The Press. — London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 29, 1857. diately on his arrival in Great Britain. [This letter, it appears, reached the owners of the barque, at New London, Connecticut, long before the Resolute arrived there.] We now come to the homeward voyage. Sliort handed, poirly rigged, and unfitted for the Mug voyage as the Resolute was, Captain liuddington found it no easy task to bring the ship into port. The watertanks had burst in the hold long betore he came into possession of her, render ing her very light and apt to roll heavily in the trough of the sea. Gale after gale was experienced; yet the brave fellow laboured day and night, and at last was successful in the praLeworthy effort made to rescue the abandoned vessel, driving across the mouth of Northumberland Inlet down to Cape Elizabeth. The open sea was gamed, and on the 20th October the homeward voyage commenced. After a succession of strong gales and head winds, the New London lighthouse was made on the . 24th December, and the voyage was successfully accomplished with credit to all concerned, but especially to Captain Buddington, for he worked morning, noon, and night. - - - - - The purchase and restoration of the old ship to England by the American Government, and the graceful (?) manner in which the compli ment was accepted by Sir Charles Wood, who ordered the ship to be stripped and laid up in ordinary, must be fresh in our readers' minds. To conclude, although we cannot con scientiously recommend Mr M'Douaall's hook as the most lively and entertaining Arctic volume that we have ever read, it yet has the merit of exact truthfulness. Nothing is ex aggerated, no difficulties or danger over coloured, and no attempt is made at effect; it is an exact and faithful record of an arduous voyage, and as such will rank highly in the records of Arctic search. Dates, Battles, and Erents of Modern History. Dy Lord Eustace Cecil. London : Stawart. Tats is a most useful and opportune little manual. It is skilfully executed, and contains in a v,;ry small compass all the lending facts of modern military history. A very good system is adopted of taking periods instead of single dates, though this occa sionally gives rise to a rather arbitrary classification, and sometimes the omission of important events — as, for instance, in order to avoid a short period, such as 166'2-1665, nothing is said of the triple alliance ; and for a similar reason, perhaps, Crom well's wars, including the important battle of Dunkirk, and the peace of Pyrenees, on which the history of Europe turned for a hundred years, are omitted. The work, therefore, is at present not faultless, but the idea is excellent, and we have no doubt that in a second edition the execution will be made worthy of the design. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED—Aucusr 27. Boors. Life of Mary Queen of Scots. Virginia. Uriel, and Other Poems. Sampson and Low Sampson and Low. .1. Chapman. "odgson The item at Arms. T. H, Rome: Its Ruler and its Institutions. By John Francis Maguire, M.P. Longmans. Quits. A Novel. 3 vols. By the Baroness Tautp ß hoens. entley. PAMPHLETS. The Churches and Mansions of the Isle of Wight. By W. 1-1. Davenport Adams. Part I. Smith and Elder—The Present Crisis in India. J. Chapman—Dales, Battles, and Events of Modern History. By Lord Euatace Cecil. C. J. Stewart. QUEEN VICTORIA is the first sovereign of England that has visited Cherbourg since the time that Nor mandy belonged to Great Britain. The last English monarch seen under the walls of Cherbourg was Henry V., in 1420. THE KING OF THE BELGIANS, whn is travelling incog. under the title of the Count d'Ardennes, will be absent from Belgium for about three weeks. His Majesty arrived at Bonn on the evening of Saturday, and was immediately visited by the Prince of Wales. The King, on the following day, was to proceed up the Rhine in a steamer. AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on the snbject of telegraphs is to be held in a short time at Berne, in order to establit-h a uniform communication between the Austro Germa•i telegraph union and the States wh►ch signed the telegraphic convention of Paris. A SHORT HONEYMOON was enjoyed on Monday morning last by a matins in the detachment of Royal Marines about to embark at Plymouth for service in China. This private, named M‘Koone, on receiving his money, asked permission to marry before em barking. This request was granted, and, going under escort of a non commissioned officer, he was allowed to proceed to church with his bride. The ceremony having been concluded, the happy pair were permitted ten minutes to spend the honeymoon, at the expiration of which time he returned to the barrack, made an allotment in favour of his wife, and then embarked with the rest of the detachment on board the Imperador screw steamer. THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. AFTER an interval of nearly flve•and-twenty years, the savans of the British Association have again visited Dublin. The general committee met on Wednesday, when some preliminary business was transacted and several resolutions were passed ; among them, one appointing the Lord Chancellor of Ireland to the post of vice-president, vacant by the resignation of J. E. Cooper, Esq., and the election of the Right Hon. Joseph Napier, M.P., and Mr. J. Cooper, of Makree Castle, as members of the par liamentary committee. From the statement of the accounts, it appeared that the balance in hand of estimated property amounts to 6,773/. 