Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 17th September 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 890, Untitled Article

Page 890
Page 2
2 of 24

On this page

  • Text (2)

      Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

    • Untitled Article

      Untitled Article

  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      vidious to mention particular trades—have obtained an increase of wages , which has to be paid out of capital ; and large importations of foreign goods have further destroyed the profits of masters in some branches . T / he difficulty in the cotton trade now extends beyond the disturbance about the : raw material . There has been , perhaps , some over-doing of consignments ; and when , several months ago , we learned that manufacturers were making direct consignments to

      Australia on their own account , for the purpose of saving agency , we anticipated mistakes , and some of the difficulties which manufacturers who have thus trenched upon the province of the merchant now feel . On the other hand , certain prospects have improved . Supplies of corn , whether from home lands or foreign , are secured ; the American money-market is not so tight ; doubts cast upon the amount of gold from Australia are disproved by the latest returns ,

      which show a steady increase . The undue increase paid in wages is to a large extent counterbalanced by consumption . Trade in itself , then , is sound at heart ; and if the difficulty which is exemplified in the raising of the discount at the Bank of England from 4 to 4 | imposes a temporary strain upon the means of the mercantile classes , nothing will be gained by concealing that difficulty , or by resorting to a temporary " ease" in the shape of factitiously low interest , and speculative advances .

      Some good appointments are announced . Lord Elphinstone goes to Bombay , a vast improvement on Lord Falkland ; for even if Lord Elphinstone does little , Lord Falkland has done less , and worse than nothing—he has done evil . Mr . Thotnason , the energetic and esteemed Lieutenant-Governor of the North West Provinces , is appointed to Madras . These nominations are significant of the future working of the new Government of India Bill ; and almost lead to the belief that it is intended to make a vigorous effort to govern India in India , and to reconstruct the administration of that empire by slow but certain

      processes . Mr . Disraeli loves a surprise ; and perhaps , when he made his speech on Wednesday , he chuckled inwardly at the blank there would be next morning in the minds of all the able editors who had their eyes on him , and who meant to do his speech next morning in a leading article . Certainly the days of glory are departed . Instead of a comprehensive review of passing topics , and a future policy indicated in sweeping generalities ,

      Mr . Disraeli declaimed upon the humbler virtues ; dissertated upon the moral benefits of the Society ' s " green uniform and buttons , " as the Blue Ribbon of the Royal Bucks ; and drew pretty pictures of the aged parent of a host of children , who have never tasted parish pay , admiring their verdant papa . We agree with Mr . Disraeli , that it is not the money value to which we should look in these cases ; but he must also admit that the green coat , forty shillings , and the workhouse , arc poor rewards for a life of hard labour and honourable but hard poverty . Mr . Disraeli ,

      however , places to the credit of his party , now , not the friendly protection of the fanner , but the protection of the labourer . Working men of all kinds are getting better pay of all kinds just now ; there is a uossible chance of their rising in the scale of manhood ; and Mr . Disraeli comes forward and asserts for the originators and upholders of corn laws , game laws , combination laws , and restricted suffrage , the merits of an enlightened patronage ! But this is not the first time that Mr . Disraeli has walked abroad in borrowed

      plumes . , Mr . Gladstone has been travelling in Scotland , and Dingwall and other plnccs have offered him the freedom of their municipalities . He haa maternal relations in those parts , and , perhaps , he is incidentally showing that ho is too far north for Mr . Disraeli . Whilo these statesmen have been courting

      health and encouraging the virtues , certain commissioners have been probing the wounds of our representative and penalsystems . Barnstaple has been proved to fee ad corrupt as St . Albans ; and Birmingham Gaol has been shown to be a den of illegality and cruelty disgraceful to the nation of England . Leicester . Gaol will shortly be looked into ; and it ia significant of future revelations that one of the guiltiest warders at Birmingham came from Leicester .

