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by outsiders' custom, but that through the extension thereby given to the business, the members themselves would be able to obtain more advan tageous terms for their supplies. The most rudimentary feature (I am afraid I must call it so) about the scheme of either body is, however, the apparent inability of the framers to grasp the value of the principle of dividing profits upon consump

guaranteeing fair dealing and the good quality of articles. In the "Civil Service Supply Associa tion," where no interest on capital whatever is given, and the one-pound member obtains only a personal exemption from the yearly half-crown, every contribution beyond the first pound must be an act of pure benevolence. A kindred feeling, no doubt, in the "Civil Service Co-operative Society," limits to 5l. per cent. the dividend on capital. But I fear it will be found, in both cases, that benevolence will not always suffice, nor can it be always com. manded, to carry on the drudgery of a grocer's shop. On all these four points,-the form of a company with a fixed capital, rather than of a society of an indefinite number of members; the sale of articles under market price ;-the exclusion of the public;the division of profits, if any such takes place, upon share-capital, --the middle class seem to me simply throwing away the lessons of the working-man's experience. Nor can I help adding, that one feature of the middle-class scheme, the obtaining discounts from tradesmen, for individual customers, is likely in many cases to prove illusory.*lon?

policy-holders at yearly premiums; the difference being that the premium here is fixed, and the object of insurance not a sum of money, but the good quality and low price of articles of consumption. Starting, moreover, with the established credit of his position, the middle-class consumer is enabled at once, by co-operation, to obtain benefits in the way of reduced price, which the working man only realises by the slow accumulation, as a means at once of securing custom and tion of capital, and then never (I believe) individually; whilst the extension of the operations of one or other of the societies to life assurance, professional advice, &c., exhibits new applications (at least in connection with a mere consumers' society) of the co-operative principle. On the other hand, I cannot help thinking that these societies, as compared with the true co-operative store, are in many respects a step backwards, not a progress. The form adopted that of the company limited by shares"-altogether deprives them of the expansiveness which is characteristic of those formed under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act. Their half-a-crown or five shilling ticket-holders can never take the lively interest in the welfare of the body they deal with which is taken by the members of a co-operative store. They are a mere plebs-a body of consumers, privileged, indeed, by their position, but outside of all power and responsibility. Again, the system of selling under market-price, it should be observed, is precisely that which was adopted in the infancy of co-operative consumption, and abandoned, I believe, universally, by working men, as having been found ill-adapted to meet the fluctuations and risks of trade, and mischievous in its immediate operation. The more or less complete exclusion of the public from the benefits of the scheme is another feature once common among co-operative stores, but which experience has taught the working men, I believe, universally, to discard. It is probably considered beneath the dignity of her Majesty's civil servants to sell groceries to the first comer; but if they did so, they would find not only that a large portion of the expenses, if not the whole, would be defrayed

Still, one and all of the undertakings I have mentioned afford hopes of a better time coming," in which social arrangements will be made to conform more nearly to a truly Christian pattern. For every time that two men are brought to agree in any honest purpose, who were at strife before, every time that a single temptation to dishonesty in the intercourse between man and man is removed

some approach, however slight and humble, is made to that kingdom of God which is not indeed "meat and drink," but "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." da

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F Hon. M. LUDLOW. It 18.

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In addition to the two civil service bodies, there is also another constituted, I believe, on similar principles,

but open to any one-the "Cash Payment Association, limited." I have not, however, been able to procure documents respecting it...

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A TRUE STORY OF THE ATMOSPHERE OF A WORLD ON FIRE

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I COULD have wished, had the facts and the truth permitted, to have adopted a title to this communication somewhat less sensational than the one which has just struck the eye, and no doubt has arrested the attention of the reader. Men and women during the last ten months have gone on pretty much in the old quiet way of their daily roatine, little aware, that all along, to

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perhaps, with no unreasonable impatience, when did all this happen, and where? 'Strange to say, I cannot tell you when this outburst in reality occurred; the fiery message from the stars does not reach our earth in the brief flash of a moment, like the electric thrill from Europe to Newfoundland; and the phenomenon of which I shall attempt to though first observed on the 12th of last

structed philosophic eye, there has been the in- sp may have happened even centuries ago, and

one

the most strange and unexpected phenomena that science has yet disclosed to the human mind. A star, or rather the atmosphere of a star, has been observed on fire Happily for the general composure of mankind, the star in question is one which we impertinent mortals are wont to call a small one, and certainly it is a very distant one; had it been otherwise, had the catastrophe occurred to Jupiter, for instance, or to the Dog Star, or even Among the Pleiades, it might have been difficult for the majority of men to quiet their expectations, or to control their fears. 94

But the reader will be disposed to ask, and,

May, cannot have happened within the last three years. But of this I shall speak again. Nor is the reply to the question, where was this strange event, more satisfactory to the general reader; for the seat of this mighty out-burst is now so pale, that an instrument which, in the hands of the great Tuscan philosopher, was powerful enough to disclose the satellites of Jupiter, and revealed to him the ancient secret of systems of revolving worlds, would be insufficient to make this star even visible. Nevertheless, the evidences of a vast conflagration in this, to us, faint spangle of a distant sun, are so various and so strong, that but little doubt of its actual occurrence

is left in the minds of men, who are gifted with a power to interpret those letters of light which are written by no human hand on the vault of heaven. I shall now proceed with the description of the phenomenon itself, first, as it appeared to the naked eye; next, as it appeared in an ordinary telescope; and, lastly, I shall explain what inferences are to be drawn from observations made with some curious appliances of modern research.

