shment ought to prosper; and perhaps this one will, if the
giving away of soup for nothing, which is another part of its
functions, does not kill it. There seems something incongruous in
encouraging industry and self-reliance with one hand, and helplessness
with the other.

On the whole, it must be admitted that we are making progress, and
those who think so, may very properly talk about it. Among a large
number, the Crystal Palace becomes daily a greater subject of
importance. Soon the last portions of the famous structure will be
removed from Hyde Park, to rise in renewed beauty on the hill-slope at
Sydenham; where the restored edifice is to become a permanent object
of interest, far transcending all previous achievements in the way of
exhibitions.

Of foreign matters which have attracted attention, there is the
remarkable fall of _grain_, not rain, in Belgium, a few weeks since,
of a kind altogether unknown in that country. Some of it has been
sown, with a view to judge of it by the plant; meanwhile, the learned
are speculating as to its origin. The Dutch, pursuing their steady
course of reclamation, have just added some hundreds of acres to their
territory on the borders of the Scheldt; and it is said that the grand
enterprise of draining the Haarlemmer-Meer is at last completed, there
being nothing now left but a small running stream across the lowest
part of the basin. The quantity pumped away in the last eight months
of 1851, averaged a little over three inches per month, a small
amount, apparently; but when it is known, that lowering the lake one
inch only took away four million tons of water, we may form a fair
idea of the importance of the work, and of the quantity lifted in the
eight months. The depth at the beginning of this year was three feet
eight inches, and this is now discharged. To have carried such a work
to a successful issue, may be ranked among the greatest of engineering
triumphs.

To turn to another part of the world: there is something interesting
from the Sandwich Islands. The king wishes to assimilate his
government to that of England, to guard against the casualty of a
_coup d'etat_, and a small military force has been organised for
defence. The Report of the Minister of the Interior states, that 130
persons had taken the oath of allegiance within the year, of whom 66
were citizens of the United States; 31 British; 15 Chinese; and 18 of
other countries. The foreign letters received and s