are principal stations, at which the attendance is day and night; and
in the whole, a distance of 2500 miles is embraced, with 800 more over
which the wires are now being stretched. The charges for transmission
of messages have been lowered with a beneficial result, the business
of the telegraph having greatly increased. There must be a still
further reduction before the 'thought-flasher' becomes as generally
available here as it is in America. It is now in real earnest going to
Ireland. A ship has been despatched to fetch Cleopatra's so-called
'needle:' the Panopticon at length has found a local habitation, and
is assuming a tangible form in the shape of bricks and mortar: ocean
steamers are more than ever talked about; and every month a new one,
better than all before, is launched: gold, too, is a favourite topic;
and Australian and Californian mining-shares are plentiful in the
market; so also are those of Irish Waste-Land Improvement Companies,
who, in addition to the reclamation, propose to grow beet-root, flax,
and chicory. At last we have got one or two penny news-rooms--not so
good, however, as yours in Edinburgh; and a project is mooted to
establish reading and waiting rooms combined, in different parts of
the capital. There is talk, too, of central railway termini, of new
bridges, new streets, and of converting Kennington Common into a
park--how soon to be realised remains to be seen.




THE TURN OF LIFE.


From forty to sixty, a man who has properly regulated himself, may be
considered as in the prime of life. His matured strength of