the past year than during any previous year of the existence of the present Parliament. The thirty-two vacancies of 1876 fell to seventeen last year; while no fewer than forty fresh elections have been rendered necessary since January 1, 1878. The changes have affected the seats of twenty-three Conservatives and seventeen Liberals, but the fresh elections have not led to any alteration in the strength of parties; for, while the Conservatives have gained seats at Worcester, New Ross, and in Downshire, the Liberals have been successful at Tamworth, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and Maldon. Of the twenty-three Conservative vacancies, three-those in York, North Lancashire, and Middlesex-were due to the acceptance of office by Mr. J. Lowther, Col. Stanley, and Lord George Hamilton, all three of whom were re-elected without opposition; while the deaths of Sir W. Stirling-Maxwell, Mr. R. Bright, Mr. Russell Gurney, Sir F. Williams, Mr. Eliot Yorke, and Col. Duff caused vacancies in Perthshire, East Somerset, Southampton, Truro, Cambridgeshire, and East Norfolk. The two last-mentioned vacancies have not yet been filled up, but in all other cases Conservatives were again returned. The thirty-one other Conservative vacancies were caused by resignation or accession to the peerage; while of the seventeen Liberal vacancies nine were caused by death, six by resignation and two by accession to the peerage. The deaths of Mr. Sherriff, Sir F. Goldsmid, Mr. S. Crawford, Mr. Wykeham Martin, Mr. Bolckow, Mr. Eyton, Mr. Whalley, Mr. Smyth, and Mr. Dunbar caused vacancies in the representation of Worcester, Reading, Downshire, Rochester, Middlesborough, Flint, Peterborough, Londonderry county, and New Ross; and the Liberals lost three of these seats, retaining all those in which Liberal vacancies occurred through resignation or accession to the peerage. This is the only year during which the balance of parties has not been affected; for in 1877 the Liberals won two seats at Oldham and Grimsby, against one which the Conservatives gained at Wilton; in 1876 the Liberals won six seats-at Leominster, Manchester, East Cumberland, Leitrim, Carmarthen, and Fromeagainst one gained by the Conservatives at Cork; while in the first two years of the present Parliament the Conservatives won six seats at Oxford, Stroud, Boston, Northampton, Tipperary, and East Aberdeenshire-against four seats won by the Liberals at Stroud, Norwich, Brecknockshire, and Horsham. Thus during the five years of the present Parliament the Conservatives have gained eleven seats against fifteen won by the Liberals. The Liberals have, therefore, won on the balance four seats, counting eight upon a division; but as the Liberal member returned for Norwich was unseated upon petition, and the vacancy not filled up, the Conservative majority is only seven less than it was in the spring of 1874. It may also be noted that of the thirty-eight elections held this year, twelve did not involve a contest; Conservatives being returned unopposed for Oxfordshire, York, Canterbury, East and Mid Somerset, North Lancashire, Middlesex, North Staffordshire, West Kent, and Boston; while Liberals succeeded without opposition to Liberals at Marlborough and Carmarthen. CINDERELLA.-It is curious to learn (says the Spectator) that the "glass slipper" in Cinderella, of which from our youth upwards we never questioned the authenticity, though well aware that no one who was not a protégée of fairies would think of dancing in such an article, was not part of the original story, but has been due to a misunderstanding of a word used in the French version of the tale. The slipper, we have been told by a writer in the Sunday Times, supported by "Littré's Dictionary," was originally a slipper trimmed with a particular kind of rare fur, called in French vair -the fur of a creature of the weasel kind. But this fur not being known to ordinary French story-tellers, they spoke of a pantoufle de verre, a glass slipper, by a sort of unconscious pun. Certainly the new reading is far more creditable to the sagacity of Cinderella's godmother, as a purveyor of comfortable clothes; for whatever magic power the glass slippers might have had of surviving a dance, it is impossible that they could have been comfortable to the feet, and must have resulted in all probability in serious corns. CREMATION.-The inhabitants of Woking are at present in a feverish state of excitement. To their "intense horror and amazement" they have discovered that Professor Gorini is superintending the construction of a cremating apparatus right in their very midst. The site selected, it is stated, is almost in the centre of the parish, in a growing neighbourhood, and in close promixity to shops and dwelling-houses. More than this, the building is being erected alongside the public highway, and directly opposite St. John's Church, near to which are the schools, which accommodate four hundred children. And to crown all, says the vicar of Woking, the funeral pyre itself is being set up almost against the fence of a gentleman's pleasure-grounds, and within two hundred yards of his house. According to the generally-expressed opinion of the inhabitants, it would have been difficult to select a more objectionable and unsuitable place for the purposes of cremation. It is more than a mile and a half from the nearest railway station, and not in the neighbourhood of the cemetery. The