more distant than such sanguine men had imagined. It will be yet a long time before all the old standing debts-a fearful accumulation they were-will have been discharged; while inconsiderate zeal, in spite of every Connexional guard and precaution, has even within the last ten years laid up not a little store of trouble and embarrassment for the future. Much, indeed, has been accomplished; but very much not withstanding remains to be accomplished. The springs of the Connexion have been sensibly lightened; but the weight to be carried is still heavy. Every year the work of relief is advancing; but each year also too much is done in the way of creating new embarrassment. We fear, therefore, that the period is yet distant, when, so far as the department of Chapel Relief is concerned, the Committee will find its occupation gone. Never theless, this is the consummation towards which the operations of the Committee continually tend. To clear off old debts, and prevent the establishment of any permanent debts in the case of new undertakings, is the business of the Committee; and in proportion as this is accomplished, the Committee will be able to devote an increasing proportion of its resources towards the aid of new undertakings, especially in poor and needy localities, with a view to secure their completion with as little debt as possible, and in no case with more than a temporary debt. The Relief Fund should by degrees merge into a Fund in aid of New Erections. This can only be effected very gradually. But for forty years already the Chapel Committee have kept this object in view; and now, although still so far from seeing it fully attained, they will be encouraged to persevere in their endeavours to secure it by the fact that they are permitted to see some small beginning of what has been so long waited for.

At present the Committee ope

rates, on a small scale, in the way of making both Grants and Loans in aid of new erections. But much cannot be done in the way of Grants by a small disposable surplus of some £500 a-year: nor, if in a few years the amount to be applied in this direction should reach £1,000 a-year, will this go far when distributed among the poor and needy cases of such a Connexion as that of Methodism. The Loans' Fund in aid of Chapel Erections amounts to about £4,000, of which, however, part remains unpaid. To this the Committee is at liberty to add a sum of £4,000 from its Loan Capital of £40,000. But again it is evident that, if the Committee should decide to transfer the whole of this amount from the Relief to the Erections' Loan Fund, the entire amount of about £8,000, at the disposal of the Committee, will be a very small loan capital with which to work in the midst of English Methodism. It is pleasing, however, to find that the Committee has made a beginning in this direction. During the year 1862-3 six needy cases were helped by Loans amounting in the aggregate to £375, and Grants amounting to £50. The entire cost of these six cases (consisting chiefly of small chapels) was £3,364. Besides these, promises have been made to 43 cases, of £1,380 in Grants, and £2,435 in Loans. In the course of some years we may hope that the proportion of the income of the Fund devoted to Grants of this kind may be largely increased. In 1862-3 the income, including £1,110 derived from Chapel-Trusts, was £6,421, being an increase of £261 on that of the prior year. As this amount continues to increase, year by year, there will be more to spare in aid of Erections. Besides which, the Committee hope, now that their ordinary income is nearly set free for the current demands of the Connexion, to be able both to satisfy the claims of the

Relief department in the way of Grants, and at the same time to apply a larger proportion of their income towards Erections. Perhaps it is not over-sanguine to expect that, if the Chapel-Fund continues to meet with growing Connexional support, within half-a-dozen years £2,000 a-year may be free for Grants in aid of Erections. If, along with this, the Erections' Loan Fund of the Committee could be so increased as to reach the sum (including all resources) of £20,000, the operations of the Committee in this department would begin to approach adequacy. At present they are embarrassingly restricted. No considerable help can be afforded anywhere.

It should be understood that the Committee never grant a Loan, in the case of any erection, except on the understanding that, over and above this Loan, three-fourths of the cost of the erection shall be provided. Their Grants, also, are usually made on the same condition; although, in very extreme and needy cases, they have power, according to the regulations under which they act, to make a small grant towards the threefourths which must in every case be raised. Until the Committee have much larger funds at their disposal for this department, they will be obliged to adhere very rigidly to the most economical principles in their administration. The local operation of the Metropolitan Build

ing Fund has lent a great and most beneficial stimulus to chapel-building in and around London. Such funds might with advantage be brought into operation in other great aggregations of wealth and poverty and population. But, apart from all such local funds, the Wesleyan Connexion greatly needs a large capital sum, and a large yearly income, to be available in aid of Chapel Erection. As there is no department of Connexional administration which is so vitally related to the organic development of Methodism, we have felt persuaded that such particulars of the operations of the Chapel Committee as have now been given would possess a powerful intrinsic interest for our readers; and all we have aimed at has been to give a clear view of the operations of the Committee.

