ll be taken to insure a supply of labourers to the Australian
colonies to replace, if possible, those who have betaken themselves to
the diggings. Convicts will not be received; and as something must be
done with them, Sir James Matheson has offered to give North Rona, one
of the Orkney Islands, to the government for a penal settlement. It
has been surveyed, and found to contain 270 acres, sufficient to
support a population of 1000. Should the proposal be adopted, it will
afford an opportunity for trying an entirely new system of discipline
with the criminal outcasts.

Some attention has been drawn to the fact, that our 'Ten Hour Bill'
has produced an effect on the other side of the Atlantic. The
legislature of Ohio has just passed a 'ten hour law,' to apply to 'all
manufactories, workshops, and other places used for mechanical or
manufacturing purposes' throughout the state; the penalty to be a fine
of from one guinea to ten. Something has already been said about
extending its provisions to agricultural labourers and domestic
servants--not so easy a task as the other; but when one remembers how
desperately hard people are made to work in the United States, it is
gratifying to observe ever so small a beginning towards more temperate
and life-preserving regulations. In New York, great efforts are made
towards establishing female schools of design and female medical
colleges, with a view to open to women a wider sphere of employment
than that to which they are now restricted. Notwithstanding the
objections expressed in many quarters against female physicians, it is
certain that they would find favour among a large class of invalids.
Another Women's Rights Convention has been held, and an Industrial
Congress. One of the questions discussed at the latter was: Why in the
United States some have all the work and no property, and others all
the property and no work? Harriet Martineau's stories of Political
Economy would have helped the debaters to a satisfactory solution.

Our sanitary reformers, also, are felicitating themselves on the
spread of their principles to the West, seeing that the first Baths
for the People were opened in New York a few weeks since. It appears
from accounts which have been sent over, that the edifice cost 30,000
dollars, and is provided with every convenience to insure the end in
view--the promotion of cleanliness. The charge for plunge-baths is two
cents; for warm-baths, five cents; and first-clas