Chambers\'s Edinburgh Journal, No. 443
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Various >> Chambers\'s Edinburgh Journal, No. 443
Gold is, and will be for some time to come, a subject much talked
about. Some of our financiers are beginning to be of opinion, that the
period is not distant when a great change must be made in the value of
our currency--the sovereign, for instance, to be reduced from 20s. to
10s. If so, there would be a good deal of loss and inconvenience
during the transition; but, once made, the difficulty would cease.
Others, however, consider that the demand for gold for manufacturing
purposes and new appliances in the arts, will be so great, that not
for many years to come will its increase have any effect on the value
of the circulating medium. It will be curious if the result, as not
unfrequently happens, should be such as to falsify both conclusions.
Connected with this topic is the important one of emigration; and so
important is it, that either by public or private enterprise, measures
will be taken to insure a supply of labourers to the Australian
colonies to replace, if possible, those who have betaken themselves to
the diggings. Convicts will not be received; and as something must be
done with them, Sir James Matheson has offered to give North Rona, one
of the Orkney Islands, to the government for a penal settlement. It
has been surveyed, and found to contain 270 acres, sufficient to
support a population of 1000. Should the proposal be adopted, it will
afford an opportunity for trying an entirely new system of discipline
with the criminal outcasts.
Some attention has been drawn to the fact, that our 'Ten Hour Bill'
has produced an effect on the other side of the Atlantic. The
legislature of Ohio has just passed a 'ten hour law,' to apply to 'all
manufactories, workshops, and other places used for mechanical or
manufacturing purposes' throughout the state; the penalty to be a fine
of from one guinea to ten. Something has already been said about
extending its provisions to agricultural labourers and domestic
servants--not so easy a task as the other; but when one remembers how
desperately hard people are made to work in the United States, it is
gratifying to observe ever so small a beginning towards more temperate
and life-preserving regulations. In New York, great efforts are made
towards establishing female schools of design and female medical
colleges, with a view to open to women a wider sphere of employment
than that to which they are now restricted. Notwithstanding the
objections expressed in many quarters against female physicians, it is
certain that they would find favour among a large class of invalids.
Another Women's Rights Convention has been held, and an Industrial
Congress. One of the questions discussed at the latter was: Why in the
United States some have all the work and no property, and others all
the property and no work? Harriet Martineau's stories of Political
Economy would have helped the debaters to a satisfactory solution.
Our sanitary reformers, also, are felicitating themselves on the
spread of their principles to the West, seeing that the first Baths
for the People were opened in New York a few weeks since. It appears
from accounts which have been sent over, that the edifice cost 30,000
dollars, and is provided with every convenience to insure the end in
view--the promotion of cleanliness. The charge for plunge-baths is two
cents; for warm-baths, five cents; and first-class baths, ten cents.
For washing, a range of stalls extends through the building, in the
bottom of which is a contrivance for admitting hot or cold water, as
may be desired. The drying machinery is 'arranged after the plan of a
window-sash, with weights and pulleys, so as to rise and fall at
pleasure. This sliding apparatus, when elevated, is brought into
contact with confined heated air for a few minutes, followed by a
rapid draught of dry air, which dries the clothes with great rapidity.
The same heat is made use of for heating the flat-irons, which are
brought from the furnace to the hands of the laundresses on a
miniature railway.' With such an establishment as this in full play,
the 71,000 emigrants who landed in New York during the first four
months of the present year, would have little difficulty in purifying
themselves after their voyage.
There is yet another topic of interest from the United States--namely,
the earthquake that was felt over a wide extent of country on the 29th
of April last. Our geologists are expecting to derive from it some
further illustration of the dynamics of earthquakes, as the
Smithsonian Institution has addressed a circular to its numerous staff
of meteorological observers, calling for information as to the number
of shocks, their direction, duration, intensity, effects on the soil
and on buildings, &c. There have been frequent earthquakes of late in
different parts of the world, and inquiry may probably trace out the
connection between them. The centre of intensest action appears to
have been at Hawaii, where Mauna Loa broke out with a tremendous
eruption, throwing up a column of lava 500 feet high, which in its
fall formed a molten river, in some places more than a mile wide. It
burst forth at a point 10,000 feet above the base of the mountain.
