THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 

 
 CAPTAIN COLES S NEW IRON TURRET-SHIP-OF-WAR. 
 
KNOWLEDGE 
 
 FOR THE TIME: 
 
 a 
 
 READING, REFERENCE, AND CONVERSATION ON SUBJECTS OF LIVING 
 INTEREST, USEFUL CURIOSITY, AND AMUSING RESEARCH : 
 
 HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 
 PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 
 DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 
 CHANGES IN LAWS. 
 MEASURE AND VALUE. 
 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 
 LIFE AND HEALTH. 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 3fUustratf& from fyt tjrst anti latest 
 
 BY JOHN TIMES, F.S.A. 
 
 AUTHOR OF CURIOSITIES OF LONDON, THINGS NOT GENERALLY KNOWN, 
 ETC. 
 
 LONDON: 
 Lockwood and Co., 7 Stationers'-hall Court. 
 
 M DCCCLXIV. 
 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 THE great value of contemporary History that is, history 
 written by actual witnesses of the events which they narrate, 
 is now beginning to be appreciated by general readers. The 
 improved character of the journalism of the present day is the 
 best evidence of this advancement, which has been a work of 
 no ordinary labour. Truth is not of such easy acquisition as is 
 generally supposed ; and the chances of obtaining unprejudiced 
 accounts of events are rarely improved by distance from the time 
 at which they happen. In proportion as freedom of thought 
 is enlarged, and liberty of conscience, and liberty of will, are 
 increased, will be the amount of trustworthiness in the written 
 records of contemporaries. It is the rarity of these high privileges 
 in chroniclers of past events which has led to so many obscurities in 
 the world's history, and warpings in the judgment of its writers; 
 to trust some of whom has been compared to reading with 
 " coloured spectacles." And, one of the features of our times is 
 to be ever taking stock of the amount of truth in past history; to 
 s et readers on the tenters of doubt, and to make them suspicious 
 of perversions ; and to encourage a whitewashing of black repu- 
 tations which sometimes strays into an extreme equally as un- 
 serviceable to truth as that from which the writer started. 
 
 It is, however, with the view of correcting the Past by the light 
 of the Present, and directing attention to many salient points of 
 Knowledge for the Time, that the present volume is offered to 
 the public. Its aim may be considered great in proportion to the 
 limited means employed; but, to extend what is, in homely 
 phrase, termed a right understanding, the contents of the volume 
 are of a mixed character, the Author having due respect for the 
 
 b 
 
 M358807 
 
iv TO THE READER. 
 
 emphatic words of Dr. Arnold : " Preserve proportion in your 
 reading, keep your views of Men and Things extensive, and depend 
 upon it a mixed knowledge is not a superficial one : as far as it goes, 
 the views that it gives are true ; but he who reads deeply in one 
 class of writers only, gets views which are almost sure to be per- 
 verted, and which are not only narrow but false." 
 
 Throughout the Work, the Author has endeavoured to avail 
 himself of the most reliable views of leading writers on Events of 
 the Day ; and by seizing new points of Knowledge and sources 
 of Information, to present, in a classified form, such an assemblage 
 of Facts and Opinions as may be impressed with warmth and 
 quickness upon the memory, and assist in the formation of a good 
 general judgment, or direct still further a-field. 
 
 In this Manual of abstracts, abridgments, and summaries 
 considerably over Three Hundred in number illustrations by 
 way of Anecdote occur in every page. Wordiness has been 
 avoided as unfitted for a book which has for its object not the 
 waste but the economy of time and thought, and the diffusion of 
 concise notions upon subjects of living Interest, useful Curiosity, 
 and amusing Research. 
 
 The accompanying Table of Contents will, at a single glance, 
 show the variety as well as the practical character of the subjects 
 illustrated ; the aim being to render the work alike serviceable to 
 the reader of a journal of the day, as well as to the student who 
 reads to " reject what is no longer essential." The Author has 
 endeavoured to keep pace with a the progress of Information ; and 
 in the selection of new accessions, some have been inserted more 
 to stimulate curiosity and promote investigation than as things to 
 be taken for granted. The best and latest Authorities have been 
 consulted, and the improved journalism of our time has been 
 made available; for, "when a river of gold is running by your 
 door, why not put out your hat, and take a dip ?"* 
 
 The Author has already published several volumes of Things 
 not generally Known," which he is anxious to supplement with 
 the present Manual of Knowledge for the Time. 
 
 * Douglas Jerrold. 
 
THE FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 CAPTAIN COLES'S IRON TURRET-SHIP-OF-WAR. 
 
 THE precise and best mode of constructing Iron Ships-of- War, so 
 as to carry heavy guns, is an interesting problem, which Captain 
 Coles believes he has already satisfactorily solved in his Turret 
 ship, wherein he proposes to protect the guns by turrets. Cap- 
 tain Coles offered to the Admiralty so long ago as 1855 to con- 
 struct a vessel on this principle, having a double bottom ; light 
 draught of water, with the power of giving an increased im- 
 mersion when under fire ; sharp at both ends ; a formidable 
 prow ; her rudder and screw protected by a projection of iron ; 
 the turret being hemispherical, and not a turn-table, which was 
 unnecessary, as this vessel was designed for attacking stationary 
 forts in the Black Sea. 
 
 Captain Coles contributed to the International Exhibition models 
 of his ship ; admitting (he states) from 7 to 8 degrees depression. 
 In two this is obtained by the deck on each side of the turret 
 sloping at the necessary angle, to admit of the required depres- 
 sion ; in the other two it is obtained by the centre of the deck on 
 which the turret is surmounted being raised sufficiently to en- 
 able the shot, when the gun is depressed, to pass clear of the 
 outer edge of the deck. A drawing published in 1860, of the 
 midship section from which these models were made, also gives 
 a section of the Warrior, by which it will be seen that supposing 
 the guns of each to be 10 feet out of water, and to have the 
 usual depressions of guns in the Navy (7 degrees), the Warrior s 
 guns on the broadside will throw the shot 19 feet further from 
 the side than the shield ship with her guns placed in the centre, 
 that being the distance of the latter from the edge of the ship: 
 thus, with the same depression, the shield ship will have a 
 greater advantage, this being an important merit of the invention, 
 
vi THE FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 which Captain Coles has already applied to the Royal Sovereign. 
 The construction of these turrets, the guns, and the turn-tables 
 on which they are placed, with the machinery to work [them, is 
 very interesting ; but its details would occupy more space than is 
 at our command. (See Times, Sept.]8, 1863.) 
 
 Captain Coles, in a communication to the Times, dated No- 
 vember, 4, 1863, thus urges the application of the turret to sea- 
 going vessels, and quotes the opinion of the present Contractor of 
 the Navy on the advantages his (Captain Coles) system must 
 have over the old one, in strength, height out of water, and sta- 
 bility, and consequent adaptation for sea-going ships. The Cap- 
 tain states: 
 
 " I believe I have already shown that on my system of a re- 
 volving turret, a heavier broadside can be thrown than from ships 
 armed on the broadside ; but it possesses this further advantage, 
 that my turrets can be adapted to the heaviest description of ord- 
 nance ; indeed, no other plan has yet been put in practice, while it 
 is impossible^ to adapt the broadside ships to them, without the 
 enlargement of the ports, which would destructively weaken the 
 ships, and leave the guns' crew exposed to rifles, grape-shot or 
 shells." Captain Coles then quotes the armaments of the Prince 
 Albert (now constructing at Millwall,) and the Warrior, and 
 shows that although the broadside of the Prince Albert is nomi- 
 nally reduced to 1120 Ibs. (still in excess of the Warriors if 
 compared with tonnage) ; it still gives this great advantage, that 
 whereas late experiments have demonstrated that 4^-inch plates 
 can be made to resist 68-pounder and no-pounder shot, they 
 have also shown that the 300 -pounder smashes them when formed 
 into a "Warrior target" with the greatest ease. The Prince 
 Albert, therefore, can smash the Warrior, though the Warrior 
 carries no gun that can injure her ; nor can she, as a broadside 
 ship, be altered to carry heavier guns. 
 
 The Engraving represents Captain Coles's Ship cleared for 
 action, and the bulwarks down. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. HlSTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION, I 56: 
 
 Politics not yet a Science, The Philosopher and the Historian, i. 
 Whig and Tory Ministries, 2. Protectionists, Rats, and Ratting, 
 The Heir to the British Throne always in Opposition, 4. Legiti- 
 macy and Government, " The Fourth Estate," 5. Writing for the 
 Press, Shorthand Writers, 7. The Worth of Popular Opinion, 8. 
 Machiavelism, Free-speaking, 9. Speakers of the Houses of 
 Parliament, 10. The National Conscience, 1 1. "The Nation of 
 Shopkeepers," 12. Results of Revolutions, 13. Worth of a Re- 
 public, "Safe Men," 14. Church Preferment, Peace States- 
 manship, The Burial of Sir John Moore, 15. The Ancestors of 
 Washington, 16. The " Star-spangled Banner," Ancestry of Pre- 
 sident Adams, 18. The Irish Union, 19. The House of Bona- 
 parte, 20. Invasion of England projected by Napoleon I., 21. Fate 
 of the Due d'Enghien, 24. Last Moments of Mr. Pitt, 25. What 
 drove George III. mad, -27. Predictions of the Downfal of Napo- 
 leon I., 29. Wellington predicts the Peninsular Compaign, 30. 
 The Battle of Waterloo, 31. Wellington's Defence of the Waterloo 
 Campaign, 32. Lord Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna, 33. 
 The Cato-street Conspiracy, 34. Money Panic of 1832, 36. A 
 great Sufferer by Revolutions, Origin of the Anti-Corn-Law 
 League, 37. Wellington's Military Administration, 38. Gustavus 
 III. of Sweden, 39. Fall of Louis Philippe, 40. The Chartists in 
 1848, 41. Revival of the French Emperorship, 43. French Coup 
 d'Etat Predictions, Statesmanship of Lord Melbourne, 44. Un- 
 graceful Observance, 45. The Partition of Poland, 46. The Inva- 
 sion of England, 47. What a Militia can do, 48. Whiteboys, 49. 
 Naval Heroes, How Russia is bound to Germany, 50. Count Ca- 
 vour's Estimate of Napoleon III., 51. The Mutiny at the Nore, 52. 
 Catholic Emancipation and Sir Robert Peel, The House of Coburg, 5 3. 
 A few Years of the World's Changes, 55. Noteworthy Pensions, 56. 
 
 II. PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION, 57 84: 
 
 How the Earth was peopled, 57. Revelations of Geology, 58. The 
 Stone Age, 59. What are Celtes ? 60. Roman Civilization of 
 Britain, 61. Roman Roads and British Railways, 62. Domestic 
 Life of the Saxons, 64. Love of Freedom, 65. The Despot deceived, 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 True Source of Civilization, 66. The Lowest Civilization, Why 
 do we shake Hands ? 67. Various Modes of Salutation, 68. What 
 is Comfort ? 69. What is Luxury ? What do we know of Life ? 70. 
 The truest Patriot the greatest Hero, The old Philosophers, 71. 
 Glory of the Past, 72. Wild Oats, How Shyness spoils Enjoy- 
 ment, 73. " Custom, the Queen of the World," 74. Ancient 
 Guilds and Modern Benefit Clubs, The Oxford Man and the Cam- 
 bridge Man, 75. "Great Events from Little Causes spring," 76. 
 Great Britain on the Map of the World, 80. Ancient and 
 Modern London, Potatoes the national food of the Irish, 81. 
 Irish-speaking Population, Our Colonial Empire, 82. The English 
 People, 84. 
 
 Ill DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS, 85 102: 
 
 Worth of Heraldry, 85. Heralds' College, 86. The Shamrock, Irish 
 Titles of Honour, 87. The Scotch Thistle, 88. King and Queen, 89. 
 Title of Majesty, and the Royal " We," 90. " Dieu et Mon Droit," 
 Plume and Motto of the Prince of Wales, 91. Victoria, 92. 
 English Crowns, the Imperial State Crown, 93. Queen's Mes- 
 sengers, Presents and Letters to the Queen, 95. The Prince of 
 Waterloo, The See of London, 96. Expense of Baronetcy and 
 Knighthood, 97. The Aristocracy, 98. Precedence in Parlia- 
 ment, Sale of Seats in Parliament, Placemen in Parliament, 99. 
 New Peers, The Russells, Political Cunning, 100. The 
 Union- Jack, Field -Marshal, 101. Change of Surname, 102. 
 
 IV. CHANGES IN LAWS, 104144: 
 
 The Statute Law and the Common Law, 104. Curiosities of the Statute 
 Law, 105. Secret of Success at the Bar, Queen's Serjeants, Queen's 
 Counsel, and Serjeants-at-Law, 107. Do not make your Son an 
 Attorney, Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, 108. 
 Payment of an advocate, Utter-Barristers, 109. What was Special 
 Pleading? What is Evidence? no. What is Trial? Trial by 
 Jury, in. Attendance of Jurors, The Law of Libel, 113. In- 
 duction of a Rector, 115. Benefit of Clergy, The King's Book, r 16. 
 Compulsory Attendance at Church, 117. The Mark of the Cross, 
 Marriage-Law of England, 118. Marriage Fines, 119. Irregular 
 Marriages, 120. Solemnization of Marriage, 123. The Law of 
 Copyright, 124. Holding over after Lease, Abolition of the Hop 
 Duty, 125. Customs of Gavelkind, Treasure Trove, 1-26. Prin- 
 cipal and Agent, Legal Hints, 129. Vitiating a Sale, 130. Law 
 of Gardens, Giving a Servant a Character, 131. Deodands, 132. 
 Arrest of the Body after Death, The Duty of making a Will, 133. 
 Don't make your own Will, 134. Bridewell, 135. Cockfight- 
 ing, 136. Ignorance and Irresponsibility, Ticket - of - Leave 
 Men, 137. Cupar and Jedburgh Justice, What is to be done with 
 our Convicts, 138. The Game Laws, The Pillory, 139. 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 Death- Warrants, Pardons, 140. Origin of the Judge's Black Cap, 
 The Last English Gibbet, 141. Public Executions, 142. 
 
 V. MEASURE AND VALUE, 146 169: 
 
 Numbers descriptive of Distance, Precocious Mental Calculation, 146. 
 The Roman Foot, 147. The Peruvian Quipus, 418. Distances 
 measured, Uniformity of .Weights and Measures, 149. Trinity 
 High-water Mark, Origin of Rent, 150. Curiosities of the Exche- 
 quer, 151. What becomes of the Public Revenue, 153. Queen 
 Anne's Bounty, 154. Ecclesiastical Fees, Burying Gold and Silver, 
 155. Results of Gold-seeking, 157. What becomes of the Pre- 
 cious Metals? 158. Tribute-money, 159. The First Lottery, 
 Coinage of a Sovereign, 160. Wear and Tear of the Coinage, 
 Counterfeit Coin, 161. Standard Gold, Interest of Money, 162. 
 Interest of Money in India, Origin of Insurance, 163. Stock- 
 brokers, 164. Tampering with Public Credit, Overspeculation, 
 165. Value of Horses, Friendly Societies, 166. Wages heightened 
 by Improvement in Machinery, 167. Giving Employment, Never 
 sign an Accommodation Bill, 168. A Year's Wills, 169. 
 
 VI. PROGRESS OF SCIENCE, 171 232: 
 
 What human Science has accomplished, Changes in Social Science, 171. 
 Discoverers not Inventors, 172. Science of Roger Bacon, 173. 
 The One Science, 174. Sun-force, 175. "The Seeds of Inven- 
 tion," 176. The Object of Patents, Theory and Practice, Watt 
 and Telford, 177. Practical Science, Mechanical Arts, 178. 
 Force of Running Water, Correlation of Physical Forces, Oil on 
 Waves, 1 80. Spontaneous Generation, Guano, What is Perspec- 
 tive? 181. The Stereoscope, Burning Lenses, 182. How to wear 
 Spectacles, Vicissitudes of Mining, 183. Uses of Mineralogy, 185. 
 Our Coal Resources, The Deepest Mine, 186. Iron as a Building 
 Material, 189. Concrete, not new, Sheathing Ships with Copper, 
 190. Copper Smelting, Antiquity of Brass, Brilliancy of the 
 Diamond, 191. Philosophy of Gunpowder, New Pear-flavouring, 
 192. Methylated Spirit, 193. What is Phosphate of Lime? 
 What is Wood? How long will Wood last? 194. The Safety 
 Match, 195. Pottery, Wedgwood, 196. Imposing Mechanical 
 Effects, 197 Horse-power, The First Practical Steam-boat, 198. 
 Effect of Heavy Seas upon Large Vessels, 199. The Railway, Ac- 
 cidents on Railways, 200. Railways and Invasions, 202. What the 
 English owe to naturalized Foreigners, 203. Geological Growth, 
 204. The Earth and Man compared, Why the Earth is presumed 
 to be Solid, "Implements in the Drift," 205. The Centre of the 
 Earth, 206. The Cooling of the Earth, 207. Identity of Heat and 
 Motion, 208 Universal Source of Heat, 209. Inequalities of the 
 Earth's Surface, 210. Chemistry of the Sea, 212. The Sea: its 
 Perils, 213. Limitations of Astronomy, 214. Distance of the Earth 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 from the Sun, 215. Blue Colour of the Sky, 216. Beauty of the 
 Sky, 217. High Temperatures in Balloon Ascents, Value of Me- 
 teorological Observations, Telegraph, and Forecasts, 218. Weather 
 Signs, 220. Barometer for Farmers, 222. Icebergs and the Wea- 
 ther, 223. St. Swithun : his true History, 224. Rainfall in 
 London, 225. The Force of Lightning, 226. Effect of Moon- 
 light, Contemporary Inventions and Discoveries, 227. The Bayonet, 
 228. Loot, Telegram, Archaeology and Manufactures, 229. 
 Good Art should be Cheap, 230. Imitative Jewellery, 231. French 
 Enamel, 232. 
 
 VII. LIFE AND HEALTH, 233 266: 
 
 Periods and Conditions of Life, Age of the People, 233. The Human 
 Heart, The Sense of Hearing, 234. Care of the Teeth, On 
 Blindness, 235. Sleeping and Dreaming, 236. Position in Sleeping, 
 Hair suddenly changing Colour, 237. Consumption not hopeless, 
 238. Change of Climate, Perfumes, 239. Cure for Yellow Fever, 
 Nature's Ventilation, 240. Artificial Ventilation, Worth of 
 Fresh Air, 241. Town and Country, 243. Recreations of the 
 People, The Druids and their Healing Art, 244. Remedies for 
 Cancer, 245. Improved Surgery, Restoration of a Fractured Leg, 
 246. The Original "Dr. Sangrado," False Arts advancing true, 
 247. Brief History of Medicine, 248. What has Science done for 
 Medicine? 249. Element of Physic in Medical Practice, 250. 
 Physicians' Fees, Prevention of Pitting in Small-pox, 251. Un- 
 derneath the Skin, 252. Relations of Mind and Organization, 253. 
 Deville, the Phrenologist, 254. "Seeing is believing," 255. 
 Causes of Insanity, 256. Brain-Disease, 257. The Half-mad, 258. 
 Motives for Suicide, Remedy for Poisoning, 259. New Remedy 
 for Wounds, Compensation for Wounds, The Best Physician, 260. 
 The Uncertainty of Human Life, 262. 
 
 VIII. RELIGIOUS THOUGHT, 266286: 
 
 Moveable Feasts, Christmas, 266. Doubt about Religion, 267. Our 
 Age of Doubt, 270. A Hint to Sceptics, What is Egyptology ? 271. 
 Jerusalem and Nimroud, 272. What is Rationalism ? J2 7 3. 
 What is Theology? 274. Religious Forebodings, 275. Folly of 
 Atheism, The First Congregational Church in England, 276. 
 Innate Ideas, and Pre-existence of Souls, 277. Sabbath of Profes- 
 sional Men, 278. "In the Beginning," 279. The last Religious 
 Martyrs in England, Liberty of Conscience, 281. Awful Judg- 
 ments, Christian Education, The Book of Psalms, 283. The 
 Book of Job, 285. 
 
 APPENDIX.. 
 Great Precedence Question 287 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Information, 
 
 Politics not yet a Science. 
 
 MR. BUCKLE, in his thoughtful History of Civilization, re- 
 marks: " In the present state of knowledge, Politics, so far from 
 being a science, is one of the most backward of all the arts ; and 
 the only safe course for the legislator is to look upon his craft as 
 consisting in the adaptation of temporary contrivances to tem- 
 porary emergencies. His business is to follow the age, and not 
 at all to attempt to lead it. He should be satisfied with studying 
 what is passing around him, and should modify his schemes, 
 not according to the notions he has inherited from his fathers, 
 but according to the actual exigencies of his own time. For he 
 may rely upon it that the movements of society have now become 
 so rapid that the wants of one generation are no measure of the 
 wants of another ; and that men, urged by a sense of their own 
 progress, are growing weary of idle talk about the wisdom of 
 their ancestors, and are fast discarding those trite and sleepy 
 maxims which have hitherto imposed upon them, but by which 
 they will not consent to be much longer troubled." 
 
 The Philosopher and the Historian. 
 
 u I have read somewhere or other," says Lord Bolingbroke, 
 " in Dionysius Halicarnassus, I think, that History is Philosophy 
 teaching by Example." 
 
 Walter Savage Landor has thus distinguished the respective 
 labours of the Philosopher and the Historian. " There are," Mr 
 Landor writes, " quiet hours and places in which a taper may be 
 carried steadily, and show the way along the ground ; but you 
 must stand a tip-toe and raise a blazing torch above your head, if 
 
 B 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 you would bring to our vision the obscure and time-worn figures 
 depicted on the lofty vaults of antiquity. The philosopher shows 
 everything in one clear light ; the historian loves strong reflections 
 and deep shadows, but, above all, prominent and moving cha- 
 racters." 
 
 In writing of the Past, it behoves us to bear in mind, that while 
 actions are always to be judged by the immutable standard of 
 right and wrong, the judgment which we pass upon men must be 
 qualified by considerations of age, country, situation, and other 
 incidental circumstances; and it will then be found, that he who is 
 most charitable in his judgment, is generally the least unjust. 
 
 It is curious to find one of the silken barons of civilization and 
 refinement, writing as follows. The polite Earl of Chesterfield 
 says: " I am provoked at the contempt which most historians 
 show for humanity in general: one would think by them that the 
 whole human species consisted but of about a hundred and fifty 
 people, called and dignified (commonly very undeservedly too) 
 by the titles of emperors, kings, popes, generals, and ministers." 
 
 Sir Humphry Davy has written thus plainly in the same vein : 
 "In the common history of the world, as compiled by authors in 
 general, almost all the great changes of nations are confounded 
 with changes in their dynasties ; and events are usually referred 
 either to sovereigns, chiefs, heroes, or their armies, which do, in 
 fact, originate entirely from different causes, either of an intel- 
 lectual or moral nature. Governments depend far more than is 
 generally supposed upon the opinion of "the people and the spirit 
 of the age and nation. It sometimes happens that a gigantic 
 mind possesses supreme power, and rises superior to the age in 
 which he is born: such was Alfred in England, and Peter in 
 Russia. Such instances are, however, very rare ; and in general 
 it is neither amongst sovereigns nor the higher classes of society 
 that the great improvers and benefactors of mankind are to be 
 found." Consolations in Travel, pp. 34, 35. 
 
 Whig and Tory Ministries. 
 
 The domestic history of England during the reign of Anne, 
 is that of the great struggles between Whig and Tory ; and Earl 
 Stanhope, in his History of England, thus points out a number of 
 precisely parallel lines of policy, and instances of unscrupulous 
 resort to the same censurable set of weapons of party warfare, in 
 the Tories of the reign of Queen Anne and the Whigs of the 
 reign of William IV. 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 3 
 
 " At that period the two great contending parties were distinguished, as 
 at present, by the nicknames of Whig and Tory. But it is very remark- 
 able that in Queen Anne's reign the relative meaning of these terms was 
 not only different but opposite to that which they bore at the accession of 
 William IV. In theory, indeed, the main principle of each continues the 
 same. The leading principle of the Tories is the dread of popular licen- 
 tiousness. The leading principle of the Whigs is the dread of royal en- 
 croachment. It may thence, perhaps, be deduced that good and wise men 
 would attach themselves either to the Whig or to the Tory party, accord- 
 ing as there seemed to be the greater danger at that particular period 
 from despotism or from democracy. The same person who would have 
 been a Whig in 1712 would have been a Tory in 1830. For, on exa- 
 mination, it will be found that, in nearly all particulars, a modern Tory 
 resembles a Whig of Queen Anne's reign, and a Tory of Queen Anne's 
 reign a modern Whig. 
 
 " First, as to the Tories. The Tories of Queen Anne's reign pursued 
 a most unceasing opposition to a just and glorious war against France. 
 They treated the great General of the age as their peculiar adversary. To 
 our recent enemies, the French, their policy was supple and crouching. 
 They had an indifference, or even an aversion, to our old allies the Dutch. 
 They had a political leaning towards the Roman Catholics at home. They 
 were supported by the Roman Catholics in their elections. They had a 
 love of triennial parliaments in preference to septennial. They attempted 
 to abolish the protecting duties and restrictions of commerce. They wished 
 to favour our trade with France at the expense of our trade with Portugal. 
 They were supported by a faction whose war-cry was 'Repeal of the 
 Union,' in a sister kingdom. To serve a temporary purpose in the House 
 of Lords, they had recourse (for the first time in our annals) to a large and 
 overwhelming creation of peers. Like the Whigs in May, 1831, they 
 chose the moment of the highest popular passion and excitement to dis- 
 solve the House of Commons, hoping to avail themselves of a short-lived 
 cry for the purpose of permanent delusion. The Whigs of Queen Anne's 
 time, on the other hand, supported that splendid war which led to such 
 victories as Ramillies and Blenheim. They had for a leader the great 
 man who gained those victories. They advocated the old principles of 
 trade. They prolonged the duration of parliaments. They took their 
 stand on the principles of the Revolution of r688. They raised the cry 
 of ' No Popery.' They loudly inveighed against the subserviency to France, 
 the desertion of our old allies, the outrage wrought upon the peers, the 
 deceptions practised upon the sovereign, and the other measures of the Tory 
 administration. 
 
 " Such were the Tories and such were the Whigs of Queen Anne. Can 
 it be doubted that, at the accession of William IV., Harley and St. John 
 would have been called Whigs j Somers and Stanhope, Tories ? Would 
 not the October Club have loudly cheered the measures of Lord Grey, 
 and the Kit-Cat find itself renewed in the Carlton ?" 
 
 B2 
 
4 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 The defence of the Whigs against these imputations seems to 
 be founded upon the famous Jesuitical principle, that the end 
 justifies the means. They do not deny the facts, but they assert, 
 that while the Tories of 1713 resorted to such modes of further- 
 ing the interests of arbitrary power, they have employed them in 
 advancing the progress and securing the ascendancy of the demo- 
 cracy. 
 
 Protectionists. 
 
 This name was given to that section of the Conservative party 
 which opposed the repeal of the Corn-laws, and which separated 
 from Sir Robert Peel in 1846. A " Society for the Protection of 
 Agriculture," and to counteract the efforts of the Anti-Corn Law 
 League, gave the name to the party. Lord George Bentinck was 
 their leader from 1846 till his death on September 21, 1848. The 
 administration under Lord Derby not proposing the restoration 
 ot the corn-laws, this society was dissolved February 7, 1853. 
 
 Rats, and Ratting. 
 
 James, in his Military Dictionary, 1816, states: 
 " Rats are sometimes used in. military operations, particularly for set- 
 ting fire to magazines of gunpowder. On these occasions, a lighted match 
 is tied to the tail of the animal. Marshal Vauban recommends, therefore, 
 that the walls of powder-magazines should be made very thick, and the 
 passages for light and wind so narrow as not to admit them (the rats)." 
 
 The expression to rat is a figurative term applied to those 
 who at the moment of a division desert or abandon any parti- 
 cular party or side of a question. The term itself comes from 
 the well-known circumstance of rats running away from decayed 
 or falling buildings. Notes and Queries, 2 S., No. 68. 
 
 The Heir to the British Throne always in 
 Opposition. 
 
 Horace Walpole somewhere remarks, as a peculiarity in the 
 history of the Hanover family, that the heir-apparent has always 
 been in opposition to the reigning monarch. The fact is true 
 enough ; but it is not a peculiarity in the House of Hanover. It 
 is an infirmity of human nature, to be found, more or less, in 
 every analogous case of private life ; but our political system de- 
 velopes it with peculiar force and more remarkable effects in the 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 5 
 
 Royal Family. Those who cannot obtain the favours of the father 
 will endeavour to conciliate the good wishes of the son ; and all 
 arts are employed, and few are necessary, to seduce the heir- 
 apparent into the exciting and amusing game of political oppo- 
 sition. He is naturally apt enough to dislike what he considers a 
 present thraldom, and to anticipate, by his influence over a faction, 
 the plenitude of his future power. This was the mainspring of 
 the most serious part of the political troubles of the last century : 
 let us, however, hope that it will never be revived ; and this we 
 are encouraged to hope from our improved Constitution, as well 
 as from the improved education of our Royal Family. 
 
 Legitimacy and Government. 
 
 It is an unguarded idea of some public writers that "the 
 Sovereign holds her crown not by hereditary descent but by the 
 will of the nation." This doctrine is too frequently stated in and 
 out of Parliament ; and without qualification or explanation it 
 would be apt to breed mischief in the minds of an ignorant and 
 excited multitude, if the instinctive feelings of common sense did 
 not invariably correct the popular errors of theorists. 
 
 " They who have studied the Constitution attentively hold that 
 her Majesty reigns by hereditary right, though her predecessor in 
 1688 received the Crown at the hands of a free nation. To refer 
 to the right of election, which can be exercised only during a 
 revolution, and to be silent on hereditary right, is to lower the 
 Regal dignity to the precarious office of the judges when they 
 held their patents durante beneplacito. Suppose a nation so divided 
 that one casting vote would carry a plebiscite, changing the form 
 of government, or the dynasty, and there would be a practical 
 illustration of a principle if principle at all which, when taken 
 as a broad palpable fact, is undeniable in the founder of a dynasty, 
 but when erected into a legal theory it becomes neither more nor 
 less than a permanent code of revolution. Hence the successor of 
 that founder, if his power be not supported by military despo- 
 tism, is invariably a staunch advocate of his indefeasible hereditary 
 right, though originally derived from the consent of the nation." 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 " The Fourth Estate." 
 
 The Press has been described as the Fourth Estate of the realm j 
 but it is not so. If we remember rightly, it was Lord Stanley who 
 characterized it as a second representation ot the Third Estate. 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 This is nearer the mark, though it is not exactly true, seeing 
 that the press represents, or professes to represent, all the three 
 estates. Its influence on the State is a fact either not acknow- 
 ledged at all or acknowledged as an evil to be held in check by 
 stringent laws and safeguards. Its place of power is not defined 
 by any written Constitution, and its acts are in our day controlled, 
 for the most part, by no written statute, but only by its own 
 good sense. In its modes of expression, the newspaper press of 
 our country usually keeps far within the bounds which the law 
 prescribes ; it voluntarily prescribes for itself a law which has no 
 authority save that of taste. There is not a greater power under 
 the Constitution than this press, which is indeed the source of 
 power to much besides itself. What would public meetings be 
 without the press ? Within the present century the method of 
 influencing public opinion by means of great gatherings of the 
 people under the direction of leagues and associations has been 
 perfected. It is a method which derives its momentum from the 
 multiplication of reports! It is a matter of indifference to an 
 orator what or where is his audience, provided through the re- 
 porters he can address all England. The Press has thus neutra- 
 lized one of the evils of democracy as it was known in the olden 
 time. A democratic Assembly meant a rabble, a packed mul- 
 titude of noisy citizens into which the more quiet and thoughtful 
 class of people did not care to venture. In the democratic 
 Assemblies now every man in England virtually sits. We have 
 good seats, for we are at our own firesides with the newspapers 
 in our hands. In the quiet of our chosen retreats we listen to 
 the " cheers," and the " hear, hear," and the laughter which the 
 speech of the orator evokes, and we can calmly measure the words 
 of the demagogue. Upon the very manner of public speaking, 
 too, we imagine that the system of newspaper reporting has had 
 some effect. If we may judge by the very imperfect reports 
 which we have of speeches delivered in the last century, orators 
 were then more inflated and inflammatory in their style than they 
 are now, the momentary impression which they created was 
 beyond anything we can now conceive, and if eloquence is to be 
 judged from its immediate effect they were greater masters of the 
 art than any we can now boast of. If this appears a hard thing 
 to say, when we have such orators among us as Lord Derby ., 
 Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Disraeli, let us remember 
 the other side of the question let us take into account that our 
 contemporary first-class orators speak with the full knowledge 
 that in cool blood their speeches will be read word for word 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 7 
 
 on the morrow. They know right well that much of the bom- 
 bast which might safely be addressed to an admiring and heated 
 audience will expose them only to ridicule when it is reduced to 
 print. Insensibly a more sober standard of oratory is thus esta- 
 blished, to the great gain of our deliberative assemblies, and acting 
 as some check upon rhetorical demagogues. Times. 
 
 Writing for the Press. 
 
 The organization of a great Newspaper establishment is a re- 
 markable result of practical ability profiting by accumulated 
 experience ; but an account of the progress and development of 
 the system is as tedious as a history of the iron manufacture or 
 of the cotton trade. A readable narrative must include matters 
 of more human interest than tables of figures which represent 
 the successive numbers of copies and of advertisements; and 
 although newspapers, like power-looms, may not have sprung 
 into existence of themselves, the names of their obscure founders 
 and managers are deservedly forgotten. Mr. Perry's name is still 
 known in consequence of his connexion with the old Whig party; 
 Mr. Stuart enjoys a parasitic fame as the employer of Coleridge 
 and of Mackintosh ; and the late Mr. Walter exhibited an effec- 
 tive sagacity in the conduct of his business which places him on 
 a level with the Arkwrights and Boltons of manufacturing history. 
 It would not be worth while to extend the list of able editors 
 and spirited proprietors. Successful men of business must be con- 
 tented to make their own fortunes and to benefit the world at 
 large, without desiring the supererogatory reward of posthumous 
 fame. When the gods, in Schiller's apologue, had given away 
 the earth and the sea, they reserved the barren sky for the portion- 
 less poet ; and ever since, the lightest touch of genius, the smallest 
 act which indicated inherent greatness, has been found to retain its 
 place in the memory of men long after capitalists and mechanical 
 inventors have joined the multitude of the dead ; abierunt ad 
 plures. The clever lecturer who employs himself in diffusing 
 information on the mechanism of watches probably finds the 
 attention of his audience flag when he attempts to delineate the 
 qualities and virtues of deceased generations of watchmakers. 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 Shorthand Writers. 
 
 Stenography, or the art of short writing, is generally stated 
 to have been invented by Xenophon, the historian ; first practised 
 
8 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 by Pythagoras ; and reduced to a system by the poet, Ennius. To 
 this art we owe full reports of the proceedings in Parliament. 
 The system of Gurney was employed for this purpose ; shorthand 
 notes upon which were found among the Egerton MSS. 
 
 The shorthand-writer of the House of Commons states in his 
 Evidence before the Select Committee on Private Bill Legislation 
 that he receives two guineas a-day for attendance before com- 
 mittees to take notes of the evidence, and gd. per folio of 72 
 words for making a copy from his notes. In 1862, he received 
 for business thus done for the committees on private Bills 66677., 
 consisting of i682/. for attendance fees and 49857. for the tran- 
 scripts ; this does not include the charges in respect of committees 
 on public matters. He is appointed for the House of Lords also. 
 So much of the business as he cannot execute by his own establish- 
 ment he transfers to other shorthand writers on rather lower terms, 
 but he himself keeps a staff of ten shorthand writers. Each of 
 these has at least one clerk who can read his shorthand; but 
 the most efficient course is found to be that he have two such 
 clerks, each of whom (and himself also), taking in hand a portion 
 of the notes, dictates to quick writers, so that the mode of tran- 
 scribing is by writing from dictation, and not by copying. There 
 is a great strain and pressure in order to get the transcript to the 
 law-stationers in time for the requisite number of copies to be 
 ready when the committee meet next morning. In the height of 
 the session, the witness mentions, he provides refreshments for 
 about fifty persons employed at his office during the evening, 
 many of them until midnight, and often later. 
 
 The Worth of Popular Opinion. 
 
 Popular Opinion is generally founded on the most prominent 
 and the most striking, but for that reason, often the most superfi- 
 cial feature in the interesting object of which a knowledge is pre- 
 tended. That Cromwell had a wart on his nose ; that Byron 
 had a club-foot, which gave him more anxiety than the critiques 
 on his poems; that the head of Pericles was too long, for which 
 reason the sculptors always made his bust helmeted, while that of 
 Julius Caesar was bald, which made it doubly grateful to that 
 great commander to have his brow encompassed with an oaken 
 wreath, or the coveted kingly diadem ; such prominent and super- 
 ficial accessories of personal appearance, in the case of well- 
 known characters, will often be familiar to thousands who know 
 nothing more of the persons so curiously characterized. But 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 9 
 
 these, so far as they go, are true ; they are accurate knowledge, 
 not mere opinion. Even vulgar opinion is not so often altogether 
 false as it is partial and inadequate, and therefore unjust. Of 
 Mahomet, for instance, everybody knows that he was the prophet 
 of an intolerant religion, which its most sincere professors have 
 always most zealously propagated with the sword. This is quite 
 true ; but it is far from embracing the whole truth with regard 
 to the religion of the Koran ; and he who with the inconsiderate 
 haste of popular logic, uses this accurate knowledge about a 
 fraction of a thing, as if it were the just appreciation of the 
 whole, falls not the less certainly into the region of mere de- 
 lusion ; for though the thing that he believes is true, it is not 
 true as he gives it currency. He is in fact doing a thing in 
 the region of ideas which is equivalent to passing a farthing 
 for a guinea ; an act whereby he swindles the public and him- 
 self very nearly as much as if he were to pass off a piece of 
 painted pasteboard for the same value. Professor Blackie ; 
 Edinburgh Essays, 1856. 
 
 Machiavelism. 
 
 It has been well said of Machiavelli, that he has the credit or 
 discredit of having been the first to erect into a science, and reduce 
 it to theory, the art of obtaining absolute power by deception and 
 cruelty ; and of maintaining it afterwards by the simulation of 
 leniency and virtue. In political history, he was the first who 
 gave at once a general and a luminous development of great events 
 in their causes and connexion. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World, says : " The 
 doctrine which Machiavel taught unto Caesar Borgia, to employ 
 men in mischievous actions, and afterwards to destroy them when 
 they have performed the mischief, was not of his own invention. 
 All ages have given us examples of this goodly policy ; the latter 
 having been apt scholars in this lesson to the more ancient, as 
 the reign of Henry VIII. here in England can bear witness; 
 and therein especially the Lord Cromwell, who perished by the 
 same unjust law that himself had devised for the taking away of 
 another man's life." 
 
 Free-speaking. 
 
 Archbishop Whately, in his very able Lecture on Egypt, refer- 
 ring to the writers on Public Affairs at home, reprehends the 
 practice of exaggerating, with keen delight, every evil that they 
 
10 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 can find, inventing such as do not exist, and keeping out of sight 
 what is good. An Eastern despot, reading the productions of one 
 of these writers, would say that, with all our precautions, we are 
 the worst governed people on earth; and that our law-courts 
 and public offices are merely a complicated machinery for oppress- 
 ing the mass of the people ; that our Houses of Lords and Com- 
 mons are utterly mismanaged, our public men striving to repress 
 merit, and that our best plan would be to sweep away all those, 
 as, with less trouble, matters might go on better, and could not 
 go on worse. Charges of this nature cannot be brought publicly 
 forward in the Turkish Empire. In Cairo, a man was beheaded 
 because he made too free a use of his tongue. He was told 
 not to be speaking of the insurrection in Syria, and had dared 
 to be chatting of the news ; and there are other countries, also, 
 where because such charges are true, it would not be safe to 
 circulate them. But these writers do not mean half what they set 
 forth. They heighten their descriptions to display their eloquence ; 
 but the tendency of such publications is always towards revolu- 
 tion, and the practical effect on the minds of the people is to 
 render them incredulous. They understand that these overwrought 
 representations are for effect, and they go about their business with 
 an impression that the whole is unreal. If one of these writers 
 were visited himself with a horrible dream that he was a peasant 
 under an Oriental despot, that he was taxed at the will of the 
 Sovereign, and had to pay the assessment in produce, valued at 
 half the market-price, that he was compelled to work and re- 
 ceive four-fifths of his low wages in food consisting of hard, sour 
 biscuit let him then dream that he had spoken against the 
 Ministry, and that he finds himself bastinadoed till he confesses 
 that he brought false charges ; that his grown-up son had been 
 dragged off for a soldier, and himself deprived of his only support, 
 and he would be inclined to doubt whether ours is the worst 
 system of Government. 
 
 Speakers of the Houses of Parliament. 
 
 The late Sir George Cornewall Lewis, in a communication 
 which appeared in Notes and Queries, in the week of the author's 
 lamented death, states the following : 
 
 " In modern legislative chambers it has been customary for the Chamber 
 to appoint one of its own members as president. In the English House of 
 Lords the Lord Chancellor is President by virtue of his office. Although 
 a member of the executive Government, and holding his office at the 
 pleasure of the Crown, he is nevertheless a high judicial officer, and is 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 11 
 
 deemed to carry his judicial impartiality into the performance of his presi- 
 dential functions. In general, however, the president of a legislative 
 chamber is not, according to modern practice, a member of the executive 
 Government. He is an independent member of the legislature, who is 
 appointed by the chamber, and holds his office at its pleasure, such as 
 the Speaker of the English House of Commons. 
 
 " The principal functions of the Speaker of the House of Commons 
 were not originally (as the title of his office indicates) what they are at 
 present. The House of Commons were at first a set of delegates summoned 
 by the Crown to negotiate with it concerning the payment of taxes. They 
 might take advantage of the position of superiority which they temporarily 
 occupied to remonstrate with the Crown about certain grievances, upon 
 which they were generally agreed. In this state of things it was important 
 that they should have an organ and spokesman with sufficient ability and 
 knowledge to state their views, and with sufficient courage to contend 
 against the displeasure of the Crown. The helpless condition of a large 
 body which is called upon to conduct a negotiation without any appointed 
 organ is well described by Livy. When the Roman plebeians seceded to 
 the Mount Aventine, after the Decemvirate, the Senate sent three ambas- 
 sadors to confer with them, and to propose three questions. ' Non defuit,' 
 says Livy, * quid responderetur ; deerat qui daret responsum, nullodum 
 certo duce, nee satis audentibus singulis invidiae se offerre' (iii. 50). Since 
 the Revolution of 1688, and the increased power of the House of Com- 
 mons, the functions of the Speaker have undergone a change. His chief 
 function has been no longer to speak on behalf of the House $ that which 
 was previously his accessary has become his principal duty. He has been 
 simply chairman of the House, with the function of regulating its proceed- 
 ings, of putting the question, and of maintaining order. The Speaker of 
 the House of Commons is now virtually disqualified by his office from 
 speaking ; but as their debates have become more important, his office 
 of moderator of these debates has acquired additional importance. 
 
 " The position of the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons was similar 
 to that of the Speaker of the English House (see Lord Mountmorres's History 
 of the Irish Parliament, vol. i. p. 71 79) j but in Scotland the three estates 
 sat as one House $ there was no separate House of Commons, and the Lord 
 Chancellor presided over the entire assembly." (See Robertson's History 
 of Scotland, b. I, vol. i. p. 276, ed. 1821.) 
 
 The National Conscience. 
 
 When we come to the proofs from fact and historical expe- 
 rience, we might appeal to a singular case in the records of our 
 Exchequer, viz., that for much more than a century back, our 
 Gazette and other public advertisers have acknowledged a series of 
 anonymous remittances from those who, at some time or other, 
 had appropriated public money. We understand that no corre- 
 
12 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 spending fact can be cited from foreign records. Now, this is a 
 direct instance of that compunction which our travelled friend 
 insisted on. But we choose rather to throw ourselves upon the 
 general history of Great Britain : upon the spirit of her policy, 
 domestic or foreign ; and upon the universal principles of her public 
 morality. Take the case of public debts, and the fulfilment of con- 
 tracts to those who could not have compelled the fulfilment ; we 
 first set this precedent. All nations have now learned that honesty 
 in such cases is eventually the best policy; but this they learned 
 from our experience, and not till nearly all of them had tried the 
 other policy. We it was who, under the most trying circum* 
 stances of war, maintained the sanctity from taxation of all foreign 
 investments in our funds. Our conduct with regard to slaves, 
 whether in the case of slavery or of the Slave Trade how prudent 
 it may always have been we need not inquire as to its moral 
 principles they went so far ahead of European standards that we 
 were neither comprehended nor believed. The perfection of 
 romance was ascribed to us by all who did not reproach us with 
 the perfection of Jesuitical knavery ; by many our motto was sup- 
 posed to be no longer the old one of divide et impera, but annihila et 
 appropria. Finally, looking back to our dreadful conflicts with the 
 three conquering despots of modern history, Philip II. of Spain, 
 Louis XIV., and Napoleon; we may incontestably boast of having 
 been single in maintaining the general equities of Europe by war 
 upon a colossal scale, and by our counsels in the general congresses 
 of Christendom. De Quincey. 
 
 cc The Nation of Shopkeepers" 
 
 In the Praeludia to the Chronicon Albeldense, attributed to Bul- 
 cidius, Bishop of Salamanca, a Spanish writer at the end of 
 the ninth century, we find the following singular refutation of an 
 ungraceful compliment hitherto paid to us by our Gallic neigh- 
 bours. In a paragraph headed De Proprietatibus Gentium, we see 
 the tables turned in our favour: " i. Sapientia Graecorum; 2. 
 Fortia Gothorum ; 3. Consilia Ghaldaeorum ; 4. Superbia Roman- 
 orum ; 5. Ferocitas Francorum ; 6. Ira Britannorum ; 7. Libido 
 Scotorum; 8. Duritia Saxonum; 9. Cupiditas Persarum; 10. 
 Invidia Judaeorum; n. Pax ^thiopum; 12. Commercia Gallo- 
 rum !" This discovery seems to be invested with an additional 
 interest at a time when our Allies very handsomely acknowledge 
 that they have hitherto laboured under a mistake in their estimate 
 of our national peculiarities. 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 13 
 Results of Revolutions. 
 
 Sir George Cornewall Lewis, in his last work, On the Best Form 
 of Government, has this summary : " There are some rare cases 
 in which a nation has profited by a revolution. Such was the 
 English Revolution of 1688, in which the form of the Govern- 
 ment underwent no alteration, and the person of the King was 
 alone changed. It was the very minimum of a revolution ; it 
 was remarkable for the absence of those accompaniments which 
 make a revolution perilous, and which subsequently draw upon 
 it a vindictive reactionary movement. The late Italian revolution 
 has likewise been successful ; by it the Italian people have gained a 
 better government and have improved their political condition. 
 It was brought about by foreign intervention ; but its success has 
 been mainly owing to the moderation of the leaders in whom 
 the people had the wisdom to confide, and who have steadily 
 refrained from all revolutionary excesses. The history of forcible 
 attempts to improve governments is not, however, cheering. 
 Looking back upon the course of revolutionary movements, 
 and upon the character of their consequences, the practical con- 
 clusion which I draw is that it is the part of wisdom and prudence 
 to acquiesce in any form of government which is tolerably well 
 administered, and affords tolerable security to person and pro- 
 perty. I would not, indeed, yield to apathetic despair, or 
 acquiesce in the persuasion that a merely tolerable government 
 is incapable of improvement. I would form an individual model, 
 suited to the character, disposition, wants, and circumstances of 
 the country, and I would make all exertions, whether by action 
 or by writing, within the limits of the existing law, for amelio- 
 rating its existing condition and bringing it nearer to the model 
 selected for imitation; but I should consider the problem of 
 the best form of government as purely ideal, and as uncon- 
 nected with practice, and should abstain from taking a ticket in 
 the lottery of revolution, unless there was a well-founded expecta- 
 tion that it would come out a prize." 
 
 Sir William Hamilton has well observed that " No revolution 
 in public opinion is the work of an individual, of a single cause, 
 or of a day. When the crisis has arrived, the catastrophe must 
 ensue ; but the agents through whom it is apparently accom- 
 plished, though they may accelerate, cannot originate its occur- 
 rence. Who believes that but for Luther or Zwingli the Re- 
 formation would not have been ? Their individual, their personal 
 energy and zeal, perhaps, hastened by a year or two the event 
 
14 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 but had the public mind not been already ripe for their revolt, 
 the fate of Luther and Zwingli, in the sixteenth century, would 
 have been that of Huss and Jerome of Prague in the fifteenth. 
 Woe to the revolutionist who is not himself a creature of the 
 revolution ! If he anticipate, he is lost ; for it requires, what 
 no individual can supply, a long and powerful counter-sympathy 
 in a nation to untwine the ties of custom which bind a people 
 to the established and the old." 
 
 Worth of a Republic. 
 
 Mr. Baron Alderson is described as having a temper too c-ihn 
 for the stormy floor of the House of Commons ; but he studied 
 politics as a science, from a safe distance ; and his letters contain 
 his opinions on some points expressed with a very deliberate care. 
 To Mrs. Opie, who had been writing against Republics and Re- 
 publican Government, he says : " I entirely agree with your view 
 of a Republic. As long as men are so wicked, it is an impossi- 
 bility for it to be a lasting government, for it does not govern, 
 but obey. America is no exception to this rule. In the first 
 place, at its commencement, I believe it was a remarkably moral 
 population ; and so the evils would not at first appear And, since 
 that time, the immensity of its territory has enabled its most 
 active and least self-restrained population to expand itself with 
 less inconvenience. But will the thing last ? When the wilder- 
 ness is peopled, will not the wickedness, which is now ex- 
 pended on the Indians and the weak without observation, 
 become intolerable, and a government strong enough to pro- 
 tect, be the result? Such a one, I think, will hardly be a 
 republic, but, I fear, a despotism, for men always run into 
 extremes. Lynch law is, in fact, an ill-regulated despotism." 
 
 "Safe Men." 
 
 Dean Hook, in his Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, has 
 the following judicious observations upon appointments of this 
 practically useful class : 
 
 " Among the archbishops," says the Dean, " there are a few eminent 
 rulers distinguished as much for their transcendent abilities as for their 
 exalted station in society 5 but as a general rule they have not been men 
 of the highest class of mind. In all ages the tendency has very properly 
 been, whether by election or nomination, to appoint * safe men j' and as 
 genius is generally innovating and often eccentric, the safe men are those 
 who, with certain high qualifications, do not rise much above the intellec- 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 15 
 
 tual average of their contemporaries. They are practical men rather than 
 philosophers and theorists, and their impulse is not to perfection but quieta 
 non mo'uere. From this very circumstance their history is the more in- 
 structive 5 and, if few among the archbishops have left the impress of their 
 mind upon the age in which they lived, we may in their biography read 
 the character of the times which they fairly represent. In a missionary 
 age we find them zealous but not enthusiastic ; on the revival of learning, 
 whether in Anglo-Saxon times or in the fifteenth century, they were men 
 of learning, although only a few have been distinguished as authors. 
 When the mind of the laity was devoted to the camp or the chase, and 
 prelates were called to the administration of public affairs, they displayed 
 the ordinary tact and diplomatic skill of professional statesmen, and the 
 necessary acumen of judges ; at the Reformation, instead of being leaders, 
 they were the cautious followers of bolder spirits ; at the epoch of the 
 Revolution they were anti-Jacobites rather than Whigs 5 in a latirudi- 
 narian age they have been, if feeble as governors, bright examples of Chris- 
 tian moderation and charity." 
 
 Church Preferment. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Thurlow, on reading Horsley's Letters to Dr. 
 Priestley, at once obtained for the author a Stall at Gloucester, 
 saying that " those who supported the Church should be supported 
 by it." 
 
 Peace Statesmanship. 
 
 There is nothing more wholesome for both the people and their 
 rulers, than to dwell upon the excellence of those statesmen whose 
 lives have been spent in the useful, the sacred, work of Peace. The 
 thoughtless vulgar are ever prone to magnify the brilliant exploits 
 of arms, which dazzle ordinary understandings, and prevent any 
 account being taken of the cost and the crime that are so often hid 
 in the guise of success. All merit of that shining kind is sure of 
 passing current for more than it is really worth ; and the eye is 
 turned indifferently upon, or even scornfully from, the unpretend- 
 ing virtue of the true friend to his species, the minister who de- 
 votes all his cares to stay the worst of crimes that can be com- 
 mitted, the last of calamities that can be endured by man. 
 
 The Burial of Sir John Moore. 
 
 It had been generally supposed that the interment of General 
 Sir John Moore, who fell at the Battle of Corunna, in 1809, took 
 place during the night ; a mistake which, doubtless, arose from 
 the justly-admired lines by Wolfe becoming more widely known 
 and remembered than the official account of this solemn event in 
 
16 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the Narrative of the Campaign, by the brother of Sir JohnMoore* 
 In Wolfe's monody, the hero is represented to have been buried 
 By the struggling moonbeam's misty light, 
 
 And the lanterns dimly burning, 
 
 an error of description which has, doubtless, been extended by 
 many pictorial illustrations of the sad scene, " darkly at dead ot 
 night." The Rev. J. H. Symons, who was chaplain to the 
 brigade of Guards attached to the army under Moore's command, 
 and who attended the hero in his last moments, relates that during 
 the battle Moore was conveyed from the field into the quarters 
 on the quay at Corunna, where he was laid on a mattress upon 
 the floor, and the chaplain remained with him till his death. During 
 the night, the body was removed to the quarters of Colonel Graham, 
 in the citadel, by the officers of his staff ; whence it was borne by 
 them, assisted by Mr. Symons, the chaplain, to the grave which had 
 been prepared for it on one of the bastions of the citadel. It being 
 now daylight, the enemy had discovered that the troops had been 
 withdrawing and embarking during the night ; a fire was soon 
 opened by them, upon the ships which were still in the harbour ; 
 the funeral service was, therefore, performed without delay, under 
 the fire of the enemy's guns ; and, there being no means to provide 
 a coffin, the body of the general, 
 
 With his martial cloak around him, 
 
 was deposited in the earth, the Rev. Mr. Symons reading the 
 funeral service. 
 
 The Ancestors of Washington. 
 
 While America feels a just pride in having given birth to 
 George Washington, it is something for England to know that 
 his ancestors lived for generations upon her soil. His great-grand- 
 father emigrated about 1657, having previously lived in North- 
 amptonshire. The Washingtons were a Northern family, who 
 lived some time in Durham, and also in Lancashire, whence 
 they came to Northamptonshire. The uncle of the first Law- 
 rence Washington was Sir Thomas Kitson, one of the great 
 merchants, who, in the reigns of Henry VII. and VIII., developed 
 the wool-trade of the country, which depended mainly on the 
 growth of wool, and the creation of sheep-farms in the midland 
 counties. That he might superintend his uncle's transactions with 
 the sheep proprietors, Lawrence Washington settled in North- 
 amptonshire, leaving his own profession of a barrister. He soon 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 17 
 
 became Mayor of Northampton, and at the dissolution of the 
 monasteries, being identified with the cause of civil and religious 
 liberty, he gained a grant of some monastic land, including Sul- 
 grave. In the parish of Brington is situated Althorp, the seat 
 of the Spencers : the Lady Spencer of that day was herself a 
 Kitson, daughter of Washington's uncle, and the Spencers were 
 great promoters of the sheep-farming movement. Thus, then, 
 there was a very plain connexion between the Washingtons and 
 the Spencers. 
 
 For three generations the Washingtons remained at Sulgrave, 
 taking rank among the nobility and gentry of the county. Then 
 their fortunes failed: they were obliged to part with Sulgrave, and 
 retired to Brington, under, as it were, the wing of the Spencer 
 family. From this depression the Washingtons recovered by a 
 singular marriage. The eldest son of the family had married 
 the half-sister of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, which 
 at this time was not an alliance above the pretensions of the 
 Washingtons: they rose into great prosperity. The emigrant, 
 above all others of the family, continued to be on intimate 
 terms with the Spencers, down to the very eve of the Civil War ; 
 he was knighted by James I. in 1623, and in the Civil War took 
 the side of the king. The emigrant who left England in 1657, 
 we leave to be traced by historians on the other side of the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 u George Washington, without the genius of Julius Caesar 
 or Napoleon Bonaparte, has a far purer fame, as his ambition 
 was of a higher and a holier nature. Instead of seeking to 
 raise his own name, or seize supreme power, he devoted his whole 
 talents, military and civil, to the establishment of the indepen- 
 dence and the perpetuity of the liberties of his own country. 
 In modern history no man has done such great things without the 
 soil of selfishness or the stain of a grovelling ambition. Caesar, 
 Cromwell, Napoleon, attained a higher elevation, but the love ot 
 dominion was the spur that drove them on. John Hampden, 
 William Russell, Algernon Sidney, may have had motives as pure, 
 and an ambition as sustained, but they fell. To George Washing- 
 ton alone, in modern times, has it been given to accomplish a 
 wonderful revolution, and yet to remain to all future times the 
 theme of a people's gratitude, and an example of virtuous and 
 beneficent power." Earl Russell's Life and Times of Charles 
 James Fox. 
 
18 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 The " Star-spangled Banner" of the United States. 
 
 The people of the United States understand little of the proper 
 form, proportion of size, number of stripes even, of their own 
 national flag, the " Star-spangled Banner." 
 
 The standard for the army is fixed at six feet and six inches, by 
 four feet and four inches ; the number of stripes is thirteen viz., 
 seven red and six white. It will be perceived that the flag is 
 just one-half longer than it is broad, and that its proportions are 
 perfect when properly carried out. The first stripe at the top is 
 red, the next white, and so down alternately, which makes the 
 last stripe red. The blue field for the stars is the width and square 
 of the first seven stripes viz., four red and three white. These 
 seven stripes extend from the side of the field to the extremity of 
 the flag ; the next stripe is white, extending the entire length of 
 it, and directly under the field ; then follow the remaining stripes 
 alternately. The number of stars on the field is now thirty-one, 
 and the Army and Navy add another star on the admission of 
 a new State into our glorious union. In some respects, the 
 <l Banner" resembles the flag of the Sandwich Islands. American 
 journal. 
 
 Ancestry of President Adams. 
 
 John Adams, second President of the United States of America, 
 is commonly but erroneously represented to have been the son of a 
 cobbler. Now, he was the son of a clergyman. His descent would 
 have graced any Court in Europe. He was descended from one 
 of the oldest families in Devonshire and Gloucestershire, one of 
 whom sat as an English Baron in the Parliaments of Edward the 
 First. His father, Adam Fitzherbert, was lineally descended from 
 the ancient Counts de Vermandois. Lord ap- Adam's wife (the 
 ancestress of this second President of America) was the daughter 
 and sole heiress of John Lord de Gournay, of Beverston Castle, 
 Gloucestershire, the representative of the ancient House of 
 Harpitre de Gournai, a branch of the great house of " Yvery," 
 which was connected with every Sovereign house in Europe. It 
 would be difficult to find a higher descent. The ' late Mr. 
 Edward Adams, M.P., of Middleton Hall, Carmarthenshire, was 
 a descendant of the elder branch of this family; and Mr. Anthony 
 Davis, of Misbourne House, Chalfont Saint Giles, Bucks, is its 
 representative. 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 19 
 The Irish Union. 
 
 It was after the exhaustion caused by the Rebellion in Ireland, 
 that Pitt brought forward his project of the U nion, and Lord 
 Gornwallis successfully accomplished it. Mr. Massey describes 
 at great length the means by which, in Castlereagh's phrase, u the 
 fee simple of Irish corruption was bought;" and the Irish Parlia- 
 ment, like Tarpeia, perished beneath the weight of stipulated 
 bribery. No person acquainted in the least with history, or having 
 any regard for Ireland, will fail to rejoice at the success of a 
 measure which relieved her instantly from a worthless Legislature, 
 and by incorporating her with Great Britain assured her the 
 prospect of just government. But the delay in the grant of 
 Catholic Emancipation, which Pitt had intended to accompany 
 the Union, retarded for many years its benefits ; and another part 
 of the Minister's scheme, a State provision for the Catholic priest- 
 hood, remains to this day unaccomplished. Pitt incurred a heavy 
 responsibility on this account. It appears certain from the Castle- 
 reagh correspondence that the Irish Catholics supported the Union 
 on something like an implied pledge that they should obtain their 
 political rights ; and on this ground, and on that, besides, of the 
 State necessity for emancipation, Pitt can hardly escape the censure 
 of history for not having insisted more strongly in carrying out 
 his policy as a whole, and especially for having, in 1805, consented 
 not to press the subject on the King when he formed his second 
 brief Administration. It is doubtful, however, Mr. Massey 
 observes, whether Pitt could at any period have extorted com- 
 pliance from George III., or, indeed, from the people of England; 
 and, though his conduct in this matter was not chivalrous as an 
 individual, he may have conceived, as a public man, that he had 
 satisfied honour by his resigning in 1801, and that afterwards he 
 would have not been justified in depriving the country of his 
 services for the sake of a policy impracticable at the moment. 
 Times review of Massey 'j Hist. England. 
 
 The published Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis gives, with 
 painful minuteness, the details of management and bribery by 
 which the Union between Great Britain and Ireland was carried 
 to a conclusion ; but most readers of the history of the period are 
 satisfied with knowing that the Union was a political necessity, that 
 the parties to be dealt with in effecting it the Irish Parliament 
 and its patrons were utterly corrupt, and that persuasion was 
 the only method which it was possible to employ. The result 
 was inevitable. The Government bid hieh, and as it bid the 
 
 C2 
 
20 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 vendors raised their prices, and still the Government bid higher. 
 At last the owners of seats were gorged with the sum of I5,ooo/. 
 for each disfranchised borough, and the whole amount of com- 
 pensation thus extorted reached the magnificent figure of 
 i,26o,ooo/. We can hardly be thankful enough that Lord 
 Grey's Government had the firmness to resist the application of 
 so inconvenient a precedent in the Reform Bill of 1832. 
 
 The House of Bonaparte. 
 
 The Moniteur in 1862 contained five columns on the pedigree 
 of Bonaparte, from Anno Domini 1 1 70, when the first of that 
 name headed an Italian league at Treviso against the German 
 invaders under Frederic Barbarossa. John Bonaparte signs a 
 treaty at Constance on behalf of Italy, and writes himself consul, 
 being in fact le premier consul of his race, in 1 182. Two centuries 
 after the Bonaparte escutcheon on their house in St. Andrew's- 
 square, at Treviso, is ordered to be broken by Venice ; and 440 
 years afterwards that republic is suppressed by a Bonaparte at the 
 treaty of Campo Formio. Details are given of the family's 
 removal to Florence, San Miniato, and Corsica; of the sack of 
 Rome, at which Jacopo Bonaparte assisted in 1520, and of a 
 comedy, La Fedova, from the pen of another about the same 
 period. Muratori's Antiquitates Italica, vols. 8, 9, and 1 2, folio, 
 contain numerous diplomatic documents signed by members of 
 this stirring house, ever active in all the revolutions of mediaeval 
 Italy. The Moniteur becomes quite an enthusiast about the land 
 that produced this chosen race. The oddest revelation is the 
 fact, that Mala-parte was the original name before 1170, just as 
 it was of the Bolognese family Malatesta, the change having been 
 voted by popular acclaim in public assembly at Treviso. So far 
 the Moniteur. But it might be added that the Beauharnais family, 
 through which the present Emperor comes, had undergone a 
 precisely similar change of name at the request of Marie 
 Antoinette. That house had been known for ages in Poitou as 
 Seigneurs de Bellescouilles, an appellation not quite fitting the 
 Court at Versailles, and altered accordingly. It is rather re- 
 markable that Napoleon I., in the Moniteur of 22nd Messidor, an 
 XIII., 1805, had scouted all idea of ancestry, and ordered a 
 formal declaration to be inserted that his house dated from 
 Marengo, quoting the lines of La Fontaine ft Rien n'est 
 dangereux qu'un sot ami," meaning the person who had drawn 
 out his pedigree. 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 21 
 
 The Register of the Imperial family is a large folio volume, bound in 
 red velvet, and having at the corners ornaments of silver-gilt, with the 
 family cipher < N ' in the centre. It was commenced in 1806, and the 
 first entry made was the adoption of Prince Eugene by the Emperor. The 
 second, made the same year, relates to the adoption of the Princess 
 Stephanie de Beauharnais, who died Grand Duchess of Baden, and who 
 was cousin of the Empress Josephine. Next comes the marriage of the 
 Emperor Napoleon I. j then several certificates of the birth of Princes of 
 the family, and lastly of the King of Rome, which closes the series of 
 the certificates inscribed under the reign of the First Emperor. This 
 register was confided to the care of Count Regnault de Saint- Jean-d'Angely, 
 Minister and Councillor of State, and Secretary of the Imperial family. 
 It was to him, under the First Empire, as it is now to the Minister of State 
 under the Second, that was reserved the duty of drawing up the proces 
 verbaux of the great acts relative to Napoleon. At the fall of the First 
 Empire, Count Regnault de Saint- Jean-d'Angely carefully preserved the 
 book, which at his death passed into the hands of the Countess, his widow. 
 That lady handed it over to the President of the Republic when Louis 
 Napoleon was called by universal suffrage to the Imperial throne. 
 
 A Correspondent of the Literary Gazette writes : " I have been 
 afforded an opportunity of examining many of the letters of 
 Napoleon which figure in the Imperial collection ; and I assure 
 you that the commission charged with the duty of saying what 
 should and what should not be published, had a most arduous 
 task to perform. For of all the ' cramped pieces of penmanship' 
 that were ever seen his are the most cramped and unintelligible. 
 The manner in which the letters are formed would frighten a 
 writing-master into fits, and the lines never run straight, whilst 
 not unfrequently they come into collision. And what is singular 
 is that a great many of the words are grossly misspelt, and that 
 others are only half-written. O vanity of human genius ! O 
 triumph for dull little schoolboys ! The man who conquered 
 more kingdoms than Alexander knew not orthography !" 
 
 Invasion of England projected by Napoleon I. 
 
 The pth volume of the Correspondance de Napoleon /., published 
 at Paris, in 1862, brings to light, for the first time, the whole of 
 his schemes for invading England, which he planned in 1803, 
 when he led a mighty host to Boulogne, in the hope of repeating 
 the scene of the Conquest. The following passage in this volume 
 shows how Napoleon struggled to remove his inferiority in fleets : 
 
 " Collect 3000 workmen at Antwerp. Wood, iron, and materials can 
 be brought there from the North. War is no impediment to shipbuilding 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 at Antwerp. If we are three years at war, we must build there not less 
 than 25 ships of the line. Anywhere else this would be impossible. We 
 must have a powerful fleet 5 and we should not have less than TOO ships 
 of the line. We must also commence building frigates and smaller vessels. 
 St. Domingo cost us 2,ooo,ooof. a month ; the English having captured it, 
 this sum must be appropriated to the increase of our navy." 
 
 Such were the conditions of this attack ; and such the forces 
 with which Napoleon expected " to conquer the world in Lon- 
 don ;" and his letters to Soult, to Bruix, to Deeres must convince 
 the reader that he was in earnest in his scheme of " planting the 
 tricolour on the Tower." The problem for Napoleon to solve 
 was how to transport across the Channel an army of 150,000 
 men, with horses, cannon, baggage, and equipments, in spite of 
 the naval superiority of England. In these first preparations we 
 must allow he succeeded beyond our worst expectations. Within 
 fourteen months from the commencement of the war he had 
 gathered within ten leagues of our coast, and had placed beyond 
 the power of attack, a" flotilla mounting 2000 guns, and able to 
 transport his superb army, which, though numbering 150,000 
 men, could embark in less than a single tide, and were fully 
 trained for a naval encounter. 
 
 So far, at least, as regards the Government, it must be confessed 
 that our preparations to meet this attack were unequal to the 
 danger. In the Channel especially the point menaced the naval 
 arrangements made by the Admiralty were very faulty and even 
 ridiculous. Such a Power as England should never have allowed 
 the flotilla to assemble at Boulogne at. all ; and when it had 
 assembled it should have been assailed by a mass of gunboats and 
 light vessels, which we might have sent out in enormous numbers. 
 Yet the Admiralty persisted in encountering the flotilla with 18 
 and 1 2 -pounder frigates, which drew too much water to close 
 the shore, and, at long range, were no match for their powerfully 
 armed, though small antagonists; the result was that on no 
 occasion were we able to damage the enemy seriously, and that 
 on some we suffered severely. 
 
 In England as well as in France it was thought that the flotilla 
 was to risk the passage unaided, its heavy armament suggesting 
 the notion that Napoleon believed it a match for our fleet in the 
 narrow strait between Dover and Calais. We now know, how- 
 ever, that this was an error, and that Napoleon never intended to 
 embark unless supported by a covering squadron, which, having 
 for a time the command of the Channel, would completely protect 
 the flotilla and the army. In order to have the mastery of the 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 23 
 
 Channel for the forty-eight hours required for the transit, the 
 problem was so to manoeuvre his fleets as to bring a superior force 
 off Boulogne, in spite of the numerous English squadrons which 
 watched or blockaded them in all their harbours. He devised 
 a twofold scheme for this end, adapted to the circumstances of 
 the seaboard, and which experience proved to be feasible. 
 
 This volume, however, proves sufficiently that, brilliant as 
 were Napoleon's designs, he could not inspire Villeneuve and 
 Ganteaume with the daring energy of Nelson and Cochrane, or 
 make British seamen of his sailors. The want of discipline, the 
 timidity, and the inexperience, of which there are proofs, explain 
 how Napoleon's deep-laid designs were brought to an end on the 
 day of Trafalgar. 
 
 However, in 1805, Napoleon renewed his invasion scheme, the 
 details of which he thus narrates in the nth volume of his Cor- 
 respondance) 1863 : 
 
 " I wished to bring together forty or fifty sail of the line by operating 
 their junction fromToulon, Cadiz, Ferrol, and Brest; to move them all 
 together to Boulogne j to be there for a fortnight master of the Channel ; 
 to have 150,000 men and 10,000 horses encamped on the coast, with a 
 flotilla of nearly 4000 vessels, and then, upon the arrival of my fleet, to 
 
 embark for England and seize London To secure a prospect 
 
 of success it was necessary to collect 150,000 men at Boulogne, with the 
 flotilla, and an immense materiel, to embark the whole, yet to conceal 
 my plan. I accomplished this though it appeared impossible, and I did 
 so by reversing what seemed probable." 
 
 Thus, in the spring of 1805 Napoleon collected within ten 
 leagues of our shores a flotilla of nearly 4000 vessels, which, 
 moored under the batteries of Boulogne, and armed with very 
 heavy cannon, had long repelled our attempts to destroy them. 
 Encamped around lay the veteran legions which had been selected 
 for the descent, and had been trained with such care to embark 
 and expedite the passage, that Napoleon writes, <( 150,000 men 
 with a due proportion of guns and horses could within four tides 
 effect a landing." 
 
 His plan was marked with much ingenuity. The aspect of an 
 armed flotilla induced our Admiralty to think that Napoleon 
 relied on it alone to cross ; and they felt assured that when at 
 sea, three or four ships would suffice to destroy it. Accordingly, 
 our Channel fleet was reduced to a force of not more than six sail ; 
 and the mass of the British Navy was employed either in blockad- 
 ing the enemy's squadrons or in distant expeditions on the ocean. 
 Could, therefore, one of the blockaded fleets effect its junction 
 
24 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 with another, and penetrate into the unguarded Channel, a tem- 
 porary ascendancy at sea might be gained, under cover of which 
 the flotilla could cross and ferry over the French army. 
 
 It is only in this volume that we see how nearly Napoleon's 
 design succeeded so far as regards the descent, and also what 
 were the causes of its failure. Whatever we may think of his 
 project as a whole, it must be allowed that in August, 1805, 
 when Villeneuve put to sea from Ferrol, the Emperor had good 
 reason to expect that his Admirals would fulfil their mission : 
 
 *'The squadrons of Nelson and Calder have joined the fleet off Brest, 
 and Ccrnival/is has been foolish enough to send twenty sail to blockade the 
 French fleet off Ferrol. On the l^th of August that is, three days after our 
 squadron left Ferrol, Calder left Brest jor Ferrol 'with a northerly ivind. What 
 a chance was there for Villeneuve ! He could either, by keeping a 'wide 
 offing, avoid Calder, reach Brest, and fall upon Carnival/is, or ivith his thirty 
 sail-of-t he-line beat Calder"s twenty, and acquire a decided preponderance. So 
 much for the English, whose combinations are so talked of." 
 
 In England the Whigs laughed at the idea of the invasion as 
 a ministerial bugbear. " Can anything equal," says Lord Gren- 
 ville in 1804, "the ridicule of Pitt riding about from Downing- 
 street to Wimbledon, and from Wimbledon to Cox-heath, to 
 inspect military carriages, impregnable batteries, and Lord 
 Chatham's reviews ? Can he possibly be serious in expecting 
 Bonaparte now ?" So also wrote Fox a year afterwards " The 
 alarm of invasion here was most certainly a groundless one, and 
 raised for some political purpose by the Ministers." Whatever 
 the Whigs might then think, there is no doubt now as to 
 Bonaparte's intentions. " Let us be masters of the Channel for 
 six hours, and we are masters of the world," are his famous 
 words. His design to invade this country was never relinquished, 
 was cherished as the darling scheme of his life, until within a 
 month or two before Pitt's death, when the battle of Trafalgar 
 destroyed his hopes for ever. Selected and abridged from reviews 
 in the Times. 
 
 Fate of the Due d'Enghien. 
 
 While the First Consul was meditating the descent upon 
 England, in 1804, his life and government were imperilled by 
 the conspiracy of Georges, Moreau, and Pichegru. The Due 
 d'Enghien, as is well known, was the innocent victim of this 
 affair, having been arrested on neutral territory, and shot in a 
 ditch, without a trial, in order to strike the Bourbons with terror. 
 While the printed account shows that the plot was a formidable 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 25 
 
 one, that the death of Napoleon and a counter-revolution were 
 really not remote contingencies, and that there were some slight 
 grounds to suspect an intrigue between Dumouriez and the 
 Duke, it also impliedly acquits that Prince of any share in the 
 main conspiracy, and throws the guilt of his cruel fate exclusively 
 on the First Consul. From the list of charges against the Duke, 
 entirely in Napoleon's writing, it is plain that he did not possess 
 any proofs, sufficient even for the tribunal of Vincennes to convict 
 the prisoner of a design against his life. 
 
 These monstrous charges speak for themselves, and accord 
 well with the midnight dungeon, the irresponsible conclave, the 
 undefended prisoner, and the grave dug before the trial for the 
 victim ! Moreover, the volume of Napoleon's Correspondance in 
 which these details are given, has not a trace of the alleged over- 
 rapidity of Savary, of the suppression of the Prince's letter by 
 Talleyrand, of the order said to have been given to Real to 
 suspend the execution after the sentence, and to await the result 
 of a regular examination of the hundred and one excuses, in 
 short, which have been urged for Napoleon by his apologists. 
 On the contrary, from the following letter we infer that he 
 wished to avoid discussion about a purpose already determined, 
 and that he feared lest public opinion should condemn his design 
 on the Due d'Enghien. It is addressed to the Commandant of 
 Vincennes: 
 
 " A person, whose name is to remain unknown, will be brought to the 
 fortress confided to your care ; you are to put him in a vacant cell, and to 
 take every precaution for his safe keeping. The intention of the Govern- 
 ment is to keep all proceedings concerning him most secret. No question is to 
 be put to him as to who he is, or why he is detained. Even you are not to 
 know who the prisoner is. No one is to communicate with him but 
 yourself j no one else is to see him until fresh orders. He will probably 
 arrive this night." 
 
 Napoleon's Government, though very despotic, was not, how- 
 ever, usually cruel ; and this great crime which, perhaps, was 
 caused by the haunting dread of an assassin's arm, was an excep- 
 tion to its general tenor. Times rrvie<w. 
 
 Last Moments of Mr. Pitt. 
 
 The news of Austerlitz was the last blow which killed Pitt. 
 The gout, which* had hitherto confined its attacks to his extre- 
 mities, assailed some vital organ. He was not without hopes of 
 getting better. Lord Wellesley found him in high spirits, though 
 before the interview was over Pitt fainted in his presence. His 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 last moments are described by the Hon. James Stanhope, who 
 was present in the room when he died ; so that at last we seem to 
 have authentic information of a scene which has hitherto been 
 very imperfectly described. u I remained the whole of Wednes- 
 day night with Mr. Pitt," says Mr. Stanhope in a paper drawn 
 up by him, and of which Earl Stanhope has availed himself in 
 his Life of Pitt. " His mind seemed fixed on the affairs of the 
 country, and he expressed his thoughts aloud, though sometimes 
 incoherently. He spoke a good deal concerning a private letter 
 from Lord Harrowby, and frequently inquired the direction of 
 the wind ; then said, answering himself, ' East ; ah ! that will 
 do ; that will bring him quick.' At other times he seemed to be 
 in conversation with a messenger, and sometimes cried out ' Hear, 
 hear,' as if in the House of Commons. During the time he did 
 not speak he moaned considerably, crying, < Oh, dear ! Oh, 
 Lord !' Towards twelve the rattles came in his throat, and pro- 
 claimed approaching dissolution At about half-past two 
 
 he ceased moaning. .."... I feared he was dying ; but shortly 
 afterwards, with a much clearer voice than he spoke in before, 
 and in a tone I never shall forget, ' Oh, my country ! how I leave 
 my country !' [referring, as it was natural for him to do, to the 
 disastrous state of the continental war produced by the battle of 
 Austerlitz.] From that time he never spoke or moved, and at 
 half-past four expired without a groan or struggle," 23rd January, 
 1806. He received the Sacrament from the Bishop of Lincoln. 
 Mr. Pitt gave his watch to his servant, who handed it over to 
 Mr. Dundas, M.P., more than twenty years after Mr. Pitt's 
 death. That watch, a mourning-ring, and box containing the 
 hair, were bequeathed to the Rt. Hon. R. N. Hamilton ; and the 
 watch is now preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, at Cambridge. 
 "Pitt is the most forgiving and easy-tempered of men," says Lord 
 Malmesbury. " He is the most upright political character I ever 
 knew or heard of," says Wilberforce. " I never once saw him 
 out of temper," says George Rose. One day, when the con- 
 versation turned upon the quality most needed in a Prime Mini- 
 ster, and one said " Eloquence," another " Knowledge," and a 
 third " Toil," Pitt said, " No ; Patience." It was an answer 
 worthy of the great statesman, and recalls that of Newton, who 
 said that he owed his splendid discoveries to the power of fixed 
 attention. Pitt was wonderfully patient, and this which is com- 
 monly regarded as a slow virtue he combined with uncommon 
 readiness and rapidity of thought. "What an extraordinary 
 man Pitt is !" said Adam Smith j " he makes me understand my 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 27 
 
 own ideas better than before." The Marquis Wellesley has left 
 this character of Pitt a man of princely hospitality and amiable 
 nature : 
 
 " In all places, and at all times, his constant delight was society. There 
 he shone with a degree of calm and steady lustre which often astonished 
 me more than his most splendid efforts in Parliament. His manners were 
 perfectly plain, without any affectation ; not only was he without presump- 
 tion or arrogance, or any air of authority, but he seemed utterly unconscious 
 of his own superiority, and much more disposed to listen than to talk. 
 He never betrayed any symptom of anxiety to usurp the lead or to display 
 his own powers, but rather inclined to draw forth others, and to take 
 merely an equal share in the general conversation : then he plunged heed- 
 lessly into the mirth of the hour, with no other care than to promote the 
 general good humour and happiness of the company. His wit was quick 
 and ready, but it was rather lively than sharp, and never envenomed with 
 the least taint of malignity; so that, instead of exciting admiration or terror, 
 it was an additional ingredient in the common enjoyment. He was 
 endowed, beyond any man of his time whom I knew, with a gay and social 
 heart. With these qualities, he was the life and soul of his own society ; 
 his appearance dispelled all care j his brow was never clouded, even in the 
 severest public trials ; and joy, and hope, and confidence, beamed from his 
 countenance in every crisis of difficulty and danger." Communicated to the 
 Quarterly Re-vieiv. 
 
 This was <e the Heaven-born Minister." This was " the pilot 
 to weather the storm." This is he who stands forth as the 
 greatest of our statesmen, and the story of whose life, as fitly told 
 by Lord Stanhope, will have undying interest throughout the 
 world. 
 
 Who would have supposed forty years ago that a day was 
 coming when a Frenchman would unhesitatingly write the apology 
 we had almost said the panegyric of William Pitt ce Pitt, 
 as the members of the Jacobin Club used to call him ? And yet 
 such is the case. By way of preface to a translation of Lord 
 Stanhope's last work, M. Guizot has given a very good estimate 
 both of the political relation in which England stands to France, 
 and also of the character of the great British statesman. He 
 conclusively shows that Pitt was positively opposed to a war with 
 France, and did all he could to prevent the inevitable catastrophe. 
 
 What drove George the Third mad. 
 
 How strange is it to find, upon a close examination of the 
 biography of Mr. Pitt, that early in the present century, the 
 mention of the measure which twenty-eight years later became 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the law of the land, had the effect of disturbing the reason of the 
 Sovereign : yet so it was. " Pitt had become in a manner pledged 
 on the union of the Irish with the British Legislature to provide 
 for what has since been called the Emancipation of the Catholics. 
 The probability is, that from the first he had underrated the 
 King's repugnance to the measure; but it has been suggested 
 that had there been no treachery in the camp, and had he been 
 the first to broach the subject to George III., he might have had 
 his own way, and carried the acquiescence of the King. As it 
 was, Lord Loughborough had, contrary to all rule, made the King 
 aware of Pitt's intentions, and had, for his own selfish purposes, 
 sought to strengthen His Majesty in a most absurd view of his 
 duty. So it happened that instead of Pitt breaking the subject 
 to the King, the King, in a fit of impatience, breaks out upon 
 Dundas. Referring to Lord Gastlereagh, who had recently come 
 from Dublin, he said, " What is it that this young lord has 
 brought over which they .are going to throw at my head ? . . . 
 The most Jacobinical thing I ever heard of ! I shall reckon any 
 man my personal enemy who proposes any such measure." " Your 
 Majesty," replied Dundas, " will find among those who are friendly 
 to that measure some whom you never supposed to be your 
 enemies." The time for action had evidently come: it was 
 necessary for Pitt to break the silence ; he wrote to the King 
 explaining his views, and pointing out that if they were not ac- 
 ceptable it would be necessary for him to resign. Pitt did resign ; 
 his successor was appointed, but before the formal transfer of 
 office could take place, the King went mad, and it was this 
 Catholic question that drove him mad. He recovered in a fort- 
 night and told his physician to write to Pitt, " Tell him I am now 
 quite well quite recovered from my illness ; but what has he 
 not to answer for who is the cause of my having been ill at all ?" 
 Pitt was deeply touched, and at once conveyed an assurance to 
 the King through the same physician that never again during the 
 King's reign would he bring forward the Catholic question. Pre- 
 vious to that illness, Pitt had two clear alternatives before him 
 " Either I shall relieve the Catholics, or I shall resign," and 
 he resigned accordingly. But after the illness all was changed. 
 Any one attempting to relieve the Catholics would incur the risk 
 of the King's derangement. There was but a choice of evils, and 
 it was natural that Pitt should regard it as the lesser evil to 
 postpone indefinitely the settlement of the Catholic claims, which, 
 nevertheless, he regarded as of the utmost importance." Times 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 29 
 
 The Rt. Hon. George Rose, when Secretary of the Treasury, 
 had frequent conversations with George III., whom he occasion- 
 ally received at his house at Cuffnells. Evidently the King 
 took the lion's share in every dialogue. His remarks and his 
 gossip must have been often amusing, and not always uninstruc- 
 tive. He invariably turned the conversation to personal subjects, 
 and he commented freely on the numerous politicians whom he 
 had in his time employed and baffled. He had a peculiar dis- 
 like to Lord Melville, he resented Lord Grenville's pride, and he 
 accurately described Lord Auckland as an inveterate intriguer. 
 Of himself he said that he seldom forgot and never forgave, but 
 that he always tried to believe the best of every man until he had 
 proved his demerit. Many, he added, improved when they found 
 that they had received more than justice ; but it never occurred 
 to him that his own opinion might not form an accurate and suf- 
 ficient standard of merit. 
 
 During the latter part of the time, George III., notwith- 
 standing the continuance of some delusions, was perfectly com- 
 petent to understand the state of affairs, and there was every 
 reason to suppose that he would become convalescent before 
 his son could take his seat as Regent. For the remainder of his 
 reign, his Ministers and his subjects regarded his occasional in- 
 sanity as one of the ordinary contingencies of the Constitution. 
 Mr. Pitt, during his second *Administration, sometimes obtained 
 from the physicians a written certificate of the King's competence 
 before he entered his presence for the transaction of business. 
 
 Predictions of the Downfal of Napoleon /. 
 
 Brialmont and Gleig, in their Memoirs of Wellington , relate 
 Mr. Pitt received, during dinner, when Sir Arthur Wellesley 
 and other eminent persons were present, intelligence of the capi- 
 tulation of Mack, at Ulm. and the march of the Emperor upon 
 Vienna. One of the friends of the Prime Minister, on hearing 
 of the reverse, exclaimed, li All is lost ! there are no other 
 means of opposing Napoleon." " You are mistaken," said Pitt, 
 " there is yet hope, if I can succeed in stirring up a national 
 war in Europe a war which ought to begin in Spain. Yes, 
 gentlemen, Spain will be the first nation in which that war of 
 patriotism shall be lighted up which can alone deliver Europe." 
 
 At a moment when the prestige of the Empire was accepted 
 everywhere, Wellington not only expressed doubts as to the 
 stability of that edifice, which seemed as if it must endure for 
 
80 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 ages, but pointed out distinctly the causes which must operate to 
 throw it down, and the means by which its fall might be hastened. 
 From that hour, whilst prosecuting the war in Spain, he took 
 care as much as possible, to regulate his own proceedings accord- 
 ing to the general state of Europe. Something told him that the 
 little army on the Mondego had a mighty part to play in the 
 sanguinary drama which agitated the world; and that not the 
 fate of the Peninsula alone was at stake, nor yet the question of 
 England's supremacy, but the independence and liberty of all 
 nations, menaced by the ambition of one man. 
 
 in December, 1811, Wellington wrote to Lord William 
 Bentinck : " I have long considered it probable that we shall see 
 a general resistance throughout Europe to the horrible and base 
 tyranny of Bonaparte, and that we shall be called upon to play 
 a leading part in the drama, as counsellors as well as actors." 
 
 In a letter to Lord Liverpool, in i8[i, Wellington wrote: "I 
 am convinced, that if we can only hold out a little longer, we shall 
 see the world emancipated." And to Dumouriez, July, 1811: 
 a It is impossible that Europe can much longer submit to the 
 debasing tyranny which oppresses it." 
 
 Brialmont and Gleig summarily observe : " It may truly be 
 said that the Duke foretold in succession, the final success of the 
 war in Spain the influence which that war would exercise over 
 public opinion in other nations the general rising of Europe 
 against Bonaparte the fall of the Empire the disastrous cam- 
 paign in Russia and the awakening of the public spirit in 
 Germany." 
 
 When, in 1807, Haydon dined with Sir George and Lady 
 Beaumont, he met there Humphry Davy, who was very enter- 
 taining, and made a remark which turned out a singularly suc- 
 cessful prophecy ; he said, il Napoleon will certainly come in con- 
 tact with Russia, by pressing forward in Poland, and there, 
 probably, will begin his destruction." This was said five years 
 before it happened. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave, afterwards Marquis of Normanby, first raised 
 Haydon's enthusiasm for Wellington by saying, one day, at table, 
 " If you live to see it, he will be a second Marlborough." 
 
 Wellington predicts the Peninsular Campaign. 
 
 The following is illustrative of the prophetic perception of 
 Wellington at the outset of the contest : " He dined in Harley- 
 street one day in June, 1808, just before he set out in command 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 31 
 
 of the expedition which was assembling in Cork harbour. The 
 ladies had withdrawn, and he sat tete-a-tete with his host, and 
 was silent. On being asked what he was thinking of, he replied, 
 < To tell you the truth, I was thinking of the French whom I 
 am going to fight. I have never seen them since the campaign 
 in Flanders, when they were already capital soldiers ; and a dozen 
 years of successes must have made them still better. They have 
 beaten all the world, and are supposed to be invincible. They have 
 besides, it seems , a new system, which has out -manoeuvred and over- 
 whelmed all the armies of Europe. But no matter, my die is cast. 
 They may overwhelm, but I do not think they will out-manoeuvre 
 me. In thefrst place, I am not afraid of them, as everybody else 
 seems to be and secondly, if what I hear of their system of 
 manoeuvres be true, I think it a false one against troops steady 
 enough as I hope mine are to receive them with the bayonet. 
 I suspect that all the continental armies were more than half 
 beaten before the battle began. I, at least, will not be frightened 
 beforehand.' " 
 
 The Battle of Waterloo. 
 
 M. Thiers, in the soth volume of his Histoire du Consulat et 
 de I'Empire, presents to his reader a tissue of intellectual illu- 
 sions in his extraordinary account of the last struggle of Napoleon 
 in Belgium. Common sense and history agree that that effort 
 bears many traces of his hero's genius, though marked by one 
 characteristic mistake, and that it was baffled by the ability of 
 his antagonists, who crushed him at last by superior numbers. 
 This volume, however, has been written to prove that in every 
 move in this famous contest Napoleon was an infallible com- 
 mander ; that victory must have crowned his standards had his 
 inspiration been only understood ; and that his final overthrow 
 was due, not to Wellington's skill or Blucher's daring not to 
 British heroism or Prussian valour, but to the errors and fears 
 of his subordinates. Deserting the region of fact and circum- 
 stance, M. Thiers leads us into a dream-land, where the Emperor, 
 like a strategic Providence, holds his puny foes in the hollow of his 
 hand, and predestinates his legions to conquest where the French 
 army performs prodigies beyond the energies of mortal men 
 where but for Ney, D'Erlon, and Grouchy, the downfal of its 
 adversaries was certain and where the inability of these satellites 
 to launch the bolts of military fate was the only cause of the final 
 issue. The above and the following remarks are from The Times 
 review, 
 
32 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Why the issue of this campaign was so different from that of 
 many of its splendid forerunners may be accounted for with per- 
 fect certainty. The Duke and Blucher were different men, of 
 greater ability, and better united than the Generals of any pre- 
 vious coalition, and the large majority of their troops were capable 
 of heroic exertions. The Duke was not the man to allow an 
 accident of time to ruin an ally, and at the crisis of the cam- 
 paign, on the 1 6th, he baffled the Emperor by his tactical skill 
 and the intrepidity of his British infantry. Of the subsequent 
 moves by which he won the greatest battle of modern times, it 
 is enough to say that they , defy criticism, while the heroism of 
 two-thirds of his army has not been surpassed in military annals. 
 As for the Prussian troops, their stand at Ligny and their sub- 
 sequent rally and advance to Waterloo, are worthy of the highest 
 commendation ; and Blucher's celebrated march from Wavre is 
 said to have wrung from Napoleon himself the admission that a it 
 was a flash of genius." It was this combination of talent and 
 valour, unlike anything he had encountered before, that brought 
 the superior numbers of the allies to bear upon Napoleon at last, 
 and involved him and his army in ruin. 
 
 As for the armies that met in this bloody strife, we English- 
 men think it enough to say that, except the Belgian and Nassau 
 levies, they all did their duty like soldiers. The weak falsetto of 
 M. Thiers detracts from the manhood of that dauntless cavalry 
 a who rode round our squares like their own," and from the re- 
 nown of that veteran infantry " who bore nine rounds before they 
 staggered." Nor will the heroism of Ligny be forgotten, nor the 
 glory of England at Waterloo fade, because an historian chooses 
 to write that the Prussian army " was well beaten," and that the 
 " English, excellent in defence, are very mediocre on the offen- 
 sive." At this time, surely, a French historian might describe 
 the campaign of 1815 with a candid regard to truth alone, and 
 without pandering to 'the ignoble worship of military despotism. 
 
 Wellington's Defence of the Waterloo Campaign. 
 
 Wellington would never have fought at Waterloo unless cer- 
 tain of the aid of Blucher; it is idle, therefore, to speculate 
 on the chance of what the event of the day might have been had 
 this support been unexpectedly wanting. French writers assert 
 that he must have been crushed ; but the Duke held a different 
 opinion. The Rev. Mr. Gleig tells us that 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 33 
 
 " After dinner the conversation turned on the Waterloo cam- 
 paign, when Croker alluded to the criticisms of the French 
 military writers, some of whom contended that the Duke had 
 fought the battle in a position full of difficulty, because he had 
 no practicable retreat. The Duke said : * At all events, they 
 failed in putting it to the test. The road to Brussels was prac- 
 ticable every yard for such a purpose. I knew every foot of the 
 ground beyond the forest and through it. The forest on each 
 s.de of the chaussee was open enough for infantry, cavalry, and 
 even for artillery, and very defensible. Had I retreated through 
 it, could they have followed me ? The Prussians were on their 
 flank, and would have been on their rear. The co-operation of the 
 Prussians in thz operations I undertook was part of my plan, and 
 I was not deceived. But I never contemplated a retreat on Brussels. 
 Had I been forced from my position, I should have retreated to my 
 right , towards the coast, the shipping, and my resources. I had 
 placed Hill where he could have lent me important assistance in 
 many contingencies, and that might have been one. And, again, I 
 ask, if I had retreated on my right, would Napoleon have ven- 
 tured to have followed me ? The Prussians, already on his flank, 
 would have been on his rear. But my plan was to keep my ground 
 till the Prussians appeared, and then to attack the French position ,- 
 and I executed my plan.' " 
 
 It matters little whether it be a pleasing tradition or an his- 
 torical lact, but it was commonly said that after the Peace, which 
 crowned the immortal services of the Duke of Wellington, that 
 great general, on seeing the playing-fields at Eton, said, there had 
 been won the crowning victory of Waterloo. 
 
