his elephant, and descending, approached the tiger,
which lay to all appearance dead; but on his coming
close to it, it sprang upon him, and mutilated him
dreadfully. He was rescued by the Mahouts and other
natives of the shooting party, some of whom immediately
started for Rawul Pindee to give information. Two
medical officers arrived early the next morning. They
found Captain Colby dreadfully mangled, and judged
amputation of the left arm indispensable. The operation
was at once performed, near the shoulder; but so great
had been the loss of blood, that the patient sank, and
expired the same evening.

A poor schoolmaster has died in London from Starvation.
An inquest was held on the 18th at a public house
in Gray's-Inn-lane, on the body of an elderly man,
named John Nicholls. It appeared that he had been
formerly a schoolmaster, but was latterly so reduced as
to be compelled to earn his livelihood by writing
window bills for tradesmen, and with all his industry
sometimes only realised a few pence a week. The parish
allowed a loaf a week for the support of himself and
wife, who is paralysed. During the last twelve months he
was daily sinking from sheer starvation, but still buoyed
up with the hope of getting some property to which he
was entitled. On Monday morning his wife found him
dead in bed at her side. The following day he became
entitled to £120 in cash, and £60 a year. A surgeon
deposed that death resulted from want and disease of
the lungs. The foreman, on behalf of the jury, expressed
their horror and disgust at the parochial authorities
limiting the support of deceased and his paralysed wife
to a solitary loaf of bread a week, instead of inquiring
into their wants, and contributing a sufficient quantity
of food for their support. The jury, returned a verdict
in accordance with the medical evidence, and
accompanied by the following addendum:—"And the jury
express their opinion that the applicants for relief
on this parish ought uniformly to be visited by proper
officers by order of the parochial authorities, immediately
after the application for relief, and from time to time
afterwards, so long as they are in receipt of that relief,
in order that the extent of their wants may be
ascertained."

Additional correspondence about the Two Ships seen
on the Icebergs by the crew and passenger of the
"Renovation," in the spring of last year, has been
published by the Admiralty. Captain Coward has been
examined at Venice, and his testimony is in harmony
with that already published of Mr. Simpson, the mate
of the "Renovation." Captain Coward states that he
was very ill at the time the vessels were first sighted,
and, coming on deck to see them, he remained there but
a short time; as he thought, and still thinks, that the
ships were two Greenlandmen abandoned, and as the
sea was very heavy, and the neighbourhood of the ice
dangerous to his own old ship. Mr. Lynch, the intelligent
passenger who sailed in the "Renovation," and
who first saw the ships, has been traced out, and found
at Prescott in Canada; and has been fully examined.
In one of the official letters in the correspondence the
following sentence occurs:—Mr. Lynch "was of
opinion that they were the ships belonging to Sir John
Franklin's expedition; an opinion in the accuracy of
which there seems now to be a general concurrent belief,
including her Majesty's government."

      SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
                  PROGRESS.

The Electric Telegraph has been carried across the
Irish Channel, from Holyhead to the Hill of Howth.
The operation was successfully completed on the 1st
inst., by the Irish Electric Telegraph Company: the
cable enclosing the electric wire—eighty miles long—
was manufactured by Messrs. Newall and Co., of Gateshead,
the same firm who made the Straits-of-Dover
cable. The distance from Holyhead to the Hill of
Howth is about sixty-five miles: the steamer from which
the cable was paid out was worked across in about
eighteen hours.

An electric telegraph has been constructed at the
Bank of England, forming a perfect system of
communication from room to room. The rooms of the Governor
and Deputy Governor are by this means placed in direct
and immediate communication with every important
department; and the most perfect secrecy of communication
is insured by the use of an apparatus by which
a message intended for one particular office cannot be
read at another.

A return to the House of Commons has been printed,
showing that on the 1st of September last the number of
licenses of hackney carriages in the metropolis was
3548; the weekly duty in the year amounted to £85,587.
These hackney carriages are nearly all cabs.

A meeting of the parishioners of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
was held on the 9th, to inaugurate the establishment
of a Library and Reading Room for the Working
Classes, in the building of the Northern Schools,
Castle-street, Long Acre. The Vicar announced a valuable
contribution of books from Prince Albert, a donation
of £5 from the Lord Bishop of London, and read also
letters expressing sympathy and countenance from the
Earl of Carlisle, Viscount Goderich, Lord J. Manners,
Sir W. P. Wood, and other gentlemen, who were
unavoidably prevented from attending. The Earl of
Harrowby, who followed, said he was gratified at being
present to encourage the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
in another of those good works for which it had
made itself conspicuous among the parishes of the
metropolis. They were the first to lead the way in the
establishment of those great parochial institutions, baths
and washhouses, and now they had provided an institution
for the cultivation of the mind. He believed they
had done right in beginning with the body, for if that
was not comfortable, it was difficult for the mind to be
at ease. He wished every parish shool in the country
was a parish library also, where the children, youths,
and parents could carry on their studies together, and
where dignity was added to the elementary instruction
of their children by their witnessing the intellectual
enjoyment of the elders. The association between the
library for the adult and the school for the child was
of great social advantage, and he could not imagine a
more humanising institution than the one they were
met to celebrate, or an institution which would better
cement the bonds of society and better promote the
general good.

The annual general meeting of the National School
Society took place on the 10th. The chair was taken
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, adverting to the
report, said it contained gratifying information respecting
the state of education throughout the country. He
believed the character of the education given had been
greatly improved by raising the qualifications of the
teachers, and the exertions which had been made with
so much self-denial in many cases had not been without
their fruit, but were beginning to tell upon the rising
generation. It was now more easy than it used to be
to obtain some proportion at least of the expense of
maintaining the schools from the parents of the children
who received education. All who were well acquainted
with the poor of this country knew that they were
keenly sensitive as to the value of any article for which
they paid; and it was because the poor found that the
education which their children now received was far
better than they could formerly obtain, that they were
willing to pay towards its support. He might also
remark that at the seasons of confirmation he now
observed a degree of earnestness, of animation, and of
intelligence on the part of the young persons brought
before him, which it would have been vain to look for
some years ago. The report was then read, and the
meeting proceeded to dispose of Archdeacon Denison's
resolution respecting the alleged suppression of the
catechism in schools in union with the National Society,
and to discuss that gentleman's resolution on the
management clauses. Archdeacon Denison addressed
the meeting, and stated that, in consequence of a
memorial which had been addressed to the committee
of the society by the Rev. Mr. Keble, reciting the
solemn terms of the charter, and praying for an inquiry
into the alleged suppression of the catechism in church
teaching, and the answer which the committee had
returned, that it meant to abide by the charter, and not
to allow any tampering with the catechism in its