impolitic regulations."

MISCELLANEA.

CAPTAIN JAMES CLARKE ROSS AND THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.

All the newspapers have quoted an account from the _Literary Gazette_ of
the Antarctic Expedition, under the command of Captain James Ross. It
was composed of two vessels, the _Erebus_, Captain Ross, and the
_Terror_, Captain Crozier, and left England on the 29th of September,
1839. During the outward voyage to Australia, scientific observation was
daily and sedulously attended to; experiments were made on the
temperature and specific gravity of the sea; geological and geographical
investigations were made at all available points, especially at
Kerguelen's Land; and both here, as well as during the expedition,
magnetic observation and experiment formed a specific subject of
attention. This was a main object during 1840, the expedition remaining
at the Auckland Islands for this purpose; and it was not till the 1st of
January, 1841, that it entered the antarctic circle. Their subsequent
adventures, deeply interesting as they are from the perils which they
encountered, and the spirit and perseverance with which they were met,
come hardly within our sphere to report. After an absence of four years,
the expedition, as mentioned in last week's ECONOMIST, has returned to
England, and the acquisitions to natural history, geology, geography,
but above all towards the elucidation of the grand mystery of
terrestrial magnetism, raise this voyage to a pre-eminent rank among the
greatest achievements of British courage, intelligence, and enterprise.

RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.--CHURCH PROPERTY.--The following Parliamentary Return
has just been printed, entitled, "A Return of the amount applied by
Parliament during each year since 1800, in aid of the religious worship
of the Church of England, of the Church of Scotland, of the Church of
Rome, and of the Protestant Dissenters in England, Scotland, and
Ireland, respectively, whether by way of augmentation of the income of
the ministers of each religious persuasion, or for the erection and
endowment of churches and chapels, or for any other purposes connected
with the religious instruction of each such section of the population of
the United Kingdom, with a summary of the whole amount applied during
the above period in aid of the religions worship of each of the above
classes." The abstract of sums paid to the Established Church shows that
the total was 5,207,546_l._ which is divided in the