Add files from ibiblio as of 2025-03-08 22:17:55HEADmain

1 files changed, 19332 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/40498-0.txt b/40498-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c2fc6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/40498-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,19332 @@
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40498 ***
+
+CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION.
+
+
+
+
+  CURIOSITIES OF CIVILIZATION.
+
+  REPRINTED FROM THE
+  "QUARTERLY" & "EDINBURGH" REVIEWS.
+
+
+  BY ANDREW WYNTER, M.D.
+
+
+  SEVENTH EDITION.
+
+
+  LONDON:
+  ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY,
+  AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.
+
+  [_The Right of Translation is reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+TO THE READER.
+
+
+The following Essays have been reprinted from the pages of the _Quarterly_
+and _Edinburgh Reviews_, with the kind permission of their proprietors. It
+may be necessary, however, to state that, with the exception of the paper
+on the "Mortality in Trades and Professions," which was published in the
+_Edinburgh Review_ of January, 1860, the whole of them have appeared in
+the _Quarterly Review_ during the last six years. The date of each essay
+is given in the list of contents; but, where necessary, corrections have
+been made, so as to bring each article up to the knowledge of the present
+day.
+
+A. W.
+
+  COLEHERNE COURT, OLD BROMPTON.
+    _August, 1860._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                  PAGE.
+
+  ADVERTISEMENTS                          (1855)      1
+
+  FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS              (1855)     53
+
+  THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS                  (1855)     93
+
+  RATS                                    (1857)    128
+
+  LUNATIC ASYLUMS                         (1857)    150
+
+  THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT                 (1854)    200
+
+  WOOLWICH ARSENAL                        (1858)    245
+
+  SHIPWRECKS                              (1858)    288
+
+  LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS    (1859)    325
+
+  THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH                  (1854)    349
+
+  FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE                (1855)    401
+
+  THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES              (1856)    451
+
+  MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS     (1860)    499
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENTS.
+
+
+It is our purpose to draw out, as a thread might be drawn from some woven
+fabric, a continuous line of advertisements from the newspaper press of
+this country, since its establishment to the present time; and, by so
+doing, to show how distinctly, from its dye, the pattern of the age
+through which it ran is represented. If we follow up to its source any
+public institution, fashion, or amusement, which has flourished during a
+long period of time, we can gain some idea of our national progress and
+development; but it strikes us that in no manner can we so well obtain at
+a rapid glance a view of the salient points of generations that have
+passed, as by consulting those small voices that have cried from age to
+age from the pages of the press, declaring the wants, the losses, the
+amusements, and the money-making eagerness of the people.
+
+As we read in the old musty files of papers those _naïve_ announcements,
+the very hum of bygone generations seems to rise to the ear. The chapman
+exhibits his quaint wares; the mountebank capers again upon his stage; we
+have the living portrait of the highwayman flying from justice; we see the
+old china auctions thronged with ladies of quality with their attendant
+negro boys, or those "by inch of candlelight" forming many a Schalken-like
+picture of light and shade; or, later still, we have Hogarthian sketches
+of the young bloods who swelled of old along the Pall-Mall. We trace the
+moving panorama of men and manners up to our own less demonstrative but
+more earnest times; and all these cabinet pictures are the very
+daguerreotypes cast by the age which they exhibit, not done for effect,
+but faithful reflections of those insignificant items of life and things,
+too small, it would seem, for the generalizing eye of the historian,
+however necessary to clothe and fill in the dry bones of his history.
+
+The _English Mercurie_ of 1588, which professes to have been published
+during those momentous days when the Spanish Armada was hovering and
+waiting to pounce upon our southern shores, contains, among its items of
+news, three or four book advertisements, and these would undoubtedly have
+been the first put forth in England were that newspaper genuine. Mr.
+Watts, of the British Museum, has, however, proved that the several
+numbers of this journal to be found in our national library are gross
+forgeries, and, indeed, the most inexperienced eye in such matters can
+easily see that neither their type, paper, spelling, nor composition are
+much more than one, instead of upwards of two centuries and a half old.
+Newspapers, in the strict sense of the word--that is, publications of news
+appearing at stated intervals, and regularly paged on--did not make their
+appearance until the latter end of the reign of James I. The _Weekely
+Newes_, published in London in 1622, was the first publication which
+answered to this description; it contained, however, only a few scraps of
+foreign intelligence, and was quite destitute of advertisements. The
+terrible contest of the succeeding reign was the hotbed which forced the
+press of this country into sudden life and extraordinary vigour. Those who
+have wandered in the vaults of the British Museum and contemplated the
+vast collection of political pamphlets and the countless Mercuries which
+sprang full armed, on either side of the quarrel, from the strong and
+earnest brains which wrought in that great political trouble, will not
+hesitate to discover, amidst the hubbub of the Rebellion, the first throes
+of the press of England as a political power. At such a time, when
+Marchmort Needham fell foul with his types of Sir John Birkenhead and the
+court party which he supported, with as heavy a hand and as dauntless a
+will as Cromwell hurled his Ironsides at the Cavaliers at Naseby, it is
+not likely that we should find the press the vehicle to make known the
+goods of tradesmen, or to offer a reward for stolen horses. The
+shopkeepers themselves, as well as the nobility, were too hard at it, to
+avail themselves of this new mode of extending their trade: they had to
+keep guard over the malignants, to cover the five members with the shield
+of their arms, to overawe Whitehall, to march to the relief of
+Gloucester,--objects quite sufficient to account for the fact that the
+train-bands were not advertisers. After the king's death, however, when
+the Commonwealth had time to breathe, the people seem to have discovered
+the use of the press as a means of making known their wants and of giving
+publicity to their wares. The very first advertisement we have met with,
+after an active search among the earliest newspapers, relates to a book
+which is entitled--
+
+    Irenodia Gratulatoria, an Heroick Poem; being a congratulatory
+    panegyrick for my Lord General's late return, summing up his successes
+    in an exquisite manner.
+
+    To be sold by John Holden, in the New Exchange, London. Printed by
+    Tho. Newcourt, 1652.
+
+This appeared in the January number of the Parliamentary paper _Mercurius
+Politicus_. It is evidently a piece of flattery to Cromwell upon his
+victories in Ireland, and might have been inserted at the instigation of
+the great Commonwealth leader himself. Booksellers appear to have been the
+first to take advantage of this new medium of publicity, and for the
+obvious reason that their goods were calculated for the readers of the
+public journals, who at that time must have consisted almost exclusively
+of the higher orders. From this date to the Restoration the quaintest
+titles of works on the political and religious views, such as were then in
+the ascendant, are to be found in the _Mercurius Politicus_: thus, we have
+"Gospel Marrow;" "A few Sighs from Hell, or the Groans of a Damned Soul;"
+"Michael opposing the Dragon, or a Fiery Dart struck through the Kingdom
+of the Serpent." And in the number for September, 1659, we find an
+advertisement which seems to bring us face to face with one of the
+brightest names in the roll of English poets:--
+
+    Considerations touching the likeliest means to remove Hirelings out of
+    the Church; wherein is also discours'd of Tithes, Church Fees, Church
+    Revenues, and whether any maintenance of Ministers can be settled by
+    Law. The author, J. M. Sold by _Livewell Chapman_, at the Crown in
+    Pope's Head Alley.
+
+In juxtaposition to these illustrious initials we find another
+advertisement, which is the representative of a class that prevailed most
+extensively at this early time--the Hue and Cry after runaway servants and
+lost or stolen horses and dogs. Every generation is apt to praise, like
+Orlando, "the antique service of the old world;" but a little excursion
+into the regions of the past shows us how persistent this cry has been in
+all ages. Employers who are in the habit of eulogising servants of the
+"old school," would be exceedingly astonished to find that two hundred
+years ago they were a very bad lot indeed, as far as we can judge from the
+advertisements of rewards for the seizure of delinquents of their class.
+Here is a full-length portrait of apparently a runaway apprentice, as
+drawn in the _Mercurius Politicus_ of July 1st, 1658:--
+
+    If any one can give notice of one _Edward Perry_, being about the age
+    of eighteen or nineteen years, of low stature, black hair, full of
+    pockholes in his face; he weareth a new gray suit trimmed with green
+    and other ribbons, a light Cinnamon-colored cloak, and black hat, who
+    run away lately from his Master; they are desired to bring or send
+    word to _Tho. Firby_, Stationer, at Gray's Inne gate, who will
+    thankfully reward them.
+
+It will be observed that the dashing appearance of this runaway
+apprentice, habited in his gray suit trimmed with green ribbons, and
+furbished off so spicily with his cinnamon-coloured cloak, is rather
+marred by the description of his face as "full of pockholes." Unless the
+reader has scanned the long list of villanous portraits exhibited by the
+Hue and Cry in the old papers of the last portion of the seventeenth and
+first portion of the eighteenth centuries, he can form but a faint
+conception of the ravages committed by the small-pox upon the population.
+Every man seemed more or less to have been speckled with "pockholes," and
+the race must have presented one moving mass of pits and scars. Here, for
+instance, is a companion picture to hang with that of Edward Perry,
+copied from the _Mercurius Politicus_ of May 31st, 1660:--
+
+    A Black-haired Maid, of a middle stature, thick set, with big breasts,
+    having her face full marked with the smallpox, calling herself by the
+    name of _Nan_ or _Agnes Hobson_, did, upon Monday the 28 of _May_,
+    about six o'Clock in the morning, steal away from her Ladies house in
+    the Pal-mall a mingle-coloured wrought Tabby Gown of Deer colour and
+    white; a black striped Sattin Gown with four broad bone-black silk
+    Laces, and a plain black-watered French Tabby Gown; Also, one
+    Scarlet-coloured and one other Pink-coloured Sarcenet Peticoat, and a
+    white watered Tabby Wastcoat, plain; Several Sarcenet, Mode, and thin
+    black Hoods and Scarfs, several fine Holland Shirts, a laced pair of
+    Cuffs and Dressing; one pair of Pink-coloured Worsted Stockings, a
+    Silver Spoon, a Leather bag, &c. She went away in greyish Cloth
+    Wastcoat turned, and a Pink-coloured Paragon upper Peticoat, with a
+    green Tammy under one. If any shall give notice of this person, or
+    things, at one _Hopkins_, a Shoomaker's, next door to the Vine Tavern,
+    near the Pal-mall end, near Charing Cross, or at Mr. _Ostler's_, at
+    the Bull Head in Cornhill, near the Old Exchange, they shall be
+    rewarded for their pains.
+
+Scarcely a week passes without such runaways being advertised, together
+with a list of the quaint articles of which their booty consisted. At the
+risk of wearying the reader with these descriptions of the "old-fashioned"
+sort of servants, we give another advertisement from the _Mercurius
+Politicus_ of July 1st 1658:--
+
+    One _Eleanor Parker_ (by birth _Haddock_), of a Tawny reddish
+    complexion, a pretty long nose, tall of stature, servant to Mr.
+    _Frederic Howpert_, Kentish Town, upon Saturday last the _26th of
+    June_, ran away and stole two Silver Spoons; a sweet Tent-work Bag,
+    with gold and silver Lace about it, and lined with Satin; a Bugle
+    work-Cushion, very curiously wrought in all manners of slips and
+    flowers; a Shell cup, with a Lyon's face, and a Ring of silver in its
+    mouth; besides many other things of considerable value, which she took
+    out of her Mistresses Cabinet, which she broke open; as also some
+    Cloaths and Linen of all sorts, to the value of Ten pounds and
+    upwards. If any one do meet with her and please to secure her, and
+    give notice to the said _Frederic Howpert_, or else to Mr. _Malpass_,
+    Leather-seller, at the Green Dragon, at the upper end of Lawrence
+    Lane, he shall be thankfully rewarded for his pains.
+
+An advertisement which appears in the same paper, of the date of August
+11th, 1659, gives us the first notice we have yet found of the service of
+negro boys in this country. From this period, however, as we shall
+presently show, England, at least the fashionable part of it, seems to
+have swarmed with young blackamoors in a greater degree than we should
+have imagined even from the familiar notice made of them in the pages of
+the "Tatler" and "Spectator." These early negroes must have been imported
+from the Portuguese territories, as we did not deal in the article
+ourselves till the year 1680. The amusing point of the following
+advertisement, however, is the assurance it gives us that the Puritans
+"polled" their negroes as well as themselves.
+
+    A Negro-boy, about nine years of age, in a gray Searge suit, his hair
+    cut close to his head, was lost on Tuesday last, _August 9_, at night,
+    in _S. Nicholas_ Lane, _London_. If any one can give notice of him to
+    Mr. _Tho. Barker_, at the Sugarloaf in that Lane, they shall be well
+    rewarded for their pains.
+
+About this time we find repeatedly advertised the loss of horses. It is
+observable that during the "troubles" such things as highwaymen were
+unknown. The bold, unruly characters, who at a later date took to the
+road, were then either enlisted under the banners of the state or had gone
+over the sea to Charlie. The great extent to which horse-stealing
+prevailed during the Commonwealth period, and, indeed, for the next
+half-century, might possibly be ascribed to the value of those animals
+consequent upon the scarcity produced by the casualties of the
+battle-field. We cannot account, however, for one fact connected with the
+horse-stealing of the Commonwealth period, namely, that when at grass they
+were often kept _saddled_. The following advertisement, which is an
+illustration of this singular custom, is very far from being an uncommon
+one:--
+
+    A small black NAG, some ten or eleven years old, no white at all,
+    bob-Tailed, wel forehanded, somewhat thin behind, thick Heels, and
+    goeth crickling and lamish behind at his first going out; the hair is
+    beat off upon his far Hip as broad as a twelvepence; he hath a black
+    leather Saddle trimmed with blew, and covered with a black
+    Calves-skin, its a little torn upon the Pummel; two new Girths of
+    white and green thread, and black Bridle, the Rein whereof is sowed on
+    the off side, and a knot to draw it on the near side, Stoln out of a
+    field at _Chelmsford_, _21 February_ instant, from Mr. _Henry Bullen_.
+    Whosoever can bring tidings to the said Mr. _Bullen_ at _Bromfield_,
+    or to Mr. _Newman_ at the Grocer's Arms in _Cornhil_, shall have
+    20_s._ for his pains.--_Mercurius Politicus_, February 24, 1659.
+
+It could scarcely have been, in this particular case at least, that the
+exigencies of the time required such precautions, as the only rising that
+took place this year occurred six months afterwards in the county of
+Chester. The furniture of the nag, it must be confessed, seems remarkably
+adapted for service, and might, from its colour, have belonged to a
+veritable Ironside trooper. Another reason, perhaps, of the great value of
+horses at this period, was the establishment of public conveyances, by
+which means travellers as well as letters were conveyed from one part of
+the kingdom to the other. Prior to the year 1636 there was no such thing
+as a postal service for the use of the people in this country. The court
+had, it is true, an establishment for the forwarding of despatches, but
+its efficacy may be judged of from a letter written by one Bryan Tuke,
+"master of the postes" in Henry VIII.'s time, to Cromwell, who had
+evidently been sharply reproving him for remissness in forwarding the
+king's papers:--
+
+    "The Kinges Grace hath no mor ordinary postes, ne of many days hathe
+    had, but betweene London and Calais.... For, sir, ye knowe well that,
+    except the hackney-horses betweene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no
+    suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as in the
+    accustomed places of France and other partes; ne men can keepe horses
+    in redynes withoute som way to bere the charges; but when placardes be
+    sent for suche cause (to order the immediate forwarding of some state
+    packet) _the constables many tymes be fayne to take horses oute of
+    ploues and cartes, wherein can be no extreme diligence_."
+
+This was in the year 1533. Elizabeth, however, established horse-posts on
+all the great routes for the transmission of the letters of the court; and
+this, in 1633, was developed into a public post, which went night and day
+at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five miles in winter--not
+such bad travelling for those days. Still there was no means of forwarding
+passengers until the time of Cromwell, when we find stagecoaches
+established on all the great roads throughout the kingdom. We do not know
+that we have ever seen quoted so early a notice of public stage
+conveyances. We have evidently not given our ancestors so much credit as
+they deserved. The following advertisement shows the time taken and the
+fares of a considerable number of these journeys:--
+
+    From the 26 day of April 1658 there will continue to go Stage Coaches
+    from the _George_ Inn, without Aldersgate, _London_, unto the several
+    Cities and Towns, for the Rates and at the times, hereafter mentioned
+    and declared.
+
+    _Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday._
+
+    To _Salisbury_ in two days for xx_s._ To _Blandford_ and _Dorchester_
+    in two days and half for xxx_s._ To _Burput_ in three days for xxx_s._
+    To _Exmaster_, _Hunnington_, and _Exeter_ in four days for xl_s._
+
+    To _Stamford_ in two days for xx_s._ To _Newark_ in two days and a
+    half for xxv_s._ To _Bawtrey_ in three days for xxx_s._ To _Doncaster_
+    and _Ferribridge_ for xxxv_s._ To _York_ in four days for xl_s._
+
+    _Mondays_ and _Wednesdays_ to _Ockinton_ and _Plymouth_ for l_s._
+
+    Every _Monday_ to _Helperby_ and _Northallerton_ for xlv_s._ To
+    _Darneton_ and _Ferryhil_ for l_s._ To Durham for lv_s._ To
+    _Newcastle_ for iii_l._
+
+    Once every fortnight to _Edinburgh_ for iv_l._ a peece--_Mondays_.
+
+    Every _Friday_ to _Wakefield_ in four days, xl_s._
+
+    All persons who desire to travel unto the Cities, Towns, and Roads
+    herein hereafter mentioned and expressed, namely--to _Coventry_,
+    _Litchfield_, _Stone_, _Namptwich_, _Chester_, _Warrington_, _Wiggan_,
+    _Chorley_, _Preston_, _Gastang_, _Lancaster_, and _Kendal_; and also
+    to _Stamford_, _Grantham_, _Newark_, _Tuxford_, _Bawtrey_,
+    _Doncaster_, _Ferriebridge_, _York_, _Helperly_, _Northallerton_,
+    _Darneton_, _Ferryhill_, _Durham_, and _Newcastle_, _Wakefield_,
+    _Leeds_, and _Halifax_; and also to _Salisbury_, _Blandford_,
+    _Dorchester_, _Burput_, _Exmaster_, _Hunnington_, and _Exeter_,
+    _Ockinton_, _Plimouth_, and _Cornwal_; let them repair to the _George_
+    Inn at _Holborn Bridge, London_, and thence they shall be in good
+    Coaches with good Horses, upon every _Monday_, _Wednesday_, and
+    _Fridays_, at and for reasonable Rates.--_Mercurius Politicus_, April
+    1, 1658.
+
+Other announcements about the same time prove that the Great Western road
+was equally provided, as well as the Dover route to the continent. It is
+not a little singular, however, that regularly-appointed coaches, starting
+at stated intervals, should have preceded what might be considered the
+simpler arrangement of the horse service. That the development of the
+postal system into a means of forwarding single travellers did not take
+place until some time afterwards, would appear from the following:--
+
+    _The Postmasters on_ Chester _Road, petitioning, have received Order,
+    and do accordingly publish the following advertisement_:--
+
+    All Gentlemen, Merchants, and others, who have occasion to travel
+    between _London_ and _Westchester_, _Manchester_, and _Warrington_, or
+    any other Town upon that Road, for the accommodation of Trade,
+    dispatch of Business, and ease of Purse, upon every Monday, Wednesday,
+    and Friday Morning, betwixt Six and ten of the Clock, at the House of
+    Mr. _Christopher Charteris_, at the sign of the Hart's-Horn, in
+    West-Smithfield, and Post-Master there, and at the Post-Master of
+    _Chester_, at the Post-Master of _Manchester_, and at the Post-Master
+    of _Warrington_, may have a good and able single Horse, or more,
+    furnished at Threepence the Mile, without the charge of a Guide; and
+    so likewise at the House of Mr. _Thomas Challenor_, Post-Master at
+    _Stone_ in _Staffordshire_, upon every Tuesday, Thursday, and
+    Saturdays Morning, to go for _London_. And so likewise at the several
+    Post-Masters upon the Road, who will have all such set days so many
+    Horses with Furniture in readiness to furnish the Riders without any
+    stay to carry them to or from any the places aforesaid, in Four days,
+    as well to _London_ as from thence, and to places nearer in less time,
+    according as their occasions shall require, they ingaging at the first
+    Stage where they take Horse, for the safe delivery of the same to the
+    next immediate Stage, and not to ride that Horse any further without
+    consent of the Post-Master by whom he rides, and so from Stage to
+    Stage to their Journeys end. _All those who intend to ride this way
+    are desired to give a little notice beforehand, if conveniently they
+    can, to the several Post-masters where they first take horse, whereby
+    they may be furnished with so many Horses as the Riders shall require
+    with expedition._ This undertaking began the 28 of _June_ 1658 at all
+    the Places abovesaid, and so continues by the several Post-Masters.
+
+The intimation that these horses might be had without the "charge of a
+guide" gives us an insight into the bad condition of the roads up to that
+period. We can scarcely imagine, in these days, the necessity for a guide
+to direct us along the great highways of England, and can with difficulty
+realize to ourselves the fact that as late as the middle of the
+seventeenth century the interior of the country was little better than a
+wilderness, as we may indeed gather from Pepy's journey from London to
+Bristol and back, in which the item "guides" formed no inconsiderable
+portion of his expenses.
+
+In turning over the musty little quarto newspapers which mirror with such
+vividness the characteristic lineaments of the Commonwealth period, not
+yet left behind us, we chanced upon an advertisement which tells perhaps
+more than any other of the dangerous complexion of those times. It is an
+advertisement for some runaway young "sawbones," whose love of desperate
+adventure appears to have led him to prefer the tossing of a pike to
+pounding with a pestle:--
+
+    _George Weale_, a Cornish youth, about 18 or 19 years of age, serving
+    as an Apprentice at _Kingston_ with one Mr. _Weale_, an Apothecary,
+    and his Uncle, about the time of the rising of the Counties _Kent_ and
+    _Surrey_, went secretly from his said Uncle, and is conceived to have
+    engaged in the same, and to be either dead, or slain in some of those
+    fights, having never since been heard of, either by his said Uncle, or
+    any of his Friends. If any person can give notice of the certainty of
+    the death of the said _George Weale_, let him repair to the said Mr.
+    _Graunt_ his House in Drum-alley in Drury Lane, _London_; he shall
+    have twenty shillings for his pains.--_Mercurius Politicus_, Dec. 8,
+    1659.
+
+Here at least we have probably preserved the name of one of the fameless
+men who were "slain in some of those fights," a phrase which in these days
+opens to us a chapter in romance.
+
+With the exception of book advertisements and quack medicines, we have not
+up to this date met with a single instance of a tradesman turning the
+newspaper to account in making known his goods to the public. The very
+first announcement of this nature, independently of its being in itself a
+curiosity, possesses a very strong interest, from the fact that it marks
+the introduction of an article of food which perhaps more than all others
+has served to wean the nation from one of its besetting sins of
+old--drunkenness. Common report, Mr. Disraeli informs us, attributes the
+introduction of "the cup which cheers but not inebriates," to Lord
+Arlington and Lord Ossory, who are said to have brought over a small
+quantity from Holland in 1666. The author of the "Curiosities of
+Literature" does not think this statement satisfactory, and tells us that
+he has heard of Oliver Cromwell's teapot being in the possession of a
+collector. We never knew before of these teetotal habits of the Protector,
+but we can so far back the story as to find chronologically correct bohea
+to put into his pot; for though it is true that the date of the following
+advertisement is three weeks after the death of his highness, it refers to
+the article as a known and, by physicians, an approved drink, and
+therefore must have been some time previously on sale:--
+
+    That Excellent and by all Physitians approved _China_ Drink called by
+    the _Chineans Tcha_, by other Nations _Tay alias Tee_, is sold at the
+    _Sultaness Head Cophee-House_, in _Sweetings_ Rents, by the Royal
+    Exchange, _London_.--_Mercurius Politicus_, September 30, 1658.
+
+This is undoubtedly the earliest authentic announcement yet made known of
+the public sale in England of this now famous beverage. The mention of a
+"Cophee-house" proves that the sister stimulant was even then making way
+in the country.[1] It took, however, a couple of centuries to convert
+them, in the extended sense of the term, into national drinks; but, like
+many other good things, it came too early. Tea may have sufficed for
+fanatics, Anabaptists, Quakers, Independents, and self-denying sectaries
+of all kinds; and for all we know, its early introduction, had the
+Commonwealth lasted, might have accelerated the temperance movement a
+century at least; but the wheel of fortune was about to turn once
+more--mighty ale had to be broached, and many deep healths to be drunk by
+those who had "come to their own again;" and tea, for full half a century,
+was washed away by brown October and the French wines that came in with
+the Merry Monarch.
+
+We have now brought the reader upon the very borders of the period when
+Charles, with his hungry followers, landed in triumph at Dover. The
+advertisements which appeared during the time that Monk was temporizing
+and sounding his way to the Restoration, form a capital barometer of the
+state of feeling among political men at that critical juncture. We see no
+more of the old Fifth-Monarchy spirit abroad. Ministers of the
+steeple-houses evidently note the storm coming, and cease their
+long-winded warnings to a backsliding generation. Every one is either
+panting to take advantage of the first sunshine of royal favour, or to
+deprecate its wrath, the coming shadow of which is clearly seen. Meetings
+are advertised of those persons who have purchased sequestered estates, in
+order that they may address the King to secure them in possession;
+parliamentary aldermen repudiate by the same means, charges in the papers
+that their names are to be found in the list of those persons who "sat
+upon the tryal of the late King;" the works of "late" bishops begin again
+to air themselves in the Episcopal wind that is clearly setting in; and
+"The Tears, Sighs, Complaints, and Prayers of the Church of England"
+appear in the advertising columns in place of the sonorous titles of
+sturdy old Baxter's works. It is clear there is a great commotion at hand;
+the leaves are rustling, and the dust is moving. In the very midst of it,
+however, we find one name still faithful to the "old cause," as the
+Puritans call it: on the 8th of March, 1660--that is, while the sway of
+Charles's sceptre had already cast its shadow from Breda--we find the
+following advertisement in the _Mercurius Politicus_:--
+
+    The ready and easie way to establish a free Commonwealth, and the
+    excellence thereof compared with the inconveniences and dangers of
+    readmitting Kingship in this Nation. The Author, J. M. Wherein, by
+    reason of the Printers haste, the Errata not coming in time, it is
+    desired that the following faults may be amended. Page 9, line 32, for
+    _the Areopagus_ read _of Areopagus_. P. 10, l. 3, for full Senate,
+    true Senate; l. 4, for fits, is the whole Aristocracy; l. 7, for
+    Provincial States, States of every City. P. 17, l. 29, for _cite_,
+    _citie_; 1. 30, for _left_, _felt_. Sold by _Livewel Chapman_, at the
+    Crown, in Pope's-head Alley.
+
+The calmness of the blind bard in thus issuing corrections to his
+hastily-printed pamphlet on behalf of a falling cause, excites our
+admiration, and gives us an exalted idea of his moral courage. In two
+months, as might have been expected, he was a proscribed fugitive,
+sheltering his honoured head from the pursuit of Charles's myrmidons in
+some secret hiding-place in Westminster, whilst his works, by order of the
+House, were being burned by the common hangman.
+
+The lawyers were not slow in perceiving the way the wind was blowing, and
+set their sails accordingly--if we may take the action of one Mr. Nicholas
+Bacon, as shown in the following advertisement, as any index of the
+feelings of his fellows:--
+
+    Whereas one Capt. _Gouge_, a witness examined against the late Kings
+    Majesty, in those Records stiled himself of the Honorable Society of
+    _Grays_ Inne. These are to give notice that the said _Gouge_, being
+    long sought for, was providentially discovered in a disguise, seized
+    in that Society, and now in custody, being apprehended by the help of
+    some spectators that knew him, viewing of a Banner with his Majesties
+    arms, set up just at the same time of His Majesties landing, on an
+    high Tower in the same Society, by _Nicholas Bacon_, Esq., a Member
+    thereof, as a memorial of so great a deliverance, and testimony of his
+    constant loyalty to His Majesty, and that the said _Gouge_ upon
+    examination confessed, That he was never admitted not so much as a
+    Clerk of that Society.--_Mercurius Politicus_, June 7, 1660.
+
+Whilst all London was throwing up caps for the restored monarch, and
+England seemed so glad that he himself wondered how he could have been
+persuaded to stop away so long, let us catch the lost luggage of a poor
+cavalier, who has just followed his royal master from his long banishment,
+and turn out its contents for our reader, in order to show that even
+ruined old courtiers carried more impedimenta than the famous "shirt,
+towel, and piece of soap" of our renowned Napier. The _Mercurius Publicus_
+is now our mine, in which we sink a shaft, and come up with this fossil
+advertisement, which bears date July 5th, 1660:--
+
+    _A Leathern Portmantle Lost at_ Sittingburn _or_ Rochester, _when his
+    Majesty came thither, wherein was a Suit of Camolet Holland, with two
+    little laces in a seam, eight pair of white Gloves, and a pair of Does
+    leather; about twenty yards of skie-colourd Ribbon twelvepenny broad,
+    and a whole piece of black Ribbon tenpenny broad, a cloath
+    lead-coloured cloak, with store of linnen; a pair of shooes, slippers,
+    a Montero, and other things; all which belong to a Gentleman (a near
+    servant to His Maiesty) who hath been too long Imprisoned and
+    Sequestered to be now robbed when all men hope to enjoy their own. If
+    any can give notice, they may leave word with_ Mr. Samuel Merne, _His
+    Majesties Book-binder, at his house in Little Britain, and they shall
+    be thankfully rewarded._
+
+The king had not been "in" a month ere his habits appear through the
+public papers. The _Mercurius Politicus_ is now turned courtier, and has
+changed its name to the _Mercurius Publicus_. Its columns, indeed, are
+entirely under the direction of the king, and, instead of slashing
+articles against malignants, degenerates into a virulent oppressor of the
+Puritans, and a vehicle for inquiries after his majesty's favourite dogs
+that have been stolen. In the number for June 28th, 1660, for instance, we
+find the following advertisement:--
+
+    [Hand] A smooth black DOG, less than a Grey-hound, with white under
+    his breast, belonging to the Kings Majesty, was taken from Whitehall,
+    the eighteenth day of this instant _June_, or thereabouts. If any one
+    can give notice to _John Ellis_, one of his Majesties servants, or to
+    his Majesties Back-Stairs, shall be well rewarded for their labour.
+
+It is evident that "the smooth black dog" was a very great favourite, for
+the next publication of the journal contains another advertisement with
+respect to him, printed in larger Italic type, the diction of which, from
+its pleasant raillery, looks as though it had come from the king's own
+hand:--
+
+    [Hand] _We must call upon you again for a Black Dog, between a
+    Grey-hound and a Spaniel, no white about him, onely a streak on his
+    Brest, and Tayl a little bobbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and
+    doubtless was stoln, for the Dog was not born nor bred in_ England,
+    _and would never forsake his Master. Whosoever findes him may acquaint
+    any at Whitehal, for the Dog was better known at Court than those who
+    stole him. Will they never leave robbing His Majesty? must he not keep
+    a Dog? This Dogs place (though better than some imagine) is the
+    only place which nobody offers to beg._
+
+Pepys, about this time, describes the king with a train of spaniels and
+other dogs at his heels, lounging along and feeding the ducks in St.
+James's Park; and on occasions still later he was often seen talking to
+Nelly, as she leaned from her garden-wall that abutted upon the Pall-Mall,
+whilst his canine favourites grouped around him. On these occasions
+perhaps the representatives of those gentlemen to be seen in
+Regent-street, with two bundles of animated wool beneath their arms, were
+on the look-out, as we find his majesty continually advertising his lost
+dogs. Later we find him inquiring after "a little brindled greyhound
+bitch, having her two hinder feet white;" for a "white-haired spaniel,
+smooth-coated, with large red or yellowish spots," and for a "black
+mastiff dog, with cropped ears and cut tail." And when royalty had done,
+his Highness Prince Rupert, or Buckingham, or "my Lord Albemarle,"
+resorted to the _London Gazette_ to make known their canine losses. We
+think the change in the temper of the age is more clearly marked by these
+dog advertisements than by anything else. The Puritans did not like
+sporting animals of any kind, and we much question whether a dog would
+have followed a fifth-monarchy-man. Hence the total absence of all
+advertisements bearing upon the "fancy." Now that the king had returned,
+the old English love of field-sports spread with fourfold vigour. We
+chance upon the traces too of a courtly amusement which had been handed
+down from the middle ages, and was then only lingering amongst
+us--hawking. Here is an inquiry after a lost lanner:--
+
+    Richard Finney, Esquire, of Alaxton, in Leicestershire, about a
+    fortnight since lost a LANNER from that place; she hath neither Bells
+    nor Varvels; she is a white Hawk, and her long feathers and sarcels
+    are both in the blood. If any one give tidings thereof to Mr. Lambert
+    at the golden Key in Fleet-street, they shall have forty shillings for
+    their pains.--_Mercurius Publicus_, September 6, 1660.
+
+As London was the only place in which a newspaper was published during the
+reign of Charles, and indeed for nearly fifty years afterwards, the hue
+and cry after lost animals always came to town, as a matter of course. It
+sounds strange to read these advertisements of a sport the very terms of
+which are now unintelligible to us. What ages seem to have passed since
+these birds, in all the glory of scarlet hoods, were carried upon some
+"faire lady's" wrist, or poised themselves, with fluttering wing, as the
+falconer uncovered them to view their quarry! We have skipped a few years,
+in order to afford one or two more examples of these picturesque
+advertisements, so different from anything to be seen at the present
+day:--
+
+    Lost on the 30 of October, 1665, an Intermix'd Barbary Tercel Gentle,
+    engraven in Varvels, Richard Windwood, of Ditton Park, in the County
+    of Bucks, Esq. For more particular marks--if the Varvels be taken
+    off--the 4th feather in one of the wings Imped, and the third pounce
+    of the right foot broke. If any one inform Sir William Roberts, Knight
+    and Baronet (near Harrow-on-the-Hill, in the County of Middlesex), or
+    Mr. William Philips, at the King's Head in Paternoster Row, of the
+    Hawk, he shall be sufficiently rewarded.--_The Intelligencer_, Nov. 6,
+    1665.
+
+The next paper contains an inquiry for a goshawk belonging to Lord William
+Petre, and two years later a royal bird is inquired after in the _London
+Gazette_, as follows:--
+
+    A Sore ger Falcon of His Majesty, lost the 13 of August, who had one
+    Varvel of his Keeper, Roger Higs, of Westminster, Gent. Whosoever hath
+    taken her up and give notice Sir Allan Apsley, Master of His Majesties
+    Hawks at St. James's, shall be rewarded for his paines. Back-Stairs in
+    Whitehall.
+
+This Sir Allan Apsley is the brother of Mrs. Hutchinson, who has given us
+such a vivid picture, in the memoir of her husband, of the Commonwealth
+time. The _London Gazette_, from which we quote, is the only paper still
+in existence that had its root in those days. It first appeared in Oxford,
+upon the Court taking up its abode in that city during the time of the
+Great Plague, and was therefore called the _Oxford Gazette_. On the return
+of Charles to London it followed in his train, and became the _London
+Gazette_, or Court and official paper, and the latter character it has
+retained to the present hour. The gazettes of the seventeenth century were
+widely different from those of our day. They contain foreign news, as well
+as state papers, royal proclamations, &c., and, stranger still,
+miscellaneous advertisements are mixed up with those upon the business of
+the Court. The quack doctors, with an eye, we suppose, to the "quality,"
+were the first to avail themselves of its pages to make known their
+nostrums. It will astonish our readers to find what an ancestry some of
+the quack medicines of the present day have had. "Nervous powders,"
+specifics for gout, rheumatism, &c., seized upon the columns of the
+newspapers almost as early as they were published. Here is a specimen
+which might still serve as a model for such announcements:--
+
+    _Gentlemen_, you are desired to take notice, That Mr. _Theophilus
+    Buckworth_ doth at his house on _Mile-end Green_ make and expose to
+    sale, for the publick good, those so famous _Lozenges_ or _Pectorals_
+    approved for the cure of Consumptions, Coughs, Catarrhs, Asthmas,
+    Hoarness, Strongness of Breath, Colds in general, Diseases incident to
+    the Lungs, and a sovoraign Antidote against the Plague, and all other
+    contagious Diseases and obstructions of the Stomach: And for more
+    convenience of the people, constantly leaveth them sealed up with his
+    coat of arms on the papers, with Mr. _Rich. Lowndes_ (as formerly), at
+    the sign of the White Lion, near the little north door of _Pauls
+    Church_; Mr. _Henry Seile_, over against _S. Dunstan's_ Church in
+    Fleet Street; Mr. _William Milward_, at _Westminster_ Hall Gate; Mr.
+    _John Place_, at _Furnival's Inn Gate_, in Holborn; and Mr. _Robert
+    Horn_, at the Turk's-head near the entrance of the Royal Exchange,
+    Booksellers, and no others.
+
+        _This is published to prevent the designs of divers Pretenders,
+        who counterfeit the said Lozenges, to the disparagement of the
+        said Gentleman, and great abuse of the people._--_Mercurius
+        Politicus_, Nov. 16, 1660.
+
+The next is equally characteristic:--
+
+    Most Excellent and Approved _Dentifrices_ to scour and cleanse the
+    Teeth, making them white as Ivory, preserves from the Toothach; so
+    that, being constantly used, the parties using it are never troubled
+    with the Toothach: It fastens the Teeth, sweetens the Breath, and
+    preserves the Gums and Mouth from Cankers and Imposthumes. Made by
+    _Robert Turner_, Gentleman; and the right are onely to be had at
+    _Thomas Rookes_, Stationer, at the Holy Lamb at the east end of St.
+    Paul's Church, near the School, in sealed papers, at 12_d._ the paper.
+
+    _The reader is desired to beware of counterfeits._
+
+    (_Mercurius Politicus_, Dec. 20, 1660.)
+
+Other advertisements about this time profess to cure all diseases by means
+of an "antimonial cup." Sir Kenelm Digby, the same learned knight who
+feasted his wife upon capons fattened upon serpents, in order to make her
+fair, advertises a book in which he professes to show a method of curing
+wounds by a powder of sympathy; and here is a notification of a remedy
+which shows still more clearly the superstitious character of the age:--
+
+    Small baggs to hang about Children's necks, which are excellent both
+    for the _prevention and cure_ of the _Rickets_, and to ease children
+    in breeding of Teeth, are prepared by Mr. Edmund Buckworth, and
+    constantly to be had at Mr. Philip Clark's, Keeper of the Library in
+    the Fleet, and nowhere else, at 5 shillings a bagge.--_The
+    Intelligencer_, Oct. 16, 1664.
+
+It was left, however, to the reign of Anne for the mountebank to descend
+from his stage in the fair and the market-place, in order to erect it in
+the public newspapers. But we have yet to mention one, who might appear to
+some to be the greatest quack of all, and who about this time resorted to
+an advertisement in the newspapers to call his patients to his doors;--the
+royal charlatan, who touched for the evil, makes known that he is at home
+for the season to his people through the medium of the _Public
+Intelligencer_ of 1664:--
+
+    Whitehall, May 14, 1664. His Sacred Majesty, having declared it to be
+    his Royal will and purpose to continue the healing of his people for
+    the Evil during the Month of May, and then to give over till
+    Michaelmas next, I am commanded to give notice thereof, that the
+    people may not come up to Town in the Interim and lose their labour.
+
+No doubt there was much political significance in this pretended efficacy
+of the royal touch in scrofulous afflictions; at the same time, there is
+reason to believe that patients did sometimes speedily recover after
+undergoing the regal contact. Dr. Tyler Smith, who has written a very
+clever little book on the subject, boldly states his belief that the
+emotion felt by these poor stricken people who came within the influence
+of "that divinity which doth hedge a king," acted upon them as a powerful
+mental tonic; in a vast number of cases, however, we might impute the
+tonic to the gold coin which the king always bestowed upon his patient. Be
+that as it may, the practice flourished down to the time of Anne, at whose
+death it stopped; the sovereigns of the line of Brunswick never pretending
+to possess this medicinal virtue, coming as they did to the throne by only
+a parliamentary title. The reaction from the straightlaced times of the
+Commonwealth, which set in immediately upon the Restoration, seems to have
+arrived at its height about the year 1664, and the advertisements at that
+period reflect very truly the love of pleasure and excitement which seized
+hold of the people, as if they were bent on making up for the time that
+had been lost during the Puritanic rule. They are mostly taken up, in
+fact, with inquiries after "lost lace-work;" announcements of lotteries in
+the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall, of jewels, tapestry, and lockets of "Mr.
+Cooper's work," of which the following is a fair specimen:--
+
+    Lost, on the 27th of July, about Boswell Yard or Drury Lane, a Ladyes
+    Picture, set in gold, and three Keys, with divers other little things
+    in a perfumed pocket. Whosoever shall give notice of or bring the said
+    picture to Mr. Charles Coakine, Goldsmith, near Staples Inne, Holborn,
+    shall have 4 times the value of the gold for his payns.--_The News_,
+    August 4, 1664.
+
+The love of the people also for the strange and marvellous is shown by
+announcements of rare sights; for instance, we are told that,--
+
+    At the Mitre, near the west end of St. Paul's, is to be seen a rare
+    Collection of Curiosityes, much resorted to and admired by persons of
+    great learning and quality, among which a choyce Egyptian Mummy, with
+    hieroglyphicks; the Ant-Beare of Brasil; a Remora; a Torpedo; the Huge
+    Thigh-bone of a Giant; a Moon Fish; a Tropic Bird, &c.--_The News_ of
+    June 2, 1664.
+
+A rather scanty collection of articles, it is true, but eked out
+monstrously by the "huge thigh-bone of a giant," which in all probability
+belonged to some huge quadruped. The ignorance of those times with
+respect to natural history must have been something astonishing, as about
+the same date we find the following print of what were evidently
+considered very curious animals advertised in the _London Gazette_:--
+
+    A True Representation of the Rhonoserous and Elephant, lately brought
+    from the East Indies to London, drawn after the life, and curiously
+    engraven in Mezzotinto, printed upon a large sheet of paper. Sold by
+    PIERCE TEMPEST, at the Eagle and Child in the Strand, over against
+    Somerset House, Water Gate.--The _London Gazette_, Jan. 22, 1664.
+
+In the succeeding year all advertisements of this kind stop; amusements,
+from some great disturbing cause, have ceased to attract; there is no more
+gambling under the name of lotteries at Whitehall; no more curiosities are
+exhibited to a pleasure loving crew; no more books of amorous songs are
+published; no more lockets or perfumed bags are dropped; all is stagnation
+and silence, if we may judge as much from the sudden cessation of
+advertisements with reference to them in the public papers. Death now
+comes upon the stage, and rudely shuts the box of Autolycus, crops the
+street with grass, and marks a red cross on every other door. It is the
+year of the Great Plague. Those who could, fled early from the
+pest-stricken city; those who remained until the malady had gained
+irresistible sway were not allowed to depart, for fear of carrying the
+contagion into the provinces, the Lord Mayor denying to such a clean bill
+of health, in consequence of which they were driven back by the rustics as
+soon as discovered. A singular instance also of the vigilance of the
+authorities in confining, as they imagined, the mischief within the limits
+of the metropolis is afforded by the succeeding advertisement:--
+
+    _Nicholas Hurst_, an Upholsterer, over against the Rose Tavern, in
+    Russell-street, Covent-Garden, whose Maid Servant dyed lately of the
+    Sickness, fled on Monday last out of his house, taking with him
+    several Goods and Household Stuff, and was afterwards followed by one
+    Doctor Cary and Richard Bayle, with his wife and family, who lodged in
+    the same house; but Bayle having his usual dwelling-house in
+    Waybridge, in Surrey. Whereof we are commanded to give this Public
+    Notice, that diligent search may be made for them, and the houses in
+    which any of their persons or goods shall be found may be shut up by
+    the next Justice of the Peace, or other his Majesty's Officers of
+    Justice, and notice immediately given to some of his Majesty's Privy
+    Councill, or to one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of
+    State.--_London Gazette_, May 10, 1666.
+
+Antidotes and remedies for the plague are also commonly advertised, just
+as the visitation of the cholera in 1854 filled the columns of the _Times_
+full of all sorts of specifics. Thus, for example, the _Intelligencer_ of
+August the 28th, 1665, announces "an excellent electuary against the
+plague, to be drunk at the Green Dragon, Cheap-side, at sixpence a pint."
+The great and only cure, however, for this fearful visitation, which
+carried off a hundred thousand persons in London alone, was at hand--the
+purgation of fire. The conflagration, which burst out on the 2nd of
+September, and destroyed thirteen thousand houses, gave the final blow to
+its declining attacks. Singularly enough, but faint traces of this
+overwhelming calamity, as it was considered at the time, can be gathered
+from the current advertisements. Although the entire population of the
+city was rendered houseless, and had to encamp in the surrounding fields,
+where they extemporized shops and streets, not one hint of such a
+circumstance can be found in the public announcements of the period. No
+circumstance could afford a greater proof of the little use made by the
+trading community of this means of publicity in the time of Charles II. If
+a fire only a hundredth-part so destructive were to occur in these days,
+the columns of the press would immediately be full of the new addresses of
+the burnt-out shopkeepers; and those who were not even damaged by it would
+take care to "improve the occasion" to their own advantage. We look in
+vain through the pages of the _London Gazette_ of this and the following
+year for one such announcement: not even a tavern-keeper tells us the
+number of his booth in Goodman's Fields, although quack medicine
+flourished away in its columns as usual. In 1667 we see a notification,
+now and then, of some change in the site of a government office, or of the
+intention to build by contract some public structure, such as the
+following notice relative to the erection of the old Royal Exchange:--
+
+    All Artificers of the several Trades that must be used in Rebuilding
+    the Royal Exchange may take notice, that the Committee appointed for
+    Management of that Work do sit at the end of the long gallery in
+    Gresham Colledge every Monday in the forenoon, there and then to treat
+    with such as are fit to undertake the same.
+
+The remainder of the reign of Charles is unmarked by the appearance of any
+characteristic advertisements which give a clue to the peculiar complexion
+of the time. If we go back two or three years, however, we shall find one
+which bears upon the introduction of those monstrous flowing wigs which
+continued in fashion to the middle of the succeeding century:--
+
+    Whereas _George Grey_, a Barber and Perrywigge-maker, over against the
+    _Greyhound Tavern_, in _Black Fryers, London_, stands obliged to serve
+    some particular persons of eminent Condition and Quality in his way of
+    Employment: It is therefore notifyed at his desire, that any one
+    having long flaxen hayr to sell may repayr to him the said _George
+    Grey_, and they shall have 10_s._ the ounce, and for any other long
+    fine hayr after the Rate of 5_s._ or 7_s._ the ounce.--_The Newes_,
+    February 4, 1663.
+
+Pepys describes, with amusing minuteness, how Chapman the periwig-maker
+cut off his hair to make up one of these portentous head-dresses for him,
+much to the trouble of his servants, Jane and Bessy; and on the Lord's
+day, November 8th, 1663, he relates, with infinite _naïveté_, his entrance
+into church with what must evidently have been the perruquier's latest
+fashion. "To church, where I found that my coming in a periwig did not
+prove so strange as I was afraid it would; for I thought that all the
+church would presently have cast their eyes upon me, but I find no such
+thing." Ten shillings the ounce for long flaxen hair shows the demand for
+this peculiar colour by "persons of eminent condition and quality." We
+have shown, from the advertisements of the time of Charles II., what was
+indeed well known, that the age was characterized by frivolous amusements,
+and by a love of dress and vicious excitement, in the midst of which
+pestilence stalked like a mocking fiend, and the great conflagration lit
+up the general masquerade with its lurid and angry glare. Together with
+the emasculate tone of manners, a disposition to personal violence and a
+contempt of law stained the latter part of this and the succeeding reign.
+The audacious seizure of the crown jewels by Blood; the attack upon the
+Duke of Ormond by the same desperado, that nobleman actually having been
+dragged from his coach in St. James's Street in the evening, and carried,
+bound, upon the saddle-bow of Blood's horse, as far as Hyde Park Corner,
+before he could be rescued; the slitting of Sir John Coventry's nose in
+the Haymarket by the king's guard; and the murder of Sir Edmondbury
+Godfrey on Primrose Hill, are familiar instances of the prevalence of this
+lawless spirit.
+
+We catch a glimpse of one of these street outrages in the following
+announcement of an assault upon glorious John:--
+
+    Whereas _John Dryden, Esq._, was on Monday, the 18th instant, at
+    night, barbarously assaulted and wounded, in Rose Street in Covent
+    Garden, by divers men unknown; if any person shall make discovery of
+    the said offenders to the said Mr. Dryden, or to any Justice of the
+    Peace, he shall not only receive Fifty Pounds, which is deposited in
+    the hands of Mr. Blanchard, Goldsmith, next door to Temple Bar, for
+    the said purpose, but if he be a principal or an accessory in the said
+    fact, his Majesty is graciously pleased to promise him his pardon for
+    the same.--_The London Gazette_, Dec. 22, 1679.
+
+And here is another of a still more tragic character:--
+
+    Whereas a Gentleman was, on the eighteenth at night, mortally wounded
+    near Lincoln's Inn, in Chancery Lane, in view, as is supposed, of the
+    coachman that set him down: these are to give notice that the said
+    coachman shall come in and declare his knowledge of the matter; if any
+    other person shall discover the said coachman to John Hawles, at his
+    chamber in Lincoln's Inn, he shall have 5 guineas reward.--_London
+    Gazette_, March 29th, 1688.
+
+To this period also may be ascribed the rise of that romantic felon, the
+highwayman. The hue and cry after these genteel robbers is frequently
+raised during the reign of James II. In one case we have notice of a
+gentleman having been stopped, robbed, and then bound, by mounted men at
+Islington, who rode away with his horse; another time these daring gentry
+appeared at Knightsbridge; and a third advertisement, of a later date it
+is true, offers a reward for three mounted Macheaths, who were charged
+with stopping and robbing three young ladies in South Street, near Audley
+Chapel, as they were returning home from visiting. The following is still
+more singular, as showing the high social position of some of these
+gentlemen who took to the "road" for special purposes:--
+
+    _Whereas Mr. Herbert Jones_, Attorney-at-law in the town of Monmouth,
+    well known by being several years together Under-Sheriff of the same
+    County, hath of late divers time robbed the Mail coming from that town
+    to London, and taken out divers letters and writs, and is now fled
+    from justice, and supposed to have sheltered himself in some of the
+    new-raised troops. These are to give notice, that whosoever shall
+    secure the said Herbert Jones, so as to be committed in order to
+    answer these said crimes, may give notice thereof to Sir Thomas
+    Fowles, goldsmith, Temple-bar, London, or to Mr. Michael Bohune,
+    mercer, in Monmouth, and shall have a guinea's reward.
+
+The drinking tendencies of these Jacobite times are chiefly shown by the
+numberless inquiries after lost or stolen silver tankards, and by the
+sales of claret and canary which constantly took place. The hammer was not
+apparently used at that time, as we commonly find announcements of sales
+by "inch of candle," a term which mightily puzzled us until we saw the
+explanation of it in our constant book of reference, the Diary of Pepys:--
+
+    "After dinner we met and sold the Weymouth, Successe, and Fellowship
+    hulkes; where pleasant to see how backward men are at first to bid;
+    and yet, when the candle is going out, how they bawl, and dispute
+    afterwards who bid the most. And here I observed one man cunninger
+    than the rest, that was sure to bid the last man and to carry it; and
+    inquiring the reason he told me that, just as the flame goes out, the
+    smoke descends, which is a thing I never observed before, and by that
+    he do know the instant when to bid last." (Sept. 3rd, 1662).
+
+The taste for auctions, which became such a rage in the time of Anne, had
+its beginning about this period. Books and pictures are constantly
+advertised to be disposed of in this manner. The love of excitement born
+in the gaming time of the Restoration might be traced in these sales, and
+in the lotteries, or "adventures" as they were sometimes termed, which
+extended to every conceivable article capable of being sold. The rising
+taste of the town was, however, checked for the time by the Revolution,
+which was doubtless hastened on by such announcements as the following,
+which appeared in the _Gazette_ of March 1, 1688:--
+
+    Catholic loyalty, [Hand] upon the subject of Government and Obedience,
+    delivered in a SERMON before the King and Queen, in His Majesties
+    Chapel at Whitehall, on the 13 of June, 1687, by the Revnd. Father
+    Edward Scaraisbroke, priest of the Society of Jesus. Published by His
+    Majesty's Command. Sold by Raydal Taylor, near Stationers Hall,
+    London.
+
+Up to this time advertisements only appeared in threes and fours, and
+rarely, if ever, exceeded a dozen, in any newspaper of the day. They were
+generally stuck in the middle of the diminutive journal, but sometimes
+formed a tail-piece to it. They were confined in their character, and gave
+no evidence of belonging to a great commercial community. Now and then, it
+is true, sums of money were advertised as seeking investment; more
+constantly a truss for a "broken belly," or an "excellent dentifrice,"
+appeared; or some city mansion of the nobility is advertised to let,
+showing the progress westward even then, as witness the following:--
+
+    The Earl of Berkeley's House, with Garden and Stables in St. John's
+    Lane, not far from Smith Field, is to be Let or Sold for Building.
+    Enquire of Mr. Prestworth, a corn chandler, near the said house, and
+    you may know further.--_London Gazette_, August 17, 1685.
+
+Here is an instance of the singular manner in which fire-insurances were
+conducted in that day:--
+
+    There having happened a fire on the 24th of the last month by which
+    several houses of the friendly society were burned to the value of 965
+    pounds, these are to give notice to all persons of the said society
+    that they are desired to pay at the office Faulcon Court in Fleet
+    Street their several proportions of their said loss, which comes to
+    five shillings and one penny for every hundred pounds insured, before
+    the 12th of August next.--_London Gazette_, July 6th, 1685.
+
+Sometimes it is a "flee-bitten grey mare" stolen out of "Mary-le-bone
+Park," or a lost lottery-ticket, or a dog, that is inquired after; but
+they contained no hint that England possessed a commercial marine, or that
+she was destined to become a nation of shopkeepers. As yet, too, there was
+no sign given of that wonderful art of ingenious puffing which now exists,
+and which might lead a casual observer to imagine that the nation
+consisted of only two classes--cheats and dupes.
+
+From the settlement of 1688 the true value of the advertisement appears to
+have dawned upon the public. The country evidently began to breathe
+freely, and with Dutch William and Protestant ascendancy, the peculiar
+character of the nation burst forth with extraordinary vigour. Enterprise
+of all kinds was called forth, and cast its image upon the advertising
+columns of the public journals, now greatly increased both in size and in
+numbers, no less than twenty-six having been set up within four years
+after the Revolution. It is observable, too, that from this political
+convulsion dates a certain rough humour, which, however latent, was not
+before expressed in the public papers, especially on matters political.
+Let us further elucidate our meaning by quoting the following from the
+_New Observator_ of July 17, 1689, setting forth a popular and practical
+method of parading the Whig triumph:--
+
+    Orange cards, representing the late King's reign and expedition of the
+    Prince of Orange: viz. The Earl of Essex Murther, Dr. Otes Whipping,
+    Defacing the Monument, My Lord Jeffries in the West hanging of
+    Protestants, Magdalen College, Trial of the Bishops, Castle Maine at
+    Rome, the Popish Midwife, A Jesuit Preaching against our Bible,
+    Consecrated Smock, My Lord Chancellor at the Bed's feet, Birth of the
+    Prince of Wales, The Ordinaire Mass-house pulling down and burning by
+    Captain Tom and his Mobile, Mortar pieces in the Tower, The Prince of
+    Orange Landing, The Jesuits Scampering, Father Peter's Transactions,
+    The Fight at Reading, The Army going over to the Prince of Orange,
+    Tyrconnel in Ireland, My Lord Chancellor in the Tower. With many other
+    remarkable passages of the Times. To which is added the efigies of our
+    Gracious K. William and Q. Mary, curiously illustrated and engraven in
+    lively figures, done by the performers of the first Popish Plot Cards.
+    Sold by Donnan Newman, the publisher and printer of the New
+    Observator.
+
+The editor of the _New Observator_ was Bishop Burnet, and these political
+playing-cards were sold by his publisher; perhaps the great Protestant
+bishop knew something of their "performers." In the year 1692 an
+experiment was made which clearly shows how just an estimate was getting
+abroad of the value of publicity in matters of business. A newspaper was
+set up, called "The City Mercury, published gratis for the Promotion of
+Trade," which lasted for two years, and contained nothing but
+advertisements. The proprietor undertook to distribute a thousand copies
+per week to the then chief places of resort,--coffee houses, taverns, and
+bookshops. Even in these days of the "Times" double supplement such an
+experiment has often been made and failed; our wonder, therefore, is not
+that the _City Mercury_ went to that limbo which is stored with such
+countless abortive journals, but that the interest felt in advertisements
+should, at that early period, have kept it alive so long.
+
+If the foregoing scheme proves that an attempt was then made to subdivide
+the duties of a newspaper--that of keeping its readers informed of the
+news of the day, and of forming a means of publicity for the wants and
+losses of individuals--the advertisement we are about to quote clearly
+shows that at the same time there was a plan in existence for combining
+the printed newspaper with the more ancient written newsletter. It is well
+known that long after the institution of public journals the old
+profession of the newsletter-writer continued to flourish. We can easily
+account for this fact when we remember that during the heat of a great
+rebellion it was much more safe to write than to print the intelligence of
+the day. Many of these newsletters were written by strong partisans, and
+contained information which it was neither desirable nor safe that their
+opponents should see. They were passed on from hand to hand in secret, and
+often endorsed by each successive reader. We are told that the Cavaliers,
+when taken prisoners, have been known to eat their newsletters; and some
+of Prince Rupert's, which had been intercepted, are still in existence,
+and bear dark-red stains, which testify to the desperate manner in which
+they were defended. It is pretty certain, however, that, as a profession,
+newsletter-writing began to decline after the Revolution; although we find
+the editor of the _Evening Post_, as late as the year 1709, reminding its
+readers that "there must be three or four pounds a year paid for written
+news." At the same time the public journals, it is clear, had not
+performed that part of their office which was really more acceptable to
+the country reader than any other--the retailing the political and social
+chit-chat of the day. We have only to look into the public papers to
+convince ourselves how wofully they fell short in a department which must
+have been the staple of the news-writer. This want still being felt, John
+Salusbury devises a scheme to combine the old and the new plan after the
+following manner, as announced in the _Flying Post_ of 1694:--
+
+    If any Gentleman has a mind to oblige his country friend or
+    correspondent with the Account of Public Affairs, he may have it for
+    twopence of J. Salusbury at the Rising-Sun in Cornhill, on a sheet of
+    fine paper, half of which being blank, he may thereon write his own
+    private business or the material news of the day.
+
+It does not say much for the energy with which the journals of that day
+were conducted, that the purchasers are invited to write therein "the
+material news of the day;" that, we should have thought, was the editor's
+business to have supplied; but it was perhaps a contrivance by which the
+Jacobites might circulate information, by means of the post, without
+compromising the printer. We have seen many such papers, half print, half
+manuscript, in the British Museum, which had passed through the post, the
+manuscript portion of which, the Home Secretaries of our time would have
+thought sufficiently treasonable to justify them in having broken their
+seals.
+
+As advertisements, from their earliest introduction, were used to make
+known the amusements of the day and the means of killing time at the
+disposal of persons of quality, it seems strange that it was not employed
+sooner than it was to draw a company to the theatres. We have looked in
+vain for the announcement of any theatrical entertainment before the year
+1701, when the advertisement of the Lincoln's Inn Theatre makes its
+appearance in the columns of the _English Post_. The lead of this little
+house was, however, speedily followed by the larger ones, and only a few
+years later we have regular lists of the performances at all the theatres
+in the daily papers. The first journal of this description was the _Daily
+Courant_, published in 1709. In this year also appeared the celebrated
+"Tatler," to be speedily followed by the "Spectator" and "Guardian," the
+social and literary journals of that Augustine age. The first edition of
+the "Tatler," in the British Museum, contains advertisements like an
+ordinary paper, and they evidently reflect, more than those of its
+contemporaries, the flying fashions of the day and the follies of the
+"quality." In them we notice the rage that existed for lotteries, or
+"sales," as they were called. Every conceivable thing was put up to
+raffle. We see advertisements headed "A Sixpenny Sale of Lace," "A Hundred
+Pounds for Half-a-crown," "A Penny Adventure for a Great Pie," "A
+Quarter's Rent," "A Freehold Estate," "Threepenny Sales of Houses," "A
+fashionable Coach." Gloves, looking-glasses, chocolate, Hungary water,
+Indian goods, lacquered ware, fans, &c., were notified to be disposed of
+in this manner, and the fair mob was called together to draw their tickets
+by the same means. This fever, which produced ten years later the
+celebrated South Sea Bubble, was of slow growth. It had its root in the
+Restoration, its flower in the reign of Anne, and its fruit and
+_dénouement_ in the reign of George I. Before passing on from the pages of
+the "Tatler," we must stop for a moment to notice one or two of those
+playful advertisements which Sir Richard Steele delighted in, and which,
+under the disguise of fun, perhaps really afforded him excellent matter
+for his journal. Here is an irresistible invitation to his fair readers:--
+
+    Any Ladies who have any particular stories of their acquaintance which
+    they are willing privately to make public, may send 'em by the penny
+    post to Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., enclosed to Mr. John Morpheu, near
+    Stationers' Hall.--_Tatler_, May 8, 1709.
+
+An excellent lion's mouth this wherein to drop scandal. A still more
+amusing instance of the fun that pervaded Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq., is to
+be found in the series of advertisements in which he ought to have
+convinced John Partridge, the astrologer, that he really had departed this
+life; an assertion which the latter persisted in denying with the most
+ludicrous earnestness. Of these we give one from the "Tatler" of August
+24th 1710:--
+
+    Whereas an ignorant Upstart in Astrology has publicly endeavoured to
+    persuade the world that he is the late John Partridge, who died the 28
+    of March 1718, these are to certify all whom it may concern, that the
+    true John Partridge was not only dead at that time, but continues so
+    to the present day. Beware of counterfeits, for such are abroad.
+
+The pleasant malice of the above is patent enough, but we confess we are
+puzzled to know whether the following is genuine or not. We copied it from
+among a number of others, from which it was undistinguishable by any
+peculiarity of type:--
+
+    _The Charitable Advice Office_, where all persons may have the opinion
+    of dignified Clergymen, learned Council, graduate Physicians, and
+    experienced Surgeons, to any question in Divinity, Morality, Law,
+    Physic, or Surgery, with proper Prescriptions within twelve hours
+    after they have delivered in a state of their case. Those who can't
+    write may have their cases stated at the office. * * The fees are
+    only 1_s._ delivery, or sending your case, and 1_s._ more on
+    re-delivering that and the opinion upon it, being what is thought
+    sufficient to defray the necessary expense of servants and
+    office-rent.--_Tatler_, December 16, 1710.
+
+To pass, however, from the keen weapons of the brain to those of the
+flesh, it is interesting to fix with some tolerable accuracy the change
+which took place in the early part of the eighteenth century in what might
+be called the amusements of the fancy. The "noble art of defence," as it
+was termed, up to the time of the first George seems to have consisted in
+the broadsword exercise. Pepys describes in his "Diary" several bloody
+encounters of this kind which he himself witnessed; and the following
+advertisement, a half-century later, shows that the skilled weapon had not
+at that time been set aside for the more brutal fist:--
+
+    A _Tryal of Skill_ to be performed at His Majesty's Bear Garden in
+    Hockley-in-the-Hole, on Thursday next, being the 9th instant, betwixt
+    these following masters:--Edmund Button, master of the noble science
+    of defence, _who hath lately cut down_ Mr. Hasgit and the Champion of
+    the West, _and 4 besides_, and James Harris, an Herefordshire man,
+    master of the noble science of defence, who has fought 98 prizes and
+    never was worsted, to exercise the usual weapons, at 2 o'clock in the
+    afternoon precisely.--_Postman_, July 4, 1701.
+
+The savage character of the time may be judged from this public boast of
+Mr. Edmund Button that he had cut down six men with a murderous weapon. We
+question, however, if the age which could tolerate such ruffianism was not
+exceeded by the change which substituted the fist for the sword, and
+witnessed women entering the ring in the place of men. Some of the
+earliest notices of boxing-matches upon record, singularly enough, took
+place between combatants of the fair sex. In a public journal of 1722, for
+instance, we find the following gage of battle thrown down, and
+accepted:--
+
+    CHALLENGE.--I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some
+    words with Hannah Hyfield, and requiring satisfaction, do invite her
+    to meet me upon the stage, and box me for three guineas; each woman
+    holding half-a-crown in each hand, and the first woman that drops the
+    money to lose the battle.
+
+    ANSWER.--I, Hannah Hyfield, of Newgate Market, hearing of the
+    resoluteness of Elizabeth Wilkinson, will not fail, _God willing_, to
+    give her more blows than words, desiring home blows, and from her no
+    favour: she may expect a good thumping!
+
+The half-crowns in the hands was an ingenious device to prevent
+scratching! A still more characteristic specimen of one of these
+challenges to a fisticuff between two women is to be found in the _Daily
+Post_ of July 7th, 1728:--
+
+    At _Mr. Stokes' Amphitheatre_ in Islington Road, this present Monday,
+    being the 7 of October, will be a complete Boxing Match by the two
+    following Championesses:--Whereas I, Ann Field, of Stoke Newington,
+    ass-driver, well known for my abilities in boxing in my own defence
+    wherever it happened in my way, having been affronted by Mrs. Stokes,
+    styled the European Championess, do fairly invite her to a trial of
+    her best skill in Boxing for 10 pounds, fair rise and fall; and
+    question not but to give her such proofs of my judgement that shall
+    oblige her to acknowledge me Championess of the Stage, to the entire
+    satisfaction of all my friends.
+
+    I, Elizabeth Stokes, of the City of London, have not fought in this
+    way since I fought the famous boxing-woman of Billingsgate 29 minutes,
+    and gained a complete victory (which is six years ago); but as the
+    famous Stoke Newington ass-woman dares me to fight her for the 10
+    pounds, I do assure her I will not fail meeting her for the said sum,
+    and doubt not that the blows which I shall present her with will be
+    more difficult for her to digest than any she ever gave her
+    asses.--_Note._ A man, known by the name of Rugged and Tuff,
+    challenges the best man of Stoke Newington to fight him for one guinea
+    to what sum they please to venture. N.B. Attendance will be given at
+    one, and the encounter to begin at four precisely. There will be the
+    diversion of Cudgel-playing as usual.
+
+Other advertisements about this time relate to cock-matches, sometimes "to
+last the week," to bull-baiting, and, more cruel still, to dressing up mad
+bulls with fireworks, in order to worry them with dogs. The brutal tone of
+manners, which set in afresh with the Hanoverian succession, might be
+alone gathered from the so-called sporting advertisements of the day; and
+we now see that Hogarth, in his famous picture, had no need to, and
+probably did not, draw upon his imagination for the combination of horrid
+cruelties therein depicted.
+
+The very same tone pervaded the gallantry of the day, and we print two
+advertisements, one of the time of Anne, and the other of the age we are
+now illustrating, in order to contrast their spirit. We give the more
+polished one precedence:--
+
+    A gentleman who, the twentieth instant, had the honour to conduct a
+    lady out of a boat at Whitehall-stairs, desires to know where he may
+    wait on her to disclose a matter of concern. A letter directed to Mr.
+    Samuel Reeves, to be left with Mr. May, at the Golden Head, the upper
+    end of New Southampton Street, Covent Garden.--_Tatler_, March 21,
+    1709.
+
+A certain courtly style and air of good breeding pervades this
+advertisement, of which Sir Richard Steele himself need not have been
+ashamed; but what a falling-off is here!--
+
+    Whereas a young lady was at Covent Garden playhouse last Tuesday
+    night, and received a blow with a square piece of wood on her breast;
+    if the lady be single, and meet me on Sunday, at two o'clock, on the
+    Mall in St. James's Park, or send a line directed for A. B., to Mr.
+    Jones's, at the Sun Tavern in St. Paul's Churchyard, where and when I
+    shall wait on her, to inform her of something very much to her
+    advantage on honourable terms, her compliance will be a lasting
+    pleasure to her most obedient servant.--_General Advertiser_, Feb. 8,
+    1748.
+
+It would seem as though the beau had been forced to resort to a missile to
+make an impression, and then felt the necessity of stating that his
+intentions were "honourable," in order to secure an interview with his
+_innamorata_. Imagine, too, the open unblushing manner in which the
+assignation is attempted! We are far from saying that such matters are not
+managed now through the medium of advertisements, for we shall presently
+show they are, but in how much more carefully concealed a manner! The
+perfect contempt of public opinion, or rather the public acquiescence in
+such infringements of the moral law, which it exhibits, proves the general
+state of morality more than the infringements themselves, which obtain
+more or less at all times. Two of the causes which led to this low tone of
+manners with respect to women were doubtless the detestable profligacy of
+the courts of the two first Georges, and the very defective condition of
+the existing marriage law. William and Mary, and Anne, had, by their
+decorous, not to say frigid lives, redeemed the crown, and, in some
+measure, the aristocracy, from the vices of the Restoration. Crown, court,
+and quality, however, fell into a still worse slough on the accession of
+the Hanoverian king, who soiled afresh the rising tone of public life by
+his scandalous connection with the Duchess of Kendal and the Countess of
+Darlington; whilst his son and successor was absolutely abetted in his
+vicious courses by his own queen, who promoted his commerce with his two
+mistresses, the Countesses of Suffolk and Yarmouth. The degrading
+influence of the royal manners was well seconded by the condition of the
+law. Keith's chapel in May Fair, and that at the Fleet, were the Gretna
+Greens of the age, where children could get married at any time of the day
+or night for a couple of crowns. It was said at the time, that at the
+former chapel six thousand persons were annually married in this off-hand
+way; the youngest of the beautiful Miss Gunnings was wedded to the Duke of
+Hamilton, at twelve o'clock at night, with a ring off the bed-curtain, at
+this very "marriage-shop." The fruits of such unions may be imagined. The
+easy way in which the marriage bond was worn and broken through is clearly
+indicated by the advertisements which absolutely crowd the public journals
+from the accession of the House of Brunswick up to the time of the third
+George, of husbands warning the public not to trust their runaway wives.
+
+We have referred, in an early part of this paper, to the taste for
+blackamoors, which set in the reign of Charles II., and went on increasing
+until the middle of the next century, at which time there must have been a
+very considerable population of negro servants in the metropolis. At first
+the picturesque natives of the East were pressed into the service of the
+nobility and gentry, and colour does not appear to have been a _sine quâ
+non_. Thus we have in the _London Gazette_ of 1688 the following
+hue-and-cry advertisement:--
+
+    Run away from his master, Captain St. Lo, the 21st instant, Obdelah
+    Ealias Abraham, a Moor, swarthy complexion, short frizzled hair, a
+    gold ring in his ear, in a black coat and blew breeches. He took with
+    him a blew Turkish watch-gown, a Turkish suit of clothing that he used
+    to wear about town, and several other things. Whoever brings him to
+    Mr. Lozel's house in Green Street shall have one guinea for his
+    charges.
+
+The next advertisement we find also relates to what we must consider an
+East Indian. The notion of property in these boys seems to have been
+complete; their masters put their names upon their collars, as they did
+upon their setters or spaniels:--
+
+    A black boy, an Indian, about thirteen years old, run away the 8th
+    instant from Putney, with a collar about his neck with this
+    inscription: 'the Lady Bromfield's black in Lincoln's Inn Fields.'
+    Whoever brings him to Sir Edward Bromfield's at Putney shall have a
+    guinea reward.--_The London Gazette_, 1694.
+
+The traffic in African blacks, which commenced towards the end of the
+seventeenth century, seems to have displaced these eastern servitors
+towards the end of the century, for henceforth the word negro, blackamoor,
+or black boy, is invariably used. No doubt the fashion for these negroes
+and other coloured attendants was derived from the Venetian Republic, the
+intercourse of whose merchants with Africa and India naturally led to
+their introduction. Titian and other great painters of his school
+continually introduced them in their pictures, and our own great bard has
+for ever associated the Moor with the City in the Sea. In England the
+negro boys appear to have been considered as much articles of sale as they
+would have been in the slave-market at Constantinople. In the _Tatler_ of
+1709 we find one offered to the public in the following terms:--
+
+    A black boy, twelve years of age, fit to wait on a gentleman, to be
+    disposed of at Denis's Coffee-house in Finch Lane, near the Royal
+    Exchange.
+
+Again, in the _Daily Journal_ of September 28th, 1728, we light upon
+another:--
+
+    To be sold, a negro boy, aged eleven years. Enquire of the Virginia
+    Coffee-house in Threadneedle Street, behind the Royal Exchange.
+
+These were the overflowings of that infamous traffic in negroes, commenced
+by Sir John Hawkins in the year 1680, which tore from their homes, and
+transferred to Jamaica alone, no less than 910,000 Africans between that
+time and the year 1786, when the slave-trade was abolished.
+
+We have brought the reader up to the date of the final battle which
+extinguished the hopes of the Stuarts and settled the line of Brunswick
+firmly on the throne. The year 1745 witnessed the commencement of the
+_General Advertiser_, the title of which indicates the purpose to which it
+was dedicated. This paper was the first successful attempt to depend for
+support upon the advertisements it contained, thereby creating a new era
+in the newspaper press. From the very outset its columns were filled with
+them, between fifty and sixty, regularly classified and separated by
+rules, appearing in each publication; in fact, the advertising page put on
+for the first time a modern look. The departure of ships is constantly
+notified, and the engravings of these old high-pooped vessels sail in even
+line down the column. Trading matters have at last got the upper hand. You
+see "a pair of leather bags," "a scarlet laced-coat," "a sword," still
+inquired after; and theatres make a show, for this was the dawning of the
+age of Foote, Macklin, Garrick, and most of the other great players of the
+last century; but, comparatively speaking, the gaieties and follies of the
+town ceased gradually from this time to proclaim themselves through the
+medium of advertisements. The great earthquake at Lisbon so frightened the
+people, that masquerades were prohibited by law, and the puppet-shows, the
+rope-dancing, the china-auctions, and public breakfasts henceforth grow
+scarcer and scarcer as the Ladies Betty and Sally, who inaugurated them,
+withdrew by degrees, withered, faded, and patched, from the scene.
+
+The only signs of the political tendencies of the time to be gathered from
+the sources we are pursuing, are the party dinners, announcements of which
+are now and then to be met with as follows:--
+
+    To the Joyous.--The Bloods are desired to meet together at the house
+    known by the name of the Sir Hugh Middleton, near Saddler's Wells,
+    Islington, which Mr. Skeggs has procured for that day for the better
+    entertainment of those Gentlemen who agreed to meet at his own house.
+    Dinner will be on the Table punctually at two o'clock.--_General
+    Advertiser_, Jan. 13, 1748.
+
+Or the following still more characteristic example from the same paper of
+April 12:--
+
+    Half-Moon Tavern, Cheapside.--Saturday next, the 16 of April, being
+    the anniversary of the Glorious Battle of Colloden, the Stars will
+    assemble in the Moon at Six in the evening. Therefore the Choice
+    Spirits are desired to make their appearance and fill up the
+    joy.--ENDYMION.
+
+Within five-and-twenty years from this date most of the existing morning
+journals were established, and their advertising columns put on a guise
+closely resembling that which they now present. We need not therefore
+pursue our deep trenching into the old subsoil in order to turn up
+long-buried evidences of manners and fashions, for they have ceased to
+appear, either fossil or historical; we therefore boldly leap the gulf
+that intervenes between these old days and the present.
+
+The early part of the present century saw the commencement of that liberal
+and systematic plan of advertising which marks the complete era in the
+art. Princely ideas by degrees took possession of the trading mind as to
+the value of this new agent in extending their business transactions.
+Packwood, some thirty years ago, led the way by impressing his razor-strop
+indelibly on the mind of every bearded member of the empire. Like other
+great potentates he boasted a laureate in his pay, and every one remembers
+the reply made to the individuals curious to know who drew up his
+advertisements: "La, sir, we keeps a poet!"
+
+By universal consent, however, the world has accorded to the late George
+Robins the palm in this style of commercial puffing. His advertisements
+were really artistically written. Like Martin, he had the power of
+investing every landscape and building he touched with an importance and
+majesty not attainable by meaner hands. He did perhaps go beyond the
+yielding line of even poetical license, when he described one portion of a
+paradise he was about to submit to public competition as adorned, among
+other charms, with a "hanging wood," which the astonished purchaser found
+out meant nothing more than an old gallows. But then he redeemed slight
+manoeuvres of this kind by touches which really displayed a genius for
+puffing. On one occasion he had made the beauties of an estate so
+enchanting, that he found it necessary to blur it by a fault or two, lest
+it should prove too bright and good "for human nature's daily food." "But
+there are two drawbacks to the property," sighed out this Hafiz of the
+Mart, "the litter of the rose-leaves and the noise of the nightingales!"
+Certainly the force of exquisite puffing could no further go, and when he
+died the poetry of advertising departed. Others, such as Charles Wright
+of Champagne celebrity, have attempted to strike the strings; and Moses
+does, we believe, veritably keep a poet; but none of them have been able
+to rival George the Great, and we yawn as we read sonnets which end in the
+invariable "mart," or acrostics which refer to Hyam and Co.'s superior
+vests. Twenty years ago some of the daily newspapers admitted illustrated
+advertisements into their columns; now it would be fatal to any of them to
+do so. Nevertheless, they are by far the most effective of their class, as
+they call in the aid of another sense to express their meaning. All but
+the minors of the present generation must remember George Cruikshank's
+exquisite woodcut of the astonished cat viewing herself in the polished
+Hessian, which made the fortune of Warren. But in those days tradesmen
+only tried their wings for the flight. It was left to the present time to
+prove what unlimited confidence in the power of the advertisement will
+effect, and a short list of the sums _annually_ spent in this item by some
+of the most adventurous dealers will perhaps startle our readers.
+
+  "Professor" Holloway, Pills, etc.        £30,000
+  Moses and Son                             10,000
+  Rowland and Co. (Macassar oil, &c.)       10,000
+  Dr. De Jongh (cod-liver oil)              10,000
+  Heal and Sons (bedsteads and bedding)      6,000
+  Nicholls (tailor)                          4,500
+
+It does seem indeed incredible that one house should expend upon the mere
+advertising of quack pills and ointment a sum equal to the entire revenue
+of many a German principality. Can it possibly pay? asks the astonished
+reader. Let the increasing avenue of assistants, to be seen "from morn to
+dewy eve" wrapping up pills in the "professor's" establishment within the
+shadow of Temple Bar, supply the answer.[2] Vastly as the press of this
+country has expanded of late years, it has proved insufficient to contain
+within its limits the rapid current of puffing which has set in.
+Advertisements now overflow into our omnibuses, our cabs, our railway
+carriages, and our steamboats. Madame Tussaud pays 90_l._ monthly to the
+Atlas Omnibus Company alone for the privilege of posting her bills in
+their vehicles. They are inked upon the pavement, painted in large letters
+under the arches of the bridges and on every dead wall. Lloyd's weekly
+newspaper is stamped on the "full Guelph cheek" of the plebeian penny; the
+emissaries of Moses shower perfect libraries through the windows of the
+carriages which ply from the railway stations; and, as a crowning fact,
+Thackeray, in his "Journey from Cornhill to Cairo," tells us that Warren's
+blacking is painted up over an obliterated inscription to Psammetichus on
+Pompey's Pillar!
+
+Having shown the reader the slow growth of the advertising column; having
+climbed, like "Jack in the Bean-stalk," from its humble root in the days
+of the Commonwealth up its still increasing stem in the succeeding hundred
+years, we now come upon its worthy flower in the shape of the
+sixteen-paged _Times_ of the present day. Spread open its broad leaves,
+and behold the greatest marvel of the age--the microcosm in type. Who can
+recognize in its ample surface, which reflects like some camera-obscura
+the wants, the wishes, the hopes, and the fears of this great city, the
+news-book of the Cromwellian times with its leash of advertisements?
+Herein we see how fierce is the struggle of two millions and a half of
+people for dear existence. Every advertisement writhes and fights with its
+neighbour, and every phase of society, brilliant, broken, or dim, is
+reflected in this battle-field of life. Let us tell off the rank and file
+of this army of announcements. On the 24th of May, 1855, the _Times_, in
+its usual sixteen-paged paper, contained the incredible number of 2,575
+advertisements. Amazing as this total appears, we only arrive at its full
+significance by analyzing the vast array. Then, indeed, we feel what an
+important power is the great British publie. Of old the antechambers of
+the noble were thronged with poets, artists, publishers, tradesmen, and
+dependants of all kinds, seeking for the droppings of their favour; but
+what lordly antechamber ever presented such a crew of place-hunters,
+servitors, literary and scientific men, schemers, and shopkeepers as
+daily offer their services to the humblest individual who can spare a
+penny for an hour's perusal of the _Times_? Let us take this paper of the
+24th of May and examine the crowd of persons and things which cry aloud
+through its pages, each attempting to make its voice heard above the
+other. Here we see a noble fleet of ships, 129 in number, chartered for
+the regions of gold, for America, for India, for Africa--for every port,
+in fact, where cupidity, duty, or affection holds out an attraction for
+the British race. Another column wearies the eye with its interminable
+line of "Wants." Here in long and anxious row we see the modern "mop" or
+statute-fair for hiring; 429 servants of all grades, from the genteel
+lady's-maid or the "thorough cook," who will only condescend to accept
+service where two footmen are kept, to the humble scullery-maid, on that
+day passed their claims before us for inspection. Another column is noisy
+with auctioneers; 136 of whom notify their intention of poising their
+impatient hammers when we have favoured them with our company. Here we see
+a crowd of booksellers offering, hot from the press, 195 new volumes, many
+of which, we are assured by the appended critique, "should find a place in
+every gentleman's library." There are 378 houses, shops, and
+establishments presented to us to select from; and 144 lodging-house
+keepers, "ladies having houses larger than they require," and medical men
+who own "retreats," press forward with genteel offers of board and
+lodging. Education pursues her claims by the hands of no less than 144
+preceptors, male and female; whilst the hair, the skin, the feet, the
+teeth, and the inward man are offered the kind attention of thirty-six
+professors who possess infallible remedies for all the ills that flesh is
+heir to. The remainder is made up of the miscellaneous cries of tradesmen,
+whose voices rise from every portion of the page like the shouting of
+chapmen from a fair. In the midst of all this struggle for gold, place,
+and position, which goes on every day in this wonderful publication,
+outcries from the very depths of the heart, passionate tears, bursts of
+indignation, and heartrending appeals, startle one as they issue from the
+second column of its front page. Here the father sees his prodigal son
+afar off and falls upon his neck; the heartbroken mother implores her
+runaway child to return; or the abandoned wife searches through the world
+for her mate. It is strange how, when the eye is saturated with the thirst
+after mammon exhibited by the rest of the broadsheet, the heart becomes
+touched by these plaintive but searching utterances, a few of which we
+reproduce:--
+
+    The one-winged Dove must die unless the Crane returns to be a shield
+    against her enemies.--_Times_ of 1850.
+
+Or here is another which moves still more:--
+
+    B. J. C.--How more than cruel not to write. Take pity on such patient
+    silence.--_Times_, 1850.
+
+The most ghastly advertisement which perhaps ever appeared in a public
+journal we copy from this paper of the year 1845. It is either a threat to
+inter a wrong body in the "family vault," or an address to a dead man:--
+
+    To the Party who Posts His Letters in Prince's Street, Leicester
+    Square.--Your family is now in a state of excitement unbearable. Your
+    attention is called to an advertisement in Wednesday's _Morning
+    Advertiser_, headed, "A body found drowned at Deptford." After your
+    avowal to your friend as to what you might do, he has been to see the
+    decomposed remains, accompanied by others. The features are gone; but
+    there are marks on the arm; so that, unless they hear from you to-day,
+    it will satisfy them that the remains are those of their misguided
+    relative, and steps will be directly taken to place them in the family
+    vault, as they cannot bear the idea of a pauper's funeral.
+
+Sometimes we see the flashing eyes of indignation gleaming through the
+very words. The following is evidently written to an old lover with all
+the burning passion of a woman deceived:--
+
+    It is enough; one man alone upon earth have I found noble. Away from
+    me for ever! Cold heart and mean spirit, you have lost what
+    millions--empires--could not have bought, but which a single word
+    truthfully and nobly spoken might have made your own to all eternity.
+    Yet you are forgiven: depart in peace: I rest in my
+    Redeemer.--_Times_, Sept. 1st, 1852.
+
+Sometimes it is more confiding love "wafting a sigh from Indus to the
+pole," or, finger on lip, speaking secretly, and as he thinks securely,
+through the medium of cipher advertisements to the loved one. Sweet
+delusion! There are wicked philosophers abroad who unstring the bow of
+harder toil by picking your inmost thoughts! Lovers beware! intriguers
+tremble! Many a wicked passage of illicit love, many a joy fearfully
+snatched, which passed through the second column of the first page of the
+_Times_ as a string of disjointed letters, unintelligible as the
+correspondents thought, to all the world but themselves, have we seen
+fairly copied out in plain if not always good English in the commonplace
+books of these cunning men at cryptographs. Here, for instance, we give an
+episode from the life of "Flo," which appeared in the _Times_ of 1853-54,
+as a proof:--
+
+    Flo.--Thou voice of my heart! Berlin, Thursday. I leave next Monday,
+    and shall press you to my heart on Saturday. God bless you!--_Nov. 29,
+    1853._
+
+    Flo.--The last is wrong. I repeat it. Thou voice of my heart. I am so
+    lonely, I miss you more than ever. I look at your picture every night.
+    I send you an Indian shawl to wear round you while asleep after
+    dinner. It will keep you from harm, and you must fancy my arms are
+    around you. God bless you! how I do love you!--_Dec. 23, 1853._
+
+    Flo.--My own love, I am happy again; it is like awaking from a bad
+    dream. You are, my life; to know that there is a chance of seeing you,
+    to hear from you, to do things to enough. [There is some error here.]
+    I shall try to see you soon. Write to me as often as you can. God
+    bless you, thou voice of my heart!--_Jan. 2, 1854._
+
+    Flo.--Thou voice of my heart! How I do love you! How are you? Shall
+    you be laid up this spring? I can see you walking with your darling.
+    What would I give to be with you! Thanks for your last letter. I fear
+    nothing but separation from you. You are my world, my life, my hope.
+    Thou more than life, farewell! God bless you!--_Jan. 6, 1854._
+
+    Flo.--I fear, dearest, our cipher is discovered: write at once to your
+    friend "Indian Shawl" (P.O.), Buckingham, Bucks.--_Jan. 7, 1845._
+
+The advertisement of January 7th is written in a great fright, and refers
+to the discovery and exposure of the cipher in the _Times_ newspaper; for
+whenever the aforesaid philosophers perceive that a secret correspondence
+has arrived at a critical point they charitably insert a marplot
+advertisement in the same cipher. The "Flo" intrigue was carried on in
+figures, the key to which is as follows:--
+
+  0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
+  y.   u.   o.   i.   e.   a.   d.   k.   h.   f.
+  s.   t.   n.   m.   r.   l.   d.   g.   w.   p.
+  x.                                 c.   b.
+                                          v.
+
+The reader will perhaps remember another mad-looking advertisement which
+appeared in the year 1853, headed "Cenerentola." The first, dated Feb.
+2nd, we interpret thus:--
+
+    Cenerentola, I wish to try if you can read this, and am most anxious
+    to hear the end, when you return, and how long you remain here. Do
+    write a few lines, darling, please: I have been very far from happy
+    since you went away.
+
+One of the parties cannot frame an adequate explanation of some delicate
+matter clearly, as we find on the 11th the following:--
+
+    Cenerentola, until my heart is sick have I tried to frame an
+    explanation for you, but cannot. Silence is safest, if the true cause
+    is not suspected; if it is, all stories will be sifted to the bottom.
+    Do you remember our cousin's first proposition?--think of it.
+
+The following, which appeared on the 19th of the same month, is written in
+plain language, and is evidently a specimen of the marplot advertisement
+before alluded to:--
+
+    Cenerentola, what nonsense! Your cousin's proposition is absurd. I
+    have given an explanation--the true one--which has perfectly satisfied
+    both parties--a thing which silence never could have effected. So no
+    more such absurdity.
+
+The secret of this cipher consisted in representing each letter by the
+twenty-second onward continually. One more specimen of these singular
+advertisements and we have done. On Feb. 20, 1852, there appeared in the
+_Times_ the following mysterious line:--
+
+    Tig tjohw it tig jfhiirvola og tig psgvw.--F. D. N.
+
+The general reader, doubtless, looked upon this jumble of letters with
+some such a puzzled air as the mastiff gives the tortoise in a very
+popular French bronze; but not being able to make anything out of it,
+passed on to the more intelligible contents of the paper. A friend of
+ours, however, was curious and intelligent enough to extract the plain
+English out of it, though not without much trouble, as thus:--If we take
+the first word of the sentence, Tig, and place under its second letter i
+the one which alphabetically precedes it, and treat the next letters in a
+similar manner, we shall have the following combination:--
+
+  T  i  g
+     h  f
+        e
+
+Reading the first letters obliquely we have the article "The;" if we treat
+the second word in the same manner, the following will be the result:--
+
+  T   j   o   h   w
+      i.  n.  g.  v.
+          m.  f.  u.
+              e.  t.
+                  s.
+
+which, read in the same slanting way, produces the word _Times_, and the
+whole sentence, thus ingeniously worked out, gives up its latent and
+extraordinary meaning, thus--
+
+    "The _Times_ is the Jefferies of the press."
+
+What could have induced any one to take so much trouble thus to plant a
+hidden insult into the leading journal, we cannot divine. "East," "He
+Blew," "Willie and Fanny," "Dominoes," and "My darling A.," need not feel
+uncomfortable although we know their secrets. We have said quite enough to
+prove to these individuals that such ciphers as they use, are picked
+immediately by any cryptographic Hobbs; indeed, all systems of writing
+which depend upon transmutations of the letters of the alphabet, or the
+substitution of figures for letters, such as we generally find in the
+_Times_, are mere puzzles for children, and not worthy of the more cunning
+or finished in the art.
+
+It is not to be expected, with all the caution exhibited by the morning
+papers to prevent the insertion of swindling advertisements that rogues do
+not now and then manage to take advantage of their great circulation for
+the sake of forwarding their own nefarious schemes. Sir Robert Carden has
+just done good service by running to earth the Mr. Fynn, who for years has
+lived abroad in splendour at the expense of the poor governesses he
+managed to victimize through the advertising columns of the _Times_. One's
+heart sickens at the stream of poor young ladies his promises have dragged
+across the continent, and the consequences which may have resulted from
+their thus putting their reputation as well as their money into his power.
+Such scandalous traps as these are, of course, rare; but the papers are
+full of minor pitfalls, into which the unwary are continually falling,
+sometimes with their eyes wide open. Of the latter class are the
+matrimonial advertisements; here is a specimen of one of the most artful
+of its kind we ever remember to have seen:--
+
+    To Girls of Fortune--Matrimony.--A bachelor, young, amiable, handsome,
+    and of good family, and accustomed to move in the highest sphere of
+    society, is embarrassed in his circumstances. Marriage is his only
+    hope of extrication. This advertisement is inserted by one of his
+    friends. Ingratitude was never one of his faults, and he will study
+    for the remainder of his life to prove his estimation of the
+    confidence placed in him.--Address, post-paid, L. L. H. L., 47, King
+    Street, Soho.--N.B. The witticisms of cockney scribblers deprecated.
+
+The air of candour, and the taking portrait of the handsome bachelor,
+whose very poverty is converted into a charm, is cleverly assumed. An
+announcement of a much less flattering kind, but probably of a more
+genuine and honourable nature, was published in _Blackwood_ some time ago,
+which we append, as, like Landseer's dog-pictures, the two form a capital
+pair illustrative of high and low life.
+
+    Matrimonial Advertisement.--I hereby give notice to all unmarried
+    women, that I, John Hobnail, am at this writing five-and-forty, a
+    widower, and in want of a wife. As I wish no one to be mistaken, I
+    have a good cottage, with a couple of acres of land, for which I pay
+    2_l._ a year. I have five children, four of them old enough to be in
+    employment; three sides of bacon, and some pigs ready for market. I
+    should like to have a woman fit to take care of her house when I am
+    out. I want no second family. She may be between forty and fifty if
+    she likes. A good sterling woman would be preferred, who would take
+    care of the pigs.
+
+The following is also matter of fact, but it looks suspicious:--
+
+    Matrimony to Milliners and Dressmakers. A young man about to EMIGRATE
+    to SOUTH AUSTRALIA would be happy to form an alliance with a young
+    woman in the above line possessing 60_l._ or 100_l._ property. Any one
+    so disposed, by applying by letter (post-paid) to T. Hall, 175, Upper
+    Thames Street, till Saturday next, appointing an interview, may depend
+    on prompt attention and strict secrecy.--_Times_, 1845.
+
+The matrimonial bait is so obviously a good one, that of late years we see
+advertisements of institutions, at which regular lists of candidates for
+the marriage state, both male and female, are kept, together with
+portraits, and a ledger in which pecuniary and mental qualifications are
+neatly posted. Such springes are only suited, however, for the grossest
+folly; but there is another class of advertisements which empties the
+pockets of the industrious and aspiring in a very workmanlike manner: we
+allude to such as the following:--
+
+    Gentlemen having a respectable circle of acquaintance may hear of
+    means of INCREASING their INCOME without the slightest pecuniary risk,
+    or of having (by any chance) their feelings wounded. Apply for
+    particulars, by letter, stating their position, &c., to W. R., 37,
+    Wigmore Street, Cavendish Square.
+
+Gentlemen whose feelings are so delicate that they must not be injured on
+any consideration, who nevertheless have a desire for lucre, we recommend
+not to apply to such persons, unless they wish to receive for their pains
+some such a scheme as was forwarded to a person who had answered an
+advertisement (enclosing, as directed, thirty postage-stamps) in _Lloyd's
+Weekly Journal_, headed "How to make 2_l._ per week by the outlay of
+10_s._":--
+
+    "First purchase 1 cwt. of large-sized potatoes, which may be obtained
+    for the sum of 4_s._, then purchase a large basket, which will cost
+    say another 4_s._, then buy 2_s._ worth of flannel blanketing, and
+    this will comprise your stock in trade, of which the total cost is
+    10_s._ A large-sized potato weighs about half a pound, consequently
+    there are 224 potatoes in a cwt.
+
+    "Take half the above quantity of potatoes each evening to a baker's,
+    and have them baked; when properly cooked put them in your basket,
+    well wrapped up in the flannel to keep them hot, and sally forth and
+    offer them for sale at one penny each. Numbers will be glad to
+    purchase them at that price, and you will for certain be able to sell
+    half a cwt. every evening. From the calculation made below you will
+    see by that means you will be able to earn 2_l._ per week. The best
+    plan is to frequent the most crowded thoroughfares, and make good use
+    of your lungs; thus letting people know what you have for sale. You
+    could also call in at each public-house on your way, and solicit the
+    patronage of the customers, many of whom would be certain to buy of
+    you. Should you have too much pride to transact the business yourself
+    (though no one need be ashamed of pursuing an honest calling), you
+    could hire a boy for a few shillings a week, who could do the work for
+    you, and you could still make a handsome profit weekly.
+
+    "The following calculation proves that 2_l._ per week can be made by
+    selling baked potatoes:--
+
+        "1 cwt., containing 224 potatoes, sold in two
+        evenings, at 1_d._ each                  £0 18 8
+                         Deduct cost                   0  4 0
+                                                      -------
+                                                      £0 14 8
+                                                            3
+                                                      -------
+                         Six evenings' sale           £2  4 0
+        Pay baker at the rate of 8_d._ per evening for
+        baking potatoes                                0  4 0
+                                                      -------
+                         Net profit per week          £2  0 0"
+
+One more specimen of these baits for gudgeon, and we have done. We
+frequently see appeals to the benevolent for the loans of small sums. Some
+of these are doubtless written by innocent persons in distress, who
+confide in the good side of human nature; and we have been given to
+understand that in many cases this blind confidence has not been
+misplaced; for there are many Samaritans who read the papers nowadays, and
+feel a romantic pleasure in answering such appeals: at the same time, we
+are afraid that the great majority of them are gross deceptions. The
+veritable whine of "the poor broken-down tradesman" who makes a habit of
+visiting our quiet streets and appealing, in a very solemn voice, to "my
+brethren" for the loan of a small trifle, whilst he anxiously scans the
+windows for the halfpence, is observable, for instance, in the following
+cool appeal:--
+
+    To the Benevolent.--A Young Tradesman has, from a series of
+    misfortunes, been reduced to the painful necessity of asking for a
+    trifling SUM to enable him to raise 10_l._ to save himself from
+    inevitable ruin and poverty; or if any gentleman would lend the above
+    it would be faithfully repaid. Satisfactory references as to the
+    genuineness of this case.--Direct to A.Z., Mr. Rigby's, Post-Office,
+    Mile-end Road.
+
+The receipt of conscience-money is constantly acknowledged in
+advertisements by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, and the sums
+which in this manner find their way into the Exchequer are by no means
+inconsiderable. It is honourable to human nature, amid all the roguery we
+have exposed, to find that now and then some conscience is touched by a
+very small matter, and that great trouble and no little expense is often
+gone to in order that others may not suffer through the inadvertency or
+carelessness of the advertiser. The following is a delicate example:--
+
+    To Hackney-Coachmen.--About the month of March last, a gentleman from
+    the country took a coach from Finsbury Square, and accidentally broke
+    the glass of one of its windows. Being unwell at the time, the
+    circumstance was forgotten when he quitted the coach, and it would now
+    be a great relief to his mind to be put in a situation to pay the
+    coachman for it. Should this meet the eye of the person who drove the
+    coach, and he will make application to A. B., at Walker's Hotel, Dean
+    Street, Soho, any morning during the next week, before eleven o'clock,
+    proper attention will be paid to it.--_Times_, 1842.
+
+The more curious advertisements which from time to time appear in the
+public journals, but particularly in the _Times_, do not admit of
+classification; and they are so numerous, moreover, that if we were to
+comment upon one tithe of those that have appeared within the last six
+years, we should far exceed the limits of this article. We make no
+apology, therefore, for stringing together the following very odd lot:--
+
+    Do you want a servant?--Necessity prompts the question.--The
+    advertiser OFFERS his SERVICES to any lady or gentleman, company, or
+    others, in want of a truly faithful confidential servant in any
+    capacity not menial, where a practical knowledge of human nature, in
+    various parts of the world, would be available. Could undertake any
+    affair of small or great importance, where talent, inviolable secrecy,
+    or good address would be necessary. Has moved in the best and worst
+    societies without being contaminated by either; has never been a
+    servant; begs to recommend himself as one who knows his place; is
+    moral, temperate, middle-aged; no objection to any part of the world.
+    Could advise any capitalist wishing to increase his income, and have
+    the control of his own money. Could act as secretary or valet to any
+    lady or gentleman. Can give advice or hold his tongue, sing, dance,
+    play, fence, box, or preach a sermon, tell a story, be grave or gay,
+    ridiculous or sublime, or do anything, from the curling of a peruke to
+    the storming of a citadel, but never to excel his master.--Address, A.
+    B. C., 7, Little St. Andrew Street, Leicester Square.--_Times_, 1850.
+
+    The Mighty Angel's Midnight Roar.--"Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go
+    ye out to meet him." This awful cry, as is demonstrated, will very
+    shortly be heard, viz.: at the commencement of "the great day (or
+    year) of God's wrath," or the last of the 2,300 days (or years) in
+    Daniel's prophecy. By the authors of "Proofs of the Second Coming of
+    Messiah at the Passover in 1848." Price 6_d._ Fourth Edition.
+
+This is a Muggletonian prophecy of the destruction of the world at a
+certain date. The prediction failed, however, and the prophet found it
+necessary to explain the reason:--
+
+    The Mighty Angel's Midnight Roar.--The authors, owing to their
+    disappointment, most sedulously investigated its cause, and instantly
+    announce its discovery. Daniel's vision, in chap. 8, was for 2,300
+    years, to the end of which (see 5-12) the "little horn" was to
+    practise and prosper, after which comes the year of God's wrath, which
+    was erroneously included in the 2,300 years, and thus the midnight cry
+    will be a year later than stated.--_Times_, 1851.
+
+    To P. Q. How Is Your Mother? I shan't inquire further, and must
+    decline entering upon the collateral branches of the family.--_Times_,
+    1842.
+
+    To Widowers and Single Gentlemen.--WANTED, by a lady, a SITUATION to
+    superintend the household and preside at table. She is agreeable,
+    becoming, careful, desirable, English, facetious, generous, honest,
+    industrious, judicious, keen, lively, merry, natty, obedient,
+    philosophic, quiet, regular, sociable, tasteful, useful, vivacious,
+    womanish, xantippish, youthful, zealous, &c.--Address, X. Y. Z.,
+    Simmond's Library, Edgeware Road.--_Times._
+
+    The Title of an Ancient Baron. Mr. George Robins is empowered to SELL
+    the TITLE and DIGNITY of a BARON. The origin of the family, its
+    ancient descent, and illustrious ancestry, will be fully developed to
+    those and such only as desire to possess this distinguished rank for
+    the inconsiderable sum of 1,000_l._ Covent-garden Market.--_Times_,
+    1841.
+
+    Postage stamps. A young lady, being desirous of covering her
+    dressing-room with cancelled POSTAGE STAMPS, has been so far
+    encouraged in her wish by private friends as to have succeeded in
+    collecting 16,000! these, however, being insufficient, she will be
+    greatly obliged if any good-natured persons who may have these
+    (otherwise useless) little articles at their disposal would assist in
+    her whimsical project. Address to E. D., Mr. Butt's, glover,
+    Leadenhall Street; or Mr. Marshall's, jeweller, Hackney.--_Times_,
+    1841.
+
+    To the Theatrical Profession.--WANTED, for a Summer Theatre and
+    Circuit, a Leading Lady, Singing Chambermaid, First Low Comedian,
+    Heavy Man, Walking Gentleman, and one or two Gentlemen for Utility. To
+    open July 9th.
+
+    Address (enclosing Stamp for reply) to Mr. J. WINDSOR, Theatre Royal,
+    Preston, Lancashire.--_Era_, July 1, 1855.
+
+    Wanted a Man and his Wife to look after a Horse and Dairy with a
+    religious turn of mind without any incumbrance.
+
+The variety is perhaps as astonishing as the number of advertisements in
+the _Times_. Like the trunk of an elephant, no matter seems too minute or
+too gigantic, too ludicrous or too sad, to be lifted into notoriety by the
+giant of Printing-house Square. The partition of a thin rule suffices to
+separate a call for the loan of millions from the sad weak cry of the
+destitute gentlewoman to be allowed to slave in a nursery "for the sake of
+a home." Vehement love sends its voice imploring through the world after a
+graceless boy, side by side with the announcement of the landing of a
+cargo of lively turtle, or the card of a bug-killer. The poor lady who
+advertises for boarders "merely for the sake of society" finds her "want"
+cheek-by-jowl with some Muggletonian announcement gratuitously calculated
+to break up society altogether, to the effect that the world will come to
+an end by the middle of the next month. Or the reader is informed that for
+twelve postage stamps he may learn "How to obtain a certain fortune,"
+exactly opposite an offer of a bonus of 500_l._ to any one who will obtain
+for the advertiser "a Government situation." The _Times_ reflects every
+want, and appeals to every motive which affects our composite society. And
+why does it do this? Because of its ubiquity: go where we will, there,
+like the house-fly or the sparrow, we find it. The porter reads it in his
+beehive-chair, the master in his library; Green, we have no doubt, takes
+it with him to the clouds in his balloon, and the collier reads it in the
+depths of the mine; the workman at his bench, the lodger in his two-pair
+back, the gold-digger in his hole, and the soldier in the trench, pore
+over its broad pages. Hot from the press, or months old, still it is read.
+That it is, _par excellence_, the national paper, and reflects more than
+any other the life of the people, may be gathered from its circulation.
+They show in the editor's room a singular diagram, which indicates by an
+irregular line the circulation day by day and year by year. On this sheet
+the gusts of political feeling and the pressure of popular excitement are
+as minutely indicated as the force and direction of the wind are shown by
+the self-registering apparatus in Lloyd's Rooms. Thus we find that in the
+year 1845 it ran along at a pretty nearly dead level of 23,000 copies
+daily. In 1846--for one day, the 28th of January, that on which the report
+of Sir Robert Peel's statement respecting the Corn Laws appeared--it rose
+in a towering peak to a height of 51,000, and then fell again to its old
+number. It began the year 1848 with 29,000, and rose to 43,000 on the 29th
+of February--the morrow of the French revolution. In 1852 its level at
+starting was 36,000, and it attained to the highest point it has yet
+touched on the 19th of November, the day of the Memoir of the Great Duke,
+when 69,000 copies were sold. In January, 1853, the level had arisen to
+40,000; and at the commencement of the present year it stood at 58,000, a
+circulation which has since increased to 60,000 copies daily!
+Notwithstanding all the disturbing causes which make the line of its
+circulation present the appearance of hill and dale, sometimes rising into
+Alp-like elevations, its ordinary level at the beginning of each year for
+some time past has constantly gone on advancing; insomuch that within ten
+years its circulation has more than doubled by 7,000 daily.
+
+This vigorous growth is the true cause of that wonderful determination of
+advertisements to its pages, which have overflowed into a second paper, or
+supplement, as it was formerly called. That this success has been fairly
+won, we have never ourselves doubted; but a fact has come to our knowledge
+which will pretty clearly prove that this great paper is conducted on
+principles which are superior to mere money considerations; or rather its
+operations are so large that it can afford to inflict upon itself
+pecuniary losses, such as would annihilate any other journal, in order to
+take a perfectly free course. In the year 1845, when the railway mania was
+at its height, the _Times_ advertising sheet was overrun with projected
+lines, and many a guess was made, we remember, at the time as to their
+probable value; but high as the estimates generally were, they came far
+short of the truth. We give the cash and credit returns of advertisements
+of all kinds for nine weeks:--
+
+  Sept. 6      £2839 14 0
+    "  13       3783 12 0
+    "  20       3935  7 6
+    "  27       4692  7 0
+  Oct.  4       6318 14 0
+    "  11       6543 17 0
+    "  18       6687  4 0
+    "  25       6025 14 6
+  Nov.  1       3230  3 6
+
+During the greater part of the time that the proprietors were reaping this
+splendid harvest from the infatuation of the people, the heaviest guns
+were daily brought to bear from the leading columns upon the bubbles which
+rose up so thickly in the advertising sheet. The effect of their fire may
+be measured by the falling off of nearly 3,000_l._ in the returns for a
+single week. A journal which could afford to sacrifice such a revenue to
+its independence, certainly deserved some consideration from the
+Government; but, on the contrary, it appears to have been singled out for
+annoyance by the act which relates to newspapers. We see certain trees on
+our lawns whose upshooting branches are by ingenious gardeners trained
+downwards, and taught to hold themselves in a dependent condition by the
+imposition of weights upon their extremities. The state gardeners have
+applied the same treatment to the journal in question, by hanging an extra
+halfpenny stamp upon every copy of its issue--a proceeding which, in our
+opinion, is as unfair as it is injudicious: and this they will find in the
+future, when the crowd of mosquito-like cheap journals called forth by the
+measure, and supported by the very life-blood of the leading journal,
+begin to gather strength and to attack Whiggery with their democratic
+buzz.
+
+We have dwelt chiefly upon the advertising sheet of the _Times_, because
+it is the epitome of that in all the other journals. It must be mentioned,
+however, that some of the morning and weekly papers lay themselves out
+for class advertisements. Thus the _Morning Post_ monopolizes all those
+which relate to fashion and high life; and the _Morning Advertiser_, the
+paper of the licensed victuallers, aggregates to itself every announcement
+relating to their craft. _Bell's Life_ is one mass of advertisements of
+various sports; the _Era_ is great upon all theatricals; the _Athenæum_
+gathers to itself a large proportion of book advertisements. The
+_Illustrated News_ among the weeklies, like the _Times_ among the dailies,
+towers by the head above them all. A hebdomadal circulation of 170,000
+draws a far more cosmopolitan collection of announcements to its pages
+than any of its contemporaries can boast. We have said nothing of the
+advertisements in the provincial journals; but it is gratifying to find
+that they have more than kept pace with those which have appeared in the
+metropolitan papers. Their enormous increase is best shown by the returns
+of the advertisement duty; from which it appears that in 1851 no less than
+2,334,593 advertisements were published in the journals of Great Britain
+and Ireland--a number which has vastly augmented since the tax upon them
+has been repealed.
+
+It is curious to see the estimate which the different journals place upon
+themselves as mediums of publicity, by comparing their charges for the
+same advertisement. Thus the contents of the _Quarterly Review_ for
+January, 1855, precisely similar as far as length is concerned, was
+charged for insertion as an advertisement by the different papers as
+follows:--_Times_, 4s.; _Illustrated News_, 1_l._ 8s.; _Morning
+Chronicle_, 5s. 6d.; _Morning Post_, 6s.; _Daily News_, 5s. 6d.;
+_Spectator_, 7s. 6d.; _Morning Herald_, 6s.; _Punch_, 15s.; _Observer_,
+9s. 6d.; _English Churchman_, 5s. 6d.; _Examiner_, 3s. 6d.; _John Bull_,
+5s. 6d.; _Athenæum_, 10s. 6d. Now the _Times_ did not "display" the
+advertisement as all the others did, it is true, and therefore squeezed it
+into half the space; but with this difference, its charge was absolutely
+the lowest in the list, with the single exception of that of the
+_Examiner_. How this moderation on the part of the Leading Journal is to
+be accounted for we know not; but the apparent dearness of the
+_Illustrated News_ meets a ready solution, and affords us an opportunity
+of showing how vastly the prime cost of an advertisement, during the
+present high price of paper especially, is augmented by a great increase
+of the circulation of the paper in which it appears, and what the
+advertiser really gets for his money. If we take the advertisement of our
+contents (_Quarterly Review_), it will be found to measure about one inch
+in depth; it is obvious, then, that we must multiply this measure by
+170,000, the number of separate copies in which it appeared. Now 170,000
+inches yield a strip of printed paper the width of a newspaper
+column--_upwards of two miles and three-quarters long!_ Thus we have at a
+glance the real amount of publicity which is procurable in a great
+journal; and with so remarkable a statement it will be well to close our
+paper.
+
+
+
+
+FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS.
+
+
+A story is told of a European who, wishing to convince a Brahmin of the
+folly of his faith in interdicting, as an article of food, anything that
+once possessed life, showed him, by the aid of the microscope, that the
+very water which he drank was full of living things. The Indian, thus
+suddenly introduced to an unseen world, dashed the instrument to the
+ground, and reproached his teacher for having so wantonly destroyed the
+guiding principle of his life. We, too, have at home a Hindoo, in the
+shape of the believing British public, to whose eye Dr. Hassall nicely
+adjusts the focus of his microscope, and bids him behold what unseen
+villanies are daily perpetrated upon his purse and person.
+
+The world at large has almost forgotten Accum's celebrated work, "Death in
+the Pot;" a new generation has indeed sprung up since it was written, and
+fraudulent tradesmen and manufacturers have gone on in silence, and, up to
+this time, in security, falsifying the food and picking the pockets of the
+people. Startling indeed as were the revelations in that remarkable book,
+yet it had little effect in reforming the abuses it exposed. General
+denunciations of grocers did not touch individuals of the craft, and they
+were consequently not driven to improve the quality of their wares. The
+_Lancet_ Commission went to work in a different manner. In Turkey, when of
+old they caught a baker giving false weight, or adulterating the staff of
+life, they nailed his ear to the door-post, "pour encourager les autres."
+Dr. Hassall, like a modern Al Raschid, perambulated the town himself, or
+sent his trustworthy agents to purchase articles, upon all of which the
+inexorable microscope was set to work, and every fraudulent sample, after
+due notice given, subjected its vendor to be pinned for ever to the
+terrible pages of the Commissioners' report. In this manner direct
+responsibility was obtained. If the falsification denounced was not the
+work of the retailer, he was glad enough to shift the blame upon the
+manufacturer; and thus the truth came out.
+
+A gun suddenly fired into a rookery could not cause a greater commotion
+than this publication of the names of dishonest tradesmen; nor does the
+daylight, when you lift a stone, startle ugly and loathsome things more
+quickly than the pencil of light, streaming through a quarter-inch lens,
+surprised in their naked ugliness the thousand and one illegal substances
+which enter more or less into every description of food that it will pay
+to adulterate. Nay, to such a pitch of refinement has the art of
+falsification of alimentary substances reached, that the very articles
+used to adulterate are adulterated; and while one tradesman is picking the
+pockets of his customers, a still more cunning rogue is, unknown to
+himself, deep in his own!
+
+The manner in which food is adulterated is not only one of degree, but of
+kind. The most simple of all sophistications, and that which is most
+harmless, is the mixture of inferior qualities of the same substance.
+Indeed, if the price charged were according to quality, it would be no
+fraud at all; but this adjustment rarely takes place. Secondly, the
+mixture of cheaper articles of another kind. Thirdly, the surreptitious
+introduction of materials which, taken in large quantities, are
+prejudicial to health; and, fourthly, the admixture of the most deadly
+poisons in order to improve the appearance of the article "doctored."
+
+The microscope alone is capable of detecting at one operation the nature
+and extent of the more harmless but general of these frauds. When once the
+investigator, by the aid of that instrument, has become familiar with the
+configurations of different kinds of the same chemically composed
+substances, he is armed with far greater detective power than chemical
+agents could provide him with. It is beyond the limit of the test-tube to
+show the mind the various forms of animal and vegetable life which exist
+in impure water; delicate as are its powers, it could not indicate the
+presence of the sugar-insect, or distinguish with unerring nicety an
+admixture of the common Circuma arrowroot with the finer Maranta.
+Chemistry is quite capable of telling the component parts of any article:
+what are the definite forms and natures of the various ingredients which
+enter into a mixture, it cannot so easily answer. This the microscope can
+at once effect; and in its present application consists Dr. Hassall's
+advantage over all previous investigators in the same field. The precision
+with which he is enabled to state the result of his labours leaves no
+appeal: he shows his reader the intimate structures of a coffee-grain, and
+of oak or mahogany sawdust; and then a specimen of the two combined, sold
+under the title of genuine Mocha. Many manufacturers and retailers who
+have been detected falsifying the food of the public, have threatened
+actions; but they all flinched from the test of this unerring instrument.
+
+The system of adulteration is so wide-spread, and embraces so many of the
+items of the daily meal, that we scarcely know where to begin--what corner
+of the veil first to lift. Let us hold up the cruet-frame, for example,
+and analyze its contents. There is mustard, pepper (black and cayenne),
+vinegar, anchovy and Harvey sauce--so thinks the unsuspecting reader; let
+us show him what else beside. To begin with mustard. "Best Durham," or
+"Superfine Durham," no doubt it was purchased for; but we will summarily
+dismiss this substance by stating that it is impossible to procure it pure
+at all: out of forty-two samples bought by Dr. Hassall at the best as well
+as inferior shops, all were more or less adulterated with wheaten flour
+for bulk, and with turmeric for colour. Vinegar also suffers a double
+adulteration. It is first watered, and then pungency is given to it by the
+addition of sulphuric acid. A small quantity of this acid is allowed by
+law; and this is frequently trebled by the victuallers. The pepper-castor
+is another stronghold of fraud--fraud so long and openly practised, that
+we question if the great mass of the perpetrators even think they are
+doing wrong. Among the milder forms of sophistication to which this
+article is subjected, are to be found such ingredients as wheaten flour,
+ground rice, ground mustard-seeds, and linseed-meal. The grocer maintains
+a certain reserve as to the generality of the articles he employs in
+vitiating his wares; but pepper he seems to think is given up to him by
+the public to "cook" in any manner he thinks fit. This he almost
+invariably does by the addition of what is known in the trade as P. D., or
+pepper-dust, _alias_ the sweepings from the pepper warehouses. But there
+is a lower depth still: P. D. is too genuine a commodity for some markets,
+and it is accordingly mixed with D. P. D., or dirt of pepper-dust.
+
+A little book, published not long since, entitled "The Successful
+Merchant," which gives the minute trade history of a gentleman very much
+respected in Bristol, Samuel Budgett, Esq., affords us a passage bearing
+upon this P. D. which is worthy of notice.
+
+    "In Mr. Budgett's early days," says his biographer, "pepper was under
+    a heavy tax, and in the trade universal tradition said that out of the
+    trade everybody expected pepper to be mixed. In the shop stood a cask
+    labelled P. D., containing something _very like_ pepper-dust,
+    wherewith it was usual to mix the pepper before sending it forth to
+    serve the public. The trade tradition had obtained for the apocryphal
+    P. D. a place amongst the standard articles of the shop, and on the
+    strength of that tradition it was vended for pepper by men who thought
+    they were honest. But as Samuel went on in life, his ideas on trade
+    morality grew clearer; this P. D. began to give him much discomfort.
+    He thought upon it till he was satisfied that, after all that could be
+    said, the thing was wrong: arrived at this conclusion, he felt that no
+    blessing could light upon the place while it was there. He instantly
+    decreed that P. D. should perish. It was night; but back he went to
+    the shop, took the hypocritical cask, carried it out to the quarry,
+    then staved it, and scattered P. D. among the clods and slag and
+    stones."
+
+Would we could say that the reduction of the tax upon pepper had
+stimulated the honesty of other grocers to act a similar part to that of
+Mr. Budgett; but P. D. flourishes as flagrantly as ever; and if every
+possessor of the article in London were to stave his casks in the roadway,
+as conscientiously as did the "Successful Merchant," there would be hard
+work for the scavengers. In the days of Accum it was usual to manufacture
+peppercorns out of oiled linseed-cake, clay, and cayenne-pepper, formed
+into a mass, and then granulated: these fraudulent corns were mixed with
+the real to the extent of seventeen per cent. This form of imposition,
+like that of wooden nutmegs among our American friends, has, we are happy
+to say, long been abandoned. The adulterations we have mentioned are
+simply dirty and fraudulent; but in the cayenne-cruet we find, in
+addition, a deadly poison. Out of twenty-eight samples submitted to
+examination, no less than twenty-four were adulterated with white
+mustard-seed, brickdust, salt, ground rice, and _deal sawdust_, by way of
+giving bulk; but as all of these tend to lighten the colour, it is
+necessary to heighten it to the required pitch. And what is employed to do
+this? Hear and tremble, old Indians and lovers of high-seasoned food--with
+RED LEAD. Out of twenty-eight samples, red lead, and _often in poisonous
+quantities_, was present in thirteen! Who knows how many "yellow admirals"
+at Bath have fallen victims to their cayenne-cruets? Nor can it be said
+that the small quantity taken at a time could do no permanent mischief;
+for lead belongs to the class of poisons which are cumulative in their
+effects.
+
+He who loves cayenne, as a rule is fond of curry-powder; and here also the
+poisonous oxide is to be found in large quantities. Some years ago, a
+certain amiable duke recommended the labouring population, during a season
+of famine, to take a pinch of this condiment every morning before going to
+work, as "warm and comforting to the stomach." If they had followed his
+advice, thirteen out of every twenty-eight persons would have imbibed a
+slow poison. Those who are in the habit of using curry, generally take it
+in considerable quantities, and thus the villanous falsification plays a
+more deadly part than even in cayenne-pepper. Imagine a man for years
+pertinaciously painting his stomach with red lead! We do not know whether
+medical statistics prove that paralysis prevails much among "Nabobs;" but
+of this we may be sure, that there could be no more fruitful source of it
+than the two favourite stimulants we have named.
+
+The great staple articles of food are not subject to adulteration in the
+same proportion as many other articles of minor demand. We need scarcely
+say that meat is exempt so long as it remains in the condition of joints;
+but immediately it is prepared in any shape in which its original fibre
+and form can be hidden, the spirit of craft begins to work. The public
+have always had certain prejudices against sausages and polonies, for
+example; and, if we are to believe a witness examined on oath before the
+Smithfield Market Commissioners in 1850, not without reason. It is a very
+old joke that there are no live donkeys to be found within twenty miles of
+Epping; but if all the asinine tribe in England were to fall victims to
+the chopping-machine, we question if they could supply the _à-la-mode_,
+polony, and sausage establishments. Mr. J. Harper, for instance, being
+under examination, upon being asked what became of the diseased meat
+brought into London, replied:--
+
+    "It is purchased by the soup-shops, sausage-makers, the _à-la-mode_
+    beef and meat-pie shops, &c. There is one soup-shop, I believe, doing
+    five hundred pounds per week in diseased meat. This firm has a large
+    _foreign_ trade [thank goodness!]. The trade in diseased meat is very
+    alarming, as anything in the shape of flesh can be sold at about one
+    penny per pound, or eightpence per stone.... I am certain that if one
+    hundred carcases of cows were lying dead in the neighbourhood of
+    London, I could get them all sold within twenty-four hours: _it don't
+    matter what they died of_."
+
+It must not be imagined that the _à-la-mode_ beef interest is supplied
+with this carrion by needy men, whose necessities may in some degree
+palliate their evil dealings. In proof of this we quote further from Mr.
+Harper's evidence. In answer to the question, "Is there any slaughtering
+of bad meat in the country for the supply of the London market?" he
+says,--
+
+    "The London market is very extensively supplied with diseased meat
+    from the country. There are three insurance offices in London in which
+    graziers can insure their beasts from disease. It was the practice of
+    one of these offices to send the unsound animals dying from disease to
+    their own slaughter-houses, situate a hundred and sixty miles from
+    London, to be dressed and sent to the London market.... Cattle, sheep,
+    &c., are insured against all kinds of diseases; and one of the
+    conditions is, that the diseased animal, when dead, becomes the
+    property of the insurance company, the party insuring receiving
+    two-thirds of the value of the animal and one-third of the salvage;
+    or, in other words, one-third of the amount the beast is sold for when
+    dead."
+
+Upon being asked, "Do you believe it is still the habit of this company to
+send up the diseased animals to London?" he replied,--
+
+    "Yes, I do; until lately they were regularly consigned to a
+    meat-salesman in Newgate market of the name of Mathews.... The larger
+    quantities are sold to people who manufacture it into soup, meat-pies,
+    sausages, &c."
+
+We have no wish to destroy the generally robust appetite of the persons
+who visit such shops by any gratuitous disclosure; but we question whether
+the most hungry crossing-sweeper would look any more with a longing eye
+upon the huge German sausages, rich and inviting as they appear, if, like
+Mr. Harper, he knew the too probable antecedents of their contents. The
+only other preparations of flesh open to adulteration are preserved meats.
+Some years ago, "the Goldner canister business" so excited the public
+against this invaluable method of storing perishing articles of food, that
+a prejudice has existed against it ever since; and a more senseless
+prejudice could not be. Goldner's process, since adopted by Messrs. Cooper
+and Aves, is simple and beautiful. The provisions, being placed in tin
+canisters having their covers soldered down, are plunged up to their necks
+in a bath of chloride of calcium (a preparation which imbibes a great heat
+without boiling), and their contents are speedily cooked; at the same time
+all the air in the meat, and some of the water, are expelled in the form
+of steam, which issues from a pin-hole in the lid. The instant the cook
+ascertains the process to be complete, he drops a plug of solder upon the
+hole, and the mass is thus hermetically sealed. Exclusion of air, and
+coagulation of the albumen, are the two conditions which enable us to hand
+the most delicate-flavoured meats down to remote generations,--for as
+long, in fact, as a stout painted tin canister can maintain itself intact
+against the oxidating effect of the atmosphere. We have ourselves partaken
+lately of a duck that was winged, and of milk that came from the cow, as
+long as eight years ago. Fruit which had been gathered whilst the
+free-trade struggle was still going on, we found as delicate in flavour as
+though it had just been plucked from the branch. Out of the many cases of
+all kinds of provisions opened and examined by Dr. Hassall, scarcely any
+have been found to be bad. When we remember that the graves of so many of
+our soldiers in the Crimea may be justly inscribed, "Died of salt pork,"
+we cannot forbear to call attention to a neglected means of feeding our
+troops with good and nutritious food, instead of with the tough fibre
+called meat, from which half the blood-making qualities have been
+extracted by the process of boiling, whilst the remaining half is rendered
+indigestible by the action of salt, and poisonous by the extraction of one
+of its most important constituents. It would seem as if we were living in
+the days of Anson, who lost 626 men of scurvy, out of a crew of 961,
+before he could reach the island of Juan Fernandez, or of the still later
+cruise of Sir C. Hardy, who sent 3,500 to hospital with this fatal
+disease, after a six weeks' sail with the Channel fleet. It may be urged
+that the sailors in the late war did not sicken on salt pork; but while
+they had the necessary amount of potass, which the stomach requires to
+make blood, in the lime-juice served out to them, our troops were without
+this indispensable accompaniment, and consequently died. In the preserved
+meats, which are made up with potatoes and other vegetables, the needful
+potass exists, and such food may be purchased as cheaply as the pernicious
+salt junk which is patronized by the Government.
+
+Bread, the great blood-producer, claims particular attention. It often
+surprises persons who walk about the metropolis to find that prices vary
+according to the locality; thus the loaf that costs in the Borough or the
+New Cut 7_d._ a quartern, is 10-1/2_d._ at the West End. Can plate-glass
+windows and rent cause all this difference? Certainly not. We are glad,
+however, to find that many of the adulterations mentioned by our older
+writers have vanished with free trade. Prince and Accum mention plaster of
+Paris, bone-dust, the meal of other cereal grains, white clay, alum,
+sulphate of copper, potatoes, &c. All of these sophistications have
+disappeared, with the exception of potatoes, which are occasionally
+employed when the difference between their value and that of flour makes
+it worth while for the baker or miller to introduce them. When we see a
+loaf marked under the market price, we may rest assured that it is made of
+flour ground from inferior and damaged wheat. In order to bring this up to
+the required colour, and to destroy the sour taste which often belongs to
+it, bakers are in the habit of introducing a mixture called in the trade
+"hards" and "stuff," which is nothing more than alum and salt, kept
+prepared in large quantities by the druggists. The quantity of alum
+necessary to render bread white is certainly not great--Mitchell found
+that it ranged from 116 grains to 34-1/2 grains in the four-pound loaf;
+but the great advantage the baker derives from it, in addition to
+improving the colour of his wares, is, that it absorbs a large quantity of
+water, which he sells at the present time at the rate of 2_d._ a pound.
+Out of twenty-eight loaves of bread bought in every quarter of the
+metropolis, Dr. Hassall did not find one free from the adulteration of
+alum; and in some of the samples he found considerable quantities. As a
+general rule, the lower the neighbourhood, the cheaper the bread, and the
+greater the quantity of this "hards" or "stuff" introduced. We must not,
+however, lay all the blame upon the baker. This was satisfactorily shown
+by the Sanitary Commissioners, when dealing with the bread sold by the
+League Bread Company, whose advertisement to the following effect is
+constantly to be seen in the _Times_:--
+
+    "The object for which the above company was established, and is now in
+    operation, is to insure to the public bread of a pure and nutritious
+    character. Experience daily proves how much our health is dependent
+    upon the quality and purity of our food; consequently, how important
+    it is that an article of such universal consumption as bread should be
+    free from adulteration. That various diseases are caused by the use of
+    _alum_ and other deleterious ingredients in the manufacture of bread,
+    the testimony of many eminent men will fully corroborate. Pure
+    unadulterated bread, full weight, best quality, and the lowest
+    possible price."
+
+Upon several samples of this _pure bread_, purchased of various agents of
+the company, being tested, they were found to be contaminated with _alum_!
+Here was a discovery. The company protested that the analyses were
+worthless; and all their workmen made a solemn declaration that they had
+never used any alum whilst in their employ. The agents of the company
+also declared that they never sold any but their bread. The analyst looked
+again through his microscope, and again reiterated his charge, that alum
+their bread contained. It was then agreed to test the flour supplied to
+the company, and three samples were proved to contain the obnoxious
+material. Thus we find that the miller still, in some instances, maintains
+his doubtful reputation, and is at the bottom of this roguery.
+
+Our succeeding remarks will fall, we fear, like a bomb upon many a
+tea-table, and stagger teetotalism in its stronghold. A drunkard's stomach
+is sometimes exhibited at total-abstinence lectures, in every stage of
+congestion and inflammation, painted up to match the fervid eloquence of
+the lecturer. If tea is our only refuge from the frightful maladies
+entailed upon us by fermented liquors, we fear the British public is in a
+perplexing dilemma. Ladies, there is death in the teapot! Green-tea
+drinkers, beware! There has always been a vague idea afloat in the public
+mind about hot copper plates--a suspicion that gunpowder and hyson do not
+come by their colour honestly. The old duchess of Marlborough used to
+boast that she came into the world before "nerves were in fashion." We
+feel half inclined to believe this joke had a great truth in it; for since
+the introduction of tea, nervous complaints of all kinds have greatly
+increased; and we need not look far to find one at least of the causes in
+the teapot. There is no such a thing as pure green tea to be met with in
+England. It is adulterated in China; and we have lately learnt to
+adulterate it at home almost as well as the cunning Asiatic. The pure
+green tea made from the most delicate green leaves grown upon manured
+soil, such as the Chinese use themselves, is, it is true, wholly
+untainted; and we are informed that its beautiful bluish bloom, like that
+upon a grape, is given by the third process of roasting which it
+undergoes. The enormous demand for a moderately-priced green tea which has
+arisen both in England and China since the opening of the trade, has led
+the Hong merchants to imitate this peculiar colour; and this they do so
+successfully as to deceive the ordinary judges of the article. Black tea
+is openly coloured in the neighbourhood of Canton in the most wholesale
+manner.
+
+Mr. Robert Fortune, in his very interesting work, "The Tea Districts of
+China and India," gives us a good description of the manner in which this
+colouring process is performed, as witnessed by himself:--
+
+    "Having procured a portion of Prussian-blue, he threw it into a
+    porcelain bowl, not unlike a chemist's mortar, and crushed it into a
+    very fine powder. At the same time a quantity of gypsum was produced
+    and burned in the charcoal fires which were then roasting the teas.
