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an enjoyment, which has once gratified him, will do so again. The truth must be, that nothing has the power of pleasing us much, except it is given it by God. Every thing is entirely in His hands; He can therefore change. the nature of anything to us, when He pleases, or rather by His governing our minds and feelings, He makes us disposed at one time to receive enjoyment, but another time pain from the same object. This is His discipline; and one of His methods of blessing, and of punishing, as well as of drawing our hearts from the creature to Himself. To God, therefore, we ought to look, even for the most passing and trivial enjoyment of His gifts and mercies to Him entirely; not to the creature; for sometimes He blesses us by it, sometimes without it, sometimes in spite of it, and always shows us that we must not rely upon it. It may be compared perhaps to an uninteresting country, which, when the sun highly shines upon it, is covered with cheerfulness, and even made beautiful; but when clouds intercept that light, it is gloomy, and chilling, and melancholy.

E.

MEANS OF PROMOTING HEALTH.

DR. HODGSKIN has just published a volume under this title and in one of his notes he emphatically urges the general adoption of a practice which, we believe, obtains much more widely at present than before, and which is probably one of the most salutary as well as simple of domestic observations :-" I am desirous of more strongly impressing the great advantage to be derived from the daily general washing of the body with cold or cool water. No difficulty of expense or loss of time can be urged against it; since the operation can be performed in a very few minutes, and requires nothing more than a bason of water and a coarse towel. Many persons also use a sponge; but a wet towel is more convenient, more effectual, and less unpleasant to the feelings. It may be employed by the most delicate and susceptible persons, in the very coldest season of the year, if they will only take care at the commencement to avoid long exposure, and the use of a large quantity of water. I believe this

kind of ablution to be the most powerful means of guarding against the injurious influence of our variable climate; and I know that it affords the most valuable aid to convalescence from various lingering diseases. It restores and preserves the healthful functions of the skin, the importance of which are becoming increasingly known and appreciated. We owe much to the labours of Dr. Edwards, who has followed up the researches of Sanctorius on this subject. More recently Dr. Fourcault has received the gold medal of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris, for the additional light which he has thrown upon it. He has clearly shown the intimate relation which exists between the disturbed functions of the skin and several serious diseases. That fatal affection of the kidneys, which has been made known by the researches of Dr. Bright, may, in many cases, be traced to the interruption of sensible or insensible perspiration: hence there are no means more important for its prevention than those which secure the healthy action of the skin, of which the general ablution here recommended, and the due regulation of clothing, are the chief. I would here take occasion to offer another remark connected with this subject. Although the interruption of perspiration is a serious cause of disease, undue evaporation from the surface is no less to be dreaded. The proverbially ungenial influence of a dry east wind is perhaps chiefly to be attributed to its producing this effect; and I cannot doubt that the convenient and easy mode of travelling by railroad may be liable to some objection on this principle, unless the clothing of the traveller, or the inclosure of the carriage, afford protection against the influence of rapid motion through the air."-Daily Paper.

GAMBLING IN LONDON.

THE splendid gaming-houses and similar places in the metropolis, of which, great and small, their name is legion, are usually designated by the appropriate title of" Hells;' a better name could not be found. Not a night passes that these dens of iniquity and dissipation are not crowded, from the most fashionable, where the mad crew play to the tune of 100,000l., and where they go with carriage

and livery, to the vile and filthy "hells" in the poorest parts of the metropolis, where you see squalid, ragged, shirtless wretches, who have begged or stolen one more shilling to stake and lose, and then be kicked out of a "hell," in London, into the hell of the eternal world. The passion for gambling is the worst passion that can possibly enter the human heart. I hardly ever knew a man who had once yielded to it, to break away from the strong temptation. It seems to seize upon him with the grasp of death. The victim of it is beyond the reach of counsel. It is vain to address his judgment, his hopes, or his fears. He may be a kind-hearted man by nature, but it does no good to talk to him about his wife and children-he loves them, perhaps, although this infernal passion generally annihilates the social affections; but he would take the last crust from his child's mouth, and cast him upon the unpitying world, sooner than give up the gratification of this hellish passion." The Glory and Shame of England," by an American.

THE BOX TUNNEL ON THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.

