As we treated the cuts of the last portion of the “Library of Entertaining Knowledge,” rather critically, we are happy to say that the engravings of insects in the present part make ample amends for all former imperfections in that branch of the work; some of the pupae, insects, their nests, &c. are admirably executed, and their selection is equally judicious and attractive.

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SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.

Spirit-drinking appears to have attained a pretty considerable pitch in America, where, according to the proceedings of the American Temperance Society, half as many tuns of domestic spirits are annually produced as of wheat and flour; and in the state of New York, in the year 1825, there were 2,264 grist-mills, and 1,129 distilleries of whiskey.  In a communication to this society from Philadelphia, it is calculated, that out of 4,151 deaths in that city in the year 1825, 335 are attributed solely to the abuse of ardent spirits!

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WOOD ENGRAVING.

In early life Bewick cut a vignette for the Newcastle newspaper, from which it is calculated that more than nine hundred thousand impressions have been worked off; yet the block is still in use, and not perceptibly impaired.

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AUSTRIA.

The present Emperor of Austria is a gentle, fatherly old man.  We have heard none of his subjects speak of him with anything but love and affection.  The meanest peasant has access to him; and, except on public occasions, he leads a simpler life than any nobleman among ourselves.  It is, perhaps, less the emperor than the nobility who govern in Austria, and less the nobility than Metternich, the prince-pattern of prime-ministers.—­Foreign Review.

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HANGING.

The following letter tends to rectify an error which very generally prevails, namely, that it costs only thirteen-pence halfpenny to be hung.  It is copied literatim et verbatim, from one made out by Mr. Ketch himself, and proves that a man cannot be hung for so mere a trifle:—­

“Silvester.               s. d. 
Executioner’s Fees............ 7  6
Stripping the Body............ 4  6
Use of Shell.................. 2  6
1813.                      ______
Nov. 10.                    14  6”

Blackwood’s Magazine.

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SCOTTISH POETRY.