world, and explained their use, his lecture was so amusing as well as instructive as to evoke frequent burst of applause.
"Shakespeare's Julius Caesar" was the title of a lecture delivered to a full room of the institution on the 11th of February by Mr. William Ransom, whose treatment of the subject gave much satisfaction.
Phrenology and Mesmerism were next dilated upon, on the 17th and 18th of February in a lecture by Mr. E. H. Lewis, a man of colour, but in other respects (in form, language and manners) more like an educated Englishman. The lectures were delivered in the Assembly Rooms, and half the admission money less expenses, was promised to be handed over to the Institution. The profits of the two lectures were £7. 14. 6; so that Mr. Lewis had to be thanked for a gift of £3 17s. 3d. It is the purpose of this History to adduce simple facts rather than reports of lectures, but so many persons have become professors of mesmerism, biology, thought-reading &c. since Mr. Lewis's time, that a summary from Brett's Gazette of the two lectures here named should not be considered out of place. The lecture on Phrenology was an exceedingly good one, and was listened to by a numerous audience with keen attention. Apart from their phrenological bearing, many of the lecturer's arguments were very striking, and his homely and amusing illustrations equally instructive. The manner in which children were unwittingly initiated into a course of falsehood and dissimulation by their parents and nurses were vividly portrayed. One illustration will suffice. - In the absence of its mother a child has the misfortune to break some little thing on which its parent has set great store, perhaps an old favourite tea pot. "Who has broken that tea-pot?" exclaims the excited mother. The child, with large "caution" and "secretiveness", stands trembling from head to foot, but says never a word. The mother in a milder tone, declares she will not beat the child, but will give him sugar instead if he will but speak the truth. The promise has its effect, and the child confesses to have broken the tea-pot. The mother's excitability returns and the child gets a sound beating and no sugar. On the next day, something else is broken but the promise of sugar fails to extort a confession. No! say the child - remembering his beating and his mother's breach of promise - "I didn't do it Ma, I didn't do it!" And thus the child with large organs of caution and secretiveness, feeds upon the finesse and duplicity of the parent, as is, s it were, unconsciously but perniciously led into a course of lying and deceipt. Beware said the lecturer, of what people call little white lies; for, sooner or-
