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third cause

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of the greatness, safety, and happiness The crowding of the people in houses in close streets, and the of this country. What has the change been? First, in consequent dissolution of families, arising out of defective the population. In 1780 our rural population was to the house-accommodation, are evils which demand attentive concivic population as 2 to 1; now the proportions are exactly reversed, and the population of our cities and towns employed in manufactures and commerce are as 2 to 1 of those employed in agriculture. From the census of 1801 you will find there has been a general increase of the population of 15 per cent-in the rural population of 10 per cent., and in our great cities of 30 per cent.-that is, those who possess personal property in our cities have increased threefold as compared with the other portion of the population. I hold in my hand a little work (Results of the Census of Great Britain in 1851") from which, with your permission, I will read a few extracts, as bearing upon the great changes to which I have alluded:

The most important result which the enquiry establishes, is the addition in half a century, of ten millions of people to the British population. The increase of population, in the half of this century, nearly equals the increase in all preceding ages; and the addition, in the last ten years, of two millions three hundred thousand to the inhabitants of these islands, exceeds the increase, in the last fifty years, of the eighteenth century. Contemporaneously with the increase of the population at home, emigration has proceeded, since 1750, to such an extent as to people large states in America, and to give permanent possessors and cultivators to the land of large colonies in all the temperate regions of the world, where, by a common language, commercial relations, and the multiplied reciprocities of industry, the people of the new nations maintain an indissoluble union with the parent country. Two other movements of the population have been going on in the United Kingdom, the immigration of the population of Ireland into Great Britain, and the constant flow of the country population into the towns. The current of the Celtic migration is now diverted from these shores, and chiefly flows in the direction of the United States of America, where the wanderers find friends and kindred.

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I have quoted these passages to show the vast change which has taken place in the state of this country within the last half-century, calling, as I submit, for corresponding served, that whilst the population has increased in the changes in the laws affecting it. It may further be obratio I have mentioned, the average duration of life has also increased-showing that, with all these changes, perThere is a statement of the increase of personal property sons are upon the whole more healthy than formerly. in this country since 1815, as furnished by Mr. Porter. In 1815, land was valued at £34,000,000; messuages and houses at £15,000,000; mines, £600,000; railways put down nil. In 1818, the several values stood thus: land, £42,000,000; messuages, £39,000,000; mines, £2,000,000; railways, £6,000,000. Thus showing the increase of property which is leasehold or personal, or indicative of the prosperity of the middle classes, to be 250 per cent. in 23 years. Now, when we have these facts before us-facts which can be proved by returns to which I could refer you, I say when this is the case, does it not show the necessity there is for giving additional means for the safe investment of this largely increased amount of personal property of the middle classes of the population ?-additional means for those numbers of persons who have acquired it to make the most of that which they have acquired. I only ask for that fair-play to which I believe in my heart they are entitled. Here are other indications tending to the same result. In 1815, legacy duty was paid upon £24,000,000; in 1845, it was upon £45,500,000. The amount of property insured against fire was in 1815, £387,000,000, and in 1845, £722,000,000, and so also with savings banks and building societies; that is, property has been spread into "It is one of the obvions physical effects of the increase of the hands of a greater number of people than was formerly population, that the proportion of land to each person dimin- the case, instead of being congealed and conglomerated in ishes; and the decrease is such, that within the last fifty years the number of acres to each person living has fallen from 5.4 to large masses. But I may be considered as overloading the 2.7 acres in Great Britain-from four to tico acres in England cause for which I am pleading, and you may think it is and Wales. As a countervailing advantage, the people have time for me to come to my deductions. Be it so. I think been brought into each other's neighbourhood; their average we are bound to take these facts as proved. What are the distance from each other has been reduced in the ratio of 3 to now means of investment? Is it land? We have already 2; labour has been divided; industry has been organized in seen by the reports of the committees to which I have retowns; and the quantity of produce, either consisting of, or ex-ferred, that there is difficulty attending investments in land. changeable for, the conveniences, elegancies, and necessaries The same may be said with respect to mortgages. Instead of life, has, in the mass, largely increased, and is increasing at a of being divided into debentures, like railway bonds, passmore rapid rate than the population. ing from hand to hand, as personal property does, they have around them all the difficulties which surround investments in land for the middle classes. You have to prove titles, and altogether the process is so difficult, that mortgages are all but a closed book as investments for the middle classes. And can you say that it is desirable for the humbler classes to put their money into farming operations. In this respect great changes have taken place. Small farms have been conglomerated into large ones, requiring more capital, and more intelligence, but fewer occupants. Then you may say there is the public funds! I have had that put to me. Why, the public funds, instead of increasing, have diminished during the forty years' peace we have enjoyed, as the means offered to pay off a portion of the public debt, and the proportion that comes into the public market is much less than it formerly was, inasmuch as large portions are locked up every year by trustees. Then, again, as to local enterprise for public or private profit. I have stated the immense increase that has taken place in the population, calling for numerous local improvements, gas works, water works, drainage of lands, markets, washhouses, and baths and lodging houses, but for these both difficult and costly to obtain, thus creating oba separate act of parliament is required, which is stacles in the way of investments of that kind. It was exactly so in respect to the enclosure of commons a few years ago, but when Parliament was wise enough to pass a general enclosure act, 250 commons might be enclosed

