silk, and into perfect insects like their parent.--_Library of
Entertaining Knowledge_.

The last extract, and all in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge
signed J.R. are written by Mr. J. Rennie, whose initials must be
familiar to every reader as attached to some of the most interesting
papers in Mr. Loudon's Magazines. He is a nice observer of Nature, and
one of the most popular writers on her phenomena.

As we treated the cuts of the last portion of the "Library of
Entertaining Knowledge," rather critically, we are happy to say that
the engravings of insects in the present part make ample amends for all
former imperfections in that branch of the work; some of the pupae,
insects, their nests, &c. are admirably executed, and their selection
is equally judicious and attractive.

* * * * *

SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.

Spirit-drinking appears to have attained a _pretty considerable_ pitch
in America, where, according to the proceedings of the American
Temperance Society, half as many tuns of domestic spirits are annually
produced as of wheat and flour; and in the state of New York, in the
year 1825, there were 2,264 grist-mills, and 1,129 distilleries of
whiskey. In a communication to this society from Philadelphia, it is
calculated, that out of 4,151 deaths in that city in the year 1825, 335
are attributed solely to the abuse of ardent spirits!

* * * * *

WOOD ENGRAVING.

In early life Bewick cut a vignette for the Newcastle newspaper,
from which it is calculated that more than _nine hundred thousand
impressions_ have been worked off; yet the block is still in use, and
not perceptibly impaired.

* * * * *

AUSTRIA.

The present Emperor of Austria is a gentle, fatherly old man. We have
heard none of his subjects speak of him with anything but love and
affection. The meanest peasant has access to him; and, except on public
occasions, he leads a simpler life than any nobleman among ourselves. It
is, perhaps, less the emperor than the nobility who govern in Austria,
and less the nobility than Metternich, the prince-pattern of
prime-ministers.--_Foreign Review_.

* * * * *

HANGING.

The following letter tends to rectify an error which very generally
prevails, namely, that it costs only thirteen-pence halfpenny to be
hung. It is copied _literatim et verbatim_, from one mad