to purchase the premises now occupied by them in 40, Charlotte Square. From the date of that acquisition their success as a society has been uninterrupted, and at the present time their numbers are greater, and their funds are more flourishing, than they have been since the institution; and the work is perhaps as efficiently performed as it was in the early days of youthful enthusiasm that exhausted itself in Carrubber's Close.

Macclesfield Young Men's Essay and Discussion Class.- This society held its first quarterly meeting on the premises of the Co-operative Store, Sunderland Street, on the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 1st. The president, Mr. John Johnson, occupied the chair. On the accounts being read, it was seen that there was a considerable surplus in the treasurer's hands, and the question of the appropriation was mooted. After an interesting discussion it was unanimously resolved that it should be expended in the providing of a dinner, &c., for the members, on an early evening. And we would here take the opportunity of recommending other similar societies to act in a like manner; for we believe there is nothing more calculated to bind a class together, and produce good feeling among its members, than occasionally to have a social gathering, at which the interests of the class can be amicably discussed, and efforts made to promote its enlargement and improvement. The following gentlemen were then appointed officers for the ensuing quarter:-President, Mr. John Johnson; secretary, Mr. W. C. Reddish; treasurer, Mr. William Barnett; auditors, Messrs. Thomas Hall and Thomas Smith. The American War is the question at present on the tapis, having been ably introduced some weeks back by Mr. H. Walker, in a long and carefully prepared essay. He espouses the side of the Unionists, and has been supported by, among others, Messrs. Judge, Johnson, and Godwin. The opposition has been represented by Messrs. W.

Barnett, W. C. Reddish, A. Horobin, &c.

Greenock Philosophical Society.-A meeting of this society was held in the Watt Monument on Monday evening, 7th December, 1863, Allen Park Paton, Esq., author of "The Web of Life," &c., in the chair. Mr. James H. Stephens read a paper "On Civilization," in which, after dwelling on the importance of having a correct theory of civilization, and showing the wide and difficult bearings of the question, he concluded that the aim of civilization is to place man in the condition most favourable to his earthly development-1, by rendering the supply of his bodily wants more easy; 2, by satisfying, as far as possible, his craving for knowledge; 3, by securing to him full liberty of opinion and action; and 4, by ministering to the gratification of all the higher and more æsthetical elements of his nature. The paper throughout was characterized by ample knowledge of the subject, and by a very rare power of illustration, at once striking and ornate.

The Wick and Pulteney Town Mercantile Debating Society.-There have been debating and mutual improvement societies in this town for upwards of twenty years, but the above association has introduced an improvement entirely novel to Caithnessian debatersby challenging the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society to a friendly discussion. This came off on the first Wednesday of November. The subject for debate agreed upon was, "Was the character of Oliver Cromwell worthy of admiration?" the Mercantile having the affirmative. Mr. D. Sutherland opened the debate. He very ably showed the true character and great deeds of his hero, and then appealed to the Young Men's Society to take an impartial view of his character. Mr. James Robertson opened on the negative for the Young Men's Society. After a long tirade on the "bloody tyrant's "

character, he read a poem, written by himself, on the subject of debate. Its peculiar style and originality greatly amused the whole meeting. Mr. Rae then rose, and reasoned the question on the affirmative very logically, and Mr. G. Sutherland addressed the meeting on the negative. The rest of the members spoke on their respective sides consecutively, as in their ordinary meetings. The discussion terminated about two o'clock in the morning. Mr. A. Duncan, President of the Mercantile Society, who occupied the chair, after making a few remarks, said he hoped both societies would be benefited by

that night's lively discussion, either by the splendid orations from some of the members, or the poetic effusions of others, and he most heartily hoped that the Young Men's Association would return the challenge ere another year would elapse. Mr. G. Calder responded for the Young Men's Society, and stated that he had never spent a night more pleasantly in debating than he had just done, and hoped that all were of a like opinion. Mr. George M. Sutherland, president of the Young Men's Society, concurred in the remarks of the former speaker, and expressed his entire satisfaction with the conduct of the whole.

OUR Collegiate Course was suggested in 1861, confessedly and professedly as an experiment. We thought of the enthusiastic class of young men who ten years before that had given their days and nights to the study of that series of papers on "The Art of Reasoning" which enriched the opening volumes of this serial, and continued with unabated zeal to labour with the conductors of the classes then opened, till the ill-health of one dislocated the machinery of the scheme, and caused its stoppage. We know that for this aspiring class there were since opened up channels of effective examination and attestation of which we could not boast, and we used our efforts to encourage such young men to connect themselves with the examination schemes of "the Society of Arts," the local examinations instituted by the authorities of the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, &c., and not without success. We fancied, however, that we descried a corner of usefulness unoccupied still, and sought to convert that into an

active and stimulative sphere of selfimprovement and mental industry.

