The Press. — London, England, 1853-08-27 00:00:00

AUGUST 27, 1853. SECOND EDITION. SATURDAY EVENING. LATEST FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. FRANCE.—The Journal des Ulnas contains a letter from Prince Ghika, dated Ja.sy, the 14th inst. The Prince contradicts certain rumours which have been published respecting him and his relations to the Porte. He says, that having been desired by the Russian authorities to suspend his relations with the Porte, and to stop the payment of the tribute to the Sultan, such acts being incompatible with the occu pation of Moldavia by the Russians, he merely transmitted the letters containing these instructions to the Ottoman Cabinet, without any remarks of his own. He adds that, according to his opinion, the question involved in the Russian demands lay be tween the two Courts, and that he himself was alto gether incompetent to decide on the subject. The King of Hanover has determined to form a camp at the Hague, where manoeuvres for the in struction of the troops will commence on Sept 1. The Austrian Lloyd's of the 23rd states that important measures are about to be adopted with respect to Italy. The state of siege will be consider ably modified. Riotous assemblages took place in Genoa on the 22nd, owing to the high price of bread. The troops were called out to restore order, and tranquillity re stored by the ensuing day. The inhabitants of Spezzia and the refugees have complimented the American Commander Ingraham for his energetic conduct at Smyrna. The Queen of Spain has decreed that the copper money now in circulation shall be recoined. The King of Greece has appointed two General Commanders of the army. The Eastern Corps is to be under the orders of General Gardikiotis-Grivas, while the Western Corps is commanded by General Mamonais. The crop of Corinthian grapes is almost wholly lost, and the results of the grain harvest are by no means satisfactory. The Government has presented to the two Chambers a bill prohibiting the export of grain up to the 31st of December, and at the same time lowerinc , the duties on the importation of grain and vegetables. A United States mail arrived in Southampton late last night, bringing intelligence from New York to the 13th inst. A frightful railway collision had taken place on the 12th on the Providence and Worcester Railroad, by which twelve persons were killed, as far as at present is ascertained, and probably three times that number injured, besides a great many bruised and wounded. Despatches have been received from the fishing regions which are of the most pacific and satisfac tory character. From the very warm weather which has of late existed at New York, and other places, many deaths have taken place. Large subscriptions were raised for the many deaths by yellow fever which have taken place at New Orleans. At one meeting in Philadelphia 27,000 dollars were collected. A postal convention has taken place between the United States and Bremen Governments. At Philadelphia the barks were represented as badly off for specie, which caused much excitement. • A fortnight's later intelligence from the Cape of Good Hope has been received by the Lady Jocelyn. The latest news from the frontier is of a p sueaceful character ; the Kat river Hottentots are ffering great privation. Active operations were making for the elections. The registrations were to commence on the 22nd of August, and would not close until the end of September. There were several candidates for seats in the Upper House, among whom was Mr. Ruther ford, possenger by the Lady Jocelyn. The revenue continues to increase, and there will be, apparently, a surplus in the year IMSB of 90,000/. or more over the expenditure. Prices of agricultural produce are high and rising. Wheat had sold on the Cape Town market for 206 rix dollars (15/. 75. 6d.) per load of 10 maids, equal to about three quarters and a half imperial measure. A remarkable increase was also observed in the price of lands disposed of at public sale. High prices continued to be given for improved breeds of sheep. At Graff Reint, in the centre of the colony, two large sales had recently taken place of improved imported rams. which sold briskly at prices varying from 701. to 130/. each. About 6,000 tons of shipping were loading in Table Bay for the Australian colonies. Market commodi ties for that destination were scarce, and the wages for skilled labour continued to rise. THE PRESS. HER MAJESTY'S VISIT TO IRELANt►.