The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-04 00:00:00

7RIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(Prone the Times of this day.)
The Gazette of Tuesday eveaing contained a
most extraordinary and unsatisfactory answer to
that question which attracts, and deserves to attract
at this moment, the deepest anxiety of the people
of England,---namely, who is to command the
British army What General is now to maintain,
and in some respects to restore, the ancient splen-
dour of our military renown ? The country sees,
and all Europe sees as well as this country, the real
state of the case. We have sent out to the Crimea
an army composed of troops not inferior in personal
valour to any soldiers in the world, and who have
shown on many occasions that whatever is possible
to be done by a given number of men will be done
by them. But the superior ranks of the army
have not yet brought to light a single man who has
shown himself permanently able to direct the
movements of that magnificent engine of war ;
hence the moral discipline of the troops and the con-
fidence which every grade in the army ought to
have in its commander have been shaken by the
utter absence of intellectual power, unwearied
activity, energy, and judgment, where those quali-
ties are most required. This humiliation—for
it is humiliation to an army to feel itself dis-
graced by the incapacity of its leader—we owe to
our absurd adherence to the pedantic routine of
seniority,—a rule by which we retain in command
of the army men who owe their rank to their ex-
treme age, and who are, in reality, disqualified
from active warfare by the very cause which has
invested them with a power they cannot wield,
As if to confirm and justify the strongest accu-
sations which can be brought against the military
administration of this country, the Gazette replies
by a Brevet raising to the rank of Field-Marshal
theoldest, the most effete, and bedridden remnants
of the Peninsular army of 45 years ago—Viscount
Combermere, the Earl of Strafford, and Viscount
Hardinge I—the two first men who have wholly
withdrawn into the repose which befits the last
stage of human life, and the last a General who,
though not very eminent in the field or very suc-
cessful in military administration, deserved at least
to be promoted in better company. To confer the
rank and office of Field-Marshal on these old men
at a moment when the British army stands in the
greatest need of a real Field-Marshal at its head is
simply to render the distinction of that rank as
ridiculous in this country as it is glorious in the
other armies of Europe. But the Brevet does not
end here. It proceeds to confer upon " Lieute-
nant-General James Simpson the rank of a General
in the army for distinguished service in the field,"
and, by a strange contrast with this perversion of
the Royal favour, it also promotes Colonel Charles
Ash Windham to be a Major-General in the army,
" for his distinguished conduct in heading the
column of attack which assaulted the enemy's de-
fences on the Bth of September with the greatest
intrepidity and coolness." We presume that the
meaning of the Horse Guards is that Colonel
Windham headed the column of attack with the
greatest intrepidity and coolness, though from the
ungrammatical structure of the sentence these
qualities are ascribed, not to the Colonel, but to
the column of assault ; but it seems our military
authorities cannot even write a sentence of Eng-
lish without a blunder. However, this at least is
an honour not conferred on mere senility and in-
competency. The hearts of the nation had antici-
pated by an instantaneous impulse the step Gene-
ral Windham has gained by his matchless and he-
roic passage through that fiery trial, and the events
of the Bth of September have deservedly placed
him at the head of that gallant band of the junior
officers of the army to whom the country looks for
the preservation of its safety and its honour.
The advancement of General Simpson to all but
the highest rank in the army, on the express ground
of " distinguished service in the field," at a mo-
ment when, upon the evidence of his own despatch,
very serious charges are entertained against him,
is altogether a different matter, and the manner in
which it has been done sufficiently discloses the
embarrassment felt by the Government on this
occasion. If it could be shown that " the distin-
guished services" of General James Simpson had
contributed in any degree to the successful opera-
tions which have ended in the fall of Sebastopol,
and that he had worthily upheld the reputation
and employed the forces of the British army on
that occasion, it is needless to say that neither the
Ministers of the Crown, nor Parliament, nor the
nation would have grudged him an ample reward.
But the painful occurrences of the Bth of Septem-
ber, and the palpable mismanagement which led
to a repetition of the failure of the 18th of June,
have alloyed the pride of victory, and render such
honours out of place and ridiculous. We can only
account in one way for the anomalous course which
has been adopted. Et is generally reported, and
we suspect correctly, that General Simpson has
already ceased to command the British army in the
Crimea, or that at least he only retains that com-
mand until his successor is appointed. We shall
assume this to be actually the case, for it is wholly
impossible for the Government to retain in that po-
sition an officer in whom the nation does not place
absolute and unlimited confidence; and, if this reso-
lution has been taken, it may be thought that Gen.
Simpson's former services in the Crimea justify a
step of promotion which brings with it recall, al-
though theaction of the Bth of September did not en-
title him to any of those higher distinctions to
which a more able commander might unquestionably
have aspired. As a mark of confidence at the
present time the promotion of General Simpson
would be a jest exceedingly ill-timed ; and the an-
nouncement in the Gazette can only be passed
over with comparative indifference if it be accom-
panied or followed by the notification of his resig-
nation or recall.

