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fise:proceedings of the British Association at Liverpool have not been Littesasxkable far, scientific novelty. There have been soirees in Bt. George's Hall, a dinner in the Philharmonic,Conoert■room, and the usual tram. actions in the various sections!. At.a scdree ..held on Thursday week the great hall, while Dr. Wesley played the man, the silvans inspected the artieletreillibited, fromsa model ota prqjected high-level railway f nals offer to the minute reader the usual variety of papers on the usual the Liverpool Docks, to a patent wheelbarrow, or a wonderfulouthteenrssileef: use in the bush, designed-primarily as a saucepan, and made to serve as packing-case for all the necessaries of the breakfast-table. The business of the sections had commenced on that day ; and the reports of the jour. variety of subjects. Some of these have a general interest, appeal to the scientific. Among the most striking was Professor Owen's lecture on Apes, in opposition to the development theory of modern times. Mr. Scott Russell's paper on Shipbuilding ; and the Reverend Mr. Clay's statistics of Crime.

Professor Owen's lecture not only included a definition and description of anthropomorphous apes, but of the races of men, and the leading els. tinctions between the two classes of animals.

He examined how far any of the known cauats which modify specific cha- racters could have operated so as to produce in the chimpanzees or orangs a nearer approach to the human character than they actually present. He pointed out some characters of the skeleton of the apes,—such, for example, as the great superorbital ridge in the Gorilla ape, which could not have been produoed by the habitual action of muscles, or by any other known influence that, operating on successive generations, produces change in the forms and proportions of bones. The equable length of the human teeth, the concomi- tant absence of any interval in the dental series, and of any sexual differ- ence in the development of particular teeth, were affirmed to be primitive and unalterable specific peculiarities of man. The difference in the time of dis- appearance of the suture separating the premaxillary from the maxillary bone was not explicable on any of the known causes affecting such charac- ter. There was not, according to the lecturer, any other character than that founded upon the developments of bone for the attachment of muscles, which was known to be subject to change through the operation of external causes: nine-tenths,lherefore, of the differences—especially -those very striking ones I manifested by the pelvis and pelvic extremities, which Professor Owen had cited in his memoirs on the orange and chimpanzees, published in the ZoOlo- gical Transactions, as distinguishing the great chimpanzee from the human species—must stand in contravention of the hypothesis of transmutation and progressive development, until the supporters of that hypothesis are en- abled to adduce the facts and cases which demonstrate the conditions of the modifications of such characters. The unity of the human species is demon- strated by the constancy of'those osteological and dental characters to which the attention is more particularly directed in the investigation of the corre- sponding-characters in the higher quadrumana. Man is the solespeoies of his genus, the sole representative of his order. lie has no nearer physical rela- tions with the brute kind than those which arise out of the characters that link together the great group of placental mammalia, called " unguiculata." Professor Owen's conclusions are of course opposed to those of the develop- ment theory. "Thus," he reasoned at the close of his lecture, "in refer- ence both to the unity of the human species' and to the fact of man being the latest, as he is the highest,, of all animal forms upon our planet, the in- terpretations of God's works coincide with what has been revealed to us as to our own origin and zoological relations in his Word. Of the nature of the creative acts by which the successive races of animals were called into being we are ignorant ; but this we know, that, as the evidence of unity of plan testifies to the oneness of the Creator, so -the modifications of the plan for different modes of existence illustrate the beneficence of the Designer. Those structures, moreover, which are at present incomprehensible, as adapt- ations to a special end, are made comprehensible on a higher principle, and a final purpose is gained in relation to humanintelligence ; for, in the in- stances where the analogy of humanly-invented mae.hines fails to explain the structure of a divinely-created organ, such organ does not exist in vain, if its truer comprehension in relation to the Divine idea leads mtional beings to a better conception of their own origin and Creator."

Mr. Scott Russell's paper embraced an account of the progress of naval architecture mainly in respect to speed.

