118 YEAR-BOOK OF FACTS. 



doors may be kept open or shut by means of well-adapted self-acting 

 springs. 



This omnibus runs as lightly as any other on the metropolitan 

 roads. It has been weighed at the General Post, and certified to be 

 only twenty-two hundredweight and three-quarters ; while twenty- 

 five and even twenty-seven hundredweight is not au uncommon 

 range for omnibuses now plying on the London thoroughfares. 



JAPANESE MANUFACTURES. 



Professor Dowson has exhibited to the Royal Asiatic Society a 

 variety of specimens of the Arts and Manufactures of Japan, brought 

 from Jeddo by Captain Creagh, of the SGth Regiment. These articles 

 excited a great deal of interest, not only by their excellence and 

 novelty, but by the surprisingly low prices at which they were pur- 

 chased. Captain Creagh, having been one of the first who visited 

 Jeddo, made his purchases at something like the real price, before it 

 was unduly raised by the demands and ignorance of foreigners. 

 Among the articles exhibited was a cabinet, beautifully inlaid with 

 different woods ; a very good telescope, which cost about Is. Gd. ; a, 

 very neat little clock, worked by a weight, the index being a small 

 pin, which, as it descends, marks the time upon a scale forming the 

 front of the clock. As the length of the Japanese hour differs in 

 various seasons, the clock is furnished with a series of scales, or 

 figure plates, for accommodating it to these changes. The cost of 

 this clock was 9s. There were also several specimens of illustrated 

 books, the woodcuts of which were very neatly executed, ami exhi- 

 bited a good knowledge of perspective, as well as of drawing ; also a 

 large number of prints in colours, somewhat roughly executed, but 

 spirited. These are sold at an exceedingly low rate, and show that 

 the art of printing in colours i3 well known in Japan. The paper 

 used for pocket-handkerchiefs, and various other kinds of paper, 

 attracted a great deal of notice for their fineness and extreme tenacity 

 of fibre. There was also a very showy fabric, the woof of which was 

 of silk and the warp of gilded and coloured paper, forming an excel- 

 lent material for the decoration of rooms, tents, &c. 



TIIE MIRACULOUS CABINET. 



Under this title an extraordinary work of art, invented and pro- 

 duced bv II. Nadolsky, has been exhibited in the Dudley Gallery, 

 Egyptian Hall. This Cabinet, measuring only 5 feet high, B 

 wide, and 18 inches deep, contains 150 pieces of furniture, of the 

 same si/..' as in ordinary use, as — a judge's large table, with orna- 

 ments, bonk--, and six chairs; four huge card-tables, two Chinese 

 tables, a Bmoking-table, a lady's work-table, two beautiful large 

 Chinese toilet-tables, a large cbess-table, four work-boxes, four 

 Bower-pots with flowers, a what-not, a l.!i- <• candelabra, a full-sized 

 1. -I with hangings, and a baby's swing col : a round toilet table, an 

 embroidery frame, a large flower-table, five small Chinese lamps, two 

 large ditto, two Chinese toilet Candlesticks, twelve fancy b 

 footstool, a painter's easel, four music-stands, ;v dining-tablo with 