residents wish to know why Woking should have been chosen as the locality in which the practice of cremation is to be introduced into this country. To this question, says a contemporary, it is not easy to give an answer, except that, it having been decided to erect a cremation furnace somewhere in England, the existence of a large cemetery at Woking possibly suggested that place as most desirable for the attainment of the object in view. The inhabitants, however, should not needlessly alarm themselves. Their indignation is, perhaps, not surprising. But they should remember that it is by no means clear that cremation is lawful in this country; and even if it be, the practice cannot be legally carried on in the middle of Woking, if it can be shown that it is a nuisance, and injurious to the health of the neighbourhood. EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE.-The dead body of Mr. Eastlake, late residing in Ladbroke Grove Road, Notting Hill, has been discovered floating in the Thames below Woolwich, the death having taken place under remarkable circumstances. A bargeman, in charge of a barge, on arriving two miles from Woolwich, saw an overturned boat in the water, and suspecting there had been an accident secured it to his barge, and endeavoured to place it in its upward position. The task, however, was not easy, the assistance of his wife and cabin boy being necessary. By their joint efforts the boat was pulled over, when a rope was found attached to the centre seat, and a heavy weight depending from the rope lying in the water. The weight was raised, and found to be the body of the deceased. Upon the body was found a number of letters, one of which ran-"Nov. 18, 1878, London,-My dearest Charley, you know my old fad, and you may think as you please, but I know it is to be discovered; however, although it is so, I will carry the search no further, but keep the promise to take the alternative step-suicide, and you need none of you grieve, you will be fools if you do, as I die with the greatest glee, knowing I shall be tormented no longer by the riddle. Wishing you all joy at Christmas, your affectionate cousin, Alfred."-addressed to Mr. C. Wyatt. The word "deceased" was written across this letter, showing it had been through the Dead Letter Office, but the envelope could not be found. Other letters bore various country addresses, one of which was that of a brother at Surbiton, who immediately came to town and identified deceased, and stated that at last Christmas he had tried to drown himself in a similar manner, but was prevented. He then said, "If ever I do it I will with honour, like Cato in Addison." The deceased, who came into a large fortune at the age of twenty-one, he now being forty-five, had a country lodge in Sussex. While spending the early part of his life there he conceived a great taste for natural history and geology, and kept collections of curiosities and antiquities. He then declared if he could not make a full discovery of the things he was seeking he "would part with life." A certain amount of restraint was put on him, but his physician was convinced he was sane and this was withdrawn. A singular feature in the case is another letter, in which deceased writes (the writing having been confirmed), that to make sure of the success of the act and to prevent rescue he had filled his overcoat pocket with stones, and this pocket was found to contain several large granites. Deceased seems to have led the life of a hermit. January. MARQUIS OF AILESBURY. The Marquis of Ailesbury, K.G., died on January 6 at Savernake Park, his seat near Marlborough. He was born on November 20, 1804, and married May 11, 1837, Lady Mary Caroline Herbert, third daughter of George Augustus, eleventh Earl of Pembroke. The late peer was educated at Christ Church, Oxford; was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's Barony of Bruce in 1838; succeeded to the marquisate on the death of his father in January 1856; and succeeded to the earldom of Cardigan on the death of his cousin, General the Earl of Cardigan, in March 1863. He was lord-lieutenant of the county of Wilts, was Master of the Horse from June 1859 to July 1866, and again from December 1868 to February 1874. In 1864 he was made a Knight of the Garter. By his lordship's death without children, the marquisate devolves upon his brother, Lord Ernest Bruce, M.P. for Marlborough, which he has represented in the House of Commons since 1832. MR. COBBETT. Mr. William Cobbett, whose name is so familiar to the public as a suitor in Westminster Hall, died suddenly on January 12 as he was on his way through the central hall of the Houses of Parliament to the Lords' Committee Room E, where he had an appeal in the day's list for hearing before the Lords Justices of Appeal. It was an appeal in the action of Cobbett v. Lopes, which was one of a series of actions he had brought against judges in connection with an attempt on his part to obtain the release of the Claimant by means of a writ of habeas corpus. He was in attendance the previous day before their lordships, ready to argue the case in person; and on January 12 he was going to the Court when he staggered as if in a fit, and fell against the wall close to the watchman's room in the central hall. The watchman and a policeman, running to his assistance, took him into the room, placed him in a chair, and sent for a doctor. Some brandy was administered