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    r 1000 THE j)E APE R. [ yO yi^SBPTEMBEB^...

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    THE LIVERPOOL BOROUGH BANK. THE RECENT V...

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    The British Association. We Expoot Much ...

    least 'information : concerning them , may be expected from the Association . Hay ing amongst its members inen of the highest eminence in . every walk of science , well acquainted ¦ with its most advanced conditions , they cannot fail in communicating their views to each other to throw much light on many subjects that ; require elucidation . In contradiction to the old saying which , in an extremely philosophic sense , as Mr . Faraday would admit , is strictly and undeniably true , new facts are continually coming into view . Journals maybe said to live by recording

    them , but oftentimes they perplex hasty readers who must snatch their knowledge as they feed , run , or work . Even to journalists they are sometimes inexplicable , and the public looks to such bodies as the Association and their members to generalise and explain , new phenomena . They not only increase the sum of knowledge , they bind up and preserve all the new information which is perpetually gathered . Annual meetings serving such purposes can " scarcely be too highly prised ,, and the Association never met at a period when interesting

    subjects of science , were more numerous , and when the public were more disposed than now to take an interest in its proceedings . The Association lias already told us what it has done to increase our knowledge of magnetism . On this , point its wishes for another qpasi Arctic expedition have not been complied with by the Government . The kindred subject of electricity , the actual bringing the Old World aud the New into Speaking communication by its means , and the temporary suspension of the intercourse after

    it has been fully established , are themes of surpassing interest . They ' will > no doubt , be satisfactorily treated by the historians and electricians of the Association . Many points in the past exertions yet require to be described , and many differences between contending men of science to be cleared up . Of much of the apparatus employeil ^ n laying the cable , and many of the instru-» J £ nts iJSed ^ Sn ^ iieasuring the electricity and receiving the communication ^ the public are ignorant ,

    eiid the Association will cause some disappointment if if do not provide a fuller and more correct account of this great marvel of 1857 than has yet appeared . We may expect , too , that the nature of electricity , now so widely employed in the arts * and of late used to effect the most extraordinary feats ever accomplished , will receive much attention from the Association . We look to it for such an explanation of the facts as will tend to connect phenomena , that seem distinct from space and time , with the general laws of the universe .

    • Of the visitor who flames nightly in the heavens , such ' as lias not come to us for nearly half a century , this generation will expect from its scientific leaders some distinct account . They will wish to learn the past , the present , and the future of this interesting stranger . If there be not this year a new planet to be announced , the events of the past season immediately concern our welfare and are as worthy the attention of philosophers as that remarkable illustration of the prophetic spirit which science imparts to man .

    One source of the success of the Association is in the union of men who have been studying apart eacli bis own particular subject . By . this means they make great acquisitions , and then , by meeting , the diversities of knowledge which have been separately gained are brought together and made in our pursuits and in our books , as in , nature , one great whole . The comparative anatomist and the geologist come together , and the fossil animals which excite our wonder , when put together by the former , are restored by the latter to those rocks in which they were' found embedded , and ho writes what he believes to be their history , The chemist and the electrician commune with one

    anoper * and they may reduce the affinity of the one and the electricity of the other to one general law . Professor Owen intimates , in his inaugural discourse , th a t all these abstruse powers to which wo g ive different names may probably bo generalised into one ; The entomologist and the ornithologist , with all the investigators of the animal kingdom , as they discuss together the peculiarities which each discovers , will agree that throughout one typo is discernible . They ecem likely to find this one type everywherey ana to extend the limits of life to everything which has motion and far beyond the myriads of living beings on the surface of flic g lobe . ' £ JO' while each acts on the principle of division of labour , und steadily confines his researches to one 'Object , the combined researches of all extend over all

    nature and form as complete a transcript of creation as our present knowledge can supply . Perhaps the most important subject on which the public may now look to such associations for information is society itself . Man has long had his place in natural history as one of the mammalia , and Cuvier and other naturalists have treated the development of society as a part of natural liistory . That man is the subject does not make it less

    worthy of the naturalist ' s investigations than the generation of mosses or the community of bees . At present , the complete diffusion , of the family over the whole surface of the earth ,, and the communication which is everywhere taking place between all its members , has plainly so extended society as to obliterate many political distinctions and to carry it beyond the narrow constraints of old political systems . For subjects , the Queen has men of every faith , and every race , and every colour ; and the negroes , to whom we substitute servitude for slavery—the Chinese , for whom

    our Government sanctions the purchase of women and ordains them a supply of opium—andlhe Hindoos , whose strange worship our authorities properly respect , can no more be governed by the same rules thau rabbits and foxes . One glittering magnet lias lately equally attracted Asiatics , Europeans , Americans , and the abori g ines of the Pacific islands ; into the new continent of Australia , there to live together apparently in peace and under a government which will respect the peculiarities of each and all . It is not merely , as M . de Tocquevillc and others have shown ,

    that democracy is moulding all institutions to its wants ; more than this > society ,. considered as a whole , is fast developing itself beyond the limits of each state , and by indispensable trade is levelling political barriers . If it have hitherto been considered as an artificial organisation beyond the naturalist ' s domain , like the manufacture of watches , its pr esent development has generated a different opinion , and shown it rapidly ranging beyond the boundaries of all political systems , and carrying them after its

    new phases . Society , therefore , can no longer be considered a political contrivance . It is a great natural object destined , as man multiplies on the earth and excavates its surface' , "tt > Influence or altor the physical condition of the globe . It can no longer with propriety be excluded from natural history any more than mineralogy and geology , or wh . it we may perhaps be permitted to call the mental or spiritual qualities of the material world—electricity and magnetism .

