well-dressed people was there in that narrow street in the Adelphi! The great room was literally packed; his Grace the Duke of Norfolk had some difficulty in reaching the presidential chair, and all the powers of Mr. Aikin, the secretary of that time, were in active requisition. At length the proceedings commenced; a report was read; and the candidates in due succession were introduced to his Grace, who, as he presented the prize, (the reason of which was briefly stated to him and to the audience,) accompanied it by a few words of kindly congratulation. Among them was William Ross, at the age of twelve, to receive the society's silver palette for a drawing of the death of Wat Tyler; he has long since acquired fortune and fame for his exquisite miniatures, and still wears the honourable style and title of Sir William Ross, Miniature Painter to Her Majesty. I can see now that little boy showing the drawing to his Grace, and receiving his prize, for he specially engaged my attention, as being somewhat older than myself. Of others who obtained prizes that day I have also a slight recollection; but the far greater number of the rewarded have long since been forgotten.

Three years afterwards occurred the second holiday to which I have referred, and the individual whom I accompanied on my first visit had in the interim gained a second and still larger prize, and I again journeyed with him to the Society of Arts. On that occasion I saw another little boy receive a silver palette for an etching which he presented to the president-my memory suddenly says, "it was one of sheep and goats;" but, although unable now to put this to the test, (though I am almost sure that it was so,) I am quite certain that the youthful artist was the now distinguished Sir Edwin Landseer. Thus, another illustration was afforded of a remark made by one who had intelligently watched the progress of the institution: To this society some of our best artists have owed the most priceless of all services that can be rendered to men of genius at the outset of their career-appreciation on the part of an enlightened few, and introduction under favourable auspices to the many.

Were other instances than those already cited necessary, they might easily be given. To take only a few-In 1758, Bacon the sculptor received a reward of ten guineas for a small figure of Peace, and gained the highest premium on nine different occasions. In 1761, Nollekens the sculptor received the same sum for an alto-relievo of Jephtha's Vow; and two years later, fifty guineas for a work of higher rank. Flaxman, afterwards so eminent in the same department of art as Nollekens, gained ⚫for one of his earliest efforts a grant of ten guineas, and for another sculpture, three years after, the society's gold medal. Lawrence, at the age of thirteen-a little the senior of Ross and Landseer obtained a silver-gilt palette and five guineas for a crayon drawing of the Transfiguration; and, when President of the Royal Academy, was accustomed to speak with grateful remembrance of the impulse thus given to his native love of art. Lastly, in 1818, to Mr. Wyon a gold medal was adjudged for a die which was pronounced a very beautiful work. The fine arts presented, naturally enough, one object of early attention to the society, for it was

established in 1754, chiefly by Mr. William Shipley, a drawing master; but to this department it was not restricted. When the institution was fairly located in its own premises, built in a handsome style by the brothers Adam, in John-street, Adelphi, the inscription appeared on the pediment, "Arts and Commerce promoted," and the motto has been amply verified in its subsequent history.

With the history of one artist-Barry-the name of the Society of Arts is indelibly associated, for he applied for permission to adorn their great room with a series of historical paintings, all from his own hand, and entirely at his own cost. This remarkable, sanguine, and scarcely controllable native of the Emerald Isle, when he made this magnificent offer had but sixteen shillings in his pocket, and knew full well, if it were accepted, he could only obtain the means of subsistence by giving the time to toil that ought to be reserved for sleep. But his language was: "I thought myself bound, in duty to the country, to art, and to my own character, to try whether my abilities would enable me to exhibit the proof as well as the argument." And so, his offer being accepted, he entered on his task, only stipulating the free exercise of his judgment, free admission, and the provision of the models he might require free of personal expense.

