ATIVE SOCIETIES.

In the _Quarterly Review_ (lately published) there is an excellent paper
on these Societies.

Of the spread of these Societies we take this anecdote as an
example:--"A lady, who became acquainted at Brighton with the
Co-operative Society of that town, and carried away a knowledge of the
scheme, has formed three similar societies!, one at Tunbridge, one at
Hastings, the third we know not where. That at Hastings was, at the end
of July, just thirteen weeks old; it had made a clear profit of L79.
5_s_. 4_d_. and its returns for the last week of that month were L104.
There are now upwards of seventy Co-operative Societies in different
parts of England, and they are spreading so rapidly that the probability
is that by the time this number of our Review is published, there will
be nearly one hundred." Upon the system of Co-operation the Editor
forcibly remarks, "It is at present in its infancy--a cloud no bigger
than a man's hand. Whether it is to dissipate in heat, or gradually
spread over the land and send down refreshing showers on this parched
and withered portion of society, God only knows, and time only can
reveal."

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STANDARD OF THE JANISSARIES.

Odd as it may seem, a _soup-kettle_ is the standard of the Janissaries,
an emblem rather more appropriate for a Court of Aldermen. Dr. Walsh
says that he saw in the streets of Constantinople, an extraordinary
greasy-looking fellow dressed in a leather jacket, covered over with
ornaments of tin, bearing in his hand a lash of several leather thongs;
he was followed by two men, also fantastically dressed, supporting a
pole on their shoulders, from which hung a large copper kettle. They
walked through the main streets with an air of great authority, and all
the people hastily got out of the way. This he found on inquiry was the
soup-kettle of a corps of Janissaries, and always held in high respect;
indeed, so distinguishing a characteristic of this body is their _soup_,
that their colonel is called Tchorbadge, or the distributor of soup.
Their kettle, therefore, is in fact, their standard, and whenever that
is brought forward, it is the signal of some desperate enterprize, and
in a short time 20,000 men have been known to rally round their odd
insignia of war. Apropos, have they not something to do with
_kettle-drums_?

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HOME COLONIES.

Workhouses are moral pest