Varieties. A CRYSTAL STRUCTURE FOR SHIP-BUILDING.-One of the most recent applications of glass on a large scale, of which we have heard, is in the case of a shipbuilder's firm in Glasgow, who have contracted to have their building-yard covered with that transparent material, and lighted with gas. In this structure they will be able to build several first-class ocean steam-ships at once, the men working full time comfortably in all sorts of weather; This is the first application of Sir. J. Paxton's beautiful invention to such a purpose, but it will probably not be the last. The cost of the erection will be about 12,000l., and the New York, the new vessel for the Glasgow and New York Steamship Company, it is expected will be the first vessel launched from under this crystal palace. SEED OF THE TOBACCO PLANT.-A discovery which may prove of some commercial importance has been made by a British resident in Russia, namely, that the seed of the tobacco plant contains about fifteen per cent. of an oil possessing peculiar drying properties, calculated to render it a superior medium, especially for paints and varnishes. PENNY POSTAGE.-By a late proclamation, the penny post system has been extended to the whole of the Danish monarchy, so that a penny stamp will now frank a let ter to either Schleswig or Holstein. SINGULAR OCCURRENCE.-There will be twenty-seven Saturdays in the half-year ending December 31, 1853. EFFECT OF LEGISLATION ON DOGS.-We find from several provincial papers that these animals are being massacred in consequence of the alteration in the assessed taxes, which now includes all the canine species in the impost, and presses more heavily than before upon those who keep the ordinary kinds of dogs. HOLYROOD PALACE.-This interesting building is henceforth to be open to the public every Saturday, free of charge. Improvements are also to be made on the grounds, so as to render it an attractive spot not only to the inhabitants of Edinburgh, but also to strangers visiting the city. GIGANTIC CHIMNEY.-A monster chimney near Manchester, commenced on the 7th of December, 1852, has lately been completed. Its dimensions have rarely been exceeded. Its height reaches 270 feet, the diameter of its outward base is 26 feet, and the aperture for smoke 7 feet. The structure contains 507,000 bricks, and it serves for a number of furnaces, in which there is an aggregate weekly consumption of 190 tons of coals. NEW EXPEDITION TO EXPLORE THE NIGER.-It is in contemplation to fit out another Admiralty expedition to explore the source of this river, with the view of promoting civilization in Africa, and opening up new channels ting opportunity for prosecuting this great undertaking, for commerce. It is considered that the present is a fitinasmuch as the mortality on the coast of Africa has of late somewhat decreased. THE PANOPTICON IN LEICESTER SQUARE.-In the dreary vacancy which has so long been observable in Leicester-square, London, there has suddenly sprung up a substantial edifice, which is beginning to attract curiosity from its singular style of architecture. It is in imitation of a Saracenic structure of the 14th or 15th century, and has been erected by a company bearing the title of "The Royal Panopticon of Science and Art." The objects of the institution are somewhat similar to those of "The Polytechnic" in Regent-street, so well known and so highly appreciated. The building appears to the visitor, on entering, to be a lofty, star-domed, galleried temple, sparkcharacterised by an admirable taste and uniformity of style. It is lit from the top and from a few side windows. In order to darken the building for exhibition purposes, an apparatus has been fitted to the windows, by which they can all be closed simultaneously. For artificial light the lamps of Saracenic character, 200 to 300 in number, and gas is to be used in chains of single suspended argaud an electric stream of light will expand its rays, if prac ticable, from the dome. In the centre of the ground floor is a fountain of very novel pattern, which will throw up streams of different-coloured waters at the will of the exhibitor. Around the fountain will be placed various pieces of machinery in motion, while the remainder of the groundfloor will be occupied by casts of eminent works of British sculptors. THE NEW METROPOLITAN GAS COMPANY.-The works of the Great Central Gas Consumers Company, situ-ling with all the gold and colours of the Alhambra, but ated on Bow Common, which have lately been completed, possess a power of production equal to eight hundred millions of cubic feet of gas per annum. Their cost was only 210,000l., one seventh of which sum was spent in law proceedings necessitated by the opposition of other companies. Works of such magnitude, with such power of production, have never before, it is believed, been constructed for less than three times the amount. Their street mains are nearly 70 miles in length. Their four gasholders can store nearly two million feet of gas, produced by retorts placed in two rows of arches the one over the other-each upper arch containing six clay retorts, and the under arch seven of iron, and each retort producing on the average 8000 cubic feet per day. The fires heating the retorts are but seven inches wide by twenty-eight inches long, which is only about one-fourth of the size generally in use. An ingenious expedient is also resorted to for getting rid of the offensive coal-tar-one of the greatest abominations usually connected with gas-works. Instead of being permitted to accumulate and pollute the air, it is carefully stored in tanks, and introduced into the fire as fuel to heat the retorts. articles are to be exhibited or sold, unless they are manuThe galleries are to be let off for bazaar counters, but no most miscellaneous description, in order to furnish variety factured publicly on the spot. The crafts will be of the of subjects. One counter, for example, has been taken by and a third by a hatter. The principal feature, in the way an ivory-turner; another by an artificial flower-maker; of pictorial illustration, will be an optical Diorama on a RABBITS IN PARIS.