GOVERNMENT OFFICES AND OFFICERS. TREASURY, WHITEHALL. Lords Commissioners Right Hon. Financial Sec.-Lord Fred. Cavendish. WHITEHALL. Lord President-Earl Spencer. Private Secretary to Lord President- Chief Clerk-H. M. Suft. PRIVY SEAL OFFICE, EDUCATION. President-Right Hon. Earl Spencer. SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT, Secretary-Sir F. R. Sandford, K.C.B. Secretary of State-Earl Granville, K.G. Under Secretaries-Lord Tenterden, K.C.B., Sir C. W. Dilke, Bart. Assistant Secretary-T. Villiers Lister. Private Secretaries-T. H. Sanderson, C.B., Hon. G. W. S. Lyttelton. Chief Clerk-F. B. Alston. Librarian-Sir E. Hertslet, C.B. COLONIAL OFFICE, DOWNING-STREET. Secretary of State-Earl of Kimberley. INDIA OFFICE Secretary of State and President-Right PALL-MALL. Secretary of State-Right Hon. Hugh Private Secretary-Ralph Dalyell. Private Secretary-Gen. Hon. J. Mac- PAYMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE. Paymaster-General-Lord Wolverton. WHITEHALL. Account.-General-R.G. C. Hamilton. Controller-Vice-Admiral Stewart. Director of Contract-J. Collett. Director Med. Dep.--Sir J. W. Reid. Private Secs. to First Lord-Capt. J. E. Erskine, R.N., and E. G. Jenkinson. Assistant Secretary-E. N. Swainson. BOARD OF TRADE, 7, WHITEHALL GARDENS. President-Rt. Hon. J. Chamberlain. Permanent Secretary-T. H. Farrer. Private Secretary-Hon. A. E. Ashley. Assistant Secretaries: Harbour C. Cecil Trevor; Marine T. Grey; Financial-A. Stoneham; Rail way-H. G. Calcraft. Private Secretary-J. B. Walker. Solicitor-Walter Murton. Members of Marine Department-RearAdmiral Sir Geo. Nares, K.C.B., and Digby Murray. Inspectors of Railways-Colonels W. Yolland and Rich, Major-General Hutchinson, and Major Marindin. LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD, WHITEHALL. President-Right Hon. J. G. Dodson. Owen, W. Sandall, and E. Sutton. Private Secretary-R. F. Seymour. Chief Clerk-John Bellamy. IRISH OFFICE, 18, GREAT QUEEN-ST., WESTMINSTER. Chief Sec.-Rt. Hon. W. E. Forster. Private Secs.-Henry J. Jephson and Horace West. WORKS, PARKS, & BUILDINGS. 12, WHITEHALL-PLACE. Chief Commissioner Right Hon. G. J. Shaw-Lefevre. Secretary-A. B. Mitford. Assistant Secretary-R. J. Callender. Private Secretary-R. 8. Gowland. Chairman-Sir C. J. Herries, K.C.B. Deputy-Algernon E. West, C.B. Secretaries-A. Young, F. B. Garnett. AUDIT AND EXCHEQUER, SOMERSET HOUSE. Chairman-Sir Wm. Dunbar, Bart. Secretary-C. L. Ryan. CROWN OFFICE, HOUSE OF LORDS. Clerk of Crown-C. Romilly. CROWN LAW OFFICERS. Attorney-General-Sir Henry James. Solicitor-General-Sir Farr. Herschell. CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION, CANNON-ROW, WESTMINSTER. Commissioners-Viscount Enfield, Sir A. GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE, SOMERSET HOUSE. Registrar-General-SirB.P.Henniker. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, Deputy Keeper-William Hardy. JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S SUPREME COURT OF JUDICA- Lords Justices of Appeal in Ordinary-The Lord Chancellor, Lords Blackburne, Watson, Sirs B. Peacock, M. Smith, R. P. Collier, and Richard H. Couch. LORDS OF APPEAL OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS. The Lord Chancellor, Lords Cairns, Penzance. O'Hagan, Coleridge, and Blackburn. SUPREME COURT OF JUDICA- Lord Chancellor's Officers. Secretary of Commissions of PeaceE. A. Murray. Registrar in Lunacy-J. L. Whittle. QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION. Lord Chief Justice-Lord Coleridge. Judges-Sirs Robt. Grove, Geo. Denman, Charles E. Pollock, W. Huddlestone, N. Lindley, Henry Hawkins, H. C. Lopez, J. F. Stephen, J. W. Williams, J. C. Mathew, L. W. Cave, W. L. Field, Henry Manisty, Charles S. Bowen. Associate to Lord Chief Justice-Hon. H. E. Campbell. PROBATE, DIVORCE, AND ADMIRALTY DIVISION. President--Rt. Hon. Sir James Hannen. COURT OF ARCHES, VICAR-GENERAL'S