-Formerly, ships were built with a round, Ibluff, duck's-breast bow, and a sloping narrow stern. It seems now to be universally admitted in Europe and in America, that, if a shipbuilder wants to have a very easy and fast- going ship, he must give her bow, not the round convex line formerly adopted, but a fine, long, hollow line, such as the meeting might observe for themselves in all the recently-built vessels. Prattical men, when they de- sire to build a fast ship, see that they must now no longer use the convex water-line, but they must build with a hollow water-line at the bow • and in this consists the great revolution which has taken place during the last twenty years. Whereas formerly the broadest part of the vessel was only a third part from the bow, the broadest part hi now nearer to the stern than to the bow in the proportion of two to three ; so that the shape of the ship under the water is very nearly reversed. The ship out of the water may remain very nearly the same, but where she cuts the water the lines are as he has described. It is on this .principle that American clipper ships and English ships which happen to be very fast are built, and upon which, he would say without fear of contradiction, every vessel, to gain anything like sixteen miles an hour, must be built. The 'principle is ascertained, that if you want the particles of-water to go out of the-way-of the vessel whenigoing very fast, you must give the par- ticles more time to do so. This may appear a contradiction in terms ; but the faster the vessel is -to go through the %water, the more time must be al- lowed to the particles of water to give way. It is found that it is more easy to push a vessel with an elongated body-through the water, at great speed, than the short vessels-which have been in use. This is reduced to a regu- lar principle ; the result of -which is, 'that it is now certain that 24 feet of length in the entrance-lines of a vessel-will give eight miles an hour easily ; to go at sixteen miles an hour the entrance-lines should be nearly 96 feet long. To give twenty-four miles an hour, the entrance should be 216 feet long ; so that we cannot expect to get twenty-four miles an hour until we make up our minds to build ships something like 400 feet long. From all the experiments he has made, and has seen made,-these facts are undoubted. The clipper ships and fast steamers have lengthened their bow-lines until they-have got the necessary length for speed; and if those present looked at any vessel which had .got the reputation of going sixteen miles an hour, he believed they would 'find -that to be the fact. Like every truth, the shape of a vessel was long since found out and lost again. The old London wherry was built as perfectly upon the lines he had described as if it had been mathematically constructed upon them. In India, the boats are made precisely upon that form, and they are the fastest boats in the world, as a class. The Turkish calques have the same shape, and they are very fine vessels. In Spain, they have arrived by some means at a form not very different, and throughout the whdle of the last war the Spanish vessels were the best vessels, and the best England took. The smugglers, because they risked their necks upon the speed of their ships, quickly found out what shape was best, and some of the moat beautiful dime that ever came into our possession in that way were built in that.form. The Ameei- cans made very early anexperimentof the kind in steam-boats : they length- ened their steamers at a very early period, and they now generally build upon this plan and with the hollow lines. They have done wonders in this way, and Mr. Russell believed in Englarul also wonders are being done. Bir..Ashworth of Bolton read a paper to the Statistical section on the Preston strike, its history and effects. He adduced some -figures to show the losses occasioned by the strike. Loss to the employers, 16.5,0001.; loss of wages to the operatives, 250,0001.; loss to the strike-fund contribu- tors, 97,0001.; loss to auxiliary occupations, 10,0001.; total loss to the community, 533,250/. The Reverend Mr. Clay, chaplain to the Preston House of Correction, added some statistics on the personnel of the strike. He estimates the total number engaged at 18,000; of these 6200 were males and 11,800 females ; boys under thirteen, 620; girls under thir- teen, 650; youths thirteen and not more than eighteen, 1530; girls be- tween the same ages, 4400; men above eighteen, 4050; women above eighteen, 6760. He also showed, that during the strike there was a re- markable diminution in the number of the deaths of infants ; which he referred to the fact that the mothers had more time to pay attention to their children.

In the same section, the Reverend Mr. Clay read a paper upon "the effects of good and bad times upon the committals to prison." The drift of his argument was, that the alleged connexion between "hard times" and crime does not exist to the extent which is commonly supposed. High wages enable the poor and uneducated to indulge in drink, which destroys their character. By comparisons of periods of years, he endea- voured to show that the years of greatest distress had not the most com- mittals, while in years of prosperity drunkenness greatly increased. Mr. M. D. Hill corroborated Mr. Clay's views, from his own forty years' ex- perience in the courts, as to the fact that crime is increasing. The Earl of Harrowby remarked, that it is no wonder that the working men go to the public-house, seeing that they have no other places of amusement. The failure of mechanics' institutions he thought attributable to the over- cautiousness of their directors, who exclude religion and politics, the very two branches of knowledge which working men stand most in need of. They ought to have a liberal, generous Policy, in all these things. The Archbishop of Dublin, Alderman Nield of Manchester, and Mr. W. Brown M.P., joined in the discussion which followed. In the Geographical section, over which Sir Roderick Murchison pre- sided, a paper on the projected exploration of Australia, by Captain Sturt, was read ; and at the close Sir Roderick intimated that he had received a letter from Captain Shirt, stating that measures had been taken in refer- ence to the expedition, and the Colonial Office had offered the command to Surveyor Gregory, requesting Captain Sturt to undertake the organiza- tion of the party.