 Lord Castlereagh at the Congress of Vienna. 
 
 By the publication of the Supplementary Despatches of the Duke 
 of Wellington, vol. ix., the reputation of Lord Castlereagh will 
 profit by such of his letters as had not appeared before. A writer 
 in the Saturday Review remarks: 
 
 " Contemporaries saw that many small States were crushed by 
 the arrangements of Vienna, and that one or two of the larger 
 monarchies, especially that of Russia, were sensibly strengthened. 
 Therefore they concluded that the aim and end of the Congress 
 of Vienna was to aggrandise the greater monarchies, and that the 
 English Minister, biassed by political prejudices or dazzled by 
 royal condescension, had unworthily lent himself to the accom- 
 plishment of that object. As the confidential correspondence of 
 
 D 
 
34 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 that period makes its appearance bit by bit, we are learning to 
 form a juster estimate of what Lord Castlereagh effected at the 
 Congress. It is hard to set limits to the evils which would have 
 been the result of greater facility or less caution on the part of 
 the English plenipotentiary. That Alexander would, but for 
 Lord Castlereagh's obstinate resistance, have absorbed the whole 
 of Poland into the Russian empire, and that Prussia would have 
 indemnified herself by the annexation of the whole of Saxony, 
 appears certain ; and that France and Austria would have 
 plunged Europe back into war, in their efforts to resist, seems 
 not improbable. The greediness of the Powers who had met to 
 divide the spoil threatened incessantly to bring them into collision ; 
 and it was on Lord Castlereagh that the ungracious task of 
 moderating their extravagant pretensions fell. If he had failed, 
 and the Congress had come to the abrupt and angry close which 
 seemed more than once inevitable, Napoleon's return would have 
 been safe and easy. It was hard, but it was unavoidable, that 
 those who only saw the result in a considerable accession to 
 Alexander's frontier, should have accused Lord Castlereagh of 
 being his tool, when he had been, in reality, resisting Alexander's 
 pretensions up to the very brink of war." 
 
 This late justice to the eminent diplomatic services of Lord 
 Castlereagh, reaches us some forty years after his death; thus 
 giving the lie to the coarse and unfeeling ribaldry of the so-called 
 *' Liberal," upon the awful termination of the statesman's life. 
 
 The Cato-street Conspiracy. 
 
 Early in the year 1820 a period of popular discontent a set 
 of desperate men banded themselves together with a view to 
 effect a revolution by sanguinary means, almost as complete in its 
 plan of extermination as the Gunpowder Plot. The leader was 
 one Arthur Thistlewood, who had been a soldier, had been in- 
 volved in a trial for sedition, but acquitted, and had afterwards 
 suffered a year's imprisonment for sending a challenge to the 
 minister, Lord Sidmouth. Thistlewood was joined by several 
 other Radicals, and their meetings in Gray's-Inn -lane were known 
 to the spies Oliver and Edwards, employed by the Government. 
 Their first design was to assassinate the Ministers, each in his 
 own house ; but their plot was changed, and Thistlewood and 
 his fellow conspirators arranged to meet at Cato-street, Edge- 
 ware-road, and to proceed from thence to butcher the Ministers 
 assembled at a Cabinet dinner, on Feb. 23rd, at Lord Harrowby's, 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 35 
 
 39, Grosvenor-square, where Thistlewood proposed, as "a 
 rare haul, to murder them all together." Some of the conspi- 
 rators were to watch Lord Harrowby's house ; one was to call 
 and deliver a despatch -box at the door, the others were then to 
 rush in and murder the Ministers as they sat at dinner ; and, as 
 special trophies, to bring away with them the heads of Lords 
 Sidmouth and Castlereagh, in two bags provided for the purpose ! 
 They were then to fire the cavalry-barracks ; and the Bank and 
 Tower were to be taken by the people, who, it was hoped, 
 would rise upon the spread of the news. 
 
 This plot was, however, revealed to the Ministers by Edwards, 
 who had joined the conspirators as a spy. Still no notice was 
 apparently taken. The preparations for dinner went on at Lord 
 Harrowby's till eight o'clock in the evening, but the guests did not 
 arrive. The Archbishop of Y ork, who lived next door, happened 
 to give a dinner-party at the same hour, and the amval of the 
 carriages deceived those of the conspirators who were on the 
 watch in the street, till it was too late to give warning to their 
 comrades who had assembled at Cato-street, in a loft over a 
 stable, accessible only by a ladder. Here, while the traitors were 
 arming themselves by the light of one or two candles, a party 
 of Bow-street officers entered the stable, when Smithers, the first 
 of them who mounted the ladder, and attempted to seize 
 Thistlewood, was run by him through the body, and instantly 
 fell ; whilst, the lights being extinguished, a few shots were ex- 
 changed in the darkness and confusion, and Thistlewood and 
 several of his companions escaped through a window at the back 
 of the premises ; nine were taken that evening with their arms and 
 ammunition, and the intelligence conveyed to the Ministers, who, 
 having dined at home, met at Lord Liverpool's to await the 
 result of what the Bow-street officers had done. A reward of 
 IODO/. was immediately offered for the apprehension of Thistle- 
 wood, and he was captured before eight o'clock next morning 
 while in bed at a friend's house, No. 8, White-street, Little 
 Moorfields. The conspirators were sent to the Tower, and were 
 the last persons imprisoned in that fortress. On April 2oth, 
 Thistlewood was condemned to death after three days' trial ; and 
 on May ist, he and his four principal accomplices, Ings, Brunt, 
 Tidd, and Davidson, who had been severally tried and convicted, 
 were hanged at the Old Bailey, and their heads cut off. The 
 remaining six pleaded guilty ; one was pardoned, and five were 
 transported for life. 
 
 J>2 
 
36 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Southey relates this touching anecdote of Thistlewood's last 
 hours : 
 
 "When the desperate and atrocious traitor Thistlewood was on the 
 scaffold, his demeanour was that of a man who was resolved boldly to meet 
 the fate he had deserved ; in the few words which were exchanged between 
 him and his fellow-criminals, he observed, that the grand question whether 
 or not the soul was immortal would soon be solved for them. No expression 
 of hope escaped him j no breathing of repentance, no spark of grace, ap- 
 peared. Yet (it is a fact which, whether it be more consolatory or awful, 
 ought to be known), on the night after the sentence, and preceding his 
 execution, while he supposed that the person who was appointed to watch 
 him in his cell was asleep, this miserable man was seen by that person re- 
 peatedly to rise upon his knees, and heard repeatedly calling upon Christ 
 his Saviour to have mercy upon him, and to forgive him his sins." The 
 Doctor, chap. Ixxi. 
 
 The selection of Cato- street for the conspirators' meeting was 
 accidental ; and the street itself is associated but indirectly in 
 name with the Roman patriot and philosopher. To efface re- 
 collection of the conspiracy of the low and desperate politicians 
 of 1820, Cato-street has been changed to Homer-street. 
 
 Money Panic 0/1832. 
 
 When, in May, 1832, the Duke of Wellington was very 
 unpopular as a minister, and it <was believed that he had 
 formed a Cabinet which, it was thought, would add to his un- 
 popularity, a few agitators got up " a run upon the Bank of 
 England," by means of placarding the streets of London with the 
 emphatic words : 
 
 advice which was followed to a prodigious extent. On Monday, 
 May 14, (the bills having been profusely posted on Sunday !) the 
 run upon the Bank for coin was so incessant, that in a few hours 
 upwards of half a million was carried off: we remember a trades- 
 man in the Strand bringing home, in a hackney-coach, 2000 sove- 
 reigns. Mr. Doubleday, in his Life of Sir Robert Peel, states the 
 placards to have been " the device of four gentlemen, two of 
 whom were elected members of the Reformed Parliament. 
 Each put down 2c/. ; and the sum was expended in printing 
 housands of these terrible missives, which were eagerly circu- 
 ated, and were speedily seen upon every wall in London. The 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 37 
 
 effect is hardly to be described. It was electric." The agent was 
 a tradesman of kindred politics, in business towards the east end 
 of Oxford-street ; and it must be admitted that he executed the 
 order completely. 
 
 A Great Sufferer by Revolutions. 
 
 King Louis of Bavaria, who abdicated after an insurrection in 
 1848, has seen his family extensively affected by the dynastic 
 changes which have taken place since 1859. His second son is 
 Otho, the ex- King of Greece, born on the ist of June, 1815 ; his 
 third, Luitpold, is married to the daughter of the Grand Duke 
 of Tuscany ; one of his daughters to the Duke of Modena ; and 
 one of his grandsons, or his youngest son Adalbert, was to have 
 succeeded Otho on the throne of Greece. Lastly, the Queen of 
 Naples and her sister, the Countess deTrani, belong to a collateral 
 branch of the Royal family, that of Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. 
 The House of Wittelsbach has therefore suffered most materially 
 from the revolutions of Germany, Italy, and Greece, and its 
 members might give a second representation of the famous 
 dinner at Venice mentioned in Voltaire's Candlde. Le Temps. 
 
 Origin of the Anti-Corn-Law League. 
 
 The first hint of this great political Association is to be found 
 in the writings of the very individual whose labours tended so 
 much to crown its efforts with success. In the well-known 
 pamphlet, entitled England, Ireland, and America, by a Manchester 
 Manufacturer, Mr. Cobden says : 
 
 " Whilst agriculture can boast almost as many associations as 
 there are British counties, whilst every city in the kingdom con- 
 tains its botanical, phrenological, or mechanical institutions, and 
 these again possess their periodical journals (and not merely these, 
 for even war sends forth its United Service Magazine) we pos- 
 sess no association of traders, united together, for the common 
 object of enlightening the world upon a question so little under- 
 stood, and so loaded with obloquy, as free-trade. 
 
 " We have our Banksian, our Linnasan, our Hunterian Societies, 
 and why should not at least our greatest commercial and manu- 
 facturing towns possess their Smithian Societies, devoted to the 
 purpose of promulgating the beneficent truths of the i Wealth of 
 Nations' ? Such institutions, by promoting a correspondence 
 with similar societies that would probably be organized abroad 
 (for it is our example in questions affecting commerce that 
 
33 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 strangers follow), might contribute to the spread of liberal and 
 just views of political science, and thus tend to ameliorate the 
 restrictive policy of foreign governments through the legitimate 
 i: fl.ience of the opinions of its people. 
 
 u Nor would such societies be fruitless at home. Prizes might 
 bj offered for the best essay on the corn question, or lecturers 
 might be sent to enlighten the agriculturists, and to invite discus- 
 sion upon a subject so difficult and of such paramount interest to all" 
 
 The pamphlet from which the preceding extract is taken, was 
 published in the early part of the year 1^35, about four years 
 before the formation of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and at a 
 time when, owing to the very low price of grain, and the pros- 
 perity of the manufacturing districts, the question of the Corn- 
 laws scarcely attracted the slightest attention, either in Manchester 
 or in any other pail of the country. 
 
 Wellington's Military Administration. 
 
 Much misconception exists with respect to the military adminis- 
 tration of the Duke of Wellington, who was, at the close of his 
 life, commander-in-chief of the army. He is said to have been 
 wedded to " Brown Bess," but he is known to have encouraged 
 the introduction of the Minie ; and several of the reforms exe- 
 cuted by Lord Herbert had been discussed by the Duke with 
 approval. The celebrated letter of 1847 shows what were the 
 thoughts of this great man in reference to our national defences, 
 and they are not perhaps the least valuable legacy which Welling- 
 ton has bequeathed to England. The following scheme of de- 
 tence by the Duke, which' Mr. Gleig for the first time published, 
 is not perhaps the less interesting because it has been in part ac- 
 complished : 
 
 " He considered the Channel Islands Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney 
 to be the key of our outer line of defence. In each of these he required 
 that a harbour of refuge should be constructed of sufficient capacity and 
 depth of water to receive a stout squadron ; and then, with Portsmouth 
 well guarded on one flank and Plymouth on the other, he held that Eng- 
 land would be perfectly safe from invasion on a large scale. ... If Go- 
 vernment gave him the Channel Islands, Seaford, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, 
 all completely fortified, and ready to receive respectively their squadrons, then 
 he was satisfied that, though it might be impossible to prevent marauding 
 parties from landing here or there, England would be placed beyond the 
 risk of invasion on such a scale as to endanger her existence, or even to 
 put the capital in jeopardy Establishing then an outer line of de- 
 fence, he asked for men and materhl wherewith to meet an enemy if lie 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 39 
 
 succeeded in breaking through that line. He would be satisfied with an 
 addition of 20,000 men to the regular army, provided such a force of Militia 
 'were raised as ivould enable him to dispose of 70,000 men among the prin- 
 cipal fortresses and arsenals of the kingdom ; keeping at the same time two 
 corps of 50,000 men in hand, one in the neighbourhood of London, the 
 other near Dublin. He should thus have open to him all the great lines 
 of railway, which would enable him to meet with rapidity any danger, 
 from whatever side of the capital it might threaten." 
 
 If we read Volunteers for Militia, we shall see that Welling- 
 ton's plan of defence is nearly that contemplated in 1863. 
 
 Gustavus III. of Sweden. 
 
 In a paper contributed to the Royal Society of Literature, Dr, 
 Hermann has traced the eventful history of the Swedish monarch 
 with great skill, from the period when he ascended the throne, 
 in 1771, to his assassination by Ankerstrom at the masked ball in 
 1792. Dr. Hermann shows that Gustavus united in his own 
 person and character most of those qualities, intellectual and moral, 
 which distinguished the latter half of the eighteenth century. 
 Thus, like Catherine of Russia and Frederick the Great, though 
 not to the same extent, he was a believer in those doctrines whose 
 chief expositors were Voltaire and the Encyclopaedists ; while, 
 in the government of his country, he was ever striving after a 
 system of optimism, which, however beautiful in theory, is wholly 
 impracticable. The reign of Gustavus is chiefly remarkable for 
 the spirit with which he broke down a tyranny of certain noble 
 families, which had long usurped nearly the whole of the royal 
 prerogative, and had thrown the monarch into the background ; 
 lor the zeal with which he carried out many reforms of the 
 greatest benefit to the more indigent classes of his people ; for 
 the remarkable rashness with which, unsupported by a single 
 other European power, he rushed madly into a war with the 
 Russian Empress; and for the extraordinary victory in which, 
 at the close of his second campaign, in July, 1791, he destroyed 
 the entire Russian fleet, in the Bay of Swbborg, and captured no 
 less than 1412 Russian cannon. 
 
 The assassin, Ankerstrom, was discovered and executed : in his 
 character and in his last moments, a striking similarity may be 
 traced to Bellingham, who assassinated Mr. Perceval in 1812: 
 both expressed the same fanatical satisfaction at the perpetration 
 of the crime, and the same presumptuous confidence of pardon 
 from the Almighty. 
 
40 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Gustavus, in his parting moments, strictly forbad, for ffty years, 
 the opening of the chests at Upsal, in which his papers were de- 
 posited ; and the injunction was strictly obeyed. On March 30, 
 1842, the chests were opened, in the presence of many spec- 
 tators ; but in neither was found, as was expected, any clue to 
 the conspiracy of which Ankerstrom was the agent ; but the 
 king's autograph instructions do not refer to any papers later 
 than 1788, when the bequest was made. The Swedish instruc- 
 tions, in Gustavus's handwriting, prove that the king enjoyed the 
 reputation of being a great author without even knowing how 
 to spell. See Curiosities of 'History , p. 107. 
 
 Fall of Louis- Philippe. 
 
 Sir John Herschel, in a paper on Humboldt's Kosmos, in the 
 Edinburgh Review, January, 1848, has the following sentence, 
 which reads strangely now, for it was given to the public just 
 before the catastrophe which overthrew the throne of Louis- 
 Philippe, and led in a few months to the Italian and Hungarian 
 wars. Herschel's words are : " A great and wondrous attempt 
 is making in civilized Europe at the present time neither more 
 nor less than to stave off, ad infinitum, the tremendous visitation 
 of war." The retrospect has been thus sketched: 
 
 Seventeen years Louis-Philippe sat on his elective throne : 
 great increase of wealth and physical progress were the results 
 of his reign at home, peace preserved abroad, and foreign policy 
 alike successful ; yet the King was not popular at home. He 
 was hated alike by the Legitimist party, in whose eyes he was 
 but a usurper, and by the revolutionists, who sighed for entire 
 emancipation from kingly rule. Besides, there are deep and dark 
 stains upon the reign of the " Napoleon of Peace,'' as Louis 
 Philippe liked to be called. His reign was a period of corrup- 
 tion in high places, of jealousy and illiberal restriction towards 
 his own subjects, of a fraudulent and heartless policy towards 
 the allies of his country, whose good will he more especially for- 
 feited by his over-reaching conduct in regard to the marriage of 
 the Due de Montpensier to a Spanish princess. His downfal 
 was long predicted by the leading journalists of England, where 
 public opinion is unfettered by arbitrary laws. In France, too, it 
 was understood that Louis- Philippe was, in great measure, re- 
 strained in his views by his sister, Madame Adelaide, who died 
 Dec. 30, 1 847. " Then it came to pass that the heart of the nation 
 
HISTORICO-POLITIGAL INFORMATION. 41 
 
 became alienated from their king ; and when a trifling disturbance 
 in February, 1848, was aggravated into a popular riot through 
 the audacity of a few ultra-republicans, Louis-Philippe felt that 
 he stood alone and unsupported as a constitutional king, both at 
 home and abroad, and that the soldiery were his only means of 
 defence. He shrank from employing their bayonets against his 
 people : he fell in consequence, and his house fell with him. The 
 King fled in disguise from Paris to the coast of Normandy, and 
 taking ship again found a safe refuge on the shores of England, 
 to which his family had already made their escape. He landed at 
 Newhaven, March 3rd, 1848. The Queen of England who, in 
 1843, had enjoyed the hospitality of Louis Philippe at the Cha- 
 teau d'Eu, his royal residence near Dieppe, and who had enter- 
 tained him in the following year at Windsor, and conferred on him 
 the order of the Garter immediately assigned Claremont, near 
 Esher, as a residence for himself and his exiled family. From the 
 time of his arrival in England, his health began visibly to decline: 
 he died on the 26th of August, 1850, in the presence of Queen 
 Amelie and his family, having dictated to them the conclusion 
 of his memoirs, and having received the last rites and sacraments 
 of the church at the hands of his chaplain. He was buried on 
 the following 2nd of September at the Roman Catholic chapel 
 at Weybridge, Surrey, and an inscription was placed upon his 
 coffin, stating that his ashes remain there, Donee Deo adjuvante 
 in patriam avitos inter cineres transferantur" (Saturday Review). 
 They have not been removed ! 
 
 The Chartists in 1848. 
 
 The Tenth of April, 1848, is a noted day in our political 
 calendar, from its presenting a remarkable instance of napping in 
 the bud apparent danger to the peace of the country by means 
 at once constitutional and reassuring public safety. It was on 
 this day that the Chartists, as they were called, from developing 
 their proposed alterations in the representative system, through " the 
 People's Charter," made in the metropolis a great demonstration 
 of their numbers : thus hinting at the physical force which they 
 possessed, but probably without any serious design against the 
 public peace. On this day the Chartists met, about 25,000 in 
 number, on Kennington Common, whence it had been intended 
 to march in procession to the House of Commons with the 
 Charter petition ; but the authorities having intimated that the 
 
42 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 procession would be prevented by force if attempted, it was 
 abandoned. Nevertheless, the assembling of the quasi politicians 
 from the north, by marching through the streets to the place 
 of meeting, had an imposing effect. Great preparations were 
 made to guard against any mischief; the shops were shut in the 
 principal thoroughfares ; bodies of horse and foot police, assisted 
 by masses of special constables, were posted at the approaches 
 to the Thames bridges ; a large force of the regular troops was 
 stationed out of sight in convenient spots ; two regiments of 
 the line were kept ready at Millbank Penitentiary ; 1200 infantry 
 at Deptford, and 30 pieces of heavy field ordnance were ready at 
 the Tower, to be transported by hired steamers to any required 
 point. The Meeting was held, but was brought to " a ridicu- 
 lous issue, by the unity and resolution of the Metropolis, backed 
 by the judicious measures of the Government, and the masterly 
 military precautions of the Duke of Wellington." 
 
 "On our famous loth of April, his peculiar genius was exerted to the 
 unspeakable advantage of peace and order. So effective were his prepara- 
 tions that the most serious insurrection could have been successfully encoun- 
 tered, and yet every source of provocation and alarm was removed by the 
 dispositions adopted. No military display was anywhere to be seen. The 
 troops and the cannon were all at their posts, but neither shako nor bayonet 
 was visible ; and for all that met the eye, it might have been concluded 
 that the peace of the metropolis was still entrusted to the keeping of its 
 own citizens. As an instance, however, of his forecast against the worst, 
 on this memorable occasion, it may be observed that orders were given to 
 the commissioned officers of artillery to take the discharge of their pieces 
 on themselves. The Duke knew that a cannon-shot too much or too 
 little might change the aspect of the day ; and he provided by these re- 
 markable instructions, both for imperturbable forbearance as long as for- 
 bearance was best, and for unshrinking action when the moment for action 
 came." Memoir ; Times, Sept. 15-16, 1852. 
 
 The Chartists' Petition was presented to the Commons, on the 
 above day, signed, it was stated, by 5,706,000 persons. The 
 principal points of the Charter were universal suffrage, vote by 
 ballot, annual parliaments, the division of the country into equal 
 electoral districts, the abolition of property qualification in mem- 
 bers, and paying them for their services. Chartism and the 
 People's Charter grew out of the shortcomings of the Reform 
 Act. The Chartists then divided into the Physical Force and 
 the Moral Force Chartists; and then arose the Complete Suf- 
 fragists; the latter principally from the Middle Classes, the 
 former from the working-classes ; though their objects were very 
 similar. 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 43 
 Revival of the French Emperorship. 
 
 Soon after the breaking-out of the French Revolution, in 1848, 
 the Count d'Orsay called at the office of the Lady's Newspaper, 
 in the Strand, and besought the proprietor, Mr. Landells, to 
 engrave in that journal a portrait which he (the Count) had 
 sketched of Louis Napoleon. The proprietor hesitated, when 
 the Cqunt told him it was the Prince's intention to go over to 
 France; and he added, emphatically, "the English people do 
 not understand him ; but, take my word for it, if he once goes 
 over to France, the French people (will never get rid of him" 
 This prediction has been strictly verified: the assertion was equally 
 correct, that the English people did not understand the Emperor. 
 
 Mr. B. Ferrey, in a communication to Notes and Queries, 3rd S., 
 remarks : t( For a considerable time, Napoleon was held up to 
 ridicule by the Press of England ; yet there were some who then 
 foretold his coming greatness, while the multitude charged him 
 with folly and rashness. Mr. William Brockedon, author of 
 Passes of the Alps, who was well acquainted with the Prince's 
 habits, used to say, at the period when the Prince, amidst much 
 derision, was aspiring to become the President of the French 
 Republic, ' Mark my words, that man is not the fool people 
 take him for : he only waits an opportunity to show himself one 
 of the most able men in Europe;' justifying this prediction by 
 relating a discussion he had heard at a public meeting, between 
 the Prince and some civil engineers, respecting a projected railway 
 across the Isthmus of Panama, in which the former displayed 
 great ability, showing an amount of scientific knowledge which 
 amazed everybody present ; not only stating his case with clear- 
 ness, but combating all objections in a most masterly way." 
 
 The newspapers of London, with one " base exception," con- 
 demned the French choice ; and after Louis Napoleon had taken 
 the first step towards the establishment of his rule, the journalists 
 foretold h's speedy failure : the "base exception," the Morning 
 Post) predicted the reverse, and maintained Louis Napoleon to 
 be the only man capable of rescuing France from the throes of 
 revolution. We happen to know that for another journal of 
 very extensive circulation, chiefly among the influential classes, 
 a leading article of similar tone and confidence to that of the 
 Morning Post, was written by the Editor, but omitted by desire 
 of the Proprietor, and an article of opposite tone substituted: the 
 advocacy would have been too bold a step for the time. 
 
 The career of Louis Napoleon has betn well des:ribed as a 
 
44 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 great re r vi e val in the fortunes of France, the accomplishment of 
 which has been the result of a far-seeing estimate of the French 
 character ; thus sketched by a master hand : 
 
 " Louis Bonaparte seems to have had the key of the mystery. It may 
 be that, as in the human subject, one part of the system acts upon another, 
 so that a disorder of the brain may affect other seemingly unconnected 
 organs, so political discontent, even though without any just cause, may 
 deaden the enterprise of a people. How else could it be that France, with 
 a citizen King, a philosophical Minister, and the alliance of a nation of 
 shopkeepers, could not be made to feel that her greatness must henceforth 
 be dependent on her mercantile enterprise ? While she saw not only Eng- 
 land and America, but the German States, making long strides to the 
 attainment of wealth, she lagged behind, and encouraged among the rising 
 generation the delusion that business was unworthy of a warlike and gifted 
 people. That this generation has thoroughly unlearnt the doctrines which 
 were fashionable in its youth, is certainly among the achievements of 
 Napoleon III. If we look back to the days of Louis Philippe, when, 
 though even Germany had its railways and its electric telegraph, we jjlted 
 out of Paris in the diligence and saw the old semaphores at work, we shall 
 be able to appreciate the change which ten years of Imperialism have made." 
 Times, Jan. 29, 1862. 
 
 French Coup d'Etat Predictions. 
 
 The late Baron Alderson, in a letter to Mrs. Opie, written just 
 after the intelligence of the Coup d'Etat had arrived, hazards rather 
 a curious speculation with regard to the probable issue of this 
 unexpected crisis. He was just on the point of starting for Paris 
 when the news reached him, and put an end to the expedition : 
 
 " I was going there [he writes to Mrs. Opie], but of course do 
 not dream of it now. They seem in a bad way. A nation so 
 unfit for freedom if that be freedom which requires those who 
 love it to bejirst wise and good does not exist. The Celts seem 
 to me to be ' a bad lot.' I suppose it will end in Louis Napoleon's 
 becoming dictator, and then (not unlikely), being shot by an 
 assassin, and the game will begin over again then. The fear is, 
 that the Praetorian guards will make him go to war for their own 
 profit. It is a fearful crisis, I think : and the best that can happen 
 will be for him to be made King or Emperor, and hold his 
 ground in spite of conscience, oaths, and faith which he pledged 
 to the Republic." 
 
 Statesmanship of Lord Melbourne. 
 
 Sir Bulwer Lytton, in an eloquent lecture upon the historical 
 and intellectual associations of Hertfordshire, pays this willing 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 45 
 
 tribute to the character of Viscount. Melbourne; referring to "the 
 fair park of Brocket, which our posterity will find historical as 
 the favourite residence of one who, if not among the greatest 
 Ministers who have swayed this country, was one of the most 
 accomplished and honourable men who ever attained to the sum- 
 mit of constitutional ambition. And it is a striking anecdote of 
 Lord Melbourne, that he once said in my own hearing * He 
 rejoiced to have been Prime Minister, for he had thus learnt that 
 men were much better, much more swayed by conscience and 
 honour, than he had before supposed;' a saying honouiable to 
 the Minister, and honourable still more to the public virtue of 
 Englishmen." 
 
 Lord Melbourne was proverbially a good-natured man; but in 
 his preferences he acted with a sense of duty more stringent than 
 might have been expected. It appears that Lord John Russell 
 had applied to Lord Melbourne for some provision for one of 
 the sons of the poet Moore; and here is the Premier's very 
 judicious reply: 
 
 " MY DEAR JOHN; I return you Moore's letter. I shall be ready to do 
 what you like about it when we have the means. I think whatever is 
 done should be done for Moore himself. This is more distinct, direcc, 
 and intelligible. Making a small provision for young men is hardly justifi- 
 able ; and it is of all things the most prejudicial to themselves. They 
 think what they have much larger than it really is ; and they make no 
 exertion. The young should never hear any language but this : * You 
 have your own way to make, and it depends upon your own exertions 
 whether you starve or not.' Believe me, &c. 
 
 " MELBOURNE." 
 
 Ungraceful Observance. 
 
 Mr.Torrens M'Cullagh, in his Life of Sir James Graham, relates 
 the following instance of want of graciousness in this unpopular 
 statesman. In 1837, on the death of King William, Lord John 
 Russell came to the bar of the House of Commons charged with 
 a Message from the Queen. Hats were immediately ordered offj 
 and even the Speaker announced from the chair that members 
 must be uncovered. Every one present complied with the injunc- 
 tion except Sir James Graham, who continued to wear his hat 
 until the first words of the Message were pronounced. His doing 
 so was the subject of some unpleasant remarks in the newspapers ; 
 and at the meeting of the House next day he rose to explain that 
 in not taking off his hat until the word Regina was uttered he 
 but followed the old and established custom a custom which 
 
46 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 he deemed better than that observed by everybody else in the 
 House. The Speaker then said that Sir James Graham was quite 
 right, that he was strictly within rule in not uncovering until the 
 initiatory word of the Message was delivered. If Sir James 
 Graham had the letter of the law on his side, still there was a 
 stiffness in his conduct which, considering that the message came 
 from a young Queen, and was her first message to her faithful 
 Commons, was not over attractive. 
 
 The Partition of Poland. 
 
 Some twenty years before the dismemberment of Poland, this 
 disgraceful act was foretold by Lord Chesterfield, in Letter 
 CCCIV., dated Dec. 25, 1753, commencing with "The first 
 squabble in Europe that I foresee, will be about the crown of 
 Poland." The leading data of the fall of Poland will show how 
 far this prediction was realized. Poland was dismembered by the 
 Emperor of Germany, the Empress of Russia, and the King of 
 Prussia, who seized the most valuable territories in 1772. 
 
 At the bottom of the Convention signed on the i7th Feb., 1772, 
 we read this declaration of the Empress Queen Maria-Theresa of 
 Austria, dated the 4th March, 1772: "Placet, since so many 
 learned personages will that it should be so ; but long after my 
 death it will be seen what will be the result of having thus 
 trampled under foot all that has been hitherto held to be just and 
 sacred." 
 
 The royal and imperial spoliators, on various pretexts, poured 
 their armies into the country in 1792. The brave Poles, under 
 Poniatowski and Kosciusko, several times contended against 
 superior armies, but in the end were defeated. Then followed 
 the battle of Warsaw, Oct. 13, 1794; and Suwarrow's butchery 
 of 30,000 Poles, of all ages and conditions, in cold blood. We 
 can scarcely believe such wholesale atrocities to have been per- 
 petrated upon European soil within seventy years of the time we 
 are writing. Poland was finally partitioned and its political exist- 
 ence annihilated in 1795. The transaction, in its earlier stage, 
 is detailed in the Annual Register for 1771, 1772, and 1773, sup- 
 posed to have been written by Edmund Burke. Professor 
 Smythe says, diffidently : After all, the situation of Poland 
 was such as almost to afford an exception (perhaps a single ex- 
 ception) in the history of mankind to those general rules of justice 
 that are so essential to the great community of nations. I speak 
 with great hesitation, and you must consider the point yourselves; 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 47 
 
 I do not profess to have thoroughly considered it myself." 
 (Lectures on Modern History.} Sir James Mackintosh contributed 
 to the Edinburgh Review a valuable paper on Poland. 
 
 The 'Invasion of England* 
 
 In contemplating the possibility of an Invasion, we have some 
 right to count upon the changes which modern civilization has 
 introduced into the methods of warfare. It is not improbable 
 that, if it entered into the French Emperor's plans to invade Eng- 
 land, he would make the attempt upon several points at once. 
 The campaign which he sketched out for the use of the allied 
 generals in the Crimea, and which they rejected as impracticable, 
 was based upon this principle. His forces were to be distributed 
 at various points on the circumference of a circle, of which the 
 enemy was to occupy the centre. The enemy was to have all 
 the advantage of concentration ; he and his allies were to have 
 all the weakness of division. It is a mode of fighting which is 
 rather at variance with the old Napoleonic ideas, and which 
 would require an overwhelming force to give it effect. As in 
 military numeration the rule of addition is somewhat at fault, 
 two and two do not always make four, and 200,000 men cannot 
 be computed as ten times stronger than 20,000 we may rest assured 
 that for the successful invasion of England, whether the attack 
 be made by a single armament or by several, a tremendous force 
 must be necessary ; and preparations, which will prevent us from 
 being taken altogether by surprise, must be some time in progress. 
 
 We shall have a little time to prepare. There is no necessity 
 for our arming to the teeth, and standing to our guns, as if the 
 Philistines were upon us ; for there is no need to play the fire- 
 engines before the fire breaks out ; but, on the other hand, if we 
 delay our defences on the plea of saving our money till the danger 
 actually comes, when we shall be able to spend it without stint, 
 " it is as if, for a security against fire, you laid by your money at 
 interest, to be expended in making engines and organizing a 
 proper fire brigade as soon as the conflagration commences." Sir 
 John Burgoyne adds, by way of practical illustration, that 10,000 
 additional British infantry would have taken Sebastopol before 
 the month of December, 1854, and saved all the sufferings of the 
 winter campaign ; " but not all the boasted wealth of England 
 could supply the British infantry required." (Military Opinions.} 
 
 * This paper relates to the Invasion Tactics, as illustrated by Sir John 
 Burgoyne : the Paper at page 21-24 refers to the project of Napoleon I. 
 
48 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Suppose the descent to have taken place where it was least 
 expected. Sir John Burgoyne attributes to the invading force the 
 power of landing with marvellous rapidity. People imagine that 
 because, after long training on a particular beach, Napoleon could 
 embark 100,000 soldiers in a space of time measured by minutes, 
 the process of debarkation on an unknown shore must be pro- 
 portionately rapid. Perhaps no nation can do these things more 
 quickly than our French friends, but they sometimes exaggerate. 
 On landing in the Crimea, where there was no resistance, they 
 indeed succeeded in throwing 6oco men on shore in about twenty- 
 two minutes ; and at the end of nearly seven hours (namely a 
 little before two o'clock) Marshal St. Arnaud sent word to Lord 
 Raglan that the disembarkation was complete. But observe that 
 here were seven hours required to land 23,600 men without op- 
 position, and the fact was that the whole of these French troops 
 had really not landed in the time specified. The Special Corre- 
 spondent of the Times stated that the French were not more ad- 
 vanced than ourselves in the disembarkation, which was earned 
 on long after sunset. More than this, Sir John Burgoyne asks 
 us to consider what would have been the effect of following St. 
 Arnaud's proposal to land at the mouth of the Katcha. He raises 
 before us a vision of boats closely packed, and rowing on shore in 
 the proper order at the rate of about two miles an hour. From 
 the first they are exposed to the fire of artillery, and for the last 
 ^oo yards to a fire of musketry which they are unable to return. 
 Even a small force could, in such circumstances, have punished 
 the allies severely, although ultimately they might have been 
 unable to prevent a landing. If so, it really seems to us that the 
 invasion of our island, though perfectly possible, is not likely to 
 be the simple stepping on shore which some of our military men 
 seem to regard as within the bounds of possibility.- Times re- 
 "vievu of Sir John Burgoyne's "Military Opinions" 
 
 What a Militia can do. 
 
 Lord Macaulay, in his epitome of the arguments that were 
 used in the year 1697, against the maintenance of a standing 
 army in England, says, illustratively : 
 
 "Some people, indeed, talked as if a militia could achieve 
 nothing great. But that base doctrine was refuted by all ancient 
 and modern history. What was the Lacedaemonian phalanx in 
 the best days of Lacedaemon ? What was the Roman Legion 
 in the best days of Rome ? What were the armies that con- 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 49 
 
 nuered at Cressy, at Poictiers, at Agincourt, at Halidon, or at 
 Flodden ? What was that mighty array which Elizabeth reviewed 
 at Tilbury ?* In the I4th, i.cjth, and i6th centuries Englishmen 
 who did not live by the trade of war had made war with suc- 
 cess and glory. Were the English of the i;th century so 
 degenerate that they could not be trusted to play the men for 
 their own homesteads and parish churches ?" 
 
 Gibbon, the historian, who at one part of his life was a captain 
 in the Hampshire regiment of militia, remained ever after sensible 
 of a benefit from it, which he testifies as follows : 
 
 " It made me an Englishman, and a soldier. In this powerful service 
 I imbibed the rudiments of the language and science of tactics, which 
 opened a new field of study and observation. The discipline and evolutions 
 of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the 
 legion j and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers, (the reader may 
 smile,) has not been useless to the historian of the Roman Empire." 
 Miscellaneous Works t vol. i. p. 136. 
 
 White-Boys. 
 
 These ferocious rioters in the south of Ireland, early in the reign 
 of George III., were known by the above name, because, as a 
 mark among themselves in their attacks, they frequently wore a 
 shirt over their clothes. Lord Chesterfield writes in 1765, to the 
 Bishop of Waterford: "I see that you are in fear again from 
 your White-Boys, and have destroyed a good many of them ; but 
 I believe that if the military force had killed half as many land- 
 lords it would have contributed more effectually to restore quiet, 
 
 * We have now learned from Mr. Motley's researches to estimate more 
 correctly the worth of the army at Tilbury. " There were," he says 
 (History of the United Netherlands, vol. ii. p. 515 et seq.), "patriotism, 
 loyalty, courage, and enthusiasm in abundance ;" but " there were no 
 fortresses, no regular army, no population trained to any weapon." " OB 
 the 5th of August no army had been assembled not even the body- 
 guard of the Queen and Leicester, with 4000 men, unprovided with a 
 barrel of beer or a loaf of bread, was about commencing his entrenched 
 camp at Tilbury. On the 6th of August the Armada was in Calais Roads, 
 expecting Alexander Farnese to lead his troops upon London." Good for- 
 tune and gallant sailors saved us from this calamity ; but the undisciplined 
 mob which was assembled under an incompetent commander on shore 
 would have done little to avert it ; and we have in this case a sufficient 
 proof of the difficulty of improvising an army in an interval of "diplomatic 
 Correspondence." Quarterly Rc-vitiv, No. 223. 
 
 E 
 
50 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 The poor people in Ireland are used worse than negroes by their 
 lords and masters, and their deputies of deputies of deputies." 
 
 Naval Heroes. 
 
 The register of the church of Burnham Thorpe contains the 
 entry of Lord Nelson's birth ; with a note by his father recording 
 the investiture of Nelson with the order of the Bath, his rear- 
 admiralship, and creation as Lord Nelson of the Nile, and of 
 Burnham Thorpe. It is somewhat remarkable that three great 
 contemporaneous admirals were all born in one small village of 
 Norfolk the village of Cockthorpe, which hardly contains more 
 than six houses. The admirals are Sir Cloudesley Shovel, Sir 
 Christopher Minors, and Sir James Narborough ; it is also re- 
 markable that this small village and the village of Burnham 
 Thorpe should have produced four such great men. Proc. Nor- 
 folk and Norwich Archaeological Society. 
 
 How Russia is bound to Germany. 
 
 In his last Will, Peter the Great said that Russia must en- 
 deavour to increase her influence in Germany "by means of 
 marriages, dowries, and annuities;" and that the value of the 
 advice has been properly appreciated by his successors, the Morgen 
 Post, in 1863, thus shows: 
 
 " Prussia was bound to Russia by means of the marriage of Nicholas I. 
 with Alexandra, the daughter of Frederic William III., and it may with 
 truth be said that for a quarter of a century the King of Prussia obeyed 
 the behests of his imperious son-in-law. Wurtemberg is bound to 
 Russia by three ties. The first wife of William I. was Catherine of 
 Russia j the Crown Princess of Wurtemberg is Olga Nicolajevna j and 
 one of the King's nieces is the Grand Duchess Helen, widow of 
 the Grand Duke Michael. The Grand Duke of Oldenburg is a member 
 of the Russian dynasty. The Grand Duchess Helen Paulovna (one of 
 the sisters of the Emperor Nicholas) was married to the hereditary 
 Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Prince George of Mecklenburg- 
 Strelitz married the Grand Duchess Catherine Michaelovna in 1851. 
 The mother of the present Grand Duke -of Saxe- Weimar was Maria 
 Paulovna, another sister of the Emperor Nicholas. The Grand Duke 
 Constantine, at present Stattholder in Poland, is married to a Princess 
 of the House of Saxe- Altenburg. The late Grand Duke Constantine, the 
 uncle of the last-mentioned Prince, was married to Anna Theodorovna, a 
 Princess of Saxe-Coburg. The wife of the Emperor Alexander II. ic a 
 scion of the Grand Ducal House of Hesse-Darmstadt. Prince Frederick, 
 the heir- presumptive to the throne of Hesse-Cassel, was married to 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 51 
 
 Alexandra, the daughter of the late Emperor Nicholas. The wife of the 
 Grand Duke Michael, who is now Stattholder in the Caucasus, is Olga 
 Theodorovna of Baden-Baden. The first wife of Duke Adolphus of Nassau 
 was the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Michaelovna. The Dowager-Qiaeen of 
 the Netherlands, the mother of King William III., is a Princess of the 
 House of Russia. The Russian dynasty is connected with Bavaria by means 
 of the Leuchtenbergs, and with Hanover by means of Queen Maria 
 Alexandrine, who is the sister of the above-mentioned Grand Duchesc 
 Constantine." 
 
 Count Cavour' s Estimate of Napoleon III. 
 
 Of the character and policy of Louis Napoleon, Cavour was 
 accustomed to speak with much freedom. No one had better 
 opportunities than Cavour of sounding their depths. He was the 
 oniy living man who had ventured to grapple with him face to face, 
 and who had used him for his purpose. The estimate he had 
 formed of his capacity was not a high one ; but he fully admitted 
 his fertility of resource, his physical and moral courage, and his 
 knowledge of the people he governs. " He has no definite policy," 
 he remarked to an English friend. " He has a number of poli- 
 tical ideas floating in his mind, none of them matured. They 
 would seem to be convictions founded upon instinct. He will not 
 steadily pursue any single idea if a serious object presents itself, 
 but will give way and take up another. This is the mot 
 denigme to his policy. It is by steadily keeping this in view that 
 I have succeeded in thwarting his designs, or in inducing him to 
 adopt a measure. The only principle if principle it can be called 
 which connects together these various ideas is the establish- 
 ment of his dynasty, and the conviction that the best way to se- 
 cure it is by feeding the national vanity of the French people. 
 He found France, after the fall of the Orleanist and Republican 
 Governments, holding but a second place among the great 
 Powers ; he has raised her to the very first. Look at his wars, 
 look at his foreign policy ; he has never gone one step beyond 
 what was absolutely necessary to obtain this one object. The 
 principle ostentatiously put forward in the first instance has been 
 forgotten or discarded as soon as his immediate end has been ac- 
 complished. It was so in the war with Russia; it has been so 
 in the war with Austria. In the Crimea he was satisfied with 
 the success of his army in the capture of Sebastopol, which took 
 from the English troops the glory they had earned by their devo- 
 tion and courage, and to which they would have added had the 
 war continued. In the struggle with Austria, he was astounded 
 
 E2 
 
52 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 by the greatness of the victories of Magenta and Solferino. The 
 military glory of France had been satiated, and he thought no 
 more of the liberty of Italy, of that free and united nation which 
 he was to have called into existence from the Alps to the 
 Adriatic. 
 
 " It is this uncertain policy guided by dynastic and selfish 
 considerations, which makes him so dangerous to you, and which 
 renders it necessary that you should ever be on your guard. Not 
 that he is hostile to England, or that he has any definite design 
 against her. On the contrary, he has much affection for your 
 country. He is a man of generous impulses, and has strong feelings 
 of gratitude towards those who have served and befriended him. 
 At the bottom of his heart he is greatly attached to Italy. His 
 earliest recollections are bound up with her. He is to this day a 
 carbonaro in his desire for Italian freedom and hatred of Austria. 
 He has not forgotten the kindness and hospitality shown to him 
 when an exile in England. He admires your institutions and 
 the character of the English people. But all this is as nothing 
 when compared with the maintenance of his dynasty, the estab- 
 lishment of which he looks upon almost in the light of a religious 
 obligation. If the moment came when he thought a sacrifice 
 necessary to sustain it, however great that sacrifice might be, how- 
 ever painful or repugnant to his feelings, he would make it. No 
 one has had better opportunities of knowing him than I have. He 
 has talked to me with the greatest openness of his future plans. 
 But he has invariably assured me at the same time that his first 
 object was to maintain peace and good understanding with Eng- 
 land. I believe," he solemnly added, " that, from policy, as well 
 as from affection, such are his views ; and that only in a moment 
 of the utmost emergency, when he was convinced that his in- 
 fluence in France depended upon it, would he depart from them. 
 But that moment may come, and you would be madmen if you 
 were not prepared for it." Quarterly Review , No. 222. 
 
 The Mutiny at the Nore. 
 
 In 1797, when Capt. William Linder had the Thetis, and was 
 returning to England, having on board the " Prussian subsidy," 
 amounting to nearly half a million sterling, he was taken prisoner 
 by the mutineer William Parker, and detained, with his vessel 
 and valuable cargo, for a week at the Nore. The rebel, little 
 suspecting the prize he had within his grasp, credited the assertion 
 of Capt. Linder that the aid would shortly arrive, and that he 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION. 53 
 
 was to be the medium of its transmission to this country. By 
 this ruse, and a promise of assistance by which Parker decided 
 that he would take the grand fleet into Brest, he obtained a 
 pass (it is believed the only one given) from William Parker, 
 and arrived safely with his immense treasure at the Tower, where 
 he immediately landed his golden cargo, and forthwith proceede-t 
 to the Admiralty, also giving information to the minister, Mr. 
 Pitt, of his fortunate escape, which, had it been otherwise, would 
 certainly have turned the tide of success of Old England at that 
 time. Mr. Pitt generously offered him a commission ; but Capt. 
 Linder having a fine vessel of his own, and a noble and inde- 
 pendent spirit, which he retained to the last, respectfully declined ; 
 nor could he be induced in after years to solicit for any recom- 
 pense or popularity. He died in 1862, May 21, at the age of 
 eighty-seven. Athenaeum. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation and Sir Robert Peel. 
 
 It having been stated, in a leading article of a journal, April 14, 
 1862, that the Liberal party forced upon the Duke of Wellington 
 and Sir Robert Peel that concession to the cause of Catholic 
 emancipation " which Sir Robert Peel declares he entirely dis- 
 approved to the latest day of his life," drew from the present Sir 
 Robert Peel the following corrective reply: 
 
 " I do not know upon what authority that statement is made, 
 but, so far from disapproving the measure, Sir Robert Peel has 
 distinctly stated that in passing Catholic Emancipation he acted on 
 a deep conviction that the measure was not only conducive to the 
 general welfare, but imperatively necessary to avert from the 
 Church, and from the interest of institutions connected with the 
 Church, an imminent and increasing danger." 
 
 The House of Coburg. 
 
 Some fifty years ago, a young prince of a then obscure German 
 House was serving under the Emperor Alexander in the great 
 war against Napoleon. He was brave, handsome, clever, and, as 
 events have proved, possessed of prudence beyond the ordinary 
 lot of princes or private men. In 1814 he accompanied the Allied 
 Sovereigns to England, and there his accomplishments attracted 
 the attention and engaged the affection of the heiress to the Eng- 
 lish throne, the Princess Charlotte of Wales. They were married, 
 and though an untimely death was destined soon to sever the 
 union, yet from that time the star of the successful young officer 
 
54 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 and of the House of Coburg has been in the ascendant. From 
 the vantage-ground of a near connexion with the British Royal 
 Family they have been able to advance to a position in Europe 
 almost beyond the dreams of German ambition. The Coburgs 
 have spread far and wide, and filled the lands with their race. 
 
 They have created a new Royal House in England. The 
 Queen is a daughter of Leopold's sister ; her children are the 
 children of Leopold's nephew. The Coburgs reign in Portugal ; 
 they are connected with the royal though fallen House of Orleans, 
 and more or less closely related to the principal families of their 
 own country. Prince Leopold himself has for thirty years 
 governed one of the most important of the minor States of Europe, 
 and his eldest son is wedded to an Archduchess of the Imperial 
 House of Austria. Jea"lousy and detraction have followed these 
 remarkable successes, but the Coburgs can afford to smile when 
 their rivals sneer, for they have the solid rewards of skill, pru- 
 dence, and that adaptability to all countries and positions which 
 has distinguished the more able members of their family. It 
 may be added, as the last memorable events in their annals, that 
 two of them have successively had the refusal of the Crown of 
 Greece. 
 
 The talents of the Coburgs have been conspicuous. King 
 Leopold, the late Prince Consort, and the present Duke of Saxe- 
 Coburg-Gotha, have been men much above the ordinary standard. 
 They have had great opportunities, and they have known how to 
 use them. Neither the Prince Consort nor the King of Portugal 
 could, without offence, have taken a share in the politics of Eng- 
 land and Portugal unless they had been gifted with much prudence 
 and circumspection. No one who studies their history will believe 
 that they and their kinsmen have merely had greatness thrust upon 
 them. But, on the other hand, it cannot be doubted that they owe 
 all to the excellent start which Prince Leopold's good fortune gave 
 their House. Had it not been for the elevation of the young 
 soldier to the highest station in England, the Coburgs, instead 
 of planting dynasties everywhere, might have been no more than 
 any other of the five-and-thirty German reigning families, or the 
 multitude of Princely and Serene, but mediatized personages who 
 are scattered through the land. But when Leopold became an 
 English prince, and his sister was the mother of the heiress pre- 
 sumptive to the British throne, the path to greatness was open to 
 the enterprise of the family. How much one success leads to 
 another in princely life has been shown in their history, and we 
 have adverted to it because, if report speak true, another family, 
 
HISTORICO-POLITICAL INFORMATION, 55 
 
 which, a few years since, was of hardly more account in Europe, 
 is at this moment entering on a similar career. Times. 
 
 A Few Tears of the Worlds Changes. 
 
 Little more than a dozen years have elapsed since there were 
 witnessed in Europe events so stirring that they constitute one of 
 the most remarkable epochs in the history of the world. Since then 
 France has undergone three revolutions the fall of the constitu- 
 tional monarchy, the stormy interlude of a democratic republic, 
 and the restoration of a military empire. The old rulers of Lom- 
 bardy, of Tuscany, and of Naples have disappeared, and the map 
 of the world has been altered in order to admit of the introduction 
 of the kingdom of Italy. Austria, long the haughtiest representa- 
 tive of the principle of absolute monarchy, has commenced the 
 experiment of constitutional government, and Russia has laid the 
 foundation of a new political and social existence in recognising 
 the value of free labour, and abolishing the institution of serfdom. 
 China has opened her ports to our merchants and her capital to 
 our ambassadors. We ourselves have twice gone through the 
 calamities of war in the siege of Sebastopol and the suppression of 
 the Indian revolt, and we have been twice reminded this evening 
 that the great republic which boasted a superb exemption from 
 the perils and the evils which beset ancient states and monarchical 
 forms of government, has been violently rent in twain, and what- 
 ever may be the issue of that struggle in which we see at present 
 only a lavish expenditure of blood and treasure, still there is no 
 dispassionate bystander who can believe that the union can ever 
 be restored, and no far-sighted politician who can suppose that 
 the curse of slavery can long survive that separation of which it is 
 the most ostensible, though not the only, nor perhaps the most 
 powerful cause. Such important events, all leading to effects so 
 vast and so permanent in their relation to the advancement of 
 the human race, have probably never before occurred within so 
 short a space of time. Speech of Sir E. Buliver Lytton. 
 
 We may supplement the above by the following strange passage 
 in the career of Louis Napoleon, three-and-twenty years since : 
 
 A correspondent of The Reader writes : " It was at Vimereux, the site 
 of the old camp of Boulogne, that Charles Louis Bonaparte, now Emperor 
 of the French, landed on his famous adventure of the 5th of August, 1840. 
 I was in Boulogne when he reached that town, at about 5.30 a.m., with 
 about sixty followers. In proceeding to the beach to bathe, I was startled 
 by the appearance of a rabble, some of whom were clothed as English 
 
5G KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 footmen and grooms, and some as French soldiers. In the midst of this 
 somewhat boozy battalion the then pretender, now the Emperor of the 
 French, marched, closely encircled by adherents. I followed him and 
 them to the barracks ; and never did I see a more careworn or crestfallen 
 set of conspirators. In all fifty-six persons, eight horses, and two carriages 
 had embarked at Margate aboard the steamer, which was now cruising in 
 the offing of Boulogne after landing its human freight. When the enter- 
 prise at the barracks failed, the present Emperor of the French, with eleven 
 of his adherents, got into a boat with a view to escape j but they allowed 
 the oars to be taken from them by one Guillaume Tutelet, a bather. The 
 boat subsequently capsized, and the present Emperor of the French swam 
 for the steamer, the City of Edinburgh, which was at some distance. In 
 this attempt he failed, and was forced to cling to a buoy till he was picked 
 up and placed in safety by the English captain. But he did not long re- 
 main thus, for the Lieutenant du Port collected his force, and boarded 
 the steamer, bringing her, with his prisoner, close to the Quai la 
 Douane." 
 
 Noteworthy Pensions. 
 
 The finance accounts for 1862 give, as usual, a rather serious 
 list of Pensions charged upon the Consolidated Fund, and there- 
 fore not otherwise stated than in these accounts. 
 
 "Among the larger entries are five ex-Chancellors of England receiving 
 5OOO/. a year each, two ex-Chancellors of Ireland with 36927., four retired 
 English judges with 35oo/., two Irish with 24007., and five County Court 
 judges dividing 46007. between them. But these are pensions earned by 
 personal service ; perhaps not so much can be said of some others. The 
 Earl of Ellenborough has a compensation annuity of 77007. as chief clerk 
 of the Court of Queen's Bench ; the Rev. T. Thurlow, 40287. as clerk 
 of the hanaper, in addition to 73527. as patentee of bankrupts. Viscount 
 Avonmore receives 41997. as late registrar of the Irish Court of Chancery j 
 the Earl of Roden 26987. as late auditor-general of the Irish Exchequer. 
 But these pensions will come to an end ; even that cannot be said of some 
 others. There is above 23,ooo7. a year paid in perpetual pensions, payable 
 as long at least as there shall be an Earl Amherst or Nelson, a Lord 
 Ro Jney, a Viscount Exmouth, an heir of William Penn, or of the Duke 
 of Schomberg, and so forth. Of the limited number of first-class pensions 
 of 2O007. a year to statesmen who have been in high office, and who claim 
 the pensions, only two are now payable viz., to Lord Glenelg and Mr. 
 Disraeli ; Sir G. Grey's is suspended, he being again in office. Several 
 pensions ceased in the course of the year ; among them that to the family 
 of George Canning, and that to the door-keeper of the Irish House of 
 Lords j but the housekeeper still lives to receive her annual compensation 
 for loss of emoluments by the Union." 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 57 
 
 of CiMlia&m* 
 
 How the Earth was peopled. 
 
 THE record of the actual origines of the human race, as com- 
 municated by God Himself, tells us that one spot was selected, 
 for the purpose in question, by Creative Power ; and that to one 
 aboriginal pair was consigned the office and destiny of replenishing 
 the earth. The same record, moreover, informs us, that, when 
 the earth was corrupt before God, through the wickedness of their 
 posterity, the whole race was destroyed, save the family of one 
 man ; and that, of the three sons of that one man <waj the (whole 
 earth overspread. And, lastly, we have this account confirmed 
 to us by the testimony of an inspired servant of God, who has 
 declared, that He hath made, of one blood y all nations of 'men , for to 
 dwell on the face of the earth. 
 
 Now, according to this account, Noah may be considered, for 
 the purposes of ethnological inquiry, as the sole forefather of the 
 existing race of man. Of antediluvian men, all, except Noah, are 
 entirely out of the question. Of the remarkable physical varieties 
 of complexion, stature, or temperament, among the races before 
 the Flood (if any such varieties existed), we are profoundly 
 ignorant. We do read, it is true, that there were giants in 
 those days ; but the meaning of this term seems very doubtful. 
 It is most generally understood to indicate a gigantic scale of 
 iniquity, licentiousness, and violence, rather than of corporeal bulk 
 and might. At all events, Noah himself, and his three sons, were 
 the only males spared from the general destruction: and the 
 mother of these three sons, together with their three respective 
 wives, the only females ; eight persons in all. And, so far as race 
 or family are concerned, the sons are clearly identified with their 
 father. It is, indeed, just possible that all these four females 
 may have been of so many different tribes or races. But this 
 surmise is wholly gratuitous, and very far from probable. And, 
 even were it admitted, it could not affect any argument respecting 
 the origin of the present inhabitants of the earth, without assuming 
 the falsehood of that part of the sacred narrative which traces 
 them all, Noah and his whole family included, to one and the 
 same common parentage. 
 
58 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Since the days of the patriarch upwards of 4000 years have 
 elapsed, and we now find the earth inhabited by at least eight 
 hundred millions of souls. And, so it is, that these vast multi- 
 tudes exhibit, fait bin certain limits, almost every imaginable variety 
 of form, of constitution, and of stature. English Review, No. 2- 
 
 Nevertheless, the Unity of the Human Race is a much-vexed 
 question among ethnologists. Mr. Dunn is convinced of the 
 original unity of the human species, and, after adducing the best 
 ethnological evidence attainable, he earnestly appeals to the philolo- 
 gists to help him. Admiral Fitzroy reduces mankind to one, or, 
 at least, to three types ; and these three varieties he reverently 
 ascribes to the three sons of Noah, with the help of the hypothesis 
 that they may have been the sons of different mothers. On the 
 other hand, Mr. Crauruixl, President of the Ethnological Society, 
 admits of no compromise with orthodoxy, maintaining that the 
 hypothesis of the unity of our race is without foundation. There 
 are, he says, some forty races of men, which to pack into the five 
 pigeon-holes of Cuvier and Blumenbach, or the seven of Prichard, 
 would produce confusion instead of order. The supposition of 
 a single race peopling all countries by migration he holds to be 
 <l monstrous," and contradictory to the fact that some of them 
 to this day do not know how to use or construct a canoe. 
 Migration, he contends, is the achievement of races possessed 
 of resources in food and means of transport. It is to little pur- 
 pose that Admiral Fitzroy dwells on the capacities of rafts, 
 double canoes, and ocean currents. Mr. Craufurd is incredulous 
 as ever, and fights for his forty Adams with unchecked vivacity, 
 kicking a tremendous hole in the "frail canoe," and leaving 
 the ocean currents to deal with it more oceanico. 
 
 Revelations of Geology. 
 
 Geology attests that man was the last of created beings in this 
 planet. If her data be consistent and true, and worthy of scien- 
 tific consideration, she affords conclusive evidence that, as we 
 are told in Scripture, he cannot have occupied the earth longer 
 than 6000 years. (Hitchcock, Religion of Geology.} 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton's sagacious intellect had arrived at a similar 
 conclusion from different premisses, and long before the geologist 
 had made his researches and discoveries. " He appeared," said 
 one who conversed with him, not long before his death, and 
 has carefully recorded what he justly styles " a remarkable and 
 curious conversation," " to be very clearly of opinion, that the in- 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 59 
 
 habitants of this world were of short date ; and alleged as one 
 reason for that opinion, that all arts as letters, ships, printing, 
 the needle, &c. were discovered within the memory of history, 
 which could not have happened if the world had been eternal ; and 
 that there were visible marks of ruin upon it, which could not 
 have been effected by a flood only." Brewsters Life of Newton. 
 
 The Stone Age. 
 
 Admiral Fitzroy adduces the following striking facts strongly 
 bearing on the great geological inquiry of " Flint Tools," and 
 Implements in the Drift." 
 
 Tierra del Fuego, with its innumerable islands and rocky islets, 
 like mountain ranges half sunk in ocean, combines every variety of 
 aspect storm-beaten rocky summits, several thousand feet above 
 the sea glaciers so extensive that the eye cannot trace their limits 
 densely wooded hillsides grand cascades and sheltered sandy 
 coves, altogether such a combination of Swiss, Norwegian, and 
 Greenland scenery as can hardly be realized or believed to exist 
 near Cape Horn. Yet, even there by lake-like waters, though 
 so near the wildest of oceans thousands of satages exist, and 
 migrate in bark canoes ! 
 
 In 1830 four of those aborigines were brought to England. In 
 1833 three of them were restored to their native places (one 
 having died). They had then acquired enough of our language 
 to talk about common things. From their information and our 
 own sight are the following facts: The natives of Tierra del 
 Fuego use stone tools, flint knives, arrow and spear heads of flint 
 or volcanic glass, for cutting bark for canoes, flesh, blubber, 
 sinews, and spears, knocking shell-fish off rocks, breaking large 
 shells, killing guanacoes (in time of deep snow), and for weapons. 
 In every sheltered cove where wigwams are placed, heaps of re- 
 fuse shells and stones, offal and bones are invariably found. 
 Often they appear very old, being covered deeply with wind- 
 driven sand, or water-washed soil, on which there is a growth of 
 vegetation. These are like the " kitchen middens" of the so-called 
 " stone age" in Scandinavia. 
 
 No human bones would be found in them (unless dogs had 
 dragged some there), because the dead bodies are sunk in deep 
 water with large stones, or burnt. These heaps are from six to 
 ten feet high, and from ten or twenty to more than fifty yards in 
 length. All savages in the present day use stone tools, not only in 
 Tierra del Fuego, but in Australia, Polynesia, Northernmost 
 
GO KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 America, and Arctic Asia. In any former ages of the world, 
 wherever savages spread, as radiating from some centre, similar 
 habits and means of existence must have been prevalent ; therefore 
 asual discovery of such traces of human migration, buried in or 
 under masses of water-moved detritus, may seem scarcely suffi- 
 cient to define a so-called " stone age." 
 
 What are Celtes ? 
 
 Celtes are certain ancient instruments, of a wedge-like form, of 
 which several have been discovered in different parts of Great 
 Britain. Antiquaries have generally attributed them to the Celtae, 
 but, not agreeing as to their use, distinguish them by the above 
 unmeaning appellation. Mr. Whitaker, however, is of opinion 
 that they were British battle-axes, and in this he has been generally 
 followed. Such is the statement in the eighth or last edition of 
 the Encyclopedia Britannica. 
 
 The Welsh etymologists, Owen and Spurrell, furnish an ancient 
 Cambro-British word celt, a flint-stone. M. Worsae (Primeval 
 Antiq., p. 26) confines the term to those instruments of bronze 
 which have a hollow socket to receive a wooden handle; 
 the other forms being called paalstabs on the Continent In the 
 a Latin Vulgate," our translators have rendered " an iron pen " 
 in the book of job, chap. xix. v. 24, there translated celte. 
 
 But the origin and application are variously explained among 
 antiquarian writers. The Abbe Cochet states, in a letter to the 
 French journals, 1863, that hatchets are found almost all over 
 Europe. They are common in France, and are generally found in 
 groups. Some of them have been analysed, and found to be 
 composed of fourteen parts of tin and eighty- six of copper. The 
 bronze is the same as that of an antique poniard brought from 
 Egypt and analysed by Vauquelin, from which it would appear 
 that the composition of ancient Gallic bronze came from Egypt. 
 Archasologists generally attribute hatchets of this kind to the Celts 
 and Gauls, and give them the general name of Celtic. 
 
 In opposition to this statement, it is, however, maintained that 
 " the word is not derived from its use by the Celts or Kelts, but 
 from the Latin word ( celtis,' which means chisel, or hatchet." 
 Dr. Smith (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities) obtains 
 the term from " ceites, an old Latin word tor a chisel, pro- 
 bably derived from cselo, to engrave." Mr. Wright (in The 
 Celt, Roman, and Saxon) says that Hearne first applied the 
 word to such implements in bronze -, believing them to be 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 61 
 
 "Roman celtes, or chisels;" and that "subsequent writers, as- 
 cribing these instruments to the Britons, have retained the name, 
 forgetting its origin, and have applied it indiscriminately not only 
 to other implements of bronze but even to the analogous instru- 
 ments of stone." Mr. Wright objects to the term, "as too 
 generally implying that things to which it is applied are Celtic ;" 
 and it is now generally allowed that there is no connexion be- 
 tween this word and the name of the nation (Celtas). (Abridged 
 from Notes and Queries, No. 203). Fcsbroke (Encyclopedia of 
 Antiquities, p. 286) has an excellent column of authorities upon 
 the subject, which is still hotly contested. An admirable paper 
 was read to the Archaeological Institute, in 1849, by Mr. James 
 Yates, illustrating " The Use of Bronze Celts in Military Ope- 
 rations," with several woodcuts. See the Archaeological Journal, 
 December, 1849, pages 363-392. See also "Notes on Bronze 
 Weapons," by A. W. Franks, F.S.A., Archxologia, vol. xxxvi., 
 pp. 326-331 : and Papers by Mr. John Evans, F.S.A.; Arcbao- 
 logia, vol. xxxviii. p. 280 ; also, vol. xxxix. p. 57. The subject is 
 of immediate interest in illustration of "The Antiquity of Man." 
 
 Roman Civilization of Britain. 
 
 If the commencement of the Roman rule in England was? 
 say, fifty years before the birth of Christ (or 1910 years ago) 
 and each generation lasted on the average thirty years rather a 
 high rate of vitality probably in the Early and Middle Ages 
 we find that about sixty-four generations have gone to dust since 
 then. The archaeological information obtained of late years 
 shows that at the time of the Roman invasion there was a larger 
 amount of civilization in Ancient Britain than has been generally 
 supposed : that in addition to the knowledge of the old inhabi- 
 tants in agriculture, in the training and rearing of" horses, cows, 
 and other domestic animals, they were able to work in mines, had 
 skill in the construction of war-chariots and other carriages, and 
 in the manufacture of metals ; and there is evidence that cheese 
 and other British manufactures and materials were exported to 
 certain parts of the Continent, probably in British vessels. The 
 ancient coinage of this period is well worthy of attention. To 
 what country may the style of art be traced ? To what .people 
 do we owe the mysterious circle of Stonehenge ? Mr. Fergusson 
 and others say to the Buddhists rather than to the Druids. 
 
 In connexion with the Ancient British period, it would seem 
 that probably 2000 years before the Roman times there had been 
 
62 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 in Great Britain a certain degree of civilization, which from 
 various causes declined in extent. If Stonehenge may be con- 
 sidered as of the same antiquity as similar remains in various parts 
 of the East which are reckoned by good authorities to be 
 4000 years old we had in this country a degree of civilization 
 which was contemporary with the prosperous period of the 
 Egyptian empire ; and, in times more immediately preceding the 
 Roman occupation, we know that Britain was the grand source 
 of Druidical illumination (whatever relation that may have had 
 to a true civilization) to the whole of Continental Europe. 
 
 That the Ancient Britons, even after they were conquered by 
 the Romans, had still a strength considered dangerous, is shown 
 by the fact that upwards . of forty barbarian legions which had 
 followed the Roman standards were settled chiefly upon the 
 northern and eastern coasts ; and it is supposed that a force of 
 about 19,200 Roman foot and 1700 horse was required to 
 secure peace, and the carrying out of certain laws in the island. 
 It is calculated by some writers that a revenue of not less than 
 2,ooo,ooo/. a year was raised by the conquerors of Britain from 
 the land-tax, pasture-tax, and customs, besides legacy duties, and 
 those levied on the sale of slaves, auctions of goods, &c. ; and it 
 may be remarked that these customs were levied by the Roman 
 governors in lieu of direct tribute, to which, it seems, the spirit of 
 the Britons would not submit. The Builder, 1860. 
 
 Roman Roads and British Railways. 
 
 We have no means of estimating the cost of a mile of Roman 
 road by any audited account of expenses, and it is not easy to 
 make a comparison of labour. Its cost is vaguely calculated as 
 insignificant by the side of that of our leviathan railways. The 
 following is stated to be the average cost of a mile of railway : 
 
 Land 6ooo/. 
 
 Earthwork ....... goco/. 
 
 Tunnelling SOOQ/. 
 
 Masonry 3OOO/. 
 
 Viaduct and large Bridges ..... 3ooo/. 
 
 Permanent Iron Road , 5OOO/. 
 
 Stations 4<DOO/. 
 
 Law expenses, Engineering, Surveying, &c. . . 3ooo/. 
 
 32,ooo/. 
 If this be multiplied by 5000, which was the aggregate length of 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 63 
 
 British railways in 1851 (now it is nearly 12,000), and we have the 
 almost fabulous amount of 160 millions, a sum fully equal to ten 
 times the revenue of all the Roman provinces in the time of 
 Augustus. 
 
 In estimating the value of a Roman road, we have to deduct 
 78oo/. a mile for land and law: every mile of railway cost 
 6ooo/. for land, whereas the Roman road-makers cut through 
 the country without asking the price, and dispensed with all 
 juries for assessing damages. Next, we must deduct 4Ooo/. for 
 stations ; the Roman mutationes were but hovels where horses were 
 changed ; and lastly, is to be deducted 5ooo/. for iron, before we 
 come to the materials the Romans were enabled to use ; in other 
 words, the materials of the Roman road and labour would not be 
 more than half the cost of our railways, from the mere fact of 
 certain expenses being absent, which they could not understand ; 
 but, although inferior to the Britons of the nineteenth century 
 in the art of spending money, if judged by the present state of the 
 science, they could not be despicable engineers their levels were 
 chosen on different principles, but their lines of roads passed 
 through the same countries, and generally in the same direc- 
 tion, as our railways. A diagram taken from an article of the 
 Quarterly Review, exhibiting a general view of the direction of 
 the principal Roman roads in England, shows that on com- 
 paring one or two of our principal lines, we shall find that the 
 Great Western, e.g., supplies the place, with a little deviation near 
 Reading, of the Roman iter from London to Bath and Bristol ; 
 the Liverpool and Manchester, and on to Leeds and York, 
 replace the northern Watling -street ; the Eastern Counties follows 
 a Roman way, and so of the rest. 
 
 In boasting of the gigantic steps which the art of road-making 
 has taken in our time, we cannot afford to depreciate either the 
 genius or the magnificence of the ancient Romans in this matter. 
 If we have our railway under the cliffs of Dover, Trajan had his 
 road under 2000 feet of perpendicular cliff along the Ister; if we 
 have our 12,000 miles of rails, the Romans had their 4000 miles of 
 chosen road, reaching from one extremity of the empire to the 
 other ; if we have our leviathan bridges and viaducts, the Ro- 
 mans had theirs over greater rivers and wider vales than we have 
 to deal with ; and, finally, if we had our glass bazaar, one-third of 
 a mile long, in Hyde Park, they had a golden palace, which reached 
 a whole mile on the Esquiline Hill. If we rise superior and look 
 down upon the works of the Romans, it is not so much that we 
 have gained in unskilful labour, as in science. Without the iron 
 
64 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 and the science, their works would be as great as ours ; it is in 
 mental rather than in any physical energies, that we have the pre- 
 eminence. 
 
 We may acquire some idea of this branch of Roman economy 
 from the following details : From the wall of Antonius to Rome, 
 and from thence to Jerusalem, that is, from the north-west to 
 the south-east point of the empire, was measured a distance of 
 3740 English miles; of this distance 85 miles only were sea- 
 passages, the rest was the road of polished silex. Posts were esta- 
 blished along these lines of high road, so that a hundred miles a 
 day might be with ease accomplished. A fact related by Pliny 
 affords an example of the quickest travelling in a carriage in an- 
 cient times. Tiberius Nero, with three carriages, accomplished 
 a journey of 200 miles in twenty-four hours, when he went to 
 see his brother Drusus, who was sick in Germany. Rev. R. 
 Burgess, B.D. 
 
 Domestic Life of the Saxons. 
 
 Were it possible for an archaeologist to report the gossip of the 
 Saxon hinds over their ale or mead, we should have learnt more 
 of their daily life from such a specimen of their conversation than 
 from all the cautious inferences from manuscripts and records. 
 Let us conceive the presence of a modern reporter in the mead- 
 hall of Hrothgar, and we may be certain that his literal transcript 
 of a single hour's talk there would be worth all that we can now 
 learn from the Romance of Beowulf. " Then," says the poem, 
 " there was for the sons of the Geats (Beowulf and his followers 
 altogether), a bench cleared in the beer-hall ; there the bold 
 spirit, free from quarrel, went to sit ; the thane observed his 
 office, he that in his hand bare the twisted ale-cup ; he poured the 
 bright sweet liquor ; meanwhile the poet sang serene in Heorot 
 (the name of Hrothgar's palace) ; there was joy of heroes." Al- 
 though our conceptions of the scene are faint and vague, the 
 antiquary is enabled to represent certain items as " the twisted 
 ale-cup," a favourite fashion of our forefathers, many of whose 
 ale-cups, as discovered in their barrows or graves, are incapable 
 of standing upright, implying that their proprietors were thirsty 
 souls, and that it was not, as we supposed, the Prince Regent 
 who first invented tumblers. From the mead-hall and the other 
 Saxon houses of the period, we also get the type of the modern 
 English mansion, with its enceinte and its lodge-gate, as distin- 
 guished from its hall-door. The early Saxon house was the 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 65 
 
 whole enclosure, at the gate of which the ostium domus beggars 
 assembled for alms, and the porter received the arms of strangers. 
 The whole mass enclosed within this wall constituted the burgh, 
 or tun, and the hall, with its duru, or door par excellence, was 
 the chief of its edifices. Around it were grouped the sleeping 
 chambers, or bowers, as they were designated till a late age, with 
 the subordinate offices. Mr. Wright (in his able work on the 
 Domestic Life of the Middle Ages} draws many of his inferences 
 from the description of the mead-hall of Hrothgar, and adds that 
 he believes Bulwer's description of the Saxonized Roman house 
 inhabited by Hilda is substantially correct. Still, though we can 
 identify to this day the Saxon derivatives of many of our houses 
 and much of our crockery-ware, this helps us little as regards the 
 sentiments of the originators of these familiar types. They have 
 left us some memorials of their manners ; but, substantially speak- 
 ing, their sentiments on a great variety of subjects are lost to us, 
 and there is little trace of them, even in their barrows and sepul- 
 chral surroundings. Times review. 
 
 Love of Freedom. 
 
 There is something absolutely touching in the simplicity of the 
 following incident, derived from Aelfric's Colloquium, composed in 
 the eleventh century. A teacher examines a ploughman on the 
 subject of his occupation. " What sayest thou, ploughman ; 
 how dost thou perform thy work ?" " O, my lord," he answers, 
 " I labour excessively : I go out at dawn of day, driving my oxen 
 to the field, and yoke them to the plough : there is no weather so 
 severe that I dare rest at home, for fear of my lord ; but having 
 yoked my oxen, and fastened the share and coulter to the plough, 
 every day I must plough a whole field (acre ?) or more." The 
 teacher again asks, " Hast thou any companion ?" (t I have a boy 
 who urges the oxen with a goad, and who is now hoarse with 
 cold and shouting." " What more doest thou in the day ?" 
 "Truly, I do more yet. I must fill the oxen's mangers with 
 hay, and water them, and carry away their dung." " O, it is a 
 sore vexation !" " Yea, it is great vexation ; because lam not free." 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon clergy went so far as to make the giving of 
 Freedom an Atonement for all Sins, by encouraging the manu- 
 mission of theows gratuitously, as an action of merit in the eyes 
 of the church. Among the early benefactors of the abbey of 
 Ramsey, it is recorded that Athelstan Mannesone manumitted 
 thirteen men in every thirty, " for the salvation of his soul," taking 
 
 F 
 
66 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 them as the lot fell upon them, and (< placing them in the open 
 road, so that they were at liberty to go where they would.'' 
 Many, indeed, were freed, from feelings of piety. Thus it ap- 
 pears from the celebrated " Exeter book" in the cathedral, that, 
 at Exeter, on the day when they removed the bodies of bishops 
 Osbern and Leofric from the old minster to the new one, 
 William, bishop of Exeter, " proclaimed Wulfree Pig free and 
 sackless of the land at Teigtune," and " freed him for the love of 
 God and of St. Marie, and of all Christ's saints, and for the re- 
 demption of the bishops' souls and his own." Sometimes a 
 man who had no theow of his own, bought one of another per- 
 son, in order to emancipate him, " for the love of God and the 
 redemption of his soul." Such were the fruits that ripened from 
 Roman teaching in the olden time ! Arcbaologia, vol. xxx, 
 
 The Despot deceived. 
 
 Nothing can be more erroneous than the notion that the despot, 
 though he may himself oppress his people, can prevent others 
 from doing the same. He is cheated by his subordinates, and 
 they cheat the people. Archbishop Whately. 
 
 True Source of Civilization. 
 
 The killing of animals for food is, after all, merely the re- 
 source of the savage, and domesticated animals and cultivated 
 plants are indispensable to the earliest advances of civilization. It 
 may be safely averred, says Mr. Craufurd, that no people ever 
 attained any great civilization without, for example, the posses- 
 sion of some cereal, and without having domesticated the horse, 
 or the ox, or the buffalo. No evidence exists of a people emerging 
 from barbarism whose food consisted of the cocoa-nut, the banana, 
 the date, the bread-fruit, sago, the potato, the yam, or the batata. 
 Such articles are too easily produced, require too little skill and 
 ingenuity to raise ; and when they fail, there is nothing to fall 
 back upon nothing between the people cultivating them and 
 starvation. The higher, too, the cereal the better, wheat standing 
 at the top of the list in temperate regions, and rice in warm ones. 
 Thus, the cereals of Egypt, nurtured by the mud of the Nile, 
 created a respectable civilization among a very inferior race. It 
 was because the Egyptians, says Mr. Craufurd, besides the date, 
 possessed wheat, barley, pulse, and the ox, and that nature 
 dressed and irrigated their country, that the Egyptians became 
 numerous and civilized. 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 67 
 
 The Lowest Civilization. 
 
 The South Sea Islanders who scalded their fingers in Captain 
 Cook's tea-kettle, and to whom pottery and warm water were 
 luxuries also, were certainly low in the scale of civilization, but 
 they were not nearly so low as the Terra del Fuegans at this 
 moment. Mr. Darwin describes the state of these wretched 
 creatures as the extreme of misery, and as affording him the 
 most curious and interesting spectacle he had ever beheld. " I 
 could not have believed," says he, " how wide was the difference 
 between savage and civilized men." Their land, we should re- 
 member, is a land of rain, sleet, snow, and storms, unsheltered 
 from the cold of the South Pole, and one thick murky mass of 
 forest. The " climate (where gale succeeds gale, with rain, hail, 
 and sleet) seems blacker than anywhere else. In the Straits of 
 Magellan, looking due south from Port Famine, the distant 
 channels between the mountains appear, from their gloominess, to 
 lead beyond the confines of the world." In this terrestrial limbo 
 live human beings who are clad, for this inclement temperature, 
 in a single otter-skin, which they lace across their breast by strings, 
 and, according as the wind blows, shift from side to side. He 
 pictures the state of these poor creatures at night, some half-a- 
 dozen of them sleeping together naked on the wet ground coiled 
 up like animals. " Whenever it is low water they must rise to 
 pick shellfish from the rocks; and the women, winter and summer, 
 either dive to collect sea-eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and 
 with a baited hair-line jerk out small fish. If a seal is killed, or 
 the floating carcass of a putrid whale is discovered, they are feasts. 
 Such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless berries and 
 fungi." Mr. Snow, who brings us our latest reports from the 
 Fuegans, visited them in 1855. At present, however, their con- 
 dition in the scale of humanity is almost as low as it can be ; for 
 though they possess the capacity of kindling a fire by the friction 
 of two sticks (an accomplishment of which, by the way, all 
 savages that we know of are capable), and though they can form 
 canoes by hollowing out logs of wood, they cultivate no plant 
 and domesticate no animal, and have, as we see, no other art of 
 civilized life. Times journal. 
 
 Why do we shake Hands* 
 
 "It is," replies Dr. Humphry, in his clever volume, The 
 Human Foot and the Human Hard, " a very old-fashioned way of 
 
68 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 indicating friendship. Jehu said to Jehonadab, < Is thine heart 
 right as my heart is with thine heart ? If it be, give me thine 
 hand.' It is not merely an old-fashioned custom ; it is a strictly 
 natural one, and, as usual in such cases, we may find a physio- 
 logical reason, if we will only take the pains to search for it. The 
 animals cultivate friendship by the sense of touch, as well as by 
 the senses of smell, hearing, and sight ; and for this purpose they 
 employ the most sensitive parts of their bodies. They rub their 
 noses together, or they lick one another with their tongues. Now, 
 the hand is a part of the human body in which the sense of touch 
 is highly developed; and, after the manner of the animals, we 
 not only like to see and hear our friend (we do not usually smell 
 him, though Isaac, when his eyes were dim, resorted to this sense 
 as a means of recognition), we also touch him, and promote the 
 kindly feelings by the contact and reciprocal pressure of the sen- 
 sitive hands. Observe, too, how this principle is illustrated by 
 another of our modes of greeting. When we wish to determine 
 whether a substance be perfectly smooth, and are not quite satisfied 
 with the information conveyed by the fingers, we apply it to the 
 lips and rub it gently upon them. We do so, because we know 
 by experience that the sense of touch is more acutely developed 
 in the lips than in the hands. Accordingly, when we wish to re- 
 ciprocate the warmer feelings, we are not content with the contact 
 of the hands, and we bring the lips into the service. A shake of 
 hands suffices for friendship, in undemonstrative England at 
 least ; but a kiss is the token of a more tender affection." 
 
 Dr. Humphry is no friend to Palmistry ; for, he observes : 
 <f You will estimate the value of the science of Cheiromancy 
 when you hear that equal furrows upon the lower joint of the 
 thumb argue riches and possessions ; but a line surrounding the 
 middle joint portends hanging. The nails, also, come in for 
 their share of attention : and we are informed that, when short, 
 they imply goodness ; when long and narrow, steadiness but 
 dulness ; when curved, rapacity. Black spots upon them are un- 
 lucky; white are fortunate. Even at the present day Gipsies 
 practise the art when they can find sufficient credulity to en- 
 courage them." 
 
 Various Modes of Salutation. 
 
 Of all the different modes of salutation in various countries, 
 there is none so graceful as that which prevails in Syria. At New 
 Guinea the fashion is certainly picturesque ; for they place upon 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 69 
 
 their hands the leaves of trees as symbols of peace and friendship. 
 An Ethiopian takes the robe of another and ties it about his own 
 waist, leaving his friend partially naked. In a cold climate this 
 would not be very agreeable. Sometimes it is usual for persons 
 to place themselves naked before those whom they salute as a 
 sign of humility. This custom was put in practice before Sir 
 Joseph Banks when he received the visit of two Otaheitan females. 
 The inhabitants of the Philippine Islands take the hand or foot of 
 him they salute, and gently rub their face with it, which is at all 
 events more agreeable than the salute of the Laplanders, who 
 have a habit of rubbing noses, applying their own proboscis with 
 some degree of force to that of the person they desire to salute. 
 The salute with which you are greeted in Syria is at once most 
 graceful and flattering ; the hand is raised with a quick but gentle 
 motion, to the heart, to the lips, and to the head, to intimate 
 that the person saluting is willing to serve you, to think for you, 
 to speak for you, and to act for you. Farley 's Syria. 
 
 What is Comfort ? 
 
 Could any one really be satisfied with the attainment and 
 diffusion of any conceivable amount of Comfort ? Or do the 
 whole series of influences which the popular sentiment almost 
 deifies really affect very deeply the standing calamities and the 
 standing complaints of life ? It is not difficult to bring the ques- 
 tion to a fair test. If all the causes which we see at work around 
 us were to continue to operate for an indefinite length of time in the 
 utmost vigour, they would probably not raise the average standard 
 of comfort for the whole population above the point at which 
 the average of the better- paid professional classes stands at pre- 
 sent. The wildest dreams of the most sanguine believer in pro- 
 gress on Christian principles would be more than realized if he 
 ever saw ordinary day-labourers as well off and as intelligent as 
 ordinary lawyers, doctors, and merchants are at present. Take, 
 then, one reasonably prosperous person of this kind, and see 
 whether he is in such an entirely satisfactory condition. It is clear 
 that he is not. He neither knows whence he comes nor whither 
 he is going, nor for what purpose he lives ; or at least his know- 
 Jedge upon these subjects is so indefinite, so much involved in 
 metaphors and mysteries, that it is little more than enough to 
 make visible the darkness in which he stands. He passes through 
 life in a round of occupations which often fatigue and hardly ever 
 satisfy large portions of his mind ; and the very comforts which 
 
70 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 have been provided for him by so infinite a multiplicity of social 
 devices, as often as not operate to choke and strangle his energies. 
 We need not detail the features of a familiar picture. Every 
 one knows the gloomy side of life, and though it is not the 
 whole truth, it is right that its existence should be recognised. 
 It is an insulting affectation to keep it out of sight, and to persist 
 in crying up progress and improvement as if there was no un- 
 dying worm and unquenchable fire. Saturday Review. 
 
 What is Luxury ? 
 
 Luxury is the indefinite and comprehensive term of reproach 
 with which the vulgar, in all ages, brand whatever is beyond their 
 own tastes and habits. What is luxury to one is but refine- 
 ment and civilization to others. The higher orders mingle up 
 with their disgust at the boorish and noisy pastimes of the lower, 
 a kind of latent feeling of 1.heir immorality: the lower revenge them- 
 selves by considering as things absolutely sinful the more splendid 
 entertainments and elegant festivities of their superiors in wealth 
 and refinement. Quarterly Review* 
 
 What do we know of Life ? 
 
 The condition of our life is that we stand on a narrow strip 
 of the shore, waiting till the tide, which has washed away hundreds 
 of millions of our fellows, shall wash away us also into a country 
 of which there are no charts, and from which there is no return. 
 What little we know about that unseen world comes to this 
 that it contains extremes of good and evil, awful and mysterious 
 beyond all human expression or conception, and that those tre- 
 mendous possibilities are connected with our conduct here. It 
 is surely wiser and more manly to walk silently by the shore of 
 that silent sea, than to boast with puerile exultation over the little 
 sand-castles which we have employed our short leisure in building 
 up. Life can never be matter of exultation, nor can the progress 
 of arts and sciences ever really fill the heart of a man who has i 
 heart to be filled. In its relation to what is to be hereafter, there 
 is, no doubt, no human occupation which is not awful and sacred, 
 for such occupations are the work which is here given us to do 
 our portion in the days of our vanity. But their intrinsic value is 
 like that of schoolboys' lessons. They are worth just nothing at 
 all, except as a discipline and a task. It is right that man should 
 rejoice in his own works, but it is very wrong to allow them for 
 one instant to obscure that eternity from which alone they derive 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 71 
 
 their importance. Steam-engines and cotton-mills have their great- 
 ness, but life and death are greater and older. Men lived, and 
 died, and sorrowed, and rejoiced before these things were known, 
 and they could do so again. Why mankind was created at all, 
 why we still continue to exist, what has become of that vast multi- 
 tude which has passed, with more or less sin and misery, through 
 this mysterious earth, and what will become of those vaster mul- 
 titudes which are treading and will tread the same wonderful 
 path ? these are the great insoluble problems which ought to be 
 seldom mentioned, but never for an instant forgotten. Strange 
 as it may appear to popular lecturers, they really do make it 
 seem rather unimportant whether, on an average, there is or is 
 not a little more or less good nature, a little more or less comfort, 
 and a little more or less knowledge in the world. Men live and 
 die in India, and China, and Africa, as well as in England and 
 France ; and where there is life and death there are the great essen- 
 tials of existence, and the eternal problems which they involve. 
 This page of beautiful philosophy is from the Saturday Review. 
 
 The truest Patriot the greatest Hero. 
 
 Is he not in reality the truest patriot who fills up his station 
 m private life well ; he who loves and promotes peace both public 
 and private, who knowing that his country's prosperity depends 
 much more on its virtues than its arms, resolves that his indi- 
 vidual endeavours shall not be wanting to promote this desirable 
 end ? And is he not the greatest hero who is able to despise public 
 honour for the sake of private usefulness, he who has learnt to 
 subdue his own inclinations, to deny himself those gratifications 
 which are inconsistent with virtue and piety, who has conquered 
 his passions and brought them low even as a child that is weaned : 
 is not such a man greater than he that taketh a city, sheddeth 
 blood as it were water, or calls for the thundering applause of 
 assembled multitudes ? But if persons in general held these senti- 
 ments, if utility were substituted for show, and religious useful- 
 ness for worldly activity, how very little our public men would 
 have to do ! Truly they would be driven to turn their swords into 
 ploughshares, and study the Gospel instead of the statutes. 
 
 The old Philosophers. 
 
 Horace Walpole, who possessed great knowledge of life, though 
 himself disfigured by arrogant conceil s, has left this satirical view 
 of the wisdom of the ancient philosophers : 
 
72 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 " I thought that philosophers were virtuous, upright men, who loved 
 wisdom, and were above the little passions and foibles of humanity. I 
 thought they assumed that proud title as an earnest to the world, that they 
 intended to be something more than mortal ; that they engaged them- 
 selves to be patterns of excellence, and would utter no opinion, would 
 pronounce no decision, but what they believed the quintessence of truth j 
 that they always acted without prejudice and respect of persons. Indeed, 
 we know that the ancient philosophers were a ridiculous composition of 
 arrogance, disputation, and contradictions ! that some of them acted against 
 all ideas of decency; that others affected to doubt of their own senses ; that 
 some, for venting unintelligible nonsense, pretended to think themselves 
 superior to kings ; that they gave themselves airs of accounting for all that 
 we do and do not see and yet, that no two of them agreed in a single 
 hypothesis; that one thought fire, another water, the origin of all things j 
 and that some were even so absurd and impious as to displace God, and 
 enthrone matter in his place. I do not mean to disparage such wise men, 
 for we are really obliged to them : they anticipated and helped us off with 
 an exceeding deal of nonsense, through which we might possibly have 
 passed if they had not prevented us." 
 
 Glory of the Past. 
 
 To be honoured and even privileged by the laws, opinions, 
 and inveterate usages of our country, growing out of the preju- 
 dice of ages, has nothing to provoke horror and indignation in any 
 man. Even to be too tenacious of those privileges is not abso- 
 lutely a crime. The strong struggle in every individual to pre- 
 serve possession of what he has found to belong to him, and to 
 distinguish him, is one of the securities against injustice and des- 
 potism implanted in our nature. It operates as an instinct to 
 secure property, and to preserve communities in a settled state. 
 What is there to shock in this ? Nobility is a graceful ornament 
 to the civil order. It is the Corinthian capital of polished society. 
 Omnes bon't nobilitati semper fa-vemus was the saying of a wise 
 and good man. It is, indeed ^n? side of a liberal and benevolent 
 mind to incline to it with s me jort of partial propensity. He 
 feels no ennobling principle in his own heart who wishes to 
 level all the artificial institutions which have been adopted for 
 giving a body to opinion and permanence to fugitive esteem. 
 It is a sour, malignant, and envious disposition, without taste 
 for the reality, or for any image or representation of 'virtue, that 
 sees with joy the unmerited fall of what had long flourished in 
 splendour and in honour. I do not like to see anything destroyed, 
 any void produced in society, any ruin on the face of the land. 
 Burke. 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 73 
 
 Wild Oats. 
 
 We are more familiar with Wild Oats in a moral than in a bota- 
 nical sense ; yet in the latter it is an article of no small curiosity. 
 For one thing, it has a semi-inherent power of moving from one 
 place to another. Let a head of it be laid down in a moistened 
 state upon a table, and left there for the night, and next morning 
 it' will be found to have walked off. The locomotive power 
 resides in the peculiar hard awn, or spike, which sets the grain 
 a-tumbling over and over sideways. A very large and coarse 
 kind of wild oats, brought many years ago from Otaheite, was 
 found to have the ambulatory character in uncommon perfec- 
 tion. When ordinary oats is allowed by neglect to degene- 
 rate, it acquires this among other characteristics of wild oats. 
 R. Chambers. 
 
 How Shyness spoils Enjoyment. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Helps writes upon this everyday hindrance to 
 happiness : " I believe if most young persons were to tell us what 
 they had suffered from shyness upon their entrance into society, 
 it would well deserve to be placed next to-want of truth as a hin- 
 drance to the enjoyment of society. Now, admitting that there 
 is a certain degree of graceful modesty mixed up with this shy- 
 ness, very becoming in the young, there is at the same time a 
 great deal of needless care about what others think and say. In 
 fact, it proceeds from a painful egotism, sharpened by needless 
 self-examinations and foolish imaginations, in which the shy 
 youth or maiden is tormented by his or her personality, and is 
 haunted by imagining that he or she is the centre of the circle the 
 observed of all observers. The great cause of this shyness is not 
 sufficiently accustoming children to society, or making them sup- 
 pose that their conduct in it is a matter of extreme importance, 
 and especially in urging them from their earliest youth by this 
 most injurious of all sayings, ' If you do this or that, what v/ill be 
 said, what will be thought of you ?' Thus referring the child 
 not to religion, not to wisdom, not to virtue, not even to the 
 opinion of those whose opinion ought to have weight, but to the 
 opinion of whatever society he may chance to come into. I often 
 think the parent, guardian, or teacher, who has happily omitted 
 to instil this vile prudential consideration, or enabled the child to 
 resist it, even if he, the teacher, has omitted much good advice 
 and guidance, has still done better than that teacher or parent 
 
74 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 who has filled the child to the brim with good moral consider- 
 ations, and yet has allowed this one piece of arrant worldliness to 
 creep in." 
 
 " Custom, the Queen of the World? 
 