Assuming, then, from these indications, and
r (rah° obvious necessity of the case, that General
mpson is not to retain the command of the
British force in the Crimea, two
,questions of ex-
treme importance present themselves for considera-
tion. The first is,—who is to succeed him ? and
the second is,—by what means are we to obtain
more efficient commanders in the superior ranks of
the army ? At the point at which matter: have
now arrived, we have proved experimentally and
by cruel result the consequences of that fatal
system of employing old Generals, which were fore-
'men and denounced by every man of reflection at
the commencement of the war. A single year of
warfare has disposed of the whole of these veterans,
with the exception of Sir Colin Campbell, who
113.8 b een laid up-in lavender all the winter with
his Highlanders, and whose military talents, if we
mayjudge of them by his exploits when at the
head of a separate division in the Punjab, do not
entitle him to aspire to a great command. We have
seen the result of sending a young army into the
field almost entirely led by old chiefs, who owed
their rank to seniority and brevet proaiotions ; the
best of them have either fallen in battle or sunk
under disease, and those who remain are were
obstructions to the real strength of the army.
This evil demands a vigorous remedy, and no mea-
sure will effect the necessary object which does not
go to the root of the mischief, by placing the
entire command of the army in the hands of men
in the prime and vigour of life. In other words,
the Generals of Division and Brigade ought to be
selected from the best of the present Colonels in
the army; and a similar step ought to be made in
all ranks. We have been figlatinga powerful enemy
and-co-operating with an energetic ally, while our
army is under the command of men at least one
whole generation too old.
If this remark be sound as applied to the divi-
sional officers of the army, it is so, a fortiuri, as
applied to the Commander-in-Chief. In hire you
absolutely require the full activity, strength,
energy, and decision of manhood, and, if nature
has not given him the genius of war, a century of
experience will not teach him how to conquer. It
is, therefore, unquestionably from the ranks of the
younger generals that the chief of the army in the
Crimea must be selected. He must be chosen as
Wolfe was taken by Lord Chatham, and, though
some hazard and uncertainty may attend such a
choice, since no man can be certain of possessing
thehigh qualities of supreme military command
until he has teed his own powers, such an appiint-
went should rest mainly on the known character
of the man. The British army will not be com-
manded as it ought to be until men of the tyre of
the Duke of Wellington and his generals in the
Peninsula aro at the head of it. If we are told that
these officers are junior to many men now serving
above them, we reply that this is one of their re-
commendations, sinceit tends to raise the younger
officers of the army to the positions they ought to
fill. It is not to the old but to the young that the
country looks for victory, it
and is time to break
asunder the fetters of a system which disgraces 118
and which exposes the army-
in the eyes of Europe,
in the field to a most disadvantageous comparison,
not only with the forces of our gallant Allies, La
with those of the Russians themselves.

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DECEITFUL AUSTRIA.

( From the Manchester Guardian.)

