and crossing a town road, it became necessary to build a viaduct under the conduit large enough for the passage of the largest teams in each direction at the same time. This viaduct, embankment and bridge over the river form altogether quite an attraction to the neighborhood. The principal reservoir is in Brookline, and contains 120,000,000 gallons of water suitable for use. There are three sets of gates to regulate the flow of water to the three mains to the city. These

are of iron, with composition bearing surfaces,

worked with iron screws in composition nuts. The mains leading to the city are of cast iron,

one thirty-six and one thirty inch, which were laid when the work was originally constructed. Another line of pipes, forty inches in diameter, is laid from the Brookline gate house to the city, which connects with the two previously laid in two or three places, in such a manner that when either one of the three lines is shut off, the other two will give their full supply to all parts of the city. One of the mains leads directly to the reservoir on Beacon Hill, from which it radiates to all parts of the city. The other main leads to the lower portions of the city, as well as to South and East Boston, by pipes of a smaller size branching off from it. The main pipes are so arranged that the supply through either one may be sent to all parts of the city. There are three reservoirs within the city. The principal one on Beacon Hill we have noticed. The walls vary in thickness from two and a half to three feet, with foundations of granite four and a half and five feet thick, resting on concrete varying from three to six feet thick. The basin is fourteen feet in depth and contains 2,700,000 gallons of water. Its area is 28,000 square feet. The reservoir in South Boston is on Telegraph Hill. It is in shape a segment of an ellipse, and measures 370 by 260 feet. It is built with an entire earthen embankment, having a puddle wall in the centre which makes it perfectly water-tight. The bank is fifteen feet in width on top, the outside slope sodded, and the inner slope faced with rough granite blocks to prevent the waves from beating down the banks. It will contain when full 7,500,000 gallons of water. The reservoir in East Boston is on Eagle Hill. It is rectangular in shape, measuring 325 by 150 feet. It will contain 5,500,000 gallons of water. The pipes on their passage to South and East Boston cross tide-water, and pass in syphons under four deep channels. They are strongly incased in timber

boxes and are put below the bottom of channels, so that no vessel lying over them at low water can harm them. From Chelsea to East Boston a portion of the pipe is laid with a flexible joint. It was put together on a platform above water and lowered till it came to a firm position.

The Croton Water-Works, supplying New York city, are of an earlier date than ours. The absolute necessity of a supply of pure water for the citizens of New York, led to the undertaking, in 1837, of the immense Croton Aqueduct, a work without precedent since those Roman constructions which have perpetuated the grandeur of the great republic of ancient times. The Croton, a small river rising in the Catskill Mountains, and about sixty miles from New York, at the above period swelled with its tributary stream the lordly Hudson. To bring this river to New York, they stopped it some miles above its mouth by means of a dike, which forced the waters back into a reservoir, a sort of lake hollowed in the centre of fifty acres of land, and containing many million gallons of water. This dam, built of earth, and strengthened with solid masonry, was sixty feet thick at its base, and fifty feet in height. As the reservoir was deeply enclosed, it was necessary, to leave an issue to this immense mass of water, to dig a tunnel through one of the surrounding hills. To this tunnel the aqueduct was joined, six and a half feet broad, nine feet high, and built entirely of walls four feet thick-a masterpiece of hydraulic masonry.

From this first reservoir the aqueduct traverses twelve hills by means of subterranean tunnels, of which several were cut through rock. Near the town of Sing Sing, where the State Prison is located, they had to cross a deep ravine, over which a bridge of a single arch was thrown, which presents an elliptical development of 88

eet, and whose height is a hundred feet above the torrent which dashes noisily into the bed prepared for it. Another ravine, broader but shallower-that of Sleepy Hollow-was crossed by a bridge of five arches. But the most gigantic labor of this structure is the bridge over the Harlem River, which brings the water into Manhattan Island. On issuing from the Harlem Bridge,at King's Bridge, the aqueduct is resumed in masonry, which traverses the hill of Manhattanville, nearly at its summit, in a tunnel a quarter of a mile in length. Then, on issuing from this tunnel, the aqueduct is composed of pipes, like those of the bridge, which descend an inclined plane to the depth of two hundred feet, and afterwards ascend to a similar height on the opposite hill. The valley of Clendenning, the last wet in its whole course, is crossed by means of a bridge, whose highest arch is 40 feet in height.

