Here are a few statistics lately published that will doubtless prove interesting to the reader. The royal family of England costs the British government, in round numbers, $3,000,000 annually. Of this sum the Queen receives nearly $2,000,000 a year, besides the revenue from the Duchy of Lancaster, which amounts to a quarter of a million. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland receives $100,000 a year for his services and expenses, and the Prince of Wales $200,000 a year. The President of France receives $240,000 a year for salary and expenses, an enormous salary when it is remembered that the republic is sweating under a stupendous national debt of over $6,000,000,000—the largest debt ever incurred by any nation in the world. Italy can have ten thousand men slaughtered in Abyssinia and still pay her King $2,600,000 a year. The civil list of the German Emperor is about $4,000,000 a year, besides large revenues from vast estates belonging to the royal family. The Czar of all the Russias owns in fee simple 1,000,000 square miles of cultivated land, and enjoys an income of $12,000,000. The King of Spain, little Alfonso XIII., if he is of a saving disposition, will be one of the richest sovereigns in Europe when he comes of age. The state allows him $1,400,000 a year, with an additional $600,000 for family expenses. We are said to be the richest nation on earth, yet our President's salary is only $50,000 a year. It was only $25,000 from 1789 to 1873.
NEW USE FOR A WATER-CART.
Two countrymen were paying a visit to the city of Edinburgh recently, when for the first time in their experience they saw a water-cart employed in laying the dust after the orthodox fashion. They had been warned by their friends before leaving home not to be surprised if they saw many wonderful things, and, above all, not to give expression to their astonishment, as they would probably only be laughed at for their ignorance. Hitherto the clodhoppers had attended fairly well to these instructions, and so far at least had not made fools of themselves. But, alas! a water-cart was too much for them. No sooner did their eyes alight on it than Jock, the more enthusiastic of the two, rushed off towards it, shouting to the driver:
"Hey, mon! hey, mon! stop, for guidness' sake; yer scaling a' yer watter!"
Jim, his companion, was not so easily deceived, however, and, vexed to see Jock make such an exhibition of his ignorance, ran after him, and seizing him by the coat tails, reprimanded him as follows:
"What for are you makin' such a fule o' yersel' for, Jock? The man ken's brawly that the watter's scaling. Lo'd, man, if ye had ony sense you could easily ken that it was only a dodge tae keep the laddies aff the back o' the cart."
A neat little correspondence took place between David Roberts, the artist, and a friendly art critic with whom he was in the habit of hobnobbing. Roberts had painted a number of pictures into which he put all his genius, and upon placing them on exhibition, much to his surprise and mortification his friend the critic severely attacked them. In due time, however, a note arrived, addressed:
"My dear Roberts,—You have doubtless read my remarks upon your pictures. I hope they will make no difference in our friendship. Yours, etc., ——."