2 DECEMBER 1837, Page 17

The British Almanack and Companion contains a great variety of

useful information. The abstracts of Acts of Parliament and chronicle of the last session is a principal and permanent feature: among the peculiarities for the present year, we notice directions for collecting specimens of natural history, accounts of the ma- nagement of the Excise revenue, of the operation of the Poer-law Amendment Act, of CAVENDISH'S experiment to determine the longitude, of the railway s, steam-navigation, and public improve- ments, with cuts of new buildings.

The British Working Man's Almanack and Companion con- tains a clever statement of the working of the new Poor-law, with the view of making out that it is the labourer's best friend. There are papers on Paw iffiroking, Strikes, the making of Beer and Bread, and Cottage Economy.

GEORGE CRUIKSHANK'S twelve signs of the months, in the Comic Almanack, are exuberantly droll ; and if he sacrifices per- sonal character to caricature, at any rate he gives the spirit of the scene with breadth and richness. The humorous verses are written in an off-hand manner, so that if one joke is poor the next makes amends—or if not, the reader takes the will for the deed.