Description of the Offices..

BELIEVING that our members in distant parts of the country, and our brethren in the colonies, would like to see the elevation and description of the new offices for the Independent Order of Odd-Fellows' Manchester Unity Friendly Society, the directors have, we think, wisely come to the conclusion to present to them, through the Magazine, a wood-cut and description of the building. During the last eight years we have been compelled to remove our offices twice at a considerable expense. Notice has been given again for us to remove, and under these circumstances the Lincoln A.M.C. passed a vote to build offices of our own. As there will be more readers of the Magazine than our Annual Reports, it is perhaps advisable to lay before them what the directors have done in reference to those offices. Advertisements were inserted in the Manchester papers for a suitable plot of land or buildings. Several gentlemen sent in plans of their plots, and the directors inspected them. After viewing them all they subsequently came to the conclusion to purchase the land and buildings in Grosvenor-street. These consists of two good houses, the rental of which is £50 a year; a coach-house and stable, £10 a year; together with spare ground, 13 yards of a frontage and 30 yards back of the other street. This they purchased for £1,100, subject to a chief rental of £16 a year. There is a lease on it for nine hundred and ninety-nine years, the end of which no living odd-fellow needs trouble himself about. The offices will be built on the spare land. The money was paid over by the trustees at the last board meeting in February, the proper conveyance of the property made out, and the deeds deposited in the safe of the Manchester Unity. It is a great pleasure to all those who have taken so active a part in the improvement of our institution, to see that those little jealousies or want of confidence in the stability of our society are now removed,-legal protection for our accumulated capital gained after a most severe struggle-our finances placed on something like a sure and equitable foundation-the law of clearance if not perfect at least greatly improved-our society annually improving the machinery whereby it is governed,-all these things have consolidated the Unity, and the members spread over these islands and in our colonies can see by wise counsel and forbearance amongst ourselves the perpetuation of this great Unity from age to age. We copy the following from a local paper, being a brief account of the proceedings of the afternoon when the foundation stone was laid :

"INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD-FELLOWS' (M U.) NEW OFFICES AT MANCHESTER. The foundation stone of the new permanent offices, to be erected in Grosvenor-street, Manchester, for the above institution (which now numbers nearly 260,000 male adult members), was laid on Thursday, the 19th of February, by J. C. Cox, Esq., of Southampton, the present G.M. There was a large gathering of the principal officers and leading members of the Order from the surrounding districts to witness the ceremony. Shortly after two o'clock Mr. Cox appeared on the ground, with a number of the Unity trustees and directors. Mr. Thomas Penk, the contractor for the building, presented to Mr. Cox a handsome silver trowel with which to perform the interesting ceremony. It bore an inscription as follows:"The foundation stone of the new offices of the Independent Order of Odd-fellows' Manchester Unity Friendly Society, in Grosvenor-street, in the city of Manchester, was laid with this trowel, by James Charles Cox, Esq., of Southampton, on the 19th February, 1857." In the stone were deposited the following documents :-Copy of minute book, 1814; list of lodges, 1857; general laws, ditto; a bottle containing the names of the officers of

the Order, board of directors, and trustees; a number of coins of the present reign; Manchester and Liverpool newspapers of the day; copy of American covenant of odd-fellowship, 1838; and a list of the toasts to be given at the dinner in celebration of the event. Mr. Cox having received the trowel, made a few appropriate observations, and then went through the ceremony of the day, amidst the plaudits and well wishes of the numerous assemblage. At four o'clock, a large company, numbering nearly one hundred and fifty, marshalled under the direction of P.G.M. Meredith, of Manchester, assembled at the Apollo Lodge, where a dinner was served up by Mr. Ingham. P.P.G.M. Richmond occupied the chair. After the withdrawal of the cloth, the usual loyal toasts were given, followed by addresses having reference to the origin, progress, and present position of the Provident Friendly Society. It was stated that the Unity in 1856 had paid for sick claims and interments of members and their wives upwards of £200,000."

About two hundred of the brethren sat down to dinner, which reflected great credit on Mr. Ingham. Indeed a more happy evening could not have been desired.

The directors also advertised in the Manchester papers for architects to i send in plans, furnishing those who made application with the kind of building we wanted. Twenty-eight architects sent in plans, and subsequently the choice fell on Mr. Joseph Lindley, of Ashton-under-Lyne. The same method was adopted in reference to contractors, and Mr. Penk, of Manchester, was the fortunate individual on whom has devolved the building of the offices.

