_Manufacture of Leather in Canada_.--It is stated in a recent number of the _Montreal Current_, that this important branch of manufacture has wonderfully increased of late. A few years back, the colony was almost entirely dependent on New York, for supplies of leather. It is now certain that it can be manufactured in Canada, and brought to market at as low a price as it can be imported. Canada possesses immense quantities of hemlock in her woods, and the tanning business having been introduced so generally, these hemlock forests will probably prove to be mines of gold. Some opinion of the extent to which tanning is carried on in Montreal and its vicinity, may be found in the following statement of twelve tanneries connected with one house in that city:--Cost of tannery, 15,600_l_.; number of hides manufactured yearly, 40,500; average weight 30 lbs.; weight of sole-leather produced, 1,215,000 lbs.; average cost of manufacturing, 4_d_. per lb.; average value per lb., 1_s_. 3_d_.; total value, 103,437_l_ 10_s_. Besides the twelve tanneries above mentioned, there are many others in the city and other places, at which the cost of manufacturing is about the same as those enumerated. It is added, "This gives a sum of about 70,000_l_. distributed among the working classes of the district of Montreal, which a few years ago was expended in the United States." W.G.C. _Family Slaughter_.--In Westmoreland it is usual at Christmas for the farmers to kill each a sheep for their own use, on which occasion, when the butcher inquires if they want any meat against Christmas, the usual reply is, "Nay, I think not, I think o' killing mysell." A butcher called on a farmer of his acquaintance in the usual manner, saying, "Will ye want a bit o' meat, or ye'll kill yersell, this Christmas?" "I kna not," replied the farmer, "whether I'se kill mysell, or tak' a side o' me feyther." * * * * * SPIRIT OF NEW BOOKS With the present Number. A SUPPLEMENT of UNIQUE EXTRACTS from NEW BOOKS of the last Six Weeks: with TWO ENGRAVINGS Illustrating Washington Irving's NEW SKETCH BOOK. * * * * * _Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers_. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, by Various