from the platforms, at an elevation of 42 feet from the
ground, a continuation of the spiral staircase leads to the
second or upper gallery, at a height of 62 feet. The
passage along this gallery is through a series of ring or
'bull's eye' girders, seven feet in diameter, resting upon
the columns, which project into the nave, at alternate
distances of 24 and 72 feet. The views from this gallery,
whether of the busy scene far down below into the nave
of the building, or through the glazed windows over the
surrounding country, or of the gradual diminution of the
size of the hoops of the girders as they fade away in the
long perspective of the gallery, will amply repay the
visitor for the trouble of ascending. A colonnade 720
feet long, 17 feet wide, and 18 feet high, constructed of
60 tons of iron, and 30,000 superficial feet of glass, leads
from the south wing of the palace to the railway station.
Nor are all the wonders above ground. There is
the "Paxton tunnel," extending from end to end of the
building, containing the entire heating apparatus—a
collection of not less than 50 miles of iron pipes. A
tramroad traverses the whole length of the tunnel,
upon which the fuel for the smoke-consuming furnace is
conveyed. The roof of the basement floor is formed of
brick arches, resting on the flanges of cast-iron girders,
supported at one end by a row of iron columns, and upon
the other by a brick retaining wall.

Among the Reforms in the Administration of the
Army is the Abolition of the System of Clothing Colonels.
By a royal warrant issued by the Secretary at War,
dated the 6th inst., "the colonels of the respective
regiments will in future receive a fixed annual allowance in
lieu of deriving any pecuniary emoluments, as heretofore,
from the off-reckonings." The payments will be
as follows: Grenadier Guards, Coldstreams, Scots
Fusiliers, £1000 per annum each; First Dragoon Guards,
£800; other Dragoon Guards and Dragoons, £450; First
Regiment of Foot, £1200, to be reduced to £1000 next
vacancy; the other Regiments of the Line and West
India Regiments, £600, if appointed before the 1st June
1854; but if appointed subsequently, £500 per annum.
"In adopting this mode of payment, which is in
accordance with the principle which ought to regulate the
issue of all public money, and will put an end to much
misrepresentation to which the colonels of regiments
have been unjustly exposed," Mr. Herbert is anxious
that the change should not injure the officers affected by
it; and therefore he is ready to make compensation for
losses not reimbursed by the profits of former years,
assuming the rates of profit to be those laid down in the
royal warrant. "The clothing, accoutrements, and
appointments, will in future be provided by the colonel,
the public paying the cost price of such articles."

The seventeenth anniversary of the Yorkshire Union
of Mechanics' Institutes was celebrated at Bradford on
the 7th inst.; Mr. Edward Baines, president, taking
the chair at the business meeting in the morning, and
Lord Beaumont at the evening meeting. The report
showed that there are 128 institutes in the union, more than
one-sixth of all the institutes in the kingdom; that the
probable number of members is 20,105; that the income
of 89 institutes was £9,947, the number of volumes in
98 libraries 94.639, and of the volumes circulated in 93
libraries 309,390. In 83 institutes 6357 books have been
added during the year; in 87 institutes 1086 periodicals,
daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly, have been taken;
and 788 lectures delivered, 645 gratuitously. Mr. Baines
is elected president for the ensuing year.

The first report to the Board of Trade by Mr. Henry
Cole and Dr. Lyon Playfair, upon the proceedings of
the Department of Practical Art, has been published.
It appears that during the year 1853, 218 schools—chiefly
for the poor, and comprising 35,794 scholars—purchased
copies and models from the department at half their
prime cost; that 16 schools, having 7313 scholars,
obtained the services of masters to teach elementary
drawing; that 921 candidates, as schoolmasters in training-
schools, have been examined in elementary drawing;
and that 1050 schoolmasters and pupil teachers in public
schools have studied geometrical and free-hand drawing
in the schools of the department with the view of teaching
it in their schools. There are 43 schools of art, in
which 11,000 students, chiefly artisans, received
instruction in advanced art during last year. Upwards of
150,000 visits have been made to the Central Museums
of Art and Science. Through Prince Albert, the Prince
of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall, has placed two scholarships
at £30 a year each at the disposal of the Central
School of Science.

The annual meeting of the Law Amendment Society
was held on the 21st; Lord Brougham in the chair.
The report for the past year, read by the chairman,
stated that although the year had been marked by great
national excitement, yet there had been no retrogression
as regarded law reform. The Society had chiefly
occupied itself with the subjects of law-reporting, the
Ecclesiastical Courts, the assimilation of the commercial
laws of the United Kingdom, the Commission on the
Inns of Court; and the appointment of a Minister of
Justice evinces the feeling that has arisen in favour of
uniting the duties pertaining to each branch of the public
service under one head. The report expressed an
opinion that if prosecuted with vigour the objects of the
Society can assuredly be attained. The report was
adopted, on the motion of Lord Beaumont, seconded by
Mr. Adderley. In reply to a special vote of thanks for
his services in the chair, Lord Brougham said that while
his life and strength are spared, he will continue his
exertions for the amendment of the law.

The hundred and fifty-third anniversary of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts was held on the 21st at Willis's Rooms; the
Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair. The speakers
were the chairman, the Archbishop of Dublin, Lord
Robert Cecil, the Bishop of New Zealand, the Bishop
of Natal, the Bishop of Oxford, and the Bishop of
Graham's Town. From the report presented by the
secretary we learn that £56,000 was last year expended
for the maintenance, wholly or in part, of 447
missionaries, and 700 catechists, schoolmasters, and
theological students. The expenditure in the diocese
of Toronto has been reduced from £6500 in 1843
to £3100 in 1853; and in the six dioceses in the North
American Colonies there has been a reduction of £5000
since 1843. In the same period the sum expended in
the West Indies has been reduced from £11,200 to £2600.
The East Indies and Ceylon have received during the
past year £23,000, more than a third of the Society's
income; a proof that the Society does not confine its
operations to people of British descent.

It appears from a return just published that the Profit
of the Money-order Department of the Post-office last
year was £14,149. The preceding year the profit was
£10,689. The commission of the department last year
was £86,874. From another return, issued on the same
day, it is shown that last year 5,215,290 money orders
were issued, and the amount £9,916,195  5s. The
number paid was 5,213,065, and the amount paid
£9,920,296  9s. 10d.

It appears from Emigration Returns analysed by the
authorities, that of the 329,937 persons who left the
United Kingdom during 1853 for all parts of the world,
192,600 were Irish, 62,915 were English, 22,605 were
Scotch, 31,459 foreigners, and 20,349 were not specified.
Of the adults 128,787 were males and 109,145 females.
Of the children from one to fourteen years, 34,509
were males, and 33,125 females: 10,192 were infants of
both sexes, and of 14,179, particulars were not stated.

PERSONAL NARRATIVE

THE young King of Portugal and his brother the Duke
of Oporto arrived at Buckingham Palace on the 3rd
inst., on a visit to her Majesty. The King of Portugal
and his brother were received at the Mansion House on
the 19th, by the Lord Mayor and Corporation, in state.
The business of the occasion was the presentation of an
address of welcome to England, and expressing a hope
that the King's visit may tend to perpetuate the friendly
alliance that has so long subsisted between the Portugese
and British nations. The King read an answer, said to
have been written by himself, which was remarkable
for intelligence and liberal ideas.

The Emperor of Austria, in order to give an agreeable
surprise to the young Empress during her late visit to