In the same section, Mr. Denby Seymour M.P. read some manuscript notes of General Fevrier's travels in Central Asia. The General main- tains the practicability of a Russian invasion of India by the steppes of Turkistan and Affghanistan : but Sir Roderick Murchison and Colonel Sykes pronounced the thing perfectly visionary. The General Committee met on Monday to decide on a place of meet- ing for 1855. The list of aspirants included Glasgow, Manchester, Dub- lin, Cheltenham, Brighton, and Nottingham. It was resolved to accept the invitation from the local authorities of Glasgow. The Duke of Argyll was elected President for 1855.

The proceedings of the Association were brought to a close on Thurs- day, by excursions to various places and manufactories in the neighbour- hood. On the whole, the meeting has been very satisfactory, the attendance especially so. There had been of old life members 337; old annual members, 119' new life members, 21; new annual members, 120; associates, 761; ladies, 522 (a larger number than had ever before attended); and of foreigners 10. The total number of tickets disposed of had been 1891, and the total receipts therefrom 18551.

Mr. Frederick Peel suet his constituents at Bury last week, for the first time since his election in 1852. Several thousand persons assembled in a large building called the Brick House, and Mr. Richard Ashton pre- sided. In the earlier part of his speech, Mr. Peel defended his votes on the Ballot, the admission of Dissenters to the Universities, and the Church-rate question. Then he spoke of the war, which throws all other questions into shade, and unites public opinion in one rallying- point.

"Diplomatists had possession of the field for twelve months : they ex- hausted the patience of Europe ; and afterwards they exhausted their own

ingenuity, in devising schemes with a view of meeting the different and conflicting views entertained upon either side. But these propositions of theirs were unsuccessful, because the.opposite side was insincere. The war being inevitable, all that now remains is that we should carry it on with vigour, and bring it, if we can, to a successful and honourable termination,— a peace which shall not be a mere truce, which shall not be a mere inter-

mission of the war, but which shall rest on a solid and durable foundation, and which shall take guarantees for its preservation for the future. I be- lieve that such will be the result of this war."

The meeting cheered these and similar sentiments to the echo.

Another meeting of the Kossuth hind, but with the part of Kossuth omitted, was held at Sheffield on Monday. In obedience Ma requisition signed by twenty-two Town-Councillors and two Aldermen, Mr. Hoole the Mayor called and presided over the gathering, without sympathizing in the views of its promoters. It turned out that very few of the Town- Councillors attended ; of those that did, Mr. Alcock, Mr. Harvey, and Mr. Saunders, opposed the extremely Anti-Ministerial views of Mr. Coun- cillor Ironside and Mr. Alderman Carr, the leaders of the meeting ; and several other persons equally disclaimed the resolutions and the memorial submitted to them. The mass of the meeting, however, agreed to reso- lutions censuring the laxity -of purpose with Which the war has been carried on, and condemning the occupation of the Principalities by the Austriane, as "in the highest degree dishonourable and improper.' A memorial to the Queen was also adopted, referring for proofs of the con- nivance of Lord Aberdeen with Russia as far back as the memorandum of

Count Nesselrode in 1844, connecting the advances of the Russians with the accession ,of Lord Aberdeen ; denouncing Austria ; and declaring

that the meeting had no confidence in the Aberdeen Ministry. After the meeting had terminated, Mr. Attwood addressed the few who re- mained, and a complimentary resolution was passed in his behalf.

The annual dinners that follow the agricultural shows, succeed each other.prettyguickly;now. Last week, the Northamptonshire Agricultu- ral Association met in great force at Daventry. Mr. Rainald Knightley •

M.P., who had travelled from the Highlands, presided ; Mr. Stafford M.P., the veteran Protectionist Sir Charles Knightley, and his son the chairman, were the speakers. Politics were banished, and the talk flowed very fluently upon the necessity of improving the condition of the la- bourer, Mr. Stafford's theme ; the magnificent harvest, which Mr. Knightley improved; and a sort of "old brown-coated farmer" note of warning against new-fangled inventions in agriculture, the trading frauds in guano and oil-cake, and the new notions respecting stock, upon which the elder Knightley was eloquent. But the farmers who spoke testified to the progress of agriculture, and were grateful for improvements.