+    The object of this was to soften it, in order that it might be readily
+    pounded into a very fine powder, in the same manner as the
+    Prussian-blue had been. The gypsum, having been taken out of the fire
+    after a certain time had elapsed, readily crumbled down, and was
+    reduced to powder in the mortar. These two substances, having been
+    thus prepared, were then mixed together in the proportion of four
+    parts of gypsum to three parts of Prussian-blue, and formed a light
+    blue powder, which was then ready for use.
+
+    "This colouring matter was applied to the teas during the process of
+    roasting. About five minutes before the tea was removed from the
+    pans--the time being regulated by the burning of a joss-stick--the
+    superintendent took a small porcelain spoon, and with it he scattered
+    a portion of the colouring matter over the leaves in each pan. The
+    workmen then turned the leaves round rapidly with both hands, in order
+    that the colour might be equally diffused. During this part of the
+    operation the hands of the workmen were quite blue. I could not help
+    thinking, if any green-tea drinkers had been present during the
+    operation, their taste would have been corrected, and, I believe,
+    improved.
+
+    "One day an English gentleman in Shanghae, being in conversation with
+    some Chinese from the green-tea country, asked them what reason they
+    had for dyeing the tea, and whether it would not be better without
+    undergoing this process. They acknowledged that tea was much better
+    when prepared without having any such ingredients mixed with it, and
+    that _they never drank dyed teas_ themselves, but justly remarked,
+    that, as foreigners seemed _to prefer having a mixture of
+    Prussian-blue and gypsum with their tea_ to make it look uniform and
+    pretty, and as these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese had no
+    objection to supply them, especially as such teas always fetched a
+    higher price.
+
+    "I took some trouble to ascertain precisely the quantity of colouring
+    matter used in the process of dyeing green teas, not certainly with
+    the view of assisting others, either at home or abroad, in the art of
+    colouring, but simply to show green-tea drinkers in England, and more
+    particularly in the United States of America, what _quantity_ of
+    Prussian-blue and gypsum they imbibe in the course of one year. To
+    14-1/2 lbs. were applied 8 mace 2-1/2 candareens of colouring matter,
+    or rather more than an ounce. To every hundred pounds of coloured
+    green-tea consumed in England or America, the consumer actually drinks
+    more than half a pound of Prussian-blue and gypsum. And yet, tell the
+    drinkers of this coloured tea that the Chinese eat cats and dogs, and
+    they will hold up their hands in amazement, and pity the poor
+    Celestials."
+
+If the Chinese use it in these quantities to tinge the genuine leaf, how
+much more must the English employ in making up afresh exhausted leaves!
+That every spoonful of hyson or gunpowder contains a considerable quantity
+of this deleterious dye will be seen by any one who places a pinch upon a
+fine sieve, and pours upon it a gentle stream of water, when the tinging
+of the liquid will show at once the extent of the adulteration, and the
+folly of drinking painted tea. Assam tea, though not so inviting in
+colour, is free from adulteration. A word to the wise is enough.
+
+Of fifty samples of green tea analyzed by Dr. Hassall, all were
+adulterated. There is one particular kind which is almost entirely a
+manufactured article--gunpowder, both black and green--the former being
+called scented caper. Both have a large admixture of what is termed "lye
+tea," or a compound of sand, dirt, tea-dust, and broken-down portions of
+other leaves worked together with gum into small nodules. This detestable
+compound, which, according to Mr. Warrington,[3] who has analyzed it,
+contains forty-five per cent. of earthy matter, is manufactured both in
+China and in England, for the express purpose of adulterating tea. When
+mixed with "scented caper," it is "faced" with black lead; when with
+gunpowder, Prussian-blue: turmeric and French chalk give it the required
+bloom. Mr. Warrington states that about 750,000 lbs. of this spurious tea
+have been imported into Great Britain within eighteen months! Singularly
+enough, the low-priced teas are the only genuine ones. Every sample of
+this class which was analyzed by Dr. Hassall proved to be perfectly pure.
+Here at least the poor have the advantage of the better classes, who pay a
+higher price to be injured in their health by a painted beverage.
+
+The practice of redrying used-up leaves is also carried on to some extent
+in England. Mr. George Philips, of the Inland Revenue Office, states that
+in 1843 there were no less than eight manufactories for the purpose of
+redrying tea-leaves in London alone, whilst there were many others in
+different parts of the country. These manufacturers had agents who bought
+up the used leaves from hotels, clubs, coffeehouses, &c., for twopence
+halfpenny and threepence per lb. With these leaves, others of various
+trees were used, and very fine pekoe still flourishes upon the
+hawthorn-bushes, sloe-trees, &c., around the metropolis. As late as the
+year 1851 the following account of the proceedings of one of these
+nefarious manufacturers appeared in the _Times_:--
+
+    "CLERKENWELL.--Edward South and Louisa his wife were placed at the
+    bar, before Mr. Combe, charged by Inspector Brennan, of the E
+    division, with being concerned in the manufacture of spurious tea. It
+    appeared, from the statement of the inspector, that, in consequence of
+    information that the prisoners and others were in the habit of
+    carrying on an extensive traffic in manufacturing spurious tea, on the
+    premises situate at 27-1/2, Clerkenwell Close, Clerkenwell Green, on
+    Saturday evening, at about seven o'clock, the witness, in company with
+    Serjeant Cole, proceeded to the house, where they found the prisoners
+    in an apartment busily engaged in the manufacture of spurious tea.
+    There was an extensive furnace, before which was suspended an iron
+    pan, containing sloe-leaves and tea-leaves, which they were in the
+    practice of purchasing from coffeeshop-keepers after being used. On
+    searching the place they found an immense quantity of used tea,
+    bay-leaves, and every description of spurious ingredients for the
+    purpose of manufacturing illicit tea, and they were mixed with a
+    solution of gum and a quantity of _copperas_. The woman was employed
+    in stirring about the bay-leaves and other composition with the
+    solution of gum in the pan; and in one part of the room there was a
+    large quantity of spurious stuffs, the exact imitation of genuine tea.
+    In a back room they found nearly a hundred pounds weight of redried
+    tea-leaves, bay-leaves, and sloe-leaves, all spread on the floor
+    drying.... Mr. Brennan added, that the prisoners had pursued this
+    nefarious traffic most extensively, and were in the habit of dealing
+    largely with grocers, chandlers, and others in the country."
+
+This poisonous imitation green tea, "so largely supplied to country
+grocers," was no doubt used for adulterating other green teas already
+dosed with Prussian-blue, turmeric, &c. These have found their way into
+many a country home of small means. When the nephew comes on a visit, or
+the curate calls of an afternoon, the ordinary two spoonfuls of black are
+"improved" with "just a dash of green," and the poor innocent gentleman
+wonders afterwards what it can be that keeps him awake all night.
+
+We often hear the remark from old-fashioned people that we have never had
+any good tea since the monopoly of the East-India Company was broken up:
+in this remark there is some truth and much error. There can be no
+possible doubt that the higher-priced teas have fallen off since the trade
+has been open, as the buyers of the company were perfectly aware of the
+frauds perpetrated by the Hong merchants, and never allowed a spurious
+article to be shipped. On the other hand, the great reduction which has
+taken place in the price of the common black teas, both on account of the
+cessation of monopoly and the reduction of the duty, has in a great
+measure destroyed the English manufacture of spurious tea from indigenous
+leaves. The extent to which this formerly took place may be judged from a
+report of the Committee of the House of Commons, in 1783, which states
+that no less than four millions of pounds were annually manufactured from
+sloe and ash leaves in different parts of England; and this, be it
+remembered, when the whole quantity of genuine tea sold by the East-India
+Company did not amount to more than six millions of pounds annually.
+
+If the better class of black and all green teas[4] are thus vilely
+adulterated, the reader may fancy he can at least take refuge in
+coffee--alas! in too many cases he will only avoid Scylla to fall into
+Charybdis. Coffee, as generally sold in the metropolis and in all large
+towns, is adulterated even more than tea. The Treasury minute, which
+allowed it to be mixed with chicory, is at the head and front of the
+offending. In the year 1840, this celebrated minute was issued by the
+sanction of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir C. Wood, the
+immediate consequence of which was that grocers began to mix it with pure
+coffee in very large quantities, quite forgetting to inform the public of
+the nature of the mixture, and neglecting at the same time to lower the
+price. The evil became so flagrant that upon the installation of the Derby
+administration Mr. Disraeli promised to rescind this license to
+adulterate; but before the promise was redeemed, the administration was
+rescinded itself. Mr. Gladstone, upon his acceptance of office, loath, it
+appears, to injure the chicory interest, modified the original minute, but
+allowed the amalgamation to continue, provided the package was labelled
+"Mixture of Chicory and Coffee." It was speedily found, however, that this
+announcement became so confounded with other printing on the label that it
+was not easily distinguishable, and in consequence it was provided that
+the words, "This is sold as a mixture of Chicory and Coffee," should be
+printed by themselves on one side of the canister. It may be asked what is
+the nature of this ingredient, that the right to mix it with coffee should
+be maintained by two Chancellors of the Exchequer, during a period of
+fifteen years, as jealously as though it were some important principle of
+our constitution? Chicory, to say the best of it, is an insipid root,
+totally destitute of any nourishing or refreshing quality, being utterly
+deficient in any nitrogenized principle, whilst there are strong doubts
+whether it is not absolutely hurtful to the nervous system. Professor
+Beer, the celebrated oculist of Vienna, forbids the use of it to his
+patients, considering it to be the cause of amaurotic blindness. Even
+supposing it to be perfectly harmless, we have a material of the value of
+8_d._ a pound, which the grocer is allowed to mix, _ad libitum_, with one
+worth 1_s._ 4_d._ If the poor got the benefit of the adulteration, there
+might be some excuse for permitting the admixture of chicory, but it is
+proved that the combination is sold in many shops at the same price as
+pure coffee.
+
+Analyses made by Dr. Hassall of upwards of a hundred different samples of
+coffee, purchased in all parts of the metropolis before the issuing of the
+order for the labelling of the packages 'chicory and coffee,' proved that,
+in a great number of cases, articles sold as "finest Mocha," "choice
+Jamaica coffee," "superb coffee," &c., contained, in some instances, very
+little coffee at all; in others "only a fifth, a third, half," &c., the
+rest being made up mainly of chicory. Nothing is more indicative of the
+barefaced frauds perpetrated by grocers upon the public than the manner in
+which they go out of their way to puff in the grossest style the most
+abominable trash. The report of the sanitary commission gives many
+examples of these puff and announcements, which, we are informed, are kept
+set up at the printers, and may be had in any quantities. We quote one as
+an example:--
+
+    "JOHN ----'S COFFEE,
+
+    "_The richness, flavour, and strength of which are not to be
+    surpassed._
+
+    "Coffee has now become an article of consumption among all classes of
+    the community. Hence the importance of supplying an article of such a
+    character as to encourage its consumption in preference to beverages
+    the use of which promotes a vast amount of misery.
+
+    "John ----'s coffee meets the requirement of the age, and, as a
+    natural result, the celebrity to which it has attained is wholly
+    unparalleled. Its peculiarity consists in its possessing that rich
+    aromatic flavour, combined with great strength and deliciousness,
+    which is to be found alone in the choicest mountain growths. It may,
+    with perfect truth, be stated that no article connected with _domestic
+    economy_ has given such general satisfaction, and the demand for it is
+    rapidly increasing.
+
+    "John ----'s establishment, both for extent and capability, is the
+    first in the empire.
+
+    "Observe!
+
+    "Every canister of John ----'s coffee bears his signature, without
+    which none is _genuine_."
+
+At the end of this puff the analyst places the words--
+
+    "_Adulterated with a considerable quantity of chicory!_"
+
+More erudite grocers treat us to the puff literary, as in the following
+instance:--
+
+    "Rich-flavoured coffees fresh-roasted daily.
+
+    "USE OF COFFEE IN TURKEY.
+
+    "Sandys, the translator of 'Ovid's Metamorphoses,' and who travelled
+    in Turkey in 1610, gives the following passage in his 'Travailes,'
+    page 51 (edit. 1657). Speaking of the Turks, he says, 'Although they
+    be destitute of taverns, yet they have their coffee-houses, which
+    sometimes resemble them. There sit they chatting most of the day, and
+    sip of a drink called coffa, of the berry that it is made of, in
+    little china dishes, as hot as they can suffer it, black as soot,
+    which helpeth, as they say, digestion, and procureth alacrity.'"
+
+This pleasant sample of the puff indirect has also appended to it the
+naked sentence--
+
+    "_Adulterated with chicory, of which not less than half the sample
+    consists._"
+
+The worst kinds of adulterated coffee are to be found in that which is
+sold in canisters. The value of the tin envelope cannot be less than 2d.,
+and, as the coffee so sold is charged at the same price as that in a paper
+wrapper, it must be evident that a more extensive adulteration is
+necessary in order to make up the difference. Such, upon examination,
+proves to be the case, as it appeared--
+
+    "That the whole twenty-nine packages, bottles, and canisters submitted
+    to analysis, with a single exception,[5] were adulterated.
+
+    "That in these twenty-eight adulterated samples the falsification
+    consisted of so-called chicory, which in many instances constituted
+    the chief part of the article.
+
+    "That three of the samples contained mangold-wurzel, and two of them
+    roasted wheat-flour."
+
+We have said it often happens that the adulterations are adulterated.
+Chicory is an instance of it. The original fraud is found to have ramified
+in an endless manner; and Sir Charles Wood will doubtless be astonished to
+hear of the hideous crop of falsifications his most unfortunate order has
+caused to spring out of the ground.
+
+Immediately the process of transforming chicory into coffee became
+legalized by the Government, that article came into very extensive
+consumption, and factories were set up especially for its secret
+manufacture. The reason for this secrecy may be gathered from the list of
+articles which are made to subserve the purpose: roasted wheat, ground
+acorns, roasted carrots, scorched beans, roasted parsnips, mangold-wurzel,
+lupin-seeds, dog's biscuits, burnt sugar, _red earth_, roasted
+horse-chestnuts,--and above and beyond all _baked horses' and bullocks'
+livers_. This statement rests upon the authority of Mr. P. G. Simmonds, in
+a work entitled "Coffee as it is, and as it ought to be:"--
+
+    "In various parts of the metropolis," he says, "but more especially in
+    the east, are to be found 'liver bakers.' These men take the livers of
+    oxen and horses, bake them, and grind them into a powder, which they
+    sell to the low-priced coffeeshop-keepers, at from fourpence to
+    sixpence per lb., horse's liver coffee being the highest price. It may
+    be known by allowing the coffee to stand until cold, when a thick
+    pellicle or skin will be found on the top. It goes farther than
+    coffee, and is generally _mixed with chicory_, and other vegetable
+    imitations of coffee."
+
+In confirmation of this horrible statement the sanitary commissioners of
+the Lancet state that, on analysis, this substance, which
+
+    "possessed a disagreeable animal smell, ... consisted of some
+    imperfectly-charred animal matter."
+
+The new regulation, enjoining grocers to sell coffee and chicory properly
+labelled as such, is, no doubt, observed in respectable shops; but in the
+low neighbourhoods the mixture as before is passed off for genuine Mocha.
+However, the purchaser has the means of protection in his own hands. If he
+prefers coffee pure, let him buy the roasted berry and grind it himself;
+he will thus be sure of having the real article, and will get it in
+greater perfection than by purchasing it ready ground.
+
+In close proximity to the tea and coffee-pots stand the milk-jug and the
+sugar-basin. What find we here? A few years ago the town was frightened
+from its propriety by a little work entitled "Observations on London
+Milk," published by a medical gentleman of the name of Rugg, which gave
+some fearful disclosures relative to the manner in which London milk was
+adulterated. Dr. Hassall's analyses go to show that, with the exception of
+the produce of the "iron-tailed cow," none of the supposed defilements
+really exist, and that the milkman is a sadly maligned individual. Water
+is added in quantities varying in different samples from 10 to 50 per
+cent.; and in the more unfashionable parts of the town _all_ the cream is
+abstracted to be forwarded to the West-end. If milk _must_ be adulterated
+in large towns, water is undoubtedly the most harmless ingredient; at the
+same time it will be seen what a fraud is perpetrated upon the public by
+selling milky water at 4d. a quart.
+
+That the London milking-pail goes as often to the pump as to the cow we
+have no manner of doubt. To bring the diluted goods up to a delicate
+cream colour, it is common to swing round a ball of annatto in the can;
+and other careful observers and writers upon the adulteration of food have
+detected flour, starch, and treacle. All medical men know that children
+are often violently disordered by their morning or evening portion,--an
+effect which could not come from the mere admixture of water--and we must
+confess that we ourselves believe the milkman to be a very wicked fellow.
+
+We are afraid, if we look into the sugar-basin, we shall not find much
+more comfort than in the milk-jug. We refer here to the ordinary brown
+sugars, such as are generally used at the breakfast-table for coffee. It
+is scarcely possible to procure moist sugar which is not infested with
+animalculæ of the acari genus, a most disgusting class of creatures. In
+many samples of sugars they swarm to that extent that the mass moves with
+them; and in almost every case, by dissolving a spoonful in a wine-glass
+of water, dozens of them can be detected by the naked eye, either floating
+upon the liquid or adhering to the edge of the glass. Those who are in the
+habit of "handling" sugars, as it is termed, are liable to a skin
+affection called the grocer's itch, which is believed to be occasioned by
+these living inhabitants of our sugar-basins. Horrible as it is to think
+that such creatures are an article in daily use, we cannot charge the
+grocer directly with their introduction; the evil is, however, increased
+by the manner in which he mixes, or "handles," as it is termed in the
+trade, higher-priced sugars with muscovados, bastards, and other inferior
+kinds, in which the animalculæ abound.
+
+In addition to this foreign animal element, grocers sometimes mix flour
+with their sugar, and, if we are to put any credit in popular belief,
+sand; but of the presence of this gritty ingredient we have never seen any
+trustworthy evidence. Nevertheless we have said enough to show that the
+tea-dealer and grocer do their best to supply the proverbial "peck of
+dirt" which all of us must eat before we die. Would that we were fed with
+nothing more deleterious or repulsive! Let us see, however, the base
+admixtures one is liable to swallow in taking--
+
+  A CUP OF TEA _or a_ CUP OF COFFEE.
+
+  _In the Tea._
+
+  If Green--
+    Prussian-blue.
+    Turmeric.
+    China clay or French chalk.
+    Used tea-leaves.
+    Copperas.
+  If Black--
+    Gum.
+    Black lead.
+    Dutch pink.
+    Used tea-leaves.
+    Leaves of the ash, sloe, hawthorn, and of many other kinds.
+
+  _In the Milk._
+
+  On an average 25 per cent. of water.
+  Annatto.
+  Treacle.
+  Flour.
+  Oxide of iron.
+  And other unknown ingredients.
+
+  _In the Sugar._
+
+  If Brown--
+    Wheat flour.
+    Hundreds of the sugar-insect.
+  If White--
+    Albumen of bullock's blood.
+
+
+  _In the Coffee._
+
+  Chicory.
+
+  _In the Chicory._
+
+  Roast wheat.
+   "    acorn.
+   "    mangold-wurzel.
+   "    beans.
+   "    carrots.
+   "    parsnips
+   "    lupin-seeds.
+   "    dog-biscuits.
+   "    horse-chestnuts.
+  Oxide of iron.
+  Mahogany sawdust.
+  Baked horse's liver.
+   "    bullock's liver.
+
+  _In the Milk._
+
+  Water 25 per cent.
+  Annatto.
+  Flour.
+  Treacle.
+  Oxide of iron.
+  And other unknown ingredients.
+
+  _In the Sugar._
+
+  If Brown--
+    Wheat flour.
+    Hundreds of the sugar-insect.
+  If White--
+    Albumen of bullock's blood.
+
+As we perceive the teetotalers are petitioning Parliament and agitating
+the towns for the closing of public-houses, we beg to present them, in
+either hand, with a cup of the above mixtures, with the humble hope that
+means will be found by them to supply the British public with some drink a
+little less deleterious to health, a little more pleasant to the palate,
+and somewhat less disgusting to the feelings. Some of the sugar impurities
+may be avoided by using the crystallized East-Indian kind--the size of the
+crystals not permitting of its being adulterated with inferior sorts.
+
+We shall not dwell upon cocoa further than to state that it is a still
+rarer thing to obtain it pure than either tea or coffee. The almost
+universal adulterations are sugar, starch, and flours together with red
+colouring matter, generally some ferruginous earth; whilst, as far as we
+can see, what is termed homoeopathic cocoa is only distinguished from
+other kinds by the small quantity of that substance contained in it.
+
+There is scarcely an article on the breakfast-table, in fact, which is
+what it seems to be. The butter, if salt, is adulterated with between 20
+and 30 per cent. of water. A merchant in this trade tells the _Lancet_
+that "between 40,000 and 50,000 casks of adulterated butter are annually
+sold in London, and the trade knows it as well as they know a bad
+shilling." Lard when cheap also finds its way to the butter-tub. Perhaps
+those who flatter themselves that they use nothing but "Epping" will not
+derive much consolation from the following letter, also published in the
+same journal:--
+
+    "_To the Editor of the Lancet._
+
+    "SIR,--Having taken apartments in the house of a butterman, I was
+    suddenly awoke at three o'clock one morning with a noise in the lower
+    part of the house, and alarmed on perceiving a light below the door of
+    my bed-room; conceiving the house to be on fire, I hurried down
+    stairs. I found the whole family busily occupied, and, on my
+    expressing alarm at the house being on fire, they jocosely informed me
+    they _were merely making Epping butter_. They unhesitatingly informed
+    me of the whole process. For this purpose they made use of
+    fresh-salted butter of a very inferior quality: this was repeatedly
+    washed with water in order to free it from the salt. This being
+    accomplished, the next process was to wash it frequently with milk,
+    and the manufacture was completed by the addition of a small quantity
+    of sugar. The amateurs of fresh Epping butter were supplied with this
+    dainty, which yielded my ingenious landlord a profit of at least 100
+    per cent., besides establishing his shop as being supplied with Epping
+    butter from one of the first-rate dairies.--I am, sir, your obedient
+    servant,
+
+    "A STUDENT."
+
+If we try marmalade as a succedaneum, we are no better off--at least if we
+put any faith in "real Dundee, an excellent substitute for butter," to be
+seen piled in heaps in the cheap grocers' windows. Dr. Hassall's analysis
+proves that this dainty is adulterated to a large extent with turnips,
+apples, and carrots: we need not grumble so much at these vegetable
+products, excepting on the score that it is a fraud to sell them at 7d. a
+pound; but there is the more startling fact that, in twelve out of
+fourteen samples analysed, copper was detected, and sometimes in large and
+deleterious quantities!
+
+Accum, in his "Death in the Pot," quotes, from cookery-books of reputation
+in his day, recipes which make uninitiated persons stare. For instance,
+"Modern Cookery, or the English Housewife," gives the following serious
+directions "to make Greening:"--"Take a bit of _verdigris the bigness of
+an hazel-nut_, finely powdered, half a pint of distilled vinegar, and a
+bit of alum-powder, with a little baysalt; put all in a bottle and shake
+it, and let it stand till clear. _Put a small teaspoonful into codlings,
+or whatever you wish to green!_"
+
+Again, the "English Housekeeper," a book which ran through eighteen
+editions, directs--"to make pickles green _boil them with halfpence_, or
+allow them to stand for twenty-four hours in copper or brass pans!" Has
+the notable housewife ever wondered to herself how it is that all the
+pickles of the shops are of so much more inviting colour than her own? We
+will satisfy her curiosity in a word--she has forgotten the "bit of
+verdigris the bigness of a hazel-nut," for it is now proved beyond doubt
+that to this complexion do they come by the use of copper, introduced for
+the sole purpose of making them of a lively green. The analyses of twenty
+samples of pickles bought of the most respectable tradesmen proved,
+firstly, that the vinegar in the bottles owed most of its strength to the
+introduction of sulphuric acid; secondly, that, out of sixteen different
+pickles analysed for the purpose, copper was detected in various amounts.
+Thus, "two of the samples contained a small quantity; eight rather much,
+one a considerable quantity, three a very considerable quantity; in one
+copper was present in a highly deleterious amount, and in two _in
+poisonous amounts_. The largest quantity of this metal was found in the
+bottles consisting entirely of green vegetables, such as gherkins and
+beans."
+
+We trust after this the good housewife will feel jealous no longer, but
+rest satisfied that the home-made article, if less inviting and vivid in
+colour, is at least more wholesome. A simple test to discover the presence
+of copper in such articles is to place a bright knitting-needle in the
+vinegar, and let it remain there for a few hours, when the deleterious
+metal will speedily form a coating over it, dense or thin, according to
+the amount which exists. Wherever large quantities are found, it is
+wilfully inserted for the purpose of producing the bright green colour,
+but a small quantity may find its way into the pickles in the process of
+boiling in copper pans. Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell, the great pickle and
+preserve manufacturers in Soho, immediately they became aware, from the
+analyses of the _Lancet_, that such was the case, in a very praiseworthy
+manner substituted silver and glass, at a great expense, for all their
+former vessels. The danger arising from the introduction of this virulent
+poison into our food would not be so great if it were confined to pickles,
+of which the quantity taken is small at each meal, but it is used to paint
+all kinds of preserves, and fruits for winter pies and tarts are bloomed
+with death. The papa who presents his children the box of sweetmeats
+bedded in coloured paper, and enclosed in an elegant casket, may be
+corroding unawares the very springs of their existence. As a general rule,
+it is found that the red fruits, such as currants, raspberries, and
+cherries, are uncontaminated with this deleterious metal, but owe their
+deep hue to some red colouring matter, such as a decoction of logwood or
+an infusion of beetroot, in the same way that common white cabbage is
+converted into red by the nefarious pickle-merchant. The green fruits are
+not all deleterious in the same degree; there seems to be an ascending
+scale of virulence, much after the following manner:--Limes, gooseberries,
+rhubarb, greengages, olives--the last-mentioned fruit, especially those of
+French preparation, generally containing verdigris, or the acetate of
+copper, _in highly dangerous quantities_. The _Lancet_ publishes a letter
+from Mr. Bernays, F.C.S., dated from the Chemical Library, Derby, in which
+he shows the necessity of watchfulness in the purchase of these articles
+of food:--
+
+    "Of this," he says, "I will give you a late instance. I had bought a
+    bottle of preserved gooseberries from one of the most respectable
+    grocers in the town, and had its contents transferred to a pie. It
+    struck me that the gooseberries looked fearfully green when cooked;
+    and in eating one with a steel fork its intense bitterness sent me in
+    search of the sugar. After having sweetened and mashed the
+    gooseberries, with the same steel fork, I was about to convey some to
+    my mouth, when I observed the prongs to be completely coated with a
+    thin film of bright metallic copper. My testimony can be borne out by
+    the evidence of others, two of whom dined at my table."
+
+It was fortunate that these three gentlemen used steel forks, which
+instantly disclosed the mischief; if they had chanced to use silver, all
+three might have fallen victims to these poisonous conserves.
+
+But we are not yet at the worst. When Catherine de' Medici wished to get
+rid of obnoxious persons in an "artistic" manner, she was in the habit of
+presenting them with delicately made sweetmeats, or trinkets, in which
+death lurked in the most engaging manner; she carried--
+
+            "Pure death in an earring, a casket,
+  A signet, a fan-mount, a filigree basket."
+
+Her poisoned feasts are matters of history, at which people shudder as
+they read; but we question if the diabolical revenge and coldblooded
+wickedness of an Italian woman ever invented much more deadly trifles than
+our low, cheap confectioners do on the largest scale. We select from some
+of these articles of bonbonerie the following feast, which we set before
+doting mothers, in order that they may see what deadly dainties are
+prepared for the especial delectation of their children:--
+
+    "A FISH.
+
+    "_Purchased in Shepherd's Market, May Fair._
+
+    "The tip of the nose and the gills of the fish are coloured with the
+    usual pink, while the back and sides are highly painted with that
+    virulent poison _arsenite of copper_."
+
+
+    "A PIGEON.
+
+    "_Purchased in Drury Lane._
+
+    "The pigments employed for colouring this pigeon are light yellow for
+    the beak, red for the eyes, and orange yellow for the base or stand.
+    The yellow colour consists of the light kind of chromate of lead, for
+    the eyes bisulphate of mercury, and for the stand the deeper varieties
+    of chromate of lead, or orange chrome."
+
+
+    "APPLES.
+
+    "_Purchased in James Street, Covent Garden._
+
+    "The apples in this sample are coloured yellow, and on one side deep
+    red; the yellow colour extending to a considerable depth in the
+    substance of the sugar. The red consists of the usual non-metallic
+    pigment, and the yellow is due to the presence of CHROMATE OF LEAD in
+    really _poisonous amount_!"
+
+
+    "A COCK.
+
+    "_Purchased in Drury Lane._
+
+    "The beak of the bird is coloured bright yellow, the comb brilliant
+    red, the wings and tail are variegated, black, two different reds, and
+    yellow; while the stand, as in most of these sugar ornaments, is
+    painted green. The yellow of the beak consists of CHROMATE OF LEAD;
+    the comb and part of the red colour on the back and wings is
+    VERMILION; while the second red colour on the wings and tail is the
+    usual pink non-metallic colouring matter, and the stripes of yellow
+    consist of gamboge; lastly, the green of the stand is MIDDLE BRUNSWICK
+    GREEN, and, therefore, contains CHROMATE OF LEAD. In the colouring of
+    this article, then, no less than three active poisons are employed, as
+    well as that drastic purgative gamboge!"
+
+
+    "ORANGES.
+
+    "_Purchased in Pilgrim Street, Doctors' Commons._
+
+    "This is a very unnatural imitation of an orange, it being coloured
+    with a coarse and very uneven coating of RED LEAD."
+
+
+    "MIXED SUGAR ORNAMENTS.
+
+    "_Purchased in Middle Row, Holborn._
+
+    "The confectionery in this parcel is made up into a variety of forms
+    and devices, as hats, jugs, baskets, and dishes of fruit and
+    vegetables. One of the hats is coloured yellow with CHROMATE OF LEAD,
+    and has a green hatband round it, coloured with ARSENITE OF COPPER; a
+    second hat is white, with a blue hatband, the pigment being
+    PRUSSIAN-BLUE. The baskets are coloured yellow with CHROMATE OF LEAD.
+    Into the colouring of the pears and peaches the usual non-metallic
+    pigment, together with CHROMATE OF LEAD and MIDDLE BRUNSWICK GREEN,
+    enter largely; while the carrots represented in a dish are coloured
+    throughout with a RED OXIDE OF LEAD, and the tops with BRUNSWICK
+    GREEN. This is one of the worst of all the samples of coloured sugar
+    confectionery submitted to analysis, as it contains no less than four
+    _deadly poisons_!"
+
+The painted feast contains, then, among its highly injurious ingredients,
+ferrocyanide of iron or Prussian-blue, Antwerp-blue, gamboge, and
+ultramarine, and among its deadly poisons the three chrome yellows, red
+lead, white lead, vermilion, the three Brunswick greens, and Scheele's
+green or arsenite of copper. The wonder is that, considering we set such
+poison-traps for children, ten times more enticing and quite as deadly as
+those used to bane rats, that the greater number of youngsters who partake
+of them are not at once despatched; and so undoubtedly they would be if
+nurses were not cautious about these coloured parts, which have always
+enjoyed a bad name under the general denomination of "trash and messes."
+As it is, we are informed by Dr. Letheby that "no less than seventy cases
+of poisoning have been traced to this source" within three years!
+
+In France, Belgium, and Switzerland the colouring of confectionery with
+poisonous pigments is prohibited, and the vendors are held responsible for
+all accidents which may occur to persons from eating their sugar
+confectionery. It is absolutely essential that some such prohibition
+should be made in England. Arsenic, according to law, must be sold
+coloured with soot, in order that its hue may prevent its being used by
+mistake for other substances; how absurd it is that we should allow other
+poisons, quite as virulent, to be mixed with the food of children and
+adults, merely for the sake of the colour! All kinds of sugar-plums,
+comfits, and "kisses," in addition to being often adulterated with large
+quantities of plaster of Paris, are always open to the suspicion of being
+poisoned. Necessity cannot be urged for the continuance of this wicked
+practice, as there are plenty of vegetable pigments which, if not quite as
+vivid as the acrid mineral ones, are sufficiently so to please the eye. Of
+late years a peculiar lozenge has been introduced, in which the flavour of
+certain fruits is singularly imitated. Thus we have essence of jargonel
+drops, essence of pine-apple drops, and many others of a most delicate
+taste. They really are so delicious that we scarcely like to create a
+prejudice against them; but the truth is great, and must prevail: all
+these delicate essences are made from a preparation of æther and rancid
+cheese and butter.
+
+The manufacturer, perhaps unaware of the cumulative action of many of his
+chemicals, thinks that the small quantity can do no harm. We have seen, in
+the matter of preserved fruits and sugar confectionery, how fallacious is
+that idea. But the practice of adulteration often leads to lamentable
+results of the same nature, which are quite unintentional on the part of
+their perpetrators, and which occur in the most roundabout manner. An
+instance of this is related by Accum, which goes directly to the point. A
+gentleman, perceiving that an attack of colic always supervened upon
+taking toasted Gloucestershire cheese at an inn at which he was in the
+habit of stopping, and having also noticed that a kitten which had
+partaken of its rind was rendered violently sick, had the food analyzed,
+when it was found that lead was present in it in poisonous quantities.
+Following up his inquiries, he ascertained that the maker of the cheese,
+not finding his annatto sufficiently deep in colour, had resorted to the
+expedient of colouring the commodity with vermilion. This mixture,
+although pernicious and discreditable, was not absolutely poisonous, and
+certainly could not account for the disastrous effects of the food on the
+human system. Trying back still further, however, it was at last found
+that the druggist who sold the vermilion had mixed with it a portion of
+_red lead_, imagining that the pigment was only required for house paint.
+"Thus," as Accum remarks, "the druggist sold his vermilion, in a regular
+way of trade, adulterated with red lead, to increase his profit, without
+any suspicion of the use to which it would be applied; and the purchaser
+who adulterated the annatto, presuming that the vermilion was genuine, had
+no hesitation in heightening the colour of his annatto with so harmless an
+adjunct. Thus, through the diversified and circulatory operations of
+commerce, a portion of deadly poison may find admission into the
+necessaries of life in a way that can attach no criminality to the parties
+through whose hands it has successively passed." The curious aspect of
+this circuitous kind of poisoning is, that it occurs through the belief of
+each adulterating rogue in the honesty of his neighbour.
+
+If we could possibly eliminate, from the mass of human disease, that
+occasioned by the constant use of deleterious food, we should find that it
+amounted to a very considerable percentage on the whole, and that one of
+the best friends of the doctor would prove to be the adulterator. But even
+our refuge fails us in our hour of need; the tools of the medical man,
+like those of the sappers and miners before Sebastopol, often turn out to
+be worthless. Drugs and medical comforts are perhaps adulterated as
+extensively as any other article. To mention only a few familiar and
+household medicines for instance: Epsom salts are adulterated with
+sulphate of soda; carbonate of soda with sulphate of soda--a very
+injurious substitute. Mercury is sometimes falsified with lead, tin, and
+bismuth; gentian with the poisonous drugs aconite and belladonna; rhubarb
+with turmeric and gamboge; cantharides with black pepper; and cod-liver
+and castor-oils with common and inferior oils; whilst opium, one of the
+sheet-anchors of the physician, is adulterated to the greatest extent in a
+dozen different ways. Medical comforts are equally uncertain. Thus
+potato-flour forms full half of the so-called arrowroots of commerce;
+sago-meal is another very common ingredient in this nourishing substance.
+Out of fifty samples of so-styled arrowroot, Dr. Hassall found twenty-two
+adulterated, many of them consisting _entirely_ of potato-flour and
+sago-meal. One half of the common oatmeals to be met with are adulterated
+with barley-meal, a much less nutritious substance--an important fact,
+which boards of guardians should be acquainted with. Honey is
+sophisticated with flour-starch and sugar-starch. And lastly, we wish to
+say something important to mothers. Put no faith in the hundred and one
+preparations of farinaceous food for infants which are paraded under so
+many attractive titles. They are all composed of wheat-flour,
+potato-flour, sago, &c.,--very familiar ingredients, which would not take
+with anxious parents unless christened with extraordinary names, for which
+their compounders demand an extraordinary charge. To invalids we would
+also say, place no reliance on the Revalentas and Ervalentas advertised
+through the country as cures for all imaginary diseases. They consist
+almost entirely of lentil-powder, barley-flour, &c., which are charged
+cent. per cent. above their real value.
+
+Of all the articles we have touched upon, not one is so important as
+water. It mixes more or less with all our solid food, and forms
+nine-tenths of all our drinks. Man himself, as a sanitary writer has
+observed, is in great part made up of this element, and if you were to put
+him under a press you would squeeze out of him 8-1/2 pailfuls. That it
+should be furnished pure to the consumer is of the first importance in a
+sanitary and economic point of view. We are afraid, however, that but
+feeble attempts have been made to secure this advantage to the metropolis.
+At present London, with its two and a half millions of population, is
+mainly supplied by nine water companies, six of which derive their supply
+from the Thames, one from the New River, one from the Ravensbourne, and a
+third from ponds and wells. Besides this supply, which ramifies like a
+network over the whole metropolis, we find dotted about both public and
+private wells of various qualities. We do not intend to follow Dr. Hassall
+into his microscopic representations of the organic matter, vegetable and
+animal, by which the customers of one company can compare the water served
+to them with that dealt out to others, and thus at a glance assure
+themselves that they have not more than their share of many-legged,
+countless-jointed, hideous animalculæ, which look formidable enough to
+frighten one from ever touching a drop of London water, but shall content
+ourselves with giving the general characteristics of the whole of them.
+With one exception they were all of a hardness ranging from 11 to 18
+degrees. This hardness depends upon the earthy salts present, such as
+sulphates and bicarbonates of lime and magnesia. They were also to some
+extent saline, as all the salt used in the metropolis ultimately finds its
+way into the Thames, or great sewer-stream. Not long ago two, at least, of
+these six Thames water companies procured their supply within a short
+distance of the mouths of great drains, and all of them resorted to the
+river at different points below Battersea, or that portion of it which
+receives the drainage of the metropolis, and is consequently crowded with
+animal and vegetable matter, both living and dead, and thick with the mud
+stirred up by the passage to and fro of the steamers. The violent outcry
+made, however, by the Board of Health, caused an Act to be passed by
+parliament against the supply of the sewage rates, and now all the
+companies taking their supplies from the Thames, are compelled to go at
+least as high as Kingston, and to submit them to a process of filtration;
+but even at this point the river is in some degree sewage-tainted, and
+the chemically-combined portion of baser matter cannot be removed by any
+filter.
+
+The impurities of the Thames are not all we have to deal with--its
+hardness must cost the Londoners hundreds of thousands a year in the
+article of soap alone. The action upon lead is also marked; hence we find
+poisonous carbonates of that metal held in solution. Plumbers are well
+aware of this fact, and frequently meet with leaden cisterns deeply
+corroded. This corrosion may arise from either chemical or voltaic action.
+The junction of lead and solder, or iron, immersed in water impregnated
+with salts or acid of any kind, will cause erosion of the metal. A
+familiar instance of this is seen in the rapid manner in which iron
+railings rust away just where they are socketed in the stonework with
+lead. The presence of a piece of mortar on the lead of a cistern may even
+set up this action, and result in giving a whole family the colic.
+
+The pumps of the metropolis are liable to even more contamination than
+river-water, inasmuch as the soil surrounding them is saturated with the
+sewage of innumerable cesspools, and with that arising from the leakage of
+imperfect drains. Medical men entertained the opinion that the terrible
+outbreak of cholera in Broad Street, Golden Square, in 1854, arose from
+the fact that the people in the neighbourhood were in the habit of
+visiting a public pump which was proved to be foul with drain-water, and
+the handle of which was taken off, to prevent further mischief. Some of
+these public pumps appear to yield excellent water--cold, clear, and
+palatable; but the presence of these qualities by no means proves that
+they are pure. The bright sparkling icy water issuing from the famous
+Aldgate pump, according to Mr. Simon, the city officer of health, owes its
+most prized qualities to the nitrates which have filtered into the well
+from the decaying animal matter in an adjoining churchyard.
+
+The porter and stout of the metropolis have long been famous. The virtues
+of the latter drink are celebrated all over the world; and a royal duke,
+ascribed the great mortality among the guards in the East to the want of
+their favourite beverage. No doubt the pure liquor, as it comes from the
+great brewers, is wholesome and strengthening; but it no sooner gets into
+the possession of the publicans than, in a great majority of cases, the
+article is made up. A stranger would naturally suppose that the foaming
+tankard of Meux's entire which he quaffs at the "Marquis of Granby" has an
+identical flavour with that at the "Blue Boar," where the same brewer's
+name shines resplendent on the house-front. Not a bit of it: one shall be
+smooth, pleasantly bitter, slightly acid, and beaded with a fine and
+persistent froth; the other, bitter with the bitterness of soot, salt,
+clammy, sweet, and frothing with a coarse and evanescent froth. The body
+of the liquor is undoubtedly the same, but the variations are all supplied
+by the publicans and sinners. We do not make _émeutes_, as they are
+continually doing in Bavaria, on account of our beer; but we have strong
+feelings on a matter of such national importance; and the wicked ways of
+brewers and publicans have been made, over and over again, the subject of
+parliamentary inquiry. The reports of various committees prove that, in
+times past, porter and stout were doctored in the most ingenious manner,
+and so universally and unreservedly, that a trade sprang up termed
+brewers' druggists, whose whole business it was to supply to the
+manufacturers and retailers of the national beverage, ingredients for its
+adulteration; nay, to such an extent did the taste for falsifying beer and
+porter extend, that one genius, hight Jackson, wrote a hand-book to show
+the brewers how to make Beer _without any Malt or Hops at all_! Accum has
+preserved, in his now antique pages, some of the recipes in vogue in his
+day. The boldness with which our fathers went to work is amusing. For
+instance, Mr. Child, in his "Practical Treatise on Brewing," after having
+made his non-professional reader aghast by mentioning a score of
+pernicious articles to be used in beer, remarks, in the mildest possible
+manner,--
+
+    "That, however much they may surprise--however pernicious or
+    disagreeable they may appear, he has always found them requisite in
+    the brewing of porter, and he thinks they must invariably be used by
+    those who wish to continue the taste, flavour, and effervescence of
+    the beer. And, though several acts of Parliament have been passed to
+    prevent porter brewers from using many of them, yet the author can
+    affirm, from experience, he could never produce the present flavoured
+    porter without them. _The intoxicating qualities of porter are to be
+    ascribed to the various drugs intermixed with it._ It is evident some
+    porter is more heady than other, and it arises from the greater or
+    less quantity of stupefying ingredients. Malt, to produce
+    intoxication, must be used in such large quantities as would very much
+    diminish, if not totally exclude, the brewer's profit."
+
+It is clear from this extract that Mr. Child considered the end of all
+successful brewing was to make people dead-drunk at the cheapest possible
+rate, regardless of consequences. Among the ingredients that Mr. Morris,
+another instructor in the art of brewing, tells us are requisite to
+produce a popular article, are--cocculus indicus and beans, as
+intoxicators; calamus aromaticus, as a substitute for hops; quassia, as a
+bitter; coriander-seeds to give flavour; capsicums, carraway-seeds,
+ginger, and grains of paradise, to give warmth; whilst oyster-shells are
+recommended to afford a touch of youth to old beer, and alum to give a
+"smack of age" to new; and when it is desired to bring it more rapidly
+"forward," the presiding Hecate is told to drop sulphuric acid into her
+brew; by this means an imitation of the age of eighteen months was given
+in a few instants. Even the "fine cauliflower head," which is held to be
+the sign of excellence in stout, was--and, for all we know, still
+is--artificially made by mixing with the article a detestable compound
+called "beer-headings," composed of common green vitriol, alum, and salt,
+and sometimes by the simple addition of salts of steel. That these
+articles were commonly employed we have the evidence of the Excise
+Department, which published a long list of such ingredients seized by them
+on the premises of brewers and brewers' druggists.[6] Many of these
+glaring adulterations are probably no longer in general use, although,
+from the evidence given before a recent committee of the House of
+Commons, it is believed that sulphuric acid, salt of steel, sulphate of
+iron, and cocculus indicus are still resorted to by the smaller brewers,
+especially those living in the country--a belief very much strengthened by
+the very odd taste we sometimes find in ales and porters, and which is
+certainly not derived from malt and hops. The common method of
+adulterating the national liquor is by mixing water with it. This is done
+almost universally by the publican, and to a very extraordinary extent. A
+comparison between the per-centage of alcohol to be found in a given
+number of samples of porter and stout, procured from what is termed
+brewers' taps, or agents, with that existing in a similar number of
+samples purchased of publicans, proves this fact in a very convincing
+manner. Dr. Hassall informs us that, with regard to the stouts,--
+
+    "The alcohol--of specific gravity 796, temperature 60°
+    Fahr.--contained in the former samples ranged from 7·15 per cent. the
+    highest, to 4·53 the lowest; whereas that of the stouts procured from
+    publicans varied, with one exception, from 4·87 per cent. to 3·25 per
+    cent."
+
+The same difference of strength also existed between the various samples
+of porter procured from the two sources; the amount of alcohol in that
+obtained from the taps varying from 4·51 per cent. to 2·42 per cent.,
+whereas that purchased of publicans ranged from 3·97 per cent. to 1·81 per
+cent. The mixture of water, of course, reduces the colour, to bring up
+which both burnt sugar and molasses are extensively used; and, in order
+that "the appetite may grow with what it feeds on," tobacco and salt are
+copiously added by the publican. Beer, porter, and stout are also liable
+to be contaminated by the presence of lead. The universal use of pumping
+machines and the storing of the casks in the cellars, sometimes at a
+considerable distance from the bar, necessitates the use of long leaden
+pipes, in passing through which the liquid, if "stale" or sour, oxidates a
+portion of the lead. This fact is so well known both to public and
+publican, that the first pot or two drawn in the morning is generally set
+aside, as, from having lain all night in the pipe, it is justly considered
+injurious. The liberality of the barmaid in thus sacrificing a portion of
+the liquor is more apparent than real. The reader has, perhaps, noticed
+that most public-house counters are fitted up with metal tops, in which
+gratings are inserted to drain off all the spilt liquor, drainings of
+glasses, heel-taps of pots, &c.: down these gratings goes "the first
+draught," with its dose of oxide of lead. The receptacle below, which
+contains all this refuse together with that at the bottoms of barrels, the
+publican either returns to the brewer, or empties it himself into
+half-filled casks.
+
+The public were very needlessly alarmed some years ago by a statement made
+by M. Payen, a celebrated French chemist, that strychnine was being made
+for England, where it was used in the manufacture of the bitter beer of
+this country. This statement was copied by the _Medical Times_, and from
+thence, finding its way to Printing-house Square, became generally
+diffused, to the horror and discomfiture of pale-ale drinkers; and not
+without reason, when it is remembered that one-sixth of a grain of this
+poison has been known to prove fatal, and a very much smaller quantity
+daily taken, to have the effect of inducing tetanic spasms, and of
+otherwise seriously injuring the nervous system. We are happy to be able
+to state that the lovers of Bass and Allsopp may quaff their tonic draught
+in future without any fear of such terrible results. The bitterness of
+pale ale has been found, on analysis, to be entirely due to the extract of
+hops. Furthermore, this beverage, when selected from the stores of the
+brewers or their agents, has universally proved to be perfectly pure. We
+say, from the stores of the Burton brewers or their agents, because there
+is no absolute certainty of procuring the article genuine from any other
+source. The label on the bottle is no sure guarantee; for used bottles,
+with their labels intact, are in many instances refilled by publicans with
+an inferior article, and sold, of course, at the price of the real. We
+have good reason to believe that this trick is very often practised in a
+variety of instances, to the manifest injury of the public and brewers.
+
+Wine is far too wide a subject to be treated here. The great mass of
+ports at a cheap and moderate price are made up, it is well known, of
+several kinds, and doctored according to cost. There is one compound,
+however, which particularly claims our attention, "publicans' port." We
+are all of us familiar with the announcement to be seen in the windows of
+such tradesmen, "Fine old crusty port, 2_s._ 9_d._ a bottle;" and the
+extraordinary thing is, that upon opening the sample we often find that
+_it is_ crusted, and that the cork is deeply stained. How can they afford
+to sell an article bearing the appearance of such age and quality at so
+low a price? The answer is simple: wine, crust, and stained cork are
+fabricated. There is a manufactory in London, where, by a chemical
+process, they get up beeswing to perfection, and deposit it in the bottles
+so as exactly to imitate the natural crust; here corks are also stained to
+assume any age that is required. The wine itself contains a very little
+inferior port, the rest being composed of cheap red French wine, brandy,
+and logwood as a colouring matter, if required. The port wine sold over
+the bar at 3_d._ a glass--and we are assured that this article is making
+its way in preference to gin in the low neighbourhoods, one gin palace, to
+our knowledge, selling a butt a week over the counter--is an inferior
+article even to this, and its taste is quite sufficient to prove that only
+an infinitesimal portion of it ever came from Oporto.
+
+London gin, under a hundred names, is notoriously a compound. Most people
+flatter themselves that its peculiar flavour is due to the admixture of
+sugar and juniper-berries alone. It is, however, a much more elaborate
+concoction than the public imagine. Those accustomed to the unsweetened
+West Country gin think the London article only fit to drink when raw, and
+in many cases they are right; for the publican and inferior
+spirit-dealers, like milkmen, are great customers of the pump. It appears
+that some of the samples examined by the analyst contained only half as
+much alcohol as was present in others; and as the gin of commerce is never
+above proof, it follows that these specimens were scarcely as good as
+"stiff" gin-and-water. So much for the pure spirit; now for the fancy
+work or "flavourings." The quantity of sugar in the samples examined
+ranged from 3 oz. 4 drms. 23 grains, to 13 oz. 4 drms.; two of them
+contained oil of cinnamon, or, more probably, of cassia; seven contained
+cayenne pepper, some of them in very large quantities; and most of the
+samples contained combined sulphates; whilst there is good authority for
+stating that sulphate of zinc, or white vitriol, is often used. The very
+"beaded bubbles winking at the brim," which are considered to be a proof
+of the strength of the article, are produced artificially. Mr. Mitchell,
+in his "Handbook of Commerce," states that this is done by adding a
+mixture compounded of alum, carbonate of potash, almond-oil, sulphuric
+acid, and spirits of wine. "The earth hath bubbles as the water hath, and
+these are of them." One would think that it would be to the interest of
+the trade to keep their illicit practices "dark:" but the publican has his
+"Handbook" to teach him how to adulterate spirit as well as beer. For
+instance, in a little work on Brewing and Distilling, written by a Mr.
+Shannon, the following recipe is given:--
+
+    "_To reduce unsweetened Gin._
+
+    A tun of fine gin                         252 gallons.
+    Water                                      36    "
+                                              ---
+    Which added together makes                288    "
+    _The doctor is now put on_, and
+      it is further reduced with water         19    "
+                                              ---
+    Which gives                               307 gallons.
+
+    "This done, let one pound of alum be just covered with water, and
+    dissolved by boiling; _rummage_ the whole together, and pour in the
+    alum, and the whole will be fine in a few days."
+
+We wonder that Mr. Gough, the great temperance advocate, never armed
+himself with one of these recipes, in order to convince people of the
+noxious liquids they are invited to drink under the most inviting names.
+In every quarter of the town we see gin-palaces seizing upon the corner
+houses of the streets, just as scrofula seizes upon the joints of the
+human frame, and through their ever-open doors streams of squalid wretches
+are continually pouring in and out. Could they be informed that they enter
+to gulp oil of vitriol, oil of turpentine, and sulphuric acid, among other
+acrid and deleterious compounds--that the tap of the publican spouts
+corroding fire, like that which leaped up from the wooden table at the
+command of Mephistopheles, in Auerbach's cellar, they would feel inclined
+to exclaim with Siebald to the fiend:--
+
+  "What, sir, how dare you practise thus
+  Your hocus-pocus upon us?"
+
+Gin, it appears, is almost exclusively doctored in this highly deleterious
+manner, although all spirits are open to sophistication, but especially
+brandy, which, on account of its price, pays well for the trouble. Mr.
+Shannon, deeply versed in the "art and mystery" of the trade of the
+publican, informs us that brandy should be "made up" for "retail" by the
+addition of 10 per cent. of flavoured raisin wine, a little of the
+tincture of grains of paradise, cherry-laurel water, and spirit of
+almond-cake: "add also 10 handfuls of oak sawdust, and give it
+_complexion_ with burnt sugar."
+
+If we can give the dram-drinker little comfort, we can at least reassure
+the smoker. "Everybody says" that common cigars are made out of cabbages,
+and tobacco has always been suspected of containing many adulterations.
+These charges have been made, however, at random, and the result of
+chemical analysis and examinations by the microscope has proved that this
+article of daily consumption is remarkably pure. The carefully-searching
+microscope of Dr. Hassall has not succeeded in finding any other than the
+genuine leaf among forty samples of manufactured tobacco; neither were
+there any sophistications discovered, with the exceptions of salt, sugar,
+and water. An inquiry into the specimens of the rolled and twisted article
+was equally consoling to the maker and chewer. Now and then, it is true,
+the excise officers make seizures in the warehouses of the tobacco
+manufacturers, of dock, rhubarb, coltsfoot, and other leaves, but to a
+very insignificant extent, considering the value of the article and the
+heavy duty upon it.
+
+He who, like Byron, prefers the naked beauties of the leaf in the shape of
+a cigar, will be equally gratified to hear that such a thing as
+adulteration scarcely exists in this form of tobacco--at least, not when
+purchased in the shops. Even if we descend to a penny "Pickwick," we find
+nothing in it but the pure leaf. Out of fifty-seven samples examined, only
+one was sophisticated, and that, apparently from its contents, by
+accident. The only adulterated samples discovered at all, were exactly
+where we might have expected to have found them, in the possession of a
+hawker at Whitechapel. These, on examination, turned out to be made up of
+two twisted wrappers or layers of thin paper, tinted of a bistre colour,
+while the interior consisted entirely of hay, not a particle of tobacco
+entering into their composition. The second example of a spurious cigar
+was purchased at a review in Hyde Park. It consisted externally of
+tobacco-leaf, but was made internally of hay. Our readers are familiar
+enough with the fellows who vend these fraudulent articles, made to sell
+and not to smoke; they are generally to be found at fairs and races, or
+any crowded place in the open air, where they can escape speedily from
+their victimized customers. There is a class of men who make a very good
+livelihood in the metropolis by perambulating the streets and looking out
+for ingenuous youths. Towards such they furtively approach, and, like the
+tempter of old, whisper in their ear of forbidden fruit. The unwary are
+constantly taken in by one of these serpents, in the shape of a sailor
+straight from the docks, who intimates, in a hurried manner, that, if we
+wanted any "smuggled cigars," he has just a box to sell cheap round the
+corner. In general these worthies need not fear the exciseman, as the
+article they have to sell does not come under the name of tobacco at all.
+
+If, however, cigars are not open to the charge of being adulterated, they
+are the subject of innumerable frauds, inasmuch as those of English
+manufacture are passed off as foreign ones. Thus, the so-called Bengal
+cheroots are _all_ home-made imitations of Chinsurah cheroots. In order to
+pass them off as the genuine article they are sold in boxes, branded and
+labelled in exact imitation of those sent from India. It may be asked why
+such cigars, if made out of the tobacco-leaf, are not as good as those of
+Eastern or Spanish manufacture. The real reason is, that the tobacco loses
+much of its fine flavour and aroma by packing and keeping; otherwise the
+English cigar would be equal to any other. The old impression that the
+Manilla cheroot is impregnated with opium would not appear to be correct,
+from the investigations of Dr. Hassall, who has failed to discover that
+narcotic in any of the specimens which he tested for it.
+
+We have to mention one preparation of tobacco of which we cannot speak
+quite so favourably as of the others. Snuff is, we are sorry to say,
+vilely adulterated, and some kinds poisonously. The law allows the use of
+salt and water and lime-water in its manufacture--a privilege which the
+snuff-makers take advantage of to increase its weight, all moist snuffs
+averaging full twenty-five per cent. of water. If these were the only
+adulterations to the titillating powder, no harm would be done; but we
+have positive evidence afforded us in the report of the "Lancet"
+Commission, that, in addition to ferruginous earths, such as red and
+yellow ochre, no less than three poisonous preparations are also
+introduced into it--chromate of lead, red-lead, and bichromate of potash!
+When a man taps his snuff-box and takes out a pinch, he little dreams that
+he is introducing an enemy into his system, which in the long-run might
+master his nerves and produce paralysis; nevertheless it is an undoubted
+fact. Many persons have been deprived of the use of their limbs through a
+persistence in taking snuff adulterated with lead in less proportions than
+that found in the samples examined by Dr. Hassall. Bi-chromate of potash
+is a still more deadly poison. M. Duchâtel of Paris found that dogs were
+destroyed by doses of from one twenty-fifth of a grain to one
+five-hundredth of a grain. We have heard of inveterate snuffers keeping
+this comfort open in their waistcoat pockets, and helping themselves by
+fingers'-full at a time; if their snuff contained anything like the
+proportion of deleterious ingredients now to be found in the same article,
+"dropped hands" and colic would soon have cured them of this dirty and
+disagreeable habit.
+
+It is not our purpose to follow further the trail which Accum and others,
+and more lately and particularly Dr. Hassall, have discovered for us.
+Before closing the pages of the latter gentleman's report, however, from
+which we have drawn so largely, we cannot avoid stating that the
+community is under the greatest obligation to both himself and the editor
+of the _Lancet_--to the one for the energy with which he pursued his
+subject, and to the other for his singular boldness in rendering himself
+liable for the many actions which the publication of the names of
+evil-doers was likely to bring upon his journal, a liability which Dr.
+Hassall has since taken upon himself by the reprint of the report under
+his own name. This report is, in fact, as far as it goes, a handbook to
+the honest and fraudulent food-dealers in the metropolis; and every man
+who values wholesome aliment, and thinks it a duty to society to support
+the honest tradesman in preference to the rogue, should procure it as a
+valuable work of reference. We have not followed the author into
+personalities, as no further purpose could be served by so doing; but we
+have shown enough to convince the public that the grossest fraud reigns
+throughout the British public commissariat. Like a set of monkeys, every
+man's hand is seen in his neighbour's dish. The baker takes in the grocer,
+the grocer defrauds the publican, the publican "does" the pickle
+manufacturer, and the pickle-maker fleeces and poisons all the rest.[7]
+
+As guardian of the revenue, the government is deeply interested in this
+question, independently of the view it must take of its moral aspect, for
+the excise is without doubt cheated to the extent of hundreds of thousands
+a year by the same unlawful practices which demoralize a large portion of
+the community, and defraud and deceive the remainder.
+
+
+
+
+THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
+
+
+To furnish every possible link in the grand procession of organized life,
+is the aim of the science of zoology. Its professors have explored the
+wilds of Africa, and have penetrated far into the interior of South
+America; have endured the last extremities of hunger and thirst to catch
+some curious humming-bird; have been consumed by fevers to the very socket
+of life, in order to pin an unknown beetle, or to procure some rare and
+gorgeous-coloured fly. The passion for this science seems to have long
+dwelt in the English race: our love of field-sports, and keen relish of
+rural life, coupled with a habit of minute observation, have all had a
+tendency to foster an acquaintance with the beasts of the field and the
+fowls of the air, and scarcely a village but boasts of some follower of
+White or Waterton. This taste we carry with us to our vast colonial
+possessions, and to that chain of military posts whose morning guns echo
+round the world. With such splendid opportunities for observing and
+collecting animals, we have succeeded in gathering together a menagerie
+which is by far the first in existence, and which includes typical forms
+of most living things--from the chimpanzee, in whose face and structure we
+trace the last step but one of the highest form of mammal, to the
+zoophyte, which shakes hands with the vegetable world.
+
+Ancient Rome, it is true, in her degenerate days, witnessed vaster
+collections of animals, and saw hippopotami, ostriches, and giraffes,
+together with the fiercer carnivora, turned by hundreds into the arena;
+but how different the spirit with which they were collected! With the
+debased and profligate Roman emperors the only object of these bloody
+shows was to gratify the brutal appetite of their people for slaughter;
+with us the intention is to display the varying wonders of creation.
+
+Most of our readers in the full flush of summer have leaned over the
+balustrade of the carnivora terrace. From this elevated situation the
+whole plan of the south side of the grounds is exposed. To his right,
+fringing a still pool whose translucent waters mirror them as they stand,
+the spectator sees the collection of storks and cranes: more immediately
+in front of him softly tread the llamas and alpacas--the beasts of burthen
+of the New World: farther, again, we see the deer in their paddocks; and
+beyond, the sedgy pools of the water-fowl, set in the midst of graceful
+shrubberies which close the Gardens in from the landscape of the Regent's
+Park. Passing over to the northern side of the terrace he sees the eagle
+aviary, tenanted by its royal and solitary-looking occupants; the otters
+swimming their merry round, and perchance the seal flapping beside his
+pool; while the monkeys, with incredible rapidity and constant chatter,
+swing and leap about their wire enclosure Immediately beneath him the
+Polar bears pace to and fro, or, swaying their heads, walk backwards with
+a firmness which a lord chamberlain might study with advantage; and close
+at hand the long neck of the "ship of the desert" is seen sailing out from
+the gateway of the pretty clock-house. That the dread monarch of the
+forest and the other "great cats" are beneath his feet, he is made aware
+by angry growls and the quivering sound of shaken iron bars, as the keeper
+goes round with his daily beef-barrow. No one can help feeling a certain
+sense of strangeness at seeing these creatures of all climes scattered
+amid a flourishing garden--to witness beasts, ensanguined in tooth and
+claw, impatiently pacing to and fro between banks of scarlet geraniums or
+beds brilliant with the countless blooms of early dahlias--or, still more
+oddly, to witness birds of prey which love to career in the storm
+surrounded by monthly roses. Had it been possible to have given each class
+of bird and animal its appropriate vegetation, it would doubtless have
+been preferable; but such an arrangement was manifestly impossible.
+
+Descending from this general survey, the long row of dens which run below
+the terrace on either side are the first to attract the visitor's
+attention. Before this terrace was constructed in 1840, the larger
+carnivora were cooped up in what is now the reptile-house. The early dens
+of the establishment form a good example of the difficulty Englishmen
+experience in suiting themselves to altered circumstances. On the first
+formation of the gardens the society seems to have taken for its model
+some roving menagerie, as many of the houses of the beasts were nothing
+better than caravans dismounted from their wheels, and the managers
+encamped their collection in a fashion little more permanent than Wombwell
+would have done upon a village green. It was speedily found that the
+health of the felidæ suffered materially from their close confinement,
+which did not even admit of the change of air experienced in the
+travelling caravan. In fact, the lions, tigers, leopards, and pumas, did
+not live on an average more than twenty-four months. To remedy this state
+of things the terrace dens were constructed, and, rushing from one extreme
+to the other, tropical animals were left exposed to the full rigour of
+winter. The drifting rain fell upon their hair, and they were exposed in
+cold, wet weather to a temperature which even man, who ranges from the
+torrid zone to the arctic circle, could not resist unprotected. The
+consequences were manifested in the increase of inflammatory lung
+diseases, and it is now found necessary to protect the dens by matting and
+artificial heat from the extreme cold and damp of the winter months. In
+the summer the exposure suits them admirably, and it must be confessed
+that the tigers look only too fat and comfortable. One of the most
+interesting cages is that which contains a family party, consisting of the
+mastiff with the lion and his mate. They were brought up together from
+cub-hood, and agree to a marvel; though the dog would prove little more
+than a mouthful for either of his noble-looking companions. Visitors
+express a vast deal of sympathy for him, and fancy that the lion is only
+saving him up, as the giant did Jack, for a future feast. But their
+sympathy, we believe, is thrown away. "Lion" has always maintained the
+ascendancy he assumed when a pup, and any rough handling on the part of
+his huge playfellows is immediately resented by his flying at their noses.
+Although the dog is allowed to come out of the den every morning, he shows
+a great disinclination to leave his old friends. It is, however, thought
+advisable to separate them at feeding-time. Both the lion and lioness are
+of English birth, and it is singular that out of the great number that
+have been born in the society's garden full fifty per cent. have come into
+the world with cleft palates, and have perished in consequence of not
+being able to suck. If the keepers were to fill their nostrils with tow,
+we fancy they could accomplish this act, as well at least as children who
+are suffering from cold in the head. The male affords us an opportunity of
+showing the difference between the African variety to which he belongs and
+the East Indian specimen at the other end of the terrace. Our young Cape
+friend has a fine mane, and a tail but slightly bushed at the top, which
+droops towards the ground. The full-grown animal from Goojerat, is, on the
+contrary, comparatively maneless, and his tail takes a short curl upwards
+at the end. The caudal extremity of both is furnished with a rudimentary
+claw. This little appendage was supposed by the ancients to be
+instrumental in lashing the lion into fury, and Mr. Gordon Cumming informs
+us that the natives of South Africa believe it to be the residence of an
+evil spirit which never evacuates its post until death overtakes the beast
+and gives it notice to quit. The Goojerat or maneless lion is supposed to
+be the original of the heraldic beast we regard with such respect as a
+national emblem, but which foreigners maintain is nothing better than a
+leopard.
+
+But why do we coop these noble animals in such nutshells of cages? What a
+miserable sight to see them pace backwards and forwards in their box-like
+dens! Why should they, of all the beasts of the forest, be condemned to
+such imprisonment? The bear has his pole, the deer his paddock, the otter
+his pool, where at least they have enough liberty to keep them in health;
+but we stall our lions and tigers as we would oxen, till they grow
+lethargic, fat, and puffy, like city aldermen. With half an acre of
+enclosed ground, strewn with sand, we might see the king of beasts pace
+freely, as in his Libyan fastness, and with twenty feet of artificial
+rock, might witness the tiger's bound. Such an arrangement would, we are
+convinced, attract thousands to the gardens, and restore to the larger
+carnivora that place among the beasts from which they have here been so
+unfairly degraded. We commend this idea to the able secretary to the
+society, who has shown, by his system of "starring," how alive he is to
+the fact that it is to the sixpenny and shilling visitors who flock to the
+gardens by tens of thousands on holidays that he must look to support the
+wise and liberal expenditure he has lately adopted.
+
+On the other side of the terrace, in addition to the leopards and hyænas,
+is to be found a splendid collection of bears, from the sharp-muzzled
+sun-bear (who robs a beehive in a hollow tree as artistically as a London
+thief cuts a purse) to the enormous Russian Bruin, the largest perhaps
+ever exhibited. "Prince Menschikoff,"[8] as he is called by the keepers,
+grew into exceeding good condition in the gardens at Hull, where it
+appears he chiefly dieted upon his brethren, the cannibal having consumed
+no less than five bears; and they appear to have had the same effect upon
+him as cod-liver oil upon a human invalid. His neighbours, the white Polar
+bears, contrast with him strangely in physiognomy and form; their heads,
+sharp as polecats', seem fashioned, like cutwaters, to enable them to make
+their way in the sea; and if they would lift their huge paws, we should
+see that they were clothed almost entirely with hair, to aid them in
+securing a firm footing on the ice. The largest of these beasts managed to
+get out of his inclosure before the top of it was barred in; but he was
+peaceably led back again. Indeed, even the wildest of the beasts, after a
+little confinement, seem so frightened at recovering their liberty, that
+they easily allow themselves to be recaptured.
+
+In one year the Felidæ alone consumed beef, mutton, and horseflesh to the
+value of £1,367. 19_s._ 5_d._ This sum is entirely irrespective of the
+fish, snakes, frogs, and other "small deer" given to the birds and
+inferior carnivora. They all live here like gentlemen, emancipated from
+the drudgery of finding their daily food. They have their slaughter-houses
+close at hand in the gardens, where sheep, oxen, and horses are weekly
+killed expressly for them. Some of them will only eat cooked meat. Soon
+after the establishment of the gardens experiments were made as to the
+best manner of feeding them, which proved that while they gained flesh and
+continued active upon one full meal a day, they lost weight and became
+drowsy on two half-meals. In the endeavour to follow nature still closer,
+they were dieted more sparely, and even fasted at certain seasons. This
+treatment, however, resulted in a catastrophe--a female leopard and puma
+killing and eating their companions: a strong hint for fuller rations,
+which was not neglected.
+
+Let us now cross over from the cages of the king of beasts to the aviary
+of the king of birds. The collection of eagles, vultures, and condors,
+numbers upwards of twenty species, among which we recognized "the oldest
+inhabitant" of the Gardens--the vulture presented to the society by Mr.
+Brooks, the surgeon, more than thirty years ago. Notwithstanding his age,
+he looks one of the finest birds in the collection. We question, however,
+if the last new-comer of the same species will not "put his bill out,"
+arriving as he does from a distant shore to which thousands of anxious
+hearts have turned. We allude to the vulture lately sent from the Crimea.
+He was caught near the monastery of Saint George, and the proximity of his
+retreat to many a battle-field suggests reflections too painful to dwell
+upon. The prominent impression produced in glancing at this aviary is the
+perfect isolation which each bird maintains as he crowns the topmost
+pinnacle of the heap of rocks reared in the centre of his den, where he
+perches, motionless as a stone. There seems to be no recognition of
+fellow-prisoners--no interchange of either blows or courtesies between the
+iron netting. Each seems an enduring captive that will not be comforted
+or won over to the ways of men. Now and then unsheathing his piercing eye,
+we perceive the huge wings spread, and perchance remembering the callow
+eaglets in some Alpine eyrie, the bird soars upwards for a moment, beats
+his pinions against the netting, and falls to the earth again with the
+ignominious flop of a Christmas turkey. It is impossible to contemplate
+these birds without pity, not unmixed with pain. Who can recognize, in the
+motionless bunch of feathers before us, Audubon's magnificent description
+of the Bald Eagle as he swoops upon his prey?--
+
+    "The next moment the wild trumpet-like sound of a yet distant but
+    approaching swan is heard.... Now is the moment to witness a display
+    of the eagle's powers. He glides through the air like a falling star,
+    and like a flash of lightning comes upon the timorous quarry, which
+    now, in agony and despair, seeks, by various manoeuvres, to elude the
+    grasp of his cruel talons. It mounts, doubles, and willingly would
+    plunge into the stream were it not prevented by the eagle, which, long
+    possessed of the knowledge that by such a stratagem the swan might
+    escape him, forces it to remain in the air by attempting to strike it
+    with its talons from beneath. The hope of escape is soon given up by
+    the swan. It has already become much weakened, and its strength fails
+    at the sight of the courage and swiftness of its antagonist. Its last
+    gasp is about to escape, when the ferocious eagle strikes with his
+    talons the under side of his wing, and with unresisted power forces
+    the bird to fall in a slanting direction upon the nearest shore."
+
+This is the romance of the noble bird's mode of obtaining food--here, as
+he marches off with a dead rat in his claw, or a piece of raw beef, we
+behold its prose. But however unpoetical this treatment, it cannot be said
+to disagree with him, as fine plumage and good condition prove. Passing on
+our way to the monkey-house, the merry otters are seen playing
+"follow-my-leader" round their rock-house, now plunging headlong in search
+of the flat-fish which shines at the bottom of the water--now bringing it
+to shore, and crushing flesh, vertebræ, and all.
+
+The admirably-arranged but vilely-ventilated monkey-house is always a
+great source of attraction. The mixture of fun and solemnity, the odd
+attitudes and tricks, and the human expression of their countenances, all
+tend to attract, and at the same time to repel. Mr. Rogers used to say,
+that visiting them was like going to see one's poor relations; and
+wondrous shabby old fellows some of them appear. We have only to look into
+their faces for a moment to see that they differ from each other as much
+as the faces of mankind. There is a large, long-haired, black-faced
+rascal, who looks as murderous as a Malay; a little way off we see another
+with great bushy whiskers and shaggy eyebrows (the mona), the very picture
+of a successful horse-dealer; a third, with his long nose and keen eye,
+has all the air of a crafty old lawyer. The contemplation of them brings
+involuntarily to the mind the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. The
+apes and baboons are indeed purely brutal, and only excite disgust:
+towards the latter the whole company of smaller monkeys express the utmost
+hatred--as may be seen when the keeper by way of fun takes one of them out
+of his cage and walks him down the room. The whole population rush to the
+front of their cages, and hoot, growl, and chatter at him as only Eastern
+County shareholders can do when their chairman takes his seat. The
+vivacious little capuchin monkeys are evidently the favourites, and bag
+most of the nuts; the brown capuchin appears to be particularly knowing,
+as he keeps a big pebble at hand, and when he finds that his teeth are not
+equal to the task, he taps the nut with the stone with just sufficient
+force to break the shell without bruising the kernel. We have often seen
+this little fellow take a pinch of snuff, and assiduously rub his own and
+his companion's skin with it, with a full knowledge, no doubt, of the old
+recipe for killing fleas. He will also make use of an onion for a similar
+purpose. Among the other quadrumana in this house we find the lemurs,
+which look more like long-legged weasels than monkeys, and the
+bright-faced little marmosets, who cluster inquiringly to the front of
+their cage looking in their cap-shaped headdress of fur like so many
+gossips quizzing you over the window-blinds.
+
+At the present moment there is no specimen of either the uran or
+chimpanzee in the Gardens, but there have been at least half a dozen
+located here within the last ten years, one of which, "Jenny," maintained
+her health for five years. The damp, cold air of the Gardens at last
+brought on consumption; and the public must remember the poor, wheezing,
+dying brute, with a plaster on her chest and blankets around her, the very
+picture of a moribund old man. The only specimen now in Europe is in the
+Jardin des Plantes, at Paris. This animal, one of the finest ever seen, is
+in excellent health, and promises to maintain it in the bright air of La
+Belle France. An accomplished naturalist has kindly furnished us with the
+following particulars of this brute, which clearly indicate that he is a
+very Dr. Busby among his fellows:--
+
+    "He passed through London on his way to Paris, having landed at
+    Plymouth. There were then two female Chims resident in the Gardens in
+    the Regent's Park, and the French Chim was allowed to lodge in their
+    hotel for a couple of nights. On his appearance both of these young
+    ladies uttered cries of recognition, which however evinced more fear
+    than anything else. Chim was put into a separate compartment, or room
+    with a double grille, to prevent the probable injuries which
+    discordant apes will inflict on each other. He had scarcely felt the
+    floor under his feet when he began to pay attention to his
+    countrywomen thus suddenly and unexpectedly found. Their fear and
+    surprise gradually subsided, and they stood watching him attentively,
+    when he broke out into a characteristic _pas seul_, which he kept up
+    for a considerable time, uttering cries scarcely more hideous than
+    seem the notes of a Chinese singer, and not far out of unison with his
+    loudly-beating feet. The owner, who was present, said that he was
+    imitating a dance of the negroes, which the animal had often seen
+    while resident in his house in Africa. The animal was upwards of a
+    year and a half old, and had spent one year of his life in this
+    gentleman's house. The Chim maidens gradually relaxed their reserve as
+    the vivacity of the dance increased, until at last, when it was over,
+    each stealthily put a hand through the grille and welcomed their
+    friend and brother to their home in a far land. As the weather was
+    severe--it was early in December--it is possible that their talk was
+    of their native palm-groves and their never-ending summer. Chim
+    thenceforth made himself as agreeable as possible, and when the time
+    for his departure came, the maidens exhibited the liveliest regret,
+    short of tears, at losing him. At Paris he increased rapidly in
+    stature and intelligence. The climate, diet (he drinks his pint of
+    Bordeaux daily), and lively society of the French seem to be more
+    congenial to Chim's physique than our melancholy London. He makes
+    acquaintance not only with the staff but with the _habitués_ of the
+    Garden. The last time I saw him (May, 1854) he came out to taste the
+    morning air in the large circular enclosure in front of the Palais des
+    Singes, which was built for "our poor relations" by M. Thiers. Here
+    Chim began his day by a leisurely promenade, casting pleased and
+    thankful glances towards the sun, the beautiful sun of early summer.
+    He had three satellites, coati-mundis, either by chance or to amuse
+    him, and while making all manner of eyes at a young lady who supplies
+    the Singerie with pastry and cakes, one of the coati-mundis came up
+    stealthily behind and dealt him a small but malicious bite. Chim
+    looked round with astonishment at this audacious outrage on his
+    person, put his hand haughtily upon the wound, but without losing his
+    temper in the least. He walked deliberately to the other side of the
+    circle, and fetched a cane which he had dropped there in his
+    promenade. He returned with majestic wrath upon his brow, mingled, I
+    thought, with contempt; and, taking Coati by the tail, commenced
+    punishment with his cane, administering such blows as his victim could
+    bear without permanent injury, and applied with equal justice to the
+    ribs on either side, in a direction always parallel to the spine.
+    When he thought enough had been done, he disposed of Coati without
+    moving a muscle of his countenance, by a left-handed jerk, which threw
+    the delinquent high in air, head over heels. He came down a sadder and
+    a better coati, and retired with shame and fear to an outer corner.
+    Having executed this act of justice, Chim betook him to a tree. A
+    large baboon, who had in the mean time made his appearance in the
+    circle, thought this was a good opportunity of doing a civil thing,
+    and accordingly mounted the tree and sat down smilingly, as baboons
+    smile, upon the next fork. Chim slowly turned his head at this attempt
+    at familiarity, measured the distance, raised his hind foot, and, as
+    composedly as he had caned the coati, kicked the big baboon off his
+    perch into the arena below. This abasement seemed to do the baboon
+    good, for he also retired like the coati, and took up his station on
+    the other side. To what perfection of manners and development of
+    thought the last year and a half may have brought him I can scarcely
+    guess; but one day doubtless some one will say of him, as an Oriental
+    prince once said to me, after looking at the uran 'Peter,'--'Does he
+    speak English yet?'"
+
+The monkeys before they were transferred to this house suffered a great
+mortality, and indeed, on taking possession of their new apartment, the
+keepers used to remove the dead by the barrowful in the morning. This
+extreme mortality was produced by want of ventilation, and a system of
+heating which burnt the air and induced inflammation of the lungs. Dr.
+Marshall Hall and Dr. Arnott, upon being consulted, directed the
+substitution of an open stove, when the deaths ceased.
+
+As we pass towards the small building once used as the parrot-house, but
+now dedicated to the smaller felidæ, we go by the seal-pond, and see that
+strange beast which resembles a Danish carriage-dog with his legs
+amputated. He is an epicure as regards his regular meals, and turns up his
+nose at any fish less _recherché_ than whiting, of which expensive
+delicacy he consumes ten pounds weight daily. Meanwhile, however, he is "a
+snapper-up of unconsidered trifles," and we see him, as the visitors
+circulate round his enclosure, flop, flop, around the margin of his pond,
+keeping a sharp look-out above the railings for stray favours. The house
+of the smaller carnivora is generally overlooked, but it is worthy of a
+visit, if only to see the beautiful clouded tigers as they are misnamed,
+for they more resemble hunting leopards both in size and skin-markings.
+These elegant creatures are quite tame, and permit the utmost
+familiarities of their keeper; but their neighbour, the caracal or lynx,
+never seems tired of making the most ferocious rushes at the bars,
+accompanied by a vindictive and incessant spitting, which impresses us
+with the idea that it possesses the very quintessence of catlike nature.
+There is one little cage in this apartment which is deserving of especial
+inspection--that containing a specimen of the indigenous black rat, which,
+according to Mr. Waterton, was entirely eaten out of the country by the
+grey rats of Hanover, which came over in the same ship with _Dutch
+William_, and which are, according to that hearty naturalist, the very
+emblems of "Protestant rapacity." Those who have read his delightful
+essays know well with what perseverance the author hunts the grey rodent
+through every chapter of his book.
+
+If we now retrace our steps along the border of the plantation, which
+forms a deep green background for countless dahlias, and moreover screens
+the garden from the biting east, we shall, by turning to the right hand,
+come upon the Aquarium, the latest and most attractive sight in the
+gardens. How cool and delicious! Around us we perceive slices of the deep
+sea-bed and the rapid river. Were we mermen we could not examine more at
+ease the rich pavement of the ocean set with strange and living flowers.
+In the midst of the green walls of water which surround us, mimic caves,
+waving with sea-weed and other marine plants, afford shelter and
+lurking-holes for bright fish which stare and dart, or for shambling
+crustaceæ which creep over the pebbly bottom. Against the dark verdure of
+these submerged rocks, the sea-anemone rears its orange base tipped with
+flower-like fans, or hangs its snake-like tentacles, writhing as the
+head-dress of Medusa. But we must look narrowly into each nook and under
+every stone, if we wish to realize the amount of animal life, which here
+puts on such strange vegetable forms. Let us consider well for a few
+minutes one of the tanks running down the middle of the building. For
+months all the minute animal and vegetable life has been multiplying and
+decaying, and yet the water remains pure and bright. The explanation of
+this phenomenon affords one of the most beautiful examples of the manner
+in which nature on a grand scale holds the balance true between her
+powers. If we were to put these little bright-eyed fish alive into the
+crystal tank, in a week's time they would die, because they would have
+withdrawn all the oxygen it originally contained, and contaminated it with
+the poisonous carbonic acid gas exhaled from their lungs. To prevent this,
+the philosopher hangs these mimic caves with verdant seaweed, and plants
+the bottom with graceful marine grasses. If the spectator looks narrowly
+at the latter, he finds them fringed with bright silver bells: these bells
+contain oxygen, which the plants have eliminated from their tissues under
+the action of light, having previously consumed the carbonic acid gas
+thrown out by the fishes and zoophytes. Thus plants and animals are
+indispensable to the preservation of each other's life. But even now we
+have not told the entire causes which produce the crystal clearness of the
+water. The vegetable element grows too fast, and if left to itself the
+sides of the tank would be covered with a confervoid growth, which would
+speedily obscure its inmates from our view.
+
+We want scavengers to clear away the superfluous vegetation, and we find
+them in the periwinkles which we see attached by their foot-stalk to the
+glass. These little mollusca do their work well: Mr. Gosse, who has
+watched them feeding with a pocket-glass, perceived that their saw-like
+tongues moved backwards and forwards with a crescentic motion, and thus,
+as the animal advances, he leaves a slight swathe-like mark upon the
+glass, as the mower does upon the field. But it is clear that there are
+not enough labourers in the tank we are inspecting to accomplish their
+task, as the lobster, who comes straggling over the stones in such an
+ungainly manner, is more like a moving salad than any living thing, so
+thickly are back, tail, feelers, and claws, infested with a dense
+vegetable growth. A few more black mowers are imperatively called for. The
+fish, the weed, and the mollusc having secured to us a clear view of the
+inhabitants of the tank, let us inspect them one by one. Here we see the
+parasitic anemone. Like the old man of the sea, it fixes itself upon some
+poor Sinbad in the shape of a whelk, and rides about at its ease in search
+of food. Another interesting variety of this zoophyte is the plumose
+sea-anemone, a more stay-at-home animal, which generally fixes itself upon
+a flat rock or an oyster-shell, and waits for the food to come to it, as
+your London housewife expects the butcher and baker to call in the
+morning.
+
+The pure white body of the neighbouring actinia renders it more
+observable. Its tentacles, displayed in plumes over the central mouth,
+which is marked with yellow, give it the exact appearance of a
+chrysanthemum, and should be much in favour with the mermaids to adorn
+their hair. A still more extraordinary creature is the _Tabella
+ventilabrum_. The tube of this strange animal is perfectly straight, and
+its large brown silk-like radiating fans, whilst in search of food,
+revolve just as the old-fashioned whirling ventilators did in our windows.
+The instant this fan is touched it is retracted into the tube, the ends
+just appearing outside, and giving it the appearance of a camel's-hair
+brush.
+
+We shall not attempt to describe the different species of zoophytes and
+annelides, amounting to hundreds--indeed, they are not all familiar to
+scientific men. We have little more to say of the crustacea that go
+scrambling about, yet it would be impossible to overlook that peripatetic
+whelk-shell, which climbs about the stones with such marvellous activity.
+On a narrower inspection we perceive that it moves by a foreign agency.
+Those sprawling legs protruding from its mouth discover the hermit crab,
+which is obliged to dress its soft body in the first defensible armour it
+can pick up. A deserted whelk or common spiral shell is its favourite
+resort, but, like many bipeds, it has a love of changing its house; and
+those who have narrowly watched its habits state that it will deliberately
+turn over the empty shells upon the beach, and, after examining them
+carefully with its claws, pop its body out of one habitation into another,
+in order to obtain the best possible fit. But there are still stranger
+facts connected with this intelligent little crustacean. We have before
+observed that the parasitic sea-anemone invariably fixes itself when
+possible upon this movable house, perfectly regardless of the many bumps
+and rubs which necessarily fall to its lot. Another warm friend, the
+cloak-anemone, clings still closer, for it perfectly envelopes the lip of
+the shell with its living mantle. Our hermit has still a third intimate
+acquaintance, who sponges upon him for bed and board, in the shape of a
+beautiful worm, _Nereis bilineata_, which stows itself behind the crab in
+the attic of the whelk-shell, and, the moment its protector by his motions
+indicates that he has procured food, glides between the two left-foot
+jaws, and drags a portion of the morsel from his mouth, the crab appearing
+to evince no more animosity at the seizure than the Quaker who suddenly
+finds his spoons taken for church-rates. The interesting specimens we have
+dwelt upon are confined to the sea-water tanks, which line the Aquarium on
+the side opposite the door, and those which run down the centre of the
+apartment. _Vis-à-vis_ are the fresh-water tanks, in which we may watch
+the habits of British fishes. There is a noble pike lying as still as a
+stone--a model sitter for the photographer who lately took his portrait.
+The barbel, bream, dace, and gudgeon are seen going about their daily
+duties as though they were at the bottom of the Thames, instead of
+sandwiched between two panes of glass, and inspected on either side by
+curious eyes. Those who go early in the morning will have a chance of
+seeing the lampreys hanging like leeches from the glass by their circular
+mouths, and breathing by the seven holes which run beside their pectoral
+fins. The marine fish should also be studied; strange forms with
+vicious-looking jaws, the dog-fish for example, which is a young fry as
+yet, but which will grow a yard or two in length.
+
+At the east end of the building the alligators' pool discovers here and
+there a floating reptile's head, the outline of which reminds us of the
+hippopotamus. In both cases the habit of resting in the water with the
+head and body almost entirely submerged necessitates a raised form of the
+nostril and eyesocket, in order to allow the animal to see and breathe. A
+similar formation of the face is observable in the wart hog (in another
+portion of the gardens), which wallows up to its eyes in slush and mire.
+The alligators have the tank to themselves, with the exception of a
+couple of turtles, which are too hard nuts for even them to crack.
+
+The council has only established the aquarium a few years, and already it
+is well stocked with specimens of British zoophytes and annelides, for the
+most part dredged from the neighbourhood of Weymouth. If these are so
+beautiful, what must be the wonders of the deep sea in tropical climates?
+Who knows what strange things a bold adventurer might pick up who, like
+Schiller's diver, would penetrate the horrid depths of the whirlpool, not
+for the jewelled cup of the monarch, but for the hidden living treasures
+nature has planted there? Doubtless, among the rusty anchors and
+weed-clung ribs of long-lost armadas, there nestle gigantic zoophytes and
+enormous starfish, which would make the fortune of the Gardens in a single
+season. At all events, we hope to see the aquarium greatly extended, as it
+will afford the means of studying a department of natural history of which
+we have hitherto been almost wholly in the dark.
+
+If we pursue our walk down the broad path which skirts the paddocks
+enclosing the deer and llamas, we cannot help being struck with the fact
+that the finest half of the gardens--that which is open to the setting
+sun--is not yet built on, whilst the more exposed portion is
+inconveniently crowded. The reason is, that the Commissioners of the Woods
+and Forests will not allow any permanent buildings to be erected on these
+parts, for what cause we cannot tell. We trust the prohibition will be
+withdrawn, and that we shall see constructed here an enclosed
+exercising-ground for the poor confined inhabitants of the terrace-dens.
+At the northern extremity of the path we have been following we come upon
+the paddock and pool dedicated to cranes and storks. What spectre birds
+have we got among? See yonder, on the very edge of the pool, the gaunt
+adjutant, his head muffled up in his shoulders, looking like some
+traveller attempting to keep his nose warm in the east wind. They say
+every man has his likeness among the lower animals, and we have seen
+plenty of adjutants waiting on a winter's night for the last omnibus. What
+an elegant gentleman seems the Stanley crane beside him! There is as much
+difference between the two as between a young guardsman in full dress at
+the opera and the night cabman huddled up in the multitudinous capes of
+his great-coat. A third claimant for our admiration steps forward like a
+dancing-master, now bending low, now with the aid of his wings lifting
+himself on the light fantastic toe, now advancing, now poussetting, and
+all the time calling attention to his grotesque but not altogether
+inelegant attitudes by a peculiar cry. We defy the gravest spectator to
+watch the beautiful crowned crane at his antics without laughing. But we
+hear the lady beside us exclaiming, "Is it possible that the Maraboo
+feathers which so often gracefully sway in obeisance before the queen,
+were ever portions of such ugly birds as these?" Unlikely as it may seem,
+it is verily from these dirty ill-favoured looking Maraboo storks that
+this fashionable plumage is procured. Close by, sitting upon a stone, we
+see the melancholy-looking heron, and the audacious sparrows hop within a
+foot of his legs, so inanimate he seems. Ah! it is the vile deceit of the
+bird: in an instant he has stricken the intruder with his bill, and the
+next the sparrow has disappeared down his throat. That elegant grey crane
+is the "native companion" from Australia, so called from his love of
+consorting with man in that country. We all know what familiars cranes and
+storks are in Holland and the East, where they build on the chimney-pots
+without the slightest fear; and we are glad to find that they possess the
+same confidence in the savages of the New World. They are handsome birds,
+but not richly plumed as the European crane, with his black and white
+feathers and full-clustered tail. Once these cranes were common here, when
+"England was merrie England;" that is, before windmills and steam-engines
+were set to work to rescue many counties from a state of marsh. With
+civilization they utterly disappeared from the land, and with civilization
+we once more find them amongst us--a sight to gaze at. Not long since the
+odd population of this paddock embraced a secretary-bird, whose velvet
+breeches, white stockings, and reserved air gave him an official
+appearance worthy of Somerset House in the last century. Take care, little
+girl, how you feed them; a charge with fixed bayonets is scarcely more
+formidable than the rush of sharp long bills through the railings which
+immediately follows a display of provisions.
+
+A few steps take us to the magnificent aviary, 170 feet in length,
+constructed in 1851, through the nineteen divisions of which a pure stream
+of water is constantly flowing, and the space enclosed by iron netting is
+so spacious that the birds have room freely to use their wings. The first
+compartment contains two of the rarities of the gardens--the satin
+bower-bird and the Tallagulla or brush-turkey. The former, a bird of a
+shining blue-black colour, is the only remaining one of three brought to
+this country in 1849. Immediately upon their arriving in the gardens they
+commenced the construction of one of their bowers or "runs," which,
+according to the secretary, has been constantly added to and re-arranged
+from that period to the present time. The bower is, perhaps, one of the
+most extraordinary things in bird-architecture, as it is constructed not
+for the useful purpose of containing the young, but purely as a
+playing-place--a decorated ball-room, in fact, wherein the young couple
+flirt and make love previous to entering upon connubial life. The bower is
+constructed, in the present instance, from the twigs of an old besom, in
+the shape of a horse-shoe; or perhaps we should convey a better idea of it
+by stating that the sticks are bent into a shape like the ribs of a
+man-of-war, the top being open, and the length varying from six to twelve
+inches. Against the sides, and at the entrance of the bower, the bird, in
+a state of nature, places bright feathers, snail-shells, bleached
+bones--anything, in fact, containing colour. When it is remembered that
+Australia is the very paradise of parrots and gaudy-plumaged birds, it
+will be seen that the little artist cannot lack materials to satisfy his
+taste for ornament; nevertheless, we are told he goes for a considerable
+distance for some of his decorations. When the structure is completed, he
+sits in it to entice the female, fully aware, no doubt, that the fair are
+attracted by a handsome establishment. Be that as it may, the couple
+speedily commence running in and out of it, with as much sense, and
+probably with as much enjoyment, as light-heeled bipeds perform a galop.
+The consequence, however, of the male bird being bereft of his
+companions, he seems careless of his bower, which is in a most forlorn
+condition--a ball-room, in fact, a day after a _fête_. May a new companion
+speedily arrive and induce him to put his house once more in order! The
+satin bower-bird, like the magpie, is well-known by the natives to be a
+terrible thief; and they always search his abode for any object they may
+have lost. "I myself," says Mr. Gould, in his account of these birds,
+"found at the entrance of one of them a small neatly-worked stone tomahawk
+of an inch and a half in length, together with some slips of blue cotton
+rags, which the birds had, doubtless, picked up at a deserted encampment
+of the natives."
+
+Scarcely a less interesting bird is the brush-turkey. In appearance it is
+very like the common black turkey, but is not quite so large; the
+extraordinary manner in which its eggs are hatched constitutes its
+singularity. It makes no nest, in the usual acceptation of the term, but
+scratches decayed vegetable matter into a pyramid with its feet. It then
+carefully dibbles in its eggs at regular intervals, with the small end
+downward, and covers them over with the warm fermenting gatherings. The
+pair in the gardens, shortly after they were received from Australia,
+commenced making one of these hatching-mounds, which, by the time it was
+finished, contained upwards of four cart-loads of leaves and other
+vegetable matter. After the female had deposited sixteen eggs, each
+measuring not less than four inches in length--an enormous size,
+considering the bulk of the bird--the male began to keep watch over this
+natural Eccaleobion, and every now and then scratched away the rubbish to
+inspect them. After six weeks of burial, the eggs, in succession, and
+without any warning, gave up their chicks--not feeble, but full-fledged
+and strong: an intelligent keeper told us that he had seen one fly up out
+of the ground at least five feet high. At night the chicks scraped holes
+for themselves, and, lying down therein, were covered over by the old
+birds, and thus remained until morning. The extraordinary strength of the
+newly-hatched bird is accounted for by the size of the shell, which
+contains sufficient nutriment to nourish it until it is lusty.
+Unfortunately, all the young but one have perished through various
+accidents quite independently of temperature; and the next brood will
+probably be reared. As both the flesh and the eggs of these birds are
+delicious, the council is anxious to naturalize them among us. In fact,
+one of the objects of the gardens, under their enlightened management, is
+to make it what Bacon calls in his "Atlantis," "a tryal place for beasts
+and fishes." For centuries a system of extermination has been adopted
+towards many indigenous animals; the wolf and buzzard have quite
+disappeared, and the eagle is fast being swept away even from the
+highlands of Scotland--so rapidly, indeed, that Mr. Gordon Cumming is
+anxious, we hear, for the formation of a society for the protection of its
+eggs. Noxious animals have been replaced by the acclimatization of many of
+the foreign fauna, which are either distinguished for their beauty or
+valuable for their flesh. This transfer, which adds so much to the
+richness of the country, can be vastly accelerated through the agency of
+these gardens, which are a kind of "tryal ground" for beasts, as the
+fields of some of our rich agriculturists are for foreign roots and
+grasses, in which those likely to be of service can be discovered, and
+afterwards distributed throughout the land.
+
+If we may quote the brush-turkeys as instances of birds capable of
+affording a new kind of delicate and easily-reared food, the splendid
+Impegan pheasants, close at hand, bred here from a pair belonging to her
+Majesty, and which endure, in the open air, the rigour of winter, may be
+looked upon as "things of beauty," which may be produced among us to charm
+the eye. The elands, again, on the north side of the garden, which have
+bred so prolifically, and made flesh so rapidly, have been with advantage
+turned out into our parks, where their beautiful forms prove as attractive
+to the eye as their venison, of the finest quality, do to the taste.
+
+But we can no longer tarry to speculate further on the riches of this
+aviary, which contains rare specimens of birds from all parts of the
+world. Passing along the path which takes us by the north entrance, we
+reach the pelicans' paddock, in which we see half a dozen of these
+ungainly creatures, white and grey, with pouches beneath their bills as
+capacious as the bag of a lady's work-table. The visitor may sometimes
+have an opportunity of witnessing an explanation of the popular myth that
+the old bird feeds its young from the blood of its own breast. This idea
+evidently arose from the fact that it can only empty the contents of its
+pouch into the mouths of its young by pressing it against its breast, in
+the act of doing which the feathers often became insanguined from the
+blood of the mangled fish within it. The close observance of birds and
+beasts in zoological collections has tended to reduce many fabulous tales
+to sober reason. On the other side of the walk may be seen in immature
+plumage one of the red flamingoes from South America, which are said to
+simulate so closely a regiment of our soldiers, as they stand in rows
+fishing beside the banks of rivers; and here, too, are the delicate
+rose-colour specimens of the Mediterranean, which are likewise exceedingly
+beautiful. Those accustomed to navigate the Red Sea frequently witness
+vast flights of these birds passing and re-passing from Arabia to Egypt;
+and we are informed by a traveller that on one occasion, when he had a
+good opportunity of measuring the column, he convinced himself that it was
+upwards of a mile in length! What a splendid spectacle to see the pure
+eastern sky barred by this moving streak of brilliant colour!
+
+But we have not yet explored the north side of the grounds, where the huge
+pachydermatous animals are lodged. The difficulty caused by the
+carriage-drive running between the two gardens has been vanquished by
+means of the tunnel, the ascent from which on the opposite side, flanked
+as it is with graceful ferns, is one of the most charming portions of the
+grounds on a hot summer's day. If after passing through the subterranean
+passage we turn to the right, we come immediately upon the reptile-house.
+Unless the visitor selects his time, he will generally find little to
+amuse him here. The great snakes have either retired from public life
+under their blankets, or lie coiled upon the branches of trees in their
+dens. The reptiles are offered food once a week, but will not always feed
+at this interval. One huge python fasted the almost incredible time of
+twenty-two months, having probably prepared himself for his abstinence by
+a splendid gorge. After a fast of seven days, however, the majority of the
+serpents regain their appetites. Three o'clock is the feeding-time, and
+the reptiles which are on the look-out seem to know full well the errand
+of the man who enters with the basket, against the side of which they hear
+the fluttering wings of the feathered victims and the short stamp of the
+doomed rabbits. The keeper opens the door at the back of the den of the
+voluminous serpents on our right--for of these there is no fear,--takes
+off their blanket, and drops in upon the clattering pebbles a scampering
+rabbit, who hops from side to side, curious to inspect his new habitation;
+presently, satisfied, he sits on his haunches and leisurely begins to wash
+his face. Silently the rock-snake glides over the stones, uncurling his
+huge folds, which, like a cable, seem to move as though by some agency
+from without, looks for an instant upon his unconscious victim, and the
+next has seized him with his cruel jaws. His constricting folds are
+twisted as swiftly as a whip-lash round his shrieking prey, and for ten
+minutes the serpent lies still, maintaining his mortal knot until his prey
+is dead, when, seizing him by the ears, he draws him through his vice-like
+grip, crushing every bone, and elongating the body preparatory to
+devouring it. The boa and the rock-snake always swallow their prey head
+foremost. How is that fine neck and delicate head to make room for that
+bulky rabbit? thinks the spectator. Presently he sees the jaws gape, and
+slowly the reptile _draws himself over_, rather than swallows, his prey,
+as you draw a stocking upon your leg. The huge lump descends lower and
+lower beneath the speckled scales, which seem to stare with distension,
+and the monster coils himself up once more to digest his meal in quiet.
+Rabbits and pigeons form the food of the pythons in these gardens. While
+the smaller birds are preyed upon in the reptile-house, their big
+brothers, the storks in the paddock, are reciprocating the law of nature
+by eating snakes. As we pass to the opposite side of the serpent-room,
+where the venomous kinds are kept, we perceive that a more cautious
+arrangement is made for feeding. The door opens at the top instead of at
+the sides of their dens, and with good reason; for no sooner does the
+keeper remove with a crooked iron rod the blanket from the cobra, than the
+reptile springs, with inflated hood, into an S-like attitude, and darts
+laterally at his enemy. He seems incapable of striking well any object
+above or below his level: watch, for instance, that guinea-pig: again and
+again he dashes at it, but misses his aim; now he hits it, but only to
+drive the poor frightened creature with a score of flying pebbles before
+him: when at last he succeeds in piercing the sides of his victim, tetanic
+spasms immediately commence, and it dies convulsed in a few seconds. It is
+said by those who have watched venomous snakes, that the manner of dying
+exhibited by their stricken prey discloses the nature of the reptile that
+inflicted the poisoned wound. It is scarcely necessary to state that the
+popular idea that the tongue darts forth the venom is a fallacy. The
+poison is contained in glands which lie at the root of the fangs on either
+side, and, by the compression of the powerful muscles which make the head
+appear so broad and flat, it is forced into the fine tube which runs at
+the sides of the fang, and finds its exit near the point by a minute
+opening. The cobra at present in the collection, with its skin a glossy
+black and yellow, its eye black and angry, its motions agile and graceful,
+seems to be the very personification of India. As we watch it when ready
+to spring, we suddenly remember that only a film of glass stands between
+us and "pure death." But there is nothing to fear: the python, in the
+adjoining room, which weighs a hundred and twenty pounds, being incensed
+on his first arrival at being removed from his box, darted with all his
+force at a spectator. Yet the pane of glass had strength enough to bring
+him up, and he fell back so bruised about the head and muzzle by the
+collision, that he could not feed well for several months. The cobra that
+we see is the same that destroyed its keeper. In a fit of drunkenness, the
+man, against express orders, took the reptile out, and, placing its head
+inside his waistcoat, allowed it to glide round his body. When it had
+emerged from under his clothes from the other side, apparently in good
+humour, he squeezed its tail, when it struck him between his eyes; in
+twenty minutes his consciousness was gone, and in less than three hours he
+was dead. Before we leave this reptile-room, let us peep for a moment into
+the little apartment opening from the corner, where, hanging from the
+wall, we see all the cast-off dresses of the serpents. If the keeper will
+allow us to handle one of them for a moment, we shall see that it is
+indeed an entire suit of light-brown colour and of gauzy texture, which
+covered not only the body and head, but the very eyeballs of the wearer.
+
+The Python-house on the other side of the Museum contains two enormous
+serpents. The adventures of one of them--the _Python reticulatus_--deserve
+to be written: when small enough to be placed in the pocket, he was, with
+a companion now no more, taken from Ceylon to Brazil by American sailors;
+they were then exhibited in most of the maritime towns of South America,
+and were publicly sold for a high price at Callao to the captain of a
+ship, who brought them to the gardens, and demanded £600 for the pair;
+fully persuaded of their enormous value, he had paid £30 to insure them on
+the voyage, and it was not until he had long and painfully cogitated that
+he agreed to sell them for £40. We have before referred to the
+extraordinary length of time a python has been known to fast without
+injury. Their fancies as well as their fastings are rather eccentric.
+Every one has heard of the snake which swallowed his blanket, a meal which
+ultimately killed him. A python who had lived for years in a friendly
+manner with a brother nearly as large as himself, was found one morning
+solus. As the cage was secure, the keepers were puzzled to know how the
+serpent had escaped: at last it was observed that the remaining inmate had
+swollen remarkably during the night, when the horrid fact became plain
+enough; the fratricide had succeeded in swallowing the entire person of
+his brother; it was his last meal, however, for in some months he died. A
+friend informs us that he once saw in these gardens a rat-snake of Ceylon
+devour a common _Coluber natrix_. The rat-snake, however, had not taken
+the measure of his victim, as by no effort could he dispose of the last
+four inches of his tail, which stuck out rather jauntily from the side of
+his mouth, with very much the look of a cigar. After a quarter of an hour,
+the tail began to exhibit a retrograde motion, and the swallowed snake was
+disgorged, nothing the worse for his living sepulchre, with the exception
+of the wound made by his partner when first he seized him. The ant-eater,
+who lately inhabited the room leading out of the python apartment, has
+died of a want of ants.
+
+As we issue again into the open air, we have before us the whole length of
+the avenue, arched with lime-trees, in summer a veritable isle of verdure.
+What a charming picture it used to be to see the docile elephant pacing
+towards us with ponderous and majestic steps, whilst, in the scarlet
+howdha, happy children swayed from side to side as she marched. She, who
+was our delight for so many years, died some time since of a storm of
+thunder and lightning. Such indeed was what may seem at first the singular
+verdict of the medical man who made his _post mortem_. The terror,
+however, inspired by the storm appears to have produced some nervous
+disease, under which she succumbed. There is a suspicion that the carcase,
+five thousand pounds and upwards in weight, which was disposed of to the
+nackers, ultimately found its way to the sausage-makers. Do not start,
+good reader; elephant's flesh is considered excellent eating by the tribes
+of South Africa, and the lion-slayer tells us that the feet are a true
+delicacy. He used to eat them as we do Stilton cheese, scooping out the
+interior and leaving the rind; he exhibited to his audience some of these
+relics, which looked like huge leather fire-buckets. And now we have only
+the young animal left, that once sucked his huge mother, to the delight of
+the crowd of children, and to the disgust of the rhinoceros, who is the
+sworn enemy to all elephants. The little one is growing apace, however,
+and has already been promoted to carry the long-deserted howdha. The
+rhinoceros, close at hand, is the successor of the fine old fellow
+purchased in 1836 for 1,050_l._, the largest sum ever given by the society
+for a single animal. The specimen now in the gardens cost only 350_l._ in
+1850, so much do these commodities fluctuate in value. His predecessor,
+who departed this life full of years, was constantly forced upon his belly
+by a pugnacious elephant, who pressed his tusks upon the back of his
+neighbour when he came near the palings which separated their inclosures.
+This rough treatment appears to have led to his death, as Professor Owen
+found, on dissecting the massive brute, which weighed upwards of two tons,
+that the seventh rib had been fractured at the bend near the vertebral
+end, and had wounded the left lung.
+
+Not far from the picturesque house built by Decimus Burton, in one of the
+cages fronting the office of the superintendent of the gardens, is to be
+seen a beaver. The wonderful instinct of this little animal is certainly
+not inferior to that of the huge elephant. As yet he has not been placed
+in circumstances to enable the public to witness his building capacities;
+but it is the intention, we understand, of the Council to give him a
+stream of running water and the requisite materials to construct one of
+those extraordinary dams for which this animal is so famous. In Canada,
+where he used to flourish, the backwoodsmen often came upon hill-sides
+completely cleared of good-sized trees by colonies of these little
+creatures, who employed the felled timber to construct their dams--dams,
+not of a few feet in length, but sometimes of a hundred and fifty feet,
+built according to the best engineering formula for resisting the pressure
+of water, namely, in an angle with its apex pointed up the stream, and
+gradually narrowing from base to summit. In short, Mr. Brunel himself
+could not outdo your beaver in his engineering operations. Even in
+confinement this sagacious Rodent loves to display his skill, as we may
+learn from Mr. Broderip's account of his pet Binney:--
+
+    "Its building instinct," says that accomplished naturalist, "showed
+    itself immediately it was let out of its cage, and materials were
+    placed in its way, and this before it had been a week in its new
+    quarters. Its strength, even before it was half-grown, was great, it
+    would drag along a large sweeping-brush, or a warming-pan, grasping
+    the handle with its teeth, so that the load came over its shoulder,
+    and advancing in an oblique direction till it arrived at the part
+    where it wished to place it. The long and large materials were always
+    taken first; and two of the longest were generally laid crosswise,
+    with one of the ends of each touching the wall, and their other ends
+    projecting out into the room. The area caused by the cross-brushes and
+    the wall he would fill up with hand-brushes, rush baskets, books,
+    boots, sticks, cloths, dried turf, or anything portable. As the work
+    grew high, he supported himself on his tail, which propped him up
+    admirably; and he would often, after laying on one of his building
+    materials, sit up over against it, appearing to consider his work, or,
+    as the country people say, 'judge it.' This pause was sometimes
+    followed by changing the position of the materials, and sometimes they
+    were left in their place. After he had piled up his materials in one
+    part of the room (for he generally chose the same place), he proceeded
+    to wall up the space between the feet of a chest of drawers which
+    stood at a little distance from it, high enough on its legs to make
+    the bottom a roof for him, using for this purpose dried turf and
+    sticks, which he laid very even, and filling up the interstices with
+    bits of coal, hay, cloth, or anything he could pick up; the last place
+    he seemed to appropriate for his dwelling, the former work seemed to
+    be intended for a dam. When he had walled up the space between the
+    feet of the chest of drawers, he proceeded to carry in sticks, cloths,
+    hay, cotton, and to make a nest; and when he had done, he would sit up
+    under the drawers, and comb himself with the nails of his hind feet."
+
+Well done, Binney! If the beaver in the garden will only work out his
+natural instincts as perfectly, we may expect some amusement. Up to a late
+period the beaver had become rather a scarce animal, the exigencies of
+fashion having nearly exterminated him. When silk hats came in, however,
+the annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of his race, for the sake of
+the fur, gradually slackened, and now he is beginning to increase in his
+native retreats,--a singular instance this of the fashions of Paris and
+London affecting the very existence of a prolific race of animals in the
+New World! In the very next compartment is a hare, who for years played
+the tambourine in the streets of the metropolis, but his master, finding
+that his performances did not draw, exchanged him at these gardens for a
+monkey; and now, whilst he eats his greens in peace, poor Jacko, in a red
+cloak and a feathered cap, has probably to earn his daily bread by
+mimicking humanity on the top of a barrel-organ. But the hippopotamus
+surges into his bath in the inclosure as we pause, and there is a rush of
+visitors to see the mighty brute performing his ablutions. He no longer
+gives audience to all the fair and fashionable folks of the town. Alas for
+the greatness of this world! the soldier-crab and the Esop prawn now draw
+better "houses." Whether or no this desertion has embittered his temper,
+we cannot say, but he has certainly lost his amiability, notwithstanding
+that he still retains the humorous curl-up of the corners of his mouth
+which Doyle used to hit off so inimitably. At times, indeed, he is
+perfectly furious, and his vast strength has necessitated the
+reconstruction of his house on a much stronger plan. Those only who have
+seen him rush with extended jaws at the massive oaken door of his
+apartment, returning again and again to the charge, and making the solid
+beams quiver as though they were only of inch-deal, can understand the
+dangerous fits which now and then are exhibited by a creature, who was so
+gentle, when he made his _début_, that he could not go to sleep without
+having his Arab keeper's feet to lay his neck upon. This affection for his
+nurse has undergone a great change, for, on Hamet's countryman and
+coadjutor, Mohammed, making his second appearance with the young female
+hippopotamus, Obaysch very nearly killed him in the violence of his rage.
+He has a peculiar dislike to the sight of working men, especially if they
+are employed in doing any jobs about his apartment. The smith of the
+establishment happening one day to be passing along the iron gallery which
+runs across one side of his bath, the infuriated animal leapt out of the
+water, at least eight feet high, and would speedily have pulled the whole
+construction down, had not the man run rapidly out of his sight. We trust
+his temper will improve when his young bride in the adjoining room is
+presented to him; but she is as yet but a baby behemoth, although growing
+fast. The enormously strong iron railings in front of his apartments are
+essential to guard against the rushes he sometimes makes at persons he
+does not like. Look at that huge mouth, opened playfully to receive
+nic-nacs! What is a bun or a biscuit to him? Down that huge throat goes
+one hundred pounds weight of provender daily. Surely the dragon of Wantley
+had not such a gullet.
+
+The giraffes in the adjoining apartment have been in the gardens so long
+that they are no longer thought a rarity; but it should be remembered that
+the four procured in 1835 from Khordofan by the agent of the society were,
+like the hippopotamus, the first ever exhibited in Europe since the days
+of ancient Rome. Of these only one female now remains; but very many have
+been bred in the gardens, and have continued in excellent health. At the
+present moment three of their progeny are housed in the apartment we are
+entering. The finest, a male, is a noble fellow, standing nearly seventeen
+feet high. When he strides out into the inclosure, high up as the trees
+are protected by boarding, he yet manages to browse as in his African
+forests, and it is then that the visitor sees the full beauty of the
+beast, which is lost in the house. The giraffe, in spite of his mild and
+melancholy look, which reminds us forcibly of the camel, yet fights
+ferociously with his kind at certain seasons of the year. Two males once
+battled here so furiously that the horn of one of them was actually driven
+into the head of the other. Their method of fighting is very peculiar:
+stretching out their fore and hind legs like a rocking-horse, they use
+their heads, as a blacksmith would a sledgehammer, and swinging the
+vertebral column in a manner calculated, one would think, to break it,
+they bring the full force of the horns to bear upon their antagonist's
+skull. The blow is severe in the extreme, and every precaution is taken to
+prevent these conflicts.
+
+As we pass along a narrow corridor in which the ostriches are confined, we
+reach at length the last inhabitant of the garden, and the most curious
+creature, perhaps, which it contains. If the keeper is at hand, he will
+open the door of the box in which it lives, and drive out for us the
+bewildered-looking apteryx--the highest representative, according to
+Professor Owen, of the warm-blooded class of animals that lived in New
+Zealand previous to the advent of man. Strange and chaotic-looking as are
+most of the living things brought from Australia and the adjacent islands,
+this creature is certainly the oddest of the bird class, and is, we
+believe, the only one ever seen out of New Zealand. As it vainly runs into
+the corners and tries to hide itself from the light of day, we perceive
+that it is wingless and tailless; it looks, in short, like a hedgehog
+mounted upon the dwarfed yet powerful legs of an ostrich, whilst its long
+bill, which seems as though it had been borrowed from a stork, is employed
+when the bird leans forward, to support it, just as an old man uses a
+stick. This strange creature seems to hold among the feathered bipeds of
+Polynesia a parallel position to the New Holland mole (_Ornithorhynchus
+paradoxicus_)--which possesses the bill and webbed feet of a duck with the
+claws of a land animal--among the quadrupeds. Mr. Gould remarks that
+nature affords an appropriate vegetation to each class of animal life. Our
+universal mother seems to have matched her Flora to her Fauna in this
+portion of the globe; at least, the paradoxical creatures we have
+mentioned seem in happy accord with Australian vegetation, where the
+stones grow outside the cherries, and the pear-shaped fruits depend from
+the branch with their small ends downwards! The apteryx is entirely
+nocturnal in its habits, pursuing its prey in the ground by smell rather
+than by sight; to enable it to do which, the olfactory openings are placed
+near the point of the beak. Thus the bird scents the worm on which it
+feeds far below the surface of the ground. We must not regard the apteryx
+as an exceptional creature, but rather as the type of a large class of
+birds peculiar to the islands of New Zealand, which have been destroyed,
+like the dodo in the Mauritius, since the arrival of man. Professor Owen,
+long before the apteryx arrived in England, pronounced that a single bone
+found in some New Zealand watercourse had belonged to a wingless, tailless
+bird that stood at least twelve feet high.[9] This scientific conjecture
+has lately been transformed into a certainty by the discovery of a number
+of bones, which demonstrate that several species of Moas once roamed among
+the fern-clad islands which stud the bright Polynesian ocean. These bones
+have been found mixed with those of the apteryx, which thus becomes linked
+to a race of mysterious creatures, which, it is supposed, have long passed
+away, although a tale is told--an American one, it is true--of an
+Englishman having come across a dinornis, whilst out on its nocturnal
+rambles, and of his having fled from it with as much terror as though it
+had been a griffin of old.
+
+Our walk through the gardens has only enabled us to take a cursory glance
+at a few of the 1,300 mammals, birds, and reptiles at present located
+there; but the duty of the zoologist is to dwell minutely on each. To such
+these gardens have, for the last twenty-six years, been a very
+fountain-head of information. During that time a grand procession of
+animal life, savage and wild, has streamed through them, and for the major
+part has gone to that "bourne from which no traveller returns." Let us
+rank them, and pass them before us:--
+
+  Quadrumana      1,069
+  Carnivora       1,409
+  Rodentia        1,025
+  Pachydermata      204
+  Ruminantia      1,098
+  Marsupialia       219
+  Reptilia        1,861
+  Aves            7,320
+
+--making a total of 14,205. Out of this large number many curious animals
+have doubtless left no trace; but through the care of the Council, no rare
+specimen has died, within these five years at least, without previously
+sitting for his portrait. The first part of the valuable collection of
+coloured drawings, from the inimitable pencil of Mr. Wolf, accompanied by
+a description from the pen of the late Mr. Mitchell, the editor of the
+work, is published, under the title of "Zoological Sketches, &c.," and the
+others will speedily follow. The work, when completed, will be unique in
+the annals of zoology, both for the extreme beauty of the drawings, which
+may be said to daguerreotype the subjects in their most characteristic
+attitudes, and for the nature of the letterpress, which proves that the
+editor has written from the life.
+
+This splendid collection has been got together by presents, purchase,
+breeding, and exchanges. Out of the 14,205 specimens, however, which have
+been in the possession of the society, scarcely a tithe were bought. The
+Queen, especially, has been most generous in her presents, and the stream
+of barbaric offerings in the shape of lions, tigers, leopards, &c., which
+is continually flowing from tropical princes to the fair Chief of the
+nation, is poured into these gardens. Her Majesty evidently pays no heed
+to the superstition once common among the people, that a dynasty was only
+safe as long as the lions flourished in the royal fortress. In fact, the
+gardens are a convenience to our gracious monarch as well as to her
+subjects; for wild animals are awkward things to have in one's back
+premises. Neither must we overlook the reproduction which has taken place
+in the gardens; to such an extent, indeed, has the stock increased, that
+sales to a large amount are annually made. The system of exchanges which
+exists between the various British and continental societies helps to
+supply the garden with deficient specimens in place of duplicates. Very
+rare, and consequently expensive animals, are generally purchased. Thus,
+the first rhinoceros cost 1,000_l._; the four giraffes 700_l._, and their
+carriage an additional 700_l._ The elephant and calf were bought in 1851
+for 800_l._; and the hippopotamus, although a gift, was not brought home
+and housed at less than 1,000_l._--a sum which he more than realized in
+the famous Exhibition season, when the receipts were 10,000_l._ above the
+previous year. The lion Albert was purchased for 140_l._; a tiger in 1852
+for 200_l._ The value of some of the smaller birds will appear, however,
+more startling: thus, the pair of black-necked swans were purchased for
+80_l._ (they are now to be seen in the three-island pond); a pair of
+crowned pigeons and two maleos, 60_l._; a pair of Victoria pigeons,
+35_l._; four mandarin ducks, 70_l._ Most of these rare birds (now in the
+great aviary) came from the Knowsley collection, at the sale of which, in
+1851, purchases were made to the extent of 985_l._ It would be impossible
+from these prices, however, to judge of the present value of the animals.
+Take the rhinoceros, for example: the first specimen cost 1,000_l._; the
+second, quite as fine a brute, only 350_l._ Lions range again from 40_l._
+to 180_l._, and tigers from 40_l._ to 200_l._ The price is generally ruled
+by the state of the wild-beast market, and by the intrinsic rarity of the
+creature. A first appearance in Europe, of course, is likely to draw, and
+is therefore at the top price; but it is wonderful how demand produces
+supply. Let any rare animal bring a crowd to the gardens, and in a
+twelvemonth numbers of his brethren will be generally in the market. The
+ignorance displayed by some persons as to the value of well-known objects
+is something marvellous. We have already spoken of the sea captain who
+demanded 600_l._ for a pair of pythons, and at last took 40_l._! On
+another occasion, an American offered the society a grisly bear for
+2,000_l._, to be delivered in the United States; and, more laughable
+still, a moribund walrus, which had been fed for nine weeks on salt pork
+and meal, was offered for the trifling sum of 700_l._!
+
+We could go on multiplying, _ad nauseam_, instances of this kind, but must
+conclude the catalogue of absurdities by stating that there is a firm
+belief on the part of many persons that it is the Zoological Society which
+has proposed the large reward, which every one has heard of, for _the_
+tortoiseshell Tom. "The only one ever known" has been offered accordingly
+at the exceedingly low figure of 250_l._ On one occasion a communication
+was received from some person of consideration in Thuringia, requesting to
+be informed of the amount of the proffered prize, which he was about to
+claim. This was shortly followed by a letter from another person,
+evidently written in a fury, cautioning the society against giving the
+prize to the previous writer, as he was not the breeder of the cat, but
+was only trying to buy it for less than its value, "in which he would
+never succeed so long as the true breeder lived." To prevent further
+applications on the behalf of growers of this unique animal, we may as
+well state that tortoiseshell Toms may be had in many quarters.
+
+We have said that the value of animals depends upon the state of the
+wild-beast market. "Wild-beast market!" exclaims the reader; "and where
+can that be?" Every one knows that London can furnish anything for money;
+and if any lady or gentleman wants lions or tigers, there are dealers in
+Ratcliffe Highway and the adjacent parts, who have them on the premises,
+and will sell them at five minutes' notice. They "talk as familiarly of
+lions as ladies do of puppy dogs;" and a gentleman who purchased a bear of
+one of them, lately informed us that the salesman coolly proposed that he
+should take him home with him in a cab! We once had occasion to visit the
+establishment of one of these dealers, and were shown up a ladder into a
+cockloft, where, hearing a bumping, and perceiving a lifting motion in a
+trap-door, we inquired the reason, which called forth the dry remark that
+it was only three lions at play in a box below. Although these men
+generally manage to secure their live stock in a satisfactory manner, yet
+accidents will occur in the best-regulated lion-stores. A wild-beast
+merchant, for instance, informed us that one night he was awakened by his
+wife, who drew his attention to a noise in the back-yard, where he had
+placed two lions on the previous evening. On putting his head out of the
+window--his room was on the ground-floor--there were the lions loose, and,
+with their paws on the window-sill, looking grimly in upon him. A good
+whip and a determined air consigned Leo to his cage again without further
+trouble. On another occasion this same man, hearing a noise in his back
+premises, found to his horror that an elephant, with his pick-lock trunk,
+had let out a hyæna and a nylghau from their cages, and was busy undoing
+the fastenings of a den full of lions! The same resolute spirit, however,
+soon restored order. Amateurs have not always the same courage or
+self-possession, and they immediately have recourse to the garden-folks to
+get them out of their difficulties, as a housekeeper would send to the
+station-house on finding a burglar secreted in his cellar. On one occasion
+a gentleman, who had offered a rattlesnake and its young to the gardens at
+a high price, sent suddenly to the superintendent to implore immediate
+assistance, as the said snake, with half a score venomous offspring, had
+escaped from their box and scattered themselves in his nursery. The
+possessor, to avoid worse losses, was only too glad to be rid of his
+guests at any pecuniary sacrifice.
+
+We cannot close our survey without touching upon the cost of the
+commissariat. The slaughtered beasts appropriated to the carnivora, we
+have before stated, cost in the year 1854 no less a sum than 1,367_l._
+19s. 5d. If we go through the other items of food, we shall give some
+notion of the expense and the variety of the banquet to which the animals
+daily sat down during that year. Thus we see hay figures for 912_l._ 14s.;
+corn, seeds, &c., 700_l._ 8s. 8d.; bread, buns, &c. (for the monkeys),
+150_l._ 16s. 8d.; eggs, 87_l._ 4s. 1d. (for the ant-eater principally);
+milk, 69_l._ 6s. 2d.; mangold-wurzel, carrots, and turnips, 22_l._ 6s.;
+dog-biscuit, 135_l._ 19s. 10d. (for the bears and wolves and dogs
+chiefly); fish (for the otters, seal, pelicans, &c.), 214_l._ 8s. 8d.;
+green tares, 23_l._ 16s. 8d.; rabbits and pigeons (for the snakes), 33_l._
+13s. 2d.; rice and oil-cake, 66_l._ 15s.; sundries, including fruit,
+vegetables, grasshoppers, snakes, mealworms, figs, sugar, &c. (for the
+birds principally), 157_l._ 1s. 11d.: making a total of 3,942_l._ 8s. 3d.;
+a great increase on the food bill of 1853, and which was caused entirely
+by the advance of prices.
+
+The pitch of excellence to which the gardens have arrived has naturally
+resulted in drawing the increased attention of the public towards them. We
+have only to contrast, for instance, the number of people who entered in
+the year 1848--the first in which a more liberal system of management came
+into play--with those who passed in in 1854, to see that the establishment
+flourishes under the auspices of the new management; for while in the
+former year only 142,456 persons passed through the turnstiles, the number
+had risen in the latter to 407,676. It is interesting to observe that,
+although an increase of full 100 per cent. took place upon the privileged
+and ordinary shilling visitors during that interval, yet that the
+reduction of the admittance-charge to sixpence on Mondays and holidays was
+the main cause of the gradual influx of visitors--the year 1848 showing
+only 60,566 admittances of these holiday-folks and working-people, to
+196,278 in 1854. Here, then, we have an increase of 135,712 persons, many
+of whom were, no doubt, rescued, on those days at least, from the
+fascinations of the public-house. With all this flood of life--the greater
+portion of it undoubtedly belonging to the labouring-classes,--not the
+slightest injury has been done to the gardens. A flower or two may have
+been picked, but not by that class of Englishmen who were once thought too
+brutal to be allowed access unwatched to any public exhibition. Every year
+that passes over our heads proves that such shows as these are splendid
+examples of the method of teaching introduced by Bell and Lancaster; that
+they furnish instruction of a nature which is never forgotten, and which
+refines at the same time that it delights.
+
+
+
+
+RATS.
+
+
+Boswell relates that the wits who assembled at the house of Sir Joshua
+Reynolds to hear Grainger's poem on the "Sugar-cane" read in manuscript,
+burst into laughter when, after much pompous blank-verse, a new paragraph
+commenced with the invocation--
+
+    "Now, Muse, let's sing of rats."
+
+But if a mean topic for the bard, they are an interesting subject to the
+naturalist, an anxious one to the agriculturist, and of some importance to
+everybody. Though it was no easy matter to throw around them a halo of
+poetry, and to elevate them into epic dignity--a difficulty which was
+nowise surmounted by calling them, as Grainger subsequently did, "the
+whisker'd vermin race"--yet there was nothing with which they had a more
+serious practical connection than the "sugar-cane." It was reckoned that
+in Jamaica they consumed a twentieth part of the entire crop, and 30,000
+were destroyed in one year in a single plantation. In fact, rats are to
+the earth what sparrows are to the air--universally present. Unlike their
+feathered analogues, we rarely see them, and consequently have little idea
+of the liberality with which they are distributed over every portion of
+the habitable globe. They swarm in myriads in the vast network of sewers
+under our feet, and by means of our house-drains have free access to our
+basements, under which they burrow; in the walls they establish a series
+of hidden passages; they rove beneath the floors and the roof, and thus
+establish themselves above, below, and beside us. In the remote islands
+of the Pacific they equally abound, and are sometimes the only
+inhabitants. But we shall not attempt to write the universal history of
+the rat. It is enough if we narrate his doings in Great Britain.
+
+There are in England two kinds of land-rats--the old English black rat,
+and the Norwegian or brown rat. According to Mr. Waterton, the black rat
+is the native and proper inhabitant of the island; the brown rat not only
+an interloper and exterminator, but a Whig rat--a combination which he
+thinks perfectly consistent. In his charming essays on Natural History he
+says--
+
+    "Though I am not aware that there are any minutes in the zoological
+    archives of this country which point out to us the precise time at
+    which this insatiate and mischievous little brute first appeared among
+    us, still there is a tradition current in this part of the country
+    (Yorkshire), that it actually came over in the same ship which
+    conveyed the new dynasty to these shores. My father, who was of the
+    first order of field naturalists, was always positive upon this point,
+    and he maintained firmly that it did accompany the House of Hanover in
+    its emigration from Germany to England."
+
+Having thus given the "little brute" a bad name, he pertinaciously hunts
+him through the two volumes of his essays; nay, he does more, for, on
+account of his Whiggism, he is the only wild animal banished for ever from
+Waterton Hall, that happy home for all other fowls of the air and beasts
+of the field, against which gamekeepers wage war as vermin. In Carpenter's
+edition of Cuvier, however, an account is given of the brown rat, or
+Surmulot, which, if true, entirely disposes of this pretty account of his
+advent. We are there told that he originally came from Persia, where he
+lives in burrows, and that he did not set out on his travels until the
+year 1727, when an earthquake induced him to swim the Volga and enter
+Europe by way of Astrakan.[10] When once he had set foot in England, he no
+doubt treated his weaker brother and predecessor, the black rat, much as
+the Stuart dynasty was treated by the house of Hanover. Though the black
+rat was not himself an usurper, but rather an emigrant who took possession
+of an unoccupied territory, his reign is also said by some to have been
+contemporaneous with an earlier change in the royal line of England, for
+he is asserted to have come over in the train of the Conqueror. He still
+abounds in Normandy, and to this day is known in Wales under the name of
+Llyoden Ffancon--the French mouse.
+
+Rats are no exception to the law which, Wordsworth says, prevails among
+"all the creatures of flood and field."
+
+                        "The good old rule,
+  Sufficeth them--the simple plan,
+  That they should take who have the power,
+  And they should keep who can."
+
+But the black rat has kept more than is commonly imagined. Mr. Waterton is
+mistaken when he adopts the popular notion that the old English breed
+which came in with the Conqueror is almost totally annihilated by his
+brown cousin. The first comer has no more been destroyed by the subsequent
+invader than the Celt is annihilated by the triumphant Saxon. As we find
+the former still holding their ground in Cornwall, Wales, and the
+Highlands of Scotland, so we find the black rat flourishing in certain
+localities. In the neighbourhood of the Tower, in Whitbread's brewery, and
+in the Whitechapel sugar-refineries, he still holds his own, and woe be to
+any brown trespasser who ventures into his precincts. The weaker animal
+has learnt that union is strength, and, acting in masses, they attack
+their powerful foe as fearlessly as a flight of swallows does a hawk; but
+if an equal number of the two breeds are placed together in a cage without
+food, the chances are that all the black rats will have disappeared before
+morning, and, even though well fed, the brown Brobdingnags invariably eat
+off the long and delicate ears of their little brethren, just as a
+gourmand, after a substantial meal, amuses his appetite with a
+wafer-biscuit.
+
+The rapid spread of the rat is due to the fearlessness with which he will
+follow man and his commissariat wherever he goes. Scarcely a ship leaves
+a port for a distant voyage but it takes in its complement of rats as
+regularly as the passengers, and in this manner the destructive little
+animal has not only distributed himself over the entire globe, but, like
+an enterprising traveller, continually passes from one country to another.
