sea-serpent itself. The front work of the tank is composed of Portland stone, ornamental iron, and heavy plate-glass, which is secured to stone and iron-work by waterproof cement. The light transmitted to this corridor is wholly transmitted through the water, and produces a beautiful effect, which the interposition of the elegant central hall and fountain serves to heighten. Down the centre runs a stately arcade, the columns of which are alternately white, blue, and grey marble, supporting a roof, the interstices of which are filled with varicoloured bricks. The capitals of the pillars in the central hall will illustrate the twelve signs of the zodiac. At the eastern extremity of the first corridor we enter the second or cross corridor, the architectural details of which are similar to those we have just seen. The dimensions of this apartment are 80 ft. by 23 ft. No tanks are to be found here, its main purpose being to serve as an approach to the conservatory, the first corridor, and the terraces. The latter are built over, and are approached by flights of stone steps from the first corridor as well as by similar flights from the entrance-hall. These will be used as public promenades. The conservatory, which is entered at the junction of the first and second corridors, is 160 ft. long, 40 ft. wide, and 30 ft. high. It is chiefly intended as a lounge and resting-place, and is plentifully decorated with every description of marine plants, polypiæ, ferns, and miniature aquaria. The north wall will be covered with ornamental rockwork, in front of which will be placed a series of shallow tanks on a descending grade, intended to illustrate the culture of salmon. At the eastern extremity of the conservatory cavernous rockwork will occupy a considerable space. A picturesque grotto and a miniature cascade add a fresh charm to this popular feature of the exhibition. A saloon for rest, 50 ft. by 20 ft., commodiously fitted with seats, will also occupy a place near the upper end of the conservatory. Corridor No. 3 runs parallel with, and is of the same length as, the conservatory, and 23 ft. wide. It contains twenty tanks, part of which are intended for fresh and part for salt water fish. The fronts of these tanks are constructed of Ransom's patent concrete stone-a new material. In this corridor small objects requiring minute inspection are arranged on tables. At the eastern extremity of this corridor are located the engines and store tanks, boiler, gentlemen's retiring-rooms, naturalists' room, and another flight of steps, which lead to the terrace. The water for the fish-tanks will be supplied by means of pumps from the main reservoirs, which occupy the whole basement of the building; and by the judicious arrangement of pipes laid through the walls of the several tanks the water (without which the denizens of this marine palace would quickly cease to live) will be kept constantly in circulation throughout the entire building. The excavation for this great work was commenced July, 1870; the first brick was laid Feb. 2, 1871; and the whole work is now finished, at a cost of 50,000. 10. PORTLAND BREAKWATER.-The ceremony of laying the finishing stone of this immense structure, of which the first was laid by the Prince Consort 23 years ago, was performed by the Prince of Wales to-day. The labour of 600 convicts has been employed on its construction since the penal settlement was first established in 1848, and 1,033,6007. has been paid to contractors and others in the accomplishment of the work. - STRIKES. THE BAKERS AND OTHERS.-Several large and important meetings of the London journeymen bakers were held this evening in various parts of the metropolis, having the attainment of higher wages for their object. On Sunday morning, the 11th, the operative bakers of Dublin struck work, the endeavours to effect an amicable arrangement having failed. A number of Scotch operative bakers, brought from Scotland to Dublin to supply the places of the men on strike, were "got at " by the unions and sent back to Glasgow on Monday. Not a single loaf of bread was to be purchased in the bakers' shops on Tuesday, and it is stated that the strike of the bakers has created a complete bread famine. The operative bakers determined to hold out until their demands are conceded. A disturbance took place on the 10th, in the neighbourhood of Woodstock, between the agricultural labourers on strike and a body of soldiers who have been sent down to take their place in the harvest-field. The sailors of Lowestoft having struck for an advance of pay, men from London arrived to take their places, and a riot was the result. On the 12th the ironstone miners of the Cleveland district commenced to further restrict the output of ironstone, in consequence of the mine-owners not conceding them the advance of 2d. per ton asked for by a circular issued some time ago. A further advance of 28. per ton in the price of coals was made in the Dean Forest. At the same time the colliers asked for a further rise of 10 per cent. 12 and 13. EXECUTIONS.