Without exposing ourselves to the charge of over san-
guine expectations as to the raipidity with which onr
conquest of the Crimea may be completed, we may fairly
assume that victory has declared definitively on the side
of the allies. We know that the three besieging armies
are in high health, spirits, and force ; that their stores
of every kind are vast ; that their means of transport
are at length ample for any enterprise ; that they have
profited fully by past experience, both to supply all
wants and to provide for all contingencies ; that, in spite
of terrible losses, their numbers are still great ; that
confidence in themselves and in each other, created by
long observation, and augmented by recent success,
doubles their effective strength ; and, in a word, that
no army ever was in a fitter condition, moral or material,
for high achievement. We know, too, now, that nearly
the reverse of all this is true of the Russians ; that they
have suffered severely from the exhaustion of their stores
and the interruption of their supplies ; that their unex-
pectedly prompt evacuation of the Southern side must
have been caused by a conviction that final success was
hopeless, and that they must prepare without delay for
the contingency of thorough and ultimate defeat ; that
the sacrifice of men must have been enormous; that their
repeated and severe discomfitures have disheartened
both soldiers and commanders ; and, in fine, that both
the garrison of Sebastopol and the relieving army be-
yond the Tchernaya are nearly driven to extremity.
We do not pretend to predict either the strategic ope-
rations which our Generals will now decide upon, nor
within what precise date they will produce the final
evacuation of the Crimea. Another investment, another
assault, another battle of Alma or Tchernaya, may be
needed to complete:our work ; but, no one, we appre-
hend, can feel any doubt that the Crimea is virtually,
and, ere winter closes, will be actually, ours ; and that
the diminished hosts of our enemy will have been com-
pelled either to retire or surrender.
It is, not, therefore, premature, on the contrary, it is
high time, to look about us, and consider how the suc-
cess of the allies will affect their European position ;
what tone they should assume, and what steps they
should take, in reference to these Governments which
have trifled with us, hampered us, injured us, or re-
fused to aid us ; and especially in reference to Austria.
We take for granted that this Power, which always
comes to the aid of the strongest party, will now hasten
to repeat those congratulations on the real, which she
so prematurely offered on occasion of the reported fall of
the great fortress of our enemy. We trust these con-
gratulatiOns will be received as they deserve. We do
not for a moment doubt that Austria sincerely rejoices
at the capture of Sebastopol ; we believe that, from the
commencement of this struggle, she desired that Russia
should be checked, humbled, and impoverished ; she
looked upon her as a formidable neighbour and possible
foe, whose power it was important to reduce; she felt
pretty certain that Muscovite loss would be Austrian gain;
but she was anxious that all these beneficial results to her
should be brought about without any intervention on her
part—that the allies should do her work, and that she
should not be called upon to aid in the repulse, nor to in-
cur the enmity, of the Czar. She determined to look on
during the strife, yet hoped to share in the spoils, and
to profit by the victory, to whichever side victory might
ultimately fall. Throughout the contest, as well as dur-
ing the diplomatic manoeuvres that preceded it, we
have shown every consideration for her wishes, while
she has shown none whatever for our interests. We
hampered ourselves by making Vienna the scene of
negotiations, in order that she might have a large voice
in them. We prolonged and renewed those negotiations;
we bore and forebore far longer than was wise, in order
to humour her tardiness, to nurse her poverty, and to
encourage her timidity. We made proposals, and ab-
stained from taking steps, in the vain hope of at iength
securing her promised aid—aid always held out as a lure,
never loyally given as a fact. We cannot now forget--
and no tardy flatteries and fawnings on her part must
lead us to forget—that, by the treaty of the 2d of De-
cember, she signed an agreement which our diplomatists
accepted, and which she intended them to accept, as a
promise. that she would join us in arms in case Russia
should not snake peace on the terms which she induced
us to offer; and she broke that promise—or, to use a
more deliberate and official language of Lord Cla-
rendon, interpreted her engagement in a way which
we considered to be very wide of its real meaning. We
must not forget that when the siege of Silistria failed,
Austria agreed with Turkey to " occupy" the Princi-
palities ; but that, by occupying them as a neutral and
not as an ally—or, to use Lord Palmerston's phrase,
only as "ally up to a certain point"—she set free two
entire Russian corps &armee to meet us in the Crimea ;
that the regiments composing this division a ere conveyed
by forced marches along the coast; and that it was to
these very regiments that we owed the bloody though
so glorious attack at Inkerman. Who can doubt that
had that attack succeeded, and had Prince Menschikoff
fulfilled his boast of driving the invaders into the sea
(which at one moment seemed far from unlikely), Aus-
tria would have been the first to felicitate the Czar upon
the splendid victory which has crowned his arms, and
to remind him how much her own proceedings had con-
tributed to the desirable result. Lastly, we must not
forget that Austria has played this game a second time
within the last twelve months ; that when gloom and
difficulty seemed gathering round the Crimean expedi-
tion, and it appeared probable that the allies might re-
tire baffled and discredited from the hopeless undertak-
ing, Austria took that opportunity of withdrawing from
her Western engagements, disbanded a large posaiGn of
the troops that lined her Polish frontier, and intimated
to Russia as plainly as fact (far more reliable in diplo-
macy than words could speak), that she had nothing to
fear from Austrian hostility. The Czar was not slow
in taking the hint ; he at once ordered a general move
Southward of the Warsaw division of his army : nearly
170,000 men were, by this conduct on the part of "our
ally up to a certain point," liberated for active service,
and marched towards the Crimea ; and again we had to
thank Austria mainly for the slaughter and the failure
on the 18th of Jane.

We do not recall thesef acts with any design of stirring
up angry passions in the British nation towards a Power
which assuredly deserves no consideration at our hands ;
but in order to remind all—both private individuals and
public servants, every one, in fact, whose voice can in
any degree influence national action—first, that in Italy,
it is Sardinia and not Austria that merits our sympathy,
countenance, and aid ; that not only are her objects
beneficent and patriotic, and those of her rival ruinous
and fatal to that fair but miserable land ; not only is
Austria despotic, and Sardinia constitutional and free ;
but that in the conduct pursued towards us during the
perilous crisis we have passed, Austria has been pusil-
lanimous, selfish, apd deceitful, and Sardinia gallant,
spirited, and loyal ; and, secondly, the Austr►an occu-
pation of the Danubian provinces—an occupation which
she turned to our injury, which she makes a curse to
the wretched people who Inhabit them, and which she
hopes to prolong for her own benefit—must at once be
made to cease. There is no longer the shadow of a de-
cent pretext for it : to the inhabitants it is even worse
than Russian invasion ; to Turkey and the allies it is as
bad ; and every day that it is suffered to continue is an
added cruelty and crime.

THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER
UN THE SEBASTOPOL EXP.BDITIUN.