The pictures he produced were six-three political, and three historical. Without offering on them a word of criticism, we shall simply mention that they are the story of Orpheus-a Harvest Home-the Victors at Olympia-Navigation, or the Triumph of the Thames-the Distribution of Premiums in the Society of Arts-and Elysium, or the Final State of Retribution. Barry intended to give three years to these pictures, but he spent on them six. Giving his day to them, he made hurried drawings and hasty engravings by night, for the support of life. He was sometimes hard pinched, and is said to have asked aid of the society in vain. However this might be--and Allan Cunningham favours the story of neglect-the society presented to Barry two donations of fifty guineas each and a gold medal, and two hundred guineas more at the conclusion of the work. Jonas Hanway left a guinea instead of a shilling for his admission to see these pictures; Johnson beheld in them "a grasp of mind which he could find nowhere else;" and Townley declared they were composed upon the true principles of the best paintings." Lord Aldborough wrote to the artist in still more eulogistic terms; but

Quips and cranks, and wreathed smiles" were frequently indulged at his conceptions, though as to his power and taste in execution but one opinion prevailed. It is due to the Society of Arts to state that the first exhibition of paintings in England took place in its rooms, in 1760, which was continued with great success for some years; and that the two exhibitions of his paintings with which it favoured Barry, yielded him a clear profit of five hundred pounds. He also obtained another two hundred for the engravings he made from these productions of his pencil.

Of this gifted, eccentric, and wayward man, Southey gave a graphic picture in after days." knew Barry," he says, "and have been admitted

instead of being a simple organic substance, as had been supposed, was a salt, consisting of margaric, a solid animal acid, and glycerine, an animal base; the acid being the inflammable part. He further discovered, in 1814, the existence of oleic, a liquid acid, existing in lard, and forming a chief ingredient in many fatty bodies. His researches were continued during many years, and in 1823 were given by him to the world. He has recently been presented by the Société d'Encouragement with a prize of 12,000 francs.

De Milly, of Paris, was the first person who succeeded in turning to account these valuable discoveries of Chevreul, employing a modification of that chemist's process to separate the acids from the glycerine with which they are combined. Tallow is boiled up with the cream of lime, which causes the acids to forsake the glycerine and combine with the lime; the acids are then set free by combining the lime with the sulphuric acid, and the oleic acid is afterwards separated from the margaric by simple pressure. As, however, the margaric acid required nearly two and a half times its weight of tallow to produce it, the process was expensive, and thus there was a difficulty in the way of its use. But this was surmounted by Messrs. Price and Co., who in 1830 became possessed of a patent for separating cocoa-nut oil into its solid and liquid parts; and as in the following year the candle manufacture was freed from the excise, it received a signal impulse. The success of candles made from cocoanut oil was limited, however, from their requiring snuffing; but, in an effort to make cheap candles for the illumination on the Queen's marriage, it was discovered that candles would not need snuffing if the cocoa-nut stearine were combined with pure margaric acid. In this way originated the "Composite Candles," which threaten to make a pair of snuffers a thing fit only for an antiquarian museum. Another step was taken in purifying the fat acids by means of distillation. It was first proposed to carry on this process in a vacuum apparatus, similar to that used in sugar refining; but afterwards the idea was carried into effect by distilling in an atmosphere of steam, which secured the advantages of the air-pump without its manufacturing difficulties. The process of distillation was commenced on large scale by Messrs. Price and Co. in 1844, thus preceding by two years the opening of the manufactory of MM. Masse and Tribouillet, the first of the kind established on the continent. Arsenic and wax were originally employed to destroy the large crystals which were formed in the earlier candles and disfigured their exterior, but this practice has now ceased for some years.

Passing along the Thames, the eye may observe part of the works, where are combined, from day to day, the results of this scientific knowledge and practical skill. The establishment is fitted up with an immense amount of steam and hydraulic power, employing some seven or eight hundred hands*, and manufacturing annually upwards of 4000 tons of palm and cocoa-nut oil into candles. No smoke issues from its chimneys, though the amount of fuel consumed weekly is about 160 tons; huge furnaces, for steam-engines of more than 1000-horse power,

This is the establishment recently so well known in connexion with the benevolent efforts made for the moral and spiritual improvement of the young persons employed in it.

feeding themselves with the refuse coal of the London market. A laboratory, forges, a sealing-wax manufactory, and a steam-printing machine, with a retinue of engineers, carpenters, tinmen, coppersmiths, and weavers, aid in carrying on here this important manufacture. But other auxiliaries are required; and hence, far away in the island of Ceylon, the company has estates for the culture of the cocoa-nut palm, and extensive mill-works for the expression of its oil. As another kind of palm, growing on various parts of the African coast, is very useful, its oil is also extensively employed.