Let us be permitted to add, in closing, one word, especially for the eye of those whom it especially concerns. The Wesleyan Chapel Committee acts under strictly defined rules; its discretion is within narrow limits; it has no power to suspend or relax any rule which has been laid down by the Conference; neither has it any option but to report to the Conference any case in which conditions have not been ful

filled, however unavoidable the failure in fulfilment may, in certain cases, appear to have been. The Conference alone can justify or condone.

GLASS. The art of casting plate-glass by throwing the molten material on an iron or copper table, and rolling it into a sheet of equal thickness, was first adopted in England, in Lancashire, in 1771; but there is abundant proof that plate-glass of smaller dimensions was made before that time at South-Shields. In the early part of the seventeenth century, an article called blown plate-glass was made at that place, and the manufacture was continued by

the family who originally established it until 1845, when the process was abandoned, being entirely superseded by the cast plate. In this is afforded an instance of the superiority of machinery over manual labour. Blown plate-glass, which was the great original of the art in all countries, depended entirely in its manipulation on the strength of lungs and dexterity of muscle of the individual operator, whose chef-d'œuvre was about

four feet long and two and a half feet wide; whereas the cast plate is made by the co-operative efforts of twenty men who move from the furnace the crucible in which the material is melted, and by means of powerful machinery roll it into a plane of any required dimensions. The record of the daily manufacture of blown plate-glass at South-Shields, in 1750, is still extant, and affords a curious proof of the infancy of the art, and of the difficulties of the operator. Up to the year 1845, the returns of the Excise duty show that there was more plate-glass mide at South-Shields than at any other manufactory in the kingdom. In that year the Excise duty on glass was abrogated, and in consequence the produce of this manufactory has been quadrupled. Previously to 1845, the quantity of unpolished plate-glass blown and cast at South-Shields was 312,000 feet per annum now its capability of produce is 1,240,000 feet per annum. A new kind of plate-glass, called rolled plate, has been for some time manufactured at Sunderland, by the spirited firm of Messrs. Hartley and Co. The invention is due to Mr. James Hartley, who has had the honour of establishing a new branch of manufacture

of great public utility. This new article somewhat resembles unpolished plate-glass, but is lighter in substance, and eminently fitted for roofing and other purposes of construction where translucency only is required. Ordinary window-glass was first used in Great Britain for architectural purposes at the great monasteries at Monkwearmouth, on the river Wear, and at Jarrow, on the Tyne. The Venerable Bede, our first ecclesiastical historian, who flourished at the former place in the seventh century, relates that his contemporary, the Abbot Benedict, sent for artists beyond the seas to glaze the monastery of Wearmouth. St. Bede and St. Benedict were, in their day, great promoters of literature and the fine arts; and they imported from all parts of Europe everything that could give splendour to their churches, and inspire their disciples with a lofty enthusiasm. Such was the change made in their churches by the use of glass instead of other and more obscure substances for windows, that the unlettered people avowed a belief, which was handed down as a tradition for many generations, "that it was never dark in old Jarrow church." The extreme rarity of windowglass in this locality is evinced by the following entry in the minutes of a survey of Alnwick Castle, made in 1573 :"And because, throwe extream windes,

the glasses of the windowes of this and other my lords castels and houses, here in the country, dooth decay and waste, yt were good, the whole leightess of everie windowe, at the departure of his lordshippe from lyinge at anie of his sade castels and houses, and duringe the tyme of his lordshippe's absence, or others lyinge in them, were taken down and lade up in saftie, and at sooch tyme as ether his lordshippe or anie other sholde lye at any of the sade places, the same might then be set uppe of newe with small charges to his lordshippe, whereas now the decaye thereof shall be verie costlie and chargeable to be repayred." By a singular coincidence, the first manufactory of window or crown glass in Great Britain was established at Newcastleupon-Tyne, within a few miles of these monastic establishments. In the year 1616, Admiral Sir Robert Maunsell erected glass-works at the Ouseburn, Newcastle, which were carried on without interruption till nearly the middle of the present century, when they were closed. When the British Association first held their meeting in Newcastle-upon-Tyne there were six large crown-glass manufactories in operation on the river Tyne, producing annually upwards of seven millions of feet of window-glass. These manufactories have now ceased to exist, owing chiefly to the introduction of sheet glass into this country, and the comparatively low price at which plate-glass can be now had. Crown-glass is made in a circular shape, which, of course, involves a considerable loss of surface in being reduced to the rectangular shape, in which all window-glass is used, and the knob or "button" in the centre limits the

size of the window-panes. The public taste now demands panes of large dimensions-an object which is attained by the use of sheet-glass; and although crown glass maintains the palm of greater brilliancy, yet it must be esteemed in the light of an effete manufacture, and will gradually die out in this country, as it has already done on the Continent. Flint-glass, the "crystal" of the ancients, has been made in Newcastle and its neighbourhood for a very considerable period; but its early history in this locality is obscure. It is more than probable that its manufacture was first introduced here by Sir Robert Maunsell, who, as before remarked, established window-glass works in this borough in 1616.—Mr. R. W. Swinburne, British Association.