There were, it seemed to us, in the villages of our country, engaged in daily labour, young men, thoughtful, though toiling, whose opportunities of extended and constant study were fewer than they could wish; in our great towns, persons whose occupations ill suited attendance on classes, and who were hence debarred from advantages open to others; in all places, individuals whom accident, necessity, or choice, made stay-at-homes, but whose ambition stimulated them to attempt studies, and endeavour after the joys of thought. We considered the early withdrawal of many from school to farm, factory, mine, warehouse, or workshop, to whom the higher avenues of knowledge were practically closed; and we imagined that by offering a helper's good-will, some, yea, many such would have been stirred up to enter upon a wise employment of their leisure hours, under such direction as we could give for the guidance of their voluntary exertions.

To afford to these classes, and others, the opportunity of continuing and widening their intellectual efforts beyond the hours and the scope of school, we offered to vitalize their hours with a purpose, and to invest their scant leisure with the new interest of mental activity. We proposed to devote some time, space, and thought to their education-the leading out and culturing of their intellectual powers. After some deliberation and consultation we formed a plan, and gathered coadjutors round us who thought our scheme held in it elements of good, and deserved a trial. Casting our thoughts over the long list of matters which might be made subjects of study, we fixed upon certain branches possessing wide interest or distinct utilities. In these we proposed to issue study-testing queries, or to set industry-demanding exercises, and laid our scheme before our readers. By some it was received with gladness, by some with respect, and by some with indifference; but we made the experiment in the hope that success would justify our calculations. Let us frankly confess that we have been somewhat too sanguine in our hopes and our estimate of the progress of our times; and that we have not found the parties to whom we addressed our care so much alive to the need and importance of self-culture as we had calculated they were. Some there were, however, who embraced the opportunity we offered with eagerness, and laboured with assiduity to attain its benefits. These have deserved that we should say their honourable efforts have excited our interest and admiration. To be oversanguine is, of course, a fault in the construction of any scheme, and to this imputation we have exposed ourselves. But the measure of actuai good accomplished and acknowledged proves that we have not been altogether mistaken, while the experience gained in the course of carrying on the department seems likely to enable us to modify our mode of conducting it so as more nearly to adapt it to the wants of inany, and

to free it from the objections felt to it by some. Though obviously without suggestions from those interested in the work, we cannot even yet claim to have discovered the certainly best scheme of self-culture for the classes appealed to. Two items we have learned must be attended to, and these are that, 1st, text-books must be assigned; and, 2nd, that constancy in transmission must be somewhat relaxed.

The former necessity arises from the curiously diffused disinclination to trust anything but book-learning, common to many who have been brought up in schools where mere instruction had taken the place of education, and from the almost reverential regard felt for a person who can measure his progress in learning by the amount of book-work he has performed. This is a widely prevalent mistake, to which we must, to a certain extent, defer. We do not know that our success in communicating the desired stimulus to study will be more effectively accomplished by this new arrangement, but if those who really desire to study find it steadies their resolution and suits their plans and aims better, we shall readily assent to the trial of their suggestion.

The latter necessity arises, unfortunately, from causes beyond either our control or that of those who are most anxiously zealous to gain the full benefit of our course. It seems that there occur in almost every occupation, seasons of great urgency, when those employed in them must grudgelessly give up their ordinary leisure time to execute whatever is required of them in the stress of the hour; and these interrupting occasions prevent the regular monthly transmission of packets of exercises. Few lives are free from disturbing causes otherwise, which incapacitate the mind for extra labour, indispose for a time the mind to exertion, and make the liability to do a voluntary duty discomforting. In this, again, we find a very general obstacle to our former scheme. we propose to remedy by making the registration of exercises quarterly, and

This

so widening the area of time in which a given quantity of intellectual effort may be made.

We cannot but regret that there is a very wide-spread desire among novices in self-culture to effect by great dashes at certain studies a perceptible degree of progress, a common grudge at the slow, time-taking advances in any study they are capable of making. We ourselves do not believe in the success of these immense strokes and strides in study. As, however, the love of intellectual effort shines in the student's heart, notwithstanding this faith in the power of "grind" and 'cram," we hesitate to discourage it, and shall rather hope that the repetition of each act of study may deepen the student's habits into constancy. We consent, therefore, to this alteration, as a variety in conducting the classes which may make them more suitable as inducements and enticements to the beginning of a course of steady intellectual endeavour; and hence, as excitants in some of the good resolutions and efforts which may be productive hereafter of good effects.

