in the shape of a Philadelphia or a Washington, no deliberate brick fulfilment of a paper plan, but a heap of spontaneously formed Smithvilles and Jonesvilles, that have risen up impulsively just when, and where, and how the need of the moment required, each capitalist centre having apparently given birth to its own surrounding accretion, and all together forming an inartistical and unattractive whole. It is a disappointment, too, to see the coal-born haze ever shutting out heaven's sunshine, and sprinkling all things with its dismal flakes, while the very mud, soot-tempered, seems muddier than even the renowned compound of London. It is a disappointment, because not very long since we were told that these grim furnaces were to be endowed with the saturnian power of devouring everything they generated; and the City of the Thames was admonished to look to the City of Men, and profit by the example. But now while roses even have learned to bloom in the purified Temple atmosphere, smoke, checked but for a time in Manchester, again rears its head, and flings out its serpent-wreaths from nearly every stalk. There is something repulsive in shops of inferior dimensions, and generally shabby appearance, announcing their ownership and wares in colossal inscriptions, letters three or four feet high, while the legends of vast warehouses and factories, in the modesty of conscious worth, lurk upon door-posts, or peep in smallest type from beneath some deep-arched portal. Yet Manchester streets may be irregular, and 'But you must be tired o' me by this time, Mr its trading inscriptions pretentious, its smoke may be Editor; so I will only add that the laird had us all dense, and its mud may be ultra-muddy; but not any up at the Ha', where we had plenty o' everything, not nor all of these things can prevent the image of the forgetting beef and greens, and plenty of good ale to great city from rising before us as the very symbol synd it ower. I'll maybe write another account if we of civilisation, foremost in the march of improvement, are spared to see another year; and in the meantime, | a grand incarnation of progress. That commerce has had no unduly materialising influence upon those engaged in it here, that vast building at Old Trafford which rose at their bidding, and whose glorious contents were collected under their auspices, presents sufficient proof; but there is no lack of minor evidence. When any of these great cotton-lords gives me a commission for a picture,' observed an artist, a Londoner by birth, but now resident in Manchester, 'they always speak and seem to feel as if it were they who were the obliged party.' There is nothing among them of the too common vulgarity of the petty tradesman, none of that demand for a servile gratitude so often one of the trials most galling to genius. Again, in the rooms of the Royal Institution hangs a picture of an old French abbé, equally attractive on the grounds of its merit and its history. It is the work of a French lady who devotes all the produce of her art to purposes of benevolence, and was originally sent here to an exhibition by native and foreign artists. A gentleman delivering a lecture on this exhibition, commented on the extraordinary excellence displayed in the picture, and regretted, as it was still unsold, that it should be allowed to leave the country. He had no sooner ceased than the appeal was responded to; the picture was at once purchased, and at rather a high price, by one of his hearers, who then observed that he thought he could not do better than present it to the Institution with which they were connected: and, accordingly, there it hangs at this moment on the walls of that noble building. Nor is this spirit confined to the upper classes. On the recent exhibition of the competition-works of students in the schools of art, it was truly gratifying to see what flocks of rough-looking, ill-dressed people crowded in the evening to the rooms, and to observe with what attention they examined the various merits of even chalk-shadings and pencil-outlines; and people like these are hardly to be suspected of affecting an interest they do not feel. Much has been said-perhaps too much-about the humanising influence of art; but, simultaneously with the fine feeling we have alluded to, the men of the City of Men are unquestionably more than usually devoted to the small amenities of life. An illustration of this may be met with in every street in the polite and painstaking anxiety of the passers-by to direct a stranger on his way. The minute directions, patiently repeated when not understood, will even sometimes be followed up by a long walk out of the way, in order to make sure that the road shall not be mistaken; and no touched hat and appealing look at the end of the journey imply that your honour's health' was the expected conclusion. The general intelligence, also, of the lower classes is remarkable. A boy in a warehouse, a lad from the factory, will not only readily reply to any inquiries as to the processes going on in his own department, but will shew himself equally conversant with the general details of the business, and in respect to the materials employed, the amount of trade, and the average of wages. Returning once from an excursion to inspect a mill a short distance from Manchester, I happened to remark to one of my companions that a medical friend of mine had been deploring the prevalence of female labour in the factories, on the ground that the feminine character was exclusively adapted for domestic seclusion, and invariably deteriorated in congregations even of her own sex, when a clear though somewhat feeble voice behind begged to be permitted to make a remark upon the subject. I was then in a third-class carriage, for the very purpose of studying the character of the masses, and I turned quickly, and saw the pale thin face and sightless eyes of a man about thirty, neatly but very meanly clad, and evidently of the lower rank. 'You are speaking,' said he, 'of the way the female character is injured in factories: the causes may be easily traced. The children are the chief workers in a family here; they are regarded according to what their labour will fetch, and as soon as they are old enough, are sent forth to earn. The money-power must always be the ruling power: the parents, therefore, who are often idle, are subordinated to the children, on whose wages they mainly depend; parental authority is overthrown; the harmony of family-life broken up; and the female character of course injured in proportion.' This was at least the substance of the speech, though it gives but an imperfect idea of the clearness of his argument, or the felicitous language which conveyed it. Our pleased surprise was not lessened when an individual, of equally humble appearance, in another compartment, made some remarks on the comparative characters of the factory-worker and agricultural labourer, and in words more homely than those of the blind speaker, but not less fluent, maintained his view of the question. The subject veering round to the physical differences in different ranks, led to a discovery of his occupation, for on my mentioning having heard that hatters kept assorted sizes of hats for the various classes of society-gentlemen, servants, mechanics, &c.-and that the gentlemen's were usually the largest, he observed that at least the gentlemen's servants were invariably the smallest; adding-'And my opinion may be received as something worth on this subject, for I am a hatter.' And how is this general intelligence and cultivation to be explained? One cause of the advance, though not of the tendency, may be easily traced. When the question of the free-library system was first discussed, Manchester was one of the first towns to demand the institution; and amid long mean streets, well fitted to supply its readers, stands one of the noblest efforts made in the cause of human culture, the Camp Field Free Library. Here a large and handsome groundfloor hall is filled with desks and tables devoted to periodical literature; and the poorest wanderer may drop in and acquaint himself with the chief events and great discussions of the day. Here, if it be washingday at home, and the wet linen still hangs in the one room, or the workman is weary with his labour, and his children are ill or noisy, what a resource is within his reach when he can repair to this lofty, well-lit room, with its comfortable seats and unfailing stores of amusement! Here, too, is a circulating library for home-reading, available on presenting a recommendation; while a staircase, profusely adorned with excellent engravings, leads to a large room containing a library of reference, the valuable books of which can be perused only within the room, but are freely handed to any applicant without question or introduction. But, in addition to the kind of intelligence alluded to, there is a certain completeness in the mind of Manchester, which recognises the mutual dependence of the physical and intellectual nature. Here, for instance, public baths and wash-houses were founded some time before they made their way to London. Even swimming-baths for females have begun to make some progress, at least in principle: at Peel Park, the Gymnasium affords not only to sedentary men and boy-workers an opportunity of healthful exercise, but a secluded portion of the grounds is set apart for girls, to allow them also some small chance of proper muscular development. Might not the authorities of the London Parks take a hint from this great charity, and so enable many a poor girl who sits all day working bugles or quilling blond, or making artificial flowers, to enjoy the means of obtaining stronger limbs and a straighter spine? Leaving Peel Park, the eye is caught by an announcement at its gates concerning a school in connection with the Salford Institute; and here again a striking fact presents itself. Not only is general |