THE WAY TO THE WORKHOUSE.-John Reeves was accosted on the Kensington road by an elderly female, with a small bottle of gin in her hand. Pray, Sir-I beg your pardon-is this the way to the workhouse?' John gave her a look of clerical dignity, and, pointing to the bottle, gravely said, 'No, ma'am, but that is.'

PROFESSOR GRAHAM says, "Tobacco is one of the most powerful and deadly poisons in the vegetable kingdom.'

'I never knew,' says Dr Waterhouse, " so many consumptive affections as of late years; and I trace this alarming inroad on young constitutions principally to the pernicious custom of smoking cigars.'

'I am confident,' says Dr Salmon, 'more people have died of apoplexies, since the use of snuff, in one year, than have died of that disease in a hundred years before.'

SMOKING.It might be supposed,' says a celebrated physician, 'that, as tobacco is burnt when smoking, its injurious properties are destroyed. Not so; the active principle consists in an oil, called an essential oil, which, when separately collected, is one of the most active poisons known. In smoking, it mixes with the saliva. Its poisonous effects are more conspicuous in inexperienced and young smokers, because they are more apt to swallow the spittle contaminated with the smoke; and also, by quickly drawing the air through the burning tobacco, they cause a larger quantity of oil to reach the mouth.'

CHARACTER.-How different is the human mind according to the difference of place. In our passions, as in our creeds, we are the more dependants of geographical situation. Nay, the trifling variation of a single mile will revolutionize the whole tides and torrents of our hearts. The man who is meek, generous, benevolent, and kind, in the country, enters the scene of contest, and becomes forthwith fiery or mean, selfish or stern, just as if the virtues were only for solitude, and the vices for a city.—Bulwer.

WISE IGNORANCE.-A gentleman was riding in Scotland by a bleaching-ground, where a poor woman was at work watering her webs of linen cloth. He asked her where she went to church, what she heard on the preceding Sunday, and how much she remembered. She could not even tell the text of the last sermon. And what good can the preaching do?' replied he, if you forget all?' 'Ah, sir,' replied the woman, 'if you look at this web on the

grass, you will see that as fast as ever I put the water on it, the sun dries it up; and yet, sir, I see it gets whiter and whiter.'

is

A NEWSPAPER.--A man eats a pound of sugar, and the pleasure he enjoys is ended -but the information he gets from a newspaper is treasured up in his mind, to be enjoyed anew, and to be used whenever occasion or inclination calls for it. A newspaper is not the wisdom of one man or two men; it is also the wisdom of past ages. A family without a newspaper always half an age behind the time in general information; besides, they never think much, or find much to talk about. And then there are little ones growing up, without any taste for reading. Besides all these evils, there is the wife, who, when the work is done, has to sit down with her hands in her lap, and nothing to amuse her or divert her mind from the toils and cares of the domestic circle. Who, then, would be without a newspaper?

SERVE Honesty ever, though without apparent wages. She will pay sure, if slow.-Bishop Hall.

This year, 1852, Russia will celebrate throughout the vast expanse of her empire the completion of her thousandth year of national existence. The Russian Empire was founded in 852, in which year the Russians or Rossians, probably of Scandinavian origin, made their first appearance on the shores of the Bosphorus, as Warangiens.

THE Rev. H. Wilberforce, the ex-vicar of East Farleigh, who seceded to the Church of Rome, being a married man, cannot enter the priesthood of the Church of Rome, but it is said that he has received à dispensation from the Pope, which will permit him to preach, though not to perform, any other of the priest's offices. An order of preachers, to meet the cases of those English clergymen who, being married, cannot be admitted into the priesthood, is talked of as about to be established by His Holiness.

MR HUME towers among them (his party) without a rival. Future Parliaments will do justice to this remarkable man, still the most hardworking Member of the House of which he is now the father. His labours on public committees will be often referred to hereafter, and then, perhaps, it will be remember that, during a career of forty years, and often

under circumstances of great provocation, he never once lost his temper.-Disraeli's Life of Lord George Bentinck.