"One of the moral effects of the increase of the people is an increase of their mental activity, as the aggregation in towns brings them oftener into combination and collision. The population of the towns is not so completely separated in England as it is in some other countries from the population of the surrounding country; for the walls, gates, and castles, which were destroyed in the civil wars, have never been rebuilt, and the population has outgrown the ancient limits, while stone lines of demarcation have never been drawn around the new centres of population; tolls have been collected since a very early period in the market places, but the system of ectroi, involving the examination, by customs officers, of every article entering within the precincts of the town, has never existed. The freemen in some of the towns enjoyed, anciently, exclusive privileges of trading, but the freedom could always be acquired by the payment of fines; and by the great measure of Municipal Reform (1835), every town has been thrown open to settlers from every quarter. At the same time, too, that the populations of the towns and of the country have become so equally balanced in number-ten millions and a half against ten millions and a half-the union between them has become, by the circumstances that have led to the increase of the towns. more intimate than it was before; for they are now connected together by innumerable relationships, as well as by the associations of trade. "The vast system of towns in which half the population lives, has its peculiar dangers, which the high mortality and the recent epidemies reveal. Extensive sanitary arrangements, and all the appliances of physical as well as of social science, are necessary to preserve the natural vigour of the population, and to develop the inexhaustible resources of the English race.