The oil, as received at the wharf, is liquefied by passing through it a steam pipe; it is then conveyed through another pipe to reservoirs, and is changed by chemical processes from a bright orange-coloured fluid into a discoloured concrete mass. This substance is exposed, at a temperature of 350°, to the action of about one-twentieth of its weight of sulphuric acid, which has the effect of driving off the glycerine, and of leaving the fat acids free: these acids, which are of a very dark colour, are then washed, and transferred to a still, from which the air is excluded by steam. The distilled material is subjected to pressure, first at the ordinary and then at a high temperature, and the residue is the substance of which the "Belmont Sperm Candles" are made. As an illustration of the very large scale on which the operations of the company are conducted, it was mentioned by the lecturer that 800 miles of wick are continually being made into candles. When completed, they are conveyed in boxes to the packing department, where, with marvellous rapidity, they are inclosed in sealed packets.

The lecture was illustrated by an exhibition of all the substances employed in the manufacture, in the various stages through which they pass, and among them was a large cake of margaric acid which had been shown by De Milly at the Great Exhibition, with the different kinds of candles into which the substance was wrought. In con clusion, it was stated that the trade in palm oil might be used as a means of gradually introducing civilization into certain parts of Africa, and thus of terminating the trade there in human flesh. It is, we believe, attested by persons of competent judg ment, that the effect of the trade in palm oil has been to introduce into the districts where it is carried on a taste for the institutes and articles of civilization before unknown; and that an indefinite amount of palm oil, not to speak of other vegetable and animal products, may be obtained from the people of Africa. It will indeed be a glorious hour, when a commerce so beneficent shall have supplanted the foul demon of slavery that has so long oppressed the children of Ham.

THE AUSTRALIAN FILE. THERE is no readier way of obtaining something like a correct idea of the condition of society, as it exists in a distant colony, than by contemplating the reflection of it presented by its newspaper press, when it is fortunate enough to possess one. This, though not intended generally to serve any such purpose, is in fact a source of information not to be sophisticated; and the knowledge to be de

attention. These are announcements of sales by private contract, or proposals for barter on the part of individuals. Some of them are suggestive enough. One gentleman wants to get rid of ten thousand sheep in a lot, so soon as he has done with the shearing. And another is sick and tired of twenty-eight thousand sheep and three thousand head of cattle; his health compels him to seek another climate; and he will sell the whole lot, together with the feeding-ground, a bargain, and add to it, if the purchaser chooses, "forty miles of lamb and dog-proof galvanized wire," with which the flocks and herds may be inclosed within telescopic bounds. An impatient adventurer is anxious to be off to the diggings, and, by way of raising the wind, offers for sale his "elegant gold chronometer, made by French, of the Royal Exchange, London, with massive gold chain attached." A sober tradesman, residing in the Market Square, anxious no doubt to contribute his share towards the comforts of the rising colony, makes the following proclamation, part of which we copy: "For sale by the undersigned-arsenic, corrosive sublimate, butyr antimony, strychnine in crystals;" then follow some quack medicines; the whole showing a judgment in the classification of poisons highly creditable in a tradesman in a young country. Another is a wholesale purveyor of all the mining requisites, and politely invites “ persons proceeding to the Ballarat and Eureka diggings" to come and inspect his abundant stores of necessaries, a long list of which figures at the end of his address. The perusal of the list is not very encouraging to the non-combatant; along with cradles, scales, washing-pans, pestles and mortars, and magnets, there is a murderous display of pistols, guns, tomahawks, and gunpowder-with the usual appendage of, "Wanted a shopman;" that being an article evidently scarce in Melbourne. Then there are horses, and drays, and wagons, and yokes of oxen, and carts, and wheelbarrows which will shut up and submit to be carried under the arm like a threecornered hat on a levee day; there are wooden houses without number, and piccola pianofortes, and octaves of sherry, and cases of champagne, and soda water and bottled ale; and there is a printing business which is guaranteed to yield a better income than is to be got at the diggings; and there are five hundred things besides, all to be had for a consideration by those who want them.

