ebe Ilrobinces.

The annual meeting of the Central Suffolk Agricultural Association took place at Stow Market, on Friday. There was according to the Morning Post, "full attendance of landowners and tenant-farmers: the labourers usually employed in this district of the county also attended in considerable numbers, from a natural anxiety to know what plan was likely to be adopted in order to better their condition." The proceed- ings consisted, as usual, of a ploughing-match, a show of stock and im- plements, and a dinner for the members of the society. " After the usual loyal toasts, the labourers to whom the judges had awarded prizes were called into the room ; and, having received their rewards, were addressed by the Chairman, who pointed out to them the advan- tages derivable from virtuous and industrious habits. At the conclu- sion of the ceremony the labourers retired." The after-dinner speeches were full of allusions to distress among agriculturists and labourers, its causes and remedies. The Chairman, Mr. Henry Wilson, of Stowling- toft, began, apropos to the toast of "Success to the Central Agricultural Association," and to some statements in the Times newspaper, which he " ridiculed," about incendiary disturbances in the county— There could be no doubt that the distress was attributable to the farmer's inability to give constant employment to the surplus-labourers ; nor was that unnatural, when it was recollected that the population was rapidly increasing. It was absurd to suppose that the farmer, who was subject to peculiar charges, could give employment to his labourers all the year round. It should be shown, at least, that he had a certainty of profit proportioned to the amount of capital which must be laid out if be kept on more labourers than he required. The agriculturist would readily submit to a temporary pressure, for most men know bow to provide for emergencies. He would mention a case in point, which he had heard of in a recent visit to Southampton. It had been determined to make a railway in that district ; the announcement of which drew to the spot a large number of men, who hoped to find employment. Unfortunately, they had mistaken the time at which the works were to be commenced. The con- sequence was, that several hundred men were without the means of existence. it so happened that Sir Thomas Acland had for some time emertained a project of sub-draining part of his estate, but had deferred it from time to time. The honourable Baronet, hearing of the destitute state of the poor fellows, set them to work at once ; and they were thus unexpectedly provided with constant em- ployment, at fair wages. That was meeting an emergency ; but the farmers could not bear up against increasing and permanent demands, which must be met in some other way. At the late meeting at Wickham Market, the ho- nourable Member for Westminster, Captain Roue, had recommended emigra- tion as a remedy for excessive population. The suggestion was certainly worthy of consideration. However, he should not advocate emigration, unless on ex- press conditions—unless he were satisfied that the emigrant had a reasonable Pmspect of subsistence on his arrival at the place of his destination. He bad trier!, the experiment on a limited scale, and it fully succeeded. Some four years tack, a number of labourers went out to Adelaide from a parish with which he was acquainted ; and from the accounts subsequently received from them, it appeared that they had done better in that colony than they had done in England. But emigration, to be of any avail, must be taken up on an ex- tensive scale. If parishes would unite, and provide funds to send out labourers willing to emigrate, and the Government lent its cordial cooperation, he was certain that the scheme would be found effective. Mr. Heigham, returning thanks, "repudiated with indignation " the charge that incendiarism was caused by the treatment which the labour- ers received from landowners and farmers— He would fearlessly assert that the farmers had been paying the highest• wages they could afford, considering the prices which they obtained for the produce of the land. Those who asserted the contrary knew nothing of the subject. Some persons seemed to think that the produce was all profit—no allowance was made to the agriculturist for the outlay of his capital; and they appeared to forget that the farmer was subject to various charges from which other classes were wholly exempt. Then, again, it had been said that it was the labourers who bad caused the incendiary fires. That was equally untrue. Could any one suppose that the men to whom prizes had been that day awarded were at all likely to be guilty of such nefarious crimes? He did not believe that the agricultural labourer was capable of such acts. The poor mau's cha- racter constituted his sole wealth, and it was the duty of his superiors to de- fend him from an aspersion so unkind and devoid of all foundation.

