The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

,=I.M.Ir. - - SEPT. 22, 1855. • Corrisronteurt. SLAVE LABOUR. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—The almost simultaneous advent of the opening of Nature's unrestricted banks of issue, California and Australia, has saved the United Kingdom from a monetary despotism that might have gone wellnigh to ruin us under our new com mercial policy, combined with the late Sir R. Peel's Bank Restriction Act, as it has to a great extent disarmed the tyrant power, Money, and again given to agriculture, the humble tradesman, and free labourer a fair field in which they can now again compete with the owners of monef. There is, how ever, I am sorry to say, one class of labourers to whom these cheering views do not apply. I allude to the labourers in slave countries. To them the unlimited supply of gold gives additional value, but it will give increased weight to their chains, inasmuch as they are under the complete control of owners who can compel them to exertions in proportion to their increased value. The value of the slave has been more than doubled during the last ten years, during which period slave countries have rapidly progressed, and have reaped such ample profits from slave labour that money with them has become considerably cheaper. The value of free labour has also risen to a very consider able extent during the same period. The value of an able slave - in 1845 was some 701., and such slave would now sell readily for 1501. ; and allowing the value of money in 1845 to have been twelve per cent., and in 1855 to have fallen to eight per cont.—which is, I believe, about the relative pro portional value,—the proportional difference of in terest on the purchase-money of the slave at 1501., as against 701., would be 3/. 128. against the slave-owner; and allowing the rate of remunera tion for free labour to have risen only twenty-five per cent., which I believe is below the mark, we shall find—for instance, in the rise of ss. per cwt. which has recently taken place in the value of sugar—that the slave grower will still have the advantage over the free grower to a large extent, as it is well known that the free African will not exert himself during the year more than is sufficient to raise one ton of sugar, if so much ; and allowing that the sugar here tofore sold for 201., and that he took three hundred days to perform this work, with a rise in his wages of twenty-five per cent. only, or from Is. to Is. 3d. per day, we shall find his extra cost to his employer to be 31. 155., and the increased value of his produce, in sugar, will be Si., from which deduct the 31.15 s.—the rise in the cost of his free labour—and the free grower's profit on his labour will be 11. ss. On the other hand, a slave can be easily made to raise two tons of sugar in the year. The increased value of his labour in the advanced price of sugar (Si. per ton) would be equal to 101., whilst the extra cost to his owner being only in the shape of interest on his purchase-money, or 31. 12., leaves the slave grower an advantage of 61. Bs. per slave, against the free la bourer's 11. ss.—an advantage not likely to induce the slave-owner to discard his slaves, or to give en couragement to the free grower to compete with him.—Yours, most obediently, September 17. Aftl-SLAVERY. ORDNANCE PREVISION. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—l see under the head of "Naval Intelli• gence " in the Times of Wednesday as follows : Three monster shells have been landed on the Arsenal wharf at Woolwich from the Lowmoor foundries, bearing each the following dimensions :—Diameter, 3 feet 9 inches ; weight, 1 ton 6 cwt. They are the first of a num ber of that species which had been ordered for the purpose of being despatched to Sebastopol for the reduc tion of that fortress. An experimental gun has likewise been founded at Liverpool for projecting those enormous missiles, weighing no less than twenty tons. Can any of your readers inform me whether these shells were made for Nasmyth's mortars ? If they were, it accounts for the founding of this enormous gun at Liverpool, as no one ever supposes that our present Government would acknowledge that a blunder had been made. It ever has been their policy to blunder on, and it would be unbe coming in them to cast aside these monster shells, and so proclaim their ignorance. I wonder if this monster gun will he a repetition of the mistakes which have been made in the Lancashire district. What, with bayonets and rifles at Manchester, which were to put Birmingham in the shade, and which has caused a laugh at the expense of both the Govern ment and Manchester by the "toy-shop" people, and the monster wrought-iron ordnance of Mr. Nasmyth, we are disposed to look with suspicion upon these great announcements. What a pity there should be such a lack of practical knowledge in the right place Sept, AO, 101 A COUNTRYMAN. THE PRESS. NEW MATERIALS FOR PAPER. THE proceedings of the annual meeting of the British Association have been actively progressing during the week, a multiplicity of papers being daily read and discussions thereon held in the different sections. Among other interesting communications was the following upon the new material for paper, read on Monday in zoological and botanical section by the Chevalier