 Sir William Hamilton, in his Metaphysical Essays, has the 
 following passage characterizing this universal rule : 
 
 "Man is by nature a social animal. * He is more political,' says 
 Aristotle, 'than any bee or ant.' But the existence of society, from a 
 family to a state, supposes a certain harmony of sentiment among its 
 members ; and nature has, accordingly, wisely implanted in us a tendency 
 to assimilate in opinions and habits of thought to those with whom we live 
 and act. There is thus, in every society great or small, a certain gravita- 
 tion of opinions towards a common centre. As in our natural body, every 
 part has a necessary sympathy with every other, and all together form, by 
 their harmonious conspiration, a healthy whole ; so, in the social body, 
 there is always a strong predisposition, in each of its members, to act and 
 think in unison with the rest. This universal sympathy, or fellow-feeling, 
 of our social nature, is the principle of the different spirit dominant in 
 different ages, countries, ranks, sexes, and periods of life. It is the cause 
 why fashions, why political and religious enthusiasm, why moral example, 
 either for good or evil, spread so rapidly and exert so powerful an in- 
 fluence. As men are naturally prone to imitate others, they consequently 
 regard, as important or insignificant, as honourable or disgraceful, as true 
 or false, as good or bad, what those around them consider in the same light. 
 They love and hate what they see others desire and eschew. This is not 
 to be regretted ; it is natural, and consequently it is right. Indeed, were 
 it otherwise, society could not subsist, for nothing can be more apparent 
 than that mankind in general, destined as they are to occupations in- 
 compatible with intellectual cultivation, are wholly incapable of forming 
 opinions for themselves on many of the most important objects of human 
 consideration. 
 
 "If such, however, be the intentions of nature with respect to the unen- 
 lightened classes, it is manifest that a heavier obligation is thereby laid on 
 those who enjoy the advantages of intellectual cultivation, to examine with 
 diligence and impartiality the foundations of those opinions which have any 
 connexion with the welfare of mankind. If the multitude must be led, 
 it is of consequence that it be led by enlightened conductors. That the 
 great multitude of mankind are by natural disposition only what others are, 
 is a fact at all times so obtrusive that it could not escape observation from 
 the moment a reflective eye was first turned upon man. 'The whole 
 conduct of Cambyses,' says Herodotus, the father of history, < towards the 
 Egyptian gods, sanctuaries, and priests, convinces me that this king was in 
 the highest degree insane, for otherwise he would not have insulted the 
 worship and holy things of the Egyptians. If any one should accord to all 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 75 
 
 men the permission to make free choice of the best among all customs, 
 undoubtedly each would choose his own. That this would certainly happen 
 can be shown by many examples, and among others by the following. The 
 King Darius once asked the Greeks who were resident in his court, at 
 what price they could be induced to devour their dead parents. The 
 Greeks answered, that to this no price could bribe them. Thereupon the 
 king asked some Indians who were in the habit of eating their dead parents, 
 what they would take not to eat but to burn them ; and the Indians 
 answered even as the Greeks had done.' Herodotus concludes this narra- 
 tive with the observation, that ' Pindar had justly entitled Custom the 
 Queen of the World.'" 
 
 Ancient Guilds and Modern Benefit Clubs. 
 
 The guilds in our mediaeval towns, in the opinion of Mr. T. 
 Wright, F.S.A., were derived from the municipal system of the 
 Romans. We know that such guilds existed in the Roman 
 towns, and with much the same objects. All people have, at 
 all times, placed great importance in the ceremonies attending 
 the interment of the dead ; and the process of burial among the 
 Romans was one of great expense, which could be met by families 
 which were wealthy, but it must have been very onerous, falling 
 all at once, on men of very limited means ; to avoid the incon- 
 venience of which they clubbed together, in a spirit which exists 
 to the same degree in modern times ; so that the expense on each 
 occasion, instead of falling upon one, was distributed among 
 the members of the club. This was the great object of the 
 Roman guilds, and the second seems to have been drinking and 
 sociality. People clubbed together to be merry while alive, and 
 to be buried when dead. While they still remained attached 
 to their old customs in burial, they were now taught the duty 
 of investing money in the foundation of obits, or perpetual prayers 
 for the dead ; but this being looked upon as a superstitious usage, 
 was the cause of their dissolution after the Reformation. In the 
 successive changes of society, they embi aced from time to time 
 other objects ; but the two grand objects of the Roman, Saxon, 
 or Mediaeval guilds, seemed to have been alike the respectable 
 burial of their deceased members, and the promoting of convivial 
 intercourse the leading features of a modern Benefit Society. 
 
 The Oxford Man and the Cambridge Man. 
 
 If stated very briefly, the chief difference may be said to be 
 that the Cambridge man is more practical. Whether there is 
 something in the method of training pursued, or whether the 
 
76 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 different degrees of importance assigned to the various branches 
 of education may be the cause, or whether the pitting of man 
 against man in examination may operate still more powerfully, 
 the fact soon forces itself on the attention of all close observers. 
 If two school-friends part, and meet again after spending a year 
 at the respective universities, they are soon conscious that they no 
 longer work exactly in the same way. The Cambridge student 
 has learned to regard everything as a task which he must honestly 
 and steadily get through. To do it, and not to think about it, 
 is his aim. Still less does he occupy himself with thinking about 
 doing it. He is too busy and methodical for the agreeable but 
 delusive pleasure of secondary reflection. He has to master a 
 subject, and all he cares is to master it, and to go through it, so 
 that he may satisfy the practical test of being examined in it and 
 answering creditably. .When he leaves college and commences 
 a profession, he works in the same way. A law student from 
 Cambridge, for instance, has generally no very romantic views 
 either of his profession or of himself. Here is a very complex, 
 confused, various piece of learning which he has undertaken to 
 acquire. To do the thing well, he must work hard, and must 
 utterly disbelieve that any knowledge will come unless it is pain- 
 fully obtained. He must cultivate a legal memory, note carefully 
 up all that he thinks he ought to know, and prepare himself to be 
 able to pass an imaginary examination at the shortest possible 
 notice. The Oxford student, on the other hand, is more inclined 
 to speculate about law, to dally with its details, and to despise 
 its confusion. Cambridge men, so to speak, approach law in a 
 humble attitude, and are consequently, perhaps, as a rule, better 
 lawyers after the received English fashion. A boating man who 
 has shaved through a pass at Cambridge, will probably read law 
 precisely in the same way as a boating man who has shaved 
 through a pass at Oxford. But if we compare the general body 
 of men who have taken fair degrees or been accustomed to read, 
 we shall find that there is a difference in the manner in which the 
 one and the other set approach a subject like law, and that 
 difference may fairly be described by saying that the Cambridge 
 manner is the more practical. Saturday Review. 
 
 <f Great Events from Little Causes spring" 
 
 Exemplifications of this poetic saw are very numerous in the 
 highways and byeways of History, ancient and modern ; all tend- 
 ing to show the springs which have set the world in motion, and 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 77 
 
 how the most trivial circumstances have occasioned the subver- 
 sion of empires, and erected new ones in their stead. Infinite 
 are the consequences which follow from a single, and often 
 apparently a very insignificant, circumstance. Paley himself nar- 
 rowly escaped being a baker ; here was a decision upon which 
 hung in one scale, perhaps, the immortal interests of thousands, 
 and in the other, the gratification of the taste of the good people 
 of Giggleswick for hot rolls. Cromwell was near being strangled 
 in his cradle by a monkey ; here was this wretched ape wielding 
 in his paws the destiny of nations. Then, again, how different 
 in their kind, as well as in their magnitude, are these conse- 
 quences from anything that might have been, a priori, expected. 
 Henry VIII. is smitten with the beauty of a girl of eighteen, and 
 ere long 
 
 " The Reformation beams from Bullen's eyes." 
 
 The Mission of St. Augustine is one of the most striking instances 
 in all history of the vast results which may flow from a very 
 small beginning, of the immense effects produced by a single 
 thought in the heart of a single man, carried out conscientiously, 
 deliberately, and fearlessly. Nothing in itself could seem more 
 trivial than the meeting of Gregory with the three Yorkshire 
 boys in the market-place at Rome ; yet this roused a feeling in 
 his mind which he never lost; and through all the obstacles 
 which were thrown first in his own way, and then in that of 
 Augustine, his highest desire concerning it was more than realised. 
 From Canterbury, the first English Christian city from Kent, 
 the first English Christian kingdom has by degrees arisen the 
 whole constitution of Church and State in England, which now 
 binds together the whole British empire. And from the Chris- 
 tianity here established has flowed, by direct consequences, first, 
 the Christianity of Germany then, after a long interval, of North 
 America and, lastly, we may trust, in time, of all India and all 
 Australasia. Stanley's Historical Memoirs of Canterbury. 
 
 Wars have frequently been brought about by trivial causes. 
 In the cathedral of Modena, in the marble tower called "La 
 Ghirlandina," is kept the old worm-eaten wooden bucket which 
 was the cause of the civil war, or rather affray, between the 
 Modenese and Bolognese, in the time of Frederic II., Nov. 15, 
 1325. It was long suspended by the chain which fastened the 
 gate of Bologna, through which the Modenese forced their pas- 
 sage, and seized the prize, which was deposited in the cathedral 
 by the victors, the Geminiani, as a trophy of the defeat of the 
 
78 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Petronii, with wonderful triumph. The event is the subject of 
 Tassoni's Secchia Rapita, or Rape of the Bucket, the first modern 
 mock-heroic poem. 
 
 When the palace of the Trianon was building for Louis XIV., 
 at the end of the park of Versailles, the monarch went to in- 
 spect the work, accompanied by Louvois, secretary-at-war, and 
 superintendent of the -building: Louis remarked that one of the 
 windows was out of shape, and smaller than the rest, which 
 Louvois denied. The king had the window measured, and finding 
 that he had judged rightly, treated Louvois with contumely before 
 the whole court. This treatment so incensed the minister, that 
 when he returned home, he was heard to say, that he would find 
 better employment for a monarch than that of insulting his 
 favourites. Louvois was as good as his word, for by his insolence 
 and haughtiness he insulted the other powers, and occasioned the 
 bloody war of 1688. 
 
 An instance pregnant with mightier results could not, perhaps, 
 be quoted than the following : When many Puritans emigrated, 
 or were about to emigrate, to America, in 1637, Cromwell, either 
 despairing of his fortunes at home, or indignant at the rule of 
 government which prevailed, resolved to quit his native country, 
 in search of those civil and religious privileges of which he could 
 freely partake in the New World. Eight ships were lying in the 
 Thames, ready to sail : in one of them, says Hume, (quoting 
 Mather and other authorities,) were embarked Hazelrig, Hamp- 
 den, Pym, and Cromwell. A proclamation was issued, and the 
 vessels were detained by Order in Council. The King had, in- 
 deed, cause to rue the exercise of his authority. In the same 
 year, Hampden's memorable trial the great cause of Ship-money 
 occurred. What events rapidly followed ! 
 
 At the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, when the Protestant 
 religion was restored, the question whether there should be SaintP' 
 Days in the Calendar was considered by the Convocation, .*d. 
 sharply and fully debated. The Saints' Days were carried only by 
 a single vote : 59 members voted for Saints' Days, 58 for omit- 
 ting them. Literary Remains of H. Fynes Clinton. 
 
 Bishop Burnet relates that the Habeas Corpus Act passed 
 by a mere mistake; that one peer was counted for ten, and 
 that made a majority for the measure. Earl Stanhope's Speech, 
 1856. 
 
 The House of Brunswick and the Casting Vote. Sir Arthur 
 Owen, bart., of Orielton, in the county of Pembroke, is the 
 individual who is asserted to have given the casting vote which 
 placed the Brunswick dynasty on the throne of England. A 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 79 
 
 lady, in 1856, residing at Haverfordwest, remembered her grand- 
 mother, who was staying at Orielton, at the time when Sir 
 Arthur Owen rode to London on Ahorseback, for the purpose of 
 recording his vote : he arrived at the precise juncture when his 
 single vote caused the scale to preponderate in favour of the 
 descendants of the Electress Sophia. (/. Pa-vin Phillips, Ha*ver- 
 fordwest. Notes and Queries, 2nd S. No. 31. Another account, 
 which Mr. Phillips thinks the correct one, states that Sir Arthur 
 Owen made the number even ; and that it was Mr. Griffith Rice, 
 M.P. for Carmarthenshire, who gave the casting vote. (See 
 Debrett's Baronetage, 1824.) 
 
 The Discovery of America is referred to by Humboldt as a 
 "wonderful concatenation of trivial circumstances which un- 
 deniably exercised an influence on the course of the world's 
 destiny:" 
 
 Washington Irving has justly observed that if Columbus had resisted 
 the counsel of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, and continued to steer westward, he 
 would have entered the Gulf Stream and been borne to Florida, and from 
 thence, probably, to Cape Hatteras and Virginia, a circumstance of incal- 
 culable importance, since it might have been the means of giving to the 
 United States of North America a Catholic Spanish population, in the place 
 of the Protestant English one by which those regions were subsequently 
 colonised. "It seems to me like an inspiration," said Pinzon to the 
 Admiral, " that my heart dictates to me that we ought to steer in a dif- 
 ferent direction." It was on the strength of this circumstance that in the 
 celebrated lawsuit which Pinzon carried on against the heirs of Columbus, 
 between 1513 and 1515, he maintained that the discovery of America was 
 alone due to him. This inspiration Pinzon owed, as related by an old 
 sailor of Moguez, at the same trial, to the flight of a flock of parrots which he 
 had observed in the evening flying towards the south-west, in order, as he 
 might well have conjectured, to roost on trees on the land. Never has a 
 flight of bird* been attended by more important results. It may even be said 
 that it has decided the first colonization in the New Continent, and the 
 original of the Roman and Germanic races of men- 
 
 The Act to recharter the first Bank of the United States was 
 defeated by the casting vote of Vice-president Clinton (ex-qfficio 
 President of the Senate), and the Tariff Act of 1846 was ordered 
 to be engrossed by the casting vote of Vice-president Dallas. 
 
 That the Past is the Guide for the Present is thus argued: 
 Every political treatise referring to events which have en- 
 grossed the attention of the day, either as modifications or as 
 changes of our social system, must be valuable in later years. It 
 must necessarily recommend or condemn measures on account of 
 
80 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 their probable operation in the time to come ; it must in some 
 degree be a prophecy, or else it is practically worthless. The 
 politician studies the past merely as his guide for the future. If 
 he is learned, wise, and at all an adept in the science which he 
 professes than which no other is of so momentous an import 
 he will consider past history as the barometer which must guide 
 him in predicating the approach either of a tempest or a calm. 
 Temporary clamour or occasional obstruction will not tead him 
 to forsake clear principles of action, or to recommend a grand 
 constitutional remedy in the case of a trifling local disease. He 
 must look forward beyond the sphere of immediate action reso- 
 lute in this belief, that one false step, however small, may upset 
 the equilibrium of the State. Blackwood's Magazine, 1850. 
 
 Great Britain on the Map of the World. 
 
 We see two little spots huddled up in a corner, awkwardly 
 shot off to a side, as it were, yet facing the great sea, on the very 
 verge of the great waste of waters, with nothing to protect them : 
 not like Greece, or Italy, or Egypt, in a Mediterranean bounded 
 by a surrounding shore, to be coasted by timid mariners, but on 
 the very edge and verge of the great ocean, looking out westward 
 to the expanse. If she launch at all, she must launch with the 
 fearless heart that is ready to brave old ocean, to take him 
 with his gigantic western waves to face his winds and hurri- 
 canes his summer heats of the dead-still tropics his winter 
 blasts his fairy 'icebergs his fogs like palpable darkness his 
 hail-blasts and his snow. Britain has done so. From her island- 
 home, she has sailed east and west, north and south. She has 
 gone outwardly, and planted empires. The States themselves, 
 now her compeer, were an offshoot from her island territory. Her 
 destiny is to plant out nations, and the spirit of colonization is 
 the genius that presides over her career. She plants out Canada, 
 Australia, New Zealand, and the Cape. Ceylon and the Mau- 
 ritius she occupies for trade. India she covers with a network of 
 law, framed and woven in her Anglo-Saxon loom. She clutches 
 China, and begins at last to break up the celestial solecism. She 
 lays hold of Borneo, and straightway piratical prahus are seen 
 wrecked and stranded on the shore, or blown to fragments in the 
 air. She raises an impregnable fortress at the entrance of the 
 Mediterranean, and another in its centre, as security to her sea- 
 borne trade. She does the same in embryo at the entrance to the 
 Red Sea. Westward from Newfoundland, she traverses a con- 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 81 
 
 tinent, and there, in the Pacific, Vancouver's Island, which may 
 one day become the New Great Britain of new Anglo-Saxon en- 
 terprise, destined to carry civilization to the innumerable islands 
 of the great sea bears the union-jack for its island banner, and 
 acknowledges the sovereignty of the British Crown. At Singa- 
 pore, she has provisionally made herself mistress of the Straits of 
 Malacca ; and thousands of miles away on the other hand, at the 
 Falkland Islands, near to the Land of Fire, the British mariner 
 may hear the voice of praise issuing in the Anglo-Saxon tongue. 
 In addition to this, she has representatives at every court, and 
 consuls at every sea-port. Her cruisers bear her flag on every 
 navigable sea. Europeans, Asiatics, Africans, Americans, and 
 Australians, are found wearing her uniform, eating her bread 
 bearing her arms, and contributing to extend her dominion. 
 North British Re-view. 
 
 Ancient and Modern London. 
 
 It is interesting, beyond a merely antiquarian point of view, to 
 trace the progress of London from a walled town, covering about 
 700 acres, with a population half mercantile, half military, living 
 in a labyrinth of courts and alleys, the majority being, as appears 
 from an old proclamation, " heaped up together y and in a sort, half 
 smothered." Let us compare this with the majestic city of our 
 day, spreading over more than 120 square miles, and containing 
 2600 miles of streets, flanked by 360,000 inhabited houses, with 
 a population of 3,000,000, and an assessed rental of i3,ooo,oop/. 
 
 Modern London embraces important portions of the four 
 adjacent counties, and has swallowed up not only the old district, 
 which is still designated " the City," and its ancient suburbs, but 
 numberless places formerly existing as distinct towns, villages, 
 and hamlets, which in days gone by had their separate systems 
 of local government. Under the present regulations, the Central 
 Criminal Court district extends over an area of more than 700 
 square miles, including all Middlesex, and parts of Surrey, Kent, 
 Essex, and Hertfordshire ; which is also about the area of the 
 Metropolitan Police District. Alexander Pulling; Law Maga- 
 zine, N.S., No. xxviii. 
 
 Potatoes the national food of the Irish. 
 
 There is one instance, and only one, of a great European 
 people possessing a very cheap national food. In Ireland the 
 
 6 
 
82 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 labouring classes have for more than two hundred years been 
 principally fed by potatoes, which were introduced into their 
 country late in the sixteenth or early in the seventeenth century. 
 Now, the peculiarity of the potato is, that until the appearance 
 of the late disease, it was, and perhaps still is, cheaper than any 
 other food equally wholesome. If we compare its reproductive 
 power with the amount of nutriment contained in it, we find that 
 one acre of average land sown with potatoes will support twice 
 as many persons as the same quantity of land sown with wheat. 
 The consequence is, that in a country where men live on potatoes, 
 the population will, if other things are tolerably equal, increase 
 twice as fast as in a country where they live on wheat. And so 
 it has actually occurred: until a few years ago, the population in 
 Ireland, in round numbers, increased annually three per cent.; 
 
 the population of England, during the same period increasing one 
 and a half per cent. Buckles History of Civilization. 
 
 Irish-speaking Population. 
 
 There were in Ireland at the time of the Census of 1861, 
 1,105,536 persons who spoke Irish. 163,275 of them spoke Irish 
 only; the other 942,261 spoke both Irish and English. Of those 
 who spoke Irish only, 3,075 were in the civic districts and 160,200 
 in the rural districts. That the number is declining is obvious from 
 the circumstance that the proportion under 20 years of age was 
 less than a third. 77,818 were in Connaught (in a population of 
 less than a million), 62,039 in Munster, 23,180 in Ulster, only 
 238 in all Leinster. 
 
 Our Colonial Empire. 
 
 The Colonies of Great Britain comprise altogether 3,350,000 
 square miles, and cost us for management 3,350,0007. per annum, 
 or just about a pound a mile. They have an aggregate revenue 
 of n,ooo,ooo/., and owe among them 27,ooo,ooo/., or just two 
 years and a half's income. They import goods to the amount of 
 6~o,ooo,opo/. yearly half from ourselves, and half from all the rest 
 of the world. They export produce to the value of 5O,ooo,ooe/., 
 of which three-fifths come to this kingdom ; and all this is done 
 by a population which is under 10,000,000 in the aggregate, and 
 of which only 5,000,000 are whites. Add to these figures, 
 says the Spectator, 900,000 square miles for India, and 200,000,000 
 of people with a trade of 7i,ooo,ooo/., and we have a result that 
 the Queen reign* ever nearly one-third of the land of the earthy and 
 
PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION. 83 
 
 nearly a fourth of its population. If a British vizier under the 
 Emperor should, as it seems probable, rule China, Englishmen 
 will directly control more than half the human race ! 
 
 Our Colonies may be grouped or classed as North American, 
 Australian, Mediterranean, Atlantic, West Indian, Eastern, and 
 African. In extent of territory no Colonies approach those of 
 Australia. The palm of debt belongs to Canada, that of cost to 
 the Mediterranean settlements, that of commerce to the Austra- 
 lian Colonies again. This great show of trade is owing to the 
 precious character of their produce. Of the gross exports of 
 50,ooo,ooo/. they claim 22,ooo,ooo/., and cost little " or nothing 
 for garrisons all the while. In 1860, 25o,ooo/. paid the entire 
 military expenditure on this group of our dependencies ; but New 
 Zealand, which only stood at ioo,ooo/. then, is probably not 
 managed for that figure now. We can see but little trace of its 
 gold-fields in the return before us, which throws all the weight 
 upon New South Wales and Victoria. The former of these set- 
 tlements exported in 1860 produce to the value of 5,ooo,ooo/. ; 
 the latter (and here come the gold-ships) no less than 13,000,0007. 
 worth of goods. Three-fourths of this, too, came to England, 
 whereas in the export-trade of New South Wales three-fourths 
 went to foreign countries. Victoria also imported very largely 
 from us, as did the other Colonies of the group, standing, in the 
 whole, for more than half the sum total of this column. 
 
 Taking population and area into consideration, the trade done 
 by the West Indies is not a bad one. There are but 54,000 white 
 people in all these islands, yet they export goods to the value 
 of 6,ooo,ooo/., and import about the same. Most of the settle- 
 ments are somewhat in debt Jamaica above the others ; but even 
 Jamaica does not owe three years' income, whereas Canada owes 
 eight. The total revenue of the West Indian Colonies in 1860 
 was not quite a million ; the total debt was not quite a million 
 and a half. But the most curious specimen in the return is Heli- 
 goland. The area of this British Colony is one-third of a square 
 mile. On that territory a population of 2,172 souls maintains 
 itself, and buys i3,ooo/. worth of foreign produce every year. 
 Heligoland has also a revenue ; but Heligoland has a public debt 
 likewise, and is behind the world to the extent of nearly 5,ooo/. 
 
 The contrast of the statistics of India with these Colonial totals 
 will develope some remarkable facts. The mere area of India, 
 large as it is, scarcely exceeds one-fourth of the gross area of the 
 Colonies, but it is infinitely more populous and wealthy. Its 
 900,000 square miles contain fifteen times as many inhabitants as 
 all the rest of the Colonies together ; its annual revenue is four 
 
 G 2 
 
84 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 times as great ; its public debt four times as heavy. But its com- 
 merce is wonderful. The exports of all the Colonies, even includ- 
 ing the produce of the gold-fields, amount to 5o,ooo,ooo/. only, 
 and to no more than 27,ooo,ooo/. apart from the exports of 
 Australia. India, however, exported in 1860 goods to the value 
 of 34,ooo,ooo/., of which i5,ooo,ooo/. worth came to us; and 
 purchased in return 22,ooo,ooo/. worth from us, and i2,ooo,ooo/. 
 worth from other countries. Add to this, that its cost is nothing. 
 Under every item of charge, military as well as civil, the return in 
 the case of India is nil. Where the rest of the Colonies figure 
 for upwards of 3,ooo,ooo/. in the way of cost, India makes no 
 demand whatever. That great Empire could supply us with 
 almost everything we want. It could send us tea and silk when 
 China fails ; and if there can be any adequate substitute for the 
 American cotton-fields, ft is in India that we must seek it. It 
 supplies us, too, with the invaluable advantage of a sphere of 
 action and an honourable career for our adventurous youth, and 
 all this it does without costing us a farthing, and without costing 
 its own people more than they receive in value. Parliamentary 
 Return, 1863. 
 
 The English People. 
 
 Mr. Craufurd, the ethnologist, has, in these few sentences, de- 
 scribed the people of England: " They are," he tells us, " among 
 the most mixed people in the world : but the admixtures always 
 having been of high order, no deterioration has resulted. Teutonic 
 invasions appear to have been early made on the coasts of Britain, 
 and the people who offered so brave a resistance to Caesar were 
 probably German settlers. The Romans, for four centuries, occu- 
 pied all the best parts of the land, leaving the remains of the primi- 
 tive peoples in the sterile and mountainous districts, which it would 
 have been difficult to subdue, and unprofitable to keep in subjuga- 
 tion. The Romans, accompanied by few women, necessarily in- 
 termarried with the British. After them came the Teutonic Jutes, 
 Saxons, Angles, Frisians, Danes, and Norwegians the latter came 
 over by mere boatloads ; but in the course of several generations 
 they attained, by their superior valour for in number they never 
 approached that of the original inhabitants to the position of in- 
 vaders, and spread their own language and institutions over the 
 land. The Normans came next, but they were too few in num- 
 ber to overthrow the Saxon element ; and all they have accom- 
 plished has been to add considerably to the Saxon vocabulary. 
 We are not then, as a race, exclusively Britons, or exclusively 
 Saxon, but a great deal more of the former than the latter." 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 85 
 
 anir 
 
 Worth of Heraldry. 
 
 THE only individuals who affect to sneer at heraldic pursuits 
 and studies are those of apocryphal gentility, or whose ancestral 
 reminiscences are associated with the rope sinister, or some such 
 distinctive badge. Heraldry is, however, a branch of the hiero- 
 glyphical language, and the only branch which has been handed 
 down to us with a recognised key. It in many cases represents 
 the very names of persons, their birth, family, and alliances ; in 
 others it illustrates their ranks and titles ; and in all is, or rather 
 *was, a faithful record of their illustrious deeds, represented by 
 signs imitative and conventional. Taking this view of the ques- 
 tion, it is evident that it is capable of vast improvements : in fact, 
 a well-emblazoned shield might be made practically to represent, 
 at a single glance, a synopsis of biography, chronology, and history. 
 Insignia of individuals and races, which are of a kindred character 
 with heraldry, at least in its original form and design, may be 
 recognised among the nations of antiquity, and may perhaps be 
 carried back to the primeval ages of Egyptian history. The 
 Israelites, from their long captivity familiarized with such objects, 
 naturally adopted them as distinguishing characteristics ; and Sir 
 W. Drummond believed that the twelve tribes adopted the signs 
 of the zodiac as their respective ensigns ; " nor," as has been 
 observed, " does the supposed allusion to those signs by Jacob 
 imply anything impious, magical, or offensive to the Deity." 
 
 The heraldry (?) of the heroic ages may be traced in the pages 
 of Homer and ^schylus ; and in the succeeding generations we 
 have testimony of the adoption of a sort of armorial bearings by 
 the princes of Greece. Omitting Nicias, Lamachus, Alcibiades, 
 and others on record, we will merely observe that the arms of 
 Niochorus, who slew Lysander, were a dragon, thus realizing the 
 prediction of the oracle, 
 
 Fly from Oplites' watery strand ; 
 The earth-born serpent too beware. 
 
 Nor were mottos by any means unfrequent. The shield which 
 Demosthenes so pusillanimously threw away was inscribed " To 
 good Fortune." 
 
86 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 The animals which are frequently represented within shields on 
 the Roman vases sufficiently establish the fact, that this usage 
 was common amongst that great people ; and the striking example 
 of a goat, on a specimen in the British Museum, might, by 
 analogy, without any great stretch of imagination, be ascribed to 
 the family of Caprus ! 
 
 Students of heraldry are commonly great enthusiasts ; so that, 
 in its pursuit, they are apt to depreciate more important subjects. 
 We remember to have heard an amateur herald, who had filled 
 all his windows with arms of his own painting, condemn Mr. 
 Salt's collection of Egyptian Antiquities in terms of unmistakeable 
 contempt ! 
 
 Heralds 3 College. 
 
 The corporation of the College of Arms consists of 13 officers 
 namely, three Kings of Arms (Gaiter, Clarenceux, and 
 Norroy), and, we believe, six heralds and four pursuivants. 
 According to a Parliamentary Return, the most onerous of their 
 duties is the preservation and safe custody of the vast mass of 
 records and evidences which relate to the genealogical history, 
 pedigrees, and arms of the nobility and gentry of England, from 
 the earliest period to the present time. These officers have no 
 Government grant, but they are household servants of the Crown, 
 under the Earl Marshal ; and their duty as such consists in the 
 ordering and conducting all public funerals, such State ceremo- 
 nials as coronations, and other ceremonials where the person of the 
 Sovereign is more immediately concerned. For these services 
 they receive salaries, the aggregate amount of which to the 13 
 officers is 252!. i8s* per annum. In their capacity of household 
 servants they also receive certain fees on the creation of dignities 
 and upon the installation of Knights of the Garter, paid by the 
 persons on whom such honours are conferred. A herald and a 
 pursuivant answer all public inquiries, make such searches as may 
 be required, and give official extracts from records ; the fees re- 
 ceived for such searches and extracts amounted to 94/. in 1861. 
 From all these sources, therefore, they received 6oo/. in that year. 
 The officers of arms are the agents through whom applications 
 are made to the Earl Marshal (acting in this behalf on the part of 
 the Crown) for the registration of armorial bearings, or the soli- 
 citation of the Royal licence for a change of name, or change of 
 name and arms. For the one case it becomes the duty of the 
 officers of arms to see that no memorial be presented to the Earl 
 Marshal by any individual not occupying a fit station in life for 
 such distinction j and in the other that no petition be ; through 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 87 
 
 them, presented to the Crown, the allegations of which have not 
 been, before such presentation, fully established, inasmuch as the 
 Crown accepts and endorses such allegations, and directs the Earl 
 Marshal to make them matter of record. The number of these 
 patents and grants of arms or change of name or arms has been 
 869 in the period from 1850 to 1862 inclusive. The fees taken 
 upon them are : For grants on voluntary applications, 667. IQJ. 
 and io/. stamp duty; under Royal licences, 667. LOS. and 
 48/. 17^. 6d. for exemplifications, 3/. los. of which goes to the 
 Home-office ; for grants of supporters, /. ; for grants to wives 
 or spinsters, 537. and io7. stamp duty ; 'for grants of quarterings, 
 427. IQJ. and io7. stamp duty; for grants of crests, 427. TOJ. and 
 io7. stamp duty; and for change of name, 447. 13*., whereof 
 io7. 2s. 6d. goes to the Home-office. 
 
 The Shamrock. 
 
 Mrs. Lankester describes the Wood-sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) 
 as easily recognised by its three delicately-green leaflets with 
 longish stalks, marked with a darkish crescent in the centre, 
 veined, and its lovely white flowers which at first sight resemble 
 the wood-anemone. There are few walks or shady woods where, 
 in the early spring, the bright half-folded green leaves of this 
 pretty little plant may not be found. The tiny white flowers 
 with their delicate purple veins are called, by the Welsh, fairy 
 bells," and are believed to ring the merry peals which call the 
 elves to " moonlight dancing and revelry." Among the Druids its 
 triple leaflets were regarded as a mysterious symbol of a Trinity, 
 the full meaning of which was involved in darkness. So, too, 
 St. Patrick chose this leaf as his symbol to illustrate the doctrine 
 he sought to teach, and converted many by the apt use of an 
 illustration derived from a plant already sacred in the eyes of his 
 hearers. The original shamrock was undoubtedly the Oxalis, 
 though the name became applied to all sorts of trefoiled plants. 
 
 It is, however, suspected that any three-leaved plant may be 
 called the shamrock, the wood-sorrel no more undoubtedly than 
 the Dutch clover, all leaves of this kind having been beheld with 
 superstitious veneration, as possessing 
 
 The holy trefoil's charm. 
 
 Irish Titles of Honour. 
 
 Titles of honour are still borne by the representatives of some 
 of the old Milesian families in Ireland. Some of these titles have 
 
88 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 become extinct in course of time, such as the M'Carty More, the 
 White Knight, the O'Sullivan Bear, the O'Moore, &c., and some 
 have been merged in peerages. The O'Bryens in the titles of 
 Thomond (now extinct) and Inchiquin, the O'Neills in an Earldom 
 (extinct), the O'Callaghan in Lord Lismore, and the descendant 
 and representative of the O'Byrnes in Lord de Tabley. But the 
 following titles are still preserved and generally acknowledged : 
 
 These are the O'Donoghue of the Glens, the O'Conor Don, the Knight 
 of Kerry, the Knight of Glen, the O'Grady, the M'Gillicuddy of the 
 Reeks; and the M'Dermot, Prince of Coolvain. The two first of these 
 represent Irish constituencies, and it is believed are the only Irish chief- 
 tains who have adhered to the national religion ; all the others are Protes- 
 tants. Indeed, it is a curious circumstance that while we see the O'Neills, 
 the O'Briens, the O'Callaghans, the O'Byrnes, indeed almost all the lineal 
 descendants of the old Irish families, staunch Protestants (some of them 
 even Orangemen ; the late Lord O'Neill was Grand Master of the Orange- 
 men) ; we find, on the other hand, that the leading Roman Catholic 
 nobility and gentry in Ireland are mostly of English and Protestant extrac- 
 tion. Thus the Brownes, Earls of Kenmare, came over originally in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth; and being Protestants obtained large grants of the 
 O'Donoghue property in Kerry, forfeited by Roderick O'Donoghue, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth, and by Geoffrey O'Donoghue, " dead in rebellion," in 
 the reign of her successor. The Earls of Kenmare are now, as is well 
 known, at the head of the Irish Roman Catholic peerage, and so of the 
 Dillons, Plunkets, Burkes, Nugents, Prestons, and other Irish Roman 
 Catholic families of importance ; they are all, with few exceptions, of 
 English and Protestant descent, while we have seen that the descendants 
 of the native Irish are almost all Protestants. 
 
 The Scotch Thistle. 
 
 Many different species have been dignified with the name of 
 Scotch Thistle. It is probable, say some authorities, that a com- 
 mon species, such as Carduus lanceolatus^ is most deserving the 
 name. Some have fixed on doubtful native species, such as 
 Silybum Marianum and Qnopordum Acantkinm. Neither of these 
 is, however, reconcilable with history. S. Marianum is appro- 
 priated by the Roman Catholic Church, who say the white mark- 
 ing on the foliage is commemorative of the milk of the Virgin 
 Mary. O. Acantbium is not only, like the last, a doubtful ori- 
 ginal species to Scotland, but, like C. lanceolatus, of much too 
 great a height ; for one historian says that, after the landing of 
 Queen Scota, she reviewed her troops ; and, being fatigued, re- 
 tired ; and, on sitting down, was pricked by a thistle ; from 
 which circumstance she adopted it as the arms of her new 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 89 
 
 country, with the motto, Nemo me impune laces sit. Another 
 says, on the eve of an attack by the Danes, one of the enemy 
 having trod on a thistle, cried out with pain, which gave inti- 
 mation to the Scots of their near presence; and hence the thistle 
 became dignified as the arms of the country. With these two 
 exceptions, we meet with no other reference to a matter of equal 
 importance, in an historical point of view, with that of the legends 
 in connexion with the Coronation Stone, which all historians have 
 treated on with great minuteness. 
 
 However, if any reliance may be placed on the authorities 
 above given, it is quite clear that it must have been a low-grow- 
 ing species like Cn'tvus acaule ; for, whether we take into con- 
 sideration the accident to the Queen or the bare-footed Dane, 
 or the configuration of the flower-head itself, it more closely re- 
 sembles the representations we find on many of the sculptured 
 stones than either of the others. Some have supposed it to be 
 Carduus acanthoides ; but this, as well as all the rest, is less for- 
 midably furnished with those strong spiny scales with which the 
 receptacle of Silybum Marianum is so amply provided. This cir- 
 cumstance agrees with the sculptured representations found on 
 the oldest parts of Stirling Castle, Linlithgow Palace, or Holyrood 
 House, especially with one on the top of a garden doorway oppo- 
 site the new fountain, in front of the entrance to the latter, which 
 is more like the head of Cynara Scolymus, the globe artichoke, a 
 native of the South of Europe, than any thistle in the world. 
 Uncertain as the Scotch are regarding the species of their national 
 emblem, or even of its being a native, they are no more so than 
 the English are regarding the species of rose they have adopted. 
 No double rose existed in Britain at the period it was introduced 
 into the national escutcheon ; therefore, it must have been bor- 
 rowed from the French ; who even, in their turn, cannot now 
 tell what species of iris their fleur-de-lis is meant to represent. 
 Nor are the Irish agreed as to whether their shamrock is derived 
 from a series of Trifolium, or from Oxalis acetosella. The ancient 
 Britons, as the Welsh call themselves, have adopted the leek, 
 Allium porum > a native of Switzerland. Scottish Farmer. 
 
 King and Queen. 
 
 It is curious to find Lord Buckhurst and Recorder Fleetwood 
 engaged in a conversation on the excellency of the regal dignity 
 of a King, as they rode from London to Windsor in the reign of 
 Elizabeth, (1575,) in the company of the Earl of Leicester, who 
 travelled according to his own pompous notions, with divers 
 
90 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 knights and noble gentlemen, and a princely cavalcade of atten- 
 dants. Mr. Recorder, riding between my Lord of Leicester and 
 Lord Buckhurst, as they passed <( alonge by Saint James's walles," 
 began the debate ; when the great lawyer laid down :* 
 
 " I doe read that this worde Kinge is a Saxon terme, and doe originallye 
 comme and growe out of this ould Saxon word cyning, which doth signefie 
 a cuninge, a wyse, a virtuous, a polleticque, and a prudent person, fitt to 
 governe as well in peace as in warres ; and this word Queene, in the same 
 tongue, is in effect of the same force, referringe the same to the female 
 sex, and therefore it is to be noted that the crowne of England is not 
 alwayes bound especiallye to be governed by the male ; but yf there wante 
 .heyres males, then ought it to descend to the heyres females, as it appeareth 
 by the judgmente given jtouchinge the dawghters of Zelophehad (xxvi. 
 33 Numbers), and as it did in the tyme of the Bryttons descend upon 
 Queen Cordelia, who was queene of this realme before the Incarnation of 
 Christ 805 years, even at that tyme that the good King Ozias did repayer 
 the cittye of Jerusalem, which was in the yeare of the worlde 3358. This 
 -Cordelia was dawghter of Kinge Leire, who buylded the auntient cittye of 
 Leicester; yea, and is it a most true and playne matter, that the crowne of 
 England maye descend and come to the female dawghter, where there 
 lacketh heyre male, as it did untoMawde the Empresse, who was dawghter 
 to Kinge Henrye the First, and by the meane that William, Mary, and 
 Richard, the children of the same King Henry the First, were drowned in 
 the seas by shipwracke, it soe fell out the said Mawde the Empresse became 
 sole heyre, and notwithstandinge an ynterruption made by Kinge Stephen 
 the intruder (for that is his proper addition in the antient chronicles), yett 
 the judgmente fell out for her parte, and she and her posteritye, even to 
 this daye, have justlye and most rightfullye enjoyed the crowne without 
 any enterclayme of anye person that ever hath bine heard of." To this 
 Leicester replies : "I see that this is a greate and good proofe that, the 
 female hath had and enjoyed the crowne of England by just and lawfull 
 tytle," &c. Archaeology xxxvii. 
 
 Title of Majesty, and the Royal " We." 
 
 It is a common error to suppose Charles V. to have been the 
 originator of this sovereign title. Its earliest use is to denote the 
 dignity of the Roman people. Thence the Emperors borrowed 
 it as the representatives of the people, in accordance with the 
 Lex Regia. They were called " Majestas Augusta," and even 
 * e Regia Majestas." In later times this title was applied to the 
 Emperor Louis the Pious ; and Charles the Bald assumes it in 
 one of his charters. It is also found attributed to some of the 
 Popes. Charles V. at most gave it fixity and continuance, instead 
 
 * In the Itinerarium ad Windsor* 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. [91 
 
 of its being adopted and discontinued by turns. Francis I. of 
 France, at the interview with Henry VIII. of England, on the 
 .Field of the Cloth of Gold, addressed the latter as Your 
 Majesty," 1520. James I. coupled with this title the term, 
 Sacred," and " Most Excellent Majesty." 
 
 The royal u We" represents, or was supposed originally to re- 
 present, the source of the national power, glory, and intellect, in 
 the august power of the Sovereign. " Le Roi le veut" the King 
 will have it so sounded as arrogantly as it was meant to sound 
 in the royal Norman mouth. It is a mere form, now that royalty 
 in England has been relieved of responsibility. In haughtiness of 
 expression it was matched by the old French formula at the end 
 of a decree : "For such is our good pleasure." The royal sub- 
 scription in Spain is " Yo, el Re," 7, the King. The first " King's 
 speech" ever delivered was by Henry I., in 1 107. Exactly a cen- 
 tury later, King John first assumed the royal "We:" it had 
 never before been employed in England. The same monarch was 
 the first English King who claimed for England the sovereignty 
 of the seas. " Grace," and " my Liege" were the ordinary titles 
 by which our Henry VI. was addressed. " Excellent Grace" 
 was given to Henry VI., who was not the one, nor yet had the 
 other. Edward IV. was "Most High and Mighty Prince.'' 
 Henry VII. was the first English Highness. 
 
 " Dieu et Mon Droit." 
 
 The earliest notice that has been found of the Sovereign's pre- 
 sent motto, " Dieu et mon Droit," is in the i3th Henry VI., 
 J 435> when a gown, embroidered with silver crowns, and with 
 the motto " Dieu et mon Droit," is mentioned in a roll at Carlton- 
 ride. Sir Harris Nicolas; Archaologia, vol. xxxi. 
 
 Plume and Motto of the Prince of Wales. 
 
 Dr. Doran, F.S.A., has thus briefly told their history, profiting 
 in his inquiry by the researches of Sir Harris Nicolas : " Old 
 Randall Holmes solved the difficulty in his summary way, by 
 asserting that the ostrich feathers were the blazon on the war- 
 banner of the ancient Britons. The only thing that in any way 
 resembles the triple feathers in ancient British heraldry is to be 
 found on the azure shield of arms of King Roderick Mawr, on 
 which the tails of that monarch's three lions are seen coming 
 between their legs, and turning over their backs, with the gentle 
 fall of the tips, like the graceful bend of the feathers in the Prince's 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 badge. The feathers themselves, however, do not appear in con- 
 nexion with our Princes of Wales until after the battle in which 
 the blind King of Bohemia lost his life. The crest of the Bohe- 
 mian monarch was an eagle's wing ; as for the motto of Ich d'ten, 
 it was assumed by the Prince to characterize his humility, in 
 accordance with a fashion followed to a late period even by prin- 
 cesses Elizabeth of York, for instance, took that of " Humble 
 and Reverent." Edward of Woodstock, therefore, did not adopt 
 either the badge or the legend of the dead King of Bohemia ; such 
 is the conclusion at which nearly all persons who have examined 
 into this difficult question have arrived. Nevertheless, John, 
 Count of Luxemburg, was the original style and title of him who 
 was elected King of Bohemia, and fell so bravely and unnecessarily 
 at Cressy. Now, the ostrich feather (was a distinction of Luxem- 
 burg ; and it is from such origin that the Princes of Wales derive 
 the graceful plumes, which are their distinguishing badge, but not 
 their crest. This much is stated by Sir H. Nicolas, in the Archxo- 
 logia (xxxi. 252) ; and Mr. D'Eyncourt (Gent. Mag. xxxvi. 621) 
 suggests that the King of Bohemia's crest looks more like ostrich 
 feathers than a vulture's wing. The question may be considered 
 as having been set at rest by John de Ardern. He was a phy- 
 sician, contemporary with the Black Prince ; and in a manuscript 
 of his in the Sloane Collection (76 fo. 61), Ardern distinctly states 
 that the Prince derived the feathers from the blind King. In the 
 directions given in this will for the funeral procession, banners 
 bearing the arms of France and England quarterly, and others 
 with the ostrich-plume, are respectively described as those of war 
 and peace. The ostrich symbolised Justice, its feathers being 
 nearly all of equal length." 
 
 Victoria. 
 
 The first time this name occurs in English history is as belong- 
 ing to a "Mastres (Mistress) Victoria," who was one of the 
 attendants, " Gentylwomen," upon Queen Katherine, when she 
 accompanied her husband, Henry VIII., to the gorgeous meeting 
 of the Field of the Cloth of Gold (June, 1520). Each gentyl- 
 woman was allowed " a woman, ij men servantes, and ijj horses." 
 And the Queen had 265 of all ranks, and they in turn had 999, 
 making the total number 1260 persons. The King's retinue 
 amounted to 4544 ; Wolsey had above 400. 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 93 
 
 English Crowns. 
 
 The crowns worn in former times by the kings of England 
 have varied much in form and material. The Saxon kings had a 
 crown consisting of a simple fillet of gold. Egbert improved its 
 appearance by placing on the fillet a row of points or rays ; and 
 after him, Edmond Ironside tipped these points with pearl; 
 William the Conqueror had on his coronet points and leaves 
 placed alternately, each point being tipped with three pearls, while 
 the whole crown was surmounted with a cross. William Rufus 
 discontinued the leaves. Henry I. had a row of 'fleur-de-lis ; from 
 this time to Edward III. the crown was variously ornamented with 
 points and fleur-de-lis, placed alternately ; but this monarch en- 
 riched his crown with fleur-de-lis and crosses alternately, as at 
 present. Edward IV. was the first who wore a close crown, with 
 two arches of gold, embellished with pearls ; and the same form, 
 with trifling variations, has been continued to the present day. 
 The English crown, called the " St. Edward's crown," was made 
 in imitation of the ancient crown said to be worn by that monarch, 
 kept in Westminster Abbey till the beginning of the Civil Wars in 
 England, when, with the rest of the regalia, it was seized and sold 
 in 1642. A new crown was prepared for the coronation of 
 Charles II.: it is set with pearls and precious stones, as diamonds, 
 rubies, emeralds, sapphires ; it has a mound of gold on the top, 
 enriched with a fillet of the same metal, covered also with precious 
 stones ; the cap is of purple velvet, lined with white silk, and 
 turned up with ermine. 
 
 The Imperial State Crown. 
 
 Professor Tennant, the well-known mineralogist, thus minutely 
 describes the Imperial State Crown of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 
 which was made by Messrs. Rundell and Bridge in the year 1838, 
 with jewels taken from old Crowns, and others furnished by com- 
 mand of her Majesty: 
 
 The Crown consists of diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, 
 set in silver and gold ; it has a crimson velvet cap with ermine border, and 
 is lined with white silk. Its gross weight is 39 oz. 5 dwts. troy. The 
 lower part of the band, above the ermine border, consists of a row of one 
 hundred and twenty-nine pearls, and the upper part of the band a row of 
 one hundred and twelve pearls, between which, in front of the Crown, is 
 a large sapphire (partly drilled), purchased for the Crown by His Majesty 
 King George the Fourth. At the back is a sapphire of smaller size, and 
 six other sapphires (three on each side), between which are eight emeralds. 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Above and below the seven sapphires are fourteen diamonds, and 
 around the eight emeralds one hundred and twenty-eight diamonds. Be- 
 tween the emeralds and sapphires are sixteen trefoil ornaments, containing 
 one hundred and sixty diamonds. Above the band are eight sapphires 
 surmounted by eight diamonds, between which are eight festoons consisting 
 of one hundred and forty-eight diamonds. 
 
 In front of the Crown, and in the centre of a diamond Maltese cross, is 
 the famous ruby said to have been given to Edward Prince of Wales, son 
 of Edward the Third, called the Black Prince, by Don Pedro, King of 
 Castile, after the battle of Najera, near Vittoria, A.D. 1367. This ruby 
 was worn in the helmet of Henry the Fifth at the battle of Agincourt, 
 A.D. 1415. It is pierced quite through after the Eastern custom, the upper 
 part of the piercing being filled up by a small ruby. Around this ruby, to 
 form the cross, are seventy-five brilliant diamonds. Three other Maltese 
 crosses, forming the two sides and back of the Crown, have emerald centres, 
 and contain respectively one hundred and thirty-two, one hundred and 
 twenty- four, and one hundred and thirty brilliant diamonds. 
 
 Between the four Maltese crosses are four ornaments in the form of the 
 French fleur-de-lis, with four rubies in the centres, and surrounded by rose 
 diamonds, containing respectively eighty-five, eighty-six, and eighty-seven 
 rose diamonds. 
 
 From the Maltese crosses issue four imperial arches composed of oak- 
 leaves and acorns ; the leaves containing seven hundred and twenty-eight 
 rose, table, and brilliant diamonds j thirty-two pearls forming the acorns, 
 set in cups containing fifty-four rose diamonds and one table diamond. The 
 total number of diamonds in the arches and acorns is one hundred and 
 eight brilliants, one hundred and sixteen table, and five hundred and fifty- 
 nine rose diamonds. 
 
 From the upper part of the arches are suspended four large pendent pear- 
 shaped pearls, with rose diamond caps, containing twelve rose diamonds, 
 and stems containing twenty-four very small rose diamonds. Above the arch 
 stands the mound, containing in the lower hemisphere three hundred and 
 four brilliants, and in the upper two hundred and forty-four brilliants j the 
 zone and arc being composed of thirty-three rose diamonds. The cross on 
 the summit has a rose-cut sapphire in the centre, surrounded by four large 
 brilliants, and one hundred and eight smaller brilliants. 
 
 The following is the summary of jewels comprised in the Crown : 
 
 I Large ruby, irregularly polished. 
 
 I Large broad-spread sapphire. 
 16 Sapphires. 
 II Emeralds. 
 
 4 Rubies. 
 
 1 363 Brilliant diamonds. 
 1273 Rose diamonds. 
 
 147 Table diamonds. 
 4 Drop-shaped pearls. 
 
 273 Pearls. 
 
 It is difficult to declare what is the precise value of the jewels 
 in the Queen's crown ; but it is confidently affirmed that, 
 unlike most other princely crowns in Europe, whether of kings, 
 emperors, or grand dukes, all the jewels in the British crown 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 95 
 
 are really precious stones ; whereas in other state crowns valuable 
 stones have been replaced by coloured glass, and the consequence 
 is that their estimated value is far beyond what such crown jewels 
 are really worth. 
 
 Queen's Messengers. 
 
 The Queen's foreign-service Messengers are fifteen in number. 
 The first three for service are obliged to be in attendance at the 
 Foreign-office. Formerly there was no distinction between them 
 and the home-service messengers ; they were all under the Lord 
 Chamberlain, and their connexion with his office is said to be the 
 origin of the silver greyhound pendent from their badge. At a 
 later period they were transferred to the Secretaries of State, and 
 took journeys abroad indifferently in their turn, but in 1824 there 
 was a separation into home and foreign service. Lord Malmesbury 
 reduced the number of foreign -service messengers from eighteen 
 to fifteen ; and these are found quite sufficient, owing to the greater 
 speed with which journeys are now performed, and the intro- 
 duction of the electric telegraph rendering many journeys unne- 
 cessary. The Queen's messengers formerly had very small salaries, 
 only 6o/. a year, but made large profits by mileage and other allow- 
 ances when employed. The situation .was worth Soo/. or QOC/. 
 a year ; it has been altered to a salary of 525/. and the travelling 
 expenses. This was considered by the messengers too great a 
 reduction of their income. Earl Russell has introduced a new plan, 
 giving them salaries of 4OO/. a year and i/. a day for their personal 
 expenses while employed abroad, besides their travelling expenses. 
 Queen's messengers are treated with great kindness and conside- 
 ration abroad ; they are usually invited to the Minister's table. 
 They are examined on appointment by the Civil Service Com- 
 missioners: the qualifications required are an age between twenty- 
 five and thirty-five, some knowledge of French, German, or Italian, 
 and ability to ride on horseback. The home-service messengers 
 occupy a very inferior position. 
 
 Presents and Letters to the >ueen. 
 
 The resolution of the Royal Family to decline all presents was 
 conveyed, in 1847, to a gentleman at Sheffield, in the following 
 official letter from Sir Denis Le Marchant : Whitehall, Oct. 5, 
 1847: In the absence of Secretary Sir George Grey, I have to 
 acknowledge the receipt of a small box, containing a gold bijou, 
 sent by you to the Queen, as a present for his Royal Highness the 
 Prince of Wales j but, in consequence of the very great number 
 
96 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 of presents of this nature which have been offered to her Majesty, 
 it has been found absolutely necessary, to avoid the possibility of 
 giving individual offence, that her Majesty should decline presents 
 generally, and the box is therefore declined." [This rule is not, 
 however, invariably observed.] 
 
 Again, it is contrary to established rule for the Lord Cham- 
 berlain to receive any letter addressed to Her Majesty, if the same 
 be sealed. 
 
 Sir G. B.Phipps explains in a letter the absence of her Majesty's 
 name from the subscription-list for the widow of the late Captain 
 Harrison, of the Great Eastern. He states: " It is contrary to 
 established rule for her Majesty the Queen, or the Prince Consort, 
 to join a subscription for a private individual." 
 
 The Prince of Waterloo. 
 
 It will be recollected that, in 1815, the Duke of Wellington 
 received the grant of Prince of Waterloo, which was understood 
 to have been given to his Grace and to his direct descendants. 
 After the death of the Duke in 1852, the question of succession 
 to the title was discussed in the Belgian House of Representatives, 
 when, in reply to a request for information upon the subject, M. 
 Frere-Oban stated that, upon inquiry, he had learned that the 
 direct line of the Duke of Wellington was not extinct ; for 
 although the rights claimed by his son were contested, because at 
 the time of his birth the system of registration was imperfect or 
 irregular, yet it had subsequently been proved by other means, 
 and particularly by an inscription in a family Bible, that the pre- 
 sent Duke was the legitimate offspring of the first Prince of 
 Waterloo, and as such was entitled to be recognised as one 
 of the drect lineal descendants who were included in the 
 original g.ant. 
 
 The See of London. 
 
 It may not be generally known that the See of London was 
 archiepiscopal in the time of the ancient Britons, before the mission 
 of August ne. In the thousand years which intervened between 
 his era and that of the Reformation, the See of London numbered 
 no less than eighty prelates, the most distinguished of U'hom were 
 St. Dunstan, Warham, Courtenay, and Bonner, the last of whom 
 was deprived by King Edward VI., and again, after his tempo- 
 rary restoration under Queen Mary, by Elizabeth. The reformed 
 list commences with Bishop Ridley, who was burnt at Oxford 
 under Queen Mary; and from whom the present occupant of the 
 See, Dr. 'fait, is twenty-eighth in descent. Among those pre- 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 97 
 
 lates occur the names of Grindal, Bancroft, Abbott, Laud, Juxon, 
 and Sheldon, all of whom were eventually promoted to arch- 
 bishoprics Grindal to York, and the rest to Canterbury. One 
 prelate before the Reformation, Bishop Tonstal, and one since 
 that time, Bishop Montaigne, were translated from London to 
 the wealthier See of Durham ; but from Dr. Sheldon, who held 
 the See after the Restoration, down to Dr. Howley, the imme- 
 diate predecessor of Bishop Blomfield, not a single instance occurs 
 either of a translation from the See of London, or of a direct ap- 
 pointment to the bishopric, except by translation from another 
 see. The Diocese of London, until the last few years, com- 
 prised the counties of Essex and Middlesex. By a recent enact- 
 ment, however, the former county has been transferred to the 
 diocese of Rochester, in exchange for the parishes of Charlton, 
 Woolwich, Deptford, Greenwich, and other suburban d.stricts 
 in the county of Kent. To these at the next avoidance of the 
 See of Winchester will be added the whole of Southwark, Lam- 
 beth, Clapham, Wandsworth, Tooting, and Battersea, together 
 with one or two adjoining districts in the county of Surrey. 
 
 "Expense of Baronetcy and Knighthood. 
 
 The fees chargeable on a Baronetcy in the Heralds'-office are 
 reported by Sir C. G. Young, Garter King-at-Arms, to amount 
 to 2 1/. 28. 3d. (payable to the Heralds' College), besides which 
 there is a sum of \^L 28. 4d., "incidental to the creation of a 
 baronet," and payable for the necessary certificate of his arms 
 and pedigree registered in the college, so that the sum total pay- 
 able to the Heralds'-office is 367. 48. 7d. The newly-created 
 baronet, it would appear, is further mulcted by the Crown-office 
 in the sum total of 257/. 95. id., of which i2O/. is for stamps, 
 nearly 58/. for the royal household, and 2i/. for the heralds. 
 
 The Knight Bachelor is required to pay a fee of p/. 8s. 3d. 
 if the dignity is conferred by the Sovereign; gl. 133. 6d. if it is 
 conferred by patent ; and i8/. 153. 2d. when the knighthood is 
 conferred prior to the admission into the Order of the Bath as a 
 G.C.B. This is in the Heralds'-office. In the Crown-office a 
 sum of i55/. i2S. iod. is exacted, of which 3o/. is for stamps and 
 697. 195. 4d. for the royal household. As regards the Order of 
 the Bath, there are no fees chargeable by the Heralds' College, 
 except on the preliminary grade of common Knighthood already- 
 described. 
 
 The roDes, collars, and badges for the Knights of the several 
 Orders are also very costly. The sum of 46257. ics. 7d. was 
 charged for items, including four silver boxes for the great seal of 
 
 H 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the Order of the Garter for the Sultan and the King of Sardinia, 
 repairs of collars, ribands, stationery, &c. The complete robes, 
 of the Order of the Garter for the King of Sardinia cost 34 6/., and 
 the same for the Sultan (excepting the silver under-dress), 2797. 
 Two mantles of the Garter and one of the Thistle cost ipo/. 
 The banner of the King of Sardinia in St. George's Chapel is 
 charged by the herald painter at 2" t l. 175. 6d. The gold- 
 smith charges 23787. for 140 new military companions' badges, 
 at 1 67. QS. yd. each; 1957. for fifteen new civil commanders' 
 badges, at i^/. each ; 3O2/. for 130 new civil companions' 
 badges at io7. is. p^d. each ; 1577. for nine new silver enamelled 
 stars (G.C.B.), at 177. -LOS. each; 26i7. for eighteen new military 
 K.C.B. stars, at 147. ros. ; and 2957. for re-enamelling and "making 
 as new" twelve collars and eighty-eight badges, besides other items. 
 These honours have, on some occasions, been made as profitable 
 to the Sovereign as to his officers of State. James I. became the 
 subject of much ridicule, not quite unmerited, for putting honours 
 to sale. He created the order of baronet, which he disposed of 
 for a sum of money ; and it seems that he sold common knight- 
 hood as low as thirty pounds, at least it was so reported. In the 
 old play of Eastward Hoe, one of the characters says : t( I know 
 the man well : he is one of my thirty-pound knights." 
 
 The Aristocracy. 
 
 Mr. Lothair Bucher, in the Transactions of the Philological 
 Society, Berlin, 1 858, writes : 
 
 "One may safely affirm beforehand that the word ARISTOCRACY has 
 been part and parcel of the English language from a very early period. But 
 the Attorney-General in Home Tooke's trial (1795) in enumerating the 
 new opinions propagated by the friends of the accused, and the new 
 terms in which they conveyed those opinions, says 'To the rich was 
 given the name Aristocracy ,* and in considering this application of the 
 term as a new one, he is evidently quite correct." 
 
 " Now," writes a critic in the Saturday Review, " Aristocracy is the 
 name of a particular form of Government ; it is an abuse of language to 
 apply it to a class of people. Yet, when one says ' the Government of 
 Berne was an aristocracy,' it is a very slight change to speak of ' the aristo- 
 cracy of Berne,' meaning the patrician order, or its members. The word 
 was doubtless brought into use in England because the class which it was 
 intended to stigmatize as an ' aristocracy ' was a class more extensive than 
 the ' nobility,' in the English use of that word. Now the name has ceased 
 to be a stigma. The words * aristocrat,' * aristocratic,' * aristocracy,' are 
 often used in a complimentary way. But, to our taste at least, there is 
 always a smack of vulgarity about them." 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 99 
 
 Precedence in Parliament. 
 
 To the readers of the reports of parliamentary debates, in the 
 newspapers, it may be useful to state, upon the authority of Mr. 
 May, that " in the Commons no places are particularly allotted to 
 members ; but it is the custom for the front bench on the right 
 hand of the (Speaker's) chair to be appropriated for the members 
 of the Administration, which is called the Treasury or Privy 
 Councillors' Bench. The front bench on the opposite side is 
 usually reserved for the leading members of the Opposition 
 who have served in high offices of State ; but other members 
 occasionally sit there, especially when they have any motion to 
 offer to the House. And on the opening of a new Parliament, 
 the members for the city of London claim the privilege of sitting 
 on the Treasury or Privy Councillors' Bench." May, on the 
 Practice and Law of Parliament. 
 
 Sale of Seats in Parliament. 
 
 The smaller boroughs having been from the earliest period 
 under the command of neighbouring peers and gentlemen, or 
 sometimes of the Crown, were first observed to be attempted by 
 rich capitalists in the general elections of 1747 and 1755: though 
 the prevalence of bribery in a less degree is attested by the statute- 
 book, and the journals of Parliament from the Revolution, it 
 seemed not to have broken the flood-gates till the end of the 
 reign of George II., or rather perhaps the first part of the next. 
 The sale at least of seats in Parliament, like any other transferable 
 property, is never mentioned in any book that the writer remem- 
 bers to have seen of an earlier date than 1760. The country gen- 
 tlemen had long endeavoured to protect their ascendancy by ex- 
 cluding the rest of the community from Parliament. This was the 
 principle of the Bill, which, after being repeatedly attempted, passed 
 into a law during the long administration of Anne, requiring every 
 member of the Commons, except those for the Universities, to pos- 
 sess, as a qualification for his seat, a landed estate, above all incum- 
 brance, of 3oo/. a-year. The law was, however, notoriously 
 evaded; and was abolished in 1858, by the Act 21 Viet. cap. 26. 
 
 Placemen in Parliament, 
 
 In 1694 a bill passed both Houses "touching free and impar- 
 tial proceedings in Parliament," against the eligibility of Place- 
 men. On its discussion Mr. Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, 
 
 H 2 
 
100 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 remarked, that t( in the ist of James I., the Chancellor, studious 
 of the good of the kingdom, sent down to the House of Com- 
 mons a list of the members in office, and they were turned out of 
 the House, and new members chosen." King William, however, 
 refused his sanction to this Act. "A Dutchman (says Mr. 
 Burgh) comes over to Britain on pretence of delivering us from 
 slavery, and makes it one of his first works to plunge us into the 
 very vice which has enslaved all the nations of the world that have 
 ever lost their liberties. When the Parliament passed a bill for 
 incapacitating certain persons who might be supposed obvious to 
 Court influence, our glorious Deliverer refused the royal assent." 
 
 ' New Peers. 
 
 Nothing is more plausible than to talk of strengthening an 
 order by making it more popular in its constitution, &c. ; but 
 practically, we know that in early days in England nothing was 
 so ttwpopular as a batch of bran-new potentates. The proofs are 
 abundant. When James I. began scattering coronets (" crownets" 
 they called them in old times), a wag issued a pamphlet which 
 professed to teach people " How to remember the names of the 
 Nobility." Hannay. 
 
 The Russells. 
 
 Hereditary likeness is one of the commonest phenomena in tt 
 world, and is an index of the moral resemblance which makes 
 character of a particular class run through a line, and thus, in free 
 countries like ours, produces hereditary politics and affects the 
 fortunes of the State, as was the case at Rome. t{ A Russell," 
 says Niebuhr, very justly, " could not be an absolutist ; the thing 
 would be monstrous." This conviction is, no doubt, one excellent 
 reason why Liberals glorify the race with such constancy. 
 Hannay. [Is not this the reason why Lord John Russell, when 
 raised to the Peerage in 1861, preferred to the Earl of Ludlow 
 the title of Earl Russell 1 ? He would not part with the glory.] 
 
 Political Cunning. 
 
 The obtaining of the same ends by opposite means is exemplified 
 as follows : Jack Cade, when he wanted to be popular, called 
 himself a Mortimer, and said his wife was a Lacy ! The great 
 Napoleon, to win the Continent, on the contrary, professed that 
 he belonged to the canaille, though he knew, and his brother 
 Joseph, and all of them well knew, that the Buonapartes were 
 good Italian nobility. Hannay. 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 101 
 
 The Union-Jack. 
 
 The term "Union-jack" is one which is partly of obvious 
 signification, and in part somewhat perplexing. The "Union" 
 between England and Scotland, to which the flag owed its origin, 
 evidently supplied the first half of the compound title borne by 
 the flag itself. But the expression "jack" involves some diffi- 
 culty. Several solutions of this difficulty have been submitted, 
 but, with a single exception only, they are by far too subtle to be 
 considered satisfactory. A learned and judicious antiquary has 
 recorded it as his opinion, that the flag of the Union received the 
 title of "Union -jack" from the circumstance of the union between 
 England and Scotland having taken place in the reign of King 
 James, by whose command the new flag was introduced. The 
 name of the king in French, " Jaques" would have been certainly 
 used in heraldic documents: the union flag of king "Jaques" 
 would very naturally be called after the name of its royal author, 
 Jaques' union, or union Jaques, and so by a simple process we 
 arrive at wnion-jack. This suggestion of the late Sir Harris 
 Nicolas may be accepted without any hesitation; and the term 
 "jack v having once been recognised as the title of a flag, it is 
 easy enough to trace its application to several flags. Thus the 
 old white flag with the red cross is now called the " St. George's 
 jack ;" and English seamen are in the habit of designating the 
 national ensigns of other countries as the "jacks" of France, 
 Russia, &c. 
 
 We quote this sensible view from the Art Journal. The paper 
 by Sir Harris Nicolas above referred to will be found in the Naval 
 and Military Magazine for 1827 ; and with engravings, in Brayley's 
 Historic and Graphic Illustrator. 
 
 Field- Marshal. 
 
 The title of Field-Marshal is one of comparatively modern date, 
 having been first created only so far back as the reign of George I. 
 In the London Gazette for the month of January, 1736, we find 
 it announced that " His Majesty has been pleased to erect a new 
 post of honour, under the title of Marshal of the Armies of Great 
 Britain, and to confer the same on the Duke of Argyll and the 
 Earl of Orkney, as the two eldest generals in the service." The 
 corresponding title up to that time would seem to have been that 
 of " captain-general," which was subsequently revived, as a 
 distinction, in the person of William Duke of Cumberland, just 
 previous to the Rebellion of '45, and again in that of the late Duke 
 
102 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 of York in 1799. The title of field-marshal has been but spar- 
 ingly conferred only about thirty individuals, exclusive of royalty, 
 having been gazetted as field-marshals during upwards of 1 20 years. 
 
 Change of Surname. 
 
 The usage at the Home Office in dealing with applications for 
 Change of Name has been thus stated by the Secretary, Sir 
 George Grey, there being no written law on the subject : 
 
 " About two hundred years ago, the practice of applying for permission to 
 change names arose 5 and in ^i 783, in consequence of the frequency of the 
 request, it was deemed necessary to put some check on it. A regula- 
 tion was, therefore, made that all cases should be referred to the College of 
 Arms. That reference is not, however, necessarily decisive, as it is in- 
 tended only for the information of the department. That usage has been 
 universally adopted, subject to the modification introduced by Sir Robert 
 Peel, that where there are no plausible grounds for an application, and it is 
 obviously the mere result of whim or caprice, it should be at once declined, 
 without any reference to the College of Arms, leaving it to the applicant to 
 change his name on his own responsibility." 
 
 Now, Sir Robert Peel died in 1850, in which year a gentleman named 
 Laurie obtained two royal licences to change his name ; first to Northdate> 
 and then to Nuthall, " in compliance with the will of the late Catherine 
 Jack, spinster, of Sloane-street." In 1851 a lady named Braham was per- 
 mitted by royal licence to assume the name of Medows, on the plea that 
 she was " the co-heiress expectant" of her aged grandmother, who was 
 so called. In 1852 a gentleman named Rust was granted a royal licence 
 to assume his wife's maiden name, D'Eye, "out of respect to her memory." 
 In 1853 a Mr. Penny was allowed to assume the name of Harwood, " by 
 wish of his mother, out of respect to his grandmother." In 1854 Thomas 
 Clugas, of Guernsey, was permitted by royal licence " to use his paternal 
 name of Clucas." In 1855 a Miss Galston was allowed to assume the 
 name of Stepney, " out of respect to her maternal ancestors in general." 
 It is difficult to conceive more trifling grounds than these on which royal 
 licences have been granted in the above-quoted instances. 
 
 The authorities are, however, divided in their opinions. The 
 Lord Chancellor (in 1863) refused to recognise officially a change 
 of name, because the applicant had not obtained the royal licence 
 to bear that name, and the arms connected with it ; while, on the 
 other hand, the Secretary of State for the Home Department has 
 declared that such a licence is unnecessary, and that a name can 
 be legally assumed without it. But the claim to the new name 
 assumed can only be established " by usage of such a length of 
 time as to give the change a permanent character," a reservation 
 which has clogged the undoubted right of every Englishman to 
 assume any name he pleases, provided the assumption be made 
 
DIGNITIES AND DISTINCTIONS. 103 
 
 bonafde, and with reasonable publicity, while it has the effect of 
 placing everybody at the mercy of any ill-conditioned official who 
 may take pleasure in obstructing him and opposing him. 
 
 Reference to the London Gazette proves that Royal licences 
 have hitherto been constantly issued from capricious motives, and 
 on no fixed principle whatever. Doubtless, in many cases, they 
 have been granted in furtherance of testamentary conditions con- 
 nected with property ; but they have been quite as often granted 
 merely to enable applicants to avoid names which were distasteful 
 to them, and to assume others which were more agreeable to them. 
 
 As the qualification which Sir George Grey and the Lord 
 Chancellor appear desirous of affixing to the right to change name, 
 without the assistance of a Royal licence, virtually cancels that 
 right altogether in a vast number of cases, it becomes, in conse- 
 quence, highly important that the rules by which those indulgences 
 are obtainable, and the amount of the fees which must be paid for 
 them, should be exactly made known. 
 
 A Parliamentary Return states that since 1850 415 applications have 
 been made for royal licence for a change of name, and 398 licences have 
 been granted. There is a stamp duty of 507. on every such licence if the 
 change of name is made in compliance with the injunction of any will or 
 settlement, and of io7. if the application is voluntary. The fees payable 
 are stated to be io/. 2s. 6d. on a change of name only ; 137. I2s. 6d. on a 
 change of name and arms j and i7. "js. 6d. for every additional name in- 
 serted in a licence ; which fees are paid into the Exchequer. But the return 
 is described as being made only "so far as relates to the Home Secretary's 
 office," and therefore does not appear to include fees at the Heralds' 
 College. 
 
 To conclude it does not appear that the Queen either claims 
 or exercises any special prerogative whatever connected with the 
 subject of change of surname ; or that a Royal licence is anything 
 more than the recognition in the highest quarter of a voluntary 
 act already accomplished. Its recipient is not even compelled to 
 bear for a day the surname which it authorizes him to assume ; 
 nor are other people enjoined by it to recognise him by that name, 
 if they are not inclined to do so. The case of the Right Hon. 
 R. C. Dundas, who in 1836 obtained a Royal licence, in com- 
 pliance with the conditions of a Will by which he inherited a con- 
 siderable estate, to bear the name of Christopher only, and who, 
 in spite of that licence and without either procuring its revocat on 
 or obtaining the grant of a fresh one, has since sat in Parliament 
 under the surname of Nisbet, and who now bears the surname of 
 Hamilton, assumed proprio motu, completely establishes this point. 
 
104 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 n 
 
 The Statute Law and the Common Law. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Westbury, in the House of Peers, in the 
 Session of 1863, made the following statement with reference to 
 the revision and expurgation of the Statute Law, from the earliest 
 commencement of our legislation down to the beginning of the 
 1 7th century the legislation, in fact, of about 500 years. 
 
 The Laws are divided into Written and Unwritten law. The 
 written is the statute law, and the decision of the judges consti- 
 tutes the unwritten law of the land. The Statute Law* is in a 
 great measure supplemental to the Common Law, and a know- 
 ledge of the common is necessary in order to enable a man to read 
 and understand the statute law. The Common Law is only 
 traditionary it is supposed to reside in the breasts of the judges ; 
 accordingly, when it is necessary to ascertain it in the House of 
 Lords, their lordships require the attendance of the judges, who 
 are called upon to declare what that law is. In like manner, in 
 the great court of equity to which belongs that large portion of 
 natural justice which is repudiated by the common law, the judges 
 have the power of determining what constitutes the rudiments of 
 that law. This is, undoubtedly, a dangerous and a difficult trust. 
 It is little less than legislative power, because the sources of com- 
 mon law are of the most varied character. It is probably derived 
 in a great measure from customs and usages, recorded only in the 
 memory of man ; it is partly derived, no doubt, from old rules 
 embodied in acts of which no record now exists. It is partly 
 made up of relics of the old Roman jurisprudence which remained 
 so long throughout the land ; and it is partly the result of customs 
 and maxims, handed down from one generation to another. The 
 sources were so varied in ancient times that the custom of declar- 
 ing the law also varied. In the old time it was impossible to know 
 what the law was. The judges were not only legislators, but the 
 worst of legislators legislators ex post facto. Accordingly, at an 
 early period, it became necessary for the protection of liberty, in 
 order to get some kind of approach to uniformity, constancy, and 
 
 * The Statutes were inscribed in Latin to the time of Edward I. (1272) ; 
 in Norman-French to about the time of Richard 111. (1483)5 and subse- 
 quently in the English language. 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 105 
 
 regularity in the law, that the grounds and reasons of the judges' 
 decisions should be given. At first an attempt was made to do 
 so by entering the reasons for the judgments in the rolls of the 
 court ; and our court rolls, preserved from the time of Richard I., 
 contain repeatedly the reasons for the decisions and sentences. 
 At the latter end of the reign of Edward II., or in the beginning 
 of the reign of Edward III., the practice of reporting the decisions 
 of the judges began, and from that period down we have a series 
 of judicial reports of those decisions. That was a great security 
 for the people, because it was an approach to certainty in the law. 
 The origin and reason of it was a distinctive peculiarity in the 
 English mind namely, the love of precedent, a love of appealing 
 to precedent rather than indulging in abstract reasoning. This 
 was the only mode in which the law was recorded, and the only 
 mode in which it became known. These reports were kept for a 
 considerable period of time under the superintendence of the 
 judges themselves, and great care was taken in sifting and ascer- 
 taining the grounds of the decision. The evil was, therefore, com- 
 paratively little ; but in course of time, as the reports multiplied 
 and as the personal superintendence and care of the judges were 
 withdrawn, great complaints began to arise ; and so much incon- 
 venience was felt that, as early as the time of Lord Bacon, it 
 became a subject of general dissatisfaction which attracted his 
 attention, and led to his compiling and publishing his celebrated 
 book for the amendment of the law of England. The Lord 
 Chancellor, in his revision and expurgation, proposed to do little, 
 if anything at all, more than revive the proposal of Bacon. "The 
 wisdom and excellence of that proposal has been admitted from 
 age to age ; and the fact that nothing has been done to give effect 
 to it we must attribute to the singular inertia that characterized 
 the English Legislature." 
 
 Curiosities of the Statute Law.* 
 
 Most people have a confused idea that as new laws are made 
 old ones are repealed ; and that the Statute-Book, bulky as it is, 
 contains nothing but what every Englishman is bound to know 
 and observe. Such, however, is not the case : for the old laws, 
 instead of being cleared away to admit the new ones, have been 
 allowed to remain, so that nine-tenths of this Statute-Law is 
 really not law at all ; and if the Statute-Book were freed from 
 the enactments which have become obsolete, or ceased to be in 
 
 * Selected and condensed from the Times, June 13, 1863. 
 
106 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 force without being specifically repealed, it would be reduced 
 from forty to four or five volumes. Enough of confusion, pro- 
 lixity, and repetition would still remain within this compass to 
 exercise the wits and fill the pockets of the lawyers ; but the 
 perusal of it would no longer occupy a lifetime, and this excuse 
 for our ignorance of it would be very much weakened. 
 
 To show the necessity of the revision of our Statute-Book, we 
 shall quote from the schedule of the Bill presented by the Lord 
 Chancellor to the House- of Lords in the Session of 1863, a 
 few samples of useless or inoperative enactments, to show how 
 curiously the history of a bygone age is reflected in its legislation. 
 
 Here in the midst of provisions confirming or modifying feudal privileges 
 and liabilities is, "The Sentence of Curse given by the Bishops against the 
 Breakers of the Charters." No less out of place in the Statute-book, ac- 
 cording to modern notions, is " The Award made between the King and 
 his Commons at Kenilworth." Next, we light upon enactments prescrib- 
 ing " The Remedy if a Distress be impounded in a Castle or Fortress," and 
 prohibiting the custom of distraining upon one foreigner for the debt of 
 another. By the famous Statute Circumspecte Agat'n laymen are restrained 
 from laying violent hands on a clerk, while other Acts warn " men of 
 religion " against aggression on their lay neighbours. Then we come to a 
 whole series of sumptuary laws, and laws for the encouragement or disci- 
 pline of particular trades. Bread and ale are placed under special protec- 
 tion j butchers and cooks are forbidden to buy flesh of Jews, and sell the 
 same to Christians ; exporters of wool are to give surety to import silver in 
 return } iron is not to be exported at all ; " no shoemaker shall be a 
 tanner, nor any tanner a shoemaker 5" yet (by a later Statute) "shoe- 
 makers may tan leather till the next Parliament ;" all merchandises of a 
 certain kind are to be carried to Calais j gowns and mantles are to be worn 
 of a specified length j salmon, herring, and eels are to be packed in a spe- 
 cified manner ; long-bows are not to cost more than a specified sum ; calves 
 are not to be killed at the will of their owners ; the " breade of horsys " is 
 subjected to State control ; and " the stuffynge of feather-bedds " does not 
 escape the vigilance of Parliament. Most of these Acts, and a very large 
 per-centage of all those which are proposed for repeal, have reference to a 
 state of society which has little in common with our own. Instead of 
 .enacting that "every one may put his child to school," we debate now-a- 
 days as to whether he should not be compelled to do so ; and, instead of 
 fixing the rate of workmen's wages by Act of Parliament, we tolerate a 
 liberty of combination which sometimes enables them to exact more than 
 the market value of their labour. If the habit of "telling slanderous 
 Lyes of the Great Men of the Realm " is not quite extinct, it is no 
 longer checked by penalties, and we are content to leave " fonde and fan- 
 tasticale Prophesies " to refute themselves. 
 
 The expurgation by which it was proposed to rid the Statute- 
 book of this lumber was originated some 250 years ago, by Bacon, 
 as stated in pp. 104 105; but the statutes which he 'marked, 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 107 
 
 before the Restoration or the Revolution, before the Union of 
 Scotland or Ireland, before the abolition of the feudal tenures, 
 before the passing of the Habeas Corpus Act, still encumber the 
 Statute-book ; and the plain, sensible, and unanswerable sug- 
 gestions which he threw out for the heroic work of consolidating 
 the statutes have remained without effect. Each succeeding gene- 
 ration has employed itself in adding something more to that mass 
 of evil which the great philosopher felt and denounced. If the 
 mind of Bacon was shocked at the tangled labyrinth of our Statute 
 Law in the reign of James I., if Sir Matthew Hale occupied his 
 mind with the same subject in the reign of Charles II., what 
 would they have said could they have foreseen the 10,000 statutes 
 passed in the reign of George III., and the Ossa which the 
 industry of the last forty-five years has piled upon the shoulders of 
 that mighty Pelion ? 
 
 Secret of Success at the Ear. 
 
 Sir Thomas Buxton relates that he once asked Sir James Scar- 
 lett what was the secret of his pre-eminent success as an advocate 
 He replied that he took care to press home the one principal point 
 of the case, without paying much attention to the others. He also 
 said that he knew the secret of being short. " I find,'' said he, 
 " that when I exceed half an hour I am always doing mischief to 
 my client ; if I drive into the heads of the jury important matter, 
 I drive out matter more important that I had previously lodged 
 there." 
 
 Queen's Serjeants, Queen's Counsel, and 
 Serjeants-at-Law. 
 
 To remove certain doubts of very recent growth (cast upon a 
 matter previously deemed plain enough), the following statement 
 is the result of a very careful inquiry : Queen's Serjeants are sworn 
 to " serve and counsel the Queen and duly to minister the Queen's 
 affairs, and sue the Queen's process after the course of the law and 
 after their cunning, and they are to take no fee of any one against 
 the Queen." Queen's counsel, as distinguished from Queen's ser- 
 jeants, are appointed by Letters Patent under the Great Seal, 
 giving them precedence " in our courts as elsewhere." The oath 
 administered to Queen's counsel is precisely the same as the oath 
 administered to Queen's Serjeants. Next after Queen's counsel 
 come serjeants-at-law, who, on taking their degree, swear that 
 they shall " serve the Queen's people and truly counsel them that 
 retain them, after their cunning." Sometimes a serjeant-at-law < 
 
103 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 applies for a (t Patent of Precedence," which gives him precedence 
 next after the last of the Queen's counsel previously appointed. 
 No oath is administered on the grant of a patent of precedence, as 
 it implies no special service or duty to the Grown. 
 
 Do not make your Son an Attorney. 
 
 Apart from the heavy expenses which must, even under the 
 most favourable circumstances, attend the introduction of a youth 
 into the legal profession, the fact must never be lost sight of that 
 the examination which articled clerks are now called upon to pass 
 before they can be admitted is of such a rigorous nature that per- 
 haps not one in ten of the established practising attorneys could 
 undergo the ordeal. Then, if we consider that the legal profes- 
 sion is at the present moment vastly overstocked, and reflect upon 
 the fact of numbers of clever young men, who finding it impos- 
 sible to beat out a connexion for themselves, either make for one 
 of the colonies, or settle down at home in managing clerkships, 
 at salaries scarcely equal to the remuneration paid to skilled me- 
 chanics, there is quite enough to make us hesitate before placing 
 our sons in law offices. Nor must the fact be overlooked, that 
 the tendency of our legislation has been, and will continue to be, 
 to simplify legal procedure as much as possible ; to lower the 
 scale of fees payable to attorneys and solicitors, and even to dis- 
 pense in many instances, with the necessity for employing profes- 
 sional men at all. S. Warren, Q.C. 
 
 Appellate Jurisdiction of the House of Lords. 
 
 The proper constitution of the Supreme Court of Appeal 
 justifies the utmost solicitude of the legislature and the country. 
 The difficulties surrounding its reconstruction were found too 
 great to admit of solution during the session of 1856, unex- 
 pectedly complicated as they were by the creation of that very 
 distinguished judge, Baron Parke, a peer for life only, as Lord 
 Wensleydale. The greatest constitutional lawyers in the House 
 of Lords, supported by a considerable majority of peers, declared 
 that the Grown had no power to create a peer for life only, with 
 a right to sit and vote in that house ; that such an act was illegal, 
 and that the very essence of the British peerage consisted in its 
 hereditary character. Issuing out of these discussions a Bill for 
 reconstructing the appellate jurisdiction was sent down from the 
 Lords to the Commons, but so late in the session that they de- 
 clined then to entertain it. Whatever may be the ultimate fete 
 of this measure, it is still practicable, even without adopting its 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. ]09 
 
 special machinery, to preserve the appellate jurisdiction of the 
 House of Lords itself an object of the highest importance by 
 providing for more assistance from the legal and equitable judicial 
 force of the country. In the meantime a well-earned hereditary 
 peerage was conferred on Lord Wensleydale, under which he 
 took his seat before the session closed. Blackstones Commentaries , 
 edited by Warren. 
 
 Payment of an Advocate. 
 
 In 1863, Chief Justice Erie gave judgment in the case of Ken- 
 nedy v. Broun, which involved the right of the plaintiff, a bar- 
 rister, to recover the sum of 2O,ooo/., alleged to have been pro- 
 mised by Mrs. Broun, then Mrs. Swinfen, for professional services 
 rendered in the matter of the Swinfen estates ; the trial at War- 
 wick having been compromised by Lord Chelmsford, then Sir 
 Frederick Thesiger. An action was brought by Mr. Kennedy to 
 recover the 2O,ooo/. in question, and a verdict was given in his 
 favour. A rule was obtained to set aside that verdict and enter it 
 for the defendant. The Chief Justice, in a most elaborate judg- 
 ment, said that the relation of the parties, as advocate and client, 
 incapacitated the latter from making any promise of remuneration 
 which could be recovered as a debt. The payment to an advo- 
 cate was as honorarium, not merces and the opinion of all the 
 judges, from the days of Justinian to the present time, supported 
 that view. The rule for a new trial to enter the verdict for the 
 defendants was therefore absolute. This of course quashed Mr. 
 Kennedy's claim. 
 
 Utter-Barristers. 
 
 "The term 'Utter-Barrister' occurs for the first time in the 
 reign of Henry VIII. It is mentioned in the < Orders and Cus- 
 toms ' of the Middle Temple, where it is applied to one who, 
 having continued in the house for five or six years, and profited in 
 the study of the law, has been called by the benchers < to plead, 
 argue, and dispute some doubtful matter before certain of the 
 benchers,' which < manner of argument or disputations is called 
 motyng and this making of Utter-Barristers is as a preferment or 
 degree given him for his learning.' " 
 
 Fifty years ago no junior barrister presumed to carry a bag in 
 the Court of Chancery, unless one had been presented to him by 
 the King's counsel, who, when a junior was advancing in prac- 
 tice, took an opportunity of complimenting him on his increase oft 
 business, and giving him his own bag to carry home his papers. It 
 
110 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 was then a distinction to carry a bag, and a proof that a junior 
 was rising in his own profession. 
 
 What was Special Pleading ? 
 
 From a period of very remote antiquity down to the passing of 
 the Common Law Procedure Act, 1852, the pleadings in our 
 Law Courts were of a highly artificial character, and had been 
 elaborated, by the care of judges and practitioners during many 
 successive centuries, into a regular system or science, called plead- 
 ing^ or more properly, special pleading, which constituted a d.s- 
 tinct branch of the Lafa, with treatises and professors of its own. 
 It was a system highly rated by our ancient lawyers, and had at 
 least the merit of developing the point in controversy with the 
 severest precision. But its strictness and subtlety were a frequent 
 subject of complaint ; and one object of the Common Law Pro- 
 cedure Act, 1852, was to relax and simplify its rules. Whether 
 the effect of this will be to impair its value or not in other re- 
 spects, experience alone can decide. Stephen's Commentaries, note. 
 
 Lord Campbell studied, at Lincoln's Inn, the mysteries of 
 special pleading, under the guidance of Mr. Tidd, through whom 
 he traced his legal pedigree up to the celebrated Tom Warren, 
 father of this wondrous art. Tom Warren begat Serjeant Run- 
 nington, Serjeant Runnington begat Tidd, Tidd begat Campbell, 
 and Campbell begat Dundas and Vaughan Williams. " Tidd," 
 writes his grateful pupil, " lived to see four sons sitting together 
 in the House of Lords Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Denman, Lord 
 Cottenham, and Lord Campbell. To the unspeakable advantage 
 of having been three years his pupil, I chiefly ascribe my success 
 at the bar." 
 
 What is Evidence ? 
 
 Mr. Stephen, in his able Treatise on the Criminal Law of 
 England, gives the follow definitions of Evidence : 
 
 All the facts with which we are acquainted, visible or invisible, internal 
 or external, are connected together in a vast series of sequences which we 
 call cause and effect j and the constitution of things is such, that men are 
 able to infer from one fact the existence, either past or future, of other 
 facts. For instance, we infer from a footmark on soft ground that a foot 
 has been impressed upon it. From the fact that a man is planting his foot 
 on soft ground, we infer that if he completes that motion a footmark will 
 appear. Any specific fact, or set of facts, employed for the purpose of in- 
 ferring therefrom the existence of any other fact, is said to be evidence of 
 the fact. Suppose the question is whether John Smith is living or dead : 
 A says, "I knew John Smith, and I saw him die." B says, I knew 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. Ill 
 
 John Smith. I saw him in bed; he looked very ill. I shortly afterwards 
 Heard he was dead, and saw a funeral procession, which I attended, and 
 which every one said was his funeral, leave his house and go to the church- 
 yard, where I saw a coffin buried with his name on it." C says, " Z told 
 me that he heard from X that John Smith was dead." D says, "I had 
 a dream that John Smith was dead." Each of these facts, if used for the 
 purpose of supporting the inference that John Smith was really dead, would 
 be evidence of his death. The assertions of A and B would, under ordinary 
 circumstances, be convincing ; that of C far from satisfactory, and that of D 
 altogether idle, except to a very superstitious person. This would be 
 usually expressed by saying that the assertions of A and B would be good 
 evidence, that of C weak evidence, and that of D no evidence at all of the 
 fact of the death. But this is not quite a correct way of speaking ; whe- 
 ther one fact is evidence of another, depends on the way in which it is 
 used. If people usually believed in dreams, the assertion that a man had 
 dreamt of John Smith's death would be evidence of his death. Whether 
 or not it would be wise to allow it to be evidence of his death, would de- 
 pend on the further question, whether in point of fact the practice of 
 inferring the truth of the dream from the fact of its occurrence, usually 
 produced true belief. 
 
 It would, unquestionably, aid the ends of justice if the real 
 nature of evidence were better understood ; which can only be 
 assisted by the right use of reason. 
 
 What is Trial? 
 
 The decision of fact, which constitutes in every civilized 
 country the chief business of courts of justice ; for experience 
 will abundantly show that above a hundred of our lawsuits arise 
 from disputed facts, for one where the law is doubted. 
 
 About twenty days in the year, says Blackstone, are sufficient 
 in Westminster Hall to settle, upon solemn argument, every de- 
 murrer or point of law that arises throughout the nation ; but 
 two months are annually spent in deciding the truth of facts 
 before six distinct tribunals, exclusive of Middlesex and London, 
 which afford a supply of causes much more than equivalent to 
 any two of the largest circuits. (3 Bl. Com. 320.) The state of 
 things in our own days is substantially the same. Stephen's 
 Commentaries. 
 
 Trial by Jury. 
 
 In England, when the aspect of the French Revolution divided 
 our public men into factions in the evil time, when statesmen 
 had talked complacently " of a vigour beyond the law," when 
 judges had tortured free speech into sedition, and when open 
 violence and secret art were sapping the liberties we prize most 
 
112 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 dearly, English juries, with the approbation of the country, in- ' 
 terposed frequently against political wrong, and vindicated the 
 good cause that elsewhere had been abandoned. As for the 
 loyalty and good sense of the nation as a whole, the mode in 
 which it obeyed the Government attests this in a remarkable way ; 
 and though, of course, the Revolution in France stirred up some 
 elements of disorder here, they were as nothing among the great 
 mass of Englishmen. This truth is urged by Mr. Massey with 
 more force than by any other historian, and it deserves to be put 
 prominently forward, as several writers have asserted the contrary. 
 In his very instructive summary of the state of English opinion 
 at this period, he says : 
 
 " Because freedom had been abused at Paris, the liberties of 
 Englishmen were assailed. The press was put under restraint ; 
 legions of spies were let loose upon the country, and no man 
 could speak his mind in safety, or even do the most harmless act 
 without fear of question. It is no wonder that the old English 
 feeling was aroused, and that the State trials of 1794 were re- 
 garded with an intensity of interest which had not been equalled 
 since that of the Seven Bishops. The public safety at that time 
 depended on the trial by jury, and men were satisfied that 
 their liberties were safe when it appeared that the great institu- 
 tion which had so often sustained them was still sound and un- 
 shaken. . . . Happily the prosecutions failed, and from their 
 failure was derived that security which but for these trials would 
 not have been ascertained. Times review ofMasseys History of 
 England. 
 
 That sound and experienced judge, Sir John Coleridge, in a 
 lecture delivered by him at the Athenseum, Exeter, stated that 
 
 He had been a judge for an unusually long period, and he should ever regard 
 with admiration the manner in which juries discharged their duties. Again 
 and again he had reason to marvel at their patience, and again and again he 
 had observed questions put by a jury which had been omitted by counsel and 
 judge, the answer to which had thrown a light that had guided them to the. 
 truth of the whole matter. He had often thought if he had the appointment 
 of the magistrates in the country, that he would appoint those gentlemen who 
 had served on petty juries on the Crown side for two assizes at least j for he 
 was sure that a more practical knowledge of criminal law was learnt in 
 that way than could be acquired by several months of careful reading. One 
 thing should always be remembered, that stupid verdicts were no arguments 
 against the institution, for no human institution, however wise in itself, 
 could be expected to work perfectly. Let them improve their jurymen by 
 raising the character of their national education j let them introduce into 
 their panels all classes who by law were liable to serve ; and when they 
 had done that, and not till then, if they found it to fail, let them condemn 
 the institution. They lived under a law which, though far from perfect, 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 113 
 
 was framed in a wise and just spirit. They could not possibly overrate the 
 blessing which they possessed, yet it was so much a matter of course that 
 they were apt to think as little of it as they did of the sun that shone upon 
 them from Heaven. 
 
 Attendance of Jurors. 
 
 The law on this subject has been thus concisely explained by 
 Mr. Under-Sheriff Burchell. At the present period, persons who 
 claim to be excused from attending as jurors should get their 
 names removed from the jury-list. In July, within the first week, 
 the Clerk of the Peace is to issue his warrant to the high con- 
 stable for the overseers to prepare and make out a list of persons 
 qualified as jurors. For three weeks in September the list is to be 
 exhibited on the doors of churches and chapels, with a notification 
 where objections are to be heard. Within the last seven days of 
 September the justices are to hold a petty sessions to hear objec- 
 tions. If persons having exemptions do not attend to the subject, 
 they may be returned and be liable to serve until the list is cor- 
 rected in the September following. Some complaints are made ol 
 persons being returned by parish officers who had either removed 
 or been dead for years. The law as stated prevails throughout 
 the counties of England. 
 
