LACK OF FOREIGN LITERATURE IN THE BRITISH MUSED:H.—NO matter what

may be the subject, it is wholly fruitless to look there for any recent foreign publications. Our readers will find in the following pages the details of the course of a Roman Catholic prelate, who boldly and uncompromisingly attempted, and in a great degree carried into effect, a system of church reform. This was not done in a corner, but in a conspicuous part of Europe. It was not done quietly, but gave rise to violent discussions and serious persecutions. It was not a matter of moment, for the acts and ordinances of Wessenberg,'s predecessor, his own, and the pastoral conferences of his clergy, occupy, as our readers will see, many volumes, and extend over a very considerable space of time; and yet, in the national library of a great Protestant nation, what record of these singular transactions is to be found ? Let it not be supposed for a moment that we seek to throw any blame on the distinguished and excellent persons who have the charge of that library. On the contrary, we doubt not that they lament the de- ficiencies which it presents in every department of modern foreign literature, with scarcely a single exception. The simple history is, that in the midst of all this clamour about the diffusion of knowledge, scarcely a penny can be gained from this intellectual nation to buy foreign books for its library. A few periodi- cals are taken in there, a few works published in parts are going on to their completion, and there is an end. Germany is overflim ing with literature; her presses teem with the productions of her speculative and laborious sons. France, after a long night of barbarism under a military goven.... iit, is awakening to energy and activity in literature. Even in Italy, 'broke:: i.'eces and sunk as is that lovely region, dear to every lover of art and genb-, i..ach is done in those departments of literature which a coercive religion allows to iburish. But no re- cord of all this activity is to be found in the national library of England. The nations of the Continent might as well be still involved in all the darkness of the middle ages, for any benefit which the student who has no resource but the British Museum could gain from their labours. To hear the cry of public men and pub- lic journals, one would suppose that the whole nation was become a nation of students • but it is only necessary to go to its library to get rid of the delusion, and see that they are perfectly satisfied with the glimmering of their own farthing candle, and stone blind to any light that may be breaking around them. It is really painful to any one who loves England to compare her productions in litera- ture with those of other nations at the present moment, to see how narrow are the boundaries which confine it, and then to find that the improvement which might be derived from a full knowledge of what is doing elsewhere, is denied by the nation to itself. A paltry two thousand pounds a-year would, we are bold to say, procure all, and more than all, that would be requisite, and yet that paltry sum is denied—an exercise of self-denial which, we presume and hope, it would not be easy to parallel in the records of any other nation.—Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 8. Artiale, " Wessenberg and the Roman Catholic Church of Germany." Hirsrs FOR IsseitovemENT.—Can any thing be more manifest than the conve- eience, not to say necessity, of continuing Oxford-street straight into High Hol- born ? The advantages are almost incalculable ; Broad-street, St. Giles's, now the only thoroughfare from Holborn to Tottenham-court-road, being narrow and winding ; whereas the new street might be perfectly straight (as any person may perceive by casting his eye over amap of London), of a good width, and composed of elegant shops, for which the situation would be first-rate, and the rents of which would defray the expense of the alteration. Besides all this the very worst part of St. Giles's, the hot-bed of the lowest vice and infamy, would be destroyed. In fact, if the object of this hint were carried into effect, the long continuance of the present awkward and inconvenient avenue from the city to the west end (as Broad-street may be called) would be regarded with astonishment and incredulity —Morning Journal.

PRESENT MILITARY FORCE OF GREAT B1SITAIN:6 Field Marshals' 110 Gene- rals, 250 Lieutenant-Generals, 240 Major-Generals, 240 Colonels, 788 Lieute- nant-Colonels 820 Majors, 1699 Captains, 2372 Lieutenants, 1230 Comets and Ensigns. C;valry-2 Regiments of Life Guards (Cuirassiers), 1 Regiment of Horse Guards (HouseholeTroops), 7 Regiments of Dragoon Guards, 3 Regi- ments of Heavy Dragoons (1st, 2nd, and 6th). 5 Regiments of Light Dragoons (3d, 4th, 11th, 13th, and 14th), 4 Regiments of 'Hussars (7t1i, 8th, 10th, and 15th): 4 Regiments of Lancers (9th, 12th, 16th, and 17th); Royal Horse Artillery ; Royal Waggon Train. Infantry-3 Regiments of Foot Guards (Household Troops)' 99 Regiments of the Line, 1 Rifle Brigade, 2 West India Regiments, 1 Ceylon Regiment (Riflemen), 1 Cape Corps, 1 Royal African Corps, 3 Royal Veteran Battalions, 1 Royal Malta Fencible Regiment ; Royal Artillery ; Royal Engineers ; Royal Staff Corps. Departments—Ordnance, Commissariat, Medical, &c. &c., Forming a force of about 140,000 effective men, and 7805 officers.

POLITICAL CONJUNCTIONS.—We do not hesitate to say, that a man more totally unacquainted with the best interests of England, as respects our Continental rela- tions' does not exist than the Duke of Wellington. Our foreign policy, indeed, has for some years been distinguished by a series of blunders, which have ren- dered our Cabinet the laughing-stock of the Continental courts; • and the Duke's celebrated convention at Cintra went at the time far to obscure his military fame, and was not of that promising character to lead us to place much confidence in his future efforts. The reciprosity system of Mr. Huskisson, moreover, which is, at all events, patronised by the present Administration, gives but faint hopes of any results favourable to the geneeal interests of Great Britain from their deli- berations.—Morning Chronicle.