    To indicate from the past what are to be the future conditions of society , we must look , therefore , more to philosophers than politicians . Society has already grown beyond the arts of the latter , and at present no little mental confusion prevails because the former have not taken the appropriate task of investigating the p henomena of society into their hands . That its growth and organisation depend on the same general and natural laws as the seasons , is obvious from the influence these exert over the welfare of society , and from division of labour which grows from diversity of sex , capacity , age , climate , _& c ,

    common to the whole animal kingdom . It is neither creditable to natural philosophers nor beneficial to society that they should willingly divorce themselves from this great branch of creation , and hand it over , declining even to look at it , as beyond their sphere—taking less part than others in social affairs—to those who are too exclusively occupied by their own conceits and selfish advantages ever to study the works and laws of nature . The Association' devoted to the social sciences , which is to meet next month , wants the catholicity which is a chief merit of the ( British- Association . It is defective by too narrowly limiting its inquiries and by being chiefly composed of two classes —; lawyers and professional politicians- * -who arc

    practically pledged to certain views of society and certain opinions of government , which prevent thorough investigation and bias all their conclusions . If society bo a naturul phenomenon , it can only be successfully studied in conjunction with all the surrounding pbjecis . The success of individuals , which is the well-being of society , requires them to observe and know the foots and the lows of the material world . The farmer ia incessantly urged to obtain a knowledge of vegetable and animal life and of the chemical notion of ( soils and , manures , in order to grow an abundance of corn and rear flwo cattle at the smallest cost . The merchant w required to ascertain the products of dillcront countries , the cost at which they arc produced , and

    the habits and wants of the people who produce them , 111 order to make commerce continually prontablc . If these and all other practical workers must look to men of science for help and guidance in cultivating the land , in beginning and extending trade , in navigating ships , in constructing bridges and other buildings , in framing telegraphs , jii selecting materials for dresses , in diffusing light , warmth , and air through dwellings , in finding and working minerals , must they not also look to them to inte £

    pret every part of nature , and be guided by their interpretations ? Moving in this direction—the path pointed out by Bacon and followed by Newton and all subsequent philosophers—we catch sight of a great and consistent generalisation such as philosophy loves to attain . We see in the facts of the material world a universal rule for all actions which can only increase our respect for all true scientific men . If they be for us the interpreters of the commands of nature , it must be our duty to guide our conduct b y the facts with which their observations and studies are for ever making them and us acquainted .

    R 1000 The J)E Ape R. [ Yo Yi^Sbptembeb^...

    r 1000 THE j ) E APE R . [ yO yi ^ SBPTEMBEB ^ S , 1858 .

    The Liverpool Borough Bank. The Recent V...

    THE LIVERPOOL BOROUGH BANK . THE RECENT VERDICT . We are enabled to redeem our promise of placing before the public a copious report of the speeches of counsel , the evidence , and the Judge ' s charge to the jury , in the important- case of Scott 0 . Dixon , which has excited so much comment and , we may add , consternation in . the commercial circles . From the commencement we were unable to understand the grounds on which the jury arrived at their verdict , aud we are bound to say that , now we have carefully and dispassionately read and weighed all the facts that are accessible , our astonishment has become unbounded at the result . And we venture to-predict that this feeling will be shared by all those who will take the trouble to read through the mass of information which is set forth in another part of our journal . The case , recollect ,, against Mr . Dixon was , that " falsely , fraudulently , and deceitfully issued a certain document in order to induce a belief iu the solvency of the bank . " . We must commence our remarks from tha period when Dixou joined the bank , lie previously being a large shareholder , and continuing a large shareholder throughout . With- , out ° dotibt there seems , up to this period , to have been great incapacity in the management previous to Julv , the period when Mr . Dixon first took an active part in the affairs of the bank . Mr . Dixon was one of the outside directors taking no pay , and , like the other outside directors , expressly forbidden to know or see the customers' accounts . The public well knew that this was the fact ; they knew that the real management vested in the manager and the managing directors . We may here remark with reference tolWEr . Smith , the manager , that , up to the present time , no one accuses Mr . bimttt

    of anything beyond errors ot judgment- """ » suspicion is breathed against his honesty . When Mr . Dixon was associated in the nominal management , he had made repeated demands for rciorra in the system , which seem to have led tono result It will also be observed that neither ''« ? W directors nor their friends made use of tl » c / unds 1 « the bank , or got any accommodation from the banfc Mr . Dixon was desired to draw up 0 repoitt laid before the shareholders . . He did so and here let us inquire what is the essential diflercnce . between the report drawn up by Dixon mid . be "JJg eventually issued . Both show that , alter wymew of the semi-annual dividend of 8 * per Wgk g £ wns a deficiency on the capital of I fty-eiBW ™ ° » 0

    sand pounds out of a million . There is « » - » ; whatever in the substance , and 1 •« f ^ ^* form seems to nmouhtto thw . thot Pixon » gej to have expressed himself wltl n ; IlfSt would discredit that the announcement of tic csu throw on the previous management , w Ho » ° lng directors , probably the manager adraw "K * directors seem to have preferred 1 » gJJ *^ would let them down softly . No- oneo »» bc understanding plain English could l ^ y c misled by the issued report . If no mmm tl so mialea , where , we ask , was . the > gwuj 1 d justice of the verdict P Was Mr . Soot r « f / . truly deceived by this report P fort M » ^^ tion . Mr . Scott was acwamtod wiU Y' by his appears . Was bo not rftt lc , " " ofl 8 k « ovvled { 5 « ftlilh in the high character and bus l 0 fl * K " incd tKo of tlmt gentleman P The brokers who ow *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1858, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091858/page/16/