place for exposing models, &c. to public inspection.

19. Persons depositing models, &c. to pay the sums mentioned in schedule to Act, and to be entitled to a certificate sealed by commissioners.

$20. Persons imitating subject-matter of license, without consent of person having license, or marking "Licensed” on same, to be liable to a penalty of 501. for every offence. Certificate not to exempt persons from liability for infringements of patents. Subjectmatter of license not to be afterwards subject of Letters Patent; not to be capable of a second license.

§ 21. Present fees respecting Letters Patent to cease. No fees payable for any thing to be done under this Act, save as set forth in schedule or general order of commissioners.

22. The secretary of commissioners to receive fees in schedule set forth, and also all other sums payable under this Act, and to pay same into Bank of England once a week to credit of commissioners. Monies in Bank subject to orders of commissioners, or as directed by this Act.

23. The salaries to be paid to the officers are not yet inserted in the Bill.

§ 24. If any commissioner, secretary, assistant secretary, registrar, deputy registrar, clerk, messenger, or any other officer or person whatsoever, shall for any thing done or pretended to be done under this Act, or under colour of doing any thing under this Act, fraudulently and wilfully demand, or take, or appoint, or allow any person whatsoever to take for him, or on his account, or for or on account of any person by him named, or in trust for him, or for any other person by him named, any fee, emolument, gratuity, sum of money, or any thing of value whatsoever, other than is allowed by this Act, or any rule, order, or regulation made or to be made in pursuance of the provisions thereof, or shall directly or indirectly be engaged or employed, and either as principal or agent in the procuring, maintaining, or opposing the grant of any Letters Patent or license for any invention, or in any matter or thing connected therewith, save in the performance of the duties of his office as such commissioner, secretary or assistant secretary, registrar, deputy registrar, clerk, messenger, or other officer, such person, when duly convicted thereof, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred pounds, and be rendered incapable and is hereby rendered incapable of holding any office or place whatsoever under his Majesty, his heirs or successors.

§ 25. Commissioners shall from time to time, as it shall appear to them expedient, make and issue such general orders as they shall think fit for carrying the provisions of

this Act into execution, and also for regulating and affixing the fees to be hereafter paid and payable at the offices of the Lord High Chancellor and of his Majesty's Principal Secretary of State respectively, as well as the other fees to be paid and payable at the office of the said commissioners appointed under and by virtue of this Act, and which are not set forth in the schedule hereto annexed in respect of the several matters and things to be performed at the said offices respectively, and

shall also from time to time make and establish such other rules and regulations not being inconsistent with the enactments and provisions of this Act, or of any general order to be made and issued as aforesaid, as they shall in their discretion think fit and proper for simplifying, establishing, and settling the practice to be henceforth in use relating to Letters Patent, and licenses for inventions, and from time to time to alter and rescind the same, or any of them: no general order of the said commissioners shall operate or take effect until the same shall have received the sanction and assent of the Lord High Chancellor.

§ 26. Compensation to be awarded to persons injured by the operation of this Act. Commissioners of Treasury to take into account whether any office under this Act is held by person claiming compensation. Commissioners of Treasury to award compensation. Commissioners of Treasury to signify amount of compensations to commissioners of patents, who shall thereupon order same to be paid out of monies standing to account of said commissioners. Rates of compensation to be laid before Parliament.

§ 27. Monies standing to account of commissioners, chargeable, first, with compensation, secondly, with salaries of officers, and expenses, and surplus to be carried over to Consolidated Fund.

§ 28. Act may be altered this Session.

§ 29. Act to come into operation as to appointment of officers on passing, as to other matters, first of January one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.

The Spanish Picture Gallery. Among the schemes of the Spanish Minister of Finance for raising money (a very scarce article just now in the Royal Treasury), there is said to be one for raising a loan from our Government on the security of the pictures in the Royal Gallery at Madrid, which are to be sent to London, and the money received for their exhibition to be applied to paying the interest of the loan. If this be true, the British metropolis will soon possess one of the very finest collections of pictures in the world T Spanish gallery has only been formed of late years, and is composed of the paintings from all the royal palaces: it comprises 42 pictures by Murillo, 55 by Velasquez, 29 by Spagnolette, and many others by the most distinguished Spanish artists, besides between four and five hundred of the Italian school, and about three hundred of the Flemish. According to one of the witnesses before the late Parliamentary Committee on Arts and Manufactures, it may be considered to take the second place among the galleries of Europe, the first being conceded to the celebrated Grand Ducal Gallery of Florence, and the Dresden Gallery being compelled, since the formation of this, to yield precedence to it. It may very naturally be expected, when the tinan. cial condition of Spain is considered, that if the collection should once reach this country, it will never find its way back again; in that case, we shall have a "National Gallery" worthy of the Lame, by the junction of our own (a pigmy in comparison) with the Spanish; and a building far exceeding in dimensions (and, it may be hoped, in elegance and splendour,) Mr. Wilkins's pet production in Trafalgar-square, will be required to contain it. The tea of paying ourselves the interest on our loan by the shillings taken at the doors, seems ridiculous: of course the money would be advanced out of the national funds, and the collection thrown open, free of expense, to the public at large. But "let us not reckon our chickens before they are hatched."