Dr Gibbons has published a few noteworthy facts with respect to the
climate of California, which shew that San Francisco 'possesses some
peculiar features, differing from every other place on the coast.' The
average yearly temperature is 54 deg.; at Philadelphia it is 51 deg..50; and
the temperature is found to be remarkably uniform, presenting few of
those extremes common to the Atlantic states. On the 28th of April
last year, it was 84 deg.; on October 19th, 83 deg.; August 18th, 82 deg.--the
only day in the three summer months when it rose above 79 deg.. It was 80 deg.
on nine days only, six of them being in October; while in Philadelphia
it is 80 deg. from sixty to eighty days in the year. In the latter city,
the temperature falls below the freezing-point on 100 days in the
year, but at San Francisco on twenty-five mornings only. The coldest
month is January; the hottest, October. 'In the summer months, there
is scarcely any change of temperature in the night. The early morning
is sometimes clear, sometimes cloudy, and always calm. A few hours
after sunrise, the clouds break away, and the sun shines forth
cheerfully and delightfully. Towards noon, or most frequently about
one o'clock, the sea-breeze sets in, and the weather is completely
changed. From 60 deg. or 65 deg., the mercury drops forthwith to near 50 deg. long
before sunset, and remains almost motionless till next morning.' The
summer, far from being the beautiful season it is in other countries,
parches up the land, and gives it the aspect of a desert, while the
'cold sea-winds defy the almost vertical sun, and call for flannels
and overcoats.' In November and December, or about midwinter, the
early rains fall, and the soil becomes covered with herbage and
flowers. These are facts which emigrants bound for California will do
well to bear in mind.
To come back to Europe. M. Fourcault has addressed a communication to
the Academie on 'Remedies against the Physical and Moral Degeneration
of the Human Species,' intended more especially for the
working-classes. He would have schools of gymnastics and swimming
established along the great rivers, and on the sea-shore; gymnastic
dispensaries, and clinical gymnastic in towns; and agricultural and
other hospitals, combining simple and economical means of water-cure.
His clinical gymnastic comprehends three divisions: hygienic or
muscular exercise, not violent or long-continued, or productive of
perspiration; medical, in which the exercise is to be kept up until
perspiration is induced; and orthopedic, which, by means of ropes,
bands, and loops attached to a bed, enable the patient to take such
straining and stretching exercise as may be likely to rectify any
deformity of limb. Whichever method be adopted, it must be carried out
conscientiously, because 'feeble muscular contractions, without energy
or sustained effort, produce no hygienic, medical, or orthopedic
effect.' M. Fourcault may perhaps find some of his objects
accomplished in another way, for the Prince President has, by a
decree, appropriated 10,000,000 francs to the improvement of dwellings
for the working-classes--3,000,000 of the sum being set apart for
Paris--and has offered 5000 francs for the best design. If such works
as these continue, we shall soon cease to hear that enough is not done
for the working-classes; and they will have, in turn, to shew how much
they can do for themselves.
A portable electric telegraph has lately been introduced on some of
the French railways, by which, in case of accident, the conductors may
communicate with the nearest stations. It is all contained in a single
box, the lower portion of which contains the battery, the upper, the
manipulator and signal apparatus. When required to be used, one of the
wires is hooked on to the wires of the telegraph, and the other
attached to an iron wedge thrust into the earth. It answers so well,
that the directors of the Orleans line have provided thirty of their
trains with the portable instruments. In connection with this, I may
tell you that Lamont of Munich, after patient inquiry, has come to the
conclusion, that there is a decennial period in the variations of the
magnetic declination; it increases regularly for five years, and
decreases as regularly through another five. If it can be discovered
that the horizontal intensity is similarly affected in a similar
period, another of the laws of terrestrial magnetism will be added to
the sum of our knowledge.
NATIVITY AND PARENTAGE OF MARSHAL MACDONALD, DUKE OF TARENTUM.
M. de Lamartine having made a mistake in his _History of the
Restoration_, in describing Marshal Macdonald as of Irish extraction,
it may be worth while to state what really was the parentage of that
highly respectable man.
When Prince Charles Stuart had to voyage in an open boat from the isle
of South Uist in the Hebrides to Skye, he was guided and protected, as
is well known, by Miss Flora Macdonald. On that occasion, Flora had
for her attendant a man called Neil Macdonald, but more familiarly
Neil Macechan, who is described in the _History of the Rebellion_ as a
'sort of preceptor in the Clanranald family.' This was the father of
Marshal Macdonald. He remained more or less attached to the fugitive
prince during the remainder of his wanderings in the Highlands, and
afterwards joined him in France, under the influence of an
unconquerable affection for his person. It was thus that his son came
to be born abroad.
