formation." is a delusion and a sham; hence the violent | plan carried out, that, as we are told, "the workcommotion of 1848, which had for its chief man who, having capital sufficent to buy a few object the establishment of a real central gov- ounces of gilt copper, converted the same into ernment; and hence the distrust between the false jewelry of the humblest kind, was required Princes of Germany and their people - the to contribute his quota to the general sum of informer in the interest of Russia, and with the natural instinct of princes clinging to their separate sovereignty; the latter in the interest of Germany and of Europe, striving to be a great, an independent, and a prosperous nation. It is not before the establishment of political unity in Germany that the German nation can be expected to co-operate with the Western Powers in curbing the inordinate cupidity of the Czar and the Russian na tion. From Chambers's Journal. THE WORKERS OF PARIS. at the time of the inquiry there were in Paris Casting our eyes over the tables, we find, that 64,816 masters, who gave employment to 342,530 workmen, and the value of the manufactures produced by the joint action of these 407,346 industrials, was L.58,545,134 sterling. This prodigious sum, however, includes all the cost of material and is only produced when, to quote a political phrase, "Order reigns in Paris;" for in a 50 per cent., and the total of workmen employed revolutionary year it is diminished by more than by nearly two-thirds. A fact worth remembering by disturbers of the public peace, and promoters of strikes. determinate period. One might suspect these to be very destitute or ignorant persons, with no one to care for them. The rule appears to be to pay no apprentice fee, though most of the apprentices get their board and lodging: the engagement, however, is by no means scrupulously kept by either party. We get an insight, too, into that much debated question of female employment: among the working-people, 112,891 arc women, and 7851 girls, of whom many are under twelve years of MORE than once the French government, in age. Of boys and young men, the number is its desire to know all about everything and every- 16,863; many of these, also, are under twelve: body within the limits of the republic, kingdom, and taking the two sexes, 19,078 were apprenor empire, as the case may have been, have tices. The terms of apprenticeship were from sought to collect statistical information concern-two to six years; but it is remarkable to find, in ing the working and trading classc3 in France. more than 1400 cases, an arrangement for an inThey tried in 1791, and failed; Napoleon set his Minister of the Interior to the task in 1807, and with only partial success; Louis Philippe at tempted it in 1831, but with slight advantage only over his predecessors; the National Assembly sent out a decree on the subject in 1848, the result of which was to draw a few imperfect reports from different parts of the country, and The rate of wages varies considerably: among none at all from that important district-the de- the tailors, some earn eight francs a day, while partment of the Seine. It seemed that the thing others earn not more than seventy-five centimes could not be done; but the Chamber of Com--about 74d.; butchers get from one franc to merce of Paris, judging it not to be an impossi-seven francs; jewellers, one franc to fifteen francs, bility, took the matter in hand after the year last and these last stand highest for earnings among mentioned, and having spent three years in dili- all the trades of the capital. To facilitate comgent inquiry, have published a quarto of nearly parison with trades in London, we set down here 1500 pages, in which they give full particulars the average earnings of some of the workingrespecting the working population and trading classes of the French metropolis. This volume having been brought before the British Association by the late Mr. G. R. Porter, we select from it a few details of general interest. people in Paris :-Tailors, 17s.; jewellers, Li, 7s. 3d.; bakers, 16s. 9d.; shoemakers, 14s. 2d.; carpenters and joiners, L.1, 3s. 6d.; cabinetmakers, 17s.; masons, 16s. 1d.; coach-builders, 19s. 3d.; house-painters, 18s. 10d.; hat-makers, The inquiry embraces Paris within the barrière, L.1, Os. 7d.; printers, L.1, 1s. 4d.; locksmiths, or the line within which the octroi or municipal 18s. 4d.; milliners, 17s. 4d.; laundresses. 