ht Vrattituto.

The Free Public Library of Manchester was opened with a formal ce- remony on Thursday. In the upper room of the building were assembled

about a thousand persons, including the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Wilton, the Bishop of Manchester Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Sir James Stephen, Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. Monckton Milnes, Mr. John Bright, Mr. W. Brown, Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Charles Knight, Dr. Vaughan, and Mr. Felkin, Mayor of Nottingham. Among the ladies present were the Countess of Wilton and the Honourable Misses Egerton. Sir John Pot- ter was the chairman of the day : his share of the proceedings consisted in reading a history of the institution, and formally handing the title- deeds of the building and its contents over to the Mayor in trust for the people.

This important formality having been performed, the Earl of Shaftes- bury proposed the first resolution-

' That this meeting witnesses with great satisfaction the opening ceremony of the Manchester Free Library, and desires to express its entire confidence that this noble institution will effect great and lasting good to the community for generations to come."

The town of Manchester had shown, he said, that the true end of commerce was to make the institutions of the country subservient to its civilization, and civilization subservient to the social and moral amelioration of the whole family of mankind. "Now, Sir, who in these days will presume to question the growing improvement of the men of commerce and of industry ? They no longer, as before, figure for a time and then become absorbed in the great mass of proprietors ; they now stand apart, upon a separate and independent basis, and claim to be heard, as equal to the best in patriotism, principle, and intellectual power." He defined the Library as a great and glorious insti- tution' large, liberal, and cosmopolitan."

Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton confessed that there were two things he valued more than the library itself : one was the generous spirit of emu- lation with the rich displayed by the poor ; and the other was the proof that the employers could elevate, instruct, and sympathize with those they employed. " Gentlemen, the other day I asked the enlightened Minister of the United States what was the heaviest rate in America; and he told me, rather to my surprise, that a poor-rate in some of the towns was almost as heavy as it is in this country ; but he said that the largest rate, and the most general, was a rate for the purpose of education ; and that,' said he, ' is a rate we never grumble at, because it is in education that we find the principle of our safety.' But, gentlemen, education does not cease when we leave school. Education, rightly considered, is the work of a life, and libraries are the school-rooms of grown-up men."

Sir Edward seconded the resolution.

Mr. Charles Dickens said, he had been made happy since he had been sitting there by the solution of a problem which had often perplexed him. '

"I have seen so many references made in newspapers, Parliamentary de- bates, and elsewhere, to the Manchester School,' that I have long had a consi- derable anxiety to know what that phrase might mean, and what the Manches- ter school might be. (Cheers and laughter.) My natural curiosity on this head has not been diminished by the very contradictory accounts I have received re- specting that same school; some great authorities assuring me that it was a very good one, some that it was a very bad one—some that it was very broad and comprehensive, some that it was very narrow and limited—some that it was all cant,' and some that it was all cotton. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I have solved this difficulty, by finding here today that the Manchester school is a great free school, bent on carrying. instruction to the poorest hearths. It is this great free school, inviting the humblest workman to come in and to be a student ; this great free school, munificently endowed by voluntary contributions in an incredibly short space of time—starting upon its glorious career with 20,000 volumes of books—knowing no sect, no party, and no dis- tinction, nothing but the public want and the public good. Henceforth this building shall represent to Inc the Manchester school." He hoped many great towns and cities, and many high authorities, might go to school a little in the Manchester seminary, and profit by the noble lesson it teaches.

Mr. Thackeray looked to the great measure of books," among the many social and sanitary reforms, as much as he looked to light and air for benefiting the poor. "If books do soothe, and cheer, and console—if books do enlighten, and enliven, and fortify—if they do make sorrow bearable to us, or teach us to forget or to endure it—if they do create in us harmless tears or happy laughter—if they do bring forth in us that peace and that feeling of good- will of which Mr. Dickens spoke but now, and which anybody who reads his books must have felt has come from them—surely we will not grudge these inestimable blessings to the poorest of our friends, but will try with all our might to dispense their cheap but precious benefits over all."

