In France, the system of mutual instruction among the working classes prospers in the bosoms of the ports, and schools are founded for the particular instruction of the sons of the inferior officers of the arsenals, in the elements of calculation, of geometry, and of design, as far as necessary for the plans of ships; also the principles of statics, so as to enable them to judge of the action and effect of machinery.  Prizes of gold medals and special promotions are the rewards of the most deserving students.  Brest was formerly the only port furnished with these schools; since the peace, however, libraries are forming in each of the others; and in almost all, cabinets of natural history and botanical gardens are enriched at every voyage undertaken by French ships, either to foreign coasts, or to those of the French colonies.  An observatory has been given to Toulon and Rochefort.  In both these ports naval museums are formed, in order to preserve types of the most eminent vessels, whose originals either have been, or soon will be, destroyed by time.  Models of ingenious machines, representations of interesting manoeuvres, a methodical collection of raw materials, of tools, and of the product of all the arts exercised in a dock-yard—­Such are the rich materials collected in these interesting repositories.—­From the French of M. Dupin.

Antiquity of Locks.

Locks were known in Egypt above four thousand years since, as was inferred by M. Denon, from some sculptures of the great temple of Karnac, representing locks similar to those now used in that country.  A lock resembling the Egyptian is used in Cornwall, and the same has been seen in the Faro Islands; to both which places it was probably taken by the Phoenicians.—­Quarterly Journal.

To increase the odour of Roses.

Plant a large onion by the side of the rose-tree in such a manner that it shall touch the root of the latter.  The rose which will be produced will have an odour much stronger and more agreeable than such as have not been thus treated; and the water distilled from these roses is equally superior to that prepared by means of ordinary rose leaves.—­From the French.

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The Selector;

AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS.

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THE SPECTRE’S VOYAGE.

  “I see a hand you cannot see,
    That beckons me away,
  I hear a voice you cannot hear,
    That will not let me stay.”

There is a part of the river Wye, between the city of Hereford and the town of Ross, which was known for more than two centuries by the appellation of “The Spectre’s Voyage;” and across which, as long as it retained that appellation, neither entreaty nor remuneration would induce any boatman to convey passengers after a certain hour of the night.  The superstitious notions current among the lower