Whenever Johnny wanted to go out, Moloch was asleep, and must be watched. Whenever Johnny wanted to stay at home, Moloch was awake, and must be taken out. Yet Johnny was verily persuaded that it was a faultless baby, without its peer in the realm of England, and was quite content to catch meek glimpses of things in general from behind its skirts, or over its limp flapping bonnet, and to go staggering about with it like a very little porter with a very large parcel, which was not directed to anybody, and could never be delivered anywhere."

We shall conclude by introducing the reader to the family of Mr. William Swidger. There is a good deal of mystery about this family, which we confess we cannot understand; indeed it appears to us that in this matter the author has entangled himself somewhat unexpectedly and has not chosen to take the trouble to re-arrange his incidents. This is bad. We see no good object to be gained by unnecessary mystery in a tale which, as a Christmas tale, should at least have the merit of being easily understood. The Swidgers have been brought by some means under the baneful influence of the ghost, but it appears the antidote is supplied in the person of Milly, the wife of Mr. William Swidger. We give a delightful little extract, in which the reader will at once discern the tender touch of Nature in almost every line ;

"It happens all for the best, Milly dear, no doubt,' said Mr. William, tenderly, that we have no children of our own; and yet I sometimes wish you had one to love and cherish. Our little dead child that you built such hopes upon, and that never breathed the breath of life-it has made you quiet-like, Milly.'

"I am very happy in the recollection of it, William dear,' she answered. I think of it every day.'

"I was afraid you thought of it a good deal.'

"Don't say afraid; it is a comfort to me; it speaks to me in so many ways. The innocent thing that never lived on earth, is like an angel to me, William.'

"You are like an angel to father and me,' said William softly. 'I know that.'

“ When I think of all those hopes I built upon it, and the many times I sat and pictured to myself the little smiling face upon my bosom that never lay there, and the sweet eyes turned up to mine that never opened to the light,' said Milly, 'I can feel a greater tenderness, I think, for all the disappointed hopes in which there is no harm. When I see a beautiful child in its fond mother's arms, I love it all the better, thinking that my child might have been like that, and might have made my heart as proud and happy.'

“Redlaw raised his head, and looked upon her.

"All through life it seems by me,' she continued, to tell me something. For poor neglected children my little child pleads as if it were alive, and had a voice I knew, with which to speak to me. When I hear of youth in suffering or shame, I think that my child might have come to that, perhaps, and that God took it from me in his mercy. Even in age and grey hair, such as father's, it is present; saying that it too might have lived to be old, long and long after you and I were gone, and to have needed the respect and love of younger people.'

"Her quiet voice was quieter than ever, as she took her husband's arm, and laid her head upon it.

"Children love me so that sometimes I half fancy-it's a silly fancy, William-they have some way I don't know of, of feeling for my little child and me, and understanding why their love is precious to me. If I have been quiet since, I have been more happy, William, in a hundred ways. Not least happy, dear, in this-that even when my little child was born and dead but a few days, and I was weak and sorrowful, and could not help grieving a little, the thought arose that if I tried to lead a good life I should meet in Heaven a bright creature, who would call me, Mother!'

It

Upon the whole we are disposed to regard this book as an addition to the valuable works of which Mr. Dickens is the successful author, and have but little doubt of its success. partakes of that high tone of moral character which cannot fail to create an impression favourable to the mind that has evidently striven to awake all the best feelings of the heart, and to call into action the sacred sympathies of the soul, which should be followed by a firm and uncompromising desire to mitigate the miseries of mankind.

We have drawn rather largely on the resources of this little work, but only from a desire to make its beauties known and duly appreciated. There is much in the Haunted Man which the casual reader will not observe; but let him, after he has put it down, think on its beauties and the great object which has brought them out, and we have no doubt that he will rise from the perusal a better if not a wiser man.

THE MUSICAL BOUQUET. Office, 192, High Holborn. Nos. LII., LIII., LIV.

OUR musical friends will be charmed with this beautiful work, which continues to abound in the best music that can be got anywhere at any price. It were useless to particularize

the compositions contained in the numbers before us, since the work is too well established to admit of a doubt as to the selections; suffice it to say, that the accustomed taste displayed by the conductors of this work has never been brought out to better advantage, or with more point and power.

CHRISTIAN PSALMODY; OR, SONGS FOR SABBATH EVENINGS. Musical Bouquet Office.

THIS work proposes to be a choice selection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, arranged with accompaniments for piano-forte or organ. The number before us contains a number of wellselected tunes, nicely arranged in easy and agreeable keys for the voice. The work is well got up and clearly printed and is a good addition to the sacred harmony of our day.

Arts and Sciences.

