Dr Dobbin of Trinity College Dublin has come forward with what he conceives a new test of the reality and antiquity of the gospels, in refutation of the mythical explanation of Dr Strauss. To enable our readers to understand this subject, we shall first give an explanation of the opinions of Strauss in his own words. "A myth is the invention of a fact with the help of an idea. A nation or religious community finds itself in a certain position in the midst of certain institutions and notions, on the spirit of which it lives. The nation or community finds itself constrained by invincible yearnings after satisfaction as to the origin of those observances and views, to imagine for itself an origin for them. The real origin is concealed in the darkness of the past, or it is not sufficiently clear to correspond with the clearness and fulness of these enlarged conceptions and desires. By the light of those conceptions and at the instigation of those desires they trace upon the obscure canvass of the past an attractive picture of fabulous incidents, these incidents being but the reflection of their present thoughts and aspirations."

Accordingly in support of this strange assertion Dr Strauss labours to prove that the writings of the New Testament were composed at least thirty years posterior to the time of the supposed events they detail, this interval he thinks being sufficient for the evolution of the myth. Indeed he is compelled by facts not to be disputed thus to limit the period within which the leading narratives of the New Testament must have been written. Now the refutation of Dr Dobbin hinges upon the following circumstances: while each sacred penman differs from his neighbour in almost every conceivable form of style and expression, there is one particular, and perhaps only one, in the language of the gospels, in which Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, entirely correspond with each other. This particular consists in the word which they use when speaking of our Saviour. He is called by them Jesus, the designation of the Jew of Galilee, the prevailing one at the time the sacred historians wrote-the name by which they were accustomed to address him, and that expressive of his personal designation. The other term is that used by the writers of the epistles, as Paul, James, Peter, Jude, and John, in his epistles and in the Apocalypse-the term Christ, as expressive of our Lord's official capacity.

As an exemplification, long lists of passages are given where these two names are used separately, and where they are occasionally used conjoined, from which it appears evident that the name Jesus is the prevailing one in the gospels, while, as stated, Christ and Christ Jesus are the prevailing terms in the epistles. From these remarkable circumstances Dr Dobbin thinks it evident that the difference of designation thus proved to exist, indicates a different period for the composition of the two classes of writings-the gospels and epistles; and that these periods must have been an early date for the gospels, and one considerably later for the epistles. The bearing of these circumstances on the theory of Strauss thus becomes evident. It affords the strongest probability for the authenticity of the gospels, for the fact that they were composed by men the contemporaries of Jesus, aud that on the other hand the epistles were written at a period considerably posterior to the death of our Saviour, when his official capacity had become clearly recognised, and consequently the appellation of Christ became the more appropriate one."

Strauss's Leben Jesu, or Life of Jesus, is a well-known production in Germany. It emanates from Hegel's school of philosophy, which is essentially a system of pantheism, divesting the Deity of all personal qualities,

See Tentamen Anti-Straussianum, by T. Dobbin, D.D., and North British Review, No. VIIL

-confounding the Creator of the universe with his works, and veiling under a mystical jargon opinions which, if carried out to their legitimate meaning, would end in atheism. The Amber Witch is a story which has been translated and read in this country without a knowledge of its true design or purpose. The following account may be interesting.

Dr Meinhold, a clergyman in Usedom, a small island at the mouth of the Oder, in Prussian Pomerania, some twenty years since, wrote a treatise intended to illustrate the process of trial for witchcraft, once so common through the whole of Europe. The censorship of the press, for some reason which does not appear, forbade its publication; and hence our author, acting on the recommendation of Horace, though from a different motive, kept his manuscript for a lengthened period in his studio, occasionally revising and retouching his proscribed literary offspring, and eventually presented it to the public, in another form than that in which it was originally moulded, and attired in a corresponding dress, In the preface to this book he gave the following fictiti ous account of its origin:

"In my former cure, the same which was held by our worthy author some two hundred years ago, there existed under a seat in the choir of the church a sort of niche, nearly on a level with the floor. I had often seen a heap of various writings in this recess; but owing to my short sight, and the darkness of the place, I had taken them for antiquated hymn-books, which were lying about in great numbers. But one day, while I was teaching in the church, I looked for a paper-mark in the catechism of one of the boys, which I could not immediately find; and my old sexton, who was past eighty, stooped down to the said niche, and took from it a folio volume, which I had never before observed, out of which he tore a strip of paper suited to my purpose, and reached it to me. I immediately seized upon the book, and, after a few minutes' perusal, I know not which was greater, my astonishment, or my vexation, at this costly prize. The manuscript, which was bound in vellum, was not only defective both at the beginning and at the end, but several leaves had been torn out here and there in the middle. I scolded the old man as I had never done during the whole course of my life; but he excused himself, saying that one of my predecessors had given him the manuscript for waste paper. No sooner had I reached home than I fell to work upon my new acquisition, and after reading a bit here and there with considerable trouble, my interest was powerfully excited by the contents."

Having perused this manuscript, he says he resolved on publishing it in its original antiquated form, omitting some uninteresting details, and endeavouring to restore the leaves torn out of the middle, imitating, as far as possible, the language and manner of the old biographer. He adds, somewhat satirically, as we can now understand, "I refrain from pointing out the particular passages which I have supplied, so as not to disturb the historical interest of the greater part of my readers. For modern criticism, which has now attained to a degree of acuteness never before equalled, such a confession would be entirely superfluous, as critics will easily distinguish the passages where Pastor Schweidler speaks, from those written by Pastor Meinhold."

The narrative professedly refers to a period immediately succeeding the Thirty Years' War, and describes the hopes and fears, and the domestic and ministerial troubles of the eccentric and worthy pastor of Usedom. It pourtrays, in simple, graphic, and affecting language, how witchcraft began in the village-how his poor child was taken up for a witch, and carried to Pudgla, at the instigation of the sheriff, whose guilty overtures she had

resisted-how Syndicus Dom. Michelsen arrived and prepared her defence-how she was put to the torture in vain, to cause her to confess, and afterwards sentenced to death-how the sheriff met with an awful end on the way to the place of execution; and how this heroic and Christian child was at length saved by the help of the all-merciful God. This outline is cleverly filled up with a variety of natural and striking events; and excepting some few indelicate expressions, which we wish the good taste of Lady Duff Gordon had expunged from her translation, the narrative is exquisitely beautiful and pathetic, and well entitled to the claim of being "the most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known." The manuscript was forwarded by Meinhold to Strauss, with the suggestion that it might possibly illustrate by analogy some narratives in the New Testament; it was subsequently presented to his majesty the King of Prussia, who approved its contents, while ignorant of its design; by him it was ordered to be printed, and it was accordingly published in the year 1843.

"The Amber Witch" bears this title, from the subject of the trial having employed herself in digging for amber, by night, on the Streckelberg, meaning to sell it, and with the produce to purchase and to present to her father, on his birthday, the Opp. St Augustini, as out of this circumstance arose the principal evidence of her witchcraft. The attractive character of the book, and the royal patronage under which it was introduced to the reading world of Germany, secured for it a wide and rapid circulation. It was everywhere read and praised; the multitude universally received it as a genuine history, and, best of all, none of the neological critics even hinted the least suspicion that it was a fiction. Our author having for six months enjoyed the complete success of his ruse de guerre, at the end of that period wrote, from what he called his literary Patmos, to Hengstenberg's Kirchen-zeitung, an evangelical periodical, acknowledging the purely fictitious character of the work, and the theological purpose it was designed to serve. In this communication he accuses the anti-supernaturalists of great folly, in receiving his undisguised myth for genuine history, while they reject "as fabulous,

a history which is attested not only by its existence and wide extension to the present day, but by the united testimony of all antiquity, and by the blood of thousands of martyrs-a madness more insane than if they were to affirm that the splendid cathedral at Cologne was commenced, and obtained its present state, without an architect and without a plan, by the act of pilgrims, who merely cast stones together as they passed." This announcement was met with the unbounded indignation of the deceived critics, who not only charged the author with abominable wickedness, but persisted in affirming that his book was a genuine historic document.

