... IOUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE LONOON, CiiRIS IMAS EVE. ?? metropolis is to-day given llp to pro- it paratiouis for to-iIloiTow. The. principal streets seem to be cleared of ordinary pe(ldestrians, and e heir places to be taken by family parties, a fathers, mothers, and children, the latter loaded r. with toys. Politics no longetr till maen's brains, ;_ and social reforms are hardly mentioned. r ...

... I ?? The twelfth ?? and Birkenhead Gordovic Eisteddfod was heil yesterday afternoon, at the Concert HallLord Nelson-street. Owing no doubt to the dreadful state of the weather, there was a small attendanee as compared with previous years. The mayor (Mr. T. B. Royden) was the president, and the conductor was Tanymarian (the Rev. E. Stephens). The eisteddfod song ?? Baner ein gwlad) having been ...

... A YEAR'S WORK EN THE POST- OFFICE. a The 24th report GI the Poetmaster-General on The lPostofice, being that for the financial year which ended March 31, 1878, has been issued as a Blue-book. Dealing with the inland service, the report states 'v that the number of postoffices established in the r year 1177 was 316l, raising the total number of eflices open in the United Kingdom on December ...

... I LABOUR DISPUTES MD TE STATE OF TRADE I TnE STRIKTc AT OLDIIAB. On Saturday might a special meeting of the share- holders of the Glodwick Spinning Co. Was held in the Bapti t School, Sugar Meadow, Glodwick. Mr. Beta t tomley, chairman Of the Board of Directors, presided, There was a large attendance. The meeting was called n for the purpose of deciding whether theorompanyshould withdraw from ...

... I Mahomed Yakoob Khan is about thirty years of ae g and is the oldest surviving son of Ameer Shere ?? _j th5 dmughfor of M osnl ,hief. When Nabhoma Ali, the eldest son of Shere Aliq was killed ry hig uncle, Ameer Khan, in 186f, it was generally understood in the Cabal Durbar that the Ameer had really nominated Yakoob Khan as his heir to the throne. Believing himself to be thus in favour, ...

... (From Punch,) Papa's.-Fancy what a blessing it would be if Christmas bills could be abolished! Mamma's.-Fancy what a state the boys' clothes will be in when they come home for the bolidays, and fancy what papa will say when 1 tell him that the girls have been obliged to buy new bonnets! Miss Clara's.-Fancy if mamma won'? let me write to ask poor Cousin Charley to come and spend his Chrisimas ...

... I Among the many agreeable qualities which we are in the habit pf attributing to et the festival of Christmas, perhaps the most i pleasing of all is the good-natured way it ,Sthas of coming at ,the very time when it is r most wanted. In the bright summer s. eason, when nature herself is gay and we are free to ramble where we list, making choice of sun or shade, and living if we will in the ...

... IOUR 1ONDION CORRESPONDENcE I ,LO.NDON, SATURDAY EVEtNRI;. ;It is all over. Share MAlt our enemy has tied. Yakub Khan, whom we have defended and befriended, is left in power. The Afghans have turned against their ruler and come to 'as. It is not quite- clear what has become of Yakub. The only predicable thing is that the war may now, by a little management, be brought to an end. There should ...

... TIE SNOWBLOCK LN SCOThAND.' DESTRUCTIVE WHIRLWIND. T! e rress Associaticres Aberdeen correspon lant , :'(graphs that a renewed snowfall has been .pi rienced, with heavy drifts, in various parts of1 tie county. The railways bave been again blooked i.aces which were cleared on Tuesday. The Rde Railway has again been snowed up, and ?? the sections of the Grest North of Scotland - remain blocked. ...

... I A COLONY OF CONSUMPTIVES, A correspondent of the forming Poee writes from DavoE,in Switzerland-])avos is atpreseut a colony of consumptives. There are about a couple of hundred English people here,and per- haps two or three times as many patients of other nations, whlo have adopted the new fashion of treating the most terrible maladies by abundant exposure to air. which in winter is ...

... MULTUM IN PALRO. (,eneral Sir Collingwood Dickson, who went to Turkey during the svar, is to remnain for some time lorger attached to the embassy at Conotantinople. 'I'he obitziary of the Times yesterday records the du- ise of 29 persons, of whom no fewer than tO wt re over 6 ' years of age, five of them. being over 70. and uii. over 80 years. Typhoid fever is stated to have broken out among ? ...

... Wa crnot undertake to return commtinloetlons of whlnh we do uot avail ourealves. (ommnmicationa should sdways be iegibly written to ink, and o02 Ce side of tie ?? onzy; length Increases the difficalty of finding qwe for them. Whatever is intended icr insertion mact be anthentiated by the name and address of the auder-not necessarily for publication, bht as a gnarentee of good faith. Letters ...