rived from it, though it consists of little more than heterogeneous scraps, is of a nature to be relied on, and not the less likely to be genuine that it is involuntarily bestowed. Under this conviction, we purpose taking a brief glance at the contents of a late number of the "Melbourne Argus," which has recently come to hand, in the course of which we may chance to turn up a few not uninteresting social characteristics which lie but thinly shrouded in the form of advertisements-for it is with advertisements alone that we shall have anything to do. Melbourne, as most of our readers know, is a thriving and rapidly rising town, situated near the extremity of the noble bay of Port Phillip, and within a few days' journey of the Mount Alexander gold diggings. Two years ago it possessed a population of twenty thousand, and since that time has been increasing at such an abnormal rate, owing to the number of immigrants arriving almost daily, that it might be imprudent at the present moment to venture a guess as to their numbers. The "Melbourne Argus" is a newspaper published daily, about the size of the double "Times," and containing fifty-six columns some two feet in length each. Being free from the incubi of stamps and advertisement duty, it offers to the colonists a cheap and excellent medium for all the purposes to which a newspaper can be adapted. Large as it is, and expensive as labour is on the spot, it is delivered daily to subscribers at forty shillings a year, or something under tenpence a week; and it can afford to insert advertisements of four lines and under at the charge of only a shilling each. The consequence is, that of the whole fifty-six columns rather more than forty-three are crammed with advertisements. Of these, sixteen are occupied by announcements of sales by auction, from which it would appear that the cargo of every vessel that arrives in port is for the most part subjected to the hammer and sold off at once to the highest bidders. The articles thus put up to competition comprise almost every luxury, as well as all the necessaries of life. There are sacks of flour and Indian corn, and doubleaction grand pianofortes by Collard and Collard. There are all the drapers' wares which are to be found in the most comprehensive London catalogue, and there are "corrugated iron houses with two or four rooms, which will make a home in the wilderness at the expense of a few hours' labour. There are Newcastle coals and Wiltshire bacon and Nottingham shoes. There are allotments of land for "successful gold-diggers," and "cheese, butter, and books," food for mind and body, for the benefit of their families; and there are "pistols! pistols! pistols!" revolvers with as many barrels as you choose to carry, with rifles, daggers, belts, and life-preservers, for those about to take up the gold-diggers' peaceful profession. eggs! eggs! eggs!" and a valuable assortment of jewellery-with joists and beams for builders, and tobacco and meerschaums, and everything possible in the shape of a pipe for those that choose to smoke. In short, there are no limits to the modes in which an emigrant may lay out his money and commence his colonial progress, either up-hill or down, the moment he sets foot on shore. Next to the sales by auction, the propositions under the general head of "merchandise" demand

There

are

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But enough of sales and merchandise; let us now take a glance at the "wants," all pithily expressed in paragraphs of from three to five lines each. Of these there is no end; but we must be as brief in our selection as the necessities of the case will allow. Of domestic servants, to begin with, there appears to be an universal lack; from “a little girl to nurse a child" and a strong boy to carry out goods," up to the finished cook and experienced head waiter, all are in general demand, and the advertisers promise an easy place and liberal wages as an inducement for candidates to come forward. From some of the proposals we gather that "liberal wages means for female servants about twenty-five pounds a year-for a good plain cook forty pounds a year. Married couples appear to be in prodigious request-the husband to act as porter, groom, storekeeper, or