A new pair of colours was presented to the Cambridgeshire Militia, on Tuesday, in substitution for those carried by the Cambridgeshire Volunteers in 1798. The occasion served as a holiday at Ely, where the celebration took place. A blessing was first invoked upon the new standards by the Bishop of Ely, in the cathedral ; and then the Countess of Hardwicke, accompanied by her husband and two daughters carrying the flags, marched in procession to the Palace Green. There the regiment was drawn up, Colonel Duncombe standing in front ; and there, with an animated speech, referring to the warlike character of the sons of the Isle of Ely, the deeds of Sir Harry Smith, and some of their own officers on Indian fields, the Countess made the presentation-

" Colonel Buncombe, officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, I present you these colours. I call upon you to follow them, for, doubtless, in the hands of such officers, they will lead you in the path of glory ; to respect them, because, in this favoured land, they represent honour, order, and freedom ; and to die for them, if necessary, in defence of your beloved Queen and country. I now wish you a heartfelt farewell ; and may God bless, direct, and prosper the Cambridgeshire Militia."

Colonel Duncombe made answer on behalf of the regiment.

The casemated barracks excavated in the cliff on which Dover Castle stands, long used as powder-magazines, are now to be cleared out for the reception of troops.

The strike of the stone-masons who were employed on Doncaster Church has continued for six weeks, successfully ; that is, the masons not only stand out themselves but they foil the efforts of the contractor to supply their places : when Mr. Ireson, at considerable expense, obtains a set of workmen from a distant place, the turn-outs speedily induce them to leave their work.

The military service is scarcely well out of the Windsor scrape, when the naval service seems likely to come in for a good share of obloquy, arising out

of a discreditable affair at Portsmouth, the facts of which came out at a Co- roner's inquest held there on the 21st instant. Two young women, Matilda

• Jane Lodge and Emma White, went from Portsmouth to Gosport on Sunday sennight ; and there, about nine in the evening, they encountered two offi-

cers, one of whom was Lieutenant Knight of the Marines. After drinking brandy and-water at two taverns, Knight, according to Emma White's state- ment, prevailed on them to go on board the hulk Dauntless, lying in the harbour. Arrived on board the ship, they went into Lieutenant Knight's

cabin, and were supplied by him with port wino and brandy and water, through the half-opened door leading from the gun-room, where the officers

were drinking. Knight cautioned Emma White not to drink too much of

the wine, as it might do her harm; and she complied. Subsequently, Matilda Lodge became intoxicated, and ran singing into the gun-room, where the officers were assembled. Here she grew worse, and at length was so ill that she could not be moved. Emma White left the ship at one o'clock, "per- fectly sober." Job Jackson, a Marine on duty, next states, that deceased screeched fearfully and lay screaming on the floor, until she was carried into Knight's cabin and placed on his bed. "She continued screeching at inter- vals up to four o'clock." The officer in command had wished to have her removed from the ship ; but the surgeon thought this dangerous. Lieutenant Jervis, who had gone to bed early, was waked up by her screeching and the knocking she made against the bulkheads : he visited her twice, and behaved with great kindness : Lieutenant Knight was sleeping, with his head on a pillow, on the table. Matilda Lodge fell twice out of bed. At length it was determined to send her ashore ; and it is deolared that she left the ship without any marks of violence on her person. But Joseph Sherwin, who rowed her ashore, says that "her hair was hanging all about ; her dress was torn at the shoulder, and in a terribly ruffled state. She was not sensible." Inspector Bone says, when brought in by Sherwin to the Police station, "she was insensible, and smelt strongly of port wine ; her dress was much disordered, and she had nothing but her shift-sleeve on her arm ; her hair was hanging loose down her back." Her mother was sent for to the Police station ; and she gave the following evidence at the inquest. "I found Matilda in the station-room, her clothes much disordered, the sleeve torn out of her gown, and her scarf very dirty. I said to her, 'My dear girl, where have you been to get served like this ? ' She appeared to be very ill. I tried to lift her up. She said, 'Don't mother ; I cannot move. Mother, I am dying; I shan't live long. I have received my death- blow.' I said, You ruust go home.' She said, can't.'" She took her home, however. "I said to her, You have been cruelly ill-treated.' She rejoined, Yes, mother, I have; I shall die.' She said something to me be- sides concerning the outrage; but I told her to lie quiet, and when she got better we would talk it over. I told her, 'I hear you were on board of a ship.' She said, Yes, mother, and Emma was there too ; we went to- gether.' She said, After Emma left I was unconscious.' I said, think you must have been drugged.' She replied, she did not recollect anything about it. Her arms were black in places, one of her eyes was blaokened, her cheek was all colours, and the had a bruise under her chin. She was sensible from the time I first saw her at the station-house until the time of her death, between twelve and one o'clock on Wednesday last. My daughter was about twenty-two, a single woman." Sophia Stevens, sent for by the Inspector, said that the deceased "vomited something off her stomach, which was port wine ; but in the vomit appeared something like a white powder, which did not apparently-mix up with it. It was not preserved." Lieutenants Seymour, Knight, and Jervis, and Assistanb-Surgeon,Rothe, tendered their evidence; and it would lead to the belief that the deceased having got drunk, hurt herself by falling about. They declare positively that there was no fighting in the gun-room, (which the deceased thought there had been.) and no violence of any kind offered to the young woman. The medical evidence, after a post-mortem examination, revealed the true cause of the death. Mr. Henry Carter, surgeon of Portaea, and Dr. Gray, were the operators; and the former gave this evidence- - The external appearances were ecchymosis of right eye, extendingdown the face partially under the lower jaw ; there was the appearance of a blow over the as iltum, which was also in a state of ecchyium.is. These were the only marks of violence, with the exception of chscolorations of the arm. The internal appearances, on moving the sternmnovere healthy—that was carefully examined. We then exa- mined the abdomen. The stomach and intestines were much distended, buts o ap- pearance of inflammation in the lower internal part of the abdomen. The intestines we found floating in serum to the extent of one or two quarts. After emptying out the fluid, our attention was directed to the bladder : it was collapsed, and on close inspection we discovered a rupture. The bladder was removed. The bladder I con- sider thick ; and it presented appearances of former inflammation, having firmly ad- hered to the peritoneal lining. The rupture puts on the appearance of ulceration, the.edges being thickened. The abdomen shows no appearance of internal injury. The cause of death was the rupture of the bladder. The rupture of the bladder was not caused by the violence of the blow on the os ilium. That bone would be likely to protect the bladder from any blow; and the blow was superficial. There was no external mark of violence over the bladder to cause such an injury. The distension of the bladder by drink, together with a fall, might have caused the injury." The Coroner's Jury returned the following verdict—" We find that, ac- cording to the evidence given by the medical men, we are bound to return a verdict that Matilda Jane Lodge died a natural death from rupture of the bladder; but we also find, from the evidence given before us, that death was mainly accelerated by ill-treatment which she had received on the night of Sunday the 17th of September 18.54, in the ward-room on board of the hulk of her Majesty's ship Dauntless, lying in Portsmouth Harbour; to which we respectfully call the attention of the authorities." The authorities, both civil and naval, have already commenced an investi- gation which was to have been continued yesterday. Lieutenant Knight was placed under arrest on the result of the Coroner's inquiry being known.

