... The rapid progress which is being made in all the departments of the work connected with the Liverpool International Exhibition is a matter of eatissaction to one and all. The ?? in itself is close upon completion-in fact, so nearly com- pleted that the foreign courts were a day or two back taken possession of by the cominisioners, with instructions that foreign exhibits might be received at ...

... FREE PUBLIC LIBRARI ?? iFREE PUBLIC LIBR-]E.S,. This-is a volume which cannot fall to be read in Liverpool with munch interest. Mr. Green. wood furnishes an account of the org nsatia , mses, and managemeat of free publec libraries, which possesses a distinctive value all the more that it contains a variety of important statistji cal tables, and append giving the varionus acts of Parliament ...

... MIGIZINES FOR APRIL. Los qnwn's Mgativne (London: Lougmans: is on the whole light and enjoyable roadina sh& month Children of Gibeou,' \Valte Besana',e novel, is drawing towards a solution of the mystery, and therefore growing in interest. WllEiam Aliingham contributes a merry Irish. love song, -Kitty O'Hea,'towhikhis atached, for the bene'it of musi-al amateurs, the air to which it should ...

... LYFROX TO.DAY'S ATHENiMU.LI The article on Matthew Paris in the current number of the Quarterly Review is said to be from the pen of Dr. Jessopp. Dagonet the Jester, a story which we reviewed a fortnight ago, is understood to be written by Mr. Malcolm Macmillan, eldest son of the well. known publisher. Under the title of India Revisited, Messrs. Trfibner and Co. will shortly publish ...

... DRA31ATIC NOTES. We trust the happy thought of producing the newv version of Toni Jones ' at a Vaudev;ile matinee immediately before promnotiur it to the evening bill will go some *ay to settle the vexe-d question of Londondfirst ni-bts. Thenoiseand interruption, the 'guying and insincerity, of some recent frat-nieht audiences, pro;oked very animated discussion on the best way to defeat the ...

... a COUXT4Y LIFE. BY RANGER. 13 in No. XVII. INCIDENTS OF TRE FIELDS. BP Under floods of beechen green and shadows et numberless are we lying, where we have lain for an ot hour. It is May, and even now the wood birds seem in to be singing of summer in fall-throated ease. C But these are on the confines of the wood, and the E sounds only faintly and at intervals reach us. Here E the leaves ...

... At the Rotunda Lecture Hall, William Brown- street, last evening, a concert, organised by the Liverpool Trades Council for the benefit of the unemployed artisans in the trades connected with that body, was given by' Mr. Josef Cantor's Gems of the Operas Comnpany, before a large audience. The entertainment was held under dis- tinguished natronage, whilst his Worship the Mayor (Mr. Alderman D. ...

... LIVERPOOL O=RATIONAL EXI ION. Neither bank holidays nor Saturdays anke any difference to the hurndreds of men who areenaged an the work at the International Exhibition Edes-lane. The one great object which all the contrators, exhibitors, decorators, c are aiming at is to complete their respective undertakings and have the exhibits bad out in crder by May 11, on which occasion her Majesty the ...

... THE IJVERPOOL EXIMIBION. I An areeable change in the weatheron Saturday enabled the workmen engaged in completing the large str r in Edpe4ime to make comiderable prowesa Should the weather cntinuae favocrable, theirgu contractors hope to comaplete their portion of the underta within a wee It is uder- stood that the south-east wing, which was wrecked on Tuesday by the fierce gale will be at ...

... AXR NOTES. 'The private view of the seventh exhibition of the works of Liverpool artists in oil and water- colours will take place on Saturday next, at the small Gallery, Bold-street, and will be available to the public on Monday. The col- lections brought together every autumn in the Walker Art Gallery are composed largely of selections from the Academy, the Grosvenor, and water-colour ...

... I THE PIOSA OPERA COMPANY. a _ - -- ?? ea The troubles which beset tbe director of an wv operatic enterprise of any magnitude are neither Hg L few nor far between. That potent influence, the M( 0 weather, is among his bitterest foes, and often C when there is most need of singers of eminence, sa o ?? deprives him of their services, and leads CA o to the dislocation of the arrangements which he ...

... I - ART AND LITERkRY GOSSIP. ?? ToDlAY 'S ATl1ENrEU3T.` Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes will leave Boston for Europe thiq month with his daughter Mrs. Sargent, and pass the summer on this side 01 the Atlantic. It is just fifty years since he last visited Europe. The' Far Interior, by Mr. Walter Montaga Kerr, C.E., which Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. expect to publish early in Miawy, deals ...