—TI►e Queen is expected to reach the station at Holyhead at seven • o'clock this evening, anti will immediately proceed on to the royal steam-yacht Victoria and Albert. The inhabitants of Holyhead have made ample prepara tions to receive her Majesty in a manner which will not fail to convince her of the proverbial loyalty of her subjects in the principality. immediately on her arrival she will be met by the committee ; anti her Majesty has signified her intention of receiving the address of the inhabitants through the principal Secretary of State by whom she will be accompanied; anti it is stated that she has also given her sanction to change the nameof the harbour, which is in future to be known as the Royal Victoria Harbour. DUNt; OMAN ELECTION has terminated in the return of Mr. John Francis Maguire. The numbers at the close of the poll on Thursday evening were—Ma guire, 171 ; tiregory, 77 : majority, 94. Lein AND LADY PALMERsTON being on a visit to their estates at Melbourne, Derbyshire, the noble lord has consented to lay the foundation-stone of the new Athena•um at that place this day (Saturday). In addition to the Atheneum, the building will *Word accommodation for a savings batik, mechanics insti tution, and a national school. liis lordship has been invite► by the mayor and COTIIOIIII4III to a public banquet in Derby, but declined the invitation on the • ground that his visit to Derby was of a strictly non political character, and his lordship's reply has caused much regret in the town of Derby and the neigh. bourhood. THE GALE of Thursday night and yesterday visited Bristol and its neighbourhood with an intensity amounting almost to a hurricane. Large trees were rooted up or snapped off; and immense damage, whose actual extent there has yet been no time to estimate, was done by the fury of the storm through out the surrounding district. Many disasters are apprehended to have occurred among the shipping in the Bristol Channel. We understand that the Admiralty have determined to discontinue the employment of lieutenants of the lioJal navy as Admiralty agents, in the North Ameri can mail contract steam-packets.—Morming Herald. THE PATENT PRINTING MACHINERY AND PRINTING COMPANY. MANY ingenious inventions fail in practice through their over-ingenuity of contrivance. Such is the fault —and such we fear will be the fate—of the new ma chinery and processes devised by Major Beniowski. The invention is indeed ushered into the world with ample pomp. It is announced as inaugurating a complete revolution in the craft of bookmaking and the spread of literature in all its branches. It is protected by numerous patents. It is recommended to the world in a well-written prospectus. It is to be worked by a company, under all the advantages that capital, organisation, and an influential board of directors can contribute. Anti on Saturday last its practical efficiencies were shown off to a numerous and select company by some very pretty models and some equally pretty experimental trials, which went off—as such preliminary exhibitions almost invariably do—with complete success. Our limited space, and the difficulty of rendering a description of complicated machinery intelligible without diagrams, will oblige us to confine our re marks to the principal feature presented in Major Beniowski's invention. This relates to the change he has designed in the types and type frames. Or dinarily, as our readers probably know, every letter, point, and symbol, blank spaces inclusive, impressed upon the printed sheet, is represented by a separate bit of metal, or type, each of which occupies its own compartment in the printer's "case," and must be picked up and put together by a distinct movement, of his arm a n d fingers. Practically, the number of these separate types is limited by the area over which the compartments that contain them would extend. It is obvious that, if the "cases" are too large to be commanded by an arm of average range with out compelling the compositor to move from his seat, time and lalsmr are wasted without any adequate compensation. The experience of generations has taught US that the various species of single types, with their necessary diversifications of capital, italic, and other letters, occupy quite as much room as can be admitted under ordinary circumstances. Any fanciful contrivances, therefore—which have been often enough suggested— proposing the introduction of ready-prepared combinations of letters and sylla bles, however excellent in theory, have been dis carded in practice, simply for the reason that they would necessitate the use of a larger " ease," and thus create, more trouble and waste more time than they could possibly save. Our present inventor proposes to obviate this difficulty—to secure the advantages without incur ring the drawbacks of such complications—by changing the form of the type frame. Instead of the inclined tray, with quadrangular compartments con- taming the types, he builds up a semicircular wall pierced with numerous epout-holes, all eommunicating with type reservoirs behind, but so contrived that every aperture shall emit a constant now of types, each in its proper position, to be transferred to the composing -stick, and each replaced by a successor when removed by the pincers with which the compo sitor is armed, just as the eecoud soldier of a file steps into the front when his predecessor is shot down. The surface of the "case" is thus made per pendicular ; the are a occupied by each eompartment is very considerably diminished; and, as a necessary con sequence, the number of such compartments that can be used, without