Earl Fitzwilliam has had an escape from drowning. He is on a visit at Marske Hall in Yorkshire. The Earl and the Reverend Mr. Wharton were bathing in a heavy sea, just below the marine residence of Mr. Pease, on Monday last. One of the Earl's attendants, also in the sea, was carried out of his depth. Mr. Wharton hastened to the rescue—being a first-rate swim- mer—but was soon overpowered in the death-grasp of the drowning man. Earl Fitzwilliam soon joined in the fearful struggle, and now a common fate for all three seemed inevitable. Mr. Pease's family and servants were alarmed, and one of them, James Wilson, dashed on horseback into the water; • whence' by swimming the animal and the use of ropes, all were landed safely. The hot bath at Cliff House and medical aid were imme- diately available. The servant was gradually restored, and Earl Fitz- william and Mr. Wharton are recovering. Save for the prompt aid of the horse and his rider, a fatal result could not have been doubtful.

An inquest has been held at Redruth on the 'Amine of a man twenty- six years after death. He was killed in 1828, by falling down a mine-shaft : a large quantity of earth fell upon the body, the efforts made to recover it were unsuccessful, and the shaft was closed. Recently a company have com- menced working the mine again, and the miners discovered the skeleton : the clothes were recognized by a brother, who narrowly escaped death with the deceased in 1828; and who now was overcome with emotion at the sight of the remains.

There has been another accident on the Leeds Northern Railway. In con- sequence of the disaster in the Brambope tunnel, two officials were going to Starbeck on an engine ; as it approached the station a luggage-train was seen on the rails, and a collision was unavoidable; the driver and Mr. Pep- per jumped from the engine; Mr. Goslett and the stoker remained on it : all four were hurt, and one of Mr. Pepper's legs was fractured.

James Upfold, an old man, foreman at Chilworth powder-mills, near Guildford, has lost his life by an explosion, which destroyed a great part of the mills. It originated in Upfold's breaking up lumps of black-lead with a chisel ; a spark setting fire to some loose powder.

A private in the Fifty-first Regiment has been drowned in the river Irwell at Manchester. He got over the parapet at night, to avoid being seen by a military picket which was approaching; there was nothing for him to rest his feet on, and he must have fallen into the stream instantly.

A young man has been killed by the fall of some timbers in the Cann via- duct of the Eastern Counties Railway, near Mouleham : the wood-work had become decayed by the action of water on its lower end.