-A gentleman, relating the in- very large scale. Scenic representations are to be here cidents of his travels while in Paris, says:-"I entered a given, exceeding in dimensions anything of the kind yet restaurant on the other side of the Seine, and ordered a exhibited. In the recess, behind the sliding-field of the rabbit. I was green-verdant as the first cucumber, even Diorama, an enormous organ is being erected, of the same as early peas-or I should not have done this. The calibre as the famous instrument in the Town-hall of Birrabbit came, and I offered the Moniteur to an old French-mingham. Indeed, it is said that it will not be inferior in man opposite, whose eyes were fixed upon my plate, but he bowed a negative. The bow puzzled me. It was too much. Monsieur has not been long in Paris ? No, I have just arrived.' 'Monsieur is going to eat that?' 'Yes; may I offer you a slice?' 'Monsieur will allow me to make a small observation?' inquired the Frenchman, with a frightful grimace. Certainly,' I replied, becoming alarmed. Monsieur, that rabbit once mewed,' he replied, with the utmost gravity." NEW MOTH.-At a recent meeting of the Entomolological Society, Mr. Westwood exhibited the cocoon of a new moth from tropical Africa, which he thought might be brought into use as a new material for textile fabrics. power to any organ in Europe. For popular experimental lectures, there are two spacions theatres and a laboratory. The steam-engine, the telegraph, the lathe, and the loom, will be exhibited in all their various modifications, and an electrical-machine is being constructed of proportions far exceeding anything of the kind ever known or contemplated before. The glass plate, already in the building, is ten feet in diameter! The machine will be worked by a steam-engine. The front attic of the Panopticon building is occupied by a beautifully constructed suite of photographic-rooms, and classes are formed for instruction in the art. It is expected that the institution will be opened towards the close of the year. 192 pp. 6d. fancy cover, 10d. cloth bds., gilt edges, THE BIBLE IN MANY TONGUES. This work treats of the biography of books in general, and of the Bible in particular; the Bible in the ancient East and at Rome; the Bible and the Reformation; its diffusion in various lands; and the Bible and Christian missions. By all interested in the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, and especially by the friends of the British and Foreign Bible Society, this work will be read with interest. 192 pp., 6d. fancy cover, 10d. cloth bds., gilt edges, REMARKABLE ESCAPES FROM PERIL. A work illustrative of providential interpositions and of answers to believing prayer. In selecting the inci dents for narration, only those have been adopted which appear to be well authenticated. They will be found to be of the most thrilling interest. THE LIVES OF THE In Two Volumes, with engraved Frontispieces. Pp. 384 each. POPES. 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Suited for those young females who propose to emigrate, pointing out the nature of various employments in Australia, necessary qualifications, and mistaken notions; the voyage, its temptations and duties; course of conduct to be pursued on shore; with directions and admonitions on other kindred topics. NATURAL HISTORY, ETC. A BOOK FOR THE SEA-SIDE. Containing Descriptions of the Sea, the Beach, Plants, Birds, Fishes, etc. Profusely Illustrated with superior Engravings. Foolscap 8vo, 3s. cloth boards; 38. 6d. cloth elegant, gilt edges. NATURE'S WONDERS; or, God's Care VILLAGE SCIENCE; or, The Laws of BIRDS. Containing the Nest, the Egg, the Feather, the Song-bird, Instinct of Birds. With Embellishments, elegantly bound in cloth, gilt edges, 2s. REMARKABLE INSECTS. Containing the Honey-bee, the Fly, the Ant, the Spider, the Gall Insect. With Embellishments, cloth elegant, gilt edges, 2s. WONDERS OF THE WATERS. Containing the Animalculæ, the Coral-maker, the Sea star, the Lobster, the Fish. With Embellishments, 16mo square, elegantly bound in cloth, gilt edges, 2s. SHELLS AND THEIR INMATES. With a Frontispiece printed in Baxter's Oil Colours, cloth elegant, 3s. 6d. LONDON: 56, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 164, PICCADILLY. incarcerated for debt or theft. On the contrary, the Armenian's career is peculiarly notable, from the unswerving integrity of his out-door intercourse with the world, and from the slow but actual progress he makes from the shoeless mendicant that first emigrated from Armenia into Syria, to the wealthy, influential seraff, or government banker, with millions of piastres at his command; a voice in the medglis, or supreme council of the land; and no lack of jewels, houses, estates, and all this world's comforts and luxuries. Accustomed, however, from infancy to past the meridian of life, to a thrift almost verging upon avarice, the Armenian, even in the height of his wealth and influence, seldom indulges in any outward show which might betray to the world his increasing prosperity: he goes to his office when he is head seraff of the town exactly as he went to work when he was a cook's mate in some European's family; with the same dingy-coloured