I DON'T USE THAT ARTICLE. In a recent voyage made by the steamer Acadia, a large number refused the wine, or even to treat. But some drunk lustily. In entering Boston bay, they were in a fog, and in much danger. Guns were fired, and soon a small-boat, with a single individual, was under the stern. All thought it a pilot. But no, it was a fisherman who had heard the guns, and come to tell us where we were. We all thanked him heartily, and the captain offered him a bottle of brandy. 'I don't use that article, sir,' said he, and rowed off. A rich Liverpool merchant, who had drank more than any other person, said, 'That is a sight you never see in England." It was the first word he had heard spoken by an American, and a noble testimony to the cause of temperance -'I don't use that article !'-Evangelist.

THE FIRST OMNIBUS.-The honor of having invented the omnibus is due to M. Baudry, a native of Nantes. The first omnibus that ever ran made its appearance in the streets of that city in the year 1826; and, in the short space of time that has since intervened, the manufacture of that most convenient of popular vehicles has extended to all parts of the world. Even in the sandy environs of Cairo you are whisked to your hotel in an Oriental omnibus.-Fraser.

LORD BROUGHAM'S NOSE.-In a little and amusing work, entitled Notes on Noses,

which has just been issued by Mr Bentley we find the following learned commentary on that singular organ belonging to Lord Brougham:-'It now only remains to treat of some obstinate noses which will not come within our classification. One of these is that curious formation-a compound of Roman, Grecian, cogitative, and celestial, with the addition of a button to the end, prefixed to the front of my Lord Brougham. We are bound from its situation to admit that it is a nose, and we must, therefore, treat of it; but it's a queer one. 'Sure such a nose was never seen.' It is a most eccentric nose; it comes within no possible category; it is like no other man's; it has good points, and bad points, and no point at all. When you think it is going right on for a Roman, it suddenly becomes a Greek; when you have written down a cogitative, it becomes sharp as a knife. At first view it seems a celestial, but celestial it is not; its celestiality is not heavenward, but right out into illimitable space, pointing-we know not where. It is a regular Proteus-when you have caught it in one shape it instantly becomes another. Turn it, and twist it, and view it how, when, or where you will, it is never to be seen twice in the same shape; and all you can say of it is, that it's a queer one. And such is exactly my Lord Brougham. Verily, my Lord Brougham and my Lord Brougham's nose have not their likeness in heaven and earth— but the button at the end is the cause of it all.'

ROYAL AGES.-At the present crises some interest may possibly attach to the ages of the princes who make and mar the destinies of the world. We subjoin a list :Pope Pius IX., 59 years; King of Wurtemberg, 70; King of Belgium, 61; King of Prussia, 56; Emperor of Russia, 55; King of Sweden, 52; King of Denmark, 43; the President Bonaparte, 43; King of Naples, 41; King of Bavaria, 40; Duke de Nemours-Orleans, 38; King of Holland, 34; Prince Joinville-Orleans, 33; the Queen of England, 32; the Queen of Portugal, 32; King of Hanover, 32; Count Chambord Bourbon, 31; King of Sardinia, 31; Duke of Aumale-Orleans, 30; the Sultan, 28; Duke de Montpensier-Orleans, 27; Francis Joseph of Austria, 21; the Queen of Spain, 21; Louis Philippe Orleans, Count of Paris, 13.-Kolner Zeitung.

THE number of recruits enlisted and approved for service in the Royal Marines, during the six months ending December, 1851, was 286.

THE MARBLE ARCH.-From an official document just issued, it is shown that the cost of taking down, removing, and re-instating the marble arch was little short of £11,000.

CHANGE OF FORTUNE.-A poor old cooper of Ollerton, Notts, who for several years has deservedly earned his bread by the sweat of his brow, has, we are informed, by a late decision of the Court of Chancery been declared entitled to property to the extent of £30,000.-Derby Mercury.

No fewer than 87,549 foreign watches, and 64,784 clocks, were imported into this country during the first ten months of last year-an enormous number, when taken

in addition to the large quantity daily manufactured in this country.

