only abundant but also of better quality, because the
temptation to adulterate food is not so great." In
Yorkshire, the mortality has been above the average;
and the same has been the case in the mining districts
of South Wales.

Under an order of the Common Council, a return
has been made of all moneys raised by the Corporation
for public works in the Metropolis out the coal-duties
levied in the port of London, since they were first
imposed by Parliament in 1766. The accounts show the
sums raised under the three specific heads of works
"situate in the City of London," works "situate without
the City," and works "of a mixed character, being
for the benefit of the City as well as the adjoining
districts."

In the first class of works, "situate in the City," the
large items are £250,000 for making Farringdon Street,
removing Fleet Market, and erecting Farringdon
Market;  Â£223,578 for enlarging the site of the Royal
Exchange after the destruction of the building by fire
in 1838, including the widening of the adjacent streets,
the removing of St. Benet Fink Church, &c.; £94,167 for
building the new Coal-Market; and £500,000 for forming
new lines of streets from King William Street, London
Bridge, to St. Paul's Cathedral, from Cannon Street to
Queen Street, and from Queen Street to St. Paul's
Churchyard, and also for improving Holborn Bridge and
Field Lane, &c. All these sums were intrusted to the
Corporation of London. The total of the sums raised
under this head is £1,117,345 13s. 6d.; and of this sum
only £9000 (intrusted to the Commissioners of Sewers)
was not placed under the management of the
corporation.

Under the second head, of improvements "situate
without the City," the large items are £11,000 intrusted
to the Justices of the Peace of Middlesex towards
building a new Sessions-house for the County of
Middlesex; £665,000 intrusted to the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests for the various improvements of
Cranbourne Street, Upper Wellington Street, Endell
Street, New Oxford Street, Commercial Street in
Whitechapel, and Victoria Street in Westminster;
£25,000 intrusted to the Clerkenwell Improvement
Commissioners, for carrying on Farringdon Street north-
wards to Clerkenwell Green; and £88,000 intrusted to
the Corporation of London for further extending the
last street to Coppice Row, Clerkenwell. The total of
the sum under this head is £807,500.

Under the third head, improvements "of a mixed
character, being for the benefit of the City as well as
the adjoining districts," are £210,000 for building
Blackfriars Bridge; £50,000 for rebuilding Newgate;
£30,000 for redeeming the toll on London Bridge;
£40,000 for completing Newgate, and adding a Sessions-
house for London and Middlesex; £246,300 for street
improvements near Temple Bar (Pickett Street, Strand),
and near Holborn Bridge (Skinner Street); £95,000
for White Cross Street Prison; £80,000 for the site of
the General Post Office, and improving the adjacent
streets; and lastly, £1,016,421 18s. 1d, for new approaches
to London Bridge in Southwark, and new approaches to
the same bridge in the City, with some other minor
matters. All these sums were intrusted to the
corporation. The total under this head is £1,813,221
18s. 1d.

The whole sum raised since 1766 for improvements
"in the City," "without the City," and "of a mixed
character," is £3,738,067 11s. 7d. The corporation
were intrusted with the management of more than
£3,000,000.

The Final Report of the Royal Commissioners of the
Great Exhibition has been published. It states, that
the money received by the commission has been, in
round numbers, £505,000; that nearly all the claims
on this fund have been discharged; but that when the
whole have been discharged there will remain a surplus
which the commission "have reason to believe will
not be less than £150,000" The commissioners are
advised that "their powers under the royal charter
will cease when all the expenses incidental to the
commission shall have been discharged, and notice
given thereof to her Majesty's Secretary of State;"
and that they "have not the power of deciding upon
the disposal of the surplus." Under these circumstances,
they point out, that of the entrance-fees a portion has
been paid by foreigners; that the enormous number of
6,000,000 visits made to the Exhibition were owing to
the fact that the contributions of "all nations" were
there displayed; and that the commission originally
engaged to apply any surplus "to purposes strictly in
connexion with the ends of the Exhibition, or for the
establishment of similar exhibitions for the future."
Application of the surplus for "the last-named purpose,"
they think not advisable; considering, among other
reasons, "the impossibility of fixing beforehand any
definite period for the repetition of such an exhibition,
which requires for its success so many concurrent
circumstances." They think that more benefit may be
derived by the public from a judicious application of the
surplus, "in the interval," to "the furtherance of the
general objects" for which the Exhibition was designed,
"in such a manner that the advantages which may be
obtained should not be confined solely to her Majesty's
subjects, but be shared, as far as it may be possible, by
other countries." If it should be the pleasure of her
Majesty by royal charter to grant the commission such
further powers as may be necessary, the commissioners
offer to give the fullest and most careful consideration
to the important and difficult subject of "devising a
comprehensive plan "to meet the full objects of the
Great Exhibition in the disposition of the surplus it has
produced.

The executive committee of the Great Exhibition
have issued a notice, in which they state that they have
received the instructions of her Majesty's commissioners
to announce that the possession of the building will be
given up to Messrs Fox, Henderson, and Co., the
contractors, on the 1st of December next. On that day the
staff of the executive committee will be withdrawn,
and the cranes, platforms, and various appliances for
assisting the exhibitors removed. Her Majesty and
Prince Albert lately paid a short and somewhat
unexpected visit to the Exhibition building, having come up
from Windsor expressly for the purpose. What seemed
to engage most of the Queen's notice was the building
itself. Her Majesty was evidently much struck with the
view which the interior of the building even now
presents, and was heard to express herself in warm
terms of admiration.

The medals awarded to the French Exhibitors have
been sent to Paris, to be distributed amongst the
successful competitors. The number of honorary
distinctions of all kinds awarded was 5084, of which 2039
were given to British, and 3054 to foreign exhibitors,
whilst the space occupied was in the proportion of
three-fifths for British and two-fifths for foreign goods.
Of the 166 council medals awarded, 87 went to foreign
exhibitors, and 79 to British. The "prize medals"
were given in the ratio of 1244 to British, and 1632 to
foreign, and the honourable mentions were as 716
British to 1326 foreign. A large proportion of the
foreign distinctions were, as is known, borne away by
the French, but it must be recollected they were the
most numerous of the foreign exhibitors. It is a
curious and significant fact, that 88 of the 166 council
medals were awarded for machinery alone, in which,
and manufactures in metal, glass, and porcelain, the
British exhibitors gained more prizes than all the foreign
nations combined. It turns out that if foreigners have
borne off more than a proportionate share of awards in
the fine arts and fabrics requiring taste and delicate
manipulation in their construction, they have been
greatly excelled in the production of those important
manufactures which constitute the main sources of our
national prosperity and wealth.

At the meeting of the London Farmers' Club, on the
3rd inst., the question of the Influence of Beer-shops
on the Population, was introduced by Mr. W. F. Hobbs,
who stated, as the result of his own observation, that
nothing was so detrimental to the condition of the
labourer himself, so destructive to the happiness of his
family, or so injurious to the interests of bis employer,
as the present beer-shop system. Beer-shops were the
resorts of poachers, thieves, receivers of stolen goods,
and burglars, and he believed that three-fourths of the
crime which was chargeable to the agricultural population