precious and
interesting objects, greet the visitor. There are collections of armor,
relics, porcelain, enamel, fabrics, paintings, statues, carvings in wood
and ivory, machines, models, and every conceivable object of use or
beauty. Some of the most celebrated pictures in the world are there, and
there is an art library of thirty thousand volumes. There are schools
for instruction in every branch of art and science which can be supposed
to enter into the products of industry. The prizes which are offered for
excellence in design and invention have attracted, in some years, as
many as two hundred thousand objects. During three days of every week
admission to this superb assemblage of exhibitions is free, and on the
other three days sixpence is charged.

The influence of this institution upon British manufactures has been in
many branches revolutionary. As the London "Times" said some time
ago:--

"There is hardly a household in the country that is not the better for
the change; there is certainly no manufacture in which design has any
place which has not felt its influence."

The formation of this Museum, the chief work of Sir Henry Cole's useful
life, was far from exhausting his energies. He has borne a leading part
in all the industrial exhibitions held in London during the last quarter
of a century, and served as English commissioner at the Paris
exhibitions of 1855 and 1867.

This man was enabled to render all this service to his country, to
Europe, and to us, because he was not obliged to waste any of his
energies in efforts to keep his place. Administrations might change, and
Parliaments might dissolve; but he was a fixture as long as he did his
duty. When his duty was fairly done, and he had completed the fortieth
year of his public service, he retired on his full salary, and he was
granted an honorable title; for a title _is_ honorable when it is won by
good service. Henceforth he was called Sir Henry Cole, K. C. B.

To the end of his life he continued to labor in all sorts of good
works--a Training School for Music, a Training School for Cookery,
guilds for the promotion of health, and many others. He died in April,
1882, aged seventy-four years.

CHARLES SUMMERS.

Strangers visiting Melbourne, the chief city of Australia, will not be
allowed to overlook four great marble statues which adorn the public
library. They are the gift of Mr. W. J. Clark, one of the distinguished
public men of that gr