THE CITY OF LONDON stands upon 620 acres. The fixed property in houses located upon this small spot is estimated at forty millions sterling; and the value of moveable property in the City according to the Railway Journal is considered to be worth a hundered millions sterling.

As to the value of the British produce and manufactures exported from this country, a recent return of the House of Commons shows the value of such exportations to be about thirty-four millions annually.

JUDGES CLERKS.-Among the recommendations of the Common Law Commissioners, which will probably be adopted is one that the judges' clerks shall be paid by salaries instead of fees. In 1847 the fees of the twelve judes' clerks amounted to £22,558 6s. 4d.

GOVERNMENT GRANT FOR A CATHOLIC CHAPEL. According to the Morning Herald, the Government has contributed 2001. towards defraying the expenses of the new Roman Catholic chapel recently opened at Greenwich.

THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT.-It appears from the report of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests just printed, that on the 31st of March last there were 1,013 men employed on the New Houses of Parliament-742 upon the works at the building, 163 at the workshops and on the Thames bank, and 108 at the other establishments.

DEATHS OF REMARKABLE PERSONS IN 1851.-During the past year no Royal personage so eminent as Louis Philippe, and no statesman like Sir Robert Peel has been removed from the world. Death, however, has allowed no order of men to escape his scythe. Ernest, King of Hanover, aged 80, and Duke Ferdinand, of

Saxe Coburg and Gotha, 66, two uncles of the Queen of Great Britain, and the Duchess D'Angouleme, 72, the last child of Louis XIV., have been struck out of the list of royalty. Many distinguished literary and scientific persons have been swept away, amongst whom may be named Mary Woolstoncraft Godwin (53), Joanna Baillie (88), John Pye Smith, D.D. (76), John Lingard, D.D. (80), Harriet Lee (95), James Fenimore Cooper (61), Schumacher the Danish Astronomer (80), Oersted, the Natural Philosopher (73), Gutzlaff, the Oriental Historian (48), and Daguerre, the Inventor of Daguerreotype (62).-During the past year the following among other distinguished Scotchmen have died :—Robert Dundas, second Viscount Melville, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Scotland, aged 80; the Rt. Hon. Charles Hope, 88; Lord President of the Court of Session from 1811 to 1841; Sir James Wellwood Moncrieff of Tulliebole, Bart., one of the Senators of the College of Justice, 74; Maitland, Lord Dundrennan, one of the Senators of the College of Justice; Joshua Henry Mackenzie, 74; upwards of twenty eight years a Senator of the College of Justice; Major General Sir Henry Lindsay Bethune of Kilconquhar, Bart., 63; Chas. Kirkpatrick Sharp of Hoddam, an eminent antiquary; Sir John Athol Bannatyne Murray Macgregor of Lanrick, Bart., President and senior Member of Council at the Virgin Islands, 41; James, Viscount Strathallan, 84; Sir John Graham Dalyell of Binns, Bart.; Sir Charles Bannerman of Elsie, Bart., 62; Sir David Scott of Duninald and Sillwood Park, Bart., 62; Sir John Gladstone of Fasque and Balfour, Bart., 86; David Macbeth Moir, 53-the well-known" Delta" of Blackwood's Magazine; and George Dunbar, Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh, 76.

REFLECTING LIGHTHOUSES.-At a meeting of a Society of Mathematicians, held at Liverpool, in the last century, one of the members proposed to lay a wager that he would read a paragraph in a newspaper at ten yards distance, with the light of a farthing candle. The wager was laid, and the proposer having covered the inside of a wooden dish with pieces of looking-glass, fastened in with glazier's putty, placed his reflector behind the candle, and won the wager. One of the company marked this 'experiment with a philosophic eye. This

was Capt.Hutchinson, the dock master, with whom originated the reflecting lighthouses erected at Liverpool in 1763.

HABERDASHER.-It is noted, as the origin of the term haberdasher, that 'berdash' was a name anciently given in England to a sort of neck-dress; and the person who made or sold such neck-dresses, was called a 'berdasher.' Hence the present term 'haberdasher.'

