Isaac Newton, we will only add a few words concerning the great painter William Hogarth, to whose magic pencil we are indebted for many of our ideas about social life in the last century. Hogarth is acknowledged to rank as the greatest of the masters in the British school of oil painting; and the engraver's art has made his works familiar to every interested eye. The elder Hogarth was a printer's reader, and on discovering that his son had a gift for drawing, he apprenticed him to a silversmith and crest engraver. In 1718 Hogarth became his own master, when he paid more attention to drawing, and began to engrave copper-plates for book illustrations. These at once attracted the notice of connoisseurs, and the artist married a daughter of Sir James Thornhill, who does not appear to have been favourable to the match. Hogarth's career was pre-eminently a successful one, and in the latter years of his life he enjoyed the royal patronage. His death occurred in 1764, and he was buried at Chiswick. As a painter, Hogarth was entirely original. "No one, for good or evil," it is said, "was ever less affected by pre-existing influences, or by contemporary criticism. The modern art of Europe began as completely with him as its modern poetry with Dante; and as Dante's fellow-countrymen were at first unable to believe that a great poem could be written in their mother-tongue, so Hogarth's were incredulous that England could produce a painter." With such associations Leicester Square must be regarded as a classic spot. For a generation or more the area had been an eyesore to the capital; but some few years ago an outward renovation was effected, and Leicester Square resumed its respectable appear ance. Not far away-at the St. James's Hotel in Jermyn Street-Sir Walter Scott was lodged for the last time in London. There, according to Mr. Cunningham, "he lay three weeks, either in a stupor or a waking dream: and when he left, and the assembled populace saw the vacant eye and the prostrate figure of the illustrious poet, there was not a covered head and hardly a dry eye." Thus the greatest and most ambitious career must, in common with the meanest, yield to decay and death. It is well to remember with another poet that "Earth's highest honour ends with 'here he lies.'" It is still more blessed to be in the ark when the storm comes down. Having said what we have about the capital during the year, we will now halt and close with a few words about the country in general-a contrast between old and modern England. We shall not attempt to portray any of the characteristics of the England of prehistoric times, attractive as investigations and speculations may be, as to the aspect and resources of the ancient country, the number, occupations, and influence of the Druids, etc. The Old England we love to think about is the land of Alfred, who wore the crown and governed wisely just a thousand years ago. The king was both a scholar and a Christian, and wise as a politician before his time, while the country was in a transition state. His chief enemies at home and abroad were the heathen who failed to understand his character. Though necessarily a man of war, he was pre-eminently a lover of peace, and the happiest days of his life were those in which he was engaged in promoting the learning of his people and their general advancement in the arts and sciences which bring happiness as well as prosperity to the nation at large. We look at England as the country existed during the best years of Alfred's reign, and we seem to be looking on a model picture of Saxon thrift, plenty, and quietness. According to the king, a nation to be wealthy needed to be well peopled by three classes designated The prayer-men, army men, and workmen. prayer-men" of a thousand years ago were the clergy, the inmates of religious houses, and the literate class generally, without whose assistance in those early days the outlook would have been still more gloomy, and the Government could hardly have held on its way. The working class were for the most part employed on the land. The ploughman rose with the sun, and with a boy to drive the team of oxen he had to plough an acre or more before leaving off work in the afternoon. At nightfall the wearied cattle were delivered over to the care of a herdman, who through the livelong night observed a vigilant watch against prowling enemies, whether in the shape of beasts of prey or Saxon thieves. After the spring ploughing and sowing, the harvest was watched for with eagerness, and when it came, the yield of field and garden was garnered with all the satisfaction characteristic of primitive harvesters. The illuminations of the period show us the people 66 him is generally attributed the division of the country into hundreds, tithings, and counties, for purposes of local government. Some think that he merely reduced to a system what already existed; but whether that be so or not, the hundreds of Alfred's England are in the main the divisions of to-day, although some of the counties had their names long prior to the times we are speaking of. The hundred is a natural and a convenient term, signifying the land which, in those simple times, sufficed for the support of a hundred families, and as such it is a key to the extent of the population of Alfred's England. In the last census the returns told of 818 hundreds, and these go by different names in various parts of the kingdom. In certain northern countries the hundreds figure as wapentakes, while laths and rapes are current in Kent and Sussex. Borough is an old Saxon word which signified a community, corresponding in a way to our modern notions of a town. In the first instance it may have been nothing more than a hundred, or the families of several hundreds protected by a ditch and a wall; but as wealth and inhabitants increased the town became prominent, and the ancient landmarks and ideas disappeared for ever. Then in process of time many of the ancient boroughs, which for centuries had flourished as centres of great importance, lapsed into utter or comparative decay, in consequence of being unable to hold their own against northern competitors where iron and coal abounded. Some of these were wholly or partially disfranchised by the Reform Bill of 1832; and three years later the constitution and privileges of some hundreds of other places were inquired into by a parliamentary commission, when an Act was passed which more clearly defined and secured their rights. Since that day any town may petition the reigning monarch to grant a charter, and if by the advice of the Privy Council this concession is made, the place becomes a corporate body. One of the latest examples of this privilege having been conferred, is that of St. Ives in Huntingdonshire, the scene of Oliver Cromwell's early farming and quiet life, before he became entangled in the ceaseless worry of State affairs. During the Middle Ages the most privileged towns in England were those of the Cinque Ports, viz., Dover, Hastings, Sandwich, Romney and Hythe-these having in their train a num