      We are no longer spectators of the fierce conflict between the plague of the nineteenth century and human life , from the safe distance of hundreds of miles , and across wide oceans . The Cholera has entered and assailed us in our island home ; we are in the thick of the fight ; and shall have to strain hard before we are assured of the victory . Last * week , the alarm of cholera at Newcastle , Gateshead , and Liverpool was given . It appears that it has been smouldering at the two former towns from the first of the month . It

      has broken out , and has slain 297 persons in the last fortnight . Nor is it any wonder . Large portions of Newcastle , it seems , were so filthy , that only filthy words , too filthy to print , can describe their state . Practices prevailed there which it would disgrace barbarians to call barbarous , and insult the epithet to call dirty . Under these circumstances , what wonder that cholera claims its due ? We prepare for it a hideous seedplot , it engenders there , grows , extends , revels in the destruction of those who almost wilfully nurtured it . And Newcastle is not alone . The

      abominations of Southwark are little inferior to those of Newcastle . "What with bone-boiling , bone-heaps festering in ' the sun , knackers' yards , and other sources of foulness , it is criminal to wonder at the appearance of cholera ; it is not for us to lift up our hands , except to sweep away these hotbeds of plague . Thus the cholera finds us quite as unprepared as we were in 1849 ; and

      it is not until the enemy is not at , but within , the gates , that the local Boards of Health begin to cackle , and oi'devs are issued to scour , clean , whitewash , and deluge ourselves with preventive medicines . But there is yet time to limit the extent , if not to bar out the entrance , of Cholera in those towns where it has not yet appeared . Death has given the warning .

      Untitled Article

      THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION . The gathering s \ t Hull has gone off very well . The social accessories were agreeable , and the essays rend have a living interest in their application to the social questions of the day . On Thursday of last week there was a soiree , whore fair women and grave men met to take tea and talk . The bright evening dresses of the ladies made the Music Hall gay ; and the savans were very gallant . The proceedings were entirely informal ; hut learned men , wedged in a crowd , kept themselves alive l > y pouring forth theories of motion ; and in some- of the obscure nooks and corners lively theories of light , were

      ventilated in the pauses between " another cup of ten , " and littlo more sugar , if you please . " The local men of letters were very civil to strangers . On Saturday morning , the usual business of the sections was resumed , and papers , short and long , severe and lively , were read and considered . During the day several visitors inspected the manufactories of the town . On Monday , tho General Committee- niofc , in the library of the infirmary , for the purpose of appointing tho next place of meeting for the Association . Invitations were received and road from Liverpool , Glasgow , Leeds , Brighton , and Gloucester . Professor Stevelly suggested that , at an early period , Dublin should bo favoured with a visit : but ho did not wish to interfere with tho

      arrangements for tho nox . t meeting . Tho claims of tho different towns havi ng * been urged on tho coinmitteo by their representatives , and somo discussion having taken place on tho mibjeot ; , tho committee finally decided hi favour of Liverpool ; and that town wan , accordingly , appointed for the next place of meeting . Tho Eurl of llarrowby was named President ,, and tho date of the meeting in to bo settled by tho Council .

      line genonil recommendations of tho Committee ineludo Koveral important , directions . They place 20 () A at tho disposal of the council for tho maintenance of tlm obaervutory at Kow : and a sum of 25 / . to enable tho

      committee to investigate the physical aspect of tl moon , and to endeavour to photograph from it for telcf scopes of the largest size . A strm of 201 . was placed at the disposal of Dr . Hodges , to enable him to continu his investigations on flax ; and a similar sum wa ^ awarded to M . Rankine , Professor Hodgkinson and Mr . Ward , for prosecuting their researches into the question of ¦ the cooling of air - in , hot climates . My Fair-bairn , was requested to prepare a report on th ' effects of temperature on wroughl-iron plates , a sum of 101 . being placed at his disposal for that purpose . A sum of 501 . was voted to Mr . Mallett , with a request that he-would .. continue-his experiments on earth quake waves j and 15 . ? . was placed at the disposal of the com .