exacting any additional muscular action Proust to compositor, increased and even mul tiplied in a noticeable degree. •Witli this larger range of compartments at his command, Maier Bertiowski proposes to introduce what he terms logo types, eompound syllables, terminals, or some times whole words of most frequent occurrence, which can be placed bodily into the " compasiag stick," mei thus effect at one " lift" what is now dune by several. !lore is, no doubt, an obvious saving, of muscular action and of time to the compositor. Five thousand letters could be—and were, in the expeii ments tried on Saturday—put together in one hour, while the average of a fairly •skilful timid, with the ordinary 'initiatives, is twelve or fifteen hundred. This is the " revolution in printing " promised by the inventor. Types are set up in a third or quarter of the time, and consequently at a third of the expense formerly required for printing. But against this saving of minutes and money we must reckon the offset of accidents, which, as pritc field invehanicians well know, can lie reduced le MI ascertainable, and sometimes high, average in the working of an elaborate machine. We must count up the chances of failure in the fulfilment of inure than one minute anti delicate condition ; the time lost through errors and derangements, the possibi lity of the types so cleverly arranged not presenting in the expected position, or at the fitting moment — above all, the physical attributes of memory and skill demanded from the compositor, who is required, in order to make the invention answer, to pick out, at the rate of eighty per minute, the particular type from nearly two thousand varieties, to place it in its proper order, and follow it with its proper successor. If these casualties, whose absolute value prolonged experience only can disclose , are sufficient to coun tervail the gain accruing from the economy of labour produced by the use of the logotypes and the di minished area of the " eases," then is the whole mar gin of profit derivable from the invention utterly ob literated. For our own part, we believe that such must be the result in practice. The prepared expe riments of a " private view " go for nothing. The invention must stand the rough-and-ready test of actual work. It' it be too complicated, too liable to failure and displacement for such ordinary require ments, it must heroine a mere toy for the amusement of a curious public, or for occasional use by an amateur. We wish to give Major Ileniowski all credit for the ingenuity lie has displayed, even while expressing our conviction that it is in some degree misapplied. There are some minor details in which we believe him to have been more successful than in his logo. types, or the elaborate case in which ho packs them, and which he denominates the authoriton. His new inking-roller, for example, consisting of a hollow c ' finder of vulcanised caoutclione inflated with air to any required degree of hardness, and yet preserving perfect elasticity in all temperatures, is a capital im provement upon the old " composition" rollers. If Major Ihmiowski can but succeed in overcoming cer tain trade prejudices and ihteresty with regard to this simple implement, be will have earned the gratitude of all printers luta of all who supply printers with the raw material. After all, this may be better, both for himself stud the world, than even if he waive to succeed in effecting the promised " revolution" in literature. The plough. as an agricultural machine, is condemned to tqweily extinetion, except for rare tiocontiotot, by Mr. Divehi. In it recent letter that getitlettisui has published his derision, founded on rigid invelotigatiton and entripulti tine, that the ,loon of the plough, as an instrument of culture, is sealed, and that the rotatory forking, or, as it is wrongly culled, 'Jigging illowhine, is the only prolituble eultivntoor. Even with six or eight horses it is I'llearer and infinitely more ell . ective than the plough ' - sinee the trial of implements at my • gathering,'" he adds, " I ha.. ri•eeiveil from one Of our North American colonies the male' of a newly-invented machine, which, by a happy and moist simple combine' io on of horse and steam power, will not only deeply, cheaply, and etheiently cultivate and pulverise the soil, but at the 141 • IMP.. sow t h e seed and leave all in a finished eotailiti.os. It sill also, by a simple inversion, rut and gather the corn without any rake or 411110 r complication; while, both in cul tivation awl harvesting, its operation will Ile continuous and without stoppage. Whet' complete, it will weigh Rigout twenty too twenty-live cwt., will require a pair of horses, and will repre sent the power of shoot eight to twelve, Or more, real horses. 'floe implonowoot for digging will require one man and U 1111.• hey only, incluoling the managemeut of the steani-eugiae ; la reaping. the !Millie, with t h e 0.411111 . 1 1 .11 of three men to bind as the corn falls tutu their anus. The men will be carried oa the assehlue." % ,