The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-05 00:00:00

Several years ago some respectable citizens of Cork,
chiefly Quakers and Dissenters, established aTemperance
Society, but upon a population almost exclusively
Catholic, the influence of these well-meaning individuals
was very trifling, and their success was, as a matter of
course, no better than their influence. Many in-
habitants of the city never heard ofs the project at all,
and of those who did most scoffed at it, and of the few
who enrolled themselves members of the society many;
fell back on their intemperate habits, so that its influence.
was only partial, and not generally observable. It was
reserved for the Rev. Gentleman, whose name stands
at the bead of this article, to establish a Temperance
Society, which should embrace, not alone a portion of
the inhabitants of one city, but the entire province of
Munster, and which at th's moment is rapidly extend-
ing itself through the northern provinces likewise. It
is scarcely necessary to state that the society is almost
entirely composed of the labouring classes. The extra-
ordinary fidelity with which they keep their pledge
is accounted for by the all mastering influence which
a pious ecclesiastic possesses •ver the poorer
classes in Ireland. They apprehend that the vio-
lation of their promise would be visited by some imme-
diate and awful calamity from heaven, such as madness
or death. Let it ❑ot Ise imagined, however, that this
belief, or apprehension, is the result of any delusion
practised on them at their inauguration. Nothing more
is done than to read the pledge, which is simply in these
words :—" I do promise to abstain for the future from
intoxicating liquors." These they repeat after the
reader, and they are then presented with a medal and
a card, and iiismissed with a blessing. The cards are
lithographed, with devices, illustrative of the fruits of

temperance in domestic comfort, and of intemperance in
poverty, rags, and disease.

Tire society, which was only established in April last
year, consists at present of seventy thousand members.
These, be it remembered, are not persons who have
been hitherto habitually temperate, or only
occasionally given to excess, but habitual
drunkards. The great body of the members are la-
bourers and domestic servants. Thus the benefit
arising from their reformation to employers and mastcrs
is very great, setting aside the still more important
consideration of the blessings accruing to their own
health, characters, and homes. In the City of Lime-

rick the improvement in the morals of the people is so
great that the Magistrates state that while the number

of persons convicted of drunkenness before them was
formerly on several oce,isions twenty daily, the convic-
tions for the same offence at present -scarcely average
one in the week, and this in a city comprising a popula-
tion of nearly eighty thousand. It may serve to illus-
trate the character of the author of this great
raormation that, when lately being about to visit
this city, on which he had conferred so much
benefit, it was proposed to invite him to a public
entertainment, and receive him with a pub-
lic procession, he earnestly intreated a clerical friend t•
dissuade the people from their purpose, and spare him
the embarrassment which such exhibitions place him
unler.

The population of Ireland is eight millions, and if
we compute the women at half, and the number of adult
males in the other four millions at half, we shall have
an adult male population of two millions. Now, sup-
posing the number of habitual drunkards in these two
millions to be one in ten, we shall have for the number
of habitual drunkards two hundred thousand, whereof

seventy thousand, or dose upon half, have been already
fully and finally reclaimed. If in the short rpace of a
year and a half so much good has been accomplished,
what may we not hope for under Divine Providence in a
few years more

A FRIEND OF TEMPERANCE.

THE PERROTINE.

The new patent machine for block-printing, called
the Perrotine, after its inventor, M. Perrot, of Rouen,
is now extensively used on the Continent, and is likely,
from the efficiency and accuracy with which it can be
worked, to attract the attention of the numerous esta-
blishments here engaged in the important branch of
commerce to which it is adapted. This novel machine
is contributed by Messrs. Joseph and John Lockett, of •
this town, and manufactured by them, they having re-
cently taken out a patent for it. It is calculated for
working one, two, or three colours, either separately or
at once (but it can be adapted to print a greater num-
ber, if required), with blocks cut in the ordinary man-
ner. Dr. Ure, in his " Dictionary of Arts, Manu-
factures," &c., says, under the article " calico printing,"
—" The Perrotine is a machine for executing block
printing by mechanical power ; and is performs as
much work, it is said, as twenty -expert hands. I
have seen its operation in many factories in France
and Belgium in a very satisfactory manner ; but, I
believe, there are none of them as yet in this country.
Three wo•-,den blocks, from two and a half to three fist
long, according to the breadth of the cloth, and from
two to five inches broad, faced with pear-tree wood,
engraved in relief, are mounted in a powerful cast-iron
frame-mork, with their planes at right angles to each
other, so that each of them may be brought to bear in
succession on the face, top, and hack of a square
prism of iron, covered with cloth, and fitted to revolve
upon an axis between the said blocks. The calico
passes between the prism and the engraved blocks, and
receives -suceesJivc impressions from them, as it is
successively drawn through by a windin: cylinder.
The blocks are pressed against the calico through the
agency of springs, which imitate the eht,,fic pressure of
the workman's hand. Each block receives a coat of
coloured paste from a woollen surface, smeared, after
every con tact, with a mechanical brush. One man,
with one or two children for superintending the colour-
giving surfaces, can turn off about thirty pieces English
per day, in three colours, which is the work of fuliy
twenty men and twenty children in block-printing by
I hand." The Perrotine, we are informed, is more par=
titularly adapted to the printing of mousselines de
laine, merinocs, stuffs, silks, and woollens. Its chief
mcr t tare rapidity of production, correctness of figure,
and brilliancy of colour. For the printing of fabrics of
that class, the bl:ck is essential in the majority of styles,
as an engraved copper roller will not saturate the cloth
with colour in the way that a block will, and the result
is comparatively a sickly colour. Very beautiful and
delicate patterns can be worked by this machine, which
cannot be worked by hand-block printing. A very finely
cut block, if worked by hand, will leave the numerous
small interstices in the design choked with colour,
when furnished by the tearing sieve with colour of the
proper consistency to saturate the cloth ; and if the
colour be thicker, so as not thus to interfere with
the beauty of the figure, then the cloth is not fully
furnished, and the colours are poor. A beautiful
contrivance in the Perrotine obriates this d:ffi-
cultY. The colour is taken up by the finely-
wrought block in a state of consistence that will not
choke up any of the finest work on its surface ; this is
applied to the cloth ; a second supply of the colour is
taken up by the same block, and struck with mathe-
matical accuracy on the identical impression ; thus the
cloth receives two coats of colour. the figures are per-
fect, and the colours brilliant. It would be exce.d-
ine:ly difficult for a workman to fit his block by hind
with sufficient accuracy on this plan: The fabric is
• kept in its correct position, while receiving the pattern
by a very ingenious roller, furnished with sharp steel
pins, set at distances of about an inch and a half. The
machine can readily be worked by steampopower, ancil one
man is then sufficient to superintend it. 250 of these
Perrotines, we are informed, are now at work on the
Continent.—Manchester Guardian.

UNJUST WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.--At a
meeting of the Magistrates at the Shirehall on Friday,
the informations laid by Mr. Stoneham, the inspector of
weights for the Chelmsford district, vrere proceeded
with, when no fewer than fourteen persons were found
guilty of using deficient weights and measures, and
were punished by the infliction of various penalties.
REPAYING A CIVILITY.--011 his death-bed
a distinguished vocalist requested that no one might be
invited to his funeral ; " because," sobbed out the dying
man, " it is a. civility I can never repay."
THE. LADIES.—We admire the ladies because
of their beautp--respect them because of their virtue—
adore them because of their intelligence—and lova
them because we can't help it.