Romish Inquisitor than we should that of Calvin with with respect to Servetus. It was a great sin and a great crime. Servetus was not a citizen of Geneva; he had committed no offence within the territories of Geneva; he had broken no law of that state. The act was as illegal as it was cruel and unjust. It is said that all the leading Reformers approved of the deed and thanked Calvin for faithfully discharging his duty. We admit it. Nevertheless, there were many loud protests, even in that time, against the deed. David Joris and Gribaldo both wrote to the churches on behalf of Servetus. Bernardinus Ochinus, arriving from England, at Geneva, on the day of Servetus's execution, left the city immediately, horrified at the news. Zurkinden, the State-secretary of Berne, expressed his disapprobation. Indeed, there was such an outburst of honest indignation against the deed that both Calvin and Beza had to write books to defend it. And, moreover, Calvin was the very last man entitled to receive any extenuation from the darkness of the times; just for this reason, that he was the most enlightened man of the time. He was the freest of all the Reformers from the trammels of Popery. He was the most thorough student of scripture then living; and he professed to base all his acts upon scriptural authority. Therefore, he, of all men, ought to have learned that this was not the way to treat an erring brother. The simple piety of one of our own countrywomen led her to a very different conclusion. (To be continued.) John Heywood, Printer, 143, Deansgate, Manchester. MR. HENRY PITMAN, Of the "Manchester Courier." JUNE, 1861. CONTENTS: THE LAW OF THE LAND: COMMON FLOWERS AND THEIR MEANING: MAHOMET: By the Rev. A. M. CREERY, B.A. BUDDHA: By the Rev. A. M. CREERY, B.A. MANCHESTER: JOHN HEYWOOD, 143, DEANSGATE, AND 3 & 5, BRAZENNOSE Street. LONDON: W. KENT & CO., and FRED. PITMAN, PATERNOster Row, AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. A MONTHLY RECORD OF CO-OPERATIV Progress, 16 pages, price 1d.-John Heywood, Manchest Conducted by Working Men. The number of the Co-opera for June, contains a variety of cheering co-operative new also reading of general interest and improvement. Worki Men are earnestly advised to read the Co-operator, and he forward this great movement for their social, intellectual, as political regeneration. HE PHONETIC JOURNAL, published weekly, price 24 Tis devoted to a reform in Nan selling English language. Two pages of Phonography, written Mr. Isaac Pitman, the Inventor of the Art, and Editor the Journal, appear weekly, with a printed key. Phonograph is the briefest and best system of shorthand, and Phonoty or Phonetic Printing, affords an easy and truthful method learning to read. John Heywood, Manchester, and Pitman, London. Works published by John Heywood, 143, Deansgate, Manchester. DR. BEARD'S EDUCATIONAL MANUALS. NELF-CULTURE; a practical answer to the questions "What to Learn," "How t See When to Learn," with illustrative anecdotes, &c., &c. : forming a cus plete Guide to Self-Instruction. Price 1s. Cd., red cloth, gilt, Aprising, together with a series of original modicis, Instructions in English Gram N EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE ART OF LETTER WRITING; een and Composition. Price 2s, cloth, PRIMER, or FIRST READER Practical Answer to the Question, How can I Learn to Read? On a New, Simple, and Easy Methe combining Attractiveness with Usoful Instruction, and forming a Storehouse of Popular Wisdom. MANCHESTER AND LIVERPOOL SPELLING BOOK, on a New Plan, with complete Lists of Prefixes, Afixes, Arithmetical Tables, ace, a Fourth Edition, Revised and Improved, by R. ASHMAN. London: WHITTAKER & Co., and SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co. Now Ready, Price One Shilling, Fourth Edition of DAILY TALK IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH, à l'usage des doules et des familles; by A. C. G. JOBERT, author of The Art of Questioning and Answering in French The Philosophy of Geology-Ideas; or Outlines of a New System of Philosophy'-' Pure Sounds'-etc., ete. MANCHESTER: John Heywood. LONDON: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.; and Whittaker & Co., Ave Maria Lane. THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. BY MR. BRUCE FINDLAY, Curator of the Manchester Botanical Gardens. [It is nearly two years since we published a lecture on this interesting subject, the geography of plants. The present lecture is by a gentleman who is well qualified to do the subject justice. The Manchester Botanical Gardens were never in such good order and repute as under the care of Mr. Bruce Findlay.] IN N surveying the surface of the earth which we inhabit, as adorned with its gay covering, it presents the aspect of a natural garden, teeming spontaneously with vegetable productions of every variety of form, of hue, and magnitude, one of the first facts coming under the notice of the observer of nature is, that all plants do not vegetate in all situations; yet there are vegetable forms adapted to every climate; and these different aspects of plants, in different regions, have given rise to what may be called their characteristic or picturesque distribution. It has become a question with naturalists, how came these plants to the stations they now occupy? Investigations concerning the original creation of plants have occupied the attention of many men eminent for their scientific attainments, (amongst whom was the late lamented Baron Von Humboldt), and have led to very considerable diversity of opinion; one party contending that all plants originated in some central point, from which they have been gradually spread over the earth's surface; others conceiving that several such centres must have existed; and a third party believing species for the most part to have originated where they now appear, as the natural and untransported products of the soil and climate. Some again suppose, that at first genera only existed-species arising from generic admixture;—whilst others maintain that all vegetable forms are modifications of each other, or the result of a certain concurrence of molecules dispersed through matter, hence liable to be produced in any situation where the necessary conditions of their existence coeur. It must be obvious to the most careless observer, that several causes are in continual operation in the extension of species from one part of the earth to another; as seeds being dispersed abroad by the agency of the winds, currents of water, or animal locomotion. Many kinds of seeds also, have singular feathery appendages, fulfilling the office of wings, to assist in their migration; an instance of which we have in the dandelion. How much of vegetable distribution has thus been effected it is impossible now to estimate; but we have abundant evidence that such causes are still operative in our flora, although perhaps not very materially altering the range of its species, except when human agency is also introduced. The distribution of organic beings over the surface of the earth, does not depend wholly on climatic relations, which are of themselves very complicated, but also on geological causes almost unknown to us, belonging to the original state of the earth, and to catastrophes which have not affected all parts of our planet simultaneously. I am not in a position to say whether the creation of the organic covering of our earth was a work of successive epochs or otherwise. The subject seems to me surrounded with difficulties, but these difficulties ought not to deter us from endeavouring to search out the concealed laws of nature, but should rather stimulate us to the study of them through all their intricacies. I think, |