The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-26 00:00:00

STATISTICAL SOCIETY,

At a meeting of the above society, held on Tues•
day, Dec. 15, Professor J. E. T. Rogers, of Oxford,
read a paper " On the continuous price of wheat
for 105 years from 1380 to 1484." The writer ob-
served that the prices of wheat annexed to his paper
were taken from a series of farming accounts of
Heyford Warren, in Oxfordshire. The series is
complete, except for the years 1380, 1383, 1386,
and 1390. The prices, however, for these years arc
supplied from Weedon, in Bucks, a place sufficiently
near for the purposes of comparison. It will be ma-
nifest, Professor Rogers remarked, that during the
whole of the period before us prices of food were,
with few exceptions, remarkably low. They were
far lower than those which prevailed during the
14th century, and that part of the 13th during
which accounts of farm produce have come
under my inspection. The harvest during this time
must have been exceedingly abundant, more so in
all likelihood than, nzutatis mutandis, they were in
the early half of the 18th century, a period which
has always been cited as characteristically pros-
perous. Of the 105 years, 21 alone are relatively
dear ; in them the price is above 63. per qr. These
21 years are-1389 90, 1400-1-2, 1408.9, 1416,
1418, 1428, and 1429 ; 1432-3, 1437.8, 1460-1,
1477-78, 1480-81 ; and in only two of these was
the price indicative of famine, namely, 1390 and
1438. The highest price is much below that at
which wheat was sold during two or three years of
Ed ward 11. and Edward 111. In considering these
prices the value of the coin in which they are ex-
pressed has to be considered. The coin of the time
was of customary fineness, a pound of silver contain-
ing lloz. 2dwt. of pure metal and 18 dwts. of alloy.
But the currency was twice degraded during the
period. Up to 1412 the pound sterling was equal in
modern value to £2 6s. 6d., and in 1412 it was di-
minished to £1 18s. 9d., and in 1464 to lls. At
the commencement of the period reviewed by the
writer, the price of common labour was generally 3d.
per day; of artisans, such as carpenters, masons,
and sawyers, 4d. About the end of the first quar-
ter of the 15th century these kinds of labour rose
respectively to 4d. and to 6d., and so remained to
the close of Henry VIII.'s reign. On the other
hand, the price of lead, wrought iron, and brass,
slightly falls—the price of these metals was about
3s. 4d., lid., and 3d. per lb. respectively. Wheat
was, I have no doubt, observed Professo.• Rogers,
the habitual food of the people. Of all the prices
of grain the most abundant are those of wheat,
barley, and oats ; of these again the largest infor-
mation is that which can be supplied for wheat.
Labourers rarely used oats, except on occasion in
their porridge. The breadth of wheat, barley, and
oats grown on the land from year to year, occupies
by far the largest of the acreage. Most malt was
used at harvest, when, as now, wages for day-work
were very much higher than at ordinary times.
Corn was reaped at ls. to Bd. per acre. Rye was a
rare grain. The Heyford prices of wheat were
then compared with the prices at Hornchurch in
Essex, and Stert in Wilts. As might be expected
the divergence of prices is greatest in the cheap
years. It is a well-known economical law that the
prices of wheat, or of any other absolute necessary
of life, decrease in plentiful years at a very different
ratio from that in which they increase in dear ones.
The price of labour appears to have been higher in
London than in the country by 25 per cent. A
table of the prices of wool at Alton Barnes,
in Wiltshire, was appended to the paper. It
was noted that disease amongst locks in the
middle ages perpetually destroyed one-fourth
of the number kept. With respect to the
productiveness of the land it • was stated that
a crop of 30 bushels on average land under
modern culture is by no means excessive; land
under tillage in the present time yields two and a
half times more than in the days of our forefathers.
It was during this time that the class of small
farmers rose ; the fact is traceable not only in the
suggestions of legislation and history, but in the
change made by owners of land in the manage-
ment of their estates by a bailiff. Between the
last thirty years of the 14th century and the first
forty of the 15th this practice is almost univer-
sally abandoned. The landowner ceases to culti-
vate his own land, his rents are gathered in by a
collector, and a farmer cultivates the soil for his
own profit, at a fixed rent, sometimes for a long
term, but with his landlord's stock, which he is
pledged to restore, or its equivalent in money, at
the expiring of his tenancy. After a short time,
however, this practice ceases, the tenant finds stock
himself, and occupies an estate either under a lease
or very often by purchase.

