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890 TH|. LEADER- [Saturday ,
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THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. The gathering a...
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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.
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Russia Has Rejected The Turkish Modifica...
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 de ^ py & 4 the profits of masters in some branches . The difficulty in the cotton trade now extends beyond the disturbance about the raw material . There lias 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 . Thomason , 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 arc 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 Lave 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 anil
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 art ' , getting better pay of all kinds just now ; there is a possible chance of their rising in the scale of manhood ; and Mr . Disrneli comes forward and assorts 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 . Dismeli has walked abroad in borrowed plumes . Mr . OJludstonc has been travelling in Scotland , and Dingwiill und other places have offered him the freedom of their municipalities . lie has maternal relations in those parts , uud , perhaps , he in incidentally tthowiug that he in too far north for Mr . Dismeli . Whilo these statesmen have been courting
health and encounjgmg the virtues , certain commissioners have fypen probing the wounds of our representative an 4 penal systems . " Barnstaple has been proved to be as corrupt-as St . Albans ; and Birmingham Gaol has been shown to be a den pf illegality and pruelty disgraceful to the nation of England . Leicester Gaol will shortly be looked into ; and it is significant of- future revelatitjhs 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 29 / 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 orders are issued to scour , clean , whitewash , and deluge ourselves with preventive medicines . B ^ ut 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 .
890 Th|. Leader- [Saturday ,
890 TH | . LEADER- [ Saturday ,
The British Association. The Gathering A...
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION . The gathering at Hull has gono off very well . The social accessories were agreeable , and the essays read have a living intoreut in their application to the social questions of the day . On Thursday of last week there was a soiree , where 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 wero entirely informal ; but learned men , wedged in a . crowd , kept themselves alive by pouring forth theories of motion j and in some of the obscure nooks and cornors lively theories of light were ventilated in tho pauses between " another cup of tea , " and " a little 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 , Hcvoro and lively , were read and considered . During the day several visitors inspected the manufactories of the town . On Monday , tho General Committee met , in the library of tho infirmary , for the purpose of appointing the next place of meeting for the Association . Invitations wore received and read from Liverpool , Glasgow , Leeds , Brighton , and Gloucester . Professor Stevelly miggested that , at an early period , Dublin tdiould bo favoured with a visit : but he did not wish to interfere with the
arrangements lor the next meeting . Tho claims of tho diO ' crent towns having been urged on the committee b y their representatives , and hoi no discussion having taken place on the subjoei , the ooimnit tee finally decided in favour of Liverpool ; and that town was , accordingly , appointed for the next place of meeting . The Earl of Harrow by waa named President , and the date of tho mooting- is to J > o nettled by the Council .
The general recommendations of tlu ? Committee include Koveral important directions . They plneo 200 / . at the disposal of the council for the maintenance of the observatory at Kew : and n Bum of 2 W . to enable tho
committee to investigate the physical aspect of ti moon , and to endeavour to photograph from it for t 1 scopes' of the largest sizp . A sum of 20 L was placed f the disposal of Dr . Hodges , to enable him to contin his investigations on flax ; and a similar sum ' u awarded . to M . JEtankine , Professor HodgkinSO n 7 * A Mr . Ward , for prosecuting their researches into 2 ! question of the cooling of air in ¦ hot climates M Fairbairn was requested to prepare a report ' on th " ' ' effects of temperature on wroughWron plates , a sum of 101 . being placed at his disposal for tliat purpose A sum of 501 . was . voted-to Mr .. Mallett , with a request that he would continue his experiments on eartliqu < I waves ; and l ' 5 f . was placed at tho disposal of the coiT 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 reo- is tration of periodic phenomena , 10 / . being placed at thei " disposal ; and a similar amount was recommended to enable Dr . Lankester , Professor Forbes , Professor Bel ] and Dr . Williams to draw up a report on British Annelida . 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 sum of " 10 / . being placed at their disposal ; and Professor Liridley and Professor Henslow were requested to continue their experiments on the vitality of seeds , with a sum of 5 / . 10 . ? . 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 . Q . Findlay had one on Oceanic Currents ; he showed how a ship now traversing 11 , 000 miles , from Shanghai to Panama , might , by taking advantage of currents , take a path but' 7300 miles
long ; aud 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 Reverend Mr . Nrcblay 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 . Huisfc 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 United States Observatory , had , from a totally different series of considerations , como to exactly the same conclusions as those I have arrived at . So eager was this distinguished observer to follow up tho snbject' that ho afterwards offered a sum equivalent to 3002 . annually for the collection of information at Bombay to enable him to construct , for the Indian seas , wind ami current charts , similar to those he had constructed for tlio Northern Atlantic , and these , it is understood , are now ro a state of great advancement . The money was respectunder
fully declined ; some Bombay merchants having - taken to provide for his use , at their own charge , the information desired , conceiving that it was enoug h thai 3 iritish traders should receive from America a survey oi the currents of the English seas in tho East , without ai tho same thno accepting funds from a foreign Btato tliiw tho British Government had failed to provide . Sue i , w « looked on as tho advantages likely to accrue from " 1 ° ' / hours of Mr . Maury that a statement was published & mm ing that , assuming tho statement of tho Jtoyal oociuy bo correct , maps and sailing directors for the Eastern tm such as had boon provided lor tho Northern AtiM " , would save to the ports of Calcutta , Madras , « "
Mr . G . Ronnie made ' an important cominnnientio " relative to the saving of fuel to ho obtained by ^ combination of stonm mid ether in one enginetubular life-boat invented by Mr . Henry Il ! ' j was explained . It has an iron framework , »« 10 ^ in tubes and water-tight compartments , and a ¦ fender surrounds the whole fabric . It is & . cr" . L of Kidered the beet life-boat over built . Tho i » w > ^ ^ thin invention is increased when wo find that ^ men perished on the coast of Eng land last wmw ,
2000 on our other coasts . lnlly Elucidations of science us applied to art "" ' ) 1 ( life were plentiful . A paper on tho «! 0 l ) trlC " * *>\ h was read by tho Reverend Thomas Kxley- * ^ ,,, 1 a ( liKcusKiou on decimal coinage , but no new ^ ()) l hint was thrown out . Several valnul > I c JM ^ ' ^ , chemistry were road , but though many o \ ' j ^^ ., p wonts are important they Imvo not thai' "' i ( nt n replication to practical points that would wiu ^ , i 0 cord of them in a ' newspaper / ' Tn n" '' — ^ j , er cholera as il ; appeared in JIull in I 8 ' '' ' i ( 1 ' < ' » v < l ' showed that tho clfocts of tho ep idonuo viu ^ , l 0 ing to tho level of tho locality , tho < U'n ^ cl , J « populalion , and their physical and nocial c > ^ Byf | lc ,, i connexion with thin Dr . . Imnc » Day V ™} " * ll () , ' lt tho
of medical meteorological olwervutionH u »« " ^ ihtlTo kingdom . On the subject of railway »< - < . c » t > y wero ( several ingenious observations .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 2, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17091853/page/2/
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