The GUTTA PERCHA COMPANY have been favoured with the receipt of the following

TESTIMONIALS:

From Mr. J. Farrah, Gardener to Boswell Middleton Jalland, Esq. of Holderness House, near Hull.

"I have had 400 feet of your Gutta Percha Tubing (in lengths of 100 feet each, with Union Joint) in use for the last twelve months for watering these gardens, and I find it to answe better than anything I have ever yet tried.

"The pressure of the water is very considerable, but this has not the slightest effect on the Tubing.

"I consider this Tubing to be a most valuable invention for Gardeners, inasmuch as it enables us to water our gardens in about one-half the time, and with one-half the labour formerly required."

From J. H. Eccles, Esq. Surgeon, Plymouth.

"The Tubing I have found most convenient in watering my garden, and doubt not that it may be substituted for lead pipes in most instances with great advantage, as well on account of its remaining unchanged by the action of acids, &c., as by its power of remaining uninjured by the action of intense cold."

GUTTA PERCHA TUBING FOR SPREADING LIQUID MANURE. From James Kennedy, Esq.

Myremill-by-Maybole, Ayreshire. "I have received your inquiry as to my experience in the use of Gutta Percha Tubing. I had 350 yards of it from your firm, and I have used it for the last few months in distributing liquid manure from my tanks over my fields, having often a pressure of 300 feet on it, and have been able to get the liquid from the end of the Tubing by the pressure from the steam-engine upwards of forty yards. I have 350 Scotch acres laid with metal pipes underground, for the conveyance of liquid manures over my farm, and your Gutta Percha Tubing has given me great facility in spreading it over the surface of the land. I likewise think highly of the Gutta Percha Union Joint."

TUBING OF ANY LENGTH AND SIZE, WITH JETS, UNION JOINTS, ROSES, SPREADERS, &c., MAY BE HAD TO ORDER.

N.B.-The Company's Illustrated Circulars, with Instructions for Joining Tubes, &c., and for securely attaching Gutta Percha Soles, will be forwarded (post free) for four stamps Submarine and Subterranean Telegraph Wire Insulated with Gutta Percha. A variety of Gutta Percha Articles, such as Mill-bands, Tubing, Sheet, Soles, Pump-buckets, Bosses, Union-Joints, Bottles, Bowls, Flasks, Curtain and Cornice Rings, Solid Frames, Galvanic Batteries, &c. &c., MANUFACTURED BY

THE GUTTA PERCHA COMPANY, PATENTEES, 18 WHARF ROAD, CITY ROAD, LONDON.

And Sold by their Wholesale Dealers in Town and Country.

London:-Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St., Leicester Sq.

LEFORT: THE FIRST RUSSIAN ADMIRAL.

SINCE the days when Rome on the model of the Carthaginian hulk, extemporised the little fleet that was to carry destruction into the great African city, the world has never witnessed the production of a navy on so short a notice, or from such rough materials, as that which Peter the Great launched into the Sea of Asoph. And all the rather that the Russians have no longer a navy in that sea, it may interest our readers to know something of the man under whose auspices this feat was accomplished.

FRANCIS LEFORT was descended from an ancient and honourable Piedmontese family, which had at the period of his birth, in May 1656, been established at Geneva for upwards of two centuries. Although his ancestors had held the highest posts in the state, the parents of Lefort were far from being affluent, a little farm constituting their whole property.

Their only son, Francis, was placed at the public school of his native city, where he quickly displayed that talent for languages which was to be the main source of his future greatness. He was not remarkably studious, but his perception was acute, and his memory retentive. He was fond of athletic exercises, and even preferred them to mental labours; notwithstanding, when he left school, at the age of fourteen, he had made some progress in the study of the sciences, and had earned the title of "Master of Languages."

Either actuated by the desire of pushing his fortune in the world, or, according to another account, tempted away from home by the flattering offers of a French diplomatist, at an early age Lefort found himself in Holland. Here a German colonel, of the name of Verstin, was raising troops

for the Czar of Mussory. He offered the young Swiss a aubellestemaney in the Russian army. Wince real than discretion Lefort accepted it and towards the dose of 1575, and when he had not yet completed his twentieth year, be fosi imelf as Arthangel the only port then bekering to Basia But before Verstin arrived the Czar Alexis had died, an 1, unrecognised by the new government, the German colonel was obliged to disband his regiment and leave every man at liberty to provide for himself as best be could.

Depth of winter as it was, Lefort set out for Moscow. His first care was to make himself master of the Russian language. This accomplishment recommended him highly to the Danish ambassador, M. de Hoorn, whose secretary Lefort's services was unacquainted with the Sclavonic.

were offered and accepted, and he was soon found to be an invaluable appendage to the embassy. Besides rendering assistance of a miscellaneous character, he discharged the more arduous duties of secretary, though the former nominee continued to hold his post and title.

It was at the dinner-table of M. de Hoorn that the young Peter is said to have first met, and been fascinated by Lefort. After this, business and pleasure often brought them together, and the admiration that had been engendered by the brilliant conversation and graceful polish of the stranger, gradually developed into a solid and mutual friendship. The few years of difference that existed in their ages were on the side of Lefort. This advantage, joined to his superior information and knowledge of the world, restored the equilibrium that the more exalted station of the Czar might have destroyed, had not the latter always to place merit before rank. Nothing, indeed, arose the intimacy between the Czar and the secretary, circumstances tended to cement it. Unforin their love of dissipation and pleasure, they