The Institute of British Architects have at length obtained a Charter of Incorporation, which they have long been anxiously expecting. It is difficult to imagine what peculiar powers for the improvement of their profession the royal sanction will give them, but of late it has become the fashion for every respectable association to procure the distinction by way of blazoning their consequence to the world, and therefore the British Architects could hardly be expected to remain in the background.

Reciprocity in opposition to Free Trade.-A petition has lately been presented to the American congress from a number of the most popular English authors, requesting that English copyrights may

be secured in America, on condition of American copyrights being secured in England. It will be hard, we calculate, to catch Brother Jonathan agreeing to such a reciprocity system as this, while the advantage is, as at present, so decidedly on his side. Negotiations are also going on to prevent the reprinting of English books in France, which the French seem willing to do, if we can be prevented from importing the Brussels piracies of new French works, which are got out there almost as soon as the originals appear at Paris.

The late Sir John Soane.-The executors and trustees under the will of this gentleman have refused to make themselves participators in the testator's feelings, by taking upon themselves the trusts conferred on them by that document, which consequently remains unproved. Mr. Soane, heir. at-law, has, by the advice of several advocates of the Ecclesiastical Court, entered a caveat against the admission of a testamentary paper, on the plea of insanity. He has left a great number of small annuities, and after the death of all the legatees he has made a Mr. Foxall residuary legatee. This individual, who is a respectable tradesman, is in no degree related to or connected with Sir John. The majority of the legatees have expressed their desire

to

see the family property, which amounts to nearly 200,0007., restored to Sir John's own family.

Colton. The quantity of American cotton exported annually is 291,310,115 lbs., the value of which is 29,359,545 Spanish dollars, 6,330,651.; whereas, the total export from all India was only 68,411,015 lbs., the value of which, at 25s, per maund of 80 lbs., would be 1,068,9221.; so that the importation of the American cotton in Britain has increased from about 19,000 lbs. to 294,000,000 lbs., and the increase of the Indian cotton is but 68,000,000 lbs.-East India Magazine.

Spots on the Sun.-On Saturday week a spot of unusual magnitude was observed on the sun's disc. It was so large as to be distinctly visible to the naked eye in the upper hemisphere of the luminary, and near the eastern limb. This macula or spot is conjectured to be ten times the volume of the earth. -Globe of March 6th.

Spontaneous Combustion.-It is stated by Mr. Murray, the chemical lecturer, that if linseed oil comes in contact with cotton, it will occasion spontaneous combustion.

BADDELEY'S STATIONARY FIRE-ENGINE.

Sir,-At page 50 of your present volume, I stated, that out of every ten American Patents, nine were either for some useless contrivance, or for some slight modification of previous English inventions. At that time I brought for ward an instance of the latter kind; I how beg to refer to one of the useless description.

At page 153 of your last volume, there is a description of a patent taken out by Mr. Thomas Odiorn, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for a fire-engine, with a circular platform on the top of the cistern, upon which the persons who work the engine are to walk. The whole disposition of the thing is bad, but the idea of carrying about a platform ample enough for this purpose, as part and parcel of a fire-engine, is preposterous.

One of your correspondents (T. P.) at page 9 of the same volume, has proposed a plan in some respects similar to the foregoing, but T. P. appears to have wholly overlooked the stability necessary for the purpose, which Mr. Odiorn had provided for, although at the sacrifice of all reasonable portability.

The real fact is, that the only way in which the principle proposed by these two gentlemen, can be employed with any prospect of advantage, is in stationary engines; and the prefixed sketch, fig. 1, is a stationary fire-engine which I designed a long time ago, calculated for the yards of public buildings or large manufactories. It consists of a cast-iron cylindrical casing a, with a fluted domeshaped cap b, having sixteen holes cc, round its circumference at the base, for the insertion of handspikes. There is a screwed nozzle at e, to which the leather hose is affixed. Fig. 2, is a section, showing the internal arrangement. dd, is a strong iron upright, which, with two others, ff, support the crank-shaft g. The dome b, and its cylindrical base with the lever holes c c, turns freely upon the upright d, carrying with it the bevel wheel h, which taking into another similar wheel on the crank-shaft, gives motion by means of slings to the two pistons in the working barrels ii; these are six inches in diameter with a twelve-inch stroke. Water is drawn from a well, &c., by the suction or feed-pipe k; 7, is the air-vessel, from whence the water passes out at the screwed nozzle e.

