Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

p laces , and had to walk for miles to the Money Order Office , have frequently their ^ ourney in vain , through the negligence of the post office officials who granted the Order not having sent advice of the same to the post office where it is made payable . Surely civilization is sufficiently advanced to allow of making Orders payable at any Money Order Office ; and the Government ivould get the use of a considerable sum without interest , as all Orders have to be paid for when got , and ivould then frequently

circulate from one to another for months before any one ivould bother to get them cashed—the Government being a safe creditor . Something like Avhat I have pointed out must be clone soon , as the present system gets more and more behind the commercial requirements of the age every clay ; and , being no party question , this reform will not be likely to raise any formidable opposition . Iron billiard tables are coming into use , as being less liable to be affected by atmosp heric changes than those of slate . The frame-work , as Avell as the table , is of iron . The distressed iron-Avorkers will be glad to see iron used for many more purposes , such as ivindoAV-fi-ames generally , and a thousand other things equally practicable .

Though wo " Britishers , " many of us , are afraid that we are degenerating m the breed of horses , ( a pure bred Cleveland Bay , for instance , being noAV almost , if not entirely , impossible to be met with in all broad Yorkshire , ) the people of tho United States have gone ahead in that as in other matters . One of their literary magazines , Wallace ' s Monthly , states , that " six hundred thoroughbred stallions , ancl tAvo hundred thoroughbred mares , have been imported , mostly from England , into the United States /'

and that "the superior blood , added to the perfection of form and spirit , of endurance ancl speed , thence derived , has enriched the properties" of their general horse , their trotting horse , their carriage horse , their saddle horse , and their race horse , " to that superlative degree , - that nowhere in the Avorld can American driving horses be surpassed , or those employed for general work equalled . " It is said the French Champs Elysees and our own Rotten Row combined cannot ecpial the Central Parkat Neiv Yorkeither

, , for horses or vehicles ; thirteen-hundred tAvo-horse carriages , and from a thousand to fifteen hundred other conveyances , most of them of beautiful construction , entering that splendid park daily during the season . Saddling and harness-making , coach-building , ancl their auxiliary branches of industry , ought to flourish in the neighbourhood of Neiv York .

The Eboracum Masonic Calendar for 1878 , a copy of which has been posted to me , contains Lists of the Officers of Provincial Grand Lodge and Chapter for the North and East Ridings ; Loclges , Chapters , ancl Preceptories , of the various degrees , Avith their times of meeting j the charges in the E . A ., F . C ., and M . M . degrees , with the Working Tools for each , and the famous E . A . Song . It is very neatly printed , and is fertile Province Avhat Bro . Kenning ' s Cosmopolitan Calendar is for the Craft and Chivahic Degrees throughout the world , —a very useful companion , full of information on Masonic matters .

I have received from the celebrated White Star Line of Steamers , so Avell known for their splendid and commodious vessels plying between Liverpool and NOAV York , a copy of their Oficial Guide , which is worthy of the company that issued it , ancl that is saying much . I trust , in another Note , to cull from it a few facts for the profit aud instruction of Craftsmen . The giving hotel charges for beds , meals , aud attendance , is a happy idea ; and the handsome Guide is as full of information as it is pleasing from its artistic beauty . It deserves an extensive sale .

General Sherman states , that " the valleys of the Upper Yellowstone afford lands capable of cultivation in wheat , corn , oats , barley , and all garden vegetables , with an unlimited range for cattle , horses , sheep , & c . I don't know a single enterprise in ivhich the United States has more interest than in the extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad from its present terminus at Bismarck to the mouth of the Powder River , on the Yellowstone . After that is clone we can safely leave to time the extension of the road to the head of navigation of the Columbia River . " It is sad to think that hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men and women are pining for want of the bare necessaries of life in various parts of the world , whilst immense tracts ' of line forest and prairie lands