without any effect, and when a surgeon arrived he pronounced him dead. The deceased gentleman was the eldest son of the celebrated William Cobbett, and brother of the late member for Oldham, who died some months ago. M. COURBET. The French painter Courbet, whose name figured so prominently in the doings of the Commune, of which he was, in 1871, one of the leaders, is dead. He was born at Ornans (Doubs), June 10, 1819, and was thus in his 59th year. Educated at the Royal College of Besançon, he was intended by his father for the Bar, and was sent to Paris in 1839 to study law. His artistic tastes prevailed, however, and he devoted himself to painting, his first picture being exhibited in 1844. After taking lessons from M. Steuben and M. Hesse, he identified himself with the Flemish, Florentine, and Venetian schools, and at the Exhibition of 1848 his works achieved a success amount ing to a triumph. In 1855, being dissatisfied with the place assigned to his pictures by the jurors of the Exposition Universelle, he exhibited them privately. He was a medallist of 1849, and received further honours at the Art Exhibitions of 1857 and 1861. His greatest recent notoriety, however, has resulted from the part he took in the proceedings of the Commune; more especially from his having ordered the destruction of the celebrated Vendôme column. After the capture of the city by the Versaillists, he was tried by court-martial, September 2, 1871, and condemned to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs for his acts of rebellion. He was ordered, as the result of a civil process, to pay the cost of re-erecting the column, and it is only a few weeks since his remaining pictures, &c., were sold by auction with that object, realising, however, a miserably inadequate sum. GENERAL SIR E. CUST. General the Hon. Sir Edward Cust, K.C.H., the eminent military historian, died on January 14. The late general was born in London in 1794, and was the youngest son of the first Baron Brownlow by his second wife, the daughter of Alderman Sir Henry Banks. After completing his education at Eton and Sandhurst, he joined the army in 1810, became lieutenant the same year, captain in 1813, major in 1821, lieutenantcolonel in 1826, colonel in 1841, majorgeneral in 1851, lieutenant-general in 1859, general in 1866, and on April 9, 1859, he was appointed colonel of the 16th Lancers. Sir Edward joined the Duke of Wellington's army prior to the advance from Portugal in 1811, and continued with it up to the cantonments on the Adour in 1813, having been present with the 16th Light Dragoons at the battle of Fuentes d'Onor, and with the 14th Dragoons at the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, and Nive, the investment of Ciudad Rodrigo, siege of Badajoz, and generally in all the affairs of that period, until he quitted the duke's army on promotion. For his eminent services he received the war medal with seven clasps. In 1821 Sir Edward married the only daughter of Mr. Lewis Boodle, she having been a woman of the bedchamber to the late Duchess of Kent. From 1818 to 1832 he represented Grantham and Lostwithiel in Parliament. He was equerry to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and when that Prince ascended the throne of Belgium he received the honour of knighthood. In 1845 he was appointed assistant-master of the ceremonies to the Queen, and master of the cere monies in 1847, a deputy-lieutenant for Cheshire in 1847, and shortly afterwards a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold of Belgium. He was the author of a pamphlet on "Colonies and Colonial Government," a work on the lives of the warriors of the seventeenth century, and of "Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," an invaluable standard work to the student of military history. In 1854 he was made an honorary D.C.L. by the University of Oxford. When the new Promotion Warrant came into operation, on October 1 of last year, Sir Edward retired in accordance with its provisions. Sir SIR EDWARD CREASY. We have to record the death, on January 27, of Sir Edward Creasy, late Chief Justice of Ceylon, after a short attack of bronchitis. The deceased expired at 15, Cecil Street, Strand, having only arrived there three days previously from his country residence, Moira House, Hampton Wick. Edward Creasy was recently a lecturer in jurisprudence to the Inns of Court, and was the author of the "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World," "The History of the Ottoman Turks," "The Rise and Progress of the British Constitution," and other works of interest. He formerly won high honours at Eton, was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and being afterwards called to the Bar, went the Home Circuit. As a barrister he acquired considerable practice, and became assistant-judge of the Westminster Sessions Court. He was subsequently appointed Chief Justice of Ceylon, but two years ago resigned this post from ill-health, and although not having served quite his full time on the Colonial judicial bench, was awarded a full retiring pension by the present Government, who held his literary and professional talents in high esteem, although in politics he had been all his life a consistent Liberal. Sir Edward Creasy had passed his 60th year. DR. DORAN, F.S.A. The well-known popular author, Dr. John Doran, F.S.A., died on January 25, at his residence at Notting Hill, after |