At the meeting of the Radnorshire Agricultural So-
ciety, held at Knighton on Monday, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, the Right Hon. Sir G. C. Lewis, Bart.,
who presided, in proposing the toast of the Allied Fleets
and Armies, said—" It is now just about a year since
the expedition upon which the eyes of all England and
of all Europe were riveted—the expedition to Sebastopol
—sailed. That expedition was perhaps framed with
rather sanguine views of the possibility of success, con-
sidering the numbers by which it was undertaken.
Nevertheless, it would have been possible for it to have
succeeded very shortly after the landing of the allied
armies. Such success was within the range, I will not
say of possibility, but of probability. The sanguine
hopes of those who contrived and ordered the expedition
were not, however, fulfilled. We saw the painful spec-
tacle of our gallant army during last winter exposed to
such trials, to such hardships, and to such privations as
scarcely any civilised army was ever before exposed to.
(Hear, hear.) We were told that those hardships and
ptivations were in a great measure owing to the neglect
or the want of skill in those who guided and those who
governed and provided for the wants of that expe-
diticn. I am not now going to enter into that much
debated, much discussed, and much cmtroverted ques-
tion. I will only shortly express to you my opinion
—an opinion not founded on superficial grounds—that
a large portion of the sufferings of our army was
owing rather to the inherent difficulties of the expedition
itself, rather to the manner in Which it was undertaken,
rather to the failure of immediate success, than to any
want of ability or skill in the persons who immediately
superintended it. I don't mean to exculpate all the per-
sons who were concerned in the government of that ex-
pedition—it would have been wonderful, after so many
years of peace, if they suddenly found themselves fitted
for the greatest of military enterprises. I don't mean to
say that they attained that state of administrative per-
fection which much longer experience would scarcely
have enabled them to reach. I will only say I feel that
those persons who have bestowed so much harsh criti-
cism on the conductors of that expedition did not nia.ke
sufficient allowancs for the difficulties which were Inhe-
rent in the enterprise itself. After a time, the treaty into
which this country and France had entered with Austria
rendered it incumbent upon us to commence negotiating
at Vienna, with a view to see whether, during the pen-
dency of the war, while the siege was still carried on be-
fore the walls of Sebastopol, some means could not be
found which should put an end to hostilities. The course
which was taken by this country in the negotiations of
Vienna was pursued with steadiness and consistency
throughout. No change took place in the terms which
were offered by this country and France to Russia.
Those terms were refused, and others were offered on
the part of Russia. The result of those conferences was
that her Majesty's Government, looking at the circum-
stances of the contending powers—to the position of the
armies at Sebastopol, and to the duty which they owed
to their country—thought no good would arise from their
continuance, and they were therefore broken off. Since
that time the war with Russia has been prosecuted with
all the vigour which this country, with its great re-
sources, could command—it has been prosecuted with
all those more extensive military resources which the
great population and the great military organisation of
France puts at the disposal of her Government—
and the result we all know. (Applause.) The great
fortress—the object of a year's contention between the
great Powers of Europe—has fallen ; and the fleet, the
arsenals, and the great military preparations of Russia,
are in the hands of the Allies. We may now ask whe-
ther the erns which we, in combination with France,

offered to Russia were not fair and reasonable terms,
and whether it would not have been for the interest of
that haughty and aggressive Power rather to have ac-
cepted those terms than to have waited the event which
has now been developed. (Applause.) I have seen
with great regret, during the last week, the comments
which have been made by various critics of our own
country on the share which our gallant army has borne
in the attack upon Sebastopol. We do not grudge the
laurels which France has deservedly earned in the assault
of that place. There has been no rivalry, no unseemly
competition between the two armies—it has been co,
operation, and not jealously—or rivalry. (Cheers.) The
most generous, the most noble feelings, have been exhi-
bited by the armies to each other—not only by the men
but by the generals and officers. But while we willingly
recognise the glory and honour of France in the achieve-
ments which placed the tower of Malakhoff, the key to
the fortress, in the hands of the French attacking party,
we must not allow unfair disparagement to be thrown
upon our own army. The remarks to which I have al-
luded have not come from the French critics. On the
contrary, I read with satisfaction in a newspaper the
remarks of a French military critic, in which he said
that the English troops had in the attack on the Great
Redan done all that troops could by possibility accom-
plish. Can anybody doubt that our army has from the
beginning shown the greatest gallantry, the greatest
hardihood and enterprise on all occasions, whether of-
fensive or defensive ? We must wait for the more de-
tailed official accounts, hereafter to be sent by the
generals, before we are in a position to pass any judg-
ment of? condemnation on our own gallant troops.
We must remember that the attack which they
made effected a powerful diversion of the enemy, and to
a certain extent assisted the French in maintaining
that portion of the works which they had gained, and
that at the close of the day the Redan was in the pos-
session of the Allies. Nothing can more dishearten a
gallant army at a distance from our shores than captious
and censorious criticism, when they feel they have shed
their best blood in the defence of their country. I trust
that the best feelings of the country will be enlisted in
their behalf, and that everything we can do in the way
of admiration and sympathy will be willingly bestowed
upon them." (Applause.)

THE LATE MEETING OF THE BRITISH
ASSOCIATION AT GLASGOW.