+The colony of four-footed depredators, which ships itself free of expense,
+makes, for instance, a voyage to Calcutta, whence many of the body will
+again go to sea, and land perhaps at some uninhabited island where the
+vessel may have touched for water. In this manner many a hoary old
+wanderer has circumnavigated the globe oftener than Captain Cook, and set
+his paws on twenty different shores. The rat-catcher to the East-India
+Company has often destroyed as many as five hundred in a ship newly
+arrived from Calcutta. The genuine ship-rat is a more delicate animal than
+the brown rat, and has so strong a resemblance to the old Norman breed,
+that we cannot help thinking they are intimately related. The same fine
+large ear, sharp nose, long tail, dark fur, and small size, characterize
+both, and a like antipathy exists between them and the Norwegian species.
+It is by no means uncommon to find distinct colonies of the two kinds in
+the same ship--the one confining itself to the stem, the other to the
+stern of the vessel. The same arrangement is often adopted in the
+warehouses of seaports, the ship's company generally locating themselves
+as near the water as possible, and the landsmen in the more inland portion
+of the building.
+
+When rats have once found their way into a ship, they are secure as long
+as the cargo is on board, provided they can command the great
+necessary--water. If this is well guarded, they will resort to
+extraordinary expedients to procure it. In a rainy night they will come on
+deck to drink, and will even ascend the rigging to sip the moisture which
+lies in the folds of the sails. When reduced to extremities, they will
+attack the spirit-casks and get so drunk that they are unable to walk
+home. The land-rat will, in like manner, gnaw the metal tubes which in
+public-houses lead from the spirit-store to the tap, and is as convivial
+on these occasions as his nautical relation. The entire race have a quick
+ear for running liquid, and they constantly eat into leaden pipes, and,
+much to their astonishment, receive a douche-bath in consequence. It is
+without doubt the difficulty of obtaining water which causes them in many
+cases to desert the ship the moment she touches the shore. On such
+occasions they get, if possible, dry-footed to land, which they generally
+accomplish by passing in Indian file along the mooring-rope, though, if no
+other passage is provided for them, they will not hesitate to swim. In the
+same manner they board ships from the shore, and so well are their
+invading habits known to sailors, that it is common upon coming into port
+to fill up the hawser holes, or else to run the mooring-cable through a
+broom, the projecting twigs of which effectually stop the ingress of these
+nautical quadrupeds. Their occupancy of the smaller bird-breeding islands
+invariably ends in their driving away the feathered inhabitants, for they
+plunder the nests of their eggs, and devour the young. The puffins have in
+this way been compelled to relinquish Puffin's Island, off the coast of
+Caernarvon.
+
+The ship-rat must not be confounded with the water-rat, which is an
+entirely different species. The latter partakes of the habits of the
+beaver, and is somewhat like him in appearance. He possesses the same
+bluff head and long fur, in which are buried his diminutive ears. He
+dwells in holes in the banks of rivers, which he constructs with a land
+and water entrance to provide against destruction by the sudden rising of
+the stream. This animal lives entirely upon vegetable food, which he will
+now and then seek at some distance inland, and we suspect that to him may
+be traced many of the devastations in the fruit and vegetable gardens for
+which the poor sparrows get the blame. We have seen water-rats cross a
+wide meadow, climb the stalks of the dwarf beans, and, after detaching the
+pods with their teeth, shell their contents in the most workmanlike
+manner. They will mount vines and feed on the grapes; and a friend informs
+us that on one occasion he saw a water-rat go up a ladder which was
+resting against a plum-tree, and attack the fruit. If a garden is near the
+haunts of water-rats, it is necessary to watch narrowly for the holes
+underneath the walls, for they will burrow under the foundation with all
+the vigour of sappers and miners. Such is the cunning with which they
+drive their shafts, that they will ascend beneath a stack of wood, a heap
+of stones, or any other object which will conceal the passage by which
+they obtain an entrance. The water-rat is, however, a rare animal compared
+with its first-cousin, the common brown or Norway rat, which is likewise,
+as Lord Bacon says of the ant, "a shrewd thing in a garden." They select,
+according to Cobbett, the prime of the dessert--melons, strawberries,
+grapes, and wall-fruit; and though they do but taste of each, it is not,
+as he remarks, very pleasant to eat after them. Not many years since they
+existed in millions in the drains and sewers of the metropolis. Several
+causes have been in operation to diminish their numbers, and in some
+quarters of the town almost wholly to extinguish them. In the first place,
+the method of flushing the sewers lately adopted is exceedingly fatal to
+them. When the sluices are opened, go they must with the rush of waters,
+and they may be seen shot out by hundreds from the mouths of the culverts
+in the Thames. The fact that rats are worth three shillings a dozen for
+sporting purposes proves, however, the most certain means of their
+destruction, for it insures their ceaseless pursuit by the great hunter,
+man. The underground city of sewers becomes one vast hunting-ground, in
+which men regularly gain a livelihood by capturing them. Before entering
+the subterraneous world, the associates generally plan what routes they
+will take, and at what point they will meet, possibly with the idea of
+driving their prey towards a central spot. They go in couples, each man
+carrying a lighted candle with a tin reflector, a bag, a sieve, and a
+spade; the spade and sieve being used for examining any deposit which
+promises to contain some article of value. The moment the rat sees the
+light, he runs along the sides of the drain just above the line of the
+sewage water; the men follow, and speedily overtake the winded animal,
+which no sooner finds his pursuers gaining upon him, than he sets up a
+shrill squeak, in the midst of which he is seized with the bare hand
+behind the ears, and deposited in the bag. In this manner a dozen will
+sometimes be captured in as many minutes. When driven to bay at the end
+of a blind sewer, they will often fly at the boots of their pursuers in a
+most determined manner.
+
+The favourite stronghold of the rat is that portion of the house-drain
+which opens at right angles into the main sewer. Here he sits like a
+sentinel, and in security watches with his keen but astonished eyes the
+extraordinary apparition running with a light. It is a remarkable fact
+that most untrapped house-drains are inhabited by their own particular
+rats, and woe be to the intruder who ventures to interfere with those in
+possession. The rat as well as the cat may thus be classed among the
+domestic animals of the household, who acts as a kind of preventive puss
+in keeping out the whole underground community of vermin, which otherwise
+would have the run of our basements.
+
+These vermin congregate thickest in the neighbourhood of slaughter-houses,
+or, in other words, where food is most plentiful. They are frequently
+found sitting in clusters on the ledge formed by the invert of the sewers.
+As the scavengers of drains, they undoubtedly do good service, but it is a
+poor set-off for the mischief they perpetrate in destroying the brickwork
+of the sewers--burrowing in every direction, and thus constructing lateral
+cesspools, the contents of which permeate the ground and filter into the
+wells. In making these excavations, moreover, they invariably transfer the
+earth to the main sewers, and form obstructions to the flow. The
+accumulations of their paw-work have regularly to be removed in small
+trucks constructed for the purpose, and if this precaution were not taken,
+they would in a few years entirely destroy the vast system of subterranean
+culverts which have been laboriously constructed at the expense of
+millions. The pipe-drains with smooth barrels, which the rat's tooth
+cannot touch, alone baffle him; indeed, the rapid flow of water in their
+narrow channel prevents his even retaining his footing in them. In revenge
+for thus being circumvented, he has in many cases entirely ruined the
+newly-laid channel of pipes by burrowing under them, and causing them to
+dip and open at the joints.
+
+In France the sewer authorities hold an annual hunting-match, on which
+occasion there is a grand capture of rats; these animals are not destined
+to afford sport to the "fancy" under the tender manipulations of a dog
+"Billy;" on the contrary, our neighbours have too much respect for the
+integrity of his hide. We are informed that they have established a
+company in Paris, upon the Hudson's Bay principle, to buy up all the rats
+of the country for the sake of their skin. The soft nap of the fur when
+dressed is of the most beautiful texture, far exceeding in delicacy that
+of the beaver, and the hatters consequently use it as a substitute. The
+hide is employed to make the thumbs of the best gloves, its elasticity and
+texture rendering it preferable to kid.
+
+Parent Duchâtelet collected several particulars of the rats which in his
+day frequented the knackers' yards at Montfaucon. Attracted by the
+abundance of animal food, they increased so enormously that the
+surrounding inhabitants, hearing that the government intended to remove
+these establishments, were seized with apprehension lest the vermin, when
+deprived of their larder, should spread through the neighbourhood, and,
+like a flight of locusts, swallow up everything. The alarmists may even
+have feared lest they should meet with a similar fate to that of the
+Archbishop of Mayence, who, if old chronicles are to be believed, retired
+to a tower in one of the isles of the Rhine to escape being devoured by a
+host of these creatures whose appetites were set upon him, and who,
+pertinaciously pursuing him to his retreat, succeeded in eating him up at
+last. The report of the Commission instituted to inquire into the
+circumstances of the Montfaucon case, showed that the apprehensions of
+serious damage were by no means unfounded.
+
+    "If the carcases of dead horses be thrown during the day in a corner,
+    the next morning they will be found stripped of their flesh. An old
+    proprietor of one of the slaughter-houses had a certain space of
+    ground entirely surrounded by walls, with holes only large enough for
+    the ingress and egress of rats. Within this inclosure he left the
+    carcases of two or three horses; and when night came, he went quietly
+    with his workmen, stopped up the holes, and then entered into the
+    inclosure, with a stick in one hand and a lighted torch in the other.
+    The animals covered the ground so thickly that a blow struck anywhere
+    did execution. By repeating the process after intervals of a few
+    days, he killed 16,050 rats in the space of one month, and 2,650 in a
+    single night. They have burrowed under all the walls and buildings in
+    the neighbourhood; and it is only by such precautions as putting
+    broken glass bottles round the foundation of a house attached to the
+    establishment, that the proprietor is able to preserve it. All the
+    neighbouring fields are excavated by them; and it is not unusual for
+    the earth to give way and leave these subterraneous works exposed. In
+    severe frost, when it becomes impossible to cut up the bodies of the
+    horses, and when the fragments of flesh are almost too hard for the
+    rats to feed upon, they enter the body and devour the flesh from the
+    inside, so that, when the thaw comes, the workmen find nothing below
+    the skin but a skeleton, better cleared of its flesh than if it had
+    been done by the most skilful operator. Their ferocity, as well as
+    their voracity, surpasses anything that can be imagined. M. Majendie
+    placed a dozen rats in a box in order to try some experiments; when he
+    reached home and opened the box, there were but three remaining; these
+    had devoured the rest, and had only left their bones and tails."
+
+We have been informed that these rats regularly marched in troops in
+search of water in the dusk of the evening, and that they have often been
+met in single file stealing beside the walls that lined the road to their
+drinking-place. As the pavement in Paris overhangs the gutters, the rats
+take advantage of this covered way to creep in safety from street to
+street. Their migratory habits are well known, and every neighbourhood has
+its tale of their travels. Mr. Jesse relates an anecdote, communicated to
+him by a Sussex clergyman, which tends to prove that the old English rat
+at least shows a consideration and care for its elders on the march which
+is worthy of human philanthropy. "Walking out in some meadows one evening,
+he observed a great number of rats migrating from one place to another. He
+stood perfectly still, and the whole assemblage passed close to him. His
+astonishment, however, was great when he saw amongst the number an old
+blind rat, which held a piece of stick at one end in its mouth, while
+another had hold of the other end of it, and thus conducted its blind
+companion." A kindred circumstance was witnessed in 1757 by Mr. Purdew, a
+surgeon's mate on board the _Lancaster_. Lying awake one evening in his
+berth, he saw a rat enter, look cautiously round, and retire. He soon
+returned leading a second rat, who appeared to be blind, by the ear. A
+third rat joined them shortly afterwards, and assisted the original
+conductor in picking up fragments of biscuit and placing them before their
+infirm parent, as the blind old patriarch was supposed to be. It is only
+when tormented by hunger that they appear to lose their fellow-feeling and
+to prey upon one another.
+
+The sagacity of the rat in the pursuit of food is so great, that we almost
+wonder at the small amount of its cerebral development. Indeed, he is so
+cunning, and works occasionally with such human ingenuity, that accounts
+which are perfectly correct are sometimes received as mere fables.
+Incredible as the story may appear of their removing hens' eggs by one
+fellow lying on his back and grasping tightly his ovoid burden with his
+fore-paws, whilst his comrades drag him away by the tail, we have no
+reason to disbelieve it, knowing as we do that they will carry eggs from
+the bottom to the top of a house, lifting them from stair to stair, the
+first rat pushing them up on its hind and the second lifting them with its
+fore legs. They will extract the cotton from a flask of Florence oil,
+dipping in their long tails, and repeating the manoeuvre until they have
+consumed every drop. We have found lumps of sugar in deep drawers at a
+distance of thirty feet from the place where the petty larceny was
+committed: and a friend saw a rat mount a table on which a drum of figs
+was placed, and straightway tip it over, scattering its contents on the
+floor beneath, where a score of his expectant brethren sat watching for
+the windfall. His instinct is no less shown in the selection of suitable
+food. He attacks the portion of the elephant's tusks that abounds with
+animal oil, in preference to that which contains phosphate of lime; and
+the rat-gnawn ivory is selected by the turner as fitted for billiard-balls
+and other articles where the qualities of elasticity and transparency are
+required. Thus, the tooth-print of this little animal serves as a
+distinguishing mark of excellence in a precious material devoted to the
+decorative arts. The rat does not confine himself to inert substances:
+when he is hard pressed for food, he will attack anything weaker than
+himself. Frogs, Goldsmith says, had been introduced into Ireland some
+considerable time before the brown rat, and had multiplied abundantly, but
+they were pursued in their marshes by this indefatigable hunter, and eaten
+clean from off the Emerald Isle. He does not scruple to assault domestic
+poultry; though a rat which attempted to capture the chicken of a
+game-fowl was killed by the mother with beak and spur in the course of
+twelve minutes. The hen seized it by the neck, shook it violently, put out
+an eye, and plainly showed that the fowl in a conflict would be the more
+powerful of the two, if he was only equally daring. The number of young
+ducks which the rats destroyed in the Zoological Gardens rendered it
+necessary to surround the pools with a wire rat-fencing, which half-way up
+has a pipe of wirework, the circle of which is not complete by several
+inches in the under part, and the rat, unable to crawl along the concave
+roof which stops his onward path, is compelled to return discomfited.
+
+The rats have been for a long time the pests of these gardens, attracted
+by the presence of large quantities of food. The grating under one of the
+tigers' dens is eaten through by this nimble-toothed burglar, who makes as
+light of copper wire as of leaden pipes. Immediately upon the construction
+of the new monkey-house, they took possession, and eat through the floors
+in every direction to get at poor Jacko's bread. Vigorous measures were
+taken to exclude them; the floors were filled in with concrete, and the
+open roof was ceiled; but they quickly penetrated through the plaster of
+the latter, as may be seen by the holes to this day. They burrowed in the
+old inclosure of the wombat till the ground was quite rotten; and they
+still march about the den of the rhinoceros and scamper over his
+impregnable hide. It is only by constantly hunting them with terriers that
+they can be kept down; and as many as a hundred in a fortnight are often
+despatched, their carcases being handed over to the vultures and eagles.
+Many of them seek in the daytime a securer retreat. They have frequently
+been seen at evening swimming in companies across the canal to forage in
+the gardens through the night, and in the morning they returned to their
+permanent quarters by the same route.
+
+The proprietors of the bonded-wheat warehouses on the banks of the Thames
+are forced to take the utmost precautions against the entrance of these
+depredators; otherwise, they would troop in myriads from the sewers and
+waterside premises, and, as they are undoubtedly in the habit of
+communicating among their friends the whereabouts of any extraordinary
+supplies, they would go on increasing day by day as the report of the good
+news spread through rat-land. To repel their attentions, the wooden floors
+and the under parts of the doors of the granaries are lined with
+sheet-iron, and the foundations are sometimes set in concrete mixed with
+glass--matters too hard for even their teeth to discuss.
+
+Country rats in the summer take to the fields, and create enormous havoc
+among the standing corn. They nibble off the ears of wheat, and carry them
+to their runs and burrows, where large stores have been found hoarded up
+with all the forethought of the dormouse. Farmers are often puzzled to
+account for the presence of rats in wheat stacks which have been placed
+upon the most cunningly-contrived stands. The fact is, these animals are
+tossed up with the sheaves to the rick, where they increase and multiply
+at their leisure, and frequently to such an extent, that a rick, seeming
+fair on the outside, is little better than a huge rat-pie.
+
+The propensity of the rat to gnaw must not be attributed altogether to a
+reckless determination to overcome impediments. The never-ceasing action
+of his teeth is not a pastime, but a necessity of his existence. The
+writer of an interesting paper on rats in _Bentley's Miscellany_ has
+explained so clearly the dentistry of the tribe, that we extract his
+account:--
+
+    "The rat has formidable weapons in the shape of four small, long, and
+    very sharp teeth, two of which are in the upper and two in the lower
+    jaw. These are formed in the shape of a wedge, and by the following
+    wonderful provision of nature have always a fine, sharp, cutting edge.
+    On examining them carefully, we find that the inner part is of a soft,
+    ivory-like composition, which may be easily worn away, whereas the
+    outside is composed of a glass-like enamel, which is excessively hard.
+    The upper teeth work exactly into the under, so that the centres of
+    the opposed teeth meet exactly in the act of gnawing; the soft part is
+    thus being perpetually worn away, while the hard part keeps a sharp,
+    chisel-like edge; at the same time the teeth grow up from the bottom,
+    so that as they wear away a fresh supply is ready. The consequence of
+    this arrangement is, that, if one of the teeth be removed, either by
+    accident or on purpose, the opposed tooth will continue to grow
+    upwards, and, as there is nothing to grind them away, will project
+    from the mouth and turn upon itself; or, if it be an under-tooth, it
+    will even run into the skull above. There is a preparation in the
+    museum of the Royal College of Surgeons which well illustrates this
+    fact. It is an incisor tooth of a rat, which, from the cause above
+    mentioned, has increased its growth upwards to such a degree, that it
+    has formed a complete circle and a segment of another; the diameter of
+    it is about large enough to admit a good-sized thumb. It is
+    accompanied by the following memorandum, addressed by a Spanish priest
+    to Sir J. Banks, who presented it to the Museum: 'I send you an
+    extraordinary tooth of a rat. Believe me, it was found in the Nazareth
+    garden (to which order I belong). I was present when the animal was
+    killed, and took the tooth; I know not its virtues, nor have the
+    natives discovered them.'"
+
+We once saw a newly-killed rat to whom this misfortune had occurred. The
+tooth, which was an upper one, had in this case also formed a complete
+circle, and the point in winding round had passed through the lip of the
+animal. Thus the ceaseless working of the rat's incisors against some hard
+substance is necessary to keep them down, and if he did not gnaw for his
+subsistence, he would be compelled to gnaw to prevent his jaw being
+gradually locked by their rapid development.
+
+The destructive nature of the rat, the extraordinary manner in which he
+multiplies, and his perpetual presence--for where there is a chink that he
+can fill, and food for him to eat, there he will be, notwithstanding that
+a long line of ancestors have one after another been destroyed on the
+spot[11]--necessitates some counteracting influence to keep him within due
+bounds. This is done by making him the prey of hunting-animals and
+reptiles, beginning with man, and running down the chain of organized life
+to the gliding snake. The poor rat, although he doubtless does service as
+a scavenger, and must have his use in fulfilling some essential purpose of
+creation, finds favour nowhere: every man's hand, nearly every feline paw,
+and many birds' beaks are against him. The world thinks of him, as of the
+pauper boy in "Oliver Twist,"--"Hit him hard; he ain't a'got no friends."
+Dwelling in the midst of alarms, he might be supposed to pass an uneasy
+and nervous existence. But it is nothing of the kind. The same Providence
+which has furnished him with the teeth suitable to the work they have to
+perform, has endowed him with the feelings proper to his lot; and no
+animal, if he be watched from a distance, appears more happy and
+complacent. In danger he preserves a wonderful presence of mind, and acts
+upon the principle that while there is life there is hope. His cunning on
+such occasions is often remarkable, and evinces a reasoning power of no
+contemptible order:--
+
+    "A traveller in Ceylon," says Mrs. Lee, in her entertaining "Anecdotes
+    of Animals," "saw his dogs set upon a rat, and, making them relinquish
+    it, he took it up by the tail, the dogs leaping after it the whole
+    time. He carried it into his dining-room, to examine it by the light
+    of the lamp, during the whole of which period it remained as if it
+    were dead,--limbs hanging, and not a muscle moving. After five minutes
+    he threw it among the dogs, who were still in a state of great
+    excitement, and, to the astonishment of all present, it suddenly
+    jumped upon its legs, and ran away so fast that it baffled all its
+    pursuers."
+
+The sagacity of the rat in eluding danger is not less than his craftiness
+in dealing with it when it comes. A gentleman, Mr. Jesse relates, who fed
+his own pointers, observed through a hole in the door a number of rats
+eating from the trough with his dogs, who did not attempt to molest them.
+Resolving to shoot the intruders, he next day put the food, but kept out
+the dogs. Not a rat came to taste. He saw them peering from their holes,
+but they were too well versed in human nature to venture forth without the
+protection of their canine guard. After half an hour the pointers were let
+in, when the rats forthwith joined their hosts, and dined with them as
+usual. If it comes to the worst, and the rat is driven to bay, he will
+fight with admirable resolution. A good-sized sewer-rat has been known to
+daunt for a moment the most courageous bull-terrier, advancing towards him
+with tail erect, and inflicting wounds of the most desperate nature. The
+bite of any rat is severe, and that of a sewer-rat so highly dangerous,
+that valuable dogs are rarely allowed by their masters to fight them. The
+garbage on which they live poisons their teeth, and renders the wounds
+they make deadly. Even with his great natural enemy and superior, the
+ferret, he will sometimes get the advantage by his steady bravery and the
+superiority of his tactics. Mr. Jesse describes an encounter of the kind,
+the circumstances of which were related to him by a medical gentleman at
+Kingston:--
+
+    "Being greatly surprised that the ferret, an animal of such slow
+    locomotive powers, should be so destructive to the rat tribe, he
+    determined to bring both these animals fairly into the arena, in order
+    to judge of their respective powers; and having selected a fine large
+    and full-grown male rat and also an equally strong buck ferret, which
+    had been accustomed to hunt rats, my friend, accompanied by his son,
+    turned these two animals loose in a room without furniture, in which
+    there was but one window. Immediately upon being liberated, the rat
+    ran round the room as if searching for an exit. Not finding any means
+    of escape, he uttered a piercing shriek, and with the most prompt
+    decision took up his station directly under the light, thus gaining
+    over his adversary (to use the language of other duellists) _the
+    advantage of the sun_. The ferret now erected his head, sniffed about,
+    and began fearlessly to push his way towards the spot where the scent
+    of his game was strongest, facing the light in full front, and
+    preparing himself with avidity to seize upon his prey. No sooner,
+    however, had he approached within two feet of his watchful foe, than
+    the rat, again uttering a loud cry, rushed at him with violence, and
+    inflicted a severe wound on the head and neck, which was soon shown by
+    the blood which flowed from it; the ferret seemed astonished at the
+    attack, and retreated with evident discomfiture; while the rat,
+    instead of following up the advantage he had gained, instantly
+    withdrew to his former station under the window. The ferret soon
+    recovered the shock he had sustained, and, erecting his head, once
+    more took the field. This second rencontre was in all its progress and
+    results an exact repetition of the former--with this exception, that,
+    on the rush of the rat to the conflict, the ferret appeared more
+    collected, and evidently showed an inclination to get a firm hold of
+    his enemy; the strength of the rat, however, was very great, and he
+    again succeeded not only in avoiding the deadly embrace of the ferret,
+    but also in inflicting another severe wound on his neck and head. The
+    rat a second time returned to his retreat under the window, and the
+    ferret seemed less anxious to renew the conflict. These attacks were
+    resumed at intervals for nearly two hours, all ending in the failure
+    of the ferret, who was evidently fighting to a disadvantage from the
+    light falling full on his eye whenever he approached the rat, who
+    wisely kept his ground and never for a moment lost sight of the
+    advantage he had gained. In order to prove whether the choice of this
+    position depended upon accident, my friend managed to dislodge the
+    rat, and took his own station under the window; but the moment the
+    ferret attempted to make his approach, the rat, evidently aware of the
+    advantage he had lost, endeavoured to creep between my friend's legs,
+    thus losing his natural fear of man under the danger which awaited him
+    from his more deadly foe."
+
+Driven from his defensive position, the rat continued his attacks, but
+with an evident loss of courage, and the ferret ultimately came to the
+death-grapple with his crafty antagonist. A similar battle was witnessed
+by a friend, with the difference that the rat, being undisturbed in his
+advantageous position with regard to the light, finally beat off the
+ferret, which was absolutely bitten into shreds over the head and muzzle.
+The repetition of the same conduct by a second animal shows that this
+particular species of cunning is a general faculty of the tribe. The main
+superiority of the ferret is in his retaining his hold when once he has
+fastened on his prey, sucking his life's blood the while; whereas the rat
+fights by a succession of single bites, which wound but do not destroy.
+The snake prevails by his venom. Mrs. Lee relates the particulars of a
+combat in Africa, in which rat and snake repeatedly closed and bit at one
+another, separating after each assault, and gathering up strength for a
+fresh attack. At length the rat fell, foamed at the mouth, swelled to a
+great size, and died in a few minutes.[12]
+
+If he can be savage when self-protection requires, he also has his softer
+moments, in which he shows confidence in man almost as strong as that
+exhibited by the dog or cat. An old blind rat, on whose head the snows of
+many winters had gathered, was in the habit of sitting beside our own
+kitchen fire, with all the comfortable look of his enemy, the cat; and
+such a favourite had he become with the servants, that he was never
+allowed to be disturbed. He unhappily fell a victim to the sudden spring
+of a strange cat. A close observation of these animals entirely conquers
+the antipathy which is entertained towards them. Their sharp and handsome
+heads, their bright eyes, their intelligent look, their sleek skins, are
+the very reverse of repulsive; and there is positive attraction in the
+beautiful manner in which they sit licking their paws and washing their
+faces--an occupation in which they pass a considerable portion of their
+time. The writer on rats in _Bentley's Miscellany_ relates an anecdote of
+a tame rat, which shows that he is capable of serving his master as well
+as of passing a passive existence under his protection. The animal
+belonged to the driver of a London omnibus, who caught him as he was
+removing some hay. He was spared because he had the good luck to be
+piebald, became remarkably tame, and grew attached to the children. At
+night he exhibited a sense of the enjoyment of security and warmth, by
+stretching himself out at full length on the rug before the fire; and on
+cold nights, after the fire was extinguished, he would creep into his
+master's bed. In the daytime, however, his owner utilized him. At the word
+of command, "Come along, Ikey," he would jump into the ample great-coat
+pocket, from which he was transferred to the boot of the omnibus. Here his
+business was to guard the driver's dinner; and if any person attempted to
+make free with it, the rat would fly at them from out the straw. There was
+one dish alone of which he was an inefficient protector. He could never
+resist plum-pudding; and though he kept off all other intruders, he ate
+his fill of it himself. These are by no means extraordinary instances of
+the amiable side of rat nature when kindly treated by man, and we could
+fill pages with similar relations. But it seems, in addition to his other
+merits, that he possesses dramatic genius. We have heard of military
+fleas, we have seen Jacko perform his miserable imitation of humanity on
+the top of a barrel-organ; but who ever heard of a rat's turn for tragedy?
+Nevertheless, a Belgian newspaper not long since published an account of a
+theatrical performance by a troop of rats, which gives us a higher idea of
+their intellectual nature than anything else which is recorded of them.
+This novel company of players were dressed in the garb of men and women,
+walked on their hind legs, and mimicked with ludicrous exactness many of
+the ordinary stage effects. On one point only were they intractable. Like
+the young lady in the fable, who turned to a cat the moment a mouse
+appeared, they forgot their parts, their audience, and their manager, at
+the sight of the viands which were introduced in the course of the piece;
+and, dropping on all-fours, fell to with the native voracity of their
+race. The performance was concluded by their hanging in triumph their
+enemy the cat, and dancing round her body.
+
+The rat, as we have said, has many enemies: the weazel, the pole-cat, the
+otter, the dog, the cat, and the snake hunt him remorselessly all over the
+world. Man, however, is his most relentless and destructive enemy. In some
+places he is killed for food, as in China, where dried split rats are sold
+as a dainty. The _chiffonniers_ of Paris feed on them without reluctance.
+Nor is rat-pie altogether obsolete in our own country. The gipsies
+continue to eat such as are caught in stacks and barns, and a
+distinguished surgeon of our time frequently had them served up at his
+table. They feed chiefly upon grain; and it is merely the repulsive idea
+which attaches to this animal under every form that causes it to be
+rejected by the same man who esteems the lobster, the crab, and the shrimp
+a delicacy, although he knows that they are the scavengers of the sea.
+They were not always so nice in the navy. An old captain in her Majesty's
+service informs us that on one occasion, when returning from India, the
+vessel was infested with rats, which made great ravages among the biscuit.
+Jack, to compensate for his lost provisions, had all the spoilers he could
+kill, put into pies, and considered them an extraordinary delicacy. At the
+siege of Malta, when the French were hard pressed, rats fetched a dollar
+apiece; but the famished garrison marked their sense of the excellence of
+those which were delicately fed by offering a double price for every one
+caught in a granary. Man directs his hostility against the rat, however,
+chiefly because he considers him a nuisance; and the gin and poison, cold
+iron and the bowl, a dismal alternative, are accordingly presented to him.
+With the former he is not so easily caught, and will never enter a trap or
+touch a gin in which any of his kind have fretted and rubbed. Poison is a
+more effectual method, but it is not always safe. Rats which have been
+beguiled into partaking of arsenic instantly make for the water to quench
+their intolerable thirst, and, though they usually withdraw from the
+house, they may resort in their agony to an in-door cistern, and remain
+there to pollute it.[13] The writer who calls himself "Uncle James," and
+who, for a reason that will shortly appear, is exceedingly anxious to
+impress the public with the belief that the best mode of getting rid of
+the rat is to hunt him with terriers, states that a dairy-farmer in
+Limerick poisoned his calves and pigs by giving them the skim milk at
+which rats had drunk when under the pangs produced by arsenic. One mode of
+clearing them out of a house is either to singe the hair of a devoted rat,
+or else to dip his hind-quarters into tar, and then turn him loose, when
+the whole community will take their leave for a while. But this is only a
+temporary expedient, and in the interim the offenders are left to
+multiply, and perchance transfer their ravages to another part of the
+domain where they are equally mischievous. The same objection applies to
+the remedy of pounding the common dog's-tongue, when gathered in full sap,
+and laying it in their haunts. They retire only to return. The Germans
+turn the rat himself into a police-officer to warn off his burglarious
+brethren. Dr. Shaw, in his General Zoology, states that a gentleman who
+travelled through Mecklenburg about thirty years ago saw one at a
+post-house with a bell about its neck, which the landlord assured him had
+frightened away the whole of the "whiskered vermin" which previously
+infested the place. Mr. Neele says that at Bangkok, the Siamese capital,
+the people are in the habit of keeping tame rats, which walk about the
+room, and crawl up the legs of the inmates, who pet them as they would a
+dog. They are caught young, and, attaining a monstrous size by good
+feeding, take the place of our cats, and entirely free the house of their
+own kind. But the most effectual and in the end the cheapest remedy is an
+expert rat-catcher. Cunning as an experienced old rat becomes, he is
+invariably checkmated when man fairly tries a game of skill with him. The
+well-trained professor of the art, who by long habit has grown familiar
+with his adversary's haunts and tactics, his hopes and fears, his
+partialities and antipathies, will clear out a house or a farmyard, where
+a novice would merely catch a few unwary adventurers and put the rest upon
+their guard. The majority of the world have, happily for themselves, a
+better office, and the regular practitioner might justly address the
+amateur in much the same words that the musician employed to Frederick the
+Great, when the royal flute-player was expecting to be complimented on his
+performance: "It would be a discredit to your Majesty to play as well as
+I."
+
+"Uncle James," however, is of a different opinion. This author considers
+that every man should be his own rat-catcher, which he evidently believes
+to be the most improving, dignified, and fascinating calling under the
+sun, as he considers rats themselves to be the crying evil of the day,
+second only in his estimation to the grand injustice of the old corn-law.
+Indeed, we cannot see from his own premises how the evil can be second to
+any great destructive principle, earthquakes included. He takes a single
+pair of rats, and proves satisfactorily that in three years, if
+undisturbed, they will have thirteen litters of eight each at a birth, and
+that the young will begin littering again when six months old; by this
+calculation he increases the original pair at the end of three years to
+six hundred and fifty-six thousand eight hundred and eight. Calculating
+that ten rats eat as much in one day as a man, which we think is rather
+under than over the fact, the consumption of these rats would be equal "to
+that of sixty-four thousand six hundred and eight men the year round, and
+leave eight rats in the year to spare." Now, if a couple of rats could
+occasion such devastation in three years after the original pair marched
+out of the ark, how comes it that the descendants of the myriads which
+ages ago co-existed among us have not eaten up the earth and the fullness
+thereof? Uncle James conveniently forgets that animals do not multiply
+according to arithmetical progression, but simply in proportion to the
+food provided for them. He must not, however, be expected to be wiser than
+Malthus on the subject of animal reproduction, and he has the additional
+incentive to error, that he evidently paints up his horrors for an artful
+purpose. There can be no sort of doubt that he has several well-bred
+terriers to dispose of, and hence the following panacea for all the evils
+which afflict society.
+
+    "A dog, to be of sound service, ought to be of six to thirteen pounds
+    weight; over that they become too unwieldy. I would also recommend,
+    above all others, the London rat-killing terrier: he is as hard as
+    steel, courageous as a lion, and as handsome as a racehorse!--[Uncle
+    James is a Londoner, of course.] Let the farmers in each parish meet
+    and pass resolutions calling upon their representatives in parliament
+    to take the tax off rat-killing dogs. Let them devise plans for
+    procuring some well-bred terriers and ferrets, and spread the young
+    ones about among their men. Let there be a reward offered of so much
+    per head for dead rats, and let there be one person in each parish
+    appointed to pay for the same. Rats are valuable for manure; let there
+    be a pit in each locality, and let this man stick up an announcement
+    every week, in some conspicuous place, as to the number of rats
+    killed, and by whom. Then, what will be the result? Why, a spirit of
+    emulation will rise up among the villagers, and they will be
+    ransacking every hole and corner for rats. _Thus will a tone of
+    cheerful enterprise, activity, and pleasantry come in among them_,
+    'with a fund of conversation;' and instead of that crawling, dogged
+    monotony which characterizes their general gait and manner, they will
+    meet their employers and go to their labour with joyous steps and
+    smiling countenances."
+
+The coming man, so long expected, is it seems the rat-catcher. Here is
+manure multiplied, agriculture improved, food husbanded, a smiling,
+enlightened, and conversible peasantry--and all the result of
+rat-catching. But a difficulty has been overlooked. When the entire
+population is converted into rat-catchers, rats must shortly, like the
+dodo, be extinct. For a while we shall become an exporting country, but
+this resource must fail us at last, and England's glory will expire with
+its rats. Then once more we shall have a sullen, silent, discontented
+peasantry; "their fund of conversation" will be exhausted, or at best the
+villagers will be reduced to talk with a sigh of the golden age, never to
+be renewed, when the country enjoyed the unspeakable blessing of
+rat-catching. In short, we fear that Uncle James has been so exclusively
+devoted to the science of rat-catching, that he has neglected to cultivate
+the inferior art of reasoning; but, interested as we suspect it to be, we
+join in his commendation of the virtues of the terrier. The expedition
+with which a clever dog will put his victims out of their misery is such
+that a terrier not four pounds in weight has killed four hundred rats
+within two hours. By this we may estimate the destruction dealt to the
+race by that nimble animal, "hard as steel, courageous as a lion, and
+handsome as a race-horse." A custom has sprung up within the last twenty
+years of watching these dogs worry rats in a pit, and there are private
+arenas of the kind where our fair countrywomen, leaning over the cushioned
+circle, will witness with admiration the cleverness of their husbands' or
+brothers' terriers. "Uncle James" might commend their taste, and think the
+sport calculated to furnish them with "a fund of conversation, and a
+spirit of cheerful enterprise and pleasantry;" but except the fact had
+proved it to be otherwise, we should have supposed that there was not an
+educated man in Great Britain who would not have been shocked at this
+novel propensity of English ladies.
+
+
+
+
+LUNATIC ASYLUMS.
+
+
+Horace Walpole, whose pen has graven so deeply the social characteristics
+of his age, in describing to his friend Mann the terrors excited by the
+Lord George Gordon mob, says "they threaten to let the lions out of the
+Tower, and the madmen out of Bedlam." In this short sentence we have a
+clear view of the opinion which our forefathers entertained of
+lunatics--an opinion which the pictures of Hogarth's Madhouse Cells have
+impressed on the popular mind even to this day. And in truth it is not
+fifty years since the state of things which now exists only in the
+imagination of the ignorant, was both general and approved. The interior
+of Bethlehem at that date could furnish pictures more terrible than
+Hogarth ever conceived. It is not our purpose, however, to dwell upon
+these horrors of former days. Through the instrumentality of the late
+Samuel Tuke, of York, Gardner Hill, Charlesworth, Winslow, and Conolly, of
+London, the old method of treatment, with its whips, chains, and manacles,
+has passed away for ever; and as a true emblem of the revolution which has
+taken place, we may mention that some years since a governor, in passing
+through the laundry of Bethlehem, perceived a wrist-manacle, which had
+been converted by one of the women into a stand for a flat iron!
+
+In spite of the ameliorations in the condition of the insane, many among
+the higher, and nearly all among the lower classes, still look upon the
+County Asylum as the Bluebeard's cupboard of the neighbourhood. These
+unfounded ideas act as a powerful drawback to the successful treatment of
+insanity, for as the vast majority of cures are effected within three
+months of the original attack, whatever deters the friends of the patient
+from bringing him under regimen at the earliest possible moment, probably
+ensures the perpetuation of the disease. We can well imagine the undefined
+awe and tribulation of spirit with which the unhappy creatures who are
+stricken in mind enter the gates of an abode in which they are supposed to
+be given over to a durance worse than death; but so mistaken is the
+impression, that the feelings of desperation are almost immediately
+succeeded by the inspiriting dawnings of hope. The furious maniac who
+arrives at Colney Hatch or Hanwell in a cart, or a hand-barrow, bound with
+ropes like a frantic animal, the terror of his friends and himself, is no
+sooner within the building which imagination invests with such terrors,
+than half his miseries cease. The ropes cut, he stands up once more free
+from restraint, kind words are spoken to him, he is soothed by a bath,
+and, if still violent, the padded room, which offers no aggravating
+mechanical or personal resistance, calms his fury, and sleep, which has so
+long been a stranger to him, visits him the first night which he spends in
+the dreaded asylum. An old lady--a relapsed patient--whose silver locks
+hung dishevelled on her shoulders, was, when we visited Hanwell, waiting
+in a cab in a state of the wildest excitement. Immediately she was
+admitted, and recognised the faces of the nurses who had formerly been
+kind to her, her whole countenance changed. "What, you Burke and you
+Thomson again!" she exclaimed, delighted at renewing former friendships;
+and settling herself down peaceably in the ward, she appeared as
+comfortable as at her own fireside.
+
+Not only have the old methods of treatment been abandoned, but many
+changes have been made to render the houses for the insane less repulsive
+to the eye. Thousands of pounds have been spent in replacing the
+dungeon-like apertures (often without glass) with light-framed windows,
+undarkened by dismal bars; the gratings have been removed from the
+fireplaces; and that all the other associations may be in harmony with the
+improved appearance of the building, the harsh title of keeper has given
+place to that of attendant, and the madhouse has become the asylum. In the
+old plan, the entire treatment seemed to consist in secluding the patient
+from every sight which renders life sweet, and in wrenching him violently
+from all the conditions which formerly surrounded him; the new idea is to
+bring within the walls as much of the outside world as possible. Here the
+artisan finds employment in various handicrafts, the agricultural labourer
+renews his commerce with the soil, and the female plies her needle or
+pursues her accustomed occupations in the laundry or the kitchen.
+Amusement takes its turn, and those who travel by the Great Western train
+on winter evenings are surprised to see the lights streaming from the
+great hall of Hanwell, and to hear perchance the sounds of music. These
+issue from the ball-room of the establishment! In place of the dark
+dungeon, the bonds and the blows which once added outward to inward woe,
+the inmates are realising the poetic picture of Gray,--
+
+  "With antic Sport and blue-eyed Pleasures,
+    Frisking light in frolic measures;
+  Now pursuing, now retreating,
+    Now in circling troops they meet:
+  To brisk notes in cadence beating
+    Glance their many-twinkling feet."
+
+Mental aberration is not of necessity the bane of mental enjoyment. There
+are many sweets by which its bitterness may be diluted and diminished,
+though our ancestors were so ignorant of the fact, as to believe that the
+best thing to be done for a mind o'erthrown was to pour vinegar to gall.
+
+Dr. Conolly, in his lately-published volume on "The Treatment of the
+Insane without Mechanical Restraint," looks upon the banishment of the
+strait-waistcoat with a just pride, for to him we owe the abolition of the
+last mechanical means of coercing temporary violence; but we cannot
+participate in his fear that the selfishness and ignorance of human nature
+will ever be able to restore the gloomy reign which has at last been
+brought to a close. We can no more go back to the days of hobbles and
+handcuffs, chains and stripes, than we can go back to the days of the rack
+and thumbscrew. We may have, it is true, lamentable exposures, such as
+took place at Bethlehem in 1851, but the depth of the public outcry, and
+the promptness with which the irregularities were remedied, is of itself
+an evidence that general opinion will prove the corrective of occasional
+abuses. Nor can we, from a fancied apprehension of the return to obsolete
+practices, join in the fanaticism which forbids the use of the
+strait-jacket as a means of coercion under all circumstances. There can be
+no doubt that the treatment which requires its frequent use is a bad one;
+but to deny that there are cases which call for its restraints would be to
+deny the evidence of our senses. Mr. Wilkes, the late medical officer to
+the Stafford County Lunatic Asylum, and now Commissioner in Lunacy, in
+answer to a series of questions issued by the Commissioners on Lunacy upon
+the subject, makes the following remarks:--
+
+    "With every disposition to advocate the disuse of restraint to the
+    utmost extent, I am compelled to admit that the result of my
+    experience in this asylum, up to the present time, leads me to the
+    conclusion that cases may occur in which its temporary employment may
+    be both necessary and justifiable. Besides the occasional use of some
+    means of confining the hands when feeding patients by means of the
+    stomach-pump, a more prolonged use of restraint was necessary in two
+    cases which occurred some years since. One of these was a man of so
+    determined a suicidal disposition, that on more than one occasion he
+    nearly effected his purpose by trying to beat his head and face
+    against the walls, to throw himself from tables and chairs, and thrust
+    spoons and other articles down his throat. When first admitted, he was
+    not suspected of having any suicidal tendency, and for some weeks did
+    not show any; as a matter of precaution he slept in a padded room, and
+    one night he so battered his head with a tin vessel that he was found
+    nearly dead from loss of blood, and his life was subsequently in much
+    danger from extensive sloughing of the scalp. In this case it was
+    absolutely necessary to confine the hands to keep any dressings on the
+    head, and after the wounds had healed, and the confinement of the
+    hands had been discontinued, he wore a thickly-padded cap for many
+    months. Several years after this, he bit both his little fingers off;
+    and though the suicidal disposition has in a great measure subsided,
+    he is still at times much excited, but does not require any restraint.
+    The second case was one of acute mania. A powerful young man refused
+    all food under the impression that it was poisoned, and imagined that
+    every one who went near him intended to murder him. Every inducement
+    to get him to take food was in vain, and though a sufficient body of
+    attendants, under my own inspection, attempted to do what was
+    necessary for him, he became so much bruised in holding him in his
+    struggles to assail the attendants, when it was urgently requisite
+    that food should be administered into the stomach, that I decided upon
+    confining his hands, and both food and medicine were then readily
+    administered. The result certainly justified the means employed, as
+    the excitement subsided, and he soon recovered."
+
+So much for the experience of the medical attendant of a public asylum;
+now let us hear the testimony of Dr. Forbes Winslow, whose experience in
+his private asylum, Sussex House, Hammersmith, has been as great perhaps
+as that of any man, since he has lived with his family for ten years in
+the very midst of his patients, and who is surpassed by no one in his
+enlightened and gentle treatment of the insane.
+
+    "Patients," he says, in his Report to the Commissioners, "have often
+    expressed a wish to be placed under mechanical restraint, should I, in
+    my judgment, believe that they would, when much excited, commit overt
+    acts of violence, and be dangerous to themselves and others. In cases
+    like these, mechanical restraint may for a short period be applied,
+    not only without detriment, but with positive advantage as a curative
+    process. Several instances relative of this fact have come under my
+    observation. I have seen cases where no food or medicine could be
+    administered without subjecting the patient to restraint. In these
+    cases, if all idea of cure had been abandoned, and I could have
+    reconciled it to my conscience to allow the disease to take its
+    uninterrupted course, and have permitted the patient to exist upon the
+    minimum amount of nutriment, and take no medicine, all restraint might
+    easily be dispensed with; but considering the cure of my patient
+    paramount to every other consideration, I had no hesitation as to the
+    humane and right mode of procedure."
+
+In a case which came under our knowledge, a patient imagined that the
+text, "If thine eye offend thee pluck it out," was literally intended,
+and, after various attempts to comply with the command, he succeeded in
+destroying the sight of one orbit. Such instances are rare, but the
+medical man should at all times be prepared to meet them, instead of
+folding his arms and looking helplessly on whilst the mischief is being
+done, through a craven fear of the non-restraint cry. The strait-waistcoat
+is certainly liable to great abuse, but less than the padded room, which
+may be converted into a cruel means of coercion in the hands of unwatched
+attendants.
+
+There yet remains a vast amount of restraint, which is almost as
+irritating, if not so strongly reprobated, as the implements which bind
+the limbs of the suicidal or violent. Restraint is only comparative. The
+strait-waistcoat is the narrowest zone of confinement, and the padded room
+but a little wider. Next to these comes the locked gallery for a class,
+then the encircling high wall for the entire lunatic community; and
+lastly, that aërial barrier the parole, for those who can be trusted to go
+beyond the asylum. The efforts of philanthropists will not, we are
+convinced, cease, until all the methods of confinement, down to the
+parole, are removed; or at least so disguised as to hinder their present
+irritating action upon the inmates. As long as the chief idea in
+connection with these establishments is that they are receptacles for the
+_detention_ of the insane, so long perhaps the means taken to prevent
+flight will obtain; but when they are simply regarded as hospitals for the
+cure of mental disease, we shall witness the abandonment of many
+arrangements which are as barbarous and ineffectual as the cruelties
+practised in the last century. The asylums where the restraint is greatest
+are precisely those from which the largest number of patients contrive to
+escape; whereas, when restrictions of all kinds are abolished, as at the
+insane pauper colony of Gheel, in Belgium, but few persons ever attempt to
+get away.
+
+
+In former days the public were admitted to perambulate Bedlam on the
+payment of twopence. A writer in the _World_ gives a narrative of a visit
+to it in Easter-week, 1753, when he found there a hundred holiday-makers,
+who "were suffered unattended to run rioting up and down the wards, making
+sport of the miserable inhabitants." Richardson, the novelist, had, a few
+years earlier, depicted the scene in the assumed character of a young lady
+from the country, describing to her friends the sights of London.
+
+    "I have this afternoon been with my cousins to gratify the odd
+    curiosity most people have to see Bethlehem, or Bedlam Hospital. A
+    more affecting scene my eyes never beheld. I had the shock of seeing
+    the late polite and ingenious Mr. ---- in one of these woful chambers.
+    No sooner did I put my face to the grate, but he leaped from his bed,
+    and called me with frightful fervency to come into his room. The
+    surprise affected me pretty much, and my confusion being observed by a
+    crowd of strangers, I heard it presently whispered that I was his
+    sweetheart and the cause of his misfortune. My cousin assured me that
+    such fancies were frequent upon these occasions; but this accident
+    drew so many eyes upon me as obliged me soon to quit the place. I was
+    much at a loss to account for the behaviour of the generality of
+    people who were looking at these miserable objects. Instead of the
+    concern I think unavoidable at such a sight, a sort of mirth appeared
+    on their countenances, and the distempered fancies of the miserable
+    patients provoked mirth and loud laughter in the unthinking auditors;
+    and the many hideous roarings and wild motions of others seemed
+    equally entertaining to them. Nay, so shamefully inhuman were some,
+    among whom, I am sorry to say it, were several of my own sex, as to
+    endeavour to provoke the patients into rage to make them sport."
+
+Supposed to be degraded to the level of beasts, as wild beasts they were
+treated. Like them they were shut up in dens littered with straw,
+exhibited for money, and made to growl and roar for the diversion of the
+spectators who had paid their fee. No wonder that Bedlam should have
+become a word of fear; no wonder that in popular estimation the bad odour
+of centuries should still cling to its walls, and that the stranger,
+tempted by curiosity to pass beneath the shadow of its dome, should enter
+with sickening trepidation. But now, instead of the howling madhouse his
+imagination may have painted it, he sees prim galleries filled with
+orderly persons. Scenes of cheerfulness and content meet the eye of the
+visitor as he is conducted along well-lit corridors, from which the bars
+and gratings of old have vanished. He stops, surprised and delighted, to
+look at the engravings of Landseer's pictures on the walls, or to admire
+the busts upon the brackets; he beholds tranquil persons walking around
+him, or watches them feeding the birds which abound in the aviaries fitted
+up in the depths of the ample windows. Indeed the pet animals, such as
+rabbits, squirrels, &c., with the verdant ferneries, render the
+convalescent wards of this hospital more cheerful than any we have seen in
+similar institutions. At intervals the monotony of the long-drawn
+corridors is broken by ample-sized rooms carpeted and furnished like the
+better class of dwellings. If we pass along the female side of the
+hospital, we find the apartments occupied by a score of busy workers, the
+majority of whom appear to be gentlewomen. Every conceivable kind of
+needlework is dividing their attention with the young lady who reads aloud
+"David Copperfield," or "Dred;" while beside the fire, perhaps, an old
+lady with silver locks gives a touch of domesticity to the scene, which we
+should little have expected to meet within these walls. In traversing the
+male side, instead of the workroom we find a library, in which the
+patients, reclining upon the sofas or lolling in arm-chairs round the
+fire, beguile the hours with books or the _Illustrated News_. Many a
+scholar, the silver chord of whose brain jingles for the moment out of
+tune, here finds a congenial atmosphere, and such materials for study as
+he often could not obtain out-of-doors; and here many an artist,
+clergyman, officer, and broken-down gentleman, meets with social converse,
+which the world does not dream could exist in Bedlam.[14]
+
+No cases of more than twelve months' standing are admitted within the
+walls of Bedlam, and only ninety persons termed incurables are allowed to
+remain beyond that period. These regulations exclude the idiotic and
+epileptic patients, who form such distressing groups in other
+establishments, and the interest required to obtain admission into this
+amply endowed charity ensures at the same time a much higher class of
+inmates. Clergymen, barristers, governesses, literary men, artists, and
+military and naval officers make up the staple of the assembly. The
+representatives of the lower orders are also present, but the educated
+element prevails, and the tone of dress and manners is vastly above that
+to be found in the pauper-swarming county asylums. There is a ball on the
+first Monday in every month, and the company that gathers in the crystal
+chamber at the extreme end of the south wing would not disgrace in
+behaviour and appearance any sane and well-bred community. The polka, the
+waltz, and the mazurka, performed with grace and ease, declare the social
+standing of the assembly; and many a pedestrian who sees the dark
+silhouettes of the dancers as they whirl across the light, is astonished
+at the festivities of the inmates. In the summer evenings the spacious
+courts are crowded with the patients, not gloomily walking between four
+dismal walls in which the very air seemed placed under restraint, but
+enjoying themselves in the bowling-green or in the skittle alley. The
+garden is at hand for those who love the culture of flowers. When we
+contrast the condition of the Bethlehem of fifty years ago with the
+Bethlehem of to-day, we see at a glance what a gulf has been leaped in
+half a century--a gulf on one side of which we see man, like a demon,
+torturing his unfortunate fellows, on the other like a ministering angel
+carrying out the all-powerful law of love. Can this be the same Bethlehem
+where, in 1808, Mr. Westerton, Mr. Calvert, and Mr. Wakefield saw ten
+patients in the women's gallery, each fastened by one arm or leg to the
+wall, with a length of chain that only allowed them to stand up by their
+bench, and dressed in a filthy blanket thrown poncho-like over their
+otherwise naked bodies? Can this be the same institution in which poor
+Norris, like a fierce hound in a kennel, was favoured with a long chain
+that passed through the wall into the next room, and which, while
+permitting him a little extra tether, enabled the keeper to haul him up to
+the side of the cell when it was necessary to approach him? But this
+indulgence did not last, and from the pages of Esquirol we learn the
+infernal torture which was finally put upon him.
+
+    "A stout iron ring was riveted round his neck, from which a short
+    chain passed to a ring made to slide upwards or downwards on an
+    upright massive iron bar, more than six feet high, inserted into the
+    wall. Round his body a strong iron bar, about two inches wide, was
+    riveted; on each side of the bar was a circular projection, which,
+    being fastened to and enclosing each of his arms, pinioned them close
+    to his side."
+
+In this position, in which he could only stand upright or lie upon his
+back, he lived for twelve years! But in nothing, perhaps, is the contrast
+between the past and the present more apparent than in the two pictures
+presented by Dr. Hood, the resident physician, from the case book of the
+Bethlehem Hospital, which at once show the difference of treatment and the
+different results which attended it.
+
+    "A. F., admitted into the Hospital, February 6, 1808, aged 34. This
+    woman was born at Derby. At the age of 20 she came to London to seek
+    for service, but she soon lost her character. The natural violence of
+    her disposition was increased by her intemperance. She was the most
+    turbulent of all the females that disturb the night about Fleet
+    Market, and has been repeatedly flogged at Bridewell for her extreme
+    violence and disorder. She became at length the horror of the
+    watchmen, for punishing and imprisonment had no effect in checking her
+    career. She was known to her companions by the name of 'Ginger.' In
+    one of her paroxysms of rage she attacked the windows of the Mansion
+    House, and on her examination before the Lord Mayor, it appeared that
+    her violent disposition had gradually passed into a state of complete
+    madness. Under these circumstances she was sent, February 6th, 1808,
+    to the Hospital, and placed on the curable establishment. At the
+    expiration of twelve months, her lunacy continuing, she was admitted
+    on the incurable list. There is no record of the manner in which she
+    conducted herself during the first year, but it appears _that she was
+    chained to her bed of straw for eight years without any covering or
+    apparel_. So long as she continued thus coerced the violence
+    continued. The last entry is '_coercion still makes her ferocious, but
+    when left at liberty she is not in the least degree dangerous_.'"
+
+    "M. C., admitted into this Hospital, Sept. 30, 1853, in a state of
+    violent raging excitement, depending upon acute mania. She had been in
+    this state three days previous to her admission, and had wandered
+    about the streets in a comparatively naked state, under the excitement
+    of religious enthusiasm. She was a powerful, muscular woman; and to
+    bring her to the Hospital it was necessary to impose upon her the
+    restraint of a strait-jacket. She screamed violently all the way to
+    the Hospital, and used the most threatening language, refusing to
+    listen to anything that was said to her, but when tired of
+    vociferating, contented herself with kicking and spitting at those
+    within her reach. On admission, the mechanical restraint was removed;
+    she was ordered a warm bath, and two grains of the acetate of morphia,
+    and afterwards placed in a bed in a padded room. She continued noisy
+    for an hour or two, and then became quieter; but the attendant, who
+    looked at her every half-hour, always found her sleepless. The
+    following day she continued tranquil, but when addressed, responded
+    with an oath. She was ordered one grain and a half of acetate of
+    morphia. The third day she continued quiet and sullen, but permitted
+    the nurse to dress her and place her in a chair in the day-room with
+    the other patients. The following day (the fourth) she continued
+    tranquil and rational, rather shrinking from conversation; and being a
+    little feverish, was ordered 'henbane,' with a saline. From that day
+    she speedily became convalescent, and was discharged cured, November
+    11, 1853, having been a patient in the Hospital forty-two days."
+
+Thus diversely does disordered nature answer to an appeal according to the
+spirit in which it is made. There is a reverse, however, to every medal,
+and the skeleton cupboards of Bethlehem are the male criminal lunatic
+wards. These dens, for we can call them by no softer name, are the only
+remaining representatives of old Bedlam. They consist of dismal, arched
+corridors, feebly lit at either end by a single window in double irons,
+and divided in the middle by gratings more like those which enclose the
+fiercer carnivora at the Zoological Gardens than anything we have
+elsewhere seen employed for the detention of afflicted humanity. Here
+fifty male lunatics are herded together without regard to their previous
+social or moral condition. Thus the unfortunate clergyman, the Rev. Hugh
+Willoughby, who fired a pistol two years since at the judge at the Central
+Criminal Court, is herded with the plebeian perpetrator of some horrible
+murder. Side by side with the unfortunate Captain Johnson, of the ship
+"Tory," who, in a fit of extraordinary excitement during a mutiny on board
+his vessel, cut down some of his crew, but is now perfectly sane, sits
+perhaps the ruffian who murdered the warder in cold blood at Coldbath
+Fields--a villain brought in mad by a tender-hearted jury who shrunk from
+the responsibility of hanging him. Here also poor Dad, the artist, who
+killed his father whilst labouring under a sudden paroxysm of insanity, is
+obliged to weave his fine fancies on the canvas amidst the most revolting
+conversation and the most brutal behaviour. Those who contend that all
+criminal lunatics should be treated alike, do not consider the vast
+difference between the tone of mind in an abandoned wretch who has lived a
+life of villany, and the gentleman who has committed a casual offence. As
+the former advances towards sanity the brutal disposition, which early
+training in vice and dissipation has engraved upon his nature, comes into
+strong relief, whilst the good breeding which is natural to the latter,
+and which was but temporarily eclipsed in him, resumes its sway. Nay,
+nothing is more certain than that the previous habits and manners of the
+lunatic are to a great extent unaffected by his unfortunate malady, even
+when it is at its height. The disgrace of thus caging up together the
+coarse and the gentle, the virtuous and the abandoned, rests wholly upon
+the shoulders of the Home Secretary. The governors of the hospitals, the
+medical officers, and the lunacy commissioners, have over and over again
+remonstrated against the enormity, and to our national shame have
+remonstrated in vain. It is proposed to build a special asylum for all the
+state lunatics who are now distributed among county asylums, hospitals,
+licensed houses, workhouses and jails, to the number of 591,[15] and it is
+a duty which we trust will not be longer delayed. There can be little
+doubt that the presence of these crime-tainted individuals is felt deeply
+by the innocent lunatics, and that their recovery is retarded by the
+indignation excited at their degrading companionship with the outcasts of
+society. The erection of a criminal asylum upon a large scale would both
+compel a better system of classification, and would necessitate some
+solution of the difficult question--What shall be done with criminal
+patients who have recovered? One class of cases at least, as Dr. Tyler
+Smith has pointed out, leaves no room for doubt. The females who have
+committed offences whilst under the influence of the delirium attendant
+upon puerperal fever, and who, having recovered, are past the age of
+child-bearing, should at once be released. They are no longer liable to a
+recurrence of mental aberration, and to keep them incarcerated for life,
+is to treat past misfortune as an inexpiable crime. Nothing can be more
+cruel, unjust, and motiveless.
+
+It is proposed to remove Bethlehem Hospital into the country, on the plea
+that ground cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity for the use of the
+inmates. If by this is meant that agricultural pursuits cannot be carried
+on in St. George's Fields, we rejoice in the fact. A sane man, accustomed
+to the busy scene of a large town, would be wretched if he was condemned
+to pass the remainder of his days amid the silence of the fields, and the
+lunatic remains for the most part under the same domination of former
+habits. The notion that his faculties are universally disordered, all his
+perceptions destroyed, all his tastes obliterated, and all his sympathies
+extinct, is one of the grossest errors which can prevail. Nor do the
+better class of patients (such as form the inmates of Bethlehem) require
+the hard exercise which is necessary for the maintenance of health with an
+agricultural pauper. They find far more recreation in strolling through
+the streets in the neighbourhood of the asylum, under the care of an
+attendant, than in wading through ploughed fields, or in taking a turn at
+spade husbandry. To this we must add, that insanity is often a sudden
+seizure, that individuals go raving mad in the streets; that, in short,
+there are frightful casualties of the mind, as of the body, which require
+the instant attention of the mental physician. For this reason alone every
+lunatic asylum should no more be removed into the country than every
+ordinary hospital. But, apart from this circumstance, we repeat that
+Bethlehem, within call of friends and within the hum of the busy world,
+glimpses of which can be caught by the patients from the loopholes of
+their retreat, and into which they are occasionally allowed to enter, is
+far better placed for purposes of cure than in any rural district, however
+well supplied with the means of pursuing agricultural labour. At present
+all the sights of the metropolis are from time to time enjoyed by the
+inmates. "The male patients last year," says Dr. Hood, the resident
+physician, "who were not fit to be discharged, were allowed to spend a day
+at Kew; another day they went by steamboat to the Nore; and, conducting
+themselves well under the charge of careful attendants, visited many
+public exhibitions--the National Gallery, the Crystal Palace, Marlborough
+House, the Zoological Gardens, Smithfield Cattle-show, &c." Who can doubt
+that people accustomed to such sights and sounds would infinitely prefer
+them to the delights of walking between hedge-rows, hoeing weeds, or
+digging potatoes? Who can doubt that these little excursions of the
+wall-bound inmates into the cheerful life of the outside world are a vast
+advantage to the slowly-recovering brain, and constitute just that
+desirable transitional training necessary to their safe restitution to
+unlimited freedom? In fact, under the old system, when convalescent
+patients, who had been confined for months in dungeon-like cells,
+bristling with bars, were taken to the gates and returned suddenly to
+unrestrained liberty, the effect of the contrast was often so great, that
+they set off running in a paroxysm of excitement, and were frequently
+brought back again in a few days, reduced by a too abrupt release to their
+old condition. It would not perhaps be undesirable to add to Bethlehem
+some small rural establishment, answering to the _succursales_ of foreign
+lunatic asylums; but this should be strictly an appendage, to which
+patients should be sent for a short time, for change of air and scene,
+just as all the world now and then take a trip to the country to refresh
+the wearied eye with the sight of green trees and fields, and to cure that
+moral scurvy contracted by perpetually dwelling upon the dismal vistas of
+blackened bricks which constitute metropolitan prospects.
+
+For the fullest development of the prevalent system of treating the insane
+we must go to Colney Hatch and Hanwell, the two great lunatic asylums for
+the county of Middlesex. The former, situated on the Great Northern
+Railway, only six miles from the metropolis, is the largest and perhaps
+the most imposing-looking non-metropolitan building of the kind in Europe.
+In this establishment, built within the last six years, we may study the
+merits and demerits of modern asylums. Containing within its walls a
+population, inclusive of officers and attendants, of 1,380 persons, which
+is equal to that of our largest villages, and presenting the appearance of
+a town, its wards and passages amounting in the aggregate to the length of
+six miles, it is here that we shall find the completest system of
+organization, and, if we may use the term, of official routine. The
+enormous sum of money expended upon Colney Hatch, which has reached
+already to £270,000, prepares us for the almost palatial character of its
+elevation. Its _façade_, of nearly a third of a mile, is broken at
+intervals by Italian campaniles and cupolas; and the whole aspect of the
+exterior leads the visitor to expect an interior of commensurate
+pretensions. He no sooner crosses the threshold, however, than the scene
+changes. As he passes along the corridor, which runs from end to end of
+the building, he is oppressed with the gloom; the little light admitted by
+the loop-holed windows is absorbed by the inky asphalte paving, and,
+coupled with the low vaulting of the ceiling, gives a stifling feeling and
+a sense of detention as in a prison. The staircases scarcely equal those
+of a workhouse; plaster there is none, and a coat of paint or whitewash
+does not even conceal the rugged surface of the brickwork. In the wards a
+similar state of things exists: airy and spacious they are, without doubt;
+but of human interest they possess nothing. Upwards of a quarter of a
+million has been squandered principally upon the exterior of this
+building; but not a sixpence can be spared to adorn the walls within with
+picture, bust, or even the commonest cottage decoration. This is the vice
+which pervades the majority of county asylums lately erected. The visiting
+justices doubtless believe that it would be a superfluous and even
+mischievous refinement to trouble themselves about pleasing the eye or
+amusing the brain of the lunatic; but this is a mighty error, as every
+person knows who understands how keenly sensitive are the minds of the
+majority of the insane.
+
+  "Stone walls do not a prison make,
+  Nor iron bars a cage,"
+
+sings the graceful Lovelace; but it should be remembered that the lunatic
+has no divine Althea to muse upon in his house of detention, and the
+majority of the insane have no healthy wings by which their minds can leap
+beyond the dreariness of the present. To divert them from the demon in
+possession, all the ingenuity of philanthropy should be employed; but this
+truth has been overlooked both here and at Hanwell; and we are lost in
+astonishment when we reflect upon the folly of lavishing hundreds of
+thousands upon outward ornamentation, whilst the decorations common among
+the poorest labourers are denied to the inmates for whom all this expense
+has been incurred. There is no more touching sight at Colney Hatch than to
+notice the manner in which the female lunatics have endeavoured to
+diversify the monotonous appearance of their cell-like sleeping-rooms with
+rag dolls, bits of shell, porcelain, or bright cloth placed symmetrically
+in the light of the window-sill. The love of ornament seems to dwell with
+them when all other mental power is lost; and they strew gay colours about
+them with no more sense, but with as much enjoyment, as the bower-bird of
+the Zoological Gardens adorns his playing-bower.[16] The prison dress of
+the male patients is in keeping with the desolate walls. It is infinitely
+depressing, even to the visitor, to see nothing but dull grey garments;
+and the lunatics themselves feel degraded by a uniform dedicated to the
+gaol-bird. The medical officers of both this asylum and Hanwell are deeply
+impressed with its injurious effects, and they have long denounced it.
+Happily the system is confined to the men, not, however, from any
+benevolent feeling towards the females, but simply because gown-pieces of
+the same pattern cannot be procured in sufficient quantities to clothe the
+entire community. Among the sane, self-respect is increased by the
+possession of decent clothes, and the lunatic is often still more amenable
+to their influence. A refractory patient at Colney Hatch was in the habit
+of tearing his clothes into shreds. Mr. Tyerman, one of the medical
+officers, ordered him to be dressed in a bran-new suit. The poor man, a
+tailor by trade, either from a professional appreciation of the value of
+his new habiliments, or from being touched by this mark of attention,
+respected their integrity, and from that moment rapidly recovered. Before
+leaving the asylum he stated that he owed his cure to the good effect
+produced upon his mind by being intrusted with this new suit of clothes.
+At Hanwell, the patients who destroy their dresses are put into strong
+canvas garments, bound round with leather and fastened with padlocks. This
+plan is adopted at some other lunatic asylums; but it always looks
+repulsive.
+
+It is only, we believe, in the metropolitan county asylums, which should
+be model establishments, that the grey prison dress is retained. In the
+majority of county asylums the smock-frock of the district is used, and
+the patient moves about undistinguished from the rest of the population by
+any repulsive badge. In France and Belgium they manage better still. Dr.
+Webster, in his notes on foreign lunatic asylums, published in the
+_Psychological Journal of Medicine_, speaks of the bright head-dresses and
+vivid shawls used in France, as giving a cheerful appearance to the
+assembled inmates. Nothing less could be expected from the known
+disposition of a people of whom it has been said, that if any man among
+them was thrown naked into the sea, he would rise up clothed from head to
+foot with a sword, bag-wig, and ruffles to boot. In the present matter
+they have been wiser in their generation than ourselves; and we can
+imagine with what surprise they would learn that at Hanwell, the most
+celebrated English establishment for the treatment of the insane, patients
+are rewarded for good conduct by allowing them to wear a fancy waistcoat.
+This fact of itself shows the aversion to the prison garb, and the
+necessity of discarding it. But the same visiting committee which inspects
+the county gaol governs the asylum, and we regret to say that they allow
+the organization of the former to be introduced into the latter.
+
+In spite of these drawbacks, the progress made within the last twenty
+years has been immense. A walk through the wards and workshops of Colney
+Hatch will prove that the lunatic is at last treated as though he had
+human sympathy and desires, and was capable of behaving in many respects
+like a rational being. All large asylums possess an advantage over smaller
+ones in their greater ability to classify their inmates. The wards and
+corridors of Colney Hatch and Hanwell are so extensive that they may be
+likened to different streets inhabited by distinct classes. It is usual to
+name the compartments according to the mental condition of the patients
+contained in them. Thus in most asylums we have the refractory ward, the
+epileptic ward, the paralytic ward, the ward for dirty patients, and the
+convalescent ward. At Colney Hatch it is considered better to use numbers
+instead, as the patients soon become acquainted with the denomination of
+the class to which they belong, and often behave in conformity with it.
+Thus the lunatic, finding himself in a refractory ward, will sometimes act
+up to the part assigned to him, when he would otherwise be peaceable. The
+vice of classification is that it separates the population of an asylum
+into so many mental castes, which in some measure prevents that easy
+transition from lunacy to sanity, which it is desirable to maintain. In
+the choice of difficulties, however, there can be little doubt that these
+divisions in lunatic establishments, as at present constructed, present
+the most convenient as well as the best means of treating the insane, and
+the errors to which it is liable can at all times be obviated by the
+careful supervision of the medical officers.
+
+Nothing strikes the visitor with greater admiration than the care taken of
+the paralytic and imbecile patients, who form so large a per-centage of
+the inmates of the county asylums. In most cases the sleeping apartments
+of these poor creatures at Colney Hatch and Hanwell are padded round
+breast-high, in order that they may not damage themselves against the
+walls whilst seized with convulsions in bed; and a pillow has been
+invented perfectly permeable to the air, on which they can lie with their
+faces downward during the paroxysm of a fit, without the risk of
+suffocation. In extreme cases even the floor is padded, lest the sufferer
+should unconsciously throw himself upon it. The bed-ridden paralytic
+reclines upon a water-bed, and is tended night and morning as sedulously
+as a helpless babe. The test of the care which prevails in an asylum is to
+be found in the condition of the persons who cannot help themselves. Where
+trouble begins, negligence begins also, in an ill-regulated establishment.
+Nowhere do the alleviations of humanity seem more required than with the
+idiots and paralytics. Of all the wards at Colney Hatch, these are the
+most depressing. It is impossible to contemplate a room full of creatures
+moving about on their seats with a monotonous action like a company of
+apes, or when paralyzed in their lower limbs, to see them dragging
+themselves like seals along the floor by the aid of their arms, without
+being oppressed by the sense of the dreadful condition to which man can be
+reduced when the mind is ruined and the nerve-power diseased. It is only
+in these wards and the refractory that on ordinary occasions the stranger
+would discover that he was among the mentally afflicted. It is reported
+that a lady, after she had been shown over a large asylum by the
+celebrated Esquirol, inquired, "But where are the mad people?" All the
+infinitely finely-shaded stages of lunacy which lie between mental health,
+wild fury, and chronic dementia are, in the popular idea, merged in the
+raving maniac. Yet it is rare for a casual visitor to witness scenes of
+violence in a lunatic asylum. Those who are mischievous are trained to
+concentrate their dislike upon the medical officers and attendants rather
+than upon their fellow-patients. The matron of Hanwell Asylum, in her
+report for 1856, thus speaks of one of the criminal lunatics who belongs
+to this refractory class:--
+
+    "She seldom interferes with any other patient, the officers and
+    attendants being the special objects of her furious attempts, and her
+    mode of attack is peculiar; there is not usually anything in her
+    manner or appearance to indicate mischief, and she has perhaps
+    previously spoken calmly to the person upon whom--having watched until
+    she has turned her back; for as long as the face is towards her the
+    individual is safe--she springs with the quickness and velocity of a
+    tigress, fastening her hands in the hair, and bringing her victim to
+    the ground in an instant. If not immediately rescued, the head of the
+    unfortunate person is dashed repeatedly upon the floor; and it has
+    been found impossible hitherto to detach the hand of this patient
+    without a quantity of hair being torn by her from the head of the
+    sufferer."
+
+The visiting magistrates are also highly obnoxious to the patients; and
+their passage through a ward generally leaves behind it a trail of
+excitement which often generates outbreaks that do not subside for some
+hours. On the whole, however, it is remarkable how small an amount of
+violence is attempted by the insane. In Colney Hatch, with its 1,250
+patients, there are far fewer personal assaults in a year than would take
+place in any village containing half the number of inhabitants. Still
+precautions are always necessary; and the attendants, from long
+observation, are generally forewarned, and, consequently, forearmed.
+Special arrangements are made for those persons who have an unusual
+tendency to injure themselves or their companions. The suicidally inclined
+are always placed at night in dormitories with other patients, an
+arrangement which effectually prevents any attempts at self-destruction;
+while those who have a propensity to commit homicide are provided with
+separate cells. There is at the present moment a person at Colney Hatch
+who labours under the delusion that he can only recover his liberty by
+killing one of the keepers, and in accordance with this idea he has
+already made several attempts on their lives. A lamentable death took
+place at Hanwell the year before last, through the neglect on the part of
+an attendant to see a homicidal patient properly secured in his apartment
+for the night.
+
+    "On the 12th of April, the patients of No. 7 ward (twenty-five in
+    number) having had their supper, were going to bed at a quarter before
+    eight o'clock--all of them, being more or less refractory, have a
+    single bedroom each. The attendant, in seeing them to bed,
+    inadvertently locked up two (B. and W.) in one room; he stated that,
+    observing the day-clothing of all outside their doors, he supposed
+    that the patients were in their rooms, and, therefore, did not take
+    the precaution to look into them. The room No. 19 was the one usually
+    occupied by W., a man of exceedingly clean habits, of a mild
+    expression of countenance, but very violent, prone to strike suddenly
+    and without provocation any person within reach of him; so frequently
+    had he done this, that he was not allowed to sit near other patients,
+    even at meals, but took his food apart from them at a side-table. B.,
+    whose room was No. 10, directly opposite to No. 19, was occasionally
+    violent, always dirty in his habits, and destructive of clothing. It
+    is supposed that this man entered No. 19 room by mistake, and that his
+    presence there excited the homicidal tendency of the other into
+    action. What is known is, that the night-attendant, when he visited
+    the ward at half-past ten o'clock, and went as usual to the room No.
+    10, found it unoccupied, and the patient's clothes outside the door;
+    then hearing a noise in the room 19, he opened the door, and saw B.
+    extended at full length on his back on the floor, naked and quite
+    dead. W. came out of the room in his shirt immediately the door was
+    opened, and, pointing to B., said, 'That fellow will not allow me to
+    sleep.' There was a mark round B.'s neck as if caused by a cord, which
+    had produced strangulation, and a mark of a severe blow on the top of
+    the nose, and of a bruise on the chest: the bedclothes were in great
+    disorder; amongst them were found the shirt and flannel of B.; one
+    sleeve of the former was twisted like a rope, as if W. had strangled
+    B. with it."
+
+The utmost precaution will not always insure safety, for patients
+considered quite harmless will now and then commit the most horrible acts.
+A black man, a butcher, who had been many years in an American asylum, and
+had never shown any violence, one night secreted a knife, and induced
+another patient to enter his cell. When his companion had lain down, he
+cut his throat, divided him into joints, and arranged the pieces round his
+cell as he had been accustomed to arrange his meat in his shop. He then
+offered his horrible wares to his fellow-lunatics, carrying such parts as
+they desired to those who were chained. The keeper, hearing the uproar,
+examined the cells, and found one man missing; upon inquiring of the black
+butcher if he had seen him, he calmly replied, "He had sold the last
+joint!" Even those who have apparently harmless delusions, will sometimes,
+if thwarted, commit unlooked-for atrocities. Not many years since, an
+inquisition was held before Mr. Commissioner Winslow upon a young
+gentleman who would travel considerable distances to see a windmill, and
+sit watching it for days. His friends, to put an end to his absurd
+propensity, removed to a place where there were no mills. The youth, to
+counteract the design, murdered a child in a wood, mangling his limbs in a
+terrible manner, in the hope that he should be transferred, as a
+punishment, to a situation whence a mill could be seen.
+
+Idleness is perhaps a greater curse to the majority of lunatics than to
+sane individuals. Occupation diverts the mind from its malady. Colney
+Hatch and Hanwell, from their populousness, and from the fact of their
+being filled principally by metropolitan lunatics, afford admirable
+examples of the new method of employing patients in the trades they have
+been accustomed to follow when in health. As the ranges of workshops at
+Colney Hatch are the most extensive, we will draw our description from
+that establishment. Of the male patients, only 245, out of an average of
+514 in the house during the year 1855, were employed in labour at all, the
+remainder consisting of violent maniacs and those afflicted with
+paralysis, epilepsy, and idiocy, none of whom are capable of undertaking
+any work. Sixty-five persons were allotted to the gardens, grounds, and
+farms, leaving 180 to be distributed in the workshops and various offices
+of the asylum. The tailoring department is the most extensive. Upon the
+occasion of our visit, there were at least a score of cross-legged
+lunatics cutting out and making up grey dresses for the inmates, or
+repairing old clothing, their conduct being in no manner distinguishable
+from that of sane journeymen. The shoemakers numbered a dozen, every man
+handling his short knife. Those unaccustomed to lunatics will find it a
+nervous proceeding to thread their way among so many armed madmen, and
+will wish themselves well out of this apparently dangerous assembly. Yet,
+in truth, they are no more to be feared than any similar number of lucid
+workmen, as the homicidally inclined are carefully excluded. The
+carpenters planed away merrily among their chips in an adjoining
+apartment, using now and then chisel, gouge, and saw in perfect freedom.
+Many excitable patients have been placed in these shops without any bad
+result; and even those who are disposed to be mischievous when suspected,
+have become quiet when trusted with edge-tools of the most formidable
+description. The greater the confidence reposed in the majority of the
+insane, the more does it tend to insure good behaviour. Of the other
+artificers in different departments, we may mention painters,
+upholsterers, bakers, butchers, brewers, and coopers; whilst a still
+larger number are employed in the kitchen and dining-hall, or as helpers
+in the corridors and wards. The services of all these lunatic artisans and
+labourers were valued last year at 1,059_l._ 3_s._
+
+As far as possible, the men work at the trades they have previously
+followed; but there are many patients whose skilled labour cannot be
+utilized in this comparatively confined community; such, for instance, as
+rule-makers, jewellers, whale-bone-cutters, coach-painters, gold-beaters,
+buhl-cutters, wax-doll makers, and a score of other heterogeneous
+craftsmen, who are only to be found in a great metropolis. These persons
+engage in the employment most suited to them, and thus many of them leave
+the asylum skilled in two trades. Equally efficacious is the occupation on
+the farm, which contains seventy-six acres of pasture and arable land,
+principally dedicated to the rearing and maintenance of stock. On the 1st
+of January, 1856, there were 28 cows, 1 bull, 2 calves, 152 pigs, 40
+sheep, 7 horses, &c. The tending of these animals, the culture of the
+fields and of the thirty-one acres of ornamental grounds, the milking the
+cows, the slaughtering of the meat, and the production of the butter,
+afford varied and healthy employment to the sixty-five agriculturists.
+Some persons who never handled a spade before, here set to work cheerfully
+and with a will, and a French polisher, a Wesleyan minister, a school
+teacher, or a law writer, may be seen digging away at a field of potatoes;
+or a ship-carpenter, saddler, cabman, coalheaver, and organ-player,
+diligently engaged in filling a manure-cart. They would, it is true, be
+better employed in occupations more in accordance with their previous
+habits; but these cannot be found for them, and labour of any kind is
+preferable to idleness. On the female side of the house industry is
+resorted to as a means of cure to a still larger extent. Of the 503 equal
+to labour, 270 work as needlewomen, 7 are employed in the kitchen, 72
+wash, iron, and clearstarch in the laundry, 125 help in the wards, and 29
+attend school, and are otherwise engaged. The total value of the female
+labour of the house is computed at 500_l._ per annum.
+
+Colney Hatch is not so extensively embarked in industrial and agricultural
+pursuits as the North and East Riding Asylum, where the patients are
+received from a mixed manufacturing and agricultural population, and the
+produce of their fields and workshops is much greater than could be
+extracted from worn-out metropolitan patients. Not only do the lunatics
+rear the vegetables, but they take them to the asylum gates and dispose of
+them to the public. The result affords a proof of what we hold to be a
+settled principle, that chronic cases of insanity are greatly benefited by
+as much intercourse as possible with the saner part of the community.
+
+In accordance with the opinion that pursuits of lunatics should be similar
+to their pursuits in former days, the south wing of Haslar Hospital is
+devoted to the officers, seamen, and marines of her Majesty's fleet who
+are afflicted with insanity. Every window of the building commands a fine
+view of Spithead and the Isle of Wight, and here the old Salts can sit and
+watch the splendid panorama crowded with vessels, and active with that
+nautical life which recalls so many happy associations to their minds.
+They form fishing parties, make nets, and go on pleasure excursions in row
+and sailing craft. The "madman's boat" of eight oars, manned by patients
+and steered by an attendant, is well known to the sailors on the Solent,
+and so harmless are they considered, that young ladies often accompany
+them on trips to the Isle of Wight, implicitly trusting in their
+seamanship and politeness.
+
+Mental labour, as a means of cure, has not been adopted in England to any
+great extent; most asylums have their libraries, in which attentive
+readers are always to be found, but the inmates rarely attempt to produce
+amusement or instruction for their fellows. There is one signal exception
+to this rule in Murray's Royal Asylum at Perth. This establishment, under
+the superintendence of Dr. Lauder Lindsay, appears to be the very focus of
+intellectual activity. The programme for the winter session of 1856-7
+reads more like the prospectus of the Athenæum of some large city than the
+bill of fare for a lunatic asylum. Famous professors reflect in its
+lecture-room the philosophy and science of the outer world, and their
+choice of subjects would not be disavowed by the committee of a London
+Scientific Institution.
+
+              _Lecturer._          |    _Subject._
+   1. PROFESSOR BLACKIE, University| Beauty.
+        of Edinburgh.              |
+                                   |
+   2. HUGH BARCLAY, Esq., LL.D.,   | Authenticity of Ossian's Poems.
+        Sheriff-Substitute of      |
+        Perthshire.                |
+                                   |
+   3. THOMAS MILLER, Esq., LL.D.,  | Chemical Affinity.
+        Rector of Perth Academy.   |
+                                   |
+   4. GEORGE LAWSON, Esq.,         | Vital Phenomena of Vegetation.
+        Demonstrator of Botanical  |
+        Histology, University of   |
+        Edinburgh.                 |
+                                   |
+   5. REV. DR. CROMBIE, of Scone,  | Winter: its lessons and associations.
+        late Moderator of General  |
+        Assembly.                  |
+                                   |
+   6. REV. JOHN ANDERSON, Kinnoull.| Sketches from the History of Ancient
+                                   |   Nations.
+                                   |
+   7. REV. WM. MURDOCH, Kinnoull.  | Education: its aims and uses.
+                                   |
+   8. DR. BROWNE, Crichton Royal   | The Genesis of Thought.
+        Institution, Dumfries.     |
+                                   |
+   9. DR. FAIRLESS, Crieff.        | Electricity: its phenomena and
+                                   |   applications.
+                                   |
+  10. DR. STIRLING, Perth.         | Natural History of Man.
+                                   |
+  11. ALEX. CORALL, Esq., Montrose.| Natural History of Zoophytes.
+                                   |
+  12. THOMAS R. MARSHALL, Esq.,    | Art: in its applications to common
+        Edinburgh.                 |   life.
+
+These scientific and philosophic expositions are attended by all the
+better class patients. The paupers have a separate set of lectures and
+classes, the major part of which are delivered and conducted by the
+inmates themselves. Galvanism, the Blood, Time, Economic Botany, are among
+the subjects which the deranged brains of the Perth asylum are contented
+to hear elucidated. The activity of the place does not stop here: chamber
+concerts, in which the patients perform; grand concerts, in which artists
+from without supply the leading stars; and theatrical performances, in
+which the different characters are all taken by "resident actors," are
+among the resources which were employed to amuse and interest the inmates
+during the winter months just past. A pit full of lunatics watching "Box
+and Cox" played by their fellows, is a curious subject for contemplation.
+Not content with these efforts, they seem to think that they are nothing
+unless critical, and accordingly they have set up a journal, in which they
+review their own performances. The first number of _Excelsior_ is now
+before us, in which we find poetry, news, and criticisms on music, and
+contemporary literature; and he who reads with the idea of finding
+anything odd in this production, will most certainly be mistaken; for no
+one could divine that there was a "bee in the bonnet" of printer,
+publisher, and contributor. Balls and conversaziones form the staple of
+the lighter recreations of this singular community, whilst the more
+athletic games of running, leaping, hurdle-racing, Highland dancing,
+putting the stone, footing the bar, and lifting dead weights, are pursued
+with such success, that the lunatics boast with pride that they have
+beaten some of the prize-holders of the outer world.
+
+It might be supposed that intellectual striving was not the medicine to
+offer to a diseased brain; but we are informed by Dr. Lindsay that in the
+vast majority of cases the best results flow from this method of
+treatment, and that a large percentage of cures is obtained. Such patients
+as would be injured by stimulating their faculties are debarred by the
+physician from their undue exercise, and others must be too far gone, or
+be too uninformed, to be capable of the pursuit. The surprise that
+lunatics should be susceptible of healthy mental exertion, arises from the
+common forgetfulness that many understandings are slightly affected, or
+are only deranged upon particular points. When Nat Lee was in Bedlam, he
+said that it was very difficult to write like a madman, and very easy to
+write like a fool. The works of the fools are more voluminous than the
+works of the madmen, because there are more fools than lunatics; but those
+who are completely mad are so far from experiencing a difficulty in
+writing in their own character, that they cannot write in any other. As
+many, however, who are not altogether right in their minds, are no more
+exclusively insane than people who are not absolutely wise are entirely
+foolish, it is easy to see that they may still be equal to much profitable
+mental exertion. In these days poor Christopher Smart would not be
+deprived of his pen and ink, and compelled to indent his long poem on
+"David" with a key on the panels of his cell; nor perhaps would the
+following epigram, which a woman in Bedlam wrote on Martin Madan's
+argument in favour of polygamy, be handed about as a phenomenon to be
+wondered at:--
+
+  "If John marry Mary, and Mary alone,
+  It is a good match between Mary and John:
+  But if John marry more wives, what blows and what scratches!
+  'Tis no longer a match, but a bundle of matches."
+
+In France, and we believe in some other continental countries, it is the
+habit to employ lunatic labour in the private farms surrounding the
+asylum. This plan was in the olden time pursued in England; but it appears
+to have gone out with the ancient system of coercion. When radical
+revolutions are accomplished, good ideas sometimes perish with the bad;
+and we cannot help thinking that the abandonment of this method of
+exercising lunatics was an error, and that a return to the old practice,
+under proper regulations, would be of advantage both to employer and
+employed. Never must we lose sight of the wisdom of freeing the patient as
+much as practicable from the companionship of his fellows, and of placing
+him, to the utmost of our power, in the same free condition which he
+enjoyed in his days of sanity.
+
+At Colney Hatch, as at Hanwell, and indeed all other public asylums, the
+sexes occupy separate portions of the building, and are only allowed to be
+present together on particular occasions. This unnatural arrangement
+undoubtedly arose from the introduction into asylums of prison and
+workhouse systems of management; for certainly nothing can tend to render
+the life of the patient more dreary than to find himself carefully
+excluded from the company of the other half of creation. It is stated by
+the advocates of separation that the mingling of the sexes among the
+insane would be productive of occasional misbehaviour; but nothing could
+be more unjust than to deprive the majority of the benefits which would
+arise from frequent social reunion, in consequence of the erotic
+tendencies of the few. It is with pleasure, therefore, we see the attempts
+which are being made to assimilate the intercourse of lunatics to that of
+the sane at Hanwell, Colney Hatch, and other asylums. The most interesting
+feature of the former establishment is the ball which takes place every
+Monday night. Shortly after six o'clock the handsome assembly-room,
+brilliantly lit with gas, becomes the central point of attraction to all
+the inmates, male and female, who are considered well enough to indulge
+their inclinations for festivity. On the occasion of our visit there were
+about 200 patients present, together with a few visitors and many of the
+attendants. In a raised orchestra five musicians, three of whom were
+lunatics, soon struck up a merry polka, and immediately the room was alive
+with dancers. In the progress of this amusement we could see nothing
+grotesque or odd. Had the men been differently dressed, it would have been
+impossible to have guessed that we were in the midst of a company of
+lunatics, the mere sweepings of the parish workhouses; but the prison
+uniform of sad-coloured grey presented a disadvantageous contrast to the
+gayer and more varied costumes at Bethlehem, and appeared like a jarring
+note amid the general harmony of the scene. In the corners of the room
+whist-players, consisting generally of the older inmates, were seen intent
+upon their game; not a word was uttered aloud, not a gesture took place
+that would have discredited any similar sane assembly; yet not a patient
+was free from some strange hallucination, or some morbid impulse. Among
+the merriest dancers in Sir Roger de Coverley was a man who believed
+himself to be our Saviour, and who wore in his hair a spike in imitation
+of the crown of thorns; and one of the keenest whist-players was an old
+lady, who, whilst her partner was dealing, privately assured us she had
+been dead these three years, and desired as a favour that we would use our
+influence with the surgeon to persuade him to cut off her head. In the
+midst of such strange delusions, it was curious to notice how rationally
+those who were their dupes enjoy themselves; and it is impossible to deny
+that such reunions are eminently calculated to hinder the mind from
+morbidly dwelling upon its own unhealthy creations. It is found that the
+too prolonged and frequent repetition of the balls somewhat diminishes
+their interest--an evil provided against at Hanwell by restricting the
+time allotted to them. At nine precisely, although in the midst of a
+dance, a shrill note is blown, and the entire assembly, like so many
+Cinderellas, breaks up at once, and the company hurry off to their
+dormitories. These hebdomadal balls have not yet been introduced at Colney
+Hatch. A movement has, however, been made latterly towards a limited
+association between the sexes by allowing them to dine together. Of the
+500 patients who assemble in the ample dining-hall, 200 are females and
+300 males. The scene when the women first made their appearance is
+described as something remarkable; the men rose in a body apparently
+delighted beyond measure, and the presence of the softer sex has not only
+tended to break the former monotony, but to keep the assembly in order and
+good humour. Before this happy meeting there were occasional outbreaks of
+some of the more excited patients; but now, when any of the men are
+inclined to be fractious or discontented, the women turn them into joke,
+and they are silenced immediately. As yet the two sexes are not allowed to
+sit at the same table, but are located on opposite sides of the room. By
+far the better plan would be to seat them on different sides of the long
+tables; but as many persons in authority, wanting confidence in human
+nature, object to this natural arrangement, the innovators must be
+satisfied for the moment with the present imperfect concession. When it
+was first proposed to introduce a billiard-table at Bethlehem, the scheme
+was rejected by a majority of two-thirds of the governors, on the score
+that the players would fight each other with the cues and balls, and
+bagatelle, as a kind of half measure, was permitted instead. As the
+patients confined the balls to their legitimate purpose, and the mace was
+not turned into an offensive weapon, the billiard-table was at last with
+reluctance established. The same thing will doubtless happen with respect
+to the dining arrangements at Colney Hatch; and before long we trust male
+and female lunatics will exchange courtesies across the table instead of
+across the room.
+
+In the chapels of nearly all the larger lunatic asylums the quieter
+inmates are accustomed to meet at the daily morning and evening service.
+In the spacious chapels of Hanwell and Colney Hatch, the attendance on
+week days, as well as on the Sabbath, is far better than can be found
+among the same number of people out of doors, 250 on the average attending
+on week days, and 500 on Sundays. We do not suppose that the lunatic is
+more religious than the sane, but the _ennui_ which, to a certain extent,
+still attaches to the asylum renders any form of reunion agreeable; and as
+the going to chapel is "something to do," numbers of the inmates obey the
+summons who might stay at home if they were at large. The conduct,
+nevertheless, of this congregation is most exemplary. "The heartiness,"
+says the chaplain, in his report for 1856, "with which they join in the
+responses and the psalmody is very encouraging, while their quiet, orderly
+conduct--the prayer offered up by many on entering chapel, the regularity
+with which they all kneel or sit, according to the order of the
+service--would, I think, if generally witnessed, put to the blush many of
+our parochial congregations." Now and then an epileptic patient will
+disturb the chapel by his heavy fall; but as those who are thus afflicted
+are located near the doors, the interruption is but momentary. The
+chaplain of Colney Hatch has trained twelve male and female patients to
+practise church music and psalmody. The choral service is well performed,
+and, in conjunction with the organ, has a visible effect in soothing the
+wilder patients, and in pleasing all. The sacrament is not denied to those
+who are fit to receive it, and no more touching scene can be witnessed
+than that which is presented in the chapel, when a score of communicants,
+disordered though their minds sometimes be, humbly kneel, and
+
+  "Drain the chalice of the grapes of God."
+
+The out-of-door games of the insane are very much regulated by the extent
+of ground attached to the asylum. Where this is ample, as at Colney Hatch,
+cricket is the favourite summer recreation; a skittle-alley, a
+bowling-green, and a fives-court, are found in most county asylums. In
+America, where women adopt more masculine habits than in England, female
+lunatics play matches on the bowling-green; and in France gymnastic
+exercises are employed for the exercise of both sexes, and may, we think,
+be introduced into the English asylums with advantage. The idiotic
+patients and those who are incapable of much exertion may be seen in the
+airing courts enjoying the monotonous swinging motion of the machine known
+in domestic life under the name of "the nursery yacht," being nothing more
+than a rocking-horse with the horse left out by particular desire. In
+addition to these means of diverting the minds of the patients, walking
+parties, under the superintendence of officers of the establishment, are
+made up two or three times a week. During the haymaking season it is
+customary to allow the inmates of asylums to which farms are attached to
+go forth into the fields to assist with the rake and the pitchfork. This
+permission is always looked upon as a great treat, and its effect upon the
+patients is of the happiest kind, especially _if the scene of their
+temporary labour admits no sight of the asylum and its wearisome walls_.
+Here for a few hours they seem to realize the liberty and delight of
+younger days. The physician on such occasions may read in their "grateful
+eyes" that we are at present arrived only half way on the road of
+non-restraint. Individual patients, again, are suffered to leave the
+public asylums on a day's visit to their friends, under the care of a
+nurse; and some who are nearly convalescent are permitted to go and return
+of their own accord. It is the custom of Colney Hatch and Hanwell, and we
+believe of most asylums in England, to grant the patients a certain period
+of probation among their friends, in order to test their fitness to be
+discharged as cured; to give them, in short, mental tickets-of-leave. This
+is an admirable plan, inasmuch as it secures to the patient the full
+enjoyment of liberty, at the same time that it enables him to keep himself
+well in hand, knowing that, as he is not unconditionally released, an
+immediate recall to the asylum would follow any sign of returning
+irrationality.
+
+The dietary in public asylums is ample, and the quality excellent. Hanwell
+may, perhaps, be considered the model establishment in this respect. It is
+the joke of the other asylums, that one man has been regaled there daily
+for years with chicken and wine. Even the fancies of the patients are now
+and then gratified at some expense. There is an old lady in Hanwell who
+believes that the whole establishment is her private property; and, on one
+occasion, she complained to the medical superintendent that,
+notwithstanding all the expense she was at to keep up the grounds and
+forcing-houses, she never could get any grapes. The next day she was
+presented with a bunch, which had been purchased to appease her repinings.
+This humouring method of treatment, as it is called in other asylums, is
+much patronized by the matron, a person who seems to enjoy as much power
+as the medical officers. In her report for 1856 she thus speaks of a
+patient who died in the course of last year:--
+
+    "She had been employed many years in the laundry, and always imagined
+    she was to be removed elsewhere--that on Monday morning a waggon would
+    call at the gate for herself and her property. Accordingly, every
+    Monday morning throughout the year, at 10 o'clock, she was accompanied
+    to the gate, dressed with a coloured handkerchief pinned fancifully
+    over her cap instead of a bonnet, and carrying a small parcel (_her
+    property_) of the most heterogeneous contents--thimbles, ends of tape,
+    polished bones, pebbles, pieces of smooth coal, &c. The waggon was
+    never found to be in waiting, and Mary, without evincing any
+    disappointment, walked cheerfully back to the laundry, telling the
+    superintendent that 'The waggon would be sure to come next Monday, but
+    that she need not lose time, so she would work all this week.'"
+
+In many asylums this method of treatment is thought calculated to feed the
+original delusion; but here, again, the judgment of the physician ought
+alone to determine the course to be taken in each individual case. In
+patients labouring under violent excitement, to oppose an hallucination,
+however absurd, would add fuel to the fire. Again, in a chronic case like
+that of the laundry-maid, the harmless fancy of the poor creature might
+not only be indulged in with impunity, but served to renew week by week
+her stock of cheerfulness.
+
+The lunatic colony of Gheel, situated twelve miles south of Turnhont, in
+Belgium, amid a vast uncultivated plateau consisting of heath and sand,
+called the Campine, affords an extraordinary example of the pre-eminent
+advantages of the present mode of managing lunatics. Until the era of
+railroads this spot was so out of the ordinary track of the world, that
+but few persons even of those who were interested in the treatment of the
+insane were aware of its existence. Here we discover, like a fly in amber,
+a state of things which has lasted with little change for twelve hundred
+years. Here we see the last remnants of the priestly treatment of
+insanity, coupled with a system of non-restraint which certainly existed
+long before the term was ever heard of in England and France. Gheel owes
+its origin to a miracle. Saint Dympna, the daughter of an Irish king,
+suffered martyrdom in this place from the hand of her father in the sixth
+century. So great was her fame as the patron saint of lunatics, that her
+shrine, erected in the church dedicated to her, speedily became the resort
+of pilgrims, who journeyed hither in the hope of being cured of their
+madness or of preventing its advent. Her elegantly-sculptured tomb
+contains among other bassi-relievi one in which the devil is observed
+issuing from the head of a female lunatic, while prayers are being offered
+up by some priests and nuns, and close at hand another chained maniac
+seems anxiously awaiting his turn to be delivered from the demon. The idea
+carefully inculcated by the priests, that lunacy meant nothing more than a
+possession by the devil, has long been banished from other lands. Here,
+however, it has flourished for many centuries, and the ceremony of
+crawling beneath the tomb has existed so long, that the hands and knees of
+the devotees have worn away the pavement. The act is still occasionally
+performed amid a scene in which superstition and terror are combined in a
+manner calculated to cure any lunatic, if deep mental impressions were
+alone required to purge away his malady. But what is far more interesting
+and astonishing to those accustomed to the bolts and bars, the locks,
+wards, and high walls of crowded European asylums, is the almost entire
+liberty accorded to the lunatics resident in the town of Gheel and its
+neighbouring hamlets, to the number of 800, or one-tenth of the whole
+district. No palatial building, such as we encounter in nearly every
+county in England, is to be seen. The little army of pauper and other
+patients gathered from the whole superficies of Belgium, instead of being
+stowed away in one gigantic establishment, in which all ideas of life are
+merged in the iron routine of an enormous workhouse, are distributed over
+five hundred different dwellings, three hundred of which are cottages, or
+small farmhouses, in which the more violent and poorer classes are
+dispersed, and the remaining two hundred are situated in the town of
+Gheel, and are appropriated to quieter lunatics and those who are able to
+pay more liberally for their treatment. In these habitations the sufferers
+are placed under the care of the host and hostess; more than three persons
+never being domiciled under one roof, and generally not more than one. The
+lunatic shares in the usual life of the family; his occupations and
+employment are theirs, his little cares and enjoyments are the same as
+theirs. He goes forth to the fields to labour as in ordinary life; no
+stern walls perpetually imprison him, and make him desire to overleap
+them, as Rasselas desired to escape even from the Happy Valley. If it is
+not thought fit for him to labour with plough or spade, he remains at
+home, and takes care of the children, prunes the trees in the garden, and
+attends to the potage on the fire; or if a female, busies herself in the
+ordinary domestic duties of the house. The lunatics, as may be supposed,
+are not left to the discretionary mercies of the host and hostess. A
+strict system of supervision prevails, somewhat analogous to that of the
+lunacy commissioners and the visiting justices of England. The entire
+country is divided into four districts, each having a head guardian and a
+physician, to whom is entrusted the medical care of every inmate belonging
+to that section. There are, in addition, one consulting surgeon and one
+inspecting physician for the whole community. The general government of
+the colony is vested in the hands of eight persons, who dispense a code of
+laws especially devised for it. The burgomaster of Gheel presides over
+this managing committee, whose duties are to distribute the patients among
+the different dwellings, to watch over their treatment, and to admit or
+discharge them. A visiting commissioner is annually appointed, who
+inspects the dwellings of the different hosts, and sees that the patients
+are properly cared for. The oversight of the lunatics falls almost wholly
+upon the hostess, the man rarely interfering, unless called upon to
+control a disorderly patient. The people of Gheel, from having been
+engaged for ages in the treatment of the insane, are said to have acquired
+extraordinary tact in their management, which, Dr. Webster remarks, may be
+considered to exhibit a most judicious mixture of "mildness and force."
+Although instruments of restraint, such as the strait-waistcoat, and the
+long leathern thong below the leg, to prevent patients from running away,
+are occasionally resorted to, the sectional physician must be instantly
+informed of their imposition, and their use cannot be continued without
+his sanction. So little are they required, that Dr. Webster found less
+restraint in this colony, unconfined by walls, than in the asylum at
+Mareville, in France, containing a similar number of lunatics. Yet there
+were fewer escapes than from the strictly-guarded restraint-abounding
+prison, only eleven persons having fled from Gheel in the course of last
+year, and nineteen from Mareville. Here also, it will be observed, there
+is no separation of the sexes. The lunatics live the life of the other
+inhabitants, and males and females associate in the same household. If we
+compare the effects of this simple treatment with that of the most
+expensive of our own asylums, we are compelled to admit that the balance
+is in favour of Gheel, where, notwithstanding the free admission of
+chronic cases, upwards of twenty-two per cent. of cures takes place
+annually, while at Hanwell and Colney Hatch the cures never exceed
+fifteen per cent. No fair comparison can be instituted between the expense
+per head at Gheel and in our English establishments, inasmuch as living is
+much cheaper in Belgium; but we may state, that the average cost of board
+and lodging for each pauper in the colony is 10_l._ per annum, or exactly
+the sum charged for lodging alone in our county asylums.[17]
+
+A plan, towards which we have been slowly advancing during the last
+half-century, will speedily, we hope, be more closely followed. A trial is
+already, to some extent, being made of it in the neighbourhood of existing
+asylums, and might supplant, with immense advantage, the prevailing custom
+of building new wings, and over-populating old wards. The present system
+of enormous buildings, which destroys the individuality of the inmates,
+and suppresses all their old habits and modes of life, is evidently
+disapproved by the commissioners, as appears from the language they hold
+in their tenth annual report:--
+
+    "We have the best reason for believing that the patients derive a
+    direct benefit, in many ways, from residing in cheerful, airy
+    apartments detached from the main building, and associated with
+    officials engaged in conducting industrial pursuits. A consciousness
+    that he is useful, and thought worthy of confidence, is necessarily
+    induced in the mind of every patient, by removal from the ordinary
+    wards where certain restrictions are enforced, into a department where
+    he enjoys a comparative degree of freedom; and this necessarily
+    promotes self-respect and self-control, and proves highly salutary in
+    forwarding the patient's restoration. As a means of treatment, we
+    consider this species of separate residence of the utmost importance,
+    constituting in fact a probationary system for patients who are
+    convalescing; giving them greater liberty of action, extended
+    exercise, with facilities for occupation; and thus generating
+    self-confidence, and becoming not only excellent tests of the sanity
+    of the patient, but operating powerfully to promote a satisfactory
+    cure. The want of such an intermediate place of residence is always
+    much felt; and it often happens that a patient just recovered from an
+    attack of insanity, and sent into the world direct from a large
+    asylum, is found so unprepared to meet the trials he has to undergo,
+    by any previous use of his mental faculties, that he soon relapses,
+    and is under the necessity of being again returned within its walls.
+    Commodious rooms contiguous to the farm-buildings are now in the
+    course of construction at the Somerset County Asylum; and there is
+    every reason to believe that the patients will derive benefit by
+    residing in these apartments, which at once possess a domestic
+    character, and afford every facility to carry on agricultural
+    pursuits."
+
+It strikes us forcibly that the commissioners have tended to create the
+evil they deprecate in not protesting against the erection of gigantic
+asylums; but it is cheering to find that the idea of supplemental
+buildings possessing a "domestic character" has taken possession of their
+minds, and that they are now enforcing it on the minds of others with
+their well-known zeal and ability. The Devon Asylum, among others, has
+adopted the plan; and its accomplished physician, Dr. Bucknill, the editor
+of the _Asylum Journal_, bears important testimony to the great advantages
+to be derived from it.
+
+    "I have recommended the erection of an inexpensive building, detached
+    from, but within the grounds of the present asylum, in preference to
+    an extension of the asylum itself. My reasons for this recommendation
+    are, that such a building will afford a useful and important change
+    for patients for whom a change from the wards is desirable. The system
+    of placing patients in detached buildings, resembling in their
+    construction and arrangements an ordinary English house, has been
+    found to afford beneficial results in the so-called cottages which
+    this institution at present possesses. _These cottages are much
+    preferred to the wards by the patients themselves, and permission to
+    reside in them is much coveted._ I am also convinced that such
+    auxiliary buildings can be erected at much less expense than would be
+    incurred by the enlargement and alteration of the asylum itself. I
+    propose that in the new building the patients shall cook and wash for
+    themselves."
+
+"These cottages are much preferred to the wards by the patients
+themselves, and permission to reside in them is much coveted." In these
+few lines we read the condemnation of huge structures like Colney Hatch,
+built externally on the model of a palace, and internally on that of a
+workhouse, in which the poor lunatic but rarely finds any object of human
+interest, where his free-will is reduced to the level of that of a
+convict, and the very air of heaven necessary to his health is doled out
+at intervals, when, with infinite lockings and unlockings, the attendants
+order a batch of persons into the stagnant and tiresome airing courts.
+Infinitely better for the lunatics would be the freedom and homeliness of
+the smallest cottage to the formal monotony of cheerless wards; better far
+that they should, as Dr. Bucknill suggests, cook and wash for themselves,
+than that the offices should be performed wholesale in the steam-laundry
+and the steam-kitchen. A patient would undoubtedly feel a far greater
+interest in peeling his own potatoes for the pot, and in cooking his own
+bit of bacon, than in receiving them ready cooked. It is the duty of the
+physician to interest the patient in his daily work, and no more effectual
+method of accomplishing this could be suggested than in putting him to
+work for himself.
+
+Wherever large asylums are already erected, no better plan could perhaps
+be suggested than the building of satellite cottages, which would form a
+kind of supplementary Gheel to the central establishment; but we should
+like to see the experiment tried, in some new district, of reproducing in
+its integrity the Belgian system. The colony of Gheel was once a desert
+like the country which surrounds it; it is now, through the happy
+application of pauper lunatic labour, one of the most productive districts
+of the Low Countries. Have we no unoccupied Dartmoors on which we could
+erect cottages, and train the cottagers to receive the insane as members
+of the family? The performance of domestic offices, the society of the
+goodwife and goodman, and the influence of the children, would do far more
+to restore the disordered brain of the lunatic--pauper or otherwise--than
+all the organization of the asylum, with its daily routine, proceeding
+with the inexorable monotonous motion of a machine, and treating its
+inmates rather as senseless atoms than as sentient beings, capable, though
+mad, of taking an interest in things around them, and especially awake to
+the pleasure of being dealt with as individuals rather than as
+undistinguishable parts of a crowd. The children are of particular
+moment. Lunatics are singularly gentle to them, and are interested in all
+their actions. At Gheel it is customary to send the bairns into the fields
+to conduct the patients home from their labour in the evening; and we
+learn from Dr. Webster that a violent madman, who would not stir upon the
+command of his host, will suffer himself to be led, without a murmur, by
+an urchin scarcely higher than his knee. The presence of the young in the
+ward of an asylum seems to light it up like a sunbeam. The love of
+children does indeed lie at the very foundation of the human heart, and we
+cannot estimate too highly their beneficial influence upon the brain which
+is recovering from the horrors of insanity.
+
+One of the most important points in reference to insane paupers, as we
+have already intimated, is the bringing them as speedily as possible under
+treatment. The reluctance of the lunatic himself to be removed is usually
+extreme, and it is marvellous what ingenuity he will often employ to
+thwart the design. Southey relates that a madman who was being conveyed
+from Rye to Bedlam slept in the Borough. He suspected whither he was
+going, and, having contrived by rising early to elude his attendant, he
+went to Bedlam, and told the keepers that he was about to bring them a
+patient. "But," said he, "in order to lead him willingly, he has been
+persuaded that I am mad, and accordingly I shall come as the madman. He
+will be very outrageous when you seize him, but you must clap on a
+strait-waistcoat." The device completely succeeded. The lunatic returned
+home, the sane man was shut up, and until he was exchanged at the end of
+four days, remained in his strait-waistcoat, having doubtless exhibited a
+violence which amply justified its use. The aversion of the sufferer
+himself to be taken away coincides with an equal aversion on the part of
+his relatives and friends to send him from home, nor do they take the step
+till the madness grows intolerable. Precious time is thus lost at the
+outset, and when the removal occurs it is mostly to the workhouse. Here
+the patient is usually kept during the remainder of the curable stage of
+his malady. The parochial authorities are generally guided by an immediate
+consideration for the pockets of the rate-payers, rather than by any care
+for the welfare of the lunatic; and, as they can maintain him in the
+"house" at three shillings a-week--when they would have to pay nine if
+they transferred him to the county asylum--in the workhouse he remains
+until he becomes so dirty or troublesome in his habits that the guardians
+are willing to pay the difference to get rid of him. The first few months
+of the disease, within the narrow limits of which full 60 per cent. of the
+recoveries take place, are thus allowed to run to waste. Months fly by,
+and the victim subsides into the class of incurables. This produces a
+second evil. As the drafts of incurables are perpetually flowing into the
+asylums, they become "blocked up" in the course of a few years, and are
+converted into houses for the detention of hopeless cases. To this
+condition three-fourths of the asylums are already reduced, and the
+efforts of philanthropic medicine are brought to a dead lock by the
+short-sightedness of the parish authorities, who do not consider that for
+the sake of saving a few shillings in the board of Betty Smith in the
+first weeks of her craziness, they are converting her into a chronic
+burthen, seeing that she will probably live on to a good old age in the
+asylum, and cause them an ultimate expenditure of hundreds of pounds. To
+the swifter removal after the outbreak of the disorder we must look for a
+permanent remedy; but in the mean time something must be done to
+disembarrass the public asylums of the dead-weight of hopeless cases, if
+we seriously intend to take advantage of the curative appliances we
+already possess. The commissioners seem inclined to favour the erection of
+separate asylums for those who are beyond the reach of medical art. To us
+it seems that the more economical plan would be to apportion certain wards
+in the various workhouses for the reception of chronic cases, and to draft
+off the idiots alone to special establishments. By this means our
+water-logged asylums would speedily right themselves, and again become
+what they should never have ceased to be--hospitals for the _cure_ of the
+insane. At present we encourage an elaborate system for the manufacture of
+life-long lunatics. It is well known that the cures of early cases of
+insanity throughout England amount to 45 per cent., and at Bethlehem and
+St. Luke's, where no others are received, the cures have amounted to 62
+per cent. and 72 per cent. respectively; whereas at Colney Hatch, Hanwell,
+and the Surrey County Asylum, the three great receptacles for the weepings
+of the metropolitan workhouses, the average cures do not exceed 15 per
+cent. If we take the lowest averages of cures, there is still a difference
+of 30 per cent. of human creatures who sink down into the cheerless night
+of chronic dementia and idiotcy, or who dream away the remainder of their
+lives in hopeless childishness. Another ground of complaint is, that a
+degree of clerk's work is imposed upon the medical superintendents of
+large asylums which is quite inconsistent with a proper discharge of their
+chief duty--the recovery of their patients. Irrespective of the
+routine-labour of making daily and quarterly and yearly reports, which is
+very considerable, they have far more to do in their strictly professional
+capacity than they can possibly accomplish. The three great asylums near
+the metropolis contain upwards of 3,000 patients, or the population of a
+good-sized country town; and their moral and physical training is confided
+to exactly six medical men, or as many as will be found in an hospital of
+a hundred beds! It is needless to observe how little attention can be paid
+to each individual, and that the more promising patients must be
+inevitably swamped in the sea of hopeless lunatics. As long as our asylums
+remain mere houses of detention, the want of medical superintendence is
+not so apparent; but immediately these establishments are restored to
+their proper functions, we predict that the evil will become too glaring
+to last.
+
+In many boroughs the authorities have entirely evaded the requirements of
+the Act of Parliament relative to their insane pauper poor, and have not
+only neglected to erect proper asylums, but have resisted for years the
+attempts of the commissioners to compel them to do their duty. In all such
+cases the lunatics not only suffer the ills consequent upon insufficient
+care, but when too numerous for home accommodation are subjected to a
+system of _transportation_, which is not only disgraceful to the
+municipal authorities themselves, but to the age for permitting it. True
+to their economical instincts, the guardians of the poor often "farm out"
+their insane paupers to the proprietor of some private asylum, quite
+regardless of distance. The commissioners, justly indignant at this sordid
+practice, state in one of their Reports that--
+
+    "At present, large numbers of these patients are sent to licensed
+    houses far from their homes, to distances (sometimes exceeding, and
+    often scarcely less than, 100 miles) which their relations and friends
+    are unable to travel. The savings of the labouring poor are quite
+    insufficient, in most cases, to defray the expense of such journeys,
+    and their time (constituting their means of existence) cannot be
+    spared for that purpose. The consequence has been, that the poor
+    borough lunatic has been left too often to pass a considerable portion
+    of his life, _and in some cases to die, far from his home, and without
+    any of his nearest connexions having been able to comfort him by their
+    occasional presence_. The visits of his parish officers are
+    necessarily cursory and unfrequent, and he is, in fact, cast upon the
+    humanity of strangers, whose prosperity depends upon the profits which
+    they derive from maintaining him and others of his class."
+
+This is a system which we are confident is as illegal as it is heartless,
+and we are astonished that bodies of Englishmen should dare to insult the
+miseries of lunatics by thus punishing them and their friends for their
+affliction. There were not long since twenty-five insane paupers at
+Camberwell House, London, who had been sent from Southampton, a distance
+of eighty miles, though the Hants County Asylum is situated within sixteen
+miles of the borough. Seventeen persons were in like manner banished from
+Great Yarmouth to Highbridge House, near London, and their relations, who
+had to travel 146 miles to see them, passed, in the course of their
+journey, the Norfolk and Essex County Asylums, both of which
+establishments had many vacancies and would willingly have received them.
+The pauper lunatics of Ipswich, King's Lynn, Dover, Canterbury,
+Portsmouth, and various other boroughs, are in the same way transferred by
+the local authorities to some of the metropolitan licensed houses.
+
+The feelings of the poor for their afflicted relatives are often of the
+deepest kind, and the utmost distress is entailed upon them by these cruel
+separations from those they love. In one case, a native of Ipswich, too
+poor to go by the railway, walked to London and back on foot, a distance
+of 140 miles, for the sole purpose of visiting his wife, who had been
+wickedly banished to Peckham House, London. In other cases parents have
+pleaded so piteously to be conveyed to their children, that the
+commissioners have suggested that the expenses should be paid out of the
+parish funds, but the authorities who had contrived the original
+proceeding in order to save two or three shillings a head, could not of
+course be induced to furnish money for so sentimental a purpose. The
+commissioners have resolutely refused their sanction to such disgraceful
+transactions whenever they have come within their knowledge and
+jurisdiction--one instance out of many which prove that, however much the
+borough authorities may denounce them as a centralized power, they have
+done excellent service in checking local ignorance, selfishness, and
+inhumanity.
+
+If we now turn to consider the condition of private asylums, we shall find
+much in them to praise as well as to condemn. When men of reputation,
+acknowledged skill, and character--such as Drs. Conolly, Forbes Winslow,
+Sutherland, and Munro, of London; Drs. Hitch, Noble, Newington, Fox, in
+the provinces, have the management of private asylums, the public need be
+under no apprehension of patients being improperly received, illegally
+detained, or cruelly and unscientifically treated. The licensed houses in
+the metropolitan district directly under the control of the Lunacy
+commissioners, amounting to forty-one in number, represent, without doubt,
+the fairest specimens of these establishments. Liable as they are at any
+moment to the inspection of the commissioners, and presided over as many
+of them are by the most eminent members of the profession, they are
+generally maintained in a high state of efficiency. They are principally
+devoted to the care of the higher classes of the community, and afford
+perhaps the nearest approach yet made to a perfect method of treatment,
+being conducted in most cases on the principle of a private family. The
+bolts, bars, high walls, and dismal airing-courts of the public asylum
+are either unknown, or so hidden as no longer to irritate the susceptible
+mind of the lunatic. The unwise division of the sexes is not as a rule
+adopted. Scrupulous attention to dress and all the forms of polite society
+are enjoined alike for their own sake, and as a method of interesting
+patients in the daily life of the community. When we partook of the
+hospitalities of one of these establishments, we could detect nothing in
+the countenances or the appearance of the guests which was characteristic
+of their condition: the restless eye, the incoherent conversation, the
+sudden movement of the peculiarly formed head, which our preconceived
+notions led us to expect, were none of them observable. One individual
+indeed there was whom we mentally concluded to be certainly mad. Yet,
+singular to say, this gentleman was the only sane individual in the room,
+besides ourselves and the medical superintendent; and on further
+acquaintance, having told our ill-placed suspicions, he frankly confessed
+that he had in his own mind paid ourselves a similar compliment. The eager
+glance of curiosity natural to inquisitive strangers was the nearest
+approach in this lunatic party to the outward appearance of lunacy. So
+much for the "unmistakeable" countenance of the insane! It is not to be
+supposed that the more violent can be allowed this social freedom even in
+private establishments, or that madness is different in a metropolitan
+licensed house from what it is in a public asylum; but we unhesitatingly
+assert that in the vast majority of cases the large amount of freedom and
+the absence of any prison-like characteristics have an undoubted effect,
+not only in calming the mind of the patient, but in expediting his
+recovery. Hence the per-centage of cures in a high-class private asylum
+are immeasurably beyond those of any public establishment. The
+pleasure-ground, out-of-door games, carriage and riding parties,
+billiards, whist and evening parties, all contribute their aid in
+restoring the unhinged mind. We have seen four or five patients leave the
+doors of one of these licensed metropolitan houses (the establishment of
+Dr. Forbes Winslow, "Sussex House," Hammersmith), and remain out for hours
+without any attendant, their word of _honour_ being the only tie existing
+between them and the asylum.[18]
+
+The condition of a few of the provincial licensed houses is still
+glaringly bad, and shows that old ideas, with respect to insanity, are not
+entirely obsolete. The Report of the Commissioners of Lunacy for 1856,
+relates circumstances which lead us back to the old days of Bedlam. Thus
+at Hanbury House the Commissioners found "one young lady fastened by
+webbing wristbands to a leathern belt; she was also tied down to her chair
+by a rope." Again, they found on their last visit to the Sandford Asylum,
+in December, 1855, "a patient just dead, his body exhibiting sores and
+extensive sloughs, arising necessarily, we think, from want of
+water-pillows or other proper precautions. The room has a stone or plaster
+floor, and is without a fire." It is, however, encouraging to find that,
+as far as personal restraint goes, the very worst of our private asylums
+are far superior to some of the best of the public asylums of France. Dr.
+Webster, our great authority on this point, gives in Dr. Winslow's
+Psychological Journal, the results gleaned in his visits to these
+establishments in the August and September of 1850:--
+
+    "Forty male lunatics out of 1464 then resident were in _camisole_
+    (strait-waistcoats), some being also otherwise restrained, thereby
+    giving an individual in restraint to every 33-1/4 male inmates, or
+    three per hundred. Amongst the female lunatics, again, the proportion
+    was somewhat larger, 72 persons of that sex, out of the total 1902
+    resident patients, being under medical coercion; thus making one
+    female in restraint to every 26-1/3 inmates, or at the rate of 3·78
+    per cent. In contrast with this report respecting the above-named
+    French provincial asylums, I would now place an official statement of
+    the practice pursued at Bethlehem Hospital during the same period. At
+    this establishment, where formerly the strait-waistcoat, with various
+    kinds of personal coercion, were even in greater use than on the other
+    side of the Channel, _not one_ insane patient, among an average
+    population of 391 lunatics, was under constraint of any description
+    during the five weeks ending the 25th of September, when I first
+    visited that institution after my return from the Continent, and which
+    embraced the whole time referred to in this memorandum."
+
+From these curious facts it will be seen that we are far in advance of our
+French, and, we may also add, of our other continental neighbours.[19]
+When the beneficent thought struck the great Pinel to knock off the
+fetters of the English captain, he sounded a note which reverberated
+through Europe, and the poor insane captives issued from their dungeons in
+which they had been so long immured as the prisoners emerge from their
+prison to the divine strains of Beethoven's "Fidelio." But when this vast
+step was accomplished there still remained an immense amount of coercion
+scarcely less injurious than the old darkness and chains, and to
+Englishmen is mainly due the credit of abolishing it. Nor shall we rest
+where we are. It is our belief as well as our hope that, before another
+generation has gone by, the last vestige of restraint, in the shape of
+dismal airing-courts, and outside walls, which serve to wound the spirit
+rather than to enslave the limbs, will pass for ever among us, and only be
+remembered with the hobbles and the manacles of the past.
+
+It has been asserted by some psychologists that lunacy is on the increase,
+and that its rapid development of late years has been consequent upon the
+increased activity of the national mind. This statement is certainly
+startling and calculated to arrest the attention of all thoughtful men. Is
+it true that civilisation has called to life a monster such as that which
+appalled Frankenstein? Is it a necessity of progress that it shall ever be
+accompanied by that fearful black rider which, like Despair, sits behind
+it? Does mental development mean increased mental decay? If these
+questions were truly answered in the affirmative, we might indeed sigh for
+the golden time when
+
+  "Wild in woods the noble savage ran,"
+
+for it would be clear that the nearer humanity strove to attain towards
+divine perfection, the more it was retrograding towards a state inferior
+to that of the brute creation. A patient examination, however, of the
+question entirely negatives such a conclusion. Dr. Ray, of the United
+States, in taking the opposite view of the case, says:--
+
+    "If we duly consider the characteristics of our times, we shall there
+    find abundant reason for the fact that insanity has been increasing at
+    a rate unparalleled in any former period. In every successive step
+    that has led to a higher degree of civilisation; in all the means and
+    appliances for developing the mental resources of the race; in the
+    ever-widening circle of objects calculated to influence desire, and
+    impel to effort, we find so many additional agencies for tasking the
+    mental energies, and thereby deranging the healthy equilibrium which
+    binds the faculties together, and leads to an harmonious result. The
+    press and the rostrum, the railway and the spinning-jenny, the steam
+    engine and the telegraph, republican institutions and social
+    organizations, are agencies more potent in preparing the mind for
+    insanity than any or all of those vices and casualties which exert a
+    more immediate and striking effect."
+
+Such is the burthen of the story of all those psychologists who believe
+that insanity is fast gaining upon us; but if "in the ever-widening circle
+of objects calculated to influence desire and impel to effort, we find so
+many additional agencies for tasking the mental energies, and thereby
+deranging the healthy equilibrium which binds the faculties together," it
+should appear that those classes of society which are in the van of
+civilization should be the chief sufferers. Bankers, great speculators,
+merchants, engineers, statesmen, philosophers and men of letters--those
+who work with the brain rather than with their hands,--should afford the
+largest proportion to the alleged increase of insanity. How does the
+matter really stand? In the Report of the Commissioners in Lunacy for the
+year 1847 we find the total number of private patients of the middle and
+upper classes then under confinement in private asylums, amounted to
+4,649. Now, if we skip eight years, and refer to the Report of 1855, we
+find that there were only 4,557 patients under confinement, or about 96
+less, notwithstanding the increase of population during that period. If we
+compare the number of pauper lunatics under confinement at these two
+different periods, we shall find a widely-different state of things; for
+in 1847 there were 9,654 in our public and private asylums, whilst in 1855
+they numbered 15,822. In other words, our pauper lunatics would _appear_
+to have increased 6,170 in eight years, or upwards of 64 per cent. It is
+this extraordinary increase of pauper lunatics in the county asylums which
+has frightened some psychologists from their propriety, and led them to
+believe that insanity is running a winning race with the healthy
+intellect. But these figures, if they mean anything, prove that it is not
+the intellect of the country that breeds insanity, but its ignorance, as
+it cannot be for one moment contended that the grent movements now taking
+place in the world originate with the labouring classes. We shall be told,
+we know, that there is a constant descent of patients from private asylums
+to the public asylums; that the professional man and the tradesman, after
+expending the means of his friends and family for a year or two, in the
+vain hope of a speedy cure, becomes necessarily in the end a pauper
+lunatic, and that this stream aids to swell the numbers in the county
+institution. Allowing its due weight to this explanation--and those who
+know public asylums are well aware how small, comparatively speaking, is
+the educated element--yet as the same disturbing element in the
+calculation obtained at both periods, we may safely conclude that the
+figures are not thereby essentially altered.
+
+A still more convincing proof that mental ruin springs rather from mental
+torpidity than from mental stimulation, is to be found by comparing the
+proportion of lunatics to the population in the rural and the
+manufacturing districts. Sir Andrew Halliday, who worked out this
+interesting problem in 1828,[20] selected as his twelve non-agricultural
+counties--Cornwall, Cheshire, Derby, Durham, Gloucester, Lancaster,
+Northumberland, Stafford, Somerset, York (West Riding), and Warwick, which
+contained a population at that time of 4,493,194, and a total number of
+3,910 insane persons, or one to every 1,200. His twelve agricultural
+counties were Bedford, Berkshire, Bucks, Cambridge, Hereford, Lincoln,
+Norfolk, Northampton, Oxford, Rutland, Suffolk, and Wilts, the total
+population of which were 2,012,979, and the total number of insane persons
+2,526--a proportion of 1 lunatic to every 820 sane. Another significant
+fact elicited was, that whilst in the manufacturing counties the idiots
+were considerably less than the lunatics, in the rural counties the idiots
+were to the lunatics as 7 to 5! Thus the Hodges of England who know
+nothing of the march of intellect, who are entirely guiltless of
+speculations of any kind, contribute far more inmates to the public
+lunatic asylums than the toil-worn artisans of Manchester or Liverpool,
+who live in the great eye of the world, and keep step with the march of
+civilization, even if they do but bring up its rear. Isolation is a
+greater cause of mental ruin than aggregation--our English fields can
+afford _crétins_ as plentifully as the upland valleys of the mountain
+range, seldom visited by the foot of the traveller; whilst, on the other
+hand, in the workshop and the public assembly, "As iron weareth iron, so
+man sharpeneth the face of his friend."
+
+If we required further proof of the groundless nature of the alarm that
+mental activity was destroying the national mind, we should find it in the
+well-ascertained fact that the proportion of lunatics is greater among
+females than males. It may also be urged that Quakers, who pride
+themselves on the sedateness of their conduct, furnish much more than
+their share; but for this singular result their system of intermarriage is
+doubtless much to blame. Still the fact remains, that within a period of
+eight years, extending from 1847 to 1855, an increase of 64 per cent. took
+place in our pauper lunatic asylums. These figures, however, afford no
+more proof of the increase of pauper lunatics than the increase of
+criminal convictions since the introduction of a milder code of laws and
+the appointment of the new police afford a proof of increased crime. As
+the commissioners very justly observe, medical practitioners of late years
+have taken a far more comprehensive as well as scientific view of insanity
+than formerly; and many forms of the disease now fall under their care
+that were previously overlooked, when no man was considered mad unless he
+raved, or was an idiot. But the great cause of the increase of lunatics in
+our asylums is to be ascribed to the erection of the asylums themselves.
+With the exception of three or four Welsh counties, and two or three in
+the north of England, there is not a shire in England which does not
+possess some palatial building. These establishments, in which restraint,
+speaking in the ordinary acceptance of the term, is unknown, and in which
+the inmates are always treated with humanity, have drained the land of a
+lunatic population which before was scattered among villages or
+workhouses, amounting, according to the computation of the commissioners,
+to upwards of 10,500--just as the deep wells of the metropolitan brewers
+have drained for miles around the shallow wells of the neighbourhood in
+which they are situated. For the same reason the number of lunatic paupers
+has declined in registered hospitals since 1847 from 384 to 185, and in
+"licensed houses" from 3,996 to 2,313. Upon the whole, we may safely
+predict that, when these disturbing causes have ceased to act, the annual
+returns of the commissioners will show that, as the treatment of insanity
+is every day better understood, so the pauper lunatics in our public
+asylums, instead of increasing in a ratio for beyond that of the general
+population, show a diminished proportion. Already there are symptoms that
+the flood is returning to its proper level; for while the lunatics of all
+classes in the public asylums, licensed houses, and in the Royal Hospital
+at Haslar, were 20,493 in 1855, they had only advanced in 1856 to 20,764,
+which is an increase in the twelvemonth of but 271.
+
+
+
+
+THE LONDON COMMISSARIAT.
+
+
+If, early on a summer morning before the smoke of countless fires had
+narrowed the horizon of the metropolis, a spectator were to ascend to the
+top of St. Paul's, and take his stand upon the balcony, that with gilded
+rail flashes like a fringe of fire upon the summit of the dome, he would
+see sleeping beneath his feet the greatest camp of men upon which the sun
+has ever risen. As far as he could distinguish by the morning light he
+would behold stretched before him the mighty map of the metropolis; and
+could he ascend still higher, he would note the stream of life overflowing
+the brim of hills which enclose the basin in which it stands.
