It is time to close; but I must first clear off a few miscellaneous items. The Admiralty Report concerning the Arctic expeditions is canvassed pretty freely, and with significant hints that justice has not been rendered in its conclusions. We can only hope that really efficient commanders will be sent out with the expedition that is to be despatched in April or May next; if not, it will be abortive, as the others have been, and we shall never know what has become of Franklin. It appears that the news of Collinson's ships being on their return is unfounded. It was communicated from the United States, and has been contradicted; and for all we know to the contrary, Collinson and his coadjutor Maclure may come home next summer by way of Baffin's Bay. There are now 226 telegraph stations connected with the central establishment in Lothbury, behind the Bank of England. Of these, 70 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.