can rightly profit by God's worship on the Sabbath-day,
or bring up his children in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord; and, in the event of his refusing to do so,
to instruct the said session to refuse ordinance of baptism
to his child, and do otherwise in the case as may be for
edification according to the laws of the church."  Dr.
Buchanan would not be committed by the preamble of
the motion, as it included all kinds of traffic. For
example, the sale of medicines on the Lord's-day was
systematic traffic, but he was not prepared to say that it
was necessarily sinful traffic. Supposing a man was a
coach-driver, all parties admitted that it might be lawful
to engage public conveyances on the Sabbath, and if
so, the men who lent them out must have men to drive
these vehicles. It would be much safer, therefore, to
deal with the present case per se. Mr. Wilson said he
had no difficulty with this case. The man was unable
from his engagements to fulfil the obligations which
baptism involved, and he was not therefore entitled to
that privilege. Mr. Gibson then agreed to withdraw
the first clause of the motion respecting general traffic,
when it was recorded as the deliverance of the court.

The first meeting of the Royal Geographical Society
this season was held on the 14th inst., and was
distinguished by the official communication, through Captain
Inglefield and Lieutenant Cresswell, of the discoveries
of Captain M'Clure. Sir Roderick Murchison presided;
the room was very much crowded, and the greatest
interest was shown in the proceedings. The two voyagers
having made their statements, Sir Roderick Murchison,
in commenting on them, asked where was Sir John
Franklin? Captain M'Clure's researches have shown
beyond dispute that he had not gone by the west, as was
generally thought. It had also been proved that he
had not gone eastward. No doubt, then, he had gone
through Wellington Straits to the north; and there
only he must be sought, if sought at all. It was to be
presumed that Franklin and his party, supposing they
had passed by this route, had found their way into an
open sea, and that he was frozen in there by the pack of
ice to his southward, and unable to get back. In this
northern sea, Franklin might have fallen in with islands
abounding with rein-deer, the musk-ox, and other
animals, and thus been enabled to preserve life. The
question was, whether the great northern pack of ice was
impenetrable or not? He thought there was something
in the fact stated by Captain M'Clure, that he found
the temperature in the highest latitude he reached much
warmer than it was two hundred miles further south.
It was well known that the cold was greater or less
according to the proximity of land or water; the warmer
climate being always where there was little land and
much water; and the fact of the climate becoming
warmer as they approached the extreme high latitudes,
proved, he thought, that there must be a large open sea
on the other side of the pack. There is not only Sir
John Franklin now in the Arctic Seas, but Captain
Collison; and he deserves that something should be done
for his rescue. Sir Roderick expressed a hope that the
Geographical Society would turn their attention to the
subject "with a view of clearing up the question of the
existence of the great northern sea." There was some
discussion on this point. Captain Inglefield thought
that another effort should be made to rescue Franklin.
He would be glad to take an expedition to explore the
North west passage by way of Nova Zembla and the
coast of Siberia, and so to the north of Spitzbergen. In
a screw-propeller it might be done in a single season.
Captain Beechey thought not. It was. however,
unanimously resolved that the chairman should solicit the
Admiralty to send out another expedition to the Arctic
regions in the summer of 1854. At the close of the
meeting Sir Roderick Murchison stated that the fund
for the Bellot memorial already amounted to £1200.

The first meeting of the Society of Arts for the
present season, being its one hundredth session, was held
on Wednesday evening, the 16th instant, and was very
fully attended. The exhibition of inventions patented
or invented since the last season was exceedingly well
filled, and attracted very general curiosity and approbation.
It included a considerable number of motive
machines, and other inventions connected with steam
and railway mechanism, including many adaptations of
the screw-propeller, now becoming so important an
agent in oceanic navigation. Several handsome models
were exhibited of railway carriages, and also of steam-
engines; amongst others, one of a pair of oscillating
engines made by Messrs. Penn for Her Majesty's screw-
steamer Sphynx. Mr. M'Connel, of the London and
North-Western Railway, exhibits a model of a powerful
express locomotive, which is expected to do the distance
between London and Birmingham (112 miles) in two
hours. It is satisfactory to be able to add that the attention
of our machinists has been much directed to the
prevention of accidents on railways by means of new
buffers, breaks, springs, &c., as a very large portion of
the available space is filled with contrivances of this
description, all indicating a great advance towards the
solution of that all-important problem—safety in railway
travelling. In the department of manufacturing
machines and tools, the gold-crushing machines take, as
might be expected, a prominent place. The well-known
Lancashire sewing-machine is also exhibited, and near
it a washing-machine, to complete the operation of
automatic shirt-making. The department of building-
contrivances is rich in new inventions—bricks, iron-
houses, doors, ventilators, &c., together with some
important inventions in shipbuilding. Rifles, anchors,
capstans, are included in this miscellaneous collection;
in which will also be found an ingenious instrument
for measuring the speed of a vessel at sea, and intended
to supersede, or at least to check, the rather uncertain
process of heaving the lead. The philosophical instruments
include some contrivances for the amelioration
of spinal disease, by Dr. Caplin, a portable apparatus
for enabling the blind to write, and various models of
locks, of more or less degree of complicity. A patent
detector-till, for the prevention of fraud and the discovery
of base coin, will be eagerly looked after by our
frequently-victimised tradesmen; and some portable
furniture will remind the spectator of an invention introduced
by Brother Jonathan at the late Exhibition, and
which at the time hardly received the amount of
attention it deserved. The miscellaneous department
contains many curious novelties, giving to the whole
exhibition a character of unusual variety and importance.
Mr. Harry Chester took the chair in the absence of
Captain Owen, and delivered an interesting address.
After a comprehensive sketch of the history and
proceedings of the society since its formation, he proceeded
to give a view of its present objects and intentions. The
council of the current year (he said) would endeavour
to carry on with good vigour what had been commenced
with good judgment; and, at their retirement, to leave
behind them some things worthy of record. They
would fully consider the results of the Exhibition at
Dublin, with a view to their profitable use. They felt
deep interest in the success of the intended Exhiliition
at Paris, and desired that the arts, manufactures, and
commerce of the United Kingdom and its dependencies
might be fully and honourably represented in it. They
would also readily assist the promoters of provincial
exhibitions which might be hold in connexion with any
of the associated institutions. The efforts of the society
would be continued to procure an amendment of the
law of partnership; to prepare the mind of the public
for the adoption of a decimal system of weights,
measures, coins, and accounts; and to abolish those taxes,
e.g. the duties on paper, which were specially injurious
to arts, commerce, and manufactures. The quinquennial
Swiney prize, of £100. sterling, contained in a goblet
of the same value (designed by Mr. Maclise, R.A.), will
be adjudged by the council, in January next, to the
author of the best published work on jurisprudence,
attention being particularly directed to that branch of
jurisprudence which relates to arts and manufactures.
Those applications of science and art by which the well-
being of our poorer brethren who laboured in our towns,
villages, fields, mines, and ships, might be promoted in
the improvement of houses, clothing, food, fuel, instruction,
amusement, and health, were deeply interesting
to this society. The progress of mechanical invention,
and the applications of machinery to arts, manufactures,
and trades, and to the uses of daily life, were now
more important than ever. The "strikes" which
afflicted the manufacturing districts were regarded by