The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-07-18 00:00:00

PERKINS.

Mr. Carter, the senior editor of the New York Slates-
Mart, in his Goth letter, in relating his interview with our
countryman, Perkins, says—
He sat with us two or three hours, and was so kind as
to shew us ell the letters which had passed betweeen him,
the Duke of Wellington, Mr. Canning, and Lord Liverpool,
! respecting his invention of steam guns. They pay a high
compliment to his ingenuity, and, after visiting his ma-
nufactory, express a favourable opinion as to the prae-
' ticability of this mode of warfare. The Duke of IVO-
lington remarked that he saw no reason why it should
not produce a new era in military science ; and he
thought no troops could be brought up to face a park
of artillery discharging a shower of shot with such ra-
pidity. This is high authority, in which the two Mi-
nisters concur. The invention will be equally eitctive
by land and sea. A public experiment was to he tried in
Regent's Park on the Gth of December, at which the staff
of the army, and the great men of the metropolis, were to
be present. No doubt was entertained as to the result,
nor that steam will, at no distant period, supersede the use
of gunpowder.
Invited by the comforts of the hearth, Mr. Perkins en-
tered somewhat at length into philosophical and mechanical
speculations, giving the result of his experiments in
hydraulics, to prove the compressibility of water. His
investigations have led him to a full conviction, that the
ocean, at the depth of five hundred miles from its surface,
ceases to be liquid, becoming front mere pressure a solid,
dense, mass of matter, constituting the c ntral portions.of
the globe. He related an amusing anecdote connected with
this sultjact. Soon after his arrival in London, he went
one evening to listen to the instructions of a Professor of
Philosophy. The subject of the lecture happened to be
hydraulics, in which the incompressibility of water
was inculcated as an axiom. At the close of the
exercises, the American philosopher entLreil into a dis-
cussion of the point with the Prof( s:mr, and so fully
satisfied him of the falsity of the axiom, that on the fol-
lowing evening he had the cand.:ur to retract his doctrines,
and give another lecture to his class en the compressibility
of water. Mr. Perkins also gave us a detail of his expe-
riments, which were successful, for connecting air into a
permanent visible liquid. In short, he seems to play with
the elements; and above all, has been the first to bring
into complete subjection the fiery and intractible power
of steam.

This gentleman takes a lively interest in the inventive
genius of his countrymen, to whom his situation in the
focus of mechanics, his acquaintance with London, and
above all, his own experience, enable him to afford great
863i6talleV. Ile spoke in very free and favourable terms of
the invention for converting iron into steel by a simple
process, entertaining no doubt of his success, nor that the
patentee will realize an immense fortune. The celebrated!
banker Goldschmidt has purchased one quarter of the pa-
tent for ten thousand pounds, and says he would not part
with it for ten times that amount. if my information is
correct, the real inventor has been defrauded of the reward
of his ingenuity, and another person is likely to reap the
profits.
An anecdote was related to us of a Philadelphien in Lon-
don, who has an invention for extracting calculi. I have
examined the ingenious instrument, and witnessed the
method of using it. If it shall succeed, it will supersede
the horrible operation of lithotonty. Like many men of
genius, the inventor has the misfortune not to be in affluent
circumstances, and on that account met with some difficul-
ties in securing the benefits of his skill and industry. One
of the most distinguished physicians in London, after ex-
' amining the apparatus and satisfying himself of its merits,
sat down and wrote a cluck for five hundred pounds,
handing it to our :ountryman, and saying that if the in-
vention should form a source of profit, the money might be
refunded; but, if nut, he would please to consider it as a
gratuity.

We understand that our countryman, W. Davidson,
Esq. of Shaftesbury House, Loudon, !ably deceased, has,
out of his ample fortune, h. plea t bed -400/. i per cent.
stock, as the foundation of a bursary in King's College,
Old Aberdeen, to students of the name of Davidson or
Knowles, Situ, Ramsay, Simpson, Leslie, Thom, Forbes,
Gerard, or Gordon ; and also 6001. of the same stock, as
the foundation of two bursaries in Marisehal College here,
to students of the wane names, with addition of those of
Cooper or Coilie.—Aberdeen Journal.
MOVEMENTS or TnE MILITARY.—A company of the
Second Coldstream guards left this town on Thurs.lay
morning, for head-quarters (Manchester). A troop of the
First King's Dragoon Guards, now lying in this town, re-
ceived orders yesterday to hold themselves in readiness to
march on the shortest notice.— Preston Ott ()nide.