THE FIRST GREY HAlR.—This night when the
last days of the year are ebbing away, a fair hand
playing with my dark locks has discovered a gray hair—the
first grey hair I I had never seen such a thing—never
dreamt of such a thing I At my age; I could not believe it.
It was laid upon a band of black velvet and placed before
me. I can resist conviction no longer. There it lies,
blanched and white—white as the driven snow I And it is
my hair. It seems but yesterday that I was at school,
wishing I were a man. And now to-day lam grey, and
growing old. What have I done in all this time ? Have
fulfilled a man's mission upon earth—have I made any
step towards it ? Have I done any good in the most in.
finitesimal degree, for which the world is wiser or better ?
I cannot answer my own questions. I am dumb, and sitting
here contemplating that white hair, with the sense that
another year is gliding away, I feel that it is time in right
good earnest to turn over a new leaf. I have made the re-
solution often before, but never under the sense of obliga-
tion which now weighs upon me.—London Society.
PUBLISHING BEFORE THE INVENTION OF PRINT-
ING.—That the Roman populace was not shut out
from literature, and even newspapers, by the want of a
printing-press, is certain. What their newspapers may
have contained, I do not know; but Tacitus tells us that in
the provinces, and even in the camp, these papers were read
with great avidity, every one being anxious to hear what
Thraseas had not done—as in our day they are to hear
what Louis Napoleon has said, or has not said. The exist-
ence of several well• known publishers proves the activity
of the book-trade. Dionysius of Halicarnassus speaks of
the " thousands of writers" on the single subject of the
early Roman history ; and although there is of course
hyperbole in his phrase of in plow aUcov, yet even
as an hyperbole it indicates a large number, And there is
no exaggeration but a statement to be precise, in the notice
of the two thousand copies of the pseudo-Sibyline books
whieh Augustus confiscated in Rome alone. Here, also, is a
fact which points in the same direction. Pliny laughingly
writes to a friend that Regulus has taken into his head to weep
ostentatiously for the loss of his son; and no one weeps like him
—luget ut nein°, "He sets sculptors and painters to work,
and composes an oration which he is not content with pub-
licly reciting in Rome, but must enrich the provinces
with a thousand copies of it—in exemplaria transcriptum
mille." There is one important source of demand which
must not be overlooked, I mean for school-books. When
Juvenal says that the " verses which the boy has just
conned over on his bench he stands up to repeat,' it is clear
that the Roman boys had their lesson-books, which they
thumbed, tore, and lost, as their descendants have done.
And it is worthy of remark, that in the Roman schools the
popular poets were studied ; nay, Persius tells us that it
was the ambition of poets to be read in schools ; and Nero,
in whom literary vanity, as we know, was intense, gave ex-
press orders that his verses should be given to the boys.
But perhaps the strongest indication of this activity is seen
in the fact that the library formed an essential part of every
house; which is very far from true of houses of our own
day, even among the easy classes. . . . The prices tell
a similar tale. If books had been costly, they must have
been rare—if they had not been cheap, they could not have
been common. Thus, on the one hand, the evidence which
proves that books must have been abundant, proves that
they must have been cheap—and on the other,the evidence,
scanty as it is, but decisive, which proves that books were
cheap, points to their abundance. A learned Frenchman,
who has investigated this point of price, comes to the oo:1-,
elusion that the prices were lower than those in obuoroko
day. Let us hear what Martial says. The
of
his Epigrams was to be bought, he tells us, fofisnrsfitr cd- eenaapreiri
(nearly three shillings) elegantly bound—sbutt:i
• (a shillling
binding for the people it cost six or ten
told he says
was sold for four sestertii (about eight-Pe Th
fair profit. •
Authors
to one-and-eightpeuce). liis thirteentr
ililotc,,lk_of Epigrams
that half that price
would
leahveeellonclusion that books were
reader, doubtless, jumps
becaus©
and in
his rashness
were not paid. But
rashness wrong.
mtheentaiottnicostofwGhicht,
that they ever
re-
were paid. I do not assert,hour
cthheearpeaidnetrhiossreasdha,ya%
magnificent
ceived the sums which h r
nor insinuate,
would, a
bibliopoles pay cele -
fey, years ago, Grub-street to
Ilorace never got a guinea a line for his odes—
norinedness.
brated authors—sums
did reirollitlB receive £16,000 for his romance. Livy
was not so well paid as .Macaulay. But the Roman authors
were paid, nevertheless, and were sums greater than
were usually received long after the invention of printing.
—Cornhig Magazine for January, -

,„.
iffairt tlrtitar.