turban tied round the same faded tarboushe, the same long sombre robes, and the same stockingless feet encased in well-worn shoes, whose colour, once red, has now faded into dusky brown. Such are the out-door pretensions of the Armenian banker. His office, moreover-where such weighty money matters are daily decided, where a scratch from his pen and the stamp of his signet disposes of hundreds and thousands of piastres-is in perfect keeping with his own rusty personal simplicity. It is usually a commonplace whitewashed room, with one door of entrance, and one trellised window; the flooring is neither carpetted nor matted, nay, not even so much as paved; but then round two sides of the room is a raised wooden platform, with a wooden railing just so high that any one standing on the floor can rest his elbows on the railing. Here a few old carpets and cushions are spread, and there are three or four rough deal desks for the banker and his clerks to write upon, which operation they perform while squatted on the carpet, tailor-fashion now writing a few figures, now referring to an old musty account, and then inhaling several whiffs from the long pipe, or narghilie. The Armenian banker's every-day business rontine is monotonous in the extreme. By nine o'clock, punctually to the minute, as indicated by the huge old copper turnip-shaped watch which he carries in his fob, the seraff is at his post; his clerks have been there some half-hour before him, and between them have swept out the place, watered the floor, and lit a small charcoal fire in the manyul. Not that they require warmth, for the thermometer is never under 90° in the room; but then there must be fire at hand for the occasional finjan of coffee required, as also for the incessant demand of pipesmokers. These arrangements have barely been completed when the seraff stalks in, looking the very picture of poverty and trouble; he bows solemnly to his clerks, and, taking his seat, opens a little cash-box at his side, repeating the words Bis mallah as he does so. There is nothing in the cash-box but miserable dirty-looking scraps of paper, without government stamp or anything else to denote their value, save the mark of the klat tims of principals and witnesses, which bear a wonderful resemblance to the ink-drawn spiders that are sometimes executed by schoolboys on the blank leaves of old copy-books. Nevertheless, every one of these documents is a bond, some of them being of considerable value, as you might guess by watching the trepidation and anxiety depicted in the face of the old seraff, who has a thousand misgivings as he counts them over, and, knowing there should be sixty-seven papers, finds only sixty-five. His horror at this discovery is only to be surpassed by his wrath. He pictures up in his imagination all kinds of torments to extort a confession of the theft from the luckless individuals on whom he has already fastened it, and who are none other than his two faithful and honest clerks, both of whom are his near connexions, one having served him ever since he became seraff. Meanwhile these unconscious individuals are following up sedately their every-day avocations. The elder of the two, a very old man with a long white beard, is conning over, spectacles on nose, an account of some items borrowed by the pasha. The younger clerk is running his eye rapidly over the letters received by that morning's post, before exposing their contents to the seraff. Happily for the twain, at this moment a Shylock of the town makes his appearance, and, in a quiet whisper, proffers to the letterreader a loan of several thousands of piastres on behalf of the seraff, gravely asking at the same time an exorbitant rate of interest, even in that country, where thirty per cent. per annum is an every-day occurrence. Alas, poor Meshak! he little dreams of the thunder-storm that is gathering rapidly around him. At this instant the seraff's elder son comes in, carrying with him the seraff's account current with the government and the town. The seraff's business is as much that of a moneylender as that of a money-receiver; for the latter he pays at an average rate of only about twenty per cent., but then people know money to be safe in his hands, and prefer sacrificing ten per cent. to the risk of losing it altogether. From borrowers he receives from thirty to thirty-five per cent., well guaranteed either by estates, houses, or jewellery pledged with him. The seraff's son is barely seated before he is made acquainted with his father's supposed loss and present suspicions, which have been now removed from the clerks to the luckless Jew, who is an every-day frequenter of the seraff's office. Behind the seraff's back the argument and warfare of words is raging high; there is a roaring of numbers and a display of fingers, whilst the words groosh, floose, and miscriat (all signifying piastres and money), are so often repeated, that a casual passer-by might imagine that this was some preparatory school, with some score or two of boys conning over a particularly difficult line in the morning task to be learnt by rote. Meanwhile our friend the seraff, whose ire is rising in rapid proportion as the hubbub increases, sits to all ap pearance absorbed in the smoke of his pipe and the open pages of the huge volume spread out before him; but his thoughts and his eyes are else where. Suddenly he starts up to his feet, and deals a shower of blows and denunciations, all aimed at the person of the now electrified and astonished Jew money-lender, and this onslaught is the signal for all the subordinate officials to join in the mêlée. In five minutes' time he is hustled out of the door, |