ber of less important places which shared the common privileges. The Lord Warden, who is still governor of Dover Castle, was formerly a State officer of great importance, whose authority in some respects equalled that of the king in Southern England. In time of war the burghers were expected to supply the king with a potent fleet; and as this was a costly duty, likely to press heavily on the people in turbulent times, the privileges conceded by the king were only a fair return for services rendered. The principal things enjoyed were an exemption from general taxation, and the right of dealing with civil and criminal cases within the broad area of their jurisdiction. Then they could take tolls, hold serfs, and appropriate to their own use whatsoever the sea cast up upon their coasts. They might also impose local taxes, assemble a parliament to pass laws for their own government; and there were also a number of lesser privileges highly valued in their day. The authority of the Cinque Ports is now obsolete, while the privileges are nothing more than a medieval memory. The parliamentary representation of the country in the olden time was doubtless divided with tolerable fairness; but, in course of time, what were once populous centres, preferring a claim to return two members of the Legislature, became nothing more than respectable villages, or, as in the case of Old Sarum, the bare ground of what had once been a thriving town. These were dealt with by the Reform Bill of 1832, while in the supplementary Act of 1867 several new boroughs were enfranchised. The judicial divisions, or circuits of the judges, are eight, and are named after the counties concerned, while there are many hundreds of what are called sessional divisions for the trial of lighter offences. The ecclesiastical divisions of the country also take us back to ancient times, although some of the dioceses are new-only a few months old-while others, the great Saxon see Sherborne in particular, have been included in other bishoprics. In England and Wales we have thirty bishops, 3000 ecclesiastical districts, and more than 15,000 parishes. According to those who have made the matter a special study, the population of the country neither increased nor decreased during many generations in the Middle Ages. In the reign of Henry VIII. the population of Eng land with the Principality is not supposed to have exceeded five millions, and during the Commonwealth not to have exceeded half a million additional. At the last census the population of England and Wales was nearly twenty-three millions, and of these over three millions and a quarter were resident in the metropolis. The population of Wales is about what the total of the two countries was in the Tudor times. The excess of females is about five per cent., although the boys that are born are fully five per cent. over the girls. The activity of the building trade as much as anything marks the growth of the country in wealth and population. In the ten years ending 1871 the new houses erected averaged about a thousand a week, the total number of inhabited houses amounting to more than four millions and a quarter. Thus, if there were but one person in every house throughout the country, we should still have a population equal to that of three or four centuries ago. The entire area of England and Wales amounts to considerably more than thirtyseven millions of acres; and our knowledge of the manner in which this is divided is more perfect since the publication of what is sometimes called the new Domesday Book, a work that has made its appearance during the present decade. The various statistics of this survey are very suggestive, correcting in many important particulars our former information on the land question. Thus, while one great house held no less than a hundred thousand acres, there were more than seven hundred and three thousand proprietors of less than an acre. More than one acre and less than ten, was held by about a hundred and twenty-two thousand freeholders. The holders of ten acres and under fifty, exceeded seventy-two thousand; above fifty and under a hundred, nearly twenty-six thousand; above a hundred and under five hundred, over thirty-two thousand. This brings us to the landed gentry-" the upper ten thousand," whose numbers appear to fall short of, rather than to exceed, the conventional number. The owners of less than a thousand acres are about four thousand eight hundred; of less than two thousand acres, two thousand seven hundred; of less than five thousand acres, eighteen hundred. Then the great landowners are soon reckoned up. Nearly six hundred hold between five and ten thousand acres each; two hundred and twenty three have less than twenty thousand acres each; sixty-six have less than fifty thousand acres each, while only four possess more than that amount. In the United Kingdom the total number of owners of under one acre is 852,438, and of more than one acre 321,245. The annual rental value is nearly one hundred and thirtytwo millions sterling. The face of the country is continually undergoing changes-the arable land is to a large extent giving place to pasture. On this subject a writer in the new edition of The Encyclopædia Britannica remarks: "It might have been expected that the widening of the pastoral area would have led to an increase of live stock, but the contrary was the case, more especially as regards horned cattle and sheep. In England there were 4,305,440 head of cattle in June, 1874, and 3,979,650 head in June, 1877, so that there was a decrease of 325,790 head in three years. During the same period, the number of cattle in Wales fell from 665,105 to 616,209, being a decline of 48,896. The decrease in numbers was even greater in sheep. There were 19,859,758 sheep in England in June, 1874, and 18,330,377 in June, 1877, being a decrease of 1,529,381. In Wales, during the same period, the number of sheep fell from 3,064,696 to 2,862,013, being a decrease of 202,683. Thus the total decline in the number of sheep in England and Wales was no less than 1,732,064 in the short space of three years." Both Scotland and Ireland show a corresponding decline in the number of live-stock. This reminds us that the main portion of the wealth of Great Britain has not for some generations past been drawn from the land, but from the quarry and the mine, so that a falling off in the bulk of our herds does not occasion us the concern it would have brought into the homes of our fathers. Iron and coal represent the two leading commodities which have under Providence raised England in wealth and power above the countries of the world. Until as late as the former part of the last century the southern counties had a flourishing iron trade, the smelting furnaces having been fed with the wood which abounded in neighbouring forests. The railings of St. Paul's Cathedral are a specimen of old English iron-work before the experiment was tried of smelting the ore with coal. Around Winchester and other towns the uncultivated ground was plentifully covered with prime |