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in a year, and the expense reduced from 4007. or 500l. to of surface printing have been made, and modifications of 20%. or 30%. Then the middle classes have, operating the electrotype processes have been used for this purpose. against them, the great difficulty which we are this evening None of these means are sufficiently satisfactory or commet to discuss, that is to say, if any person takes part with ply with the necessary condition of rapidity and cheapness them he is liable to his last shilling and his last acre. This of production. Recourse has been taken therefore to meunlimited risk, I contend, prevents union, and checks enter- chanical means for obtaining the desired end, and a machine prise, and puts a stop to the combination of small capitals, has been invented by Mr. W. Hansen, which appears to by which the community at large would be benefitted. perform its work well. The machine is somewhat on the This is a view of the matter as regards the mere question principle of the well-known planing machine. The of investment only, but I believe there is a higher and more drawing to be copied and the plate to be engraved are important view than this; I believe it impedes rewards to placed side by side, on the moveable table or lid of the faithful servants and clever workmen, and has also a ten-machine; a pointer or feeler is so connected, by means of a dency to widen the differences between the employer and horizontal bar, with a graver, that when the bar is moved, the employed. What is the true principle of wages? the drawing to be copied passes under the feeler, and the It is the proportion between capital and numbers. If plate to be engraved passes in a corresponding manner capital is free you would be enabled to try peacefully under the graver. It is obvious that in this condition of and quietly those useful experiments which would soon things, a continuous line would be cut on the plate, and, a demonstrate that strikes are a mistake, and it would afford lateral motion being given to the bed, a series of such lines an opportunity of undeceiving them with their own capital. would be cut parallel to and touching each other, the I know those who are the best friends of the working the drawing. If, then, a means could be devised for feeler of course passing in a corresponding manner over classes who earnestly wish for an opportunity, if strikes are a mistake, to prove the mistake through their own means; causing the graver to act only when the point of the feeler but at present I say they are hampered with a harsh law, passed over a portion of the drawing, it is clear we should and have not fair-play. I would quote the words of an get a plate engraved, line for line, with the object to be eloquent and able judge, now no more; they were the last under the control of two electro magnets, acting altercopied. This is accomplished by placing the graver words he ever uttered. "If," said he, " I were asked what is the great want of English society, I would say it is the nately the one to draw the graver from the plate, the mingling of class with class-I would say that want is of these magnets is in connection with the feeler, which other to press it down on it. The coil enveloping one the want of sympathy." I ask what could be more valu- is made of metal. The drawing is made on a metallic able than to give the means whereby men of different classes or conducting surface, with a rosined ink, or some other might combine to try a useful experiment in this particular non-conducting substance. An electric current is then direction. The workmen think the profits of the master established so that when the feeler rests on the meare too high and the wages too low. Now can they be tallic surface, it passes through the coils of the magnet, better undeceived, if they are wrong, than by letting them and causes it to lift the graver from the plate to be entry the experiment for themselves? I could point out graved. As soon as the feeler reaches the drawing and many means in which moderate capitals could be benefi- passes over the non-conducting ink, the current of electricially employed, but to do so would be to occupy you too city is broken, and the magnet ceases to act, and by a long. I will not now detain you further than to say I have self-acting mechanical arrangement the current is at expressed strong opinions on this subject, which opinions the same time diverted through the coils of the I have fortified by the facts and figures I have adduced. second magnet, which then acts powerfully and presses The experiment of limited liability has been successfully the graver down. This operation being repeated until tried abroad, and I believe it would operate most benefi- the feeler has passed in parallel lines over the whole cially in our own country; and in my mind, until this be of the drawing, a plate is obtained engraved to a carried out, with such checks and safeguards as the legisla- uniform depth, with a fac-simile of the drawing. From ture may see fit to impose, I think there will be just ground this a type-metal cast is taken, which, being a reverse for thinking that in this law, at all events, fair-play is in all respects of the engraved plate, is at once not afforded between the classes of the people in this fitted for use as a block for surface printing. The country. illustrations which are given below have been proELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENGRAVING. ILLUSTRATION No. 1.

A discussion was commenced, but, on account of the lateness of the hour, it was moved and seconded, that it be adjourned to Monday, the 12th of June, at 8 o'clock, p.m., when Mr. John Elliott, who was in possession of the meeting, will open the proceedings.

The SECRETARY announced that on Wednesday next, the 7th of June, being the last Ordinary Meeting of the present Session, Dr. T. King Chambers would read a Paper on 66 Industrial Pathology; or the Injuries and Diseases incident to Industrial Occupations."

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ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENGRAVING MACHINE.
BY WILLIAM HANSEN, OF GOTHA.

The want of a rapid and cheap mode of producing illustrations in connection with letter-press printing, has long been felt, and every day the necessity becomes more and more urgent. Wood engraving, which is now used for the purpose, however good in its results, takes some time in its preparation, and requires the employment of a skilled artist. Various chemical inventions for producing a means

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC ENGRAVING. ILLUSTRATION NO. 2.

A B C D E F G H
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R S T U V W X Z

duced by this process; they must not be looked upon as perfect specimens, but simply as the first productions of the machine and an earnest of what may be produced hereafter. The annexed diagram shows the arrangement of the instrument. A, B, C, D, is the frame on which the bed E, F, G, traverses; m, k,b, n, the drawing to be copied j, g, h, i, the plate to be engraved, a, the feeler connected with the graver e, which works on a lever carrying the armatures of the two electro-magnets, d and e, which act alternately to raise or depress the graver, as the feeler passes over the conducting or nonconducting surface of the drawing.

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Home Correspondence.