We believe that Dr Meinhold subsequently made oath before the Synod of Usedom to the fictitious character of "the Amber Witch," and the members of that synod published their united testimony to the correctness of his declarations. The controversy on the matter of fact was thus brought to an end, and the author in closing it, says

"From the history of my work the following conclusions, which I would fain circulate far and wide, may, I think, be drawn. 1. The critics who assert that they can develope, from the letters and style of the sacred writings, the author, and the exact time of composition, ought to blush at the present failure of their skill. 2. Those of them who declare that history of Jesus Christ, whose historic truth has a far better foundation than any other historic fact whatever, to be a romance, ought to be ashamed of themselves for taking my romance for real history. 3. If they persist, as they probably will, in declaring my fable to be a fact, in spite of my assertion to the contrary, and of the affidavit of a synod of divines, and yet declare the history of the gospel to be false or fabulous, though its authors have sealed their testimony to its truth with their own blood, all reasonable men will judge that they have pronounced their own condemnation. If the device by which I have proved this is wicked, it is the wickedness of one who by an artifice would detect a thief that had broken into the sanctuary. To me, and thousands of others, the GOSPEL is such a SANCTUARY."

To those whose sympathies still linger on the "Good old Times," the following statement illustrative of the customs of our ancestors still practised by their descendants, may not be without its interest. We give it from a local publication, the Provincial Souvenir for 1846.

In the north of England are some little nooks, quiet sequestered spots, yet uninvaded by railroads, and but little troubled with fitful and feverish excitement, where the broad mummeries of olden times still flourish fresh and vigorous. Alnwick, an ancient town, pleasantly situated on the banks of the Aln, amidst beautiful and romantic scenery, is one of these tranquil retreats, famous for its noble Castle, the seat of the Percies, and singularly curious on account of the ludicrous ceremony which annually initiates the young Freemen to its corporate privileges.

Alnwick, though not a municipal, is an incorporated borough, with its constituted authorities, its Chamberlains, four-and-twenty Aldermen, Stewards, Moorgrieves, &c. Belonging to the body is a large tract of land, nearly 3000 acres of which are uninclosed and uncultivated, to a great extent overgrown with whins, heather, and ferns, and broken up by quarries, coal-pits, kilns, and bogs. Alnwick Moor, in consequence, wears the aspect of a dreary and neglected waste, reflecting, in these boastful days of agricultural improvement, disgrace on every party whose conflicting interests retard improvement, and allow so wide a tract of marshy undrained land in the immediate neighbourhood of the town to deteriorate its climate.

About 300 resident freemen have the privilege of de

pasturing cattle on this common, besides having educational and other advantages. These rights are attained by birth or servitude. Annually on St Mark's eve, the 24th of April, the town bell sounds a notice to the members of the Corporation; the Town Hall is thrown open; the Four-and-twenty, or Common Coun cil, presided over by the Chamberlains, are assembled to receive candidates for the freelage; and numbers of freemen and of stallingers, as the non-freemen are called, crowd into the Hall. Quiet though the town generally is, the freemen are not always peaceable; these annual meetings are sometimes a scene of uproar and confusion; ever and anon grievances, real or supposed, are occurring, which rouse popular anger, and cause a condemnation, loud and severe, to be passed on the governing body. Such of the claimants as establish their right to their freedom to the satisfaction of the Four-and-twenty, pay certain fees, swear loyalty to the Queen, fealty to the Lord of the Manor, and obedience to the legal orders of the Common Council, and are then enrolled in the borough books. The number of young freemen annually admitted varies; in one year only two, and in another as many as thirty were "made free;" perhaps ten may be the average number. Here, in other towns, initiation would end; but here, in Alnwick, the ceremonies commence, which are regarded as more enfranchising than the legal preliminaries.

