Statistics.

GIRARD COLLEGE.

FROM the annual report of the Directors of Girard College we glean some interesting facts. The appropriations to the college, and expenditures, last year, were as follows:

The following statement shows the occupations to which the pupils have

been placed:

The number of pupils in the institution is as follows:-
:-

Of the whole number, 300 were born in Philadelphia, and 13 in other places.

RAILWAY EXTENSION IN RUSSIA.

ONE of the most striking evidences of the pacific turn taken of late by the Russian press is afforded by the Northern Bee of February 1, containing a long article devoted to foreign commerce, and more especially to the construction of railways in Russia as a means to the development of the former. Among the lines the Court Journal considers most important and pressing for immediate construction are-1. The line from Moscow, by way of Toula, Orel, Koursk, Kharkoff, Pultowa, and Krementschug, to Odessa; (this line has been already decided on by the government, and the necessary surveys are about to be made;) 2. A branch line from Moscow to Saratow, (on the Wolga;) and, 3. Another branch line from Orel to Witebsk, by way of Smolensk. The construction of this latter would open up the corn countries in the southeastern governments of Orel, &c., and convey their produce to the Baltic at the

port of Riga, for the Northern Bee lays it down as an indispensable condition of the concession of this line to be made to any company, that it should undertake to make the Duna (Dwina) navigable, both up and down the stream, and also dredge out the Dnieper and make it navigable from Smolensk to Rogatschew. Further, a communication would be opened with the Black Sea by means of the railroad from Moscow to Odessa, and with the Caspian Sea by way of the Moscow Railroad to Saratow. In all cases the river-navigation is calculated upon as ancillary to this railway ramification; the Dwina, the Dnieper, the Oka, and the Wolga, are all to be made serviceable in the bearing of rich burdens of grain either from one part of the empire to another, or from the empire of Russia to the States of the famishing West. Without for the present thinking of foreign commerce, it appears that neighbouring governments in Russia itself are badly enough in want of means of communication; in Mohilew, Smolensk, Witebsk, Pskow, and others near them, dearth is said to be the normal state, while in others-Tamboff, for instance there is a superfluity of grain. In the latter the price is fifteen copecks, in the former eighteen silver roubles. But where is help to come from, in the way of capital and skill, to build these railroads? For the present the eyes of Russia are directed for the gratification of these desires to the friendly United States of America; but whenever peace has been concluded we may be sure that English and French capital will be as welcome there as German skill has ever been.

EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN RUSSIA.

THE Almanac published by the Academy of Science of St. Petersburg, for 1856, furnishes the following interesting details respecting intellectual progress in Russia. There are in the empire, exclusive of Poland and the Caucasus, 2410 educational establishments dependent on the Minister of Public Instruction, 4130 students in the universities and other establishments, and 122,553 pupils in the gymnasia and secondary institutions. These figures, however, do not convey a complete idea of the number of scholars receiving instruction, as there exist also several private, special, or primary establishments, dependent on different administrations. As, for instance, there are

Under the Minister of War Department..........

Under the Minister of Naval Department.........................
Under the Minister of Justice......

Under other Departments...................................................

For female education

Thus, upwards of half a million of individuals are instructed in the government establishments, exclusive of the great numbers brought up at home.

PENNSYLVANIA COAL.

ELABORATE statistics of the quantity of anthracite coal sent to market during the last year from the Pennsylvania coal regions are published. The aggre gate amount for several years is shown by the following:

EDUCATION IN NEW YORK.

ACCORDING to the annual report of the New York superintendent of public instruction, there are in that State 11,748 school districts, 900,532 children attending the public schools, 53,764 attending private schools, besides 5243 in schools for coloured children, and 38,734 in academies; making an aggregate of 953,454. The number of children who attend school less than two months in the year is 210,500, and of those who attend between two and four months, is 219,151. The amount of school money received by the trustees of school districts, or boards of education, during the year, was $3,046,430. In his last annual report, the superintendent recommends that school officers be paid for their services, in order to insure the improvement of the country schools.

PATENTS ISSUED IN 1855.

THE whole number of patents issued in the year 1855 was 1943. The number for additional improvements was ten, and the number of re-issues forty-nine. The number for designs, included in the totals above stated, was sixty-seven. The Pen and Lever gives the residence of the parties to which patents were issued during the year as follows:

:

237

133

108

82

47

45

Choughts to be Chought of.