On the 12th of last May, near to midnight, at Tuam, in Ireland, Mr. Birmingham, a gentleman well versed in the configurations of the starry heavens, observed a new bright star in the small constellation Corona Borealis, To the initiated eye the boundaries and elements of this constellation are among the best defined fieldmarks in the sky. If, however, the reader is as yet uninitiated in this pleasant lore, let him follow the stars on the back and through the tail of the Great Bear, and his eye can hardly fail to rest upon a little diadem of six golden lights, which, without any great stretch of imagination, he may conjure into a representation of a semi-coronet of gems. If his eye be acute enough, he may find attached to it another somewhat similar circlet of much smaller stars. If he look again, and is able to recognise even Arcturus and Vega (a Lyra), two of the brightest stars in the heavens, he will find this constellation, Corona Borealis, situated in a line between the two, but much nearer to the former.

Well, in addition to the six familiar stars, which, as I have said, form the conspicuous semi-chaplet in question, Mr. Birmingham, to his intense surprise, observed a seventh, close to that one in the constellation which is the last of the six, reckoned in the order of the apparent motion of the heavens from east to west. There could be no mistake in the position of the star, and a gentleman whose knowledge was sufficient to enable him to notice this new apparition, could not have mistaken its relative magnitude or brightness, seeing that so many stars of comparison were close in view. The strange new star was, beyond a doubt, nearly, if not quite, of the second magnitude. Mr. Birmingham (all honour to him) thus became the discoverer of a new sun-a, new centre, that is, of light and force.

"

In process of time, news came from the other side of the Atlantic, that the same celestial outburst had been seen in America on the 14th of May. No other observer in Europe appears to have seen it at so early a date. It may appear a strange circumstance that so conspicuous a star should have escaped the notice of the many zealous astronomers who now abound in our land. The fact is, in these days of wonderful mechanical appliance, men shut themselves up in their comfortable and well-equipped Observatories, they take down their star-catalogues, they look at their clocks, they set their circles and their instruments, they throw into gear the delicate mechanismwhich drives their telescopes, compelling them to move precisely as the heavens move, and

leisurely, and with almost provoking tranquillity, they at length open the shutter of their Observatory, and without further trouble or alteration, there is the star or the planet in the very centre of the field of the telescope !

No doubt this is extremely convenient and very scientific; it is also one, among many other, notable instances of human knowledge and ingenuity; but at the same time it has become somewhat fatal to that sort of desirable knowledge of the configurations of the celestial lights, which Chaldean shepherds of old possessed, who watched in their fields by night. Men such as these have laboured effectively in their day, and we have entered into their labours, reaping the harvest of their peculiar toil.

About midnight then of the 12th of May, Mr. Birmingham observed the apparition of a new star of the second magnitude: less than three hours before this, Dr. Schmidt, the able and zealous observer at Athens, was watching this same Constellation, and he confidently asserts that no strange star even of the fourth magnitude could possibly have escaped his notice. Consequently we have here unquestionable evidence of the sudden rise of a star from below the fourth up to the second magnitude. It may here be well to explain that the rise of what is technically called one magnitude of a star, implies an increase in the intensity of its brightness of about two and a half times; consequently, in the short space of less than three hours, this newly discovered sun must have increased in the intensity of its light at least sixfold.

Now consider what this state of things implies. Conceive for a moment what would be the case with ourselves if on some given day, between the hours of eleven and two, our sun were suddenly to blaze forth with six times its ordinary splendour, and with some corresponding increase in its heat. Surely there would be a pause in the bolting of armour plate and in the casting of conical shot; the whirl of the cotton-mill and the clang of the hammer would be hushed; the mart would be deserted, and trafficking in shares would come to an end. Surely great would be the searchings of spirit, and the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed. Yet something of this sort must have occurred in the systems which revolved or still revolve round this distant sun. Meanwhile we, mortals worked and slept. Blissful is that ignorance which, in the midst of what would be terrible if known, enables accountable beings in quietness and peace to discharge their proper, and allotted tasks. I SE

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But to proceed: on the 15th of May, the new star was observed by Mr. Baxendell of Manchester, and on the following day, in consequence of intelligence from Tuam, it was examined by Professor W. A. Miller and Mr. Huggins at the Observatory of the latter gentleman, on Tulse Hill, near London. It was now in the hands of persons who in their respective specialities are among the most compe tent observers in the kingdom. Mr. Baxendell, by his great experience and natural gifts, was known

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