LONDON UNIVERSITY. The annual meeting has been held, at which the Secretary read the report of the Council of Management. The Council congratulated the meeting upon the improvements which had taken place in the state of the University, and upon the fact that the number of students was such as, upon the reduced scale of expenditure, to enable the University to meet the annual ordinary expenses. Soon after the last general meeting the professors unanimously proposed to the Council to guarantee to the University during this session an income of 3,1817. provided the ordinary expenditure were restrained within certain limits, by means of reductions which the professors pointed out. The Council accepted the offer of the professors-and although the increase in the income of the University rendered it unnecessary to resort to this guarantee, yet it was gratifying to the Council to report this proof of the liberality and zeal of the professors, and of their confidence in the ultimate prosperity of the institution. The Council had the highest satisfaction in reporting the munificent donation of 1,000l. to the University, by an unknown friend, under the name of " A Patriot." This sum remained invested in the Exchequer bill presented to the University, and the Council were considering the expediency of appropriating it in some way which would be useful to the University, and serve to perpetuate the memory of the gift. A heavy expense had been incurred by the necessity of providing additional accommodation for the school, the management of which was much impeded by the dispersion of the classes in distant and inconvenient rooms. The hall and the rooms beneath it were now devoted to this part of the establishment, and the space thus provided was so ample as to afford accommodation not only for the present large number of boys attending the school, but also to admit of a considerable accession to the number. In order to meet the expense of flooring the hall, and fitting up that part of the building, and of some alterations required by the removal of the school (viz., 7397.) the ten proprietors who had already advanced 1007. each, agreed to receive only onehalf of their loans for the present, leaving the remainder in the hands of the Council, without interest. The loan of 4,000l. upon mortgage was effected upon terms approved of by the proprietors at the special general meeting in August last; and all the debts of the University were discharged, with the exception of the moiety of the loan of 1,000l. already mentioned. The subscriptions entered into pursuant to the resolution of the last general meeting, amounted to the sum of 1737. in donations, and 1807. in annual subscriptions. The continuance of the latter for a few years might be necessary to meet the interest of the mortgage debt; but there was every reason to hope that the increase of the funds of the University, derived from students, would shortly be such, as to enable it not only to discharge the ordinary annual expenses of the institution, but also to keep down the interest of the debt, and to provide a fund to accumulate for its liquidation. The pecuniary capital might be thus stated The expenditure of the institution, from the commencement to the pre sent time, might be stated thus £161,057 165,557 It was gratifying to the Council to observe that, with one or two trivial exceptions, the reduced estimate of ordinary expenditure had been precisely verified. The following was the statement of the number of students in the University on the 22d of February, 1833, and on the same day, 1834:— The number of pupils entered between the 1st of October, 1832, and the 20th of February, 1833, was 250. The number entered in the corresponding period of this session was 318. The amount received for fees in 1833 61587.; and this session it was 73437., leaving an increase of 1185l. The diminution of the number of law-students might be attributed partly to the fact of the Professor of Jurisprudence having abstained from lecturing during this session, and partly to the establishment of lectures in the Inner Temple and at the Law Institution, the immediate neighbourhood of which places to the law offices had tended to withdraw students from the class of English law in the University. Professor Amos had given notice of his intention to retire at the end of the present session, and the Council were about to take steps to fill up the chair. The Council stated their opinion of the benefits accruing from the study of the law, and stated that they looked forward to the time when a complete school of law might be established, by filling the chair of civil law, and of instituting professorships of the law of real property, and of the doctrine and practice of courts of equity. After adverting to the professorships of geography, arts of design, and mineralogy, it proceeded to state, with reference to the hospital, that the expenses of building, already incurred, amounted to 40177. The sum