 The Law of Libel. 
 
 It would be useless to attempt to define, within our limit, the 
 principles of the Law of Libel it would be attended with fruit- 
 less results ; but we may be permitted to give such an outline 
 of the subject as may be useful for reflection and research, if not 
 for immediate practice. Now that the old saying, " The greater 
 truth the greater libel," is no longer applicable even to indictments 
 for defamation, the popular idea of what is and what is not action- 
 able is correct, so far as it goes. It is now generally understood 
 that a false and malicious attack upon another man's character is 
 in all cases illegal ; that a somewhat less offensive imputation than 
 would support an action for mere words will render its author 
 liable in damages if it be conveyed in writing, but that the law 
 deems all statements of this kind to be justifiable which can be 
 shown to be true. For the ordinary intercourse of life these rules 
 and cautions are sufficient. No one can speak ill of his neighbour 
 with impunity, unless he is prepared to make good his \vords to 
 the letter ; or, at least, to prove that they were spoken without 
 malice or on a lawful occasion. With regard to the Press, it has 
 been proclaimed again and again from the judicial Bench, that 
 " fair comments" in a journal or periodical are not within the Law 
 
 i 
 
114 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 of Libel ; but, then, what is to be the test of " fairness" ? It is 
 quite possible that a journalist's comments may be made bondfde 
 and out of a regard for the public welfare, and yet may be incapable 
 in their very nature of legal proof. In the case of Campbell v. 
 Spottiswoode, the former obtained a verdict against the printer of 
 the Saturday Review for an alleged calumny against himself as editor 
 and part-proprietor of the British Standard and Ensign. The 
 defendant's counsel relied at the trial, and in his argument before 
 the Court of Queen's Bench, on the " general privilege" of all who 
 discuss public questions without actual malice. The Lord Chief 
 Justice and the Court decided against him, on the ground that 
 there is no such general privilege ; and that the imputation of base 
 motives throws upon a public critic, as it would upon a private 
 detractor, the necessity of bringing them home to the party 
 maligned. According to this doctrine, the jury is not to be allowed 
 to compare the comments with the evidence before the writer, and 
 to say whether they were "fair" and justified by appearances. 
 Nothing short of their, being strictly true in fact, and proved to 
 be so in open court, will relieve the latter of his liability. 
 
 Nevertheless, we have the authority of the Lord Chief Justice 
 (Erie) of the Common Pleas (Turnbull v. Bird, 1861), for the 
 principle that very strong and injurious language, if provoked and 
 employed " for the purpose of maintaining the truth," " without 
 any corrupt motive," may be innocent in the view of the law. We 
 have the sanction of the same eminent Judge that " a man may 
 publish defamatory matter in defence either of his private or his 
 public rights. Every subject of this realm has a right to comment 
 upon the acts of public men, for they concern him as such subject ; 
 but he must not make his commentary a cloak for malice. Such 
 a commentary, however libellous, is justifiable if the defendant 
 honestly believes that he is writing what is fair and just ; but if he 
 makes wilful misrepresentation, or misstatement that might have 
 been avoided by ordinary care, his protection ceases." We find 
 it assumed by Chief Justice Erie, and stated in plain terms by Mr. 
 Justice Willes, that there is such a thing as a "privilege of fair 
 discussion on a matter of public interest," though two of the 
 learned Judges of the Queen's Bench were at much pains to show 
 that a right belonging to all her Majesty's subjects cannot properly 
 be called a " privilege." Moreover, we have the general but most 
 emphatic testimony of Lord Ellenborough, that where the "object" 
 is "to correct misrepresentations of fact, to refute sophistical 
 reasoning, to expose a vicious taste in literature, or to censure 
 what is hostile to morality," there can be no libel. 
 
 In a case against the Lincolnshire Chronicle, the Judge, Mr. Justice 
 Coleridge, laid down the law as follows : 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 115 
 
 " In discussing the public conduct of a public man, a journalist might 
 certainly use the most unceremonious freedom, and juries should not be 
 nice in criticising the language in which the censure might be conveyed, 
 if they could see that the motive and spirit of the whole were public and 
 honest. On the other hand, no newspaper was justified in commenting 
 upon the private life even of a public man ; but the present appeared to be 
 an intermediate case. The plaintiff" filled a public situation, but it could 
 hardly be said that the paragraph was merely a comment upon his conduct 
 as ald'erman, neither did it relate to a strictly private matter. The most 
 objectionable paragraph appeared to him to be that which imputed to the 
 plaintiff ' confused notions on the important matters of meum and tuum^ but 
 the jury must look at the whole, and say whether in their opinion it ex- 
 ceeded the bounds of fair comment upon the conduct of a person rilling the 
 position which the plaintiff filled. The jury found a verdict for the 
 defendant." 
 
 But, by the judicial dicta in Campbell v. Spottiswoode, no 
 greater latitude is allowed in comments on public topics than in 
 remarks on private affairs. Any theoretical indulgence to the 
 former, whether it be called privilege or not, is a worthless boon 
 if truth, or rather legal demonstration, is to be the only test of 
 " libel or no libel" for literary critiques. As Mr.Bovill well pointed 
 out, no privilege is wanted where truth can be successfully pleaded. 
 On the other hand, no privilege is demanded where malice can be 
 established against the writer, or inferred by the jury from the tone 
 and spirit of the composition. It is where a public critic, with the 
 best and purest intentions, has injured the good name of a public 
 man that the question arises. The great difficulty is to render 
 the Press harmless to individuals, and yet to leave it powerful for 
 good. Abridged from the Times. 
 
 With regard to the propagation of Libel, " it may be some 
 doubt in the eye of morality, whether the purchaser ot a satirical 
 libel does not share in the guilt of the author ; and whether the 
 pleasure in reading it is not of a criminal sort, and a proof of the 
 malignity of human nature. There would be no thieves nor stolen 
 goods, experience tells us, if there were no receivers ; and no 
 scurrilous writings nor libellous prints would be published, to cor- 
 rupt the ear or gratify the impudence of the eye, if there were no 
 purchasers." These sentiments are from Bayle's Essay on Defa- 
 matory Libels ; and we remember Lord Brougham to have once 
 expressed himself in almost the identical words of Bayle, in a 
 speech on the Newspaper Stamp Duty. 
 
 Induction of a Rector. 
 
 The ceremony of inducting a clergyman to his benefice is 
 briefly as follows : the instance being the induction of the Rev. 
 
 I 2 
 
116 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Pascoe Grenfell Hill, Feb. 9, 1863, to the benefice of the united 
 parishes of St. Edmund the King and St. Nicholas, Lombard- 
 street. The Rev. Mr. Hill brought with him the Rev. J. Lupton, 
 who performed the office of induction. The reverend Chaplain, 
 therefore, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Hill, proceeded to the 
 church-door in Lombard-street, and the Clerk having put the 
 key into the lock of the door, the Chaplain took Mr. Hill's 
 right hand, and placing it on the key thus inserted in the lock, 
 said, holding the archdeacon's mandate in his hand, "By virtue 
 of this instrument, I, James Lupton, Rector of St. Michael's, 
 Queenhithe, induct you into the real, actual, and corporal posses- 
 sion of the United Rectory of St. Edmund the King and Martyr 
 with St. Nicholas Aeons, with all its fruits, members, and appur- 
 tenances." The new Rector then opened the church door, and 
 having entered the church, shut himself in, and then pulled one of 
 the bell?, so as to assure the public that he was in the church and 
 had taken possession of it. He then returned to the church-door, 
 opened it, and let his friends and the officials in. 
 
 Benefit of Clergy. 
 
 The privilege of Benefit of Clergy, Privilegium Clericale 
 arose in the pious regard paid by Christian princes to the Church 
 in its infant state, and consisted of ist, an exemption of places 
 consecrated to religious duties from criminal arrests, which was 
 the foundation of sanctuaries ; 2nd, exemption of the persons of 
 clergymen from criminal process before the secular judge, in par- 
 ticular cases, which was the original meaning of the privilegium 
 clericale. In the course of time, however, the benefit of clergy ex- 
 tended to every one who could read, for such was the ignorance 
 of those periods, that this was thought a great proof of learning ; 
 and it was enacted, that from the scarcity of clergy in the reaim 
 of England, there should be a prerogative allowed to the clergy, 
 that if any man who could read were to be condemned to death, 
 the bishop of the diocese might, if he would, claim him as a 
 clerk, and dispose of him in some places of the clergy as he might 
 deem meet ; but if the bishop would not demand him, or if the 
 prisoner could not read, then he was to be put to death. 3 Ed- 
 ward I., 1274. Benefit of Clergy was abolished by statute 
 ;th and 8th George IV., c. 28. 
 
 The King's Book. 
 
 "The King's Book," so frequently mentioned in connexion 
 with the value of church livings, is the Return of the Comm.s- 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 117 
 
 sioners appointed under 26 Henry VIII., c. 3, to value the first- 
 fruits and tenths bestowed by that Act upon the King. The 
 valuation then made is still in force, and the record containing it is 
 that commonly known as the Kings' Book (the Valor Ecclesias- 
 ticusy &c.) which has been printed by the Record Commission. 
 
 Compulsory Attendance at Church. 
 
 We do not find any very early regulations made to enforce the 
 observation of festivals among Christians. The Middle Ages 
 are somewhat more prolific. Attendance at church on the prin- 
 c ; pal festivals was made a subject of inquiry, about A.D. 900, in 
 Abbot Regino's articles ; and by that of Clovishoff, in 905, the 
 clergy are enjoined to be more diligent in teaching, and the people 
 to be more regular in their attendance. This observance is also 
 enjoined by the laws of Canute, about 1032, which decree "all 
 divine rites and offices, let every one studiously keep and observe ; 
 the feast-days and the fasts, let him celebrate with the utmost 
 ceremony." After the Conquest, the synod of Exeter, 1287, in- 
 cludes the " festival days," with the Lord's days, among those 
 when the people ought specially to attend the churches. And 
 Ascension Day, the feast of Corpus Christi, the high feast of the 
 Assumption of our blessed Lady, and All Saints' Day, are in- 
 cluded with the Lord's days, in the 2yth Henry VI. (1450) in 
 the list of days whereon the holding of fairs is prohibited. 
 
 The Acts by which at the Reformation it was attempted to 
 secure the due attendance of the people upon the remodelled ser- 
 vices include l< the other days ordained and used to be kept as 
 holidays." But the application of their provisions to the attend- 
 ance upon other holidays than Sundays, seems to have been pretty 
 soon dropped. The statute of James the First, re-enacting the 
 penalty of is. for default in attendance at church, is limited to 
 Sundays ; and the latter day alone is mentioned in the Acts of 
 William and Mary, and George III.; by which exceptions in 
 favour of dissenters from the Church of England were introduced. 
 Mr. Neale, however, cites several cases which appear to settle that 
 the ecclesiastical courts have not the power to compel any person 
 to attend his parish church, because they have no right to decide 
 the bounds of parishes. 
 
 The repeal of the Act enjoining attendance at church on the 
 th of November, so far as Roman Catholics are concerned, by 
 the 7 and 8 Victoria, c. 102, removing the penalties to which 
 they stood exposed up to the year 1844, must be looked upon 
 more as a piece of consistency in legislation than as the removal 
 ot a possible grievance. And a somewhat similar remark may 
 
118 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 be made in respect to members of the Church of England, 
 upon the total repeal of the ist of Elizabeth, so far as concerns 
 the penalty of is., for non-attendance at church on holidays. 
 As the statute of James applies solely to Sundays, there is HOW 
 no civil punishment left for this neglect : though it would appear 
 to remain punishable, under the th and 6th of Edward VI., by 
 ecclesiastical censures. Neales Feasts and Fasts, p. 307. 
 
 Among the recent cases of prosecution, in a Treatise on Sir 
 Matthew Kale's History of the Pleas of the Crown, by Professor 
 Amos, the following passage occurs under "Repealed Statutes:" 
 
 " In the year 1817, at the Spring Assizes for Bedford, Sir Mon- 
 tague Burgoyne was prosecuted for having been absent from his 
 parish church for several months : the action was defeated by 
 proof of the defendant having been indisposed. In the Report 
 of Prison Inspectors to the House of Lords, in 1841, it appeared 
 that in 1830, ten persons were in prison for recusancy in not 
 attending their parish churches. A mother was prosecuted by 
 her own son." 
 
 The Mark of the Cross. 
 
 The old Danish laws made it obligatory upon those who could 
 not write to affix their bomxrke (house-mark) ; and the Russians 
 required a mark, or a cross. The probable reason why the cross 
 was always used in the Middle Ages in the testing of ecclesiastical 
 charters was not only that it was a sacred symbol, but that Jus- 
 tinian had decreed it should have the strength of an oath. B. 
 Williams, F.S.A.', Archaeologia, xxxvii. p. 384. 
 
 Sir Henry Spelman tells us that " The Saxons in their deeds 
 observed no set forme, but used honest and perspicuous words to 
 express the thing intended with all brevity, yet not wanting the 
 essential parts of a deed : as the names of the donor and donee, 
 the consideration, the certainty of the thing given, the limitation 
 of the estate, the reservation if any were, and the names of the 
 witnesses, which always were many, some for the one part, and 
 some for the other. As for dating, it was not usual amongst them. 
 Seals they used not at all, other than (the common seal of Chris- 
 tianity) the sign of the Cross, which they, and all nations follow- 
 ing the Greek and Roman Church, accompted the most solemn 
 and inviolable manner of confirming." 
 
 Marriage-Law of England. 
 
 On the 1 7th of March, 1835, Dr. Lushington, in the House 
 of Commons, stated the history and principle of the Marriage 
 Law of England thus " By the ancient law of this country as 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 119 
 
 to marriages, a marriage was good if celebrated in the presence 
 of two witnesses, though without the intervention of a priest. 
 But then came the decision of the Council of Trent rendering the 
 solemnization by a priest necessary. At the Reformation we re- 
 fused to accept the provision of the Council of Trent ; and in 
 consequence, the question was reduced to this state that a mar- 
 riage by civil contract was valid. But there was this extraordi- 
 nary anomaly in the law, that the practice of some of our civil 
 courts required, in certain instances and for some purposes, that 
 the marriage should be celebrated in a particular form. It turned 
 out that a marriage by civil contract was valid for some purposes, 
 while for others such as the descent of the real property to the 
 heirs of the marriage it was invalid. Thus, a man in the pre- 
 sence of a witness, accepting a woman for his wife, per *verba. de 
 pr<esenti, the marriage was valid, as I have said, for some pur- 
 poses, but for others to make it valid it was necessary that it 
 should be celebrated in facie ecclesite. This was the state of the 
 law till the passing of the Marriage Act in 1754." 
 
 " Marriage, in its origin, (says Lord Stowell,) is a contract of 
 natural law : it may exist between two individuals of different 
 sexes although no third person existed in the world, as happened 
 in the case of the common ancestors of mankind. In civil society 
 it becomes a civil contract, regulated and prescribed by law, and 
 endowed with civil consequences. In most civilized countries, 
 acting under a sense of the force of sacred obligations, it has had 
 the sanction of religion superadded. It then becomes a religious 
 as well as a natural and civil contract ; for it is a great mistake 
 to suppose that, because it is the one, it may not likewise be the 
 other." (2 Hagg. Cons. Rep. 63.) 
 
 Marriage Fines. 
 
 In the feudal times, the lord might object to the marriage of a 
 bondman's daughter with a stranger, even of her own condition ; 
 and by marriage with a freeman she became free during coverture, 
 if not free for ever ; this and the lord's approval of her marriage 
 being purchasable by fine. At Swincombe, in Oxfordshire, the 
 bondman could not get a husband for his daughter, and could not 
 take to himself a wife, without the lord's permission. 
 
 Although a fine used to be paid by a freeman in the occupation 
 of bond-land, on the marriage of his daughter, there was no more 
 degradation in such a fine than there now is in the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury's charge for a marriage-licence. At Southfleet, 
 Friendsbury, Wouidham, and other places in their neighbourhood, 
 a tenant who wished to give his daughter in marriage had to an- 
 
120 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 nounce the marriage to the warden or bailiff of the village, and 
 to invite him to the wedding ; the girl could not be married to 
 any one out of the manor without the lord's good -will ; an heiress 
 could not be married even to a neighbour without the lord's con- 
 sent. A tenant at Headington, Oxon, paid no fine on the mar- 
 riage of his daughter within the manor he paid two shillings for 
 leave to give her in marriage to a stranger ; but we are told that 
 payment was on account of the chattels which might be removed 
 out of the manor with her. When we consider the lord of a 
 manor to be the patron and protector of all within it, there seems 
 to be nothing very offensive in this arrogation of assent to the 
 marriage of his tenant's daughter. 
 
 Irregular Marriages. 
 
 Little more than a century ago, a common notion prevailed 
 that the performance of the marriage ceremony by a person in 
 holy orders rendered it sacred and indissoluble, without regard 
 to any other condition.* Hence arose the scandals and indecencies 
 of the Fleet Marriages, />., marriages performed in the Fleet 
 prison, 'and its neighbourhood, by a set of drunken, swearing 
 parsons, and their myrmidons, who wore black coats, and pre- 
 tended to be clerks and registrars to the F leet. Those malpractices 
 were put an end to by the Marriage Act of 1754: the register- 
 books were purchased by Government in 1821, and deposited in 
 the Bishop of London's Registry. A similar abuse flourished 
 at May Fair, until it was abolished by the Ac f of 1754, when the 
 register-books were deposited in St. George's church, Hanover- 
 square. 
 
 The "Border Marriages" were also of this class of abuses, 
 and arose from nothing formerly having been necessary in Scot- 
 land to constitute a man and woman husband and wife save a 
 declaration of consent by the parties before witnesses, or even 
 such a declaration in writing without any witnesses : a marriage 
 which was considered binding in all respects. Still, a marriage in 
 Scotland, not celebrated by a clergyman, except these " Border 
 Marriages," was rarely or never heard of. They were performed 
 at Lamberton toll-bar, about three miles north of Berwick-upon- 
 Tweed ; and at Gretna Green, the nearest locality accessible to 
 strangers actually within the territory of Scotland.* The pre- 
 liminaries of such a marriage used to be a long purse in hand or 
 in prospect, for the purpose of meeting heavy posting expenses, 
 and bribes to secure speed. In the course of time, facility of tra- 
 
 * See Things not generally Knoivn y First Series, pp. 120 lar. Popular 
 Errors Explained) p. 207. 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 121 
 
 veiling by railway, and of obtaining licensed carriages from the 
 stands in towns, increased ; and the farm-servants and the ser- 
 vants generally in the Border counties began to avail themselves 
 of what was deemed a lawful practice by their superiors from 
 other places. During the holidays for farm-servants, at Whit- 
 suntide and Martinmas, the times of the statute-hirings, parties 
 generally under the influence of drink, and too often tipsy, would 
 hire carriages in Carlisle, and drive, by the two or three couples 
 in a carriage, over the Border to get married in Scotland ; they 
 would live together for two or three days, then go to their ser- 
 vices, and perhaps never again think of their having been 
 married at all; or not till circumstances might arise making 
 it worth the while of one of the parties to claim conjugal 
 rights, with a view to participation in an inheritance of pro- 
 perty a not uncommon accident among the natives of the 
 Border Counties. 
 
 Under this state of affairs, at the Spring A [.sizes at Carlisle, in 
 1856, there were three trials for bigamy ; upon the increase of 
 which crime the Judge made some serious remarks to the Grand 
 Jury, in his charge. A magistrate of Cumberland, having leisure 
 time, and a sufficient acquaintance with the Marriage Laws of 
 England and Scotland, to avoid falling into any gross error, set 
 to work to frame Petitions to Parliament and the Home Secre- 
 tary, reciting that such petitions were from the Magistrates of 
 Cumberland, charged with the suppression of vice and immorality 
 in their county ; that a state of irregularity which had formerly 
 been permitted in the Law of Marriage had grown into an abuse, 
 under a change of circumstances ; that the Petitioners thought 
 that the young people of their county acted more out of levity 
 and under excitement, than from any real want of good principle ; 
 and that they submitted the exigencies of the case might be met 
 by requiring all parties, not being natives of Scotland, and wishing 
 to be married in Scotland, to acquire domicile in Scotland, by a 
 residence of a fixed number of days, prior to being considered 
 entitled to the privilege of the laws relating to marriage in Scot- 
 land ; and prayed that the parties petitioned would authorize such 
 measures, &c. The Bench of Magistrates mostly approved of 
 the petitions, one alone declining to sign. The clerical magis- 
 trates generally abstained from signing, urging that if they did 
 sign, it might be objected that they had been instigated through 
 interested motives. The petitions were signed by all the lay 
 magistrates attending the Session at Whitehaven, and were for- 
 warded to London for presentation ; the Hon. Charles Howard 
 taking charge of the petition to the Commons, but with mis- 
 givings as to its success ; his only hope being that the substance 
 
122 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 of it might be passed in a clause of the Dissenters' Marriage Bill, 
 then before the House. Nor was the Home Secretary, Sir George 
 Grey, more sanguine: he promised to look over the petition, adding 
 the state of the feeling of the House was such that it could not 
 be made a Government measure. 
 
 The petition to the Lords was taken charge of by Lord 
 Brougham, who was selected because, at the commencement of 
 the Session squibbing speeches had passed between him, with 
 Lord Campbell on his side, and Lord Aberdeen joined by Lord 
 Minto, relative to the laws of Scottish marriages. Such had 
 also been the case in several sessions prior to the one of 1856: 
 bills had been threatened to be introduced for altering the laws 
 of marriage in Scotland entirely ; but always, after Easter, the 
 matter had been dropped. 
 
 At the above interview, Lord Brougham entered upon the state 
 of the case with the Cumberland magistrate, who knew before- 
 hand that a civil marriage between English in Scotland was not 
 deemed valid for the inheritance of the offspring of real estate in 
 England.* Lord Brougham confirmed this knowledge by citing 
 instances in which real estates in England had not passed to the 
 issue by marriages in Scotland ; and he also mentioned that chil- 
 dren born before marriage could be legitimized to the inheritance 
 of estate and title in Scotland, by the subsequent marriage of the 
 mother to the father ; and Lord Brougham named, in the House 
 of Lords, an instance of the fact. His Lordship added that the 
 Law of Scotland ought to be changed, and must be changed, 
 when it was replied that his Lordship would find that the object 
 of the magistrates of Cumberland was not to change the Laws 
 of Scotland, but to oblige natives of England to obey the Laws 
 of England. We mention this to show how widely the ideas 
 were astray from the real object in view. 
 
 A Bill founded on the principle of the petitions was introduced 
 by Lord Brougham : it was quickly supported by petitions signed 
 at large meetings convened in the Border Counties ; at one of 
 which, in Carlisle, a solicitor mentioned an instance wherein 
 clients of his own had not only been married, but, in the woman's 
 opinion (she having succeeded to some property), bad been divorced 
 in the course of two or three days, by one of the officiating 
 tnarriers of Gretna. One of these marriers, Murray, of Gretna, 
 admitted that he had married between 700 and 800 couple in a 
 recent year ; and as there were two or three other carriers in 
 good practice, the number of couples married at Sark toll-bar, 
 
 * In some cases where parties had been married at Gretna, the marriage 
 used to be repeated, as soon as they returned to England, in a church. 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 
 
 123 
 
 and at Gretna, may safely be estimated at upwards of 1000 in the 
 year.* 
 
 When the Bill came to its critical point in the House of 
 Commons, the Lord Advocate for Scotland stated that " seeing 
 that it did not interfere with the Law of Scotland, he should not 
 object to its progress." Thus, the Bill went through its third 
 reading, and passed, within three months from its introduction; 
 and thus was a stop put to a state of affairs threatening the rapid 
 demoralization of the lower classes in the Border Counties and 
 North- Western parts of England.f 
 
 Solemnization of Marriage. 
 
 The great facilities for Marriage afforded by the present state 
 of the law will be apparent from the following recapitulation of 
 the various forms and authorities, from the 2oth Annual Report 
 of the Registrar- General: 
 
 " Marriages may be solemnized- 
 
 I. According to the rites of the 
 Established Church. 
 
 In registered places of worship 
 not of the Established Church. 
 
 3. In the District Register Office. 
 
 Authority. 
 
 'i. Special licence from the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. 
 
 2. Licence from a Surrogate, &c. 
 
 3. Publication of banns. 
 
 4. Certificate from the Superin- 
 
 tendent Registrar. 
 ' I. Licence from the Superintendent 
 
 Registrar. 
 
 2. Certificate from the Superin- 
 tendent Registrar. 
 
 1. Licence from the Superintendent 
 
 Registrar. 
 
 2. Certificate from the Superinten- 
 
 dent Registrar. 
 
 r. Licence from the Superintendent 
 Registrar. 
 
 2. Certificate from the Superinten- 
 dent Registrar. 
 
 "By the English law as it stood before the passing of the Act of 6 and 
 7 Will. IV., c. 85, no marriage could be lawfully solemnized (except where 
 both the parties were Quakers or Jews respectively) in any other place than 
 
 * In 1815 the number of marriages celebrated at Gretna was stated in 
 Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopedia, at 65, which produced about TOOO/. at 
 the rate of fifteen guineas each : Murray, however, charged as low a fee as 
 sixpence each. 
 
 t For the details of these successful steps for the abolition of the Gretna 
 Green marriages, the writer is indebted to the obliging courtesy of a Corre- 
 spondent who took an active part in the measure. 
 
 Between 
 Jews. 
 
 Quakers and between 
 
124 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 a church or public chapel wherein banns might be published, unless by 
 special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury. This law was enforced 
 by severe penalties ; and if any persons intermarried without licence from a 
 competent authority, or without the previous publication of banns, the mar- 
 riage was null and void to all intents and purposes. Thus all persons ^vvith 
 the exception of Jews and Quakers), whether conforming to the Church of 
 England or not, were compelled to resort to the Established Church in 
 order to have their marriages lawfully solemnized. The boon conferred 
 upon Roman Catholics and Dissenters generally by the amended law of 
 1836, which enables them to marry in their own places of worship and 
 according to their own forms, may well be appreciated. The Act of 1856, 
 besides abolishing the objectionable practice of reading notices of marriage 
 before boards of guardians, has sanctioned marriage out of the district in the 
 'usual place of worship' of one of the parties, and reduced the interval 
 between the giving of notice of marriage by licence and the grant of the 
 licence from seven days to one clear day." 
 
 'The Law of Copyright. 
 
 The Publishers' Circular gives the following summary of fects 
 respecting the Copyright Laws : In our own country, the copy- 
 right lasts 42 years absolutely for the author's life, and seven years 
 after his death. In Greece and in Sardinia it lasts only 15 years 
 from the date of publication. In the Roman States it extends to 
 12 years after the author's death. In Russia it lasts for 25 years 
 after the author's death, and for ten years more if a new edition 
 has been published in the last five years of the first tenn. In 
 Belgium and Sweden it lasts 20 years after the author's death, 
 with a provision in Sweden, that, should the representative of the 
 author neglect to continue the publication, the copyright falls to 
 the State. In France it lasts for the benefit of children or widow 
 (that is, to the widow if she be what is called in France en com- 
 munaute de biens, a peculiar arrangement in French marriage 
 settlements, which establishes between husband and wife a perfect 
 community in each other's property) 30 years after the author's 
 death, but to other representatives only 10 years. In Spain it 
 lasts 50 years, reckoning from the author's death. In Austria, 
 Bavaria, Portugal, Prussia, Saxony, the Kingdom of the Two 
 Sicilies, Wurtemberg, and the States of the Germanic Confede- 
 ration, it lasts 30 years from the author's death, to all his heirs 
 and assigns without distinction ; and in Denmark, so recently as 
 1858, it lasted an indefinite period, provided the work was kept 
 in print ; now, however, it is restricted to a period of 30 years 
 after the author's death, with a provision that republication by 
 others is permitted when five years have elapsed in which a work 
 has been out of print. In the United States, copyright lasts for 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 125 
 
 28 years, and an extension of 14 years granted to the author if he 
 lives, or to his widow, children, and grandchildren. With regard 
 to lectures, sermons, &c., the law of France appears to be that 
 professors and preachers have the sole right of reproducing their 
 lectures and sermons in print ; but that advocates and political 
 speakers, while they alone have the right to publish their speeches 
 in a collective or separate form, cannot prevent their being pub- 
 lished in the journals of the time as news. 
 
 Holding over after Lease. 
 
 The doctrine is well established viz., that where a tenant by 
 lease holds over after the determination of the term, and pays rent, 
 he becomes a tenant from year to year, under all the conditions of 
 the expired lease consistent 'with such a tenancy. Baron Watson 
 remarks " It is important that no doubt should be thrown upon 
 a question of such very general importance, as a great many of 
 the houses in London and throughout the country are occupied by 
 tenants holding over." 
 
 Abolition of the Hop Duty. 
 
 The 1 5th September, 1862, dates the freedom of English Hops 
 from Excise impost, and the abolition of Customs duties upon 
 foreign Hops. Time alone can show the effect so serious a change 
 will have on the average prices of a produce of increasing im- 
 portance throughout the world. The general opinion is that 
 under perfect freedom of trade hops will vary in price in each 
 d.strict of production only in proportion to their quality and the 
 cost of transport ; and that consumers will find prices more uni- 
 formly even than has hitherto been known, since the simultaneous 
 failure in the crop at home and abroad is beyond probability. 
 
 This tax was tirst imposed by Mr. Harley in the year 1711; 
 and its removal will make the hopgrower in future free from those 
 heavy losses which the Duty inflicted on him in years of large crops 
 and small prices. Hopgrowing has now become a simple farming 
 operation, left to natural causes. It might be that, owing to the 
 costly nature of the production and the precarious nature of the 
 crop, it would always remain a somewhat more speculative branch 
 of business than any other branch of farming. It is, however, 
 thought that the supply of hops will be more abundant, and, above 
 all, more steady and uniform from year to year. The consequence 
 will be that the beer we drink will be more wholesome. Eurton, 
 in his Anatomy of Melancholy ', says: "Beer made without hops 
 is productive of heaviness and melancholy ; but that well hopped 
 is an antidote to it." 
 
126 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Customs of Gavelkind. 
 
 The well-known treatise, entitled "The Common Law ot 
 Kent ; or the Customs of Gavelkind, with the Decisions con- 
 cerning Borough-English/' by Thomas Robinson, with additions 
 by J. D. Norwood, comprehends everything relating to the 
 subject, embracing all that is useful in Somner, Tayler, and Lam- 
 barde, as well as a full account of both tenure and custumal. The 
 work contains chapters on the etymology and significations of the 
 word Gavelkind ; on the antiquity and universality of partible 
 descents in England ; on the places out of Kent where the custom 
 of gavelkind may be alleged and maintained ; on the manner of 
 pleading the custom, and the difference between that and other 
 counties, and between the general and special customs ; on what 
 lands and tenements in Kent are of the nature of gavelkind ; of 
 the effect of the alteration of the tenure and of the disgavelling 
 statutes ; on the nature of gavelkind in reference to descent and 
 partition, and the remedy for and against parceners by the custom ; 
 on the special customs incident to gavelkind lands in Kent, tenancy 
 by the courtesy ; of dower, of customary wardship, and of aliena- 
 tion by any infant tenant in gavelkind ; the father to the bough 
 and the son to the plough, and the custumal of Kent with prece- 
 dents. The principal peculiarities which distinguish socage lands 
 subject to the custom of gavelkind from free or common socage 
 are i. That the lands descend to all males in equal degree, in 
 equal shares. 2. That the husband is tenant by the courtesy of 
 his deceased wife's lands, whether there were issue born alive or 
 not. 3. That the widow is dowable of one-half instead of the 
 third. 4. That an infant may alien by feoffment at the age of 
 fifteen. 5. That upon a conviction of felony, there is no escheat 
 by reason of corruption of blood ; corruption of blood only occurs 
 now in cases of treason, petit treason, and murder see 54 G. 3, 
 c. 145. These peculiarities do not recommend themselves as 
 possessing so great advantages as to induce us to continue a 
 system of law in Kent different from the rest of England. One 
 of its great disadvantages is the difficulty of deducing the title, 
 on account of the complicated subdivisions of the estate. 
 
 Treasure Trove. 
 
 Treasure Trove (from the French trouver, to find, trouve, 
 found) is the law by which money, or other treasure, found hidden, 
 is adjudicated to the legal claimant. 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 127 
 
 In 1863, Mr. F. Peel, (one of the Secretaries to the Treasury,) 
 stated in Parliament : 
 
 It was by no means an unreasonable or absurd law that when an article 
 of gold or silver, belonging to an unknown owner, was found, it should be 
 held to be the property of the Crown. The rights of the Crown in that 
 respect were not, however, rigidly enforced. The articles found were 
 usually returned to the person who was declared to have the best claim to 
 them ; or, if they were of historical interest, they were deposited in the 
 British Museum or some local collection, and their intrinsic value was paid 
 to the finder. What the Treasury desired was to obtain speedy information 
 of the discovery of any treasure trove. The Circular which was issued 
 some time ago was intended to instruct the finders of any treasures how to 
 communicate with the Crown on the subject.* That Circular was sub- 
 sequently withdrawn because it laid claim to antiquities which were not 
 exactly treasures and did not belong to the Crown, and because it di- 
 rected a reference to the wrong tribunal in cases of dispute. The draught 
 of another circular was prepared j but so many difficulties beset the subject 
 that it was not deemed advisable to issue it. If occasion should arise for a 
 new order it would of course be made, but there appeared to be no necessity 
 for one at present. 
 
 Sometimes, the right to the property is confirmed by the special 
 conditions of the holding of the property whereon it is found. 
 Thus, at the above date, Lord Palmerston related in Parliament 
 that about two years ago some workmen, when digging a drain on 
 one of his farms, found a gold torque, which his Lordship pur- 
 chased of the man who discovered it, the value being about 3c/. 
 Lord Palmerston, however, had an investigation made of the 
 original grant of the farm several centuries ago, and ascertained 
 that it conferred on the grantee all the treasure-trove on the pro- 
 perty ; wherefore his Lordship felt entitled to keep the relic in 
 question. 
 
 In January, 1863, eleven pounds' weight of ancient gold orna- 
 ments were ploughed up in the neighbourhood of Hastings, and 
 
 * This Treasury Minute of July 16, 1861, directs that the superin- 
 tendents and inspectors of police shall be authorized to receive treasure- 
 trove from the finders, and shall transmit it to the Solicitor of the Trea- 
 sury, who will ascertain at the Mint the real intrinsic or metallic value of 
 the treasure, and the amount will then be remitted to the finder. Cases 
 will no doubt occur in which rare and valuable coins will be disposed of at 
 a higher price than their bullion value, but they will then find their way 
 into some collection, either public or private, and will not be melted down. 
 It should be generally known that treasure-trove is not claimed peremp- 
 torily by the Crown, nor is there any occasion for the finder to sell it to 
 the nearest silversmith under the apprehension that it would have to be 
 given up without compensation. 
 
128 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 were sold as old brass, to a man who had been a Californian gold- 
 digger, and recognised the metal as solid gold. He was taken 
 into custody, but discharged, the magistrates having no jurisdiction 
 in the matter, the power of making such an investigation being 
 vested, according to an old statute, (4th Edward I.) in the coroner ; 
 the jury returning a verdict that the gold, (value about s^o/.) 
 the owner or owners not being known, was the property of the 
 Queen, and that the persons accused had concealed the finding 
 from the Queen and the coroner.' This discovery of gold orna- 
 ments, and their almost total destruction, render it desirable that 
 the law of Treasure-trove should be made clear to popular com- 
 prehension : that if it is not just, as seems to be the common 
 impression, it should be amended, and the practice of the Crown, 
 in exercising its conventional rights, defined. At any rate, so long 
 as finders do not know that they will receive full value for dis- 
 coveries, and have not confidence in their appraisement, it is in vain 
 to expect country-folk wiU yield Treasure-trove to an authority 
 they contemn. In some parts a belief is held that such discoveries 
 entail condign punishment upon the finders : it was formerly a 
 capital offence ; it is now a misdemeanour, punishable by fine and 
 imprisonment. 
 
 It is difficult to make the peasantry comprehend manorial rights. 
 A man who finds a treasure in his own ground, and that treasure 
 one which can have no living owner, naturally looks on himself 
 as its rightful possessor. He has probably never heard of King 
 Edward's law of Treasure-trove, and a natural sense of justice does 
 not guide him rightly in the matter. If a liberal reward were 
 given nearly the metal value of the trouvaille it is quite possible 
 that we might have become possessed of many precious relics 
 which now are broken up and consigned to the melting-pot. 
 
 In France, the right is more practically understood. Thus, in 
 July, 1863, a pot of louis-d'ors was found in the Rue Lafayette, 
 in Paris, when the following adjustment was made. 
 
 One of the labourers while at work, struck his pick on to an earthen 
 jar, which broke, and out of which rolled several pieces of gold. The 
 other workmen hearing the sound, rushed round the spot, probably to ob- 
 tain a share of the treasure, when the latter cried out " Stop ! Form a ring 
 around me, and then let no one move." The others obeyed. He then 
 quietly picked up the pieces of gold, which he placed in his hat, and, taking 
 up the broken jar which contained the remainder, he stood in the midst of 
 the circle, and said, " Now call a sergent-de-ville to accompany me to the 
 nearest police-office, where I will deposit the money." This was done, 
 and the prize was found to consist of 978 gold louis-d'or of twenty-four 
 livres each, bearing the effigies of Louis XV. and XVI., the whole amount- 
 ing to more than a.-^ooof. The whole was forwarded to the Prefecture of 
 Police, where it was to remain during the inquiry to discover the legitimate 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 129 
 
 owners of the property. It is only after that has been done that the share, 
 attributed by law to the finder of a treasure, will be paid to the lucky 
 workman. 
 
 Principal and Agent. 
 
 There is a well-known case involving this point, in which 
 the late Lord Abinger differed from the rest of the Court of 
 Exchequer: a plaintiff had employed an agent to let a house for 
 him, and the defendant asked the agent " if there was any objection 
 to the house;" to which the agent in perfect good faith answered, 
 there was not. It turned out, however, that the adjoining pre- 
 mises were of a disreputable character, of which the plaintiff was 
 aware, although his agent was not. The defendant, on the dis- 
 covery of the objection, refused to fulfil his written contract to 
 take the house ; and the question was, whether he was liable for 
 a breach of the agreement. Lord Abinger thought he was not, 
 but the rest of the Court thought he was, and so judgment was 
 given for the plaintiff. Upon merely technical grounds, perhaps, 
 the majority of the learned Barons were right ; but no one can 
 read the masterly opinion of Lord Abinger without feeling that 
 the law ought to be as he laid it down, and on the broad and simple 
 ground that in such a case the knowledge of the principal should 
 be held to be the knowledge of the agent. 
 
 Legal Hints. 
 
 Although no book ever was or ever can be written to enable a 
 man to dispense with the assistance of a lawyer in cases where a 
 knowledge of the law is practically required, attention to certain 
 hints may save him from many a scrape. Of this kind are the 
 following from Lord St. Leonards's Handy-Book: You should be 
 cautious whom you employ as an auctioneer, for any loss by his 
 insolvency would fall upon you ; he is your agent. We may add, 
 however, that he is the agent of both parties, buyer and seller ; 
 and for that reason his signature satisfies the Statute of Frauds, 
 and binds both. Again, you may employ one person to bid tor 
 you at an auction when you sell property, to prevent its going 
 beneath its value ; but you must not employ more than one, for 
 that would be. considered unfair puffing. Never bid for a lease- 
 hold estate clogged with the condition that the production of a 
 receipt for the last half-year's rent shall be accepted as proof that 
 all the lessee's covenants were performed up to that period ; for 
 there may have been a prior breach of covenant, and the landlord 
 may not have waived his right of entry for the forfeiture. Do 
 not take possession of an estate until objections to the title are 
 
 K 
 
330 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 removed, for such a step would in some cases be held to be an 
 acceptance of the title. Before you enter an auction-room make 
 up your mind as to price, and do not be led away by the per- 
 suasions of the auctioneer, who is the agent of the seller, or the 
 biddings of others. Do not sign a contract tendered to you by 
 the auctioneer, unless a reciprocal contract is signed and delivered 
 to you at the same time by him. In writing about the sale or 
 purchase of an estate, you should always cautiously declare your 
 oner not to be final, lest the other party should, by accepting the 
 terms you mention in your letter, not intending them to be final, 
 entrap you into a binding contract. Mind your fire insurances. 
 Very few policies against fire, says Lord St. Leonards, are so 
 framed as to render the company legally liable. If you have added 
 an Arnot's stove, or made any other important change in your 
 mode of heating your house since your policy, you should call 
 upon the Company to admit the validity of your policy by an 
 endorsement on it. 
 
 Vitiating a Sale. 
 
 It is rather startling to hear an ex-Lord Chancellor saying, 
 " Thus I have told you what truths you must disclose. I shall 
 now tell you what falsehoods you may utter in regard to your 
 estate." Of course it is not meant that morally any falsehood 
 may be told, but only that there are some which do not, at Law 
 or in Equity, vitiate the contract of sale. And it is curious to 
 see the distinctions taken in these falsehoods. They remind us 
 of the difference in Roman Catholic theology between venial and 
 mortal sins. Thus, you may falsely praise, that is, puff, your 
 property. You may describe it as uncommonly rich water- 
 meadow, although it is imperfectly watered'. In selling an 
 advowson you may falsely state that an avoidance of the living 
 is likely to occur soon. You may say, as a mere puff, that your 
 house is fit for a respectable family ; but you may not say, in 
 answer to inquiries, contrary to the fact, that the house is not 
 damp. And you must disclose a right of sporting or of common 
 over your estate, or a right to dig mines under it. The reason 
 of such distinctions as given by the law <valeat quantum is, 
 that some statements are cautions to purchasers to make inquiries 
 for themselves, and that concealments, to be material, must be of 
 something that the party concealing is bound to state. Although 
 Lord St. Leonards (in \nsHandy-Book of Property La<w) does not 
 allude to the point, we might, had we space, while upon this 
 S'ibject, enlighten our readers by a set of cases in which the law 
 relating to bugs is elaborately laid down, and explain to them in 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 131 
 
 what instances the presence of these domestic nuisances in incon- 
 venient numbers does or does not affect a contract for taking a 
 house. But we must be content to refer them to the leading 
 authorities in the pleasant volumes of Meeson and Welsby, where 
 they will find the law fully expounded. Saturday Review. 
 
 Law of Gardens. 
 
 Some persons, when leaving a place, finding they could not 
 remove the trees and shrubs, have them cut down ; but they were 
 actionable, for the law prohibits waste with malevolent intentions. 
 The decision given in the case of Buckland r u. Butterfield esta- 
 blishes this point ; for " a tenant is liable to pay for the waste, if 
 he cuts down or destroys," &c. And it has also been decided 
 by Lord Denman, Mr. Justice Littledale, and Mr. Justice Parke, 
 that a tenant could not remove a border of box, planted in the 
 garden by himself ; but that it belonged to the landlord, in the 
 absence of any agreement to the contrary. In the course of the 
 argument the counsel for the tenant asked, " Could not the tenant 
 remove flowers which he had planted in the ground ?" Mr. Justice 
 Littledale instantly said, No." 
 
 Giving a Servant a Character. 
 
 The giving a Character to a Servant is one of the most ordinary 
 communications which a member of society is called on to make ; 
 and, as the learned Mr. Starkie observes, is a duty of great im- 
 portance to the interests of the public ; and in respect of that 
 duty a person offends grievously against the interests of the com- 
 munity in giving a good character where it is not deserved, or 
 against justice and humanity in either injuriously refusing to give 
 a character, or in designedly misrepresenting " one to the detri- 
 ment ot the individual." 
 
 The following Rules are suggested for the consideration of 
 masters and mistresses not acquainted with the law in such cases : 
 
 Rule i. No magistrate has any jurisdiction touching the character of a 
 domestic servant ; and the common threat of a master or mistress being 
 summoned for not giving a character is absurd. 
 
 Rule 2. It has been clearly decided that a character honestly and bond 
 fide given by a master or mistress to any person making the usual inquiry, 
 is a privileged communication j and unless inconsistent with truth, or actual 
 malice can be proved by evidence, no damages can be sustained. But it 
 must be carefully borne in mind that, however truly or honestly the cha- 
 racter may be given, an action at law can be brought against the master or 
 mistress, and the ladies of the family put to the anxiety of appearing in 
 court, as well as the lady to whom the character was given. And, although 
 K2 
 
139 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the servant may be immediately defeated, and the case stopped by the judge, 
 you will find yourself some fifty or sixty pounds out of pocket by your 
 victory. 
 
 Rule 3. The only safe course, when a master or mistress cannot in sin- 
 cerity and truth recommend a servant, is to decline answering any ques- 
 tions on the subject, and the following form of written answer may prove 
 useful : " Mrs. A. presents her compliments to Mrs. B., and in reply to 
 her note requesting the character of Ann C , trusts she will kindly ex- 
 cuse Mrs. A. declining to answer any questions on the subject." Address 
 and date. A copy should be kept. 
 
 In the case of Carrol v. Bird, the courts of law have decided 
 that neither master nor mistress is bound to give a character, and 
 that no action will lie against them for refusing. The cases also 
 of Taylor *v. Hawkins are well worthy of notice. It must, how- 
 ever, be repeated, that both justice and humanity claim from a 
 master and mistress their kindest care and consideration for the 
 character of their servants, more particularly female servants ; but 
 it is confidently believed that if the above rules were better known 
 and more generally acted on, all good and honest servants would 
 be gainers. Times, April 19, 1860. 
 
 It may be useful to mention here that in the Court of Exchequer, 
 a cook, formerly in the sendee of Col. Sibthorp, M.P., brought 
 an action against him for an alleged libel in a letter to a lady who 
 had applied to him for the character of the cook, but which was 
 not satisfactory to the lady. It was submitted the Colonel's letter 
 being proved a privileged communication, the action could not be 
 maintained without proof of express malice on the part of the 
 defendant, of which there was not the slightest evidence; the 
 judge concurred in this view, and the plaintiff was accordingly 
 nonsuited. 
 
 Deodands. 
 
 Within memory, when an accident occurred, it was custo- 
 mary to inflict a kind of fine or penalty thus : supposing a boy 
 was run over by a vehicle, the verdict was recorded " Accidental 
 death, with a deodand of one shilling upon the cart." In the 
 Liber Albus (27 Henry III.), we read that a man fell from a boat 
 into the Thames, and was drowned ; no one was held in suspicion 
 as to the same ; the judgment was " Misadventure," and the 
 value of the boat, 45. yd., was exacted as a deodand, payable to 
 the king. [See 'Things not generally known, First Series, p. 173.] 
 The deodandum (Deo dandum, given to God) of our jurisprudence 
 may be reckoned among the mysterious things of history. The 
 deodand is philanthropic, it is religious, and it is so far clerical, 
 that its value, when levied, was handed over to the clergy, Fleta, 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 133 
 
 a commentator on English law, temp. Edward I., says that the 
 deodand is to be sold, and the price distributed to the poor, for 
 the soul of the king, his ancestors, and all faithful people departed 
 this life. Yet it was not ecclesiastical: it cannot be recovered by 
 suit in the courts of canon law, but only in the courts of the king's 
 coroner, either for counties, or for all England. This ancient 
 custom was abolished by act gth and icth Viet., cap. 62, which 
 enacts that subsequent to September ist, 1846, there shall be no 
 forfeiture ot chattels in respect of homicide. 
 
 Arrest of the Body after Death. 
 
 It was <long erroneously believed that the body of a debtor 
 might be taken in execution, in this country, after his or her death. 
 Such, however, was the practice in Prussia, till its abolition by the 
 Code Frcderique. 
 
 The above idle notion we remember to have been repeated in 
 connexion with the pecuniary embarrassments of Sheridan, at the 
 time of his death, in 1816. It may have been fostered through the 
 mis-reading of an account of a sheriff's officer arresting the dying 
 man in his bed ; " he would have carried him off in his blankets, 
 had not Dr. Bain assured him it was too probable his prisoner 
 would expire on the way to the lock-up house ! " After Sheridan's 
 death, the removal of his remains from Savile-row to Mr. Peter 
 Moore's house, in George-street, Westminster, to be near the 
 Abbey for interment, more probably led to the story that the 
 body was removed to escape arrest. 
 
 The Duty of making a Will. 
 
 When in 1859, Lord Northwick's collection of pictures was 
 about to be disposed of by auction, at Thirlestane-house, Chelten- 
 ham, we paid a visit to the gallery, and great was our regret at 
 the thought of the dispersion of so extensive a collection, which 
 had long been the pride of Cheltenham, and had been to that 
 thriving town what the National Gallery is to the metropolis. 
 Lord North wick had collected these pictures during a life ex- 
 tending for nearly a quarter of a century beyond the average 
 term allotted to man. Until within a year or two of Lord North- 
 wick's death, in 1859, he spent much of his time every day among 
 his pictures, and took great delight in pointing out their beauties 
 to any intelligent visitor. The collection, and another at Campden, 
 were swept away by sale, which realized nearly ioo,ooo/. Upon 
 our visit to the Thirlestane Gallery, much as we were gratified 
 with the pictures, we became impressed with the futility of de- 
 
134 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 voting a long life to their collection, without providing against 
 their dispersion ; and subsequently to the sale, there appeared in 
 the Morning Post the following remarks, which more fully bespeak 
 our own feelings upon the subject : 
 
 We contemplate the dispersion of these pictures with two painful reflec- 
 tions, which, by way of caution or suggestion to other collectors, we wish 
 to impress upon the public. The first is the comparative uselessness of 
 collecting works of art without some provision for their preservation. The 
 purpose of a life is dissipated, and a new illustration is given to the preacher's 
 moral, " Panitas vanitatis est omnia vanitas.'" Undoubtedly, he who col- 
 lects treasures of art in the way Lord North wick did, and gives the public 
 the benefit of them during his life, does a great service in his day and gene- 
 ration ; but it is impossible not to remember how much greater a service 
 he renders who not only forms a collection but provides for its perpetuity. 
 In the next place, see the duty of making a Will. These collections are 
 dispersed because they form a portion of the personalty of the deceased, and 
 there being no instructions as to their disposal, there is no choice but to sell 
 them, and appropriate their proceeds among the heirs-at-law. Next to the 
 mischief of making an unfair Will is that of making none at all. Had 
 Lord Northwick ordered by Will the sale of his pictures, however dis- 
 appointed the world might have been, it would have been felt that he had 
 a right to do as he liked. But dying intestate, the sale follows as a matter 
 of course, and the results of a long life and large fortune devoted to works 
 of art are just nowhere. A gallery of pictures left to a family or to the 
 public is an offering at the shrine of art ; but, sold by auction, and dis- 
 persed among innumerable private purchasers, is sheer vanity and labour 
 lost. 
 
 Don't make your own Will*. 
 
 Lord St. Leonards, in his Handy- Book of Property Lanv, says: 
 " I am somewhat unwilling to give you any instructions for making 
 your Will, without the assistance of your professional adviser ; 
 and I would particularly warn you against the use of printed 
 forms, which have misled many men. They are as dangerous as 
 the country schoolmaster or the vestry-clerk. It is quite shock- 
 ing to reflect upon the litigation which has been occasioned by 
 men making their own Wills or employing incompetent persons to 
 do so. To save a few guineas in their lifetime, men leave behind 
 them a Will which it may cost hundreds of pounds to have ex- 
 pounded by the courts before the various claimants will desist 
 from litigation. Looking at this as a simple money transaction, 
 lawyers might well be in despair if every man's Will were prepared 
 by a competent person. To put off making your Will until the 
 hand of death is upon you, evinces either cowardice or a shameful 
 neglect of your temporal concerns. Lest, however, such a mo- 
 ment should arrive, I must arm you in some measure against it 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 135 
 
 a If you wish to tie up your property in your family you really 
 must not make your own will. It were better to die without a 
 will, than to make one which will waste your estate in litigation 
 to discover its meaning. The words " children," " issue," " heirs 
 of the body," or u heirs," sometimes operate to give the parent 
 the entire disposition of the estate, although the testator did not 
 mean any such thing. They are seldom used by a man who 
 makes his own will without leading to a lawsuit. And now an 
 operation has been given to like words by the new statute, which 
 I could not explain to you without you possessed more know- 
 ledge of law than I give you credit for. It were useless for me 
 to show how to make a strict settlement of your property, and 
 therefore I will not try. I could, without difficulty, run over the 
 names of many judges and lawyers of note, whose wills made by 
 themselves have been set aside, or construed so as to defeat every 
 intention which they ever had. It is not even a profound know- 
 ledge of law which will capacitate a man to make his own will, 
 unless he has been in the habit of making the wills of others. 
 Besides, notwithstanding that fees are purely honorary, yet it is 
 almost proverbial that a lawyer never does anything well for which 
 he is not fee'd, Lord Mansfield told a story of himself, that feel- 
 ing this influence, he once, when about to attend on some profes- 
 sional business of his own, took several guineas out of his purse 
 and put them into his waistcoat pocket, as a fee for his labour." 
 
 Bridewell. 
 
 This name, from a well dedicated to St. Bridget, or St. Bride, 
 between Fleet-street and the Thames, was given to a palace built 
 there, and which, soon after, became a House of Correction, in 
 the reign of Queen Mary. Hence, places of confinement in other 
 parts, in which employment and penitentiary amendment were 
 leading objects, were called Bridewells. 
 
 The greater part of the City of London Bridewell was taken down in 
 1863; committals are now made to the City prison at Hollowly, but re- 
 fractory City apprentices are still committed to Bridewell by the Chamber- 
 lain, this jurisdiction being preserved by the Court of Chancery. The 
 number of committals rarely exceeds 25 annually ; nevertheless the power 
 of committal which the present Chamberlain has most praisevvorthily as- 
 serted and successfully maintains, acts as a terror to evil-doers, and keeps 
 in restraint 3000 of these lads of the City. 
 
 By a document lately discovered in the State-Paper Office, it appears 
 that in the Bridewell of London were imprisoned the members of the 
 Congregational Church first formed after the accession of Elizabeth } they 
 were committed to the custody of the gaoler, May 20, 1567. 
 
136 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Cockfighting. 
 
 British cocks are mentioned by Cxsar ; but the first notice of 
 English cockfighting is by Fitzstephen, in the reign of Henry II.; 
 and it was a fashionable sport from temp. Edward 1 1 1. almost to our 
 time. Henry VIII. added a cockpit to Whitehall Palace, where 
 James I. went to see the sport twice a week. There were also 
 cockpits in Drury-lane, Shoe-lane, Jewin-street, Cripplegate, and 
 " behind Gray's Inn ;" and several lanes, courts, and alleys are 
 named from having been the sites of cockpits. The original name 
 of the pit in our theatres was the cock-pit, which seems to imply 
 that cockfighting had been their original destination. One of our 
 oldest London theatres was called the Cockpit; this was the 
 Phoenix in Drury-lane, the site ot which was Cockpit-alley, now 
 corruptly written Pitt-place. Southwark has several cockpit 
 sites. The cockpit in. St. James's-park, leading from Birdcage- 
 walk into Dart mouth -street, was only taken down in 1816, but 
 had been deserted long before. Howell, in 1657, described 
 " cockfighting, a sport peculiar to the English, and so is bear and 
 bull baitings, there being not such dangerous dogs and cocks 
 anywhere." Hogarth's print best illustrates the brutal refine- 
 ment of the cockfighting of the last century; and Cowper's 
 " Cockfighter's Garland," greatly tended to keep down this 
 modem barbarism, which is punishable by statute. It was, not 
 many years since, greatly indulged in through Staffordshire ; and 
 " Wednesbury (Wedgbury) cockings" and their ribald songs 
 were a disgrace to our times. 
 
 Cockfighting was, in fact, the great national amusement, par- 
 ticularly in the north of England, and Berwick-upon-Tweed was 
 among the places most celebrated for it. Some ninety years ago, 
 in the north of England, when a cockfighting was about to take 
 place, the parties were in want of an adept in putting on the spurs : 
 a person present was recognised by an acquaintance, who ex- 
 claimed, " Here comes a Berwick man ; he knows how to do 
 it." Cockfighting is now legally a misdemeanor ; and on the 
 1,5th of April, 1857, at the Liverpool Police Court, James 
 Clark, a publican,' in Houghton- street, was fined 5/. and costs 
 for permitting cockfighting in his house. 
 
 In the autumn of 1862, several persons were convicted by the 
 magistrates at Barnsley, for cockfighting, under the Act, which 
 inflicts a fine on any one assisting at a cockfight, in a place used 
 for the purpose. This is an absurd condition, and is a blunder of 
 the Act-framer. Now, the place used for the purpose of thisfgbt 
 was an old quarry j but the magistrates held that any place where 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 137 
 
 a cockfight took place was a place used for the purpose, the fact 
 of the fight being the evidence of the use. The case came by 
 appeal before the Court of Queen's Bench, when the Judges de- 
 cided, in accordance with a ruled case, there must be some evi- 
 dence of general use, if on a piece of waste ground, and that one 
 act would only prove the use when it was a place over which a 
 man had some control. The judgment was therefore reversed. 
 At Bradford, within a few days of this decision, William Speight 
 and J. Holroyd were fined 3/. each for cruelty in having set game- 
 cocks to fight ; twelve other persons, resident in various parts of 
 the Riding, were fined IDS. each. 
 
 On June 24th, 1863, before a bench of magistrates at Lough- 
 borough, the Marquis of Hastings, and three of his gamekeepers, 
 were charged, on behalf of the Society for the Prevention of 
 Cruelty to Animals, with causing a cock to be cruelly tortured. 
 It was proved in evidence that three weeks before, the Marquis of 
 Hastings had " some good cockfighting" at Donington Hall, on 
 a Sunday ! They fought six pairs of cocks, six cocks were killed, 
 all had steel spurs on, and the Marquis was one of the persons 
 who put the cocks together to fight ; the other persons accused 
 being spectators. Lord Hastings admitted that the fight had 
 taken place, but denied that there had been any cruelty used in 
 the sense of the words of the information. His Lordship was, 
 however, convicted in the penalty of 5/., and his three keepers in 
 2/. each. 
 
 Ignorance and Irresponsibility. 
 
 Sir John Bowring states that he remembers a murder occurring 
 in Ceylon, and on the murderer being brought to trial, it was found 
 utterly impossible to make him comprehend that he had committed 
 any sin whatever in revenging himself upon one by whom he 
 thought he had been injured. The consequence was that the 
 Judge came to the conclusion that the murderer could not be held 
 responsible for his crime. So ignorant was this man that he could 
 not count up to the number of five, losing himself always at three. 
 
 Ticket-of-Leave Men. 
 
 Archbishop Whately, who always handles a practical subject 
 in a masculine way, annihilates the English Ticket-of-leave sys- 
 tem with a single sentence: " What should we think of a right, 
 encouraged by a Secretary of State, to go every day to a mena- 
 gerie and let out by mere rotation one animal from a cage without 
 inquiring whether he released a monkey or a tiger ?" The Arch- 
 
138 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 bishop proposes that all sentences beyond fifteen years should be 
 irreversible, except by an Act of Parliament, specifying the names, 
 offences, and previous committals of the prisoners pardoned. 
 
 Cupar and Jedburgh Justice. 
 
 It is an odd circumstance that Lord Campbell, to whom both 
 as judge and legislator the law of England owes so much, was 
 born at a place which gives its name, " Cupar justice," to the 
 peculiar system of law which hangs a man first and tries him after- 
 wards ; and that he had his country residence (Hartrigge-house, 
 Roxburghshire) in the neighbourhood of another town which gave 
 the name of " Jedburgh justice" to an equally summary code, the 
 great principle of wh.ch is, " Hang all or save all." 
 
 What is to be done with our Convicts. 
 
 Transportation having had a fair and patient trial, and having 
 altogether failed as a punishment, and having no colony fitted and 
 willing to receive the sweepings of our gaols, the alternative to 
 which we are compelled is to keep our convicts at home, and to 
 make the best of them, by making them self-supporting. Or, in 
 the forcible words of the late Mr. Charles Pearson, City Solicitor: 
 
 If the honest millions, as they pass through life, can, and do, during 
 what is recognised as the producing age, not only provide for their own 
 wants, but create a large surplus, by which the non-producing classes are 
 supported and the institutions of society are maintained, it surely ought not 
 to be endured that any portion of the same race and of the producing age 
 should be permitted to renounce their allegiance to the funda- 
 mental law of their existence, and declare in practice, that by the sweat of 
 the face of other men, they will eat of earth's choicest fruits. 
 
 The only rational, merciful, and effectual corrective of such offenders 
 agiinst all laws, human and divine, is to classify and place them in secure 
 prisons, surrounded by lofty and substantial walls j to subject them, week by 
 week, to seventy, or at least sixty, hours of useful and profitable work j to 
 allow them sixty, or at most seventy, hours for food, rest, cleanliness, and 
 their other bodily requirements j to give them twenty-eight hours with 
 means and opportunities for mental and spiritual instruction, and for the 
 
 public and private worship of God If any Government, having 
 
 thus placed at its disposal annually the hundred millions of hours of confis- 
 cated labour, which 30,000 criminals would yield, cannot make the class 
 not only self-supporting, but productive of a surplus for the future benefit 
 of those who produce it, such a Government would be pronounced by men 
 of business unfit to be at the head of a great manufacturing and commercial 
 people. 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 339 
 
 ^he Game Laws. 
 
 In 1834, Mr. Henry Warburton, in Parliament, denounced the 
 Game Laws as they then existed, in this remarkable illustra- 
 tion : " I have read in Mariner's account of the Tonga islands, 
 that there the rats were preserved as game ; and, though every- 
 body might eat rats, nobody was allowed to kill them but some- 
 body descended from their gods or their kings. This is the only 
 country and the only case I know of which furnishes anything like 
 a parallel to our game laws." 
 
 The Pillory. 
 
 The Pillory (Fr. pilori, probably from Lat. pi/a, a pillar) was 
 a mode of punishment by a public exposure of the offender long 
 used in most countries of Europe. No punishment has been 
 inflicted in so many different ways as that or the pillory. Some- 
 times the machine was constructed so that several criminals might 
 be pilloried at the same time ; but it was commonly capable of 
 holding but one at once. Francis Douce, in his Illustrations of 
 Sba&espeare, vol. i., p. 146, gives six representations of distinct 
 varieties of this instrument. These varieties are all reducible, 
 however, to the simplest form of the pillory. It consisted of a 
 wooden frame or screen raised on a pillar or post several feet from 
 the ground, and behind which the culprit stood supported on a 
 platform, his head and hands being thrust through holes in the 
 screen, so as to be exposed in front. This screen, in the more 
 complicated forms of the instrument, consisted of a perforated 
 iron circle or carcan (hence the name given to the pillory in 
 French), which secured the hands and heads of several persons at 
 the same time. 
 
 The Pillory seems to have existed in England before the Con- 
 quest, in the shape of the stretchneck, in which the head only of 
 the criminal was confined j but it was usually constructed for 
 the head and hands. It was used for punishing all sorts of 
 cheats ; as, bakers for making bread of light weight ; fraudulent 
 corn, coal, and cattle dealers; cutters of purses; sellers of sham 
 gold rings ; forgers of letters, bonds, and deeds ; users of un- 
 stamped measures, &c. It was also a Star Chamber punishment; 
 and from the time of Titus Gates to its abolition, the pillory was 
 a common punishment for perjury. The usual places where the pil- 
 lory was pitched were the Royal Exchange, the Old Bailey, Temple 
 Bar, Lincoln's-Inn Fields, Charing Cross, New Palace Yard, and 
 Tyburn. About the year 1812, the writer remembers to have 
 seen four men in the p.llory, at the north end of Fleet-market 
 
140 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 (Holborn-bridge). The last person who stood in the pillory in 
 London, was Peter James Bossy, for perjury, in the Old Bailey, 
 June 23, 1830. A pillory is still standing at Coleshill, in War- 
 wickshire ; and in an unused chancel of Rye church, Sussex, is a 
 pillory, last used in 1813. The pillory was abolished in Great 
 Britain in 1837, by stat. i Viet., c. 23 ; and in France in 1832. 
 
 Death- Warrants. Pardons. 
 
 Although we occasionally read in the public journals of 
 the issue of the usual Death-warrant for the execution of a 
 criminal, there is (except in the case of a peer of the realm) no 
 such thing as a death-warrant ever signed by the Crown or by 
 any one or more of the officers of the Grown; the only authority 
 for the execution of a criminal convicted of a capital crime being 
 the verbal sentence pronounced upon him in open court, which 
 sentence the Sheriff is bound to take cognizance of and execute 
 without any further authority. It is true that a written calendar 
 of the offences and punishments of the prisoners is made out and 
 signed by the Judge, of which a copy is delivered to the Sheriff ; 
 but this is only a memorandum and not an official document, and 
 it is optional with the Judge to sign it or not. 
 
 The false notion of there being such a document as a Death- 
 warrant for the execution of a criminal has been fostered to our 
 own time by the frequent reference of writers ot note to its ex- 
 istence. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall says of Dr. Dodd's case in 
 
 I 777 
 
 " / have beard Lord Sackville recount the circumstances that 
 took place in the council held on the occasion, at which the King 
 assisted. To the firmness of the Lord Chief- Justice, Dodd's exe- 
 cution was due : for, no sooner had he pronounced his decided 
 opinion that no mercy ought to be extended, than the King, 
 taking up the pen, signed the death-warrant." 
 
 This is flatly contradicted in the Quarterly Review, No. 57, 
 as follows: Lord Sackville never could have told him any such 
 thing the King never signs any death-warrant his pleasure on 
 the Recorder's report is in ordinary cases verbally, and in fatal 
 cases silently, signified and it is always guided by the opinion of 
 the legal members of the Privy Council. 
 
 This popular error of the Death-warrant is fully explained, 
 from an accredited legal source, in Things not generally known, 
 First Series, p. 172. 
 
 It is erroneously supposed that the Sovereign can save a life 
 that has been declared forfeit by the law ; but the Sovereign's 
 sign-manual to a pardon is ot no effect unless it be countersigned 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 
 
 (that is, sanctioned) by a responsible minister. y. Doran, F.S.A.; 
 Last journals of Horace Walpole, vol. i. 
 
 Origin of the Judge's Black Cap. 
 
 The practice of our Judges in putting on a Black Cap when 
 they condemn a criminal to death will be found, on consideration, 
 to have a deep and sad significance. Covering the head was in 
 ancient days a sign of mourning. " Haman hastened to his house, 
 mourning and having his head covered." (Esther vi. 12). In 
 like manner Demosthenes, when insulted by the populace, went 
 home with his head covered. " And David . . . wept as he went 
 up, and had his head covered ; . . . and all the people that was 
 with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as 
 they went up." (2 S imuel xv. ~o.) Darius, too, covered his head 
 on learning the death of his Queen. But among ourselves we 
 find traces of a similar mode of expressing grief at funerals. The 
 mourners had the hood " drawn forward over the head." (Fos- 
 broke, Encyc. of Antiq.^ p. 95 1 ). Indeed, the hood drawn forward 
 thus over the head is still part of the mourning habiliment of 
 women when they follow the corpse. And w.th this it should be 
 borne in mind that, as far back as the time of Chaucer, the most 
 usual colour of mourning was black. Atropos also, who held the 
 fatal scissors which cut short the life of man, was clothed in black. 
 When, therefore, the Judge puts on the black cap, it is a very 
 significant as well as solemn procedure. He puts on mourning, 
 for he is about to pronounce the forfeit of a life. And, accord- 
 ingly, the act itself, the putting on ot the black cap, is generally 
 understood to be Significant. It intimates that the Judge is about 
 to pronounce no merely registered or supposition sentence ; in 
 the very formula of condemnation he has put himself in mourning 
 for the convicted culprit, as for a dead man. The criminal is then 
 left for execution, and, unless mercy exerts its sovereign preroga- 
 tive, suffers the sentence of the law. The mourning cap expressly 
 indicates his doom. Notes and Queries. 
 
 The last English Gibbet. 
 
 In March, 1856, the last Gibbet erected in England was demo- 
 lished by the workmen employed by the contractors making docks 
 for the North-Eastern Railway Company upon the Tyne. The 
 person who was gibbeted at that place was a pitman, convicted 
 at the Durham Midsummer Assizes of 1832. So great was the 
 horror and disgust of all parties with the sight of the body of the 
 poor wretch dangling in chains by the side of a public road, that 
 
142 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 great gratitude was expressed when the pitmen took it down one 
 dark night. It is a gratifying fact, showing the progress of civi- 
 lization among the mining population, that, though there have 
 been several strikes among them since 1832, none of those strikes 
 have been marked by a repetition of the fearful acts ot violence of 
 that year. At one of the great meetings of pitmen held in the 
 spring of 1832 the Marquis of Londonderry attended on horse- 
 back to remonstrate with them. But he had a company of soldiers 
 with him, which were hiding in the valley. This was known to 
 the pitmen, and the pitman that held his horse's head as he spoke 
 had a loaded pistol up his sleeve, in case the Marquis should wave 
 the soldiers to come up, to blow the Marquis's brains out. For- 
 tunately, the good feeling and kind heart of the nobleman pre- 
 vailed, and that emergency did not arise. 
 
 Public Executions. 
 
 It is the grossest and most illogical of assumptions to conclude, 
 without a particle of attempted proof, that Public Executions 
 produce only brutalizing effects upon the spectators. It is just 
 as fair to assume that their results even on the spectators are 
 edifying. But these results are only remote and indirect, and 
 comparatively unimportant. Public executions are to be justified 
 on other grounds than their effects on bystanders. They are 
 designed not only to prevent possible murder but to avenge 
 actual murder. They are great retributive acts ; they represent 
 and embody the last and most solemn and weightiest impersona- 
 tion of Eternal Justice. An execution is retaliatory, and is to be 
 defended as such. As we no longer hang men for other crimes 
 than that of murder, life for life becomes a social necessity. Any 
 other punishment than that of death is incommensurate with the 
 crime ; and we cannot afford to place the sanctity of human life 
 and the safety of our spoons under the same sanctions. Saturday 
 
 On the other hand, it is maintained that executions ought never 
 to be made a spectacle for the multitude, who, if they can bear 
 the sight, always regard it as a pastime ; nor for the curiosity of 
 those who shudder while they gratify it. 
 
 In neither of these views is the effect of a public execution upon 
 the criminal taken into account. This effect, as instanced at the 
 execution of the Mannings for murder, in 1849, was thus forcibly 
 urged by Sir Francis Head : 
 
 The merciful object of every punishment which the law inflicts, is not 
 so much to revenge the past crime as to prevent its recurrence. Now, 
 Mrs. Manning's last moments clearly explain, or rather indisputably prove, 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 143 
 
 the benefit which society practically derives from a public execution. She 
 had courage enough as she sat smiling by his side to plan the murder of 
 "her best friend ;" to dig his grave ; to prepare vitriol and lime to burn 
 his body; to blow his brains out; to bury him in her own kitchen. She 
 had resolution enough almost before he was cold to go to his lodgings 
 to obtain his property. Her self-possession before the police authorities at 
 Edinburgh was unexampled ; her hardness of heart on her trial, as well as 
 in prison, most extraordinary. And yet this bold, courageous woman, who 
 after the murder, and with her hands stained with blood, had said to her 
 husband, " I think no more of what I have done than if I had shot the 
 cat that is on the wall!" afterwards triumphantly adding, "I have the 
 nerve of a horse !" did not dare to face the indescribable terrors of a public 
 execution ! She did not fear death in private ; on the contrary, she almost 
 succeeded in gradually, with her own hands, strangling herself; but her 
 obdurate heart quailed at the idea of beholding in fearful array before her, 
 the uplifted horrid faces of the London mob ; and accordingly, as her last 
 act, "she drew from her pocket a black silk handkerchief, requested that 
 she might be blindfolded with it ; and, having a black silk veil fastened 
 over her head, so as completely to conceal her features from public gaze, 
 she was conducted in slow and solemn procession towards the drop;" and 
 as for a few fleeting moments she stood with bandaged eyes beneath the 
 gibbet, how unanswerably did the picture mutely expound the terror which 
 the wicked very naturally have of being publicly hanged before the scum 
 and refuse of society ! " The whistlings the imitations of Punch the 
 brutal jokes and indecent delight of the thieves, low prostitutes, ruffians, 
 and vagabonds," so graphically described by Mr. Charles Dickens, were 
 by her own showing not only the most fearful portion of her sentence, 
 but, under Providence, these coarse ingredients may possibly have effected 
 that momentary repentance which the mild but fervent exhortations of the 
 chaplain had failed to produce. 
 
 Many men, neither sentimental nor enthusiastic, nor even phi- 
 lanthropists, however, conclude that though public executions 
 under the present system are deterring, to a certain extent, yet they 
 are exceedingly brutalizing and calculated to harden and deprave 
 the spectators. Sir George Bowyer, M.P., has said : 
 
 The problem remains unsolved how the terror of capital punishments is 
 to be purified from the abominable accessories and consequences which 
 Dickens and Thackeray have so vividly and usefully described. I am not 
 one of th'jse who think that capital punishments are either unlawful or 
 inexpedient. The passage in Holy Writ which says that the civil ruler 
 beats the sword to be a terror to evil-doers, points out with infallible 
 authority both the lawfulness and the use of the extreme penalty. But 
 still I must admit that this dreadful prerogative of Sovereignty the power 
 of life and death may be, and is in this country, exercised in such a way, 
 thut one might almost doubt whether the moral pestilence which it spreads 
 did not counterbalance the security that it affords to society. 
 
 The Committee of the House of Lords on Capital Punishment were so 
 convinced or the evil effects of the present mode or carrying into effec 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 capital punishments, that they recommended that executions should in 
 future take place within the prison, and in the presence only of official and 
 selected witnesses. But this opinion does not solve the difficulty. Mr. 
 George Augustus Sala truly says that private executions would not be 
 tolerated in the present state of society. Besides, certainly the terror pro- 
 duced by the sight of death cannot be equalled by the sound of a bell or 
 the hoisting of a black flag, which the Lords' Committee propose ; and 
 these forms would soon lose any impressiveness. The sight of death is, 
 indeed, most awful to human nature : 
 
 " - O sight 
 Of terror, foul and ugly to behold, 
 Horrid to think how horrible to feel !" 
 
 The knowledge that a criminal had been put to death would no doubt be 
 less terrible to the criminal and dangerous population if they were prevented 
 from seeing the execution. If the plan of private executions be rejecceJ, 
 what can be done to give a character to public executions more wholesome 
 than that justly condemned by the committee ? 
 
 The cold, business-like formality of a public execution is then referred 
 to : beyond a glimpse of the chaplain's surplice there is nothing to remind 
 the spectators of the awful and sacred character with which the Christian 
 religion invests death. The people see a man strangled, and that is all.- 
 
 Archdeacon Bickersteth evidently felt this when he said before the 
 Lords' Committee, " I would suggest that the churches might be opened. 
 There might be a service at the time, and perhaps a prayer for 
 the criminal." This is a very pregnant hint. At the execution of three 
 men at Dundalk a few years ago, when the criminals came on the scaffold, 
 all the people knelt and prayed for them at the request of the priest. 
 Those who were there describe the scene as most solemn and honourable 
 to the Irish character. The prisoners confessed their guilt and declared 
 their penitence. An account describing a late execution for murder at 
 Ancona, says that the prisoner knelt on the scaffold and repeated the 
 Litany, the crowd making the reponses. A friend of mine who was at an 
 execution for murder in Rome, told me that the thousands of spectators 
 round the scaffold recited the Mtsertre and De Profundh in a loud voice. 
 How different this is from " levity, jeering, laughing, hooting, whistling, 
 low jesting, and indecent ribaldry" described before the Committee! This 
 contrast surely suggests that the people in England should be better taught 
 than they are, and that it is by religious influences that executions can be 
 purified from their abominable and loathsome effects. The people should 
 be made to feel that they are, so to speak, attending a death-bed scene of 
 the most frightful and appalling kind, and not the mere slaughter of a 
 biped without feathers. 
 
 Sir George Bowyer then relates how the problem is solved in 
 Italy, where, in every city is a religious society of laymen, called 
 " the Confraternity of Death," or of Mercy, whose duty it is to 
 attend criminals before and at their execution : 
 
 The exposition of the blessed sacrament for the forty hours' prayer 
 
CHANGES IN LAWS. 145 
 
 commences in the churches, and the people attend in great numbers 
 during the whole day, and even sometimes during the night. The 
 prisoner is taken to the place of execution (usually outside the town) in the 
 following manner: First the great black cross and banner of the Confra- 
 ternity is seen slowly advancing, followed by the members walking two 
 and two in their black cassocks and their hoods over their faces, with 
 apertures for their eyes. As they proceed along the streets they recite the 
 Penitential Psalms aloud. They are followed by the litter for the dead 
 body, carried by four of their number j and then comes the convict, assisted 
 by the clergy and brethren. At the scaffold the Confraternity stand round 
 and continue their devotions until the prisoner is dead, and then they 
 remove the body in the same funeral procession. 
 
 These facts, it must be admitted, are very suggestive ; but, how 
 far such ceremonies are adapted for a Protestant country is ex- 
 tremely questionable. 
 
 That experienced judge, Baron Alderson, in his answers given 
 to a Committee of the House of Commons, looked on the deter- 
 ring effect of punishment, such as it was, as more indispensable 
 than the reforming: 
 
 " It is desirable I do not know whether it is the duty of the 
 State to make all criminals better if possible ; but I think this 
 object is to be held subservient to that of preventing crime by the 
 example of punishment ; and on no other principle that I can 
 perceive is it possible to defend capital punishments, which can 
 hardly be said to have any tendency to make the individual 
 criminals better, though I think they have a strong effect in 
 repressing crime." 
 
 The latest evidence upon the subject is that in September, 
 1863, the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, hold- 
 ing its second session at Ghent, discussed at great length the sub- 
 ject of punishment of death. The abolition was finally voted by 
 a great majority. In the course of the debate a member read a 
 list of 167 convicts sentenced to death, of whom 161 had been 
 present at capital executions ; and he concluded from this fact, 
 that the witnessing capital punishment is not efficacious in the 
 suppression of crime. 
 
146 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Numbers descriptive of Distance. 
 
 BEFORE the introduction of railways we scarcely possessed any 
 standard by which an idea could be formed of the distances and 
 movements of the planets by comparison with those which exist 
 on the terrestrial globe. Thus, the mean distance of the moon 
 trom the earth is about 237,000 miles. A steam-carriage on a 
 railway, proceeding uninterruptedly, at the rate of 25 miles an 
 hour, would run 237,000 miles in i year, 4 weeks, and 2 days. 
 This falls within the limits of our conception. We may imagine 
 something analogous to this, supposing a carriage, or rather 
 a succession of carriages, to be kept constantly at work for 
 rat'.ier more than two years, and working 12 hours per day. 
 But our powers of imagination fail us in estimating a distance 
 equal to that of the earth from the sun, namely, ninety -Jive 
 millions of miles.* Our steam-carriage illustration is here no longer 
 available, since it falls far beyond the boundaries of probability. 
 Proceeding uninterruptedly at twenty-five miles an hour, it would 
 require 433 years to move over a space equal to ninety-five 
 millions of miles. Dr. Lardner. 
 
 Precocious Mental Calculation. 
 
 A rare exceptional instance of this faculty being cultivated and 
 matured for a highly-useful purpose, is presented in the case of 
 Mr. Bidder, the eminent civil engineer, known in his childhood as 
 " the Calculating Boy." (See a portrait in the Boys Own Book.) 
 
 George Parkes Bidder, when six years old, used to amuse him- 
 self by counting up to TOO, then to 1000, then to 1,000,000: by 
 degrees, he accustomed himself to contemplate the relations of 
 high numbers, and used to build up peas, marbles, and shot, into 
 squares, cubes, and other regular figures. He invented processes 
 of his own, distinct from those given in books of arithmetic, and 
 could solve all the usual questions mentally more rapidly than 
 other boys with the aid of pen and paper. When he became 
 eminent as a civil engineer, he was wont to embarrass and baffle 
 the parliamentary counsel on contested railway bills, by confuting 
 their statements of figures almost before the words were out of 
 
 * It is now shown to be 91,328,600 miles. 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 147 
 
 their mouths. In 1856, he gave to the Institution of Civil Engi- 
 neers an interesting account of this singular arithmetical faculty 
 so far, at least, as to show that memory has less to do with it 
 than is generally supposed : the processes are actually worked out 
 seriatim, but with a rapidity almost inconceivable. They are 
 accomplished mentally by occupying the mind simultaneously 
 with the double task of computing and registering. The first 
 computing is executive, or reasoning, and is that portion of the 
 process, which, whilst it is the most active, is not that which 
 causes the greatest strain upon the mind. The result is recorded 
 by the second faculty, registering, which is the real strain upon 
 the mind, and that by which alone the power of Mental Calcu- 
 lation is limited. 
 
 Experience has shown that, up to a certain point, the power of 
 registering is as rapid as thought j but the difficulty increases, in 
 a very high ratio, in reference to the number and extent of im- 
 pressions to be registered, until a point is reached,, the registering 
 of which, in the mind and by writing, are exactly balanced. 
 Below that point, mental registration is preferable ; above it ? that 
 by writing will be as quick, and more certain. 
 
 All the rules employed by Mr. Bidder were invented by him, 
 and are only methods of so arranging calculation as to facilitate 
 the power of registration: in fact, he thus arrives at a sort of 
 natural algebra, using actual numbers in the place of symbols. 
 When he first began to deal with numbers (in his 6th year), he 
 had not learned to read, and certainly long after that time he was 
 taught the symbolical numbers from the face of a watch. 
 
 A brief outline of Mr. Bidder's method is given in the Tear- 
 Book of Facts, 1857, pp. 149-152. The paper, in extenso, has 
 been edited and 'published by Mr. Charles Manby, F.R.S., 
 Honorary Secretary to the Institution of Civil Engineers. 
 
 The Roman Foot. 
 
 The late celebrated architect and antiquary, Luigi Canina? 
 made a great number of inquiries as to the length of the ancient 
 Roman foot. He measured very carefully the Antonine and 
 Trajan columns, and found them (exclusive of their pedestals and 
 some pieces let in to repair them) exactly alike. This height, 
 which was known to have been 100 Roman feet, was measured 
 with extreme care by means of rods of wood carefully dried, and 
 found to be exactly 29*635 French metres. Measuring chains 
 were then constructed of this length, and the Roman miles (mille 
 passuum) carefully measured down the Appian Way as far as the 
 twelfth mile, and were found to correspond with the traditional! 
 
 L 2 
 
148 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 sites of the milestones. The great length of these measurements 
 being such an extensive check, their accuracy was at once 
 accepted by the Roman archaeologists as the best authority 
 known. This would make the ancient Roman foot 11*66753 
 English inches ; and the mile 4861-41 English feet; being about 
 one-eleventh less than our English mile of 5280 feet. For rough 
 reckoning the antiquary may deduct one-eleventh from Roman 
 miles to bring them into English ; or may add one-tenth to 
 English miles to bring them into Roman ; the ratio being 10 : 1 1, 
 but inversely. There is a common error in supposing the Roman 
 mile, or mille passuum, was 1000 paces, or single steps. This is 
 not the case : the military passus consisted of two steps (gressus), 
 or about 5 feet Roman. Notes and Queries* 
 
 The Peruvian Quipus. 
 
 The well-known contrivance of the Quipus, or method of 
 counting and even recording events by means of cords, was 
 equally ingenious and original. The quipus of the Peruvians 
 were of twisted wool, and consisted of a thick cord, with threads 
 more or less fine, attached to the main part. The smaller lines 
 were covered with knots, either single or double. The size of 
 the quipus varies much, sometimes the main cord being five or six 
 yards long, and at others not more than a foot ; the branches 
 rarely exceeding a yard in length, and being sometimes shorter. 
 In the neighbourhood of Lurin, on the coast of Peru, a quipu 
 was found which weighed twelve pounds. The different colours 
 of the threads had different meanings : thus, the red signified a 
 soldier, or war ; the yellow gold ; the white, silver, or peace, c. 
 In the system of arithmetic, a single knot signified 10, two single 
 knots 20, a double knot 100, a triple knot 1000, and so on to 
 higher numbers. But not only the colour and mode of combin- 
 ing the knots, but also the laying-up of the strands of the cord, 
 and the distances of the threads apart, were of great importance 
 in reading the quipus. It is probable that in the earliest times 
 this ingenious contrivance was merely used for enumeration, as 
 the shepherd notches the number of his sheep on a stick ; but in 
 the course of time the science was so much improved that the 
 initiated were able to knot historical records, laws, and decrees, 
 so that the great events of the empire were transmitted to posterity; 
 and, to some extent, the quipus supplied the place of chronicles 
 and national archives. The registry of tributes, the census of 
 populations, the lists of arms, of soldiers, and of stores, the sup- 
 plies of maize, clothes, shoes, c., in the storehouses, were all 
 specified with admirable exactness by the quipus ; and in every 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 149 
 
 
 
 town of any importance, there was an officer, called the quipu 
 camayoc, to knot and decipher these documents. Markhams 
 Visit to Peru. 
 
 Distances measured. 
 
 Many people hear of distances in thousands of yards a usual 
 measure of artillery distances and have very little power of 
 reducing them at once to miles. Now, tour miles are ten yards 
 for each mile above 7000 yards, whence the following rule : the 
 number of thousands multiplied by 4 and divided by 7 give miles 
 and sevenths for quotient and remainder, with only at the rate of 
 ten yards to a mile in excess. Thus 1 2,000 yards is 48 7ths of a 
 mile, or 6 miles and 6 7ths of a mile: not 70 yards too great. 
 Again, people measure speed by miles per hour, the mile and the 
 hour being too long for the judgment of distance and time. Take 
 half as much again as the number of miles per hour, and you 
 have the number of feet per second, too great by one in 30. Thus 
 1 6 miles an hour is 16 -f- 8, or 24 feet per second, too much by 
 24-30ths of a foot. Athenaeum, No. 1854. 
 
 Uniformity of Weights and Measures. 
 
 A collection of the Weights and Measures of the various 
 countries of the world, made, under the auspices of the Inter- 
 national Association, for obtaining a uniform Decimal System of 
 Measures, Weights, and Coins, was among the curiosities of the 
 International Exhibition of 1862. Few persons are perhaps 
 aware of the extraordinary diversities in weights and measures, 
 and in their use, which exist in our own country. The price or 
 corn, for instance, will be quoted in at least fifteen different ways 
 in as many different localities; at so much per ctwt., per barrel, 
 per quarter, per bushel, per load, per bag, per weight, per boll, per 
 coomb, per hobbet, per winch, per Dwindle, per strike, per measure, 
 per stone. The word bushel is in some places used for a measure, 
 in others for a weight, and this weight is by no means the same 
 in all places. In different English towns the bushel means 
 168 Ibs., 73^ Ibs., 62 Ibs., 80 Ibs., 75 Ibs., 72 Ibs., 70 Ibs., 65 Ibs., 
 64 Ibs., 63 Ibs., 5 quarters, 144 quarts, 488 Ibs., and in Man- 
 chester, while a bushel of English wheat is 60 Ibs., a bushel of 
 American wheat is 70 Ibs. The meaning of a stone is almost 
 equally various. An acre of land expresses seven different quan- 
 tities. These variations in measurement must be highly incon- 
 venient, and prejudicial to trade ; and the labours of the above- 
 named Association are directed to bringing about a uniformity, 
 which seems greatly called for. The metrical system employed 
 
250 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 in France is that which is advocated. This has been already 
 established in Belgium, Holland, Sardinia, Lombardy, Greece, 
 Spain, Portugal, and many other parts of the world. Great Bri- 
 tain and the American States still adhere to their old systems. 
 
 Trinity High-water Mark. 
 
 Trinity High-water Mark is placed in various parts of London, 
 as described in the Register of Tides in the River Thames, printed 
 by order of the Honourable Court of Commissioners, of the 26th 
 of October, 1 849 ; and every bench-mark in London is shown in 
 feet and decimals of feet above an oblate spheroidal datum plane, 
 decreasing in radii towards the north pole from the centre of 
 gravity between the parallels of latitude at London and Liverpool, 
 about 2*02 feet, or 24^ inches, which is evidently worthy of con- 
 sideration, at a rate of 2 feet to the mile in 40 miles of sewer. 
 The difference at Liverpool is also given in the aforesaid Report ; 
 and this may prove of public utility if reported on by the engineer 
 employed in the levelling of the main drainage of London. The 
 Ravensbourne drainage is a specimen of such levelling. The ap- 
 proximate mean water at Liverpool is 12^ feet below the level of 
 Trinity High- Water at London, as described identical with the 
 level of the datum plane of the Ordnance survey of London, which 
 is also 12! feet below the level of Trinity High- Water mark. 
 
 Origin of Rent. 
 
 The want of intelligent workmen, without the concurrence of 
 other causes, might have destroyed the old English predial polity, 
 if that system had not failed through its own nature ; having been 
 essentially rude and awkward and uncommercial. Under the 
 Plantagenets, service could in general be reduced to money at the 
 discretion of the lord or the option of the tenant. The service 
 often cost the tenant more than it was worth he found it cheaper 
 to pay than to work : on the other hand, money must have been 
 at all times welcome to the lord, and he did not at all times re- 
 quire labour. In the course of time agricultural service went out 
 of use altogether, and money was regularly tendered and accepted 
 instead of it : so that the improved rent, as it has been called, now 
 paid by a farmer, appears to be a compound historically con- 
 sidered of the ancient mail or gable, and of a great variety of 
 petty charges, which were originally compensations for tributes of 
 corn, malt, poultry, bacon, and eggs or fines for the non-per- 
 formance of acts of tillage, carriage, porterage, and the like. The 
 elements of rent were recognised in Scotland longer than in Eng- 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 151 
 
 land, because petty charges subsisted in Scotland for some time 
 after they had been abandoned in England. At the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century, David Deans the tough true-blue Pres- 
 byterian fanner still paid " mail duties, kain, arriage, carriage, 
 dry multure, lock, govvpen, and knaveship, and all the various 
 exactions now commuted for money, and summed up in the em- 
 phatic word RENT." Heart of Mid-Lothian, chap. viii. j Law 
 Magazine, N. S., No. 27. 
 
 Curiosities of the Exchequer. 
 
 Mr. Foss, in his Lives of the Judges, tells us that the Court of 
 Exchequer was anciently sometimes called Curia Regis ad Scacca- 
 rium and its name was derived from the table at which it sat, 
 which was " a four-cornered board, about ten feet long arid five 
 feet broad, fitted in manner of a table to sit about, on every side 
 whereof is a standing ledge or border, four fingers broad. Upon 
 this board is laid a cloth bought in Easter Term, which is of black 
 colour, rowed with strokes, distant about a foot or span, like a 
 chess-board. On the spaces of this Scaccarium, or chequered 
 cloth, counters were ranged, with denoting marks, for checking 
 the computations." 
 
 In the old Court of Exchequer, at Westminster, before the 
 coronation of King George IV., might be seen the chequered 
 vloth which covered the table of that Court. This table, at which 
 sat the officers of the Court, and the king's counsel, was ten or 
 twelve feet square, and was covered with a woollen cloth, the 
 groundwork of which was white, with a very dark blue chequered 
 pattern over it ; the dark stripes being about three inches wide, 
 leaving between them white squares of about four inches across. 
 
 Again, the cover on the table of the Exchequer Court in 
 Dublin is composed of a thick woollen substance made in squares 
 of black and white, resembling a chess-board. 
 
 The origin of the word Scaccarium (whence Exchequer) is 
 not certain. Madox, the historical authority upon the subject, 
 considers the most likely derivation to be from Scaccus, or Scaccum, 
 a chess-board, or the ludus Scaccarium, the game of chess. He 
 then refers to the chequered cloth mentioned by Foss ; adding, 
 " from the Latin Scaccarium cometh the French Eschequier, or 
 Exchequier, (Exchiquer,} and the English name from the French. 
 
 Mr. G. A. Sala, in a communication to Notes and Queries, 
 3rd S. No. 8 1, however, traces exchequer to the Italian Zecca, 
 treasury or mint; whence, also, he derives the word cheque; 
 remembering that in old time our goldsmiths were Lombards and 
 Venetians. 
 
152 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 However this may be, the forms by which accounts were kept 
 in the Exchequer, and receipts given for moneys paid by " the 
 King's debtors" in those days, when few persons knew how to 
 write and cipher, and " double entry" was unknown, were strictly 
 observed down to a period scarcely thirty years ago. The rude 
 wooden " tallies" that were prepared as quittances for payment, 
 and stowed away in the Exchequer as entries of receipt, were still 
 maintained in their sham employment until finally abolished by an 
 Act passed in 1834. The officials who superintended, or were 
 supposed to superintend, the operation of cutting, delivering, and 
 keeping the tallies were paid by fees on all receipts ; and as the 
 national revenue augmented their incomes became enormous. A 
 u Tallier," or, as the name became latterly, " Teller," of the 
 Exchequer enjoyed at last an income from his sinecure office of 
 more than 3o,ooo/. per annum. 
 
 The Tally was a slip bf willow-wood, cut to a length propor- 
 tioned to the magnitude of the pecuniary transaction it was in 
 tended to record. Its indications were rendered by notches, 
 which signified various sums, according to their size and shape.* 
 
 When fabricated the instrument indicated this meaning. A large notch 
 of an inch and a half in width signified rooo/. ; a smaller notch, one inch in 
 width, signified ioo/. ; one of half-an-inch signified 2O/. j a notch in the 
 wood slanting to the right signified io/. (in combination this notch was 
 placed before the so/, notch)} small notches signified i/. each j a cut 
 sloping to the right signified los. (in combination placed before the i/. 
 marks) ; slight indentations, or jags, in the wood signified shillings ; strokes 
 with ink on tally signified pence j a round hole, or dot, signified a half- 
 penny j a farthing was written in figures. 
 