The following additional papers were read in the
sections indicated :
Professor W. THOMSON, F.R.S., read a paper "On the
Electric Qualities of Magnetised Iron." He said—The
well-known ordinary phenomena of magnetism prove
that there is a wonderful difference between the mutual
physical relations of the particles of a mass of iron accord-
ing as it is magnetised or in an unmagnetic condition.
Joule's important discovery that a bar of iron, when
longitudinally magnetised, experiences an increase of
length, accompanied with such a diminution of its late-
ral dimensions as to leave its bulk unaltered, is the Bast
of a series by which it may be expected we shall learn
that all the physical proper ties of iron become altered
when the metal is magnetised, and that in general those
qualities which have relation to definite direction in the
substance are differently altered at different inclinations
to the direction of magnetisation. In the present com-
munication the author described experiments he had
made, with assistance, in defraying the expenses from
the oyal Society out of the Government grant for Scien-
tific Investigations, to determine the effects of magneti-
sation on the thermo-electric qualities and on the elec-
tric conductivity of iron. The first result obtained
was that, longitudinally, magnetised iron wire in an
electric circuit differs thereto-electrically in the same
direction as antimony from unmagnetised iron. This
any one may verify with the greatest ease, by applying
a spirit-lamp to heat the middle of an iron wire or thin
rod of iron a couple of feet long, with a little magnetis-
ing coil of copper wire (excited by a cell or two of any
ordinary galvanic battery) adapted to slide freely on it,
and so bring a magnetising force to act on two or three
inches in any part of the length of the iron ; and, when
the ends of the iron conductor are connected with the
electrodes of an astatic needle galvanometer of very
moderate sensibility, suddenly moving the coil from
one side to the other of the flame of the spirit lamp.
The author next explained a series of experiments
(not so easily described without ttfe apparatus, which
was exhibited to the section, or drawings of it), by which
(1), it was ascertained that magnetised iron with electric
currents crossing the lines of magnetisation at right
angles, differ from uninagnetised iron, thermo-electrically,
in the same direction as bismuth, that is in the opposite
way to that previously found for iron magnetised along
the line of current ; and (2) it was verified that an iron
conductor obliquely magnetised and placed in a circuit
of conducting matter, has a current excited through it
when its two polar sides are maintained at different tem-
peratures. The author also described and exhibited an
experimental arrangement made, but not yet sufficiently
tried, to test whether or not magnetised iron possesses a
certain therino-electric rotatory property which his
theory of thermo-electricity in crystalline conductors bad
led him to believe might possibly exist in every sub-
stance possessing, either intrinsically or inductively, such
a dipolar directional property as that of magnetism. Re-
garding the thertno-electrio properties of magnetised
steel, the only experiments yet made being on longi-
tudinal magnetisation, showed most decidedly the same
kind of effect subsisting, with the permanent magnetisa-
tion, after the magnetising agency is withdrawn, as had
been found in iron while actually sustained in a state of
magnetisation by the electro-magnetic force. The effects
of magnetism on the conductivity of iron both for heat
and electricity in different directions with reference to
the direction of magnetisation had been tested by dif-
ferent experiments, with no confirmed indications in the
conduction of heat, and with only negative results re-
garding electrical conductivity. The author of the pre-
sent communication, feeling convinced that only power-
ful enough tests are required to demonstrate real effects
of magnetisation on all physical properties of iron, tried
to ascertain the particular nature of the conjectured
effect in the case of electric conductivity ; and at last,
after many unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in esta-
blishing that an iron conductor, sustained in a mag-
netic condition by either a longitudinal or a transverse
magnetising force, and brittle steel wires retaining
longitudinal magnetism, resist the passage of elec-
tricity more, or, wlrch is the same, possess less electric
conductivity than the same conductors when unmagnetic.
It remains to be seen whether either iron or steel has,
when magnetised, the electro-crystalline pronertf of
possessing different electric conductivities in different di-
rections ; and whether either has the possible rotatory
property as regards thermal conduction, which the in-
trinsically dipolar type of magnetisation suggests.
It is important to observe that both the thermoelec-
tric quality, and the effect on electric conductivity in-
duced in iron or steel, and sustained by the magnetising
force, is retained with the permanent magnetism in steel
after the magnetising force is removed ; as Joule found
to be the case with the alteration of dimensions which he
discovered as an effect of magnetism ; while, on the other
hand, as the author showed in a previous communication
to the section, the thermo-electric quality he has disco-
vered as an effect of mechanical strain, becomes reversed
when the constraining force has been removed if any per-
manent strain has been produced.