Claussen : Referring to the want of material experienced by paper makers, M. Claussen said that what they desiderated was a cheap substitute for rags, with a strong fibre, easily bleached, and of which an unlimited supply may be ob tained. Paper-makers regard rags containing fifty per cent. of vegetable fibre, mixed with wool or silk, as use less; but, by boiling these rags in caustic alkali, the animal fibre is dissolved, and the vegetable fibre is avail able fur the manufacture of white paper pulp. Sunn, or jute, the inner bark of corchorus indices, produced a paper pulp of inferior quality, bleached with difficulty. Agave, phormiurn tenar, and banana or plantain fibre (Manilla hemp) are not only expensive, but it is nearly impossible to bleach them. The banana leaves contain forty per cent. of fibre. Flax would be suitable to replace rags in paper, but the high price and scarcity of it, caused partly by the war, and partly by the injudicious way in which it is cultivated, prevents that. Six tons of flax straw are re quired to produce one ton of flax fibre, and by the present mode of treatment all the woody part, or stems, are lost. By the Chevalier's process the bulk of the flax straw is lessened by partial cleaning before rotting, whereby about fifty to sixty per cent. of shoves, a valuable cattle food, are saved, and the cost of the fibre reduced. The flax pulp thus produces nearly from twelve to fifteen per cent. of paper pulp. Hemp produces twenty-five per cent. of paper pulp. Nettles produce twenty-five per cent. of a very beautiful and easily-bleached fibre. Palm leaves contain thirty to forty per cent. fibre, but are not easily bleached. The Bromeliacee contain from twenty-five to forty per cent. fibre. Bonapartia juncoides contain thirty-five per cent. of the most beautiful vegetable fibre known, which could be used for all kinds of manufactures in which flax, cotton, silk, or wool are employed. This plant exists in very large quantities in Australia, and it is most desirable that some of our large manufacturers would import a quantity of it. The plant wants no other preparation than cutting, drying, and compressing like hay. The bleaching and finishing of it may be done here. Ferns, equisetum, the inner bark of the lime tree, althea, stalks of beans, peas, hops. buck wheat, potatoes, heather, broom, and many other plants contain ten to fifteen and twenty per cent. of fibre, but in most of them there are obvious difficulties preventing their economical use. The straws of the cereals cannot be manufactured into paper pulp, unless cut before they are ripe, as the joints or knots of the stalks are so hardened by ripening as to resist bleaching agents. Many grasses con tain from thirty to fifty per cent. of fibre, not very strong, but easily bleached. Ground reeds and canes contain about an equal amount. The wood of the con Vere gives a large proportion of fibre suitable for paper pulp ; but the cost of preparing would be about three times that of pre paring rags. As none of these (said M. Claussen) would entirely satisfy on all points the wants of the paper-makers, I continued my researches, and at last remembered the papyrus (the plant of which the Indents made their paper), which I examined, and found to contain about forty per cent. of strong fibre, excellent for paper, and very easily bleached. The only point which was not entirely satisfactory was relative to the supply of it. I directed, therefore, my attention to plants growing in this country, and found, to my great satisfaction, that the common rushes ( juncus elfustu, and others) contain forty per cent. of fibre, quite equal, if not superior, to the papyrus fibre, and a perfect substitute for rags in the manufacture of paper, and that one ton of rushes contains more fibre than two tons of flax straw. THE KING or THE NETHERLANDS has conferred the Order of the Netherlands Lion on the Rev. Dr. Gehle, minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin-friars, and chaplain to the Netherlands Embassy. The rev. gentleman has for more than a quarter of a century been resident in London, and is connected with several literary, religious, and benevolent institutions, as well in this country as in Holland. Mr. P. W. MARTYN, a son of one of the candidates for West Kent., has announced his intention of soli citing the suffrages of the electors of Rochester whenever a vacancy may occur. He states that he is prepared to give a general support to her Majesty's present Government, that he shall have mach plea sure in supporting good measures for parliamentary reform, as well as such a reform in the distribution of the revenues of the Church as the principles of justice require. A Punuc DINNER of the coach proprietors of Great Britain came off on Thursday at the Crown and Sceptre, Greenwich, at which a testimonial of 1,000 guineas was presented to Mr. J. E. Bradfield, in consideration of the services rendered by him in procuring a reduction of the duty on stage carriages. Upwards of 100 of the most respectable and exten sive coach proprietors in the kingdom were present. ON Wednesday the ceremony of turning the first sod of the projected railway from Killarney to Tralee was performed by the Lord Lieutenant in the pre sence of a large concourse of gentlemen and of the people of the surrounding district, Lord