 When split in two lengthwise across the notches, each section of the 
 tally, of course, corresponded exactly. One half' was then delivered to the 
 party paying money, as a receipt, and the other kept by the officers of the 
 department, as a check or record of the transaction. On neither side was 
 the slightest value attached to the tally; but down to 1834 no payment 
 could be made into the Exchequer without summoning the officers of thjs 
 Tally, who gravely notched and split the willow wand, and handed over 
 the Exchequer half to be placed in careful custody. The absurdity came to 
 an end in that year ; but by way of farewell ceremony, is reported CD 
 have burnt down the Parliament Houses ; certain furnace flues having become 
 overheated by burning a lumbering mass of Exchequer tallies. Nor was 
 the tally the only idle formality observed when payments were made into 
 the Exchequer. Centuries ago the Royal moneys were actually received 
 and kept in that department j but for a long while past the actual cash has 
 been lodged in the Bank of England, where it is more safely guarded, and 
 more conveniently administered. Nevertheless, every sum received on 
 
 * Abridged (with interpolations) from a communication to the Illus- 
 trated London Ntivs, 1857. 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 153 
 
 Exchequer account was still nominally brought to the Exchequer Office; 
 and for that purpose a Bank clerk regularly attended every day with a 
 bundle of cancelled notes, which were solemnly counted over and checked, 
 and deposited as a precious trust in a massive iron chest secured with three 
 keys, each in the custody of different officers. 
 
 The tally in course of time failed to satisfy the payers of money to Ex- 
 chequer account, and a written quittance became necessary. This also in, 
 its turn grew obsolete in form and language, but was in like manner pre- 
 served in all its antique unintelligibility until the Act of 1834. 
 
 Such was the (t tally'' system of olden time, and, undoubtedly, 
 it in some way is involved in the origination of what is known as 
 the "tally shop" system of to-day. 
 
 Formerly, in the Exchequer business, the collectors and re- 
 ceivers charged with the receipt of public moneys from the tax- 
 payers were required to find sureties for their honesty. These 
 security bonds were valid only for a year, and, therefore, annually 
 renewed, to the great profit of the law and other officers of the 
 Crown. When each collector had duly settled his account, and 
 paid-in all the proper moneys into the Exchequer, for any year, he 
 received back his bond, signifying a discharge from all further 
 liability, and this was called getting his quietus. The practice and 
 the term are now disused, but they evidently constituted the point 
 of Hamlet's allusion : 
 
 When he himself might his quietus make 
 
 With a bare bodkin. 
 
 What becomes of the Public Revenue. 
 
 Of the seventy millions of the Revenue more than one-third is 
 disposed of by the interest of the National Debt, a charge not 
 liable to any important variation. It was less by 89,4 12/. in 1862 
 than in the year before. But the difference is very slight on such 
 a sum as 26,142,6067. The armed force of the country is the 
 next great channel of expenditure. The Army in 1862 absorbed 
 15,570,8697., an increase of 399,0007. over its cost in the previous 
 year. The Navy required 12,598,0427. in the same period, or 
 733,6267. less than in 1861. Together they account for more 
 than 28,ooo,opo7. of the public expenditure. The naval and 
 military operations in China figure in both years of this return, 
 In i86u they drew from the Exchequer 3,043,8967.; and in 1862 
 a further sum of 1,230,0007. The votes of money for fortifications 
 rose suddenly from 50,0007. in 1861 to 970,0007. in 1862. There 
 are small variations, both of reduction and increase, dispersed 
 through an immense number of items, but when the gross sum 
 they absorb is reckoned up, the difference between one year and 
 another is scarcely worth noting. 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Queen Annes Bounty. 
 
 The origin of this revenue, which is considered to effect little 
 compared with what might be accomplished under improved 
 management, is as follows. We know that in olden times the 
 Romish Pontiff had the " tenths" of the net annual income of 
 good livings, as well as first-fruits. When the Pope and Henry 
 VIII. quarrelled, and the Papal supremacy was subverted, not 
 only was the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs transferred from the 
 Pope of Rome to England's supreme ruler, but also the tenths 
 and first-fruits likewise. At length Queen Anne came to the 
 throne, when (with the consent of her Parliament) she nobly re- 
 fused to receive what the Church should enjoy, and placed the 
 income under the direction of a Board called " the Governors of 
 Queen Anne's Bounty.." Their revenue for the improvement of 
 poor livings is considerable, but it might be largely increased. 
 The Pope would have had the real present value, and not that of 
 centuries since ; yet, strange to say, while some old benefices have 
 been freed from payment no new rich livings have since been in- 
 cluded, and all the old ones are rated according to the absurd 
 scale of assessment made in the time of Henry VIII. To illus- 
 trate this the writer compiled the following, some time since : 
 
 Benefice. 
 
 Diocese. 
 
 Value in King's 
 Books. 
 
 Value in Clergy 
 List. 
 
 I. Stanhope 
 
 Durham . 
 
 67 6 8 
 
 4848 O O 
 
 2. Whitchurch 
 
 Lichfield 
 
 8 17 O 
 
 14=8 o O 
 
 3. Halsall 
 
 Chester 
 
 IA II C 
 
 2 COO O O 
 
 4. Croston 
 
 Manchester 
 
 3111 o 
 
 1050 o o 
 
 <v Edgmond . ... 
 
 Lichfield .. 
 
 4.6 8 o 
 
 2600 o o 
 
 6. Houghton-le-Spring 
 7. Bingham 
 
 Durham 
 Lincoln 
 
 124 o o 
 
 4-4. 7 O 
 
 1600 o o 
 
 I ^03 O O 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^347 ' I 
 
 '6,559 
 
 Thus, seven benefices which now pay only 347. as tenths to the 
 fund, would, if rated according to the present net value, furnish 
 1 6oo/. annually. If this were altered, and a graduated scale of 
 taxation upon all valuable livings adopted, we should soon see a 
 more equitable and less objectionable management of ecclesiastical 
 affairs. If all the rich clergy regularly assisted the poor benefices, 
 would not the rich laity do the same ? 
 
 We quote the above from a communication to the T/ww, 1862. 
 It has been significantly remarked that a Report of the Receipts 
 and Expenditure of the Bounty is desirable. 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 155 
 
 Ecclesiastical Fees. 
 
 A Return issued in 1863, gives a curious list of Fees payable by 
 members of the sacred profession. The Bishop of Lichfield had 
 to pay 624/. on his appointment to that see ; the Bishop of Bath 
 and Wells 4507. on his translation from Sodor and Man. To this 
 prelate the Attorney-General, or" his office," presented a demand 
 for nearly 3o/.; the Secretary of State (including stamp), 23/.; a 
 mysterious impersonality, "the Petty Bag-office," absorbed* i6;/. 
 "When the Bishop had his audience of Her Majesty the homage 
 fees were 94/., and the Court Circular charged a guinea for its line 
 and a half of history. The bill winds up with an item of 2i/. for 
 <( passing documents through the various offices." Bishop Baring's 
 u homage" on translation from Gloucester to Durham cost him 
 only 2 1/. 6s. 8d. The Bishops of Chester and Lichfield add an 
 item of 1 1/. 2S. and i2/. for gloves. The fees on the consecra- 
 tion of a church or churchyard are heavy, but it is noticeable 
 as a rule that the bishops waive the customary payment to them- 
 selves. 
 
 Burying Gold and Silver. 
 
 The practice of burying treasure in the earth has uniformly 
 prevailed in all countries harassed by intestine commotions, or 
 exposed to foreign invasions. Of sums so deposited a very con- 
 siderable proportion has been altogether lost ; and this has, no 
 doubt, been one of the principal means by which the stock of the 
 precious metals has been kept down to its present level. Every 
 one is aware that, during the Middle Ages, treasure-trove, or 
 money dug from the ground, formed no inconsiderable part of 
 the revenues of this and other countries. And though the bury- 
 ing of money has long ceased in Great Britain, such has not been 
 the case with our neighbours. Wakefield tells us that, down to 
 1812, the practice was common in Ireland; and though much 
 fallen off, it still continues to this day to be occasionally resorted 
 to in that part of the kingdom. It has always prevailed, more 
 or less, in almost every part of the Continent. The anarchy and 
 brigandage that accompanied the Revolution of 1789 made the 
 practice be carried to an extraordinary extent in France ; and 
 there, owing to various causes, it still maintains a broad and firm 
 footing. Dupuynode, in 1853, estimated the sum at 40 millions 
 thus rendered sterile. Yet, we doubt whether the burying of 
 treasure be at present as prevalent in France as in many parts of 
 Germany, and in Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, and European 
 Turkey. The feeling of insecurity that has prevailed in all these 
 
156 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 countries, especially since 1848, has given a stimulus to this prac- 
 tice. Of the many millions that were distributed among the 
 countries round the Black Sea, during the late campaigns in that 
 quarter, the greater portion is believed to be as much withdrawn 
 from circulation as if it had never been dug from the mine. 
 
 It is impossible, of course, to form any estimate of the sums 
 that are thus annually, as it were, placed in mortmain. They are 
 always greater when wars or revolutionary disturbances are in 
 progress ; when their occurrence is anticipated, or but little con- 
 fidence is placed in the permanence of existing institutions. There 
 can, at all events, be no question that the sums which have been 
 disposed of in the way now stated in the different Continental 
 countries of late years have been enormous greater, perhaps, 
 than those absorbed by any of the usual channels of expenditure. 
 But the practice has been carried to a greater extent in India, 
 Persia, Turkey in Asia, and other eastern countries, than anywhere 
 in the western world. Despotism and a want of security have 
 always prevailed in these countries. The inhabitants have been, 
 in consequence, accustomed to regard the money they have com- 
 mitted to the earth as their only real wealth, and have availed 
 themselves of every opportunity to place portions of their means 
 beyond the grasp of their avaricious and tyrannical masters. And 
 as many of the hoards so deposited will never be brought to light, 
 the practice has, undoubtedly, been a principal cause of the con- 
 stant flow of bullion to the East. 
 
 Bernier, " that most curious traveller," as he is called by Gibbon, 
 has some remarks on this subject, in which he calls the empire of 
 the Mogul an abyss of gold and silver, which the people buried 
 to escape the injustice and exactions to which they were exposed. 
 At a later date, Mr. Luke Scrafton refers to the same practice, 
 u In India,'' he says, " the Hindoos bury their dead under-ground, 
 often with such secresy as not to trust their own children with 
 the knowledge of it; and it is amazing what they will suffer 
 rather than betray it. When their tyrants have tried all manner 
 of corporal punishments upon them, and that fails, resentment 
 prevailing over the love of lite, they frequently rip up their bowels, 
 or poison themselves, and carry the secret to their graves. And 
 the sums lost in this manner in some measure account why the 
 silver of India does not appear to increase, though there are such 
 quantities continually coming into it, and none going out." 
 
 The comparative security that was lately enjoyed by the natives 
 in most parts of India may have done something to lessen this 
 habit, in the countries directly under the Company's government ; 
 but there was in Oude, and many other parts of India, previous 
 to the late insurrection, a good deal of disorder, oppression, and 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 157 
 
 robbery. And since that unfortunate outbreak, insecurity and 
 disorders of all sorts have immeasurably increased, and have pro- 
 portionally stimulated the practice of hoarding. The rebellion in 
 China led to similar effects ; and we have been assured by those 
 who, from experience and observation are well qualified to form 
 an opinion on such a subject, that it may be moderately estimated 
 that in India and China, during the half-dozen years ending with 
 1857, a sum of not less than i oo,ooo,ooo/. sterling has been con- 
 signed to the earth. J. R. Maccullocb; Ency. Brit., 1859. 
 
 Thirty years ago, hoarding coin went on in England to a con- 
 siderable extent, and greatly augmented the scarcity, and conse- 
 quently the value, of the precious metals. Even the old practice 
 of making a stocking was by no means given up in rural districts. 
 A writer in the Quarterly Review, 1832, states, (i We ourselves, 
 but a few days back, personally witnessed an old crone, the wife 
 of a small and apparently poor farmer, in a wild pastoral district, 
 bring no less than three hundred sovereigns in a bag to a neigh- 
 bouring attorney, to be placed by him in security ; her treasure 
 having accumulated till she was afraid to keep it longer at home. 
 Such examples are by no means so rare as may be imagined. The 
 failures of so many country banks in 1825 destroyed the con- 
 fidence of country-people in the bank-notes of the present banks, 
 and causes their preference for gold. The failure of many 
 attorneys, ao well as of country banks, which received and gave 
 interest on deposits, and, (with the exception of the savings'- 
 banks, which are very limited in the amount of the deposits they 
 allow,) the total absence, in the rural districts of England, of any 
 safe and accessible depositaries for the savings of the economical, 
 such as the invaluable Scotch banks, have tended most injuriously 
 to discourage economy ; and where that principle was strongly 
 ingrafted, have converted it into a practice of hoarding have 
 caused it to stagnate in unprofitable masses, which, spread through 
 proper channels, would have stimulated new industry and new 
 accumulations, and added both to the wealth of the owner, and to 
 the general stock." 
 
 Results of Gold-seeking. 
 
 The question as to the probable continuation, increase, or dimi- 
 nution of the Supply of Gold is of the greatest interest ; though 
 nothing but the vaguest conjectures can be offered respecting it. 
 Though gold be very generally distributed, it is extremely doubtful 
 whether there be many places in which the deposits are so rich 
 and so extensive as in California and Australia ; and even in these 
 the produce is either stationary, or has begun to decline. The 
 
158 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 myriads of adventurers that are attracted to prolific diggings can 
 hardly fail, in no very lengthened period, to rifle the richest beds. 
 And when this is done when the excitement caused by the 
 original discovery is worn off, and the great prizes in the gigantic 
 lottery recur only at distant intervals, then, unless some new and 
 equally promising discoveries should be made, a serious check 
 will be given to the gold-seeking mania. The process of quartz- 
 crushing is believed to produce only moderate profits, and is not 
 of a kind to collect crowds of competitors. The few fortunes 
 that have been realized in California and Australia have not been 
 made by the diggers, but by the merchants and others who have 
 supplied their real or imaginary wants, or bought their gold-dust 
 and nuggets on advantageous terms. Of those engaged on their 
 own account in the search of gold, very tew have retired from 
 the pursuit with anything like a real competence. The great 
 majority have hardly realized the wages current in the districts 
 before the deposits were discovered ; and the conviction seems to 
 be everywhere gaining ground, that more is to be made by culti- 
 vating the surface of the earth than by digging in its bowels, or 
 crushing its rocks. J. R. Macculloch; Ency. Brit., 1859. 
 
 What becomes of the Precious Metals ? 
 
 The indestructibility of Gold is one of its many characteristics, 
 and some very curious questions arise from the fact. We know 
 that at a very early period of the history of the human race, 
 gold was discovered in very large quantities, and was used for 
 a variety of ornamental and useful purposes. Among the latter 
 may be named its employment as a medium of exchange, not 
 exactly in the form of money, but nearly approaching to it. 
 Pieces of the precious metal were cut into certain lengths and 
 were stamped with figures denoting their weight, and these circu- 
 lated freely among the buyers and sellers of those remote and 
 primitive times. What was known as a talent of gold weighed, 
 it is supposed, 125 Ibs., and Dr. Adam Clarke estimates that the 
 revenue of King Solomon in gold, was equal in value to about 
 4,683,37^7. sterling. To some extent this estimate is confirmed 
 by the Bible ; for it is stated in the book of Kings that " the weight 
 of gold that came to Solomon in one year, was six hundred and 
 three score and six talents of gold," without reference to silver, 
 which the same authority states, "was nothing accounted of in 
 the days of Solomon." According to Calmet, the precious metals 
 expended by the same monarch in building Jerusalem and the 
 Temple, amounted in value to eight hundred millions of pounds 
 sterling, and the questions naturally suggest themselves as to 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 159 
 
 where this enormous amount of material came from, and what 
 has become of it also. 
 
 It is sufficient for our purpose to know that the precious metals 
 did actually exist in very large quantities ; and there is little doubt 
 that they had been accumulating almost from the period of the 
 creation of man. The early history of the Jews abounds with 
 statements as to the uses to which gold was put. The subsequent 
 conquests of Rome doubtlessly led to its absorption at one time 
 of a very large proportion of the accumulated mineral wealth of 
 the world. 
 
 It is also plain that the Romans could not employ the precious 
 metals for domestic purposes, or at least not to any considerable 
 extent. Watches, spoons, and plate were the inventions of much 
 later times. Since it is clear that many hundreds of tons of gold 
 found their way to Rome during its prosperous time, and equally 
 clear that gold is indestructible, we may well inquire, " What has 
 become of the vast treasures ?" Was it, after the decline and fall 
 of Rome, distributed among other nations ? Were large quantities 
 of the precious metals buried in the earth, which still holds them 
 in its keeping? 
 
 Amidst a multitude of suggestive replies there remains the un- 
 doubted fact that gold is indestructible. Who shall say, in short, 
 in the presence of the certain knowledge we have, that war, con- 
 quest, and spoliation have been the rule among nations for centu- 
 ries past, that some of the " talents" of King Solomon, are not 
 existing at this moment in the shape of sovereigns, in the pockets 
 of the subjects of Queen Victoria ? Or, who will have the hardi- 
 hood to assert that the very watch-guard, or trinket he or she 
 may wear, is not a bond fide part of the treasure forwarded by 
 the Queen of Sheba to Solomon the wise ? 
 
 The fact seems to be clearly demonstrable that much of the 
 gold and silver spoken of in Scripture and in ancient profane his- 
 tory is in active circulation at this hour amongst the inhabitants 
 of the globe. Mechanics' Magazine. 
 
 Tribute-money. 
 
 The coins of the British Prince Cunobelin were not only 
 stamped with the figures of animals, but with the word 
 TASCIO, which signified TASK, TAX, and TRIBUTE. The pay- 
 ment of them into the Exchequer acquitted the subject of duties 
 on merchandise, and was also a commutation of personal ser- 
 vices. " I have thought," says the learned Camden, " that in 
 old time there was a certain sort of money coined on purpose for 
 this use, seeing, in Scripture, it is called tribute-money and I am 
 the more confirmed in this opinion, because, in some of the British 
 
1GO KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 pieces, there is the Mint-master stamping the money with TASCIO, 
 which among the Britons meant the tribute-money." 
 
 The First Lottery. 
 
 The first Lottery in England of which we have any account, 
 took place in 1569, the proposals for which were published in 
 1567 and 1568. It consisted of 10,000 lots often shillings each: 
 there were no blanks, and the prizes consisted chiefly of plate. 
 There were then only three lottery-offices in London. The lot- 
 tery was drawn at the west door of St. Paul's Cathedral ; and 
 the profits were intended for the repair of the havens of the king- 
 dom, and other public works. M. Greillier considers this number 
 of lots much underrated, and raises them to 400,000 ; and he ar- 
 rives at that conclusion because the drawing was continued un- 
 interruptedly both day and night, between the nth of January 
 and the 6th of May. The first Lottery for sums of money took 
 place in 1630. 
 
 Coinage of a Sovereign. 
 
 The number of operations necessary for the conversion of an 
 Ingot of Gold into Sovereigns is greater than most persons are 
 aware of. In the first instance it is melted ; in the second it is 
 cast into bars ; in the third the bars are rolled ; in the fourth they 
 are cut into short lengths ; in the fifth they are annealed in copper 
 pans ; in the sixth they are flattened into fillets ; in the seventh the 
 fillets are adjusted ; in the eighth they are punched, and blanks 
 produced ; in the ninth the blanks are weighed singly by automa- 
 ton balances ; in the tenth the blanks are marked, or have their 
 edges raised ; in the eleventh they are annealed in cast-iron pans ; 
 in the twelfth they are blanched in an acid bath ; in the thirteenth 
 they are washed in cold water ; in the fourteenth they are dried 
 in hot beech-wood saw-dust ; in the fifteenth they are muffled ; 
 and in the sixteenth stamped on both sides, milled on their edges, 
 and made perfect for circulation ! Thus sixteen operations, sepa- 
 rate and distinct from each other, have to be performed in the 
 production of sovereigns from an ingot. But the ingot will be 
 after all only partly converted ; the perforated " fillets," amount- 
 ing in weight to nearly half that of the original ingot, must be 
 returned to the crucible, recast into bars, and these bars passed 
 through the routine processes above enumerated. The fillets 
 resulting from this second crop of sovereigns will again have to 
 be melted, and yet again and again, if the ingot is to be made to 
 yield all its value in coin ; and thus the sixteen operations will be 
 multiplied before the last sovereign is obtained from the precious 
 wedge of gold. Mechanics' Magazine. 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 161 
 
 Wear and Tear of the Coinage* 
 
 It has been discovered by the Mint authorities that the intel- 
 ligent or intelligible life of coins is much shorter than it was prior 
 to the introduction of the railway system and cheap travelling. 
 People move about now more frequently than they used, and so 
 does money. Whether the former wear out sooner from their 
 greater activity is a problem for social economists, but that the 
 latter does is certain. Towards the close of the last century care- 
 ful experiments deduced the fact that deterioration among ten- 
 year-old silver coins of the various denominations was as follows : 
 Crowns, 3^ per cent.; half-crowns, 10 per cent.; shillings, 24! 
 per cent.; and sixpences, 38 2-ioths per cent. Now, the loss is 
 nearly as follows on coins of the same age : Crowns, 5 percent.; 
 half-crowns, 12 percent.; shillings, 30 per cent.; sixpences, 45 
 per cent.; and threepences, over fifty per cent. This increase is 
 evidently due to " fast living," so to speak, and the weakest indi- 
 viduals ; or, at any rate, the smallest, suffer most from its conse- 
 quences. The gold coinage does not deteriorate in anything like 
 the same ratio, and this from obvious causes. It is not subjected 
 to anything like the same course of treatment. It moves in higher 
 and more circumscribed circles, is only a legal tender when of legal 
 weight, and is therefore nursed with more care under the porte- 
 monnaie system. Of copper and bronze moneys, pence and half- 
 pence suffer the most rapid deterioration, farthings being the 
 longest lived of the three denominations. They are all tokens of 
 value merely, and their shortcomings are less noticed, and, indeed, 
 of far less consequence to the public. Mechanics Magazine. 
 
 Counterfeit Coin. 
 
 There is little doubt that the method first employed in the 
 manufacture of money was that of pouring fluid bullion into 
 earthen moulds previously impressed by some rude artist with 
 the device intended to be represented on the coin ; and that (as 
 now in some remote localities of Central India) a small cylindrical 
 vessel, forming a smelting-furnace, a pair of tongs, a cutting-tool 
 or file, and a pair of scales, constituted the entire apparatus for a 
 mint. It is not a little singular that the casting process is that 
 resorted to by counterfeiters up to this day. The customary 
 mode adopted for the production of spurious money at present is 
 precisely identical, indeed, with that employed in the manufacture 
 of genuine coin by the monarchs and the moneyers as the fabri- 
 cators of money were then termed of the Heptarchy, only that 
 
 M 
 
162 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the coiners of to-day use appliances superior to those of the tenth 
 century. A private coiner of the nineteenth century, whether in 
 Birmingham or London, expends very little in the purchase of his 
 plant of machinery. He provides himself with a pennyworth of 
 plaster of Paris, which he converts into a mould ; making a genuine 
 coin serve as the medium for impressing the material when in a 
 soft state with the devices the obverse and reverse. If he cannot 
 steal pint measures from a publican, he will have to invest a 
 portion of his capital in Britannia-metal spoons at a shilling a 
 dozen, and these he will break up and melt in an earthen pipkin, 
 purchasable for another penny. With a tobacco-pipe for a ladle 
 he will take up sufficient of the fused metal to create a florin, say, 
 and this he will pour into the moulds. As soon as these are filled, 
 and the base compound has become solidified, the moulds are 
 separated, and any defects observable in the graining or milling of 
 the edge are made good with a file or some other implement 
 adapted to the nefarious purpose. If, after this, a clever confede- 
 rate can finish the work by depositing a coat of silver (by galvanic 
 agency), so much the better for the manufacturer, his chance of 
 uttering being thus much enhanced. Mechanics' Magazine. 
 
 Standard Gold. 
 
 In 1855, an alteration was made in the quality of gold marked 
 in Goldsmiths' Hall, it being represented to the President of the 
 Board of Trade that it would be advantageous alike to the manu- 
 facturer and the public : instead of there being only two different 
 standards, there are now five viz., 22, 18, 15, 12, and 9 carats. 
 If, on the purchase of a watch, the cases, instead of having the 
 mark of " 18 carat," the gold of which would be worth 675. per 
 oz., should be marked only " 12 carat," the gold is worth only 
 453. per oz., and the purchaser has been legally robbed of the dif- 
 ference in value, which, supposing the cases to weigh i oz. 10 dwts., 
 would be 333. 
 
 When purchasing a gold watch, therefore, see that the cases 
 are marked (< 18 carat ;" if they are not so marked, do not make 
 the purchase. 
 
 Interest of Money. 
 
 Among the curiosities of the Exchequer, it may be mentioned 
 that about the year 185 7, there were paid into its account the pro- 
 ceeds of a lottery prize, drawn in the reign of George II., but 
 which had remained unclaimed for 102 years. The original 
 amount of the prize was 4907., to which in the course of a cen- 
 tury there had been added 1499^ 8s. for interest. The sum of 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 163 
 
 l. 8s. was therefore handed over for the public service; but 
 even now we have no doubt that if the purchaser of the ticket, 
 warned by this announcement of the fact, can come forward and 
 prove his claim, the money will be honourably refunded to him 
 from the Exchequer. 
 
 Interest of Money in India. 
 
 In the Institutes of Menu, which were drawn up about B.C. 
 900, the lowest legal interest for money is fixed at 15 per cent., 
 the highest at 60 per cent. Nor is this to be considered a mere 
 ancient law now fallen into disuse. So far from that, the Insti- 
 tutes of Menu are still the basis of Indian jurisprudence; and we 
 know, on very good authority, that in 1810, the interest paid for 
 the use of money varied from 36 to 60 per cent. ; Ward places 
 it at 75 per cent., and this without the lender incurring any extra- 
 ordinary risk. 
 
 Origin of Insurance. 
 
 Mr. G. F. Smith, in a paper read to the Institute of Actuaries, is 
 of opinion that the earliest direct mention of Marine Insurance is in 
 an ordinance of the City of Barcelona, of the year 1433, in which 
 it is ordered that no vessel should be insured for more than three- 
 quarters of its value ; that no merchandise belonging to foreigners 
 should be insured at Barcelona, unless freighted on board a ship 
 belonging to the King of Arragon ; and that merchandise belong- 
 ing to Arragonese subjects on board vessels belonging to other 
 countries should only be insured for half its value. It appears 
 most probable that the inventors of Marine Insurance were the 
 Italians, who, as is well known, were the leading commercial 
 nation in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was in 
 Venice that the first Bank was established, and that a funded debt, 
 transferable from hand to hand, was first introduced. Bills of 
 exchange, if not invented in Italy, were used extensively by the 
 Lombard merchants and money-dealers ; and book-keeping by 
 double entry is of Italian origin ; as is also the phrase, " Policy of 
 Assurance." 
 
 After the Great Fire, Assurance Offices were set up. One of 
 these is described, in Phillips's World of Words, under the heading 
 "Phoenix Insurance Office, the first office that was set up in 
 London for the insuring of houses from accidents by fire, so called 
 from its emblem or device : the rate for ensuring 100 pounds on 
 a brick house, is 6 shillings for i year, 12 shillings for 2 years, 15 
 shillings for 3 years, 19 shillings and sixpence for four years, i 
 pound 10 shillings for seven years, and 2 pounds i shilling for 
 
 M 2 
 
164 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 eleven years : the number of houses so insured since Anno Dom. 
 1 68 1 is ten thousand." A second is mentioned as the " Friendly 
 Society, one of the offices settled in London for the insuring of 
 houses from casualties by fire: the reward or consideration-money 
 paid for insuring to the value of 100 pounds in this office, is i 
 shilling 4 pence per annum for seven years. The device of it is 
 a sheaf of arrows, and the number of houses insured since A.D. 
 1684 is 12,500." 
 
 Stockbrokers. 
 
 Stock-jobbing or broking was contemporaneous with the crea- 
 tion of our National Debt, in the reign of William III., 1695, and 
 gave rise to that class of money-dealers who have the exclusive 
 entree to the Royal. Exchange. "William," says Mr. Francis, 
 in his work on the Stock Exchange, " had already tried his power 
 in the creation of a national debt : jobbing in the English funds 
 and East India stock succeeded ; and the Royal Exchange 
 became what the Stock Exchange has been since 1700 the ren- 
 dezvous of those who, having money, hoped to increase it, and of 
 that yet more numerous and pretending class, who, having none 
 themselves, try to gain it from those who have." 
 
 In the course of the Session of 1771, a Bill was brought into 
 the House of Commons, " for the more effectually preventing the 
 infamous practice of Stock -jobbing." It passed the committee, 
 but was not further proceeded in. 
 
 Lord Chatham, in the previous year, 1770, had, in Parliament, 
 denounced "the Monied Interest as a set of men in the City of 
 London, who are known to live in riot and luxury upon the 
 plunder of the ignorant, the innocent, the helpless. Whether 
 they be the miserable jobbers of 'Change-alley, or the lofty 
 Asiatic plunderers of Leadenhall-street, they are equally de- 
 testable By the monied interest I mean that blood-sucker, 
 
 that muck-worm, which calls itself the friend of Government 
 that pretends to serve this or that administration, and may be 
 purchased on the same terms by any administration that advances 
 money to Government, and takes special care of its own emolu- 
 ments. Under this description I include the whole race of com- 
 missaries, jobbers, contractors, clothiers, and remitters." 
 
 In the South Sea year, patriots were made or marred by job- 
 bing : " from the Alley to the House," said Walpole, " is like a 
 path of ants." 
 
 Yet, it is an established fact, that, abroad and at home, all 
 parties having large financial operations, approach the London 
 Stock Exchange with more confidence than any other money- 
 market in the world. 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 165 
 
 Tampering with Public Credit. 
 
 Thirty years ago, it was wisely said by a writer in the Quarterly 
 Review : " It is physically impossible to carry on the commerce 
 of the civilized world by the aid of a purely metallic currency no, 
 not though our gold and silver coins were every tenth year de- 
 based to a tenth ! Why, in London alone, five millions of money 
 are daily exchanged at the clearing-house, in the course of a few 
 hours. We should like to see the attempt to bring this infinity 
 of transactions to a settlement in coined money. Credit money, 
 in some shape or other, always has, and must have, performed the 
 part of a circulating medium to a very considerable extent. And 
 (by one of those wonderful compensatory processes which so 
 frequently claim the admiration of every investigator of civil as 
 well as of physical economy,) there is in the nature of credit an 
 elasticity which causes it, (when left unshackled by la<w, to adapt 
 itself to the necessities of commerce, and the legitimate demands 
 of the market, Well may the productive classes exclaim to those 
 who persist in legislating on the subject, and are not content with 
 determining who may and who may not give credit to another, 
 what kind of monied obligations shall, or shall not, be allowed to 
 circulate that is, to be taken in exchange for goods at the option 
 of the parties, well might they exclaim, as the merchants of Paris 
 did to the minister of Louis, when he asked what his master 
 could do for them " Laissez-nous faire," " Leave us alone, to 
 surround ourselves with those precautions which experience will 
 suggest, and the instinct of self-preservation put in execution." 
 
 'Over-speculation. 
 
 During the prevalence of a speculative mania there is not one 
 person in ten among the English public that can be induced to 
 weigh any arguments or facts that run counter to their fancies ; 
 but by the small proportion capable of giving heed, the following 
 resume of British banking experience during the twelve years from 
 1846 to 1857 will be considered valuable. 
 
 In 1858 an interesting paper was published by Messrs. Waterlow 
 and Sons, under the ominous title of British Losses by Bank 
 Failures, and extending from 1820 to 1857. ^ n the great mania 
 for the establishment of new banks, it may not be out of place to 
 call attention to the general facts proved in this document. 
 Omitting, then, the years previous to 1846, which may perhaps 
 be consideied to be out of date, and taking the twelve years from 
 184610 1857 inclusive, it appears that the liabilities of the private 
 
166 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 banks which suspended payment amounted to 6,7oo,coo/., and 
 those of the joint-stock banks to 4O,8oo,ooo/., making a grand 
 total of 47,50o,ooo/. To this, moreover, must be added another 
 i,5oo,ooo/. tor some banks, the liabilities of which are not men- 
 tioned. 
 
 Value of Horses. 
 
 As an example of the large sums produced by the sale of first- 
 rate Horses, we may quote the following prices from the sale of 
 the stud of the late Earl of Pembroke, at Paris, in 1862. The 
 condition of the horses was so good that, in spite of their being 
 aged, some of them sold for more money than Lord Pembroke 
 paid for them years previously. Thus, a pair of bay carriage-horses, 
 aged respectively 13* and 14, bought at Anderson's seven years 
 ago for 4OO/., fetched 6oo/. ; and another pair, which had been 
 bought at the same place for 6oo/., fetched io88/. ! Never was 
 the policy of buying a good thing, and taking care of it, more 
 practically proved than at this sale. Elis,a brown carriage-horse, 
 more than 16 years old, sold for too/. ; Pilot, a bay, upwards of 
 15 years old, fetched 22O/. ; Papillon, j 4 years old, 384^ ; Abeille, 
 13 years old, 2OO/. ; Grasshopper, a chestnut cob, 13 years old, 
 I28/.; Zouave, a grey carriage-horse, 12 years old, 3047.; Cal- 
 thorpe, a bay carriage -horse, 12 years old, 28 o/.; Sebastopol, a 
 grey carriage-horse, 1 1 years old, 240/. ; Pigeon, a brown phaeton- 
 horse, 9 years old, i4o/. ; Solferino, a bay carriage- horse, 16 hands 
 high, and 7 years old, 6401. ; and Glaucus, a bay carriage-horse, 
 6 years old, 448^ 
 
 Friendly Societies. 
 
 The repeated failures of Friendly Societies to effect the object 
 for which they were projected, prove how the best intentions 
 may be defeated through want of proper foresight and calculation 
 of probabilities, which so often reduce to certainty results which, 
 to unthinking minds, appear mere chances. 
 
 In 1863, Mr. Tidd Pratt, the Registrar, reported : Sixty- five 
 societies have been dissolved in the course of the year. The causes 
 of such societies not being able to meet the claims of the members 
 are to be found in incorrect tables for the contributions, small 
 number of members, insecure investment of funds, and unneces- 
 sary expenses of management, which actually, in some instances, 
 take los. out of every i/. subscribed. Most of these societies still 
 hold their meetings at public-houses, with the landlords for trea- 
 surers ; and the members are required by the rules of most of the 
 old societies to spend a monthly sum in beer " for the good of the 
 house," which amount is generally taken from the box, whether 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 167 
 
 the members have or have not paid their contributions ; and in 
 many instances the money is not repaid to the society. In the 
 correspondence of the year it is stated, in a letter to the Registrar 
 respecting the affairs ot a society, that it has spent nearly I3OO/. 
 of the funds " for the good of the house." There is generally a 
 strong party in favour of it. One letter states that a female 
 friendly society will be obliged to break up unless they are allowed 
 to have an annual feast and music ; and an objector who is con- 
 tending with the managers against any such application of the 
 trust-funds writes: "I can do nothing with them unless you 
 assist me by sending a very saucy letter to the stewards." Some- 
 times the law is evaded by paying an extravagant rent for the 
 room, the excess being really allowed in beer. 
 
 The Registrar considers it to be proved by thirty-five years' 
 experience that some further provisions are necessary to secure to 
 working men that they shall not be required to subscribe to these 
 societies more than is necessary, and that they shall be certain of 
 obtaining the benefits paid for. Returns which have been obtained 
 from only 128 unions show about 1150 inmates in their work- 
 houses who have been members of friendly societies which have 
 been broken up or dissolved. 
 
 Wages heightened by Improvement in Machinery. 
 
 It is stated, in a Report of the Commissioners appointed in 
 1832 to inquire concerning the employment of women and chil- 
 dren in factories, that " in the cotton-mill of Messrs. Houldsworth, 
 in Glasgow, a spinner employed on a mule of 336 spindles, and 
 spinning cotton 120 hanks to the pound, produced in 1823, work- 
 ing 74^ hours a week, 46 pounds of yarn, his net weekly wages for 
 which amounted to 273. 7d. Ten years later, the rate of wages 
 having in the 'meantime been reduced 13 per cent., and the time 
 of working having been lessened to 69 hours, the spinner was 
 enabled by the greater perfection of the machinery to produce on 
 a mule of the same number of spindles, 53^ pounds of yarn of the 
 same fineness, and his net weekly earnings were advanced from 
 278. 7d. to 295. lod." Similar results from similar circumstances 
 were experienced in the Manchester factories. The cheapening 
 of the article produced by help of machinery increases the demand 
 for the article ; and there being consequently a need for an in- 
 creased number of workmen, the elevation of wages follows as a 
 matter of course. Nor is this the only benefit which the working- 
 man derives in the case, for he shares with the community in ac- 
 quiring a greater command over the necessities which machinery 
 is concerned in producing. G. R. Porter. 
 
168 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Giving Employment. Indirect Taxation. 
 
 Mr. Babbage relates the following illustrative anecdote: 
 An Irish proprietor, whose country residence was much fre- 
 quented by beggars, resolved to establish a test for discriminating 
 between the idle and the industrious, and also to obtain some 
 small return for the alms he was in the habit of bestowing. He 
 accordingly added to the pump, by which the upper part of his 
 house was supplied with water, a piece of mechanism so contrived, 
 that at the end of a certain number of strokes of the pump-handle, 
 a penny fell out from an aperture to repay the labourer for his 
 work. This was so arranged, that labourers who continued at 
 the work obtained very nearly the usual daily wages of labour in 
 that part of the country. The idlest of the vagabonds of course 
 refused this new labour-test ; but the greater part of the beggars, 
 whose constant tale was that " they could not earn a fair day's 
 wages for a fair days work? after earning a few pence, usually 
 went away cursing the hardness of their taskmaster. 
 
 Never sign an Accommodation Bill. 
 
 Nothing is more deceptive than imaginary wealth. " We are 
 apt," says Sir E. B. Lytton, " to rely upon future prospects, and 
 become' really expensive while we are only rich in possibility. 
 We live up to our expectations, not to our possessions, and 
 make a figure proportionable to what we may be, not what we 
 are. We outrun our present income, as not doubting to disburse 
 ourselves out of the profits of some future place, project, or re- 
 version we have in view." 
 
 By no means is this artificial state of living more nourished 
 than what are familiarly called " bill transactions." This has 
 been illustrated in novels and tales, but never more to the pur- 
 pose than in the following passage in Pisistratus Caxton. " To 
 sign an Accommodation Bill, and still more, to renew one when 
 due, is opening an account with ruin. One always begins by 
 being security for a friend. The discredit of the thing is familiar- 
 ized to one's mind by the false show of generous confidence in 
 another. Then, what you have done for a friend, a friend 
 should do for you a hundred or two would be useful now 
 you are sure to repay it in three months. To youth the future 
 seems safe as the Bank of England, and distant as the peaks of 
 Himalaya. You pledge your honour that in three months you 
 will release your friend. The three months expire. To release 
 one friend, you catch hold of another the bill is renewed, pre- 
 
MEASURE AND VALUE. 1C9 
 
 mium and interest thrown into the next pay-day soon the 
 amount multiplies, and with it the honour dwindles your name 
 circulates from hand to hand on the back of doubtful paper, 
 your name, which, in all money transactions, should grow higher 
 and higher each year you live, falling down every month like the 
 shares in a swindling speculation. You begin by what you call 
 trusting a friend, that is, aiding him to self-destruction buying 
 him arsenic to clear his complexion, you end by dragging all 
 near you into your own abyss, as a drowning man would catch at 
 his own brother." 
 
 A Year's Wills. 
 
 The Registrar- General has drawn from a calendar of the Wills 
 and Adminstrations of the year 1858, the following interesting 
 calculations. 2 1 0,9 7 2 adults died in the twelvemonth, and 30,823 
 persons left personal property behind them; 21,653 nac ^ made 
 their Wills; the other 9170 had made none, and letters of ad- 
 ministration had to be taken out. 89 persons with more than 
 io,ooo/. (one worth ioo,ooo/.) died without making a Will. The 
 aggregate amount of property left by all these persons is esti- 
 mated at 71,860,7927., averaging 23317. each. Distinguishing 
 between the men and the women, we find that 102,049 adult men 
 died in the year, and 21,454 left personal property for one who 
 left any, four leaving none ; 108,923 adult women died, and 9369 
 left personal property. The average amount left by the men vas 
 2 75 1/. ; by the women, I37I/. Omitting now any estimate for 
 the first ten days of the year, and dealing only with the actual 
 Wills and administrations of the rest of the twelvemonth, the per- 
 sonal property of those who died leaving any, 29,979 in number, 
 amounted to 69,893,3807., of which 57,396,3507. was left by the 
 men, and 12,497,0307. by women. The stream of wealth flowed 
 thus: 
 
 Persons. Dying worth Left 
 
 22,513 Less than iooo/. 5,762,88^7. 
 
 6277 iooo/. but less than io,ooo/....2o,oio,5co7. 
 
 1020 io,ooo/. but less than 50, ooo/.... 2 1, 960,0007. 
 
 102 5o,oooA but less than ioo,ooo/....7,ioo,ooo7. 
 
 67 Above ioo,ooo7. I5,o6o,ooo7. 
 
 ^9)979 69,893,3807. 
 
 Only one property was sworn as high as 900,0007. and under 
 1,000,000; 1935 were under 2o7. The property divides nearly 
 equally at 2O,ooo7. About 35,000,0007. belonged to 29,392 per- 
 sons, none having more than 2o,ooo7., and the other 35,000,0007. 
 
170 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 belonged to 587 persons, fifty times fewer than the former com- 
 pany. Of those who left above ioo,ooo./, 37 were described as 
 esquires, a term which would include men who had made their 
 fortunes by trade or commerce ; ten were titled personages, five 
 were bankers, four merchants, three clergymen, one cotton manu- 
 facturer, one corn merchant, one hotel-keeper ; one was in the navy, 
 one in the Indian army, one in the Indian Civil Service, one was a 
 spinster. Three medical men left more than 5<p,ooo/. A person 
 described when he made his will as a commercial clerk left above 
 3O,ooo/. ; 17 "labourers and mechanics" above iooo/. Of 75 
 lawyers, 15 died without making their Wills. The foregoing state- 
 ments, which must be taken as approximations rather than an 
 absolute accuracy, relate to England alone. In the year ending 
 March 31, 1859, legacy-duty was paid in the United Kingdom 
 on 62,44 1,6 1 1/., Du t that does not include property passing from 
 husband to wife or the converse, no legacy-duty being then pay- 
 able; succession-duty on real property was paid upon 29,242,6307., 
 and, estimating that to be taxed to the next successor at half its 
 saleable value, it will amount to 58,485,2 6o/. On this assumption 
 1 23,926,87 1/. passed by death to another generation of successors. 
 It i certainly a remarkable fact, that (upon an average) on every 
 death, including alike men, women, and children, more than ioo/. 
 of property paying legacy-duty, and perhaps iS)/. of property of 
 every kind, is left for the benefit of successors in the United 
 Kingdom. Times. 
 
 The extraordinary circumstances under which Wills are some- 
 times made have given rise to the following suggestive remarks by 
 an able writer in the Saturday Review : 
 
 "If the matter is considered in reference to general principles, there is no 
 more curious power in the world than the right which people exercise by 
 Will of legislating after they are dead and gone, without restraint and with- 
 out appeal; and it. is perhaps even more singular that they exercise this 
 power without being subject to any formalities whatever except the presence 
 of two witnesses. To sell a house or a field is a matter which requires care 
 and inquiry, and the circumstances ensure a certain degree of notoriety. 
 But property of any amount may be disposed of in any way that caprice 
 may dictate by an instrument which may be executed under any circum- 
 stances, and kept in any custody. No one but the testator need know its 
 contents, and he may, and often does, prepare it with the most wanton 
 caprice, and leave it in the most absurd depository to take its chance of loss 
 or discovery as it may happen. It is well worth consideration whether the 
 unlimited power which the law of England confers of making whatever 
 Wills a testator chooses ought not to be qualified by some special provisions 
 as to the manner in which such wills should be made." 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 171 
 
 0f Some*. 
 
 What human Science has accomplished. 
 
 IF we reflect on the extreme feebleness of the natural means by 
 the help of which so many great problems have been attacked and 
 solved ; if we consider that to obtain and measure the greater part 
 of the quantities now forming the basis of astronomical computa- 
 tion, man has had greatly to improve the most delicate of his 
 organs, to add immensely to the power of his eye ; if we remark 
 that it was not less requisite for him to discover methods adapted 
 to measuring very long intervals of time, up to the precision of 
 tenths of seconds ; to combat against the most microscopic effects 
 that constant variations of temperature produce in metals, and . 
 therefore in all instruments; to guard against the innumerable 
 illusions that a cold or hot atmosphere, dry or humid, tranquil or 
 agitated, impresses on the medium through which the observations 
 have inevitably to be made ; the feeble being resumes all his advan- 
 tage : by the side of such wonderful labours of the mind, what 
 signifies the weakness, the fragility of our body ; what signify the 
 dimensions of the planet, our residence, the grain of sand on which 
 it has happened to us to appear for a few moments ! Arago. 
 
 Changes in Social Science. 
 
 The conquests of science over the realms of matter in our day 
 would scarcely have affected Bacon with greater surprise than the 
 change in what we may call the social position of science. There 
 was a time, not so very far removed from his own, when scientific 
 truth was worshipped, it at all, with closed doors and in muffled 
 accents. Science, like religion, had her age of persecution and her 
 "church in the catacombs;" she, too, had heroes, and martyrs, 
 and confessors of her own, and won her way to popularity 
 through an ordeal ot shame and suffering, the history of which 
 remains to be written. The philosopher of the Middle Ages 
 shunned the haunts of men ; his cmcible was heated in some 
 secret or underground chamber ; his knowledge was a forbidden 
 lore, and if it showed itself in the command of new powers, was 
 ascribed, not to inspiration from on high, but to dealings with an 
 agent which even modern credulity so often proclaims as the 
 source of intellectual mastery. From these fiery trials science 
 
172 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 has emerged without even a scar upon her. Militant she still is, 
 but she is also triumphant, and vies with the learning of " letters," 
 which was never branded with the like infamy, in the number and 
 dignity of her votaries. The change which has come over her 
 social status has reacted on her doctrines. There are no longer 
 any " mysteries" of science ; " problems," and even " apparent 
 contradictions," remain, but mysteries, with everything else that 
 savours of the occult and esoteric, are exploded, and not many 
 difficulties are admitted. Times. 
 
 Discoverers not Inventors. 
 
 Although Galileo only discovered the moons of Jupiter, we 
 often and unconsciously think of him as if he had been their 
 creator, and had first set them to play their untiring game of hide- 
 and-seek round the stately planet ; and so also in no irreverent 
 spirit we call the laws which Kepler divined to regulate certain 
 movements of the heavenly bodies, " Kepler's Laws," although he 
 disclaimed the title, grandly affirming that God, whose laws they 
 were, had waited some thousand years before one man, even 
 Kepler, had discerned them. And so again, notwithstanding our 
 conviction that the star Neptune has been shining in the sky since 
 what we shall be content to call " the beginning," and that all the 
 tiny planets which have so rapidly been added to our astronomi- 
 cal catalogues are probably as old as the sun^ we cannot help feeling 
 as if Adams, Leverrier, Hind, and their brethren, had just planted 
 those lights in the sky, and that midnight should be sensibly less 
 dark because of their addition to the heavens. 
 
 "When we work as transformationalists we are like sculptors, 
 not evolving a pre-existent statue from a concealing mass, but 
 bestowing a statue on a block of marble. The hollow screw is 
 Archimedes' screw ; the condensing steam-engine, Watt's engine ; 
 the railway locomotive, Stephenson's locomotive; the electric 
 telegraph, Oersted's telegraph; the Crystal Palace, Fox and 
 Paxton's palace. Yet as implied in what has been already said, 
 we treat discoverers as if they were inventors, and to make amends 
 we call inventors discoverers. And although, in strictness of 
 speech, it is inadmissible to speak of Watt, as accomplished men 
 are frequently found doing, as the discoverer of the steam-engine, 
 and only Sancho Panza thought of invoking blessings on the man 
 who first invented sleep, still the popular confusion between the 
 discoverer and the inventor shows how difficult it is to assign the 
 one higher praise than the other. Prof. George Wilson. 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 173 
 
 Science of Roger Bacon. 
 
 Roger Bacon, writing about the year 1260, that is, six hundred 
 years ago, says : " I call that Experimental Science which neglects 
 argumentation ; for the strongest arguments prove nothing as long 
 as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental 
 science does not receive truth at the hands of superior sciences. 
 It is itself mistress, and other sciences are its servants. It has, in 
 truth, the right to command all sciences, since it alone certifies 
 and sanctions their results. Experimental science is, therefore, 
 the queen of sciences and the limit of all speculation.'' The 
 features in Bacon's writings that have caused his name to be 
 handed down as a founder of physical science are very obvious. 
 He doubts wisely and has a profound reverence for facts. The 
 theory of a vacuum has come to him on the highest authority, 
 but its difficulties distress him. He speaks of experimental phi- 
 losophy as more perfect than all the natural sciences; "for it 
 teaches us to test by trial the noble conclusions of all the sciences, 
 which, in the others, are either proved by logical arguments or are 
 examined into on the imperfect evidence of nature ; and this is its 
 prerogative." 
 
 "As a workman in the laboratory, and with lenses, he himself discovers 
 the existence of explosive compounds, confirms the tradition of history as 
 to the effect of burning glasses, and understands the principle of the camera. 
 He points out the faultiness of Caesar's calendar. His views of the limits 
 of medicine are excellent. ' For, whereas a healthy rule of life depends 
 upon what is eaten and drank, on the hours of sleep and waking, of exer- 
 cise and rest, on climate and the temper of the mind, and that all these 
 should be observed from childhood in the constitution they fit, scarcely any 
 man cares to take thought of these things, nay, not even physicians, such 
 at least as we have met with.' Contrast this and his critical approval of 
 the use of charms to delude credulous patients into health with the science 
 ridiculed in the Malade Imagmaire^ and the advantage will not be found on 
 the side of the seventeenth century. But, even in physical science, Bacon's 
 splendid powers of generalization prevail over the habit of analysis, and he 
 is rather a prophet than a teacher. He believes that the period of human 
 life may be prolonged many years by a sound system of dietetics ; and the 
 averages of life in our own century confirm him. He believes that 
 * engines of navigation may be made without oarsmen, so that the greatest 
 river and sea-ships with only one man to steer them, may sail swifter than 
 if they were fully manned. Moreover, chariots,' he thinks, 'may be 
 made so as to be moved with incalculable torce without any beast drawing 
 them.' 'And such things might be made to infinity, as, for instance, 
 bridges to traverse rivers without pillars or any buttress.' He even knows 
 a wise man who has determined to construct a flying machine j but Bacon's 
 
174- KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 tone on this subject is a little less confident. That he himself hoped for 
 much that has since been proved impossible for the art of increasing gold, 
 and for the discovery of an elixir of life cannot of course be questioned. 
 Bacon summed up the science of his times, and the analogies which guided 
 him in his estimate of the laws of motion could not teach him to antici- 
 pate by five hundred years the individuality of the elements, or to under- 
 stand the texture of the human body. His error, after all, was chiefly that 
 he believed in Thought as a conqueror, and expected to establish her 
 kingdom on the ruins of the thrones of the visible world." Saturday 
 Review. 
 
 The One Science. 
 
 In an able summary in the Times of the contents of Sir Henry 
 Holland's Essays on Scientific and other Subjects, we find the fol- 
 lowing suggestive passages : t( The sciences are so interlacing and 
 coalescing that it would seem as if in a year or two we should 
 only have one huge science embracing all ; or, at least, what are 
 now regarded as separate sciences should be considerably reduced 
 in number. This is more or less implied in the controversy on 
 the " Correlation of Forces." The question is, Are there really 
 " Forces" in nature ? Or should we not rather say that there is 
 but one force appearing under different forms ? Among these 
 forces may be mentioned light. The undulatory theory of the 
 transmission of light is as old as Huyghens, but its universal 
 acceptance is an incident of our own day ; and it is in our own 
 day that radiant heat has been discovered to be subject to those 
 great physical laws which are the basis of the undulatory theory. 
 Here, then, we find in our time, within the last few years, that 
 the three great sciences of optics, of acoustics, and of heat, reduce 
 their principal facts to the same formula. Or again, take this 
 science of optics in another relation. It has within the last few 
 years proved itself to be the most delicate instrument of chemistry. 
 By the aid of a little starch the chemist can detect the millionth 
 part of iodine in solution. Mr. Faraday has found that a strong 
 ruby tint is given to a fluid by a proportion of gold not exceeding 
 the half-millionth part in weight. These are wonderful results of 
 ordinary chemical analysis ; but what are they in comparison 
 with the results obtained through the analysis of the spectrum ? 
 By means of it chymists have been able to detect in a compound 
 i-7o,ooo,oooth part of a grain of lithium, and the i - 1 8o,ooo,oooth 
 part of a grain of sodium, the metal of common salt. The method 
 of the analysis is very simple. If a little sodium, for instance, be 
 burnt in a flame, and during the process of this burning the rays 
 be made to pass through a prism, then in a certain defined portion 
 of the spectrum beyond there will appear a thin yellow line, so 
 vivid that it will show even when the sodium has been reduced 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 175 
 
 to the i-i8o,ooo,oooth part of a grain. By help of the same 
 analysis we pass on to astronomy, and discover the chemistry of 
 the eun, the moon, and the stars. In the photosphere, or luminous 
 atmosphere surrounding the body of the sun, there has in this way 
 been discovered no less than six known metals. 
 
 u In these few examples we indicate roughly but sufficiently the 
 intimate connexion of the physical sciences, and the necessity 
 which is imposed on the student in the present day to know all if 
 he would understand one. It has been said that he who has seen 
 but one work of ancient art has seen none, while he who has seen 
 all has seen but one. We may say the same of science. To know 
 one is to know none, and to know all is to know but one." 
 
 Sun-force. 
 
 Daily the conviction deepens among those who have studied 
 the matter, that with a few exceptions all the physical powers 
 which man wields as movers or transformers of matter are mo- 
 difications of Sun-force. It was bestowed upon antediluvian 
 plants, and they locked it up for a season in the woody tissue 
 which it enabled them to weave, and afterwards time changed 
 that into coal ; and the steam-engine which we complacently call 
 ours, and claim patents for, burns that coal into lever-force and 
 steam-hammer power, and is in truth a sun-engine. And the 
 plants of our own day receive as liberally from the sun, and con- 
 dense his force into the charcoal which we extract from them, 
 and expend in smelting metallic ores. With the smelted metals 
 we make voltaic batteries, and magnets, and telegraph wires; 
 and call the modified sun-force electricity and magnetism, and 
 say it is ours, and ask if we may not do what we like with our 
 own. 
 
 And again, the plants we cultivate concentrate Sun-force in 
 grass, hay, oats, wheat, and other fibres and grains, which seem 
 only suitable to feed cattle and beasts of burden with. But by 
 and by a Spanish bull- fighter is transfixed by this force, through 
 the horns of a bull, and dies unaware of his classical fate, 
 pierced to the heart by an arrow from Apollo the Sun -god's 
 bosv. On English commons prizes are run for, by steeds which 
 are truly coursers of the sun, for his force is swelling in their 
 muscles and throbbing in their veins, and horse-power is but 
 another name for sun-power. Nor is it otherwise with their 
 riders ; for they too have been fed upon light, and made strong 
 with fruits and flesh which have been nourished by the sun. His 
 heat warms their blood, his light shines in their eyes ; they cannot 
 
176 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 deal a blow which is not a coup-de-sokil, a veritable sun-stroke j 
 nor express a thought without help from him. 
 
 In grave earnestness, let me remind you, that as force cannot be 
 annihilated any more than matter, but can only be changed in its 
 mode of manifestation, so it appears beyond doubt that the force 
 generated by the sun, and conveyed by his rays in the guise of 
 heat, light, and chemical power, to the earth, is not extinguished 
 there, but only changes its form. It apparently disappears when 
 it falls upon plants, which never grow without it ; but we cannot 
 doubt that it is working in a new shape in their organs and tissues, 
 and reappears in the heat and light which they give out when they 
 are burned. This heat, which is sun-heat at second hand, we 
 again seem to lose when we use plants as fuel in our boiler-fur- 
 naces ; but it has only -disguised itself, without loss of power, in 
 the elasticity of the steam, and will again seem lost, when it is 
 translated into the momentum of the heavy piston, and the whirl- 
 ing power of a million of wheels. 
 
 The second-hand heat of the sun appears equally lost when 
 vegetable fuel is expended in reducing metals ; but oxidize these 
 metals in a galvanic battery, and it will reappear as chemical force, 
 as electricity, as magnetism, as heat the most intense ; and, in the 
 electro-carbon light, will return almost to the condition of sun- 
 shine again. Prof. George Wilson. 
 
 " The Seeds of Invention: 3 
 
 Sir William Armstrong maintains, as a half-truth, that Inven- 
 tion is the fruit of the circumstances that call for it almost more 
 than of the mind from which it springs. In a sense it is true, as 
 Sir William Armstrong says, that u the seeds of invention exist, 
 as it were, in the air, ready to germinate whenever suitable con- 
 ditions arise ;" but it depends not the less on the genius of indi- 
 vidual inventors to determine whether the germination shall happen 
 in one century or the next. The history of the locomotive is 
 itself the strongest argument against relying too much on these 
 floating seeds of invention and favouring circumstances, and taking 
 too little account of inventors. If the Killingworth brakesman 
 had died in his youth, it is scarcely too much to say that we 
 should probably not yet be travelling by steam. We owe it to 
 George Stephenson's keen insight and resolute temper that the 
 locomotive was forced upon an unbelieving world, no one can say 
 how long before circumstances would otherwise have called it 
 into existence. The seed had been floating, it is true, and had 
 been in a manner detected centuries before ; but it remained with- 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 177 
 
 out life, not because the occasion had not called it forth, but 
 because the right man had not ansen. 
 
 The Object of Patents. 
 
 The recklessness with which Patents are issued, and the dis- 
 honesty on the part of the State in selling the same article to two 
 or more persons, and then coolly leaving them to litigation for the 
 possession of it, cannot be too strongly reprehended. The common 
 sense of the question is summed up by Dr. Percy, in these words : 
 " I cordially subscribe," says the Doctor, " to the opinions 
 expressed by Mr. Grove, Q.C. namely, that the real object of 
 Patent Law was ' to reward not trivial inventions, which stop the 
 way to greater improvements, but substantial boons to the public; 
 not changes such as any experimentalist makes a score a day in 
 his laboratory, but substantial practical discoveries, developed into 
 an available form.' " 
 
 The law with respect to Patents has been greatly simplified and improved 
 by the statute 15 and 16 Viet. c. 83: the fees payable for a Patent have 
 been reduced, and the payment of spread over several years. One Patent 
 now suffices for the United Kingdom, and is no longer void, as formerly, 
 for trifling inaccuracies in the Specification, as these may be now dis- 
 claimed. 
 
 Before quitting the subject of Patents it may, perhaps, be 
 serviceable to call attention to the admirable Abridgments of Spe- 
 cifications now publishing by the Patent Commissioners. In a 
 few minutes one can get exact information there which cannot 
 otherwise be obtained in as many hours. These Abridgments 
 are in the form of small 8vo volumes. 
 
 Hereafter we hope to see provided out of the revenues of the Patent- 
 office, a public library and museum, to constitute a historical and educa- 
 tional institution for the benefit and instruction of the skilled workman of 
 the kingdom. Exact models of machinery are to be exhibited in the sub- 
 jects, showing the progressive steps of improvement. 
 
 Theory and Practice. Watt and Telford. 
 
 James Watt was a highly accomplished theorist, on every 
 point on which he worked ; yet his name has been frequently 
 cited, as a proof that theory could be dispensed with. And his 
 career, when compared with that of Telford, will illustrate 
 theory applied to practice, as distinguished from practice alone, 
 however acute. It is impossible to contemplate the career 
 of Telford without a feeling of high interest, created by the 
 comparison of his apparently inadequate education with his 
 startling successes. Looking at the individual himself, there is 
 
 N 
 
178 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 everything for his age to admire ; and as long as his structures 
 last, each of them is the monumentum, but not are perennius. 
 The time will come when his name shall be like that of the 
 builder of the old London bridge, who was, no doubt, the Tel- 
 ford of the day, a stimulus to his contemporaries, useful and 
 honoured, but not the remembered of succeeding ages. On the 
 other hand, the discoveries of Watt, though equally startling in 
 what is called the practical point of view, have the mind of the 
 discoverer impressed upon them, and have been, and must be, the 
 guide of his successors, not merely to repetitions of what he did 
 himself, but to the enlargement of ideas, and the conversion of 
 principles into forms useful in art. Take away the honourable 
 qualities which enabled the two men to outstrip their contempo- 
 raries, each in his line; qualities which are the properties of the 
 individual minds, and consider what is left, namely their modes of 
 proceeding : consider the effect of these two modes on men in 
 general, and there is nothing in that of Telford which would raise 
 a workman above a workman ; while in that of Watt there is 
 the vital principle to which we owe all the mechanical triumphs 
 of civilization, and all the theoretical successes of philosophy. 
 Penny Cyclopedia. 
 
 Practical Science. Mechanical Arts. 
 
 It seems impossible to exclude from a review, however slight, 
 of contemporary progress in the exact Sciences, the advantages 
 which have accrued to them, both directly, and as it were re- 
 flexively, by the astonishing progress of the Mechanical Arts. The 
 causes, indeed, which called them forth are somewhat different 
 from those which are active in more abstract, thougTi scarcely 
 more difficult, studies. Increasing national wealth, numbers, and 
 enterprise, are stimulants unlike the laurels, or even the gold 
 medals, of academies, and the quiet applause of a few studious 
 men. But the result is not less real, and the advance of know- 
 ledge scarcely more indirect. The masterpieces of civil engineer- 
 ing the steam-engine, the locomotive-engine, and the tubular 
 bridge are only experiments on the powers of nature on a 
 gigantic scale, and are not to be compassed without inductive 
 skill, as remarkable and as truly philosophic as any effort which 
 the man of science exerts, save only the origination of great 
 theories, of which one or two in a hundred years may be con- 
 sidered as a liberal allowance. Whilst, then, we claim for Watt 
 a place amongst the eminent contributors to the progress of science 
 in the eighteenth century, we must reserve a similar claim for the 
 Stephensons and the Brunels of the present ; and whilst we are 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 179 
 
 proud of the changes wrought by the increase of knowledge 
 during the last twenty-five years on the face of society, we must 
 recollect that these very changes, and the inventions which have 
 occasioned them, have stamped perhaps the most characteristic 
 feature its intense practicalness on the science itself of the 
 same period. 
 
 It has long been the fashion of one party to lament <( the De- 
 cline of Science" in England ; whilst another section has gravely 
 declared that Science in this country is but the growth of yester- 
 day, having been imported from Germany, and tenderly nurtured 
 by the magnates of the realm. In the House of Commons, in 
 the Session of 1863, a member stood up, and, with exultation, 
 announced that Science had at length found its way into that 
 democratic assembly through the individual exertions and influ- 
 ence of one now no more. From the language which this scion 
 of a great house employed it might be inferred that Science had 
 been previously almost unknown in England. The member, no 
 doubt, spoke according to his knowledge ; but it possibly escaped 
 his memory that a man named Isaac Newton once existed. 
 Without justly exposing ourselves to the charge of presumption, 
 we might also boast of a few other names of distinction among 
 the dead as well as the living. 
 
 There is another point upon which the public appear to be 
 much misinformed namely, that Science is in the receipt of large 
 sums from the State. The annual amount voted out of the taxes 
 for Science and Art is unquestionably large ; but it should be 
 borne in mind that, comparatively, only a small portion is really 
 devoted to Science, while Art takes the lion's share. Let it be 
 so by all means. True Science to be worth anything must never 
 become the creature of State bounty. We want no Institute 
 with its salaried members and its eternal jobbing. We need no 
 patronizing Mecaenas, whether from the high-born or the self- 
 exalted. What Science earnestly desires is to be let alone, that 
 she may follow her destined course quietly, modestly, and with- 
 out molestation. She especially loathes the Pythonic embrace of 
 meddiesome persons who, knowing nothing of her, yet profess an 
 intimate acquaintance with her and a tender regard for her wel- 
 fare, solely with the object of puffing themselves into notoriety. 
 She disdains them utterly. Times journal. 
 
 We hear much, too, of " Science and Art" now-a-days coupled 
 together, as if the strongest affinity existed between them ; al- 
 though no two things can be more unlike each other. The 
 Arctic Circle and the Torrid Zone cannot be wider apart or in 
 stronger contrast ; for Science is frigidly logical, and Art hotly 
 emotional. 
 
 N2 
 
180 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Force of Running Water. 
 
 It has been proved by experiment, that the rapidity at the 
 bottom of a stream is everywhere less than in any part above it, 
 and is greatest at the surface. Also, that in the middle of the 
 stream the particles at the top move swifter than those at the 
 sides. This slowness of the lowest and side currents is produced 
 by friction, and when the rapidity is sufficiently great, the soil 
 composing the sides and bottom gives way. If the water flows 
 at the rate of three inches per second, it will tear up fine clay ; six 
 inches per second, fine sand ; twelve inches per second, fine gravel ; 
 and three feet per second, stones of the size of an egg. Lyelfs 
 Geology. 
 
 Correlation of Physical Forces. 
 
 Of late years experimental philosophers have been occupied with 
 the investigation of a profound problem. Formerly, the most 
 brilliant phenomena of nature were attributed to the existence of 
 imponderable fluids. But the Correlation of heat, light, electri- 
 city, magnetism, and chemical affinity, as varying manifestations 
 of force, attributable to modifications of motion in matter, now 
 employs our subtlest thinkers Faraday and Grove, Wheatstone 
 and De la Rive. These researches extend even to the confines of 
 the moral phenomena. The chemistry of nature differs from 
 that of the laboratory, and the difference has been attributed, not 
 simply to organization, but to the vital force a power found only 
 in living organisms. Yet, at length, the laboratory of Hoffman 
 imitates the processes of nature, especially in plants, and produces 
 some of the most delicate of the perfumes of flowers and fruits, 
 and even seems on the very verge of the manufacture of some of 
 its greatest treasures such as quinine. Some are staggered by 
 the steady march of scientific research into the most sacred sanc- 
 tuaries of life, and recoil from investigations which trace the 
 growth of the cell in the ovary into the perfect man ; as though 
 mystery were essential to faith ; or, if it were so, as though there 
 is the slightest risk that in ages to come man will have so stolen 
 the sacred fruit that no mystery will remain to be solved. Sir 
 James Kay Shuttlewortb on Public Education. 
 
 The Effect of Oil in stilling Waves. 
 
 It was thought that this old idea had. been completely dis- 
 proved by experiment ; but, according to the Saturday Review, 
 the very contrary has been the result of recent experiments, in 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 181 
 
 course of which, at all events, waves on a pond, generated by the 
 wind, were completely stilled to a " glassy smoothness" by means 
 of a film of oil scarcely more than the 7,ooo,oooth part of an inch 
 in thickness, and exhibiting the most brilliant zones of iridescent 
 colours from its extreme thinness. The modus operandi is be- 
 lieved to consist simply in the wind ceasing to have a hold upon 
 the water by the intervention of the oil, which slips along the 
 surface 'with the wind, so that the oil must be applied to wind- 
 ward, and it moves to leeward, smoothing the surface as it goes ! 
 
 Spontaneous Generation. 
 
 Of all errors upon the formation of beings, the most absurd is 
 Spontaneous Generation. Yet it is one of the most popular. If 
 this theory is admissible for inferior beings, such as intestinal 
 worms, infusoria, or polypi, why not for superior beings ? The 
 difficulty becomes an impossibility in both cases. Can it be ima- 
 gined that an organized body, of which all the parts are intimately 
 connected, with an admirably contrived correlation, so full of 
 profound wisdom, is produced by a blind assemblage of physical 
 elements ? The organized body must have derived its existence 
 from elements of which it was destitute ! Then motion might 
 proceed from inertia, sensibility from insensibility, life from 
 death ! 
 
 Guano. 
 
 In Mr. Ross' translation of Dr. Tschudi's Travels in Peru, 
 1 847, we are informed that the correct orthographyis Huanu, and 
 not Guano. He states that it is a term in the Quichua dialect, 
 meaning " animal dung." As the word is now generally used it 
 is an abbreviation of Pishu Huanu, bird dung. " The Spaniards," 
 he says, "have converted the final syllable nu into no. The 
 European orthography Guano, followed also in Spanish America, 
 is quite erroneous^ for the Quichua language is deficient in the 
 letter G, as it is in several other consonants. The H, in the 
 common formation of the word, is strongly aspirated, whence the 
 error of the orthography of the Spaniards, who have sadly cor- 
 rupted the language of the Autochthones of Peru. 
 
 What is Perspective ? 
 
 Perspective is the science which furnishes us with the laws by 
 which we can give the apparent, as geometry those by which we 
 can give the real, forms of objects. These laws are obvious 
 without rules to thoughtful, artistic common- sense but, to many, 
 
182 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 books on the subject will always be useful, if not indispensable. 
 The science was called perspective, or seeing through, from an 
 impression that the correct foreshortening of objects could be 
 gained by viewing and tracing them through a pane of glass. 
 This plan only ensures correctness when the plane of the eye is 
 parallel to that of the medium upon which the drawing is made. 
 A picture in perspective is simply a plane parallel to the plane of 
 the eye intersecting the rays that come from the surface of the 
 objects represented. The points of these rays at the places of 
 their several intersections combine to form the true perspective 
 representation. This was the art that Mantegna made so much 
 of at Padua ; and that with which Bellini, the painter of the 
 National Gallery Doge," delighted the Venetians. Without 
 much semi- scientific pedantry, the whole science may be under- 
 stood by balancing a half-crown on the top of the forefinger of 
 your right hand. Hold it up so that its broad plane is parallel to 
 the eye's plane ; put it nearer or further, and it seems to increase 
 or diminish in size. Turn it obliquely, and it appears an oval ; 
 put the edge on a line with the eye, and it appears a mere thin 
 straight line. A sphere is the only geometric form that undergoes 
 no perspective changes. The eye is able to take in any given 
 space set at an angle of under sixty degrees. When both eyes 
 view a scene, instead of the circle one eye sees, we have an ellipse 
 formed by the continuation of the two circles of vision, the 
 point of sight being opposite the centre of the space between the 
 two eyes. Perspective is of great use in Art; but the books 
 upon it are too abstruse, and imply a knowledge of mathematics. 
 [This common -sense explanation is from the pen of Professor 
 Wallace, M.A., in the first number of a journal edited by him 
 and entitled The Public Instructor.] 
 
 The Stereoscope. 
 
 Till the discovery of the Stereoscope, naturalists were puzzled 
 to account for a single image resulting from double 'vision ; and 
 Gall and Spurzheim endeavoured to explain it by the supposition 
 that one eye only was active at a time, the other only admitting 
 light, and that Nature had given us two merely to provide against 
 the accidental loss of one. Leslie's Handbook. 
 
 Burning Lenses. 
 
 The danger from Lenses, when the heat of the sun is powerful, 
 is well known. As an illustration, we may relate an instance 
 which occurred on the premises of Messrs. Negretti and Zambra, 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 183 
 
 philosophical instrument makers, in Hatton Garden. There was 
 a smell of fire, but it could nowhere be detected, until a person 
 entered the shop from the street with the startling information 
 that the window was on fire, and such was really the fact : a large 
 reading- lens hanging in the window exposed to the sun, its focus 
 happening to be just within range of the woodwork of the window 
 fittings, set fire to them, and no doubt in a very few seconds some 
 serious damage would have been caused. Is it not possible that 
 in tropical climates, when vessels are becalmed, they may be set 
 on fire by the eye-deck lights everywhere observable on ships' 
 decks; or, nearer home, in warehouses, &c., where such means of 
 lighting is resorted to ? The matter merits serious consideration 
 and should serve as a caution. 
 
 How to wear Spectacles. 
 
 In the proper use of Spectacles there is no circumstance of 
 more importance than their position on the head. They should 
 be worn so that the glasses may come as close to the eye as pos- 
 sible without touching the eyelashes ; they must also be placed 
 so that the glasses may be parallel to the paper when held in an 
 easy position. To accomplish this, let the sides of the spectacles 
 bear upon the swell of the head, about midway between the top 
 of it and the ear ; the eyes will then look directly through the 
 glasses to the paper, and make the most advantageous use of them, 
 instead of looking obliquely through them to the paper, as in nu- 
 merous cases, where persons place the sides of their spectacles in 
 contact with, or very near, their ears in which position they pro- 
 duce a distorted image on the retina. The sides of the spectacles 
 should also be placed at an equal height upon the head ; and the 
 hands being applied to the points of the sides, will generally direct 
 their equal height, as well as allow of their opening to the full 
 extent without injury. Adams on the Human Eye, 
 
 Vicissitudes of Mining. 
 
 Although the thoughts of men have been turned to the mineral 
 conditions of these islands for more than two thousand years ; and 
 in that period the art of Mining has improved ; and the engineering 
 appliances which have been brought to bear upon the ventilation and 
 tne draining of mines, are fine examples of mechanical ingenuity, 
 the science of Mining, however, can scarcely be said to have, as yet, 
 any existence. In 1856, Mr. John Taylor, who must be regarded 
 as a good authority, stated before a Committee of the House of 
 Commons, " That there were no greater facilities for ascertaining 
 
184 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the productive character of a mine now than formerly. The dit- 
 ference was simply in improved machinery. Our knowledge was 
 not greater than that of our forefathers." Whatever was said in 
 18.^6, is true at the present moment. 
 
 The psychological influences of subterranean toil form a strange 
 but interesting subject of study. These and the effects of that 
 continued uncertainly as to the reward which labours of the 
 severest kind are to receive, are distinguishingly marked on every 
 miner. In occult powers they are believers ; and when, about a 
 century since, the " Divining Rod" was introduced into Cornwall 
 as a means for finding mineral lodes, it was eagerly seized upon; 
 and, to the present day, several families are supposed to possess 
 remarkable powers as diviners, or, as they are commonly called, 
 <( dowsers." 
 
 Mr. Rawlinson observes that the existence of (l diviners," or 
 <f dowsers," for finding out the mineral lodes was a serious re- 
 flection upon the present age ; yet it was a curious fact, that a 
 French adventurer, who was supposed to have been successful in 
 finding water-beds in Africa, was introduced to the Government 
 during the Crimean war^ and was sent out to trace, by the 
 divining-rod, water in that locality. 
 
 The most elementary laws of science are still a book sealed to 
 the large majority of miners, and while they are, of all men, them- 
 selves the most theoretical, they always meet any attempt to ex- 
 plain phenomena upon the evidences of inductive research, by 
 pronouncing the explanation to be a " theory," which is ot no 
 value to a t( practical." 
 
 Mr. Wallace, himself a miner, says : " The impossibility of 
 arriving at any knowledge of practical value respecting ore deposits 
 in veins, is avowed by those who, with singular inconsistency, 
 attach the greatest importance to individual experience. Even 
 some occupying high distinction as directors or proprietors of 
 mines, affirm, without qualification, that it is impossible to see 
 through solid rocks. 
 
 It must be admitted that amongst the miners there is an entire 
 absence of any method by which a knowledge may be obtained 
 of the causes leading to the production of mineral deposits ; while 
 the speculations of those philosophers who will not endure the 
 toil of subterranean investigations are wild, and are consequently 
 valueless. 
 
 The natural consequence of this imperfect knowledge is, that 
 all mining speculations are necessarily attended with much un- 
 certainty. From time to time a most productive mine is disco- 
 vered. The Devon Great Consols, first known as Huel Maria, 
 has paid 826/. dividends upon every share, one pound only being 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 185 
 
 paid for shares now worth 4Qc/. each. Upon the shares of South 
 Caradoc, near Liskeard, the trifling sum of 25^. only was ever 
 paid; the price of these shares, in 1862, was 39O/. ; and 39i/. 
 profit had been paid on every share. 
 
 There are other examples of great success in mining. Such 
 results as these are laid hold of by designing men, and used to 
 bait the hooks by which those who are in a hurry to be rich are 
 caught. Permission to search for minerals is obtained from the 
 possessor of the land near to some productive mine. A few trials 
 are probably made, and then comes the formation of a company 
 to work " Huel Chance" (or some more attractive name is 
 adopted), through which the lodes from the fortunate neighbour 
 are shown, by the aid of a parallel ruler, to run. 
 
 Mr. Rawlinson states, with regard to the pecuniary losses in- 
 curred in mining speculations, that some years ago, whilst holding 
 an official inquiry in Cornwall, he was brought into connexion 
 with several of the large mining adventurers of that district; and 
 they stated it as their opinion that, if the value of all the ore mines 
 in Cornwall, and the cost of working them were compared, the 
 statement would stand as something like 25 j. paid for every pound's 
 worth of ore obtained. 
 
 Statistics show that about 350,000 persons are employed in the 
 production of minerals, to the value of nearly 35 millions per 
 annum, which gives, as the production of each miner, not more 
 than 2/. per week, an amount so small that we can hardly con- 
 ceive it possible that it would remunerate the large capital which is 
 invested in these mines. See Mr. Robert Hunt's valuable Report, 
 1862. 
 
 Uses of Mineralogy. 
 
 Professor Tennant states there have been already described 500 
 minerals, more than half which number are found in the British 
 Isles ; whilst more than 450 are found in our colonies. In the In- 
 ternational Exhibition of 1862, our vast colonial mineral wealth 
 was shown in remarkable specimens of gold, silver, copper, precious 
 stones, c., many of which had been found by working miners 
 who had been sent out from this country. Yet, miners are 
 generally ignorant of the value of minerals, which they reject as 
 not worth collection : now, the gold they collect is worth 4/. per 
 ounce ; but rough stones are often rejected, which are worth 5o/. 
 per ounce, and some 5oo/. per ounce they are diamonds. Mr. 
 Tennant believes that, in many of our colonies, these minerals 
 are thrown away, whereas a little knowledge of the use of the 
 blowpipe would enable miners to distinguish one substance from 
 another. 
 
186 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Our Coal Resources. The Deepest Mine. 
 
 Professor Morris describes the carboniferous series of rocks in 
 England which contain Coal as deposited above the old red sand- 
 stone, or what have been called the Devonian rocks, and several 
 thousand feet in thickness, though the coal measures are of much 
 more limited depth, and the mines of coal vary from thirty feet to 
 only two inches thick. The distribution of Coal in England is 
 much greater than in any country in Europe ; though in the 
 United States of America, near Pittsburg, the beds of coal extend 
 over a vast area, and one is of great thickness. The quantity of 
 coal that is raised from the pits in this country, however, exceeds 
 that from all the other 'coal -fields in the world.* The probable 
 duration of coal in England has formed an interesting subject of 
 speculation with some geologists, who have estimated the period 
 variously at from 300 to 1000 years. Sir William Armstrong, at 
 the Meeting of the British Association, in 1863, estimated the 
 minimum period of the northern coal-field at 200 year.s ; but 
 Mr. N. Wood, the great coal-viewer of the North, is of opinion 
 that of the northern coal-field no conjecture, of practical utility, 
 can yet be formed, as more than one half of the basin, lying 
 under the sea, has not yet been explored. 
 
 Sir William Armstrong's remark, however, was misunderstood, 
 
 * There are two distinct theories respecting the formation of coal, though 
 all agree that it is of vegetable origin. This is proved by the trees and 
 plants found in the substance of coal, by the vegetable remains imbedded 
 in the accompanying strata, and by microscopical examination. The plants 
 most abundant are ferns, some of which were of gigantic size. These are 
 supposed to have composed two-thirds of the mass of most coal. Large 
 trees are sometimes discovered growing upright in the shale that lies be- 
 neath and above a seam of coal. The vegetation from which coal has 
 been formed, according to the views of some geologists, grew on the places 
 where it is found, and they consider it to have been composed of decayed 
 beds of peat which grew in succession one over the other, and that by the 
 compression of the whole, when submerged, and by the accompanying 
 action of heat, these vegetable beds were converted into coal. Other 
 geologists imagine that it was produced by the accumulation of drift wood 
 brought down by great rivers, similar to the present accumulation of drift 
 wood on the coast of Mexico brought down by the great American rivers. 
 There are geological facts adduced in support of both theories. Ireland 
 presents the remarkable geological feature of an immense area of carboni- 
 ferous rocks without coal, that valuable portion of the deposit having, it is 
 supposed, been swept away by some of the denudations to which the sur- 
 face of the globe has been exposed in the early periods of its history. 
 Prof. Morris. 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 187 
 
 and thought to refer to the coal supply of the whole kingdom, 
 whereas he limited the remark to the coal-field of Durham and 
 Northumberland. This misapprehension re-opened the question 
 of the exhaustion of our coal resources, and led to the communi- 
 cation of some valuable evidence to the Times journal. Thus, 
 Mr. E. Hull, of the Geological Survey, states as the result of a 
 series of investigations of the British coal-fields, that adopting the 
 limit of depth at 4000 feet, he found there to be enough workable 
 coal, at the rate of consumption for that year, (about 71,000,000 
 tons,) for nearly TOOO years ; and even if the consumption should 
 ultimately reach 100,000,000 of tons, that supply could be main- 
 tained for 700 or 800 years. 
 
 With respect to the assumed depth, 4000 feet, Mr. Hull adds: 
 
 "Already a depth of nearly 1000 yards has been reached in a Belgian 
 colliery, and coal is now being extracted from depths of 700 and 800 yards 
 in Lancashire. Even with the vertical limit of 4000 feet, I have since 
 found reason to believe that the estimate I arrived at in the case of the 
 South Wales coal-field was rather under than over the truth. In that coal- 
 basin alone, with an area of 906 square miles, I calculated that the rate of 
 consumption for 1859, of 9^ millions of tons, could be maintained for 
 1600 years ; but it is only right to state, that Mr. H. Vivian, M.P., in a 
 pamphlet published by him in 1861, controverts this view, and arrives at 
 the conclusion that ' South Wales could supply all England with coal for 
 500 years, and her own consumption for 5000.' 
 
 " As regards the absolute quantity of mineral fuel in this island, it may 
 be considered as practically inexhaustible. The seams of coal outcrop in 
 our coal-fields, and descend under the Permian and Triassic formations to 
 depths exceeding 10,000 feet. The question of the available supply is 
 therefore one depending on the rapidity of production and the limit of 
 depth." 
 
 Dr. Buckland, in 1841, dwelt upon the wanton waste of coal 
 at the pits, which, in 1836, he had maintained would finally 
 " exhaust the Newcastle coal-field at a period earlier by at least 
 one-third than that to which it would last if wisely economized." 
 The waste has, however, been much abated. 
 
 Mr. Robert Hunt, however, maintains the consumption to be 
 greatly understated. He says : 
 
 " All calculations on the probable duration of our coal-fields have been 
 founded on the very erroneous data which supposes that not more than 
 36,000,000 of coals are raised annually. We know that more than sixty- 
 six millions of coals are now annually produced, and the demands upon our 
 resources are rapidly increasing. 
 
 Sir William Amstrong himself quotes Mr. Hunt as showing 
 " that at the end of 1861 the quantity of coal raised in the United 
 Kingdom had reached the enormous total of eighty-six millions of 
 
188 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 tons, and that the average annual increase of the eight preceding 
 years amounted to 2f millions of tons." 
 
 If, therefore, Dr. Buckland's remarks were important in 1836 
 (when his Bridgewater Treatise was first published), and of 
 "greater force" in 1858, how much more must they be worthy 
 of most serious consideration in 1863. Communication to the 
 Times by Mr. Frank Buckland. Another Correspondent, however, 
 adds this consolation : 
 
 "There may yet remain plenty of coal in the world. Three-fourths of 
 the globe are covered with water, and what geologist shall presume to de- 
 clare that there are no vast deposits of coal deep below the ocean bed ? We 
 have been up and down below the waters several times, and we shall pro- 
 bably sink again ; but then.the bed of the Atlantic may become dry land 
 and peopled with our successors. Change is the law of the universe. The 
 moon is stated to be approximating to the earth at the rate of a fraction of 
 an inch in a century or so, and may one day come tumbling upon us. The 
 whole of the solar system seems to be travelling some report at the slow 
 rate of 47,000 miles an hour towards an unknown region of infinite 
 space. Great Britain, therefore, has no reason to complain if she shares 
 the common fate of all things, whether in the heavens above or on the 
 earth beneath." 
 
 Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, is the deepest coal-mine in all 
 England ; the coal being won at nearly two miles' distance from 
 the shaft, and upwards of 1900 feet, or more than five times the 
 height of St. Paul's, below the surface of the green fields and 
 trees above. The pit employs nearly 300 hands, and yields between 
 r;oo and 600 tons of domestic coal per day ; every few seconds, 
 the tall cage shoots up out of the gloom of the shaft, and the tubs, 
 like miniature railway-waggons, holding nearly half a ton each, 
 are brought to the bank, and wheeled away in different directions. 
 Not for a single instant does the work stop : it is coal coal every- 
 where beneath and around ; the very atmosphere is made gloomy 
 with its fine particles ; and all this, seen amid clanking of chains, 
 roaring of steam, and the rapid activity and whirl of hurried 
 business, make it one of the most curious and interesting scenes 
 imaginable. 
 
 The dangers of the working are thus detailed. The boys in 
 charge of the trams cany the " Davy," the wire-gauze of which 
 is far less liable to injury than the glass shade of the " Geordie," 
 or Stephenson lamp ; and with these the lads may safely pass the 
 " goafs" or worked-out seams, in which, though built up as far 
 as possible, gas always lurks, though the invisible enemy around 
 them is so thick that the gas will light inside their lamps and 
 burn with a ghastly blue flame. Beyond this steep incline or 
 bank there is still nearly a mile to be traversed to the " in-bye" 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 189 
 
 the face of the working, the spot from which the coals are actually 
 won : where, too, the gas has its head-quarters, and has to be 
 watched and guarded against every hour and minute of the day 
 and night, for the work of a mine never stops, and day and night 
 are meaningless terms in such eternal gloom and silence. The 
 heat at the bottom of the bank, indeed in all parts of the mine, is 
 very great in the extreme depths of Monkwearmouth. It is 
 seldom less than 84 or 85 deg., and at the workings often over 
 90 deg. So great is the heat, in fact, that the men nearly always 
 work almost naked, and in some cases absolutely so. The heat 
 certainly does not arise from want of proper ventilation, which 
 seems ample. Not much bratticing is used to convey the a r 
 through the workings, and it is almost entirely confined to the 
 places where the coal is won. In fact, as far as human ingenuity, 
 skill, or experience can go, the pit is made safe from gas at least. 
 Its only risk seems to be from shaft accidents or inundation, to 
 both of which more or less all colleries in this district and near to 
 the sea are, to say the least, equally exposed and equally pro- 
 tected against, as far as it is possible to do it. 
 
 Iron as a Building Material. 
 
 The late Professor Cockerell, in a lecture on Architecture, at the 
 Royal Academy, observed upon the early employment of this 
 material in building: 
 
 The progress of architecture depends as much on discovery of 
 new materials and new methods of build ng as on taste. Iron 
 was used by Tubal Cain as a subsidiary material. It has been 
 employed in build ng ever since ; but never in solid and in the 
 gross as a constituent part of the substance of building before Mr. 
 Rennie employed it as voussoirs in the Southwark Bridge. Sir 
 Robert Smirke has nobly followed in applying iron in trabeation, 
 and so has Mr. S. Smirke in the new reading-rpom of the 
 British Museum, and others ; but the engineers have kept ahead 
 of the architects, from Mr. Rennie to Messrs. Stephenson, in 
 displaying the powers of iron. 
 
 Iron has been cited in Deuteronomy as the essential and last 
 fruit of the promised land. Our interiors, as halls and churches, 
 will assume new development and grandeur by iron, since we 
 have seen 200 feet span at Birmingham without abutment, and 
 150 feet at Paris in still more enduring structure. The Pantheon 
 of Rome, Sta. Sophia, St. Peter's, the Baths, and the great R;d,ng- 
 house at Moscow, will hide their glories ; and iron will hence- 
 forward dispense with pillars and clerestory, flying-buttresses arid 
 abutments, and roof our churches in bold and single spans. With 
 
190 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 all due reverence for antiquity and precedent, we ought to open 
 our eyes to the reconciliation of this new material and its peculiar 
 faculties with the laws of proportion and taste ; and this is a 
 problem worthy of the best spirits, both as to the form of roofs 
 or ceilings, and the form of supports, which, in iron, with i-4oth 
 part of substance of stone, will give equal strength of support. 
 
 Iron may be termed the osteology of building. Hitherto the 
 architectural system has proceeded on statics and equipoise of 
 molecules, as if the human frame were built without bones. Now 
 our buildings will have bones, giving unity and strength which 
 never before existed. The nervures of the Gothic will now be in 
 uniform and single arcs, erected at once : the library at St. Gene- 
 vie ve, by Mons. Arbrusfce, exhibits an experiment in this way. 
 
 Concrete, not new. 
 
 Professor Cockerell observes: Concrete is a novelty charac- 
 teristic of the nineteenth century, or rather a resuscitation of 
 ancient practice, as shown by quoting Philibert de 1'Orme; but 
 in the bridge of Alma, at Paris, concrete has taken a new and 
 admirable development, where three arches of about 140 feet span 
 are cast on the centreing, forming one vast stone from pier to pier. 
 The only voussoirs used are in the face of the arches. A peculiar 
 cement and hard fragmented stone has effected this with vast 
 economy of cost and time, and promises well. The so-called 
 Temple of Peace at Rome is ceiled and vaulted with a similar 
 concrete. The coffering was previously moulded in all its detail 
 upon the centreing, and then covered with grosser concrete, so 
 that on removal of centreing all was finished. A vast fragment 
 now lies in the middle of the Temple, and at Tivoli we find that 
 Adrian employed the same simple process. 
 
 Sheathing Ships with Copper. 
 
 From an old pamphlet we learn that : " Mr. Pepys, a scientific 
 man, in the reign of Charles the Second, suggested the great im- 
 portance of Sheathing Ships with Copper, and urged the advan- 
 tages with sound and persuasive arguments ; and says, in some 
 despair, < I wish it were tried on one ship.' But this experiment 
 was delayed for nearly a century ; and when it was tried, al- 
 though it answered beyond expectation, yet the prejudice against 
 innovation was so strong, that in Admiral Keppel's fleet, 1778, 
 there was only one coppered ship." 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 191 
 
 Copper-smelting. 
 
 A prodigious quantity of copper is obtained from Lake Supe- 
 rior. Mr. Petherick, the well-known mining engineer, informed 
 Dr. Percy that at Minnesota, in 1854, not fewer than forty men 
 were engaged during twelve months in cutting up a single mass 
 of native copper, weighing about 500 tons ! The native copper 
 at Lake Superior in some places occurs curiously intermingled, 
 but generally not alloyed, with native silver. The following anec- 
 dote is recounted of the value of the gold in the residue from some 
 South American copper-ores, and which was communicated to 
 Dr. Percy by Dr. Lyon Playfair. At certain large chemical 
 works where sulphate of copper was prepared by dissolving cop- 
 per in sulphuric acid, an insoluble residue was produced in the 
 process, which had been put aside from time to time, and had 
 fortunately not been thrown away. A small sum was offered by 
 certain persons for this residue, which had not previously been 
 regarded as of much value. Suspicion was excited, especially by 
 the quarter from which the offer proceeded, and it was declined ; 
 whereupon the residue was examined, and was found to contain 
 7 oo/.- worth of gold ! 
 
 Antiquity of Brass. 
 
 Dr. Percy, the able metallurgist, extracts from history the re- 
 markable inference that the orichalcum of Cicero, and which 
 closely resembled gold, was really Brass; this alloy of copper and 
 zinc being the only metallic substance which it is possible to 
 conceive the ancients could have so mistaken. The modification 
 of brass which is termed " Muntz's metal," has been the subject 
 of one of the most lucrative patents known: when its well- 
 known proprietor died, his property was sworn under 6oo,ooo/. 
 
 Brilliancy of the Diamond. 
 
 The cause of the wonderful Brilliancy of the Diamond is not 
 popularly known. It has no inherent luminous power; it is 
 simply transparent, like common glass, and yet, if the latter were 
 cut into the form of a brilliant, it could no more be mistaken for 
 a real one than for a sapphire or an emerald. The secret, there- 
 fore, of the brilliancy of the diamond must lie in something other 
 than its clearness or its transparency. It is owing to its great re- 
 fractive power. When rays of white light pass through trans- 
 parent substances thev are refracted, or bent out of their former 
 
192 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 course, and under certain circumstances are separated into their 
 constituent elements, and dispersed in the form of the well- 
 known prismatic colours. The cut drops of glass chandeliers 
 show a familiar example of these properties. Now, the degree in 
 which this effect is produced by any substance depends on the 
 refractive power it possesses, and it so happens that the diamond 
 has this power in an extraordinarily high degree, its index of re- 
 fraction being 2*47, while that of glass, or rock crystal, is only 
 about 1*6, and of water 1-3. The effect of this great refractive 
 capability, particularly when aided by judicious cutting, is, in- 
 stead of allowing the light to pass through, to throw it about, 
 backwards and forwards in the body of the stone, and ultimately 
 to dart it out again in all sorts of directions, and in the most bril- 
 liant array of mingled colours ; and this is the marvellous effect 
 that meets the eye. Sir David Brewster has shown that the play 
 of colours is enhanced by the small dispersive power of the dia- 
 mond, in comparison with its refractive properties. 
 