ON RAW MATERIALS FOR THE PAPER MANU-
FACTURER, OR RAG SUBSTITUTES.

that an average of low charges can be accomplished. Without occupying time in discussing various points of the subject which present themselves to my mind, I shall endeavour as briefly as possible to offer a sketch of such a method of procedure as I think would be found calculated to eliminate the undoubtedly immense resources of our Indian possessions for supplying our wants in the material in question, presuming that some such arrangement as I have mentioned, of forming a Central Committee or Company in fact, in London, were in existence, and proper agents selected acquainted with the subject, and empowered to act in India.

SIR, I have endeavoured in the following communication to meet one of the suggestions of Doctor Royle, in his valuable and comprehensive paper on Indian fibres, by offering a few observations of a practical nature, the result of some attention to the subject during my residence in India, confining myself however in this letter to that branch of the matter more especially referring to materials I propose that the raw materials be prepared from suitable as cheap substitutes for rags in the manufacture suitable fibrous substances, into the state of blocks or bricks of paper, and the best methods of collecting them in that of what is called half-stuff, that is, fibrous matter reduced country for commercial purposes on an extensive scale. to a crude pulp and dried, so as to render it convenient We have abundance of experimental knowledge on the for transport, and calculated for being submitted to the subject, all indicative of the great resources of our Indian further process and superior machinery of this country. possessions in fibrous materials-Doctor Royle very properly For the purpose in view we find ready as it were to hand refers to the superabundance of riches at his disposition-in India a simple and admirable machine in universal whole regions of his subject, he admitted, were still un-employ by the natives, and to be found in almost every touched. We have therefore a rich mine to work upon, house, where it is used in many of the processes of their only requiring a combined effort in its exploration. The latter object would be best accomplished, I believe, by the formation of a Central Committee in London, composed of parties interested in the development of these resources, in communication with agents in India, who, being acquainted with the requirements, trade values, and suitability of fibrous materials, should be provided with the means of operating in the various substances which might present themselves.

simple arts, such as the cleaning or husking of rice, the preparation of drugs, dye stuffs, brickdust (in building purposes), tobacco, tan, and a multitude of other uses, amongst which the manufacture of paper, the subject which now interests us in this inquiry, takes an important rank. The machine in question is called a Dhenkee, and resembles in principle our European tilt hammer.

The accompanying sketch of the machine in question will at once explain its nature, better perhaps than a page The subject of paper materials is one of great magnitude, of description, it represents an oriental paper mill, admiand must be entered on with enlarged views, and on an rably adapted for the objects we propose. Its cost would extensive scale; articles of small price are peculiarly be, erected in place-engineers, foundations, and all sensitive of charges, and it is only by large operations charges included, three shillings, and this charge supposes

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the more than usually heavy machine employed for paper making. It consists of a log of any heavy wood, about 8 inches square, and 9 or 10 feet long, shod with iron, striking on a block of wood or stone. Two women placed at the tail of the lever raise it about 60 times per minute. One woman, seated at the head of the machine, turns over the substance being operated on. The mill occasionally stops, in order that a child may be suckled, or to take a smoke, but nevertheless its daily work might be estimated (depending of course on the description of stuff) at about 20 to 30lbs., reduced to the state of a crude halfstuff. The three women would be remunerated, (if paid labourers and not members of a family), at one ana, or 13 each. An additional male hand would be requisite, (probably the master or contractor), whose business it would be to wash and pass the crushed material through a simple search or seive, into a vessel of water, returning the insufficiently prepared portion to the Dhenkee; and, to form the pulp into blocks and bricks, in a 12-inch brick-mould, and drying them in the sun. His wages would be two anas or 3 pence per day of ten hours, so that the total wages for the preparation of 20 to 30lbs. of such material would amount to seven-pence half-penny.*

On the head of the materials to be employed for this preparatory manufacture, it has been already stated that they are of great variety, more or less suitable to the production of good paper. The native paper-makers generally employ old bags-sunn hemp, which they prefer to all other materials-old fishing nets, or any such refuse. Rags are very scarce, inasmuch as the labouring classes require or wear but little clothing, which at their demise is burnt with them.