Neil Macdonald, though a man of humble rank, had received the
education proper for a priest at the Scots College in Paris. His
acquaintance with the French language had enabled him to be of
considerable service to Prince Charles, when he wished to converse
about matters of importance without taking the other people about him
into his confidence. There is some reason to believe, that he wrote,
or at least gave the information required for, a small novel
descriptive of the poor Chevalier's wanderings, entitled _Ascanius, or
the Young Adventurer_. (Cooper, London, 1746.)
When Marshal Macdonald visited Scotland in 1825, he made his way to
the farm of Howbeg, in South Uist, where his father had been born, and
where his ancestors had lived for many generations. He found here an
old lady and her brother, his cousins at one remove, to whom he shewed
great kindness, settling a pension at the same time upon a more
distant relation whom he found in poverty. When about to leave the
spot, he took up some of the soil, and also a few pebbles, which he
got packed up in separate parcels, and carried back with him to
France.
The facts respecting Marshal Macdonald's parentage were lately
communicated to M. de Lamartine, who promptly sent the following
answer: 'J'ai recu, avec reconnaissance, monsieur, vos interessantes
communications sur le Marechal Macdonald, homme qui honore deux pays.
J'en ferai usage l'annee prochaine a l'epoque des nouvelles editions.'
DOMESTICATION OF WILD BEES.
The following account of the process of transplanting bodily a tribe
of wild bees, is given in the notes to _The Tay_, a descriptive poem
of considerable merit by David Millar. (Perth, Richardson, 1830.)
'When the boy, whose hobby leads him in that direction, has found out
a "byke," he marks the spot well, and returns in the evening, when all
its inmates are housed for the night. Pushing a twig into the hole as
far as it will go, in case he should lose it by the falling in of the
rubbish, he commences digging freely till the hum of the hive is
distinctly heard, when he proceeds more cautiously to work. By this
time, the more adventurous of the bees come out to ascertain what is
going on, and are caught as they make their appearance, and put into a
bottle. When the nest is fully exposed, it is lifted carefully up, and
placed, as it stood, in a box prepared for it, along with the captured
bees. The lid being now closed, the whole is carried home, and placed
in the spot assigned for it in the garden. Next morning, a hole in the
side of the box is quietly opened, when one or two of the strangers
soon make their appearance, wondering, evidently, where they are, but
apparently resolved to make the most of their new circumstances. At
last, they rise slowly on the wing, and buzz round and round their new
habitation for some time, taking, no doubt, special note of its every
peculiarity. The circle of observation is then gradually enlarged,
till it is thirty or forty yards in circumference, when the earnest
reconnoitrer disappears, to return again in a short time with
something for the general good. The curious in those matters, by
placing the grubs of all the different kinds in one box beside a hive
in operation, will soon have a choice assortment of all descriptions,
working as amicably together as if they were all of the same family.'
COPPER-PLATE ENGRAVINGS COPIED ON STONE.
In No. 439 of this Journal, Lieutenant Hunt received the credit of
inventing a process by which copper-plate engravings may be
transferred to stone, and the copies from a single print thus
multiplied indefinitely. A correspondent, however, makes us fear that
Lieutenant Hunt may have been unacquainted with what others had done
before him. The process, it is stated, is not at all new; although, so
far as we have heard, it has never been applied to the transfer of
complicated pictorial engravings.
SONNET:
ON MY LITTLE BOY'S FIRST TRYING TO SAY 'PA-PA.'
Marked day! on which the earliest dawn of speech
Glimmered, in trial of thy father's name!
Albeit the sound imperfect, yet the aim
Thrilled chords within me, deeper than the reach
Of music! Happy hearted, I did claim
The title which those silver tones assigned;
And in me leaped my spirit, as when first
The father's strange and wondering feeling came!
While this dear thought woke up within my mind,
Which careful memory in her folds has nursed:
'If thus to earthly parent's heart so dear
His child's first accents, though imperfect all--
Dear, too, to FATHER-GOD, when faint doth fall
His new-born's half-formed "Abba" on his ear!'
P.
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VOLUME VII.
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The present number of the Journal completes the Seventeenth Volume
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may be had of the publishers and their agents.
END OF SEVENTEENTH VOLUME.
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