Great Britain has been visited with what the Americans call
a "cold snap." The frost has been continuous since Saturday, and since Sunday has been severe, the " readings " of the ther- mometer being much below the average at this season. On Tuesday at the Observatory the thermometer stood at 18 deg., and on the grass at 10 deg. Fahr. On Wednesday in some places near London the cold was excessive, Lea, for instance, showing 24 degrees of frost; while on Thursday, on the Derwent, the mercury touched zero. There was DO symptom of the frost break- ing on Friday afternoon, the cold being as severe as ever ; and if it continues, the suffering of the poor will be very groat, thou- sands being thrown out of employ, with coal at its dearest point for the year. The old, too, will die off rapidly, a really low temperature lowering vitality' much more seriously than chilly weather or sharp wind. Some of the newspapers, we see, think the weather very pleasant and seasonable, and pour out the usual " Dickens-and-water " about the joys of winter; but with the roads liable to be made impassable by snow, his pipes bursting, his feeble friends dying off, and he himself ()raving for the equable warmth which English grates do not secure, the middle-aged Londoner may be forgiven if he votes Christmas an impostor, and Midsummer the true joy-giver. Nobody in London is really happy in frost, except skaters, who are warm ; roughs, who are delighted at the skaters' tumbles ; and plunder- ing plumbers, eager for their prey.
