3,000 shilling tickets for distribution among the workmen who helped to build the Industrial Palace." fall, daughter of the publisher of Junius's Letters. The death of Miss Woodfall, the daughter of Miss WoodHenry Sampson Woodfall, the first publisher of Junius's Letters, calls for a passing note on February 15th. She was ninety-four, "born, therefore, before Junius had made his first appearance...... As she resided with her father until his death in 1805, she may be considered as the last direct authority on the subject of those Letters. Though not unwilling to converse about Junius, and a good test of an anecdote, she really knew but little, and, as we believe, for the best of all reasons, that her father knew but little, that was not known to all. She resided for many years in Dean's Yard, Westminster, where she was universally respected; and the Dean and Chapter have, we hear, kindly acceded to her known wish to be buried in the Cloisters." On the 22nd of February a long review is given of the 'Memoir of the late Sir Marc Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, Civil Engineer, Vice-President of the Royal Society,' by Richard Beamish. Isambard "In May, 1799, Brunel took out his first patent. This was for a duplicate writing and drawing machine......A machine for twisting cotton-thread and forming it into His machine for winding balls was also amongst the earliest of Brunel's inventions cotton into in this country. The impulse given by this machine to balls. the employment of cotton can now scarcely be credited. The little balls were very elegant in form; and from the manner in which the thread was wound, they presented the appearance of net-work, or ribbons of lace. The machine measured the length of the thread which it wound, and proportioned the size of the ball to its weight and fineness. Unfortunately, Brunel neglected to secure the benefit of his invention by patent, and it was therefore rapidly and generally adopted; and while thousands of pounds were realized through its means, Brunel himself remained without remuneration. In his Journal of 1806, he notices a visit which he paid to the establishment of the Messrs. Strutt, at Belper (Derby), where, after remarking that there were 640 persons employed, he says, 'I observed they had adopted my contrivance for winding cotton into balls. There were about twenty spindles on one swing.' A lady, a friend of Brunel, having experienced the advantage of the little cotton balls, while expressing her admiration to him, jokingly suggested that he ought Origin of the to invent a means of relieving ladies from the wearisome sewing employment of hemming and stitching. To any other, machine. the observation would have passed as it was intended. It was certainly forgotten by the lady herself; when, to her surprise, his patent for 'trimmings and borders for muslins, lawns and cambric' was shown to her, and in which she found her wishes more than fulfilled. The advantages of this invention are stated to be, 'that the operations of hemming, whipping, or otherwise securing from ravelling the edges of trimmings cut in narrow slips out of border webs, as they have unavoidably been hitherto, are by this invention altogether saved.' To this machine may perhaps be referred the origin of that recently introduced from America, and so largely employed in Belfast and the north of Ireland in hemming cambric handkerchiefs, stitching linen drawers and jackets, and in making shirts. A very essential difference will be observed in the fate of the two machines. While the one remained neglected and unproductive, the other is a marked success, and the object of an important and remunerative trade." In the year 1814 Brunel made his first experiment on the Thames with a double-acting marine steam engine. at Margate because he went by a steamer. "Having accomplished his voyage to Margate, he was desirous of obtaining accommodation for the night; but Refused a bed this was not easy. So strong was the prejudice which this new mode of communication excited in the minds of the inhabitants, particularly those connected with the sailing packets, that, blind to their future interest, they threatened personal injury to Brunel, and the landlord of the hotel absolutely refused to provide him with a bed." Thames Tunnel opened. The Thames Tunnel was opened on the 25th of March, 1843, and, "though commercially a failure, is, as the solution of a scientific problem, no unworthy memorial of its originator's genius." "Brunel's principal claim to a first rank amongst inventors rests upon his block machinery, by His block machinery. which ten men in our naval yards can now with ease, regularity and certainty, accomplish the work which formerly required the labour of one hundred and ten men.......Popular in his pro fession and beloved in private life, he closed his His death. days in a house in Park Street, Westminster (a small but cheerful residence, looking into St. Henry Thomas Buckle. James's Park), on the 12th of December, 1849 in the eighty-first year of his age." Henry Thomas Buckle, author of the 'History of Civilization,' died on the 29th of May at Damascus. He was born on the 24th of November, 1822, was the son of a rich merchant, and was educated at home-" was selfeducated in the best sense." The Athenæum of the 21st of June, 1862, contains an account of his last days, written by his travelling companion, Mr. J. S. Stuart Glennie: "He had overworked himself, and suddenly felt the effects of it after the publication of his second volume last spring." In October, 1861, he left England and spent the winter on the Nile, and in the beginning of March, 1862, "we left Cairo together for Sinai and Petra. Greatly improved in health by the six weeks in the Desert, he undertook the more fatiguing travelling on horseback through Palestine." At the sudden view of the plain of Damascus, on emerging from the rocky defile on the eastern ridge of Anti-Lebanon, he exclaimed, "It is worth more than all the pain and fatigue it has cost me." The fatigue brought on diarrhoea. "The quantity of opium prescribed, though small, yet, with his peculiar constitution, produced delirium for about a quarter of an hour; and it was touching to hear him exclaim, in the midst of his incoherent utterances, 'Oh, my book, my book! I shall never finish my book!'" On the 21st of May he was seized with typhus fever, and died on the 29th. announced. In the month of August it was officially an- Forthcoming nounced that the marriage of the Prince of Wales the Prince of to the Princess Alexandra of Denmark would be Wales celebrated early in the ensuing spring, and the Athenæum of the 30th contains an historical sketch by Dr. Doran, entitled 'The Prince and Princess of Wales.' "The most gallant feat ever accomplished by James the First of England (when he was King James I. of Scotland) was in crossing the stormiest of seas in the stormiest of seasons, and marrying his bride, in a hurricane on the coast of Norway. From that lady, Anne of Denmark, our present Royal Family derive a portion of good old Danish blood...... The "Five hundred years have elapsed since England beheld the first marriage of a Prince of Wales. Indeed, there have only been four such marriages in England, and one abroad. preliminaries of marriage have often been made, but these were in such cases carried out after the Prince's accession to the throne. The first marriage to which we allude was that, in 1361, of Edward the Black Prince with the Fair Edward the Black Prince. Countess,' the buxom, warm-hearted, regal Joan of Kent. That was a rare love-match, |