Cochin China cock and pullet, for instance, brought
forty-eight guineas.

A new Literary and Scientific Society is about to he
established in Birmingham. A meeting for that purpose
was held on the 10th inst. The Mayor occupied the
Chair; and amongst those present were Lord Lyttelton,
Ven. Archdeacon Sandford, &c. A letter from Mr.
Charles Dickens was read, in which he proposed to
read, next Christmas, in the town-hall, his Christmas
Carols, the proceeds to be appropriated in aid of the
funds of the proposed institution. From the report of
a committee, it appeared that it was intended that the
society should organise measures for the erection of a
spacious building at a cost of £19,000. In this building
it is proposed to provide a lecture theatre. The plan
likewise embraces three museums—the first of which
will be devoted to the raw materials of the industry of
this district, geological and mineralogical specimens, &c.:
the second, to articles illustrative of manufacturing
processes, as well as to finished specimens of different dates
and countries; the third, to machinery and models.
The other features of the scheme comprise a chemical
laboratory for lectures and classes, class-rooms, a reading-
room, with a scientific and general library of reference;
and as an entrance to all the departments, a large hall
for the reception of sculpture and other works of art.
Another department will be devoted to mining records,
showing the dimensions and position of strata in the
different mineral workings of the district. This portion
of the undertaking will be in connection with the
National School of Mines and Museum of Practical
Geology in London. Lord Lyttelton, in proposing the
establishment of the Society according to the scheme
laid down in the report, stated that the cost would not
exceed £20,000.

A great improvement has been effected in the
Communication with India and Australia. The steam-ship
Euxine, belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental
Company, sailed from Southampton in the end of last month,
for Malta and Marseilles. She is to take up her station
between those ports in conjunction with the Sultan,
under the new arrangement between the Company and
the Admiralty. In future, there will be a double
trunk-line of steam communication from Southampton
with India and China, and a semi-monthly mail. A
packet will run between Singapore and Sidney; thus
establishing six communications each way yearly
between England and Australia.

The Queen's College of Birmingham is new organised.
The Council is filled up. The office of visitor is vested,
after the decease of the Rev. Dr. Warneford, in the
bishop of the diocese—the county is represented by the
Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff—the clergy of
the diocese by the Dean of Worcester and the
Archdeacon of Coventry—the town by the Mayor and the
High Bailiff of the manor—the clerical profession by
the rectors of St. Martin and St. Philip—and the
manufacturing interest is also represented by two members
from that interest. Two members of the Council have
been appointed from the Law Society, two members
from the Architectural Society, and two members from
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; in a word, to
every interest two representatives have been given by
the Crown. Parents and guardians will have, at a
comparatively trifling expense, all the facilities and
appliances of an English gentleman's education; first,
from the earliest period to the age of about sixteen, at
King Edward's Grammar School; then at Queen's
College an university education to the age of twenty-one,
when students may obtain, without any residence
elsewhere, the degree of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of
Laws, Bachelor of Medicine, to be conferred by the
University of London; Bachelor of Civil Engineering,
to be conferred by the College; the Diploma of the
Royal College of Surgeons, the License of the Society
of Apothecaries, and certificates as candidates for Holy
Orders; followed by the degrees of Master of Arts,
Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Medicine, Master of Civil
Engineering, and Episcopal Ordination, and thus be
qualified to fill any rank of life.

A Banquet was given on the 3rd inst. to Mr. Ingersoll,
the Ambassador from the United States, by the American
Chamber of Commerce at Liverpool. Mr. Eyre Evans,
President of the Chamber, was in the chair; the Earl of
Derby, the Earl of Sefton, Mr. William Brown, M. P.,
and Mr. J. Cheetham, M. P., were among the guests.
All the speakers warmly advocated the strictest union or
alliance between England and the United States. Mr.
Ingersoll pronounced a splendid encomium on Liverpool,
especially in its relation with the United States; and
traced its mighty growth to the extension of commercial
intercourse between the two countries. He described
with eloquence and feeling the thousand ties that bind
us together; and expressed a strong hope that the
reciprocal feelings engendered by a common race,
language, and institutions, would merge in the same
Anglo-Saxon feeling, which one day "may call us, in
defence of constitutional liberty, shoulder to shoulder."
He touched delicately on the fisheries question. "What
(he said) is the reason that when we are settling this
matter of a mere fishery, a much broader view cannot
be taken of the whole subject than has been taken in
England and America? Why should not a commercial
treaty be founded upon it which should be beneficial to
both countries, and especially to those colonies more
immediately interested in regard to the fisheries?
Besides, it is all but impossible to suppose that these
colonies will not be greatly the gainers by a commercial
intercourse in which they will participate more largely
than anybody else, not having in themselves the
materials of manufactures, grain, bread-stuffs, on the
one hand, while they have the timber, the coal, and the
fish, if you please, on the other." In conclusion he
looked forward to the time "when you and I and all
will rejoice in one flesh, one brotherhood, and one
friendship, between Great Britain and the United
States of America." The Earl of Derby made a
comparism between our House of Lords, and the
American Senate as checks to popular power; and
made some remarks on the expediency and advantages
of hereditary legislation. His most interesting topic,
however, was the practical one of the evening. Every
government which can exist in this country, he said,
must feel satisfaction at the friendly feeling manifested
between England and the United States; and whatever
ministry may hold the reins, they can have no
other object than to cultivate their mutual friendship.
The best mode of settling differences is frank and open
communication of moderate views and claims, temperately
put forward and steadily enforced. On the part of
the United States, there is all that plain, straightforward
habit, honesty, and fair dealing, derived from their
English ancestors, which will never allow them to think
the worse of a British minister who steadily maintains
that which he conceives to be the interest of his country,
and, at the same time, does not desire to push her
interests beyond the limits of friendship and good
feeling between the two countries. ''I have no fear of
any differences arising between the United States and
this country. We have too many ties to bind us
together. We have the ties of common language, the
ties of common laws in many respects; we have the ties
of common liberty; we have the ties of rapidly-extending
and increasing commerce; we have also ties, I am sure,
of personal and mutual good feeling to bind us together;
and my firm belief is, that if questions arise on which
differences of opinion may exist, friendly communication
will not only remove those difficulties, but will also tend
to make the fact of those differences having arisen extend
into a system of reciprocal advantage and the great
extension of commercial intercourse between the two
countries." The Earl of Sefton, Mr. Samuel Holme,
Mr. William Brown, and Mr. Cheetham, addressed tlie
company in a similar spirit.

Another banquet was given to the American
Ambassador at Manchester, similar in character to that
given at Liverpool. Mr. Ingersoll, in his speech, dwelt
especially in the subject of education. He said that,
two years ago, there were 4,000,000 of persons going
through a course of education in the public schools of the
Union; and that, in Philadelphia, there are "50,000
poor individuals at this moment who are educated in
those public schools without any cost to the parents."
He also instanced the Gerard College for poor orphans,
in the same city; and the houses of refuge, where
juvenile criminals are taught useful trades. He enlarged