The Reverend Mr. Maberley rose to propound some remedy for agri- cultural distress, which would be found more efficacious than any other. But the Reverend C. Hill rose to order, objecting to the introduction of political topics; and Mr. Maberley, silenced with difficulty, abruptly left the table. Afterwards, Mr. Hill, proposing " the healths of the Judges of the Show," expressed a wish that some of those gentlemen would favour the company with some insight of the real causes of agri- cultural distress—more particularly such as affected the farmer. Mr. Spalding, one of the judges, returned thanks ; but said that he was un- able to comply with the reverend gentleman's request. Mr. Gibson, another of the Judges, also returned thanks, and did make some allusion to the causes of distress—

With respect to the causes of agricultural distress, be had too little expe- rience to entitle his opinions to any weight. He believed that much of the existing embarrassment was attributable to overpopulation. It was unfair to cast the whole of the burden uprin the occupier. He believed that the farmers were disposed to employ more labourers, even at a pecuniary loss to them- selves; but they had a right to look to the landlords for assistance. Unless the landlord did his part, the farmer would he ruined, and the labourers must suffer from want of employment. If both parties acted together, they might get out of their difficulties.

The unsuccessful candidates were toasted ; which enabled Mr. Fisher Hobbs, of Mark's Hall in Essex, to allude to remedies for agricultural distress— He did not consider emigration would afford that substantial and extensive relief which some gentlemen anticipated. There were but few districts in which the population was oppressively redundant. In his opinion, a much more efficacious remedy, one open to far leas objection, would be found in a modification of land-tenures. Unless the farmer had a settled interest in his holding, be could not be expected to lay out capital in improvements. If the landlords would agree to grant their tenants fourteen-years leases, more la- bourers would be employed ; the value of land would be enhanced by additional improvements; a larger amount of produce would be obtained from the soil; and in this way the interests of all classes, landlord, tenant-farmer, and la- bourer, would be consulted. Fixity of tenure would be a decided advantage to all parties. The question of rent was also worthy of attention. He was of opinion that the rent should be subject to the price of corn, and governed in a great degree by the fluctuation of the market. Ile regarded the allotment system with favour, because it would afford the labourer employment during his leisure-time, which would otherwise be spent at the beer-shop. He also wished for a reduction of the malt-duty; which would increase the farmer's profits, and enable the industrious labourer to have a more wholesome beverage, which he could drink at his own fireside.

Referring to what Mr. Hobbs had said, the Chairman expressed his belief, that in his private capacity Sir Robert Peel was convinced of the impolicy of enforcing tne malt-tax, though as a Minister he could not consent to abandon so large a source of revenue.

