Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-10-08 00:00:00

REVISED LIST OF 'VOTERS

TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE NOIkTIIRRN DAILY TIMES
Constitutional Association, Prince's-buildings,
7th October, 1859
SIR,—My attention has been drawn to
W. Branfitt, the secretary of the Reform Association, in

letter of Mr

the Daily Post of yesterday, impugning the statement

published by you of the result of the Borough Revision
Court, and substituting one of, I presume, his own

"cooking." To the uninitiated this diserepawy in. the

two statements must be irreconcileable but to those
_ _

learned in the tactics of the Reform Association

significant. Perhaps the writer of the letter will inform
the readers of the Daily Post how many of the 1,713

objections professed to be made by him were bad Radicat
votes, to strike off which would do his party no harm,
but add materially to the numbers claimed to be struck
off by them, and, by their calculation, reduce the number
struck off by the Conservatives. lf he will do this, I
think a correct statement of the • result of the Revision In these extraordinary days of ours, when- men advo-
will be arrived at ; and that, I take upon myself to cafe peace and yet prepare for war,—when too many
assert, will confirm the statement published by you, give the lip to God and the heart to Mammon,—when
which, after allowing for 198 withdrawals, and for lightningwe converse by and walk about by steam, in-
deaths and duplicates 96 in.addition, making altogether • •
294, which deduct from the 698 majority claimed to be pin es respecting past days and past persons are both
popular by contrast. and unpopular from association. Few
made by the Conservatives, leave them a majority'on the of the population of our great town have heard the name
Revision of 404.—1 am, sir, yours most respectfully,
JOHN S. BRANCH, of Jeremiah Horrox ; and of the thousands whose daily
resort is to the paved area "where merchants most do
Sec., pro. tem., Constitutional Association. congregate," fewer still could tell what he did to awaken
our interest or claim oar gratitude. Yet he was born
'almost within the borough limits, in that part of Toxteth
which is still rural, and is now called Jericho ; and hiss
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES, left indelible footprints in the sands of time.
Sue —ln the Liverpool Mercury, of the.sth instant, When the late W. R. Whatton, Esq., F.R.S. of
I noticed a letter signed "S. H.," and headed with the department Manchester, wasengaged in writing the biographical
glaring title of " The Municipal Market Sold Again," he prepar of
prepared
d the " Barnes'smater History of
materials
foralie n clishorir e,"
Horrox,
and I feel compelled on the part of Mr. George Nickson and efforts were made contemporaneously in the same
to reply to the remarks made concerning him ; and allow direction, by the late Professor Rigaud, of Oxford. To
me, in the first place, to contradict the assertion that these circumstances allusion was made by Dr. flume, at
the '
Roscoe Centenary in this town, in 1853 when men-
Mr. Nickson is the " Orangeman's Friend," in the tioning that there were other distinguished men con-
offensive sense in which it is used ;he is not, nor ever nected with our district. Fully a hundred and eighty-
was, connected with that body in any way whatever. five years after this distinguished youth had been
No doubt, like "S. H.," hehas many warm friends in that removed from earth, an admiring astronomer. Mr.
body, and supposing he were a member of that body, Holden, of Reston, erected a chaste tablet to his memory
should like to ask d'S. H." what 'the crime would consist in St. Michael's Church, Toiteth, and within the last
of ? I only hope "S. H." bears as unimpeachable a two years great efforts have been made by the Rev.
character as Mr. Nickson ; for none are more worthy of Brickell to procure a suitable memorial of him at the
a seat in our local legislature than George Nickson. the little village of Hoole. • Though Horrox died at the
candidate for St. Anne's Ward ; and, although S. H. early age of twenty-two, that is a year sooner than he
unworthily sneers at his being a shop-keeper, his mental could be ordained in modern times, he h.‘l
qualifications, his standing as a straightforward trades- years in orders, and officiated as
man, a supporter of the various chaneties, and a friend Ir. Brickell, who occupies the same pulpit,
to every movement, educational or otherwise, which sirous to enlarge and beautify the little church,.
can benefit the poorer classes, entitle' him to' that add a memorial chapel, with free accommodation for the
honourable position in which the indePendant poor.. All this has been done ; the dial and clock, asso-
electors of St. Anne's Ward will most certainly dated with the name of the astronomer, have, been re-
place him, on the Ist November next, notwithstand- newed, and a handsome mural tablet is added, with a
ing "S. H.'s" unjust and ungenerous remarks. With suitable inscription. During the interest excited by
regard to the spleen shown to Mr. Joseph Kitchen, lam this last effort, Mr. A. B. Whatton, of London, revised
not called upon to reply, neither do I consider that that and arranged the memoranda of his late father, and
portion of "S. H.'s" letter is worth referring to. It hence the issue of the present volume.
ought to be treated with the contempt which it certainly Horrox was born in 1619 ; and became a sizar at
deserves. I may here say that the business qualities and Emmanuel College Cambridge, when he was scarcely 14
affableness shown by Mr. Kitchen, during the time he years of age. Here he became enamoured of the study
has represented the ward, must entitle him to respect ; of astronomy, which then occupied a very diirerent
and how much soever "S. H." or his followers might position from what it does now. It was not then the
desire a change, still " S.'H." must bear in mind that noblest triumph of demonstration and observation
before such a change could take place, the electors 'combined, but was just discarding the rags with which
must be consulted; and almost to a man, of what- astrologers had invested it, and emerging in its native
ever shade of politics, I feel certain they would sup- beauty. - There were then, few books on the subject,
port their present excellent member,. Joseph Kitchen, and such as there were in general reached this country
One word in conclusion. "Si H." states that the name from those nations of Europe in which the revival of
of a good man is before the ward, who has "no private letters had taken place earlier. A catalogue of Horrox's
in•terest to serve." It will be for the interest of that little library has lately come to light, and it would
gentleman to mix a little with the electors of the ward, appear that all his astronomical books were in Latin.
and to learn their opinions, before he allows himself to After detecting, by observation, numerous errors in the
be made the cat's-paw of a factious opposition. astronomical tables of his time, he predicted the transit
A copy of the above letter I forwarded to the editors of Venus across the Sun's disc, to occur iu 1639. Lie
of the Liverpool Mercury, on the 6th instant, requesting made several steps in advance towards the correct lunar
an insertion on the 7th instant, but why it has been theory which we now possess ; and though he did not
omitted is best known to themselves. see sufficiently far to understand gravitation in the
JUSTITIA. modern ,Newtonian sense, he announced that terrestrial
7th October, 1859.