required to complete it was estimated at 20007., and to furnish it 10007., making, with the expenses of management, a total of 75567. The subscriptions and donations, with Queen Caroline's Fund, amounted to 51837., so that, there was required to complete the building, 2,3971. This sum was so small compared with the object to be attained, that the Council did not doubt that the North London Hospital would be speedily opened. The establishment of the hospital would save to the University an annual sum of 150l. now expended in the Dispensary. The scheme of management mentioned at the last meeting continued to answer the expectations of the Council. The Council had taken means to bring the objections of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to their having a charter before the Privy Council, and they_trusted that, before long, their just claims to a charter would be allowed. In the mean time, it was gratifying to the Council to mention that the United Associate Synod of Scottish Ministers, in September last, resolved, at the instance of the Presbytery of London, that the Synod would recognize attendance at this University the same as at the Scotch Universities. ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH. Great Lens in one Piece.-At a meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, three splendid polyzonal lenses were exhibited by permission of the Commissioners of the Northern Light-houses. One of these was made at Paris, another in London, and the third was received from Newcastle. The diameter of the outer zone of two of these lenses is two feet six inches, and that of the London instrument is three feet. Their focal distance is about three feet. A single Argand burner was placed in the focus of one of the lenses, but the effect was feeble, as this instrument requires a powerful light. By exposing it to the rays of the sun, it suddenly melts pieces of copper and other metals placed in its focus. The Newcastle lens is made of one piece of highly polished glass. Buffon, nearly a century ago, first suggested the idea of a polyzonal burning-glass; but the construction of this instrument has till now been considered beyond the skill of the artist, and the method of building them in separate pieces was afterwards suggested and practised both in this country and in France. Messrs. Cookson, however, the plateglass makers of Newcastle, have at length triumphed over the difficulties which so long retarded the execution of Buffon's project. Mr. Stevenson, on the part of the Light-house Board, only stipulated that the lenses which they were employed to make should be built in the manner practised in France. VARIETIES. Report of the Poor-Law Commission.-The Poor-law Commissioners have just published a massy report, in which many new regulations are recommended for adoption; and if their suggestions are followed, they consider it certain that "the expenditure for the relief of the poor will, in a very short period, be reduced by more than one-third." This would give a relief to the country of nearly three millions a year. And when we call to mind the jobbing and mismanagement which pervade almost every part of our present system, and the vast diminution of expense which has followed the adoption of better rules for supporting the poor in other countries, and in some cases even in our own, we feel convinced that the Commissioners have not exaggerated the benefits likely to flow from the substitution of honest and discreet for fraudulent and foolish management. The recommendations of the Commissioners will be condemned by those who are utterly opposed to the system of compulsory relief for the poor in any shape. But the duty of the Commissioners was to inquire into the administration and operation of the poor-laws, and to suggest remedies for the evils which they found. Besides, the abolition of poor-laws in England, even supposing it were desirable, is, under present circumstances, scarcely practicable. It is therefore the part of wisdom to strive to alleviate what must always be an onerous tax. The Commissioners, with this view, appear to have adopted a sound principle on which to base their suggestions to the legislature and the public. They lay it down as a fundamental position, that in no case should the condition of the pauper be as eligible as that of an independent labourer of the lowest class. At present, it is notorious that, in many parishes, it is far preferable. The abolition of out-door relief; the employment of paupers in really useful work, instead of compelling them to carry baskets loaded with stones, and to dig holes only to fill them up again; the union of small parishes for the sake of maintaining their poor under one roof; the simplification of the laws of settlement; and the abolition of the existing bastardy laws, the fruitful source of perjury and prostitution;-all these are improvements which, if carried into effect, will assuredly tend greatly to produce the result foretold by the Commissioners. Capital Punishments.