SOME doubts having arisen as to whether authorities which act under the Public Libraries Act have powers to fulfil the conditions required for a Parliamentary grant in aid of the establishment of a school of science and art, the Lord President has brought in a Bill, which declares that where an authority accepts a grant of this kind from the Education Committee of the Privy Council, it shall have power to do so on the conditions prescribed by the Committee, and it is to be, as also are its successors, bound to fulfil them. An interpretation is also placed on the 8th section of the Public Libraries Act of 1855, which enables the Council of a borough and the Board of a district to erect buildings for the purposes of the Act. It is declared that under this and the corresponding Scotch and Irish provisions buildings may be erected in any of the three Kingdoms “for public libraries, public museums, schools for science, art galleries, and schools for art, or for any one or more of those objects.” Where one of these institutions is established under the Public Libraries Acts, any other may (it is here provided) be established at any time in connection therewith without further proceedings being taken under the Acts.--_The Times._ IN the first week of July the City of Winchester commemorated the 700th anniversary of its incorporation by a series of festivities, in which the Bishop of the Diocese, the Lord Mayor of London, and a number of provincial chief magistrates took part. The proceedings included a procession to the Cathedral, where the Dean delivered an address, in which he traced the gradual growth of freedom under municipal institutions. A public luncheon afterwards took place in the restored banqueting-hall of the Palace, and in the evening there was a torchlight procession, together with a series of _tableaux vivants_, which were witnessed by crowds of persons. The persons who appeared as actors in events affecting the fortunes of Winchester were habited in dresses designed from authentic records of the period. First came a representation of the granting of the charter of incorporation to the city by Henry II.; the second picture represented Richard II. giving the charter to William of Wykeham; the third, Henry VI. and Church dignitaries before the shrine of St. Swithin in Winchester Cathedral; the fourth, Charles I. brought a prisoner to the city on December 21, 1648; the fifth representing some Roundheads searching for Royalists, and looking in at the window of a forge, where a Royalist, disguised as a blacksmith, was talking to the owner of the forge; the sixth, Sir Christopher Wren presenting plans for a Royal Palace at Winchester to Charles II. The anniversary will be further perpetuated by the publication of a volume entitled “Memorials of the City of Winchester: a Collection of Charters and other Records Illustrating its Municipal History,” edited by Mr. F. J. Baigent, F.S.A.