Castleroese having presented his Excellency with the land for the purpose in the name of his father, the Earl of Emma& FILTRATION OF A RIVER. THE Medlock, which passes through the heart of Manchester, receiving in its way a considerable number of sewers, and being used by dyeworks and various manufactories, empties the greater portion of its water in a state indescribably filthy an d no i some into the Bridgewater-canal, of which it is the prin cipal feeder. The water is, at the entrance of tho canal, near the western boundary of the city, nearly as black as ink, and almost as thick. In the canal, which passes through Hulme and various other places for a distance of eight miles towards Liver pool, it becomes more offensive than in the river, because the drainage is comparatively small, and the water is at times nearly stagnant. The districts through which it passes out of the town are those which have been found most. eligible for villas and suburban residences of the middle classes and gentry, and all are rapidly rising towns, where people who can afford to do so seek to escape from the smoke and impurities of Manchester. The Altrincliam Railway, by which they travel backwards and forwards, runs nearly all the way close to the canal, and only those who have travelled by it can form an idea of the stench and malaria that it spreads around. The canal, in fact, is a great open sewer, and any plan which can be adopted to purify its waters must, of course, be a great blessing to such an extensive neighbourhood. An experiment is now iu the course of being made to filtrate the water of the Medlock at Manchester, near the point where it empties itself into the canal, and by a very simple method. On the left bank of the river, forty or fifty yards from the canal, a good-sized tank is filled with lime and water, and resembles one of the lime puddles often seen near to new buildings for the purpose of mixing with the other constituents of mortar. From this tank a trough or open pipe is carried across the river, along which the lime and water flows, and small holes, about an inch in diameter, at the bottom of this pipe, allow the fluid to fall through into the river at different points. From the place where the lime-water falls into the river to its entrance into the canal the river is converted into a reservoir by means of a weir or backwater at the mouth of the canal, the object being to hold the water here while the lime can operate upon it, and precipitate the impurities mingled with it to the bottom. The surface water out of this re servoir flows over the weir in a stream of only about two inches deep or little more ; and, though not per fectly clear, the water as it passes this point shows that the experiment has not wholly failed, but has accomplished a change already which is a deside ratum. There appears little doubt, upon the approach to success which the experiment has attained after only a few days' trial, that the perfect purification of the river is quite possible, and is likely to be accom plished. The refuse and lime which sink to the bottom of the reservoir will, no doubt, be exceedingly valuable as manure. A NUMEROUS MEETING of the friends and admirers of Admiral Sir Charles Napier was held on Monday evening at the Three Compasses Tavern, Silver street, Golden-square, to consider the best course to be adopted to raise the necessary funds for a testi monial to the gallant Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Mr. James Homes took the chair, and, several gen tlemen having addressed the meeting, resolutions were passed, approving of a public subscription and address. It was also determined that a public meet ing should be held on an early day in the ensuing week in furtherance of the object in view. The ad dress and resolutions have been extensively circu lated throughout the metropolis, and it is stated that in many of the provincial towns the subject is warmly taken up, Sheerness alone having promised to contribute 2001. in furtherance of the object. ON the telegraphic line from Constantinople to Shumla, by Adrianople, which is now terminated, the different experiments have perfectly succeeded, and in a few days it can be opened for public use. Its length is not less than 106 French leagues. By the establishment of the line, the distance which separates Constantinople from Adrianople, and the latter town from Shumla, heretofore but imper fectly known, has been precisely ascertained. Tho carrying of the electric wires across the Balkans — through almost impenetrable forests, and in which it was necessary to have recourse to the compass only SK a guide, and which did not even contain a single tree fit to be utilised—presented great difficulties. M. de la Rue, however, the contractor for setting up the line, did not allow himself to be discouraged by any obstacles, and Constantinople is now in commu nication with all the capitals of Europe. But it has been necessary to provide for the security of the telegraph as well as to erect it, and, accordingly, fifty one houses for keepers have been built on different parts of the line, and a complete surveil lance, by men on foot and horseback, has been organised. Employes to work the line have been brought from France and installed at the different stations. The telegraph is to be conducted on the Irenoh system.