On the other side of the valley is the first reservoir. It is situated at Yorkville, sixty miles

from Croton lake, and forms a parallelogram of a capacity of thirty-five acres, surrounded by a wall of rough masonry about sixty-five feet high. The soil, composed of argillaceous earth mixed with rocks, serves as a base to this immense structure, the interior of which is divided into two reservoirs. These vast basins are destined to form a reserve, in case the flow of the water should be interrupted by any damage to the aqueduct. It contains 160,000,000 gallons water.

The second basin, which is the distributing reservoir, is situated on Murray Hill, in 42d Street. It is smaller than that of Yorkville, but its structure is of more remarkable workmanship. It forms an oblong square, and covers a space of five acres. The bed of the reservoir is of impermeable masonry, covered with flags of gray marble. It is 440 feet square, and is divided into two compartments by a wall 19 feet thick at the base and five at the summit. The four walls which form the parallelogram are 35 feet at the base, and narrow as they rise, so as to form on each face a slightly inclined plane. The perpendicular height of the outer face is 60 feet, that of the inner face, which forms the depth of the reservoir, is 48 feet. The water rises to 40 feet, and composes a mass of twenty-two million gallons. At the eastern extremity of the division wall is a discharging tunnel in masonry, to get rid of the surplus water, which communicates with a subterranean aqueduct ending in the river Hudson. The tunnel is perpendicular; but to prevent the cascade mining the soil as it falls, an enormous block of granite is placed at the bottom, which is always covered with eight feet of

water.

The architecture of this reservoir is of severe aspect. It might be taken for one of the fortresses of Upper Egypt, monuments of the Pharaohs and Osirises. It is a structure belonging to the style of the ancient cities found in Yuca

BROOKLINE GATE HOUSE.

tan, and whose analogy to those of Egypt is remarkably curious. This reservoir and the Tombs in Centre Street are the only monuments of this kind in New York. From the top of this reservoir, on the esplanade formed by the walls, you have a view of the whole city of New York, and when the sky is clear and limpid, the eye can embrace the magnificent panorama of the empire city of the United States, from the north to the Narrows, and the distant horizon of Staten and Long Islands.

The two reservoirs we have just described communicate together by a double line of cast iron pipes three feet and a half in diameter. The water is also conveyed into the city by a double range of pipes, from which branch smaller ones at the intersection of each street, forming a vast subterranean network whose innumerable meanderings glide into all the houses of New York, and ascend to the highest story of each building.

In a word, the Croton Aqueduct forms an immense subterranean gallery of masonry, eight feet five and a half inches high, by seven feet five inches broad. This structure extends sixty miles from Croton River to the distributing reservoir. The water traverses sixteen tunnels, varying in length from a hundred and sixty to one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five feet.

At Sing Sing the aqueduct passes over a ravine a hundred feet deep, by the aid of a bridge eighty-eight feet broad and twenty-five feet thick. At Harlem it crosses the river in a place where it is nine hundred feet broad, on a bridge composed of eight arches one hundred and fifty feet each above the water, and seven other arches whose height varies according to the inclination of the two mountains. The length of this bridge is two thousand three hundred and fifty feet. In order to give free passage to the streams and springs intersected by the aqueduct, a hundred and fourteen arches have been built, whose total

"MERRIE ENGLAND."

We have no fault to find with all the kindly things that are said just now about the mother country, and we think sincerely that it is about time to bury old grievances, and to let by-gones be by-gones. But when England is held up by Anglomaniacs as a model, we feel disposed to check the spurious enthusiasm by the statement of a few facts respecting her much-vaunted government. In England the elective franchise is held by 1 in every 19 of the gross population; in Scotland by 1 in 30, and in Ireland by 1 in 43! Hurrah for the British constitution! A majority of the House of Commons is elected by onefifth of the total registered electors of Great Britain! About one-third of the House of Commons is so constituted that it embraces only 6 marquises, 7 earls, 21 viscounts, 34 lords, 25 right honorables, 47 honorables, 56 baronets, 9 knights, 8 lord-lieutenants, 75 deputy and vicelieutenants, 53 magistrates, 64 placemen, 108 patrons of church livings, 3 admirals, 3 lieutenant-generals, 3 major-generals, 22 colonels, 28 lieutenant-colonels, 16 majors, 43 captains in the army and navy, 21 lieutenants in the same, and 4 cornets.