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Dec. 25.
Yesterday afternoon, by her Majesty's command,
the children of the workmen and labourers on the
Osborne estate were assembled in the Servants'
Hall at Osborne, where a Christmas tree, with pre-
sents, were arranged.
At half-past four o'clock the Queen, accompanied
by the whole of the Royal family, proceeded to the
Hall, and, assisted by the Royal family, distributed
the presents to the children, which consisted of
articles of wearing apparel, books, toys, &e.
Afterwards her Majesty in the same manner gave
the labouring men and women great coats,
blankets, &c.
The ladies and gentlemen in attendance, and tho
Rev. G. Prothero and Mrs. Prothero were present.
This morning her Majesty, their Royal High-
nesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince
Alfred, Princess Helena, Princess Louise, Prince
Arthur, Prince Leopold, and Prince Leiningen at-
tended at Whippingham Church. The Rev. G.
Prothero officiated and administered the sacrament
of the Holy Communion.
His Serene Highness Prince Leiningen arrived
yesterday on a visit.
His Royal Highness Prince Arthur arrived yes'
terday, attended by Major Elphinstone.

The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort have a large
family party staying at Badminton, Gloucestershire, for
the Christmas, including the Duchess (Emily) of Beaufort
and Lady Geraldine, Somerset, &c.
The Duke of Cleveland is in excellent health•
His grace is entertaining a large number of visitors at
Raby Castle, his seat in Durham.
The Duke and Duchess of Bucclench are enter-
taining a select family circle at Dalkeith Palace, war
Edinburgh_

The Marquis and Marchioness of Ailesbury are
entertaining a numerous party at Savernake Lodge, near
Marlborough, Wilts. The Marchioness (Maria) of Ailes'
bury, Lord and Lady Charles Bruce, the Countess Aral
Danneskiold, Colonel the Hon. Henry W, J. and ➢irs.
Byng, &c., are among the guests.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Salisbury are
entertaining a large party of frieads at Hatfield House'
Herts. The noble marquis and marchioness do not intend
to give a county ball this season, but will receive a sue"
cession of guests until just before the assembling of Parlia-
ment.
The Earl de Grey returned to town on Thursday►
from staying with the shooting party at Earl Cowper's seat
in Hertfordshire.
Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston are sur-
rounded by a family party at Broadlands, near Rowel
Hants.

Society for Rendering Assistance to
Aged or Sick Poor.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE
Sin,—May I tax your kindness to make known through
your columns the existence of a society for the relief of the
aged or sick poor.
It occupies a sphere sufficiently distinctive to comtee-
nd
it, I think, to the support of the Christian and the charitable
public, upon whom the remembrance of the poor becomes
doubly imperative when to poverty are added the pangs °`
disease or the decrepitude of old age. The council is cool-
posed of gentlemen who have given long and deep attention.
to questions of social suffering and reform. Many other
benevolent institutions refuse relief to persons who hale
been or are in the receipt of parish assistance. We shall
make no such restriction, while exercising every care the'
the bounty of the society is not abused.
Local societies will be established as soon as possible, and
their operation will be under the direct supervision of the
council. I have accepted the office of treasurer, and sub"
scriptions for the society forwarded to my bankers, messrs•
Coutts and Co., 59, Strand, will be thankfully acknovi°
ledged on its behalf by, Sir, your obedient servant,
TowNsgEND.
6, Grosvenor. place, Dec. 24, 1863.

A NEW PROCESS OF PRINTING POSITIVES
WITHOUT SALTS OF GOLD OR SILVER.--Tho
paper is exposed to the sun in the frame under a negative
for 30 or 40 minutes, and, after ascertaining that the print.
ing is sufficiently brought out, it is washed with water,
and the operation is finished ; the image, which, when
leaving the frame, is obscured, is developed by the wash-
ing and in a few moments takes the brightness and fine"
nese of the best Prussian blue, with the white parts per-
fectly preserved. To turn the blue impression black, it is
plunged into a solution of pure caustic potash in alcohol,
in the proportion of 1 gramme of potash to 300 grammes of
water. The blue impression is changed in this bath to
yellow, the transformation taking place in one or two mi-
nutes. It is then well washed with ordinary water, and
over the yellow image is poured a small quantity of.the fol-
lowing alcoholic solution :—Alcohol at 40 deg., 100 gr. ;
Gallic acid, 8 gr. In a few seconds the yellow image i°
seen to change from a yellow to an intense black, and to
attain a deep tone ; it is then dried without washing, Old
thus becomes fixed.
" WHAT, JOE! OLD JOE!! AM DAT You ?"---Tr
cause of the American war has at length been ascertaineu'
according to Brigham Young, who says it is a "visitation
from Heaven upon the people because they killed the pro-
phet Jos Smith."
THE STATUE OF WILLIAM DARGAN has be,eii,
placed upon its pedestal on the lawn of the Royal Publl;
Society, in front of the National Gallery of Ireland, At
west side of Merrion-square.
A SAMPLE OF THE RIGHT ARTICLE !---lhe late
W. E. Burton, while travelling on a steamboat doWa he
Hudson, seated himself at the table and called for Otuf
beefsteak. The waiter furnished him with a small striPx°
the article, such as travellers are usually put off with. s.lth
ing it upon his fork and turning it over,and examining it
one of his peculiar serious looks, the humorist coolly
marked, " Yes, that's it ; bring me some." vario
A FOOTBALL CLUB has been established in
by some Englishmen, who exercise their prowess ill
tn-
Champs Elysees, to the wonder of the Parisians, wll° Cain
not understand the necessity of strengthening the leglo
this way except with the object of kicking leurs amis