As a splendid monument of the industry and of the genius of our country, this tunnel is equal, if not superior, to any that ingenuity and perseverance have ever accomplished. In order that our readers may form some idea of the tunnel, we may here remark that it is within a few yards of two miles in length, that it runs 306 feet below the surface of the earth, and that a great portion of it has been cut out of the solid rock. One mile and a quarter of this is lined with masonry, the quantity of excavation was about 300,000 yards, and the number of bricks nearly 20,000,000. One ton of gunpowder was used for blasting, and one ton of candles were consumed per week for upwards of two years and a half, and three horses have been daily employed in it. The solidity of the work, the symmetry of the entire arch, and the beauty of its two fronts, built of picked Bath stone, command universal admiration. The three great desiderata of a tunnel, viz.—absence from danger, darkness, and damp, have been in this perfectly acquired. It is so dry within that one might walk through it in slippers. It is lighted

by six shafts, which give by day a very sufficient light, and is as safe as any other part of the line.-Bristol Mirror.

CULTIVATION OF ONIONS.

A WRITER in the Gardener's Gazette says: In the month of November I throw my ground in rolls, or, as it is termed by some, a single-spit trenching, where it remains till the 25th day of February, which is my day for sowing (if the weather permit). I then level my ground, and with the spade clear out my beds five feet wide; I then add from two to three inches of dung from an old cucumber or melon bed. I then tread it as close as it can be trod, that it may hold its nourishment the longer. I then add one half inch of earth on the dung; I then sow my seeds in drills six inches apart. By this method I have had an excellent crop, in size and quality, on the same spot of ground, for the last seven years, far superior to that produced by any other method. I am very careful not to allow my beds to be dry after the onion is up; I always water, when necessary, in the morning, until the latter end of May, and after that time in the evening. I never allow the bowing down the tops of the onions, as it stagnates their growth; they never grow so large or keep so well. The sort I prefer is the white Spanish, with a small quantity of the James's or Globe Onions, as they keep longer than the Spanish. This, my method, may be considered by some to be a waste of ground, but I have found that one good crop a year of each of these valuable roots is far superior to two inferior ones."

EXTENT OF THE BRITISH DOMINIONS.

THE Liverpool Times, in announcing the birth of the Prince of Wales, thus summed up the vast extent of the empire, which it is to be hoped he will at some future and distant day preside over:"Salutes in honour of his birth will be fired in America-on the shores of Hudson's Bay, along the whole line of the Canadian Lakes, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, in the Bermudas, at a hundred points in the West Indies, in the forests of

Guiana, and in the distant Falkland Islands, near Cape Horn; in Europe-in the British Islands, from the Rock of Gibraltar, from the impregnable fortifications of Malta, and in the Ionian Islands; in Africa-on the Guinea Coast, at St. Helena and Ascension, from the Cape to the Orange River, and at the Mauritius; in Asia-from the fortress of Aden in Arabia, at Karrack, in the Persian Gulf, by the British army in Affghanistan, along the Himalaya mountains, the banks of the Indus and the Ganges, to the southern point of India, in the Island of Ceylon, beyond the Ganges in Assam and Arracan, at Prince of Wales Island and Singapore, and on the shores of China, at Hong Kong and Chusan; and in Australia, at the settlements formed on every side of the Australian continent and islands, and in the strait which separates the islands of the New Zealanders. No Prince has ever been born either in this or any other country-in ancient or modern times-whose birth would be hailed with rejoicing at so many different and distant points in every quarter of the world."

THE LAST CENSUS.

THE total population of England, according to the census just completed, is 7,321,875 males; 7,673,633 females -total, 14,995,508: that of Wales, 447,533 males; 463,788 females total, 911,321; that of Scotland, 1,246,427 males; 1,382,530 females-total, 2,628,957; and that of the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethon, and Man, 57,598 males; 66,481 females total, 124,079. These numbers, including 4,003 males, and 893 females, ascertained to have been travelling by railways and canals on the night of June 6, make the grand totals 9,077,435 males, and 9,587,325 females. The population, therefore, of Great Britain amounts to 18,664,761 persons.

The returns include only such part of the army, navy, and merchant seamen, as were at the time of the census within the kingdom on shore.

The increase of the population, as compared with the returns of 1831, is at the rate of 14.5 per cent. for England; 13 per cent. for Wales; for Scotland, 111; for

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