      mittee for providing a large outline map of the world Dr . Lankester , Professor Owen , and Dr . Dickie were appointed a committee to draw up tables for the regis . tration of periodic phenomena , 1 . 0 / . being placed at their disposal ; and a similar amount was recommended to enable Dr . Lankester , Professor Forbes , Professor Bell and Dr . Williams to draw up a report on British An- ' nelida . Mr . Hyndman , Mr . Patterson , Dr . Dickie , and Mr . Grainger were requested to carry on a system of dredging on the north and east coasts of Ireland , a eum of 101 . being placed at their disposal ; and Professor Lindley and Professor Henslow were requested to continue their experiments on the vitality of seeds , with a eum of 51 , 10 s . placed at their disposal for the pur .

      pose . The subjects of the papers read in the several sections of the Association were very various ; a fair proportion being devoted to the illustration of practical

      questions . The papers on Science , as applied in aid of commerce , were pretty numerous . Mr . A . G . Findlay had one on Oceanic Currents ; he showed how a ship now traversing 11 , 000 miles , from Shanghai to Panama , might , hy taking advantage of currents , take a path but 7300 miles long ; and this forcibly illustrates the benefits likely to flow from Lieutenant Maury ' s plan of sea record . Mr . Robert Russell read a paper on winds , and the Eeverend Mr . Nicolay an essay on . circle routes and steam navigation . A paper by Mr . Oldham , on steam navigation in Hull , tells us that Hull has 23 sea-going steamers and 23 river steamers . Dr . Buist read a paper on the currents in the Indian seas . The following testimony to Lieutenant Maury illustrates the subject , and is

      interesting in itself : — " Speculating on these matters some years since , I found that Mr . Maury , of the Unitqd States' Observatory , had , from a totally different series of considerations , come to exactly the same conclusions as those I have arrived at . So eager was this distinguished observer to follow up tho enbjecfc that ho af terwards offered a sum equivalent to 300 / . annually for the collection of information at Bombay to enable him to construct , for the Indian seas , wind and current charts , similar to those he had constructed for the Northern Atlantic , and these , it is understood , are now in a state of groat advancement . The money was respectfully declined ; sumo Bombay merchants having underthei in

      taken to provide- for his use , at their own charge , - formation desired , conceiving that it was enough time British traders should receive from America a survey or the currents of tho English seas in tho East , without at tho same time accepting funds from a foreign state time tho British Government had failed to provide . Such were looked on as the advantages likely to accruo from tuc labours of Mr . Maury that n statement was published snowing that , assuming the statement of tho lloynl bocicty w be correct , maps and sailing directors for tho Eastern seas , such an had been provided lor tho Northern Atl » m "'' would savo to tho ports of Calcutta , Mudnis , nnd JJonbay from a quarter to half a million annually m ircign

      Mr . G . llennie made an important communication relative to tho saving of fuel to be obtained by » combination of steam and ether in one enginetubular life-boat invented by Mr . Henry * j cliart " ; d was explained . It has an iron framework , w tor ^ in tubes and water-tight compartments , and « <• fender surrounds the whole fabric . It ia generally j nidered tho bent life-boat over built . Tho "" Jjjjj ^ . this invention is increased when wo find that » ^ men perished on the coast of England lust \ v »» tor ,

      2000 on our other coasts . , . ., Elucidations of science as applied to art a »« ^ life were plentiful . A paper on the electric te « j , ^ was read by tho Reverend Thomas Exlcy . Vi \ iKeful n discussion on decimal coinage , but no new ^^ hint wiih thrown out . Several vuliiuWe in » l »^ chemistry were rend , but though ninny of tll J" [ j ulo flp . inentH are . important they have not that im »>< : < ^ ^ plication to practical points that would wnrni ^ cord of them in a newspaper . 'In an 08 H ' | £ oO pcr cholera- an it ; appeared in Hull in 184-9 , '" ( , or ( l . showed that tho cflccta of tho epidemic v » iu' ^ ^ ing to tho lovol of tho locality , tho < k ' uf ) l 1 ^ ur- Ju population , and their physical and social "'" "'J '' By ( , lcm connexion with this Dr . James Day propose * ^ ^ of medical meteorological olwwvalious tlirmif , ^ kingdom . On tho subject of railway m c « m » ' ^^ by vvero novoral ingenious observations .

      Untitled Article

      890 THE LEA PER . [ Saturday ;

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 890, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2004/page/2/