SOCIETY OF ARTS.-As the proceedings of this society are important, we give reports of the fourth and fifth meetings, which took place on successive Wednesdays, at the Society's House, John Street, Adelphi; Mr. Thomas Webster, M.A. F.A.S., vice-president in the chair, in the first instance, and Mr. George Moffatt, M.P. in the second. Mr. J. Holmes read an extremely interesting lecture upon the present state of electricity, as applied to telegraphs. Tracing the application of electricity to the purpose of telegraphic communication, from its earliest invention in 1746, down to the present day, the lecturer stated that it was not his intention to canvass separately the various plans of electric telegraphs which had from time to time been brought under the attention of the public. For his present purpose it would be sufficient to divide them into two great classes-1. The mechanical telegraph, in which a system of clockwork was set in motion by the agency of electricity; and 2. The mere theoretical instrument, which depended upon the direct action of the current, either by induction upon a suspended magnetic iron bar, or by the decomposition of certain chemical solutions, so placed as to form a

part of the magnetic circuit. All the early telegraphs recorded between 1746 and 1798 were constructed to work by electricity of a high tension, and the results obtained were far from successful; still, to those early efforts, especially to an invention of Dr. Watson's, they were indebted for the comparative perfection which the instrument had now reached. No advance of great importance in this direction was made until the discovery of the voltaic battery in 1800, aided by M. Arago's adaptation of the electro-magnet. In 1837, the invention was still further improved, and was rendered of practical utility by the process of Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke, who then registered their patent. The mechanical telegraph had been hitherto very little employed in this country. The first erected in England was placed by Professor Wheatstone to work the Admiralty signals upon the South Western Railway between Gosport and Nine Elms. Out of 2000 miles of telegraph, the only other railway on which it had been employ ed was the South Devon, a length of twenty-seven miles; and such was the perfection it had attained, that frequently as many as 2000 distinct signals were conveyed without the slightest failure or casualty of any description. After much experience and mature consideration of the subject, however, he must express his opinion that these telegraphs were not applicable to railway purposes, or where a great deal of attention could not be bestowed on them. The other class of telegraph, which he had described as the more theoretical system, was the one generally in use throughout the country. These were first invented by Mr. Alexander of Edinburgh, with twenty-four needles and twenty-four wires. They were now reduced, however, to two needles with two wires, and even to one needle with one wire. This plan was first adopted by Professor Ersted in 1813. Still the whole system was replete with imperfections. For long distances, and in wet weather, the difficulty of working them became immense, and the signals were often perfectly unintelligible, the needles scarcely vibrating at all. To meet this difficulty, lighter and improved needles and a new helix were invented, which had enabled him to transmit 120 letters in a minute. The power of printing by electric telegraph was now an undisputed fact. Davey made the first great stride in its application to the conveyance of printed messages in 1838, and in 1847 Mr. Bain succeeded in producing a beautiful instrument for the purpose. A perfect printing communication now existed between Liverpool, Man

chester, and London, and the operations were carried on with tolerable rapidity, but not by any means with the speed of which the engine might be capable. Frequently 2000 distinct symbolic characters had been conveyed in a minute, but that was not upon any length of line. 250 letters in a minute had been accomplished between Liverpool and Manchester, a distance of thirty miles. The average, however, was about 75 letters in a minute. The lecturer illustrated his subject by a series of extremely well-executed diagrams, which proved of no small assistance to the less scientific portion of his audience.

At the fifth ordinary meeting, Dr. Bateman submitted an elaborately written and extremely instructive paper on the art of printing, in which, with great perspicuity, he presented a comprehensive history on that subject and all its collateral literary associations, from the earliest times down to the present day. The first part of this communication was of an historical character, and was very properly introduced by some appropriate observations on the general importance of literature, especially that of the press. It then proceeded to describe the ancient practice of transcribing books, particularly in the case of the Bible, which, until the era of printing, was a monopoly enjoyed by the priests. After giving succinct accounts of the mode in which ancient stamps and seals were made, of the Egyptian brick stamp, of playing cards, block printing, and Chinese printing, which latter was described as consisting of no more complicated a contrivance than a mere brush, the paper came to the great subject of typography, in connection with which was given a cursory biography of the celebrated Gutemberg, its inventor. Amongst others it mentioned his removal to Mentz, in consequence of the persecution he was subject to at Strasburg. During his exile he seems to have associated with a celebrated labourer in the same field, viz., Dr. Faustus, known in the literature of Germany by the name of Faust, and they returned together in order to turn to account their joint knowledge of the art of printing. It was at this conjuncture that the circumstance arose to which the origin of the fable of the "Devil and Dr. Faustus" might be traced, viz., the vexation of the monks at finding themselves more than rivalled in the publication of the Bible, which induced them to assign sorcery as the cause. The development of the new art, of the state of printing at the time, and the final impetus which it derived from the immortal Caxton, were then alluded to, and the paper concluded