The soil of Great Britain is divided among 30,000 persons. In 1780, the total number of landed proprietors in England was 250,000, instead of 30,000 as now, and that number is rapidly diminishing, as the process of absorption goes on.

The expenses of the royal family, their private spending money, levied in taxes on the nation, amount only to about £700,000 per annum, of which Prince Albert (poor fellow!) receives only about forty or fifty thousand! The expenses of maintaining the royal residences are only about £70,000 a year. The coachmen, ostilions, and footmen of the queen cost a mere trifle annually-a bagatelle of £12,563. The expenditure of the royal steward for one year (according to the civil list) was £63,907, one item of which was £3130 for washing table linen. From this item it appears that 250,000 table cloths, at 3d. each, must have passed through the hands of the washer woman, or about linen enough to encircle the entire globe! The full regalia of the crown, to be sure, is rather expensive, it must be confessed-the cost of the jewels alone in the royal bauble being £111,900. The annual cost of the executive government of Great Britain is £919,453, which is only about fifty-seven times the cost of our own, and when we consider what a fine thing it is to be governed as the British people are governed, who but a miser would count the difference?

Then the British institutions can boast of a list of pensioned officials-a thing unknown to our unsophistication. There is scarce one of these gentlemen who does not receive a salary larger than the highest paid to any of our governors. The annual cost of the diplomatic corps is £344,275; but then, for the credit of the country, the noble and honorable ambassadors and envoys live like gentlemen! Of the pensioners for "civil services," many of whom are ladies of slender reputation, some receive £4000 per annum. The Grafton peerage has cost the British nation two millions fifty-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-eight pounds sterling-the House of Marlborough a million and a half

sterling! Then what a fine thing glory is! Let us see at how cheap a rate the "Meteor flag of England" has been supported. The peace establishment of England in thirty-four years cost £549,083,112; the average annual expenditure being nearly equal to that of the whole annual cost of our executive government.

But the church establishment is the crowning glory of the British nation. The revenues of the English church (Church of England and Wales, not reckoning Ireland) amount to £10,000,000 annually in round numbers. The revenue of the Archbishop of Canterbury amounted in one year (1843) to £27,705, that of the Archbishop of York to £20,141. How well do these beneficiaries obey the injunction of Scripture, "not to be given to filthy lucre," because "they that will be rich fall into temptations and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.' On the beauties of the State Church of Ireland we have not space to enlarge. Suffice it to say, by way of specimen, that in eight parishes in Ireland, there are 173 church members, that the tithes amount to £4860, and that consequently each man, woman and child costs about £28 per annum. Who will dare deny, after reading the above (in which it will be observed that the sums stated are pounds sterling, the pound being equivalent to $4 84 of our currency) that England is a great nation, that the blessings promised and bestowed of the British government and throne are unspeakable, and that John Bull ought to be, if he is not, the happiest animal on the face of creation?

A CHEERFUL FACE.

Be

There is no greater every-day virtue than cheerfulness. This quality in man among men is like sunshine to the day, or gentle, renewing moisture to parched herbs. The light of a cheerful face diffuses itself, and communicates the happy spirit that inspires it. The sourest temper must sweeten in the atmosphere of continuous good humor. As well might fog, and cloud, and vapor, hope to cling to the sun-illumined landscape, as the blues and moroseness to combat jovial speech and exhilarating laughter. cheerful always. There is no path but will be easier travelled, no load but will be lighter, no shadow on heart or brain but will lift sooner in presence of a determined cheerfulness. It may at times seem difficult for the happiest tempered to keep the countenance of peace and content; but the difficulty will vanish when we truly consider that sullen gloom and passionate despair do nothing but multiply thorns and thicken sorrows. Ill comes to us as providentially as good-and is a good, if we rightly apply its lessons; why not, then, cheerfully accept the ill, and thus blunt its apparent sting? Cheerfulness ought to be the fruit of philosophy and of Christianity. What is gained by peevishness and fretfulness-by perverse sadness and sullenness? If we are ill, let us be cheered by the trust that we shall soon be in health; if misfortune befall us, let us be cheered by hopeful visions of better fortune; if death robs us of the dear ones, let us be cheered by the thought that they are only gone before, to the blissful bowers where we shall all meet, to