St Mark's morn, long and anxiously looked forward to, is at length ushered in. By early dawn, the friends of each young freeman have planted before his dwelling a holly tree, marking out to others, in a highly pictur

esque style, his residence, and emblematic of the unalterable truth and fidelity he will maintain to his "brother freemen." At half-past eight o'clock the toll of the town bell again summons the freemen together, to ride the boundaries and go through the well. Mounted on horseback, and with drawn swords in their hands, the young freemen assemble in the market-place, and preceded by music, and accompanied by the borough authorities, by the under-bailiffs of the Castle, carrying ancient armour, and by a numerous cavalcade of friends, they ride towards the Moor. On arriving at the place where Clayport Tower once stood, the swords are sheathed and given up to some friend. In times of border warfare weapons would be necessary, to defend the freemen against Scottish marauders; yet so strong is the attachment to ancient usages, that even in these piping times of peace," the custom has long outlived the circumstances which rendered it necessary. Arrived at the Moor, away fly the new-fledged freemen, guided by the experienced moorgrieves, along the boundary line. When about two miles from the well, the more daring riders break away from their leading-strings, and recklessly gallop along the broken ground, up hill and down hill, through whin bushes, over ditches and dykes. Heaven preserve the riders! Tailors, cobblers, shopkeepers, men who were seldom, if ever before, on horseback, dash onwards, fearless of consequences, incited by example, dreading the laugh of scorn, and determined for once to prove their courage.

The famous "FREEMAN WELL" is four miles southwest from Alnwick, and is situated on the declivity of a high hill, called the "Freeman Hill;" it is fed by a powerful spring, and is properly dammed up, some time before the 25th day of April, by rustics, employed by the corporate authorities. When filled with water, i is about one hundred feet long, from six to fifteen feet broad, and from three to five feet deep. To impede the progress of the freemen in plunging through the well, turf dykes are built across, and straw ropes fixed from side to side; and that these traps to catch the unwary may not be visible, the rustics take care to stir up the mud from the bottom, so that the water is rendered a disagreeable puddle. Hundreds of spectators are crowded about the well, on dykes, on rising ground, eagerly, and some anxiously watching the approach of the young freemen. Many friends of each freeman are there to cheer him up. Fathers are there, not mothers, they stay at home to cook the dinner; brothers, sisters, aye and sweethearts, strangers from distant places allured by curiosity, and many of the townspeople are there. Loud cheers welcome "the winner of the boundary to the well;" laughter and sarcasm greet those who come erceping in last. All arrived, each freeman, as he best can, strips off his ordinary garments, and clothes himself in white; on his head is a white cap, profusely and more or less elegantly, according to the taste of his female friends, decorated with ribbons of various colours. The more wealthy have chaises into which they retire, but,

as no house is sufficiently near, the humbler classes find a dressing-room at some dyke back."

Marshalled in order at the east end of the well by the chamberlains of the borough, the young freemen present a gay and gallant appearance. On the word of command being given by the bailiff, the waits commence playing, the shout is raised by the crowd clustered round the well, and the oldest son of the oldest freeman first leaps into the puddle, and the other young freemen spring after him. Each hurries through, cheered on by his friends. But a dyke has tripped one, and down he plashes over head and ears. Another immediately behind stumbles over him. No marked courtesy is shown to each other -one will drag his neighbour back and plunge over him; -all flounder on, impeding each other's progress, and besmeared with mud. The spectators enjoy the fun.

