of Arts. Besides this, the present May will be
noteworthy in the annals of ocean steam-navigation: the steamers to
Australia are to commence their trips, as also those to Brazil and
Valparaiso. Who would have dreamed, twenty years ago, that the
redoubtable Cape Horn would, before a quarter century had expired, be
rounded by a steamer from an English port? Captain Denham is about to
sail in the _Herald_, to survey the islands of the great ocean, one
object being to find the best route and coaling-stations among the
islands for steamers from the Isthmus to Sydney. The vessel will carry
an interpreter, a supply of English seeds and plants, and a number of
articles, to serve as presents for the natives. Should this survey be
successful, and the United States' expedition to Japan produce the
effect anticipated, the vast solitudes of the Pacific will be erelong
continually echoing with the beat of paddle-wheels and the roar of
steam. Rapid intercommunication will bring about changes, whereat
politicians and ethnologists shall wonder. The Chinese still keep
pouring into California by shiploads of 200 or 300 at a time, where
they will perhaps learn that a year of Anglo-Saxondom is 'worth cycle
of Cathay.' We may regard as evidence of progress, that Loo-choo has
been visited by Captain Shadwell of the _Sphynx_; he was received with
great favour, and conducted to the royal city of Shooi, three miles
inland. Readers of Captain Basil Hall's pleasant account of the same
island will remember, that he was jealously forbidden to approach the
interior. Do the Loo-chooans want to conciliate an ally? If, as is
said, Japan is to become to the Americans what India is to us, we
shall have them for neighbours in the east, as we now have them in the
west. It will be an interesting event should England, America, and
Russia some day meet on the Asiatic continent.

One good effect of railways, as you know, has been to cheapen coal,
and excite activity in heretofore dormant mining districts--results
which tell upon the trade in sea-borne coals. To meet this emergency,
a scheme is on foot for sending coal from the Tyne to the Thames in
steam-colliers, which, by their short and regular passages, shall
compete successfully with the railways. The experiment is well worth
trying, and ought to pay, if properly managed: meantime, our railways
will extend their ramifications. Looking for a moment at what is doing
in other parts of the world, it appears th