On Thursday week a trotting match atminst time took
place between. Barnby Moor House and Shipton Bar, on
the Hull road, by a four-year-old colt, belonging to Wil-
liam Lund, of B-allty. The eteing went was to trot two
miles in seven minutes, and the colt accomplished the task,
with great ease, in six minutes and 37 seconds.
AILLANCIIOLE ACCIDENT.—On Sunday a large party,
consisting of ladies and gentlemen, proceeded up the River
in one of the larger class of wherries. Having spent an
agreeable day, they came down with the tide; and it was
proposed that all the ladies should be landed on the South-
wark side above London-bridge. The females having been
put on shore, the waterman who steered the boat strongly
reannruenddl the gentlemen not to proceed through the
bridge, on account of the rapidity of the current, and
actually landed himself, fearful of the consequences. The
gentlemen, however, determined on running the boat
through, in order tb land at D ptford, proceeded to shove
off the wherry from the stairs. They had scarcely, how-
ever, got a dozen yards front the shore, when the boat
being in the current, struck against one of the dams of the'
new bridge, and instantly upset. Two of the gentlemen.
one named Parker, many years brewer to St. Thomas's
Hospital, and a Mr. Lott, were both drowned ; and the
rest of the gentlemen were with difficulty saved from shar-
ing a similar fate. The bodies of the two unfortunate
gentlemen have not been yet found.
On Tuesday an extensive tire, calamitous in its efF, ere,
as poor people are the principal sufferers, took place at
Craigie, near Perth, lately the scene of similar devastation.
A young woman is said to have been kindling a fire with
wood shavings and dried broom, which, blazing to a con-
siderableheight, set the chimney in a flame. Some of the
sparks communicated with the roof of a thatched house in
the neighbourhood, the materials of which, from the ex-
treme drought, having been rendered quite in a state for
rapid combustion, was instantly enveloped in the devouring
element. A tnan was immediately despatched to Perth, to
give the alarm and to procure the engines ; but as they can-
not be granted without the authority of a magistrate, and
as some time elapsed before that was obtained, the flames
spreading in the mean time with overwhelming fury, much
damage was sustained before the engines arrived on the
spot. Four dwelling-houses, a wright's shop, and a cow-
house, fell a prey to the flames, and scarcely a single article
of property or furniture was saved from the conflagration.
DREADFUL Rior.—At the fair of Kilfeacle, on Mon-
day, no business was done, on account of a tremendous
riot between two factions under the titles of the Hickeys
and Hogana' each party consisting of three or four hundred
men, armed with muskets, pistols, bayonets, scythes. &c.
They bad been making preparatians for this affray a
month before. It appears two men were killed, one a des-
perate character of the name of Duggan, who had been
corporal in the 84th Foot, the same who suffered two
years' contioement in Clonmel gaol for a felonious assault
on a female child, and who deserted front that regiment
since his liberation from prison. Mr. Thompson held an
inquest on his body, in Tipperary, on Monday evening.
Another man, of the name of Trehy, was also killed in the
affray at Kilfeacle; and two even, of the names of' Carey
and Peters (the last-named was lately arraigned under a
charge of murder at Clonmel Assizes), were wounded. The
military from Tipperary, and the police from different sta-
tions, were on the spot in the morning, under the directiolt
of Magistrates, who also attended the fair, to prevent the
disorder; but as these went home early, the opposite fic-
tions came in contact, and battle and death ensued between
the deluded wretches. Several wounded were supposed to
have scrambled into the surrounding corn-fields, and their
numbers or condition were not known at the time our cor-
respondents closed their letters.—Clortmel Advertiser of
July 12.