The Agricultural Society of Waltham-on-the-Weld held their annual meeting on Friday ; the Duke of Rutland presiding. There was a creditable ploughing-match; and the show of beasts and implements, though not numerous, was respectable. About three hundred gentle- men sat down to dinner in the Agricultural Hall, a stone building erected for the purpose of such meetings. There is not much to notice in the speeches. The clergy having been toasted, the Reverend Mr. Gillett turned the discourse on the state of the poor— He hoped all improvements in agricultural operations would be made with a clear view to the advantage of the labourer as well as to that of the landlord ; and be trusted that no poor man would be left, either in winter or in summer, without work, and without proper remuneration for it. It was not for him to enter then into the question ol how the condition of the labourer could be most effectually bettered ; but he would venture to suggest, that there was no point more essential to be attended to in the production of that most desirable result than the state of their cottages. There was no greater bar to improvement in the labourers' condition than the present state of their dwellings in many in- stances. The crowding of large numbers into small cottages was productive of the most crying evils and the greatest demoralization ; and he had not the slightest doubt that any attention bestowed on that point by those who had the power to remedy the mischief, would repay them all by the moral improvement it would effect in that portion of the population. The Duke of Rutland declared himself ready to perform whatever lay in his power to serve the interests of the agricultural labourers and improve their condition. He regretted the falling-off in pigs—for there were only three at the show this year, instead of the nineteen last year ; but he regarded it as only a temporary consequence of the great diffi- culty that existed in the labourer's finding the food necessary to put his pigs in a fit condition for exhibition. However, he congratulated the meeting on the harvest ; which he felt confident would be one of the best yields that had been had for very many years. He also derived satisfaction from the establishment of Protection Societies, to counteract the Anti-Corn-law League. He compared prices in this country and in Canada, to show that the unexpectedly large importation of corn from that colony, of 22,430 quarters up to the 11th July last, could not have been made at remunerative prices—unless, as he suspected, there had been some underhand dealing in the matter. He finished by proposing "the Waltham Agricultural Society "; and that having been drunk with great applause, the premiums awarded to the candidates in the several classes were delivered. On presenting the prizes to the labourers, ploughmen, shepherds, and domestic servants, the Chairman, says the Morning Post, addressed " these poor people in a most marked and feeling manner "— He was most happy to welcome them among the company that day. Iheir duties were of a most important kind in the stations which Providence had allotted to them; and they would return to their respective homes with the proud consciousness of having performed in their several positions in life as much as the highest in their station. It was the ordination of a Divine Pro- vidence that there should be a difference in ranks among men in this world ; but those of the lowest rank might deserve as well of their fellow-creatures and of God as the highest, by the discharge of those obligations which had been im- posed upon all—the obligation of good conduct, and the obligation of good ex- ample. He concluded by drinking, in a most friendly and cordial fashion, " Health and prosperity to the labouring classes of Great Britain; and a fair day's wages for a fair day's work."

That toast was responded to in a very hearty manner by all present.

The annual meeting of the Ongar Labourer's Friend Society was held at Chipping Ongar, in Essex, on Thursday. The society was esta- blished to encourage skill in husbandry, industrious habits, and good conduct among labourers, cottagers, and servants, in twenty parishes of the district ; and on Thursday, prizes were distributed to a great number of candidates ; tents being pitched in a large field for the occasion. The chairman was Mr. Raikes Currie, N.?.; who addressed the assembled candidates in a speech of hearty good-will, accosting them on terms of affection and equality, as man to man. Afterwards the members of the society and several farmers dined together at an inn ; and in the after- dinner speaking, Mr. Currie impressed upon his hearers the necessity of manifesting a sincere and not a self-glorifying interest in the welfare of the labouring class. Our preoccupied space forbids our extracting any part of these interesting speeches ; but we intend to recur to them next week.

The annual meeting of the Coventry constituency was held on Mon- day. in St. Mary's Hall, to receive Mr. Williams's account of his conduct in Parliament last session. He referred the meeting to the list of his votes, which he had published and placed in the hands of every freeman. He enlarged on the bad management of the public business, by which time was wasted during the first five months of the session, and then measures were so hurried at last that Members could not possibly master the subject of each. He dilated on the Railway Bill ; and es- pecially on the clause, which be had supported, securing to third-class passengers better accommodation. He urged the necessity of doing `` justice to Ireland"; defended his support of the Dissenters' Chapels Bill against the wishes of his constituency ; and deplored the wretched state of the agricultural population. In a short conversation with Mr. M•Lean, an Irishman, Mr. Williams contended that Repeal would entail disastrous consequences on Ireland. Thanks were unanimously voted to Mr. Williams, and briefly acknowledged.

The meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science appears to have revived this year, at York, all its popular in- terest; which was somewhat damaged by its exile last year to the re- mote regions of Munster. The attendance of savans has been good. Among the more prominent names we notice those of Professor Liebig, Professor Owen, Colonel Sabine, Dr. Scoresby, Professor Sedgwick, Professor Forbes, the Chevalier Schomburgk, Mr. George Stevenson, Mr. Lyell, Professor Matteucci, the Earl of Rosse, the Marquis of Northampton, Earl Fitzwilliam, Mr. Everett, Captain Maconochie, Dr. Hodgkin ; with many others well known in science. The proceedings lm Friday derived all the interest belonging to sharp oral controversy ; arising out of a paper read by the Dean of York in the Geological Sec- tion, entitlea " Critical Remarks on certain Passages of Dr. Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise." The large room appropriated to that section was crammed with auditors, in expectation of some stirring discussion, and numbers went away unable to obtain admission. We quote the re- port in the Morning Post.

The Dean directed his observations entirely to Dr. Buckland's theory of cosmogony ; and he attempted to reconcile observed geological facto with the Mosaic account of the creation. The Dean conceived it to be impossible for the action of rain-water on granite rocks to have decomposed them, and to have formed the upper series of rocks in a succession of ages, as Dr. Buckland bad affirmed. The very elements of which the upper strata consist were wanting in granite; therefore it could not be supposed that by any decomposition what- ever of those rocks the upper strata could be formed. The theory he wished to substitute for that propounded by Dr. Bucklaud was one that would, he thought, reconcile the whole observed plizenomena with the account of Moses, that the world was created within a comparatively short period. He supposed the earth, and the air and the waters of the earth, to have been created at one time, and thickly stocked with inhabitants; that by the action of volcanoes on land and under the sea, and by a great and sudden flood of water over the land, the upper strata were deposited, and the animals then living were destroyed, and thrown together in masses cuss to form the strata of fossil organic remains now found in various parts of the world. The Dean contended also, that the asserted order of superposition in rocks at different periods was contradicted by the fact, that in several instances what are termed the primary rocks are found resting upon the transition and secondary strata: which he maintained could not b, if theta had been, as geologists asserted, a regular order of formation at different and distant epochs.

Professor Sedgwick undertook to reply to the Dean of York's objections ; Dr. Buckland being prevented from attending the meeting by a sudden domes- tic calamity. The Professor's reply occupied an hour and a half ; and it was a most slashing, uncompromising, and almost annihilating speech. He com- menced by apologizing on behalf of the Council for their having allowed such a paper as the Dean of York's to be read. The principal object of the British Association, he observed, was the discovery of facts whereon theories might be based ; bet it was altogether foreign to their plan to discuss mere hypotheses, without any facts to support them, such as that of the Dean's. An exception, however, had been made in his case, partly from the position he holds, and more especially from the general feeling entertained on the subject of cosmogony, and the desire which many individuals possessed of seeing the facts of geology reconciled with the Mosaic account of the creation. The Dean of York'a hypothesis was not only unsupported by facts, but it was in direct opposition to them ; and it showed that he was utterly unacquainted with the elements of the science. The reverend Professor then, in an energetic manner, proceeded to state many of the ph wnomena of geology, to prove the utter impossibility of the work of creation having been completed within the limited period supposed by the Dean. In the first place, the distinct organic remains found in strata lying one above another proved that the animals could not have been jumbled together by volcanic eruptions and floods ; whilst the total absence in the up- per strata of organic remains of animals found in those below, and the great dissimilarity in their character, were evidence that the former race of beings must have become extinct before the new race deposited above them was created. These distinct genera, which presented no type of resemblance to any form of liviog beings at present known, must have had time to grow, to propagate, and to perform all the functions of life, before they were destroyed ; and in the Strata containing vegetable remains, it was evident that vegetation must have been proceeding for a long period before each succession of plants was destroyed, and afterwards covered by another creation of plants. The occasional oc- currence of primary rocks resting on the secondary and tertiary formations, was owing to the inversion of the strata, which had all been agitated, raised, and depressed ; and in these convulsions of nature the order of succession had been inverted—as could be readily traced. Professor Sedgwick admitted there were several parts of Dr. Buckland's book with which he could not agree ; but it was substantially correct. The hypothesis of the creation was a probable one, and was only put forth as such; but whether correct or not, was altogether immaterial, as not one conclusion was founded on that hypothesis. In making this assault on the Dean of York's theory, the reverend Professor