Occasionally the weather is cold and stormy, and then the poor freemen are to be pitied. Forty-eight years ago, nine or ten had prepared to take up their freelage; but bitter, biting, stormy weather came on a few days before the 25th of April, and cooled the courage of most of them; for only two ventured to go through the well that year. The snow was deep on the ground, the well was frozen over, and these two bold youths could not pass through until the ice was broken. The western end of the well being steep and slippery, the friends of the freemen are waiting there to pull them out as they arrive at the brink. What a contrast to their former gay and cheerful appearance! Now they are dripping, cold, miserable-looking, and ludicrously besmeared with red clay mud! Each retires again to his robing-room under the open sky, changes his clothes, takes a drop of "something comfortable," and all is once more lighthearted, joyous, and enthusiastic.

Of the original institution of "going through the well," there is no record in history or any borough documents; but tradition has uniformly stated that King John, when hunting in Alnwick Moor, or Aydon Forest, as some part of it was anciently called, was aired in a bog or quagmire, where the well now is, and was in consequence so enraged, that, as a punishment to the inhabitants of the town for their slovenliness, he ordered that no one should enjoy corporate privileges until he had plunged through the same bog on the anniversary of the day when Royalty stuck fast in the mire. The absurdity of the enactment accords with the character of a capricious and stupid tyrant; and the tradition is incidentally confirmed by the unpublished records of his reign, which state that King John was at Alnwick in the year 1209, on the 24th and 25th days of April. As the freemen have from time immemorial " gone through the well" on the 25th of April, it is, therefore, extremely probable that the ceremony was instituted during this royal visit.

Strangers laugh at the ludicrous custom, and wonder why, in these days of intelligence, it is still continued; some few of the freemen, who consider themselves depositaries of modern illumination, speak of it as a relic of Gothic ages, which ought to be utterly destroyed.

remarkable oversight. Neither a mouse nor a hen will ever be tempted into the water; but the locust, notwithstanding the superior sagacity which he is said to exercise when mischief is to be done, though unable to fly far under the best circumstances, and obliged to light at brief intervals for rest, will, nevertheless, undertake a voyage of half a league, which he cannot accomplish, and so rush on inevitable destruction. "In the months of May and June, I have observed," says Haselquist, "the arrival of these insects in myriads from the south, directing their course towards the northern shore; they darken the sky like a thick cloud, but scarcely have they quitted the land when the surface of the water is covered with their dead bodies." In like manner ants, on reaching the bank of a river, in place of having the sense to stop, and at least take counsel together and enquire for the bridge, will rush madly on, and are instantly carried down by the stream. Many in