PLANTS.-The Poppy was brought from the East.-The Sunflower from Peru.Flax or Linseed is, in Southern Europe, a

weed in the ordinary grain crops -Th Radish came from China.-The Garden Cress out of Egypt and the East.-Hemp is a native of Persia and the East Indies.-The New Zealand Flax and Syrian Swallow Wort show their origin by their names. The Nettle, which sometimes furnishes fibres for spinning, is a native of Europe. -Of Dye Plants, the Madder comes from the East.-Woad is a native of Europe. Dyer's Weed grows in Southern Germany Safflower came from Egypt.-Dyer's Knotgrass from China.

COUNTY. Anciently, the comites, counts, or earls, had the government of the counties; and afterwards the vice-comities, or sheriffs. The county simply means the district of the count. Shire is a Saxon word, from scyran, to share or divide; because the shires were divided by certain metes and bounds from each other. Another modification of the term, and which gives some idea of its original meaning, is met with in the word plough-share. The sheriff (in Saxon, scyregeresa), is the reve, grave, or governer of the shire, being therein the chief officer under the king.

HUSSAR.-The origin of the name hus sar is of some interest. When the Turkish wars commenced, the attacks of that hardy, numerous, and warlike race, placed Hungary in great jeopardy; and the Franklins, awed and terrified beyond measure, summoned the peasantry to defend the country. A law was passed compelling twenty cessions to produce, equip, and maintain in the field, one soldier; and the men who were thus raised were called hussars, from hus, which signifies twenty. In later years, the Hungarian cavalry used to boast that they were called hussars, because each man of them was a match for twenty.

THE CABINET. From an early period the kings of England had been assisted by a privy-council, to which the law assigned many important functions and duties. Ďuring several centuries, this body deliberated on the gravest and most delicate affairs; but by degrees its character changed. It became too large for despatch and secrecy. The rank of privy-councillor was often bestowed as an honorary distinction on persons to whom nothing was confided, and whose opinion was never asked. The sovereign, on the most important occasions, resorted for advice to a small knot of leading ministers. The advantages and disadvantages of this course were early pointed out by Bacon; but it was not till after the Restoration that the inferior coun

cil began to attract general notice. During many years old-fashioned politicians con

tinued to regard the cabinet as an uncon stitutional and dangerous board. Nevertheless, it constantly became more and more important. It at length drew to itself the chief executive power, and has now been regarded, during several generations, as an essential part of our policy. During some years the word 'cabal' was popularly used as synonymous with cabinet. It hap pened, by a whimsical coincidence, that in 1671 the cabinet consisted of five persons, the initial letters of whose names made up the word cabal-Clifford, Arlington, Buck ingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale.

THE GRACE CUP.-The grace cup derives its name and use from an amusing little fact, illustrative of the manners and customs of the Scotch nobles in the eleventh century; when that royal Christian civiliser, Margaret Atheling, the consort of Malcolm Canmore, observing that they had an irreverent habit of rising and quitting the table before grace could be pronounced by her chaplain, promised to reward all who could be induced to tarry for that ceremony, with a draught, ad libitum, from a large cup, of the choicest wine, which was passed from hand to hand, round the board, after the thanksgiving for the meal had been duly said. The bribe offered by the beautiful young English queen was too agreeable to be resisted by the hitherto graceless northern magnates; each was eager to claim his share of the grace cup: and the custom thus instituted in the palace became so popular that it was introduced in the barons' halls, and wherever festive cheer was to be found throughout the land, even in the convent refectory, where, as all were constrained by the monastic discip line to assist in singing the grace, the cup could only have been circulated in imitation of the practice of the court. The fashion of the grace cup was adopted in England by all degrees who could afford to honor a custom so much in unison with national taste. Every person of consequence could boast of a grace cup in the middle ages; and even at the period of the Reformation they are occasionally described in inventories of plate and jewels, and bequeathed in wills.

PIPING-HOT.-According to "Lemon's Dictionary," published in 1783, this expression arose from the custom of a baker blowing his pipe, or horn, in the villages, to let the people know that he had just drawn his bread, which was consequently hot.