was not sparing in disparaging expressions. He spoke of the inconvenience of

allowing "addle-pated " individuals to occupy the time of the Association with their crude speculations : he said the Dean had shown himself to be quite ignorant of facts; that he should have come there to learn, and not to presume to teach geological truths ; and that such indigested notions were merely "tales for the nursery," and not fitted for a scientific assembly. Alluding to the fossil remains of the great megatherium, which according to the Dean's hypothesis must have been caught up and deposited with other animals of a former creation, Professor Sedgwick said the Dean of York had altogether mistaken the age of the animal—he had forgotten to look the megatherium in the mouth. This objection, and many other of the salient points of the Professor's speech, were received with great laughter ; and when he concluded he was greeted with several rounds of applause.

The Dean of York sat unperturbed while this answer was made ; but then rose and said, with some allusion to " incivility " on the part of his antagonist, that they did not differ as to facts, but only as to the mode of accounting for them. Mr. Warburton, M.P., who presided, offered a kind of double apology, for not stopping the Professor's harsher language, and on the other band for allowing the Dean's paper to be • read. The unusual style of Mr. Sedgwick's attack made quite a " sen- sation." The Dean of York published his paper in the afternoon, under the invidious title of " The Bible Defended against the British A ssociation."

The Dean even carried the controversy into the pulpit ; and the understanding that he would do so drew a crowded audience to the Minster on Sunday— He took for his text the third chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, the nineteenth verse "The wisdom of this world is foolishness "; and on this sentiment he enlarged, showing that the tendency of worldly knowledge is to render "pigmy man " wise in his own conceit, and to produce infidelity. The sermon was a very good one, and was delivered with much eloquence ; and, putting aside the circumstances under which it was delivered, would have been generally approved. Professor Sedgwick sat near the pulpit ; and though there were no personal allusions in the discourse, yet the significant glances and smiles of the congregation showed their application of expressions to the mem- bers of the Association.

At the general meeting in the Concert-room, on Friday evening,—Earl Fitzwilliam presiding,—Mr. Lyell delivered a lecture on the geology of the United States.

It is a curious fact, he said, that the principal geological formations of that country agree very closely with those of England : the organic remains found in the same formations correspond in genera, and many of them are identical with those found in corresponding strata in this country. The most important feature of the geology of the United States is their coal formation. The Ohio coal-field extends for a length of 700 miles, and that of Illinois is larger than the whole of England. The coal is formed in workable beds of considerable thickness; and in one instance there is a bed of Coal forty feet thick, which comes up to the surface and is quarried like stone. Another branch of Mr. Lyell's lecture was the consideration of the recession of the Falls of Niagara. He exhibited a large pictorial scene representing the bed of the Niagara river ; the painting having, he said, been enlarged from a drawing made by Mr. R. Bakewell junior, to illustrate the gradual wearing away of the rocks by the Falls. The ravine formed extends for seven miles; and there is no doubt that at one period the Niagara river fell over the cliffs at Queenstown, three hun- dred feet high. The present height of the Falls is one hundred and seventy feet ; and the rate of recession is about one foot in a year. During the time that the Falls have thus been wasting away the rocks, the great mastodon, whose immense fossil remains are found on the banks of the ravine, must have walked the earth—before (as is supposed) the existence of man.

At the general meeting on Saturday evening, Dr. Falconer described the fossil remains of some gigantic tortoises which he had discovered on a range of hills at the foot of the Himalaya mountains, in Central Asia. These tortoises when full-grown must have been twenty-one feet long ; and there is reason to believe they were not extinct until after the creation of man. In the same region, Dr. Falconer discovered the fossil remains of gigantic antelopes and elephants, of species at present unknown ; also some fossil bones of monkies.

