he had to do in the field, No one was more L anxious than he was that soldiers should } have plenty of drill ; but it was the nature i, of that drill with which he found fault. , The manner in which soldiers were taught ■ to march was absurd. He believed that the I old system of marching past was foolish, i and not calculated to teach the soldier what he had to do in war. x r Who would look for humor in a Consular ' report ? The English Consul at Baltimore, in a report on the oyster fisheries of Mary-. 1 land, says :— " In some of the lower counties down the Chesapeake Bay, oysters pass as 1 ourrent money, and in one town which ; boasts of a weekly newspaper, a large [ percentage of its readers pay their subscript 1 tion to it in oysters ; thus the editor | receives from 150 to 500 bushels ef oysters yearly, 'which he is forced to consume in his 1 own family ; and, as oysters are declared by • the faculty to be mo?t efficacious in pro ; ducing and increasing brain power, it is to be hoped that the subscribers to that journal get good value for their oysters." , Tbe proprietors of nursery libraries of twenty years standing and upwards, should, if they have an eye to business, make a oareful search of the shelves. At. a sale at Sotheby's recently a copy of the first edition of " Alice's Adventures " fetched £5, and one of the first edition of Buskin's " King of the Golden Eiver, " £10. Exoellent editions of both these books are current at 2s 6d eaoh, which leaves the first edition maniacs mar gin, of £4 17s 6d and £9 17s 6d respectively. Who is that set the fashion in this particular craze? And what a fortune they might make by buying up early copies of an author before they set the maniaos a-hunting for them. I see tbat a book agent eoored his point with the customary euocess in Melbourne tbe other day. A gentleman advertised for a tutor and companion for two lads who were going for a tour of the world. The. candidate was to be a graduate of an English University, and able to spenk several modern languages. 