VARIETIES.

ARCTIC EXPLORATION. Within the polar circle there is an enormous area, comprising at least two million square miles, of which we know simply nothing. We shall have presently to speak of the various speculations regarding the nature of this vast extent of the world's surface; it is enough for our immediate purpose to say that we do not know anything whatever about it. Whether it is land, water, or ice; whether the climate is cold or warm; whether there are inhabitants, animals, plants, or whether it is a howling wildernessspeculation has included almost every possibility, and almost every absurdity; but of knowledge, such as alone intelligent men can be content with, we have absolutely none. To attain some such knowledge is the first object now proposed in Arctic exploration. It is considered unfitting and unseemly, in the present state of scientific progress, that there should be this large area of our own earth's surface still so utterly unknown. The examination of it is loudly called for; it is a problem of universal interest, the solution of which appeals not to commercial profits, pecuniary advantage, and increased facility of transport or communication, but simply, in the first instance, to those higher feelings and yearnings which, whatever our remote cestry, now distinguish us from the brutes. We want to traverse this unknown space, and see and know what it is.—Edinburgh Review.

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MACREADY.-Mr. Macready survived his retirement from the stage more than twenty-two years, which he spent first at Sherborne, and afterwards at Cheltenham, where he died on the 27th April, 1873. It was his fate to see many of his dear ones laid in earth." His wife and most of his children preceded him to the grave. He married most happily a second time in 1860. Removed from the stage and its jealousies, all his fine qualities had freer scope; and we think now with pleasure of his venerable and noble head, as we saw it last in 1872, and of the sweet smile of his beautiful mouth, which spoke of the calm wisdom of a gentle and thoughtful old age. We have reason to know that he looked back with yearning fondness to the studies and pursuits which had made him famous. The fretful jealousies, the passionate wilfulness of the old times seem to have faded into the dim past, and no longer marred the memory of kindness done and loyal service rendered to him. He had done much good work in the sphere which Providence had assigned him, and we believe had learned to know that it was not for him to repine if the Divinity that shapes our ends" had so shaped his that his work was to be accomplished upon the stage. It is of the man

as we then saw him, the man whom we had known as a highly-cultivated and essentially kind-hearted gentleman, that we would rather think, than of the actor with all his weaknesses cruelly laid bare, whom these volumes have placed before us.-Quarterly Review.

FRANKLIN'S PRESS.-Benjamin Franklin has been described by some writers to have worked at Messrs. Wyman's printing-office as a journeyman printer. This is an error, Franklin having been employed at Mr. Watts's, which was on the south-west side of Wild court, a turning out of Great Wild street, near the western end of Great Queen street. The press which Franklin recognised as that at which he had worked as a journeyman pressman in London in the years 1723-6, stood in Messrs. Wyman's office, however, for many years. In course of time it was taken down, and passed into the hands of Messrs. Harrild and Sons, who in 1840 parted with it to Mr. J. V. Murray, of New-York, on condition that he would secure for them in return a donation to the Printers' Pension Society of London-a highly deserving institution (its object being the support of aged and decayed printers and widows of printers), and of which they were active members. By Mr. Murray the press was exhibited in Liverpool, and afterwards taken to America. So great was the interest excited by the exhibition of the press, that it was ultimately arranged to have a lecture delivered on "The Life of Benjamin Franklin" during its exhibition. This was accordingly done, and with such success as to enable the Committee of the Printers' Pension Society to initiate the "Franklin Pension," amounting to ten guineas per year; and it is interesting to record that one of the early recipients of this small bounty was a very old servant of the firm in whose office he and the press had so long done duty together. The following inscription is engraved upon the plate affixed to the front of the press: "Dr. Franklin's Remarks relative to this Press, made when he came to England as Agent of the Massachusetts, in the year 1768. The Doctor at this time visited the Printing-office of Mr. Watts, of Wild street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and, going up to this particular Press (afterwards in the possession of Messrs. Cox and Son, of Great Queen street, of whom it was purchased), thus addressed the men who were working at it:

Come, my friends, we will drink together. It is now forty years since I worked like you at this Press, as a journeyman printer.' The Doctor then sent out for a gallon of Porter, and he drank with them-Success to Printing.' From the above it will appear that it is 108 years since Dr. Franklin worked at this identical Press. June, 1833."-Cassell's Old and New London.