In the Geological Section, on Monday, an interesting paper was read by Professor Owen, on gigantic extinct mammalia in Australia ; from which it appears that fossil remains of animals of the same type as are found in Europe exist there, but of much larger size than they are found in this part of the globe. A curious paper was also read by Professor Agassiz on the fossil fishes of the London clay ; one object of which was to identify those fishes with species found in remote districts of Europe.

In the Chemical Section, on Friday, Professor Matteucci read a paper, in French, on the measure of nervous force developed by a cur- rent of electricity ; endeavouring to ascertain, by the contraction of the muscles in a frog's legs, to which a weight was appended, the amount of power excited by a given quantity of electricity. The apparatus was ingenious, but uncertain in its results.

A more immediately practical subject was discussed—the peculiar functions of alkalies in manure and in the nourishment of plants. It began with some remarks by Mr. Wallingford on guano ; and Professor .Liebig carried it on more generally— He observed, that soda may often be found in plants performing the same functions as potass ; it being nearly immaterial whether the alkali is soda or potass The function of alkalies in plants he conceived to be, to decompose the carbonic acid, and to liberate the carbon to be assimilated with the woody fibre. For this purpose, any of the alkalies might serve ; their presence being only essential as agents in the process of assimilation, and not as constituents of the plants. Phosphates, on the contrary, he considered as essential to the plants, and that their place cannot be filled by any other body. Though pe- tass may be displaced to a great degree by soda, the Professor said that it could not be displaced altogether, as there are no plants without some [wags: that alkali is, therefore, more essential to the growth of vegetables than soda: but in what manner its action is more essential was not stated. With respect to the application of common salt as manure, he was of opinioa that it has no effect in supplying plants with their requisite quantity of alkali; for the muriate of soda remained undecomposed. Several questions were put to the Professor respecting the comparative values of African and Peruvian guano; the market-

price of the latter being nearly double that of the African, though the chief difference between them is, that the Peruvian guano containe a much larger portion of uric acid. He said that so far a. chemical investigation extended, uric acid is of no benefit as manure, ht its state as uric acid, though if decom- posed the ammonia it contains would prove beneficiaL The result of the dis- cussion on guano served to show that it is not a universal specific for poor land, and that the advantage to be derived from its use depends on the nature of the Boil to which it is applied.

In the Mechanical Section, on Saturday, some interesting models were exhibited. One was Mr. Prosser's wooden railway, recommended for its economical character, as it can be laid down at a cost of 5,000/. a mile. Another was a machine enabling blind persons to print instead of writing letters and other communications ; the result being em- bossed letters, also legible by the blind through the sense of touch. Professor Taylor illustrated the want of such an apparatus by the case of a relative of his own, who had been recently married, and who, being blind, was of course obliged to suffer the letters that passed during the courtship to be read by a third party. In the same section, on Monday, Lord Bosse gave an account of his • gigantic reflecting-telescope. The spacious room could scarcely con- tain the people who assembled to hear the description of the vast • machine.