 The general value of diamonds has been rising of late years ; 
 for, though the production is not scanty, the demand, owing to 
 general prosperity, and the extension of ornament to wider classes 
 in society, is largely on the increase. Mr. Pole; Macmillan's 
 Magazine. 
 
 Philosophy of Gunpowder. 
 
 It may be well to have one word, as transmutation , to indicate 
 chemical molecular change, and another, as transformation, to 
 indicate mechanical molecular change ; but, as industrialists, we 
 must hesitate to marvel more at the one than the other. How 
 cheerfully they labour to a common end, like twin brother and 
 sister ; the one strong by measurable strength, the other by im- 
 measurable fascinating power, we see in the case of that great 
 world-changer, that emblem of war, and minister of peace, Gun- 
 powder. It needs the strong brother to fell the oaks, and with a 
 hint from his twin to burn them into charcoal. It needs his stout 
 arms to quarry the sulphur, and bring the saltpetre from India; 
 to crush them into grains, and grind them together. But it also 
 needs his weird sister, in whose palm he lays the innocent dust, to 
 breathe upon it before the Alps are tunnelled, or Sebastopol lies 
 in ruins. Prof. George Wilson. 
 
 New Pear-favouring. 
 
 The new P^r-flavouring is derived from an alcoholic solution 
 of pure acetate of amyloxide, considerable quantities of which are 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 193 
 
 manufactured by some distillers, and sold to confectioners, who 
 employ it chiefly in making Pear-drops, which are merely barley- 
 sugar, flavoured with this oil. There is, also, an Apple-oil, which, 
 according to analysis, is nothing but valerianate of amyloxide. 
 
 Methylated Spirit. 
 
 Methylene is a highly volatile and inflammable liquid produced 
 from the destructive distillation of wood ; whence Methylated 
 Spirit, or wood spirit. It is permitted to be used, duty free, in 
 arts and manufactures. Hitherto, no effort to obtain a potable 
 spirit from methylated alcohol has succeeded. A patent has been 
 granted for a process which professes not only to accomplish this 
 object, but to render wood spirit itself potable, and that, too, at a 
 cost almost nominal ; and it has afforded matter for earnest dis- 
 cussion among some of our leading pharmacologists, who, anxious 
 to preserve the integrity of medicinal preparations, have not un- 
 reasonably been alarmed by the assertion that wood spirit can be 
 so far defecated as to render it almost indistinguishable from vinous 
 alcohol, and by the exhibition of specimens of such spirit which 
 might be used, instead of spirits of wine, for pharmaceutical pur- 
 poses. But after a series of experiments, Mr. Phillips, of the 
 Revenue Laboratory, has not been able by the process indicated 
 to render either methylated or wood spirit potable, although it 
 was submitted to numerous successive distillations, which from 
 their costliness could not be applied profitably on a commercial 
 scale. 
 
 O ne of the latest Acts passed, Session 1 863,was to reduce the duty 
 on rum. It recites that by the Act i8th and iQth Victoria, cap. 38, 
 spirit of wine was allowed to be methylated duty free ; and that 
 it is expedient to allow foreign and colonial rum to be methylated, 
 on payment of reduced duty. Rum may now be " methylated" 
 in the Customs' warehouse ; but the wood naphtha, or methylic 
 alcohol, or other article to be mixed with the rum, is to be pro- 
 vided by the Inland Revenue Commissioners ; and the mixture is 
 to be denominated " methylated spirits," and such spirits may be 
 exported. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Inland Revenue returns in 1863 showed a 
 decreased consumption of spirit, from the fact of methylated 
 spirit taking the place of duty-paid or pure spirit. Of the one 
 article of spirit of nitre, very little is sold which is not distilled 
 from "methylated finish." This increased quantity of sweet 
 spirit of nitre sold is not taken medicinally, but is extensively used 
 in the adulteration of potable spirits. 
 
194 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 What is 'Phosphate of Lime? 
 
 Phosphate of Lime, a minute constituent of all fertile soils and 
 of most waters, is of great value to the ivory-turner, the manure- 
 maker, the potter, the silver-assayer, the drug-manufacturer, the 
 dyer, and the lucifer-match maker. It reaches all of them in the 
 shape of the bones of dead animals ; dead cattle from our farms, 
 dead horses from the Pampas of South America, dead walrusses 
 from the Arctic icebergs, dead whales from the Pacific Ocean, 
 dead men even from fields of battle. Land and sea-plants have, 
 as it were, milked this essential constituent of their frames, drop 
 by drop, from the breast of nature. Animals of all classes, from 
 the lowest to the highest, have robbed plants of their hard-gotten 
 gains, and made their bones strong with the precious substance. 
 Finally, the chartered robber man has robbed them all, claiming 
 even the relics of his brethren, and obtaining in a handful of bone- 
 dust the phosphate of tons of rock and water. Prof. G. Wilson. 
 
 What is Wood? 
 
 Its chief ingredients, charcoal and water, are uncostly and 
 abundant ; but in themselves they are useless to the carpenter, 
 and he cannot change them into timber. So he calls to remem- 
 brance that his great grandfather planted an acorn, which has 
 turned its first small capital to so excellent account that now it is 
 a timber-merchant on a large scale, and will contract with you to 
 build a ship of war out of oak of its own making. It is with 
 other trees as with this ancestral oak. Each, with its republic 
 of industrious roots and leaves, is a joint-stock company with 
 limited liability, engaging to furnish you with pine-stems for 
 masts, fir- wood for planking, logwood for dyeing, cork-bark for 
 bottling, oak-bark for tanning, walnut for tables, rosewood for 
 picture-frames, satinwood for looking-glasses, willow for cradles, 
 mahogany for wardrobes, ebony for will-chests, elm-tree for 
 coffins. Those trees form the Worshipful Company of Wood- 
 makers, an ancient guild. Ibid. 
 
 How long will Wood last ? 
 
 Cedar-wood will last 1000 years. The oil of cedar- wood, 
 mixed with oil of creosote and forced into timber by means of a 
 pump, will be found highly preservative of all timber for ship- 
 building and breakwaters. In very old buildings, the timbers 
 where they have been whitewashed, are often found in the highest 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 195 
 
 state of preservation. In olden days they cut the timber in the 
 winter season, when the sap was most out of it; but now, for 
 the use of tanners, it is felled in summer ; the result of which is, 
 that it shrinks, chaps, and decays, sooner than it otherwise would. 
 The wood of the walnut-tree is very durable, and so is that of 
 the horse-chesnut-tree. Many very ancient barns about Graves- 
 end are built entirely of the last. In preparing wood for ship- 
 building, &c., it is best to lay it in a " running stream" for a few 
 days only, to extract the sap that remains in it, and then dry it 
 in the sun or air, by which it neither chaps, casts, nor cleaves. 
 The use of linseed-oil, tar, or such oleaginous matter, tends much 
 to the preservation of wood. Hesiod prescribes u smoking" 
 timber in order to preserve it : 
 
 " Temonem in fumo poneres." 
 Virgil advised the same method : 
 
 " Et suspensa focis exploret Robora fumus." 
 
 Others have advised the oil of smoke ! [pyroligneous acid ?] The 
 solid stems of trees most subject to decay, are commonly found 
 in the Irish u peat-bogs," in such excellent preservation, that they 
 are esteemed equal to any timber for substantial buildings ; the 
 peat being highly antiseptic and preservative. Larix (which can 
 be procured in blocks of any size from Dantzig) is the best kind 
 of wood for breakwaters, harbours, &c. It is capable of resist- 
 ing the weather for a length of time in those situations. Corre- 
 spondent of the Builder. 
 
 The Safety Ma+ch. 
 
 The statistics of London Fires in one year (1858) show that, 
 out of the IT 14 fires forming the total of serious conflagrations, 
 the following proportion was occasioned by the usual contrivances 
 for procuring flame, viz. : 
 
 Children playing with lucifers . . . .13 
 
 Lucifer matches accidentally ignited , . 7 
 
 making . . . . . 3 
 
 careless use of * . . . 17 
 
 39 
 
 In the first of these instances the sacrifice of life and wholesale 
 destruction of property were traced principally to the fact of 
 children inserting lucifer matches into various nooks and crevices, 
 where an accidental concussion had produced their ignition. The 
 next in the series of casualties are accidents resulting from the 
 sudden ignition of boxes or bundles of phosphorized matches. The 
 
 O 2 
 
196 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 necessity as well as the possibility of removing the fatal cause of 
 these accidents has long been felt ; and by the following con- 
 trivance such occurrences, which hitherto have led to so many 
 terrible disasters, may be completely obviated. This invention, 
 which has reached us from France, consists of a match which 
 cannot ignite by friction with ordinary substances, but which 
 bursts into flame when struck upon a chemically-prepared sub- 
 stance, owing to the peculiar action occurring between the two 
 bodies which are thus brought into contact. Without the pre- 
 pared strip, the matches may be struck or trodden upon without 
 the possibility of ignition. The advantage of having these articles 
 tipped with a material which is not inflammable per se is suffi- 
 ciently obvious, not only to careful housewives, but to the owners 
 of large establishments where the ordinary rt lucifers " are now 
 used, and, we are afraid, often left carelessly about. 
 
 The reputed inventor of the Lucifer Match died in 1859, in 
 Stockton, aged seventy-eight. The Gateshead Observer adds to 
 this announcement: "In the year 1852 (August), correcting 
 the history of < matches' in the < Jurors' Reports' (Great Exhi- 
 bition), we stated, says our authority, that < A quarter of a century 
 ago, Mr. John Walker, of Stockton-upon-Tees, then (as now) 
 carrying on the business of chemist and druggist in that town, was 
 preparing some lighting mixture for his own use. By the acci- 
 dental friction on the hearth of a match dipped in the mixture, a 
 light was obtained. The hint was not thrown away. Mr. Walker 
 commenced the sale of friction-matches : this was in April, 1827.' 
 Dr. Faraday, it is said, first brought the discovery into general 
 notice." 
 
 Pottery. Wedgwood. 
 
 There are three conditions locally necessary to the manufacture 
 of Earthenware : the first is the presence of coals, the second is 
 the existence of beds of clay and the accessibility of other materials 
 of minor importance, and the third is the requisite labour. The 
 great Wedgwood found these conditions to be mainly fulfilled in 
 the part of North Staffordshire now called Stoke-upon-Trent, and 
 with an enterprise, an industry, and a perseverance which is appre- 
 ciated there, set on foot a manufacture which has now become a 
 staple, and employs, directly or indirectly, upwards of 100,000 of 
 the population of this country, and which is at this time one of 
 the most important articles of our commercial interchange. 
 
 Where there is coal there is generally iron, and iron works and 
 earthenware manufactories naturally and unavoidably engender 
 smoke ; but although the inhabitants of the Potteries have refused 
 to accept any compulsory measure, which, if recklessly carried 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 197 
 
 out, might completely annihilate their trade and deprive of em- 
 ployment the vast number of the inhabitants of the district, yet 
 there is no place where greater efforts have been made by private 
 individuals voluntarily to adopt measures for the suppression of 
 what they admit to be an evil, not in any degree to the extent set 
 forth. 
 
 The first use of flint in pottery has been thus explained. A 
 potter named A stbury, travelling to London, perceived something 
 amiss with one of his horse's eyes, when an ostler at Dunstable 
 said he could cure him, and for that purpose put a common black 
 flint into the fire. The potter observing it when taken out to be 
 of a fine white, immediately conceived the idea of improving his 
 ware by the addition of this material to the clay. 
 
 Imposing Mechanical Effects. 
 
 Mechanical force, when exerted even as a motive-power, can 
 be employed by man on many a grand scale. The movements of 
 massive pieces of machinery, even though moving aimlessly, still 
 more when working for a purpose, always awaken in us the idea of 
 power ; and often also create emotions of awe and sublimity akin 
 to those which are begotten by the spectacle of great natural 
 phenomena. The sweep of a railway train across the country, 
 and the dash of a war-steamer against the waves with which it 
 measures its strength, never become paltry pageants, even though 
 we are ignorant of the errands on which these swift coursers are 
 bound. Still more striking are those actions of machinery which 
 involve not only swift irresistible motion, but also transformation 
 of the materials on which the moving force is exerted. Take, for 
 example, a cotton-mill, which some never tire of representing as 
 dreary and prosaic. In the basement story revolves an immense 
 steam-engine, unresting and unhasting as a star, in its stately, 
 orderly movements. It stretches its strong iron arms in every 
 direction throughout the building ; and into whatever chamber 
 you enter, as you climb stair after stair, you find its million hands 
 in motion, and its fingers, which are as skilful as they are nimble, 
 busy at work. They pick cotton and cleanse it, card it, rove it, 
 twist it, spin it, dye it, and weave it. They will work any pat- 
 tern you select, and in as many colours as you choose ; and do 
 all with such celerity, dexterity, unexhausted energy, and skill, 
 that you begin to see what was prefigured in the legend of Michael 
 Scott, and his u Sabbathless " demons (as Charles Lamb would 
 have called them), to whom the most hateful of all things was 
 rest, and ropemaking, though it were of sand, more welcome than 
 idleness. For our own part, we gaze with untiring wonder and ad- 
 
198 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 miration on the steam Agathodaemons of a cotton -mill,the embodi- 
 ments, all of them, of a few very simple statical and dynamical laws; 
 and yet able, with the speed of race-horses, to transform a raw 
 material, originally as cheap as thistle-down, into endless useful 
 and beautiful fabrics. Michael Scott, had he lived to see them, 
 would have dismissed his demons and broken his wand. Prof. 
 George Wilsonl* 
 
 Horse-power. 
 
 In speaking of the power, or force which an engine exerts, it is 
 necessary to have some measure of force, or standard of inference. 
 That used in this country is a Horse-power, a force equal to that 
 which the average strength of a horse was believed capable of ex- 
 erting. This has been. estimated at 33,000 Ib. avoirdupois weight, 
 raised one foot high in a minute. There have been different esti- 
 mates as to the real power of horses ; and it is now considered 
 that taking the most advantageous rate, for using horse-power, 
 the medium power of that animal is equal to 22,000 Ib. raised one 
 foot high per minute. However, the other 33,000 Ib. is taken as 
 the standard, and is what is meant when a horse-power is spoken 
 of. In comparing the power of a steam-engine with that of 
 horses applied to do the same work, it must be remembered that 
 the engine horse-power is 33,000 Ib. raised one foot per minute ; 
 the real horse-power only 22,000 Ib. ; and that the engine will 
 work unceasingly for twenty-four hours, while the horse works 
 at that rate only eight hours. The engine works three times as 
 long as the horse ; hence, to do the same work in a day as the 
 engine of one horse-power, 4-5 horses would be required (33,000 
 X 3=99,000 ; 99,000-^22,000=4*5). The power of a man may 
 be estimated at one- fifth of the real power of a horse, or 44,000 Ib. 
 raised one foot per minute. Hugo Reid on the Steam-Engine. 
 
 The First Practical Steam-boat. 
 
 Mr. Macquorn Rankine, in supporting the opinion of Mr. 
 Benet Woodcroft, that the title of the " first practical steamboat" 
 is due to that vessel in which the double-acting cranked steam- 
 engine in short, Watt's rotative engine was first applied to 
 drive the propeller, proceeds on the principle, that to constitute 
 a " practical " machine, that machine must be capable, not merely 
 ot working well during a series of experiments, but of continuing to 
 
 * This and the other abstracts in the present section by Prof. Georgt 
 Wilson, are from a valuable paper by that able writer, on the Physical 
 Sciences which form the Basis of Technology. 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 199 
 
 work well for years, with ordinary care in its management and re- 
 pairs. Such certainly never was, and never could have been the case, 
 with any steam-boat in which the wheels were made to turn by means 
 of chains and rachet- work a sort of mechanism which may answer 
 its purpose during an experiment, but which must rapidly wear 
 itself out by shocks and rattling. Such an engine is not a " prac- 
 tical steam-engine;" and a vessel driven by it is not a " practical 
 steam-boat." Hence the importance which Mr. Rankine is dis- 
 posed to ascribe to the first actual use of a permanently efficient 
 rotative steam-engine to drive a vessel. 
 
 It may be true that as an original inventor, Symington ought 
 to be ranked below his predecessors ; because his steam-boat of 
 1 80 1 was only a new combination of parts which had pre- 
 viously been invented separately by others the paddle-wheel, 
 by some unknown mechanic of remote antiquity ; the applica- 
 tion of steam to drive vessels, by a series of inventors, comprising 
 Papin, Hulls, D. Bernouilli, Jouffroy, Miller, and Taylor ; and 
 the rotative steam-engine by Watt : still, the merit of having 
 first used a " practical steam-engine" to drive a vessel is due to 
 Symington. Communicated to the Literary and Philosophical So- 
 ciety of Manchester ) 1863. 
 
 Effect of Heavy Seas upon Large Vessels. 
 
 Professor Tennant, in considering the effect of heavy seas upon 
 vessels of 400 to 600 feet long, remarks that the waves of the 
 Atlantic are stated, by some captains of American < liners," to 
 attain an elevation of 20 feet, with a length of 160 feet, and a ve- 
 locity of 25 to 30 miles per hour. Dr. Scoresby, in his paper on 
 Atlantic waves, gives about the same mean elevation for the 
 waves in rather a hard gale a-head ; on one occasion, with a hard 
 gale and heavy squalls, some few waves attained a height of 43 
 feet, with a length of nearly 600 feet, and a velocity exceeding 30 
 miles an hour. Other authorities assume even more than those 
 heights and distances. The amount of strength, to resist the im- 
 pact of such waves, must vary with the length and size of a ship, 
 and the materials of which it was constructed ; and as the ex- 
 perience of the Britannia Bridge shows, that a weight of 460 tons, 
 at a velocity of 30 miles per hour, could be borne by a cellular 
 tube of 460 feet span, it was demonstrated, that by the use of 
 iron, almost any amount of strength could be given to a vessel ; 
 and as stability could be imparted by proper proportions, efficient 
 vessels could be built of any dimensions, as has been exemplified 
 by the Great Britain, which after remaining ashore on rocks for 
 several months, had been got off without serious injury. 
 
200 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 The Railway. 
 
 <f Depend upon it, whenever this new mode of travelling comes 
 into operation, we shall become altogether a faster people," was 
 the vaticination of a common-sense observer some thirty years 
 since ; and experience has proved the soundness of the opinion. 
 Increased facility of moving from place to place must, more or 
 less, affect every one except the recluse shut up in his chamber 
 from choice, or the less fortunate one prostrated on the bed of 
 suffering, or age 
 
 " Lies he not bedrid ? And again does nothing 
 But what he did, being childish." Shakspeare. 
 
 This quickening of locomotion has multiplied our desires by 
 adding to the means of gratifying them ; a greater number of in- 
 cidents and opportunities of observation is thus gained ; but, 
 being crowded into the same length of existence, the wear and 
 tear becomes greater ; the knife wears out the sheath ; and men 
 grow old before they reach mid-age ; or rather, the finer portions 
 of existence are lost, and the residue approaches a caput mortuum. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Railway is yet an incomplete invention ; and it 
 is contended that our passenger-trains are deficient in the requi- 
 site accommodation for the comfort and even health of the pas- 
 sengers, who are still exposed to an unnecessary vibration which, 
 in the course of continual travelling, produces nervous diseases. 
 Mr. Bridges Adams, the engineer, and therefore a practical autho- 
 rity upon the subject, maintains that the railway companies are so 
 fettered in their operations as to be unable to make feasible 
 improvements : were these restrictions removed, Mr. Adams 
 contends the public would receive the advantage in many forms, 
 in easier and cheaper transit, and in reciprocal relations of town 
 and country, such as involve a revolution in our national eco- 
 mies. The same acute writer anticipates the time when our 
 towns shall have their railway-streets, which may become a fact 
 at no very distant future. London has already its subterranean 
 railway ; above, the air is grilled with the electric-wire railway ; 
 and the street- system is being commenced upon the banks of the 
 Thames, and the stream is already bridged with viaducts. 
 
 Occidents on Railways. 
 
 The question of Railway Accidents involves the whole question 
 of railway management in detail. Accidents may be called the 
 weak points of the system, where imperfection is manifested, 
 where failure crops out, and where the line of demarcation may 
 be drawn between the practicable and the impracticable. " If 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 201 
 
 the road is perfect," says Captain Huish, u if the engine is per- 
 fect, it the carriages are perfect, and I will go on to say, if the 
 signalman is perfect, and if everything about the railway is per- 
 fect, almost any amount of speed that can be got out of an 
 engine may be done with safety. But we deal not with theoretical 
 excellence, but with practical facts, and none of these things are 
 perfect ; and in a large machine like a railway they cannot always 
 be kept perfect." 
 
 Safety to life and limb is of course the most important con- 
 sideration in the working of railway traffic. Yet the problem is 
 substantially this : There are upwards of one hundred and forty 
 millions of passengers and seventy million tons of goods per annum 
 conveyed over our railways; assumed that all these must be 
 transported by railway, what is the best way to do it ? It must 
 at the best be by a species of compromise ; there must be a limit 
 to tentative measures, there must be a risk. "If you do not go 
 at all," says Mr. Seymour Clarke, " there is no risk of an acci- 
 dent ; if you go one mile an hour it is more risky than if you stand 
 still ; it is a natural attendant upon all travelling, that there is a 
 liability to accident of some sort." And, again, Mr. Locke thinks 
 " that where you have the certainty of inflicting an inconvenience 
 on the public by a prospective advantage in the saving of an acci- 
 dent, you should be very careful how you entail perpetually recur- 
 ring inconvenience for the sake of preventing an accident which 
 may never arise." 
 
 The Evidence adduced before the Select Committee of the House 
 of Commons on railway accidents in 1858, from which the fore- 
 going extracts have been made, has led the committee to the con- 
 clusion, that accidents on railways arise from three causes in- 
 attention of servants ; defective material, either in the works or 
 the rolling stock ; and excessive speed. 
 
 Of the accidents reported to the Board of Trade that happened in 1857, 
 there appears to have been twice as many by collision between trains as by 
 running off the rails ; and of the accidents by collision, five-sixths took 
 place between passenger-trains and goods trains j and only about one- 
 sixth between passenger-trains one against another. It further appears 
 that a very small proportion, not above one in twenty, of the accidents re- 
 ported, have directly arisen from excessive speed, but in every case in con- 
 junction with imperfections in the permanent way. It may be observed 
 that the greater proportion, if not all of these accidents, may be traced 
 primarily to the crowding of trains, timed for unequal speeds, and the want 
 of punctuality, which involve the risk of every kind of accident as a con- 
 sequence : by a want of perfect manifestation or apprehension of signals, 
 or by excessive speeds. As tentative measures, the free use of the electric 
 telegraph for giving intelligence of the exact relative positions and circum- 
 stances of trains on the line, and the use of the most powerful brakes for 
 
202 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 bringing up the trains in the shortest practicable distance, are probably of 
 the most urgent necessity. Perfect brakes are also indisputably promotive 
 of safety in working traffic and in compensating for unavoidable irregula- 
 rities. With the usual amount of braking power, a train at 50 miles per 
 hour may not be stopped within 900 or 1200 yards. An instantaneous 
 brake is not of course what is wanted j on the contrary, a length of 200 
 yards appears to be the shortest desirable space within which a train at 50 
 or 60 miles per hour should be stopped, so that the process of retardation 
 should not be accompanied by risk of carriages riding over each other, or 
 of violence to the passengers. This appears to have been accomplished by 
 powerful systems of train-brakes. Steam-brakes applied to the locomotives 
 and extended to the tenders, and even to the brake-vans, have been found 
 beneficial and capable of stopping a train within half the usual distance. 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica y 8th edit. 
 
 Railways and Invasions. 
 
 The Volunteer Review at Brighton, in 1862, afforded a good 
 practical demonstration of the facility with which troops might 
 be moved towards a threatened point on the particular railway 
 which would be most likely to be required for such a duty in an 
 actual case of emergency. On the morning of the review, 6922 
 Volunteers were despatched from London-bridge in 2 hours 
 and 41 minutes, and 5170 from the Victoria Station in 2 hours 
 and 20 minutes, without difficulty. They were conveyed in 16 
 trains, each composed of an engine and tender and 22 vehicles, 
 and each carrying on an average 20 officers and 735 men ; and 
 they reached Brighton in an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes 
 from the time of starting. The Company had also to provide for 
 the Easter Monday traffic, and to convey upwards of 2000 Vo- 
 lunteers along the south coast from the several stations on their 
 own line. Indeed, the total number of passengers who travelled 
 upon the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway on that 
 day was 132,202, including Volunteers and the holders of season 
 and return tickets. 
 
 The vast power which the railways of this country place at the 
 disposal of the Government for the transport of troops is little 
 known. It is in practice limited only by the number of troops 
 that are forthcoming ; and railway organization is highly favour- 
 able for the concentration of all its energies upon this object 
 whenever it is worth while to interfere with the ordinary traffic. 
 
 Connected with the Brighton Railway system alone there are 
 145 locomotive engines, 1858 carriages or passenger vehicles, and 
 2588 waggons and trucks or merchandise vehicles, for working 
 240 miles: on the South-Eastern there are 179 engines, 972 car- 
 riages, and 2535 waggons, for 286 miles; and on the South- 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 203 
 
 "Western, 177 engines, 850 carriages, and 3488 trucks, for 444 
 miles. These numbers might be increased to any amount, if 
 increase were required, at a day's notice, by aid from the gigantic 
 resources of the more extensive systems north of London. Ex- 
 cursion traffic is more difficult to manage in many respects than 
 military traffic. A word from the commanding-officer procures 
 an amount of order in the one case which barriers and policemen 
 foil to do in the other. A hundred thousand men may at any 
 time be conveyed without fatigue from London to Brighton in a 
 single day, and they may further be transported along the coast 
 from point to point, to Portsmouth and Weymouth on the west, 
 and to Dover on the east, without break of gauge. They may 
 also be brought from the north through London, and from the 
 north, via Reading, without coming to London at all ; and, in- 
 deed, the means of communication thus afforded are of so much 
 importance to successful defence, that the railway system deter- 
 mines to a great extent in this country, as it has notably done in 
 America, the strategic lines along which offensive operations must 
 be carried on, and defensive movements effected.-Quarterfy &?- 
 view, No. 223. 
 
 What the English owe to naturalized Foreigners. 
 
 The industry of England owes much to the foreigners who 
 have from time to time become settled and naturalized amongst 
 us. Dr. Percy has stated, in his Metallurgy , that we are indebted 
 to German miners, introduced into England by the wisdom of 
 Elizabeth, for the early development of our mineral resources. 
 It also appears that the Dutch were our principal instructors in 
 civil and mechanical engineering ; draining extensive marsh and 
 fen lands along the east coast in the reign of James I., and erecting 
 for us pumping-engines and mill-machinery of various kinds. 
 Many of the Flemings, driven from their own country by the 
 Duke of Alva, sought and found an asylum in England, bringing 
 with them their skill in dyeing, cloth-working, and horticulture ; 
 while the thousands who flocked into the kingdom on the revo- 
 cation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., introduced the arts 
 of manufacturing in glass, silk, velvet, lace, and cambric, which 
 have since become established branches of industry. The reli- 
 gious persecutions in Belgium and France not only banished from 
 those countries free Protestant thought, but at the same time 
 expelled the best industrial skill, and England eventually obtained 
 the benefit of both. 
 
 Our mechanical proficiency, however, has been a comparatively 
 recent growth. Like many others of our national qualities, it has 
 
204. KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 come out suddenly and unexpectedly. But, though late learners, 
 we have been so apt that we have already outstripped our teachers ; 
 and there is scarcely a branch of manufacture in which we have 
 not come up to, if indeed we have not surpassed, the most 
 advanced continental nations. 
 
 The invention of the steam-engine, towards the end of last 
 century, had the effect of giving an extraordinary impetus to im- 
 provement, particularly in various branches of iron manufacture ; 
 and we began to export machines, engines, and ironwork to 
 France, Germany, and the Low Countries, whence we had 
 before imported them. Although this great invention was per- 
 fected by Watt, much of the preliminary investigation in con- 
 nexion with the subject had been conducted by eminent French 
 refugees: as by Desaugliers, the author of the well-known 
 Course of Experimental Philosophy, and by Denis Papin, for some 
 time Curator of the Royal Society, whose many ingenious appli- 
 cations of steam-power prove him to have been a person of great 
 and original ability. But the most remarkable of these early 
 inventors was unquestionably Thomas Savery also said to have 
 been a French refugee, though very little is known of him per- 
 sonally who is entitled to the distinguished merit of having 
 invented and constructed the first working steam-engine. All 
 these men paved the way for Watt, who placed the copestone on 
 the work of which the distinguished Frenchmen had in a great 
 measure laid the foundations. 
 
 Many other men of eminence, descendants of the refugees, 
 might be named, who have from time to time added greatly to 
 pur scientific and productive resources. Amongst names which 
 incidentally occur to us are those of Dollond the optician ; and 
 Fourdrinier, the inventor of the paper-making machine. Passing 
 over these, many were the emigres who flocked over to England 
 at the outbreak of the great French Revolution of 1789, and who 
 maintained themselves by teaching the practice of art, and by 
 other industrial pursuits. Of these, perhaps, the most distin- 
 guished was Marc Isambard Brunei, who for the greater part of 
 his life followed the profession of an engineer, leaving behind him 
 a son as illustrious as himself, Isambard Kingdom Brunei, the 
 engineer of the Great Western and other railways, the designer 
 of the Great Eastern steam-ship, and the architect ot many im- 
 portant public works. Abridged from the Quarterly Review, 
 No. 223. 
 
 Geological Growth. 
 
 Geologists who are familiar with the idea of Geological phe- 
 nomena worked out through periods of inconceivable duration 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 205 
 
 will, perhaps, be able to appreciate Mr. E. B. Hunt's argument on 
 the growth and chronology of the great Florida reet. After 
 stating the dimensions of the reef, Mr. Hunt proceeds : " Taking 
 the rate at twenty-four years to the foot, we shall have for the total 
 time 24 X 250 X 900, on the data, as stated ; or we find the total 
 period of 5,400,000 years as that required for the growth of the 
 entire coral limestone formation of Florida." 
 
 cc Implements in the Drift" 
 
 We have already, at page 59, referred to these important 
 evidences, in connexion with the mode of life of the present inha- 
 bitants of Tierra del Fuego. The geological inference must, 
 however, be drawn with extreme caution, which induces us to 
 return to the subject. 
 
 The period of time long before history was, for convenience 
 we designate the <( Stone Age." We gather from manifold evi- 
 dence that during this period metals were unknown. Wherever 
 their use was introduced, there the " Stone Age" virtually ended. 
 The recent discovery of the flint instruments of the drift seems to 
 carry the "Stone Age " back to a period of which, till very lately, 
 we had no idea. The interval between the time when men 
 fashioned these thousands of implements already found in the drift, 
 and the earliest examples of the second " Stone Age" so to speak, 
 as the Danish " kjokkenmbdding," or the oldest Swiss " pfahlbau," 
 must be long indeed. 
 
 It by no means follows that all the men who have used stone 
 weapons must necessarily have been savages. At least, a consi- 
 deration of the every-day life of the Swiss " pfahlbauten" would 
 refute such a proposition. There was progress even in the " Stone 
 Age," and the iron swords of the Gauls of Brennus probably dif- 
 fered less from the finest-tempered Damascus blade than do the 
 flint implements of the drift from those ot Denmark ; or, to come 
 nearer home, from the stone relics of our Channel Islands. There 
 may have been an all-pervading " Stone Age," but universality is 
 not implied in the term. The people of the lands now Hungary 
 and Transylvania seem to have used copper implements, preceding 
 those of bronze, when the men ot the West were fashioning their 
 flints. 
 
 The present state of the tribes of Tierra del Fuego is their 
 " Stone Age," and, if ever they become a nation hereafter, they will 
 probably collect in their museums the humble implements of their 
 earliest culture. 
 
 The above observations were communicated to the Times, 
 
206 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 April 30, 1863 : it is but a glimpse of a great subject, but is so 
 suggestive as to be entitled to attention. 
 
 The Earth and Man compared. 
 
 If it were possible for man to construct a globe 800 feet, or 
 twice the height of St. Paul's Cathedral, in diameter, and to place 
 upon any one point of its surface an atom ^^th of an inch in 
 diameter, and ^Yoth part of an inch in height, it would correctly 
 denote the proportion man^ bears to the earth upon which he 
 stands. 
 
 Why the Earth is presumed to be solid. 
 
 Besides the confirmation of some of the most material points 
 of the theory of gravitation which results from the experiment of 
 " Weighing the Earth,"* it furnishes a presumption of the 
 strongest kind that the earth is solid to the centre, and not, as 
 many have supposed in every age, a hollow shell. The mean 
 density, 5!, is very much greater than that of the substances 
 which abound at the surface. All common rocks are under 3, 
 and nothing under the ores of the heaviest metals comes up to gf . 
 The earth is as massive as if it were all composed of silver ore, 
 from the centre to the circumference, so that there must be an 
 increase of density towards the centre. If those who think the 
 earth to be a shell were to presume that its solidity ceased at 
 500 miles below the surface, they would then be compelled to 
 give to the terrestrial matter, one part with another, a density 
 greater than that of mercury, in order that the whole shell, the 
 hollow part included, might have the mean density which is found 
 by this experiment. Penny Cyclopaedia. 
 
 The Centre of the Earth. 
 
 Lt.-Col. Sir Henry James writes to the Athenaeum as follows : 
 In verifying on a globe the interesting fact stated by Sir John 
 Herschel, in his Outlines of Astronomy ', and by Sir Charles Lyell, 
 in his Principles of Geology y that the central point of the hemi- 
 sphere which contains the maximum of land, falls very nearly 
 upon London, or more exactly upon Falmouth, our most western 
 port of departure for all parts of the habitable globe, it occurred 
 to me to inquire what would be the central point of that portion 
 of the globe which should include the whole of Europe, Asia, 
 
 * Described and illustrated in Things not generally Known. First 
 Series. 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 207 
 
 Africa, and America ; and I found that the point lies in lat. 
 23 3' on tne northern tropical line, and in 15 E. long., near a 
 place called Chad in Africa, about 700 miles south of Tripoli. 
 But the portion of the globe which, from this point as a centre, 
 includes the so-called four quarters of the world is as near as 
 possible two-thirds of the surface of the sphere ; and I found that 
 by projecting this portion of the sphere upon a plane drawn 
 parallel to the great circle of which the above defined centre was 
 in the pole and at 20 from it, and from a point in the prolonga- 
 tion of the axis of this great circle distant one-half of the radius 
 from the surface of the sphere, that the whole of the four quarters 
 of the globe could be represented on one strictly geometrical pro- 
 jection. I have had this projection made by Mr. J. O'Farrell, 
 one of the highly intelligent assistants of the Ordnance Survey. I 
 believe this is the first time that two- thirds of a sphere has been 
 presented to the eye at one view. 
 
 The Cooling of the Earth. 
 
 It is a generally received belief among geologists, that the centre 
 of the earth is occupied by incandescent fluid matter, which is 
 gradually but constantly losing its heat. Adopting this theory, 
 which rests on mere conjecture, Professor William Thomson, in 
 a paper published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 
 Edinburgh, endeavours to fix the date of the first consolidation of 
 the globe, supposed to have been once in a state of perfect lique- 
 faction. It is estimated that the temperature increases as we de- 
 scend towards the centre of the earth, at the average rate of one 
 degree of Fahrenheit per 50 British feet, or 105 degrees per mile. 
 Our author admits the temperature of melting rock to be 7000 
 degrees ; supposing, therefore, the surface of the earth to have 
 been in a fluid state, its consolidation, he thinks, cannot have 
 taken place less than 20,000,000 years ago, since we should other- 
 wise have more underground heat than we actually have ; nor 
 more than 400,000,000 years ago, because in that case we should 
 have much less. This, it must be allowed, is rather a wide range, 
 and is a curious instance of the strange results which calculation 
 affords when applied to a gratuitous hypothesis. Compared with 
 the earth's radius, which is 3958 miles, the depths to which we 
 have been able to penetrate are utterly insignificant, and can afford 
 no reliable data whatever ; the more so, as by Professor Thomson's 
 own admission, the rate of increase of temperature decreases pro- 
 gressively. 
 
 Our author, moreover, in the course of his arguments, meets 
 with difficulties, the importance of which does not seem to have 
 
208 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 escaped him, since he endeavonrs to remove them by some rather 
 doubtful assertions. To those, for instance, who would object 
 to the supposition that any natural action could possibly produce 
 at one instant, and maintain for ever after, a 7000 degrees' lower- 
 ing of the surface temperature of the earth, he replies : " I answer 
 by saying, wnat I think cannot be denied, that a large mass of 
 rock exposed freely to our air and sky will, after it once becomes 
 crusted over, present in a few hours, or a few days, or at the most 
 a few weeks, a surface so cool that it can be walked over with 
 impunity." Now we do confess ourselves very much inclined to 
 deny such a proposition. What kind of mass does our author 
 mean? Is it a small mass ? then he need but visit a gun foundry, 
 where he will find pieces of ordnance still hot though cast several 
 days before. Or is it a large mass, like a mountain ? The nearest 
 approach to it would be lava, which remains hot for weeks after 
 the eruption, and for any larger mass there is no evidence either in 
 existence or possible. But the immense difficulty of the subject 
 may be inferred from the fact, that Professor Thomson himself 
 further down makes an admission which is fatal to his own view, 
 viz., that " if at any time the earth were in the condition of a thin 
 solid shell of, suppose, 50 or TOO feet thick of granite, enclosing a 
 continuous melted mass of 20 per cent, less specific gravity in its 
 upper parts, where the pressure is small, this condition cannot 
 have lasted many minutes, since the rigidity of a solid shell of 
 superficial extent so vast in comparison with its thickness must 
 be as nothing, and the slightest disturbance would cause some 
 part to bend down, crack, and allow the liquid to run out over 
 the solid." What then, we may ask, becomes of the liquid theory 
 altogether ? Galignanis Messenger. 
 
 Identity of Heat and Motion. 
 
 George Stephenson's remark, that the sun is the agent that drives 
 our locomotives, has attained a wider and more definite meaning 
 from modern investigations. It is now known, not only that heat 
 and motion are mysteriously related, but that they are the same 
 thing. From the researches of Mayer and Joule, Thomson and 
 Rankine, it is ascertained that so much heat can be converted into 
 so much motion, and the motion reconverted into the original 
 quantity of heat. Sir William Armstrong says that a degree of 
 Fahrenheit in a pound of water is the same thing as the force re- 
 quired to lift 772 pounds a foot high, thus testifying to the final 
 and exact establishment of the largest generalization which modem 
 science has made ; and among the many fruits which cannot but 
 flow from the discovery, one of the earliest is its application, by 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 209 
 
 Sir William Armstrong himself, to test the waste of power in 
 artillery practice, by observing the heat called forth in the shot. 
 Every degree of temperature added to the projectile is part of the 
 force intended to destroy the target ; and if it is asked what ma- 
 terial makes the most effective cannon-ball, it is only necessary to 
 ascertain what substance will keep coolest when it strikes the mark. 
 It is observable that the convertibility of heat and motion opens up 
 a new light into the ultimate constitution of mattei. The mar- 
 vellous experiments of Professor Tyndall on the power of the 
 minutest films of gas and vapour to absorb heat, as a dark glass 
 stops light, are equally interesting as valuable contributions to 
 meteorology, and as a new mode of probing the molecular condi- 
 tion of the gases themselves. The laws of the variation of at- 
 mospheric temperature were unfathomable until it was discovered 
 that the habitable quality of the earth depends on the floating 
 vapour which clothes it, and which keeps it warm in exactly the 
 same way as the coverings by which we protect our bodies from 
 the inclemency of the weather ; but the significance of these ex- 
 periments goes far beyond the limits of a single branch of 
 science, and again we seem to be hovering on the verge of large 
 revelations as to the ultimate arrangement of the particles of 
 matter. 
 
 It is in the development of new powers of testing the infinitesi- 
 mal, and carrying research immeasurably beyond the coarse limits 
 of microscopic vision, that the strength of recent effort has been 
 displayed. The most startling result of this form of investigation 
 is the insight which has been gained into the materials and the 
 condition of the luminous atmosphere of the sun. It could 
 scarcely have been anticipated that the nature of a body separated 
 from us by millions of miles should have been discovered by ex- 
 periments which deal with qualities hidden in the inconceivably mi- 
 nute dimensions which express the form and distances of what, for 
 want of better knowledge, may still be termed the ultimate atoms 
 of material substances ; and yet it was by testing the light- stopping 
 power of thin films of different vapours, that philosophers have 
 felt themselves entitled to say that some of the same substances 
 which we are familiar with on earth have contributed to the at- 
 mosphere ot the sun. Saturday Review. 
 
 Universal Source of Heat. 
 
 Dr. Percy, in his very able Treatise on Metallurgy, gives an 
 explanation of the principle that the sun is really the source of 
 the heat-producing power of all fuel ; and we are inevitably re- 
 minded of the question with which George Stephenson puzzled 
 
 p 
 
210 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Buckland. " Now, Buckland,'' saidStephenson,as they were looking 
 at a train in motion, " can you tell me what is the power that is 
 driving that train ?" " Well," said the other, " I suppose it is 
 one of your big engines." u But what drives the engine ?" u Oh ! 
 very likely a canny Newcastle driver." " What do you say to 
 the light of the sun ?" <( How can that be?" asked the Doctor. 
 t( It is nothing else," said the engineer : u it is light bottled up in the 
 earth for tens of thousands of years ; light, absorbed by plants and 
 vegetables, being necessary for the condensation of carbon during 
 the process of their growth, if it be not carbon in another form, 
 and now, after being buried in the earth for long ages in fields 
 of coal, that latent light is again brought forth and liberated, made 
 to work, as in that locomotive, for great human purposes." Dr. 
 Percy explains the process by which this light or heat is stored, 
 and discusses the question of fuel in all its forms and branches. 
 We find under this head, inter multa alia, an account of the 
 manufacture of the peat-bricks in South Bavaria, which have for 
 some years past been used for the boilers of locomotives ; again, 
 an explanation of the failure of Mr. Vignoles's process of manu- 
 facturing iron in Ireland by means of peat charcoal, in conse- 
 quence of the value of the raw material so much exceeding his 
 estimate ; besides an elaborate discussion on that litigated ques- 
 tion so differently judged by different tribunals, and still unde- 
 cided " What is or is not coal ?" 
 
 Inequalities of the Earth's Surface. 
 
 The earth is a spherical body, or, more correctly, an elliptic 
 spheroid. Its surface, therefore, may be considered equidistant 
 from its centre point within, and of uniform curvature. This is 
 so as regards the ocean, which is 
 
 " Unchangeable save to its wild waves' play ;" 
 
 but the surface of the land is very diversified. In parts it is 
 spread out into plains ; in others, into easy undulations. Here 
 and there it rises into hills, with valleys and extensive basins be- 
 tween them ; while at places chains of mountains appear at vary- 
 ing altitudes, some of which penetrate the clouds. 
 
 Although the irregularities of the small portion of land which 
 we can see at one view seem very considerable, and more espe- 
 cially the largest mountains, yet these protuberances are insigni- 
 ficant when compared to the magnitude of the earth itself. 
 
 Mount Everest, in Nepaul, is the loftiest point of the Himalaya 
 chain, and the highest mountain in the world It rises 29,002 
 feet equal to 5-49 miles, above the level of the sea. This 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 211 
 
 height is only I ) part of the earth's diameter; 
 
 V 5*49 / J 44i 
 
 or equal to i inch placed on a globe ( = J 120 feet in dia- 
 meter. It therefore bears the same proportion to the diameter of 
 the earth that a grain of sand, the ninetieth part of an inch in 
 
 diameter, does to a globe f = J 16 inches in diameter. 
 
 <( If we would construct a correct model of our earth, with its 
 seas, continents, and mountains, on a globe 16 inches in diameter, 
 the whole of the land, with the exception of a few prominent 
 points and ridges, must be comprised on it within the thickness 
 of thin writing paper ; and the highest hills would be represented 
 by the smallest visible grains of sand."* 
 
 Astronomers have measured the distances and weighed the 
 masses of the planets, yet the height of the atmosphere and the 
 depths of the ocean are unsolved problems. The bottom of " blue 
 water" is almost as unknown to us as the interior of the earth. It 
 is a common opinion that the greatest depths of the sea are about 
 equal to the greatest heights of the mountains. Attempts have 
 been repeatedly made to sound out its depths, but no reliance can 
 be placed on any reports of soundings beyond 8000 or 10,000 feet. 
 One ran out his sounding-line 34,000 feet, and did not touch 
 bottom ; another 39,000 feet with the same result ; one reported 
 bottom at 49,000 feet, another at 50,000 feet. But there are no 
 such depths. There are currents and counter-currents in the 
 ocean, as in the air, which operate upon the bight of the sounding- 
 line, and cause it to run out after the weight has reached the 
 bottom, so that the shock cannot be felt. 
 
 The oceanic circulation is as complete as that of the atmosphere, 
 and is possibly subject to, or governed by, the same laws ; and 
 there appears to be a law of descent through t( blue water," the 
 same as there is a law of ascent through " blue air." The one 
 increases in density downwards as the other decreases in density 
 upwards ; and the development of this law proves that the sea is 
 not so deep as reports made it. 
 
 There is a set of currents in the sea by which its waters are 
 conveyed from place to place through regular and certain channels, 
 traversing from one ocean to the other with the regularity of the 
 machinery of a watch. The chief motive power of marine cur- 
 rents is caused by heat. But an active agency in the system ot 
 circulation is derived from the salts of the sea-water ? by winds, 
 
 * Herschel's Outlines oj Astronomy* 
 P 2 
 
212 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 marine plants, and animals. These give the ocean great dyna- 
 mical force. 
 
 The only reliable deep-sea soundings are those obtained by 
 Brooke's plummet ; and the greatest depths at which the bottom 
 of the sea has been reached with this plummet are in the North 
 Atlantic Ocean, and do not show it to be deeper than 25,000 feet, 
 the deepest place being immediately to the south of the Grand 
 Banks of Newfoundland. Thus, from the top of Mount Everest 
 to the deepest reliable sea bottom reached by sounding, we have a 
 
 vertical height of nearly 10^ miles, equal to ( j rd 
 
 part of the earth's diameter. The Builder. 
 
 Chemistry of the Sea. 
 
 The specific gravity of Sea-water varies of course with the pro- 
 portion of salts and the degree of heat it receives from the sun, or 
 by the intermixture of currents of various temperatures ; but in 
 our own latitudes it. is about 1*028 thai is, a given volume of 
 pure distilled water weighing 1000 grains, the same volume of sea- 
 water weighs 1028 grains. Many useful substances are daily 
 extracted from the sea for the use of man, among which we may 
 mention pure water for the use of ships, salt, iodine, bromine, &c. 
 Many attempts have been made to purify sea-water in order to 
 render it potable, not only for supplying ships, but for the use of 
 maritime towns and villages, where pump- water is often brackish, 
 and where the inhabitants are frequently obliged to have recourse 
 to rain-water. Now, when sea- water is submitted to congelation, 
 it abandons its salt almost completely a fact which appears to 
 have been discovered many years ago by Chevalier Lorgna, who 
 found that a mixture of three parts of pounded ice and two parts 
 of common salt produced a cold of about 4 below the zero of 
 a Fahrenheit thermometer, and that such a mixture caused sea- 
 water to freeze rapidly. A mixture of various chemical salts in 
 proper proportions produces a similar degree of cold. Lately, the 
 cold produced by the evaporation of ether has been proposed for 
 the same purpose. The purification is complete if the ice thus 
 formed be melted and frozen again. In the Polar regions the ice 
 formed from salt-water is more or less opaque, except it be in 
 very small pieces, when it transmits light of a bluish green shade. 
 When melted, it produces sometimes perfectly fresh water, and 
 at other times water slightly brackish. The fresh-water ice re- 
 sulting from rain or melted snow, as seen floating in the Arctic 
 seas, is distinguished from the salt-water ice by its black appear- 
 ance, especially when in small pieces, and by its transparency when 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 13 
 
 removed from the water into the air. Its transparency is so great, 
 when compared with sea-ice, that Dr. Scoresby used to amuse his 
 sailors by cutting large lenses out of this fresh- water ice, and using 
 them as burning-glasses to light the men's pipes. Their astonish- 
 ment was increased by observing that the ice did not melt, while 
 the solar rays emerging from it were so hot that the hand could 
 not be kept more than a second or two at the focus. Macmillans 
 Magazine. 
 
 The Sea : its Perils. 
 
 On the surface of the globe there is nowhere to be found so 
 inhospitable a desert as the " wide blue sea." At any distance 
 from land there is nothing in it tor man to eat, nothing in it that 
 he can drink. His tiny foot no sooner rests upon it, than he sinks 
 into his grave : it grows neither flowers nor fruits ; it offers mono- 
 tony to the mind, restless motion to the body ; and when, besides 
 all this, one reflects that it is to the most fickle of the elements, 
 the wind, that vessels of all sizes are to supplicate for assistance 
 in sailing in every direction to their various destinations, it would 
 almost seem that the ocean was divested of its charms, and 
 armed with storms, to prevent our being persuaded to enter its 
 dominions. 
 
 But though the situation of a vessel in a heavy gale of wind 
 appears indescribably terrific, yet, practically speaking, its security 
 is so great, that it is truly said that ships seldom or never founder 
 in deep water, except from accident or inattention. How ships 
 manage to get across that still region, that ideal line, which sepa- 
 rates the opposite trade-winds from each hemisphere ; how a 
 small box of men manages, unlabelled, to be buffeted for months 
 up one side of a wave and down another ; how they ever get out 
 of the abysses into which they sink ; and how, after such pitching 
 and tossing, they reach in safety the very harbour in their native 
 country from which they originally departed can and ought only 
 to be accounted for, by acknowledging how truly it has been 
 written, that "the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the 
 waters." 
 
 It is not, therefore, from the ocean itself that man has so much 
 to fear : the earth and the water each afford to man a life of con- 
 siderable security, yet there exists between these two elements an 
 everlasting war, into which no passing vessel can enter with im- 
 punity ; for of all the terrors of this world, there is surely no one 
 greater than that of being on a lee- shore in a gale of wind, and in 
 shallow water. On this account it is natural enough that the fear 
 of land is as strong in the sailor's heart as is his attachment to it ; 
 and when, homeward bound, he day after day approaches his 
 
214 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 own latitude, his love and his fears of his native shores increase as 
 the distance between them diminishes. Two fates, the most op- 
 posite in their extremes, are shortly to await him. The sailor-boy 
 fancifully pictures to himself that in a few short hours he will be 
 once again nestling in his mother's arms. The able seaman better 
 knows that it may be decreed for him, as it has been for thou- 
 sands, that in gaining his point he shall lose its object that Eng- 
 land, with all its virtue, may fade before his eyes, and, 
 
 " While he sinks without an arm to save, 
 His country blooms, a garden and a grave." 
 
 Nor can it be regarded as improbable that in the beds of the 
 present seas the edifices and works of nations, whose history is 
 altogether unknown to existing generations, are embedded and 
 preserved : 
 
 " What wealth untold, 
 
 Far down and shining through their stillness lies ; 
 They have the starry gems, the burning gold, 
 
 Won from a thousand royal argosies. 
 Yet more the depths have more their waves have roll'd 
 
 Above the cities of a world gone by; 
 Sand hath fill'd up the palaces of old, 
 
 Sea- weed o'ergrown the halls of revelry." 
 
 Limitations of Astronomy. 
 
 These limitations are great. Ages before the existence of 
 scientific astronomy, the question was put to the patriarch Job, 
 " Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the 
 bands of Orion ; canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? 
 or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ?" And when Job in 
 his heart, if not with his lips, answered the Almighty, No, he 
 answered for all his successors as well as for himself. Astro- 
 nomical problems accumulate unsolved on our hands, because we 
 cannot, as mechanicians, chemists, or physiologists, experiment 
 upon the stars. Are they built of the same materials as our 
 planet ? Are they inhabited ? Are Saturn's rings solid or liquid ? 
 Has the moon an atmosphere? Are the atmospheres of the 
 planets like ours ? Are the light and heat of the sun begotten 
 of combustion ? and what is the fuel which feeds his unquenchable 
 fires ? These are but a few of the questions which we ask, and 
 variously answer, but leave in reality unanswered, after all. A 
 war of words regarding the revolution of the moon round her 
 axis may go on to the end of time, because we cannot throw our 
 satellite out of gearing, or bring her to a momentary stand-still ; 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 215 
 
 and the problem of the habitability of the stars awaits in vain an 
 experimentum cruets. 
 
 The astronomer, accordingly, must be content to be the chro- 
 nicler of a spectacle, in which, except as an on -looker, he takes no 
 part. Like the sailor at the mast-head in his solitary night-watch, 
 he must see, as he sails through space in his small earthly bark, 
 that nothing escapes his view within the vast visible firmament. 
 But he stands, as it were, with folded arms, occupied solely in 
 wistfully gazing over the illimitable ocean, where the nearest vessel, 
 like his own, is far beyond summons or signal, and the greatest 
 appears but as a speck on the distant horizon. His course lies 
 out of the track of every other vessel ; and year after year he 
 repeats the same voyage, without ever practically altering his re- 
 lation to the innumerable fleets which navigate those seas. 
 Professor George Wilson, on the Physical Sciences , &c. 
 
 Distance of the Earth from the Sun. 
 
 Mr. Hind, the astronomer, in a communication to the Times, 
 September 17, 1863, observes: " It may occasion surprise to 
 many who are accustomed to read of the precision now attained 
 in the science and practice of Astronomy, when it is stated that 
 there are strong grounds for supposing the generally received 
 value of that great unit of celestial measures the mean Distance 
 of the Earth from the Sun to be materially in error ; and that, in 
 fact, we are nearer to the central luminary by some 4,000,000 
 miles than for many years past has been commonly believed. The 
 results of various researches during the last ten years appear, how- 
 ever, to point to the same conclusion." 
 
 Mr. Hind then proceeds to describe the actual state of our 
 knowledge respecting it, extending through two entire columns 
 of the above Journal. We have only space for the results : 
 
 "To recapitulate briefly: a diminution in the measure of the 
 sun's distance now adopted is implied by ist, the theory of the 
 moon, as regards the parallactic equation, agreeably to the re- 
 searches of Professor Hansen and the Astronomer Royal ; 2nd, the 
 lunar equation in the theory of the earth, newly investigated by 
 M. Le Verrier ; 3rd, the excess in the motion of the node of the 
 orbit of Venus beyond what can be due to the received values of 
 the planetary masses ; 4th, the similar excess in the motion of the 
 perihelion of Mars, also detected within the past few years by the 
 same mathematician ; 5th, the experiments of M. Foucault on 
 the velocity of light ; and 6th, the results of observations of Mars 
 when near the earth about the opposition of 1862. 
 
 " Subjoined are a few of the numerical changes which will fol- 
 
216 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 low upon the substitution of M. Le Verrier's solar parallax (8"'95) 
 for that of Professor Encke, on which reliange has so long been 
 placed. The earth's mean distance from the sun becomes 
 91,328,600 miles, being a reduction of 4,036,000. The circum- 
 ference of her orbit, 599,194,000 miles, being a diminution of 
 25,360,000. Her mean hourly velocity, 65,460 miles. The 
 diameter of the sun 850, i oo miles, which is smaller by nearly 
 38,000. The distances, velocities, and dimensions of all the 
 members of the planetary system of course require similar cor- 
 rections if we wish to express them in miles ; in the case of 
 Neptune, the mean distance is diminished by 30 times the amount 
 of correction to that of the earth, or about 122,000,000 miles. 
 The velocity of light is decreased by nearly 8000 miles per second, 
 and becomes 183,470 if based upon astronomical data alone. 
 These numbers will illustrate the great importance that attaches 
 to a precise knowledge of the sun's parallax, in our appreciation 
 of the various distances and dimensions in the solar system. 
 
 " The evidence which has been adduced since the publication of 
 M. Le Verrier's investigations, would rather induce us to adopt 
 a diminished measure of the earth's distance from the sun, as the 
 most probable solution of the difficulty. 
 
 " M. Leon Foucault, of Paris, has succeeded in measuring the absolute 
 velocity of light by means of the * turning mirror' an experimental de- 
 termination of no little interest and significance. He concludes that it 
 cannot differ much from 298,000,000 of French metres per second, or 
 185,170 English miles, which is a notable diminution upon the velocity 
 previously derived from astronomical data alone. The time which light 
 requires to travel from the sun to the earth is known with great precision; 
 at the mean distance of the latter it is rather less than 8' 18 ', and if 
 this number be combined with M. Foucault's measure of the velocity, it 
 will be evident that the received distance is too great by about one-thirtieth 
 part that light, in fact, has not so far to travel before it reaches the 
 earth as generally supposed. The corresponding solar parallax is 8' 86", 
 which approaches much nearer to M. Le Verrier's theoretical value than 
 to the one depending on the transits of 1761 and 1769. So curious a cor- 
 roboration of the former deserves especial remark." 
 
 Blue Colour of the Sky. 
 
 Mr. Glaisher, in his Report of Scientific Balloon ascents made 
 by him and Mr. Coxwell, in 1863, remarks that the Colour of the 
 Sky in 1862 was of a deeper blue generally than in 1863. On the 
 3ist of March the sky was of a deep Prussian blue, and on the 
 1 8th of April it was of a faint blue only, exhibiting another great 
 contrast to the appearance of last year. Sir Isaac Newton con- 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 217 
 
 siders this colour as a " blue ot the first order, though very faint 
 and little, for all vapours, when they begin to condense and coalesce 
 into small parcels, become first of that bigness, whereby such an 
 azure must be reflected." Professor Clausius considers the vapours 
 to be vesicles or bladders, and ascribes the blue colour of the first 
 order to reflection from the thin pellicle of water. In reference 
 to these opinions the following facts are important: i. The 
 azure colour of the sky, though resembling the blue of the first 
 order when the sky is viewed from the earth's surface, becomes, 
 as observed by Mr. Glaisher in his balloon ascents, an exceedingly 
 deep Prussian blue, as we ascend to the height of five or six miles, 
 which is a deep blue of the second or third order. 2. The 
 maximum polarizing angle of the atmosphere being 45 deg. is 
 that of air, and not that of water, which is 55 deg. 3. At the 
 greatest height to which Mr. Glaisher ascended namely, at the 
 height of five, six, and seven miles, where the blue is the brightest 
 " the air is almost deprived of moisture." 
 
 Hence it follows that the exceedingly deep Prussian blue cannot 
 be produced by vesicles of water, but must be caused by reflection 
 from the molecules of air, whose polarizing angle is 45 deg. The 
 faint blue which the sky exhibits at the earth's surface is therefore 
 not the blue of the first order, and is merely the blue of the 
 second or third order, rendered paler by the lighi: reflected from 
 the aqueous vapour in the lower regions of the atmosphere." 
 
 Mr. Glaisher speaks of the curious changes in colour that he 
 and Mr. Coxwell experienced in ascending, and remarked that 
 they could now easily go a mile higher without turning quite so 
 blue as before. In one descent they very nearly got into the sea, 
 and only escaped that fate by coming down at the rate of four 
 miles in two minutes. 
 
 Beauty of the Sky. 
 
 It is a strange thing how little in general people know about 
 the Sky. It is the part of creation in which Nature has done more 
 for the sake of pleasing man, more for the sole and evident pur- 
 pose of talking to him and teaching him, than in any other of her 
 works, and it is just the part in which we least attend to her. 
 There are not many of her other works in which some more 
 material or essential purpose than the mere pleasing of man is not 
 answered by every part of their organization ; but every essential 
 purpose of the sky might, as far as we know, be answered, if once 
 in three days, or thereabouts, a great black ugly rain -cloud were 
 broken up over the blue, and everything well watered, and so all 
 left blue again till next time, with perhaps a film of morning and 
 
218 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 evening mist for dew. But, instead of this, there is not a moment 
 of any day of our lives when Nature is not producing scene after 
 scene, picture after picture, glory after glory, and working still 
 upon such exquisite and constant principles of the most perfect 
 beauty, that it is quite certain it is all done for us, and intended 
 for our perpetual pleasure. John Ruskin. 
 
 Influence of High Temperatures in Balloon Ascents. 
 
 Professor Owen has remarked the importance of the in- 
 fluences of very high distances on the human frame, which is 
 adapted of course to a very different medium. The fact which 
 Mr. Glaisher mentions as to his feeling a greater power of resist- 
 ing the influence of very high temperatures is interesting in phy- 
 siology, and in relation to the series of facts with which we are 
 acquainted. We know that our lungs adapt themselves to atmo- 
 spheres of different degrees of gravity, so that there are people 
 who live habitually on high mountains, and feel no such difficulty 
 in breathing as is felt at once when the inhabitant of a plain or 
 low country comes up to these elevations. Now that depends 
 upon the greater proportion of the minute cells of the lungs whieh 
 are open and receive an attenuated atmosphere, in proportion to 
 the minute cells that are occupied by a quantity of mucus. Those 
 on the plain do not make so large a use of their breathing appa- 
 ratus as those who live at great altitudes. Hence more cells, 
 occupied by mucus, will be taken up, and opened to free course 
 and play ; and Professor Owen has no doubt that is the solution 
 of the interesting fact mentioned by Mr. Glaisher. Physiologists 
 are all agreed that one condition of longevity is the capacity of 
 the chest; and therefore it is hoped the increased breathing capa- 
 city acquired by Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell will tend to the 
 prolongation of their lives. 
 
 Value of Meteorological Observations, Telegraphy, 
 and Forecasts. 
 
 The establishment of a Meteorological Department by the 
 Board of Trade is understood to have originated with the late 
 Prince Consort, who suggested that the more methodical obser- 
 vation of the phenomena of the Weather might be rendered con- 
 ducive to the saving of many valuable lives. The plan had worked 
 to February, 1861, when the Secretary of the Board of Trade 
 wrote to the Royal Society concerning the new features which 
 the operations of the Meteorological Department had assumed ; 
 and expressing an anxiety to know whether the science of meteor- 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 219 
 
 ology was now in such a state as to admit of a permanent reliable 
 system of storm -signals and daily weather forecasts ; also, whether 
 the progress and useful application of meteorological science would 
 be more efficiently promoted by devoting the money voted by 
 Parliament to the original objects contemplated viz., the collec- 
 tion, tabulation, and discussion of meteorological phenomena, or 
 by devoting it to the system of telegraphy and weather forecasts. 
 The Secretary of the Royal Society, after the lapse of a month, 
 replied, on behalf of the President and Council, to the effect that 
 they were assured by Admiral Fitzroy that the original objects 
 for which the Meteorological Department was formed were still 
 kept in view. " In the forewarnings of storms," adds Dr. Sharpey, 
 " much must as yet undoubtedly be viewed as in a great measure 
 tentative ; but there is one class of cases on which such premoni- 
 tory information is entitled to be regarded as resting on more 
 assured scientific relations. Admiral Fitzroy considers that he 
 has satisfactorily established the occasional occurrence of storms 
 of a cyclonic character, of very limited diameter, not much ex- 
 ceeding perhaps that of the British islands themselves, and origi- 
 nating in their vicinity. The practice of forewarning is specially 
 suited to such storms. They are characterized by great violence, 
 and by frequent and rapid changes in the direction of the wind. 
 The key to their comprehension is supplied by the telegraphic 
 reports, which convey to the central office a knowledge of the 
 various simultaneous directions of the wind in different localities ; 
 and, when once comprehended, they are particularly suited for 
 forewarning, inasmuch as, in its general course, the advance of 
 the cyclone is steady in direction and moderate in rate. 
 
 " In connexion with this subject the President and Council revert 
 with satisfaction to a reply by Sir John Herschel to the Royal 
 Commission on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, that l the most im- 
 portant meteorological information which could be telegraphed 
 would be information first received by telegraph of a cyclone 
 actually in progress at a great distance, and working its way to- 
 wards the locality. There is no doubt that the progress of a 
 cyclone may be telegraphed, and might secure many a ship from 
 danger by forewarning.' It is obvious that this remark, which 
 refers to the approach of a distant cyclone, is equally applicable 
 to cyclones originating in or near our islands, the existence of 
 which has been made known by the system of telegraphy which 
 Admiral Fitzroy has established. 
 
 (t With respect to the ' forecasts of the state of the weather,' 
 which are published in the newspapers, the President and Council 
 learn from Admiral Fitzroy that they really occasion no cost to 
 Government, and scarcely fall, therefore, within the questions sub- 
 
220 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 mitted for reply ; moreover, the President and Council have no 
 data whereon to rest a conclusion in regard to the degree of re- 
 liance to which these last-named forecasts may be entitled." 
 
 Weather Signs. 
 
 A few of the more marked Signs of Weather useful alike to 
 seaman, farmer, and gardener, are the following : 
 
 Whether clear or cloudy a rosy sky at sunset presages fine weather : 
 a red sky in the morning bad weather, or much wind (perhaps rain): a 
 grey sky in the morning, fine weather : a high dawn, wind : a low 
 dawn, fair weather. 
 
 Soft- looking or delicate clouds foretell fine weather, with moderate or 
 light breezes : hard edged, oily-looking clouds, wind. A dark, gloomy, 
 blue sky is windy ; but a light bright blue sky indicates fine weather. 
 Generally, the softer clouds look, the less wind (but perhaps more rain) 
 may be expected; and the harder, more "greasy," rolled, tufted, or 
 ragged, the stronger the coming wind will prove. Also a bright yellow 
 sky at sunset presages wind ;'a pale yellow, wet: and thus by the preva- 
 lence of red, yellow, or grey tints, the coming weather may be foretold 
 very nearly : indeed, if aided by instruments, almost exactly. 
 
 Small inky-looking clouds foretell rain : light scud clouds driving 
 across heavy masses show wind and rain, but if alone, may indicate wind 
 only. 
 
 High upper clouds crossing the sun, moon, or stars, in a direction dif- 
 ferent from that of the lower clouds, or the wind then felt below, foretell 
 a change of wind. 
 
 After fine clear weather, the first signs in the sky of a coming change 
 are usually light streaks, curls, wisps, or mottled patches of white distant 
 clouds, which increase and are followed by an overcasting of murky 
 vapour that grows into cloudiness. This appearance, more or less oily or 
 watery, as wind or rain will prevail, is an infallible sign. 
 
 Usually the higher and more distant such clouds seem to be, the more 
 gradual but general the coming change of weather will prove. 
 
 Light, delicate, quiet tints or colours, with soft, undefined forms of clouds, 
 indicate and accompany fine weather ; but gaudy, or unusual hues, with 
 hard, definitely outlined clouds, foretell rain and probably strong wind. 
 Misty clouds forming, or hanging on heights, show wind and rain coming 
 if they remain, increase, or descend. If they rise or disperse, the 
 weather will improve or become fine. 
 
 When sea birds fly out early and far to seaward, moderate wind and fair 
 weather may be expected. 
 
 When they hang about the land, or over it, sometimes flying inland, 
 expect a strong wind with stormy weather. As many creatures besides 
 birds are affected by the approach of rain or wind, such indications should 
 not be slighted by an observer who wishes to foresee weather or compare 
 its variations. There are other signs of a coming change in the weather 
 known less generally than may be desirable, and therefore worth notice j 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 221 
 
 such as, when birds of long flight, rooks, swallows, or others, hang about 
 home and rly up and down or low, rain or wind may be expected. Also 
 when animals seek sheltered places, instead of spreading over their usual 
 range; when pigs carry straw to their sties; when smoke from chimneys 
 does not ascend readily (or straight upwards during calm), an unfavourable 
 change is probable. 
 
 Dew is an indication of fine weather, so is fog. Neither of these two 
 formations occur under an overcast sky, or when there is much wind. One 
 sees fog occasionally rolled away as it were by wind, but seldom or 
 never formed while it is blowing. 
 
 Remarkable clearness of atmosphere near the horizon : distant objects, 
 such as hills unusually visible, or raised (by refraction), and what is called 
 " a good hearing day," may be mentioned among signs of wet, if not wind, 
 to be expected. 
 
 More than usual twinkling of the stars; indistinctness or apparent mul- 
 tiplication of the moon's horns ; halos ; " winddogs," and the rainbow ; 
 are more or less significant of increasing wind, if not approaching rain, with 
 or without wind. 
 
 Mr. Glaisher remarks, in the account of one of his recent 
 balloon ascents : " It would also seem that, when the sky is over- 
 cast and no rain falling, the Sun is shining on its upper surface, 
 and both these conclusions agree with all my own experiences. 
 That double strata or layers of clouds are indications of rain is 
 shown by my recent observations ; but it is one of those facts 
 which have so far attracted the attention of some observers of 
 nature as even to have passed into proverbs. My friend, Mr. 
 Sopwith, tells me that in the mining districts, where he has resided 
 so much, it is a common saying that * it will be rain to-day ; the 
 clouds is twee ply thick ;' by which, in their homely phrase, they 
 clearly express that their expectations of rain are based on the 
 observance of one range of clouds flying in the air at a higher 
 elevation than another." 
 
 It has been well observed that thp old lunar theory, still im- 
 plicitly received by coantry-folks, and held by many ladies as a 
 fact of direct experience the theory that weather is apt to change 
 at the moon's quarters, clearly applies rather to the earth than to 
 any particular spot on it. And all the various complicated form^ 
 of that theory, invented to supply its apparent failures such as 
 that a change from fine to wet may be expected if the new quarter 
 is entered on after midnight, and vice -versa for a post- meridian 
 change, are liable to the same objection. 
 
 The late Marshal Bugeaud, says the Emancipation^ when only a cap- 
 tain, during the Spanish campaign under Napoleon I., once read in a 
 manuscript which by chance fell into his hands, that from observations 
 made in England and Florence during a period of fifty years, the following 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 law respecting the Weather had been proved true : ' Eleven times out of 
 twelve the weather remains the same during the whole moon as it is on 
 the fifth day, if it continues unchanged over the sixth day j and nine times 
 out of twelve like the fourth day, if the sixth resembles the fourth.' From 
 1815 to 1830 M. Bugeaud devoted his attention to agriculture; and guided 
 by the law just mentioned, avoided the losses in hay time and vintage 
 which many of his neighbours experienced. When Governor of Algiers, 
 he never entered on a campaign till after the sixth day of the moon. His 
 neighbours at Excideuil and his lieutenants in Algeria would often exclaim, 
 4 How lucky he is in the weather.' What they regarded as mere chance 
 was the result of observation. In counting the fourth and sixth days, he 
 was particular in beginning from the exact time of new moon, and added 
 three-quarters of an hour for each day for the greater length of the lunar 
 as compared with the solar day. 
 
 Mr. Shepherd, C.E., appears to prefer the planet Jupiter to the 
 moon, and has discovered an elaborate law for the variations of 
 our English weather, except so far as the principle is affected by 
 comets. 
 
 Mr. Shepherd is not quite without even higher authority. Sir 
 John Herschel has publicly intimated his suspicion that the 
 periodic expansion in the Sun's spots had some close connexion 
 with the extraordinarily wet summer of 1860, and in his article 
 on Meteorology in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the same eminent 
 authority has connected this periodic change in the Sun's spots, 
 which takes place in about twelve years, with the periodic time of 
 Jupiter's revolution round the sun (which is nearly the same in 
 length), so that here we have an eminent astronomer half conced- 
 ing the same very dubious principle that causes which affect 
 equally, if not the whole earth, at least all places which, in the 
 diurnal rotation, are brought into the same relative position 
 towards the sun or the planet, are the principal influences which 
 determine our local weather. 
 
 Yet, if this be so, how does it happen that the year 1860, which 
 was abnormally wet in Europe, was abnormally dry in many other 
 parts of the world ? If Mr. Shepherd be right in connecting this 
 fact with the orbital position of Jupiter, or Sir John Herschel in 
 connecting it with the large spots on the Sun, it would scarcely 
 have merely affected the local distribution of heat ; or, if it could, 
 the means by which these causes rob England to burn India 
 remain as dark as before. Paper in the Spectator newspaper. 
 
 Barometer for Farmers. 
 
 In one of his letters, Humboldt says that a Barometer should 
 be considered as necessary on a farm as a plough : but farmers 
 generally prefer to trust in the moon and other exploded nonsense 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 223 
 
 to purchasing a reliable instrument that would repay them tenfold. 
 A substitute, called Leoni's Prognosticator, consists of a vial full of 
 a clear liquid, in which swims a snowy substance. In fine weather 
 that substance lies on the bottom, but before a storm it rises to 
 the surface, with a tendency to the side opposite the quarter from 
 which the storm is coming. The substances used are kept secret. 
 An ordinary barometer indicates the density of the atmosphere. 
 Leoni's instrument evidently indicates its electric state, and for 
 that reason we are of opinion that it is a better instrument to 
 prognosticate the weather. The following is a substitute that 
 will not cost more than is., and for aught we know it may be 
 the identical thing itself. Dissolve some camphor in alcohol and 
 throw into the solution some soda ; the camphor will be precipi- 
 tated in snowy flakes; collect these by passing the mixture 
 through a filter and put them in a vial with clear alcohol, in 
 which as much camphor as it would take has been dissolved. 
 Cork it, place it where it will not be disturbed, and examine it 
 every morning and night. This is tenned a Storm-glass. 
 
 Icebergs and the Weather. 
 
 The intimate relation existing between the Climates of par- 
 ticular seasons, and the discharge of Icebergs from the great 
 Arctic glaciers has long been perfectly understood and described 
 by both British and American naval officers. But the quantity 
 of ice annually released in the shape of bergs is so insignificant, 
 majestic as those frozen masses are, in proportion to the quantity 
 remaining behind, and to that annually engendered over the vast 
 area of the Arctic continental icefields, that any difference in the 
 amount of (( average" annual discharge cannot materially disturb 
 the balance. Nor is the disengagement of the bergs, when viewed 
 on a large scale, a process depending on variable conditions. The 
 slow downward descent of glaciers towards the ocean (which is 
 now fully recognised as the result of a well-known law) is 
 dependent on forces of such vast magnitude and in such constant 
 operation as to admit of no perceptible modification owing to 
 local atmospheric influences. 
 
 What does materially affect climate, however, is the variation 
 in the annual range, Equator-wards, of the great Arctic currents, 
 which convey on their surface not only the bergs, but the vast 
 compact fields of pack-ice, extending over areas of many thousands 
 ot square miles, and thus bringing about a reduction of tempera- 
 ture, infinitely in excess of that produced by the bergs. 
 
 The exceptionally boisterous and rainy summer of 1860 was 
 
224 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 due to the much increased southward range, along the eastern 
 and southern shores of Greenland, of the Spitzbergen drift, and 
 was alluded to by Dr. Wallich, in some observations published 
 by him at the close of that year. 
 
 St. Swithun : his true History. 
 
 So little is really known of this good Saint, that it is tedious to 
 wade through a mass of more or less probable conjecture. 
 
 The facts of St. Swithun's life seem to be that he was born near Win- 
 chester about the year 800 that he became a monk, and afterwards prior 
 of the old abbey of that city, and was chosen by King Ecgberht the Bret- 
 walda to be tutor of his son /Ethelwulf, heir to the throne of Wessex. 
 From 852 to 863, when he died, Swithun was Bishop of Winchester. 
 He distinguished himself as an architect by building a bridge of stone and a 
 tower to his cathedral, and as a Minister of State both to ./Ethelwulf and 
 his successor, ^thelbald.. In 971, more than a century after his death, 
 he was exhumed, and " translated " and beatified by his successor, the 
 famous Bishop .^Ethelwold, in the time of Archbishop St. Dunstan. 
 Ridiculing, with Godwin De Prcesuhbus, the idea taken up by Lord Camp- 
 bell, that Swithun was ^thelwulf 's " Chancellor," in the modern sense 
 of the word, Mr. Earle (formerly Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford) claims 
 for him the credit of having had a great share in the administration of that 
 King's policy, and especially in the education of his youngest son } the 
 Great Alfred. Indeed, he surmises that Swithun was Alfred's companion 
 in his journey to Rome in 853, though the Saxon Chronicle says nothing 
 about it. And he also argues that yEthelwulf's much-debated dedication 
 of the tenth of his land as tithes to religious purposes, in the year 855 
 (when the Northmen first wintered in England), was due to Swithun's 
 advice. "This was," he says, "the culminating point of Swithun's 
 policy." Equally baseless is the hypothesis that Swithun was the "inter- 
 mediary," the " prudent counsellor and successful diplomat " who averted 
 civil war when yEthelwulf returned from his pilgrimage to Rome, bring- 
 ing with him as wife the Prankish Princess Judith. It is more certain, 
 we think, that Swithun's name continued to be held in affectionate reve- 
 rence among the people j and this probably led to his beatification by 
 popular consent. The formal process of canonization had not yet been 
 introduced. Saturday Review. 
 
 Mr. Earle discusses the legend which connects St. Swithun with 
 forty days of rain, and decides that it is wholly without founda- 
 tion. Mr. Howard, the meteorologist, many years since, by hit- 
 observations, gave a sort of currency to this notion ; but it had 
 since received its quietus in the following tacts, from the Green- 
 wich observations for 20 years: It appears that St. Swithun's day- 
 was wet in 1841, and there were 23 rainy days up to the 24th 
 of August; 1845, 26 rainy days; 1851, 13 rainy days; 1853, 
 18 rainy days; 1854, 16 rainy days; and in 1856, 14 rainy days. 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 225 
 
 In 1842 and following years St. Swithun's day was [dry, and the 
 result was, in 1842, 12 rainy days; in 1843, 22 rainy days; 
 1844, 20 rainy days; 1846, 21 rainy days; 1847, 17 rainy days; 
 1848, 31 rainy days; 1849, 20 rainy days; 1850, 17 rainy days; 
 1852, 19 rainy days; 1855, 18 rainy days; 1857, 14 rainy days; 
 1858, 14 rainy days ; 1859, *3 ra i nv days 5 an ^ in 1860, 29 rainy 
 days. These figures show the superstition to be founded on a 
 fallacy, as the average of 20 years proves rain to have fallen upon 
 the largest number of days when St. Swithun's day was dry. 
 
 No event, or natural phenomenon which could be construed 
 into such, is alluded to by any of the various authors who wrote 
 histories of St. Swithun. On the contrary, the weather seems to 
 have been most propitious during his translation. How then did 
 the popular notion about St. Swithun's Day arise ? Most probably, 
 as Mr. Earle remarks, it was derived from primeval pagan belief 
 regarding the meteorologically prophetic character of some day 
 about the same period of the year as St. Swithun's. Such 
 adaptations, it is well known, were frequent on the supplanting 
 throughout Europe of heathenism by Christianity. In confirma- 
 tion of this view it is to be observed, that in various countries 
 of the European continent, the same belief prevails, though dif- 
 ferences exist as to the period of the particular day in question. 
 Thus, in France, St. Medard's Day, (June 8,) and the Day of 
 St. Gervais and Protais, (June 19,) have a similar character as- 
 cribed to them. In Belgium they have a rainy saint, named 
 St. Godelieve ; whilst in Germany, among others, a character of 
 this description is ascribed to the day of the Seven Sleepers. 
 
 Rainfall in London. 
 
 Mr. G. V. Vernon has communicated to the Literary and Phi- 
 losophical Society of Manchester a Paper on the number of Days 
 on which Rain falls annually in London, from observations made 
 during the fifty-six years, 1807-1862. Howard's Climate of 
 London has been used for the years 1807 to 1831 ; the Philoso- 
 phical Transactions for the years 1832 to 1840 ; and the Greenwich 
 Observations for the years 1841 to 1862. During the entire period 
 of fifty-six years, no month occurred in which rain did not fall. 
 
 The minimum number of days occurred in 1832, the cholera 
 year, and 1 834 ; the number of days being 86, 82 respectively. The 
 maximum number occurred in 1848, the number being 223 days. 
 
 Taking the quarterly values, we find that rain falls on the 
 greatest number of days in autumn, and the least in spring. 
 
 Taking the means of five yearly periods, there appears to be a 
 kind of periodicity in the number of days on which rain falls ; 
 
 Q 
 
226 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 having a maximum in 1815 to 1817, and a minimum in 1845 * 
 1847- 
 
 The Force of Lightning. 
 
 A person may be killed by Lightning, although the explosion 
 takes place at the distance of twenty miles, by what is called the 
 back-stroke. Suppose that the two extremities of a cloud, highly 
 charged with electricity, hang down towards the earth, they will 
 repel the electricity from the earth's surface, if it be of the same 
 kind with their own, and will attract the other kind ; and if a 
 discharge should suddenly take place at one end of the cloud, the 
 equilibrium will instantly be restored by a flash at that point of 
 the earth which is under the other. Though the back- stroke is 
 often sufficiently powerful to destroy life, it is never so terrible in 
 its effects as the direct shot, which is frequently of inconceivable 
 intensity. Instances have occurred in which large masses of iron 
 and stone, and even, many feet of a stone wall, have been con- 
 veyed to a considerable distance by a stroke of lightning. Rocks 
 and the tops of mountains often bear the marks of fusion from its 
 action, and occasionally vitreous tubes, descending many feet into 
 banks of sand, mark the path of the electric fluid. Some years 
 ago, Dr. Fielder exhibited several of these fulgorites in London, 
 of considerable length, which had been dug out of the sandy plains 
 of Silesia and Eastern Prussia. One found at Paderborn was forty 
 feet long. Their ramifications generally terminate in pools or 
 springs of water below the sand, which are supposed to determine 
 the course of the electric fluid. No doubt the soil and substrata 
 must influence its direction, since it is found by experience that 
 places which have been struck by lightning are often struck again. 
 A school-house in Lammer-Muir, in East Lothian, has been 
 struck three different times. Mrs. Somerville's Connexion of the 
 Sciences. 
 
 The inquiries into the chances of refuge from lightning have 
 been attended with saving results. Here is an instance : 
 
 A few years since an awful thunderstorm occurred in the neighbourhood 
 of Inkpen, Berkshire. Three men, named Martin, Buxey, and Palmer, 
 were employed in mowing grass, when a storm of thunder and lightning 
 broke over the field, and one of them suggested that they should run 
 beneath a tree ; Martin knowing that trees generally attract lightning, 
 immediately remarked, " We had better go anywhere than under a tree." 
 Buxey and Palmer, however, as the storm was severe, and the hail was 
 falling heavily at the time, ran and seated themselves beneath a large 
 lime-tree, but Martin walked off to a cottage, and was safely sheltered. In 
 about half-an-hour after the storm had abated, both Buxey and Palmer 
 were found lying on the grass beneath the tree, quite dead from the light- 
 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 227 
 
 ning. The clothes of Buxey were found to be on fire, and the hair of 
 Palmer was much scorched. 
 
 Effect of Moonlight on Vegetation. 
 
 It has been demonstrated that Moonlight has the*power, per sf, 
 of awakening the Sensitive Plant, and consequently that it pos- 
 sesses an influence of some kind on Vegetation. It is true that 
 the influence is very feeble, compared with that of the sun ; but 
 the action is established, and the question remains, what is the 
 practical value of the fact ? " It will immediately," says Professor 
 Lindley, " occur to the reader that possibly the screens which are 
 drawn down over hothouses at night, to prevent loss of heat by 
 radiation, may produce some unappreciated injury by cutting off 
 the rays of the moon, which Nature intended to fall upon plants 
 as much as the rays of the sun." 
 
 Even artificial light is not wholly powerless. Decandolle suc- 
 ceeded in making crocuses expand by lamplight ; and Dr. Winn, 
 of Truro, has suggested that the oxyhydrogen lamp may be made 
 subservient to horticulture in the dark days of winter. 
 
 An extraordinary effect of Moonlight upon the human subject 
 occured in 1863. A boy, thirteen years of age, residing near 
 Peckham Rye, was expelled his home by his mother for dis- 
 obedience. He ran away to a corn-field close by, and on lying 
 down in the open air, fell asleep. He slept throughout the night, 
 which was a moonlight one. Some labourers on their way to 
 work, next morning, seeing the boy apparently asleep, aroused 
 him ; the lad opened his eyes, but declared he could not see. He 
 was conveyed home, and medical advice was obtained : the sur- 
 geon affirmed that the total loss of sight resulted from sleeping in 
 the moonlight. 
 
 Contemporary Inventions and "Discoveries. 
 
 Mr. Piesse, the well-known operative chemist, has thus popularly 
 grouped some of the leading novelties of our age : 
 
 The inventions and discoveries of my time may truly be included among 
 some of the greatest and most wonderful which the world has seen. I have 
 not yet passed forty summers, but perfectly recollect being one of the 
 gaping crowd that first witnessed lighting the streets with gas. Near to 
 the Marble Arch, at the top of Oxford-street, London, stands an iron post, 
 on which is inscribed "Here stood Tyburn Gate, 1829." Now I well 
 remember this Oxford-street turnpike, and the oil-lamps ' dimly burning,* 
 which enabled the University coach and the eight-horse waggons to near- 
 side the off-side gatepost j at that time all Oxford-street and the shops 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 therein protested against * the light of other days,' and became illumined 
 with Murdoch's gas : thus the oil-lamps passed away for ever. Tunneling 
 Primrose Hill for the first railway into London was a fund of enjoyment 
 to me j there I learned my first practical lesson in mineralogy to distin- 
 guish iron pyrites from real gold nuggets, which it at times resembles. One 
 morning the nqjwspapers teemed with an account of the late Duke of 
 Wellington witnessing the first electric telegram from Drayton, twelve 
 miles from London. People flocked to Paddington, and paid a shilling to 
 do the same ; of course I was among them ! It appears to me but the 
 other day when every housewife kept her linen rags to make tinder. The 
 bunch of matches, like a large fan, the flint and steel were in every house. 
 What a change has the lucifer produced ? After hearing Professor Brande 
 one night deliver a popular lecture at the Royal Institution, the Secretary 
 read a letter received that day from Paris, announcing the discoveries of 
 Daguerre. The assertion that the picture of a camera could be fixed by 
 the mere agency of light startled belief, yet from that hour photography 
 took its rise. Strange discoveries now crowd upon the memory. The 
 oxyhydrogen flame that burns the diamond and volatilizes platinum 5 then 
 came the Drummond lime-light that is visible as a star sixty miles away j 
 now followed Dobereiner's lamp that ignites itself when you lift a latch. 
 Electroplating becomes one of the arts of the country. A new force of 
 nature, actinism, was recognised. Wonderfully active principles of plants 
 quinine, morphia, and strychnine, are discovered. The food of plants and 
 the balance of organic nature are developed at Giessen. New metals are 
 discovered and are practically eliminated for the use of manufacturers ; and 
 so we thus come to the present, when I now write with an aluminium pen 
 made from tiles laid in a wall when Constantine was crowned at York."* 
 
 The Bayonet. 
 
 Mr. Akermann, in an elaborate series of " Notes on the Origin 
 and History of the Bayonet," has been unable to verify the state- 
 ment that this weapon derives its name from Bayonne, the reputed 
 place of its invention. Voltaire alludes to it in the eighth book of 
 the Henriade. The results of the inquiry may be thus briefly 
 recited : That " bayonette" was the name of a knife, which may 
 probably have been so designated either from its having been the 
 peculiar weapon of a crossbow-man, or from the individual who 
 
 * What would the old Scotchman of the following anecdote say to such 
 an age ? Sir Alexander Ramsay had been constructing upon his estate in 
 Scotland, a piece of machinery, which was driven by a stream of water 
 running through the home farm-yard. There were a thrashing machine, 
 a winnowing machine, a circular saw for splitting trees, and other contri- 
 vances. Observing an old man, who had long been about the place, look- 
 ing very attentively at all that was going on, Sir Alexander said, "Won- 
 derful things people can do now, Robby ?" " Ay," said Robby, " indud, 
 Sir Alexander ; I'm thinking if Solomon was alive now, he'd be thought 
 naething o' ! " Dean Ramsay. 
 
ART-PROGRESS.- 229 
 
 first adopted it ; that its first recorded use as a weapon of war 
 occurs in the Memoirs of Puysegur, and may be referred to the 
 year 1647 ; that it is first mentioned in England by Sir J. Turner, 
 1670-71 ; that it was introduced into the English army in the first 
 half of the year 1672 ; that before the peace of Nimwegen Puy- 
 segur had seen troops on the Continent armed with bayonets, 
 furnished with rings, which would go over the muzzles of the 
 muskets ; that in 1686 the device of the socket-bayonet was tested 
 before the French king, and failed ; that in 1689 Mackay, by the 
 adoption of the ringed bayonet, successfully opposed the High- 
 landers at the battle of Killicrankie ; lastly, that the bayonet with 
 the socket was in general use in the year 1 703. 
 
 William Cobbett, who had been a soldier, and carried the 
 bayonet, used to call it " King George's Toasting-fork." 
 
 Derivation of the word Loot. 
 
 This word, which so often occurs in the account of the late 
 Indian war, is simply the Hindustani for plunder. Noun, " loot," 
 plunder ; verb, tf lootna," to plunder. This is one of the many 
 examples of Hindustani words generally used in English con- 
 versation in India, which gradually came into use at home, amongst 
 the oldest and most familiar of which is, perhaps, the slang term 
 "that's the cheez," for "that's the thing," "cheez" Hindustani for 
 "thing." 
 
 Telegram. 
 
 When this Indian term was first applied to our telegraphic 
 messages, a considerable amount of learned disquisition was wasted 
 in seeking its origin. Any one who has been in India must re- 
 member the curious pronunciation by natives of many English 
 proper names, as well as of other words, for which they have no 
 translation in Hindustani ; generally abbreviating a long difficult 
 expression, and sometimes even changing altogether the pronun- 
 ciation. On the introduction of the telegraph into India, there 
 being no Hindustani word, the natives were obliged to attempt 
 English, and the easiest way they could manage to pronounce 
 telegraphic message was " telegram." This being an easy abbre- 
 viation was at once picked up and adopted by the English in 
 India, and then came home in the same way that we got " loot" 
 from India, and now again from China. Correspondent of the 
 "Daily News." 
 
 Archeology and Manufactures. 
 
 Archaeology, far from being a mere unprofitable dilettantism, 
 has a positive money-value, one appreciable not only by the 
 literary or scientific mind, but even by those who look exclusively 
 
230 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 to material interests that commerce, in fine, no less than history 
 or art, is under obligations to archaeology. In the case of our 
 pottery and earthenware manufacture, now an important branch 
 of our national trade at the time when Wedgwood first began 
 his operations, England was an importing country with regard to 
 this article of trade, drawing her supplies from Holland, France, 
 and Germany. About the year 1760, Wedgwood established 
 himself in Staffordshire. The models which he selected for imi- 
 tation were taken from the antique : from the Portland Vase, 
 Greek vases, cameos, and old coins, but, above all, from the 
 magnificent collection of Etruscan vases and earthenware, which 
 was purchased about that time from Sir William Hamilton, for 
 the British Museum. Such was the immediate improvement in 
 dassical elegance and purity of design, which the manufactures 
 derived from these sources, that within very few years England 
 became an exporting country in this article ; and the trade was 
 steadily developed, until, in the year 1857, the declared value of 
 her exports nearly reached a million and a half of money. Wedg- 
 wood's own sense of his obligation to ancient models was marked 
 by the name he gave to the new village formed around his works 
 in Staffordshire, which he called Etruria, in honour of them. 
 More recently the collection of Etruscan antiquities made by the 
 Prince of Canino, and brought to England by Signer Campanari, 
 has marked another stage of progress in this branch of industry ; 
 and, at this moment, the best silversmiths and jewellers in London 
 resort to the British Museum, to study these models, and copy 
 them for reproduction. Much of the well-known Minton-ware 
 is either copied from, or due to the study and imitation of, the 
 Majolica ware of Mediaeval Italy; whilst the smaller objects of 
 Assyrian art, brought from Nineveh by Mr. Layard, are exten- 
 sively copied by artists, and reductions of them made in Parian, 
 in marble, or in bronze. Address to the Cambrian Archaeological 
 Association, by Mr. C. G. Wynne, M.P. 
 
 Good Art should be cheap. 
 
 There is no hope of the diffusion of a better taste till all classes 
 of society are familiarized with the best works of the best artists ; 
 and English manufactures will never be generally improved in 
 design till the purchasers as well as the producers know how to 
 appreciate what is beautiful, and till a better intuitive taste pre- 
 vails in the cottage as well as in the mansion. So long as it is 
 cheaper ^ to reproduce familiar shapes and ornaments, so long will 
 it be vain to expect sufficient encouragement for improvements in 
 design. Theorists may preach for ever as to abstract beauty, but 
 the public will buy the old-fashioned, tasteless goods, if they costless. 
 
ART-PROGRESS 231 
 
 We do not believe that a beautiful thing need be more expen- 
 sive than an ugly thing. At any rate, this is the lesson to impress 
 upon such of our manufacturers as may be disposed to join the 
 art-movement of the day. It is not enough to design a novelty 
 in really good taste it must be at least as cheap as the mon- 
 strosity which it is meant to supersede, and, if possible, cheaper. 
 Is it not worth while to inquire whether there may not be some 
 deeper reason than a supposed depraved taste for the hideous 
 colouring, so dubious and sombre, of our Manchester goods, for 
 example ? To take an instance : we believe that Hoyle's Prints, 
 famous throughout the world for their slates and lilacs, are dyed 
 of those most unpicturesque hues for no other reason than that 
 they are the most u fast" colours that can be produced. If our 
 chemists could discover the secret of making the primitive colours 
 equally " fast," and if the needful pigments were no dearer, we 
 believe that cotton printing would be revolutionized. But, mean- 
 while, customers in every market of the world will ask for Hoyle's 
 Fast Prints, in preference to the brightest and most beautiful 
 colours, which, however charming to the eye when bran-new, 
 would disappear in the first wash. Saturday Review. 
 
 Imitative Jewellery. 
 