OFFICE, BELL-YARD, DOCTORS'-COMMONS. Vicar-General-J. P. Deane, D.C.L. Registrar-John Hansard. FACULTY OFFICE, 10, GREAT KNIGHTRIDER-STREET. Master-Lord Penzance. Registrars-Messrs. Moore and Curry. BANKRUPTCY COURT, LINCOLN'S-INN & BASINGHALL-STREET. Chief Judge-Sir James Bacon. Chief Registrar-Wm. Hazlitt. Registrars-J. R. Brougham, W. P. Murray, P. H. Pepys. THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. EXPENDITURE, &c. The amount expended on poor relief during the past year was £8.015,010, an increase on the previous year of £184,191, or 24 per cent. In twenty-six of the union counties there was an increase, in eighteen a decrease. In Warwick the increase was 124 per cent in excess of the average; in Durham, 97 pe cent; in Lancaster, 8'9 per cent; in the East Riding of York, 6.8 per cent; and in Kent (metropolitan), 8:3 per cent. The decrease was by no means so considerable. It was greatest in Huntingdon, with 4 7 per cent, Kent (extra-metropolitan), with 34 per cent, coming next. On the estimated population the cost of relief was 6s. 4d. per head, or id. over that of the year before. On a comparison, however, with 1871, the first year of the decennial period, when the rate per head was 68. 11 d., there was a decrease of 7 d. per head; and, taking the value of the property on which the charge falls, the result was a favourable one, for, while the rate was 18. 56-10d. in the pound in 1871, it was, in 1880, 18 24-10d., or a decrease of 3 2-10d. The year in which the rate per head was lowest was 1877, when it stood at 68. 0дd. The total sum received in the year 1880 from Poorrate, Treasury subventions, and other sources was £14,001,512, while the expenditure was somewhat larger-viz., £14,092,102, made up of the following items:-Poor relief, £8,015,010; law charges, £27,787; outlay for purposes partly connected with relief, £633,332; and for purposes wholly unconnected with relief, £5,415,973. The expenditure for relief has for several years been divided into six sub-heads. The sums disbursed under cach during 1879-80 are (1) in-maintenance, £1,757,749; (2) out-relief, £2,710,778; (3) maintenance of lunatics in asylums and licensed houses, | £994,204; (4) workhouse and other loans repaid and interest, £319,426; (5) salaries and rations of officers and superannuations, £1,053,218; (6) other expenses of or immediately connected. with relief. £1,181,511. The sum of these figures amounts to £8,016,886, while I the total amount expended on relief was, as has been stated, £8,015,010. The difference arises from the adjustment of the charges for relief in the metropolis through the Common Poor Fund. The in-maintenance in 1880, compared with that of 1871, shows an increase of £233,054, or 15:3 per cent; but the out-relief exhibits a still larger decrease of £953,192, or 26 per cent. During the 10 years the cost of pauper lunatics in asylums has, with the exception of 1872, when there was a small decrease, grown steadily from year to year, from £746,113 in 1871, to £994,204 in 1880, an increase of 333 per cent. Each pauper lunatic cost 9s. 74d. weekly during 1879-80. Of that sum the Parliamentary grant provides 48. a head, leaving 5s. 74d. as the charge on the ratepayers. The total expenditure for in-maintenance and out-relief last year was £4,468,527, of which the latter absorbed no less than £2,710,778, or 607 per cent. The proportion of out-relief in Wales rose to 84-9 per cent; in the south-western district, containing Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset, it was 78 per cent; in the northern, formed of Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, it was 707; and so on, seven out of 11 divisions being in a marked degree above the average. In the metropolis, on the other hand, the ratio was only 27 9 per The gross estimated rental and the rateable value in all England were, in 1870, £123,365,817, and £104,405,304 