THE MADAGASCAR SILKWORM. No country in the world appears more

eminently qualified by nature for the production of silk than the island of Madagascar. Most of the caterpillars of the country cover themselves with silky envelopes, which protect them both from the inclemency of winter and the sudden showers of the summer season. Some are naturally covered from their birth with a thick mantle which grows with them, leaving only the head and legs uncovered. Others spin double and treble cocoons, and others again mix up various particles of plants with their silk, combining them artistically; and, lastly, there are some which spin a common nest, in which they live under a republican form of government, each individual spinning its own cocoon besides. The last number of the Bulletin de la Société d'Acelimatation contains a curious paper on this subject, by M. Auguste Vinson, of La Réunion. He states that the Hovas weave a kind of silk which they call landy; and is obtained from the worm that feeds on the leaves of ambrevade, or Angola-pea (Cytisus Cajanus). This silk is heavy, and has no gloss, but is exceedingly strong. The natives sell the tissues they weave out of this silk very dear, and it is therefore only the rich who wear them. King Radama II., who dresses in the European fashion, wears trousers and a paletôt made of this silk, which, not being dyed, is of a grey colour, like unbleached linen. The wealthy are buried in shrouds made of this silk, and it is said that such shrouds entombed for centuries have been exhumed in a perfect state of preservation. The ambrevade being an indigenous plant of La Réunion, this Madagascar silkworm might be easily introduced there. The insect is 45 millimetres long; its body is composed of 12 segments, and covered with black sharp horny points all over. The general hue is a chestnut brown; but the abdomen has a longitudinal rose-coloured streak between two other light brown ones. The cocoon is 70 millimetres in circumference, and 45 in length; it is very heavy, of a dirty grey colour, but interspersed with black bristles. The chrysalis contained in the cocoon is edible, and considered a delicacy by the Hovas, who eat it fried.-Times.

DECREASE OF THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION OF ENGLAND, A.D. 1851-61.—The author commenced by drawing attention to the prosperity which of late years has attended English farming, and to the rise in the value of the land, especially since 1853. Nevertheless, at the last census it was found

that the only counties which had decreased in population were the agricultural ones of Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk, Wilts, and Rutland. To exhibit the decrease in the population ascribed to the class "Agricultural" in the census of occupiers of 1861, the writer divided the kingdom into three sections: (1) 24 counties of highest rank, where upwards of twenty per cent. of the adult population is occupied in agriculture; (2.) 16 counties of intermediate rank, where over 10 and under 20 per cent. is employed; and, (3.) 5 counties of lowest rank, where less than ten per cent. is employed. Between 1831 and 1861, the first section of counties had increased 1,093,000, or 22 per cent. on the population generally; the second section 1,651,000, or 39 per cent.; and the third section 3,425,000, or 73 per cent. It was stated that in 1831, the population was pretty equally divided between the three sections: the respective proportions were then 5·0, 4·2, and 4·7. In 1861, however, in consequence of the unequal rate of increase, those ratios became 61, 59, and 8.1. In 1851, the number of persons in England and Wales, aged 20 years and upwards, occupied in agriculture was 1,576,080; in 1861 the same class had fallen to 1,531,275. This shows an actual decrease of 44,805 persons, or nearly 3 per cent. in the ten years. The greatest decline had taken place in the south-western and the Welsh divisions. In the former, consisting of the counties of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset, the decrease was 20,381, or nine per cent.; and in the latter, which includes Monmouthshire, it was 13,285, or 8 per cent. The ratio of adults engaged in agriculture in England and Wales on the adult population generally in 1851, was 161 per cent.; and in 1861 it was 13.9 per cent., which is therefore a decline of 2.2 per cent.; in other words, 22 in every 1,000 of the adult population had, between 1851 and 1861, ceased to belong to the agricultural class. Mr. Purdy showed that, during the last decade, the falling off in certain counties was very considerable. Sussex had lost 2,698; Hants, 3,412; Berks, 1,158; Herts, 1,095; Bucks, 1,048 ; Suffolk, 3,306; Wilts, 2,837; Dorset, 1,343; Devon, 9,475; Cornwall, 3,917; Somerset, 2,809; Gloucester, 1,166; Northumberland, 1,265; Cumberland, 2,099; Monmouth, 1,089; South Wales, 4,530; and North Wales, 7,666. The highest per-centages of decrement took place in Devon, 13:3; North Wales, 110; Cornwall, 10.5; Hampshire, 88; Cumberland, 77; Monmouth, 76;

