by the

Postmaster-General asks Parliament to grant Proposed six and three quarter million pounds sterling the electric purchase of for the purchase of the electric telegraphs of the telegraphs United Kingdom: "The profit is to come as Government. surplus revenue, of which, at the end of the first year, there will remain 77,000l., after paying interest on the purchase-money."

its influence

and

The Pacific Railway is thus referred to on the The Pacific same date: "Twenty days from San Francisco Railway: to London may be looked upon as quick tra- on migration velling, yet it has been accomplished by sending emigration. gold direct from California to the Bank of England. Of course it crossed America by railway and the Atlantic by mail steamer; so that now within three weeks a man may dine in Liverpool and in 'Frisco,' as the Californians call it. Migration and emigration will both be facilitated by the railway, and before many years are past there will be a succession of cities, towns and villages along the line with a surprising intermixture of inhabitants. Among them will be a large proportion of Orientals. In 1866, 2,300 Chinese and Japanese transferred themselves to California; in 1868 the number rose to 10,000, and this, as is expected, will be greatly exceeded in the present year, for the yellow men are in request as labourers. There has been some talk of introducing them into the Southern States from Tennessee to Texas,

where they would supplement or supersede the negroes. American labourers are described as less trustworthy than the Chinese; hence there seems no reason why the Celestials should cease swarming across the Pacific to California. Will they eventually absorb or be absorbed by their neighbours? And it is worthy of remark that the reluctance of Chinese women to cross the sea appears to be overcome, for 1,250 were landed at San Francisco one day in June last."

The death of Mr. Behan, the editor of the London Gazette, called forth an article from Dr. Doran on the 18th of September entitled The King's The King's Newspaper.' Charles and the Newspaper.'

Court were at Oxford, "whither fear of the plague had driven them from London. They were dull, and could invent no new pleasure to relieve their dulness. It was then that the bright idea presented itself of publishing an exclusively Royal News-Letter. There was something to do or talk about, and they were all the happier for it. Especially proud and joyous were they when in November, 1665, the The Oxford Oxford Gazette issued its first number......But

Gazette.

the Court went to London, when the plague had been driven back into holes and corners, and the Gazette went with it. Change of locality led to change of name; and in February, 1666, instead

Gazette.

forgery.

Large profit

derived from its advertise

ments.

of the Oxford, men read the London Gazette at The London the head of the sheet, and from that day the sovereign's newspaper has existed down to the present......The most famous incident connected with the paper during the last century was the forgery of one number, issued in May, 1787. No Extraordinary police acuteness was acute enough to lay hand on the inimitable rogue who played that perilous joke......Thirty years ago it made above 15,000l. a year by advertisements, and the whole of its working expenses did not amount to half that. Its busiest time was during the railway mania, when all railway projects had to be advertised in the Gazette by a certain day, for otherwise Parliament would not recognize them. ferment this caused is now inconceivable. As the limit of time approached, the advertisements increased, till, on one November day, the paper was enlarged to 583 pages! It required nearly 150 newspaper stamps, and was sold at something more than half-a-crown; but as it was making thousands of pounds daily by advertisements, it might, as has been remarked, have been given away at a large profit."

The

On the 9th of October it is announced that Mr. Walker, of the Daily News, has been appointed editor.

The completion by the Japanese novelist Kiong te Bakin of a novel which he began

Mr. Walker appointed editor.

A novel in a hundred

and six volumes.

nearly forty years before is announced on the 2nd of October. "It is in a hundred and six volumes. The romance readers in Japan will have a 'nice book' for the long evenings."

On the same date it is stated that "Mr. Mill's work on 'The Subjection of Women' is reported Mr. Mill on to have a wide circulation in Russia. A Woman's

woman.

Bunhill
Fields.

Rights Convention at St. Petersburg is talked of, and Mr. Mill, who has expressed sympathy with the movement, is to be invited."

The movement begun in 1865, which had for its object the preservation of Bunhill Fields Burial-ground from further desecration, came to a successful end on Thursday, the 14th of October, 1869, when the place so revered by Dissenters was reopened by the Lord Mayor. The Athenæum of the previous Saturday, in announcing the event, says: "There is no place wherein nobler dust reposes than here. Men whose names are among the dearest treasures of memory sleep here awaiting the Great Awaking. Some of their graves cannot be identified, but all that could be done in this way was accomplished by that modern Old Mortality, the late Collection of Dr. John Rippon, who filled twelve folio inscriptions volumes with the names of a good portion of Dr. John the seventy thousand who have been committed. Rippon.

made by

earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, in

quaint and antique Bunhill Fields. The volumes

may be seen at the Heralds' College."

The deaths of Lord Derby and Prof. Coning- Lord Derby.

ton are recorded on the 30th of October : "Only a few brief years have passed since a review of Lord Derby's translation of the Iliad appeared in our columns. It came from a It was competent and well known hand. everywhere recognized as the work of Prof. Conington. Translator and critic are now beyond all mortal judgment. In the same day's papers were to be read the mournful records that scholar and statesman had passed to their rest. The one was in the prime of life, if reckoned only by years. The Professor died at the age of forty-four years; the Earl had exceeded the allotted threescore-and-ten."

Prof.

Conington.

Viaduct and the new Blackfriars

On the 6th of November it is announced that "To-day the Queen opens the Holborn The Holborn Viaduct and the new Blackfriars Bridge. Next year we may have to record the opening of a Bridge. new great City Library and Reading-Room, for which the Corporation have munificently granted a site close to Guildhall, together with a sum of 25,000l. for the building, and a further sum, not yet named, for the necessary fittings. The building is to be constructed for the accommodation of at least 100,000 volumes-a grand library, of which the present Guildhall collec- hall Library.

The Guild