lie explained the difficulties with which he had to contend in making his reflector. In the first place, ordinary speculum-metal is more brittle than glass; and it is so greatly expanded by heat that it is with the utmost diffi- culty a large speculum can be cooled without splitting. In Lord Rome's first attempts, he made one hundred castings without being successful. This dif- ficulty is avoided in inferior instruments by varying the proportions of tin and copper which form the speculum-metal, also by the addition of zinc ; but the • brilliancy of the polish and the reflective powers are thereby greatly diminished. An attempt was next made to cast a speculum of baser compound, which would • not be brittle, and afterwards to plate the surface with the best speculum- metal. This answered the purpose tolerably well; but the unequal junctions of the plated metal caused diffraction of the light injurious to the distinctive- ness of the image. It then occurred to him, that as the splitting of speculum- metal in cooling must be caused by the irregular manner in which the different portions of the mass contracted in cooling, if that process could be regulated so as to make the metal cool gradually on one side the difficulty might be overcome. To effect this, the lower part of the mould was made of iron whilst the sides were of sand ; by which means the heated mass cooled below at a quicker rate than in any other part, that being comparatively the only cooling surface. By this means, speculum-metal of the required size could be cast without splittiug: but there was found to be a defect in the metal arising from air-bubbles rising through the metal. To overcome the new difficulty, the under surface of the mould was made of ver- tical plates of iron placed closely together ; and through those lamina of iron the air escaped; instead of rising through the melted metal. The proportions of which the speculum-metal consisted were 58.9 parts of tin and 126.4 of copper. So many minutiae are required to be attended to, that even the composition of the melting-pots was found to be essential to the perfection of the process. In the ordinary iron melting-pots there are minute holes, through which some portions of the tin of the speculum-metal flows when melted, and deteriorates the alloy : these holes are prevented from being formed by casting the melting- pots in an inverted position, instead of erect. In grinding the speculum, which weighs three tons and three-quarters, and is six feet in diameter, it was placed in a tank of water, in which it was kept revolving ; and the polishing-tool, moved with two eccentrics and worked by steam-power, was applied on the top. The required focus was obtained by observation, not by measurement. The speculum, when completed, had a focus of fifty-three feet ; and the telescope was fitted on the Newtonian plan, the image being reflected to a hole in the side of the tube, near the top, into which the spectator looks, instead of looking towards the object. The immense tube weighs six tons and a half, and the joint and apparatus on which it rests weigh three tons and a half. To support this great weight, two high and massive walls have been built ; and moveable galleries are fitted to them, to elevate the spectator, and enable him to look through the eye-glass at all elevations. It is fitted as a transit in- strument, and has scarcely any other than a vertical movement, as it is intended for making observations when stars come to the me- ridian. To compensate in some degree for the want of a traversing motion, a reflection is used ; by which means any heavenly body may be seen an hour before it comes to the meridian. In supporting the tube, so as to ren- der it manageable by one man, large counterpoise weights are employed, winch diminish, by resting on the ground as the tube is elevated. The actual weight to be moved, therefore, does not exceed three hundredweight, and one person can elevate it with great ease. The lowest angle to which the tube can be in- clined is ten degrees, and it may be raised to four or five degrees below the pole. It was the examination of the nebulous bodies in the heavens that he principally had in view when he commenced the construction of the telescope, fifteen years ago. He exhibited the drawing of a nebulous cluster examined through the great telescope : the stars composing it appeared as large as stars of the first magnitude, though the whole cluster of them, seen through a mode- rately-good telescope, appears only as a white patch in the heavens. In most of the nebular are seen filaments of light issuing from their sides ; and Lord Bosse conceives, that when he brings his great telescope to bear on these fila- ments, they will be found to be composed of stars. In this manner he will he able to verify the ideas of astronomers ; and not limiting his discoveries to new satellites or planets, he will make known the existence of suns and of planetary systems, compared with which our celestial system is but a speck in the uni- verse.

In the Ethnological Section, on Monday, Chevalier R. H. Schom- burgk, in illustration of a paper on the Aborigines of Guiana, intro- duced a native boy he had brought with him from that country. The boy is fourteen years old, has a very dark skin, and projecting lower jaws. He exhibited a specimen of his skill in blowing arrows through a tube, the mode of projecting them by the Natives. The first arrow stuck in the cornice at the further end of the room; he afterwards fired eight arrows at the first as a mark, one of which split it ; and a third arrow brought them both down. At a general meeting on Monday afternoon, invitations for the next meeting of the Association were read from Bath, Cambridge, and South- ampton; and Cambridge was selected. The meeting was fixed for the 19th of June. Sir John Herschel' was elected President for next year; Mr. Hopkins and Professor Ansted local Secretaries. At a numerous meeting of the General Committee, on Wednesday, grants were unanimously voted of sums for scientific labours, making an aggregate of 1,257/. Au account of the receipts exhibited a total of 1,5581. The proceedings closed with a meeting in the evening, at which the usual complimentary votes were passed, of thanks to the several institutions and societies that had favoured the visit of the Association. The President then adjourned the meeting ; to be next held at Cam- bridge, in June 1845.