Wilts, 73; Sussex, 65; Suffolk, 6·4; Dorset, 56; South Wales, 5-6; Hunts, 54; Bucks, 51; and Northumberland, 5.1. It was observed of Wiltshire, that while the population generally had decreased by 4,904, the decrease of the adult agricultural population was 2,837; and that, in Suffolk, the general decrease was only 747, while the agricultural decrease was 3,306. Mr. Purdy stated, however, that 11 counties had increased their agricultural population. The six most remarkable instances were these: Salop had increased 1,226, or 3.5 per cent.; Worcester, 1,281, or 57; Leicester, 1,371, or 60; Lincoln, 2,139 or 33; Chester, 1,550, or 42; and Lancaster, 5,336, or 7.1 per cent. Attention was

directed to the fact that the largest increase had occurred in our great manufacturing county, and further that Lancashire, in 1861, employed a larger agricultural population than any other county. The number of adults so engaged was 80,822. The West Riding of Yorkshire, which in this respect comes next, only employed 77,168, and Lincoln, a purely agricultural county, 67,357.—Mr. Purdy, British Association.

not

BREAD FOUND AT POMPEII.-On this subject M. de Luca has recently addressed two papers to the French Academy of Sciences, which are devoid of interest. The eighty-one loaves discovered at Pompeii, on the 9th of August, 162, in a Roman bakingoven, he tells us, have not all been taken to the Museum of Naples, where only a dozen are kept; the remainder are exhibited at Pompeii. They weigh from 500 to 600 grammes each, except four weighing 200 grammes more, and one of the weight of 1,204 grammes. Their colour and substance offer some interesting peculiarities. Externally the colour is dark brown, nearly black at the circumference, but lighter toward the centre. The crust is somewhat hard and compact; but the crumb, which is porous, may be easily crushed, and has a lustre not unlike that of coal. This crumb contains, at the centre, about 23 per cent. of water, while the part adjacent to the crust only contains from 13 to 21 per

cent.

It loses some of its humidity when exposed to the air and the weather is hot. The crumb near the crust contains 2.8 per cent. of nitrogen; the crumb at the centre contains 2.6. The crust does not contain more than 165 per cent. The composition of this bread was not easy to ascertain, because the quantity of carbon

diminishes from the circumference to the centre; while the hydrogen, on the contrary, increases toward the centre. This shows that the external air has exercised some action on the bread, notwithstanding it was enveloped in a baking-oven.-The corn found in the baking-establishment of Pompeii seems to have been wheat of good quality. It is now of a dark-brown colour, porous, and easy to crush between the forefinger and thumb. It contains 18.2 of ashes, 68.8 of carbon, and 5.5 of oxygen. It has lost its starch, since it is not coloured by iodine; nor does it contain any substance capable of reducing the tartrate of copper and potash, or fermenting with yeast. Hence, after eighteen centuries, the corn of Pompeii has lost all its organic substances, and contains neither gluten, nor starch, nor sugar, nor any fatty substance; while the bread contains the elements which constitute organic matter more toward the centre than at the surface.

STRENGTH OF MEMORY. Dr. Johnson, it is said, never forgot anything that he had seen, heard, or read. Burke, Clarendon, Gibbon, Locke, Tillotson, were all distinguished for strength of memory. When alluding to this subject, Sir William Hamilton observes: For intellectual power of the highest order, none were distinguished above Grotius and Pascal; and Grotius and Pascal forgot nothing they had ever read or thought. Leibnitz and Euler were not less celebrated for their intelligence than for their memory; and both could repeat the whole of the "Eneid." Donnellus knew the "Corpus Juris" by heart; and yet he was one of the profoundest and most original speculators in jurisprudence. Ben Jonson tells us, that he could repeat all that he had ever written, and whole books that he had read. Themistocles could call by their names the twenty thousand citizens of Athens. Cyrus is reported to have known the name of every soldier in his army. Hortensius, (after Cicero the greatest orator of Rome,) after sitting a whole day at a public sale, correctly enunciated from memory all the things sold, their prices, and the names of their purchasers. Niebuhr, the historian, was not less distinguished for his memory than for his acuteness. In his youth he was employed in one of the public offices of Denmark. Part of a book of accounts having been destroyed, he restored it by an effort of memory.Dr. Forbes Winslow.