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    ¦or>*J. -U* I) ,ilft1*IIlttl?lL ^^

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    In one of his splendid fantasias of style De Quincey spoke of the Natwn of Ldii&m , because the word city was too inexpressive for the grandeur of the impression which London made upon him . In the opening to his new work , the tireqt World of London , Mr . HENBYMAYHEwhasoccasion to comment on the phrase of a French economist , who says " Londres n ' est plus utte ville : c est uneprovince couverte de maisons , " but , Mr . MiYHBW shows that no province of England or France is comparable to it . " Not only does London contain twice as many souls as the most extensive division of the French empire , but it houses upwards of a quarter of a million more individuals than any one county in Great Britain . " Besides , why speak of provinces when many kingdoms are considerably smaller ? not in area , but in population ; Hanover , Saxony , or Wurternkurg , for instance . Out of every thousand individuals on the face of the earth—at least °£ what the Greeks called ' * voice-dividing *' '' bread-eating" individuals—two are Londoners ! To classify , describe , and moralise on the various aspects such a . nation presents is a task of enormous difficulty . Mr . Ma . yhew has many qualifications for the task , and his first instalment promises well .

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    There are obstinate m&n . who never know , or will not know when they are beaten . Of course this obstinacy is much reproved . We give everything a bad name when it does not serve our purpose ; what wouldbe firmness in us , is obstinacy in ou » opponents ; what would be the patient adherence to the cause of truth ( the cause being our own ) is the blindness of vanity when the cause is against usi M . Lotus Figuieb is an obstinate man . He does not know when , he is beaten ; / driven from the field he declares himself victorious .

    encountered . For while electricity is fotmd to permeate and lie contained in all bodies , we have only to suppose this subtle element to \> e contained in these elastic shells , and to have the power , by its increase or diminution , to expand or contract them , and the whole mystery vanishes before us . It is easy to understand that the increase of electricity in the molecular shells will expand the " entire body they compose , and tbat the decrease of it will occasion a proportionate contraction . Of course it will occur that spherical molecular shells must have uatersectLces between them , and the question iB thence suggested , how are these intersectices filled 3 But it must be kept in view -that the shells we have sue gested are highly elastic , and it is more than prohalle therefore that , as all bodies have to resist their surfaces

    a surrounding pressure on , the molecular shells of which bodies are composed will , by this universal external pressure be flattened into polyhedral forms , of different numbers of sides , to suit then- circumstances for the tune , whether of compound or elementary arrangement , and that such a ' mechanical result of pressure will exclude the intersectices between the atoms which would otherwise arise from their sphericity of form . This is an explana-** £ ? > ^ "iLrS ? ? - ^ ? - ly to the . existiD S ^ eory of solid spherical atoms while the fact that mtersectices would mevztably occur beetween such solid atoms andthe question as to how they are filled forma an obstruction in the general applicability of that theory which it is impossible to surmount . And in support of the hypothesis he adduces these facts : — 1 . That abodyTindergoing expansion swells out uniformly or nxolecularly and does not display any decrease in the contiguity of its component matter nor any increase of perosity thereby . 2 . That no elementary body in a state of expansion has ever revealed interseetwjes between its atoms . 3 . That while all bodies contain electricity , and no cavity has ever been discovered between their molecules within which this electricity can be contained , whale the electricity is manifestly contained in some way interior to the matter of the body , it must be contained within the molecles—be-. .. ¦ cause , ¦¦ - . . ; ,.:. . '¦ ¦ ¦" . - ¦¦ _ . ¦ ¦ ¦ 4 . If the electricity were contained in any other way , it would by its increase , especially vs , the ease of Gases evolved ¦ 'by explosion , produce a visible widening ¦/ of _ intersectices between and separation of atoms , and a consequent reduction © f the matter--to molecular . powder . We do not expect our readers to adopt the hypothesis of J . A . S , but they maybe curious to look at this pamphlet , and see how lie works out his views .