Wherever water can be obtained in sufficient abundance, either from a well, tank, &c., an engine of this description is calculated to render most efficient service in case of fire. There are sixteen places for the insertion of handspikes, to each of which at least two men-perhaps three -might apply their strength, under favourable circumstances.

The best way of keeping leather hose in readiness for stationary fire-engines, is to have it coiled upon à reel, and mounted on a small hand-barrow, which might also carry the levers, branch-pipe, hatchet, crow-bar, a few buckets, and other apparatus useful at fires.

We

After "Manufactures" naturally succeedsCommerce," which of course gives room for plenty of statistical display, in the shape of official Tables of Exports and Imports, Customs' Duties, and so forth; and this leads to a section on the "Means and instruments by which Commerce is facilitated and carried on," which brings to mind another remarkahle omission. The present age has been styled the age of Literature and Locomotion; we have already seen that our author thinks fit to leave out the statistics of the former, and it will, therefore, probably excite the less surprise that he also does the same by the latter. have, it is true, a short account of the general state of the Turnpike Roads; we have, also, somewhere about three pages devoted to the history of Railroads in Great Britain (!) and a few more to that of its Canals. But we look in vain for any sketch of those means of Locomotion for which our island is so pre-eminently distinguished; we find no information as to mail and stage coaches, vans, waggons, steamers by land and water, hackney-coaches, cabs, omnibuses, or the thousand and one other ways of getting along "in town and country. The whole subject of "Travelling" is left to take care of itself. Roads, canals, and railways, are only mentioned in so far as they are connected with the facilities they afford to commerce on the large

66

scale the commerce of the extensive merchant; for Mr. M'Culloch appears to think that retail commerce,-that which concerns itself with the more immediate supply of the wants of the population,hardly comes within the scope of his work. In this he is, of course, most wofully mistaken of the two, the latter should have received the most attention, in a work professing to afford a general survey of the condition of the kingdom and its inhabitants.

The remaining, and by far the larger portion of the second volume, is taken up with a very lengthy and widely-printed series of articles on the Constitution and Government, Courts of Law, Corpora tions and Religious Establishments of the three Kingdoms. This division might well have borne compression, nor do we see the necessity of printing it in a larger character than the rest of the work, and so making it occupy much more room than was absolutely necessary. It would have answered every proper purpose of the work to have dismissed most of these subjects with much less particularity of detail than has been bestowed upon them, particularly those parts relating to the forms and practices of the courts of law, for the verbosity of which we are indebted to the care taken by the Editor to obtain the assistance of "professional gentlemen" for those departments. A division of "Miscellaneous Particulars" concludes the work, the separate chapters relating severally to "Establishments for Public Education," "Revenue and Expenditure," ""Army and Navy,” “ Vital Statistics," and "Provision for the Poor;" and a fragment has also been broken off from this department, and added to the first volume, apropos of nothing, for the sake of making the volumes of uniform thickness-the most important article of which, is an "Essay on the Origin and Progress of the English Language," of a very disappointing character. Under such a head, the reader naturally looks, above all things, for some account of the statistics of the language; for details as to the countries in which it is spoken, and the numbers speaking it-of the extent to which it is known in foreign lands, and to which it is unknown among the nations under British sway :-in place of all this, we are presented with a very common-place sketch (all its facts being

In another important respect, Mr. M'Culloch is also found wanting. From the comprehensive nature of his title, in which the British Empire" shines so conspicuously, it might well be inferred that our immense colonial possessions were to receive more than the usual quantum of attention: so far from this being the case, however, our author confines himself so strictly to the department of "Home Affairs," that he dismisses the whole of the Colonies, India and all, in something less than a dozen pages.

Yet, with all this exclusiveness, it is remarkable that what may be termed our “domestic statistics" are strangely neglected. We have already noticed some unaccountable omissions of this kind, to which we have to add, that, while Corporations and Courts of Law are treated of, at even a tedious length, public institutions of more direct and practical usefulness are completely neglected, or, if mentioned at all, only in a cursory and incidental manner. The modes of obtaining a supply of water in London and the other principal towns of the kingdom, might surely have filled a few pages quite as appropriately as a notice of the Insolvent Debtors' Court; and Gas-lighting would have headed a section as well as the Kirk Session of Scotland. Even a little information, also, as to the Amusements of the People (of which there is not one word) might have proved acceptable, even had a few pages of the closely -printed Returns on Crimes and Punishments been left out to make room for them. Literature being excluded, of course no details as to Literary and Scientific Institutions are to be looked for.

The book is exceedingly well printed and "got up," but what decoration is bestowed upon it is entirely typographical; it contains not a single wood-cut or other embellishment, not even a map of the British Islands. It is altogether, par excellence, "the book of deficiencies," and very ill qualified, in almost every respect, to fill up that hiatus in our literature which it professes to supply.