sects, as is well known, will fall to the ground when any one approaches the shrub to which they had retired; cuddling up their legs, they will fall into a trap, or even into your hand, and, as the entomologists say, will "pretend to be dead" to defeat your purpose; but as it frequently happens that the insects which choose this expedient are winged, and so might have recourse to a better, we must either deny all intention to this act, or censure it as in the highest degree a foolish one. Caterpillars, when about to become butterflies, are found to have by no means advanced in intelligence. If a side-slit is made in the cocoon which involves the pupae of the great peacock-moth, (who is on the verge of emerging into butterfly existence,) he will rather persist in making useless efforts against the impenetrable and obdurate end, than turn round and avail himself of the open one. Yet entomologists assert that the silkworm perfectly knows what she is about, when, having finished the cocoon, she fixes her head opposite to the unglued apex by which the perfect insect is to emerge, and never places the point against any object which might prevent the moth from emerging. A certain beetle called the pill-beetle, who rolls his posterity along in a bolus or ball of dung, to a suitable depot, was once known, when the said ball had fallen in a wrong place, to summon three able-bodied assistants to the spot, to help him out with it! Intelligence could hardly go further; but try him on another scent, and you will give up your protege as a blockhead; for he adopts at once any false ball that you may treacherously substitute for his own. This experiment may be easily tried during the summer time, when large detachments of these beetles may be frequently seen, each rolling on with his hind-legs a ball containing his egg-if you deprive him of it, and then substitute another, he will not detect the cheat, but will adopt the changeling, and roll it on, nothing doubting, as he had before rolled on the other. A creature who, failing in his endeavours to execute a task, has sufficient intelligence to solicit aid, ought not to be so regardless of what he has himself manufactured, or to be so little aware of the genuine quality of the interesting materials he had put together, as to take up any round object in its room! The carrionfly is said, now and then, to lay her eggs on a certain flower, the smell of which resembles putrid meat, which is the object of her desire. Her posterity must on such occasions perish, owing to their parent's stupidity. A sad blunder is committed by the earth-worm, in the very action to which some writers assign a considerable share of wisdom. Whenever the noise of scratching is made in the vicinity of his lares, believing that it is his formidable enemy the mole boring his way at him, he comes forth for security; he has, however, made a mistake;-the stranger at his door is the lapwing, who, acquainted with the weakness of his mind, and his particular fear of moles, scratches in his neighbourhood to bring him out, and gobbles him up as soon as he comes. In examining an insect-net after it has swept the grass for capture, any one may observe that the ant, who, on the showing of his historian Huber, is next to man the most intelligent of creatures, seems least disposed to improve the opportunity to escape from his reticuled prison. The bee bounces off resentfully, the grasshopper springs in a bound of unusual vigour, every other insect makes the best use of its legs and wings to be off, but the sagacious ant lingers behind! A strong blade of grass, the leg of a beetle, any thing worthless that he can possibly lay hold of, is sufficient to detain him; yet he blockades his door every night at curfew, and at cockcrowing removes the wooden bars, except on rainy days, when the doors of all anthills very properly remain sealed. On one occasion I could not help contrasting the industry, skill, and memory, as it would of course be called, of one individual of the formica family, with the preposterous proceedings of some of his friends. A wise and laborious ant was toiling up the back of a chesnut-tree, and pulling after him an entire snail-shell, the size of a hazel-nut. He halted occasionally, as well he might, but he never lost hold of the shell, though the mere weight of it, one should have thought, would have pulled his mandibles out of joint. In a few minutes he had raised it upwards of three feet, and all was going on prosperously, when it so chanced that three or four idlers of the ant kind, and presently as many more, met him on his way. Our labourer had almost done his work; his hind-legs were already within the hole into which it was his plain purpose to introduce the shell, when the new-comers, (who, as we have seen, are always ready to help one another,) proceeded to do just the reverse! They got upon the shell, they entered it, they persisted in sticking to it, he could not carry it; and then the shell swerved to one side or the other, according to the disposal of his friends within, who

had not even the sense to trim the boat; still, by great exertion, he held fast, and might perhaps have accomplished his task, when two more strangers thought proper to contribute their weight, and brought on the catastrophe. The weary but persevering insect 'was obliged to "let go;" and the shell, freighted with three "insides" and half a dozen outs," fell to the ground! They left the conveyance in apparent alarm, and scampered off in all directions, while he remained for some time fixed to the spot of his discomfiture. The shell being subsequently examined, was found exactly to fit the hole in the direction in which the ant was dragging it, and no other. Here we have one wise ant, but nearly half a dozen idiots; nor is it the only instance in which the conduct of this insect has appeared in one relation sagacious, and in another defective in common sense. I lately noticed the carcass of a large dead bee, moving as it were by some unseen mechanism below. On a nearer examination, I found the bee to be supported on the shoulders of half a score of the smallest ants, (Formica flava,) who were dragging it along like a huge unlaunched ship, at the rate of three feet per minute. So intent were the ants on their work, that they were not to be seduced from it by the allurements of moist sugar and other dainties sprinkled over their path. Nothing could exceed the skill with which they overcame every obstacle that presented itself; they would sometimes straighten the joint of one of the bee's legs, or raise the margin of his wing, or even turn him completely over. After working in this way for half a day, they brought him to the door of their house, which was in the wall of ours, where, the entrance not being big enough to admit him, I left them late in the evening, fixing him up in a corner for future operations. The following morning I found him lying dismembered, apart from the ant-hill. Now, if these ants had reflected, would they not have pulled him to pieces where they first found him, and so have saved themselves much unnecessary trouble?-Dr Badham's Insect Life.