    We have from time to time kept our readers informed of his experiments and arguments in contradiction of Claude Bernard ' s theory of the sugarforming function of the liver . Our last report was the decision of the Academy of Sciences agrainst him . He has returned to the charge . In the last number ofthe Annales des Sciences Naturelles there is a Memoire by him detailing fresh experiments , the upshot of which he believes to be decisive in his favour . The same number also contains a note from Cjoaude Bernard , explaining M . Figuier ' s error . To scientific readers , this discussion is of

    great interest , not so much : with reference to' the point at issue—for we believe Bernard ' s discovery to be real—but with reference to the extreme caution necessary in all physiological inquiries , owing to the excessive complexity of the organism and the conditions in which it acts * - ' To upset old theories is unhappily the main pursuit of scientific men . Substitution is as much the process of scientific evolution as it is of organic evolution . One never feels quite saxe ' of anytheory $ moteven , of gravitation . And Edinburgh las indeed recently produced a rebellious intellect who is very far from convinced of the truth of the gravitation , theory . One J . A . S . Ch ^ giyes no nanae ) has published a tiny pamphlet entitled Tke Structure of Matter , Cause of Gravitation ; and Nature and Laws of Electricity , with new

    Mwplanations of Chemical Tkenomena , ( Edinburgh , Myles MePhail ) . Very few , we imagine ., will be tempted to look into a pamphlet bearing so ambitious a title . Yet it is really worth looking into . The author sees the difficulty of the current hypothesis j which is at any rate better than blind acceptance . His own hypothesis is , that the atoms or molecules of matter are' minute spherical shells Wghly elastic and capable , like the soap bubble , of expansibility and contraction . The theory of atomic attraction he regards as an extraordinary fallacy ; and few thinking men have ever felt ' quite comfortable

    in accepting it > so that the attempts to , explain attraction and repulsion upon some other principle have been sand-numerous . In our " sallet days" the vexed problem vexed uVgreatly , and we once fancied we had found a solution ; we ? woke and found 'twas fancy ' s dream . " The difficulty is this : two atoms are said to attract each other ( and hence cohesion ) , but they are also said to repel each other ( and hence no two atoms ever touch ) : within the spaces thus made by the repulsive force heat may intervene , and forcing the particles still wider asunder , cause the solid to expand , to become liquid , and to become vapour . Hereupon J . A , S . remarks : — -

    Toexploin , as ib now very gravely done , that a bar of metal is expanded , by its atoms repelling each other , is to explain that two molecules of matter may repel each otlior , so as to cftueo the intervention of space between them , and yet after their ; expansion ; to retain their juxtaposition by a la-w of cohesive attraction , alreadyviolated , which prevents their separation from being permanent as well as ^ co mplewl T his e xplan ati on involves a crude contradiction in b oththo law of rfepwpio ^ and . the law of attraction , implying that the attraction of cohesion lias l ^ ypp ^ iyer wheii two molecules are in c ontac t than when they are thus separated , o ^ et ^ Be jtt-syoxad prevent the peparating inOuence of repulsion ; and that the . .: ^] W }| fllj :. repulsion hob leas power over the law of cohesion when it has thus ovor"SPfff ? . * * » * ban wlienit ' required to conquer it in all the closer cohesion of contact . ^» ^ . ? f ;| Ewt the , explanation has confessedly nothing but supposition to rost ° ) fe 5 ? » '& * ^ ° ^ i ^^ S' - ^ attempt to assign a hypothetical caviBO to an observed Sf ^ WStfW j ^<> l | oul « 3 . caia repel eaoti other , without effeoting a oompleto separa-^^ i' ^' u ^^^*^ ^ oUd t ^ ey compose to waoleoular powder , is a hyperbole ^^^ f ^ K ^ ' ^^^^ T t& ' wbicl ^ we make the supporters of such a theory wel-£ 3 d » Jip £ i § W&t ^ ^ 1 & 6 co ^ ate principles and analogous Wb of matter , it in ^ WimW ^\ W ^ i ^^^ rierH or physical possibility . ««* J ^ M& ^ T * ' $£ ' Sftt ? ^ We « gKeBtfid , that the primitive raoleouloa or ^^^ Affiwlw ^ v - ^^^ P »« tely globulor ehella Japablo of highly Sfoatiq dilatiouor coniwiotion we ivUnce dissolve th « difficulty we have just

