, One firm alone had been compelled to refuse • a contract of £80,000 ; that the local shipping ■ had suffered to the, extent of £150,000 ; and. : that numberless small traders had been ruined, ; while the town had lost many of its most skil i ful workmen, who had emigrated to other clis [ fcricts or to America ; and further, looking afc • the effect upon families, that the death-rate • had risen from 25 to from 40 to 50 in a thou , sand. The success of the nine-hours niovc :' nienfc in Newcastle will be felt throughout the ; country. There was ."a lime-light demonstra , tion " in Trafalgar square to congratulate the • engineers, and to pledge the working men of London to agitation until nine hours " was a i recognised day's work in every trade." The I shipbuilders of West Hartlepool promptly ob ; tamed the concession. The directors of the North-Eastern Railway also adopted the New r castle compromise without delay. The move i nieut extends, and is likely in some trades to cause great temporary inconvenience. Other : strikes have occurred in the colliery districts ■ and elsewhere, on other questions ; but these. have not yet attained to more than local mi i terest, except as illustrating the unsettled ■ feeling to which I have referred. We hear a ■ great deal 100 much of the battle which is to s be fought between labour and capital ; and the artisans of the Continent are even more i ardent than our own in preparing for it. l Strikes are frequent in Belgium, iv Switzer , land and even im Germany

j Yankee Energy. — The flexibility or j easiness found in American institutions mani. fests itself also in the individual character. Nofc a little of the surpassing energy and spirit displayed by individuals after the fire may be traced to the absence of that appreci ation of the weight of circumstances which, like his liability to the laws, presses so heavily upon the Englishman. Mr Joseph Medill, for example, is one of the proprietors of the Chicago Tribune. 