THE COAL AND IRON TRADE OF SCOTLAND.
Dr. STRANG, of Glasgow, read a valuable paper on the
progress, extent, and value of the coal and iron trade of
the West of Scotland. He said—The rapid progress
which has of late years characterised some of the now
largest cities of Great Britain is mainly due to the mi-
neral wealth which surrounds them—to the existence, in
fact, of those vast repositories of fuel or of metals, which
nature has laid up for the use of man in the bowels of
the earth. If one only casts his eye over a geological
map of this island, he will find in England a Birmingham,
a Newcastle, a Preston, and a Manchester, placed in the
midst of extensive coal fields ; and on looking at Scot-
land he will at once discover, amid the great thinness of
habitation and population, at least one fully peopled
district, in the centre of which stands the no less
important and manufacturing city of Glasgow, sur-
rounded on every side by the richest strata of coal, iron
and lime. To the mineral wealth which exists in
this portion of Scotland may be mainly attributed the
prominent position which its Western Metropolis has
lately taken in the commerce and manufactures of the
world, and which the following statistical facts, con-
nected with the progress, extent, and value of the coal
and iron trades of the West of Scotland, of which that
city is the central mart, may, perhaps, in some degree
better illustrate. Although coals have, from a pretty
remote period, been wrought around Glasgow, chiefly
for domestic uses, yet it has only been since the intro-
duction of the steam engine, and still more since the dis-
covery of the economical mode of smelting iron by the
hot blast, that the vast and closely-packed mineral wealth
of its neighbouring districts have been at all fully deve-
loped and turned to great profit. Even so late as in the
year 1831, the quantity of coals brought to Glasgow was
only about 560,000 tons, and of that quantity 121,000
were exported, leaving 440,000 tons for domestic uses,
steam-boats, public works, and factories in the city and
suburbs ; while the quantity consumed, as well as the
ironstone smelted in the comparatively few furnaces then
in blast, was small and unimportant. The contrast, in-
deed, of the coal and iron trades, only five and twenty
years ago, with those of the present moment, is most
striking. From the returns obtained through Mr. Wil-
liams, the inspector of mines for Scotland, it appears
that while in 1854 there were 367 collieries in Scotland,
237 of these belonged to the West country-141 being in
Lanarkshire, 78 in Ayrshire, 11 in Dumbarton, and seven
in Renfrew. It also appears that, during the same year,
there were 7,443,000 tons of coal raised in Scotland, and
of these about 6,443,000 were drawn from pits situated
in the four western counties above alluded to. Taking
into account all kinds of coals raised, such as splint, soft,
and gas, the average price may be fairly estimated at 7s.
6d. per ton, which shows the produce derived from the
coal mines from the West of Scotland in 1854 to have been
about 2,418,0001. sterling. Of the coals so produced,
2. ,152,800 tons were consumed in the manufacture of pig
iron
; 367,200 in the conversion of pig into malleable—
making in all 2,520,000 tons used in connection with the
manufacture of iron ; while 926,221 tons were shipped,
and 148,312 tons were sent beyond the boundaries,
northward and southward, per railways, leaving for the
manufacturing C3LisuM pt, steam-boats, and domestic uses
of the Glasgow district, 2,853,427 tons. During the
same period the number of persons employed in the col-
lieries producing this quantity of fuel were as follows:
In Lanarkshire 15,580
Ayrshire 6,061
Renfrewshire 790
Dumbartonshire
549

---
In all 22,980
If the great development of the coal trade, as we have
seen, has been of recent origin, the manufacture of iron
in Scotland is still more modern, having obtained its pre-
sent almost marvellous position during the course of the

last few years. So late as 1830 there were only 16 blast
furnaces in the West of Scotland, and the whole produce
scarcely reached 40,000 tone. It appears, however, that !
during the year 1854, of the 118 furnaces for the smelt•
ing of iron ore then in full blast in Scotland, and prce
clueing 796,640 tons of pig iron, 102 were situated in the
two western counties of Lanark and Ayr-72 being in
the former and 30 in the latter—and the produce of these
amounted to 717,600 tons. Taking the average price
during that twelvemonth at 795. Bd. per ton, the gross
value of this industry is shown to have been 2,858,4401.
Of this very large quantity of pig iron produced in the
West of Scotland, 122,684 tons were shipped direct to
foreign countries, and 294,194 tons were sent coastwise
from the Clyde, Port-Dundas, and the western ports of
the Clyde estuary ' • while 22,865 were sent away by rail-
ways, and 171,360 were converted into malleable iron—
leaving the remaining 106,497 tons for foundry and
other purposes of the district. The number of men em-
ployed in the iron mining in this district during 1854
was 3,645 in Lanarkshire, and 1,943 in Ayrshire—mak-
ing in all, 5,585 ; whose wages, at 22a. per week, show
an annual expenditure in wages of 319,6331. 12s. ; while
the number of men employed in managing and work-
ing the furnaces amounted to 1,344, who were paid
on an average 4s. 6d. per day, or an annual aggre-
gate sum of 110,3961. But if the manufacture of pig
iron be a modern industry in the West of Scotland,
assuredly that of malleable iron is still more recent, for
with the exception of a small work at Wilsontown, which
was unsuccessfully attempted there at a somewhat re-
mote period, almost nothing was done in this manufac-
ture till 1839, and even se late as in 1842 the produc-
tion did not exceed 35,000 tons. During the year 1854,
however, the manufacture of malleable iron reached
122,400 tons, and taking the average price of all sorts,
including plates for ship-building, to have been 101. per
ton, the gross amount of the industry was 1,224,000/.
The number of men employed in this branch was about
4,000, and the rate of wages paid was 285., showing an
annual aggregate amount paid in wages of 291,2001.
Assuming, then, all these statements to be as correct as
perhaps they can possibly be made, let us now see what
was the real value to the west of Scotland of the whole
of these industries in 1854 :