carter, and the wife as a domestic servant; and eighty pounds a year are offered as their united wages. A steady man to look after a horse and drive a dray" is earnestly requested to make his appearance, and go to work at once, for the consideration of two pounds a week and his rations. Good plain cooks, especially if they have husbands willing to wait at table, are at an enormous premium, judging from the reiterated demands made for them; in short, servitude of almost every imaginable kind, except clerks, is at a premium, and no species of domestic help need go a-begging. Then, among the trades and handicrafts, the wants seem equally pressing. A master who is evidently driven to extremities cries out in large capitals: "Bakers! bakers! wanted two good journeymen bakers; the highest wages given. Apply," etc. A builder is in want of carpenters and joiners, and proclaims to all and sundry that he is ready to give any one or more of them fifteen shillings a day for wages, and a house to live in into the bargain. Watch and clock makers are also a general desideratum, and the "Argus" with its hundred eyes is on the look-out for them in all quarters. Milliners and dress-makers, too, look up in the market of Melbourne, where midnight labours are a thing unknown, and starvation and standing meals are economical discoveries yet to be made. Linen-drapers' assistants, moreover, are an uncommonly scarce commodity: one employer actually goes so far as to advertise for an entire establishment, including manager, cashier, general salesmen, and in-door porters. Sawyers, wood-cutters, gardeners, cattle-drovers, smiths, labourers, quarrymen, tent-makers, etc. etc., all are lured by tempting offers to accept service at the highest current wages, at a moment's notice. But the chief desideratum of all would appear to be sailors, who, judging from the unheard-of premiums offered for their services, must have been seized with an infatuation for the diggings, and abandoned their vessels almost to a man. A captain, advertising for a crew to navigate his vessel to China, offers thirty pounds a month or sixty pounds for the voyage, at the option of the seamen: this is about ten times the usual amount of wages paid in merchant vessels. If the common sailors have succumbed to the golden temptation, the ship's officers have been equally unable to resist, the same appeals being made to them in the columns of the "Argus," inviting them to return to their duty on board. Among other singular wants is that of a man with a good bass voice to supply the place of a chorister who has vanished, gone off probably with a cradle upon his shoulder in company with Herr Mater's musicians that gentleman being compelled to have recourse to an advertisement to procure performers, both vocal and instrumental, for the Thursday night concerts, from which his band, seduced by the charms of Ballarat, have taken unceremonious leave. Perhaps, after all, the most remarkable of the "wants" are those experienced by the proprietors of the "Argus' themselves: they have actually advertised in its columns, first, for any number of compositors to come forward at once, offering to all payment at the rate of half-a-crown a thousand, at which it would be easy to earn thirty shillings a day; secondly, for two strong fellows to turn the machine

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which prints the paper; thirdly, for a reader to read it; fourthly, for 1500 pounds of new nonpareil type, the old being worn out long ago; and fifthly, for any quantity of paper of the requisite size upon which to print it. This is a curious crisis of affairs in a printing-office, and one too in which such a prodigious amount of work has to be daily got through as the publication of a paper the size of the Argus" must necessarily involve. The last " wants we shall mention are two which it is pleasant to suppose, whatever may be the case with the others, have a chance of being supplied. Mr. Harris wants a big dog, to guard his house by night; and Mrs. Harris will give a liberal price for a goat giving milk. As watch-dogs and milchgoats may be supposed to be free from the goldfever, it is likely that these good people obtained what they wanted with less tax upon their patience than the miscellaneous advertisers above mentioned had to endure.

As a consequence, where such high wages are given, the cost of the necessaries of life cannot fail to be affected by that of labour. Mr. William Howitt, in his letter which is now going the round of the papers, and which, be it remarked, was written about the same time that our number of the "Argus" was printed, gives a lamentable account of the difficulty of getting into "any kind of lodgings, even at the most astounding prices." But what says the newspaper which was printing while he was writing? A single gentleman can obtain board and residence in a private family for twenty-five shillings per week. Apply to Mr. Harvey, chemist, Wellington-street." This is not outrageously dear, at any rate, and it is by no means a solitary specimen of the sort of accommodation offered.

Among the miscellaneous advertisements we must allude to two or three, suggestive of social peculiarities incidental to a city located within fourscore miles of the gold-diggings. Thus, there is one which summons very imperatively an Irish delinquent, one Michael Casey, to come back immediately and surrender the sum of sixty pounds, which was paid to him, over and above its value, for his gold; and threatening him with the rigour of the law if he dare to neglect the appeal. One can hardly help suspecting that Michael has been cheating the bullion-broker with a sham "nugget," thousands of which, it is said, have been manufactured in this country, and sent out to facilitate the villanies of the unprincipled, with which unhappily the convict colony abounds. A respectable "party going to the diggings with pack-horses on Tuesday next, can accommodate several persons by carrying their swags, and with the use of a tent on the road." Another advertiser has established a Dig ger's Directory, in which he registers the addresses of the gold-finders, together with the brands and descriptions of their horses, which latter he under takes to hunt up at any time, and restore to their owners, for a consideration. The owner of an estate on Salt Water River announces that a black horse, marked W. V., and having a switch tail, and a white-faced bay mare, also wagging a switch tail, have come astray on his estate, and that the owners can have them on application. But there is another kind of animal gone astray, the loss of which is more deeply deplored than that of switch