JEREMIAH HORROR.*

ST. ANNE'S WARD

Le curate of, Hoo

-- ---
attraction and centripetal for

dentical

Le very law which moil:
And bids it trickle Iron

.eserves the ear

That law
Aad ka

..,s the planets in their course. ,
Bat the crowninn act of Horror,—though his short life
was distinguished by numerous successful undertakings,
was his observation of• the transit of Venus. This took
place on the 24th of November 1639, no other having
occurred for many years, or being possible during the
remainder of the century. The preparation, the obser-
-ation, and the important results which hinged upon an
-ite knowledge of the facts, are recorded by Horrox
himself, as well as by subsequent writers on astronomy,
SN•vehpoluercobfashedis euxseuinapitidountibesy giwevrien_gii
and by the present author. Curiously enough, -the
transit took place on a Sunday, and though Horroz
giving-his
with minute attention.
' As our purpose is to draw attention to Mr. Whatton's
interesting little volume, not to supersede it, ' need
we
not enitonnsP
right
tld
hand,almo stthhea
__

the various claims which Horrox has-for
honour to his memory, both here and everywhere. But
it is interesting to know that even then Lancashire had
several men in humble life who cultivated science•for
the
,love of it; among whom were the correspondents
and friends of Horrox himself—William' Crabtree, a
draper of Broughton, Manchester, and Gascoigne. Mr. T.
Y. -Wilkinson of Burnley, himself a Lancashire mathe-

uatician of acknowledged. eminence, in an article wotthy
)f his pen, has enumerated a long list-of the worthies of this
But' while we admire science in her maturity; let
Who rocked its cradle, and guided its
ad gave it both a healthy constitution
ms. Mr. Whatton, in discharging his
duty, has prepared agreeable informa-
. r, and a grateful theme for the local

Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Rev.. Jeremiah
HorrOx, Curate of Hoots, near Preston ; to which is appended
a Translation of his celebrated Discourse, upon the Transit of
Sun. By the Rev. Arundell B. Whatton,
216. Landon : Wertheim, Macintosh, and

LL.B. Bvo. pp
Hunt, 1851

BERLAND, by William Dickinson, F.L.S. IN
rhitehaven,
Russell Smith.
_Callender and Dixon; London, John
A GLOSSARY• OF TILE WORDS AND PnuAsEs
12mo, pp. 138. when those who
passed The time has happily long
popular speech, can be
examine the curiosities
of
Persons ill employed. Our
regarded as oddities,, orasasis
pfcnind in Chaucer, Spenser,
ancient language? n
as" and Ben Johnson, lingers still in
Dunbar, Sh OF CUM
- aksPe re'
and all the best editions of , our
remote parishes ;
standard English classics are illustrated by a reference
lisms. Few counties contain so many, or
such rich
to provincia
specimens as Cumberland, though Westmore-
land,
Yorkshire, and Lancashire, are not far behind.
By the side of the great works of Jamieson,, Boucher,
lialliwell, and Wright ; or even of the moderate sized
ones of Carr, Forby, and Brockett, Mr. Dickinson's
looks small ; but it is meant only as a glossary, and it
is carefully and well compiled. The preface contains a
sort of brief grammar of the dialect, and an illustrative
poem. .