Value of coal £2,418,000
Value of pig iron £2,858,449
Deduct value of coal used in smelt-
ing, say three tonsof ceal foreach
ton of pig iron, or 2,152,000 tons
at 7s. 6d.

807,300

--------- 2,051,140
Value of malleable iron £1,224,000
Deduct value of pig iron
used, say 171,360 tons at
795. 8d £682,584
Deduct value of coals used
in conversion from pig
iron into malleable, say
367,200 tons at 7s. §d. 137,700

Net value of coal and iron .

820,284

403,726

£4,872,866

We find also, from thelforegoing statements, that the
number of persons employed in these industries and tho
wages paid were as follows :

Annual amount
of wages.
Employed in collieries.„29,9Bo at 21s. per week, £1,254,708
„ iron mining
„ attending furnaces 1,344 at 4s. 6d. per day, 110,306
„ malleable ironwks. 4,000 at 28s. per week, 291,200

33,908

21,973,937

In short, the foregoing tables show that the coal and
iron works of the West of Scotland, of which Glasgow
is the great central mart, produced no less a sum to
those connected with these establishments than
4,872,8661., and gave employment to 33,908 persons.
When the magnitude of these figures, and the value
which they bear on the social and economical condition
of this great mining and manufacturing district are
calmly considered, it will not be difficult to arrive at one
of the main sources of thelately greatly increased wealth
of Glasgow and its vicinity, or to account for one of the
chief sources of attraction to the industrious mechanics
and labourers from all parts of the country, which have
already rendered the united counties of Lanark, Ayr,
Renfrew, and Dumbarton one of the most thickly-
peopled and well-conditioned portions of Great Britain.

SALE OF BUTCHERS' MEAT IN PARIS.

On Monday the Prefect of Police published the
following important decree relative to the sale of
butchers' meat in Paris :--
" We, the Prefect of Police, order as follows:
"Art. 1. On and after the Wth of the present month
butchers' meat shall be subjected to prices fixed regu-
larly by the authorities.

"Art. 2. The price shall be fixed every fortnight for
every kind of meat, according to the returns made at
the Caisse' de Poissy, and to the weight of meat ascer-
tained to have been sent from the public slaughter-houses
of Paris during the preceding fortnight.
" Art. 3. For beef, the meat, with respect to the• eel-
ling price by retail, shall be divided into three catego-
ries :-Ist, The buttock, the veiny piece, the rump, the
sirloin, and the think flank ; 2d, the shoulder? the kid-
neys and surrounding fat, the ribs, the neck ; and 3d,
the sticking piece, the middle ribs, and the shin. The
filet (under cut of the sirloin), when detached, is con-
sidered as viande de luxe, and will not be subjected to
the fixed price.

"For cow and bull beef the division of the pieces shall
be the same as for ox beef.

"For veal and mutton the pieces shall be divided
into two categories. For veal the first category will
comprise, the fillet, the kidneys and the loin, and the
best end of the breast'; and the second the brisket end
of the breast, and fore-knuckle, and the head, For mut-
ton the firi.t category shall comprise the leg, the loin,
and the saddle; and the second the shoulder, the breast,
and the neck.

" Art. 6. Every buyer shall receive, even without
claiming it, a ticket on which is marked down the deno-
mination of the kind of meat and of the pieces, as also
the weight and the price. Pieces of meat belonging to
different categories are to be weighed and marked down
separately.
"Art. 7. Butchers are forbid to weigh bone with the
meat, and to deliver it (or what is vulgarly called re-
jouissance) to customers. The bone is to be sold sepa-
rately at such terms as may be agreed on between the
bntcher and the customer.
" Art. 8. In the shops established in the markets meat
shall be sold at 10c. at least per kilogramme below the
fixed price.

"Art. 9. The present ordinance shall be printed and
placarded, and a copy of it shall be communicated to the
Prefect of the department of the Seine.
"Art. 10. The chief of the municipal police, the corn-
missaires of police, the inspector-generals of markets and
their subordinates are charged, each in what concerns
him, with the execution of the present measure.

" PIETRI."