The education of mechanics was much changed from what it was a hun- dred years ago when Hogarth represented the Idle Mechanic spending his time with "Moll Flanders," and the Good Mechanic as having arrived at reading the history of the good apprentice who was made Lord Mayor of London. The mechanics of our days, he continued, have got their Carlyles to read, their Dickenses on the shelf, and their Bulwers by the side of them. The resolution which Mr. Dickens had proposed, and he was about to second, applied especially to the poor and he hoped that the contents of the volumes would be carried. to the dwellers in the cottages, the garrets, and the cellars. "I am aware, gentlemen, that in such a vast collection the sort of works which I am in the habit of writing can but occupy a very small space. I know that our novels are but what we may call tarts for the people - where- as history is bread, and science is bread, and historical and spiritual truth are that upon which they must be fed." Sir James Stephen had just come from Cambridge, where twenty libra- ries afford every external aid which can promote the pursuit of knowledge; and he invited them or their sons to those libraries, where there are dig- gings infinitely of richer value than the Australian. He declared that Manchester has proved "the truth of that which the French would call the solidarite of mankind." .

"Now Sir, between this great city of Manchester, the capital of our manu- facturing industry, and Cambridge, the Eastern capital of the science and literature of England, there exists such a partnership. When we acknow- ledge the possibility we also acknowledge the duty of an interchange of reci- procal relations between them. You are reducing to practical arts every ab- stract science ; we are teaching every science by which art may be improved and perfected. You may infuse into us with advantage some of your own health- ful spirit of reform and progress ; and permit me to say, that we may with some advantage, perhaps, impart to you some of our not less healthful spirit of reverence for the memory, for the maxims, and for the institutions of our ancestors." Mr. Monckton Milnes said that it would require very little from him to add to the suggestive speech of Sir James Stephen. "I too, ladies and gentlemen, well remember those twenty magnificent libraries to which our friend the learned professor has made allusion; and I also remember how very few people there were to read them. I remember how many piles of books I have there seen resting in dust upon the walls, which I could have wished and heartily desired to see in the hands of the poorest of our fellow men. I have remembered too, not without shame, how many of the class to which I belong possess magnificent repositories of books, from which hardly a volume ever descends from the shelves. I therefore will take another line of congratulation from that which has been offered to you. You have been congratulated, and justly so, on your own munificence and liberality and sound judgment in raising this institution, in purchasing this noble building, in filling these shelves as they are filled; but let me con- gratulate you on having a population which can read them." Mr. John Bright, moving what may be called a vote of confidence in the Corporation, gave some historical sketches of the passing of Mr. Ewares Act—an inefficient measure; and he appealed to Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton to support any further measure that might be proposed. The other speakers were, Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. Felkin, Mr. Peter Cunningham, Dr. Vaughan, and the Bishop of Manchester. All the re- solutions, which were of a purely congratulatory character, were unani- mously adopted.

The Guild of Literature and Art, or rather the company of amateur actors who set on foot that institution, were entertained by the magnates of Manchester on Wednesday, in the Free-trade Hall. Mr. Barnes, the Mayor, presided over the dinner and the subsequent oratorical display. The chief speakers among the guests were Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Mr. Charles Dickens, Mr. Charles Knight, Mr. Frank Stone, and Mr. Robert Bell ; while the Mayor, Mr. James Crossley, Mr. Watkin, Dr. Bardsley, and Mr. Thomas Bazley, upheld the rhetorical reputation of Manchester. The evening passed away in reciprocal health-drinking; each gentleman who was toasted proposing a toast in return.

Marvel is busy with an "extraordinary narrative," which bears more resemblance to a story from the depth of some French department than to the less exciting anecdotes of an English county. Near Ipswich, it seems, there is a village called Shottisham, and in this village there lives a family named Squirrell. One of the Squirrells—Elizabeth—has turned out a prodigy. At school, says the local journalist, she showed "great natural ability," and remarkable aptitude for study. At the age of twelve, in June 1850, she went home in consequence of illness, caused by over- work at school. She had the best medical advice, but grew worse, and at length lock-jaw set in. Here begins the miracle. She continued to live by suction for some time. In Midsummer 1851, she recovered from lock-jaw, but remained deaf and blind; yet in this state continued to exist by suction alone. And now her fame began to spread—for num- bers had visited her; and her talk and her writings were reported to be so eloquent and so touching, especially on religious subjects, that she was regarded as little less than one inspired. The marvel increased. For the last three months she is said to have lived without food. In this state she declared that she had seen a vision of angels, one of whom had con- sented to become her constant guardian; and that she was the especial ob- ject of God's favour ; as heavenly music (sounding very much like the ringing of glass) testified, for it was swept by the wing of the invisible angel. The Ipswkh Express tells us that the excitement among the good people of Suffolk has been very great— "Medical men, clergymen, Dissenting. ministers, carriage aristocracy, gig, cart, and foot folk, alike shared in the intense desire to gaze on this extra- ordinary child, and to listen to the words which fell from her with as much weight as if she really had indisputable credentials that she was an oracle from Heaven. On being asked when and how this mystic scene would end, she replied, 'Oh! in my triumphant entrance into glory.' "

