Mr. Beeton's Publications.

whose too often dreary dwellings they shed a cheerfulness which does much to drive aAvay care , and make the occupants contented with their humble lot . But it is not by the poor alone that birds are regarded , the rich equally admiring them , and some specimen of the feathered tribe is therefore to be found in almost every house . The proper treatment of birds is therefore an essential part of education , and Mr .

"Beeton is now liberally affording the information at the low figure of threepence a month . We have the first six parts of " Home Pets " ( for that is the name of the work ) before us , and having carefully perused them , can assure our friends that they cannot fail to gain both instruction and amusement should they follow our example . The coloured plates alone are worth the price of the whole publication . We

have also received the first number of Beeton ' s " Book on Garden Management . " which is published at the same low price as the last-named work , and promises to be of equal interest to those who take delight in gardening pursuits as any of the works we have named to those to whom they are specially addressed .

Gratifying Testimonials.

GRATIFYING TESTIMONIALS .

Our Bro . Matthew Cooke is one of the most fortunate of publishers , as will be seen by the following handsome testimonials which he has lately received : —¦ Hanover , the Srd of October , 1861 . SIR , —I am ordered by His Majesty the King to give you the best thanks for the sending of a copy of that very

interesting manuscript upon "The History and Articles of Masonry , " ancl to tell you that his Majesty in gratefully acknowledging the kind attention you did prove to the King by forwarding to his Majesty an important document of the Order the King is glad to be a member of . I am sir , humbly yours , BARON MALOELIS , Lord Steward .

Matthew Cooke , Esq . To Bro . Matthew Cooke , Esq ., Secretary of the Globe Lodge , & c . ¦ SIE , —By order of His Eoyal Highness Prince Frederick of the Netherlands , I have the honour of conveying to yon H . R . H . ' s sincere thanks for your amiable attention in

forwarding a copy of that very interesting manuscript on "The History and Articles of Masonry , " and in return H . E . H . begs your acceptance of the accompanying medal as a testimony of H . E . H . ' s satisfaction and gratitude . Allow me to subscribe myself , sir , your very obedient servant and brother , W . FEAIJ OTTEELOO ,

Secretary to H . E . H . Prince Frederick of the Netherlands , G . M . of Holland . The Hague , Nov . 27 th , 1861 . The gold medal , in a case surmounted by a ducal coronet , has on its obverse , in very fine relief , the Prince ' s bust by I . P . Schouberg , and surrounded by "Willem Frederik Knrel Prins DerNederlanden . " On the reverse is engraved " To Brother Matthew Cooke , as a testimony of brotherly affection and gratitude . Nov ., 1861 . "

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

Mr . William Hewitt writes from Peumaenmaur to the Co-operator as follows : — " You ask my opinion of Co-operation for the people . I never had but one opinion upon it . Fifteen years ago , when all great names stood aloof , I advocated it strongly in my ' Letters on Labour' in the People ' s Journal , and afterwards made it a prominent topic in my own Journal . Though extremely occupied , I

consented to become the President of the London Co-operative Society . At that time 1 discovered that the Avorking classes—of Loudon , at least—had much to learn on the subject . They were very fond of meeting at the large old room at the King ' s Head , Snowhill , to drink to , to listen to music , and to hear ' or make speeches ; but you could not get them a step further . In vain did I exhort them to commence a subscription for a fund to start some

concern on trial;—telling them that Huclibras had sufficiently demonstrated long ago that ' words are but wind ; ' and adding , that capital was the sineiv of co-operation , as well as of Avar . Soon after that I met with experiences which induced me to retire from public exertions , and to confine myself exclusively to literary ones ; —finding that one thing is enough for one man . But not the less have I felt interested in co-operation , and in everything which concerns the people at large . Eor the last six years I have been

laboriously engaged in writing a Distort / of England * for the People , called by a misnomer Cassell ' s History , but really JJoicitt ' s Sislory In this I have endeavoured to establish ancl elucidate those principles which , if the people act on them , will very soon put them in their right place in the land . "

