The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER

THE LATE MR. MURDOCH

This distinguished individual, so long associated
with Jas. Watt in his operations, and to whom the
world is indebted for many useful inventions, and
among others, to the invention by which our towns
are lighted up with gas, has lately paid the debt of
nature, full of years. We have in James Watt,
and his associate Murdoch, an instance of most
extensive social revolutions throughout the world
being effected by two self-taught Scotchmen, start-
ing from the very lowest ranks. We transcribe
the following account of Murdoch, supplied by a
correspondent of Aris's Birmingham Gazette .--
" We have been favoured with the following narrative
of the life of Mr. Murdoch, of Sycamore-hill, Hands-
worth, whose decease was recorded in our obituary of
last week :—So remarkable a man, whose talents and
inventions have contributed to the advantage of society,
and whose ingenuity was so well known, should not be
allowed to go out of the world without some special no-
tice. He was born in 1754, at Bellow Mill, near Old
Cumnock, in Ayrshire, where his father, an ingenious
man, carried on the businesses of millwright and
miller. From early youth he evinced strong inclina-
tions for all sorts of mechanical contrivances, and as
he grew up became not only an expert -workman in
wood and metals, but acquired a knowledge of such
works of engineering as he had opportUnitiei of
observing, such as water-mills and their various applica-
tions, steam-engines, mining operations, bridge-buildiax;."
&c. To a strong and muscular frame be uffaid rat
activity and dexterity, and much energy and Capacity' of
exertion. In 1777 he came to England, ariOffered his
services to Messrs. Boulton and Wat4whe had jusfthen
commenced making their steam-engines, at Soho. They
soon discovered and appreciated his talents, as well as the
integrity of his character. After a short residence at Soho,
they appointed him to superintend the'erection and under-
take the general charge of their engines in Cornwall,
where he remained, giving great satisfaction to the mining
interest, until the year 1798. He then returned to take
up his permanent residence near Soho, and superintended
the erection of the machinery at Soho Foaiiidry, and oc-
casionally the erection of steam-engines at a distance.
Now that locomotive steam-engines applied to carriages
have become so extensively used, it is proper to record
that the first so applied was made by Mr. Murdoch upon
the principle which is described in the fourth article of
Mr. Watt's Specification of 1769 (since adopted in all
the engines for that purpose) ; and this was seen, in
1784, by persons still living, driving a waggon round a
room at his house at Redruth, where he then resided.
Mr. Watt, in his Notes on Dr. Robinson's Treatise on
the Steam-engine, bears testimony to some valuable im-
provements by Mr. Murdoch, and others are recorded in
a patent he took out in 1799. Mr. Murdoch is still
better known to the public, and most deservedly so, by
his invention of applying the light of gas from coal and
other inflammable substances to economical purposes.
After various experiments, commencing as early as the
year 1792, by which he proved the economy and conve-
nience of light so obtained, compared with that from oils
or animal substances, he perfected his apparatus, and
made a public exhibition of it by lighting up the front of
Mr. Boulton's manufactory at Soho on the occasion of the
peace of Amiens, in 1802. He subsequently lighted up
some cotton mills at Manchester, beginning with that of
Messrs. Phillips and Lee, and published a paper describing
the advantages in the " Philosophical Transactions for
1808," for which the Royal Society presented him with
their large Rumford gold medal. Our limits do not
allow us to enter upon various improvements in the pro-
cesses of other arts to which his ingenious mind was
directed. In his latter years, his faculties, both corpo-
real and mental experienced a gradual decay, and he
lived in almost absolute retirement. His remains were
accompanied by several old and attached friends, and
by the workmen of the engine establishments of Soho
and Soho Foundry, to their last abode in Handsworth
Church, and are there deposited near those of Mr.
Boulton and of Mr. Watt. A bust, by Chantry, will
serve to perpetuate the remembrance of his manly and
ntelligent features."

JAMAICA.

Extract of a Letter from a Special Magistrate to Joseph

Sturge, dated Jamaica, Oct. 28, 1839.

The most satisfactory assurance I can give of the
prosperous condition of the country, is the evidence of
the planters themselves, as publicly given by the repre-
sentatives in the House of Assembly. At a very full
meeting it was stated by Mr. Whitelock, Member for
Westmoreland, that that parish was in a very pros-
perous condition ; that the short crops arose from
managers neglecting to plant in 1838, but that now
they were doing nothing but plant through the parish,
and is consequence the crop of 1841 must be extremely
large. Mr. Thompson. of Clarendon, said he had
travelled through six or eight parishes, and saw evidences
of prosperity in the whole of them, and said the con-
duct of the people was much improved, and in all cases
where rent was unconnected with labour, they were
doing well. Mr. Glossett said one estate in St. Thomas
in the East had made as much sugar as ever it had.
Several others joined in expressing their conviction of
the prosperous condition of their parishes, and out of
forty members or nearly so, not one was found hardy
enough to assert that the parish he represented was in
an adverse condition, though Hamilton Browne and one
or two others were foolish enough to say in contradic-
tion of those who spoke as eye-witnesses, that they had
been informed by some one—whom.they did not name—
that Westmoreland and St. Thomas-in-the-East were
not in as good condition ac reported by members who
had visited and lived in them.

Extracts of a Letter from a Missionary in Jamaica to
Joseph Sturge, dated Jamaica, Sept. 14, and Oct. 2,

1839.

In answer to your inquiries respecting the moral in-
fluence of freedom, it is a source of pleasure to be able
to state with certainty its beneficial results. The
answer of his Excellency the Governor to our address,
is conclusive on this subject. In the island, there is no
police ; there are, I think, eight constables in Trelawny
with a population of nearly 40,000 persons ; no militia,
gaols and workhouses nearly empty, vagrancy and
pauperism unknown ; for myself I have never been
asked for relief by any one of the emancipated except
aged and infirm, and these in very few instances indeed.

There is every prospect of an excellent crop this year
if the persons who arc in charge of properties will act
with any degree of fairness, but of this I have little or
no hope. Slavery is grafted in their very constitutions,
and do otherwise than oppress is beyond their ability.
Land is rising in value in this parish, nor is there a
solitary ruined estate for sale.