+
+In the space swept by his vision would lie the congregated habitations of
+two millions and a half of his species--but how vain are figures to convey
+an idea of so immense a multitude. If Norway, stretching from the Frozen
+Ocean down to the southern extremity of the North Sea, were to summon all
+its people to one vast conclave, they would number little more than half
+the souls within the London bills of mortality. Switzerland, in her
+thousand valleys, could not muster such an army; and even busy Holland,
+within her mast-thronged harbours, humming cities, and populous plains,
+could barely overmatch the close-packed millions within sound of the great
+bell at his feet. As the spectator gazed upon this extraordinary prospect,
+the first stir of the awakening city would gradually steal upon his ear.
+The rumbling of wheels, the clang of hammers, the clear call of the human
+voice, all deepening by degrees into a confused hum, would proclaim that
+the mighty city was once more rousing to the labour of the day, and the
+blue columns of smoke climbing up to heaven that the morning meal was at
+hand. At such a moment the thought would naturally arise in his mind,--In
+what manner is such an assemblage victualled? By what complicated wheels
+does all the machinery move by which two millions and a half of human
+beings sit down day by day to their meals as regularly and quietly as
+though they only formed a sung little party at Lovegrove's on a summer's
+afternoon? As thus he mused respecting the means by which the supply and
+demand of so vast a multitude is brought to agree, so that every one is
+enabled to procure exactly what he wants, at the exact time without loss
+to himself or injury to the community, thin lines of steam, sharply marked
+for the moment, as they advanced one after another from the horizon and
+converged towards him would indicate the arrival of the great commissariat
+trains, stored with produce from all parts of these isles and from the
+adjacent continent. Could his eye distinguish in addition the fine threads
+of that far-spreading web which makes London the most sensitive spot on
+the earth, he would be enabled to take in at a glance the two
+agents--steam and electricity--which keep the balance true between the
+wants and the supply of London.
+
+If our spectator will now descend from his giddy height, and will
+accompany us among the busy haunts of men, we will attempt to point out to
+him whence those innumerable commodities, which he has seen pouring into
+the town, have been obtained, the chief marts to which they are consigned,
+and the manner in which they are distributed from house to house. Had
+London like Paris its _octroi_, the difficulty of our task would be
+limited to the mere display of official figures, but, thanks to a free
+policy, we have no such means of getting at strictly accurate estimates,
+and must therefore content ourselves with the results of patient inquiry
+among the foremost carriers--the railway companies--aided by such other
+information as we have been able to procure. For the sake of convenience,
+and of sequence, let us imagine that the principal daily meal is
+proceeding, and, according to the order of the courses, we will endeavour
+to trace the various edibles to their source--the fish to its sea--the
+beast to its pasture--the wild animal to its lair--the game to its
+cover--and the fruit to its orchard; to point out how they are netted,
+fattened, bagged, gathered, and conveyed to their ultimate
+destination--the _great red lane_ of London humanity. Let us begin with
+fish, and that unrivalled fish-market which all the world is aware rears
+its head by London Bridge.
+
+Those who remember old Billingsgate, with its tumble-down wharf, and dock
+half choked with corruption and oyster-shells--a dirty remnant of the days
+of Elizabeth--will enter with pleasure Mr. Bunning's new market. Through
+its Italian colonnade are seen the masts of the fishing smacks, and the
+brown wharves of the opposite side--a pleasing picture, which instantly
+fixes the artistic eye. The busy scene within the market between the hours
+of five and seven in the morning, is one of the marvels of the metropolis.
+Billingsgate is the only wholesale fish-market in London, and it may
+therefore be imagined how great must be the business transacted within its
+walls. Of old, nine-tenths of the supply came by way of the river, the
+little that came by land being conveyed from the coast, at great expense,
+in four-horse vans. Now the railways are day by day supplanting smacks,
+and in many cases steamers; for by means of its iron arms, London, whilst
+its millions slumber, grasps the produce of every sea that beats against
+our island coast, and ere they have uprisen it is drawn to a focus in this
+central mart. Thus every night in the season the hardy fishermen of
+Yarmouth catch a hundred tons (12,081 yearly), principally herring, which,
+by means of the Eastern Counties Railway, are next morning at
+Billingsgate. The South-Western Railway sends up annually, with the same
+speed, 4,000 tons of mackerel and other fish, the gatherings of the south
+coast. The North Western collects over night the "catch" from Ireland,
+Scotland, and the north-east coast of England, and adds to the
+Thames-street mart 3,578 tons, principally of salmon, whilst the Great
+Northern delivers to the early morning market, or sometimes later in the
+day, 3,248 tons of like sea produce. The Great Western brings up the
+harvest of the Cornish and Devonshire coasts, chiefly mackerel and
+pilchards, to the amount of 1,560 tons in the year; and the Brighton and
+South Coast conveys the incredible number of 15,000 bushels of oysters,
+besides 4,000 tons of other fish. Nearly one-half in fact of the
+fish-supply of London, instead of following as of old the tedious route of
+the coast, is hurried in the dead of night across the length and breadth
+of the land to Billingsgate, and, before the large consumers in Tyburnia
+and Belgravia have left their beds, may be seen either lying on the marble
+slabs of the fishmongers, or penetrating on the peripatetic barrow of the
+costermonger into the dismal lanes and alleys inhabited by "London Labour
+and the London Poor." These prodigious gleanings from what Goldsmith might
+well call the "finny deep," are conveyed from the termini in spring-vans,
+drawn by two and occasionally by four horses. Salmon comes in boxes,
+herrings in barrels, and all other kinds of fish in baskets. Sometimes as
+many as sixty of these vans will arrive in the narrow street leading to
+the market in the course of two or three hours, and the scene of confusion
+occasioned by their rushing among the fishmongers' carts and the
+costermongers' barrows, the latter often amounting to more than a
+thousand, is almost as great as that at Smithfield; for the fish, like the
+live-stock trade, has long outgrown its mart: and Billingsgate, as much as
+Smithfield, is choked for want of space. Let the visitor beware how he
+enters it in a good coat, for, as sure as he goes in in broad cloth, he
+will come out in _scale_ armour. They are not polite at Billingsgate, as
+all the world knows, and "by your leave" is only a preliminary to your hat
+being knocked off your head by a bushel of oysters or a basket of crabs.
+In the early part of the morning, the traffic is carried on in comparative
+quiet, for the regular fishmongers, who have the first of the market,
+conduct their business with little disturbance, but it would gladden the
+heart of a Dutch painter to see the piled produce of a dozen different
+seas glittering with silver and brilliant with colour. Gigantic salmon,
+fresh caught from the firths and bays of Scotland, or from the productive
+Irish seas, flounder about, as the boxes in which they have travelled
+disgorge them upon the board. Quantities of delicate red mullet, that have
+been hurried up by the Great Western, all the way from Cornwall, for the
+purpose of being furnished fresh to the fastidious palates at the West
+End; smelts brought by the Dutch boats, their delicate skins varying in
+hue like an opal as you pass; pyramids of lobsters, a moving mass of
+spiteful claws and restless feelers, savage at their late abduction from
+some Norwegian fiord; great heaps of pinky shrimps; turbots, that lately
+fattened upon the Doggerbank, with their white bellies bent as for some
+tremendous leap; and humbler plaice and dabs, from our own craft--all this
+bountiful accumulation forms a mingled scene of strange forms and vivid
+colours, that no one with an eye for the picturesque can contemplate
+without interest. Neither is the scene always one of still life, for it is
+no rare occurrence for the visitor to behold a yelling knot of men
+dragging with ropes through the excited crowd a royal sturgeon, nine feet
+in length. If the spectator now peeps down the large square opening into
+the dismal space below, which appears like the hold of a ship lately
+recovered from the deep, he will see the shell-fish market, where piles of
+blue-black muscles, whelks, and grey cockles turned up with yellow, give
+the place a repulsive aspect of dirt and slop. There are but few buyers
+seen here, and they are generally women belonging to the costermonger
+class, for the men rather disdain the shell-fish trade. These female
+itinerants may be noticed wandering about from basket to basket,
+occasionally gouging out a whelk from the shell with the thumb, to test
+the lot, and then passing on to the next.
+
+Busiest among the busy is seen the "Bommeree," or middleman--sometimes
+called the forestaller. The province of this individual is to purchase the
+fish as it comes into the market, and divide it into lots to suit large
+and small buyers, separating the qualities according as they are designed
+for St. James's or St. Giles's. These worthies used at one time to
+forestal the market extensively, when they felt certain, from the state
+of the tide, that no fish supplies could be poured in for the day, but now
+the railway defeats their tactics, and the utter uncertainty of the
+arrivals has done away with this branch of their business. After the
+"trade" has been supplied, and the serge-aproned "regulars" have loaded
+their light spring carts, there comes, especially in certain fish seasons,
+an eruption of purchasers of a totally different character--the
+costermongers of streets. This nomade tribe, which wanders in thousands
+from market to market, performs a most important part in the distribution
+of food. They are for the greater part the tradesmen of the poor, and by
+their energy and enterprise secure to our working-classes many of the
+fruits of both sea and land, which they would never taste but for them.
+About seven o'clock the army of street-vendors, foot and "donkey," for the
+greater number rattle up in barrows drawn by that useful animal, begin
+visibly to change the whole hue and appearance of the place. Young fellows
+in fustian coats and Belcher handkerchiefs throng the market, and board
+the smacks, "chaffing," higgling, joking, and swearing--but never
+fighting, for the costermonger has too much to do at present to make
+physical demonstrations. Among the most eager of the itinerant salesmen
+the visitor speedily distinguishes the Judaic nose. The Hebrews, who are
+in great force about this neighbourhood on account of the dried-fruit
+trade, which is mainly in their hands, deal largely also in fish. The
+poorer members of the fraternity purchase the bigger portion of the
+fresh-water supply, such as plaice, roach, dace, &c., in fact, nearly
+everything caught by the Wandsworth fisherman, whose picturesque "bawley"
+boats, which often contain both his family and fortune, may generally be
+seen moored in the stream between Battersea reach and Kew bridge, a mass
+of brown nets and umber canopies lit up by the brilliant red caps of their
+owners, just such as Constable loved to paint in the foregrounds of his
+landscapes. These fish, if not alive, must at least retain the spasmodic
+quivering of the flesh which remains immediately after death, or the Jews
+will not buy, for reasons we suppose connected with their religion, since
+their chief trade is among the rich and poor of their own people. The
+Wandsworth fishermen also supply all the white-bait that is consumed at
+Greenwich and Blackwall: it is caught generally between the latter place
+and Woolwich at night, and it is singular that a fish which is among the
+most delicate we have, should flourish in one of the foulest parts of the
+foulest river in Europe. The area of the market, as soon as the
+costermongers appear, speedily becomes broken up into numbers of little
+circles, strictly intent upon the eye of individuals who take up a
+position high over their heads upon the boards or stands. These are the
+salesmen, disposing by auction of the fish consigned to them. Some of the
+dealers are moneyed men, and will lay out their fifty pounds of a morning,
+re-selling to their fellows again at a profit. The smaller capitalists
+combine in threes and fours, and thus manage to get their commodities at
+wholesale prices. The activity of the market mainly depends upon the
+season of the year and the amount of fish. The energy of these
+peripatetics is surprising: they look in at Billingsgate, and if the
+supply runs short they are off again immediately to Covent Garden, for
+they deal in everything, and the barrow that one morning you see filled
+with fresh herrings, the next is blooming with plums. If, on the contrary,
+a large cargo of sprats comes suddenly into London, or if soles should be
+unusually plentiful, it is known in an incredibly short space of time all
+over the town, and they flock to the market in thousands; as many as five
+thousand is the usual attendance on such occasions. These costermongers
+absorb more than a third of the whole Billingsgate supply; of sprats and
+fresh herrings they take fully two-thirds. Turbot and all the costlier
+fish they purchase sparingly, but they buy largely when it chances to be
+cheap, as in the cholera year of 1849, when prime salmon went a-begging at
+four-pence a pound! If the market is dull, and prices are high, the fact
+is speedily known, and the cry of "No smacks at the Gate," is sufficient
+to turn the current immediately in the direction of the "Garden."
+
+Steam, as we have already intimated, has revolutionized the fish-trade,
+and is rapidly sweeping away the whole fleet of smacks propelled by sails,
+as ruthlessly as the rail did stagecoaches. A few years ago all the
+oysters were brought by water to Billingsgate; but a short time since a
+great natural bed, called the Mid Channel Bed, which stretches for forty
+miles between the ports of Shoreham and Havre, was discovered, and, the
+dredging-ground being free to all comers, a vast field of wealth has been
+opened to fishermen, especially as from the proximity of the Brighton and
+South Coast Railway the produce can be sent immediately to town, and
+escape the dues of metage and other tolls to which all fish landed at the
+market is liable. Seaborne oysters are thus placed at a great
+disadvantage, and the different companies owning them justly complain at a
+city exaction which takes a large sum annually out of their pockets,
+besides the charge for porterage it entails upon the purchasers. Mr.
+Alston, who is, without doubt, the largest oyster-fisher in the world,
+sent up in one year between 40,000 and 50,000 bushels from his fishery,
+Cheyney Rock, near Sheerness, and paid 800_l._ for metage. The whole trade
+paid no less than 3,000_l._, and this for services which their own men
+could do as well as themselves, were it not for a custom which enforces
+idleness upon the smack people.[21]
+
+The "scuttle-mouths," as they are termed from their huge shell, pay no
+attention to season, and consequently oyster-day has now in a great degree
+lost its significance. The 4th of August is still, it is true, the opening
+day at Billingsgate, but the supply from without has taken the wind out of
+its sails. Only those who have witnessed the crowds filling all the
+streets leading to the market long before the hour of business--six
+o'clock in the morning--can understand the eagerness exhibited of old to
+obtain some of the first day's oysters. All this is now gone. There were
+not more than eighteen smacks at the opening of the present year, and, few
+as were the arrivals, the buyers were not eager. The Mid-Channel oysters,
+which have thus disturbed the old trade, are of a large and by no means
+delicate kind, such as come from Tenby, Jersey, &c.--coarse fish, eaten by
+rough men--third-class oysters, in fact, which rarely penetrate to the
+West End, unless to make sauce. Real natives are greater aristocrats among
+their fellows than ever; the demand for them has for a long time far
+exceeded the supply, and the price has consequently risen. Of the birth,
+parentage and nurture of this delicate fish, a curious tale could be told.
+Designed for fastidious palates, much care and attention is bestowed upon
+its breeding. The _habitué_ of the Opera, who strolls up the brilliantly
+lighted Haymarket towards midnight, and turns into any one of the fish
+supper-rooms that line its western side, little dreams of the organization
+at work to enable him to enjoy his native. Most of the oysters, with the
+exception of the Mid-Channel bed, are regularly cultivated by different
+companies, who rear and tend them at different parts of the south coast,
+and of the Thames at its mouth. Of these companies there are nine, in
+addition to individuals who possess and work what might be called
+sea-farms, several of which are miles in extent. In all the beds there is
+a certain space dedicated to natives. At Burnham, Essex, the "spat," or
+fecundated sperm, is stored in large pits, and sold as native brood, which
+is afterwards "laid" in that portion of the different beds appropriated to
+privileged oysters. Here the young natives remain for three years, when
+they are generally brought to market. So far their education is left, in a
+certain degree, to nature; but once in the possession of the
+fish-shopkeepers, art steps in to perfect their condition. They are now
+stored in large shallow vats, being carefully laid with their proper sides
+uppermost, and supplied daily with oatmeal: a process which is calculated
+rather to fatten than to flavour, and there are many who think that, like
+show cattle, they are none the better for over-feeding. "Natives," packed
+in barrels, form one of the articles of food that is largely sent out of
+London into the country, as all persons know who travel much at Christmas
+time, and notice with astonishment the pyramids of oyster-barrels which
+crowd the platforms of all the termini of the metropolis.
+
+The frying-pans of London are mainly supplied with soles all the year
+round by the trolling-boats of Barking, of which there are upwards of 150
+belonging to different companies. They fish the North Sea off the coasts
+of Yorkshire and Holland, particularly the Silver and Brown banks. Of old
+the smacks used to carry their own catch to Billingsgate, but the loss of
+time was so great, that latterly fast-sailing cutters have been employed
+to attend upon the fishing-smacks and bring their produce to market packed
+in ice. Of this splendid craft, which can sail almost in the eye of the
+wind, there are forty; and the total number of seamen employed is not less
+than 2,000, the greater part of whom have been taken as boys from the
+workhouse, and trained by this capital service into first-rate seamen. It
+is curious to follow the small proceedings of the world into their
+ultimate results. The gastronome, smiling complacently as he withdraws the
+cover and reveals a well-browned pair of soles, would never guess that
+they and their kind are the immediate cause of a happy transmutation of
+parish burthens into the right arm of our strength. Eels are constantly
+imported to Billingsgate by the Dutch boats. The galliots never moor close
+alongside the wharf, as the wells in which they bring their fish alive
+cause them to draw too much water, but they anchor midway in the stream,
+by twos and threes--their brown sides, flat bows, with high cheek-bones,
+like their navigators, and bright verd-green rudders, adding to the
+picturesque appearance of the river. The great fat creatures brought by
+them mainly supply the eel-pie houses, and contribute largely, we are
+informed, to that oleaginous kind of soup which people too hungry to be
+curious mistake for veritable oxtail and calves' head. The Dutch boats do
+not, however, confine themselves to eels. They deal in turbot, soles, and
+all kinds of flat-fish, such as frequent the Dogger Bank, much to the
+discredit of our native enterprise, neglecting, as we do, the splendid
+deep-sea fishing-ground off the south-west coast of Ireland, where cod and
+salmon are to be found in abundant quantities, whilst those who know the
+west coast well, declare there is turbot enough in Galway Bay "to supply
+the whole of Europe for the next hundred years."
+
+We believe, however, it is now in contemplation to go to work upon a large
+scale in those waters, having screw-steamers to collect the produce, and
+bring it to Milford Haven alive in wells, from which port it would come,
+_viâ_ the South Wales and Great Western Railways, to Billingsgate, within
+twenty-four hours after it was caught. The value of screw steamers having
+capacious wells has been fully tested by Mr. Howard, of Manningtree,
+Essex, who fitted an engine and screw into one of his welled
+fishing-smacks. Scarcely a lobster, out of twenty thousand put alive into
+the boat, was lost, whilst large numbers of those brought in sailing
+smacks perish. Salmon, cod, and other fish, are brought alive with the
+same success in the welled steamers from the North Sea and the coast of
+Scotland. It is almost time that some new ground were found in place of
+the famous Dogger Bank, which has now been preyed upon by so many nations
+for centuries, and has supplied so many generations of Catholics and
+Protestants with fast and feast food. No better proof that its stores are
+failing could be given than the fact that, although the ground, counting
+the Long Bank and the north-west flat in its vicinity, covers 11,800
+square miles, and that in fine weather it is fished by the London
+companies with from fifteen to twenty dozen of long lines, extending to
+ten or twelve miles, and containing from 9,000 to 12,000 hooks, it is yet
+not at all common to secure even as many as four score fish of a night--a
+poverty which can be better appreciated when we learn that 600 fish for
+800 hooks is the catch for deep-sea fishing about Kinsale.
+
+Towards the latter end of August the great herring season commences.
+Yarmouth is the chief seat of this branch of the piscatory trade. Every
+night when the weather is fine the fishermen of this old port "shoot"
+upwards of 300 square miles of net. Neptune in his ample arms never gave
+the ocean so magnificent an embrace. The produce of this wholesale
+sweeping of the sea is brought to town by the Eastern Counties Railway.
+They come up to Billingsgate packed in barrels and in bulk, and the number
+sold in the year seems almost fabulous, being upwards of a _billion_. Next
+to the herring fishery the sea-harvest of most importance to the poor of
+London is that of sprats, which come in about Lord Mayor's Day, and it is
+a popular belief that the first dish is always sent to the chief
+magistrate of the city. If a telegraph were to be laid down to all the
+alleys and courts, the fact of a large arrival of these little creatures
+at Billingsgate would not be sooner made known to the lower orders than,
+by some mysterious process, it is at present. Mr. Goldham, the clerk of
+the market, accustomed as he is to the sudden invasions of the
+costermongers, informs us that the scene on board the smacks laden with
+sprats is really frightful. The people hang thick as sea-weed from the
+rigging, throng the decks, and swarm on every available inch of plank,
+until the wonder is that the whole of the puny fleet does not capsize with
+the weight. The cause of the scramble is that the street sellers will not
+buy until they have seen the sample, and every one consequently tries to
+gain the highest point, that he may look down into the hold, whilst a man
+tumbles about the sprats with a shovel, in silver showers. The plaice
+season succeeds to that of sprats, with the interval of mackerel, which
+continues until the end of May, when Scotland and Ireland begin to pass
+down their salmon into the market. But where do all the lobsters come
+from? The lovers of this most delicious of the crustaceæ tribe will
+probably be astonished to learn that they are mainly brought from Norway.
+France and the Channel Islands, Orkney, and Shetland, do, it is true,
+contribute a few to the metropolitan market, but full two-thirds are
+reluctantly, and with much pinching and twisting, dragged out of the
+thousand rock-bound inlets which indent the Norwegian coast. They are
+conveyed alive in a screw-steamer and by smacks, in baskets, sometimes to
+the extent of 20,000 of a night, to Great Grimsby, and are thence
+forwarded to town by the Great Northern Railway--another 10,000 arriving
+perhaps from points on our own and the French coast. The fighting,
+twisting, blue-black masses are taken as soon as purchased to what are
+termed the "boiling-houses," of which there are four, situated in Duck and
+Love Lanes, close to the market; and here, for a trifling sum per score,
+they change their dark for scarlet uniforms. They are plunged into the
+boiling cauldron, basket and all, and in twenty minutes they are done.
+Crabs are cooked in the same establishments, but their nervous systems are
+so acute, that they dash off their claws in convulsive agony if placed
+alive in hot water. To prevent this mutilation, which would spoil their
+sale, they are first killed by the insertion of a needle through the head.
+The lobster trade is mostly in the hands of one salesman, Mr. Saunders, of
+Thames Street, who often has upwards of 15,000 consigned to him of a
+morning, and who causes no less than 15,000_l._ a year to flow into the
+fishy palms of Norwegians for this single article of commerce. As to the
+total supply of fish to the London market, we borrow the following
+estimate from Mr. Mayhew's very clever book on "London Labour and the
+London Poor." The figures seemed to us at first sight so enormous, that we
+hesitatingly submitted the table to one of the largest salesmen who
+assured us that it was no over-statement:--
+
+  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |         Description of Fish.           | No. of Fish.| Weight of Fish.|
+  |----------------------------------------|-------------|----------------|
+  |             WET FISH.                  |             |                |
+  |                                        |             |      lbs.      |
+  |Salmon and salmon trout (29,000 boxes,} |             |                |
+  |  14 fish per box)                    } |      406,000|     3,480,000  |
+  |Live cod (averaging 10 lbs. each)       |      400,000|     4,000,000  |
+  |Soles (averaging 1/4 lb. each)          |   97,520,000|    26,880,000  |
+  |Whiting (averaging 6 oz. each)          |   17,920,000|     6,720,000  |
+  |Haddock (averaging 2 lbs. each)         |    2,470,000|     5,040,000  |
+  |Plaice (averaging 1 lb. each)           |   33,600,000|    33,600,000  |
+  |Mackerel (averaging 1 lb. each)         |   23,520,000|    23,520,000  |
+  |Fresh herrings (250,000 barrels, 700  } |             |                |
+  |  fish per barrel)                    } |  175,000,000|    42,000,000  |
+  |Ditto in bulk                           |1,050,000,000|   252,000,000  |
+  |Sprats                                  |             |     4,000,000  |
+  |Eels from Holland (principally),       }|             |{    1,505,280  |
+  |  England, and Ireland (6 fish per lb.)}|   9,797,760 |{      127,680  |
+  |Flounders (7,200 qrtns., 36 fish per   }|             |                |
+  |  qtn.)                                }|     259,200 |        43,200  |
+  |Dabs (7,500 qrtns., 36 fish per qrtn.)  |     270,000 |        48,750  |
+  |                                        |             |                |
+  |            DRY FISH.                   |             |                |
+  |                                        |             |                |
+  |Barrelled cod (15,000 barrels, 40 fish }|             |                |
+  |  per barrel)                          }|     750,000 |     4,200,000  |
+  |Dried salt cod (5 lbs. each)            |   1,600,000 |     8,000,000  |
+  |Smoked haddock (65,000 barrels, 300    }|             |                |
+  |  fish per barrel)                     }|  19,500,000 |    10,920,000  |
+  |Bloaters (265,000 baskets, 150 fish per}|             |                |
+  |  basket)                              }| 147,000,000 |    10,600,000  |
+  |Red herrings (100,000 barrels, 500 fish}|             |                |
+  |  per barrel)                          }|  50,000,000 |    14,000,000  |
+  |Dried sprats (9,600 large bundles, 30  }|             |                |
+  |fish per bundle)                       }|      288,000|        96,000  |
+  |                                        |             |                |
+  |          SHELL FISH.                   |             |                |
+  |                                        |             |                |
+  |Oysters                                 | 495,896,000 |                |
+  |Lobsters (averaging 1 lb. each fish)    |   1,200,000 |     1,200,000  |
+  |Crabs (averaging 1 lb. each fish)       |     600,000 |       600,000  |
+  |Shrimps (324 to a pint)                 | 498,428,648 |                |
+  |Whelks (227 to half bushel)             |   4,943,200 |                |
+  |Mussels (1,000 to half bushel)          |  50,400,000 |                |
+  |Cockles (2,000 to half bushel)          |  67,392,000 |                |
+  |Periwinkles (4,000 to half bushel)      | 304,000,000 |                |
+  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+And now for the _pièce de résistance_.
+
+London has always been celebrated for the excellence of its meat, and her
+sons do justice to it; at least it has become the universal impression
+that they consume more, man for man, than any other town population in the
+world. It was a sirloin, fresh and ruddy, hanging at the door of some
+Giblett or Slater in a former century, that inspired, we suspect, the song
+which ever since has stirred Englishmen in a foreign land, "The Roast Beef
+of Old England." The visitor accustomed to the markets of our large
+provincial towns would doubtless expect to find the emporium of the
+live-stock trade for so vast a population of an imposing size. The
+foreigner, after seeing the magnificence of our docks--the solidity and
+span of our bridges--might naturally look for a national exposition of our
+greatness in the chief market dedicated to that British beef which is the
+boast of John Bull. What they do see in reality, if they have courage to
+wend their way along any of the narrow tumble-down streets approaching to
+Smithfield, which the great fire unfortunately spared, is an irregular
+space bounded by dirty houses and the ragged party-walls of demolished
+habitations, which give it the appearance of the site of a recent
+conflagration--the whole space comprising just six acres, fifteen perches,
+roads and public thoroughfares included. Into this narrow area, surrounded
+with slaughter-houses, triperies, bone-boiling houses, gut-scraperies,
+&c., the mutton-chops, scrags, saddles, legs, sirloins, and rounds, which
+grace the smiling boards of our noble imperial capital throughout the
+year, have, for the major part, been goaded and contused for the benefit
+of the civic corporation installed at Guildhall.[22] The best time is
+early in the morning--say one or two o'clock of the "great day," as the
+last market before Christmas-day is called. On this occasion, not only the
+space--calculated to hold 4,100 oxen and 30,000 sheep, besides calves and
+pigs--is crammed, but the approaches around it overflow with live stock
+for many hundred feet, and sometimes the cattle are seen blocking up the
+passage as far as St. Sepulchre's church. If the stranger can make his way
+through the crowd, and by means of some vantage-ground or door-step can
+manage to raise himself a few feet above the general level, he sees before
+him in one direction, by the dim red light of hundreds of torches, a
+writhing party-coloured mass, surmounted by twisting horns, some in rows,
+tied to rails which run along the whole length of the open space, some
+gathered together in one struggling knot. In another quarter, the moving
+torches reveal to him now and then, through the misty light, a couple of
+acres of living wool, or roods of pigs' skins. If he ventures into this
+closely wedged and labouring mass, he is enabled to watch more narrowly
+the reason of the universal ferment among the beasts.
+
+The drover with his goad is forcing the cattle into the smallest possible
+compass, and a little further on half a dozen men are making desperate
+efforts to drag refractory oxen up to the rails with ropes. In the scuffle
+which ensues the slipping of the ropes often snaps the fingers of the
+persons who are conducting the operation, and there is scarce a drover in
+the market who has not had some of his digits broken. The sheep, squeezed
+into hurdles like figs into a drum, lie down upon each other, "and make no
+sign;" the pigs, on the other hand, cry out before they are hurt. This
+scene, which has more the appearance of a hideous nightmare than a weekly
+exhibition in a civilised country, is accompanied by the barking of dogs,
+the bellowing of cattle, the cursing of men, and the dull blows of
+sticks--a charivari of sound that must be heard to be appreciated. The
+hubbub gradually abates from twelve o'clock at night, the time of opening,
+to its close at 3 P.M. next day; although during the whole period, as
+fresh lots are "headed up," individual acts of cruelty continue. Can it
+excite surprise that a state of things, the worst details of which we have
+suppressed, because of the pain which such horrors excite, sometimes so
+injures the stock that, to quote the words of one of the witnesses before
+the Smithfield Commission, "a grazier will not know his own beast four
+days after it has left him?" The meat itself suffers in quality; for
+anything like fright or passion is well known to affect the blood, and
+consequently the flesh. Beasts subjected to such disturbances will often
+turn green within twenty-four hours after death. Mr. Slater, the
+well-known butcher of Kensington and Jermyn-street, states that mutton is
+often so disfigured by blows and the goad, that it cannot be sold for the
+West-end tables. Many of the drovers we doubt not are ruffians, but we
+believe the greater part of this cruelty is to be ascribed to the
+market-place itself, which, considering the immense amount of business to
+be got through on Mondays and Fridays, is absurdly and disgracefully
+confined. According to the official account, the number of live stock
+exhibited in 1853 was--
+
+   Oxen.       Sheep.      Calves.    Pigs.       Total.
+  294,571    1,518,040     36,791    29,593     1,893,888
+
+But this is far from giving a true idea of the whole amount brought into
+London. Much stock arrives in the capital which never enters the great
+mart. For example, Mr. Slater, who kills per week, on the average, 200
+sheep and from 20 to 25 oxen, says, in his evidence before the Smithfield
+Commission, that he buys a great deal of his stock from the graziers in
+Norfolk and Essex. Again, "town" pigs are slaughtered and sent direct to
+the meat market, while many sheep are bought from the parks, where they
+have been temporarily placed till they find a purchaser. A much more
+correct estimate of the flocks and herds which are annually consumed in
+London may be gathered from a report of the numbers transmitted by the
+different lines of railway, compiled from official sources by Mr. Ormandy,
+the cattle-traffic manager of the North-Western Railway. From this able
+pamphlet we extract the following table:--
+
+  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |                           | Oxen. |  Sheep. |Calves.| Pigs. |  Total  |
+  |                           |       |         |       |       |for 1853.|
+  |                           |-------|---------|-------|-------|---------|
+  |By Eastern Counties        | 81,744|  277,735|  3,492| 23,427|  386,398|
+  | " L. & N. Western         | 70,435|  248,445|  5,113| 24,287|  348,280|
+  | " Great Northern          | 15,439|  120,333|    563|  8,973|  145,308|
+  | " Great Western           |  6,813|  104,607|  2,320|  2,909|  116,649|
+  | " L. & S. Western         |  4,885|  100,960|  1,781|    516|  108,142|
+  | " South Eastern           |    875|   58,320|    114|    142|   59,451|
+  | " L. & B. & S. Coast      |    863|   13,690|    117|     54|   14,724|
+  | " Sea from North of       |       |         |       |       |         |
+  |     England and Scotland  | 14,662|   11,141|    421|  3,672|   29,896|
+  | " Sea from Ireland        |  2,311|    3,472|     21|  5,476|   11,280|
+  |Imported from the Continent| 55,065|  229,918| 25,720| 10,131|  320,834|
+  |Driven in by road, and from|       |         |       |       |         |
+  |  the neighbourhood of the | 69,096|  462,172| 62,114| 48,295|  641,647|
+  |  metropolis (obtained from|       |         |       |       |         |
+  |  the toll-gate lessees)   |       |         |       |       |         |
+  |                           |-------|---------|-------|-------|---------|
+  |Total                      |322,188|1,630,793|101,776|127,852|2,182,609|
+  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+These numbers show at a glance what a part the railway plays in supplying
+animal food to the metropolis, and how trifling in comparison is the
+amount that travels up on foot. The Eastern Counties lines, penetrating
+and monopolizing the rich breeding and fattening districts of Norfolk and
+Essex, bring up the largest share. Many of the little black cattle, that
+tourists see in Scotland climbing the hills like cats, come directly from
+these counties, having some months before been sent thither from their
+native north to clothe their bones with English substance. By the same
+line we receive a fair portion of that great foreign contribution to our
+larders, the mere shadow of which so frightened our graziers some years
+ago, principally Danish stock, which finds its way from Tonning to
+Lowestoff, a route newly opened up by the North of Europe Steam-ship
+Company. The North-Western is next in rank as a carrier of live stock.
+This line takes in the contributions from the Midland Counties, and, by
+way of Liverpool, abundance of Irish and Scotch cattle. The Great Northern
+is perhaps destined to surpass both in the quantities of food it will
+eventually pour into London, running as it does through the northern
+breeding districts, and receiving at its extremity the herds which come
+from Aberdeen and its neighbourhood.
+
+The foreign supply last year of cattle, sheep, pigs, and calves, was more
+than a seventh of the entire number sent to London. The daily bills of
+entries at the Custom House furnishes us with a valuable indication of the
+fields from which we have already received, and may in future expect to
+receive still further additions of what Englishmen greatly covet--good
+beef and mutton at a moderate price. The arrivals by steam in the port of
+London in 1853 were as follows:--
+
+  +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |   _From_        |_Oxen._| _Sheep._ | _Calves._|_Pigs._|_Total._|
+  |-----------------|-------|----------|----------|-------|--------|
+  |Holland          | 40,538|   172,730|    24,280|  9,370| 246,918|
+  |Denmark          |  9,487|     7,515|        60|   ..  |  17,062|
+  |Hanseatic Towns  |  4,366|    37,443|         1|    632|  42,442|
+  |Belgium          |    449|    12,006|     1,244|   ..  |  13,699|
+  |France           |    105|       224|       135|    129|     593|
+  |Portugal         |    100|      ..  |      ..  |   ..  |     100|
+  |Spain            |     17|      ..  |      ..  |   ..  |      17|
+  |Russia           |      3|      ..  |      ..  |   ..  |       3|
+  |                 |-------|----------|----------|-------|--------|
+  |Total            | 55,065|   229,918|    25,720| 10,131| 320,834|
+  -----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+Holland, Denmark, and the Hanseatic Towns, it will be seen, were the
+principal contributors. A more striking example of the influence of the
+legislation of one country in modifying the occupations of the people of
+another could not be cited, than the manner in which Sir Robert Peel's
+tariff revolutionized the character of Danish and Dutch farming. Before
+1844 the pastures of the two countries, more especially the rich marshes
+of Holland, were almost exclusively devoted to dairy purposes: the
+abolition of the duty on live stock in that year quickly introduced a new
+state of things. The farmers began to breed stock, and consequently
+turnips and mangel-wurzel have been creeping over fields, where once the
+dairy-maid carried the milking-pail, as gradually as one landscape
+succeeds another in the Polytechnic dissolving views. We get now from both
+countries excellent beef, especially from Jutland, whose lowing herds used
+formerly to go to Hamburg--and who has not heard of the famous Hambro'
+beef? We may expect in time to receive still finer meat from this quarter,
+for the Danes have been sedulously improving their breed, and
+agriculturists, who saw the beasts which were sent over to the last
+Baker-street show, admitted that they were in every respect equal to our
+own short-horns. It is gratifying to note how ready the world is to follow
+our lead in the matter of stock-breeding. Bulls are bought up at fabulous
+prices by foreigners, and especially by our cousins on the other side of
+the Atlantic, for the purpose of raising the indigenous cattle to the
+British standard. An American, for instance, purchased, for 1,000_l._, a
+celebrated bull bred by Earl Ducie, though unfortunately the animal broke
+his neck on his passage out. Another noble specimen was secured, we have
+heard, for the same quarter, for 600_l._
+
+The supply of sheep and lambs has, during the last twenty years, stood
+nearly still; for in 1828 there were brought to market 1,412,032, and in
+1849 but 1,417,000, or only an extra 4,000 for the 500,000 mouths which
+have been added to the metropolis between these two periods. That London
+has of late years abjured mutton, as our immediate ancestors appear to
+have done pork, the evidence of our senses denies. How, then, are we to
+explain this stagnation in the Smithfield returns? By the fact that a new
+channel has been found in the rapid rise of Newgate market, the great
+receptacle of country-killed meat brought up to town by the railways.
+Those who remember the place forty years ago state that there were not
+then twenty salesmen, and now there are two hundred. This enormous
+development is due to steam, which bids fair to give Newgate, in the cold
+season at least, the lead over Smithfield. The new agent has more than
+quadrupled the area from which London draws its meat. Twenty years ago
+eighty miles was the farthest distance from which carcases ever came; now
+the Great Northern and North-Western railways, during the winter months,
+bring hundreds of tons from as far north as Aberdeen, whilst some are
+fetched from Hamburgh and Ostend. Country slaughtering will in time, we
+have little doubt, deliver the capital from the nuisances which grow out
+of this horrible trade. Aberdeen is in fact becoming little else than a
+London _abattoir_. The style in which the butchers of that place dress and
+pack the carcases leaves nothing to be desired, and in the course of the
+year mountains of beef, mutton, pork, and veal arrive the night after it
+is slaughtered in perfect condition. According to returns obligingly
+forwarded to us by the different railway companies, we find that the
+following was the weight of country-killed meat by the undermentioned
+lines:--
+
+                              Tons.
+  Eastern Counties           10,398
+  North-Western               4,602
+  Great Western               5,200
+  Great Northern             13,152[23]
+  South-Eastern               1,035
+  South-Western               2,000
+  Brighton and South Coast      100
+                             ------
+                             36,487
+
+Thus no less than 36,487 tons of meat are annually "pitched" at Newgate
+and Leadenhall markets. As the Scotch boats convey about 700 tons more, we
+have at least 37,187 tons of country-killed meat brought into London by
+steam, and these immense contributions are totally independent of the
+amount slaughtered at Smithfield, which is estimated to average weekly
+1,000 oxen, 3,000 sheep and lambs, and 400 calves and pigs. We have given
+the average supply; but on some occasions the quantity is enormously
+increased. The Eastern Counties line during one Christmas week deposited
+at Newgate about 1,000 tons of meat; and the weight sent by other
+companies on the same day would be proportionately large. No less than
+forty waggons were waiting on one occasion to discharge their beef and
+mutton into the market. And what does our reader imagine may be the area
+in which nine-tenths of this mass of meat are sold? Just 2 roods 45
+perches, having one carriage entrance, which varies from 14 to 18 feet in
+width, and four foot entrances, the widest of which is only 16 feet 6
+inches, and the narrowest 5 feet 8 inches. No wonder that, as we are
+informed by more than one of the witnesses before the Smithfield Inquiry
+Commission, there is often not sufficient space to expose the meat for
+sale, and it becomes putrid in consequence. Though we have acquired the
+fame of being a practical people, it must be confessed that we conduct
+many of our every-day transactions in a blundering manner, when we cannot
+provide commodious markets for perishable commodities, or even turn out an
+omnibus that can be mounted without an effort of agility and daring.
+
+Mr. Giblett, the noted butcher, late of Bond Street, calculates that the
+amount of meat brought by the railways into Newgate is three times that
+supplied by the London carcase butchers, who annually send 52,000 oxen,
+156,000 sheep, 10,400 calves, and 10,400 pigs. Taking this estimate, and
+applying it also to the Leadenhall market, we shall have at
+
+  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |                            |_Beasts._| _Sheep._|_Calves._| _Pigs._|
+  |----------------------------|---------|---------|---------|--------|
+  |Newgate, meat               | 156,000 |  468,000|  31,200 |  31,200|
+  |Leadenhall, ditto           |   5,200 |   41,600|   ..    |   ..   |
+  |                            |---------|---------|---------|--------|
+  |                            | 161,200 |  509,600|  31,200 |  31,200|
+  |Live stock brought to London| 322,188 |1,630,793| 101,776 | 127,852|
+  |                            |---------|---------|---------|--------|
+  |Total supply of live stock }|         |         |         |        |
+  |  and meat to London       }| 483,388 |2,140,393| 132,976 | 159,052|
+  +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+This we are convinced is still below the truth, for we have not included
+the country-killed meat sold at Farringdon and Whitechapel markets.[24]
+The total value of this enormous supply of flesh cannot be much less than
+fourteen millions annually.
+
+These figures demonstrate that the falling off of sheep sent to London is
+solely because they now come to town in the form of mutton. It is sent to
+a much greater extent than beef, in consequence of its arriving in finer
+condition, being more easily carried, and better worth the cost of
+conveyance on account of the larger proportion of prime joints. Indeed,
+the entire carcase of the oxen never comes, since the coarse
+boiling-pieces would have to pay the same carriage as the picked
+"roastings." Newgate, be it remembered, is eminently a West End market,
+and fully two-thirds of its meat find its way to that quarter of the town.
+Accordingly, most of the beef "pitched" here consists of sirloins and
+ribs; and, in addition to whole carcases of sheep, there are numerous
+separate legs and saddles of mutton. This accounts for a fact that has
+puzzled many, namely, how London manages to get such myriads of chops. Go
+into any part of the metropolis, and look into the windows of the thousand
+eating-houses and coffee-shops in the great thoroughfares, and in every
+one of them there is the invariable blue dish with half a dozen juicy,
+well-trimmed chops, crowned with a sprig of parsley. To justify such a
+number, either fourfold the supply of sheep must come to London that we
+have any account of, or in lieu of the ordinary number of vertebræ they
+must possess as many as the great boa. When the prodigious store of
+saddles which the country spares the town have once been seen the wonder
+ceases. "Sometimes I cut 100 saddles into mutton-chops to supply the
+eating-houses," says Mr. Banister, of Threadneedle Street.
+
+The weather preserves a most delicate balance between Newgate and
+Smithfield. Winter is the busy time at the former market, when meat can be
+carried any distance without fear of taint. As soon as summer sets in,
+Smithfield takes its turn; for butchers then prefer to purchase live
+stock, in order that they may kill them the exact moment they are
+required. Sometimes as many as 1,200 beasts and from 12,000 to 15,000
+sheep are slaughtered in hot weather on a Friday night, in the
+neighbourhood of Smithfield, for Saturday's market. Every precaution is
+taken on the railways to keep the meat sweet. The Eastern Counties Company
+provide "peds," or cloths cut to the shape of the carcase or joint, for
+the use of their customers, and sometimes it is conveyed from the north in
+boxes. When, in spite of care, it turns out to be tainted, the salesman to
+whom it is consigned calls the officer of the market, by whom it is
+forthwith sent to Cow Cross, and there burnt in the nacker's yard.
+According, however, to a competent witness--Mr. Harper--bad meat in any
+quantity can be disposed of in the metropolis to butchers living in low
+neighbourhoods, who impose it upon the poor at night. "There is one shop,
+I believe," he says, "doing 500_l._ per week in diseased meat. This firm
+has a large foreign trade. The trade in diseased meat is very alarming,
+and anything in the shape of flesh can be sold at about 1_d._ per pound or
+8_d._ per stone."
+
+If the reader is not already surfeited with the mountains of meat we have
+piled before his eyes, let us beg his attention for a few minutes to game
+and poultry, which we bring on in their proper course. Leadenhall and
+Newgate, as all the world knows, are the great metropolitan depôts for
+this class of food, especially the former, which receives perhaps
+two-thirds of the entire supply. The quantities of game and wild birds
+consigned to some of the large salesmen almost exceeds belief. After a few
+successful battues in the Highlands, it is not at all unusual for one firm
+to receive 5,000 head of game, and as many as 20,000 to 30,000 larks are
+often sent up to market together. All other kinds of the feathered tribe
+which are reputed good for food are received in proportionate abundance.
+If it were not for the great salesmen, many a merry dinner would be
+marred, for the retail poulterers would be totally incapable of executing
+the constant and sudden orders for the banquets which are always
+proceeding. The good people at the Crystal Palace have already learned to
+consume, besides unnumbered other items, 600 chickens daily; and from this
+we may guess how vast the wants of the entire metropolis. The sources from
+which game and poultry are derived are fewer than might be imagined. The
+Highlands and Yorkshire send up nearly all the grouse; and scores of
+noblemen, members of Parliament, and other wealthy or enthusiastic
+sportsmen, who are at this present moment beating over the moors, and
+walking for their pleasure twenty-five miles a day, assist to furnish this
+delicacy to the London public at a moderate rate.
+
+Pheasants and partridges mainly come from Norfolk and Suffolk; snipes from
+the marshy lowlands of Holland, which also provides our entire supply of
+teal, widgeon, and other kinds of wild fowl, with the exception of those
+caught in the "decoys" of Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. From Ostend
+there are annually transmitted to London 600,000 tame rabbits, which are
+reared for the purpose on the neighbouring sand dunes. We are indebted to
+Ireland for flocks of plovers, and quails are brought from Egypt and the
+south of Europe. In most of our poulterers' windows may be seen the long
+wooden boxes, with a narrow slit, in which these latter birds are kept
+until required for the spit. Not long since upwards of 17,000 came to
+London _viâ_ Liverpool, whither they had been brought from the Campagna,
+near Rome. Of the 2,000,000 of fowls that every year find a resting-place
+_vis-à-vis_ to boiled tongues on our London tables, by far the greatest
+quantity are drawn from the counties of Surrey and Sussex, where the
+Dorking breed is in favour. Ireland also sends much poultry. No less than
+1,400 tons of chickens, geese, and ducks are brought to town annually by
+the Great Western Railway, most of which are from the neighbourhood of
+Cork and Waterford, whence they are shipped to Bristol. Londoners are
+accustomed to see shops of late years which profess to sell "West of
+England produce," such as young pork, poultry, butter, and clouted cream.
+All these delicacies are brought by the Great Western Railway, and are
+principally the contributions of Somersetshire and Devonshire. The bulk of
+the geese, ducks, and turkeys, however, come from Norfolk, Cambridge,
+Essex, and Suffolk--four fat counties, which do much to supply the London
+commissariat, the Eastern Counties Railway alone having brought thence
+last year 22,462 tons of fish, flesh, fowl, and good red herrings.
+
+For pigeons we are indebted to "our fair enemy France," as Sir Philip
+Sydney calls her, but now we trust our fast friend. They proceed
+principally from the interior, and are shipped for our market from
+Boulogne and Calais. How many eggs we get from across the Channel we
+scarcely like to say. Mr. M'Culloch considers that the capital receives
+from 70,000,000 to 75,000,000--a number which we think must be much below
+the mark, seeing that the Brighton and South Coast line brings annually
+2,600 tons, the produce of Belgium and France. At Bastoign, in the latter
+country, there is a farm of 200 acres entirely devoted to the rearing of
+poultry and the production of eggs for the supply of London.
+
+No perfectly accurate account can be given of the number per annum of
+poultry, game, and wild birds which enter Leadenhall and Newgate markets;
+but the following estimate was handed to us by a dealer who turns over
+100,000_l._ a year in this trade. As the list takes no account of the
+quantity which goes direct to the retailer, nor of the thousands sent as
+presents, it must fall short of the actual consumption:--
+
+  Grouse                         100,000
+  Partridges                     125,000
+  Pheasants                       70,000
+  Snipes                          80,000
+  Wild Birds (mostly small)      150,000
+  Plovers                        150,000
+  Quails                          30,000
+  Larks                          400,000
+  Widgeon                         70,000
+  Teal                            30,000
+  Wild Ducks                     200,000
+  Pigeons                        400,000
+  Domestic Fowls               2,000,000
+  Geese                          100,000
+  Ducks                          350,000
+  Turkeys                        104,000
+  Hares                          100,000
+  Rabbits                      1,300,000
+                               ---------
+  Total                        5,759,000
+
+In addition to its dead game and wild fowl, Leadenhall market is quite a
+Noah's ark of live animals. Geese, ducks, swans, pigeons, and cocks,
+bewilder you with their noise. Intermingled with these birds of a feather
+are hawks, ferrets, dogs and cats, moving about in their wicker cages, and
+almost aggravated to madness by the proximity of their prey. The major
+portion of the live stock is designed either for sporting purposes or for
+"petting" and breeding, and do not belong to the commissariat department.
+Of the dead game and poultry, the seven railways bring to London about
+7,871 tons weight in the course of the year.
+
+In taking leave of the poultry-yard we are reminded of the dairy, and of
+the large establishments required to fill the milk-jugs of London. There
+are at the present moment, as near as we can learn, 20,000 cows in the
+metropolitan and suburban dairies, some of which number 500 cows apiece.
+Even these gigantic establishments have been occasionally exceeded, and
+one individual, several years ago, possessed 1,500 milkers--a fact fatal
+to the popular superstition, that notwithstanding many attempts, no
+dairyman could ever muster more than 999. The terrible ravages of
+pleuro-pneumonia, which many believe to be a contagious disease, have
+cured the passion for such extensive herds. The larger dairies of the
+metropolis are on the whole admirably managed, and the cows luxuriate in
+airy outhouses, but the smaller owners are often confined for space, and
+the animals are sometimes cooped in sheds, placed in tiers one above
+another. The country dairymaid laughs at the ignorance which the Londoner
+betrays of rural matters when on a visit to her master, but she would be
+perplexed in her turn if told that in the capital they fed the cows
+chiefly upon brewers' grains, and milked them on the _second story_? A
+few years since Mr. Rugg appalled the town, which had forgotten Matthew
+Bramble, Esq., and the "New Bath Guide," by detailing a nauseous process
+which he affirmed was in use among cunning milkmen for the adulteration of
+their milk. There was, however, a great deal of exaggeration in the
+account, and Dr. Hassell, whose analysis of various articles of food in
+the _Lancet_ are widely known, states that the "iron-tailed cow" is the
+main agent employed in the fraud, and that the only colouring matter he
+has been enabled to discover is annatto. Nearly all the cream goes to the
+West-End; and one dairyman living at Islington informed us that he made
+1,200_l._ a year by the trade he carried on in that single article with
+the fashionable part of the town. It must be evident, upon the least
+consideration, that the London and suburban dairies alone could not supply
+the metropolis. If each of the 20,000 cows give on the average twelve
+quarts a day, the sum total would only be 240,000 quarts. If we suppose
+this quantity to be increased by the exhaustless "iron-tailed cow," of
+which Dr. Hassell speaks, to 300,000 quarts, the allowance to each
+individual of the two millions and a quarter of population would be little
+more than a quarter of a pint. This is clearly below the exigencies of the
+tea-table, the nursery, and the kitchen, and we do not think we shall make
+an overestimate if we assume that half as much again is daily consumed.
+Here again the railway, which in some cases brings milk from as far as
+eighty miles, makes up the deficiency. The Eastern Counties line conveyed
+in 1853 to London, 3,174,179 quarts, the North-Western 144,000 quarts, the
+Great Western 23,400 quarts, the Brighton and South Coast 100 tons, and
+the Great Northern as much perhaps as the North-Western. The milk is
+collected from the farmers by agents in the country, who sell it to the
+milkmen, of whom there are 1,347, to distribute it over the town. In
+course of time it is possible that town dairies may entirely disappear.
+Cowsheds, often narrow and low, in thickly-populated localities, cannot be
+as healthy for the animals as a purer atmosphere; and though experiment
+has shown that they thrive admirably when stalled, the food they get in
+these urban prisons can hardly be as wholesome as that provided by the
+verdant pastures of the farm. The milk which comes by railway has,
+however, this disadvantage, that it will not keep nearly so long as the
+indigenous produce of the metropolitan dairies. The different companies
+have constructed waggons lightly hung on springs, but the churning effect
+of sudden joltings cannot be altogether got rid of.
+
+Of the vegetables and fruit that are brought into the various markets of
+the capital, but especially to Covent Garden, a very large quantity is
+grown in the immediate neighbourhood. From whatever quarter the railway
+traveller approaches London, he perceives that the cultivation of the land
+gradually heightens, until he arrives at those suburban residences which
+form the advanced guards of the metropolis. The fields give place to
+hedgeless gardens, in which, to use a phrase of Washington Irving, "the
+furrows seem finished rather with the pencil than the plough." Acre after
+acre flashes with hand-glasses, streaks of verdure are ruled in close
+parallel lines across the soil with mathematical precision, interspersed
+here and there with patches as sharp cut at the edges as though they were
+pieces of green baize--these are the far-famed market-gardens. They are
+principally situated in the long level tracts of land that must once have
+been overflowed by the Thames--such as the flat alluvial soil known as the
+Jerusalem Level, extending between London Bridge and Greenwich--and the
+grounds about Fulham, Battersea, Chelsea, Putney, and Brentford. Mr.
+Cuthill, who is perhaps the best authority on this subject, estimates that
+there are 12,000 acres under cultivation for the supply of vegetables and
+5,000 for fruit-trees. This seems an insufficient area for the supply of
+so many mouths, but manure and active spade husbandry compensate for lack
+of space. By these agencies four and sometimes five crops are extracted
+from the land in the course of the year. The old-fashioned farmer,
+accustomed to the restrictions of old-fashioned leases, would stare at
+such a statement, and ask how long it would last. But his surprise would
+be still greater at being told that after every clearance the ground is
+deeply trenched, and its powers restored with a load of manure to every
+thirty square feet of ground. This is the secret of the splendid return,
+and it could be effected nowhere but in the neighbourhood of such cities
+as London, where the produce of the fertilizer is sufficiently great to
+keep down its price. And here we have a striking example of town and
+country reciprocation. The same waggon that in the morning brings a load
+of cabbages, is seen returning a few hours later filled with dung. An
+exact balance as far as it goes is thus kept up, and the manure, instead
+of remaining to fester among human beings, is carted away to make
+vegetables. What a pity we cannot extend the system, and turn the whole
+sewerage by drain-pipes entirely into the rural districts, to feed the
+land, instead of allowing it, as we do, to run into the Thames and pollute
+the water to be used in our dwellings.
+
+The care and attention bestowed by the market-gardeners is incredible to
+those who have not witnessed it; every inch of ground is taken advantage
+of--cultivation runs between the fruit-trees; storming-parties of cabbages
+and cauliflowers swarm up to the very trunks of apple-trees;
+raspberry-bushes are surrounded and cut off by young seedlings. If you see
+an acre of celery growing in ridges, be sure that, on a narrow inspection,
+you will find long files of young peas picking their way along the
+furrows. Everything flourishes here except weeds, and you may go over a
+150-acre piece of ground without discovering a single one. Quality, even
+more than quantity, is attended to by the best growers; and they nurse
+their plants as they would children. The visitor will sometimes see "the
+heads" of an acre of cauliflowers one by one folded up in their own leaves
+as carefully as an anxious wife wraps up an asthmatic husband on a
+November night; and if rain should fall, attendants run to cover them up,
+as quickly as they cover up the zoological specimens at the Crystal Palace
+when the watering-pots are set to work.
+
+Insects and blight are also banished as strictly as from the court of
+Oberon. To such a pitch is vigilance carried, that, according to a writer
+in _Household Words_, blight and fungi are searched after with a
+microscope, woodlice exterminated by bantems dressed in socks to prevent
+too much scratching, and other destructive insects despatched by the aid
+of batches of toads, purchased at the rate of six shillings a dozen!
+
+The continual extension of London is, however, rapidly encroaching upon
+all the old market-gardens, and they are obliged to move farther a-field:
+thus high cultivation, like a green fairy-ring, is gradually widening and
+enlarging its circle round the metropolis. The coarser kinds of vegetables
+are but sparingly grown in these valuable grounds, but come up in large
+quantities from all parts of the country; and some of the choice kinds are
+now reared far away in Devonshire and Cornwall, where they are favoured by
+the climate. It would be interesting to get an authentic statement of the
+acreage dedicated to fruit and vegetables for the London market, but we
+find the information unattainable. Mr. Cuthill calculates that there are
+200 acres employed around the metropolis in the growth of strawberries,
+and 5 acres planted as mushroom-beds. Cucumbers were once very largely
+cultivated. He has seen as many as 14 acres under hand-glasses in a single
+domain, and has known 200,000 gherkins cut in a morning for the
+pickle-merchants. Strangely enough, they have refused to grow well around
+London ever since the outbreak of the potato disease. The disastrous
+epidemic of 1849, we have little doubt, had much to do with the diminished
+supply, for the cholera soon brought about the result desired by Mrs.
+Gamp, "when cowcumbers is three for twopence," prices quite explanatory of
+the indisposition of the land to produce them. The very high state of
+cultivation in the metropolitan market-gardens necessitates the employment
+of a large amount of labour; and it is supposed that no less than 35,000
+persons are engaged in the service of filling the vegetable and
+dessert-dishes of the metropolis. This estimate leaves out those in the
+provinces and on the Continent, which would, we doubt not, nearly double
+the calculation, and show a troop of men and women as large as the entire
+British army. There are five marts in London devoted to the sale of
+fruit--Covent Garden, Spitalfields, the Borough, Farringdon, and
+Portman-markets,--besides a vast number of street offsets, such as
+Clare-market, in which hawkers generally stand with their barrows. Covent
+Garden is not only their type, but it does nearly as much business as all
+of them put together, and for that reason we shall dwell upon it to the
+exclusion of the others.
+
+At the first dawn of morning in the midst of squalid London, sweet country
+odours greet the early-riser, and cool orchards and green strawberry
+slopes seem ever present to the mind.
+
+If those who seek pleasure in gaiety have never visited the market in its
+prime, let them journey thither some summer morning, and note how fresh
+will seem the air, and how full of life the people, after the languid
+waltz in Grosvenor Square. The central alley of the "Garden," as it is
+called by the costermongers, is one of the prettiest lounges in town; and,
+whether by chance or design, it exhibits, in its arrangement from east to
+west, a complete march of the seasons. At the western entrance the visitor
+is greeted with the breath of flowers; and there they show in smiling
+banks piled upon the stalls, or sorted with frilled edges into ladies'
+bouquets. As he proceeds, he comes upon the more delicate spring
+vegetables--pink shafts of the oriental-looking rhubarb, delicate cos
+lettuce, &c.; still further along the arcade, the plate-glass windows on
+either side display delicate fruits, done up in dainty boxes, and set off
+with tinted paper shreds. Behind these windows also might be seen those
+rarities which it is the pride of London market-gardeners to provide, and
+in producing which they all struggle to steal the longest march upon
+time--a sieve-full of early potatoes, each as small and costly as the egg
+of a Cochin-China fowl--a basin-full of peas, at a guinea a pint--a
+cucumber marked 5_s._, and strawberries 18_s._ the ounce.
+
+The market-gardeners of Penzance are beginning to send up many of these
+early vegetables, the mildness of the south-western extremity of Cornwall
+giving them a wonderful advantage over every other part of the kingdom.
+Gentlemen's gardeners also contribute somewhat, by sending to the salesmen
+such of the produce of their glazed houses as is not consumed in the
+family, and receive articles in return of which they happen to have an
+insufficient quantity themselves. These forced vegetables give way, it is
+true, as the season advances; but when in, they are always most to be
+found at that end of the walk nearest the rising sun. As the year
+proceeds, the lustier and more natural fruits are displayed--peaches that
+have ripened with blushing cheek to the wind, gigantic strawberries,
+raspberries, nectarines, or blooming plums. Feathery pines add their
+mellow hue; and when these fail, the colour deepens into amber piles of
+oranges, umber filberts, and the rich brown of Spanish chestnuts, the
+produce of the waning year.
+
+To leave, however, our fancied procession of the seasons, and to return to
+the actual business of the market. As early as two o'clock in the morning,
+a person looking down the dip of Piccadilly will perceive the first influx
+of the daily supply of vegetables and fruit to Covent Garden market:
+waggons of cabbages, built up and regularly faced, with the art rather of
+the mason than the market-gardener; light spring-vans fragrant with
+strawberries; and milk-white loads of turnips which slowly roll along the
+great-western road, and bring the produce of the fertile alluvial shores
+of the Thames to the great west-end mart. The pedestrian proceeding along
+the southern and eastern roads sees the like stream of vegetable food
+quietly converging to the same spot. From this hour, especially upon a
+Saturday morning, until nine o'clock, the scene at the market itself is of
+the most exciting description.
+
+Without some organization it would be impossible to receive and display to
+the advantage of the buyer and seller the varied products that in the grey
+of the morning pours into so limited a space. Accordingly, different
+portions of it are dedicated to distinct classes of vegetables and fruits.
+The finest of the delicate soft fruit, such as strawberries, peaches, &c.,
+are lodged, as we have mentioned, in the central alley of the market--the
+inmost leaf of the rose. On the large covered space to the north of this
+central alley is the wholesale fruit-station, fragrant with apples, pears,
+greengages, or whatever is in season. The southern open space is
+dedicated to cabbages and other vegetables; and the extreme south front is
+wholly occupied by potato-salesmen. Around the whole quadrangle, during a
+busy morning, there is a party-coloured fringe of waggons backed in
+towards the central space, in which the light green of cabbages forms the
+prevailing colour, interrupted here and there with the white of turnips,
+or the deep orange of digit-like carrots; and as the spectator watches,
+the whole mass is gradually absorbed into the centre of the market.
+Meanwhile the space dedicated to wholesale fruit sales is all alive.
+Columns of empty baskets twelve feet high seem progressing through the
+crowd "of their own motion." The vans have arrived from the railways, and
+rural England, side by side with the Continent, pours in its supplies from
+many a sheltered mossy nook. It is very easy to discover by a glance which
+are the home-grown, which the foreign contributions. There stand the
+English baskets and sieves, solid and stout as Harry the Eighth, amidst
+little hampers, as delicate as French ladies, and seemingly as incapable
+of withstanding hard usage. Yet some of these have come from Algiers,
+others from the south of France with greengages, and the majority from
+Normandy. France is beginning to send large quantities of peaches and
+nectarines, carefully packed with paper-shavings in small boxes; and even
+strawberries this summer have found their way here from the same quarter.
+The frosts which sometimes occur in the early part of the year, destroy
+nearly all the fruit-crops in the neighbourhood of London; and were it not
+for the bountiful stores which are brought from abroad, Covent Garden
+would be little better than a desert.
+
+The repeal of the high duty upon foreign fruit has so far widened the
+field of supply that it can no longer be destroyed by an unusual fall of
+the mercury. By means of the telegraph, the steamboat, and the railroad,
+we annul the effects of frost, obliterate the sea, and command, at a few
+hours' notice, the produce of the Continent. When there is a dearth in
+this country the fact is immediately noticed by the great fruit-dealers in
+the City: the telegraph forthwith conveys the information to Holland,
+France, and Belgium; and within forty hours steamers from one or other of
+these countries will be seen making towards the Downs and adjoining
+coasts, and in another six their cargoes, fresh plucked from the
+neighbourhoods of old Norman abbeys and quaint Flemish stadthouses, are
+blooming in Covent Garden. Fruit that will bear delay comes up the Thames
+by boat, and is discharged at the wharfs near London Bridge, but the major
+part eventually finds its way to the "Garden." The South-Western and
+South-Eastern are the two principal lines for foreign fruit: the former
+brings large quantities of Spanish and Portuguese produce--such as
+oranges, grapes, melons, nuts, &c.; the latter conveys apples, pears,
+strawberries, peaches, nectarines, &c., from Dover, to which place they
+are brought by steamers. To show how enormous is the supply from abroad,
+we give, on the authority of the goods-manager of the South-Eastern line,
+the amount brought by them in one night:--
+
+  100 tons of green peas from France.
+   50  "   of fruit from Kent.
+   10  "   of filberts from Kent.
+   25  "   of plums from France.
+   10  "   of black currants from France.
+
+In all 195 tons; out of which 135 were from across the water. The Brighton
+and South Coast transmit the produce of Jersey and Dieppe--apples, pears,
+and plums--to the extent last year of about 300 tons. Of vegetables the
+Great Northern is the principal carrier; last year they brought to town
+the enormous quantity of 45,819 tons of potatoes, besides 1,940 tons of
+other vegetables. The potatoes mainly proceed from the fen country.
+Walnuts generally come by the Antwerp boats, which sometimes carry cargoes
+of between 400 and 500 tons. Everybody who has travelled in the Low
+Countries remembers the magnificent walnut-trees which grow along the
+sides of the canals as commonly as elms in our own country. These eke out
+our scantier native stores, and help to make cosier the after-dinner chat
+over the glass of port. During two mornings that we visited Covent Garden
+we saw 613 bushel-baskets of strawberries that had just come from
+Honfleur, and upwards of 1,000 baskets of greengages arrived from the same
+neighbourhood during the week. As we gazed, on one of these occasions upon
+the solid walls of baskets extending down the market, crowned with
+parapets of peach and nectarine boxes, we wondered in our own minds
+whether it would ever be all sold, and the wonder increased as waggon
+after waggon arrived, piled up as high as the second-floor windows of the
+piazza. Venturing to express this doubt to a lazy-looking man who was
+plaiting the strands of a whip, "Blessee, sir," he replied without looking
+up from his work, "the main part on 'em will be at Brummagem by
+dinner-time." True enough, while we had been guessing and wondering, a
+nimble fellow had run to the telegraph and inquired of Birmingham and a
+few distant towns whether they were in want of certain fruits that
+morning. The answer being in the affirmative, the vans turned round,
+rattled off to the North-Western station, and in another hour the
+superfluity of Covent Garden was rushing on its way to fill up the
+deficiency of the midland counties. Thus the wire and steam, both at home
+and abroad, cause the supply to respond instantly to the demand, however
+wide apart the two principles may be working.
+
+The strawberry trade of Covent Garden is not likely, however, at present
+to fall into the hands of foreigners. The London market-gardeners have
+long looked with justice upon this fruit as particularly their own. By the
+skill they have bestowed upon its culture it has advanced enormously, both
+in flavour and size, from the old standard "hautboy" of our fathers, and
+which foreigners mainly cultivate to the present day. Mr. Miatt, of
+Deptford, is the great grower; by judicious grafting he has produced from
+the old stock half-a-dozen different kinds, the most celebrated being the
+"British Queen," which attains a prodigious size. Large quantities of
+strawberries are sent to the market in light spring-vans. They are placed
+in 1 lb. punnets or round willow baskets, or they are carefully piled in
+pottles, and the process of "topping-up," as it is called, is considered
+quite an art in the trade. The rarest and ripest fruit, which goes direct
+to the pastrycooks, is still more deftly treated. Lest it should be
+injured by jolting, horse is exchanged for human carriage. A procession of
+eight or ten stout women, carrying baskets full of strawberry-pottles upon
+their heads, may often be seen streaming in hot haste up Piccadilly,
+preceded by a man, like so many sheep by a bell-wether. It is probable
+that they have trudged all the way from Isleworth with the fruit, and, as
+they frequently make two journeys in the day, the distance traversed is
+not less than twenty-six miles.
+
+After strawberries, perhaps peas are the most important article produced
+by the market-gardeners. Dealers, in order to consult the convenience of
+hotel-keepers and such as require suddenly a large supply for the table,
+keep them ready for the saucepan; and not the least curious feature of
+Covent Garden, about midday, is to see a dense mass of women--generally
+old--seated in rows at the corner of the market, engaged in shelling them.
+One salesman often employs as many as 400 persons in this occupation. The
+major part of these auxiliaries belong to the poor-houses around; they
+obtain permission to go out for this purpose, and the shilling or eighteen
+pence a-day earned by some of the more expert is gladly exchanged for the
+monotonous rations of the parish. In the autumn, again, there will be a
+row of poor creatures, extending along the whole north side of the square,
+shelling walnuts, each person having two baskets, one for the nuts,
+another for the shells, which are bought by the catsup-makers. The poor
+flock from all parts of the town directly a job of the kind is to be had.
+If a fog happens in November, thousands of link-boys and men spring up
+with ready-made torches; if a frost occurs, hundreds of men are to be
+found on the Serpentine and other park waters, to sweep the ice or to put
+on your skates: there are, in the busy part of the town half-a-dozen
+fellows ready of a wet day to rush simultaneously to call a cab "for your
+honour;" and every crossing when it grows muddy almost instantly has its
+man and broom. A sad comment this upon the large floating population of
+starving labour always to be found in the streets of London.
+
+The busiest time at the market is about six o'clock, when the
+costermongers surround Covent Garden with their barrows, and hundreds of
+street hawkers, with their hand-baskets and trays, come for their day's
+supply. The same system of purchase is pursued here as at
+Billingsgate--the rich dealers buy largely and sell again, and the poorer
+club their means and divide the produce. The regular street vender who
+keeps his barrow, drawn by a donkey or a pony, looks down with a certain
+contempt upon the inferior hawkers, principally Irish. They only deal in a
+certain class of vegetables, such as peas, young potatoes, broccoli, or
+cauliflowers, and have nothing to do with _mere greens_. Another class of
+purchasers are the little girls who vend watercresses. Such is the demand
+for cresses, that they are now largely cultivated for the market, the
+spontaneous growth proving quite inadequate to the demand. They are
+produced principally at "Spring Head," at Walthamstow, in Essex, and at
+Cookham, Shrivenham, and Faringdon, on the line of the Great Western,
+which brings to town no less than a ton a week of this wholesome breakfast
+salad. The best, however, come from Camden Town. Most people fancy that
+clear purling streams are necessary for their production; but the Camden
+Town beds are planted in an old brick-field, watered by the Fleet Ditch;
+and though the stream at this point is comparatively pure, they owe their
+unusually luxuriant appearance to a certain admixture of the sewerage. A
+great many hundreds of bunches are sold every morning in Covent Garden;
+but the largest share goes to Farringdon Market. The entire supply to the
+various metropolitan markets cannot be less than three tons weekly.
+Rhubarb is almost wholly furnished by the London market-gardeners. It was
+first introduced by Mr. Miatt forty years ago, who sent his two sons to
+the Borough Market with five bunches, of which they only sold three. From
+this time he continued its cultivation, notwithstanding the sneers at what
+were called his "physic pies." As he predicted, it soon became a
+favourite, and now hundreds of tons weight are sold in Covent Garden in
+the course of the year. It would be impossible to give any precise account
+of the fruit and vegetable produce that is poured day by day into London;
+for the authorities themselves only know how many baskets arrive, not how
+much they contain. The railway returns give us the quantity brought from a
+distance, and we find that the seven lines transmit annually somewhere
+about 70,000 tons of vegetables and soft green fruit. This is irrespective
+of dried fruit, oranges, &c.--a business of itself, involving great
+interests, and employing an immense capital, and of which we will say a
+few words.
+
+The foreign-fruit trade has its head-quarters in the city. The pedestrian
+who walks down Fish Street Hill would assuredly never surmise that at
+certain seasons a regular fruit exhibition is kept up within those dull
+brick houses, before which the tall column lifts its head. All the world
+knows the Messrs. Keeling and Hunt, whose effigies seem to stand, in the
+public eye, upon a vast pyramid of pine-apples. This firm hold sales of
+various kinds of fruit in their auction-rooms in Monument Yard. On these
+occasions the long apartments make a show, before which, for quantity at
+least, that of Chiswick pales. Pine-apples by thousands, melons, forbidden
+fruit, and mangoes, fill the room from end to end; so famous indeed is the
+display, that there are lithographic engravings of it, in which the
+salesmen are seen walking about as perplexed, apparently by the luscious
+luxuriance around them, as Adam might have been in his own happy garden.
+The pine-apple market is of modern date. The first cargo was brought over
+about twenty years ago, and since that time the traffic has rapidly
+increased, and at the present moment 300,000 pines come yearly into the
+port of London, of which nine-tenths are consigned to Messrs. Keeling and
+Hunt, the original importers. They are principally from the Bahamas, in
+the West Indies, where they grow almost spontaneously; but of late years
+they have been more carefully cultivated, and grafts of our best hothouse
+pines have been taken out to improve their quality. There is a fleet of
+clippers appropriated to the carriage across the sea of this single fruit.
+The melons come from Spain, Portugal, and Holland. Spain is known to
+abound in melons, for Murillo's beggar-boys are perpetually eating them;
+but we believe it will be news to most Englishmen that the land of dykes
+supplies London with fragrant cargoes of an almost tropical fruit. The
+largest foreign-fruit trade, however, by far, is that in oranges. We
+shall perhaps astonish our readers when we tell them that upwards of
+60,000,000 are imported for the use of London alone, accompanied by not
+less than 15,000,000 lemons. Any time between December and May the orange
+clippers from the Azores and Lisbon may be seen unloading their cargoes in
+the neighbourhood of the great stores in Pudding and Botolph Lanes. There
+are 240 of these fast-sailing vessels engaged in the entire trade, and of
+this fleet seventy at least are employed in supplying the windows of the
+fruiterers and the apple-stalls of London. All these fruits, together with
+nuts and walnuts, apples, plums, pears, and some peaches, &c., are
+disposed of weekly at the auction sales in Monument Yard to the general
+dealers, the majority of whom are located in Duke's Place, close at hand,
+and are mostly Jews. Indeed we are informed that many of them are the
+identical boys grown up to manhood that used some twenty-five years ago to
+sell oranges about the streets, and whose old place has gradually been
+taken by the Irish. They act as middlemen between the importers and the
+tribe of peripatetics who, at certain times of the day, resort hither to
+fill their baskets and barrows. Covent Garden also supplies retailers with
+oranges and nuts, especially on Sunday mornings, when the place is
+sometimes crowded like a fair. The following bill of quantities, drawn up
+by Mr. Keeling, is derived, we believe, from the Custom House returns:--
+
+  _Fruit._
+
+  Apples            39,561 bushels.
+  Pears             19,742    "
+  Cherries         264,240 lbs.
+  Grapes         1,328,190
+  Pine-apples      200,000
+  Oranges       61,635,146
+  Lemons        15,408,789
+
+  _Nuts._
+
+  Spanish nuts}     72,509 bushels
+  Barcolena   }
+  Brazil            11,700   "
+  Chestnuts         26,250   "
+  Walnuts           36,088   "
+  Cocoa-nuts     1,255,009   "
+
+Of the amount of bread consumed in London we have no specific information,
+but there are data which enable us to approximate to the truth. Porter, in
+his "Progress of the Nation," gives us the returns of eight schools,
+families, and institutions, containing 1,902 men, women, and children,
+each of whom ate on the average 331-1/16 lbs. of bread per annum. Now if
+we multiply this quantity by the number of the inhabitants of the
+metropolis--2,500,000, or thereabouts--we have a total of 413,700,000
+half-quartern loaves of 2 lbs. weight each. The flour used in puddings,
+pies, &c., we throw in as a kind of offset against the London babies under
+one year old. Some of this bread is a contribution from the country, and
+one Railway--the Eastern Counties--brought last year 237 tons 12 cwts. to
+town.
+
+Now let us see how much sack goes to all this quantity of bread--with what
+rivers of stout, &c., we wash down such mountains of flesh. According to
+the excise returns, there were 747,050 quarters of malt consumed in London
+in the year 1853 by the seventeen great brewers. As each quarter of malt,
+with its proportionate allowance of hops, produces three and a half
+barrels of beer, we get at the total brew of last year 1,614,675, or
+pretty nearly a thousand million tumblers of ale and porter. On countless
+sign-boards of the metropolis this last is advertised by the title of
+"entire," and it is thus that the liquid and its name arose. Prior to the
+year 1730, publicans were in the habit of selling ale, beer, and twopenny,
+and the "thirsty souls" of that day were accustomed to combine either of
+these in a drink called half-and-half. From this they proceeded to spin
+"three threads," as they called it, or to have their glass filled from
+each of the three taps. In the year 1730, however, a certain publican,
+named Horwood, to save himself the trouble of making the triune mixture,
+brewed a liquor intended to imitate the taste of the "three threads," and
+to this he applied the term "entire." His concoction was approved, and,
+being puffed as good porters' drink, it speedily came to be called porter
+itself. Of the seventeen great London breweries, the house of Truman,
+Hanbury, Buxton, and Co. stood in 1853 at the top of the list, having
+consumed 140,000 quarters of malt, and paid to the excise 180,000_l._, or
+enough to build two ninety-gun ships, at the usual cost of a thousand
+pounds per gun. The visitor in proceeding through this establishment
+realizes, perhaps better than in any other place, the enormous scale on
+which certain creature-comforts for the use of the town are produced. As
+he walks between the huge boilers in which 1,600 barrels are brewed nearly
+every day, or makes the circuit of the four great vats, each containing
+80,000 gallons of liquor, or loses himself amid the labyrinth of 135
+enormous reservoirs, which altogether hold 3,500,000 gallons--he begins to
+fancy himself an inhabitant of Lilliput, who has gone astray in a
+Brobdignagian cellar. There is a popular notion that the far-famed London
+stout owes its flavour to the Thames water: this, however, is a "vulgar
+error." Not even the Messrs. Barclay, who are upon the stream, draw any of
+their supply from that source, but it is got entirely from wells, and
+those sunk so deep, that they and the Messrs. Calvert, whose brewery is
+half a mile distant upon the opposite side of the river, find they are
+rivals for the same spring. When one brewery pumps, it drains the wells of
+the other, and the firms are obliged to obtain their water on alternate
+days. Whether it is owing to the increase of the great breweries and of
+other manufactories, which alone consume millions of barrels of water
+yearly, we know not, but it is an ascertained fact, that the depth of
+water in the London wells has for the last twenty-five years been
+diminishing at the rate of a foot a year. "It is comforting to reflect,"
+said one of the great brewers, "that the reason simply is, because the
+water which used to be buried underground is now brought up to fill the
+bodies, wash the faces, and turn the wheels of two millions and a half of
+people."
+
+If the underground stock of water is shrinking, it has increased vastly on
+the surface. The seven companies which supply the metropolis bring in
+between them 44,000,000 gallons daily--a quantity which, large as it is,
+could be delivered in twenty-four hours by a brook nine feet wide and
+three feet deep, running at the rate of three feet per second, or a
+little more than two miles per hour.
+
+The inability of figures to convey an adequate impression to the mind of
+the series of units of which the sums are composed renders it impossible
+to give more than a faint idea of the enormous supplies of food required
+to victual the capital for a single year. But the conception may be
+somewhat assisted by varying the process. Country papers now and then
+astonish their readers by calculations to show how many times the steel
+pens manufactured in England would form a necklace round their own little
+town, or how many thousand miles the matches of their local factory would
+extend if laid in a straight line from the centre of their market-place.
+Let us try our hand on the same sort of picture, and endeavour to fill the
+eye with a prospect that would satisfy the appetite of the far-famed
+Dragon of Wantley himself.
+
+If we fix upon Hyde Park as our exhibition-ground, and pile together all
+the barrels of beer consumed in London, they would form a thousand columns
+not far short of a mile in perpendicular height.
+
+Let us imagine ourselves on the top of this tower, and we shall have a
+look-out worthy of the feast we are about to summon to our feet. Herefrom
+we might discover the Great Northern road stretching far away into the
+length and breadth of the land. Lo! as we look, a mighty herd of oxen,
+with loud bellowing, are beheld approaching from the north. For miles and
+miles the mass of horns is conspicuous winding along the road, ten
+abreast, and even thus the last animal of the herd would be 72 miles away,
+and the drover goading his shrinking flank considerably beyond
+Peterborough. On the other side of the park, as the clouds of dust clear
+away, we see the great Western road, as far as the eye can reach, thronged
+with a bleating mass of wool, and the shepherd at the end of the flock
+(ten abreast) and the dog that is worrying the last sheep are just leaving
+the environs of Bristol, 121 miles from our beer-built pillar. Along
+Piccadily, Regent-street, the Strand, Fleet-street, Cheapside, and the
+eastward Mile-end road line, for 7-1/2 miles, street and causeway are
+thronged with calves, still ten abreast; and in the great parallel
+thoroughfares of Bayswater-road, Oxford-street, and Holborn, we see
+nothing for nine long miles but a slowly-pacing, deeply-grunting herd of
+swine. As we watch this moving mass approaching from all points of the
+horizon, the air suddenly becomes dark--a black pall seems drawn over the
+sky--it is the great flock of birds--game, poultry, and wild-fowl, that,
+like Mrs. Bond's ducks, are come up to be killed: as they fly wing to wing
+and tail to beak they form a square whose superficies is not much less
+than the whole enclosed portion of St. James's Park, or 51 acres. No
+sooner does this huge flight clear away than we behold the park at our
+feet inundated with hares and rabbits.
+
+Feeding 2,000 abreast, they extend from the marble arch to the round pond
+in Kensington Gardens--at least a mile. Let us now pile up all the
+half-quartern loaves consumed in the metropolis in the year, and we shall
+find they form a pyramid which measures 200 square feet at its base, and
+extends into the air a height of 1,293 feet, or nearly three times that of
+St. Paul's. Turning now towards the sound of rushing waters, we find that
+the seven companies are filling the mains for the day. If they were
+allowed to flow into the area of the adjacent St. James's Park, they would
+in the course of the 24 hours flood its entire space with a depth of 30
+inches of water, and the whole annual supply would be quite sufficient to
+submerge the city (one mile square) ninety feet. Of the fish we confess we
+are able to say nothing: when numbers mount to billions, the calculations
+become too trying to our patience. We have little doubt, however, that
+they would be quite sufficient to make the Serpentine one solid mass. Of
+ham and bacon again, preserved meats, and all the countless comestibles we
+have taken no account, and in truth they are little more to the great mass
+than the ducks and geese were to Sancho Panza's celebrated mess--"the
+skimmings of the pot."
+
+Such, then, is a slight sketch of the great London larder. It may be
+imagined that many of these stores come to the metropolis only as to a
+centre for redistribution, and are again scattered over the length and
+breadth of the land. This, however, is not the case. The only line that
+takes food in any quantities out of London is the North-Western. This
+railway speeds into the midland counties, but especially to Birmingham,
+350 tons of fish consigned to the country dealers, and to the nobility and
+gentry. As we have before seen, van-loads of fruit are often despatched in
+the same direction. The South-Eastern conveys large quantities of grain
+down the line, and the London and Brighton and South Coast takes annually
+to Brighton twenty-six tons of meat and 1,100 cattle; and here all the
+food carried _out_ of London in bulk ends. A constant dribble of edibles,
+it is true, is continually escaping by the passenger trains, of which the
+railways take no notice in their goods-department traffic; but it must be
+remembered that a much larger quantity is perpetually flowing unheeded
+into the London commissariat through the same channels. Of the stout and
+porter brewed in the metropolis by the great houses, again, one-seventh
+perhaps finds its way abroad--a drop in comparison to that which must be
+contributed by the 2,482 smaller brewers of the town, and the great
+contingent supplied by Guinness, Allsopp, and other pale-ale brewers. This
+simple statement will suffice to make it evident that in the foregoing
+picture we have given anything but "heaped measure."
+
+The railways having poured this enormous amount of food into the
+metropolis, as the main arteries feed the human body, it is distributed by
+the various dealers into every quarter of the town, first into the
+wholesale markets, or great centres, then into the sub-centres, or retail
+tradesmen's shops, and lastly into the moving centres, or barrows of the
+hawkers, by which means nourishment is poured into every corner of the
+town, and the community at large is supplied as effectually as are the
+countless tissues of the human body by the infinitely divided network of
+capillary vessels. According to the census of 1851, these
+food-distributors are classified in the following manner:--
+
+  _Males._
+
+  Grocers                                            6,475
+  Cowkeepers and milksellers                         3,372
+  Cheesemongers                                      2,156
+  Butchers                                           7,428
+  Poulterers                                           551
+  Fishmongers                                        2,238
+  Other dealers in animal food                       1,376
+  Greengrocers                                       3,325
+  Bakers                                             9,841
+  Confectioners                                      1,806
+  Other dealers in vegetable food                    1,303
+  Brewers                                            2,499
+  Licensed victuallers and beer-shop-keepers, &c.    6,843
+  Wine and spirit merchants                          1,915
+  Other dealers in drinks                            3,805
+  Saltmakers                                            37
+  Water-providers                                      428
+  Innkeepers                                           433
+                                                    ------
+                                                    56,601
+
+  _Females._
+
+  Grocers                                              676
+  Innkeepers                                            93
+  Innkeepers' wives                                    217
+  Cowkeepers                                         1,158
+  Butchers                                             205
+  Butchers' wives                                    3,086
+  Fishmongers                                          151
+  Others dealing in animal food                        283
+  Greengrocers                                         941
+  Bakers                                               480
+  Confectioners                                        542
+  Other dealers in vegetable food                      939
+  Licensed victuallers and beer-shop-keepers           970
+  Wives of ditto                                     4,440
+  Wine and spirit merchants                             15
+  Other dealers in drinks                              457
+                                                    ------
+                                                    14,653
+
+If to this total of 71,254 we add the wandering tribe of costermongers,
+hawkers, and stall-keepers, estimated at 30,000 persons, we shall have an
+army exceeding 100,000 persons; and, as indirectly there must be quadruple
+this number of persons employed, the merest pauper among the population
+has hundreds of invisible hands held out to provide him with the
+necessaries and comforts of life. The smooth working of this great
+distributive machine is due to the principle of competition--that spring
+which so nicely adjusts all the varying conditions of life, and which, in
+serving itself, does the best possible service to the community at large,
+and accomplishes more than the cleverest system of centralization which
+any individual mind could devise.
+
+
+
+
+WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
+
+
+In the year 1716 the brass guns which Marlborough had taken from the
+French were being recast in the royal gun foundry in Moorfields, when a
+young Swiss named Andrew Schalch, who was accidentally present, remarking
+the dampness of the moulds and foreseeing the inevitable result, warned
+Colonel Armstrong the then Surveyor-General, against being too close a
+spectator of the operation. As Schalch foretold, an explosion took place,
+and many workmen were killed. "It's an ill wind that blows nobody good,"
+says the old proverb, and the bursting of the gun was the making of the
+young foreigner's fortune; for in a few days an advertisement appeared in
+one of the public papers requesting him to call upon Colonel Andrews, "as
+the interview may be for his advantage." Andrew Schalch attended
+accordingly, and was at once intrusted with the duty of seeking out a
+better locality for the casting of the royal ordnance. He selected a
+rabbit-warren at Woolwich, as the best site within twelve miles of the
+metropolis, for the threefold reason that it was dry, near to the river,
+and in the immediate neighbourhood of loam for the moulds. Strangely
+enough, it has since been proved that the great nation of antiquity with
+whom the British possess so many qualities in common, had been here
+before. The Romans, whose second station on the Watling Street out of
+London is supposed to have been at Hanging Wood, close at hand, seem to
+have appropriated the sloping ground on which the original gun factory
+stands for the purposes of a cemetery, for on digging the foundations of
+some new buildings urns of their manufacture were discovered in large
+quantities, and a very beautiful sepulchral vase, which is now in the
+museum of the Royal Artillery Institution. Thus, where the conquerors of
+the old world lay down to their last rest, we, the Romans of the present
+age, forge the arms which make us masters of an empire beyond the dreams
+of the imperial Cæsars.
+
+As the visitor enters the great gate of the Arsenal he finds no difficulty
+in tracing the whereabouts of the labours of Andrew, for straight before
+him, with a stately solemnity which marked the conceptions of its builder,
+Vanbrugh, stands the picturesque gun factory, with its high-pitched roof,
+red brickwork, and carved porch, looking like a fine old gentleman amid
+the factory ranges which within these few years have sprung up around. It
+is impossible to contemplate this building without respect, for forth from
+its portals have issued that victorious ordnance which since the days of
+George II. has swept the battle grounds of the old and the new world. Up
+to as late a date as the year 1842 the machinery within these stately old
+edifices was almost as antiquated in character as themselves. The three
+great boring-mills, moved by horses, which had been imported in 1780 as
+astonishing wonders from the Hague, were the only engines used in England
+in making her Majesty's ordnance till eighteen years ago. Such was the
+state of efficiency of the oldest of the three great manufacturing
+departments of the Arsenal! The more modern departments, known as the
+Royal Carriage Factory and the Laboratory, have flourished during the
+present century in an unequal degree. For fifty years the former of these
+branches of the Arsenal has been more or less in a high state of
+efficiency, through the introduction of machinery from the workshops of
+Messrs. Bramah and Maudslay, and of the contrivances of Bentham and Sir I.
+Brunei. The improvements which were due to their inventive genius rendered
+this department highly efficient during the French war, on the conclusion
+of which a long period of inactivity followed; and it was not until 1847
+that symptoms were manifested of renewed life under the able
+superintendence of General Gordon, and still later of Colonel Colquhoun.
+The Laboratory during the same period appears to have remained entirely
+stationary, and up to the year 1853 was far inferior to that of any
+third-rate power. The backward condition of the sole arsenal of England
+during the long interval of peace seems at first sight remarkable, when we
+consider the amount of mechanical ingenuity which had penetrated into
+every factory in the kingdom; but when we remember that the instruments
+and munitions of war are special articles, wanted only for special
+periods, occurring at uncertain intervals of time, the wonder ceases.
+Private manufacturers had no interest in forging instruments of
+destruction, and the State having conquered "a lasting peace," Vulcan was
+allowed to fall into a profound sleep--a sleep so unbroken, that the
+nation listened for a moment to the voice of those Manchester charmers who
+would fain have persuaded us the time was come when our swords could with
+safety be turned into pruning-hooks. In the midst of this amiable delusion
+the Northern Eagle attempted to seize upon the sick man, and Britain
+instinctively flew to arms. This sudden spasm of war following upon a
+forty years' peace at once disclosed the fact that we were totally
+unprepared to wage it. There were not shells enough in the Arsenal to
+furnish forth the first battering-train that went to the East, and the
+fuses in store were of the date of Waterloo. A fourth part of the money
+which we joyfully expended when the wolf was at the door would have been
+thought the demand of a madman, when Europe was supposed to be one big
+sheepfold. Economy prevented efficient progress; and though the
+authorities had latterly originated reforms, their exertions were limited
+by their scanty resources. As the war proceeded, the Ordnance were at
+their wits' end for coarse-grained gunpowder, which, as it was not an
+article of commerce, had to be specially made for them. Small arms were
+wanted in haste, and could only be constructed at leisure. In these
+straits the private manufacturers of the country were applied to; but in
+many cases they had to learn a new art. Do what they would, with the power
+of charging fabulous prices for shot and shell, ammunition, and small
+arms, their powers of production were totally inadequate to meet the
+strain of the great siege, the proportions of which grew larger day by
+day. All the mills in England could not make powder at the rate at which
+it was shot away--a rate which consumed 100,000 barrels before Sevastopol
+was taken; nor could all the armouries of London and Birmingham make
+rifled muskets and sabres fast enough for our men; consequently we were
+obliged to go to Liége for 44,000 Minié guns, 3,000 cavalry swords, and
+12,000 barrels of powder, and to the United States for 20,000 barrels
+more.
+
+It may seem passing strange that England, whose manufacturing power is so
+enormous, should have to resort to foreign manufacturers for the arms
+wherewith to fight. Money in such a country, it is often said, can procure
+anything, and money in this case was no object. The want of suitable
+machinery was the cause of the difficulty. The manufacturers could only
+make the articles demanded of them by skilled labour, which is a thing
+that must be acquired before it can be hired. Old machines can be put to
+extra duty; fresh machines can be readily supplied; but skilled labour is
+a fixed capital which cannot be suddenly increased. The result was a
+lamentable slowness of production and an extraordinary dearness of
+price--the munitions of war in some cases more than doubled in value. It
+is calculated that the shells for the Baltic fleet alone, which were
+fabricated entirely by private manufacturers, cost upwards of £100,000
+more than they would have done had they been made by the new machinery
+lately introduced into the Arsenal. A still stronger case, to show the
+extraordinary prices which the Government had to pay contractors when the
+demand was imperative and supply confined to two or three houses, was that
+of the six-pounder diaphragm shells. They were charged by the contractors
+at 73_l._ per ton, whilst the very same article is now made in the Royal
+Laboratory at 14_l._ 19_s._ 2_d._ per ton. These exorbitant demands and
+the rapid drain of the stores led the War Department to consider whether
+it would not be better to organize a government establishment on the most
+extensive scale, and on the most improved system; and it was ultimately
+determined to adopt a plan by which it would be possible to expand or
+contract the productive power, according to the exigencies of the service,
+by means of machines which could be tended by untutored labourers and
+boys. Accordingly, a very large number of the most ingenious machines
+were procured from the United States, where the Springfield and Harper
+Ferry Arsenals have long been famous for their admirable contrivances to
+save human skill; while others were procured from the Continent and at
+home by Mr. Anderson, the superintendent of machinery. In a very short
+time a powerful factory of the munitions of war sprung into life,
+verifying, for the ten-thousandth time, the truth of the proverb that
+necessity is the mother of invention, or at least, as in this case, of
+improvement.
+
+The introduction of machinery on a large scale put to flight the old
+traditions of the Arsenal, and the manufacturing spirit had to be
+substituted for the military organization under which the establishment
+had been conducted before. Such was the energy and rapidity with which the
+old Arsenal reformed itself, that we question if any private factory in
+the kingdom is conducted upon a better system than is already at work
+there. Within these three years factories have sprung up on every side,
+and the whir of wheels, and the measured stroke of the steam-engine, can
+now be heard over the whole of its immense area.
+
+The three manufacturing departments into which the Woolwich Arsenal is
+divided are as follows:--The Royal Gun Factory, the Royal Carriage
+Department, and the Royal Laboratory Department. Through these factories
+we will conduct our readers, and endeavour to give them an idea how human
+ingenuity has perfected the means to destroy human life. The gun
+factories, by right of age, take precedence, although in point of interest
+they present the least attractive features to the spectator. The fact
+which most strikes him as he threads his way amid the Cyclopean machinery
+is the slow, inevitable manner in which the different processes are
+carried on. Here you see a large lathe turning the outside of an
+eighteen-pounder, revolving as noiselessly and as readily as though it
+were only turning a brass candlestick--a fixed tool cutting off its thin
+shavings of metal with as much ease as if it were box-wood. In the next
+machine a gun is being bored, the drill twisting its way down the fixed
+mass, and a dropping shower of bright chips proving how resistlessly its
+tooth moves on towards its appointed goal. A third machine cuts off the
+"dead head" of a cannon. All guns are cast in the pits in a perpendicular
+position, breech downwards, and are made at least one-third longer than
+they are intended to be when finished. The reason for this is, that the
+superincumbent metal forming the "dead head" of the piece may by its
+weight condense the portion below it which is to form the true gun--the
+extraordinary pressure of the powder requiring the metal to be extremely
+close in order to withstand the strain. Besides these lathes, which do the
+more ordinary work of the factory, there are what are termed exceptional
+machines, to finish those parts of the gun which the lathe cannot touch,
+such as the projecting sight, the trunnions, and that portion of the
+barrel which lies between them. No increase has taken place in the size of
+the Brass Gun Factory, although, through the energetic action of Colonel
+Wilmot, its produce has been doubled since the breaking out of the war:
+fourteen pieces of brass ordnance--six, nine, and eighteen pounders--can
+be turned out weekly. Brass is used for field-pieces on account of its
+resisting power being greater than that of iron. Experiments which have
+lately been made, however, tend to show that steel is a far lighter and
+better material even than brass for this purpose. A German, named Krupp,
+has produced some steel pieces which bear an enormous charge; in fact,
+when well made, it is almost impossible to burst them. The Emperor of the
+French has already ordered 350 of these guns to be introduced into the
+service, and probably we shall have to follow suit.
+
+The fine building[25] recently erected in connection with this department
+is intended for the manufacture of iron ordnance, which has hitherto been
+produced exclusively by private manufacturers. The experience of the late
+war, however, determined the Government to furnish at least a portion of
+these stores themselves. A thoroughly reliable gun must be worth any price
+that its efficient manufacture demands; for the failing of a single piece
+may lose a battle, and bring with it consequences which would be cheaply
+averted by a park of artillery cast in gold. In the late campaign we were
+prevented from striking a great blow through this very cause alone. At the
+bombardment of Sweaborg no less than seventeen of the thirteen-inch
+mortars were destroyed through a want of tenacity in the iron of which
+they were composed. Many of these ponderous engines split after a few
+rounds, and may now be seen on the wharf of the Arsenal cleft in twain as
+clean as Tell's apple. Yet these mortars were made by the Carron and Low
+Moor Companies, the most celebrated private manufacturers of such articles
+in England. Had they stood the strain, we should have utterly destroyed
+the fortifications of this stronghold, instead of burning a few sheds,
+which made a great blaze without doing much mischief; and had we possessed
+a sufficient number of these formidable engines, the destruction of
+Cronstadt and Sevastopol would only have formed the work of a few days.
+Though ours is a land both of iron and manufactures, our guns are of
+inferior quality to those of other nations. The cannon captured at
+Sevastopol are of better iron than the cannon we brought against them.
+Several thousand tons weight of the guns dismounted from Cronstadt, in
+order to make way for pieces of heavier calibre, were bought, we
+understand, the other day by an English firm with the intention of
+converting them into cranks and boilers, which require the very best
+material. The Americans insist upon a tenacity of cast-iron for their
+ordnance equal to a pressure of 34,000 lbs. on the square inch, and
+sometimes obtain it equal to 45,000 lbs., whilst we, the greatest
+manufacturers of iron in the world, have hitherto seldom obtained it of a
+strength equal to 20,000 lbs. This great difficiency Government hope to
+remedy by the institution of a series of experiments on all classes of
+iron both foreign and indigenous. There is a curious machine in the Gun
+Factory specially invented for the purpose of testing the tenacity of each
+sample, its capacity of withstanding compression, its transverse
+strength, and its power of resisting torsion. It is curious to see this
+iron-limbed Samson wrestling with mighty bars of metal, and twisting and
+tearing them across the grain like bits of stick. The fractured remnants
+of the specimens and of the guns rent in the testing process in the
+Marshes and at Shoeburyness are collected in a museum, the history of each
+specimen being minutely given. Thus a curious and instructive record is
+gradually being acquired, which will prove of infinite use in the
+manufacture of heavy ordnance. It has been already ascertained that guns
+are universally strengthened by having wrought iron rings put round
+them--a fact which was discovered during the course of experiments with
+the heavy cannon bored with an oval rifle to receive the Lancaster shell.
+Several of them having burst at the muzzle, this simple expedient was
+tried, and the guns so girded now bear the most extraordinary charges
+without flinching.
+
+The new building for casting, boring, and finishing iron guns, is both
+externally and internally the most imposing-looking of all the structures
+erected to meet the exigencies of the Crimean war. These spacious
+factories present more the appearance of first-class railway termini than
+of ordinary workshops. They are lighted with what are termed saw-roof
+lights, having a northern aspect; for the Vulcans who can work all day in
+the burning blaze of furnaces do not, it appears, like to be distracted
+with the confusing rays of the sun! The number of turning, boring,
+finishing, planing, shaping, drilling, slotting, and punching machines
+that revolve, thump, and slide here in ponderous grandeur is prodigious,
+and there can be very little doubt that it will be the most perfect and
+powerful factory in the world of its kind. Travelling-cranes, which run
+upon railways poised in air overhead, command every inch of the factories,
+so that cannon of the heaviest calibre for both land and sea
+service--98-pounders weighing many tons can be slung from machine to
+machine with the greatest ease. When the machinery is completed, the
+foundry will be capable of turning out ten guns of the largest size per
+week.
+
+The most interesting portion of the gun department is the factory devoted
+to the construction of Lancaster shells. This odd-looking missile has a
+form very similar to a champagne bottle, and, unlike the ordinary shell,
+is made out of a single sheet of wrought iron. The slab of metal having
+been welded into a cylindrical form, is submitted to an ingenious lathe,
+which, acting upon it simultaneously with a dozen different tools inside
+and out, speedily reduces it to a given weight and a perfectly uniform
+thickness. The cylinder, about eighteen inches in length and ten in
+diameter, is then made red hot, and whilst in this state is placed in the
+grip of a powerful machine, which by a series of blows, equally
+distributed over every part, converts it into the likeness of a French
+bottle in less than five minutes, without the slightest sign of crumpling
+in any portion of the surface. The operation can only be compared to the
+manner in which a potter shapes a vessel upon the wheel. No less than
+forty machines are employed on this special manufacture, and upwards of a
+hundred shells can be turned out daily. The expense incurred in producing
+with extreme accuracy and speed these curious missiles for the first
+rifled gun adopted by the service, is an earnest of the determination of
+the authorities to carry the manufacture of artillery to the same
+perfection of finish as their small arms. Lancaster guns will in all
+probability play a very important part in the next war, if war there
+should ever unhappily be, as those in use in the Crimea made most splendid
+practice, firing with nearly the accuracy of a rifle, and attaining a
+range of 5,000 yards, or very nearly three miles. As these shells cost
+about 25_s._ each, the expense of "passing the bottle" to the enemy is
+rather a serious affair.
+
+By far the largest department of the Royal Arsenal is devoted to the
+construction of carriages and packing-cases for moving artillery, baggage,
+and the various munitions of war. At the present moment the carriage
+department employs no less than three thousand hands, together with three
+hundred machines, moved by twenty-three steam-engines, which do the work
+of an additional twelve thousand men! The bulky nature of the material
+dealt with, and the store-houses required for stowing it away, together
+with the numerous workshops called into existence by the Crimean war,
+have caused this department to burst its old bounds and to invade 250
+acres of the adjoining marsh--the area of the workshops alone covering
+255,152 superficial feet, and the entire ground occupied being no less
+than 1,445,440 feet. This immense amount of elbow room has enabled Colonel
+Tulloch, the superintendent of the department, to systematize the
+manufacture, and cause the timber to pass along in one unbroken progress
+from the time when it is landed upon the wharf to the time when the
+finished articles are delivered over to the storekeeper. If we follow this
+stream from stage to stage, we shall catch a flying view of the operations
+of this department, whose province it is to provide package and carriage
+for the British army at home and abroad.
+
+The timber which forms the principal raw material employed is brought by
+ships to the mouth of the canal which runs along the eastern side of the
+Arsenal; here it is transferred to lighters which convey it some distance
+inland to the quay in the immediate neighbourhood of the timber field. By
+means of powerful derrick cranes, which can make a long or a short arm at
+pleasure, it is next unloaded and swung upon the trucks of the railway
+which ramifies through every portion of the premises, and forms the means
+of communication between its different points. The trucks, when full,
+immediately start with their burthen for the contiguous timber field, a
+square space covering 20 acres. Here the huge logs are deposited in long
+lines, which extend from one end of the field to the other, having
+roadways between them laid with rails. Over each line or row of timber
+strides a powerful travelling crane which, with a slight impulse given by
+one man, is made to traverse from end to end of the row, depositing or
+taking up in its way logs of oak or teak of many tons weight as easily as
+Gulliver could have picked up the Lilliputians he bestrode. Before the
+introduction of this powerful machinery, from fifty to one hundred pairs
+of horses were employed in this department alone, all of which are now
+dispensed with, and a saving effected of 6,000_l._ a-year.
+
+The usual store in the timber-field amounts to 60,000 loads in various
+stages of seasoning. The varieties of climate in which the British army
+has to serve are so many, that foreign woods have been introduced to
+supply the place of oak, which cannot be found in quantities equal to the
+demand. Thus we find in the timber-field sabicu, a dense East-Indian wood
+which is used for the heavy blocks of gun carriages; pedouk, from the same
+country, which is employed for a similar purpose; and iron bark, an
+Australian wood. Of English timber, such as ash, elm, and beech, there is
+a very large store. What is called wheel timber, on the soundness and
+proper adaptation of which depends the safety of the artillery and
+transport service, is entirely composed of the most graceful trees of our
+woodlands; the spokes being made of oak, the naves of elm, the felloes or
+rims of ash. Beech is also largely used for the fuses of shells and the
+woodwork of saddles. When any particular logs are required, they are
+selected by the timber-master, picked up by the travelling crane, hoisted
+into the railway truck, and conveyed at once to the saw-mills close at
+hand. On the threshold of the largest mill the logs meet with a grim
+reception from an immense circular saw 66 inches in diameter, which at
+once attacks the huge log and separates it as expeditiously as your
+Eastern soldier divides with his scimitar a floating handkerchief. This
+formidable instrument traverses a space of 30 feet, and is thus enabled to
+fix its teeth upon the log at whatever part of the entrance it may chance
+to lie. This transverse section performed, the divided portions are drawn
+up by machinery into the saw-frames, the largest of which is capable of
+receiving a log 4 feet square. Once within the mill's maw, as many saws
+are put in as are necessary to divide the wood into slabs of the required
+thickness, and a few minutes suffice to reduce it to planks. From the
+mills the timber is removed again upon the railroad to the seasoning shed,
+which covers 4 acres of ground. Here it is allowed to remain for years, so
+stacked that the air fairly circulates through every portion of the
+immense mass. The seasoning shed is to the timber master what his
+wine-cellar is to a _bon vivant_. Here he treasures his bins of nine years
+old oak as though it were wine of a famous vintage. This he keeps as
+carefully as a young whist-player keeps his best trumps to the end of the
+game, but with far more judgment, for old oak is precious beyond price,
+and cannot be got for love or money at a moment's notice. In the dim
+shadow of this monster store are also piled the completed articles of
+land-transport that improve by age. That perpendicular wall of finished
+woodwork contains the bodies of a thousand carriages which were prepared
+to remove the British army from the pleateau of Sevastopol in anticipation
+of an inland campaign; the round towers at the corners are their wheels
+built up and left to season. Upon the thorough preparation of this part of
+the carriage its safety depends. The wheels of omnibuses are always
+allowed to remain two years before they are used, and by permitting them
+this grace they behave well when at work, generally running over 43,000
+miles of ground before they are worn out. The wheels of gun-carriages
+require to be even better prepared and seasoned, as they have to bear the
+weight of enormous guns, and have often to run over the roughest ground,
+without being in any way relieved from sudden shocks by springs.
+
+Upon this store of mellow wood the different factories draw; and the
+railway which traverses every portion of it speedily conveys the raw
+material to the benches of the workmen. As the visitor passes up the main
+avenues of these splendid shops he is bewildered with the activity of the
+swarms of artizans, the whirling of shafting, and the grating sounds of
+circular saws. Clouds of sawdust are flying about, and in a moment cover
+the intruder from head to foot. The immense amount of work sometimes
+required to be performed at a brief notice has necessitated the
+introduction of machinery into this branch of handicraft, which heretofore
+was entirely carried on by manual labour. Let us take the ammunition and
+powder cases for instance; these have to be provided by the hundred
+thousand in time of war, and accordingly we find machinery employed in
+every direction to shorten the work. Circular saws cut the planks into the
+required size to form the sides and tops and bottoms of the cases; as
+these issue from the different machines, they are conveyed away upon a
+circular band of canvas, placed at right angles, to a broader band which
+runs from one end of the factory to the other: down this band, as on a
+broad stream, the various pieces sail until they reach the receptacle,
+from which they are again conveyed to the machinery which is to put them
+together. Here the drilling, mortising, and dowelling processes are
+carried on by wholesale with an exactitude and speed which would astonish
+the joiner of the old school. Upwards of a thousand ammunition boxes
+formed of cedar, for repelling the wood-eating white ants of the East, are
+now being prepared daily for the use of the Indian army. The powder-boxes
+for the navy are made of a hexagonal form, to enable them to fit into the
+ship's hold like cells of honeycomb. They are carefully lined either with
+pewter or copper, and when filled are hermetically sealed with wax. The
+limber-boxes for the field artillery are also made here in large
+quantities. These receptacles are of a far more elaborate character than
+the powder-cases, as they are fitted to take all the stores requisite for
+immediate action, which are stowed away in their different compartments,
+as neatly as the articles in a gentleman's dressing-case. The common
+cartridge barrels are shaped out of the solid wood almost as fast as you
+can look. One machine cuts the oak into staves, curved to the right form;
+another cuts the edges, so that they may fit in a circle; a fourth turns
+the head; a fifth receives the staves, which are placed by the attendant
+on end in the form of a barrel, within the grip of a hydraulic press,
+claps a hoop on the top and bottom, and with one squeeze completes the
+operation. By such appliances a piece of solid oak plank is converted
+within five minutes into a finished barrel. The total produce of
+carefully-prepared powder-cases during the financial year 1856 was 25,331,
+and of boxes for ammunition, shell, &c., no less than 287,171. How many
+barrels can be made at a pinch we do not know, for the machinery is only
+just put up, but the number must be enormous, and when the visitor
+witnesses the nimble fingers of machinery galloping over the work, he
+wonders how the business was ever got through in the old time of the
+chisel, gouge, hammer, and plane.
+
+In the shops devoted to the manufacture of the gun-carriages and trucks
+for the land and sea service, skilled artisans are employed, except in the
+wheel department. The vast strength requisite to support and withstand the
+recoil of 56, 64, and 98-pounders, necessitates the most solid
+construction and the best workmanship. Some of these platforms for
+traversing cannon, made of teak, and bolted and finished at the ends with
+bright copper bands, look like handsome pieces of furniture rather than
+ship's gun-carriages. Compared with these ponderous articles, the light
+constructions fitted for the field-artillery seem like children's
+playthings. Here they may be met with in every variety and in every stage
+of progress, so substantially put together that the marvel is that they
+ever wear out. The sort of succession of earthquakes, however, to which
+they are subjected in a campaign tells even upon those solid joints, and
+but few of the gun-carriages employed in the Crimea, although new when
+they went out, returned fit for further service.
+
+The wheel department is one of the most interesting sights in the Arsenal.
+Here the most ingenious machinery has been brought together to insure
+sound and speedy production. Formerly the wheels were made entirely by
+hand; now they are turned out without the aid of a single skilled
+wheelwright. What is called the copying process, produces the nave and
+spokes of the wheel, three or four of which are seen working side by side,
+and the whole batch under the care of only one man. The circular rim of
+the wheel, or felloe, is cut out of the solid block by an ingenious
+ribbon-saw, imported from France. This saw is merely a narrow band of
+steel, toothed on one edge and running over a wheel like an ordinary
+leathern band attached to shafting. The exquisite manner in which it
+fashions the most intricate patterns from thick slabs of wood is really
+surprising. The felloes, after being thus roughly formed, are stacked to
+season in a shed by themselves, where they are piled one upon the other in
+vast pillars, down vistas of which the visitor passes, full of amazement
+at their number. There are at present in store some sixty thousand of
+these felloes and an equal number of naves, with their due complement of
+spokes.
+
+As wheels are required, their component parts are brought to the shop,
+finished and mortised by machinery, and then lightly adjusted to each
+other. They are immediately placed within the grip of six hydraulic
+presses, which are so arranged as to thrust towards a common centre.
+Directly the wheel is adjusted within them, you hear the hiss of the
+resistless engines, whose motive power is only a few pints of water; the
+solid timbers groan, the joints painfully accommodate themselves to each
+other, and in less time than the process takes to describe, the wheel is
+lifted out solidly jointed, and only awaiting the tire to travel at once
+under its superincumbent gun. The wheels of gun, limber, and ammunition
+carriages are all made of exactly the same size, in order that they may be
+interchangeable in case of accident.
+
+The effect of the sudden outbreak of the late war was, perhaps, more
+beneficially felt upon the laboratory department of the Arsenal than any
+other. Shells, of all the stores of war, were most deficient when the army
+left for Varna, and the want increased as soon as actual campaigning
+commenced. The authorities accordingly permitted Captain Boxer to erect a
+model manufactory of shells in the autumn of 1855. This he did with
+surprising rapidity, and proved to their satisfaction that these
+formidable missiles could be manufactured five pounds a ton cheaper than
+they could be procured from the contractors--an important saving on an
+article of which several hundred tons had to be supplied per day. The
+success of this experiment led to the erection of the splendid
+shell-foundry which is now attached to the Arsenal, and which is capable
+of turning out sufficient shells for all the armies of the world. Here may
+be seen the process by which the old scrap iron of the establishment is
+transformed into the finished shot and shell, and transferred by its own
+weight to the transport ready to convey it to the seat of war. The
+smelting process is carried on in a dozen enormous cupola furnaces, into
+which the iron and coal are heaped indiscriminately. The fierce heat
+generated by the blast rapidly melts the iron, which is then allowed to
+flow into the shell-moulds. From the moment the metal enters these moulds,
+the shell, in war time, never touches the ground till it is landed at its
+port of debarkation! The rough shells, after they have cooled a little,
+are forwarded by railway to the cleaning-room, where they are placed in a
+revolving iron barrel, seven feet long and seven feet in diameter. This
+machine circulates with rapidity, and the friction of the contained shells
+speedily cleanses them of all sand and dirt. From this point they roll
+through all the succeeding stages of their manufacture. A
+slightly-inclined plane receives them at the cleaning-drum, and conducts
+them one by one to the machinery fixed in the great room of the laboratory
+department. Upwards of ten thousand shells per day passed through this
+apartment during the late war, and were, on their passage, drilled and
+"bushed," or fitted with the socket made to receive the fuse. This simple
+fact will alone serve to show how energetically the work was carried on to
+meet the wants of the great siege. The shells, having rolled through the
+labyrinth of successive machines which operate upon them, now move onward
+to the painting department, where they receive a coating of black varnish,
+which prevents oxidation. Hence they continue their journey right across
+the open ground of the Arsenal to the pier, under the platform of which
+they keep their course inside an iron tube which leads immediately into
+the barge alongside the transport in the river. From this barge, into
+which they sometimes shoot with a considerable impulse, they roll again,
+through the open port of the ship, to their appointed place in the hold.
+
+The chief factory of the laboratory department is the great sight of the
+Arsenal, as here the visitor witnesses twenty or thirty most curious
+operations, the more important only of which he can stop to examine amid
+the whirlwind of machinery that everywhere meets his sight and vibrates on
+his ear. The manufacture of elongated bullets for the rifles affords
+perhaps the most startling novelty of all. The rifle itself is not a
+greater advance upon old Brown Bess than is the Minié bullet upon the old
+one-ounce ball. The apparatus now employed to produce it contrasts as
+forcibly with the simple bullet-mould formerly in use. Instead of heating
+the lead to a fluid state, it is simply warmed, in which condition it is
+subjected to hydraulic pressure in a large iron vessel, which has but one
+small aperture at the top, of the size of the intended elongated bullet.
+Out of this hole the metal is driven in the form of a continuous rod of
+lead, which, as it issues forth, rolls itself upon iron reels as though it
+were so much cotton! The reels are then attached to a machine which draws
+the metal between its teeth, bites it off to the required size, moulds the
+cone, depresses the cup, and condenses the mass at the same moment. These
+wonderful bullet-makers, when in full work, turn out five hundred
+elongated bullets a minute, or upwards of a quarter of a million daily. To
+complete the missile, the cup has to be filled with a boxwood plug to
+ensure its proper expansion whilst in the act of leaving the gun. Here
+again a partially self-acting apparatus is called into play, one lad being
+sufficient to feed several machines with square rods of wood, the ends of
+which are embraced by a circular hollow cutter, which instantly reduces
+them to the right conical form, and then cuts them off. These little plugs
+are produced at the same rate as the bullets.
+
+An equally interesting operation is the manufacture of percussion caps.
+The first process in this light and delicate work is the stamping of
+sheet-copper into pieces of the required form to make the caps. For this
+purpose the copper is placed beneath the punch of the machine, and
+immediately it is put in action, small crosses of metal are seen to fall
+from it into a box in a continual stream, whilst the sheet itself is
+transposed by the punching process into a kind of trellis-work. These
+crosses of equilateral arms are now transferred to another machine, which
+instantly doubles up the four arms, and at the same time so rounds them,
+that they form a tube just the size of the gun-nipple, and by a third
+operation of the same machine a kind of rim is given to the free end,
+which makes the cap take the form of a hat. This rim marks the difference
+between the military and the ordinary percussion cap--the soldier, in the
+hurry and confusion of battle, requiring this guide to enable him to
+apply the proper end to the nipple. The metal portion of the cap
+completed, it is transferred to a man who fills it with detonating powder.
+As this is a very dangerous process, the artisan upon whom the duty
+devolves sits apart from the boys, who perform all the other work, for
+fear of an accidental explosion. To fix the fine dust in the cap, a very
+pretty machine is employed, which gets through its work with extreme
+rapidity. The caps are placed in regular rows in a frame-work, to which is
+attached a lever, armed with as many fine points as there are caps in a
+single row. The motion given by the hand alternately dips these fine
+points into a tray of varnish, and then into each succeeding line of caps.
+When the varnish is dry, the powder is fixed and effectually protected
+from the effects of damp. The caps are now finished, and are ready for the
+boy who counts and packs them. Machinery is even employed to perform the
+part of cocker, and with one gentle shake does the brain-work of many
+minutes. A frame is constructed, into which fit a number of small trays,
+each tray being pierced with seventy-five holes. Upon this frame the boy
+heaps up a few handfuls of caps, and then gives the whole machine a few
+jerks, and when he sees that every hole is filled with a cap, he lifts out
+each separate tray and empties it into appropriate boxes. In this manner
+he is enabled, with extreme rapidity, to count out his parcels of
+seventy-five caps, the regulation number served to each soldier with sixty
+rounds of ball-cartridge--the excess of fifteen being allowed for loss in
+the flurry of action. The British soldier's clumsy fingers are by no means
+well calculated for handling and adjusting such light articles.
+
+Equally curious with the production of caps is the manufacture of
+cartridge-bags. The visitor, as he mounts the stairs to the upper floor of
+a large building close at hand, is made aware by the hum and collision of
+shrill young voices that he is approaching a hive of children, and as he
+rears his head above the banisters, he finds that he is in the midst of a
+little army of urchins, varying from eight to fourteen years of age,
+seated at long benches rolling up paper cartridge-bags. This process
+requires some little nicety, as each bag is made up of three distinct
+papers of different sizes and shapes, which have to be neatly adjusted
+round a roller one upon another. By long practice some of these little
+fellows complete the operation in a surprisingly short space of
+time--rolling, twisting in the end, tying, and drawing it from the rod
+almost as quickly as you can look at them, the swaying of the body during
+the operation giving to the entire mass of eight hundred children a most
+extraordinary aggregate movement as the room is surveyed from one end to
+the other. Some boys are infinitely more nimble-fingered than others, and
+the sharpest earn eight or nine shillings a-week at the work.
+
+Nimble as their little fingers ply, however, the hands of machinery laugh
+them to scorn. In the room below we note as we descend strange wheel-like
+frames revolving horizontally, and others working up and down into tanks
+of paper pulp. These are the new machines destined to supplant the little
+children over-head, and to hush the ceaseless hum of their human labour.
+Throughout the entire range of the Arsenal there is no sight more
+interesting than is exhibited by these machines, the _modus operandi_ of
+which is extremely simple. Circles of brass tubing have short upright
+tubes inserted into them at regular distances. These upright tubes, or
+fingers, are pierced with fine holes, and the whole apparatus is attached
+to an exhausting-pump. Worsted mittens are fitted to the fingers, and when
+all is ready, the Briarean hand is dipped into the bath of pulp, the air
+in the tubes is withdrawn, the liquid necessarily rushes towards the
+fingers, and the water passing through, leaves the pulp adherent to the
+mitten. The process is instantaneous, hand after hand drops into the
+trough, gloves its fingers with pulp, and rises with a thousand cartridges
+in its grasp, quicker than one of the boys up stairs has finished a single
+bag. The process is not complete, however, until they are dry. Each mitten
+is removed from its metal finger, and placed on a similar one heated with
+steam. In ten minutes the desiccating process is finished, and the
+cartridge-bag is removed, a far more perfect instrument for its deadly
+purpose than that which is made up stairs by hand. The hint for this
+beautiful machine was taken from the apparatus employed for making
+conical seamless sugar-bags without the intervention of the paper
+maker--so diverse are the developments which may spring from the same
+idea. Of these small-arm cartridge-bags, 400,000 can be manufactured in a
+day of ten hours; but as each cartridge is composed of a double envelope,
+one fitting within the other, in order to separate the conical ball from
+the powder, the product furnishes 200,000 cartridges--an enormous
+quantity, but scarcely equal to the demand of such campaigners as
+Havelock, whose men, day by day, consumed their sixty rounds per head. At
+first sight it seems strange to find the Government turned paper makers,
+and the visitor may think that these bags could be obtained, as the
+sugar-bags are by the grocers, from the private manufacturer, but it is
+absolutely necessary that they should be produced side by side with their
+deadly contents. They are far more delicate things to maintain in their
+integrity than even wafer-biscuits, which they very much resemble, and
+they are required in such enormous numbers, that any mechanical
+impediment, such as crushing, interposed to the filling of them with
+powder and ball, would add immensely to the expense. The pressure in
+packing necessary to convey them to the Arsenal would flatten, and hence
+destroy them.
+
+But where, asks the visitor, is the small-arms factory for the
+construction of those far-famed rifles which prevented a disaster at
+Inkermann, and at once doubled the effective power of the steadiest
+infantry of Europe? And well may he ask the question, for what more
+natural place for this important manufacture than in connexion with
+kindred Government establishments? When the War Office decided upon
+erecting a factory to meet the sudden demands of the war, it was proposed
+by the Inspector of Machinery to plant it within the walls of the Arsenal;
+but the authorities, for some reason best known to themselves, decided
+otherwise, and it was accordingly taken to Enfield Lock, which is twelve
+miles from London on the Eastern Counties Railway, and where they had
+before a small establishment for the repair and manufacture of a limited
+number of muskets. The traveller who gets out at the factory station
+finds himself at once in a road which leads him into a flat country laced
+with streams, where Paul Potter might have found a study at every turn.
+Here, amid flocks and herds peacefully grazing, or standing in the shadows
+of the pollard willows, he espies the tall chimneys of the Enfield
+factory, looking like a stray fragment of Manchester that had wandered out
+of its way. In all England a more absurd spot for it could not have been
+chosen.
+
+The establishment, however, is so worthy of a minute inspection, that we
+will proceed to give a general view of the whole. The threshold of the
+manufacturing process is the smithery, where the foreman presides to
+deliver out the raw material and receive in return the work done. To each
+smith is issued the particular size of bar iron or steel required for the
+article he works upon. Opening out of this shop is the smithery itself,
+with its fifty-five forges, together with steam hammers, hoppers, rider
+hammers, and other contrivances by which our modern Vulcan economises
+labour. In this department all the iron and steel work of the lock and
+stock are moulded, for the ordinary method of forging conveys a very
+inadequate idea of the manner in which the material is here manipulated.
+Every sportsman knows that the lock of a gun is made up of many small
+pieces of irregular form. To forge these with the hammer alone would be
+far too expensive a process, as it would require highly-skilled labour,
+nor even then would it be possible to produce the different pieces of
+exactly the same size, so that any one may fit into any other with perfect
+accuracy when the gun is ultimately put together. To accomplish this end,
+the essential principle of the manufacture, each smith with his helper
+takes in hand a particular piece of work. One man, for instance, makes
+hammers, or cocks, as sportsmen call them. The irregular form of this part
+of the lock would seem to preclude the possibility of its being made by
+the hundred-thousand, each one being the counterpart of its brother to the
+thousandth of an inch. Yet this is done, and with an ease that appears
+astonishing to the beholder. Let us watch the brawny smith before us. He
+draws a rod from the fire at white heat, lays it upon an indented part of
+his anvil, and, together with his mate, deals alternate blows in half a
+dozen different directions, and produces in a few seconds an irregular
+mass, which we see bears a resemblance to the indentation in the anvil,
+which, on closer inspection, we find to be a rude matrix of a guncock.
+This is the first process, called swaging. These two men go on from one
+year's end to another, giving alternate light and heavy blows and taps on
+all sides of the metal. These blows, though sometimes delivered through a
+swinging circle of eight or ten feet, fall upon exactly the same spot, for
+practice so nicely co-ordinates the muscles as to produce a motion as
+exact as that which draws from the bow of a Paganini the same delicate
+note for any number of times in succession. The cock thus swaged, the
+smith stamps his initials upon it, and transfers it to another smith, who
+works with a steam-hammer, on which is a steel die of the exact form it is
+required to take. A single blow of this instrument gives it its final
+form, leaving the superfluous metal in the shape of a thin film, where it
+has been squeezed into the opening between the dies, which is cut off by a
+subsequent stamping process. By this method of swaging and stamping, the
+lock-plate, bridle, cock, sear, trigger, sightleaf, breech-screw, and
+swivel are formed so perfectly, that the tool is scarcely required to
+touch them afterwards.
+
+Those parts of the lock made of steel, such as the mainspring, searspring
+and tumbler, are simply swaged, the stamping process being omitted on
+account of the sudden blow tending to break the grain and thus destroy the
+elasticity of the metal.
+
+A curious operation of the smithery is the bayonet forging. The bars for
+bayonet-work are never forged of such uniform width as to allow the smith
+to cut off to a nicety the length he requires. In order to rectify this
+difficulty, and enable him to tell how much will serve his purpose, he is
+provided with a water-gauge, or tube filled with a given quantity of
+water; into this the rod is plunged, and withdrawn when the fluid reaches
+the top of the gauge. By this expedient the iron, however irregular in
+form, is measured accurately by the displacement of the water. When the
+bar is withdrawn, the smith cuts it off at the watermark, and his mate
+thrusts it into the forge fire. Whilst this is going on, the visitor
+becomes conscious of a strange machine close at hand, which perpetually
+gnashes together a mouthful of hardened steel teeth; this is that useful
+instrument called the rider hammer. These teeth bear upon their upper and
+under surfaces grooves of the form the iron bar is required to take. The
+short white-heated bit of bar is thrust in, and by a series of nabs is
+instantly lengthened a couple of inches; the next tooth still further
+attenuates it, the third forces it into the triangular form, and a fourth
+and fifth reduce it to the graduated length required: thus the blade of
+this terrible weapon is rough-drawn. The ring by which it is attached to
+the barrel of the musket is forged separately, and welded to the shank at
+right angles. These are the first of at least seventy-six distinct
+operations before the weapon is fitted to fulfil its appointed design,
+that of making the ugliest and most irreparable wound possible in the
+human corpus. The work done, it is returned to the foreman, whose first
+duty is to see that the material with which the man has been debited has
+wrought into the requisite number of pieces; if it falls short the waste
+is charged to him. The next scrutiny is into the quality of the work, and
+the last and not the least important inquiry is, does it gauge? Unless the
+work passes all these ordeals it is rejected, and the person in fault is
+known by the distinguishing mark of the smith who prepared it. In some
+cases, as in the making of the bands which bind the barrel to the stock,
+this mark is ground off in passing through one of the presses; but is
+immediately restored, that the work may be traced to the artisan who
+constructed it. The effect of thus fixing the responsibility of every
+single thing manufactured upon the maker is immense, and induces habits of
+carefulness such as are seldom seen in ordinary workmen. The foreman now
+issues the different pieces to the finishers, who convey them to the
+annealing room, where they are rendered soft for working by heat, and
+cleaned of their scale or oxide, which would otherwise injure the tool, by
+means of dilute sulphuric acid.
+
+The barrel is welded and finished in a separate factory. The piece of
+metal out of which the gradually tapering tube is ultimately fashioned
+seems to bear no relation to such a form. You see the smith take a small
+plate of quarter-inch iron, about a foot long by a few inches wide, heat
+it to a welding heat, and then place it between the lips of a rolling
+mill, with grooved instead of flat rollers, and in an instant it comes out
+a tube. It has next to be drawn out to the requisite length and tapered,
+which is done by passing it through a series of mills, each succeeding one
+being grooved smaller than the preceding. The bore is kept hollow during
+the operation by a central iron rod. The breech piece is welded on by a
+single blow of a steam-hammer, and the process of turning the bore begins.
+Four barrels are acted upon by one lathe, and the first operation is
+performed in fifteen minutes. Only a slight cutting is made each time, and
+the barrel has to be submitted to the action of many different boring
+instruments until the exact size, ·577 of an inch, is attained. The
+outside is now turned, the tool taking off the superfluous metal in one
+continuous ringlet of iron.
+
+It now undergoes the most delicate process of all, that of being "viewed."
+The viewer, who is a highly-skilled workman, with an exceedingly accurate
+eye, puts himself opposite a gas-lamp, about thirty feet distance, and
+which has a dark shade on its upper side. Towards this object he directs
+the barrel so as to bring the dark edge half-way across his sight as he
+looks through the bore. By this device he is enabled to direct a ray of
+light with a defined edge down the tube, and by turning the barrel round,
+instantly detects the slightest deviation from the straight line. As the
+smoothest-looking sea is discovered to be a mass of dimpling ripples--(the
+Greek poet's "infinite laughings of the sea")--when the setting sun throws
+a golden shaft across its bosom, so the mathematically straight lines of
+light gauge the inequalities of the rifle bore in a more exact manner than
+any instrument that has yet been invented. When any irregularities are
+discovered, the viewer taps the barrel with a fine hammer on a small
+anvil, and repeats the operation until the tube is perfectly true. Upon
+this depends the correct shooting of the gun, inasmuch as the least crook
+near the end of the bore would send a bullet far on one side of the mark
+long before it had attained the full range of 800 yards, to which the
+Enfield rifle is sighted. The rifling of the barrel in three groves is
+performed by fixing it in a lathe, and driving the cutter through it in a
+spiral direction.
+
+In entering the finishing room, a noble apartment, 200 feet square, the
+visitor cannot fail to be struck with astonishment at the scene this vast
+workshop presents. He looks through a mass of wheels, levers, cranks, and
+shafts, which fill the space from wall to wall, every foot alive with iron
+and human limbs, and the whole superficies seeming to writhe and wrestle
+like a cluster of worms. Although confusion looks triumphant to the casual
+eye, the utmost order prevails. On one side of the room, at regular
+intervals, small inclosed offices, with glazed fronts, are placed against
+the wall, a little above the level of the floor. These are devoted to the
+foremen of the different divisions into which the work is separated. Each
+of these functionaries from his eyrie rakes the long avenues or streets of
+machines, with their attendant workmen, which run in parallel lines across
+the room. The first avenue is devoted to bayonets; then come in the
+following order the divisions allocated to furniture, screw, sight, lock,
+and stock. The work is so managed that all the different parts keep pace
+together, and are finished in the required proportions; or in other words,
+those pieces which are but slowly produced have allotted to them a greater
+number of machines. By this arrangement all the requisite items are
+brought at the same moment to the workmen who put them together in the
+finished article. The fifty-six pieces of which the rifle is composed work
+their way up one street of machinery and down another, constantly
+following on from right to left on their way towards the top of the room.
