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the day preceding the opening of the exhibition of 1851. The multitudes that were assembled within the exhibition and outside of it were enormous. But the recent death of Prince Albert, drawing after it, as it did, the absence of the sovereign, cast a shadow of gloom on the inaugural ceremony. Thoughts of the illustrious dead and of the mourning queen would intrude themselves. The Prince of Wales, too, was in Egypt. Many sovereigns, whose presence had been anticipated, were not there. Some unpleasant feeling was caused by the determination of the commissioners, to whom the arrangements had been intrusted, to require the exhibitors to pay for their admission to the ceremony at the same rate as the rest of the public. Then, an ode having been composed for the occasion by Tennyson, and set to music by Sterndale Bennett, M. Costa refused to lead the orchestra, on the ground of some personal dispute that had formerly arisen between Mr. Bennett and himself; and when M. Sainton replaced M. Costa at the head of the orchestra, it was somewhat angrily asserted that Englishmen could be found who would have led it as well as an Italian or a Frenchman. Half the articles to be exhibited were not yet unpacked; and lastly, there were loud complaints of the downright ugliness of the building, the bad taste of its decorations, and the unskilful arrangement and classification of its contents. The opening ceremony was conducted with as much éclat as could be expected under such circumstances. The Duke

of Cambridge appeared for the queen, Lord Granville took the part in the ceremony which would have been performed by Prince Albert if he had been alive, and Prince Oscar of Sweden and the Prince Royal of Prussia represented the Sovereigns of Europe. Through an unfortunate blunder the foreign ambassadors had not been invited. The music

of Bennett and Auber in some degree compensated for the deficiencies in the opening ceremony and in the procession, which included the members of the Japanese embassy; the members of both Houses of Parliament, with their respective speakers; the corporation of London; and a great number of English and foreign notabilities, all arrayed in the costumes of the countries to which they belonged and the offices which they filled. After the procession had passed through the building, the Duke of Cambridge said,

in a loud and distinct voice, 'By the command of the Queen, I now declare the Exhibition open.' The building, notwithstanding its undeniable ugliness, and the bad taste of many of its decorations-respects in which it contrasted very disadvantageously with the fairy lightness and beauty of the Crystal Palace, decidedly the most original conception of our age-was not ill adapted for the purpose for which it was designed. There was a great and marked improvement both in the quality and quantity of the objects exhibited, and this was the case especially in the foreign departments; for while in the exhibition of 1851 the number of foreign exhibitors was 6,566, in that of this year they were 16,456, an increase of nearly 10,000. On the other hand, there was a slight diminution in the number of visitors to the exhibition, which was less than at the first exhibition by about 50,000. During the first month after the opening of the exhibition the prices of admission to it varied from five guineas to half-a-crown, and during the whole of this period it was in a very imperfect and unfinished state. It was not until Monday the 2nd of July that the masses were admitted at a shilling, which from that day became the usual charge. The distress prevailing in the manufacturing districts, and the war which was being carried on in America, no doubt had an injurious influence on the attendance. There was much difference of opinion expressed in the public press with regard to this exhibition. Some writers dwelt with complacent delight and admiration on the unrivalled assemblage of the products of the industry of all nations; while others derided it as a 'monster bazaar,' a 'great advertising medium,' a 'palace of puffs.'

The ascents of aeronauts have generally been associated in fact and in men's minds with fireworks, tight-rope dancing, and other amusements of that nature, or at best have been regarded as mere exhibitions of audacity on the part of those who ventured to make a voyage not unlikely to terminate in a precipitate and fatal fall. But the balloon ascent of September 5, 1862, was an event in the scientific history of England, which deserves to be recorded. Mr. Glashier, who made this great aerial voyage of discovery into the upper regions of the atmosphere, was provided by the British Association with the means of accomplishing