stairs. Alt
RAILWAY OFFICERS AND SERVANTS.—The e.---:
of Punch (Mark Lemon, Esq.) is announced to read the
popular dramatic story, " Hearts are Trumps," f°rg-alle
benefit of the United Kingdom Railway Officers and,'T
vents Association, at the London-bridge House Iloto, -11'
January 19th.
EXPLOSION ON THE HUDSON.—The stew her
Isaac Newton, New York to Albany, was on bets
way on the night of the sth, with above 100 passengers °i
board, when a terrific explosion occurred,--athe bottomll
one of the boilers was thrown out, the fire hurled thr°tl,;s„
the ventilator into the lower cabin, and the vessel inelL"-ii
guishably fired. Six or seven persons were killed, blit,t‘o
the rest were rescued. The New York Times describes u",
scene as one of great confusion :—" When the burn
coals came down the ventilator into the lower cabin, till
scattered in all directions. One gentleman, lifting a cup j°,
coffee to his mouth, was struck and burnt on his 115/1 •
Another had his coffee thrown boiling over his face pita
red-hot coal alighting into the cup. A lady 11 8,
her clothes set on fire. About one-third of the Pcia„.
sengers were women and children, and the most illora-
scribable terror reigned. The wildest rumours ran fr a
mouth to ear that the boat was sinking, and a ell__
of heart-rending agony occurred. Fortunately thtehr:
were cool, brave men on board, who
frantic women and shamed the cowardly hie:;;e: to the
saved many who would have recklessly
tilatit required
guards and thrown themselves overboard ;
to prevent the
the greatest courage and self-P°BBeBsid3; passengers made
most fearful results. Many of
that lathe water. In tea
wild efforts to throw themselves into r e
midships was irt
minutes after the explosion checkttedd
thug
flames. Thebaud—the steamer Daniel
aft. A guardian angel was atsn ded by Captain
noftthhiesm, John Sinitll
S. Miller, of Coseacle, Conon
e_ . .
v.
ver honoured be his new with three barges in tos •
be starboard quarters, made fast, and at once
He ran up to t
passengers hadtfourtawan.atelys , nearly all rashe.d.
and
set himself to work to save tha passengers. The ladies
children were first passed on board. Several cowardly reoo,
back by tam brave spirits who sought to rescue. Selfishnea4
but wore summarily threat
ec rrEevic adp il
iufi advanceca ti un on
life-preservers on his person. There were a number -1.,
valuable horses
triedha Ia::
on board. Oneescaped and swam toy °I."
Washington, and
occasion—one man had for:i
was captured by the policemen of
Wilson's precinct."
baseH OROLOGICAL PRODUCTIONS.—" Ranged around the
h..of tiro clock were the watches which Mr. Benson 0%
rived, and which have been universally admired for di
beauty and elerance of the designs engraved upon then
The movements are of the finest quality which the art.,°/
horology is at present capable of producing."—lllastrtf:
_London .News, Nov, 8, 1562. Chronometer, duplex, lIi;
horizontal, repeaters, centre seconds, keyless, *lit secoant
and every description of viatch, adapted to all chin t fe.or
Benson's illustrated pamphlet on watches (free by Pos_itil
two stamps) contains a short history of watchmaking? 'tio
prices, from 3 to 200 guineas. It acts as a guide la
art
purchase of a watch, and enables those who live in any Post.
of the world to select a watch, and have it sent byr y I.
Prize medal and honourable mention, classes 33 and I°,oti
, Wit'
W. Benson, 33 and 34, Ludote-hill, London. -r'sta c a•
1749. Watch and clock maker by special warrant 0'
pointment to H.R.H, the Prince of Wales,