As a matter of course, there were sceptics among the visitors, who de- sired to test the miracle. A watch was organized and kept upon the girl. Nothing could be discovered, until a Reverend Mr. Webb thought he de- tected certain indications anything but miraculous, implying that Eliza- beth Squirrel did not differ from other mortals in her subjection to physical laws. Scrutiny was made, more searching than fastidious, and some evidence was thus attained ; and the philosophers of the county are as pertinacious in their inquiries as Laputans. But as the committee of watchers will report, we may defer a continuation of the story until that report shall come to hand.

The General Screw Navigation Company have chosen Southampton as the port for the arrival and departure of their vessels ; the sixth steam- packet company that have selected that rising port.

The meeting of the .ArchEeological Institute was closed at Newcastle on Wednesday, with a banquet.

The South-western Railway Company have given a treat to 1500 per- sons—men in their employ, with their wives and families—by conveying them to Southampton, and some round the Isle of Wight.

The scarcity of Irish for getting in the harvest has caused a rise in the wages of agricultural labourers. At Morpeth, women have been paid 28. 6d., and men 38. 681. a day.

Pauperism in Cuckfield Union has decreased to that extent that it is in serious contemplation to let the seven acres of land connected with the workhouse, in consequence of there not having been for some time past sufficient inmates to cultivate it properly. Nor is the diminution confined to ablebodied male paupers ; within the last few weeks there have been upwards of twenty applications to the master of the union for female ser- vants, not one of which could be complied with.—Sumex Advertiser.

Mr. Rees, a tailor of Bath, has been killed at Saltford station, three miles from the city, by attempting to cross the line as a train approached. He seems not to have observed the train.

On Tuesday week there were excursions of the children of the public schools of Lincoln to Cleethorpes. In the evening the children and teachers returned in two long trains. The second was drawn by two engines. While proceeding at a rapid rate, the coupling-iron of the first engine broke, and it shot ahead ; the driver incautiously stopped the locomotive' and the train came into violent collision with it. Several carriages were damaged, and some fifty persons were hurt. Many received but trivial cuts and bruises, but others suffered more : several suffered from fractured limbs, from serious hurts on the head, or from knocking-out of their teeth.

An extraordinary disaster has occurred on the North Kent Railway. Be- tween Gravesend and Strood the line passes through a tunnel formerly used rta.cydaal; about the middle an opening was made to the upper air, where ere enabled to pass each other; it was called the "lay-by." On "Blittird7iNt noon, there was a great fall of rain at Strood, and a water-spout id 'supposed to have burst over the " lay-by" ; for a torrent of water poured down the opening carrying a large quantity of soil and chalk upon the rails, nd a even sane of tunnel itself, while the telegraph-wires were broken ; quite a rivulet ran through the tunnel. A train from London approached at the time, but the driver saw that something was wrong, and he stopped in time to Rrevent mischief. The train returned to Gravesend ; and it took many labourers several hours to clear the rails. An up-train was so much delayed in the evening, that it came to a stand in Blackheath tunnel from want of fuel ; a pilot-engine was sent down the line to look after it ; and matters were so managed that there was a collision, smashing the glass in the windows and hurting the passengers, though not seriously.

A woman at Shillington in Bedfordshire has killed her infant, by cutting its throat. The mother was ill from fever and pulmonary disease and she had exhibited a "wildness of manner." Another instance of "harmless" madness!

Thomas Archer, an engine-driver on the South-eastern Railway, has been committed for trial by the Maidstone Magistrates for causing. a collision at Headcorn on the 26th July. He was driving. the "tidal train" at a rapid rate ; a train was stopping at Headcorn ; but signals were up to stop Archer's train : he neglected these, and there was a crash, though, fortunately, no lives were lost.

A young lady of Portsmouth has eloped with her father's groom, and has been married by special licence in London. The damsel had 2000/. under her own control.