 From the profuse display of what are designated " gold chains" 
 in the windows of jewellers' shops, there is evidently a large 
 demand for these articles, although the purchasers are little aware 
 of the value of the articles. The gold coin of the realm is, in 
 technical language, 22 carats fine that is, it consists of 22 parts 
 by weight of fine, or pure gold, and 2 parts by weight of copper ; 
 and gold plate, &c., is 18 carats fine that is, it contains 1 8 parts 
 by weight of gold and 6 of copper in the 24. The alloy of which 
 a large proportion of gold chains is made contains only 8 or 10 
 parts by weight of fine gold in the 24 parts, the remaining 16 or 
 14 parts being common brass. The application of brass for this 
 purpose is of comparatively recent date, and enables the manu- 
 facturer to adulterate gold to a much greater extent than is prac- 
 ticable with copper alone. This depends upon the fact that brass 
 resembles gold in colour, and copper does not. The brassy gold 
 chains in question are far inferior in colour to chains made of gold 
 of 1 8 or 22 carats fine, and they would hardly be tolerated by 
 many persons when seen side by side with those of the latter 
 description. They are now manufactured on a very large scale 
 by the aid of machinery, and so great has been the decrease in 
 their cost of production, that the value of the labour upon certain 
 kinds of chains has been reduced from 308. to 33. 6d., or even 
 
232 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME, 
 
 less. It is usual to deposit upon the finished chain an exceedingly 
 thin coating of pure gold by the electrotype process. This, of 
 course, is speedily worn off by friction, and consequently the ori- 
 ginal fine colour of the chain at the time of purchase disappears. 
 The propriety of this practice is questionable. If the public like 
 cheap brassy gold chains, and are satisfied with their appearance, 
 it is their own affair, and no one has a right to say a word ; but, 
 in buying such articles, beware of the small value of the materials 
 in comparison with gold.* 
 
 French Enamel. 
 
 Among the artistic triumphs in the International Exhibition of 
 1862 was the magnificent work in gold and enamel, by M. Payen, 
 which is stated to have cost him several years' labour, or the sum 
 of 6ooo/. In this work the late Prince Consort evinced consi- 
 derable interest when he was in Paris ; and it was mainly to the 
 Prince's kind interference on behalf of M. Payen, that the Great 
 Seal of England was sent to Paris, in order that it might be copied 
 as one of the great seals of the different nations, which form the 
 border of the work. The subject of the allegory is the Reward 
 of Genius and Industry : this is shown on a large centre-piece on 
 a ground of blue enamel ; and the border, in which the seals of 
 different countries are emblazoned, is formed of filigree work in 
 gold. There was besides in the Exhibition an immense variety of 
 works by M. Payen, including gold rings from three francs to 
 three thousand francs each. 
 
 * In a book published in 1679, we ^ n ^ these cautions on Gold and 
 Silver Wares : " Can you imagine that although the buyer perceive not the 
 deceit at first, when the work is newly sold and cunningly set off with all 
 your skill, that he will not perceive it in the wearing like brass or copper, 
 and when sold again be allowed but 35. or 35. 6d. the ounce for the silver, 
 and but il. ros. or 3/. the ounce for the gold, when he paid 55. the ounce 
 for the silver, and 4/. the ounce for the gold, besides the fashion ? You 
 may be sure he will not only repent the dealing with you, but publicly say 
 you are a very cheating knave ; and say also, ' Who would buy such sort 
 of works, wherein is so much deceit, but rather use any other thing instead 
 thereof?' And thus the people are discouraged to buy your works, and 
 your trade decays, while you vainly think to treble your profit, but instead 
 thereof lose your trade. When otherwise, if your gold and silver works be 
 of standard goodness, your customers will say, 'Tis as good as money in 
 their pockets, weight for weight ; and that they know what they paid for 
 the fashion, which is all the loss they shall be at, and the work wears 
 creditable j and they will not repent of their bargain, but publicly com- 
 mend it, whereby others will be encouraged to buy such works, and so 
 your trade increases." 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 233 
 
 Periods and Conditions of Life. 
 
 PHYSIOLOGISTS divide Human Life into four periods, the em- 
 bryonic, immature, reproductive, and sterile ages : the first termi- 
 nating at birth ; the second at puberty, which is achieved at 15 ; 
 the third at 45, after which few mothers have children; and the 
 last at 100 and upwards. 
 
 Individual life exists on such conditions that it may at any 
 moment cease ; and the vital tenure varies not only with every 
 change of external circumstances, but by natural laws at every 
 year of age. It is most insecure in infancy and old age. At the 
 age of puberty before the period when the growth of the body is 
 most rapid before the age of its greatest strength before the age 
 of greatest intellectual power it is less assailable by death. The 
 chance of living through a given year increases from birth to the 
 age of 14 or 15 ; it decreases to the age of 55-8 at a slightly 
 accelerating rate ; after which the vitality declines at a much more 
 rapid rate. 
 
 Age of the People. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the very aged have not in the 
 ten years [1851-1861] increased in near the same proportion as 
 the general population. In 1851 there were in England 107,041 
 persons who had passed the limit of "14 years;" in 1861 the 
 number had only increased to 113,250. In 1851 215 persons 
 were returned as being above 100 years old, but only 201 persons 
 in 1861 one in every 100,000. Of this last number 146 were 
 women, and but 55 men nearly three women to one man. 
 Only 26 had never been married. About a third were found 
 living in large towns 21 in London, n in Liverpool, five in 
 Manchester, one in Birmingham, four in Bristol, one in Leeds. 
 As in 1851, so in 1861, these very aged persons were not found 
 so often in the midland districts of the kingdom as in the north 
 and the east, and most of all in the west. At the last Census, 
 Norfolk had among its 435,000 people n above 100 years old; 
 Gloucestershire, with 485,000 people, had eight centenarians; 
 and Somerset, with its 445,000, had nine. Wales, with its 
 i,ii2,poo, had no less than '24, the same number as Lancashire 
 with its 2,400,000 people, and more than London with its 
 2,800,000 inhabitants. So far as the occupations of these long- 
 
234 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 lived persons are given, the returns show a majority engaged 
 in pursuits that caused them to be much in the open air. 
 Three had been farmers, 13 out-door farm servants, five 
 labourers, three hawkers, three seamen, three soldiers; there 
 was a fisherman, a quarrier, a waterworks man, a miller. But 
 there was also a scrivener, four shoemakers, a baker, a grocer, a 
 carpenter, a marine-store dealer, three persons occupied in cotton 
 manufacture, two in. woollen, one in silk, one in lace. Of the 
 women the returns commonly state only whether the person is 
 wife or widow, but we are told that there were six who had been 
 domestic servants, two nurses, three charwomen, two washer- 
 women, and a gipsy. One centenarian was a member of the 
 Household. Fourteen are described as land or house proprietors, 
 or independent ; 19 were passing their last years in the work- 
 house. Six were blind. From the Census Report. 
 
 The Human Heart. 
 
 If we regard the construction of the blood-vessels, and other 
 parts of the circulating system, we find that they are constructed 
 entirely on physical laws. The Heart is the mover which propels 
 the blood, and, after having given the stroke, its fibres become 
 relaxed, to receive a fresh supply. In this case it is important 
 that the fluid should not again regurgitate into its cavities ; and 
 to prevent that, a system of valves, not thicker than paper, has 
 been contrived. Here we see a design identical with that pur- 
 sued by man in the construction of his pump, or even, in some 
 cases, of his floodgates. The only difference between the work 
 of man and the work of Nature is, that the latter is executed in a 
 manner so superior, that man feels that he sinks into insignificance 
 beside the Creator. 
 
 That wonderful machine, the Heart, goes night and day, for 
 eighty years together, at the rate of 100,000 strokes for every 
 twenty-four hours, having at every stroke a great resistance to 
 overcome. Now, each ventricle will contain at least one ounce 
 of blood ; the heart contracts 4000 times in an hour, from which 
 it follows that there pass through the heart every hour 4000 
 ounces, or 350 pounds of blood. The whole mass of blood is 
 said to be about twenty-five pounds ; so that a quantity equal to 
 the whole mass of blood passes through the heart fourteen times 
 in one hour, which is about once in every four minutes. 
 
 The Sense of Hearing. 
 
 Mr. John Marshall, in a Lecture on the special organs of the 
 Sense of Hearing, describes the wonderful arrangements for the 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 235 
 
 protection of these organs and their adaptation to their office ; the 
 examination of their relative duties, in distinguishing the kinds 
 and intensities of the sounds of such exceeding variety, produced 
 by inanimate nature, by animals, and by art (music). For the 
 appreciation of the pitch and quality of sounds Mr. Marshall con- 
 siders that we are indebted to the delicate fibrous structure of the 
 cochlea ; for the knowledge of the intensity of sound to the 
 tympanum or drum, which, possessing the power of tension and 
 relaxation, thus acts a protective part ; while in our knowledge of 
 the distance and direction of sound we are guided by the external 
 .parts of the ear and by our experience. 
 
 Care of the Teeth. 
 
 Dr. J. H. Bowditch, of the United States, having examined 
 with a microscope the matter deposited on the teeth and gums 
 of more than 40 individuals, selected from all classes of society, 
 and in nearly every variety of bodily condition, has discovered, in 
 nearly every case, animal and vegetable parasites in great numbers ; 
 in fact, the only persons whose mouths were found to be entirely 
 free from these parasites cleaned their teeth four times daily, using 
 soap once. Among the agents applied, it was found that tobacco- 
 juice and smoke did not impair the . vitality of the parasites ; nor 
 did the chlorine tooth-wash, pulverized bark, soda, ammonia, 
 &c. Soap, however pure white soap destroyed the parasites 
 instantly, and is, therefore, the best specific for cleaning the teeth. 
 
 It having been asked, " Did the Greek surgeons extract teeth ?" Mr. 
 George Hayes, the well-known dentist, replied, that on one of the orna- 
 ments found in an ancient building in the Crimea, is represented a surgeon 
 drawing a tooth from the mouth of one of the barbarian royalties. " This," 
 says Mr. Hayes, " I think, establishes the fact that there were then peri- 
 patetics, either Egyptian or Greek dentists, who resorted to those distant 
 countries for the purpose of practising their art. I believe this is the only 
 representation of a surgical operation to be met with on ancient sculpture." 
 
 Sugar has been proved injurious to the teeth, from its tendency 
 to combine with their calcareous basis. 
 
 On Blindness. 
 
 Many have been the appeals to our sympathy with the affliction 
 of the loss of sight, but neither has, perhaps, exceeded in pathos 
 the following from an address delivered by Sir John Coleridge, 
 at the West of England Institution for the Blind : 
 
 u Conceive to yourselves, for a moment, what is the ordinary 
 entertainment and conversation that passes around any one of your 
 family tables ; how many things we talk of as matters of course, 
 
236 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 as to the understanding and as to the bare conception of which 
 sight is absolutely necessary. Consider again, what an affliction 
 the loss of sight must be, and that when we talk of the golden 
 sun, the bright stars, the beautiful flowers* the blush of spring, 
 the glow of summer, and the ripening fruit of autumn, we are 
 talking of things of which we do not convey to the minds of 
 these poor creatures who are born blind anything like an adequate 
 conception. There was once a great man, as we all know, in this 
 country, a poet and nearly the greatest poet that England has 
 ever had to boast of who was blind ; and there is a passage in 
 his works which is so true and touching that it exactly describes, 
 that which I have endeavoured^ in feeble language, to paint. 
 Milton says : 
 
 " c Thus with the year 
 
 Seasons return ; but not to me returns 
 
 Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n, or morn, 
 
 Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose, 
 
 Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ; 
 
 But cloud instead, and ever during dark 
 
 Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men 
 
 Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair 
 
 Presented with a universal blank 
 
 Of Nature's works, to me expunged and rased. 
 
 And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. 
 
 So much the rather then, celestial light, 
 
 Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 
 
 Irradiate 5 there plant eyes 5 all mist from thence 
 
 Purge and disperse ; that I may see and tell 
 
 Of things invisible to mortal sight.' 
 
 The great poet when intent upon his work sought for celestial 
 light to accomplish it. And this brings me to that part of the 
 labours of our institution upon which I dwell the most, and which, 
 after all, is the greatest compensation we can afford to the inmates 
 for the affliction they suffer ; and that is, the means we provide 
 for them to read the blessed Word of God, which they can read 
 by day as well as by night, for light in their case is not an 
 essential." 
 
 Sleeping and Dreaming. 
 
 Mr. A. E. Durham, in a discourse at the Royal Institution, on 
 these questions, commenced by some remarks on Sleep considered 
 as pleasant, irresistible, and necessary. A Chinese murderer, whose 
 punishment was total privation of sleep, died on the ninth day. 
 The amount of needful sleep varies in different persons, eight 
 hours being the average. John Hunter took four hours' sleep 
 and an hour's nap after dinner. General Elliot (of Gibraltar) 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 237 
 
 required only four hours. The conditions favouring sleep were 
 referred to e.g., silence, warmth, sufficient food, and, especially, 
 a quiet conscience and a mind at ease ; and various exceptions 
 were noticed. Considered psychologically, sleep was defined as 
 suspended consciousness, and dreaming as a partial revival of con- 
 sciousness. Torpor through cold, and coma through disease, are 
 not sleep. After describing the structure of the brain, Mr. Durham 
 stated that he regarded the action of sleep as analogous to a che- 
 mical process, during which the brain tissue regains from the blood 
 what it had lost through the activity of the mind. To enable 
 him to ascertain the condition of the brain during sleep, &c., he 
 administered chloroform to a dog, and, while it was insensible, 
 removed a portion of the skull, substituting for it a piece of glass. 
 He found thus that, when the dog slept, the blood-vessels were 
 comparatively empty, the arteries lost their bright red colour and 
 assumed the blue colour of the veins, and the brain tissue col- 
 lapsed, leaving a space within the skull which was filled with 
 cerebral fluid. When the dog was awakened the blood-vessels 
 resumed their functions, and the brain once more filled the 
 cavity. 
 
 Position in Sleeping. 
 
 It is better to go to sleep on the right side. If one goes to 
 sleep on the left side the operation of emptying the stomach of 
 its contents is like drawing water from a well. After going to 
 sleep let the body take its own position. If you sleep on your 
 back, especially soon after a hearty meal, the weight of the 
 digestive organs and that of the food, resting upon the great vein 
 of the body, near the backbone, compresses it, and arrests the 
 flow of the blood more or less. If the arrest is partial, the sleep 
 is disturbed, and there are unpleasant dreams. For persons who 
 eat three times a day it is amply sufficient to make the last meal 
 of bread-and-butter, and a cup of some warm drink. No one 
 can starve on it ; while a perseverance in the habit soon begets 
 a vigorous appetite for breakfast, so promising of a day of comfort. 
 Hall's Journal of Health. 
 
 The Hair suddenly changing Colour. 
 
 Dr. Davy has read to the British Association an interesting 
 paper " On the Question, whether the Hair is or is not subject to 
 Sudden Changes of Colour." This he decides in the negative, 
 explaining away the evidence on which the contrary belief has 
 become popular ; and also maintaining with regard to seemingly 
 analogous phenomena, such as the becoming white of the ptar- 
 
23S KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 migan, and many animals and birds in winter, that it is through 
 moult and not change of colour in feather or hair. 
 
 Nevertheless, in the biography of Montaigne, the celebrated French 
 essayist, we read : " Among others whose acquaintance Montaigne made 
 in the bath-room, was Seigneur d'Andelot, formerly in the service of 
 Charles V. and governor for him of St. Quentin. One side of his beard 
 and one eyebrow were white ; and he related that this change came to him 
 in an instant. One day as he was sitting at home, with his head leaning 
 on his hand, in profound grief at the loss of a brother, executed by the 
 Duke of Alva as accomplice of Counts Egmont and Home, when he 
 looked up and uncovered the part which he had clutched in his agony, the 
 people present thought that flour had been sprinkled over him." 
 
 Mr. D. P. Parry, Staff-surgeon, at Aldershott, writes the following very 
 remarkable account of a case of which he says he made memoranda shortly 
 after the occurrence : " On February 19, 1858, the column under General 
 Franks, in the south of Oude, was engaged with a rebel force at the village 
 of Chanda, and several prisoners were taken ; one of them, a Sepoy of the 
 Bengal army, was brought before the authorities for examination, and I 
 being present had an opportunity of watching from the commencement 
 the fact I am about to record. Divested of his uniform and stripped naked, 
 he was surrounded by the soldiers, and then first apparently became alive 
 to the dangers of his position j he trembled violently, intense horror and 
 despair were depicted in his countenance, and although he answered the 
 questions addressed to him, he seemed almost stupified with fear ; while 
 actually under observation, within the space of half-an-hour, his hair be- 
 came grey on every portion of his head, it having been when first seen by 
 us the glossy jet black of the Bengalee, aged about 24. The attention of 
 the bystanders was first attracted by the sergeant, whose prisoner he was, 
 exclaiming, * He is turning grey,' and I with several other persons watched 
 its progress. Gradually but decidedly the change went on, and a uniform 
 greyish colour was completed within the period above named." 
 
 Consumption not hopeless. 
 
 Sir Edward Wilmot, the physician, was, when a youth, so far 
 gone in Consumption, that Dr. Radcliffe, whom he consulted, 
 gave his friends no hope of his recovery, yet he lived to the age 
 of ninety-three ; upon which Dr. Heberden notes : " This has 
 been the case with some others, who had many symptoms of 
 Consumption in youth." 
 
 The life of Sir Hans Sloane was protracted by extraordinary 
 means : when a youth, Sloane was attacked with spitting of blood, 
 which interrupted his education for three years ; but by abstinence 
 from wine and other stimulants, and continuing, in some measure, 
 this regimen ever afterwards, he was enabled to prolong his life 
 to the age of ninety-three years ; exemplifying the truth of his 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 239 
 
 favourite maxim that sobriety, temperance, and moderation, are 
 the best preservatives that nature has granted to mankind. 
 
 Change of Climate. 
 
 The difference in disease produced by change to warmer or 
 colder climate has been thus ably illustrated by Dr. Graves: 
 
 We observe that the English in India suffer greatly from liver disease ; 
 whilst, on the other hand, negroes and natives frequently die of phthisis 
 (consumption) in England. Monkeys die of consumption, so do lions and 
 tigers. This is a very important fact in the pathology of phthisis, as tend- 
 ing to prove that although phthisis is in many instances distinctly heredi- 
 tary, nevertheless it may be, and is, frequently acquired. Nothing can 
 furnish a stronger proof that phthisis may be acquired than the instances I 
 have adduced, for I need not tell you that no lion or tiger is ever born in 
 warm climates of a consumptive sire, or ever dies there of tubercular disease. 
 An additional illustration of the influence heat exercises on the size of the 
 liver is afforded by the celebrated Strasburg geese. By feeding these birds 
 in a particular way, and keeping them in artificial heat, the liver becomes 
 diseased, grows to an enormous size, and in this state furnishes the materials 
 of the famous pate,- How many instances occur where our citizens, expos- 
 ing themselves to the long continued operation of the very same causes, 
 confinement, overfeeding, heat, and want of exercise, are affected by them 
 in exactly the same way ! How slight the difference between the morbid 
 phenomena displayed in the post-mortem of a city feaster and the autopsy 
 of an over-fed goose. 
 
 Perfumes. 
 
 A knowledge of the nature and operations of Perfumes is a 
 very proper thing to propagate. Ignorance respecting them often 
 leads to mischief. Dr. Capellini relates the story of a lady who 
 fancied that she could not bear the smell of a rose, and who ac- 
 cordingly fainted at the sight of one, which turned out to be arti- 
 ficial ! This is rather an extreme case ; but minor mistakes, 
 adverse to the use of perfumes, are very common. Many persons 
 suppose that they are injurious, because flowers left in a bedroom 
 by night, will sometimes cause headache and sickness. But this 
 is attributable, not to the escaping aroma, but to the carbonic acid 
 which the air imbibes from the flowers. On the other hand Mr. 
 Rimmel contends that perfumes are beneficial and prophylactic in 
 the highest degree. He reminds us that after the Dutch had de- 
 stroyed, by speculation, the clove-trees in the Island of Ternate, 
 that colony was visited by a series of epidemics, which had been 
 kept off until then by the fragrant smell of the cloves ; and in 
 more modern times, when London and Paris were ravaged by 
 cholera, there was not a single victim among the numerous 
 persons employed in the perfumery factories of either city. 
 
240 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Cure for Yellow Fever. 
 
 A private letter from Her Majesty's Vice-consul at Cape Bolivar 
 to Her Majesty's Acting Consul- General at Caracas states : 
 (( An old woman, named Mariquita Orfila, has discovered a per- 
 fect remedy for the black vomit and yellow fever, by means of 
 which several persons have been completely cured after a consul- 
 tation of doctors had declared that the cases were quite hopeless, 
 and that the patients must die in a few hours. The remedy is the 
 juice of the pounded leaves of the verbena, given in small doses 
 three times a day, and injections of the same every two hours, 
 until the bowels are emptied. The verbena is a wild shrub, to 
 be found growing almost everywhere, and particularly in low, 
 moist ground. All our doctors have adopted its use, and now 
 few or none die of those late fearful diseases. There are two 
 kinds of it, male and female ; the latter is most used." 
 
 Nature's Ventilation. 
 
 Upon the proper adjustments of the dynamical forces which 
 keep up the ceaseless movements of the atmosphere, the life of 
 organic nature depends. If the air that is breathed were riot 
 taken away and renewed, warm-blooded life would cease: if 
 carbon, and oxygen, and hydrogen, and water were not in due 
 quantities dispensed by the restless air to the flora of the earth, all 
 vegetation would perish for lack of food. That our planet may 
 be liable to no such calamity, power has been given to the way- 
 ward wind, as it " bloweth where it listeth," to bring down from 
 the pure blue sky fresh supplies of life-giving air wherever it is 
 wanted ; and to catch up from the earth, wherever it may be 
 found, that which has become stale ; to force it up, there to be 
 deflagrated among the clouds, purified and renovated by processes 
 known only to Him whose ministers they are. The slightest 
 change in the purity of the atmosphere, though it may be too slight 
 for recognition by chemical analysis in the laboratory, is sure to 
 be detected by its effects upon the nicer chemistry of the human 
 system ; for it is known to be productive of disease and death. 
 No chemical tests are sensitive enough to tell us what those 
 changes are ; but experience has taught us the necessity of venti- 
 lation in our buildings, of circulation through our groves. The 
 cry, in cities, for fresh air from the mountains or the sea, reminds 
 us continually of the life-giving virtues of circulation. Expe- 
 rience teaches that all air, when pent up and deprived of circula- 
 tion, becomes impure and poisonous. In referring to ventilation, 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 241 
 
 we are never to forget that, in order to secure Nature's pure air, 
 it is essential to guard against the many sources of its pollution. 
 The air which descends to us is pure ; but it is left to man to 
 maintain it so ; hence we have to drain our marshes, empty foul 
 ditches, remove cesspools, and see that our streets are sewered and 
 paved. The Deity has given laws for the moral government ot 
 society ; but He leaves to man, on whom He has bestowed intel- 
 ligence, the discovery and the application of those scientific means 
 which are necessary to health and physical happiness. Captain 
 Maurj. 
 
 Artificial Ventilation. 
 
 In Wyman's Practical Treatise on Ventilation we find these 
 curious results. In a weaving-mill near Manchester, where the 
 ventilation was bad, the proprietor caused a fan to be mounted. 
 The consequences soon became apparent in a curious manner. The 
 operatives, little remarkable for olfactory refinement, instead of 
 thanking their employer for his attention to their comfort and 
 health, made a formal complaint to him that the ventilator had 
 increased their appetites, and therefore entitled them to a corre- 
 sponding increase of wages! By stopping the fan a part of the 
 day, the ventilation and voracity of the establishment were brought 
 to a medium standard, and complaints ceased. The operatives' 
 wages would but just support them ; any additional demands by 
 their stomachs could only be answered by draughts upon their 
 backs, which were by no means in a condition to answer them. 
 In Edinburgh a club was provided with a dinner in a well venti- 
 lated apartment, the air being perfumed as it entered, imitating in 
 succession the fragrance of lavender and the orange-flower. 
 During dinner the members enjoyed themselves as usual, but 
 were not a little surprised at the announcement of the provider, 
 that they had drunk three times as much wine as he had usually 
 provided. Gentlemen of sober, quiet habits, who usually con- 
 fined themselves to a couple of glasses, were not satisfied with 
 less than half a bottle ; others, who took half a bottle, now ex- 
 tended their potations to a bottle and a half. In fact, the hotel- 
 keeper was drunk dry. That gentlemen who had indulged so freely 
 were not aware of it at the time is not wonderful j but that they 
 felt no unpleasant sensations the following morning, which they 
 did not, is certainly quite so. 
 
 Worth of Fresh Air. 
 
 Among the sanitary enactments of the last few years is the 
 Local Government Act, for the better enforcement of ap- 
 
 K 
 
2-12 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 pliances for Public Health. An Office has been established 
 specially for the business of this Act, with a well-paid Secretary 
 and Medical Inspector: it arose upon the cessation of the labours 
 of the Board of Health; and the gain by the change may be 
 estimated by tke following Hints from an engineering Sanitary 
 Inspector of the Local Government Office: 
 
 Sanitary work is not necessarily doing some great thing, but consists 
 more in prompt and efficient attention to small matters. Fresh air is the 
 best disinfectant, but most people, even in England, treat fresh air as if it 
 were an evil. We shut it out of our houses by day, and confine foul air 
 in our rooms by night, especially during the time we use them for sleep. 
 
 An invalid takes a carriage airing with closed windows ; such a ride is, 
 however, in truth, a carriage poisoning. If an open carriage cannot be 
 used on any day in the year with safety, the individual had better not use a 
 carriage ; and no room should be occupied which has not an unceasing flow 
 of fresh air through it not necessarily a draught, but motion. Open flues, 
 open doors, or open windows admit of change of air j not, however, always 
 with comfort to the inmates. But as a room cannot be hermetically sealed 
 up, provision ought to be made for an admission of fresh air, rather than 
 for the stealing in of sewer, drain, cesspool, or sink gases. List up doers, 
 carpet floors, paper window-joints, and block up fireplaces, if contagious 
 diseases are to have their most malignant effects $ ventilate houses, by open 
 windows on staircases or in corridors if possible, but by all means ventilate. 
 Cold does not kill so many as foul air, although a low temperature gene- 
 rally increases the weekly bills of mortality. But it is the very poor who 
 suffer most. The Chinese say, " Fools and beggars only suffer from cold ; 
 the one have not wit to clothe properly, the others are too poor to clothe 
 sufficiently." Clothing ought to be the protection against cold, not warm 
 and foul air. In every house in which typhus fever or small-pox prevails 
 it will be safer for the inhabitants of such houses to remove the windows 
 rather than to keep them closed. An open shed in a field with warm 
 clothing will be better than a closed room in a town. I have seen fever 
 patients and small-pox patients treated beneath open sheds in the country 
 safely, and I have heard experienced surgeons remark that fresh air and diet 
 were of more avail than medicine. I have seen a British army in hospital 
 and in the field surrounded by foul air, wasting away by fever. I have seen 
 that army restored to health by cleanliness and an admission of fresh air. 
 The air was not cooked nor manipulated by any patented apparatus, but 
 was admitted direct from the vast ocean of fresh air about and above, by 
 slits in the ridge of huts in the Crimea, by the removal of top squares from 
 fixed windows at the great hospitals on the Bosphorus, and by the opening 
 up of flues wherever these could with advantage be formed in those hos- 
 pitals. The ordinary atmosphere of any country freely admitted and un- 
 ceasingly changed is the only safe medium in which to breathe. In all 
 countries and under all climates excessive disease to man comes from foul 
 air generated within his dwelling rather than from any external influences. 
 The remedy against disease is, therefore, fresh air. Infection is scarcely 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 213 
 
 possible amid abundance of fresh air. Soap and water can kill contagion 
 if used in time. 
 
 The intercepting main sewers of the metropolis, if brought into use, will 
 actually add to existing evils rather than remove them, if these sewers only 
 pass away large volumes of surplus water which now dilute the deposit in 
 many scores of miles of secondary and branch sewers and drains. There 
 are hundreds of open sewer ventilators within the metropolis sending out 
 unceasingly thousands of cubic feet of sewage gases to the streets above. 
 All this vast volume of gas might be cheaply disinfected by being made to 
 pass slowly through charcoal, and all foul sewers may either be cleansed or 
 be disinfected in time. 
 
 Town and Country. 
 
 Sir E. B Lytton, in Blackwood's Magazine, .observes: We 
 who are lovers of the country are not unnaturally disposed to con- 
 sider that our preference argues some finer poetry of sentiment 
 some steadier devotion to those ennobling studies which sages 
 commend as the fitting occupations of retirement. But the facts 
 do not justify that self-conceit upon our part. It was said by a 
 philosopher who was charged with all the cares of a world's em- 
 pire, that " there is no such great matter in retirement. A man 
 may be wise and sedate in a crowd as well as in a desert, and keep 
 the noise of the world from getting within him. In this case, as 
 Plato observes, the walls of a town and the enclosure of a sheep- 
 fold may be made the same thing." Certainly, poets,, and true 
 poets, have lived by choice in the dingy streets of great towns. 
 Men of science, engaged in reasonings the most abstruse, on sub- 
 jects the most elevating, have usually fixed their dwelling-place in 
 bustling capitals, as if the din of the streets without deepened, by 
 the force of a contrast, the quiet of those solitary closets wherein 
 they sat analysing the secret heart of that nature whose every-day 
 outward charms they abandoned to commonplace adorers. On 
 the other hand, men perforce engaged in urban occupations, 
 neither bards nor sages but City clerks and traders, feel a yearning 
 of the heart towards a home in the country ; loving rural nature 
 With so pure a fervour that, if closer intercourse is forbidden, they 
 are contented to go miles every evening to kiss the skirt of her 
 robe. Their first object is to live out of London, if but in a 
 suburb ; to refresh their eyes with the green of a field ; to greet 
 the first harbinger of spring in the primrose venturing forth in 
 their own tiny realm of garden. It is for them, as a class, that 
 cities extend beyond their ancient bounds ; while our nobles yet 
 clung to their gloomy halls in the Fleet, traders sought home- 
 steads remote from their stalls and wares in the pleasing village of 
 Charing. 
 
 R2 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Recreations of the People. 
 
 The preservation ot open places for the recreation of the people 
 is watched with much jealousy by those who take an interest in 
 the assertion of popular rights. Mr. J. S. Mill, the historian, has 
 put in this eloquent plea for their maintenance : 
 
 There is room in the world no doubt, and even in old countries, for an 
 immense increase ot population, supposing the arts of life to go on improw 
 ing, and capital to increase. But although it may be innocuous, I confess 
 I see very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary 
 to enable mankind to obtain in the greatest "3 egree all the advantages, both 
 of co-operation and of social intercourse, has in all the more populous 
 countries been attained. A population may be too crowded, though all be 
 amply supplied with food and raiment. It is not good for man to be kept 
 perforce at all times in the presence of his species. A world from which 
 solitude is extirpated is a very poor ideal. Solitude, in the sense of being 
 often alone, is essential 'to any depth of meditation or of character, and 
 solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of 
 thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but 
 which society could ill do without. Nor is there much satisfaction in con- 
 templating the world with nothing left to the spontaneous activity of nature, 
 with every rood of land brought into cultivation which is capable of grow- 
 ing food for human beings, every flowery waste or natural pasture ploughed 
 up, all quadrupeds or birds which are not domesticated for man's use exter- 
 minated as his rivals for food ; every hedgerow or superfluous tree rooted 
 out, and scarcely a place left where a wild shrub or flower could grow with- 
 out being eradicated as a weed in the name of improved agriculture. If 
 the earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to 
 things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate 
 from it for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger, but not a 
 better or happier population, I sincerely hope, for the sake of posterity, that 
 they will be content to be stationary long before necessity compels them to 
 do so. 
 
 This is picturesquely eloquent ; but it may be argued that a 
 public (( green" or common, in the neighbourhood of a large town, 
 is often a rendezvous for the idle and abandoned, in their brutal- 
 izing sports : the great city, like a cauldron, with more evils than 
 that in Macbeth, seems to boil over, and deposit its scum upon 
 the circumjacent ground. 
 
 The Druids and their Healing Art. 
 
 We might expect to find, from the universality of their appli- 
 cation, remedies for 
 
 the thousand natural shocks 
 ' That flesh is heir to 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 245 
 
 preserved in perpetuo. In ancient Britain, the Druids were the 
 depositaries of these secrets. 
 
 Amongst the early Britons, the ranks of the priests were re- 
 cruited from the noblest families : their education, which often 
 extended over a period of twenty years, comprehended the whole 
 of the sciences of the age ; and besides their sacred calling, they 
 were invested with power to decide their civil disputes. Then- 
 dwellings and temples were situated in the thickest oak-groves, 
 which were sacred to the Supreme Deity. The acorn, and above 
 all, the parasitical mistleto, were held in high veneration : the 
 latter was sought on the sixth day of the moon, and when found 
 was only cut by a priest of the highest rank, for it was accounted 
 a sovereign remedy for all diseases. The practice of the healing 
 art has ever commanded the esteem of the rudest nations : hence 
 it was the obvious policy of the priests, or Druids, to study the 
 properties of plants. Of their progress we have no record ; but 
 who knows from what a far antiquity come the traditionary 
 virtues of many of our native plants? 
 
 Their famous Mistleto, or all-heal^ was considered a certain 
 cure in many diseases, an antidote to poison, and a preventive of 
 infection. And, we have, in the present day, a very old nostrum, 
 named Heal-all^ the universal virtues of which are described as 
 equalling the mistleto of our ancestors. 
 
 Remedies for Cancer. 
 
 A multitude of strange remedies are prescribed for Cancels. 
 When Lord Metcalfe, the Governor of Canada, was beset with 
 this cruel disease, Mr. Kaye, his biographer, tells us: " One cor- 
 respondent recommended Mesmerism, which had cured Miss 
 Martineau ; another Hydropathy, at the pure springs of Malvern ; 
 a third, an application of the common dock-leaf ; a fourth, an 
 infusion of couch-grass; a fifth, the baths of Docherte, near 
 Vienna ; a sixth, the volcanic hot-springs of Karlsbad ; a seventh, 
 a wonderful plaster made of rose-leaves, olive-oil, and turnip- 
 juice ; an eighth, a plaster and powder, in which some part of a 
 young frog was a principal ingredient ; a ninth, a mixture of cop- 
 peras and vinegar ; a tenth, an application of pure ox-gall ; an 
 eleventh, a mixture of Florence oil and red precipitate ; whilst a 
 twelfth was certain of the good effects of Homoeopathy, which 
 cured Charlotte Elizabeth. Besides these varied remedies, many 
 men and women with infallible recipes, or certain modes of treat- 
 ment, were recommended by themselves and others. Learned 
 Italian professors, mysterious American women, erudite Germans, 
 and obscure Irish quacks all had cured cancers of twenty years' 
 
246 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 standing, and all were pressing, or pressed forward, to operate on 
 Lord Metcalfe." 
 
 Improved Surgery. 
 
 The basis, and no small portion of the superstructure, of scien- 
 tific surgery, was laid by the famous Ambroise Pare, who pos- 
 sessed the rare gift of seeing things as they were, and not as his 
 preconceived notions would have them to be. Sharing the 
 common belief that gunshot wounds were, by their nature, poi- 
 sonous, he used to treat them with boiling oil ; but having failed 
 once to apply the usual remedy, he was surprised to find that his 
 patients were much the better for the omission. Thereupon, he 
 renounced the ordinary practice, and from that time gunshot 
 wounds have received a more rational treatment. Pare was the 
 first to revive the practice known to the Arabians of stopping the 
 flow of blood from arteries by tying them. The French Faculty 
 of Medicine ridiculed the innovation as the system of hanging life 
 upon a thread, and declared its preference for the use of boiling 
 pitch which had stood the test of so many centuries ; but wounded 
 persons could not be brought to see the force of such reasoning. 
 Anatomy was prosecuted with great assiduity and precision of 
 detail throughout the whole of the sixteenth century, and the way 
 was cleared for Harvey's grand discovery, which he first publicly 
 taught in 1619. 
 
 John Hunter introduced what is probably the most capital Im- 
 provement in Surgery ever effected by a single man ; namely, the 
 practice in aneurism of tying the artery at a distance from the 
 seat of disease. This one suggestion has saved thousands of lives ; 
 and both the suggestion, and the first successful execution of it, 
 are entirely owing to John Hunter, who, if he had done nothing 
 else, would on this account alone have a right to be classed among 
 the principal benefactors of mankind. 
 
 Restoration of a Fractured Leg. 
 
 M. Flourens has communicated to the Paris Academy of 
 Sciences a letter from Dr. Mottet, giving an account of the Resto- 
 ration of a Fractured Leg under circumstances of peculiar difficulty. 
 The fracture had been occasioned by a fall of stones on the limb ; 
 it was complex, and such that amputation presented peculiar diffi- 
 culties ; still, notwithstanding gangrene and other untoward cir- 
 cumstances, the fracture, being reduced, was kept in its normal 
 position by a peculiar apparatus for the space of a year, at the end 
 of which time the bone was completely regenerated, and the limb 
 perfectly cured without any diminution in length. 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 247 
 
 The original cc Dr. Sangrado" 
 
 Thousands may have enjoyed the humour of Gil Bias without 
 suspecting that the genius of Dr. Sangrado had any living proto- 
 type. Yet such was Botal, who revolutionized the practice of 
 medicine by a freedom of bleeding that was quite unprecedented. 
 He bled largely and repeatedly, both young and old, male and 
 female, in all diseases, whether low in type or acute. " The young 
 he bled freely, on account of the rapid reproduction of blood in 
 youth ; the old, because he saw in the practice a conduciveness to 
 rejuvenescence. He bled freely in low and wasting diseases, even 
 of a malignant nature, because a richer and better blood was 
 formed ; in dysentery, because he recognised in it an affinity to 
 inflammation of the lungs, in which all physicians bled ; in all 
 forms of flatulency, because of its power to relieve obstructions ; 
 in short, he had a reason for bleeding in every special distemper, 
 and when reproached for the indiscriminate routine of practice, 
 he argued that the more water you draw from a well the purer 
 and better is that which filters in. From him originated the 
 system of bleeding in pregnancy, which is continued to this day." 
 Botal was a man of happy despatch, like Van Helmont, under 
 whose hands, as his biographer relates, " the sick never languished 
 long, being always killed or cured in three days." Botal's patients 
 were probably more often killed than cured ; but they did not 
 die in vain, for his practice set medical men observing and thinking, 
 so that good came of it in the end a great consolation for his 
 victims, could they have foreseen it. Spectator newspaper. 
 
 False Arts advancing true. 
 
 After the death of Galen, Medicine ceased to make progress. 
 Amidst the Gothic invasions the medical sects " dwindled down to 
 individuals, who achieved for medicine what the monastics effected 
 for ancient classic literature : they maintained it in the condition 
 of a small but continuous stream, in the midst of so much charla- 
 tanism that no man could talk nonsense so gross, or profess super- 
 natural powers so incredible, but that the ignorance of the com- 
 munity would give credit to his assertions." All through the dark 
 and the Middle Ages astrology, alchemy, magic, and cabalistic 
 aits predominated ; all physical phenomena were ascribed to occult 
 causes ; in short, as Sir John Herschel remarks, " If the logic of 
 that gloomy period could be justly described as < the art of talking 
 un.ntelligibly on matters of which we are ignorant,' its physics 
 might, with equal truth, be summed up in a deliberate preference 
 
248 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 of ignorance to knowledge in matters of every day's experience 
 and use." Sometimes, however, the false arts served indirectly to 
 advance the true. Alchemy led the way to chemistry, and en- 
 riched medicine with new remedies, and at least one crotchet of 
 scholastic divinity may be supposed to have done something for 
 the progress of anatomy ; for " the skeleton received, perhaps, an 
 adventitious attention in consequence of the popular belief that, in 
 man, some one particular bone existed of an imponderable, incom- 
 bustible, and indestructible nature, around which, as a nucleus, 
 all other tissues and organs would collect and re-assume their 
 vital actions at the resurrection. Accordingly, every bone was 
 tested by fire, for the purpose of discovering the hypothetical one." 
 Dr. Meryon's History of Medicine. 
 
 Brief History of Medicine. 
 
 Great honour is, unquestionably, due to those medical men who 
 by their learning, counsel, and experience, have contributed so many 
 and great things to the improvement of their profession. The art 
 of healing may be considered as a legacy left to us by former ages 
 and enriched by ancient writers, and no doubt ordained by a bene- 
 volent Creator for the benefit of His creatures, who, being endowed 
 Avith reason, are enabled to prosecute Medicine and the collateral 
 sciences with wonderful sagacity. The impossibility of learning 
 medicine properly by experience alone, implies the necessity of study, 
 ing both ancient and modern writers; but, in the words ot Harvey, 
 " men were not to swear such fealty to their mistress Antiquity, 
 as openly and in sight of all to deny and desert their friend Truth,' 1 
 Medical history unfortunately affords many examples of despisers 
 of the mighty dead and of eminent living authorities. Paracelsus 
 burnt the writings of Galen and Avicenna before his pupils, and 
 proclaimed himself the king of medicine. Hahnemann much 
 resembled Paracelsus, for he despised the inspection of dead bodies, 
 and preferred the homoeopathic doctrine to pathology ; but both 
 had dared to do <f aliquid Gyaris vel carcere dignum." Hahne- 
 mann's doctrine, that numerous chronic diseases originated in the 
 itch, was neither new, safe, nor true. Dr. C. G. Zieger had many 
 years before promulgated the same idea in a dissertation published 
 at Leipsic in 1 758, without boasting, as the other did, that he was 
 engaged twelve years in the discoveiy. False theories, however, 
 with scientific pretensions, have flourished through many ages. 
 Hence arose homoeopathy, kinesipathy, table-turning, and various 
 despicable " isms" of the present day. But, happily for the poor, 
 at least, such lies could not exist in the schools of Harvey, Baillie, 
 and Hunter. The low condition of medicine at the time of Linacre, 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 249 
 
 and the improvement with the aid of Henry VIII. and Cardinal 
 Wolsey, may next be mentioned. Linacre, the founder of the 
 College, and Dean Colet, the founder of St. Paul's School, of 
 grateful memory to the orator, were among the first to restore 
 ancient learning to this island. The College of Physicians having 
 been established, its members were separated from vulgar empirics; 
 but by a new law homceo-empirics may be registered, which was 
 nothing less than legal homicide, and strongly to be protested 
 against. Harveian Oration, 1863. 
 
 What has Science done for Medicine? 
 
 The practice of Medicine is full of difficulty. Modern Science 
 has done something to aid in the diagnosis, often the most diffi- 
 cult part of the physician's task. Auscultation and the use of 
 the microscope have substituted certainty for conjecture in many 
 cases. But, for this essential preliminary of ascertaining what is 
 the matter with the patient, a combination of faculties is often 
 needed which cannot be communicated in the schools. The power 
 may be developed and improved by use, and corrected by careful 
 observation ; but it is born with certain men, and it is not to be 
 gained by teaching or study. Then, supposing the disease to be 
 ascertained, it constantly happens that there is little or nothing to 
 be done that can with any confidence be expected to shorten or 
 reduce the intensity of the attack. The option lies between a 
 system of slight palliatives, almost or quite inoperative, and the 
 application of stronger remedies whose action is uncertain. For- 
 tunately, the effects of medicine in general are far less considerable 
 than is commonly supposed. The statistics of hospitals in which 
 the most different systems of treatment have been adopted do not, 
 indeed, prove that all the systems have been equally good or bad; 
 but they do show that in many diseases there is no known system 
 of treatment that has any marked advantage over others. It is 
 not too much to say that, for one case in which the medicine 
 administered has been of real use, there are ten where the patients 
 would have thriven as well or better without it. 
 
 A further difficulty in medical practice has been less noticed than 
 it deserves to be. All that is known of the effect of remedies is 
 the general or average result of a large number of cases in which 
 they have been applied. But no two men are exactly alike in the 
 manner of action of their various organs. When the chemist who 
 has once tried an experiment brings the same substances together 
 under similar conditions, he is absolutely certain that they will 
 act on each other as they did before. Not so is it with the living 
 organism. The idiosyncracy of each patient is more or less un- 
 
250 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 known to the physician ; and till the experiment has been tried, 
 he can have no certainty as to the result of his treatment. It is 
 quite true that the exceptional cases that sometimes arise present 
 apparent rather than real anomalies. There is no reason to sup- 
 pose that the laws of physics have been suspended by an inde- 
 pendent disturbing power when a drug produces on a particular 
 patient an unusual effect. The conditions of the experiment have 
 doubtless been changed by some peculiarity in his organization, 
 which the present means of science are powerless to detect. 
 
 The main cause why medicine is still so little advanced is to be 
 found in the backward condition of the science on which it mainly 
 rests. Physiology, including pathology the first taking cognizance 
 of all the vital functions of organized beings, the second of the 
 disturbance of those functions by disease is far from maintaining 
 its place in the general march of physical science. Saturday 
 Review. 
 
 The Element of Physic in Medical Practice. 
 
 The Element of Physic in Medical Practice becomes con- 
 stantly more simple. Our drugs are fewer and less complicated.* 
 Of course it is all otherwise in pseudo-medicine. Here" specifics" 
 are as rank as weeds. Here little account is taken of natural 
 provisions for the cure of disease. Here physic is everything, and 
 nature and the physician are unimportant. Given the symptoms 
 of a disease and a book of " testings," every old lady thinks herself 
 as competent a physician as Hahnemann. Every disease and 
 symptom of disease has its corresponding remedy, or rather we 
 should say two remedies, for it will nearly always be found that 
 homoeopathic patients take two medicines, in equal doses and 
 with equal frequency. Homoeopathy abounds in principles. Its 
 great principle is that of " specifics" that certain medicines have 
 the most definite and designed relation to certain ailments are 
 the thing and the only thing. Then there is what we may call the 
 alternating principle, in virtue of which two medicines each, we 
 suppose, a specific ! are so much better than one. Upon these 
 two principles the enlightened patron of homoeopathy is made the 
 receptacle of a most unprincipled amount of physic. We con- 
 clude by impressing upon our brethren who are studying medi- 
 cine in the light of reason and science, the urgency of the duty 
 
 * Many years since, the writer heard Sir Lucas Pepys, (some time Pre- 
 sident of the College of Physicians,) inquire of a druggist at Dorking what 
 use he could possibly make of the many drugs in his shop ; " for," added Sir 
 Lucas, " I have only used five or six articles in all my practice." J. T. 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 251 
 
 that devolves upon them of so using the element of physic in 
 medical practice as to make more and more apparent the great 
 gulf that is fixed between their practice and the rival quackeries 
 of the day. Let them use medicine so that the most undiscerning 
 patient will perceive that it is only one of many means to an end, 
 auxiliary only to great provisions in the body itself, and for the 
 most part acting, not mysteriously, like quinine, but sensibly or 
 chemically. Let the form of their drugs be unpretentious and 
 inexpensive, so that whatever the cost to the patient may be, he 
 may understand that he pays, not for physic, but for the attention, 
 the skill, and the judgment, of the physician. Lancet. 
 
 Physicians* Fees. 
 
 In the Court of Exchequer in January, 1863, in an action 
 brought by a physician to recover 2i/. for services rendered to a 
 patient, it was contended that as there was no special promise to 
 pay, the plaintiffcould not recover. Such was the state of the law 
 formerly, physicians being presumed to attend for an honorarium ; 
 but an Act was passed to enable registered physicians and surgeons 
 to recover their reasonable charges, subject to such bye-laws as 
 might be passed by the College of Physicians. The latter body, 
 however, it appears, have thwarted the intention of the Legislature 
 by enacting that physicians shall not recover, even though a con- 
 tract existed ; the object, it seems, being to make the payment of 
 physicians' fees immediate, and to discourage credit. A verdict 
 was found for the plaintiff leave being granted to move the Court 
 above on the construction of the Medical Act. 
 
 Attention has been called to the careless manner in which consulting 
 physicians write their prescriptions ; more especially as regards the dose, the 
 drachm often resembling the ounce, and the writing so generally blotted and 
 crabbed that the dispensers are often obliged to make guesses, with very little 
 light to guide them to a right conclusion. The blame, whenever a mistake 
 occurs, is always attached to the chemist or assistant, without considering 
 the anxiety and trouble they have in deciphering writing worse than falls 
 to the lot of a post-office master. The public have often ridiculed the 
 style of physicians' prescriptions, but will be unable to joke when a mistake 
 more serious than usual occurs. 
 
 Prevention of Pitting in Small-pox. 
 
 This desirable end is stated to have been attained in the clinical 
 wards of the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh. The application 
 consists of a solution of india-rubber in chloroform, which is 
 painted over the face (and neck in women) when the eruption 
 
252 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 has become fully developed. When the chloroform has evapo- 
 rated, which it very readily does, there is left a thin elastic film 
 of india-rubber over the face. This the patient feels to be rather 
 comfortable than otherwise, inasmuch as the disagreeable itchiness, 
 so generally complained of, is almost entirely removed, and, what 
 is more important, " pitting'' once so common, and even now far 
 from rare, is thoroughly prevented wherever the solution has 
 been applied. It may be as well to state that india-rubber is far 
 from being very soluble in chloroform ; so that, in making the 
 solution, the india-rubber must be cut into small pieces, and chlo- 
 roform added till it is dissolved. The medical gentleman who 
 has introduced this treatment has tried several other substances, 
 but found none so generally useful. For instance, gutta-percha 
 was tried. It has the advantage of being very soluble in chloro- 
 form, and would have been a very admirable application but for 
 the tendency it has to tear into ribands whenever the mouth is 
 used, or even when the features play. India-rubber, on the other 
 hand, is pliable and elastic, allowing free use of the mouth with- 
 out any danger (as a rule) of its tearing off. If, however, from 
 some cause or other, a portion is torn off, a fresh application of 
 the solution by means of a large hair-pencil remedies the defect, 
 and the mask is once more complete. Several patients who have 
 had this india-rubber mask applied concur in stating that they 
 found it agreeable to wear, and their faces were perfectly free from 
 u pitting," although other parts of the body, such as the arms, 
 were covered. The credit of this valuable invention and applica- 
 tion belongs to Dr. Smart, house physician to the Infirmary. 
 
 Underneath the Skin. 
 
 All over the surface of our bodies there are scattered millions 
 of minute orifices, which open into the delicate convoluted tubes 
 lying underneath the Skin, and are called by anatomists sudori- 
 parous glands. Each of these tubes, when straightened, measures 
 about a quarter of an inch; and as, according to Erasmus 
 Wilson, whose figures we follow, there are 3528 of these tubes 
 on every square inch of the palm of the hand, there must be no 
 less than 882 inches of tubing on such a square inch. In some 
 parts of the body the number of tubes is even greater : in most 
 parts it is less. Erasmus Wilson estimates that there are 2800 on 
 every square inch, on the average ; and, as the total number of 
 such inches is 2500, we arrive at the astounding result that, spread 
 over the surface of the body, there are not less than twenty-eight 
 miles of tubing, by means of which liquid may be secreted, and 
 given off as vapour in insensible perspiration, or as water in sensible 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 253 
 
 perspiration. In the ordinary circumstances of daily life the 
 amount of fluid which is thus given off from the skin (and lungs) 
 during the twenty-four hours varies from iflb. to5lb. ; under 
 extraordinary circumstances the amount will, of course, rise enor- 
 mously. Dr. Southwood Smith found that the workmen in the 
 gasworks employed in making up the fires, and other occupations 
 which subjected them to great heat, lost on an average 3lb. 6 oz. 
 in forty-five minutes ; and when working for seventy minutes in 
 an unusually hot place their loss was 5 Ib. 2 oz., and 4 Ib. 14 oz. 
 Blackiuood 's Magazine. 
 
 Relations of Mind and Organization. 
 
 We may safely assume, as an established fact, that it is only 
 through the instrumentality of the central parts of the nervous 
 system that the Mind maintains its communication with the ex- 
 ternal world. The eye is necessary to sight, and the ear to hear- 
 ing ; and so with the other organs of sense. But the eye does 
 not see, and the ear does not hear ; and if the nerve which forms 
 the communication between any one organ of sense and the 
 brain be divided, the corresponding sense is destroyed. In like 
 manner it is from the brain that all those impulses proceed by 
 which the mind influences the phenomena of the external world. 
 The division of the nerves which extend from the brain to the larynx 
 destroys the voice. The division of the nerves of a limb causes the 
 muscles of the limb to be paralysed, or, in other words, withdraws 
 them from the influence of the v/ill ; the division of the spinal cord 
 destroys at once the sensibility and the power of voluntai y motion 
 in all the parts below that at which the division has been made. 
 
 The brain has a central organ, which is a continuation of the 
 spinal cord, and to which anatomists have given the name of 
 medulla oblongata. In connexion with this there are other bodies 
 placed in pairs. That each of these bodies has its peculiar functions 
 there cannot be the smallest doubt ; and it is, indeed, sufficiently 
 probable that each of them is not a single organ, but a congeries 
 of organs having distinct and separate uses. 
 
 Experimental physiology, joined with the observation of the 
 changes produced by disease, has thrown some light on this 
 mysterious subject. There is reason to believe that, whatever it- 
 may do besides, one office of the cerebellum is to combine the 
 action of the voluntary muscles for the purpose of locomotion. 
 The corpora quadrigemina are four tubercles which connect the 
 cerebrum y cerebellum, and medulla oblongata to each other. If one 
 of the uppermost of these bodies be removed, blindness of the 
 eye of the opposite side is the consequence. If the upper part ot 
 
254 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the cerebrum be removed, the animal becomes blind, and appa- 
 rently stupified, but not so much so but that he can walk with 
 steadiness and precision. The most important part of the whole 
 brain seems to be one particular part of the central organ, or 
 medulla oblongata. While this remains entire, the animal retains 
 its sensibility, breathes, and performs instinctive motions. But if 
 this very minute portion of the nervous system be injured, there 
 is an end of these several functions, and death immediately 
 ensues. 
 
 These facts, and some others of the same kind, for a know- 
 ledge of which we are indebted to modern physiologists, and 
 more especially to M. Magendie and M. Flourens, are satisfac- 
 tory as far as they go ; and warrant the conclusion that there are 
 various other organs in the brain, designed for other purposes, and 
 that if we cannot point out their locality, it is not because such 
 organs do not exist, but because our means of research into so 
 intricate a matter are very limited. Sir jB* Brodie's Psychological; 
 Inquiries. 
 
 Devi lie, the Phrenologist. 
 
 In 1817 a Mr. Deville, a lamp-manufacturer of London, was 
 a member of the Institution of Civil Fingineers. He had been 
 originally a pot-boy, then a journeyman plasterer, and afterwards 
 kept a shop for the sale of plaster figures, which he cast. He 
 had risen to a respectable position simply by the force of his 
 natural powers. Mr. Bryan Donkin, .a civil engineer, was an 
 early auditor of Gall at Vienna, and subsequently a friend of 
 Spurzheim. He was also, like Mr. Deville, a member of the 
 Institution of Civil Engineers ; and. when, in 1817, he with others 
 determined to make a collection of casts as records of phreno- 
 logical facts, Mr. Deville was applied to for his assistance, which 
 he rendered as a matter of business for three or four years. In 
 1821 he became interested in phrenology, and began to form a 
 collection of casts on his own account. Already, in 1826, Spurz- 
 heim said it was finer than any he had seen elsewhere. At Mr. 
 Deville's death, in 1846, this collection consisted of about 5450 
 pieces ; of these 3000 were crania of animals, and the remainder 
 (2450) illustrations of human phrenology. There were 200 human 
 crania, and 300 casts of crania ; amongst the latter, those which 
 Baron Cuvier permitted Mr. Deville to take from all the authenti- 
 cated human skulls in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy of 
 Paris. Mr. Deville was a practical observer, and possessed the 
 large number of 1500 casts of heads taken by himself from 
 persons while living. Amongst these were 50 casts of persons 
 remarkably devoted to religion: 40 of distinguished painters, 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 255 
 
 sculptors, architects, &c. ; 30 of eminent navigators and tra- 
 vellers; 80 of poets, authors, and writers; 70 of musicians, 
 amateurs, and composers of music; 25 of pugilists; 150 of 
 criminals; 120 pathological casts illustrative of insanity, c. 
 Perhaps the most interesting of all are 170 casts which illustrate 
 the changes caused in the cranial conformation of from 60 to 70 
 individuals by age, special devotion to one pursuit, and the like. 
 Mr. Deville's account of some of these has been published. 
 
 " Seeing is believing." 
 
 Supreme disregard of the accuracy of the facts on which its 
 conclusions are based, is one of the marks of an uncultivated 
 intellect. It is a part of the credulousness continued from child- 
 hood ; and is seen in the acceptance, without misgiving, of any 
 statement of facts which is made confidently, and without obvious 
 motive for deceit. Not only in matters of science, but in matters 
 of daily life, is this credulity observed. You cannot step into an 
 omnibus, or chat with an acquaintance at the club, without hear- 
 ing distinct, positive, and important statements respecting the 
 intentions of public men, statements involving their personal 
 honour, perhaps the national safety, and uttered with an air of 
 conviction which would be ludicrous were it not so sad ; yet if 
 you happen to ask on what evidence the speaker relies, you find 
 perhaps that there is nothing better than surmise or gossip. 
 
 The object of the foregoing remarks is to show how easily an 
 inference may be mistaken for a fact, and how habitually men 
 declare they have seen what they have only inferred. Seeing is, 
 in all cases, believing ; but in all cases we must assure ourselves of 
 (what we have seen, carefully discriminating it from what we have 
 not seen but only imagined, and carefully ascertaining whether 
 the facts seen by us are all the facts then present. It is by no 
 means easy to see accurately any series of events; nor, when under 
 any strong emotion, is it easy to prevent the imagination from 
 usurping the place of vision. " Many individuals," says Liebig, 
 " overlook half the event through carelessness ; another adds to 
 what he observes the creation of his own imagination ; whilst a 
 third, who sees sufficiently distinctly the different parts of the 
 whole, confounds together things which ought to be kept separate. 
 In the Gorlitz trial, in Darmstadt, the female attendants who 
 washed and clothed the body, observed on it neither arms nor 
 head; another witness saw one arm, and a head the size of a 
 man's fist; a third, a physician, saw both arms and head of the 
 usual size."* 
 
 * Liebig : Letters on Chemistry, p. 28. 
 
250 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 There is no popular adage less understood than that u Seeing is 
 believing." With an ill- suppressed irritation at any expression 
 of scepticism respecting things said to have been seen, a narrator 
 asks whether or not he may believe the evidence of his own senses ? 
 That argument seems to him final ; and it often happens that his 
 opponent, evading instead of meeting it, retorts : " No ; the 
 evidence of the senses is not to be trusted, when they report any- 
 thing so absurd as that. I would not believe such a thing if I 
 were to see it the absurdity is too glaring." 
 
 Both are wrong. Seeing is believing; and he that distrusts 
 the evidence of his own sight, will find a difficulty in bringing 
 forward evidence more convincing. The fallacy lies in con- 
 founding vision with inference in supposing that facts are seen 
 which are only inferred. There can be no mistake in trusting to 
 the evidence of sense, as far as that goes. The mistake is 
 supposing it to go much further than it does. It is one thing to 
 believe what you have seen, and another to believe that you have 
 seen all there was to be seen. Blackwoo&s Magazine. 
 
 Causes of Insanity. 
 
 From an interesting Report on Lunatic Asylums in Ireland, 
 issued in 1862, we find that the moral Causes of Insanity predo- 
 minate in females, the physical causes to a larger extent in males, 
 particularly intemperance and irregularity of life. The cause of 
 disease was ascertained in 2186 cases : in 323 it was intemperance 
 and irregularity; in 183, religious excitement; in 115, love, 
 jealousy, and seduction. Thirty-seven per cent, of the cases were 
 ascribable to hereditary transmission and intemperance combined. 
 W ith regard to the hereditary character of insanity, it is observed 
 that mental, like bodily affections, gradually wear out from the 
 intermixture of blood. There was no case found in Ireland in 
 unbroken descent to the fourth generation. On the important 
 question whether insanity is on the increase, there is no certain 
 proof furnished. We know that, with fresh accommodation for 
 the insane, fresh, though long-existing cases, are presented for 
 admission into asylums, creating an apparent increase of lunacy ; 
 and we know that improved treatment and care have tended 
 materially to the prolongation of life among lunatics, and to their 
 consequent accumulation. We know also that science, and even 
 public opinion, now accept as indicative of lunacy affections for- 
 merly classed under a different category. Lunacy, also, is now 
 less concealed as a discreditable visitation. Emigration has not 
 taken its proportion of lunatics. But, insanity being in great 
 measure a disease of intellect one connected with the develop- 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 257 
 
 ment of the human mind it is highly presumable that, in this 
 age of excitement and rapid advancement in arts and sciences, 
 mental affections may be more prevalent than before. In a 
 northern district of Ireland, during the two months of religious 
 revivalism, there were more cases of insanity than in the whole 
 preceding year. 
 
 Brain-Disease. 
 
 Dr. Forbes Winslow, whose professional life has been devoted 
 to the study of Insanity, in his work On Obscure Diseases of the 
 Brain, and Disorders of the Mind, attaches much importance to 
 premonitory ailments, as indicative not only of the fatal mischief 
 which will inevitably succeed them if neglected, but of the only 
 period when remedies can be applied with a fair chance of cure. 
 This period it is difficult even to the medical expert to detect, for 
 the aversion to own any affection of the mind or weakness of the 
 head is so strong, that both patient and friends will often repu- 
 diate and ignore it altogether ; yet there are unmistakeable signs, 
 such as " headache attributed to derangement of the stomach, 
 vacillation of temper, feebleness of purpose, Mightiness of manner, 
 irritability, inaptitude for business, depression and exaltation of 
 spirits ; and even weakness of sight, when the optician has been 
 consulted rather than the physician." None of these signs, if 
 caused by Brain Disease, can exist, says Dr. Winslow, for any 
 length of time without seriously perilling the reason and endan- 
 gering life : yet " it is a well-established fact that seventy, if 
 not eighty, per cent, of cases ot insanity admit of easy and speedy 
 cure if treated in the early stage, provided there be no strong 
 constitutional predisposition to cerebral and mental affections, or 
 existing cranial malformation. And, even when an hereditary 
 taint exists, derangement of mind generally yields to the steady and 
 persevering administration of remedies, combined with judicious 
 moral measures, provided the first inclinations of the malady are 
 fully recognised, and without loss of time grappled with. A vast 
 and frightful amount of chronic and incurable insanity exists at 
 this moment in our county and private as lums, which can be 
 clearly traced to the criminal neglect of the cLsease in the first or 
 iricpient stage." 
 
 Dr. Winslow insists upon the great importance of self-control 
 as a preventive. He says : " This power is in many instances 
 weakened or altogether lost by a voluntary and criminal indul- 
 gence in a train of thought which it was the duty of the individual 
 in the^frv/ instance resolutely to battle with, control, and subdue. 
 Nervous disorders, as well as insane, delusive thoughts, are thus 
 often selt-created. The morbid soon becomes a deranged mind- 
 
258 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the insanity manifesting itself in an exaggerated, extravagant, and 
 perverted conception of a notion which had originally some 
 semblance of truth for its foundation. The self-created, delusive 
 idea may thus obtain a fearful influence over the mind, and 
 eventually lead to the commission of criminal acts." The forced 
 education of youth frequently leads to mental alienation. " It is," 
 says Dr. Winslow, " undoubtedly an important element in edu- 
 cation to carefully, steadily invigorate and discipline the memory 
 in early life ; but, in effecting this most desirable object, it is our 
 duty to avoid mistaking natural mental dulness for culpable idle- 
 ness, and organic cerebral incapacity for criminal indifference to 
 intellectual culture and educational advancement." Again, the 
 tremendous strain that now taxes the brain-power of society in 
 every direction, is an additional reason why the voice of this 
 minister to the mind diseased should be listened to in time : in 
 the statistics of insanity the terrible fact is admitted, that there is 
 an absolute increase of madness throughout Europe and America. 
 Dr. Winslow has assembled some very interesting instances of 
 retention of the vigour of the mind in old age, and arrived at, 
 inter alia, these conclusions: " i. That an active and vigorous 
 condition of the mental faculties is compatible with old age. 
 2. That a continuous and often laborious exercise of the mind is 
 not only consistent with a state of mental health, but is apparently 
 productive of longevity." It is indeed particularly satisfactory to 
 be told that even in the worst types of mental disease there are 
 some salient and bright spots upon which the physician may act ; 
 and that formidable and apparently hopeless and incurable cases 
 of derangement admit, it not of cure, at least of considerable 
 alleviation and mitigation. 
 
 The Half-mad. 
 
 The Commissioners in Lunacy have reason to know that there 
 are many, not insane, but who, being conscious of a want of power 
 of self-control, or of addiction to intemperate habits, or fearing an 
 attack or a recurrence of mental malady, but being in all respects 
 free agents, may be desirous of residing as voluntary boarders in 
 an institution for the care and treatment of persons of unsound 
 mind, submitting to a modified control, and conforming to the 
 general regulations of the hospital. There is not in the statutes 
 for the regulation of registered hospitals any prohibition on such 
 persons being admitted as inmates on the terms above suggested ; 
 provided they contract alone, or jointly with others, to conform 
 to certain regulations expressed or referred to. 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 259 
 
 Motives for Suicide. 
 
 In the Westminster Review, New Series, No. 23, we find this 
 suggestive return : 
 
 In the year 1851, there were 3598 suicides recorded in France, to each 
 of which the presumed motive was affixed. Out of these no less than 800 
 are set down to mental alienation ; and to that number we should add 70 
 cases of monomania, 39 of cerebral fever, and 54 of idiocy all ranking 
 under the general head of uncontrollableness which will make a total of 
 963, or more than a fourth of the whole cases. If we now examine the 
 remaining cases, we find " domestic quarrels" next in amount, being no less 
 than 385 j while grief for the loss of children amounts to only 46, grief at 
 their ingratitude or bad conduct, 1 6 ; sudden anger, only I. Next in im- 
 portance to domestic quarrels is the desire to escape from physical suffering : 
 these amount to 313. Debt and embarrassment rank next 203. Want, 
 and the fear of want, 179. Disgust at life which may properly be called 
 low spirits stands high 166 ; shame and remorse, very low, only 7. 
 Thwarted love shows only 91, and jealousy, 25. Losses at play, 6 j loss of 
 employment, 25. 
 
 Fallacious as all such figures must necessarily be, from the impossibility of 
 always assigning the real motive to the act, they point with sufficient dis- 
 tinctness to certain general conclusions : First, that insanity is the origin 
 of by far the largest proportion of cases ; secondly, that, except the dread 
 of physical suffering, the other large proportions are all of cases which be- 
 long to the deliberative kind. In literature it is always passion, and pas- 
 sion of vehement sudden afflux, which determines suicide : the agonies of 
 despair or jealousy, the arrowy pangs of remorse, or the dread apprehension 
 of shame, are the only motives which the dramatist or novelist ever con- 
 ceives. 
 
 Remedy for Poisoning. 
 
 Pouring cold water on the face and head appears to be a good 
 remedy in case of poisoning by narcotics. A young woman acci- 
 dentally swallowed six drachms of a mixture of laudanum and 
 chloroform with some hydrocyanic acid in it. She immediately 
 vomited a portion of the liquid, and then fell down in a state of 
 coma. Professor Harley being called in, he administered hot 
 coffee and nitric ether, and proceeded to effect artificial respiration. 
 No great improvement was perceptible, but on the application of 
 cold water to the forehead the effect was magical. The patient 
 began to breathe more freely, and she lost some blood from the 
 nose. As soon as the affusion of cold water ceased, the coma 
 returned, and was again removed by renewing the affusion ; the 
 patient soon moved her arms and legs, and seemed anxious to 
 avoid the stream of water, as if it caused her pain. This treat- 
 
 s 2 
 
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 ment was renewed at intervals until the following day, and after 
 the lapse of sixty hours all distressing symptoms disappeared 
 completely. 
 
 New Remedy for Wounds. 
 
 The Antwerp Journal states that perchloride of iron combined 
 with collodion is a good haemostatic in the case of wounds, the 
 bites of leeches, &c. To prepare it, one part of crystallized per- 
 chloride of iron is mixed with six parts of collodion. The per- 
 chloride of iron should be added gradually and with care, otherwise 
 such a quantity of heat will be generated as to cause the collodion 
 to boil. The composition, when well made, is of a yellowish red, 
 perfectly limpid, and produces on the skin a yellow pellicle, which 
 retains great elasticity. 
 
 Compensation for Wounds. 
 
 The Regulations under which pensions and allowances are 
 granted to officers of the Army were revised by a Royal Warrant 
 issued towards the close of 1860. The loss of an eye or limb 
 from injury received in action will be compensated by a gratuity 
 in money of one year's full pay of his then rank or staff appoint- 
 ment. He may be recommended for a pension also, at a rate 
 varying from ^.oo/. for a lieutenant-general, to 5o/. for a cornet ; 
 and if more than one eye or limb be lost, he may be recommended 
 for a pension for each. For minor injuries, " not nearly equal to 
 the loss of a limb," he may receive a gratuity varying from three 
 to twelve months of his then pay. If the injury shall be so 
 diminished as to be " not nearly equal to the loss of a limb," at 
 the end of five years, during which the claimant must be twice 
 examined by a medical board, the pension will then be permanent, 
 otherwise it will cease. No pension or gratuity for these causes 
 will be granted unless the actual loss shall have occurred within 
 five years after the wound or injury was received. This scale of 
 compensation is more liberal than by the previously existing 
 custom. Lancet, 1860. 
 
 The Best Physician. 
 
 What chiefly characterizes the most eminent physicians, and 
 gives them their real superiority, is not so much the extent of their 
 theoretical knowledge though that, too, is often considerable 
 but it is that fine and delicate perception which they owe, partly 
 to experience, and partly to a natural quickness in detecting ana- 
 logies and differences which escape ordinary observers. The pro- 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. "261 
 
 cess which they follow, is one of rapid, and, in some degree, un- 
 conscious, induction. And this is the reason why the greatest 
 physiologists and chemists, which the medical profession pos- 
 sesses, are not, as a matter of course, the best curers of disease. 
 If medicine were a science, they would always be the best. But 
 medicine being still essentially an art, depends mainly upon quali- 
 ties which each practitioner has to acquire for himself, and which 
 no scientific theory can teach. The time for a general theory has 
 not yet come, and probably many generations will have to elapse 
 before it does come. To suppose, therefore, that a theory of 
 disease should, as a matter of education, precede the treatment 
 of disease, is not only practically dangerous but logically false. 
 Buckle's History of Civilization, vol. ii. 
 
 In 1857, Sir John Forbes, M.D., after fifty years of profes- 
 sional experience, left, as a legacy to his successors, the emphatic 
 avowal, that Nature is, after all, the real physician since, how- 
 ever human ingenuity may devise means of alleviation and accele- 
 ration, it is Nature and not Art which cures all curable diseases. 
 Sir John is, however, far from implying that the art of medicine is 
 without its use and importance, especially in preventing disease ; 
 but he wishes attention to be more sedulously fixed upon the 
 degree to which nature can be left entirely to herself, in order that 
 we might know how, and to what extent, art may with advantage 
 interfere. There are many cases in which nature, left to herself, 
 will infallibly kill her patient say, for instance, in a case of poi- 
 soning whereas the application of a stomach-pump, or a che- 
 mical reagent, arrests the evil at once. 
 
 Sir John Forbes invites his brethren to collect and classify the 
 evidence which shows how nature cures disease ; and the preju- 
 dices which hamper the physician, he indicates in the following 
 enumeration of current delusions : 
 
 1. Ignorance of the natural course and progress of diseases which are 
 essentially slow and not to be altered by any artificial means, often leads the 
 friends of the patient to be urgent with the medical attendant to employ 
 more powerful measures, or at least to change the means used, to give more 
 frequent or more powerful doses, &c. 
 
 2. Ignorance of the power of Nature to cure diseases, and an undue esti- 
 mate of the power of medicines to do so, sometimes almost compel practi- 
 tioners to prescribe remedies when they are either useless or injurious. 
 
 3. The same ignorance not seldom occasions dissatisfaction with, and 
 loss of confidence in, those practitioners who, from conscientious motives, 
 and on the justest grounds of Art, refrain from having recourse to measures 
 of undue activity, or from prescribing medicines unnecessarily} and leads to 
 the countenance and employment of men who have obtained the reputation 
 of greater activity and boldness, through their very ignorance of the true 
 character and requirements of their art. 
 
262 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 4. It is the same state of mind that leads the public generally to give ear 
 to the most ridiculous promises of charlatans : also to run after the pro- 
 fessors and practisers of doctrines utterly absurd and useless, as in the 
 instance of Homoeopathy and Mesmerism, or dangerous, except in the 
 proper cases, as in the instance of Hydropathy. 
 
 5. Finally, it is the same ignorance of Nature and her proceedings that 
 often forces medical men to multiply their visits and their prescriptions to 
 an extent not simply unnecessary, but really injurious to the patient, as 
 could be easily shown. 
 
 The sick man is impatient to be well. Ignorant of nature's 
 slow processes, " the strongest and most effective powers of art," 
 says Sir John, u are usually employed for the very purpose of 
 setting aside or counteracting, or modifying in some way or other, 
 the powers of nature. Generally speaking, we may even say that 
 all the heroic arms of physic are invoked purposely to disturb, 
 and obstruct, and overwhelm the normal order of the natural 
 processes." 
 
 The Uncertainty of Human Life. 
 
 Some men there are who cannot bear the thought of the Un- 
 certainty of Life ; since, were they to entertain it, their worldly 
 views would be cut short, and the prospect of fruition, or living 
 to enjoy their gains, be considered so insecure, as to lessen, if not 
 destroy, the inducement to extraordinary exertion. One of for- 
 tune's favourites, on being reminded of the uncertainty of life, re- 
 plied, in a confident tone, that had he suffered such a thought to 
 possess him, he should never have got on in the world the doubt 
 being to him an unwelcome intruder. Every record of human 
 character every volume of reminiscences that we can take up 
 almost every day's newspaper, abounds with evidence of the 
 uncertain tenure of our existence. 
 
 In Lord Cockburn's Me mortals, we read of these three remark- 
 able deaths. At the close of 1809, Dr. Adam, of the High 
 School, Edinburgh, died, after a few days' illness. His ruling 
 passion was for teaching. He was in his bedchamber : finding 
 that he could not see, he uttered a few words, which have been 
 variously given, but all the accounts of which mean " It is 
 getting dark, boys ; we must put off the rest till to-morrow." 
 It was the darkness of death. On May 20, 1811, President 
 Blair had been in court that day, apparently in good health, and 
 had gone to take his usual walk from his house in George-square 
 round by Bruntfield Links and the Grange, when he was struck 
 with sudden illness, staggered home, and died. The day before 
 his funeral, another unlooked-for occurrence deepened the so- 
 lemnity. The first Lord Melville had retired to rest in his usual 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 263 
 
 health, but was found dead in bed next morning. These two 
 early, attached, and illustrious friends were thus lying suddenly 
 dead, with but a wall between them ; their houses, on the north- 
 east side of George-square, Edinburgh, being next each other. 
 
 It has always been said, and never, so far as the writer knows, 
 contradicted, and he is inclined to believe it, that a letter written 
 by Lord Melville was found on his table or in a writing-case, 
 giving a feeling account of his emotions at President Blair's 
 funeral. It was a fancy-piece, addressed to a member of the 
 Government, with a view to obtain some public provision for 
 Blair's family ; the writer had not reckoned on the possibility of 
 his own demise before his friend's funeral took place. 
 
 Dr. Granville, in his work on Sudden Death, has related a 
 number of instances of the uncertainty of life, which came to his 
 knowledge between the years 1849 and 1854, from which we 
 select the following : 
 
 Mr. Horace Twiss, whose stout frame and laborious habits 
 seemed to promise long life, while sitting in the board-room of 
 one of the Companies of which he was a Director, and in the act 
 of addressing the members, ceased to live, early in May, 1849. 
 
 Not long after, at Florence, Harriett Lady Pellew suddenly 
 expired in her carriage, on the drive at the Cascine ; and at Paris, 
 the Countess of Blessington, returning home from dinner at the 
 Duchess de Grammont's, was seized with apoplexy, and died 
 next morning, June 4. 
 
 In the same year, on September 9, the Grand Duke Michael, 
 brother of Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, a prince of gigantic 
 frame, while reviewing his troops at Warsaw, fell from his horse, 
 and expired a few hours after. 
 
 At Rome, Richard Wyatt, the sculptor, was suddenly carried 
 off by apoplexy, May 27, 1851; and on June 7. at Fontaine- 
 bleau, Reynolds, the author of Miserrimuj, died suddenly. 
 
 " I must rise instantly, or I shall be suffocated," said the wife of 
 a banker, on July 8, at Trent Park : she rose, rushed to a win- 
 dow, which she threw open to inhale fresh air : it was the last 
 breath she took in, for she fell a corpse ! 
 
 In the same year, Audin, the well-known publisher, died sud- 
 denly in his carnage, while travelling from Marseilles to Avignon ; 
 and Herr Carl Sander, the celebrated German surgeon, expired 
 while seated at his desk, writing a treatise on anatomy. 
 
 On New Year's Day, 1852, Sir Charles Wager Watson, of 
 Westwratting Park, while riding briskly to meet the Suffolk fox- 
 hounds, fell from his horse, and on his friends coming up, they 
 found him dead. On April 5, Prince Schwart/enberg was holding 
 a Cabinet council, when he suddenly appeared to gasp for breath, 
 and withdrew : he rallied, and retired to dress for dinner, during 
 
264 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 which he fell senseless on the floor, and died within an hour from 
 his first seizure. 
 
 Mr. Frank Forster, the engineer, on April 13, while writing a 
 letter, was struck with apoplexy, and almost immediately expired. 
 A. N. Welby Pugin, the architect, scarcely of mature age, died 
 suddenly at Ramsgate, September 14 ; and on the same day, the 
 Duke of Wellington, who had retired to rest apparently quite 
 well on the previous night, died, it is stated of apoplexy, within 
 the brief space of six or seven hours. Dr. Granville states, from 
 the testimony of medical and other near attendants, that, from the 
 very first seizure, when the duke ordered distinctly the apothe- 
 cary to be fetched immediately, down to the last moment of his 
 existence, paralysis of the brain had been complete, for no other 
 comprehensible word could he utter after that direction. On the 
 day before, Dr. Stokoe, the appointed medical attendant to Na- 
 poleon I., during the* last years of his exile, died suddenly in a 
 public room at York, as he was preparing to continue his journey 
 to London. 
 
 On March 12, 1853, Marshal Haynau, having supped with 
 the prime minister, Buol, retired to rest, when, just after mid- 
 night, he rang for a glass of water ; when the servant returned, 
 his master was gasping for breath, and soon after died. On the 
 same night, the gallant Lieutenant- General Sir Edward Kerrison 
 was found dead in his bed. And, not many days after, Vice- 
 Admiral Zarthmann, while walking in the streets of Copenhagen, 
 complained of vertigo, sank to the ground, and expired in an hour. 
 On April 30, Dr. Butler, Dean of Peterborough, while seated 
 at table with his family, suddenly became insensible, and in ten 
 minutes passed away, almost without a struggle. Maurice 
 O'Connell, the eldest son of " the Liberator," appeared in his 
 usual health in the House of Commons ; on the morrow, at mid- 
 night, he breathed his last. On December 12, 1853, Dr. Har- 
 rington, Principal of Brazenose College, Oxford, having retired to 
 rest in his usual health and spirits, was shortly after seized with 
 spasms, and died before eight o'clock next morning, in his fifty- 
 third year. On the 5th of the same month, Captain Warner, of 
 the "long range," expired suddenly. On a Sunday evening in the 
 same month, a stout middle-aged yeoman was crossing Ovington 
 Park, near Southampton, on his way to the church, which he 
 never reached : the park-keeper found him seated with his back to 
 a tree, his hat on, his umbrella under his arm dead with no 
 appearance of convulsion or previous struggle. Visconti, the 
 architect, on December 29, had attended the first meeting of the 
 Imperial Commission for the Exposition building at Paris, and 
 was returning home in his carriage : on the door being opened, he 
 was found dead. 
 
LIFE AND HEALTH. 265 
 
 One of the most awfully sudden visitations recorded in our 
 time was the death of Mr. Justice Talfourd, in his fifty-eighth 
 year, March 13, 1845, at Stafford, while delivering his charge to 
 the grand jury. He was speaking of the increase of crime of 
 the neglects of the rich, the ignorance of the poor of the want 
 of a closer knowledge and more vital sympathy between class and 
 class and of the thousand social evils which arise from that un- 
 happy and unnatural estrangement of human interests when his 
 face flushed and he bent forward on his desk, almost as if the 
 Judge were bowed in prayer by some sharp and overpowering 
 emotion. A moment more, and the bystanders saw him swerve, 
 as if he were already senseless. He was dying, calmly and hap- 
 pily. In a few seconds he was gone and all that was mortal of 
 the poet was carried to the Judges' Chambers and there laid 
 down in breathless awe. "The people were trembling at the 
 thought of coming before him ; but in a minute his function 
 was over, and he was gone to his own account." 
 
 Respecting the frequency of these fatal occurrences, Dr. Gran- 
 ville remarks : (( Where is the friend, where the acquaintance, or 
 the passing associate at a club, who has not some sad story of the 
 sort, or many of them, to tell you, if you once enter on the dismal 
 subject ? From every quarter of the country, from families whom 
 you knew to be in the full bloom of youth, of individuals who 
 were deemed vigorous and in the flower of manhood, we hear as 
 we meet in our daily intercourse, of some one of them having 
 suddenly disappeared from among the living !" Our newspapers 
 abound with such records as the following. 
 
 In 1837, a communication to a Bristol journal recorded 
 
 " The fearfully sudden decease of Thomas Kington, Esq., of Manilla- 
 hall, Clifton. Apparently without the slightest indisposition he died in his 
 counting-house, Queen-square, Bristol, surrounded by all the accumulations 
 of wealth, and the advantages accruing from the interests of that wide range 
 of commerce, the Melbourne and Australian trade." 
 
 And, in the Times, June, 1862 : 
 
 "On the igth inst., at Nine Elms, very suddenly, Mr. John Miller, on 
 the anniversary of his birth and wedding days, which events he had in- 
 tended to celebrate at the Star and Garter, Richmond, where he had gone 
 with a few friends, but was suddenly attacked with illness on his arrival 
 there, and was re-conveyed to his own residence, where he expired shortly 
 afterwards, aged fifty." 
 
 In 1862, Mr. F. W. Gingell, of Wood House, East Ham, 
 while sitting at dinner with the family, observed to his father, 
 " I have a presentiment that I shall die suddenly:" at the same 
 time his head dropped, and he expired. 
 
266 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Moveable Feasts. 
 
 The following short explanation of the Moveable Feasts of the 
 Church, and their dependence on Easter, cannot be improved : 
 
 " In the English nomenclature Easter Sunday has always the 
 six Sundays in Lent immediately preceding, and the foe Sundays 
 after Easter, immediately following. Of these the nearest to 
 Easter before and after are Palm Sunday and Low Sunday ; the 
 faithest before and after are Quadragesima (first in Lent), and 
 Rogation Sunday (fifth after Easter). Preceding all these are, in 
 reverse order, Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, Septuagesima : and 
 following them, in direct order, are the Sunday after Ascension 
 (Holy Thursday, Thursday five weeks after Easter) ; Whit Sun- 
 day and Trinity Sunday. So that Easter Sunday, as it takes its 
 course through the almanacks, draws after it, as it were, nine Sun- 
 days, and pushes eight before it, all at fixed denominations. Look- 
 ing farther back, every Sunday preceding Septuagesima, but not 
 preceding the fixed day of Epiphany (June 6), is named as of 
 Epiphany or after Epiphany : the least number of Sundays after 
 Epiphany is one, the greatest number six. Looking farther for- 
 wards, all the Sundays following Trinity are named as after 
 Trinity in succession, until we arrive at the nearest Sunday (be it 
 before or after) to the St. Andrew's Day (November 3oth), which 
 is the first Sunday in Advent. The least number of Sundays after 
 Trinity is twenty-two ; the greatest, twenty-seven. From thence, 
 up to Christmas Day, exclusive, the Sundays are named as in 
 Advent, and from Christmas Day to Epiphany, exclusive, they 
 are named as Christmas Day, or as the first or second Sunday 
 after Christmas." Prof, de Morgan's Book of Almanacks. 
 
 Christmas. 
 
 The celebration of Christmas is still rife among us. Its stream 
 of joy is not narrowed, but more equally diffused through society; 
 and although much of the custom of profuse hospitality has passed 
 away, Christmas is yet universally recognised as a season when 
 every Christian should show his gratitude to the Almighty for the 
 inestimable benefits procured to us by the Nativity, by an ample 
 display of goodwill towards our fellow-men : 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 267 
 
 " What comfort by Him doe we winne, 
 Who made Himself the price of sinne 
 
 To make us heirs of glory ? 
 To see this Babe all innocence, 
 A Martyr borne in our defence 
 Can man forget this storie ?" 
 
 Ben Jensen. 
 
 It is, however, an error of the day to deplore a falling-off in 
 Christmas commemorations; whereas the enjoyment has but 
 assumed a healthier tone. The Past is ever more picturesque than 
 the Present. We stroll into the Great Hall at Westminster, 
 where our Plantagenet kings feasted at Christmas and Epiphany : 
 it is, however, forsaken and dreary ; and, looking up roofward, 
 we can scarcely see the louvre through which the smoke of many 
 huge Christmas fires has gone up ; or the noble hammer-beams, or 
 the carved angels, and other glories of this majestic roof. But, 
 step into Inigo Jones' banqueting-house, at Whitehall ; and there 
 you will see the Lord High Almoner distributing the Royal alms, 
 as he was wont to do centuries since. At Windsor the Sovereign 
 herself is superintending the distribution of her seasonable bounty ; 
 the Lord Steward fills the hungry prisoner with good things ; the 
 good cheer shines upon Ragged Schools and other havens of 
 charity. The moderation observable in our times is conformable 
 to the precept in the Whole Duty of 'Man , enjoining us not to make 
 the day " an occasion of intemperance and disorder, as do too 
 many, who consider nothing in Christmas and other good times 
 but the good cheer and jollity of them." It is, however, one of 
 the signs of the more gracious and hallowed tone that the singing 
 of Carols has increased of late years ; together with the decoration 
 of churches, and the revival of several minor observances, which 
 tend to show the universality of this improved feeling. 
 
 Doubt about Religion. 
 
 The Bishop of Oxford, in one of his eloquent Sermons upon 
 the Temptation to Doubt about Religion, thus describes one class of 
 doubts, and, by implication, of doubters : 
 
 " There are the doubts which are the fruits of an evil life, which come 
 forth as the obscene creatures of the night come forth because it is the 
 night ; because the darkness is abroad, and they are the creatures of the 
 darkness. These are, for the most part, self-chosen doubts, bred of cor- 
 ruption and of fear ; of a clinging to sin and yet of a fear of its punishment ; 
 of a conscious resistance to the ways and the works of a God of purity and 
 truth $ of an evil interest which men have in finding revelation to be false, 
 because it is a system which, if true, is fatally opposed to them. Men 
 pursued by these doubts are a fearful spectacle. The terrors which at times 
 
268 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 shake them are often appalling to witness ; and yet even these are less 
 awful than the forced grimace with which they try to laugh them off; 
 vaunting their doubts, like the lonely wanderer who sings noisily to conceal 
 or overcome his fear of the darkness, that they may, if possible, scatter by 
 the loudness of their laugh the besetting crowd of their alarms." 
 
 Another class of doubts the Bishop describes are those which 
 address themselves to specific and clearly-revealed points in the 
 revelation, which yet, as a whole, the doubting man does not dis- 
 believe. Against these doubts he would utter his warning, because 
 he believes that their presence, and even their indulgence, is at this 
 moment by no means rare ; because their true character is often 
 disguised under the most specious forms ; because the young, 
 and among the young the generous, the ardent, the thoughtful, 
 and the inquiring, are often their special victims ; and because their 
 cause is one of weakness, both intellectual and spiritual, while their 
 end, when they triumph, is misery here, and, too often, everlasting 
 loss hereafter. Having observed that there must be room for 
 doubts and questions such as these,* the Bishop proceeds : 
 
 " It may often seem that these doubts are the pauses of modesty, and 
 these questions the interrogations of an inquiring faith. Thus the doubts 
 are cherished and encouraged under the garb of piety, until a habit is formed 
 in the mind of subjecting the written word and the authoritative declara- 
 tions of faith to the scrutiny of each man's intellectual faculties ; and, ac- 
 cording to their decision, of his accepting, modifying, or rejecting them. 
 Now, such a mode of dealing with revelation is exceeding attractive. It 
 promises to make the faith so rational to give every man a reason for the 
 hope that is in him to be so free from all forcing of doctrines on him, 
 that it naturally wins to itself young and ardent minds. Yet it is against 
 this that I would so earnestly warn you, and that for the weightiest reasons 
 for no less a reason than this, that in its very first principle it is subver- 
 sive of all true faith, and that it is therefore in its consequences full of ruin 
 to the soul." 
 
 The relation of the Christian revelation to nature, the Bishop 
 thus intelligibly points out : 
 
 " The Christian revelation teaches nothing merely to gratify our curio- 
 sity. In this respect it is the very opposite of nature. The handwriting of 
 the Creator in the works of nature seems to be imprinted on them for the 
 very purpose of stimulating our curiosity and training and rewarding our 
 powers of investigation and discovery. In the Christian revelation, on the 
 contrary, nothing is revealed for the sake merely of its being known, bu t 
 
 * The Bishop has elsewhere observed, with respect to what he terrrs 
 " the prescriptive rights of the Church," that, " there always must be sub- 
 jects upon which good men, from the mere natural law of the mind con- 
 templating one side of a subject with greater interest than another, will 
 arrive at different conclusions." 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 269 
 
 that the degree of knowledge given us may in some way or other affect 
 our moral and spiritual training." 
 
 An Undergraduate of Oxford, in bearing testimony to the in- 
 fluence of these Sermons upon him at the time they were preached, 
 describes the Free Inquiry of the present day as working in three 
 classes of men. With some it was hailed as a relief from the 
 annoyance of a conscience which told them that if the "old 
 paths" were the true ones, there was certainly an ill look-out for 
 them ; and it was a pleasure, therefore, to hear those who ought 
 to know say that the hard things (such as eternal punishment, 
 &c.) which had been told them from their cradles were matters, 
 to say the least, of considerable doubt. With others it was 
 adopted with the gratifying feeling that thus they showed them- 
 selves t( wiser than their sires," and as intellectual champions " in 
 the foremost files of time," superior to all old wives' fables. With 
 others it was entertained, in a spirit eager for truth, with a painful 
 sense of perplexity the distress of men who feel that, while they 
 have conscientiously left the old way as a way averse to all true 
 progress, they neither know nor like to contemplate the issue of 
 the new. 
 
 Of these three classes of " free inquirers," the first two were of 
 course contemptible, but the third could not be passed by un- 
 heeded ; and after a vehement effort to stand up for truths hitherto 
 on his part unquestioned, the writer felt that he was more or less 
 with them. He then acknowledges to reading the Essays and 
 Reviews through three times, which gave him a new freedom, 
 with which he felt self-satisfied: still, he was miserable with 
 uncertainty, for he had nothing beneath his feet but his own pri- 
 vate judgment ; and he asks, what was that as regards the truth, 
 when he saw that no two men arrived at the same conclusion ? 
 In the midst of all this he went, with others, to hear these ser- 
 mons: instead of hearing the Bishop steer between conflicting 
 opinions in this matter, our Undergraduate was influenced by these 
 sermons to feel that reverence must go hand-in-hand with know- 
 ledge, in order that the true harmony may exist between mind 
 and soul ; that a man's reason and judgment alone are a poor 
 support and comfort, and the kingdom of God must be received 
 in the spirit of a little child.* 
 
 The Bishop concludes an earnest deprecation of the habit of 
 doubting, with the following awful picture of the death-bed of a 
 victim to this pernicious practice : 
 
 "It is not from imagination ,at I have drawn this warning. I can tell 
 you of an overshadowed grave which closed in on such a struggle and such 
 
 * See Times, May 2nd and 5th, 1863. 
 
270 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 an end as that at which I have glanced. In it was laid a form which had 
 hardly reached the fulness of earliest manhood. That young man had 
 gone, young, ardent, and simply faithful, to the tutelage of one, himself I 
 doubt not a believer, but one who sought to reconcile the teaching of our 
 Church, in which he ministered, with the dreams of Rationalism. His 
 favourite pupil learnt his lore, and it sufficed for his needs while health 
 beat high in his youthful veins : but on him sickness and decay closed 
 early in, and as the glow of health faded, the intellectual lights for which 
 he had exchanged the simplicity of faith began to pale ; whilst the viper 
 brood of doubts which almost unawares he had let slip into his soul, crept 
 forth from their hiding-places and raised against him their fearfully enve- 
 nomed heads. And they were too strong for him. The teacher who had 
 suggested could not remove them : and in darkness and despair his victim 
 died before his eyes the doubter's death." 
 
 Our Age of Doubt. 
 