17s. 101 The inaugural meeting took place in the round room of the Rotunda on the game evening, when the Rev. Humphrey Lloyd, president of the association for the evening, in the presence of a brilliant assembly, delivered an eloquent address. Dr. Lloyd ranged over many subjects. In his remarks on astronomy, he refer red to two extensive star catalcgues in progress. The star catalogue of M. Chacornac, made at the observa tory of Marseilles, in course of publication by the French Government; and that of Mr. Cooper, made at his observatory at Mark ee, in Ireland, which is now being published by the help of the parliamentary grant of the Royal Society. It is a remarkable re sult of the latter labour that no fewer than seventy seven stars previously catalogued are now missing. This, in some cases, no doubt, is to be ascribed to the errors of former observations; bat it seems rea sonable to suppose that, to some extent at least, it is the result of changes actually in progress in the Sidereal system. In connection with this subject, the speaker said : It is now well understood that the path of astronomical discovery is obstructed much more by the earth's atmo sphere than by the limitation of telescopic powers. Im pressed with this conviction, the association has for some time past urged upon her Majesty's Governm , nt the scien tific importance of establishing a large reflector at some elevated station in the southern hemisphere. In the meantime, end to gain as it were a sample of the results which might be expected from a more systematic search, Professor Piazzi Smyth undertook last summer the task of transporting a large collection of instruments—meteoro logical and magn2tical, as well as astronomical—to a high point on the Peak of Tenerife. His stations were two in number, at the altitudes above the sea of 8,840 and 10,700 feet respectively; and the astronomical advantages gained may be inferred from the fact that the heat radiated from the moon, which has been so often sought for in vain in a lower region, was distinctly perceptible even at the lower of the two stations. I hope that some account of the results will he laid before you by Professor Smyth himself in the physical section. We extract some other passages of interest : MauNETie STonsts.—These phenomena, called by Humboldt " magnetic storms," have been otssrved to occur simultaneously in the most distant parts of the earth, and thus to indicate a cause operating upon the entire globe. But, casual as they seem, these effects are found to be subject to laws of their own. Professor Krell was the first to discover that, at a given place, they recurred more frequently at certain hours of the day than at others ; and that, consequently, in their mean effects, they were subject to petiodical laws, depending upon the hour at each station. The laws of this periodicity have been ably worked out by General Sabine in his discussion of the results of the British colonial observatories; and he has added the important facts, that the same phenomena observe also the two other periods already noticed—namely, the annual and the de cennial periods. This, however, is not all. He has further arrived at the very remarkable result—that the decennial magnetic period coincides, both in its duration and in its epochs of maxima and minima, with the decennial period observed by Schwabe in the solar spots ; from which it is to be inferred that the sun exercises a magnetic influence upon the earth dependent on the condition of its luminous en velope. We are thus in the presence of two facts, which appear at first sight opposed—namely, the absolute simultaneity of magnetic d;sturbances at all parts of the earth, and their predominance at certain local hours at each place. THE HEAT OF TIIE EARTH.—The resultant effect of all the thermal agencies to which the earth is exposed has undergone no perceptible change within the historic period. We owe this fine deduction to Arago. In order that the date palm should ripen its fruit, the mean temperature of the place must exceed 70 deg. Fahr.; and, on the other hand, the vine cannot be cultivated successfully when the temperature is 7 . 