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JUST as the Author was completing the last of the following pages, he was seized with very serious illness. It has delayed their production two months beyond the time originally advertised. Meanwhile, several changes have taken place, which, though not of much importance, may be briefly referred to. Thus, Mr. Anthony Trollope, mentioned at page 104 as amongst the literary men connected with the Post Office, has, since that page was printed off, ceased to be an officer of the department.

Some trifling errors must also be mentioned; thus, at note of page 211, the length of Australian railways is stated at 480 miles, whereas it should have been 669, as set forth at page 307. Page 212; it is stated that the Euston portico is not used by anybody, whereas empty cabs, having set down their fares, go through it. Page 359; the name of the Secretary of the Palestine Fund is "Grove" not "Groves." Page 390, line 27; the St. John's Wood Railway terminates at 1 mile and 1,320 yards from Baker Street, and then the Hampstead Extension will commence with a gradient of 1 in 27. Page 423, line 11; for "Lowe" read "Love."

The most important correction to be made has reference to. pages 149 and 150, relating to the railway capital raised, traffic receipts, and net earnings for 1865. When the words in the text were written the complete returns of the Board of Trade had not been published, and the Author assumed that the debenture and preferential capital was greater in amount than it really

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is. The reader is, therefore, requested to take the subjoined analysis of the railway capital of the United Kingdom, extracted from the City article of the Times, of October 29th, 1867, as containing an exact statement of the several portions into which that capital was divided on the 31st of December, 1865, and to substitute it for the statements in the text as given in the beforementioned pages. If the traffic accounts, as published by the railway companies, be really correct, and that capital has not been improperly charged with items that should, in reality, be attributable to revenue, the dividends on unguaranteed capital are better, as a whole, than the Author assumed them to be.

"The complete railway returns of the Board of Trade for the year ended the 31st of December, 1865, have just been printed. They are full and elaborate, and would furnish excellent means for estimating the prospects of the enormous property involved, were it not for the drawback of their being issued so long after the period to which they refer. The leading features of the tables now presented may be summarised as follows:At the end of 1865 the total ordinary capital of the railways of the United Kingdom was £219,598,196. Of this total £183,450,460 was represented by companies paying dividends, and £36,147,736, by companies (chiefly the Great Eastern and London and Chatham) not paying dividends, the latter including £12,849,590 for lines not yet opened. Setting aside the unopened lines, and reckoning only the capital of those at work—namely, £206,748,606—the average rate of distribution was £4. 11s. 5d. per cent., a satisfactory return could an assumption be safely made that it had not been in any degree paid out of capital. The result would have been still better but for the extent to which the average rate is reduced by the circumstance of the profits of the Scotch and Irish being below those of the English lines. The English rate was £4. 14s. 10d. per cent., while the Scotch was £4. 9s. 5d., and the Irish only £2. 16s. 8d. The lowest dividend disbursed by any of the English dividendpaying companies (57 in number) was by the Cromford and High Peak, which on an ordinary capital of £127,700 distributed 8s.

per cent. for the year, while the highest was £11. 2s. 6d., by the Lancaster and Carlisle on an ordinary capital of £2,420,300. The main cause of the respectable average of the English dividends is found, however, in the payment of £6. 12s. 6d. per cent. by the London and North-Western on an ordinary capital of £23,378,987; of £6. 15s. per cent. by the Midland, on £10,862,067; and of £7. 2s. 6d. per cent. by the Great Northern, on £6,455,584. At the same time there is an item which must now be regarded as fictitious, of £5. 15s. per cent., by the Brighton line, on an ordinary capital of £5,342,933. Of 19 dividend-paying lines in Scotland, the lowest was the Carlisle and Silloth Bay, 10s. per cent., and the highest was the Kilmarnock and Troon, £9. 5s. per cent., the ordinary capital of the latter being only £40,000. In this list the Caledonian figures for £7. 2s. 6d. on an ordinary capital of £4,141,254. Of 11 dividend-paying lines in Ireland, the lowest was the Waterford and Limerick, 15s. per cent., and the highest the Dublin and Kingstown, 9 per cent. The preferential capital of the railways of the United Kingdom was £124,263,475, and upon this the average rate paid (reckoning a sum of £8,455,279, on which the companies were unable to distribute anything) was £4. 7s. 9d. per cent. The total of the debenture stock, or funded debt of the railways in the United Kingdom, was only £13,795,375, and on this the average rate paid was £4. 2s. per cent., while the debenture loans, subject to renewal, and which in times of pressure must always be a cause of danger, amounted to £97,821,097, at an average rate of £4. 8s. 5d. per cent. The total paid-up capital of all kinds stood at £455,478,143."

The Author had thought, that in tracing tunnels to the time of the erection of Babylon, he had gone as far backward as it was possible to extend research on this subject. It appears, however, that he was mistaken, for, during a visit that he paid to Paris just before his illness, he lighted, in Galignani, upon the following extraordinary paragraph, which is given in extenso, exactly as he found it.

"ANTIQUITY OF MAN.-A most singular and unexpected dis