 The intellect of the present generation is usually acknowledged 
 to have gone off on quite a different tack from that of its pre- 
 decessor. Not belief, but doubt, is the present fashion. Now, 
 belief and doubt, both of them, have their uses. Each of them 
 has its good and its bad side. Doubt is the more daring and im- 
 pressive ; but belief, even if sometimes rather illogical, is decidedly 
 the more amiable. Let a negative system be true, and a positive 
 system be false ; still the positive system will call out some of the 
 best qualities of our nature in a way that the negative system 
 cannot. It is certain that the present generation is growing up in 
 a spirit of greater independence and self-reliance, of less deference 
 to age, to tradition, to authority of all kinds, than was in vogue 
 twenty years since. The change may be for the better or for the 
 worse, but the fact of the change is undeniable. Probably, if 
 minutely examined, it has both its good and its bad side. The 
 young men of the present day have gained something in wideness 
 of view, and at least apparent worldly knowledge ; but they have 
 certainly lost much that was very attractive in their predecessors. 
 On the other hand, acts of petty persecution are doing all that can 
 be done to enlist their best feelings on the side on which it is 
 wished that they should not be enlisted. If any man, especially 
 one of the most conscientious and hard-working officers of the 
 University, is proscribed and insulted on account of his opinions, 
 those opinions are at once put in an attractive light to every 
 generous mind. Men in authority are slow to believe it, but 
 there is no policy so foolish as that of making martyrs. From the 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin, in his Modern Painters, has this striking passage 
 upon what he terms <( the Faithlessness of our Age :" 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 271 
 
 " A Red Indian, or Otaheitan savage, has more sense of a Divine exist- 
 ence round him, or government over him, than the plurality of refined 
 Londoners and Parisians ; and those among us who may in. some sense be 
 said to believe are divided almost without exception into two broad classes, 
 Romanist and Puritan ; who, but for the interference of the unbelieving 
 portions of society, would, either of them, reduce the other sect as speedily 
 as possible to ashes ; the Romanist having always done so whenever he 
 could, from the beginning of their separation, and the Puritan at this time 
 holding himself in complacent expectation of the destruction of Rome by 
 
 volcanic fire Hence nearly all our powerful men in this age of 
 
 the world are unbelievers : the best of them in doubt and misery ; the 
 worst in reckless defiance ; the plurality, in plodding hesitation, doing as 
 well as they can what practical work lies ready in their hands. Most of 
 our scientific men are in this last class ; our popular authors either set 
 themselves definitely against all religious form, pleading for simple truth 
 and benevolence, or give themselves up to bitter and fruitless statement of 
 facts, or surface-painting, or careless blasphemy, sad or smiling. Our 
 earnest poels and deepest thinkers are doubtful and indignant." 
 
 A Hint to Sceptics. 
 
 Reason is always striving, always at a loss ; and of necessity, it 
 must so come to pass, while it is exercised about that which is not 
 its proper object. Let us be content at last to know God by his 
 own methods, at least so much of Him as He is pleased to reveal 
 to us in the Sacred Scriptures. To apprehend them to be the 
 Word of God is all our reason has to do, for all beyond it is the 
 work of faith, which is the seal of Heaven impressed upon our 
 human understanding. Dryden. 
 
 Bishop Mant, writing in a more scientific age than that in 
 which Dryden flourished, says : 
 
 " Persons have, perhaps, been sometimes found who, from their attach- 
 ment to pursuits of science, and to the acquisition of general knowledge, 
 have appeared sceptical upon the subject of Divine revelation. But others, 
 at least equally endowed with intellectual powers, and equally rich in intel- 
 lectual acquirements, have been serious, rational, and conscientious believers. 
 Amongst these may be ranked the great apostle, St. Paul, who has been 
 rarely surpassed in strength of understanding, or in the treasures of a culti- 
 vated mind ; and in connexion with him it may be added, that * Luke, 
 the beloved physician, whose praise is in the Gospel,' was professionally 
 acquainted with the operations of nature, and the effects of secondary 
 causes, and thus qualified to appreciate the miraculous and supernatural 
 character of the works which he has recorded as foundations of our belief." 
 
 What is Egyptology ? 
 
 The object of Egyptology is to render it a sort of elevated 
 standing -point, from which all the realms of ethnography and 
 
272 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 philology might be surveyed, and the most distant and isolated 
 points brought within range of view. This undertaking has been 
 attempted chiefly by Bunsen, who has completed in five volumes 
 his work entitled jfcgyptens Stelle in der Weltgeschickte (" Egypt's 
 Place in Universal History," Hamburg, 1845-1 857), and has dis- 
 cussed some of the same subjects in a more general and miscel- 
 laneous book, or collection of treatises, called Christianity and 
 Mankind, their Beginnings and Prospects (London, 1854). It is 
 Bunsen's theory that " the Egyptian language is the point in uni- 
 versal history at which the creative energy of language still shows 
 its original form, just before it raises its pinions aloft, and assumes 
 in the world-ruling nations an entirely different and more spiritual 
 form ; while in the other races, according to laws not yet explored, 
 it sinks into the atomic, and mechanical, or at best deflects into 
 subordinate ramifications.' (JEgypten, i. 338). Looking back 
 over a period of more than twenty thousand years, this philo- 
 logical speculator recognises a time when the as yet undivided 
 families of Japhet and Shem lived together in a civilized state in 
 Northern Asia. From this undivided Asiatic stock Egypt, accord- 
 ing to Bunsen, must be a colony, gradually degenerated into the 
 African type ; for the old Egyptian language claims affinity at 
 once with the Aramaic idioms in' immediate contact with it, and 
 with the Indo- Germanic tongues, with which it has no direct 
 commerce (Report of the Brit. Assoc., 1847, p. 280; jEgypten, 
 iv., Pref., p. 10). It must be owned that these sweeping con- 
 clusions do not rest upon philological inductions of the most 
 accurate kind, and are supported by arguments which are some- 
 times as arbitrary as they are precarious. Encyclopedia Britannica, 
 8th edition. 
 
 Jerusalem and Nimroud. 
 
 The greatest light which has yet been thrown upon the archi- 
 tectural character of the Palace of Solomon, Mr. Lewin (in his 
 Sketch of Jerusalem, published in 1861) is of opinion is derived 
 from the recent discoveries in and near Nineveh ; Solomon having 
 studiously copied the Assyrian style. 
 
 <( Take, for instance, the north-west palace of Nimroud, which 
 would almost seem to have been the pattern after which the 
 royal palace at Jerusalem was built. Thus the Nimroud Palace is 
 nearly a square, of about 330 feet each way ; and the area of 
 Solomon's Palace is 325 feet by 290 feet. In front at Nimroud 
 was a great hall, 152 feet long by 32 feet wide ; and in front, at 
 Jerusalem, was a hall, the house of Lebanon, 150 feet by 75 feet 
 The halls at Nimroud were supported by rows of pillars, not of 
 stone, but of wood ; and the Hall of Lebanon was supported by 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 273 
 
 three rows of cedar pillars, fifteen in a row, making forty- five in 
 the whole. In the centre, at Nimroud, was a spacious open court ; 
 and in the centre at Jerusalem was also a court. On the sides, 
 at Nimroud, were suites of apartments three deep, decreasing in 
 width as they receded from the light supplied from the great 
 court ; and at Jerusalem were windows in three rows, and light 
 against light in three ranks. At Nimroud, in the rear was a 
 double suite of apartments ; and in the rear at Jerusalem were 
 the separate suites of the king and the queen. At Nimroud, the 
 interior walls were lined with sculptured slabs ; and at Jerusalem 
 the apartments were also lined with stones carved in imitation of 
 trees and plants." 
 
 What is Rationalism ? 
 
 Rationalism, in its widest acceptation, is applicable to all who 
 follow the dictates of reason, whether in their speculative or prac- 
 tical life. In its more restricted signification it is applied specially 
 to that system of religious opinion whose final test of truth is 
 placed in the direct assent of the human consciousness, whether 
 in the form of logical deduction, moral judgment, or religious in- 
 tuition, by whatever previous process these faculties may have 
 been raised to their assumed dignity as arbitrators. 
 
 The Bishop of Oxford, in one of his Charges, has thus elo- 
 quently denounced the present dangerous spirit of Rationalism in 
 the Church : 
 
 " Are there not, my reverend brethren, signs enough abroad now of special 
 danger to make us drop our lesser differences and combine together as one 
 man, striving earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints ? When 
 from within our own encampment we hear voices declaring that our whole 
 belief in the Atonement wrought out for us by the sacrifice on the Cross is 
 an ignorant misconception that the miracles and the prophecies of Scrip- 
 ture are part of an irrational supernaturalism, which it is the duty of a 
 remorseless criticism to expose and to account for, by such discoveries as 
 that the imagination has allied itself with the affections to produce them, 
 and that they may safely be brought down to a natural Rationalism ; by 
 such suggestions as that the description of the passage of the Red Sea is the 
 latitude of poetry that the Avenger who slew the firstborn is the Bedouin 
 host, akin nearly to Jethro, and more remotely to Israel when the history 
 of the Bible is explained away by being treated as a legend, and its prophecy 
 deprived of all supernatural character by being turned into a history of past 
 or present events when we are told that had our Lord come to us now, 
 instead of in the youth of the world, the truth of His Divine nature would 
 not have been recognised ; that is to say, that it was the peculiar stage in 
 which flesh and blood then were, and not the revelation of His Father who 
 was in heaven which enabled the Apostles to believe in Him when in 
 
 T 
 
274. KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 words, as far as opinion is privately entertained is concerned, the liberty of 
 the English clergyman appears to be complete when we are told that men 
 may sign any Article of the National Church, if it is only their own 
 opinions which are at variance with them when we are told that they may 
 sign, solemnly before God, that they allow certain articles of belief, mean- 
 ing thereby only that they allow their existence as the lesser of two great 
 evils, and that under the Sixth Article one may literally or allegorically, or 
 as a parable, or as poetry or a legend, receive the story of the Serpent 
 tempting Eve and speaking in a man's voice ; and in like manner the 
 arresting of the earth's motion, the water standing still, the universality of 
 the Deluge, the confusion of tongues, the taking up of Elijah corporeally 
 into Heaven, the nature of Angels, and the miraculous particulars of many 
 other events : when Abraham's great act of obedient faith in not with- 
 holding his son, even his only son, but offering him up at the express 
 command of God is commuted by the gross ritual of Syrian notes into a 
 traditional revelation j while the awe of the Divine voice bidding him slay 
 his son, and his being stayed by the angel from doing so, is watered down 
 into an allegory meaning that the Father in whom he trusted was better 
 pleased with mercy than with sacrifice ; when it is maintained that St. 
 Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, in the utterances of his martyrdom, and 
 St. Paul proving from the history of his people that Jesus was the Christ, 
 would naturally speak not only words of truth, but after the received 
 accounts when, I say, such words as these are deliberately uttered by our 
 ordained Clergy, while the slowness even of English theologians to accept 
 such a treatment of God's revelation is scoffed at in such words as the fol- 
 lowing, even by those in our Universities who no longer repeat fully the 
 Shibboleth of the Reformers, the explicitness of truth and error : l He 
 who assents most committing himself least to baseness being reckoned the 
 wisest j' whilst those who maintained the old truth, I trust with most of 
 us, my brethren, are branded as Baal's prophets and the four hundred 
 prophets of the grove who cry out for falsehood whilst, I say, such words 
 as these are heard from ordained men amongst us, and who still keep their 
 places in the National Church, is it not a time for us, if we do hold openly 
 by the Holy Scriptures as the one inspired voice of God's written revelation 
 if we do hold to the ancient Creeds as the summary of the good deposit 
 - if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as very God and very Man if we 
 believe in His offering Himself on the Cross as the one only true and sufficient 
 sacrifice, satisfaction, and atonement for the sins of the whole world is it 
 not time for us, laying aside our suspicions and our divisions about small 
 matters, to combine , together in prayer, and. trust, and labour, and love, 
 and watching, lest whilst we dispute needlessly about the lesser matters of 
 the law, we be robbed unawares of the very foundations of the faith ?" 
 
 What is Theology ? 
 
 In the widest sense of the word Theology, including both natural 
 and revealed theology, we have, among theologians who reject re- 
 velation, the sy stems cf (i) Atheism, or that doctrine concerning 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 275 
 
 God which rejects his existence altogether.* (2) Deism, or the 
 system which teaches that God is the Creator of all things, but 
 that, having once created them and impressed upon them certain 
 laws for the regulation of their future existence, commonly called 
 the law s of nature, He has left them to the government of those 
 laws, and concerns Himself no more >v ith his creation ; or, in other 
 words, this system acknowledges the existence of God, but denies 
 his providence. (3) Theism, the system which differs from Deism 
 by acknowledging the providence of God. The systems of Deism 
 and Theism suppose the existence of an Almighty Creator, whose 
 existence is independent of the universe; but there is another 
 system, according to which the laws of Nature are in themselves 
 the external self-existent causes of all the phenomena of the uni- 
 verse, and there is no causative principle external to Nature. This 
 system takes two different forms : Materialism, which makes all 
 the phenomena of Nature to result from the physical constitution 
 of matter itself; and the various shades of Pantheism, which 
 suppose an intelligent principle (anima mund'i) to be inseparably 
 connected with everything that exists, and to pervade the whole 
 creation. 
 
 Deism properly means belief in the existence of a God, but is 
 generally applied to all such belief as goes no further, that is to 
 say, to disbelief of revelation. It is always applied dyslogistically, 
 and frequently merely as a term of reproach. But the identical 
 word, in its Greek form, theist, is not a word of disapprobation ; 
 and, consistently with established usage, may be appropriately 
 applied as opposed to atheist, when the latter term is correctly 
 used. For it must be observed that the term atheist has been not 
 unfrequently employed in the sense of an unbeliever in Christianity, 
 though at the same time professing theism. Penny Cyclopedia* 
 
 Religious Forebodings. 
 
 Nearly sixty years since, Southey wrote his famous anticipation 
 of Mormonism, and of some other matters as important as Mor- 
 monism, in a letter to Rickman (1805), as follows : 
 
 " Here I do not like the prospects : sooner or later a hungry government 
 will snap at the tithes 5 the clergy will then become State pensioners or 
 parish pensioners ; in the latter case more odious to the farmers than they 
 are now, in the former the first pensioners to be amerced of their stipends. 
 
 * " Atheist, use thine eyes j 
 And having vlew'd the order of the skies, 
 Think (if thou canst) that matter blindly hurl'd 
 Without a guide, should frame this wondrous world." 
 
 Creech. 
 T2 
 

 276 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Meantime, the damned system of Calvinism spreads like a pestilence 
 among the lower classes. I have not the slightest doubt that the Calv'mists 
 will be the majority in less than half a century ; we see how catching the 
 distemper is, and do not see any means of stopping it. There is a good 
 opening for a new religion, but the founder must start up in some of the 
 darker parts of the world. It is America's turn to send out apostles. A 
 new one there must be when the old one is worn out. I am a believer in 
 the truth of Christianity, but truth will never do for the multitude j there 
 is an appetite for faith in us, which if it be not duly indulged, it turns to 
 green sickness, and feeds upon chalk and cinders. The truth is, man was 
 .not made for the world alone ; and speculations concerning the next will 
 be found, at last, the most interesting to all of us." 
 
 Folly of Atheism. 
 
 Morphology, in natural science, teaches us that the whole animal 
 and vegetable creation is formed upon certain fundamental types 
 and patterns, which can be traced under various modifications and 
 transformations through all the rich variety of things apparently 
 of most dissimilar build. But here and there a scientific person 
 takes it into his foolish head that there may be a set of moulds 
 without a moulder, a calculated gradation of forms without a 
 calculator, an ordered world without an ordering God. Now, 
 this atheistical science conveys about as much meaning as suicidal 
 life ; for science is possible only where there are ideas, and ideas 
 are only possible where there is mind, and minds are the offspring 
 of God ; and atheism itself is not merely ignorance and stupidity- 
 it is the purely nonsensical and the unintelligible. Professor 
 Blackie : Edinburgh Essays, 1856. 
 
 The first Congregational Church in England. 
 
 In the State-Paper Office has been discovered a manuscript, 
 showing that in the Bridewell of London* were imprisoned the 
 members of the Congregational Church first formed after the 
 accession of Queen Elizabeth. They were committed by the 
 Privy Council to the custody of the gaoler, May 20, 1567. It is, 
 no doubt, to this company that Bishop Grindal refers, in his letter 
 to Bullinger, July n, 1568 : " Some London citizens," he says, 
 t( with four or five ministers, have openly separated from us ; and 
 ometimes in private houses, sometimes in fields, and occasionally 
 even in ships, they have held meetings, and administered the 
 
 * In Blackfriars : originally the Palace of Bridewell, and subsequently a 
 House of Correction. 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 277 
 
 sacraments. Besides this, they have ordained ministers, elders, 
 and deacons, after their own way." The Rev. Dr. Waddmgton 
 has discovered some original papers, written by the members of 
 this Church in the Bridewell, signed chiefly by Christian women, 
 together with a statement of the principles of the sect. It appears 
 from these interesting records, which have been kept, though in a 
 loose form, for nearly three hundred years, that Richard Fitz, their 
 first pastor, died in the prison. Dr. Waddington shows, by in- 
 disputable evidence, from original papers in the public archives, 
 that the succession of Congregational Churches from the above 
 period is continuous ; so that the Bridewell may be regarded as 
 the starting-point of Congregationalism after the Reformation ; 
 or, in other words, the origin of the first voluntary . church in 
 England, after the Marian persecution, was contemporaneous with 
 the Anglican movement. And it is as remarkable as it is satis- 
 factory, that these touching and simple memorials should have 
 been preserved by the Metropolitan Bishop, and finally transmitted 
 to the Royal Archives. 
 
 Innate Ideas 3 and Pre-existence of Souls. 
 
 In the Second Series of Things not Generally Known, pp. 147- 
 152, we have illustrated this doctrine at some length ; but return 
 to it here for the purpose of quoting an argument directly opposed 
 to the above illustrations, by the writer of the eloquent exposition 
 of Plato, in the Edinburgh Essays, 1856: 
 
 " Plato was distinguished from all previous philosophers by the 
 prominence which he gave to the doctrine of innate ideas. Now, 
 the current opinion in this country certainly is, that these innate 
 ideas were a sort of sublime phantasm blown to the winds by 
 John Locke and the inductive philosophy of external facts which 
 has been achieving such conquests in the modern world from the 
 time of Bacon downwards. But the fact is, that the doctrine of 
 innate ideas, as taught by Plato, never was touched either by 
 Locke or Bacon ; and never can be touched in substantiate by 
 any thinker who believes that he has thoughts, and that these 
 tli oughts have their roots in a simple sovereign and plastic prin- 
 ciple which he calls his soul. No doubt there are some pleasant 
 imaginations floating with irridescent colours round the border- 
 hud of this Platonic philosophy, which may be blown to the wind 
 by the puff of any cheek, without special inflation from Locke or 
 Bacon. When the great thinker, for instance, pushes his argu- 
 ment tor the independence of mind so far as to seem to assert, in 
 positive terms, the existence of ideas in the human soul in ready- 
 made panoply transferred from a previous state of existence into 
 
278 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 the present, this must be regarded as a trick of the poet imma- 
 nent in the philosopher, ever ready to mistake a beautiful analogy 
 for a substantial argument. Wordsworth, as a philosophic poet, 
 was certainly more at liberty to illustrate this pleasant fancy than 
 Plato as a practical philosopher.* Reminiscence, as explained by 
 Socrates in the Menon and elsewhere, is not a fact, if the word be 
 taken in its natural and obvious sense ; it is not true that a person 
 studying mathematics, for instance, when the truth of any pro- 
 found relation of quantity or number flashes upon his mind, is 
 recollecting anything that he ever knew before in a previous state 
 of existence ; the simple fact is, that he recognises the evolution 
 of this truth from other truths of which he finds himself in pos- 
 session, as a consequence that cannot be avoided when once his 
 mind is set to work in a certain direction. As certainly as a 
 sportsman's dog will raise game when it comes near the spot where 
 the bird is lying, and the scent begins to tell on his eager organ, so 
 certainly will an idea lurking in a man's mind be hunted out into 
 startled consciousness by a Socratic questioner. But the simile 
 limps, like all similes, in one point : the hidden idea is not lying 
 in the soul, like the bird in the heather, ready-made ; it must be 
 shaped, moulded, and evolved, by a long and sometimes a very 
 painful process. All that we can legitimately say, therefore, is, 
 that there lies in every normal human soul the dormant capacity 
 of acknowledging every necessary truth ; and that this capacity is 
 not borrowed trom without. In this sense, and this sense only, 
 are innate ideas true ; and in this sense, unquestionably, they are 
 very far removed from what may be called a reminiscence." 
 
 The Sabbath for Professional Men. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds used to say, "he will never make a 
 painter who looks for the Sunday with pleasure for an idle day;" 
 and Sir Joshua's journals afford indisputable proofs that it was his 
 habit to receive sitters on Sundays as well as on other days. This 
 was naturally displeasing to Dr. Johnson ; and we are told by 
 Boswell, that he (Johnson) made three requests of Sir Joshua, a 
 short time before his death : one was to forgive him thirty pounds 
 which he had borrowed of him ; another was, that Sir Joshua 
 would carefully read the Scriptures ; and lastly, that he would 
 abstain from using his pencil on the Sabbath-day : to all of these 
 requests Reynolds gave a willing assent, and kept his word. 
 
 The lax practice of working on the Sabbath is, we fear, too 
 common. That it is a short-sighted practice there can be no 
 
 * See the beautiful poem entitled, " Intimations of Immortality.' 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 279 
 
 doubt. With respect to it, the Hon. B. F. Butler, of New York, 
 recently made the following statement : 
 
 " If I may be permitted to refer to my own experience, I can truly say 
 that, although often severely pressed, and sometimes for years together, by 
 professional occupations and official duties, I cannot call to mind more 
 than half a dozen cases during the twenty-seven years which have elapsed 
 since my admission to the Bar, in which J have found it necessary to devote 
 any portion of the Sabbath to professional or official studies or labours. Of 
 these instances only two, I believe, occurred during my connexion with 
 the Government at Washington, one of which was a case of mercy as well 
 as of necessity, and neither of which prevented my regular attendance at 
 the house of God. The course I have pursued has sometimes compelled me 
 to rise on the ensuing day somewhat earlier than my wont j but an occa- 
 sional inconvenience of this kind is of small account when compared with 
 the preservation of a useful habit. I am therefore able to testify that it is 
 not necessary to the ordinary duties of professional life, that men should 
 encroach upon the Sabbath j and that the cases of necessity or of mercy, 
 in which professional labour can be required on that day, are few and far 
 between." 
 
 "In the Beginning" 
 
 That the vast and unknown Antiquity of the Earth, compared 
 with the 6000 years of its supposed existence is but as yesterday, 
 is the first great startling fact which the researches of Geology 
 have brought to light within the last thirty years. " With rare 
 exceptions," says Archdeacon Pratt, t( this is become, like the 
 motion of the earth, the universal creed. The prejudice of long- 
 standing interpretation and ignorance of the records which the 
 earth carries in its own bosom regarding its past history, had 
 shut up us and our forefathers for ages, in the notion that the 
 heavens and the earth were but six days older than the human 
 race. But science reveals new phenomena, opens up new ideas, 
 and creates new demands. The torch of nature and reason sheds 
 its light upon the letter of Scripture." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Chalmers was the first to supply this new read- 
 ing in his Natural Theology, vol. i. p. 251, as follows: " Between 
 the initial act and the details of Genesis, the world, for aught we 
 know, might have been the theatre of many revolutions, the traces 
 of which geology may still investigate, and to which she, in fact, 
 has confidently appealed as the vestiges of so many continents 
 that have now passed away." 
 
 u ln the beginning God created the heaven and earth; the earth 
 was ^without form and 'void, and darkness was upon the face of 
 the deep" is seen to refer to the first calling of matter into exis- 
 tence, and to a state of emptiness and waste into which the earth 
 
280 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 long after fell, ere God prepared it as the residence of the most 
 perfect of His creatures. 
 
 This commentary and explanation was adopted by the late 
 Rev. Dr. Buckland, in his Bridgewater Treatise : 
 
 " The word beginning" he says, " as applied by Moses, in the first verse 
 of the Book of Genesis, expresses an undefined period of time, which was 
 antecedent to the last great change that affected the surface of the earth, 
 and to the creation of its present animal and vegetable inhabitants, during 
 which period a long series of operations may have been going on j which, 
 as they are only connected with the history of the human race, are passed 
 over in silence by the sacred historian, whose only concern was barely to 
 state that the matter of the universe is not eternal and self-existent, but 
 was originally created by the power of the Almighty. The Mosaic narra- 
 tive commences with a declaration that, ' in the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth? These few words of Genesis may be fairly appealed 
 to by the geologist as containing a brief statement of the creation of the 
 material elements, at a time distinctly preceding the operations of the first 
 day j it is nowhere affirmed that God created the heaven and the earth in 
 the first day, but in the beginning ; this beginning may have been an epoch 
 at an immeasured distance, followed by periods of undefined duration, 
 during which all the physical operations disclosed by geology were going 
 on. 
 
 "The first verse of Genesis, therefore, seems explicitly to assert the 
 creation of the universe j the heaven, including the sidereal systems and 
 the earth, more especially specifying our planet, as the subsequent scene of 
 the operations of the six days about to be described ; no information is 
 given as to events which may have occurred upon this earth, unconnected 
 with the history of man, between the creation of its component matter 
 recorded in the first verse, and the era at which its history is resumed in 
 the second verse ; nor is any limit fixed to the time during which these 
 intermediate events may have been going on 5 millions of millions of years 
 may have occupied the indefinite interval between the beginning in which 
 God created the heaven and the earth, and the evening or commencement 
 of the first day of the Mosaic narrative. 
 
 "The second verse may describe the condition of the earth on the 
 evening of this first day j for in the Jewish mode of computation used by 
 Moses, each day is reckoned from the beginning of one evening to the 
 beginning of another evening. This first evening may be considered as 
 the termination of the indefinite period which followed the primeval crea- 
 tion announced in the first verse, and as the commencement of the first 
 of the six succeeding days in which the earth was to be filled up and 
 peopled in a manner fit for the reception of mankind. We have in this 
 second verse a distinct mention of the earth and waters, as already existing 
 and involved in darkness ; their condition also is described as a state of con- 
 fusion and emptiness (tohu bohu\ words which are usually interpreted by the 
 vague and indefinite Greek term chaos, and which may be geologically 
 considered as designating the wreck and ruins of a former world. At this 
 intermediate period of time, the preceding undefined geological periods had 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 281 
 
 terminated, a new series of events commenced, and the work of the first 
 morning of this new creation was the calling forth of light from a tem- 
 porary darkness, which had overspread the ruins of the ancient earth." 
 
 Such was the modified diluvial theory in which Dr. Buckland 
 brought the' weight of his authority to support the views now 
 generally received. 
 
 The last Religious Martyrs in England. 
 
 In the seventeenth century, as theology became more reason- 
 able it became less confident, and therefore more merciful. Seven- 
 teen years after the publication of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity , 
 two men were publicly burned by the English bishops for hold- 
 ing heretical opinions. These were Legat, burned by King, 
 Bishop of London ; and Wightman, by Neyle, of Lichfield. 
 They suffered in 1611. " But this," says Buckle, " was the last 
 gasp of expiring bigotry ; and since that memorable day, the soil 
 of England has never been stained by the blood of a man who 
 has suffered for his religious creed." 
 
 "It should be mentioned, to the honour of the Court of Chancery, that 
 late in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth century, its powers were 
 exerted against the exaction of those cruel laws by which the Church of 
 England was allowed to persecute men who differed from its own views." 
 See Lord Campbeirs Chancellory vol. ii. 
 
 Liberty of Conscience. 
 
 The principle of perfect respect for Liberty of Conscience is the 
 last, the hardest, the most precious conquest of humanity over 
 itself. On its maintenance depends the only real assurance which 
 the world can have even of revealed truth ; for where would be 
 the assurance even of revealed truth in a world of mental slaves ? 
 England seems chosen as the guardian of liberty of conscience in 
 Europe at the present time. To guard it faithfully is her best 
 tribute to Heaven her best title to the respect of all that is good 
 and noble in the world. That she has guarded it well will be 
 her glorious epitaph, when, in the revolutions of empire, her power 
 and wealth shall have become a legend of the past. Distance and 
 climate do not change principle. The conscience of the Hindoo 
 is conscience, however clouded, though declaimers may pretend 
 that good is evil and evil good, by the law of the prophet and the 
 institutes of Menu. If it were not so, it would be vain to offer 
 him a purer religion, for he would be incapable of seeing that our 
 religion is purer than his own. Double, treble the number of 
 your missionaries and vour bishons Speed in every way the 
 
282 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 apostolic work of Christian love. But the sword is forbidden ; 
 and not only the sword, but every influence that can compel or 
 induce the heathen to offer to the God of Truth the unholy 
 tribute of a hypocritical profession the unclean sacrifice of a lie. 
 Saturday Review. 
 
 Awful Judgments. 
 
 There cannot be a more impious abuse of the authority of the 
 name of God than its employment in solemn asseveration of the 
 truth of that which the utterer knows to be a lie. Such wicked- 
 ness has been marked with divine vengeance ; and Dr. Watts has 
 sought to impress this fact upon the minds of children, in one of 
 his " Divine Songs," telling us how 
 
 Ananias was struck dead, 
 Caught with a lie upon his tongue. 
 
 An instance of this heinous sin is recorded upon the Market- 
 cross at Devizes, in Wiltshire, in these words : 
 
 a The Mayor and Corporation of Devizes avail themselves of 
 the stability of this building, to transmit to future time, the record 
 of an awful event, which occurred in this market-place in the 
 year 1753; hoping that such record may serve as a salutary 
 warning against the danger of impiously invoking Divine ven- 
 geance, or of calling on the holy name of God to conceal the 
 devices of falsehood and fraud. 
 
 On Thursday, the 2$th of January, 1753, Ruth Pierce, of 
 Potterne, in this county, agreed with three other women to buy 
 a sack of wheat in the market, each paying her due proportion 
 towards the same ; one of these women, in collecting the several 
 quotas of money, discovered a deficiency, and demanded of Ruth 
 Pierce the sum which was wanting to make good the amount ; 
 Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid her share, and said, She 
 <wished she might drop down deadj if she had not. She rashly re- 
 peated this awful wish, when, to the consternation and terror of 
 the surrounding multitude, she instantly fell down, and expired, 
 having the money concealed in her hand." 
 
 It is not long since, in one of the parish churches of Canter- 
 bury, the officiating minister alluded to an awful instance of the 
 interposition of the Almighty, which was presented a few miles 
 from the above city. A woman who was accused of theft posi- 
 tively denied it, and in her protestations solemnly appealed to God 
 in testification of her innocence, and wished she might be struck 
 dead if guilty. She had no sooner used the expression than she 
 fell a lifeless corpse. The articles imputed to her as having been 
 stolen were afterwards found in her house. 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 283 
 
 Christian Education. 
 
 If we look to the nature of the human mind itself, if we con- 
 sider its longings, how comprehensive is its range, how great its 
 capabilities, how little its best and highest faculties are satisfied 
 with the objects that are placed before us upon earth, how many 
 marks this dispensation bears of being a temporary, and, as it 
 were, an initiatory dispensation, is it not monstrous to pretend 
 that we are giving to the human being such a cultivation as befits 
 his nature and his destiny, when we put out of sight all the higher 
 and more permanent purposes for which he lives, arid confine our 
 provision to matters which, however valuable (and valuable they 
 are in their own place), yet of themselves bear only upon earthly 
 ends ? Is it not a fraud upon ourselves and our fellow-creatures ? 
 is it not playing and paltering with words ? is it not giving stones 
 to those who ask for bread, if, when man, so endowed as he is, 
 and with such high necessities, demands of his fellow-men that 
 he may be rightly trained, we impart to him, under the name of 
 an adequate education, that which has no reference to his most 
 essential capacities and wants, and which limits the immortal crea- 
 ture to objects that perish in the use ? W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 On the whole subject of National Education, how enlarged 
 and liberal are the views taken by the Bishop of Oxford, in one of 
 his recent Sermons. " Our National Education is at this moment 
 surrounded by many difficulties. Among the chief of these are 
 those which spring from the relations of our Church and State. 
 There is no use in disguising from ourselves the fact that these 
 questions exist, and some of them press for settlement. I believe 
 it to be the more manly and the more Christian way freely to 
 admit their existence, and to lend our aid with all honesty in 
 working out their true solution. We cannot, of course, concede 
 one of our principles. We must teach the truth as we have re- 
 ceived it whole, unmixed, uncompromised. But this point 
 secured, whatever we can do we ought to do, by a kindly regard 
 to the feelings of others, by an allowable co-operation and all 
 lawful concession, to loose the hard knot which discord has tied, 
 and unite the hearts of this people in the mighty work of edu- 
 cating its youth to do good service to our God, and to maintain 
 truth and righteousness throughout his world." 
 
 The Book of Psalms. 
 
 On the Psalms, that inexhaustible treasury of divine wisdom 
 and prophetic inspiration, Hooker asks : 
 
284 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 " What is there necessary for man to know which the Psalms are not 
 able to teach ? They are to beginners an easy and familiar introduction 
 a mighty augmentation of all virtue and knowledge j in such as are entered 
 before, a strong confirmation to the most perfect amongst others. Heroical 
 magnanimity, exquisite justice, grave moderation, exact wisdom, repentance 
 unfeigned, unwearied patience, the mysteries of God, the sufferings of 
 Christ, the terrors of wrath, the comforts of grace, the works of Provi- 
 dence over this world, and the promised joy of the world which is to come, 
 all good necessarily to be either known, or done, or had this one celestial 
 fountain yieldeth. Let there be any grief or disease incident to the soul of 
 man any wound or sickness named, for which there is not in this trea- 
 sure-house a present comfortable remedy at all times ready to be found." 
 
 With what satisfaction the pious Bishop Home composed his 
 Commentary on these sacred lyrics of the Sweet Singer of Israel, 
 may be judged from the following passage from the Commen- 
 tator's Preface : 
 
 " Could the author flatter himself that any one would have the pleasure 
 in reading the following exposition which he hath had in writing it, he 
 would not fear the loss of his labour. The employment detached him 
 from the bustle and hurry of life, the din of politics, and the noise of 
 folly. Vanity and vexation flew away for a season j care and disquietude 
 came not near his dwelling. He arose fresh as the morning to his task ; 
 the silence of the night invited him to pursue it ; and he can truly say that 
 food and rest were not preferred before it. Every Psalm improved infi- 
 nitely on his acquaintance with it, and no one gave him uneasiness but the 
 last j for then he grieved that his work was done. Happier hours than 
 those which have been spent in these meditations on the Songs of Sion, he 
 never expects to see in this world. Very pleasantly did they pass, and 
 move smoothly and swiftly along ; for when thus engaged, he counted no 
 time. They are gone, but have left a relish and a fragrance on the mind, 
 and the remembrance of them is sweet." 
 
 Elsewhere the Bishop thus characterizes the Psalms : 
 
 " Calculated alike to profit and to please, they inform the understanding, 
 elevate the affections, and entertain the imagination. Indited under the 
 influence of Him to whom all hearts are known, and all events foreknown, 
 they suit mankind in all situations j grateful as the manna which de- 
 scended from above, and conformed itself to every palate, The fairest 
 productions of human wit, after a few perusals, like gathered flowers, 
 wither in our hands and lose their fragrancy ; but these unfading plants of 
 Paradise become, as we are accustomed to them, still more and more beau- 
 tiful. Their bloom appears to be daily heightened j fresh odours are 
 emitted and new sweets extracted from them. He who hath once tasted 
 their excellences will desire to taste them yet again j and he who tastes 
 them oftenest will relish them best." 
 
 The pure and sweet feeling with which this excellent prelate 
 dwells on his past labours, if labours they can be called, could 
 scarcely have been greater, had he foreseen the immense circula- 
 
RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 285 
 
 tion which his work enjoys, and the universal esteem in which it 
 is held. 
 
 A more recent Commentator concludes his remarks on the last 
 Psalm with these touching words : " I shall never again so dwell 
 upon them on earth. My God ! prepare me for heaven, and 
 for joining there in the songs of the redeemed in the high services 
 of eternity." 
 
 The Book of Job. 
 
 Diversified are the opinions of the most learned critics concern- 
 ing the author of the Book of Job, the period at which it was 
 written, in what part of the world the events there recorded oc- 
 curred ; and, though last not the least difficult and perplexing, 
 whether the whole composition may not be regarded rather as 
 allegorical than natural and true. Dr. Mason Good observes of 
 this poem, in his Introductory Dissertation on the Book of Job : 
 
 <c It is the most extraordinary composition of any age or country, and 
 has an equal claim to the attention of the theologian, the scholar, the 
 antiquary, and the zoologist to the man of taste, of genius, and of reli- 
 gion. Amidst the books of the Bible it stands alone, and though its 
 sacred character is sufficiently attested both by the Jewish and Christian 
 Scriptures, it is isolated in its language, in its manner, and in its matter. 
 Nothing can be purer than its morality, nothing sublimer than its philo- 
 sophy, nothing simpler than its ritual, nothing more majestic than its 
 creed." 
 
 Perhaps all our readers may not be aware that, with the ex- 
 ception of the first two chapters and the last ten verses, the book 
 is poetic it is everywhere reducible to the hemistich form ; but 
 whether it is to be considered as dramatic or epic has not been 
 determined. That Moses was the author of this sublime com- 
 position seems now almost universally agreed upon by learned 
 commentators. The work itself, moreover, possesses internal 
 evidence to the truth of this statement, many parts of it harmo- 
 nizing with his acknowledged writings. Dr. Mason Good con- 
 tends that 
 
 " In his style the author appears to have been equally master of the 
 simple and the sublime to have been minutely and elaborately acquainted 
 with the astronomy, natural history, and general science of his age to 
 have been a Hebrew by birth and native language, and an Arabian by 
 long residence and local study ; and finally, that he must have flourished 
 and composed the work before the Egyptian Exody. Now it is obvious 
 that every one of these features is consummated in Moses, and in Moses 
 alone ; and that the whole of them gives us his complete lineaments and 
 character ; whence there can be no longer any difficulty in determining as 
 to the real author of the poem. Instructed in all the learning of Egypt, 
 
286 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 it appears little doYibtful that he composed it during some part of his forty 
 years' residence with the hospitable Jethro, in that district of Idumaea which 
 was named Midian." 
 
 Against the supposition that Moses was the author of the 
 Book of Job, it has been alleged that the word " Jehovah" fre- 
 quently occurs in it a word which was first revealed to Moses 
 by the Almighty, preparatory to his undertaking the deliverance 
 of the Hebrew nation. But, although we are told that this term 
 was communicated to Moses for the first time in Exodus vi. 3, 
 we yet find it used nearly thirty times in the Book of Ge- 
 nesis ; we may, therefore, with Dr. Mason Good, suppose that 
 he was in possession of this name long before the promulgation 
 of this poem ; and the -novelty of the communication might have 
 induced him at once to exchange whatever term he had antece- 
 dently employed for this new and consecrated term. 
 
 It seems now to be universally agreed upon that the land of 
 Arabia Petraea, on the south-western coast of the lake Asphaltites, 
 in a line between Egypt and Philistia, surrounded by Kedar,, 
 Teman, and Midian, all of which are districts of Arabia Petraea, 
 situated in Idumaea, is the land of Edom or Esau. With regard 
 to the supposition of some learned authors, that the book is wholly 
 allegorical, Dr. Chalmers does not concur in such a conjecture. 
 He appears to have thoroughly studied the arguments both for 
 and against such a theory, and to have decided against it. He is 
 conclusively of opinion that Job was a real character, and that 
 the history recorded of him is a statement of facts. u - There is," 
 says our author, "a very distinct scriptural testimony for the 
 inspiration of his book in i Cor. iii. 19." 
 
 Uz, where Job lived, was Edom. a We disclaim," says Dr. 
 Chalmers, " all consent to this being an allegorical and not a 
 literal history ; and we found our disclaimer on the subsequent 
 references in the Bible to Job as to a real personage ; as in James, 
 v. n, and still more in Ezekiel xiv. 14 20, where he is ranked 
 with Noah and Daniel, whose reality no one doubts. Would 
 the prophet have thus mixed a fictitious with real and historical 
 characters ?" 
 
 It is also worthy of remark, that the history of Job, although 
 much altered from the original, is still well known among the 
 Asiatics. Though our author does not consider Job's history, as 
 a whole, as being allegorical, yet he thinks the transcendental or 
 supernatural parts of it may be so ; and he compares these pas- 
 sages with those in i Kings xxii. 19 ; Zech. iii. i ; and Rev. xii., 
 all of them representations more or less resembling similar ones in 
 J ob. Times journal. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Great Precedence Question. 
 
 The great question relative to precedence which agitated the 
 cities of Dublin and Edinburgh in 1863, arose at the presentation 
 of addresses to the Queen at Windsor by the respective corpo- 
 rations of those two cities, on the occasion of the marriage of 
 the Prince of Wales, when the corporation of Dublin was given 
 precedence, under protest on the part of the corporation of Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 The question was subsequently referred to the chief Irish heraldic 
 authority, the Ulster King of Arms, Sir Bernard Burke, LL.D., 
 and the report which Ulster thereupon wrote was ordered by 
 the House of Commons to be printed. Ulster begins by stating 
 that 
 
 "The claim of Edinburgh to the higher precedence is made to 
 rest on the following reasons: " i. The Scottish Act of Union 
 being earlier in date than the Irish Act of Union. 2. The arms 
 of Scotland being quartered in the royal shield before the arms of 
 Ireland. 3. By the Acts of Union of Scotland and Ireland, the 
 Peers of Scotland taking rank before the Peers of Ireland." 
 
 However, i( Dublin founds its claim to precedence on broader 
 and more intelligible grounds; viz. i. Prescriptive right of 
 Dublin as second city in the dominion of England from the reign 
 of King Henry II., a right unaffected in any way by the Acts of 
 Union. 2. Greater antiquity of the city of Dublin. 3. Greater 
 antiquity of the charters of incorporation of the city of Dublin. 
 4. Seat of Government and the Viceroyalty being still retained in 
 Dublin. 5. Greater and more dignified privileges of the corpora- 
 tion of Dublin." 
 
 Ulster then shows that the quartering of the royal arms, which 
 were capriciously varied at different periods, proves nothing in 
 favour of Edinburgh ; and that, by her Act of Union, Scotland 
 was amalgamated with England as Great Britain ; while Ireland, 
 though united, preserved in her union a quasi separate position, 
 being still a viceroyalty, with a vice-king and court, having their 
 capital in Dublin. 
 
 He concludes by urging that, from the Lord Mayor and Cor- 
 poration of Dublin being privileged to present their addresses to 
 the Sovereign on the throne at St. James's, Edinburgh not having 
 that privilege, and from the immense antiquity of the city of 
 Dublin, Dublin is clearly entitled to precedence. 
 
288 KNOWLEDGE FOR THE TIME. 
 
 Sir George Grey transmitted this report of Ulster to Garter- 
 King-of-Arms, Sir Charles Young, D.C.L., F.S.A.; Garter 
 gave an opinion, which was also ordered by the House of Com- 
 mons to be printed. Garter, in his opinion, inclines in favour of 
 Edinburgh, on the grounds ist, That Scotland occupies the 
 second quarter in the royal shield ; 2nd, that England itself be- 
 came on the accession of James I. an "appanage of the Scottish 
 crown ;" 3rd, that as the peers of Scotland were given special 
 precedence by the Irish Act of Union, all other precedence fol- 
 lowed "by analogy ;" and 4th, that the Mayor of Dublin was 
 not " Lord" Mayor till 1665, while Maitlar.d avers that the style 
 of " Lord" Provost was enjoyed by the chief magistrate of Edin- 
 burgh in 1609. 
 
 A remark of Sir -George Grey's in the House of Commons, 
 wrongly reported, led to the belief that this opinion of Garter 
 was to decide the question. But, on the contrary, the discus- 
 sion was continued. 
 
 Ulster gave, in reply to Garter, a second opinion, which was 
 ordered by the House of Commons to be printed. In his further 
 observations Ulster commences by saying : " The point at issue 
 is not a question of nationalities, or of the relative superiority of 
 Ireland over Scotland, or Scotland over Ireland. That question, 
 a very invidious one, is not now raised, and will, I trust, never be : 
 the only result which could arise from such a discussion would 
 be to wound the feelings and love of country of one or other of 
 two very sensitive peoples The only question to be deter- 
 mined is simply which of the two corporations has the higher 
 precedence ? a right to be determined by municipal charters, 
 royal grants, and other legal evidence." Ulster then still insists on 
 the far longer existence of Dublin. He repudiates the idea alto- 
 gether that England was an " appanage" of Scotland, any more 
 than France was an appanage of Navarre, when Henry IV., King 
 of the latter country, inherited the crown of France. Appanage 
 has not that meaning. Garter is wrong as to the date of the Mayor 
 of Dublin being "Lord" Mayor in 1665: he was made so by 
 Charles I. 2pth July, 1642, while the Provost was not "Lord" 
 Provost till 1667. Ulster concludes for Dublin, on the greater 
 antiquity of Dublin's charters over those of Edinburgh, on it being 
 contrary to all law to construe acts of Parliament " by analogy," 
 and on the undoubted fact, that George IV. conferred in 1821 on 
 Dublin, which Sir Robert Peel emphatically styled " the second 
 city of the Empire," the exclusive (except as to the city of London) 
 honour of presenting addresses to the Sovereign on the throne at 
 Windsor or St. James's. 
 
 With these observations of Ulster the question rests in abeyance 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ACCIDENTS on Railways, 200. 
 Accommodation Bill, never sign, 
 
 1 68. 
 
 Adams, President, Ancestry of, 18. 
 Advocate, Payment of, 109. 
 Age of the People, -233. 
 Air, Fresh, Worth of, 241. 
 America, Discovery of, 79. 
 Ancestors of Washington, 16. 
 Ancestry of President Adams, 18. 
 Anti-Corn Law League, Origin of, 
 
 37- 
 Appellate Jurisdiction of the House 
 
 of Lords, 1 08. 
 
 Archaeology and Manufactures, 229. 
 Aristocracy, the word, 99. 
 Armstrong, Sir W., on "Seeds of 
 
 Invention," 176. 
 Arrest of the Body after Death, 
 
 133- 
 
 Art, Good and Cheap, 230. 
 
 Arts, False, advancing True, 247. 
 
 Astronomy, Limitations of, 213. 
 
 Atheism, Folly of, 2 76. 
 
 Attorney, do not make your Son, 
 108. 
 
 Augustine, St., Mission of, 77. 
 
 Bacon, Roger, Science of, 173. 
 
 Balloon Ascents, High Tempera- 
 tures in, 218. 
 
 BANK Failures, Losses by, 165. 
 Bar, Success at, Secret of, 107. 
 Barometer for Farmers, 222. 
 Baronetcy, Expense of, 97. 
 Bayonet, History of the, 228. 
 Benefit of Clergy, 116. 
 
 Bidder, Mr. George, C.E., 146. 
 
 Blindness, on, 235. 
 
 Bonaparte, the House of, 20. 
 
 Border Marriages, 120. 
 
 Bowyer, Sir George, on Public Exe- 
 cutions, 143, 144. 
 
 Brain Disease, Dr. Forbes Winslow 
 on, 257. 
 
 Brass, Antiquity of, 191. 
 
 Bridewell of the City of London, 
 
 135- 
 
 Britain, Great, on the World's 
 Map, 80. 
 
 Britain, Roman Civilization of, 61. 
 
 Brodie, Sir B., on Mind and Orga- 
 nization, 253. 
 
 Brunswick, House of, and Casting 
 Vote, 78. 
 
 Burial of Sir John Moore, 15. 
 
 Burying Gold and Silver, 155. 
 
 CALCULATION, Mental, Precocious, 
 146. 
 
 Cambridge Man, 76. 
 
 Cancer, Remedies for, 245. 
 
 Catholic Emancipation and Sir Ro- 
 bert Peel, 53. 
 
 Castlereagh, Lord, at the Congress 
 of Vienna, 33. 
 
 Cato-street Conspiracy, the, 34. 
 
 Cavour's Estimate of Napoleon III., 
 
 5*- 
 
 Celtes, what are they ? 6a 
 Centre of the Earth, 206. 
 Change of Surname, 102. 
 Changes, a few of the World's, 55. 
 Chartists, the, in 1848, 41. 
 
 U 
 
290 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Christmas, Past and Present, 266. 
 Church, Compulsory Attendance 
 
 3^117. 
 
 Civilization, the Lowest, 67. 
 Civilization, true Source of, 66. 
 Crown, the Imperial State, 93. 
 Coal-mine, deepest in England, 188. 
 Coal Resources, our, 185 189. 
 Coal, Theory of, 185. 
 Coburg, House of, 53. 
 Cockfighting, Law against, 1 36. 
 Coin, Counterfeit, 161. 
 Coinage, Wear and Tear of, l6r. 
 Coleridge, Sir John, on Trial by 
 
 Jury, IF2. 
 olonia 
 
 Colonial Empire, British, 82. 
 Comfort, what is it ? 69. 
 Common Law, 104. 
 Concrete not new, 190. 
 Congregational Church, First in 
 
 England, 276. 
 Conscience, Liberty of, 281. 
 Conscience, the National, n. 
 Consumption not hopeless, 238. 
 Convicts, What is to be done with 
 
 our, 138. 
 
 Cooling of the Earth, 207. 
 Copper-sheathingShips* bottoms, 190 
 Copper-smelting, 191. 
 Copyright, the Law of, r24- 
 Correlation of Physical Forces, 180. 
 Coup d'Etat Predictions, 44. 
 Cross, Mark of the, 1 1 8. 
 Crowns, English, 93. 
 Curiosities of the Exchequer, 151. 
 Curiosities of the Statute Law, 1 05 . 
 " Custom, the Queen of the World," 
 
 74- 
 
 DEATH-BED of the Doubting, 269. 
 Death-Warrants, 140. 
 Deodands, Law of, 132. 
 Despot deceived, 66. 
 Deville, the Phrenologist, 254. 
 Diamond, Brilliancy of, 191. 
 " Dieu et mon Droit," 91. 
 Distances measured, 149. 
 Discoverers, not Inventors, 172. 
 Doubt, our Age of, 270. 
 
 Doubt about Religion, 267. 
 Druids, and their Healing Art, 245. 
 
 EARTH, Cooling of the, 207. 
 
 Earth and Man compared, 206. 
 
 Earth, how it was peopled, 57. 
 
 Earth, Centre of the, 206. 
 
 Earth, Distance of, from the Sun, 
 215. 
 
 Earth's Surface, Inequalities of, 210. 
 
 Earth, why presumed to be Solid, 
 206. 
 
 Education, Christian, 283. 
 
 Egyptology, what is it ? 271. 
 
 Eloquence of the Day, 6. 
 
 Employment, giving, 168. 
 
 Enamel, French, 232. 
 
 Enghien, the Duke of, 24. 
 
 English People, the, 84. 
 
 English, what they owe to Natu- 
 ralized Foreigners, 203. 
 
 Evidence, what is it? no. 
 
 Exchequer, Curiosities of, 151. 
 
 Executions, Public, 142. 
 
 FEASTS, Moveable, 266. 
 Fees, Ecclesiastical, 153. 
 Field-Marshal, the rank, 101. 
 Fitzroy, Admiral, on the Weather, 
 
 218. 
 
 Flint, use of, in Pottery, 107. 
 Foot, the Roman, 147. 
 " Fourth Estate, the," 5.' 
 Fractured Leg, how restored, 246. 
 Freedom, Love of, 65. 
 Free-speaking, Whately on, 9. 
 French Emperorship, Revival of, 4 3. 
 Friendly Societies' Laws, 166. 
 
 GAME LAWS, the, 1 39. 
 Gardens, Law of, 131. 
 Gavelkind Customs, 126. 
 Geology, Revelations of, 58. 
 George III., what drove him mad, 
 
 27. 
 
 Gibbet, the Last in England, 141. 
 Glory of the Past, 72. 
 Gold and Silver, burying, 155-157. 
 Gold seeking, Results of, 157. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 291 
 
 Gold, Standard, 162. 
 
 " Great Events from Little Causes 
 
 spring," 76. 
 
 Gretna Green Marriages, 120. 
 Growth, Geological, 704. 
 Guilds, Ancient and Modern Benefit 
 
 Clubs, 75. 
 
 Gunpowder, Philosophy of, 192. 
 Gustavus III. of Sweden, 38. . 
 
 HAIR suddenly changing Colour, 
 
 237- 
 
 Half-mad, the, 258. 
 Hands, why do we shake? 67. 
 Head, Sir F., on Public Executions, 
 
 142. 
 
 Hearing, Sense of, 234. 
 Heart, the Human, 234. 
 Heat and Motion, Identity of, 208. 
 Heat, Universal Source of, 209. 
 Heir to the British Throne always 
 
 in Opposition, 4. 
 Heralds' College, 86. 
 Heraldry, Worth of, 85. 
 Hoarding Money, 157. 
 Holding over after Lease, 125. 
 Hop Duty, Abolition of, 125. 
 Horse-power, calculation of, 198. 
 Horses, Value of, 166. 
 
 ICEBERGS and the Weather, 223. 
 
 Ignorance and Irresponsibility, 137- 
 
 Imitative Gold Chains, 232. 
 
 Imperial State Crown, the 93. 
 
 "Implements in the Drift," 205. 
 
 " In the Beginning," 279. 
 
 Innate Ideas and Pre-existence of 
 Souls, 277. 
 
 Insanity, Causes of, 256. 
 
 Insurance, Origin of, 163. 
 
 Insurance Policies, 130. 
 
 Invasion of England, 47. 
 
 Invasion of England projected by 
 Napoleon I., 21. 
 
 Invasions and Railways, 202. 
 
 Inventions and Discoveries, con- 
 temporary, 227. 
 
 Irish, the, and Potatoes, 8 1. 
 
 Irish-speaking Population, 8 1. 
 
 Irish Titles of Honour, 87. 
 
 Irish Union, the, 19. 
 
 Iron as a Building Material, 189. 
 
 ERUSALEM and Nimroud, 272. 
 ewellery, Imitative, 231. 
 ob, the Book of, 285. 
 udge's Black Cap, origin of, 141. 
 udgments, Awful, 282. 
 urors, Attendance of, 113. 
 ustice, Cupar and Jedburgh, 138. 
 ury, Trial by, in. 
 
 KING'S-BOOK, the, 116. 
 King and Queen, So. 
 Knighthood, Expense of, 97. 
 
 LAW, Statute and Common, 104. 
 
 Legal Hints, 129. 
 
 Legitimacy and Government, 5. 
 
 Lenses, Burning, 182. 
 
 Leonard's, St., Lord, his Handy- 
 Book, 129. 
 
 Leopold, King of the Belgians, 54. 
 
 Libel, the Law of, 113. 
 
 Libel, Propagation of, 115. 
 
 Liberty of Conscience, 281. 
 
 Life, Periods and Conditions of, 233. 
 
 Life, Uncertainty of, 262. 
 
 Life, What do we know of it, 70. 
 
 Light, Velocity of, how measured 
 216. 
 
 Lightning, Death by, 226. 
 
 Lightning, Force of, 226. 
 
 Lime, Phosphate of, what is it ? 194. 
 
 London, Ancient and Modern, 8l. 
 
 London, the See of, 96. 
 
 Loot, derivation of, 229. 
 
 Lottery, the First, 160. 
 
 Louis Philippe, Fall of, 40. 
 
 Lucifer Match, Safety, 195. 
 
 Luxury, what is it ? 70. 
 
 MACHIAVELISM, 9. 
 Majesty, title of, 90. 
 Marriage Fines, 119. 
 Marriage Law of England, 118. 
 Marriage, Solemnization of, 123. 
 Marriages, Irregular, 120. 
 
292 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Martyrs, Religious, Last, in Eng- 
 land, 281. 
 
 May Fair Marriages, 120. 
 
 Mechanical Arts, the, 178. 
 
 Mechanical Effects, Imposing, 107. 
 
 Medicine, brief History of, 248. 
 
 Medicine, what has Science done 
 for it ? 249. 
 
 Melbourne, Lord, Statesmanship 
 of, 44. 
 
 Metals, Precious, What becomes 
 of, 158. ^ 
 
 Meteorological Observations, Value 
 of, 218. 
 
 Methylated Spirit, 193. 
 
 Militia, what it can do, 48 
 
 Mind and Organization, Relations 
 of, 253. 
 
 Mineralogy, Uses of, 185. 
 
 Mining, Vicissitudes of, 183 185. 
 
 Ministries, Whig and Tory, 2. 
 
 Money, Interest of, 162, 163. 
 
 Money Panic of 1832, 36. 
 
 Moonlight and Blindness, 227. 
 
 Moonlight, Effect of, on Vegeta- 
 tion, 227. 
 
 Moore, Sir John, Burial of, 15. 
 
 Moveable Feasts, 266. 
 
 Mutiny at the Nore, 52. 
 
 NAPOLEON I., Downfal of, pre- 
 dicted, 29. 
 
 Napoleon III., Estimate of, by 
 Count Cavour, 51. 
 
 Napoleon III., early Life of, 43. 
 
 "Nation of Shopkeepers," 12. 
 
 National Conscience, n. 
 
 Nature's Ventilation, 240. 
 
 Naval Heroes, 50. 
 
 North wick, Lord, his Pictures, 133. 
 
 Numbers descriptive of Distance, 
 146. 
 
 OBSERVANCE, Ungraceful, 45. 
 Oil, Effect of, in stilling Waves, 
 
 1 80. 
 
 Opinion, Popular, Worth of, 8. 
 Over-Speculation, 165. 
 Oxford, Bishop of, on Rationalism, 
 
 273- 
 
 Oxford, Bishop of, on Religious 
 
 Doubt, 267 270. 
 Oxford Man and Cambridge Man, 
 
 75- 
 
 PARDON, Queen's, 140. 
 
 Parliament, Placemen in, 99. 
 
 Parliament, Precedence in, 99. 
 
 Parliament, Seats in, sold, 99. 
 
 Parliament, Speakers of, 10. 
 
 Partition of Poland, 46. 
 
 Past, the Guide for the Present, 79. 
 
 Patents, Object of, 177. 
 
 Patriot, the truest, the greatest 
 Hero, 71. 
 
 Peace Statesmanship, 15. 
 
 Pear-flavouring, New, 192. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, and Catholic 
 Emancipation, 59. 
 
 Peers, New, 100. 
 
 Pensions, Noteworthy, 56. 
 
 Perfumes, Nature of, 239. 
 
 Perspective, what is it ? 181. 
 
 Philosopher and Historian, the, I. 
 
 Philosophers, the old, 71. 
 
 Physic, Element of, in Medical Prac- 
 tice, 250. 
 
 Physician, the best, 260. 
 
 Physicians' Fees, 251. 
 
 Pillory, the, in England, 239. 
 
 Pitt, Mr., Last Moments of, 25. 
 
 Pitting in Small-pox prevented, 
 251. 
 
 Poisoning, Remedy for, 259. 
 
 Poland, the Partition of, 46. 
 
 Political Cunning, 100. 
 
 Politics not yet a Science, i . 
 
 Popular Opinion, Worth of, 8. 
 
 Potatoes the national food of the 
 Irish, 8l. 
 
 Pottery, Manufacture of, 196. 
 
 Precedence of Dublin and Edin- 
 burgh, 287. 
 
 Preferment, Church, 15. 
 
 Press, Power of the, 6. 
 
 Press, Writing for the, 6. 
 
 Principal and Agent, 129. 
 
 Protectionist Party, 4. 
 
 Psalms, the Book of, 283. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 293 
 
 Punishment, Baron Alderson on, 
 H5- 
 
 QUEEN ANNE'S Bounty, 154. 
 
 Queen's Messengers, 95. 
 
 Queen's Serjeants, Queen's Counsel, 
 
 and Serjeants-at-Law, 107. 
 Qi^een, Presents and Letters to, 95. 
 Queen's State Crown, 93. 
 Quietus and Bodkin, 153. 
 Quipus, the Peruvian, 148. 
 
 RAILWAY Accidents, 200. 
 Railway, Social Effect of the, 200. 
 Railways, British, and Roman 
 
 Roads, 62. 
 
 Railways and Invasions, 102. 
 Rain, and St. Swithun, 224. 
 Rainfall in London, 225. 
 Rainy Saints' Days, 225. 
 Rationalism, what is it ? 273- 
 Rats and Ratting, Political, 4. 
 Recreations of the People, 244. 
 Rector, Induction of, 115. 
 Religion, Doubt about, 267 270. 
 Religious Forebodings, 275- 
 Rent, Origin of, 150. 
 Republic, Worth of a, 14. 
 Revenue, Public, what becomes of, 
 
 153- 
 
 Revolutions, Great Sufferer by, 37. 
 Revolutions, Results of, 13. 
 Roman Civilization of Britain, 61. 
 Roman Roads and British Railways, 
 
 62. 
 
 Russell Family, the, 100. 
 Russia, how bound to Germany, 
 
 50. 
 
 SABBATH for Professional Men, 
 
 278. 
 
 "Safe Men" for Office, 14. 
 Safety Match, the, 195. 
 Salutation, Various Modes of, 68. 
 " Sangrado, Dr.," original of, 247. 
 Sanitary Hints, 242. 
 Saxons, Domestic Life of, 64. 
 Sceptics, Hint to, 271. 
 Science, the One, 174. 
 
 Science, Practical, 178. 
 Science, Social, Changes in, 171. 
 Science, what has it accomplished ? 
 
 171. 
 
 Scotch Thistle, 88. 
 Sea, Chemistry of, 212. 
 Seas, Heavy, and Large Vessels, 
 
 199. 
 
 Sea, its Perils, 2" 13. 
 " Seeds of Invention," 176. 
 " Seeing is believing," 255. 
 Servants' Characters, 131. 
 Shamrock, the, 87. 
 Ships, Sheathing with Copper, 190. 
 Shorthand Writers, 7. 
 Shyness, how it spoils Enjoyment, 
 
 79- 
 
 Sky, Beauty of the, 217. 
 
 Sky, Blue Colour of, 216. 
 
 Sleeping and Dreaming, 236. 
 
 Sleeping, Position in, 237. 
 
 Souls, Pre-existence of, 277. 
 
 Sovereign, Coinage of, 160. 
 
 Speakers of the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, IO. 
 
 Special Pleading, what was it ? 1 10. 
 
 Spectacles, How to wear, 183. 
 
 Spirit, Methylated, 193. 
 
 Spontaneous Generation, 181. 
 
 " Star-spangled Banner" of the 
 United States, 1 8. 
 
 Statute Law, 104. 
 
 Steam-boat, the First, 198. 
 
 Stereoscope, the, 182. 
 
 Stockbrokers, 164. 
 
 Stone Age, the, 59, 205. 
 
 Storm Glass, 223. 
 
 Sudden Deaths, various, 262-265. 
 
 Suicides, Motives for, 259. 
 
 Sun-force, on, 175. 
 
 Sun, Distance of, from the Earth, 
 215. 
 
 Surgery, Improved, 246. 
 
 Surname, Change of, 102. 
 
 Swithun, St., his true history, 224. 
 
 TALLY, antiquity of the, 152. 
 Teeth, Care of the, 234. 
 Telegram, Origin of, 229. 
 
294 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Theology, what is it? 274. 
 
 Theory and Practice, 177. 
 
 Thistle, the Scotch, 88. 
 
 Ticket-of-Leave Men, 137. 
 
 Tory Ministry, 2. 
 
 Town and Country Air, 243. 
 
 Treasure-Trove, Usage of, 126-129. 
 
 Trial, what is it? in. 
 
 Trial by Jury, in. 
 
 Tribute-money, 159. 
 
 Trinity High-Water Mark, 150. 
 
 UNDERNEATH the Skin, 253. 
 Union, the Irish, 19. 
 Union-Jack, the, 101. 
 Utter-Barristers, 109. 
 
 VENTILATION, Artificial, 241. 
 
 Victoria, 92. 
 
 Vienna Congress, Lord Castlereagh 
 
 .at, 33. 
 
 Vitiating a Sale, 130. 
 Votes, memorable, 78. 
 
 WAGES heightened by Machinery, 
 
 167. 
 Wales, Prince of, his Plume and 
 
 Motto, 91. 
 Wars by trivial Causes, 77. 
 
 Washington, Ancestors of, 16. 
 
 Water, Running Force of, 180. 
 
 Waterloo, Battle of, 31, 32. 
 
 Waterloo, Prince of, 96. 
 
 Watt and Telford compared, 177. 
 
 " We," the Royal, 90. 
 
 Weather Signs, various, 220-222. 
 
 Weights and Measures, Uniformity 
 of, 149. 
 
 Wellington's Defence of the Wa- 
 terloo Campaign, 32. 
 
 Wellington's Military Administra- 
 tion, 38. 
 
 Wellington predicts the Peninsular 
 Campaign, 30. 
 
 Whig and Tory Ministries, 2. 
 
 Whiteboys, 49. 
 
 Wild Oats, 73. 
 
 Will, Duty of Making, 133. 
 
 Will, Don't make your own, 134. 
 
 Wills, making of, 1 70. 
 
 Wills, a Year's, 169. 
 
 Wood, how long will it last ? 194. 
 
 Wood, what is it ? 194. 
 
 Wounds, Compensation for, 260. 
 
 Wounds, New Remedy for, 260. 
 
 YELLOW Fever, Cure for, 240. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 of nearly Four Thousand Aids to Reflection, Quotations of Maxims, 
 Metaphors, Counsels, Cautions, Proverbs, Aphorisms, &c. &c. In 
 Prose and Verse. Compiled from the Great Writers of all Ages 
 and Countries. Eleventh Edition, fcap. 8vo. cloth, gilt edges, 
 568 pp. 6s. 
 
 ' The quotations are perfect gems ; their selection evinces sound judgment and an 
 excellent taste.' DISPATCH. 
 
 ' We accept the treasure with profound gratitude it should find its way to every 
 home.' EKA. 
 
 We know of no better book of its kind.' EXAMINBK. 
 
 The Philosophy of William Shakespeare ; delineating, 
 
 in Seven Hundred and Fifty Passages selected from his Plays, the 
 Multiform Phases of the Human Mind. With Index and References. 
 Collated, Elucidated, tnd Alphabetically arranged, by the Editors 
 of 'Truths Illustrated by Great Authors.' Second Edition, fcap. 
 8vo. cloth, gilt edges, nearly 700 pages, with beautiful Vignette 
 Title, price 6s. 
 
 8^ A glance at this volume will at once show its superiority to Doud's ' Beauties,' 
 or any other volume of Shakespearian selections. 
 
 Songs of the Soul during its Pilgrimage Heaven- 
 ward : being a New Collection of Poetry, illustrative of the Power 
 of the Christian Faith ; selected from the Works of the most emi- 
 nent British, Foreign, and American Writers, Ancient and Modern, 
 Original and Translated. By the Editors of ' Truths Illustrated by 
 Great Authors,' &c. Second Edition, fcap. 8vo. cloth, gilt edges, 
 638 pages, with beautiful Frontispiece and Title, price 6s. 
 8^> This elegant volume will be appreciated by the admirers of ' The Christian 
 
 Year.' 
 
 The Beauty of Holiness ; or, The Practical Christian's 
 
 Daily Companion : being a Collection of upwards of Two Thousand 
 
 Reflective and Spiritual Passages, remarkable for their Sublimity, 
 
 Beauty, and Practicability ; selected from the Sacred Writings, and 
 
 arranged in Eighty-two Sections, each comprising a different theme 
 
 for meditation. By the Editors of ' Truths Illustrated by Great 
 
 Authors.' Third Edition, fcap. 8vo. cloth, gilt edges, 536 pp., 6s. 
 
 ' Every part of the Sacred Writings deserves our deepest attention and research, 
 
 but all, perhaps, may not be equally adapted to the purposes of meditation iind 
 
 reflection. Those, therefore, who are in the constant habit of consulting the Bible 
 
 will not object to a selection of some of its most sublime and impressive passages, 
 
 arranged and classed ready at once to meet the eye.' EXTKACT F.UOM PKEFACE. 
 
 Events to be Remembered in the History of England. 
 
 Forming a Series of interesting Narratives, extracted from the Paces 
 of Contemporary Chronicles or Modern Historians, of the most Re- 
 markable Occurrences in each Reign ; with Reviews of the Manners, 
 Domestic Habits , Amusements, Costumes, &c. &c., of the People, 
 Chronological Table, &c. By CHARLES SELBY. Twenty-fifth 
 Edition, rZrno. fine paper, with Nine Beautiful Illustrations by 
 Anelay, price 3s. 6d. cloth, elegant, gilt edges. 
 N.B. A SCHOOL EDITION, without the Illustrations, 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 <@~ Great care has been taken to render this book unobjectionable to the most 
 fastidious, by excluding everything that could not be read aloud in schools and 
 families, and by abstinence from all party spirit, alike in politics as in religion. 
 
Catalogue of Popular Works. 
 
 WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF 'A TRAP 
 TO CATCH A SUNBEAM.' 
 
 ' In telling a simple story, and in the management of dialogue, the Author is 
 excelled by few writers of the present day.' LITEUAKV GAZETTE. 
 
 A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam. Thirty-fifth Edition, 
 
 price Is. 
 
 ' Aide, toi, et le. del t'aidcra, is the moral of this pleasant and interesting story, to 
 which we assign in this Gazette a place immediately after Charles Dickens, as its 
 due, for many passages not unworthy of him, and for a general scheme quite in 
 unison with his best feelings towards the lowly and depressed.' LITERARY GAZETTE. 
 
 A Cheap Edition of the above popular story has been prepared 
 for distribution. Sold only in packets price Is. 6d. containing 12 copies. 
 
 Also, by the same Author, 
 
 ' COMING HOME ; ' a New Tale for all Readers, price Is. 
 OLD JOLLIFFE ; not a Goblin Story. Is. 
 The SEQUEL to OLD JOLLIFFE. Is. 
 The HOUSE on the ROCK. Is. 
 ' ONLY ; ' a Tale for Younz and Old. Is. 
 The CLOUD with the SILVER 'LINING. Is. 
 The STAR in the DESERT. Is. 
 
 AMY'S KITCHEN, a VILLAGE ROMANCE : a New Story. Is. 
 The DREAM CHINTZ. With Illustrations by James Godwin. 
 
 2s. 6d. with a beautiful fancy cover. 
 ' A MERRY CHRISTMAS.' 6d. 
 SIBERT'S WOLD. Second Edition, 3s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Sunbeam Stories. A Selection of the Tales by the 
 
 Author of 'A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam,' &c. &c. In one volume, 
 price 5s. cloth elegant, or 5s. 6d. gilt edges. Illustrated by John 
 Absolon and Henry Anelay. 
 
 CONTEXTS : 
 
 A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam. 
 
 Old, Jolliffe. 
 
 The Sequel to Old Jolliffe. 
 
 The Star in the Desert. 
 
 'Only.' 
 
 ' A Merry Christmas.' 
 
 Minnie's Love : a Novel. By the Author of < A Trap 
 
 to Catch a Sunbeam.' In 1 vol. post 8vo. 10s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 ' An extremely pleasant, sunshiny volume.' CFITIC. 
 
 ' " Minnie's Love " adds to the reputation of the Author of " A Trap to Catch a 
 Sunbeam." '.ATLAS. 
 
 ' NYe were first surprised, then pleased, next delighted, and finally enthralled by 
 the story.' MORMS& HERALD. 
 
 Little Sunshine : a Tale to be Read to very Young 
 
 Children. By the Author of ' A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam.' In 
 square 16mo. coloured borders, engraved Frontispiece and Vig- 
 nette, fancy boards, price 2s. 
 
 ' YOUIIET people will read it with avidity.' CmusTtAx WITNESS. 
 'Just the thing to rivet the attention of children.' STAMFORD MERCURY. 
 'Printed in the sumptuous manner that children like best.' BRADFORD OBSERVES. 
 ' As pleasing a child's book as we recollect seeing.' PLYMOUTH HLKALD. 
 
Lockwood and Co.'s 
 
 BOOKS FOR NURSERY OR MATERNAL 
 TUITION. 
 
 La Bagatelle : Intended to introduce Children of Five 
 or Six Years old to some knowledge of the French Language. 
 Revised by Madame N. L. New and Cheaper Edition, much im- 
 proved, and embellished with entirely new cuts. 18mo. bound and 
 lettered, price 2s. 6d. 
 
 ' A well-known little book, revised, improved, and adorned with some very pretty 
 new pictures. It is, indeed, French made very easy for very little children.' 
 
 THE SCHOOL AND THE TEACHER. 
 
 ' A very nice book to be placed in the hands of children; likely to command their 
 attention by its beautiful embellishmeHts.' PAPERS FOR THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 Chickseed without Chickweed : being very Easy and 
 
 Entertaining Lessons, for Little Children. A Book for every 
 Mother. New Edition, with Frontispiece by Anelay, 12mo. cloth, Is. 
 
 Peter Parley's Book of Poetry, With numerous En- 
 gravings. New Edition, I6mo. cloth, Is. 6d. 
 
 Cobwebs to Catch Flies; or, Dialogues and Short 
 
 Sentences adapted for Children from Three to Eight Years of age, 
 With Woodcuts. New Edition, I2mo. cloth, 2s.; or in Two Parts, 
 Is. each. 
 
 PART I. For Children from Three to Five Tears of Age. 
 PART II. For Children from Five to Eight Years of Age. 
 
 CHEAP AND ENTERTAINING BOOKS 
 FOR CHILDREN. 
 
 The Story of the Three Bears. 17th Edition. With 
 
 Illustrations, oblong, 6d. sewed. 
 
 The Great Bear's Story; or, The Vizier and the 
 
 Woodman. With Illustrations, oblong, 6d. sewed. 
 
 An Hour at Bearwood; or, The Wolf and the Seven 
 
 Kids. With Illustrations, oblong, 6d. sewed. 
 
 The Three Bears and their Stories; being the above 
 
 Stories in 1 vol. With numerous Illustrations, oblong, 2s. cloth, 
 lettered. 
 
 The Ugly Duck. By HANS ANDERSEN. Versified; 
 
 and dedicated to the Readers of ' The Three Bears. 5 Four Illustra- 
 tions by Weigall, oblong, 6d. sewed. 
 
 The Lessons of My Farm: A Book for Amateur 
 
 Agriculturists: being an Introduction to Farm Practice in the 
 Culture of Crops, the Feeding of Cattle, Management of the Dairy, 
 Poultry, Pigs, and in the Keeping of Farm-work Records. By 
 ROBERT SCOTT BURN, one of the Authors of 'Book of Farm 
 Buildings.' With numerous Illustrations, fcap. 6s. cloth. 
 
Catalogue of Popular Works 
 
 The Fables of Babrius. Translated into English Verse 
 
 from the Text of Sir G. Cornewall Lewis. By the Rev. JAMES 
 DAVIES, some time Scholar of Lincoln Coll. Oxford. Fcap. cloth 
 antique, elegantly printed, price 6s. 
 
 1 " Who was Babrius ? " The reply may not improbably startle the reader. 
 Babrius was the real, original ./Esop.' Nothing is so fabulous about the fables of our 
 childhood as their reputed authorship.' DAILY NEWS. 
 
 ' The yEsop of our boyhood is dethroned, and his sceptre taken from him, by no 
 less a disenchanter than Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department. 
 . . . Here stands the fact that ^Esop was not the author of the world-famed fables, 
 but that the real fabricator was one Babrius. ... So Babrius has been finally setup 
 to rule over the realm of early fables, and ^Esop passes into the category of myths 
 or plagiarists, according to the evidence.' ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS. 
 
 ' A fable-book which is admirably adapted to take the place of the imperfect 
 collections of ^Esopian wisdom which have hitherto held the first place in our 
 juvenile libraries.' HEREFORD TIMES. 
 
 Every Man's Own Lawyer: A Handy-Book of the 
 
 Principles of Law and Equity. By a BARRISTER. 1 Second Edition, 
 in 1 vol. 12mo. cloth, price 6s. 8d. (Saved at every Consultation), 
 post free. Comprising, the Rights and Wrongs of Individuals, Mer- 
 cantile and Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Parish Law, County 
 Court Law, Game Laws ; the Laws of 
 
 BANKRUPTCY. 
 
 BETS AND WAGERS. 
 
 BILLS OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 CONTRACTS. 
 
 COPYRIGHTS AND PATENTS. 
 
 Landlord and Tenant. 
 
 Master and Servant. 
 Husband and Wife. 
 Executors and Trustees. 
 Guardian and Ward. 
 Married Women and In- 
 
 fants. 
 
 Partners and Agents. 
 Lender and Borrower. 
 Debtor and Creditor. 
 Purchaser and Vendor. 
 .Joint Stock Companies. 
 Hallway Companies. 
 
 I.vsu RANGES 
 
 LIBEL AND SLANDER. 
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 
 
 MERCHANT SHIPPING. 
 
 MORTGAGES. 
 
 Also Law for 
 Gas Companies. 
 Friendly Societies. 
 Clergymen. 
 Medical Practitioners. 
 Bankers. 
 Surgeons. 
 
 Authors and Artists. 
 Publishers. 
 Farmers. 
 Contractors. 
 Sportsmen. 
 Gamekeepers. 
 Farriers and Horsedealers. 
 
 SETTLEMENTS. 
 TRESPASS, NUISANCES, ETC. 
 WARRANTY. 
 
 WILLS AND AGREEMENTS. 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 Auctioneers.House Agents. 
 
 Tradesmen. 
 
 Innkeepers, &c. 
 
 Bakers, Millers, &c. 
 
 Pawnbrokers. 
 
 Printers. 
 
 Surveyors, 
 
 Carriers. 
 
 Constables. 
 
 Brokers. 
 
 Seamen. 
 
 Soldiers. 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Science Elucidative of Scripture, and not antago- 
 
 nistic to it. Being a Series of Essays on 1. Alleged Discrepancies ; 
 2. The Theories of the Geologists nd Figure of the Earth ; 3. The 
 Mosaic Cosmogony; 4 Miracles in general Views of Hume and 
 Powell; 5. The Miracle of Joshua Views of Dr. Colenso: The 
 Supernaturally Impossible ; 6. The Age of the Fixed Stars heir 
 Distances and Masses. By Professor J. R. YOUNG, Author of ' A 
 Course of Elementary Mathematics,' &c. &c. Fcap. Svo. price 5s. 
 cloth kttered. 
 
 ' A scholarlike and orthodox little volume, ably handling those scientific difficul- 
 ties, started by certain writers of the pre>ent period, as opposing serious objections 
 to certain portions of the Bible. The shallow but dangerous theories of Dr. Colenso 
 are treated by Mr. Young in a calm but clever manner .... Every unbiassed 
 reader of average understanding, after perusal of the volume, must be satisfied that 
 the author has succeeded in vindicating its title.' MOR.VING ADVKRTISEK. 
 
 ' Professor Young's examination of the early verses of Genesis, in connection with 
 modern scientific hypotheses, is excellent.' ENGLISH CHURCHMAN-. 
 
 ' Distinguished by the true spirit of scientific inquiry, by great knowledge, by 
 keen logical ability, and by a stj le peculiarly clear, easy, and energetic.' 
 
 ' No one can rise from its perusal without being impressed with a sense of the 
 singular weakness of modern scepticism.' BAPTIST MAGAZINE. 
 
Catalogue of Popular Works. 
 
 WORKS BY THE REV. WM. HARRISON, 
 
 BECTOK OF BIKCH. 
 
 The Tongue of Time ; or, The Language of a Church 
 
 Clock. By WILLIAM HARRISON, A.M. of Brazenose Collece, Ox- 
 ford; Domestic Chaplain to H. R. H. the Duke of Cambridge; 
 Rector of Birch, Essex. Sixth Edition, with beautiful Frontispiece, 
 fcp. 3s. cloth, gilt edges. 
 
 The Shepherd and his Sheep ; An Exposition of the 
 
 Twenty-third Psalm. Second Edition, enlarged, fcp. 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Consecrated Thoughts ; or, A Few Notes from a 
 
 Christian Harp. Second Edition, corrected, fcp. 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Sermons on the Commandments; Preached in the 
 
 Chapel of the Magdalen Hospital. Second Edition, fcp. 4s. cloth. 
 
 Hours of Sadness ; or, Instruction and Comfort for 
 
 the Mourner : Consisting of a Selection of Devotional Meditations, 
 Instructive and Consolatory Reflections, Letters, Prayers, Poetry, 
 &c., from various Authors, suitable for the bereaved Christian. 
 Second Edition, fcp. 4s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Sidney Grey ; a Tale of School Life. By the Author 
 
 of ' Mia and Charlie.' Second Edition, with Six beautiful Illustra- 
 tions. Fcap. 4s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Do you Give it Up ? A Collection of the most Amusing 
 
 Conundrums, Riddles, &c., of the day. Fcap. price Is. cloth limp. 
 
 The Instant Reckoner. Showing the Value of any 
 
 Quantity of Goods, including Fractional Parts of a Pound Weight, 
 at any price from One Farthing to Twenty Shillings; with au 
 Introduction, embracing Copious Notes of Coins, Weights, Mea- 
 sures, and other Commercial and Useful Information ; and an Ap- 
 pendix, containing Tables of Interest, Salaries, Commission, &c. 
 24mo. Is. 6d. cloth, or 2s. strongly bound in leather. 
 8^= Indispensable to every housekeeper. 
 
 CHEAP AND PORTABLE LITERATURE. 
 
 The Pocket English Classics. 32mo. neatly printed, 
 
 in Illuminated Wrappers, price Sixpence each. 
 The following are now ready : 
 THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. j COLERIDGE'S ANCIENT MARINER. 
 
 GOLDSMITH'S POETICAL WORKS. 
 
 FALCONER'S SHIPWRECK. 
 
 RASSELAS. 
 
 STERNE'S SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY. 
 
 LOCKE ON THE UNDERSTANDING. 
 
 THOMSON'S SEASONS, , COWPER'S TASK. 
 
 WALTON'S COMPLETE ANGLER, 
 
 PART I. 
 WALTON'S COMPLETE ANGLER, 
 
 PART II. 
 ELIZABETH: OR, THE EXILES. 
 
 INCHBALD'S NATURE AND ART. 
 BLOOMFIELD'S FARMER'S BOY. 
 SCOTT'S LADY OP THE LAKE. 
 SCOTT'S LAY. 
 
 POPE'S ESSAY AND BLAIB'S GRAVE 
 GRAY AND COLLINS. 
 GAY'S FABLES. 
 PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 
 
Catalogue of Popular Works. 
 
 DELAMOTTE'S WORKS 
 
 ON ILLUMINATION, ALPHABETS, &c. 
 A Primer of the Art of Illumination, for the use of 
 
 Beginners, with a Rudimentary Treatise on the Art, Practical 
 Directions for its Exercise, and numerous Examples taken from 
 Illuminated MSS., and beautifully printed in gold and colours. By 
 P. DELAMOTTE. Small 4to. price 9s. cloth antique. 
 
 'A handy book, beautifully illustrated ; the text of which is well written, and 
 
 calculated to be useful The examples of ancient MSS. recommended to the 
 
 student, which, with much good sense, the author chooses from collections accessible 
 to all, are selected with judgment and knowledge, as well as taste.' ATHEN.ECM. 
 
 'Modestly called a Primer, this little book has a good title to be esteemed a 
 manual and guide-book in the study and practice of the different styles of letter- 
 ing used by the artistic transcribers of past centuries An amateur may with this 
 
 silent preceptor learn the whole art and mystery of illumination.' SPECTATOR. 
 
 ' The volume is very beautifully got up, and we can heartily recommend it to the 
 notice of those who wish to become proficient in the art.' ENGLISH CHTJECHMAN. 
 
 ' AVe are able to recommend Mr. Delamotte's treatise. The letterpress is modestly 
 but judiciously written ; and the illustrations, which are numerous and well chosen, 
 are beautifully printed in gold and colours.' ECCLESIOLOGIST. 
 
 The Book of Ornamental Alphabets, Ancient and 
 
 Mediaeval, from the Eighth Century, with Numerals. Including 
 Gothic, Church-Text, large and small ; German, Italian, Arabesque. 
 Initials for Illumination, Monograms, Crosses, &c., &c., for the use 
 of Architectural and Engineering Draughtsmen, Missal Painters, 
 Masons, Decorative Painters, Lithographers, Engravers, Carvers, 
 &c. &c. Collected and Engraved by P. DELAMOTTE, and printed in 
 Colours. Pourth Edition, royal 8vo. oblong, price 4s. cloth. 
 * A well-known engraver and draughtsman has enrolled in this useful book the 
 result of many years' study and research. For those \vho insert enamelled sen- 
 tences round gilded chalices, who blazon shop legends over shop-doors, who letter 
 church walls with pithy sentences from the Decalogue, this book will be Ubeful. 
 Mr. Delamotte's book was wanted.' ATHEXJEUM. 
 
 Examples of Modern Alphabets, Plain and Ornamen- 
 tal. Including German, Old English, Saxon,' Italic, Perspective. 
 Greek, Hebrew, Court Hand, Engrossing, Tuscan, Riband, Gothic, 
 Rustic, and Arabesque, with several original Designs, and Numerals. 
 Collected and Engraved by P. DELAMOTTE, and printed in Colours. 
 Royal 8vo. oblong, price 4s. cloth. 
 
 ' To artists of all classes, but more especially to architects and engravers, this very 
 handsome book will be invaluable. There is comprised in it every possible shape 
 into which the letters of the alphabet and numerals can be formed, and the talent 
 which has been expended in the conception of the various plain and ornamental 
 letters is wonderful.' STANDARD. 
 
 Mediaeval Alphabet and Initials for Illuminators. 
 
 By P. G. DELAMOTTE. Containing 21 Plates, and Illumiratcd. Title, 
 printed in Gold and Colours. With an Introduction by J. WILLIS 
 BEOOKS. Small 4to. 6s. cloth gilt. 
 
 1 A volume in which the letters of the alphabet eome forth glorified in gilding and 
 all the colours of the prism interwoven and intertwined and intermingled, some- 
 times with a .sort of rainbow arabesque. A poem emblazoned in these characters 
 would be only comparable to one of those delicious love letters symbolised in a 
 bunch of flowers well selected and cleverly arranged.' SUIT. 
 
 The Embroiderer's Book of Design, containing Initials, 
 
 Emblems, Cyphers. Monograms, Ornamental Borders, Ecclesiastical 
 Devices, Mediaeval and Modern Alphabets and National Emblems. 
 By P. DELAMOTTE. Printed in Colours. Oblong royal 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 in ornamental boards. 
 
LocJcwood and Co.'s 
 
 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE continued. 
 
 Dr. Falck Lebahn's Popular Series of German 
 
 School- Books. 
 
 1 As an educational writer in the German tongue. Dr. Lebahn stands alone; none 
 other has made even a distant approach to Mm. The magnitude and value of his 
 services have been acknowledged by the Public Press to an extent and with a unanimity 
 of which there is no example. BRITISH STANDAKD. 
 
 Lebahn's First German Course. Second Edition. 
 
 Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 'It is hardly possible to have a simpler or better book for beginners in German.' 
 
 ATHEN/EI:M. 
 
 ' It is really what it professes to be a simple, clear, and concise introduction to 
 the German language; one, too, which will be equally useful to the self-instructing 
 student and the member of a German class.' CJUTIC. 
 
 Lebahn's German Language in One Volume. Sixth 
 
 Edition, containing' 1. A Practical Grammar, with Exercises to 
 every Rule. II. Undine ; a Tale : by DE LA MOTTE FOUQUE, with 
 Explanatory Notes of all difficult words and phrases. III. A 
 Vocabulary of 4500 "Words, synonymous in English and German. 
 Crown Svo. 8s. cloth. With Key, 10s. 6d. Key separate, 2s. 6d. 
 ' This is the best German grammar that has yet been published.' 
 
 MORNING POST. 
 
 ' Had we to re commence the study of German, of all the German grammars 
 whi<'h we have examined and they are not a few we should unhesitatingly say, 
 Falck Lebahn's is the book for us.' EDUCATIONAL TIMES. 
 
 Lebahn's Edition of Schmid's Henry Von Eichen- 
 
 fels. "With Vocabulary and Familiar Dialogues. Sixth Edition. 
 Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 1 Equally with Mr. Lebahn's previous publications, excellently adapted to assist 
 self-exercise in the German language.' SrECTATOR. 
 
 ' Mr. Lebahn has done his work in his usual clever, painstaking, and (to the 
 student) profitable style.' CHUKCH AND STATE GAZETTE. 
 
 Lebahn's First German Reader. Fourth Edition. 
 
 Crown Svo. 3s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 ' An excellent elementary work.' SUNDAY TIMES. 
 'Like all Lebahn's works, most thoroughly practical.' BRITANNIA. 
 ' An admirable book for beginners, which indeed may be used without a master.* 
 
 LEADER. 
 
 Lebahn's German Classics ; with Notes and Complete 
 
 Vocabularies. Crown Svo. price 3s. 6d. each, cloth : 
 
 PETER SCHLEMIHL, the Shadowless Man. By CHAMISSO. 
 
 EGMONT. A Tragedy, in Five Acts, by GOETHE. 
 
 WILHELM TELL. A Drama, in Five Acts, by SCHILLEB. 
 
 GOETZ VON BERLICHINGEN. A Drama. By GOETHE. 
 
 PAGENSTRE1CHE, a Pace's Frolics. A Comedy, by KoTZEBUB. 
 
 EMILIA GA LOTTI. A Tragedy, hi Five Acts, by LESSUTO, 
 
 UNDINE. A Tale, by FOUQUE. 
 
 SELECTIONS from the GERMAN POETS. 
 
 'These editions are prepared for the use of learners who read without a master : 
 and they will be found convenient for that purpose. In each, the text is followed 
 by a glossary, whei?/n not only the sense of every particular phrase, but also the 
 dictionary meaning of most of the several words, is given in good Enclish. With 
 such aids, a student will find no difficulty in these masterpieces.' ATI!EN.EUM. 
 
 Lebahn's German Copy-Book : being a Series of Exer- 
 
 cises in German Penmanship, beautifully engraved on Steel. 4to. 
 2s. 6d. sewed. 
 
Catalogue of Educational Works. 13 
 
 THE GERMAN LANGUAGE continued. 
 
 Lebahn's Exercises in German. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. 
 
 cloth. 
 
 1 A volume of " Exercises in German," including in itself all the vocabularies 
 they require. The book is well planned ; the selections for translation from German 
 into English, or from English into German, being sometimes curiously well suited 
 to the purpose for which they are taken.' EXAHIXER. 
 
 Lebahn's Self-Instructor in German. Crown 8vo. 
 
 6s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 ' One of the most amusing elementary reading-books that ever passed under our 
 hands.' JOHN BULL. 
 ' The student could have no guide superior to Mr. Lebahn.' 
 
 LITEEAET GAZETTE. 
 
 Nicholson and Rowbotham's Practical System of 
 
 Algebra. Designed for the use of Schools and Private Students. 
 Seventh Edition, 12mo. 300 pages, 3s. 6d. bound. 
 
 Technical Memory. The Historical Lines of Dr. 
 
 GREY'S Technical Memory. With various additions, chiefly as they 
 apply to Modern History. Sixth Edition, Is. sewed. 
 
 O'Gorman's Intuitive Calculations ; the most Concise 
 
 Methods ever published. Designed for the use of all classes 
 Bankers, Brewers, Engineers. Land Surveyors, Manufacturers, 
 Merchants, Wine and Spirit Merchants, Timber Merchants, Pro- 
 fessors, Teachers, &c. With an Appendix on Decimal Computation, 
 Coins, and Currency. By DANIEL O'GoRMAN. 22nd Edition, 
 revised. 30th thousand, crown 8vo. 3s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 O'Gorman's Original and Comprehensive System 
 
 of Self-instructing Book-keeping by Single and Double Entry. New 
 Edition, 8vo. price 5s. cloth. 
 
 O'Gorman's Prince of Wales' s New Table-Book, 
 
 compiled from the ' Intuitive Calculations ;' embracing all the 
 Tables in Money, Weights, and Measures, necessary for the Arith- 
 metician : with Tables of Decimal Coins. New Edition, Sd. stitched. 
 
 Marcus' Latin Grammar. A Latin Grammar. By 
 
 the Rev. LEWIS MARCUS, M.A., Queen's College, Camb idge, In- 
 cumbent of St. Paul's, Finsbury, and formerly Head Master of the 
 Grammar School, Holbeach. 12mo. 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Marcus' Elementary Latin. A Delectus of Progressive 
 
 Exercises in Construing and Composition, adapted to the Rules of 
 Syntax. By the Rev. L. MARCUS, M.A., Author of 'A Latin 
 Grammar.' 12mo. 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 Chronological Tables of Contemporary Sovereigns, 
 
 Dates, Battles, Treaties, &c. Forming an easy Artificial Memory 
 for the Study of Universal History, from the Christian Era to 
 the Present Time. By S. M. RUPFJN. 2nd Edition, 4to. 3s. 6d. 
 cloth limp. 
 
 Events to be Remembered in the History of Eng- 
 land. By CHARLES SELBT. Twenty-fifth (School) Edition. 12mo. 
 2s. 6d. cloth. 
 
LocJcwood and Co.'s 
 
 \ OBLIQUE BRIDGF.S. With 13 large Folding Plates. ByGEOROEW. 
 . Inst. C.E. Second Edition, corrected by W. H. BA 
 
 WORKS IN ENGINEERING, ARCHITECTURE, 
 MECHANICS, SCIENCE, &c. 
 
 THE YEAR- BOOK of FACTS in SCIENCE and ART. 
 Exhibiting the most important improvements and Discoveries of the past 
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 JOHN TiMBs,F.S.A. (Published Annually.) 
 
 8^" This work records the proceedings of the principal scientific societies, and is 
 indispensable for such as wish to possess a faithful picture of the latest novelties of 
 science and the arts. 
 
 AIDE-MEMOIRE to the MILITARY SCIENCES ; framed 
 from Contributions of Officers of the different Services, and edited by a Com- 
 mittee of the Corps of Royal Kngineers. 3 vols. royal 8vo. upwards of 500 Engravings 
 and Woodcuts, in extra cloth boards, and lettered, 44. 10s. : or may be had in six 
 separate parts, paper boards. 
 
 'THE HIGH -PRESSURE STEAM-ENGINE. By Dr. 
 
 JL ERNST ALBAN, Practical Machine Maker, Plau, Mecklenburg. Translated 
 from the German, by WILLIAM POLE, C.E., F.R.A.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E. 8vo. with 
 28 fine Plates, 16s. 6d. cloth. 
 
 PRACTICAL and THEORETICAL ESSAY on 
 
 Plates. By GEOROE W. BPCK, 
 
 , RLOW, M. Inst. C.E. Imperial 
 
 8vo. 12s. cloth. 
 
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