2 neg. or upwards. Hence the mean temperature of any place at which these two plants flourished and bore fruit must lie between these narrow lim its—i.e., could not differ from 71 851 deg. Fahr. by more than a single degree. Now, from the Bible we learn that both plants were simul taneously cultivated in the central valleys of Pales- tine, in the time of Moses, and its then temperature is thus definitively determined. It is the same at the present time, so that the mean temperature of this portion of the globe has not sensibly altered in the clime of thirty-three centuries. The future of physical science seems to lie in the path upon which three of our ablest British physicists have so boldly entered, and in which they have already made such large advances. I may, therefore, be permitted briefly to touch upon the successive steps in this lofty generalisation, and to indicate the goal to which they tend. It has been long known that many of the forces of nature are related. Thus, heat is produced by mechanical action, when that is applied in bringing the . atoms of bodies nearer by compression, or when it i 3 expended in friction. Heat is developed by electricity, when the free pas sage of the latter is impeded. It is produced when ever light is absorbed; and it is generated by chemical action. A like interchangeability probably exists among all the other forces of nature, although in many the relations have not been so long per c-ived. Thus, the development of electricity teem chemical action dates from the observations of Galvani ; and the production of magnetism by electricity from the discovery of Oersted. The next great step was to perceive that the relation of the physical forces was mutual ; and that of any two, compared together, either may stand to the other in the relation of cause. GEOLOGY.—The science of geology appears to have, of late years, entered upon a new phase of its development—one characterised by a stricter refer ence of its speculative views to the principles of those sciences with which it is connected, and upon which it ought to be based. We have an example of this in the able memoirs of Mr. Hopkins, on what may be called dynamical geology, including the changes which have taken place in the earth's crust by the operation of internal forces. Another instance of the application of sound physical principles to this science is found in the explanations which have been recently offered of the phenomena of slaty clevage. A report on this interesting subject was presented to the association by Professor Phillips at its last meeting, and will be found in the volume just pub lished. These sounder views originate, I believe, with himself and Mr. Sharpe ; but they have been enlarged and confirmed by Mr. Sorby, Dr. Tyndall, and Professor Haughton. We have another interesting proof of the readiness of geologists of the present day to submit their views to the test of exact observation, in the measurement undertaken by Mr. Horner for the purpose of approximating to the age of sedimentary deposits. Of the geological changes still in operation, none is more remark able than the formation of deltas at the mouths f great rivers, and of alluvial land by their overflow. Of changes of the latter kind perhaps the most remarkable is the great:alluvial deposit formed in the valley of the Nile by the annual innundations of that river ; and here it fortunately happens that history c Imes to the aid of the geologist. These sedimentary deposits haee accumulated round the bases of monu ments of known age ; and be is therefore at once furnished with a chronometric scale by which the rate of their formation may be measured. The first of the series of measurements undertaken by Mr. Homer was made, with the cooperation of the Egyptian Government, around the obelisk of Heliopolis, a monument built, according to Lepsius, 2,300 years n.c. A more extensive series of researches has been undertaken in the district of Memphis ; but Mr. Horner has not vet, I believe, published the results. The problems now to be salved in Paleontology are clearly defined in the enunciation of the problem recently proposed by the French Academy of Sciences as one of its prize questions, viz., to study the laws of distribution of organic beings in the different sedimentary rocks, according to the order of their superposition ; to discuss the question of their appearance or disappearance, whether simultaneous or successive ; and to determine the nature of the relations which subsist between the existing organic kingdom and its anterior states. The prize was obtained by Professor Bronn, of Heidelberg ; and his memoir, of which I have only seen an outline, appears to be characterised by views at once sound and comprehensive. The leading result seems to be, that the genera and species of plants and animals which geology proves to have existed successively on our globe were created in succession,in adaptation to the existing state of their abode, and not transmuted or modified, as the theory of Lanark supposes, by the physical influences which surrounded them. At the conclusion of the address, the Lard Lieutenant and Lord Wrottesley;each paid a hand some compliment to Dr. Lloyd, and the meeting adjourned. PRESIDENT Fon NEXT YEAR.—The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Whately, is elected the president of next year. • :