+Many of these pieces are passed through upwards of twenty different
+machines, each one performing some simple and definite action, by which
+means an accuracy is obtained that the most skilful gunmaker could never
+equal by hand.
+
+The diversity of cutting-tools in these different machines strikes the
+observer with astonishment; the oddest shapes, the most unlikely-looking
+forms, proving admirably adapted for the purposes they are intended to
+accomplish. Many of these work automatically--that is, they engage and
+disengage themselves; setting to work only when they are fed with
+material, and, when their rodent-like teeth have gnawed away as much metal
+as is requisite, they stop of their own accord. The effect of this is so
+extraordinary, that it almost seems as if those bright limbs of iron,
+which stop and move on without human agency, must be directed by some sort
+of metallic brain. The most common form of tool employed is what is termed
+the circular cutter or milling-tool, which is constructed to fit every
+class of work. These cutters will continue serviceable for months without
+requiring to be sharpened, in consequence of each being restricted to its
+own limited sphere. The amount of thought employed in the construction of
+many of these machines must have been immense, and when they were
+completed, two-thirds of the manufacturing difficulty was overcome, and
+the musket more than half made. A most ingenious machine, the parent of a
+numerous progeny, was, many years ago, invented by an Englishman, and
+applied to copying the fine lines of statuary, and transferring them to
+ivory and other materials. The applicability of this instrument to the
+production of the irregular forms in the gun trade was first perceived by
+our cousins across the Atlantic, and for many years they have employed it
+for the rapid and true production of many parts of the musket, whilst our
+own manufacturers in London and Birmingham have been content to execute
+the same work, laboriously and expensively, by hand labour. The copying
+machines now at Enfield have been imported direct from America. They are
+principally employed in fashioning gun-stocks. They convert the rough
+slabs of walnut-wood, just outlined in the proper form, which come from
+France, Belgium and Italy, into the finished article, with all its
+grooves, holes, and beddings for lock and barrel. This extraordinary
+apparatus may be said to work with two hands: the one feeling the outline
+of the pattern to be copied, the other directing a tool uniformly with it
+and cutting the object to the required form. Let us, for example, take the
+machine that hollows out the lock-bedding in the stock. Not only are the
+outlines of the most irregular form, but they are sunk to three different
+levels, and it would almost seem impossible that a machine should excavate
+so complex a bedding with minute accuracy. Nevertheless, it is done in a
+few minutes by an apparatus, which revolves and brings, one after the
+other, some new tool into play according to the work to be done. Whilst
+the operation is going on, a little blower clears out the chips as
+cleverly as though the machine had human breath. The different portions of
+the gun completed, they are, for the last time, gauged, and passed on to
+the extreme end bench of the factory, near the west door, where the
+"assembler," as he is termed, receives them in different bins, from which
+he takes the part he requires and sets up the gun. As there is no
+necessity for special fitting, this process is performed with remarkable
+rapidity, seven minutes being sufficient to combine all the different
+parts, which have never been near each other before--lock, stock, ramrod,
+and bayonet--into the complete weapon. They now pass out of the western
+door, packed in cases, and are taken to the proving-ground, where they are
+tested with high charges and their range and accuracy duly examined; and
+so perfect is the finish, that not one in a thousand fails to stand the
+trying ordeal. They are now transferred by water to the Armoury at the
+Tower, ready for service in the field.
+
+The Enfield rifle was adopted for the public service in the year 1853, and
+is at the present moment the best infantry musket in Europe. There is
+still room, however, as Mr. Whitworth has shown, for improvement in the
+barrel. His rifle propels a bullet both farther and with greater accuracy,
+in consequence of the greater care he bestows upon the barrel, which,
+instead of being welded, is bored, at a great cost, out of the solid
+metal. Its diameter also being smaller, the bullet encounters a less
+resistance in the air during its flight. There is no reason why the
+smaller bore should not be substituted for that of the Enfield rifle,
+when this arm would be perfect. The difficulty the ablest minds experience
+in getting out of an old groove was exemplified by the late Duke of
+Wellington with respect to this question of the size of bore. His Grace
+was obstinately wedded to Brown Bess, whose crushing fire, so superior to
+that of the enemy, he had witnessed in his Peninsular campaigns, and which
+he erroneously ascribed to the excellent quality of the arm instead of to
+the steadiness of the men--mistaking, in fact, a moral for a physical
+excellence. The longer the Commander-in-Chief lived, the firmer his faith
+in the large smooth bore, and the necessity for making a big hole in the
+enemy. When the rifle-musket of 1851 replaced this old arm, the large bore
+was still retained, and the consequence was, that the bullet, being
+elongated, was heavier than when round, and the soldier had to carry a
+missile of 696 grains weight, instead of 490 grains. The bore of the
+Enfield rifle pattern of 1853 was very properly reduced, and the Prichett
+expanding bullet, of 530 grains, now carries its deadly weight in its
+length. Though the wound it gives is not so large as that inflicted by the
+old ball, it makes up for deficiency by its power of penetration. An
+officer who was at the taking of the rifle-pits in the quarry before
+Sevastopol informs us that a brother-officer was shot through the side by
+a Russian Minié bullet, which afterwards passed through an ass, and his
+two panniers of water, and did not stop in its career till it had broken a
+man's arm at some distance off! Its deadly aim at vast distances, which
+made it the dread of the sepoys, who termed it "the gun that kills without
+making any sound," contrasts strangely with the performances of Brown Bess
+of old, which at any range beyond a hundred yards was so uncertain in its
+aim that it has been calculated that the soldier shot away the weight in
+lead of every man that he hit.
+
+Before the breaking out of the war, our stores were hampered with
+small-arms of all sizes and patterns. There were, at home and abroad, no
+less than 109,725 flint-lock muskets, of fifteen different patterns, and
+107,000 smooth-bore, percussion-lock muskets, of eight different patterns.
+Very many of these were in service a few years ago; and as their bores
+were all dissimilar, it often happened that the soldiers were provided
+with cartridges that would not fit their guns. In peace little
+difficulties of this kind are of no moment, but they are of the utmost
+importance in the time of war. At the battle of Waterloo, the
+Brunswickers, who held Hougoumont, were, for a short time, rendered
+helpless, in consequence of cartridges having been sent to them that did
+not fit their muskets. A battle, which, according to Professor Creasey,
+ranks among the six decisive combats of the world, might thus have been
+lost on account of the misfit of a cartridge. The necessity of preventing
+the possible recurrence of such mischances induced the authorities, at the
+breaking out of the Russian war, to make the bore of all muskets used by
+the different branches of the service uniform with that of the Enfield
+rifle. A thousand of these weapons can at present be completed in a
+week--a number which appears large, but which is in reality far beneath
+the real wants of the army. The private manufacturers of small-arms in
+Birmingham denounced the establishment of this factory, on the plea that
+Government were not warranted in fabricating goods which the private trade
+of the country were capable of producing--an assertion which the Crimean
+war totally disproved, as the authorities were so pressed for rifles that
+they had to go to France,[26] Belgium, and the United States for supplies,
+and at one time contemplated giving an order for 350,000 rifles at Liége.
+The military rifle, like the shell, being a special article required only
+by the army, the demand for it in large numbers is not constant, and hence
+the low condition of the mechanical power brought to bear upon it by the
+trade. The gunmakers of Birmingham have depended upon skilled labour for
+the production of the different parts of a musket, and thus labour, in
+times of pressure, becomes exorbitantly costly, to the embarrassment and
+loss of the public service. It was this which led the Government to
+introduce machinery into the manufacture--a thing the trade declared
+impossible, but which they now see is not only possible but profitable,
+since the same musket for which they charged 4_l._ 10_s._ is now made of a
+superior quality by the Government for 3_l._ 15_s._ The experiment must be
+of the greatest importance to the Birmingham gun trade, which, through its
+own inherent vices, was fast yielding to the superior ingenuity of America
+and Belgium, and which can only regain its old position by taking a lesson
+from the organized mechanical resources of the Enfield Lock manufactory.
+The private manufacturers need not fear that Enfield will monopolize even
+Government work, the demands of the service being far beyond its
+productive powers. As the Ordnance supplies rifles to our army in India,
+as well as to the home and colonial force, no less than 400,000 are
+required for the infantry and marines alone: a number which has to be
+replaced every twelve years, even in times of peace. In active service the
+destruction is immense; and now the cycle of war has returned, the annual
+50,000 rifles turned out by the royal factory will prove but a small
+instalment of the vast store of arms that England will require.
+
+At Waltham Abbey, not half an hour's walk from Enfield Lock, is situated
+the only establishment for the manufacture of powder which the Government
+possesses. Here dispersion, instead of concentration, is the order of the
+day. The necessity for complete isolation causes the factories to be
+distributed over a very large space of ground, and the visitor has to walk
+from workshop to workshop through groves and avenues of willow and alder,
+as though he were visiting dispersed farm-buildings rather than the
+different departments of the same manufacturing process. There are not
+perhaps more than a dozen detached buildings in the whole establishment,
+yet these are scattered over upwards of fifty acres of ground. To such an
+extent do meadows and woods and meandering canals predominate, that the
+idea of being in a powder-mill is entirely lost in the impression that you
+are walking in a Dutch landscape. The visitor who enters the great gates
+of the mill, impressed with a belief in the dangerous nature of the ground
+he is treading, is somewhat startled on finding a steam-engine at work on
+the very threshold of the factory, and a tall chimney smoking its pipe in
+what he supposed to be the vicinity of hundreds of barrels of gunpowder;
+but in reality these boilers and furnaces are placed many hundred feet
+from the mixing-houses. The English Government powder is composed of
+seventy-five parts of saltpetre, fifteen parts of charcoal, and ten of
+sulphur. The ingredients, being thoroughly powdered, prepared, and
+purified, are submitted to the action of a machine, which completely mixes
+them. The product is then conveyed by a covered boat, very much like an
+aldermanic gondola in mourning, some hundred yards along the canal to the
+incorporating houses, where the most important process of the manufacture
+is carried on, and where the danger of an explosion first commences. The
+incorporating machine is nothing more than a couple of runners or huge
+wheels, weighing four and a half tons each, which revolve one after
+another on their edges in a bed of metal supplied with a deep wooden rim,
+which gives it much the appearance of a huge kitchen candlestick. Into
+this dish the black powder is placed, together with a little water, which
+varies in quantity, from four pints in winter, when the atmosphere is
+charged with moisture, to ten in the summer, when the desiccating quality
+of the air is very great. For four hours this pasty mass is crushed,
+ground, and mixed by the action of the runners. The precautions taken
+against explosion teach the visitor the dangerous nature of the ground he
+is treading. Before he puts his feet across the threshold he must encase
+them in leathern boots huge enough to fit Polyphemus, and guiltless of
+iron in any form whatever; even his umbrella or stick is snatched from
+him, lest the ferrule should strike fire, or accidentally drop among any
+part of the machinery whilst at work. The machinery is even protected
+against itself. In order to avoid the possibility of the linch-pins which
+confine the cylinders to their axles falling down, and by the action of
+"skidding" the runner, producing so much friction as to cause an
+explosion, receptacles are formed to catch them in their fall. As small
+pieces of grit, the natural enemy of the powder-maker, might prove
+dangerous if mixed with any of the "charges," the axle sockets of nearly
+all the wheels are constructed to expand, so as to allow any hard foreign
+body to pass through just in the same manner in which the fine jaws of the
+larger serpents are loosely hinged, to enable them to get over at one gulp
+such a bulky morsel as a full-grown rabbit.
+
+Accidents will happen, however, in the best-regulated mills, and provision
+is made for rendering an explosion when it occurs as innocuous as
+possible. The new incorporating mills are constructed with three sides of
+solid brickwork three feet thick, and the fourth side and roof of
+corrugated iron and glass lightly adjusted. As they are placed in a row
+contiguous to each other, the alternate ones only face the same way, so
+that the line of fire, or the direction the explosion would take through
+the weakest end, would not be likely to involve in destruction the
+neighbouring mill. It does occasionally happen, however, that the
+precautions are not sufficient to prevent danger spreading. In the great
+explosion which took place in 1842 a second house was fired at a couple of
+hundred yards distance from the spot where the original explosion took
+place. There is now a further security against the houses going one after
+another, like houses of cards. Over each mill a copper tank, containing
+about forty gallons of water, is so suspended that on the lifting of a
+lever it instantly discharges its contents and floods the mill. This
+shower or douche bath is made self-acting, inasmuch as the explosion
+itself pulls the string, the force of the expanding gas lifting up a
+hinged shutter which acts like a trigger to let down the water. "But," it
+may be said, "as the water does not fall until the explosion has taken
+place, this contrivance is very like locking the stable door when the
+steed is stolen!" And this is the case with respect to the mill where the
+original mischief took place; but the lever first acted upon discharges
+the shower-bath over the heads of all the others also, and by this means
+the evil is limited to the place where it originated. From the
+incorporating mills the kneading powder, or "mill cake," as it is termed,
+is taken by another funeral-looking gondola to small expense-magazines,
+where it is allowed to remain for twelve hours before being taken to the
+breaking-down house. Here the hard lumps of mill cake are ground into fine
+powder by the action of fine-toothed rollers made of gun-metal, which
+revolve towards each other and crush the cake which falls between them to
+dust. The broken-down mill cake once more travels between pleasant meadows
+fringed with willow until it reaches the press house, where the meal is
+subjected to hydraulic pressure between plates of gun-metal, and is
+thereby reduced to dense plates about half an inch thick. These plates are
+allowed to remain intact for a couple of days, by which time they become
+as hard as a piece of fine pottery. Very many advantages are gained by
+this pressure. The density of the powder is increased, which enables it to
+be conveyed without working into fine dust; its keeping qualities are
+improved, as it absorbs less moisture than if it were more porous; and
+lastly, a greater volume of inflammable gas is produced from a given bulk.
+
+The pressed cake is now transferred to the maw of one of the most
+extraordinary machines we have yet witnessed. The granulating house, where
+the important process of dividing the powder into fine grains takes place,
+is removed very far away from the other buildings. The danger of the
+operation carried on within is implied by the strong traverse fifteen feet
+thick at the bottom, which is intended to act as a shield to the workmen
+in case of an accident. It was here an explosion took place in 1843, by
+which eight workmen lost their lives--in what manner no one knows, as all
+the evidence was swept away. To render the recurrence of such lamentable
+accidents as rare as possible, the machine is made self-acting. At
+certain times of the day it is supplied with food in the shape of fifteen
+hundredweight of "pressed cake." This is stuffed into a large hopper or
+pouch, and the moment the monster is ready, the men retire beyond the
+strong traverse and allow it slowly to masticate its meal, which it does
+with a deliberation worthy of its ponderosity and strength, emptying its
+pouch by degrees, and by a triturating process performed by two or three
+sets of fine rollers, dividing it into different-sized grains. These
+grains it passes through a series of wire sieves, separating the larger
+ones fitted for cannon powder from the finer kind required for rifles, and
+depositing them in their appropriate boxes, which, when full, it removes
+from its own dangerous proximity, and takes up empty ones in their place.
+All the larger undigested pieces it returns again, like a ruminating
+animal, to its masticating process until its supply is exhausted. Then,
+and not till then, like Mademoiselle Jack, the famous elephant, it rings a
+bell for some fresh "cake." The workmen allow it about five minutes' grace
+to thoroughly assimilate the supply already in its maw, when the machine
+stops, and they enter with another meal. The floors of all the different
+houses are covered with leather neatly fastened down with copper nails,
+and the brush is never out of the hands of the workman: even while you are
+talking to him, he sweeps away in the gravest manner in order to remove
+any particles of powder or grit that maybe on the floor; this he does
+mechanically, when not a particle of anything is to be seen, just as a
+sailor in a crack ship always holystones the deck, clean or dirty, the
+moment he has any spare time.
+
+The powder thus separated into grains is still damp and full of dust. To
+get rid of this it is taken by water to the dusting-house, where it is
+bolted in a reel like so much flour. It has now to be glazed, a very
+important operation, performed by placing it in large barrels, which
+revolve with their load thirty-two times a minute for three hours
+together. By the mere friction of the grains against each other and the
+sides of the barrel, a fine polish is imparted to the surface of the
+grain, which enables it to withstand the action of the atmosphere much
+better than when it is left unglazed. It is now stoved for sixteen hours
+in a drying-room heated by steam pipes to a heat of 130° Fahrenheit, and
+is then finally dusted and proved. There are many methods of proving, but
+the simplest and most efficacious is to fire the powder from the weapon it
+is intended to serve. Thus cannon powder is proved by firing a 68-pound
+solid shot with a charge of two ounces of powder--a charge which should
+give a range of from 270 to 300 feet. If the powder passes the test, which
+it generally does, it is packed in barrels holding 100 lbs. each, marked
+L. G. (Large Grain), and F. G. (Fine Grain), as the case may be, and
+carried to the provisional magazine. When 500 barrels have accumulated
+they are despatched in a barge to the Government magazine at Purfleet,
+near the mouth of the Thames, the Lea forming the connecting link of water
+between the canals of the works and that river.
+
+The produce of this establishment, which had fallen so low as 4,500
+barrels per annum in 1843, is now so increased by improved machinery that
+20,000 barrels a year can be manufactured, and of the very best quality.
+Even this supply is far below the consumption during a time of war, and
+contractors have, and always will have, to furnish a portion of the
+required supplies; but it seems that a model mill is useful for the double
+purpose of keeping up a due standard of quality,[27] and of keeping down
+price. On the uniform strength of the powder depends the accuracy of
+artillery fire: hence the necessity of having some known standard of
+quality from which contractors should not be allowed to depart. The
+improvements which have taken place in the manufacture are very marked.
+About the year 1790, when powder was supplied to Government wholly by
+contract, the regulation weight of charge for a cannon was half the weight
+of the ball; it is now less than one-third: therefore two barrels are now
+used instead of three, a reduction of bulk which economizes stowage on
+board ship as well as in the field. Formerly powder had a range of 190
+feet only; the range is now increased to 268 feet! This vast improvement
+is simply the consequence of the care with which the powder is worked, and
+the attention bestowed on every detail of the mills since their direction
+fell into the hands of Colonel Tulloh, Colonel Dickson, and Colonel
+Askwith, the present Superintendent.
+
+There is a department at the Woolwich Arsenal to which we must now return,
+of which the establishments at Enfield and Waltham Abbey may be considered
+but outlying offshoots. Beyond the canal, at the extreme end of the
+ground, lie the establishments devoted to the more dangerous portions of
+pyrotechnic manufacture, such as the filling of rockets, of
+friction-tubes, the driving of fuses, &c. These ticklish operations used
+to be conducted in ill-built sheds in the laboratory square, where a sad
+explosion took place during the war, and Captain Boxer, determining to
+reduce the risk of accidents, transferred the whole of them in 1854 to
+this open space, far away from the neighbourhood of fire. The sixteen
+houses used for fuse-driving and friction-tube-making are isolated from
+each other much in the same manner as the incorporating mills at Waltham
+Abbey: we need not therefore describe them. The rocket manufactory is also
+so carefully arranged that accidents can rarely happen. The method of
+driving the composition into these frightfully destructive implements of
+war was, until lately, not only barbarous but dangerous in the extreme,
+being forced in by a "monkey," or small pile-driver, worked by eight men.
+The pressure of water now does the work silently, effectually, and safely.
+The rocket is so fixed while it is being filled, that in case of an
+accident the discharge will fly through the roof; grit and iron are as
+carefully excluded as in the powder mills; open spaces around the
+buildings are covered with turf and planted with shrubs, and a raised
+causeway of wood keeps the communications between the different magazines
+free from all substances likely to produce friction. The visitor may no
+more enter one of these carefully-guarded buildings with his shoes on than
+he could walk into the mosque of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, similarly
+shod. With equal care the process of greasing the bullet end of the
+small-arm cartridges is carried on in this portion of the Arsenal. For a
+long time no lubricating material could be found that remained unaffected
+in all climates--a very important desideratum, considering the manner in
+which our stores of war are moved about from the depths of arctic waters
+to the burning summers of the torrid zone. Captain Boxer, however, in a
+happy moment, thought of the little busy insect that builds a store-house
+warranted to keep in all temperatures, and adopted bees' wax, which, added
+to a little fat, makes a compound which answers the purpose perfectly. The
+cartridges are dipped about an inch deep into a receptacle of this liquid
+kept fluid by the heat of gas. As we watched the process going on, we
+could not avoid reflecting from what insignificant causes great events
+arise, and that a rebellion which well-nigh snatched India from our grasp
+sprung from this very cauldron seething with "hell-broth thick and slab."
+
+The different departments of the Royal Arsenal are separated by large open
+spaces, in which the rougher materials of war are deposited. The roadways,
+laid with iron trams, which greatly facilitate the transfer of heavy guns,
+are lined here and there with pyramids of shot and shell, lackered and
+shining in the sun. These missiles are continually circulating along the
+shoots from one spot in the Arsenal to another, passing at one time
+underfoot, at another overhead, the action of gravity being pressed into
+the service with other labour-saving contrivances, to remove 13-inch
+shells and 98-pounder solid shot, sometimes to very considerable
+distances. Vast as are the stores of these warlike implements, and far as
+the vistas of pyramids stretch (and there are no less than 688,000 in the
+Arsenal at present), they would speedily be drained by a short return of
+war, in which artillery now plays so prominent a part. At the siege of
+Sebastopol alone, which scarcely occupied eighteen months, no less than
+253,042 shot and shell of all sizes were fired from our batteries, a
+number which the enemy surpassed, in one attack alone, if we are to
+believe the evidence afforded by some of the ravines, in which this iron
+rain descended so thickly that it paved the ground and prevented the grass
+from springing up. The French were even more prodigal of these
+projectiles; for, according to the report made to the Emperor, 1,100,000
+of them were sent by our allies into the doomed city.
+
+The neighbourhood of each department is generally indicated by the class
+of war stores to be seen at hand. We may be sure we are near the great-gun
+foundry, for instance, when we see the long files of iron guns of all
+sizes and patterns, from the light 32-pounders to the truly formidable
+98-pounders of the naval service, flanking the road, compared with which
+the light brass field-pieces that fringe the wall of the building itself
+seem the merest toy-guns. Here and there trim grass-plots are seen with a
+neat edging of three hundred 13-inch mortars, and at the grand entrance of
+the foundry itself enormous shells, a yard in diameter, prepared for
+Mallett's mammoth mortar, are planted, as if to show how daring are the
+ideas of modern war, which proposes to throw such Titanic missiles at the
+enemy. Here too may be seen veterans which have seen service--avenues of
+wounded guns from the Crimea. These are the picked specimens of the
+eighty-eight pieces of ordnance either disabled by the enemy or worn out
+by their own fire in that ever-memorable siege. One, a 68-pounder, was
+shattered by a singular accident; just as it was being discharged a shell
+fired by the enemy exploded in its mouth, and destroyed it after it had
+fired no less than 2,000 rounds. Another gun, which is split in the
+muzzle, was hit thirteen times. There appears to have been luck in this
+mystic number, however, for by the aid of an iron band the mishap was
+repaired, and it went on doing duty until one of its trunnions was knocked
+off, and even then, like the gallant Widderington, at Chevy Chase, it
+fought upon its stumps; for, on being sunk into the ground, and fired at a
+high elevation, it was kept at work up to the end of the siege. Some of
+these guns are pitted with cannon-shot even as far back as the breech, and
+one or two are hit in their very stern-most parts. These wounds are the
+result of ricochet firing, a kind of practice which enables a shot to drop
+in the most unexpected places.
+
+In the mounting yard, as it is termed, which lies between the gun and
+carriage factories, the field-pieces are mounted upon their carriages and
+fitted up for service previous to their removal to the depôt of artillery
+near the Common. Since the war the captured cannon from Sebastopol have
+been stored here preparatory to their being either broken up or
+distributed as trophies to the various towns of the United Kingdom. Of
+these guns 1079 are of iron and 94 of brass. They are of admirable metal,
+and would have proved very serviceable, except that unfortunately their
+bore does not suit any of our shot. Gun-carriages rent by the bursting of
+guns, or so unscientifically constructed as inevitably to destroy
+themselves, like the iron carriages taken from the enemy at Kertch, are
+kept as lessons for the Captain Instructor to dwell upon, when he takes
+round his bevy of young artillery cadets. This official performs the
+essential duty of giving the future artillery officer a clear insight into
+the method of constructing and repairing all the more essential engines
+and tools he will have to work with--such as guns, gun-carriages, &c., and
+of obtaining a general notion of the relative strength of metals, and of
+the value of the various materials out of which the munitions of war are
+formed. The vast workshops of Woolwich afford an admirable field for the
+acquisition of this kind of knowledge.
+
+The neighbourhood of the Arsenal to the chief Military Academy in the
+kingdom gives these embryo artillery officers an opportunity of witnessing
+the experiments which are constantly going on in the Marshes, either for
+the purpose of testing new guns, or of practically examining the
+capabilities of new inventions. The extraordinary energy with which
+projectors of all kinds (clergymen among the number) devoted themselves to
+the task of inventing new implements of destruction during the Russian war
+entirely belied that lamb-like spirit attributed by Mr. Cobden to his
+fellow-countrymen. No less than 1976 new projects were submitted to the
+Select Committee of Ordnance with respect to artillery alone. Of this
+number a large proportion were of the most imbecile kind--such as
+proposals to fill shells with Cayenne pepper, chloroform, and cacodyle,
+the latter a most virulent material which has the property of poisoning
+the air around it. The asphyxiating ball of the French was the true parent
+of the whole brood. Only forty-three of the propositions were favourably
+reported on, and of this number only thirty have been adopted into the
+service. First and foremost among these is the plan of filling shells with
+liquid iron. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the destructive effect
+of this new application of an old material. At the second shot fired in
+the Marshes against a perfectly new butt which cost 200_l._, it set it on
+fire and entirely destroyed it. The engines of the Arsenal and the old
+expedient of heaping earth against the burning wood were of no avail, the
+molten iron having penetrated in all directions deep into the timber. It
+is hard to believe that any ship will be able to resist the destructive
+effect of these shells, or that masses of men will be found courageous
+enough to withstand their devastating effects; for immediately the
+percussion shell comes in contact with any object, it explodes and throws
+the molten metal in all directions--splashing and striking objects that
+are completely out of the way of the contents of ordinary shells, and
+proving far more deadly both to animate and inanimate substances than the
+famous Greek fire of old. This very invention was brought to the notice of
+the authorities as early as 1803 by a workman in a London iron-foundry;
+but the suggestion was so contrary to all the current notions of the time,
+that it was rejected, and not heard of again until a new war brought into
+play more advanced ideas.
+
+The new guns that were brought forward were innumerable, and many of them,
+such as the Mersey steel gun, and the great mortar, are still under trial.
+If this mortar, which is built up of a series of rings 9 inches broad and
+3-1/2 inches thick, laid over one another, and fitting tightly, so as to
+form a barrel, should ultimately prove capable of resisting the full
+charge of 70 lbs. weight of powder, it will be the most destructive
+implement yet invented for the purpose of crushing fortified places. In
+some of the trials which have taken place in the Marshes, it threw its
+36-inch shell, weighing 26 cwt., upwards of two miles; and when the
+missile fell, it buried itself in the ground to so considerable a depth,
+that after digging down 12 feet, and probing for 15 feet more, it still
+remained undiscovered. The artillerymen say jestingly that it has dropped
+down to Australia, No casemate at present in existence could withstand the
+crushing weight of its fall, and its bursting charge of 200 lbs. of
+powder.
+
+After contemplating this vast establishment for the manufacture of arms,
+with its sixty steam-engines, which through the agency of upwards of three
+miles of running shafting, give motion to upwards of a thousand machines,
+we must not omit to mention the human labour which directs this enormous
+manufacturing power. During the height of the Crimean war, upwards of
+10,000 men and boys were employed in the Arsenal, an army of workers
+engaged upon the production of the materials of destruction equal to the
+entire force encamped at Aldershot, and double the number of men that
+besieged and took Delhi. When such masses of men as this have to be dealt
+with daily, it is obvious how necessary it must be to possess an organized
+system by which the loss of what might otherwise be considered mere
+fractions of time is noted. Let us suppose, for instance, that every man
+and boy in the Arsenal lost only five minutes per day, and it would amount
+in the aggregate to the loss of the labour of one man for twelve weeks to
+the Government.
+
+The next problem to be solved is how to pay 10,000 men in any reasonable
+time. It would be clearly impossible to calculate each man's wages at the
+time of payment, even if a little army of clerks were employed. It is
+therefore done beforehand by a staff of men employed for this purpose. The
+amount due to each person having been ascertained, the money is laid out
+on boards divided into partitions numbered consecutively. A corresponding
+number for each man, with the amount to be given to him, is distributed
+previously to the payment taking place, on what is termed a "pay ticket."
+On pay-day the artisans take their places in single file, arranging
+themselves according to their numbers, and, passing in front of the
+pay-boards, receive their wages, and surrender their tickets, which are
+receipts for the money. No money is exchanged if not brought back before
+the man reaches a certain point, and in this space there are persons
+stationed to watch that no exchange is made of bad money for good. To
+search every man as he left would be impossible, yet it is highly
+necessary to have some means of checking petty depredations of metal, &c.
+Formerly peculations of this kind were constant, and the aggregate loss
+must have been immense. When it was first determined to put a stop to it,
+the men were told only a few minutes before leaving work that they would
+be searched as they went out. The effect of this announcement was that the
+whole Arsenal was strewed with small pilfered articles thrown hastily
+away. Now a couple of policemen at the gate touch indiscriminately a
+certain per-centage of the men as they are going, and these have to pass
+through a side lodge to be searched. As no man can tell whether or no he
+will be touched, the whole mass is kept honest. The mere lodging of such a
+body of men was at first a difficulty, even in so large a town as
+Woolwich: the demand, however, soon produced supply, and the means taken
+to insure the fall of Sebastopol caused the rise of a new town of at least
+two thousand houses in the immediate neighbourhood of the Arsenal.
+
+Complete as we have shown the organization of the Arsenal to be, both as
+regards its mechanical resources and its staff, it is generally understood
+that the Government do not intend to depend upon it wholly for the supply
+of the munitions of war. In the case of small-arms, its powers, as we have
+seen, are wholly inadequate to the task. In those branches, however, where
+the manufacturing power is ample, they will not attempt to push it to the
+point of excluding the private manufacturer from a share in the business.
+This is, we think, a wise decision; for, however excellent may be the
+present arrangements now everything is new and the broom is fresh, it
+cannot be denied that the tendency of this and all other Government
+establishments is to go to sleep, since they neither possess the stimulus
+of private gain to teach them economy, nor that unity of direction which
+gives such vigour to private enterprises. The principle of competition
+ought therefore to be kept up, and we should run the private manufacturer
+against the public one in order to keep down price, and pit the Royal
+Factory against the trade in order to keep up quality. Another great gain
+will accrue from the determination of the Government, which is, that the
+private manufacturers will not lose the art of making certain stores of
+war--an art which can not be learned in a day. It would be unwise for the
+authorities to put all their eggs into one basket, and this they would
+most assuredly do by entirely depending upon their own powers of
+production, and in disassociating themselves from the great and fertile
+manufacturing power of England, which generally knows so well how to
+economize and progress.
+
+If the Government have shown judgment and foresight upon this point, we
+cannot say as much for their inexcusable neglect to provide for the
+security of this enormous establishment, which contains within its walls
+not only the principal depôt of warlike stores in the island, but also the
+means of producing them. We do not believe that our neighbours are going
+to sail up the Thames quite as easily as the Dutch did, or that any
+foreign army marching from Dover could destroy the Arsenal on its way to
+the capital without our having ample notice of their approach.
+Nevertheless we cannot think that the sole Arsenal of England, placed as
+it is in a very accessible part of the island, should be left entirely
+without the means of defence. The place itself could not be fortified, as
+it is commanded by the heights of Shooter's Hill; but the neighbourhood is
+admirably adapted for the purpose. In the opinion of military engineers,
+it would not be necessary even to erect the requisite works until the
+moment their services were required. Half a dozen earth batteries, mounted
+with heavy guns, would command all the land approaches; and a few flats,
+posted so as to sweep the reaches of the river, would effectually prevent
+the approach of any hostile force by water. The scheme of these batteries
+should, however, be settled beforehand in all their details, so that in
+the moment of danger they could be completed almost in the presence of the
+enemy, in case an invader should give the Channel Fleet the slip some
+misty morning, and succeed in making good his footing upon our shores.
+
+
+
+
+SHIPWRECKS.
+
+
+There is no nobler or more national sight in our island than to behold the
+procession of stately vessels as they pass in panoramic pride along our
+shores, or navigate the great arterial streams of commerce,--to witness
+the deeply-laden Indiaman warped out of the docks, or to see the emigrant
+ship speeding with bellying sails down Blackwall Reach, watched by many
+weeping eyes, and the depository of many aching hearts. It would, however,
+spoil the enjoyment of the least-interested spectator if the veil could be
+lifted from the dark future; if that gallant Indiaman could be shown him
+broadside on among the breakers; or that stately vessel, with bulwarks
+fringed with tearful groups looking so sadly to the receding shore, were
+pictured by him foundering in mid ocean--gone to swell the numbers of the
+dismal fleet that yearly sails and is never heard of more. Sadder still
+would be his reflections if another passing ship could be shown him,
+destined perhaps to circle the globe in safety, and when within sight of
+the white cliffs of Albion, full of joyful hearts, suddenly, in the dark
+and stormy night, fated to be dashed to atoms, like the _Reliance_ and
+_Conqueror_, on a foreign strand. If such dramatic contrasts as these
+could be witnessed, we should without doubt strain every nerve to prevent
+their recurrence. As it is, the sad tale of disasters at sea comes to us
+weakened by the lapse of time and the distance of the scene of the
+catastrophe: instead of having the harrowing sight before our eyes, we
+have only statistics which raise no emotion, and even rarely arrest
+attention. In connection with these annual returns there is published a
+fearful-looking map termed a wreck chart, in which the shores of Great
+Britain and Ireland are shown fringed with dots,--the sites of wrecks,
+collisions, and other disasters. From this we perceive how all the
+dangerous headlands and sandbanks on the coast are strewn with--
+
+  "A thousand fearful wrecks,
+  A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
+  Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
+  Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels--
+  All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea."
+
+Strange to say, these dismal finger-posts to marine disasters are
+generally found grouped around the sites of lighthouses. If we analyze the
+chart for the year 1857, we perceive at a glance the relative dangers of
+the three seaboards of triangular England, and that a fatal pre-eminence
+is given to the East coast. Out of a total of 1,143 wrecks and casualties
+which took place in this year, no less than 600, or more than one-half,
+occurred between Dungeness and Pentland Frith. Along this perilous sea,
+beset with sands, shoals, and rocky headlands, no less than 150,000
+vessels pass annually, the greater part ill-constructed, deeply-laden
+colliers, such as we see in the Pool, and wonder how they manage to
+survive a gale of wind. The South coast, extending from Dungeness to the
+Land's End, is comparatively safe, only 84 wrecks having taken place in
+1847; whilst from the Land's End to Greenock, where the influence of the
+Atlantic gales is most sensibly felt, the numbers rise again to 286, and
+the Irish coast contributes a total of 173.
+
+If we take a more extended view of these disastrous occurrences by opening
+the wreck chart attached to the evidence of the select committee on
+harbours of refuge, given in 1857, containing the casualties of five years
+from 1852 to 1856, both inclusive, we shall be better able to analyze
+their causes. Within this period no less than 5,128 wrecks and collisions
+took place, being an average of 1,025 a year. According to the evidence of
+Captain Washington, R.N., the scientific and indefatigable hydrographer of
+the Admiralty, these casualties consisted of
+
+                                              Vessels.
+  Total losses by stranding or otherwise       1,940
+     "      "     collisions                     244
+  Serious damage having to discharge           2,401
+  Collisions with serious damage                 543
+                                               -----
+                                               5,128
+
+The total losses from all causes, therefore, amounted to 2,184 vessels, or
+to an average of nearly 437 in each year. The destruction of life
+consequent upon these casualties was 4,148 persons, or, upon the average
+of five years, nearly 830 in each year. In 1854 no fewer than 1,549
+persons were drowned.
+
+How such a calamity should have been so long tolerated in a civilized
+country, without any proper attempt at a remedy, it is not easy to
+comprehend. Still more incomprehensible, in a trading country, is the
+apparent disregard of the pecuniary sacrifice. It appears in evidence that
+the loss by total wrecks is estimated at 1,000,000_l._ a year at least,
+and by other casualties at 500,000_l._, making together 1,500,000_l._ as
+the annual loss to the country from the accidents on our own coasts--a sum
+which in two years would be ample to build all the harbours of refuge that
+are needed around our shores.
+
+The first step towards a remedy for this state of things is to inquire
+into the causes of shipwreck. There can be little hesitation in naming
+Marine Insurance as the chief destroyer. Unseaworthiness and overloading
+of vessels; their being ill found in anchors, cables, sails, and rigging;
+defects of compasses, want of good charts, incompetency of masters, may
+all be attributed to this source. If the shipowners were not guaranteed
+from loss, they would take care that their vessels were seaworthy,
+commanded by qualified persons, and furnished with every necessary store.
+The terms of the insurance, moreover, offer a direct premium to create in
+all cases of casualty a "total loss." For instance, a ship strikes the
+ground and becomes damaged, but, under able management, might be got off
+and repaired. In this case, however, the assured has to bear one third
+part of the loss; whereas, if the loss is total, he gets the whole of his
+insurance. Under these circumstances, even when there is no deliberate
+desire to perpetrate a wrong, the captain will leave the ship to her fate
+instead of using his energies to preserve her to the detriment of his
+employer. It is the opinion of many that if the insurers were to agree to
+pay the whole insurance, whether the damaged vessel were got off or not,
+that we should see a marked diminution in the list of total losses at
+sea, for the natural inclination of the captain to save his ship would
+then no longer be counterbalanced by his desire to save the pocket of the
+owner.
+
+There is a class of casualties, however, which are the product of villany,
+against which we see no protection excepting in the vigilance of the
+insurers: we refer to those cases of wilful casting away, which are not
+unknown even in this country, as the late trial of a captain, at the Old
+Bailey, will testify; but which are most frequent on the Florida Reef. It
+is notorious that our American friends are in the habit of sailing ships
+into these waters, with the deliberate intention of steering them to
+destruction. So well is this known, that those on shore can predict, with
+tolerable accuracy, from the handling of the vessel, whether she is about
+to be sunk or not. When it is not the skipper's interest to lose his
+craft, he will allow the wreckers, who swarm as plentifully as sharks in
+those waters, to act as pilots, and to put the ship in dangerous positions
+for the purpose of making a claim for salvage, which the swindling captain
+shares with them. In the years 1854, 1855, and 1856, 189 ships were either
+lost or put into Key West. The salvage upon the latter class amounted to
+298,400·05 dollars, a large portion of which was, without doubt, obtained
+by fraud. It is far from our purpose to insinuate that the Americans are
+worse than their neighbours in this particular; had the English the same
+opportunity, there would always be found persons to enter upon similar
+practices. The memory of wrecking is not yet extinct in Cornwall, and only
+a few years since it was notorious that the pilots of the Downs were in
+the habit of recommending the cables of the vessels in their charge to be
+slipped in very moderate gales of wind, because these worthies had a good
+understanding with the chain and anchor makers of the neighbouring ports
+who would have to supply fresh tackle.
+
+It must be admitted, that the same cause which prompts these villanies,
+operates in some measure as an antidote. The underwriters at Lloyd's and
+the different marine insurance offices, act in a certain degree as the
+police force of the seas. Their agents are as plentiful and ubiquitous as
+flies, and there is no port of the old or new world without one or more
+of them. Through the medium of these marine sentries, whose eyes are
+always upon the ocean, disasters at sea are speedily made known to the
+underwriters, and in those cases where the telegraph is at hand, a ship
+has scarcely broken up or come ashore, before hundreds are reading the
+account of the disaster upon the "Board" at Lloyd's. With this spider-like
+web of intelligence spreading from port to port and from ocean to ocean,
+the chances of wreckers either on shipboard or on land must certainly
+diminish. The acuteness of the underwriters, sharpened by self-interest,
+is brought to bear upon the distant point, and all the resources of a
+powerful corporation are put in force to detect fraud when suspected, and
+to punish it when confirmed. A singular instance of the vigour and
+ingenuity displayed by their agents in pursuing the marine robber was
+afforded by the case of the American ship _W. T. Sayward_. This vessel was
+reported by her skipper to have been lost off Loo Choo, on her voyage from
+San Francisco to Shanghai, and the sum claimed of the insurers in this
+country was £50,000, the value of the cargo, which was reported to have
+comprised, among other things, 50,000 Carolus dollars. It struck the
+gentleman engaged to settle the claim that it was very unusual to ship
+such a quantity of this "Pillar" dollar, and on inquiring of the
+money-changers, he learnt that there was not a tithe of that number at
+present in existence out of China. This discovery at once aroused
+suspicion, and agents were sent to the spot where the ship had been lost,
+when it was found that the sailors, suspecting some roguery, returned to
+the wreck after the captain had departed, dived into her hold and
+discovered that she had been wilfully scuttled. They lighted, by happy
+chance, upon some of the boxes in which the "dollars" were shipped, and
+they were found to contain only iron nails and leaden bullets. The nails
+were selected for the sake of the chink. The assured, having heard of what
+had occurred, never ventured to repeat their claim.
+
+In a more recent case, that of the brig _Cornelia_, a regular trader
+between the coast of Mexico and San Francisco, which was wilfully
+scuttled off San Quentin on the 27th of March last, it was reported that
+she had 48,000 Mexican dollars on board, 19,000 shipped at Mazatlan by an
+English house, and 29,000 by other persons. On the captain's own
+confession the 19,000 dollars were removed by him just before he scuttled
+the vessel, and hidden in the sand at Cape San Lucas, on the coast of
+Lower California; the remaining sum of 29,000 dollars he admitted had
+never been shipped at all, bills of lading having been fabricated, and a
+mythical consignee improvised for the occasion. Had not the agent been on
+the alert, this knave would have robbed the underwriters at one swoop of
+48,000 dollars.
+
+From the chief moral, or rather immoral, cause of shipwreck and loss at
+sea, we pass to a consideration of the physical agents which act directly
+in producing these disasters. Of these there are so many, and of such
+various natures, that it is difficult to group them. Currents of the
+ocean, fog, lightning, icebergs, sandbanks, water-logged ships, defective
+compasses, and imperfect charts, are all dangers which beset the path of
+navigators, and especially of such as have to run the gauntlet in
+ill-found ships. The effect of currents in taking the sailor out of his
+reckoning is an old, and formerly perhaps a frequent, cause of shipwreck.
+This source of danger is now much obviated by the more intimate knowledge
+we are acquiring every day of the general laws which produce the currents.
+One of the most effectual as well as simple methods of detecting surface
+currents is that known to seamen as the bottle experiment. This has been
+practised since 1808, but more especially of late years, and has been
+deemed of sufficient importance by the Admiralty to justify an order by
+which all Her Majesty's ships are enjoined to throw bottles overboard
+containing a paper, on which is noted the position of the ship and the
+time the frail messenger was sent forth on its voyage. The bottle,
+carefully sealed up, traverses the ocean wherever the winds and
+surface-drift may carry it, and, after a passage of longer or shorter
+duration, is perhaps safely washed by the tide upon some beach. Without
+doubt many are smashed upon the rocks, others again are sunk by weeds
+growing to them, some are destroyed by the attacks of birds or the jaws of
+hungry sharks, or if by chance they avoid all these dangers, they may be
+consigned to oblivion upon an uninhabited shore. It is estimated, however,
+that at least one-tenth are recovered. A collection of upwards of 200 has
+been made at the Admiralty, and are laid down in a chart called the
+Current Bottle Chart.
+
+A single glance at this chart displays the principal well-known currents
+of the Atlantic ocean. The general tendency of the bottles to go to the
+eastward in the northern parts of this sea, and to the westward in lower
+latitudes, is at once apparent. It is equally evident that to the
+southward of the parallel of 40° N. on the eastern side of the Atlantic
+the bottles drift to the southward, while those again in the vicinity of
+the Canaries and Cape Verd Islands take a westerly direction. Those
+further south, lose themselves among the West-India Islands, and some
+penetrating further are found on the coast of Mexico, between Galveston
+and Tanessied. A few manifest the effects of the counter-current of the
+celebrated Gulf-stream, while others again, on the western side of the
+Atlantic, from about 40° N., are set to the eastward. Indeed, there seems
+to be a determination of all to the northward of the parallel of 40°, or
+that of Philadelphia on the American seaboard, to make their way to the
+eastward--some to the coast of France, in the Bay of Biscay, others to the
+western shores of Great Britain and Ireland, and others again to the
+shores of Norway.
+
+We thus recognize distinctly, first the Portugal current, setting
+southward; then the equatorial current, influenced by the trade winds;
+then the extraordinary effects of the waters of the Gulf-stream flowing
+northward along the American coast, over the banks of Newfoundland--one
+portion following its north-east course and penetrating to Norway, and
+another continuing easterly into the Bay of Biscay. But let us
+particularize a few of the remarkable journeys made by these glass
+voyagers over the deep. The _Prima Donna_ was thrown over off Cape Coast
+Castle, on the west coast of Africa, and after a voyage of somewhere
+within two years was found on the coast of Cornwall. Now, to have arrived
+there, it must have been carried eastward by the well-known Guinea
+current, and reaching the Bights of Biafra and Benin it would meet the
+African current then coming from the southward, with which it would
+recross the equator and travel with the equatorial current through the
+West-India Islands, and getting into the Gulf-stream, would be carried by
+this to the north-east, and thus would be landed on the Cornish coast,
+after making a detour of many thousand miles. But curious as this is, it
+is not the only instance, for we find that the _Lady Montagu_, setting out
+in nearly 8° S. lat., about midway between Brazil and Africa, a position
+which would fairly place it in the equatorial current, made the same
+voyage, but landed at Guernsey, having accomplished the course in 295
+days, or between the 15th October, 1820, and the 6th of August, 1821.
+Confining ourselves now to the area included between 30° N. lat. and the
+equator, the general effect of the heat of the Gulf of Mexico in forcing
+the waters thither is plainly indicated by the direction which the bottles
+have followed that are included within those limits. Those thrown
+overboard in the Mexican Gulf, to the north of Cape Catoche of Yucatan,
+are hurried away with it and cast on the American shore, near St.
+Augustine and Charleston. Other instances show the effects of the
+counter-current of the Gulf-stream on its eastern or ocean side, in
+driving bottles to the south-east, a current that must have affected the
+ships of Columbus in his first discovery, and which, upon his return
+northward among the islands, without doubt met and opposed his progress.
+
+A curious example of the effects of the wind on the surface-waters is
+shown by a bottle thrown over from H.M.S. _Vulcan_ in the midst of the
+Gulf-stream, about 130 miles southward of Cape Hatteras. The ship was on
+her way to Bermuda, where she arrived, and the bottle, instead of being
+carried by the current to the north-east like others, actually went after
+her and arrived at Bermuda also. But we find noted on the paper that a
+strong northerly wind was blowing when the bottle started. This must have
+been sufficient to have checked its progress to the north-east, but
+allowed it to approach the eastern border of the Gulf-stream, whence it
+would drift into the eddy or counter-current, and thus become thrown on
+Bermuda. Again, between the Gulf-stream and the American coast bottles
+have found their way to that shore, while those to the northward of the
+parallel of 40° have invariably gone eastward; and many thrown over near
+the meridian of 20° have drifted into the Bay of Biscay, and been cast on
+the French coast.
+
+Among the numbers of bottles which have travelled westward with the
+equatorial and tropical current two are remarkable, as being thrown
+overboard about 700 miles from each other and yet arriving at nearly the
+same destination. They were thrown from sister-ships when on their errand
+of carrying relief, by way of Behring Strait, to Franklin and his devoted
+crew. The first was dropped from the _Investigator_, Sir R. Maclure, in
+lat. 12°, long. 26°, the 27th of February, 1850, and was found on the 27th
+August following on Ambergris Cay, on the Yucatan coast; the second was
+sent afloat on the 3rd March, 1850, by Captain Collinson, in the
+_Enterprise_, in lat. 1° N., long. 26° W., and drifted to the coast inside
+of that cay, about 30 miles to the northward of it. That the two bottles
+should take their western course was to be expected; but that they should
+have gone to resting-places so near each other is singular, considering
+that their points of starting were so far asunder.
+
+The Gulf-stream, the limits of which are so clearly intimated by these
+little messengers, is but a sample of a grand system of currents which are
+produced by the unequal temperature of the different zones. These currents
+of hot and cold water are accompanied by atmospheric changes equally
+extraordinary; and, taken together, they largely affect the course of the
+navigator from the old to the new world, and, not unfrequently, are the
+cause of the most fearful shipwrecks.
+
+Lieutenant Maury, in his Physical Geography of the Sea, has boldly likened
+the causes at work to produce the celebrated Gulf-stream to the mechanical
+arrangements by which apartments are heated. The furnace is the torrid
+zone, the Mexican Gulf and the Caribbean Sea are the caldrons, and the
+Gulf-stream is the conducting-pipe by which the warm water and the air
+above it, are dispersed to the banks of Newfoundland and to the
+north-western shores of the old world.[28] By this beneficent process the
+cold of our northern latitudes is greatly ameliorated. The waters sent
+north and north-east are edged by return currents, the one finding its way
+close to the banks of Newfoundland and along the seaboard of the States,
+and the other returning by the North Sea, the Bay of Biscay, and the west
+coast of Africa, until about the latitude of the Cape de Verdes it crosses
+westward again to fill up the void caused by the waters issuing from the
+Gulf of Florida. Thus the grand circuit is for ever maintained, not
+always, however, exactly in the same form, but varying according to the
+season. In the winter, the cold current coming S.S.W. along the Atlantic
+coast of North America is greatly augmented, and pushes the Gulf-stream
+further to the south-east. With the return of summer this stream, in its
+turn, thrusts aside the waters coming from the Polar Ocean. Between these
+two periods the trough of the Gulf-stream, to use Lieutenant Maury's
+forcible expression, "wavers about in the ocean like a pennon in the
+breeze." The temperature of the Gulf-stream, even in the winter, is at the
+summer level as it runs between two walls of nearly ice-cold water. Sir
+Philip Brooke found the air on either side of it at the freezing point, at
+the same time that that of the stream was at 80°. This difference in the
+temperature of air and water is probably the cause of those terrible
+hurricanes that occur in the Atlantic and among the West-Indian Islands,
+and which make it the most dangerous navigation, during the winter, in the
+world. The average of wrecks on the Atlantic seaboard of the United States
+during these rigorous months is not less than three a day. Sailors term
+the Gulf-stream "The weather-breeder;" and well they may, considering its
+frightful effect in producing commotion in sea and air. In Franklin's time
+it was no uncommon thing for vessels bound in winter for the Capes of
+Delaware to be blown off land, and forced to go to the West Indies, and
+there wait for the return of spring before they could attempt to make for
+this point. The snow-storms and the furious gales which greet the ship as
+she leaves the warm waters of the Gulf and nears the shores of North
+America, are quite dramatic in their effect. One day she is sailing
+through tepid water, and enjoying a summer atmosphere, the next, perhaps,
+driving before a snow-storm, her rigging a mass of icicles, and her crew
+frozen by the piercing blast. The Gulf-stream is answerable for another
+phenomenon--the fogs which invariably shroud the Banks of Newfoundland,
+and which render the approach to the North-American coast in winter so
+particularly dangerous. The hot water of the Gulf-stream gives up its
+vapour to the cold air, and hangs about the coasts an impenetrable
+curtain, which baffles the navigator's skill, renders useless his
+chronometer, and but too often sends his bark to destruction upon the
+hidden shore.
+
+Another danger of the stormy Atlantic arises from the flow southward, in
+the spring and summer months, of icebergs. These stupendous masses have
+their breeding-place in Davis's Strait, from which they issue in
+magnificent procession directly the current increases in a southerly
+direction. Polar navigators have been surprised to find these huge
+monsters moving against the wind, apparently by some inherent force, and
+crashing through vast fields of ice, as if impatient to escape from the
+silence and desolation of the Polar seas. The explanation of this singular
+occurrence is, that powerful under-currents are acting upon the submerged
+portions, which, in all cases, vastly preponderate over the glittering
+precipices of crystal that appear above the water-line. As the icebergs
+advance into the open waters of the Atlantic, they at last come to the
+edge of the Gulf-stream, where, in "the great bend," about latitude 43°,
+they harbour in dangerous numbers, and without doubt send many a noble
+ship headlong to the bottom. In all probability the ill-fated _President_
+was thus destroyed, and some towering iceberg, that has long since bowed
+its glittering peaks to the solvent action of the warm water of the
+Gulf-stream, was, perhaps, the only witness of the calamity which placed
+the noble _Pacific_ among the list of ships that have sailed forth into
+eternity.
+
+If the northern latitudes of the Atlantic have their dangers of ice, the
+southern latitude, especially the Caribbean Sea, in common with all
+intertropical oceans, have their dangers of fire. The hurricanes of those
+latitudes are generally accompanied by visitations of fearful
+thunder-storms, in which many a good ship is enveloped and destroyed. In
+the midst of a summer sea a clipper ship may be suddenly assailed by one
+of those tremendous conflicts of the elements, of the approach of which
+the silver finger of the barometer, unless carefully watched, has scarcely
+had time to give warning. However prepared by good seamanship and an
+active crew, there she must lie on the vexed ocean, her tall masts so many
+suction-tubes to draw down upon her the destructive fire from heaven. In
+his Report to the Admiralty, laid before Parliament in 1854, entitled
+"Shipwrecks by Lightning," Sir William Snow Harris--whose exertions to
+find a remedy for this evil are above all praise--states that in six
+years, between 1809 and 1815, forty sail of the line, twenty frigates, and
+ten sloops were so crippled by being struck as in many cases to be placed
+for a time _hors de combat_. In fifty years there were 280 instances of
+serious damage to ships in the British navy. Of these the _Thisbey_
+frigate, off Scilly, in January, 1786, affords a melancholy example. The
+log represents her "decks swept by lightning, people struck down in all
+directions, the sails and gear aloft in one great blaze, and the ship left
+a complete wreck." In the merchant service the list of disasters is
+fearful. Since the year 1820 thirty-three ships, varying from 300 to 1,000
+tons, have been totally destroyed by lightning, and forty-five greatly
+damaged.
+
+"A great peculiarity," says Sir William Snow Harris, "may be observed in
+cases of ships set on fire by lightning, viz. a rapid spreading of the
+fire in every part of the vessel, as if the electric agency had so
+permeated the mass as to render the extinction of the fire by artificial
+means impossible." Take, for instance, the burning of the _Sir Walter
+Scott_ in June, 1855. This fine passenger ship, of 650 tons, was struck
+in the Bay of Biscay: the lightning shivered the foremast, completely
+raked the vessel, and instantly set fire to the cargo. The passengers and
+crew had scarcely time to jump from their beds and put on their clothes,
+and leap into the boats, when the masts went over the sides, the flames
+shot up into the air, and the ship went down like a stone. Such
+extraordinary catastrophes as these seem to set forth in unmistakable
+terms the feebleness of man in the presence of the tremendous powers of
+nature. In reality, they are only forcible instances to call upon him to
+use the means for dominating the peril. Of all the dangers that beset the
+mariner at sea, danger by lightning is the only one that he can thoroughly
+guard against. To Sir William Snow Harris we owe the perfecting of the
+lightning-conductor for marine purposes, and the power of braving
+unscathed the direst electric storms. The permanent conductor adopted in
+the navy in 1842 is arranged so as to extend along the masts, from the
+truck to the keelson, and so out to sea. In the hull various branches
+ramify, and admit of a free dispersion of the electric fluid in all
+directions. Thus armed, the ship is impregnable to all the forked
+lightnings that may dart about her. Since the system of fitting men of war
+with this apparatus has been adopted, no vessel of the Royal Navy has been
+injured. The log of the frigate _Shannon_, commanded by the late gallant
+Sir W. Peel on his voyage out to China, affords a striking example of the
+manner in which the fury of such electric storms as are only to be met
+with in the Indian Ocean, was baffled by a contrivance which may truly be
+called, in the words of Dibdin--
+
+      "The sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
+      And takes care of the life of poor Jack."
+
+    "When the ship was about 90 miles south of Java she became enveloped
+    in a terrific thunderstorm, and at 5 p.m. an immense ball of fire
+    covered the maintopgallant-mast: at 5·15 the ship was struck a second
+    time on the mainmast by apparently an immense mass of lightning; at
+    half-past 5 another very heavy discharge fell upon the mainmast, and
+    from this time until 6 p.m. the ship was completely enveloped in sharp
+    forked lightning. On the next day her masts and rigging were carefully
+    overhauled, but, thanks to Sir Snow Harris's system of permanent
+    lightning-conductors, no injury whatever to ship or rigging was
+    discovered."
+
+If we compare this remarkable case with that of His Majesty's frigate
+_Lowestoffe_, when near the island of Minorco in 1796, we perceive how
+great is the protection science affords to the seaman. The frigate was
+struck, it appears, at 12·25 P.M. by a heavy flash, which knocked three
+men out of the tops, one of whom was killed on the spot. Within five
+minutes the ship was again struck, and her topmast was shivered to atoms.
+In another minute a third shock shivered the foremast and mainmast, and
+set fire to the vessel in many places, raked the deck from end to end,
+killed one man, paralyzed and burnt others, and knocked several persons
+out of the tops. In two parallel cases, the addition of a rod of copper
+made all the difference between safety and havoc. The example of the Royal
+Navy is being followed by the merchant-service, but not so speedily as it
+should be. When it is remembered that the treasure-clippers trading
+between Australia and this country often bring home nearly a million
+sterling in addition to a large complement of passengers, it does seem
+remarkable that the lightning apparatus is not considered as essential to
+their equipment as the boats, especially as they have to traverse an ocean
+where thunder-storms are of common occurrence. The cost of the whole
+apparatus is not above £100, and if the cupidity of the merchant is not
+sufficient to induce him to supply it, we think that Government should
+compel him, in order to insure the safety of the stream of passengers who
+annually leave our shores.
+
+In the whole catalogue of disasters at sea, those which present the most
+terrible features are water-logged timber ships. The timber trade between
+Great Britain and her American colonies employs a very considerable fleet
+of large vessels. As wood is a "floating cargo," old worn-out
+West-Indiamen, which would not be used for any other purpose, are freely
+employed. A few years since, in addition to a full cargo, they carried
+heavy deck-loads, which so strained their shattered fabrics, that they
+often became water-logged, and were sometimes abandoned in the middle of
+the Atlantic. The sufferings of the crews on these occasions in their open
+boats were appalling. Beating about for weeks on the waste of waters
+without food or drink beyond the rain that fell from heaven, they were
+obliged to sustain existence by preying on the bodies of their dead
+companions, and not rarely they cast lots for the living. Since the
+passing of the Act prohibiting deck-loading, these disasters are far less
+frequent; but they have by no means ceased.[29] At the time we write there
+are several timber-ships drifting about the ocean, floating heaps of
+desolation, at the mercy of the Gulf-stream, which will ultimately cast
+them on some European shore, or drift them into the North Sea, to serve as
+fuel for the Esquimaux. In turning over the leaves of Lloyd's List, we
+find indications of these dreary wrecks, which, clothed in seaweed, are
+driven over the face of the waters, and sighted by passing ships, of which
+they often cause the sudden destruction, whilst careering along in seeming
+security. When these waifs and strays of the deep drift into
+much-frequented ocean paths, they are doubtless the cause of many of those
+dreadful catastrophes witnessed only by the eye of God, and our only
+knowledge of which is a curt notice on the "Loss-book" at Lloyd's,
+"Foundered at Sea, date unknown." A recent instance, in which possibly no
+damage was done, will yet suffice to show the risk. The _Virago_, loaded
+with teak from Moulmein, in the Indian Ocean, to Queenstown, Ireland,
+became water-logged, and was abandoned on the 5th of March last, 155 miles
+south-west of Cape Clear. The next day she was passed by the American
+liner _Eagle_; on the 17th of the same month a steamer, on her way from
+Rotterdam to Gibraltar, reports having seen her; on the 5th of April she
+was passed by the _Naiad_ on her passage from Palermo to Milford; and on
+the 15th the _Samarang_, on her way to Tenby, met with her; on the 18th
+she was seen 160 miles off the Lizard, "in a very dangerous position," by
+the _Champion of the Seas_; again, on the 3rd of May, the _Alhambra_
+steamer, on her voyage to Southampton, met her in latitude 47°; about the
+same time and place she was seen by the _Peru_ steamer, "and appeared as
+if run into;" and, finally, on the 20th of May, the telegraph sends word
+that she was stranded near Brest, and her cargo was being discharged. It
+is curious to note how, amid the tossing of the ocean, her name became
+gradually obliterated, till it was totally effaced, a type of the
+progressive decay and final destruction of the vessel herself. At first
+she is properly reported to Lloyd's as the _Virago_; the next ship makes
+her out to be the _Argo_; still later her cognomen is cut down to the
+--_go_; and then the name disappears until the French find her upon their
+strand. Here we suppose her half-obliterated papers were found, and our
+neighbours, according to their usual wont, transmute the _Virago_ into the
+_Neroggogi_. From these reports it is evident that a number of large
+vessels passed quite close to the wreck, and it is even probable that a
+collision may actually have occurred, and no one have been left to tell
+the tale. In some cases, where the circumstances of wind and current are
+favourable, water-logged ships are taken in tow by other vessels and
+become valuable prizes. When, however, these wrecks are in such a
+condition that it is clear they cannot be brought in, we think it would be
+well if they could be destroyed. A few pounds of powder, judiciously
+placed, or a beam or two sawn across by the ship's carpenter, would break
+the bond that binds these logs together, and, once separated, they would
+not be likely to do much damage.
+
+Many disastrous wrecks can be distinctly traced either to a defective
+compass, or to an ignorance of the effects upon it of the magnetism of the
+ship's iron. There is a melancholy example in the loss of H.M.S. _Apollo_,
+of thirty-six guns, in 1803, with forty sail of merchant ships, out of a
+convoy of sixty-nine vessels, bound for the West Indies. The _Apollo_ was
+leading the way, with her train of outward-bound sugar ships following in
+her wake, little suspecting the catastrophe which was to follow. At the
+very moment her defective compasses drove her ashore, she imagined she was
+some forty miles off the coast at Portugal, and so close was the merchant
+fleet upon her, that upwards of half of them took the ground and were
+dashed to pieces. More recently we have had the instances of the
+_Reliance_ and _Conqueror_, wrecked near Ambleteuse, on the French coast,
+in sight of the cliffs of Albion, after voyaging from India. The former is
+known to have had an immense iron tank on board, the influence of which
+upon her compasses must have been very great. The _Birkenhead_, wrecked
+near the Cape of Good Hope, and the ship _Tayleur_, in the Irish Channel
+are additional instances of the destruction to which the trembling finger
+of the magnetic needle points the way, where ignorance or wilfulness have
+placed impediments to its truthful action.
+
+Of the numerous errors that may be classed under the general term of
+compass defaults, we may mention defective compasses arising from
+imperfect workmanship, or from an ignorance of the principles of
+mechanical and magnetical science, compasses perfectly adjusted but placed
+injudiciously either with reference to the magnetism of the ship, or in
+immediate proximity to concealed and unsuspected portions of iron.
+Ignorance of the degree of compass error arising from the ship's
+magnetism, and of its varying amount in changes of geographic position,
+and a consequent belief, that in all places and under all circumstances
+the needle is true to the north, are frequent causes of shipwreck.
+
+With regard to the defective mechanical construction of compasses, it must
+be admitted that great improvements have taken place of late years, and
+the chief credit, we believe, is due to the British Admiralty. Nearly
+twenty years ago they instituted a Committee of Inquiry, and the silent
+working of the measures then advocated, and the adoption of the
+improvements suggested first under the direction of the late Captain
+Johnston, and more recently under that of Mr. Frederick Evans, R.N., have
+infused into the manufacturers, and a large portion of the mercantile
+marine and shipowners, a degree of caution, skill, and attention to
+details, which has brought forth good fruit. A large portion of the
+superior compasses of the United States navy are manufactured in this
+country, entirely on the Admiralty pattern, and several foreign
+governments have recently obtained the same instruments as models. It
+must not however be supposed that defective compasses have ceased to
+exist. Our coasting vessels and many of our noble sailing ships are
+miserably equipped, and there are many captains who still look on the
+compass as a cheap and common article, fit to be classed with hooks and
+thimbles and other articles of the boatswain's storeroom.
+
+There can be no doubt that great errors in navigation are induced by
+inattention to placing the compasses. It is common to see the binnacle
+within two feet, and even less, of the massive iron-work of the rudder
+wheel, which again is in immediate contiguity with an iron sternpost. The
+local deviation is consequently great, magnet adjustment is had recourse
+to, and a temporary alleviation of the evil follows, which is only
+magnified on the ship approaching some distant port. Numerous examples are
+on record of iron being introduced by some addition to the equipment of
+the ship, which has perhaps been lost in consequence within a few hours
+after quitting port.
+
+Among the causes which thus operate, we may name the fancy rails leading
+to state-cabins and saloons. These, beneath a highly-polished covering of
+brass, often conceal many hundredweights of iron. Cabin stoves and
+funnels, immediately under and alongside the compass, are frequently
+unsuspected. A noble transport, during the late war, carrying troops and
+stores, pursued her course by day with unswerving fidelity, but at night
+the compass was as wild as the waves themselves. After diligent search it
+was found that the brazier, in preparing the binnacle lamps, had
+introduced a concealed iron-wire hoop to strengthen their frame-work. The
+stowage of iron in cargo does not receive the attention it deserves, and
+we consider it should be imperative for every vessel which carries it to
+be swung for the local deviation before quitting port, and a certificate
+duly lodged before clearing the Customs. When the _Agamemnon_ adjusted
+compasses preparatory to sailing upon the last unsuccessful expedition to
+lay the Atlantic cable, it was discovered that the presence of the
+enormous coil in her hold caused a deviation of no less than seventeen
+degrees! Had she been a merchant ship, no similar verification would have
+been made, and the sign-post which showed the path upon the trackless
+waters would only have pointed to mislead.
+
+It is remarkable how much misapprehension on the nature of magnetic action
+exists even among men of high intelligence. A competent witness, in a
+recent law-trial, in a case of wreck, arising chiefly from a want of
+knowledge of the laws of magnetism in the navigation of the ship, stated
+that seamen in general believed, that if a cargo of iron was covered over,
+its effects were cut off from the compass. A leading counsel in the case
+sympathized with the general ignorance, because he confessed that he
+shared it. The adjustment of compasses by magnets is a most delicate
+operation, and has received much attention from some of our leading men in
+science. An able committee, under the auspices of the Board of Trade, are
+now engaged, in the midst of an iron navy, in the port of Liverpool, in
+elucidating the whole of the subject. We feel bound, however, to record
+our opinion against the indiscriminate employment of all the nostrums
+prescribed by the compass-doctors or quacks at many of our seaports. Let
+the shipowner consult such reports of the Liverpool Committee as have been
+already published, or follow the Admiralty plan of having at least one
+good compass in a position free from all magnetic influences. In some of
+the large ocean steamers a standard compass is fitted high up in the mizen
+mast, and we hear that it is proposed to build a special stage on board
+the _Great Eastern_, in order to keep the compass from being affected by
+the immense body of iron in her fabric.
+
+A perusal of the evidence given in those inquiries which take place
+relative to the loss of ships, under the Mercantile Marine Act, would lead
+to the supposition that defective charts were even a greater cause of
+wrecks than compass defaults; but this is not the case. The fact is,
+incorrect charts afford an excuse for a master who may have lost his ship,
+which is but too readily accepted by the members of courts of inquiry and
+of courts martial. The defence set up for the wreck of the _Great Britain_
+steamer, in Dundrum Bay, on the east coast of Ireland, was, that St.
+John's Light, placed two or three years previously, was not inserted in
+the most recent charts of the Irish Channel procurable at Liverpool, and
+that consequently it was mistaken for the light at the Calf of Man. But
+these two lights are at least thirty miles apart, and it is monstrous to
+suppose that a steamer should be so much out of her reckoning within a few
+hours of leaving port. Again, in the more recent case of the wreck of the
+_Madrid_ steamer, off Point Hombre, at the entrance of Vigo Bay, several
+masters were examined, who stated that they had invariably passed equally
+close to the same headland, in reliance on the correctness of the chart.
+"Under these circumstances," said the Court, "the loss of the _Madrid_
+cannot be attributed to the wrongful act or default of the captain." His
+certificate was therefore returned; and, at the same time, he was informed
+that, as a general rule, "150 yards is not a sufficiently wide berth to
+allow in passing headlands." We should think not; and furthermore we
+imagine that, if the omission of every insignificant rock close to shore,
+in government charts, is to be taken as an excuse for shaving a dangerous
+headland, we may expect to hear of many repetitions of the disaster. The
+_Orion_, wrecked on the west coast of Scotland, and the much-abused
+_Transit_, in the Banca Strait, owed their fate to the unseaman-like love
+of hugging the shore.
+
+It must be admitted, however, that the charts in common use on board
+merchant ships are very faulty, both with respect to the position and
+character of lights, buoys, and beacons, and to the variation of the
+compass, which is not unfrequently half a point wrong,--an error which may
+be fatal in shaping a course up Channel or in a narrow sea. From this
+great evil the seaman has, at present, no protection. The remedy lies in
+the hands of the legislature, who have only to compel all chart-sellers to
+warrant their charts corrected up to the latest date, at least with
+respect to lights and buoys. There are but three or four publishers of
+private charts, as far as we are aware, in the United Kingdom; their stock
+of plates cannot be very large, and, once examined and set right, the
+corrections and additions could be easily inserted. Either the Board of
+Trade or the Admiralty should be entrusted with this duty. The latter are
+obliged to correct their own charts, and we understand it is the practice
+of the hydrographer to cause every new light, or change of light, or buoy,
+or beacon, to be inserted in the plate within twenty-four hours of the
+time of the intelligence reaching the Admiralty. A large number of notices
+to mariners--upwards, we believe, of a thousand a-week--are printed and
+published, both by the Trinity House and the Admiralty, and distributed
+among those connected with shipping; and every chart-seller should be
+bound under a penalty to give proof to the Board of Trade or to the
+Admiralty that he had inserted the corrections in his copper-plate within
+forty-eight hours of the appearance of the notice.
+
+It is a startling fact that the materials for constructing charts, even of
+parts of the waters which wash the shores of Europe, are not yet in
+existence. Of the coast of Europe generally we are tolerably well
+informed, although there are many portions that require closer
+examination; but on the African and Asiatic portions of the Mediterranean,
+the early seat of civilization and the best known sea in the world, there
+is still much to be done. When M. de Lesseps brought forward his romantic
+proposal for a Suez Canal, no survey existed of the coast of Egypt from
+Alexandria to El Arish. Of Syria we know nothing accurately; Cyprus,
+Rhodes, and the western half of Crete, are still almost blanks. But it is
+in the eastern seas and in the Asiatic Archipelago that we are most at
+fault. The Persian Gulf, portions of the coast of India, Ceylon, Burmah,
+Malacca, Cochin China, the Yellow Sea, Corea, Japan, the southern and
+eastern parts of Borneo, Celebes, &c., are hardly so correctly mapped as
+the mountains in the moon. The north and east coasts of New Guinea, again,
+are unsurveyed. As long as the Spice Islands, and the unknown lands washed
+by the Indian seas, were given up to pirates, and to the imagination of
+poets, this want was not felt; but now that our clippers swarm in these
+seas, and that Australia herself is beginning to trade there extensively,
+we shall assuredly hear of fearful shipwrecks from want of surveys. Then,
+indeed, it will be truly said, that imperfect charts are the cause of
+shipwrecks, unless, when India passes under the Imperial Government,
+vigorous steps are taken to remedy this grievous defect.
+
+Closely connected with the question of imperfect charts, is the state of
+the lights, buoys, and beacons around the coast--those fixed and floating
+sentinels set around the island to guide and direct the weather-beaten
+mariner. A few years ago we should have had to bewail our shortcomings in
+the number of these aids to navigation, and have had to point to them as
+prominent causes of shipwreck. The report of the Select Committee of the
+House of Commons on Lighthouses, in 1845, shows the want that then
+existed, not only on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, but even at the
+entrance of the River Thames. Much, however, has recently been done. It
+appears, from the address of the Prince Consort, at the annual Trinity
+House dinner, that 77 lighthouses, 32 floating light-vessels, and 420
+buoys and beacons, under charge of the corporation, are now distributed
+around the coasts of England alone. Great praise is due to the elder
+brethren of the Trinity House for their care in lighting the Prince's
+Channel, and especially for their admirable works now in course of
+construction under Mr. James Walker, C.E.; among which we may instance the
+new lighthouses at the Needles, at Whitby, and at St. Ives, the
+light-tower on the Bishop Rock, off Scilly, and on the Smalls off
+Pembroke. In Scotland, also, several new lights have been established; and
+some of the buoys have been coloured on a systematic plan--red buoys being
+placed on the starboard hand, and black buoys on the port hand, on
+entering a harbour from seaward, according to the mode adopted in France,
+Belgium, and Holland. This system, however, presents difficulties where
+there are several channels, as at the mouth of the Thames; but there are
+many places in which it might be applied with advantage. At present, we
+believe, the river Tees is buoyed on exactly the reverse plan; and in some
+of the large ports of the kingdom a local scheme is adopted, which
+completely closes the navigation to all but the local pilots, for whose
+special advantage this secret system appears to be maintained. The
+adversaries of a simple and uniform method of buoying the coast do,
+indeed, urge that it would put the key of our harbours into the hands of
+our enemies; but this argument is so puerile that it is hardly worth
+notice. If we cannot maintain the integrity of our waters by force, we
+certainly shall never maintain it by cunning.
+
+The want of lights on the shores of Ireland has long been a cause of
+complaint. Till within a few years, on a coast which is the land-fall of
+nearly all vessels that cross the Atlantic from Canada, Nova Scotia,
+Boston, and New York, there were spaces of sixty, seventy, and eighty
+miles without a light! Yet during all this time light dues were levied on
+the Americans, and other nations, who were thus treated to a sample of
+Irish reciprocity. On the coasts of the United States there were ample
+lights and no light dues, while on the coast of Ireland the lights were
+few and the dues heavy. We trust that the royal commission which, on the
+motion of Lord Clarence Paget, has lately made its report respecting the
+state of the lights and buoys of the country, will give a stimulus to the
+improvement which has already begun, and either get rid of these light
+dues or recommend a more equitable method of levying them. One penny a ton
+on the actual tonnage of the country, paid once a year, would be
+sufficient to maintain all the lights in the kingdom, and would be more
+simple than the present complicated system of paying every fresh voyage,
+which bears so unjustly on the coasting trade. The time, we believe, is
+close at hand when the lights themselves will be revolutionized. It is of
+the last importance to the mariner that the brightest and best light that
+science can furnish shall be held out upon the sunken rock, or perpetually
+maintained upon the dangerous headland. Yet it cannot be denied that we
+have nothing better than oil lamps for the purpose; and though the most
+profound science and the most delicate art have been employed to make the
+most of this feeble power, the fact remains, that we have not advanced
+beyond the oil-wick of the last century in our attempts to provide a light
+which will throw its beams far and wide over the sea, and pierce through
+the fogs and drifting snow-storms of the dark winter nights. It is not
+less strange that we are behind the French, and even the Spaniards, with
+respect to the mechanism necessary to concentrate the little light we
+have. In the two former countries the vast majority of the lighthouses are
+upon the dioptric principle, the whole light of the lamps being
+concentrated in occasional flashes, by means of a powerful system of
+lenses, forming a complete cage of glass. England, on the contrary,
+employs in most of her lighthouses the old metal reflectors; and, as Lord
+Clarence Paget justly observes, the voyager leaving Folkstone will clearly
+appreciate the difference between the two systems, by comparing the
+dioptric light flashing from the far distant Cape Griz Nez with the feeble
+spark of the English reflector light close to him at Dungeness. It has
+been the great aim of the constructors of these powerful lenses to throw
+all the light of the lamps into parallel rays, so that only a thin disc of
+light is cast upon the sea; but, as Mr. Findlay truly remarked in his
+paper read at the Society of Arts, we have at last over-refined, and a
+fearful shipwreck has already been the result. The _Dunbar_, after making
+a prosperous voyage to our antipodes, was wrecked at the Sydney headland,
+within sight of her port. This dangerous cliff was surmounted by a
+reflector light which sent a thin disc of rays, under which the ship
+passed in a fog. Had a few divergent rays been allowed to light the danger
+at her feet, she would have escaped her fate.
+
+Another great and increasing difficulty arising from the limited
+capabilities of the present burners, is the fact that steamers are
+beginning to show lights as powerful as those exhibited in lighthouses of
+the inferior order and in the light ships. Hence a confusion is growing up
+between the fixed and the moving lights, which threatens to produce most
+disastrous consequences. As recently as February last, the _Leander_, an
+American barque, proceeding down St. George's Channel, saw a light which
+she mistook for that on the Tuskar Rock, and, when too late, discovered
+that it belonged to the screw steamer _North America_, which was coming
+right ahead. A fearful collision was the consequence, and the unfortunate
+ship with nearly all her crew was sent to the bottom. It has been found
+absolutely necessary to change the light in the Nore light-ship from a
+fixed to a revolving one, to distinguish it from the numerous powerful
+lights carried by steamers at anchor or when passing along the Thames.
+
+Various attempts have been made to increase the illuminating power of the
+burners. In 1832 Lieutenant Drummond proposed the use of the oxy-hydrous
+light, and as far as the intensity of light was concerned the new agent
+was perfectly successful, the Drummond light at seventy miles' distance
+appearing nearer to the spectator than the ordinary reflector light at
+twelve miles. But it was found impossible to maintain a steady light by
+this system, and it was therefore abandoned. Since then Professor Holmes
+has been making experiments with the magnetic electric light. The
+apparatus is said to consist of a series of very powerful magnets, around
+the poles of which the helices are made to revolve by means of a
+steam-engine. A powerful magnetic current is thus produced, which passing
+through carbon pencils shows a splendid light. The great difficulty of
+this and of other similar propositions to obtain the light by passing the
+current through two points, is to so regulate them that they shall always
+remain at the same distance apart, for any variation would immediately
+affect the intensity of the light. This desideratum has not yet been
+accomplished, neither do we think it possible of accomplishment. Professor
+Way has, however, we imagine, solved the problem by substituting a running
+stream of mercury in place of these points.
+
+A moment's inspection of the grim wreck chart leads us to reflect whether
+the care taken to warn mariners of their danger is not in many cases the
+immediate cause of their seeking it. If we note, for instance, the
+lighthouses fringing St. George's and the English Channel, we are struck
+with the extraordinary fact that there we find the greatest congregation
+of those dismal dots which indicate loss of life and property, and it
+would seem as though ships like moths were attracted and destroyed by the
+light. Such, no doubt, is often the case. Ships bound up Channel make for
+the nearest light, and from that shape their course until they meet with
+the next light. They feel their way, as it were, in the dark night by the
+handrail of these guides, and sometimes stumble on the very rocks that
+support the beacons themselves--the fog, as in the case of the _Dunbar_,
+allowing them to get within and under the danger flash. The disasters
+produced by this system of groping about sunken rocks and bluff headlands
+has led Mr. Thomas Herbert of the Trinity House to propose the lighting of
+the Mid Channel. His system is to moor floating lighthouses, of a form
+which secures a steadiness sufficient for the purpose, and he is thus
+enabled to place a row of most powerful lights at little comparative
+expense up the very centres of the two great channels of English commerce,
+and indeed of the commerce of the world. A ship on entering the Channel
+would immediately make for the westernmost of this line of "Fairway
+lights," instead of looking out for the Lizard, and once having made it,
+the course would be free of all possible danger. Eight floating light
+towers extending from the westernmost one, forty miles south-west of
+Scilly, to Dungeness, would add enormously to the security of this
+wreck-strewn sea. The outermost of these lights Mr. Herbert proposes
+should be put in telegraphic communication with the shore, by which means
+merchants and consignees would be made acquainted with the arrival of
+vessels full a day earlier than at present. By this means also Greenwich
+time could be laid on to the station, and enable the anxious captain to
+verify the correctness of his chronometer up to the latest possible
+moment. Such a station might further serve as a depôt for water and fresh
+provisions, so much required by vessels detained by contrary winds in the
+Chops of the Channel, and to provide which ships are now annually sent out
+by the Admiralty. Without expressing any decided opinion upon this scheme,
+it seems to us to possess sufficient plausibility to warrant inquiry. If
+there should be no insurmountable practical objection,--and we have heard
+practical men speak well of it,--there can be little doubt that it would
+dissipate in no small degree the dangers of the Channel, without
+interfering with the present lights, which would always be useful for the
+coasting trade.
+
+Perhaps the most frequent cause of wreck, especially on our own coast, is
+negligence on the part of the master. If we analyze the cases of collision
+that occurred in the year 1857, we are surprised to find that by far the
+larger portion of them occur in the open sea, and in clear bright weather.
+Out of 277 collisions, involving total and partial loss, bad look-out was
+the cause of 88, and neglect of the rule of the road of 33 collisions. It
+is a saying among sailors that if the three L's are attended to--Lead,
+Latitude, and Look-out,--a ship is safe; and no more apt saying could have
+been uttered. Simple as the casting of the lead is, it is almost
+invariably found, when the causes of wreck are inquired into, that this
+precaution has been neglected. The _Ava_ mail-steamer was undoubtedly lost
+off Trincomalee, in February last, owing to this omission. The lead is not
+only capable of telling the soundings, which alone would warn the mariner
+of the approach of shoal water; but, when armed, it is capable of bringing
+a voice from the deep to say on what coast the ship may be. Had the
+masters of either the _Reliance_ or _Conqueror_ cast the lead, they would
+not only have known that their vessel were getting into shallow water, but
+that they were upon the French coast; for the lead brings up a coarser
+sand from the shores of our neighbours than from the opposite coast on the
+English side. The question of latitude is a question which tests the
+nautical knowledge of the captain. A man who can take celestial
+observations correctly is not very likely to be deficient in a knowledge
+of navigation. The differences between masters of ships in this respect
+are very marked. Captain Basil Hall tells us, in his "Fragments of Voyages
+and Travels," that on a voyage from California to Rio, the first land he
+saw was on either side of him, upon the clearing off of a fog at the
+entrance of Rio de Janeiro. With no other guide than science he had hit
+his port without sighting land, after a voyage of many thousand miles.
+With this we may contrast a case given in the Report on Shipwrecks for
+1836, in which the brig _Henry_, of Cork, bound to St. John's, New
+Brunswick, with seventy passengers on board, was fallen in with by the
+_Andromeda_, of New York, in a starving condition; her master, by his own
+reckoning, being 800 miles to the westward of his true position. This man
+must have been one of those who, as the sailors say, "come in at the cabin
+windows, instead of working his way up through the hawse-holes." Errors of
+this kind are not likely to occur so often as formerly, thanks to the
+working of the Mercantile Marine Act, which will, we think, prevent the
+recurrence of the grosser mistakes in navigation. No greater blessing was
+ever conferred on the merchant shipping of this country than a law which
+compels the holding an inquiry by competent persons in all cases of
+casualty. It is abused, as any measure is sure to be that rigidly sets its
+face against misconduct; but it has already done infinite good, and would
+do still more if its provisions were strictly enforced.
+
+It is often supposed that the shifting of sandbanks is a cause of wreck,
+but there does not seem sufficient ground for this opinion. We have heard
+many marvellous stories relative to the shifting of the Goodwin, and of
+the sudden exposure in full preservation of the hulls of long lost ships.
+These tales are all poetical, though the edge of the bank may here and
+there give way and expose the ribs of some vessel long since sucked in.
+What change there is in the Goodwin, and it is of a very gradual nature,
+takes place on the western or inshore side: its eastern side is as steep
+as a wall, and retains the position it had when the first exact survey of
+it was made. The Brake Sand in the Downs off Ramsgate seems to have moved
+bodily inshore or to the westward, and there is a slight disposition to
+change in sands known by the names of the Leigh Middle and Yantlet Ground
+in Sea Reach, at the entrance of the river Thames. The Yarmouth and
+Lowestoff sands shift slightly. A channel, or gat as it is called, opens
+now in one place and now at another; but these variations are soon known
+and buoyed by the Trinity House. Changes take place at the entrance of the
+Mersey, but the surveyor of the river quickly marks the deviations and
+makes them known to the pilots. On the north-east coast of England more
+extensive alterations have taken place; a large portion of Holderness, in
+Yorkshire, has been washed away, and the sea has broken through Spurn
+Point, threatening to make it once more an island. At Landguard Point, at
+the entrance of Harwich harbour, the injudicious removal of a barrier of
+cement stone, by which the heavy stroke of the sea has been allowed free
+action on the shore, has caused the sand to be heaped up within the last
+half-century, until a shingle beach now rears its head seven feet above
+the level of high water; where, not many years since, a line-of-battle
+ship could have sailed into the harbour. Another remarkable increase of
+land is at Dungeness, where the shingle has extended at the average rate
+of three yards a year, since the beginning of the Christian era. But
+although of vast importance to the engineer in dealing with harbours,
+these changes are not productive of shipwreck.
+
+The principal cause of shipwreck on the shores of the United Kingdom is
+undoubtedly the want of harbours of refuge. From the parliamentary returns
+it appears that the tonnage of vessels which entered and cleared from the
+ports of this country in 1857 amounted to 23,178,782 tons, or in round
+numbers 232,000 vessels. Even this falls short of the number of vessels
+that are constantly passing and repassing along our coasts, and which, on
+the springing up of a sudden gale, are liable to wreck, inasmuch as it
+only gives those which are carrying cargo. It does not include colliers
+and other vessels in ballast, nor ships of war, nor small coasters laden
+with stone, lime, &c., all of which would swell the amount to full 300,000
+vessels.
+
+We have already stated that the number of casualties to shipping on the
+coasts and within the seas of the United Kingdom has averaged 1,025 a
+year; that the loss of life has amounted to 830 a year, and that the
+destruction of property reaches a million and a half. It is not an
+uncommon occurrence for a single gale to strew the coasts with wrecks. In
+the three separate gales which occurred in the years 1821, 1824, and 1829,
+there were lost on the east coast of England, in the short space between
+the Humber and the Tees, 169 vessels. In the single gale of the 31st of
+August, 1833, 61 vessels were lost on the sands in the North Sea and on
+the east coast of England. In the tremendous gale of the 13th of January,
+1843, as many as 103 vessels were wrecked off the coasts of the British
+Isles, and among them 13 large ships off the port of Liverpool alone. In
+the gale of 1846, 39 vessels got ashore in Hartlepool; and in the month of
+March, 1850, 134 vessels were stranded or came into collision. In the gale
+of the 25th of September, 1851, as many as 117 vessels were wrecked; and
+for each of the four first months of the year 1858 the Board of Trade
+returns show that there has been from 140 to 150 casualties, or from four
+to five a day. These facts are sufficient to prove the appalling loss of
+life and of property, and the absolute necessity which exists for
+establishing on the most exposed and frequented positions of our coasts
+that shelter which the sailor has a right to expect in the time of need.
+
+Formerly in the reports of the shipwreck committees so many vague
+generalities were dwelt upon, that the House of Commons had no definite
+conclusions upon which to proceed. This is no longer the case. In the
+evidence laid before the select committee of the House, when inquiring
+into refuge harbours, in the year 1858, it is shown that there are certain
+districts in which wreck is the normal state. Nearly one-third of all the
+casualties take place on the east coast of Great Britain, and in 1857 it
+was more than one-half! Nay, it is all but demonstrated that the larger
+part of these occur within some seventy miles of coast, or between
+Flamborough Head and the Tyne. Here, then, the subject is narrowed to a
+point. The immediate vicinity of the coal ports must be the site of a
+harbour of refuge--some spot which all colliers, light and loaded, pass,
+whether it be in the bight of the bay (or the bag of the net), as Tees
+Bay, or whether it be farther to the southward, near Filey Bay. The exact
+locality may require careful consideration; but the question of situation
+on the east coast of England is now narrowed to a distance of fifty miles.
+One unexpected fact has come to light in the course of this investigation,
+namely, that of the colliers lost on this part of the coast, the
+proportion of loaded vessels to light is as 5 to 1.
+
+On the coast of Scotland there is a sad want of deep-water harbours of
+refuge. From the Pentland Frith southward to Cromarty, a distance of 100
+miles, there are none but tidal harbours, all inaccessible for twelve
+hours out of the twenty-four. It is the same from the Moray Frith round by
+Peterhead to the Frith of Forth, with the exception of the Tay. Yet it is
+along this coast that a great part of our Baltic trade, and all the
+Greenland, Archangel, Davis Strait, and much of the Canadian and United
+States trade must pass. In addition to this traffic, both of these coast
+districts are remarkable as the great scene of the herring fishery.
+Peterhead has its 250 fishing-boats, Fraserburgh and Buckie more than 400
+sail; while farther north, off the coast of Caithness, more than 1,200
+fishing boats, manned by 6,000 men, nightly pursue their calling, exposed
+to the proverbial suddenness of a North-sea gale. Here then, in some
+portion of this district, either at Peterhead, Frazerburgh, or Wick, a
+refuge harbour is imperatively required.
+
+On the west coast of England, between the Land's End and the south coast
+of Wales, including the Bristol Channel, shelter is absolutely needed. The
+trade of the Irish Sea, including Liverpool, Glasgow, and Belfast, and the
+great and increasing traffic of the coal ports of Newport, Cardiff, and
+Swansea, in addition to the trade of Bristol and Gloucester, urgently call
+for some refuge. For the former probably a harbour near the entrance of
+the Channel, as at St. Ives, would be the most useful; for the trade of
+the upper portion of the Bristol Channel, Clovelly on the south coast,
+Lundy Island in the centre, and Swansea Bay on the north, have been the
+sites particularly recommended in the evidence. On the coasts of Ireland,
+the rocks named the Skerries, near Portrush, on the north coast, Lough
+Carlingford on the east, and Waterford on the south, have been mentioned
+as places where good harbours may be obtained at but a trifling outlay.
+
+It appears from good evidence that the existing tidal harbours around our
+coasts are susceptible of great improvements for the purposes of joining
+harbours of refuge in case of need. We think this supplementary view of
+the question one of much importance. It is shown that the small sum of
+2,500_l._ a year, which the Scottish Fishery Board is empowered to grant
+annually, to meet double the amount raised from private sources, has been
+of much value, and has given rise to many piers and fishery harbours on
+the coasts of Scotland. A somewhat similar measure applied to harbours
+generally would be of the utmost value. There are many in which the loan
+of a small sum of money, at a low rate of interest, would confer a great
+benefit. The enormous parliamentary and other fees attendant on getting a
+Harbour Act are so ruinous, that many of the lesser harbours are kept in a
+state of decay from the impossibility of raising funds to restore them. We
+are glad to see that Mr. Henry Paull, M.P. for St. Ives, has given notice
+in the House of a bill to remedy this evil, and to enable some public
+department, such as the Admiralty and Board of Trade, to grant the
+necessary powers for raising funds to execute _bonâ fide_ improvements. We
+cordially wish him success, and trust that he will persevere until his
+proposal has become the law of the land.
+
+It would naturally be imagined that the wrecks and collisions that occur
+on our own coasts formed only an insignificant portion of the casualties
+that take place throughout the world. But this is not so. The trade of the
+world is drawn towards our shores, and these shores are washed by narrow
+and therefore dangerous seas. Hence we can account for a fact which would
+otherwise appear astounding, that the losses on our own coasts form nearly
+a third of the losses throughout the world. According to the returns of
+Lloyd's agents, the average annual number of casualties and of vessels
+that have touched the ground within the last four years in all seas is
+3,254; whilst, as we have already stated, those that occur upon our coast
+average 1,025. Long as the list of home disasters is, it is at least
+satisfactory to find that the more severe cases are not increasing. The
+official record of these casualties does not extend back farther than the
+year 1852, but the annual returns since that date, which we append, are on
+the whole encouraging.
+
+  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
+  |               | 1852. | 1853. | 1854. | 1855. | 1856. | 1857. |
+  |---------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
+  | Wrecks        |   958 |   759 |   893 |   894 |   837 |   866 |
+  | Collisions    |    57 |    73 |    94 |   247 |   316 |   277 |
+  |               |-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|
+  |      TOTAL    |  1015 |   832 |   987 |  1141 |  1153 |  1143 |
+  +---------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+From this Table it will be seen that while there is an absolute decrease
+with respect to wrecks, which is due, no doubt, to the greater
+intelligence of the masters and the working of the Mercantile Marine Act,
+a large and increasing number of collisions has happened. The latter
+circumstance is important, and in all probability is attributable to two
+causes, the vast addition that has taken place of late years to the trade
+of the country, and the manner in which steam is supplanting the use of
+sails. If we cast back our glance only fifteen years, and compare the
+trade of that period with what it is at present, we are astonished at the
+rate at which our commerce has advanced. We find it stated in the
+statistical abstract of the year 1858, that the amount of British shipping
+which entered and cleared from the ports of the United Kingdom in 1843 was
+7,181,179 tons, and of foreign 2,643,383 tons, making together an
+aggregate tonnage of 9,824,562 tons. In 1857, however, the tonnage of
+British shipping entered and cleared had increased to 13,694,107, and the
+foreign shipping to 9,484,685 tons, making an aggregate quantity of no
+less than 23,178,792 tons; thus showing an increase of 13,354,230 tons, or
+136 per cent., in fourteen years! With this prodigious addition to the
+ships passing our shores, we have reason to be thankful that wrecks are
+not of far more frequent occurrence, and it will account for the otherwise
+alarming multiplication of the number of collisions. And not only are
+there more ships, but a greater proportion of them are propelled by steam.
+A parliamentary paper, not long since published, shows that the number of
+steamers employed in the Home and Foreign trade has increased from 414 in
+1849 to 899 in 1857; that is, the number of vessels most prone to come
+into collision has more than doubled within the last eight years, and
+while the sailing vessels have increased during this period only 3·49 per
+cent., the latter have increased 117·15 per cent., the proportion of
+steamers to sailing vessels having advanced from 2·22 per cent. in 1849 to
+4·87 per cent. in 1857. Bearing in mind the speed at which steamers go,
+and the manner in which their powerful lights, just introduced, simulate
+those of lighthouses and lightships, the increase of collisions is not
+surprising. There can be no doubt that the introduction of coloured
+side-lights, which all vessels, both sailing and steamers, must
+henceforward exhibit, will enable the direction in which another ship is
+standing to be distinguished, which was not the case heretofore.
+
+The most important object after the prevention of shipwreck is that of
+rescuing the crew when the catastrophe takes place. All along the
+coast--grouped thicker together where the fatal black dots indicate
+dangerous spots--we find rude marks indicative of the presence of
+life-boats. Thus, whenever the dangerous headland or the hidden shoal
+threatens destruction to the mariner, the means of preservation are close
+at hand. Of these boats, each manned by a fearless crew of twelve
+volunteers, there are 141 stationed along the coast; seventy being under
+the management of the National Life-Boat Institution, and seventy-one
+under the direction of various corporations and local authorities. To the
+princely conduct of the Duke of Northumberland, the President of the
+National Life-Boat Institution, we owe the present improved condition of
+the means of saving life in cases of shipwreck. As far back as the year
+1790, two humble boatbuilders on the banks of the Tyne, Greathead and
+Wouldhave (who were encouraged and fostered by the then Duke of
+Northumberland), invented the broad, curved form of life-boat, with
+air-cases, which was chiefly in use around our coasts. This model was
+afterwards much departed from, and by degrees the most imperfect boats
+(provided they were lined with what were supposed to be air-tight cases)
+were dignified with the name of life-boats. The many casualties that
+happened to these craft, which were built by rule of thumb rather than
+upon any scientific system, brought them into much disrepute. Too often,
+indeed, their hardy crews, instead of fulfilling their mission, were
+drowned on the way. In some instances, owing to their defective build,
+they turned _end over end_ when struck by a heavy sea, and, from want of
+the power to right themselves when capsized, the unfortunate men were
+encaged beneath them. To prevent the recurrence of such disastrous
+accidents, the Duke of Northumberland offered a premium for the production
+of a model life-boat, and the result was the exhibition of several
+respectable contrivances. Not one of them, however, fulfilled all the
+prescribed conditions; nor was it until after several trials and many
+experiments that the present life-boat was completed. It appears to be the
+production of a committee and not of an individual; but the chief credit
+of it is due to Mr. Peake, of the Royal Dockyard, Woolwich; to Joseph
+Prowse, junior, foreman of the same yard; and to Messrs. Forrestt, the
+well-known boat-builders of Limehouse. It has been adopted by the
+Life-Boat Institution, and has stood the test of some years' experience
+without a single failure. In a trial lately made at Boulogne, the boat was
+twice purposely capsized by the help of a crane, and righted herself in
+two seconds, and in less than fifteen seconds the water with which she was
+filled disappeared through her self-acting valves. Of the entire number of
+1668 seamen saved during the last year, 399 owed their lives to these
+boats, and we have no doubt that in future years they will prove still
+more effective, if only well handled and not rashly sailed by
+inexperienced men; for no life-boat can be devised that will not be liable
+to accidents if entrusted to careless or unskilful hands.
+
+But there is another point almost equally important that seems to have
+been greatly overlooked, the worthlessness of the so-called life-boats
+that every emigrant ship, every transport, every passenger vessel, is by
+Act of Parliament required to carry. We have no hesitation in pronouncing
+them to be in most cases a mockery, a delusion, and a snare. It is not
+long since that we heard from the lips of one of the most extensive
+boat-builders on the banks of the Thames, that, when a boat was condemned
+as unseaworthy for any other purpose, it was a common practice to patch it
+up, add a certain amount of air-case, and dispose of it as a life-boat. We
+know not with whom it rests to see the Act enforced, whether with the
+Board of Trade or the Life-boat Association, but the fact of its evasion
+is notorious, and a heavy responsibility rests somewhere. Even when the
+crazy thing is embarked, it is often so stowed that it cannot be lowered
+in case of need without long delay, and is frequently deficient in sails,
+oars, thole-pins, plugs, and always without an efficient compass. Yet in
+this ill-equipped boat the lives of thirty, forty, perhaps fifty, of our
+too confiding countrymen are risked. It would be easy to see, before the
+vessel sailed, that the life-boat was efficient; that a certain supply of
+provisions and fresh water was placed in proper cases; that the mast,
+sails, oars, and thole-pins were secured into the boat, and that an
+efficient boat-compass was provided, instead of the ridiculous toy that
+goes by that name, the card of which spins round like a top at every
+stroke of the oars. The beautiful spirit or liquid boat-compass of Dent
+may be purchased for less than £5. A life-boat thus furnished would give
+confidence to the passengers, would serve them well in time of need, and
+would be no more than the legislature is entitled to require under the
+provisions of the Act. Anything less is a gross imposition upon the simple
+emigrants, who embark in confidence, believing that everything has been
+done for their safety.
+
+In addition to the life-boat system we have located in most of the
+coast-guard stations rocket and mortar apparatus to enable a connection to
+be established with stranded vessels by firing a rope over them. This
+method was effectual in 243 cases during the last year, and is well worked
+under the auspices of the Board of Trade. The drawback to the use of the
+mortar apparatus is its weight, which prevents its being easily
+transported along the rocky shores where it is chiefly needed, but we
+understand that Mr. Brown, of the General Register and Record Office of
+Seamen, has invented a portable apparatus, which will in all probability
+greatly facilitate our means of communicating with stranded vessels, and
+tend in no small measure to still further lessen the dismal list of seamen
+who annually perish on our weather-beaten coast.
+
+
+
+
+LODGING, FOOD, AND DRESS OF SOLDIERS.
+
+
+If the question had been asked a short time since what body of men
+presented the most healthy lives in her Majesty's dominions, the reply
+might reasonably have been Her Majesty's Foot-Guards. Recruited, at the
+age of nineteen, principally from among the agricultural population,
+submitted to the critical examination of the inspecting surgeon, tried in
+wind and limb and tested at every point, the would-be soldier must be
+proved an athlete, or renounce for ever the hope of wearing her Majesty's
+uniform. Absorbed into the picked corps of the army; quartered either in
+metropolitan barracks or within a stone's-throw of the palace of the
+Sovereign; clothed, fed, housed, and tended in sickness by the State; and
+only in the face of great emergencies required to brave the dangers of
+foreign service; the weak and incapable instantly weeded out from the
+ranks,--his does indeed seem to be a select life, with which no other
+among the labouring classes would appear to be comparable. As we see him
+on parade in all the pomp and panoply of war, we view him with pride as
+worthy of that noble band that swept irresistibly before it the eagles of
+France, and, single-handed, at Inkermann, long kept the foe at bay, and
+saved two armies from destruction. Yet take the unhealthiest trades in
+England--the pallid tailor, as he sits at his board, or the miner who
+lives in the bowels of the earth--and it will be found that the percentage
+of deaths in their ranks is not nearly so great as in those of the
+magnificent Guards, pipeclayed and polished up to meet the eye of princes,
+but, alas! often little better than whited sepulchres. Such is the fact
+elicited by the labours of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into
+the regulations affecting the sanitary condition of the army. If the "most
+favoured" regiments furnish these disastrous results, it may be imagined
+that the condition of the rank and file, who take their turn in all
+climates, must be much worse; but, strange to say, the contrary is the
+fact. This is shown in the following table, which gives the number per
+thousand who die every year among the army at home and among the male
+civilians of England and Wales at army ages:--
+
+  Household cavalry              11·0
+  Dragoon Guards and Dragoons    13·3
+  Foot Guards                    20·4
+  Infantry of the line           18·7
+
+Population of England and Wales, at army ages:--
+
+  Town and country population    9·2
+  Country alone                  7·7
+
+One of the unhealthiest towns at army ages:--
+
+  Manchester    12·4
+
+According to Mr. Neison's calculation, the mortality of the Household
+Cavalry is 1-4/5, Dragoons, &c., 2-1/5, Line 2-9/10, and Guards 3-1/13
+times as great as the mortality of the agricultural labourers who are
+members of friendly societies. Well may the Commissioners, contemplating
+these returns, remark--
+
+    "That in war men should die from exposure, from fatigue, from
+    insufficient supplies, is intelligible; or that the occupation of a
+    town of 30,000 inhabitants by an army of 30,000 men, without any
+    sanitary precaution, suddenly doubling the population to the area, and
+    thereby halving the proportion of every accommodation, supplies,
+    water, drainage, sewerage, &c. &c., should engender disease, is
+    readily understood; but the problem submitted to us is to find the
+    causes of a mortality more than double that of civil life among 60,000
+    men, scattered, in numbers seldom exceeding a thousand in one place,
+    among a population of 28,000,000, in time of profound peace, in a
+    country which is not only the healthiest, but which possesses the
+    greatest facility of communication and the greatest abundance of
+    supply in Europe."
+
+In endeavouring to solve this extraordinary problem, the first question
+naturally asked is, Why the foot soldiers suffer a rate of mortality so
+much higher than the cavalry? They are recruited pretty much from the
+same source, and breathe apparently pretty much the same atmosphere; yet
+we find that the Foot Guards perish at nearly double the rate of the Life
+Guards. The causes of this difference are mainly, overcrowding and the
+want of due exercise and employment. The chief diseases of the soldier are
+fever and consumption; the latter, or "the English Death," as it is but
+too aptly termed, being the chief destroyer. The deaths by pulmonary
+disease amount in the cavalry to 7·3 per thousand, in the infantry of the
+line to 10·2, and in the Guards to 13·8; whilst of the entire number of
+deaths from all causes in the army, diseases of the lungs constitute in
+the cavalry 53·9 per cent., in the infantry of the line 57·277 per cent.,
+and in the Foot Guards 67·683 per cent. We are strongly inclined to
+believe that some portion of this extraordinary mortality from pulmonary
+disease may be owing to the atmosphere of pipeclay in which the Foot
+Guards, and indeed the Horse Guards in a minor degree, live. In 1853, the
+year in which the mortality tables were made up, the former pipe-clayed
+their white trousers and fatigue jackets as well as their belts. Thus the
+fine dust must have been for ever entering their lungs, and Mr. Simon, in
+his recent Report affecting the health of special occupations, expressly
+states that the workers in potteries are among the most unhealthy
+artisans, in consequence of the clay-dust they are constantly inhaling in
+the course of their daily work affecting their respiratory organs.
+
+It would appear that overcrowding is the chief cause of the disparity of
+the death-rate between the two classes of Guards. If we compare the
+extremes, we find that, whilst the Foot Guards quartered in Portman-street
+barracks have only 331 cubic feet of air allotted to each man, the Horse
+Guards at the Hyde Park barracks have 572 cubic feet; and if we take the
+whole force of Foot and Horse Guards, we find that in London the latter
+have the advantage of between one-fourth and one-fifth more air in their
+barracks. But there is another and very important difference in favour of
+the Horse Guard: his exercise is on the whole more varied than that of the
+Foot Guard. In the infantry, the drill only exercises the lower limbs and
+fixes the chest in one position; the grooming of a horse brings nearly
+every muscle into play, which tends to open and expand the chest. The
+broadsword exercise has the like effect. This diversity in the daily
+duties and in the amount of air they have to breathe, explains, we
+believe, the great discrepancy between the deaths from consumption of the
+two classes of Guards.
+
+The reason for the increased mortality of the Dragoon regiments over that
+of the Life Guards is not so easy to discover. As regards the Line
+regiments, being quartered mostly in country localities, they breathe on
+the whole a better atmosphere and have more exercise than the Foot Guards.
+That this is the reason of their lower rate of mortality would appear from
+the fact, that while the Guards were campaigning in Canada during the
+rebellion, enjoying the same pure air as the Line, and undergoing
+precisely the same fatigue and exposure, their relative rate of mortality
+was reversed, and the Foot Guards proved the more healthy of the two. The
+latter portion of the Crimean campaign showed the same result.
+
+When the high rate of mortality was first made known in the "Times,"
+military authorities imputed it chiefly to the destructive nature of the
+night duties. The evidence given before the Commissioners, however,
+entirely negatives this explanation.
+
+There are three classes of men whose night duties are more severe than
+those of the Foot Guards--firemen, the police, and sailors; yet, strange
+to say, all three enjoy a high state of health. The London fireman
+undergoes, perhaps, more wear and tear than the rest. His duties call him
+sometimes to several fires in a night, and when not out he is waiting in
+readiness. Whilst on service he is liable to great varieties of
+temperature, and to a good deal of wet; one minute he is scorching in the
+midst of the fire, the next half-drowned by the water. Nevertheless, he
+suffers a mortality of only seven per thousand. The metropolitan police
+are on duty ten consecutive hours in all weather, yet their mortality is
+less than nine per thousand. The comparison between them and the Foot
+Guards is the closest that could be made, as the unmarried men all live in
+section-houses (or barracks), are clothed in a uniform, and fed in messes.
+Yet the mortality is just half that of the line regiments, and less than
+half the mortality of the Foot Guards! The sailor on the home station, who
+is worse lodged than either, and is subject to constant nightwork of a
+very exposed character, shows a still more favourable result. It is clear
+therefore that the nightwork will not account for the frightful inroads
+made by disease in the ranks of the soldier. Nor need we go much further
+than the barracks to know the main causes of all this suffering and death.
+In London, as we have said, no more than 331 cubic feet of air was meted
+out to her Majesty's Foot Guards, and in Dover Castle it was reduced to
+147 feet per man, or less than the quantity which brought about the jail
+fever which Howard discovered to be raging in the Cambridge Town Bridewell
+in 1774. The highest average space allotted to each man before 1847 was
+447 cubic feet. Even this amount of air is rendered less pure by defective
+arrangements. Add to which the beds are placed only one foot apart, in
+defiance of the fact that a man may be suffocated in a crowd
+notwithstanding that he has all the sky above him. The state of the
+morning atmosphere is thus summed up by Serjeant Brown, in answer to the
+questions from one of the Commissioners:--
+
+    "Have you often gone into the men's rooms in the morning before the
+    windows were open?--Yes. In what state did you find the
+    atmosphere?--In a very thick and nasty state, especially if I came in
+    out of the air. If I went in out of my own room sometimes, I could not
+    bear it till I had ordered the windows to be opened to make a draught.
+    I have often retired to the passage and called to the orderly man to
+    open the windows."
+
+In some cases the troops are lodged in the basement of buildings below the
+natural level of the soil, or in places where the storekeepers object to
+put their stores, in consequence of the damage that would result to them
+from the damp. A notable instance is given in evidence by Dr. T. E.
+Balfour:--
+
+    "In 1845 the armoury was burnt down in the Tower, and a new barrack
+    was erected on its site--certainly not before it was wanted, because
+    the accommodation was very bad. The barrack was finished in the
+    beginning of 1849; fever was then prevailing among the men, and
+    cholera threatening. The surgeon applied to have the new barracks
+    given over for the use of the men, and he got two rooms; he
+    remonstrated through his commanding officer with the authorities, when
+    he was informed that he could not have more given over to him, as they
+    were full of stores--blankets, I believe. On suggesting that the
+    stores might be put into the old barracks, he was told that they were
+    a great deal too damp to put stores into, and it was only in
+    consequence of an energetic remonstrance on the part of the commanding
+    officer, which I believe reached the Duke of Wellington, that a Board
+    of officers was ordered to assemble, who recommended that the troops
+    should be immediately moved into the new barracks."
+
+Now and then the crotchet of a Colonel does a vast deal of mischief. Not
+many years since, the cavalry at Knightsbridge were condemned to drink the
+water from the Serpentine,--a reservoir of filth, which is now pronounced
+to be pestilential to the neighbourhood. The men objected to use this
+diluted sewage; but the commanding-officer had perfect faith in filters.
+Nevertheless, the water persisted in smelling bad, notwithstanding it
+looked clear,--a mystery the Colonel's knowledge of chemistry could not
+fathom; nor would he give in until a Board had been called. The veterinary
+surgeon now began to complain that the coats of the horses were beginning
+to stare, and he wished that they should drink from the improved supply
+which was furnished to the men. The Colonel still had faith in his
+Serpentine water, and maintained that the horses would prefer it to the
+purer stream. A bucket of each was placed side by side in the
+barrack-yard, and a horse was brought in, which immediately settled the
+question by refusing the dirty water, and plunging its muzzle into the
+clean. It is not many years since the troops stationed at the Tower were,
+in like manner, forced to drink the Thames water, taken from the most
+convenient, which chanced to be the foulest, spot in the whole river. A
+coarse filter did not suffice to protect them from the disease such
+supplies were sure to engender.
+
+They manage these things better now in civil life. In the year 1848, the
+Society for Improving the Condition of the Working Classes opened their
+first model lodging-house. Their measure of the quantity of air necessary
+for the poor man was much greater than that settled three years later, by
+the military authorities, for the soldier. The mechanic and labourer were
+allowed 542 cubic feet; the soldier, under the most favourable conditions,
+breathed no more than from 400 to 500 cubic feet,--a measure which fines
+off, by degrees, to the Black Hole allowance at Dover Castle, where the
+soldier was reduced to 131 cubic inches. Nor is this the only point in
+favour of the model lodging-house, of which there are several situated in
+the foulest portions of the metropolis, and which accommodate sometimes
+seven hundred inmates, or the full strength of many a regiment. Besides
+containing pure air, which, with a proper system of ventilation, costs
+nothing, but is of incalculable value to human life, the lodging-house,
+instead of being confined to one room, used for all purposes, is divided
+into the ordinary apartments of an inn; every inmate has his own
+dormitory, and there is a good coffee-room stored with papers and books,
+and supplied with hot water. In the kitchen below, there are facilities
+for roasting, boiling, baking, and frying, and each man has his safe for
+provisions. Hot and cold baths are provided; and the whole building is
+heated by hot-water pipes, and well lighted by gas. If the soldier was
+treated like his brother of the chisel and the hammer, the mortality of
+the Guards would not be at the rate of 20·4, and that of the ordinary rank
+and file at the rate of 17·8 per thousand, whilst that of the mechanic is
+only 13·9 per thousand.
+
+If we were to write volumes, we could not deepen the impression these
+figures are calculated to convey of the importance to health of sanitary
+science. It has been said that soldiers would not appreciate the benefits
+of a model lodging-house, and that, as the colonel asserted of the
+troop-horse, they prefer the dirty to the clean,--crowding in a common
+room, to separate apartments. If this were true, it would be no reason for
+not teaching them better. If bad habits are congenial to them, they do not
+suffer less when the mischief is done; and if they were callous to the
+last, the interest of the nation still requires that lives which cost so
+much should not be recklessly thrown away. But experience refutes the
+supposition that soldiers have different notions of comfort from
+civilians. The Guards, in the old part of the Wellington Barracks, had,
+on one occasion, the temporary use, as a day-room, of an apartment fifty
+feet by thirty, and, large as it was, it became inconveniently crowded.
+The Commissioners, in their report, recommend that a minimum space of 600
+feet be allotted to each man in his barrack and guard-room, that an
+interval of at least three feet be maintained between each bed, and that a
+day-room should be provided. The barrack should at least be on a par with
+the workhouse.
+
+The high rate of mortality in the army is not to be attributed to the bad
+arrangements of barracks alone; the important elements of exercise and
+food have to be considered, and in both the infantry are in an inferior
+position to the artisan.
+
+    "Perhaps," says Colonel Lindsay, "no living individual suffers more
+    than the soldier from _ennui_. He has no employment save the drill and
+    its duties; these are of a most monotonous and uninteresting
+    description, so much so that you cannot increase their amount without
+    wearying and disgusting him. All he has to do is under restraint; he
+    is not like a working man or an artisan; a working man will dig, and
+    his mind is his own; an artisan is interested in the work on which he
+    is engaged: but a soldier has to give you all his attention, and he
+    has nothing to show for the work done. He gets up at six; there is no
+    drill before breakfast; he makes up his bed and cleans up his things:
+    he gets his breakfast at seven; he turns out for drill at half-past
+    seven or eight; his drill may last half an hour. If it be guard-day
+    there is no drill except for defaulters. The men for duty are paraded
+    at ten o'clock; that finishes his day-drill altogether. There is
+    evening parade, which takes half an hour, and then his time is his own
+    until tattoo, which is at nine in winter and ten in summer. That is
+    the day of a soldier not on guard or not belonging to a company which
+    is out for Minié practice."
+
+Unless it be denied that the mind has any influence over the body, it
+cannot be doubted that the inaction to which the infantry soldier is
+subjected in barracks, by the regulations of the service, is most
+detrimental to his mental activity and bodily health. The actuary well
+knows that the affluent upper classes, although in every other respect
+placed in the best sanitary condition, are shorter lived than the
+agricultural labourer, for the simple reason that, having but little
+active duty to perform, they suffer from _ennui_, which begets
+dissipation. The soldier shares with the wealthy this cause of increased
+mortality, without sharing in their other favourable conditions. Idle and
+ill-lodged, he naturally resorts to the public-house, and, having but
+little money to procure drink, he too often degrades himself by sponging
+upon the female admirers of red coats for the means. The annals of the
+police-courts are but too rife with the records of crimes and
+misdemeanours committed by the Foot-Guards from these causes. Mr.
+Jeffreys, a high authority, testifies that in India a large proportion of
+the men chafe and drink themselves to death, under modes of life so
+opposed to the habits of out-door labour in which they have been reared.
+The soldier is not so much in fault as the rule of the service which
+precludes him from making himself useful. The best-conducted troops are
+the Engineers, who work at their different trades. The evil does not stop
+with the mischief which the idle are sure to perpetrate. The active,
+self-reliant Englishman is notoriously the most dependant soldier in
+Europe. He can neither cook, bake, make his clothes, nor hut himself, like
+the Frenchman, the Sardinian, or even the Turk. Contractors follow him
+everywhere, excepting into the presence of the enemy; and when he most
+needs every necessary of life he finds himself a helpless man. Mr. J. R.
+Martin, one of the Commissioners, who has passed a life in high posts as a
+military surgeon in India, and who has done more for the sanitary
+condition of the soldier than any living person, holds it as a principle,
+"that in all climates the soldier should do for himself whatever he can
+perform without injury to his health, morals, or discipline; and, further,
+that he should be required to do whatever may be essential to his
+serviceable condition, in the event of a failure of the appointed
+appliances. Before the soldier can be held as fit to undertake his duties
+to the State, he must be made capable of maintaining everything which may
+be necessary to his personal care and comfort." Does Aldershott or
+Shorncliffe fulfil even the majority of the conditions calculated to train
+the soldier for active service? Is he taught to build his own hut, to dig
+his own well, to make his own roads, to cook his own victuals, or to mend
+his own clothes? Aldershott, in fact, is not a camp at all, but a city of
+soldiers, built and maintained "by contract;" the sum expended on the
+buildings alone, for the years 1854 to 1856, being no less than
+486,502_l._ 13s. 6d.; and we have little doubt that up to the present
+time, the civil labour has cost more than 600,000_l._[30] Now, as Colonel
+Tulloch urged, before these barracks were erected, why should not the men
+hut themselves? There are clay, gravel, and sand, on the spot, with
+abundance of small wood that no one will buy, not more than eight miles
+distant. Soldiers have hutted themselves at Maroon Town, in the West
+Indies, at 25_l._ per head. The buildings would not be such permanent
+structures as the contractors have put together: we should miss the
+architectural façades for the officers' quarters, and the "moulded
+cornices" so maliciously described by the _Times'_ correspondent; but we
+should have serviceable huts which would last for eight or ten years.
+There can be little doubt that the men would be healthier in them than in
+vast barracks. The process of building would supply the kind of exercise
+which would amuse as well as instruct, and the plan would certainly save
+money to the State. Considerably more than one half, or 647·9 per
+thousand, of our soldiers have been recruited from the agricultural
+population, to whom the erection of earthworks and building of all kinds
+would be somewhat familiar. Of the remaining number, 294·7 have been
+trained to mechanical trades. Surely, from this force handicraftsmen could
+be selected to perform much of the work of the army. Bakers, cooks,
+tailors, and bootmakers, could be found to supply the wants of the
+regiment, and relieve us from the incubus of government contractors. We
+place more confidence in a system in which the artisan-soldier will reap
+the fruits of his labour, than in athletic games, which are not to be
+neglected, but which become irksome when they are enjoined upon the
+soldier by regulation. Serious exertion, too, with a useful result, is
+always more invigorating in the long run than exertion which leaves no
+result at all. Work, in short, within reasonable limits, is more healthful
+than play.
+
+During the disastrous months of the Crimean campaign, Mr. Galton proposed
+to give a series of lectures to the reinforcements about to proceed to the
+seat of war, on the shifts available in wild countries. He went to the
+Museum of the United Service Club at the hour he had advertised, but as
+his audience amounted to but one soldier, he discontinued his efforts to
+make known those _wrinkles_ he had acquired with so much suffering
+himself. The substance of these intended lectures he has since amplified
+into a book, which is one of the most interesting little volumes we ever
+read, and which should be in the hands of every campaigner, whether
+military or otherwise. Had our soldiers been acquainted with its contents
+when our commissariat broke down, they would have been able to lighten
+their miseries in a considerable degree. The services which he extracts
+from a single piece of stick are almost inconceivable; and when there
+seems to be no further hope, he shows how the difficulties may often be
+overcome by the aid of the very circumstances which appeared to have
+caused the breakdown. His makeshifts and expedients are, it is true, at
+times rather rough; and Ensign Firebrass, as he looks at his
+neatly-polished little boot, would perhaps be startled at being told, that
+on a march, "pieces of linen a foot square, smeared with grease, and
+nicely folded over the foot cornerwise," form a capital substitute for
+socks; or that breaking "a raw egg into a hard boot before putting it on
+greatly softens the leather." Such announcements may be horrifying in the
+midst of luxury, but in hard circumstances the most nicely got up London
+dandy would be grateful for the hint. Many a poor soldier, at any rate,
+would be glad to know that even on a plain where there is nothing except
+the turf beneath his feet, protection is at hand if he were aware how to
+avail himself of it. "He need only turn up a broad sod seven feet long by
+two wide, and if he succeeds in propping it up on its edge, it will form a
+sufficient shield against the wind," and even against a drifting rain,
+provided he plants his turf between the weather and himself.
+
+As regards the in-door amusements of the soldier, we have but little
+belief in regimental libraries. The recruit from the agricultural
+districts will not read such volumes as generally form the bulk of these
+collections. A Scotch sergeant or two will thumb over Rollin's "Ancient
+History," or Robertson's "History of Scotland," but the majority of the
+soldiers will not look at them. "I have never heard of a reading army,"
+said the late Dr. William Fergusson; and we agree with him as far as what
+are called standard works are concerned. The soldier can be amused,
+however, with a lighter class of literature, and there is a certainty of
+pleasing him with a newspaper. This is the reading he selects for himself
+in the public-house, and why not condescend to consult his tastes?
+Major-General Lawrance stated that the system had been tried in some
+garrisons with excellent effect, of providing a room where the men could
+procure papers, coffee, and a pipe. "We approach the soldier," says Robert
+Jackson, "with the dram-bottle in one hand, and the lash in the other."
+Things are not so bad as in his day, but the temptation and the punishment
+are still provided; and to reduce both as much as possible, we should
+employ pleasant preventives, both of a moral and physical kind.
+
+The question of food is intimately connected with the health of the
+soldier, and, as far as we can see, no attempt has been made by the
+commissariat to adjust it satisfactorily to the varying conditions to
+which he is subjected. The truck system, which has long been abolished by
+law in the payment of workmen, is still maintained to some extent in the
+army. The soldier is nominally paid 13_d._ per day, but out of this the
+authorities stop a certain sum, which varies with the markets, for the
+rations and other necessaries supplied to him. The quantity of the ration
+is fixed both for service at home and abroad. At home he has 1 lb. of
+bread and 3/4 lb. of meat inclusive of bone, an additional 1/2 lb. of
+bread being given to troops encamped in England. Abroad the ration
+consists of 1 lb. of bread or 3/4 lb. of biscuit, and 1 lb. of meat either
+salt or fresh, the additional 1/4 lb. being given to compensate for the
+inferior quality of foreign compared to English meat. There are one or two
+exceptional rations; but at home or abroad, in peace or in war, the ration
+(the quality of the meat being considered) is the same. Simplicity may be
+urged in favour of the system, but we fear this is its only merit, and we
+are not at all surprised to find the following remarks in the Report:--"We
+are of opinion that no ration can be fixed upon which shall be adhered to
+in both peace and war. The conditions of life are so different in the two
+cases, that whatever is suitable for the one must be either too much or
+too little for the other." Common sense would clearly point out that the
+ration which would be amply sufficient for the soldier in country
+quarters, whose principal occupation is lounging along the street, or
+leaning upon a bridge, would go but little way to maintain the wear and
+tear of a man when exhausted by the fatigues of an active campaign. The
+degree and nature of his labours then may be gathered from the following
+extract from the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry into the Supplies
+of the Army in the East:--
+
+    "The average weight carried by a soldier on the march, including food
+    and water for the day, is probably not less than from fifty to sixty
+    pounds, and while carrying that burden he is frequently required not
+    only to march considerable distances, but also to move rapidly, and
+    make other great exertions. In the ordinary course of his duty he is
+    called upon to watch during the night at longer or shorter intervals,
+    whatever may have been his previous exertions. He is exposed to every
+    vicissitude of temperature, and often to the inclemency of the
+    weather, by night as well as by day, and must be ready to turn out
+    when required, at any hour, and under any circumstances. He must
+    generally be content with the shelter of a tent, whatever the climate
+    may be. When engaged in siege operations, he has to perform, mostly
+    during the night, the work that a railway labourer performs by
+    day--excavating and removing earth. When stores are to be landed, he
+    is often required to do the work of a dockyard labourer. When employed
+    in active service the soldier, therefore, requires a diet as
+    nourishing as that which is requisite to maintain the physical powers
+    of any other man engaged in hard labour involving frequent watching
+    and exposure."
+
+That is, the soldier is required at times to be a railway navvy, and
+something more; but, unlike the navvy, he is not allowed to replenish his
+inward man according to his natural desires, but according to a certain
+fixed regulation. As well may a stoker limit his engine to a hundredweight
+of coals a day, and expect to get any speed out of it he pleased. The
+navigator, whilst executing heavy work, is known to eat as much as six
+pounds of meat a day. Now we question if any navigator ever worked harder
+than the common soldier in the trenches before Sebastopol, yet he was
+expected to perform his task on one pound of meat, fresh or _salt_, equal
+to three-quarters of a pound of English beef or mutton. The salt meat too
+is vastly less nutritive than fresh; and in case the lemon-juice fails, as
+it did in the Crimea, scurvy and its allied diseases are sure to follow
+its use. Well may Dr. Christison have remarked "that any scientific person
+conversant with the present subject (dietaries) could have foretold, as a
+certain consequence, sooner or later, of their duty, that the British
+troops would fall into the calamitous state which befell them in the
+Crimea." It must be evident again that the soldier during a Canadian
+winter requires more meat than he does between the tropics. In cold
+climates the nitrogenous and carboniferous food should predominate; in
+warm climates a larger amount of vegetable food is required. The exact
+amount of the different kinds of food, however, requires a special study;
+but surely chemistry, which has so admirably catered for the varying wants
+of prisoners undergoing fluctuating amounts of exertion, could find no
+difficulty in furnishing proper dietary tables for the British army in
+different parts of the globe. The Commissioners, in their Report, fully
+convinced of the injustice even at home of keeping stalwart English
+soldiers upon half a pound of meat per day, recommend that it shall be
+increased to a pound.
+
+In the clothing of the British soldier a contest has been long going on
+between what is considered by the officers to look "smart," and what is
+found by the men to be comfortable. A soldier upon parade and a soldier
+going into action scarcely looks the same man. The tight coat, the stiff
+stock, and the ugly shako, give a stiffness to his figure which is termed
+"a soldierly appearance:" but upon the march or the eve of battle the
+jacket is thrown open, the trowsers are tucked up, the shako is thrown
+away, and the stock follows suit. He has divested himself of every
+particle of clothing which is supposed to conduce to his smartness; but
+he is a free man: he can use his limbs with facility, he can march without
+fainting, and he can fight at his ease. Major-General Lawrance,
+apologising for the retention of the shako, and for the leathern stock,
+upon home service, urges that "it is essential to consider the appearance
+as well as the comfort of the soldier." Some of the soldiers themselves
+wish to keep the stock, provided "that it may always be taken off when
+muscular exertion is required." The Commissioners are of opinion, and we
+think rightly, that "this condition applied to any part of a soldier's
+dress is condemnatory of it." Why should he possess a set of fine weather
+feathers any more than the fireman or the policeman? Fitness is the very
+essence of comeliness. The Ironsides of Cromwell would have smiled grimly
+at the holiday suit of the modern soldier. The Commissioners in their
+Report condemn nearly every article of clothing in present use--the stock
+as an instrument of strangulation; the shako as neither fitted by size,
+colour, weight, material, nor form, for service in hot climates; and the
+trowsers as gathering dust on the march. In the Crimea the men were in the
+habit of wrapping a piece of bale canvas from the commissariat stores
+round their legs, which effectually protected them from the mud and wet.
+This suggests a return to the old gaiter used in the army during the early
+part of George III.'s reign, and still by some regiments of Highlanders,
+or the adoption of a boot to lace over the bottom of the trowsers like the
+ordinary shooting boot. The West India regiments are ordered to wear the
+Zouave dress--the loose trowsers, leather leggings, jacket, and fez. This
+may be well enough adapted for black troops, but we should be sorry to see
+our own men tricked out in this foreign fashion.
+
+The chief parts of the soldier's body which require attention, as regards
+health, are the head and neck. The head should be protected against the
+extremes of heat and cold by every means that science can devise. In
+tropical climates we still retain the shako, shielding it from the sun
+with a linen cover. The insufficiency of this device is read in the
+fearful mortality from sun-stroke, which devastates our army in India at
+the present time. The natives wear a cotton turban with an old horseshoe
+on the top to protect them from sword-cuts; and the Commissioners
+recommend a light cap covered with wadded linen, with a flap hanging down
+behind. Like the sola or pith helmet, the protection here is in the slow
+conducting power of the material. Mr. Jeffreys, however, in his admirable
+treatise entitled "The British Army in India," justly remarks, that the
+slower a substance conducts, the longer it retains its heat. A
+turban-covered shako worn all day in an Indian sun becomes charged with
+caloric to such an extent that it will give out a sensible heat when hung
+up in the tent, and will distress the head the moment it is put on; for
+this reason the covering should be placed outside the tent at night to
+cool. But, after all, though the heat may penetrate very slowly to the
+wearer, the time comes when at last it reaches the skull. The protection
+may be ample for the acclimatised Hindoo, and yet be insufficient for the
+European. Mr. Jeffreys tells us that the scarf-skin of the Indian is so
+much thicker than that of the European, that, when serving as a medical
+officer, he was obliged to have a lancet ground in a peculiar manner for
+vaccinating the horny hide of the native infants. We therefore agree with
+him that science must be called upon to give the English soldier a still
+further defence against the sun. He has himself attempted to solve the
+problem. Instead of the use of the cloth-covered helmets he terms
+sun-traps he has constructed an ingenious covering in which reflection,
+retarded conduction, slow radiation, convection, and ventilation are
+brought consecutively into play. There can be little doubt that
+scientifically his contrivance is unexceptionable, and would keep the head
+always cool. The weight, however, which his plan necessitates is a
+material element, although it is the heat not the weight which kills. If
+we desire to form an idea of the amount of heat which is thrown off by a
+bright surface, we have only to place our hands before the polished sides
+of a common firegrate, when the reflected heat will be found to be very
+little less than that directly radiated from the fire. It is just because
+these sides cast the heat which strikes them back again that the inner
+face is kept comparatively cool. This, therefore, is the best description
+of surface to present to the sky. It may be objected that the soldiers
+would be dazzled by the helmets of their comrades; but the inconvenience
+would only be incident to a curvilinear-shaped helmet, possessing numerous
+tangential planes of reflection. A rectangular form, such as that of the
+present shako, would reflect the rays of the midday sun either down to the
+earth or up to the sky, and there would be no more glare observable than
+from the windows of a house, which, except at sunset, are the darkest part
+of the building. The helmet of the crusader was made in the form of a tin
+pot: this was retained by the Knights Templars, who well understood the
+value of the bright reflecting surface and the rectangular shape.