FLUCTUATIONS OF PUBLIC CREDIT IN FRANCE.—A circular of one of the Paris banking-houses, which contains the usual abstract of the debt and revenue of France, adds to it the following statement of the fluctuations which have occurred of French 5 per cent. reales, from the year 1799 till the present time. The extremes were in October 1799 and in March of the present year:— Variations in the Price of French Five per Cents.

October 1799 ........ 7 November 1799 ..... 11 Ditto 21 1799 . 20 June 1800 30 December 1300 42 1801 54

1802 ........ 56

1803 .... .... 53

1804 58

1805 ..... 60

1806 ........ 76 August 1807 ...... 93 December 1807 86 -- 1808 .. 80

1809 ...... 80 December 1810

79

1811 82

1812 .... 78

1813 . . ... 51 March 29 1814 . . 45 December 1814 73 March 4 1815 ........ 81 June 20 1815 ........ 53 December 1815 .. 63 ISIS .. 55

1817 64 August 1818 ........ 80 December 1818 63 1819 ..... 70

December 1188201 .

2 . 78

84 S9

1822

January 1823 .. 77 August 1823 ... ..... 93 December 1823 92 102 1824 ........

March 1825 ........ 106 Novenaber 1825 91 December 1825 .. 96

18.26

1827 ..... ... 101 1828

— . . . . . .

107 March 1829 110

INCREDIBLE COURTF.SY DV A PRIME MINISTER.—As an instance of the praise- worthy promptitude with which the Duke of Wellington attends to applications made to him by obscure individuals, we may mention the following anecdote. A young artist (the person principally engaged in the modelling of that beautiful work of art, Thomason's Warwick Vase) had completed a colossal bust of the Premier front memory, and being anxious that his Grace should see it, he ad- dressed a letter to him, humbly entreating the noble Duke to do him that honour. The letter was left at Apsley-house about one o'clock, and the artist, to his sur- prise and delight, received an autograph answer by five the same day, stating that his Grace would do himself the pleasure of calling upon the artist whenever he could spare half an hour from his numerous avocations. To the honour of the Duke of Wellington, all letters addressed to him are promptly answered, and ge- nerally in his own hand-writing.—Standard. MANAGEMENT OF Cows.—A gentleman in the country has adopted an excellent plan of managing mild) cows, and of increasing, in a surprising degree, the pro- duce of the soil. The cows yield more than double the quantity of milk, in con- sequence of being fed on cut grass in a stall, the temperature of which is equal in winter and summer ; the warmer the better for producing milk. The quantity of ground on which the grass is produced, is not one-fourth of what would have been required to feed them in the common way. The number of cows thus main- tained is twelve, and although they have been confined for more than seven years, they are in an excellent state of health. The ground is =mired after each cut- ting of grass, by liquid drained from the cow-house and stables, and after four crops have been cut this year, it is in a better state than the finest meadows which have been mown once only. Every noxious weed is carefully removed from the soil, and nutritious and wholesome plants only retained.—World. ENGLISH ARIsTocRacy:—Riches in England are the only pleasure of respect ; and the titles are merely respected, because wealth is generally associated with them. The French aristocracy, before the Revolution, lost themselves by settling up anti- quity against wealth, which united all the rich men, without claim to antiquity, against them. But in England the aristocracy is opened regularly to all the rich ; so that any man who makes a fortune as a gambler, as a fraudulent contractor, as a speculator upon 'Change, knows well that, though he himself may not receive a title, in a generation or two his descendants will receive it. Our Peerage and Baronetage contain even Christian-Jews, elevated immediately, and not in their descendants. If Ikey Solomons had not been cut prematurely short in his career, and a rich receiver of mail-coach parcels had not been blown upon in the evidence before the Police Committee, they would probably have worked their way up to the Peerage.—Morning Chronicle.

EDUCATION BY TaavettiNe.—After the annual public meeting of the Academy. of Inscriptions, at Paris, for the distribution of prizes, last month, a course of academical lectures was given; at the end of the second of which, the audience . were rising to go, when M. Alexander de Laborde presented himself to deliver his lecture. Every body was seated again ; and he proceeded, with as much ease as grace, to read a piece, which, even at that hour, appeared too short. It was another romance of Utopia, upon education, very singular, indeed, in its plan ; and what rendered it the more amusing was the tone of good faith with which M. Laborde unfolded it. The lecture is entitled 0 of Education by Travelling ; " and the fundamental idea of it is, that no man can have received a proper educa- tion if he has not travelled. M. Laborde begins this education at an early period, and does not finish it till twenty-five years of age. He divides it into three parts , —classic, scientific, and political. The first is accomplished at the seventeenth year, and, by means of improved modes, it is much more complete than what is obtained how in our Colleges; the second is followed until the twenty-second year ; and the third until the twenty-fith year. A selected course of travelling completes each of these parts of the student's education. After his classical studies, the youth will visit Italy, Greece, Egypt, Spain, and the South of France. He will join to the study of the ancient masterpieces that of the places which in- spired them. On his return from France, he will consecrate two years to the physical and mathematical sciences ; and in the second course of travelling, he will visit the principal chains of mountains which form the compartments of the globe ; he will travel through Switzerland and over the Pyrenees, and the great mountains Hemus and Caucasus ; he will see the deserts and the seas of ice. His third journey will comprise England, Germany, and the United Sates ; it is thus our youth at twenty-five years of age will know more of the world than all others do at sixty, and that he will become a sort of living encyclopedia.—Consti- tutionnel.