The offices for the Manchester Unity Friendly Society are being erected on a plot of ground situate in Grosvenor.street, Chorlton. This street is 16 yards wide, and the street for access to the back part of the premises is eight yards wide. The building is betwixt and near to Oxford Road and Brookstreet. Along both of these streets omnibuses ply during the whole of the day at short intervals, so that ready access is obtained from the centre of the town. The basement has a kitchen about 6 yards by 4 yards, a scullery 4 yards by 44 yards, pantries, closets, &c., for the use of the secretary, all lofty and well ventilated. The remaining portion of the basement is set apart for warehouse or store cellar, about 72 superficial yards. The ground plan has an entrance in the centre 7 feet wide; the secretary's office is on one side, 6 yards by 41 yards; a staircase, 7 feet wide, leading to directors' room, &c., also packing room, 5 yards by 44 yards. On the other side of the entrance is a sitting room 6 yards by 4 yards, and a staircase for access to the second story and attic; also a store room 4 yards by 44 yards, and a passage to the yard 5 feet wide. The rooms on this story are nearly 4 yards high. There is also on the ground story a strong room for keeping the society's documents. The second story has next to Grosvenor-street a directors' room, 11 yards long, 6 yards wide, and upwards of 6 yards high; capacious landings, 7 fect wide; waiting room, 5 yards by 4 yards; lavatory, closet, &c.; retiring room, 4 yards by 4 yards; also closets for the use of the house. There rooms are 34 yards high. The attic contains three good bedrooms, lofty, and well ventilated. The front next Grosvenor-street is to be of the Composite order, with rusticated quoins and channelled courses. The entrance doorway, windows, balconies, strings, architraves, and cornices, are claborately enriche! the whole to be worked in detail with Portland cement. The vestibule will have an enriched cornice, and the directors' room will have bold cornice and two plaster centre flowers. There will be no further enrichmeats in the interior, as it has been the aim to have a substantial building, instead of spending too much on ornament, which would not have utility for its recommendation. This brief sketch we hope will give entire satisfaction to the Unity.

Page for Boys and Girls.

In our first number we promised to have a page regularly for those whose young minds have not yet begun to study cause and effect, and we will commence our opening series with

Hydrostatics.

Nearly all the technical terms made use of in science are derived either from the Greek or Latin languages, and the word hydrostatics, of two Greek words, signify water and the science which considers the weight of bodies. But hydrostatics, as a branch of natural philosophy, treats of the nature, gravity, pressure, and motion of fluids in general, and of the method of weighing fluids in them. The whole (or nearly so) of the experiments for demonstrating this science are performed with glass apparatus. Some writers have divided this subject into two distinct parts, viz., hydrostatics and hydraulics. The latter relates particularly to the motion of water through pipes, conduits, &c. ; but in these pages there will be no regard paid to this distinction, and under the general title of hydrostatics the properties of fluids will be described, but principally those of water. A fluid is generally described by philosophers as a body, the parts of which yield to the slightest impression, and are easily moved amongst each other. The air we breathe is a fluid, the parts of which yield to the least pressure, but it does not adhere to the bodies surrounded by it, like water, milk, &c. Air, quicksilver, and melted metals, are fluids, but not liquids; while water, milk, beer, wine, oil, spirits, &c., are fluids and liquids. The distinction between liquids and fluids is introduced into books more on account of convenience than philosophical accuracy; but it may be taken as an axiom that a fluid is a body whose parts yield to the smallest force impressed on them. The particles that compose all fluids are considered to be round and inconceivably small, since with the assistance of the most powerful magnifying classes the human eye has not been able to discern them. Philosophers contend that the particles are round, because they are so easily moved among and above one another; and if they are round there must be vacant spaces between them.

To prove this suppose a number of common balls were placed in a large tub, so as to fill it even to the edge, though the vessel could contain no more of the large balls yet it would hold in the vacant spaces a great many smaller shot, and between these again others still smaller might be introduced, and when the vessel would contain no more smaller shot a quantity of sand might be shaken in between the pores, of which water or other fluids would insinuate themselves.

All plants that live in water have their pores round, and are thereby adapted to receive the same shaped particles of water. All mineral and medicinal waters evidently derive their peculiar character from the different substances taken in their pores, from which it has been concluded that the particles of water are globular or round, because such admit of the largest intervals. Take a phial with some rain water in it, mark the height at which it stands in the bottle, after this, introduce a quantity of salt, which, when completely dissolved, you will find has not in the least increased the bulk of the water. When the salt is dissolved you can introduce sugar, without increasing the bulk of the water in the phial.

Hence philosophers are of opinion that the particles of salt are smaller than those of water, and lie between the particles of water like the small shot between the cannon balls, and that the particles of sugar are smaller than those of salt, and, like the sand among the shot, will insinuate themselves into vacuities too small for the admission of salt.

The History of a Silver Snuff Box.

BY W. AITKEN.