+
+Mr. Jeffreys goes further. He proposes that the body-dress of soldiers
+serving in tropical climates should also have a metallic reflecting
+surface. Though the idea may seem strange, we think it worthy of
+consideration. A good defence against tropical heat must be devised if we
+intend to keep India; for we cannot afford to send English regiments to be
+wholly destroyed as fighting men every ten years. The sun is the great
+ally of the natives; they counted upon its service in the late rebellion,
+and we must endeavour to convert this enemy into a friend. A perfectly
+sun-proof dress would be worth many armies to us. Some regiments of
+irregular horse, which are by far the most picturesque-looking troops we
+have, wear a light gray woollen blouse with simple curb chains on the
+shoulders to protect them from sword-cuts. This we believe to be the most
+suitable garment at present in use. Mr. Galton says that "during the
+progress of expeditions notes have been made of the number in them of
+those who have provided themselves with flannel, and of those who have
+not, and the list of sick always included names from the latter list in a
+very great proportion." With a host of such facts, well known to all who
+have paid attention to the subject, it seems surprising that the military
+authorities should have adopted a linen blouse for the troops in India.
+This material is perhaps the best conductor of all the fabrics used in
+dress; its unsuitableness therefore for a climate which is alternately
+hot, cold, and wet, may easily be imagined. The neck and spine should be
+guarded against the assaults of the sun almost as carefully as the head.
+In all ages Easterns have been mindful to protect the great nervous
+highway. The Arabs invariably bring one of the ends of the turban down
+over the neck, and the French have adopted the same plan in Algeria. As
+regards the spine, every one has experienced the sense of sickness which
+is produced when the back is brought close to a strong fire. Such a fire
+the poor soldier often endures for hours when marching under an Indian
+sun. Sun-strokes arise as much from this cause as from the exposure of the
+head. The Arab has a long tasselled loop of cloth hanging down in the
+small of the back, which acts as a piece of solar armour: the English
+soldier should have a similar protection, unless we are to consider that
+his black knapsack and his neatly rolled great-coat are all that is
+required. A belt of flannel should by no means be forgotten. The direct
+rays of the sun striking upon the expanse of nerves over the abdomen often
+bring on cholera or dysentery. The soldier should have, in addition, a
+loose woollen wrapper to serve as a change when campaigning. The value of
+dry clothes when he lies down on the bare ground after a fatiguing march
+is not to be overrated. "The skin's debility is malaria's opportunity,"
+justly remarks Mr. Jeffreys. "The germs of fever, dysentery, and cholera,
+stalking over the bodies of a sleeping army, which has been exposed to the
+sun by day, quickly scent out the enfeebled skins and divide the prey!"
+
+The colour of the dress is important. Dr. Coulier, who has lately
+investigated the qualities of different materials as clothing for troops,
+found that white cotton placed over a cloth dress produced a fall of 7
+degrees per cent. in heat. When the tube of a thermometer was covered with
+cotton sheeting and placed in the sun, it marked 35·1, with cotton lining
+35·5, with unbleached linen 39·6, with dark blue cloth 42, with red cloth
+42. From these experiments it will be seen that the staring red of our
+uniforms absorbs no less than seven degrees more of heat than simple
+cotton. As we have to guard against the cold of night, and the damp of the
+rainy season, perhaps the best method of meeting the varied conditions of
+heat, moisture, and cold would be to give the soldier a simple woollen
+blouse of some neutral colour, which, while it did not absorb the sun's
+rays, would yet be pleasing to the eye. Gray, faced with red, or girdled
+with a red sash or belt, would have an excellent effect, and would answer
+admirably.
+
+It is singular that whilst our troops at home, for the last twenty years
+within the immediate influence of a growing sanitary science, have
+profited little by its teaching, the troops quartered abroad within the
+same time have experienced a marked decline in their annual rate of
+mortality. In the year 1835 Lord Howick caused a parliamentary inquiry to
+be made into the causes of the fearful mortality among the troops on some
+of the foreign stations, especially in the West Indian islands. The
+returns proved even worse than had been anticipated. The mortality in
+Jamaica was no less than 128 per thousand, or, in other words, every
+eighth man who stepped on board a transport for service in this beautiful
+island was doomed to leave his body for the land crabs. In the other
+islands the mortality was somewhat less, the deaths being 81 in the
+thousand. The reason of this decimation had long been known. More than
+fifty years ago Robert Jackson had pointed out the deadly nature of our
+military posts, situated for the most part at the embouchures of rivers
+and in low harbours, or placed in the immediate neighbourhood of
+pestiferous swamps. Salt pork and rum were called in to finish the work
+malaria had commenced. Five days a-week were our soldiers rationed upon
+this poisonous food; and, to make the injustice more glaring, the convicts
+upon the island were fed with fresh meat, and were consequently in good
+health. In 1843 Sir Charles Metcalfe determined that the troops should no
+longer perish. He altered their diet and removed them entirely from the
+marshy plains to Maroon Town, which stands at an elevation of not more
+than 2,500 feet on the Blue Mountains, but sufficient to lift European
+life above the level of the deadly fevers of the climate. The effect of
+these changes exactly corresponded with what had been foretold by Jackson;
+the mortality speedily fell from 128 to 60 per thousand, and is now
+reduced to 32. Thus for many generations the mortality of white troops in
+Jamaica was fourfold what it should have been, through ignorance and
+extravagance; for, strange to say, the difference between the cost of the
+poisonous salt pork and the healthy fresh meat caused a saving to the
+Government of 80,000_l._ a-year.
+
+In other colonies the improvement in the health of the troops has been
+marked of late years. At Ceylon, where resort has been had to
+hill-stations, the mortality has decreased from 74 per thousand,--at which
+ratio it stood until 1836,--to 38 per thousand at the present time. During
+the same period, we find that at St. Helena the rate has fallen from 25 to
+12, at Gibraltar from 22 to 12, at the Ionian islands from 27 to 17, and
+at Newfoundland from 37 to 11 per thousand. From this gratifying statement
+we must except the greatest dependency of all,--our Indian Empire. In
+Bengal the mortality of the British soldier, just before the mutiny, was
+even greater than it had been twenty years before. On the average of
+nineteen years previous to 1836, it had been 75 per thousand; on the
+average of the next period of eighteen years, it was 76 per thousand. In
+Bombay, the mortality has decreased 2 per thousand; but in Madras the
+improvement has been such that the deaths have fallen from 76 to 41 per
+thousand. Whilst India remained in the hands of the East India Company,
+and the British troops stationed there seldom exceeded 25,000, the high
+mortality of the presidency of Bengal might have escaped observation; but
+now that the European soldiers are more than doubled, the necessity for
+putting their sanitary condition upon a proper footing must be obvious.
+"Colonel Tulloch has informed me," says Mr. Martin, in his admirable work
+on the Influence of Tropical Climates on the European Constitution, "that
+between 1815 and 1855 there died, of European soldiers belonging to her
+Majesty's and the East India Company's army in India, very nearly 100,000
+men, the greater portion of whose lives might have been saved, had better
+localities been selected for military occupation in that country."
+Estimating the value of each soldier in India at 100_l._, this would give
+a sum of 10,000,000_l._
+
+The barracks and cantonments of India, as regard vastness and solidity,
+are, perhaps, not to be equalled by any in the world. The military
+buildings of Burhampore, in Bengal, are said to have cost, during the
+seventy-seven years they were in existence, including capital and
+interest, 16,891,206_l._; yet this costly station, like that of
+Secunderabad, in the Madras presidency, was planted in an absolutely
+pestiferous locality. All over India the localities of the barracks are
+bad, and their construction and arrangement extremely faulty. "Nearly the
+whole station of Cawnpore," says Mr. Jeffreys, "running some miles along
+the river, was so cut up into small 'compounds,' by high mud walls, that a
+bird's-eye view would have given it the appearance of a divided
+honey-comb. These walls, with the profusion of trees they enclosed, seemed
+as if designed to cut off every current of wind from the inhabitants of
+the ground-floor dwellings hidden within them." In another case, as if to
+make stagnation doubly secure, he mentions that there is a square wall
+within a square wall, surrounding a cantonment. Hence we can easily
+account for the fearful mortality among European troops in India. As if to
+make patent to us the folly we commit in constructing these vast
+bakehouses, the native troops, who hut themselves outside our lines, and
+thus get plenty of air, present the unique example of a soldiery whose
+mortality is below that of the population from which it is recruited. In
+the Bengal presidency the mutiny has cleared away the difficulty; for it
+has swept the mass of these pestilential cantonments from the face of the
+earth. The question, how shall we profit by the loss? is answered by Mr.
+Martin in his "Suggestions for promoting the Health and Efficiency of the
+British Troops serving in the East Indies." He insists that we must
+station our troops, in future, upon the hills, but not on such stations as
+we have on the Himalaya and Neilgherry mountains,--positions of 7,000 feet
+above the sea; for, although they are a security against the fevers of the
+country, they are apt to induce bowel complaints, which are almost as
+fatal. His opinion is, that elevations of from 2,800 to 6,000 feet would
+yield a climate most congenial for European troops,--such, in fact, as we
+have already found in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. He especially draws
+attention to the solitary hills,--"those islands of the plains,"--as
+capable of affording a refuge from the fevers that inundate the low-lying
+ground. Here the mass of the British army may be lodged until their
+services are needed. From these eyries, like the Romans of old, they may
+watch the champaign country, and be ready, at a moment's notice, to move
+on any threatened position. There is no intention of recommending the
+abandonment of strategical points, or large cities which serve as
+arsenals, simply because they are not wholesome. There are dangers to be
+braved in peace as well as in war. Yet our experience of the heroic
+qualities of the British soldier justifies the assumption that small
+bodies of them, placed in strongly fortified positions, could hold out
+against all comers until succour should arrive from the hill-stations,
+especially now India is being traversed by railroads and telegraphs. But
+even these stations are not sufficient to restore patients suffering under
+chronic disease. These, if possible, should at once be sent home. The sick
+officer is invalided, and speedily recovers in the air of his native land;
+the common soldier, on the contrary, is forced to enter the hospital,--too
+often to die. The men, moreover, should be recruited for a shorter time.
+At present they practically serve seventeen years in India,--a period
+which breaks down the constitutions of the majority. It is the exposure to
+heat for a great length of time, and not its intensity for a short period,
+that destroys European life. If we entrap the ignorant labourer by the
+most unworthy artifices,[31] we should, at least, be merciful to him. Let
+the term of service be reduced to ten years, and then the stream of
+stalwart Britons, fresh from the mother-country, would enable us, in
+conjunction with hill-stations, to keep a powerful and resistless grasp
+upon the country.
+
+It may well be imagined that, if the sanitary condition of our army is so
+bad in times of peace, its sufferings in war must be greatly exaggerated.
+The experience of the Peninsula, Walcheren, Burmah, and Sebastopol, has
+unfailingly proved this to be the case, and, in manifold instances, the
+evils were such as could have been avoided with ease.
+
+    "The barracks and the military hospital," says Miss Nightingale,
+    "exist at home and in the colonies as tests of our sanitary condition
+    in peace; and the histories of the Peninsular war, of Walcheren, and
+    of the late Crimean expedition, exist as tests of our sanitary
+    condition in the state of war. We have much more information on the
+    sanitary history of the Crimean campaign than we have of any other. It
+    is a complete example--history does not afford its equal--of an army,
+    after a great disaster arising from its neglects, having been brought
+    into the highest state of health and efficiency. It is the whole
+    experiment on a colossal scale. In all other examples the last step
+    has been wanting to complete the solution of the problem. We had in
+    the first seven months of the Crimean campaign a mortality among the
+    troops at the rate of 60 per cent. per annum from disease alone--a
+    rate of mortality which exceeds that of the great plague in the
+    population of London, and a higher ratio than the mortality in cholera
+    to the attacks; that is to say, that there died out of the army of the
+    Crimea an annual rate greater than ordinarily die in time of
+    pestilence out of sick. We had during the last six months of the war a
+    mortality among our _sick_ not much more than among our _healthy_
+    Guards at home, and a mortality among our troops in the last five
+    months _two-thirds only of what it is among our troops at home_."
+
+This splendid testimony to the value of sanitary science, exhibited on the
+largest scale, on an apparently hopeless field, is without appeal. The
+Commissioners propose a medical officer of health for the army,[32] second
+in rank to the principal medical officer, and attached to the
+quartermaster-general in the field. This officer, says the Report, should
+be the head of the sanitary police of the army, should be answerable for
+all the measures to be adopted for the prevention of disease, and should
+report to the quartermaster-general, and to the principal medical officer.
+In order to prevent any evasion of responsibility, they further recommend
+that the sanitary officer shall give his advice in writing, and that the
+disregard of it on strategical grounds shall be equally recorded by the
+officer in command. Having thus provided for the army in the field, the
+Commissioners propose that there shall be associated with the Medical
+Director-General of the Army a sanitary, statistical, and medical
+colleague. Each of these officers would be at the head of a distinct
+department--the sanitary officer taking cognizance of all questions of
+food, dress, diet, exercise, and lodging for the soldier; the statistical
+department gathering together those invaluable details relative to the
+health of the army, for the want of which the British troops have so long
+suffered a mortality out of all proportion to the civil community; while
+the medical department would serve as a connecting link between civil and
+military medicine, keeping the latter up to the last word of science, as
+spoken by the great medical authorities in all countries. Some of these
+suggestions will require deep consideration before they are adopted.
+Nothing, at any rate, must be permitted to fetter the absolute power of
+the commander in the field, who must have a real as well as a nominal
+freedom. But every precaution which can guard the health of the soldier
+without cramping the discretion of the general is demanded alike by
+humanity and policy. What was so powerfully said in the last century has
+remained in a great degree true in our own. "The life of a modern soldier
+is ill-represented by heroic fiction. War has means of destruction more
+formidable than the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands and ten
+thousands that perished in our late contests with France and Spain, a very
+small part ever felt the stroke of an enemy; the rest languished in tents
+and ships, amidst damps and putrefaction; pale, torpid, spiritless and
+helpless; gasping and groaning unpitied among men, made obdurate by long
+continuance of hopeless misery; and were at last whelmed in pits or heaved
+into the ocean, without notice or remembrance. By incommodious encampments
+and unwholesome stations, where courage is useless and enterprise
+impracticable, fleets are silently dispeopled, and armies sluggishly
+melted away."
+
+
+
+
+THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
+
+
+If a needle turning upon a pivot were fixed at York, and if, by a wire
+placed in close proximity to it, the needle could be made to move to the
+right or to the left through the agency of a power applied at the other
+end of the wire in London, and if it were agreed that one motion of the
+needle to the left should signify _a_, and one to the right _b_, &c.,[33]
+we should have just such a contrivance as the common needle telegraph now
+in use.
+
+Such is the dry statement of a problem the more detailed working of which
+we are about to explain to the reader.
+
+When a schoolboy places a sixpence and a piece of zinc in juxta-position
+with each other in his mouth, he immediately perceives a singular taste,
+which as instantly disappears upon their separation; it is an experiment
+which most of us have performed, wondered at for a moment, and then
+forgotten. How little did we ever dream that in so doing we were calling
+into life one of the most subtle, active, and universal agents in
+nature--a spirit like Ariel to carry our thoughts with the speed of
+thought to the uttermost ends of the earth--a workman more delicate of
+hand than the Florentine Cellini, and more resistless in force than the
+Titans of old!
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
+
+If now we place a piece of zinc, Z, and of copper, C, in a glass of
+acidulated water, instead of in the saliva of the mouth, and if we then
+attach to the piece of zinc the wire D K, and to the piece of copper the
+wire B A, and approximate the two ends, A K, until they touch, we shall
+have the philosophic expression of the contrivance of the boy--a
+decomposition of the water will immediately take place, and either as its
+cause or consequence--for scientific men have not yet decided which--an
+electric current will flow in a continued stream from the zinc plate or
+positive pole to the copper plate or negative pole of the battery, and
+this action, provided the plates are kept clean and the acidulated water
+is supplied, will go on as long as the materials last. If this little
+instrument, which generates a very small amount of electric force, is
+combined with others, as in figure 2,--the zinc plate of one cell being
+connected with the copper plate of the next by a piece of wire--we shall
+have the celebrated battery invented by Volta in 1800, in which the
+accumulated current, after flowing from one cell into another, by means of
+the little hoops of wire, is transmitted along the large hoop, D K A B,
+from the one pole of the battery to the other. Within the narrow chambers
+of some such battery (which may be made of any number of cells, according
+to the force required), the motive power is generated by which the
+electric telegraph is worked, and the large hoop by which its two poles
+are connected represents the telegraphic wire we see running beside the
+railroad, whose office is to form a conducting pipe for the conveyance of
+the electricity. Different substances possess this property in various
+degrees; some, such as dry paper, not permitting the passage of the
+electric fluid to any sensible extent; and others transmitting it with
+great freedom. Of all known bodies, the metals are the most perfect
+conductors, and copper is in this respect superior to iron; but the
+latter, being cheaper and more durable, is commonly employed in the
+construction of the telegraph. Thus we have two of the indispensable
+requisites--a constant force and a channel which conveys it from place to
+place.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
+
+There was yet a third thing necessary--some contrivance by which the force
+could be made instrumental in forming signs or characters at its destined
+goal; and this final condition was supplied by Oersted's discovery in
+1819, that a _magnetic_ needle is deflected by the passage of a circuit of
+electricity through a wire parallel and in close neighbourhood to it. The
+following cut will explain our meaning:--When the fluid passes from the U
+pole of the battery in the direction of B A K L M Z, and enters V, its
+opposite pole, "a current," as it is called, is completed, running from
+left to right, the effect of which upon the needle, N, is to deflect it in
+the direction of the dotted line (seen in perspective) 2, 3, or to an
+angle of 90 degrees, with the wire, if the current is sufficiently strong.
+If, however, the current be reversed, and the electric fluid made to
+traverse the wire from right to left, in the direction of the letters V Z
+M L K A B to the U end of the battery, the needle will immediately reverse
+its position and place itself at 90 degrees in the opposite direction.
+This then is the whole principle and mystery of the needle telegraph, the
+one still most extensively used in this country. The break that occurs
+between the letters B U and Z V is intended to show the method in which
+the needle is made to work. "Whilst the wires are thus apart the circuit
+is broken," or the fluid no longer passes along the wire, but immediately
+they are approximated the circulation again commences, and the needle
+"answers the helm." By the opening and closing, then, of this small space,
+which is effected by a lever, the needle is made to oscillate at will.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
+
+The mere fact, however, of an electric current passing along a wire in
+proximity to a magnetic needle was not sufficient to enable any person to
+construct a telegraph. Would the needle be deflected by a wire, the
+battery of which was placed at any considerable distance? it would not;
+therefore, for all telegraphic purposes Oersted's discovery was worthless.
+Schweigger, however, soon after ascertained that by passing a great number
+of times round the needle a wire, thoroughly insulated by a "serving" of
+silk thread, as shown in figure 4, the deflecting powers of the currant
+were _multiplied_, and the sensibility of the instrument marvellously
+increased.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
+
+In the same year that Oersted made his brilliant discovery, M. Arago
+detected another law, which furnished a second method by which the
+electric current could be made to tell its tale. He announced to the
+French Academy the fact so pregnant in its consequences, that the fluid
+possessed the power of imparting magnetism to steel or iron; and shortly
+afterwards our own countryman, Sturgeon, invented the first
+electro-magnet, by coiling around a piece of soft iron a great length of
+fine insulated copper wire, the ends of which communicated with a battery.
+Figure 5 will give a rough idea of this instrument. The wire U B A, when
+it reaches the cylinder K L, is wound many times round it, and returns to
+the battery at V. As long as the current is passing, the soft iron becomes
+a magnet and attracts the iron armature P; but directly the circuit is
+broken its magnetic power ceases, and P, by the action of a spring, flies
+back. It will at once be seen that by alternately making and breaking the
+circuit, which can be done as fast as the hand can move the handle of a
+lever, an up and down movement of the armature P will take place, and this
+is the principle of action in Wheatstone's electro-magnetic dial
+instrument and Morse's recording telegraph, so extensively used in
+America. The general _modus operandi_ of the latter, which is a
+contrivance of singular merit and efficiency, can be easily understood. At
+the station at which the message is received, a poised iron lever has a
+metal pin on its upper surface at one end, and an armature on its under
+surface at the other end. When the magnet, which is placed beneath the
+armature, attracts and draws it down, the pin at the opposite extremity is
+raised, and presses against a strip of paper, which is moved between the
+metal point, and a roller supported above it, at a uniform rate by means
+of clock-work. The pin or style will then make a simple dot, or trace
+lines of variable length upon the paper, according as the electric current
+is kept up only for a single instant, or for a longer period. "The
+impressions on the paper," says Dr. Turnbull, "resemble the raised
+printing for the blind." Out of these dots and lines an alphabet is formed
+similar to that which we have given in a subsequent page, when speaking of
+the chemical telegraph at Bain. The instrument of Morse requires only a
+single wire to work it, and is, says the Abbé Moigno, "an excellent
+telegraph, very simple, very efficacious, and very rapid in its
+transmissions. A practised clerk can indent on an average seventeen words
+a minute, which is consequently as many as a skilful writer could
+transcribe with a pen. It is, moreover, a great advantage to have fixed on
+a band of paper the messages which the needle telegraphs merely figure in
+the air."
+
+Since the year 1821 the principles of action of two of the working
+telegraphs of the present day were known to scientific men, and the
+question naturally arises, how was it that it still took so many years to
+make the telegraph a working fact? The answer is, that the combination of
+circumstances necessary to bring it to perfection had not arisen. What
+interest had practical men in carrying out the dreams of philosophers? No
+one imagined that it would ever become a necessary social engine, or that
+it would pay "seven per cent." to a public Company. The patronage of the
+Government could alone have been looked to by any of the proposers of the
+new method of telegraphy, and the sort of encouragement received from this
+quarter may be judged from the fact that when Mr. Ronalds attempted to
+draw the attention of some of the officials to the working of his
+instrument, they did not even deign to pay it a visit, but returned for
+answer, "That the telegraph was of no use in time of peace, and that the
+semaphore in time of war answered all the required purposes." The occasion
+that suddenly ripened the invention and brought it into practical
+operation was the introduction of railroads. Were it not for the universal
+spread of this new means of locomotion, the telegraph might still have
+remained in that limbo from which so many discoveries have never emerged.
+The vast advantage to a railroad of a method of conveying signals
+instantaneously throughout its entire length was at once seen, and the
+continuity of its property, together with the protection afforded by its
+servants, presented facilities for its introduction and maintenance which
+had never before occurred.
+
+A problem of great scientific interest as well as of practical importance
+in connection with the electric telegraph had still to be solved. The
+experiments of Dr. Watson on Shooter's Hill, in the middle of the last
+century, proved, it is true, that _a shock of electricity_ passed along a
+four mile circuit without any appreciable loss of time, but nothing was
+definitely known about the speed at which it really travelled. This
+difficult question was answered by Professor Wheatstone. His beautiful
+investigations on the subject were made by means of a very rapidly
+revolving mirror, upon which the passage of the electric fluid, at
+different and distant parts of a severed wire, was indicated by sparks,
+which appeared as lines of light on the rapidly turning glass, on the same
+principle that a bit of lighted charcoal whirled round and round in the
+air appears as a circle of fire. By this instrument, which we cannot
+render intelligible to the general reader, but for a fuller account of
+which we refer him to the Philosophical Transactions of 1834, he made it
+evident to the eye that one spark or leap of the electric fluid did occur
+before the other--thus proving that its transit along the wire _was_ a
+matter of time. The manner in which he took measure of this infinitesimal
+period was extremely ingenious. By attaching a hollow piece of metal--a
+metallic humming-top as it were--to the spindle of his revolving mirror,
+and at the same time directing a current of air against it, he was enabled
+to test its speed by the pitch of the sound produced: this once known, the
+measuring of time that elapsed between the different sparks was easy. Thus
+he forced the lightning to tell how fast it was going. His
+admirably-contrived apparatus has since proved of considerable use to
+philosophers in measuring very minute parts of time, and scientific men
+can now with the greatest ease ascertain the period a flash of light takes
+to traverse a distance of 50 feet--and light, be it remembered, travels at
+the speed of 200,000 miles a second!
+
+By this experiment it appeared that electricity travels through a
+copper-wire with at least the velocity of light through the celestial
+space, though the recent experiments made for Professor Bache, director of
+the national survey of America, have proved that the velocity of the
+current through suspended _iron_ wires is not more than 15,400 miles per
+second. The philosophic proof of the marvellous rate at which the electric
+current moved, doubtless turned many minds once more in the direction of
+the long sought for telegraph, and it is not surprising that the eminent
+elucidator of the fact was among the number. A short time after this he
+insulated four miles of wire in the vaults of King's College, on which he
+performed most of his subsequent experiments.[34] Thus in the silence of
+these gloomy vaults, as early as 1836, the lightning that was to flash
+with intelligence round the world--the nervous system so shortly destined
+to spread itself through two hemispheres, string together continents and
+islands, and carry human thought under the wide-spreading seas, was slowly
+being trained to the service of man by one of the most distinguished of
+the many philosophers who have contributed to the development of this
+branch of science.
+
+Following up his experiment, Professor Wheatstone worked out the
+arrangements of his telegraph, and having associated himself in 1837 with
+Mr. Cooke, who had previously devoted much time to the same subject, a
+patent was taken out in the June of that year in their joint names. Their
+telegraph had five wires and five needles; the latter being worked upon
+the face of a lozenge-shaped dial inscribed with the letters of the
+alphabet, any one of which could be indicated by the convergence of two of
+the needles. This very ingenious instrument could be manipulated by any
+person who knew how to read, and did not labour under the disadvantage of
+working by a code which required time to be understood. Immediately upon
+the taking out of the patent, the directors of the North Western Railway
+sanctioned the laying down of wires between the Euston Square and Camden
+Town stations, and towards the end of July the telegraph was ready to
+work.
+
+Late in the evening of the 25th of that month, in a dingy little room near
+the booking-office at Euston square, by the light of a flaring dip-candle,
+which only illuminated the surrounding darkness, sat the inventor, with a
+beating pulse and a heart full of hope. In an equally small room at the
+Camden Town station, where the wires terminated, sat Mr. Cooke, his
+co-patentee, and among others, two witnesses well known to fame, Mr.
+Charles Fox and Mr. Stephenson. These gentlemen listened to the first word
+spelt by that trembling tongue of steel which will only cease to discourse
+with the extinction of man himself. Mr. Cooke in his turn touched the keys
+and returned the answer. "Never did I feel such a tumultuous sensation
+before," said the Professor, "as when all alone in the still room I heard
+the needles click, and as I spelled the words I felt all the magnitude of
+the invention, now proved to be practical beyond cavil or dispute." The
+telegraph thenceforward, as far as its mechanism was concerned, went on
+without a check, and the modifications of this instrument, which is still
+in use, have been made for the purpose of rendering it more economical in
+its construction and working, two wires at present being employed, and in
+some cases only one.
+
+A frequently renewed and still unsettled controversy has arisen upon the
+point of who is to be considered the first contriver of the telegraph in
+the form which made it available for popular use. Two names alone are now
+put forward to dispute the claim with Wheatstone--Steinheil of Munich and
+Morse of New York.
+
+From a communication of M. Arago to the French Academy of Sciences, it
+appears that the telegraph of Steinheil was in operation, for a distance
+of seven miles, on the 19th of July, 1837, the same month in which
+Wheatstone put his own contrivance to the test upon the North Western
+Railway. But besides that the patent of Wheatstone was taken out in the
+preceding June, and was itself founded upon previous and thoroughly
+successful experiments, there is another material circumstance which gives
+him a claim to priority over Steinheil, viz., that the latter published no
+description of his instrument until August, 1838, that he altered and
+improved it in the interval, and that the only accounts we have of his
+contrivance describe its amended and not its original form. It was,
+however, a very meritorious performance, and, in addition to its other
+excellences, Steinheil was the first who employed the earth to complete
+the circuit--a most important fact, which we shall explain hereafter.
+Still his telegraph was inferior in its mechanical arrangements to that of
+Wheatstone, and the inventor himself soon abandoned it in favour of a
+modification of the instrument of Morse.
+
+Morse dates his claim to _the invention of the telegraph_ from the year
+1832, when the first idea of such an instrument, he tells us, struck him
+as he was returning home from Havre in the ship Sully. A fellow-passenger,
+Professor Jackson, it appears, was in the habit of amusing himself, in
+common with the rest of the passengers, with some accounts of the wonders
+of electricity; and when Morse later developed his contrivance, Professor
+Jackson not only claimed it as a plagiarism from his own conversation, but
+added that Morse was so ignorant as to ask, upon hearing the term
+Electro-Magnetism, "In what does that differ from ordinary Magnetism?" The
+telegraph was at best, on the part of both of them, a crude idea; and it
+was not till September, 1837, that Professor Morse was able to exhibit his
+still imperfect machinery in action. He ultimately succeeded, as we have
+before stated, in producing a telegraph of first-rate excellence; and, out
+of 15,000 miles of wire which had been erected by 1852 in the United
+States, 12,124 were worked on the system of Morse.
+
+The question of priority is, in our opinion, after all, of no sort of
+importance, at least as regards the rival claims of Wheatstone and
+Steinheil. When the progress of science has prepared the way for a great
+discovery, two geniuses will occasionally take the step together, because
+each is able to take the step of a giant. It was thus that the Calculus
+was found out by both Newton and Leibnitz, and the place of Neptune in the
+heavens by both Adams and Leverrier. It was the same with the telegraph.
+The investigations of Wheatstone and Steinheil were entirely independent
+of each other, and it cannot lessen the merit of either that there was a
+second man in Europe who was equal to the task.
+
+There are some who dispute Professor Wheatstone's claim, by urging that,
+inasmuch as all the main features of the telegraph existed before he took
+out his patent, there was nothing left to invent. It is true that much had
+been done, but it is equally certain that there was much to do. When
+Wheatstone first directed his attention to electricity as a means of
+communicating thoughts to a distance, the telegraph was a useless and
+inoperative machine. He and his partner established as a working, paying
+fact, what had hitherto been little better than a philosophic toy. To
+those who now disparage the Professor's labours we think it sufficient to
+reply by the admirable saying of the French _savant_, M. Biot, "Nothing is
+so easy as the discovery of yesterday; nothing so difficult as the
+discovery of to-day."
+
+Let us return, however, to the history of the telegraph in England, from
+which we have digressed. After the successful working of the
+mile-and-a-quarter line, the Directors of the London and Birmingham
+Railway proposed to lay it down to the latter town if the Birmingham and
+Liverpool Directors would continue it on their line; but they objected,
+and the telegraph received notice to quit the ground it already occupied.
+Of course, its sudden disappearance would have branded it as a failure in
+most men's minds, and, in all probability, the telegraph would have been
+put back many years, had not Mr. Brunel, to his honour, in 1839,
+determined to adopt it on the Great Western line. It was accordingly
+carried at first as far as West Drayton, thirteen miles, and afterwards to
+Slough, a distance of eighteen miles. The wires were not at this early
+date suspended upon posts, but insulated and encased in an iron tube,
+which was placed beneath the ground.
+
+The telegraph hitherto had been strictly confined to railway business, and
+in furtherance of this object Brunel proposed to continue it to Bristol as
+soon as the line was opened. Here, again, the folly and blindness of
+railway proprietors threw obstacles in the way, which led, however, to an
+unlooked-for application of its powers to public purposes. At a general
+meeting of the proprietors of the Great Western Railway in Bristol, a Mr.
+Hayward, of Manchester, got up and denounced the invention as a
+"new-fangled scheme," and managed to pass a resolution repudiating the
+agreement entered into with the patentees. Thus within a few years we find
+the telegraph rejected by two of the most powerful railway companies, the
+persons above all others who ought to have welcomed it with acclamation.
+
+To keep the wires on the ground, Mr. Cooke proposed to maintain it at his
+own expense, and was permitted by the directors to do so on condition of
+sending their railway signals free of charge, and of extending the line to
+Slough. In return, he was allowed to transmit the messages of the public.
+Here commences the first popular use of the telegraph in England, or in
+any other country. The tariff was one shilling per message. The effect of
+this low charge was to develop a class of business which seems beneath the
+notice of the powerful company now in possession of most of the
+telegraphic lines in the kingdom. The transactions of the retail dealers
+are considered too petty, perhaps, for their attention; but there can be
+no doubt that the comfort of the public would be vastly increased, and
+also the revenues of the company, if they would only condescend to take a
+lesson by the commercial experience of this shilling tariff, the working
+of which we will illustrate by transcribing from the telegraph book at
+Paddington a few specimens of the messages sent:--
+
+    "Commercial News. 1844, Nov. 1, Slough, 4.10 P.M.--'Send a messenger
+    to Mr. Harris, poulterer, Duke-street, Manchester-square, and order
+    him to send twelve more chickens to Mr. Finch, High-street, Windsor,
+    by the 5.0 P.M. down train, without fail.' Answer: Paddington, 5.5
+    P.M.--'The chickens are sent by the 5.0 P.M. train.'
+
+    "Slough, 7.35 P.M.--'A Mr. Thomas B., a first-class passenger, 6.30
+    P.M. train, left a blue cloak with a velvet collar in first-class
+    booking-office. Send it by mail train if found.'
+
+    "Paddington 7.45 P.M.--'There are two such cloaks in the
+    booking-office: has Mr. B.'s any mark on any part of it?' Slough, 7.47
+    P.M.--'Mr. B.'s has the mark × under the collar, inside.'
+
+    "Paddington, 7.55 P.M.--'Cloak found, and will be sent on as
+    requested.'
+
+    "Slough, Nov. 11, 1844, 4.3 P.M.--'Send a messenger to Mr. Harris,
+    Duke-street, Manchester-square, and request him to send 6 lbs. of
+    white bait and 4 lbs. of sausages, by the 5.40 train, to Mr. Finch, of
+    Windsor they must be sent by 5.30 down train, or not at all.'
+
+    "Paddington, 5.27 P.M.--'Messenger returned with articles which will
+    be sent by 5.30 train, as requested.'"
+
+The first application of the telegraph to police purposes took place about
+this time on the Great Western Railway, and, as it was the first
+intimation thieves got of the electric constable being on duty, it is full
+of interest. The following extracts are from the telegraph book kept at
+the Paddington station:--
+
+    "Eaton Montem day, August 28, 1844.--The Commissioners of Police have
+    issued orders that several officers of the detective force shall be
+    stationed at Paddington to watch the movements of suspicious persons,
+    going by the down-train, and give notice by the electric telegraph to
+    the Slough station of the number of such suspected persons, and dress,
+    their names if known, also the carriages in which they are."
+
+Now come the messages following one after the other, and influencing the
+fate of the marked individuals with all the celerity, certainty, and
+calmness of the Nemesis of the Greek drama:--
+
+    "Paddington, 10.20 A.M.--'Mail train just started. It contains three
+    thieves, named Sparrow, Burrell, and Spurgeon, in the first
+    compartment of the fourth first-class carriage.'
+
+    "Slough, 10.48 A.M.--'Mail train arrived. _The officers have cautioned
+    the three thieves._'
+
+    "Paddington, 10.50 A.M.--'Special train just left. It contained two
+    thieves: one named Oliver Martin, who is dressed in black, _crape on
+    his hat_; the other named Fiddler Dick, in black trowsers and light
+    blouse. Both in the third compartment of the first second-class
+    carriage.'
+
+    "Slough, 11.16 A.M.--'Special train arrived. Officers have taken the
+    two thieves into custody, a lady having lost her bag, containing a
+    purse with two sovereigns and some silver in it; one of the sovereigns
+    was sworn to by the lady as having been her property. It was found in
+    Fiddler Dick's watch-fob.'"
+
+It appears that, on the arrival of the train, a policeman opened the door
+of the "third compartment of the first second-class carriage" and asked
+the passengers if they had missed anything? A search in pockets and bags
+accordingly ensued, until one lady called out that her purse was gone.
+"Fiddler Dick, you are wanted," was the immediate demand of the
+police-officer, beckoning to the culprit, who came out of the carriage
+thunderstruck at the discovery, and gave himself up, together with the
+booty, with the air of a completely beaten man. The effect of the capture
+so cleverly brought about is thus spoken of in the telegraph book:--
+
+    "Slough, 11.51 A.M.--'Several of the suspected persons who came by the
+    various down-trains are lurking about Slough, uttering bitter
+    invectives against the telegraph. Not one of those cautioned has
+    ventured to proceed to the Montem.'"
+
+Ever after this the lightfingered gentry avoided the railway and the _too_
+intelligent companion that ran beside it, and betook themselves again to
+the road--a retrograde step, to which on all great public occasions they
+continue to adhere.
+
+The telegraph, even up to this period, was very little known to the great
+mass of the public, and might have continued for some time longer in
+obscurity but for its remarkable agency in causing the arrest of the
+quaker Tawell. This event, which took place on the afternoon of Friday,
+January 3rd, 1845, placed it before the world as a prominent instrument in
+a terrible drama, and at once drew universal attention to its
+capabilities.
+
+It must not be imagined, however, that Mr. Wheatstone's was the only
+patent taken out for a telegraph in the year 1837. A number of inquiring
+minds were simultaneously with the Professor wandering in the tangled wood
+of doubt, and when he burst his way through, others speedily emerged at
+different points, one after another. Consequently, the year 1837 was
+distinguished by a complete crop of telegraphs, any one of which would
+perhaps have held its ground had it stood alone, but not one of them was
+practically equal to the first, and they have all long since departed to
+the tomb, already stored with the abortive results of so many merely
+ingenious minds.
+
+The rapidity with which the needle instrument transmits messages, the
+small amount of electricity required to work it, and the simplicity of its
+construction, are its chief recommendations. Upwards of 200 letters can be
+forwarded by it within the minute. Its great drawback--a drawback that
+will appear greater every year--is that it can only be worked by a system
+of signs, which requires some practice to understand. As long as the
+public is content to send its messages open to the light of day, this plan
+will hold its ground, as a practised manipulator can indicate the letters
+as fast as it is possible to read, much less transcribe them, at the other
+end of the wire; but immediately that the public come to demand
+secrecy--to put a seal as of old on its letters--this telegraph will, we
+predict, fall into _public_ disuse; and the revolving dial telegraph,
+invented by Mr. Wheatstone, in 1840, or the recording telegraph of Bain or
+Morse, or, more likely still, the American printing telegraph of House,
+will come into play.
+
+This latter instrument appears to contain within itself capabilities of
+very high excellence; for instance, it requires no one to interpret, and
+then to re-write its messages--this it does itself. In fact it extends the
+compositor's fingers as far as the wire can be stretched. Messages are
+thus printed at the rate of fifty letters a minute, say at five hundred
+miles distance, in common Roman characters, on long slips of paper similar
+to those used on the recording instrument. Any description of its
+complicated mechanism would be utterly unintelligible to general readers.
+"While the arrangements of the telegraph of Morse," said Mr. Justice
+Woodbury, of America, in giving judgment in a patent case, "can be readily
+understood by most mechanics and men of science, it requires days, if not
+weeks with some, thoroughly to comprehend all the parts and movements of
+the telegraph of House." His system is in use for thousands of miles of
+the American lines. Bakewell's copying telegraph is naturally suggested by
+the telegraph of House, from the fact that it reproduces its messages,
+although in a different manner. The sender of the message may be said to
+write with a pen long enough to stretch to the most distant correspondent;
+that is, he not only forwards instantaneously the substance of a message,
+but it is conveyed in his own handwriting. The principle is similar to
+that of Davy's chemical recording telegraph. The person sending the
+message writes it on a piece of tin foil with a pen dipped in varnish or
+any other non-conducting substance; this message is then placed round a
+metal cylinder, which is made to revolve at a certain regulated pace. In
+contact with this cylinder is a blunt steel point, which, by the action of
+a screw, makes a spiral line from the top to the bottom of the cylinder,
+thus touching every portion of the written message enveloping it. In
+connection with the steel point is the conducting wire, and at the end of
+the wire is a similar steel point working spirally upon a like cylinder.
+It will be at once seen that the current will always be transmitted,
+except at those portions of the tin foil which are covered with the
+non-conducting varnish, and which, therefore, cut off the flow of
+electricity, and the handwriting will appear at the other end of the
+telegraphic wire upon a piece of chemically-prepared paper rolled upon its
+cylinder, and moving synchronously with it. The transmitted letter appears
+to be written in white upon a dark ground, the white parts, of course,
+indicating where the current has been broken, and where, consequently, no
+decomposition of the chemical paper has taken place.
+
+To return, however, to our subject after this little digression. At the
+same time that the first working telegraph was being simplified and
+improved, the system was gradually spreading, and, by the end of the year
+1845, lines exceeding 500 miles in extent were in operation in England,
+working Messrs. Wheatstone and Cook's patents. In the following year,
+capital, as represented by the powerful Electric Telegraph Company,
+commenced its operations, and an immediate and rapid development of the
+new method of carrying intelligence was the result.
+
+"A period of eight years has elapsed," as they say in a certain class of
+drama, and let us now look upon the condition of electric-telegraphy in
+England. We left it exerting its influence in a disjointed manner over a
+few railways, and striking out its wires here and there at random, without
+governing head or organization; and how do we find it?
+
+Jammed in between lofty houses, at the bottom of a narrow court in
+Lothbury, we see before us a stuccoed wall, ornamented with an electric
+illuminated clock. Who would think that behind this narrow forehead lay
+the great brain,--if we may so term it,--of the nervous system of Britain,
+or that beneath the narrow pavement of the alley lies its spinal chord,
+composed of hundreds of fibres, which transmit intelligence as unperceived
+as does the medulla oblongata beneath the skin? Emerging from this narrow
+channel, the "efferent" wires branch off beneath the different footways,
+ramify in certain plexuses within the great centre of intelligence itself,
+and then shoot out along the different lines of railway until the shores
+of the island would seem to interpose a limit to their further progress.
+Not so, however:--beneath the seas, under the heaving waves covered with
+stately navies, they take their darksome way, until, with the burden of
+their moving fire, they emerge once more upon the foreign strand, and
+commence afresh their career over the wide expanse of the Continent.
+
+And now, like a curious physiologist, let us examine the various parts of
+this ingeniously-constructed sensorium, and endeavour to show our readers
+how in this high chamber, fashioned by human hands, thoughts circulate,
+and ideas come and go. The door of the "Central Telegraph Station" leads
+immediately into the Central Hall, an oblong space, open quite up to the
+roof, which presents an appearance something like the Coal Exchange or the
+Geological Museum, two tiers of galleries being suspended from the bare
+walls, and affording communication to the different parts of the building.
+If we ascend the first gallery, and lean over the balustrade, we shall get
+a very clear bird's-eye view of the method in which messages are received
+and transmitted. Here, man, like the watchful spider, sits centered within
+his radiating web, and "lives along the line." Beneath us runs a sweep of
+counter forming three sides of a quadrangle, divided into compartments of
+about a square yard by green curtains. A desk and printed forms, to be
+filled up, are placed in each of these isolated cells, towards which we
+see individuals immediately make, and then bury themselves, being for the
+time profoundly intent upon the printed form.
+
+We all know the jocose excuse of the correspondent for having written a
+long letter--that he had not time to make it shorter. And truly it
+requires some art to be laconic enough to satisfy the pocket in this
+establishment. Let us watch, for instance, yonder youth: he seems to have
+filled his sheet very close--now he gives it in to the receiving-clerk,
+and something evidently is wrong, for he looks perplexed--it is some hitch
+about the charge, for his attention is directed to the scale of prices
+printed at the head of the paper.
+
+    "Messages (not exceeding twenty words) can be sent between all the
+    principal towns in Great Britain at a charge of 1_s._ within a circuit
+    of 50 miles, of 2_s._ 6_d._ within a circuit of 100 miles
+    (geographical distance), and of 5_s._ beyond a circuit of 100 miles,
+    with an additional sum of 6_d._ porterage within half a mile of the
+    station."
+
+"Economy," says a French writer, M. de Courcy, "teaches conciseness. The
+telegraphic style banishes all the forms of politeness. 'May I ask you to
+do me the favour,' is 6d. for a distance of fifty miles." How many of
+those fond adjectives, therefore, must our poor fellow relentlessly strike
+out to bring his billet down to a reasonable charge! What food for
+speculation each person affords, as he writes his hurried epistle,
+dictated either by fear, or greed, or more powerful love!--for we have not
+yet got into the habit of employing the telegraph, like the Americans, on
+the mere every-day business of life. Every message--and of these there are
+350,000 transmitted by this Company yearly for the public, and upwards of
+3,500,000 for the Railways--is faithfully copied, and put by in fire-proof
+safes, those sent by the recording telegraph being wound in tape-like
+lengths upon a roller, and appearing exactly like discs of sarcenet
+ribbon. Fancy some future Macaulay rummaging among such a store, and
+painting therefrom the salient features of the social and commercial life
+of England in the nineteenth century. If from the Household Book of the
+Duke of Northumberland, or still later, from the Paston Letters, we can
+catch such glimpses of the manners of an early age, what might not be
+gathered some day in the twenty-first century from a record of the
+correspondence of an entire people?
+
+"Softly, softly," interposes the Secretary of the Company, "we have no
+such intention of gratifying posterity; for, after a certain brief period
+all copies of communications are destroyed. No person unconnected with
+the office is, under any consideration, allowed to have access to them,
+and the servants of the Company are under a bond not to divulge 'the
+secrets of the prison-house.'" Very good, as far as the present generation
+is concerned; nevertheless, it is devoutly to be wished that an odd box or
+two of these sarcenet ribbons, with their linear language, may escape, for
+future Rawlinsons to puzzle over and decipher for the instruction of
+mankind.
+
+Whilst we have been thus speculating, however, a dozen messages for all
+parts of the kingdom have successively ascended, through the long lift
+before us, to the instrument-rooms, of which there are two, situated in
+the attics of the establishment, on either side of the top gallery of the
+central hall; these, to carry out our anatomical simile, might be called
+the two hemispheres of the establishment's cerebrum. The instruments of
+one of these rooms are worked by youths, while those of the other are
+manipulated by young ladies; and it seems to us as though the directors
+were pitting them against each other--establishing a kind of industrial
+tournament--to see which description of labourer is worthiest. As yet,
+little or no difference can be detected: this, however, is in itself a
+triumph for the fair sex, as it proves their capacity for a species of
+employment well calculated for their habits and physical powers, and opens
+another door for that superabundance of female labour of a superior kind
+which has hitherto sought employment in vain.
+
+Click, click, go the needles on every hand as we enter. Here we see the
+iron tongues of the telegraph wagging, and talking as fast as a tea-table
+full of old maids. London is holding communication with Manchester.
+Plymouth is listening attentively to a long story, and every now and then
+intimates by a slight movement that he perfectly comprehends. But there is
+one speaker whose nimble tongue seems to be saying important things by the
+stir around him,--that is _the Hague_ whispering under the North Sea the
+news he has heard, an hour or so ago, from Vienna of a great victory just
+gained by the Turks. We are witness to a series of conversations carried
+on with all corners of the island, and between the metropolis of the
+world and every capital of northern and central Europe, as intimately as
+though the speakers were bending their heads over the dinner-table, and
+talking confidentially to the host. And by what agency is this
+extraordinary conversation carried on? All that the visitor sees is a
+number of little mahogany cases, very similar to those of American clocks,
+each having a dial, with two lozenge-shaped needles working by pivots,
+which hang, when at rest, perpendicularly upon it. Two dependant handles,
+situated at the base of this instrument, which the operator grasps and
+moves from side to side at his will, suffice to make and break the
+currents or reverse them, and consequently to deflect the needles either
+to the right or left. Two little stops of ivory are placed about half an
+inch apart, on either side of the needle, to prevent its deflecting too
+much, and to check all vibration. It is the sound of the iron tongue
+striking against these stops that makes the clicking, and to which the
+telegraphists are sensitively alive. In the early days of telegraphy, the
+operator's attention, at all the stations, was drawn to the instrument by
+the sudden ringing of an alarum, which was effected by the agency of an
+electro-magnet; but the horrid din it occasioned became insupportable to
+persons in constant attendance, and this part of the instrument was
+speedily given up, the clicking of the needle being found quite sufficient
+to draw his attention to the arrival or passing of a message. We say _or
+passing_ of a message, because, when a communication is made, as for
+instance, between London and Edinburgh, the needles of all the
+telegraph-stations on the line are simultaneously deflected, but the
+attendant has only to take notice of what is going on when a special
+signal is made to his particular locality, informing him that _he_ is
+spoken with. A story is told of a certain somnolent station clerk, who, in
+order to enjoy his nap, trained his terrier to scratch and awaken him at
+the first sound of the clicking needles.
+
+There are but two kinds of telegraph used by the company, the needle
+telegraph and a few of the chemical recording telegraph of Bain. The
+latter instrument strikes the spectator more, perhaps, than the
+nimble-working needle apparatus, but its action is equally simple. Slits
+of variable length representing letters, according to the alphabet in the
+note,[35] are punched out from a long strip of paper called the
+message-strip, which is placed between a revolving cylinder and a toothed
+spring. The battery is connected with the cylinder; the wire, which goes
+from station to station, is joined to the spring. As dry paper is a
+non-conductor, no electricity passes while the unpierced portion of the
+message-slip interposes between the cylinder and the tooth; but when the
+tooth drops into a space, and comes in contact with the cylinder, the
+current flows. If we now transfer our attention to the station at which
+the message is received, we find a similar cylinder revolving at a regular
+rate, and a metal pin, depending from the end of the telegraph wire,
+pressing upon it; but in this case the paper between the cylinder and the
+pin has been washed with a solution of prussiate of potash, which
+electricity has the effect of changing to Prussian blue at the point where
+the pin touches it. Therefore, as the chemically prepared paper moves
+under the pin, a blue line is formed of the same length as the slits at
+the other end, which regulate the duration of the electric current; and
+thus every letter punched upon the message-strip is faithfully transferred
+to its distant fellow. Such is the celerity with which the notation is
+transmitted by this method, that "in an experiment performed by M. Le
+Verrier and Dr. Lardner, before committees of the Institute and the
+Legislative Assembly at Paris, despatches were sent 1,000 miles at the
+rate of nearly 20,000 words an hour." In ordinary practice, however, the
+speed is limited to the rate at which an expert clerk can punch out the
+holes, which is not much above a hundred per minute. Where the object was
+to forward long documents, such as a speech, a number of persons could be
+employed simultaneously in punching out different portions of the message,
+and the message-strips would then be supplied as fast as the machine could
+work.
+
+This system is used extensively in America. A weaker current of
+electricity than what is required for deflecting needles or magnetising
+iron, suffices to effect the requisite chemical decomposition. The
+conducting power of vapour or rain carries much of the electricity from
+the wires in certain states of the atmosphere; "and in such cases, where
+both Morse's and Bain's telegraphs are used by an amalgamated company in
+the same office, it is found convenient to remove the wires from Morse's
+instruments, and connect them with Bain's, on which it is practicable to
+operate when communication by Morse's system is
+interrupted."--(_Whitworth's Report_, p. 51.)
+
+This chemical telegraph has also the advantage, in common with all
+recording instruments, that it leaves an indelible record of every message
+transmitted, and therefore is very useful when the mistake of a single
+figure or letter might be of consequence, which we will illustrate by a
+case which happened very lately. A stockbroker in the City received,
+during a very agitated state of the funds, an order to buy for a client in
+a distant part of the country, by a certain time of the day, 80,000_l._ of
+consols. This order being unusually large for the individual, the broker
+doubted its accuracy, and immediately made inquiries at the office. The
+message had luckily been sent by the recording instrument, and upon
+looking at the record it was immediately seen that the order was for
+8,000_l._, the transcriber having put in an 0 too much, for which,
+according to the rules of the company, he was incontinently fined. Now,
+here the error was immediately traced to the person who made it, and there
+was no need of telegraphing back to inquire if all were right, two matters
+of vital importance in such a transaction as this, involving so much
+personal responsibility; for if the purchase had been made and turned out
+unfortunate, the loss would indubitably have fallen upon the unhappy
+sharebroker.[36]
+
+In all ordinary transactions, however, the needle instrument is
+preferable, because it transmits its messages much more quickly. The speed
+with which the attendants upon these instruments read off the signals made
+by the needles is really marvellous: they do not in some cases even wait
+to spell the words letter by letter, but jump at the sentence before it is
+concluded; and they have learned by practice, as Sir Francis Head says in
+"Stokers and Pokers," to recognize immediately who is telegraphing to
+them, say at York, by the peculiar _expression of the needles_, the long
+drawn wires thus forming a kind of human antennæ by which individual
+peculiarities of touch are projected to an infinite distance. To catalogue
+the kind of messages which pass through the room, either on their way from
+London or in course of distribution to it, would be to give a history of
+human affairs. Here, from the shores of this tight island, comes the
+morning news gathered by watchers, telescopes in hand, on remote
+headlands, of what ships have just hove in sight, or what craft have
+foundered or come ashore--to this room, swifter beyond comparison than the
+carrier-dove of old, the wire speeds the name of the winner of the Derby
+or the Oaks. How the four winds are blowing throughout the island; how
+stocks rise or fall every hour of the day in all the great towns and in
+the continental capitals; what corn is at Mark Lane, and what farmer Giles
+got a quarter of an hour since in a country town in Yorkshire, are equally
+known in the telegraph room. Intermixed with quotations of tallow and the
+price of Wall's End coals, now and then comes a love-billet, which excites
+no more sympathy in the clerk than in the iron that conveys it; or a
+notice that the sudden dart of death has struck some distant friend, is
+transmitted and received as unconcernedly as an account of the fall in
+Russian stock. When business is slack the telegraphists sometimes amuse
+themselves by an interchange of badinage with their distant friends. Sir
+Francis Head informs us that an absolute quarrel once took place by
+telegraph, and the two irritated manipulators were obliged to be separated
+in consequence.
+
+In addition to this private message department there is, below stairs, an
+intelligence office, in which news published in the London morning papers
+is condensed and forwarded to the Exchanges of Liverpool, Bristol,
+Manchester, Glasgow, &c.[37] A few years since the company opened
+subscription rooms in all the large towns of the north, in which
+intelligence of every kind was posted immediately after its arrival in
+London; but the craving for early intelligence was not sufficient to
+induce the people to incur the expense, and, with the exception of the
+room at Hull, the establishments have all been shut up.
+
+On Friday evening especially this department is very busy condensing for
+the country papers the news which appears in that exciting column headed
+"By Electric Telegraph, London, 2 A.M." Thus the telegraph rides express
+through the night for the broadsheets of the entire kingdom, and even
+steps across from Portpatrick to Donaghadee into the sister country, with
+its budget of latest intelligence, by which means the extremities of the
+two islands are kept as well _up_ in the progress of important events as
+London itself. Upwards of 120 provincial papers each receive in this
+manner their column of parliamentary news of the night; and the _Daily
+Mail_, published in Glasgow, gets sometimes as much as three columns of
+the debates forwarded whilst the House is sitting. A superintendent and
+four clerks are expressly employed in this department; and early in the
+day, towards the end of the week, the office presents all the appearance
+of an editor's room. At seven in the morning the clerks are to be seen
+deep in the _Times_ and other daily papers, just hot from the press,
+making extracts, and condensing into short paragraphs all the most
+important events, which are immediately sent off to the country papers to
+form "second editions." Neither does the work cease here; for no sooner is
+a second edition published in town, than its news, if of more than
+ordinary interest, is transmitted to the provinces. For instance: whilst
+we were in the company's telegraph room a short time since, the following
+intelligence was being served out to Liverpool, York, Manchester, Leeds,
+Bristol, Birmingham, and Hull:--
+
+    "EASTERN WAR--BATTLE ON THE DANUBE--FROM EVENING EDITION OF THE
+    'MORNING CHRONICLE.'
+
+    "_Vienna, Saturday, April 8th._
+
+    "The journal _Fremden Blatt_ announces, under date of Bucharest, 4th
+    April, that a great battle was being fought at Rassova, about midway
+    between Hirsova and Silistria, in the Dobrudscha. The result was not
+    known. Mustapha Pasha is at the head of 50,000 men."
+
+Arrived at the above-mentioned places, swifter than a rocket could fly the
+distance, like a rocket it bursts, and is again carried by the diverging
+wires into a dozen neighbouring towns. The announcement we have quoted
+comes opportunely to remind us that intelligence thus hastily gathered and
+transmitted has also its drawbacks, and is not so trustworthy as the news
+which starts later and travels slower. The "great battle of Rassova" has
+not yet been fought, and the general action announced through the
+telegraph was only a sanguinary skirmish.
+
+The telegraphic organization of London, meagre as it is at present, would
+form alone a curious paper: "a province covered with houses," it demands a
+special arrangement, and accordingly we see day by day new branches opened
+within its precincts, by which means every part of the metropolis is being
+put in communication with the country and Europe.
+
+The branch stations are, London Docks (main entrance); No. 43, Mincing
+Lane; General Post Office, St. Martin's-le-Grand; No. 30, Fleet Street;
+No. 448, West Strand; No. 17_a_, Great George Street, Westminster; No. 89,
+St. James's Street; No. 1, Park Side, Knightsbridge; No. 6, Edgeware Road;
+Great Western Railway Station; London and North-Western Railway Station;
+Great Northern Railway Station; Highbury Railway Station; Eastern
+Counties' Railway Station; Blackwall Railway Station; London and Brighton
+and South Coast Railway Station; and the London and South-Western Railway
+Station; of these only two are open night and day. The central office,
+strange as it might appear, is closed at half-past 8 o'clock P.M., and its
+wires are put in connection with those at the Charing Cross Station, which
+takes upon itself the night work--a singular proof, by the way, that
+London proper is deserted shortly after the hours of business are over.
+The Eastern Counties' office is also open at night, and forms the East End
+office of the company. These stations communicate with the central office
+in Lothbury, and form, in fact, direct feeders to it, just as the hundred
+suckers do to the zoophyte.
+
+We have yet, however, to notice the special telegraphic communication
+which exists in the metropolis between place and place, either for
+governmental purposes or for social convenience. The most curious of these
+lines is the wire between the Octagon Hall in the new Houses of Parliament
+and the St. James's Street Commercial station. They should name this line
+from the "whipper-in" of the House, for it is nothing more than a
+call-wire for members. The company employ reporters during the sitting of
+Parliament, to make an abstract from the gallery of the business of the
+two Houses as it proceeds; and this abstract is forwarded, at very short
+intervals, to the office in St. James's Street, where _it is set up and
+printed_, additions being made to the sheet issued as the MS. comes in.
+This flying sheet is posted half-hourly to the following clubs and
+establishments:--Arthur's; Carlton; Oxford and Cambridge; Brook's;
+Conservative; United Service; Athenæum; Reform; Traveller's; United
+University; Union; and White's; hourly to Boodle's Club and Prince's Club;
+and half-hourly to the Royal Italian Opera. The shortest possible abstract
+is of course supplied--just sufficient, in fact, to enable the
+after-dinner M.P. so to economize his proceedings as to be able to finish
+his claret, and yet be in time for the ministerial statement, or to count
+in the division.
+
+The wire to the Opera is a still more curious example of the social
+services the new power is destined to perform. An abstract of the
+proceedings of Parliament, similar to the above, but in _writing_, is
+posted, during the performance, in the lobby; and Young England has only
+to lounge out between the acts to know if Disraeli or Lord John Russell is
+up, and whether he may sit out the piece, or must hasten down to
+Westminster. The Opera House even communicates with the Strand Office, so
+that messages may be sent from thence to all parts of the kingdom. The
+Government wires go from Somerset House to the Admiralty, and thence to
+Portsmouth and Plymouth by the South-Western and Great Western Railways;
+and these two establishments are put in communication, by means of
+subterranean lines, with the naval establishments at Deptford, Woolwich,
+Chatham, Sheerness, and with the Cinque Ports of Deal and Dover. They are
+worked quite independently of the Company, and the messages are sent in
+cipher, the meaning of which is unknown, even to the telegraphic clerks
+employed in transmitting it. In addition to the wires already spoken of,
+street branches run from Buckingham Palace and Scotland Yard (the head
+police-office) to the station at Charing Cross, and thence on to Founder's
+Court; whilst the Post-office, Lloyd's, Capel Court, and the Corn Exchange
+communicate directly with the Central Office.
+
+The function, then, of the Central Office is to receive and redistribute
+communications. Of the manner in which these ends are accomplished nothing
+can be gained from a glance round the instrument-rooms. You see no wires
+coming into or emerging from them; you ask for a solution of the mystery,
+and one of the clerks leads you to the staircase and opens the door of
+what looks like a long wooden shoot placed perpendicularly against the
+wall. This is the great spinal cord of the establishment, consisting of a
+vast bundle of wires, insulated from each other by gutta percha. One set
+of these conveys the gathered-up streams of intelligence from the remote
+ends of the continent and the farthest shores of Britain, conducts them
+through London by the street lines underneath the thronging footsteps of
+the multitude, and ascends with its invisible despatches directly to the
+different instruments. Another set is composed of the wires that descend
+into the battery-chamber. It is impossible to realize the fact by merely
+gazing upon this brown and dusty-looking bundle of threads; nevertheless
+so it is, that they put us in communication with no less than 4,409 miles
+of telegraph, which is coterminous with the railway system of the island,
+and forms a complete network over its entire surface, with the exception
+of the highlands of North Wales. It penetrates already into the wilds of
+Scotland, as we see the wire is carried on from Aberdeen to Balmoral.
+
+The physiologist, minutely dissecting the star-fish, shows us its nervous
+system extending to the tip of each limb, and descants upon the beauty of
+this arrangement, by which the central mouth is informed of the nutriment
+within its reach. The telegraphic system, already developed in England,
+has rendered her as sensitive, to the utmost extremities, as the
+star-fish. Day by day and hour by hour everything that happens of
+importance is immediately referred to its centre at Lothbury, and this
+centre returns the service by spreading the information afresh in every
+direction. Thus, should an enemy appear off our coast, his presence, by
+the aid of the fibre, is immediately felt at the Admiralty, and an
+immediate reply sends out the fleet in chase. Should a riot occur in the
+manufacturing districts, the local authorities communicate with the Home
+Office, and orders are sent down to put the distant troops in motion. Does
+a murderer escape, the same wire makes the fact known to Scotland Yard,
+and from thence word is sent to the distant policemen to intercept him in
+his flight. The arm is scarcely uplifted quicker to ward off a sudden
+blow--the eye does not close with more rapidity upon an unexpected flood
+of light, than, by the aid of the telegraph, actions follow upon
+impressions conveyed along the length and breadth of the land. But, says
+our reader, suppose these wires should be severed or damaged, your whole
+line is paralyzed; and how are you to find out where the fault may be?
+Against these eventualities human foresight has provided: by testing from
+station to station along the line, the office soon knows how far the wires
+are perfect; and if the breach of continuity should be in the subterranean
+street wires, there are iron testing-posts at every 500 yards distance, by
+the aid of which the workman knows where to make his repairs. Whilst all
+is being made right again, however, a curious contrivance is brought into
+play, in order to keep the communication open. Every one is acquainted
+with the action of the railway "switch," by which a train is enabled to
+leave one line of rails and run on to another. The telegraph has its
+switch also, and thus a message can be transferred from one line to
+another, or can be sent right _throuyh_ to any locality, without making a
+stoppage at the usual resting-place on its way. By this device, then, the
+"sick wires" can be altogether avoided. Suppose, for instance, that some
+accident had happened to the direct Bristol line, and it would not work in
+consequence, then the clerk at the Lothbury station would signal to
+Birmingham to switch the wire through to Bristol, or, in other words, to
+put him in communication with that place; this done, the message would fly
+along the North-Western line, look in at the Birmingham station, and
+immediately be off down the Midland wire to Bristol, arriving, to all
+perception, in the same latitude as quickly as though it had gone direct
+by the Great Western wire. Every large station is provided with a
+switching apparatus, and the Lothbury office has several. Here also there
+is a very curious contrivance called the "testing-box," which enables the
+manipulator to connect any number of batteries to a wire, in order to give
+extra power, without going into the battery vault.
+
+These switches, testing, and battery boxes are of great service in certain
+conditions of the atmosphere. For instance, a thunderstorm, or more often
+a fog, will now and then so affect the conducting power of a wire, working
+through a long distance, that it is found impossible to send a message
+along it, in which case the clerk "dodges" the passing storm or fog by
+switching the dispatch round the country through a fine-weather wire. If
+however the foggy weather should continue, the manipulator has only to go
+to the battery box and couple on one or more batteries, just as fresh
+engines are put on a train going up an incline when the rails are
+"greasy." By thus increasing the power of the electric current the message
+is driven through the worst weather. Sometimes as many as six or eight
+24-plate batteries are necessary to speed a signal to Glasgow. The more
+general way in such cases, however, is to transmit the dispatch to some
+intermediate station, where the message is repeated.
+
+Let us now descend into the battery vaults--two long narrow chambers,
+situated in the basement of the building. Who would think that in this
+quiet place, night and day, a power was being generated that exerted its
+influence to the very margin of this seagirt isle, nay, invaded the
+territories of Holland, Belgium, and France? Who would think that those
+long dusty boxes on the shelves were making scores of iron tongues wag
+hundreds of miles off? There are upwards of sixty Daniel's batteries in
+full employment in these vaults. They are ranked as sixes, twelves, and
+twenty-fours, according to the number of their elements or plates; and
+just like guns, the higher they rank the further they carry. The powerful
+twenty-fours work the long ranges of wire, and the smaller batteries the
+shorter circuits. Of course some of these batteries have harder work to do
+than others, and the "twenty-fours" working the North-Western line have
+much the busiest time of it. Considering the work done by them, their
+maintenance is not very costly. A twenty-four, when in full work, does not
+consume its zinc plates under three months, and a gill of sulphuric acid,
+diluted, is its strong but rather moderate allowance of liquid per month.
+Other batteries of the same force are satisfied with 1 lb. of sulphate of
+copper per month, with a little sulphate of zinc, and salt and water. The
+entire amount of electric power employed by the Company throughout the
+country is produced by 8000 12-plate batteries, or 96,000 cells, which are
+lined with 1,500,000 square inches of copper, and about the same of zinc.
+To work these batteries six tons of acid is yearly consumed, and
+fifty-five tons of sand; the principal use of the latter is to prevent the
+chemicals from slopping about, and the metal plates from getting oxidised
+too rapidly. The language of the "wire," with respect to the working of
+the telegraph, is very curious. For instance, when a distant station-clerk
+finds that a battery is not up to its work, by the weak action of the
+needles, he sends word that it requires "refreshment," and it is
+accordingly served with its gill of aquafortis, and, totally opposed to
+the doctrines of temperance, a "long-lived battery" owes its vitality to
+the strongest drink.
+
+We have followed the wires down to one pole of their respective
+batteries, and now we have to pursue them out of the opposite pole until
+they take to "earth." No electricity will flow from the positive pole Z of
+the battery (Fig. 2) unless the wire D K A B is connected, either by being
+itself unbroken, or by the interposition of some other conductor where a
+gap occurs, to the negative pole C. In the earlier telegraphs it was usual
+to have a return-wire to effect this purpose. But, strange as it may
+sound, it was discovered that the earth itself would convey the current
+back to the negative pole, and thus an entire length of wire was saved.
+Accordingly the earth completes the two hundred and odd different
+circuits, which pass their loops, as it were, through the central office.
+In order to get a "good earth" a hole was dug deep in the foundations,
+until some moist ground was found, _dry_ soil being a very bad conductor,
+and into this a cylinder of copper, four inches in diameter and 40 lbs. in
+weight, was sunken, surrounded by a mass of sulphate of copper in
+crystals. All the earth wires of the establishment were then put in
+connection with this mass of metal, or earth plate.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6]
+
+The non-scientific reader will perhaps require a figure to explain to him
+our meaning, when we say that the earth is capable of completing the
+"circuit." In the accompanying diagram (No. 6) we have a battery, U V, in
+the central office in London, deflecting a needle N, say in Liverpool. The
+fluid passes from the positive pole of the battery U, traverses the wire
+of the North-Western Railway, and after working the telegraph in
+Liverpool, descends into the earth by the wire B, which has a metal or
+earth-plate attached to it. From this point the electric fluid starts
+homewards, through the solid ground, and finding out the earth-plate[38]
+under the foundations at Lothbury, ascends along the wire A, into the
+negative pole of the battery V. By reversing the current, it flows first
+through the earth from V A to B, and returns by the wire to the opposite
+pole U.
+
+Nothing in telegraphy impresses the thoughtful mind more than the fact
+that the electric fluid, after spanning, maybe, half the globe, should
+come back to its battery, through adamantine rocks, through seas and all
+the diverse elements which make up the anatomy of the globe. The
+explanation of the phenomenon is still a matter of pure speculation.
+Indeed, it may be objected that our flight of the electric principle is
+altogether a flight of fancy--that there is in fact no flow of electricity
+at all, but that its progress through bodies, according to the generally
+received theory, is owing to opposite poles of contiguous particles acting
+upon each other. The hypothesis, however, first received in science gives
+birth to its language, which usually continues the same, although it may
+have ceased to be an adequate expression of the current doctrine of
+philosophers.
+
+The traveller, as he flies along in the train, and looks out upon the
+wires which seem stretched against the sky like the ledger lines of music,
+little dreams of these invisible conductors that are returning the current
+through the ground. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, indeed, the
+wires and their sustaining posts represent to the spectator the entire
+telegraph. The following conversation between two navigators, overheard
+the other day by a friend, gives the most popular view of the way the
+telegraph works. "I say, Jem, how do 'em _jaw_ along them wires?" "Why,
+Bill, they pulls at one end, and rings a bell at t'other." Others again
+fancy that messages are conveyed by means of the vibrations of the metal,
+for on windy days they sometimes give out sounds like an Æolian harp: a
+fact which, according to Sir Francis Head, called forth the remark from a
+North-Western driver to his stoker, "I say, Bill, aint they a giving it to
+'em at Thrapstone?" The more ignorant class of people actually believe
+that it conveys parcels and letters, and they sometimes carry them for
+transmission to the office.
+
+Iron wire, coated with zinc, or "galvanised," as it is termed, to prevent
+its rusting, is now universally used as the conductor of the electric
+fluid when the lines are suspended in the air. The first rain falling upon
+the zinc converts it into an oxide of that metal, which is insoluble in
+water, so that henceforth in pure air it cannot be acted upon by that
+element, and all further oxidation ceases. Mr. Highton says, however, that
+in the neighbourhood of large manufacturing towns the sulphur from the
+smoky atmosphere converts the oxide into a sulphate of zinc, which is
+soluble, and consequently the rain continually washes it off the wire. He
+asserts that he has had wires in this manner reduced from the eighth of an
+inch to the diameter of a common sewing-needle. There has been a great
+controversy as to the best means of insulating the wires from their
+supporting-poles, which would otherwise convey the electricity from the
+wires to the earth. There is no method known of effecting this completely,
+but we believe it is now decided that stoneware is the best material for
+the purpose, both on account of its non-conducting qualities, and the
+readiness with which it throws off from its surface particles of water.
+The latter quality is extremely important, for, in very rainy weather, if
+the insulator should happen to get wet, the electric fluid will sometimes
+make a bridge of the moisture to quit the wire, run down the post to the
+earth, and make a short circuit home again to its battery. Indeed, when
+there are many wires suspended to the same pole on the same plane, a
+dripping stream of water falling from an upper to a lower one will often
+suffice to return the current before it has done its work, much to the
+telegraphist's annoyance. Not long ago, a mishap, having similar
+consequences, occurred on the line between Lewes and Newhaven, owing to
+the following very singular circumstance: a crane, in its flight through
+the rain, came in contact with the wires, and having threaded his long
+neck completely through them, the current made a short cut along his damp
+feathers to the wire below, and by this channel home. Moisture, however,
+much as it may interfere for a time with the working of a line, rarely
+does any permanent injury. Lightning, on the contrary if not guarded
+against, is capable of producing great mischief. It has been known to
+strike and run for miles along a wire, and, in its course, to enter
+station after station, and melt the delicate coils and the finer portions
+of the instruments into solid masses. In most cases it reverses the
+polarity of the needles, or renders permanent the magnetism of the
+electro-magnets. All these dangerous and annoying contingencies are easily
+avoided by the application of a simple conducting-apparatus to lead away
+the unwelcome visitor. The method adopted by Mr. Highton is to line a
+small deal box, say ten or twelve inches long, with a tin plate, and to
+put this plate in connection with the earth. The wire bound up in bibulous
+paper--which is a sufficient insulator for the low-tensioned fluid of the
+battery--is carried, before it enters the instrument, through the centre
+of the box, and is surrounded with iron fillings. The high-tensioned
+electricity of the lightning instantly darts from the wire, through the
+pores of the paper, to the million points of the finely-divided iron, and
+so escapes to the earth. There are, of course, many kinds of lightning
+conductors used on different lines, but this one is simple in its
+construction, and, we are given to understand, answers its purpose
+exceedingly well.
+
+Notwithstanding that the Electric Telegraph Company has been established
+so many years, it is only just now that the public have begun to
+understand the use of the "wire." The very high charges at first demanded
+for the transmission of a message, doubtless, made it a luxury rather than
+a necessary of life; and every reduction of the tariff clearly brought it
+within the range of a very much larger class of the community, as will be
+seen by the following table issued by the Company, which shows the advance
+of the system under its management.
+
+  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+     In the       | Miles of|Miles | Number | Receipts. | Dividends paid.
+   half-years     |Telegraph| of   |  of    |           |
+     ending       |   in    |Wires |Messages|           |
+                  |operation|      |        |           |
+  ----------------|---------|------|--------|-----------|----------------
+                  |         |      |        |  £.  s. d.|
+                  |         |      |        |           |
+  June, 1850      |  1,684  | 6,730| 29,245 |20,436 10 0|4 per Cent. per
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Ann.
+  December, 1850  |  1,786  | 7,200| 37,389 |23,087 13 9|4 per Cent. per
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Ann.
+  June, 1851      |  1,965  | 7,900| 47,259 |25,529 12 4|{6 per Ct. per
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Ann.
+                  |         |      |        |           |{& 2 per Ct.
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Bonus.
+  December, 1851  |  2,122  |10,650| 53,957 |24,336 8 10|6 per Cent. per
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Ann.
+    _Note._--In   |         |      |        |           |
+    this half-year|         |      |        |           |
+    the paid-up   |         |      |        |           |
+    Capital of the|         |      |        |           |
+    Company was   |         |      |        |           |
+    increased, and|         |      |        |           |
+    the tariff    |         |      |        |           |
+    diminished    |         |      |        |           |
+    about 50 per  |         |      |        |           |
+    Cent. from the|         |      |        |           |
+    original rate |         |      |        |           |
+    of charge.    |         |      |        |           |
+  June, 1852      |  2,502  |12,500| 87,150 |27,437  4 8|6 per Cent. per
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Ann.
+  December, 1852  |  3,709  |19,560|127,987 |40,087 18 2|6-1/2 per Cent.
+                  |         |      |        |           |  per Ann.
+  June, 1853      |  4,008  |20,800|138,060 |47,265 16 3|6-1/2 per Cent.
+                  |         |      |        |           |  per Ann.
+  December, 1853  |  4,409  |24,340|212,440 |56,919  0 1|7 per Cent. per
+                  |         |      |        |           |  Ann.
+  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+It will be seen from the above what an impulse was given to the business
+by the reduction in the tariff which took place in December, 1851; for if
+we compare the messages of the half-year ending June, 1850, with those of
+the half-year of June, 1852, we shall find that whilst the miles of
+telegraph in work had not increased one-half, the messages transmitted had
+nearly trebled. It is only within this last year or two, however--as will
+be seen by the table--that a very large augmentation of business has taken
+place, which is doubtless owing to the public being better acquainted with
+its capabilities. The tariff has since been further reduced, with the
+result of a still further increase of the messages sent and of the money
+received--the profits allowing, at the present moment, of a seven per
+cent. dividend! The lowest point of cheapness, in our opinion, is yet very
+far from being reached; and it would only be a wise act on the part of the
+Company to at once adopt an uniform charge for messages, say of fifty
+words, for one shilling. If this were done, the only limit to its business
+would be the number of wires they could conveniently hang, for the present
+set would clearly be insufficient. Means should also be taken to obviate
+one great objection, at present felt, with respect to sending private
+communications by telegraph--the violation of all secrecy,--for in any
+case half a dozen people must be cognizant of every word addressed by one
+person to another. The clerks of the English Electric Telegraph Company
+are sworn to secrecy, but we often write things that it would be
+intolerable to see strangers read before our eyes. This is a grievous
+fault in the telegraph, and it _must_ be remedied by some means or other.
+Our own opinion is that the public would much prefer the dial telegraph,
+by the use of which two persons could converse with each other, without
+the intervention of a third party at all--or the printing step by step
+instrument would be equally good. At all events, some simple yet secure
+cipher, easily acquired and easily read, should be introduced, by which
+means messages might to all intents and purposes be "sealed" to any person
+except the recipient. We have reason to believe that Professor Wheatstone
+has invented a cipher of this description, which will speedily be made
+public. "One-eighth of the despatches between New Orleans and New York,"
+says Mr. Jones in his "Historical Sketch of the Electric Telegraph," "are
+in cipher. For instance, merchants in either city agree upon a cipher, and
+if the New Orleans correspondent wishes to inform his New York friend of
+the prices and prospects of the cotton market, instead of saying 'Cotton
+eight quarter--don't sell,' he may use the
+following:--'Shepherd--rum--kiss--flash--dog.'"
+
+The Company has lately made an arrangement, by which the very absurd and
+inconvenient necessity of being obliged to attend personally at the
+telegraph station with a message has been obviated. "Franked message
+papers," pre-paid, are now issued, procurable at any stationers'. These,
+with the message filled in, can be dispatched to the office when and how
+the sender likes, and the Company intend very quickly to sell electric
+stamps, like Queen's heads, which may be stuck on to any piece of paper,
+and frank its contents without further trouble. Another very important
+arrangement for mercantile men is the sending of "remittance messages," by
+means of which money can be paid in at the central office in London, and,
+within a few minutes, paid out at Liverpool or Manchester, or by the same
+means sent up to town with the like dispatch from Liverpool, Manchester,
+Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Hull,
+York, Plymouth, and Exeter. There is a money-order office in the Lothbury
+establishment to manage this department, which will, no doubt, in all
+emergencies speedily supersede the Government money-order office, which
+works through the slower medium of the Post Office.
+
+We have spoken hitherto only of the Old Electric Telegraph Company. There
+are several other companies in the United Kingdom, working different
+patents. We have chosen, however, to describe the proceedings of the
+original Company, because it is the only one that has an amount of
+business sufficient to give it universal interest; it is the only company,
+in fact, that has seized the map of England in its nervous grasp, and shot
+its wires through every broad English shire. The European and the British
+Telegraph Companies have laid their lines, insulated with gutta percha and
+protected by iron tubes, beneath the public roads. The European Company
+works between Manchester, Birmingham, London, and Dover, and, by means of
+the two submarine cables of Dover and Calais and Dover and Ostend, puts
+the great manufacturing and commercial emporiums in connection with
+France, Belgium, and the rest of Europe by a double route. The British
+Telegraph Company works principally in the northern counties. Of the other
+lines, we need only mention at present the United Kingdom, and the English
+and Irish Magnetic Company, which works wires between London, Belfast, and
+Galway, by means of a subterranean line as far as the west coast of
+Scotland, and of a submarine cable stretched between Portpatrick and
+Donaghadee.
+
+It will, perhaps, be a source of wonder to our readers that one company
+should virtually possess the monopoly of telegraphic communication in this
+country, but this will cease when they consider that this Company was the
+first to enter the field, that it came forward with a large capital,
+speedily secured to themselves the different lines of railway--the only
+paths it was then considered that telegraphs could traverse with
+security,--and that it bought up, one after another, most of the patents
+that stood any chance of competing with its own. The time is fast
+approaching, however, when most of these advantages will fail them, and
+when the Company, powerful as it is, must be prepared to encounter a
+severe and active competition, and that for the following reasons:--
+
+1. The plan of bringing the wires under the public roads turns, as it
+were, the flank of the railroad lines.
+
+2. The patents of the old company are year by year expiring.
+
+3. The very large capital expended by it--upwards of 170,000_l._ being
+sunk in patent rights alone,--independently of the vast expense attaching
+to the first introduction of the invention, forms a dead-weight which no
+new company would have to bear.
+
+In the ordinary course of events, then, the other lines at present in
+existence will gain strength; new companies will spring up, and the supply
+of a great public want will be thrown into the arena of competition. Would
+it not be wise for the legislature to consider the question of telegraphy
+in England before it is too late? We all know what the principle of
+reckless competition led us into in our railway system. For years opposing
+companies scrambled for the monopoly of certain districts, and the result
+was the intersection of the country with bad lines, and, in many cases,
+with useless double routes. Millions were spent in litigation; railway
+travelling became, as a natural consequence, dear; the property of the
+original shareholders rapidly deteriorated; and it has all ended in half a
+dozen powerful companies swallowing up the smaller ones; and that
+competition, in whose name so much was demanded, has turned out to be only
+"a delusion and a snare." The conveyance of intelligence cannot safely and
+conveniently be left in the hands of even one company without a strict
+Government supervision; much less can half a dozen systems be allowed to
+distract the land at their own will. Indeed, the question might with
+propriety be asked, Is not telegraphic communication as much a function of
+Government as the conveyance of letters? If the do-nothing principle is
+to be allowed to take its course, we shall have to go through a similar
+state of things to that which occurred only a few years since in the
+United States, when different competing lines refused to forward each
+other's messages, and the whole system of telegraphic communication was
+accordingly dislocated. Indeed, even with the most perfect accord between
+different companies, the dissimilarity of instruments used by them would
+prove a great practical evil--as great a one, if not greater, than the
+break of gauge in the railway system. Messages could not be passed from
+one line to another, and delays as vexatious as those which occur on the
+continental lines would take away much of the value of the invention. It
+seems to us, then, that even if Parliament should refuse to interfere with
+the principle of competition in the case of the telegraphic communication,
+it should, at least, provide for the use of the same kind of instruments,
+and make it a fineable offence for one line to refuse to forward the
+messages of another.
+
+Having done so much towards completing our telegraphic organization at
+home, our engineers adventurously determined to carry the wires across to
+the continent, and thus destroy the last remnant of that isolation to
+which we were forced to submit on account of our insular position. As long
+back as the year 1840 we find, by the Minutes of Evidence in the Fifth
+Report upon Railways, wherein the subject of electric telegraphy was
+partially examined, that, whilst Mr. Wheatstone was under examination Sir
+John Guest asked, "Have you tried to pass the line through water?" to
+which he replied, "There would be no difficulty in doing so; but the
+experiment has not yet been tried." Again, on the chairman, Lord Seymour,
+asking, "Could you communicate from Dover to Calais in that way?" he
+replied, "I think it perfectly practicable." A couple of years later the
+professor, indeed, engaged, and had everything in readiness, to lay a line
+for the Government across Portsmouth Harbour; it was not executed,
+however, through circumstances over which he had no control, but which
+were quite irrespective of the perfect feasibility of the undertaking.
+
+We question, however, whether it would have been possible to have
+accomplished the feat of crossing the Channel with the electric fire
+before this date, as the difficulty of insulating the wires, so as to
+prevent the water from carrying off the electricity, would, we imagine,
+have been insuperable, but for the happy discovery of gutta percha, which
+supplied the very tough, flexible, non-conducting material the electrician
+sought for. Thus it might be said that the instantaneous interchange of
+thought between distant nations awaited the discovery of a vegetable
+production in the dense forests of the Eastern Archipelago. The first
+application of this singular substance to the insulation of electric
+conducting wires was made in 1847, by Lieutenant Siémens, of the Prussian
+artillery, for a line to cross the Rhine at Cologne.
+
+The first submarine wire laid down was that between Dover and Cape
+Gris-nez, in the vicinity of Calais, belonging to the Submarine Telegraph
+Company. This wire, thirty miles in length, was covered with gutta percha
+to the diameter of half an inch, and sunk (August, 1850), as it was paid
+out, by the addition of clumps of lead at every sixteenth of a mile. The
+whole was completed and a message sent between the two countries on the
+same day. In the course of a month, however, the cable broke, owing to its
+having fretted upon a sharp ridge of rocks about a mile from Cape
+Gris-nez. It was now determined to make a stronger and better-constructed
+cable, capable of resisting all friction in this part of the Channel. The
+form of cable adopted for this and all other submarine telegraphs now in
+existence seems to have been originally suggested by Messrs. Newall and
+Co., of Gateshead, the wellknown wire-rope manufacturers. Instead of one,
+four wires, insulated by the Gutta Percha Company, were twisted together
+into a strand, and next "served" or enveloped in spun-yarn. This core was
+then covered with ten iron galvanized wires five-sixteenths of an inch in
+diameter, welded into lengths of twenty-four miles, and forming a flexible
+kind of mail. The cable was manufactured in the short space of twenty-one
+days. It weighed 180 tons, and formed a coil in the hold of the old hulk
+that carried it of thirty feet in diameter outside, and fifteen feet
+inside, standing five feet high. All went well with the undertaking until
+about one-half had been "paid out," when, a gale arising, unfortunately
+the tug-boat that towed the hulk containing the rope broke away, and
+vessel, wire, and all, drifted, with a racing tide, full a mile up the
+Channel before it could be overtaken. The consequence was, that the cable
+was violently dragged out of its course in the middle of the straits. What
+was worse, a sharp "kink," or bend, also occurred near the Dover shore,
+which doubled the cable on itself, but luckily produced no serious damage.
+The "lie" of the submarine cable between Dover and the vicinity of Calais,
+at this present moment, is expressed in the following diagram:--
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
+
+When the cable at length came near the French coast, it was found to be,
+in consequence of this unintentional _detour_, at least half a mile too
+short. This was remedied, however, by splicing on a fresh piece; and, on
+securing it at Saugat, the new place of landing, fixed upon on account of
+its sandy shore, it was found that the communication was good, and good it
+has remained ever since--a proof of the admirable manner in which the
+wires were insulated and the cable constructed. The placing of this
+successful cable was superintended by Mr. Wollaston, the Company's
+engineer, and by Mr. Crampton, the contractor. Mr. Wollaston, who is a
+nephew of the illustrious philosopher of the same name, and who also
+presided over the earlier attempt, will accordingly, in the annals of
+electricity, carry off the honours of having first laid down the ocean
+telegraph.
+
+The same Company, not long afterwards, laid another cable across to
+Ostend. This established a connection with Europe through Belgium, and was
+planned to prevent this line of communication falling into the hands of
+another company, and was not, as was suspected at the time, a matter of
+political foresight on the part of the directors, to enable them to carry
+on their intercourse with the continent, in spite of France, supposing war
+should break out between the two countries. Who would have believed a
+short time since, in Belgium, that the day would come when it would be
+quicker to convey intelligence to France by way of England than directly
+across the frontiers? Yet such was actually the case; for, before the line
+was laid by land, it was a thing of very frequent occurrence for
+despatches from Ostend to cross the Channel to Dover by one cable, and to
+be immediately switched across to Calais by the other; thus paying us a
+momentary triangular visit underneath the rapid straits.
+
+The notion, however, of preventing competition proved to be vain. A third
+cable was laid on the 30th May, 1853, between the English coast at
+Orfordness, near Ipswich, and the port of Schevening in Holland, and
+thence to the Hague. This cable is the longest at present in connection
+with this isle, extending 120 miles under the turbulent North Sea. It was,
+however, paid out during a violent gale of wind without the slightest
+accident, and affords the most direct means of communication with the
+north of Europe, and entirely commands the commercial traffic of the
+cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Hague cable (or cables, for there
+are now many, consisting of a single wire conductor each, running side by
+side) is the property of the International Company, a branch of the Old
+Electric Telegraph, and its wires go direct to the Lothbury office.
+
+Whilst England has moored her south-eastern shores to the continent by
+three cables, and put herself _en rapport_ with all its principal cities,
+her north-western extremity has been secured, after many failures, to the
+sister kingdom--the Electro-Magnetic Company having laid a submarine wire
+from Portpatrick and Donaghadee, in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and the
+British Electric Telegraph Company another between Portpatrick and
+Whitehead in Belfast Lough. England, as befits her, led the way in these
+adventures upon the sea with the electric fire, and the Danes, Dutch,
+Russians, and others, are now following in her track.
+
+Will it be believed that in 1841, long after the electric telegraph was
+working in England, scientific men were seriously discussing in the French
+Chamber the propriety of establishing a night telegraph on the visual
+principle, and that when at length it was determined to call in the aid of
+electricity, instruments were ordered to be so constructed that signals
+could be given after the fashion of the old semaphore, in order that the
+officials might be spared the trouble of leaving their ancient ruts? The
+needles were accordingly displaced for a mimic post, to which moveable
+arms were attached and signs were transmitted by elevating or depressing
+them by electricity, instead of by hand. Of course this absurd system was
+after a while abolished, and the instrument now made use of is a
+modification of the dial telegraph constructed by Breguet. The first
+telegraph planted in France was constructed by Mr. Wheatstone, from Paris
+to Versailles, in 1842. The principal line is that running from Calais
+_viâ_ Paris to Marseilles, which puts the English Channel and the
+Mediterranean in communication, and transmits for us the more urgent items
+of the India and China mail.
+
+Belgium and Switzerland are perhaps the best supplied of all the
+continental kingdoms with telegraphic communication. The Belgian lines
+were excellently planned and cheaply constructed, consequently their
+tariff is comparatively low, the average charge for a message being 3
+francs 48 centimes, or about 2_s._ 10-1/2_d._ Of the nature of the
+messages sent we can form a very good idea by the following classification
+of a hundred dispatches:--
+
+  Government          2
+  Stock-jobbing      50
+  Commercial         31
+  Newspaper           4
+  Family affairs     13
+                   ----
+                    100
+
+A comparison of the average division of messages in every state would
+afford a very fair index of the nature of the occupations of their
+peoples. We have attempted to obtain materials for this purpose in vain;
+foreign governments, as well as English companies, being very jealous of
+giving any information relative to their messages. The history of the
+telegraph in Switzerland is an evidence of what patriotic feeling is
+capable of accomplishing. Although by far the best and most extensive, for
+a mountainous country, in the world, it was constructed by the spontaneous
+efforts of the people. The peasantry gave their free labour towards
+erecting the wires and poles, the landlords found the timber and gave the
+right of way over their lands, and the communes provided station room in
+the towns. Thus the telegraph was completed, so to speak, for nothing. The
+peculiarity of the Swiss telegraph is that, like the great wall of China,
+it proceeds totally regardless of the nature of the ground. It climbs the
+pass of the Simplon in proceeding from Geneva to Milan; it goes over St.
+Gothard in its way from Lucerne to Como: it mounts the Splugen, and again
+it goes from Feldkirch to Inspruck by the Arlberg pass, thus ascending the
+great chain of the Alps as though it were only a gentle hillside. The
+wires course along the lakes of Lucerne, Zug, Zurich, and Constance;
+sometimes they are nailed to precipices, sometimes they make short cuts
+over unfrequented spurs of the mountains, going every way, in short, that
+it is found most convenient to hang them. The completion of the
+telegraphic system of this little republic, which stands in the same
+relation to Southern as Belgium does to Northern Europe, was of great
+consequence, as it forms the keystone between France, Prussia, Austria,
+Piedmont, and Italy.
+
+In Prussia the lines are insulated in gutta percha, and buried in the
+ground in leaden tubes, a very costly process, but with many great
+advantages, in freedom from injury and atmospheric influences, over the
+more usual method of suspending them in the air on poles. Upwards of 4,000
+miles of wire have already been laid down in this kingdom. Although
+Austria only commenced operations in 1847, she already possesses 4,000
+miles of telegraph, which puts the greater part of her extensive empire
+in communication with Vienna.
+
+Whatever injury the Eastern war might have inflicted upon the world, it at
+least infused fresh vigour into the telegraphic system, as, independently
+of the lines planned to put Constantinople in communication with the
+Danubian frontier, Russia has been stimulated to complete a line between
+St. Petersburg and Helsingfors, in the Baltic, and a continuation of the
+line already extending from the capital to Moscow, down to Bucharest,
+Odessa, and Sebastopol. One feature distinguishes the management of
+continental telegraphs over those of England and America: they are all,
+with the exception of the short line between Hamburg and Cuxhaven,
+possessed and worked by the different governments, who seem afraid of the
+use they might be put to for political purposes, and accordingly exercise
+a strict surveillance over all messages sent, and rigidly interdict the
+use of a cipher.[39] The Anglo-Saxon race, however, has far surpassed any
+other in the energy with which it has woven the globe with telegraphic
+wires. The Americans in the West and the British in the East alike emulate
+each other in the magnitude of their undertakings of this nature. The
+United States, although she came into the field long after England--her
+first line from Washington to Baltimore not having been completed until
+1844--has far outstripped the mother country in the length of her lines,
+which already extend over 16,729 miles. Every portion of the Union, with
+the exception of California and the upper portion of the Mississippi, is
+covered with a network of wire.
+
+New York and New Orleans communicate with each other by a double
+route--one skirting the seacoast, the other taking an inland direction by
+Cincinnati. These lines alone, following the sinuosities of their routes,
+are upwards of 2,000 miles in length.
+
+Other lines extend as far as Quebec, in Upper Canada, so that messages may
+be forwarded in the course of a couple of hours from the freezing north to
+the burning south. The great chain of lakes which form the northern
+boundary of the Union is put in communication with the Missouri and
+Mississippi rivers, and the great valley traversed by the latter will, ere
+long, interchange messages with the Pacific coast,--Congress having under
+its consideration a plan to establish a telegraph across the continent to
+San Francisco, as the precursor of the proposed railroad.
+
+This we suspect is the project of Mr. O'Reilly, the engineer who has
+already executed the boldest lines in America. In constructing such a
+line, man, not nature, is the great obstacle to be encountered. The
+implacable Indians inhabiting this portion of the States certainly would
+not pay any respect to the telegraphic wire; on the contrary, they would
+in all likelihood take it to bind on the heads of their scalping
+tomahawks. To provide against this contingency, it is proposed to station
+parties of twenty dragoons at stockades twenty miles apart, along the
+whole unprotected portion of the route; two or three of these soldiers are
+also to ride from post to post and carry a daily express letter across the
+continent.
+
+When this project is executed, it is asserted that "European news may be
+published in six days on the American shores of the Pacific, on the
+shortened route between the old and new world." "The shortened route," it
+should be mentioned, lies between Cape Race, in Newfoundland, and Galway,
+in Ireland, a passage calculated to take, on the average, only five days.
+
+It may be asked how is it that such lengths of wire, carried through
+thinly settled parts of the country, and sometimes through howling
+wildernesses, can pay? The only manner that we can account for it is the
+cheapness with which the telegraph is built in America, the average price
+being 150 dollars, or about 31_l._ a mile--less than a fourth part of the
+cost at which the early lines of the English Electric Telegraph Company
+were erected. Again, the low prices charged for the transmission of
+messages produce an amount of business which the lines running through
+thickly-inhabited England cannot boast. For instance, let us take the
+following advertised "specimen message," of the latter Company, and
+compare the price charged for it here, with what it could be sent for in
+America:--
+
+    "From             To
+      James Smith,      S. R. Brown,
+        London,           Exchange,
+                            Liverpool.
+
+    "I will meet you at Birmingham to-morrow, 3 P.M. Don't fail me."
+
+Now, the London charge for the above, if forwarded to Liverpool, would be
+2s. 6d.; but the American tariff for the same, on the Louisville and
+Pittsburgh rail, would be only one cent a word, or sixpence halfpenny
+English. On very long distances our friends on the other side of the steam
+ferry have a still greater advantage over us: for instance, a message of
+ten words can be sent on O'Reilly's line, from New York to New Orleans, a
+distance of 2,000 miles, for sixty cents, or two and sixpence--not half
+the sum it would cost to send the same message from London to Edinburgh,
+about 500 miles. We give, as a curiosity, the scale of prices on this
+line:[40]--
+
+                                     Per word.
+   200 miles or under                 1 cent.
+   500   "   or over 300 miles        2 cents.
+   700   "      "    500   "          3   "
+  1000   "      "    700   "          4   "
+  1500   "      "   1000   "          5   "
+  2000   "      "   1500   "          6   "
+
+These charges, it is true, are unusually low; but if they will pay one
+Company, why should they not another? There are as many as twenty
+Telegraph Companies in America, and consequently there is great
+competition, three or four competing lines in many cases running between
+the same towns. Great confusion has arisen from this competition, as we
+have before stated; but it cannot be doubted that prices have materially
+fallen in consequence. It is common to send a message 1,000 miles in the
+United States without its being read and repeated at intermediate
+stations; and brother Jonathan boasts that he can communicate in fine
+weather instantaneously between New York and New Orleans. This, if done at
+all, must be at the expense of enormous battery power, as 2,000 miles of
+No. 8 wire would expose a conducting surface of no less than 450,000
+square feet to the air. The wires in America are all suspended upon poles,
+and those passing through the southern pine forests are in consequence
+particularly liable to injury from the falling of trees, and watchers are
+posted at every twenty miles' distance to patrol the line. The telegraph
+is rarely seen in America running beside the railway, for what reason we
+do not know; the consequence, however, is, that locomotion in the United
+States is vastly more dangerous than with us. A comparison of the
+casualties occurring on railroads in the two countries, in the year 1852,
+will show this at a glance; for in the State of New York alone, during
+that year, 228 persons were killed out of 7,440,053 travellers, whilst
+during the same period only 216 people perished in Great Britain out of a
+total number of 89,135,729 passengers: thus the average in America was 1
+killed in 286,179, and in Great Britain 1 in 2,785,491! Of course property
+suffers in an equal degree with life on the American lines. The people of
+Boston, on the recommendation of Dr. Channing, have constructed a
+municipal telegraph, the many uses of which will be obvious. Mr. Alexander
+Jones, in his historical sketch of the electric telegraph in America,
+gives the following account of the application of the electric wire in
+cases of fire:--
+
+    "A central office or station is fixed upon, at which the main battery,
+    with other instruments, is placed. From this two circuit-wires
+    proceed, like those of the common telegraph wires, fastened to
+    housetops or ingeniously insulated supports. One of the wires
+    communicates from the main fire bell-tower to all the others, and
+    connects each with machinery, which puts in motion the largest-sized
+    hammer, and causes it to strike a large fire-bell the desired number
+    of blows; the other wire proceeds on a still more circuitous route,
+    and from one local street or ward signal-station to another. Each
+    station is provided with a strong box and hinged door and lock. Inside
+    of this box there is a connecting electro-magnet and connecting lever,
+    an axle with a number of pins in it to correspond to the number of the
+    station. The axle is turned by a short crank, and in its revolutions
+    the pins break and close the circuit, by moving the end of the lever
+    as often as there are pins or cogs, the result of which is
+    communicated to the central station. If the alarm indicates a fire in
+    the local district No. 3, the alarm can be instantly rung on all the
+    bells in the city. If it is a subject requiring the speedy and
+    efficient attention of the police, information by alarms can be given
+    at each police-station, or the despatches can be recorded by
+    instruments at each place. The local street alarm-boxes are placed in
+    the charge of a person whose duty it is to give the alarm from the
+    local to the central station, when called upon, or circumstances
+    require him to do so."
+
+Canada has also sketched out a plan of telegraphs, which every year will
+see filled up. Already she has lines connecting all her principal towns,
+and extending over nearly two thousand miles of country, all of which lock
+in with the American system.
+
+In India, Dr. O'Shaughnessy has for some time been engaged in carrying out
+a telegraphic system proposed by Lord Dalhousie, and approved by the East
+India Company, which has already put all the important towns of the
+peninsula in communication with the seat of government and with each
+other. The fine No. 8 galvanized iron wire, which in Europe runs along
+from pole to pole, like a delicate harp-string, is discarded in this
+country for rods of iron three-eighths of an inch in thickness. The nature
+of the climate, and the character of its animal life, has caused this
+departure from the far more economical European plan. Clouds of kites and
+troops of monkeys would speedily take such liberties with the fine wires
+as to place them _hors-de-combat_. Again, the deluges of rain which occur
+in the wet season would render the insulation of a small wire so imperfect
+that a message could not be sent through it to any distance. The larger
+mass of metal, on the contrary, is capable of affording passage for the
+electric fluid through any amount of rain, without danger of "leakage;"
+and as for the kites and other large birds of the country, they may perch
+on these rods by thousands without stopping the messages, which will fly
+harmlessly through their claws; and the weight of the heaviest monkey is
+not sufficient to injure them. These rods are planted, without any
+insulation, upon the tops of bamboo poles (coated with tar and pitch), at
+such a height that loaded elephants can pass beneath without displacing
+them; and even if by chance they should be thrown down, bullock-carts or
+buffaloes and elephants may trample them under foot without doing them
+injury. In some places the rods, if we are rightly informed, run through
+rice-swamps, buried in the ground, and even here the only insulating
+material used is a kind of cement made of rosin and sand. The telegraph,
+like a swift messenger, goes forward and prepares the way for the
+railroad, which is planned to follow in its footsteps. When these two
+systems are completed, the real consolidation of England's power in the
+East will have commenced, and the countless resources of the Indian
+peninsula will be called forth for the benefit of the conquered as well as
+of the conquering race.
+
+The restless spirit of English engineers, having provided for the internal
+telegraphic communication of Great Britain and her principal dependencies,
+seems bent upon stretching out her lines to the East and to the West, so
+as ultimately to clasp the entire globe. The project of connecting,
+telegraphically, England with America is at the present moment seriously
+engaging the attention of scientific and commercial men. The more daring
+engineers are still sanguine of the practicability of laying a submarine
+cable directly across the Atlantic, from Galway to Cape Race in
+Newfoundland. Now that we have Lieutenant Maury's authentic determination
+of the existence of a shelf across the North Atlantic, the soundings on
+which are nowhere more than 1,500 fathoms, the feasibility of the project
+is tolerably certain. The principal question is, whether if a line were
+laid an electric current can be worked to commercial advantage through
+3,000 miles of cable. No doubt, by the expenditure of enormous battery
+power, this might be accomplished through wires suspended in the air, but
+it is a question whether it can be done along a vast length of
+gutta-percha coated wire, passing through salt-water. There is such a
+thing as _too great an insulation_. Professor Faraday has shown that in
+such circumstances the wire becomes a Leyden jar, and may be so charged
+with electricity that a current cannot, without the greatest difficulty,
+move through it. This is the objection to a direct cable between the two
+continents: if, however, it can be overcome, doubtless the ocean path
+would in all possible cases be adopted where communications had to be
+made between civilized countries having intermediate, barbarous, or
+ungenial lands. To escape this at present dubious ocean path, it is
+proposed to carry the cable from the northernmost point of the Highlands
+of Scotland to Iceland, by way of the Orkney, Shetland, and Ferroe
+islands--to lay it from Iceland across to the nearest point in Greenland,
+thence down the coast to Cape Farewell, where the cable would again take
+to the water, span Davis's Straits, and make right away across Labrador
+and Upper Canada to Quebec. Here it would lock in with the North American
+meshwork of wires, which hold themselves out like an open hand for the
+European grasp. This plan seems quite feasible, for in no part of the
+journey would the cable require to be more than 900 miles long; and as it
+seems pretty certain that a sandbank ex-tends, with good soundings, all
+the way to Cape Farewell, there would be little difficulty in mooring the
+cable to a level and soft bottom. The only obstacle that we see is the
+strong partiality of the Esquimaux for old iron, and it would perhaps be
+tempting them too much to hang their coasts with this material, just ready
+to their hands. The want of settlements along this inhospitable arctic
+coast to protect the wire is, we confess, a great drawback to the scheme;
+but, we fancy, posts might be organized at comparatively a small cost,
+considering the magnitude and importance of the undertaking. The mere
+expense of making and laying the cable would not be much more than double
+that of building the new Westminster-bridge across the Thames.
+
+Whilst England would thus grasp the West with one hand, her active
+children have plotted the seizure of the East with the other. A cable runs
+from Genoa to Corsica, and from thence to Sardinia. From the southernmost
+point of the latter island, Cape Spartivento, to the gulf of Tunis,
+another cable can easily be carried. The direction thence (after giving
+off a coast branch to Algeria) will be along the African shore, by Tripoli
+to Alexandria, and eventually across Arabia, along the coasts of Persia
+and Beloochistan until it enters Scinde, and finally joins the wire at
+Hydrabad, which in all probability by that time will have advanced from
+Burmah, across the Indian peninsula, to welcome it. America will shortly
+carry her line of telegraph to the Pacific shore, and run it up the coast
+as far as San Francisco. Can there be any reasonable doubt that, before
+the end of the century, the one line advancing towards the West and the
+other towards the East--through China and Siberia--will gradually approach
+each other so closely that a short cable stretched across Behring Straits
+will bring the four quarters of the globe within speaking distance of each
+other, and enable the electric fire to "put a girdle round the world in
+forty minutes?"
+
+
+
+
+FIRES AND FIRE INSURANCE.
+
+
+Among the more salient features of the metropolis which instantly strike
+the attention of the stranger are the stations of the Fire Brigade.
+Whenever he happens to pass them, he finds the sentinel on duty, he sees
+the "red artillery" of the force; and the polished axle, the gleaming
+branch, and the shining chain, testify to the beautiful condition of the
+instrument, ready for active service at a moment's notice. Ensconced in
+the shadow of the station, the liveried watchmen look like hunters waiting
+for their prey--nor does the hunter move quicker to his quarry at the
+rustle of a leaf, than the Firemen dash for the first ruddy glow in the
+sky. No sooner comes the alarm, than one sees with a shudder the rush of
+one of these engines through the crowded streets, the tearing horses
+covered with foam, the heavy vehicle swerving from side to side, and the
+black helmeted attendants swaying to and fro. The wonder is that horses or
+men ever get safely to their destination: the wonder is still greater that
+no one is ridden over in their furious drive.
+
+Arrived at the place of action, the hunter's spirit which animates the
+fireman, and makes him attack an element as determinedly as he would a
+wild beast, becomes evident to the spectator. The scene which a London
+fire presents can never be forgotten: the shouts of the crowd as it opens
+to let the engines dart through it, the foaming head of water springing
+out of the ground, and spreading over the road until it becomes a broad
+mirror reflecting the glowing blaze--the black, snake-like coils of the
+leather hose rising and falling like things of life, whilst a hundred
+arms work at the pump, their central heart, the applause that rings out
+clear above the roaring flame as the adventurous band throw the first
+hissing jet; cheer following cheer, as stream after stream shoots against
+the burning mass, now flying into the socket-holes of fire, set in the
+black face of the house-front, now dashing with a loud shir-r against the
+window-frame and wall, and falling off in broken showers. Suddenly there
+is a loud shrill cry, and the bank of human faces is upturned to where a
+shrieking wretch hangs frantically to an upper window-sill. A deafening
+shout goes forth, as the huge fire-escape comes full swing upon the scene:
+a moment's pause, and all is still, save the beat, beat, of the great
+water pulses, whilst every eye is strained towards the fluttering garments
+flapping against the wall. Will the ladder reach, and not dislodge those
+weary hands clutching so convulsively to the hot stone! Will the nimble
+figure gain the topmost rung ere nature fails? The blood in a thousand
+hearts runs cold, and then again break forth a thousand cheers to
+celebrate a daring rescue. Such scenes as this are of almost nightly
+occurrence in the great metropolis. A still more imposing yet dreadful
+sight is often exhibited in the conflagrations of those vast piles of
+buildings in the City filled with inflammable merchandise. Here the most
+powerful engines seem reduced to mere squirts; and the efforts of the
+adventurous brigade men are confined to keeping the mischief within its
+own bounds.
+
+When we recollect that London presents an area of thirty-six square miles,
+covered with 21,600 square acres of bricks and mortar, and numbers more
+than 380,600 houses; that all the riches it contains are nightly
+threatened in every direction by an ever-present enemy; that the secret
+match, the spontaneous fire, and the hand of the drunkard, are busily at
+work; it is evident that nothing but a force the most disciplined, and
+implements the most effective, can be competent to cope with so sudden and
+persevering a foe.
+
+As late as twenty-two years ago there was no proper fire police to protect
+the metropolis against what is commonly called the "all-devouring
+element." There was, it is true, a force of 300 parochial engines set on
+foot by acts which were passed between the years 1768-74, acts which are
+still in existence; but these engines are under the superintendence of the
+beadles and parish engineers, who are not the most active of men or nimble
+of risers. It may easily be imagined, therefore, that the machines arrived
+a little too late; and, when brought into service, were often found to be
+out of working order. Hence their employment did not supersede the private
+engines kept by some of the insurance offices long prior to their
+existence. On the contrary, owing to the increase of business which took
+place about this time, the different companies thought it worth their
+while to strengthen their former establishments, and this process
+continued while the parochial engines, with a few honourable exceptions,
+were dropping into disuse.
+
+About the year 1833 it became evident that much was lost, both to the
+public and to the insurance companies, by every engine acting on its own
+responsibility--a folly which is the cause of such jealousy among the
+firemen at Boston (United States), that rival engines have been known to
+stop on their way to a fire to exchange shots from revolvers. It was,
+therefore, determined to incorporate the divided force, and place it under
+the management of one superintendent, each office contributing towards its
+support, according to the amount of its business. All the old-established
+companies, with one exception,[41] shortly came into the arrangement, and
+Mr. Braidwood, the master of the fire-engines of Edinburgh, being invited
+to take the command, organized the now celebrated _London Fire Brigade_.
+
+At the present moment, then, the protection against fire in London
+consists, firstly, in the three hundred and odd parish-engines (two to
+each parish), which are paid for out of the rates. The majority of these
+are very inefficient, not having any persons appointed to work them who
+possess a competent knowledge of the service. Even women used now and then
+to fill the arduous post of director; and it is not long since a certain
+Mrs. Smith, a widow, might be seen at conflagrations, hurrying about in
+her pattens, directing the firemen of her engine, which belonged to the
+united parishes of St. Michael Royal and St. Martin Vintry, in the city.
+We question, indeed, if at the present moment any of the parish-engines
+are much better officered than in the days of widow Smith, with the
+exception of those of Hackney, Whitechapel, Islington, and perhaps two or
+three others. Secondly, there are an unknown number of private engines
+kept in public buildings and large manufactories, which sometimes do good
+service when they arrive early at small fires in their neighbourhood,
+although, singularly enough, when called upon to extinguish a
+conflagration in their own establishments, they generally "lose their
+heads," as the brigade men express it; and very many instances have
+occurred where even the parish-engines have arrived and set to work before
+the one on the premises could be brought to bear upon the fire. The cause
+is clear. The requisite coolness and method which every one can exercise
+so philosophically in other people's misfortunes utterly fail them when in
+trouble themselves. The doctor is wiser in his generation, and is never so
+foolish as to prescribe for himself or to attend his own family.
+
+Thirdly, we have, in contrast to the immense rabble of Bumble engines and
+the Bashi-Bazouks of private establishments, the small complement of men
+and material of the fire brigade. It consists of twenty-seven large
+horse-engines, capable of throwing eighty-eight gallons a minute to the
+height of from fifty to seventy feet, and nine smaller ones drawn by hand.
+To work them there are twelve engineers, seven sub-engineers, thirty-two
+senior firemen, thirty-nine junior firemen, and fourteen drivers, or 104
+men and 31 horses. In addition to these persons, who form the main
+establishment, and live at the different stations, there is an extra staff
+of four firemen, four drivers, and eight horses. The members of this
+supplementary force are also lodged at the stations,[42] as well as
+clothed, but are only paid when their services are required, and pursue in
+the daytime their ordinary occupations. This not very formidable army of
+104 men and 31 horses, with its reserve of eight men and eight horses, is
+distributed throughout the metropolis, which is divided into four
+districts as follows:--On the north side of the river--1st, From the
+eastward to Paul's Chain, St. Paul's Churchyard, Aldersgate Street, and
+Goswell Street Road; 2nd, From St. Paul's, &c., to Tottenham Court Road,
+Crown Street, and St. Martin's Lane; 3rd, From Tottenham Court Road, &c.,
+westward; 4th, The entire south side of the river. At the head of each
+district is a foreman, who never leaves it unless acting under the
+superior orders of Mr. Braidwood, the superintendent or general-in-chief,
+whose head-quarters are in Watling Street.
+
+In comparison with the great continental cities, such a force seems truly
+insignificant. Paris, which does not cover a fifth part of the ground of
+London, and is not much more than a third as populous, boasts 800
+_sapeurs-pompiers_: we make up, however, for want of numbers by activity.
+Again, our look-out is admirable: the 6,000 police of the metropolis,
+patrolling every alley and lane throughout its length and breadth, watch
+for a fire as terriers watch at rat-holes, and every man is stimulated by
+the knowledge, that if he is the first to give notice of it at any of the
+stations it is half a sovereign in his pocket. In addition to the police,
+there are the thousand eager eyes of the night cabmen, and the houseless
+poor. It is not at all uncommon for a cabman to earn four or five
+shillings of a night by driving fast to the different stations and giving
+the alarm, receiving a shilling from each for the "call."
+
+In most continental cities a watchman takes his stand during the night on
+the topmost point of some high building, and gives notice by either
+blowing a horn, firing a gun, or ringing a bell. In Germany the quarter is
+indicated by holding out towards it a flag by day, and a lantern at night.
+It immediately suggests itself that a sentinel placed in the upper gallery
+of St. Paul's would have under his eye the whole metropolis, and could
+make known instantly, by means of an electric wire, the position of a
+fire, to the head-station at Watling Street, in the same manner as the
+Americans do in Boston. This plan is, however, open to the objection, that
+London is intersected by a sinuous river, which renders it difficult to
+tell on which bank the conflagration is raging. Nevertheless, we imagine
+that the northern part of the town could be advantageously superintended
+from such a height, whilst the southern half might rest under the
+surveillance of one of the tall shot-towers on that bank of the Thames.
+The bridges themselves have long been posts of observation, from which a
+large portion of the river-side property is watched. Not long ago there
+was a pieman on London Bridge, who eked out a precarious existence by
+keeping a good look-out up and down the stream.
+
+Watling Street was chosen as the head-quarters of the Fire Brigade for a
+double reason: it is very nearly the centre of the City, being close to
+the far-famed London Stone, and it is in the very midst of what may be
+termed, speaking igneously, the most dangerous part of the metropolis--the
+Manchester warehouses. As the Fire Brigade is only a portion of a vast
+commercial operation--Fire Insurance--its actions are regulated by
+strictly commercial considerations. Where the largest amount of _insured_
+property lies, there its chief force is planted. It will, it is true, go
+any reasonable distance to put out a fire; but of course it pays most
+attention to property which its proprietors have guaranteed. The central
+station receives the greatest number of "calls;" but as a
+commander-in-chief does not turn out for a skirmish of outposts, so Mr.
+Braidwood keeps himself ready for affairs of a more serious nature. When
+the summons is at night--there are sometimes as many as half a dozen--the
+fireman on duty below apprises the superintendent by means of a gutta
+percha speaking-tube, which comes up to his bedside. By the light of the
+ever-burning gas, he rapidly consults the "London Directory," and if the
+call should be to what is called "a greengrocer's street," or any of the
+small thoroughfares in by-parts of the town, he leaves the matter to the
+foreman in whose district it is, and goes to sleep again. If, however, the
+fire should be in the City, or in any of the great west-end thoroughfares,
+he hurries off on the first engine. Five minutes is considered a fair time
+for an engine "to horse and away," but it is often done in three. Celerity
+in bringing up aid is the great essential, as the first half hour
+generally determines the extent to which a conflagration will proceed.
+Hence the rewards of thirty shillings for the first, twenty for the
+second, and ten for the third engine that arrives, which premiums are paid
+by the parish. All the engines travel with as few hands as possible: the
+larger ones having an engineer, four firemen and a driver, and the
+following furniture:--
+
+    "Several lengths of scaling-ladder, each 6-1/2 feet long, all of which
+    may be readily connected, forming in a short space of time a ladder of
+    any required length; a canvas sheet, with ten or twelve handles of
+    rope round the edge of it for the purpose of a fire-escape; one
+    10-fathom and one 14-fathom piece of 2-1/2-inch rope; six lengths of
+    hose, each 40 feet long; two branch-pipes, one 2-1/2 feet, and the
+    other from 4 to 6 feet long, with one spare nose-pipe; two 6-feet
+    lengths of suction-pipe, a flat rose, stand-cock, goose-neck,
+    dam-board, boat-hook, saw, shovel, mattock, pole-axe, screw-wrench,
+    crow-bar, portable cistern, two dog-tails, two balls of strips of
+    sheepskin, two balls of small cord, instruments for opening the
+    fire-plugs, and keys for turning the stop-cocks of the water-mains."
+
+The weight of the whole, with the men, is not less than from 27 to 30
+cwt., a load which in the excitement of the ride is carried by a couple of
+horses at the gallop.
+
+The hands to work the pumps are always forthcoming on the spot at any hour
+of the night, not alone for goodwill, as every man--and there have been as
+many as five hundred employed at a time--receives one shilling for the
+first hour and sixpence for every succeeding one, together with
+refreshments. In France the law empowers the firemen to seize upon the
+bystanders, and compel them to give their services, without fee or reward.
+An Englishman at Bordeaux, whilst looking on, some few years since, was
+forced, in spite of his remonstrances, to roll wine-casks for seven hours
+out of the vicinity of a conflagration. We need not say which plan answers
+best. A Frenchman runs away, as soon as the _sapeurs-pompiers_ make their
+appearance upon the scene, to avoid being impressed. Still such is the
+excitement, that there are some gentlemen with us who pursue the
+occupation of firemen as amateurs; providing themselves with the
+regulation-dress of dark-green turned up with red, and with the
+accoutrements of the Brigade, and working, under the orders of Mr.
+Braidwood, as energetically as if they were earning their daily bread.
+
+The fascination of fires even extends to the brute creation. Who has not
+heard of the dog "Chance," who first formed his acquaintance with the
+Brigade by following a fireman from a conflagration in Shoreditch to the
+central station at Watling Street? Here, after he had been petted for some
+little time by the men, his master came for him, and took him home; but he
+escaped on the first opportunity, and returned to the station. After he
+had been carried back for the third time, his master--like a mother whose
+son _will_ go to sea--allowed him to have his own way, and for years he
+invariably accompanied the engine, now upon the machine, now under the
+horses' legs, and always, when going up-hill, running in advance, and
+announcing the welcome advent of the extinguisher by his bark. At the fire
+he used to amuse himself with pulling burning logs of wood out of the
+flames with his mouth. Although he had his legs broken half a dozen times,
+he remained faithful to his pursuit; till at last, having received a
+severer hurt than usual, he was being nursed by the fireman beside the
+hearth, when a "call" came, and at the well-known sound of the engine
+turning out, the poor brute made a last effort to climb upon it, and fell
+back dead in the attempt. He was stuffed and preserved at the station, and
+was doomed, even in death, to prove the fireman's friend: for one of the
+engineers having committed suicide, the Brigade determined to raffle him
+for the benefit of the widow, _and such was his renown, that he realized_
+123_l._ 10_s._ 9_d._
+
+The most interesting and practical part of our subject is the inquiry into
+the various causes of fires. Mr. Braidwood comes here to our aid with his
+invaluable yearly reports--the only materials we have, in fact, on which
+fire insurance can be built up into a science, a feat which we have not
+accomplished to nearly the same extent as with life assurance, although
+the Hand-in-Hand office was founded so far back as 1696. Thus we have the
+experience of upwards of 150 years, if we could only get at it, to enable
+the actuary to ascertain the doctrine of chances in this momentous
+subject, which at present is little better than a speculation. An analysis
+of the reports, from the organization of the Fire Brigade in 1833 to the
+close of 1853, a period extending over 21 years, affords the following
+result:
+
+Abstract of List of Fires and Alarms for Twenty Years, ending 1853.
+
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  Year.| Totally |Considerably|Slightly|Total |      Alarms.      |Total of
+       |Destroyed|  Damaged.  |Damaged.| of   |-------------------|Fires &
+       |         |            |        |Fires.|False|Chimn'y|Total|Alarms.
+  -----|---------|------------|--------|------|-----|-------|-----|--------
+  1833 |   31    |    135     |   292  |   458|  59 |   75  |  134|   592
+  1834 |   28    |    116     |   338  |   482|  57 |  112  |  169|   651
+  1835 |   31    |    125     |   315  |   471|  66 |  106  |  172|   643
+  1836 |   33    |    134     |   397  |   564|  66 |  126  |  192|   756
+  1837 |   22    |    122     |   357  |   501|  82 |  134  |  216|   717
+  1838 |   33    |    152     |   383  |   568|  79 |  108  |  187|   755
+  1839 |   17    |    165     |   402  |   584|  70 |  101  |  171|   755
+  1840 |   26    |    204     |   451  |   681|  84 |   98  |  182|   863
+  1841 |   24    |    234     |   438  |   696|  67 |   92  |  159|   855
+  1842 |   24    |    224     |   521  |   769|  61 |   82  |  143|   912
+  1843 |   29    |    231     |   489  |   749|  79 |   83  |  162|   911
+  1844 |   23    |    237     |   502  |   762|  70 |   94  |  164|   926
+  1845 |   23    |    253     |   431  |   707|  82 |   87  |  168|   875
+  1846 |   25    |    233     |   576  |   834| 119 |   69  |  188| 1,022
+  1847 |   27    |    273     |   536  |   836|  88 |   66  |  154|   990
+  1848 |   27    |    269     |   509  |   805| 120 |   86  |  206| 1,011
+  1849 |   28    |    228     |   582  |   838|  76 |   89  |  165| 1,003
+  1850 |   18    |    229     |   621  |   868|  91 |   79  |  170| 1,038
+  1851 |   21    |    255     |   652  |   928| 115 |  116  |  231| 1,159
+  1852 |   25    |    238     |   660  |   923|  93 |   89  |  182| 1,105
+  1853 |   20    |    241     |   629  |   900|  72 |   90  |  162| 1,062
+  -----|---------|------------|--------|------|-----|-------|-----|--------
+  Total|  535    |  4,298     |10,091  |14,924|1,695|1,982  |3,677|18,601
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+If we examine this table, we find ample evidence that the organization of
+the Fire Brigade has resulted in an abatement of loss and labour. Taking
+the average of the last twenty-one years, there has been a decrease of 5·7
+in the last year under the head of "totally destroyed." This is the best
+test of the activity of the Brigade, and really means much more than is
+obvious at first sight. Within these twenty-one years many tens of
+thousands of houses have been added to the metropolis; our periphery has
+been continually enlarging; like a tree, we grow year by year by adding a
+fresh ring of bricks and mortar. Whilst this increase is going on
+externally, the central part is growing too. We can afford no dead wood in
+our very heart: if it cannot expand one way it must another. Accordingly,
+we find the crowded city extending towards the sky; and if we take into
+account the immense mass of material added to that which existed, all of
+which is equally liable to the inroads of fire, we can understand why the
+total number of conflagrations has increased from 458 in 1833 to 900 in
+1853. With such an augmentation of conflagrations, the _decrease_ of
+houses totally destroyed in 1853 is the highest testimony to the ability
+and zeal of Mr. Braidwood.
+
+The item "totally destroyed" is mainly made up of houses and factories in
+which are stored very combustible materials, such as carpenters' and
+cabinet-makers' shops, oilmen's warehouses, sawmills, &c., where the fire
+gains such a hold in a few minutes as to preclude the possibility of
+putting it out. The number is also swelled by houses which are situated
+many miles from the nearest station; for there are no stations in the
+outskirts of the town, and very few in the crowded suburbs. We have seen
+complaints of this want of help in thickly-populated localities; but the
+companies only plant an establishment where the insurances are sufficient
+to cover the expense, and people who do not contribute have no more right
+to expect private individuals to take care of their property than
+tradesmen in the Strand would have to expect the private watchman outside
+Messrs. Coutts' bank to look after their shutters. Indeed, it seems to us
+that the Brigade act very liberally. The firemen never stop to ask
+whether the house is insured or not; nor are they deterred by distance;
+and in many cases they have gone as far as Brentford, Putney, Croydon,
+Barnet, Uxbridge, Cranfordbridge, Windsor Castle, and once to Dover by an
+express engine. The only difference made by the Brigade between insured
+and uninsured property is, that after putting out a fire they take charge
+of the salvage of the former, and leave that of the latter to its owner.
+The force is, however, very careful to repair immediately any damage they
+may have done to adjoining property--damage which they commit in the most
+deliberate manner, regardless of pains and penalties. For instance,
+_housebreaking_ is almost a nightly crime with the firemen whilst in
+search of water, who never let a wall or a door stand between them and a
+supply of this element. It is a proof of the good feeling which prevails
+on such occasions that, although they are technically guilty of an offence
+which renders them liable to punishment, no one murmurs, much less
+threatens proceedings. If the authorities in the great fire of London had
+acted in a similar manner for the public good, they would have saved the
+half of the Inner Temple, which was destroyed because, according to
+Clarendon's account, all the lawyers were absent on circuit, and the
+constables did not dare to take the responsibility of breaking open their
+chamber doors!
+
+It is a question whether government ought not to relieve the parish
+authorities from a duty which they cannot separately perform, and combine
+their engines into a metropolitan brigade; thus guarding the town from
+fire as they do from robbery by the police. If people will not protect
+themselves by insuring, the state should protect them, and make them pay
+for it. An excellent system prevails in most parts of Germany of levying a
+rate at the close of the year upon all the inhabitants, sufficient to
+cover the loss from fires during the past twelvemonth. As every
+householder has a pecuniary interest in the result, he keeps a bucket and
+belt, and sallies out to extinguish the conflagration in his neighbour's
+premises. If the rate were adopted in London, and the present enormous
+duty on insurances reduced, the cost to each person would be hardly more
+pence than it is pounds at present to the provident few.
+
+Mr. Samuel Brown, of the Institute of Actuaries, after analyzing the
+returns of Mr. Braidwood, as well as the reports in the _Mechanics'
+Magazine_ by Mr. Baddeley, who has devoted much attention to the subject,
+drew up some tables of the times of the year and hours of the day at which
+fires are most frequent. It would naturally be supposed that the winter
+would show a vast preponderance over the summer months; but the difference
+is not so great as might be expected. December and January are very
+prolific of fires, as in these months large public buildings are heated by
+flues, stoves, and boilers; but the other months share mishaps of the kind
+pretty equally, with the exception that the hot and dry periods of summer
+and autumn are marked by the most destructive class of conflagrations,
+owing to the greater inflammability of the materials, than in the damper
+portions of the year. This, from the desiccating nature of the climate, is
+especially the case in Canada and the United States, and, coupled with the
+extensive use of wood in building, has a large influence in many parts of
+the continent. The following list of all the great fires which have taken
+place for the last hundred years will bear out our statement:--
+
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+  Month.| Description of Property, |    Place.    |Value of Property| Year.