-Five condemned murderers suffered the extreme penalty of their crimes. Three of them had been convicted of wife murder and were executed, Charles Holmes at Worcester, Christopher Edwards at Stafford, and Thomas Moore at Maidstone. At the same time with the latter, and at the same place, Francis Bradford, a lad of twenty, a private soldier, suffered for the murder of a comrade, and James Tooth, a marine, for that of a drummer boy. The scene at the triple execution was one never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. When the reporters were admitted into the enclosure in which the drop had been erected, two of the men (Bradford and Moore) were already in their places, with the cord around their necks. The third, Tooth, a remarkably fine soldierly man, was approaching the spot, walking witha firm step, and with as much coolness and self-possession as if he were on parade. The prison officials were present, and performed their respective parts in the melancholy ceremonial. Calcraft, for whose attendance the executions had been postponed from the previous day, acted as hangman. All three culprits were arranged on one platform, there being three drops. At the close of the usual service the bolt was drawn. Tooth died, as he had approached death, unmoved, without the slightest struggle. The others met their fate with less composure; but in a few seconds life in each man was extinct. 14. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.-To-day the annual Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was opened at Brighton. The Emperor Napoleon, who came from Bognor, was present in the general audience at the first meeting, which was held in the evening of that day under the dome of the Pavilion. Lady Burdett-Coutts was also present. The meeting was fully attended. Among the company was Mr. H. M. Stanley, the finder of Dr. Livingstone, with his negro boy Kolulu. He was presented to the Emperor Napoleon, to Lady Burdett-Coutts, and to the leading members of the British Association. The President, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S., delivered the inaugural address. 15. ELECTION AT PONTEFRACT.-This, the first election under the Ballot Act, demands a brief notice here, on account of the interest consequently attached to the proceedings. The contest was between Mr. Childers (Liberal) and Lord Pollington (Conservative). The former was returned by a majority of eighty. The proceedings began at 8 a.m., when the presiding officers took their seats at the table provided within each polling-booth. As the clock struck, each presiding officer turned the ballot-box upside down in order to show the agents that there were no papers inside. He then locked it up, fastened it with wax, and attached his seal to it. The number of persons at each table was usually five-the presiding officer, his assistant, his clerk, the personating agent for Mr. Childers, and the personating agent for Lord Pollington. The voters were then admitted. The process of voting may be thus described :-The elector first received a ballot-paper from the presiding officer or his assistant. The constable then pointed to one of the compartments in the room, resembling those provided in telegraph offices. Here the voter found a pencil, provided with which he made a cross on the right-hand side opposite the name of the candidate for whom he voted. The voter, having previously had directions from the returning officer to fold up the ballot-paper so as to show the official mark on the back, and not to show the front of the paper to any person, left the compartment, and, bringing his paper to the table, showed the official mark on the back to the presiding officer. He then put the paper into the ballot-box and forthwith quitted the polling station. A few ballot-papers were inadvertently spoilt, or filled up wrongly, in which case the presiding officer gave the voter another paper. 17. THE JAPANESE AMBASSADORS.-Sionii Twakuri, and suite, members of the Japan Embassy, arrived at Liverpool by the "Olympus" from New York. They were entertained at luncheon by the Mayor, and proceeded to London, where they took up their quarters in Buckingham Palace. We learn from the Japan Herald, the appointment of this embassy to the courts of Paris and London is in consequence of the Mikado's intention to visit Europe himself shortly. The Japanese visitors were described, by one who has met them, as having literally nothing of the conventional Oriental characteristics about them. "They speak pure English, dress as we do, and in perfect taste; prove themselves shrewd critics of public affairs, and are thoroughly conversant with our customs and the social topics of the hour. They seem, but in a higher degree, to be to all other Orientals what the French are to European people of slower apprehension. There was not a topic, from the recent establishment of coal mines in their country to the present position of the Conservative party in this, with which they were not better acquainted than half the Englishmen one meets." -THE QUEEN AT EDINBURGH.