MURDER AT DUNDEE. —An atrocious and delibe-
rate murder was committed near Dundee on Saturday
night last. The victim is a labourer named Owen Smith,
and the murderer a millworker, or labourer, named
Thomas Colston, a native of the County Cavan, Ireland.
It seems that some time ago the men had had a differ-
ne young woman for whom Colston had formed
aenaettaabucohmt a
ent, and which resulted in Colston being con-
victed and fined in the police court for an assault. He
encountered Smith and his wife on the road near Dundee
on Saturday night, and, saying, "Now I have got you,"
stabbed him in several places, and the unfortunate man
died instantly. .Colston absconded, but be was traced
to Perth, where he ass apprehended on Monday.
[A3vitansblmENT•l —TIIE WAR Di Tim E UT. --POWRILFL:
PATENT RReONNOITRINe GLASSES.— Messrs. S, and B. Solo-
mons, opticians, 39, Albemarle-street, Pioeadilly. Observe
opposite the York Hotel. By lser Majesty's Roy.•l
Letters Patent for valuable and extraordinary improvements
in the most powerful and brilliant Telescopes, Camp, Race-
course, Opera, and Perspective Glasses, to know the distances
of objects viewed through them—of great importance to the
army, navy, and others. These telescopes possess such extra-
ordinary powers that some 3. inches, with an extra eye-
piece, Ni ill show distinctly Jupiter's moons, Saturn's ring,
and the aouble stars ; with the same teieseope can be
seen a person's countenance three miles and a half distant
and an object from 16 to 20 miles. They are of larger and al.
aims, with increasing powers accordingly ; while their vary-
ing from 4 to 6 inches enable us to discover more than the
above, and the Georgian, with his 6 satellites, &c.—The Royal
Exhibition, 1851.—Valuable, newly-invented, very small,
powerful waistcoat-pccket glass,the size of a walnut, by which
a person can be seen and known 1 miles distant ; they answer
every purpose on the race-course, and at the opera houses,
country scenery, and ships are clearly seen at 8 to 10 miles.
They are invaluable for shooting, deer-stalking, yachting, to
sportsmen, gentlemen, gamekeepers, and tourists. Opera,
race-course, camp, and perspective glasses, with wonderful
power.—Newly-constructed Spectacle Lenses of the great-
est transparent power. The valuable advantage derives
from this invention is, that vision becoming impaired is
preserved and strengthened, and very aged persons are
enabled to employ their sight at the most minute °eat-
pation—can see with these lenses of a much less magnify.
ing pewer—and they do not require the frequent changes
to the dangerous effects of further powerful assistance. Deaf-
ness—New Discoyou.—The Organic Vibrator, an extraordi-
nary powerful, small, newly-invented instrument for deafness,
entirely different from all others, to surpass anything of the
kind that has been, or probably ever can be, produced.
Being of the same colour as the skin, is not perceptible ; it
enables deaf persons to hear distinctly at church and at
public assemblies ; the unpleasant sensation of singing noises
in the ears is entirely removed ; and it affords all the assist-
ance that possibly could ) o desired. 39, Albemarle-street,
Piccadilly. Observe—opposite the York Hotel.
[Aevtaarsemexa.l--We quote some interesting cures with-
out me6eine of indigestion (dyspepsia), flatulency, constipa-
tion, nervous, biliass, and liver complaints, cough, asthma,
consumption, and debility, by Du Barry's delicious Revalenta
Arabica Food : Fifty years' indescribable agony from
dyspepsia. 'nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation, flatu-
lency, spasms, sickness at the stomach, and vomitings, have
been removed by Du Barry's excellent Revalenta Arabica
Fooa.—llaria Jolly, Wortham Ling, near Diss, Norfolk.
Cure No.3,9o6.—Thirteen years cough, indigestion, and gene-
ral debilty have been removed by Du Barry's excellent Re-
valenta Arabica Food.—James Porter, Athol-street, Perth.
From the Dowager Countess of Castlestuart. Cure 52,612.
Rosstrevcr, County of Down, Ireland, 9th December, 1854.
The Dowager Countess of Castlestuart feels induced, in the
interest of suffering humanity, to state that Dn Barry's ex-
cellent Revalenta Arabica Food has cured her, after all
Medicines had failed, of indigestion, bile, great nervous.
ness and irritability of many years' standing. This food
deserves the confidence of all sufferers, and may be con-
sidered a real blessing. Inquiries will be cheerfully answered.
In canisters, lib. 2s. 9d.; '2lb. 4s. 6d.; 51b. Ils. ; 121 b. 22e.
The 121 b., carriage free, on receipt of Post-office order. Barry
Du Barry 6 Co., 77, Regent-street, London ; also at la 2
Piccadilly; 60, Gracechurch-street ; 330, and 451, Strand,
4, Cheapside ; 60 and 68, Cornhill ; 49, Bishopsgate-street:
55, Charing-cross; 54, Upper Baker-street; 63 and 150,
Oxford-street ; 89, High-street, Camden-town ; 18, Pall-
Mall: 7, Palmall-East ; 132, New Bond-street ; 24, Mat
comb-street ; 13, King William-street, City ; 30, Conduit.
street; 21, Cocksamr-street; 95, Faninadon-street ; 67, St,
Paul's Churchyard ;,6, Edward-street, Portman-square.