10s 6d. tax is paid; the number of the population being This list, which comprises but a few from the at the time 1,053,262-not so many by 235 as in whole number of trades, is interesting, as show1846. In this decrease of numbers, Paris pre- ing wherein Paris differs in some respects so sents a remarkable contrast to London. The markedly from London. Some of the females city was subdivided into 326 districts, to facilitate are no better paid than that wretched class on operations; and we learn at the outset, that Paris, our side the Channel which inspired Hood's Song the most populous and most productive of all the of the Shirt: 950 poor Frenchwomen earn less great capitals on the continent, has 325 trades or than sixty centimes, or 54d. a day. Going a little employments essentially distinct. These are higher, however, we find 100,000 earning from classified in thirteen groups; and so arranged, one to three francs, and 626 who get from three that any one arrondissement can be compared to five francs-the latter sum equivalent to 4s. with another. More than 32,000 houses were visited during the inquiry, and as no names were to be revealed, it was believed that the answers were given in good faith. So minutely was the English. Another table enables us to form some idea of the domestic circumstances of the industrious classes: 122,000 men, and 68,000 women, live in apartments furnished by themselves; 4000 men, and 12,000 women, with their parents or relations; 6000 men, and 2000 women, with their employers; and 34,000 men, and 4000 women, in furnished lodgings. Of the men, 147,311 were found able to read and write; and of the women, 68,219. These are but a few from among the whole mass of particulars; but they enable us to form an idea on some social points in which a manufacturing community is largely interested. As far as earnings are concerned, the advantage appears to be clearly on the side of the English workman. A. New York: J. C. Derby. that they may almost be said to riyal the originals. A verbal critic might point out a few inelegant and inaccurate words here and there, but the style is generally smooth and flowing, and the ideas are poetical. There is also great variety in the collection. We extract a TWILIGHT IDYL. this modest little volume of poems. The author We have derived much pleasure from reading is a young gentleman of this city, who desires, for the present, to remain incognito, although his literary productions bear the impress of superior talent, and some traces of genius. The chief defect of most of his poems is that they are im itations. Mr. A. has borrowed his inspiration We conclude with a passage from the Report, from Hood, and Moore, and Longfellow, and which unfortunately applies too well to other Tennyson. But his imitations are so excellent, places besides the French metropolis. "The voluntary holiday of Monday," it says, "has, among the greater part of the occupations in Paris, the saddest effect upon the morality of the work-people; and it is this which most generally deprives them of the means of making any sav ing. If Sunday is not observed by them as a day given to religion, it is at least regarded by the workman as a day to be spent with his family. He willingly gives up part of this day to industry, but in the evening he walks abroad with his wife and children. He considers, however, that he has a right to another day devoted to his personal gratification. Monday is the day to be spent with his comrades, and it is then that his expenditure is the most lavish. The Monday holiday is the object of the most lively desire, and to acquire the means of its indulgence is often the greatest stimulus to industry. In the course of the inquiries made by the committee, it often appeared that the men who received the largest wages are those whose savings are the smallest. Not only do they absent themselves from the workshop on Monday, but their absence is prolonged for two, three, or more days, until their resources for dissipation are exhausted." A A NEW PROJECTILE. The inventive faculty of the age promises to familiarize us with another projectile of terrific power, which will cast into the shade all the shells now in use. We hear that there is before the Ordnance Committee a shell charged with a liquid, which, after its release by the concussion of the ball, will instantaneously become a sheet of fire, burning to a cinder anything it may touch, and suffocating by its smoke any one brought within its radius. column of infantry, a row of tents, a ship, storehouses, and barracks, a forest, anything which acknowledges the terrible influence of fire, could be consumed in a few minutes by the visitation of a shell charged with this noxious fluid. It will, we daresay, require very careful handling by the artillery, for it is of so subtile a nature, that the escape of any slight quantity would carry with it direful consequences. Like the boulet asphyxia, it is calculated to be formidable alike to friends and foes if it be not watched with vigilance.-United Service Gazette. How softly comes the evening down Voices heard at twilight hour 'Neath the glimpses of the moon, The phantom fingers of the Breeze The music voice of distant rills And more charming than the chimes The Evening comes as softly down |