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his daring feat, and making the scientific observations which were the chief object of it. The ascent had been postponed from time to time, owing to unfavourable weather. At length, on the above-mentioned day, Mr. Glashier rose from the earth, accompanied by Mr. Coxwell, who was to navigate the aerial vessel, in which a voyage was to be made into the hitherto inaccessible heights of the atmosphere. The two gentlemen had already several times ascended together, and made some valuable scientific observations; but on this occasion they attained to a height which had never been reached before, and which in all probability no one will ever attempt to reach again. They quitted Wolverhampton about one o'clock in the afternoon: in a few minutes they were enveloped in a dense mist, from which they speedily emerged into the full blaze of the sun. The thermometer sank to freezing-point, and the hygrometric instruments indicated an extraordinary dryness in the atmosphere. In twenty minutes from the time of their departure they had risen to the height of the top of Mont Blanc. All this while they were busily engaged in making thermometric, hygrometric, and other scientific observations. Presently Mr. Glashier observed that Mr. Coxwell showed symptoms of being out of breath, which was not surprising considering that he had been actively and incessantly occupied with the navigation of the balloon. In thirty-five minutes from the time of their departure they were at a distance from the ground equal to the height of Chimborazo. In ten minutes more they were at an elevation equal to that of the summit of Dawalagiri: the temperature was now below zero. The voyagers continued to ascend; though Mr. Coxwell, still hard at work, showed signs of excessive fatigue. The balloon, which had revolved from the moment of their departure, had by its rotation entangled the cord that opened the valve, and Mr. Coxwell was obliged to mount the hoop above the car in order to disentangle it. At this time they had reached an altitude of upwards of 36,000 feet. Mr. Glashier became unconscious; and Mr. Coxwell, finding that he was incapable of using his arms, seized the rope between his teeth, and by a movement of his head caused a sufficient escape of gas to determine the descent of the balloon. He then roused Mr. Glashier from his state of unconsciousness.

The last observation had been made at 1.54; at 1.57 he was in a sleep, from which he probably would never have awoke if Mr. Coxwell had not succeeded in determining the descent of the balloon. At seventeen minutes past two Mr. Glashier was able to resume his observations; he had risen to the enormous height of at least 37,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Of all the events of this year, there was none better calculated to point a national and political as well as private and personal moral than the crime and punishment of William Roupell.

Richard Palmer Roupell, a wealthy lead-merchant, had for some years cohabited with a woman by whom he had several children, of whom William, the hero of our narrative, was one. Richard Roupell eventually married her, and had by her another son after the marriage, to whom he gave his own name, and who of course was his only legiti mate child. For many years he had been investing the large profits of his business in land; and amongst his other purchases was that of a property of considerable value to which he gave the name of the Roupell-park estate. William, who was the favourite son and the chief adviser of his father in all matters of business, was ignorant of his own illegitimacy, and not unnaturally conceived that he would one day inherit this estate. He afterwards defrauded his father of the sum of 10,0007., for the purpose, as he alleged, of assisting a friend who was in difficulties. There is no reason for doubting the truth of his statement; for when he made it he had no conceivable motive for deceiving, and he seems to have preserved throughout a certain conscientiousness, and certain feelings of honour, which prompted him to state the whole truth when he found that his crime could no longer be concealed. His first step in guilt led to a series of others. According to his own confession, he forged at least ten deeds, which he secretly negotiated, and thus raised the enormous sum of 150,000l., of which, during the lifetime of his father, he expended no less than 70,000l. on the improvement of the Roupell-park estate. At length his father, feeling his end approaching, determined to inform his family of the circumstances we have mentioned. He said to his wife, in the presence of William Roupell, 'I must throw away all delicacy, and do

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it.' He then took his son into his private room, opened his bureau, took out his will, to which a codicil was attached, and told William to write another from his dictation. He informed him that his first intention had been to leave his property to be divided between his wife and children; but having since reflected on the risk it ran of being badly managed, and having confidence in his son's ability as a man of business, he had determined to leave it to him, on the condition of his making an annual payment from it to his brothers and sisters. William Roupell was thunderstruck. He felt that the proposed codicil would lead to the detection of his frauds and forgeries. He interrupted his father, telling him that he was at that moment too ill to attend to these details; that the hour was late; that it would be impossible to find the witnesses required to make the deed valid, and therefore that it would be better to wait till another day. In this way he succeeded in preventing the execution of the codicil till his father's death, which happened only a few days after. He then came to the house, and obtained without difficulty from the housekeeper the keys of his father's private drawers. In them he found the will, of which he took possession, and at once forged another will, by which the Roupell-park estate and the greater part of the property were bequeathed to his mother, and by which he was made joint-executor with her. But the signatures had to be forged as well as the will. He therefore went to an old servant of the family of the name of Muggeridge, nearly ninety years old, to whom he gave five pounds to be spent in mourning, and took a receipt for that sum, and then carefully copied the signature into the will. He forged his father's name with the quill and ink that his father had been accustomed to use; he copied that of Muggeridge with another quill, and wrote his own signature with a gold pen; thus making as much difference as possible in the three signatures. Having done this, he went to his mother, and told her that he had persuaded his father to destroy the will of 1850, containing the words, 'My son called William Roupell'-words which exposed his mother's shame and his own illegitimacy-and to make another will, giving the whole of the property to her and himself, in full confidence that they would fulfil his wishes and intentions for the benefit of the family.