+        |          &c.             |              |    Destroyed.   |
+  ---------------------------------|--------------|-----------------|------
+          {Webb's Sugar-house      |Liverpool     |          £4,600 | 1829
+          {Lancelot's-hey          |   "          |         198,000 | 1833
+          {Town-hall and Exchange  |   "          |          45,000 | 1795
+   Jan.   {Caxton Printing Office  |   "          |                 | 1821
+          {Dublin & Co. Warehouse  |   "          |                 | 1834
+          {Suffolk Street          |   "          |          40,000 | 1818
+          {Mile End                |London        |         200,000 | 1834
+          {Royal Exchange          |   "          |                 | 1838
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {York Minster            |York          |                 | 1829
+          {3 West-India Warehouses |London        |         300,000 | 1829
+          {House of Commons        |Dublin        |                 | 1792
+   Feb.   {Argyle Rooms            |London        |                 | 1830
+          {Camberwell Church       |   "          |                 | 1841
+          {Custom House            |   "          |                 | 1814
+          {Hop Warehouse           |Southwark     |                 | 1851
+          {J. F. Pawson & Co.'s   }| St. Paul's  }|          40,000 | 1853
+          {  Warehouses           }|Churchyard   }|                 |
+          {Pickford's Wharf        |London        |                 | 1824
+          {Goree Warehouses        |Liverpool     |          50,000 | 1846
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {New Orleans             |United States |     dr. 650,000 | 1853
+          {15,000 houses at Canton |China         |                 | 1820
+          {13,000 houses           |Peru          |                 | 1799
+          {Manchester              |England       |                 | 1792
+  March   {Fawcett's Foundry       |Liverpool     |         £41,000 | 1843
+          {Oil Street              |   "          |          12,000 | 1844
+          {Apothecaries' Hall      |   "          |           7,000 | 1844
+          {Sugar House, Harrington}|   "          |          30,000 | 1830
+          {  Street               }|              |                 |
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {1,000 Buildings         |Pittsburg     |   dr. 1,400,000 | 1845
+          {Savannah                |United States |     dr. 300,000 | 1852
+          {Parkshead, Bacon Street |Liverpool     |         £36,000 | 1851
+          {Windsor Forest          |England       |                 | 1785
+  April   {Margetson's Tan Yard,  }|London        |          36,000 | 1852
+          {  Bermondsey           }|              |                 |
+          {1,158 Buildings,       }|United States |                 | 1838
+          {  Charleston           }|              |                 |
+          {Horsleydown             |London        |                 | 1780
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {Dockhead                |London        |                 | 1785
+          {Great Fire, 1,749 houses|Hamburgh      |                 | 1842
+          {23 Steamboats at       }|United States |     dr. 600,000 | 1849
+          {  St. Louis            }|              |                 |
+          {15,000 Houses           |Quebec        |                 | 1845
+          {York Minster            |York          |                 | 1840
+  May     {Duke's Warehouses       |Liverpool     |                 | 1843
+          {Okell's Sugar-house     |   "          |                 | 1799
+          {Gibraltar Row           |   "          |                 | 1838
+          {Liver Mills             |   "          |          £8,700 | 1841
+          {Billinsgate             |London        |                 | 1809
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {Rotherhithe             |London        |                 | 1765
+          {Copenhagen              |Denmark       |                 | 1759
+          {Montreal                |Canada        |   dr. 1,000,000 | 1852
+          {St. John                |Newfoundland  |                 | 1846
+          {Louisville              |United States |     dr. 100,000 | 1853
+  June    {47 persons, Quebec     }|Canada        |                 | 1846
+          {  Theatre              }|              |                 |
+          {1,300 houses, Quebec    |   "          |                 | 1845
+          {Gutta Percha Co., Wharf}|London        |         £23,000 | 1853
+          {  Road                 }|              |                 |
+          {Humphreys' Warehouse,  }|   "          |         100,000 | 1851
+          {  Southwark            }|              |                 |
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {Hindon                  |Wiltshire     |                 | 1754
+          {15,000 Houses           |Constantinople|                 | 1756
+          {12,000 Houses           |Montreal      |                 | 1852
+          {300 Houses              |Philadelphia  |                 | 1850
+          {300 Buildings           |North America |     dr. 160,000 | 1846
+  July    {302 Stores              |New York      |   dr. 1,200,000 | 1846
+          {Apothecaries' Hall      |Liverpool     |                 | 1845
+          {Glover's Warehouses     |   "          |         £17,000 | 1851
+          {Dockyard                |Portsmouth    |                 | 1770
+          {Wapping                 |London        |       1,000,000 | 1794
+          {Ratcliffe Cross         |   "          |                 | 1794
+          {Varna                   |Turkey        |                 | 1854
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {Dublin                  |Ireland       |                 | 1833
+          {Gravesend               |England       |          60,000 | 1847
+          {Walker's Oil Mill       |Dover         |          30,000 | 1853
+          {Falmouth Theatre        |Falmouth      |                 | 1792
+  Aug.    {Buildings, Albany       |United States |     dr. 600,000 | 1849
+          {10,000 Houses           |Constantinople|                 | 1782
+          {Smithfield              |London        |        £100,000 | 1822
+          {East Smithfield         |   "          |                 | 1840
+          {Bankside                |   "          |                 | 1814
+          {Gateshead               |England       |                 | 1854
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {46 Buildings            |New York      |     dr. 500,000 | 1839
+          {200 Houses, Brooklyn    |   "          |         150,000 | 1848
+          {Scott, Russell, & Co., }|London        |         £80,000 | 1853
+          {  Ship Builders, Mill  }|              |                 |
+          {  Wall                 }|              |                 |
+          {St. Paul's Church,     }|   "          |                 |
+          {  Covent Garden        }|              |                 | 1795
+          {60 Houses Rotherhithe   |   "          |                 | 1791
+  Sept.   {Astley's Amphitheatre   |   "          |                 | 1794
+          {Mark Lane               |   "          |         150,000 | 1850
+          {Covent Garden Theatre   |   "          |                 | 1808
+          {Store Street and       }|   "          |                 |
+          {  Tottenham Court Road }|              |                 | 1802
+          {Macfee's                |Liverpool     |          40,000 | 1846
+          {Gorees                  |   "          |         400,000 | 1802
+          {Formby Street           |   "          |         380,000 | 1842
+          {Cowdray House           |Sussex        |                 | 1793
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {52 Buildings            |Philadelphia  |     dr. 100,000 | 1839
+          {Grimsdell's Builders'  }|Spitalfields  |                 | 1852
+          {  Yard                 }|              |                 |
+          {Withwith's Mills        |Halifax       |         £35,000 | 1853
+          {Robert Street           |North Liverp'l|         150,000 | 1838
+          {Lancelot's-hey          |Liverpool     |          80,000 | 1854
+          {Memel Great Fire        |Prussia       |                 | 1854
+  Oct.    {London Wall             |London        |          84,000 | 1849
+          {20 Houses, Rotherhithe  |   "          |                 | 1790
+          {Lancelot's-hey          |Liverpool     |          30,000 | 1834
+          {Wapping                 |London        |         100,000 | 1823
+          {Houses of Parliament    |   "          |                 | 1834
+          {Pimlico                 |   "          |                 | 1839
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {Royal Palace            |Lisbon        |                 | 1794
+          {New York                |United States |                 | 1835
+          {20 Houses, Shadwell     |London        |                 | 1796
+          {Aldersgate Street       |   "          |        £100,000 | 1783
+  Nov.    {Cornhill                |   "          |                 | 1765
+          {Liver Street            |Liverpool     |           6,000 | 1829
+          {Wright & Aspinall,     }|London        |          50,000 | 1826
+          {  Oxford Street        }|              |                 |
+          {Hill's Rice Mills       |   "          |           5,000 | 1848
+                                   |              |                 |
+          {Dock Yard               |Portsmouth    |                 | 1776
+          {Patent Office and Post }|Washington    |                 | 1836
+          {  Office               }|              |                 |
+  Dec.    {600 Warehouses          |New York      |   dr. 4,000,000 | 1835
+          {Fenwick Street          |Liverpool     |         £36,000 | 1831
+          {Brancker's Sugar-house  |   "          |          34,000 | 1843
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+  (_Extracted from the Royal Insurance Company's Almanack, 1854._)
+
+One reason, perhaps, why there is such a general average in the number of
+conflagrations throughout the year is, that the vast majority occur in
+factories and workshops where fire is used in summer as well as winter.
+This supposition appears at first sight to be contradicted by the fact
+that nearly as many fires occur on Sunday as on any other day of the week.
+But when it is remembered that in numerous establishments it is necessary
+to keep in the fires throughout that day, and as in the majority of cases
+a very inadequate watch is kept, it is at once apparent why there is no
+immunity from the scourge. Indeed, some of the most destructive fires have
+broken out on a Sunday night or on a Sunday morning; no doubt because a
+large body of fire had formed before it was detected. A certain number of
+accidents occur in summer in private houses from persons on hot nights
+opening the window behind the toilet-glass in their bedrooms, when the
+draught blows the blind against the candle. Swallows do not more certainly
+appear in June, than such mishaps are found reported at the sultry season.
+
+If we watch still more narrowly the habits of fires, we find that they are
+active or dormant according to the time of day. Thus, during a period of
+nine years, the per-centage regularly increased from 1·96 at 9 o'clock
+A.M., the hour at which all households might be considered to be about,
+to 3·34 at 1 P.M., 3·55 at 5 P.M., and 8·15 per cent. at 10 P.M., which is
+just the time at which a fire left to itself by the departure of the
+workmen would have had swing enough to become visible.
+
+The origin of fires is now so narrowly inquired into by the officers of
+the Brigade, and by means of inquests, that we have been made acquainted
+with a vast number of curious causes which would never have been
+suspected. From an analysis of fires which have occurred since the
+establishment of the Brigade we have constructed the following tables:--
+
+  Curtains                              2,511
+  Candle                                1,178
+  Flues                                 1,555
+  Stoves                                  494
+  Gas                                     932
+  Light dropped down Area                  13
+  Lighted Tobacco falling down ditt         7
+  Dust falling on horizontal Flue           1
+  Doubtful                                 76
+  Incendiarism                             89
+  Carelessness                            100
+  Intoxication                             80
+  Dog                                       6
+  Cat                                      19
+  Hunting Bugs                             15
+  Clothes-horse upset by Monkey             1
+  Lucifers                                 80
+  Children playing with ditto              45
+  Rat gnawing ditto                         1
+  Jackdaw playing with ditto                1
+  Rat gnawing Gaspipe                       1
+  Boys letting off Fireworks               14
+  Fireworks going off                      63
+  Children playing with Fire               45
+  Spark from ditto                        243
+  Spark from Railway                        4
+  Smoking Tobacco                         166
+  Smoking Ants                              1
+  Smoking in Bed                            2
+  Reading in ditto                         22
+  Sewing in ditto                           4
+  Sewing by Candle                          1
+  Lime overheating                         44
+  Waste ditto                              43
+  Cargo of Lime ditto                       2
+  Rain slacking ditto                       5
+  High Tide                                 1
+  Explosion                                16
+  Spontaneous Combustion                   43
+  Heat from Sun                             8
+  Lightning                                 8
+  Carboy of Acid bursting                   2
+  Drying Linen                              1
+  Shirts falling into Fire                  6
+  Lighting and Upsetting Naphtha Lamp      58
+  Fire from Iron Kettle                     1
+  Sealing Letter                            1
+  Charcoal fire of a Suicide                1
+  Insanity                                  5
+  Bleaching Nuts                            7
+  Unknown                               1,323
+
+Among the more common causes of fire (such as gas, candle, curtains taking
+fire, children playing with stoves, &c.) it is remarkable how uniformly
+the same numbers occur under each head from year to year. General laws
+obtain as much in small as in great events. We are informed by the Post
+Office authorities that about eight persons daily drop their letters into
+the post without directing them; we know that there is an unvarying
+percentage of broken heads and limbs received into the hospitals; and here
+we see that a regular number of houses take fire, year by year, from the
+leaping out of a spark or the dropping of a smouldering pipe of tobacco.
+It may indeed be a long time before another conflagration will arise from
+"a monkey upsetting a clothes-horse," but we have no doubt such an
+accident will recur in its appointed cycle.
+
+Although gas figures so largely as a cause of fire, it does not appear
+that its rapid introduction of late years into private houses has been
+attended with danger. There is another kind of light, however, which the
+insurance offices look upon with terror, especially those who make it
+their business to insure farm property. The assistant-secretary of one of
+the largest fire-offices, speaking broadly, informed us that the
+introduction of the lucifer-match _caused them an annual loss of ten
+thousand pounds_! In the foregoing list we see in how many ways they have
+given rise to fires.
+
+  Lucifers going off probably from heat      80
+  Children playing with lucifers             45
+  Rat gnawing lucifers                        1
+  Jackdaw playing with lucifers               1
+                                           ----
+                                            127
+
+One hundred and twenty-seven known fires thus arise from this single
+cause; and no doubt many of the twenty-five fires ascribed to the agency
+of cats and dogs were owing to their having thrown down boxes of matches
+at night, which they frequently do, and which is almost certain to produce
+combustion. The item "rat gnawing lucifer," reminds us to give a warning
+against leaving about wax lucifers where there are either rats or mice,
+for these vermin constantly run away with them to their holes behind the
+inflammable canvas, and eat the wax until they reach the phosphorus, which
+is ignited by the friction of their teeth. Many fires are believed to have
+been produced by this singular circumstance. How much, again, must
+lucifers have contributed to swell the large class of conflagrations whose
+causes are unknown! Another cause of fire, which is of recent date, is the
+use of naphtha in lamps,--a most ignitible fluid when mixed in certain
+proportions with common air. "A delightful novel" figures as a proximate,
+if not an immediate, cause of twenty-two fires. This might be expected;
+but what can be the meaning of a fire caused by a high tide? When we asked
+Mr. Braidwood the question, he answered, "Oh, we always look out for fires
+when there is a high tide. They arise from the heating of lime upon the
+addition of water." Thus rain, we see, has caused four conflagrations, and
+simple over-heating forty-four. The lime does no harm so long as it is
+merely in contact with wood; but if iron happens to be in juxtaposition
+with the two, it speedily becomes red-hot, and barges on the river have
+been sunk, by reason of their bolts and iron knees burning holes in their
+bottoms. Of the singular entry, "rat gnawing a gaspipe," the firemen state
+that it is common for rats to gnaw leaden service-pipes, for the purpose,
+it is supposed, of getting at the water, and in this instance the grey
+rodent laboured under a mistake, and let out the raw material of the
+opposite element. Intoxication is a fruitful cause of fires, especially in
+public-houses and inns.
+
+It is commonly imagined that the introduction of hot water, hot air, and
+steam-pipes, as a means of heating buildings, cuts off one avenue of
+danger from fire. This is an error. Iron pipes, often heated up to 400°,
+are placed in close contact with floors and skirting-boards, supported by
+slight diagonal props of wood, which a much lower degree of heat will
+suffice to ignite. The circular rim supporting a still at the
+Apothecaries' Hall, which was used in the preparation of some medicament
+that required a temperature of only 300°, was found, not long ago, to have
+charred a circle, at least a quarter of an inch deep, in the wood beneath
+it, in less than six months. Mr. Braidwood, in his evidence before a
+Committee of the House of Lords, in 1846, stated that it was his belief
+that by long exposure to heat, not much exceeding that of boiling water,
+or 212°, timber is brought into such a condition that it will fire without
+the application of a light. The time during which this process of
+desiccation goes on, until it ends in spontaneous combustion, is, he
+thinks, from eight to ten years; _so that a fire might be hatching in a
+man's premises during the whole of his lease, without making any sign_!
+
+Mr. Hosking, in his very useful and sensible little "Guide to the proper
+Regulation of Buildings in Towns," quotes the following case, which
+completely confirms Mr. Braidwood's opinion, and explodes the idea that
+heat applied through the medium of pipes must be safe.
+
+    "Day and Martin's well-known blacking manufactory in High Holborn was
+    heated by means of hot water passing through iron tubes into the
+    various parts of the building. In December, 1848, the wooden casing
+    and other woodwork about the upright main pipes were found to be on
+    fire, and from no other cause that could be discovered than the
+    constant exposure for a long time of the wood to heat from the pipes.
+    In this case the pipes were not in contact with the wooden casing, but
+    they were stayed and kept upright by cross fillets of wood, which
+    touched them, and these it was which appeared to have taken fire. The
+    small circulating pipes which conveyed the hot water throughout the
+    several chambers were raised from the floor to about the extent of
+    their own diameter, and the floors showed no signs of fire where the
+    pipes were so removed; but in _every case_ where the prop or saddle
+    which held the pipe up from the floor had been displaced, and the pipe
+    had been allowed to sag and touch the floor, _the boards were
+    charred_. It was understood that the temperature of the water in the
+    pipes never much exceeded 300°. The practical teaching of this case
+    clearly is, that pipes should on no consideration be placed nearer to
+    wood than the distance of their own diameters. Wood dried in the
+    thorough manner we have mentioned is so liable to catch fire at the
+    momentary propinquity of flame, that practical men imagine there must
+    be an atmosphere of some kind surrounding it of a highly inflammable
+    nature. In cases of pine wood we could well understand such a theory,
+    as we know that a stick thrust into the fire will emit from its free
+    end a volatile spirit of turpentine, which lights like a jet of gas.
+
+    "Mercers' Hall, burnt in 1853, was the victim of its hot-water pipes,
+    which had not been in work more than four or five years. The vaulted
+    room in the British Museum, which contains some of the Nineveh
+    marbles, was fired--or rather the carpenters' work about--in a similar
+    manner; and if report tells the truth, the new Houses of Parliament
+    have been on fire several times already from a similar cause."
+
+Under the heads "Incendiarism," "Doubtful," and "Unknown," are included
+all the cases of wilful firing. The return, "Incendiarism," is never made
+unless there has been a conviction, which rarely takes place, as the
+offices are only anxious to protect themselves against fraud, and do not
+like the trouble or bad odour of being prosecutors on public grounds. If
+the evidence of wilful firing, however, is conclusive, the insured, when
+he applies for his money, is significantly informed by the secretary that
+unless he leaves the office, _he will hang him_. Though arson is no
+longer punished by death, the hint is usually taken. Now and then, such
+flagrant offenders are met with, that the office cannot avoid pursuing
+them with the utmost rigour of the law. Such, in 1851, was the case of a
+"respectable" solicitor, living in Lime-street, Watling-street, who had
+insured his house and furniture for a sum much larger than they were
+worth. The means he adopted for the commission of his crime without
+discovery were apparently sure; but it was the very pains he took to
+accomplish his end which led to his detection. He had specially made to
+order a deep tray of iron, in the centre of which was placed a socket. The
+tray he filled with naphtha, and in the socket he put a candle, the light
+of which was shaded by a funnel. The candle was one of the kind which he
+used for his gig-lamp,--for he kept a gig,--and was calculated to last a
+stated time before it reached the naphtha. He furtively deposited the
+whole machine in the cellar, within eight inches of the wooden floor, in a
+place constructed to conceal it. The attorney went out, and on coming back
+again found, as he expected, that his house was on fire. Unfortunately,
+however, for him--if it is ever a misfortune to a scoundrel to be
+detected,--it was put out at a very early stage, and the firemen, whilst
+in the act of extinguishing it, discovered this infernal machine. The
+order to make it was traced to the delinquent: a female servant, irritated
+at the idea of his having left her in the house to be burnt to death, gave
+evidence against him. He was tried and convicted, and is now expiating his
+crime at Norfolk Island. Plans for rebuilding this villain's house, and
+estimates of the expense, were found afterwards among his papers.
+
+The class "doubtful" includes all those cases in which the offices have no
+moral doubt that the fire has been wilful, but are not in possession of
+legal evidence sufficient to substantiate a charge against the offender.
+In most of these instances, however, the insured has _his reasons_ for
+taking a much smaller sum than he originally demanded. Lastly, we have the
+"unknown," to which 1,323 cases are put down, one of the largest numbers
+in the entire list, though decreasing year by year. Even of these, a
+certain percentage are supposed to be wilful. There is no denying that the
+crime of arson owes its origin entirely to the introduction of fire
+insurance; and there can be as little doubt that, of late years, it has
+been very much increased by the pernicious competition for business among
+the younger offices, which leads them to deal too leniently with their
+customers; or, in other words, to pay the money, _and ask no questions_.
+It is calculated that _one fire in seven which occur among the small class
+of shopkeepers in London is an incendiary fire_. Mr. Braidwood, whose
+experience is larger than that of any person, tells us that the greatest
+ingenuity is sometimes exercised to deceive the officers of the insurance
+company as to the value of the insured stock. In one instance, when the
+Brigade had succeeded in extinguishing the fire, he discovered a string
+stretched across one of the rooms in the basement of the house, on which
+ringlets of shavings dipped in turpentine were tied at regular intervals.
+On extending his investigations, he ascertained that a vast pile of what
+he thought were pounds of moist sugar consisted of parcels of brown paper,
+and that the loaves of white sugar were made of plaster of Paris. Ten to
+one but the "artful dodge," which some scoundrel flatters himself is
+peculiarly his own, has been put in practice by hundreds of others before
+him. For this reason, fires that are wilful generally betray themselves to
+the practised eye of the Brigade. When an event of the kind "is going to
+happen" at home, a common circumstance is to find that the fond parent has
+treated the whole of his family to the theatre.
+
+There is another class of incendiary fires which arise from a species of
+monomania in boys and girls. Not many years ago the men of the Brigade
+were occupied for hours in putting out no less than half a dozen fires
+which broke out one after another in a house in West Smithfield; and it
+was at last discovered that they were occasioned by a youth who went about
+with lucifers and slily ignited everything that would burn. He was caught
+in the act of firing a curtain in the very room in which a fireman was
+occupied in putting out a blaze. A still more extraordinary case took
+place in the year 1848, at Torluck House, in the Isle of Mull. On Sunday,
+the 11th of November, the curtains of a bed were ignited, as was supposed
+by lightning; a window-blind followed; and immediately afterwards the
+curtains of five rooms broke out one after another into a flame; even the
+towels hanging up in the kitchen were burnt. The next day a bed took fire,
+and it being thought advisable to carry the bed-linen into the coach-house
+for safety, it caught fire three or four times during the process of
+removal. In a few days the phenomenon was renewed. The furniture, books,
+and everything else of an inflammable nature, were, with much labour,
+taken from the mansion, and again some body-linen burst into a flame on
+the way. Even after these precautions had been taken, and persons had been
+set to watch in every part of the house, the mysterious fires continued to
+haunt it until the 22nd of February, 1849. It was suspected from the first
+that they were the act of an incendiary, and upon a rigid examination of
+the household before the Fiscal-General and the Sheriff, the mischief was
+traced to the daughter of the housekeeper, a young girl, who was on a
+visit to her mother. She had effected her purpose, which was perfectly
+motiveless, by concealing combustibles in different parts of the house.
+
+The most ludicrous conflagration that perhaps ever occurred was that at
+Mr. Phillips's workshops, when the whole of his stock of instruments for
+extinguishing flame were at one fell swoop destroyed. "'Tis rare to see
+the engineer hoist with his own petard," says the poet; and certainly it
+was a most laughable _contre-temps_ to see the fire-engines arrive at the
+manufactory just in time to witness the fire-annihilators annihilated by
+the fire. A similar mishap occurred to these unfortunate implements at
+Paris. In juxtaposition with this case, we are tempted to put another, in
+which the attempt at extinction was followed by exactly the opposite
+effects. A tradesman was about to light his gas, when, finding the cock
+stiff, he took a candle to see what was the matter; whilst attempting to
+turn it, the screw came out, and with it a jet of gas, which was instantly
+fired by the candle. The blaze igniting the shop, a passer-by seized a
+wooden pail and threw its contents upon the flames, which flared up
+immediately with tenfold power. It is scarcely necessary to state that the
+water was whisky, and that the country was Old Ireland.
+
+Spontaneous combustion is at present very little understood, though
+chemists have of late turned their attention to the subject. It forms,
+however, no inconsiderable item in the list of causes of fires. There can
+be no question that many of those that occur at railway stations and
+buildings are due to the fermentation which arises among oiled rags.
+Over-heating of waste, which includes shoddy, sawdust, cotton, &c., is a
+fearful source of conflagrations. The cause of most fires which have
+arisen from spontaneous combustion is lost in the consequence. Cases now
+and then occur where the firemen have been able to detect it, as, for
+instance, at Hibernia Wharf in 1846, one of Alderman Humphery's
+warehouses. It happened that a porter had swept the sawdust from the floor
+into a heap, upon which a broken flask of olive-oil that was placed above
+dripped its contents. To these elements of combustion the sun added its
+power, and sixteen hours afterwards the fire broke out. Happily, it was
+instantly extinguished; and the agents that produced it were caught,
+red-handed as it were, in the act. The chances are that such a particular
+combination of circumstances might not occur again in a thousand years.
+The sawdust will not be swept again into such a position under the oil, or
+the bottle will not break over the sawdust, or the sun will not shine in
+on them to complete the fatal sum. It is an important fact, however, to
+know that oiled sawdust, warmed by the sun, will fire in sixteen hours, as
+it accounts for a number of conflagrations in saw-mills, which never could
+be traced to any probable cause.
+
+By means of direct experiment we are also learning something on the
+question of explosions. It used to be assumed that gunpowder was
+answerable for all such terrible effects in warehouses where no gas or
+steam was employed; and as policies are vitiated by the fact of its
+presence, unless declared, many squabbles have ensued between insurers and
+insured upon this head alone. At the late great fire at Gateshead, a
+report having spread that the awful explosion which did so much damage
+arose from the illicit stowage of seven tons of gunpowder in the Messrs.
+Sisson's warehouse, the interested insurance companies offered a reward of
+100_l._ to elicit information. The experiments instituted, however, by Mr.
+Pattinson, in the presence of Captain Du Cane, of the Royal Engineers, and
+the coroner's jury impanelled to inquire into the matter, showed that the
+water from the fire-engine falling upon the mineral and chemical
+substances in store, was sufficient to account for the result. The
+following were the experiments tried at Mr. Pattinson's works at Felling,
+about three miles from Gateshead:--
+
+    "Mr. Pattinson first caused a metal pot to be inserted in the ground
+    until its top was level with the surface; and having put into it 9
+    lbs. of nitrate of soda and 6 lbs. of sulphur, he ignited the mass;
+    and then, heating it to the highest possible degree of which it was
+    susceptible, he poured into it about a quart of water. The effect was
+    an immediate explosion (accompanied by a loud clap), which would have
+    been exceedingly perilous to any person in its immediate vicinity. The
+    experiment was next made under different conditions. The pot into
+    which the sulphur and nitrate of soda were put was covered over the
+    top with a large piece of thick metal of considerable weight; and
+    above that again were placed several large pieces of clay and earth.
+    It was deemed necessary to try this experiment in an open field, away
+    from any dwelling-house, and which admitted of the spectators placing
+    themselves at a safe distance from the spot. The materials were then
+    ignited as before; and when in the incandescent state, water was
+    poured upon the mass down a spout. The result was but a comparatively
+    slight explosion, and which scarcely disturbed the iron and clods
+    placed over the mouth of the vessel. Another experiment of the kind
+    was made with the same result. At length, a trial having been made for
+    the third time, but with this difference, that the vessel was covered
+    over the top with another similar vessel, and that the water was
+    poured upon the burning sulphur and nitrate of soda with greater
+    rapidity than before, by slightly elevating the spout, the effect was
+    to blow up the pot on the top into the air to a height of upwards of
+    seventy feet, accompanied by a loud detonation. With this the coroner
+    and jury became convinced that, whether or not the premises in
+    Hillgate contained gunpowder, they contained elements as certainly
+    explosive, and perhaps far more destructive."
+
+We may here mention, as a curious result of the Gateshead fire, that
+several tons of lead, whilst flowing in a molten state, came in contact
+with a quantity of volatilized sulphur. Thus the lead became re-converted
+into lead-ore, or a sulphuret of lead, which, as it required to be
+re-smelted, was thereby debased in value from some twenty-two to fifteen
+shillings a ton.
+
+The great fire, again, which occurred in Liverpool in October last, was
+occasioned by the explosion of spirits of turpentine, which blew out, one
+after another, seven of the walls of the vaults underneath the warehouse,
+and in some cases destroyed the vaulting itself, and exposed to the flames
+the stores of cotton above. Surely some law is called for to prevent the
+juxtaposition of such inflammable materials. The turpentine is said to
+have been fired by a workman who snuffed the candle with his fingers, and
+accidentally threw the snuff down the bunghole of one of the barrels of
+turpentine. The warehouses burnt were built upon Mr. Fairbairn's new
+fireproof plan, which the Liverpool people introduced some years ago, at a
+great expense to the town.
+
+Water alone brought into sudden contact with red-hot iron is capable of
+giving rise to a gas of the most destructive nature--witness the
+extraordinary explosions that are continually taking place in
+steam-vessels, especially in America, which mostly arise from the lurching
+of the vessel when waiting for passengers, causing the water to withdraw
+from one side of the boiler, which rapidly becomes red hot. The next lurch
+in an opposite direction precipitates the water upon the highly-heated
+surface, and thus the explosive gas, in addition to the steam, is
+generated faster than the safety-valves can get rid of it.
+
+A very interesting inquiry, and one of vital importance to the actuaries
+of fire-insurance companies, is the relative liability to fire of
+different classes of occupations and residences. We already know
+accurately the number of fires which occur yearly in every trade and kind
+of occupation. What we do not know, and what we want to know, is the
+proportion the tenements in which such trades and occupations are carried
+on, bear to the total number of houses in the metropolis. The last census
+gives us no information of this kind, and we trust the omission will be
+supplied the next time it is taken. According to Mr. Braidwood's returns,
+for the last twenty-one years, the number of fires in each trade, and in
+private houses, has been as follows:--
+
+  Private Houses                        4,638
+  Lodgings                              1,304
+  Victuallers                             715
+  Sale-shops and Offices                  701
+  Carpenters and Workers in Wood          621
+  Drapers, of Woollen and Linen           372
+  Bakers                                  311
+  Stables                                 277
+  Cabinet-makers                          233
+  Oil and Colour-men                      230
+  Chandlers                               178
+  Grocers                                 162
+  Tinmen, Braziers, and Smiths            158
+  Houses under Repair and Building        150
+  Beershops                               142
+  Coffee-shops and Chophouses             139
+  Brokers and Dealers in Old Clothes      134
+  Hatmakers                               127
+  Lucifer-match makers                    120
+  Wine and Spirit Merchants               118
+  Tailors                                 113
+  Hotels and Club-houses                  107
+  Tobacconists                            105
+  Eating-houses                           104
+  Booksellers and Binders                 103
+  Ships                                   102
+  Printers and Engravers                  102
+  Builders                                 91
+  Houses unoccupied                        89
+  Tallow-chandlers                         87
+  Marine Store Dealers                     75
+  Saw-mills                                67
+  Firework-makers                          66
+  Warehouses                               63
+  Chemists                                 62
+  Coachmakers                              50
+  Warehouses (Manchester)                  49
+  Public Buildings                         46
+
+If we look at the mere number of fires, irrespective of the size of the
+industrial group upon which they committed their ravages, houses would
+appear to be hazardous according to the order in which we have placed
+them. Now, this is manifestly absurd, inasmuch as private houses stand at
+the head of the list, and it is well known that they are the safest from
+fire of all kinds of tenements. Mr. Brown, of the Society of Actuaries,
+who has taken the trouble to compare the number of fires in each
+industrial group, with the number of houses devoted to it, as far as he
+could find any data in the Post-office Directory, gives the following
+average annual percentage of conflagrations, calculated on a period of
+fifteen years:--
+
+  Lucifer-match makers               30·00
+  Lodging-houses                     16·51
+  Hatmakers                           7·74
+  Chandlers                           3·88
+  Drapers                             2·67
+  Tinmen, Braziers, and Smiths        2·42
+  Carpenters                          2·27
+  Cabinet-makers                      2·12
+  Oil and Colour-men                  1·56
+  Beershops                           1·31
+  Booksellers                         1·18
+  Coffee-shops and Coffee-houses      1·2
+  Cabinet-makers                      1·12
+  Licensed Victuallers                 ·86
+  Bakers                               ·75
+  Wine Merchants                       ·61
+  Grocers                              ·34
+
+It will be seen that this estimate in a great measure inverts the order of
+"dangerous," as we have ranged them in the previous table, making those
+which from their aggregate number seemed to be the most hazardous trades,
+appear the least so, and _vice versâ_. Thus lucifer-match makers have a
+bad pre-eminence; indeed they are supposed to be subject to a
+conflagration every third year; while the terrible victuallers,
+carpenters, mercers, and bakers, at the top of the column, shrink to the
+bottom of the list. These conclusions, nevertheless, are only an
+approximation to the truth, since it is impossible to procure a correct
+return of the houses occupied by different trades. Even if a certain class
+of tenements is particularly liable to fire, it does not follow that it
+will be held to be very hazardous to the insurers. Such considerations are
+influenced by another question,--Are the contents of houses forming the
+group, of that nature that, in cases of their taking fire, they are likely
+to be totally destroyed, seriously, or only slightly damaged? For
+instance, lodging-houses are very liable to fire; but they are very seldom
+burnt down or much injured. Out of 81 that suffered in 1853, not one was
+totally destroyed; only 4 were extensively affected; the very large
+majority, 77, were slightly scathed from the burning of window and bed
+curtains, &c. Among the trades which are too hazardous to be insured at
+any price are--we quote from the tariff of the County
+Fire-office--floor-cloth manufacturers, gunpowder dealers, hatters' "stock
+in the stove," lampblack makers, lucifer-match makers, varnish makers, and
+wadding manufacturers; whilst the following are considered highly
+hazardous;--bone-crushers, coffee-roasters, composition-ornament makers,
+curriers, dyers, feather-stovers, flambeau makers, heckling-houses, hemp
+and flax dressers, ivory-black makers, japanners and japan makers,
+laboratory-chemists, patent japan-leather manufacturers, lint-mills,
+rough-fat melters, musical-instrument makers, oil and colour men, leather
+dressers, oiled-silk and linen makers, oil of vitriol manufacturers, pitch
+makers, rag dealers, resin dealers, saw-mills, seed crushers,
+ship-buiscuit bakers, soap makers, spermaceti and wax refiners, sugar
+refiners, tar dealers and boilers, thatched houses in towns, and
+turpentine makers.
+
+The great mass of these trades bear "hazardous" upon the very face of
+them; but it is not equally apparent why that of a hatter should be so
+very dangerous, and particular portions of his stock uninsurable. We are
+given to understand that the stoves at which their manufacture is carried
+on, and the shell-lac and willow, are the causes of this proneness to
+conflagrations. The memorable fire at Fenning's Wharf, which burnt with a
+fury to which that at the Royal Exchange and at the Houses of Parliament
+was a mere bonfire, originated at a hatter's on London Bridge, from which
+place it speedily spread to Alderman Humphery's warehouses in the rear,
+leaped across Tooley Street--at this spot 60 feet wide--and thus invaded
+the great river-side wharf. The two floating-engines belonging to the
+brigade were brought into service on the occasion, and although they threw
+between them fourteen hundred gallons of water a minute to the height of a
+hundred feet, they had not the slightest effect upon the burning mass.
+
+Nothing shows better the relative degrees of hazard than the different
+rates charged for insurance. Thus an ordinary dwelling-house pays but
+1_s._ 6_d._ per cent., while a sugar-refinery pays at least two, and
+sometimes three guineas per cent., or from 30 to 40 times as much. The
+same class of houses pay different rates according to their locality. The
+residence which is charged 1_s._ 6_d._ in London, is, in St. John's,
+Newfoundland--a town famous, or rather infamous, for fires--charged by our
+English offices 1_l._ 11_s._ 6_d._ per cent. Probably the heaviest loss
+the Phoenix Office ever sustained was by the fire of St. John's, in 1846.
+
+It is a notable fact, that the city of London, which is perhaps the most
+densely inhabited spot the world has ever seen, has long been exempt from
+conflagrations involving a considerable number of houses. "The devouring
+element," it is true, has made many meals from time to time of huge
+warehouses and public buildings; but since the great fire of 1666 it has
+ceased to gorge upon whole quarters of the town. We have never had, since
+that memorable occasion, to record the destruction of a thousand houses at
+a time, a matter of frequent occurrence in the United States and
+Canada--indeed in all parts of Continental Europe. The fires which have
+proved fatal to large plots of buildings in the metropolis have in every
+instance taken place without the sound of Bow bells. A comparison between
+the number of fires which occurred between the years 1838 and 1843, in
+20,000 houses situate on either side of the Thames, shows at once the
+superior safety of its northern bank, the annual average of fires on the
+latter being only 20 against 36 on the southern side. For this exemption
+we have to thank the great disaster, if we might so term what has turned
+out a blessing. At one fell swoop it cleared the city, and swept away for
+ever the dangerous congregation of wooden buildings and narrow streets
+which were always affording material for the flame.
+
+Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his "Handbook of London,"[43] gives the following
+curious information respecting its supposed origin:--
+
+    "The fire of London, commonly called the Great Fire, commenced on the
+    east side of this lane (Pudding-lane) about one or two in the morning
+    of Sunday, September 2nd, 1666, in the house of Farryner, the king's
+    baker.
+
+    "It was the fashion of the true blue Protestants of the period to
+    attribute the fire to the Roman Catholics; and when, in 1681, Oates
+    and his plot strengthened this belief, the following inscription was
+    affixed on the front of this house (No. 25, I believe), erected on the
+    site of Farryner, the baker's:--
+
+    "'Here, by the permission of Heaven, hell broke loose upon this
+    Protestant city, from the malicious hearts of barbarous priests, by
+    the hand of their agent, Hubert, who confessed, and on the ruins of
+    this place declared the fact for which he was hanged, viz., that here
+    began that dreadful fire which is described on and perpetuated by the
+    neighbouring pillar, erected anno 1681, in the mayoralty of Sir Peter
+    Ward, knight.'
+
+    "This celebrated inscription, set up pursuant to an order of the Court
+    of Common Council, June 17th, 1681, was removed in the reign of James
+    II., replaced in the reign of William III., and finally taken down 'on
+    account of the stoppage of passengers to read it.' Entick, who makes
+    addition to Maitland in 1756, speaks of it 'as lately taken away.' The
+    house was 'rebuilt in a very handsome manner.'
+
+    "The inscribed stone is still preserved, it is said, in a cellar in
+    Pudding-lane. Hubert was a French papist, of six-and-twenty years of
+    age, the son of a watchmaker at Rouen, in Normandy. He was seized in
+    Essex, confessed he began the fire, and, persisting in his confession,
+    was hanged, upon no other evidence than his own. He stated in his
+    examination that he had been 'suborned in Paris to this action,' and
+    that three more 'combined to do the same thing. They asked him if he
+    knew the place where he first put fire. He answered he knew it very
+    well, and would show it to anybody.' He was then ordered to be
+    blindfolded, and carried to several places of the City, that he might
+    point out the house. They first led him to a place at some distance
+    from it, opened his eyes, and asked him if that was it; to which he
+    answered, 'No, it was nearer the Thames.' 'The house and all which
+    were near it,' says Clarendon, 'were so covered and buried in ruins,
+    that the owners themselves, without some infallible mark, could very
+    hardly have said where their own house had stood; but this man led
+    them directly to the place, described how it stood, the shape of the
+    little yard, the fashion of the doors and windows, and where he first
+    put the fire; and all this with such exactness, that they who had
+    dwelt long near it could not so perfectly have described all
+    particulars.' Tillotson told Burnet that Howell (the then Recorder of
+    London) accompanied Hubert on this occasion, 'was with him and had
+    much discourse with him, and that he concluded it was impossible it
+    could be a melancholy dream.' This, however, was not the opinion of
+    the judges who tried him. 'Neither the judges,' says Clarendon, 'nor
+    any present at the trial, did believe him guilty, but that he was a
+    poor distracted wretch, weary of his life, and chose to part with it
+    in this way.' We may attribute the fire with safety to another cause
+    than a Roman conspiracy. We are to remember that the flames originated
+    in the house of a baker; that the season had been unusually dry; that
+    the houses were of wood, overhanging the road-way (penthouses they
+    were called), so that the lane was even narrower than it is now, and
+    that a strong east wind was blowing at the time. It was thought very
+    little of at first. Pepys put out his head from his bedroom window in
+    Seething-lane, a few hours after it broke out, and returned to bed
+    again, as if it were nothing more than an ordinary fire, a common
+    occurrence, and likely to be soon subdued. The Lord Mayor (Sir Thomas
+    Bludworth) seems to have thought as little of it till it was too late.
+    People appear to have been paralyzed, and no attempt of any
+    consequence was made to check its progress. For four successive days
+    it raged and gained ground, leaping after a prodigious manner from
+    house to house and street to street, at great distances from one
+    another. Houses were at length pulled down, and the flames, still
+    spreading westward, were at length stopped at the Temple Church in
+    Fleet-street, and Pie-Corner in Smithfield. In these four days 13,200
+    houses, 400 streets, and 89 churches, including the cathedral church
+    of St. Paul, were destroyed, and London lay literally in ruins. The
+    loss was so enormous, that we may be said still to suffer from its
+    effects. Yet the advantages were not few. London was freed from the
+    plague ever after; and we owe St. Paul's, St. Bride's, St. Stephen's
+    Walbrook, and all the architectural glories of Sir Christopher Wren,
+    to the desolation it occasioned."
+
+In addition to these advantages we acquired another, that of
+PARTY-WALLS--a safeguard which has prevented fires from spreading in the
+City, when whole streets have been swept away in a few hours in other
+parts of the metropolis, and especially in what might be termed the
+water-side suburbs of London--Rotherhithe, Greenwich, and Gravesend. The
+Act by which party-walls were enforced came into operation immediately
+prior to the rebuilding of the town, and has been rendered more stringent
+and effective from time to time by various amendments. The Building Act of
+the 7th and 8th of Queen Victoria contains the important enactment, that
+"no warehouse shall exceed 200,000 cubic feet in contents." Fire becomes
+unmanageable when it has access to large stores of combustible matter;
+under such conditions it acquires a "fortified position," and cannot, in
+the vast majority of cases, be reduced unless by an early surprise.
+
+As the very heart of London is largely occupied with Manchester warehouses
+full of the most inflammable materials, the safety of the capital depends
+upon this restrictive law. The Manchester warehousemen, nevertheless, have
+managed to set that part of the Act at defiance. Let us take, as the
+latest and most flagrant example, Cook's warehouses. This structure, which
+within these last two years has raised its enormous bulk in St. Paul's
+Churchyard, and actually dwarfed the metropolitan cathedral by the
+propinquity of its monotonous mass, contains 1,100,000 cubic feet of space
+open from end to end, or _nine hundred thousand feet more than it is
+entitled to possess_. If we were to take twenty-five ordinary-sized
+dwelling-houses, and pull down their party-walls, we should have just the
+state of things which is here presented to us. But it will be asked, if it
+is against the law, why do not the proper officers interfere? Where are
+the City surveyors? The reason, good reader, is this: the Manchester
+warehousemen of late years have adopted a new reading of the law--a
+reading which we believe no judge would allow, but which the surveyors
+have not yet ventured to dispute. "We escape altogether," say these
+gentlemen, "the provisions of the Building Act relative to warehouses, as,
+by reason of our breaking bulk, our places of business are not mere
+storehouses." That this reading is a violation of the spirit of the
+statute there can be no doubt; that it is also a violation of its letter
+we also believe; if not, it is high time that the law be amended upon this
+point; for we affirm, on the very best authority, that London has never
+since the great fire been in such danger of an overwhelming conflagration
+as it is now by the presence and rapid spreading of these huge warehouses,
+filled with the elements of destruction, and placed side by side, as
+though for the very purpose of producing the utmost mischief by contagion.
+
+Let us suppose, for instance, that a fire had once established itself in
+Cook's warehouses; to extinguish it would be out of the question.
+Fire-engines would be perfectly useless against a body of flame which
+would speedily become like a blast-furnace, and burn with a white heat.
+Who knows what would come after? Supposing the wind to be blowing from the
+south, we tremble for the cathedral. The huge dome is constructed entirely
+of oak, dried by the seasoning of 150 years, and the combustible framework
+is only lined on the exterior by sheet lead. It may be imagined that this
+would be protection enough against the enormous masses of burning cotton
+and linen cloth which would speedily be blown upon it; but Mr. Cottam not
+long since stated, at the Institution of Civil Engineers, that, "when the
+Princess's Theatre was on fire, part of his premises also caught. On
+examination, he found that it arose from a piece of blazing wood being
+thrown over from the theatre, which, falling into the leaden gutter, had
+melted it, and the liquid metal passed through the ceiling on to a
+workman's bench, where there was some oil, which it immediately set fire
+to." The great dome would be in quite as much danger as Mr. Cottam's
+workshop. Engines would be useless at such a height even as the stone
+gallery, the place where large bodies of burning material would most
+likely make a lodgment. Irreparable as would be the disaster with which we
+are threatened in this direction, one quite as great lies in another.
+Eastward of Cook's warehouses, and in the neighbourhood of a vitriol or
+some other chemical manufactory, is situated Doctors' Commons, the
+repository of the great mass of English wills. The roofs of this pile of
+buildings[44] are continuous; the buildings themselves are nearly as dry
+as the law itself. If one portion of the structure were to catch fire,
+nothing could save the whole from destruction. It may be urged that the
+block of buildings, which commands, like a battery, two such important
+points in the metropolis, is, after all, fire-proof, and, as far as danger
+from without is concerned, this is true enough; but as cotton bales are
+not fire-proof, it is an impossibility to insure safety from within. Iron
+columns in such instances melt before the white heat like sticks of
+sealing-wax; stone flies into a thousand pieces with the celerity of a
+Prince Rupert's drop; slate becomes transformed into a pumice light enough
+to float upon water; the iron girders and beams, by reason of their
+lateral expansion, thrust out the walls; and the very elements, which seem
+calculated under ordinary circumstances to give an almost exhaustless
+durability to the structure, produce its most rapid destruction. The great
+fire at Messrs. Cubitt's so-called fire-proof works at Pimlico is one of
+the latest proofs we have had of the entire fallacy of supposing stone and
+iron can withstand the action of a large body of fierce flame. We saw the
+other day portions of columns from this building fused as though they had
+been composed of so much pewter. Again, when the Armoury of the Tower was
+destroyed, the barrels of the muskets were found reduced to the most
+fantastic shapes, and some of the largest pieces of ordnance were doubled
+up. A stronger instance still was exhibited at Davis's wharf in 1837, when
+a cast-iron pipe outside the building was melted like an icicle. But such
+a fierce furnace is not at all necessary to destroy cast-iron supports, as
+it appears from the experiments of Mr. Fairbairn, that, at a temperature
+of 600° the cohesive power of the metal rapidly decreases with every
+increment of heat. Mr. Braidwood, in his paper on fire-proof buildings,
+read before the Institute of Civil Engineers on February 29th, 1849, was
+the first, we believe, to draw attention to this serious defect in a
+material used so extensively in modern buildings. Since that paper was
+read, a case has come under his notice which clearly testifies to the
+truth of his position:--
+
+    "A chapel in Liverpool-road Islington, 70 feet in length and 52 feet
+    in breadth, took fire in the cellar, on the 2nd October, 1848, and was
+    completely burned down. After the fire it was ascertained that, of
+    thirteen cast-iron pillars used to support the galleries, only two
+    remained perfect; the greater part of the others were broken into
+    small pieces, the metal appearing to have lost all power of cohesion,
+    and some parts were melted, of which specimens are now shown. It
+    should be observed that these pillars were of ample strength to
+    support the galleries when filled by the congregation, but when the
+    fire reached them, they crumbled under the weight of the timber only,
+    lightened as it must have been by the progress of the fire."
+
+But when we are considering the safety of Manchester warehouses, we are
+also considering the lives of the young men who are employed in them, and
+are in most cases located in the upper stories. In several of the
+wholesale warehouses in the City, as Mr. Braidwood informs us,--
+
+    "The cast-iron pillars are much less in proportion to the weight to be
+    carried than those referred to, and would be completely in the draught
+    of a fire. If a fire should unfortunately take place under such
+    circumstances, the loss of human life might be very great, as the
+    chance of fifty, eighty, or one hundred people escaping, in the
+    confusion of a sudden night alarm, by one or two ladders to the roof,
+    could scarcely be calculated on, and the time such escape might
+    necessarily occupy, independent of all chance of accidents, would be
+    considerable."
+
+The application of water would only aggravate the difficulty, for, if it
+touched the red-hot iron, in all probability it would cause it to fracture
+and render it useless as a support. It is well known that furnace-bars are
+very speedily destroyed by a leakage of the boiler, the effect of the
+steam on the under side of the bars being to curve and twist them. To
+insure a perfectly fire-proof building, we must resort to one of two
+courses--either we must divide large warehouses into compartments by solid
+brick divisions, and thus confine any fire that should happen to break out
+within manageable limits, just as we save an iron ship from foundering, on
+account of a circumscribed fracture, by having her built in compartments;
+or we must resort to the old Roman plan of building--that is, support the
+floors upon brick piers and groined arches well laid in cement, for mortar
+will pulverize under a great heat. The former plan has the great advantage
+that it insures the safety of the principal contents, as well as of the
+building itself. The new Record Office in Fetter Lane, is a perfect
+specimen of the kind, and is, perhaps, the only absolutely fire-proof
+structure in England, being constructed of iron and stone, and having no
+room larger than 17 feet by 25, and 17 feet high, with a cubical contents
+of only 8,000 feet. None of the rooms open into each other, but into a
+vaulted passage by means of iron doors; and if the documents were to take
+fire in any one of them, they would burn out as innocuously to the rest of
+the building as coals in a grate.
+
+It must not be supposed that we disparage altogether the use of iron and
+stone in the erection of warehouses, even where they are built on the
+ordinary plan; for the outside structure they are invaluable, and render
+it safe from most extraneous danger. No better proof of this could be
+given than the experience of Liverpool, whose fires during the last
+half-century have been on the most gigantic scale. The larger bonded and
+other warehouses were generally built with continuous roofs, and with
+wooden doors and penthouses to the different stories, which always kindled
+when there was a fire on the opposite side of the narrow streets in which
+they were ordinarily placed. To such a lamentable extent had
+conflagrations increased about the year 1841, that the rate of insurance,
+which had been eight shillings per cent., ran up to thirty-six shillings.
+This was about the time of the Formby Street fire, when 379,000_l._ worth
+of property was destroyed, and the total losses from the beginning of the
+century had not been less than three millions and a quarter sterling. The
+magnitude of the evil called for a corresponding remedy. A Bill was
+obtained in 1843 for the amendment of the Building Act; party-walls were
+run up five feet high between each warehouse, doors and penthouses were
+constructed of iron, the cubical contents of the buildings themselves were
+limited, &c.; and the effect of these improvements was so to diminish the
+risk that insurances fell to their normal rate. It cannot be said,
+however, that Liverpool has yet purged herself of the calamity of fire.
+
+In ordinary dwellings and in public offices the use of iron and stone,
+again, cannot be too much commended: in such buildings the rooms are
+comparatively small, and their contents are not sufficiently inflammable
+either in quantity or quality to injure these materials. A marked
+diminution in the number of fires in the metropolis may be expected, from
+the almost universal use of iron and stone in new structures of this
+kind. The houses in Victoria Street, Westminster, built upon the "flat"
+system, are, we should say, entirely fireproof, as the floors are either
+vaulted or filled in with concrete, which will not allow the passage of
+fire. Nearly all Paris is built in this manner, and hence its freedom from
+large conflagrations.[45] Were it not for this, no city would be more
+likely to suffer, as the houses are very high, and the supply of water
+extremely bad. To Londoners it seems little better than a farce to watch
+the _sapeurs-pompiers_ hurrying to a fire with an engine not much bigger
+than a garden squirt, followed by a water-barrel--resources which are
+found sufficient to cope with the enemy, confined as it is within such
+narrow limits.
+
+Without going to the expense of stone and iron, we might, by taking a hint
+from the Parisians, make the rooms of our private houses fireproof, by
+abandoning the absurd custom of separating rooms by hollow wooden floors
+and hollow wooden partitions thinly coated with plaster--a method which
+has the effect of circulating the fire from the bottom to the top of the
+house in the quickest possible space of time. If a fire breaks out in a
+room, the ceiling will, it is true, stop the flames for a considerable
+time; but the hollow partitions full of air act as conductors, and the
+firemen have often found that the flames have spread from a lower to an
+upper apartment by this secret channel, without injuring the intermediate
+rooms, and without even its progress being suspected. As we understand
+that the Building Act is to be amended, we trust its emendators will
+extend the clause relating to party-walls to _rooms_ as well as to houses.
+The expense need be but trifling, as will be seen by consulting the little
+work of Mr. Hosking, who was the first, we believe, to instruct the
+English public in the admirable methods of the Parisian builders. Instead
+of using flimsy laths for their partitions, they employ stout oaken pieces
+of wood, as thick as garden palings; these they nail firmly on each side
+of the framing of the partition, fill the space between with rubble and
+plaster of Paris, and thickly coat the whole of the wall with the latter.
+The floors are managed in the same manner, as well as the under side of
+the stairs, which are thus rendered almost as fire-proof as a stone
+flight. Very many lives would be saved in Great Britain if this simple
+expedient were adopted by our builders, instead of making the stairs of
+ill-fitted wood, full of air-crevices, and covering their under side with
+a thin film of plaster; for fire always makes for the stairs, which form
+the funnel of the house; and hence the necessity for rendering them as
+secure as possible, in order to provide a line of retreat for the inmates.
+
+We have said that London is growing upwards to the sky--no house in any
+valuable portion of the metropolis being now rebuilt without the addition
+of at least one story. Eighty and ninety feet is getting a common height
+for our great offices and warehouses, which is tantamount to saying that a
+certain portion of the metropolis, and that a constantly increasing one,
+is outgrowing the power of the Fire Brigade, as no engine built upon the
+present plan can throw water for many minutes to such an elevation. Mr.
+Braidwood foresees that he must call in the aid of the common drudge,
+steam. In America they have already introduced this new agent with some
+success, and in London we have proved its power in the floating engine.
+Steam fire-engines, it is evident, will soon be brought into use, unless
+we do away with the necessity for engines at all by fixing the hose
+directly on the mains, as is done at Hamburg. But to effect this it will
+be necessary to relay the whole metropolis with much larger pipes, to
+increase their number, and at the same time adopt the constant-service
+system. At present, even if we had the water always on, the mains are
+often so small as to preclude the use of more than two or three hose--for,
+if the collective diameters of the areas of the latter exceed that of the
+pipe which feeds them, the pressure will cease, and no water will be
+propelled to any height through the jet. It cannot be denied, however,
+that if the streets of London were all supplied with capacious mains, and
+the different companies plugged them profusely (a thing they are very
+chary of doing, for fear of their being injured by the wear and tear of
+the fire-engines), London would be rendered far more secure than it is at
+present, as scarcely any fire could withstand the full force of constant
+streams of thousands of gallons of water per minute. At present the
+greater portion of the water is wasted; at the destruction of the Houses
+of Parliament, a body of this element equal to an acre in area, and twelve
+feet deep, flowed from the mains, a tenth part of which could not have
+been used by the twenty-three jets that were playing simultaneously.
+
+It will not here be out of place to say a few words upon the method of
+extinguishing flame by means of the gaseous mixture contained in
+Phillips's fire-annihilators. According to a writer in the "Household
+Words," the ordinary-sized annihilator is less than that of a small
+upright iron coalscuttle, and its weight not greater than can be easily
+carried by man or woman to any part of the house. It is charged with a
+compound of charcoal, nitre, and gypsum, moulded into the form of a large
+brick: the igniter is a glass tube inserted into the top of this brick:
+inclosing two phials--one filled with the mixture of chlorate of potassa
+and sugar, the other containing a few drops of sulphuric acid. A slight
+blow upon a knob drives down a pin which breaks the phials, and the
+different mixtures coming in contact ignite the mass, the gas arising from
+which, acting upon a water-chamber contained in the machine, produces a
+steam, and the whole escapes forth in a dense expanding cloud.
+
+Mr. Phillips made some public experiments with his fire-annihilator three
+or four years ago, in which its power to put out the fiercest flame was
+fully proved. The timber framework of a three storied-house smeared with
+pitch and tar, upon being fired, was instantly extinguished: quantities of
+pitch, tar, and oil of turpentine, which only burn the stronger for the
+presence of water, were dealt with still more expeditiously. The valuable
+quality of rendering an atmosphere of dense smoke, in which no living
+thing could exist, perfectly respirable, was also shown in the most
+satisfactory manner. Since that time the machine has been brought into
+action at Leeds, where it put out a fire in an attic; and in a very
+serious conflagration, which took place in the spirit-room, and afterwards
+extended to the main hatchway of the mail steamer the _City of
+Manchester_, in the autumn of 1852, it was applied with the most perfect
+success. There can be no doubt that in all confined places the control of
+the annihilator over flame is omnipotent--acting much more speedily than
+water, and, unlike that element, doing no damage. When the flames are
+unconfined, the annihilator will prove of little use, because, the gaseous
+cloud that issues from it not being heavier than the air, it cannot be
+projected to any distance. As an auxiliary to the engine, it will be
+invaluable in many cases, as it will enable the fireman to go into places
+where at present he dares not enter, unless protected by the unwieldy
+smoke-jacket, the supply of air to which might at any time be cut off by
+rubbish falling upon the hose through which it is pumped to him by the
+engine.
+
+Although it is foreign to our design to speak at length of agricultural
+fires, and incendiarism among farming stock, the subject is too important
+to be entirely omitted. One of the largest London insurance-offices,
+interested in farming stock, posts up bills about premises they have
+insured, which, after stating that no lucifers are to be used, or pipes
+are to be smoked, goes on to say, "_This farm is insured; the fire office
+will be the only sufferer in the event of a fire._" The inference is, that
+the labourer will feel more inclined to pay respect to the property of an
+insurance company than to that of the farmer. Yet it is far from being the
+case that the crime is always prompted by personal ill-will. One of the
+largest agricultural incendiaries upon record was a city weaver, who acted
+from a general spirit of discontent, without any hatred or knowledge of
+the owners. In other instances the sole motive is the "jollification"
+which generally follows a fire upon a farm: this fact came to light at a
+trial in Cambridge, eight or nine years since, when a man who was
+sentenced to death for setting fire to a homestead confessed to having
+caused twelve different fires, his only object being the desire to obtain
+the few shillings, and the refreshment of bread, cheese, and ale, which
+are given to labourers on these occasions. On the other hand, if the
+farmer determines to give no recompense, the hangers-on have been known to
+put their hands in their pockets and watch his property burn with the
+utmost indifference, if not with glee.
+
+The cause of fire which the farmer has mainly to guard against may be at
+one seen by the following table, for which we are indebted to the manager
+of the County Fire Office:--
+
+_Losses on Farming Stock between January the 1st and November the 30th,
+1853._
+
+  +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+  | Number  |                                         |            |
+  |of Fires.|               Cause.                    |  Amount.   |
+  |---------|-----------------------------------------|------------|
+  |         |                                         |  £.  s. d. |
+  |    49   |Incendiary                               | 5214  6 11 |
+  |    17   |Lightning                                |  181  5 10 |
+  |    22   |Children and others playing with lucifers| 1211 18 10 |
+  |     2   |Steam thrashing-machines                 |  430  0  0 |
+  |    38   |General                                  | 1781 19  9 |
+  |---------|                                         |------------|
+  |   128   |                                         | 8819 11  4 |
+  +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+These losses are upon a total insurance of eight millions. Incendiarism
+and children playing with lucifers are the two grand elements of
+destruction; and the former, we are given to understand, is below the
+general average. Kind treatment and better education are the only shields
+that can protect the farmer against incendiarism. The nuisance arising
+from children playing with lucifers may be abated by the absolute denial
+of matches to young boys about a farm, who, to cook their dinners,
+generally cause conflagrations near the ricks in the winter, and among the
+standing corn whilst "keeping birds" in the summer. The following
+excellent suggestions are by Mr. Beaumont, the secretary of the County
+Fire Office.
+
+    _Precautions to be taken against a Fire._
+
+    Forbid your men to use lucifer matches, smoke, or light pipes or
+    cigars, destroy wasps' nests, or fire off guns, in or near the
+    rickyard, or to throw hot cinders into or against any wooden
+    out-building on the farm, on pain of instant dismissal.
+
+    Place your ricks in a single line, and as far distant from each other
+    as you conveniently can.
+
+    Place hay-ricks and corn-stacks _alternately_; the hay-rick will check
+    the progress of the fire.
+
+    Keep the rickyard, and especially the spaces between the stacks and
+    ricks, clear of all loose straw; and in all respects in a neat and
+    clean state. The loose straw is more frequently the means of firing
+    than the stack itself.
+
+    Have a pond close to the rickyard, although there may be but a bad
+    supply of water.
+
+    When a steam thrashing-machine is to be used, place it _on the lee
+    side_ of the stack or barn, so that the wind may blow the sparks _away
+    from_ the stacks. Let the engine be placed as far from the machine as
+    the length of the strap will allow. Have the loose straw continually
+    cleared away from the engine; see that two or three pails of water are
+    constantly close to the ash-pan, and that the pan itself is kept
+    constantly full of water.
+
+
+    _How to act when a Fire has broken out in a Rickyard._
+
+    Do not wait for the engines, nor for the assistance of the labourers
+    from a distance. Depend entirely upon the immediate and energetic
+    exertions of yourself and your own men.
+
+    Do not allow the rick or stack on fire to be disturbed--let it burn
+    itself out--but let every exertion be made to press it compactly
+    together, and, as far as is practicable, prevent any lighted particles
+    flying about.
+
+    Get together all your blankets, carpets, sacks, rugs, and other
+    similar articles, soak them thoroughly in water, and place them over
+    and against the adjoining ricks and stacks, towards which the wind
+    blows.
+
+    Having thus covered the sides of the ricks adjoining that on fire,
+    devote all your attention to the latter. Press it together by every
+    available means. If water is at hand, throw upon it as much as
+    possible.
+
+    If engines arrive, let the water be thrown upon the blankets, &c.,
+    covering the adjoining stacks, and then upon the stack on fire.
+
+    Among the numerous hands who flock to assist upon these occasions,
+    many do mischief by their want of knowledge, and especially by opening
+    the fired stack and scattering the embers. In order to obviate this
+    evil, place your best man in command over the stack on fire, desire
+    him to make it _his sole duty_ to prevent it being disturbed, and to
+    keep it pressed and watered.
+
+    Place other men, in whose steadiness you have confidence, to watch the
+    adjoining ricks, to keep the coverings over them, and to extinguish
+    any embers flying from the stack on fire. In order to effect this, it
+    is most desirable that there should be ladders at hand to enable one
+    or two of the labourers to mount upon each stack.
+
+    If the ricks are separated from each other, and there is no danger of
+    the fire extending to a second, it is of course desirable to save as
+    much of the one on fire as may be possible. That, however, is not
+    unfrequently accomplished by keeping the rick compactly together
+    rather than by opening it.
+
+    Send for all the neighbours' blankets and tarpaulins: these are
+    invaluable, they are near at hand, and can be immediately applied.
+
+The companies are always very willing to pay for any damage done in
+attempting to save their property.
+
+The business of the Fire Brigade is to protect property and not life from
+fire, though the men of course use every exertion to save the inmates, and
+are always provided with a "jumping-sheet" to catch those who precipitate
+themselves from the roofs and windows of houses. As the danger to life
+generally arises at a very early stage of a fire, when the freshly aroused
+inhabitants fly distracted into very dangerous places, and often destroy
+themselves by needless haste, it is highly necessary to have help at hand
+before the engines can possibly arrive. There are, it is true, ladders
+placed against all the parish churches, but they are always locked up,
+often rotten, and never in charge of trained individuals: accordingly,
+they may be classed for inefficiency with the parish engines. A proof of
+this was given at the calamitous fire which occurred in Dover Street, at
+Raggett's Hotel, on which occasion Mrs. Round and several other persons
+were lost through the conduct of the keeper of one of the fire-escapes of
+the parish of St. James being absent when called, and drunk when, upon his
+arrival, he attempted to put his machine in action: the keeper of a second
+escape belonging to this parish, and stationed in Golden Square, refused
+to go to a fire in Soho, which occurred in 1852, because it was out of his
+district: the consequence was, than seven persons threw themselves from
+the windows and were all more or less dangerously injured.
+
+In 1833 the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire, which had
+been imperfectly organized a year or two before, was fully established,
+and has continued to increase the sphere of its influence year by year.
+The committee of management, appreciating the value of celerity in
+attending fires, have marked the metropolis out into fifty-five squares of
+half a mile each: in forty-two of these they have established a
+station,[46] in its most central part, at which a fire-escape and trained
+conductor are to be found from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Lady-day to
+Michaelmas, and from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. from Michaelmas to Lady-day. When
+the remaining thirteen squares are furnished, there will be means of
+rescue from fire within a quarter of a mile of every house in London: thus
+the nightly watch for this purpose is better organized with respect to
+number of stations than even the fire brigade, and, like this force, it is
+under the general management of a single director. We are all familiar
+with the sight of these strange-looking machines as they come towering
+along in the dusk of the evening towards their appointed stations; but few
+perhaps have seen them in action or have examined the manner in which they
+are constructed. There are several methods of building them, but the one
+chiefly used is Wivell's, a very simple machine and speedily put in
+action, a description of which we take from the society's report:--
+
+    "The main ladder reaches from thirty to thirty-five feet, and can
+    instantly be applied to most second-floor windows, by means of the
+    carriage lever. The upper ladder folds over the main ladder, and is
+    raised easily in the position represented, by a rope attached to its
+    lever-irons on either side of the main ladder; or, as recently adopted
+    in one or two of the escapes, by an arrangement of pulleys in lieu of
+    the lever-irons. The short ladder, for first floors, fits in under the
+    carriage, and is often of the greatest service. Under the whole length
+    of the main ladder is a canvas trough or bagging, made of stout
+    sailcloth, protected by an outer trough of copper-wire net, leaving
+    sufficient room between for the yielding of the canvas in a person's
+    descent. The addition of the copper-wire is a great improvement, as,
+    although not affording an entire protection against the canvas
+    burning, it in most cases avails, and prevents the possibility of any
+    one falling through. The soaking of the canvas in alum and other
+    solutions is attended to; but this, while preventing its flaming,
+    cannot avoid the risk of accident from the fire charring the canvas."
+
+When we remember that the fire-escapes often have to be raised above
+windows from which the flames are pouring forth, it will be seen how
+valuable is this double protection against the destruction of the canvas.
+The necessity for it was shown at a fire in Crawford Street, Marylebone,
+where an explosion took place which fired the canvas and let the conductor
+fall through just as he was rescuing an inmate,--an accident by which he
+was dreadfully injured. When people look up at these fire-escapes, they
+generally shudder at the idea of having to enter the bag, suspended at a
+height of forty feet from the ground; but in the hour of danger the
+terrified inmates never exhibit the slightest reluctance. Once in, they
+slide down the bulging canvas in the gentlest manner, without any of the
+rapidity that would be imagined from the almost perpendicular position in
+which it hangs.
+
+The fire-escape which is stationed near the New Road is constructed so
+that it can be taken off its wheels, in order to allow it to enter the
+long gardens which here extend before so many of the houses. The height
+attainable by these escapes varies from 43-1/2 feet to 45 feet. A
+supplemental short ladder is now carried by most of them, which can be
+quickly fitted on an emergency into the upper ladder, and increases the
+height to 50 feet.
+
+The intrepidity of the conductors of these machines is quite astonishing.
+Familiarity with danger begets a coolness which enables them to place
+themselves in positions which would prove destructive to unpractised
+persons. As in most cases they are the prominent actors in a drama
+witnessed by a whole street-full of excited spectators, they are perhaps
+tempted by the cheers to risk themselves in a manner they would little
+dream of doing under other circumstances. In addition to such a stimulus
+they are rewarded with a silver medal, and with sums of money, for any
+extraordinary act of gallantry. Every instance of a daring rescue is
+entered in the society's books, from which we have extracted a few
+examples, to show what enterprising fellows they are. At a fire which
+broke out in November, 1844, in a house in Hatton Garden, Conductor
+Sunshine on his arrival found the following state of things. On the second
+floor a man was sitting on the sill of one of the windows (there were four
+windows abreast), and on the third floor a man was hanging by his hands to
+the window-sill at the other extremity of the house-front. After having
+rescued the man on the second floor, he did not dare to raise his
+third-floor ladder, for fear of hitting the hanging man's hands, and
+causing him to fall; accordingly, he stood upon the top rung of the
+second-floor ladder, and by so doing could just touch with his upstrained
+arms the poor fellow's depending feet. In this position, having himself
+but a precarious hold of the window-frame beneath, his only footing being
+the topmost rung, he called to the man to drop when he told him, and
+discovered from his silence that he was deaf and dumb. Upon being tapped
+upon the foot, however, he let go, and the conductor managed, incredible
+as it may appear, to slip him down between himself and the wall on to the
+top of the ladder, and brought him safely to the ground. In the next case,
+Conductor Chapman was the hero of the scene, although the indomitable
+Sunshine was present. Having crossed the roofs of two adjoining
+out-buildings, Chapman managed to place his ladder against the second back
+floor of the house on fire. Having rescued a lady, he was obliged to
+retrace his steps over the roofs, as the fire was coming through the
+tiling. He could only cross by making a bridge of the short ladder; and
+scarcely had they cleared the premises when it fell in with a tremendous
+crash.
+
+On another occasion this intrepid man having made an entrance into the
+second-floor window of a house in Tottenham-court Road, he was obliged to
+retreat twice, by reason of his lamp going out in the dense smoke. On the
+third trial it remained in, and enabled him to search the place. "I called
+out loud," he says in his report, "and was answered by a kind of stifled
+cry. I rushed across the landing to the back room, and encountered a man,
+who groaned out, "O save my wife!" I groped about, and laid hold of a
+female, who fell with me, clasping two children in her arms. I took them
+up, and brought them to the escape, guiding the man to follow me, and
+placed them all safely in the canvas, from whence they reached the ground
+without any injury; and, finally, I came down myself, quite exhausted."
+"We thought," said a bystander, "when he jumped into the second-floor
+window, that we should not see him again alive; and I cannot tell you how
+he was cheered when he appeared with the woman and her two children."
+
+We shall content ourselves by quoting one more exploit from the Reports of
+the Society, the hero of which was Conductor Wood, who received a
+testimonial on vellum for the following service at a fire in
+Colchester-street, Whitechapel, on the 29th of April, 1854:--
+
+    "On his arrival, the fire was raging throughout the back of the house,
+    and smoke issuing from every window; upon entering the first-floor
+    room, part of which was on fire, he discovered five persons almost
+    insensible from the excessive heat: he immediately descended the
+    ladder _with a woman on his shoulders, and holding a child by its
+    night-clothes in his mouth_; again ascended, re-entered the room, and
+    having enabled the father to escape, had scarcely descended, _with a
+    child under each arm_, when the whole building became enveloped in
+    flames, rendering it impossible to attempt a rescue of the remainder
+    of the unfortunate inmates."
+
+The rewards of the Society are not always won by their own men. William
+Trafford, police constable 344, for instance, had one of the Society's
+medals presented to him, for "allowing two persons to drop upon him from
+the top windows of a house in College-street, Camden-town, and thereby
+enabling them to escape without material injury." Nothing is said as to
+the damage done to poor Trafford by this act of self-devotion.
+
+The real working value of the fire-escapes may be judged from the fact
+that, during the twenty years they have been on duty, they have attended
+no less than 2,041 fires, and rescued 214 human beings from destruction.
+To make this excellent scheme complete, only thirteen stations have now to
+be established, at a first cost of about eighty pounds each; the
+charitable could not give their money in a more worthy cause than in
+furnishing these districts, in which many thousands of inhabitants are
+still exposed to the most horrible of all deaths. To show that the
+usefulness of the Society has progressed with the number of their escapes,
+we need only adduce the evidence of the table in the next page, made up to
+the 25th of March of each year.
+
+The fire-escapes, in addition to their own particular duty, are also of
+the greatest service to the firemen of the Brigade, as, by the use of
+their ladders, they are enabled to ascend to any window of a house, and to
+direct the jet directly upon the burning mass, instead of throwing it
+wild,--a matter of the greatest importance in extinguishing a fire: for
+unless you play upon the burning material, and thus cut off the flame at
+its root, you only uselessly deluge the building with water, which is, we
+believe, in many cases quite as destructive to stock and furniture as the
+fire it is intended to extinguish.
+
+  +-------------------------------------------------+
+  |_Year._|    _Number of_     |  _Fires_  |_Lives_ |
+  |       |    _Stations._     |_attended._|_saved._|
+  |-------|--------------------|-----------|--------|
+  |  1845 |  8 increased to 11 |    116    |   13   |
+  |  1846 | 11      "       15 |     96    |    7   |
+  |  1847 | 15      "       21 |    139    |   11   |
+  |  1848 | 21      "       25 |    197    |   17   |
+  |  1849 | 25      "       26 |    223    |   31   |
+  |  1850 | 26      "       28 |    198    |   10   |
+  |  1851 | 28      "       30 |    226    |   36   |
+  |  1852 | 30      "       34 |    253    |   25   |
+  |  1853 | 34      "       40 |    265    |   46   |
+  |  1854 | 40      "       40 |    328    |   28   |
+  |       |  Two since added.  |           |        |
+  +-------------------------------------------------+
+
+Much may be done by the inmates to help themselves when a house is on
+fire, in case neither the engine nor the escape should arrive in time to
+assist them. Mr. Braidwood, in his little work on the method of proceeding
+at fires, advises his readers to rehearse to themselves his
+recommendations, otherwise when the danger comes, they are thrown,
+according to his experience, into "a state of temporary derangement, and
+seem to be actuated only by a desire of muscular movement," throwing
+chairs and tables from the tops of houses that are scarcely on fire, and,
+to wind up the absurdity, he says, "on one occasion I saw crockery-ware
+thrown from a window on the third floor."
+
+The means to be adopted to prevent the flames spreading, resolve
+themselves into taking care not to open doors or windows, which create a
+draught. The same rule should be observed by those outside; no door or
+glass should be smashed in before the means are at hand to put out the
+fire.
+
+    _Directions for aiding persons to escape from premises on fire._
+
+    1. Be careful to acquaint yourself with the best means of exit from
+    the house both at the top and bottom.
+
+    2. On the first alarm, reflect before you act. If in bed at the time,
+    wrap yourself in a blanket, or bedside carpet; open no more doors or
+    windows than are absolutely necessary, and shut every door after you.
+
+    3. There is always from eight to twelve inches of pure air close to
+    the ground: if you cannot therefore walk upright through the smoke,
+    drop on your hands and knees, and thus progress. A wetted silk
+    handkerchief, a piece of flannel, or a worsted stocking drawn over the
+    face, permits breathing, and, to a great extent, excludes the smoke.
+
+    4. If you can neither make your way upwards nor downwards, get into a
+    front room: if there is a family, see that they are all collected
+    here, and keep the door closed as much as possible, for remember that
+    smoke always follows a draught, and fire always rushes after smoke.
+
+    5. On no account throw yourself, or allow others to throw themselves,
+    from the window. If no assistance is at hand, and you are in
+    extremity, tie the sheets together, and, having fastened one end to
+    some heavy piece of furniture, let down the women and children one by
+    one, by tying the end of the line of sheets round the waist and
+    lowering them through the window that is over the door, rather than
+    through one that is over the area. You can easily let yourself down
+    when the helpless are saved.
+
+    6. If a woman's clothes should catch fire, let her instantly roll
+    herself over and over on the ground; if a man be present, let him
+    throw her down and do the like, and then wrap her in a rug, coat, or
+    the first _woollen_ thing that is at hand.
+
+    7. Bystanders, the instant they see a fire, should run for the
+    fire-escape, or to the police station if that is nearer, where a
+    "jumping-sheet" is always to be found.
+
+Dancers, and those that are accustomed to wear light muslins and other
+inflammable articles of clothing, when they are likely to come in contact
+with the gas, would do well to remember, that by steeping them in a
+solution of alum they would not be liable to catch fire. If the rule were
+enforced at theatres, we might avoid any possible recurrence of such a
+catastrophe as happened at Drury Lane in 1844, when poor Clara Webster was
+so burnt before the eyes of the audience, that she died in a few days.
+
+During the twenty-one years that the Brigade has been in existence the
+firemen have been called out needlessly no less than 1,695 times, often
+indeed mischievously; for there are some idle people who think it amusing
+to send the men and engines miles away to imaginary fires. In most cases,
+however, these false alarms have originated in the over-anxiety of
+persons, who have hastened to the station for assistance, deceived by
+lights which they fancied to be of a suspicious character. Nature herself
+now and then gives a false alarm, and puts the Brigade to infinite trouble
+by her vagaries. Not only the men at one station, but nearly half of the
+entire force, were employed in November, 1835, from 11 P.M. to 6 A.M. on
+the succeeding morning, in running after the _aurora borealis_. Some of
+the dozen engines out on that occasion reached as far as Kilburn and
+Hampstead in search of those evanescent lights, which exactly simulated
+extensive fires. In the succeeding year the red rays of the rising sun
+took in some credulous members of the Brigade, and led them with their
+engines full swing along the Commercial and Mile-End Roads. Whilst on this
+false scent they came upon a real fire, which, although inferior to great
+Sol himself in grandeur, was far more remunerative, as the God of Morning
+knows nothing about rewards to first, second, and third engines.
+
+The most remarkable and universal false alarm caused by the play of the
+northern lights was in the autumn of this same year, when the whole
+north-eastern horizon seemed possessed by an angry conflagration, from
+which huge clouds of smoke appeared to roll away. On this occasion the
+public, as well as the firemen, were deceived: crowds poured forth from
+the West-end on foot and in carriages to see what they imagined to be a
+grand effect of the "devouring element;" and thirteen engines turned out
+with the full impression that a whole suburb of the metropolis was in
+flames.
+
+The alarms from chimneys on fire have called the engines out no less than
+1,982 times during the years the Brigade has been established, or on an
+average twice a week. Let us hope that, as we are setting about clearing
+the atmosphere by Act of Parliament, accidents of this kind will gradually
+cease. We may now watch with satisfaction many a tall shaft, as we steam
+down the river, that seems to stand idle in the air; the great rolling
+clouds of smoke that used to obscure the sky on the southern bank of the
+Thames are no longer seen, and the air is growing appreciably purer. It is
+evident that our manufacturers, where they have not become alive to the
+saving it would effect, have been coerced by the vigorous manner in which
+the Home Secretary has put the law in force against these black offenders;
+and we may hope that Dr. Arnott's smoke-consuming grate, or some
+modification of it, will ere long find its way into every house to
+complete the work.
+
+
+
+
+THE POLICE AND THE THIEVES.
+
+
+Most men who have arrived at that age when the last one or two buttons of
+the waistcoat are allowed to be unloosened after dinner, can remember the
+time when the safety of life and property in the metropolis depended on
+the efforts of the parochial watchman, a species of animal after the model
+of the old hackney coachman, encumbered with the self same drab greatcoat,
+with countless capes, with the self same Belcher handkerchief, or
+comforter, speaking in the same husky voice, and just as sottish, stupid,
+and uncivil. At night--for it was not thought worth while to set a watch
+in the day-time--the authorities provided him with a watch-box in order
+that he might enjoy his snooze in comfort, and furnished him with a huge
+lantern in order that its rays might enable the thief to get out of his
+way in time. As if these aids to escape were not sufficient for the
+midnight marauder, the watchman was provided with a staff with which he
+thundered on the pavement as he walked, a noise which he alternated with
+crying the hour and the state of the weather in a loud singing voice, and
+which told of his whereabouts when he himself was far out of sight.
+
+Up to the year 1828, and indeed for ten years later, in the city these men
+were the sole defence by night of the first metropolis in the world. The
+Charlies, as they were familiarly termed, had very little fight in them at
+any time; but it is well known that they "winked hard," when required to
+do so by people who could afford to pay them for it. It is not astonishing
+that crimes under such a police flourished apace, or that robberies
+increased to an extent which alarmed all thoughtful people. Mr.
+Colquhoun, a magistrate, whose work on the police, written at the
+beginning of the century, gave the first ideas of the reforms which have
+been since adopted; estimates that the annual value of the property stolen
+at the time at which he wrote, was at least 1,500,000_l._; and that the
+evil was gaining ground may be judged from the fact that the number of
+receivers of stolen goods had increased, between 1780 and 1800, from 300
+to 3,000!
+
+In addition to the nightly watch there was another class of persons who,
+if more active, were calculated in a still greater degree to defeat
+justice, but in a totally opposite direction: we allude to those men who
+made their bread out of the blood of the criminal population. The
+Government of the country was mainly to blame for the sins committed by
+these loathsome creatures. Since the time of Jonathan Wild thief-catchers
+had been stimulated to make criminals by what was termed Parliamentary
+rewards, or sums of forty pounds given by the Home Office to persons
+affording such information as would lead to the conviction of felons. The
+object of the officers was to secure blood-money, not to suppress crime;
+and it was their deliberate practice to allow robberies to proceed, which
+they might have prevented, in order to obtain the reward. To use their own
+language, they were accustomed "to let the matter ripen" until the fee was
+secure, and the work was cut out for the hangman. These men must not be
+confounded with the Bow Street runners, or detective police, some of whom
+were able and perhaps honest men; but they chiefly occupied themselves
+with thief-catching in private preserves, where the pay was ample, and
+contributed little if anything to the suppression of general crime.
+
+With a class of watchmen totally inoperative as a preventive police, with
+a class of informers stimulated by unwise enactments to lure men into
+villany, and with a code savage almost beyond belief--as late as 1800
+there were 160 capital crimes, and to break the dam of a fish-pond, or to
+cut down an apple-tree in a garden, were offences punishable with death;
+it is not to be wondered at that "the deadly never-green," as the gallows
+was called in the slang language of the day, bore fruit all the year
+round. Old Townsend, the Bow Street officer, who gave evidence before the
+committee which sat in 1816 to inquire into the police of the metropolis,
+said, "I remember in 1783, when Serjeant Adair was recorder, there were
+forty hung at two executions; the unfortunate people themselves laugh at
+it now, they call it a bagatelle." Among the more serious offences were
+the robberies committed by mounted highwaymen; and, in order to give an
+idea of their frequency, we again quote the racy evidence of
+Townsend:--"Formerly there were two, three, or four highwaymen--some on
+Hounslow Heath, some on Wimbledon Common, some on Finchley Common, some on
+the Romford Road. I have actually come to Bow Street in the morning, and
+while I have been leaning over the desk had three or four people come in
+and say, 'I was robbed by two highwaymen in such a place;' 'I was robbed
+by a single highwayman in such a place.' People travel safe now by means
+of the horse-patrol, which was planned by Sir Richard Ford." This
+horse-patrol, established in 1805, was the first innovation on the old
+system of watching; and it succeeded so admirably, that in a few years the
+highwaymen were entirely banished from the metropolitan counties, and the
+great roads in the neighbourhood of London, which were once as unsafe as
+those in the vicinity of Rome, became as orderly as Fleet Street. It does
+indeed seem strange that while the outskirts of the metropolis were thus
+provided with a new force which proved itself to be perfectly capable of
+clearing away the ruffians, no means should have been taken until 1829 to
+supersede the old parish constables who had flourished from the time of
+the Saxons, and appear to have been in full bloom in Elizabeth's reign,
+since Dogberry is a finished portrait of the race. No means existed by
+which the watchmen of different parishes could be made to co-operate
+against their common enemy, the thief. In the city they were under the
+direction of no less than thirty different authorities. There were the
+street-keepers, the patrol, the ward-constables, &c., all acting under
+separate masters; and so complete was the division that the constable of
+one ward would not interfere to prevent a robbery going on on the opposite
+side of the street, if it was out of his bounds.
+
+Mr. J. Elliot, in his evidence, given in 1838, before the Committee on
+"The Metropolis Police Offices," mentions a glaring instance of the
+perfect paralysis of the executive which arose out of this absurd system.
+"Two years ago," he said, "a neighbour of mine had his warehouse broken
+open, and a hundred pounds' worth of tea was taken away; a watchman at the
+top of the street saw a cart going away from the warehouse; but he said it
+was not in his ward, and therefore he did not interfere." The public
+indisposition to get rid of the old watchmen most certainly did not arise
+from any ignorance of their inefficiency; they had long, in fact, been
+bywords of feebleness and imbecility. To thrash a Charlie was a pet
+pastime of the young bloods of that day. The determined propensity to doze
+of these worthy functionaries was a standing topic for witticism. "A
+friend of mine," said Erskine, "was suffering from a continual
+wakefulness, and various methods were taken to send him to sleep, but in
+vain. At last his physicians resorted to an experiment which succeeded
+perfectly. They dressed him in a watchman's coat, put a lantern in his
+hand, and placed him in a sentry-box, and he was asleep in ten minutes."
+It might be imagined that tokens like these indicated pretty clearly that
+a reform would have been hailed with delight. The result proved, however,
+that to abuse a thing and to amend it are widely different. Mr. Peel, who
+had been feeling his way to his grand experiment by the establishment of a
+Bow-street day patrol, obtained in 1828 the appointment of a committee of
+the House of Commons to inquire into the expediency of establishing a
+uniform system of police in the metropolis; and the committee having
+reported to the House in favour of the scheme, it was immediately adopted.
+This salutary change was not made without creating a deep sensation. That
+stalking-horse, "the liberty of the subject," which in truth meant the
+liberty of rogues to plunder, was immediately paraded before the public;
+and we have no doubt whatever that in the tavern debating-clubs of the day
+it was reported that with the fall of the Charlies "the sun of England's
+glory had set for ever." And indeed to Englishmen, jealous of their
+personal liberty, the establishment of this new force might at first have
+created some well-founded alarm. It was no longer a question of a few
+constables, but of a standing army of nearly six thousand men, drilled
+like soldiers, taught to act in masses, and entirely independent of the
+control of the ratepayers. The very fact of the appointment, as one of the
+Commissioners, of Colonel Rowan, who had been employed in that
+quasi-military force the Irish constabulary, favoured the idea that the
+new police were to be a veritable _gendarmerie_. That such was the popular
+idea was clearly indicated by the numerous prints which appeared at the
+time of a fierce-looking "Peeler," armed with a belt full of pistols and a
+formidable sword.
+
+Those accustomed only to the slow pace of the constitutional watchman, as
+he waddled out to his post, beholding with astonishment the sergeant's
+party as it marched along the kerb in close file, and keeping quick
+military step, believed that so powerful a force, concentrated under a
+single head, might be turned to political purposes. The constables never
+appeared in the streets without being followed by crowds hooting at them,
+and calling them by the obnoxious names of "Peelers," "Raw Lobsters,"
+"Crushers," "Bobbies," &c. At last, in 1833, an actual collision took
+place between them and the great unwashed in Coldbath Fields. A meeting of
+Chartists was appointed to be held there, from which serious consequences
+were expected to arise. Directions were given to disperse it; but whilst
+in the performance of their duty three of the police were stabbed, and one
+of them mortally. It might have been thought that the very fact of a mob
+coming thus armed, with the express purpose of resisting a constituted
+authority, would have excited the indignation of the more respectable
+classes of the citizens. The contrary was the effect. A coroner's jury
+brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide--a pretty significant sign of
+the feeling towards the new force of the class from which the jury was
+selected. Such was the ferment that a commission was held to inquire into
+the conduct of the police, and they were exonerated from the charge of
+having, as a body, acted with greater violence than was necessary. From
+that period, with the exception of the investigation during the Beer Bill
+commotion into the charge of having dispersed a gathering in Hyde Park
+with undue severity--a charge which was not at all substantiated--their
+conduct has been so exemplary as completely to have removed the original
+dislike. Experience has served to teach the men the virtue of moderation
+and patience; and they are now looked upon as a constitutional force,
+simply because we have got accustomed to them.
+
+At the present time the Metropolitan Police Force consists of--a Chief
+Commissioner, Sir Richard Mayne; 2 Assistant-Commissioners, Captain
+Labalmondiere and Captain Harris; 18 Superintendents, 133 Inspectors, 625
+Sergeants, and 4,954 Constables; making a total of all ranks of 5,734. The
+machinery by which this comparatively small force is enabled to watch by
+night and day every alley, street, and square of this vast metropolis,
+nay, tries every accessible door and window of its 400,000 houses, patrols
+90 square miles of country, exercises a surveillance over the 8,000
+reputed thieves who prey upon its inhabitants, and keeps in awe the 40,000
+or 50,000 people who form "the uneasy classes" of the metropolis, is not
+very complicated. The metropolitan police district extends from Charing
+Cross 15 miles in every direction, and includes the whole of Middlesex and
+large portions of Surrey, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Buckinghamshire, and
+Berkshire, for which seven counties the Commissioners are magistrates and
+the police are sworn constables. The river Thames is also under its
+jurisdiction from Chelsea to Barking Creek, including all its wharves,
+docks, landing-places, and dockyards. The entire district has a
+circumference of 90 miles, and extends over an area of 700 square miles,
+100 of which, forming what is called the interior area, is covered with
+our great Babel of brick and mortar. This wide extent of ground is mapped
+out into 18 divisions, each of which is watched by a detachment of men,
+varying in number according to the extent of the area, the exposed nature
+of the property, or the density of the population:--
+
+  _Letters of_      _Local Names of_  _Strength of each_
+  _Divisions._        _Divisions._       _Division._
+
+      A              Whitehall              380
+      B              Westminster            324
+      C              St. James's            265
+      D              St. Mary-le-bone       371
+      E              Holborn                175
+      F              Covent Garden          165
+      G              Finsbury               317
+      H              Whitechapel            233
+      K              Stepney                482
+      L              Lambeth                208
+      M              Southwark              350
+      N              Islington              513
+      P              Camberwell             408
+      R              Greenwich              454
+      S              Hampstead              410
+      T              Kensington             288
+      V              Wandsworth             381
+      Thames Police                         103
+
+This it will be seen that policeman X, who figures so often in the pages
+of "Punch," is a myth of our facetious contemporary.
+
+Each division is separated into subdivisions, the subdivisions into
+sections, and, last of all the sections into beats. Of the main divisions,
+A, although one of the smallest in area, is by far the most important; it
+is the seat of the central authority located at Scotland Yard. Its police
+are much finer men (taller on the average than the Guards), and their
+duties are more responsible than those of any other division. They attend
+upon the Sovereign, the Parliament, the theatres, the parks, and all other
+places of public resort, such as Epsom and Ascot races, the flower shows,
+Crystal Palace, &c. The A division is, in fact, to the general body of
+Metropolitan Police what the Guards are to the army. To enable it to
+perform these extra duties, it has a reserve force of 250 men, drafted off
+on ordinary occasions in companies of fifty each to the B, C, D, G, and M
+divisions; upon this reserve force it draws when necessary.
+
+The other divisions are pretty much alike in the nature of their duties,
+which are simply those of watching. Certain modifications, however, arise
+from the character of their districts; thus a constable on duty at
+Whitechapel, if suddenly removed to Westminster or Mary-le-bone, would
+find himself considerably at fault, inasmuch as a familiarity with fights
+in courts, disputes with tramps, and the coarse language of low
+lodging-houses, is not a good school for the amenities required among a
+more fashionable population. In all the divisions exactly the same
+organization is maintained, and the same amount of arduous work is
+performed. Two-thirds of the entire force is on duty from nine or ten in
+the evening till five or six in the morning. Not long since the
+night-police were condemned to patrol the streets for nine hours, without
+sitting down, or even leaning their weary limbs against any support. This
+severe labour was found incompatible with the maintenance of due vigilance
+towards the end of the watch; the men are, therefore, now kept on duty
+only eight hours. Day work is divided into reliefs, and extends from six
+a.m. to nine p.m. Notwithstanding its greater severity, there are men who
+prefer the stolid unimpeded walk in the night, in which they go through
+their work like machines, to the more bustling and exciting day-patrol.
+The sergeants or inspectors make the round of the districts to see that
+the constables are duly parading their beats.
+
+If a door or window is discovered in an unsafe condition, its insecurity
+is immediately made known to the inmates; and if the constable fails to
+detect the circumstance during his tour, and it is afterwards observed by
+his sergeant or the succeeding constable, he is reported, and fined for
+his neglect. Continued inattention is visited by dismissal. Offences of
+every kind are severely punished, as appears from the fact that, between
+the years 1850 and 1856, 1,276 policemen were turned out of the force. Of
+these, sixty-eight were criminally convicted. Thus the men are kept up to
+their work, and collusions with thieves are rendered exceedingly
+difficult. Every morning a sheet of "Occurrences" is forwarded to the
+Chief Commissioner at Scotland Yard, which contains the full particulars
+of all matters worthy of notice which have taken place during the night
+throughout the metropolis, and a record of all property lost or stolen,
+from a gold pin to a chest of plate, is kept at the same central
+establishment.
+
+In case any affair of unusual importance occurs, a murder or a great
+robbery, the intelligence is conveyed by the constable who first becomes
+cognizant of it, to the central station of his division; from this point
+the news is radiated by policemen carrying what are termed route-papers,
+or papers of particulars of the offence, on the backs of which are marked
+the hour at which they were received at the different divisions through
+which they passed. In this manner information can be circulated in two
+hours to all the stations, excepting those belonging to the exterior or
+suburban districts. In these reports are given the names of the constables
+who were on the beats in which the offence took place, the sergeants in
+charge of the sections, and the names of the constables whose particular
+business it was to trace the offenders as far as possible. We understand,
+however, that the electric telegraph is now shooting its nerve-like
+threads to all the divisional stations in the metropolis, and, when the
+new agent is brought to bear, the communication will be almost
+instantaneous. Thus, in case of robbery, every constable will be made
+acquainted with the particulars without a moment's delay, and the
+police-net will be thrown at one cast over the entire metropolis. Thieves
+will no longer be able to get away with their plunder, ere a hue and cry
+has been raised after the property. Had the telegraph been in existence,
+in all probability Her Majesty's plate-chest would have been intercepted
+before it reached the field where it was ransacked in Shoreditch. In cases
+of riot of a formidable nature, the telegraph will be able to concentrate
+5,000 men in a couple of hours upon any spot within five miles of Charing
+Cross.
+
+Towards the outskirts of the metropolis, in the exterior or suburban
+districts, the widely-scattered constables chiefly perform the duties of a
+rural police. The great distances they have to traverse necessitates the
+use of horses; here, accordingly, we find the mounted police, the
+successors of the old horse-patrol established in 1805. The strength of
+this force, men and officers included, is only 120; they are furnished
+with powerful nags, and are armed with swords and pistols. Indeed the
+foot-police, whose beats lie in unfrequented rural districts, are allowed
+side-arms--a precaution which the fate of the policeman, who was brutally
+murdered in a field at Dagenham, in Essex, some years since, proved to be
+by no means unnecessary.
+
+In the middle of the metropolitan police district is the City police,
+under the management of the corporation. The area of this peculiar, to
+borrow an ecclesiastical term, is only one square mile and a quarter; but
+forming as it does the very centre of business, it is by far the richest
+part of London, for, while it contains only one-twentieth portion of its
+inhabitants, it possesses a fourteenth part of its wealth. This small
+space is, in fact, the great heart not only of the metropolis, but of the
+commercial world. Through its principal thoroughfares a vaster flood of
+traffic is poured for several hours than is to be found in any other
+streets in the world. In the year 1850 it was ascertained that no less
+than 67,510 foot-passengers, and 13,796 vehicles, containing no fewer than
+52,092 persons, passed Bow Church, Cheapside, in one day. By another
+channel of communication, Aldgate, near the Minories, 58,430
+foot-passengers, and 9,332 vehicles, containing 20,804 persons, passed in
+the same time; and it is estimated that altogether no less than 400,000
+persons are poured into this one square mile and a quarter in the course
+of the twelve hours. The congregation in so confined a space of so vast a
+number of people, many of whom are forced to carry about with them
+considerable sums of money, must prove a great source of attraction to
+thieves of all kinds, and demands the constant vigilance of a
+comparatively large body of police. It was not until ten years after the
+successful experiment of the metropolitan police, however, that the
+corporation of London, wedded to its old system of ward-beadles,
+street-keepers, and imbecile constables, could be brought to adopt the new
+system; but it must be admitted that the present force, consisting of 1
+superintendent, 13 inspectors, 12 station-sergeants, 47 sergeants, and 492
+policemen, making a total of 565, do the duty well; and the City, with all
+its stored wealth, is now as safe as the rest of the metropolis. At all
+the banks plain-clothes men are constantly in attendance to keep out the
+swell-mob, who buzz about such places as wasps do about a peach wall; and
+in the great thoroughfares, such as Cheapside, six or seven policemen are
+always to be found.
+
+The peculiarities of the City, which produce its characteristic robberies,
+are the number of its uninhabited warehouses, the perfect labyrinth of
+lanes which traverse and intersect its streets in all directions, and the
+vast number of carts and vans always standing full of valuable goods at
+the warehouse doors. The greatest precautions are taken to mark the
+fastenings on the warehouse doors, so as to betray any attempt to force
+them; and these devices are generally successful. The reticulation of
+lanes will always prove a trouble to the police and a security to
+pickpockets. Not many years ago a bank clerk was attacked at mid-day in
+one of these passages in the very heart of the City, but luckily he
+retained hold of his case, which held most valuable property, and it is
+now the custom to chain these bill-cases to the person, just as they used
+to chain books in the olden time to the library shelves. It is also
+customary for bank clerks to tear the corners off all Bank of England
+notes, so as to render them unnegotiable, unless to persons who can
+produce the corresponding piece,--a contrivance which, no doubt, put a
+stop to audacious attacks upon these money-carriers in the middle of the
+day. The most common robberies are those from vehicles loading and
+discharging valuable silk and other goods at the warehouse doors. For the
+protection of such goods a small dog is the best policeman; and carts are
+rarely seen in the City without one of these nimble guardians. The old
+restriction which prevented the metropolitan police from entering the
+City, and the City force from entering the metropolitan districts, is now
+abandoned. Nevertheless, the fact of their being under a distinct
+jurisdiction prevents that unity of action which ought to prevail. Not
+long since, a City policeman patrolling one of the streets which extended
+into the metropolitan department, was informed by a passer-by that they
+were killing a constable at the top of the street, to which the policeman
+replied that it was out of his beat and he could not interfere! When next
+the Sibyl presents her leaves to the city corporation, in all probability
+the present isolated system of police will not be found inscribed on any
+one of them.
+
+Scotland Yard, as we have said, is the brain or central ganglion which
+directs the system of metropolitan police. Here the commissioners sit
+daily, and are ready to receive the complaints or other communications of
+the public. Its rooms are full of clerks, but all in the uniform of the
+police; in one office may be seen the constables wielding the pen instead
+of the truncheon, preparing daily returns and reports; in another, reading
+the morning and country papers, to learn what is doing that may require
+their presence, and to know what thieves have turned up in the police
+courts; in a third room an inspector is reading to the clerks from the
+different divisions any particulars it may be advisable to communicate to
+the entire force; in a fourth we see the secret chamber of the detective
+police--those human moles who work without casting up the earth lest their
+course should be discovered. In an office apart from the rest are the
+foreign detectives, who watch over _mauvais sujets_ from abroad. The
+entire floating foreign population in the metropolis is well known to the
+police, and no plots against allied governments could well be hatched in
+London without their cognizance. All articles lost in public conveyances
+are here taken charge of. The "Lost Property Office" contains piles of
+umbrellas, parasols, and walking-sticks, together with a curious
+assemblage of articles of jewellery and wearing apparel, brought by honest
+cabmen. On one occasion a parcel with cash to the amount of 1,600_l._ was
+deposited; and on another a thousand-pound note. Valuable property is
+always claimed immediately; but sticks, parasols, and umbrellas accumulate
+in a manner which proves that their loss is due to the carelessness of
+their owners and not to the loose morality of others. The offices for the
+inspectors of dangerous structures and for licensing common lodging-houses
+and the drivers and conductors of public conveyances, all of which
+departments are managed by the police, are close at hand.
+
+In the drilling-ground of the force--an open space surrounded by a
+hoarding close to the State Paper Office--there are generally from thirty
+to forty men in course of training, to fill up the gaps caused by
+dismissals, resignations, &c. On the occasion of our visit the yard was
+occupied by two bodies--the raw material, in the shape of some twenty
+individuals dressed in every variety of costume; and another batch of the
+finished article, buttoned up in blue and resplendent with plated buttons.
+The eye had only to run along the "gammut of men," if we may so term the
+fresh recruits drawn up before us, in order to see from how many ranks of
+society the police brigade is reinforced; smock-frocks, shooting-coats,
+frock-coats, tail-coats, some seedy and worn, some still good and fresh,
+denoted the condition in life of their owners, and the necessities to
+which some of them were reduced. Young men flushed with hope come from the
+provinces to push their fortunes, after a brief struggle find themselves
+stranded, and accept this, the most readily-obtained respectable service.
+
+As every policeman must be able to read and write, have a good character,
+and be of sound body and mind, the mere overflowings of the labour-market
+are excluded from the force; moreover, persons can always leave the
+service by giving a month's notice. For these reasons a much more
+intelligent class of men recruit the police than the army, and it is
+singular to note how this intelligence tells. The drill of constables and
+soldiers is nearly alike, yet the former learn all their movements in a
+fortnight, whilst the latter require at least two months. Intelligence of
+a certain kind, however, may be carried too far; your sharp Londoner makes
+a very bad policeman; he is too volatile and conceited to submit himself
+to discipline, and is oftener rejected than the persons from other parts,
+with whom eight-tenths of the force are recruited. The best constables
+come from the provincial cities and towns. They are both quicker and more
+"plucky" than the mere countryman fresh from the village--a singular fact,
+which proves that manly vigour, both physical and mental, is to be found
+in populations neither too aggregated nor entirely isolated.
+
+The policemen, perfect in their material drill, next undergo a mental one.
+Drawn up in line, a sergeant or inspector questions them as to their
+duties. "Supposing you see two men fighting, what would you do?" or, "If
+you were to discover a house on fire, how would you act?" Sometimes the
+constable addressed answers the question, but more generally his
+interrogator does it for him. When drilled and catechized to the full
+pitch, he doffs his plain clothes for a uniform, and comes out in the full
+bloom of a policeman. But he is still a neophyte, and before he is
+intrusted with a beat he attends at a police-court in order to watch the
+manner in which trained constables comport themselves in the witness-box.
+Having learned to give evidence clearly and briefly, to listen to
+ludicrous scenes without smiling, and to bear bad language with
+imperturbable patience, he is marched off to the division in which he has
+elected to serve (the policeman is always if possible allowed this
+privilege), and with his armlet on his wrist, his staff in one pocket, and
+his rattle in the other, he patrols his beat.
+
+Two especial injunctions are given to him--never to show his staff except
+to protect himself, and never to spring his rattle at night except in a
+case of great urgency. The care taken to hide his offensive weapon is one
+of the best points of our police arrangements. The officers sent over here
+to gain information, prior to the introduction of the English police
+system in Paris, were astonished at this forbearance: the Frenchmen could
+not understand why a man should carry a deadly weapon, unless to make a
+demonstration with it! In this little incident we see the essential
+difference between the French and English character. In six months' time
+it is expected that the young hand will prove a steady officer; that a
+wild young fellow, who perhaps only a few months before knew no restraint,
+should become a machine, moving, thinking, and speaking only as his
+instruction-book directs; and so wonderful are the powers of organization
+that such an officer he generally becomes. We all know him, for we see him
+day by day as we promenade the streets. Stiff, calm, and inexorable, he
+seems to take no interest in any mortal thing; to have neither hopes nor
+fears. Amid the bustle of Piccadilly or the roar of Oxford Street, P. C. X
+59 stalks along, an _institution_ rather than a man. We seem to have no
+more hold of his personality than we could possibly get of his coat,
+buttoned up to the throttling-point. Go, however, to the section-house, an
+establishment generally attached to the chief station of each division, in
+which the unmarried policemen are lodged, and enter the common hall or
+reading-room, and you no longer see policemen, but men; they have cast off
+their tight coats, as certain other unboiled lobsters, at fixed intervals,
+cast off their shells. They are absolutely laughing with each other! Some
+are writing, some are reading the morning papers, a group are grinning at
+the caricature of P. C. X 202 in "Punch;" some are deep in the horrors of
+a romance, extended at full length along a bench, with their trowsers
+tucked up; all are at their ease, taking rational amusement. In the common
+room of every section-house there is a library.[47] That in King Street,
+Westminster, contains 1,200 volumes, a well-selected medley of subjects,
+grave and gay. Some of the volumes, indeed, surprised us, as they seemed
+to indicate an erudite taste which we did not give police constables
+credit for possessing. We give a few of their titles as they came under
+our notice:--
+
+    Taylor's Holy Living.
+
+    The Annals of the English Bible.
+
+    Macaulay's Essays.
+
+    Alison's Europe.
+
+    Paley's Works.
+
+    Byron's Works.
+
+    The Waverley Novels.
+
+    James's Naval History.
+
+    Lane's Modern Egyptians.
+
+    Life of Mohammud, by Mohun Lal.
+
+    Tom Cringle's Log.
+
+    Bishop Heber's Journal.
+
+    Washington Irving's Works.
+
+    Colonial and Home Library.
+
+What do you think of the list, good reader? Policemen reading Paley! Can
+we wonder that they are so very blue? But we must not misrepresent the
+force. If volumes such as these are thumbed sufficiently to show that some
+Scotch sergeant has a taste for theological reading and "fee-lo-so-phy,"
+the prevalent inquiry is after good English literature; and, although the
+"Wandering Jew" and the "Mysteries of Paris" are in the library, we are
+told that the men do not like, and apparently do not understand, French
+romances. The library is only open on Thursdays, and then but for two
+hours. For this there is a philosophical reason. "What we can always see,"
+said the superintendent who kindly showed us over the Section, "we never
+see: it is only strangers that know all the sights of the metropolis." On
+the same principle, the issue of books is limited in the manner we have
+stated, and we are told that the plan answers admirably. The dormitories
+at King-street accommodate about ninety persons, the great portion of
+whom, having done night-duty, we saw fast asleep, on a fine tempting
+afternoon. It takes full three months for the men to acquire the habit of
+sleeping in the day; but, once acquired, they never lose it afterwards,
+although they return at stated intervals to day-duty again. They find
+their own breakfasts and suppers, but they mess together at dinner. They
+take it in turns to cater for the week; and the emulation thus created
+proves to the advantage of the mess, as we hear that early peas, and other
+delicacies of the season, find their way to the policemen's table.[48] It
+would be an immense boon to the Benedicts of the force if accommodation
+could also be found for them in the section-houses. In these days of model
+lodging-houses such an injustice to family men should scarcely be allowed
+to exist.
+
+One of the strongest reasons which weighed with Mr. Peel in proposing the
+establishment of the new police in 1829 was the expediency of instituting
+a force powerful enough to cope with mobs, and to repress those incipient
+commotions which, if too roughly dealt with by the military, are apt to
+leave an abiding sense of irritation in the public mind. The massacre of
+"Peterloo," as it was vulgarly called, without doubt proved to the
+reflective mind of Peel that civil disturbances could no longer be dealt
+with by the sharp edge of the sword, and that a knock-down blow of a
+truncheon was far more congenial to the English skull than the sabre of
+the yeoman or the bullet of the "sodger." That view was undoubtedly
+correct. The new police have not, it is true, come in contact with excited
+mobs on more than three occasions,--the affair of Coldbath Fields, in the
+year 1833, the Chartist gathering in 1848, and the skirmish in the Park,
+of July, 1855. On each of these occasions the crowd was immediately
+dispersed, and whatever irritation might have existed at the time, it
+quickly died away. There seems to be no fear that a London mob will ever
+prove a serious thing in the face of our present corps of policemen. A
+repetition of the Lord George Gordon riots would be an impossibility.
+Those who shudder at the idea of an outbreak in the metropolis, containing
+two millions and a half of people and at least fifty thousand of the
+"dangerous classes," forget that the capital is so wide that its different
+sections are totally unknown to each other. A mob in London is wholly
+without cohesion, and the individuals composing it have but few feelings,
+thoughts, or pursuits in common. They would immediately break up before
+the determined attack of a band of well-trained men who know and have
+confidence in each other. The genuine Londoner, moreover, is no fighter;
+he will "slang" and "chaff" wittily with his tongue, but he will not come
+to blows. Those who have any experience in the _gamins_ of the great towns
+in England must have observed the vast difference between the want of
+pugnacity in the cockney-bred boy, and the love of fisticuffs among the
+youths of Bristol, Birmingham, or Manchester, which are the nurseries of
+prize-fighters. The great town has sharpened the brain of the Londoner,
+but unstrung his sinews and cowed his courage, and he is a pigmy in the
+hands of the vigorous provincials. The middle classes are an exception,
+and we doubt not that the same spirit which marched with the trained-bands
+from London to Gloucester, in the civil war, is still to be found among
+them.
+
+We believe that the only quarter in which any formidable riot could take
+place would be eastward, in the neighbourhood of the Docks, where there
+are at least twelve thousand sailors in the river or on shore, ready for a
+spree, fearless and powerful, and acting with an undoubted _esprit de
+corps_. These, if associated with the seven or eight thousand
+dock-labourers and lightermen, would certainly produce a force difficult
+to cope with. For such emergencies the police are provided with side-arms,
+but we fear they are not well trained to their use, and it would take at
+least fourteen days to perfect them. If in any civil disturbance, however,
+it should come to cold steel, we think that the soldiers would prove far
+more effective, and their interference would be less galling than that of
+the police armed with murderous weapons. Prevention is the true duty of
+the civil force. One of the simplest methods for breaking up a crowd, in
+order that it may have no unity of action, is to march sections of
+constables, in double files of say fifty each; these sections moving a few
+yards apart speedily cleave by their weight the densest mob in twain. When
+once this division is made, the order is given to face right and left and
+march; by this means the mass is riven into a dozen helpless portions. If
+the mounted police can be brought into action, it is customary to march
+them in every direction through the crowd. Those who were in Hyde Park on
+the evening of the great Sunday gathering in July 1855, witnessed how
+effectually this singular manoeuvre was executed under the orders of
+Captain Labalmondiere. The horsemen, circulating among the immense crowd,
+entirely disintegrated the mass, and rendered it helpless for a common
+movement, and this without any altercation; for what use could there be in
+arguing with horses' heels? A policeman's staff thrust in your chest,
+accompanied by a peremptory order to stand back, would probably "rile" the
+best of us; but what is to be said against the push of a horse's flank or
+the descent of a heavy hoof? Everybody is glad to get as quickly as
+possible out of the way, and thus the whole company break as it were of
+their own accord.
+
+Let us now revert to the Detective Police. When the Metropolitan force was
+established in 1829, the old Bow-street officers, not caring to work with
+the new system, retired from public life, and set up a private practice
+in hunting out offenders, in which occupation some of them continue to
+this day. For fifteen years there was no establishment of detectives
+connected with the police; but the inconvenience of not possessing so
+necessary a wheel in the constabulary machinery induced Sir James Graham,
+who had, perhaps, a leaning towards this branch of the profession, to
+revive the fraternity. The force consists of three inspectors, nine
+sergeants, and a body of police termed "plain-clothes men," whose services
+can be had at any moment. There are about six policemen in each division,
+who take upon themselves the duty of detectives when wanted, which affords
+a total number of 108 auxiliaries, upon whom the inspectors and sergeants
+can rely to carry out their orders with silence and address. In all great
+gatherings, these men are distributed among the crowd, dressed according
+to the character of the assembly. Thus, at an agricultural meeting,
+smock-frocks are worn, or the dress of a small farmer; at a review, the
+habiliments of a decent mechanic in his Sunday best. In this respect they
+follow the principle of Nature, who protects her creatures from
+observation by giving them coats of a colour somewhat similar to that of
+the soil they inhabit,--to the arctic fox, a fur white as the surrounding
+snow; and to the hare, a coat scarcely distinguishable from the brown
+heath in which she makes her form. It is the general rule to station these
+plain-clothes men as near as possible to the policemen of their own
+division, in order that they may be assisted in capturing prisoners.
+
+Man is eminently a hunting animal, but there is no prey which he follows
+with such zest and perseverance as his fellowman. Some policemen, directly
+they enter the force, show the taste so strongly that they are at once
+marked off for this special service. Others, on the contrary, will remain
+years without detecting a single crime. From among the 6,000 persons
+composing the force, a splendid field is afforded for selecting good men;
+and Bow-street, great as was its fame, did not turn out more intelligent
+detectives than we now possess. The officers, although they are not
+hail-fellow-well-met with every thief, as in the last century, still find
+it necessary to keep up a personal knowledge of the criminal population,
+especially with that portion of it whose members they may at one time or
+other be likely to "want." The detectives, as well as thieves, are
+generally famous for some particular line of business. One is good at
+housebreakers, another knows how to follow up the swell-mob, and a third
+is a crack hand at forgers. By confining themselves to distinct branches
+of the art, they acquire an especial sense, as it were, for the work; and
+it is remarkable how much their trouble is lightened by the division of
+labour. The detective stands in a very different position from the
+ordinary policeman; his work, long and laborious though it may be, must,
+to succeed, never see the light. Although he may have followed a case for
+years, all the public knows of it is summed up in the four words used by
+the constable who states the charge at the police court--"from information
+I received," &c. The detective lays the foundation which, from the
+shifting soil he has to deal with, is frequently far more extensive than
+the superstructure. His duty is to pursue the criminal through all his
+shiftings and turnings, until the case is clear against him; and then
+fearlessly to draw him forth from his hiding-place, as a ferret would a
+rabbit, and hand him over to an ordinary constable to bring to the
+judgment-seat.
+
+Much of the information by which the perpetrators of crimes are discovered
+comes from their own body: thus two thieves fall out, and one, prompted by
+revenge, and stimulated by the hope of a reward, splits upon his
+confederate; or some abandoned woman, jealous of another, gives
+information which leads to her paramour's apprehension. The revenge taken
+by members of the fraternity upon a "pal" whose treachery has been
+discovered, is often so signal, that the utmost caution is exercised in
+communicating with the police, lest suspicion should be excited. The
+constable, whose aim is to encourage these revelations, must never, by his
+want of address, give any hint of the source from which he receives his
+information; nay, he finds it necessary sometimes to pursue keenly a false
+scent in order to divert attention from the betrayer.
+
+Between the detective and the thief there is no ill blood: when they meet
+they give an odd wink of recognition to each other--the thief smiling, as
+much as to say, "I am quite safe, you know;" and the detective replying
+with a look, of which the interpretation is, "We shall be better
+acquainted by-and-by." They both feel, in short, that they are using their
+wits to get their living, and there is a sort of tacit understanding
+between them that each is entitled to play his game as well as he can.
+
+In pursuing the track of an offender, the officers often come across other
+crimes of which they were not aware, and for a time are thrown off the
+scent, just as a pack of fox-hounds by a hare which crosses their path. In
+such cases the only way is to try back until the original trail is found.
+It is not uncommon in this manner to stumble upon a regular network of
+roguery, and to discover the whereabouts of parties who have long been
+"wanting." The most trivial hint will suffice to put the detective on the
+right track: for, like men accustomed to work in the dark, things which to
+other persons are invisible, to them appear clear as noon-day. The
+gossiping tendency of neighbours is especially useful to them in worming
+out secrets. To obtain a single link in a chain of facts, they will often
+hang about a house for months, interrogating the newspaper lad, waylaying
+the servant girl as she is going for her supper beer, and picking all he
+wants to know out of her as easily as a locksmith picks a lock, and with
+quite as little consciousness on the part of the person operated upon.
+
+Mr. Dickens published some excellent papers in the early numbers of
+"Household Words," which illustrate admirably the habits of these
+officers. From these we select the following story, not that it is the
+most dramatic, but because it shows the vast number of dodges by which the
+detectives accomplish their ends:--
+
+    "'Tally-ho Thompson,' says Sergeant Witchem, after merely wetting his
+    lips with his brandy-and-water, 'Tally-ho Thompson was a famous
+    horse-stealer, couper, and magsman. Thompson, in conjunction with a
+    pal that occasionally worked with him, gammoned a countryman out of a
+    good round sum of money, under pretence of getting him a
+    situation--the regular old dodge--and afterwards in the "Hue and Cry"
+    for a horse--a horse that he stole down in Hertfordshire. I had to
+    look after Thompson, and I applied myself, of course, in the first
+    instance, to discovering where he was. Now, Thompson's wife lived,
+    along with a little daughter, at Chelsea. Knowing that Thompson was
+    somewhere in the country, I watched the house--especially at post-time
+    in the morning--thinking Thompson was pretty likely to write to her.
+    Sure enough, one morning the postman comes up, and delivers a letter
+    at Mrs. Thompson's door. Little girl opens the door, and takes it in.
+    We're not always sure of postmen, though the people at the
+    post-offices are always very obliging. A postman may help us, or he
+    may not,--just as it happens. However, I go across the road, and I say
+    to the postman, after he has left the letter, "Good morning! how are
+    you?" "How are _you_?" says he. "You've just delivered a letter for
+    Mrs. Thompson." "Yes I have." "You didn't happen to remark what the
+    post-mark was, perhaps?" "No," says he, "I didn't." "Come," says I,
+    "I'll be plain with you. I'm in a small way of business, and I have
+    given Thompson credit, and I can't afford to lose what he owes me. I
+    know he's got money, and I know he's in the country, and if you could
+    tell me what the post-mark was, I should be very much obliged to you,
+    and you'd do a service to a tradesman in a small way of business that
+    can't afford a loss." "Well," he said, "I do assure you that I did not
+    observe what the post-mark was; all I know is, that there was money in
+    the letter--I should say a sovereign." This was enough for me, because
+    of course I knew that Thompson, having sent his wife money, it was
+    probable she'd write to Thompson by return of post to acknowledge the
+    receipt. So I said "Thankee" to the postman, and I kept on the watch.
+    In the afternoon I saw the little girl come out. Of course I followed
+    her. She went into a stationer's shop, and I needn't say to you that I
+    looked in at the window. She bought some writing-paper and envelopes,
+    and a pen. I think to myself, "That'll do!"--watch her home again, and
+    don't go away, you may be sure, knowing that Mrs. Thompson was writing
+    her letter to 'Tally-ho,' and that the letter would be posted
+    presently. In about an hour or so, out came the little girl again,
+    with the letter in her hand. I went up, and said something to the
+    child, whatever it might have been; but I couldn't see the direction
+    of the letter, because she held it with the seal upwards. However, I
+    observed that on the back of the letter there was what we call a
+    kiss--a drop of wax by the side of the seal--and again, you
+    understand, that was enough for me. I saw her post the letter, waited
+    till she was gone, then went into the shop, and asked to see the
+    master. When he came out, I told him, "Now, I'm an officer in the
+    Detective Force; there's a letter with a kiss been posted here just
+    now, for a man that I'm in search of; and what I have to ask of you
+    is, that you will let me look at the direction of that letter." He was
+    very civil--took a lot of letters from the box in the window--shook
+    'em out on the counter with the faces downwards--and there among 'em
+    was the identical letter with the kiss. It was directed, "Mr. Thomas
+    Pigeon, Post-Office, B----, to be left till called for." Down I went
+    to B---- (a hundred and twenty miles or so) that night. Early next
+    morning I went to the post-office; saw the gentleman in charge of that
+    department; told him who I was; and that my object was to see and
+    track the party that should come for the letter for Mr. Thomas Pigeon.
+    He was very polite, and said, "You shall have every assistance we can
+    give you; you can wait inside the office; and we'll take care to let
+    you know when anybody comes for the letter." Well, I waited there
+    three days, and began to think that nobody ever _would_ come. At last
+    the clerk whispered to me, "Here! Detective! Somebody's come for the
+    letter!" "Keep him a minute," said I, and I ran round to the outside
+    of the office. There I saw a young chap with the appearance of an
+    ostler holding a horse by the bridle, stretching the bridle across the
+    pavement while he waited at the post-office window for the letter. I
+    began to pat the horse, and that; and I said to the boy, "Why, this is
+    Mr. Jones's mare!" "No, it a'nt." "No?" said I: "she's very like Mr.
+    Jones's mare!" "She a'nt Mr. Jones's mare, anyhow," says he: "it's Mr.
+    So-and-So's, of the Warwick Arms." And up he jumped, and off he
+    went--letter and all. I got a cab, followed on the box, and was so
+    quick after him, that I came into the stableyard of the Warwick Arms
+    by one gate just as he came in by another. I went into the bar, where
+    there was a young woman serving, and called for a glass of
+    brandy-and-water. He came in directly, and handed her the letter. She
+    casually looked at it without saying anything, and stuck it up behind
+    the glass over the chimney-piece. What was to be done next?
+
+    "'I turned it over in my mind while I drank my brandy-and-water
+    (looking pretty sharp at the letter the while), but I couldn't see my
+    way out of it at all. I tried to get lodgings in the house, but there
+    had been a horse-fair, or something of that sort, and it was full. I
+    was obliged to put up somewhere else, but I came backwards and
+    forwards to the bar for a couple of days, and there was the letter,
+    always behind the glass. At last I thought I'd write a letter to Mr.
+    Pigeon myself, and see what that would do. So I wrote one, and posted
+    it; but I purposely addressed it, Mr. John Pigeon, instead of Mr.
+    Thomas Pigeon, to see what _that_ would do. In the morning (a very wet
+    morning it was) I watched the postman down the street, and cut into
+    the bar, just before he reached the Warwick Arms. In he came presently
+    with my letter. "Is there a Mr. John Pigeon staying here?" "No!--stop
+    a bit though," says the barmaid; and she took down the letter behind
+    the glass. "No," says she, "it's Thomas, and _he_ is not staying here.
+    Would you do me a favour, and post this for me, as it is so wet?" The
+    postman said "Yes:" she folded it in another envelope, directed it,
+    and gave it him. He put it in his hat, and away he went.
+
+    "'I had no difficulty in finding out the direction of that letter. It
+    was addressed, "Mr. Thomas Pigeon, Post-Office, R----,
+    Northamptonshire, to be left till called for." Off I started directly
+    for R----. I said the same at the post-office there as I had said at
+    B----; and again I waited three days before anybody came. At last
+    another chap on horseback came. "Any letters for Mr. Thomas Pigeon?"
+    "Where do you come from?" "New Inn, near R----." He got the letter,
+    and away _he_ went at a canter.
+
+    "'I made my inquiries about the New Inn, near R----, and hearing it
+    was a solitary sort of house, a little in the horse line, about a
+    couple of miles from the station, I thought I'd go and have a look at
+    it. I found it what it had been described, and sauntered in to look
+    about me. The landlady was in the bar, and I was trying to get into
+    conversation with her; asked her how business was, and spoke about the
+    wet weather, and so on; when I saw, through an open door, three men
+    sitting by the fire in a sort of parlour or kitchen, and one of those
+    men, according to the description I had of him, was Tally-ho Thompson!
+
+    "'I went and sat down among 'em, and tried to make things agreeable;
+    but they were very shy--wouldn't talk at all--looked at me and at one
+    another in a way quite the reverse of sociable. I reckoned 'em up, and
+    finding that they were all three bigger men than me, and considering
+    that their looks were ugly--that it was a lonely place--railroad
+    station two miles off--and night coming on--thought I couldn't do
+    better than have a drop of brandy-and-water to keep my courage up. So
+    I called for my brandy-and-water; and as I was sitting drinking it by
+    the fire, Thompson got up and went out.
+
+    "'Now, the difficulty of it was that I wasn't sure it _was_ Thompson,
+    because I had never set eyes on him before; and what I had wanted was
+    to be quite certain of him. However, there was nothing for it now but
+    to follow, and put a bold face upon it. I found him talking outside in
+    the yard with the landlady. It turned out afterwards that he was
+    wanted by a Northampton officer for something else, and that, knowing
+    that officer to be pock-marked (as I am myself), he mistook me for
+    him. As I have observed, I found him talking to the landlady outside.
+    I put my hand upon his shoulder--this way--and said, 'Tally-ho
+    Thompson, it's no use. I know you. I'm an officer from London, and I
+    take you into custody for felony!' 'That be d--d!' said Tally-ho
+    Thompson.
+
+    "'We went back into the house, and the two friends began to cut up
+    rough, and their looks didn't please me at all, I assure you. 'Let the
+    man go. What are you going to do with him?' 'I'll tell you what I'm
+    going to do with him. I'm going to take him to London to-night, as
+    sure as I'm alive. I'm not alone here, whatever you may think. You
+    mind your own business, and keep yourselves to yourselves. It'll be
+    better for you, for I know you both very well.' _I_'d never seen or
+    heard of 'em in all my life, but my bouncing cowed 'em a bit, and they
+    kept off, while Thompson was making ready to go. I thought to myself,
+    however, that they might be coming after me on the dark road to rescue
+    Thompson; so I said to the landlady, 'What men have you got in the
+    house, missis!' 'We haven't got no men here,' she says, sulkily. 'You
+    have got an ostler, I suppose?' 'Yes, we've got an ostler.' 'Let me
+    see him.' Presently he came, and a shaggy-headed young fellow he was.
+    'Now, attend to me, young man,' says I; 'I'm a detective officer from
+    London. This man's name is Thompson. I have taken him into custody for
+    felony. I'm going to take him to the railroad station. I call upon
+    you, in the Queen's name, to assist me; and mind you, my friend,
+    you'll get yourself into more trouble than you know of, if you don't!'
+    You never saw a person open his eyes so wide. 'Now, Thompson, come
+    along!' says I. But when I took out the handcuffs, Thompson cries,
+    'No! None of that! I won't stand _them_! I'll go along with you quiet,
+    but I won't bear none of that!' 'Tally-ho Thompson,' I said, 'I'm
+    willing to behave as a man to you, if you are willing to behave as a
+    man to me. Give me your word that you will come peaceably along, and I
+    don't want to handcuff you.' 'I will,' says Thompson, 'but I'll have a
+    glass of brandy first.' 'I don't care if I've another,' said I. 'We'll
+    have two more, missis,' said the friends; 'and con-found you,
+    constable, you'll give your man a drop, won't you?' I was agreeable to
+    that; so we had it all round; and then my man and I took Tally-ho
+    Thompson safe to the railroad, and I carried him to London that night.
+    He was afterwards acquitted on account of a defect in the evidence;
+    and I understand he always praises me up to the skies, and says I'm
+    one of the best of men.'"
+
+The largest of all the classes of thieves, and that which employs the most
+extensive range of intellect, of age, and of dress, is the pickpocket.
+From the first-rate thief, who works about the banks for six or nine
+months until he gets a "good thing" to the miserable urchin who filches a
+pocket-handkerchief, how vast a descent! Although strung together by the
+common thread of crime, and pursuing, as it were, the same line of
+business, a duke could not, and certainly would not, look down upon a
+street-sweeper with half the hauteur that the leading rogues do upon the
+Fagin-led urchin who replenishes with bandanas the stalls of Field-lane.
+The popular notion of swellmobsmen is far wide of the truth. It is
+supposed that they may be at once recognized by a certain ultra-foppish
+manner of dressing, and an excess of jewellery, whereas the aim of a
+professor of the "conveying" art is to go about his occupation unobserved;
+for to be known to the police is to be disappointed of his booty. He has
+his clothes built by the most correct tailor, and gets himself up as much
+like a gentleman as possible. The necessities of his art, it is true,
+oblige him to carry a coat over his arm in all weathers; but so may any
+veritable man of fashion, without creating suspicion. Still, though he may
+manage to pass free in a crowd, and frequent fashionable assemblies
+without being suspected by the public, the professed thief-catcher is
+rarely to be deceived by appearances. As the hunter marks his quarry by
+peculiar signs known only to his craft, so the detective can at once
+ascertain whether the fine gentleman walking carelessly along is "wrong,"
+as the slang term is, or a respectable character.
+
+The principal sign by which a thief may be distinguished in any assembly
+is the wandering of his eye. Whilst those about him are either listening
+to a speaker or witnessing a spectacle, his orbits are peering restlessly,
+not to say anxiously around. When the thief-taker sees this, he knows his
+man. One of the detective police who attended at the laying of the
+foundation-stone of the Duke of Wellington's College, thus explained to us
+the capture of a gentlemanly-looking person who was present on that
+occasion:--
+
+    "If you ask me to give my reason why I thought this person a thief the
+    moment I saw him, I could not tell you; I did not even know myself.
+    There was something about him, as about all swellmobsmen, that
+    immediately attracted my attention, and led me to bend my eye upon
+    him. He did not appear to notice my watching him, but passed on into
+    the thick of the crowd, but then he turned and looked towards the spot
+    in which I was--this was enough for me, although I had never seen him
+    before, and he had not, to my knowledge, attempted any pocket. I
+    immediately made my way towards him, and, tapping him on the shoulder,
+    asked him abruptly, 'What do you do here?' Without any hesitation, he
+    said, in an under tone, 'I should not have come if I had known I
+    should have seen any of you.' I then asked him if he was working with
+    any companions, and he said, 'No, upon my word, I am alone;' upon this
+    I took him off to the room which we had provided for the safe-keeping
+    of the swellmobsmen."
+
+This was a daring stroke, but it succeeded as it deserved. If the man had
+been really honest, he would have turned indignantly upon the person who
+questioned him; but pickpockets are essentially cowards, both morally and
+physically, and they generally come down at once to save trouble, when the
+officer has his eye upon them, as the opossums were wont to do when they
+espied that dead shot Colonel Crockett. There is a striking example of
+this weakness of their tribe in the amusing work of the "Englishwoman in
+America." The scene is an American railway-carriage:--
+
+    "I had found it necessary to study physiognomy since leaving England,
+    and was horrified by the appearance of my next neighbour. His forehead
+    was low, his deep-set and restless eyes significant of cunning, and I
+    at once set him down as a swindler or pickpocket. My convictions of
+    the truth of my inferences were so strong, that I removed my purse--in
+    which, however, acting by advice, I never carried more than five
+    dollars--from my pocket, leaving in it only my handkerchief and the
+    checks for my baggage, knowing that I could not possibly keep awake
+    the whole morning. In spite of my endeavours to the contrary, I soon
+    sank into an oblivious state, from which I awoke to the consciousness
+    that my companion was withdrawing his hand from my pocket. My first
+    impulse was to make an exclamation; my second, which I carried into
+    execution, to ascertain my loss; which I found to be the very alarming
+    one of my baggage-checks; my whole property being thereby placed at
+    this vagabond's disposal, for I knew perfectly well, that if I claimed
+    my trunks without my checks, the acute baggage-master would have set
+    me down as a bold swindler. The keen-eyed conductor was not in the
+    car, and, had he been there, the necessity for habitual suspicion,
+    incidental to his position, would so far have removed his original
+    sentiments of generosity as to make him turn a deaf ear to my request,
+    and there was not one of my fellow-travellers whose physiognomy would
+    have warranted me in appealing to him. So, recollecting that my checks
+    were marked Chicago, and seeing that the thief's ticket bore the same
+    name, I resolved to wait the chapter of accidents, or the reappearance
+    of my friends.... With a whoop like an Indian war-whoop the cars ran
+    into a shed--they stopped--the pickpocket got up--I got up too--the
+    baggage-master came to the door: 'This gentleman has the checks for my
+    baggage,' said I, pointing to the thief. Bewildered, he took them from
+    his waistcoat-pocket, gave them to the baggage master, and went
+    hastily away. I had no inclination to cry 'Stop thief!' and had
+    barely time to congratulate myself on the fortunate impulse which had
+    led me to say what I did, when my friends appeared from the next car.
+    They were too highly amused with my recital to sympathize at all with
+    my feelings of annoyance; and one of them, a gentleman filling a high
+    situation in the East, laughed heartily, saying, in a thoroughly
+    American tone, 'The English ladies must be 'cute customers' if they
+    can outwit Yankee pickpockets.'"
+
+The quickness and presence of mind of this lady was worthy of the
+practised skill of the detective who marked his man at the Wellington
+College ceremonial. That same gathering afforded another example of the
+cowardice of the swell mob. Immediately they came upon the ground,
+fourteen of them were netted before they had time to try the lightness of
+their fingers. They were confined in a single room with only two policemen
+to guard them, yet they never attempted to escape, although their
+apprehension was illegal, but waited patiently until the crowd had
+dispersed. When the doors were thrown open, they immediately made a rush
+like so many rats from a trap, and never stopped until they were well out
+of sight of the police. The rapidity with which they bolted was caused by
+their desire to avoid being paraded before the assembled constables, a
+measure which is often taken by the police, in order that they may know
+their men on another occasion. If, however, the swellmobsman's eye is for
+ever wandering in search of his prey, so also is that of the detective;
+and instances may occur when the one may be mistaken for the other. At the
+opening of the Crystal Palace, a party of detectives distributed among the
+crowd, observed several foreigners looking about them in a manner
+calculated to rouse their suspicions. These individuals were immediately
+taken into custody, notwithstanding their strong and vehement
+expostulations made in very good French. When brought before the
+inspector, it came out that they were Belgian police, sent over at the
+request of our Government to keep a look out on the _mauvais sujets_ of
+their own nation.
