the meanings attached to the three colours.
There is a book of general signals, belonging
to the Royal Navy, containing about a thousand
of the most general orders relating to
action, sailing, maneuvering, and other sea
movements; and yet there are seldom more
than three flags used to express any one
signal. Some signals depend more on the
colours of the flags than on their number or
form; some more especially on their number;
while distant signals are often made with
square and triangular flags, without reference
to their colours. Another book of signals
contains the vocabulary signals, each
indicated by a combination of three flags. The
signals conveyed, or symbols represented comprise
the letters of the alphabet, and useful
words and sentences relating to military
terms, geographical terms, and the names of
ships.

Captain Marryat, many years ago, devised
a set of symbols available for merchant
ships, which has been adopted by
Lloyd's, the Shipowners' Society, and other
bodies. There are ten flags, to indicate the
ten numerals, and containing certain definite
arrangements of the bright colours. Combinations
of three or four of these indicate
numbers up to ten thousand. There is a code
of signals, containing the names of British
men-of-war, those of French men-of-war,
those of American men-of war, those of
British merchant ships; the names of lighthouses,
headlands, ports, and harbours; a
vocabulary of single words; and a list of
sentences useful to seamen. The number altogether
is prodigious, amounting, in one of
the editions of the code, to more than forty
thousand distinct signals;—and all due to
the red, white (or yellow), and blue, taken in
relation to number, and sizes, and shapes, and
positions!

          THE CARVER'S COLLEGE.

As evidence of the pitiable ignorance in
which a large number of the inhabitants of
this intelligent country are at present languishing
respecting the most essential branch
of the social duties of life, the following
harrowing cases have recently come to
light:—

A. B. is a married lady; age not given.
Has been married five years. Her husband
has been in the habit, during that time, of
giving dinner parties, to strengthen, as he
says, his professional connections. Doesn't
believe, for her part, that they ever did any
good, and thinks balls much more likely.
(Here the witness began to wander, and was
brought back with difficulty to the matter
of investigation). During the whole of her
married life has been compelled to carve at
table in consequence of Mr. B.'s deplorable
ignorance. Is in delicate health, and is
advised by her medical attendant to breakfast
in her own apartment; but is compelled
to descend every morning, to protect the
symmetry of the ham from his all-maiming
hands. Mr. B. is considered a well-informed
man, but cannot carve a fowl. Took what
they call honours, she believes, at college, but
doesn't know the difference between a mayonnaise
and a marinade. Is of opinion that
the government ought to do something in the
matter, and is satisfied that the evil is of
wide growth.

C. D. is a young gentleman, aged twenty-four.
Goes to dinner-parties sometimes, but
oftener to balls. Can carve, of course; has
done so frequently. Don't mean to say he
is a good carver. (This witness gave his
evidence with considerable hesitation.) Can
carve fowls at supper. Of course he can; he's
sure he can; has done so hundreds of times.
Admits that they had been previously cut
up and tied together with white satin ribbon.
Well, then! carved them, in fact, by untying
the ribbon. Has offered, at a dinner party, to
relieve his hostess of a partridge. Hasn't
done so often. On her declining, upon the
plea of not wishing to trouble him, has not
repeated the offer. Doesn't think he was
bound to have done so. Can help potatoes,
of course, but admits doubts about asparagus.
Would use a spoon for both purposes. Thinks
carving a bore, and ought always to be done
at the sideboard. (Here the witness became
so restless, that any further examination was
found impracticable.)

In order to remedy the deplorable state of
social ignorance evinced by these and other
equally distressing cases it is proposed that
a carver's college, supported by donations
and annual subscriptions, be founded in a
central situation, and select classes opened
for the instruction of adult pupils.

The course will commence with instruction
in the art of cutting bread, and will proceed,
by easy stages, until the removal of the
back-bone of a hare shall be to him, as Butler
has it,

                No more difficult
     Than to a blackbird 'tis to whistle.

Arrangements might be made for securing
a supply of jointed wooden fowls, practicable
raised pies, and other culinary dummies
upon which the first essays of the uninitiated
might be made, at a trifling pecuniary outlay.
It might also be desirable to engage
the services of some eminent comparative
anatomist, to deliver a course of lectures
on the structure of the lower orders of the
animal world.

As soon as the students shall have
become theoretically acquainted with the
ordinary duties of the table, arrangements
might be made for apprenticing them,
for limited periods, to some dining-room
keeper of eminence, with a view to afford
them an opportunity of acquiring a practical
knowledge of the subject by experimentalising
upon real rounds of beef and genuine