Theoretically, almost any vegetable substance will yield a fibre which may be converted into paper; but the requisite conditions of an abundant and cheap source require discrimination. The attempts to manufacture paper from straw, wood, peat, &c., in this country, can never compete with the resources of tropical countries, and the result of the laudable efforts made in the former direction have shown that by the time the fibre has been extricated from these materials in a fit state for the art, the cost in labour and chemicals has resulted in an account, showing that as good a material might have been obtained as cheaply in the ordinary rag market. Any discovery, however, which will tend to keep down

In the event of employing such fibres as the plantain leaf stalk, a small pair of hard wood grooved rollers, such as they employ for squeezing sugar cane would be very useful; their cost is two shillings.

the prices of the latter matters, should receive encourage ment. It is to India we must look for extensive and cheap supplies, for it is there alone we find the necessary conditions of very low-priced and intelligent labour, with an abundance of elementary suitable materials. Advantage should be taken at the source of these conditions, by rough-shaping the work, as I may term it, and then bringing to bear on it, our civilized labour and beautiful machinery.

It would occupy too much space and time to attempt to enumerate the varieties of vegetable matter in India which might be applied for obtaining fibre; a few of them, however, may here be noticed, such as the banana, or plaintain leaf-stalk; the aloe; the abundant mudar, Asclepias gigantea, which contains a very fine silky fibre in its bark, probably equal to flax for our purposes, and something resembling gutta percha in its milky juice; bamboo leaves, employed by the Chinese; the shéeal khanta, Argentea mexicana, the most abundant of weeds, and containing a very large quantity of good fibre, easily pounded out of it (as also an abundance of seed, which produces an oil with the qualities of linseed oil); the stems of the ginger plant, now quite worthless, as they will not burn; as also, all the scitamenea family-all containing a large quantity of very strong silky fibre, somewhat like that of the pine apple. In the hills we have various tree barks, of unsurpassed quality; also the rheea nettle fibres. The Chinese employ one of the mulberry family for their very beautiful papers, which induced me to experiment on the bark of the refuse stems of the mulberry plants employed by the silk growers. From this material I obtained a very good tough half-stuff, suitable for bank note paper

From the great abundance and extensive cultivation of the banana or plantain, which surrounds almost every house, it is probable this material would form one of the first objects of attention by paper-material collectors; but, from its coarse, stringy nature, it would be cheaper in the state of fibre than as half-stuff. This plant offers great advantages for our views generally, for it is truly in the position of refuse, inasmuch as it has already paid the charges of its cultivation by its products in fruit; the interior of the plant, or true flower-stem, is eaten as a vegetable by the natives, the lower part being perfectly mild, whilst the upper extremity, near the bunch of fruit, pours out, on cutting it across, a limpid fluid, which is very acrid and deleterious, and is a true substantive olive dye on cotton cloth, as indelible as marking ink, for which it may be substituted. I may shortly have it in my power to exhibit to the Society some specimens which expect from India of bricks of half-stuff, or of such

I

materials as we have now under consideration.

We now come to consider the very important head of price, or the rate at which supplies of paper half-stuff might be imported from India, referring more especially to Calcutta, where probably the best grand centre for such an operation would be found. Reviewing the subject from a knowledge of its general character and elements, I am of opinion that contracts could be made, according to the ordinary usages of the country, with the middle men, village dulals or brokers, at the rate of from one rupee eight anas, or three shillings, to two rupees eight anas, or five shillings per maund of 82lbs., deliverable at any central depot within a radius of twenty miles. These prices are equal to from about 41. 4s. to 71. a ton.

industrious population, inasmuch as it proposes to avail itself at once of their own simple arts; it brings the question as near as possible to the state of a domestic industry, ever the most economical in such countries; it reduces to the lowest point the charge of collecting from extensive districts the various elementary matters which might present themselves. European machinery and methods could only be employed advantageously in localities where refuse or very low-priced materials presented themselves in considerable quantities within a moderate radius. In reference to plaintain or banana fibre, these conditions would be found in the neighbourhood of Madras or Calcutta, or other large Indian towns. AlThe charges of collection, transport to Calcutta, ware-luding to Calcutta, it is probable that the refuse of the housing, packing, and shipping, &c., I estimate at two consumption of the fruit in question by a million and pounds per ton. a-half of people might be concentrated in that locality on very econonomical terms, aided by the immense network of rivers and nullahs with which that city is connected, affording cheap and easy communication.