+
+The swellmobsmen proper generally work together at races, in gangs of from
+three to seven; those who "cover," as it is termed, making a rush to
+create pressure, in order that the pickpocket may use his hand without
+being noticed. In taking watches it is generally supposed that the ring
+is cut by a pair of wire-nippers. This is rarely the case; thieves have no
+time in operating to use any other implement than their own nimble
+fingers, and the ring of the watch is wrenched off with the utmost ease,
+as the purchase upon it is very great. A police magistrate, of large
+experience, suggests that the way to baffle the fraternity would be to
+_make the ring work upon a swivel_. Inferior classes of thieves work in
+smaller "schools," say of a couple of women and a boy, whose little hand
+is capitally adapted for the work. Whilst one woman pushes, the lad
+attempts the pocket of the person nearest him, and the third "watches it
+off," as it is called; if she observes that the youth's attentions have
+been noticed, she immediately draws him back with a "Ha, Johnny, why do
+you push the lady so!" Look to your pockets, good reader, when you see
+forward little Johnnies about--especially at railway stations. Such places
+are the chief resort of this class of pickpockets, and we hear that
+theatres and churches, just as the people are coming out, are favourite
+haunts--the women creating a stoppage at the door, and the children taking
+advantage of it. Women's pockets are much more easily picked than men's,
+for the reason that the opening through the dress to it is larger, and it
+hangs by its weight free of the person. In a crowd, the operation is easy
+enough, as the general pressure masks the movement of the depredator's
+hand; when the victim is walking, a more artistic management is required.
+The hand is inserted at the moment that the right leg is thrown forward,
+because the pocket then hangs behind the limb, an essential condition for
+the thief, as the slightest motion is otherwise felt upon the leg. The
+trowser-pockets of a man are never attempted in the streets: but in a
+crowd, as at a race, he can be cleaned out by a school of mobsmen of
+everything in his possession, with little fear of detection. The first
+step is to select their victim; to do this demands some caution; and if
+they cannot see whether he carries a purse, and if they have no
+opportunity of watching him pull it out, they will feel all his pockets.
+The "spotter," as he is called, passes his hand across the clothes
+seemingly in the most accidental manner; sometimes twice when he is in
+doubt. The fact that there is booty being ascertained, the confederates
+surround him, and wait for the coming-off of a race. Just as the horse is
+at the winning-post, there is a rush forward of the crowd: of this the
+mobsmen take advantage, while the victim, perhaps, for better security,
+keeps his hand over his pocket, but in vain. At a critical moment the man
+behind tips his hat over his eyes, instinctively he lifts up his hand to
+set it right, and the next moment his pocket is hanging inside out. Few
+betting men who attend much at races have escaped being thoroughly cleaned
+out. It is rarely that Londoners are robbed in the streets; they are too
+busy, and move on too fast. Country people form the chief game of the
+light-fingered gentry: as they stare about, they instantly betray
+themselves to their watchful enemy, and in the midst of their admiration
+at everything about them, fall an easy prey. The thief in search of purses
+or handkerchiefs always makes his way trout-like against the stream. There
+are places, which, to carry out our piscatorial analogy, seem
+"ground-baited" for these fishers. Temple Bar, St. Paul's Churchyard, the
+Shoreditch end of Bishopsgate, Holborn, Cheapside, and other crowded
+thoroughfares, all afford excellent sport for the pickpockets, and any one
+acquainted with their "manners and customs" may occasionally see them
+exercising their craft at these localities, if he watches narrowly. They
+look out for a temporary stoppage in the stream of people, and a horse
+fallen in the highway, an altercation between a cabman and his fare, a
+fight, a crowd round a picture-shop, are all excellent opportunities, of
+which they instantly take advantage.
+
+The May meetings at Exeter Hall, however, form the most splendid harvests
+for the pickpocket. If the members of the various religious denominations
+who flock thither escape the hustle on the hall stairs, they are waited
+upon with due attention in the omnibus. Ladies and gentlemen who attend
+these May meetings are well known to be "omnibus people:" they lodge or
+visit, for the short period of their sojourn in town, either at Islington,
+Clapham, or Camberwell, and the "Waterloos" and the "Victorias" are
+followed by the fraternity as certainly as a sick ship in the tropics is
+followed by the sharks. Omnibuses are generally "worked" by a man and a
+woman; the woman seats herself on the right-hand side of the most
+respectable-looking female passenger she can see, and the man if possible
+takes a place opposite the individual to be operated upon. If she be a
+young person, the man "stares her out of countenance," and, whilst
+confused by his impertinence, the "pal," by the aid of a cloak thrown over
+her arm, or, if a man, by passing his hand through the pocket of his cloak
+made open on the inside for the purpose, is able to rifle her pockets at
+leisure. If the victim be a middle-aged or elderly lady, her attention is
+engaged in conversation whilst the clearing-out process is going on. The
+trick done, the confederates get out at the first convenient opportunity.
+It is very rarely that a pickpocket pursues his avocation alone; but a
+case has been reported lately in the newspapers, which proves that a
+clever artist can work single-handed. A man named William Henry Barber was
+charged at the Worship-street court with robbing a lady of her
+portemonnaie in a Stoke Newington omnibus: he was well known to the
+police, but had generally escaped by his adroitness. His manoeuvres were
+thus described by a lady, a resident of Stoke Newington, who had been
+robbed by him on a previous occasion:--
+
+    "She had got into an omnibus," she said, "at Kingsland, several weeks
+    back, to convey her to town, and found herself next to a
+    gentlemanly-looking stout man, who was dressed in sober black, with a
+    white neckerchief, and apparently a dissenting minister. The gentleman
+    gradually encroached upon her, and pressed upon her; but she thought
+    nothing of it, as he was very intent upon reading a newspaper the
+    whole way--so intent, indeed, that she did not see his face, and he
+    did not seem to notice that his newspaper several times partially
+    covered her dress. The stranger shortly afterwards got out, and she
+    did so also in a few minutes, and upon then placing her hand in her
+    pocket to make some purchase, she found that her purse had been
+    stolen, and with it seven sovereigns and a quantity of silver."
+
+The "Dissenting Minister" had evidently worked the Stoke Newington road
+regularly, and no doubt the "sober black" and the white handkerchief were
+assumed with a perfect knowledge of the "serious" class of passenger he
+was likely to encounter in omnibuses running to that suburb. Robberies of
+this kind have enormously increased of late. The security with which
+pickpockets can work, withdrawn as they are from the surveillance of the
+police, is a great incentive to thieves to take to this particular line of
+business.
+
+The earnings of what is called a "school" of boys, who pick pockets in
+concert, under the eye of a master, must be considerable; for we were
+shown, some time since, a bill made out by one of those Fagins for the
+board and lodging of his hopeful youths, from which it appeared that the
+regular charge for each was two guineas a week! This person was well known
+some years since on the Surrey side of the water as Mo Clarke. He attended
+races, dressed in the deepest black, with his young assistants in jackets
+and turned-down collars; and the whole group, to the eye of the general
+observer, presented the sad spectacle of a widower left with a family of
+young children to lament the loss of an attached mother. Their appearance
+disarmed suspicion, and enabled them to empty the pockets of those around
+them at their leisure. The subsequent fate of two of the children, though
+nursed in hypocrisy and vice, proves that the old saying, "once a thief
+always a thief," is not invariably correct, for they are at the present
+moment flourishing cab and omnibus proprietors.
+
+The advantage of working out of sight of the police has lately led some of
+the swell mob to go to church, prayer-book in hand, and pick pockets
+either in the pews or while the congregation is coming down the aisle.
+Women are the greatest adepts at this kind of thieving, and they are
+constant attendants at confirmations, plundering in sight of the most
+touching rite of the Church. The dress of these females is perfect enough;
+but with them, as with most other members of the swell mob, the finish is
+entirely on the outside; they scarcely ever have any education, and the
+moment they open their mouths they betray themselves. This fact is of
+especial service in detecting another large class, of thieves--the
+shoplifters. A lady cannot go into the shop of any silkmercer or
+linendraper without being struck with the rude manner in which the shopman
+clears the counter immediately the purchaser takes her seat. The
+plundering to which they are subjected is some excuse for their
+suspicions, for the assistants cannot tell at first who the customer may
+be, and if expensive goods were left exposed while their backs were
+turned, serious robberies would inevitably occur. The value of the manner
+of speech, as diagnostic of character, was exemplified not long since at
+Messrs. Swan and Edgar's, where a lady-like person asked to look at some
+"wallenciens." A watch was kept upon the "lady," and she was speedily
+detected secreting a card of valuable lace.
+
+The extent of pilfering carried on even by ladies of rank and position is
+very great; there are persons possessing a mania of this kind so well
+known among the shopkeeping community, that their addresses and
+descriptions are passed from hand to hand for mutual security. The
+attendants allow them to secrete what they like without seeming to observe
+them, and afterwards send a bill with the prices of the goods purloined to
+their houses. Jewellers' shops are especially open to a class of thieving
+termed "palming." One of the gang goes in first, and engages the attention
+of the assistant; then another drops in, and makes inquiries for some
+article which is on the other side of the shop; then perhaps a third,
+without recognizing his companions, follows, and asks for something,
+saying he is in a hurry, as he has to be off by a certain train, and at
+the same time pulls out his watch to show his eagerness to be served. The
+shopkeeper's attention is thus diverted from the confederates, who rob the
+trays before them of their valuable contents. Some of these fellows are so
+dexterous that, if they perceive any person watching them, they can "palm"
+back the goods they have secreted, and, on being accused, put on an
+appearance of injured innocence, which makes the tradesman believe that
+his own eyes must have deceived him. The higher order of thieves will
+sometimes "ring the changes," as it is called. This must be ranked among
+the fine arts of swindling. They will call on first-rate houses, and
+request to be shown valuable pieces of jewellery, such as diamonds,
+necklaces, and bracelets, which are kept in cases. Having noted the case,
+they go away, promising to call with "a lady." A case exactly similar is
+then made, with which they call a second time, and ask to see the
+identical bracelet they before admired, and substituting the empty case
+for that containing the jewels, depart with an apparent inability to
+decide upon the purchase. Many robberies to a heavy amount have taken
+place in this manner. Jewellers are liable to be attacked from without as
+well as from within. From the narration communicated by a prisoner to
+Captain Chesterton, when governor of Coldbath-fields prison, we extract
+the following method of procedure in what is termed "starring the
+glaze:"--
+
+    "One or two parties divert attention while another 'stars.' This is
+    either done by a diamond, or by inserting a small penknife through the
+    putty, near the corner of a pane, and cracking it; the wet finger
+    carries the crack in any direction; an angle is generally formed. The
+    piece is wrought to and through, and then removed; if necessary,
+    another piece is 'starred' to allow of the free ingress of the hand.
+    In a retired neighbourhood an opportunity is taken of tying the door,
+    in order to prevent any one coming out, and on passing of a heavy
+    carriage the hand is driven through a square of glass, upon which has
+    been laid a piece of strong paper, coated with treacle, to prevent
+    noise from the glass falling, and then articles of value are removed.
+    This is termed spanking the glaze. At other times the parties
+    intending to star go a night or two before and break one of the lower
+    squares of glass, a watch is then put upon the shop to know when the
+    square is renewed, which, of course, the putty being soft, can be
+    removed at pleasure; a piece of leather, upon which is spread some
+    pitch, being applied to the square to prevent it falling when pushed
+    in. Much time is saved this way."
+
+We often hear of the march of intellect in thieving, and the height to
+which its professors have carried it in these latter days. There could be
+no greater delusion; all the tricks of card-sharpers, ring-droppers,
+purse-cutters, &c., are centuries old, and it does not appear that they
+are performed a bit more adroitly now than in the days of Elizabeth. Mr.
+Charles Knight, in his charming paper on London rogueries, gives examples
+of the tricks of the Shakspearian era, which prove, as he observes, that
+pickpocketing in all its forms was taught as cleverly in the days of the
+Tudors as by Fagin and his boys in "Oliver Twist." His account of a school
+of thieves discovered in 1585 is an instance:--
+
+    "Among the rest they found one Wolton, a gentleman born, and sometimes
+    a merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay. This man
+    kept an alehouse at Smart's Key, near Billingsgate, and after, for
+    some misdemeanour, put down, he reared up a new trade of life; and in
+    the same house he procured all the cut-purses in the city to repair to
+    his house. There was a schoolhouse set up to learn young boys to cut
+    purses. Two devices were hung up--one was a pocket and another was a
+    purse. The pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung about with
+    hawk's bells, and over the top did hang a little scaring bell; the
+    purse had silver in it, and he that could take out a counter without
+    any noise was allowed to be a public Foyster; and he that could take a
+    piece of silver out of the purse without noise of any of the bells,
+    was adjudged a judicial nypper, according to their terms of art."
+
+The tricks we have enumerated all require cunning, lightness of hand, and
+address, rather than strength and courage. As the swellmobsman stands at
+the head of this school, so the cracksman or housebreaker stands on the
+highest pinnacle of the other great division of crime which attains its
+ends by force and courage. Since the ticket-of-leave system has been in
+action, this department has flourished to an alarming degree. The released
+convict re-enters the community with the enlarged experience of the hulks
+and with a brutal disregard of danger. Suddenly thrown upon his resources,
+with a blasted character, society leaves him no better means of livelihood
+than his old course of crime. One fellow who was brought up to Bow-street
+had committed no less than four burglaries within three weeks after he had
+been liberated! Bands of ruffians, with crape masks and with deadly arms,
+stand by the bed at dead of night, and, after robbing and terrifying their
+victims, leave them gagged and bound in a manner that would disgrace
+banditti. It is true these burglaries are confined to lonely houses
+situated in the country; but housebreaking has been on the increase of
+late even in the metropolis. Some of the craftsmen have become so expert,
+that no system of bolts or bars is capable of keeping them out. It may be
+as well to state, however, that a sheet of iron, on the inside of a panel,
+will often foil the most expert burglars; and all operators of this class
+who have opened their minds upon the subject to the prison authorities
+admit that it is totally impossible, without alarming the inmates, to
+force a window that is lightly barred with a thin iron bar and supplied
+with a bell. A shutter thus protected, and which gives a little with
+pressure, will not allow the centrebit to work without creating a motion
+which is sure to ring the alarum.
+
+Most burglaries of any importance, especially those in which much plate is
+stolen, are what is termed "put up;" that is, the thieves are in
+correspondence with servants in the house, or with those that have been
+discarded. Many robberies that appear to have been accomplished in a most
+wonderful manner from without, are committed from within. In "put up"
+robberies, however, the thieves seldom allow the confederate in the house
+to know when the robbery is to come off, for fear of what is termed a
+"double plant;" that is, lest the person who originally "put up" the
+robbery should, from the stings of conscience, or for other reasons, have
+officers in waiting to apprehend them. It is quite sufficient for adroit
+burglars to know where the valuables are kept, and the general
+arrangements of the house. We are indebted to the Yankees for an extremely
+clever method of gaining entrance to hotel bed-chambers, even when the
+inmate has fastened the door. The end of the key which projects through
+the lock is seized by a pair of steel pliers, and the door is unlocked
+whilst the traveller sleeps in fancied security. Several robberies of this
+kind have lately taken place. The most ingenious pilfering of the "put up"
+kind we ever heard of occurred many years ago in a large town in
+Hampshire. A gang of first-rate cracksmen, having heard that a certain
+banker in a country town was in the habit of keeping large sums of money
+in the strong box of the banking-house in which he himself dwelt,
+determined to carry it off. For this purpose the most astute and
+respectable-looking middle-aged man of the gang was despatched to the
+town, to reconnoitre the premises and get an insight into the character of
+their victim. The banker, he ascertained, belonged to the sect of
+Primitive Methodists, and held what is termed "love-feasts." The cracksman
+accordingly got himself up as a preacher, studied the peculiar method of
+holding forth in favour with the sect, wore a white neckerchief, assumed
+the nasal whine, and laid in a powerful stock of scripture phrases. Thus
+armed, he took occasion to hold forth, and that so "movingly," that the
+rumour of his "discourses" soon came to the ears of the banker, and he was
+admitted as a guest. His foot once inside the doors, he rapidly "improved
+the occasion" in his own peculiar manner. The intimacy grew, and he was
+speedily on such terms of friendship with every one in the house, that he
+came and went without notice. He acquainted himself with the position of
+the strong box, and took impressions in wax of the wards of the locks.
+These he sent up to his pals in town, and in due course was supplied with
+false keys. With these he opened the strong box, made exact notes of the
+value and nature of its contents, and replaced everything as he found it.
+A plan of the street, the house, and of the particular chamber in which
+the treasure was kept, was then prepared and forwarded to the confederates
+in London. He persuaded his kind friend the banker to hold a love-feast on
+the evening fixed for the final stroke. A few minutes before the time
+appointed for the robbery, he proposed that the whole assembly should join
+with him in raising their voices to the glory of the Lord. The cracksman
+laboured hard and long to keep up the hymn, and noise enough was made to
+cover the designs of less adroit confederates than his own. The
+pseudo-preacher, to disarm suspicion, remained with his friend for a
+fortnight after the theft, and on his departure all the women of the
+"persuasion" wept that so good a man should go away from among them!
+
+In a large number of cases the servants are only the unconscious
+instrument in the hands of the housebreaker. We will venture to say that
+more house robberies are committed through the vanity of servant girls
+than from any other cause. A smart young fellow, having heard that plunder
+is to be obtained in a certain house, manages to pick up an acquaintance
+with one of the female domestics, and makes violent love to her. We all
+know how communicative young women are to their sweethearts, and the
+consequence is, that in a short time he gets from her every particular
+that he requires,--the habits of the family, the times of their going out,
+the position of the plate-chest, and the fastenings of the doors. Where
+only a servant of all-work is kept, the process is more simple. The lover
+calls in the absence of the family at church, proposes a walk, and takes
+charge of the street-door key, which, unseen to the girl, is passed to a
+confederate; and whilst the polite lover and his lass are enjoying the
+cool of the evening the house is being ransacked. An investigation took
+place at the Lambeth Police Court a few months ago, where the poor girl
+who had been made the tool of the housebreaker attempted to commit suicide
+in order to prevent the consequences of her folly. Her account of the
+manner in which the "plant" was made upon her, affords a good example of
+the style of "putting up" a house robbery:--
+
+    "The young man with whom she had casually become acquainted called
+    after the family had gone out, and she asked him into the back
+    parlour. He then asked her to dress and go out with him, and he
+    remained in the back parlour while she dressed. While in the back
+    parlour he asked her if she could get a glass of wine, and she told
+    him that she could not, as the wine was locked up. He said it did not
+    matter, as they should have one when they went out, and that he
+    expected to meet his sister at the Elephant and Castle. They then left
+    the house and went for a walk, and on reaching the Elephant and Castle
+    remained there for some time, waiting for the young man's sister, but
+    did not see her. They next proceeded to a public-house, where they had
+    a glass of brandy-and-water, and the young man accompanied her to the
+    end of the street, where they parted, with the intention that they
+    should meet at one o'clock on the following day and spend the
+    afternoon together. On going to unlock the door, she found it ajar,
+    and on going in, found that the house had been robbed. On discovering
+    this, she did not know what to do, but thought she would make up a
+    story about thieves having got into the house, and took up the knife
+    and chopped her hand; but after this, not knowing how to face her
+    master or mistress after being so wicked, she took up the knife again,
+    intending to kill herself, and inflicted the wound on her throat."
+
+This confession was enough for the officers, and her "young man," with his
+confederates, were caught and convicted. The frequency of these robberies
+should put housekeepers on their guard as to what followers are allowed,
+lest the "young man" should turn out to be a regular cracksman in
+disguise. We bid the housekeeper also beware of another danger that
+sometimes threatens him when he has an empty house for a neighbour.
+Thieves always, if possible, make use of it as a basis of operations
+against the others. They creep towards the dusk of evening, when the
+inmates are generally down stairs, along the parapet, and enter
+successively the bedrooms of the adjoining tenements. As many as half a
+dozen houses have thus been robbed on the same occasion. Police-constables
+always keep a careful watch upon these untenanted houses, by placing
+private marks on some part of the premises; and if any of these signs are
+disturbed, they suspect that something is wrong, and make a further
+examination. In the City, where an immense amount of valuable property is
+stored in warehouses, the private marks are much more used than in other
+portions of the metropolis, and are continually changed, lest they should
+become known to thieves and be turned to their advantage.
+
+Professional beggars are almost without exception thieves; but as they are
+generally recruited from the lowest portion of the population, they never
+attain any of the higher ranks, but confine themselves to petty acts of
+filching, or to cunning methods of circumventing the honest. The
+half-naked wretch that appears to be addressing the basement floor in
+piteous terms, has a fine eye for the spoons he may see cleaning below;
+and the shipwrecked sailor just cast ashore from St. Giles's would be an
+awkward person to meet with in a dark suburban lane. Professional beggars
+are migratory in their habits. They travel from town to town, not in the
+filthy rags we are accustomed to see them in, but in good clothing; the
+rags are carried by their women, and are only donned when they are nearing
+the place in which they intend to beg.
+
+There is an audacious class of thieves, termed "dragsmen," who plunder
+vehicles. At the West End they chiefly operate upon cabs going to or
+coming from the railway stations. As this kind of thieving is carried on
+under the very eyes of the foot-passengers, it is rarely attempted except
+in the dusk of the evening. The dragsman manages to hang on behind, as
+though he were merely taking a surreptitious ride, but in reality to cut
+leather thongs and undo fastenings, and be able at any convenient moment
+to slip off a box or parcel unobserved. The carelessness of the public is
+the best confederate of this sort of thief. In the case of Lady
+Ellesmere's jewels, the box was put not _inside_, but _outside_, the cab
+in which the valet rode, and not in the middle of other boxes, but the
+_hindermost_ of all--just the place in which the dragsman would have
+planted it. It is now known that the robbery was effected between Berkeley
+Square and Grosvenor Square, as a man was seen with the package standing
+at the corner of Mount Street, Davies Street, bargaining with a cabman to
+take him to the City. The man and his booty were driven to a public-house,
+but the box must have been shifted immediately, for in two hours from the
+time it was lost it was found rifled of its contents in a waste piece of
+ground in Shoreditch. It might perhaps for a moment be suspected that this
+was a "put up" robbery, but we are precluded from adopting this view of
+the case, as it is, we believe, suspected that the man sold the jewels,
+which were worth perhaps 25,000_l._, for a very trifling sum. He must have
+been entirely ignorant of their value, and having by a chance stroke
+obtained a magnificent booty, threw it away for an old song. Not many
+weeks after this extraordinary robbery, a plate-chest of her Majesty was
+stolen from a van between Buckingham Palace and the Great Western Railway.
+There were persons walking alongside the vehicle, and it seems marvellous
+how it could be possible to remove unseen a heavy chest under such
+conditions; but every facility was given in this case, as in the former,
+for the plunderers to do their work unmolested. In the first place the box
+was put in such a position that its bottom came flush with the ledge of
+the van. Next, the journey from Buckingham Palace to Paddington was, in
+the driver's idea, too far to go without baiting on the way; therefore
+bait he did at a little public-house, and every person in charge of the
+property went inside to drink. According to their own account, they did
+not stop more than a minute; this minute was enough: like Laertes, the
+thief might have said, "'Twill serve." In this instance also the box was
+found empty in a field at Shoreditch, and it is believed that a
+ticket-of-leave man had a hand in both robberies.
+
+The habits of thieves have been somewhat modified since the institution of
+the new police, and the adoption of the principle of prevention instead of
+detection, in dealing with the criminal population. In the time of the old
+Bow-street Runners the different classes of thieves had their houses of
+call, in which they regularly assembled. The arrangement was winked at by
+the magistrates, and approved by the officers, as useful to them in
+looking after offenders that were wanted. John Townsend, when speaking of
+the supposed advantage of these flash houses, said, "I know
+five-and-twenty, or six-and-twenty years ago, there were four houses where
+we could pop in, and I have taken three or four, or five or six of them at
+a time, and three or four of them have been convicted, and yet the
+public-house was tolerably well conducted too." Perhaps officers who lived
+upon the capture of thieves had good reason for maintaining these flash
+houses, in which most robberies were concocted; the case is far different
+now that the police are paid by day rather than by piece-work, by weekly
+salary rather than by blood-money, and all known flash houses have long
+been discontinued. Some fifteen years since a few remained in the Borough,
+but Superintendent Haynes broke them up, and rooted them out. Thieves
+cannot meet now in respectable houses, for if they did, the constables
+would become aware of the fact, and the landlord would speedily lose his
+license. The passing of the Common Lodging-house Act has also assisted in
+dispersing the desperate gangs, one of which, known under the name of "The
+Forty Thieves," infested the town a few years since. It may be asked, what
+sort of mutual fellowship exists among these outcasts who live below the
+surface of "society"? Of the seven or eight thousand thieves in the
+metropolis, very few are acquainted with each other; they are, in fact,
+divided into as many sections as are to be found among honest men. Beyond
+their own peculiar set they do not associate with their kind. The
+swell-mobsman is as distinct a being from the cracksman as a Bond-street
+dandy from a South-Sea islander; they do not even talk the same slang, and
+could no more practise each other's art, than a shoemaker could make a
+table. These natural divisions of the underground world of rogues
+immensely facilitate the operations of the police. The manner in which
+they do their work is also in some cases a pretty good guide to the
+detectives. Skill and individuality is evinced in unlawful as well as in
+lawful pursuits--in the manner in which a door is forced, as much as in
+the style a picture is painted; and a clever officer, after carefully
+examining a door or a window, will sometimes say, "This looks like
+'Whiteheaded Bob's work,'" or "'Billy-go-Fast,' must have had a hand in
+this job."
+
+The leading swell-mobsmen are the only class of thieves who "touch," if we
+may term it, the ordinary society of better men. The practitioner in this
+line must dress and be as much like a gentleman as possible, in order to
+pursue his avocation without suspicion. Accordingly, he lives with a
+woman, who passes for his wife, in genteel lodgings, and generally in the
+drawing-room floor. As his earnings are often very large, he has
+everything about him of the most expensive kind; his style of living is
+luxurious, and he drinks nothing less than hock and champagne. He
+sometimes keeps a banking account, and one man named Brown, lately
+apprehended, had a balance at his banker's of 800_l._! As the members of
+this fraternity work wholly in the daytime, going out in the morning and
+returning in the evening, the landlady believes that they are engaged in
+mercantile pursuits, and have business in the City; and, as it is part of
+their game to pay their way liberally, she esteems them to be model
+lodgers!
+
+The domestic habits of thieves are all pretty much alike; fluctuating
+between the prison and the hulks, they exhibit the usual characteristics
+of men engaged in dangerous enterprises. They mainly pass their time, when
+not at "work," in gambling, smoking, and drinking, and in listening to the
+adventures of their companions. It must be remembered, however, that the
+professed thief, even if he drinks, is never _drunk_; he is employed in
+desperate undertakings which require him to have his wits about him quite
+as much, if not more than the honest man. When a pickpocket is flush of
+money, he spends it in the most lavish manner,--takes a tour with his
+female companion to the Isle of Wight, or to any other place he has a wish
+to see, and puts up at the best hotels. In some of these trips he thinks
+nothing of spending 30_l._ in a fortnight, and when the money is gone he
+comes back again "to work." Thieves are generally faithful to each other;
+indeed the community of danger in which they live develops this virtue to
+an unusual extent. If a "pal" is apprehended, they cheerfully put down
+their guinea apiece to provide him with counsel for his trial; and if he
+should be imprisoned, they make a collection for him when he comes out. A
+curious circumstance is the rapidity with which news of any of the body
+having been arrested travels among his companions. We are assured that no
+sooner is a young thief captured and taken to the station-house, although
+he may have been plundering far away from his home, than some associate
+brings him his dinner or tea, as a matter of course.
+
+The best class of swell-mobsmen sometimes act upon the joint-stock
+principle "with limited liabilities." When a good thing is in prospect--a
+gold-dust robbery or a bank robbery--it is not unusual for several of them
+to "post" as much as 50_l._ apiece in order to provide the sinews of war
+to carry on the plan in a business-like manner. If in the end the job
+succeeds, the money advanced is carefully paid back to the persons
+advancing it--several of whom have lived for years on plunder thus
+obtained, without the police being able to detect them. Often the
+receivers make these adventures in crime, and plot the robbery of a
+jeweller's shop with as much coolness and shrewdness as though it were an
+ordinary mercantile speculation, and the produce is disposed of in the
+same business-like manner. Watches are what is termed "re-christened,"
+that is, the maker's names and numbers are taken out and fresh ones put
+in; they are then exported in large quantities to America. All articles of
+plate are immediately thrown into the crucible and melted down, so as to
+place them beyond the hope of identification. In many cases, when the
+receiver cannot thoroughly depend upon the thief, it is, we believe,
+customary to employ intermediate receivers so as to render it impossible
+to trace the property to its ultimate destination. It must not be supposed
+that the passion for gain is always the sole incentive to robbery. "Oh,
+how I do love thieving! If I had thousands, I'd still be thief;" such were
+the words uttered by a youth in Coldbath-fields Prison, and overheard by
+the governor.[49]
+
+If the machinery for preventing and detecting crime has so vastly improved
+within this present century, the same may be said for the method of
+dispensing justice. Up to as late as 1792, the magistrates of
+Bow-street--the first "police-office," as it was then termed--were paid in
+that most obnoxious of all modes, by fees, which were often obtained in a
+manner so disgraceful that the magistrates got the name of "trading
+justices" and "basket justices." Our old friend John Townsend, whom we
+must summon once more to our aid, gives an insight into their proceedings,
+and he knew them well. He said, "The plan used to be to issue warrants,
+and to take up all the poor devils in the streets, and then there was the
+bailing them, 2_s._ 4_d._, which the magistrate had. _In taking up a
+hundred girls_, that would make, at 2_s._ 4_d._, 11_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ They
+sent none to jail, _for the bailing them was so much better_!" The old
+Bow-street worthy then draws a picture of the magistrate settling the
+amount of these ill-gotten fees with his clerk on the Monday morning. The
+"basket justices" were so called, because they allowed themselves to be
+bought over by presents of baskets of game. These enormities were so
+glaring, that, according to Townsend, "they at last led to the Police
+Bill, and it was a great blessing to the public to do away with these men,
+for they were nothing better than the encouragers of blacklegs, vice, and
+plunderers. There is no doubt about it." In 1792 seven other "offices"
+were established, namely, Queen-square, Great Marlborough-street, Hatton
+Garden, Worship-street, Lambeth, Shadwell, and Union-street, each office
+having three magistrates, who did the duties alternately. These, by the
+addition of the suburban courts, have since been augmented to eleven. They
+form the judgment-seats to which all offenders in this great capital of
+2,500,000 inhabitants are brought, either to be punished summarily, or to
+be remanded to the sessions to take their trial.
+
+The police-courts may be likened to so many shafts sunk in the smooth
+surface of society, through which the seething mass of debauchery,
+violence, and crime, are daily bubbling up before the public eye. A
+spectator cannot sit beside the magistrate on the bench for a couple of
+hours without feeling that there are currents of wickedness flowing among
+the population as fixedly as the trade-winds in the tropics. A panorama
+of sin passes before his eye which he shudders to think is only like a
+single thread drawn from the fabric of vice which underlies the whole
+system of elegant, punctilious, and accomplished metropolitan life. On
+every case that comes before him the magistrate unassisted has to decide
+rapidly and justly, unless he desires to call down upon his head the
+thunders of an ever-watchful press. In addition to his judicial duties, he
+has to answer numberless questions, and to give advice upon law points to
+distressed persons: and all this amid a pestilential atmosphere which is
+calculated to depress both body and mind. Nevertheless, the work is done
+admirably, and justice, as speedy as that dispensed by cadis in Eastern
+tales, and much more impartial, is dealt to the throng brought before him.
+
+From an analysis of the Criminal Returns of the Metropolitan Police, it is
+apparent that crimes have their peculiar seasons. Thus attempts to commit
+suicide generally occur in the months of June, July, and August, and
+rarely in November, according to the commonly accepted notion; comfort, it
+is evident, is considered even in the accomplishment of this desperate
+act. Common assaults and drunkenness also multiply wonderfully in the
+dog-days. In the winter, on the contrary, burglaries increase, and, for
+some unknown reason, the uttering of counterfeit coin.
+
+The character of the cases brought before the police-courts varies, in
+some degree, according to the neighbourhood and other causes. Bow-street
+still maintains the pre-eminence over the other courts which it exercised
+in the old days, when the horse-patrol and the detective police, known as
+the Bow-street runners, were in existence; and this it does in consequence
+of its special jurisdiction over persons who are amenable to foreign law.
+The cases of this class--arson, murder, or bankruptcy--are heard in
+private, generally by the chief magistrate, and the depositions are
+forwarded direct to the Foreign Office. Ticket-of-leave men who have
+committed fresh offences, are here deprived of their tickets and
+apprehended by a warrant from the Home-Office. All Inland Revenue and
+Post-Office cases, such as stealing from letters, are adjudicated upon
+exclusively at Bow-street, which is, in fact, _the_ Government office.
+
+The Thames police deals with mutinies and murders committed on the high
+seas, and all disputes under the Mercantile Marine Act come as a matter of
+course to this court, together with the major portion of the criminals,
+the scene of whose offences is in the docks and on the river. Drunkenness,
+the vice of the sailors, and the insubordination arising out of it, form a
+very large portion of the charges of the district. Worship-street is
+famous, or rather infamous, for wife-beaters. The reason is curious, and
+supplies a hint to philanthropists to reform the dwellings of the poor,
+rather than pass harsh acts of parliament against the husbands, which in
+many cases only serve to aggravate the evils arising from their brutality.
+The majority of the wife-beaters come from Bethnal-green, where there are
+a great number of large old mansions let out to the working-classes in
+floors or flats. Sometimes as many as twenty families live in the same
+house. The children play about in the passages as a neutral ground,
+disputes arise, and the mothers take the parts of their respective
+offspring with discordant fierceness. This drives the men to the
+public-houses, where they drink their porter _iced_ and listen to more
+pleasant sounds in the shape of gratuitous concerts. The wives in turn are
+driven to the tavern doors to seek their mates, with words not too
+conciliatory, and are brutally assaulted by the drunken husbands, who are
+taken up the next day and get six months' imprisonment, _the family being
+in most instances irretrievably broken up and ruined thereby_. Some of the
+magistrates, seeing the baleful working of the system, have attempted a
+solution of the difficulty by making the husband promise to allow the wife
+to receive his weekly wages from his master, whose consent to the
+arrangement has been given. In many instances this plan has worked well,
+since the husband knows that on the slightest infringement of the
+agreement his spouse may give him six months' imprisonment, judgment in
+the case having been only suspended. But this power, again, is often
+abused by the woman, and it is a common thing for them on the least
+threat of their mates to say, "Mind what you are about, or I will give you
+'a sixer.'"
+
+Cases of begging are principally heard at the Marlborough-street
+police-court, as the rich streets in its neighbourhood are the main scenes
+of the nuisance. Blind beggars especially affect Regent-street,
+Oxford-street, and Piccadilly, the most thronged thoroughfares in the West
+End. We warn our readers against their charitable tendencies for these
+people. If the truth was known, the cry, "Pity the poor blind!" far from
+exciting their pity, would arouse their disgust. Blind beggars, as a
+class, are the most profligate scoundrels in the metropolis, thinking of
+nothing but their grosser appetites, and plundering the charitable for
+their satisfaction. One of these men lately taken into custody was
+discovered seated at the breakfast-table with ham and fourteen poached
+eggs before him! At the Westminster police-court the foot-guards are
+continually visitors against their will; but it is remarked as
+extraordinary that not one of the horse-guards has been charged here for
+years.
+
+A custom has grown up of making the police magistrates the almoners of the
+public in cases which have attracted the attention of the charitable
+through the medium of the press. Many a poor forsaken creature has
+suddenly found himself not only famous, but comparatively rich, by the
+simple process of telling his tale in one of these courts. The news of it
+flies through the country in the pages of the _Times_, and in the course
+of two or three mornings the magistrate is oppressed with post-office
+orders for the benefit of the sufferer, the donors simply requesting that
+their gifts should be acknowledged in the public journals. The annual
+receipts at the different courts for special cases must amount to a large
+sum; and there is in addition a constant flow of small sums towards the
+poor-box, the contents of which are distributed at the discretion of the
+magistrate. The annual income from this latter source is about 300_l._ per
+annum at Marlborough-street, and at Bow-street respectively, the greater
+portion of which is given to deserving objects whose cases have come
+before the court, and the remainder is dispensed at Christmas to the poor
+of the neighbourhood in the shape of coals and candles. We are
+particularly anxious to make this fact known, in order that the charitable
+may be aware that their gifts are well bestowed. The magistrates do not,
+we believe, encourage these donations, as they consider that the
+distribution of alms is incompatible with their office; but, on the other
+hand, it cannot be denied that a vast amount of temporary aid is thus
+given to persons whose needs cannot be satisfied by the union workhouse.
+Deserving people are often furnished with the means of obtaining a
+livelihood, workmen whose tools have been burned in a conflagration
+supplied with new ones, and in some cases women left behind by their
+husbands, under circumstances of peculiar hardship, have been provided
+with a passage to Australia. The thousands in England who only want to
+know where genuine misfortune exists to hasten to its relief, have a
+greater guarantee that they will not be imposed upon by these cases at the
+police-courts than by private solicitations, as the magistrates have the
+means of sifting the statements of applicants. Nevertheless, even these
+astute public servants are now and then deceived, and comparatively large
+sums have been received by them for persons who have afterwards been
+ascertained to be unworthy of relief; and in instances where the discovery
+took place in time, the money, by the direction of the donors, has been
+transferred to truer objects of charity.
+
+The fees, penalties, and forfeitures received at the eleven metropolitan
+police-courts and by the justices of the exterior police districts are
+very considerable; in 1855 they amounted to 11,315_l._ 16_s._ 6_d._ This
+sum goes towards defraying the expenses of the courts, which, together
+with the salaries of the officers, and other items, amounted in the same
+year to 63,021_l._ 0_s._ 5_d._ The expenditure may be considered
+reasonable, when it is remembered that 60,000 cases are annually disposed
+of, many of which require a minute knowledge of statute and of common law.
+The chief improvement required is the improvement of the buildings. The
+Thames police-court is the only one at all suitable for its purpose. An
+enclosed yard is attached to it, in which the police-van can draw up and
+discharge its prisoners without exposing them to the public gaze, an
+important point in times of public excitement. Clerkenwell and Westminster
+are the next best-arranged courts, but both want space and air; Lambeth,
+though lately built, is a complete failure; many of the other courts are
+held in small private houses; and in those of Marlborough Street and
+Hammersmith, the business is transacted up stairs. In the latter court it
+is a common thing to hear it said of persons who have been taken before
+the magistrates--"he has been up the forty steps." With the common people,
+with whom these institutions have mainly to deal, justice should be
+dispensed with regard to appearances; there should be the formality of the
+superior courts, and somewhat of their show. A magistrate sitting in a
+plain black dress like an ordinary gentleman, and a lawyer dispensing
+justice in his wig and gown, are two very different things to the lower
+classes, whatever they may be to educated persons; and the want of all
+official costume, and the huddled style of doing business, inseparable
+from the present confined space, is not calculated to inspire the people
+with much respect. The police should at least be put upon a level with the
+county-courts. The latter have to deal with less momentous interests.
+Questions of paltry debt cannot be put in comparison with questions
+involving the liberty of the subject; the power of committing to prison
+for six months with hard labour is far more important than that of
+adjudicating in money disputes under five pounds. It is not enough that
+justice is administered; it is the opinion which the people have of it
+that produces the effect, and until the judgment-seat is rendered
+dignified, and those who sit on it are clothed with the habiliments which
+distinguish the magistrate from the man, the law, by losing most of its
+impressiveness, will lose its moral power over delinquents. The vulgar
+terror of punishment may remain, but the lesson which is conveyed to the
+feelings by the solemn stateliness of the tribunal is entirely gone.
+
+
+
+
+MORTALITY IN TRADES AND PROFESSIONS.
+
+
+It is but natural to suppose, that in such a busy hive of industry as
+England, where so large a proportion of the population--at least
+one-half--is engaged in the prosecution of arts and manufactures, that the
+effects of unceasing toil, and the debilitating influences of many
+employments, will have a certain effect upon the health and longevity of
+the artisan. We cannot pit the tender muscles of the child against the
+senseless energy of steam, without producing a strain upon the vital
+principle of the workers which must be highly injurious to it. We cannot
+consign a population as large as that of many German States to live
+perpetually in the bowels of the earth, without being prepared for an
+increased death-rate. The hundreds of diverse manufactures and
+handicrafts, which make the land hum with labour, must all be prosecuted
+under circumstances more or less inimical to perfect health. If we take
+the agricultural labourer of the better class, whose daily toil is
+performed under the roof of heaven, it must be clear that all trades which
+pursue their monotonous vocations in the crowded workshops of crowded
+cities, in constrained attitudes, and subject to debilitating emanations,
+must, to a certain extent, fall short of his standard of health.
+Nevertheless, we do not think the public are prepared for the state of
+things which a close examination of the sanitary condition of certain
+portions of the working population divulges. Accustomed to be furnished
+with all the appliances of easy life and luxury, the great middle and
+upper classes have never perhaps given a thought as to the manner in
+which these wants and appliances are supplied. Accustomed to sip the
+honey, it never strikes us that perhaps its product involves in some cases
+the life of the working-bee. Yet the lady, who, from the silken ease of
+her fauteuil, surveys her drawing-room, may learn a lesson of compassion
+for the poor workman in nearly every article that lies before her. Those
+glazed visiting cards, if they could speak, possibly could tell of the
+paralyzed hand that made them; that splendid mirror, which lights up the
+stately room, has, without doubt, reflected the trembling form of the
+emaciated Italian artificer poisoned with mercurial fumes; those hangings,
+so soft and delicate, may have produced permanent disease to the weaver,
+whose stomach has been injured by its constant pressure against the beam;
+the porcelain vase on the bracket has dragged the "dipper's" hand into a
+poison that, sooner or later, will destroy its power, and, may-be, produce
+in him mania and death; nay, the very paper on the walls, tinted with all
+the vernal brightness of spring, has, for all we know, ulcerated with its
+poisonous dust the fingers of the hanger. The history of the manufacture
+of almost every article of elegance or _virtù_ would disclose to us
+pictures of workmen transiently or permanently disabled in the production
+of them. All this suffering--much of it totally preventible--goes on
+without complaint, the workman falls out of the ranks, and another
+instantly takes his place, to be succeeded perhaps by a third. We are
+convinced that such a waste of health and life could not be endured, if
+the public were fully alive to the magnitude of the evil; for this reason
+we shall endeavour, in the following essay, to give a true picture of what
+may, perhaps, without pedantry, be termed the pathology of industrial
+occupations and professions in this country.
+
+Foremost among those artisans who suffer from the inhalation of dust and
+other gritty particles given off in the pursuit of their employment are
+the grinders of Sheffield. Dr. J. C. Hall, in a series of papers published
+lately in the _British Medical Journal_, draws a picture of the condition
+of these unfortunate men, which is indeed appalling, and without doubt
+gives them the bad pre-eminence of pursuing the most deadly trade in
+existence. Grinding is divided into dry, wet, and mixed; that is, the
+various articles of steel turned out of the cutler's shop of Sheffield are
+subjected to the stone entirely dry, revolving in water, or to processes
+involving both methods. Of the three, the former is by far the most
+deadly: forks, needles, brace-bits, &c., are ground entirely on the dry
+stone, and the amount of finely-divided metal dust and siliceous grit
+given out in the process may be imagined, when we state that a dozen of
+razors, weighing 2lb. 4oz. as they come from the forge in the rough, lose
+in the process of "shaping" on the dry stone, upwards of five ounces, and
+the stone itself, seven inches in diameter, would be reduced one inch. To
+receive the mixture of stone and steel thus rapidly given off, the
+position of the grinder is but too convenient; straddled across his
+"horsing," as the frame in which the grindstone revolves is called, with
+his knees bent in an acute angle, his body inclined forwards, and his head
+hanging over the work, his mouth is brought into fatal contact with the
+poisonous dust, and his eyes with the rush of the sparks. Fork-grinding is
+performed entirely on the dry stone, and consequently it is the most
+deadly occupation pursued in Sheffield. About 500 men and boys are at
+present devoting themselves to destruction during the period of early
+manhood, for the benefit of the users of steel forks. "The silver fork
+school" imagines perhaps that these vile appliances have long been
+banished to the same limbo as snuffers, and will be surprised to learn
+that more steel forks than ever are thus fashioned in Sheffield, and the
+poor grinder, as he receives into his lungs the products of the
+fashioning, in his own person exemplifies the awful passage in the
+burial-service--"dust to dust"--as the disease thus induced cuts him off
+at the average age of twenty-nine years! "I shall be thirty-six years old
+next month," remarked a grinder, pathetically, to Dr. Hall, "and you know,
+measter, that's getting _a very old man_ in our trade." Another operation,
+almost as deadly as fork-grinding, is that of "racing the stone." These
+grindstones are but roughly reduced to the circular form by the quarry
+men, and the grinder undertakes the business of reducing and removing all
+their asperities, which he does by revolving them against a piece of
+steel--a tremendous dust being given off in the process. In wet grinding,
+which is employed in the manufacture of saws, files, sickles,
+table-knives, and edge-tools, comparatively little dust is made, and in
+these employments the grinders enjoy comparatively longer life; their
+average age ranging from thirty-five to forty years. In addition to the
+destructive effects of these particles of metal and stone upon the
+delicate membrane of the lungs, the dry-grinder is subjected to serious
+injury of the eyes from the red-hot particles of steel thrown off in the
+shape of sparks. The more careful of the workmen protect themselves from
+the danger, however, by wearing large spectacles of ordinary window glass.
+These spectacles, when they have been in use a little time, give practical
+evidence of their utility, for on examining them they are found to be
+speckled all over with the particles of steel, which, when red-hot, become
+embedded in the glass.
+
+In the rough nomenclature of the trade, the disease which thus early
+destroys the fashioner of forks and needles is termed the _grinder's rot_.
+The lung, when examined after death, looks as though it had been dipped in
+ink, and the texture, instead of exhibiting the usual spongy character of
+that organ when in health, cuts like a piece of india-rubber! The colour
+and the solidification of the dry-grinder's lung is owing to the chronic
+inflammation to which it has been subjected by the presence from an early
+age of irritating particles of steel and stone within its finest air
+passages. But why dry-grind at all, the reader will involuntarily exclaim,
+if the wages of the occupation are death? The grinder replies, that there
+are certain operations which cannot be done on the wet stone; giving the
+rounded back to razors, technically called "humping," and the rounded side
+to scissors, are quoted as examples. The pressure during the process of
+shaping is so great, that the rolling friction would speedily make the
+stone wear, and the workman would be unable to hold the blade upon it.
+Then, again, we may ask, where is the necessity for this rounded
+form--would the shaver on a cold morning care a jot whether his razor had
+a round or a square back? Would the lady, as she manipulated her lace-work
+with her scissors, hesitate to accept a three-sided scissor-leg in place
+of a half-round one, if she knew that the difference involved the life of
+a fellow-creature? Yet such trifling differences as these between round
+and flat, stand in the way of the health or misery of an entire class of
+workers! We give a list of the average duration of life of artisans in
+steel in Sheffield:--Dry-grinders of forks, 29 years; razors, 31 years;
+scissors, 32 years; edge-tool and wool-shears, 32 years; spring-knives, 34
+years; table-knives, 35 years; files, 35 years; saws, 38 years; sickles,
+38 years--the ascending longevity being in proportion to the amount of
+water used on the stone, and to the greater amount of adult labour
+employed; such articles as saws, sickles, and tools are happily too heavy
+to be manipulated by the children employed, and thus early diseased in the
+manufacture of the lighter articles.
+
+The only relief to be gathered from this dismal picture of wasted life, is
+the fact that things are not so bad as of old. By means of greater speed
+being given to the stone, many articles, such as pen and pocket-knives,
+are now ground with a wet stone that formerly were ground with the dry;
+and happily much of the dust has been abolished in the best shops, such as
+that of Messrs. Rodgers, by the introduction of fans on the principle of a
+winnowing-machine, which blows the dust and grit as it comes from the
+grindstone clear away through a flue placed in connection with the
+chimney. This fan is, however, only partially used; the grinders
+themselves, whom they are intended to benefit, complaining that the "trade
+is bad enough as it is, and if men lived longer, it would be so over-full
+that there would be no such a thing as getting a living:" the same spirit
+rejected Mr. Abraham's mask of magnetized wire, invented many years ago
+for the same object. There can be no doubt, however, that intelligence
+should rule in this matter, and that the Legislature should make it a
+fineable offence to work a dry stone without a fan, just as it is to work
+dangerous machinery without guards; for where one life is lost by neglect
+in the latter case, thousands sink into a premature grave in the former.
+Grinders, wet or dry, may also protect their lungs, in a most remarkable
+manner, by simply allowing the beard and moustache to grow. The hirsute
+appendages of the upper lip and chin are Nature's respirators, and it has
+been observed that those men who have allowed her in this respect to have
+her way, have discovered that she is somewhat wiser than fashion or
+popular usage.
+
+Of those artisans exposed to irritating dust, probably miners take the
+second place after the miserable dry grinders. If we investigate the
+condition of these men, we are immediately struck with the lamentable
+conditions under which they labour, and astonished at the endurance and
+patience with which they submit to toil to which that of the well-fed,
+well-housed felon is pleasant pastime. There are at present upwards of
+300,000 human beings acting the part of gnomes for the good of the
+community at large, entering day by day into the bowels of the earth, and
+emerging in the evening. Of human life they see as little as the train of
+black ants we watch emerging from their holes in the ground. Yet the miner
+is the industrial Atlas of England. Were he to cease to labour, this busy
+hive of men would speedily be hushed, and the giant limbs of machinery,
+which now do the drudgery of the world, become as still as the enchanted
+garden of the fairy tale ere the advent of the prince. Without the coal
+and the iron, the copper and the tin, they toilfully evolve from vast
+depths, England would be but a third-rate power. A life so cheerless, and
+yet so useful--nay, essential, to our national existence--should at least
+receive at the hands of the Government every protection that can be thrown
+around it; yet, if we follow the miner into his gallery and working cell,
+we are amazed at the dangers and the difficulties which are needlessly
+thrust upon him in the black realm in which he moves and has his being.
+Let us take the collier, for example. In many pits in the West of England,
+the seams of coal are not more than twenty or twenty-five inches thick;
+and inasmuch as the object of the worker is to remove the coal with as
+little as possible of the surrounding soil, he often drives his working
+to a considerable distance through an aperture not more than, and often
+not so much as, two feet high. If our adult male reader will condescend to
+squat himself on the floor, _à la Turque_, say under the dining-table, for
+instance, and then picture to himself the inconvenience of picking with an
+axe the under side of the prandial mahogany for twelve hours, he will
+obtain some slight idea of the muscular knot into which the poor collier
+has to tie himself, for the whole term of his working life, having to use
+violent exercise throughout. Can it be wondered at that, under such
+circumstances, the Apollo-like form of man becomes permanently twisted and
+bent, like the gnarled root of an oak that has been doubled up in the
+fissure of some rock? If we look at a collier, we see instantly that his
+back is curved, his legs bowed, and the extensor muscles of his calves
+withered through long disease. He has knotted himself so long, that the
+erect position of his race becomes a punishment to him. It is credibly
+related that a number of colliers, having been sentenced to imprisonment
+in Wakefield jail, with hard labour, the only complaint they made was,
+that they were obliged, whilst at work, to keep the ordinary posture of
+rational creatures. But confined space is only one of the many evil
+conditions under which they labour. In the majority of cases the collier
+works in foul air; for, notwithstanding all the official inspection, the
+ventilation of mines is still execrable. The fire-damp either blasts him
+into a cinder, or the choke-damp noiselessly blots out his life. However
+good, moreover, the general system of ventilation in a mine, unforeseen
+accidents will happen at any moment. The pick of the collier strikes into
+the gallery of an old pit, where carbonic acid gas has been gathering
+perhaps for a century; and the poisoned air rushes in and does its work in
+an instant; or a sudden invasion of carburetted hydrogen, disengaged by
+the fall of a mass of coal, meets the miner, who is working, perhaps
+imprudently, with a naked candle;--and an explosion follows which crowds
+the pit's mouth with a wailing multitude of newly-made widows and orphans.
+
+Upwards of 1,500 lives are annually lost, principally through these
+causes, and not less than 10,000 accidents in the same period testify to
+the dangerous nature of the miner's occupation, notwithstanding the strict
+Government inspection.[50] It is humiliating to know that England is yet
+far behind continental nations in her methods of preventing these dreadful
+catastrophes. Mr. Mackworth, in his lecture at the Society of Arts, stated
+that the mortality from accidents was, in the coal mines of
+
+                      Killed   Persons.
+  Prussia              1·89 per 1000 per annum.
+  Belgium              2·8       "
+  England              4·5       "
+  Staffordshire        7·3       "
+
+This comparison, so humiliating to England, cannot be explained by the
+superior adventure of our countrymen, inasmuch as the production of coal
+in Belgium is half as much again per acre of the coal-field as in England.
+It is not, however, to the dramatic accidents of coal mines which every
+now and then startle the community, to which we wish to draw attention;
+but rather to the silent progress of disease, which makes his death so
+premature, and his life so miserable. In addition to his cramped
+condition, whilst at work, his supply of oxygen is small; for in all
+probability the air supplied to him has to circulate many miles through
+the mine, and to pass over the excrementitious deposits of man and horse,
+and the decaying woodwork of the mine, ere it finally reaches him, in
+enfeebled streams, in his solitary working cell. Long deprivation of solar
+light, again, tends to impoverish his blood, to blanch him, in short, like
+vegetable products similarly deprived of the light of day. It is through
+the lungs, however, that the health of the miner is principally attacked.
+The air of a coal mine (such as it is) holds a vast amount of coal-dust in
+mechanical suspension, and this, as a matter of course, is constantly
+passing into the lungs of the miner. The proof of this is the so-called
+"black spit" of the collier, which, on being subjected to the microscope,
+is found to consist of mucus, filled with finely divided particles of
+coal. The permanent inhalation of such an atmosphere results in what is
+termed the "black lung." The breathing apparatus of the collier becomes
+clogged, in short, with coal-dust, and after death it has the appearance
+of being dipped in ink. A writer,[51] who has lately investigated this
+singular pathological condition, thus gives his experience of two
+_post-mortem_ examinations:--
+
+    "In each case, the black treacly fluid obtained by thus cutting the
+    various portions of the lung (more especially the posterior and
+    inferior portions of the lower lobes), and by slitting up the
+    bronchial tubes, was evaporated to dryness, and the residuum being
+    broken up and subjected to a red heat in a porcelain tube retort,
+    behaved precisely as coal under similar circumstances, _i.e._ it
+    evolved a smoke-like gaseous product, which, on being slightly
+    condensed, deposited hydro-sulphide of ammonium and coal tar, and
+    being thus purified, burnt in all respects like the well-known
+    compounds of the two carbides of hydrogen (common gas)."
+
+Dr. Gregory, of Edinburgh, many years since, by destructive analysis, came
+to the same conclusion respecting the carbonaceous nature of this deposit.
+The presence of this foreign body in the lungs leads to the whole train of
+pulmonary diseases. Asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia are but too
+frequent, and we are consequently not surprised to hear that the aggregate
+amount of sickness experienced by this class, for the period of life from
+twenty to sixty, is 95 weeks, or 67 per cent, more than the general
+average.
+
+Rheumatism, leading to heart disease, is another very common complaint of
+the miner. Indeed, all the conditions of ill-managed mines seem ready
+prepared for the propagation of this disease. When mines are driven to any
+considerable depth, the temperature proportionably increases, and 80
+degrees of Fahrenheit is a common temperature at the end of workings, all
+the year round. After exposure to this oppressive atmosphere during the
+whole day, the collier perhaps suddenly emerges into the open air at the
+pit's mouth, vitally depressed by his prolonged exertion, when the bitter
+wind is shaving the surface of the earth at a temperature much below
+freezing point. In the coal-field stretching from Valenciennes to
+Aix-la-Chapelle, the mines are made conspicuous a long way off by the
+presence of huge buildings, which enclose the machinery and the top of
+the pit. In these buildings apartments are prepared in which the colliers
+change their clothes before and after labour, and wash themselves in baths
+filled with hot water from the steam waste-pipe. The importance of this
+sanitary precaution is very great, inasmuch as colliers, like
+chimney-sweeps, are subject to a skin disease, in consequence of the
+begrimed condition of their skins. Lady Bassett has established these
+baths, we understand, at her mines at Camborne, in Cornwall; but we think
+that the enforcement of a sanitary act of such importance should not be
+left to the philanthropic tendencies of individuals, but should be
+required by the Government. If a provision of this kind were made
+compulsory, and stricter legislation with respect to ventilating mines
+were established, no doubt a vast amount of disease could be eliminated.
+It is estimated that the worst coal mines can be ventilated thoroughly at
+a cost of one penny per man per day, and that in well-constructed furnaces
+the consumption of one ton of coals per day at the bottom of an up-cast
+shaft will enable each collier to cut one ton of coals more per day with
+the same amount of exertion. Such being the case, there can be no excuse
+for asphyxiating the miners wholesale. Those proprietors of mines, who are
+only open to these breeches-pocket appeals, should know that it is their
+interest, in a pecuniary sense, to ventilate well, inasmuch as the
+preservative effect of pure air upon the wood brattrices, which form so
+expensive an item in mining, effects a saving of 80 per cent.
+
+Our remarks hitherto have been directed entirely to coal mines and
+colliers, as these are by far the most extensive industrial occupations of
+the kind. The metalliferous mines, such as the tin and copper mines of
+Cornwall, and lead mines of Derbyshire, are in pretty much the same
+pestiferous condition, but in one particular they are still more
+destructive of life than coal mines. In the latter the tired workman is
+lifted from the depths of the mines to the surface by a rope. The Cornwall
+miner, on the other hand, has to carry his exhausted body in some cases
+thousands of feet up a series of steep ladders to the mouth of the mine.
+It has been estimated that many miners have thus to make an exertion
+every night equal to climbing to the summit of Cader Idris, and this in an
+up-cast shaft used for the extraction of the foul air! The disastrous
+effect upon the already weary miner has long been known, yet in only a few
+of the great mines of Cornwall has the tireless arm of the steam-engine
+been called in to save him from this unnecessary labour. The machinery
+used is called a man-machine, and differs entirely from that employed in
+coal-pits. In place of a rope, a beam of wood or iron descends through the
+whole length of the shaft; this beam, at regular intervals of ten feet,
+has little platforms attached to it, sufficient to afford standing-room to
+a miner; at the sides of the shaft are similar platforms, at the same
+intervals. At every stroke of the engine the beam ascends or descends
+through the space of ten feet, consequently the miner has only to step
+from the fixed platform to the moving one to be lifted ten feet every time
+it ascends. In this manner as many as a hundred men are lifted at the same
+time several thousand feet in a few minutes, without any more exertion
+than is necessary to make a few score steps. This curious invention has
+materially benefited the miner, and where it is used there is a manifest
+absence of the heart disease, induced by the climbing of interminable
+ladders placed in an almost vertical position.
+
+Dr. Greenhow, in his report on the prevalence of certain diseases in
+different districts of England and Wales, very clearly proves the
+deleterious nature of the lead-miner's employment by the comparisons he
+makes between the death-rates of the men and women of Reeth and Alston,
+which are purely lead-mining districts. In the former, the lead-miners die
+at the rate of 2,037 per 100,000 of all ages, whilst their wives, sisters,
+and daughters, who are variously employed, die at the reduced rate of
+1,711 per 100,000; in other words, lead-mining in this one typical
+district caused an excess of no less than 3·26 deaths in every 100,000
+inhabitants; and if we make a comparison relative to the prevalence of
+pulmonary disease between the two sexes, above the age of twenty, we find
+the death-rate of the men is double that of the women. The evil influence
+of copper-mining on the male population is not quite so marked, but still
+it is apparent enough. Thus, in Redruth, in which this kind of labour is
+exclusively carried on, we find that in every 100,000 of population, 220
+males die from pulmonary disease more than females; and in Penzance, which
+is exclusively a tin-mining district, the superior waste of male over
+female life, in the same population, of all ages, is 104.
+
+The mason, like the miner, is particularly liable to suffer from the
+presence of irritating substances in the lungs. It has been asserted that
+in Edinburgh members of the craft rarely live more than fifty years. This
+is doubtless owing to the nature of the material they work upon. There is
+great reason to suppose that the degree of damage done to the delicate
+air-cells of the lung is to be measured by the nature of the particles
+inhaled. Thus, the ragged portions of granite detached by the chisel are
+much more likely to do harm than the less irregular dust of the
+bricklayer. In this manner we can account for the high rate of mortality
+said to exist among the masons of our northern metropolis. The scourers in
+the potteries exercise their fearful trade in an atmosphere loaded with
+pulverised flints, a mineral dust of the most distressing character: we
+are not surprised, therefore, to hear that in this process pulmonary
+disease is still more rampant than among the Edinburgh masons, and is
+little inferior to that of the dry grinders of Sheffield, who receive into
+their lungs jagged particles of steel as well as grindstone dust.[52] It
+will be unnecessary to consider all the trades which are affected by
+dust, inasmuch as the artisans employed in them are similarly subjected to
+pulmonary affections, if not in a like degree. Thus millers are rendered
+consumptive and asthmatic by the floating meal of their mills;
+snuff-makers by the snuff which pervades the air of their places of work;
+pearl-button-makers suffer still more from the same cause; and the men of
+Sheffield who haft knives with cocoa-wood or ebony are affected with a
+disease exactly like the hay-asthma. The shoddy-grinders of the West
+Riding, who grind and break up rags in a machine called "a devil," are
+subjected to what they term the shoddy fever, in consequence of the
+devil's dust given off in the tearing process. The dressers and preparers
+of hair, especially of foreign hair, are speedily broken in health by the
+dust and stench produced by their operations.
+
+The evil effects arising from the prosecution of these trades sink into
+insignificance, however, when compared with the destruction caused by the
+floating fluff of flax-mills. These mills employ children of tender years,
+who have to work in an atmosphere loaded with vegetable particles to such
+a degree, that in a measure it clouds the vision. The hecklers are the
+chief sufferers in this department of industry, especially the children,
+who are, many of them, forced to work the same time as adults--that is, as
+long as human nature can possibly hold out. We shall have more to say,
+however, when we come to consider the effects of bleaching and dyeing
+works, respecting those trades which exhaust the youthful powers of large
+portions of the working population, and thus do infinitely more damage to
+the race than the more curious diseases of smaller trades, which may be
+severe enough, but do not affect more than infinitesimal portions of the
+population.
+
+It would be supposed that workers on decomposing vegetable and animal
+matter would suffer a sickness and mortality only inferior to the artisans
+subjected to the emanations of poisonous metals. _A priori_, we should
+say, for instance, that dustmen, night men, and the workers in sewers,
+would be amongst the most unhealthy of the working classes, and, indeed,
+routine sanitarians would summarily tell us that such must be the case.
+The begrimed and dusty scavenger, whose very name is a reproach, spends
+the best part of his life in clearing away the disgusting refuse of
+civilization; he has yet another duty to perform which brings him into
+still closer contact with unsavoury emanations. The lay-stall, or
+scavengers' yard, is of course a huge collection of the sweepings of the
+streets, the refuse of the markets, and the night-soil and dust of the
+houses, but it is not allowed to remain in a fermenting and indiscriminate
+mass. Almost as soon as it is deposited, men, women, and boys are employed
+to sift and sort the heap; bones, glass, woollen and linen rags, old iron
+and other metals, have to be eliminated from the mass and set aside, and
+the coals and great cinders are extracted from the useless ashes by the
+"hill-men." It would scarcely be possible to bring human life into closer
+contact with filth of every kind than we find it to be in the workers in
+these lay-stalls. Yet, strange to say, Dr. Guy, who has investigated their
+sanitary condition, finds them to be among the healthiest of our working
+population. "They are, with a very few exceptions," he tells us, "a
+healthy-looking, ruddy-complexioned race;" that is, they wear their
+natural rouge under their artificial tint, reversing the more fashionable
+method of May Fair.
+
+"One or two boys," he tells us, "whom I saw at work, would have been
+excellent models for the artist." Our London readers will perhaps remember
+to have seen troops of robust and rosy-looking young women, not perhaps in
+afternoon toilet, making their way, about five o'clock, from the Marble
+Arch across Hyde Park; these are the "hill-women," chiefly Irish, trooping
+home to the rookeries of Westminster; their appearance quite confirms Dr.
+Guy's views as to the healthful appearance of these workers. The master
+scavengers, who live with all their families amid these heaps of dusty
+desolation, excite the admiration of this searcher after truth still more;
+and at last, breaking out of the calm unimpassioned manner which the
+philosophical statist, who deals only with general truths, is wont to
+impose upon himself, he thus fairly gives vent to his admiration for the
+genus dustman:--
+
+    "To conclude this account of the health of this very useful class of
+    men, I will merely add that the score or so of master scavengers who
+    were brought together on more than one occasion by the trial already
+    alluded to (an indictment for nuisance against a lay-stall keeper), as
+    the origin of these inquiries, _are the healthiest set of men I have
+    ever seen_. I do not think, whether in town or country, such a body of
+    men could be brought together, except by selection; and it is not
+    going too far to assert of them, that if the comparison were limited
+    to the inhabitants of London, or our large towns, no score of selected
+    tradesmen could be found to match the same number of scavengers
+    brought casually together."
+
+This is high praise, and doubtless deserved; but few people, however,
+would have suspected that Hygeia clasped so closely to her bosom the grimy
+scavenger in his filthy frock. Dr. Guy, however, gives us hard figures for
+his pleasant flourishes. If we compare the scavenger with other workmen
+placed under somewhat similar circumstances, he rises triumphant over
+them. Thus whilst the bricklayer's labourer, generally a very poor
+Irishman, it is true, suffers from fever, a ratio of 35-1/2 per cent., and
+the brickmaker 21 per cent., the scavenger experiences only 8 per cent. of
+illness from the same cause. This result does seem astonishing when we
+remember that sanitarians sometimes attribute so much illness to the
+presence of a neglected dust-heap; but as Dr. Guy very justly remarks,
+those emanations which may prove injurious when confined within a small
+space--and our houses, like bell glasses, cover and keep in numberless
+impurities--become innoxious when fully exposed to the air. We suspect,
+however, that the power of ashes to absorb noxious emanations of all
+kinds, is at the bottom of the striking immunity which the scavenger
+exhibits from all febrile complaints. Nightmen and sewer-men, again, are
+brought into direct communication with the most disgusting, and as the
+public are led to suppose, the most poisonous animal effluvia; they stir
+in the very nidus of fever, yet it has been remarked by many observers
+that they are singularly exempt from this disease. Sir Anthony Carlisle
+tells us that out of fifty men employed in the sewers in his time, only
+three had had fever. Thakrah declares that out of eighteen examined by his
+assistant, only two had even slight disorders, and they informed him that
+appetite was increased by the effluvia; and finally Dr. Guy tells us that
+out of thirty-four nightmen examined by him, only one had had an attack of
+fever, and he only through being out of work for three weeks; he suffered,
+in short, _from change of air_, and perhaps want of food. Dr. Guy, in the
+little pamphlet we have already quoted from, states a most remarkable
+fact, illustrative of the changes of opinion, even amongst medical men,
+relative to the effects of snuffing sewer emanations. He says, that a
+gentleman who accompanied him in one of his inspections over a scavenger's
+yard, informed him that, "he perfectly well recollects thirty years ago,
+when he was a lad, seeing as many as twelve patients directed by the
+faculty of that day _to walk round the shoots_ for the night-soil on his
+father's premises; and he appealed for confirmation of this statement to
+his brother, who said that he had seen scores of patients industriously
+inhaling this curious dose of physic." Thakrah, who wrote his celebrated
+"Treatise on the Effects of Trades and Professions on Health," about this
+period, tells us that the parents of consumptive youth, in his time,
+brought them up to the business of a butcher, in the hope of averting that
+formidable malady. In endeavouring to avoid Scylla, they fell into
+Charybdis, inasmuch as it is a well-ascertained fact that butchers,
+although exempt from consumption and scrofula, are very prone to
+inflammatory diseases. They are seldom ill, but when ill, it goes hard
+with them,--so much so, that, as a class, these jolly, red-faced men, the
+very pictures of their own beef, are but short-lived. The effects of
+animal emanations, and the contact of animal substances with the skin in
+protecting workmen from consumption, is a very remarkable circumstance.
+Tanners constantly at work among tan-pits, are rarely, we believe,
+attacked with phthisis; and those artisans in the woollen-manufacture
+termed cloth-piecers, whose skins are smeared with oil in the course of
+the day, present a remarkable contrast to the workers in cotton
+factories,--their flesh being plump and rosy, and their muscles strong.
+Mr. Thompson of Perth, who has investigated this subject, found the weight
+of one hundred young persons, so employed, increased in three months 575
+lbs., giving an average increase of 5-3/4 lbs., and in eight selected
+cases the gain during the same brief period averaged no less than 17 lbs.
+each person. The beneficial effect of this department of the
+woollen-manufacture is so well known, that in Yorkshire the better classes
+frequently send the delicate members of their families to the
+woollen-mills for the benefit of their health. The application of oil,
+especially of cod-liver oil, to the skin, has indeed been recommended to
+consumptive patients, as thereby a greater amount of carbonaceous material
+can be thrown into the system without deranging it than by any other.
+After having drawn attention to so many occupations which are positively
+injurious to artisans, it is at least gratifying to be able to point to
+one large and rapidly-increasing manufacture which is so clearly
+beneficial in its operations upon human health.
+
+There is a class of artisans which suffers from the inhalation of
+poisonous matters into the lungs, like the grinders and the masons, &c.,
+but the foreign matter here presents itself in the form of a subtle
+vapour, rather than in that of dust. We little think, when we strike a
+lucifer-match,--that incomparable product of civilization, whose inventor
+deserves a statue in every capital in Europe,--what suffering it may
+possibly have caused in its manufacture. The composition at the end of a
+match is composed of phosphorus combined with oxymuriate of potash and
+glue, made into a paste, and kept liquid by being placed over a heated
+metal plate. Into this composition the "dipper" dips the bundle of
+matches, and in doing so he is forced to inhale the vapour given off,
+which is strongly charged with phosphoric acid, the effect of which upon
+him is sometimes most disastrous. After a time he experiences most
+excruciating pains in the bones of the jaw, but principally in the lower
+one; they begin to swell, a purulent discharge takes place, and, finally,
+the bone dies and comes away. Mr. Stanley, one of the surgeons of St.
+Bartholomew's Hospital, had a patient who thus lost the whole of the lower
+jaw. There appears to be considerable doubt whether the poison acts
+locally or constitutionally. One would naturally suppose that if the
+action were local, it would first take effect upon the bones of the nose,
+but, as far as the experience of surgery goes, the "dipper" always
+preserves his nose intact. That the poisonous fumes have a certain
+constitutional effect, the aspect of the workman at once declares;
+cadaverous in complexion, emaciated to a degree, and painfully nervous, he
+presents the appearance of a person suffering from the presence of some
+irritant poison in the blood. It certainly is very remarkable that
+phosphorus, which, in the form of phosphate of lime, is a very important
+constituent of bone, should have such an extraordinary effect upon it when
+received into the system in the manner we have described. We are not aware
+that this drug, when received into the stomach only, has ever produced the
+local effect noticed; but, without doubt, it is the quantity of the
+poisonous agent to which the workman is subjected, as he not only receives
+the fumes directly into his mouth and air-passages in the act of
+"dipping," but the whole atmosphere of the factory becomes so impregnated
+with phosphorus, in consequence of its volatilization when the process of
+drying the matches is being proceeded with, that his clothes even become
+saturated to such an extent that in the dark they appear quite luminous.
+In Vienna, where enormous numbers of lucifer-matches are made, necrosis of
+the jaw is of common occurrence among the workmen; and the German
+physicians believe that the disease arises principally in persons of
+scrofulous habit, the periosteum or lining membrane of whose bones are
+peculiarly liable to take on inflammatory action, the death of the bone
+following as a matter of course. If this view of the case be true, all
+scrofulous persons should be warned from the employment, as dangerous, and
+in all cases employers should adopt every precaution in their power to
+prevent the recurrence of such mischief to the employed. Mr. Stanley says
+that the oil of turpentine, which is a solvent of phosphorous, when
+exposed in saucers, absorbs the vapour which does so much mischief, and
+that its employment in a large lucifer-match factory in the neighbourhood
+of the London Hospital was attended with the happiest success. Thus we
+have another example of the power of the chemist to make the good elements
+of his craft do battle with the evil ones in the cause of humanity.
+
+Another and more common instance, in which the workman is sacrificed to
+luxury, is the case of the water-gilder. The skill of this artisan is
+employed in gilding metals, principally silver, by the action of fire. The
+metal to be gilded is coated with an amalgam of gold and mercury, and is
+then exposed to the fumes of a charcoal fire, which drives off the
+mercury, and leaves the gold adherent to the metal. During the process the
+fumes of the mercury are inhaled by the workman, and, indeed, deposit
+their metalliferous particles over the entire surface of the skin. The
+result is, that he speedily becomes afflicted with mercurial tremor, or,
+in the language of the workshop, he gets "a fit of the trembles." If he
+proceeds with his work the tremor rapidly increases. Dr. Watson, in
+describing a patient thus afflicted, says:--
+
+    "He was led into the room, walking with uncertain steps, his limbs
+    trembling and dancing, as though he had been hung on wires. While
+    sitting on a chair he was comparatively quiet,--you would not suppose
+    that he ailed anything; but, as soon as he attempted to rise and to
+    walk, his legs began to shake violently with a rapid movement. He
+    could neither hold them steadily nor direct them with precision."
+
+Were it not painful to contemplate, the incoherent muscular action of
+workmen thus afflicted would appear ludicrous. In endeavouring to put his
+food into his mouth he will sometimes, as in chorea, bob it against his
+eye or his cheek; and extreme cases have been known in which the
+unfortunate water-gilder thus afflicted has been forced to take his food
+like a quadruped. As the disease increases, the complexion becomes of a
+brown hue, and presently delirium, and, lastly, want of consciousness
+supervenes. To this complexion comes the water-gilder; and as the silverer
+of looking-glasses is exposed to the action of mercury, both by touch and
+inhalation, the same effects are produced upon him. If the charming belle,
+as she surveys her beauty in the glass, could but for a moment see
+reflected this poor shattered human creature, with trembling muscles,
+brown visage, and blackened teeth, she would doubtless start with horror;
+but, as it is, the slaves of luxury and vanity drop out of life unobserved
+and uncared for, as the stream of travellers disappeared one by one
+through the bridge of Mirza. Happily, the subtle finger of electricity has
+in a measure emancipated the water-gilder from the horrors of his art. The
+voltaic battery now deposits the metal without the intervention of
+quicksilver, and science has eliminated another of those destructive
+agencies which have hitherto afflicted this class of artisans.
+
+The silvering of mirrors and looking-glasses still remains a dangerous
+operation; but there can be no doubt that with properly-constructed flues
+the floating metal would be entirely conducted away. Indeed, it is by the
+chimney that much of the metal now escapes; for Thakrah tells us that he
+has been informed by a manufacturer that from the sweepings of the chimney
+on one occasion he had collected twenty pounds of good quicksilver.
+Another, and a very manageable expedient, sometimes resorted to by those
+exposed to the fumes and the oxide of mercury, is to cover the mouth with
+a tube-like proboscis, which hangs out of the way of the floating metal,
+and thus conducts pure air to the operator.
+
+Thakrah tells us that workers in brass also suffer from the inhalation of
+the volatilized metal. The brass-melters of Birmingham suffer from
+intermittent fever, which they call the brass ague. This malady leaves
+them in a state of great debility. The filers of brass, on the same
+authority, are subject to a most peculiar affection, like Tittlebat
+Titmouse, their hair turning a vivid green. It is supposed that the copper
+in the brass-dust combines with the oil of the hair, and thus an oxide of
+copper is formed. Coppersmiths are, of course, similarly affected.
+Plumbers, whilst casting, are subject to the volatilized oxide of lead,
+which in time produces paralysis; and while they are soldering, many
+deleterious fumes arise, of a sweetish taste, and of a highly astringent
+nature, which often produces violent attacks of constipation.
+
+But poisonous metals may attack the mucous membrane in the shape of
+finely-divided powder used in the arts. There is an exceedingly beautiful
+paper, of an apple-green colour, which is often selected for the coolness
+and cheerfulness of its appearance. The writer was himself once deluded by
+the seductive appearance of a paper of this description, and had his
+library furnished with it. Strange to say, a violent cold seemed to seize
+every one, even in the midst of summer, who stopped long in this
+apartment, especially if they came much in contact with the walls. On
+questioning the paper-hanger the mystery was speedily explained. "I never
+hang that kind of paper," he said, "without getting a bad sore throat and
+a running of the eyes. All the trade knows it is good for a cold to have
+any dealings with it." The cheerful green of the paper is nothing less
+deadly than the aceto-arsenite of copper, an irritant poison of the first
+class. The flock part of the paper contains a large quantity of pigment in
+the form of dust, which is of course liable to be detached from the walls
+on very slight occasions. It has been erroneously supposed that the metal
+must be volatilized by heat ere it can be separated from the paper; but
+the action of detachment is mechanical, and not chemical; the poisonous
+dust either falls or is brushed off the wall, and becomes mixed with the
+ordinary dust of the room; the lifting of a book, or the displacement of a
+pile of papers, proves sufficient to set these particles in motion, and to
+bring them in contact with the mucous linings of the eyes, nose, and
+throat; hence the violent irritation produced, which similates so closely
+the effects of a bad cold in the head. Professor Taylor, the celebrated
+medical toxocologist, has moreover proved the presence of arsenic in the
+dust fallen from this kind of paper. In a letter to the _Medical Times and
+Gazette_, of January 1st, 1859, he says,--
+
+    "I procured from the shop of Messrs. Marratt and Short, opticians, 68,
+    King William Street, London Bridge, a quantity of dust for the purpose
+    of analysis. The walls of this shop are covered with an unglazed
+    arsenical paper, and, as I am informed, they have been so covered for
+    a period of about three years. In collecting this dust from the tops
+    of the cases containing the instruments, great care was taken not to
+    touch the walls. The quantity thus collected for examination amounted
+    to about 450 grains. It was nearly black, and, under the microscope,
+    appeared to consist of fibres of sooty particles. It was very light
+    and flocculent. One hundred and fifty grains of the dust were examined
+    by Reinsch's process, and enough metallic arsenic was obtained from it
+    to coat about ten square inches of copper foil, in addition to a piece
+    of copper gauze. From the latter deposit, by the application of heat,
+    octahedral crystals of arsenic were readily obtained. The case had not
+    been dusted for a period of nine months. Even the dust of instruments
+    locked up in the cases, which were lined at the back only with the
+    green paper, was found to be charged with this poisonous pigment. Half
+    a grain of the dust sufficed to cover pretty thickly with metallic
+    arsenic a square inch of copper gauze. These facts," says Professor
+    Taylor, "lead to the inevitable inference that the air of a room, of
+    which the walls are covered with an unglazed arsenical green paper, is
+    liable to be charged with the fine dust of the poisonous
+    aceto-arsenite of copper. Those who inhabit these rooms are exposed to
+    breathe the dust. The poison may thus find its way by the pulmonary
+    membrane into the system, or it may affect the eyes, nose, and throat
+    by local action."
+
+After this unimpeachable testimony to the poisonous character of the
+pigment in this paper, it is not difficult to understand that the workmen
+employed in its manufacture are particularly liable to attacks of illness
+which exhibit all the symptoms of acute influenza; or that the
+paper-hangers, in putting it up, are sometimes obliged to leave work for a
+time, in order to get rid of the distressing symptoms to which its
+manipulation gives rise.
+
+There is in Sheffield an occupation connected with tool-making which
+forms, as it were, a connecting link between the diseases produced by
+working in steel and those which flow from working in lead: we allude to
+file-making. Unfortunately, the various preparations of lead enter very
+largely into the arts and manufactures of this country; and as its action
+upon the human body is very great, its pernicious influence is felt in a
+vast number of occupations of a diverse nature. Thus, white-lead
+manufacturers, sheet-lead rollers, painters, plumbers, potters, china
+manufacturers, colour-grinders, glaziers, enamellers of cards,
+lead-miners, and shot-makers, all come under the saturnine influence; even
+the poor lacemakers of Belgium do not escape, for the manufacturer, in
+order to make the fibre look white, requires them to dust it with
+white-lead powder, and possibly, by this means, it may find its way into
+the fair skin of a duchess!
+
+It may seem strange that a worker in steel should suffer from the poison
+of lead, but it occurs in this manner:--The file-maker, in order to hold
+the file securely, and, at the same time, to protect the fine edge of the
+sharp chisel with which he cuts the face of the file, places it upon a bed
+of lead which rests upon an anvil. In cutting the larger three-square
+files, the workman uses as much as a pound of lead a week; this is
+detached from the mass by friction and the use of the chisel, in the form
+of a fine black powder. It is curious that the first portion of the
+file-cutter's anatomy that is affected is the finger that rests upon the
+lead; at first it feels numb, and then becomes paralyzed. If the artisan
+will not take warning by this fastidious touch of a digit, before long the
+poison grips him by the wrist, and then some fine morning he wakes and
+finds that he has what is termed in the trade "a dropped hand;"[53] that
+is, the extensor muscles of the wrist are paralyzed, and the hand falls
+helplessly forward, like the fore-paw of a kangaroo. Here the specific
+action of the poison has exerted itself through the skin of the part
+affected. The same thing is observable in painters, who are more subject
+to lead-paralysis than perhaps any other workers in lead. The finger which
+first touches the brush first suffers; and the potter, who has in the
+course of his trade to dip his ware in a preparation of lead and flints in
+order to form the glaze, is in like manner, but still more severely,
+afflicted. It is well ascertained, however, that the constitutional
+effects which show themselves in obstinate constipation and cholic, arise
+from the reception of the lead directly into the mouth, either in the
+shape of finely-divided particles, or floating in the air, or direct from
+the fingers to the manipulators: thus, painters will eat their food with
+fingers soiled with the brush. The mere exhalations of paint are
+sufficient to paralyze some constitutions very speedily; a single night
+spent in a newly-painted house is sufficient to produce cholic,
+especially in young children. And Dr. Watson, in his "Practice of Physic,"
+relates a case in which a person suffered from dropped hands who had, she
+said, no concern with lead in any way: on cross-examining her, however, it
+at last came out that her sons "had in the preceding summer occupied their
+leisure time with making birdcages and painting them green in the one room
+in which she habitually lived." The dippers, as they are termed in the
+potteries, are perhaps subjected to more frightful effects from
+lead-poisoning than any other workmen: in addition to paralysis and
+cholic, the subtle poison sometimes creeps into the brain, mania comes on,
+and they die raving mad. The grinding and packing of white lead is so
+destructive, that the men can work at the occupation for a few hours in
+the day only; the dust that is given off penetrates the clothes, and
+covers the skin to such an extent that these artisans, after taking a
+medicated bath of sulphuret of potassium in water, come out like
+blackamoors.
+
+In these works rats and mice are speedily poisoned by the fine white-lead
+dust, which penetrates even to their holes. The artisan who handles lead
+in its various combinations may, however, vastly mitigate his trouble by
+adopting perfect cleanliness. Before every meal he should wash his hands
+thoroughly, and after work he should change his clothes. Medical science
+has given him the means of being forewarned that lead is entering his
+system by a particular and rarely-failing diagnostic sign: where the metal
+has entered the system a blue line will be discovered near the edge of the
+gums; when this blue Peter is hoisted he may know that danger is at hand,
+and that, unless he is more careful, his bread-earning hand will speedily
+drop powerless by his side. In all cases, however, prevention is better
+than cure; and we are glad to learn that almost perfect exemption from
+painter's cholic and paralysis has been secured in some extensive painting
+establishments, by causing artisans to drink a lemonade made by adding a
+drop of sulphuric acid to a gallon of water. The sulphuric acid is
+supposed to form, with the lead received into the mouth and stomach, a
+sulphuret of that metal, which is insoluble, and, therefore, cannot be
+taken up by the absorbents into the system.
+
+There are many important classes of workers whose sufferings have nothing
+either curious or dramatic about them, who nevertheless furnish the
+largest contingent to the army of death. At the head of these dismal
+companies march tailors, bakers, and milliners of large cities and towns.
+These three classes supply more victims to what has been erroneously
+termed "the English death," or consumption, than any other. Yet there can
+be no doubt that there is but one condition wanting to render these
+employments comparatively speaking healthy, and that one want is pure air.
+Dr. Arnot makes the monkeys in the Zoological Garden teach us a lesson in
+this particular which should not be lost upon us. In his evidence before
+the Health Commission he says:--
+
+    "A new house was built to receive the monkeys, and no expense was
+    spared which, in the opinion of those intrusted with the management,
+    could ensure to those natives of a warm climate all attainable comfort
+    and safety. Unhappily, however, it was believed that the object would
+    be best secured by making the new room nearly what an English
+    gentleman's drawing-room is. For warming it, two ordinary drawing-room
+    grates were put in as close to the floor as possible, and with low
+    chimney openings, that the heated air in the room should not escape by
+    the chimneys, while the windows and other openings in the walls above
+    were made as close as possible. Some additional warm air was admitted
+    through the openings in the floor, from hot-water pipes placed beneath
+    it. For ventilation in cold weather, openings were made in the
+    skirting of the room below the floor, with the erroneous idea that the
+    carbonic acid produced in the respiration of these animals, because
+    heavier than the other air in the room, would separate from this and
+    escape below. When all this was done, about sixty healthy monkeys,
+    many of which had already borne several winters in England, were put
+    into the room. A month afterwards more than fifty of them were dead,
+    and the few remaining ones were dying. This room, only open below, was
+    as truly an extinguisher to the living monkeys as an inverted coffee
+    cup held over and around the flame of a candle is an extinguisher of
+    the candle. Not only the warmth of the fires and the warm air that was
+    allowed to enter by the openings in the floor, but the hot breath and
+    all the impure exhalations from the bodies of the monkeys ascended,
+    first to the upper part of the room to be completely incorporated with
+    the atmosphere there, and by no possibility could escape except as a
+    part of that impure atmosphere, gradually passing away by the chimneys
+    and openings in the skirting. Therefore, from the time the monkeys
+    went into the room until they died, they could not have had a single
+    breath of fresh air."
+
+The _post-mortem_ examination proved that these monkeys all died of
+consumption; so that we have a practical proof that this dread disease
+can be brought on at will. Now, what took place in the monkey-house is
+taking place, in a milder form, in the hundreds of workshops in which
+tailors and milliners work in this metropolis. In the great majority of
+cases tailors work together in rooms by no means proportioned to the
+number that occupies them. In many cases they work knee to knee on the
+shop-board with the thermometer ranging from 95 to 100 degrees, no
+ventilation whatever being present, for when it is provided, the enfeebled
+workers, fearing catarrhal complaints, stop them up. The result is, an
+amount of consumption among them second only to that prevalent among the
+grinders of Sheffield and bakers. The cross-legged fashion in which he
+works in some measure assimilates him to the collier. It has been
+suggested that instead of thus doubling himself up for the whole time of
+his working life, he should work on a board having a hole in it of the
+circumference of his body, with a seat fixed for his support beneath. Such
+a contrivance would render his position easy, and enable him to bring his
+work pretty close to his eyes without his having to bend over it as he
+does at present. As the tailor is principally employed on black and dark
+clothes, his eyes are much strained, especially if he works by gas-light:
+hence he is subject to great impairment of vision.
+
+The baker is subjected to a still greater number of debilitating
+influences as regards his health than the tailor. In all cases his place
+of work is in a confined basement, where the oven and the gas contrive to
+keep the temperature at a tropical point. There is generally a privy close
+at hand, and the drains are not always in good order; the air, already
+foul enough, has yet to be contaminated with the floating flour-dust so
+irritating to the fine air-passages of the lungs. In an atmosphere thus
+deliberately poisoned with the elements of sickness, the journeyman baker
+is confined ordinarily from seven o'clock at night until four the
+following morning, and towards the end of the week he is engaged nearly
+two entire days in succession. Is it surprising that their rate of
+sickness is dreadful--greater than even that of the tailors? Dr. Guy tells
+us that no less than thirty-one in the hundred spit blood, and that every
+other journeyman of the low-priced bakers, who work under still worse
+conditions, is subjected to this most dangerous disease. We feel convinced
+that the public cannot be aware that they eat their daily bread at the
+expense of the life-blood of the producers. Parliament has refused to
+interfere in their behalf, but Lord Shaftesbury has taken up their cause,
+and we believe that ere long the force of public opinion will lead to the
+abolition of the nightwork, which is at the bottom of the evil. At all
+events, those who wish to assist in the emancipation of these slaves of
+civilization, will see with pleasure the introduction of the aërated
+bread, which by the aid of machinery manufactures the loaf in a much more
+cleanly method than by hand-labour, and performs the whole process in less
+than an hour. The introduction of machinery into this trade will at once
+cure the evils complained of, which result in the majority of cases from
+the confined establishments and insufficient means of the master-bakers.
+
+The milliners, especially of London, are nearly as unhealthy as the
+tailors. The evidence given before the Select Committee of the House of
+Lords in 1855, to inquire into the expediency of passing a bill for the
+protection of needlewomen, certainly is appalling in the tale it tells of
+the waste of youthful life. During the season of four months, the shortest
+time these poor young creatures work is from six in the morning until
+twelve at night, and when they are very hard pressed for time they are
+obliged to take their meals standing. At times of great pressure young
+girls have been worked four days and nights consecutively; and Lord Ashley
+publicly made mention at the meeting at Exeter Hall, July 11th, 1856, of a
+witness who had worked without going to bed from four o'clock on Thursday
+afternoon until half-past ten on Sunday night. Such toil as this in close
+rooms reeking with human exhalations, and further deteriorated by the
+excessive use of gas, is scarcely to be matched in deadliness by any
+occupation engaged in even by the stronger sex; and we are not surprised
+to hear that it is a frequent thing in fashionable millinery
+establishments to find the workers faint from sheer exhaustion; as the
+Queen's physician emphatically says, "a mode of life more completely
+calculated to destroy human health could scarcely be contrived." Mr.
+White Cooper, the Queen's oculist, states, in his lately-published work on
+the eyes, that he has generally observed a great increase of patients of
+this class come to him after there has been a general mourning. The
+committee of the Society of Arts which some few years since made a report
+on the industrial pathology of trades which affect the eyes, recommend
+that the light should be thrown on the work rather than the eye; they also
+recommend that the colour of the material upon which needlewomen are
+engaged should be changed as often as possible, upon the ground that to
+preserve the tone of the organ it should have variety of stimulus, its
+long application to the same colour inevitably exhausting it. The
+following suggestion from a traveller, which is embodied in this
+interesting report, is worthy of notice:--"Needlewomen, embroiderers, and
+lacemakers should work in rooms hung with green blinds and curtains to the
+windows. When in North China, I became convinced of the very great
+advantage with which this rule has been adopted by the exquisite
+embroiderers of that part. Their books of patterns are frequently called
+'Books of the Lady of the Green Window.'" Among the diseases affecting
+female workers we must not omit to mention an affection called
+"housemaid's knee," which is peculiar to those servants who kneel much
+upon hard wet stones or boards. The pressure on the knee gives rise to a
+very painful inflammation of the bursa, or pad, which nature has
+interposed between the skin and the patella, or knee-cap.
+
+Shoemakers live a sedentary life, like tailors and milliners, but they do
+not work so frequently in company, consequently they escape the
+destructive influence of foul air; they are subject, like weavers,
+however, to disease of the stomach, owing to the constant pressure made
+upon it, in their case, by the last. Some old cobblers are found to have a
+depression at the pit of the stomach of the shape of the heel of the boot,
+moulded in fact by the pressure of this article, which he clasps between
+this portion of his body and his knees whilst sewing. Like the milliners
+and tailors, their sight suffers through having to direct so fine an
+object as a needle point: patent bootmakers are particularly liable to
+suffer in their eyes through the brilliant blackness of the material they
+work upon. We perceive that sewing-machines have been introduced into this
+trade at Northampton, much to the disgust of those whom they will benefit.
+The introduction of this useful machine will at once elevate this and
+scores of other handicrafts, such as those of tailors, milliners, glovers,
+and all who use the needle, to the dignity of manufacturers requiring
+considerable capital, the presence of which is some guarantee for the
+intelligence and benevolence of the masters, and for the adoption of
+larger and more healthful workshops for their people. As this very large
+class of workers numbers upwards of half a million in Great Britain, we
+hail the sewing-machine as an emancipator from drudgery of no ordinary
+kind.
+
+The compositor, who works in an atmosphere very similar to that breathed
+by the tailor and milliner, is, like them, subject to severe pulmonary
+diseases. In some newspaper offices they are planted as thickly as their
+type-cases can stand, and they carry on their monotonous labour, which is
+confined to a multitude of small motions of the right hand, conveying to
+the left types in course of "setting up," Jobbing printers, who have a
+much greater variety of motion, are invariably healthier than newspaper
+compositors; and Dr. Guy has remarked that those compositors who work in
+the upper stories of large establishments, and consequently in an
+atmosphere reeking with the impurities which have ascended from the
+crowded rooms below, and possibly from an engine-room in addition, are
+much more troubled with spitting of blood and consumption than those
+working beneath them. In a printing office thus foully ventilated, he was
+enabled to make a very instructive comparison; for instance, there were
+fifteen men employed on the second floor, and seventeen men in precisely
+the same way on the third and uppermost floor. On making personal
+inquiries of each of the men respecting his health, four only out of the
+fifteen on the second floor made any complaint; one was subject to
+indigestion, a second to cough, the third to ulcers of the legs, and the
+fourth was what might be termed a valetudinarian. But of the seventeen
+employed on the uppermost floor, three had had spitting of blood, two were
+subject to affections of the lungs, and five to constant and severe colds.
+Ten of these seventeen, therefore, were subject to diseases affecting the
+chest, while only one of the fifteen in the room beneath had a disease of
+this nature. In the course of his inquiries respecting the health of
+workers in printing-offices, the same intelligent statist hit upon another
+fact with respect to pressmen, which appears to be of general application.
+Pressmen, or those who take the impressions of the types set up by the
+compositors, are generally located in the same building with them, and
+often in the same room, under precisely similar conditions as regards
+ventilation and quality of air; yet a series of inquiries brings out the
+fact that the pressmen are far the healthier of the two. The only manner
+of accounting for this difference lies in the nature of their labour. The
+pressman has to use long-sustained and somewhat violent exertions in
+swinging round the lever of his press, unfolding and refolding the tympan,
+and screwing up its bed. Compared to these varied muscular movements, the
+compositor's hardest work is lifting types from his case to his
+composing-stick; yet the result is, that the pressman's liability to
+consumption is but half that of the compositor, and of other diseases a
+third less.
+
+This is a very remarkable fact, and irresistibly points to the conclusion
+that foul air and a heated atmosphere can be borne with far greater
+impunity by those who labour hard than by those who employ themselves in a
+sedentary manner. The fair lady who honours us with her attention will
+perhaps draw a conclusion of her own from this experience, which, no
+doubt, tallies with her practice and her instinct, that it is far better
+to waltz till five o'clock in the morning in a crowded ball-room than to
+remain for the same period a disconsolate "wall-flower." There appears
+also to be another law, with respect to the two classes of workmen,
+equally worthy of remark. The pressman, although he enjoys the best
+health, and the greatest green age, does not, in individual cases, live as
+long as the compositor. In the same manner, the stalwart blacksmith,
+although a far healthier man than the tailor, and generally longer-lived,
+does not yet count so many patriarchs among his ranks as snip does. This
+comparison holds good between those who take much or little exercise out
+of doors. Mr. Neison, who has carefully worked the fact out, in his volume
+on Vital Statistics, gives the following highly interesting table:--
+
+  +-------------------------------------------------------+
+  |    |             EXPECTATION OF LIFE IN               |
+  |    |--------------------------------------------------|
+  |Age.|In-door occupation, with|Out-door occupation, with|
+  |    |------------------------|-------------------------|
+  |    |   Little  |   Great    |  Little   |    Great    |
+  |    | Exercise. | Exercise.  | Exercise. |  Exercise.  |
+  |----|-----------|------------|-----------|-------------|
+  | 20 |  41·8822  |   42·0133  |  37·8017  |   43·4166   |
+  | 30 |  35·1170  |   34·5022  |  30·1435  |   36·5832   |
+  | 40 |  27·9113  |   27·8004  |  23·0357  |   29·1284   |
+  | 50 |  20·5022  |   21·1805  |  17·2754  |   21·9732   |
+  | 60 |  14·0430  |   15·1413  |  11·0169  |   15·5635   |
+  | 70 |   8·6490  |   10·4407  |   4·5607  |    9·3313   |
+  +-------------------------------------------------------+
+
+Thus, between twenty and thirty, the gardener, the labourer, the thatcher,
+the drover, and the whole class of men who earn their bread toilfully in
+wind, rain, and sun, have the expectation of living at least six years
+longer than the coachman, the watchman, and others who are equally exposed
+to the weather, but whose blood is not equally circulated or sweetened by
+continual and active exertion. It will be remarked also, that the out-door
+worker with little exercise comes off but badly in the comparison with the
+sedentary in-door worker--in other words, the coachman's is a worse life
+than the shopman's. We suspect, however, with Mr. Neison, that
+intemperance must thus kick the beam against sedentary out-door
+employments. We all know, for instance, that Jehu is not a teetotaller,
+and our suspicions are, moreover, strengthened by the fact that
+engine-drivers, who are forced to maintain a strict sobriety, although
+among the class of sedentary out-door workers and exposed to a hurricane
+of air, and to driving wet during the greater part of their existence--are
+yet remarkably free from consumption--the fell disease which decimates
+the poor printer, who cannot tolerate the minutest draft in his place of
+work.
+
+As we ascend in the social scale, it would naturally be supposed that we
+should find the value of life greater, and occupations more healthy. It is
+a great question, however, if the artisan, subject as he is to so many
+injurious circumstances, has not the advantage over the shopkeeper. This
+may appear at first impossible, but when we come to consider the life led
+by the tradesman, and especially by the smaller ones, who form so large a
+proportion of the class, we find they are subjected to an accumulation of
+adverse influences. In the generality of cases the individual of this
+genus confines himself to the smallest possible amount of room, in which
+he can possibly carry on his business--the rest of the house he lets off
+for offices. In this confined space he lives, without taking any adequate
+exercise, often lying perdu in a dark inner room, through a peep-hole of
+which he watches for customers. At night, he inhales an atmosphere
+polluted by many gas-lights, and when, finally, the shutters are closed,
+he will often be found sorting and placing away the goods disturbed during
+the day. Under such circumstances, is it wonderful that he perishes at a
+more rapid rate than the artisan who labours all day at some noxious
+trade, and sleeps at night in some wretched lodging? It is well-known that
+there is scarcely such a thing to be found as a London tradesman of the
+third generation. The class is entirely kept up by the rosy-faced youths
+who come up from the country full of hope and health, and then gradually
+subside into the pallid tradesman of middle life, taking on, as it were,
+the sad colour and aspect of the great city, just as hares and foxes turn
+white in northern latitudes, when winter brings about her snow.
+
+There are certain classes of tradesmen who suffer from singular skin
+diseases consequent upon handling articles of their trade. Thus the
+miller, whose hands are constantly immersed in his meal, is subject to an
+irruptive disease of those members, in consequence of the attacks of the
+meal-mite--a small insect to be found in some kinds of flour. The
+grocer's itch, again, is occasioned by handling sugar infected with an
+animalcule peculiar to it. We have seen sugar which absolutely moved
+throughout its entire mass in consequence of the immense number of insects
+present in it, and these readily attack the hand, and produce an irruption
+similar to that of the ordinary itch. Chimney-sweepers, again, suffer from
+a more formidable disease--cancer induced by the irritative qualities of
+the soot upon certain portions of the skin of the body. Neither must we
+omit from the ranks of unhealthy town occupations the squalid race of
+clerks, whose monotonous occupation and posture perpetually fixed in the
+form of a Z, renders them a very unhealthy class of men.
+
+Waiters in hotels and taverns sap their health by surreptitious tippling.
+A medical friend says, his experience of them is, that with few
+exceptions, they are _all rotten with perpetual imbibition_. Footmen do
+not drink so much, but they are so grossly overfed and under-worked, that
+they are always suffering from plethora. "Jeames'" aim is to run to
+calves, but he pays the penalty for his ambition. They are, in fact, in
+the position of the convicts at Fremantle, Australia, who, during the time
+that our soldiers were dying for want of food in the Crimea, suffered from
+what was significantly called the gluttony plague. Excessive over-feeding
+and under-working was, it appears, the rule at the convict establishment;
+and, in consequence, no less than 1554 patients were under medical
+treatment in less than six months, with diseases of the digestive organs,
+inflammatory affections of the eyes, and cutaneous eruptions. The physic
+of short allowance and plenty of work soon set matters to rights. It is
+not often that the lower or middle classes suffer from over-feeding; but
+drink is the bane of many trades and occupations. The gigantic brewer's
+drayman, who seems built as a match for the Flemish team he drives, is but
+a giant with feet of clay; his jolly looks are a delusion and a snare. The
+enormous amount of beer and stout he is allowed by his employers--on the
+principle, we suppose, that you should not muzzle the ox that treadeth
+out the corn--so deteriorates his blood, that a scratch prostrates him,
+and any serious illness is pretty sure to carry him off. The common
+labourer, who lives under pretty much the same condition, with the
+exception of the temptation to drink, has an average life of 47-1/2 years,
+but he is cut off at the early age of 43 years.
+
+If we take another class of persons thrown continually in the way of
+tippling, we find the result is equally unfavourable. The pot-boy of the
+metropolis, with whose doughy face and pert leer we are so well
+acquainted, scarcely lives out half his days. In his case, in addition to
+continual potations, he is perpetually breathing, until twelve o'clock at
+night, an atmosphere compounded of drunkards' breath, stale tobacco, and
+all the impurities arising from the brilliant gas illumination of a
+gin-palace; it is not, therefore, surprising to find that his average age
+is but 41-1/2 years; while the footman may reckon upon helping himself to
+his master's venison until he is 44-1/2 years old. The publican is almost
+as great a sinner as his man in the way of intemperance, and his life in
+consequence is at least 2-1/2 years shorter than the very limited span of
+the tradesman.
+
+Dr. Guy, who has taken considerable pains to ascertain the value of life
+in the educated classes, has worked out the extraordinary result that, the
+higher the step in the social hierarchy, the greater the means of
+self-indulgence, the less the chance of long life. People have so long
+been accustomed to look upon the possession of wealth as the best
+guarantee for a flourishing bodily condition, that they will be surprised,
+perhaps, to hear that in proportion as the wholesome stimulus of labour is
+withdrawn from any class, in the same proportion the value of its average
+term of life is shortened. And yet our common experience but tallies with
+the results of scientific inquiry in this matter. When a man who has lived
+a long and active life, suddenly retires with the idea that he has earned
+his ease, and that it is time for him to enjoy himself, ten to one but he
+has taken the most effectual method of shortening his life; and much as we
+may smile at the taste of the retired soap-boiler, who always made a
+point of going down to his old shop on "boiling days," yet we can see that
+his instinct directed him rightly, for we can none of us bear idleness,
+least of all those who have long practised industry.
+
+Regularity, sobriety, and activity of mind and body, are the pabulum on
+which vital force is fed; while, on the contrary, luxury, licentiousness,
+and sloth, are the cankers of life. A comparison of the longevity of the
+different educated classes proves this in a remarkable manner. Let us
+take, for instance, the three learned professions. If the reader were
+asked whether the clergyman, the lawyer, or the physician lived longest,
+most probably he would say the lawyer. Accustomed to venerable age on the
+judgment-seat, and struck with the fact that our leading law lords have
+generally been, and still are, noblemen of very advanced age, he would
+perhaps be justified in giving the palm of longevity to them. Yet, in
+truth, as a class, they are the shortest-lived. The race is neck and neck,
+it is true, but they lose by a neck. The clergyman, as we should naturally
+suppose, enjoys a higher standard of health, and attains a greater age,
+than any member of the community, excepting poor Hodge, the humblest
+member of his flock. His average age, taking those persons only into
+account who have passed their 50th year, is 74·04 years, or rather better
+than one year longer than the physician, who lives to an average age of
+72·95 years. This trifling difference, we should expect, as the latter is
+subject to many chances of infection, and lives more a town life than the
+former. If the comparison is made, however, between the highest grades of
+the two professions, between archbishops and bishops, and baronets who
+have filled the posts of physicians and surgeons to the sovereign, the
+latter have the advantage by four years, and in both cases the lawyer lags
+behind in the race with clergymen and physicians: with the latter in his
+ordinary rank by a few days only, and with the class of medical baronets,
+as compared with judges, upwards of four years, how much hard study,
+alternated with tawny port, has to do with the difference, we should
+scarcely like to say. The gentry may be reckoned to be about as
+long-lived as the clergy; well-housed, well-fed, and living an
+agricultural life with active habits, they have few diseases, and are
+especially exempt from consumption. Officers of the navy have slightly the
+advantage of those of the army--say one year of life. From this point,
+where the social hierarchy takes a leap, and clothes itself in the purple
+and fine linen of nobility, the lamp of life begins rapidly to burn low.
+The aristocracy of this country are shorter-lived, by more than one year,
+than he who works with all the cares and anxieties of the priest, the
+lawyer, or the physician; and members of royal houses (calculated from the
+ages of members of continental as well as English royalty) descend the
+ladder of life so rapidly, that they have three years less of existence
+than the peer; and, lastly, we come to the "round and top of sovereignty
+itself." The potentate who stands on the highest pinnacle of human
+greatness, surrounded, it would seem, with every condition favourable to
+comfort and longevity, fenced about from casualties which constantly beset
+the paths of ordinary mortals--his would appear indeed a charmed life; yet
+the hard fact will stare us in the face, that the sands of life run far
+quicker with him than with any other of the educated classes. His years
+are on an average but 64, or 10 less than the clergy, who probably have to
+fight the hardest battle in the world--the fight of comparative poverty
+against appearances. It could be "clearly shown," says Mr. Neison, in his
+"Vital Statistics," "by tracing the various classes of society in which
+there exists sufficient means of subsistence, by beginning with the most
+humble, and passing on to the middle and upper classes, that a gradual
+deterioration in the duration of life takes place; and that just as life,
+with all its wealth, pomp, and magnificence, would seem to become more
+valuable and tempting, so are its opportunities and chances of enjoyment
+lessened. As far as the results of figures admit of judging, this
+condition would seem to flow directly from the luxurious and pampered
+style of living among the wealthier classes, whose artificial habits
+interfere with the nature and degree of those physical exercises which, in
+a simpler class of society, are accompanied with long life." Truly, there
+is a spirit of compensation in this life, if we could only "distil it
+forth." The poor countryman of thirty years of age, who takes his frugal
+repast under a hedge, has a chance of thirteen years' longer life than the
+monarch of the same age clothed in purple, and lord, perhaps, of half the
+habitable world!
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This _cophee-house_ in Sweeting's Rents is not alluded to by Mr.
+Cunningham in his Handbook of London. He mentions the first as established
+in 1657, in St. Michael's Alley, Cornhill, and the second (no date
+mentioned) as set up at the Rainbow in Fleet Street. We think we must make
+way for this new discovery between the two.
+
+[2] A furniture broker made his fortune by an advertisement headed "Advice
+to Persons about to Marry." Our witty friend _Punch_ followed up this
+prelude with the single word _Don't_, as the substitute for the lists of
+four-posted beds.
+
+[3] In an article upon the teas of commerce, which appeared in the
+_Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society_ for July, 1851.
+
+[4] Assam tea is the only exception to this rule, but very little of it is
+imported.
+
+[5] That sold by Messrs. Dakin, of St. Paul's Churchyard.
+
+[6] It will be scarcely necessary to say that the great London brewers
+have never laid themselves open to the suspicion of having adulterated
+their liquor.
+
+[7] An act has lately been passed which will, we trust, check in some
+degree the grosser food-frauds on the public.
+
+[8] Since gone to make bears' grease.
+
+[9] The great merit of this inference may be judged from the circumstance
+that several eminent naturalists, out of an honest regard for the
+reputation of Professor Owen, endeavoured to prevent the publication of
+the paper in which, with the sure sagacity of scientific genius, he
+confidently announced the fact.
+
+[10] The history of the migrations of the rat is involved in doubt, and
+none of the accounts can be relied on. Goldsmith had been assured that the
+Norway rat, as it is called, though it was quite unknown in that country
+when it established itself in England, came to us from the coast of
+Ireland, whither it had been carried in the ships that traded in
+provisions to Gibraltar.
+
+[11] When the atmospheric railway to Epsom was at work, the rats came for
+the grease which was used to make the endless leather valve, which ran on
+the top of the suction-pipe, air-tight. Some of them entered the tube,
+from which they were sucked with every passing train; nevertheless, day by
+day, others were immolated in the same manner.
+
+[12] A native in India, observing one day a rat run across the floor,
+stooped to look after it. While in this position he suddenly felt
+something tugging him back by his hair, and on putting up his hand found a
+large cobra struggling to free his teeth from his locks. The reptile had
+also observed the rat, and had dropped from the roof, when the peon
+suddenly interposed his person between the hunter and his prey. The snake
+and the rat escaped; but the magistrate of the district having ordered the
+house to be pulled down the next day, the cobra was found with the rat
+half digested in his stomach.
+
+[13] A single dead rat beneath a floor will render a room uninhabitable. A
+financier, of European celebrity, found his drawing-room intolerable. He
+supposed that the drains were out of order, and went to a great expense to
+remedy the evil. The annoyance continued, and a ratcatcher guessed the
+cause of the mischief. On pulling up the boards, a dead rat was discovered
+near the bell-wire. The bell had been rung as he was passing, and the
+crank had caught and strangled him.
+
+[14] In a comfortable little apartment, which looked quite domestic in
+comparison with the workhouse wards of ordinary lunatic asylums, we saw,
+on our last visit, a young musician playing on a violoncello to an
+admiring audience. Touches of similar enjoyment continually meet the
+visitor, lighting up the moral atmosphere of the building with a
+cheerfulness totally at variance with his preconceived notions of this
+notorious madhouse.
+
+[15] Steps are being taken, we believe, to effect this necessary change;
+but unless Parliament puts its pressure upon the Home-Office, we shall
+expect to see the arrangement completed when the Nelson Column is
+finished, and not before.
+
+[16] The walls of one of the wards of Colney Hatch are decorated
+throughout with well-executed bas-relief pictures from Greek subjects by a
+patient. We are informed that the lunatics who are transferred here from
+the undecorated wards, enter the apartment with expressions of delight,
+and are particularly careful to preserve the objects of their pleasure in
+good condition. In some metropolitan asylums the inmates have adorned
+their prison-house with pieces of sculpture and pictures; and the Germans
+are fond of indulging the love of colour by filling some of the windows
+with stained glass. In France, abundance of flowers are placed about the
+establishment, as being eminent sources of delight. In these particulars
+we have not a little to learn from our continental brethren.
+
+[17] These particulars respecting the pauper lunatic colony of Gheel are
+taken from an article by Dr. Webster in Dr. Winslow's _Journal of
+Psychological Medicine_. This review, which originated with and from the
+first has been under the able editorship of Dr. Forbes Winslow, has given
+an immense impulse to the study of psychology. It has enlarged the views
+of the physician of the insane, and, by extending his horizon, has given
+him a far better knowledge of the special department to which he formerly
+confined his studies. It is as impossible to understand the workings of a
+morbid mind without possessing a knowledge of its ordinary action as it is
+to interpret the sounds of a diseased lung without being first acquainted
+with those of a healthy one. The great service which Dr. Forbes Winslow
+has rendered by unravelling the phenomena of mind in its normal as well as
+in its disordered state, entitles him to a very high meed of praise, and
+has deservedly ranked him among the first medico-psychologists of the
+present day.
+
+[18] In the subjoined passage, which is extracted from an official
+communication to the Commissioners in Lunacy, and published in one of
+their parliamentary reports, Dr. Forbes Winslow explains the principles
+which should guide the physician in the moral treatment of the insane when
+placed under legal control and supervision:--"In the management of the
+insane, and in the conduct of asylums, both public and private, the
+principle of treatment should consist in a full and liberal recognition of
+the importance of extending to the insane the _maximum_ amount of liberty
+and indulgence compatible with their safety, security, and recovery; at
+the same time, subjecting them to the _minimum_ degree of mechanical and
+moral restraint, isolation, seclusion, and surveillance, consistent with
+their actual morbid state of mind at the time. It is also necessary to
+bear in mind as an essential principle of curative treatment, the
+importance of bringing the insane confined in asylums, as much as
+possible, within the sphere of social, kindly, and domestic influences. In
+many cases, isolation, seclusion, and an absolute immunity from all kinds
+of stimuli, physical and mental, are, during the acute and recent stages
+of insanity, indispensably necessary to recovery; but in certain forms of
+melancholia, monomania, and in some chronic morbid states of mind, no mode
+of moral treatment is productive of such great curative results as that
+now referred to. I need not observe that this system of treatment cannot
+be adopted except in those establishments where there is an active,
+experienced, and intelligent resident medical officer, who fully
+appreciates the great value of such homely family influences upon the
+minds of the insane. In our moral treatment, do we not occasionally
+exhibit an excess of caution, and exercise, with the best and kindest
+intentions, an undue amount of moral restraint and vigilance? I think we
+may sometimes err in being a little too distrustful of the insane. Whilst
+urging the necessity, in certain forms of morbid mind, of great and
+constant watchfulness, particularly in cases of suicidal monomania, and
+recent and acute attacks, I would suggest, to those having the management
+of asylums, the necessity, with the view to the adoption of a curative
+process of treatment, of placing more confidence in those entrusted to
+their care, and of allowing the patients a greater amount of freedom,
+indulgence, and liberty than they at present enjoy in many of our public
+and private asylums. In many phases of insanity in which confinement is
+indispensable, the patient's word may fully be relied upon; and under
+certain well-defined restrictions, he should be permitted to feel that
+confidence is reposed in him, and that he is trusted, and not altogether
+(although in confinement) deprived of his free and independent agency. I
+feel quite assured that a judicious liberality of this kind will be
+generally followed by the happiest curative results, and greatly conduce
+to the comfort and happiness of the patient. Patients should be permitted
+occasionally to attend divine worship out of the asylum, when
+circumstances do not contra-indicate this practice; they should be allowed
+also to walk out of the confines of the asylum, to attend places of
+amusement, visit scientific exhibitions; and the resident medical officer
+should make himself their friend and companion; thus inspiring them with
+confidence in his skill and kindly intentions, and reconciling them to the
+degree of moral restraint to which they may be unavoidably subjected."
+
+[19] In Belgium, where many of the pauper lunatics are located in
+religious houses and are attended upon by the frères and soeurs of these
+establishments, it is not uncommon to find the patients at certain times
+of the day totally deserted and left to their own devices--the attendants
+being engaged in their religious duties!
+
+[20] It may be as well to state that the Poor-Law Commissioners also
+worked out the problem with very similar conclusions in 1851, and that the
+investigations made by the Swedish Government into the condition of the
+insane in Norway in 1835 further corroborate the statement that insanity
+prevails to a greater extent in rural than in urban districts.
+
+[21] If the spectator, while leaning over the rail of the wharf and
+watching "Oyster Street," as the costermongers call the line of
+oyster-boats moored side by side, has ever been at a loss to understand
+why it is that in the very height of the market, when the decks are
+crowded with purchasers, the sailors are seen hanging about the boats, or
+seated upon the bulwarks, taking their morning pipes, whilst the duty of
+measuring and carrying the oysters is being performed by the "Fellowships"
+belonging to the corporation of London, he will now know the reason. Steam
+will, however, surely abolish many of these city abuses, and rail-borne
+oysters will lend their powerful aid to rail-borne coal in abolishing
+regulations which are not in accordance with the emancipated spirit of the
+age.
+
+[22] Since this was written, the new market in Copenhagen Fields has been
+opened, and a totally different state of things now obtained.
+
+[23] This return contains some small proportion of game, the quantity of
+which is not stated.
+
+[24] There is, we confess, some little discrepancy between this estimate
+of the country-killed meat at Newgate, and the known quantity brought in
+by railway, as most assuredly 161,200 oxen, 509,600 sheep, and 62,400
+calves and pigs, far outweigh the 36,487 tons of meat brought by the
+different lines, even "sinking" the offal. But so assured is Mr. Giblett,
+and the Smithfield Commissioners with him, that he is under the mark, that
+we give credit to his estimate, and take it for granted that much
+country-killed meat must come to market by other conveyance than the
+railway.
+
+[25] Since the above was written, these fine buildings have been taken
+possession of by Sir William Armstrong, where, under the veil of secrecy,
+his extraordinary ordnance is now constructed to the entire exclusion of
+the old style of cannon.
+
+[26] The French manufacturer who executed the order addressed a letter to
+one of the Emperor's chamberlains, from which we take the following
+extract:--"It is, I believe, the first time that England, who was hitherto
+regarded as able to supply the most unforeseen wants of her army, should
+find herself obliged to have recourse to French industry. I had it too
+much at heart to sustain the reputation of my country in the eyes of our
+rivals to leave anything undone towards the execution of an order which
+was intrusted to me, and I have had the satisfaction of receiving from the
+English Government the most flattering compliments. With a view to
+perpetuate the memory of that operation, which is almost an event in
+industry, I have ordered a medal to be engraved by M. Louis Merley, who
+gained the great prize at Rome, and who is one of the artists of whom
+France is proud. I desire earnestly to obtain the favour of presenting
+this medal to his Majesty the Emperor, as also the model of the rifles
+fabricated for England; and I pray your Excellency to be good enough to
+solicit for me an audience of his Majesty." The audience was granted, and
+the medal and the model of the fire-arm presented in due form.
+
+[27] The merchants are provided annually with a sample of Waltham Abbey
+powder to guide them in their manufacture.
+
+[28] We may more truly liken the system to the warming apparatus of a
+hot-house. The hot waters of the Gulf, conducted across the Atlantic, are
+the forcing power which stimulates the vegetation of Cornwall, whence the
+London market is supplied with its early vegetables.
+
+[29] The effect of this Act, which passed in 1839, was most marked. In the
+three years previous, the average annual loss of timber ships was 56-1/2,
+and the loss of life 300. In the three years subsequent to its coming into
+operation the loss of ships fell to 23-1/2, and the loss of life to 106.
+
+[30] Whilst the civil workman is called in to do the work of the soldier
+at home, strangely enough we send out the soldier to do the work of the
+emigrant abroad. A force of Royal Engineers some time since left these
+shores for the purpose of discharging this office in British Columbia.
+
+[31] Mr. Jeffreys informs us that he saw during the mutiny a recruiting
+sergeant's placard in which there was an engraving of a British trooper
+cutting down a Sepoy and taking from him a bag of treasure.
+
+[32] This idea of a sanitary officer for armies in the field originated
+with Mr. J. Ranald Martin, who has long advocated the measure in his
+correspondence with the medical journals, and with the East India
+Government. To this gentleman we also owe the suggestion of a health
+officer in civil life.
+
+[33] Code of letter signals in the needle telegraph commonly used in
+England. Two needles are generally employed, in order to facilitate the
+transmission of signals:--
+
+Let _a_ denote a deflection of the _left-hand needle to the left_, _a´ to
+the right_; _b_ a deflection of the _right-hand needle to the left_, _b´
+to the right_. Then here is the code:
+
+  +  _a_
+  A  _a a_
+  B  _a a a_
+  C  _a´ a_
+  D  _a a´_
+  E  _a´_
+  F  _a´ a´_
+  G  _a´ a´ a´_
+  H  _b_
+  I  _b b_
+  K  _b b b_
+  L  _b´ b_
+  M  _b b´_
+  N  _b´_
+  O  _b´ b´_
+  P  _b´ b´ b´_
+  R  _a b_
+  S  _a a b b_
+  T  _a a a b b b_
+  U  _a´ a b´ b_
+  W  _a´ b´_
+  X  _a´ a´ b´ b´_
+  Y  _a´ a´ a´ b´ b´ b´_
+
+Thus F is indicated by two successive deflections of the left-hand needle
+to the right; R by a simultaneous deflection of both needles to the left.
+Where both needles are required they may be and are deflected
+simultaneously; where one only is used its deflections must of necessity
+be successive. The sign + means "I do not understand;" the letter E "I do
+understand."
+
+[34] It may interest our readers to reproduce the first published notice
+we can find of Professor Wheatstone's experiments relating to the electric
+telegraph, and which appeared anterior to his connection with Mr.
+Cooke:--"During the month of June last year (1836), in a course of
+lectures delivered at King's College, London, Professor Wheatstone
+repeated his experiments on the velocity of electricity which were
+published in the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1834, but with an
+insulated circuit of copper wire, the length of which was now increased to
+nearly four miles; the thickness of the wire was 1-16th of an inch. When
+machine electricity was employed, an electrometer placed on any point of
+the circuit diverged, and, wherever the continuity of the circuit was
+broken, bright sparks were visible. With a voltaic battery, or with a
+magneto-electric machine, water was decomposed, the needle of the
+galvanometer was deflected, &c., in the middle of the circuit. But, which
+has a more direct reference to the subject of our esteemed correspondent's
+communication from Munich, Professor Wheatstone gave a sketch of the means
+by which he proposes to convert his apparatus into an electrical
+telegraph, which, by the aid of a few finger stops, will instantaneously,
+and distinctly, convey communications between the most distant points.
+These experiments are, we understand, still in progress, and the
+apparatus, as it is at present constructed, is capable of conveying thirty
+simple signals, which, combined in various manners, will be fully
+sufficient for the purposes of telegraphic communication."--From the
+_Magazine of Popular Science_ (Parker, Strand) for March 1, 1837.
+
+[35]
+
+  _a_ -
+  _b_ - ---- -
+  _c_ ---- - -
+  _d_ - - - ----
+  _e_ - -
+  _f_ ---- ----
+  _g_ - ---- - -
+  _h_ ---- ---- ----
+  _i_ - - -
+  _j_ - - ---- - -
+  _k_ - ---- ---- -
+  _l_ - ----
+  _m_ - ---- - ----
+  _n_ - ---- ----
+  _o_ - - - -
+  _p_ - - ---- -
+  _q_ ---- - ---- -
+  _r_ ----
+  _s_ ---- -
+  _t_ - - ----
+  _u_ - - - - -
+  _v_ ---- ---- -
+  _w_ ---- ---- - -
+  _x_ ---- - - ----
+  _y_ ---- - ----
+  _z_ ---- - - -
+
+[36] In justice to the Company, which is very properly jealous of the
+particulars of its messages transpiring, we beg to state that we acquired
+the above fact from a person totally disconnected with the Electric
+Telegraph Office.
+
+[37] Mr. Reuter now performs this duty both for home and foreign news.
+
+[38] The use of the metal or earth-plate will be understood from the
+following statement of Steinheil:--"Owing to the low conducting power of
+water or the ground, compared with metals, it is necessary that at the two
+places where the metal conductor is in connection with the soil, the
+former should present very large surfaces of contact. Assuming that water
+conducts two million times worse than copper, a surface of water
+proportional to this must be brought into contact with the water. If the
+section of a copper wire is 0·5 of a square line, it will require a copper
+plate of 61 square feet surface in order to conduct the galvanic current
+through the ground, as the wire in question would conduct it."
+
+[39] It may be as well to state that nearly all the continental telegraphs
+have formed themselves into a confederacy, called the Austro-Germanic
+Union, which includes the lines of Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria,
+Hanover, Würtemberg, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the Grand Duchy of
+Baden. The Union regulates the tariff and all questions relative to the
+working of the allied lines.
+
+[40] See "Tariff of the Rates charged for general Dispatches on the
+Pittsburgh and Louisville Telegraph, Jones's Electric Telegraph, New
+York," p. 105.
+
+[41] The West of England Fire-Office, which retains the command of its own
+engines.
+
+[42]
+
+  The following are the stations:--            No. of engines.
+
+  Watling Street (the principal station)              4
+  Wellclose Square                                    3
+  Farringdon Street                                   4
+  Chandos Street, Covent Garden                       3
+  Schoolhouse Lane, Ratcliffe                         1
+  Horseferry Road, Westminster                        1
+  Waterloo Road                                       1
+  Paradise Row, Rotherhithe                           1
+  Jeffrey Square, St. Mary-Axe                        2
+  Whitecross Street                                   1
+  High Holborn, No. 254                               2
+  Crown Street, Soho                                  2
+  Wells Street, Oxford Street                         1
+  Baker Street, Portman Square                        1
+  King Street, Golden Square                          3
+  Southwark Bridge Road                               3
+  Morgan's Lane, Tooley Street                        1
+  Floating engine, off King's Stairs, Rotherhithe     1
+          "        off Southwark Bridge               1-36
+
+[43] Repeated reference to this valuable work has more than confirmed the
+opinion we originally expressed of it. There are few books of greater
+utility than what is in fact a "History of London, Past and Present."
+
+[44] The roof of the pile of buildings composing Somerset-House is also
+continuous, thereby greatly increasing the risk of the entire building, if
+one portion of it were to catch.
+
+[45] In Nottingham, where they have gypsum in the neighbourhood, as they
+have in Paris, they form their floors and partitions in the same solid
+manner, and the consequence is, that a building is rarely burned down in
+that town.
+
+[46] The following are the stations of the fire-escapes:--
+
+_Western District._--1. Edgeware Road, near Cambridge Terrace; 2. Baker
+Street, corner of King Street; 3. Great Portland Street, by the chapel; 4.
+New Road, corner of Albany Street; 5. New Road, Euston Square, in front of
+St. Pancras Church; 6. Camden Town, in front of "The Southampton Arms;" 7.
+Battle-bridge, King's Cross; 8. Guildford Street, Foundling Hospital; 9.
+Bedford Row, south end; 10. Hart Street, Bloomsbury, by St. George's
+Church; 11. Tottenham Court Road, by the chapel; 12. Oxford Street, corner
+of Dean Street, Soho; 13. Oxford Street, corner of Marylebone Lane; 14.
+Oxford Street west, corner of Connaught Place; 15. South Audley Street, by
+the chapel; 16. Brompton, near Knightsbridge Green; 17. Eaton Square, by
+St. Peter's Church; 18. Westminster, No. 1, Broad Sanctuary; 19.
+Westminster, No. 2, Horseferry Road; 20. West Strand, Trafalgar Square, by
+St. Martin's Church; 21. Strand, by St. Clement's Church.
+
+_Eastern District._--22. New Bridge Street, by the Obelisk; 23. Holborn
+Hill, corner of Hatton Garden; 24. Aldersgate Street, opposite Carthusian
+Street; 25. Clerkenwell, St. John Street, opposite Corporation Row; 26.
+Islington, No. 1, on the Green; 27. Islington, No. 2, Compton Terrace,
+Highbury End; 28. Old Street, St. Luke's, corner of Bath Street; 29.
+Shoreditch, in front of the church; 30. Bishopsgate Street, near Widegate
+Street; 31. Whitechapel, High Street, in front of the church; 32. Aldgate,
+corner of Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street; 33. The Royal Exchange,
+by the Wellington Statue; 34. Cheapside, by the Western Obelisk; 35.
+Southwark, in front of St. George's Church; 36. Newington, Obelisk, facing
+"The Elephant and Castle;" 37. Kennington Cross; 38. Lambeth, by the
+Female Orphan Asylum; 39. Blackfriars Road, corner of Great Charlotte
+Street; 40. Finsbury Circus, corner of West Street; 41. St. Mary-at-Hill,
+corner of Rood Lane; 42. Conduit Street, corner of Great George Street.
+
+[47] Mr. Walker, the superintendent of the A Division, we believe,
+selected the works in these libraries. The love of books evinced by this
+gentleman sufficiently proves that literary tastes are not incompatible
+with the energetic performance of police duties.
+
+[48] The partiality for the cook ascribed to the policeman is, we are
+assured, a slander upon the force. The commissariat at home is too good to
+justify any suspicion of this ignoble sort of cupboard love.
+
+[49] We have extracted this anecdote from the very interesting work
+published by Captain Chesterton, entitled "Revelations of Prison Life."
+
+[50] Since the above was written, the attention of Government has been
+drawn to the condition of our mines, and a commission of inquiry will
+speedily, we hear, be appointed.
+
+[51] W. T. Cox, Esq., in _British Medical Journal_.
+
+[52] A just appreciation of the value of life is, perhaps, of more
+importance to Friendly Societies than to Insurance Offices, inasmuch, as
+the range of sickness in the working classes is much more extensive than
+in the upper and middle walks of life. Mr. Hardwick, in his manual on
+enrolled Friendly Societies, has pointed out the fact that the vast
+majority of these societies are based upon calculations which must in the
+end terminate in their bankruptcy: and among the causes which tend to this
+disastrous result he mentions the total disregard evinced in these clubs
+to a proper estimate of the states of health in different occupations and
+localities. It must be clear that the potter, whose average amount of
+illness between the ages of 20 and 70 is more than 333 weeks, obtains a
+very unfair advantage over clerks or schoolmasters who may happen to be in
+the same club with him, and whose average of sickness during the same
+period is only 48 weeks. The dyer, again, who, under the present system of
+management of Friendly Societies, may be admitted to a club on the same
+terms as a wheelwright, claims for 293 weeks of sickness against the
+wheelwright's 64. The healthy country artisan is thus made to pay for the
+unhealthy town mechanic. If we take the case, again, of the miner or the
+Sheffield grinder, and huddle him, without inquiry, into the same Friendly
+Society as the agricultural labourer, it must be clear that the latter
+must pay for the more than average sickness of his fellows. Until the
+relative value of life and of sickness among the working classes is
+thoroughly understood and acted upon, as regards the payments of members,
+it is clear that the healthy trades must be sacrificed to the unhealthy
+ones.
+
+[53] An ingenious Frenchman, of the name of Bernot, has just invented a
+file-cutting machine which will, we trust, come generally into use, and do
+away with the paralysis arising from the present handicraft. It is said
+that the workmanship of the machine is more even than the hand-work: the
+files cut in the morning by the artisan being superior to those cut in the
+afternoon, in consequence of his muscles becoming tired.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+The original text contains several images of a right-pointing hand. This
+is represented in this text as [Hand].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Curiosities of Civilization, by Andrew Wynter
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40498 ***