-The great diminution which has taken place in April.-VOL. XL. NO. CLX. 2 N the frequency of executions in the metropolis since the accession of the present Government to office is sufficiently well known. The marked decrease in the amount of those offences for which the punishment of death used to be lavishly inflicted, and for which it is now either totally abolished or rarely and reluctantly applied, is not, we believe, equally notorious; and it is but justice to those who, treading in the footsteps of Romilly and Mackintosh, have endeavoured to bring the laws into harmony with the spirit of the age, to show that in so doing they have not sacrificed the security of the innocent from an ill-placed tenderness for the sufferings of the guilty. The following table, compiled from Parliamentary returns, will probably surprise those who imagine that severity is the only thing needful for the repression of crime : Here are six offences for which in the first three years 42 persons were executed, in the latter only 5; and, together with the diminished frequency of executions, the number of commitments has fallen from 672 to 618—a diminution of 54. The only crime which appears to have increased is forgery, and the increase is confined to London and Middlesex; for we find, on referring to the criminal returns for England and Wales, that the number of commitments for this offence has fallen from 213 in the first three years, when 15 persons were executed, to 180 in the three following, when it ceased to be visited with the capital penalty. The following is a list of suicides committed in London between the years 1770 and 1830:-From poverty, 905 men, 511 women; domestic grief, 728 men, 524 women; reverse of fortune, 322 men, 283 women; drunkenness and misconduct, 287 men, 208 women; gambling, 155 men, 141 women; dishonour and calumny, 125 men, 95 women; disappointed ambition, 122 men, 410 women; grief from love, 97 men, 157 women; envy and jealousy, 94 men, 53 women; wounded self-love, 53 men, 53 women; remorse, 49 men, 37 women; fanaticism, 16 men, 1 woman; misanthropy, 3 men, 3 women; causes unknown, 1381 men, 377 women. Total, 4337 men, 2853 women.-London Medical and Surgical Journal. Excise Duties. It appears, by a parliamentary return respecting articles charged with excise duties, which was delivered yesterday, that the average quantity of hops on which duty was paid in the years ending 5th of Jan., 1831, 1832, and 1833, was 27,991,502 lbs.,; and that the quantity on which duty was paid in the year ending the 5th of January, 1834, was 32,747,310lb., making an increase of 4,755,808 lb. The average quantity of malt on which duty was paid in the same three years was 36,535,056 bushels; and the quantity on which duty was paid in the year ending the 5th of January, 1834, was 40,005.348 bushels, making an increase of 3,470,292 bushels. The average quantity of tea on which duty was paid in the same three years, was 30,529,851 lb.; and the quantity on which duty was paid in the year ending the 5th of January, 1834, was 31,829,075lb., making an increase of 1,229,224 lb. The average quantity of spirits on which duty was paid during the same three years, was 21,978,809 gallons; and the quantity on which duty was paid in the year ending the 5th of January, 1834, was 21,840,719 gallons; so that the decrease has been 138,090 gallons. The Army Estimates for 1834-5 have been printed, and the result, as compared with last year, is a reduction in the number of horses of 348, of officers 3, of men 8148, with a saving of 194,9317. 10s. 1d., exclusive of India. The decrease, exclusive of India, is 299,1227. 12s. 7d. Last year's estimate was Decrease £6,246,978 17 8 5,947,856 5 1 £299,122 12 7 Colonial Slavery.-The following curious document is an Analysis, just printed for the Commons, of the petitions for the abolition of Colonial Slavery presented to that House during the last session; showing the number received from the various religious denominations, and the amount of signatures, compared with the number of other petitions on the same subject: Denominations. Signatures. Petitions. 1,340 Wool and Woollens.-The total number of pounds of sheep and lambs' wool imported into the United Kingdom in 1832 was-foreign, 28,128,973; produce of the Isle of Man, 13,516. Quantity retained for home consumption, charged 1d. per lb. duty, 23,619,901: ditto d., 1,571,328; ditto 6d. (red wool) 1,130; duty free, (produce of British possessions,) 2,473,991. Total retained for home consumption, 27,666,350. Total quantity re-exported, 555,014. Quantity of foreign wool warehoused under bond 5th of January, 1833, 3,165,651. The total quantity of British wool and woollen *There are also two petitions from Protestant Evangelical Dissenters in Kelsoe; one is classed with the United Associate Seceders, the other with the Relief Church, to which denominations the petitioners state themselves otherwise to belong. |