An explosion of gas took place at Haswell Colliery, between Dur- ham and Sunderland, on Saturday afternoon ; by which ninety-five persons lost their lives. The mine is 150 fathoms deep ; and in respect to ventilation has always borne a high character. All the men and boys in the mine at the time of the explosion, with the exception of three men and a boy who were at the bottom of the shaft, were killed. '1 he evidence at the inquest, which began on Monday, was to the fol- lowing effect. The causes of the accident are mere conjectures, no one of those in the workings of the mine having lived to tell how it oc- curred. It is supposed that it was caused by the removal of a or pillar of coal left to support the roof after the working, which al- lowed some of the roof to fall and smash a Davy-lamp, and that ignited the foul air in the mine. When a fall takes place from the roof, an emission of gas frequently occurs. Only fifteen of the persons killed were burnt, the remainder being suffocated by the choke-damp, or carbonic acid gas, the result of the explosion ; and it is by no means certain that all those burnt were destroyed by the fire alone. A miner thought there had not been a large explosion of gas. A crushed "Davy," as well as another from which the oil-plug had been taken out, were found on the spot where the jud had been hewed down. It appeared that great care was usually employed in working the pit to avoid uccideuts ; Davy-lamps being always used wherever any explosion was to be feared, and the mine was coustautly inspected. Such was the gist of the first day's evidence.

On the second day, Tuesday, Beaney, a pitman, was examined, and gave his evidence in a very satisfactory manner. He had worked in the part where the accident occurred. He could attach blame to no one ; for the ventilation of the mine was always excellent—the men even complained sometimes that the current of air was too strong for them. Every lamp was examined before it was permitted to he taken into the pit ; and all were locked. All the other witnesses corroborated Beaney's evidence: one who had lost a brother by the explosion, and another who had lost a son, considered the explosion quite accidental. Scott, a pitman, said that the hest ventilation would not entirely prevent such explosions. It was possible enough for the explosion to have taken place if there had been a current of air into every part of the pit. If a heavier body of gas came off than there was air to overpower, an ex- plosion might be the result ; and it is his opinion that was the case in this accident. It was also possible for a sufficient quantity of gas to have come off from the removal of the jud as would cause the explo- sion. Mr. Roberts, the "Pitman's Attorney-General," who has had great deal to do with the late strike, endeavoured by cross-exarnioation to elicit something unfavourable to the owners or managers of the col- liery; but in vain.

On the third day, Wednesday, two witnesses were examined at great length ; and their testimony supported that previously given. The in- quest was adjourned for a week, in order that two practical men might have an opportunity of minutely inspecting the mine, to throw some light if possible on the cause of the accident.

This is the most fatal colliery-explosion that has ever happened in the Durham coal-field. The wailing and misery in the neighbourhood of the colliery may be conceived from the fact that there is hardly a family in the district that has not lost some relative, and in very many cases the chief support of the family is gone. Fifty bodies were buried on Mon- day, the remainder on Tuesday ; the funerals forming most melancholy pageants.

There have been two very extensive fires in Cambridgeshire. One at Rampton, thought to have been wilful, consumed property to the value of 3,000/. or 4,000/ ; the other, supposed to be accidental, at Waterbeach, is estimated to have done injury to the amount of 2,0001.

Three women and two men, who had been paying a visit to the Queen man-of-war in Plymouth Sound, on Tuesday evening, were drowned on the Mount Edgecumbe shore, by the capsizing of their boat, which is supposed to have struck on a rock.