James II. by Kneller.

Pepys's picture.

for nine guineas (this being the very portrait for which the king was sitting to Kneller when he was told that the Prince of Orange had landed), and 'The Portrait of a Musician' (so it was put up) for only 27. 10s. The Portrait of a

Musician' was the head of Pepys himself, thus characteristically described in his 'Diary':

"1666, March 17. To Hales's, and paid him 147. for the picture and 17. 5s. for the frame. This day I began to sit, and he will make me, I think, a very fine picture. He promises it shall be as good as my wife's, and I sit to have it full of shadows, and do almost break my neck looking over my shoulder to make the posture for him to work by."

"March 30. To Hales's, and there sat till almost quite dark upon working my gowne, which I hired to be drawn in; an Indian gowne."

April 11. To Hales's, where there was nothing found to be done more to my picture, but the musique, which now pleases me mightily, it being painted true."

"The portrait is 'full of shadows'—the head is turned sufficiently over the shoulder- he wears his hired Indian gown-and the 'musique' which he holds in his hand and which pleased him so mightily is his own song of 'Beauty, retire.' The notes are painted true, and the words' Beauty, retire' are written at the head.

The picture is in capital condition, and deserves to be engraved."

Mr. George Scharf kindly supplies the following information in reference to these portraits: "The so-called 'Musician,' which is Pepys himself, holding a piece of music, 'Beauty, retire,' was bought in 1848 by Peter Cunningham, and sold by him to the National Portrait Gallery. 'Pepys,' by Sir G. Kneller (engraved), is still in the possession of Andrew Pepys Cockerell, of Hertford Street, Mayfair; so likewise the 'King James II.,' for which the king was sitting to oblige his friend Pepys. A good little picture of Pepys with a lute belonged to C. R. Cockerell the architect, R.A."

On the 24th of June mention is made of Mr. Emerson's three lectures at Exeter Hall in aid of the early closing movement, "a movement peculiarly marked with the character of the times, one of whose grand distinctions it is to have at length recognized the general and unprerogatived man as something more than a mere machine out of which it is social economy to get all possible working power......The day of monopolies is passing away. The franchise of thought is made universal:-and the Earlyclosing Association purposes to help the busy population of the metropolis to the means of exercising it. For their objects Mr. Emerson

The early movement: closing

Emerson's lectures.

Proposed

lectured yesterday on 'Napoleon'; and will lecture on Wednesday next on 'Domestic Life,' and on Saturday on 'Shakspeare,'-a daring thinker even in the day of privilege."

On the 22nd of July the following advice is Institute of given in reference to the proposed Institute of Actuaries. Actuaries: "Looking at the science of which an actuary practises the application-and which, though at present it principally relates to life contingencies, yet must be held to include all contingencies to which calculation of probability can be applied-we should see every room to welcome the formation of a society which should take its place among those already established for the promotion of geology, astronomy, geography, statistics, &c. Such a Society should be as republican in its constitution and as liberal in its principles as those which have preceded it. No man should have any rank except what he makes for himself out of the opinion of his comrades no class of privileged members should exist."

:

In the same number congratulations are Liverpool offered upon the establishment of a School of Chemistry at Liverpool under the superintendChemistry established. ence of Dr. Muspratt. "The spread of such

School of

institutions is a wholesome educational sign— and we hope ere long to see a school for analytical instruction founded in every great town in

necessary

part of

the kingdom. That in a country like ours this should not long since have been the case, is one of the abundant instances, now coming to the light of improved views in the matter of education, of the manner in which the national resources have been wasted. Chemistry must in Chemistry a future be part of all liberal-as it should be of nearly all operative-education. All the sub- education. stances with which the workman deals and all the manufactures in which he is engaged contain important secrets to be yielded up to the practical chemist......Why have not great towns like Manchester universities of their own-where University suggested practical rather than speculative knowledge may be taught the lore of the Future may replace the lore of the Past, which has so long been held as the proper object of educationand the means may be elementarily inculcated of developing the great industrial resources of a country where population is pressing on them in a yearly increasing ratio ?"

for Manchester.

London and

Westminster

in the

The Government is taken seriously to task for not including in the Health of Towns Bill the cities of London and Westminster, and the rest not included of the metropolis. At Constantinople, in Wal- Health of lachia, at Moscow, and at St. Petersburg cholera, Towns Bill. that “fearful scourge of sanitary sins," was then raging, and slowly, but certainly, it was tending to the West. "London-the city of two millions

of inhabitants-is, it would seem, to be given up Threatened to the Avenger! It is declared by municipal cholera. wisdom to be already sufficiently clean, well drained, and salubrious! To combat assertions

visitation of

patent for

silvering

glass.

like this in the face of the evidence would be as idle as it is to make them. Let any man walk through Westminster under the shade of its Abbey even, St. Giles's, St. Olave's, Bethnal Green, and Lambeth- and then pronounce whether London be in a condition to receive the visits of a species of cholera so malignant as that which is now ravaging Russia, Turkey, and the Danubian States-and feeds on foul scents and vapours?......We know by experience how ill measures of precaution can be taken when the enemy is on our hearths. The work should be done now :-six months hence it may be in a great degree too late."

On the 5th of August is announced "a new, easy, and, we believe, cheap process of silvering Drayton's glass," patented by Mr. Drayton, to "entirely do away with the old, injurious, and dilatory process of silvering by mercury and tin," the silvering being richer in texture than that produced by the old process, and it might be touched with the finger and still left untarnished. "This important improvement is produced by a solution of nitrate of silver in water and spirit mixed with ammonia and the oils of cassia and of