THE material of which I am formed was found somewhere in the mines of Potosi, in South America, about the twentieth degree of south latitude and the seventieth west longitude. I had slumbered for a thousand ages in the dark caverns of the earth, till the inquiring mind of man found me in my deep hidden solitudes. I have heard the murmurs of the great Pacific as its waves beat against the rocky coast, and wondered at times what mighty power it was that stirred from its awful depths such an immensity of water. I have thought that those awful waves, when lashed into fury by the fearful winds that swept over their immense surface, would overleap their bounds, and again cover me with their briny depths. But recollection stepped in to the rescue, and I saw standing grimly, sternly, sublimely, and it may be everlastingly, the giant Andes mountains, with their foreheads bound with an everlasting snow wreath, bidding defiance to the foam-crested waves, however furiously they came, and successfully beating back the warring elements to their unknown depths. I became composed, having no dread-at least of all the furies of the great Pacific. Feeling self-satisfied on this point, and resting, as I considered, in security, there came a new sound, different from any I had ever heard before the sound of pick-axe and shovel, the former of which was suddenly stricken into my side. A pair of human hands gathered me up-balanced me in one of those hands as if trying my specific gravity-then the same hands rubbing away the mold that had enveloped my form for countless ages, a human voice declared me to be silver ore.

Unmindful of the wound inflicted by the pick-axe, I was dragged remorselessly away, taken up to what is called terra firma, and oh! what a sight met my view. I forgot my pain in the splendour of the scene.

The sun was shining nearly perpendicularly over me, and flung with his brilliant and golden rays a warinth around me and all creation near. Giant trees lifted their verdant heads towards heaven, and spread out their emerald-leaved arms in all directions, as if seeking to embrace that ever glorious sun-light, and hold it nearer to the heart.

Birds of every hue flitted about from tree to tree, and the splendour of their various plumages as they floated to and fro, with the sunbeams falling on them, added additional lustre to that which was already beautiful. Beneath these gigantic trees rose flowers, like the birds, of all the colours of the rainbow when the earth is bedewed with tears, and the sun smiles even through those tears.

There arose a fragrance, a perfume perfectly delicious, and enraptured the senses with delight unspeakable, added to which the hum of a million insects murmured through the air. Away in the distance, and gleaming through the forest leaves, glided a river that gently bathed its shores, and as it moved over its pebbled and stony bed it leaped and sparkled amid the glories and radiance of a tropical high noon.

On on it went with innumerable circumvolutions, murmuring a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord of nature. It gave verdure to the banks and trees; it shadowed those trees-the life-giving sun-the spangled

arch of heaven-the gentle moon, fair empress of the night-on its fair, its spotless bosom. It quenched the thirst of man, bird, beast, and insect; and ten thousand of the finny tribe sported "upward and downward, thwarting and convolved," amidst its transparent rippling waves.

Away! away! it went, swelling, swelling in its course, till ships from every clime sailed upon its bosom, and swelled by its means, human energy and industry, the golden tide of commerce, till at last its sparkling and its waves were engulphed in the waters of the Pacific, again to be gathered up in moisture by the sunbeams to fall again in life-giving rain, to fructify the earth, and assist in giving sustenance to all animated existences. Beautiful rivers! emblems to some extent of man's destiny.

Mysterious, perpetually changing, ever round of nature, how you delight the philosopher, amiaze and astound the ignorant. But hold

"My muse must cower,

Such flights are far beyond her power."

I could not help telling what I saw, and how I felt, when brought from my solitude. There was, and is, such a wonderful difference between the darkness and solitude below and the beauties and grandeur above.

I was then taken by a sun-bronzed miner to his hut, and carefully stowed away. I had not been long there before some of my brethren who had been in the same dark mysterious depths as myself were brought and placed beside me.

I will say nothing of our meeting, how glad we were to have company; I will leave that to your imagination, to fill the hiatus I leave.

When a sufficient quantity of silver ore, as they called us, was gotten, I and my companions in adversity were dragged across the country and sold to bullion dealers. It would take me too long to describe to you the bargaining, the bantering of these dealers, as to what they would give for me per ounce; but to be brief, it was within sixpence an ounce whether I should be made Mexican dollars of or be shipped to what they called "Merrie England." Of course I knew nothing of this England, cared quite as little; and the iron, if not sunk deep in my soul, was at least in my ribs, and that gave me plenty to think about, now the beauties of nature no longer enraptured my vision. To England, then, they sent me. I can tell nothing of the voyage, as I was nailed in a box, and around me was as dark as the place that gave me birth, and where I had so long resided.

When I next saw the light I found myself in a place called Birmingham by some, and Brummagem by others; and after being put through a score of processes, which would take me longer to tell than I have time and you have space, I found myself in the hands of a "cunning workman," and he was ordered by his master to make me into a Silver Snuff Box. Right well did he execute his duty, although I must confess I was most rudely handled. Hammered, battered, turned upside down, rubbed and polished; but, after all, I must say that my appearance was very much altered for the better. Indeed I had no idea that the dull thing I was could be made half so brilliant and pretty looking as that cunning workman made me.

I positively admired myself, and although I had gone through much, and been wounded in a hundred different ways, it seemed to me "all for the best;" and in my new form and shining habiliments, rivalling the river I first saw, I forgot and forgave all, as I had really what is called a "most gentlemanly appearance." I was next taken to a gold and silversmith's shop, and placed amongst a number of comrades made from the same material as myself, and varying in their appearance nearly as much as the human faces that passed me by each day. As there is no rest for the