THE SABBATH A DIVINE INSTITUTION.

THE seventh-day commandment is not found among the ordinances transcribed from a pattern in the ministration of Moses, but it was solemnly reenacted in the publication of the moral law. It was the fourth among ten commandments given as no other commandments were ever given. This appears specially in three particulars:-First, all the details of the Jewish ceremonial were given to Moses, and by him communicated to the people. But the Ten Commandments, including the one now before us, were spoken to the whole nation, by the voice of God himself. This appears on the face of the history. Was not this to invest Moses with a degree of importance relative to the ceremonial institutions, which was denied to him as regarded the moral commandments? And was not this to invest the moral commandments with a superiority above and independent of Moses? Secondly, the moral commandments alone were written, engraved by God himself, by a direct and immediate exercise of his power, and thus secured from any possible mixture, addition, or mutilation, by the infirmity of a human instrumentality. And so important was this, that, when the tables were broken, a special commandment was given to prepare new tables, and again the same sacred words were inscribed by the finger of God. Thirdly, the Ten Commandments alone were put into the ark and deposited in the most holy place. This fact is plain, and it involves a clear and very significant separation between these commandments and the ceremonial institutions of the Jews. The sanction of the commandment is exclusively the Divine authority. It was on this account that this commandment was given as a sign to the Jewish people in the inspired ministry of the prophets, as it is written,-"Behold I have given you my Sabbaths, to be a sign between you and me to know whether ye will serve the Lord."-McNeile.

THE IVY IN THE DUNGEON.

BY CHARLES MACKAY.

THE ivy in the dungeon grew,

Unfed by rain, uncheered by dew;

Its pallid leaflets only drank

Cave-moistures foul and odours dank.

But through the dungeon-grating high
There fell a sunbeam from the sky;
It slept upon the grateful floor
In silent gladness evermore.

The ivy felt a tremor shoot
Through all its fibres, to the root;
It felt the light, it saw the ray,
It strove to blossom into day.

It grew, it crept, it pushed, it clomb:
Long had the darkness been its home;
But well it knew, though veiled in night
The goodness and the joy of light.

Its clinging roots grew deep and strong;
Its stem expanded firm and long;
And in the currents of the air
Its tender branches flourished fair,

It reached the beam; it thrilled, it curled;
It blessed the warmth that cheers the world;
It rose towards the dungeon-bars,

It looked upon the sun and stars;

It felt the life of bursting spring,
It heard the happy sky-lark sing;
It caught the breath of morns and eves,
And wooed the swallow to its leaves.

By rains and dews and sunshine fed,
Over the outer walls it spread;
And in the day-beam, waving free,
It grew into a steadfast tree.

Upon that solitary place

Its verdure threw adorning grace;
The mating birds became its guests,
And sang its praises from their nests.

Wouldst know the moral of the rhyme?
Behold the heavenly light, and climb;
To every dungeon comes a ray
Of God's interminable day.

THE BIRTH OF PAPACY.

FROM Gibbon, Neander, and Mosheim, we learn that, in the fourth century, monks, monasteries, convents, penance, church councils, with church control of conscience, excommunication, the perfume of flowers, the smoke of incense, wax tapers in the churches at noonday, prostrate crowds at the altar drunk with fanaticism or wine, imprinting devout kisses on the walls, and supplicating the concealed blood, bones, or ashes of the saints, idolatrous frequenting martyrs' tombs, pictures and images of tutelar saints, veneration of bones and relics, gorgeous robes, tiaras, crosses, pomp, splendour, and mysticism, were seen everywhere and were the order of the day; and, says Mosheim :-"The new species of philosophy imprudently adopted by Origen and many other Christians was extremely prejudicial to the cause of the gospel and to the beautiful simplicity of its celestial doctrines;" and Gibbon writes that, "If in the beginning of the fifth century Tertullian or Lactantius had been raised from the dead to assist at the festival of some popular saint or martyr, they would have gazed with astonishment and indignation at the profane spectacle which had succeeded to the pure and spiritual worship of a Christian congregation." Martyr-worship was very common; and Eunapius the Pagan, A. D. 396, exclaimed:-"These are the gods that the earth nowadays brings forth, these the intercessors with the gods-men called martyrs; before whose bones