Fine Arts.

GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS OF DESIGN.-Mr A. Poynter, the Inspector of the Government Schools of Design, has reported to the council the results of his first visit to the provincial schools. From this report we take the particulars of the most general interest:

"York. There is little to remark on the subject of the York School, which proceeds steadily on the plan laid down by the council. The boys are chiefly sons of mechanics--house-painters, masons, carvers, plasterers, and carpenters. Those who have remained the longest, and attended most regularly in the school, are of these classes. As the pupils have generally remained in the school to go through the whole course of instruction, there has been little change among them, and little opportunity to show to what account they could turn their acquirements. Six boys and one female pupil come from the country, and board in York, for the purpose of attending the school. The school excites considerable attention among the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood. Visitors are numerous, and excellent meetings have been collected at the distribution of the prizes. The system of allotting prizes to the most meritorious works of the pupils in the classes, instead of to competition drawings, has been adopted here, and found successful. Prizes have been given, by the liberality of Mr Etty, for designs for stained glass, and for painting from flowers. There is no lending library. The committee would be glad to establish one.

66

Coventry. The state of the school at Coventry, and its prospects for the future, are unsatisfactory. The number of pupils now on the books is 106. Of this number 60 are the boys of the free schools, who attend the morning class only three times in the fortnight. This fact must be kept in mind in considering the average amount of attendance, which, independently of these boys, is really very small. In addition to the regular class, an evening class is open for instruction in drafting, or the mise en carte. The little encouragement giv en to the school may be attributed to the circumstance that the ribbon trade, as conducted at Coventry, affords

little encouragement to the arts of design. The manufacturers are for the most part engaged in the production of cheap goods; they neither know nor care for the niceties of art, but reject elaborate designs upon principle; and the established system of drafting and designing renders it extremely difficult for the few who are more intelligent and zealous to introduce any substantial improvement. If an independent drafter produces a design which is approved, he receives the order to draft it; the established price is paid for the draft, but the design reckons for nothing. Under these circumstances, very little that is original is ever attempted. The manufacturers are contented to depend upon French patterns, which are drafted by the drafters in their establishments, with such alterations and modifications, for the sake of variety, as they are competent to make. This class of workmen are for the most part too well satisfied with themselves to resort to the school for instruction in drawing and colouring. The few manufacturers who produce rich goods employ designers independently of drafting; but I could not learn that such designers could make a living at Coventry, or at most but one or two at a time. After these data, it cannot be expected that the school should have produced much effect upon the general manufacture of the town. One manufacturer has three lads from the school of drafters, and considers that they draft much better, from their knowledge of drawing, but admits that, as designers, there is no opening for them. The best effect, therefore, that could result from the school would be, that the drafters should resort to it, but this they have never done, except to the limited extent before stated. committee are perfectly aware of the unsatisfactory state of the school, and of their own failure to render it an object of interest to the manufacturers generally, which they are disposed to attribute, and perhaps justly, to external causes. The premises are very objec

tionable.

The

"Nottingham.-Its present prospects are encouraging. Since the appointment of the present master, Mr Hammerseley, in August, the attendance has rapidly increased to nearly double the amount to which it had declined in July, the last month of the previous master. At present there are fifteen applicants who cannot be received. On Friday evening there is a class for drawing plants from nature; and the whole school study the figure, in accordance with the directions of the council, which have been followed as closely as possible; but the master asks for some discretion to act according to circumstances in the case of students of a certain class and age, whom it might be desirable to draw to the school without subjecting them inflexibly to the whole routine of study. Nottingham appears to be a place where a female class might be established with great advantage. The number of females employed in the embroidery and lace trade of Nottingham is immense. Many of them are necessitated, whether competent or not, to be more or less designers; and it may be said that a knowledge of drawing is important to all who execute the designs of others. Even in the simple and humble operation of running the thread round the pattern, which is the finishing operation upon the machine lace, there is a perceptible difference in the manner in which it is performed by different hands, dependent upon a taste for form. Notwithstanding the past inefficiency of the school, its mere existence appears to have had its effect in exciting a critical spirit in the workmen with respect to the artistical qualities of the patterns which come into their hands. Some of the manufacturers can testify to this fact in their own establishments; and it has been found to have originated with those workmen whose children have attended the school. A similar feeling has been excited among the patterndrawers. An application has been made by one of esta blished reputation, to be allowed to take such advantage of the school as his avocations will permit; and the mas