The plan we offer to do our best to work out, for the benefit of those of our readers who desire to pursue a course of self-culture, is as follows, viz. :

We shall open directory courses of study on certain text-books hereafter to be named, but purposely chosen for utility combined with moderateness of price, upon such of the following subjects as may be found suitable and interesting to the parties for whom these courses are intended, which may easily be shown and made known by a notification addressed to the editor, of the intention of any reader to do his best to pursue a course of study in any one or more of them, viz.:

Arithmetic, Book-keeping, Composition, Geography, Geology, Grammar (English), History, Literature (English), Logic, Moral Philosophy, Political Economy, Phonography, Rhetoric, Writing, Latin, Greek, French, and German.

On the application of a sufficient number of persons desirous of studying any of the above branches-for which preliminary arrangements have been made the classes will be commenced, the text-books will be assigned, and the course to be pursued will be pointed out. It will be competent to the students to send in any number of exercises, performed according to the directions given, within three months from the commencement of the class. These will be registered on the cover as received, and will be arranged and noted in a class register once each quarter.

As the conducting of this course will involve expense in the transmission, assorting, and re-transmitting to the several collaborators of the exercises received, as well as in correspondence regarding them, it is requisite that a fee of one shilling per annum be paid by each student on enrolment into any one class; but having been enrolled in one, a fee of sixpence only will be charged for entrance into each subsequent class.

We commend the foregoing scheme to the honest consideration of our readers, in the hope that they will aid us in carrying out its provisions-1st, by joining it themselves at once, if they feel the need of it; and 2nd, by pointing out to others the main elements of the plan, and its adaptability to their

case.

Besides the advantage of registration according to merit, there is offered to those who make the most perceptible progress in any of the branches of the course, attested "certificates of merit," forming at once an honourable reward and a proof of industry and intelligence.

In addition to the new logic classwhich will, if wished, be opened for beginners, we design to supply a—

Course of practical exercises in Logic, for those who have attained an acquaintance with its theory.

We also propose to supply a series of queries to which replies will be expected, founded on Butler's Analogy

of Religion," a work which possesses special merits as affording & training in the science of controversy to those who desire to learn to read thinkingly, and

to study, not the mere thought presented to the mind, but the mode in which ideas flow from and follow one another in their course.

M. BANIM is to issue "The Town of the Cascades."

Edward Walford, editor of "Men of the Time," "County Families," &c., is sub-editor of " Once a Week."

Mr. Smiles, author of "Self-Help," &c., is to manage the Railway News, a weekly paper.

The Mayfair Magazine is to be placed in the museum of the vanities of Mayfair-by abandonment.

M. Edgar Quinet (b. 1803), author of "The Philosophy of the History of France," &c., has in the press a work entitled, "La Révolution."

It seems that "Staunton's Library Shakspere" is a reprint of the text and notes of Routledge's "Illustrated Shakspere," and is not editorially superintended by the nominal editor-who received £1,000 for his labour on the latter work from December, 1856, to May, 1860. Dyce's edition of "The Works of William Shakspere" has been begun, and is favourably spoken of as containing a text of great value.

The 66 Essays on Language and Literature," contributed to the Transactions of the Philological Society, &c., by Thomas Watts, of the British Museum, are in preparation as a collective edition.

Samuel Bailey is preparing a supplement to his volume "On the Received Text of Shakspere's Dramatic Writings, and its Improvement."

A new edition of the whole works of Chaucer (of whom see a memoir in British Controversialist, 1860, vol. i.) is to be issued from the Clarendon press, Oxford, by Mr. Earle, who will

revise, as far as possible, from the original MSS.

Mr. D. W. Godfrey, originator and editor of the English Churchman, is dead.

Algernon Thelwell, Professor of Elocution at King's College, and author of Lectures and Exercises " on that art, died 9th December, aged 68.

66

Ludwig Börne's (1786-1837) works, in twelve volumes, have just been issued in a complete edition. He was an author of much humour, skill, and effectiveness.

Edmund Yates (b. 1827), author of "After Office Hours," &c., formerly sub, is now editor of Temple Bar, in which he will commence a new tale in February.

The autograph MSS. of the "Scienza Nuova" of Vico (of whom see a memoir in British Controversialist, April, 1858), has been acquired by the National Library of Italy; also several letters of Tasso and Metastasio.

A new edition of the works of Bishop Berkeley (1684-1753) is to be issued from the Clarendon press, Oxford, edited by the Rev. A. C. Fraser, Pro fessor of Logic, Edinburgh, and by the Rev. Henry John Rose, B.D., one of the editors of the "Encyclopædia Metropolitana."

Dr. Strang, the celebrated statistician, author of "Glasgow and its Clubs," &c., died 8th December.

It is said that an autobiography of Geo. A. Sala, originally composed in French, is soon to be issued.

A fac-simile reproduction of the first folio of Shakspere's Plays (1623), in 14 parts, 12s. each, to form a volume