inner surface of the earth's crust by which it is inclosed, will, by exciting powerful electric currents, produce sudden changes above the surface. Another effect of the internal pressure will be continual changes of level on the outer surface; so much so, that, from Professor Bourlot's point of view, there is no such thing as firm land-terra firma-be it continent or island. He thinks it may be possible to prove the existence of the Plutonian sea; but until that be done, he will find it difficult to establish his theory of interior tempests and their effects.

George Peabody and Queen Victoria.-The following graceful letter has been written by the Queen of England to Mr. Peabody:

fact the Russian disease or the Rinderpest was then unknown, and was first described by Gmelin half a century later. The origin of the complaint remained involved in mystery. Mr. Bates mentions that the cowkeepers noticed the extreme drouth of the preceding spring, when the cattle had not their usual purgation from the "frimness" of the grass. The later outbreak of 1746 and succeeding years has been frequently referred to in the newspapers.

Sensational Literature.-At the East end of London almost all the murder and highwayman literature of the past sixty years is being republished and sold in penny numbers. In tobacconists' shop windows, up dirty courts and alleys, this literature may be seen suspended between canisters and brier-roots in strings. The wood cuts are of the Blueskin and Jonathan Wild stamp

"It is an act, as the Queen believes, wholly without parallel, and which will carry its best reward in the consciousness of having contributed so largely to the assistance of those who can little help themselves.

The Queen would not, however, have been satisfied without giving Mr. Peabody some public mark of her sense of his munificence, and she would gladly have conferred upon him either a baronetcy or the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, but that she understands Mr. Peabody to feel himself debarred from accepting such dis

tinctions.

"It only remains, therefore, for the Queen to give Mr. Peabody this assurance of her personal feelings, which she would further wish to mark by asking him to accept a miniature portrait of herself, which she will desire to have painted for him, and which, when finished, can either be sent to him to America or given to him on the return which, she rejoices to hear, he meditates, to the country that owes him so much."

The Cattle Plague.-In what has been written on this subject, little reference has been made to the outbreak of the same disease in 1714. A royal commission was then as now appointed; the president was Mr. Bates, F.R.S., surgeon to the royal household. His report was read before the Royal Society, and will be found in the Philosophical Transactions. In the symptoms of the disease, and in the post mortem appearances, there is wonderful similarity to what is reported at the present time. Mr. Bates records that every remedy was unavailing, and every form of treatment attempted without perceptible result; and that the plague was at last stayed by dividing the herds into small lots, with complete isolation, so that if one lot was attacked the others might not be infected. The dead cattle were burned or buried with quicklime, to encourage which the King, George I., granted a sum from his own privy purse for every animal thus destroyed. Many thousands perished in the home countries. Nothing is said in the report of the commissioner about the plague being imported from abroad; in

and gory poniards flashing high above the victims' heads. Robinson Crusoe has just been republished in penny portions, and illustrated after the fashion; but it does not seem to be very popular. "It arn't strong enough, sir," answered a news agent, in reply to a question put to him.— London Review.

Post-Office Statistics.-The total number of letters delivered in the United Kingdom, in 1864, was 679,084,822. The population at the close of 1864 was nearly 30,000,000, giving above twenty. two letters on an average to each individual. In France, with a population above 30,000,000, the number of letters was under 300,000,000. In the United States the number was under 470,000,000. The gross revenue of the British Post-office in 1864 was above £4,000,000, and the profits about £1,160,000.

Bagpipes.-Most people think that the bagpipe is a Scotch instrument. Some are proud of the bagpipe, others are afraid of it; but, whether by its friends or its foes, the bagpipes are looked upon by us as something national. Now, I am not at all sure that we are entitled to any such praise or blame. I believe it could be demonstrated--though our friends on the other side of the Tweed would be excessively indignant-I believe it could be demonstrated that the bagpipe is an English instrument, essentially English; that the English were the original bagpipers; and I find in confirmation of this that Shake speare, who was an authority in music, refers to the bagpipes constantly, but he does not introduce them in Macbeth. The armies in Macbeth don't march on Dunsinane to the sound of the bagpipe; and he speaks of the drone of the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire bagpipe. He speaks of a person “laughing like a parrot at a bagpiper," but all without the slightest Caledonian reference. And when we look at the works in the Register House, and show how our former monarchs spent their income, we find their expenditure for music put down in such entries as the following: “To the English piper, 3s. 6d." And Scotchmen were not the pipers-they were harpers. The harp was the old Scotch instrument, and I believe continued to be the old Scotch instrument till within a very recent period.-Lord Advocate Moncrieff, at Birmingham.