A writer in the Dublin University Magazine , gives the following description of the goldfields of Ballarat : — " The gold fields of Victoria consist of alluvial diggings and quartz reefs . In the former case , the gold is obtained by sinking a shaft down to the primary rock , or , as miners say , the bottom , where the auriferous deposit is found ; sometimes , however , it lies many feet above the primary rockupon a stratum of stiftj greasy blue claytechnically

, , called a false bottom . Gold has often been found on the surface in the vicinity of a quartz reef , which has cropped out ofthe earth in consequence of some previous eruption , and disgorged a portion of its hidden wealth . Surface gold is generally porous , of a dark brown colour , and bears evident traces of the action of fire . At Sandhurst , Bendigo , the oldest and best of the diggings , the sinking is shallow , rarely so much as fifty feet ; while at Ballarat , I

have ivoiked in shafts two hundred feet deep , the greatest depth I know of being three hundred and fifty feet . Ballarat proper is a large basin surrounded on all sides by lofty ranges , covered a few years back with huge trees , stringy bark , and gum , which now lie rotting in the drives ancl shafts of the miners , who , ruthless Vandais , felled them without scruple , and cut them up for slabs wherewith to line the sides of the shafts , aud for props and cap-pieces to support the drives , which are carried in from the bottom of the holes a long ivay under ground ; without this precaution the earth

would tumble down and smother the workmen . The environs of Ballarat present , therefore , a singularly bleak and desolate appearance ; but the town itself has progressed ivith miraculous rapidity : tents have long since been superseded by wooden buildings of great size and strength and there are not a few handsome edifices faced with cut stone , the material for which is supplied from the freeestone quarries of Bacchus Marsh , a small town situate on the road to Melbournesome five and twenty miles from Ballarat .

, There are no less than three large theatres , all well supported , for the Victorians are great play-goers ; indeed , throughout the provincial towns , the state of the theatres may be accepted as a barometical indication of the buoyancy of the money market . What miners term leads of gold , mean simply the underground beds or channels of old watercourses , now dry , which have worn a passage in the surface ofthe primary rock , when their deposits of quartz

boulders , ironstone , sand , & c , are found to be largely impregnated with particles of gold , which , originally ejected from quartz reefs , have become smooth and polished by the action of water . From one of these leads at Ballarat , about two years ago , a nugget was taken , weighing , I think , nearly two thousand ounces ; it was very appropriately christened by the lucky finders the Welcome Nugget . At present it is the largest in the world . I need scarcely say , that although some men made their fortunes in a hurry at Ballarat , the vast majority were doomed to disappointment and bankruptcy . "

The Times Correspondent thus describes Caselli ' s neiv invention : — " Nothing in the mechanical department of the Florence Exhibition struck me as more wonderful than Caselli ' s pantelegraph . The illustrious inventor has established a communication between Florence and Leghorn , and himself attends at the Crystal Palace to exhibit the results of his portentous contrivance . His pantelegraph , as is generally known , is intended for the transmission of messages

immediately from the hand of the writer , conveying a facsimile of every word and syllable , and bearing the full authenticity of the hand and signature . A banker at Paris or London may thus , hereafter , draw a cheque upon Turin or Florence , which his correspondent w'ill honour at sight , being as sure of the identity of the document as if he had the very paper on which it is written . I have looked for some time on the working of this apparently magic machineand have seen it write under my inspection now three

, , now four lines of Dante , iu the very handwriting with which the correspondent was at that very moment tracing them on the prepared paper in Leghorn . Presently a lineal drawing of a portrait of Dante , whicli was being delineated at Leghorn , came into life before me , line by line , shade by shade . Anon , again , it was a pattern design for a lady ' s embroidery . In one word , it is the reproduction , at a distance , of anything that pen or pencil can produce . A small point , somewhat like the hand of a watch , runs ,