respectively. In 1879 the gross estimated rental was £157,968,723, and the rateable value £133,769,875, or an increase for the 10 years of £34,000,000 in gross estimated rental, and £29,000, 000 in rateable value. The ratio of the rateable value to the gross estimated value was remarkably uniform throughout the decade. The increase in the one was 280; in the other, 281 per cent. In the Metropolis, the valuation to the poor rate was in 1870, gross estimated rental, £22,142,706, rateable value £18,187,693; in 1879 the gross estimated rental was £29,682,269, and the rateable value £24,447,444. Thus in the metropolis the gross estimated rental had increased in the decade by £7,540,000, or 341 per cent., and the rateable value by £6,260,000, or 34'0 per cent. If the comparison were made with the quinquennial revision of metropolitan valuation effected in 1880, the increase of rateable value over 1870 would be £9,215,000, or 50'7 per cent. cent. During the decade, pauperism has, on the whole, decreased. From 1871, when the mean number of paupers was, indoor, 156,430; outdoor, 880,930total, 1,037,360, to 1877, when the indoor paupers were 149,611, outdoor, 570,338-total, 719,949, the decline was continuous. Between 1878 and 1880 there was some increase, the numbers in the latter year being, indoor, 180,817, outdoor, 627,213-total, 808,030; nevertheless, the ratio of paupers to population, which in 1871 was 46 per 1000, had fallen in 1880 to 32 per 1000, or a diminution of 14 per 1000. This decrease was owing to the great decline in the mean number of outdoor paupers from S80,930 in 1871 to 627,213 in 1880-a difference of 253,717, or considerably more than one fourth. DEATH-RATE OF ENGLAND AND WALES. A comparison of the annual death-rate of England and Wales for the last four decennial periods gives the following results:-The annual death-rate per 1000 from all causes was 22:4 between 1841 and 1850; 22 2 between 1851 and 1860; 225 between 1861 and 1870; and 215 between 1871 and 1880. The annual death-rate from the seven zymotic diseases was in the last three decennial periods respectively 4'11, 4'14, and 3:36 per 1000, while from fever it was 0-91, 088, and 0:49. It may be estimated that about a quarter of a million were saved from death in the ten years 1871-80 who would have died if the death-rate had been the same as in the previous thirty years. If twelve cases of serious but non-fatal illness be reckoned for every death, it follows that about three million persons, or over one ninth of the whole population, have been saved from a sick bed by some influence at work in the past decade which had not been at work previously." It is worthy of notice that of the entire reduction in the death-rate above mentioned more than three-quarters comes under the head of the seven zymotic diseases, or, in other words, the diseases most influenced by sanitary improvements. Of this three-quarters, three-eighths of the reduction comes under the head of "fever," the disease which more than any other shows itself in connection with bad drainage, bad water, and filth accumulation. It would appear, then, that the millions which have been spent of late years on our sanitary requirements have not all been spent in vain. The subject of the water supply of the metropolis is disposed of in a few words. While improving in quantity, the companies all, without "to a certain extent" giving a constant supply, the quality is exception, pronounced less satisfactory, and therefore Dr. Frankland has come to the conclusion that "the water both of the Thames and the Lea is becoming year by year less suitable for domestic use." COMPARISON OF THE FAILURE OF CROPS. In the wheat crop alone the yield for the United Kingdom has on the average of the past five years been no less than a million quarters a years less than the average of the whole past ten years, of which they form a part, while, if