ter is anxious to open the door as widely as possible to applicants of this description. When the present master joined the school, the casts, and even some of the books, were put away and out of sight. The casts are now brought out, and arranged as well as time and circumstances have permitted, and on Monday evenings the school is open to public inspection, on which occasions the best display possible is made of the books and other works of art. Many of the visitors are manufacturers, who have never before had an opportunity to show that they took an interest in the objects of the school; and the committee, who perfectly understand the true end of their proceedings, think that now the attention of the public has been attracted to the school, a good display of the antique would have an important effect in elevating the general taste. There is no lending library; the committee are anxious to establish one, and wish to have a list of that at Somerset House."

Proceedings of Societies.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, Feb. 27.-Lord de Mauley, V.P. in the chair.-Prof. E. Forbes, "On the Question, Whence and when came the Plants and Animals now inhabiting the British Isles and Seas?"-Prof. Forbes, having investigated the distribution of the British plants and animals, was led, as many philosophers and naturalists had been before him, to the inquiry, the solution of which was the subject of his communication. In order to deal with that inquiry, it was necessary to establish two aphorisms:-1. That there are defined areas on the earth's surface, occupied by species of indigenous plants and animals, which must therefore have radiated from centres of organization. 2. That each species is propagated by natural generation from a single stock. The British Islands are in the condition of an isolated area, peopled with animals and plants. The existence of these must be due, either to the effect of winds, currents, or the agency of man, or else to migration from some remoter area. The first of these causes is insufficient to account for the facts. Being located on these islands before the historical periods, plants could not have been transported hither by man; while the size of the animals equally demonstrates that they were not conveyed to our coasts by currents of wind or water. It only remains, then, that our Flora and Fauna must have radiated hither from specific centres on the Continent; and that this is the case appears from the fact, that the great mass of the British plants and animals are identical with those on the Continent. The various spots from which they migrated were distinctly indicated, and it was illustrated by the aspect of a curve of great curvature, whose convexity was turned towards the point of migration, that the number of species kept diminishing as they became more remote from the original locality. Thus the reptiles, radiating from Belgium, diminish as to number of species in Britain, and still nore in Ireland. The same law applies to plants, a great quan tity of which seem to have migrated from Germany and the north of France at a period when this country was part of the great continent of Europe. The Professor then invited the particular attention of his hearers to two phenomena in the distribution of plants, which at first seem quite inexplicable on the principles thus far established: 1. The appearance of certain plants on the summits of the Cumbrian, Scotch, and Welsh mountains, which do not come from Germany or France, but are found on the mountains of Norway, and on the lowlands still further north. 2. The appearance of certain plants on the south-west coast of Ireland, whose only other habitat is in the northeast of Spain. As to the first of these points-The existence of native Scandinavian plants on the summits of British mountains: Prof. Forbes accounted for this Flora by assuming that it was the sole vegetable growth of these islands pleiocene, or glacial period in geology. At that time the during what has been termed the pleistocene, or newer great mass of the area of the British Isles was the bottom of an icy ocean, on which icebergs were floating, and the only vestiges of Britain then were hills projecting above the waters, and covered with an alpine vegetation, which drifted thither from the Continent by means of these floating masses of ice. In subsequent ages, when the sea-bottom was raised to the land-level, and Britain had assumed its present shape, those mountain-summits shared the general elevation, and, by being brought into a colder atmosphere, were adapted to preserve the vegetation distributed over