-Her Majesty has been residing for a few days at Holyrood Palace, en route for Balmoral. It is stated that the Queen, in the course of her drives through Edinburgh and the neighbourhood, has been extremely gratified by the warm and loyal reception which has been given to her Majesty by all classes. Viscount Halifax has addressed the following letter to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh: "Dear Lord Provost,-It is not the practice, unless the Queen has visited any city or town in a public manner, to address any official communication to the chief magistrate or authority of the place. I am commanded, however, by her Majesty to convey to you in a less formal manner the expression of her Majesty's gratification at the manner in which she was received by the people of Edinburgh, in whatever part of this city and neighbourhood her Majesty appeared. Her Majesty has felt this the more because, as her Majesty's visit was so strictly private, it was so evidently the expression of their national feeling of loyalty. Her Majesty was also very much pleased with the striking effect produced by lighting up the park and the old chapel.-Believe me, my dear Lord Provost, yours very faithfully, ance. HALIFAX." "Balmoral Castle, Aug. 17." 20. CAPTURE OF A RAILWAY ROBBER.-An engine-driver, named Nelson, was captured at Wakefield, after making a desperate resistSince March last there have been nineteen separate and distinct robberies of loaf sugar in course of transit from Goole to various towns in the West Riding and Lancashire, and on Wednesday night last the superintendent of the detective department at Manchester despatched two subordinates to Goole for the purpose of detecting the delinquents. They concealed themselves under the tarpaulin of a truck, laden with loaf sugar, labelled for Oldhamroad, Manchester. The truck was the eighth one from the engine. On arriving at Wakefield they saw Nelson approach, and, with the hammer used for breaking coal, strike several blows at a loaf of sugar, and then put his hand beneath the covering and remove the lump he had knocked off. The two officers jumped out of the truck, and Nelson, seeing them, darted under the waggons, and eluded capture for a while. Shortly afterwards, however, the officers found him on his engine. On their attempting to appre hend him he offered great resistance, and it took four men to overpower him. The piece of sugar was picked up in the siding. In Nelson's house a large quantity of property was found, among which were a cruet-stand, a pair of carvers, and a set of knives and forks, abstracted from a box sent from Messrs. Rodgers, cutlers, Sheffield, to an ironmonger at Burnley, and also some sample knives, stolen from a traveller's case between Bradford and Huddersfield. Nelson has been in the locomotive department at Wakefield for sixteen years, and was earning on an average 27. 108. a week. He was brought before the Wakefield magistrates yesterday, and remanded for a few days. It is expected that a further remand will have to be asked for before the case can be completed. 21. MURDER AND SUICIDE.-A terrible affair took place in Chelsea this evening. Two young Germans, natives of Berlin, had been staying at a disreputable house in Langton-street. A report of fire-arms having been heard, the room whence the sound had proceeded was entered, and there was found lying upon a sofa a young man dead, and upon the floor another dying. The man on the sofa was shot through the centre of the heart, and must have died instantly. The young man on the floor was found to be sinking fast from hæmorrhage. He was able, however, to state that he and his companion had agreed to shoot each other; but the plan was afterwards varied by the young man on the couch first shooting his companion, who fell to the floor, and then turning the pistol (a revolver) upon himself. The young man who shot himself is named Hermann Nagel, is aged twenty, and a native of Berlin. His companion is one year older, comes from the same city, and is named Paul May. At the inquest the following deposition was entered : "August 23, 1872, 9.20 p.m. Deposition of Paul Julius May, having been duly sworn, and made through Charles Albert, interpreter, now residing and taken at 21, Langton-street, Chelsea, on oath before me, the Hon. E. Curzon, justice of the peace for the county of Middlesex, who saith on Wednesday last, the 21st inst., I was with my cousin, Hermann Nagel, in this house. Before that time we had made some purchases, and among them a revolver. I do not know for what object my cousin bought the revolver. He went out alone to purchase it. I think he bought it last Friday. On Wednesday last we had been out. Before that day we had been to many places of amusement. On Tuesday last we had been to the German Waiters' Club to look for a place as a waiter, and we were told to |