the average of fifteen years be taken, the average for the five years is no less than two million quarters a year short. The following summary of the past fourteen years shows pretty clearly the effect of a deficiency of sunshine in England : Official Average Price per Quarter for 12 Months. July 1 to June 30. s. d. 27 58 0 25 69 3 34 51 8 45 11 From this abstract it will be seen that in the thirteen years of which we have had agricultural statistics there has been a very considerable decrease in wheat, while barley and oats have been about stationary. It has been pointed out that the more accurate comparisons of 1880 should be made rather with 1870 than 1867, because it is admittted that the returns for the latter year, the first time they were collected, were inaccurate. To the decrease of 600,000 acres of wheat, as shown by the comparison of 1880 with 1870, must be added a further decrease for the year 1881 of certainly not less than 120,000 acres, so that there has been a diminution of an acreage under wheat of three quarters of a million acres. ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES. THE MOON is near Mercury on the 17th; she is near Venus on the morning of the 20th, but, the day of New Moon being the 19th, neither are visible. She is near Saturn during the evening hours of the 22nd, being situated to the left of the planet. She is near and to the left of Jupiter during the evening hours of the 23rd, and she is near Mars during the night hours of the 26th and early morning i urs of the 27th, till 10h. p.m. on the 26th she will be a littis to the right. Mars, and after this time to the left of the planet. Her phases or times change are: Full Moon on the 5th at 20 minutes before 1h. in the morning. afternoon. afternoon. afternoon. 99 Last Quarter 12th 28 99 after 9 99 17 99 0 99 99 1 She is farthest from the Earth on the morning of the 3rd, and again on the afternoon of the 30th, and nearest to it on the afternoon of the 18th. elongation (27 deg. 44 min.) on the 21st, and at his greatest distance from the Sun on the 24th. VENUS is an evening star, setting on the 2nd at 5h. 48m. p.m., or 9 minutes after sunset; on the 12th at 6h. 20m. p.m., or 23 minutes after sunset; on the 22nd at eh. 53m. p.m., or 39 minutes after the Sun; and on the last day at 7h. 21m. p.m., or 51 minutes after sunset. She is near the Moon on the 20th. MARS sets on the 3rd at 4h. 2m. a.m., or 2h. 42m. before sunrise; on the 13th at 3h. 34m. a.m., or 2 h. 47 m. before sunrise; on the 23rd at 3h. 8m. a.m., or 2h. 51m. before sunrise; and on the last day at 2h. 50m. a m., or 2h. 51m. before sunrise. He is due south on the 1st at 7h. 26m. p.m., on the 15th at 6h. 51m. p.m., and on the last day at 6h. 16m. p.m. He is near the Moon on the 26th and 27th. JUPITER sets on the 1st at 0h. 13m. a.m., on the 12th at 11h. 35m. p.m., on the 22nd at 11h. 6m. p.m., and on the last day at 10h. 41m. p.m. He is due south on the 1st at 4h. 34m. p.m., on the 15th at 3h. 49m. p.m., and on the last day at 2h. 58m. p.m. He is near the Moon on the 23rd. MERCURY is a morning star, rising on the 2nd at 5h. 58m. a.m., or 48m. before sunrise; on the 7th at 5h. 44m., or 52m. before the Sun; on the 12th at 5h. 33m. a.m., or 50 minutes before sunrise; on the 17th at 5h. 26m. a.m., or h. before sunrise; on the 22nd at 5h. 21m. a.m., or 40 minutes before sunrise; and on the 72th at 5h. 15m. a.m., or 35 minutes before sunrise. He is stationary among the stars on the 6th; in his descending 3h. 48m. p.m., on the 15th at 2h. 59m. p.m., and on the last day at 2h. 2m. node on the 14th, near the Moon on the 17th, at his greatest western p.m. He is near the Moon on the 22nd. SATURN is an evening star, setting on the 2nd at 10h. 52m. p.m.; on the 12th at 10h. 18m. p.m., on the 22nd at 9h. 45m. p.m., and on the last day at 9h. 14m. p.m., or 2 hours after sunset. He is due south on the 1st at |