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    \ THOMAS RAIK 1 ES , ESQ ., AT LARGE . jS . Portion of the Journal kept by the late Thomas Jtaikes , JSsq ., from 1831 to 1847 comjpnnng Sketches of Social and Political Life in London and Farts . Ypls . Land 11 . . ¦ Longmans and Co . 1 HOMAS KAiKES , Esq ., as represented in the frontispiece to these volumes , was a portly gentleman , with a timid intellect , and a " proper sense of his position . " As represented in his journal , he was a feeble gossip , profoundly prejudiced and stupendously credulous , a sort of well-dressed chiffonier of tittle-tattle , who , fancying himself an aristocrat , affected all the airs of a dowager . Being admitted , by virtue of certain passwords , into political society , to White ' s , the Carlton , the dinner-table at Apsley House , the evening colloquies of ambassadors , and the conspiracies of ministers expectant , he saw a good deal of the game , heard , now and then , a clever thing , and , intensel

    being y consequential ,-recorded his proceedings day by day in a diary , one-half of which was worth printing , and a few things in which are worth remembering . It starts between two great events , the passing of the Reform Bill and the Belgian revolution . On , the latter subject Mr : Kaikes pronounced himself in private , in pages ' of solemn prolixity ; but the Reforrn Bill wrung from him a succession of groaning prophecies , equal to the silliest ever uttered by superannuated peers , or by the oracles of the Duchess of Salisbury . " What is the people ? What has the people always been V ejaculates the sycophant of White ' s , " The most capricious , the most cruel , the most ungrateful class of society ? " " They have got their reform . What will be their next war cry ? The repeal of the Corn Law , which will reduce the income from laud one-half , will that satisfy them ? No ! Then comes — annual parliaments , the ballot . "

    This is the purport of Mr . Raikes ' s incoherences . He seems to have been a diner-out , regarded by no one as a politician , but b y all the highbred Tory set a as a clubbable gossip , clever at spreading alarms , scandals , epigrams * and the light lampoons of Toryism . His editor , whose task has been limited to the insertion of a few explanatory notes , and to the substitution in necessary cases of initials for proper names , allows the whole tide of Mr . Raikes ' s garrulous confessions to flow upon the public , with masses of commonplace unsuppressed , and a scattered archipelago of anecdotes floating in a redundance of prosy or hysterical twaddle . What we have to do with such a book is to select , to quote some of the sayings preserved , and to ask the reader , in table-talk style , did you ever hear this ?—Talleyrand ' s bone mots always fly about . His friend Montron bos been subject of late to epileptic fltB , one of which attacked him lately after dinner at Talleyrand ' a . While he lay on the floor in convulsions , scratching tbo carpet with his hands ^ his benign host remarked with / a sneer , " CesC&u'il me parait qu'iltwit absolument dcacendre . " Or as bad as this : ¦—

    Monday , 6 th . —Joko of Holmes in the Houao of Commons . When Mr . Morrison , the member for I < eicoBtor , who , being a haberdaBhor , had made , himself conspicuous by a speech on the foreign glovo question , came up to him , and asked if ho could get him a pair for the evening . * ' Of what , " said Holmes , " gloves or atookinga ? " Be it remembered that the author of this entry was the son of a merchant , but , be it also observed , " a wholesale . " Prom tliat eminence he flings the sarcasm at the retail haberdasher . | c A new Tory Club , the Carlton , has

    juat been formed ,, " writes Mr . Ruikea , in April , 1832 , " for which Lord Kensington ' s house , in Carlton Gardens , has juat been bought . " Ho pay 3 the subscription of the elect , becomes a Carlton , and joins with the loud talkers against a creation of peers to carry the Reform JJill— " an atrocious coup d'eiat meditated by Lord Grey against the privileges of that House . " But what if King William had been ft man with a secret will , had perceived the turbulence of the nation , had come down upon the peers and commons together , had imprisoned some , exiled others , abolished the . rights of all , and reigned over o mute Senate and an einnscnlated aristocracy i Would that have been " an atrociou coup d'ftat ? " Yet the journals of Thomas Raikes

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    Crikcs are not the legislators , but the . judges and police of literature . T ^ 7 = <* ' make laws-tbly interpret aad try to enforce them . — J £ d * nbv . rgh . Remew .

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    356 ; THE LEADER . [ No . 312 , Saturday .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1856, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2132/page/16/