liabilities incurred by the society. This resolution was
carried; as well as another appointing a deputation to
wait on the Poor-law Board, to obtain their sanction
and co-operation.

The Potteries' School of Design celebrated its sixth
annual meeting on the 18th inst. Lord Carlisle
presided; Mr. Cole and Mr. Redgrave, the Superintendents
of the Department of Practical Art, and Mr. Adderley
M. P., were present. Lord Carlisle delivered an eloquent
essay on pottery and the influence of art. He stated
that a summons to Windsor Castle had alone prevented
his sister, the Duchess of Sutherland, from attending the
meeting. The report stated that the Board of Trade
had recommended a plan for the future organisation of
the school, and had agreed to support it. This plan
consists in a central school, forming the head school
of the district, to be called the Pottery and Newcastle
School. Government will grant £600 a year to maintain
a head master, a second master, and a modelling master.
The school is to be governed by a council representing
the entire district. Under this head school, local schools
are to be formed for elementary instruction, whence the
pupils are to be transferred to the central school. The
report further showed a balance of £118 in hand.
Subsequently, Mr. Adderley, Mr. Redgrave, Mr. Cole, the
Reverend Mr. Clark of Hartshill, Mr. Minton, and
others, addressed the meeting; and the report was
approved of.

The reception of the Annual Reports from the Lunatic
Asylums at Hanwell and Colney Hatch, formed part of
the business of a meeting of the Middlesex magistrates
on the 20th inst. The reports gave a highly satisfactory
account of the condition of these establishments. The
committee of the Hanwell Asylum, in concluding their
report, make the following striking observations:—
"The committee, in conclusion, express their deep and
devout gratitude for the triumphant success that has
attended their remedial measures, and on the entire
absence of all cruelty, coercion, or needless restraint,
from their free, contented, and cheerful asylum.
Contrasted with its present auspicious aspect may well be
presented the bolts and bars, the dungeons, and the
hideous contrivances which characterised the former
treatment of the insane. Contrasted with the quiet,
smiling, groups of clean and tidy women, engaged in
useful and beguiling occupations, might once have been
observed the figure of a female educated and
accomplished, and described even by her heartless keepers as
a 'very clever lady, and the mistress of many
languages,' capable of holding a coherent conversation,
and entreating permission to be allowed a pencil and
some paper tliat she might amuse herself by drawing,
yet secured to a wall by an arm or a leg, with a chain
so short as to admit only of standing or sitting by an
adjoining bench, in a state approaching nudity, covered
only by a loose blanket gown, and with bare feet
exposed to a cold wet floor. To add to the horror of the
scene, she might have been beheld, surrounded by ten
of her fellow-sufferers, chained to the same wall, some
totally inanimate and apparently unconscious, and even
reduced to beastly degradation. Compelled constantly
to witness the most disgusting idiotcy, or the most
terrifying distraction of the human intellect, and without
the power of escape or remedy. Contrasted, too, with
those active energetic labourers proceeding with a
willing step and stalwart frame to their planting and
digging, their draining and hoeing, might once have
been seen a man rising slowly from his straw, naked but
calm and inoffensive, yet instantly seized by his keeper,
hurled headlong into bed, and leg-locked to the wall,
without inquiry or observation. Contrasted with mild
remonstrances and kind persuasion, might once have
been heard the constant utterance of oaths and curses
from intemperate and infuriate attendants, conjoined
with instruments of torture worthy only of the days of
the bloody inquisition." Such scenes are not fictitious.
An eloquent writer, F. O. Martin, Esq., in giving an
account of Bethlehem Hospital, thus describes such a
scene of former atrocity:—"In one of the cells was a
man who stated that he had been confined for fourteen
years; that in consequence of resenting the rudeness of
a keeper a stout iron ring was fastened round his neck,
with a long chain attached, which, passing through a
partition, enabled him to be drawn close up to the wall
from the adjoining cell. To obviate this treatment he
bound the chain with straw, and then an upright massive
bar was inserted in the wall. His arms were pinioned
to his sides, his waist was secured by two similar bars,
which, passing over his shoulders, were riveted to the
waist-bar, both before and behind. The iron chain
attached to the ring round his neck was only twelve
inches long, and it was impossible for him to advance
further from the wall, or to repose in any other position
than upon his back. Yet to prove the needlessness
of the restraint, he read books of every kind, and
conversed coherently on passing topics, giving rational
and deliberate answers to questions proposed or opinions
propounded." Opposed to this revolting history is the
remark of the commissioners on this asylum—"that on
their latest visitation only eight patients out of upwards
of 960 were placed in seclusion, and not one in any
kind of mechanical restraint."  "Such facts must make
an impressive and eloquent appeal, and again, therefore,
your committee proclaim the mighty power of kindness,
combined with vigilance, producing within the walls of
asylums for the insane composure and contentment, that
insures serenity, and alleviates all sorrow and distress."

Another re-arrangement of the Catalogues of the
British Museum Library has taken place in the reading
room. There are, at present, in addition to the old
catalogue, 133 volumes folio, entirely new, and 300
volumes folio, forming a new supplemental catalogue.
Of the first stated number, 78 volumes go to the
cataloguing of maps, and 55 to the cataloguing of the
musical works belonging to the library. In all, the
number of catalogue folios is 533 volumes, two-thirds of
which are entirely in manuscript. One of the new
duplicated manuscript catalogues, introduced in 1852,
has been withdrawn from the reading-room this year.
The whole of these reference folios are ranged ready to
hand, and occupy an entire range of shelves level with
each other along three sides of the reading-room.

The Free Library at Liverpool continues to be
thronged daily by hundreds of well-conducted persons.
Up to the sixty-second day since the opening of the
library, 32,995 books have been issued and returned,
which gives an average of 532 volumes per day, exclusive
of the readers of the different periodicals.

The committee of the Charing Cross Hospital, in
their annual report of its operations, state that in the
course of the last year 16,286 indigent sick persons
were admitted on the books for relief at a cost of
£2,553 4s. 01/4d; of these, 1,282 were in-patients, and
15,204 were out-patients (many of whom were visited at
their own homes, and the greater part were restored to
the blessings of health and to their occupations for the
support of their families). These, with the cases
reported in former annual statements, make a total of
221,144 sick and needy individuals who have partaken
of the advantages of the institution, from its commencement,
in 1818, to the 31st December, 1852. In their
last statement, the committee furnished a detail of the
cases of accident and sudden injuries which had been
brought to the hospital in the preceding year. These,
cases have, during the last year, amounted to 2,428;
of which, 324 were so dangerous as to require to be
immediately admitted in-patients. Altogether, 16,286
patients were admitted during the last year; 1,404
were with letters of recommendation, and 14,882 were
admitted without any recommendation.

A general court of the London Orphan Asylum at
Clapton, was held on the 24th inst., for the purpose of
receiving the annual report, appointing the several
officers of the year ensuing, and of electing into the
establishment, from a list of 133 candidates, 30 children
—viz., 8 girls and 22 boys. The report stated that
during the year 71 children, having completed the
period of their stay, left the asylum; 8 died, one of
them under the care of his relations; and 67 were
admitted, of whom 60 were by election, 6 by a rule of
the charity, £100 being presented with each, and one
upon a private foundation. Thus it appears that with
the 30 now elected the number of children upon the
establishment will be 408, making a total of 2,039
admitted since the foundation. The income for the
year was £10,691 17s. 4d., and the expenditure