The charges to London, including freight, insurance, exchange, dock, and in fact all commercial charges, I estimate at £7 per ton weight. It is necessary to specify the ton weight, as the ton for freight would be only 16 cwt.

I have assumed the charge for freight at the full average rate for ordinary times of peace, or £3 10s. per ton of 16 cwt. The present rate for that item would at once amount to £7 or £7 10. A summary of the above costs and charges gives us for the lowest-price materials :

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£ s. d.
4 4 0
200

£13 4 0

And for the more expensive limit, which would probably include articles equal to linen rags :

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4727

s. d.
0 0

£16 5 0

To remove the paper duty at this present epoch would afford but little assistance either to the manufacturer or the public, inasmuch as, the supply of raw materials being a fixed quantity at this moment, any remission of duty would pass over as a simple bonus to the rag collectorsa very uncalled-for gift, and to the positive detriment of the revenue at a very inconvenient time. With the immense resources which this country possesses in her tropical dependencies, more especially India, she should have the supply of the world with paper as she has of other manufactures, instead of being undersold; but new ground must be opened, and the proper direction should be-India. T. F. HENLEY.

81, Cambridge st., Pimlico, May 20, 1854.

UNIT OF WEIGHT FOR A DECIMAL NOTATION.

Sir,-In my communication on the Decimal Notation of Money, to which you kindly gave insertion in your number of the 19th of May, I suggested a certain quantity of silver to be fixed on as the "coin" of account, the adoption of which would render unnecessary any immediate change in our present currency, while it would not disturb in the slightest degree the prevailing notions of value.

It may be useful to offer a few words on the subject of the organization necessary to be given for collecting such materials on an extensive scale in India. On this head I have to observe that it would be necessary to have recourse to the usual Indian system of making cash advances to contractors ere a pound of the Now it is found that a cubic foot of water weighs 1000 goods had any existence. Such, however, is the ounces avoirdupois; consequently the tenth of a foot cubed universal custom of the country, and one which it weighs one ounce, of which the weight (1 grains) of the would be almost impracticable to deviate from. The proposed silver " coin" is exactly the 250th part. By Government itself advances to its contractors about making this the standard unit of weight, 1000"weights" one-third of the amount of contract. Indigo planters, will of course be equivalent to 4 ounces, and 4000 to a silk collectors, having frequently ranges of country ex-pound. Thus a decimal notation may be introduced which tending over sixty miles, carry on their transactions under will not require the sudden abrogation of the popular terms this system, and, if it have its bad points, on the other "pound" and "ounce;" reduction between the present and hand it has some very important advantages. The natives, proposed systems not presenting the smallest difficulty. from ages of custom, expect this assistance from their employers, and it must be admitted, are wonderfully faithful on the whole in adhering to their bargains. They live on from year to year, prematurely eating the produce of their labour, and under the system become steady, industrious, and contented labourers. The wealthiest portions of these vast countries are those where European capital or intelligence has penetrated for the production of the various staples of Indian commerce. There are losses from deaths and defalcations which form a charge on the operation, but experience proves that it has not annihilated any branch of trade which comes within its influence.

I might extend this subject much further, but I shall have fulfilled what I proposed to myself in addressing you, if I have succeeded in fixing attention on what I believe will be found to be the proper direction to be given to any efforts which may be made for obtaining from India extensive supplies of low-priced raw materials for the important manufacture in question. To recapitulate, the method I have suggested is applicable to whole regions of country now teaming with an intelligent and

Let the government only begin by establishing an improved notation, and the people will of themselves ere long perceive the advantages and necessity of a more convenient system of coinage, weights, and measures. I am, Sir.

Your obedient Servant,
SAMUEL A. GOOD.

Her Majesty's Dockyard, Pembroke-Dock,
May 31st, 1854.

Proceedings of Institutions.

HUDDERSFIELD. The spacious saloon of the Mechanics' Institution was more than usually crowded on Saturday last, being the evening for the monthly meeting. An address was delivered by the Secretary, Mr. Frank Curzon, on " Music, the Educator," which was preceeded and followed by some excellent singing, by the Huddersfield

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