proceeded towards the Auckland station with him. He carried him to the gas-house, but he was then quite dead. It appeared that the poor fellow had been drinking in Bishop Auckland on the Saturday night, and had probably been wandering about in the snow until morning, and from the intensity of the frost had been unable to walk any further.

A man named Arthur Monaghan, was employed near Helmington Row in cutting snow on the roads near that place. He had been drinking at Helmington Row, and he left to proceed homeward about eleven o'clock at night. He was then very tipsy. Not having returned home next morning, some persons went off in search of him, and found the poor man lying in a field, about 100 yards off the road, quite dead, among the snow. He appeared to have lain down on the spot where he was found, as there were no marks of his having wandered about.

ploded with the greatest facility. The experiments in blasting, tried in the Cornish mines, were most satisfactory and conclusive; the almost entire absence of the smoke attendant upon an explosion when the common gunpowder is used, and which is so great an annoyance and injury to the workmen, being a most important improvement. Gun cotton explodes at 200° of heat, gunpowder at 600°; indeed, the difference of temperature and the rapidity of combustion are so great that gun cotton may be placed lightly upon gunpowder and exploded without the latter igniting. It will explode on being struck a smart blow with a hammer on an iron anvil, but only the part struck explodes; and it may be so prepared that the rapidity of combustion may be regulated at pleasure.

Professor Brande, at a lecture at the Royal Institution, on the 15th of January, described this important invention, and stated that, about fifteen years ago, Braconnot ascertained that sawdust, wood-shavings, starch, linen and cotton fabrics, when treated with concentrated nitric acid, produced a sort of gelatinous substance, which coagulated into a white mass on the addition of water this substance, which he called "xyloidine,' was highly inflammable. In the course of investigation of the changes thus produced, Professor Schönbein ascertained that this substance, prepared in a somewhat different manner, produced a compound, possessing extraordinary explosive properties-hence his discovery

of " gun cotton.' The precise method used by Schönbein is yet unknown; but the preparation of a substance supposed to be iden

having been first well cleaned and carded, is immersed for a short time in a mixture of two parts of sulphuric with one of nitric acid; it is then taken out, well washed with water, and carefully dried. The cotton remains to all appearance unchanged: it is an insulator of electricity, being powerfully negatively electrical; it is singularly hygrometric, catches fire at 360°, and burns with far greater rapidity than gunpowder; yet the combustion of a train may be stopped by strong pressure. The products of its combustion are— carbonic and nitric oxides, carbonic and oxalic acids, cyanogen, nitrogen and steam. With respect to its expansive power, it appears that half an ounce of gun cotton carried a 68 lb. shot 255 feet from an eight-inch mortar, while two ounces of gunpowder carried a shot of the same weight from the same gun only 152 feet. A rifle, charged with 60 to 80 grains of gunpowder, carried a ball through three inch elm boards, while 30 grains of gun cotton carried a ball, under the same circumstances, through six inch boards. The use of gun cotton in fire arms is said

disadvantages:-Its effects are less regular than those of gunpowder; it is more dangerous, being inflammable at lower temperature; it does not take fire when compressed in tubes, and burns slowly in cartridges; and that the barrel of the gun is moistened by the water produced during the combustion. On the other hand, its advantages are:-Its extreme cleanliness, there being no residuum after combustion; its freedom from all bad smell; the facility and safety of its preparation; its great explosive force; the absence of smoke; and that from its filamentary nature it can be used over-head, and in other situations which preclude the use of gunpowder.

It is said that Professor Schönbein has disposed of his discovery for a large sum to Messrs. Hall and Co., the celebrated gunpowder manufacturers, and that preparations are in progress for making it upon a large scale. It will, there is no doubt, be extensively used for mining purposes, and in warfare for many engineering operations; but it seems doubtful whether it is adapted for the use of large or small guns.

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President of the Board of Trade

Earl of St. Germans. Earl of Dalhousie.

Master of the Mint.

Paymaster-General

Master-General of the Ordnance

Attorney-General.

Solicitor-General

Lord Lieutenant

Lord Chancellor

Attorney-General .

Solicitor-General .

Right Hon. William Bingham Baring.

Right Hon. Sir George Murray.
Sir Frederic Thesiger.

Sir Fitz Roy Kelly.

Lord Heytesbury.

Right Hon. Sir Edward Sugden Richard Wilson Greene.

Abraham Brewster.

Right Hon. Duncan McNeil. Adam Anderson, Esq.